"Heroes versus villains capture test: begin!"

All Might's voice echoing throughout the empty streets of Ground Beta interrupted Izuku and Minoru's planning session, the former looking around with wide eyes and wondering where all the time had gone.

"Guess that's our cue."

"I-I suppose it is."

Izuku led the way, the two having decided that he would be the vanguard due to his superior strength as well as his prior knowledge of Katsuki's quirk and his thought processes. They entered the office building replica on their guard, their eyes working to adjust to the dim lights inside. While the exterior had looked as real as any other building in Musutafu, the walls inside were bare, the corridors devoid of personality, and the rooms lacked frames or doors while every surface including the floor and ceiling was composed of the same smooth tile in a uniform pattern.

"Kacchan's brash, but he's also highly intelligent," Izuku explained softly, peeking widely around the corner as the two climbed the stairs to the building's second story. "He'd probably make a contingency plan in case either of us was able to climb to the roof. If we can catch one of them alone, that makes our jobs easier."

"I hope I get to capture Hagakure. I'd love to-"

"Shh!" Izuku stopped whatever obscene fantasies his partner was about to spiel with a hand covering his mouth. "Did you hear that?"

"Mfmhm." The green-haired boy took his hand slowly away from his partner, taking a defensive stance and scanning the room with discerning eyes. Minoru seemed significantly less concerned, continuing down the hallway while shaking his head. "Dude, you're way too high strung. I didn't hear anything."

"No, I'm pretty sure I heard something…" a quiet, somewhat high-pitched percussive sound. Like a slap, or…

A bare footstep.

"Mineta-san, get close to me!" he jumped forward the instant the thought popped into his head. How stupid could he have been? He was so wrapped up in thinking about Katsuki and what he'd be doing that he'd completely overlooked the potential of a sneak attack from the invisible girl!

"Too late!" Her voice echoed throughout the empty hallway. Minoru's arms were suddenly pulled back by an invisible force, his diminutive frame working against him as he was easily and swiftly overpowered, a ribbon of capture tape appearing from thin air and wrapping itself neatly around his wrists.

"It appears Young Mineta has been captured! That's one point for the villains!"

It had all happened too fast. One moment Izuku was warily searching for his opponents and the next All Might was confirming his partner's capture over the training ground's speaker system. He stopped in place, now unable to do anything to assist his teammate.

'This is bad! I was planning on relying on Mineta-san's quirk to lock down Hagakure-san, but now she's free to roam and I have no means of locating her.' Izuku cursed his stupidity, waiting silently in place and focusing all of his attention to his hearing. Now that he'd overlooked the most obvious strategy the 'villain' duo could employ, this test had gotten ten times harder.

"I suppose Kacchan's going to be here any minute then?" Toru didn't reply, obviously too smart to give away her position talking to him. Her quirk being what it was, she'd probably trained herself in the art of stealth. He was probably right, however; the villain team had been given communication devices. If the invisible girl was as smart as she seemed so far, she wouldn't engage him until Katsuki arrived to back her up.

He had until then to come up with a plan.


"Man, that was super anti-climactic. I can't believe Mineta-san got captured right away."

"Looks like Midoriya-kun is in trouble."

"Not gonna lie, the little perv going down first is what I'd call Karmic justice. Did you see the way he was eyeing us when All Might was explaining the test? Gross!"

Manami didn't catch which of her classmates had made any of the comments she'd heard but agreed with their sentiments all the same. Her eyes were locked on the large monitor currently zooming in on Izuku, the boy continuing to hold a one-sided conversation with his invisible enemy while he shuffled his way through the halls.

"He's your boyfriend, right? You worried?" It took a moment to realize that somebody had addressed her, but once the information had been processed her face grew warm.

"U-Um… sort of?" Manami felt her nerves rising; her hands unconsciously found their way into her hair, fussing with the ends of her twin-tails. "I only asked him out yesterday."

"Good on you for taking your shot. We've only been in school for like a day though, so what's the story?" The girls of the class seemed to slowly be crowding around Manami, although even some of the boys seemed to be paying the conversation half their attention. The purple-haired girl who led the inquisition held her hand out with a barely-there smile. "Kyoka Jiro, by the way."

"Manami Aiba." They shook hands, Jiro's introduction shortly followed by the rest of the girls.

"Ochako Uraraka! Nice ta' meet ya'!"

"Tsuyu Asui. You can call me Tsu-chan, kero."

"Mina Ashido!"

"Momo Yaoyorozu, a pleasure to meet you."

"Th-Thanks. Nice to meet all of you as well." Manami's mind swam with information as she committed names to faces in her memory. It'd been a while since she'd had classmates to talk to. With introductions out of the way, the girls quickly returned to the original topic of conversation: her love life.

