My Hero Academia – Under Pressure – Season 3 – Episode 17 – Kuroda Fuji: Origin
"You might not think that teens really know what love is. But we do."
At the Provisional Licensing Exam, Kuroda Fuji found herself looking at someone she hadn't seen in years. His name was Sekuro, a student from another school, and his glare at Kuroda was filled with nothing short of contempt.
"Adults will call it 'infatuation' or 'puppy love' because we 'don't know what real love is like.' How would they know? Sure, we all have crushes, and sometimes we say things like 'we'll be together forever' without fully knowing what that means. But that doesn't mean the feelings weren't real. That the love wasn't there."
Kuroda's arms shook slightly with anger as she looked at him. He had changed in certain ways since their last meeting. His dark hair was slicked in a way that made parts of become pointed. Furthermore, he wore his Pro-Hero attire, which was a one-piece suit of sorts with protection on everything but his arms. His arms were completely bear, not even sleeves on them.
His name was Sekuro…
"And that doesn't mean that when the relationship ended…"
…and he was Kuroda's ex.
"…that it didn't hurt."
"Long time, Sekuro," Kuroda said, voice full of conflicting emotions.
"Yeah, about three years, right?" he responded, voice flat and uncaring.
"You would know better than me."
"Ha, still bitter, huh?"
"Given how things ended, how could I not be?"
The two stared the other down. All around them, the sounds of the exam filled the air. Everyone was fighting tooth and nail to pass the test. But for these two, there was something more important going on. This was something that needed to be settled here and now, or neither side would know peace.
Sekuro made the first move. He stepped off of the rock he was on, and onto the ground, his expression and demeanor didn't change, though.
He was still angry, and it was all aimed at Kuroda, "So are we going to fight? Or just talk all day?"
Kuroda grunted in reply and pulled out her CIW and put it into a sword before shifting it to diamonds. She pointed it right at him, "I'm more than fine beating the answers out of you."
"You can certainly try. But this isn't grade school, you can't impress your way out of this."
"I know this isn't grade school, Sekuro. You cared about me back then…"
Kuroda's mind flashed back to years before, when she was younger, more freespirited, and at the time, very much in love.
After being dropped off by her parents, Kuroda happily went to the front doors of the school she attended. She didn't make it far before she was forced to stop.
"Kuroda!" called out a voice.
She turned to see a young boy approaching her. It was Sekuro. Unlike in his "modern form," his hair wasn't slicked, but a very standard shape for a young man from Japan. He also had a smile on his face filled with joy that was aimed at Kuroda.
The two immediately held hands, which made Kuroda very happy, "Sekuro! I'm always glad when you meet me like this. Makes me feel special."
"You are special, especially to me. That's why you're my girlfriend. Now, shall we go in?"
"Of course!"
The two happily went inside and started their school day together. Unlike their futures at various hero academies, their regimen of classes was much more basic. They learned the standard things a kid would learn at school.
Not that this bothered them. They knew that if they were to be Pro-Heroes, their time would come. That didn't mean they weren't eager, as they absolutely were.
At one point in a lesson, Kuroda couldn't help but daydream, and as she looked around the class, she saw firsthand some of the Quirks her classmates had. Given their age, they weren't allowed to use their Quirks in any grand ways, but some of them were on fully display so it was hard not to notice.
Even back then, Kuroda was kind to everyone who deserved it, and she smiled as she saw the various Quirks around her.
A clearing of a throat got her attention, and the teacher gave a look to Kuroda to show she got caught daydreaming. She quickly apologized and the class resumed.
After a few hours, the kids were let outside for some recess. Kuroda and Sekuro happily went out together. But unlike before, they were soon surrounded by other kids.
"Hey Sekuro, can you show us your Quirk again?" asked one child.
"Yeah, did you learn anything new to do with it?" wondered another.
"Come on, guys!" said Sekuro slightly overwhelmed by their attention. "I just showed you yesterday, and the day before that…"
"…and the day before that…" teased Kuroda with a nudge to her boyfriend.
"Come on, Kuroda, you shouldn't egg them on!"
"Oh, go on! You know they love it, and so do you!"
The two shared a look, and then a smile and he relented.
"Alright, alright…" he said with a shrug and then a loose shake of his body to get ready.
