Fourteen
~James POV~
"Ooh rough match huh Villain-face?" Sero teased when Bakugou came back up. James snorted, turning his face away to laugh where no one could see it. Kana merely got up and sat on his other side to help him stay hidden.
"Awkward match ups aside, you do great at playing the bad guy Bakugou." Tsu chimed in.
"Shut up all of you."
"No really, nice job blowing up that frail little girl." Denki said.
"Denki if Uraraka heard you call her 'frail little girl' she'd body slam you." Kana voiced.
"Aw come on Kana!" Denki whined. James cleared his throat and got comfortable in his seat as the next match was proclaimed.
"You ready for this next round of fights?" Yuto asked when he suddenly appeared beside James. James didn't so much as twitch as he was used to Yuto appearing and disappearing into his shadows by now.
"Eh, we just fight against each other like we do during our sparring practices."
"You think that's okay to show? I mean we do get a bit 'feral' during training. Especially when Shina lets us go all out." Kana stated.
"I think," James sighed, "We'd better hold back a little bit. I know we were told to 'stay low on the radar' and while I really want to fight Bakugou and Todoroki, it's probably not going to happen."
"What do you mean? If you win against Yuto you'll have to fight me or Mina and if you win that you would fight… well Todoroki or Bakugou… maybe Midoriya?" Kana went quiet as she looked at the tournament brackets still showing across the way.
"He won't fight any of the 'big ones' unless he makes it to the finale." Yuto stated coming to the same conclusion that James had when he'd looked at the brackets earlier.
"It's not fun fighting either of them if they're already worn down. I know we've taken breaks between fights but, I doubt it would be much of a fight if we must fight, what two or three more rounds?"
"So, what do you plan to do?" Yuto asked.
"Eh, I still want to win but, if I use another Chaos Sphere I'm honestly afraid of the Bad Luck rebound. I'm going to have to tone it down."
"Can your Chaos Claws cause that rebound?" Yuto asked. James shrugged.
"I'm not sure. We couldn't fully test that remember?" Yuto hummed in acknowledgement.
"Oh look, it's Midoriya and Todoroki's turn!" Sero cheered. The rest of their class called out encouragement, but James stayed silent to watch their body languages. They seemed, tense. Normally this wasn't something James concerned himself with but even the air seemed charged. More than normal.
"Any bets on who's going to win this one?" Kana asked.
"My money is on Todoroki." James said.
"I want to say Midoriya to be fair but, I'm going Todoroki." Yuto admitted with a smile.
They watched the fight begin with Todoroki's ice being deflected by an air shot from Midoriya that cost him his finger. James mused that breaking his bones was a bit severe for a Quirk. He supposed Kana had a point when she'd said that Midoriya's Quirk was indeed too powerful for him to contain. The fight continued with Midoriya trying to draw the match out longer to try and hit Todoroki's limit. James knew this was the issue with these fights, they were going to take longer and as such, they weren't going to have very long to recover.
"I hate all this cold air." Kana shivered.
"Anyone have a fire Quirk they haven't mentioned?" Mina asked as she started shivering also.
"Here you go!" Momo handed both girls a blanket. "Anyone else need a blanket?" Tsu needed to get wrapped up as she was starting to feel sleepy. A few of the guys also wanted a blanket but James declined as his body temperature was always higher than regular peoples. He didn't look away from the match as the drama that was starting to unfold drew him in.
"Uh is James okay?" He heard Mina ask.
"Oh he's fine. He has a particular weakness for drama. He's probably concentrating on the obvious bad blood between Todoroki and his father and Midoriya trying to get Todoroki to use his fire side."
"Shh muppet reject hush your mouth." James snapped.
"He's very invested in this isn't he?" Momo asked.
"Eh, like I said, drama's are his weakness. You should see how he got when our sisters husband left her for the gardener Ricardo."
"Eh?"
"What?"
"It was Hernando," James snapped. "If you're going to tell a story tell it right."