"So~!" Mina sing-songed, "Tell us all about you and your hunky sort-of-boyfriend."

"Yeah! You two already knew each other before class, right? You ran right up to him on the first day; it was so cute!"

"Y-Yes, I've known Izukun for almost five months now. We met when he saved me from a mugger." She felt her face heating up at the chorus of dreamy sighs from her classmates. One boy from a couple of rows back even shouted about how 'manly' that was.

"Ooh, the start of a perfect love story!" Mina's hands were clasped together, her eyes dramatically turned towards the ceiling, "The beautiful damsel at the clutches of an evil villain only to be saved by her knight in shining spandex!"

"Well, no spandex since he was wearing workout clothes, but I guess that's close enough. I was scared, but Izukun took him down with his bare hands." She tactfully left out the fact that her sort-of-boyfriend had also used his quirk, something that would definitely land him in hot water if any of the teachers at U.A. ever heard about it. All the same, the gaggle of girls practically had hearts in their eyes at the romanticism of it all. Even Kyoka, whose general attitude and appearance suggested something more of a tomboyish nature graced them with a cheeky smile.

"And then what?"

"Well, after the police arrived, I didn't have time to thank him properly, so I asked the officer to put me in touch with him; she gave me his address and I went to thank him in person. I kind of… pulled him down to my height and kissed him on the cheek before running away."

The collaborative squeal that followed caused All Might to turn in the girls' direction with a questioning gaze.

"Is everything all right, girls?" he asked, his expression somewhat unnerved.

"Apologies sensei, we'll be quieter." Momo smiled apologetically, reassuring the symbol of peace. He nodded at them before turning back to the monitors, watching with rapt attention even though nothing particularly interesting had happened for at least a few minutes at this point.

"So, what happened after that?"

"Well, I didn't get his contact info or anything, and I wasn't about to show up unannounced at his house again, so we didn't talk for another couple of months. Then we met again at the same convenience store, except this time we were both just getting some groceries. We talked a bit, and eventually I got the nerve to confess… sort of. I shouted at him that after I passed the U.A. exams I would ask him out before running home. Well, we're-um, obviously here, at U.A… so I asked him out after class yesterday and he said yes." It was a truncated version of the story, but Manami didn't really feel up to going into the deep emotional bits with girls she'd just met, no matter how nice they all seemed. Not to mention she still wanted to watch Izuku kick Katsuki's ass; she'd been keeping one eye on the screen in case anything changed.

"It really is like something out of a romance novel." Momo looked like she wanted to pull Manami into the world's tightest hug but was holding herself back. The others agreed, Manami's pinks flushing even pinker at the comparison being repeated.

"Yeah, I feel really lucky."

Her eyes found their way back to Izuku, now with his back against the wall of a large open room. She smiled.

'Do your best, Izukun.'


'She's definitely waiting for Kacchan.' Izuku's mind swirled with half-formed thoughts and plans as he continued to inch his way through the office building, eyes and ears open for any sign of movement from his invisible classmate. 'If I could get her blood, I'd be able to sense her, but if she's just going to follow-up on Kacchan's attacks and use whatever openings he creates to capture me, I won't have the leeway to mess up. That being the case, Kacchan's probably the better target.'

He'd long since made the decision to locate a larger room; the increased amount of space would allow him to distance himself from Toru at a moment's notice and hinder Katsuki's ability to maintain pressure with repeated attacks. Finding such a room, Izuku shuffled his way inside, pinning his back to the wall so that the invisible girl would be forced to come at him from the front and he could keep an eye on the door for Katsuki's arrival.

"You're a lovely conversationalist, Hagakure-san." She had yet to reply to any of his varied nervous exclamations, the bait obviously not good enough and Izuku not the type to rile someone up at will like his best frenemy. It was for that reason that he tensed up the moment he heard her voice from somewhere to his left.

"Thank you, Midoriya-kun! I try my best."

"Die!"

As if on cue, the wall behind Izuku exploded into a fiery ball of rubble and dust. The resulting shockwave knocked him off his feet, tumbling forward and rolling in a desperate bid to maintain control of the situation. He kicked to the left the second he felt Toru's hand clasp around his arm, catching her in what he presumed was her stomach with enough force to send her falling to her back judging by the direction of her pained groan.

"Get the fuck up and fight me, Deku!" Katsuki hadn't stopped his assault after making his grand entrance, charging Izuku with a guttural roar that rattled his nerves. It'd been a long time since Katsuki had been this aggressive toward him.

However, Izuku wasn't the same weakling the blonde-haired bomber remembered from their childhood.

He executed another roll, popping to his feet in a ready stance with his feet planted firmly on the ground. Years he'd spent learning everything he could about every quirk he could get his eyes on, including Katsuki's—especially Katsuki's—had prepared him for this moment: his first real taste of quirk-on-quirk combat.

