Blushie Girl was sitting in the Class 1-A waiting room, having a mini-panic attack, when Legs-kun walked into the room. Before he'd even entered all the way, Blushie said, "Congrats Glasses Boi! You won!"

"Was that a win?" he lamented. "It was more like a—Blushie, my emotion recognition software says that you're having a nervous breakdown."

Blushie's body was shaking. Every muscle in her face was tensed. "Really?" she asked. Legs-kun sat beside her and adjusted his glasses. "Feel free to discuss your emotions with me. I am your deputy class representative after all."

She chuckled. "And you're trying your best. You really are." She laid her head down the table. "I can't believe I have to fight Explodey Boi. He's going to kill me."

"No he won't. That's against the rules."

"…"

Luckily, someone that understood hyperbole walked into the room just then. It was Green Bean. "Blushy-chan," he called out, "Spikey Red and Copy Red beat the shit out of each other, so you're up next."

She took a deep breath. "Okay. Yup. I'm next. I'm actually gonna fight that crazy bastard. Oh no. Oh no…" Yet she stood up, and started walking toward the door.

Green Boi saw her nervousness, and he remembered that Martial Arts Kid had helped him with his match, so he offered, "Do you want me to tell you how to beat Explochan?" He held out his notebook to her.

Blushy stopped walking. She chuckled. She turned around and looked at Green Boi sideways. She looked really insulted. "Wow."

"W-what?"

"Wow. Wow, wow, wow, Green Boi."

"Wh-what? I-I-I'm just trying to help."

"You can help yourself by buying a new notebook. You must be poorer than me if you can't afford anything other than that dusty ass burnt piece of shit scrap paper."

"Oh no I'm being flamed by Blushie," Green Boi whimpered.

Glasses Boi interjected, "According to my sensors, Blushie-chan is really, really angry."

And Blushie shouted, "Of course I'm angry!" She looked Green Boi right in the eyes and said, "So you think that I'm gonna go out there and get my ass whooped, huh?"

"I-I didn't mean it like that."

"So you think that I can't handle this battle by myself, huh?"

"I-I-I-I—"

"You think that I don't even deserve to be in this school, huh?"

"No! The only student that shouldn't be here is Grape Baby!"

"But he still passed the fucking exam! I don't know how, but he earned a slot in this school! I fucked up!" she pointed to herself. "I fucked up and I leaned on you to fix my mistakes! I just keep leaning on you, and sticking to you, and clinging to you, and relying on you! I want to be like you, Green Boi!" She stomped her feet. She squeezed her eyes shut. "Look, I'm even about to start crying like you do! Fuck!" She wiped her face. "If I can't handle myself against Angry Explodey Boi, then what the hell am I trying to be a hero for? You know?" She sniffled. "Don't do this to me. I know you're trying to help, but please don't help me!"

Green Boi lowered his head. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make it seem like that. I just wanted to help you since you're my friend and all…"

"But Explodey Boi-kun is your friend too, right?"

"Y-yeah."

"So why don't you help him?"

"…um…"

"Or do you have that much faith in him?" She wiped her face. "I guess you just wanted to give me a fighting chance, huh?"

Green Boi moved his mouth, but words didn't come out. All he could do was squeak sounds.

So now Blushy felt bad for upsetting him. "Haha!" she forced herself to laugh. "Just kidding!" She placed her hands behind her back and smiled. "I'm gonna go kick Explodey Boi-kun's butt!" She pumped her fist in the air. "After the battle, I'll be the one to tell him to go eat ass!" She hurried away.

Green Boi stared at the door that she had left open in her rush to get out.

…

"Blushy Floaty Girl?" Explochan muttered as he walked toward the Tofu Stage. "The name sounds familiar, so it must be someone from my class." He racked his brain to put a face to the name. But he gave up once he stepped on the stage. I'll see her soon enough. And, of course, within the next minute, he saw her. Oh it's Green Boi's little girlfriend. Hmph.

Blushie stood on the stage and trembled as Mic Man called out their names. "It's the boy who shocked us all this morning when he gave the opening speech! Should a 15-year-old boy really be saying such vulgar things? It's Angry Explodey Boi! Just look at how angry he looks! Why is he so pissed off? He's fighting against someone he probably shouldn't be fighting against! The cutest, sweetest, most adorkable girl in Class 1-A! Blushie Floaty Girl! I'm rooting for you! But, if things get too rough for you, just say 'I give up' and Tofu Block Man will come to your rescue!"

