Oh my goodness this chapter was such a pain to write, since it's also kind of experimental itself, but it had to be done, because it's part of the story! Kinda vital for character development, things like that. Hi again guys! I hope you enjoy this chapter, I'll dump more feelings on this at the end notes, but this chapter may be a hit or miss with some of yall, because it's even more dialogue heavy than the last one. I know yall want to get to the action scenes and stuff, but I really don't want to rush this kind of thing. But please do refer to the end notes after you read this chapter, it might clear some things up on why I did such and such. I'm mentally drained rn LOL! Enjoy!
"HERO TEAM… WIIIIIINS!"
As the loud voice echoed across the entire room, Jayluf stared at the screen in complete silence alongside the other students in the room, all of them still in the middle of processing what had just happened. The screens presented multiple angles of the hero and villain teams respective students, allowing the class to see the aftermath of the battle.
There was a giant hole in each floor, all in the middle and lined up almost perfectly, due to Midoriya's quirk throwing up a gust of wind that broke through every ceiling earlier. Dust and debris were everywhere, due to the destruction caused by Midoriya and Bakugo.
One of the cameras showed an unflattering angle of Midoriya crumpled on the floor. His back, face, arms, upper body were all covered in burns and scorch marks. His right arm was colored a disgusting purple and red due from his entire arm being broken from the use of his quirk. Lines of blood also seemed to be spread across the arm from an unseen open wound. He wasn't moving, the only telltale sign that he was alive was the rise and fall of his chest, meaning he passed out from either exhaustion or pain.
Another screen showed Uraraka, who didn't appear to be damaged too much from the battle, save for some marks of debris on her costume and scrape marks and bruises when she had tumbled to the floor after her first attempt to grab the weapon. But she was in no fit state. In fact, her eyes were as wide as saucers, and she collapsed on her knees, desperately pressing her hands to her mouth. Her entire body spasmed as she dry heaved, unable to stop.
Above the two screens displaying the hero team, two more monitors showed the villain team. One showed Bakugo, who was completely injury free, without even the slightest scratch on him, even after being tossed around by Midoriya once or twice beforehand. But even with his seemingly untouched appearance, his mental state was another story. His eyes were wide open, his irises were small, and he was breathing extremely heavy. It almost seemed like he was about to collapse.
The other camera showed a different angle of Uraraka, revealing that Iida was on his knees right by her, a nervous expression on his face. He was gently rubbing her back in what was presumably to soothe her in an attempt to prevent her dry heaves from turning into something much more messy.
Some of the students standing in the room by Jayluf had turned away, unable to look at the grisly scene of Midoriya's battered form, or Uraraka's constant physical gagging. But Jayluf found himself unable to tear his eyes from the sight of Midoriya's barely moving form.
As his eyes settled on Midoriya's brutalized arm, Jayluf could not feel anything good from looking at it.
The fact was, Midoriya had been hurt severely, even before he had used his quirk, he'd been beaten and burnt by Bakugo, who seemed to take an extreme amount of pleasure in the act of attacking him.
And All Might, the Number One Pro Hero of all time, had refused to even stop it at all. The whole time, he'd just watched as the boy had been pummeled by his classmate and had done absolutely nothing to stop it.
When he spared a glance to where the Pro Hero stood, Jayluf was not expecting for All Might to not be there anymore. When he looked around, it seemed that All Might had apparently completely vanished when Jayluf hadn't been looking. Upon Asking Ashido about where All Might had gone, she had told him that apparently All Might had left the room shortly after the announcement of the hero team's win in order to bring the two teams back here. Sure enough, upon a glance at the camera, he could see All Might had suddenly materialized the scene of the crime, standing over Midoriya as two machines were gently loading him onto a stretcher.
Jayluf wondered briefly how All Might had gotten there so fast.
