"Now, let's start the indoor person-to-person combat training with Team A and Team D!" All Might announced over the loudspeaker. Within seconds of entering the building, Bakugo was on the two. Izumi nodded to Kaminari, and they quickly split up, him heading towards where Izumi had predicted the bomb to be, and her facing down the flaming demon that seemed intent on destroying her.
Katsuki cracked his neck as the smoke cleared from the wall that he had just eviscerated. "Come on Deku, don't dodge." His voice was full of malice and anger, and Izumi knew why. Izumi responded by sprinting away into an area that she knew would end in a larger room. "Thanks to Regeneration, I don't have to even worry about how much damage I do." His grin was twisted.
Izumi zipped around a corner, finally making it to the room she was aiming for, Katsuki right on her heels. She suddenly halted her movements and slammed her elbow into the boy's stomach, catching him off-guard, and she flipped him over her back, using his own acceleration against him. However, before he hit the ground, his droplets ignited, and he blasted himself to the other side of the room, which had the added affect of tossing Izumi slightly back, although she used her feet to stop herself before she slammed into the wall.
"Was it fun tricking me all this time?" Bakugo snarled as his gauntlets whirred into motion. "With your fun little multi-Quirk? Sure is flashy, huh?" Izumi grit her teeth. She hadn't been tricking him! She wanted to shout it out, but this wasn't the time, and he wouldn't believe her regardless. Bakugo took her silence as one of superiority, and his eye twitched in anger. "Come at me, then! I'll beat you a thousand times over again!"
The boy flew at Izumi with the rage of a thousand suns. She analyzed his movements and darted out of the way nimbly. "Use your Quirk, goddamnit!" Bakugo roared, flinging a line of nitroglycerin at her which quickly exploded, sending her slightly sliding as she blocked with her arms. "What, you think you're so much better than me you can win without it?"
"Of course not!" Izumi couldn't help herself from shouting.
This only irritated Bakugo more. "Then stop RUNNING!" He jumped at her, leaving her open to counterattack him. However, at the last second, he adjusted his flight path with an explosion that let him jump over her outstretched arm and slam his propelled fist directly into her head, sending her into the floor. Izumi quickly bounced back, but her world was spinning and a headache was threatening to overcome her.
"I'm... I'm not scared of you anymore!" Izumi declared, although she was mostly trying to convince herself. Bakugo's eyes twitched at the statement, although some sort of signal clicked at the back of his head telling him what he was doing was wrong. He ignored it. Holding up one of his gauntlets, he cackled.
"If they designed this the way I wanted..." he hooked a finger inside the pin. Izumi watched in horror as an explosion built up inside the gauntlet, and then... he pulled. It ripped towards her, tearing through the walls, the ceiling, and the floor as it went. She didn't have time to think, she just... reacted. Charging up a small amount of power in her feet, she dodged to the other side of the room, just in time to avoid the massive wave of heat and energy that burst out the side of the building, causing the entire reinforced structure to shake.
Bakugo noted her new location and chuckled. "There we go... Use it! Use all of it! It won't matter!" Izumi grit her teeth. Now that she had used One For All, it would be incredibly difficult to- She blinked. Her legs... didn't hurt. Her pant legs had been blown out, but the skin under them... was perfectly fine. Her eyes widened. She had just managed to control it a little bit better!
Holding onto the feeling, she charged up the energy in her feet again. She felt it sort of shift into place at a lower level at her request. Bakugo charged at her again, sending more projectiles at her. She jumped, using One For All (2%) in both of her feet to launch herself across the room, away from danger for the moment. Bakugo huffed, but was still smiling like a madman. Izumi reminded herself of how his power worked. The more he exerted himself, the stronger he became.
She grit her teeth. She would need to find a way to end this or slip away soon. Kamanari probably wouldn't be able to get past Kirishima on his own before the time limit passed. 'No! I can't think about that right now!' She thought to herself, charging up One For All again and evading another attack. It was tiresome to continuously charge it up over and over or hold it. 'This isn't just about being the victor of a stupid class! This is about standing up to Kaachan!'
