Chapter Fourteen: (Dis)illusions


Stepping out onto the arena, Morie could've sworn that the ear-piercing cheers had only increased in intensity from the last time she stepped out into the arena- though plainly she could see why the crowd was so excited. The Bakugou Katsuki was up again, of course, and against this wimpy-looking girl (if they could even tell she was a girl) from the hero course.

Very exciting, indeed, a voice deadpanned.

She cast all thoughts of Endeavour and Todoroki to the back of her mind. Wringing her hands around each other, she absent-mindedly ran through the details of her plan in her mind, just as one would cram memorising notes right before the moment they step into the examination hall. All she asked was that she manage to get away with both of her hands spared- if she were to get wrecked, at least let her be able to continue drawing, right? She was fine with not winning, or being utterly destroyed- that was to be expected, after all.

Then Morie sighed once more, eyes squeezing closed, and inwardly slapped herself.

Who the hell was she kidding? She wanted to win this- she wanted to beat this ridiculously talented kid before her, wanted to get a taste of a satisfying victory for once, one that she did not need to feel guilty over. She wanted to get through this match, and if she bumped into Todoroki along the way, it would be fucking fantastic.

('Isn't that an understatement? You really want to fight him.')

She was the daughter of Coriolis, the only woman in the top five ranked heroes, the one who was as mysterious and revered like some god in a myth, the one who saved others with gentle, affirming voice ans wielded the power of the winds. The very person who she knew to be Minamoto Fū, her mother, the same person who liked to ruffle her hair, loved her dad's cooking, and read the papers in the morning, like anybody else.

Coriolis was ordinary but extraordinary- the hero that Morie aspired to be like the most. And this whole tournament could be the first step she could go towards proving herself.

At that thought, her fingers tightened into fists, and she looked up, dark almond eyes brimming with resolve.

From across the arena, Bakugou Katsuki stared her down. It didn't take a genius to know to he wasn't trying to psych her out, and was only intently surveying his opponent.

What did he see, she wondered? Did he see a worthy opponent, or someone who was quivering with fear?

"Come at me, bitch." Slowly shifting into a fighting position, Bakugou's head jutted upwards defiantly as he uttered lowly. His head shifted, and she caught a glimpse of bared teeth and narrowed crimson eyes.

A corner of her lips twitched upwards, though she had no idea where the sudden impulse to smile came from. It was like her stress from before the match had been cast away as unneeded emotions before the beast that was before her. This certainly wasn't the time to be going mad, though.

"Alright then," came her light-hearted reply- the eerie sense of calmness surprised her deeply. She could've sworn that she saw a grin stretch over his face, even if just for a split second.

Then Bakugou lunged forward with a roar, and the not-smile was replaced with an intense ferocity.

Her plan unknowingly slid its way back into her mind. Immediately Morie hastily ducked over his swipe, but was not spared the resulting blast.

Wincing, fresh burns blistered over her arms as she was sent skidding backwards, though a part of her was glad that he had created the distance for her. What she did not expect, however, was for him to continue his launch of attacks, relentlessly leaping to where she stopped, his right arm already pulled back to deliver her a punch.

Morie rolled out of the way, a gasp escaping from her mouth, painfully aware that the boundary line was only metres behind her. A fresh panic seized her as understanding struck her in an instant: Bakugou had been led around by Uraraka in the previous match, and to prevent that, he made sure that he was now the one actively attacking- in other words, he was the one deciding the pace of this little game they were playing.

As smoke rose about the arena, she silently brought her hands close, cupping them slightly as she willed the pressure within them to grow and build. Some might think she was praying. If you went by technicalities, she sort of was.

With some luck, a powerful gust of wind would form, which could blow him back a few metres- hopefully putting distance between them. Running forward, she abruptly released the pressure, pulling apart her arms deliberately. As expected, air started swirling towards the blonde boy viciously, getting faster and faster as it approached-

But then Morie's eyes widened in horror as the spiky-haired boy simply spread his hands open, unleashing a series of explosions which caused the wind to die off unexpectedly, whirling into nothingness.

When exposed to the explosions, the pressure of the air around Bakugou increased. Heated air had high pressure, but was also unstable. A new understanding hit her akin to the force of a sack of bricks to her gut.

He knew.

And just like that, her plan- which had heavily revolved around the use of her quirk, had fallen apart- or it had quite literally, been blown up in her face.

