When she saw how Jomei reacted to the news of who his opponent would be for his quarterfinals match, Akiko became only somewhat worried in response. As the initial randomization's on-screen animation was playing out, she found herself of a mind to think that he'd be matched up against Iida, Ashido, Todoroki, or – goodness forbid – even her as his adversary. She'd have preferred that Jomei's opponent was anyone other than the one he'd got. None of the three aforementioned fighters would've been a problem for Jomei to mentally and physically prepare himself to face so suddenly.

But instead, he'd been matched up against Bakugo. The person that Akiko hadn't even once considered as a possible opponent for Jomei to be facing so early in the final stage. His one-sided rival and the bane of his existence since the school year at U.A. marked the beginning of his journey to becoming a Pro Hero.

Jomei may have assured her several times since his outburst during Bakugo's battle trial that he wasn't going to waste his energy on him, and had proven his commitment to that promise by how he didn't pay much mind to Bakugo on their way to the USJ, but she was still worried. She was worried he'd relapse into that same level of vigorous vitriol and risk everything in a fit of righteous anger against his opponent. After spending so many hours in Jomei's company since the day they met, she knew enough of his once brash, confrontational self to know that the possibility his old habits could make a calamitous comeback when tensions were high was one that should absolutely be taken seriously.

Jomei's immense composure on his way out of the booth was both a reassurance and somewhat disconcerting, in this regard.

He didn't look like he was outwardly angry at the prospect of fighting Bakugo; he looked merely determined. That determination may have been an indication of how much more seriously Jomei would be taking this quarterfinals match, but Akiko hoped his seriousness wouldn't transform into tunnel vision.

Not that the steady air of calm Jomei had about him gave her much to go on. She would need a lot more than an unchanging look on his face to discern more about what her partner might have been thinking about. For once, Akiko truly wished that she really could read his mind.

And it seemed that Denki and Kyoka were feeling even more of that same concerned curiosity that she was, right about now. It wasn't much of a surprise, then, when they readily followed her when she started in pursuit of her partner.

When they caught up to him, it was just the four of them, alone together in the otherwise eerily empty and sterile room that Class 1-A had occupied a short few hours ago. The Sports Festival had only been going on for such a short amount of time, and yet so much felt like it had changed for Akiko already.

Amidst the silence, Denki's gaze drifted between everyone in the room, seemingly reluctant to be the one who kicked off the conversation. Akiko fiddled with her fingers near the door with a part-concerned, but mostly thoughtful look on her face, and Kyoka idly watched Jomei while she leaned against a table near him.

Jomei, meanwhile, was in the center of the room. He stretched his arms and rolled his shoulders before he decided to do the same for his legs. Using a familiar lunge to loosen them up, his expression remained neutral until he had actually entered the motion, at which point he looked up at them, the corners of his lips tugging upwards in a slight smile. At the simple gesture, Akiko felt some of her tension drain away.

"So I'm going to go ahead and guess you guys aren't here to watch me warm up," he guessed. "I'm not going to stop you if any of you want to talk, and I can tell you're all worried about me, so fire away. I can stretch and speak at the same time, you know."

He continued stretching, and Denki spoke up. "Well, yeah, of course we're a little weirded out by you right now. This super calm collectedness doesn't really feel right, considering you just found out you're fighting Bakugo, you know?"

"I'm with Denki on this one," Kyoka agreed. "I get that you're really hyped about the festival and all, but Bakugo blasted Yaoyorozu without her even having a chance to really fight back. Add in how you reacted to Bakugo beating on Midoriya back at the battle trials and of course we're gonna feel weirded out by how you're acting. One second you hate the guy and now you're completely fine after finding out you have to face him in the quarterfinals? It doesn't really check out as normal, is all I'm saying."

"What, am I supposed to be nervous?" Jomei asked with a shrug.

"No, but we are wondering what you're thinking about right now, especially since you and Bakugo aren't exactly on the best of terms," Akiko said.

"Honestly, we aren't on any terms," Jomei pointed out. He rose to his feet and brushed away some dust on his uniform. "Remember, I haven't even talked to the guy since the beginning of the year, back at Aizawa's Quirk test."

"Which is part of why I'm worried," Akiko delicately explained. "Even if you haven't felt antagonized personally by him for a while now, I don't know for sure if you'll be able to keep your focus during your match. You're going to be up against someone I think it isn't unreasonable to say you outright hate, or at least, really don't like. I've known you long enough to predict what this could do to you, Jomei."

His arms slouched slightly. "You think I'll go nuts like in junior high."

"Go nuts? Wait, was Iida actually onto something when he was worried you were the kind of guy to pick fights before you got here?" Denki asked, his eyes wide.

Catching onto Jomei's eyes, Akiko sincerely wondered if she shouldn't have said that.

But Jomei gave her a reassuring quirk of his lips and said, "Well, yes and no. Back when Akiko and I first met, I wasn't nearly as, well, composed, as I usually am now. I wanted to help people out whenever I could, and I saw that Akiko needed a friend, so I had her back for most of the time we were at Korusa Junior High."

"And this connects to you how…?" Kyoka interrupted expectantly.

"I was getting there. I wanted to help Akiko out, yeah, but she pretty much ended up doing the same with me. Back then… I used to get into fights," Jomei confessed. "Not too many after we met, but I still got into a few when tensions were high or she wasn't around. I used to get into even more before we really became friends."

Denki's brow furrowed. "Okay, so I get that you mellowed out because of Akiko, but… why'd you get into these fights in the first place?"

"Well, they weren't with just anyone," Jomei started, his expression neither regretful nor proud. "If someone decided to pick on me, I could roll with the punches and hold in how pissed off I was until I was somewhere alone. If some bully decided to pick on one of my friends, or classmates, or Akiko… different story. I don't like people that have a superiority complex, so back then, the second I saw someone acting all holier-than-thou over everyone else and putting everyone down… I went off. There's no other way to put it. If you guys thought me being pissed off at Bakugo at the battle trials was bad, you should've seen what I would've done to him even a year or two ago."

"Well, that version of you kind of sounds like an asshole too," Denki sheepishly pointed out. "Not sure if I'd be cool with you acting like that, but you don't now, so you've obviously changed since then, right? So what're we so worried about? Why would you go berserk now after dealing with Bakugo for basically a month at this point?"

"Because someone changing doesn't mean that they're a totally different person, probably," Kyoka guessed, her steady gaze alternating between the pair before it came to rest exclusively upon Akiko. "And judging by the look on your face, I'm onto something when I say that."

Akiko turned to look at her partner. "I am worried that you'll go overboard during your match. You've changed for the better, I can see that, but all because you've changed doesn't mean that you can't fall back to a bad habit if you're stressed out too much."

Jomei's face fell, now more clearly conflicted than his expression had made him appear before. "I get where you're coming from, Akiko. You have a point, too, but I don't know if I can tell you for sure if I don't have at least a chance of getting really wrapped up in my match. Bakugo's the exact opposite of everything I think a good person should be, even if he might not be the exact same one-note bully I thought he was when I first saw him."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kyoka cut in.

"It means I don't hate him as much as I used to," Jomei plainly answered, and he looked more firmly at Akiko this time. "But I can tell you that no matter what happens, I'll try my best not to let myself get too intense down there."

Her arms were crossed nervously before her now, but Akiko's expression softened. "That's really all that I can ask from you, right now."

"Thanks. I appreciate it." Jomei's attention turned from her to his other two friends. "I'll try my best not to let you guys down, either."

"Hey man, no matter what happens, I'm still on your side," Denki pledged.

