Okay, first, yes this took a long time, more on that later, second, I really did try to use the correct video terms and knowledgy stuff, but I'm not really a gamer, so I'm sorry if any gamers out there are annoyed with my icorrent terms.
Third, HankFlamion18 suggested a chapter about jealousy, and I was planning on doing more of that, but somehow strayed a little away from it. ….Sorry….
But hey! The chapter is here and I'm not dead!
Sorry again for that really stupid chapter last time, but I really needed something to let you guys know what was going on. Hopefully, I made it up by writing this 12-page chapter.
And with that, on with the chapter. Read and (hopefully) enjoy!
(my confidence in this is SO high, can you tell?-_-)
"Ugh!" Uraraka groaned as she lost for the fourth time in a row. This game was so frustrating!
"Hey, is okay," the sturdy hero said from beside her. "It's only your first time playing." She felt a rough pat on her shoulder as she glared daggers and the remote that was being strangled in her small hands. "Everyone has to start somewhere."
Somehow, that answer didn't satisfy the young brunette. She opened her mouth to retort, only for Kirishima to interrupt, greeting someone who'd just walked in.
"Hey man!" He waved behind him, signaling for the newcomer to come over. "What's up?" Uraraka's shoulders tensed. 'Oh gosh, don't let it be Bakugou! He'll ridicule me for being an awful fighter!' she prayed silently. SHe slowly looked behind her as her stomach twisted itself into a knot. She expected to see crimson eyes glaring daggers into her soul. Instead of meeting red, however, her own face took on the scarlet hue as she met eyes with Midoria.
She placed a hand over her lips to cover up her yelp, then decided to rub her mouth and yawn. Yeah, that's what she was doing, yawning, totally purposeful. "Ah, sup," she fake-yawned, although, she wasn't entirely sure that her answer was audible to either of the boys seeing as it just sounded like a moaning whale.
The green haired boy shrugged from beside them. "Nothing much," he answered casually. He was wearing his running outfit and looked like he just got back from a workout based on his panting and bangs sticking to his forehead.
She saw his eyes light up as he saw the screen. "Hey! Are you guys going to enter the Smash Tournament too?" he turned to Uraraka expectantly. She with the end of a strand of hair and looked away, not able to reach his eyes. Having a crush was so hard sometimes!
"Yeah," she nodded, not reaching his eyes, instead opting to look at her controlor. "I decided to give it a try at least." She tore her gaze from the ever so fascinating remote to gesture to Kirishima on her right. "Kirishima and I have been training for a while." She smiled and nudged her battle partner's shoulder. "He's been super nice and been teaching me!"
He grinned in return, his spiked teeth showing through. "Hey man, of course! Anything for a friend."
Unbeknownst to the two, Midoria's gaze narrowed on Kirishima. He had nothing against the redhead, but for some reason he felt his chest grow hot as he watched the two share a laugh. His fists clenched. He wasn't entirely sure what was wrong with him, but he just knew that he didn't like what he was witnessing.
"Well, uh," he started, not really sure as to an acceptable excuse to leave, but just knew that he had to get out of there. "Gotta, go do a…" he drifted off as Uraraka turned back to him. Their eyes met for a split second before she looked away. Was she avoiding him? Did he do something? He let out a quiet sigh. "I have to go finish some homework." He gave a fake smile to Kirishima as he walked off.
oOo
Uraraka strode confidently out of the evlivator, ready to take on this tournament. Well, r she would have at least, but there was no room for her to stroll. The tournament took up an entire floor of one of the various building around the campus of UA, and it was filled with all the game lovers from the school, first through third years. She tried to peek over the many heads in front of her from her spot near the elevator.
"Man, it's crowded in here!" Kirishima said from behind her who was grinning like a madman at the chaos. He was clearly in his element. Then again, what should she expect from the guy who can handle McSplodyPants.
Standing on her tiptoes, Uraraka spotted a table at the end of the hall with three teens manning computers doing what she assumed was signing people in. She sighed. She had heard from Kirishima many times that there were going to be lots of people here, but she didn't actually believe him till now. Just the hallways were packed with people, and she hadn't even seen the rooms yet.
