Their Guardian Chapter 9: 9: Battle Trial - Part 2, a my hero academia/僕のヒーローアカデミア fanfic

Their Guardian

9. Battle Trial – Part 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Boko no Hero Academia.

Warning: Their will be course language and elements of blood as the story progresses.

"Huuuuu, that was rough. Still feel pretty tired but at least I can move." Izuku idly mutters, a yawn escaping his maw as he trudges back to class. Recovery Girl was able to fix up his body he was still really tired because of the effect of her Quirk. She said he's only allowed to go back to his current class and participate in the last part of it before he needs to get back to her office and continue resting up. "I'm glad she was able to let me go back to class, even if its just to finish up this one. Probably have to skip a few other classes too. Oh man. Aizawa sensei is going to have my head for that." He groans at the possible punishment he might get. True he's injured and can't really help it but still. With as strict as Aizawa is he wouldn't be surprised if the homeroom teacher does something like that. Amidst his thoughts he finally makes it back to the observation rooms door, taking note that it looks a little bent. "What happened while I was gone?" He questions to no one in particular before grabbing the handle and walking in.

"Hey it's Midoriya!" Almost immediately he's the center of attention as people take notice of his arrival. "Good to see you back up. That match of yours was so manly and awesome!" Kirishima wastes no time in praising the boy for his performance. Other students voice similar thoughts as well.

"Wow, thanks everyone." Izuku has to turn away to hide the blush on his face from the amount of praise he's getting from everyone all of a sudden.

"Hey Deku!" His blush returns full force as Ochaco goes right to him with relief on her face. "I'm so glad your okay. You were roughed up pretty bad when Jakkun grabbed you." She tells him, taking the time to note his arm as well.

"U-uh thanks." Izuku barely manages to get out before he calms himself down. "Besides my arm from my Quirk, the rest of me was mostly small bruising and scrapes." He smiles as he looks down, tapping at his chest as he remembers the blast Bakugo launched at him. "Kacchan hits hard but thankfully the armor Jakkun recommended for my costume helped a lot." He looks up and around. "Thanks again for the tips Jakkun. They really… helped?" He begins to say in confusion as he notices his missing friend. "Where's Jakkun?"

"Jason? Oh, his match already started." Mina answers with a smile.

"His match? Who—?"

"Midoriya." The loud voice of All Might snaps him from his confusion. Izuku looks to see All Might still at the front of the observation room, glancing back at him but still facing forward. "I'm glad to see your okay now." Even with All Might smile on his face, Izuku can tell the pro looks a little tense. He pushes through the other students and steps next to All Might, a bead of worry edging its way to the forefront of his mind.

"All Might sensei, where's Jakkun?" He all but demands, keeping his voice low so the others don't get confused by his tone with their teacher.

"Takeda… yes. He's still trying to prove himself." All Might adds the last part quietly. "I think this battle's going to prove everything to both him, and everyone else." He keeps his focus on the many computer screen.

As Izuku stares at the screen's his eyes widen and worry starts to make itself known even more to him. 'Jakkun… Kacchan…'

Earlier…

"Now that its your turn, its time to reveal just how your going to do this." Many of the students sweatdrop as All Might pulls out another script. "We will draw the lot from the hero teams where you may have the option to choose one person from that team to be your partner, except Midoriya for obvious reasons. Then after you've chosen will we pick lots just like before to randomize your opponents from any of the teams, villain or hero, after I've removed the ball of the team your partner is a part of." He puts the paper away and looks at the young man. "Now who's it going to be?"

"Actually sir, if its alright with you, I'd like to go at it alone." Almost instantly Jason can feel the surprise in the others at his proposition behind him.

"Alone?"

"Whoa."

"Hmmm, alone you say?" All Might murmurs, cupping his chin in thought as he stares at Jason. "That is… quite the undertaking. Are you sure you want to do that? You'll be putting yourself at a significant disadvantage."

"I am sir. I think we both know why I have to do this." This makes the other students confused by this and what he means.

All Might stares at him with a level headed look before sighing. "Frankly I don't think you need to go to such lengths… but if that's what you want, I'll allow it."

"Thank you sir."

"In leu of you forgoing a teammate, I'll instead allow you to choose which villain team you want to go up against."

In an instant All Might somewhat regrets making that condition to him before he feels the heated stare from the boy in front of him as speaks without hesitation.

"Team D."

"He's going up against Bakugo man. We saw how he was in the first match. I'm both excited and freaked out about this." Kirishima voices his thoughts.

"This is going to be heavy man." Sero states.

"Do you think they'll do the same thing like earlier? Iida staying with the bomb and Bakugo going after him?" Hagakure wonders.

"It would make the most sense. Even if Takeda is able to sneak past Bakugo all the way to the bomb, Iida just has to stall him long enough for Bakugo to come charging back to the bomb room and they both can take him down easily. Seeing as for whatever reason he's acting alone, he no matter how skilled he can't take on the both of them alone. Engaging Bakugo first and knocking him out of the match seems like the best course, that way he can try to go after Iida and bomb without fear of getting ambushed." Yaoyorozu examines the scene and what their best course of action is going to be.

"You might be right." All Might speaks up, gaining the others attention as he remains standing and staring at the screens. "If Bakugo were to pull his lone wolf tactic now, it would make sense because theirs no threat of him being outnumbered. But we can't count Takeda out now. He just might surprise us." All Might tries to be hopefully but still has an air of worry. 'But… this is going to be especially tough for him. Bakugo knows how to use his devastatingly powerful Quirk in ways some of us wouldn't have thought he could do before. Iida's speed can easily outmaneuver him and take him down without much difficulty if he was smart about it, then again he did push his villain persona too much.' All Might thinks on the situation, before flipping some of the camera's showing Jason standing in front of the five-story tall building. In order to not give the other students an advantage in terms of building layout, it was decided that each and every team engagement was to be done in a new building every time with different room sets, how many floors they have and so on. The new building that's chosen is a large five-story building with wooden frames for the doors and metal doors but still a largely cement structure. 'But, Takeda has known Bakugo for a very long time. Midoriya was able to predict some of his moves because he studied him. Takeda might have done the same thing.'

"Still, it does seem weird to go at it alone. He could have had a partner but he decided not to." Asui points out. "And what did he mean by having to do it like this?" She asks with her finger on her chin in thought.

"To prove himself." They all look as Izuku stands at the front next to All Might, staring up at the screen and his friend. "To both the everyone… and himself."

This statement simply makes them all confused on why exactly he needs to prove himself.

"Alright, it's time." Before they can debate or ask Izuku why, All Might speaks up as he grabs the mic. "Let's get this battle underway. Match… START!"

With his declaration over the loudspeakers, the timer starts counting down.

Jason's eyes open as the match begins. He cranes his head up and stares at the building in front him. He lets out a long exhale and begins moving. The front entrance of the building is a no go right off the bat so he decides to take a page from Izuku's notebook and heads to the side of the building to go for the window to the third floor.

Problem is when he looks theirs no fire escape for him to use to climb up.

He smirks.

Never stopped him from before as straps his shield to his back.

He bolts forward straight to the wall.

The students in the observation room look on confused as Jason sprints straight to the wall.

"Wait, what's he doing?" Ojiro asks out loud.

"Is he going to try to bust through the window? He didn't even try the front door." Mineta asks incredulously and very confused.

More of them get ready to criticize until they watch as Jason wall runs up the flat surface of the wall and latches onto an edge. Now they all begin to coo in awe as he effortlessly pulls himself up, then instead of opening the window he jumps up and begins pulling himself up again to the third floor.

"Impressive." Shoji mutters at the display.

"Holy crap! Look at him go." Sero states with a wide smile.

"That's some serious parkour action right there." Kirishima says in excitement as well.

"But he skipped the first two floors entirely. What happens if the villains had hidden the bomb down below? He'll be wasting too much time if he's proven wrong." Yaoyorozu analyzes.

'Because he knows him.' Izuku doesn't voice his thoughts but he does have a small conversation in his own head. 'Kacchan will want to intercept him first so Iida doesn't interrupt their fight, and Jakkun wants to head right for him too.' He swallows on a worried reflex.

Jason lifts the window up and clambers inside. Taking a quick look around the empty he heads straight for the door. Very carefully he cracks the door open, appreciating the lack of squeaking from it, before stepping out into the hallway. He looks left, then right, taking note of the concrete hallways, before closing his eyes and standing still.

…

Keeping his breath even and steady, he listens.

…

He hears.

Pivoting on his feet, he bolts to the left side of the hallway, making a mental note of the building and remembering he's heading right for the stairs. He makes no effort now to silence his movements as he takes his shield off his back and onto his left arm again. He takes a few twists and turns down more hallways, feet stomping along the ground as he heads for his target.