"Same here," Kyoka added. "Bakugo doesn't deserve a beating, but I would understand if you got a little crazy going toe-to-toe with him. He's been a punk, plain and simple."

"You guys are awesome." He smiled at them, throwing one last appreciative glance at Akiko before his attention went to the clock overhead. "Looks like it's about time for me to head out, then. Cheer me on?"

Denki nodded firmly, and Kyoka said, "We will, trust me. Don't start out like an idiot though – remember how smart Bakugo is in a fight, and that this time, all his focus and instincts are going to be on you, and only you."

Jomei started walking backward toward the door and splayed his hands out at his sides. "Hey, look, I'm not a combat expert myself but I'm not too shabby in a showdown either. Besides, I still have a good trick up my sleeve if things get dicey. See you guys soon."

With a two-fingered salute and a grin, he was gone, and his friends were left to look at the door as it shut behind him. Akiko stared after where he had been with some small amount of trepidation, but she combated the feeling with the faith she had in him. There was nothing more she could do now but root for him when his match started and hope that when push came to shove, he wouldn't go too far in this fight.

"I wonder what he meant by having a trick up his sleeve," Denki wondered. "Any ideas?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," Kyoka answered.

It then clicked in Akiko's mind. Flashbang. He'd finally be utilizing Flashbang, the technique he'd kept under wraps for so long. No matter what the result of this match turned out to be, by the time all was said and done, he'd have brought everything he had and more to the table.

Of this much, she was certain.

With each stride closer to the arena, Jomei became more energized. For more reasons than he could count, he felt enlivened that each step was bringing him closer to victory and to being truly lionized on a countrywide scale. His hands almost trembled with suppressed excitement, the familiar rhythm of his heartbeat climbed into his throat, and the indescribable enthusiasm given off by the stadium's several thousand spectators felt like it fused into his very bones. Had he not spent the majority of his life up until this point training to handle highly-anticipated moments like these, Jomei hadn't any doubt that the pressure would've felt suffocating.

But with his motivation for heroism hinging on making the most of this impactful opportunity, he felt nothing but uninhibited delight that the country's energy would be focused exclusively upon him. His problematic opponent was just there to leech away at that spotlight.

He knew in displaying his excellence against adversity on such a grand stage, he'd also be honoring his pledge to his parents to give it his all and make them proud. His dad may have expressed that he'd remain proud of Jomei no matter what happened during the festival, but he knew he couldn't settle for mediocrity. Not if he wanted to preserve the power his promises had where his parents were concerned. It didn't hurt that he'd also make his friends proud of him too if he won, as well.

Yet even after all he'd said to Akiko, Denki, and Kyoka a minute or two ago, he'd be a liar if he said he wouldn't feel some amount of self-satisfaction in achieving all that by finally defeating Bakugo. Jomei may not have hated Bakugo as much as he used to, but being blessed with the chance to dish out a little bit of righteous retribution unto him was already more than enough to have him go beyond.

It wasn't merely Bakugo's steaming dumpster fire of a personality that had Jomei in such suspense for their fight, either. His actions spoke louder than his words, which, to be fair, really didn't do all that much in his favor even once the entire time Jomei had known the guy.

As a mental reference, Jomei reminded himself that Bakugo was the person that had:

Nearly brutalized Midoriya on the first day of school.

Proceeded to do just that on the second day of school, and displayed no regret for doing so.

Disregarded everyone other than himself as extras every time he had to interact with others.

Provoked Kurogiri into scattering all of Class 1-A at the start of the USJ incident.

Even ignoring the first three marks against him Bakugo had earned within his first few days at U.A., that last event was perhaps the most damning, now that Jomei had time to reflect on it. Ignore the fact he later pinned Kurogiri only to need to be saved by All Might mere moments later, it was him that had caused the USJ incident to be that much more harrowing than it may have been otherwise. Kirishima had followed Bakugo's lead in blasting Kurogiri, so Jomei didn't blame him, but it was Bakugo – in all his egotistical glory – that had been the one to escalate the situation. He went from zero to a hundred in less than a second, acted impulsively, and had gotten everyone else thrown into hell on his behalf.

So yes, Jomei didn't have much of a reason to like Bakugo, and seeing him when he looked so utterly defeated after the battle trials didn't do enough to change that. That said...

He also wouldn't say that some of his actions didn't indicate some measure of change in him.

As opposed to his nonstop blowing up at others and bottomless reservoir of snide comments at the beginning of the year, Bakugo nowadays mostly kept to himself. Most days, he'd sit alone at lunch, talking to no one unless they talked to him first, and only dignified Kirishima with his attention whenever he was around – though he assumed their being warped away together at the USJ had something to do with their pseudo-friendship. Nevertheless, even when Bakugo did make a particularly nasty comment, it could be said that none of them held that same level of venom or intensity they did before. Even if it was only on the most basic of levels, it was undeniable that Bakugo had changed.

Jomei wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth, but nor would he willingly choose to interpret Bakugo turning into a living cinder block (and not the Cementoss kind) whenever someone would've usually pissed him off before as him suddenly being a 'good guy.' He could choose not to react to others' provocations all he wanted, as he had when Shinso made his declaration of war before the festival, but Jomei wasn't convinced of the merit these changes may or may not even possess. Not without a greater understanding of what these changes might mean, anyway.

Perhaps the greatest glimpse Jomei had ever had into Bakugo's psyche up until this point was his oddly solemn reaction to Midoriya when he almost walked out of the ring because of Shinso.

Looking back, contemptuous satisfaction really was the kind of expression Jomei would have expected to see on his face, even in a somewhat hidden fashion. Instead, Jomei had been met with a glimpse into what Bakugo might look like beneath his malevolent mask – a person, plain and simple, and one that may very well possess some basic human decency regarding others when no one else was paying attention. That sentiment at least went as far as Midoriya, for sure, otherwise Jomei couldn't come up with a reason why Bakugo had the slightly-worried look on his face that he did when his former 'friend' was about to be knocked out of the final stage without even being able to fight back.

Oddly enough, Jomei was almost holding out hope that their match would offer him further insight into the aspiring 'hero' that was Bakugo. Granted, he'd have to remain calm and level headed enough to be able to recognize his opponent's more subtle actions as opposed to the more blatant ones he would probably make the entire time, but still.

Finally, his steps brought him to the tunnel opening, and the bright light and ever-expanding din of noise stemming from the adoring audience beyond that portal drew his attention outward once again. With his head held high, he crossed the threshold into the arena that had forged the stories of so many legends before him.

Akiko, Denki, and Kyoka arrived back in the stands in more-or-less good spirits. Despite these good spirits, however, Akiko couldn't help but feel a bit of residual nervousness remain well at home in the back of her mind. Meanwhile, Kyoka was back to her normal calm and unenthused self, Denki looked even more electrified by the prospect of watching Jomei's match than he had been when he was about to participate in his own.

More than anything, Akiko felt concerned for his safety. If he went berserk during his fight, no one spectating would think much of the sudden brutally efficient machine he'd thereby become. Cementoss and Midnight would see his emotions for what they were since they were so close, sure, but at the same time, if Jomei got to that point, Akiko was sure that unless he won quickly after becoming enraged, he'd be at risk of losing the match in a much-more-brutal way than he would otherwise.

But she didn't imagine Bakugo would be the type to let Jomei angrily and freely wail on him without delivering some swift and severe explosive retribution as a consequence.

Denki plopped down into his seat and pumped his fists into the air. "Alright, girls! We've all gotta cheer on Jomei during his match, alright? So let's give it our all!"