Predictably, Bakugou was showing her no mercy. A hand whipped past her head as she barely dodged in time, sparking with small explosion noises that she recognised immediately. Cursing at herself for being caught off guard, she rolled over sideways. Bakugou straightened up at this point, smoke curling off his fingers ominously.

"I got you figured out, dipshit," she watched the words leave his mouth like a promised death threat. "So what are you going to do about it?"

What could she do about this?

That cowardly part of her screamed of self-preservation and that she give up immediately to spare herself the humiliation of continuing the one-sided match. As quickly as the thought came, it disappeared; surprisingly, her jaw subconsciously clenched in determination.

"I'm not giving up, if that's what you want me to do." Morie responded warily, dark eyes flickering up to meet his.

There was a strange grin on his face, and without a warning, the Explosion user was suddenly inches before her, blasting her away with his explosions. Effectively, he had turned this into a close-ranged fight, and she kept that in mind as she darted forward, bringing her fist back to punch him- though that attempt was similarly met with failure as she was blasted backwards almost immediately.

To an onlooker, it seemed that this was turning out like Uraraka's fight against Bakugou all over again. Yet this did not apply to Morie, however, as she bought herself more time, biting away the pain and heat from his explosions. There was always another way, after all, and she just refused to give up.

Then her solution struck her simply- a stroke of brilliance which she knew would guarantee nothing, but was still worth a try.

Pushing herself up from the ground, arms shaking from the strain, she charged towards Bakugou once more, a fuelled resolve inching its way into her features.

'It's now or never,' came her grim revelation.

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けんか

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"Damn you, Bakugou! Do you swing the other way or something?!" Mineta cried out, looking like he was an inch away from tearing his hai- his grapes from his head.

Kaminari glanced behind to look at the boy, yellow eyes furrowed ashis features made his features known.

"That might really be the case," he agreed, sharing the horrified look on the purple boy's face. From the stands, the match didn't seem to be going well at all- he could make out Rie's small, boyish figure, but all he could see was that she could hardy even get close to the other boy. "I swear, that Bakugou's really something- of all people, he had to go up against two girls!"

Kirishima lightly hit him over the shoulder, as if berating the yellow-haired boy. "C'mon, you guys," he chastised, shaking his head. "Let's just root for the both of them!"

"I don't know, man," Sero remarked, black eyes fixed on the match. "It does look pretty one-sided."

The red-haired boy huffed, feelimg somewhat indignant. "She's still standing," he pointed out, red eyes darting to the arena where Rie stood. "That's something."

"Yeah. I guess." Kaminari agreed. There was silence for a while before a new voice spoke, and they glanced around to spot the mild-featured Mashirao, who was sitting with his tail curled around him, flicking thoughtfully.

"If you're talking about Minamoto-san," he spoke up helpfully. "It looks like something's happening."

Lo and behold, something was indeed happening.

The small-looking girl was charging towards Bakugou once more, though there was something about this attack which seemed different, in a way. Kirishima couldn't really place it, but it looked like looked like she had regained some sort of confidence as she ran onwards, chopped brown hair blurring into a dark line which they could barely keep their eyes on, her movements taking on a sharper edge.

Bakugou raised a hand, and the beginnings of a large explosion sparked away at his fingertips, and their hearts lurched as he unleashed his largest explosion yet.

With a loud bang, plumes of smoke and dust were rising from the battlefield, and loose rubble was scattered about the stadium. Blasty sure had his way of wreaking havoc.

Kirishima's eyes widened as he surveyed the scene before him- there was no way that this was happening once more- a bitter taste settled in his mouth as he realised it reminded him of Uraraka's earlier match.

It couldn't be-

The smoke dispersed, and a collective gasp rolled over the stadium at the sight that met them.

Rie was standing. A web of cracks zigzagged around her feet where her heels were firmly dug into the ground, and her left side was charred and darkened as it received the brunt of Bakugou's explosion. Her injured hand wrapped around the blonde boy's wrist, even as wisps of fresh smoke were still curling their way from his calloused fingers. She was battered, bruised, and terribly injured, but she hadn't been blown away. The match wasn't over.

It wasn't hard to figure out, even for him, that Rie had taken the explosion on purpose in order to get an opportunity to attack. In other words, she had pulled a Midoriya.

Boy, was Blasty going to be majorly pissed off.