"Yeah anyway," James tuned his sister and his friends out as he paid more attention to the drama of Midoriya trying to convince Todoroki to use his fire side. James wondered how far Midoriya would go to drive this point home as he didn't seem like he was all that interested in fighting now. The 'convincing' got physical when Midoriya managed to punch Todoroki in the stomach. Todoroki looked like he was having trouble keeping up since he was literally freezing up now. Frost was appearing on his body, making him slow.
Midoriya started with verbally assaulting Todoroki with his 'hero speech' to convince Todoroki that the Quirk's he held were his power. James smirked when he saw the change in Todoroki appear a second before his left side suddenly came alive with red fire. After this of course both boys decided they wanted to go all out and let off their strongest attacks which were halted by Cementoss putting up literal barriers of concrete.
"Aw no!" James yelled out as he got up. "That was about to be epic!"
"Sit down you weirdo." Kana yanked his tail making him sit down with a yelp. "They could have destroyed the entire stadium if that wasn't stopped. Besides, Midoriya looks done." They saw Midoriya fall over. James sighed.
"Yeah you're right. But what a fight." He admitted aloud. "I hope the rest of the fights are this fired up."
"If you're going to start quoting the Fairy Tail guild I'm going to change your password and lock you out of Crunchyroll for a week."
"You do it too." James stated blandly.
"We're going to go check on Midoriya, anyone else want to come?" Tsu called.
"I will!" Kana called getting up and rushing after the small group that left. James took this time to sit back and think on this last match.
He didn't have long to think as he had to present for his match against Yuto.
"You ready James?" Yuto called. James nodded and both boys started to head down to the arena. When they were standing across from each other in the arena Yuto formed two large shuriken made of shadows. James crouched down, ready to spring at a moment's notice.
"Begin!"
James jumped to the side as Yuto threw one of the shuriken. It flew by as he dodged it but the other shuriken got closer before James managed to lean back, allowing the shuriken to fly over him as he twisted his body to go back into a crouch. He then formed a Chaos Sphere in both hands, it was a risk, but this was something he'd been working on. He jumped high when Yuto threw a spear where he'd been crouched. He threw the Sphere at the ground making Yuto jump back to dodge as the ground cracked and started to crumble into ash.
Yuto formed a bow and arrow and sent a volley of arrows flying towards James who dodged as best as he could before he used his other Sphere to break the arena again to make a fort to protect himself. James waited until the arrows had stopped before he looked over the fort. Yuto was running towards him. James jumped to the side, trying to steer clear of Yuto as he didn't want him to get in his shadow. The arena limited this from being a possibility, but Yuto was still able to form his weapons. James knew the bright lights were draining though and Yuto had to concentrate harder to form them. He could win by outlasting Yuto but James wanted to win by beating his brother.
Their fight of cat and mouse started for the next ten minutes with neither gaining any ground, at least until James made a mistake and slipped up. He had launched his Chaos Sphere and had to pause as he was starting to get that dark foreboding feeling that usually came before some bad luck was about to happen. Yuto kicked the back of his head making James pitch forward. He was able to right himself, but he landed on his back. Yuto stood above him with a shadow spear to his throat.
"Give up J." Yuto smiled, panting. James growled.
"Never." His tail jerked from around Yuto's foot causing him to give out a yell as he fell. James got up ready to continue but he stopped. Yuto was groaning still but there was blood forming under him. James froze.
Red blood spilled across the floor, so bright it looked fake. A body laid on top of the growing pool as long blond hair spilled out of the cap that had been on top of her head a moment earlier.
"Halt the fight!" Midnight appeared and checked Yuto over. "Can you move Yuto?"
'James! Are you hurt?'
"Uh, maybe?" He groaned. "Kinda stupid to still be holding a weapon when I fell. Impaled myself pretty good."
'Don't move from here. Stay right there. Daddy's going to be right back I promise.'
