My Hero Pokedamia

by Zayden StormVoid

Izuku realized at a young age that all men are not created equal. They aren't treated equal either. Some people have more power over others. The same can be said for the wondrous, mysterious creatures that inhabited the world before Quirks: Pokemon. This is the story of Izuku Midoriya, in this world of Quirks and Pokemon, and his path to become the Very Best, like No One Ever Was.

30. Chapter 30

Chapter 30

I'M IN MY PRIME, OPTIMUS! I'M GOIN' BIG, MEGATRON! I'MA STING, BUMBLEBEE! NOW CROWN THE KING, HOPE YOU PROUD OF ME!

Oops, sorry, ever since I saw Transformers One that song has been on a repeat loop in my head. I mean, good song, great movie-scratch that, awesome movie-I mean can you blame me? It's a shame the movie didn't do so hot at the box office, and I blame the marketing of the movie that didn't live up to the hype of this movie, which is quite the switch-up from these things usually go. Anyway, all you Transformers fans that too watched and loved this movie, if there is any way to keep the dream alive and keep the planned trilogy going, do your best to support it and keep the spark of this movie alive.

Anyway, sorry for the long wait, but I have been working on my other stories and work-shopping a little project of mine in the background that looks to be working well. I've been writing up a few chapters of a Ben 10/MHA crossover, just seeing how it goes and whether I would release it and work on it alongside my current stories, and I think it's good. I'm a little uncertain whether I should, given how much these three take my time, but we'll see.

Now, last time, we had the aftermath of Izuku and Todoroki's brutal fight and the feelings everyone had about the fight's conclusion and consequences. We see Momo blame herself for pushing all of this onto Izuku and not disobeying Todoroki, tension sparked between Serena and all those of Izuku's friends who 'abandoned' him during the 2nd event, especially Iida, and Taishi and Nejire working to heal Midoriya with their Aura. We learned the real reasons why Izuku tried to save Todoroki, for the lives he was messing with and ruining, for the lives of those Todoroki would have to save in the future as a Hero, and Todoroki's sake was the very last thing on his mind by comparison, leading to Todoroki asking if the two of them could ever be friends; Izuku, for the first time, said no, but challenges Todoroki to prove him wrong. We also had the last of the semi-final fights between Bakugou and Tokoyami, with Bakugou's 'Light' trumping Tokoyami's darkness, Midnight giving Bakugou a nice reality check not to boss a teacher around, Sero's reasons for joining the Bakusquad, and Setsuna and Class 1-B discussing Bakugou's attitude and his history with Midoriya.

We also got some sneak peek ideas from Aizawa and Nezu about how they were going to deal with the Festival's more problematic contestants, i.e. Shinsou, Todoroki, and Bakugou, a black haired, 'mysterious' man grinning at the results of Todoroki's defeat, Izuku experiencing weird visions, Inko and the Bakugous unhappy with the switch-around that the crowd has made cheering for Bakugou after booing him, and All Might checks Midoriya, telling him to be more conscious of his health and safety, especially after his hand's condition.

And now, we arrive at the end of it, the end of the Sports Festival, the final fight between Izuku Midoriya and Katsuki Bakugou for the title of Festival Champion, and, more importantly, the sake of Momo's future. How will this destined fight between victim and bully end? Why did Taishi stare so inquisitively at Hagakure? And who else might be watching the Festival right now? Let's find out!

But first, the Index:

"Zayden," -Normal Dialogue

'Zayden,' -Internal or Mental Dialogue

"Zayden," -Flashback, Pokémon, and Letter Dialogue

"Zayden," -Buff Might, Dark Shadow, Kurogiri, and Izuku Ultimate Move Dialogue

"Zayden," -Flashback Buff Might, Spiritomb, Legendary Pokémon, and Shadow Pokémon Dialogue

"Zayden," -T.V. and Present Mic PA Dialogue

"Zayden," -Eraserhead PA Dialogue

"Zayden," -Pokedex Dialogue

[Zayden,] -Present Mic Quirk Reveal Dialogue

And, finally, I do not own My Hero Academia as it belongs to Horikoshi and is being adapted by Bones Studios, and I do not Pokémon either, which belongs to Gamefreak and Nintendo, and I swear to God just reveal some info on Pokémon Legends Z-A! I always expecting some news ever since the X and Y's 10th anniversary and I got nothing, and still nothing to this day. I swear if they don't say anything by December or Christmas, I'm gonna lose it!

...Ahem, anyway, Let's Rock and Roll! The Chapter starts Now!

---

The Sports Festival Part 12: An End to the Past

Third POV

SLLLUUURP SLLUUURRRP

On the outside of a dark alleyway, civilians and Pokémon walked by without a care about the path cloaked from their glancing eyes by the shadows of the buildings between. The most some would do when faced with the alleyway would be glance at it, feel a sense of uneasiness at the anonymity of what may lay beyond, and turn and walk away at a faster pace. The fear of the unknown is engraved into every living being on the planet, and if they ignored that instinct and went down this alleyway, they would regret it and start running away as fast as their legs could carry them.

At the end of the alleyway, another few pathways were shown with a dim white light illuminating the doorway to one of the buildings around the area, and that dim white light now shined on blood-stained walls.

The body of a normal-looking man sat slack against the wall, his normal white dress shirt stained in blood, especially around the stomach and collarbone where puncture wounds were revealed amidst the red stains. A surprised and horrified look was on the man's face, his last countenance frozen on his corpse, while the light of his eyes dulled and held nothing inside. The man had been dead for mere minutes, but his body was not alone in that alleyway.

SLLLUURRRPP SLLLUURRRP SLLLLURRRRP

A little bit away from the body crouched what looked like a girl in her teenage years, clothed in a khaki-colored, puffy, schoolgirl uniform, the collar of the uniform a navy blue like the girl's skirt that went down to her creamy pale thighs, ankle-high black socks, and a blood red scarf. The girl's pale, ash-blonde hair looked messy, styled in two buns by the sides of her head, but wild strands would pop out of the buns and the rest of the hair, with two, chin-lengthen side bangs framing her hidden face.

The girl's body shook, and a passerby from a glance would think she was shaking, likely in fear, but one only needed to see the blood-red stains on her shirt and cheeks and the sounds of slurping for one to have their blood chilled to the bone and start running for their lives. Illuminated by a light on the ground, the girl's eyes were a golden yellow, with slit-like irises like that of a feline Pokémon and they held a manic gleam to them that seemed blissful and crazed. On her red-stained, puffy sleeves, the girl held a pouch of red viscous liquid that she was eagerly stuffing her wide mouth into the plastic bag. When she raised her mouth free of the pouch, sighing in bliss, her mouth was stained red and her vampiric-like canines gleamed dangerously. The girl would only take a second to come up for air before plunging her mouth back into the pouch again, her canines sticking perfectly to the holes she previously punctured.

On the ground was a blood-stained knife, wet and red from the victim slack a few feet away from her, as well as the man's phone, its blue light illuminating her face. Stalking out from behind a trashcan, was a moving pale-yellow rag that resembled a Pikachu. What appeared like its droopy head resembled the Electric Mouse Pokémon in shape alone for its eyes were colored-in swirls, its mouth a drawn-in wiggly line in the facsimile of a smile and its cheeks were splotchy colored reddish, the ears of the head were even shaped like Pikachu, yet its black colored ends were wiggly and droopy too. The rag had no arms and legs simply a torso with two ovalish eyeholes and the end of the rag's fabric pooled to the ground with wispy black shadowy vapors leaking from what lay underneath the rag. A stick in the shape of Pikachu's tail also peeked out of the rag's backend. This was the Disguise Pokémon: Mimikyu.

Mimikyu glided toward the girl's side, unafraid. He lifted his head, but it was clear the squirming cries of the Pokémon came from the eyeholes on the torso, not the head. The Pokémon cried out concerned and inquisitive noises to the girl.

The girl ceased slurping from the bag, removing it from her lips sighing, satisfied, before a shiver went up her spine, forcing the girl to shake her head. "Bleh, not good," The girl said, making gagging-like sounds. "He tasted awful. Rotten."

Mimikyu turned his body to gaze at the slumped body by the wall and knew she was talking about the man his partner was with earlier...before she stabbed him.

"Not like I had better options," The girl muttered additionally, gazing at the man with a side glare. "Or like the bastard gave me much of an option."

Memories of the last few minutes replayed in her head. Previously, she walked around as inconspicuously as possible, blending into the crowd, hoping no one would notice her. It would be tricky for her if someone bothered to notice why a schoolgirl was just wandering through the streets in her uniform. Trickier if they recognize her from the posters.

Then the guy had to notice her. He was just standing around doing nothing and noticed her almost immediately. He didn't recognize her, just what she was, and stopped her in her tracks, asking if she was lost or alone. The girl knew what he was doing but played along, wondering how this would go. She tried her best to appear like a lost schoolgirl separated from her friends and the way the guy smiled said he bought it. The guy offered to help her call her friends if they stepped into the alley, the man's Drowzee right behind him. 'As if that wasn't sus as hell,' The girl scoffed to herself.

When they came to the end of the alleyway, the girl could sense the man's change in demeanor, how he carried himself, how he acted and talked. It was easy to see, but then the girl had experience. She knew guys like this, their tactics, the subtlest changes in their body movements. This wasn't the first one she ran into.

The guy gave her his phone and unlocked it for her, slowly circling her till he was behind her. The girl could practically feel how his eyes leered and gazed at her, especially her legs. Her peripheral picked up how he reached into his pocket and as he was pulling something out, her sharp nose picked up the smell wafting out as it peeked out of its confines. And that was when she struck.

Before the guy could raise his hand to bring the handkerchief to her mouth and nose, her knife was poking into his insides. The man froze in shock at the feeling slowly looking down just as the girl twisted and dangled the knife around his innards, making sure the creep could feel every inch of his life slipping away. She had stabbed him in the stomach and guts over and over when it seemed like the man was gathering strength for a desperate gamble, not that he would have gotten her, even at this close range. The man tried to grab her collar with his other arm, but she repaid that by stabbing his neck.

She noticed that his Drowzee had gotten over his shock during her process and was attempting to attack her in retribution until Mimikyu struck. Her darling Pokémon made himself known, seeping out of her shadow where he hid and struck the Hypnosis Pokémon away with a couple of Shadow Claws. The creep's Pokémon was just as spineless and cowardly as his partner as it ran and fled from the alleyway, leaving his Trainer to his fate.

As the Pokémon left and the man slowly died against the wall, the girl pulled out her makeshift sucking equipment and some pouches she carried in her puffy uniform's pockets, quickly draining the man of his life-giving water into her pouches. When it was done, the man was as pale as a sheet of paper and dead as a doornail and the girl had her sustenance.

'But what a lousy tasting blood he had,' The girl groaned, though she shouldn't have been surprised. It almost seemed like the sleazier a man was, the worse his blood tasted. The girl figured she was tasting their very essence, seeing who they really were on the inside. They all tasted wrong, gross, disgusting. 'Nothing like Saito.'

Saito's blood was the only one that tasted heavenly to her, compared to the creeps, geezers, and criminals unfortunate enough to come her way, Saito's blood was like a fine vintage of wine. She wondered if that was because he was good. He had gotten into fights back in her old school, but from what she saw of them, they were done with noble intentions, like keeping a pair of bullies away from his friend. It was so noble, and the blood leaking from his bruised nose smelled intoxicating. She wondered if that meant other good people would taste just as good.

The girl shivered and shook her head, collapsing onto her knees while she gripped her head as it drummed and echoed for delicious blood, not this paltry filth she forced herself to survive on. That was what she was doing this for: Survival. She needed it, she needed the blood, but she didn't need innocent blood, blood from good people, no matter how much her hunger wanted it, she knew she couldn't have it.

"Not again. Not like Saito. I'm not a demon child...I-I'm not..." The girl whimpered while tears flowed from her eyes, the manic bliss replaced with pain, agony, and sadness.

Mimikyu made a sad whine, slipping out a shadowy claw and resting it on her thigh. His true ovalish eyes were sad and in mourning for her pain.

"Oh, Mimi," The girl whimpered, reaching her arms to wrap around her only true friend in the whole world. Mimi stayed there but noticeably backed its faux head away. She remembered her appearance before the girl could whine and feel bad about Mimi's actions. Her hands and mouth were still stained in blood, and Mimi didn't want it to mess up his disguise.

