Chapter Twelve: The Final Countdown
'I wonder what Mom and Dad would say to me now,' Morie found herself wondering.
She (really really really-) hoped that they were proud of her for being able to continue on, and vaguely she pictured her father cracking some lame joke ("Bet that was a breeze for you, Mori!") while her mother was chuckling softly, fondly reaching out to ruffle her hair ("You can do it, kiddo.") Then they would proceed to scold her for whatever injuries she managed to obtain, but eventually sigh and let her go.
The thought fueled her with a newfound determination as her eyes found their way to the big screen. It was right before the match-ups for the final segment of the Sports Festival would be announced, and the air was fraught with unsaid tension. The grand screen suddenly lit up with a start, displaying the randomly-generated pairings for all to see:
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Midoriya Izuku VS Hitoshi Shinsou
Hanta Sero VS Todoroki Shouto
Mashirao Ojiro VS Kaminari Denki
Iida Tenya VS Hatsume Mei
Yuuga Aoyama VS Mina Ashido
Yaoyorozu Momo VS Fumikage Tokoyami
Ejirou Kirishima VS Minamoto Morie
Bakugou Katsuki VS Uraraka Ochako
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With a panic, Morie's eyes darted across the list of names, eyes landing on her own profile and immediately seeking out her opponent in the first round. Recognition dawned upon her as she turned her head to look over at her opponent with wide eyes.
Kirishima was looking back at her with a wide grin, looking absolutely pumped up. The dork flashed her a thumbs-up which she returned, smiling. With that said, she sincerely hoped he wasn't being excited over the chance to pummel her- maybe that would have been true if someone like Bakugou was her opponent, but Kirishima pure and a sweetheart.
At least there wouldn't be no hard feelings no matter the outcome- though she was worried that the crimson-haired boy would try to hold back on her.
Then a thought flickered through her mind: what about that girl- would she have a chance to go up against her?
As she examined the list once more, Morie had to admit that she was greatly disappointed that Ibara Shiozaki, the girl with pretty dark eyes and thorns for hair, did not make it to the finals.
They had tied not once, but twice- the brown-haired girl was so curious about the girl who she had never met before today that for a moment she had convinced herself that they would meet in the finals. But alas, it wasn't like she was a main protagonist of an anime, or anything like that, because the way main protagonists worked, they normally fought against people who they had some sort of brief yet overwhelmingly significant interaction with beforehand- say, an awkward moment of eye contact, or a bump to the shoulder.
But alas, thanks to Shinsou's quirk, they had made it through to the finals, all four of them, and she now wondered how she would fair in a real one-versus-one battle. Briefly she toyed with the idea of going up against Todoroki- it would be a fight of honour, thought it would be an almost guaranteed loss on her part. Even if her quirk held an advantage to his, would she be good enough to fight him in a match?
She hardly wanted to imagine losing to him, and hearing the condescending words she dreaded ("I told you, didn't I?") There was also the fact that she wasn't even on Todoroki's radar right now- he went to go and challenge Midoriya, while barely acknowledging her. It was humiliating, sure, but it was a sign that he had taken her words seriously.
After all, she was the one who told him that she couldn't live up to her mother, and by his standards, it meant that she was not worth his attention. She was just a weakling who he could outshine with little effort- his self-proclaimed rival.
That was without mentioning the fact that if Morie wanted to fight him, she had to make it to the finals just for the chance. Bullshit could only take you so far, and she doubted that she had the strength to make it to the finals anyway- her luck was bound to run out sooner or later, right?
It was not so much the fear of losing, but it was the fear of him being right about her, the fear of direct confrontation. If she were to be honest with herself, she was more terrified than she let on.
Morie had always been more of a talker than a fighter- she was always the one who made plans cut out for other people while she supported them from the shadows. To be thrust into the spotlight was scary, even though she was going to have to deal with this sooner or later. What if her mind blanked out, and her quirk couldn't work as a result? What if she lost concentration amidst all those tedious manipulation? What if she messed up and made a fool of herself? What if she let her parents down?