"James wins!" Midnight called out. "Get him to Recovery Girl!" James shook himself out of it when he felt a sharp burning sensation on his shoulder. He gulped as he looked right into Midnight's eyes. She seemed to soften when she realized he wasn't himself. "Go with him James."
"Sure." He followed the medics as they took Yuto to Recovery Girl.
"Wait, James!" Yuto's voice called to him making him speed up to be closer to his brother. Yuto's face was pinched in pain, but he still made eye contact with him. "I'm okay. It wasn't too bad." James nodded blankly but didn't say anything as he was trying to keep the memories from replaying in his head.
Shina was waiting by the door when they arrived. Her face looked worried and when she did look at Yuto she spoke with the other medic quickly and softly before she nodded and headed over to James. She gently steered him to the side hall. James flinched, expecting her to yell or shout but instead Shina put a hand on his cheek and made him look at her golden eyes.
"It's going to be okay James. His wound isn't too deep."
"I hurt him." He managed to say.
"You didn't mean to." Shina said. "I know this is a tournament and I'm sure there were others who were hurt worse. Like that girl from earlier who passed out after the boom boom boy destroyed the rocks. Or that green haired boy who passed out after breaking his arms. Yuto is still conscious and while there may have been some blood, he will be and is fine." James nodded before he murmured low,
"The blood was bright." Shina pulled him into a hug. None of them were very touchy-feely but Shina had gotten them used to constant physical contact or touch to help occasionally when their trauma's happened to be triggered. This was once such time as Shina simply hugged him.
"It's a memory now James. Nothing more. It may have resulted in some bad times, but you must remember, it's not what is happening now, and it won't happen again. This was an accident because Yuto had a sharp weapon in his hand. No one came and hurt him, no one would let that happen. Your teachers wouldn't let that happen." He nodded before the uncomfortable feeling of being touched started to get to him. He tapped Shina's shoulder and she immediately released him.
"I'm fine."
"Don't lie to me. You're not fine." She stated bluntly. He looked down. She sighed. "A 'flare up' like this isn't going to just go away because you say you're fine. But I will respect it if you don't want to talk about it right now. I know you guys have this tournament you want to compete in. Just, don't push yourselves too hard."
"Okay." He nodded.
"Let's go check on Yu." Shina led him back to Recovery Girl's Temporary office. When they entered they saw the first bed covered but the next bed was open to show Yuto sitting up. Bandages were wrapped around his abdomen, but he looked fine as he was munching on some crackers.
"Hey Shina! James!" He greeted. Shina walked right over and flicked his ear. "Hey what was that for?"
"How many times have I told you, don't fall with sharp objects!" She berated. "Don't scare me like that you inconsiderate bean pole! You're lucky our grandmother isn't here, or she would yell at you for this."
"Ouch! Ah! If she was here she'd yell at you for picking on the injured." He shouted back as Shina kept flicking his ears and pinching him. James' body relaxed as he watched his siblings continue their bickering. His foreboding feeling from earlier had lowered but it still hummed in the back of his head.
When James and Yuto finally managed to head back up to the stands to rejoin their classmates James was feeling better about the 'incident'. Shina had talked with him some more and this had helped to ease his fears for now. He knew though, he'd be having some nightmares about this later. Right now, he just wanted to focus on the rest of the tournament and bring back his competitive mood.
Currently, it looked like Bakugou and Tokoyami were mid-fight. James would have to get the info from one of his classmates on what was happening.
"Yuto!" Many of their classmates called out when they appeared.
"Hey are you good?" Sero called.
"Did Recovery Girl heal you okay?" Uraraka asked.
"We were worried." Mina called.
"We're fine everyone!" Yuto called out with a small smile on his face. Kana had stood up when she'd seen them but a nod from James had her relaxing enough to sit back down.
"Man James, you sure go hard when you want to win." Denki called.
"Calm down guys." James stated in a bored tone. "If I wanted to hurt any of you I'd pause, maybe."
