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"Ow." Katsuki groaned as he fell to the floor. What the fuck was that? He'd just been floating around school, minding his own business, when all of a sudden he'd found himself lying on the floor, his back and head slightly aching from the sudden impact. "What the fuck?" He whispered, sitting up, his hand moving to cradle the back of his head because of the ache.
He noticed his free hand, looking a little less... transparent.. than usual: odd. Also, how the fuck did he fall to the ground? He's never just fallen to the floor like that while floating around. Whatever.
Standing up, his hand falling to his side, he didn't even try to float. While he doubted anyone could see him, excluding the weird 7 ghost people that showed up from time to time, he still didn't want to try to float then look goddamn stupid when he had trouble doing so as he sometimes did. He preferred walking, anyways.
His gaze traveled to his shoes and now both of his hands. They all looked... like they did when he was alive? What the hell? He could no longer see the floor through his hands or feet. He frowned. ‘What the actual fuck is going on here?’ He wondered for the nth time.
Still facing one of the walls of the 2A classroom, he didn't see Kirishima's horrified expression directed towards him as the redhead quickly but quietly walked out of the classroom, before falling into a sprint to find Aizawa.
Katsuki went to touch a nearby desk. His mind supplied that it was Izuku’s desk, but he ignored that thought. His hand didn't go through it. "Huh." This was... different. Yet it was familiar at the same time. ‘How's this possible? I'm dead. I'm a ghost. Or at least, I'm supposed to be. I've never been able to interact with anything other than of course standing on the floor and those vestige weirdos. How and why am I able to do this now?’ He wondered, staring down at his hand. He backed up only to bump into another desk—his old desk. ‘The hell?’
All of a sudden, he was restrained, by none other than his teacher's scarf. He frowned, his brows furrowing in confusion as he looked behind him, or at least, as much as was possible being restrained, to find his teacher staring at him, his currently red eyes trained on him, and hair floating, as he held the scarf tightly. How was Aizawa seeing him, and how was he using his scarf to keep Katsuki in place? ‘Is Aizawa-sensei dead as well?’ He wondered silently, filled with dread. He didn't want his teacher—or… past teacher—to die so soon, even if it meant he had someone else to talk to. When had Aizawa even died? He'd sworn he'd seen the man alive less than 12 hours ago. Then again people can die fairly quickly.
Wait—no. Kirishima was behind Aizawa, staring at Katsuki as well. The red haired boy had tears brimming his red eyes. Katsuki just stared back in confusion. No way Kirishima was dead as well? No. That wasn't possible. He'd seen the idiot alive and well lounging in the dorm kitchen literally less than 30 minutes prior.
"Who are you and why're you here?" Aizawa demanded loudly, tugging on his scarf to turn Katsuki to face them.
Katsuki's face scrunched up in confusion—the same way any of the self proclaimed Bakusquad would've immediately reacted to by calling him ‘Bakusoft’. It was odd, but he almost missed it. Emphasis on almost. “Fuck you mean who am I? Have you lost your fuckin' memory or something?" He asked instead, a bit quieter than he would've liked, but whatever. "Also, how the fuck can you see me?" He questioned.
~~~
Shouta wasn't having it. No matter how alike he acted, how genuinely confused he sounded, or how familiar he looked, there was no way this was his angry student. He was dead, after all. And this... person in front of him looked alive. He frowned further. Turning to Kirishima, he told the boy to tell Hizashi that Shouta had asked for him to substitute for his classes. Kirishima nodded, obviously still trying not to cry, as he quickly walked away.
Turning his attention back to the Bakugou imposter, he looked him up and down before turning around, his grip still on the scarf, and lets himself blink, before muttering a quick "Come on." As he walked out of the classroom, dragging the imposter behind him.
~~~
Katsuki fell to the floor as he was dragged along. "I can walk by myself, you know!" He shouted, getting no reply. He knew better than to struggle against the cloth, though, having been in a similar situation before; so he let himself be dragged along.