Sekuro then backed off everyone so he could have some room to maneuver. When he was set, he held out his arms in front of him and started to focus.
The others, including Kuroda, watched with anticipation as his Quirk started to activate. His arms began to glow. Streaks of green and yellow started to flow throughout his arms until they were bathed in a unique light.
But that wasn't what had them in awe. What had the group mystified was that Sekuro was able to warp the energy into a shape. In this case, the shape of a pair of swords. His arms had become a kind of living weapon, and as he showed the rest of the group this they exploded in applause.
Kuroda was one of the loudest among them. The love and pride were evident in her eyes. He was one of the coolest kids in the class, and he was her boyfriend…for a time…
Back in the present, the older versions of Sekuro and Kuroda glared down one another. Much like in the past, Sekuro extended his arms to summon his Quirk. This time though, he was able to do it with ease, and unlike before, he was able to move the energy out of his arms and form a weapon through the energy alone.
He held a long scythe with both hands, and Kuroda's eyes narrowed, "You learned some new tricks."
"I had to, as I'm sure you did," he bit back menacingly. "I'll show you exactly how much I'm grown right now!"
With a roar he lunged at Kuroda and swung his scythe. She was able to block it with her diamond covered sword, then pushed him back.
But Sekuro didn't hesitate to go right back to the attack. He even broke apart his scythe into two smaller ones so he could attack his ex from multiple directions.
Kuroda got a small opening and shifted her CIW to a bostaff before turning it back into diamond so she could block his attacks again. Her only small advantage in the fight was that she knew how devastating his Quirk could be.
That was proven when she parried one of his strikes and his scythe hit a nearby rock. The energy weapon sliced right through it like it was nothing. That's why she had to use diamond to block it, it was the only way to stop the power of his Quirk as diamond is incredibly resilient.
Even with her defense, there was a drive to Sekuro's attacks that put Kuroda on edge. She did her best to attack, but his ferocity caught her off guard. At first, it seemed like Sekuro merely hated her, much like she had hatred for him. But the more he attacked, the more she realized that this was something more.
It was rage. A rage that she had somehow caused.
Kuroda quickly focused her attention on the fight at hand and did her best to block and counterattack when possible. She figured it was the best way to get an upperhand long term as his rage would cause him to tire eventually.
But inside her mind, she couldn't help but ask, "what made him this way?"
The fight dragged on, and as it did, and his rage intensified, her personal frustration grew. To the point that when she saw an opening, Kuroda jammed her bostaff into the ground, sprung herself forward and kicked him in the chest.
Sekuro flew back a few feet and hit some rocks. But it only stunned him briefly.
Kuroda took that brief moment to ask the question she needed to, "Enough! If either of us has reason to be mad it's me! You disappeared! You left me without a single word! So why are you so full of rage? What did I do to you to cause that?"
At first, Sekuro didn't answer. Then, he started to laugh. The laugh was mirthless, as though she said a joke and only he got the punchline.
"What did you do?" he asked as he laughed. "Are you serious? You, who was always smart, got great grades, was so great at reading people…and you don't know why I'm mad? You don't know why I left? Are you really that blind?"
"I guess I am! Because all I remember was loving you, wanting to go to UA with you and maybe even being Pro-Heroes together. What changed?"
"You did!"
"…I did? How? How did I change anything?"
"Your Quirk!" he roared back.
"…my Quirk?" she replied softly.
In the past, not long after the demonstration Sekuro had, a similar phrase came from Kuroda's lips as she walked alongside her boyfriend, "My Quirk?"
"Yeah, what do you think your Quirk will be like when it comes?" Sekuro wondered happily.
"Oh, I don't know. Many Quirks are based on what the parents have, right? Like how your dad can manipulate energy like you!"
"Hehe, it's a cool Quirk to inherit. But sometimes it can be a mix of things or something fresh!"
"That's true. My mom is a kind of empath, which is why she's a therapist. I can never hide anything from her. My dad can move small pieces of metal, which makes him great in the construction industry."
"So based on that you're likely to be able to read the emotions of metal objects! I see a bright future for you…"
The two looked at each other and then burst out into laughter. The irony was that with Quirks, almost anything was possible, so that might not have been far from the truth in the right circumstances.
