They discuss as a group what they would like to do next and Katori can't help but feel a tension between her and Bakugo. She stands next to Todoroki and Jiro with Bakugo hanging back a few bodies away from her. She feels a frictional force pushing against the two of them, keeping them apart like batteries and she dreads their next encounter with the awkwardness between them.
Midoriya decides that they should head towards the bumper cars and Iida promptly begins shuttling them into formation towards their destination. Katori glances over her shoulder to notice that Bakugo now walks behind her with a soft unreadable face. Her eyes reach his and he looks onto hers for a moment before his eyes falter to the ground.
She turns away from him and focuses on walking forward. They reach the bumper cars and all stand in line together to wait for their turn. Katori stands next to Todoroki while she waits in line, with Kirishima and Bakugo standing behind her.
She can hear Kirishima whispering something to Bakugo, possibly encouraging him to speak to her, but she does not hear what he says, and only noticing that whatever he tells the blonde, it's making him stew in aggravation.
Kirishima finally gives up with a loud exhausted sigh that Katori hears. "Bakugo, aren't you going to tell Katori she looks nice?" he asks him loud enough for her to hear. She turns around with Todoroki glancing over his shoulder as well.
A subtle growl lifts from Bakugo's chest as he looks onto the girl who stands before him. His eyes don't look at her outfit, and rather fixate on the bow in her hair. "What's with the bow?" he grumbles at her.
"What?" she asks taken aback by his question.
"That ribbon in your hair!" his tone grows. "Why are you wearing it?" he asks her.
She shrugs at him, "I don't know, because I like it."
"You've never worn it before, so why are you wearing it now?" he challenges her.
Kirishima awkwardly laughs as he pats him on the chest. "It looks great, doesn't it, man!" he smiles trying to decipher Bakugo's attempt at communicating with a woman.
"I like it," Todoroki says glacing at her.
"No one asked you, Icy-Hot!" Bakugo erupts and Katori rolls her eyes, turning away from him and looking forward as Iida navigates the students into their respective bumper cars.
Iida moves to place Katori and Todoroki together when Kirishima jumps in front of her before she can sit, "I call this one!" he roars out, sitting down with Todoroki with a wide smile on his face that the two-toned boy doesn't return.
Katori sighs as she turns and sits in the next car behind them. She looks up at Bakugo expectantly and he rolls his eyes, pulling his hands from his pockets and stepping into the car with her. He takes the driver's seat as she is smashed uncomfortably close to him.
She watches him curiously as he reaches under the steering wheel for something. "What are you doing?" she asks him with arms crossed over her chest.
"These cars have a limit on how fast they can go," he begins, "but if you disable the receiver," he says unplugging something, "there's no limit to how fast you can go."
Her eyes widen at the devilish grin creeping up his face. "Bakugo, wait!" before she can finish Bakugo steps on the gas, immediately crashing into their classmates. Katori's head flings forward as a crazed look overcomes the blonde's eyes.
He crashes into Tsu and Uraraka, forcing them to smash into Kaminari and Jiro. "Die!" he yells out, making Katori's ears ring with his piercing tone.
"Bakugo, slow down!" Katori commands him as she holds onto the bar in front of her.
"Deku!" he hones in on the green-haired boy sitting with Iida. He drives towards the boys as Midoriya wails in fear as he evades the red-hot boy. Before they reach the boy, another car smashes into them on Bakugo's side. She looks over to see the wide sharp-tooth smile of Kirishima as he drives into them.
"I'm gonna kill you, you spikey-haired idiot!" Bakugo growls as he turns the wheel to maneuver to them. Katori screams as they ram into Mina and Aoyama, then again into Sato and Koda.
He moves his direction back to Midoriya and Iida as he drives as fast as the car will let him. "There is no reason your car should be driving that fast!" Iida yells back at him with animated hand gestures. "Tampering of festival equipment will not be tolerated!"
Bakugo sneers, chuckling to himself as he presses forward towards them. Katori's eyes widen when she sees they're on a warpath straight for the two boys. She closes her eyes, grabbing at Bakugo's thigh as her legs slam to the floorboard of the car in a feeble attempt to break on her side.
Bakugo glances down at her hand clasped onto his thigh and his heart skips a beat at her touch. He shakes his head, swallowing the building lump in his throat and bringing his attention back to murdering Deku.
They smash into the two and Katori's head slams into the dash of the car from the sheer force of their hit. Bakugo's eyes widen when he hears the impact, looking at her as her head comes up to show a growing lump and a small cut on her forehead.
She touches her head, wincing with pain as her fingers saturate with blood. "You idiot!" she cries out, holding onto her head and stepping out of the car as their time is up.
Before Bakugo can say anything to her, Katori stomps off heading towards the first aid station of the festival. Tears build in the corners of her eyes as she tries to take her focus off of the pain. She whines at the sight of herself in the mirror to see some of her makeup has smeared, her hair is disheveled, and the bump on her head grows practically to the size of a horn.