She mentally slapped herself just so the flow of depressing thoughts would just go away.
... what had she thought in that classroom when against Bakugou again? Fake it till you make it, was that right?
If she acted like she was perfectly at ease, maybe she could calm herself down. It had worked nicely back then- maybe putting on appearances would make her more confident, more ready for this. Her blood pressure was plenty messed up because of her quirk- she certainly didn't need to throw in these conflicting feelings into the mix.
She wasn't strong enough, or at least at this point she was no match for Todoroki, so she shouldn't even think about fighting him. So why did her eyes keep darting over to his direction?
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"Minamoto-san!"
Morie had been hiding it out in the waiting rooms, and apparently she had been found.
Her reverie was broken as she looked up to find Yaoyorozu approaching her. Morie blanched at the sight of mortification evident in the black-haired girl's features as she held what looked to be a cheerleader outfit- a revealing one, that is.
"I'm afraid Aizawa-sensei has required the girls from Class A to take part in cheerleading," the vice-president stated, a small frown gracing her features. "I've taken the liberty of creating all the costumes, and as Class 1-A's vice-president, I humbly apologise for this late notice."
The logical part of her brain pointed out that the sardonic and unenthused homeroom teacher would hardly force them to do frivolous leisure activities during the Sports Festival of all times, though the black-haired girl seemed to be quite sure of herself as she made that announcement.
Wearing a suspicious, revealing cheerleader outfit was cool and all- but the thought of facing more people, however, made her turn green.
"Sorry, Yaoyorozu-san," the brown-haired girl apologised in turn, frowning a bit. "I'm feeling a bit under the weather- don't worry about Aizawa-sensei, I'll explain to him later."
The black-haired girl's features furrowed up in understanding. "It's fine. I do hope you feel better soon, Minamoto-san."
Yaoyorozu left hastily, leaving the other girl huddled up in her corner of the room, the vice-president's main concern was that her extra uniform would be wasted. As part of her quirk, each part of item wasted was wasted energy and resources on her part and that would be a shame.
"What should I do with this, then?"
She sighed, feeling troubled, though a voice, cheerful and feminine broke her train of thoughts abruptly.
"Ooo, Class A is cheerleading? Count me in!"
The voice cheered out, and Momo turned around to see what seemed to be a hovering set of clothes. From the lack of visible physical presence, she could only assume that the girl in question she was talking to was invisible.
"You wouldn't be Hagakure-san from Class B, would you?" Momo questioned, already moving to alter the top of the shirt so that it was a Class B shirt instead.
(She had often seen the girl making conversation with Mashirao in the eatery during lunch time, and knew for a fact that the invisible girl was friends with the class president of Class B, Itsuka Kendou.)
"Yeah, that's me! Thanks a bunch, vice-prez!" The other girl cheered in agreement and pumped her fists excitedly at the fact that she knew her name.
Momo decided that she liked this cheerful, bubbly, and invisible girl immensely. Without further delay, both of them then quickly set out to join the other cheerleaders outside in the arena, all decked out in their cheerleader outfits.
(They didn't know what they were getting into.)
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Meanwhile, the girl huddled in her corner rolled about, short ends of her hair sticking up at the ends. She felt better now that the queasiness and side-effects of her quirk were gone, well enough, in fact, to eavesdrop on the snickering that was echoing down from behind the corner.
"All my dreams have come true... Yaoyorozu's hot bod in a cheerleader outfit! Seriously, Kaminari, this has to be the best plan ever!"
The voices echoed down the corridor, and the duo who were currently talking turned the corner to spot the seemingly-asleep brown-haired girl and their voices were immediately hushed. The irritatingly-squeaky voice and the other voice were familiar, and she strained her ears to listen in some more.
"It's Morie-chan! Dammit, Mineta! Why the heck isn't she in a cheerleader uniform?"
