("Underlined text" is supposed to be read as Sign Language. "Italicized text" is used only for Misaki's Dad's quirk. "Bold Text" is used for messages Misaki types out.)
Chapter Eleven
Burn The House Down
Misaki kept her eyes directly ahead of herself as she walked into the open air. The sun was shining overhead and the crowd was watching with keen intention to see what the next match would be like. After the last few students had blown things out of the water compared to what it had been like in prior years that had since past, seeing another round of interesting quirks enticed the crowds. Her focus wasn't on those people that were waiting to see who would win and who would lose, no, her grey eyes were steadfast on her opponent.
"I don't want to hurt you, Misaki." was the first thing that Mari said.
"You want to be a hero just as much as I do," Misaki responded. "This is a step in on that road. If someone gets a little bruised then that's how it is."
"I know."
Misaki took one step forward as she settled in her waiting spot. It wouldn't be long now. "So put your hands up and make it a good fight. I know your Mom is watching this. Let's show her how good you are."
"I never meant to lie about the school," she started to say. "I just did not know how to handle it. Mom yelled at me for hours after I even took the exam. She was angrier when I got in at all."
"I knew something was wrong. I am not upset with you. I am a little sad that you thought you could not ask me for help. But I am not mad. You do not have to tell me about it if you don't want to." Misaki said, simply. It had become clear that this was about a lot more than just school. It had started with more than just that and fizzled more and more out of control as the days passed by.
"..."
"You are always worried about what your Mom thinks. But what you should be more worried about is what you think about yourself. You can make your dreams a reality even if you have to start from the bottom. But you have to do it the right way." Misaki said. She dared to take a few steps forward, her feet the only sound making the impact around them as Mari watched her friend come closer and closer and her feet refused to budge from their spot on the pavement.
Mari couldn't run away from the problem anymore but she didn't want to deal with this. There was no escape if she turned tail and ran like a child. If she didn't do what she needed to do then there would be no hope in proving her dreams to be something that could happen. She had to ignore the burning in her eyes and face it.
She made a mistake and now she had to make up for it.
It could only be fixed by fighting it out.
"You can start by doing it right now. Let's fight fair and square."
Mari hesitated. "But what if I give it my all and lose?"
Misaki didn't budge from her spot. She kept her eyes trained onto Mari as if the girl would blow away if she turned her head. "You'll just have to make sure you don't, or that if you do, you can say that you did everything you could in the end. I know you're scared of your Mom. Don't let her control your life anymore, Mari. You always wanted to be a hero. You're going to do it. I know you have it in you."
They both knew that it was hard to speak to that woman. It was a long fight that never seemed to have an end to it. If she would never change her mind about Mari, then Mari had to stop and learn that her life was her own. Just as Todoroki had realized that he could use his quirk and not feel bad for it belonging to a person like his own Ddd.
What mattered was that Mari stopped listening to whatever else thought of her and she starts thinking for herself for once in her life. Mari was just scared of what that meant. What it could mean to walk forward without fear.
What would it be like to feel as free as the river flowing endlessly into the ocean... going on and over forever? Would it be liberating to be able to do what she wanted? Or would it feel like the cage she was in right now?
She took a step back, nervously shaking her head. Her breath was caught in her throat. "She hates everything that I want to be. You know that. If I can't prove myself here than what's the point? If I can't prove that I can be strong and win... if I... I'm going to only be proving her right if I can't beat you here, Misaki. You can't just say I can be brave when I'm not."
Misaki sucked in a breath. Her shoulders had tightened and she felt pain, pain for her friend and anger that she felt so scared about everything. She was everything and more than what her mom thought of her, and if she had to fight her to make her see that, she was going to do it. "You told me that you wanted to be a hero because you want to prove that even crybabies can make a difference. Rain or shine, win or lose. That was your dream! Do you think that you'll be able to be a great hero if you can't even stand up to your own bully now?!"
Mari didn't say anything.
"Don't make me beat some sense into you!"
"Did I miss anything?"
Uraraka had just gotten back to the student section and it seemed as though Misaki's match had already started. She plopped down in her seat next to Iida and Tokoyami as they directed their attention to the girls down below. Neither of them had made a move to strike yet, Midnight had just gotten ready to begin the match. She pursed her lips. It seemed as though the two of them were talking about something but she had no clue what it was since she wasn't the best versed in JSL.
Some of the girls had picked up learning little things thanks to the references that Misaki had provided them, but she wasn't skilled enough to pick apart full sentences.