"Don't make threats you can't follow up on." Momo admonished. "It's impractical and in poor taste."
"It wouldn't be empty Momo." James said as he sat down in his chair. He gave her a reassured look. "It would only be in teasing."
"So how was the fight between Mina and Kana?" Yuto asked.
"She won." Mina answered, not sounding down about losing at all. She shrugged when James gave her a questioning look. "I did my best against her and I lasted longer than Kirishima."
"Hey!" Kirishima cried in outrage. Kana and Mina laughed, diffusing the tension in James as he relaxed further into his seat to watch the current match. From what James could see Bakugou was going after Tokoyami with everything he had, trying to keep Tokoyami on the defensive. Guess he'd learned how much trouble Dark Shadow was. Yuto had given a report on Dark Shadow and Tokoyami earlier in the year but considering it was at the beginning of the year, James didn't think that applied to the current fight. Especially since now, they had grown and expanded on their Quirks.
Bakugou won after flipping behind Tokoyami and using a 'stun grenade' to land Tokoyami on his back. He had then used mini explosions in his hand to produce light. James felt the click in his brain as he realized that light was Dark Shadow's literal weakness. Unlike Yuto though, Tokoyami couldn't use Dark Shadow to make weapons on the fly. Not that Yuto was able to unless he concentrated but this was a glaring weakness.
"Next round is already here." Yuto murmured. James sighed, glancing up at the board.
Todoroki VS Bakugou
James VS Kana
"You sure you're up for this?" Kana asked as she sat beside James. "I saw you freeze when Yuto went down." James stiffened at the reminder. "You good?"
"… My bad luck vibes are still buzzing." James murmured in a low voice. "When I used the Chaos Sphere twice before, it went up. After Yuto went down, it lowered but I can still feel it."
"Okay, it's fine." Kana hurried to assure him. "We can stick with just hand to hand combat if you want and then, I or you, can give up. Whichever you want to do."
"I think it would be best if you went on." James sighed.
"You were looking forward to fighting Bakugou for a while." Kana reminded him in a confused tone. "Why give that up at the last moment?"
"I don't want my bad luck to be an issue." James answered, looking into her pink eyes. "If and when I fight Bakugou, I don't want anything to go wrong. I want it to be on my terms, without my bad luck buzzing in the back of my head taunting me that in any second I may lose. I want to win that fight."
"Okay," Kana nodded. "I can understand that. You step out and I win. I fight Bakugou and maybe get some vengeance for Uraraka, Tokoyami and Todoroki." James blinked in confusion.
"Hey, wait- what, you don't think Todoroki is going to win?" Kana gave him a dull look.
"You're just now realizing I was insinuating Bakugou is gonna win?" James nodded dumbly. Kana sighed and turned his attention to the two boys down below. "Like I said earlier, Bakugou is going to win this little tournament. If only to rub it in everyone else's faces that he won."
They watched the next match begin between Bakugou and Todoroki. This match of course seemed to be personal to Bakugou as he hit Todoroki harder than he'd hit the others. James watched as Bakugou literally became a demon to win, or at least to provoke Todoroki into using his flames against him to make this a real fight. James glanced at Midoriya and wondered why there seemed to be an inferiority complex in Bakugou, against Midoriya of all people. There was something he was missing to this story between the boys, something that attributed to this hostility and was pushing itself out to act like a major jerk.
No matter how hard Bakugou pushed though, Todoroki didn't respond in the way that he had wanted. When Bakugou did his Howitzer Blast, and pushed Todoroki out, James knew this wasn't the ending Bakugou was wanting. Midnight had to step in as Bakugou moved to try and revive Todoroki.
"Well, this didn't end the way we wanted it to." Kana breathed out.
"I feel so bad for one of you." Yuto sighed. "He isn't going to be happy."
"You sure you don't want to win this?" Kana asked nervously to James. James faked a large smile.
"No, you got this Kana." She whimpered.
"Good luck you two!" Denki cheered weakly when they stood up to head down to the arena.
