Disclaimer: (See Prologue)
Chapter 7: Izuku vs Katsuki; Round 1
It was a cloudy night in the city of Nal Hutta, and many pro heroes were out doing their nightly patrols.
One of these heroes was Juro, who was currently staking out a building that's suspected to be used as a drug den.
Her quirk, Arachnotrope, allows her to transform any part of her body to that of a spider's equivalent. It also allowed her control over some species of spiders, which she used to plant small microphones throughout the building for her stakeout.
Juro has been monitoring the same building for multiple days and nights straight; thankfully, spiders can go into a sleep-like state while still being awake. But after waiting for so long for the drug dealer to show up, she's starting to get impatient.
"Two weeks of nothing," Juro said to herself from her perch across the building, "I'm considering calling this place a dead end."
But then, something caught her attention. A car entered the alleyway left of the bugged building and parked behind it. Juro was on full alert now.
"So this is the place?" a microphone picked up a male voice. Juro assumed there was at least one more person in the car, but that person didn't talk at all.
"Well, it sure looks like it brings a lot of 'open-minded' people," the same voice said, "thanks for showing it to me, I'll be sure to have a very productive recruitment session here."
"Recruitment?" Juro asked herself. Looks like her stakeout revealed something bigger than she expected. "Better call this in."
"Well, better get started," the voice said, " The sooner I finish, the less likely any little birds or flies will know what happened here."
"... what is it?" the voice asked.
"Spider."
Suddenly, a cold chill ran through Juro's body, freezing her in place as the area around her was suddenly plunged into darkness.
She felt many things starting to crawl on her body, then they began to crawl into her body.
Then she felt nothing.
OOO
The ensnaring heroine: Juro was declared MIA when the police and other heroes failed to locate her the next day.
Izuku's second day of high school was going pretty well so far.
He started his day with a full-course breakfast made by his mother. He met up with Yui when he got off the station near U.A. and they talked as they headed to their classrooms.
The school day went on like any other high school, most of the classes were like regular high school. Subjects like math, science, English, and Japanese came easy for Izuku thanks to his repeated use of Ancestry for most of his life. Still, he knew better than to slack off now in his studies, so he still paid full attention in the lessons.
Now, it was time for what every student in the hero course was waiting for; hero lessons.
Izuku was waiting eagerly in his seat, waiting for the lesson to start. Just like everyone else, he was wondering who would be their teacher.
Then, a familiar booming laugh was heard from behind the classroom door.
"HA HA HA! I AM HERE," All Might announced, entering the classroom with style, "TO TEACH HERO LESSONS!"
The whole class began talking in excitement; the #1 hero was here in person.
"It's really All Might!" Eijiro exclaimed.
"Is that his Silver Age suit?" a frog-like girl asked curiously.
"He's so muscular!" Ochako shouted in amazement.
"Even his image is different from us." The lightning bolt haired teen remarked.
"That's right," All Might said, getting to the front of the class and striking a pose, "It's me, ALL MIGHT! I have decided to work at U.A. as an instructor so that I can do my part in shaping the next generation of heroes."
The class grew more excited.
"All right, settle down," All Might said, gesturing for the class to quiet down, "now, to start off this class, I'll need to get a good idea of your current abilities. So, we'll be having battle trials today."
"Battle trials?" Izuku and Katsuki asked simultaneously; Izuku had a tone of concern in his voice while Katsuki had a tone of excitement.
"That's right." All Might confirmed.
The hero then got a remote from his pocket and pressed a button. A section of the classroom's wall opened up and revealed twenty large suitcases, each had a tag with the name of the student they were meant for.
"These cases contain the hero suits you all submitted designs for," All Might explained, "Take your designated suitcase, change in the locker room and meet me in Ground Beta."
Izuku looked over the suit he wore before catching up to his classmates at Ground Beta.
His initial hero suit design was a bright green jumpsuit with white gloves and a mask that paid homage to his idol, All Might. However, after reflection on it with a more practical sense, he made many revisions.
Instead of a jumpsuit, he opted to have a dark-green, modernized gambeson and chausses. These items were made of pads of impact gel sewn between layers of modified kevlar; not only were they effective against blunt force impact, they were also stab-resistant, cut-resistant, flame retardant, and an effective chemical barrier.
On top of that, Izuku added a cuirass made of a strong, non-magnetic and non-conductive alloy with a built in gorget and attached pauldrons; he also added greaves to his leg armor made of the same alloy. Lining the inside of thick plate armor pieces were a layer of modified kevlar with the impact gel pads sewn inside.
If there was one thing Izuku learned from learning about history, it's that all warriors going to battle must have proper armor protection to survive.
