Chapter 17: Deku vs Kacchan Part 1

"Are you sure about this, Deku?" Uraraka asked as she fidgeted nervously behind me.

Keeping my gaze fixed on the five story building before us, I nodded absentmindedly.

I don't remember what floor the bomb was on, but I do remember that it was higher up and next to the windows. Probably the fourth or fifth floor. We could proceed from the ground floor up, but that would all but guarantee a one on one with Katsuki. With how we are now, that fight likely wouldn't last more than a few seconds. Our relationship is already hanging by a thread. The last thing it needs is me wiping the floor with him. No, it's better if we bypass Bakugou entirely, and overwhelm Iida with a frontal assault. Katsuki will be furious, but it will at least force him to think before he rushes off in a rage. Similar to what happened in canon, but without me breaking my arm and demolishing the building.

"Alright, let's begin the indoor combat training! Team A and Team D, your time starts now! All Might's voice boomed over the training ground.

Turning back to my partner, I gave her a questioning look. "Are you ready? I'm more agile than Iida in an enclosed space, but he's still quick. We'll need to end this before Katsuki has the opportunity to make his way back to the bomb room."

Casting one more look of apprehension at the structure looming before us, Uraraka gave me a determined nod and stepped forward. Feeling her hand press against my back, the increasingly familiar sensation of weightlessness passed over me. Adjusting to the odd imbalance caused by the non-weightless Uraraka climbing onto my back, I began to channel One for All.

Showtime.

With a whoosh of air, I launched us towards the top floor of the faux office building. Crossing the threshold of the fifth floor, my eyes widened as I came almost face to face with Katsuki through the glass window, a savage grin on his face as he pulled the pin on his right gauntlet.

Fuck.

Watching as the glow began to emanate from the barrel of his massive support item, I threw my arm out. The gust of wind pressure launched Uraraka and I to the side just as a massive explosion tore through the air in the space we had inhabited just a moment before, shattering windows down the entire block and blowing a sizable hole in the side of the building. Before the momentum of my punch could carry us down the street, I reoriented and kicked backwards to propel us through one of the now shattered window frames and into the office building, shielding Uraraka as we rolled to a stop on the stone floor.

He knew. Working my jaw to try and lessen the ringing in my ears, I pushed myself off the ground. Katsuki knows what my quirk is and the basics of what it does. He isn't underestimating me like he did in canon. Instead, he went in the opposite direction, opening the fight with the most powerful tool in his arsenal.

A cackling laugh broke me from my musings as the smoke and dust began to clear, revealing an elated Katsuki smiling giddily at his gauntlets while Iida looked on in shock behind him.

"These are awesome!" Katsuki exclaimed in delight.

Ignoring him as he continued with an explanation of how the gauntlets functioned, I kept my eyes on our opponents and addressed Uraraka. "Are you okay?"

"Y-yeah." She replied shakily.

Pulling my partner to her feet, I made no effort to lower my volume as I gave her instructions. "Do what you can to get past Iida and touch the bomb. I'll handle Bakugou."

Broken from his trance by the mention of his name, Iida snapped back into focus, squaring himself against Uraraka and beginning to monologue at her.

Snarling at my dismissive tone, Katsuki snapped. "Are you ignoring me? I'll get your attention."

Taking a threatening step forward, Katsuki began to raise his left gauntlet.

"Bakugou! Use that stored up power again and I'll-" All Might's voice began to sound through the room, but before he could finish his sentence, I pushed off the ground.

Eyes widening in surprise, Katsuki watched helplessly as I launched towards Iida. Channeling ten percent, I slammed my fist into his armored stomach at an upward angle. Paying little heed to the wheezing grunt that escaped his lips, I immediately pivoted towards Katsuki and pushed off the ground once more.

Surprise morphing into panic, Katsuki brought his hand across his body in a wide arc, a rippling string of explosions tearing apart what remained of the plain concrete floor around him. Sliding underneath the wild attack, I lashed out with my leg, sweeping Katsuki's own out from under him.

Hopping back to my feet, I stifled a snort as Katsuki punched the ground in frustration and stood.

"Deku." Katsuki growled, his eyes alight with barely contained rage.