"Wow, I knew you said there were going to be a lot of people here, but this is crazy!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms up for emphasis. The took a few steps forward, moving up in line. Kirishima shook his head in disbelief. The two had decided to come together seeing as for the last two weeks they had been working together. It only seemed fitting that they would finish it together as well.
After about a few minutes of waiting, they reached the front of the line. She stepped forward and signed herself in. "You'll be in room number 1008 miss," the guy in front of her instructed, pointing to said room. She smiled and thanked him. Standing to the side, she watched as her partner got signed in as well. "And you sir, will be in room 1009."
She saw his face fall. "Hey, um, is there any way me and my friend-" he jerked a thumb towards her- "could be in the same room?"
The guy sighed and rubbed his temple. "Look, a lot of people today have wanted to be in the same room as friends, but there's a set amount of TVs, we already set people up in rooms, and the system is complicated." He gave an apologetic, yet slightly tired look. "Sorry buddy, there's nothing I can do."
Uraraka opened her mouth to protest, but before she could get anything out, Kirishima held out his hand to stop her. "Alright, thanks anyway." With a toothy grin and a wave, he started on his way to his own room. "I'll see ya later Uraraka! Hope to see you further in the tournament."
Uraraka gave a small wave as she watched her friend walk off. "Catch you later!" she called out. Well, that was Kirishima for you: always looking out for others.
She let her hand fall to her side as her grip on her bag tightened. Turning towards her destination, she searched for her room number. A few second of scanning revealed that the room was only a few feet away from where she was standing. When she walked in, she noted that the room was about the size of her homeroom class, but there were TVs lining the walls, all with stools in front of them. All of the TVs were occupied, most with four or five people watching from behind them. At the front of the room, there was a woman who was furiously working on something on her tablet. She scanned the room, trying to find a familiar face. She recognized a few faces from class 1B, and some others she'd seen around the halls, but other than that, she didn't see anyone she knew.
She scooted her way around a few people, trying to make her way over to one of the 1B students she recognized, but as she neared the student, her foot caught on someone else's.
"Meep!" She felt herself falling forward, her hands instinctively slamming together in order to activate her quirk, but before her finger tips could even touch, someone grabbed her hand.
"Are you okay?!" Someone behind her, presumably the person who had saved her, asked, concern lacing their voice as they helped her back up to stable footing.
She turned to face her rescuer, opening her mouth to say something along the lines of, 'Yeah, I'm fine, thanks for the save, bye,' but she found her mouth go dry as she began to gape like fish instead when she met green eyes.
"Uh," she began rather intelligently, "Ha, um, hi Deku!" She felt her hand start to sweat and she prayed that he couldn't hear her rapid heart beat right then. "Your competing in this room too?" She internally fist-pumped for getting out a full sentence without stuttering. Placing her hands behind her back she began to rock on her feet nervously.
He smiled and nodded. "Yeah! I just signed in and saw you in here," he said. "I haven't seen any of our other classmates though, have you?" he said with a quick glance around the room.
She shook her head. "No, Kirishima and i were planning on going in together, but they split us up at the front."
Something flashed across his eyes, but before she could even attempt to read into it, it disappeared. "Yeah, Hatsume and I had the same thing happened to us. They told us that it was a complicated system or something like that." He shrugged.
She nodded in understanding, remembering the same speech the counter had told her.
Before the two could continue their idle chit chat, the woman on the tablet spoke up for everyone to hear. "Alright gamers! We're starting off the tournament now! I'll call your name and front to the station you'll be battling in. When you start you battle, you'll play best out of three." She pointed behind her to one of the larger TVs in the room. It showed a ladder with all their names and who they'd be facing off against, like they had had in the sports festival. "The winner will tap their name and move up on the rankings."
Uraraka scanned the brackets, looking for her name. When she found it she saw that she was facing off against someone she didn't know, something she expected, but was still disappointed about. "Kana Shinsueki and Kinoko Komori, you be at that console," the woman said pointing to the TV in right corner of the room. "Izuku Midoria and Tuikia Shina, you're on the one in the back."
