I'd like to start off by addressing some reviews.
For starters: thank you for all the support. Within 3 chapters this story's already grown to a decent size, and I'm proud of that. Really, I appreciate it.
Deathwing676 – In both the manga and the anime, he deals quite a bit of collateral damage to the zero-pointer, which is worth zero points. In addition, during the Battle Trial Arc, points are taken away for collateral damage. Ergo, wouldn't receive any villain points for destroying a robot explicitly stated to be worth zero points, and he wouldn't receive any points for causing immense damage to the top half of the arena.
Sandman001 – Right? We're introduced to third years, other departments, and 1-B, but there's no mention of second years. Why? Aizawa. People act like that's just a tidbit thrown in for laughs. He ruined the dreams of twenty people. They probably went on to become villains.
TBM10 – Izuku only got 200m more because his pitching is terrible. He needs baseball lessons.
I also have no plans on changing Izuku's personality for any reason – he's a cinnamon roll and it must stay that way. BAMF Izuku shows up in moments of need, such as the fight against Muscular. He's not a badass for the sake of it, that's just not who the character is. As for recovery time…it would get really dull if the Phoenix Quirk was that overpowered. It needs drawbacks. It's like playing a game with all the cheat codes on, there's just no challenge or fun to it. Would it be amusing to write out Izuku able to harness deadly explosive fire-force at-will and heal himself constantly? Yeah, for about one combat scene, but his growth comes from his setbacks and defeats, not from constant victory. Look at Bakugou, he failed to grow as a character until everything stopped going his way.
…That said, I actually really don't like how close-to-canon this story is. I'm looking to break away from canon, but I do still want to cover major events such as the training camp/Overhaul/festival. Do I want this to be a story of change, or a story of contrast? I don't know.
Izuku fell in with Iida and Uraraka once more as the class filed out of the room; Uraraka's excited babble didn't quite reach his brain through the flurry of his own thoughts, and Iida hadn't responded to her beyond an occasional acknowledgement.
What are we doing? Using them against others…I can't do that! If I hit someone with One For All…that would probably kill them…
"Deku-kun, watch out!"
Uraraka's call snapped him back to the present just in time for him to avoid a face-first collision with one of the poles that supported the awning overhead.
"T-thanks, Uraraka-san," he muttered, scratching the back of his head self-consciously. "Sorry, I, um, just got lost in thought."
A giggle. "I noticed. Whatcha thinkin' about?"
"Ah, n-nothing." He wasn't keen on telling a cute girl he'd just met that his Quirk had the power to make someone's limbs explode off their body.
The class, as one, made their way down to the grounds, over to one of the mock city blocks set aside for hero training ("Wow, they sure have a lot of these, don't they?" Uraraka marveled, in her typical innocent fashion). The entire place was devoid of any human activity other than their own, and for a moment, Izuku thought that perhaps they'd gone the wrong way – until, out of nowhere, a blur of blue, red and yellow slammed into the ground ten meters away, pelting those nearest with shards of pavement.
"Jesus Christ, what the hell!?" The lanky blonde from earlier.
"Calm down," sighed a girl with a pair of what looked like audio jacks dangling from her earlobes; with a start, Izuku realized that they were part of her body and not simply an augmentation. "You don't have to be so loud."
"Did – did you not just see – !?"
"I am here!"
All Might! Izuku had learned from the acceptance letter that his idol (and mentor now, he supposed) had taken up a teaching post at Yuuei, but even so, he felt a little thrill seeing the man in person again, in full muscle form. The rest of the class was star-struck; after a solid ten seconds of stunned silence, All Might waved a beefy hand in front of his face.
"All Might to 1-A? Uh…listen up, class!"
His booming voice jolted Izuku's classmates back to the present, and a few calmed down enough to express their surprise…or disdain for those who expressed surprise.
"All Might…?"
"For real? Here at Yuuei?"
"What's he doing here!?"
"Weren't you paying attention to the acceptance letter? He said he was teaching here this semester."
"Shut up and listen!"
"That's quite enough, young Bakugou. Now! I take it Aizawa told you all what you've gathered here for?" All Might stood, proudly, towering over the class with his arms crossed, but his trademark smile faltered when not one person spoke up, a few shaking their heads. "…No? Not a word?"