"They've been talking for a moment, but I'm afraid I don't know what it's about," Iida told her with a nod. "Though, it seems to be important as they've been intensely serious."
Uraraka didn't know a lot about Misaki's background, heck, she hadn't even known that she had a best friend in one of the other classes. Sure, she had mentioned some now and again, but she had assumed that Misaki had been talking about Hatsume. Hatsume had teamed up with them during the second round and decisively confirmed that she was Misaki's friend as well as other things as they got ready for the round. She knew that something had happened between Misaki and Shimizu, but whatever that was...
she didn't know.
All of a sudden someone ricocheted into the seat between Uraraka and Iida with a loud thud. It hadn't been an attack so then what was the cause of that very sound? The students from class 1-A were staring wide-eyed at the sudden appearance of a wild Hatsume Mei amongst them. She had gotten herself comfortable and kicked back in her seat as the two students stared, slack-jawed.
"Hatsume?! Where did you come from?!" Iida lifted his hand in question, sternly correcting the pinkette for her appearance. "You know you should be the Support Studies class!"
"Are you still sore about earlier? I did apologize for using you for my benefit, should be dust in the wind now, this is the best spot to watch both of my friends, hope you don't mind!" Mei waved his worries away like her hand and looked amongst the others. "I came to offer my services as an apology for then if that seems to be what has your pants in a bunch! I can translate if you're curious."
"You know what they're saying, then?" Uraraka asked, curiously.
"I mean those two are my best friends from middle school. They always talk to each other like that, since they've been friends for years longer then I've been around. I learned it fairly quickly since that's Misaki's preferred means of communication," She said. "I could have made a cute baby to enhance her ability to speak but she refused that!"
"I see," Iida nodded.
It did make sense, after all. As long as any of them had known Misaki it had been clear that she didn't see any of her abilities as a setback. She took her deafness in stride and made a show of proving herself just as worthy as the rest of them. She was very prideful about it, and if anyone brought it up, she was the first to tell them off.
Uraraka was now curious to learn the story behind the two of them. Misaki was so kind, and forthcoming to others. The idea that she would be having trouble with anyone seemed a little impossible. "Then... you wouldn't happen to know why the two of them had a falling out, would you?"
Hatsume turned her head away from the trio and centered her focus on the two girls that were circling the stadium floor.
In spite of how easy it was to joke and play around with things. It was hard to watch the two of her friends dealing with this. She knew that it was going to happen sooner or later, and while it was a weight off of her shoulders knowing that neither party could avoid things any longer, she just hoped that both of them would come out unscathed.
"You see, Mari's mom is kind of a tyrant." She started to say, "Any time she brings up that she wants to her a Pro, her mom pretty much destroys her dreams faster than one of my baby's blows up on a bad day! After she failed to get into the hero course, her Mom told her that if she didn't make it there by the end of high school, then she would have to give it up forever. Misaki's always been the one to help Mari when she fails and if it wasn't for her... Mari would have given up a long time ago. So, she got it into her head that she couldn't tell Misaki that she failed and that the only way to prove she was strong enough to make her dreams real was to do it alone."
"Of course, I told her that that was the dumbest idea I ever heard in my life, but you can't argue with that crybaby! I've been playing tug of rope with the two of them but not anymore! Misaki's been in the dark about all that's happened, so when she found out that Mari had gotten in U.A., she was pretty shocked, I can imagine! Now that I've finished my fabulous display of babies, I can focus on my friends. They have to sort out that awkward tension down there with this fight! I'll be glad when they kiss and makeup so I can have my two assistants back!"
Everyone stared at the girl, a bit perplexed.
"...Assistants?" Uraraka asked, unsure if she wanted to know the answer.
Mei's boisterous laughter ran throughout the arena. "You don't think I'm a one-woman-show, do ya? The only way to get my babies to be absolutely perfect is if I have test dummies to use! They're the most willing participants I've ever had. Misaki takes it in stride if something explodes and sends her flying across the room. It's truly beautiful!"
Suddenly, a few of their classmates felt bad for Misaki.
The match had begun whether Mari and Misaki were ready for it or not. Neither one had made a move on the other, just circling one another, waiting for the other to draw.
Then, Misaki made the first move as she raced towards Mari with her fist held high.
Mari's eyes widened, and then she activated her quirk. Torrents of water shot from her eyes and as she was already emotionally spent, her power was at its peak. Misaki barely managed to dodge the attack by rolling onto the pavement and coming within inches of the boundary line, her chest rising and falling with adrenaline as she got back onto her feet as quickly as she could manage before Mari set off another round of water jets in her direction.