Kyoka sat down much more calmly. "If you're expecting me to scream like a maniac, you'll be disappointed, Denki. I'll still cheer for him when things get intense, but don't expect me to throw myself over the rails like I know you will."

"Where's your spirit of competition?" Denki half-complained. "Liven up a little!"

"In case you've forgotten, it died during the cavalry battle when I didn't make it through," she deadpanned. "Still, I'm kinda surprised you're so eager to root for Jomei after how your guys' match ended up. It feels like you're not even disappointed at what happened."

"Well, yeah, I am kind of pissed off, but it's mostly at myself," Denki said, his posture sinking a tiny bit. "Jomei did what he had to do to win, and I'm not gonna dwell too hard on one loss. It sucks, sure, but this could've ended way worse for me than it did. At least I got the chance to show off my stuff even a little bit in a one-on-one fight, y'know?"

"Don't forget that Kirishima said the crowd did like your match in general," Akiko chimed in helpfully. "So it's not like there isn't still a big chance for you to get scouted after this."

"See?" Denki jabbed a thumb in her direction. "Akiko's got my side on this!"

"Huh. Maybe I could get lucky for the same reasons," Kyoka mused, suddenly looking thoughtful. "I mean, yeah, my team did get rocked pretty hard during the cavalry battle, but it's not like I wasn't showing off my Quirk or any of my teammates were half-assing it. Maybe that means I still have a chance to get scouted, after all…"

"That's the spirit!" Denki said. "And hey, if it's any consolation, I'm sorry. You and me are kinda a duo in all this, and I kinda flopped hardcore at bringing the two of us a little more spotlight when I lost. Throwing out an Indiscriminate Shock and hoping for the best mighta not been the best plan I could've used, back there."

"Yep," Kyoka agreed. "It was a pretty dumb move."

"Hey! Aren't you supposed to be on my side?!" Denki incredulously exclaimed.

"Yeah." She shrugged and gave him a sidelong look, an almost mischievous glint in her eye when she did so. "Even if you're a dummy for pulling that kind of plan, you're our dummy, so it's all good."

Kyoka smiled, genuinely smiled, and Denki looked almost shocked at seeing such an undeniably positive expression making itself at home upon her face.

What made the entire interaction even more endearing to Akiko was that Kyoka's smile didn't fade. Sure, it became a close-lipped smile, but she looked happier and more content now than any other time Akiko had seen her during their entire time knowing each other.

Suddenly, the stadium erupted into a tsunami of activity again, and all their attention was drawn back to the impending action below.

Time to kick off the quarterfinals.

Jomei stepped into the arena with confidence, determined to make each step a purposeful and powerful indicator of the unwavering willpower he possessed beneath the surface. He'd been honing his abilities all his life for a moment like this, where he'd be able to embody U.A.'s motto of 'plus ultra' in the one bombastic live broadcast that no other competition could hope to match in the entirety of the hero world. Now was his chance to set the world alight and inspire true awe in all those who would witness the full breadth of his abilities.

Jomei didn't stop moving, but he did take a second to breathe in the spectacle of it all, and realized that he very much could get used to this kind of recognition.

"Aw, yeah, I can feel the anticipation in the stadium, and that's because the first match of the second round is going to be epic!" Present Mic hollered overhead. "Keep up the hype everyone, because I'm sure I'm not the only one who's loving this energy right here!"

One last tread took him to the top of the stairs, where he finally came face-to-face with his opponent. Jomei could feel the air of deadly calm Bakugo had about him. Their eyes met, but there was nothing other than cold acknowledgment in their expressions, and no exchange of words followed. Red eyes met amber ones, and both exuded enough intensity to match the other's in preparation for their inevitable introductions to the audience.

"Right here we got the guy who had the power to pummel his opponent out of the ring before they even had a chance to counter! Bakugo Katsuki!"

Bakugo's countenance remained unmoved, though he did raise a hand and let a few anticipatory explosions crackle from his palm. Whether he meant this as a final warm-up or an unspoken threat, Jomei didn't know or care.

"As for his opponent? I'm sure you remember this kid! He's the flashy fighter who flew right over his enemy's electrical discharge and shot him silly! Nishimura Jomei!"

As his adversary's stare remained stock-still, so too did Jomei's. Their mutual contest of wills continued and his attention stayed solely on Bakugo, with his hands motionless at his sides but still prepared for the sudden action that would be demanded from them when their match finally started.

Bakugo was the first to break the silence.

"Hey, lightshow."

"Yeah?"

"Don't underestimate me," Bakugo said simply. "I haven't forgotten about the practical exam."

"I haven't either," Jomei coolly bit back. "I don't take too kindly to people who think they can threaten to cripple me and get away with it."

"Alright rabble-rousers, I see we've got some energy just waiting to be set loose, so I won't delay this any longer!" Present Mic announced.

From their brief exchange alone, Bakugo hadn't done anything to change what he'd thought of him yet. For this reason, Jomei chose to consider whatever came next between them to be nothing other than complete and utter catharsis.

"Let the first match of the quarterfinals… begin!"

With a two-handed explosion Bakugo blasted himself into the air with monumental momentum. Yet even before Bakugo had moved, Jomei flashed from stillness into the shroud of gases that signaled his entry into Light Speed.

Even through their haste, each of their expressions continued to exude chilling determination.

"It looks like we're off to a quick start, sports fans! Have you ever seen two fighters so eager to rush on in to their fight? In these last few festivals, I'm tempted to say no!"

Jomei had shot to the center of the stage, just as Bakugo's own propulsion had done for him. Through eyes blazing with the furious ionized glow of his Quirk, a pink ball crackled to life in Jomei's hand as he slipped it behind him. He couldn't give Bakugo any time to build the power of his blasts without repercussion.

Bakugo acted first. With a growl of a warcry he twisted his right arm forward, and his palm glistened orange as an omen of the attack that would follow the right hook. Jomei acted appropriately and slipped to his knees.

He needed only a split-second to slide beneath Bakugo and his Quirk's blast, but midway through the motion the hand that had been hiding his trump card moved. With blurring speed, he flicked his wrist and the pink ball snapped into the air directly between him and Bakugo…

The Flashbang then flew straight into Bakugo's face.

It detonated, and Jomei completed his power slide in silhouette. He rose upright and ground his feet against the pavement to stop short while he twisted around and raised his hand to send a few Neon Beams toward Bakugo without hesitation. Blue and purple beams split the air between them, and Present Mic tuned back in.

"What was that!? I have no idea what Nishimura just pulled, but it looks like it's got Bakugo stunned and wide open for his opponent's opening assault!"

Each attack pummeled into Bakugo while he remained stunned, sending him sailing even further across the ring, his body skipping once before finally skidding to a stop a few meters away from the boundary line. Bakugo rose upright with his eyes clenched tightly shut, and Jomei wasted no time in sending another salvo of strikes through the air – to give his opponent time to recover now would be a blunder that could cost him everything.

Bakugo raised his arms in an anticipated defense against another assault, his eyes still closed and his jaw clenched in a mix of both pain and potential fury at having been fooled by his opponent, and the beams all converged on the barrier both his arms formed. He braced himself adequately enough to defend from the impact, though, and he only slid back another meter or two. Bakugo rubbed at his eyes with one of his arms, but his block otherwise remained ready before him.

'The stun won't last much longer, but he can't know for sure where he's positioned right now. A few more beams and it won't matter if he's blocking or not – he'll be knocked out past the boundary line.'