Uraraka saw the way his expression shown with confidence. "Well," he said looking down at her. "I guess that's me." He held out his hand, which she shook (hoping for all that was holy for it not to be too sweaty). "Good luck Uraraka. I hope to see you later on in the next rounds." She blushed as she shook his crooked hand. She had expected his hands to be coulused from all the training he did, but to her surprise, they were much softer than she anticipated. She noticed how small hers were compared to his...
"You too," she said as loud as her wobbling voice would let her. With a final wave, he walked off to his match. Even though it was just a silly gaming competition, he was still determined to win, and never lost focus. She didn't know how he did it, but she admired it. Her thoughts were interrupted however when she heard her name called.
"...and Ochako Uraraka, over there." She looked up just in time to see where she was pointing to, and began her way over.
...
When she got to her TV, she took a seat at one of the stools and grabbed the provided remote in front of her. Her opponent was already seated and was choosing her character, her wine-colored eyes smiling along with her mouth as she flitted through a couple of players. Sitting down herself, Uraraka selected Mew 2 as her player, and noted that her opponent had opted as Zero Suit Samus.
"You ready?" the blond asked, a wide smile stretching her cheeks.
Uraraka smiled in return. "Whenever you are."
The other girl had started browsing the battlefields when she spoke up. "I'm Akarui Hansha, by the way," she introduced, smiling. "Your name was... Uraraka, right?"
She nodded. "Yep! That's me!" Taking a look at the selection of stages, Uraraka decided that it might be nice to let Akarui pick. "Do you have a stage preference?"
The blond shrugged. "Anything's fine really. Wanna just stay simple though?" she asked hovering the cursor over the stage titles Final Destination, a flat stage with no nothing to get in the way of a brawl.
"Sure!" A devious smile flitted across Uraraka's lips. "Little did she know that this was the stage that she'd been practicing everyday on with Kirishima. She hit go.
When the fight began, Uraraka was overly aware of all the people around watching her battle. Not everyone could go at the same time (there weren't that many TVs) so they would spectate the current games. But, as the match went on, she felt her attention shift from the staring eyes and fully onto the game. Too late however. Her opponent was better than she had originally anticipated, attacking with combes and fighting back without hesitation.
"Yes!" Akarui cheered as she blew the purple pokemon off the edge of the screen.
Uraraka's heart fell. She'd already lost the first round? But she had worked so hard! How could she already be knocked out? She looked down at her hands that clutched the remote, her brow furrowing in frustration. If she wanted to stay in this, then she was going to have to ignore those around her, and no longer underestimate others. Assuming she got past this first round…. No! That wasn't the way to think. If Deku was in this position, then he would continue with a smile! She should do the same.
Her thoughts were cut off. "Ready for the next round?" Uraraka's head snapped up and faced Akarui with a determined smile.
"Ready," she said.
The next round began. This time, both girls were much more into the game, whether because they both knew the fighting style of the other, or because they had learned to ignore the cheers and comments of the crowd behind them. Either way, neither were holding back. The first one to go down a life was Akarui after Uraraka had used a smash attack on her. After that, her confidence only grew, and she managed to knock out all her three of her lives after only a few minutes.
Uraraka beamed. "You are really good player, Akarui!" she complimented.
"Thanks, you too!" She turned to the brunette with a wide smile, her red eyes shining. "I'm surprised I beat you the first round even."
"Oh, well," she started, flattery dusting her cheeks with pink. "I guess all the newness and crowds threw me off a little, but honestly, i think you're just a really good player!" she complimented, not wanting Akarui to sell herself short. It was true that she'd been distracted, but even this round when she knew how to deal with her setting more, she was still difficult to beat. "Are you ready for the final match?" she asked waving her remote.