Round and round they went in the arena as Mari used her quirk to cover the field in water, as well as try to knock Misaki down; She would come this close to reaching her friend but she would activate her quirk, and get this much ahead of her before releasing it.
Misaki would dodge the blasts by using her quirk. She would dance in and out of Mari's field of vision as she got closer and closer to Mari's spot on the field. She would scramble to move within the battlefield with the hope that moving around would make it harder for her friend to get ahold of her in spite of her quirk.
Touch and miss.
One of them would get right to the other, and then their opponent would dodge.
It was a cruel game of cat and mouse.
Mari did her best to keep pushing herself beyond her limits. However, she knew that sooner or later there would be no more water in her body to keep up with her attacks. How long would she be able to keep her quirk up before she ran out of fluids? Misaki could have ended this in mere seconds but she was dragging this out, right? It should have been all that easy for her to end the match. Why was she pushing this out when she could win everything without even trying?
Seeing the twinkling lights that danced around the field when Misaki would use her quirk was like a taunt. She would always be chasing those stars in front of her, no matter what she did, she just couldn't seem to pass them—
to pass Misaki.
She wanted to be the person that people could see themselves in. She wanted everyone scared of making a change to look at her and realize that anyone could be a hero. Her dream was to a beacon of light in the sky that everyone could see. As far as Mari was concerned, she already saw Misaki in that light.
The cornerstone of her dreams was already starting to come to fruition. It was a selfless dream as much as it was a passionate selfish dream.
Even before she had met Misaki and before she had gone on this path to where she was today, she had long dreamed of reaching for the top and grasping it in her hands. From a young age, she had known that the world wasn't fair to people. It was like the universe had something against her family and her entire existence. She had seen it in her Mother's eyes when she was a child and when Inari was a baby.
How cruel injustice could lead to the destruction of a family, how one mistake a hero makes can ruin someone's life just as much as a hero's justice could make the difference in the face of adversity.
One mistake could cost someone their life.
And that day, that horrible day that nobody would speak about, the life that had been taken at a hero's mistake had been her father's own. She had never breathed a word of what had happened to anyone, not even Misaki. But it was that day that her mother changed and she refused to let any talk of heroes be in a positive light in their house. She blamed the hero society for what had happened. How were they so great if they could lead to someone losing their own life?
What good were heroes if they couldn't save everyone? What good was it if they fucked up just as much as everyone else? What good could be found in people that choose to be larger than life, and couldn't hold up to that standard? What good could be done by choosing to be the very thing that caused the death of her father?
She had only started to open up about these feelings and these fears recently. When she was with Shinso... it was like she could talk about without limitation or fear, he understood where she was coming from, and not once did he make her feel as though as she had to hide the truth. He had listened to every word that she had said and took it in stride.
She could still see his purple irises in her memory.
She broke down.
It just hit her hard when she saw Misaki out there, training with her classmates and not having a care in the world. She was pushing herself, and she would get back up every time she fell. It just slipped out. She said one thing and then the rest of it just... come out all at once. How frustrated she was with herself, how her mom blamed quirks and heroes for everything, how her mom looked at her and told if that if she followed the path of a hero that she shouldn't even bother coming home.
"I understand, Shimizu. You shouldn't beat yourself up over what your mom says because it's not true. You said yourself that you're going to be a hero so she'll just have to deal with it. You're not the one that fucked up out there. It's a crock of shit, really. What matters is what you're going to do to change this society and how people like her think." Shinso didn't look at her as he spoke, as the two of them stared out of the window and into the cities' horizon.
"Fact is, I'm going to be doing the very same thing. People look at my quirk and only see what harm it can do, not the benefit that it can have. I'm going to make them realize what I'm capable of, even if I have to claw my way to the top."
"Do you really think I could do that?" She asked him, sincerely.
"Can you cry enough liquid to fill a swimming pool?" His sarcasm was fresh as he replied. "If you're going to stick around my side then you could stand to grow a backbone."
Mari stared at him, incredulous. She shook the look of disbelief off of her face "Hey! I have a backbone!"
"Sure you do."
He was right.
She didn't have one.
Any time she voiced her opinion on her dream, her mother would smack it down.
Mari didn't want to be the kind of hero that caused pain. She wanted to be the kind of person that would everything for anybody, and if she messed up, she would be the first to sink to her knees and do whatever it took to make things right. She wanted her Mom to believe again, she wanted the light to come back to that woman's eyes.