"GOT YOU YOU MU- Arh!" Bakugo comes out from around the corner, ambushing Jason similar to what he tried with Izuku, but Jason is already ready for it. Before Bakugo can launch his explosion right into Jason, the shield-user in question instead bull rushes forward and tackles Bakugo in mid-air, slightly knocking the air out of him as he carries him into the opposite wall. Bakugo lets out a grunt from the impact but his anger turns to surprise as he watches Jason's right arm come up and straight for him.

*Boom*

Bakugo dodges to his right, Jason's left, and sends an explosion right into his side and uses the force of the explosion to both damage his target and giving him some distance after his failed ambush. He rolls on the ground before slamming his hand onto the floor and stopping in a crouched position, letting out a grin on his face as he watches the smoke cloud in front of him, but his grin turns to a frown as he sees it clear away, revealing Jason's shield having been brought up and took the blast instead, leaving the user unscathed.

Jason though, stays standing the same spot, shield held up to his left side with his elbow slammed into the wall, having missed his elbow strike he had intended for Bakugo's head. He wrenches his arm free, a slight crack in the wall and bits of cement falling away as he turns fully to Bakugo now. Even though he can't see his face completely, Bakugo can feel the malice in Jason as he stares angrily at him. "Phe… guess I shouldn't be surprised you were expecting that." Bakugo scoffs with a slight smirk as he stands up. "I did the same thing with Deku and he barely dodged that. You saw it though. You've always been the on the ball when it comes to analyzing stuff, just like Deku." His smile begins to widen as he widens his stance, hands spread out as small explosions can be seen popping off in his hands. "I was going to have fun beating and smacking around that useless idiot after so long! This fight training was going to be the perfect opportunity for me to beat the thought of him ever becoming a hero out of his head…" His smile falters as he looks down. "But… he just wouldn't quit. He was ready for everything I did… and worst of all… he lied… he lied all these years about Quirkless!" He frustratingly shouts, fists now clenching as he begins screaming in anger. "He actually had a Quirk all this time and he lied about it! What?!" He looks up, glaring at Jason as he makes his demands. "Was he just tricking me, showing that he can be better than me without ever having to use a Quirk at all! DO YOU HAVE A QUIRK?!" His fists fly open, a large explosion issuing forth not to attack or send him forward, but as an intimidation and to show his anger.

Jason continues to stare at him, his mask betraying any emotion he might be having at the outburst and anger coming from Bakugo.

"Is this some joke you two cooked up? Pretending neither of you had Quirks to get a rise out of me? Pretending to be better than me when you both are nothing compared to me?"

"…" Jason continues staring, his body straightening up as he looks down, his arms hanging by his sides.

"ANSWER ME!" Bakugo shouts one more time, foam and spittle ready to start flowing with the sheer anger he is displaying, much more than Jason has ever seen him.

"…That's what you think huh?" Jason begins speaking, almost in a whisper. This confuses the explosion Quirk user. "I'd like to say differently… but lets be honest… you won't believe a word I say." Jason's voice gains a little bit more volume until he's speaking at his normal volume, his right arm slowly moving behind him. "After all, you never seem to believe it when Izuku says you're the best. Don't know why." His tone feels almost sad as he says this. His hand grabs onto the rubber handle of the metal pipe on his back under his cape. "He always seems to look up to you, even after everything you've done. No matter what you won't believe a single word I say, being the big headed prideful you always are. But there is one thing we can both agree on…" His tone now takes on a darker feel to it as he pulls up the baton in front of him. "This… has been a LONG TIME COMING, BAKUGO!" With a flick of his to the side, the pipe extends, turning it into a metal riot baton. He holds up the tip to his face, "And I am going to enjoy beating some sense into that big head of yours." He darkly states, an almost sadistic tone edging in as he presses a button on the side, the top part of the baton flaring to life as he reveals its also an electrified taser.

Bakugo's eyes widen at the shout, before he grins and readies himself. "This has been a long time coming, mutt… and I'm going to enjoy putting you down! To show you and Deku that neither of you are fit to follow me to U.A.!" He blasts himself forward.

"I didn't follow you…" Jason charges forward, yelling as he goes. "I FOLLOWED IZU!"

With a war cry from the both of them, they engage one another. Bakugo goes to blast him in the face but Jason is ready as he brings his shield up and tanks the blast. He pushes forward through the smoke and into Bakugo. The explosive user is caught off-guard only slightly as he brings both his arms up, using his large grenade gauntlets to block the shield bash. Jason follows up with a wide swing of his baton but Bakugo pull up his arm and blocks the hit. With only one arm holding him back, Jason pushes him off his shield, making Bakugo stumble backwards. Jason goes for another swing of his baton, the taser lighting up as he does but Bakugo leans back just enough for the weapon to miss him and slam into the wall to Jason's left instead. As he fights to regain his balance, Bakugo brings both his hands up and attempts to end this with one powerful blast straight to his center mass. Jason reacts in time and ducks under the blast before throwing himself forward, shoulder-checking Bakugo with his right shoulder, making him grunt, and pushing him into the wall. With another grunt being released from Bakugo from slamming into the wall again, Jason brings his baton up into a backhand and slams it into his gut. A pained grunt escapes him now but this only fuels his anger as he glares at Jason with hatred in his eyes.

Jason presses his shield into Bakugo's chest and forces him against the wall while he brings his baton up and prepares to stab it into his chest, ready to tase his childhood tormentor into complete unconsciousness. Bakugo is ready though as he grabs his wrist with his left hand, holding him back as Bakugo's right hand comes, ready to unleash another explosion. Jason ducks his head to the side out of the direct path of Bakugo's attack.

But it was feint.

Bakugo smirks as he turns his around, palm now facing towards the side of Jason's head.

*BO-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE*

One second he's hearing an explosion, the next his left ear is ringing like crazy. He pulls his shield up and smacks Bakugo's arm away but that's what he wanted. His boot comes up and slams into Jason's stomach, making him grunt now as he slides back with just enough room for Bakugo to let go. He follows up with two more blasts towards Jason's middle. Despite his ringing ears, Jason's is just barely able to cross both his arms up over himself, shield up first, to protect himself from the blast. Unable to brace himself, Jason grunts as he's lifted off his feet and send a few feet through the air before landing roughly on his back. His training kicks in as he rolls back and slides on his hands and knees. He's barely able to stand before Bakugo had sent himself sailing through the air to land two more devastating explosions at Jason while he was rolling. Instead, Jason spins as he crouches, making the explosions miss as he sends his right foot straight out, slamming his boot straight into Bakugo's stomach. Bakugo can almost feel himself throw up as he's thrown back through the air, landing harshly onto the ground and rolling before digging his hands and feet into the ground, sliding a couple feet before stopping.

Theirs a moment's pause for the two of them as they only thing that can be heard is the ragged, tired, and angry breathing from the both of them as they get their bearings. Bakugo struggles to stand up straight, clutching his stomach as he does while Jason stands up with his hand to his ear, the ringing still there but slowly disappearing. They glare at another before they get back into their ready stances. Their injuries hurt but they are far from being done with one another.

With another war cry from the two, they charge each other again.

"Holy cow! Look at them go!" Kirishima shouts in awe as he sees the two combatants go at it neck and neck.

"This is crazy. So much different than the first match." Sato comments. In the first match Bakugo had either missed his attacks or it was just a straight one-sided fight. Now as they all watch this has turned into a brawl between the two fighters.

"Their laying into each other pretty hard. Are they going to be okay?" Ochaco asks worriedly, flinching a little as she sees Jason swing his baton again but it sails over Bakugo's head and slams into the wall, crack the wall and sending small bits of cement falling away.

"They're really going at it with everything they got. Well, almost everything." Jiro states, remembering the condition All Might put on Bakugo for using his grenade gauntlet support items. "Still, they aren't pulling their punches either."

"I wasn't expecting this from him." Shoji comments, gaining a little bit of attention as he stares at Jason and his almost frenzy and hard hitting attacks. "From the short time we've met Takeda he always seemed somewhat calm, cold, but calculating as he tries to help his friends. Now he seems… angry."

"Those attacks of his have a lot of force behind them." Tokoyami states, seeing just how fast and harsh those attacks Jason is showing. "Seems to me like he's trying to intentionally hurt him." Just as he says that does Bakugo launch another powerful salvo at Jason, using his shield to block most of the blast before rushing forward to slam him into the wall before he can get another explosion off. "Then again, with how angry Bakugo is, I wouldn't be surprised if he's just matching strength for strength."

"Yeah, this is getting kind of scary." Mina worriedly says as Jason leans back from a point blank explosion to the face. "Hey, Midoriya how are—"

"Jakkun has the speed and maneuverability to dodge Kacchans attacks but the small hallways prevent much movement where Jakkun would otherwise be able to move about with ease. With the enclosed space Kacchan has the advatange with how big he can make his explosions but he's starting to get tired. He also has to becareful or else he will bring the walls down around them and fail the test for excessive damage to the building—"

The class blanches in surprise as they watch Izuku go off on a muttering spree, hardly able to understand his words.

"Uhh, nevermind."

