Chapter Fifteen

"And we're back, spectators!" Present Mic crowed. "The court's fixed up, and it's time to get this show on back on the road! Our contestants have been weeded out to half their previous number, and it's time to keep it going with the quarter-final round!"

"Aw, yeah! We've seen them all once before, but that just means it'll be even more spectacular!" Kaminari declared. "So jog our memories, Mic my man, who have we got up this time?"

"I'm glad you asked, Chargebolt. On one end, we've got the lovely lioness, the foo dog whose bark is even stronger than her bite! The class rep of Class A, Akame Tategami!"

"This is gonna be sweet," Kaminari laughed jovially. "Because on the other end is the armored-up dragon girl who can take punishment even better than she dishes it out! Also from Class A, Kushina Wani!"

Both girls faced each other squarely with matching looks of determination. Tategami's loose, tawny hair swayed in a wayward breeze while Wani's electric-blue plait remained still. Golden amber eyes bored into almond-shaped magenta-on-yellow. Wani's fingers were curling open and closed like a gunfighter, while Tategami's simply stayed curled into paw-like positions.

"Sucks that only one of us can keep going," Tategami said.

"Whoever does will have to win this thing," Wani replied seriously.

"Fighters ready?" Lady Nagant asked, and both girls nodded. "Fight!"

Wani snarled as she drew out every single armored scale she could, her uniform straining at the sudden mass, plates growing and converging until they covered her from head to toe. Her face, never once covered in class, turned into a grotesque mask.

Tategami wasted no time in transforming either, the clouds whirling around her to reveal her Guardian Lion form. She braced her stance and inhaled, her barrel chest swelling. As she did, Wani did much the same, digging her armored hands into the cement and anchoring herself.

Tategami unleashed a great roar, the air pressure crashing into Wani and lifting her from the ground, only her hands keeping her from flying out of the ring. The force of it slammed into her and cracked her scaly armor like ceramic, flecks and chips of it flying away with the wind. Her scream of primal fear and pain from the force was washed away just as easily.

And as suddenly as it had begun, it was over. Wani collapsed front-first onto the floor of the arena, trembling from the searing aches across the surface of her body. Across from her, Tategami was heaving in breaths, panting more like a dog than a lion. But she shook it off and carefully padded toward Wani, senses primed for any hint of danger or a trick.

Wani hissed as she struggled onto her hands and knees, chunks of her armored scales still falling to tinkle like glass. She bit back a scream as she straightened up and rose to her feet, her balance unstable. Her breathing was shallow through gritted teeth, her lower lip trembling. Then she took a deep breath … and her amethyst armor retracted into her usual delicate lavender scales. Large bruises were already beginning to form under the scales, and dozens of tiny tears in her skin were weeping trickles of blood.

"I'm … not done," she said firmly, shifting into a fighting stance. Her blazing eyes belied the shaking of her frame. "Come on," she hissed. "Let's go."

Some might have pitied her or gone easy on her. Tategami merely crouched and rumbled in her throat in reply to her challenge. If she had not respected Wani's drive before, she certainly would have now. As it was, Wani had only grown in Tategami's esteem. She would honor that and treat her as a true rival.

Wani shrieked a battle cry and rushed, leaving bloody footprints in her wake. Tategami snarled and clawed at her, and Wani swerved to try and punch at her. Tategami ducked to avoid it and snapped at the girl with her massive jaws, but Wani spun away again, even without grace as she bit back a yelp of pain. When Wani steeled herself and charged again, Tategami pounced to bowl her over onto her back, great paws on Wani's arms to pin her.

"Dammit," Wani hissed. She looked up into Tategami's massive golden eyes with defiance … before sighing and laying her head back. "I surrender," she called.

"Wani has surrendered," Lady Nagant announced. "Tategami is the winner."


"Poor Wani," Eri said sympathetically.

"She gave it her all, and then some," Satsuki said matter-of-factly. "There's no shame in losing to a fellow hero student like that."