She didn't just want to be a hero for the sake of her dreams as a child, nor did it lay on being the kind of hero that her brother could believe in.
Mari wanted to be a hero because...
because...
Her emotions had finally gotten the better of her. Through her flooded tears, she had made a mistake and Misaki had appeared in front of her, at last, and she knocked Mari across the ring almost to the boundary line.
Mari cried out, frustrated.
She knew that she was screaming at the wind. All of her feelings were just starting to become too much on her body, and the flood of tears to her eyes wasn't just from her quirk. Her chest heaved with exhaustion and her vision was starting to blur from overusing her power, Misaki approached her slowly, and when she reached her friend she stopped in her tracks and didn't move. She stared down at her, instead, her eyes were not filled with pity, but sadness.
Mari stared back at her, her heart heavy. She didn't get up at first. She laughed at how ridiculous this all was. "Why won't you end this?! I know you can beat me whenever you want! I know the inevitability. I know I can't beat the truth! So just tell me it's pointless and that I can't change how my mother thinks! She will always blame heroes for what happened to Dad, and she'll always hate what I want to be."
Misaki was always too kind.
She was always far too understanding and accepting of people, even if they hurt her once or twice. She had even accepted the apologies from people that had bullied her in the past, understanding that children didn't always understand how to accept a difference. She took her pain and grief in strife without falling apart. Mari had always admired that.
It just stung that she was on the receiving end of one of those looks.
Misaki shook her head. "I don't know what happened in the past that made things worse with your Mom. But I have always believed in you, Mari. Mei believes in you. I know your new friend believes in you. You can do everything that you set out to do. You got into U.A., it doesn't matter that it wasn't the hero course on the first try. The acceptance rate is still strict for everyone. The fact that you got in at all means that they believe in you. You've already proved that you are something special. If you keep fighting for your dream, and you be the brave crybaby I know?"
"You'll be a hero. You'll be one of the best. You're my best friend no matter what happens here. I want to be there with you as we make our dreams come true. So, let's finish this." She said. It went without saying that the two of them would have to talk about everything once this was over, but the way that she spoke just said that things might be different but they would still be best friends.
Misaki held out her hand for Mari to grab.
Mari stared at her for a moment and then took her hand. She stood back on her wobbly legs and began to take a few steps back. She motioned for her friend to come to her with all that she had. That was the straw that broke the camels back. The two of them raced for each other with everything that they had left in their bodies.
Mari tried to ignite her quirk but what she had left wasn't enough, and it hit Misaki but it didn't push her back.
The water just dripped onto the ground like that. She still went for it. Just trying to go about this the old fashioned way with her hands. Misaki hit her with everything she had in one punch and Mari was sent flying back out of the ring with a vision of stars blurring at the edges of her tired vision. Today, her real all just wasn't enough to beat Misaki, but she accepted that things might be different in the future.
Misaki stumbled onto her knees not long after that, her own body screaming at her for pushing it close, still very conscious but inside of the ring, however.
She was declared the winner.
"Ugh!"
Mari tried to sit upright the instant that she woke up. Her vision was darkened and her hands went to her face where she felt cloth covering both of the tired eyes. She had overdone it then. Recovery Girl had done her a solid by protecting her eyes from any more damage.
Any time that she overextended her quirk, it would put a drain on her eyes and it would take a little while before they would be properly wet again. She struggled with a major case of dry eye for a few days.
"...Who won the match?" she immediately asked.
"Miss Hisakawa won the match." Recovery Girl said. She rubbed her hands together, sighing. "You shouldn't try to get up after that. You'll wind up hurting yourself more. You're going to need to replenish your fluids after using them all up like that. I've got you hooked up but it's going to be a little while. We can't shock your system too much. It was pretty reckless to push yourself that far, Miss Shimizu. In the future, I would hope that you take more care of your quirk by hydrating properly."
"Yes, ma'am," Mari said.
She knew that she had pushed it, nut it felt like she had done all that she could for once. There was no regret for her loss. Misaki had given her a fair shot and won. Once Recovery Girl had made herself clear, she settled in her bed and waited in the quiet. How long had she been out for and had Misaki made it any further in the games?
Footsteps became louder as someone appeared in the door, a little out of breath and probably disheveled, but whoever it was sighed in relief. "Mari," the voice said. "I didn't think you would awake when I got here!"
"Mei," she smiled. "Here I thought you would be out there cheering for Misaki instead of coming down here. What brings you to my hospital bed?"
