Beta-ed by xenosaiyan


"I understand that we have committed to this course of action," Weiss spoke as reasonably as she could. "But can I at least get you all to acknowledge this is utterly juvenile!?"

After the confrontation on the roof, Team RIBW and Team AYBN had made for one of the practice arenas, filling out the necessary forms to reserve it for a sparring match. Fortunately, this early in the semester, students were still basking in the introductory sections of their classes, leaving the main arena open for their immediate use. Katsuki and Izuku had set off to grab their gear from the locker room while the others had taken their seats in the bleachers. And as the time ticked by until the two boys' return and the group was left to stir, Weiss couldn't help but voice her lingering doubts over their course of action.

It was ridiculous! Even putting aside their differences of opinion over how to handle Jaune's cheating, in what world was having two of their teammates beat the stuffing out of each other the correct method to determine their course of action? Their duty as huntsmen was to use force for right, not use their might to decide what was right.

Ruby sighed. "Weiss, I know this seems strange, but Izuku asked us to trust him. I trust him. Don't you?"

Weiss groaned. "I trust Izuku. But I can't say I can make sense of his thought process on this matter. Why would he insist we tell the headmaster about the false transcripts one minute and then suddenly agree to this ridiculous idea?"

"Oh, I don't know, Ice Queen," Yang rolled her eyes. "Maybe because he doesn't like being a jerk?"

"I am not being a jerk!" Weiss protested.

"We know you're not," Pyrrha quickly assured her.

"Intentionally," Yang needled, only smirking when both Weiss's glare and Pyrrha's pleading stare landed on her. "Come on. Is his flirting really so bad that you want him out of the school?"

"That is not what this is about, and you know it, Xiao-Long!" Weiss said. "He did not know what aura was at initiation!"

"And now he does. What's the problem?"

Weiss groaned into her hand. "You realize that is the baseline we're supposed to learn when we enter combat school, right? To say he's behind is the understatement of the century. Even Ruby knows more theory than him and Headmaster Ozpin rightly considered her combat ability prodigious enough to skip two years. Jaune is not ready for Beacon's curriculum, and in a school like this, that could get him and others killed."

"Oh, come on, Weiss, you're exaggerating—"

"No, she's right," Jaune spoke up, his head low and locked on his hands. "I didn't have any aura or landing strategy during initiation. If Pyrrha hadn't saved me, I would have died. I got lucky."

"Well… yeah… but we've all got to get lucky when it counts, right?" Yang nervously comforted him. "If Katsuki wins, that just means you'll have the chance to learn. Me and Pyrrha can make sure Sparky doesn't blast you too bad in the training sessions."

"Right!" Ruby concurred, scooting up to her friend. "And since I'm catching up on the theory stuff anyway, you can join the study sessions that Weiss is giving me."

"Do not offer my services without my consent," Weiss deadpanned, dropping her face into her palm. "Jaune, if I may ask, what in the world made you think coming to an elite combat school was a good idea when you didn't know the first thing about fighting?"

"You said your dad was a huntsman, right?" Blake inquired. "Why not ask him for some lessons?"

Jaune looked the black-haired girl in the eye and blinked numbly at her. "You're an only child, right?"

"Um… yes?"

"Thought so. I've got seven sisters. Add them, me, my mom, and my dad together and that's ten mouths to feed and only two parents to breadwin. The town didn't have the money to pay dad what he'd need to feed us all, so he was always off on extermination missions the Vale Council posted. He made the big lien and sent it home and tried to make it back himself whenever he could."

Ruby and Yang both paled, the sisters sharing a look.

"He did come back, right?" Ruby asked.

"Huh? Oh yeah, sorry. It's not some tragic, comic-book sorta-thing. He usually made it back home a few times a year. Birthdays, holidays, that kind of stuff," Jaune explained. "But that meant that when he was home, he had to split his time among all of us. He gave me some pointers when he could, but he just wasn't around enough to train me."

Weiss frowned. "What about a combat school?"

"Ansel's a small town. There isn't one," Jaune shrugged. "I tried to convince mom to let me go to the one a few towns over, but the commute didn't go over any well-guarded trade routes. She wasn't willing to risk me getting attacked by a Grimm along the way."

"I see," Weiss mumbled. "How kind of her."

It was strange, to hear about Jaune's circumstances. Not being able to spend time with one's father was a situation she knew well, but she'd lost the desire for that 'commodity' before she was ten. However, even when her father made known his opposition for her desire to be a huntress, she'd never really been restricted from learning how to accomplish her dream. She'd been trained by the finest tutors money could buy, with Winter always giving her advice whenever she was off from school or later on leave from duty.

Weiss had worked herself to the bone to become the best huntress she could be. But she'd never really considered that others might not have had the opportunity or means to do the same.

"Doesn't make coming to Beacon anywhere near my smartest decision," Jaune chuckled, turning back to the arena. "I mean, there's a reason a game doesn't let you skip to the final level. A level one character can't take on the boss."