Eri looked to her left and to Satsuki's right, mulling over the empty seats where their friends had been sitting until mere seconds ago. She looked up at the bracket presented on the screens around the arena with a timer counting down ten minutes until the next match. A match with two familiar names: Kota Izumi — Katsuma Shimano.

She bit her lip and stood up, making her way to the steps.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"To check on them," Eri said simply. As she mounted the steps, she felt a presence behind her and looked back to find Satsuki following her.

"They're not only your friends," she said bluntly, though her typical tadpole pout was curled in the tiniest of smiles.


Katsuma was sitting at the table set up in the waiting room, trying determinedly to control his breathing. He was running simulations in his head, based upon everything he'd seen of Kota during their few weeks of training. Katsuma would freely admit that he had come to admire his fellow hero student and tentative friend. Not only was his Quirk powerful but widely useful, as Kota had demonstrated through several creative uses with it both in and out of combat training, but Kota had shown repeatedly a fearsome drive to succeed as a hero to others. He was smart, tough, and refused to give up if he could still move an inch.

As such, none of the scenarios that Katsuma envisioned went very well for him.

His head jerked in surprise at the sound of a knock at the door. "Uh, c-come in," he called. His eyes widened at the door opening to admit Satsuki.

"Nervous?" she asked.

"…Yeah," Katsuma sighed, deciding that there was no point in lying. It wasn't his style, and it felt even more wrong given Satsuki was always so upfront. Plus, she would probably tell with ease. "I can't seem to figure out a way to win as it is," he sighed.

"Me neither," Satsuki said, sliding out another folding chair and taking a seat. "Kota's Quirk is powerful at long range that you definitely can't match and he can use it for mobility, way better than your own agility. And there's no cover you can use."

"Thanks for summing that up," Katsuma groaned, slamming his forehead to the tabletop.

"There might be a way you can win, though," Satsuki said. "Kota's good, but he's not perfect." A mischievous twinkle appeared in her eye. "Eri and I have both beaten him in sparring sessions before." Katsuma lifted his head and looked at her with wide, hopeful eyes.

"How?" he asked.


"Yeah, what?" Kota snapped at the sound of a knock at his waiting room door.

"Is that really how you address visitors?" came Eri's teasing voice.

Kota, who had been sitting back in a chair with his cap pulled over his eyes, sat up and lifted it to reveal his best friend smiling dryly at him. "Hey," he said, mentally cursing the faint pink he could feel rising up his cheeks. "What're you doing here?"

"Checking in," Eri said. "Making sure you're alright."

"Me?" Kota scoffed, and hooked his thumb at his chest. "I'm fine. I got this in the bag."

"Pride comes before a fall, Kota," Eri sing-songed, half-sitting on the corner of the table. "Katsuma's no pushover, if you'll recall."

"He's going down," Kota said darkly. "He's not strong as heck like Suki or packing a reality-bending power like you, Eri. He's a walking first aid kit with some fancy moves." He snorted and looked away with a humorless smile. "What's he gonna do when I blast him out of the ring?"

It took a few long moments of silence for Kota to look back at Eri … and his eyebrows arched at the sight of her glaring at him, eyes narrowed and her lips pressed in an irate line. "Well," she huffed and stood up, speaking tonelessly, "if you're so confident, I guess I'm not needed here."

"What?" Kota asked, rising and reaching out to her. "Wait, Eri, I didn't mean-" He was cut off when she slammed the door. He blinked before sighing through his nose and removing his cap to run his hand back through his spiky black hair. "What the hell?" he wondered.


"And we're back, everybody!" Present Mic declared. "Here we have friends turned to foes as two new buddies duke it out to keep moving to the top!"

"In one corner we've got the living tsunami who'll blast you across the ring, Kota Izumi!" Kaminari cheered. "And in the other corner, a kid with a heart of gold wrapped in nerves of steel, Katsuma Shimano!"