"Ha ha, Sekuro," Kuroda said with a playful shove to her boyfriend. "In truth, all I want is a Quirk that is at least somewhat useful, that way we can maybe be Pro-Heroes together. Maybe even…get into UA as a duo."
Sekuro beamed at the suggestion, "That'd be awesome! We could help each other in classes, help each other get stronger, and then graduate and start our own agency!"
"Already planning out our whole future, dear boyfriend?"
"I already have the perfect girlfriend, so why not?"
Kuroda blushed intensely and latched onto her young partner's arm. Never closer, the two proceeded throughout the day with big dreams on their minds.
Weeks soon passed. Kuroda and Sekuro continued their happy young lives together, and nothing had changed with their goals of staying together.
At their school, a special lesson was being done. It was the first time they had done chemistry, and the teacher was doing various experiments in front of them to show them the ways that chemicals and substances could interact with one another.
They then explained some of the differences that similar materials had to one another.
"For example," started the teacher. "One of the most valuable elements in the world is gold. Even in our hero age, we still need things like gold to sustain our economy. But be careful! There's a substance out there known as Pyrite, aka Fool's Gold. It has a slightly different composition to regular gold, and thus makes it worthless monetarily."
The teacher drew out the composition for Pyrite, and Kuroda watched intently as they did. Not because she was fully fascinated by the lesson, but because it was intriguing to her that a small change in a material could make a big difference.
"Makes me glad I didn't find that and say it was gold. I hate looking foolish," she said to herself.
The lesson went on, and eventually Kuroda said goodbye to Sekuro and her other friends and went home.
Later that day, as she was taking care of the family dog, her father was watching television.
"Ha ha, you can do it! Dig it all up," he said out loud as he watched.
Kuroda just shook her head, but she couldn't help but smile because she knew he enjoyed watching shows after a hard day's work.
After she finished grooming the dog, she went over to a box and grabbed a long dog bone for her pet to eat. When she did, her dad laughed out loud.
"Those guys are awesome, and look at that haul! It's solid gold!"
"Careful, dad," teased Kuroda, "don't praise them too early, it might be Pyrite."
"Real funny, Kuroda. Do you learn about Pyrite in school today?"
"Yeah, we learned about its composition, among other things and…"
She explained the lesson to her dad, and when she did she started to think about gold, but then her mind wandered. The chart for Pyrite's makeup flashed in her mind. Kuroda felt an odd sensation in her hand, but didn't think much of it.
But when she turned to the dog bone she held and noticed it looked much different than before, she dropped it and gave out a little scream.
That got her father's attention, who got up out of his chair to see what happened, "Kuroda, what's wrong?"
Kuroda looked at the dog bone on the ground and fumbled to get out the words, "I…I don't know. I was getting a dog bone and…then I was talking to you about Gold and Pyrite and then…"
She pointed to the dog bone, and her father picked it up. At first, he didn't understand what was going on, and so he looked at the now transformed bone in front of him. But then he realized something.
"Kuroda, sweetie, I think this bone…is made of Pyrite."
"But that's impossible!"
"Not if your Quirk made it that way."
The realization stunned her into silence. Did she really just unlock her Quirk?
"My…my Quirk?"
Her father came over and carefully grabbed her shoulders to get her attention, "Ok, here's what we're going to do. I'm going to get you another object. And I want you to do what you were doing before when the bone changed, ok?"
Kuroda didn't speak, but simply nodded. Her father grabbed a nearby pad of paper and handed it to his daughter. She carefully took it, and tried to make it change.
It didn't work. So she took a deep breath and went over what happened before with the bone. She remembered that she thought about the chart in class and focused on that. When she did, the pad started to change until it was fully Pyrite like the bone.
"My word, Kuroda," said her father in awe.
At first, Kuroda didn't know how to react. She knew her Quirk would come eventually, but at a random time like this was unexpected. Her joy soon rose within her, but then it faded away at the realization before her.
Her dad picked up on this, "What's wrong?"
"I can turn things into Pyrite?" she wondered sadly. "That's it?"
"Ha, ha, ha. Oh, Kuroda, I highly doubt it's that random."
"Why do you say that?"
"Well if it was that simple, you would've been turning things to Pyrite before. You said yourself you learned about Pyrite today, and you had to think about something to make it transform, right?"