The first aid attendant gives her a large bandage and tape to place to the right of her forehead. She fixes her makeup and combs out her hair with her fingers, but she grumbles as she looks at the large bandage on her face, feeling hot and annoyed with how stupid she looks.
She turns around to see Bakugo and Kirishima approaching her and she rolls her eyes. "Whatever you have to say, I don't want to hear it," she tells him sternly and Bakugo rolls his eyes as he crosses his arms over his chest. "This is the worst date I have ever been on!" she fumes and he widens his eyes at her.
"Whaddyou say!" he barks back at her.
"You haven't told me I looked nice, you haven't bought me cotton candy, you haven't tried to hold my hand, and you haven't won a prize for me!" she says feeling stupid for expecting those things, but wanting some sort of effort from him. She turns away from him, not allowing Kirishima to speak on his behalf, and she goes to join the girls.
Uraraka asks if she is alright and she tells them that she is fine and she will be spending the rest of the night with them. They all seem disappointed, but none say anything to her. The girls continue with the rest of their night together, laughing and playing games and going on the rides. She finds herself having fun again with all of them, and when some of the boys join in, they continue to team up together.
They decide to do a three-legged race and everyone picks their partners. Katori asks Todoroki if he will be her partner and he agrees. She looks around to see that Uraraka lights up red as a tomato when she is tied to Midoriya, and she cannot help but smile at the girl. Iida and Yaoyorozu are a team, and finally Mineta and Mina for the first round.
They begin and they all launch themselves awkwardly forward. Katori hugs onto Todoroki's waist with both hands as she clumsily jumps in tandem with him. She looks up at him to see a soft smile on his face, and she blushes at the rare sight. They hop towards the finish line, only to be beat by Yaoyorozu and Iida's impeccable teamwork.
"Only a few more bounces from Satsuma and I could have seen everything," Mineta hungrily reaches for her while Mina backhands him.
"We make a good team!" Katori ignores the little perv and beams up at Todoroki as she high-fives him. "Let's go get some tickets and win some prizes!" she suggests and he nods at her.
They head to a whack-a-mole station where they compete against one another in hammering down a rodent that lifts itself up, only to be smacked down by their large foam hammers. Katori imagines the mole to be Mineta and manages to get in more hits than Todoroki. She cheers when the timer rings and she is declared the winner. The attendant hands them their tickets and they head towards another game.
They join Kaminari and Jiro in a shooting game where Kaminari beats them by a long shot. He wins a stuffed plushie in this game instead of tickets with how high is score was, and he hands a plush Best Jeanist to Jiro who sinks into her shoulders at the embarrassment. Katori smiles at the two of them, thinking they make a cute couple, regardless of how much Jiro likes to tease him.
She and Todoroki play a few more games, collecting more tickets and piling them together to buy something big. "I am having a lot of fun!" she tells him as she watches him throw a ball at some weighted plushies that are impossible to knock down.
"As am I," he tells her as he grunts with another throw that knocks the plushie down. She cheers for him and he hides his smile behind his hair. "Are you excited for the training camp?"
"Yeah," she tells him as she watches the game before them. "Mr. Aizawa and I worked a lot during my internship, so I am excited to use what I learned out there."
"That's great to hear," he tells her genuinely.
"What about your internship?" she winces, "I guess other than the whole Stain thing," she says realizing that they were in real danger with that villain.
"I too learned a lot," he begins, throwing his last shot and earning more tickets. He takes his prize and they begin walking with one another aimlessly. "I've been able to learn how to control my left side more thanks to shadowing my old man."
"That's amazing!" she beams.
"You requested an internship with my father's agency," he says more as a statement and less of a question.
"Yeah," she says looking down at her feet. "I didn't really know where to start with requests. But it didn't matter, I was rejected by everyone I requested."
"I asked him about it," he says and she looks up at him with a slight gasp. "I asked why he rejected you," he blinks down at his feet, unsure if he should tell her how he responded.
"It's because of my father," she tells him.
He figures that she understands and can hear the truth from him, "He said it would be suicide to anyone's image if they took in the Number One Villain's daughter," he says looking into her purple eyes for a response. She nods once, and he can see the hurt in her eyes. "I told him that if a hero's image is solely dependent on who they accept as an intern, then they aren't a hero of much worth." Katori's eyes widen at this comment, but he keeps his face cool. "He was going to extend an offer after that, but he told me that you already accepted an internship with Eraserhead."
She looks away from him, thinking about his words to his father and how he stood up for her. She smiles to herself, hiding her reaction behind black strands of hair.
"I took your advice," he brings her back to him. "After the sports festival, I stopped thinking about my old man," he tells her. "I stopped giving him the power of enraging me, like you said, and he lost all his power over me and this Quirk. I think I'm closer to unlocking using both sides at once thanks to letting that resentment go."
She smiles up at him as he looks down at his left hand. "That's great to hear, Todoroki."
"Shouto," he tells her and she looks up at him. "You said you liked Shouto, so if you want, you can call me Shouto."
"Okay, Shouto," she smiles sheepishly, putting her head down in nervousness.