"Eh, not necessarily," Ruby idly noted. "You should see some of the no exp. runs on… look! They're here!"

Weiss and the rest of the group looked down at the stadium. From opposite sides of the arena, Izuku and Katsuki entered the ring in full combat gear. The protective hardlight dust wall flashed over the bleachers to ensure no errant fire would harm the spectators as the giant screen above the stadium blinked on to display the fighters' active aura levels. Fresh and ready, both boys' bars were green and full.

"So… ignoring the rather involved stakes we all have in this fight, who do you think will win?" Pyrrha inquired, voicing the question at the back of all their minds. "I mean, I know firsthand just how skilled Katsuki is, and while Izuku isn't weak, I've never really seen him… pushed, I suppose would be the word. Have you guys?"

"I can't say I have," Weiss admitted. "He's done exemplary in combat class, but his opponents were fighters like Sky Lark. Good, but hardly titans."

"Professor Goodwitch always told him to work on keeping his mind on all factors of a fight," Ruby noted. "But I'm not sure what she meant by that. I mean, minding your surroundings is important, sure, but there isn't exactly much of an environment to keep track of here."

"Maybe…" Blake muttered, rubbing her chin. "Katsuki mentioned something about Izuku making 'borrowed power' his own."

"Whatever that means. Not even he seemed to know what he was talking about then," Yang said, her eyes narrowing towards the combatants. "Either way, Izuku's wanted this fight since Initiation. Katsuki's been trying to avoid it just as long."

Jaune frowned. "Is that why they're doing this? I mean, Katsuki went straight to challenging Izuku when he needed a way to keep everyone quiet. Almost like he knew it was something Izuku would agree to."

"Of course not," Weiss dismissed. "Izuku wouldn't gamble your fate at this school and doing the right thing just to pick a fight. That would be… be…"

Juvenile.

Utterly and completely juvenile.


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Izuku could admit he was ashamed at how juvenile he was being. Not just about manipulating his friendship with Ruby to arrange the fight or using it as an excuse to possibly get out of telling Ozpin the truth about Jaune's transcripts, but because when he finally stood across from Kacchan in the arena, it felt completely natural. Like putting on an old glove. Competing with his childhood companion turned bully turned rival brought out the fire in the young hero, his analytical mind overwhelmed with passion as their wills clashed. In a normal fight like their duel after the Provisional License Exam, that could be as much of a boon as a hindrance, but this battle would be no normal fight, not as Deku was used to.

His gaze darted towards the display screen above the arena, both boys' aura meters seemingly perfect. Seemingly. The stadium's systems could only measure active aura, which wasn't too much trouble for anyone who got into Beacon with years of combat training drilling the instinct to keep it active into them but was a potential hurdle for Izuku. One only needed to look at how stiff and telegraphed Jaune, another student who lacked those years of training, was in sparring class to realize how much of a handicap it was for a person to have to split their conscious attention between fighting and keeping. Add in Izuku's need to also balance his One for All percentages between zero, his standard eight percent, and the fifteen percent he could safely utilize with his aura boosting, and it was no surprise that Professor Goodwitch had consistently reminded him to improve in that area after combat class. Heck, Deku was pretty certain that the deputy headmistress had been manually fiddling with the arena's systems during class to keep the green-haired boy's slips from instantly ending his matches, as his aura meter would have instantly dropped to zero if he'd slipped in keeping it active.

There was no Professor Goodwitch to cover for him now. If he slipped in keeping his aura active for even a moment, his green bar on that giant screen would vanish and the fight would end before Kacchan's memories could be stirred awake by their clashing fists. To do that, it wouldn't help to stress his use of One for All too much. Best to keep his quirk at the eight percent level rather than push it to the point where aura became a necessity.

"Don't take your eyes off me now, Broccoli Hair!" Kacchan shouted, his left arm pointed behind him, sparks peppering his palms as his gauntlets whirred. "You wanted this! Let's see if you can take it!"

An explosion sounded off from his left palm and the wolf faunus flew forward, his grenades rattling on his belt. His movement was ferocious, his speed impressively fluid, and his right arm's incoming strike had passion and force behind it. Any other foe might have been too terrified to react.

But Izuku had known it was coming since before they'd stepped into the arena.

The green-haired boy dashed towards Kacchan before the other boy had crossed half the distance, ducking under the wolf faunus's guard and getting in position for a judo throw. There was no second-guessing as there'd been during their last battle on the training grounds. This was a Bakugo that had no idea just how thoroughly his combat style had been studied.

'You always open with a big right swing.'

Izuku's body flicked with One for All's lightning as he grabbed Kacchan's right arm tight, hauled him over his shoulder, and threw him down onto the ground. The arena's floor was made for aspiring huntsmen to battle in with all their strength and dust-infused weaponry, so it didn't crack from the force as a gasp of spittle flew from Katsuki's shocked lips.

