Cat and Mouse

Ojiro had quite a bit to think about and not a lot of time to do it. Everything up until now had gone well, he and his partner had the good fortune to be picked as the heroes for the exercise, the map they'd been given had been clear and easy to understand, and his partner, Jiro, had located the bomb and their 'villain' opponent's the moment they'd entered the building. The upcoming problem was that their opponents were following the same playbook as the first villain team: one had gone hunting, the other had stayed with the bomb.

It had worked out well for the villains during the first match. Perhaps a bit too well. Bakugo had sent both Sato and Koda to Recovery Girl, and only the latter had gone under his own power. Bakugo had the decency to help load Sato onto the medical drone; but All Might had not been remotely pleased with the turn of events and said as much, admonishing Bakugo for going too far. Bakugo had listened with a blank expression and asked if they should expect villains to take it easy on them in the field. All Might had bit his tongue at that, but after a moment admitted that while Bakugo's actions were extreme, he couldn't very well pretend that combat would be anything but dangerous. They would be expected to go all out, barring kicking someone while they were down.

Midoriya, the green-haired classmate who wound up being their opponent, had smiled at that.

And now he was coming for them.

Jiro was certain that he knew where they were. They'd tried to sneak down side hallways to avoid him, but he had rerouted almost instantly, cutting them off. He had less ground to cover, only needing to stay between them and the stairs, and he had been quicker than Jiro in both the distance run and fifty-meter dash. They'd have to go through him to get upstairs and to the bomb. Ojiro really hoped they wouldn't be facing the same sort of humiliating defeat that Sato and Koda had.

"There's no point in hiding." Midoriya called to them from down the hall, "I know where you are."

"One of us should stay and fight him," Jiro whispered, and he nodded. They needed to make a decision. He could probably get past Midoriya more easily, and he was sure he'd be able to get to where the villains were keeping the bomb, but they'd know he was coming. She was slower, and could probably keep Midoriya at bay, but he'd be at risk of being hit from behind until he was up a flight of stairs. And she could track down the bomb if the villains moved it.

"You hit him with a blast and I'll engage him. While he's busy, get up the stairs and find the bomb."

She gave a single nod and threw herself into the hall, earphone jacks clicking into her boots. And then she staggered back a step as his fingers reached out and caressed her cheek. "The fuck!" She shouted, and fired off a burst of overwhelming sound. There was a grunt, and Ojiro turned the corner, ducking under inhumanely long fingers as they retracted, their green-haired classmate staggering back at the end of the hall. He was still smiling though, so Ojiro knew he was still in the fight.

"Finally showing yourselves? Excellent." Midoriya seemed to recover, the fingers raced back to normal size as he launched himself forward, countercharging. Ojiro grimaced, diving at the last second and kicking the feet from under his opponent.

"Jiro! Go!" Ojiro shouted as Midoriya's legs landed on his shoulders, chest slamming into the floor before immediately rolling off. Ojiro jumped to his feet as Jiro ran past, answering with action rather than words. He swung his tail, catching Midoriya in the stomach even as he got up, sending his green-haired opponent sprawling back, but not away from him as his fingers latched onto his tail.

Midoriya grinned, body half wrapped around his tail, "You know, fighting a real person is a lot different from fighting robots. I think I'm going to enjoy this."

Ojiro felt a tingle go down his spine. There was just something creepy about the way Midoriya was looking at him. He wanted to wipe the look off his face. So he did. He took a step and whipped his tail around, smashing Midoriya into a wall. The leering smile disappeared for a second, but only just as his opponent coughed, fingers disentangling from his tail, only for his other hand to shoot forward, fingers latching onto Ojiro's face, scratching against his cheek and going for his eyes.

