Chapter Text
Kirishima didn’t know what was going on at the moment, but that was okay, he never really knew what was going on anymore. He let his crew run themselves, and normally shut himself away in his room until someone, most of the time Ashido, drag him back outside and lecture him for a solid twenty minutes.
So today was like no other, a storm brewing over to his left, land far off to his right. The port city they’d just left was slowly disappearing against the sun, and darkness was wrapping up the day like the end of a play. For Kirishima, he was crouched over a map stretched out over his desk. Each corner had been stabbed through with a knife to keep it in place as the boat rocked.
Red Riot happened to be the fastest and strongest ship in the ocean, and Kirishima was proud to say he was her captain. But tonight, their objective was clear, and Kirishima didn’t have time for drunken sulking. So maybe today wasn’t so normal.
“It’s strange to not see you all drunk and moping around like the world owes you something.” Jirou comments passively. One of her eyebrows raised when Kirishima turned to her sheepishly.
“Well, it’s the first time in a while since we’ve got a clear goal, y’know.” He pointed his dagger at the map. It was an old one, with scribbles and scratches, patches missing and sewed back in, X’s crossed in and crossed out, black ink stains and dark blood stains dotted throughout the delicately drawn in islands and decorative monsters that were only half for show. It was a well-loved, well used map. Kirishima was pointing to a tiny speck of an island.
“Do you know what that woman said about this island?” Kirishima’s eyes shown, glinting like fire in the setting sun.
Jirou leaned a hand on the edge of the table to get a clearer look at it. She wrinkled her nose at him a second later. “Are you trying to get us killed?” Her voice was level, but her eyes were flinty. Kirishima flinched, just a little bit, at her coldness. Jirou barely got involved in their processes, she was here to explore, so she should be excited?
“Uh… no? I’m trying to get us some gold and jewels for once?” Their ship hadn’t looted or pillaged anything in a while, they were running on empty.
Jirou slammed her fist on the table, then released her clenched hand. “You really are a lovable idiot, aren’t you?”
Kirishima knew he should take offense to this, but he just shrugged. “The lady said there were things there worth a fortune.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard the rumors, but the sea is like death itself, do you wanna drown? Or loose your precious Red Riot?”
Kirishima’s gut started to sink low and sway with the ship as Jirou continued to stare at him. His smile slipped off his face and he turned to frown at the map. Still, he’d heard that just one of the things on the island could set them for life. He didn’t want to give this up. He looked at Jirou, who obviously read his expression well enough. She scooted over next to him and pointed at the passage he was planning out.
“It’ll be hard getting through there,” Jirou muttered, “The island is surrounded by rocks and cliffs too, at least on the side that we’ll be comin’ up on.”
“Then… we go around?”
“We need to get through this part,” She pointed a bit to the southwest of the island, “Big current that could flip a ship around like a galleon.”
“Then we go farther, up to the Isle of Nebulosa, and- but then that’s a Naval Base…” He leaned back on his heels and crossed his arms, his frown deepened.
Jirou scoffed at him. “Get rid of that frown, it doesn’t fit you at all.” Kirishima broke into a grin.
“Kirishima!” The door burst open, and there stood a girl with a blob of pink hair. Ashido had kicked down his door again, glowering at him.
“Sero’s complain’n again and it’s getting on my fucking nerves!”
“Why? What’d you do? Oh for the love of- did you melt something again?”
“Wha? NO!” Ashido growled in frustration. “Doesn’t matter! Just lemme stay in here, and- what’re you guys doin’ anyway?” Her mood flipped like a switch, it always surprised Kirishima how short her attention span could be.
“This island, the one we want to go to, has a bit of problems. We’re finding a route so we don’t die.” Kirishima said, matter of fact.
Ashido stepped up to the map opposite Kirishima. “We should just go right for it! Red Riot is strong enough, we’ll make it.”
“Uh no, we’ll die, or worse, get stranded on that island because we wrecked our ship.” Jirou reasoned before Kirishima could answer.
“But detours are no fun! And The Isle of Nebulosa is the Navy’s base! We can't just. Sail right in, Red Riot is one of the most notorious and recognizable ships in the seven seas!” Her voice rose in pride towards the end. Kirishima grinned to himself at this as well. Ashido glanced at him with smiling eyes before giving Jirou her attention.
