My Jirou Academia Chapter 3: Battlefront

Katsuki Bakugo, it literally couldn't have been a worse draw.

Compounded by the fact that Izuku drew Ochako Uraraka as his partner, her pairing became hellish. During the physical aptitude tests, her group mate had launched himself in a fit of rage at the green haired boy. Clearly there was some unresolved history between the two, one which Jirou wished to not witness the end to.

"Young Bakugo! Young Kyoka! You're team B!" In his heroic stupor, All Might announced the previous.

Jirou's heart was racing at incredible speeds. An anxious expression set as the reality of the situation crushed her mind. She turned around at a snail's pace, almost petrified in fear. Fully expecting an intense stare to be piercing through her, the blondie was simply uninterested and looking stoically at one of the buildings nearby.

Her walk back into the clump of students was frighteningly silent, like everyone had it as a given that she was dead. She brushed shoulders with Momo who gave her a supportive pat on the back and an accompanying wink. Oh how she wishes this woman joined the team. Her partner was now right in front of her and he still looked entirely detached from the situation.

"H-hi Bak-" Jirou started before being cut off by a brash sound.

"As long as you don't get in my way I won't kill you." Bakugo's voice was coarse and rough, and it wasn't one you heard everywhere. He sounded like he's smoked for a consecutive decade with that calm tone.

Great, a person who speaks in life and death terms, how wonderful. A look of somber worry plastered itself on her face.

Unbelievably, the activity got even worse! How unfortunate can a person even be? Was it fate for Jirou to be in a perpetual state of anxiety? Why just why did she have to face off against her greatest nemesis and the person who makes her stomach flutter? Yes, out of 'randomness' her group was the opposing villains to Izuku and Uraraka's hero team. The villain team was tasked with defending a fake bomb placed deep inside a building. All they had to do was run out the clock, wasting enough time so that the hero team was unable to get their hands on the objective. That much was acceptable, just why did it have to be against him?

"Shit, shit, shit!" She clutched her earjacks as her foot stomped on the floor of the building they were protecting. Bakugo had walked out of the room right around when the timer to the exercise had started. Also what kind of ridiculous simulation was this? The huge bomb she was protecting, were it to be real, had no realistic way to be carried outside the area. Wouldn't it make more sense for the bomb to be a live hostage?

Ah how her mind started criticizing as a coping method never ceased to entertain. She wasn't even concerned about Bakugo walking out, he's already highly regarded as the entrance exam's top scorer. It wouldn't be weird if a couple of explosions she heard ended the exercise immediately. The more pressing worry was if she was capable of fighting Izuku on equal terms. The thought of even grazing him brought about nerve wracking feelings of apprehension. Clutching his ears at her amplification, subjecting him to pain, these possibilities felt undoable for her. That said, if Jirou did indeed not engage in a fight then that would mean a bad grade, would it not?

It wasn't doing her any good thinking so hard about a complete hypothetical, so she simply stopped thinking and planted her ear jacks into the floor and the wall. This helped her monitor the other group as well as Bakugo. In preparation, she had taken everything that was laid out around the room and put it behind the make believe bomb. Uraraka's quirk showed no indication of having long range capabilities, so keeping the items hidden from her seemed like the right choice. This decision was made with multiple assumptions, like Bakugo's quirk not damaging anything near them, or Izuku not making it into the room (please for her sake don't make it).

Nonetheless, the punk rock girl was confident enough in her strategy that simply waiting was enough. A few seconds passed until she heard an insanely loud sound booming in her ears. If she had to guess, that was one of Bakugo's explosions ringing through the building. Her eardrums started aching so she had to remove both her planted ear jacks and wait for the explosions to subside. To her dismay, they continued, each with a few seconds in between. Monitoring the entire building had become impossible, so she settled for only hearing the bomb room by injecting one ear jack on the ceiling above her.

Just then, some footsteps made themselves present at the entrance. They were quiet, light and barely audible, not the harsh and heavy type a guy would make. Taking Izuku out of the equation, this was Uraraka then. A nice plan, make enough noise to masquerade some weightless steps. It would've worked on anyone else.

"I can hear your tepid footsteps, Uraraka." Jirou confidently pushed her hair backwards while saying this.

"Eep!" Uraraka only yelped at the proclamation, it looks like this wasn't part of the plan. Some more explosions are heard deep into the building.