A general muttering. More head-shaking.
"Well then! Not to worry – today, we'll be testing you out in battle trials!"
This is exactly what I was afraid of, and Izuku shuddered, feeling a cold sweat begin to pour down his back.
Imagining the splintered, broken remains of one of his new classmates plastered across the faded concrete.
Okay, so it wasn't that bad.
The objective of the battle trial was not to take each other down in a battle of raw strength, but rather for one team to protect a fake bomb while the other attempted to destroy it.
"This isn't so bad. We might be able to avoid an outright confrontation. Maybe I'll get matched with someone who has a combat-oriented Quirk. Maybe I'll get matched against people without offensive Quirks. Out of everyone here, the only person I know who – "
"Deku-kun, you're muttering," Uraraka broke in, and Izuku stiffened.
They'd been given their hero costumes based on designs they'd submitted alongside their applications or costumes they'd brought in themselves, with the requisite support items attached or enclosed from the school's own support department or one of its affiliated support companies; Uraraka's was a form-fitting black bodysuit with pink pieces resembling the design of moon boots around her calves and forearms, with a similar collar at her neck, while Izuku's own was a simple pine-needle green jumpsuit with a respirator mask and a pair of protrusions atop the full hood that gave him the appearance of an overgrown rabbit. He felt just a little silly wearing it, but judging from Uraraka's blush, she felt pretty silly herself ("I just told them to work on putting pressure on my pressure points to keep the nausea down…but I didn't specify anything else…this is so tight!"). Besides, his mother had made it for him from the designs she'd seen in his hero notebooks – so how could he let her down?
No…this costume would serve as tribute to those he cared about.
"Ah, sorry, Uraraka-san. I'm just nervous."
"Yeah, me too…hopefully they won't match people without combat Quirks up against someone like that Bakugou kid," she murmured, echoing his train of thought, and he nodded mutely.
To his mixed elation and anxiety, Izuku and Uraraka were paired up; she admitted she wasn't much good with close combat, but she was more than happy to offer support any way she could. "One of the most important skills in hero work is cooperation! You won't always get to be matched up with people whose Quirks match up with yours, or even whose personalities mesh well!" All Might had boomed, before assigning groups seemingly at random; Izuku wasn't sure what most of the other students' Quirks were exactly, aside from hints he'd seen here and there, such as the loud blonde (who he'd heard someone call Kaminari) shocking the grip strength tester into believing he was exerting much more force than he was and a strangely short kid he could barely believe was their own age, who'd pulled purple balls the size of grapefruits off his head and bounced off of them during the sidestep test.
To his absolute terror, they were matched against Bakugou and Iida.
So much for avoiding combat.
The next few minutes were a blur to Izuku; he distinctly recalled being called up to go first, and before he even realized it, he stood with Uraraka outside of the fake "hideout" where Iida and Bakugou would be preparing whatever defenses they could for the mock bomb. Shaking. Shivering. Trembling.
"Deku-kun, are you alright?"
"I-I'm f-f-fine!" he tried to reassure her, through chattering teeth. Predictably, Uraraka was unconvinced, and she stepped closer to him, her expression sympathetic.
"You wanna talk? We've got a few minutes before we have to go in."
Izuku looked at his feet.
"Deku-kun…do you and Bakugou already know each other?"
He hadn't been expecting that question, but he supposed it hadn't taken much for her to piece it together. Bakugou and Izuku had already demonstrated prior acquaintanceship through their nicknames for the other. "…Yeah. We do. I've known him since we were little kids."
"He doesn't seem very nice."
"…Kacchan and I were best friends up until his Quirk manifested," Izuku decided to tell her, figuring that being open would be the best course of action here.
"Three minutes left for the villain team to prepare!" All Might's voice boomed out across the arena.
"Then what?" Uraraka's eyes, a deep hazel, met his own, round and sincere and far, far too close for Izuku's comfort.
"Mine didn't manifest until a few months before the entrance exam," he explained. "So we grew up with him having a really powerful and awesome Quirk and me being effectively Quirkless. I…I guess that got to his head. Around second grade he got it into his head to call me useless, like a wooden puppet. And that's where the name Deku came from." He finished this little speech with an equally little, self-deprecating smile, and Uraraka's brow scrunched in irritation.