"Yeah, good luck." Kirishima said lamely.
"You got this." Uraraka tried to portray some hope and happiness but everyone in their class knew, whoever won, Bakugou was going to tear them apart.
When both cousins were standing across from each other in the arena, James knew he was going to have to be quick. Kana's portals were quicker than they used to be, but he had determination on his side.
"BEGIN!" James didn't hesitate to throw the Chaos Claws towards Kana to make her jump back out of the way. James took this chance to run forward to catch her off guard and used a claw to slash at her face. Kana fell through a portal at the last second. She appeared on the other side of the arena. James flipped as she threw a portal disc at him to try and grab a body part in it. He darted on hands and feet around the arena before he jumped up with another Chaos Sphere forming. Kana leaned to the side, not fully dodging out of the way as James cancelled the Chaos Sphere before it fully formed.
Kana kneed him in the stomach before she hit the back of his head making him grunt in pain. She then formed a portal under him that he stumbled through.
"Kana wins!" James groaned in pain, kneeling as cheers erupted behind them. He was glad Kana had taken this one from him, he doubted she was going to be so happy when she had to 'lose' later.
James stood up after a few seconds to see Kana staring down at him. He smiled at her sadly.
"May the odds be ever in your favor."
"You're mean."
~Kana's POV~
"AT LAST, WE'VE ARRIVED TO THE LAST FIGHT! THE BEST OF THE BEST OF UA'S FIRST YEAR STUDENTS!" Present Mic announced. Kana stared across the way to Bakugou who looked slightly unhinged. "NARA KANA VS BAKUGOU KATSUKI!"
"Should I even try if you're going to continue to look so pouty?" Kana called. His glare darkened.
"I'm not pouting."
"Sure, you're not." Kana glanced around before an evil thought came to her. "You know if you're not serious about this, then I could just walk out of here?"
"You wouldn't dare." He growled. Kana smiled sweetly.
"I would."
"BEGIN!" Kana blinked as Bakugou launched himself at her. Kana stepped backward into a portal effectively stepping away from Bakugou. She needed to keep him at a distance. He was too good at close range combat and her portals would only be good for helping her escape his bombs. Her hand-to-hand combat wouldn't hold up against him as it was mainly defensive. She should probably look into getting some offensive moves.
But not right now, Kana threw a small portal disc at Bakugou's back and threw a bigger one when he used a bomb to get out of the way. Kana then fell backwards into another portal and reappeared in the air. She threw a handful of small bombs that she had gotten from Momo. They didn't do anything against Bakugou as he used his own bombs to fly up into the air right at her. Kana was thrown for a loop as she hadn't been aware that Bakugou could fly! Sure she'd seen him jump to great heights with his bombs but FLY?! This wasn't something she had prepared for. Her distraction cost her as she ended up taking a hit to the stomach. She went down but before she hit the floor she created another portal and fell through, rolling to a stop across the field.
When she looked up Bakugou seemed to be radiating a lot of aggression. That was unusual for him as so far he'd been very level-headed in battle. That hit had been harder than even James left hook. She grimaced, feeling her stomach throb before she resolutely ignored that pain and stood up. Whatever was going through his mind, Bakugou certainly wasn't fighting just her.
"COME ON!" She saw him starting to use his bombs in a scarily familiar rotation and decided that this tournament wasn't worth it. "FIGHT ME WITH ALL YOU GOT!" Bakugou came flying at her with rage in his eyes. Kana gulped as she squared her shoulders, her mind made up. Despite wanting to win this for Uraraka and the others, Kana smirked and ran for the boundary line, hoping to escape whatever pain Bakugou had wanted to bring to her.
She heard Bakugou's roar of rage as he realized what she was doing. He was too far to stop her though. Kana slid over the boundary line on her knees only to jump forward into a roll and twist her body, so she was facing Bakugou who was still coming at her. The rage on his face was priceless as Kana smiled grimly at him. She hoped Midnight or Cementoss came to her aide if he chose to get physical. Otherwise Shina would no doubt cause a scene. Bakugou came to a stop directly in front of her with his hands out like he was going to use his bombs.