"Oh, right, sorry, Mimi! One sec!" The girl wiped her hands and mouth with her red scarf before being as clean and unstainable as possible. She could have used that creep's handkerchief, but it was still emitting that foul smell, and she didn't want to knock herself out and wake up in cuffs by the time the police and heroes showed up.

When she went to hug her partner, Mimi didn't back away and the girl held back the rest of her tears, not wanting to mess Mimi's eyes and cheeks with them, again. He was the only friend she had, the only light in this dark and twisted world that didn't see her as a freak, a demon, or abnormal. With Mimi, she felt Normal, and with her, so too did Mimi.

A loud noise altered both the girl and Mimi. They turned to look at the creep's phone to see what she was previously watching while she was feasting: The U.A. Sports Festival. It was the only thing she could think of to watch, and she wanted some entertainment while she snacked on the man's blood. The phone was still open and for the taking, so she thought, 'Why not?'

When the girl looked at what was happening at the festival, she saw him. "S-Saito?" The girl whispered, astounded. Or at least the guy on the screen looked like Saito to her. He had the same round face as Saito, yet this boy's face was chiseled and leaner than Saito's pudgier one. The hair was messy and dark like Saito's, but Saito's was fully black not green and black. The eyes were like Saito's, but rather than his onyx black orbs, they were a fiery emerald green, a blue shine often appearing in his eyes. Oh, and Saito's Quirk did not have green electricity sparking off his body.

'And what a body it was,' the girl thought. The Saito-look-alike had his shirt removed, revealing a chiseled body like that of a demigod, his arms were purplish-red and broken, including his left leg, yet somehow the boy stood, his broken fist raised in the air while blood dripped down his bloody knuckles and broken fingers, and down his face from a cut on his head.

The boy had won the first of the Festival's semi-final matches against another boy, who too looked bruised and full of cuts, but it was the green-haired boy that the girl could not keep her eyes off. The way he stood strong and defiant, how strong he was from the recap that played, how he purposefully broke his fingers with the weird Quirk of his, the way the blood seeped out of him, yet he didn't care. He looked so much more imposing and powerful than Saito. Nobler. Abnormal. Cute.

"Izuku Midoriya," The girl read his name, a blush forming on her cheeks, her feline-like eyes gleaming with unparalleled interest, and her mouth widening in a loving, cat-like smile.

---

Izuku sighed, tiredly and depressingly. 'If I knew this is what awaited me past those doors, I would have just walked to the field.'

After Izuku had opened the doors to his waiting room, he was immediately bombarded with his friends and Pokémon, with hugs, and questions about his well-being, it was sweet and heart-warming. But then he when made it clear that he was fine and healthy, that was all the assurance the girls needed before what now bombarded Midoriya were pure, red-eyed glares, vehement admonishments, and a light amount of shaking him like a snow globe while calling him an idiot.

The most notable among the girls doing this were Serena, Yaomomo, and Mina, all three apparently on a mission to see who could tear him a new one quickly and effectively. Ochaco, Asui, and Toru weren't shy of delivering scornful and angry looks, but they were easier on him than the three righteously furious girls.

Other than him, his Pokémon, Iida, Kaminari, Kirishima, and Jiro were the ones left in the room. Clearly, Combusken and Iida were eager to say their piece on how reckless he was, but either they were cut off by the angry trio, mostly Iida, or felt their piece was already told by them. Kaminari and Kirishima chose to comically and awkwardly stay out of the line of fire, often hiding behind Iida. Kaminari muttered something about 'Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned'. Meanwhile, Jiro didn't tear into him or anything but just stood back and watched everything going on like it was a show, a very entertaining one at that.

Izuku sighed again, unable to refute most of what the girls accused him of. 'Being the biggest, braindead idiot on the planet? Maybe. Suicidally reckless? Probably. Inconsiderate jerk with no regard for their feelings and wishes form him to be safe? Definitely,' Izuku listed and rightfully accepted.

"Wish you were still in a coma, Boss?" Pikachu snickered.

'If Momo starts creating a baseball bat or a chainsaw? Absolutely,' Izuku thought, shivering with fright.

"Look, 'Zuku, we are not mad," Momo sighed.

"Livid really," Mina said, Serena nodding in agreement.

"...Okay, perhaps, but we were just so worried about you," Momo continued. "Recovery Girl said that you likely wouldn't wake up for days and the way you looked back then, it was like you had a terrible fever."

"Yeah, I figured," Izuku sighed. "I don't think I can tell you enough of how sorry I am for what I put you all through."

"Being our servant for the next week or two could be a nice start," Asui pointed out.

"I thought you weren't that mad?" Kirishima finally spoke up on his behalf, shivering in horror.

"Oh, I am pissed, but no use wasting my breath when Zu's head is harder than an Aggron's armor," Asui clarified, to which Izuku and Kirishima muttered with 'Fair'. "Plus, that was a joke."

"O-Oh. W-Well, good," Kirishima nodded, relieved that Midobro wouldn't end up a manservant to six pissed-off girls.

"Ooh, actually, that sounds like fun," Hagakure said, her voice giggling, excited.

"...Sorry, Midobro," Kirishima patted his shoulder, while Kaminari patted the other.

"We'll remember you fondly, my Pika Bro," Kaminari fake cried.

"Shut up," Izuku groaned half-heartedly.

"Jokes aside, I hope," Ochaco spoke up. "Are you sure that you're okay, Deku? Like 'able to compete in the final match' ready?"

"As far as Recovery Girl reluctantly says, yeah, I am," Izuku raised his scarred, crooked hand and fingers. "Said the scars would be permanent, it's just the trauma and crookedness that might fade in time, as long as I don't break my fingers and hand any time soon."

"I would sure hope to Arceus so," Serena said, sitting by him and taking his hand in hers, brushing the scars gently, shifting from her enraged state. "Scare me like that again, and I'm turning you into my Pokémon's live-firing target. Especially Piplup's."

"Noted," Izuku smirked, crossing his heart with the other hand. Serena smiled warmly at that.

"While this is all sweet and entertaining to watch, I think we still have some business to talk to you about, Midoriya," Jiro spoke, gathering everyone's attention. "But first, thanks for the earplugs. Owe you one."

"It's no problem, Jiro-san," Izuku smiled, nodding to her. "Think of us as even that I almost left you deaf with my last attack."

"Deal," Jiro smirked before her face turned serious. "It's about your final match-up."

Izuku frowned too, eyes drifting down to the ground. "It's Bakugou, isn't it?" Izuku asked though the answer felt obvious enough that he shouldn't have bothered.

The room was silent, giving Izuku all the answers he needed to know that in likely the next few minutes he would be called down to fight the ash-blonde boy in the final match of the Sports Festival.

"Midori, we need to know," Mina spoke up, her grim, serious face almost the opposite of what Izuku was used to seeing her with. "You and Bakugou, your history together, did he bully you?"

Izuku sighed, confirming his belief Mina fought against Bakugou so hard for that very reason. He looked around to see the same serious, grim looks on Jiro and Kirishima. "Did you guys figure it out too?" Izuku asked, once again redundantly.

"These jacks aren't here for show," Jiro twirled one of her jacks with her finger. "Hard to pick some stuff out of the explosions from that wannabe Primeape, but enough."

"And I confronted him much like Mina did," Kirishima nodded. "But that isn't an answer, man. We need to know."

Izuku turned his eyes to Serena, showing her his uncertainty A decade's worth of self-conditioning to keep his mouth shut acted as the final barrier to his response. Serena's eyes were as supportive as she could muster, holding and squeezing his scarred hand with both of hers as gently yet firmly as possible. She didn't say anything out loud, but Izuku knew exactly what she was conveying. Izuku looked down at Eevee and Pikachu with the same look.

"Don't look at us, Boss. This is your choice to make," Pikachu replied. "Whatever you want to say, we'll stand by it."

"The rodent speaks true," Froakie jumped in. "This is your secret, your past, your choice to trust them with this burden. We have no right to tell you otherwise."

"While you can tell them or not, you cannot keep this to yourself forever, Izuku," Combusken said her peace. "You have nothing to fear telling them the truth, but I will support your decision."

Finally, Eevee walked up and patted his leg. "We stand with you with whatever you choose, Izuku, but if it counts for anything, I think you can trust them," Eevee stated. "They're loyal, kind, respectful, and more than earned your trust."

With the final assurances from his closest supporters, Izuku gave one last deep, heavy sigh, his shoulders slumping free of this burden. Izuku nodded. "Yeah, he did."

Kirishima flinched, painfully. "How long?" he asked.

"You don't to-" Izuku tried to wave away.

"Midori. How long?" Mina said, sternly and finally.

Izuku paused before he forced himself to say the truth. "Every day. For 11 years," Izuku answered, forcing himself past the reflex he had formed to keep him from spilling his past, but once he pushed through it, he couldn't stop the flow, all the years' worth of pain, loneliness, and turmoil that Bakugou was at the helm of for most.

By the end of it, his classmates all had various reactions to the truth. Iida huffed and breathed deeply through his nose frequently and audibly, his arms chopping at speeds where they were but a blur at times. Jiro frowned deeply, her knuckles cracking under the weight of all she had heard, while her jacks seemed to sharpen against each other as if preparing to shiv Bakugou. Asui couldn't keep a blank face at what she heard one-eighth of the way through, and by the end, she was deeply frowning, glaring at the table like it had Bakugou's face printed on it, and croaking deeply and angrily. Hagakure had clung to him like Komala and wouldn't let go while she whimpered and cried for him. Ochaco looked sick and disturbed, panting like she was about to have a heart attack, while her wetting eyes held horror and shame in them. Kaminari looked the most outwardly angry, panting around the room while silently cursing out enough swears to make a sailor blush. Momo looked ready to throw up with how she heaved and had her hand over her mouth. Kirishima flinched with every new action Bakugou was guilty of whereby at the end, his knuckles were white, and he smacked his head onto a locker and stayed there shamefully.

The only ones who didn't react were Serena and his Pokémon but only because they already knew the whole truth, yet even still they felt enraged and sad for Izuku, with Serena, Combusken, and Froakie remorseful that they couldn't have been there for him. Eevee and Pikachu felt shame and anger that they couldn't have stopped the blonde or eased Izuku's pain more, despite being his partners and friends for the longest time.

One of Momo's and Ochaco's Pokeballs opened up and out came Ochaco's Kirlia, Airalin, and Momo's Togetic. The Emotion and Happiness Pokémon made a beeline for him, tackling him in a hug alongside Hagakure. The two incredibly saddened Pokémon heard every word and tried to inject as much happiness into them as possible.

"I'm not calling you Deku anymore," Ochaco muttered out loud.

"Ochaco," Izuku began.

"No, just No, Izuku," Ochaco vehemently denied him before he could get another word out, her eyes full of shameful tears. "I can't. After what you told me, what he did, I can't call you something He came up with and feel like I'm not insulting you too."

"Now you know how I felt when you first called him that," Serena muttered, honestly.

"Jesus Fucking Christ," Jiro muttered. "I know he was bad after what he did to Mina, and I knew he had issues after he tried to blow you to pieces in the Battle Exercise, but this...this is full-on torture. I know rock and metal artists who killed themselves for less!"

"Preach, sister!" Kaminari exclaimed angrily. "That asshole has no business being here, let alone your final opponent! I have half a mind to march out there myself and shock him till he's braindead!"

"Finally! Someone's speaking my language!" Pikachu exclaimed.

"While your heart is in the right place, Kaminari, I cannot simply allow you to do that," Iida shook his head. "Know that I too wish for retribution, painful even to my shame, but I will not see you imprisoned for that...that-!"

"I believe you are looking for the word 'monster' to describe him," Asui said. "Quirkist. Hatemonger. Demon child. Shall I go on?"

"Oh, I think we may need a new dictionary definition of the kind of sociopath Bakugou is," Momo fumed. "I can see why you were able to save Todoroki, 'Zuku. Compared to him, Todoroki is a saint."

"Please," Hagakure's voice whimpered as she tightened her hug on Izuku. "Never do what he said. Never. Never. Never."

"I promise," Izuku hugged her back while she broke down into tears by the end. "I'll sooner have Pikachu and Combusken roast me to a crisp than let myself do that."

"Noted," Pikachu and Combusken both muttered.

"You know, weirdly enough, I feel a lot better knowing my pain was so insignificant compared to what you faced, Midori," Mina muttered, honestly.

"No, never say that, Mina," Izuku shook his head, glaring deeply and sadly at her. "Watching you get hurt because of me was worse than anything he could have done and did to me."

Mina's cheeks turned lilac for a moment before she sighed. "Fine, but I feel wholly justified in scarring him. No shame or remorse at all," Mina declared.