"How could he do that to somebody he'd been friends with?" she exclaimed, seemingly unable to believe it. "That's not friendship at all!"
"Kacchan's just…different from you or me, Uraraka-san." He felt a surge of revulsion – why am I defending him? – but didn't show it; regardless, Uraraka poked him sharply in the chest.
"Different or not, he doesn't get off doing that to you!"
"Two minutes left!"
"Uraraka-san…I appreciate your concern on my behalf, but…it's okay." That sad little smile didn't slip or waver, and Uraraka's expression shifted from outrage to sympathy.
"Well…I already told you this, but…I like the sound of it. To me, it sounds like dekiru – you can do it! Y'know?"
He supposed. He hadn't really ever heard it that way, but Uraraka's accent made the two words sound a lot closer than Bakugou's did.
"Plus, you've got a totally awesome Quirk now, even if it did take years to show up!" she went on, her agitation evaporating into excitement. "I bet you could totally blow him out of the water if you tried!"
"Once," he corrected her, bitterly. "You saw it for yourself, I can only use my Quirk once for about thirty seconds before it stops healing me and I'm totally useless."
"One minute left!"
"But that's all we need, right?" Uraraka pressed, her smile growing. "His explosions are pretty powerful, but yours totally blew away that giant robot in the entrance exam! I bet you could overpower him with just one punch!" There she went miming punches again. Izuku grinned, a real one this time, and gave a little laugh.
"Uraraka-san…"
"Yeah, Deku-kun?"
A beat.
"…Thank you."
"I did say I'd be happy to give ya any support ya needed, right?" she responded, her own grin surpassing his own, and they shared a comfortably awkward laugh before –
"Time's up for the villain team to prepare! Hero team, get in there!"
"You ready?" he asked her.
"Yep, yep! I'm sorry, we should've been talkin' about this during the preparation period – "
"No, it's okay, really! That was preparation too, in a way. Your Quirk can make things float, right?" he asked, surveying the front of the building.
"Um…kinda. Zero Gravity just nullifies the pull of gravity on an object…it'll stay in place if no other force is applied to it. Why?"
"I've got an idea. Can you float yourself, too?"
Uraraka blanched.
"…For about five seconds. Then I throw up."
Izuku grit his teeth. "Right. Float me first. I'm going up to the second-floor window and we can work our way up from there. I'll open it so you can just jump straight up and I can pull you through the window before you get sick."
Though her face didn't grow any less pale, she nodded, taking Izuku's hand in her own and touching his palm with all five of her finger pads; immediately, that rushing sense of weightlessness he remembered from the day of the entrance exam hit him again, and he kicked hard off the ground, catching hold of the second-floor windowsill as he ascended. With a mighty shove, he was able to force it open, pulling himself through the opening and hitting the ground with a muffled thump as Uraraka evidently released her Quirk. "Now, Uraraka-san!" he called, picking himself up and leaning from the window.
The poor girl looked nauseous the moment her signature flash of pink light appeared, but with her jaw clenched, she too kicked off, catching hold of Izuku's hands for him to pull her into the building. He'd barely had time to blink before she'd pressed her fingertips together and doubled over, retching.
"Are you okay?" he asked, tentatively rubbing her back, and she nodded, though she didn't stop him. After a minute, Uraraka straightened, looking more than a little flushed.
"Thanks, Deku-kun. I'm fine now, promise!" A weak grin. "Okay, so what are we – "
"DEKU!"
I'd know that voice anywhere.
"Kacchan - !?"
He barely had time to react before Bakugou's hand slammed into the ground where Uraraka had stood not a second prior. In the nick of time, Izuku managed to dive into her, tugging her aside and covering her body with his own to take the shock from the blast, and as Bakugou straightened, so too did Izuku and Uraraka, the latter looking more than a little flustered…and also angrier than either of the boys had seen her in their two days of contact (or three, in Izuku's case).
(He had the distinct feeling that her anger had nothing to do with the attempted attack, but didn't say anything – now isn't the time!)
