A/N:Hey look, an update 2 years later.
I uploaded 2 chapters at the same time to finish the story off (chapters 3 and 4), so if you don't notice the other one I'm telling you now.
Also I quickly went through the first 2 chapters and made some minor revisions/edits.
Time passed and the trauma of the USJ attack faded from the minds of Class 1-A. Knowing that UA's Sports Festival was drawing near had something to do with that; training to prepare for the big event didn't leave the students with time to dwell on the horrors they had been through.
Still, not even the Sports Festival and the huge pressures it brought could keep everything off of the students' minds. Especially when that mind belonged to Izuku Midoriya, a boy prone to over-thinking and overanalyzing everything.
"Whew!" Izuku exhaled as he finished his workout at Takoba Beach. UA made many of its gyms available to the students for the festival, but with the whole student body getting ready to compete, he found the facilities on campus too crowded for his liking. Izuku found his special place, the beach he had restored with his own brutal and relentless hard work, a far more comfortable training ground.
'It's a lot easier to hear myself think here,' he thought as he whipped some sweat off his brow. The beach was slowly coming back to life, but even with people returning to enjoy the fruits of his labor, it still was far calmer and quieter than a high school full of hyped-up hero hopefuls.
Izuku grabbed a water bottle from his bag and collapsed with it onto the sand, finally sitting down to take a proper break. After a swig of his drink he settled into staring off at the sea, watching the sun start to fade over its surface. He tried to let his mind and body rest, but the quiet was soon filled as his thoughts began to roam.
He thought about his talks with All Might and the pressure of debuting himself to the world at the big event. He thought of his constant failure to master his quirk and the disappointment that came knowing it was still more dangerous to himself than to any villains he might face. He thought about a new All Might wall scroll getting released this weekend and he thought about the history paper Midnight had assigned in class that morning.
His thoughts bounced anywhere and everywhere until finally they ended on the topic he was least equipped to handle:
Mina Ashido.
Even alone in his own head, the thought of his pink-skinned pursuer made Izuku blush. She was driving him crazy!
"I don't know how to handle her!" he cried out loud, feeling frustrated and confused. He spread his arms as he shouted then flopped backwards to lay on his back, fully sprawled out on the sand.
Izuku had spent so little time with Mina but she had always been one of the most special people in his life. That one day they spent together when they were kids had made such an impact on him; he got a lot of mileage out of the kindness she showed him, especially since such kindness had been all too rare for a Quirkless kid at Aldera.
Now, after so many years, he had found her again, at UA of all places! And though it had only been a few weeks since the school year started, Mina had already turned his world upside down once more.
"But for better or worse, I'm still not sure…" Izuku sighed and closed his eyes and thought more on the pink-haired enchantress who caused him such turmoil.
Mina was just as friendly as Izuku remembered; she was bubbly and excitable and made friends so easily. She cheered people up with a smile or a joke and raised the spirits of everyone around her.
'She really is like All Might,' he thought, grinning as he pictured her blinding smile. Did she know how powerful a smile like that was? Did she know how many lives she could save simply by flashing her pearly whites?
She came to see him when he was laid up in the infirmary, and she worried about him. She cared about him. It was something very foreign and unusual for Izuku; it made him feel seen and it made him feel like he mattered in a way that had been all but unheard of in his life.
Mina had seemed like an angel to him at that moment, he remembered.
"But the rest of the time she's like a demon!"
Since that first day during the Quirk Assessment, Ashido had been teasing him relentlessly! Flaunting her figure at him, blowing him kisses, embarrassing him over and over and laughing mercilessly at his flustered reactions.
Izuku sat back up and wrapped his arms around his knees, curling his body into a ball. He let his head droop down and hid his face from the world, hid his inflamed cheeks and frustrated pout as he dwelled on Ashido's antics.
"What is she up to?" he wondered.
Izuku was no stranger to being teased and bullied. Kacchan had always led the neighborhood boys in pushing him around, often physically, his whole life. But the girls at Aldera were just as ruthless. They made sure he knew no one would ever give a Deku like him the time of day, and more than once they had preyed on his naivety and set him up, pretending to be kind and show interest in him. And each time it had ended with them pulling the rug out from under him, mocking him and making him a laughing stock for believing he had a chance with a girl.
"I don't think Ashido would do that," he conceded. He didn't believe she could be cruel like that. Still, she had been going so hard, teasing and taunting him and laughing all the while. Even without the open cruelty, it still hurt to be made fun of like that, to be teased and embarrassed at every turn.
And worst of all was that it didn't just hurt; it confused him. Mina made fun of him, but she looked so good doing it! She leaned into her looks, taking more than one page out of Midnight-sensei's playbook to get under his skin and make him blush. She showed such shocking levels of affection, blowing kisses and whispering innuendos and looking at him like he was prey caught in her trap.
'It's not like I'm unaffected,' he thought. The sight of her alone made his heart flutter; all of her over-the-top advances dared to make him explode!
"But I don't think she really means it," he continued, letting his shoulders slump in disappointment. "I don't think it's real."
Mina would throw herself at him, but it was all just to get a rise out of him, wasn't it? It was all part of the act, all part of her schemes to make him stutter and blush.
"It's all just a joke," he sighed. "It's so mean!"
She was toying with his feelings, all for his own amusement. He admired her so much; he even thought he might just l-l-like her! But she kept stomping all over his, taking advantage of his feelings and twisting them up to make fun of him.
"I don't get it," he said again. "Why is she like that? Why is she bullying me?!"
…
Inko Midoriya had just finished setting the table for dinner that evening when she heard the front door creak open to herald the arrival of her son.
"Mom, I'm home!"
Inko's face lit up with a smile and rushed to the living room to greet him.