"Trust me, girl, what you did I wanted to do for so long," Serena vouched for the pinkette. "I was super jealous until you got attacked by that beast."

"So," Kirishima finally spoke, his voice miserable and ashamed. "He was already a jerk before he got his Quirk, and he started this one-sided blood feud because you wanted to help me after he fell from a log?"

"I'm not sure if that is what truly started everything, but he did seem to hate me more openly after that," Izuku answered honestly.

"And he only stopped till when?" Kirishima asked further.

"Till after I freed him from the Sludge Villain," Izuku responded. "He didn't apologize or anything, just left me alone for the whole year and his lackeys followed his lead. He didn't try anything till the Quirk Apprehension Test."

"Oh, whoop dee doo! He treated you like a ghost after spending 11 years trying to make you one!" Kaminari said sarcastically while he threw his hands up in the air. "That sure makes up for everything!"

"Okay, that's enough from you," Jiro poked at his head with her jack.

"Hey! I was being sarcastic!" Kaminari defended himself.

"And not helpful," Jiro glared at him, putting her point across.

"And your Pokémon? Did he do the same to Eevee and Pikachu?" Momo asked.

"Bakugou couldn't do anything to Pikachu if he wanted to, but he left Eevee's treatment to whatever his Quillava wanted," Izuku said with no qualms or hesitation, caring more about his Pokémon's safety than his own. "It was mostly just rough Pokémon battles."

"Oh, you poor thing! Come here, you!" Hagakure switched her comfort to Eevee, bringing the Evolution Pokémon into a bone-breaking hug. Eevee gave Izuku a slightly dirty look before focusing on trying to breathe through Hagakure's affections.

"Argh! I'm such an idiot!" Kirishima yelled, smashing his hardened hand on one of the lockers and denting it. "How could I see that unmanly bastard as someone worth admiring?"

"You should be asking me that question," Izuku snickered bitterly. "I've been admiring him as my Symbol of Strength for the longest time while he was tormenting me. You're not as much an idiot as me."

"But both of you managed to see the truth in the end," Serena pointed out, still holding Izuku's hand. "Just like how you helped Todoroki snap out of his issues, the both of you came through in the end."

"Better late than never, right?" Ochaco agreed.

"You can't fight him, 'Zuku," Momo shook her head. "You just can't. Once was enough during the Battle Exercise, and he nearly killed you then. I can't have you with five feet of him ever again."

"She does remember that Bakugou sits right in front of him in their classroom, right?" Froakie pointed out.

"You know what she means," Combusken hushed him. "And even then, she isn't wrong that is a smart thing to do."

"You know why that's not an option," Izuku stared at Momo.

"You already beat Todoroki, that should be enough to show my parents," Momo argued desperately. "I know that if we both talk to them, we can-"

"Momo!" Izuku yelled, cutting Momo off. "I have to do this. For you, for me, for Mina and Kirishima too."

"Midori, if this is about what happened in my fight with him-" Mina began to say before Izuku cut her off too.

"He can't keep getting away with hurting everyone and everything I care about!" Izuku slammed his fist into the table, silencing everyone. "I can't just run away from my problems if I want to overcome them. Bakugou's my problem, my past." Izuku's mind took back to how he spent an entire fight and talk making Todoroki forget the trauma of his past to move forward. Izuku stared at everyone with fire in his eyes. "I need to face him."

Serena sighed dejectedly. "Alright, if that's what you think is best," Serena squeezed his scarred hand, placing it on her shoulder while placing her other hand over his heart, smiling lovingly at him. "I'm with you, Izu, to the end."

"As am I," Iida stood straight and nodded, smiling too. "You are my Class Rep, my trusted comrade and classmate, and my closest friend. If you believe this is what you must do to overcome the past, I will support you wholeheartedly." Iida shared a glance with Serena, nodding at her. The strawberry blonde smirked and nodded back, impressed.

"Same here," Ochaco stood from her seat. "You say you need to beat Bakugou, then go for it! Show him the kind of Hero you are!"

"Our Pika Gal is correct, bro," Kaminari grinned, giving a thumbs up. "Kick his butt!"

"I know there's no use changing your mind, and it would be foolish of me to try to argue with you any further," Asui stood from her seat, smiling. "Even if I don't want to see you get hurt, I trust that you can beat and overcome him."

"Yeah! Bakugou's nothing but a big bully, like a Villain," Hagakure released Eevee from her hug and jumped up, pumping her invisible fists into the air. "You go beat him for good, and I'll cheer you on the whole way through!"

"I know I'm not too into your group or know you as well as the others, but what I do know about you is that you're a fighter, Midoriya," Jiro pushed herself off the wall she leaned on, crossing her arms, smirking, and nodding at him. "You don't give up until the bitter end, and I know you'll beat him."

"I still think you don't need to go so far for me, Midori, but I'd much rather you win this and show that jerk what happens to bullies," Mina grinned. "Kiri and I may have joined this little war against Bakugou, but you're the only one who can finish it. So, win, kay?!"

"What she said!" Kirishima pumped his fist. "Win this Class Rep, show that unmanly bastard that you can't push people around and get away with it!"

Izuku looked at his Pokémon.

"You need us to repeat ourselves, Boss?" Pikachu grinned. "We're with you, every step of the way!"

"I have never known a kinder, more selfless, and heroic soul than yours, Master Izuku," Froakie said. "And I know that such a fire Katsuki Bakugou can never extinguish. You will win, I'm sure of it."

"This is your Crucible, Izuku, your choice, and whatever path you take, we will follow you to the ends of the earth," Combusken affirmed.

"This all started back on that day, Izuku. This has been a long time coming, and only you can truly beat him in every sense of the word," Eevee smiled. "Prove to him that you deserve to be here, nothing he says can change that."

Izuku smiled warmly, blinking away tears at the support of his Pokémon, his friends, and classmates. Finally, he turned to Momo, the last to speak. Her face still held apprehension, guilt, and worry, until she finally sighed and stood from her seat, turning to Izuku with trustful eyes.

"I've asked too much of you this whole festival, 'Zuku, and every challenge you faced, you overcame it all, proving to everyone why you are here, why you are the best, and why you are already a Hero to all of us," Momo declared, smiling at him, hand over her heart. "So, go, My Hero, Go Plus Ultra, and come back to us safe and sound."

"I may be the last person to say this, but you have to care about yourself, be a tiny bit selfish, at least so that those you care about don't worry about you," All Might's words from before repeated, and Izuku could truly see what he meant. Momo's words reminded Izuku of him saving Uraraka and Hagakure from the Zero Pointer, Asui from the Nomu, and her sister Satsuki from Wishiwashi, rewarded Iida for his determination, how he got payback for Momo and Ochaco by beating Todoroki and even saved All Might from Shigaraki. Now, he had to deliver payback to Mina and Kirishima by beating Bakugou, and he still had to win this whole Festival to save Momo from her parents.

He could not afford to lose.

"Okay," Izuku said, smirking while a jolt of electricity shined in his eyes. "I promise I'll win, for all of you, for everything we worked to achieve. I'll win the damn Festival because that's my job as a Hero."

Izuku's friends and Pokémon nodded and smiled, silently sending their hopes and prayers to their friend and leader again. Meanwhile, Jiro gasped silently at the sheer aura that Izuku held around him, this drive and fire that sparked when it counted, overwhelming and encouraging her. She could see why Momo, Serena, and the other girls were so intrigued by Izuku Midoriya. Jiro smiled with a slight blush on her cheeks. 'He's quite a guy, huh?'

"Okay, mushy time is over, kiddos," Jiro clapped her hands and gathered everyone's attention. "Green here is gonna get called down any minute now, and while inspirational quotes are great and all, we need a plan to beat Bakugou's ass so bad he doesn't even dare come after any of us again."

Izuku nodded yet still kept his confident smirk. "I think I know just the way to do it."

---

Elsewhere...

Kaiya Himawari sighed wondering what became of her life as she sat where she was.

The girl with sunflowers in her hair sat at a table in a coffee shop in Musutafu, surrounded by her peers. They laughed and joked with each other, joking about good times that she had no recollection of, maybe because she didn't experience any joy in them or wasn't around for them.

The guys and girls at the two tables were all her former classmates from Aldera who just so happened to enter the same, plain, boring Dantooine High School. Many wanted to get into Hero Course schools and attended several exams across Japan, but then they wouldn't be here at plain old Dantooine High if they had passed, right? Himawari didn't try though, she and her Quirk, she felt, weren't the right fit for the Hero Business, but she mostly kept this to herself, knowing that her fellow Hero-obsessed classmates would mock her for not sharing the same interest as all of them. So, she stayed silent and just became another face in the world. Where the sun shined, she followed, and when her peers expressed their desires to be Heroes, she lied so that she wouldn't be an outcast.

'Like De-Midoriya,' Himawari cringed as she thought about him, which wasn't hard because one of the things that gave her so-called friends enjoyment reminiscing was the pranks, taunts, and even bullying sessions they did to Izuku 'Deku' Midoriya, the Quirkless freak of their school, the unwanted loser with no Quirk of his own, but where they would say that he was unloved, she knew that was not true. She did.

For a long time, she had a crush on Izuku Midoriya. As much as the people of Aldera, both teachers and students, tried to stomp him down and beat him into the dirt, he always got back up and didn't retaliate or whine about it, he just took the abuse he constantly suffered and moved on. Most of their former school thought he was spineless, but Himawari thought he was strong. She could see that he held bitterness and resentment in his eyes, but always seemed to stare at something she couldn't see, some memory in his mind perhaps, and the anger vanished, or maybe he was just that good at burying it deep down. He was kind, selfless, and stayed true to his convictions, desires, and dreams to be a Hero, even without a Quirk. He never let their peers tell him what to do or back down. Himawari envied and admired that about him. And the way he smiled, those rare smiles he had that she witnessed, they were so blinding and warm, she wanted nothing more than to go to him and tell him how she felt, to be there for him and be the sole flower in his field, the sole flower that would grow defiant of the beasts that would trample on him.

But she didn't, because Himawari was a coward, too afraid to go against the norm, too scared to stand up for herself, too spineless to pursue what she wanted. Now she had lost it without ever having a chance to take it.

Himawari always assumed that Izuku would end up in a school like theirs and it's to her shame she thought that because it meant she didn't believe in him despite the drive she admired. She wanted it to be the case because then she would have more time to pursue and gather the courage she needed to talk to him, but the world was cruel and petty and made her pay for her cowardness.

Now, Izuku Midoriya was at U.A. High School, a Hero Student, and had a Quirk of his own. Worse, he had a girlfriend. Himawari remembered that fateful trip to the mall with her friends where she didn't expect to find Izuku. She didn't want to say anything, she didn't want to inform her friends about spotting him. She thought that if she could give her friends the slip for a few minutes, she could have some time alone with him, a chance to apologize and explain herself, maybe even confess, but Sakura caught her gaze and where she was looking at and she spotted Midoriya. Everything went wrong after that.

Himawari had to, she tried convincing herself so many times that she had to follow along and mock him, she couldn't let her friendships and prosperous high school life end in disaster before it started. But no matter how many times she tried to talk herself over in the mirror, she failed, she failed to stand up for herself, she acted as cruelly and bitchy as her friends, and she felt her heart break at Izuku's words.

"What happened to you, Himawari-chan?" Himawari remembered Izuku sighing and looking at her sadly and disappointed. "I remember when you used to be as kind as your Quirk. Why did you become this?"

It took everything she had not to break from her act, and she knew that she had slipped for a bit, but Sakura's jealous remark stopped herself or the others from noticing. And then that girl came. She was so beautiful, she had to admit it, she was like a supermodel, or an angel compared to them, compared to her, and she saw how she brushed past them like they were nothing and hugged Izuku's arm like she had no shame or care for what others thought. She had to be his girlfriend, the way she talked to him, the way they interacted and looked at each other, there was no other explanation. The beautiful girl even revealed that she was also going to be a Hero student, unveiled that Izuku was one too, and she could see all her hopes for being with Izuku wilting away like the unkept flower it was.

And when he said they were nobody to him, she was nobody to him...Himawari cried in her pillow for weeks.

She lost him, she lost everything she hoped for, because she was too much of a coward to stand up against the girls, Bakugou, or anyone. She lost him because, deep in her heart, she didn't truly believe in him and stand up for him. And now she lost him to a girl who did, who knew what she wanted and took it for herself, and Himawari could only stand there, a lone rotten sunflower gazing achingly for the bright sun she failed to claim and cherish.

