'This is stupid. What are you doing Izuku? Actively seeking out Kacchan is suicide! Listen to your inner voice of reason here! I'm trying to help you survive! Run the other way you jackass!'
Izuku drowned out every sense that told him to go back and hide in the bomb room with Tenya. He pushed himself forward, ducking down a hallway and glancing around the corner. All clear. He reached the stairwell and went down another flight.
This was stupid. He had made a plan before he had even left the room. Use All for All, fight from a distance, and then win. It was supposed to be easy, but he had to go and throw that all out the window the minute he began down that hallway.
It wasn't the best decision in the world, but no matter how scared he was, Izuku couldn't waste this opportunity. This was a chance to see, after 10 months of training, how he stacked up against Kacchan.
Katsuki had always been the one on top. People looked at him and said that he was going to be the best hero one day. Then they would look at Izuku and say he didn't have a chance. For years Izuku had ignored them, trying his best to stay positive about his situation. However, there was always a part of him that knew they were right. He was a quirkless nobody. Who would think he could be anything more than a bystander?
That's why Izuku had to do this. For all the people who said he couldn't, he had to face down Katsuki, so he could finally prove he could do it. He could be a hero.
And as Izuku rounded that final corner, he felt no fear, as he stared into the angry eyes of his childhood friend. They weren't 4 years old anymore. Time to grow up.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Ochako walked a bit faster to keep up with Katsuki's fast pace.
"Slow down Kacchan! We have plenty of time to find the bomb. We should make a plan!" Ochako suggested to her irate friend.
"I already have a plan," Katsuki didn't yell. His voice was deadly calm. "You are going to go complete this shitty test, while I take care of some personal business,"
"What personal business?" Ochako tilted her head in confusion.
"I'm going to go find Deku,"
"But he's supposed to be defending the bomb!" She pointed out. "If we find that then we'll find Deku,"
Katsuki spun around, stopping in his tracks. Ochako nearly fell over, trying to make sure she didn't barrel into the explosive boy.
"Deku's a weak, quirkless, loser who couldn't fight his way out of a wet paper bag," Katsuki snarled. "But there's not a chance in hell he's not down here looking for me to,"
Ochako didn't follow his logic, but someone else's voice stopped her from questioning it.
"You always were smarter than people gave you credit for,"
Katsuki darkly smiled, turning to see Izuku stood at the end of the narrow hallway. Ochako got into a ready stance, but Katsuki raised a gauntlet in front of her before she could attack.
"Go find the bomb. He's not gonna stop you," Katsuki ordered.
The gravity user looked split at decision of assisting her friend or following his order. Izuku decided to make it easy on her.
"Go Uraraka-san. You're not a part of this," Ochako was surprised by the calmness in the boy's voice. The last time she talked to him, he was a stuttering mess.
Following the command, Ochako walked past, not letting her guard down when she passed Izuku. Izuku closed his eyes as she passed.
'Sorry Iida-san' Izuku didn't like to lie, but this was necessary. Ochako vanished around a corner and the boys were left alone together.
They stared each other down, determined looks etched on their faces.
"It was fucking stupid of you to reveal yourself. You could have snuck up and attacked us," Katsuki stated. "You need every advantage you can get, if you think you actually have a chance at beating me,"
"I don't need cheap shots to take you down," Izuku glared.
Katsuki snarled, bringing back his right arm and rushing at Izuku.
"We'll see about that you damn nerd!"
With a yell, Katsuki threw a right hook at Izuku's head. Izuku, instead of dodging, met Katsuki halfway, getting in close. He grabbed onto the arm before rotating his entire body. With a cry of his own, Izuku brought the teen over his shoulder and slammed him straight into the ground.
A loud bang accompanied Katsuki's collision with the floor. Spittle flied from his mouth at the sudden impact.
Izuku didn't waste time standing there, immediately going for a downward punch to the blonds head. Katsuki was quick to recover from his shock. He threw his arms towards Izuku and sent off a massive explosive blast from his hands, propelling himself away from the violet haired boy and stunning Izuku.
Katsuki rolled to his feet and used another explosion to propel himself back at Izuku. Izuku, still stunned by sudden explosion, was blown back as Katsuki released another blast, this time directly at the boy's chest.
Izuku skipped across the floor like a stone on a lake and collided with the wall.
With the Class
Aizawa was unimpressed by the video feed of the fight.