"Maybe Yaoyorozu hasn't found her yet," the short boy shrugged in response.
"A shame," the both of them sighed. "Well, not really. Isn't she sorta, y'know, guy-ish?"
Silence.
Then, "Did she always have such a nice ass?"
Out of their sight, pink crept up onto her cheeks at the lewd comment. Then came the fantasizing and the gushing over the Class A girls. A part of her wondered what the hell they saw in her, while the other part felt ticked off at the frankly disrespectful way they were talking about the girls. Seriously, did they apply to Yuuei to ogle at pretty girls or to become heroes?
Arm twitching in utter annoyance, she sat up and slowly turned around, horror movie style, sending the clueless duo a strained (albeit creepily cheerful) smile. They froze at the sight of her- and the realisation that no, she hadn't been asleep, and yes, she had heard everything.
"W-we can explain!" Mineta cried out, waving his tiny hands around as he sweated profusely.
Similarly, Kaminari stood next to him in a fashion similar to a deer caught in headlights- maybe some part of him knew that she would go harder on him since they were supposedly friends.
"Y-Yeah, please hear us out, Morie-chan!" His voice rang out as he chuckled nervously.
"You'd better," she muttered under her breath darkly, wondering if they even had a justifiable reason other than the fact that they were both perverts. "Explain what you did, that is. Make it quick."
Both of them shivered.
Needless to say, there was no cheerleading competition. Morie was saying this on her own behalf and Yaoyorozu's because the vice-president was way too polite: it was pretty much official- Kaminari and Mineta were scumbags. She didn't tell them that to their faces, though, much to her own surprise- she didn't have the heart to.
"At this point," she stated flatly, not even knowing why she still bothered. "I don't know if you're a danger to us, or to yourselves."
A pause. Then exasperation flashed over her dark eyes appraisingly.
"... at least have the audacity to look ashamed, you little shits."
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After the incident with the cheerleader outfits, the battles finally begun, and with bated breath she sat at the stands, watching as the matches went by as she made mental notes on who won and how.
Shinsou and Midoriya had an interesting match indeed- the blue-haired boy was clearly doing a lot of talking, though she couldn't hear anything they said. Midoriya seemed to have gotten caught in Shinsou's quirk at some point, but had managed to break out of it.
(Somehow, she felt like a proud mom- not that she held anything against Shinsou, of course. It had been hard inwardly rooting for the both of them.)
At the second match, she winced at how utterly relentless Todoroki was- poor Sero stood no chance at all as he ended up unconscious and out of bounds in less than a minute. The guy literally stood no chance at all. Ironically, 'Todoroki needs to chill' was her entire impression of the match, and with no pun intended.
Morie did straighten up at the match-up that was Mashirao versus Kaminari, however. Kaminari may be a lunch and train buddy, but she was personally fond of the polite and good-natured boy with the tail quirk- he had gotten her out of a pinch many timed, and she secretly hoped that Mashirao would kick his ass for the stunt he pulled earlier.
And so he did. Kaminari didn't stand a chance the moment the battle turned close-ranged and his own quirk fried his brain. He hadn't even attempted to aim where his quirk was discharged, resulting in an attack that was spread out and weak. At the sight of his infamous 'idiot' mode, and with a look of conflicted pity, Mashirao decked him across the face and knocked him out.
"MASHIRAO WINS THIS MATCH!" Present Mic screamed, causing Morie to question if he understood that microphones existed so that people did not have to scream their lungs out. Behind her, Jirou groaned, earphone jacks and all, was echoing her thoughts as she looked like she was seconds away from facepalming. "What was the idiot thinking, shocking himself stupid in the first minute?"
The match was evidently the type where you couldn't quite wrap your head around, as awkwardly Present Mic then called for the next match to begin immediately.
As her own match loomed closer by the minute, Morie got up and hastily left for the preparation rooms, willing herself to fight against her nerves.