"Yeah, I had to think of the formula for it."
"Ok, let's try something else then…"
Her father pulled out his phone and typed something up quickly. He then held out a picture for Kuroda to view, "This is the formula for Lead. Get it in your head, and try to turn the notepad into that."
Curious to see if her father was right, Kuroda studied the formula for a few seconds, and then focused on the image in her mind as she looked at the pad of paper again.
Sure enough, the pad changed yet again, but this time to lead. She couldn't believe it, "I can change items into other materials."
"That's incredible, sweetie! That can be an extremely powerful Quirk if you use it right. But also rather risky if you're not careful."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, I hate to be a dad in this moment, but you need to be mindful of the stuff you transform into. Also, you need to not abuse your power. Such as turning things into actual gold instead of fool's gold."
Kuroda saw the wisdom in that and nodded, "Ah, I can see people trying to get me to do that."
"Exactly," he replied with a smile. "So don't tell people exactly how your Quirk works. That way they can't take advantage of it, or you."
"Ok, dad, but I can still learn other non-valuable materials to transform things into, right?"
"Of course! We'll start slow tomorrow. Take the rest of the night to enjoy this revelation. Plus, we need to tell your mother when she gets home. But once tomorrow comes? We'll start seeing how far we can take your Quirk!"
Kuroda beamed at the thought of this. She had been very patient in regard to waiting for her Quirk to show up, and now it was here, and it was better than she could've hoped for.
Outside of her joy, the only thing that she could think of was showing Sekuro her Quirk the next day.
The next morning couldn't come fast enough for Kuroda. Once she arrived at school, she waited to see Sekuro. A few minutes before classes started, his parents dropped him off.
He saw her and gave a tired smile and wave, "Hey Kuroda, sorry I'm late, my parents had…quite the morning. They accidentally woke me up at like 5AM, and man I'm tired."
"I'm so sorry!" she said, focusing solely on him and his needs, "Is everything ok?"
"I don't fully understand it, something about my dad's job, but it was just a tense few hours. I'll be fine. What about you?"
Before she could say anything, a bell went off, signaling that class was about to start.
"Darn it, I'll have to tell you at recess. But I've got something big to tell you!"
That put a little pep in Sekuro, "Oh yeah? I can't wait. But we better get to class for now."
Kuroda, "Right! Don't want the teachers mad at us."
The two held hands and raced into the school so they could get to class.
As she waited for time to pass, Kuroda got more and more eager. She really wanted to show off her Quirk, but knew it wasn't the best time with everyone around them.
So she waited as best she could, and almost jumped out of her chair when the bell rang for recess. Kuroda rushed to Sekuro and all but dragged him outside. He was a bit perplexed, but he could tell this meant a lot to Kuroda, so he couldn't help but smile despite the arm-dragging.
Once they were outside, Kuroda put them on a bench away from everyone else so they could talk 1-on-1.
"Well?" Sekuro started, "What is it? What's so big you needed to drag me out to recess and—"
"My Quirk emerged yesterday!" overrode Kuroda, unable to contain her happiness any longer.
"Your…you got your Quirk? Really? What, what is it? What can you do?"
Prepared for this, Kuroda pulled out a pencil she took from her desk and held it up. She took a breath and focused on the formula for Pyrite. Slowly, the pencil shifted into the material.
"What…?"
"Wait, hold on…"
She steady herself again, and then shifted the now Pyrite pencil into Lead, then gave it to Sekuro to observe.
He took it and then tried to bend and snap it like a regular pencil, but it was solid led and wouldn't bend or break. Sekuro then carefully tasted it with the tip of his tongue and immediately spat out the material.
"That's lead," he stated, still gaping at the pencil, "and was that…pyrite before?"
"Yep!" replied Kuroda, back to her beaming state.
"You can…change an objects composition into other materials…"
"Yeah, isn't that…Sekuro…?"
Kuroda paused, as she saw an odd look on Sekuro's face. She couldn't quite describe it, and yet he stared at the pencil in a way that she had never seen him do before.
The look seemed to migrate into his voice, "This…this is…this is GREAT!"
He quickly lunged out and hugged Kuroda, who was taken aback at first but then happily hugged him back, "I know, right?"
"I'm sorry for that, I was just stunned. We were just talking about what your Quirk could be, and this is so far beyond anything we could've imagined! I wonder how far you can push this."