“We’ll have to be careful, and watch the current,” Kirishima said, “We’ll right along it, as far away from the current, and as far away from the Navy as possible.” He drew a line with his dagger. “Right here should be good.”
Jirou nodded, Ashido pouted and crossed her arms before reluctantly and sarcastically saying, “aye aye, captain.”
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Bakugou twisted through an underwater archway, trying to lose his pursuers in the coral reef cliffs. He swore as he saw a green and black tail flash into view, and he swore again when a red and white one followed it. He was quick to find a small hole in the wall, grabbing the electric eel hiding in it, and pulling it from it’s home.
Bakugou swam fast, slipping head first into the black abyss. He waited, flicking the seaweed and anemone away with his tail fin. He brought his body flush with the rocks and waited for the two merfolk wander by.
“Where’d he go?” Deku asked, his tail swished in irritation. His dorsal fin splayed and flattened as he heaved a breath. Stupid Deku, he had the worst stamina.
“There’s no way he’d gotten too far away.” Todoroki said, his voice as low as ever. His different colored eyes were dark with anger. Serves him right! Bakugou thought menacingly. He glared out at the two. Why the hell was he even hiding? He should be fighting those two off then running!
No, because the two of them would just barely over power him, and then try and get him back to their city. And fuck that. Who cares if he was way far out from their boundaries? Who cares if he went off to explore on his own? Who gives a damn if his shitty half brother and shitty boyfriend were out looking for him? Who gives a damn about me, anyway?
Except for these bastards, who wouldn’t leave him the fuck alone. Now, they were swimming away from his hiding spot, thank god. Bakugou let himself relax a little, which was a mistake. Perhaps electric eels didn’t know about timing because just as he thought he was safe, a painful shock snapped his brain awake.
Bakugou let out a yelp and flailed his tail away from the eel, shooting himself out of his hole and into open ocean. Deku and Todoroki whipped around and stared at Bakugou as he batted away the electric eel with his bare hand. The stinging had almost almost paralysed him, but it gave Deku enough time to swim up to him and pin his arms to his sides.
“Let me go you punk ass!” Bakugou snarled. He smacked his tail against Deku’s as hard as he could, and Deku let go out of shock.
“Kachan! Stop it right now! We gotta go back and-”
“How about fuck you Deku!”
“Bakugou we have to-”
“I don’t have to do anything, half n half bastard!” He snarled, heat gathered at his palm and Todoroki flinched away. Bakugou didn’t feel remorse at all. The small pause allowed him to spin around and take off in the opposite direction he was supposed to go. There was no way he was going back tonight. There was no way he was going back ever.
“Go tell my old hag she can come find me herself!” He shot over his shoulder. Deku and Todoroki had started to come after him again. He sped up until he found a current that left those two losers behind, nothing more than a green, white and red speck.
Bakugou grinned suddenly, realization that he’d finally gotten away hitting him like that electric eel shock. His smile faded into a content expression, for once, he wasn’t growling or twisting his face into a snarl. It felt weird.
Bakugou hardly ever relaxed, but being out and away from those two and away from all of his school, he felt a weight lift off his chest.
Bakugou wasn’t a drifter. He wasn’t a pack animal either. He couldn’t understand why most of his school wanted to spend almost the entire day with each other. He needed a break, and a lot of time to himself, else he got so annoyed and irritable. Still, Deku kept trying to bring him in, kept trying to keep him around and have people talk to him.
At the moment, Bakugou wasn’t lost. He knew this current like the back of his hands, he knew it well enough that after a solid 10 minutes of traveling through it, he swam out and down. And there it was.
A shipwreck from a human vessel.
Bakugou let himself swim slowly and leisurely. Sharks came up to him with curious nose taps against him skin. He didn’t fear them, no one did, except humans. Humans tend to think sharks wanted to eat their disgusting asses. Who’d want to eat a human? They tasted disgusting, so he’d heard.
The sharks were nice though, they didn’t want to eat him, and he ran his hands along their smooth bodies as they swam past. Sunlight filtered down in broken waves, casting the ship’s haul in moving curtains of blue light. Turtles darted in between the wreckage, schools of fish swam in short bursts, breaking around any larger predators.
The wreck was probably 60 ft below the surface. He wasn’t too far away from an island either, maybe a mile out? The shallows here stretched out for quite a bit before dropping down into an abyss.