‘Huh. This is warm. Almost like a blanket.’ He thought after a bit. He wasn't used to any physical warmth anymore. Being a ghost, nowadays he was always cold. But, this felt warm and welcoming. Surely Aizawa-sensei wouldn't notice if he just rested his eyes for a bit? He felt warmer than he had been in months. So sue him if he wanted to savour that warmth.
He closed his eyes, huffing a bit. Being dragged along like a dog still wasn't fun, though he could bear it in favour of the warmth for now. He quickly started to nod off, until eventually, he'd fallen asleep.
—
He opened his eyes, drowsily blinking, as he felt a hand on his shoulder, which was quickly removed once he'd opened his eyes.
"Eh..?" He looked up only to see Aizawa. Great, just great, he'd somehow fallen asleep when Aizawa had been literally dragging him across the floor. He'd only meant to rest his eyes. Actually, wait—he hadn't really slept since he died. How come he was all of a sudden able to sleep? Whatever, he'd wonder about that later. For now, he had an upset looking Aizawa to deal with. He was still restrained by the way, which was just great.
"I'll ask again. Who are you and what do you want?" Aizawa asked harshly, his eyes narrowed.
"And I'll ask again, have you freaking lost your memory or something? Or have you just fucking forgotten me?!" He shouted back. Well fuck. The thought of people forgetting him was not a good one. ‘Don't fucking cry.’ He willed himself. Dead or not, he would not be caught crying.
~~~
Shouta noticed the slight shine of un-spilt tears in the boys eyes, but ignored them, for now at least, as he gave him an unimpressed frown. "I have not lost my memory. The Bakugou Katsuki I know is dead. He died fighting Shigaraki. You on the other hand, look very much alive. So, for the last time. Who are you?"
The reaction he got was confusing, to say the least. First, the boy in front of him looked relieved at the mention of Bakugou's name, then purely confused. "You… you think I look… alive?" He asked: curious, questioning, and confused. Shouta frowned further. He had not been getting clear answers out of the boy.
He glanced back at Shinsou, who'd agreed to help him with this, despite having obvious strong feelings for the situation at hand. As much as Bakugou had hated to admit when he was alive, he had been fairly close to Shinsou along with a few others before his death. So Shouta wasn't surprised when Shinsou looked like he was gonna be sick. But Shinsou had wanted to play part in this to get the boy to tell the truth. Bakugou looked to where Shouta had been looking at Shinsou and visibly tensed.
~~~
Katsuki tensed, seeing none other than fucking Shinsou. "What the hell is mindfuck doing here?" He questioned. Didn’t Shinsou have fucking classes to attend?
"He's here to get the truth out of you." He replies before beckoning Shinsou over. Katsuki frowned. He did not want to be stuck under Shinsou's control again. Because, as it turned out, his brainwashing quirk worked on Ghosts, too. So he had to wait for one of the OFA vestiges to help him out whenever he got stuck under Shinsou's control. Or for whenever the little shit dropped his control.
~~~
Hitoshi stepped towards the boy, Aizawa moved out of the way so he could talk to him properly. "Bakugou." He greeted quietly. Bakugou, still tense, didn't answer. But he did give him an unimpressed look, likely thinking he was immediately going to use his quirk on him. Which was fair, because he was.
Hitoshi didn't know whether or not to believe it was the blonde haired boy he knew. The logical part of him told him it wasn't Bakugou; that part of him told him that the boy in front of him was in no way him, because he was dead. But the part of him that knew his friend—yes: friend—thought the Bakugou in front of him was the real one. He had to make sure. He wouldn't call this Bakugou an imposter till he knew he was one. If it were the real Bakugou, he wouldn't take very kindly to being called an 'imposter'.
"Listen, Blasty. I’m going to use my quirk on you. The real Bakugou wouldn’t mind confirming it’s really him, would he?" He challenged. Bakugou just huffed in response.