The wolf faunus didn't get any time to react beyond that, Izuku spinning on his heels to deliver a precise and savage kick to his opponent's stomach. The blond boy went flying deeper into the arena, Izuku having made sure to aim the fight towards the center of the stadium. He couldn't afford for the fight to end by an early ring-out before Kacchan's memories had a chance to come loose.

But he also couldn't afford to go easy on him, nothing but his best would press his rival like he needed to. Izuku may have seized an early opening, but he knew better than to think the duel's momentum was more than one slip-up away from escaping his grasp.

He rushed to Kacchan's new position, the other boy managing to twist in midair to land on his feet. Izuku arrived as soon as his opponent touched the ground, but he could already tell he wouldn't be able to get one of his wide, sweeping kicks off before the wolf faunus would be able to raise his arms into position to aim an explosion.

Of course, he'd figured that from the start. Just as he already had a counter.

'The motions when you're preparing to do a move are too big. It's not good for a slugfest.'

'When you used it with your punch, it made me mad.'

Midoriya's fists flew out, quick and light, each hand punching down one of Bakugo's arms and forcing them out of position. The wolf faunus's eyes widened in confusion as his countered was predicted and diffused, his green-haired foe already cocking back his punch to deliver a heavier blow.

Another advantage Izuku held. He had all the knowledge and strength he'd gained through his rivalry with Kacchan to draw upon, everything that had driven them both since childhood to greater heights than they ever possibly could have reached in isolation.

"Detroit Smash!"

To counter that, to beat him, to strive for absolute victory as he always had, Katsuki Bell would need the power of Katsuki Bakugo.

Izuku's fist raced forward and collided with his head.


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"Detroit Smash!"

The fuck was a 'Detroit'?!... A city in—FUCK!

Katsuki didn't know why his mind had seemed to know the answer to its own question or why Broccoli Hair had been overlaid with that muscular smiling blond guy in spandex again, but he soon had bigger problems as his opponent's fist crashed into his face and sent him hurtling back for the second time in their fight.

Since when did Broccoli Hair use punches?! Hell, forget that, how was he doing this!? No one, not Nikos, not Ice Bitch or Moon Eyes, not even Kirishima back home, no one had ever put the wolf faunus so thoroughly on the back foot so quickly. He knew the bastard had had his eye on him since the semester began, but this went beyond what he could have surmised from a few weeks of observation. The vegetable-haired dick knew what Katsuki's go-to responses were to his attacks specifically, like he'd fought him before.

And no matter how the blond boy knew he hadn't, and no matter how he somehow felt he had, the fact was that it turned his chances in this fight to shit. Broccoli Hair might not have worked out how to combine his borrowed power with his own yet (whatever the fuck that meant), but his semblance still made him fast as a Deathstalker's stinger with nearly as much bite behind him. If he knew how to circumvent Katsuki's counters, he'd steamroll his aura in only a few exchanges. Already an errant glance at the scoreboard showed the wolf faunus's gauge dropped to sixty percent from the three hits landed so far.

'Give me everything you've got, Kacchan. All your strength, all your power. And then, I'll go beyond.'

'PLUS ULTRA!'

Fuckin' hell!

He would not let the Wet Noodle's mistake cripple his time at Beacon! If Broccoli Hair wanted this fight so bad that he was willing to throw out all his moralizing to get it, Katsuki sure as hell wasn't going to let him win so easily! He would not lose to this damn nerd—

Damn… nerd?

A bracing wind ripped Katsuki from his ringing head and racing mind, Broccoli Hair once again having caught up with him, this time while the wolf faunus was still flying through the air, perpendicular with the floor. The green-haired huntsman's fists were already traced with verdant lightning, streaking fast enough that the Bell Boy knew his closest hand, already rising, wouldn't get into position in time to fire off a properly aimed blast.

So it wouldn't be properly aimed.

His right hand swiped a pair of objects from his belt while his left palm, the closest to Broccoli Hair, ignited with a frantic explosion. It was a desperate and sloppy move, Broccoli Hair would have barely been grazed even if he hadn't moved to dodge, but the recoil did its job in sending Katsuki flying away, putting some much-needed distance between him and his opponent.

Broccoli Hair of course ran to follow him, but that was when the objects Katsuki had slipped from his belt came into play.

The first grenade was filled with ice dust, a frozen block sprouting around the green-haired fighter's boots', arresting his advance before he could get too far.

The second grenade was a fire dust special. It did as it did when it smacked against Broccoli Hair's chest.

Katsuki stumbled and rolled to his feet as the flames roared across the arena, the emerald bastard blown back from the point-blank blast. The wolf faunus panted hard, pissed that he was strained enough to need to take a crucial moment to catch his breath and even more pissed that he'd been forced to use two of his dust grenades on this green bastard. Did he know how big a chunk it'd take out of his stipend to replace those?!