Bakugou swam closer, dragging a webbed hand along the tattered canvas of the sails, the rotting and sea moss infested wood. He dived into the inner workings of the ship, below the deck into what he thought were the sleeping chambers. This was his favorite room in the wreck. Because of the skeletons.
Human ones, four, all piles of bones and little flecks of flesh where the fish and bateria hadn’t gotten to yet. He flicked his tail closer to him as a turtle entered through a different hole in the wall and swam passed. It’s eye blinked at him slowly.
Bakugou picked up a skull nearest to him, and held it up to examine the eye sockets. Humans and merfolk shared a lot of similar features from the waist up. They had ribs, arms, a spine, a skull, and two front facing eyes.
He’d never seen a human in real life, he only saw the bones, and how his mother explained that they didn’t have tails. They had things called legs. And instead of a tail fin, they had feet. And they could walk, whatever that meant.
He continued to go further into the back of the ship. This room was also his favorite. It had things in it. Shiny things. Metal things, jewelry, although he wouldn’t be caught dead wearing any of the pearls or crystals. Bakugou wore a single gold band around his left upper arm and that was it. Gold was fine, it matched his tail. The gold in this room was pounded into little round disks, and sometimes he’d take them as tokens of luck, or something. He liked their look, okay? And since no one but him knew about this place, he’d begun to make a new home here, his little hideout away from the rest of his world. Bakugou picked up a gold chain and slipped it around his neck without thinking. It was cold on his skin. He dug his hand into a pile of the gold stuff, liking the sound it made. They kind of felt like thick reptilian scales. He pulled another gold bracelet from the pile, this one had little designs of turtles carved into it.
“Kachan.” Bakugou’s blood boiled, and he whipped around as fast as light. He saw Deku, and then he saw red.
“What the hell are you doing here you-” grabbed deku by his forearm and twisted it, about to punch the little shit faced fuck ball in the gut when Todoroki popped his head through a hole in the wall. Bakugou’s palm started to heat up as his anger flared.
“And you brought that shit for brains half n’ half fuck face with you too!”
“Kachan! No! You’re burning me!” Deku cried, his hand desperately tugging at Bakugou’s fingers.
“Bakugou! Stop it!” Todoroki yelled, swimming over and punching at him. Bakugou let go to dodge to blow. He heaved a breath to keep himself from screaming at them again. Both had blocked the exits, and were staring at him like he was a wild animal.
“What’s all of this, anyway?” Deku asked, rubbing his arm. Bakugou noticed that the redness in his skin was already fading. So he hadn’t actually burnt him…
“It’s none of your damn business!” He snarled, his tail twitched in anger. The spines on his shoulders flared. He was so fucking pissed at Deku.
“When did you find this place?”
“It doesn’t matter!” Bakugou yelled, “Go on, go tell mom! Go tell dad! Take away the only thing I have left, I dare you Deku!”
Of course his last sanctuary would be ripped away from him. Of course Deku would be the one to find his new hideout. OF FUCKING COURSE.
Deku was looking at him weirdly, curiously. His eyebrows were pointed down, and his hands were at his side, in the position to either fight Bakugou, or flee at a moments notice. Todoroki was just glaring at him, like he wanted him to know how much he hated him. And Bakugou knew that.
“I’m not gonna tell,” Deku muttered finally.
“What?” Both he and Todoroki said, shocked.
“Mi-Midoyia, you can’t just keep this from your mother.”
“Todoroki, you can’t tell anyone about this place, and we should… go.” Deku continued to speak under his breath. Bakugou hated it. He hated it so much.
“You’re not taking pity on me, are you, Deku? Because you feel sorry for telling last time, huh? Is that it? Think I can't take another fucking lecture or some shit? Are you trying to protect me?” Bakugou hissed through gritted teeth. Deku’s shoulders raised to his ears in a slow shrug.
“It doesn’t matter, we’re not gonna tell on you, okay? Just don’t go near the surface anymore.”
“I’ll do what I want!” Bakugou propelled himself forward, diving in between Todoroki and Deku, Todoroki made a grab for his tail, but Bakugou slapped him in the face with his fin instead, cause the other to bring his hands to his face instead.
“Kachan! Stop being difficult!”
“Never!” Bakugou yelled, swimming away from them as fast as possible again. He didn’t realize he was heading to the island again, going back to his older hideout. Why was he like this?