"What happened to you, Himawari-chan?" Izuku's words taunted her again, his disappointed emerald eyes in her mind, staring down at her. "Why did you become this?"

'I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry,' Himawari cried inside, repeating what she always said when he came to her in her dreams, bawling her eyes out.

"Himawari-chan?" Himawari was freed from her daydreams to see Sakura staring at her with concern. "Are you okay? You're crying."

Himawari blinked recognizing what she was doing, where she was, and who was around her. "I-I'm sorry, it's nothing!" Himawari yelped as she brushed away the tears. "I think my eyes were stuffy from dust or something."

"Oh, okay," Sakura immediately accepted, smiling lovingly at her.

Himawari did her best to keep the shiver running down her spine from being noticeable. Sakura was in love with her, she could realize that as plain as day. Sakura always had a thing more for chicks than guys, and while there was nothing wrong with that, it was just that Himawari didn't swing that way or see Sakura in any way shape, or form like that. She barely saw Sakura as tolerable to hang around.

"I guess this place is quite the dump anyway!" Sakura laughed haughtily, some of the others joining her while ignoring or not noticing one of the workers giving them a side-eye. Himawari tried to mouth out a silent 'sorry' to them.

That was what she meant. Sakura was a bitch, plain and simple. The pink-haired girl treated everyone around her like crap, especially Izuku and most guys that she interacted with; even the guys they were with right now, some of them she gave the stink eye to. When asked, Sakura would go on a rant saying that 'it's because they are men. Smelly, idiotic, perverted, sexist, meatheads that only see women as tools of sexual gratification or a nice-looking doll to wrap their arms around smugly'.

'If only Sakura had the self-awareness to realize how much of what she said applied to her too,' Himawari thought, expressing nothing but disgust and pity for the man-hating girl.

"Speaking of a worthless dump, you guys hear about Deku?" One of the guys with them, Yubi, one of Bakugou's main lackeys, spoke.

"Nah, haven't seen that loser since we left Aldera," Kenji, another of Bakugou's close lackeys -or at least close by the definition that he was always standing by him- scoffed. "Didn't he say the teacher said he was going to U.A.?"

"Yeah, but, come on, you don't actually believe that shit, do you?" Yubi scoffed too. "No way he got into the Hero Course without a Quirk. He probably just became a Business Course loser."

"That's what we thought, too," Mifuyu, one of the girls Himawari was with at the mall, said. "Then that girl showed up."

"Girl?" Kenji raised an eyebrow. "With Deku?"

"Trust me, we were surprised as well," Aki, the last of the four that was there with her, Sakura, and Mifuyu, jumped in. "She was clinging onto him, said she was in the Hero Course, and then talked about Deku's Quirk and how he got into the Hero Course like normal. It was freaky."

"Nah, no way, that's bullshit," Yubi shook his head, denying the revelation, and totally not because the possibility of it all being true made him feel super jealous. "Shitty Deku probably lied to score that girl and threw money at her to 'date' him."

"Y-Yeah, that makes sense," Aki muttered, still unsure.

"Come on, Aki, it makes the only sense," Sakura jumped back in. "Deku with a girl that hot? It's ridiculous."

"Are you sure you aren't saying this because you were burning and raving with jealousy after Deku left with that hot girl?" Mifuyu raised an eyebrow.

Sakura started going into a heated tirade defending herself and bad-mouthing Midoriya that it got the guys to laugh, yet Himawari sulked in silence,

As she stared miserably at the table, her Sunflora stood beside her, frowning sadly at the state of her Trainer, but couldn't say anything to help her. She tried to get through to her so many times to follow her heart, to forget these cruel and vindictive people that she thought were her friends, and to chase after the boy she wanted. But she didn't, she chose to let herself follow the herd, to mock the boy she liked just like everyone else, and now she had lost him, possibly for good, and there was no going back and changing the past. Now, her Trainer has to live with this regret, Sunflora only hoped that her Trainer would take this as the life lesson she needed to grow up.

"Hey! Turn up the volume!" One of the guys from the other table yelled out to the workers, gesturing to the shop's TV. "The Sports Festival is back on!"

Despite the rudeness of these customers, the worker did as requested, mainly because he also wanted to see how the famous festival ended.

"Tell me, why didn't we just go over to your house and watch the whole thing?" Another guy asked.

"I'm still 'forbidden' from bringing anyone home after you guys crashed the place at that party," The first guy said, making air quotes and a whiny tone when saying forbidden. "Plus, you know me, man, can't stand waiting around. Rather see how it ends and then catch up. My mom's got the whole thing recorded anyway."

"HEY Y'ALL SPORTS FANS!" Present Mic's voice played on the TV. "Get ready, because the Sports Festival Finals will be on momentarily! The final matchup between our two final competitors is close to happening. Who will end up our 1st-Year Festival Champion?! But before then, let's do a little recap on our two final students! The first is Katsuki Bakugou!"

Cheers and toasts from the group sounded obnoxious as they rooted for Aldera's star student. Yubi and Kenji bragged about being in with Bakugou and how they were sure they might get a shout-out from the guy, just waiting to ride the guy's coattails. Himawari rolled her eyes at how stupid the two of them were. She may not have been close to the explosive blonde, but she knew fully well that the prick cared about no one but himself and only saw the two as disposable lackeys till he got to U.A. Himawari was convinced that Bakugou had probably forgotten all about them by now.

"And his opponent, Izuku Midoriya!" Present Mic announced.

The whole group went silent as the grave. Widened eyes and slacked jaws were present in every one of them, even Himawari. The sunflower girl slowly looked at the screen to see the recap of Izuku's highlights throughout the festival. The kids from Aldera were subjected to their worst nightmares become realization, the most ludicrous possibility coming into reality, and dumping onto them all like a bucket of cold water. They witnessed clips of Izuku using his Quirk, tearing through robots, small and tall, knocking a scarred teen and Bakugou away with explosive mines, and zipping through the finish line in first with a Combusken, and that was just the First Event. The 2nd showed Midoriya teaming up with three others, how he smiled and acted so much more confidently and bravely than anything they saw in Aldera; when Midoriya had jumped out of the dark fog around his flying ship and fired that blue explosive orb, Himawari could see that Aki and Mifuyu both had blushed a bit; Himawari knew she was much the same. The only girl who wasn't was Sakura, Himawari knew that the red on Sakura's face wasn't a blush in any romantic sense, but rather one of anger and displeasure.

Then they saw the clips gathered from the 3rd Event, the one-on-one tournament matches, and Himawari knew the guys were all paling in dread. From the lightshow and display of power from his match with a Hitoshi Shinsou that made him look like a vengeful demigod, the speed and power he held with even just a snap of his fingers, and, most insanely, his fight with the scarred kid, Shoto Todoroki, how he wiped away glaciers of ice with a snap of his fingers and kept fighting even with hands full of broken fingers, until the explosive climax of the fight and Izuku stood tall and victorious, his muscular body making Himawari's heart skip a beat. In the first fight with that Shinsou guy, Himawari felt touched and close to tears at Izuku's loudly projected words, the sunflowers in her hair tingling and dancing in affirmation of the green-haired boy's declaration.

"I-Impossible," Kenji gasped out, horrified and in disbelief.

"H-He really does have a Quirk," Aki muttered, likewise disbelieving in what she was seeing. "And he is in U.A.'s Hero Course."

"Amazing," Mifuyu gasped and panted with lust.

Himawari was lost in the clips on screen, seeing her longtime crush succeed through every event and challenge in his way, and all with that blinding smile, she felt like she was looking at the second coming of All Might! 'He did it. He really did it!' Himawari thought joyfully at seeing Izuku finally achieve what he always declared he would do. He's in U.A., he's training to be a Hero, he has a Quirk, and he's even outperformed Bakugou in the past events. The only thing that dampened Himawari's joy was the clips of Midoriya with those girls, including the girl from the mall who took Izuku for herself. She could tell all those girls had feelings for him and the way Izuku smiled and interacted with them, broke her heart into further pieces.

'H-He...he really did it, didn't he,' Himawari thought, now more bitterly and sadly than before. Izuku was living his dream, growing stronger and more popular in the eyes of the world, truly on his way to being a Hero...and forgotten completely about them all, including her. And just like then, she felt like a sunflower yearning for the sun's attention, but he was shining his heroic light on anything but her, and she had no one to blame but herself.

"No, no, I can't believe this! This is impossible!" Sakura finally raged, slamming her hands into the table, her teeth grinding so hard together they all thought they would break. "That can't be Shitty Deku! He's nothing more than a Quirkless loser who can't do anything right! This is some hoax, a lie! I won't accept it!"

Sunflora frowned at Sakura and looked to her Trainer to see she wasn't doing any better, no, she was livid. Himawari heard Sakura's vitriol-fueled ranting and fumed. Memories flashed through her mind in rapid-fire of all the times she stood on the sidelines letting Izuku get tormented by their whole school, she remembered when they played that cruel White Day prank on him that left him looking broken and smelling of expired milk for days, she remembered how she joined in mocking him, his words to her at the mall, and him walking out on her life, as if he ever believed he was part of it.

No, she couldn't take it. Not now, now ever again. If Midoriya could overcome all the odds and achieve what he wanted, why couldn't she?

"Shut up, Sakura," Himawari muttered.

Sakura blinked in surprise. "W-What?" The pink-haired girl stuttered out in surprise.

"I said Shut Up!" Himawari stood from her seat slamming her hands on the table, her loud voice startling all the group around them. But she didn't care about them, Himawari only cared about glaring venomously at Sakura, taking glee in watching those creepy lovey-dovey eyes of hers break. "You have to be the most stupid, self-centered, arrogant, prideful girl I've ever met! You just saw it for yourself, clear as day, and for the whole world to see, that Izuku has a Quirk and is doing well, yet you refuse it?! Do you really think U.A. would ever entertain some hoax like that or be able to fool or fabricate any of that?! No, you just can't accept that Izuku isn't the worthless Deku you think he is. That all of you think he is!"

"I heard those mutters, Yubi, when you saw Izuku with those girls. You think I can't hear it with you right next to me?!" Himawari drilled into Yubi while he paled that his jealous mutterings were heard. "You're jealous that the guy you saw as an unattractive shrimp has more rizz than Bakugou, and you. Especially you. Well take a good look, buddy, but 'Shitty Deku' is living the dream, and you are stuck here with the rest of us worthless extras on the sidelines."

"Kenji, did standing so close to Bakugou and his explosions mess up your head or something?!" Himawari turned to a stunned Kenji. "You think Bakugou will shout out to you and Yubi if he wins? And I say 'if' because it looks like the Deku you all bullied has been beating him in all the rounds of the Sports Festival. No, Bakugou never gave two craps about you two! You two were just his lackeys, human Chatots parroting everything he said, ugly Mr. Mimes mimicking everything he did because you thought it was so cool and would get you closer to him. Were you that desperate to suck up to him? Or should I say suck him off?" Kenji's face burned red at the implications. "No, the truth is that Bakugou doesn't care about you guys enough to know your names, let alone remember you, and neither does Izuku. They've moved on from all of us, barely a footnote in their stories, and there is nothing you can do about it."

"And you girls, Aki, Mifuyu," Himawari turned her wrath on the two girls. "Where do you get off blushing and drooling at Izuku now of all times? Just because he has a better figure than any guy you could score? Because he now has a super-strong Quirk and is working to become a Hero? No, you don't have the right to gawk at him, neither of us do."

"B-But," Mifuyu gained enough composure to break free of her stunned silence to speak up. "What about-"

"What? What about me? Is that what you were going to say?!" Himawari interrupted her, and from how Mifuyu shut her mouth, it was. "Even I don't have the right to drool over him. I've been a part of this worthless gang of horrible people mocking, belittling, and tormenting him for so long and for no good reason. I was too much of a coward to stand up to any of you for him, even with what I felt for him, and that is my fault, a fault I can never make up for." Himawari's eyes teared up. "But at least I can live up to my mistakes and call myself out as unworthy of him, unlike the rest of you." Her words seemed to leave her mark as Aki and Mifuyu looked down at the table in shame.

"And you," Himawari turned to Sakura. "I know what you feel about me, you are about as subtle as Bakugou's inflated ego, but I don't feel the same. I don't even see you as someone worthy of being a friend. No, all I see is a horrible bitch with a heart as black as dirt and as foul as a dump. I don't love you, and I never will. There's only one person I ever wanted, and you won't be half as wonderful as him." Himawari gestured to the screen and made it clear to the bawling Sakura.

