Authors note: I have a bit of time off now so I'm getting two chapters done as of now so there won't be that long of a wait. Hope you guys have enjoyed it all so far and huge shout-out to my editor u/ Ron who fixed pretty much all my crappy grammatical errors/ fixed everything that I screwed up. Now without any more delay
Izuku POV
Today's the big day, the tournament starts later tonight at 6:00 PM so I decided it'd be best to get some last-minute training in this morning.
"All right Uraraka, do you think you can set up a dozen more rock targets?" I was practicing a new style to go along with my newfound speed and power.
"Yes, of course deku-kun!" she floated more rocks up in the air as I walked to the center and gathered my focus.
Using 12% is something that I didn't expect would change my style, however, with a bit more power I realized that I'm able to use a move that is now wasn't very effective before, but only to a certain degree.
Back when I was training with Gran Torino I missed my first punch in full cowl and ended up smashing the air to create a gust that was forceful enough to knock down half a dozen cans stacked up.
Now, my speed and power are amplified to when they can do much more, they can create a gust of wind that can trip someone over who's off guard at best, furthermore, while I run around them, I can bombard them with wind scythes or canon shots - which depend on if I punch the air pressure towards them or fling my arm horizontally from my chest outwards like throwing a frisbee. Right now I'm just practicing accuracy with it so I can aim for points that can give me an advantage, like behind someone's knees so I can shift their balance and follow through with a punch or kick.
"Ok. Here goes nothing." I mumbled whilst activating full cowl again and then…
"Release!" she lets them fall.
I started off by crossing my arms while aiming upwards and used the wind gust from that 'X' blast to slow them down a little while I followed through with a punch on my left that blasted 3 of the rocks into the sea.
Then, I jumped straight up and spun around kicking the air, this created a circular motion that the rocks followed as they smashed into both sand and sea alike.
A few moments later and I started falling backwards; I saw the last two stones above me which were falling with me now, so, in a last ditch attempt to achieve victory - I kicked my feet upwards and propelled myself towards the ground, to which I landed in a handstand and spun myself around to launch a wind blast with my feet and send the rocks flying, just before they landed.
"Wow deku, that was awesome!" Ochako congratulated, running from her cover she hid behind whilst I was launching rocks and wind blasts in every 3rd dimension.
"Thanks," I responded, "I really panicked on those last two though and it almost caught me off guard." I said giving her a friendly hug as payment for helping me with my training.
"Yeah it looked like you were breakdancing in midair when you jumped and did that flip spin kick and even more so when you landed and actually did the spin dance" She said choking through her laughter.
"Hey come on, I still managed to hit 12 targets in less than 8 seconds using only wind; I think that is fairly impressive for someone who's quirk is to stockpile massive amounts of power." I retaliated while drinking from my water bottle.
"True, but that quirk also gives you faster reflexes, muscle reinforcement, super speed and ridiculous amounts of strength. You yourself told me about how all might could create tornadoes compared to your wind drafts despite it being the same move."
"yeah b-"
"Or how all might was able to move bakugo out of the way from nomu's path in less than a second and tank the hit by himself."
"ok that's true but I'm only j-"
"only just getting started, I know! I'm just teasing you!" she confessed sticking out her tongue, "I know you didn't exactly get to practice with your quirk since you were 4 like the rest of us. I get it's a big responsibility but try and lighten up a little. You get scary when you push yerself ya'know."
Gods, she's adorable when she lets her accent slip like that.
"Yes Uraraka. I know, but I need to push myself, if I win this tournament, it'll help me set up an agency that can allow for me to be the reason for villains to hide and lower their crime. If there isn't another new symbol of peace soon - then someone else will become the new All For One."
"I get it." She said whilst releasing me from her hold and looking me dead in the eyes, "just promise me you won't push yourself like you did during our camp training" she placed a kiss on top of my forehead, "You really did scare me back then, your arms were destroyed, you looked like you got beaten by thugs and yet you still wanted to keep going further into the fire, even though you knew you couldn't win."
I went quiet as I noticed her eyes beginning to shine - and then fill with tears.