"And with no debris to work with, your being here is useless." Jirou was projecting their battle as women into the exercise. "Now I'll just hold you in place until the timer runs out." Any thought about fighting Izuku had disappeared from her mind, now being entirely focused on maintaining the gravity woman away.

The ear jacks extended down to her ankles and injected themselves into the speakers built on her hero costume. To get the strongest soundwave possible, her heartbeat needed to beat at an unnatural pace. Her best method to get blood pumping was to think of Izuku in ….compromising situations. As her mind drifted into imagining what he'd look like in the shower, a strong sound wave shot out in Uraraka's direction. Soon enough, the brunette was on the floor clutching her ears. Her legs had become wobbly and her torso was shaking a bit. Jirou reduced some of the intensity so it wouldn't leave any permanent damage.

"All that's left now is to wait." More explosions wrung deep from within the building, this time from another place. Jirou looked down at Uraraka whilst keeping the amplifiers directly on her. As she looked at the girl struggling on the floor, a question popped into her mind. Her cheeks turned bright red and her breath started getting ragged. She asked something incredibly embarrassing. "H-hey U-Uraraka what do you think of Izuku?" She covered her eyes as she did so.

"Huh?" Was all the girl below her could mutter before they both were interrupted.

The floor right beside them both shot up into the air, followed by a forceful gust of wind. Jirou who was closer was knocked to the ground, her back hitting the cold marble. Her ear jacks disconnected themselves instinctively from her ankles as she was flung to the side. Her lower back was in pain and her left knee was scraped from the impact. Her eyes had closed during her fall so she opened them back up to look at what had happened. The floor had an incredibly round crater which spanned the rest of the remaining upper rooms. One of the columns had toppled over in the direction where Uraraka was kneeled down. After looking to one side, Jirou spotted the brunette with both of her hands on the papier mache bomb.

"Izuku….." Jirou's stomach grew a pit as her eyes rested on the injured boy. He was currently being carried away by some of the infirmary staff atop a stretcher. One of his arms was entirely charred, like when his quirk was used. The other had a localized burn mark which looked uncharacteristic to the other arm.

Upon realizing what had happened, Jirou's mind became filled with seething rage. She turned in the direction of her battle partner and slowly walked over. Her lip was bit hard enough to draw blood. Jirou violently grabbed Bakugo's shirt from the collar and pulled him close. Every student present turned to face the two as their scuffle began. All Might was staring but he looked like he wasn't about to intervene. Her face was irate and her teeth were showing.

"Bakugo! You took it too far!" She wasn't shouting, Jirou's voice was rather low, almost cold. Momo tried walking in her friend's direction but was met with a glare which nonverbally said 'not now'.

"H-hey Jirou it's fine, it's a battle between men." Uraraka tried to pacify the situation, waving her hands around the two. She had a nervous smile creeping onto her face. Her intervening was easier since she was closer to them after they all just walked out together from the battle scenario.

A range of emotions flashed across the blondie's face. First there was pure anger, as his eyes became bloodshot. Then there was doubt as he looked around at everyone. Then there was a split second of sadness followed by a definite expression of resignation.

"Tch." Was all Bakugo mustered as he freed himself from Jirou's grip. He walked off to the spectator area. As weird as it was, this felt like his way of saying sorry. Maybe this guy was a more complicated person than what he let on.

"Jirou, are you okay?" Momo walked over and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Yeah I just… lost my temper for a second there." Jirou looked at Bakugo as he walked away, making Yaomomo look at him as well.

Jirou then promptly apologized to everyone there personally, stopping before every one of her classmates individually. They all seemed to understand where her resentment came from. As she walked away from a familiar looking girl, she extended her tongue and grabbed Jirou's wrist. With a little bit of a disgusting feeling, she walked back back to hear out this callous girl from earlier.

"Jirou." The reptile-looking girl simply said her name and paused. Her eyes were unwavering and seemed to be stopped in time. She seemed to be staring deeply into the tomboy's own marbles. "You love Midoriya don't you."

Never have simple words affected Jirou so much. Instantly her ears started burning and her heartbeat followed suit by almost beating out of her chest. Her face became pink from ear to ear and both ear jacks tucked themselves into her hair.

"W-w-w-why d-d-do you think that?" Jirou looked around to see if anyone was hearing or watching them but thankfully everyone was too preoccupied with the next combat simulation.

"No one else reacted the way you did to Midoriya's injuries. Ribbit." Oh, so she's a frog, the outfit makes a lot more sense now. "I'm sorry if I misread you. I tend to say whatever's on my mind."