Suddenly, Kamanari came over the comms. "I found the bomb! But Kirishima isn't moving, and I can't get past him thanks to his defenses. He's solid enough to not move an inch!" Izumi grit her teeth. The room she was in was three floors directly below the bomb.
"Alright, where is he?" She questioned.
"Ignoring me?" Bakugo bellowed, charging yet another blast. "Attack me, you damn nerd!"
"Right in the middle of the room. Is everything al-" Izumi cut him off.
"Alright, got it. Hang on and get ready to make a break for it!" She told him as Katsuki approached her rapidly.
"Stop looking down on me, you damn nerd!" Suddenly, Izumi realized she hadn't charged One For All in her feet yet. 'There's no way I can evade!' She made a split-second decision, with only the hope that it was the correct one. She didn't try to limit One For All and let it charge up to its full power in her right arm, and, as Bakugo came in like a maniac, she swung.
She didn't make contact with anything. But that hadn't been the goal. The air pressure shifted as the current suddenly blew strongly upwards, creating an updraft that blew out the floors above her, and she heard a shout as Kirishima got pushed upwards as well. And then, Bakugo's attack connected. A side effect of her attack was that she had become buried in the floor below her, and her feet were stuck.
She started screaming. Bakugo had no doubt expected her to dodge again, and he was at full power, sweating like a pig. And he hadn't pulled his punches, because there was no reason to do so. He hadn't been hitting her before, all he was doing now was removing places for her to hide and run. The screaming pierced his clouded brain as he was forced back into full concentration instead of relying on his instincts as he had been moments before.
Flesh started to burn as Izumi was hit point-blank with a full-powered blast even stronger than the one that had come from the gauntlet earlier. Bakugo quickly cut the stream off as both his instincts and his brain starting screaming at him that what he was doing was wrong, but it was already terribly too late. Behind his target, the wall had been blown out from the sheer power of his explosion. And, in front of it...
The boy nearly gagged. Izumi's body was heavily burned on the right side, with most of it blackened. Most of her costume had been burnt to crisps, with only a few scraps protecting her modesty. Her forearm, which had taken the brunt of the strike, was clearly broken, and the skin was blackened to total darkness. Izumi's other arm was pointing straight up at the ceiling, which now had a hole going through the entire building and through the roof. Her suit had been ripped around her arm, revealing that it was no doubt shattered, with multiple bruises and lacerations lining the exterior.
Bakugo instantly understood just how incorrect he had been in assuming she had been looking down on him. Over the loudspeaker, All Might announced in shock, "Hero... Hero Team wins!" But, his voice was incredibly worried as well. Bakugo slumped to his knees in synchronization with Izumi, and then they both fell onto the ground, unconscious, with one in a much worse state than the other.
.
...
. . .
Izumi sat up groggily, blinking as she stretched her arms. Her bed was more comfortable than usual, and... Wait, what?
The girl looked around at her surroundings. White walls, a white ceiling, and white curtains... 'The infirmary?' She questioned. She hadn't been in one of these for... a decade, at least. Not since her Quirk had started working. The sky was still blue, and there was a small woman who looked like a sweet grandma typing away on a computer. Izumi's eyes widened. She knew her! This was Recovery Girl, a Pro Hero with an ability like her Regeneration!
Izumi sat up, alerting the Pro Hero to her rise to consciousness. Immediately, the Pro Hero was there. "You idiot!" She scolded. "Are you trying to destroy your body?" Izumi sweatdropped. 'So much for a 'sweet old grandma',' she thought.
"N-no!" She protested, waving her arms around, disturbing the IV hooked into her arm.
"Stop moving around!" Recovery Girl yelled at her, smacking the girl on the head, causing her to stop moving and fall back on the pillow, dazed. "That's better. I swear, Toshinori spoils you... he should've ended the match much earlier. I know he gave you One For All, but he really needs to learn how to assess your limitations better." Her glasses shined as she rose.