Even as the students around him suddenly began to quietly chatter amongst themselves about what they just witnessed, he had tuned them out, for his mind was currently on something else.. His thoughts had eventually wandered back to his main focus, what Bakugo had done, and more importantly, how All Might had handled it. It just didn't add up to Jayluf. No matter how hard he tried to process it, it just wouldn't make sense to him. Why did this happen? Why on earth would Bakugo, a student training to be a hero, in the hero school, do such horrible things? It was awful.
Cruel.
Unlawful.
Villainous.
Why would Bakugo act like such a villain, even if he'd been playing the role of one in the class exercise? Why had he taken such joy in hurting Midoriya?
And why had All Might, the number one Pro Hero, simply watched as the violence happened? Why had he ignored the desperate pleas of the students around him who'd begged him to halt the match?
Another glimpse at the camera showed the Hero in question had suddenly turned and approached Bakugo from behind, who was now stricken and visibly panting, as if he was about to pass out right then and there. However, he seemed to freeze upon All Might placing a giant hand on his shoulder. After speaking to Bakugo for several moments, All Might lifted his hand as he turned to gather Uraraka and Iida for the return trip.
Bakugo's strange reaction was somewhat interesting to Jayluf. Was Bakugo distressed because he'd lost? Or was he actually feeling some sense of guilt at that moment? Was he not proud of his actions? It would be the correct line of thought, compared to the first. It would be better to be upset about hurting an innocent compared to just being angry at not winning, would it not?
Jayluf found the idea of Bakugo showing remorse over his actions the more preferable choice. But he likely wouldn't know the truth until much later.
Several minutes ticked on at an extraordinarily slow pace as the students awaited for All Might to return. When the others considered sending someone out to check where they were, All Might had suddenly walked right through the door, abruptly flicking on the lights and causing many of the students to be disoriented.
"WE HAVE RETURNED TO THIS ROOM!" All Might shouted, "IN ORDERLY FASHION!"
And behind in tow were Bakugo, Uraraka, Iida, and-
Midoriya. Jayluf realized.
Midoriya was missing.
Midoriya wasn't with them.
Where was he? Weren't the robots carrying him here? Were they just slower? Jayluf threw a glance to the doorway, half expecting to see the robots roll Midoriya in on his stretcher. Yet no one came. "Where is Midoriya?" Jayluf suddenly spoke as he scanned the area around the doorway, just in case.. "Was he not being carried here by the robots? Is he alright?"
All Might simply raised a giant hand at the question. "Worry not! Young Midoriya is currently recovering from his injuries in the clinic!" The hand twisted into a thumbs-up. "He is quite safe and sound."
His injuries… Jayluf thought to himself. Those were because of Bakugo. "I see."
As the three remaining students positioned themselves by All Might as he stood by the Hero and Villain boxes, he gestured for everyone to come closer. "NOW EVERYONE! GATHER ROUND, WE NEED TO DISCUSS THIS MATCH IN DETAIL!"
That was a suggestion Jayluf found somewhat appealing, considering he had several concerns about the battle he thought would be relevant to the discussion. Although he did not move too close anyway, since it wasn't like he could see over any of the other students currently towering over him anyways. He could hear just fine, and also see All Might since he was huge.
"So, let's go over the match you have just witnessed. Victory or course went to the hero team, yes!" All Might held up a cautionary finger. "But I wanted to address an important factor of that battle… It doesn't matter whether you are on the winning team, or the losing team, there will still be someone who goes above and beyond, plus ultra! And that is who we call the 'MVP', so to speak!"
As the phrase thudded against his eardrums, Jayluf found himself unable to identify what that word meant. A what? "What is that?" He said softly.
Even with his soft-spoken inquiry being almost barely audible, someone had managed to hear him. The person in question being Ashido, who turned and leaned back to face Jayluf. "MVP is someone who's like the top performer of a team. It's a video game term I think was coined decades ago in America. It's short for 'most valuable player', so to speak."
Jayluf tilted his head. "What is a video game?"