"Whatever. It's not like I don't get stuck under your control every other week anyways." He muttered under his breath, before his face became blank. The response confused Hitsohi. The hell did he mean 'it's not like I don't get stuck under your control every other week anyways'?
"I want you to answer everything I or Aizawa ask you truthfully, got it?"
A nod.
"Are you the real Bakugou Katsuki?" He asked, getting straight to the point.
"Yes." Came the short reply. Hitoshi glanced at Aizawa-sensei. The man was obviously deep in thought, so he continued.
"How are you here?" He asked cautiously. So there was a good chance he was the real one, however that worked. It made sense now actually, what Bakugou had said a minute ago, at least.
Sometimes he'd use his quirk, and he could almost feel an extra presence along with the classmate or person he'd intended in using it on. Each person gave him a different… feeling, almost, whenever he had them under his control. This was the same feeling he'd get with the extra presence, except stronger.
"I don't know." Bakugou responded. Hitoshi drops his hold on the boy.
"Are you... alive?" He asks the blonde. It was a valid question. He'd seen the footage of Bakugou literally dying. The whole class had. They'd insisted on watching the footage of the war, even if they sobbed the whole way through. So then how was the same blonde they cried over in front of him right now?
~~~
Katsuki blinked, his body's control being returned back to him, and Aizawa quickly tugged on his scarf, pulling it away, and leaving Bakugou to be able to actually move. Though, he stayed seated. He took a moment to process Shinsou's question. He was a ghost. He's dead. Or at least, he should be. He went to go feel his own pulse, his gaze on the ground. A pulse. His face immediately lit up. He also realized, he was warm. Not just like because of the temperature inside the room, but like, warm body heat-wise. ‘Holy shit.’ He thought.
"I'm fuckin' alive." He breathed out, almost a laugh, looking up and locking gazes with Shinsou and smirking his icon smirk. And then his expression changed to one of confusion. "How the fuck am I alive?"
There wasn’t an answer, instead, he was suddenly engulfed in a hug.
"The fu-"
"shut up.” He cut him off. “You little shit, do you know how much we cried because we thought—no, because you were dead?" Shinsou asked, not letting go.
"I do actually, because I was fucking there, you dumbass. I've been a ghost for the past few fucking months, which was fucking lonely, mind you, cause all I had to talk to was those weird ass vestige ghost things that are from Izuku's quirk." He replied, complaining. "Now get off." He pushed Shinsou away from him as gently as he could while also still getting the dumbass off of him.
Remembering that Aizawa-sensei is still there, he turns to the man only to find him staring. "The fuck are you looking at?"
"Someone who was dead literally 30 minutes ago." Aizawa answers back in a deadpan tone, rolling his eyes, his lips quirked up in the smallest smirk. "Just to make sure you won't drop dead again, though, we'll need to take you to Recovery Girl to get you checked out. The thing about that is that we'll need to wait until school is over; we don't need someone seeing you and then freaking out because you're supposed to be dead."
Katsuki frowns. "Fine. What about Shitty Hair, though? Wasn't he behind you when-"
"Kirishima is likely to think it was an imposter. If he tells the class, they wouldn't know the truth either, at least I doubt it. So we should be fine on that matter for now." Aizawa answered, cutting him off.
"Stop fucking interrupting me, both of you." Katsuki snapped.
Both Shinsou and Aizawa just rolled their eyes at that.
—
Aizawa had decided the best thing to do was to stay with Katsuki in the empty classroom they'd been in until classes ended and everyone had gone back to the dorms, then they could go to Recovery Girl, who usually doesn't leave until a good while after school ends.
He'd sent Shinsou back to class, telling him not to tell anyone of this yet. He didn't go back to class himself though. One, he already had Mic hopefully subbing in for him, and two, he didn't want to leave his student who he thought was dead for months—who was dead for months—alone, in case something happened.