Himawari gazed at all of the people from Aldera with a hateful eye. "None of us will be worth remembering. No one will give one flying crap about a gang of nothing but bullies, hypocrites, and cowards. And if I have to be one of you in that sense, that's fine by me," Himawari declared. "I've lost the right to be any better than the rest of you, lost my chance to make amends repeatedly. But at least I can clarify one thing: stay away from me and never bad mouth Izuku in my presence again. Or I'll show you that this little sunflower is not as helpless or innocent as you think." On cue, the sunflowers in her hair grew and glowed a violent golden light.

With her words said, Himawari grabbed her purse and slammed some yen on the counter. "For the coffee," Himawari said, picking up her drink. "Come on, Sunflora. Let's go." Sunflora nodded and walked away with her Trainer, giving a raspberry on their way out.

As they left, Himawari spotted the worker of the shop nod proudly at her, and that did help put a smile back on her face. For now, though, as she left the coffee shop, she began booking it to her apartment, eager to get there and turn on the T.V. to watch the final round. She needs to see him, even from afar. Himawari needed to see her long-time crush beat his lifelong bully and pray for forgiveness. She couldn't lose Hope, she had to try even if she wasn't worthy of it.

---

Back at the Sports Festival Stadium...

"Here It Is, Sports Fans! The Wait is Over!" Present Mic's voice thundered across the stadium, while, in the booth, he raised his fist. "It's Time For the Final Round!"

The audience roared while the screens showed both Izuku Midoriya and Katsuki Bakugou on screen, one with a straight, calculative glare while the other looked enraged as always.

All the students from the different 1st-year courses sat in their seats, waiting in anticipation of the fight to end the Festival, none more so than Class 1-A themselves. All of Izuku's friends and classmates were gathered at their seats, except for Hagakure who continued cheering for Izuku with her pom poms and cheerleader outfit. Combusken chose to stand by the rail, Froakie and Pikachu sat on it, the latter wearing his black and green Lucha Mask, and Eevee sat on Momo's lap, while the heiress wrapped her arms around the Evolution Pokémon. The only one in their class who was absent was Todoroki, who lay on his bed in Recovery Girl's room, watching the fight via her T.V. screen.

All of Class 1-B gave the field their full attention too, especially after the discussion they held about the relationship and past of the two fighters left. While Tetsutetsu was unashamed and held little hesitance to root for the green-haired fighter, Monoma stared analytically at the field, remembering Midoriya's loud words from his fight with Shinsou. Setsuna, meanwhile, removed one of her ears and floated it over their stand and down toward the field, sneakily heading towards Midnight and Cementoss.

Mineta likewise cheered, jumping in his seat with the rest of the General Studies students. Shinsou sat silently, arms crossed, and waited for the fight, casting his support for the boy who showed him how wrong he was and steered him on the right path he lost.

Mei sat with the Support Course students, yet they were all surprised she was paying full attention to the upcoming fight. In the short time they knew her and came to fear her boundless inventive drive, for once, she wasn't focused on one of her 'babies', and instead cast her full, zoom-enhanced attention to the field. They didn't know that she was rooting for the one she called her 'Future Husband'.

Even the Business Course students were caught up in the excitement and thrill of the fight to end the Festival, pondering to themselves about the commercial viability, pros, cons, and popularity between the average-looking yet physically, and inspirationally, powerful greenette and the explosive, rough, almost feral bad boy blonde.

"We've had upsets and come-from-behind victories, explosive highs and time-consuming lows, we've even had the most surprising eliminations and battles in Sports Festival history," Present Mic kept announcing, working to build up more hype for the Festival's finale. "But it's all led up to this!"

Aizawa stared down at the field with serious, keen eyes, his hands nervously flexing and itching underneath their wrappings. Two of his most volatile students will finally face each other and now, knowing what he did about the two's past, he was left antsy to call off the whole Festival, worried about what damage might be done with either one or both of bitter rivals.

"One Final Match to win it all!" As Mic's voice projected, Taishi, Nezu, and Nejire sat and stood in the former two's booth. Taishi muttered something to Nejire who held a surprised look on her face, directing her gaze over to the 1-A stands.

"One Final Brawl to prove who is the best!" Mirio and Tamaki continued watching from their seats, briefly wondering where Nejire went off to, while Nighteye glared venomously at his computer screen, unaware and uncaring of the worried glances from his sidekicks.

"One Final Fight to crown this year's 1st Year Sports Festival Champion!" From afar, Riley, Lucario, and Riolu stared eagerly for what, if any, great feat of Aura a certain Chosen One would show. The same sentiment was shared with Cynthia, as she and her Garchomp watched from their room while Alexa had her camera up and ready.

Shigaraki, his Master, and the cloaked man all too watched with analytical gazes, studying their would-be enemies and even a potential pawn/recruit.

Inko and the Bakugou parents all sat with nervous trepidation, the mothers of the boys holding the other's hand, feeling each other's worries from their bone-crushing grips.

"Now, let us bring out our two fantastical finalists!" Mic announced as both boys finally walked out of their respective entranceways. "In one corner, he's been blasting through opponent after opponent throughout the Festival. Will he rocket his way to victory or will this be where his spark is snuffed out?! From the 1-A Hero Course, it's Katsuki Bakugou!"

The boy himself marched down the field and up the stairs with a menacing growl on his lips and burning red eyes that held only vengeance and hatred. Small sparks crackled in his hands at Mic's words, eager to prove the host wrong and blast his most hated enemy away.

"And in the other, he's shown us one of the most destructive and brutal battles last round, yet he's still up and refuses to stay down!" Mic continued. "Will he finally fall and not get up, or will he smash his way to victory?! Also, from the 1-A Hero Course, it's Izuku Midoriya!"

Izuku calmly yet determinedly walked to the fighting stage, the cheers of his friends heard behind him, and his greatest foe and obstacle ahead of him. His eyes sparked with a flash of green lightning as he steeled his nerves, batting away all the years of fear and conditioning the boy before him inflicted on him.

Finally, both boys stepped onto the stage, meters away from each other. The crowd's roars, Present Mic, and even the very wind were numb to both boys as they stared each other down.

"Heh, I've been waiting for this, for a very long time," Bakugou grinned menacingly. "You've got a lot of nerve, you Shitty Nerd. Making me root for you to win, made me feel sick. But it was worth it so that you could be here, against me, the one who will put you back to your place!"

Midnight frowned, her nerves as a Hero flaring up that this would get ugly fast. Likewise, Setsuna frowned, overhearing Bakugou's tone and choice of words, all raging red flags.

Izuku stayed silent, simply glaring steadily at his life-long bully.

Bakugou dropped his grin into a snarl. "What? Got nothing to say now, Deku?!" Bakugou growled out tauntingly. "You've been talking a lot of shit this whole festival, but now you freeze up?!"

Izuku sighed, dramatically, causing Bakugou's forehead veins to twitch. "What can I bother saying?" Izuku questioned the blonde while keeping his eyes closed. "Nothing I say will change anything. I gave you so many chances to change, for you to become the great person and Hero that I thought you could be, for us to be friends again, but then, I don't think we ever were real friends, right, Kacchan?" Bakugou blinked in surprise at the almost defeated tone in Izuku's voice when he said that. "I even gave you a chance after we both got into U.A. for you to be better, for us to put our past behind us, but no matter how great you are at everything, you always fail." Bakugou's fists clenched tightly. Izuku opened his eyes, catching the action. "You will always see me as lesser, end up the bully, and hurt others. So, why bother now?"

"I told you again and again, Deku," Bakugou's growl came up with a threatening whisper, while the veins on his hands and head bulged, his palms heating up. His glare held a disturbing blend of excitement and fury. "Don't. Look. Down on Me!"

"Well, great, he's got him riled up, now," Kaminari muttered, sarcastically.

"Are we sure this was the best course of action Zu should have taken?" Asui questioned, skeptically.

Serena frowned as she recalled back to their strategizing in the locker room.

---

Flashback...

"...Izu, I know that when it comes to you of all people, you're a battle strategy mastermind," Serena took a deep breath, collecting her thoughts. "But That's Your Game Plan Against Bakugou?! Antagonizing Him?!"

The rest of the group was in disbelief and skeptical about Izuku's battle plan against Bakugou.

"Yeah, I mean, I'm all for shit-talking that asshole, but did you not see what happened to me and Kiri when we did that?" Mina questioned, gesturing to herself and Kirishima as they were still in bandages and wrappings.

"I know it's risky and ill-advised, but it's the best plan I got," Izuku replied, honestly. "When determined and focused, Bakugou is just as great at strategy and battle tactics as me, maybe even better. If I let him stay calm and collected, he could be harder to beat. He already has an advantage in the field."

"That is true," Momo muttered. "Back in your Battle Training Exercise, you had more of an even playing field in a closed environment because you could jump and bounce around the walls and floor, but with an open field, Bakugou's ability to fly with his explosions gives him an aerial and movement advantage."

"And his long-range capabilities would be easier to capitalize compared to Midoriya's short-range combat," Iida added. "Midoriya's only viable long-range tactic would be snapping his fingers at full power."

"What about that Aura Sphere you made in the 2nd Event, Izi?" Hagakure pointed out.

"Like Iida said, snapping my fingers at full strength is my only viable long-range option," Izuku looked at his hands. "I don't have much control over forming that attack."

"You did say that the last time you did that was more a fluke than anything," Uraraka nodded, remembering. "But maybe it will work out this time too?"

"No," Izuku sighed as he remembered what Recovery Girl stated before he left the infirmary. "Even if I could try and use it, I think whatever I did in my fight with Todoroki drained my batteries. I may have recovered enough to fight but accessing that kind of power now would be one in a billion, if not impossible."

"And it's not like you are in any position to break your fingers again," Serena noted, giving him a pointed look.

"Right," Izuku nodded. "So, my only choice is to get him riled up, make him lose his cool, and fight more aggressively. He will be more dangerous and maybe unpredictable, but he'll also be more vulnerable, and less collected, which can give me the right opportunity to strike."

"I don't know about this, Zu," Asui muttered, wringing her fingers together nervously. "It's still too risky. With what you told us about him, if you get him riled up, what he did to Mina might look pleasant compared to what he might do to you."

"I appreciate the concern, Tsu, really, I do," Izuku smiled warmly at her. "I'm not fully on board with this idea either, but all I can ask of you guys is to trust me."

Flashback over...

---

Serena agreed with Asui, still unsure and worried about what Izu planned to do, but she trusted her best friend more than anyone else. Serena knew that if Izuku thought this was the best way to beat his enemy, she'll believe in him, wholeheartedly.

"Fighters ready?" Midnight questioned, almost pleading for one of them, mostly Midoriya, to say no. Unfortunately for her, both boys nodded, crouching into a readied stance.

"Here it is folks!" Present Mic declared, Bakugou's palms sparking louder while Full Cowling engulfed Izuku's body. "The Final Match of the Sports Festival Starts Now!" Midnight brought down her whip.

Instantly, Bakugou rocked like a missile toward Izuku. "DEKU!" He roared out.

"And Bakugou is wasting no time rocketing toward Midoriya!" Present Mic announced, as Midoriya likewise zipped toward Bakugou at lightning speeds. "And Midoriya is charging at him head-on, too!"

While Izuku ran toward his opponent, he noticed that Bakugou was rearing his right hand back. 'Just like last time, but then-' Izuku remembered when he countered Bakugou's predictable right hook before the blonde switched up his attacks with a kick. Izuku's eyes narrowed.

"You know what your problem is Deku!" Bakugou roared as they reached each other. "You Think Too Much!"

BOOM!

Bakugou lashed out his right hand creating a powerful explosion, yet it struck nothing. Bakugou's eyes widened as instead of seeing Deku being sent flying off, he watched the nerd, in slow-mo speed, duck into a slide, letting the explosion pass by behind, sliding underneath the angry, shocked blonde.

Planting the brakes on his slide when he was in the optimal position, Izuku reared back his right fist.

"SMASH!" Izuku roared as he struck true, planting his empowered fist into Bakugou's side.

"GAAHH!" Bakugou coughed out, spittle flying out his mouth surely feeling one of his ribs cracking under the force before he was sent back.

"Midoriya countered with a sick slide and planted one into Bakugou's side!" Mic announced.