"As admirable as it is for him to go alone, this doesn't really prove anything." Yaoyorozu states bluntly. "I don't know why he has to do this test alone but whatever it is its compromising his ability to properly fight the villains. He could have had a partner to help him in fighting against Bakugo but instead he decided to make a spectacle of himself and go at it alone. If this is how he's going to act as a hero then he will have a very short career as a hero if his solo tactics ends up putting him in a situation that he can't win." She finishes explaining, her analytical mind coming into play and show just how wrong it was for him to go alone in this mock battle. While some of the others won't exactly put it as bluntly as she does, there are some nods of agreement at the solo move Jason pulled. Over five minutes have passed since the battle started and it doesn't look like Jason is having much luck in taking down Bakugo, or even looking like he wants to use the capture tape on him.

"You might be right Yaoyorozu." All Might speaks up, still staring at the screen. "Going alone may be inadvisable, but we also have to remember that their may be moments where we can't wait for backup and must go in now less innocent people get hurt, the villains escape and et. However this is his first chance to go into an official combat scenario, even if it is a fake one. He's actually fighting to win now with a purpose. He's proving both to himself and all of us here that his Quirkless nature is not going to make a liability, regardless of the odds stacked against him." All Might finishes speaking his gallant speech about the reasons Jason is doing what he's doing, a proud but slightly tense grin at the way the battle is shaping up for the current combatants.

"Oh, that's cool." Mina states, everyone nodding at the reasoning behind it and focusing on the fight.

They don't notice the relieved look on Izuku's face.

"Wait… What did he say?"

Izuku's face becomes worried again as he glances to the others before plugging both his ears.

"HE'S QUIRKLESS!" As one, nearly everyone in the observation room, save Izuku and All Might, shout all at once in surprise and confusion at the bit of information they just heard from their teacher.

All Might even flinched harshly at the loud outburst and looks back at his students confused. "Uhhh, well yes. He's Quirkless. Wait, you mean… none of you…?" He looks really worried now as his suspicions is confirmed as he looks at the completely surprised and genuinely confused looks on his students. He leans close to Izuku, hand cupping his mouth to hid his mouth. "You two never told them?" He whispers to the now sweating student.

"He wanted to keep quiet about it because of first impressions." Izuku replies in a hushed tone as well.

"Oh… well… right. That makes sense I guess." He rubs the back of his head embarrassingly. "Can't fault you both for keeping quiet about it. My apologies for spilling the secret." He may still be smiling but one can see how awkward he must feel at this.

"Deku!" Ocahco steps up next to him and asks, "So it's true? Jakkun is really Quirkless?"

"Uhhh-! Well-I-Uhh-!" He stammers in trying to give an answer to the girl standing in such close proximity to him.

"No wonder we haven't seen him use his Quirk. He doesn't have one." Hagakure can be heard commenting.

"But I thought U.A. had a rule to prevent Quirkless people from entering?" Asui asks confused with a head tilt.

"They used to. But it wasn't until this year they rescinded that rule now everyone, Quirk or no Quirk, can have the chance to enter U.A." All Might quickly explains.

"Wow. Talk about timing huh?" Kirishima states with a grin.

"But how can he become a hero if he doesn't have a—"

"Don't you say that!"

Everyone flinches in surprise at the loud outburst, especially Mineta as he was cut off from talking. Even more surprising when its none other than Izuku who shouted at everyone. They all look to see angry loon on his face, a first considering their short time in classes with each other but still a surprise. Izuku's anger disappears as he turns away, clenching his free hand tightly in frustration.

"Deku?" Ochaco asks concerned for her friend, a hand outstretched in concern.

"Sorry. It's just… for too long people have called… him useless. Said he can never become a hero just because he doesn't have a Quirk. For as long as I can remember for almost my entire life, he has never once been useless to anyone… especially me." He adds the last part for himself, a small smile appearing on his face before turning back to them all with a fierce look. "So please, don't look at him as a useless Quirkless. Look at him as an aspiring hero…" He turns back to the screens, "Just like all of us." He confidently states.

No one really says anything at that, still a surprised at the outburst from Izuku of all people but they go back to watching the screens regardless. "You know, he didn't get last in the Quirk test yesterday. He beat more than a few of us." Sero points out.

"And look at him holding his own against Bakugo." Ochaco adds with a grin.

"He's really going all out." Kirishima says. While his classmates make their comments and opinions, Izuku smiles as he hears the general positivity from everyone, a mental sigh of relief being released in his head.

"Whoa, what are they doing?" Sato asks at what they see them doing, garnering Izuku's attention back on the fight.

Both boys are running ragged and tired. They have just a moment to catch their breath as they both keep themselves from collapsing but an overall frustration flowing over the two of them at how much they are fighting and not falling. Much of them have bruises on their bodies but lots of Jasons clothing bare some burn marks, even his mask has cracks in it and is burned.

"Why?" Bakugo looks on in confusion as Jason almost growls out the question. His head is craned down as his body takes in deep ragged breaths as he brings his right hand up, gripping the edges of his mask with the tips of his fingers, still holding his baton. "Why damnit? Why?!"

"Why what?"

"Why in the hell does Izu still look up to you?!" He yells out to Bakugo, tearing his mask off and tossing it to the ground. making the boy flinch as rage and anger is ever present on Jason's sweat covered face. "Ever since you decided you were too good for us, he's always held you in high regard. Even though I'm the one that's always stuck by him, for some reason he still thinks you can become a good hero! What does he see in you to continue to cling to that stupid idea?!"

Now Bakugo is angry as he glares daggers at Jason. "You stupid mutt. I am going to be an amazing hero! I'm going to be even better than All Might. You and Deku are going to be nothing compared to me!"

This sends Jason into a rage as he readies himself. "I'm going to break you Bakugo!" He shouts and charges, as does Bakugo. Jason instead throws his baton straight at him, making Bakugo dodge to the side at the thrown object but that distracts him as a black mass is thrown at him. He blasts the object, revealing it to be Jason's cape, having torn it off at the moment Bakugo turned to dodge the thrown stun baton. Just as the cape blows apart, Jason is already bursting through the minor explosion and charges Bakugo. He is unable to move in time as Jason slams his shield straight into him. Instead of being pushed back though, Bakugo instead grabs and holds onto the shield as he's carried with his right hand holding onto the edge of the shield, he snakes his left hand just past the shield and places his palm on Jason's chest. He only has a second to widen his eyes, as well as Bakugo grin devilishly, before an explosion goes off point blanks on Jason's chest. His vision blurs as the force of the explosion knocks the wind out of him and something gives. His body tenses up and freezes, stopping altogether as he tries to breathe. Bakugo keeps up the pressure though as he blasts to his right and then behind him, sending him careening around to where he's directly behind Jason. He can't move his shield or turn around in time to dodge or block before another explosions goes off point blank in the center of his back. Something gives again as he's stunned, forcing himself to stumble forward in pain as he takes in a deep breath with closed eyes, trying to keep his balance.

It's not over yet though as Bakugo grabs onto Jason's left from behind. Earlier, Izuku was able to dodge the attack and try to retaliate against Bakugo. Jason though isn't as fast as he feels himself pulled back, Bakugo using more low power explosions, almost the last of his reserves at this point, to pull Jason back and getting ready to slam him into the ground, mentally ready to start wailing on him to force him to tap out.

Jason grits his teeth as he's lifted up and turned around by the hand grabbing onto his arm. His eyes shoot open as he plants his feet along the wall and takes several steps along it. Before when Bakugo wanted to grab onto Izuku and slam him onto the ground, it was in a large open room to allow Bakugo to move about how sees fit. This time though, they both are stuck in a narrow hallway, where the walls are much closer.

Having run on the wall only momentarily thanks to Bakugo, Jason slams his feet onto the ground, bracing himself as he turns around and grabs onto Bakugo's right arm. With a cry of exertion and a heave, he musters what strength he has left and pulls Bakugo around, slamming him face first into the wall. Bakugo lets out a cough from being slammed into the wall and reaches his left arm backwards behind his head, intent to blast Jason point blank in the head.

Jason is ready though as he ducks the blast, and slams his body into Bakugo's back, stunning him as he places his left foot on Bakugo's right side. Using both hands, grabs onto the large support item grenade gauntlet on Bakugo's right arm and pulls harshly, twisting as he does.

"AAAARRRHHHHHH!" Bakugo lets out a cry of pain as he suddenly feels like his arm is about to be pulled out of his socket.

"Your moving a little slow Bakugo. Maybe you need to lose some weight!" Jason shouts in anger as he adds a bit more force to his pulling, twisting even more as he does. Not long after does the support item finally give, slipping off the boy's arm as he goes stumbling away. Bakugo lets out a grunt of frustration at being manhandled before turning around.

"!" He freezes as he sees his own support item staring right back at him. Jason stands there, an impassive look on his face as he holds the item under his right arm, a couple fingers in his left hand curled around the pin, ready to pull.

"What the heck?! Is he- Is he going to do what I think he's going to do?!" Kirishima asks out loud, stunned at what he's seeing.