"Y-yeah you did." Jirou took a deep relieved sigh and looked over in Momo's direction, who was looking intently at the screen. For a second there she felt relieved that someone else knew but maybe just keeping it between Yaomomo and herself was the best option.

Alas, the punk rock girl joined the rest of the class in watching the other battle scenarios. The back of her mind pulsating with the injured green boy.

Surprisingly enough, all her classmates wanted to talk about was Izuku. The guy wasn't even attending the afternoon classes but he was the only thing on their mind for the remainder of the school day.

"He was like, so reckless! It was so cool." Some floating clothes talked. This was Tooru Hagakure, a girl with an invisibility quirk. She was a bubble of energy and a naturally talkative person. It's a little disturbing to think she was naked in her hero costume though.

"Hmph." Tokoyami, a bird-human hybrid with an insane shadow quirk. He looked edgy and acted all mysterious. A real oddball for sure.

"Oh come on Tokoyami, you thought he was cool too." Denki Kaminari, a flirty guy with an electrical quirk. He's an interesting one.

"Kaminari! You shouldn't sit on a desk!" Tenya Iida, an elite from a prestigious middle school. His quirk makes him run incredibly fast. He's also a sucker for proper etiquette and the rules.

"I think it's fine." Jirou smiled softly as she rebutted what Iida said. She was genuinely enjoying the company of her classmates. It took her mind off the injury Izuku sustained earlier. Her intrigue as to what everyone else thought about him also led her to enjoy the conversation. However, the most important opinion hadn't even presented itself. Uraraka's opinion on the green haired boy.

"You're right, Tooru! He was like wham! Bam! Huzzah!" Nevermind, Uraraka's view of the guy was unintelligible to anyone and everyone. That's definitely her opinion at least.

While the class laughed earnestly, the door opened and a certain green haired individual's arm cast poked through. He seemed taken aback by the amount of people still at the school.

"Mi-do-ri-ya! Are you okay! You missed all of your afternoon classes!" Iida rushed towards him and started to pester him immediately.

"Why did his question end with an exclamation mark?" Ashido Mina, a girl with completely pink skin who secretes acid from her body. She leaned over and asked Yaomomo. Momo sighed at the question and shrugged.

Izuku looked around the room as everyone introduced themselves to him. His eyes met with Jirou who in response shyly smiled at him from the back of the class, she even brushed her hair back when holding eye contact. The green haired boy rubbed the back of his head and smiled back at her. A quiet moment that only the two of them shared or even understood, but an intimate one despite the circumstances.

Two days passed in a flash. Apparently at the end of the battle scenario day Izuku and Bakugo settled things at the school's front gate. That put Jirou's worries to rest and she even internally forgave the blondie for his actions. The whole class seemed to move on from the incident, and the consecutive two days were perfectly normal.

U.A. was even more amazing than she thought. Lunch was held in this amazingly enormous open area filled with students from all different courses. She even met eyes with the intense girl from the bathroom the other day. Those green marbles were simply looking at her with curiosity but Jirou was too embarrassed by their first meeting to even entertain the idea of talking to her. So she swiftly made her way to the table where her friends waited.

"Oh Jirou! You're back!" Uraraka sat across Izuku and next to Iida. Her lunch was a carefully made bento with some pork cutlet and rice. Not one vegetable or fruit in sight.

"Yeah I just went to check the vending machine. I forgot to bring something to drink today." Jirou settled slowly at the table. She sat next to Izuku who was already eating the rice ball he packed for the day. Even when eating he looked …. nevermind.

The four of them had gotten fairly close the last few days. Jirou's nervousness towards Izuku had lessened the more time she spent with him. Turns out he's an ordinary guy, not this deity of manliness she had made him out to be. He's unsure of himself and even socially reclusive, he's like anyone else. This made him more approachable and attractive. Then there's Uraraka who was an amazing person with an even better attitude. She felt like a sister, running around enthusiastically around everyone in class, making them feel valued. An earnest girl all around, had she not met Izuku then maybe Jirou would've fell for her.

"You're not eating with Miss Yaoyorozu today?" Iida had relaxed a fair bit too. He wasn't as intense when outside of the classroom. He did get a bit frustrated earlier today when the class picked Izuku and Yaomomo as class representatives and vice representatives respectively.