When Izuku finished his design and submitted it to the school, Inko surprised him by showing him his initial hero suit design she made herself. Not wanting her hard work to go to waste, Izuku kept the gloves, face-mask, and utility belt.
"Midoriya, is that you?" Ochaco asked, approaching him once he arrived at the training ground, "Wow, your hero suit looks so cool!" she exclaimed.
Izuku took one look at Ochako and was thankful that his mask covered his face. If he thought she was pretty before, her form-fitting hero suit made her outright sexy to him.
"Y-yeah it's me, Uraraka." he answered with a stutter, doing his best to control his hormones, "You look c-cool too."
"And sexy." He thought to himself.
"Really," Ochacho replied with a blush, scratching the back of her head, "This costume is more form-fitting than I wanted it to be; I guess I should've been more specific with my designs."
"Nah, you look great!" Mina remarked with a cheery smile, coming up behind Ochako and putting her hands on the brunette's shoulders. "You're sure to make your mark as a hero with that suit on."
"If you say so." Ochako replied, still unsure.
The appearance of Mina in her hero outfit made it more difficult for Izuku to control his hormones.
"Like what you see, Midori?" Mina teased, seeing his reaction.
"U-uh.." Izuku let out, unsure what the proper response would be. "Midori?" he asked, changing the subject.
"Yup," Mina said with a smile, "because you're green."
"Ah, Midoriya," Tenya called out, approaching the group, "I see that you, too, favor the armor design of hero costumes; I'm glad that I am not the only one."
Tenya, like Izuku, chose to wear armor as his hero suit; the only difference is that Tenya had a full suit of sleek-looking armor.
"Oui, but none of your suits compare to the brilliance of moi!" A bright, sparkling blond teen exclaimed, inviting himself to the conversation.
Izuku smiled and subconsciously knocked on Tenya's and the blond's breastplates. Izuku's smile dropped and his eyes narrowed after knocking.
"Midoriya?" Tenya asked.
"Your armors," Izuku said, "are too light."
"Of course, I designed it that way," Tenya explained, "I need to be as light as possible to maximize the power of my quirk."
"If my armor was heavy, I wouldn't be able to show my sparkling brilliance high above!" the blond explained.
Izuku shook his head in disapproval.
"The purpose of armor is to provide protection to its wearer," he informed, knocking on his own breastplate, producing a dull, heavy sound, "If that's not its main purpose, you might as well take it off."
Before the conversation could continue, All Might called the class's attention to begin the exercise.
The battle trials will proceed as follows: the exercise will be a simulated bomb threat; the class will be divided into teams of two, one team will be the heroes while the other team will be the villains. The objective of the hero team is to either subdue the villain team or 'disarm' the bomb via touching it, while the objective of the villain team is to prevent the bomb from being 'disarmed' via letting the time run out or subdue the heroes. Teams will be made by drawing names from a box.
When the teams were made, Izuku was paired with Ochako.
"Wow, we're together for this, Midoriya!" Ochacko exclaimed happily, "It must be fate!"
"Y-Yeah, must be." Izuku agreed, flustered by her phrasing.
"Now, for the first battle trial match!" All Might announced, drawing from two boxes, "team A will be heroes, and team D will be villains!"
Izuku's eyes widened; he and Ochako were team A, and Katsuki and Tenya were team D.
"It truly is fate." Izuku groaned internally, feeling the blond bomber's stare behind him.
"The bomb is made out of paper-mache," Tenya commented, checking on the prop weapon, "Makes sense."
The two teams have made their way to their starting positions for the exercise; team A is outside the front entrance to the building and team D is in the room containing the bomb.
Tenya started stating ideas and plans of how to win their match, but Katsuki was not paying attention.
Katsuki was in his own world, thinking about the inconceivability of Izuku still being in U.A. and his abilities. The more he thought about it, the more it infuriated him.
"The hell is Deku still doing here?" he asked himself, "Fucking sleepy head knows that he doesn't deserve to be here, so why didn't he expel his pathetic ass like he said he would."
Katsuki overheard what Aizawa said to Izuku during his turn for the ball throw, he was glad at least one extra around him had common sense. But when it turned out he didn't expel him, he was left in disbelief.
"Am I the only one with their head on straight here!?" he exclaimed internally.
"Bakugo, are you even listening to me!?" Tenya called out, taking Katsuki out of his thoughts. The blond turned to face him with an uncaring stare.
"We need to come up with a plan to win this match, we only have a minute of preparation left." Tenya reminded.
"Just stay your ass here and let me handle the rest," Katsuki stated, turning away from him, " I'll win this in an instant."