Looking down from the audience, one would see nothing unusual: just two boys facing each other, ready to fight. But up close, one would see Kota's steely glower, so different from his grin from the last match, and Katsuma's look of controlled anxiety accentuated by beads of sweat dotting his forehead.

"Are you alright, Kota?" Katsuma asked, both out of honest concern and for something to say. "You look … upset."

"Don't worry about it," Kota said coldly.

"I kinda already am," Katsuma said with a small, shaky smile. He thought of Mr. Deku and All Might, trying to smile in the face of obvious danger.

"Then you're worrying about the wrong thing, idiot," Kota snapped, teeth bared. His hands were already starting to steam.

Katsuma sighed through his nose and nodded in reluctant agreement. He slid his feet apart in a solid stance that had long since been carved into his muscle memory, his arms spread for ease of movement. And as his body fell into those practiced motions, he thought back to what Satsuki had told him.

"Must be nice," he said hesitantly. "Having a Quirk that can blow me away in an instant." He shook his head with a wry smile. "You can just check this match off and move on." He bit his lip, guilt pooling in his belly, but he pushed past it. "Not having to worry that I'd beat you bad up close."

"Excuse me?" Kota asked, surprised by that turn of the conversation. Outrage began to simmer in his chest. "What're you trying to say, Shimano?"

"Oh, I dunno," Katsuma said, going for a breezy tone, as if it were an accepted fact even as the strain in his voice undermined it. "You've got a great Quirk and I know you wanna show it off. No sense in turning away internships with a so-so sparring match." He hummed in thought. "Although, just powering through this match will probably send a mixed message. Like you're strong, but only from far away. A glass cannon."

Kota grit his teeth as each word added fuel to his growing anger. Is that what this guy really thought?! That he couldn't handle-! Wait a minute …! Kota's anger cooled as the spirit of those words felt familiar. Memories from the last few years welled up, all of them of Satsuki or even Eri teasing him during training days that he could blast them with water all he wanted, but it wouldn't make him better. To be better, he'd have to fight them hand to hand.

And each and every time, he'd lost those fights. Kota wasn't a bad fist fighter — the Wild, Wild Pussycats had always stressed that breadth of skill was just as important as depth, sometimes even more important, and Tiger was an instructor with very high expectations — but he wasn't training to be a close-range specialist like Eri or Satsuki … or Shimano. Each of those past spars had been to knock him down a peg or three, and Kota had a feeling that Satsuki had advised Shimano to bait him, just as Eri had come to check on him.

The worst part was, even though he knew the trick … it was working. Shimano wasn't wrong in that only relying on Water Gun's long-range capabilities could leave the wrong impression with pros that would send him internship offers. In the words of Mr. Aizawa, no good hero was a one-trick pony.

"Fighters ready?" Lady Nagant called, gaze flicking between them. They nodded, and she fired. "Fight!"

"Dammit!" Kota snarled, and held his hands backward instead of forward, blasting jets of water to send himself hurtling toward Shimano.

Katsuma spun on one heel, pivoting just out of the way of Kota's charge … and his hand glowing green with Cell Activation. He slapped his hand against Kota's side as he passed, the contact by itself causing no pain, but Kota screamed and contorted, hands clasped to the place Katsuma had touched. "What the hell?!" he shouted, gritting his teeth against another scream as fiery pain seemed to take root in that hand-sized spot.

"I activated your pain receptors," Katsuma said, his lips twisted with guilt. "It won't last long," he added with a shaky smile.

"I'm gonna make you pay for that," Kota hissed on sheer principle, straightening up as the pain already began to fade. The shock had hurt as much as the actual nerve signals, but now he knew what Shimano could do. So he swung open-handed at Shimano, activating Water Gun in his palm as he did to send a slew of water into Shimano's face. While Shimano was disoriented, Kota punched him in the chest once, twice, thrice, and then kicked him away to sprawl along the ground.