"He's not taking it seriously," He lamented to All Might. "He's still not going all out,"
All Might nods. "Young Bakugo doesn't seem to have the same problem though,"
Denki cringed, as his new friend took another blast from the angry blonde.
"Why isn't he using his quirk to fight?" He fretted.
Kyoka shrugged. "Maybe he is. We don't even know what it does,"
Tsuyu remained silent, eyes transfixed on Izuku. Izuku had thought of himself so strong that no one would want to be around him. She believed there was more to him than this. This wasn't all Izuku could do.
Back to the Fight
Izuku rolled backwards to avoid another wild blow from Katsuki. Katsuki shoots himself up, flipping forward slightly, so his upper body was pointed downwards. He pointed a sparking palm down at Izuku. This was his chance. Katsuki couldn't get close enough to make contact with Izuku and if he tried to use an explosion, it could collapse the floor beneath them.
With the opening he was given, Izuku reeled back and threw a hard punch towards Katsuki's head. Sadly for him, it didn't make contact. Katsuki used his free hand to change his trajectory in midair and flip behind Izuku. Instead of an explosion, Katsuki went for a blunter route and slammed his grenade themed gauntlet into Izuku's back.
Izuku cried out in pain. Katsuki threw both hands forward and sent Izuku back down the hall with a massive blast. Once more, the wall stopped his momentum and a small crater formed where Izuku hit.
'Damnit' Izuku thought to himself, as he rolled over onto his back. He felt his body finally give out, leaving him unable to move. He was tough, but Katsuki's explosions were too powerful to tank consecutively.
'God damnit'.
Izuku had gotten one good shot in. One good shot. Then he proceeded to get thrown around like a rag doll. It was just like when they were kids. No matter how hard he tried, Izuku could never beat Katsuki.
Katsuki grinned maliciously. Raising an arm up, he aimed the grenade shaped gauntlet straight toward the downed boy. It glowed from the fiery explosives contained within it.
"Bakugo! Do not use that, it could kill him!" All Might's voice warned him through his ear piece.
"He'll be fine as long as he dodges," Katsuki ignored the cries from the teacher, removing and smashing the ear piece on the ground. He didn't need any distractions for this moment.
With his gauntlet charged up, Katsuki took one last look before pulling the trigger.
"DIE!"
XXXXXXXX
The spectators watched with bated breath as a massive blast of explosive power surged down the hall, destroying the walls along the way. Izuku didn't make a move, unresponsive to his surroundings. They saw the explosion just about to hit Izuku and he still didn't even react. That's when the screen was filled with a violet flash. The explosive went off, blowing straight through the wall and revealing the surrounding city to the world. Before the smoke could fully clear the screen's seemed to fizzle before cutting out.
"Wait, what happened!?" Eijoru cried out.
"Is Midoriya-san dead!?"
"What's going on?"
"Bakugo killed Midoriya!"
Aizawa drowned out the concerned cries of his students.
"He fried the camera feed. Sneaky brat," He muttered.
All Might turned to rush out to his possibly dead students, but Aizawa held him in place by his shoulder.
"I need to go-,"
"You need to stay here and watch the exam. Uraraka and Iida are still visible on the feed, which means the building hasn't collapsed," Aizawa cut off. In a lower tone he added. "You saw the flash. Let's see how this plays out,"
Most couldn't hear the low tones, but Kyoka was able to make it out over the panic.
"Oh god I think Midoriya's dead!" Denki cried, holding his head in fear.
Kyoka eyes narrowed in thought. "I don't think that's the case. Aizawa-sensei and All Might-sensei don't seem to be worried, which means he's probably fine,"
"He's totally dead!" Denki repeated, ignoring the girl.
"Did they say something important?" Tsuyu asked.
Kyoka nodded. "Something about the flash before the explosion hit. Maybe it was Midoriya's quirk activating to save him,"
Denki shook his head though. "Bakugo-san's a monster in combat. If Midoriya had any way to beat him, he would have used it before he was getting kicked across the floor,"
"That doesn't mean anything," Kyoka glared. "For all we know, it could be a reactionary based quirk or something!"
As the two argued back and forth, Tsuyu focused more on the black screens her friend was just on moments ago.
'You're stronger than you act Midoriya-kun. You can do this' Tsuyu thought to herself. She hadn't known him long, but she was confident in him. After all that's what friends were for right?
