Izuku just wants to get to Yukimura's level of control, to be honest. With a quirk like that, who would he be right now?
Notes:
So the first few arcs apparently come really fast in real time despite being split through so many episodes. Who knew?
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
"This kind of attitude is why you got second place, Bakugo."
Midoriya Izuku turns away from where he's staring at Kacchan, his growing embarrassment settling some.
" Shut your goddamn mouth, Raccoon Eyes!" Kacchan, sometimes better known as Bakugo Katsuki, shouts at Yukimura Kenzo.
"As much as I take joy from watching you insult others, I think it might be best we not antagonize the rest of the school," Yukimura says calmly, smiling.
As Bakugo goes to shout more at her she turns and faces the students staring at them, and bows apologetically, causing a few surprised noises.
"I apologize for my classmate, he has respect issues. I look forward to the challenge each of you will bring against us during the Sports Festival." She straightens again.
"So manly," Kirishima Eijiro says quietly to the left of Izuku, and he has to agree. That was very quick thinking of Yukimura's part.
"Well at least one of you hero course guys has manners," A purple haired, exhausted looking boy says as he comes into view.
"Most of us, with a few exceptions. I'm getting lunch now," Yukimura states, walking past the boy and waving for Hagakure Toru to follow.
Of course it's then that Class 1-B starts ripping into them.
Izuku pants and lets the cheering crowd rush over him. He's just placed first in the obstacle course, and he feels his eyes water.
"Nice job," Is murmured beside him, a hand gently patting his right arm as the voice comes to stand beside him.
Izuku turns, it's Yukimura. She'd been right behind him as he made the last dead sprint to the finish line. She looks a bit winded, but her face is ever calm tiredness. She's just placed second.
"Ah, thank you, Yukimura!" Izuku says quickly, embarrassed at being acknowledged by the year's number one. He can still hear her short speech of encouragement ringing in his ears from what could only have been fifteen minutes ago.
"Kenzo, Ken is you prefer," Yukimura, Kenzo corrects. Izuku idly wonders how her parents decided on that name.
"Call me Izuku or Deku then, Kenzo," Izuku says. She simply nods and walks off. He tries to subtly wipe his eyes as President Mic-sensei's voice washes over the stadium.
"And here are our top five competitors! Midoriya Izuku of 1-A in first, Yukimura Kenzo of 1-A in second, Todoroki Shoto of 1-A in third, Bakugo Katsuki of 1-A in fourth, and last but certainly not least, Shiozaki Ibara of class 1-B in fifth!" Mic declares you the cheering audience, and they're each being given close ups by the cameras.
Everyone but him and Kacchan look calm in the cameras, and Izuku knows that look on Kacchan's face. He pities whoever is at the other end of his disgruntlement in the next round, and hopes it won't be him.
Yu- Kenzo still has sheets of robot metal attached to her upper legs and arms, looking ever the picture of a future prohero. He wonders how much effort it takes to keep the metal sticking to her? He knows her quirk has to do with magnetism but other what glimpses he got during the last round and their first exam, he doesn't have much.
Maybe her powers involve creating a magnetic field of varying strength? But the way she handles metal gives a picture of moving the metal itself, not creating a magnetic field. That'd surely be less precise. She did, however, use the force of pushing Iida's legs away to propel herself forward, and did it again earlier to lunge over the no pointers.
"Deku? Midnight is about to start talking, you're kind of creeping me out," Uraraka says next to him, and Izuku jolts out of his slouch.
"Sorry!" He apologizes quickly, and Uraraka just waves him off with a sweaty smile.
"It's whatever, now let's go see what's up next!" She pumps her arms in the air and hurries forward to stand in front of Japan's Sexiest Hero. Izuku follows.
The moment his points are announced Izuku tries not to faint.
"So we meet again, Kaminari," Kenzo remarks with a smile, and Izuku remembers that the two of them had faced each other in their first Hero course exam.
"And this time I'll get you good, Yukimura! Two seconds?" Kaminari asks her tauntingly, but in a friendly way.
"Three, I think," Kenzo says with a grin.
"Is she allowed to have that metal?" President Mic asks Aizawa-sensei.
"Spoils of battle, Mic-sensei," Yukimura replies.
"I'll allow it! Now, begin!" Midnight declares, sending her whip down.
"Two hundred thousand volts!" Kaminari Denki shouts, and in the same second Yukimura goes shooting up into the sky, the metal once on her smashing into the concrete below.
"Yukimura Kenzo, quirk, minor Metal manipulation- Yukimura you have to update that!" President Mic says in an almost annoyed manner.
"Using magnetism and metal manipulation both, Yukimura can send herself propelling in the opposite direction of metal, towards it, and do many other metal things!"
"That's the lamest description I've ever seen, Eraserhead," Mic says to their home room teacher, obviously chastising him for his student's lacking quirk description.
Kaminari is obviously already entering idiot mode but panic is showing clearly on his face as Kenzo heads down towards him like a meteor. One of her metal plates pushes him out of bounds before he can react, and the metal sheet she'd sent away from the electricity helps her hit the ground without breaking any bones.
Amazing!
"Kaminari Denki is out of bounds! Yukimura Kenzo wins!"
The crowd cheers and Izuku cheers with them, watching Kenzo say something to Kaminari in idiot mode, a small grin on her lips that makes Izuku blink in surprise.
"Iida Tenya v. Yukimura Kenzo!" President Mic shouts around them all.
After the last battle's immense damage it's taken a moment to get cleaned up by Cementos, but it's happening now. Aizawa Shota watches his students carefully.
Yukimura is still ever in a mask of calm, relaxed looking even as she steps up onto the stage. Iida in contrast is grim determination.