For a brief moment, Ashido simply stared at him in complete silence. She slowly raised an eyebrow before responding. "Okay, since you're probably yanking my chain with a question like that, I'm not even going to dignify it with a response." She blinked, realizing what she'd just said. "Well, that was already technically a response to your question. So is this. And that. Dang it, never mind."
Ashido turned back to the group of students, who were still in the process of asking about what All Might was talking about.
"Who was the MVP?" Said one student.
The question made Jayluf pause for a brief moment, pondering the question himself. Who could be considered the most valuable in the match? Well, considering that the hero team had won thanks to mostly Midoriya's actions, it was obvious that he'd be considered as the-
"A very good question!" All Might suddenly spoke. "And I'd say that for that match, the MVP was none other than young Iida."
The entire room including Iida himself had looked up in complete surprise at the response.
Even Jayluf had been thrown off for the briefest of moments at the unexpected answer. What? Had he possibly misheard All Might? He must have misheard. Midroiya had clearly gone above and beyond in order to win, almost destroying an arm in the process, surely that was worthy of recognition?
While Jayluf obviously had no ill will towards Iida, it was still extremely unexpected to hear that was who All Might had chosen. Iida being the MVP? That was… odd. Given Midoriya's performance through the battle from start to finish, shouldn't it be Midoriya receiving the title, and not Iida? Jayluf began to think. Was he missing something? He had to be missing something, right?
Other students seemed to be curious as well, such as the frog girl, who leaned forward inquisitively, a finger resting on her chin. "It's neither of the members of the winning team, Midoroya or Uraraka?"
For a split second, Jayluf was thrown off by the frog girl, specifically how did this strange girl know Midoriya and Uraraka's names? A brief dig into his memory gave him a quick reminder of Ashido's words earlier when he and she had a brief conversation about the very same topic. Specifically, the part when she elaborated on the students' names being shown on a board or mentioned out loud a few times in the past.
But back to the original problem, Jayluf found himself silently agreeing with the frog girl's question. It wasn't even Uraraka either? It was Iida?
Strangely enough, All Might seemed to be somewhat puzzled at her question, as if he didn't know why himself, despite him making the claim mere moments ago. All Might leaned forward with an eyebrow raised. "Hmm… why is that?" He hummed innocently. "Why is that?" He suddenly flung an arm upwards. "DOES ANYONE KNOW?!"
For a moment, no one said a single word, still obviously confused. The silence was broken by a single arm being raised into the air. "Yes teacher, I believe I know the reason why."
Who was that? Jayluf couldn't see who it was, due to being behind some rather tall students, one with multiple arms, one that was rather buff, and another wearing a strange helmet.
I'll have to just get a look or two. Jayluf then proceeded to do a few small hops to see over the shoulders of the much taller students, in order to deduce whose arm was being held up.
First hop. He managed to make out a decently tall girl, who's costume was rather lacking in protection, exposing a lot of skin, which was odd.
Second hop. Her red vest was accompanied by a strange large light brownish belt that was wrapped around her waist.
Third hop. She also had a huge ponytail.
All Might pointed at the girl. "Yaoyorozu, isn't it? What do you think?"
Yaoyorozu… Jayluf thought, his cells hurriedly escorting the newly obtained knowledge to his memory.
"Well," Yaoyorozu began, "from watching the match myself, it became clear that Iida had adapted to the context of the training the most."
Jayluf hadn't been expecting that answer. And apparently neither did All Might, whose smile wavered for a second or two, as if he hadn't been expecting that as an answer.
"Another thing to address is that it appeared Bakugo seemed to be targeting Midoriya exclusively out of what I can assume is some sort of a personal grudge," Yaoyorozu continued. "given how emotional they seemed to get when they spoke to each other during the fight. We couldn't hear what they were saying, but it's obvious it was something personal."
Jayluf tilted his head. Grudge ?