Diving forward, he brought his right hand back in a painfully obvious wind-up. Don't need to have watched this kid for years to see a right hook coming.

Shifting to the side, I grabbed Katsuki's wrist, taking some satisfaction in shattering the ostentatious gauntlet and the subsequent snapping of bone beneath my super-powered grip. Gritting his teeth through the pain, Katsuki attempted to bring his left arm around for another attack, but before he could move more than a few inches, I channeled ten percent into my arms and catapulted him into the far wall.

Turning to ensure Iida was still incapacitated and to secure the bomb if Uraraka hadn't already, I was halted by a feral snarl from across the room. Returning my attention to Katsuki, I blinked in surprise as he slowly hefted himself from the small pile of rubble that had formed beneath his impact site on the wall. He made for quite the sight with blood dripping from a dozen cuts and his right arm hanging limply at his side.

Stumbling forward, Katsuki raised his left arm, and unable to utilize his right, bit down on the pin of his gauntlet.

"I WON'T LOSE TO YOU!" He screamed through clenched teeth.

Preparing to dodge away from my opponent's final desperate attack, my attention was drawn behind me to a yelp of surprise. Turning to the source, I found Uraraka in the midst of tying up an unconscious Iida, her eyes wide as saucers as she realized that they were within the blast cone of Katsuki's gauntlet.

Snapping my gaze back to Katsuki, I yelled in a desperate attempt to avert the inevitable. "Kacchan!"

But it was too late.

Time slowed to a crawl as the pin fell to the floor and a familiar glow began to emanate from the hulking gauntlet. Sobriety replaced the malevolent fury consuming Katsuki's gaze in an instant as his attention focused on Uraraka hovering over Iida's motionless form.

"Shit!" Katsuki cried as he frantically jerked his arm up and to the side.

The explosion ripped through the building, tearing a hole in the roof and shaking the structure to its foundation. Caught midair as I attempted to dive for Uraraka and Iida, I was ragdolled into the far wall by the concussive force.

Immediately pushing myself up from the ground, my eyes widened as the building began to crumble down on top of us. Taking a brief moment to thank One for All's durability enhancement for sparing me a concussion, I focused on Uraraka, who was curled protectively over a slowly awakening Iida as he struggled to regain his bearings. Uraraka had her hand raised over them, her quirk active in a desperate attempt to levitate any debris that collapsed on them.

Satisfied that they were not in immediate danger, I broke into a run across the room, pushing through the thick cloud of dust to the epicenter of the blast. There, buried under an even larger pile of rubble than before, was a bloodied and barely conscious Katsuki.

I hesitated briefly at the sight of the bones that protruded from multiple places on his left arm. He needs to hold a very specific stance when using those gauntlets due to the explosive force. When he turned it away to spare the others, it completely fucked his arm, but I don't know if the damage has extended to his neck. To say nothing of the debris that collapsed on top of him. If I move him now-

Rumbling beneath our feet and the sudden collapse of yet another section of the roof snapped me from my contemplation. Shoving the larger pieces of concrete away, I threw Katsuki's right arm over my shoulder and made my way back towards Uraraka, ignoring Katsuki's attempted growl that came out as more of a pained whimper.

I dropped to a knee beside Uraraka, who failed to react to my presence and continued staring at the collapsing ceiling in fear. Reaching out with my spare hand to shake her shoulder, Uraraka flinched at the contact, her panicked eyes snapping to meet mine.

Before I could say anything, a rumbling crack split through what remained of the roof, the edges crumbling away as the building's collapse began to accelerate rapidly.

The observation room isn't far. All Might should already be here. In canon he let Izuku and Katsuki fight to show Izuku he could win. Is he letting this continue so that I can learn I have what it takes to fight a fucking building?

Pushing away my irritation, I squeezed Uraraka's shoulder to regain her attention. "Ochaco, I need you to focus. Get these two out of the building. Levitate them and yourself if necessary. The building is going to come down no matter what All Might or I do. Get to a safe distance."

Shaking like a leaf, Uraraka hesitated before stammering out. "W-what about you?"

The roof chose that moment to give way. Sliding Katsuki to the ground, I braced myself as a particularly large slab of concrete came down, an adjacent support pillar toppling with it.