"You can't expect me to do nothing the entire exercise," Tenya remarked, "We need to cooperate to win."
"You need to cooperate, I don't." Katsuki finalized, " Just stand aside and don't get in my way."
Izuku stared at the building in front of him, his body shaking with anticipation. He has already finalized a plan with Ochako for the battle trial; he would enter the building from the ground floor and make his way up, Ochako would enter through the rooftop and make her way down. If either of them find the bomb or the enemy team, they are to radio in through their given commlinks their position so the other can regroup.
"Are you okay, Midoriya?" Ochako asked, concerned with her partner's current condition.
"Yeah," he breathed out, adjusting his vambraces, " it's just… I know that I'm going to be fighting against Kaachan."
" 'Kachaan'? You mean that angry-looking boy?" Ochako asked, getting a nod from Izuku, "Speaking of which, why did he call you 'Deku' the other day?"
"It's a nickname he gave me when we were still kids," Izuku answered, "he calls me that because my name could be read as 'deku' in kanji, which means 'useless'."
"Wha-, that's not nice of him!" she pouted cutely, "Let's change that right now!"
"Change what? He's not gonna stop calling me Deku." Izuku stated.
"But we can change the meaning," Ochako remarked, "to me, 'Deku' sounds a lot like 'Dekiru'; it gives me a 'you can do anything' feeling, just like you do."
"R-really?" Izuku asked, astonished, "You get that feeling from me."
"Mhmph!" she nodded with a smile, her permanent blush darkening a shade, "after seeing you destroy the insta-death bot at the entrance exam and launch that ball with a big lazer, how could I not get that feeling."
The greenhead blushed at her compliment, and gave her a warm smile.
"Well, when you put it that way, call me Deku as much as you want." Izuku said.
"BATTLE TRIAL START!" The voice of All Might announced.
"All right," Izuku said, getting serious, "you ready?"
"Yup." Ochako answered.
She then used her quirk on herself to become weightless. Izuku then gently pushed her towards the top of the building; once she reached the roof, she deactivated her quirk and gave Izuku a thumbs up. Seeing her give the signal, he gave her a thumbs up and both of them entered the building.
In the observation room, the rest of the class along with All Might were watching everything unfold through a number of large monitors.
"So the hero team decided to split up." the large, multi-armed team commented.
"Divide and conquer." a teen with a bird's head remarked.
"The villain team also decided to split up too." a large-tailed teen said.
"Young Midoriya," All Might thought, "even though I believe you can succeed, as a teacher, I have to be unbiased. If I believe things will go out of hand, I will stop the match."
Izuku made his way to the next floor of the building after doing a complete search of the current floor. He already cleared four floors with no sign of the enemy team or the bomb; having not heard from Ochako, he assumes she's in the same situation.
As he searched the fifth floor, he heard rapid footsteps approaching him. In a second, Katsuki came around the corner, aiming his palm at his supposed lesser.
"DIE!" he roared, creating a large explosion.
She struck his hand, redirecting the strike of his spear away from her before it reached her. Simultaneously, she landed a strong punch on his diaphragm, knocking the wind out of his lungs. Using her blocking hand, she struck her attacker's jaw with a cross, stunning him further. With the attacker off-balance, she grappled her attacker and threw his body to the ground; his head hit the hard floor, knocking him unconscious.
"Whoa, Midori, way to go!" Mina cheered, seeing what he just did.
"He fought him like it was nothing." the girl with cord-like ear lobes said, amazed at the swiftness of Izuku's counter-takedown.
" 'Fought' is an overstatement," the tailed teen remarked, "the other guy didn't get a chance to follow up his attack."
"That's what he gets, though," Eijiro said, "sneak attacks are so unmanly."
"But it is a viable tactic to use," All Might reminded, "as a hero, you can't take any risks of fighting an opponent, especially if you don't know what they're capable of; young Bakugo demonstrates this forward thinking very well. However, young Midoriya displayed another essential principle of always having situational awareness and never dropping your guard in an unknown environment; because of this, he was able to catch young Bakugo before his attack landed."
The class took in his short lecture and turned their attention back to the match, wanting to see more of what will happen.
"It happened again." Izuku said to himself as he looked at Katsuki's unconscious form on the floor. "I gotta get these flashes under control."
He cautiously moved towards Katsuki, taking out a roll of capture tape used to mark a neutralized opponent for the exercise. He lightly kicked Katsuki's side to make sure he was unconscious; seeing no reaction, he turned the blond onto a prone position and started to tie his hands behind his back.
Before he could start wrapping, an explosion erupted between them. The force of it sent Izuku away from Katsuki a good distance; fortunately, his armor absorbed pretty much all the impact towards his body.