It was good to hear her voice after all of that.
Mei had been a rock for her this entire time. Keeping the secret for her as long as she did had been a real challenge. She could be a real blabbermouth when she wanted to be one. But... she had been right about telling the truth in the end, after all, despite how much Mari had tried to believe that it wouldn't. She was always right, unfortunately. She just seemed to have the game of life figured out to a degree that the rest of them hadn't quite yet gotten to.
It's always the person that you least expect.
"I knew you would stop by sooner or later, Shimizu! Glad to see you appreciating my new laboratory before school starts to hustle and bustle. I've been taking advantage of the lack of students and the soundproof walls! I've had some mishaps but grand discoveries for my future babies, I have screwed up and rebuilt those screwups to perfection! You won't believe what I have access to!"
Mei hadn't been kidding when she said that she had been spending her free time at the school. They let the students that were joining the support class spend a lot of time here before the year officially began. They had the chance to work on things that would be helping the first years, and Mei had jumped at that chance. She received the phone and then sprinted to the station in the middle of a phone call with Mari. It had been that serious of a situation for her. She had been putting her time to good use.
There were dozens of prototypes all over the place.
"It's impressive," Mari noted. "But, I didn't come here about that."
Mei was in the middle of working on something as they spoke. She had lowered herself underneath what appeared to be a huge bomb, but Mari knew that it wasn't. She was trying to fine-tune something, and whatever it was, if she asked, she wouldn't ever hear the end of it. Ever the one to be quick, and without a filter, Mei didn't miss a beat when she responded. "It's about Misaki, isn't it? How you've been ignoring her texts! I've already had a couple of messages from her about where you are, I figured it was only a matter of time till you spoke to me about it."
"Promise me that you won't tell Misaki about this. Okay? I can't bear the thought of ruining her first day knowing that I didn't make it there with her. It'll just be for a little bit. I want her to be able to settle into school without worrying about hurting my feelings. She needs to get used to it, me not being there with her, I mean."
Mei didn't stop tinkering with the project she was working on. She ducked her head underneath the metal, and continue soldering parts that needed to connect. "I still think this is a stupid idea. She would be happy just knowing that you got into the school. Otherwise, she's going to waste a lot of time thinking about where you are. You can't ignore her forever, ya' know."
Mari sighed. She clutched at the ends of her skirt and turned away from the girl. "I know, Mei."
"If you know then you should do the right thing. Rip off that bandaid before you get too scared to do it. You can't chicken out at now of all times." Mei's voice rang out from underneath the baby.
"...I know, Mei. I didn't come here to get lectured. I came here because you're the only other friend that I have," she admitted. "I already messed up by ignoring Misa for this long. I don't want to fuck anything else up... you guys are the only people that I have."
The heat from the gun stopped emitting as she shut it off and rolled out from underneath the machine. She lifted the mask off of her face and gave her one of those rare sympathetic looks that you hardly ever saw appear. She sprang onto her feet and pressed her hands to Mari's shoulders tightly. "I won't claim to ever understand the intricacies of emotional connections. It's an imbalance of chemicals inside of our heads that I haven't cracked, but if I know anything, and I sure as hell know a lot of things, it's that you don't have to worry about me ignoring you."
The smile on her face for some reason made Mari's heart quicken.
"I value our relationship," Mei said.
Mari swallowed. "Yeah, I don't know what I'd do without you."
The memory was as clear as day.
"What? I can't want to check up on you? That's cold, Mari, here I thought the two of us were good friends!" Mei's laugh was a little strange today. There was an edge to it that had something in it that wasn't normal.
Mei took a seat at her bedside, it sounded like she had been... worried. That was strange coming from that girl. There hadn't been a time where it seemed like she had made anyone concerned... especially not Mei. The two of them had always been back and forth, teasing and pulling the other's leg when push came to shove. It was just the kind of dynamic that they always had. Mei liked to bother Mari and Mari would play into it with a blush on her face the entire time.
It was... their normal.
"You were right, Mei."
Mei did a double-take as if shocked to be hearing those words. "What? Excuse me? Am I hearing the great Shimizu Mari admitting that she was wrong about something?"
Mari merely shook her head. Her fingers dug into the fabric of her shirt. "You were right about being honest with Misaki. I was being silly getting so worked up over all of that. I should have known that she would understand. She wasn't even mad at me for fucking up like that. I should listen to you more often... honestly. Look, all I'm saying is I knew that I should have listened to you from the start but... I just didn't want to face the facts. Face the fact that you were right, again."