'Kacchan always leads with his right hand.' That hand had singed his clothes, made his ears ring, terrified him more times than he could ever hope to count. 'That means I get one free shot.'

"Die!"

Katsuki's signature battle cry was as intimidating as always, but Izuku didn't allow himself to cower. He felt terrified, every single ounce of self-preservation instinct in his body telling him to run, but nonetheless, he stood firm.

'One shot.'

Just as his opponent reached him, Izuku stretched out his arms, one hand taking Katsuki's wrist-grenade gauntlet and diverting his hand and its explosive payload to the side while the other grasped firmly around his bicep. Using Katsuki's momentum against him, Izuku flipped the other boy over his head, hoping he'd read the instructions right as he pressed his fingers deeper into Katsuki's arm.

Katsuki hissed and clattered to the ground with a grunt, sliding a few feet on the somewhat polished surface of the faux-building's tile floor. No doubt it would take him a few moments to recover from that slam, but noise from behind reminded Izuku of his other opponent.

'Hagakure-san!'

Izuku's senses were now in overdrive and Toru was breathing heavier than before now that he'd scored a clean hit on her. Unfortunately, he couldn't pinpoint her location in time to avoid getting clocked in the jaw. Reacting quickly, the green-haired boy ducked with the momentum of the blow, doing his best to ignore the pain as he dropped low to the floor. Izuku twisted his body on his way down, forcing his arms palm-out and pushing his classmate clear across the room. Tag-for-tag, but he couldn't help but feel that he'd come out behind in the engagement since Toru had backup.

Katsuki was coming to his feet by now, a rage Izuku had never seen before building within.

"That fucking stung, Deku."

"Sorry, Kacchan."

The two shared an intense look. Izuku's eyes shined with determination while Katsuki's were darkened with rage.

"I've been watching you, Kacchan, all these years. Where do you think I learned to throw a punch? This much progress doesn't just happen in ten months. For so long, I've looked up to you, even as you looked down on me. You, who had an amazing quirk that everyone praised. You, who was strong-willed enough to always make yourself heard. You, who never, ever second-guessed his worth… even for a second."

Izuku brought the glove that had been holding Katsuki's arm up, showing his opponent the red lines that stretched from his fingertips and pooled into his palm. Katsuki's eyes widened, his eyes darting to his bare bicep where he could see five separate needle pricks where Izuku's fingers had grasped him.

"I'm going to show you my worth, Kacchan. Because I'm going to be a hero, too!"

He brought the tip of his thumb to his lips. The crimson essence started to flow its way into his mouth.


Class 1-A watched in amazement as Katsuki stumbled the moment Izuku brought his thumb to his lips, the sudden fatigue of Hemokinesis momentarily disrupting his sense of balance.

"Wh-what the hell… did Midoriya-kun just drink Bakugo-kun's blood?"

Next to Manami, Jiro shivered. Whether it was in fear or disgust was up to debate.

"Aizawa-sensei did say something about that during yesterday's quirk exam, didn't he?" Eijiro Kirishima, Manami's fellow redhead, asked from the back row of students. "He has to drink blood to activate his quirk, right?"

"Right you are, Young Kirishima!" All Might's voice boomed, stealing the class' attention. "Young Midoriya's quirk, Hemokinesis, is a vampirism-class quirk, a rarity amongst even the rarest sub-categories. Such quirks tend to be powerful, but they come at the cost of the vital essence of humanity—the blood of others. It is for this reason such people are often discouraged from using their quirk, lest their body's natural cravings for blood to fuel their powers gets out of hand."

"Is it wise to let someone like that into the hero course?"

Manami glared at Tenya, the stiff boy quickly earning a spot on her bad side.

"Don't talk about Izukun like that. He saved me." The redhead growled. Tenya appeared startled at her aggression, staring back at the short girl owlishly.

"R-Right. You did say that. My apologies, then. It seems that Midoriya-san's intentions are truly noble, just as during the entrance exam."

Silence hung awkwardly in the air for a time.

"Uh, looking at things more positively, is it just me or does Midoriya-kun have some moves?" Eijiro seemed determined to save the class' mood with a deeper look at the melee on-screen. One of the monitors was playing back highlights of Izuku dodging Toru's punch and flipping Katsuki over his head.

"He's not only keeping up with two people, but one of them's invisible. That's kind of awesome."

"Not only that," Momo pointed out, "Midoriya-san has yet to use his quirk. It seems he's waiting for Bakugo-san to make the first move."

The class' attention was taken back to the main screen, where Katsuki and Izuku continued to glare each other down, neither daring to make the first move now that the rules of engagement had changed.

"Pay attention, young heroes! Something tells me we are about to witness something extraordinary!"