Another three Neon Beams flew from Jomei's hand, and he narrowed his eyes intently at his enemy as the pain on Bakugo's face gave way to a disconcerting degree of calm. Jomei guided his attacks with a mental nudge to coalesce into a tight train one behind the other so that their impact would be that much more unforgiving, but Bakugo was one step ahead. His head tilted in the direction of the beams' imminent arrival, his hearing having likely returned, he dropped into a crouch with one hand on the ground as the beams careened past a position that would have connected right into his chest.

"Nice trick, lightshow," Bakugo said. His eyes hadn't opened yet, but his tone was laced with confidence and contempt. Jomei's blood boiled just a little bit hotter.

"Look at that!" Present Mic cried. "Even without his eyes, Bakugo was able to dodge those attacks! Talk about taking the initiative with your other senses!"

Jomei tried to ignore the announcer as best he could. Bakugo had proven himself dangerous enough to survive even being stunned by his best move, recovering at a rate much faster than any of the villains back at the USJ had. His vision was bound to have returned by now, which meant that if he wanted to take advantage of Bakugo being rendered helpless to his beams again, he'd have to try harder to pull off another Flashbang without a hitch. He wasn't entirely convinced Bakugo would be smart enough to circumvent his technique after only being subjected to it once.

With a few blinks, Bakugo's eyes finally opened with fury and fire burning in them. Small explosions crackled smoke from his palms while Jomei remained motionless. Light Speed's shroud still surrounded him so that he could slip away at a moment's notice; meanwhile, his arm remained poised and ready to deliver a retaliatory strike to counter Bakugo's next move if he saw an opening.

Bakugo scowled deeply, and the fight was back on.

He shot skyward with blistering speed and immediately focused his aim below him before Jomei could strike first. An explosion flew from his hand, and this time it was Jomei's turn to dodge. Racing forward so that the ranged explosion landed harmlessly behind him, Jomei sent a Neon Beam toward Bakugo in retaliation, who dodged the hasty attack with a one-handed use of his Quirk to send himself sailing further to the side. His body twisted midair to follow Jomei and his other hand pointed straight down to deliver its concussive payload.

Arriving at the other end of the ring, Jomei swiftly skirted around the edge of the arena to avoid the attack, and the pattern continued. Bakugo hovered in the air as long as he could, sprucing in intermittent explosions but Jomei's speed-augmenting technique caused them all to miss their marks. Jomei countered whenever he could with some Neon Beams in hopes of catching his assailant off-guard.

Bakugo then changed the paradigm before Jomei could think to do the same. With his arms angled diagonally behind him, another blast of his explosive Quirk sent him flying fast on an intercept course. Jomei desperately ducked beneath the concussive right hook aimed square at his chest, and scrambling to the side with the assistance of Light Speed, he whirled around just in time to aim a Neon Beam where Bakugo had landed a step behind him. A small explosion enabled Bakugo to hop lightly over the blue beam before advancing to close the small gap between them on foot. With another detonation readied in his hand, Jomei turned tail and left a trail of gas in his wake as he made some distance between them.

Successfully outrunning the small eruption that followed, Jomei slid around on his feet to face Bakugo again once he felt he'd made enough room between them to breathe.

'I need another opening. Neon Beams don't look like they'll do enough to knock him out easily even if I can land them on him, but that only means that I can bust out some Phosphor Beams instead to hit him when I get the chance. Even if they'll be low-power, all it'll take is one of them getting a clean hit in and that should be enough to make him really feel it, even if it doesn't knock him out of bounds outright.'

His features remained obscured beneath his gases, but he smirked. He'd come up with worse plans in his life as far as fights were concerned, so he was pretty happy with his ability to strategize now. He hadn't had much opportunity to bust out his Phosphor Beam after the USJ incident, but it looked like it'd find another use in this fight as his finishing move.

He'd have to land his attack first, though, and he couldn't think of a better way to assure he could do just that than throwing another Flashbang into the fray. He'd certainly waited long enough to make the best move in his arsenal a priority in his plans again, that's for sure.

Especially since Bakugo could only get stronger the longer their match wore on.

A swift exhale punched from his lips, and the two fighters burst back into motion. Bakugo launched into the air before a second explosion revealed his goal to charge toward his opponent, who in turn had kicked off the ground with Light Speed to do much the same. A now tell-tale ball of pink gas formed in Jomei's hand, but he kept it facing away from his opponent to keep it hidden as one of Bakugo's arms came forward in the stirrings of an overhead attack. He and Bakugo were bound to intercept each other, and Jomei jumped into the air to meet him. Eyes hard on his goal, he flung his Flashbang straight in Bakugo's path with an underhanded blur of sheer speed.

But it was not to be.

Bakugo's other arm snapped forward at the last second to blast at empty air while Jomei was still falling back down to earth. He couldn't see the meaning behind the miss, only able to focus on running to avoid the inevitable completion of Bakugo's overhead attack; which, when it was unleashed, he was barely able to avoid. Jomei let out an irritated grunt as the scorching heat and concussive force washed over his back and sent him stumbling farther than he'd have wanted before he regained control and pivoted to face his adversary, exiting Light Speed to prepare a Phosphor Beam as he did so. Even if Bakugo had managed to avoid his Flashbang, it should still have been close enough to do some damage.

When Jomei whirled around to where Bakugo should have landed though, he was confused to find that his opponent was completely fine – his eyes weren't squeezed shut, and instead he looked equal parts wary and smug.

"It's like I said," Bakugo started, and his lips spread into a conceited smirk, "that stun move of yours is a nice trick, but it won't work on me again."

Jomei's eyes narrowed. "...how?"

"It doesn't take a genius to figure out how a technique like that works, lightshow," Bakugo said. "Your Quirk works with gas and charge, which means to make something like what you just pulled happen you're putting a lot of gas in the same spot and charging it up before letting it rip. A flashbang works because it's a sudden and intense burst of light and sound – that can be countered with an explosion because it's basically the same principle. That attack that missed and hit the air before? That was me nullifying your move."

A near-silent growl of frustration rumbled in Jomei's chest. He hated to admit it even in the privacy of his own mind, but it looked like Bakugo truly had earned his reputation as Class 1-A's best battlefield tactician. To figure out how to counter his best move after only suffering through it once… there was no other way to interpret Bakugo's intuition in combat as anything short of innate brilliance – but he'd still made a mistake.

In his explanation of how he learned to counter Flashbang, he'd inadvertently given Jomei advice. If Flashbang was easily counterable by Explosion due to the mutual sudden forces' interactions neutralizing his technique, then the inverse would also be true. Even though Bakugo would keep getting stronger with his explosions, for now, Jomei had a direct counter to his opponent's Quirk, which meant he could afford to fight a bit riskier if he ever decided he needed to get up close and personal.

His hidden move had been rendered moot in this match, but that didn't mean it couldn't still have a part to play in his success.

"Gonna give up? If that little move you used on me was the best you've got, then you should just step out of bounds now." Bakugo taunted, and wiped his lip with the back of his arm, smoke trailing from his hands before he settled back into a combat-ready stance.

"I'll never surrender to you," Jomei retorted, and his hand returned to a raised position at the same time he commanded his Quirk to envelop him once again.

Flashbang had only just been used for the first time during the fight below when Class 1-A exploded into a rumble of activity. Bakugo had been sent tumbling out of control mid-air by the technique no one had any frame of reference to describe, and the beams that followed to punch clean into his opponent shortly after assured everyone that it wasn't some gambit Jomei had pulled. Akiko didn't need to have social skills in spades to be able to tell that everyone was now aware he'd been hiding another one of his Quirk's abilities for a while, now, and that it was an effective one indeed.