'One of Midoriya's weaknesses from the Battle Exercise was that when he fought against Bakugou, his reaction time was slower because he spent too much time analyzing,' Aizawa thought, recalling when Midoriya hesitated. Bakugou capitalized on the moment by blinding his opponent and attacking from behind. 'Having a smart mind is great for a Pro, but timing and reaction are crucial too, and even the slightest hesitation will cost you. Here, Midoriya followed his instincts, using Bakugou's rage to his advantage.'

Bakugou got back up as he cradled his bruised side. "Predictable," The ash-blonde heard as Izuku likewise got up. "No matter how strong you are-" Izuku smiled tauntingly. "Predictable as always."

Bakugou's anger kept rising and his teeth mashed together. He thought that after Deku countered him in the Battle Exercise, the nerd would assume he was attempting a feint, and he would push forward with capitalizing on that nerd's annoying thought process. But instead, he got countered. Again. By Him!

"DIE!" Bakugou blasted off again, flying up into the air before rocketing down. Izuku zipped away to the side as Bakugou exploded the ground he stood on, yet the angry bully kept at it and followed after Midoriya, trying not to give the nerd a moment to think. Izuku zipped around the field while Bakugou chased after, the arena becoming a blur of explosions and streaks of green lightning.

"Bakugou's not giving Midoriya room to breathe! He's chasing him after like a hungry Houndour!" Mic commentated.

"Pfft, even Houndours are better team players than that jerk," Mina scoffed.

"Go! Izi, Izi, You're the Man!" Hagakure cheered, while Piplup and Pikachu mimicked her cheer. "Who can beat that's bully's ass? You can!"

"Okay, now she's scratching the bottom of the barrel," Sato sweatdropped.

"At least she's doing her best," Ojiro shrugged, silently rooting for Midoriya, the guy who avenged him and his pride by beating Shinsou.

Izuku slid to a stop while Bakugou circled him from above like a bird of prey. Finally, the bully zoomed down at fast speeds from behind forcing Izuku to jump backwards. "THERE!" Bakugou growled as he blasted toward Deku's retreating figure, spinning around as he propelled himself toward his hated enemy. "DIE!"

Izuku's heightened senses picked up Bakugou attempting to blast away with an underhanded swipe, likely to trip him up or send him flying upwards. 'Focus. Loosen up and wait,' Izuku thought as Bakugou approached, crouching low while extending his right foot back. 'Make it look like I'm trying to evade.' Izuku darted his eye to the left, something Bakugou caught.

Bakugou corrected his course while Izuku shifted his body. They both attacked. Bakugou attempted to swipe at Deku with a rising explosion, angling it to where it would hit if Izuku ran left. However, to his surprise, Izuku didn't run, but instead kicked diagonally, striking the back of his hand and raising the hand further upwards before it could ignite. The explosion struck high above while Izuku's leg was raised high in an impressive display of flexibility.

"Midoriya deflected the explosion with a kick!" Mic yelled.

"Nice," Itsuka smirked. "Rather than try and evade, he feinted Bakugou and struck the hand away before it could fire, high enough that it wouldn't blast him away and trip Bakugou."

Izuku pressed forward, jumping and spinning like a top in the air while lightning danced around his body. Bakugou evaded the heel of Izuku's left foot, even as the bioelectricity sparked against his face, but he couldn't counterattack with how his body was positioned. Bakugou tried reorienting himself with explosions from his hands, but his eyes widened as he found himself flying right toward a roundhouse kick. Bakugou tried to raise his left arm to block it.

"St. Louis Smash!" Izuku roared as his foot struck Bakugou's arm. As hard as Bakugou tried to resist, the force of the kick still struck his cheek and face, the toes of the shoes slashing through Bakugou's uniform, leaving an angry red gash on the arm underneath, and sending the former bully backward.

"Yes! Just like that! Right across the face!" Mina cheered.

"Florida Smash: Rapid Kick!" Izuku followed Bakugou's lead and pressed onward, firing multiple, super-fast straight kicks at Bakugou, who was forced to either dodge or cross his arms to guard against, growling and hissing as the nerd's red shoes struck.

All Might smiled as he saw that technique. 'He's copying the skills of those he learns,' Toshinori recalled how Izuku studied Cinderace's movements, flexibility, and kicks back when they were training at Dagobah Beach and saw that training paid off when Midoriya kicked Bakugou's explosion away. Now, he sees Midoriya doing it again, copying Combusken's Double Kick.

Combusken smiled warmly and proudly, having noticed this too. 'That's my Trainer, for you.'

Izuku sent a more powerful kick high, sending Bakugou's arms upwards. Quickly, Izuku backed up before jumping forward, planting a straight punch to Bakugou's gut.

Froakie smirked seeing himself reflected in Midoriya's attack there. 'Hopping like myself and using the forward momentum to enhance the next Pound attack.'

While Bakugou gaped from the punch, he inwardly was fuming. 'No, no, no, this can't be happening! I can't be losing to Shitty Deku! Not like then!' Bakugou raged internally as he remembered his humiliating defeat in the Battle Training Exercise and the fear he felt when he remembered Izuku's glowing green eyes. The fear and memory made his blood boil hotter.

Bakugou had little time to react as he received a left uppercut. His peripheral noticed that he was nearing the edge of the stage. 'No! I won't let it end this way!' Bakugou roared in his mind, his palms sparking rapidly.

Just as Izuku reared his left foot back for a final kick to knock Bakugou off, Bakugou roared and fired a powerful explosion below him. The blast sent Bakugou into the air, surprising Izuku and making him stumble back. Bakugou halted his upward ascension, using his explosions to spin him vertically like a ball before flying downward.

"GEYSER BURST!" Bakugou struck the ground and fired his explosive energy into the ground, multiple columns of fiery explosions sprouting out and heading toward Izuku. Midoriya, unable to evade, crossed his arms and tried to tank the attack, being sent backward.

"Amazing! After being backed into a corner, Bakugou's managed to counterattack!" Mic yelled out.

"Don't think because you got that Quirk it means you're hot shit, Deku! You're NOTHING!" Bakugou roared as he launched himself after Izuku. As he reached him, Bakugou fired explosion after explosion onto Izuku's crossed arms, Midoriya flinching and biting back the familiar heat and pain.

"Izu!" Serena yelled out in worry.

"Those explosions are even stronger than the one he used previously," Iida analyzed. "The more Bakugou fights, the more sweat he generates throughout the fight, more gathered sweat that he can then ignite to create more numerous and powerful explosions."

"DIE!" Bakugou roared again as he fired another, more powerful explosion that sent Izuku skidding back till he almost reached the edge.

Izuku panted as he inspected his ruined, burnt sleeves. His mind flashed briefly to his many Aldera uniforms with multiple burnt holes. Izuku growled in a brief burst of anger and gripped them. "Die, die, die. That's all you ever say," Izuku tore the sleeves off, revealing his muscular arms. "Don't you have anything original to say?!"

"Who are you calling unoriginal, you All Might-wannabe?!" Bakugou roared about to blast toward Izuku until he saw the nerd's figure zooming at him at high speeds. Bakugou barely had time to bend his body backward and dodge the green-haired teen as he flew above him in a powerfully fast jump kick.

"You wanted to be like him too, yet you were the one who became everything he stood against!" Izuku roared back as he raced back to attack Bakugou. "You Quirkist, Bullying Idiot!"

Meanwhile, Inko and Mitsuki watched tearfully in the stands as their sons fought and clashed viciously against each other. The two mothers could faintly remember sitting together, cradling and nursing their pregnant bellies, walking through the park with Baby Izuku and Katsuki in their strollers, and watching from afar as the infants played with their All Might action figures. The two of them had no idea when those playful shoves and pinches became more purposeful shoves and mocking from one son against the other. They couldn't realize or know when it all went wrong, when playful infants became one rude and disrespectful toddler against the other, when one son's so-called 'friends' joined in and struck, exploded, and bullied the other into the ground as older kids, and when as teens such bullying escalated to hateful messages and jeers, humiliating pranks and mocking, and when simple bullying turned into outright torture.

And now Inko and Mitsuki could only watch and see how it all came down to: the son of their best friend fighting the other, glaring at each other with years of hatred and bitterness, Cain and Abel come again striking each other again and again with empowered punches and kicks, or explosions. And they could do nothing in the face of this ironic fate from a cruel world.

Izuku and Bakugou grappled, gripping the other's hands and keeping them from attacking. Bakugou growled as he heated his palms, mini explosions occurring on his left hand and striking Izuku's scarred right hand. Izuku groaned painfully yet retaliated angrily by increasing the grip of his hand on Bakugou's right hand till the sound of crunching sounded.

"RRRAAAGH!" Bakugou roared as he removed his left hand from Izuku's grasp and struck with an explosion just as Izuku punched Bakugou across the face with an empowered punch, sending both teens back to their ends.

The two boys panted exhausted and injured from the fight, both boys' cheeks scuffed and scratched from the other's last attack.

"Why?" Bakugou growled out in a whisper.

"Huh?" Izuku panted, unsure of what he heard.

"Why do you have a Quirk? You were Quirkless, useless. H-how did you get this power?" Bakugou growled as he rose to his feet, cradling his still-cracked rib.

Izuku flinched. "I-I told you...but you still don't listen," Izuku replied.

"Late-Blooming Quirk, my ass!" Bakugou yelled. "I know you're lying! I know that your Quirk is the only reason why you are here! Why those bitches only care about you for!"

Izuku blinked in surprise, affronted by the accusation. "What?!" Izuku asked, confused.

"Heh, no one cared about you till you had a Quirk, no one gave a shit what happened to you because you were nothing more than a Quirkless loser who couldn't do anything!" Bakugou raged. "No one cared if I showed you your place, and no one would give a damn if you just disappeared and died! You're nothing more of an embarrassment to Auntie Inko and Uncle Hisashi! A mistake, a failure. And now suddenly everyone flocks to you, kissing at your feet, and sucking up to you because of your Quirk. That's the only reason why Weird Eyes hated me, why Shitty Hair turned on me, why Ears glares at me, and why you got the Sea Bitch to care about you. That's the only logical reason, the only thing that makes sense, so how? HOW DID YOU GET SO STRONG AND GET THAT QUIRK?!"

Izuku froze silent as he processed the absurdity of Bakugou's words. Midnight looked disgusted with Bakugou, as did Aizawa and Setsuna, the two overhearing every word Bakugou spat out.

'T-That's why Mina and Kirishima fought him like!' Setsuna's eyes widened as the metamorphic lightbulb lit in her brain. 'Greenie made it clear he was mistreated, even bullied for being thought to be Quirkless, and Bakugou was the one who did it, maybe even his entire previous school!' Setsuna's fists cracked under the pressure of her grip. 'For once, Monoma was right. That guy's no Hero material. He's a Quirkist piece of shit!'

Bakugou's words echoed in Izuku's head, memories of Aldera replaying in his head. His head buzzed and throbbed as he remembered his lackeys not batting an eye as they and Bakugou bullied and beat him to a pulp, the teachers saying and doing nothing as he was picked on or joined in and punished him unfairly just because they felt like it, where no one stood up for him when he was the public laughing stock of the whole school. Not even Himawari, the sweet, innocent girl he had a crush on, stood up for him and laughed at him, calling him weak, defenseless, Quirkless Deku.

Izuku almost gripped his head and doubled over at the painful buzzing, a familiar cry echoing in his ears.

From his booth, Taishi narrowed his eyes as he could sense the shift in Midoriya's head.

"Interfering? Do you mean something is messing with Todoroki's mind? Like a Quirk?" Taishi recalled Izuku's words in the locker room.

"No, not a Quirk," Taishi remembered saying as well as when he infused a bit of Aura to wipe away the similar imprint in Midoriya's heart. "Something far more...Mystical."

"It has resurfaced," Taishi said to Nezu and Nejire.

Nejire, her eyes crystal blue, gasped. "You mean that flare was-"

Taishi cut her off with a nod of his head. "Unlike the other two, what is affecting Midoriya is not a problem of the mind, but of the heart, feeling," Taishi narrowed his eyes. "Emotional Disarray."

"But we can help him, right?" Nejire asked, worriedly.

"I'm afraid that any interference on our part is firmly against the rules of the Festival," Nezu replied. "If Midoriya is to overcome this disarray, it will be on his own."

Izuku's head drummed like a Rillaboom on acid. Fear, hatred, uncertainty, sadness, denial. All these emotions were going haywire in his mind while the world slowed to a crawl and hazed in a cacophony of sounds and colors. 'M-Maybe he's right. He was always right,' An uncertain, fearful version of his voice echoed in his head. 'Maybe they only really care about me being bullied because of my Quirk?'

