Chapter 2: The Most Dangewous Game
Following a fifteen minute break, the next match was about to be announced, as all eyes and ears tuned in.
"Our n-n-n-n-next m-m-m-m-match w-w-w-w-will take p-p-p-p-place in W-w-w-w-Woodland Area 1 of the t-t-t-t-training grounds," Porky stated.
"And what a matchup we have for you!" Present Mic beamed. "It's a clash between two animal lovers as U.A.'s own 'critter-whisperer' Koji Koda faces off with ACME Looniversity's Elmyra Duff!"
In the peanut gallery, Buster Bunny whistled in astonishment. "Your pal's in for quite a doozy."
"What do you mean, 'doozy'?" Midoriya asked curiously, his sentiments echoed by Uraraka and a few others.
"Let me ask you this," Babs Bunny began, "how much does Koda love animals?"
"Does Bakugo blow up at nearly everything?" Sero posed rhetorically. "If anything, animals love Koda as much as he does them! He's the only one I know who can get a whole army of ants to follow his lead."
"Well, Elmyra's love of animals goes up to 11," Buster said. "Actually, make that past 11. For the animals, the feeling's not so mutual."
"How so?" Tsuyu asked, a bit of wariness in her voice.
"You'll see," Babs hinted as she pointed towards the Jumbotron.
-X-
Koji 'Anima' Koda was walking around the grounds of Woodland Area 1 as he thought about the goal of the challenge: first one to capture their opponent wins. He'd gotten the attention of a small bird and was about to ask if they'd seen his opponent anywhere, when a tree fell just inches from where he was standing. The sight of the foe in question proved quite menacing to the little bird, as Koda saw its eyes go wide in fear before it flew away at ludicrous speed. Koda turned around and was met with his opponent at last.
Elmyra was a little redheaded girl with a blue blouse, a white skirt, black Mary Janes over white socks, and a blue bow with a tiny skull at the center. Koda couldn't believe she was something the little bird was afraid of...until he saw the gushing look on her face and a certain gleam in her eyes that began to unnerve him...
"AAAAWWWW, what a cute rocky-wocky-head!" Elmyra beamed, her arms outstretched towards the U.A. student. "I wanna hug you and squeeze you and cuddle you-"
As Elmyra began running towards Koda at full speed, he noticed the other small animals in the woods around him scattering in terror, and took it as a cue for him to do the same.
-X-
Watching this on the Jumbotron, Tsuyu and fellow animal-themed quirk user Mashirao 'Tailman' Ojiro shuddered.
It was a feeling that extended, even without them being at the match, to certain other animal quirk-users, such as Pony 'Rocketti' Tsutunori of U.A.'s Class 1-B; and professional heroes Rumi 'Mirko' Usagiyama, the aquatic sea captain Selkie, Kugo 'Gang Orca' Sakamata, and all four members of the rescue team known as the Wild Wild Pussycats. Collectively, all were wondering what it was that gave them the willies just now.
-X-
Koda ran as fast as he could, morbidly wondering just what Elmyra's level of affection would entail, in spite of her innocent looks. He was so worried that he almost didn't notice an Ussuri brown bear come near the girl, which caused him to turn on his heels. In spite of how much he feared her right now, he couldn't just let her get mauled by a fierce-looking member of the ursine family of mammals...
"OOOOH, what a cute, big, fluffy-wuffy beary-boo!" Elmyra gushed as she caught the creature in an astonishingly-strong bear hug of her own, which nearly made its eyes bug out in shock. "I'm gonna hug ya and squeeze ya-"
A dumbfounded Koda immediately realized that he should be saving the bear from the girl instead of the other way around. Thinking quickly, he called on some birds to distract Elmyra (despite their own reluctance to do so) and, when her attention was diverted enough, he quickly pulled the bear out of Elmyra's vice-like grip and convinced him to get out of here as soon as possible. The bear, nodding, didn't need to be told twice, and hightailed it the moment he could.
"Oh Mr. Rocky-head..."
Koda, doing his best imitation of a scared Curly Howard, barely escaped Elmyra's grasp by millimeters with a level of flexibility and dexterity he didn't even know he could muster. Even then, he knew it was still a dire situation-he had to get Elmyra to another place so the animals would be safe from her particular level of 'affection'. An idea of such a place quickly forming in his head, he promptly took off running, the sounds of the girl's giggling and the falling of trees and scattering of frightened wildlife trailing behind him.
-X-
Soon, Koda reached one of the 'urban area' environments of the training grounds; thankfully, there weren't any rules in place that prevented competitors from taking their matches into other places when necessary. He figured the staff would understand 'protection of animals' would be a good enough reason for the change in venue. Taking a moment to catch his breath, he leaned against the wall of a building so he could think of a way to catch Elmyra...before she caught him...
"Eeeeeeeeee!" he heard her ear-piercing squeal. Koda rushed to see what had happened to her, only to find...
"Lookit the cutie-wootie giant wobots!" Elmyra beamed, much to the confused looks on the training robots' digital faces. "I'm gonna play with them and make them run and transform and...!"
Koda couldn't believe how reckless he was being-the girl could be crushed by the training robots because of where he'd lured her! There wasn't any time to call upon any animalistic intervention, as he quickly rushed to try and save her...only to be met with the sight of a sniffling Elmyra holding a piece of scrap metal from one of the robots she (presumably) inadvertently destroyed.
"Aaaaawww..." Elmyra moped disappointedly. "I named him George and played with him and hugged him and now he's not moving anymore."
Koda's mouth hung open (an action some of his fellow students and their teachers echoed as they watched from the sidelines) in utter disbelief as he looked at the sad little girl sitting in the middle of a group of destroyed robots. It was then that it finally came to Koda-destructive levels of affection aside, Elmyra was still a little girl!
-X-
Moments later, Elmyra, having quickly gotten over the destruction of the robots, was happily skipping through the urban area as she looked for Koda.
"Where are you, Mr. cute rocky-wocky-head...?" she called out. Suddenly, she was surrounded by a flock of songbirds (that is, they surrounded her from a safe distance), which began to sing something-something that turned out to be a lullaby.
"Ooh, what cute...sweet-sounding..." she started to say in a drowsy tone of voice, "birdies..." Her eyes were beginning to get heavy, and she barely noticed Koda appear at her side, offering a glass of warm milk he was holding out to her. "Thanks, cutesy-wootsy rocky-head..." she said sleepily before downing the milk. Koda rolled his eyes a little as he watch Elmyra find a place to lie down. "We can play *YAWN* later," she said before the birds' song finally caused her to fall asleep.
Koda gently poked her shoulder with a finger, confirming that she was deeply asleep, before he picked her up and carried her towards the exit for the urban area. He was met part of the way by a floating monitor drone.
"Elmyra has been captured!" Present Mic's voice boomed from the drone's speaker, only for Koda to quickly make a panicked shushing gesture in front of its camera lens. "Whoops, sorry!" Present Mic said, now in a whisper. "Elmyra has been captured! Point goes to U.A.!"
To be continued...
*Author's Note(s)*
The chapter's title is a 'Fudd-ized' take on the classic short story The Most Dangerous Game, adapted many times in many mediums (with just as many alternative titles!).
