A/N: Hey guys, my new chapter's out! Really got nothing much to say about this one, hope you just enjoy reading it! :-)
Chapter Six: Byakko's Fear
The school's main entrance is surrounded by reporters, photographers and film teams with cameras and big vans. Masha sighs, visibly annoyed. Her classmates are already being interrogated and she only prays that she'll have the patience to ignore the noisy woman asking her questions so early in the morning. Just then Bakugo shows up walking besides her, but he doesn't even look at the cat girl. He still seems to be mad about his loss against Izukyun during the hero training the day before and about the fact that the green haired boy even has a quirk. Masha only takes a short glimpse at him before shifting her attention in front of her again, concentrating on walking and breathing calmly and on ignoring the female interviewer with her microphone and her questions about All Might being a U.A. teacher.
"Hey, aren't you that Sludge Villain Boy?" the reporter with the brown hair asks excitedly as soon as she sees the light blond teenager passing by. And that's exactly the moment when Masha's bad temper boils up. Before Bakugo can actually react to this question with an evil glare himself, the young tigress turns around slowly, piercing the impudent woman with her feline amber eyes. Upon her fierce gaze and the low threatening tiger growl that comes up her throat, the young journalist winces in fear and steps back in a hurry. The whole crowd behind her reacts to the suddenly dangerous atmosphere, sweatdropping and holding their breaths in anxiety. Slightly surprised even Bakugo shoots Masha a glance questioning her behavior once again.
Satisfied with the gained silence the teenage girl turns around again and keeps walking towards the school building. "Tsk, wimps!" she scoffs, the intimidating aura completely gone now. Bakugo continues walking next to her raising his eyebrows. "Yeah, I know I have to get rid of that boiling temper, but you're not the one to gimme that look ya know!" Masha wouldn't admit it even at the cost of her life, but it was her protective instinct that just made her lose it for a second. Her inner tigress was certainly not okay with that female stranger who tried to stick her nose into sensitive business that has nothing to do with her, not to mention she wasn't thinking about Bakugo's feelings at all bringing that incident up again.
"I don't need your protection, damn cat! Mind your own crap in future or else I'm gonna kill you!" the spiky haired guy shouts angrily. "Who in the whole world would even consider protecting you?" Masha sighs unimpressed. "I'm neither Izukyun nor All Might. Besides it's way too early for you or those reporter morons to go on my nerves like that, so don't talk to me!" To give some more point to her words, the young tigress yawns and stretches her body, blazing up Bakugo's fury even more. With his flaming red eyes and his hands sparking to life he's only centimeters away from a rampage. "Don't order me around!" he yells, but Masha just rolls her eyes entering the school complex. "Don't ya dare ignore me!" the explosive quirk user keeps insisting. Masha really can't help it anymore. It's so hilarious watching his reactions. "Striving for attention, are we?" she snickers. "Say, whom are you actually trying to impress here? 'Cause I'm the only one around right now ya know..."
Shortly before he can hit her with one of his explosion strikes, the tiger girl steps aside entering the classroom. "Good mornin'!" she cheers lightheartedly and makes her way to her seat as if nothing had happened, followed by an utterly pissed off Bakugo gritting his teeth and burning everyone to ashes with his glares. "Whoa, Masha! What did you do to Kacchan?" Izukyun whispers cautiously. "Why me?!" She puts up a huffy act, but smirks at her best friend. The messy haired boy muffles his giggle with his hands.
Soon enough Mr. Aizawa steps into the classroom looking at his students with his tired eyes. "Decent work on yesterday's combat training, you guys. I watched the video feeds and went over each of your team's results", he praises the class monotonously as ever. "Bakugo, you're talented so don't sulk like a child over your loss, okay" Masha restrains herself really hard to make sure not to laugh out loud. She just can't express how much she loves uncle Shota for comments like that. "Also, Midoriya, I see the only way you won the match was by breaking your arm again. Work harder!" the teacher scolds the green haired boy. "And don't give me the excuse that you can't control it properly, that's already getting old. Your quirk will be very useful if you get control over it, so show a little urgency!" Izuku beams at the black haired pro hero after the compliment and nods his head in agreement, also taking the critique to heart. Masha smiles at how adorable her childhood friend is.