Her response was a confidant grin and a nod. And with that, the final round began.
oOo
Deku smiled as he pressed his name on the screen, making it move up the rank while his opponent's faded to grey. To be honest, his fight had been relatively easy. It was evident that the guy he'd gone up with was only here for fun and not to win. Not to say that the guy was a bad player, but he clearly wasn't giving it his all. He hoped that next round he's fight against someone harder. It wasn't like he wanted to prove anything, but in his opinion, an even match was funner (IT IS A WORD I WILL DEFEND FUNNER TO MY DEATH) than someone who was only half trying.
He looked up at the rest of the chart. There was only one pair left fighting in round one. Until they were done, the rest of the players couldn't continue. He scanned the names, trying to find Uraraka's. He put his finger to his chin, his green eyes growing apprehensive for his bubbly friend. He was almost to the top of the chart before a sigh escaped his lips. Two pairs before the top was Uraraka's name highlighted and moved up to round two.
oOo
After her first match, Uraraka had thanked Akarui for the fight and traded number's with the young heroin. They had chatted for a few minutes after the game had ended and had gotten along well. A few minutes later and the next round started. Uraraka had faced off against a first year student whom she beat easily. It was becoming clear that Kirishima might have been a bit off in his assessment. Most of the people here were just here for fun and the social event. After that, for the next two rounds Uraraka beat her opponents. There was one round she was sure she'd lose, but she'd pulled it back in the end.
Now, that their room was onto round five, the winners were moved into a different room to continue battling others.
As she was walking over to the other room, she spotted a familiar green tuft of hair the poked up from the crowd. 'Hey, it looks like Deku got this far too!' She smiled to herself as she jogged to catch up with him. She hadn't been able to catch him since the beginning because their games kept lapping over.
"Glad to see you made it this far!" she cried as she came into his field of vision. He visibly jumped at her entrance and instinctively covered his mouth with a hand.
She immediately felt bad. "Oh gosh! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to scare out like that!" She waved her arms around frantically trying to apologize for what she'd done.
She didn't know how much longer she would have been blubbering if it weren't for him stopping her. "No! Really it's fine!' he insisted, closing his hand around one of her flying ones in an attempt to calm her down. "I just scare easily is all." The look he gave her was full of such sincerity, making her already pink face red. Her hand felt hot in his grip. God, she hoped he wasn't disgusted by how sweaty it was right now.
"A-anyways," she stuttered, gently pulling her hand out of his as she started walking into the crowded room, him walking by her side. It was basically the same as the last room they were in, only this one had a different color scheme. "I wanted to congratulate you! I knew you and-" she had to force the name out of her throat "-Hatsume were training, but I honestly thought you were just hanging out. "
"Well," he shrugged. "Some days we kinda were, but honestly the only reason I got this far so fast was because the people I went up against weren't really here for sport." He gave a sheepish chuckle, rubbing the back of him neck.
"Yeah, same here really," she agreed, fingering a strand of her hair. "I fought this one girl at the beginning and she was pretty hard, but thankfully my training paid off."
"You're really taking this thing seriously, aren't you?"
She nodded. "Well, of course! It may just be a silly competition, but if there's one thing you taught me, is that you have to give your all no matter what you do!" She pumped her fist in the air, a wide grin covering her face.
Midoria felt his heart thump painfully in his chest as he heard Uraraka. She was taking this small video game competition so seriously, despite it not being that big a deal. It was admirable. He had no idea that he'd had that big an impact on her...
"Alright everyone!" All heads in the room turned to the center of the room where they saw a man holding an identical tablet to the one the woman had in the other room. "Her are the callings for the next round!" As the man ran off the first few names, Uraraka looked around the room, trying to see in any of her friends were in here. As it turned out, Jiro and Kaminari were in here too! She was about to tell her green haired companion, but before she had a chance, she heard her name.
"Ochako Uraraka and Izuku Midoria will be over there."
Her heart forze.
She and… Deku…?
An awkward silence ensued. It felt like hours before one of them started walking towards their assigned counsel (they didn't even know who started walking first). Neither said a word until they were both seated with their controllers in hand.