"You're gonna show me your worth?" Katsuki growled. His red eyes bored with an unmatched intensity into Izuku's, a snarl upon his lips. "Don't make me laugh. Ain't no fuckin' extra's worth shit until I say so. You want to be somebody, Deku? You gotta learn to take the heat first!"

Katsuki brought one of his arms up, pointing his open palm directly at Izuku.

"Survive this and maybe we'll talk!"

Izuku's expression didn't waver. Instead, he grabbed at the straps of his gloves, squeezing around his forearms with a small grunt of pain. Blood began to flow from openings around the straps of the gauntlets, defying gravity as Izuku willed his quirk to form it into whip-like tendrils that snaked around his arms up to the shoulder. He dropped back into a ready stance, determination burning behind his eyes.

"Bring it on, Kacchan!"

"Die!"

Katsuki pulled the pin on the grenade gauntlet attached to his right wrist, a spark igniting for a split second before an explosion rocked Training Ground Beta. A wall of flames temporarily consumed Izuku's vision as Katsuki's explosive payload raced toward him.

Thinking quickly, Izuku threw his arms up, palms out. More blood slithered its way out from his gloves, rapidly forming a thin half-dome in front of him. The impact of Katsuki's explosive projectile rattled his bones and shook the room; excess flames curved their way around his self-made shield, the intense heat singing the edges of his costume.

Izuku breathed heavily once they had dissipated, taking a moment to re-evaluate his battle strategy now that Katsuki's support items apparently allowed for long-range attacks. He felt suddenly thankful for U.A.'s support department and their ingenuity; being able to bring out that much blood that quickly in battle was a lifesaver.

The gloves' purpose when he'd come up with the design was two-fold: first to enable him to retrieve blood from his opponents without risking serious injury to them via knives or other bladed weapons and second to allow him to rapidly draw blood from his own body to use with his quirk once it was active.

To accomplish the first objective, the support staff had lined the palms and fingers with small plastic tubes, ending with small, flexible needles that would puncture the skin if he pressed hard enough and automatically collect his opponent's flowing blood which he could then suck out through any of the openings on his fingertips.

For the second, they'd placed a series of similar but larger needles circling around the forearm straps used to tighten the gloves. He could squeeze them to insert the needles into his veins. They were based on a design the pro hero Vlad King used for a similar reason, which allowed him to move freely and fight while they were active without injuring himself. Each had an opening on the opposite end that allowed him to draw blood at will with his quirk.

He was more than satisfied with the final product so far.

'Considering Kacchan had to pull the pin off his gauntlet to set that attack off, I can probably assume he can only use it one more time.' With his support items confirmed to be in working order, Izuku once more turned his thoughts to strategizing against his two opponents. 'Its area of effect is also large, so he wouldn't have used it if Hagakure-san was anywhere near me. I can use Kacchan's care for collateral damage with his quirk to try and guess where she is. Or, now that I have my quirk, maybe I can make her visible somehow…' With a general strategy now in mind, Izuku dropped the shield; the blood splashed into a pool at his feet, the dark splotches standing out against his bright red sneakers. Katsuki's eyes were wide with surprise; evidently, he hadn't expected Izuku's quirk to develop so much since he'd last seen it.

"I'm still standing, Kacchan!" It was time to show his childhood frenemy just how much he'd changed since they were kids. He readied himself to charge and take the initiative but was interrupted by Toru yelling in frustration.

"Are you crazy, Bakugo-san!?"

Izuku snapped his gaze over to Katsuki's left, where he'd heard the invisible girl's voice coming from.

"No. What kind of dumbass question is that, Invisalign?" Katsuki threw his head over his shoulder, his eyes narrowing in the direction of his partner.

"The kind of question where I am invisible! What if you had hit me with that attack?"

"I wasn't worried."

"That's not an answer!"

"Ten-minute warning!"

All Might's voice seemed to remind the two hero-hopefuls of the situation. Izuku looked between Katsuki and Toru's general direction curiously, but hadn't made any moves to attack, slightly dumbfounded at finding yet another girl who was able to match his best frenemy's attitude. U.A.'s hero course really was full of strong-willed people after all.

"Screw it, we'll go over this later. Time to kick Deku's ass. Explosive Speed!"

True to the ability's name, Katsuki shot off like a rocket, using his hands splayed out behind his back as boosters to launch himself at Izuku, who had no time to mourn his loss of initiative. Just before impact, Katsuki held his arms at different angles, releasing another set of explosions that instantly changed his momentum and led into a kick that Izuku barely blocked with his forearm.

"Where's all that bravado now, Deku?"

Katsuki's assault didn't let up. He took advantage of Izuku's occupied arms, readying an explosive palm towards his now-unprotected face.

Or so he thought.

A tendril of blood shot its way up from the floor, rapidly reshaping itself into a small shield that blocked Katsuki's strike while Izuku pushed him away.