And yet, without hesitation, he reached down and plucked four more rock and ice dust grenades from his belt. He threw them out at close intervals, sprouting tall mounds of stone and ice around Broccoli Hair as the bastard flipped himself back to his feet. The new obstructions would be crucial to keeping the green huntsman from closing the distance again where he had the advantage, letting Katsuki strike him from a distance with his gauntlets' dust rounds (another chunk of his stipend!).

Of course, those mounds could also be used as cover if Broccoli Hair was smart enough, which Katsuki was not prideful enough to deny he was. He had his opponent penned in, but the bastard could easily figure out a way to observe his new environment and turn it to his advantage. He needed a way to throw him off-balance and keep him there. Maybe chuck in some more fire dust grenades? No, he'd kick them back. Damnit! He couldn't lose to this bastard! He refused to lose-

'Sweet! Bounce more sparks with less sweat and I can blind the fuckers before I kill'em! Any villain that tries fighting me is gonna die!'

… what the hell? He… he never said that. And what the fuck did sweat have to do with anything?

And yet, even as he was confounded by his own mind, his hands were already closing in front of him, his muscles instinctively flexing in a pattern Katsuki knew he should know. His sweaty palms clenched and his semblance flared in a way the wolf faunus had never seen before, sparks building more light than force in the space between his hands, growing brighter and brighter until…

"Stun Grenade!"

The words flowed from his lips like a bursting dam, Broccoli Hair's face lighting up as he heard them. At least, before the light washed over him and sent him reeling.

Despite his success, Katsuki grit his teeth. Still, he didn't waste a second wallowing in frustration, instead raising his gauntlets and making ready to rain dust downrange.

He would not lose to this All Might wannabe!—

… All Might?


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"Goddamnit, shit!" Yang swore, clutching and rubbing at her eyes. "Since when can Sparky do that?"

Ruby knew her sister must have been peeved above her partner's sudden flash grenade blast since she always endeavored to keep her language clean… er around her 'baby' sibling. The silver-eyed girl was grateful that Pyrrha had yanked her and Jaune down below the seats (Blake did the same with Weiss) when she'd realized what Katsuki had been about to fire out a split second before he'd unleashed it.

The red hooded girl ran over to her sister and helped her sit down while the other four huntsmen-in-training looked down at the arena in awe and confusion. Below, a blinded Izuku desperately scrambled between the obstructions of rock and ice as a roaring Katsuki pelted him with dust bullets from his chain gun gauntlets, his opponent's disabled vision allowing the wolf faunus to flank him from a new angle whenever his sense of touch found something to hide behind.

"So, it seems Katsuki has decided to start copying Izuku's habit of shouting out attack names," Blake glumly noted. "Goodie."

"Can't argue with the results," Jaune countered. "Izuku was ragdolling him there but because that Stun Grenade attack he's evening it back up."

"And his dust grenades! And his gauntlet guns! They're putting in work too!" Ruby clamored, before smirking down at the fight. "See what happens when you actually use your weapons? They're awesome!"

Pyrrha absentmindedly nodded her agreement, the championship fighter leaning towards the duel with even greater interest than before. "He's taking this even more seriously than he did his fight with me."

"To be fair, the stakes are a bit higher," Blake pointed out. "Jaune's future at the academy and all."

"Nah. Sparky doesn't know how to take it easy in a fight," Yang said, still blinking the spots from her violet eyes. "Whatever he needs to do to win, he'll do it. Doesn't matter the stakes."

"True," Pyrrha conceded. "And when they started, the way Izuku was reacting, it was almost as if he knew what Katsuki was going to do before he moved. If he hadn't used those dust grenades to break Izuku's momentum…"

"Green Bean would have slaughtered him," Yang finished, finally rising to her feet again.

Jaune gulped. "He really was pushed to the edge. No wonder he finally used his weapons."

Weiss cocked an eyebrow. "Why wouldn't he have? Katsuki's combat instincts are top-notch. He wouldn't ignore his only way to avoid defeat."

"Well, yeah, normally," Jaune nervously replied. "But he usually doesn't use dust in spars. Not even against Pyrrha."

"He figured out her semblance, remember? Metal weapons wouldn't have helped him," Weiss countered. "And against myself and Ruby… well…"

"He needed to save the money," Ruby nonchalantly shrugged.

"It was that?" Jaune inquired, breathing a sigh of relief when Ruby nodded in confirmation. "Oh thank goodness. I thought I'd misread it."

"Misread what?" Weiss asked, completely befuddled. "Sparring isn't much use for gauging our combat abilities if we don't build on the techniques we'll use in the field. It's easily worth some lien."

"Some lien?" Blake snarked.

"Yes," Weiss repeated, only to find every one of her friends blankly staring at her. "What?"

The rest of the huntsmen students exchanged awkward looks. Eventually, Ruby coughed into her hand and stepped forward. She was leader of Team RIBW. It was her job to educate her teammate. "Weiss, you know you're rich, right?"

The heiress rolled her eyes. "No, Ruby, I am completely unaware that being the heir to one of the largest companies on Remnant gives me access to vast amounts of funding and resources."