"That can't be." Yaoyorozu begins to say, "All Might forbid the use of such a destructive power do to it being to powerful for indoor use."

"And yet he has his fingers ready to pull the pin." Sero says, much as the others nod in agreement at what this looks.

"But if he blows up the building, All Might will stop the test and disqualify him, ribbit." Asui points out.

"Yes, I indeed said that." All Might grimly states as he goes to pick up the mic.

"Wait!" Izuku grabs his arm, stopping him, much to All Might's confusion. "He knows you'll disqualify him if he blows up the building." He quickly begins to explain to the pro to stop him from stopping the match prematurely. He turns back to the screen. "It's a bluff. Jakkun's trying to intimidate him, get him to let his guard down. He knows he's running out of time to complete the mission so he has to end this fight as soon as he can." He leans closely to All Might. "You didn't stop my fight when you know you should have. Don't stop his just yet."

All Might gives a long hard stare at Izuku for a few seconds before staring back at the screen, seeing the two boys talking with one another. He lets out a long sigh before glancing back at Izuku. "If he blows a hole in the side of the building I'm ending the fight."

"That's fine." Izuku replies.

Much to the confusion of the rest of the class, they can only watch as they see what the two fighters do.

"You're bluffing."

"Am I?"

"If you fire that All Might will stop the fight. Gonna be a short hero career if you go against your sensei like that on the second day." Bakugo smiles as he says that but has just a little bit of a nervousness to his smile.

"You seem to forget Bakugo, my main goal is to help Izu become a hero. Me becoming a hero is just a bonus. Besides," This time Jason starts to get a devilish smile on his face as his fingers tighten on the pin. "Don't you remember everything you've done? All the things you've said, all the things you've done over the years. For too long I've only been able to barely keep you on your toes but now… tell me, how sweet do you think it's going to feel, when I pull this pin directly on your face?" He takes a menacing step forward, smile still on his face as Bakugo takes an instinctive step back. "You saw how powerful that blast was when you released it earlier against my BEST FRIEND. Imagine just how fast YOU need to dodge in order to avoid this… if you can."

Bakugo looks uneasy now at the implications of what Jason is talking about. That blast he unleashed earlier wasn't intended to kill Izuku, he wasn't stupid to just stand there in the middle of the explosion and take it full force. He only needed to incapacitate him, hurt him enough in order to put him out of the test and give Bakugo's team the guaranteed win they needed. Ochaco wasn't going to take both Iida and Bakugo on so it was simple for him to take down Izuku. Any injury he were to… sustain in the aftereffects of the explosion or when he dodged was just a bonus in Bakugo's head. Now he's starting to run on fumes, his explosions no longer as destructive as it was when their battle started but Jason is also running out of time. His armor broken and charred from all the hits they sustained, his mask broken and his ears just barely still ringing from all the explosions around him. He may be used to them but they still hurt. His cape has singed and barely hanging on from the clasps on his shoulders Even now there's a subtle shake in his arms as barely tries to hold up the stolen support item and his shield.

He's tired and he's desperate to end this.

"Let me put it to you this way Bakugo, think of all the things you've done over the years, really think about them… and then look at what I'm holding."

Bakugo takes a moment to remember… then his eyes widen as he stares at the support item aimed in front of him as his feet slowly move.

Jason's smile widens. "Good."

*Click*

Everyone gasps in surprise as Jason pulls the pin and an explosions goes off, creating a brief flash of light before the entire hallway is covered in black smoke.

"He actually did it." Mineta mutters disbelief.

"Didn't think he'd actually do it." Kirishima adds in slight disappointment.

"He knew he wasn't allowed to cause that much damage just like Bakugo before and he did it anyway." Yaoyorozu says with a soft sigh and a head shake.

"Yes. I specifically said he wasn't to do damage to the building using that weapon but ignored my previous warnings with Bakugo and used it anyway. I'm ending this." All Might state firmly, slight disappointment in his tone as he goes to grab the microphone.

"Sensei wait!" Izuku quickly tries to stop him.

"Midoriya, I know he's your best friend and I gave him the chance to use that bluff, but disobeyed me and knowingly used the device to attack Bakugo and destroy part of the building. I have to end this." As was stated before, he can't play favorites. He pushed that to the limit when he allowed the fight to go on in Izuku's match and although that ended with him winning, it still caused Izuku to sustain a large amount of damage to his person and already Jason has shown to do some things his own way. He told Bakugo in front of everyone he couldn't cause damage using those large support items of his and there is no exception for anyone else. While he doesn't want to, knowing someone like Bakugo should have been able to dodge it, he has to end it.

"Did you feel that?" The question Izuku asks confuses All Might, giving him pause. Seeing the hesitation, Izuku quickly looks to the others. "Did anyone else feel that?"

This makes everyone there confused as to what he means. "Uhhh, no." Sato mutters.

"I didn't feel anything." Sero adds.

"Exactly." Izuku says with a wide smile, happy his hunch proved true.

This further confuses them at the green-haired boys vagueness.

"There's no shaking." Everyone looks to Asui as she looks down at the ground. "When Bakugo used his support item against Midoriya, we felt the explosion shake everything all the way here. When Takeda used it, we didn't feel a thing."

Realization begins to dawn on everyone at what this means. "She's right! When Bakugo used it, it shook so badly some of us almost tripped. But when Jason used it…"

"It wasn't as powerful!" Ochaco adds.

"Sensei!" Izuku tries to get his teachers attention but sees All Might staring at the screen, a look of surprise now on his face. This causes Izuku to look as well. Much to everyone surprise as the smoke dissipates, it reveals the hallway is still very much intact, minus a few cracks and scorch marks in the walls and flooring here and there but still stable, along without any signs of the fighters.

Bakugo lets out a cough and a groan. He blinks his eyes open and shakes some dust and soot off himself.

What the…?" He mutters in confusion as he slowly pushes himself up. A quick look around shows himself in a room. It takes him barely a second to realize where he is, and he bolts out the door. The door was broke off the frame when he had thrown himself through it in order to avoid the blast but now he's trying to figure out what's going on now. He growls in anger as the smoke continues to linger but soon begins to disappear. He looks down one hallway and doesn't see anything. Looking down the other, his eyes widen. Right there, in the middle of the hallway, he spots his large grenade support item laying on the ground… with no one else around. He walks up to it and picks it up, putting it back on before staring at it. He grits his teeth, clenches his hands as his anger begins to rise.

He just got played by a Quirkless.

When Jason pulled the pin, it released the explosion, but Bakugo was able to dodge it in the narrow hallway by throwing himself though a nearby doorway and into a room. It's only now that he realizes that the explosion was far less destructive than the one he used in his first match and wouldn't have caused much damage to himself. Instead, now Jason as become a runner and has broken contact with Bakugo.

"God… DAMNIIIITTT!" He shouts loudly in anger as he stalks down a random hallway.

"But I don't understand. Why was the blast so weak when Jason did it than when Bakugo used it?" Mina asks curiously, watching as Bakugo screams on the screen and walks off in anger.

"That gauntlet Jakkun grabbed was the same one that Kacchan used in my fight with him. It didn't have as much stored energy when Jakkun used it because it was already used before." Izuku begins to explain, his analytical mind doing what it does best as he tells everyone exactly why Bakugo or the building wasn't in danger of dying or being destroyed. "Because of that, the explosion it let out was not as powerful as before. Therefore, he knew it wasn't going to do enough damage to the building to warrant All Might to cancel the match early, as well as injuring Kacchan." Once he's done explaining this, the reasoning dawns on everyone at the cunning planning that Jason went through in order to trick Bakugo. "It was just a bluff to get him off his back."

"Whoa! That's so crazy." Kirishima compliments with a large grin.

"That's some planning there. I would never have been able to come up with something like that." Hagakure adds as well.

"A brilliant plan, no?" Aoyama comments.

Izuku smiles at his friends planning. 'You've always been the best when it comes to planning your fights. You've always said I was smarter than you but your tactics are just as good and faster than me.' He suddenly frowns at something else he was told by the others. 'But they said you were allowed to choose your opponents… and you chose Kacchan.' He sighs sadly, knowing that he can't try forever to keep his best friend from throwing everything away in his anger towards Bakugo. He shakes his head of the thought and refocuses on the screens seeing Bakugo stalking the hallways of the floor he was fighting on while Jason can be seen running up some stairs to the top floor of the building, the same floor that's housing the bomb, and Iida, somewhere. 'Kacchan was smart in putting the bomb on the top floor. With a Quirkless person like Jakkun, any amount of distance they can put between him and the bomb is good. But he also knows how Kacchan works too.' As soon as Jason makes it to the top floor of the building, he begins looking for the bomb.

"What's he doing?" Ochaco asks curiously when Jason stands in front of the closest door to him, after trying to open it and finding it locked, he turns around and places his right foot against the door. With one well placed kick backwards, the door breaks off the frame and slams open, opening the door with minimal injury on his part. He turns back and glances inside for a second, finding nothing before going to another door and continuing to do so. "That's a weird way to open doors."