"This isn't like when we were kids, Kacchan! I'm not giving up after one or two hits!" Using Katsuki's temporary stumble as an opportunity, Izuku pushed forward, still concentrating on not getting ambushed by Toru. Before he was able to reach his downed opponent, an invisible leg tripped him, followed shortly by two hands gripping at his wrists.

'Crap!' He honestly hadn't expected that one; he thought she'd have been behind him. Before Toru could manage to pin his wrists together and tie them, the tendrils on Izuku's arms lashed out, hardening before impact and bluntly battering the invisible girl away. Unfortunately, there was no time to follow up. He barely dodged an explosive-momentum-augmented knee from Katsuki, the boy sailing by after he rolled to the side.

Izuku looked around wildly. He'd lost track of Toru again.

"Where the hell are you looking, Deku? I'm gonna lay you out if you don't pay attention!" Katsuki yelled, getting up in his face with a series of punches and kicks that he worked hard to block with either his arms or the blood wrapped around them. The longer the volley went on, the cleaner hits his opponent managed to get off. Katsuki had begun to adjust his style, mixing his combos up with a quirk-fueled change in momentum every so often to keep Izuku guessing. It was effective enough, leaving him completely on the defensive, but he knew the real reason Katsuki had stopped using his quirk for every attack.

"Now!" Katsuki suddenly abandoned their game of hit and block to shoulder-check Izuku, although instead of falling to his back as expected, his arm was grabbed in a firm grip. Toru used his momentum to spin him before slamming him face-first into the floor. As expected, it hurt.

Forcing down the pain, Izuku rolled to the side, simultaneously lashing out with more blood that he pulled from his gloves. The grunt that Toru gave as the wave crashed into her let him know he'd hit his target, but there was little satisfaction as his head still spun from impacting the floor.

'This is unsustainable. They're surprisingly in-sync considering Kacchan can't even see where Hagakure-san is.' He thought to himself. Luckily, it seemed Katsuki was taking a breather, massaging his forearms. They must have been sore, having absorbed the recoil of so many explosions in succession; it was one of the few drawbacks Izuku had ever deduced his frenemy's quirk came with. 'I need to take one of them out and fast. Kacchan's far too mobile to lock down in a timely fashion, so that means Hagakure-san. But I can't find her, and every time I do Kacchan's there to back her up. I'd use Hemokinesis on his blood to slow him down more, but the amount of concentration it'd take is too much when he's constantly in my face.' He took a calculating glance at his surroundings; there had to be something that would help in this situation. His eyes landed on the pool of his blood from his initial shield.

'Yeah… that might work.'


Most of class 1-A had been staring on in shocked silence after Katsuki had released his grenade-gauntlet's explosive payload; some even called for their teacher to stop the fight. The flames and dust had covered the viewing cameras for almost a full minute, during which time All Might stood and actually appeared as if he was going to end it, but he gave them all a confident smile after Izuku appeared mostly unharmed.

"While Young Bakugo's destructive tendencies are slightly concerning, as long as Young Midoriya can handle it I see no reason to end their match prematurely." His smile faded as he turned back towards the monitors where none of his students could see his guilty expression. 'Forgive me, Young Midoriya. As a teacher, I really should stop this, but on a personal level… I must see this through.'

"Still, isn't that a little too much for a mock battle?"

"He and Izukun have some sort of history." Manami admitted in response to Kyoka's question. She flinched as Bakugo made his explosive charge at her sort-of boyfriend. "From what I understand, it's not exactly pleasant."

"One look at his personality tells me I probably should have expected that." Kyoka said in reply. There were gasps and some cheers when Izuku began using his quirk to shield himself from Katsuki's attacks. Manami smiled softly.

"I think Izukun still sees him as a friend, even after whatever they went through. Kami knows why or how; he's too sweet for his own good." She admitted, "I'm worried, but as long as he comes out of this okay, I'll be happy."

The fight on-screen only continued to intensify, leaving Manami's heart pounding.

'I just hope you're right about him, Izukun. For your sake.'


Izuku focused on all of the blood he could feel pooled on the floor around him, dragging it closer until he had a good-sized ball coalesced in front of him.

'I hope this actually works.' He thought, splaying his hands outward. He'd gotten past the point of needing the motions for most things he did with his quirk, but moving large amounts or making complex movements still required some sort of medium to increase his focus. In moments, he'd created a sphere around himself, completely blocking his view from the rest of the room. He brought his hands together, gathering up the energy to do exactly what he planned.

"Now you're hiding, huh, Deku?" Izuku ignored Katsuki growling impatiently, "Fine, I'll come to you then."