Izumi slowly rose again as if to protest, but all that came out were sputters. All of the sudden, the infirmary doors opened, and All Might walked through. He was deflated, now, and panting, as if he had rushed to get there. "It's alright, Young Midoriya. All of the teachers here at U.A know about my condition, and the principle and Recovery Girl both know about the details of my Quirk. You don't have to worry about hiding it around them." Izumi stopped sputtering and nodded, but looked over the man's form.
"Is everything alright? You're out of your normal form..." She muttered. All Might, despite his worry, smiled. She was truly a kind soul.
He waved her concerns off. "Of course I'm alright! I am the number one hero, All Might!" He raised his arm, but was quickly interrupted by blood spurting out of his mouth and onto his hand.
Recovery Girl rolled her eyes. "Enough with the bravado. If it was up to me, you'd be in a bed right beside the girl." All Might chuckled awkwardly and scratched his scalp. "Still... it's amazing how efficient her Quirk is."
All Might nodded emphatically. "Indeed! It's not been half an hour and, if I had to suspect, I'd bet that you could walk on your own already without trouble, Young Midoriya."
Izumi shuffled awkwardly out of bed. "She's not your patient," Recovery Girl snarked, but made no move to stop the girl. Izumi swung both of her legs onto the ground and stood up with ease.
"Easy as ever," she informed them, stepping a few feet in either direction to make sure she was fine. "It feels like my Regeneration is working even better than before," she punctuated, although she sounded confused.
All Might nodded. "Perfectly natural. You might see even more improvements in the future. Although I never experienced it firsthand, my predecessor, Nana Shimura, informed me that her Quirk was strengthened while her abilities with One For All grew." Izumi's eyes widened in excitement.
"Oh, also!" She exclaimed. "I was able to kinda control One For All better, although it was tough charging it up to a specific amount every time I tried to use it." She scratched her temple awkwardly as All Might nodded.
"Good job, Young Midoriya!" He gave her a thumbs up. "You're going to have to work your best to train your body up to a state where it can handle One For All constantly, and this is wonderful progress." He snuck a look at the clock. "However, if you're all ready to go, I believe you have classes for the afternoon, no?"
Izumi shook the grogginess out of her eyes. "You're right! Mr. Aizawa would kill me if I didn't show up," she chuckled. Toshinori chuckled as well.
"You're all free to go, young lady. I don't want to see you in here again!" Recovery Girl told her, although she could tell the words held multiple meanings. "Also, you should probably grab your clothes before heading to your next class." She nodded down at the girl.
Izumi let out a small 'Eep!', realizing that she was still in her tattered hero uniform. "Going to have to get this remade," she complained. The heroes in the room chuckled.
"Always a first time. Never a last time," All Might told her. She made sure to keep that in mind.
The news that All Might was a teacher at U.A quickly spread. Reporters started to line the gate of the school, although none dared try and enter the boundaries. They were harassing students and staff alike, being rude... and forceful. It eventually started getting to a lot of the students, who were starting to be followed to and from their homes.
Surprisingly, Izumi was the first to snap. "Do you all have no shame?!" She demanded, whirling around to face the half-dozen reporters who were constantly asking her questions on the way home from school. "Or are you all just looking for excuses to follow girls home? All you're doing is bothering us. Leave us alone!" The outburst seemingly shocked the reporters.
As the reporters quickly swarmed away from the uncooperative girl, a bluish-gray haired man watched from a distance. "Gihihi..." He chuckled. 'There is potential here. Untapped. Pure.' The last word made him chuckle. 'I wonder how far I can twist it until it breaks?'
A shorter chapter, only about half the size, sorry, but I had this all written for a couple days and was going to write more, but I feel like it's fine to stop here and post this just so I'm updating something. Sorry that it's so short, hopefully this won't become commonplace, but who knows?