"My dad and mom agreed to start training me a bit today after school. Just going through the basics, seeing what I can do and not do."
"That's very smart. Once my Quirk emerged my parents did the same thing. So do you think it's physical touch that activates it or mental?"
The question took Kuroda aback. She wanted nothing more than to tell Sekuro the truth, but the words of her father rang out. She refused to lie, but she had to be discreet at the very least.
She sputtered to get out an answer, "At first, I thought it was just touch, but I'm pretty sure it's some mental projections of materials and such. I'm still working it out."
Sekuro was eyeing the pencil again and thus didn't see her discomfort, "Yeah, I get that too. I really have to focus to get the energy through my arms and shape them the way I want. No matter, you'll figure it out. You're super smart, it's one of the reasons I like you."
"One of the reasons…?"
"Oh yeah, you're worth your weight in gold…or possibly lead."
The two laughed at the joke and then went back to talking. For Kuroda, this went better than she could've hoped, and everything seemed to be perfect.
And for a time, it was.
The rest of the school day passed by in a blur, and soon, Kuroda was back home where her mother and father were waiting for her.
"Ready to start Quirk training?" her father asked happily.
"Can't wait!" she replied just as happily.
Her mother laughed at the eagerness and then motioned to the nearby table where plenty of items were on display, "Ok, I setup something simple for us to try. We're going to test your Quirk in various ways, so let's start with…"
And so the training began. They started slowly, with Kuroda trying to change things as she had done already. Her parents made notes on how fast the changes occurred, and whether the item was indeed fully solid or just partially.
After getting this locked down, they started to test the other materials Kuroda could change things into. What shocked her parents the most was that there seemed to be no limit. As long as she could mentally think of the chemical composition of each material, her body could transform it.
"I've heard of people shifting into various animals," said her mother in awe of her daughter's Quirk, "and sometimes changing their density or elasticity, but this something else entirely."
"I don't think I've heard of anyone with this kind of a Quirk. Or at least, not on this scale," admitted her father with equal disbelief.
"Does that mean…I'm unique?" wondered Kuroda.
"I could've told you that without the Quirk reveal."
"Ha, ha dad. I'm being serious here!"
"So am I."
Her mother scoffed and put a hand on his shoulder to get him to stop, "Honey, stop. To answer your question, Kuroda, yes, you do seem to have a very unique Quirk. Does that make you uneasy?"
Kuroda shook her head, "Oh, no! Nothing like that. I was just expecting something like your Quirks. But now I can truly try and be my own kind of Pro-Hero!"
"A worthy goal, and we'll help you every step of the way."
"Cool! With this Quirk, I can totally get into UA, and be with Sekuro still."
The mother and father nudged each other in a very parenting way. Her father failed to contain a chuckle, "Oh…so this is about that boy…?"
"Dad, don't start," chastised Kuroda with a look.
Her parents laughed in spite of this and Kuroda went back to altering things with her Quirk. Her dream future was becoming a reality, and she couldn't wait to see what would happen next.
The next day, Kuroda and Sekuro again talked about her Quirk, with her boyfriend trying to comprehend it all, "Wow, you can change almost anything into…well…almost anything."
Kuroda shrugged, "Apparently."
"Uh, Kuroda? I do want to ask one thing, and please don't freak out."
"Okay, what's wrong?"
"Does your Quirk…work on…you know…stuff that's…alive?"
Kuroda exhaled happily at the question, as the feared something worse, "No, it doesn't. My parents wondered that too. They brought in a caterpillar and had me try to change it, it didn't work."
"Yeah, I'm relieved."
"Were you worried and me changing you into something when we held hands?"
Sekuro shifted awkwardly at this, "Uh…yeah, actually, I was. Weirder Quirks exist!"
Kuroda playfully pushed him, "Well I'm glad to have fixed that fear! Man, if you didn't start holding my hand I would've been wondering what I did wrong."
"In my defense, if you hadn't tested that, I would've asked we do it now just in case. The last thing I need is my girlfriend transforming me into a piece of Lead!"
"Kuroda can do what now?" came a voice.
The two turned to see a pair of young girls nearby. Sekuro's voice had gotten louder with that last joke and their interest was peaked.