Izuku heard the rapid-fire pop of explosions as Katsuki charged towards his barrier, but it was already too late for his opponent to stop what was about to happen. Before the blonde had even reached halfway to the dome it exploded outward, splattering the room with blood that impacted with enough force to throw him back, tumbling to a stop almost exactly where he'd started, covered in the sticky red substance.

"That's not enough to stop me, Deku!" Katsuki barked, rising to his feet with little effort. Izuku shook his head, eyes closed.

"That wasn't for you, Kacchan."

Izuku focused, using the same technique he'd honed over months of training every morning with Stendhal. When he closed his eyes, it was almost as if he could see his blood in the darkness, now covering the room like paint splatter. A bit of a ways off to Katsuki's right, he found what he was looking for: a vaguely human-shaped outline.

'Gotcha!' He opened his eyes, turning towards Toru and closing his left hand into his fist while his right motioned to gather the blood from around her. "Sorry about this, Hagakure-san."

"Ah! What the heck—Bakugo-san! Help!" Toru screamed as Izuku's blood began to spread across her body. Unlike her partner, who could probably use his explosions to free himself, her quirk gave her no recourse once Izuku's blood circled around her arms, pinning them together behind her back. More blood joined what had already been on her body from Izuku's initial attack, thickening the makeshift cocoon until she was completely encased, only her head left sticking out.

"I'll count that as a capture! Young Hagakure has been eliminated!" All Might called over the speakers. Izuku let out a sigh of relief. Even if the symbol of peace hadn't counted that, he probably would have been able to keep Toru encased for the rest of the fight, but it certainly would have taken a significant amount of effort on his part.

"Eww, it's all sticky!" Toru groaned when Izuku released her. Her body was almost perfectly outlined by the crimson substance covering it, which she attempted to wipe off, although she only smeared it in the process. Izuku averted his eyes, feeling his cheeks growing red.

"Ah, s-sorry, Hagakure-san. Let me-"

"Don't act like you already won, Deku!" Izuku ducked Katsuki's sudden spinning kick, his opponent using an explosive momentum switch to feint into a grab that unfortunately landed. "I'm still going to kick your ass!" With Izuku's arm in a death grip, Katsuki faced a palm out and released a series of explosions, spinning the two faster and faster until Izuku's head was doing the same. "Die!"

Katsuki had returned the favor from earlier, slamming Izuku onto his back with a force that had been enhanced ten times over by the clever use of his quirk. Izuku groaned, rolling sideways to avoid being stomped on by one of Katsuki's heavy-looking boots. He scrambled to his feet, trying to ignore his dizziness, and jumped backward to create more distance between him and his opponent.

The blonde-haired bomber followed him, pressuring him with another series of explosive-enhanced punches and kicks. Izuku dodged and blocked until he felt his sense of balance returning to him.

It was time to go on the offensive.

With Toru out of the way, Izuku was free to attack Katsuki without worrying if he was leaving an opening for the invisible girl to exploit. The tendrils of blood around his arms unraveled, floating menacingly around them. The next time he parried one of Katsuki's jabs to the side, Izuku struck with a fist of his own.

Katsuki dodged his head to the side, the beginnings of a smirk on his lips, but that disappeared from view when a second fist formed out of blood slammed into him a moment later. The bomber was knocked back a few feet, barely standing as he stumbled across the tile.

"My quirk isn't just for show, Kacchan."

"Three minutes!"

The two appeared to ignore All Might's warning, charging toward each other and meeting in the middle with their quirks clashing, explosion to bloody shield. With Izuku on the offensive, Katsuki struggled to keep up with his attacks. Years of muscle memory of dodging punches just enough in combat worked against him, as even if he dodged the initial hit Izuku's quirk would back it up with the tendrils hitting him directly or in the shape of a second fist. Whichever tendril wasn't attacking was on the defensive, shielding Izuku from Katsuki's explosions or pulling his arms off-course.

Katsuki feinted a punch, instead using his momentum to shift into a side-kick that was aimed at his opponent's ribs. Izuku, however, trained hard by Stendhal, reacted fast enough to duck the kick. Noticing Katsuki's off-balance stance, he moved to counter. Blood swirled down into his palm as he rose, aiming it directly towards Katsuki's sternum.

"It's over, Kacchan!" He yelled, pushing as hard as he could. His palm-strike hit home, winding Katsuki with the force behind it. However, Izuku wasn't done yet. Just as his hand made contact, the blood gathered in his palm exploded outward, launching Katsuki toward the ceiling where he impacted with a pained groan.

He fell to the floor somewhat limply, his muscles refusing to cooperate. Katsuki placed his palms on the ground, attempting to push himself back to his feet, but couldn't manage; his arms shook from the effort.

"Fuck… you… Deku." He groaned, finally collapsing after his arms gave out. He lied in a heap on the floor, his eyes burning with determination even as he could barely manage to move.