"What do you think you're doing, huh, shitrag!? Trying to play the hero again!?" Bakugou spat, and underneath the mask over his eyes, the whites were almost red with sheer rage – if he were any more furious, he'd have broken a blood vessel.
"We're just here for the test, Kacchan!" Izuku tried reasoning with him, even though he knew it was futile. Perhaps reminding Bakugou that they were performing a school activity would tame his ire…?
Nothing of the sort happened.
"Shut up, you shitty nerd!" the blonde exploded, both figuratively and literally as he thrust himself once more at the pair standing a little ways down the hall. Izuku and Uraraka darted to either side, letting the explosion blast by them, and Bakugou's head swiveled to give Izuku a terrifying, horrifying glare with a wicked, manic grin on his face.
Izuku froze.
Pivoting on his heel, Bakugou swung his palm once more towards Izuku, a hot wave of force surging out of it and striking him before he could react.
"Deku-kun!"
"Shut UP!"
A second blast, and the sound of Uraraka hitting the floor met Izuku's ears, snapping him to his senses.
"K-Kacchan…!" he managed to get out, his voice shaking as much as his legs as he pushed himself to his feet.
"Still standing, huh? Guess we'll just have to change that, huh!?"
Izuku knew from observation that Bakugou's voice rose when he was preparing to launch an attack, and so instead of trying to dodge the blast, he kicked off the floor, darting past Bakugou to shove him further down the hallway away from Izuku and the prone Uraraka.
"Are you okay, Uraraka-san?" he asked, hurried, his voice low, and she nodded quickly.
"I'm fine, Deku-kun," she assured him, and then Bakugou's scream of fury met his ears and he turned to face his assailant once more.
The sight of his new friend sprawled on the floor had flicked some kind of switch in him, and instead of fear, or terror, he felt only anger – an emotion Midoriya Izuku had not much experience with. Whirling to face Bakugou as he rushed Izuku once more, the smaller boy ducked, driving his shoulder under the other's right hook, grabbing hold of his forearm, and swinging him around hard, slamming him flat on his back against the tiled flooring.
The mania faded instantly, replaced by total and utter shock, but before Bakugou could say a word, Izuku found himself yelling, his voice high and trembling.
"K-Kacchan!" he shouted. "You might bully me…and call me names…and attack me…but I – I won't let you hurt anyone else!"
"Stupid shitty nerd – how the hell did you even - !?"
"Haaaaaah!"
A wordless scream escaped Izuku's lips as Bakugou rose, a little slower than usual, and turned to swing another explosion his way; the delay was enough for Izuku to drive a fist into his former friend's chest, staggering him back a step, but the daze from the slam was fading fast, and before ten seconds was up, Bakugou had recovered his wits enough to launch another assault, Uraraka lying completely forgotten at the corner.
"Who told you you could get into Yuuei, huh!?"
Izuku leapt aside, but Bakugou had been expecting this and changed trajectory mid-swing to strike him in the gut, sending him reeling and burning off the top layer of his hero costume with the heat of the blast.
"Who said you could ever be anything more than a shitty fucking pebble in my path!?"
With his left hand, Bakugou reached up and grabbed Izuku by the throat, forcing him up against the wall as the other could only stammer and tug at Bakugou's fingers, hot, sour breath gusting against his nostrils with each breath the other took.
"Answer me, shitrag! Who – "
"I told you already, Kacchan!" Izuku screamed, eyes wide not with fear but with rage, and he shifted his grip down to Bakugou's wrists, squeezing as hard as he could. "Someone I look up to – someone close to me! – told me that I could be a hero! And – and that's exactly what I intend to do! I wanna be – I wanna be a hero who saves people with a smile on his face!"
His grimace twisted, turning upward, curving into a pained, but sincere, smile, showing all of his teeth, and something shifted inside of him, a warmth rushing up through his whole body.
"So you can hurt me all you want, Kacchan – but when you hurt the people I care about – I'm not gonna just stand by and let it happen ever again!"
