Chapter 15: A Nice Intermission

At the game's conclusion, the winners were announced and everyone was dismissed for an hour on lunch break. Respectively, Todoroki's team proved the victor. This included Iida, Yaoyorozu, and Kaminari-san.

Our team placed second, much to Bakugou's irritation—though to his credit, even if he didn't achieve his "undisputed first place" it was at least an overwhelming second place. We would have won if the ten-million-points-band didn't exist.

Third was team Shinso. He was the guy with purple hair who asked me about my team—or lack-there-of at the moment. Against all odds, he managed to take the spot from Yosetsu's team, who wailed in disbelief in the background. On his team was Koda, a gentle giant from class 1-A that can control animals; Aoyama-san, our very flashy belly-button-lasered french man from the same class; and one other student from class 1-B that I wasn't familiar with.

And last but not least, Midoriya's team barely made the cut at fourth place. His team consisted of himself, Tokoyami, with his bird head and dark-shadowed quirk, Ochaco, and an unknown pink-haired girl from another class.

Even though everyone was free to go and eat lunch, I was escorted out as the only significantly injured participant in the stadium. A couple of robots stopped by with a stretcher, but I insisted on just walking with them, placing my bag of weapons on the stretcher instead. I kept a short stick in my left hand for comfort.

Kirishima and Sero offered to come with me, but I declined, telling them I'd meet them wherever lunch was being held. Bakugou had already wandered off on his own—probably to cool himself off from his loss.

I was led to a different exit at the back of the stadium, opposite the exit everyone else was flocking towards.

But it wasn't as desolate as I originally thought.

I see two figures shrouded in the shadows of the tunnel. A closer look and I see green hair leaning towards the wall on the left side. On the right, was the familiar half-and-half hair of Todoroki. Their voices rumbled low in the tunnel.

Todoroki notices me in the distance, and he begins to walk away.

"...I've always had help. No matter the situation I…" Midoriya's voice echoed, as he inched closer to Todoroki's retreating figure.

"I've only come this far because other people helped me. I want to be like All Might, and for that to happen I have to become the strongest. It might seem like a lame motivation compared to yours but… I'm not gonna lose, that's how I'll repay them."

Midoriya pauses, and from his gaze to his fists, he meets Todoroki straight in the eyes, who turns back at Midoriya's words.

"Let me return your declaration of war with my own. I'm…"

Midoriya stands straighter as he says the words.

"I'm gonna beat you!"

With a childish declaration, Midoriya's strong voice projected onto the empty tunnel. Todoroki turns back towards my direction, and I see the slight grin projected on his downcast face. I pat him on the shoulder as I walk past, wordlessly.

"Tatsumori-san?!" Midoriya stammers as I walk into view. I give him a friendly smile.

"Though I don't wish to wage war against any of you, I hope that you will face me with the same determination. Midoriya, Todoroki," I give them a small smile. "I'll see you guys at the top."

The robots, who I had previously held back from walking forward, continue to march on with my stuff on the stretcher. I pass by Midoriya and turn left to see another figure snooping in on the drama.

"What the hell are you doing here, old hair?" Bakugou mutters as he stumbles back from the wall, having been caught eavesdropping. I blink and peer out of the exit to see Midoriya and Todoroki walking their separate ways.

I simply point a stick at my injured shoulder.

"Dislocated it while we were fighting, remember?" I remind him. "I'm guessing you heard the whole declaration of war thing from Todoroki and Midoriya, right?"

"Tch," Bakugou scoffs as he refuses to answer.

"You know, I'm glad that everyone is taking hero work seriously," I tell him honestly. "I know you three have some sort of rivalry going on. No doubt you guys are capable…but…"

"I won't be too far behind you guys," I tell him.

I had acknowledged that because of their quirks, I would never truly match up to their level. It was hopeless thinking to believe myself better than them, but—

I have a dream too. If they become unrivaled heroes in the future–if they are known to be the best at what they do, so much so that no villain can defeat them—I…I want to be like that too.

I don't need to be the best. I just need to be better than every villain I will ever fight and save all the lives I could ever save. I want to be the person strong enough for all of that.

"There's a good chance I'll be fighting one of you three in the next trial. What I said to Midoriya and Todoroki, applies to you too, Bakugou," I tell him.

"I hope you don't hold back. Face me like you'd face Midoriya when the time comes."

I turn to leave and give him a small pat on the shoulder.

"See you at the top."

The trip to the infirmary wasn't a long one. When I got there, I was greeted by the same small old lady who treated me back at USJ. I've since learned that her name was Recovery Girl.

"Oh, dear. We're gonna need to find someone to help pop your shoulder back in…" Recovery Girl shakes her head as she inspects the wound.

"Don't you have assistants that can help heal this type of thing? Your quirk heals wounds right?"