"Okay, what the hell just happened down there?!" Denki blurted, his stare intently focused on the stage as Bakugo desperately blocked the beams that threatened to punch him out of the arena. He suddenly looked at Akiko. "Wait, is that what Jomei was hinting at back before the match?"

"It has to be something new of his, right?" Sero inferred from above. "I didn't see him use that move during our battle trial, and I don't think Nishimura would be the type to hold back against me back there to be nice."

"I believe you're right," Tokoyami answered. "He calls the technique 'Flashbang,' and I was privy to witnessing its use during the USJ incident when we were fighting villains together in the downpour zone. If I recall correctly, it was a new addition to his repertoire at the time, though obviously, Takara can feel free to correct me if I'm wrong."

Akiko decided to wait a moment before answering, her gaze glued solely to the stage as Bakugo and Jomei exchanged another charge and the former nullified the Flashbang that would've forced him onto the defensive a second time. All of Japan was only now aware of the technique in some capacity, but Bakugo had somehow figured out a way to render it ineffective. As far as her perception went, with Bakugo now confidently explaining something to Jomei that she couldn't hear, Akiko couldn't help but think that the match wasn't leaning toward a positive outcome for her partner.

"No, what Tokoyami said about that move was right," she said. "Flashbang is a technique Jomei came up with relatively recently. He only came up with it the weekend before the USJ incident happened, and he was saving it for a situation like this."

"Whoa… and Bakugo already figured out how to counter it?" Sero wondered uneasily. "That's crazy! First Yaoyorozu, now Nishimura? No wonder he has such a high opinion of himself."

"And now Jomei's lost the element of surprise with that move, too, but that doesn't mean he's done for yet," Kyoka added, her eyes honed in on the standoff below. "Bakugo may have come up with a counter to Flashbang, but that doesn't mean it's useless. Jomei can still win if he fights smart and doesn't take any of the bait Bakugo's probably laying out for him down there."

"That definitely sounds like something Bakugo would be up to," Denki mumbled.

Kyoka nodded. "I can't make out exactly what he's saying over all the noise, but all you guys need to do is take a look at his face to tell he's trying to act like a conceited ass here. He probably wants to rile Jomei up, make him lose focus on fighting with his head so that he can get a good hit in. It's smart."

"But Jomei told us he'd try to keep his head on straight," Akiko pointed out. "We have to have faith in him that he'll keep going strong."

"Way ahead of you," Denki said.

"Same here," Kyoka seconded.

Akiko clenched her hands nervously in her lap. For all the hope her classmates shared regarding Jomei's chances, she still felt a prickle of unease crawl up her spine. She weighed the odds time and again in her head as to whether Jomei would be able to remain calm and collected for the remainder of this fight, but still found no concrete reassurance.

So instead, she settled on hesitant hope.

'Come on, Jomei… you can do this.'

A deep breath helped Jomei steady himself. His focus landed squarely on Bakugo, the stage, and the sensation of his Quirk flowing like warm water over his skin. He wasn't going to be defeated by a bully who'd sooner beat one of his own previous 'friends' than act like anything close to resembling a hero. To Jomei, it wasn't a matter of merely gaining glory through his victory anymore. It was a matter of protecting his principles, proving his family and friends' faith in him as worthwhile, and achieving the self-satisfaction that would come with bringing Bakugo down to size himself.

For those reasons, he couldn't lose.

"You can feel the tension down there, sports fans!" Present Mic commented. "It looks like this match is about to get wild!"

With no reason to let the standoff carry on, Jomei took the initiative. Light Speed flickered away from his body, and a Phosphor Beam propelled its way from his readied palm to barrel on toward its target.

Bakugo didn't hesitate. His hands whipped up from near his waist to face the incoming attack, and a two-handed explosion met the condensed gases head-on. The beam dissipated with the force of the concussive counterattack, and only Bakugo's silhouette amidst the ensuing dust cloud bespoke of his current position.

One after another, two more Phosphor Beams thrummed through Jomei's hand and into the air. Bakugo countered one the same as before and dodged the other by blowing himself ever faster into the air. Regaining the edge, he hurtled toward Jomei with increased force, appearing little more than a blue, red, and blonde blur through the air.

Jomei was able to keep track of him, though. Bakugo readied his favored right hook again, likely in hopes it'd catch him off-guard in conjunction with his speed, but Jomei conjured another Flashbang in his left to meet it. They both thrust their attacks through the space between them at the same time, and the force of the two fighters erupted in an enormous gust of heat and wind from the point where their Quirks met. For a split second, surprise crossed Bakugo's face, and Jomei readied a Neon Beam with his free hand to exploit the moment. Bakugo refocused before Jomei could follow through and raised his other hand to continue with a second strike of his own.

Both of their attacks hit head-on. The pair's pain was drowned out with the sound of their attacks, and they both emerged from the dust cloud whilst flying back a few meters away from one another.

Right as he recovered from skidding on his back, Jomei flipped to his feet, his gases flaring bright blue and purple as he stared into the obscuring screen Bakugo was bound to emerge from. He did just as expected, flying from the cloud with a speed that had Jomei convinced he'd only succeeded at enraging his opponent with the latest hit he landed. Present Mic hollered something he couldn't hear, and this time a left hook telegraphed his foe's next attack, to which another Flashbang would serve as a counter.

Bakugo blasted from mid-air and mid-range as Jomei hastily pitched his own attack to pacify the power of the explosion, and smirked satisfiedly when he saw his efforts pay off before his focus landed squarely on his opponent again with a Neon Beam sent to where he anticipated Bakugo would land.

He was caught completely off-guard when Bakugo launched diagonally to the ground. Somehow, he'd anticipated the next move Jomei would make and rolled with his impact to bounce back to his feet before his opponent could attack again. Before Jomei could react, an explosion smashed mercilessly into his side as a result.

With a cry out in surprise, the heat scorched Jomei's jacket and he was knocked uncontrollably away from his adversary before he managed to gain some traction and land on a knee, breathing heavily as the pain of Bakugo's power radiated through his ribs.

'I can't lose! I can't!'

Taking advantage of his braced stance, Jomei lashed out with a quick barrage of Neon Beams with both hands toward where Bakugo still stood. With more power pooling into his Quirk with each passing second, Bakugo blasted them apart with one hand before taking to the air again. Glancing down, Jomei recognized he was at the edge of the ring and wasted no time in re-engaging Light Speed to make a break for it by sliding underneath where Bakugo sailed by.

At first, it appeared that all went well. Jomei was getting back to his feet and thought he'd gotten away scot-free before Bakugo could twist around to attack.

He hadn't even regained his stance when another powerful blast to his back sent him flying again, and this time, Jomei couldn't help the shout of pain as his spine took the brunt of the devastatingly destructive strike.

When his tumble ended, he forced himself to his feet despite his body protesting every movement. His skin was slick with sweat, his whole body marred by cuts, burns, and the pain of Bakugo's explosion, and his hair was likely nothing but a wild and unkempt mess after being subjected to so many sudden falls. Even though he may have looked worse for wear, and his breathing was heavy, he wouldn't go down yet.

He wouldn't let himself go down.

Meanwhile, Bakugo looked almost eerily calm. Focused. To outside observers, it might have seemed like he was wary of his opponent, but all Jomei could see amidst his increasing unease was the same condescending, greater-than-thou prick he'd first encountered at the entrance exams. He saw the man- no, the bastard whose words had sunk deeper than those of any that had come before. Those same words echoed even now in the back of his mind as he looked at the increasingly insurmountable obstacle that was his opponent.