Izuku huffed, breathing heavily. With a hand on one knee to stabilize him, he pointed the other towards his downed opponent, encasing his arms with blood and hoping that All Might would count this one as well.

"Young Bakugo has been captured! The heroes have won the battle!"

Izuku slumped over as soon as he heard their teacher speak, dropping to one knee.

"S-Sorry, Kacchan. I can't do it anymore… pretending I'm okay with how everyone treated me because of my quirk. You were my best friend. My inspiration. I… I just wanted to be like you, so much. I wanted to be strong. I wanted to be a hero." As his adrenaline faded, everything finally caught up to Izuku. Tears pricked at his eyes, and he wiped at them furiously.

"Shut up… Izuku."

His eyes widened. Katsuki wasn't looking at him when he brought his head up, but he could still see the softness in his old friend's eyes that hadn't been there for a long time; the blonde ardently avoided his gaze, looking about as regretful as he was capable. Izuku smiled. Katsuki wasn't the kind to have some kind of heart-to-heart with him; he knew that. But that one moment of genuine emotion was enough for now.

"Thank you, Kacchan."


Manami was waiting for him outside when he'd finally gathered up the strength to stand, making his way out of the building along with Toru—whom he'd cleaned of blood using his quirk—and Katsuki, who grumbled up a storm since he was being held up by his two classmates with an arm slung over their shoulders.

"I can walk by myself, dammit." He insisted, his typical rage having simmered down for the moment.

"I know, Kacchan." Izuku's strategy, as always, was to appease his frenemy with whatever words he wanted to hear. "But it will make Hagakure-san and I feel better to make sure."

"Izukun!" His short sort-of girlfriend shouted his name the moment she saw him, eyeing him up and down with concern, "Are you okay?"

"Y-Yeah. Never better." He smiled, knowing she wouldn't buy it. His costume was ripped, shredded, and burned in multiple places from the times Katsuki's quirk had managed to connect, with matching bruises for many of the injuries. His legs felt like jelly and his head throbbed from being slammed into the floor by both of his opponents… multiple times. The only part of him relatively undamaged were his gloves, which were created by U.A.'s support department and made of materials far more durable than the rest of his costume. The thought of his mother's hard work being torn up on the first day saddened him, but he was sure the support department would repair and reinforce his costume so the same thing wouldn't happen next time.

"You're a bad liar, Izukun." Manami chastised him with a smile, "I'm only letting you off the hook because you did what I asked. You did really good; I'm proud of you!"

Izuku smiled back at her, even though he could practically feel Katsuki rolling his eyes next to him. He also ignored Toru's quiet exclamation of 'So adorable!' from his frenemy's other side.

"Good indeed, Young Midoriya!" All Might affirmed, standing behind Manami. The rest of the class was absent, so they must have been in the observation area still. "Young Bakugo and Hagakure as well! You all did an excellent job!"

"Thank you, sensei!" the three said in unison. All Might waved them off with a smile.

"Not at all, children, I merely speak the truth! Now, Young Bakugo, do you feel well enough to remain in class or shall we escort you to Recovery Girl's office?"

"I'm fine. Let's just go back." Katsuki grumbled shortly, his tone a bit more respectful speaking to the symbol of peace.

"Such determination! Well, you are always free to change your mind later, but if that's the case, I will take Young Bakugo off of your hands. You two should rest up as well while your other classmates partake in their battles." Izuku and Toru gratefully accepted the transfer of their burden, All Might's strength obviously more than enough to help keep Katsuki upright by himself as he led the way. Manami quickly latched on to Izuku's side once he was separated from the other boy, hugging him tightly.

"Here, I'll help you walk." She insisted. Izuku smiled as they moved along, knowing that Manami was well aware he could move on his own; it was just an excuse to hug him. He'd probably scared her fighting so intensely with Kacchan.

"Yeah, thanks Manami-chan."

Class 1-A was a mass of whispers and gossip by the time the group of four arrived at the observation center. Minoru was already there; apparently, he'd made his way over after having been eliminated within the first minute of the exercise. He gave Izuku a thumbs up and a wink which the boy wasn't sure he wanted to know about.

"Let's all quiet down, shall we class?" All Might guided Katsuki to one of the chairs where the boy plopped down, obviously exhausted, before taking his place at the front of the room where the monitoring station rested. "We're going to go over some things in between each battle to look closer at what we did well and how we can improve. Let's start off by asking this: who was our MVP in this battle?" The symbol of peace made a show of searching over the sea of hands that had shot up before making his choice. "Young Jiro, what do you think?"

"Midoriya-kun, probably? He captured both of his opponents, after all."

"An excellent guess, but I had someone else in mind! Any other answers?" More hands. "You participated yourself, so what is your opinion, Young Midoriya?"

Izuku squirmed as all eyes in the room turned to him.