"Now let's get down to business. Our first task will decide your future", Mr. Aizawa says making the whole class gasp collectively. "You'll have to pick a class representative" The tiger girl groans. As expected! . ! While her classmates are shouting out who wants to be picked, the white and black haired girl slumps down on her table considering to take a nap until it's over. Because that's what uncle Shota's about to do. Disappear into his yellow sleeping bag and sleep until the class has decided, not even caring about how they would come to a decision. Did he have a bad influence on her upbringing here?!
Iida suggests an election in a democratic way and after all the votes are counted Izuku is finally announced as class rep and the beautiful black haired girl with the ponytail and the functional brain will be his deputy. Oh, her name's Yaoyorozu Momo by the way. Masha pouts. Yelling stiff glasses guy aka Iida would match the class rep image so perfectly and the young tigress feels how uncomfortable and nervous her friend is at the moment. There's definitely no consent. Poor Izukyun!
"Okay you idiots! Who the hell voted for the stupid nerd?" Bakugo erupts jumping up from his chair and causing a ruckus again. Masha begins to chuckle quietly, instantly getting his attention and a death like scowl. "Keep laughing at me and you're dead!" The young tigress challenges him not avoiding his gaze and locking her amber eyes with his. She shows him a confident grin knowing he's not able to do much in the classroom with their teacher still present.
"All right, so the class rep will be Midoriya and our deputy is Yaoyorozu", said teacher exclaims remaining in his sleeping bag. "Really? U-uhm this is not a mistake?" the young Midoriya asks, his body trembling with anxiety. "Just how did this happen?" the black haired deputy sighs.
After homeroom and the class rep election Masha has to endure boring regular classes again. The young girl really has to struggle to keep her eyes open, even if it's energetic Present Mic who's teaching English. "Alright! This month we're going to do a super nifty English project! Who's excited?!" the blond pro hero calls out enthusiastically as always. And as always the reaction of the class is rather less responsive. The teacher pulls out a piece of paper which is the list of the already set up pairings who're going to have to work together. "You and your partner will be writing an argumentative piece about a top pro hero! You both need to write an essay, but it'll be graded collectively. Either one of you will have to write about the strengths and weaknesses of the hero", he keeps explaining while handing out the assignment papers with the names of the pairings.
Masha blinks at the irony reading the name of her partner and stifles a giggle noticing that the paper he just received is already burning. "Hey! No torching in my lesson!" Present Mic complains and the young tigress can't hold back her laughter anymore. Innocently she smiles at the hot head placing her chin in her palm. "I'd rather die!" he growls at her in anger before she can say anything. "Oh now, that's new!" Masha replies in pretended surprise. "Actually I thought you'd tell me to die. So now you have suicidal tendencies, interesting!" The light blond boy's red eyes flare up. "Shut your mouth, damn cat or I'll rip it off!" he yells.
Despite Mr. Grumpy Cat being her partner, the teenage girl studies her assignment only to find out that the pro hero she'll have to write about is no other than Eraserhead, making her laugh out loud. "Lucky!" she cheers and misses someone she can high-five, so the cat girl turns to her best friend who's dark red in his face while looking at his own paper and then glimpsing at Ochako. The cute girl smiles back and waves at the green haired boy to come over.
"Aw, Izukyun", Masha swoons. "Good luck! I'm cheering for ya" The young Midoriya starts to panic waving his hands uncontrollably. "H-huh? W-w-what are you talking about, Masha?" She smirks mischievously. "The English project, Izukyun. Of course I'm talking about the English project. What else could I be referring to?" His green eyes widen and his blush is so extreme that his freckles seem to disappear. "U-uh, I see. T-thanks. Good luck for you too then. L-let's give our best!" The messy haired guy tries to smile brightly, but fails with an embarrassed grimace before walking over to his partner.
Soon enough the morning lessons end and lunch break starts when Masha meets up with Kirishima. Both of them look for Kaminari after receiving their food, but the electric blond doesn't seem to be around yet, so they sit down and talk about the English assignment and with whom they got paired with. "Oh boy, where's Kaminari again?" the young tigress asks impatiently. "Honestly, that guy's so damn lazy!" The red head chuckles. "Yeah, right? Just remember that unenthusiastic expression on his face during our sports test!"
As the two friends start to laugh, a loud bell rings hurting their ears. Masha winces and presses her hands on her sensitive tiger ears. "Warning: Level Three Security Breach! All students please evacuate the building in an orderly fashion!" Kirishima looks at the cat girl, first confused, then as he recognizes her flattened ears and her grimacing in pain because of the loud noise, worried. "Hey, you okay?" He puts his arm around her shoulders helping her stand up. She nods. "Yeah, it's just way too loud. Besides what the heck is a level three security breach?" The red haired boy shrugs his shoulders and they head towards the direction of the exit sign, however they both soon realize that everyone else is doing the exact same thing.