Getting back to his feet quickly, Izuku looked to see Katsuki getting up from the floor; judging from his face, he was far from happy.
The bomber let out a roar and launched himself towards the greenhead with great speed.
Izuku blocked the flying front kick from the blond and the roundhouse kick that immediately followed.
Katsuki then brought his arms in front of and blasted Izuku away before he could block. Izuku managed to evade the blast enough for it not to be a direct hit, but the left side of his mask was damaged.
Seeing the distance created between them, Izuku created a handful of small fireballs and threw them in front of him.
The fireballs created loud, bright flashes when they hit a surface, afterwards, they created large amounts of smoke that engulfed the hallway they were in.
Seeing the smokescreen, Katsuki let out another blast to blow the smoke away. Once the hallway was visible, he saw that Izuku was nowhere to be seen.
"Grrr. DEKU, GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE!" Katsuki roared as he started searching for the bane of his existence.
Elsewhere, on one of the building's stairwells, Izuku was quietly making his way to the upper floor.
"Uraraka," Izuku called in through his commlink, entering the sixth floor, "I've made contact with Kaachan on the fifth floor of the building; I didn't see Iida, so they must've split up."
"Are you alright?" Ochako asked from the other end, "I heard and felt some explosions going off."
"I'm fine, I managed to get away for the moment." Izuku said, "Listen, continue making your way down the building and find the bomb. If you find it or Iida, let me know ASAP, I'll make my way to you."
"Are you sure? I don't want you to fight all by yourself." she worried.
"I'll be fine." Izuku promised her.
"Okay, I'll call in later." Ochako said and ended the line.
Just then, the wall beside Izuku exploded, slamming him to the opposite wall with debris hitting him.
"You really think you could get away from me?" the menacing voice of Katsuki asked, coming out of the other side of the wall, "I heard what you said when you tried you tied me up; still too pathetic to do things on your own, Deku?"
Izuku said nothing as he got up off the wall, his eyes never leaving Katsuki. Activating two flame vents, he formed a large buckler on his left hand and a rod on his right. Still saying nothing, Izuku got into a fighting stance, raising the buckler in front of him and raising the rod into a side guard position.
"Don't worry, Deku," Katsuki said with a sadistic grin, letting off small sparks in his palms, "once I'm done with you, you'll have no choice but to call it quits."
The two fighters closed the distance between them and engaged in combat.
The class looked on in amazement as the fight between Izuku and Katsuki played out in the main monitor.
The series of blocks, strikes, deflects, and counters played out smoothly one after another like two masters dueling. Katsuki, the master of the aggressive and explosive style of fighting; and Izuku, the master of the swift and fiery style of fighting.
"Man, it's like watching a martial arts movie." one teen commented.
"Both of them have top-notch quirks and are uber talented; geez, it's so unfair, it's infuriating." the black lightning bolt blond remarked.
One teen looked at the fight without amazement, his eyes narrowing at the sight of Izuku's flames. His scar started irritating him more than usual.
Ochako searched urgently for the bomb, the constant tremors from explosions did nothing to lighten her worry for her teammate.
She then heard the loud voice of Tenya behind a door; cautiously and quietly, she opened the door. Inside, she saw the bomb in the middle of the large room and Tenya in the middle of a monologue.
"OF I AM THE VILLAIN OF VILLAINS, AND NONE SHALL STOP ME!" she heard Tenya shout dramatically.
If it was any other situation, Ochako would've burst into laughter; however, the sounds of explosions below her reminded her of Izuku's current situation.
Making sure she wasn't seen, she contacted Izuku.
Izuku and Katsuki stood across from one another, both of them breathing heavily in the effort of getting more wind in them after the back-to-back exchanges they had.
Izuku's armor was decorated with scorch marks; his cuirass peppered with light dents, but it could've been worse if he didn't have it. His face also suffered from bruises and scorch marks, his mask was basically nonexistent. His arms trembled as he kept them in a guard position, his flamethrowers low in fuel after using them to create various weapons to use.
Katsuki was in no better condition; his entire body was littered with bruises, scorch marks, and open cuts from the various strikes he had received, his face with most of it due to many attempts to knock him out. His arms hung limply from the weight of his gauntlets, exerting his quirk and the many blows it received.
"Deku-kun," Ockoko's voice was heard through Izuku's commlink, "Deku-kun, do you hear me?"
"I hear you, Uraraka." Izuku said into his commlink, not taking his eyes off Katsuki.
"I found the bomb and Iida," Ochako informed, "the bomb is big and they're both in the centermost room on the ninth floor. He hasn't seen me yet."