Tofu Block Man nodded in agreement. "Actually, I'm thinking we should go ahead and call the match now. We all know she's not going to beat him."

Mic Man looked to Ninja Eyes. "What's your opinion, Ninja Turtle?"

"Stop with these nicknames," groaned Ninja-sensei. "But, I do agree that there's no point carrying out this match when she's obviously going to lose. I say spare her the broken bones."

To Sadist Lady, Mic Man asked, "And what are the rules about that?"

She shrugged. "It's sexy when people know their own limits. I'll allow it."

But Blushy didn't like the idea of giving up before she even tried. "What?! No way! I made it to the tournament and so I'll fight!"

"Are you sure?" Sadist Lady asked, in such a condescending way. It made Blushie feel like an 8-year-old who was throwing a tantrum.

"I'm pretty fucking sure," she insisted.

Even Explochan spoke up. "I think you should quit now, Pink Cheeks. I don't care if you are a girl. I'll kill you. No mercy."

"Why are you such an asshole?" Blushy replied. "I'm not gonna quit! I can fight you!"

"Alright." Explochan sparked some small blasts in his hand. "Don't say I didn't warn ya." And he charged toward Blushy.

Mic Man shouted, "I didn't even say Battle Start!"

But Explochan ignored him and blasted the hell out of Blushy.

Up in the stands, Green Bean and Glasses Boi watched as Explochan made the first strike. The stage went up in smoke. As the air cleared, the two saw Blushy charge at Explochan. He blasted the hell out of her again. And she kept charging at him. And he kept blasting.

"He is actually going to beat the hell out of her," Green Bean said, concerned.

"Good thing Nurse Kisses is here to heal everyone after their battles," Glasses Boi replied. "Though I wonder why he seems to be holding back. Why doesn't just use a huge blast to knock her out of the ring?"

"Because he doesn't want to end up in a situation like Zap Kid did. If he uses all is energy in one attack and wears himself down, it might give Blushy a chance to defeat him. And if he loses to Blushie, then he's going to flip his shit. Like, seriously flip his shit. And then the power tiers will be all out of whack. Yeah, it'll be bad."

"I see. So he's being cautious. He's pacing himself."

Green Boi nodded. "Yeah. And the fact that he's being cautious means that he's taking her seriously as a serious opponent. He doesn't underestimate anyone who is serious enough to challenge him. He's really focusing because he respects her." With a sigh, he added, "Which is what I should have done. I should have said, 'Good luck Blushie! I'm rooting for you!'" He clenched his notebook. "Instead I said, 'Oh let me help you since you're probably going to lose.'"

"You didn't say that. I was in the room right beside you, and I didn't hear you say that."

"No, I didn't say exactly that, but it's what I implied." BAM! Another vicious explosion. "Shit," Green Boi muttered. "Come on Blushie, you can do this…"

Their fellow classmates sitting beside them were wincing. Earphone Girl said, "I can't watch this anymore. He's seriously whooping her ass." The rest of them agreed. Yet they kept watching. Everyone kept watching. All around them, in the stands of the stadium, the crowds of onlookers were feeling bad about watching this crazy boy explode all over this innocent, frail little moe-chan. "This is horrible," one on-looker said.

"They should stop the match!" cried out another.

"My goodness, is he going to kill her?"

"I didn't pay good money to see a douchebag beat up a little girl! I wanted to watch flashy battles between teenage boys!"

"Yeah! This type of violence is only okay if it's two boys! Like those two super hard boys who just beat each other senseless a couple minutes ago!"

"Why do they even let girls in this school?"

And they started booing. "BOOO! BOOO!" the crowds yelled at Explochan. But he didn't care. Why the fuck should he care what they thought? Those bastards up in the stands were nobodies. Extras. They meant nothing to him. All that he cared about was winning this match so he could advance to the next round. If they didn't want to watch him win this match, then they could close their fucking eyes. Besides, isn't this what heroes do? Don't heroes beat up their enemies? Did they boo All American that day when he killed that Ooze Dude? Would they have booed when Wild West Shoot 'Em Up shot Itchy Hand Guy in both of his arms and legs?

No.

So why were they booing Explochan?

Because fuck them, that's why.

He couldn't afford to be distracted by their noise. He had to focus on Blushy, because for all he knew, she had some sort of massive plan up her sleeve. After all, she was Green Boi's girlfriend or whatever, and he probably told her how to beat him with her quirk.