"Shouldn't he just kick the doors down?" Sero asks out loud.

"It's actually a military maneuver he's doing." Izuku once again begins to explain, "Standing straight and trying to kick forward on the door actually runs the risk of injuring yourself. The U.S. military actually use that maneuver in order to break open doors quickly and efficiently with minimal effort and risk to yourself."

"Woah…" Mina mutters in awe at Izuku before glancing back at the screens. "He's Quirkless and yet he's pulling out all the stops." She murmurs in awe at his moves and now his knowledge.

"You know, I guess we really shouldn't be surprised considering all the military gear he seems to have." Ojiro comments with a smile, others agreeing with him with nods.

"Oh look, he's almost to Iida. I wonder how he's going to get to the bomb. It wasn't easy for me to get to it that's for sure." Ochaco mutters tiredly, her memories of her fight and desperately trying to get to the bomb all but futile until the intervention by Izuku. This time Jason is going at it alone so with Iida's speed, he'd be able to keep up and possibly overpower Jason with ease if he pushed himself. He might even go at it more carefully after the misdirection she was able to do against Iida and just barely grab the win.

Jason's going to have to come up with something different.

"Match is almost over." Iida mutters as he checks his watch, seeing only a few minutes left on the clock, rolling the sleeve of his costume back over it on his left wrist. 'Just like last time, Bakugo goes off on his own and leaves me here to guard the bomb.' He rubs the back of his helmet as he remembers the oddity of this match up. 'Only this time, we are facing only one opponent. This time it is a good idea to split up. He can try to engage him and either takedown Takeda or at least hold him back enough until time expires. If he were to somehow get past him and get to me, it would be east for me to hold him back and keep the bomb away until Bakugo gets back here.'

He taps on the ground a few times, remembering the small rumbling he felt earlier. This time the room they moved the bomb in is completely open with only one door entry, some vents and some window panes, meaning there are no columns or anything to allow for Jason to hide in the room.

"Haven't heard anything else since then." He puts a finger to his earpiece. "Bakugo, you there? What's going on?" He asks but he gets no response. He lets out a growl of frustration at his teammates lack of response. "Either he lost his earpiece in that explosion, or he's just not bothering to answer." He sighs annoyed at his partners stubbornness.

Suddenly, he hears the loud banging of metal on stone far away. He perks up and begins to listen carefully. The sound gets louder and louder as he hears them get closer. His eyes widen as he realizes what's going on. 'He's kicking the doors open. We locked the doors on this floor in order to make it harder for him to find the bomb. Because of how much time is left, he can't be subtle. He just rushing through and trying to find the bomb.' Iida smirks as he rolls his neck. "Better get into character."

He braces himself and waits as he hears the door next door get broken open before he hears footsteps stomping right outside his door.

"Ha ha ha haaaa!" He laughs out loud. This gets the footsteps outside to pause as Iida continues. "Did you think know would be waiting hereto guard the bomb?! Fool! You won't be able to get in and stop us from completing our nefarious plot. Partner! He's here! Get back here!" He yells loudly in an evil tone into his earpiece, hoping that Bakugo would have at least heard him and is now on the way back to the bomb. "My partner is now on his way. You are out matched, out planned, and now almost out of time! You've failed, hero! Hahahahahaaa!" He fake laughs manically. He stops his monologuing to take a breather and gets ready.

His readiness comes in handy as loudly banging sounds can be heard coming from the door. Unlike the majority of the other doors in the building with wooden frames around their doors, some rooms, like the one Iida is in, have all steel and metal doors and frames to go with them. The person on the other side is unable to break in easily as he repeatedly hits the door multiple times. Iida tenses as small indentations can be seen being created on the door from repeated hits. One final bang can be seen and heard as the handle gnarls harshly as large bump is placed on the door.

Then silence.

"Huh?" Iida mutters in confusion as nothing else happens. No more movement or sound can be heard on the other side, as well as no more attempts can be seen against the door. "Hey… you there? Decided to give up?" He tries to boast but now he's just confused by what happened. When he doesn't get an answers he just stares confused at the door. "Huh." He murmurs before checking his watch again. "You have one minutes left. Unless you decided to give up, your going to need to get in here now if you're going to have any hope of winning, which I doubt." He tries to evil boast again. It makes him feel odd still acting such a way as a villain but it's for the test they are a part of and he is on the villain side.

Suddenly he hears the sound of another explosion going off, signifying Bakugo is using his Quirk to propel himself down a distant hallway, before he eventually begins to hear more footsteps, this time louder and louder as they seem to be coming from far away and getting closer unt—

*BOOM*

"Whoa!" Iida shouts and ducks. A massive explosion goes off on the door, completely tearing it off from the frame, its hinges and sails over Iida, barely missing the bomb and crashes into the window and out the building.

"Where is he?!" Immediately Iida recognizes the new voice of his partner. When he stands back, he sees and angry Bakugo standing between him and the door, smoke dissipating around him as he glares left and right angrily, looking for something before staring heatedly at Iida. "Where is he?! You said he was here now where is he?!"

"What do you mean?" Iida asks confused, and more than a little annoyed at the explosive entrance, literally, Bakugo did. "I heard banging on the other side of the door but he never got in."

"That's a load of crap!" Bakugo shouts angrily before pointing to something on the floor. "He jammed the door so I couldn't get in!"

Iida looks confused by what he means, until he looks down and stares at the object. His eyes widen when he sees the slightly scorched shield now lying in the ground. "Jammed? He… jammed the door?" He mutters incredibly confused. 'He used his shield to jam the door closed. That's what all that banging on the door was for. But why would he block the only door to his target?'

"Where is he?!"

Iida flinches at the accusing yell from Bakugo again, snapping him from his thoughts. "I don't know! He never came through the door. He just blocked the door and I don't know why. That's the only entrance in here and he—!"

"HERO TEAM WINS!"

"WHAT?!"

Both boys shout loudly in utter confusion at the declaration. Iida quickly checks his watch to see they have a few seconds left on the clock before they both turn around to see no one on the bomb.

At first.

Slow footsteps can be heard, and Jason is revealed, a smile on his face as he steps out from behind the bomb, fingers gliding along the surface as he smirks at them. "Hey guys."

Naturally, Bakugo looks absolutely stupefied, hands shaking in restrained anger at being beaten… again. Iida just stares at the door before back at Jason a couple times. "But… that doors the only way through. How did you get in?" He asks.

Jason just continues to smile before pointing his thumb behind him, towards the window.

One minute earlier…

Jason stalks through the hallway kicking more doors as he goes. He was able to get away from Bakugo and continue looking for the bomb but since the doors are locked, its hard for him to find it without making a ton of noise. Since he barely has a couple minutes on the clock, he needs to find it now and work out how to get past Iida once he's found it.

"Ha ha ha haaaa!" He pauses as he hears the voice on the other side, belonging to that of Iida in a faux villain tone. The engine Quirk user proceeds to villainously monologue on the other side but Jason is looking around on what to do.

'This is the only door in… but maybe not the ONLY way in. If I can try, I might be able to go in via the window, but he might hear me there too. I need to do something to get his attention elsewhere.' He thinks on his next plan.

"My partners on his way—!"

Any other noise he hears from Iida is white noise, or still more ringing in his ears, at the knowledge that Bakugo is probably on his way. "Screw it." It's a gamble he's got to go for if he needs to make this work. He proceeds to beat the door several times to make it look good before bashing the edge of his shield into the doors handle, horribly gnarling the piece of equipment until the door is jammed along with his shield into it, preventing anyone from being able to open the door normally. He slips his arm out from the shield and steps lightly to the side, away from the door but making it seem like he's still there. He makes his way into the room next door and quietly but carefully closes the door before heading to the window. "Damn. These windows don't open. How the hell can I open these without making any noi—"

*Bo- Crish*

At first, Jason begins to hear the sound of one of Bakugo's explosions go off. In reaction, his left arms elbow shoots out and slams into the window, using his metal elbow guard and breaking the window, using the explosion as a mask for the sound. Using the metal in his elbow guards still he clears the glass from the edges of the window frame and steps outside.

"Oh boy." He mutters as he stares down at the ground from the fifth floor of the building. "Great." He grumbles as a small gust of forces himself to hold onto the side of the stone walls of the building. He growls in annoyance at the very thin very narrow ledges that barely hold his feet. There are large rectangular divots in the sides of the building that are the spots for the windows to be in. He just has to get to the next one leading into the room with the bomb in. Taking careful steps, he presses his back as flat on the wall as he can before slowly edging himself along the ledge towards the window. "Don't look down. You look down, your curiosity will make you look down more." He says to himself. More often than not, humans tend to have a natural curiosity to look down at times, especially over ledges. In his parkour training, it has led to some close calls to him that he would rather not ever want to repeat in his entire life. Some repeating the hammered words of not looking down into his own head, he keeps one hand gripping the edge of the wall from the window he came out from, slowly stretching his other arm across and barely gripping onto the wall of the window he needs to get to. "Got it." He smiles and lets go of his first grip and pulling himself to his target window.