Mei didn't know how to react to that. So, she just started to laugh. "Hahahaha! Don't look so beaten up about it! It's like it's the end of the world when I'm right!"
Mari grabbed at the air until she located Mei's hand. She gripped it tight and pulled her in for a hug. Mei was jostled, but she accepted it after a moment of brief hesitation. Her eyes may have been dry but she was still crying from the events of the day on the inside. It meant so much that Mei was here even after all of this. She understood that she and Misaki might not want to hang around her, but neither of them had given up on her. It meant even more much that she could still hold onto them.
"I'm sorry for being a bad friend, not just to Misaki, but you too. I shouldn't have made you pick sides or keep secrets. That was just as wrong as lying to Misaki in the first place. I know this must have been hard for you too. You don't have to say anything. I'll do better in the future. I need to sit down with you and Misa and talk about a lot once today is over... okay?"
Mei was quiet, but she gently patted Mari's back. "Yeah. Once today is done."
"Am I interrupting something?" Both of the girl's heads shot in the direction of the doorway where Shinso Hitoshi was standing.
He rubbed the back of his head, unsure of what to make of those two. He hadn't realized that someone would be visiting Mari after all that, and he really didn't know what to think when he realized that it was that wild child from the support class. When Mari mentioned that she really only had two friends, he really hadn't thought that one of those two would have wound up being this type of person.
Mari couldn't see him but she was smiled broadly. She had been one of the firsts to clap him on the back after he held his own against that kid with the freaky quirk, even though her mind had been swelling, she had been so damn proud of him for proving himself. Hell, the entire class had been proud of him for fighting and holding his own.
She shook her head, and waved, in spite of the dizziness that bothered her every time she moved. "Shinso! I wasn't sure if you were going to stop by. No, no, there's... nothing going on!"
"I just wanted to make sure that you were alright," he said. "You took a pretty big blow to the head thanks to your friend out there. Everyone from our class was worried about you, actually. But I see that you're wrapped up nice and tight."
Mari rubbed the back of her head. "Yeah, yeah. Recovery Girl said that I'm gonna have to stay here for a while after overusing my quirk. Mei here was just checking up on me after that mess of a fight went down. After all, she's one of my really close friends. Oh, right, you haven't met her before, right? I've said enough that you probably figured that out already but... Hatsume, this is Shinso Hitoshi, Shinso, this is Hatsume Mei."
Shinso made eye contact with Hatsume and nodded his head. "Sup. The girl with all the gadgets, right?"
Mei wasn't sure what to make of this guy. Mari had made it sound as though she was very fond of him, but he was one of the reasons that she had let things drag out as long as she did with Misaki. Well, she wouldn't pass any judgments now. Not when she could make another business appeal! "You are correct, sir! It's a shame I don't have anymore on me because I've been thinking about how you could fine-tune your quirk!"
"Oh, really?" He cocked his head to the side. Shinso didn't waste a lot of time with people, but, hey, if this girl had something to show him then he wouldn't be the one to tell her no.
Mari laughed. She should have expected that. She had half-expected that the girl would have been watching the match with her eyes and writing with her hands. "Don't even get her started, Shinso. She's been barking at the walls for weeks now trying to get me to hear about what she has planned for me. Don't tell me you have already made sketches, Mei?"
Mei's lips curled into a wicked grin. "Oh, I've got plenty after I watched everyone today. I think the two of you have a lot of wasted potentials that we could build on with some of my precious babies, what do you say?!"
This could be the start of a lovely new relationship.
Bakugou Katsuki was many things to everyone. Whatever that was didn't matter to him right now. If people didn't get with the picture and understand where he was coming from, then why should he bother? Pretty much everyone in their class had figured out two things about Bakugou, one was that he couldn't stand Midoriya, and the second was that he was always going to argue with Hisakawa if they made eye contact.
All Misaki saw him as was a pain right now. He was standing in her way to victory to prove him wrong and she was determined to make a point with him. He had started it by calling her a stupid nickname, and now all she wanted to do was wipe that smug look off his face. She had made that abundantly clear with him. On the tip of a hat, she changed her mind about being a pain in the ass, going full extra by declaring war on him the first day.
Now, this was a fight that he had been waiting for.
If she wanted to take him on, then so be it. He would beat her before she even knew he was coming. He had had the time to prepare for that stupid quirk of hers and no way in hell was he going to let her touch him and win. He had blown through the others with ease and now the only thing standing in his way was Hisakawa Misaki on the opposing end of the field.