Though this went without saying, Rie was the sort who went out of her way to ensure that no one would get hurt in her plans. Allowing herself to get hurt spoke loads of her desperation- no, determination to win.

Even up against Bakugou Katsuki, Kirishima thought that Rie couldn't lose to him- at least in terms of manliness.

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がんばって

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"It looks like Minamoto has given herself an opportunity to land a surprise attack!"

Present Mic was screaming again. Into his microphone, no less. It was driving her crazy.

"It's not a surprise attack when you announced it beforehand," Aizawa pointed out, his tone riddled by a sigh.

It was a sentiment echoed by Morie as she refused to give Bakugou the chance to blast her away.

"Get your fucking hands off me!" Bakugou roared, attempting to wrench his arm from her grasp as several explosions burst out from his palms. She felt the pain but bit through it, raising her other hand as she curled it into a fist-

- a hand met hers in a block as Bakugou growled at the deadlock they were stuck in. And it would have stayed that way, too, if she had actually been aiming to punch him.

The growing pressure in the space between her curled fingers and her palm escalated as the air exploded outwards, forcing his hand to withdraw. Seizing the opportunity, she increased the pressure around her hand further as she yanked her other hand backwards; Bakugou scowled as he was promptly pulled forward roughly. Swiftly, she allowed the pressure around them to increase all at once- it bit and pressed down on both of them hard, swirling harshly as if meaning to choke them..

'After all, Bakugou, even you are not immune to the side effects of pressure up close.'

Not willing to give in, he propelled himself over her with a harsh spurt of orange flames, twisting out of her grasp, inciting a wince from her as he landed behind her. Morie whirled around, hand wrapped around her bruised wrist (so much for protecting her hands), and she glanced at Bakugou to see that he was doing the same. A small sense of satisfaction bubbled up within her that the boy with ash blonde hair seemed to be losing steam, even if by only a little. The new bruise blooming on his wrist only proved that.

With any luck, he should be experiencing other ill side-effects soon: headaches, nausea, fatigue- she chuckled. Never had she expected that she would choose to go all kamikaze on this guy. Against someone much physically stronger than her, it might not mean much, but at least she could leave a mark of sorts before the fight was inevitably concluded.

Something clicked within those red eyes of his then.

"Tch," he clicked his tongue, before fixing his glare onto her. "Angel-face, you, Deku- are you all fucking stubborn or what?"

You seem pretty stubborn to me too, she mused, resisting the urge the chuckle at the irony of his words.

Morie looked up at him, somehow finding it within herself to shake off the achimg of her wrist and send him a grin- much like the time she had blurted out the secret nickname that was Mr Spiky Hair.

"Nah," she responded, though she was beaming widely as she somehow got reminded of Kirishima. "It's called being manly."

Bakugou snorted at that.

"You hang out too much with that shitty hair-for-brains," he scoffed. He could deny it as much as he wanted, but he undoubtedly was more fond of Kirishima than he let on.

Morie laughed, and as much as it was weird to be bonding with Bakugou Katsuki of all people, on a battlefield of all places, no less, she silently thought that this wasn't so bad. Sure he was a piece of shit, and she could not deny being a little terrified of him; yet he was taking her seriously, and not underestimating her like many would. It had been the same for the match against Uraraka, and in her opinion that was an admirable quality.

'It's about time for this to end, then.'

"Your move." The offered words barely left her mouth before the expression on his face turned into a scowl almost instantly. It was like he was aware that she was baiting him, and was inwardly seething.

"Fuck off," he bit back.

"Ah." She didn't know how to reply to that, so she uncomfortably pretended that she hadn't heard that.

The pressure burned and weighed on her limbs as she ran forwards. Unsurprisingly, Rie wasn't the only one who did so as her fist met his in an blast of air and sputtering flames.

They were still at it five minutes later, and the aftereffects of her quirk caught up with her faster than expected as abruptly her head began to swirl and her mind blanked out for a moment. That moment of weakness knocked her backwards, and her fingers clawed at the dirt ground as she tried to force herself off the ground.

Somehow, her collapsed legs and arms pushed up again, barely supporting her weight anymore as she dragged and pulled her limbs behind her, stumbling. For a reason Morie did not comprehend, they were dragging her to where Bakugou stood, in the middle of the arena.

People were shouting out from the crowds now for the match to be called off, but in response a dry smile tugged up on a side of her parched lips.

They don't understand, she thought. The match ended the moment his punch connected with me. He doesn't know that though, he's still wary.