Ruby winced. "Did you ever think that other people might… not be?"

Weiss's eyebrow twitched in barely restrained annoyance. "Ruby, I am aware that people like Pyrrha and I are outliers in terms of wealth. I just don't see how that's an excuse for not properly equipping oneself."

Yang frowned. "Ice Queen, seriously. Katsuki's only here on a scholarship."

"So? Scholarship students have a stipend for ammunition."

Blake rubbed her face into her palm and shook her head. "Gods, you're sheltered."

"Excuse me?!" Weiss exclaimed, whirling around to face her partner.

"Those stipends are fixed, allotted at the beginning of the year. And robberies throughout the kingdom have caused dust prices to skyrocket the last few weeks," Blake fired back, her amber eyes piercing and forceful enough to make the elegant heiress take a step back in fear. "Katsuki has to pick whether to use his ammunition now or when lives are on the line. There's no daddy for him to run to get more shipped to his door if he runs out."

Weiss stammered as if she wanted to say something in response, but in the end, the white-haired girl couldn't weather her teammate's scathing glare, looking down at Katsuki and Izuku in the arena in a new light. Ruby and Yang shared a smaller guilty look between them. The sisters may not have been filthy rich, but they did have two well-connected huntsmen for a father and uncle. They could use Crescent Rose and Ember Celica to their hearts' content in a fight. They'd never hurt for supplies to chase their dreams.

"Come on!" Katsuki howled below, somehow growing angrier even as he maintained both the range and his advantage against Izuku. "Is that all you've got?!"

"Not even close!" Ruby's partner uncharacteristically yelled back, the green-haired boy's blindness wearing off as Yang's had. "I told you, Kacchan! I'll take everything you've got!

"Stop calling me that!" Katsuki screamed, his fury taking on a worrisome desperate tinge. "If you want everything I've got, why the hell do you keep trying to tear me down?! The Wet Noodle? Whatever the hell you've been doing to my head!? If you want me at my best, then quit trying to break me with the cheap tricks and fight like a man!"

"He's not just angry. He's… upset," Weiss realized, glancing at Jaune a way down. "He knows you're not ready but… he can't replace you. That's why he's fighting so hard?"

"Heh, I guess I am sort of like his ammo," Jaune remarked, though his eyes narrowed at his raging teammate below. "But no. He was angry about that on the roof. This… this is different. He's… frantic. Did Izuku's bum rush really startle him that bad?"

"Maybe?" Pyrrha shrugged. "He's never come so close to losing so quickly before."

"And he hates losing," Yang said, as if any of them needed a reminder. "He's been trying to avoid fighting Izuku for so long… do you think… he doesn't think he can beat Izuku? At least not without losing stuff he couldn't replace?"

"If that's what it takes, then do it!"

BOOM!

The huntsmen's eyes widened as something smashed through the rock mound Izuku had been taking cover behind, a cloud of dust sprayed through the air as a figure wreathed in emerald lightning burst through.

It was then that Ruby recalled that as much as Katsuki had tried to avoid fighting Izuku, her partner had been trying to get into the ring with the wolf faunus. At first, she'd thought he'd accepted the other boy's challenge for the same reason she had, for some kind of moral loophole to let Jaune's actions slide, but that didn't line up with what they were both saying now. If this really was just Izuku taking advantage of Katsuki's challenge to finally get the fight he wanted… what did that mean for everything he'd said on the roof? He'd asked her to trust him. She did and she had, but the situation just didn't add up.

What was her partner up to? And why had he manipulated her to do it?


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"If you want me at my best, then quit trying to break me with the cheap tricks and fight like a man!"

In the moment, if he was asked what exactly had happened in the arena right after he'd regained his sight, Izuku wouldn't have been able to definitively say. His joy when Kacchan had remembered his Stun Grenade, had exclaimed the attack name like they had back home, had been beaten back with frantic stumbling as he'd tried (and mostly failed) to dodge his gauntlets' barrage while blinded, continuously bumping into the ice and stone obstructions his opponent had cleverly created. Without his sight, he'd only been able to use each as cover for a second before the wolf faunus changed his angle of attack to circumvent it.

After that Kacchan had started shouting at him, taunting and insulting him just like back home. And just like back home, battling his rival had brought out parts of Izuku the boy didn't like, those that were like the parts of Bakugo he didn't like. The intensity, the insults, the blood-boiling anger in the midst of battle, battling his childhood companion, the person who was as much the image of victory in his eyes as All Might was the image of saving people, in all came to the forefront as he desperately sought to surpass him.

It was only in hindsight, hours after the match had ended, that the young hero would be able to realize that, as his instinct heated up, he'd stopped thinking about carefully managing One for All and especially his aura. He wasn't tittering over ensuring he kept the energy of the soul active and his bar on the viewscreen (which had dropped to just under half during Kacchan's onslaught) filled as his vision went red and his body became absolutely wreathed in lightning. Once more, just like when he'd reached Full Cowling 8%, Kacchan had pushed him to evolve without either of them realizing it.