"Welcome back, sweetie! I dug into your old American Dream meal plan and fixed you up a big dinner since you've been training for the Sports Festival. Hurry and wash up so you can come eat!"
Izuku sat down his bag and nodded, making his way to the bathroom to wash his hands. He stopped to give her a quick hug along the way, which Inko always appreciated. But as he pulled away Inko caught a glimpse of something on her son's face, a dreariness that was all too familiar to her.
She had hoped she would never see that look again. Ever since he started UA, Izuku had come up looking so much brighter, so much happier. Every day had been nerve wracking for her, with training accidents and villain attacks and everything else, but in spite of it all she was relieved to see her son truly happy, for the first time in a long time.
'But just now it was like he was back in middle school all over again.' Inko plopped herself down in her seat at the dinner table and started nervously wringing her hands.
Izuku had never shared much about his school days before UA. She had heard more about his new friends and teachers and assignments during these first few weeks of high school than she had ever heard in all the years he attended Aldera.
He used to hide his school struggles from her, and while she didn't know all details, she hadn't been oblivious to how unhappy he was.
'Bullies,' she always worried. She wished she could've just stormed down and put those cruel kids in their place, kids like Katsuki and his crew of little hellions that grew too big for their britches.
But Izuku never wanted her to help. She always told herself that it would have just made things worse, an out-of-touch mother stepping in to solve all of her son's problems for him. So she stayed out of his business and did her best to comfort him when he came home.
'Maybe that wasn't the right thing to do,' she started to think recently. Seeing the sparkle return to her son's eyes made her so happy…but it also made her feel guilty. Was there something she could have done differently? Was there some way she could have helped her son through his problems sooner?
Seeing his downcast face just now, seeing that his smile didn't reach his eyes weighed heavy on Inko. What was wrong? And what could she do this time to make sure her son didn't end up in that dark place he had worked so hard to crawl out of?
…
Dinner was quiet. For the first time in months, Izuku didn't feel like talking. He didn't share tales of eating lunch with Uraraka and Iida or rave fanatically about how wonderful his of his pro hero teachers were. Inko kept stealing glances at him, growing more and more concerned.
'It reminds me of the day he got his entrance exam results,' she remembered. 'Oh my gosh, he's staring at his fish again!'
"I-Izuku!" Inko squawked out. "What's wrong with you?"
Izuku jolted in his chair and looked up to face her for the first time since he got home. He must have seen the tears starting to form in her eyes, because he started panicking and rushing to reassure her.
"Nothing's wrong, Mom! You don't have to cry!"
"There is something wrong, Izuku! You've been so happy these days and now you're looking so sad again. What happened? What changed?"
"N-nothing's changed, Mom…" Izuku replied, but Inko could hear the lack of truth in his voice.
"I'm not buying it," she said, sniffling away her tears and doing her best to keep pressing him. "Are you having trouble with your schoolwork?"
"No, not at all," he replied, shaking his head.
"Are your teachers giving you a hard time?" She asked next.
"No!" Izuku nearly yelled, scandalized that she would suggest the heroic teachers he idolized were anything like the ones at Aldera who had treated him poorly before. "My teachers are all great! The best ever!"
"Then what is it? Are…are you being bullied?"
Again Izuku rushed to shake his head 'no', but this time when he opened his mouth to deny it, he froze, as if he couldn't get the words out. Inko's eyes widened as she watched him furrow his brows then turn his eyes down before slowly, finally, responding with a slight nod.
"Oh no," Inko gasped, clapping her hands over her mouth. Her eyes started to water again but she quickly wiped them away.
'I have to be strong for him right now,' she thought. 'No tears, Inko, no tears!'
She leapt up from her chair and scurried around the table to wrap her son up in a hug. She squeezed him tight, cradling his head in her hands, doing her best to comfort him.
"Tell me about it, Izuku," she pleaded. "Please tell me so I can help!"
Izuku pulled away from her embrace and looked her in the eyes. Inko could see him wavering, mulling over whether he wanted to tell her the truth or not, but in the end he released a heavy sigh and finally started to speak.
He didn't mention the person by name, and he was vague and generalized with the details. There wasn't a lot to go on, certainly not enough to get an idea of who this bully might be or why they were tormenting her little boy, so the only face that popped into Inko's head by default was the little terror who had bullied her boy since he was in diapers.
'Katsuki!'
Inko started to seethe inside, remembering all the things that rude little firecracker had done to her son when they were little. She was so focused on her memories that she missed out on the relevant details when Izuku finally did start speaking in specifics. She only started paying attention when he was done, waiting expectantly for her to reply, but she knew just what she wanted to say!
"Izuku," she began. "You're an amazing son; no, an amazing person! You're so kind and patient and those are wonderful qualities! I don't ever want that to change, but at the same time I don't want you to let people just walk all over you."
Inko smiled as her son hung on her every word, giving far more of his attention than she had given him a moment ago.
"Of course, you shouldn't rush to revenge if there are any other options to explore, but if someone is really determined to pick on you, sometimes you have to stand up for yourself. Sometimes the only thing to do is strike back!"
Izuku giggled as she threw a slow, sloppy punch in the air, and Inko smiled back.
"Sometimes, sweetie, you have to turn the tables and give them a taste of their own medicine! Does that make sense?"
Izuku pursed his lips and furrowed his brows, clearly taking her words to heart and thinking them over. Then, after a long moment, he nodded and reached forward to give her another hug.
"Thanks, Mom," he said. "I think you just gave me some really good advice. I'll definitely keep it in mind."
…
However, Izuku didn't need to put his mother's words into action right away. He wasn't the only one who had been kept busy by preparing for the Sports Festival; the chaos of training had kept Mina busy, too.