She was going down like the rest of these extras.
As he rubbed his hands and set off minor explosions, he stared Misaki down with a wicked glint in his eyes. Bakugou made sure that he was looking straight into those grey eyes as he spoke, "I'm ready to blow you to pieces, plum."
Misaki had one of those looks on her face like she wasn't about to be destroyed in two seconds flat. It annoyed him. She needed to learn her lesson about putting herself places nobody asked her to be. She would stop going out of her way to save him when he didn't ask for it. She shouldn't have ever bothered to waste her time during the entrance exam nor during at U.S.J. He could have handled it. He didn't need anyone to get in his way to help him to the top when he could do it squarely on his own.
Nobody was going to trample his pride.
Not shitty Deku, and sure as hell, not this plum.
Misaki stood her ground with her feet firmly planted on the ground. That look in her eyes was sharp, and her fingers were just twitching at her side, waiting to activate her quirk, but he knew she could be stopped with his speed and the right force. She looked back at him, unwavering in her stance, mouthing the words, "I'd like to see you try, pineapple."
Bakugou twitched. Who the hell did she think she was calling him something stupid?
The match had begun with the rise and fall of Midnight's hand.
He made the first move in the blink of an eye.
Bakugou moved in a flash and was above the purple-haired girl with an explosion propelled towards her, she scrambled out of the blast zone by rolling to the side and springing to her feet as quickly as she could manage. He just had to keep her on the ropes before she had a damn chance to use her quirk. That was the trick to beating someone who supposedly had all of the time in the world. Her endurance was shit compared to his. He had seen her blackout from using her quirk too damn much once before.
That was the key.
Be quicker than she was.
Not hard!
"I won't let give you time to activate that!" Bakugou growled.
Misaki's eyes widened. She wouldn't be able to dodge him forever, just the same as that round face, even if they put up a worthy fight against him and lasted longer then the rest of these idiots, Bakugou would come out on top every time. It was too easy with this girl. She was repeating the pattern that she had used earlier against that girl from General Studies. Buying her time until she thought she had an edge on him.
But Bakugou wasn't as weak as that girl. She wouldn't be able to do that with him.
He changed direction and launched another attack in her direction—
Misaki was knocked back onto the pavement, hard.
He nearly counted his blessings but she came without inches of the edge of the chalk line, rather than outside of it. He shook his head, annoyed. He ran forward with the intention of putting her out of her misery but she gritted her teeth, getting up once again and moving before he could hit her outside of the ring.
Thus it began, he would launch attack after attack, and she would get closer and closer to getting burned each and every time that she dodged him.
It was obvious that she had to change her plan, but as she was running from side to side of the field, it was like she couldn't make up her mind. Bakugou was pleased with that. At least, until he realized that her dodges had gotten quicker, and the glimmer of stars in his vision meant that she was using her quirk now. She moved from the right side of the field to the left without the blink of an eye. He pushed himself harder, spring his attacks as close as he could get to her, but Misaki was proving herself.
She jumped out at his side, sticking out her tongue in a taunt before disappearing in a blur as he used his quirk on his left, only for her to appear on his right side mere seconds later. She continued this pattern for a moment, sprinting around him until he was so riled up about her stupid quirk, that he didn't notice where they were standing.
The second her hand lifted and made contact with her hair in front of him, he realized what she was doing but his body was frozen before he could move; This had been a distraction from her real goal. When he regained his clarity, his body was mere inches away from the edge of the ring, Misaki's quirk shorting out right before she had him where she wanted him.
Bakugou spun around, "You aren't using that trick on me again!" He told her, before kicking her back and out of his way.
Misaki rolled against the pavement until she came to a stop just short of the boundary line behind her once again. She pushed herself against the ground with her hands and wobbled back onto her feet. Her quirk was just as physical as his. There was a limit to how long she could do that and it was obvious she was bordering on the last of that energy. She rubbed the blood from her lip and narrowed her eyes at him.
There wasn't any time to rest.
He wouldn't give her that chance again.
He began to run in her direction, and she disappeared from his line of sight. Bakugou had figured out her strategy, turning around as quickly as he could and setting off an explosion in her face. She hit the pavement once again with a loud thud and rolled over onto her back. Her chest rose and fell once as she stared up at the blue sky overhead. He almost assumed she had accepted defeat then, but, she crawled back onto her legs and stood upright.
Bakugou would give the plum credit for one thing: she was stupidly determined. Misaki made her move and he pushed her back onto her ass every single time.
He did it again, and again, and again.
