It was too early for anyone to say that Bakugou would come to behave himself. He’s always seemed so static – like an eternal ball of flame, nothing more but an unending manifestation of wrath and pride. Always, always he told them it wasn’t his fault. He was blessed, destined, the chosen one. A being who possessed a beautiful, destructive quirk. He was supposed to be unstoppable and yet he died. Tricked, fooled, and died. He let his guard down, he let himself die. There was no way in hell he was going to accept that he was defeated on equal terms to that of a girl who loved to play with knives. The frustration always finds a way to creep up on him, gnaw at the back of his mind and hang onto him like a beast clutching its heavy, black claws into his shoulders and back. Then there was the blaming. He blamed himself for the failure, blamed his inability to focus on what was in front of him right now, blamed the world for being the world. But there was no one to blame. All he had to accept was that it had happened, and he must move on, only then would he be able to turn his attention to mastering this new world and his new fire abilities.

Well, it was easy for him to say – easy for him to notice as a necessity of his progress and survival in this...new world. But, like anything that was easy to say, it was hard to execute. He was secretly aware of why he was struggling but to accept the world was to swallow his sense of pride. He doesn’t want to let go. He was supposed to be a champion, an unstoppable force. It was his superiority complex, his sense of strength and desire to be the epitome of a hero, a winner. He knew himself well but turned a blind eye to his insecurities, the parts of him he didn’t quite like to acknowledge, and let it wallow within the pits of his dirty soul into what became fire, rage, bloodthirst. He knew it all, he wasn’t stupid, but it was so, so hard to just burst his ego and move on. His ears felt like they were on fire, a heat radiating from beneath his fur. His nostrils flared. Bakugou still felt like the universe was draining him, seeping his energy. He has yet to know that it’s his fire elementals, increasing his temperature because he can’t control his mood and resulting in the wind stealing his heat. As far as he is concerned, the gods are simply trying to dwindle him further down the hole he’s found himself in. The universe must be afraid of him, scared he will be one day able to fight the sun.

He suddenly jerks, hair bristling when he hears a crunch. But, when he looks to his paws, he recognises that the one who has stepped on a leaf was him. No one was sneaking up on him, he’d found a way to scare himself because he was thinking too hard and was far too paranoid to look where he was going. It did, however, snap his attention back to reality. His pupils had shrunk from the brief adrenaline release but now he was suddenly absorbing everything, noticing the smallest creaks and cracks and recognising the strings of faint smells swimming in the air around him. He may be too busy sulking to accept his situation, but he has at least come to be at least vaguely aware of what a Typhooner smelt like, the scents a pirate carried and the salt that cling to them. There’s a stranger in the vicinity and the unsettling presence of blood, weaving in the atmosphere. He smells the scent like a bloodhound, ears pointed and raised so the check the stealth of his pawsteps whilst Bakugou daringly chooses to follow the lead. He doesn’t trust it, whatever it was it must be hostile…or a complete idiot hunting in their tropical grounds.

As he approaches, body lowered in a predatory stance, he sees another feline. She’s more brutish looking than him, covered in scars and hauling a bundle of food beside her. She raises her head, looks directly at him and glares. Bakugou slants his eyes back, admittedly surprised she had even noticed him. He thought he was as silent as death, undetectable until he wished to be, but he was wrong. She saw him easily and, like an echo reverberating through an alley, she attacked him. She pushed him backwards into a tree, his body thudding harshly against the bark as he chokes from the blunt impact. With unsheathed claws now, she aims to swipe across his face but Bakugou opens his maw and roars a gust of fire. He’s avoided the attack, but the female is gone. He gets back upon his feet, tail restless and agitated. He sees no ashes to say she’s been cremated alive let alone charred. Somehow, she managed to escape from burning range.

He steps forward, daring her to come back and fight him when suddenly it dawns on him. Fangs strike into his back, secreting toxins into his blood stream. Bakugou yowls from the shock, pulling himself away and breathing fire at the attacker’s direction. Once more she vanishes. A teleporter. He’d be damned, ears twitching, and nostrils flared to look out for where she’d appear. As he predicts, she appears behind him, so he spins himself around with outstretched claws to dig into her own pelt, but she blinks closer to him, biting his neck. Then, the feeling of corrosion begins, the venom intoxicating his vessels. He wobbles, ignoring the pain as he bites her back from her proximity, sinking his teeth into her flesh. He can taste her blood, feel the hot liquid drizzle down his chin. He crunches harder and she hisses, teleporting above him and letting her weight crash down at his form. Bakugou moves just quick enough away to avoid any broken bones, but now he can feel the effects of her venom making his skin throb and his gaze begin to tilt and become ablur. Still, he keeps at it, throwing a multitude of consecutive swipes in her direction as she teleports. The trespasser doesn’t quite seem to have a sense of strategy. It seems that all she has is her venom and ability. Bakugou, on the other hand, had his combat sense and flames which he unleashed at different intervals as rings of fire. But his fire, due to lack of control, were still weak. His strength was always being drained by his constant use of it that now in battle the heat of his flames was almost useless.

She received scratches and scars, but Bakugou had twice as many and was also poisoned. At last, when he was about to land one more move, his strength gave up on him. He collapsed, felt himself almost writhe in agony but he was unable to move from the exhaustion. She approaches him as the victor and when he sees her about to land her own killing blow, a Typhooner comes to his aid. Stronger than him, faster than him – they had no problem defeating the trespasser who showed no sign of fatigue.

The next thing he knew was that he was awake in the bay, covered in bandages and pain throbbing where she had bitten him. His legs felt both prickly and numb, and he could barely move his neck without feeling as if a dagger were striking him near his vitals. His heart thuds and the memories return, washing over his confused face to that of disgust, lip rising to reveal his set of snarling teeth. He slips out of where he was resting, forcing himself to walk as far away as possible until he falls to his belly in the jungle, wheezing with eyes wide. His mind is spinning, running wild from the experience. Bakugou hadn’t…lost, had he? There was no way. He must have defeated her; the poison must have caused illusions or something. He didn’t want to even consider the possibility, but it was staring at him right in the face, like a laughing clown. He feels his chest tighten, his rib cage begins to shake. It was like he was crying, raising his head to curse at the sky because he felt so useless. He was trembling, lips quivering, when he screams in frustration. Damn it, DAMN IT. He doesn’t want to think it, he doesn’t want to accept it. He would just rather forget it, forget the damned teleporting girl. But, of course, this was something he had to eventually grow to live with. To be able to become stronger, he would have to let go of his pride. He was still too hot headed to even realise the universe’s bittersweet lesson…but this would be important to his development as a Typhooner.

[tldr;] bakugou can't master combat and his fire abilities because he doesn't want to let go of the past bc he's too much of a proud boi. he notices a trespasser and she attacks him. she's a teleporter and venomous so it goes horribly for bakugou who eventually collapses from the venom but someone saves him. he gets patched up and just up and leaves to go sulk and cry bc he still doesn't wanna swallow his pride : ^)
eventual results from this after he lets everything sink through: bakugou develops venomous fangs from the encounter (how, idk but it happens), he finally accepts his situation and begins proper training to master physical combat and fire.