'Too busy to get into any trouble, anyway,' thought the girl in question as she finished her stretches in 1-A's waiting room.
Mina had been forced to leave Izuku in peace, for the most part, during these last few weeks. Fun was fun, but it wouldn't have been right to get in the way of his training, especially knowing how important a good showing today would be for his hero career.
She had to make do with nothing but the occasional shoulder-bump in the hallway and flirty wave across the classroom. It had been agony for her, to stop herself from teasing him as much as she wanted, but the Sports Festival was finally here and she would have her chance to go back on the prowl soon enough!
Mina looked around the room, watching all of her classmates dealing with their nerves and excitement in their own ways. Ochaco was shadowboxing in the corner, and Iida's manic hand chops were just barely dodging her blows. Aoyama was preening in front of a mirror, Yaomomo was elegantly scarfing down an expensive-looking pastry and Koda-kun was tracing the kanji for 'person' into his palm over and over before swallowing it to try and wash his anxiety away.
'Even Todoroki looks a little tense,' Mina noticed. It was hard to tell, but he looked like he was thinking hard about something, with a frown, ever-so-slight, tugging at his handsome features.
Then Mina saw his eyes dart to the side, and she couldn't help but follow his gaze. She lit up when she saw what he was looking at…or rather who, because that 'who' was her favorite person to look at.
'Izuku!'
He was a bundle of nerves, just like everyone else, but he was so fun to watch as he worked his way through them. First his shoulders trembled, then he shook his head and squared his shoulders and nodded with a determined look on his face. It was cute, seeing his freckled features tighten up as he psyched himself up, and then she surprised him with what he did next.
'Pfft, what is THAT?!'
Izuku stretched his mouth wide open into a big smile, and at the same time tensed his face up until it contorted into a dramatically shadowed visage of All Might himself!
Mina held her in giggles until he was done, but once she saw him relax his face, she couldn't stay silent any longer.
She stood up from her seat then jumped to stand on top of it. Mina was unaware that she had pulled everyone's attention away from Todoroki, who had also stood up from from his seat. She was equally oblivious to the fact that she had just prevented him from making a startling declaration as she began to make one of her own.
"Hear ye, hear ye, my esteemed classmates!" The din of conversation stopped, apart from some vulgar grousing from Kacchan that Mina deliberately ignored. "It's almost time for us to go out there and show the world what we're made of!"
"Yeah!" Tooru and Eijirou cheered out, and Mina smiled brightly at both of her friends and their infectious enthusiasm.
"But before we do, I must take this moment to make a declaration." She paused for dramatic effect before throwing her hand in the air and shouting it out.
"I'm going out there and giving it my all. And I know you all will, too! We're going to go out there and try to win this whole damn thing!" Other cheers joined Tooru and Kirishima's and Mina could feel the energy building in the room; she was getting everyone pumped up!
"And if I win," she continued, grinning madly as she finished her speech. "I demand a prize!" She dropped her raised hand and swung it around to point at Izuku who was hiding at the back of the crowd.
"I demand a KISS, Izuku! If I beat you in this festival, you better pay up with those lips!"
Izuku sputtered and nearly fell over, and he was blushing like crazy.
"So do your best, 1-A! Because with Izuku's lips on the line, I'm going to be hard to beat!"
…
The rest of the class cheered, and when the cheers subsided the class started turning to tease Izuku, badgering him about how Mina's declaration made him feel. He was blushing, feeling terrified and embarrassed to be the butt of one of Mina's jokes once again. He thought he might break down and start to cry in front of them, making things even worse, but as he was suffocating under his classmates' interrogation, a loud, booming voice drew them away.
"Shut up, Raccoon Eyes! No one wants to hear about your disgusting nerd love story! You're going to make us all sick before we go out to fight!"
Izuku saw Mina's smile turn into a scowl after the interruption. She jumped down to the floor and stomped over to confront Kacchan, and Izuku felt a deep sense of relief.
'I never thought I'd be thankful for Kacchan's rage, but it distracted everyone and got them to quit hounding me!'
Izuku's relief only lasted a moment, though. As much as he hated having Mina embarrass him like that, as uncomfortable as it was to hear her make such a ridiculous declaration in front of everyone, he still worried about her and Kacchan going at it. Neither one of them liked each other, he knew, and if they really started throwing hands and using their quirks, someone was going to get hurt!
He thought he might need to step in when Mina started angrily poking Kacchan's chest, but right before things got explosive, the announcement came over the intercom for their class to head out to the stadium.
"Let's go!" Iida shouted, taking charge and leading them out the door with a sense of urgency.
The class filed out, one by one, thoroughly revved up and ready for action. And last out the door was Todoroki, who waited a moment alone in the empty room, pouting silently before he moved to join the rest.
"I had something way more important to say than that," he grumbled. Then he swung his leg in a frustrated and impotent kick before skulking off to join the class.
…
The Sports Festival finally kicked off and things went full-tilt right off the bat.
'Brr!' Mina shivered as Todoroki flash-froze the starting gate. It was a brutal move to bottleneck the competition and weed out most of the General Studies and Support students before they could even get started.
'Geez, what a dick move! What is he so pissed about? Who peed in his Cheerios?!'
Mina didn't think he needed to be so cruel, but she didn't have time to dwell on it. It was a competition and she was determined to do her best! Izuku's lips were on the line, after all, and she couldn't let herself get stuck here right at the start.
Thankfully, her quirk made it easy to escape and get back on the move. Acid poured out of her soles and melted the ice around her feet, and after a short hop she was skating across the frozen track, slipping and sliding in a mad dash to the front.