Ojiro slammed them shut before Midoriya could reach them, sweeping an arm up to block the attack and sending them flying. He knew it was too easy to knock them away, it could only be a distraction. His eyes snapped back open and he let himself fall back and out of the way of Midoriya's vicious hook, struck only by a rush of air. His tail braced beneath him and he kicked off the ground and planted both feet in Midoriya's stomach, knocking the leer off his face again as he doubled his opponent over, retching and gasping for air. His attack sent him back against the wall, but he sprung off of it, landing on his feet and with the added momentum lashed out with a spinning kick that sent Midoriya sprawling.

Ojiro took a breath and approached his downed opponent. It seemed too easy. Something was wrong. He was missing something. His cuffs came out anyway. Midoriya groaned and tried to push himself up, but Ojiro swept a hand from beneath him with his tail and pulled the other behind his back, sitting down on him for good measure as he clicked the cuff into place. A second later and the other end was wrapped around his other hand.

There was a pause and All Might announced that Izuku Midoriya had been captured. Ojiro didn't know the man well enough to say for sure, but it almost sounded like he was disappointed.

Ojiro dismissed the thought and refocused on his mission, cognizant that either option was on the table now, capture the bomb or capture Shoji. He turned to follow after Jiro when he heard scuttling behind him and he looked back to see Midoriya's finger distended up and bent backward, pushing him off the ground until, almost a foot in the air, they retracted, letting him fall into a sitting position. Midoriya looked up at him, a smile already beginning to return, "Well that was fun, wasn't it? Congratulations on defeating me, Hero. I'm glad we both achieved our objectives."

There was an amused lilt to his opponent's voice that Ojiro didn't like. He couldn't help but frown, "But you didn't achieve your objective..." His brow knit together, "You weren't taking this seriously, were you?"

Midoriya shrugged, "Not as much as Shoji would have liked, I'm sure. But I have to admit, you have some nice moves, that tail of yours has to help brace your kicks."

Ojiro was sure he was missing something. The fight had felt too easy. Something wasn't adding up, but whatever it was, he couldn't figure it out. Maybe Midoriya was just trying to distract him again? He chose to ignore it. He still had an objective to achieve, and he wouldn't do that standing here. He turned to leave again, "You're wasting my time. And unlike you, I'm going to help my teammate."

"Good luck with that, I hope you win." Midoriya called after him as he started to run towards the stairs, "Oh and Ojiro, have a good night."

Ojiro couldn't help but wonder what that meant. It was still early in the afternoon.

Ojiro stirred and woke up in the dark, Midoriya's well wishes from earlier echoing in his head. Of course, his dreams couldn't have been of All Might and the rest of the class complimenting his combat abilities, or maybe his fight with Shoji getting to play out rather than Jiro taking the opportunity to grab the bomb just as they'd started to square off. No. It had to be Midoriya. Between the whole fingers across the face, his leering smile, and the fact he clearly hadn't been trying as hard as he should have been, he found his dreams... oddly fixed on his classmate.

It was still weird to wake up though. He wasn't a heavy sleeper, but he usually didn't wake up for no reason at all. He didn't need to go to the bathroom. There hadn't been any sound to jar him awake. From what he could remember of the dream, there hadn't been a jump scare or anything to actually wake him. But something was off, and in the darkness, he couldn't see anything. He rolled onto his side to grab for his phone and paused.

He'd been asleep on his back.

And his tail wasn't aching.

In fact, he couldn't feel it at all.

The weariness of sleep dissipated in an instant and he frantically lurched, groping blindly for the light on his nightstand. It clicked on and he threw away his covers... and looked at his tail. He lifted it up and let it flop back down, then reached out and touched it. For just a moment, he was sure... no. There was no way.

After a minute he shut the light off and lay back carefully on his side. He was sure his tail and back would hurt like hell in the morning.

He was pleasantly surprised to find it didn't hurt at all.

Author's Note: I'd just like to say that Ojiro is a badass who doesn't get nearly enough credit. He's a trained martial artist who came in seventh during the quirk assessment test in canon. That's ahead of both Tsuyu and Uraraka, neither of whom would be slouches. He's basically the everyman hero, far more than Midoriya, and deserves some respect. Just saying. Also, Midoriya can be a creepy little bastard, can't he?