"That might be true, dearie, but my quirk only helps quicken the body's natural recovery. I'm afraid the body doesn't naturally heal a dislocated shoulder. We need to set it before I can kiss it better," she says.

"I see…" I mutter. "Do you want me to call someone to help?"

"That would be great."

That would be great... if I had my phone on me. But I left all the stuff that wasn't my weapons in the locker with my weights. I'm probably gonna have to start walking around to find anyone willing to relocate my shoulder.

I stand up from bed and excuse myself.

"I'll be back! I left my phone, so I'm gonna find someone who can help."

But I guess I didn't have to go any further. Right as I left the door and turned into the hallway, the familiar faces of my friends greeted me. Jiro, Mina, Hagakure, and Yaoyorozu were there, walking toward the infirmary. I almost bump into them.

"Mori-chan!" Hagakure charges to hug me, but Yaoyorozu holds her back.

"Hagakure-san! Tatsumori-san was hurt, remember? Look!"

"Hey-a Mori-chaannn! I heard you were hurt so we all came to visit you!" Mina smiles, showing a crescent of teeth between her cheeks. I smile when I see the sight. My stomach flipped circles—a feeling I was familiar with but missed dearly. It felt great not being alone. The fact that there were people here who cared enough to check up on me was…amazing.

Jiro waves from beside Mina, who takes notice of my injured shoulder and speaks.

"You just came out of the infirmary, but why are you still injured? Is something wrong?" Jiro asks.

"Right!" I snap out of happy thoughts when I remember why I left the infirmary in the first place. "Recovery girl needed someone's help setting my shoulder! She can't heal me until then, so I went out to find someone who could help."

The four girls look at each other.

"We can try to help…" Yaoyorozu hesitantly replies. "Though… I have never set a dislocated joint before… What if we mess up?"

"I'm sure Recovery Girl will help you through the process. If you mess up, she can heal it, and it will be as good as new!"

Everyone reluctantly enters the room, and Recovery Girl snaps up from her little chair. She gives the girls a wide smile.

"Which one of you will help?"

That was a great question. Jiro sighs as everyone looks at each other.

"I can do it," Jiro raises her hand. She could sense that no one wanted to be the one to mess up. Though, I didn't expect that she would be the one to do it.

Recovery Girl motions me to sit on one of the infirmary beds, and I follow. She leads Jirou to the side to explain how the process of setting works, while the remaining three girls crowd around me.

"How did you get hurt, Tatsumori-san?" Yaoyorozu asked as she filled the awkward silence. I hum as I try to recall the events, frowning as I remember a particular ill-natured blonde-haired boy.

"There was a student from Class B who can copy quirks… They took Bakugou's and triggered an explosion when he held onto my shoulder," I tell her. The girls around me frown when they hear the story.

"Copy quirks? That's basically cheating!" Hagakure exclaims in surprise.

"Yeah! That sounds sooo unfair!" Mina whines. I nod.

"Luckily, he didn't make it to the next round," I assure them.

Though it didn't matter to me if he did make it to the next round. He had nothing to copy from me. If he did… well… I don't think it'll be pretty.

"It wouldn't matter to me if he could copy quirks…I don't think he'll be able to use mine," Yaoyorozu muttered. She places a hand on her chin, thinking carefully.

"Alright girls. Let's set that shoulder!" Recovery Girl rolls up the sleeves of her lab coat and pushes everyone to the side. Jirou makes her way over, and cautiously holds the affected hand gently.

I take a deep breath.

"Will you not be using a sedative?" Yaoyorozu asks, curiously.

"Unfortunately, if we use a sedative, this one won't be able to make it to the next round." Recovery Girl says. "It's not usually needed in relocation. It's more for the comfort of the patient if she wants it."

"I see…" Yaoyorozu gives me a guilty glance.

"I can take it," I assure her. "Maybe a distraction will help? So I'm not nervous,"

"I'm great at distractions!" Mina jumps up in the air.

"I can do that too!" Hagakure hops up with her.

Recovery Girl gets started. Mina starts dancing—the first time I've ever seen her. I've already heard stories of her past dancing career in middle school but seeing it now, it's reminiscent of hip hop I'm familiar with in the U.S. I see her footsteps align effortlessly with the rest of her body like she'd rehearsed the moves her entire life.

While that was happening, Recovery Girls places her hands over Jirou's. They're carefully moving my arm in circles, causing the numbing feeling to ramp into assorted throbs. The intensity varied based on where exactly they spun it.

I set my focus back on my distractors. Hagakure was flailing her arms and mumbling about how amazing Mina was at dancing. Mina giggles.

"Do a flip!" Hagakure laughs, excitedly, so much more distracted than me.

I giggle too.

Mina does a backflip, effortlessly, which earns her rounds of applause from Yaoyorozu and Hagakure. She bows at the attention.

"Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all day!"