Absentmindedly, she warmed up as she flexed her fingers, before she gave herself a crash course on her quirk. It sort of made her feel like she was cramming for a particular hard practical exam, and she rolled with it, if only to give her brain something to focus on.
('Increase pressure around you so that air flows away from you; if you're going to try flying take note of atmospheric pressure (please woman don't you dare fly out of bounds don't you even think about it); increase pressure around your limbs for stronger attacks; increase pressure of the air in the ground, but you have to sense the particles first; formation of pressure gradients should start at the limbs...')
With all that cramming, it still felt like this match would be one of those tests where your mind got wiped clean in the first five minutes, leaving you feeling like shit for the rest of the duration.
Feeling somewhat frustrated at her disorganised train of thoughts, Morie settled for plopping down in a chair and massaging the pressure points at her head- exposure to high pressure often increased blood pressure, which was why she had migraines so often that she gave up on taking some Panadol painkillers each time. Instead, she had resorted reduced the side effects through pressure points, and while they offered at most temporary relief, it was better than nothing.
Behind her, the television blared with roars of applause, signalling the end of Mina and Yuuga's match. Her fingers found and wrenched at each other, though she forced her expression to mold into a calm one.
Alright.
She had to find something else to focus on- a goal, maybe? Mentally grasping about the confines of her head, she settled on the most short-term and immediate goal she had in mind- and that was to beat Kirishima.
It was at that moment did the door of Waiting Room A wrench open, and Morie jolted upwards as her eyes darted up - and widened- as dark red eyes met hers.
"Hey, Bakugou." She greeted out of habit softly, sending him an unsure smile.
There was silence for a few moments as he seemed to be annoyed at the fact that no, he would not be having the entire room to himself, along with the fact that she was the one occupying it.
(Bakugou hated her- she was pretty certain of that fact.)
"The hell do you want," he bit back in response ill-naturedly, and Morie had no idea how to reply to him- what was with that response? She literally hadn't even said anything other than a 'hey!'
Bakugou then disgruntledly proceeded to hiss something along the lines of 'flowery bitch', and awkwardly she shifted around in her seat.
"Nothing," she replied, feeling utterly confused and unsure of how she should react. "Um, you know, just saying hi?"
'It's called a social norm, Bakugou, you might have heard of it before,' her mind drawled sarcastically, and she was suddenly glad that she didn't have the habit of saying her thoughts out loud. If that were the case, she imagined that she would have fucked herself over by a thousand times, with the cause of death each time being 'Death by Bakugou'. At her funeral, the dude himself would show up, only to say something like 'Rest in fucking pieces, dipshit!'
... ah, how exciting.
The spiky-haired boy in question was now sending her an unimpressed look, eyeing her with those red eyes of his. Morie didn't even bother wondering what he was thinking- it wasn't the first time he had questioned her intelligence, anyway. She ended up staring (glaring) back at him.
A few seconds of silence passed before he finally replied.
"Whatever," he muttered. "Shut up and leave me alone."
With those words, Bakugou promptly turned away from her as he began to warm himself up for his match. She regarded him for a few moments before turning back to the television.
He seems to tell me that a lot. Morie thought, feeling just a tad bit amused. I'm not even stalking him or anything, not to mention that I don't even talk to him that much.
Glancing up, she ran her fingers through her short hair as with a panic, she realised that the match between Yaoyorozu and Tokoyami was fast approaching its end, and that it was time for her to leave for standby. Getting up, she reached out for the doorknob and was already halfway out the door when Bakugou's voice rang out once more.
"Stop."
At the sound of his voice, she froze, momentarily wondering if she was hallucinating. No way that the great Bakugou Katsuki was voluntarily starting a conversation, right? Especially not after he told her to 'shut up' himself. The only logical explanation was that she had finally lost it and was hearing things.
... yeah, that had to be it. Hah, the stress was driving her crazy.
"I said stop, dipshit."
He was growing impatient now, and she turned around to glance at him with wide eyes and a look of extreme disbelief.