"I-I would say Hagakure-san." He answered. All Might smiled, making a rolling hand gesture.

"Go on. Why do you say that?"

"W-Well, not only was she invaluable for scouting our positions as we entered the building, but her sneak attack captured one of us almost immediately. By not engaging me after that and waiting for Kacchan, she gave her team the best chance possible by forcing me to fight two-on-one."

All Might allowed the class to think over Izuku's words for a few moments before clapping his hands.

"Excellent evaluation, Young Midoriya, and spot-on as well! It is important to remember that individual performance is not always the bar to match, but who can work best with and as a teammate in order to accomplish your goals. Now then, what did we do wrong during the exercise? How about Young Yaoyorozu?"

"Midoriya-san and Mineta-san separated themselves too far early on, not anticipating a surprise attack from their opponent, whom they knew had an invisibility quirk. They should have communicated a strategy before-hand in order to keep each other safe from such an eventuality." Momo stated. Izuku found himself nodding along with her, having known from the moment Minoru had gotten captured he should have planned ahead better and stuck closer to his partner. The girl then turned to Katsuki, "Bakugo-san allowed a personal grudge to overcome his common sense, unleashing attacks far too large for an indoor space which could have potentially damaged the weapon if it had been real or caused collateral damage to his teammate, whom he could not see. Hagakure-san, by extension, hindered her partner's ability to fight freely, since her presence needed to be taken into account whenever he moved or attacked. She should have put her gloves and shoes back on after capturing Mineta-san. Midoriya-san would have been able to see her, but she and her partner would also have been able to fight freely without worrying about running into each other."

All Might blinked, apparently not having expected such a thorough evaluation.

"Wonderful analysis, Young Yaoyorozu!" he praised, getting his momentum back after a moment, "Excellent points. You should remember that if you know your enemies in advance, it is best to plan around their quirks. You must also take care when protecting something, whether it is an object or a person, that your abilities do not cause collateral damage to them. That said, everyone involved did an excellent job during this exercise! It is time to roll for our next pairs!"

Izuku tuned out the selection process, his battered and bruised body convincing him that now was an excellent time to rest his eyes.

"You're more tired than you let on aren't you, Izukun?"

"Mm." Grunting wasn't like him, really, but Izuku was too tired and aching to care. He felt himself being dragged downward. When he opened his eyes, Manami's were right above him. "M-Manami-chan?"

He was in her lap. This wasn't school-appropriate, right? Was this even them-appropriate?

"Don't think too much. Just rest, Izukun. I'll let you know when they're finished setting up so you can watch the next fight."

Well, the offer was pretty tempting…

Izuku sighed, closing his eyes once more. This was nice. Even if he could pick up the whispers of his classmates from around them, he decided he was definitely too tired to care. Manami's lap was soft and warm and wonderful, just like she was. He could worry about whatever this meant later. For now…

"Thank you, Manami-chan."


God, they're so friggin' cute I just want to smush their faces together already.

Ahem. Hope you all had a great Valentine's Day! Or Singles' Awareness Day. Whichever you subscribe to.

For me, this is my 'Princess Bride' chapter; it's got a bit of everything. Fighting, revenge, chases, escapes, true love, and miracles. No giant though. Darn shame. That's also why it's the longest chapter yet (7125 words before last-minute edits and this note; it's probably even longer now), so maybe we won't make it the norm.

You can probably guess by the way I treat him, but I loathe Mineta, which made him a perfect throwaway character so that Izuku could have an exciting 2v1. I hope I was able to keep the fighting interesting the whole way through. I tried my best to do all the characters involved justice and continue to make Hemokinesis a cool quirk with clear strengths and weaknesses, such as Izuku's need to focus for bigger attacks.

Hope I found the happy medium for side characters in this chapter. To me, that means they're in the story but I'm not giving them deep monologues or a lot of internal thoughts unless they're the focus of the scene. The objective is to give you the result and let you fill in the gaps with whatever you want. How do YOU think Katsuki felt during this fight? What was he thinking when he lost? It's really the best I can do if I don't want to make this story twice as long as it already is and storyboard like 40 different character arcs with internal dialogue. Expect basically nobody except for Izuku, Manami, and the occasional Toru and Katsuki to ever get full scenes from their perspectives.

We hit 40 reviews last week, so a massive thanks to everyone who's either reviewed or PM'd me with amazing feedback, questions, or ideas for the story. I of course love every single one of you who favorites, follows, or even just reads the story, but if I called out all of you by name we'd be here for a while. You make this all worth it.

A quick note: Please don't be mad at me if I don't make all of your suggestions a reality. While I love them all, there are so many that I really just can't please absolutely everyone while telling the story I want to tell.

Next chapter: Concluding combat training?

Please leave a review if you enjoyed or have feedback and I hope you have a lovely day!