Katsuki frowned, glancing at the clock. He was lucky it was a very short school day today, so there were only 30 minutes till school got out for the day. He'd already been waiting an hour and a half with a very silent Aizawa. If he didn't know better, he'd think the man was asleep.
"What're we going to tell RG when I, a student that's supposed to be dead, shows up in her office?" He asks suddenly, tired of the stupid silence.
"Give her a proper report." Aizawa-sensei replies bluntly. Katsuki quirks an eyebrow up, confused.
"What?" He asks aloud.
"Give her a report." Aizawa repeats. "You're a hero in training, and I'm a hero. We'll give her a report." He adds.
Bakugou takes a moment to process this, his confused frown falling into more of a blank, uncharacteristic, and slightly discouraged look. "I'm not a hero in training. Not anymore. I can't be a hero in training if I fucking died."
Aizawa, noticing that Katsuki's upset, goes to actually look at the boy, his own expression softening slightly. "Listen kid, I understand you died, and I know that it was extremely traumatic. But I also understand that you're alive right now. I don't understand how, but you are. You died a hero in training, and whether you go back to being dead or not, you're still a hero in training until you choose not to be. Do you understand?"
Katsuki turned his head to return Aizawa's gaze. "Are you sure..?" He asks. On one hand, he wants to be happy—or relieved—or something about Aizawa-sensei's reassurance. But on the other hand, he's unsure. He died. He had missed several months worth of lessons, even if he did pay attention most of the time. How would he be able to catch up now?
"I wouldn't have said it if I weren't sure." Aizawa replies with a nod. Katsuki looks back at the ground, not really knowing where else to look.
"Thanks," He says quietly, "or whatever." He adds, trying to sound like he's not acting as soft as he just was.
The last 30 minutes ends up becoming 40 as they wait for the students to actually leave the building, but once they do, they start heading to Recovery Girl's office.
—
"I swear if this old lady is not here and you made me-" "Us." Aizawa corrects. "Whatever. Made us wait 2 hours for nothing, I will either crash out or just die again." Katsuki says as they enter the nurses office. Aizawa responds by giving him an unimpressed glare. Which was really hypocritical because he’d made a similar joke earlier.
A clatter could be heard from behind a door within the office before Recovery Girl's voice could be heard. "Shouta Aizawa if you heavily injured another poor student of yours I will—“ She cuts herself off as she walks through the door, her eyes landing on Katsuki.
"Oh. Oh dear." She murmurs softly. "Shouta what happened? How is this boy alive?" She asks, looking to Aizawa.
“We don't know." He replied. "Apparently he's been a ghost for the past few months, and then suddenly Kirishima finds him in the 2A classroom, very much alive, with nothing to indicate how. I was wondering if you could check him out, see if anything was wrong, especially with how he currently shows no current or evident signs of injuries."
"I'm fuckin' fine anyway, this shit shouldn't take too long." Katsuki grumbles.
“Even so, you still need to be checked out. So sit on the bed for me for now, please, while I go get some supplies." Katsuki rolls his eyes but does so anyways.
—
After the tests she'd done, Recovery Girl had suggested that he get some rest for now, despite Katsuki immediately disagreeing. "I don't need any shitty rest." He insisted, still sitting on the bed.
"Please just rest. We don't want you to fall dead again because you didn't get enough rest, now do we?"
Katsuki rolls his eyes. "Fine." He huffs, going to lay down, hesitating when he realizes his shoes are still on. "...uh."
Recovery Girl sighs. "You may take your shoes off."
“Whatever. I knew that." He took his shoes off, dropping them on the floor beside the bed before lying down. He fell asleep close 2 minutes later. It was like when he was wrapped in Aizawa's scarf, except it was an actual blanket. It wasn’t as good as his own bed would probably feel though, but it was something.
~~~
Shouta stood from where he'd been sat in the chair near the bed. "So?"
