Chapter 14: The Boom-Boom Den and the Symphony of Sarcasm
[Sunny Midoriya POV]
Walking home from school with the "Class of Calamity" is less like a commute and more like a parade where the floats are sentient, caffeinated, and prone to breaking the sound barrier.
I wasn't just walking. I was currently moonwalking on the power lines above the sidewalk, my white gloves snapping in rhythm with the [CLICK-CLACK] of the train passing in the distance. Below me, the crew looked like a disorganized RPG party. Izuku was frantically scribbling in his "Hero Analysis for the Future" notebook—now with a dedicated "Musical Quirk Synergies" appendix—while Bakugo stomped along like he was trying to kick the Earth out of orbit.
"I'm telling you, the pacing is all off!" I shouted down from the wires, leaning over at a 90-degree angle that would have made Newton weep into his apple pie. [CREAK-BOING]. "We have the talent. We have the viral clout. We have the goddess who can turn expensive sake into holy tears. But what we don't have, folks, is a Set."
"We don't need a set, Sunny," Izuku called up, looking worried. "We need to study for the English midterms. Present Mic-sensei said if we fail, he's going to make us listen to 'The ABCs' in a 10-hour loop at 140 decibels."
"Silence, Fanboy!" I chirped, sliding down a literal invisible fire pole to land right in front of Bakugo. [SHLRRRR-TCH!] "I've done the math. The narrative demands a training montage. We need a rehearsal space. Somewhere soundproof. Somewhere with character. Somewhere that smells like repressed anger and expensive laundry detergent."
I snapped my fingers, a giant, neon-yellow lightbulb appearing over my head. [DING!]
"I've got it! We're going to practice at the Boom-Boom Boy's house! I'll just reach into the fourth dimension and pull out a professional-grade stage, some LED pyrotechnics, and maybe a snack bar!"
Bakugo stopped mid-step. His face went from its usual "simmering rage" to a "Category 5 Hurricane" in 0.2 seconds.
"The hell you are, Gag-Boy!" he roared, his palms crackling with the scent of burnt sugar and imminent property damage. "You aren't setting foot in my house, you aren't bringing that useless water-bottle goddess into my room, and you are NOT building a stage in my sanctuary! REFUND! DENIED! GET OUT OF THE SCRIPT!"
"Oh, come on, Kacchan!" I pouted, my lower lip extending so far it hit the pavement with a wet [THWACK]. "Think of the acoustics! Your room is probably built out of reinforced concrete to keep your ego from leaking out! It's perfect!"
"NO."
"It has a high ceiling for Mina's acid-flips!"
"NO."
"Aqua can act as a natural humidifier so your drums don't dry out!"
"I'LL EXPLODE THE HUMIDITY!"
I sighed, my body deflating like a punctured balloon until I was just a flat, two-dimensional piece of Sunny-paper on the sidewalk. "Izuku, help me out. The Director is going to cut our budget if we don't get some rehearsal footage."
Izuku rubbed the back of his neck, looking at Bakugo with a mix of pity and "I-know-your-secret" trepidation. "Uh, Sunny... I don't think Kacchan is as against the music thing as he says he is."
Bakugo stiffened. "Deku, shut your nerd-mouth or I'll blast your freckles off."
"It's just..." Izuku continued, ignoring the threat of total annihilation. "Last weekend, when I was passing the music shop on the way to the grocery store... I saw Kacchan coming out of the back loading dock. He was helping a delivery guy move a set of Yamaha Recording Custom Drums. The high-end ones. The kind with the birch shells for maximum projection."
The silence that followed was so heavy you could have carved it with a knife and served it with tea.
I popped back into three dimensions with a loud [POOF!]. I leaned into Bakugo's personal space, my eyes turning into giant, spinning magnifying glasses. [WHIRRRR].
"Oh? Is that so?" I whispered, my voice echoing like a noir detective. "The Boom-Boom Boy has been corrupted? He's been buying 'High-End Percussion' behind our backs? You've been practicing, haven't you, Kacchan? You've been hitting those skins like they're my face!"
Bakugo's face turned a shade of red that actually started glowing. "I... I needed a way to relieve stress! And the hero training manuals say that developing hand-eye coordination through rhythmic impact is a valid exercise!"
"He's been watching 'Whiplash' tutorials on YouTube," Jirou chimed in, leaning against a lamp post and spinning a drumstick around her earphone jack. "I saw his search history when he left his phone open in the cafeteria. It's 90% 'How to blast a snare without breaking the sound barrier' and 10% 'Angry drumming for angry winners.'"
"I AM A WINNER!" Bakugo screamed, but the protest was weak. The "Sunny Corruption" had taken hold.
"TO THE BOOM-BOOM DEN!" I cheered, grabbing Bakugo by the collar and stretching my legs out like giant springs. [BOING-BOING-BOING].
Ten minutes later, we were standing in Bakugo's room. To be fair, I didn't wait for him to open the door; I just turned the doorknob into a literal ear and whispered "Open Sesame" into it until it cringed and let us in.
"Right! Everyone, huddle up!" I clapped my gloves, and the walls of Bakugo's room began to stretch. The posters of All Might migrated to the ceiling, the bed folded itself into a tiny origami crane and tucked itself into a corner, and a black-and-chrome stage rose out of the floorboards with a majestic [TA-DAA!] sound effect.