*BOOM*

Just as he peaks the upper half of his body towards the window, a familiar explosion rings out… and he sees a flying door.

"FU—!"

*CRASH*

He throws himself back as the door impacts the window, completely shattering it and sending the door careening downwards to the ground. Because he pulled himself back, his grip on the wall is gone and he finds himself leaning forward. In an act of desperation, both his hands fly back and catches the edges of both walls from the window he came out of and the window he wanted to go into. His arms are outstretched painfully so as he's leaning forward, findng himself staring down to the ground just as the door impacts it, misshaping the hunk of metal where its' almost unrecognizable.

"…—ck." He lets out a breath of air he wasn't realizing he was holding and trying to regain control of his rapidly beating heart. "C'mon… c'mon… c'mon." He mutters to himself quietly as he musters what little strength he has left in his fatigued body and pulls himself back till he's flat against the wall again. Once there, he holds his breath and pulls himself once again to his target. "Thank you." He quietly mutters as he steps forward till he's in the window frame. Quickly looking up, he smiles as he sees both Iida and Bakugo staring at the front door of the room and looking frantically around. Thankfully since the window was blown outwards from the room, there are no glass crunching to alert them as he steps quietly into the room, putting the large bomb between himself and his enemies. It's just a few steps with a smile on his face as he steps lightly up to the bomb and places his hand on it.

"HERO TEAM WINS!"

"Thanks again for that Bakugo. You provided both the distraction and the entrance I needed."

Jason cheerily states as he walks over to the two of them, their forms still surprised at the quick recap Jason gave of how he got into the room. When he gets to them, he gives them a smile before reaching down and grabbing his shield. He straps it back onto his arm before walking past them, not bothering to offer any words of 'good sport' or great battle and so on. He's mostly just happy to be done, nor does he want to see one of the two people he was fighting… sort of. Technically he didn't see one of them until the very end of the fight but still. He looks down and idly checks his shield and assesses the damage to it. He nods in satisfaction when only seeing just a slight warpage to the shield itself, nothing some buffing and heating can't move back into place, as well as some black scorch marks on the entire front of it.

When he's far enough away from them, he lets out a deep sigh and leans against the wall, finally realizing just how tired he already is from his sluggish movement and his tired breathing. He wipes his sweating brow with the crook of his right arm, and lays his head against the wall.

"That was quite a show." Jason is too tired to jump at the sudden voice. Instead he looks up tiredly, taking note of All Might next to him. "You did well out there, Takeda. A spectacular match. Well done."

He smiles at the words as he nods. "Thank… thank you, sir."

"Are you okay? Do you need help getting back to the others?" All Might asks in concern, moving to catch Jason if he were to suddenly collapse.

Jason nods in reply and waves him off, taking steady breaths as he straightens up. "I'm fine, sensei. Just tired but nothing to be concerned about. I can make it back to the others." He steps past him and begins making his way to the stairs. "Better go snap Bakugo out of his anger induced paralysis." He calls back in a joking manner.

"You were quite angry out there."

Jason stops mid-stride, closing his eyes and mentally reprimanding himself of the fact that All Might was able to hear everything that happened, what was done…

"At Bakugo, most of all."

What he heard.

Jason lets out a sigh before turning his head to the side and glancing out to All Might. "… He had it coming." That's the only words he gets out, not elaborating anymore before he continues walking, leaving a worried All Might behind.

Back in the observation room, the collective students stare at the screens and the aftermath of the battle that took place.

"He won." Todoroki states in his usual neutral and even tone.

"Impressive." Yaoyorozu comments.

"That was crazy."

"I can't believe he won by himself."

"That was awesome." Similar other comments can be heard from other students.

"Wow, he's really tough, isn't he Deku?" Ochaco asks in her cheerful way.

"Yeah… he sure… is." Izuku states with a tired smile, a moment of proudness filling him at his friends victory before it soon shifts to tiredness. He sways a little on the spot and almost falls over before he catches himself.

"Whoa! Are you okay?" Ochaco asks in concern for her friend, a couple others looking to see what happened.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine. I think it's time I head back to Recovery Girl, get her to finish fixing me up." He mumbles a little and makes his way to the door. "Please tell All Might I had to go back to the nurse's office."

"Oh, okay then. Get well soon Deku!" She calls out to him with a small wave, a few others giving their well wishes too.

Izuku smiles at their words before waving shortly back at them and going through the door. He yawns tiredly as he trudges through the hallway, his thoughts being a little occupied of the fight he saw.

While he was, and still is, concerned with the matchup between Jason and Bakugo, as well as the anger that was visibly shown from the two of them, Izuku still can't help but smile at the victory his Quirkless friend was able to pull off. While it was one thing for Jason to pass the entrance exam against robots, this was a person-on-person fight, much more different and unpredictable than machines.

And he won.

'You did it, Jakkun. You won.' He keeps the smile on his face as he makes his way back to Recovery Girl before he passes out in the middle of the hallway.

Several minutes later and the students are already changing out of their costumes after having gotten the debrief on the battle.

"That could have gone worse." Jason mutters as he struggles to unequip his armor vest. After his battle was over, all three participants headed back to the observation room, with some lagging behind more than others. When asked about who was the MVP, Jason went ahead and basically said none of them should be considered it. When asked why none of them should be considered it, he made the statement of how he himself made the decision to enter the building without A partner, or any backup, which is something that shouldn't happen if it can't be helped. Bakugo's angry state and disregard for his partner again, both at the beginning and at the end when he was yelling at him, didn't earn him any favors. Iida, while he did his job to protect the bomb, his overzealousness in his villain role alerted Jason to the location of him and the bomb, which Iida could have easily hidden, waited for Jason to kick the door open, before rushing him in surprise and using his speed to take him down.

After his explanation, Jason went ahead and apologized to All Might on the fact that he mainly chose Bakugo and Iida's team in order to get tough fight from them. Although he neglected to tell them exactly WHY he wanted to fight Bakugo, he still apologized to his instructor. Iida was named the MVP only by default when in reality none of them deserved to be called one.

"C'mon… C'mon you stupid—!" Jason grunts as he tries to force his chest armor to unbuckle from him.

"Hey, Takeda, you okay?" Kirishima asks, walking up to him without his hero costume on, having had no problems in removing his gear.

With a final grunt Jason lets go and lets out frustrated breath of air. "Yeah, I'm good. Just having trouble removing my armor. Pretty sure one of Bakugo's explosions melted the clasp." He informs him as he grabs onto one of them on his shoulder, craning his head just enough to see it is in fact slightly melted and bent from the repeated attacks. He's also happy of the fact that Bakugo didn't want to spend anymore time with the others and was the quickest to get changed and get out.

"Whoa. Need some help?" Kirishima offers as he places his bag down..

"Please. We need brute strength to get this off me."

"Gotcha. Sato! Shoji! Little help over here?" Jason is a little surprised at Kirishima calling the two boys over.

"What is it?" Shoji asks as the two of them come over. They quickly explain what's going on, with both of the two arrivals nodding in agreement to help.

"Okay… one… two… three, pull!" Jason orders and all four them begin pulling. Kirishima and Sato are gripping the front of his armor chest and pulling with all their might while Shoji is behind him, grabbing onto his back armor and begins pulling, utilizing all six of his arms to pull his armor off. Jason does what he can to tear the clasps off directly at the source.

"Pull… Pull! C'mon!" Kirishima grunts as pulls back.

"Almost there. I can feel it starting to give." Jason informs them as he can feel it stretching.

*CLING*

"WHOA!"

With one final metal ping ringing it out, the metal clasps holding his armor together breaks apart, sending the small pieces falling to the ground, bits of ceramic falling to the ground and into the air, and Kirishima being thrown backwards, taking several long steps to try to regain his balance. Sato manages to grab onto a nearby locker and keep himself from falling, same a Shoji. Kirishima though ends up falling backwards through the door and lands roughly on the ground. He groans as he lays on the floor.

"Wow. Did your fight kick your butt that badly?" He opens his eyes and glares at Ashido standing over him, already in her regular school uniform, a smug look on her face.

"Ha ha, very funny Mina." He sarcastically laughs at her. She shakes her head and offers him a hand. HE takes it as the rest of the girls walk up behind her in their uniforms.

"Kirishima!" Jason calls out in concern as he rushes out. "You okay man?" He asks.

"Yeah yeah. I'm good. Just wasn't expecting go flying like that." He rubs the back of his head embarrassingly.

"Don't you worry about this guy. It's going to take a lot to get through this thick head of his." Mina good heartedly states as she playfully knocks the top of his head a couple times, all with a smile on her face.

"Stop it." Kirishima annoyed pushes her off before straightening his hair back. It's then he notices he's still holding onto Jason's front plate carrier. "Oh, uh here."