Many of her fellow classmates made quick work of escaping Todoroki's trap, too. Ojiro bounced on his tail and bounded over the ice, Aoyama propelled himself passed it with his navel-laser and Yaomomo formed a pole to vault herself over with ease. More and more of her classmates joined her in rushing through the gate, with more than one overtaking her, and with that the race began.
Mina smiled as she saw Kirishima barrel past her and she scowled when Kacchan blasted ahead, but she had yet to see the person whose progress she was most interested in.
'Where's my cute little broccoli boy?' She wondered.
Mina glanced over her shoulder as she continued to sprint along the track, and after squinting past the horde of students behind her she found him.
He was stuck near the back, but he was keeping up well enough that she was confident that he would make it through.
'Good,' she thought, feeling relieved that he didn't get stuck at the gate. And with that relief came license to tease him one last time before she kicked herself into gear.
"Izukuuu!" She called out, letting her voice carry over the noise of the arena. She saw Izuku perk up at the sound of her calling his name and she smirked before she continued.
"You're falling behind, Izuku," she teased. "I know you can do better than that! You better hurry up if you want to beat me…unless you're trying to lose on purpose so you have to give me a kiss~!"
Even with the distance between them, Mina could see her boytoy's face turn red and his body shake in embarrassment from her unrestrained flirting. She cackled, letting herself delight in one last drink of Izuku's silly reaction before she turned her head to face forward again.
'That's enough fun for now,' she thought as she re-focused on the race. 'I don't want to distract him too much. It's time to win this thing and take my prize!'
Mina gained some ground as she slipped past the Robot Inferno with ease. She had been just as shocked to see a horde of Zero-Pointers as everyone else, but after Todoroki knocked them over and Kirishima and his clone from 1-B survived getting crushed by them, she kept on gliding past the obstacles and moving forward.
She cheered for Tsu-chan and laughed at Iida as they each tackled the tightrope course over "The Fall," and she groused when some psycho chick from the Support Course made her way across using a fancy piece of support gadget strapped to her back.
"No fair!" She shouted out as she leapt onto one of the tightropes herself. "Must be nice getting to use support gear like that!"
Mina was impressed by her classmates and the students from 1-B and the other classes as she raced along them. But she didn't allow herself to look back and check on Izuku. As thrilling as it was to give it her best and keep pushing on, in the back of her head she worried for him. It was all she could do to ignore those worries and trust him to make it through behind her, and she knew if she looked back those worries would overwhelm her.
'Just keep going,' she told herself as she kept skating along her Acid trails. 'You're almost there!'
Mina started to overtake others, little by little, until a loud BOOM stopped her in her tracks.
"What the heck?!"
Kaminari was screaming like a cartoon character as he went flying out of a colorful plume of smoke ahead of her. After that, Present Mic-sensei announced the last obstacle, the Minefield, and Mina looked around at the others how had stopped alongside her, all wondering how they would get through it.
Before she could give it much through, Todoroki and Kacchan flew over it with their flashy quirks, and Mina started to panic a little.
'I can't get stuck here,' she thought, bouncing on the balls of her feet. But she couldn't fly like that explosive asshole or make an icy bridge to slide over like Todoroki could.
Then the thought hit her to jump up and use Todoroki's bridge for herself. If it was sturdy enough to allow her two-toned classmate glide across, it would be more than stable enough for her skate on, too.
'Plus, my Acid will melt it behind me so I won't have anyone else nipping at my heels!'
Mina leapt up to the icy platform with ease, spinning her legs in the air with a little extra style and flourish, and once her feet hit the ice she got moving. She threw her whole body into each stride over the ice, pushing harder and harder to catch up to the two leaders.
"Todoroki just lost his narrow lead, folks! Bakugo has blasted passed him; we have a new leader!"
Mina frowned at that; her enmity for that blonde barbarian made her push even harder and the gap between her and the two boys at the front started to narrow.
"Oh, but check this out, ladies and gents! Ashido isn't out of the running yet; she's doing her best to join the fight for first place! She's right on their tails!"
Todoroki barely flicked his eyes back to glare at her in frustration and Bakugo roared in disgust. Mina smiled, smarmy and bold as she challenged them, swinging her legs harder and harder to catch up.
"I told you I'm going to win this! I have too much on the line!"
"Shut up, Racoon Bitch!"
Todoroki and Bakugo started to get desperate, unwilling to cede victory to the other and unwilling to let Mina challenge them, either. Still, she couldn't lose, and just as they were nearing the end of the minefield she caught up.
"What did I tell you, Baku-bitch?! I caught up to you and now I'm going to w—"
KABOOM!
All three of them were rattled by the sound of a huge explosion behind them.
"What the hell was that?!"
Kacchan spoke for them all. What in the world could have caused such a deafening blast?
Whether it was from the shadow they saw cast on them from above or from Present Mic's outburst over the loudspeakers, they got their answer in short order.
"A giant explosion from behind?! What caused such a blast?" Their loud teacher asked the crowd. Then he screamed the answer just as the three students saw it for themselves.
"It's Class A's Izuku Midoriya! And he's riding the wave in hot pursuit of our frontrunners!"
'Izuku?!' Mina's eyes went wide, stunned and in awe as she watched her favorite boy soar over them, gritting his teeth and holding tight to plate of metal that was scorched and smoking.
The whole stadium went silent, just for an instant, as competitors and spectators alike gasped in shock at the stunning development. Then Izuku, focused and determined as ever, twisted his body and swung the metal plate around to strike the ground. He detonated another mine as he did, sending himself flying once again and overtaking Todoroki, Bakugo and Mina all at once.
"HE'S PASSED THEM!" Present Mic screamed, his voice so loud that it distorted over the loudspeakers. "MIDORIYA IS IN THE LEAD!"