And then Izuku's eyes were shining, and Bakugou's went from furious to terrified, and he released his grip on the other's throat as angry, hot burns sprang up on his forearms in the shape of Izuku's handprints –
Without missing a beat, Midoriya Izuku drove a heavy, burning fist into the other's gut, causing Bakugou Katsuki to grunt in pain and clutch his middle; instead of following up, however, Izuku just shoved his rival away and did an about-face, sprinting back towards Uraraka with all his anger used up and nothing but concern in his eyes.
"Uraraka-san! Come on! We've gotta get away, quick!"
"R-right!"
Realizing she'd been lying stunned on the floor for the entire duration of their fight, Uraraka got to her feet, accepting the hand Izuku offered her and running her hardest to keep up with him as he took long, powerful strides ahead of her, Bakugou's hoarse shouts echoing from behind them. They could hear the sound of his explosions, and the walls shook, but evidently he hadn't memorized the floor plan, as Izuku and Uraraka swiftly made their way to the stairwell, through the third floor, and up to the fourth without any further sign of him, the sounds of his unbridled rage fading away as they climbed the steps.
"Iida-kun is going to be alone," Izuku explained, as they ran; they'd slowed their pace to a jog somewhere halfway through the third floor, though Uraraka was considerably more winded than he.
"H…how do you know?" she wheezed.
"Because Kacchan was alone. Knowing him, he probably came after us by himself, figuring he could take us down without Iida's help…but I think he underestimated us!"
Maybe Izuku couldn't see it, but Uraraka Ochako certainly could. In that brief fight, something about Izuku had changed, subtly, and his apprehension had changed to something between elation and confidence. She looked down to hide the blush and smile that spread across her unwilling cheeks and lips, but the precaution was unnecessary; Izuku had started muttering again.
"If Iida's by himself, and Kacchan doesn't make it upstairs in time, we can take him out in a two-on-one! And from there, it's easy – we just have to touch the bomb, right?"
"Yeah, that's it. We should be right under the bomb room now, shouldn't we?" she asked, pulling the folded floor plan from her uniform pocket, but before Izuku could respond, the window ahead of them shattered, and none other than Bakugou Katsuki tumbled through it, his expression beyond furious.
"Surprise, you shitty nerds!"
"Not again!" Uraraka squeaked, but Izuku's face had quickly twisted into a fierceness to rival Bakugou's, and he immediately barked:
"Uraraka-san! Run upstairs, now! To the fifth floor! I'll contact you on the earpiece, okay?"
"B-but - !"
"Please, Uraraka-san!" There was an urgency in his voice that forbade argument, and reluctantly, she nodded, taking off at a sprint for where she knew the staircase to be. As Izuku had expected, Bakugou didn't even glance after her, his bloodshot eyes fixed entirely on him.
"Did you think you'd beaten me so easy, you Quirkless nerd?" came the scream, and Izuku prepared to flip him again – but at the last possible second, Bakugou threw one hand behind his back and used a single explosion to throw himself into the air, over Izuku's head, to strike him from behind with a second blast and throw the aspiring hero to the floor.
"N-no, I – " Izuku's voice came out in a cough, winded as he was, and Bakugou interrupted him.
"I'm not going to let you be anything more than a pebble in my path, d'you understand me!?"
"N-no!" he repeated, stronger this time, and as Bakugou shoved a hand forth to pin him down, Izuku rolled out of the way, onto his back, scrambling to a stand. "I won't! I won't be your stepping-stone anymore, Kacchan!"
Pain. Hurt. Ache.
His childhood friend met his eyes across a gap far wider than the few meters it spanned.
Rejection. Disappointment. Failure.
His throat was sore from screaming.
His body was sore from the impacts and the costume his mother had made him had half burnt away, revealing the tracksuit underneath.
"Do you understand me, Kacchan!?"
There was a moment of brief, incredible, deafening silence before Bakugou lifted one of his arms, aiming the heavy grenade-styled bracer on his wrist directly at Izuku.
"Deku-kun, I'm at the room," Uraraka's voice came through his earpiece, quiet as a whisper. At the same moment, Izuku heard a shouting that could only be Iida come through not only Uraraka's end of his own headset, but loudly enough to filter through Bakugou's as well.
"Bakugou! What are you doing? They could be up here at any instant! I must ask that you return immediately!"