Uraraka opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out, not knowing quite what to say. Lucky, before she could make a fool of herself, Deku spoke up. "Well, I know this isn't really ideal," he chuckled awkwardly. "But even though we're fighting each other, if I had to lose to someone, I'd want it to be to you."
Her heart swelled at the compliment. "Thanks, Deku. The same goes for you." She gave him a smile before turning her attention to the screen. It may not have been the last round, but this was a match that most certainly would be difficult, for two reasons.
The first being that Uraraka had seen Deku fighting Hatsume before and he was no noob. The two were at each other's throats when they fought, and she had no idea how well her fighting style would fair against his. She looked to his chosen character. It was Luigi, and, somehow, she wasn't surprised he'd go with a classic.
The second reason was because she was a love sick fool who was sitting right next to her crush. Things may not go the best for her at this very moment in time. She's managed to learn how to keep her attention away from the bystanders and on the screen, but this? He was barely a foot away! She was just thankful that they weren't on a couch and were forced to sit closer than that.
She took a deep breath trying to calm her thoughts. 'Pretend it isn't Deku, pretend it's Hatsume or something.'
"Final destination?" she heard Deku ask from her right.
She grinned. "You know it!"
...
The first round was brutal already. Deku wasn't just an amazing fighter in real life, he was amazing in Smash, too. He was relentless, attacking without giving her time to think, only act. She was basically fighting with muscle memory. If she hadn't worked so hard, she'd have been demolished right off the bat. But, she had trained, and she had worked. She had worked too hard to give up now, and she would be damned if she didn't give this her all.
Unfortunately for her, like her first match, she didn't have time to analyze her opponents fighting technique before he beat her, leaving her as the loser of round one.
"Wow, Uraraka, you're really good at this!" She turned to him, forcing herself not to scowl. She was in no way mad at him, not not at all. But, she was frustrated with herself. If she was going to continue in this competition, then she needed to figure out how people fought faster before they blew her away.
"Oh, thanks," she said, forcing herself to smile back at him. "You're really good too! I actually didn't expect you to be so good at this, seeing at you spend all your time studying and training."
He blushed. "Well, I played quite a bit before I came to UA, and when I heard the tournament was coming up, I decided to brush up."
She nodded knowingly. "Makes sense." She gestured to the screen. "Ready to go again?"He nodded and hit the start button.
The second match started much like the first, both going on the offence, however, this time, she was more prepared. She came at him with strategy instead of just brute force, thinking more and analyzing his fighting patterns.
She knocked him down to two lives.
Then another. He was at one life while she was sitting pretty at three. Her HP though was past 350, leaving her vulnerable when he was fresh at 0.
He got her down to two.
Uraraka's gaze was so fixed on the screen that she lost sight of everything around her, something she would have previously thought to be a good thing, but while she was so concentrated on their battle, she didn't notice how both of them had leaned in closer to the TV until their arms were touching.
She didn't notice it at first, being too focused on the match, but as soon as she did, she was out of it. Suddenly she was aware that it wasn't some random person she was fighting, or a girl she for some strange reasons had stomach aches when she was around, it was Deku…
...and there was virtually no space between them.
Her face burned, but she didn't jerk away, not wanting to make a scene, or throw him off too. That wouldn't be fair. So instead, she simply stayed there, and slowly tried to move away.
He took her down another life.
'Ah! When did my HP get so high?!' she internally screamed at herself. Shoot, this was too distracting, she had too pull away, even if it did make him aware of how close they had gotten.
Like she was ripping off a bandage, she quickly sat herself up right in her chair while she was respawning, trying her hardest to ignore the way her face had gone red, or they eyes that were watching them.
'Focus on the match, focus on the match,' she told herself over and over again as they began to brawl once more. Her mind was still wandering, her face was still red, and she was still painfully close to him despite her having moved away. Honestly, a whole continent would still be too close right now. If it weren't for the fact that his HP was so high already, there would have been no way she'd have won that round, but thankfully, luck had pulled through for her.
A massive sigh escaped her lips as Mew 2 hovered on the screen sigling her victory.
'That was too close…'
...
The next round was so far going better than her fumble, but she knew she could still be doing better.