Explochan exploded her again. She rolled and skid on the rubble of the stage. But instead of giving up, she stood up, and charged at him again. He exploded her again. Why won't she give up? He wondered. What's her plan? What's she doing? She's not an idiot. She's doing something. But what is it?

"BOOOOO!" the crowds screamed.

He couldn't think with all those dorks booing him. He wanted to yell at them to shut up.

But he didn't have to because, "Hey, assholes," Ninja Eyes shouted, "do you think this Sports Festival is merely for your entertainment? Do you think that this is some sort of reality TV show? Well it isn't. This is a real battle to test our students' abilities. We give you the privilege of watching our students. So sit down, show a little respect, and behave yourselves. If you don't like it, go fuck off somewhere else."

Yeah fuck them. Explochan thought. Blushy charged at him again, and he exploded her. What is her plan? He wondered.

That's when he saw her touch her fingertips together. He looked up. "Release!" she shouted.

…

Greenest Beanest winced when Explochan blasted Blushy once again. His explosions were so powerful that he was tearing apart the stage. "She's really taking a beating," Greenie muttered. "What's her plan? Or does she not have one? No I'm sure she has a plan. That look in her eyes is one of determination and focus. I haven't seen that look in her face since the entrance exam."

That's when it hit him.

That's when Green Boi realized her plan.

"She wouldn't," he said as he refused to look upward. "She wouldn't actually do that. She's not crazy. She's not."

But then why was he so afraid to look upward? If he believed Blushy wasn't crazy, he'd look up, and he'd see a perfectly blue sky sprinkled with yummy marshmallow clouds. But if she was crazy, then he'd see chunks of the tofu tournament stage floating above, waiting to be released from Blushy's quirk.

Apparently Blushy was crazy, because that's what Green Boi saw. "No! No! Blushy what the fuck!" Green Boi shouted as he stood up. His fellow classmates looked at him with confused faces. "No! That's too dangerous!" The repressed memories of watching Blushy rain down destruction during the entrance exams resurfaced right before his eyes. He remembered seeing the gruesome murder of an innocent bystander, who was crushed to death by falling robot debris. "BLUSHY! NO!" screamed Green Boi as he pointed to the floating pieces of stage. "YOU'RE GONNA KILL HIM! YOU'RE GONNA KILL HIM!"

That's when the rest of Class 1-A looked up. They gasped. But no one else could hear Green Boi's screams over the roar of the crowd's "boos!" in the stadium. And of course, everyone was so fixated on Explochan's flashy quirk and excessive violence against what seemed like a helpless girl, that they didn't bother looking up to see the chunks of tofu stage floating above the stadium. Moreover, all of Explochan's explosions caused a lot of tofu dust and debris clouds, which were blurring visibility, so no one noticed that the sunlight was also being blocked by the stage chunks floating above them.

When those things fell, the impact would surely kill Explochan. And there'd probably be other innocent bystanders hurt by the debris. "EXPLOCHAN!" Green Boi shouted at the top of his lungs. "LOOK UP! LOOK UP! EXPLOCHAN LOOK UP!"

Green Boi knew that neither of them could hear him. Green Boi knew that by the time he ran down to the stage and interrupted the fight, it might be too late. Besides, those projectiles had to come down eventually. Blushy couldn't float them forever. Maybe he could use a smash punch to create enough wind pressure to crumble the stage chunks into little pebbles? But even little pebbles falling from that high could cause serious damage to people's heads.

What to do? What to do? What could Green Boi do?

Fortunately, Greenie didn't have to do anything. Explochan looked up. His eyes widened as he saw that Blushy was about to drop huge tofu rocks on him. He raised his hands in the air just as Blushy touched the tips of her fingers together and said, "Release!"

Explochan had never made an explosion so big with his bare hands before. But in this life-or-death moment, his body found super super-human strength, and created a blast so big that it disintegrated each piece of falling stage into dust. The heat and wind generated from the blast was so powerful that it knocked Explochan back, all the way to the edge of the stage. If not for his intense training to strengthen his arms during the weeks before the Sports Festival, the recoil from the blast would have broken both of them.

Blushy was also thrown back by the blast. She found herself rolling off on the stage, into the grass. The shock of the heat and the sudden lack of oxygen caused by the explosion caused her to black out for a couple of seconds. When she came to, she could barely move, because everything hurt.

She could faintly hear someone yelling at her. "You psycho bitch! Were you trying to kill me?" It was probably Explochan. But she couldn't tell because she passed out again.