His aura was fully active by instinct without him even realizing it, strengthening his muscles. And his quirk poured in as much strength as they could safely handle.

The borrowed power was his again.

One for All: Full Cowling 15%

"If that's what it takes, then do it!"

Izuku turned on a dime, his opponent's gunfire bearing down on him as he dashed towards an earth obstruction to hide behind. Only for the green-haired boy to kick right through it.

Katsuki whipped his gauntlets over to strafe him, but the cloud of ash from the stone mound's destruction obstructed his aim enough that he didn't land a single shot before Izuku closed the distance with his enhanced agility. To the wolf faunus's credit, he'd realized something was up as soon as he'd seen his opponent burst through the wall. He may not have expected the sudden boost to his foe's strength and speed, but he'd already been positioning his arms for counter explosions.

In his panic at the green demon's rapid charge, he immediately fired off a maximum firepower blast.

Izuku knew Katsuki well enough to see it coming a moment before it fired, but he was so close and the explosion so massive that he was still clipped by the edge, his aura crackling even from a strike so far from the epicenter. With his energy so high however, he nimbly rolled with the momentum back to his feet.

"I told you, you're my image of victory, the person I would break any limit, break myself, to surpass!" Izuku shouted, cutting a sharp turn towards his opponent. "I'm fighting you with everything that I've gained from that! And against it, you aren't enough!"

Kacchan frantically threw out his palms, desperately firing off explosions to blast himself back and create distance as he laid down cover fire with his gauntlets. But Izuku was too fast, darting between the hail of dust bullets and blitzing up to the wolf faunus with a heavy kick already screeching for his side. The blond boy's previous retreat had his hands in position to unleash a small explosion to dodge, but it was only fast enough to cause the kick to strike his arm instead of his chest.

And when Iron Soles's second strike rung true like a bell? The gauntlet, sundered from the sheer force of One for All, was sent flying off Kacchan's forearm. The wolf faunus was sent careening across the arena, spinning and bouncing over the floor until he finally managed to spin to his knees on the very opposite edge of the ring.

"But you can be! You can be a huntsman! You can be a hero that always wins! If the you of now isn't enough, break yourself! Move forward to be a stronger you! Remember that you still have strength to tap! Remember and win to save yourself!" Izuku screamed, blazing across the battlefield towards his foe, his legs twisting for another strike to push his friend to his limits.

To save him. And through that, win.


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Broccoli Hair bore down on him, fast and furious like a raging tempest full of verdant lightning. And yet, the only thunder was in Katsuki's mind.

The muscular blond man with spandex and a smile. All Might.

"You can be a hero that always wins! If the you of now isn't enough, break yourself! Move forward to be a stronger you!"

His parents that weren't his parents.

"Remember that you still have strength to tap!"

Young Broccoli Hair looking down on him, but not looking down on him, offering him a hand up.

"Remember and win to save yourself!"

In his mind's eye, even knowing nothing could change whatever it was he was seeing, he hesitated to take the young Broccoli Hair's hand. Even as the thunder pounded his skull, his pride could not bear to take the child's outstretched fingers.

But then he saw past the vision, saw the real Broccoli Hair bearing down on him. He was down a gauntlet and his opponent's sudden speed increase meant his grenade trick wouldn't work twice. His right arm was spasming and cramping from the full-power blast he'd just fired. His back was against the very edge of the arena. He would lose if he did nothing, he would lose if he kept fighting these visions.

"I break and break myself… even if it means twisting myself, I'll win the way I choose. I refuse to accept that I can't even beat you like that… NO WAY!"

Broccoli Hair was willing to break his limits to win, his physical ones and the moral ones to accept this fight in the first place. And Katsuki would not lose to him.

He reached up and clasped the vision boy's hand.

The thunder became a flood, surging and bursting through every inch of his mind. Before, he'd just been hounded by vague sights and premonitions, but now he was bombarded by sounds, smells, information, emotions, an entire life that he knew was his. He did not process it all at once, could not process it all at once, but with his singular drive for victory, he was able to paddle through the rapids to the whirlpool he needed.

The name he needed to remember.

Knowing he had the advantage in the air, Katsuki fired over a pair of explosions with his palms pointed straight down, the wolf faunus bolting upward. Even then, his opponent was too close, too fast, his leg streaking up for the blond boy's chest as he rose.

But as it did, Katsuki's hands moved to point towards him, his left hand open while his right formed a circle over its palm. He concentrated his sweat, his quirk, through that circle as only now he understood how to do it again.

He fired just as his opponent's kick reached up to his chest.

"AP Shot!"

"St. Louis Smash!"

The explosion beam blazed out and slammed into its target at the same time Katsuki gagged from the kick to his chest. The wolf faunus was launched high into the sky as his opponent was blasted down into the arena, a cloud of soot and smoke filling the air from their clash.