Both players were hovering around 300 HP at this point and at their final lives. She was on thin ice right now. One wrong move could mean she was out of the ring for good. Uraraka had noticed during the second round that Deku tended to use his smash moves quite a bit(go figure), so if she could come from behind maybe with a smash of her own, then she might be able to blow him away before he had time to turn and hit her. It was a plan she'd tried a few times now, but hadn't ever been able to successfully execute it, but maybe this time, she'd get her smash in.
Her fingers flew wildly as she minuvored her way around the screen, her eyes narrowed in concentration, looking for an opening. Finally, she saw it. It was a split second where he turned to charge his smash while she was coming back to the ground after he'd sent her flying. She moved without thinking, rounding herself into the perfect spot to blow him away-
-and then her brain decided that now would be an awesome time to remember their earlier proximity and make her lose focus.
In her split second delay, he'd managed to turn Luigi around and land a hit on her. If it weren't for the fact that her HP wasn't so high, she would have survived his attack, but as it was, she was already past 300, and his attack shot her Mew 2 off the stage.
She'd lost.
It was over.
There were no more lives and she was done.
She smiled.
"Wow Deku," she breathed in amazement. Her hands were shaking from adrenaline as she continued to clutch her remote. "You were an amazing fighter." She held out her hand, trying as hard as she could to keep it from shaking. "Good game."
Midoria looked to the girl beside him. Her eyes were still full of confidence even after she lost. She didn't look frustrated or disappointed like she did after the first round, but instead, she was looking at him with gratefulness and pride. She really had been a difficult opponent, but he wouldn't have it anyother way.
"You too Uraraka," he said taking her hand. "Good game."
oOo
BJFBHIADFBIUSBUOGBUODBUOFSEBJO:BJO:EFBJSBJ:GBJ:GBJSO! ! !# !% !# ! !^&* %&%!&!
*pants heavily and bandages fingers from writing for so long* THIS. CHAPTER. WAS. EVIL.
No, not because it's bad, (i really don't know anymore) but because it took SO FREAKING LONG TO WRITE! UUUUUGHGHGHG!
Just as a sanding rule from now on, i am never doing a two parter again. THEY. SUCK. I only had like half of the story when i posted the last chapter, and then i was like, oh shit i actually don't know what else to write but i can't trash this because i already committed. *internally screaming*
Anyways.
I am sosososososososososososososososooooooooo sorrry this took so long but just so you know, it's not like i have just been procrastinating! I have been slowly chipping away at this thing for WEEKS now. I just really haven't had time. School has been insane, singing competitions have been hard, and art is distracting.
Okay, maybe i did procrastinate sometimes….
But I pulled through in the end! I told you i wasn't dead!
Also, can i just say, holy crap, i've only written five chapters, yet we've passed 60 follows and 50 faves? Um? WhAt? I mean, um, thank you! but are you guys sure you know what you're doing? You sure? These aren't bad, but, they certainly aren't worth this much, right? Siriously, thanks for the love, but, HEH? WHAT? WHY? O-O
…
Your love and support confuses me.
In all seriousness tho, thanks for liking these silly little one-shots! I know that they aren't top notch, but i still (mostly) like writing them, and hearing back from you guys. Make me feel and warm and confused inside!
Oh, and BTW, my B-Day is coming up real soon! It's somewhere between now, and the next three weeks(not gonna say the actually date, sorry). So yay me! Getting this out on the 1st is my gift to you for my birthday.
Also, are you guys expecting/wanting a halloween themed shot? If so, then i can...try to get it out on time and make it good, but again, I'm updating slower now, so, no promises. Again, that's only if you want one. I'm perfectly fine just writing whatever comes to my head. Easier that way. XD
WOW this AN is long, like two pages, and i don't…. think…. I have anything else to say. *narrows eyes at brain*
You aren't forgetting anything important, right?
Brain: IDK man, probably, but what are you gonna do about it?
Fair point.
Well, as always, suggestions are always welcome! I love hearing what you guys come up with! Can't wait to see you all in the next shot!
k bye