"Thanks." Jason nods as he takes it back, idly wincing as the vest falls limb, the sound of crumbling ceramic can be heard from the multiple small pieces within, especially when several shards fall out from holes torn into the fabric and clatter onto the ground. "Dang it." Jason mumbles as he folds it up, making sure to cover the holes as he begins picking up the pieces. Just as he goes to grab the last piece, someone else has already grabbed it.

"Ceramic?" Yaoyorozu asks confused on the material used in Jason's armor. "That's kind of a fragile material to use for armor is it not?"

"Maybe so, but it makes up for that by being cheap so its easy to replace, and light so it doesn't weigh me down." Jason quickly explains as he walks back in, grabbing his back plate carrier from Shoji before putting it away in the suitcase.

Now that his armor isn't weighing him down anymore, he makes quick work in taking off his costume and getting back into his school uniform, shield strapped to his arm again, just as everyone else is done and they begin heading back to class. "But why ceramic?" The curious Mina asks, walking next to him, along with Kirishima who is also curious.

"Back in the 20th century, before Quirks were introduced, different governments had to come up with different ways to make body armor that's light but effective in stopping bullets and other high velocity projectiles for both military and police application. While most types made at the time can take several rounds and still be somewhat useable, laminated ceramics was one option that was pretty light but provided exceptional protection when a bullet impact the plate. While yes after one or two hits it would be reduced to little pieces and needed to be replaced almost immediately, they were cheaper and far lighter compared to most other body armor types. Since Quirks appeared, most firearms started to be fazed out in general criminal sense and the need for better body armors dried up pretty quickly. Fortunately, that means any forms of ceramic armor in storage is relatively cheap to procure with the right connections, so I shouldn't have any problems in replacing it in today's time than it was back then." Jason takes a breath after finishing his explanation, also taking note at the fact he garnered just a bit more attention than he at first had with several of his other classmates listening intently.

"Wow! That's so cool." Kirishima shouts at the information.

"You really know your stuff, huh?" Mina leans in uncomfortably close as she asks him.

Jason looks away embarrassingly and nervously chuckles. "Well, it kind of helps when your dad used to be in the military."

This gets more than a few of them to look at Jason in surprise.

"Your father's a soldier?" Some of them are also surprised at hearing Todoroki ask the question to him.

"What are you all lagging around for? Get to your seats." They were all wrapped in the conversations they didn't notice they already made it back to their homeroom class and Aizawa is not happy, as usual.

Unable to answer, they make a beeline into the classroom and to their seats before they incur the wrath of their teacher. While they get ready for the rest of their classes, Jason can't help but frown as he notices Izuku still isn't back yet. 'Please be alright Izu.'

Classes pass for them all, eventually till it's the end of the day and its time for everyone to go home.

Some students already went ahead and left but a few mill about and shoot the breeze with each other. Jason is about to get up and get going to see someone when the person he wants to see opens the door.

"Izu!" He shouts in joy at seeing his friend up and about.

Izuku himself flinches at the loud shout but he's soon smiling as he sees his best friend walking up to him. "Hey, Jakkun. Good to see you."

"Glad to see you up, man. You had me worried when you got knocked out." Jason takes note of the cast and sling on his arm but still happy to see his friend up and about.

"Yeah, sorry about that. But if we're going to be heroes, I'm going to need to be ready when things get bad, huh?" Izuku tries to put a slight lighthearted spin on it.

Jason just nods sadly at the fact for a second before giving his friend a comforting smile. "Yeah, I guess your right."

"Hey Midoriya!" Both of them look to see Kirishima call out Izuku, much to the green-haired boys surprise as he and several other students walk up to him, eagerly greeting him and congratulating him, including introducing themselves more thoroughly to him. As this goes, Jason smiles at the positive reception everyone has with his friend

"Hey, where's Kacchan?" Jason's positive mood sours as Izuku asks about Bakugo.

"Bakugo? Yeah he just left." Kirishima informs him. Izuku bolts out of the room and begins heading for the front door to hopefully catch up to Bakugo.

Jason lets out a sigh of disappointment. Despite the fight and overwhelming beatdown that Bakugo tried to put on him, Izuku still tries to make Bakugo see reason.

"So… Quirkless huh?"

Jason freezes as he hears that. It's hard for him to mask his surprise as he turns around and stares at several of his classmates staring at him, including Mina who is just giving Jason a cheeky smile at him seeing as she was the one to ask the question. "I… uhh…"

"Wow man! I can't believe your Quirkless and so were so awesome." He's a little surprised when Sero answers.

"Yeah. That match of yours was so crazy and manly! You did work on Bakugo man." Kirishiman voices his enthusiasm of the match.

"While going in alone was foolish to begin with, I have to say your combat abilities were exceptional to keep up with Bakugo as you did." Yaoyorozu states.

"That was so killer and amazing!" He has a hunch it was Hagakure who said it from the floating clothes flailing happily.

"But why did you ask Midoriya not to tell any of us?" Asui asks, breaking everyone from their enthusiasm at the compliments to now their collective curiosity at that bit of withheld information for a time.

"Yes, not to mention how you also didn't say anything when some of us asked." Iida says, earning an annoying tick from Mina as she remembers the runaround Jason kept giving her in their short time of knowing each other.

"Izu… did he tell…?" Jason asks.

"Not it wasn't Deku. All Might was the one who spilled the beans." Ochaco tells him, right before she covers her mouth to keep herself from laughing. "You should have seen the look of surprise on his face when he realized none of us actually knew that about you."

"Can you tell us why you never told us about you being Quirkless?" Iida asks him, not in his usual authoritative commanding tone but more of genuine curiosity.

Jason lets out a sigh at the sudden development of his situation as he looks away. 'I guess I couldn't keep it a secret for too long. Just was hoping I had a little bit more time at least. Oh well.' He takes a deep breath and turns back to his classmates. "For too long I've been pitied or picked on just because I was Quirkless. People either saw me as being disabled because I didn't have a Quirk, didn't think I could do anything or contribute to society in general. I've spent a large majority of my life trying to make myself anything but useless to anyone. I was tired of people seeing me first as a Quirkless before they saw me for me. When I came here, when I got the chance to go to a new school after proving I earned my place here, I wanted to take the opportunity to show everyone of you my skills first before seeing me as the Quirkless I am. I knew I wasn't going to keep a secret forever, just long enough where you all can form an opinion of me before you learned about the fact I don't have a Quirk." Jason takes the moment to breathe in, more than a little relieved to finally get all this off his chest and tell everyone the real reason on how he feels.

After his explanation, he takes a long hard look at the various expressions everyone has. He quickly checks his time on his phone before grabbing his backpack. "I have to go get Izu before we miss our train." He makes his way to the door before anyone can say anything. "I've said my piece. Do with it what you will." He quickly heads off, a small bead of anxiety forming in him at what this means for him now that everyone in his class knows. 'Please… please let everything be alright.'

Almost half an hour later, Jason trudges him, a sigh of fatigue escaping him.

"Ughhh, what a mess." Jason mutters in frustration. He groans a little from the tiredness he's feeling. To make sure he didn't get any serious injuries, as well as make sure he didn't get any hearing damage he went to recovery girl while Izukue was unconscious. He didn't have any serious injuries but is still a little tired from the Quirk treatment regardless. After he left the classroom and headed for the front entrance, he made just in time to hear All Might chastise Izuku about telling Bakugo about his borrowed Quirk. Jason was admittedly upset about the reveal of the information, as well as All Might being disappointed as well, but was a little relieved at the brush off Bakugo gave Izuku, not believing in the information to begin with.

'Sucks Izu couldn't make the train. He still needed to change out of the remains of his costume before he could leave the school. At least All Might was nice enough to offer him a ride home.' Stewing in his thoughts, night has almost fallen as Jason walks home calmly. It may be too late but he pats his pockets, smiling as he feels the familiar shape of his phone and his other item in them. While he walks home at an even stride, he still feels a pang of worry an disappointment when he remembers the way how Izuku was quick to go after Bakugo and even more so, tell him about his new Quirk. Granted he didn't tell him everything about the whole situation but he still feels sad that he told him. 'Even after everything Izu, even after all the crap he's done, you still want to try to make him understand? All Might told you to not tell anyone and you tell him? Why? Why do you focus on him and not—'

"Come here!"

Jason is disappointed. All his training, all his work, all his efforts to make himself a strong and skillful fighter, just fails him right then and there. He was so focused on his thoughts, so focused on his hang-up that he neglected to be mindful of his surrounding, just idly walking home automatically rather than taking the time to make sure everything is okay, especially when the night has already fallen.

When his back hits the wall, he's about ready to retaliate, ready to bring a new definition to the word 'hurt' for this person who suddenly grabbed him, not really in the mood to show restraint like he usually does… but all that melts away as he sees the glaring angry face of the last person he wants to see.

"… Bakugo." He mutters the name, too tired from the days events to muster any other emotion than just a bland neutral tone.