"Stay out of my way or I'll hurt you so bad you'll never walk again!"

Involuntarily played on repeat, those words brought him back to another time entirely.

With his hands up between him and his palms facing each other, Jomei let his tongue dip out oddly between his lips as he focused on the all-too-tiny gaseous ball that hovered unsteadily before him. The ball was a deep, warm blue like the ocean and its surface was awash in ripples and waves like a tumultuous tide as it threatened to lose its unnatural structure. Eventually, it bristled and the gaseous waves blurted out in every direction, and even with Jomei grunting with exertion, it dissipated harmlessly into the air.

With a huff, he groaned audibly and put his hands between his legs on the couch as a childish pout pushed his lower lip out.

Haruto came out of the kitchen, wiping his hands with a towel. Behind him, all manner of cooking utensils dotted the kitchen island and other counter space, and by the looks of things, he'd only recently remembered to put the teapot onto the burner. Ayane would've done that first thing when preparing dinner so they could all share a cup together before their food got done, as was their familial habit. But it wasn't like his mom was around right now to help. Jomei would have to content himself to wait if he wanted one now that his dad was cooking. Not that his mind was particularly focused on the prospect of food right now.

"Hey, Jomei, what's wrong bud?" Haruto asked.

His pout deepened. "You can use your Quirk so good but I can't even do something super easy like keep a little ball together!"

"Jomei…" Haruto said amusedly, still drying his hands. "You're six. Give it a little time."

Jomei didn't want any of his dad's consolations though. With a melodramatic harrumph, he fell onto his back along the living room couch, not even caring that he still remained in full view of Haruto despite doing so.

He heard Haruto chuckle followed by the muffled sound of the towel hitting the countertop before his dad finally came to rest on the couch beside him. He twisted one leg underneath him as the other rested normally on the floor, and he looked down at Jomei with an affectionate smile. "Alright pouty-pants, if you're so upset, you wanna hear a secret?"

Jomei sat back up, twisting his head around to meet his eyes. "Yeah?"

"You're way ahead of me when I was your age. It took me longer than you've been alive to figure out how to do what I can with my Quirk," Haruto said matter-of-factly.

Jomei gasped. "Really?"

"Yeppo," Haruto confirmed, a smirk on his face that only pulled one corner of his lips upward. "In fact, it was your mom who helped me figure out a lot of it – without her, I wouldn't have half the talent I do now in my shows. And I wouldn't have you, bud."

Ruffling his son's hair into even deeper disarray, Jomei laughed and pretended to swat away Haruto's hands. Eventually though, his father relented and let Jomei try to repair the damage that had been done with a smile on his face.

"Besides, if you're feeling frustrated, I can help you out," Haruto offered. "But to do that, I'm going to need your help first."

Immediately, Jomei excitedly shook his head up and down. "Okay!"

Haruto leaned in a little closer, hooking his left arm around Jomei before he raised Jomei's arm and pointed at it with his free hand. "Good. Now, you know my Quirk lets me move noble gases around, yeah, but I can't make them myself. That's why I'm gonna ask you to create some for me – I can charge 'em up and do everything else that needs to be done from there. Think you can do that for me, bud?"

Jomei nodded, and focused on his hand. The ever-more familiar warmth of his Quirk responded to his command, and a small, uncoordinated stream of faintly blue gases slowly projected upward. Haruto's free hand hovered closer to the gas before taking control, making it grow brighter with his mastery before coaxing it to coalesce into the shape of a ball hovering over Jomei's palm.

Unlike his son's failed attempt at making such a sphere, Haruto's talent turned the faintly-glowing gas into a perfect orb. Most of the gas collected into an almost glassy smooth shape, and the few extra layers of wispy blues he let stay loose gave it an almost magical air.

He'd seen his father create such a sphere to amuse him before, but for Jomei, that never diminished how impressive his father's ability was, nor how beautiful such a simple technique was in the first place.

"Whoa…" Jomei awed, and he stared at the glowing ball for a few more moments before glancing at Haruto again. "What do I do now?"

Haruto's hand drifted slightly away from the sphere. "I was about to tell you what to do. My advice to you Jomei is to focus on keeping this little ball together. Focus on the shape of it and imagine your hands keeping it intact without touching it. If you're anything like me, it will eventually come naturally, but you just gotta practice first. Now go ahead."

Jomei screwed up his face in determination and firmly focused on inspecting the ball for a few moments before he cautiously raised his hands to either side of it. "Okay."

With that, Haruto's grip on the gases diminished, and Jomei hurried to take control of it. He felt focused, more so than ever before at any Quirk counseling class, and his lips pressed tight into a thin line with his concentration.

Initially, the orb warbled unsteadily like his own had, once again on the verge of losing its unnatural integrity, but Jomei focused further and did as his father advised. He imagined that the gas was like wet clay and that his invisible control over it with his Quirk were the hands that would mold it to his heart's content, and after a few more seconds of audible exertion, the ominous ripples along the blue ball smoothed over. He still had to focus to maintain it, but the fact remained…

"I did it!" Jomei exclaimed, bouncing a little bit on the couch. "Dad! I did it! Look!"

"I'm looking, I'm looking," Haruto amusedly assured him with a pat on the back. "I told you it'd come naturally, didn't I? You're a chip off the old block, buddy. Now let it go – we can practice and play around more with your powers after dinner."

Releasing his hold on the gases, they dispersed harmlessly throughout the room, and Jomei slipped from his seat back to his feet at the same time his dad did. For a moment, a part of him wondered if he'd ever be as tall as his dad, but then another thought popped into his head through the sudden rumble of his stomach. "When will dinner be ready, anyway?"

"When your mom gets home." Haruto patted away at some crumbs on his pants. "You don't want it to be cold, do you?"

"No…" Jomei admitted, but his hunger remained. "But then when will she be home?"

Haruto shrugged as he re-entered the kitchen. "As soon as she gets home from work. If you get really hungry I suppose we can eat without her, but don't forget that she does have a really important job going down today. You know she can't make things go any faster even if she wanted to."

"You're right…"

"Now go wash your hands," Haruto said, now in the middle of cleaning up the mess he'd left behind when he joined Jomei in the living room. "The tea should be done soon, so we can have that while we wait for your mom."

With excited anticipation, Jomei bounded upstairs to his room and jumped easily over the few toys he'd left laying around to reach the bathroom. There, he followed the procedure his mom had drilled into him since he was old enough to reach the sink himself, thoroughly washing away whatever dirt may have wormed its way under his nails and onto his hands. By the time he was done, the smell of food had floated from the kitchen up into his room, and he eagerly ran back down to meet it.

"Is dinner done?" he asked.

"Almost," Haruto answered, the kitchen now clean of any signs of mess, save for some spoons and utensils that were still drying. "We'll put it in the oven to keep it warm, so even if we do have to eat early it'll still be good for your mom, and the tea just needs-"

The blaring ring from his phone interrupted him, and he smoothly fished it from his pocket. Haruto stared skeptically at the device for a moment for reasons Jomei didn't understand at the time, but his face eventually relaxed when he and Jomei shared a shrug, and he swiped to answer the call.

"Hey, Tsukauchi! Funny you should call," Haruto greeted. "Wasn't expecting to hear from you guys for at least a little while longer." He paused while listening and glanced down at Jomei before he continued. "Yeah, Jomei's here. We actually figured out something new he can do with his Quirk, and all we're waiting for is Ayane to-"

He stopped short, his eyes losing some of their typical focus as his face dropped. His breathing quickened, and his shoulders tensed just enough that even Jomei could tell that something was wrong. It wasn't like his dad to act like this, and it made his stomach sink uncomfortably.