One for All, Full Cowling. Ten percent.

Using one hand to prop up the piece of roof, I used the other to grab the pillar, holding it at an angle to deflect falling debris away from the bomb.

Of course the fucking bomb has to be like ten feet tall when miniaturized nukes were perfected more than a century ago.

"Go!" I ordered through grit teeth, my body screaming in pain as I strained against the unbalanced debris.

Blinking in uncertainty for a moment, resolve filled Uraraka's eyes and she quickly grabbed our two opponents, levitating them and beginning to run towards the hole in the outer wall.

We're lucky she's so short. Gives her nearly a foot of clearance from the piece of roof I'm holding up.

Any humour at the situation was erased as the floor began to crack under me, the relentless bombardment from the collapsing roof beginning to take its toll. Growling in irritation, I prepared to surge One for All when booming laughter sounded over the cacophony of crumbling concrete.

"I am here, to relieve you of this burden, young Midoriya!" All Might declared as he rocketed in through the opening in the side of the building.

Before he could grab the slab of roof I was holding, I barked out. "Stay back!"

Flinching away as if he had been burned, All Might blinked in surprise before opening his arms placatingly. "You've already won the exercise handily, my boy. I was the one who failed to stop Bakugou from acting dangerously. I'll take things from-"

"Villains won't play by the rules, and I won't let the buzzer save me a second time. I got myself into this mess, so stay back, All Might!" I yelled.

All Might's brow furrowed before he nodded hesitantly, taking a step backward, his hand still hovering near the slab of roof as a precaution.

I took a deep breath in preparation for my next move, and nearly screamed in frustration when yet another voice interrupted before I could end the exercise.

"Deku? What are you doing!?" Uraraka cried out as she floated back through a shattered window, releasing her quirk and ducking away from All Might's attempt to halt her.

Not wasting any more time, I turned to address her. "Uraraka, get the bomb out, now!"

Uraraka briefly looked as though she would argue before nodding in resolve and sprinting past me to lay a hand on the faux bomb. Turning the weightless object sideways, she made her way to the edge of the room and jumped through the open wall with the bomb in tow.

Sighing in relief, I surged fifteen percent into my arms and threw the piece of roof I had been propping up into the corner of the room, destabilizing what little integrity the building still had in the process. Careful to watch for any more falling debris, I lept straight through the hole in the now actively collapsing building.

Landing on the concrete below with a dull thud, I watched as the 'villain stronghold' began to crumble, grinding my teeth to distract myself from the throbbing pain aching throughout my body.

"I'm sorry, young Izuku. I knew what those gauntlets did, but I had no idea young Bakugou was reckless enough to use them on a classmate, let alone twice." All Might apologized as he came to stand beside me.

"It's fine. It won't be the last time the two of us butt heads either. I had hoped that he and I could resolve our differences, but I don't think that's going to happen without outside help. At least on his part." I replied plainly.

"I'll speak to him after I've released the class for the day. I imagine he'll be in the nurse's office until late this evening." All Might agreed.

"No." At All Might's questioning look, I explained. "His issues run deep, All Might. He idolizes you for a different reason than I do, but to nearly the same extent. If you try to talk to him about this he'll shut down. He needs to talk to Hound Dog or maybe Aizawa."

All Might considered the idea for a moment before replying. "Very well. I'll speak to Aizawa about scheduling an appointment with the school counselor."

Humming my acknowledgement, we watched as Bakugou and Iida were loaded onto stretchers by the nurse robots and wheeled towards a nearby ambulance. The two had reversed states of consciousness, and Iida gave a solemn nod to us both as they passed by.

Turning to where a green faced Uraraka was attempting to assure another nurse bot that she was okay, I spoke. "I'm going to see if Uraraka needs help. We'll be alright. You can set up the next exercise."

"You should go to the nurse's office as well. Recovery Girl won't be pleased if she finds out you didn't come straight to her." All Might suggested warily.

I shook my head. "I'm okay. Everything hurts, but nothing is broken. As long as I just observe, I'll be fine. I'll see Recovery Girl after."

Sighing heavily, my mentor muttered his agreement before stalking away, grumbling about how Recovery Girl would inevitably punish him for my stubbornness.