"Kirishima!" they hear a familiar voice yell and try to turn around. Kaminari's bright blond hair is easy to spot even in a panicking crowd. "Dude, I can't get out!" Nevertheless Masha's relieved to see him unharmed. Scared, yes, but still fine. "We can't either, it's too overcrowded!" the tiger girl shouts back at her friend who tries to somehow make his way through the mob. Suddenly the young girl gets squeezed between two other bodies clashing with their elbows and shoulders. "Masha! Hold on to me tight!" Kirishima cries out grabbing her hand. "Hey you guys!" Kaminari reaches out to them again and this time the young tigress is able to take his hand as well.
However as they get stuck in the narrow exit way with more and more rushing people their way out of this stampede seems to get farther and farther away. At the realization of being stuck and unable to move freely a sudden feeling of suffocation rises in Masha's chest. "Kirishima, Kaminari, Masha!" she can hear Iida's voice from who knows where, but the two other boys don't notice, because they try to calm down the panicking students around them. The white and black haired girl starts to feel trapped and recognizes her body reacting to this feeling. It's loud, it's packed with scared and shouting people, everyone smells differently, she gets pushed around and smashes against multiple body parts of unknown students constantly.
A low and aggressive growl forms in her throat and Masha forces herself to suppress it. She gives her best to focus on breathing and to remember her meditation skills to calm herself down, but deep down inside of her rage and anxiety are boiling, slowly pressing to the surface. Her heart begins to race and another rush of people makes it even worse, causing the teenage girl to let go of Kirishima's and Kaminari's hands voluntarily in order not to hurt them with a too strong grip or with her claws that are attempting to break through. She clenches her fists as tight as possible to prevent that, but notices that her black tiger stripes are covering her arms already. Masha's very close to losing control over her quirk powers. Recognizing this does not help to put her mind at ease though. She knows she could hurt a lot of people in a situation like that. Fighting back her biggest fear the tiger girl soon is able to hear a familiar voice cursing in pure anger.
"Back off you damn idiots!" Sparkling off a couple of tiny explosions on his palms, Bakugo has only a little bit more room than anyone else, but what's more important he's standing in front of a corner. Focusing her senses on the annoyed blond boy she drags herself through a bunch of students. Without touching him or talking to him Masha pinions herself against the wall behind him facing the corner and cowering down. Right before the moment her claws finally grow out to their full length, the young tigress crosses her arms over her chest gripping on her own shoulders strongly. The pain she feels when her own tiger claws perforate her shoulders relieves her because that means she has hurt herself and not someone else. She closes her eyes and forces in deep breaths. Her ears still flattened down to her head she keeps pressing herself into that corner and concentrates on the feeling that the cool wall leaves behind on her hot skin.
"Listen up! Everything is okay!" Masha hears Iida's voice after something landed on the exit sign right above her head. Did he just jump there?! "It's just the media outside. There's absolutely nothing to worry about. Everything's fine", glasses boy continues to soothe his fellow students. With trembling lips, tears in her closed eyes and a shaking body the young girl hopes that they will listen to him. "We're U.A. students, we have to stay calm and prove that we're the best of the best." Oh boy, that sounds arrogant as hell, no kidding! It takes a few more minutes until the whole bulk of frightened students dissolves little by little with everyone returning to their respective classes. Masha can hear Ochako and Izukyun help Iida climb down from his perch above the shining exit sign praising him for his speech.
"The hell're you doin', stupid cat?" Bakugo scoffs at her. "Oi Bakugo, that's not very nice. At least read the mood, bro!" Kirishima scolds him. "Yeah, even I can tell she's scared. You're no help, dude!" Kaminari adds and the light blond boy yells back at the two. "Maybe she's suffering from claustrophobia", glasses Iida takes a guess. "No", Izuku disagrees seriously, gaining the attention from all of his classmates who're still around in the hallway. "She tries to contain herself. We should wait until she has calmed down a bit. You guys go on ahead to classes. I will stay behind" Masha could actually kiss the green haired guy for his far-sightedness. He's the one who understands her the best after all.