"You win."
"Not like this!" He yelled, almost desperately, in her face. Kana's anger sparked.
"If you wanted to win fair and square then you should have left your annoyance with Todoroki at the door." Kana shouted, her patience with Bakugou had officially run out and he was going to get the full force of her anger. "I am not a replacement for your fight with Todoroki. If you don't like it, then stop acting like an angry child throwing a tantrum and man the hell up!" The death glare she received had fear racing up her spine but Kana remained firm as she stared him down.
"This isn't over." He promised in dark rage.
"Oh joy." Kana muttered sarcastically as she turned her back on him. She needed to calm down before she did something stupid like punching him in the face.
"AND HERE THEY ARE EVERYONE! THE TOP THREE WINNERS OF THIS YEARS SPORTS FESTIVAL!" Present Mic announced. Kana stood in 2nd place while Todoroki was in 3rd. Bakugou stood on the 1st place tower in between them. He wasn't happy about winning this way, but he had stopped shouting for now. "AND HERE TO PRESENT THE AWARDS, JAPAN'S #1 HERO, ALL MIGHT!" The cheers were deafening as everyone in the stadium yelled out their approval. Kana herself sighed as she really wanted to just get this over with. She hated being in the spotlight like this.
"Good job everyone for all your hard work today!" All Might smiled at all of them. "Though you may not have placed this year, remember, there is still time for improvement! Who knows, next year may be your year! Now, let us continue this awards ceremony."
"IN 3RD PLACE WE HAVE TODOROKI, SHOTO!" Kana waited not to patiently as All Might gave words of comfort to Todoroki as well as a hug. She really hoped he didn't hug her as she didn't like physical touching.
"IN 2ND PLACE WE HAVE NARA, KANA!"
"You have done very well young Kana!" All Might appeared in front of her in a flash. "You fought smartly today and used your Quirk to the best of your ability."
"Thank you All Might. And uh, if you please, I don't want a hug." Kana begged. All Might nodded as he placed the award on her neck.
"Keep up your determination and hard work." All Might said before he moved onto Bakugou.
"IN 1ST PLACE WE HAVE BAKUGOU, KATSUKI!"
"Good job Bakugou!" All Might praised before he got serious. "I know you have done well and used your Quirk to the best of your abilities. Your determination was unmatched. You have done well. I am proud of you."
"Tch." Bakugou looked away. All Might was undeterred as he placed the award on Bakugou and turned to the rest of the crowd.
"Everyone of you has done very well today. I am proud of all of you. I hope all of you continue to achieve all your dreams to become the best hero you can be!" Everyone cheered All Might's speech on. Kana herself waited until it was appropriate and then hopped off the stage. She really didn't want to be in the spotlight more than was necessary.
~Shina's POV~
The pride in her chest felt like it was going to cause Shina's body to start glowing as she watched her kids in the arena. She didn't think it was possible to feel this way but here it was. She was prouder than she had been when the kids had succeeded in their first robberies because this was for a better future.
At least, she hoped it would be.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket indicating she had a text. When she pulled it out, the ID on the text came from 'Dust Master'. She felt the cold weight of reality hit her as she read the text. Looks like tonight she wasn't going to be able to celebrate with the kids for long.
'Come to the bar tonight. Potential recruit. Heard of the Hero Killer Stain?'
What was Shigaraki hoping to achieve with this man? If she could consider him a man.
GM NASAI: The absolute joy I experienced when I finally FINALLY finished the Festival. I'm going to ignore the fact that I have this next arc coming up.
I consulted with Kana's real-life counterpart on this chapter and, her genuine NEED to mess around with Bakugou? It was petty and all kinds of chaotic. I had to tone her down otherwise she would have literally drowned Bakugou with ocean water.