"Go down already!"
She would be late to react against the blows that he sent her way but she would get back up every time that he did it, and they repeat this process for quite some time. Minutes flew by, and their breath was equally ragged; Aching joints and burning lungs weren't any excuses for either of these teenagers to fall down and take defeat.
When Bakugou moved to do it once more—
Misaki took a chance. She reached forward with his fist and clutched onto the collar of his coat with a hard fist, nails digging into the fabric so she had a good hold onto him. She looked at him and then sucked in a breath, as though she was trying to try something that was going to be her make it or break it tactic to win. The array of static that left her fingertips was a sign that she was activating her quirk.
She reached up and flipped her hair over her shoulder and time came to a screeching halt around both Hisakawa and Bakugou.
Something was very different this time, however, when she was supposed to disappear from his line of sight she didn't. As a matter of fact, he was still aware of everything... but the sound of the crowd and the people... the wind... all of it, all of it was gone. There was no sound whatsoever left in the world. It was like something had hit a switch and part of his senses had been robbed from him. Eerie, was the only word that he could find to describe the sensation of not knowing what had happened.
It was like... it was like he was... His face ran white as if an unspoken fear ran down his spine and stole his attention. Then, he realized he could hear his own breathing, and as quickly as the fear had come, it was washed away. "What the fuck did you do? Where the hell are you, plum?! Come on out and fucking fight me!"
Bakugou looked left, and the looked right. Everything had come to a complete halt around them as far as his eyes could see, although, it seemed like the clouds in the distance were still rolling by, he couldn't be sure because he immediately started to look for Misaki. It was quiet except for the sound of the explosion he had just set off as he demanded that she come out of hiding.
"I don't know what the hell you did but it doesn't matter. I'm still going to win!"
The sound of footsteps came from behind him.
Bingo.
He caught her wrist as she launched herself at him, holding her up high off of the ground as he smirked. She struggled against him but he didn't let go for anything. "Nice try, plum," he said, pointedly. "This is your damned quirk, right?"
Misaki slowly nodded her head in confirmation.
"Well, it's not going to make a difference. You're still going to lose right here and right now." Bakugou sent her flying across the field with one strong blast. She nearly left the field, only staying in because she managed to land on her feet like a cat and tumble inside rather than out. It would have been easier for her to give up, but she had to be been a pain.
So, they started it all over again, this time without the world watching them fight. He moved and then she moved. A dance with no end in sight. It was no different than the game of cat and mouse that they had started earlier, but this time, Misaki seemed to be moving faster then he was somehow. All of his attacks slowly but surely started to miss their mark. He knew that it couldn't be him that was the problem, he had been practicing for years and never missed his target.
It would be off by centimeters, then inches, and then feet.
What the fuck was wrong?!
He kept missing his mark!
Yet she could land punches on him like it was nothing!
His ears were starting to ring from the lack of noise. It was an uncomfortable hum that didn't stop, like a vibration that would pound harder and harder the more that he exerted himself. Wasn't this what happened to her after she used this damn power? She would lose her coordination skills and motor functions, he had seen it for himself. She had launched herself in the path to move him from the path of danger and then flopped over like her damn bones were made of jello.
It was running him ragged at the present time but he refused to budge.
Misaki was unbothered by this. Her body was still moving like it was supposed to, although the longer they were in this place, it was obvious that the effects would affect her more and more.
He launched another attack but he missed entirely.
While he was distracted by his own failures, that's when she made her mark.
Misaki took the chance to dash forward while he couldn't protect himself, jumping once she had gotten close to him, and taking a hold of his shirt once again and as her quirk dissipated around them and the crowd roaring back to life around them, a pained gasp left her lips. She had her chance to knock them both of the battlefield but she hadn't been fast enough to do it.
She realized her mistake at the last second, knowing that she had taken too much time to take him down when she made eye contact with Bakugou. She had miscalculated how long she could handle the effect of her quirk on two people. Mistakes had been made. Everything that had been affecting him inside of her quirk had finally caught up with her as it always did.
Her body went slack.
Bakugou had a wide grin on his face as his explosion made contact with her body, although when he realized that she had been knocked stupid and out cold before the blast even made contact with her body, he got angry as hell and couldn't take it back. Just like with Uraraka before her, the real battle and winner couldn't be declared in his eyes. Before she had a chance to accept her own defeat at his hand, her body had caved!
This wasn't really a win for him!
The blast came before she could react to it and Misaki hit the ground outside the ring with a loud thud, unable to get back up, unconscious.