No one stopped her as she stood, barely able to balance herself before the blonde boy, and with a smile she watched as he tensed up.

Morie did not remember what she meant to say to him amidst the fire spreading through her lungs and limbs and her splitting migraine, but smiling strangely came naturally to her.

"Please don't kill me," she heard herself say. "But I sort of can't move my arms anymore."

A pause. To prove her point, she tried to shove her unbruised arm into the air and failed. She settled for squeezing her eyes shut and raising her voice.

"A heroine knows her limits," Morie forced herself to be louder. A hush settled over the arena then, as Bakugou's red eyes narrowed dangerously. "I forfeit."

"You've got to be fucking kidding- " He roared, but Morie turned towards him and bowed her head, brown strands falling into her face.

She could feel his gaze boring into the back of her head.

"Bakugou." Woah, that has got to be the first time I addressed him voluntarily when he's angry. "Thank you for the match."

Morie remained in that position for a while, before she toppled gracelessly onto the ground two minutes later and Midnight realised that she had finally passed out.

Ah, I can't fight Todoroki now, was the last thought that flit through her feebly conscious mind. I don't know, that actually really sucks. I bet Bakugou's really pissed off, too. Hah, lucky me.

.

Exhaustion and sleep deprivation certainly did wonders for her.

Morie awoke an hour later, blood pressure normalised and perfectly healthy- though heck, saying she was exhausted was a massive understatement - she was so tired, in fact, she hadn't minded at all when she was suddenly tackled by a watery-eyed Mina and Kirishima.

Then, glancing down at the former-arena, her dark eyes widened. The sight of a spittingly furious Bakugou tied to the Number One post greeted her, which could only mean one thing- he beat Todoroki.

"Fuck this! I'm not number one if I don't acknowledge it-" The boy was evidently swearing his mouth off, though All Might stuffed his now-free mouth with a gold medal, which silenced him as it clamped in between his bared teeth. Even as his violent protests were muffled, he continued to thrash about like a wild animal.

Frazzled and pissed off, even after he'd won the whole tournament. She certainly hadn't been around for the grand showdown between Bakugou and Todoroki, but somehow that just seemed so Bakugou, for the lack of a way to explain it. Morie felt somewhat amused, even though the sight of him was still fear-invoking.

While she had never envisioned a 'hero' to be one gagged and strapped in a straightjacket, struggling crazedly against his restraints, somehow she didn't doubt for a second that the angry guy on the podium was one in the making.

'As weird as that sounded,' she thought sheepishly. Unknowingly, her eyes had drifted back to the figure with ash-blonde hair far below with poorly-concealed curiosity. 'With that said, I still don't know what to make of him, though.'

Not wanting to be caught staring, she looked away with haste, instinctively feeling around her pocket for a stray marble she could fiddle with. At last, her fingers met with nothing and she settled for playing with her fingers instead, a contemplative look flashing over her features.

It was a strange thing, really. Bakugou Katsuki had seemed so within reach when they were both in the confines of the arena; yet now she couldn't help but feel like he was so, so far away.

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A/N:

What do you think? This chapter was actually rewritten a few times- I was experimenting with ways to make the little 'interlude' flow better. Settng up Bakugou and Morie's interactions was pretty challenging, too.

*Edit: The fight scene was edited so that what happened was more clearer. Rie put herself in a vulnerable position so that she could land a hit, or at least use her quirk on him while he is unable to move. Putting both of them in a deadlock makes it possible for him to be exposed to her quirk since he was finally within range. If you're wondering why she wasn't subjecting pressure on Bakugou when he was attacking her, it's because her quirk requires visualisation. Bakugou was using his quirk all the while which meant she didn't have the time to figure out how she could apply her quirk.

And hey can you believe it? We're nearing a hundred reviews! I would like to thank all you readers and everyone who left a review, favorite or follow- everytime I get a notification from fanfiction, I feel so happy:') Thank you for the support, and I apologise if I haven't responded to your reviews- I refer a lot to reviews when I'm writing, and often I lose track of reviews. Feel free to leave me feedback via PM or tumblr!

Also, I'll also be updating the side story to SD, Kerosene Hearts more often, where background stories and alternative versions to events will be posted. I also to try to post chapters relevant to current events of SD, so so check it out if you're interested in knowing more!

As always, don't forget to let me know what you think, and thank you for reading!