"And as All Might mentioned beforehand, Bakugo's large-scale attack was a foolish move to perform indoors. And speaking of damage, there is also the account of Midoriya damaging his own body with his quirk. His plan was also rash, and wasn't thought through enough."
Her eyes flickered over to Uraraka. "Uraraka also made the mistake of letting her guard down in the middle of the battle because she did not take the fight very seriously, and that led to her final attack being both extremely dangerous and reckless.
Jayluf did another little hop to catch a glimpse of Uraraka, who was still standing by Iida, Bakugo, and All Might. He also noticed a vacant spot by Uraraka, a spot where Midoriya would have been standing, had he not been injured to the point of needing excessive hospitalization.
Jayluf didn't like that Yaoyorozu was speaking about Midoriya when he wasn't here to even defend himself. Wasn't that a bad thing to do?
Ignorant to his inner debating, Yaoyorozu gestured towards Uraraka. "If she had treated the paper mache' weapon as a real bomb, then she would not have done a final move that was so destructive to the environment around her."
Uraraka was now deflating slightly, a solemn expression on her face as she stared at the floor.
As the girl continued to speak, Jayluf wondered if Yaoyorozu would take the opportunity to stop, since she seemed to be upsetting the other student. It was the right thing to do, wasn't it? Yaoyorozu had made her point, so she'd stop, right?
Unfortunately, Yaoyorozu kept talking. "And in regards to Iida, he actually prepared himself for his opponent's arrival, assuming it would be a fight over the weapon, which made him late in the final attack from Uraraka." She ran a hand through hair briefly. "Honestly, the reason why the hero team won was only because it was merely a training exercise, and they took complete advantage of it. They were practically breaking the rules at that point."
Jayluf didn't feel like he was really experiencing any emotion at that moment, not really. Yet at the same time, something in him was stirring at those words, his cells were thoroughly disturbed, bumping into each other as he absorbed what Yaoyorozu had just said. When he finished, he deduced that he didn't like what Yaoyorozu was saying, nor did he like how much she accused the hero team of what they did wrong, when the villain team had made glaringly obvious mistakes themselves.
Jayluf came to a single conclusion. Yaoyorozu was wrong. Wrong about multiple things. But most importantly, Midoriya had not taken advantage of anything, and he'd been hurt, and All Might had stood by. Her logic did not make sense to him.
And Jayluf knew at that moment, he had to correct her errors. "No."
The room had suddenly ceased any audible noise, going dead silent. No one said a word.
Yaoyorozu slowly twisted herself in his direction. Well, he assumed that she did, because he could only see her weird ponytail, and it was a bit difficult to decipher what direction she was facing at the current moment.
"Excuse me?" She said, "Who said that?"
Jayluf raised his mitten covered hand in the air without hesitation. "It was me."
The ponytail moved erratically around until it eventually began moving to the side, and Yaoyorozu walked around the other students surrounding her, and eventually stopped right in front of Jayluf. She looked down at him. "Now, what did you say?"
"I said no." Jayluf stated plainly. "I believe you are in error, for both points."
She frowned. "And may I ask why you believe that? What is your counterargument?"
Jayluf knew nothing about counting arguments, he had not been in enough disputes to the extent of where he needed to begin to mark down the number of how many he'd experienced. However he knew exactly why he believed she was wrong.
"Midoriya was the em fee pee." He said slowly, pronouncing the unfamiliar phrase a bit slower than his normal talking speed.
Yaoyorozu arched a single doubtful eyebrow upwards. "You believe that Midoriya should have the title of MVP, despite what All Might said? Interesting. How so?"
All Might raised a finger. "Ah, maybe we should-"
"Because he acted as a hero should, did he not?" Jayluf was aware he did not have an overly excessive collection of knowledge in regards to how heroes acted on the job, in fact, the most he'd seen of heroes were purely through videos of All Might videos shown to him back home. But since All Might was indeed the Number One Hero, Jayluf assumed that his current knowledge on the topic would surely suffice.
