MomoBaku

MomoBaku is the het ship between Momo Yaoyorozu and Katsuki Bakugou from the My Hero Academia fandom.

Canon
Momo and Katsuki both started at the very top of their high-school careers, both being in #1 rankings. Momo came in first place for being the #1 recommended first year to enter U.A High (Meaning she was the top first-year student in all of Japan), and she also came in first for the quirk apprehension and fitness test. Katsuki also came in first place with his #1 ranking for the main U.A High Hero Course Entrance exam.

Momo and Katsuki hardly ever interact due to their different group of friends and personalities, but they are actually quite similar to one another. ​Momo is an organized person, calm, quiet, level-headed, enjoys working in a team, and helping others. Whereas Katsuki is the complete opposite of her, at first glance, he can be easily agitated, restless, loud, hot-headed, and rarely enjoys teamwork or making friends. But, in serious situations and in academics, Bakugou is very meticulous and serious about his actions in order to perform to his best abilities, similar to how Momo is in these same type of scenarios. Just how Bakugou is able to behave seriously like Momo does when it comes to academics and hero work, Momo can also have rare moments of anger very similar to the ones Katsuki has daily. As when Mineta and Denki tricked her and the other girls into wearing cheerleading outfits at the Sports Festival, Momo gave a rare cry of rage (something no other girl in class did) and is also capable of commanding or screaming courageously when motivating others to act as she did in the Paranormal Liberation War, which is why Momo can be quite similar to Katsuki in times of anger or need.

Unlike their other classmates, Momo appears relatively unimpressed upon seeing Katsuki’s incredulous throw of 705 meters (in the quirk apprehension tests), and simply stares boredly, as if it is nothing more than a daily feat to her. This gives the early impression that she doesn’t seem to find Katsuki any more exceptional than anyone else, which proves to be rather defining in later times.

During Katsuki’s battle trial (with Tenya, against Ochako and Izuku), Momo comments that his feint attacks are impressive, as they require an extreme amount of precision, and adds that he demonstrated an incredible control over his quirk, alongside calculating the physics in which he moved at. She is the only one to manage to deduce this. At the end of the fight, she looks rather disappointed in Katsuki's behavior compared to the disturbance of the others. After Katsuki, Izuku, Tenya and Ochako are gathered, Momo gives commentary on the fight, and what each student did wrong. She gives an entire analysis on Katsuki, rather than just calling him the usual “reckless”, and seems to truly hit every sensitive spot in Katsuki’s heart. This only worsens when she is revealed to have entered U.A through recommendation alongside being the first admitted to U.A. This is the first time Katsuki realizes that there are others, including Momo that are more capable- and even more worthy of becoming no. 1 than him, which is a defining point in his early (character) development.

On the bus ride to the USJ, Katsuki is angered by Denki stating that he has the personality of a “steamed turd”. As he yells, Momo holds a repulsed hand over her mouth, and complains to Ochako about the vulgarity of his language. In the obstacle course of the Sports Festival, Momo along with Katsuki and other students are able to avoid Shoto's ice attack to continue in the competence. During the Final Exams Arc, Momo is asked by many of her dear classmates for help with tutoring on the written portion of the final exams, as Momo is the best and first in her class (1/20) in academic rankings. Due to Momo’s cheerful “bounciness” and “adorable” proclamation in the classroom to help her classmates, Kirishima overhears this and teases Bakugou on how "virtuous" Momo is for helping her classmates. This causes Bakugou to say that he's "got virtue too" himself, just like Momo, and is now up for the challenge to also tutor his fellow classmate thanks to Momo, as he is capable and third in his class rankings (3/20). Soon after hearing of Katsuki's kidnapping by the League of Villains in the Forest UA Training Camp, the barely conscious Momo who was badly wounded by the villains, realizes that Bakugou is captured, and in great danger. Momo quickly creates a tracker to attach to the Nomu that almost killed her and Awase (who was able to fuse Momo's tracker onto said Nomu via his Fusing Quirk) from Class 1-B, despite almost facing death, in order to help save Bakugou. After the unfortunate events, Class 1-A makes a visit to their fellow classmates who were injured during the camp, and were thus charged into a hospital. During the visit, Eijiro becomes emotional and (loudly) expresses the guilt he feels over the loss of Katsuki, and not being able to fight for him before suggesting that the class rescue him themselves. Kirishima mentions how he and Shoto happened to have passed by Momo's hospital room, and overheard her talking to All Might and the police regarding Bakugou's situation, and how she made a tracking device to help find him. Kirishima and Shoto ask Momo to make another tracking receiver device to help them find and save Bakugou themselves. This leaves Momo unsure of what to do as she wants to help her classmates, but doesn't want to break the law and do something that is most likely to fail. The two boys leave Momo to think about it and let her know that it's all up to her, and fully her own decision to make another tracking receiver. Hearing all this, Tenya immediately shuts this idea down due to the complete idiotic nature of it. However, that night, Momo decides to show up in front of the anticipated Eijiro and Shoto, along with Izuku by her side (Tenya joins them soon after, albeit hesitantly). Momo aids the final act of bringing Katsuki to safety, and is with him as he is brought to the police for questioning/aid. It is quite notable that Momo, who hails from a noble family of heroes would defy orders from her greaters to assist bringing Katsuki to safety, despite the risk it would hold to her (future) career. After Class 1-A chooses to hold a concert to perform at the School Festival, Kyoka decides on four members of the class to be in the Band, choosing Bakugou and Momo (along with Fumikage and Denki) to play the respective instruments. Both Momo and Bakugou were chosen without any doubts to play in the band, as Momo and Bakugou were both raised with an interest to play instruments at a very young age. Momo is set to play the keyboard, and Bakugou the drums. Bakugou isn't once shown yelling at Momo during all their band practices, despite his many reoccurring fits of rage when it came to Tokoyami and Denki, during said practices. In preparations for the concert, Bakugou seems to have notably more respect, and a sense of closeness towards his bandmates, including Momo. During the concert performance, it can be seen that Momo's keyboard and Bakugou's drum set are side-by-side, and the two play next to each other. Post concert, Momo can be seen cheering on Bakugou in the obstacle course that was at the Festival.