Haruto nodded slowly. "We'll be right there."

Jomei found his voice. "Dad... ? What's going on?"

The faraway look on his father's face didn't go anywhere, and he stared off blankly for a few seconds that felt like an eternity. Only when the kettle started screaming steam did he shake out of his stupor. As if he were walking through a haze, he removed the kettle from the burner and turned both it and the oven off, before finally looking down at his son again. Jomei would always remember this moment, and how tall his dad seemed as he craned his neck up to meet his eyes.

"We…" Haruto swallowed, and what he said next would be burned into Jomei's memory forever. "We need to go see your mother. She's in the hospital."

Haruto drove them to the hospital, and even then, Jomei wondered that they didn't get into an accident with how fast his dad was driving. He could have sworn that every second he was forced to sit still in the car, his heart hurt even more.

He didn't know why his mom was in the hospital, only that she was hurt badly and he didn't want her to be alone without him and his dad there to comfort her. She was the closest thing he had to a hero in his family, and he'd sooner sacrifice every one of his toys and even his Quirk rather than not be able to see her when she was hurt. Even their arrival and prompt police escort up to where Ayane was being kept felt like it didn't even come close to appeasing the ache in his heart. The only thing he thought could do that would be the sight of his mother safe and sound in front of him.

They arrived at the door of her room, and immediately they acted against the advice of their escort. Instead of waiting, they immediately entered the room. They found Ayane tucked up to her chest in a thin grey blanket that obscured the medical gown the medical staff must have changed her into, and there were odd tubes stuck into her arm that Jomei didn't know anything about but still unnerved him – but not as much as the sight of his mother herself.

No matter what stress she would suffer through at work or how tired she may have been, the first thing he always saw from his mother when she would get home from work was always a smile and a loving look. Here, though, propped up in the bed of such a sterile room, with her hair in matted disarray instead of its normally neat bun and her legs unnervingly still, she looked like a husk of her former self. She looked weak, and it made Jomei freeze when he saw her.

It didn't stop him for long though, as his instincts urged him to run towards her a few moments later.

"Mommy!" he cried.

"Hey, whoa now!" A friendly-looking doctor he hadn't noticed crouched and intercepted Jomei before he could reach her bedside, placing her hands firmly on his shoulders as she gave him a reassuring look. "Listen, your mom is going to be fine. She's in good hands here, and she's safe. Now can you do me a favor and calm down? You want to be strong for your mom, right? Not make her worry?"

Her advice was only marginally effective. Jomei stopped trying as fiercely to weasel and push his way past the doctor, but his whole body remained warped with worry as he squirmed to keep his eyes on his mother. It felt like if he looked away for a moment she'd disappear or somehow get hurt even more. He also doubted that the doctor's attempts to reassure him were as true as she'd want him to believe, and that doubt only doubled in strength when he saw Haruto walk over to Ayane.

His face was grief-stricken and they both looked ten years older than they were as he bent over to hug his wife, exchanging whispers that Jomei couldn't overhear. At that point, the doctor let Jomei go before she left the room to provide the family of three privacy, and he walked over to join Haruto at his mother's bedside.

His parents' embrace came to a close, with Haruto pulling back to reveal Ayane wiping away a tear before it could spill down her cheek. She tried to put on a reassuring mask, but it was obvious she still looked… off, though Jomei couldn't quite put into words why or how this was. He felt nervous and small now that he was finally up close, and looked slightly away from the sight of her sorrow.

"Hey, baby," Ayane greeted in an affectionate tone. "Tsukauchi told me that you learned how to do something new with your Quirk."

"Yeah, we did," Haruto confirmed, and he looked expectantly at him. "Do you want to show her, bud? You and me?"

Jomei pressed his lips together, and he spared a glance up at both of them. "No, I think... can I try and do it by myself?"

His parents traded a look, and his mom even shared a soft smile. Jomei hoped he could do it. His mom needed him to be strong, now. That he could do things without his parents' help.

Jomei raised his hands up in front of him, his palms facing one another as he proceeded to focus completely on his Quirk. As before, faintly ionized blue gas flowed from his hands, but this time the expulsion was purposeful, slow, and controlled. Jomei's brow furrowed deeply and his mind fell back to the analogy of comparing his Quirk to clay and his mind to the hands that would mold it.

It took time, but the familiar ball Haruto had helped him make before was born again, this time entirely out of his effort and his alone. His heart stuttered with joy and it almost made him lose the tenuous control he held. But when he finally formed it neatly enough that he could pay attention to his surroundings again, he saw that it was a comfortingly warm blue in color, and he looked back up to his parents hopefully. Haruto and Ayane both were smiling fondly back at him, but his mother was the one to praise him.

"That's amazing, Jomei," Ayane softly complimented. "You're just like a little version of me and your father put together, aren't you?"

All it took was the lack of energy in her voice, and Jomei's smile faded. Something was still wrong, and he wasn't dumb enough to think he could ignore what was obviously on everyone's minds right now. Water welled up behind his eyes and he fought against the urge to sniffle. He needed to be strong now for his mom. She didn't need to feel sad for him when she was the one who really needed to be taken care of right now.

"Mom…" he started delicately, as if his words would break her heart if he wasn't careful. "Are you going to be okay?"

"I will be, but… you don't need to worry about the details. All you need to know is that I…" She paused and took in a deep breath to steel herself. "I won't be able to walk anymore because of some bad guys. They were gonna hurt one of my friends, and I jumped in to stop them, but I'm going to be just fine, baby."

Jomei saw the hurt in her eyes and climbed on top of the bed to hug her. "I'm sorry you got hurt."

She returned the gesture with one arm, starting to stroke the back of his head with the other. "It's okay, baby… it's not your fault."

"I promise I'll help you all the time when I get bigger," Jomei pledged. "This way when I'm all big and strong like Dad I can make sure you'll never be hurt ever again."

He withdrew from the embrace, but Ayane kept her hands on his shoulders, an almost concerned look on her face. "But you want to be famous when you grow up, right? You want to be just like your dad?"

Jomei hummed. "Mhm. I do, but I wanna be your hero more."

"You're already my hero. You can do whatever you want when you get big," Ayane told him, and she pulled him back into her arms more firmly than before. "You don't have to give up on your dream because of what happened to me."

"I love you, Mommy," Jomei said.

Finally, Ayane's voice shattered. "I love you too, baby. I love you too."

Nothing more was said after that. Haruto joined the pair on the bed in a group hug, a tide of tears falling from each of their cheeks, and the excruciating pain that came with the loss of something so easily taken for granted.

It took days, weeks, even months for the grief of the Nishimuras to begin to fade, but in light of the loss their family had been forced to face, they emerged even stronger as a result. Years would pass and each of them would change in their own ways, but one thing remained true for Jomei an entire decade later.

No one would make another suffer as they had that day. Not if he had anything to say about it.

Returning to himself, Jomei felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. His breathing had long since sped to a bestially unsteady pace, and a furious warmth washed over him from head to toe as his whole body stiffened. The righteous fire of his Quirk flowed over his skin through his pores and penetrated deep into the core of his being. His bones, his muscles, his very soul felt like kindling to the fury building deep inside him.

This time, he'd been reminded all-too-clearly exactly why he hated his present opponent, and he stood straight and glared at Bakugo. With menace hidden behind the gaseous glow of his eyes and his jaw set so tight it felt as though it would snap, he wasn't just ready to go ahead and beat him.

He was ready to beat him.

"Finally had enough?" Bakugo asked.