He knew for a fact that Shimano wasn't out of the game, but it gave him some time to finish recovering from that painful touch of his. As he grit his teeth, he wondered why Shimano hadn't followed up after that, and the answer came to him almost immediately: Shimano was a softie. For better or worse, it wasn't his nature to kick someone while they were down. And while part of him wanted to deride Shimano for that softness … it reminded him so much of Deku that he just couldn't bring himself to muster anything but grudging respect.

The truth, though, was that such softness could get a hero and those they tried to protect killed if it wasn't backed by the heroic spirit to never back down. So maybe it was time that he test that in his frie- Classmate! His classmate who was friends with his friends …!

The image of Eri's glare suddenly came to his mind's eye and Kota thought he understood why she had been so testy. Who was he to write off this guy so easily? Especially one, very much like herself, who had a Quirk with such restraints on use in fighting.

"You know what?" Kota said to himself. "Screw it." He loosened his stance and pointed at his … friend. "Here's the deal," he said firmly. "You knock off that pain touch thing and I won't blast you out of the ring from out of arm's reach. We settle this like men and let our fists and Quirks do the talking." He closed his finger to present a fist to bump.

"Got it?" He paused and added, "Katsuma."

Katsuma blinked in surprise before he smiled and bumped Kota's fist with his own, then flowed smoothly back into a fighting stance. "Three," he said.

"Two," Kota growled.

"One," the chorused, and then charged each other.


"Go Katsuma!" Eri shouted between her hands. "Go Kota!"

After that first pass, Eri had been worried that she'd thoughtlessly provoked Kota enough to seriously hurt Katsuma. But, in a pleasant surprise, they seemed to have come to some kind of understanding. For the past few minutes, the boys had been punching, kicking, and sweeping legs in a flurry of moves that had the crowd oohing and ahhing as much as any mixed-martial arts match.

"Oh, that looked like it hurt," Satsuki commented. Kota, more battered and bruised, had slipped out of Katsuma's onslaught by blasting himself a few feet into the air and then hammered Katsuma with a short jet of water, sending the lighter-haired boy tumbling almost out of bounds until he rolled to his feet and charged again.

It was hard to see, sometimes, but Kota knew how to throw hands. Both of the girls had sparred against Tiger and even the other Pussycats before, and none of them pulled punches if they thought their trainee could handle it. Kota seemed to have a far more aggressive style than Katsuma, taking an offense as defense approach. Not to mention he was showing an almost new method of incorporating Water Gun in weaker, short-range jets to knock Katsuma off-balance or to speed up his punches with the same kind of counterforce that allowed him to fly with it.

Katsuma, on the other hand, was more of a dodger and blocker, his arms and legs glowing with his power that either reinforced his limbs, healed the minor damage, or a bit of both. One could also tell that he was the more experienced in this type of fight. In their time at UA, he briefly touched on placing highly in martial arts tournaments back on his home island, and that showed in how he moved.

After several long minutes of nearly balanced fighting, the match came to an end very suddenly. The boys had maneuvered dangerously close to the boundary lines. Kota scythed his leg to try and trip Katsuma, who leapt into a tight standing front flip to avoid it to the amazement of the crowd. But Kota's reflexes kicked in and he braced his stance and blasted a two-handed, pointblank jet of water that pushed Katsuma past the line.

"Shimano is out of bounds!" Lady Nagant declared. "Izumi progresses to the semi-finals!"

"Oh, Katsuma," Eri sighed, her heart aching for him.

"He put up a good fight," Satsuki pointed out. "And considering we both knew it would be a tough win against Kota, that's more than we expected."

"I suppose so," Eri replied. She shook her head and stood up, heading for the steps that would lead to the waiting rooms. And the infirmary, where the two of them had two boys to visit.


"There you go, Shimano," Recovery Girl said warmly after stretching her lips to kiss his cheek. "I must say, that Cell Activation of yours really seems to compliment Healing Kiss."

"Thanks, ma'am," Katsuma said, cheeks pinking where she had kissed him as a green healing glow, much like from his own Quirk, enveloped him. He felt a sense of peace settle upon him, accompanied by an intense warmth like laundry fresh from the dryer spreading all through his body, emanating from the spot she had kissed. Under the warmth was the prickling discomfort of his skin and muscle stitching together, though muted by that warmth.