Katsuki could swear he heard some sort of ringing alarm, but he was too focused on the fact that he was flying out of bounds. If he fell outside the arena, he'd lose by ring out just like he did against Pyrrha. Fuck that!

He was exhausted and nearly spent, but there was no way he was losing to that damn nerd!

His quaking, twitching palms fired once again, the wolf faunus blasting himself back towards the arena.


RWBYRWBYRWBYRWBYMHAMHAMHAMHA

Jaune could only fall back in his chair and gape slack-jawed at what he'd just seen in the arena. This was what he'd tried to blindly jump into with no training or experience whatsoever? The kind of speed, power, and relentless determination that it took to challenge the Grimm that haunted humanity?

It might have made him feel even more emasculated than when Cardin had first threatened him on the roof, but a quick glance at his incredible teammates and friends showed them just as stupefied by their classmates' display as him.

"Uh, Yang, my dear sister," Ruby stammered. "Did your partner just shoot a frickin' laser beam out of his hand?!"

"Like you're one to talk!" Yang exclaimed. "Did you see the way yours was moving? How much aura his hits were taking away just glancing?!"

"Being stupid strong and stupid fast is Izuku's entire semblance!" Ruby protested. "Katsuki's semblance has never included frickin' laser beams!"

Pyrrha leaned in closer over the railing, seemingly enticed and excited even further while the rest of them were stunned with awe. "I don't think that's what it was. I think he focused his semblance through the hole he made with his other hand, concentrated the same force into a smaller surface area to increase impact. It's simple but it's brilliant!"

"Since when can he do that?" Blake numbly questioned. "He didn't have any reason not to use that when he fought you. And if he came up with it just now—"

"—then he's a genius," Weiss breathlessly whispered. "A prodigy among prodigies."

Yang smirked gloatingly for her partner. "Come on, Ice Queen. We already knew that much. Sparky's never let anything stop him from winning. He's really annoying about it sometimes."

Weiss sighed. "So I've noticed. Anyway, I suppose we should merit out how we're going to handle this unexpected situation—"

"DEKU!"

They'd all heard Katsuki shout angrily plenty of times before. But something about that one, the sheer venom and goading instilled in that single word none of them had heard before, made all the huntsmen-in-training whip back towards the smoke-filled arena.

Jaune's eyes widened in shock as Katsuki soared down with a fury. Izuku, previously plastered on his back, spun around and flipped up to his feet, gazing up at the plummeting meteor of a wolf faunus.

For some reason Jaune couldn't understand, the green-haired boy was grinning like a lunatic, tears of joy gushing from his eyes.

"You've got a lot of explaining to do, you bastard!" Katsuki roared. "But don't think that means I'll lose to you!"

"Lose to him?" Blake said. "Does he not see—"

"I don't think he does," Yang cringed. "But don't worry, Izuku will—"

"He doesn't see it either," Ruby stated with surety and fear. "Right now, the only thing those two see is each other still standing!"

Sure enough, neither boy showed any hints of stopping. Izuku's mouth curled into an eager, red-blooded smirk, his knees bending to leap as his flesh became crisscrossed with glowing lines of power. Katsuki fired off explosions all around him, spinning rapidly as a tornado began to coat his descending form.

Neither huntsman even glanced at the stadium's scoreboard.

"Incredible," Pyrrha whispered excitedly. "They still have more? How much power do they—"

"Pyrrha!" Jaune shouted, rousing the tournament fighter from her analytical admiration. "Polarity! Now!"

Pyrrha blinked in shock at his sudden command for a second, only to gasp in horror when she saw the scoreboard for herself. The Invincible Girl immediately raised a hand and gripped the closest projector of the stadium's hardlight dust wall in the black sheen of her semblance. Simply by closing his fingers into a fist, she crushed the giant hi-tech machine like a plastic cup before leaping over the side of the railing and rushing into the arena as soon as the holographic barrier flickered off.

Izuku's legs extended, and he shot into the air like a bullet. Katsuki emerged from his tornado, his glowing hands readying to throw down the cyclone along with his biggest explosion yet.

"Howitzer Imp—"

"St. Louis—"

"Magnetic Chuck!"

Pyrrha rushed into the ring and thrust out her hands, a black glow covering Izuku's boots and Katsuki's single remaining gauntlet. Throwing her arms outward like her classmates' were puppets and she'd gripped their invisible strings, the redhead yanked the boys apart and chucked them into the bleachers on opposite sides of the stadium. The fighters crashed into the stands just as Ruby blurred down with her semblance and hurried Pyrrha away from the thunderous explosion of the tornado Katsuki had gathered. Jaune tried to brace himself, but he and the others were all sent flying back into their seats by the booming force of the blast.

After that, there was dead quiet for a few moments, everyone probably still waiting for their ears to stop ringing if Jaune's experience was the norm. Fortunately, aura's healing factor had the nifty side benefit of helping repair minor eardrum damage, so it wasn't long before they were all in tip-top shape to get them all blown out by Katsuki again.