"I felt like eating here today." Jirou not so subtly looked in Izuku's direction as she said that. Iida had a puzzled expression on his face after that vague answer. He didn't seem to pick up on anything.

They ate for a little while until the sound of a group of students huddling somewhere started to get louder.

"Huh? Why are they ..." Izuku was the first to react to the huddle.

A blaring alarm started sounding on the speakers. A bunch of people on the tables around them started to stand up from their seats in a panic. Even the older students looked concerned as the alarm raged on. A third year student walked into the lunch area.

"There's an intruder on campus!"

The entirety of the lunch area started rushing to the exit. The four of them followed close behind as even more students appeared behind them all. It was a mess where students from all classes pushed and shoved each other, everyone trying to evacuate towards a safer place. The crowd started drowning into itself, squishing and burying people everywhere. They'd all gone in together yet now were forcibly separated within this chaos.

"Midoriya!" Iida shouted at the boy being tirelessly shoved. He himself was squished against a window.

Jirou, who was considerably smaller than most people, was starting to be easily overwhelmed by every person who pushed through the mass of bodies. She felt vulnerable and started losing strength in her legs the more intense the shoving got. These were U.A. students? Easily panicked and careless people? People who would leave others to their pain for their own benefit? Her legs had finally reached their limit. Just before giving up and tiredly letting go, she mustered up enough to say.

"Help….." Jirou started to be lifted off the ground as more people squished together.

A soft warm hand rested on her back. It pulled her close and rested her head against a strong, balmy chest. Whoever this was made sure to keep her close. Her cheeks reddened at the thought and she stopped resisting against the crowd. Jirou looked upwards at the person, hoping to see their face.

"Stay close." Izuku had pulled close enough that if he moved slightly forwards, their noses would touch. His eyes were determined and understanding, looking into her own with an unbridled calmness. He appeared when she needed him, and saved her for the first time.

It took Jirou's breath away, the sight of such a human action and the face accompanying it. For a second there the crowd had disappeared and it was just the two of them, alone in the world. He was everything and nothing at the same time. She wanted this moment to last forever.

"Everyone! It'll be alright!" Iiida had appeared atop the door to the lunch area. His legs were wobbling and he seemed strained. "Relax and pass the doors in an orderly manner! We are U.A. students!" It took a few seconds but the squirming crowd eventually came to a stop. Their rush and carelessness from earlier had entirely disappeared.

Jirou was still held in Izuku's arms, even after the shoving had stopped completely. She was unable to move and her face was in constant admiration. What was up with her, to be able to overcome her nervousness and now this?

Izuku let her go slowly, making sure she was able to stand on her feet. She stumbled initially but then easily stood on her own two legs. Izuku turned to Iida who was still atop the door frame to the lunch area. His eyes almost sparkled at the sight.

"Amazing." he muttered before smiling in Iida's direction.

Jirou simply stared at him in silence as he admired their friend's actions. Even after Izuku walked away, she stared dumbfounded at his back, staying still on the spot where everything happened. No one was left inside the cafeteria, but she still stood motionless. The bell was about to ring, but she was still petrified in place.

Her face then became a flustered red mess, remembering how it felt to be so close to him. She tapped her feet together and twirled her ear jacks. Her heart beating and her stomach fluttering, her mind replaying the event many times over.

To be continued…..

A/N

Hey readers, how's life?

At first I didn't like where this chapter was going but I think the transitions between scenes and the way I rerouted some aspects of the story ended up pretty well.

I'm trying to maneuver around the major plot points without changing them too much, doing so would take away the story's consistency. Also, I have to be really careful about how I'm introducing these characters which are not mine. Their personality should be apparent through their first appearance and not veer from what they are actually like.

I'm also sorry if the chapters get more daunting to read as more of them come out, I estimate this one will be around four thousand words so yeah. I fully understand if you drop/don't initially read this work because of that fact. That said, I give you my word that this is worth reading. I normally don't endorse anything I make but this series is literally just a passion project which is taking great shape the more I write, trust me.

Next chapter will cover the entirety of the USJ incident, I'll try to keep it below 5k words lmao.

That's all I have to say for this chapter. If any character feels misrepresented or you have any general criticism then please do say so.

Have a good rest of your day.

The Grand Ballad.

P.S. The end goal is Izu/Jirou and just Izu/Jirou, zero polygamy (though there may be cheating from other character relationships). It doesn't matter what other ships may happen, this is where I intend to arrive.