(This was new.)
She looked at the spiky-haired boy expectantly, her curiosity growing with each passing second before she finally acknowledged him. "What is it?"
"You're the one who went up against that half and half bastard, right?" The male grinned, though it was not friendly in the slightest- not with those bared teeth of his and the knowing glint in his eyes. "I want to pulverise you in the next match."
The door fell close in her moment of shock, and a tingle ran down her spine as she began to walk off to the arena after a few moments of stunned staring, her footsteps echoing in the corridor.
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Bakugou Katsuki, she gathered, was straightforward and simple-minded, both in his mind and his pursuits.
What she couldn't wrap her mind around was this: what exactly did she do to bring upon this single-minded focus onto herself? Her team hadn't even won the battle trial against Todoroki and Shouji- hell, maybe he still secretly hated her for the Classroom Incident, and was looking for a reason to get her back. Or maybe he just wanted to beat her up. Plain and simple.
At this point, mixed emotions were running through her- the most predominent ones she picked out were fear and confusion, which were the instincts which made her tempted to throw her match to avoid Bakugou at all (which won't happen, because she wasn't such a scumbag yet and heck, she wasn't going to win against Kirishima with half-assed effort. She respected the guy too much for that.)
Strangely, there was another feeling that Morie was having some difficulty identifying, though she quickly placed it when she realised that the tiniest of smiles had crept up onto her features.
Seriously? I actually want to fight him? Even though I'll probably lose?
'Of course,' something in her mind responded in a vague manner. 'You find him interesting, so isn't that obvious?'
With that somewhat shocking revelation, she stopped at the side-entrance, vaguely making out Present Mic's commentary over the ensuing uproar.
"Sweet and full of spirit, this lady from the hero course is Minamoto Morie!"
The smile remained on her face throughout as she walked out onto the arena, stepping forward as an eerie calm descended upon her. Strangely, there were no feelings of discomfort this time- all she saw in the crowds were the blank, featureless faces of strangers, and all she felt was a burning desire to prove herself. She tuned out the noise, focusing herself on the particles around her as she looked up to see Kirishima making his entrance in all his flaming red-haired glory, sporting a contagious grin in face of the crowd.
"He can turn himself harder than rock! From the hero course, this tough guy is Kirishima Ejirou!"
The crowds roared at his entry, as he notably seemed to be a favourite among the crowd. At Midnight's behest, both of them stepped on either sides of the arena, and Morie smiled, taking up a shaky breath.
"May the best man win, Kiri," she joked wryly. Kirishima cracked up a little at that. Then, eyes glimmering in determination, he slammed his fists together, letting out an excited yell as he did so- the very action causing the crowd to go wild.
"Hell yeah," he agreed. The anticipation rolled off him in contagious waves, and something within her was amused at how it was like they were having an exchange in class. "I'm not going to go easy, Rie-san."
That sentence alone sparked a bright grin from Morie, who whistled softly and settled into a fighting stance.
"I'm glad to hear that." She smiled, and rubbed her hands together, glancing up at the top stands where Present Mic and Aizawa-sensei were seated. The signal to start would come at any moment now, and already she could feel her fingers tingling in anticipation.
The seconds were ticking past in an achingly slow fashion, and the wordless tension was enough to send the her heart thumping.
Finally, Present Mic's voice blared throughout the stadium with a shout, and the second last battle of the preliminaries started quite literally, with a bang.
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A/N:
Woah, a fast update? Honestly this chapter is more for shits and giggles than anything, if I must say so myself.
Bakugou declares war! Kirishima and Rie clash- who will win?
Also, I made a Tumblr blog dedicated to my fanfics in general which means that I can now update you about the progress of Selling Daylight from there! My username is cyan-rubies so do give it a follow if you would like a way to keep updated (and get exclusive previews) while I'm missing in action:') I'll also be putting the link in my profile, so feel free to check it out!
Thanks for reading, and do tell me what you think!