"What are you saying, Deku!" she hears Ochako protest all of a sudden. "We can't just leave her like that! Look, her shoulders are clearly wounded. She's bleeding! We have to help her!" The young tigress notices steps coming closer and presses herself against the wall even stronger. No, no, no, no! Izukyun, please do something! Hurry up! "Ah, no! Uraraka, stay back!" the messy haired boy shouts, but it's too late. The brown haired cute girl has already reached out to touch Masha's arm softly with her fingers to check on her. Upon the gentle contact Masha's head jerks up and she shows her fangs, hissing. Ochako flinches with a surprised squeal and her big eyes grow even wider than usual.
"Whoa!" Kirishima blurts out. "What the heck...?!" Kaminari wonders at the same time and Izuku takes Ochako's arm to pull her back a few steps, placing himself between her and the tiger girl. "Deku...? What...?" Ochako whines, fear clouding her voice. Now that all of them have seen her face with the fierce eyes, the long fangs and the cheeks covered in black tiger stripes, she feels ashamed of herself. She just scared her kind classmate. "Midoriya can you explain this to us, please?" Iida asks in his usual polite and neutral fashion with Kirishima and Kaminari nodding along.
Only Bakugo keeps his red eyes on the cowering cat girl, feeling the same threatening aura he felt when she glared at the reporter mob this morning. Not sure if he's just disgusted about her showing so much weakness or rather... fascinated? Those amber eyes... He hates to admit that he's able to clearly feel her powers. And yet she sits in that damn corner. The spiky haired boy grits his teeth. What the hell, stupid cat?!
"Masha has some problems to control her quirk when she loses her temper", Izukyun starts to explain. "Usually that's not a big problem anymore because she has learned to contain it properly, but in stressful situations like this panic, she's afraid of hurting someone. Not of the situation itself, but of losing control over her powers" As expected from her best friend that's put very nicely. Masha could have laughed if she hadn't been trying to keep her sanity. "So with shoving herself into that corner she actually tries to protect us and not herself?" Kirishima asks and the messy haired boy nods. "That's why we shouldn't get close to her until she calmed down. Masha would feel awfully guilty if she ended up hurting anyone of us. Her quirk is very strong" Worriedly his adorable green eyes rest on his childhood friend.
"C-can't we do anything?" Ochako asks again. "I-I'm not afraid at all!" She puts on a brave expression despite her still shaking voice. Bakugo rolls his red eyes, but the young Midoriya steps forward. "I'll try, but you guys have to keep your distance" He walks over to the young cat girl and kneels down at arm's length to be at eyelevel with her. "Hey, Masha", Izukyun says lightheartedly and shows her a smile when her feline eyes lock with his. "It's me, Izuku. You recognize me, right?" The young tigress blinks multiple times, her hard gaze slowly fading away. "It's okay now, the crowd is gone. You can move freely", he assures her in a soft tone and she concentrates on his friendly voice and the very familiar scent. Finally the black stripes in her face and on her arms begin to disappear.
"Izu-kyun?" He sighs with great relief and his smile grows wide and bright. "Uhm", he nods and the cat girl smiles right back at him. "Thanks" The green haired boy stands up and helps his friend on her feet, too. Their other friends lighten up as well until they see the amount of blood her uniform has been soaked in on her shoulders. Her claws are still stuck there, so her hands should cover the biggest part, but standing there with her arms crossed over her chest also feels awkward. "Sorry you guys", Masha apologizes still holding onto her shoulders. Then she faces Ochako. "I've shown you something pretty scary, huh"
The brown haired girl shakes her head strongly. "Nope, not at all! More importantly, what happened to your shoulders? Do they hurt very badly? Did you get injured in the mob earlier?" She exchanges an uncomfortable glimpse with Izuku. "Oh, uh - no, that is, uhm... not exactly..." she stutters helplessly and Bakugo lets out an annoyed groan. "Leave her, she's just weak!" he scoffs. Surprisingly the young Midoriya shoots him a deadly glare with his usually calm and friendly green eyes. "Kacchan!" His tone is sharp as a knife and the light blond raises his eyebrows. So the wimp finally shows some guts, he's certainly not very pleased with this.
But before he can start a fight with damn Deku, Masha also narrows her eyes at Bakugo, beginning to very slowly pull out her long and sharp tiger claws of her own flesh. Blood drenches her hands, her shoulders and her uniform and also starts dripping down on the clean floor in the hallway. "Well, if high and mighty you says so, who am I to disagree..." she sneers right back at him and for a short moment the spiky haired boy stares at her with his mouth slightly agape. Until she starts talking to the green haired boy. "Let him be. Someone like him will never understand. He's not worth it!" That comment lets Bakugo's anger erupt again. However he doesn't get the chance to express it, because the others start surrounding Masha in concern.