"What the hell, Nikos?!" the wolf faunus screamed. "Where do you get off interfering in this—"

"Shut up and look at the scoreboard, Sparky!" Yang yelled, cutting off her partner's anger as Pyrrha's face had begun to become annoyed as she helped Ruby up to her feet.

Katsuki and Izuku both heeded the blonde girl's advice, their faces paling when they saw what the now cracked viewscreen displayed. Both of them deep in the red, Izuku's bar barely half a percent lower.

Neither of them had noticed that the exchange between their AP Shot and St. Louis Smash had simultaneously taken their auras down below the point where the match would be called. If Pyrrha hadn't prevented their final clash between what looked to be even more powerful moves, they very well could have killed each other. They may have put on the greatest fight Jaune had ever imagined, but man, had they gotten tunnel-visioned towards the end there.

Which was why the leader of Team AYBN hadn't expected a slow yet resonating clapping to suddenly fill the room. All eight prospective huntsmen exchanged glances to figure out which of them was giving the applause, only to instead find their gazes guided towards one of the entrances to the stadium high in the stands.

Two familiar figures emerged from the shadows, one with a cane and the other with a riding crop.

"Well, that was certainly one of the more bombastic spars to ever grace this arena," Professor Ozpin cheekily observed, ceasing his clapping as he and Professor Goodwitch descended the stairs.

"Mr. Midoriya. Mr. Bell," the combat instructor scathingly glared, stowing away her riding crop that likely would have prevented the boys' final clash if Pyrrha hadn't moved when she did. "I am disappointed to see that neither of you have heeded my instructions from your last class with me. Pull another stunt like this and, if you survive, I'll see you both suspended."

Izuku and Katsuki both went rigid with terror, gulping as they nodded affirmation to their terrifying professor. However, right after, both of them winced from the final strains on their bodies. Jaune guessed that after putting each other through the meat grinder, neither of their muscles were appreciative of the sudden tensing.

Professor Ozpin tapped Professor Goodwitch on the shoulder, the deputy headmistress finally dropping her displeasure at the students with a huff. She marched over to the arena and lifted Ruby and Pyrrha up to the bleachers with her semblance before beginning to telekinetically repair the damage caused both by the fight and the Polarity intervention at its end.

Now that Jaune thought about it, with how many times he'd seen sizable chunks of Beacon casually destroyed by in-class spars, errant rocket lockers, or superhuman teenagers just generally horsing around, Professor Goodwitch must have been saving the school a fortune in repair bills. What would they do without her?

"Well, students, while I'm hardly against a bit of late-night sparring, I must remind you all that there is class tomorrow," Professor Ozpin gently said, a mischievously pleased smile on his face. "Ms. Rose, Mr. Arc, I trust you as team leaders to ensure Mr. Midoriya and Mr. Bell are checked on in the infirmary before you return to your quarters—"

"Actually, headmaster," Jaune suddenly spoke up, the two teachers' turning to him with surprise.

The blond boy found he couldn't help but shake in his boots under the gaze of such renowned huntsmen, especially given the information he had to share with them. Didn't help that he found his friends' eyes on him as well, Ruby, Yang, Izuku, and Pyrrha with shock and concern, Katsuki and Blake with surprise, and Weiss with… something. They all knew the only reason he would have spoken up. For a moment, he considered backing down, saying it was nothing, just continuing on hiding his misdeeds as he had.

But then he remembered the fight he'd just witnessed, Izuku's words ringing in his head as he evaluated himself by them. The him that had lied and cheated into a spot at Beacon he didn't earn, refused any help that he'd needed, and would have cowtailed to Cardin's blackmail if Katsuki hadn't intervened when he did? The him that was placing the burden of conscience on Ruby, Izuku, and Weiss, his friends, whether to bend their morals to cover up his wrongdoing? That him could not become a huntsman, no matter who tried to help him.

So, he'd break himself. And forge a stronger him that could.

"There's something I need to tell you," Jaune declared, pushing past his fear to say what he needed to say. "Can we talk in your office?"


To answer the obvious question, no, I am unfortunately not back to any consistent schedule of writing fanfiction. Real-life and my career are still in such a position that it requires my full attention and I have not yet been able to build up the backlog of chapters for either this story or Third Faction that I had planned to write before my return. That said, a confluence of factors (crazy real-life week, a fellow fic writer I like making a return to one of his stories, this fic not being updated in a year and a half, and having this chapter ready to go) came together to drive me to publish this chapter. I don't know when I'll be putting out the next one, could be a week, could be months, but I suspect that the story's first Wham Episode will at least leave a better stopping-off point that the previous chapter's buildup to it.

Remember to leave your thoughts on the chapter in a review and to update this story's TvTropes page! :)

Thank you for Reading! I hope you enjoy what comes next!

Go Forth and Conquer!