Bakugo stares at him, lips pursed together in anger as he glares at Jason, his left hand gripping the front of his shirt tightly while his right hangs limply by his side as he presses Jason against the wall in an alleyway. "… Why?"

"… Why what?" He repeats the question in the same neutral tone.

"Don't you act dumber than usual." Bakugo almost shouts but keeps his voice done to prevent other people from hearing them. "Why… did you and Deku keep his Quirk a secret all this time? Why… after all these years did you two just string me along with this Quirkless crap?" His voice gains a little more volume but not enough to be yelling. "What's your Quirk, huh? Did you even use it in our fight?"

"… I told you. I am Quirkless. And if I remember correctly, Izu already told you—"

"Don't you give me that crap too!" This time he yells, getting closer to Jason's face with rage on his face. "You expect me to believe someone would give that worthless Deku a Quirk? He's nothing but a pathetic nobody who's joke of a dream is nothing!" He shouts in Jason's face, each word he spits out to his face, slowly and ever so bluntly tearing apart Jason's tired façade and revitalizing his anger, tired be damned. "You two were hiding it all these years because you thought you both could be better than me without Quirks!" As he continues to speak, he's unable to see Jason's hand slowly reach into his pocket.

"Bakugo… I really think you should—" Jason does what he can to talk him down, trying everything he can to keep his anger from bursting forth as he tries to keep his tone even.

"Don't you interrupt me!" He interrupts Jason, pressing him harder against the wall as his right hand comes up, small pops of explosions appearing on the palm of his hand, ready to let loose on Jason. "Why did you hide your Quirks from me all these years?! Deku already showed me his Quirk, now show me your god damn Quirk! It's the only way you could have beaten me! Show me or I'll make you—!" His rant silences altogether as his eyes widen, his Quirk shutting off as his grip loosen.

Jason gets a small relaxed smile on his face as he grips the front of Bakugo's shirt collar. "I think you need to calm down, Bakugo." He begins to talk in a playful tone as Bakugo slowly lets go of him, Jason slowly but carefully pushing him back towards the opposite wall as he continues to speak. "As I was saying, I really think you should shut up and listen." He presses Bakugo against the wall, leaning in close so he can hear speak quietly but firmly. "I'm going to make this clear… very… very clear to you. So clear that you should be able to hear it through that stubborn delusional head of yours." Bakugo tries to struggle but Jason presses harder, making him forget his struggles. "Ah ah ah, my turn to talk." He takes a deep breath and speaks, "Believe what you want about Izu. He told you something, whether you believe him or not is up to you. But never… never… and I can't stress it enough, continue to speak about my best friend like that. I am tired of hearing you spew on over and over again. If you want to keep up appearances and make an insult here and there, fine, keep up appearances. But if you ever come to me alone again, I better not hear another word against him… and I'm also going to make this clear… I. Am. Quirkless. Always have been… always will be."

He takes note of the disbelieving look in Bakugo's eyes but he continues to keep quiet.

"I have been Quirkless my whole life and always will be. I don't have a Quirk… so you can stop trying to goad me about it." He pushes Bakugo back against the wall, the guy slamming into the wall with a grunt as he slides down, staring up at Jason in anger before he sees the glint in his hand. "We've always had to hold ourselves back because of school, society, our parents… my friend…"

He crouches… and points the knife at his face.

"Don't push me… where I don't care about holding back anymore." With his threat given, Jason stands up, not giving another word or a look at Bakugo as he walks out of the alleyway and back on his path home.

He idly smirks at what just happened, flipping his pocket knife closed. 'Well, can't say I was expecting that… but man did that feel good.' He flips the knife open and closed a couple times as he walks before closing it and putting it in his pocket. 'Been wanting to do something like that for a long time. Shut up the second he felt the blade on his throat.' While Bakugo was threatening him, he had placed the blade right up to the boys throat. That shut him up right quick. Being Quirkless, he always knew he would be figured as an easy mark by criminals, ambushers, bully's of all kind and so on. That's why he has that pocket knife on him, a knife his dad gave him and trained him in, knowing that above all else his son's safety was the most important to him. While his skills in hand-to-hand combat were exceptional, having some form of weapon on hand when he's out of school was something they felt he should have on hand… just in case.

While felt satisfaction in showing Bakugo just how serious he was with his threat, he is disappointed in it coming to that point. 'You just never stop, do you Bakugo? That's fine. I've had to put up with you for this long, I can keep it up for a bit longer, only to get the satisfaction of seeing the stunned look on your face when Izu becomes a better hero than you.' A dark look and a smile graces Jason's face as he continues walking.

Unbeknownst to him, a pair of bright yellow eyes with thin slits on them stare at him from atop a rooftop. A deep bright red blush graces their features as their mouth contorts into a wide teeth filled vampire like smile.

Pants of exhilaration can be heard from the spectacle she just saw only moments ago.

"Oh… wow." A feminine voice can be heard as she pants, eyes trailing the person as he walks down the sidewalk, completely unaware of the— "Eep!" She lets out startled small squeak as Jason suddenly stops and turns around, eyes sweeping around for the presence he felt, just barely missing the person as she rolls back onto the roof of the building. She lets out a small giggle, the smile never leaving her face as she cradles the knife in her hands. "Ohhh, you are… soooo interesting… and cute!" She has to shove the sleeve of her cardigan over her mouth to keep from anyone hearing her laugh out loud.

Okay… again this took much longer than I had anticipated. Still, I'm glad I was able to get it out in time for the schedule I had set up but that means I don't have much in terms for the next chapter. Even so, I think I did alright in terms of how everything went with the fight, the explanations, people talking and so on. Kind of had to rush a little towards the end but I hope that didn't take away too much of what was written.

Lots of stuff happened, Jason showing everyone his skills, his tactics and strategy, and finally showing just how much he has to restrain himself against… certain people. Now, it seems he's caught the eyes of some other players in the field. He's going to have to watch his back from now on.

RedHood001: No, sorry to say but I did not base his gear or his looks off of any other character I know and tried to be as original as I could. I've never read the comic you were talking about so if there is a similarity, then its purely coincidence. I get what you mean by the Sam Wilson Captain America feel, seeing as he's not enhanced like the super soldier, he's going to have to rely on his own skills and prowess in order to fight against the big dogs of the Quirk filled world.

Everyone will know about his Quirkless status at some point, but he's going to go big when it's revealed just to show everyone how skilled he is.

Guest (Ch. 8): Thank you very much. Hope you liked the chapter and hope I did justice in having him show his drive to succeed to everyone.

TheChamp123: Thank you, I did what I can to make this story as best as I can. Sorry you were having trouble picturing his costume. I tried to be as good at describing his gear as best I could but I must confess, I've always had a weakness in turning what I'm visualizing into words.

Maybe some more words to describe his costume just a little, his underclothes are a little baggy for slightly more freedom with movement but not too much with his armor vests covering his chest and back and holding his clothes down, along with rubber covered steel guards on his elbows and knees to protect his joints and add power to his attacks, along with rubberized black guards strapped to his forearms for protection as well. I think that was the part of his costume I may have left some describing out.

I never had any direct inspiration when I was making his costume. I was doing what I can to make it original. Although one reviewer mentioned if I had based the hero suit design off of the Jason Todd Batman in Battle For the Cowl comics. I have never read the comic nor have I ever seen the design but maybe you can look him and see if it fits or gives you a better idea of what Jason's hero suit looks like. Again I didn't try to base it off of something else and tried to make it original. If it looks similar to something else that's purely coincidence.

As things progress, he will start to get a better feel for the weight and balance of his shield, allowing him to better maneuver it around and really use it as both a defensive and offensive weapon, so I'm hoping he'll get better than Steve. As for the villains he'll face, well I plan for him to have a hand in the major players of the series, as well as meeting some unlikely characters here and there. But at some point he will go toe to toe with some powerful villains.

Thanks again for the review and hope you continue to enjoy.

Cyberbeasttitan: Don't know what you mean by one of 'those' stories but I'm going to guess it's not good. To each their own.

Just so everyone knows, when I originally made Jason, I never really thought or had any intention of comparing him to Jason Todd of the batman series. Still, with what little I've seen and heard about the character, I can say he's one of my favorite anti-heroes of the universe but he wasn't what I was thinking about when I made my OC of this story. Merely coincidence if anyone finds any similarities between the two.

Still, with everything that was said, while I'm happy with the progress I've made with this new story to my profile, I have neglected some of my other stories for far too long now. This will be the last chapter I have in the schedule I had set up. I am going to start working on my other stories and I can't give an exact date when I will come back to this one.

Apologies to those of you finding me for the first time but I am horrible at keeping schedules for my stories. I'll do what I can to get back to this story when I can but I'm going to be honest that it's going to be awhile. However I'm hoping that having tried my hand at a new story, and the sheer volume I was able to pump out in these last few months compared to how I was before I started this story, I'm hoping my writing will show an increase in progress compared to before.

Thanks again for reading everyone. Please go ahead and fave, follow, review, whatever you wish. Have fun reading everyone, but most of all have a great day to all of you.