"DEKU! GET BACK HERE!" Bakugo was apoplectic as he shot forward and Todoroki threw caution to the wind to pursue, too. Mina stood stunned for a moment more, astonished by what she saw, but when she heard the pack behind her trampling closer she surged back into action, chasing after the three boys in the lead.
'Holy crap,' she thought as she watched Izuku give his all to win it all. 'That was incredible!'
…
The crowd went wild when Izuku emerged through the finish gate. Deafening applause and Present Mic's hysterical cheers washed over Izuku; the only thing the boy could hear was his heart pounding in his chest.
'I…I did it!' Izuku thought once he caught his breath. 'I won!'
He couldn't believe it. His eyes scanned the crowd until they found All Might staring back at him. He broke into a smile and pumped his fist as he watched his mentor smile back with pride.
"I did it!" He shouted aloud this time. Then his classmates started flooding through the gate, congratulating him for his upset victory. It was embarrassing, to be sure, but it felt good to have his efforts recognized.
Izuku turned and saw Todoroki scowling at him and Bakugo glaring with his teeth bared like a rabid dog. Izuku leapt back, intimidated by the anger his rivals were sending this way and he quickly turned away to avert his gaze.
'I wonder which of them came in second and which came in third,' he wondered. 'And I guess that means the one who came in fourth was…'
…
Mina snuck through the gate, taking fourth place nearly unnoticed. The crowd was still cheering for Izuku after his come-from-behind victory and after the top 3 made it through there was little fanfare for those who followed after.
She didn't mind at all. The cheers and adulation of the crowd would have been nice, don't get her wrong, but seeing Izuku smiling and roaring "I did it!" was a joy all on its own.
Mina smiled, feeling happy and proud of him. But then that smile turned into a pout as it hit her what his victory meant.
The pink girl stomped over to Izuku, and once the crowd of classmates offering congratulations cleared out she got right in his face, puffing out her cheeks and glaring at him.
He tensed up at her presence, and his eyes looked more and more panicked as she leaned in closer and closer. She stared him down for a long moment until he took a step back to put some space between them. Then with a huff she finally broke her silence.
"First place, Izuku? Really?!"
Izuku blinked, then nodded, unsure if he was being praised or cursed.
"Hmph!" Mina scoffed, as she closed her eyes and crossed her arms. "You're something else," she said. "Pulling a crazy stunt in the minefield and stealing first place for yourself."
Mina opened her eyes, and her glare softened. She sighed and smiled and she unfolded her arms so she could rest her hands on his shoulders.
"It's pretty amazing," she praised. "Congratulations."
Izuku stared at her and blushed, feeling warm at Mina's heartfelt words. But now that she had wormed her way passed his guard, Mina's smile turned wolfish again and she continued.
"But I can't help but be disappointed," she said. "I'm proud of you for working so hard to win, for sure…but I'm hurt that you worked so hard to avoid giving me my kiss!"
Izuku started to sputter in surprise. He tried to squirm away as Mina's mischievous side returned, but he couldn't escape her clutches as her grip tightened around his shoulders.
"Oh well, a deal's a deal, I suppose. You won, so you don't have to give me a kiss." Mina felt Izuku relax under her touch, and the moment he did she licked her lips and made her move.
"I guess I'll have to be the one to kiss you instead!"
Mina leaned forward and planted a kiss against Izuku's cheek. She moved too fast for Izuku to react, and by the time he realized what she was doing the crowd was going wild, screaming and cheering over the very public display of affection that Mina had shown him.
Izuku was mortified. Sure, Mina's lips felt really soft against his freckled cheek, but he couldn't even process how nice the kiss felt because panic, embarrassment and fear all hit him like a Detroit Smash to the gut! His blood ran cold as he felt the weight of the audience's attention, laughing at him, mocking him, teasing just as much as Mina always did by was by toying with him like this.
Things got worse for Izuku when Mina's antics invited Midnight's attention. His most inappropriate teacher couldn't help but fan the flames of the crowd's raucous reactions. A few scandalous and suggestive comments over the microphone had the crowd howling all over gain; their wolf-whistles, cheers and cries of "you go girl!" grew louder and louder and Izuku felt more and more embarrassed.
'Stop,' he thought. 'Please, stop!' Being teased by Mina was hard enough, but now she had made him a laughingstock for the whole world!
Izuku stumbled back, trying to turn and hide but there was nowhere to go. From all sides people were laughing, pointing and making fun. It was too much for him to handle; this attention was too much for the bashful boy to bear!
Eventually his eyes found their way back to Mina and, unsurprisingly, he found her laughing, too. Her laughter might have sounded sweeter the crowd's roars but it pierced his heart just as sharply.
'Why?' He thought. 'Why did she have to do that?!'
…
Mina felt very satisfied with herself after she stole that kiss.
'Izuku thought he got one over on me,' she thought as she licked her lips. 'But I can't be denied my kiss!'
It had been electric, for the brief moment it lasted, and Mina's heart was still pounding. Even better was the delicious look on his face, the wide-eyed way he stared at her, stunned and surprised by her bold display of affection.
'I got him good!' She gloated.
The crowd was still going wild and things only got crazier when Midnight congratulated her for "staking her claim on her man". The only thing better than playing with Izuku was showing that sweet moment of victory off with the world. They were all cheering for her, cheering for the way she expressed her love for her sweet little cinnamon roll!
'See?' She thought as she made a lap around her classmates to smile for the cameras and wave the crowd. 'Isn't my Izuku the cutest?!'
Mina drank in the attention until Midnight finally reined the crowds back in. She turned her attention to the teacher as she announced the second event, the Cavalry Battle, and listened closely as the rules were explained.