XXXXXXXXXX
Katsuki grinned, watching for the smoke to clear. There was no way that damn Deku could survive that. His gauntlets saved up his sweat to allow him to release his explosions at their fullest potential. With that in mind, he made sure to tone it down slightly. It wouldn't kill Deku, but it wasn't pleasant either.
Even with all his confidence, Katsuki didn't let his guard drop. When he underestimated Deku, he was punished for it. As ready as he was though, he didn't expect the sweltering heat wave to hit him straight on.
He actually had to take a step back to reorganize himself. What the hell was that? It had come from…where Deku had been. Katsuki watched as the smoke cleared and gritted his teeth, before going wide eyed.
Instead of Izuku, a different person stood in his place.
This new figure wore a sleeveless red vest with a hood on the back and white fur lining the hood. Underneath was a tight black tank top, with some strange face plate in the center. He had a pair of crossed belts on his waste and long pants, tucked into combat boots.
More important than his outfit were the two molten arms crossed in a defensive position. Smoke rolled of the guy in waves, but it didn't seem like he cared. Slowly he let his arms down to give Katsuki a look at the new arrivals face.
A pair of vibrant blue eyes bore into Katsuki and actually made him flinch. So much hate and anger were in those eyes. It made Katsuki's rage pale in comparison. The seemed to look down at his chest, before speaking.
"Sorry kid," He spoke down at the faceplate. "But you just weren't getting the job done. You'll thank us later,"
"Who the fuck are you?!" Katsuki yelled. "Where's Deku?"
The guy looked up at Katsuki's question. "Deku?" He seemed confused at the name before lighting up in realization. "Oh the kid. I benched him for now. Even if he kept going, there was no chance he was going to beat you,"
Katsuki growled. "I wanted to fight Deku damnit, not some random extra who shows up to save his ass when he's afraid to fight me himself!" Katsuki jabbed a finger at the guy. "You better tell me where he is flame brain or I'm gonna beat it out of you!"
The guy glared, his arms roaring to life with fire. "The names not flame brain, it's Kazan. Besides who are you calling a reject you shitty excuse for an antagonist?!"
Katsuki's own hands sparked in retaliation. "You, you molten piece of shit,"
"Get ready to die brat!" Kazan roared.
"You first you bastard!" Katsuki roared back.
They leapt at each other like vicious animals, all sense of technique forgotten in their anger. The fiery tempered boys through punch after punch at one another, tanking the hits and firing back with their own.
Katsuki's explosions didn't have the same effect on Kazan that they once had on Izuku. Where Izuku flinched and cried out with every blow, Kazan took them all in stride, never stopping underneath the assault. Kazan's Molten Core quirk didn't just transform his arms after all. It blessed him with a surprising amount of heat resistance. That didn't mean Katsuki's punches didn't hurt though. Purple bruises sprung up around his body from where his opponent had hit.
Meanwhile, Kazan kept his arms temperature regulated to a non-lethal degree, but still made sure they would burn painfully on contact. Katsuki had red burn patches forming all over, just like Kazan's bruises. The burns weren't the worst part for the boy though. Even with Kazan keeping the temperature of his arms low, his body still gave off a massive amount of heat. It slowed and dulled Katsuki's movements, sapping the moisture from the air, as well as his energy, the longer he stayed close to his fiery foe.
He had to act fast or Katsuki was gonna lose this! He threw both hands forward, breaking the chain of punches the two had going, and released an explosion to propel himself backwards. It didn't work like it had on Izuku the first time around though.
Kazan wasn't fazed by the blast. In fact he seemed to grow angrier from it. Instead of getting closer, Kazan decided to crank up the heat in the room. He pressed his hands flat against the wall and concentrated.
Cracks formed from where his hands touched and spread towards Katsuki. It kept going until Kazan put more pressure on, causing cracks to light up and erupt from the side of the wall, right in front of Katsuki.
Katsuki hissed at the scorching heat that came from the lava. He only made it two steps back before Kazan planted his fist right into the boy's stomach. Using the lava as cover, Kazan had done an unimaginable move and ran through the liquid, just to get a deadly punch in.
Katsuki skidded, not unlike Izuku had, before rolling on to all fours, grasping his stomach in pain. He looked down to see a fist sized burn left on his stomach. This one had burned straight through his shirt, looking a lot worse than the ones before. While Kazan had done his best to not be to damaging, he didn't account for the lava strengthening the heat in his fist.
Kazan walked slowly forward, watching the writhing form of Izuku's bully with sadistic glee.