Heroes protected the innocent.
Heroes stopped the villains.
Heroes saved everyone they could.
That was what heroes did, right? "He had pushed Uraraka out of the way at the beginning, when Bakugo had attempted to harm them both with a surprise attack, protecting her from any harm from the explosions. He had also managed to keep Bakugo away from both Uraraka and Iida, to prevent Bakugo from possibly attacking her and reuniting with his teammate. His plan also helped her get to the weapon, combining their final attacks in order to win. Without Midoriya's actions, the hero team would have surely lost. His actions were surely one of what a hero would be, and this is a hero class, is it not?"
Yaoyorozu put up a hand. "You have valid points Jayluf, but I believe you are missing my point. Yes, while this is a hero class, and there was a hero team, remember that there was the villain team as well. Remember, All Might was speaking about the overall MVP of the exercise itself, meaning it wasn't heroism being exclusively scored."
"But even if it is not judged by heroism, Midoriya still performed extraordinarily, compared to Iida." Jayluf retorted.
Yaoyorozu calmly gestured towards Uraraka, Iida, and Bakugo, who were still standing by All Might. "To the untrained eye, one would likely say Iida just simply stood by the weapon for the majority of the match, and did nothing except move around and move some objects in the room, then stand around some more.
She lowered her hand back down. "But in reality, he had saved the villain team from losing multiple times, and his actions had almost saved the match for him and Bakugo."
Upon the mention of the other students, Jayluf did a quick hop to get a quick glimpse of Iida and Uraraka, who were watching Yaoyorozu. Their and several other pairs of eyes landed on him for a split second before gravity pulled his feet back towards the solid linoleum floor.
"Are you trying to see?" said the buff student in yellow.
"Do you um... need us to move?" uttered the multi-armed student.
"Only if you wish to," Jayluf replied bluntly.
After a brief moment of glancing at each other, the two bigger students awkwardly shuffled to the side, allowing Jayluf to get a much better view of All Might, Iida, and Bakugo.
"Anyways," Yaoyorozu suddenly cut in, drawing Jayluf's attention back to her. "It was because of him protecting the weapon being the reason why his team came so close to victory. After all, it's supposed to be the top priority of both the hero AND the villain team. He prepared himself for Uraraka's arrival by cleaning everything up as well."
Her words were not very convincing to Jayluf. Sure, Iida had done some good, but compared to what Midoriya did? What he'd accomplished? There was an obvious choice on who had done more for their team.
Yaoyorozu held up a finger. "Had he not been there to protect the weapon, Uraraka would have just touched the weapon, and the round would have been lost then and there. While I don't disagree that the hero team did plenty of good, we cannot ignore the flaws in their actions and planning. And as I stated before, the hero team were basically breaking the rules at that point."
The mention of them breaking the rules caused Jayluf to tilt his head in confusion at her logic. Breaking the rules? Had she not seen what Bakugo had done? "You speak as if the hero team were the ones purposely violating the rules. But didn't the villain team also break the rules as well?"
Yaoyorozu frowned. "And how do you suggest that they broke the rules, since you seem to be so sure?"
Jayluf merely raised a gloved hand to point in the direction of Bakugo. "Remember what Bakugo had done In the middle of the match? When he had cornered Midoriya, and prepared to use his special attack with his equipment, All Might had attempted to directly intervene himself over radio contact, telling Bakugo to stop."
Yaoyorozu did not seem impressed. "I had already addressed Bakugo's foolish indoor attack."
"I was not finished." Jayluf said. "Bakugo, despite being warned by All Might to not use the attack, ignored the direct command. Even when he knew it could…" he paused. "It could possibly kill Midoriya. Bakugo, disregarded a direct order from his teacher, who also happens to be All Might, the Number One Hero."