"Well, this isn't the first time someone from the dead has come back alive like this, but it certainly isn't common, and it's unknown how these happen in the first place. He doesn't have any remaining injuries, but there is a huge scar over his heart. Though, it shouldn't cause too much trouble. All of his readings are fine. Just keep a good eye on him and make sure he gets enough nutrients and rest." She summarizes.
Shouta nods, glancing over at the sleeping boy. If he lost him, or any of his problem children again, he will loose his mind.
"How long would you say it would be until he can return to hero training if at all? Because if I know that kid—which I do—he'll want to go back to training immediately, as much as I think he should rest a bit." Shouta asks.
"Well—“ a voice from outside of the room cut her reply off.
"Hey, Recovery Girl? I think I stepped on my foot wrong during training," The voice says, opening the door. "I was wondering if you could check it out?" Midoriya opens the door, immediately noticing Shouta with Recovery Girl. "O- or I can just wait for you two to finish up whatever you're—" He stops as his gaze fell onto the medical bed.
~~~
Izuku's gaze fell onto the medical bed, and he immediately stopped as he notices the mop of spiky blonde hair on the bed, his breath hitching in his throat. "Is—... is that who I think it is...?" He asks quietly, not taking his eyes off of the very familiar blonde hair, scared that if he took his eyes off of him for even a second, he'd disappear.
"Midoriya, please sit down for a moment. We'll explain this to you the best we can." Izuku reluctantly let his gaze flick to the nearby chair, slowly walking over to sit in it. Once he's sat down, he immediately goes to look to Aizawa and then Recovery girl for an explanation.
"Well?" He asks expectantly. "Is he— is he who I think he is? Is he even alive on that bed? Is he— is he..—"
"Midoriya, we'll explain. Just calm down." Aizawa says.
"We don't quite know how, but that is the real Bakugou. He's alive, although sporting quite a big healed scar above his heart. He's also implied that he's been a ghost for the past few months. The only other people who know of this are Shinsou and Kirishima, though Kirishima doesn't know much, and likely thinks he's an imposter version of Bakugou." He explains, sighing.
"He-" Izuku doesn't finish what he's started saying, his breath hitching in his throat before he just starts absolutely sobbing. Katsuki was alive. Kacchan was alive.
A quiet groan could be heard from the medical bed, before that very blonde drowsily sat up. "Who the fuck is makin' all that noise?" He grumbles, rubbing his temple groggily. Izuku's breath absolutely stops for a moment as he looks to where Katsuki was.
"Kacchan!" He literally jumps out of his chair to engulf the blonde in a hug.
~~~
"Kacchan!" Katsuki heard, before arms immediately wrapped around him for the second time that day. He freezes, the hug catching him off guard, and he takes a moment to actually process what the heck just happened. "Fuckin' Izuku?" He whispers. Izuku's body is already wracking with more sobs.
Katsuki, meanwhile, has no idea what to do. He wasn't gonna push the green haired boy away. He'd made that mistake too many times over his lifetime to count. Plus, he didn't want Izuku to go away. But he had no idea how to respond to a hug. Especially when they were all of a sudden basically sobbing on him—or over him? He wasn’t sure.
"Izuku what the hell?" He mumbled, more so out of just genuine confusion and surprise. He'd seen him cry when he had died, yes, but he didn't think he'd cry so much when he'd—well, gotten Katsuki back.
"You died! You died and now you're back and you're asking me 'what the hell'?!" Izuku sobbed, still clinging onto Katsuki.
"...uh.." Katsuki still had no idea what to do or say. Katsuki's eyes darted over to where Aizawa-sensei and Recovery Girl were in a silent plea. Aizawa just smirks, while Recovery Girl sighs.
Katsuki then glances a bundle of spiky red hair in front of the closed door. "Okay, what the fuck?! If I'm alive, why the hell can I still see him?" Aizawa and Recovery Girl both look to where Katsuki was looking, only to return their gazes back to Katsuki with confused and partially concerned expressions.