"Do you see the difference in us now?" Kazan asked. "This was never a fair fight for you in the first place. All I would have to do is up the heat a bit more and you wouldn't even be able to stand. Give up brat. You've lost,"
Katsuki grunted, pulling himself back up to his feet, ignoring the pain in his body.
"I…I'm not about to lose to some third rate extra who came and took my real fight away," He struggled.
Katsuki raised his unused grenade gauntlet and pointed it shakily at Kazan.
"D…d…die you flame brained bastard," Katsuki face scrunched up, as he reached up to yank the pin out.
Kazan's punch had sent him far enough away, where the literal hot head couldn't reach him in time to stop this. Katsuki used his remaining strength to grip the pin and yank. Another violet flash temporarily blinded the boy, but only for a second. His eyes readjusted and widened in shock. Kazan had vanished from his spot across the room.
"Looking for someone?" a new voice sounded from below him.
Katsuki looked down, only to see a new guy, this one thinner, blonder, and a lot less covered in rock and fire. He crouched underneath Katsuki's raised arm, with one hand propped underneath the aimed gauntlet.
The blonde's face was covered by a face mask that only left his right eye showing. "My names Gin," he eye smiled. "You've fought valiantly for a brute, but this battle is over,"
Gin shoved the gauntlet upwards, causing Katsuki to pull the pin the rest of the way out. Time froze for a second around the two, as they locked eyes. As he stared into the eyes of his opponent, Katsuki realized something. This wasn't some stranger he was looking at.
Those eyes contained so many different emotions. Admiration, hope, sadness, envy. More importantly they held pity, the thing that made his blood boil with anger. Katsuki had seen that in only one person. Deku.
Deku hadn't left. These people hadn't taken his place. Deku was standing right before him, looking down at Katsuki like he always had.
Katsuki had just lost…to Deku.
Time resumed and the massive blast from the gauntlet shot forward, searing through the floor above. Gin was lucky he angled it, otherwise Ochako and Tenya could have gotten hit by that.
"We're finished here," Gin released his grip on the gauntlet before karate chopping Katsuki in the neck, sending him into unconsciousness.
Gin ran a hand through his blonde, slicked back, hair with a sigh. Today was a lot tougher than he thought it would be. All was well though and it was time to rest. He took a brief second to enjoy his reflection in the window. Besides the face mask, he had on a simple pair of white gloves, with the All for All symbol sewn into the back, and nice black suit. He smirked underneath the mask, while he adjusted his yellow tie. Not one scratch and still impeccable as ever.
With that, Gin hit the All for All dial over his heart and Izuku groggily stood in his place. He looked around disoriented before a sudden excruciating headache, forced itself upon him. His already weak body gave out under the strain and he to fell unconscious.
He barely heard the alarm going off, announcing the heroes as the winners.
XXXXXXXXXXX
The rest of Class 1A gasped, when Izuku and Katsuki came into a camera's view. This time they weren't fighting, but knocked out on a pair of stretchers. Izuku had a large purple bruise on the side of his face and more lining his arms. Likewise, Katsuki had multiple burn marks on his body, but the worst was the fist sized hole in his stomach.
Tenya and Ochako were escorted back to the spectator's area. They looked downtrodden and beaten down. The two had a hard fought battle, as they tried to defend against one another. It wasn't anywhere near as violent as their partners, with it resembling more of a game of keep away than an actual fight.
Eventually Ochako had managed to tag Tenya, rendering him unable to get to the bomb, where she secured victory for her team. It didn't feel like one though. Her partner was in the nurse's office and so was Deku. She should have stayed and fought alongside Katsuki. Maybe Katsuki wouldn't be as hurt or maybe she could have prevented all this damage from occurring.
"So," All Might turned to face the class. His normal wide grin was gone and a frown stood rigid in its place. "Would anyone like to point out what went wrong here and why these two teams fail, despite the hero's victory?"
Momo raised her hand to speak.
"Both Urakara-san and Iida-san allowed their partners to go off on their own, which resulted in the two's brutal fight. However, Midoriya-san and Bakugo-san seemed to have been looking for a fight since the test started. They ignored the objective in favor of trying to destroy one another," Momo rattled off like she had read it straight from a textbook.
Ochako ducked her head in shame. It was so obvious hearing it now. She let things get way out of hand.