"Oh, hey girls!" said Kuroda nicely.
"Hey yourself," replied one just as nicely.
"Did we hear right, Kuroda?" asked the other. "Your Quirk came through, and you can transform things?"
Kuroda not-so-playfully pushed Sekuro this time, "So much for keeping this a secret for a little while."
Sekuro's face morphed a bit to show his screwup was known to him, "Yeah, my bad."
"Could you show us it?" said the girls together in unision.
Kuroda looked at Sekuro, who gave her a shrug and a slight nod to show he was fine with it. She returned the nod and picked up a nearby rock and turned it into Lead. Their eyes bulged at this as they hadn't seen something like that before.
Excited, they shouted at the other kids to come around, and sudden, Kuroda had a crowd around her asking to show off her Quirk.
Slightly overwhelmed, but putting on a brave face for everyone, she entertained them as best she could. Sekuro stood just outside the crowd, accidentally shoved out of the way by those who wanted to see Kuroda in action.
A blank expression emerged on his face as he watched how enthralled they were with Kuroda's Quirk. A slight twitch of annoyance grew on it as the "spectacle" continued.
Time passed, and a familiar pattern emerged.
As both Sekuro and Kuroda grew their Quirks and abilities through them, their classmates were eager to see what they could achieve. But the more days that went by, the more that their class, among others, were more interested in Kuroda's Quirk than Sekuro's.
At first, he tried to play it off as a "fad," but the more they did it, the more his personality turned. Kuroda didn't notice. as she was still in love with him. But she could tell slight changes in his demeanor. The way he smiled at her wasn't the same. He wouldn't always be there outside school to walk in together, even if she was pretty early.
Eventually, she racked up the courage to ask, "Are you ok, Sekuro?"
The question seemingly jarred him from his funk and a return to form came via a kind smile, "Yeah, Kuroda, I'm fine. Just had…a lot of things on my mind."
"You know I'm here to help if you need it, right?"
Just as soon as it came, that kind smile left at the suggestion of him needing her help, "Yeah, I know… Come on, let's go."
He rushed away from her, leaving her feeling more confused than ever, but she followed as she always did.
As time continued to pass in their lives, the divide between them grew, until one day, it all came to a head…in a way that no one could predict.
Kuroda got to school early and waited for her boyfriend, but he was nowhere to be found. Sad that he didn't wait again, she went inside to her classroom. But to her surprise, Sekuro wasn't there at all, his desk was empty. She looked at the clock and saw that class was about to start, which made her wonder what was wrong.
The bell rang and Kuroda quickly rushed to her desk.
Just as she got in, the teacher entered the room, and there was a peculiar look on her face, "Class, I have an announcement to make."
The room went quiet, as they could tell it likely wasn't good news.
"I received word from the principal's office today that our student and classmate Sekuro Kota will no longer be at our school."
Stunned silence hit the class, and Kuroda was in a state of shock.
"His family moved away due to a new job opportunity, and he'll be attending school at his new home. I sadly don't have a new address for him, so I'm afraid correspondence will be difficult. I'm sorry for you all to lose a friend like that, but sometimes…life happens. For now, let's get to our classwork, as that's something to focus on. To start…"
The lesson started, but to Kuroda, she couldn't hear a word. She just starred blankly at her desk, tears welling up in her eyes.
All around her, Kuroda's classmates couldn't help but look at her and wonder what had happened. It was clear she didn't know, but how could that be given they were so close?
The moment school ended, Kuroda rushed home and she went straight for the phone and dialed Sekuro's house. But the line was dead, and a message told her it was no longer connected.
She dropped the phone, and sunk to the floor. Her boyfriend was gone, and she had no idea why he left, and why he left without saying anything to her.
All she could do in that moment…was cry.
Back in the present, Kuroda dropped her Change-It Weapon on the ground as the realization finally hit her. She didn't consider it when she was young. But looking back, seeing all the memories once again, she knew. He left her…because of her Quirk.
"You're telling me…" she started, struggling to get the words out, "that you left me, abandoned me…left your whole life behind…because I had a powerful Quirk?"