"Dang, girl! What did you do to yourself!" A more than shocked Kirishima puts an arm around her waist to support her. "Don't tell me you did all of that only to avoid hurting someone in the crowd. Then you also let go off our hands by yourself, right? I thought it was accidentally and was feeling guilty!" the electric blond Kaminari points out and Bakugo clenches his fists digging them deeply into his pockets. "Tch!" He turns his head away and starts walking off in a huff. What a waste of his time!
"We have to get you treated immediately!" Ochako panics. "Oh, don't worry, the pain is endurable", Masha comments to everybody's astonishment. "But this blood loss isn't", Iida claims back equally calm and matter of fact. "By the way with this splattered uniform you can't go back to classes" She looks down on her clothes. "Oh, you do have a point", the tiger girl admits. "U-uhm, Iida, I don't think that's the problem here..." Izuku argues and Ochako puts her hands on her mouth. "Pffft! You guys are funny. Sorry, Masha!" The young tigress just responds with a crooked grin.
Suddenly Kirishima picks her up holding the cat girl in his arms like a princess. "Hey, I suggest I take her to the infirmary quickly. You guys should hurry and go back to classes. It's no use if all of us get punished by Mr. Aizawa later" The others nod in agreement and Kaminari gives the crimson head a thumb up and a sneaky grin. "Way to go, man!" he praises causing Masha to blush a little bit. "That's not necessary, ya know. I can still walk by myself", she mumbles, but the red haired smiles brightly and starts running down the hallway. "Nah, no sweat! We'll be right there. I'm pretty strong and you weigh almost nothin'" Masha chuckles. "That's some compliment..." Now also the red haired boy's cheeks grow pinkish. He carries her all the way down to the infirmary where they have Recovery Girl treat Masha's wounds.
When entering homeroom classes afterwards, Iida is standing at the front with Izuku and his deputy. "If Midoriya is nominating me next for this job, then I humbly accept. I plan to carry out the duties of the class rep to the best of my abilities!" the glasses boy proclaims and Izukyun looks truly happy with this development, so does Masha. "Congrats, Iida!" Finally his stiff intelligent glasses-class rep-image will be confirmed. He puffs out his chest in pride and smiles confidently. "I highly appreciate your support!"
Kirishima and Masha hand over a document signed by Recovery Girl to Mr. Aizawa to proof their reason for being absent. The black haired teacher furrows his brows at the cat girl, now wearing her royal blue athletic clothes, examining her silently before sending both of them to their seats. The young tigress spaces off the rest of homeroom until the final bell rings and releases her. After packing her stuff sluggishly and being questioned by uncle Shota about her injuries, she finds Bakugo outside of the classroom leaning against the wall and scowling at her with his red eyes.
"We're gonna meet up for that stupid English project tomorrow after school!" he commands growling. "We're gonna be first to hand it in and it's gonna be perfect or else you're gonna die!" And with that said he turns around and stomps away leaving a dumbfounded Masha in front of the classroom. There he goes, the perfectionist... The young tigress sighs. That guy really has no right to call Izukyun a nerd with that attitude! By the way she has to tell him that they won't have to rely on the internet as a source because she already knows about many of uncle Shota's strengths and weaknesses.
And there he told her he'd rather die after receiving the assignment. He even burnt the frickin' paper! Masha rolls her amber eyes. She wouldn't have expected him to tell her to meet up with him. One problem less at least. But spending a whole afternoon with Mr. Angry Bird is definitely not going to be a picnic. With an annoyed groan Masha shoulders her backpack and makes her way back home.
A/N: As always, thank you very, very much for reading, reviewing, favs and follows! I hope you like my new chapter and we are finally moving in a direction of Masha's and Katsuki's "first date", although it will be for a school project. Also I have to admit that I actually thought that essay thing was cannon, because I read it in another fanfic and wasn't quite sure anymore if I had seen this in the anime or not. I just recently realized while re-watching that it wasn't. So, very well done of my fellow author for making it feel like it actually happened, I give my credits and apologize for kind of "stealing" the idea without even wanting to. Hope no one will be angry with me...
Anyways you guys, look forward for the next chapter. It will be a completely self-made one with our two main-couple-protagonists meeting up to write their assignment together.
Lots of love! :)