'Of course, they would! That's what everybody felt! What they did when they knew we were powerless and were beaten down like we were nothing!' Another inner voice, this one angry, roared at him from within.

'N-No they wouldn't,' A more joyful voice denied. 'They care for us, respect us, and love us for so much more than our Quirk! All Might did!'

'Only because he gave us his Quirk,' A depressed, sad voice sniffled in his mind. 'Face it. If we never had a Quirk, he would never believe we would make it to U.A. Bakugou is right. We are nothing more than a weak, sad, useless Deku!'

Izuku was lost, unsure of which voice to listen to or follow. He couldn't tell whether to follow the angry voice and rip Bakugou's head off his shoulder, the fearful voice telling him to distance himself from his friends, the joyful one telling him to deny them all, or the sad one to give up. His head and heart felt like they were about to explode.

"Izu," Serena's voice cut through the chorus of voices. Izuku's eyes widened, his mind taking him back to the past. When they first met.

"My number." Serena handed her number to him, smiling. "In case you ever need to talk or hang out, and keep in touch, if that's alright?"

Izuku's mouth gaped, remembering their months of talking, hanging out, and being friends. All before he had a Quirk. She knew about it...and still was his friend.

"Thank you, Izu," Serena hugged him when he helped her realize she could control water from snow and ice.

'She knew who I was all that time, and she never left,' Izuku gasped as all the voices faded, except hers.

"Promise me no matter what happens...you return to me. You come back to me, alive and well. That you will always win and stand victorious so that you can come back to me alright!"

'She believed that I could win, stand victorious, be a Hero,' Izuku realized with heartfelt certainty. And then like a wave crashing onto him, he remembered all the rest of his best memories with his friends. Ochaco, Iida, Tsu, Toru, Mina, Kaminari, Mei, Kirishima, even Tokoyami and Jiro. He remembered his Pokémon, who always supported him through thick and thin and never once abandoned him. He remembered Momo, their memories together, her smile, and his promise to her.

'To Hell with what I feel about myself! As long as I have them, nothing else matters. Nothing else matters now except keeping my promise to Momo!'

And just like that, the echoes and color faded, along with that familiar cry, and his mind felt at ease. Better, it felt clear, including Bakugou's words. And he laughed.

Bakugou and Midnight blinked in surprise as Izuku started to spasm and shake, and then they could hear the chuckles. Before they knew it, Midoriya threw his head up and laughed out. "BAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" The two of them, including a confused Aizawa, thought Midoriya had gone insane.

"Uh, Midoriya is laughing?" Mic announced, confused as were the rest of the audience.

"What happened?" Tamaki blinked, confused.

"Not sure," Mirio shrugged, smiling. "Maybe Bakugou just told a good joke."

"What the Hell are you laughing about, Deku?!" Bakugou demanded.

Izuku stopped his laughter and transitioned to a darker more disturbing chuckle. "Isn't it obvious? Your accusation, what you said about my friends liking me for my Quirk," Izuku chuckled darkly, staring at Bakugou with an uncharacteristic look of pity. "That accusation was just so funny and so wrong. No, it wasn't just wrong, it was desperate, pathetic even!"

"What?!" Bakugou growled his anger boiling over the top as Izuku's words.

"You think that Serena only cares about me because of my Quirk and that she only hates you because you bullied a poor guy with a Quirk. If I didn't know any better by how much you hated her, I would have thought you claimed that because you were jealous," Izuku glared mockingly at him. "You think I met Serena after I got my Quirk, however I did, and that's why she hates you. But the truth is I met her before I got my Quirk."

Bakugou blinked in surprise.

"We were friends when I was still Quirkless. I told her I was Quirkless, and she didn't care," Izuku continued, stepping forward a bit. "She supported, believed in me, and stood by my side regardless of what I was. And it wasn't just her." His mother's crying face when she first declared her support. "My mom cares, the same woman that you called 'Auntie' yet bullied her son." All Might's proud face when he gave him his Quirk and declared the reason for his decision. "All Might believed in me. After the Sludge Villain, after you left, he came to me and told me that I could be a Hero." Bakugou's eyes widened in horror. "My Pokémon believe in me. Eevee and Pikachu knew the longest and stuck around all the same. Pikachu rejected you. And then Combusken and Froakie came, I told them the truth, and they stayed anyways." His Pokémon smiled down from the stands. "They never gave up on me, and I won't give up on my friends. My True Friends." Izuku could feel everyone smiling and cheering for him from the stands.

"And you? You were never my friend and refused to change who you are because that's who you always were: a violent, petty narcissist who thinks only of himself," Izuku continued, unafraid of Bakugou's glare. "You only want to be a Hero to be like All Might in strength and fame alone, you don't care about others unless it affects you. You're Quirk may be amazing, but the person that wields it could never be a Hero as he is now."

"I refuse to look up to you anymore, and though I never did, I don't have to look down on you, Katsuki Bakugou. That would be too good for you," Izuku turned away from Bakugou, dismissively. "You're not even worth a glance."

Bakugou didn't know what he was feeling. Anger for sure, but something else stirred somewhere deep in his chest. He didn't know what it was, why something so small hurt so big, why he cared about what Deku said. Ultimately, he ignored, exploded, and buried it away, as he always did when faced with something he didn't understand. He resorted to the one thing he always understood: Anger.

"Not worth a glance? Fine...THEN I'LL MAKE YOU NOTICE ME, FUCKING DEKU!" Bakugou took off, spinning like a corkscrew, gathering air and heat as he launched like a missile toward Deku.

Kirishima's eyes widened. "Oh no," The red-haired teen gasped, remembering that move. "It's the same move he used to defeat me!"

"Midori! Get out of there!" Mina wailed, incredibly worried.

"Midnight! We must stop this!" Cementoss stood from his seat, in a panic. "Midoriya does not have the same durability as Kirishima nor the same strength as last fight. This attack could kill him!"

Izuku stood firm and ready against the oncoming danger. He noticed how much slower it was taking Bakugou to get to him and saw the reason clear as day. 'Bakugou's left hand is still cracked from the wrist when I squeezed it,' Izuku analyzed. 'Regardless, I can't tank a hit like that, even with One For All, and I can't muster that power from earlier either.' Izuku raised his hand, pointing toward Bakugou, his fingers ready to snap.

"Oh, great! He's going to break his fingers again!" Sero exclaimed.

"Izuku," Ochaco muttered.

Momo looked worried while she hugged Eevee tighter.

Jiro stared firmly at Midoriya as green lightning began to build and gather toward Izuku's hand.

---

Flashback...

"I appreciate the concern, Tsu, really, I do," Izuku smiled warmly at her. "I'm not fully on board with this idea either, but all I can ask of you guys is to trust me."

Asui showed a moment of hesitancy but nodded regardless choosing to trust Izuku. The same went with the rest of his friends and Pokémon. Except-

"Look, I don't want to sound rude" Jiro spoke. "And it's not like I don't think you're untrustworthy Class Rep, but you need more than gaslighting and a never-give-up attitude if you want to prepare for Bakugou. Not the one I saw."

"What do you mean, Jiro?" Ochaco asked.

"While most of you guys were checking up on Mina or Uraraka after her fight with Todoroki, I saw that technique that Bakugou used to launch Kirishima into that hospital bed and bandages," Jiro gestured toward Kirishima.

"His Howitzer Impact, he called it," Kirishima flinched as he briefly remembered the power behind that attack before going unconscious.

"Yeah, that one. And if Bakugou is as messed up as you said, pissing off might make it pull out that trump card of his," Jiro nodded. "And physical strength isn't enough to stand up against that. You need something to counter that, to mess Bakugou up before he can launch that on you."

"Well, what else can he do, Jiro?" Kaminari questioned. "Right now, if Midoriya breaks another finger like he did with Todoroki, we don't know if it might fall off afterward. It's like my Quirk when I let it all out."

"Yeah, right, you can't just lower the wattage or something," Jiro used her jacks to poke at his head. "Hell, I don't use the full ampage of my Heartbeat Distortions because I don't want to leave anybody deaf if they can't handle it"

Izuku perked up. 'Lower the wattage,' Izuku repeated that word in his thoughts, again and again, until his brain lit up like a New Year's fireworks show.

"Jiro," The purple-haired girl perked up at the mention of her name but was unprepared for the green missile headed her way. In the blink of an eye, she has Izuku Midoriya grabbing onto her shoulders and a wide goofy smile on his face. "You're a genius!"

"EH?!" Jiro and the rest of the group exclaimed in surprise, especially Jiro, blushing scarlet at Izuku's close proximity to her face.

Flashback over...

---

'I've been going about my finger smashes all wrong,' Izuku thought as he followed his plan. 'I've been breaking my fingers to produce those powerful wind blasts by going 100%, no better if I were simply using my arms or legs at full power.' Izuku remembered the first time he used One For All at the beach and how he broke his whole arm or both his legs and arm when destroying the Zero-Pointer.

'But then I use Full Cowling to keep myself from breaking my fingers. As I learned from Gran Torino's training, lowering the wattage so that the egg in the microwave doesn't explode, the same applies to my fingers, not just my arms,' Izuku imagined gathering the power of One For All specifically into his fingers, lowering the wattage till he was able to sustain it. 'And just like Aizawa's Quirk Apprehension Test, firing the ball at the last second to make it travel farther.' Izuku recalled the event.

'Now, combine both lessons,' Izuku felt his fingers' power increase to 8-9%. 'I don't need a massive blast of air; I only need one strong enough bullet of air pressure to knock Bakugou off course.' He imagined it shooting up to double that percentage at the last moment. Izuku grinned. 'For a bunch of hard asses, I owe a lot to both of you Aizawa and Gran Torino.'

"Air Force Technique: Delaware SMASH!" Izuku snapped his finger, and, with the ringing of a gunshot, a bullet of compressed air pressure blasted forward and struck Bakugou's left hand.

Bakugou cried out in surprise and pain at the sensitive hand struck by something he couldn't see, and his eyes widened too late: he let go of his Quirk and fired prematurely. A massive explosion shot out of Bakugou's left hand just as it was above him, sending him flying toward the ground, smashing his previously broken nose into cement. Bakugou tumbled across the ground as his other hand fired off the built-up explosion and heated air, rocketing his unprepared body toward Midoriya.

"What the-what just happened?!" Mic exclaimed. "It sounded like a gun just fired and Bakugou got struck with something out of nowhere!"

"It was Midoriya," Aizawa announced. "Rather than use the full power of his Quirk on his fingers, he lowered his usage till it was enough to fire a smaller form of his previous attack: a rubber bullet made of air."

All Might's eyes widened, and his jaw dropped. 'Young Midoriya, I was planning to teach you that when you got up to at least 10% of Full Cowling,' Toshinori thought. 'D-Did you figure it out that fast, already?!'

Izuku flinched at his most recent technique, looking at his finger. 'It stings a bit, but definitely not broken,' Izuku clenched his fist as he whirled his gaze back at Bakugou as he recuperated his flight path. 'Now's my chance!' Izuku ran toward Bakugou at lightning speed.

'What happened? What hit me? What made screw that up?!' Bakugou saw Izuku coming and he had his answer. He did it. He made him look like a fool in front of the viewing world. The little Caterpie that always got in his way! "DEKU!" Bakugou adjusted himself till he had his right hand cocked back to fire a powerful explosion.

The two neared each other in slow motion, zeroing in on each other, ready to deliver a powerful blow. Bakugou reared his hand back but instead of rearing his fist back, Izuku's body began to lower. Eyes began to widen as Izuku's legs performed a near-perfect vertical split. Bakugou's eyes widened where Izuku's fist was heading toward, trying to blast himself backward. But it was too late. Finally, Izuku swung his green lightning-covered fist forward and it struck true right at Bakugou's crotch.

The blow that landed was so fast, so hard, and so brutal it was almost as if the force traveled through Bakugou and out the other end. The blow was so powerful and loud, that the entire viewing world could hear it. Finally, as Bakugou landed a few feet away on the ground on his feet, he quickly collapsed, bow-legged on his knees.

"AUGH!" A whimpering cry came out of Bakugou's mouth so loud and piercing that everyone in the stadium could hear it. The whole Sports Festival, nay, the entire world was witnessing Katsuki Bakugou on his knees clutching his crotch in severe agony.

Bakugou's voice was like a trigger as everyone was freed of their shock to realize what had just happened.