Her now present-day ex couldn't help but laugh at the state she was in, "Is it really that hard to imagine? Think about our world, Kuroda! We live in a society…where a powerful or spectacular Quirk can get you everything! A top ranking, sponsorship deals, collabs with other Pro-Heroes that will lift you even higher! I had the best Quirk in our class! Everyone wanted to see it every day! Then you came in with your Quirk…and nothing was the same."
Kuroda just shook in place, she gasped for air as a wave of emotions hit her broadside. Sekuro shook his head and continued his rant.
"At first, I honestly didn't care. You had a unique Quirk, so what? I knew there would be Quirks better than mine eventually, that's just the world we live in! If I went to UA I knew I wouldn't be the best Quirk in town. But as you learned new elements to change things into, and the class kept adoring you over me, it just ate me up inside. And you reveled in the show you gave them every time!"
Kuroda's fist clenched at this line, she started to see the truth, and it made her furious.
"So when my father got a chance at a new job at another district, I jumped at the opportunity to get out of there. I went somewhere where I was beloved for my Quirk once again, and I pushed my abilities to the limit to show that I was better than you and your elemental shifting. I was at UA when you took your entrance exam, did you know that? I wanted to prove I could get into UA and not you. But guess what? I missed the cut…by one point! I took down all the 3-point machines I could find and I still lost! But you? I found out you got ranked right near the top! And then I learned, that your classmates who don't even have a Quirk half as powerful as mine got in easily! Do you realize how infuriating that was for me?"
She didn't answer, but merely picked up her weapon once again, then reached into her costume to grab something else.
"But now? Oh, it's too perfect. I'm one of the top students in my class, and now I can knock you out of this competition to ensure I get my Provisional License before you. It's all come full circle. I left you before, but this time, I'm going to leave you lying in the dirt."
"That's enough," Kuroda said simply.
Sekuro smirked, "Oh? Finally have something to say?"
She looked up at him, fire burning in her eyes, "I don't have enough time or energy to tell you all I want to say. But what I can say is that if you really felt that way all this time? Then you're the biggest jerk on this planet."
"Oh really?"
"Yeah, really, Sekuro! You really think I cared about what our class thought of my Quirk? The only person whose opinion mattered to me was you! It was always you! The moment I got my Quirk I wanted to show you. The moment you hugged me after I revealed it to you, I was over the moon. And when you left… When you left, I was broken, and I had forge myself into the person I am now so that I could overcome that pain and grief.""
"Well good—"
"SHUT UP!" she shouted at him, "You blame me for your insecurities? You blame me for how others looked at you? That's pettiness beyond what I've seen before. Oh, and as for the entrance exam? How much do you want to bet that you lost not because you took down all those 3-point robots, but you neglected to take out the other types that came across your path?"
Sekuro gritted his teeth at this, and Kuroda knew she was on the right track.
"That's what I thought. You were ALWAYS that way, Sekuro, don't you remember? I was the one that had to keep reminding you to look at all the options and not just the one you liked! I had to tell you to think outside the box to get solutions when the obvious way wasn't working. So if you want to blame someone for all your 'woes,' look at yourself."
As the two stared down one another, the continued fighting of the exam raged around them. The rest of Kuroda's group saw the two and approached to help, but with a look and motion, she waved them off.
One way or the other, she was going to settle this herself.
"You were always a little self-centered, Sekuro, but I loved you in spite of that. I'm glad I'm seeing you like this, with your rage on full display. Because now? I can move on knowing that I did nothing wrong, and you were never my future."
Sekuro balked at the statement, "And yet here I am."
"Yeah, here you are. You're my final test in this chapter of my Pro-Hero journey. And for you? I'm going to show you just how powerful I am."
Kuroda cupped an item in her non-weapon hand and put it on her chest. With a slight tap, it lit up, and energy poured out of it and into Kuroda. Sekuro didn't know what was happening, so he could only step back and watch in anticipation as Kuroda's outfit started to change.
It had been a basic fabric material before. But soon, it shifted into something very familiar: diamond. Yet instead of being rigid, it was flexible, as she immediately bent her limbs to test everything out.
"Hmm, not bad," she said out loud, impressed.
"What did you do?" Sekuro asked, confused.
"One of those classmates you blasted? The one with a Quirk 'not as powerful as yours'? She gave me this device. My dear little Iha. She can power up people's Quirks if she touches them. But another friend of mine, one who I KNOW will have my back no matter what, helped her channel that energy into these devices and she gave one to each member of Class 1-B."