Being in fourth place made her feel confident about her points going into the round, and knowing that it would be a team event made Mina excited to pair up with Izuku, too. Then when the shocker was announced, that Izuku's first place win saddled him with a Ten Million point headband, Mina almost leapt with joy.
'All right!' She thought. 'Everyone else thinks that puts a target on his back, and they're not wrong. No one is going to want to team up with the guy who everyone is going to be gunning for…but that just means I can have Izuku all to myself!'
"You've got fifteen minutes," Midnight announced as she set them loose. "Time to form your teams!"
Mina had gotten separated from Izuku after the kiss so she skipped across the field to meet back up with him. She was ecstatic to swoop in and pair up with Izuku, just the two of them, and show the world once more how perfect a pair they made!
She weaved past Sato-kun and breezed past a boy from 1-B until finally she was back to where she started, back to where Izuku would be waiting for her and her alone.
Except, to her surprise, he wasn't alone. There was another girl next to him, chatting him up like they were old friends. The girl was quite loud, she noticed, and just as Mina made her way to join the two of them she heard the word "teammate" spill from the interloper's big, obnoxious mouth.
Mina felt her eye twitching in annoyance but she did her best to flash a friendly smile when she finally reached Izuku and his new friend.
"Izuku! Who is this you're talking to?'
Izuku turned to look at her, but she thought his eyes seemed different; clouded, colder and more strained than usual. He stared at Mina for a moment and she couldn't decipher what he was thinking, but before long he sighed and answered her.
"This is Mei Hatsume, from the Support Course. We're teaming up for the Cavalry Battle. She's offered to lend me some of the gear she brought, and she brought a lot!"
Mina's eye twitched again as she heard Izuku sing this new girl's praises. She turned to the girl in question and was hit with a wave of recognition.
'It's that psycho from the bottomless pit,' she remembered. She had been irked to find out she was allowed to use Support Gear that the rest of them couldn't, but now her irritation came from seeing how close the hussy was standing to HER Izuku.
Mina gave this Mei Hatsume a closer look. She wasn't impressed. Mei might have had a bigger chest, but it went to waste when paired with that stupid grin on her face. And what was with those fashion disaster goggles on her head? Lame!
'And geez, does she ever wash that pink hair of hers?'
Mina blinked after she took note of Mei's hair color then turned to face Izuku again. Once again her lips stretched into a wolfish grin.
"Wow, Izuku," she began. "It's great that you already found a pink-haired teammate." Izuku nodded in agreement; after his accursed 'reward' from winning the first round he was thankful that anyone wanted to team up with him at all.
"But," Mina drawled as she ran her fingers through her own vibrant, pink mane. "It's a shame. I kind of wanted to be your first…"
Izuku blinked, once, twice and then again, and once Mina's words sank in his cheeks turned just as pink as hers. His blush did not escape Mina's notice and seeing how effective her teasing was, she pushed even harder.
"But," she purred. "You don't have to settle for a teammate with pink hair, you know. Not when you can have a girl who's pink all over!" Mina ran her hands down her figure, slowly and sensually, starting above her chest and ending at her hips. Then she wiggled her whole body to punctuate her little show with an extra burst of sex appeal.
Izuku shrieked and tripped over himself. He fell to the ground, blushing and overwhelmed by Mina's sultry display.
Mina laughed out loud at Izuku, delighted to have gotten such a rise out of him. Between the kiss she stole before and this playful moment now, Mina was happy to be able to tease him like this again after forcing herself to "behave" in the lead up to the festival.
But while she was savoring the moment after sweeping her crush off his feet, Mina suddenly found herself caught flat-footed when a pair of wild, golden eyes and a manic smile filled her vision.
"Oh, I like you," Hatsume declared as she leaned closer and closer into Mina's personal space. Her bright yellow eyes, shaped like crosshairs on a targeting scope, zoomed in and out and locked Mina in her sights. Mei tilted her head up and down then started circling around to inspect Mina from all sides. Mina started to squirm under Mei's scrutiny, feeling uncomfortable and exposed and altogether out of her depths.
"Quit staring, you weirdo!" She finally barked. Mina pushed Mei's shoulders, trying to shove her away, but she was surprised to find that Mei was sturdier than she seemed and didn't budge at all.
But Mei was done checking her out. She deactivated her quirk, letting her irises refocus, and after that she was all smiles.
"Perfect!" Mei exclaimed, clapping her gloved hands. She swung her head around to face Izuku and started barking orders.
"Change of plans, Ten Million!" She announced. "Let's go with this girl for our rider! Sure, your Number One headband will draw some attention for my babies, but Pinky over here will draw even more!" Mei stepped to the side and flung her arms out towards Mina, pointing at the confused girl like she was presenting a new product for show.
"I mean, come on! She's way cuter than you are, Green Bean! She's got flashy looks and she's not afraid to flaunt them for the cameras!"
Mei's hands waved at Mina's chest and then down at her hips, drawing Izuku's attention to all the assets the pink girl had been teasing him with just a moment ago. But Mina's mood couldn't have been more different; before she was the one in control, using her feminine wiles to tease her hapless crush, and now she was on the defense, caught-flatfooted and at the mercy of a pink-haired maniac with no sense of shame!
"You know what they say," Mei continued. "Sex sells! There's nothing better than having a hero course booth babe to capture the crowd's attention. With Pinky here as our rider, everyone's eyes will be on us and my babies will steal the show!"
Mei broke into a distressingly unhinged bout of laughter, and Mina stepped back, even more intimidated by the girl's…passion. She glanced at Izuku, hoping that to find solidarity in being turned off by Mei's behavior, but apart from a gentle blush on his cheeks he seemed pretty unconcerned by the very concerning display.