"Alright, sit tight; I'm on my way now." Izuku said, then ended the line.
"Hah?!" Katsuki let out, hearing what Izuku just said, "You think I'll just let you leave, fucking Deku!?"
Izuku didn't answer, choosing to use the remaining he had on the current canisters to launch a ball of fire to the floor, creating another smokescreen.
Once the smoke dissipated, Izuku was gone again.
Seeing his enemy disappear again, Katsuki growled and made his way to the closest stairwell, hoping to cut him off.
OOO
Izuku managed to climb the stairs to the eighth floor without falling over. He made his way to the centermost room of the level, reloading his flamethrowers in the process.
Once he found the room he called Ochako.
"Uraraka, I'm right under the bomb room you mentioned." he informed her.
"Really?" she asked, caught off guard, "okay what's the plan?"
"First, I need you to use your quirk on the floor of the room and hold onto the wall." Izuku stated.
"What help will that be?" she asked, confused with the request.
"I'm going to create a controlled blast under the bomb room," he explained, "enough to break through the floor above, but nothing else. If this plan works, your quirk will prevent the rubble from not only falling on me, but catch the bomb from falling too. Tenya might not be so lucky, but the worst he'll get is a short fall. Once the blast goes off, you'll be responsible for capturing the bomb."
"Alright, understood," Ochako stated; a moment later, she spoke again, "alright, I did what you said to do, but what if it doesn't work?"
"Then you might want to help clear the rubble off me," Izuku said bluntly, "Don't worry about it now, though."
Izuku then started emptying two canisters' worth of fuel through a flame vent and started prepping a Pseudoflare. But before he could start forming it, heavy rumbling was felt throughout the building and the observation room.
Then, to Izuku's right, a large torrent of fire came through the wall and barrelled towards him.
Izuku immediately created a large hoplon to cover himself as he barely evaded the torrent. The torrent of fire broke through another wall without break and exited the side of the building, leaving a colossal hole on its side.
"Looks like those nobodies in the support department followed my designs to the letter." Katsuki said from the wall where the torrent of flames came from.
"Like it, you pathetic Deku?" he asked rhetorically with a smirk, lifting one of his gauntlets, "These things aren't for show, they store all the sweat I've made into one place; and when I use it, well, it's a guaranteed victory."
"Young Bakugo!" the voice of All Might cut in via the commlink, "If you use that device again, I will have no choice but to end the exercise with no winner; that move you just did is too dangerous to be used in a training exercise, understand."
"Tch." Katsuki let out, but relented, "Like I actually need it to beat a pathetic Deku like you. I'm winning this with a flawless victory, meaning that both you and round cheeks on the floor under my boot."
"So do us all a favor and make it easy, alright Deku," the blond advised without question, "you know that you're not meant to be a hero at all."
Izuku still didn't speak, which now infuriated the bomber more than ever.
"Well, say something, dammit!" Katsuki screamed, "If you're too scared to even talk, then just throw in the towel already!"
Izuku continued to stay silent, but he activated his flamethrowers, emptying the remaining two canisters on his vambraces. The flames surrounded Izuku, and then formed the head of a dragon in front him.
Seeing this, Katsuki grew a maniac smile. He primed his other gauntlet, ignoring what All Might just said.
"That's it, Deku!" Katsuki exclaimed, "Show me your all so that I can put you down to your place once and for all!"
The two charged towards each other.
"THAT'S IT," All Might called over their comms, "THIS MATCH IS-"
"OCHAKO, BRACE!" Izuku shouted over the comms, stopping All Might's announcement.
Just as Katsuki activated his quirk with the primed gauntlet, Izuku's dragon head bit down on his arm. It didn't do any physical damage, but it contained both their arms in a wall of fire.
Izuku then redirected their arms up to the ceiling just as another torrent of flames was let out.
The dragon head contained the explosion as much as it could, the windows of the eighth floor were blown out from the explosion that the dragon head diverted. It was a lot of collateral damage, but it did it's needed job.
The floor of the bomb room was reduced to rubble, but thanks to Ockaco's quirk, they stayed afloat. Tenya didn't fall like Izuku planned to have happened, but he was too occupied in keeping his balance on the rubble to do anything as Ochako floated over to the bomb with her quirk.
"I got it!" she cheered as she hugged the bomb.
"HERO TEAM WINS!" All Might announced over the intercoms, signaling the end of the match.
"Deku, we won!" Ochako cheered into her commlink, but she didn't get a reply.
Worried she floated to the lower level to see what happened.
On the floor below, both Izuku and Katsuki were rendered unconscious by the explosion. Both looked much worse for the wear.
Their first true fight ended in a draw.