"No…" Jomei icily responded. "No, I haven't. Do you want to know why I hate you!?"

Bakugo's eyes narrowed, betraying that his mind wasn't focused solely on the fight at hand.

"Because people like you…" He paused, trying desperately to reign himself in as he knew Akiko would've wanted. "People like you don't have remorse. You don't have a heart when it comes to others. All you have is a rotten piece of flesh where your heart should be! You make threats like wanting to cripple someone and don't think anything about it!" Jomei took a step forward, and his gases glared brighter as the volume of his voice grew higher. "Have you ever thought for one second what that does to someone? To their loved ones!?"

His lips opened as if to respond, but Jomei cut him off with the continued roar of his uninhibited rage. "No, you haven't! All you ever think about, all you've ever thought about is yourself! You think you're above everyone and can step all over whoever you want without having to pay the price, and you have the balls to think that you're worthy of being a hero? That's why I hate you!"

The bright blue and purple of Light Speed swirled with flecks of red, and Jomei prepared him for the propulsion he'd planned.

"You sick-"

He launched forward, and the expulsion of gas via his hands behind him, wasteful though it may be to his finite reservoir, accelerated his pace to the point where he knew he appeared to be a far speedier version of Bakugo's technique in action.

"-Sadistic,"

A Flashbang pooled in his hand and with barely a thought to aim, he cast it furiously forth into Bakugo's path.

"BASTARD!"

With the force of his augmented acceleration and a powerful pitch behind it, Bakugo reacted a second too late.

The explosion detonated in a burst of blinding magenta light that illuminated the entire arena. His Flashbang had struck at point-blank range. Bakugo recoiled, only to be met with a furious clothesline nearly knocking him off his feet before he could fully throw his hands up in desperate defense. Stopping short where his attack had forced Bakugo to reel back, Jomei latched onto the scruff of his jacket and hurled him into the air back the way he came before letting his hands fall to his sides.

"Whoa!" Present Mic called out. "Now where's all this energy coming from? It's like Nishimura's suddenly a fighting machine, and he's turning the tables on Bakugo!"

Power that had pooled into his arms was unleashed, and a barrage of blue and purple Neon Beams mixed and exploded in rapid succession from his hands. Some stretched to the side or above or below Bakugo, but more sailed in a neat line directly toward their target. Bakugo twisted in the air and blindly blasted some of the beams nearest to him, but several more punched into his gut, his chest, and a final pair connected cleanly into his back, sending him crashing back down to the center of the stage.

Jomei's legs tensed. 'No mercy! Not until it's over!'

He sprang into motion and raced to intercept him before he could recover. Bakugo had barely struggled to his feet when Jomei reached him, still too blind to avoid the two ionized punches to the face Jomei had prepared for him mid-stride. Blood poured from his opponent's nose, but Jomei barely registered it as he opened one hand to twist his wrist and press it against Bakugo's stomach, only to follow up the motion with the projection of a point-blank Phosphor Beam directly to his gut.

Bakugo cried out harshly, genuinely cried out, and was blown violently closer toward the boundary line, slipping uncontrollably along the concrete before he finally recovered and managed to find purchase against the stone.

Rage warped Bakugo's features from where he knelt on the ground, and sparks crackled dangerously from his palms as he looked up to glare at Jomei, who in turn disregarded the logical part of his brain that would've had him back off and fight smarter to assure his victory. Instead, he began a dash in Bakugo's direction, uncaring of whatever his opponent might have been planning to do in retaliation.

In his mind, he could close the gap and nullify anything Bakugo blasted at him with one more Flashbang before he scored the definitive strike that would end the match. He'd win, Bakugo would lose, and the whole world would be better off with one less bastard bully plaguing the Sports Festival.

Bakugo raised his hands in Jomei's direction, his legs braced low against the ground. If Jomei had been in a clearer state of mind, he'd have noticed the warning signs both within and without of the danger he was in.

As it stood, though, he continued his dead charge unabated. Several sparks crackled along Bakugo's hands, and Jomei braced both of his own to prepare two Flashbangs to counter-

Only to feel his arms fizz and spasm as they failed to meet his demands. The fury in Jomei's eyes faded into horror. He was wide open.

Three ominous cracks sounded through the air due to Bakugo's sweat as it ignited, and the last thing Jomei saw clearly was his opponent's hands surrounded with a deep orange glow.

Then every aspect of the world around him changed at once.

He heard nothing but the deafening blast of an all-consuming explosion.

Smelled and tasted the sulfur and soot as it burned the air around him.

Saw blinding fire behind his eyes as they squeezed tightly shut.

Finally, he felt the muffled crush of plant life beneath his back as he bounced time and again against something so much softer than concrete beneath him. When he finally came to and pried his eyes open, he was on his back and immediately tried to climb back to his feet when suddenly a swift round of lightheadedness forced him onto all fours with the weakness it forced upon him. It was then that he finally recognized what he felt beneath his singed and sweaty digits.

Grass.

He blearily looked up at the stage through the mess that he knew was his hair at the moment something cast a shadow on him from above. Bakugo looked down on him. Whereas Jomei suffered burns, an ache in his back, and the painful fizz all along his skin after he'd forced his Quirk and body too far, Bakugo's bloodied nose trickled red all down his face, and no small number of holes had been punched in his sports uniform, but the most obvious injury he'd received was the massive bruise that had started to form where Jomei had brutally launched his Phosphor Beam directly into his stomach. There was something in Bakugo's bloody expression that Jomei would've easily interpreted before, but he couldn't quite place the meaning of it as a fog crept in all corners of both his vision and his mind.

"Hey…" Bakugo huffed and wiped the blood from his nose with the back of his arm before continuing. "Nishimura. Good fight."

And with those words, Jomei could cling to consciousness no longer. His muscles gave out under him and he hit the ground limply, the only thing that registered as he started to drift off was the sound Midnight's voice making a declaration of his loss, and the crowd cheering someone's name faintly into his ears from afar.

Then everything faded to black.

Authors Note: Welp. That was fun.

But in all seriousness, I had this chapter planned almost beat-for-beat in my head from the moment I had the impulsive urge to have Bakugo and Jomei meet in the practical exam. From the dynamic between their personalities and fighting styles, the potential there was too great for me to pass up, and I only grew more excited as I realized how I could incorporate the rest of the main gang into the prelude for the fight. It certainly gave some of the moments some more 'oomph,' from my perspective, anyway. Regardless… Jomei's past against bullies and his 'strong moral compass' is explored further before being actively shown in action to display how berserk Jomei can become, but tunnel vision and the limits of his Quirk thwarts him in the end, despite giving it a real 'plus ultra' go at beating the beastly powerhouse that is Bakugo. Time will tell what any of this chapter's final events will mean…

But I did wanna touch up on one more thing. Chibi Jomei! Well, maybe not chibi because I can't show him as a child with an image in a fic but… you get my meaning. For a second I only thought I'd ever be able to use the flashback scenes I had in mind for the day Ayane lost her ability to walk in my daydreams, but this chapter gave me the perfect chance to incorporate them neatly! I was able to heighten some feels, but more importantly, I was able to give origins to hallmarks of Jomei's personality at large – the glowy showy orbs of his Quirk, his reasons for being a hero, his love of his family and his utter spite for bullies… all of it came together there. The only thing that didn't was the explanation of what Haruto looks like, but… that's intentional. For now, let him remain an anime silhouette-faced dad man. His time shall come again someday.

As with all things though, it'll take time. Hope you guys stick around for the rest of the fest, because the doozy chapters are far from over yet!