Mina's heart sank. She shivered and felt an anxiety she had never known before. As much as she wanted to face the next round alone with Izuku, she knew that their odds of success were better with a three-person team than with two. Izuku was mumbling to himself, so he was already coming up with a strategy for them and she couldn't throw a wrench in his plans at this point.
'I'm stuck!' Mina thought. She had been trying to catch Izuku in her net and she ended up being the one caught in Hatsume's snare. In the blink of an eye she had become a flashy prop for the eccentric inventor to use and exploit for her own amusement. Mina felt embarrassed and helpless and she didn't know what to do!
So time made its move for her. While she was stuck in her head, panicking and fretting as Izuku and Mei buzzed around her, their fifteen minutes came to an end. The round was about to start, and she was standing there dazed with a jetpack strapped to her back while Izuku finished stretching and Mei buckled a bulky pair of hover boots to her feet.
'I guess this is it,' she thought. 'Time for me to saddle up so that crazy girl can take me for a ride.'
Mina was terrified of the chaos that was about to ensue but resigned to go along with it. She sighed, feeling defeated and despondent, until her eyes made their way back to Izuku as he leaned down and stretched his calves.
'At least there's a bright side!' If she was the rider, that meant Izuku would be a horse and she would get to ride on his shoulders! Realizing how close she was going to be to her boy toy cheered her right up.
Mina crept up behind him and once Izuku finished his stretched she jumped onto his back, wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his torso. She hugged her body close to his, clinging to him like a koala riding piggyback and started teasing him all over again.
"Giddy-up, Horsey!"
Mina giggled and Izuku started to panic, but before he could get too flustered their third wheel joined in, too.
Mei's hands clapped against Mina's backside and with a firm grip she shoved Mina up from behind until she was sitting on Izuku's shoulders. Izuku grabbed hold of her legs, worried that she might slip and fall, but Mei's hands stayed attached to Mina's butt to maintain the awkward balance of their bizarre cavalry stance.
"Hatsume! Quit grabbing my butt!"
"Mina-san, stop kicking or you're going to fall!"
"Sit up straight so you can show off my babies, Pinky!"
The three of them bickered and thrashed around each other but eventually they settled into a more stable formation with Mina's feet planted inside Izuku and Mei's palms.
Still, Mina was incensed. She had never felt like this before. She had shaken her booty in front of the whole class plenty of times, just to get a rise of shy, innocent Izuku, and she had never batted an eye at it. But now the tables had been turned; she was blushing and flustered herself, all because of how handsy Hatsume was!
"Remember, Pinky: sex sells, sex sells! Maybe you should take off your jacket and show a little more skin!"
"Stop it!" Mina screeched. "Leave me alone, you psycho! Quit bossing me around and quit picking on me…and keep your hands off my butt! You're embarrassing me, Hatsume!"
Mina's screed went in one of Mei's ears and right out the other, but Izuku had heard every word. But instead of taking her side, Mina heard him utter some uncharacteristically bitter words under his breath.
"Now you know how I feel…" he said.
Mina's eyes went wide and she leaned forward, closer to his head.
"What was that?!" She snapped. She couldn't believe the sass he had just thrown at her! But before she could interrogate him further, Midnight called for the round to start and the three of them rushed into action.
…
Just as they expected, Izuku's Ten Million points made them a target from the start. It was a frenzy from the get-go as everyone rushed to challenge them, trying their hardest to steal their points for themselves.
But Mei's inventions proved to be a big advantage for their team. The jetpack let Mina escape from sticky situations with ease, and between the psycho chick's hoverboots and Izuku's fast feet their team was tough to to corner in the first place.
'Ugh, I hate to give her credit but Hatsume really is helping out!' It made Mina sick to her stomach to admit that to herself, so she kept her focus on the competition, guiding her horses away from danger.
After a few minutes, some of the teams started to veer off and target each other when they realized Team Ashido was a little too slippery for them. Mina thought that would give them a little bit of breathing room, but it didn't take long to realize that there was still one team too relentless to give up.
"Mina-san," Izuku warned, and without another word she understood.
"I know," she growled. "Kacchan isn't going to give up so easily!"
In fact, as their horde of pursuers started to thin out, Bakugo only pressured them them harder and harder. His explosions were popping off left and right, but it was clear that his target wasn't the headband on Mina's brow, but the horse she was riding instead!
"That jerk," Mina seethed. "He's not trying to win, he's just trying to hurt you!"
"Stay focused, Mina-san," Izuku replied. "Just worry about holding on to our points!"
It was good advice; Mina knew that. But hearing the hateful words Bakugo was spitting as his explosions struck close enough to singe Izuku's curls really pissed her off!
'Sorry, Izuku,' she thought. 'But I have to do something!'
Mina twisted her body at the waist until she could see Bakugo's team behind him. Seeing his stupid face, snarling and spitting hate at them, made Mina bare her teeth, too. She flexed her fingers and gathered a handful of thick, gooey acid in each palm, and then she pitched them back at him, one after the other, doing her best to hit him and knock him off his horses.
"Wrong move, Raccoon Bitch!" Katsuki shouted as he dodged the caustic projectiles. "Now you're really going to get it!"
Predictably, Mina's defiance only made Bakugo angrier. His curses grew louder and so did his attacks. His ire started to shift from Izuku to her. He pushed his team harder and they started getting closer, narrowing the gap between his explosive fists and Mina's back.
'Good,' Mina thought. 'He's right where I want him!'
Mina through another glob of acid at Bakugo, and this time it hit its mark. With a wet, sticky splash it struck him right in the face, forcing his team to fall back while he wiped his eyes clean.
"YOU BITCH!" Bakugo bellowed, spitting mad and about to explode in a burst of rage. "I'M GOING TO KILL YOU AND KNOCK YOU OUT OF THE GAME!"