"BAHAHAHAHAHA!" Serena led the girls in laughing their asses off. The Mariella girl practically slammed her hands on her armrest in laughter. Momo had the decency to cover her mouth from the giggles that threatened to come out. Asui let out her croaking, equivalent to a laugh before she had to stop and save a giggling Uraraka from floating off into space. Jiro and Hagakure burst out laughing too, Jiro savoring and memorializing Bakugou's cry for the rest of her life while Hagakure collapsed in laughter. Mina tried to laugh loudly but had to stop and clutch her stomach in pain.

Most of the 1-B girls were laughing their butts off too. Pony didn't need to be socially inept to miss what happened and she was giggling like an innocent schoolgirl, alongside her Kinoko. Itsuka had to turn her hand giant to cover her face before she could giggle. Reiko and Yui were mostly silent, with the former releasing a slight creepy giggle, and while Yui smirked and let out a pleasant chuckle. Even Ibara couldn't help but giggle past her closed mouth. Setsuna laughed so loud and heartedly, literally broke into pieces -not to worry she put herself back together easily.

Some guys from both classes laughed when they weren't clutching their Clamperls as if they felt the guy's pain down there. Even Kirishima couldn't help but feel some sympathy for that move, he would have almost called it 'Unmanly' if he didn't know who the recipient was and how much he deserved it. Most of Class 1-B were the ones who were laughing like a hoard of taunting Gengars, especially the likes of Monoma and Kamakiri. Even Manga had laughing emoticons all over his text bubble for a head.

The students in the other courses were all laughing too. Mineta was the most vocal of the General Course Students, yet even Shinsou grinned wide and creepily. Mei was practically Loudred by how loud she was laughing, and even Mirio was clutching his sides laughing while Tamaki shivered and clutched his mini-him.

Even some of the teachers couldn't help but let out a laugh or two.

"OOOOOHHHH! Bakugou's crown jewels just got mega-powered nut check!" Present Mic exclaimed his unfiltered thoughts.

Aizawa couldn't even bother to reprimand his co-host's PG-unfriendly exclamation, mainly because he was holding back a chuckle while crossing his legs protectively.

Nezu spilled tea all over himself, laughing while trying to take a sip. Taishi attempted to keep a calm composure while Nejire giggled like a young schoolgirl, coughing for a bit to keep the laughter from coming out. Vlad King and Hound Dog had no restraint on their laughter, unlike Ectoplasm, Power Loader, and Snipe, most of which only came out coughing chuckles, or Thirteen who let out a small giggle. Even he couldn't help but chuckle, feeling that sweat, karma-powered justice had been delivered. Cementoss, who was nearly about to form walls to stop Bakugou, had to turn away to avoid laughing, and Midnight had to cover her mouth from laughing, it would look unkind to her as a referee if she were laughing at one of the fighters.

Mitsuki and Masaru stared deadpanned at the field while they heard laughter among the crowd. "Guess we're never having grandkids, huh?" Masaru voiced.

"As if we were going to be lucky enough to have grandkids," Mitsuki muttered.

Inko tried her damn hardest not to laugh at the misfortune that was the end of the Bakugou bloodline occurring before her eyes.

Even from afar, Shigaraki was laughing like a maniac, giving the green-haired boy some credit for fighting dirty like that. And even his Master grinned, almost proudly (?).

Izuku got up from his near-split, taking a few steps back as he inspected the groaning Bakugou. He lifted his strained but hate-filled eyes at Deku. A feeling of vindictive pleasure ran through him, and Izuku wanted a bit more.

"What are you groaning so much about?" Izuku called out, grinning, lifting his pointer finger and thumb so close together. "Didn't feel much of anything down there."

Those who had been drinking water, like Iida, and those who weren't, did a spit-take before bellowing out in more laughter. Except for Kaminari, he had the misfortune of sitting between both Iida and Sero while they were drinking.

---

Even back at the coffee shop with their former classmates from Aldera, some were laughing and reacting in their own way. Sakura looked disgusted, but no one could tell if it was directed to Deku or Bakugou. Aki and Mifuyu giggled and pointed at Bakugou while Kenji and Yubi suddenly felt secure about themselves, finally having something better than Bakugou.

---

Bakugou's face burned scarlet as he absorbed all the laughter and shame around the stadium, even Midnight who threw caution to the wind and started laughing. All he could see, and feel was red.

"DEKU!" Bakugou blasted off toward a now serious Izuku. But before he could unleash the explosion, Izuku grabbed Bakugou's shirt and pulled him down while kicking at his legs. Bakugou suddenly span around in the air, before using his explosion to reorient himself.

"LOOK AT ME!" Bakugou cried, turning his head to face Deku, just in time for an empowered backhanded slap to smack him across the face and onto the ground.

Specifically, out of bounds.

"K-Katsuki Bakugou is out of bounds! The Winner is Izuku Midoriya!" Midnight recomposed herself and announced loudly.

The crowd was lost for words at the quick course of events, but they didn't take long to recover.

"YYYYEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHH!" The crowd roared in cheers.

"H-He's Done It! With a mighty backhand, Izuku Midoriya has won it all and become the undisputed SPORTS FESTIVAL CHAMPION!" Present Mic hollered to the heavens, while Izuku stood triumphant.

"WOOOOOHOOOO!" Mina exclaimed, pumping her fist into the air. "YOU DID IT, MIDORI! YOU DID IT!"

"BAHAHAHA! That was Awesome!" Kaminari laughed as he cheered. "Win by a bitch-smack! Amazing!"

"Izi, Izi, Number 1! Smile so bright just like the Sun!" Hagakure resumed her cheerleading as Piplup and Pikachu joined in. The rest of Izuku's Pokémon were cheering and jumping for joy for their Trainer, even Eevee on Momo's lap.

Ochaco joined Mina in pumping her fist into the air and cheering for Izuku, while Iida politely, yet enthusiastically clapped for his friend. So too did Asui clap for her Zu, croaking in satisfaction at Izuku's victory and even lustfully at seeing him act so ruthlessly toward Bakugou.

Kirishima and Sero looked down toward Bakugou as he got up on his hands and knees, and though his eyes were hidden from them, they could tell they were wide and had a large amount of rage, shock, horror, or all of the above. After everything they've had to deal with him, they felt vindictively satisfied, and Kirishima did not care whether feeling that was Manly or not.

Jiro likewise stared down with satisfaction at Bakugou's defeat, overhearing nearly everything she could pass the loud-ass explosions. She had almost joined in when Midoriya started laughing because hearing Bakugou's backward logic on full display sounded so ridiculous that she barely remembered feeling angry and disgusted. Barely.

The rest of Class 1-A cheered and congratulated their Class Rep, including Tokoyami and Dark Shadow. Ojiro and Aoyama both clapped and cheered, happy that the boy who bested Shinsou for them won it all in the end.

In the stands above, All Might had the biggest, proudest smile as he clapped in congratulations to his student, his successor, his son in all but blood.

Inko's eyes welled up in tears, and she cupped her mouth, trying to keep herself together. Her baby boy had won the whole Festival and showed the world who he really was.

As Izuku looked toward the 1-A stands, seeing all his friends, classmates, and Pokémon cheering for him, his eyes settled on two girls sitting side-by-side. Serena and Momo were frozen shell-shocked, mouths agape and eyes open wide, the latter quickly welling up with tears as the reality of what happened processed in their minds. The firm line of Izuku's mouth began to rise as the two girls smiled, a shit-eating grin on Serena and Momo's once sad eyes brightening with Love and Hope.

Izuku grinned proudly and brilliantly, brushing his nose with his thumb before giving them a lightning-sparking thumbs up as the crowd cheered.

---

AAAAAANNNNNNDDDD SCENE! ARGH! FINALLY! You guys have no idea how long and agonizing this chapter was to work on.

Not only the occasional writer's block but also the expectations to make this final fight as climatic a finish between Izuku and Bakugou made me agonize over this chapter for weeks. In the end, I deliver this. It's not perfect and might be a little rushed, I'll admit, but this is perhaps the most satisfying I could make it without retreading too much old ground.

Anyway, I hope you guys liked the additional sections with certain characters. First, there is Toga, and if anyone is still confused about what happened, in summary, the dude she killed was a creep trying to knock her out and take her away for disturbing purposes, but Toga knew, let him lead her away from prying eyes, and then killed him and drank his blood, while Mimikyu drove off the man's Drowzee. This version of Toga is different, she has only been drinking the blood of other criminals and those who attack her, for reasons that will be revealed when she later appears in the story, but she has found Izuku early on and is already infatuated with him. But where this goes, you will have to wait and see.

Then there is Himawari, one of the girls Izuku saw on his mall trip with Serena. As I set up prior, Himawari looked unsure and sad when Izuku spoke against her and left her and the others with Serena, and now we know why. It is only made more tragic for her that Izuku did have feelings for her too, but her cowardness has cost her big time and she has no one to blame but herself. But she spent the months after that reflecting on her life and seeing her so-called friends belittling Izuku still to this day and Sakura's rant, finally was enough for her and she spoke up against them for Izuku. She isn't trying to cozy up to Izuku. After all, he is not here or knows any of this. Peer Pressure is a powerful and terrible thing and Himawari finally stands up for herself. Will she appear later on, too, who knows, I still have to work on that.

Izuku has finally told the whole of the Dekusquad, minus Jiro, for now, about Bakugou's bullying and they all have their reactions toward this, from Kaminari's anger, Kirishima's shame, and Momo's fear and guilt. I also had Jiro here to help Izuku realize the first steps in utilizing his Air Force technique. It might seem like I'm speedrunning through most of Izuku's canon training with One For All, and I am.

BTW, do you guys want me to have Ochaco stop calling Izuku 'Deku'? She is pretty insistent, but I set it up so that this could be changed later on because Izuku doesn't see it as a bad name when she says it. Keep in mind, this doesn't mean that Deku will be his Hero name, just deciding whether Uraraka should say it or not.

Then we have the final fight between Izuku and Bakugou. I rewatched their fight after the Provisional Licensing Exam to better see how the two would fight here and draw up some ideas. Still, I tried to keep the fight wholly original like Izuku's training and emulating other Pokémon like All Might's Cinderace, or his Pokémon, to fight like them, and of course, the Air Force technique and this version of Bakugou fully capable and willing to use his Howitzer Impact on Izuku, damn the consequences. Then there was the danger of the psychic imprint that Izuku got from Verity Lake, which Taishi tried to suppress but reappeared in this fight, though it was thanks to the friendships he made, especially Serena that made it go away. The Power of Friendship is a classic and cliche anime staple, but I felt it worked well here given that Izuku's emotions were in disarray.

As for the direction of the fight, I wanted Izuku to inflict as much damage to Bakugou both in body and mind, and what better way than to go after his ego and temper, and Izuku claiming that Bakugou means nothing to him is more brutal than looking down on him, leading to Bakugou's downfall. I also based that technique where Izuku spun him around from Annie Leonhart from Attack on Titan.

Also, shout out to Supreme King Nero for inspiring the Nut Punch onto Bakugou.

And so now, Izuku has done it, he has won the Sports Festival and he's fulfilled the requirements for Momo to get out of her engagement! Now, they just have to confront the perpetrators of this whole debacle: Mr. and Mrs. Yaoyorozu.

And with that, let us end it with a character update! This time with Katsuki Bakugou:

Katsuki Bakugou

-Height: 5'8"

-Age: 16

-Birthday: April 20th

-Quirk: Explosion

-Moves: Mega Blast Burn, Geyser Burst

Pokémon:

1. Quillava:

-Gender: Male

-Type: Fire

-Moves: Flamethrower, Quick Attack, Bite, Flame Wheel, Smokescreen, Fire Fang, Ember

-Ability: Blaze

-Technique: Horizontal Flame Wheel

2. Charmeleon:

-Gender: Male

-Type: Fire

-Moves: Dragon Breath, Flamethrower, Slash, Thunder Punch, Fire Fang,

-Ability: Blaze

-Techniques: Double Thunder Punch

3. Gyarados (Shiny):

-Gender: Male

-Type: Water/Flying

-Moves: Dragon Pulse, Hyper Beam, Hydro Pump, Aqua Tail, Crunch, Dragon Dance

-Ability: Intimidate

4. Primeape:

-Gender: Male

-Type: Fighting

-Moves: Fury Swipes, Low Kick, Seismic Toss, Cross Chop, Thrash, Assurance

-Ability: Defiant

Finally, I hope you guys liked this chapter, comment your thoughts and ideas, including what future Pokémon characters will get, check out my other stories if you haven't already, and be cordial and chill with each other in the comments.

This has been Zayden StormVoid and I will see you all in the next chapter! SAYONARA!