All Might nodded at the analysis. "Correct. While I could say Uraraka-san and Iida-san should shoulder the blame with their partners, I cannot fault them for their actions,"
Ochako's head snapped up. What?
"It is hard to work together with people you just met, but as a hero, you will have to do this a lot in the future. From the few seconds you know them, you have to figure out how to best utilize your talents and skills to complete the objective," All Might continued. "It was not wrong of Iida-san to let Young Midoriya go on his own. Midoriya had an established a good strategy for the two before leaving. Iida-san could not control Young Midoriya after he had left the room. Since this was a time based trial, stalling would be a good strategy on their part,"
"Likewise, Ochako-san leaving Bakugo-san to Young Midoriya was a wise move as well. The objective of the heroes was not to fight, but to get to the bomb. Maybe they could have taken down Young Midoriya together, but without knowing his quirk or capabilities, they had to be cautious,"
"But shouldn't they have prevented the confrontation to begin with?" Momo asked.
"Sometimes in the field, you have to make tough calls. Do you follow the objective or follow your gut? It's different for every situation," Aizawa cut in here. "Besides, Midoriya and Bakugo actively searched each other out. Two strong willed people like that? I'm not sure anything could have stopped them from fighting,"
The class was silent after that. Ochako felt slightly better, but something was still bugging her.
"All Might-sensei, will Kacchan and Deku be all right?" Her eyes were hopeful, sat hey stared up at the number one hero.
All Might laughed loudly, breaking the tension, and patted the girl on the head.
"They'll recover better than ever, especially with all the time they will have in detention for this little incident," All Might announced. "Despite what it may seem, neither boy was every trying to kill one another. Why that would be silly!"
The class looked unconvinced at that.
"I don't know where All Might learned Japanese, but I don't think he knows the meaning of the word die," Kyoka drawled. "Especially when a foul mouthed blond shouts it while trying to explode your head,"
Denki nodded vigorously in agreement. "Yeah, Bakugo totally has it out for Midoriya. They probably have to have guards standing between them in the nurse's office in case he tries anything,"
Tsuyu didn't speak up. She placed a finger on her mouth, while she got lost in thought. She should visit Midoriya-kun when her test was over. Maybe she can convince him to talk about what happened after the cameras went dark?
From the burn on Katsuki's stomach, it looked like Midoriya-kun might have some super strong fire quirk or something. It didn't seem quite right though. Tsuyu had the feeling that the depths of Izuku's quirk go deeper than the surface.
XXXXXXXXXXX
Izuku blearily opened his eyes, which were met by a familiar pure white ceiling. He was in the nurses office again, he sighed. Recovery Girl wasn't going to be happy about this. Why was he here again though?
Izuku racked his brain, before a sudden influx of memories rose to the surface. Fighting Katsuki, losing, being forcibly transformed, Kazan and Katsuki fighting, Gen's interference, and then falling unconscious. He winced, as a headache made itself known.
Transforming multiple times always left his head hurting, but forcibly transforming was like that times 10.
'Is it really a forcible transformation if you were the one who did it? I mean, who hit the dial if not you?' Part of Izuku whispered to himself.
Izuku shook his head. He wanted to fight Katsuki on his own, but Kazan stepped in before he could lose. Izuku sighed softly. He still wasn't strong enough.
"You're awake,"
Izuku's head snapped over to see Katsuki reclined in the bed next to his. He was littered with light blue bandages, ones that Izuku recognized as ones that helped with burns. His equipment had been removed, along with his shirt, so Izuku got the full scope of how much damage Kazan had done.
What drew Izuku's eyes were the large concentration of bandages around Katsuki's stomach. He felt his stomach crawl at that. Kazan could have shoved his entire arm through Katsuki's stomach if he had pushed harder.
"What are you?" Izuku was brought back to reality, by Katsuki's question.
Izuku nervously swallowed. "What do you me-?"
"Don't bullshit me you damn nerd," There wasn't any malice or anger in Katsuki's voice. Only a stern tiredness remained. Izuku wasn't sure he had seen Katsuki so tired that he couldn't even yell or be angry.
"You were about to get hit and then you transformed into that flame brain and at the end you switched to that mask guy," Katsuki went over. "So what the hell? Do you have a quirk? Have you been bullshitting me all these years? I see you after 10 months and you have fucking pink hair,"
Izuku's eyes were wide in confusion before he felt a giggle erupt from his mouth. Then it evovlved into full blown laughter. Katsuki's eye twitched, while Izuku uncontrollably laughed at his question.