"What I did was to save a friend, and despite my injuries I did save Kouta. I'm sorry what I did scared you, but at the time I was more scared about losing my friend forever." I didn't want to make this a big deal but it was quite obvious that with us settling together now, this time of me not being strong enough was concerning her about my safety.
"Look, imagine if it was you that got taken, or if I was taken. What would you feel if I was taken or how do you think I would feel if you were taken. It's not something simple right now and I get that. You're concerned about me making it to the point where I can make everything ok. This is all for the sake of our future, for everyone's future and that's not something I can make happen…
But I can promise it to you."
"Promise me what?"
"That everything will be ok from here on out as long as we're together everything will be fine. We'll have each others backs, right?"
"Yeah, ok. Well then I think we should get going unless you don't want to eat before your first match. All the other contestants from the other resorts should be arriving here."
"Hey now that I think about it, how are they gonna do the fights if so many people are coming" she said as we were walking back.
"Well it is going to be an entire week of fighting so I think so. If anything we'll find out in a bit right?"
"Yeah, just promise me you'll give it your all too" she said walking closer to me
"I promise" I promised, wrapping my arm around her.
Bakugo POV
"I win again gramps!"
"Yeah yeah kiddo, you won 1 out of our 12 challenges so far today congrats kid." Damn this old fart knows how fire back.
"So what!? out of our 62 cooking battles so far I've won 14!" What am I saying? That's not helping me.
"Haha, you know kid if you ever need a side job besides being a hero or need some work over the summer time, send in an application. I know you want to rise to be the #1 hero but the food world could use someone with your fiery passion." Here he was going with the job offer again
"I already told you, my only concern is to win my way up to being the number 1 hero and that's it." Doesn't he not get the point? This cooking shit is just to pass the time.
"Ok I get it, but what happens when you become the number 1 hero and everyone's too scared to commit crime ever again in a large scale? I guess you can still rescue people from natural disasters and such but you said you wanted to be a battle hero, right? What will happen when there are no more battles"
What the hell is he talking about. A time when there are no more battles to win?
"So you gotta plan on what to do when that happens yet kid?"
Damn it, the old bastard is right. What the fuck am I going to do if I become the best hero? Is that all that my life will be? Just a title that will be given to the next guy after I'm gone?
"I'm not against you living your dream kid, but let me tell you something out of personal experience. If you only rise because you want to be the best, when you reach the top, all you get to see is how lonely it is to not have anyone at your side who's willing to spend time with you because you left them behind chasing your shadow that will forever be out of their reach despite how high they go."
Why?
Why is he making it sound like me going to the top is wrong? I already fought deku, I already told myself my ideals weren't in the wrong. Why is this being questioned again, is this some sign I'm supposed to understand? As if. It's not like deku ever had someone question him being…a…
*Flashback*
"You're useless."
"Maybe in the next life you'll have a quirk you useless maggot."
"I'll be the best, you're nothing more than a stepping stone on my path."
*Back to reality*
"Damn it all! I gotta go." I said and hurriedly grabbed my food container and went back to my room.
"What am I doing?" I yelled at the wall
Deku, you, you fight even when scared; you don't do it to just have a title. You want to be a hero people look up to and feel safe under. Just like All Might, meanwhile now that I look back when I was listening in on him and icyhot, that half and half bastard's dad had the same goal I'm after now. Am I really gonna be a shitty person like him to be #1?
No..no! I refuse, I just need a plan then. Being #1 should be a priority but I need some backups too. Maybe being number 1 in cooking too wouldn't be so bad.
Hey that's it! I'll just keep finding stuff to be the best at. Being a hero and cooking could be just the starting line, it's not like I'm only able to be stuck doing 2 fucking things my whole life. As far as this fighting tournament goes, it's only going to be a small step forward but it doesn't matter because it's going to shoot me that much closer to being the best there is.
Speaking of which, it's almost time for the first matches to begin. Let's see if that nerd got the four eyes to get us to fight each other in the first rounds like he promised, I could use a good stress reliever right now.
Alright-first fight going to start next chapter and I'm going to have the "Announcer/Spectator" be the one narrating from their POV so the dialogue won't be hard to follow. Anyways that's all for now, so once again. Huge thank you to vK 3 1 Ron and with that
~Peace