And then, my bones are forcefully pushed back into its socket. The dull pain turned into intense, sharp pain. Like a speeding hundred-mile-per-hour train crashing into an immovable wall and folding in on itself during the impact.

"Shit that hurts!" I scream, slipping into English. I grit my teeth and shakily inhale.

Recovery Girl kisses the wound. The lingering pangs of pain slowly recede, and the purple-ish bruising follows with it. Wounds on my head and cuts and my shoulder also disappear, but they're followed by a wave of exhaustion.

I shake my head.

"Did I do that right?" Jirou panics at my outburst.

"That was perfect. Thanks, dearie…" the small, old nurse pinches Jirou's cheeks. "Try moving your shoulder.

I slowly move the affected shoulder, realize there is no pain, and swing it all the way around its full range of motion.

"It's like the wound never happened…" I mutter.

That's kind of creepy. I was more used to a throbbing soreness after I left the hospital, but aside from a little tiredness, there were absolutely no side effects. It was like I was never injured in the first place.

"That's great! Let's eat now! All that dancing made me soooo hungrryyyyy," Mina whines. We all laugh at this outburst and join her happily for the walk to the cafeteria.

There were several things I learned during that lunch break. The first was that Jirou, Mina, and Hagakure did try to seek me out to be a part of their calvary, though, by the time they found me, I was already being dragged along by Bakugou. They were eliminated, and the only girls who made it past the second trial were me, Yaoyorozu, and Uraraka.

There was also a lot of controversy about one of the teams who won. Apparently, Koda couldn't remember anything about how his team won. Only the fact that he was with Aoyama, a boy from Class 1-B, and a certain purple-haired boy, the same one I had encountered fighting a team.

Though it was hard to pay attention at lunch since I had a lot of things in my head. I remember distinctly leaving my body for a quick while and returning to find my friends pulling me away to the dressing rooms.

Apparently, Aizawa-sensei had forgotten to tell us that we needed to wear cheerleading outfits for the next event. Yaoyorozu was put in charge of making the costumes, and everyone reluctantly followed her orders as she pulled the garments out of her skin. I was one of those people.

"Are you sure that we have to do this?" I asked dubiously.

Everyone wore bright orange cheerleading outfits, with the letters UA plastered at the front. The outfits were revealing and showed arms, midriff, and legs quite generously. It was far from what I was comfortable wearing. Especially with the scars on my arms.

Though a lot of us were uncomfortable with the idea, it was nice to know that not all of us were against it. Hagakure was very happily wearing the costume, twirling and hopping around the dressing rooms. Mina wasn't too opposed to it either and was fully ready to bust out some dance moves, as I saw she was capable of earlier.

"...Yaoyorozu-san. Can you make me a long-sleeved shirt?" If I was going to do this, I was going to do it with my arms covered.

She gives me a sympathetic gaze and creates a black long-sleeved shirt to cover my midriff and arms. I was the last one out, and we all come out of the stadium, and I'm much more comfortable, even with how uncomfortable the outfit itself felt.

But we came back with poor reception.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT CLASS A?!" It was like Present Mic was cementing our embarrassment to the general populace.

"Why're you guys wearing that?" Kirishima walked up with his head tilted, nudging at my arm to catch my attention.

I sighed.

There was a round of complaining from the seven of us girls, and to answer Kirishima simply:

"We were duped."

Upon the realization that this whole thing was just a not-so-elaborate prank, and my realization that Mineta and Kaminari were behind all of this, I have come to respect the pair so much less.

"How did I stumble into Mineta's hands once again?" Yaoyorozu sulks. Again?

And the thing is, I couldn't be angry. I followed everyone out of a she-said he-said command. It should have seemed suspicious at first glance, and in hindsight, Aizawa-sensei would never let us know this late. Of course, I never really paid much attention to Kaminari and Mineta to know that they were the type of sickos who wanted to see girls in revealing outfits, but now that I do know, it will be very difficult to get me with this reasoning again.

Especially because of how uncomfortable this whole situation was. It will be very hard to forget.

Of course, our suffering wasn't the main point of attention. Midnight announced the next trial. The final event.

A battle royal of one-on-one combat. Bracketed elimination tournaments, where only one person will come out as the victor. I was already expecting this. The remaining participants were rallied together: 16 students, familiar faces that I would have to take down for the next event.

I intend to beat them all.

Hello everyone! Sorry for the wait. I'm holding up on finals and... spiders. This is a little in-between for before shit hits the fan, but I'm preparing for tons of big fights and a special twist! Because of school, I will be uploading once every two weeks on Fridays until I can get my schedule cleared up. I didn't want to have to stop writing, so I instead decided to take it a bit easy so as to not burn myself out too quickly. I'm really hoping that winter break will give me enough time to just go ham on the writing, because I'm very excited for what's about to happen in the future! Question of the day: What things do you hope Yurin will change in the plot? Is there anything in my hero academia that you weren't happy with? Thanks so much! Until next time!