"You know, there's the guy who actually won," Kota said loudly, pointing at himself, "but can't heal himself over here. And he's got a match coming up in the next bracket!"

"Oh, relax, boy," Recovery Girl chided, rotating her mechanical wheelchair between the cots Kota and Katsuma were laying in to face him. "You'll be fine. And a little calm chat would really do you some good." She puckered up and her lips stretched to reach Kota's cheek, leaving a loud kiss that had him healing just the same.

Both boys looked over at the sound of knocking, and they smiled at the sight of Eri and Satsuki standing in the doorway.

"Mrs. Chiyo?" Eri asked, one of the few permitted to use the nurse's first name. "May we come in?"

"Come on in, girls," Recovery Girl said, rotating her chair. She smirked and added, "Or should I say ladies? You're not exactly the little girls I first met, after all."

"And you look exactly the same," Satsuki piped up. "Only the chair is new."

"Ah, you're both too sweet," Recover Girl said. "Come on in."

The girls smiled in thanks and came in, taking the place between the cots that Recovery Girl moved out of.

"You have a match soon," Kota chided.

"The waiting rooms are right next door and I've still got a few minutes," Eri said patiently.

"Thanks for checking on us," Katsuma said warmly, waving his arms to show he was perfectly mobile. "But we're doing just fine." He nodded in the direction of the nurse. "Recovery Girl's got us doing just fine."

"Flattery will get you nowhere, boy," Recovery Girl said. "I'm still not happy with you about that stunt from earlier today during the race."

Katsuma blushed and ducked his head.

"Don't let her get to you," Eri said. "She's just dealt with reckless hero students doing stupid things and getting hurt for over fifty years. It probably gets annoying after a while."

"And you're lining up to experience it, too," Kota commented.

"I have never met anyone else whose power could replace mine at this school," Recovery Girl said plainly, turning her chair to face them. Eri blushed at the praise, idly fiddling with her horn as she did.

"She also has her next match," Satsuki said. "Come on, boys. You're healed up just fine." She gave a small smile and hugged Eri for luck before stepping back. Eri smiled at her, too, then wrapped Kota and Katsuma in two side hugs.

"Wish me luck," she said brightly and left.

"Good luck," Katsuma said, Kota simply watching her go. The boys traded a look, Kota offering a small, confident smirk. Katsuma smiled back and nodded.

When she was out of their view, Eri's sunny smile faded into a tight-lipped grimace, her eyes full of anxiety. Given the student she was about to face, the Tamashiro boy from Class B, she definitely understood how Katsuma had felt going up against Kota.

Chapter fifteen, everybody! ^I didn't plan on a Halloween update, and yet here we are. Happy spookiest of holidays.^ I had hoped to get the entire quarter finals in this one, but there was enough character-driven stuff that it would have run way too long. So you get the rest next time!

*Present Mic's comment on calling Tategami a foo dog was inspired by a commentor on AO3 suggesting I use that as a term for her. The creatures or entities that inspired her powers is often called foo dogs, in addition to guardian lions or lion dogs.

*Wani has never armored her face in the entire time she's been at UA, as the more of her body she armors the more strain she endures from her own Quirk and therefore the faster she tires. She also has the least practice with armoring her face as she can generally protect it with her arms.

*I had always intended Tategami to win this match, but her letting Wani fight through her determination came to me while writing and I really like it. I think it demonstrates Tategami's honor and Wani's resolve.

*Eri's reference to "pride comes before a fall" was and still is a defining philosophy for most of my life.

*And here we see that Kota is far more empathetic than Bakugo ever was. Leave it to the middle of a match in a shonen fanfiction for boys to start a real friendship.

*I really do love writing Recovery Girl. She's so much fun!

As always, I hope it was a fun read! Leave a review if you can! And may your own inspirations flow freely!