KiriDekuBaku

KiriDekuBaku is the poly ship between Eijiro Kirishima, Izuku Midoriya and Katsuki Bakugou from the My Hero Academia fandom.

Canon
The trio of Eijiro, Izuku and Katsuki are on heavily differing terms with one another. The three do not interact too often as a whole, as compared to groups of two, especially in the case of either Izuku or Eijiro with Katsuki, rather than each other.

The bond between Eijiro and Katsuki has proven to be the strongest of the bunch (above Izuku/Katsuki and Eijiro/Izuku) over time. Upon entering U.A, Eijiro found himself captivated by Katsuki’s resolution, strength, and brutal honesty to himself and others, and quickly seemed to have made it a side goal of sorts to become close to Katsuki, and break his volatile shell. To the surprise of many of their fellow classmates (and fans), he did manage to get his affections through to Katsuki, and ‘worm’ his way into becoming one Katsuki deems a cut above the rest, exempt from the derogatory term of ‘extra’. Their bond is put to the test when Katsuki is kidnapped by the LoV at the Training Camp; Eijiro expresses extreme distress to a previously unseen level over not being able to fight for Katsuki’s safety, much less save him. He gathers the group of Izuku, Momo, Shoto, and a hesitant Tenya to locate a tracker Momo had managed to attach to an enemy, and find Katsuki’s whereabouts in a type of rescue mission. Upon locating Katsuki where he fights against most of the Vanguard Squad (main villains), Izuku devises a plan, albeit risky, to take him from his fight, and to safety. Although begrudgingly, he deems Eijiro as the only one who Katsuki would allow himself to be saved by, as he is the only one who he truly considers close to him, and an equal. When the group sets off to procure Katsuki, Eijiro and Katsuki join hands, and complete the operation. Their relationship takes a turn for the better post-rescue; Katsuki begins to address Eijiro by his name (rather than ‘Shitty-Hair’) exceedingly more often, and allows himself to take Eijiro’s affection, even returning it in his own way.

While not particularly close in a semblance past mutual respect, Katsuki and Izuku have a shared past/history together, and infinitely more knowledge of another than anyone else, especially on Izuku’s side. The two were childhood friends at the age of 5, but after an incident where Katsuki fell, and Izuku attempted to help him to his feet in a casual act of kindness, this friendship dissolved, as somehow, Katsuki took this as a sign that Izuku was looking down on him in a way he despised. Unfortunately for either of them, this mindset carried on to their adolescence, and worsened, especially after Katsuki’s first view of the once-quirkless Izuku’s first usage of OFA, as Katsuki believed that this sudden appearance of a quirk, and strength that had never showed itself to him before meant that Izuku had been holding out on him, and furthered his idea that Izuku just wanted to make him feel pathetic. However, after a late-night battle where the truth about Izuku’s newfound quirk (transferred to him from All Might) finally made its reveal, the broken friendship between Katsuki and Izuku slowly began to meld once more, and the two finally began to repair the mess they’d become, to the point where they can finally fight alongside each other, and more significantly, allow themselves to be equals once more, even if they never become as close as they once were.

Izuku and Eijiro are the most distant of the trio, partially due to other, stronger connections with others, but they’ve made themselves out to be fast friends nonetheless. At the beginning of their (first) year at U.A, Eijiro found Izuku’s analytical skills to be cool, and complimented him after his performance at the Battle Trials. Izuku found himself surprised by Eijiro’s disposition towards him, but accepted the compliments happily. Izuku and Eijiro are both selected by members of the Big Three, more specifically, Mirio and Tamaki respectively when the time comes for their internships. They partake in the rescue of Eri, and the defeat of Overhaul together after a dark turn in discoveries, where they discovered Eri to be being used for the purpose of her blood, which could create quirk-erasing drugs. While they both survive the raid, thanks to newfound strengths, Izuku’s hero mentor, Nighteye perished, to their dismay. This brings them both a new sense of what becoming a hero truly means.

Fanon
As poly ships tend to draw less popularity in the shipping community (as compared to two person pairings), KiriDekuBaku is not notably popular. However, the three are all amongst the strongest, and most promising students in U.A, alongside their fellow classmate Shoto, which draws attention from fans interested in tropes such as “power couple”. However, the ship is not very well received with the majority of fans, due to a large number of questionable fanworks that many find to be rather uncomfortable, in a word. Outside of this sense, the ship is much more approved of when it follows a canon sense that sticks much closer to the canon natures, and paths of each character.

The ship is more commonly shipped with the addition of Shoto, in the pairing of TodoBakuKiriDeku, as many enjoy seeing the differing personalities between each of the four, alongside the impressive combination of their strengths. The ship carries the same fandom issues as KiriDekuBaku for identical reasons.

The ship has 500+ works on AO3 while the friendship has 20+ works on AO3.

Fandom
FAN FICTION 

TUMBLR

Variations

 * BakuDeku refers to the ship between Bakugou and Midoriya
 * KiriBaku refers to the ship between Eijiro and Bakugou
 * KiriDeku refers to the ship between Midoriya and Eijiro
 * TodoBakuKiriDeku refers to the ship between the three and Shoto Todoroki

Trivia

 * Not only are the three amongst the strongest characters in the series, but some of the most popular, all managing to remain in the top ten in Shonen Jump’s annual popularity polls.