She flexed her arm to highlight her new diamond outfit.
"I've been wanting to try out this technique for a while, but I didn't know if I had the power to do it. Thanks to her, I know I do. I warped my attire to be diamond on the outside, but rubber underneath. So it's hard above, and flexible below. And now, you can't harm me unless you try to kill me with those energy weapons of yours. And we both know you don't have the balls to do that."
Sekuro almost frothed at the mouth at this challenge, his eyes bulged in fury, "Even now, you're trying to outshine me with that stupid Quirk of yours!"
"My Quirk is not stupid, it's simply mine! I embrace what I can do, and love what others can do. Unlike you! I am proud, I am strong, and I don't regret who I am or what I am!"
She pointed her CIW right at Sekuro, "I am Kuroda Fuji! I'm going to be the Pro-Hero known as Change-It. And today, and every day that follows, I'M THE GIRL YOU CAN'T BREAK!"
With a roar, the two lunged at one another and clashed their weapons. For Kuroda, her uncertainty about why she was fighting Sekuro was gone. She knew exactly what this meant. It wasn't just to advance in the test, it was to get closure for all the pain she had gone through because of him.
Even with Kuroda's new outfit protecting her, Sekuro refused to yield. He repeatedly shifted his energy weapons into various things to try and get around or through her armor. But none of them worked. So he changed tactics. He formed a massive hammer and then tapped his temple to highlight her weakness.
Her outfit didn't cover her head. She knew that, but she didn't expect him to make a blunt weapon as he had never done that before.
New tactic at the ready, the two clashed over and over again, neither giving an inch to the other.
After one clash, Kuroda realized a trap she had fallen into on accident: she was playing things his way. She was solely attacking with her Change-It Weapon, changing it to suit her needs, and not using her Quirk to the max like she had trained.
He hated her Quirk, and even now, she was giving in to him because of it. But no more.
She kicked him back when an opening appeared then motioned for him to bring it. Sekuro let out a roar and lunged at her with an overhead attack, which was exactly as she wanted.
Kuroda dodged to the side, and right before he touched the ground, she shifted the battlefield around him to ice. The hammer shattered some of it when it struck, but Sekuro slipped on the rest and fell onto his back.
With the opportunity at hand to end it, Kuroda shifted her CIW one last time to a bo staff and then delivered her own overhead strike right onto his chest.
He gasped for air at the intensity of the strike and struggled to get up.
Kuroda just watched him for a moment. Even after all he said, she couldn't believe the person he secretly was. It hurt her to see him like this, as she knew he could be kind, could be loving, could be gentle. But this? This wasn't the Sekuro she knew.
"It's…not…fair…" rasped a voice.
She turned to see Sekuro trying to get up. The rage in his eyes was prevalent, and his body shook with that anger, "I know I'm better. I know my Quirk is more powerful. I—"
"You still don't get it, Sekuro," interjected Kuroda with a shake of the head, "it's not just about the power of a Quirk. It's about how you use it, and the person using it. You've gotten so blind with hate you can't even see simple truths. Usually, I'd try to help you, make you see the pain you've caused and try to get better. But after all you've done to me, and no doubt others? There's one simple truth you still need to learn."
He tried to speak, but she stopped him cold by whacking him full force in the head with her staff. Sekuro fell to the ground limp, and she saw his headband go dark, showing he was done.
She sheathed her weapon and walked away, "I don't ever want to see you again."
As she walked away, the other members of her group finished up their battles and joined her. Of them, Hana was the most concerned, "Kuroda? Are you okay?
Kuroda did her best to put on a brave smile, "I'll be fine. Just didn't expect my past to come haunt me."
"It sucks when that happens," noted Ueno with his head wobbling.
"Yeah, yeah it does. But we can't stop to talk about it. We need to keep going!"
Wasuke nodded wisely at this, "Indeed, while you were fighting him, we cleared out other students, but it's hard to tell how many are left!"
Confidence back, for the moment, Kuroda put on a wider smile to rally her troops, "Then what are we waiting for? We got an exam to clear! Nothing will stop us as long as we work together. Now let's go!"
The four ran toward another part of the battlefield, hopefully that they'd advance, and that no more dark surprises awaited them.
*credits*