In the Paranormal Liberation War, Katsuki and Momo do not interact directly and are not shown side by side (since they are both in different areas during their respective battles). However, both at some point end up making hasty plans during a moment of crisis and ended up guiding different Heroes to face the most powerful Villains of the League of Villains, Tomura and Gigantomachia. Katsuki is at the center of the battlefield during the War and momentarily guides some Professional Heroes to confront Tomura when Izuku is in danger and they cannot defeat the Villain. While Momo is near the Gunga Mountain Villa area and ends up leading the students of her Class and those of Class 1-B to face Gigantomachia to put anesthetic in his mouth to put him to sleep and defeat him.

Following the events of the Paranormal Liberation War and Izuku's escape from U.A. High School, Class 1-A decides to go find him. After Katsuki manages to defeat Dictator (a prison fugitive villain) while knocking him unconscious, Momo creates handcuffs with her Quirk to chain the Villain and congratulates Katsuki, but she accidentally speaks to him by his last name instead of his hero name: Dynamight, causing Katsuki to correct her and Momo apologizes for her mistake. When they finally bring Izuku back to U.A., Class 1-A is training among themselves in the courtyards of U.A. to improve its skills. Denki talks to Minoru about how with Tomura and All For One currently weakened the fight should be easier for the Heroes, but Katsuki tells them three reasons why they are wrong. Katsuki says that even after being able to locate the Villains' hideouts, the Heroes were never able to locate All For One on their own. Momo interrupts him by saying point two which is that Tomura was incomplete in the previous battle, and Katsuki ends his words by saying that the last point is that the villains will be the ones to decide when the battle begins (indirectly showing that Katsuki and Momo are capable of finish each other's words perfectly).

Fanon
Due to high competition from either character’s (most widely considered) “canon” ships (KiriBaku/TodoMomo), MomoBaku is not a particularly popular pairing and remains a “rare-pair”, although it’s a twist on the typical “good girl/bad boy” trope, MomoBaku still manages to reel in fans due to their surprisingly compatible dynamic. Momo is quite level-headed, calm, and collected, in serious situations, where Bakugou tends to be hot-headed at first glance, but is also very calm and level-headed in reality, and carefully makes decisions in serious situations, just like Momo. Momo holds a notably respectable stance in heroics thanks to her background, which seems to have brought her a sort of respect from Katsuki from the start that did not go un-missed by fans of either character. They both aim and fight for their #1 positions.

Additionally, in a joking manner, fans have stated that Momo could act in the “dominant” role of their relationship as opposed to the headstrong Katsuki, although this does, of course, spark genuine interest in fans of such a concept. As well as this, Momo has also proven to be one that could drag Katsuki down from his “high horse” in a way without shattering his inflated heart. Noted by fans, two are those who tutor their ‘less academically gifted’ classmates as well, although Momo does a study group while Katsuki just tutors Eijiro.

BakuMomo has over 400 fics on AO3.

Fandom
FAN FICTION 
 * Bakugou & Momo tag on AO3
 * Bakugou & Momo tag on AO3

TUMBLR

TWITTER

INSTAGRAM
 * MomoBaku tag on Instagram
 * BakuMomo tag on Instagram

ART
 * BakuMomo tag on Deviantart
 * BakuMomo tag on Deviantart

Trivia

 * Katsuki and Momo are roughly the same height; Momo is 1 centimeter taller than Katsuki (Momo = 173 cm, Katsuki = 172 cm).
 * The two rank in the top three in the class when it comes to intelligence, Momo is no. 1, while Katsuki is no. 3 (just behind Tenya).
 * Both are considered to be amongst the most (physically) gorgeous in their class.
 * Momo and Katsuki are both known to have past interest in music aside from hero work, as shown by their respective interests in keyboard and drumming, and were both taught as children. Additionally, both these instruments are counted as ‘percussion’.
 * In a horikoshi drawing for Volume 4 of the Smash!! manga, some of the students from Class 1-A were drawn together in a Character Swap and Momo and Katsuki were shown being each other while wearing each other's Hero costumes.