Izuku's opponent yanked his blue earpiece out, tossed it to the floor, and smashed it under his boot, still saying nothing as he took the same hand and hooked one finger around a small metal trigger under the bracer's safety lever.
"I had support design these bracers to store my excess sweat," he told Izuku, voice deadly quiet, and the blood running hot in Izuku's veins iced over in an instant. "And when I pull this trigger, it'll blow your stupid nerd ass to bits!"
"Young Bakugou! Do not fire that blast! Quite aside from the danger to young Midoriya, think of the collateral damage!" All Might's voice blared in Izuku's earpiece, but it was futile; Bakugou had just smashed his.
He couldn't hear their instructor telling them to stop.
"Kacchan, no!"
"Shut up!" – and there was genuine rage in his voice now; the manic grin was gone, replaced by pure fury, and Izuku watched almost as if in slow motion as his finger twitched and the blast came roaring from the gauntlet, the sheer force tearing up floor tile –
"SMAAAAAASH!"
With a scream of pain and desperation, Izuku launched a full-force One For All-empowered punch at Bakugou, the sheer wind pressure of it forcing the blasts to stop dead in midair, pushing Bakugou backwards along the hallway as the inferno raged between them, shaking the building to its foundations; but any second now, the wind pressure would stop, and Izuku had no idea if -
Almost as if reading his mind, the equilibrium the two attacks had reached shifted, and the explosions picked up speed, rocketing towards Izuku once more.
It's now or never! You have another Quirk, use it!
Of course it was. Here he went, relying on his clutch potential again, not training himself. He'd heal, sure, but what would it solve? What would it do for him? He'd throw himself into mortal injury, come out superpowered for thirty seconds, and be useless again.
I still can't control it.
But what else are you going to do? Just lie down and let him walk all over you? Time slowed to nearly a standstill for just long enough for a small voice in the back of Izuku's mind to argue with him as he stood watching orange heat bloom in the center of the torrent that jetted down the hall.
What kind of hero am I if I have to rely on this one ace up my sleeve to do anything!? I can't save anyone with this power…all I can do is fight long enough to take down one person!
The voice wouldn't be cowed. You can save someone now. Uraraka's waiting for you, right upstairs. Are you going to let her down?
I – I can't –
Save the nobility for later! This is what you can do for now!
And then the heat consumed him for all but a fraction of a second before he felt his entire body phase in and out of being, leaving a massive pile of scorching ash on the tile underfoot; he knew his Quirk was active again, and he knew that no matter what happened, nothing could hold him back right just then!
It's true I've been relying on the same trick all this time, he thought, his mind on a totally separate track from his body as he closed the gap between himself and Bakugou with the speed of One For All, his body healing the damage instantaneously as he broke both legs and plowed through a seemingly endless stream of high-powered explosions.
It's true I'm never going to be a hero at this rate…but that's why I have to take this and learn from it!
Instinctively, Izuku shoved both palms against Bakugou's chest in an improvised mawashi uke strike that a boy with a tail and a karate gi would later tell him to be proud of, shoving the blonde backwards with far more force than he'd have been capable of without the power of his Quirks; without missing a single step, he caught the staggered Bakugou by the front of his costume and slammed him against the wall in a chokehold identical to the one he'd used on Izuku not ten minutes prior.
"I'm going to keep getting stronger!"
He barely recognized the voice as his own.
"I'm gonna keep chasing my dream, do you hear me!? And you're not gonna stop me anymore, Kacchan!"
"Deku…"
"I'm not the useless Deku anymore," he whispered, and though the building still quaked and Bakugou's hands still popped with periodic explosions, he knew his former friend could hear him just fine. "I'm the Deku…who always does his best!"
And without giving him a chance to respond, Izuku threw Bakugou Katsuki across the hall and into the other wall, where he struggled to stand for just a moment before he dropped to the floor and didn't get back up.
Breathing hard, Izuku made his way down to the spot where, according to the floor plan, he'd be directly under the center of the room in which Uraraka would confront Iida over the bomb. "Uraraka-san?" he asked, and was relieved when she answered immediately; in the background, Iida was still shouting.
"Deku-kun?"
"H-hey. I beat Kacchan for you." Wait. What? For her!?