The odds are clearly not on his favor. It's a bad match up, a girl who controls metal and a boy with engines in his legs.
"I must try to beat you, Yukimura! I have a duty to my family to win!" Tenya declares.
Yukimura nods in understanding.
"I understand how you feel. I've got a sperm donor to piss off, can't really do that if I don't get as close to the top as I can, Iida." There's some confusion in the crowd at this. Unlike the last match this conversation can be heard, what with the lack of destruction.
Well, Shota supposes that's one way to deal with childhood trauma.
"Ready, set, begin!" Midnight shouts, and both opponents move.
Iida has clearly just used his previous super speed move in an attempt to get Yukimura out of bounds before she can do anything, but the metal user already sent up her metal plates on reflex, forcing Iida to bounce off of them and skid back to his own side.
"As you can see, Yukimura had already prepared for such an attack! What will Iida do now?" Mic asks rhetorically.
Iida goes flying out of the ring, though he lands semi-safely in the grass with a groan.
"Iida Tenya has been sent out of bounds! Winner, Yukimura Kenzo!" Midnight declares.
"A bad match up, definitely," Shota decides to comment, if only because he was told he needed to say something each match.
At least Yukimura doesn't destroy whole rings like Midoriya.
Shota sighs deeply, and the entire stadium hears it.
Yukimura is up in the air, and Todoroki is dodging flying prices of metal trying to pin him down or send him out of the arena. Yukimura, because she apparently needed more metal, had taken parts of the railing from the stadium. Not as easy a fix as the concrete.
"Yukimura flies into the air once again, and- OH! That's a close one Todoroki! Todoroki misses a piece of railing by mere centimeters and is still pursued by another! This is truly an epic battle of equals!" Mic is hyping up the fighting and Shota takes a sip of his coffee. Hot this time, he's already gone through three bottles of the iced kind.
"One of them will tire out first, and then it won't be so equal," Shota says between one of Mic's pauses.
"All too right, Eraserhead! Yukimura misses an ice pillar by a few meters and- oh wow!"
Todoroki was smacked into by one of Yukimura's original sheets of metal, and it wraps around his legs before he's splintered it in ice and sending it outward with the force of the action.
It's too late though, with one bad move he's being wrapped in railing and hits the grass, groaning lowly.
Yukimura hits the ground in a roll, parts of her clothes frosted over or ripped, and she's panting, but she's beat the child of the number two Hero.
"Todoroki Shoto is out of bounds! Yukimura Kenzo wins!"
She had the advantage of far more metal than he could throw ice. Next time Todoroki will likely adjust.
Shota needs to work on Yukimura's speed though, some of that ice could've been easily avoided.
A seething, muzzled Bakugo Katsuki stands at first place, angry at not getting to beat 'icy hot' and the 'stupid look on raccoon eyes' face'.
Yukimura Kenzo stands singed and exhausted looking at second place, but the second part isn't new so those who know her aren't awfully concerned. She's saying something to Bakugo, smiling and he's shouting some more under the muzzle.
Todoroki Shoto stands defiantly and proudly at third, staring into the distance with something burning in his eyes. He says something to Yukimura and she replies, turning from where Bakugo is about to lunge at her.
Tokoyami Fumikage stands looking blankly into the void. He's in fourth place, far above the many other students who fought to even try to be in his place at least . He's proud, yes, but he knows he won't be the star of this exam.
His powers are made for smaller scale fights than what he faced against these heavy hitters. Dark shadow could be such a thing, but only at night and if he could learn to temper his bloodlust.
At the very least he will have many agencies willing to have him. Those like Midoriya, for example, won't have even that. Then again, Fumikage didn't break both his arms in one fight. Another small mercy.
"You're wearing a muzzle on live television, Bakugo," Yukimura decides to remind the blonde, and he seethes.
A muffled " I'll kill you! " follows the reminder, distinct enough that anyone in 1-A would recognize the phrase.
"Yukimura, May I politely ask you not to antagonize him further? He might… burst," Fumikage asks the girl.
She turns to him and smiles, but nods.
"You're right, he just makes it too easy."
" I'll show you easy! " Is probably what Bakugo is trying to say under his muzzle, but again they're left to wonder. The press are coming to ask them a hundred questions now, and Fumikage prepares to be asked and prodded about his quirk. Or, better yet, watch the journalists attempt to interview Bakugo.
"Yukimura-san! Could you tell us how it feels to place second in such a prestigious competition?" A female reporter asks, and Yukimura is right next to Fumikage so he can easily listen in.
"Good. I'll have to work harder to find a way to subdue Bakugo next year, but that's a lot of time to plan between now and then," The brown haired girl states, hands in her pants pockets.
"And how does it make you feel to have Bakugo Katsuki place in front of you, after maintaining your year's top spot? It must smart, and from what we could see previously you don't seem to like the young man," The journalist continues on, prodding for gossip.
"Eh, I still beat him in academia so it's fine. I certainly don't dislike him though, he's just lots of fun to mess with."
"Tokoyami-san, did you expect to come so close to the top when you went into this competition?" Fumikage quickly focuses away from Yukimura's interview and takes in the woman before him.
"I hoped, but to expect is to underestimate the strengths of your opponents. That could be life or death in a real life scenario."
It's just as amusing as he expects it to be when the muzzle is removed. He even gets to hear Yukimura laugh, a first since he's had her in his class.
Notes:
I'm very inexperienced at writing fight scenes even a year after consistently writing a fanfic for Dragon Age. I'll have to get good quick with a shonen anime.
Chapter question!
How do you feel about Kenzo's personality so far? Any strong thoughts or