Mina was not intimidated by his threats. On the contrary, she smiled at him, looking smug as could be. That only made Bakugo madder, but before he could say another word, Mina pointed at the headbands above her brow.
"You might want to check your score, Kacchan," she said, adding plenty of venom to her tone as she spoke his name. "We're not the ones who need to worry about getting knocked out of the game!"
Bakugo blinked, confused about what she was saying, then he clapped his hand against his forehead. But where he expected to find a bundle of cloth, his fingers only felt bare, blistered skin where Mina's acid had struck his face.
His eyes went wide.
"Did you fucking…?!"
"Yep!" Mina said, smiling wide and looking proud. "I melted your headbands, Baku-bitch! You're down to zero points…can you really afford to keep chasing after us when you're about to lose?"
Bakugo looked up at the scoreboard and confirmed that his team was at the bottom of the charts. He wanted to lash out and blow that smug bitch to smithereens, but after a moment of shaking, seething rage he growled and banked his body to turn his away, abandoning Deku's team and hunting for easier prey to recoup their loss.
…
But it was too little, too late. Right as Katsuki set that General Studies extra's team in his sights, the buzzer sounded and the round was over.
He had lost.
His team sat him down on the ground and tried to tell him not to worry about it, but Bakugo couldn't hear a thing. He was frozen, eyes wide and jaw hanging open.
He had lost.
Extras from his class, extras from the second string class, extras from the reject General Studies course had all made it through and he had come up short.
"I can't believe this," he whispered. "I…lost!"
He felt like crying, just like he had after that first Battle Trial. He had been shown up once again; he had been made a fool of by trash extras who couldn't hope to match his greatness!
But this time he wouldn't cry. He wouldn't let himself be that weak ever again. Instead he redirected that inner turmoil, molding those foreign feelings of helplessness into an emotion he was far more familiar with:
Rage.
Katsuki turned away from the scoreboard and found Deku's team. That damn nerd was smiling his stupid smile and high-fiving that racoon-eyed whore of his.
Bakugo never thought he could hate someone as much as he hated his worthless childhood friend, but when he looked at that pink-skinned bitch he saw nothing but red.
"YOU!" He shouted as he sprinted towards her. "I'LL KILL YOU!"
Bakugo's quirk came alive and his feet left the ground. He blasted across the field, pushing other students aside as he barreled towards his target.
Deku saw him first, saw the malice and hate in his wild eyes, and right before Katsuki could detonate a explosive blast right in the middle the loud-mouthed bitch's face, that wimpy boy he had pushed around his whole life stepped in front of her and knocked his arm away.
The explosion was sent skyward, missing its target entirely, and before Katsuki could lash out with his other hand, Deku hooked his arm around him and swung him him over his shoulder, once again laying him flat on his back with a judo throw.
"Don't you dare try to hurt her, Kacchan," Deku said, his voice colder and more dangerous than Bakugo had ever heard before.
"DAMN YOU, DEKU! I'M GONNA KILL YOU, TOO!"
…
Mina stepped forward and reeled back her arm, readying another handful of Acid so she could defend the boy who had just defended her. But before she had a chance to loose her attack, a concrete dome sprouted up around Bakugo, swallowing him up whole. Cementoss's quirk only left a small gap in the barrier that Midnight used to pump in gas from her Sonambulist quirk and knock the violent boy out.
"Stand down," Midnight said as she checked to make sure her quirk had done its work. And once she was sure she nodded at Cementoss, who was keeping watch across the field, and the concrete dome crumbled away.
"You lost, Bakugo," Midnight said to the unconscious boy. A pair medical robots scooped him up and carried him off the field while another pair of maintenance drones moved in to clean up the rubble.
Mina only let herself relax once she saw Bakugo disappear through the tunnel out of the arena. She neutralized the Acid in her palm and let it fall harmlessly between her fingers then let out a big sigh.
"He's not going to be happy when he wakes up," Izuku said. His cold, confident tone had melted away once the danger had passed, and he worried a little about the backlash that was sure to come from his defiance.
Mina stuck her tongue out in the direction Kacchan been carried away, feeling nothing but glee after watching him get dragged off in defeat.
"Serves him right," Mina said. "He got what he deserved, Izuku, and I'm glad! I'm not going to shed any tears for a jerk like him…I hate bullies!"
Izuku scoffed and turned to walk away.
"Yeah, right," he said, in the same bitter tone she had heard from him a while ago. Mina blinked and stared after him, feeling confused and more than a little hurt.
'What does he mean by that?' she wondered.
Mina wavered for a moment, wondering if she should chase after him and demand some answers about his attitude, or if she should give him a minute to calm down before she got in his face.
Her moment of indecision left her vulnerable, and Mei swept in to take advantage. The inventor, high on their team's shared victory and ecstatic about all the attention it had drawn to her gadgets, decided to pat her teammate on the back to celebrate a job well done. But that pat on the back took the form of a slap on the ass, a gesture of camaraderie that made much more sense on an American Football field than it did in the middle of UA's Sports Festival arena.
Mina blushed madly at the invasive touch, jumping and squawking out in protest.
"Hatsume! Keep your hands off my butt!" She screamed and shouted and growled in frustration as Mei just laughed and walked away.
'That girl is the worst!' Mina seethed. Mina stomped off, embarrassed as she made her way to the locker rooms and nearly in tears after being picked on by Mei this whole time. 'She's so shameless! Why is she like that?!'
Mina kept grousing all through the announcements of the Final Round's tournament bracket, bemoaning the way Hatsume had bullied her, embarrassed her and made a fool out of her in front of the whole world.
And never once did Mina realize that she was angry at Mei for all the same reasons Izuku was upset with her.