"There's no one there, kid." Aizawa points out, clearly confused.
Izuku finally quiets down, going to look at what's causing the confusion, when he sees him. "Oh. Kudo?... Wait..." He whips his head back to look at Katsuki, pulling back a bit. "You can see Kudo?!"
This was said at the same time as "That goddamn brat can still see me??" By none other than the red headed vestige himself.
"Oh my All Might..." Katsuki sighed in annoyance. He can still see the dead ghost vestige things. Great.
~~~ - - -
After talking with Recovery Girl and Nezu—and Bakugou, of course, to make sure he was alright with it, Shouta decided it was a good time to tell the rest of the class. He'd temporarily left Bakugou and Midoriya right outside the dorm doors as he gathered the rest of the class in the common rooms.
"Okay, class. I've a... surprise... for you all. I know this is random, but please—"
"Midoriya isn't here. Shouldn't we get him as well?"
Shouta's eye twitched as he was interrupted. "He already—"
"He wasn't in his dorm room when I went to go get him."
"Is he missing?!"
Aizawa's eye twitched again, sighing. He understood they didn’t want to lose another classmate, but this was seriously frustrating.
"When was the last—"
"MIDORIYA IS FINE!" He finally interrupted, his hair floating to show the usage of his quirk. “If you all would just let me explain!" He glared around the room at the kids that he loved as his own children oh so dearly, but he was sure would be the end of him.
"Now, as I said, I've a surprise of sorts for you all. Midoriya already knows. Just please for the love of god do not scream your heads off when—"
"GET OFF OF ME YOU DAMN NERD! YOU HAVEN'T LET GO FOR THE PAST FUCKING HOUR!"
Shouta decided at that moment—he gave up. He's done. He cannot do this anymore. Gasps could be heard from all around the room. "Just come in at this point." Shouta said loud enough for the boys behind the door to hear him.
"Finally! I was getting fucking tired of waiting!" A gruff voice says, the door opening to reveal Bakugou, with Midoriya basically clinging onto his arm.
"Bakubro..?"
"Bakugou?!"
"BAKUBABE?!"
Various different surprised gasps and shouts could be heard across the room, before almost all of the self proclaimed Bakusquad basically smothered the poor blonde in hugs.
~~~
"What the hell?!" Katsuki shouted as he was basically drowned in hugs.
"You... you're real..? Earlier you... that's the real you?" Stuttered Kirishima from the front of the part of the class not actively trying to smother Katsuki.
“Yes, Shitty Hair. I'm the real fucking me." Katsuki replies, rolling his eyes.
He's immediately attacked with yet another hug, this time from Kirishima. The rest of the group crowding him allowing Kirishima to pass them and tightly hug Katsuki.
This time, Kaminari speaks up. "Kacchan, my dude," Kaminari starts, earning a glare from Izuku at the use of the nickname. "we're all very happy that you're here, but how are you here—back? You were... you were dead, man... I saw your body."
Aizawa answers for Katsuki, “We're unsure. This isn't the first time someone has been returned to the living without so much as an explanation why, but it's certainly not common."
“Oh. Well, we’re glad you’re back, dude! Don’t leave us like that again, Kay?” Kaminari assured, slightly pleading.
Katsuki rolled his eyes. “I won’t. But I’m fucking tired as hell, so I’m going to my dorm room and if anyone so much as tries to stop me, I will find a way to die again.”
“Too soon!” Somebody shouts from the group. Katsuki doesn’t give a crap and just starts towards the elevator. About half of the class rolls their eyes, meanwhile Izuku just trails after the boy, still holding his sleeve.
Izuku wasn’t letting him go anytime soon, and Katsuki wasn’t planning on leaving any time soon, either.
And then they all lived happily ever after, yipeee.