"Sunny, my floor is literally made of glitter now," Bakugo growled, sitting behind his massive, shiny new drum kit. He looked at home there, which was the scariest part.
"It's not glitter, Kacchan, it's 'Performance Dust'!" I chirped. I hopped onto the center stage and pulled a vintage chrome microphone out of my throat. "Alright, Chaos Crew! If we're doing this, we need to establish the pecking order. I'm the Lead Vocal and Reality Hype Man. I don't just sing the notes; I edit the room to match the bridge! If the song gets heavy, I'm making the gravity 2x stronger! If it's a ballad, I'm turning the air into marshmallow!"
"I'm the Harmony and Rhythm Anchor," Izuku said, standing next to me with a tambourine he didn't remember holding. "I'll keep the tempo steady so Sunny doesn't accidentally teleport us to the Moon during a chorus."
"Metronome with feelings," I nodded. "Izu-chan, you're the glue. Without you, we're just a legal liability."
"I'm Bass and Sound Sanity," Jirou said, plugging her jacks into the stage's literal heartbeat. The room began to thrum with a deep, grounded pulse. "I'm here to make sure Kaminari doesn't fry the audience and Sunny doesn't turn the bassline into a cartoon opera. Someone has to be the adult."
"I'M NOT AN ADULT, I'M A ROCKSTAR!" Kaminari yelled, striking a pose with his Lead Guitar. He sent a spark of electricity into his amp, which I had conveniently shaped like a giant snarling dog. [ZAP-GRRRR]. "I'm the Amp Overload! I live for the solos! I live for the power! I live for the inevitable short-circuit that makes me drool for twenty minutes!"
"You're the accidental light show, Sparky," Mina laughed, sliding across the stage on a trail of neon-pink acid. "And I'm the Visual Performer! If the crowd isn't dancing, it's because I haven't melted their shoes to the floor yet! Acid-proof sequins, people! Let's get some energy!"
"The abyss... requires a synth," Tokoyami muttered from the darkest corner of the room, his fingers dancing over a keyboard that looked like it was carved out of obsidian. Dark Shadow was wearing a tiny pair of glow-in-the-dark headphones. "I bring the Atmosphere. The gloom. The 'Vibes™'. I shall turn this pop-fest into a gothic tragedy."
"And I'm the Archivist!" Toga chirped, perched on top of Bakugo's wardrobe with a high-end cinema camera she definitely stole from the UA media department. "I choose the angles. I catch the blood—I mean, the sweat! I'll post the clips when the school board is least expecting it. We're going to be legends, Sunny-kun!"
"And I!" Aqua shouted, tripping over a wire and face-planting into the stage. [FLOP]. She stood up, soaking wet for no reason, and struck a 'divine' pose. "I am the Wildcard Vocalist! I provide the Holy Water effects and the high notes that only dogs and debt collectors can hear! I am the soul of this band!"
"You're the Disaster Button, Aqua," I corrected, patting her head until she melted into a puddle. "You ruin everything beautifully. It's a niche, but it's ours."
Bakugo slammed his sticks together. [CRACK-CRACK-CRACK]. "Are we talking or are we playing?! Because if I have to listen to the Bird-Brain talk about the 'abyss' one more time, I'm going to use his synth as a footrest!"
"Spoken like a true Percussionist!" I grinned. "Alright, crew! Let's test the resonance! Kaminari, give me a power chord! Tokoyami, give me some 'Existential Dread' on the pads! Bakugo... give me a beat that sounds like you're punching a villain in the soul!"
Kaminari hit a string. [BZZZT-WHOOOMP!]
The amps didn't just vibrate; they grew literal mouths and began to howl.
Tokoyami hit a key. [DREARY-SYNTH-WAIL].
The shadows in the room elongated, turning into backup dancers made of purple ink.
Bakugo lunged at his drums. [BOOM-TRAP-KICK-BOOM!]
The floor of the Bakugo residence shook. Downstairs, I could hear Mitsuki yelling about the "Damned noise," but the sound was quickly drowned out by the sheer force of the Chaos Crew Band.
I grabbed the mic, my body stretching until I was hovering over the entire band like a neon conductor.
"One, two! One, two! Reality check, one, two!" I sang, my voice warping the air into visible sound waves of gold and pink. "Welcome to the Boom-Boom Den, where the laws are made up and the points don't matter! Izuku, hit the harmony!"
"Working on it!" Izuku shouted, his voice blending perfectly with mine, grounding my erratic energy into something that actually sounded like a song.
We weren't just playing music. We were editing the world. As the beat picked up, the walls of the room disappeared, replaced by a starry void. Bakugo was drumming on top of a floating asteroid. Kaminari was standing on a lightning bolt. Mina was skating on the rings of Saturn.
"This is a pacing nightmare!" I laughed, spinning mid-air. "We're peak-performance! We're over-budget! We're the Class of Calamity, and we're about to break the internet again!"
Toga's camera lens zoomed in on my face, a tiny red 'REC' light blinking in the void.
"Cut?" I whispered to the camera.
"Never," Toga giggled.
"Good," I grinned, my teeth flashing a blinding [DING!]. "Because the bridge is coming up, and I'm about to turn the drums into actual fireworks!"
"DON'T YOU DARE, GAG-BOY!" Bakugo screamed over the snare.
"TOO LATE, KACCHAN! PHYSICS IS ON BREAK!"