"What's so god damn funny?!" He yelled.
Izuku's laughter petered out, as he took deep breaths.
"All of the things to end that on and you mention my hair," Izuku giggled.
Katsuki glared. "It's a valid thing to say. You had green hair 10 months ago and now it's pink! What did you dye it or something?"
Izuku shook his head. "No, it's actually part of the reason I could transform into those guys,"
He should keep it a secret. All for All would come out eventually, but no one would ever on the specifics unless on a need to know basis. Izuku was tired though and Katsuki deserved a real answer.
With a grunt, Izuku brought up the arm holding All for All and held it for Katsuki to see. He studied it with a calculative gaze.
"This is a device known as All for All," Izuku began. "It has almost every heroes quirk saved into it and with a click of the button," The face plate rose up. "I can use it to transform myself and use those quirks myself,"
"That's insane," Katsuki said in disbelief. "No one's heard of anything that could actually store quirks,"
"I can't go into specifics," Izuku couldn't break All Might or the other teachers trust, even for Kacchan. "But it can and it works. It's not a total copy though. Some mix and mutate to create new quirks while others stay the same,"
Izuku leaned back to relax. "I'm still not quite honestly sure what it does. I mean it changed my hair and eyes to match it, which no one really saw coming. Maybe next it will change my skin to for all I know,"
He noticed Katsuki's angry glare. The same look he had before he started to yell.
"It's not as strong as you think!" Izuku was quick to cut off Katsuki. "It's got limits and when I transform…I'm not always fully in control,"
"Those two," Katsuki muttered.
Izuku nodded. "Kazan and Gin. All for All transforms my entire body, DNA included, into someone different and with it comes these new people. No one's sure why it happened, but it's something I've been dealing with," Bullshit…
Katsuki took a moment to mull it all over. He still had so many questions. How did Deku of all people get access to something so strong? Why? Who made it? What's its purpose? But that's when something clicked in his mind.
"You," Katsuki growled. "You were holding back against me?"
Izuku blinked before panicking and waving his arms in fear.
"No no no no! I wanted to fight you myself and not have someone else do it for me!" Izuku breathed. "I wanted to see if could match up to you without any help…,"
Katsuki snorted. "Are you a fucking idiot? Of course it was you. Who else would it be?" Izuku was a dumbass. He gains a nifty new wristband and suddenly he thought it was the one doing all the work. That was like saying Katsuki didn't fire an explosion at Izuku, his gauntlets did.
His personality may have changed, but behind those guys was Izuku controlling them. He knows what he saw.
Izuku didn't answer. They lapsed in silence for a while before Recovery Girl made her way in.
"You two are very reckless and stupid fools," Recovery Girl stated. Izuku flinched, while Katsuki remained still.
"You both have extensive damage all over your body, with more bruising in Midoriya's case and more burns in Bakugo's. That mark on your stomach would scar if you hadn't come in here. If you keep those bandages on, you both should heal fine,"
"Thank you for healing us Recovery Girl," Izuku thanked. "If you could fix us further, we should be able to return to class,"
"Oh no. I won't be healing you with my quirk. If you two want to heal, you must wait like normal people," Recovery Girl said.
Both boys eyes widened in shock. "What? Why"
Recovery Girl turned her back to them. "If I healed you, it would ruin the lesson here,"
"What lesson is that?" Katsuki gritted his teeth.
"If you are going to act like children, you will be treated like children," She slammed the door behind her on her way out.
An awkward silence was held between the two, before Izuku sighed and hopped out of bed. He landed on his feet with a wince of pain, his knee's buckling slightly beneath him. Katsuki hung his legs off the side, but didn't risk walking with his injuries.
"What the hell do you think you're doing Deku?" Katsuki asked in confusion.
Izuku smiled through the pain. "Well she said we had to heal ourselves so…,"
Izuku activated All for All and a flash later, the healer of All for All, Iyasu, stood in his place. Iyasu grunted at the sudden influx of pain from Izuku's injuries, before a glow surrounded his form. He straightened up after a few seconds, but looked more tired than before. He pulled the bandages off his body, revealing unblemished skin underneath.
Katsuki studied him with a critical gaze. "You healed yourself using your own energy, just like Recovery Girl,"
Iyasu nodded before raising a hand to Katsuki. He tilted his head, as if asking for permission. Katsuki understood the silent hero, before nodding at his request.