On the other end, Uraraka turned red as a tomato.
"A-ah…thanks, D-Deku-kun," she managed to stammer out, trying to keep her voice down. "What did you wanna do about Iida-kun, then? It'd be two versus one…"
"Well…I used my Quirk against Kacchan…so I'm kinda out of commission when it comes to a head-on fight besides what I can do by myself," he admitted. "But…I have one more thing we might be able to do…how much did you say you can float?"
"I don't think I told you…but about five tons, I guess. Why?"
"Wow. Okay, that's more than enough for what I'm thinking of…"
Iida Tenya was completely unprepared, then, for the shockwave that punched through the floor and knocked him off his feet, and equally unprepared for the way Uraraka, clinging to a pillar, used the force from the shockwave to keep herself in the air with the now-weightless pillar, giving it a mighty swing like a baseball bat to smack the rubble from the blast towards him.
"Improvised Special Move: Comet Home Run!"
A floor below, despite the screaming pain in his right arm, Izuku beamed.
Not ten seconds later, Uraraka had crossed the room, making herself weightless just long enough to touch the false bomb, "disarming" it and winning their team the trial.
Pain had a way of making time both slow to an agonizing crawl and speed up to the point where he couldn't remember anything whatsoever afterward; he knew they'd won, but any victory celebrations were put aside in favor of Izuku taking another brief stay in the nurse's office.
"You again, hmm?" Recovery Girl didn't look too pleased to see him back again the very next day.
"…Yeah, it's me again. Sorry!"
"Don't apologize. The best apology you could make would be to learn to control your Quirk better."
The rest of the school day was simply the battle trials, and then the time came to head home. Uraraka came to give him his bag ("Deku-kun, I made it weightless, you don't have to worry about me straining myself," she giggled), and they exited the ward together, heading for the front doors of Yuuei.
Iida joined them, briefly, until they came to the fork between the bus station and the train station and he had to wave them goodbye once more, leaving Izuku and Uraraka to take the train back to Shizuoka Prefecture.
After the Engine Quirk user left, a silence settled between them, and though they kept the same pace, something was…off about the girl walking next to him. The way she walked, head low, staring at her feet. Her total lack of bubbliness. The way her shoes tapped in an unbroken, robotic rhythm, a far cry from the way her pace changed with her level of excitement as she talked –
Wait, you noticed that?
Izuku shoved his thoughts aside and spoke instead.
"Hey, Uraraka-san."
No response. Out of instinct, he gave her a gentle tap on the shoulder and immediately recoiled the moment he realized – I touched a girl! What did I just do!? I probably just signed my own death warrant!
"Oh! Um, sorry, Deku-kun. I just got a little lost in thought is all. Are you alright?" She jumped at the contact, then met his gaze with a shy, sad little smile, deflecting his concerns with her own.
"I'm fine. You, um, you didn't look too happy just now."
"It's really nothing, I promise!" She rushed to ease his worry, but this had the opposite effect she'd intended; now Izuku definitely knew something was up. Regardless, no matter what he said, she'd reassure him she was fine, and after a few minutes, he dropped the subject, and Uraraka went back to staring at her feet.
She was silent the entire way to Shizuoka.
By the time they reached Izuku's street, his heart had sank into his stomach and his intestines had tied themselves in knots, resulting in a distinctly unpleasant writhing, pounding terror in his chest and gut – had he done something wrong? Was she upset with him? He opened his mouth to apologize, but she beat him to the punch.
"I-I'm sorry, Deku-kun. I really haven't been feeling well since earlier. I think maybe I'm coming down with something. And on the second day of school, too!" she added, pretending to pout. "I'll talk to you tomorrow, okay? Take care of your arm! Even if Recovery Girl healed it, you shouldn't put too much strain on it until you're sure it's all better, okay?" she instructed him, and he had no choice but to nod.
"U-um, alright. You feel better too, okay, Uraraka-san?"
"…Yeah. I will. 'Bye!"
And with a cheery wave, she turned away from him.
Izuku watched her go.
It was almost funny how he could run headfirst into a villain attack without hesitating, but when it came to comforting a friend, his legs just wouldn't budge.
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