"Heal me, but let the mark on my stomach scar," Iyasu paused at the request, but didn't question it. A glow surrounded Katsuki's wounds, causing them to fade. Katsuki ripped his bandages off, as well to see the burns had disappeared. The mark on his stomach faded from its angry red color, to the bright white of a scar.
Katsuki grunted a thanks, before falling back onto his bed with a breath of exhaustion. Iyasu transformed back into Izuku before he did the same.
"Why did you want Iyasu to leave a scar?" Izuku asked.
Katsuki's eyes peered up at the ceiling. "You won't get it,"
"Try me,"
Katsuki squeezed his eyes shut and gritted his teeth, before explaining.
"This was the first time someone was able to beat me and it was you of all people," Katsuki's calm tone surprised Izuku. Normally a loss at someone else's hands would involve more anger.
Katsuki placed a hand over his stomach. "This scar is a reminder. I'm not gonna let it happen again. Next time, I'm gonna kill you,"
Izuku shivered at the last line, but understood the reasoning behind it.
"Next time, I won't need to hide behind Kazan or any of them. I'll take you down myself,"
Katsuki rolled his eyes at the declaration. Deku may have gotten stronger, but he was still as dumb as he was back in middle school.
Izuku rolled to his feet. "Come on, Recovery Girl doesn't like us loitering if were all healed up,"
The two cracked open the door before walking down the hall and back to class. That is, they would have if Izuku hadn't run into someone. He felt his head collide with a well-muscled chest before a hand steadied him and a familiar voice spoke out.
"Woah, better watch where you're going there. You might get hurt!" the voice's positive tone advised.
Izuku rubbed his forehead and looked up to respond, only to freeze in his tracks. Before him stood Mirio, flanked by Nejire and Tamaki. Mirio expression shifted from one of cheer to one of shock, with the two behind him mirroring his look. It was then that Izuku realized he had raised his All for All arm to rub his forehead and he the All for All symbol, displayed prominently on his chest.
"Buttefly-kun?"
Shit.
And thus another all nighter closes with me finishing this chapter. At the time of writing this it is 4:32 AM. I actually had a majority of this written from a previous all nighter I had done after posting the 4th chapter of Dead Hero. I just added the ending here and went over to make sure it read well.
Side note before we begin. There is a Poll on my Profile, which wants you guys to pick which story I should write alongside my two current ones. The Story summaries are on my profile as well. Vote well!
SO
Second fight of the series and it's the big one between Katsuki and Izuku. I hope I did it justice. You all probably have a question on your mind though.
Why did Izuku get his ass kicked as himself? Here's the thing. Izuku's studied Katsuki all his life, just like canon. It's why he Judo flipped him like in the Anime/Manga. But the thing is, Izuku trained a lot differently than in canon. He focused more on transformations and their quirks, than his own physical training. Sure he trained with Aizawa in hand to hand, but it's nothing against a juggernaut like Katsuki.
The only thing that really concerns me about this chapter is the in between scenes with the Class. More specifically with Tsuyu, Denki, and Kyoka. I just hope they read well and are in character. I don't think Tsuyu would commentate much on his performance and instead focus more on watching it than talking about it. If she were to "speak her mind" she would tell Izuku directly.
Lastly we have the two Rivals talk it out. THEY AREN'T FRIENDS. Not even frenemies. Katsuki still sees Izuku as someone who looks down at him and Izuku thinks of him as an obstacle to overcome. Both had their pride injured this chapter (Katsuki lost and Izuku needed help to win), so the rivalry aint over yet.
Izuku explained All for All (not in detail mind you), mostly due to respect he has for Katsuki as a hero. It's not too big a secret at this point (unlike One for All and All Might in the anime), so a vague explanation is fine. He wanted to make sure Katsuki know he didn't lose to Izuku. He lost to Kazan and Gin.
Which Katsuki think's is bullshit anyways. I LOVE that Katsuki think's Izuku's full of shit. Losing to the transformation is the same as losing to Izuku himself in his mind. Izuku's gonna have to overcome some major hurdles here to finally use All for All at its fullest.
NEXT TIME ON ULTIMATE DEKU
We'll get to see more of the class, Izuku confronts some old/new friends, and possibly something else I haven't thought of.
ALSO - If any of you know how I can post a link on my profile to my devient art, pls tell me. I can't get it to post T-T
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Have a good day! PLUS ULTRA!