"W-Well, I suppose that-"
"Bakugo had broken the rules. Not practically, or technically, he just broke them. The authority must be obeyed. And even after the attack, he continued to harm Midoriya unnecessarily, despite the fact that he could have used the binding material that was provided to him at the start."
Ashido waved her hand in the air. "Yeah, he was kinda violent, Yaoyorozu. Like seriously, he could have been like, not totally psycho when he was fighting with Midori."
Jayluf glanced out of the corner of his eye curiously, to see if Bakugo was going to join the conversation, to maybe defend the actions during the battle.
Yet surprisingly, Bakugo did not even seem to be aware of the conversation happening. In fact, it appeared as if he was completely ignorant to anything around him, his mind elsewhere as he stared at the floor with wide eyes.
"Well…" Yaoyorozu said suddenly, pausing for several seconds, as if pondering her next words. "I suppose you do have a point there in regards to Bakugo. But still, it does not excuse the hero team's errors. And while Bakugo maybe should have used the binding tape, he had no way of telling when Midoriya was actually down for the count. Remember, it was a real battle, All Might even said so himself earlier."
There it was again, that phrase. Real battle. Jayluf didn't understand. "But why? I do not understand this. We are supposed to be training, yet we are expected to so readily harm our fellow students? Should not the training be the focus here, instead of the battle?
"Jayluf," Yaoyorozu began softly. "The battle is the training. It's why we're here in the first place. Heroism isn't just rescuing cats from trees or helping old women cross the street. In the line of work of heroes, we will be fighting real battles against real people."
"It does not matter what we will be doing in the future," Jayluf replied. "It still does not make sense. This is a hero school, yet we are being encouraged to fight amongst ourselves? Does hurting each other help us learn?" His eyes landed on All Might for a brief moment before going back to Yaoyorozu. "Is that why All Might did not interfere with Bakugo after Bakugo's massive attack?"
Jayluf began to somewhat doubt himself the more he considered Yaoyorozu's words. Was there supposed to be a lesson? If things like that could happen in the line of real life hero work, was that why All Might did not do anything to stop it after? Because it was part of the training? To show them what happened to heroes in their jobs? He shook his head briefly. No, All Might would not want that to happen, surely not! Right…? "Was that why All Might stood by and allowed Midoriya to be continuously harmed, even while the other students tried to get him to halt the fight early before anything bad happened?"
He lifted his hands up and wrapped them around himself instinctively as his eyes wandered towards the floor. "Was… Midoriya getting injured the outcome he wanted? Because of it being a real battle?"
Due to his body facing Yaoyorozu and his eyes being glued to the floor, Jayluf did not see All Might flinching back as if the man had been socked in the face.
Yaoyorozu put her hands on her hips, a displeased expression plastered on her face as she stared down at him. "No! Of course not! How could you say such an awful thing? All Might doesn't intend for any of us to be hurt in any shape or form here."
Jayluf immediately looked back up towards Yaoyorozu defiantly. "I don't understand… If All Might does not wish for any of us to be harmed, why did he refuse when he had the chance to stop the battle between Midoriya and Bakugo? Why did he not acknowledge the other students begging him to stop the match? This is a hero school, is it not? Shouldn't the act of harming another student be considered bad, or something a real villain would do? Even if one side is playing as villains, isn't this wrong?"
Yaoyorozu opened her mouth, paused, and glanced to the side, as if she was unsure about the answer she was about to give. Glancing to the side towards where All Might and the other students were watching intently, she took a small breath before answering. "I will not disagree that hurting fellow classmates excessively should obviously be discouraged. But in regards to how All Might handled the fight, you said it yourself, we should obey the authority, so you should also understand it isn't our place to question said authority here. Considering the fact he is the teacher to the top class in all of U.A. and that he's the Number One Hero, he probably has much experience in teaching and training heroes like us."
Jayluf silently absorbed Yaoyorozu's explanation as he stared up at her. She was right, but at the same time, she was incorrect. She was correct in regards to having to obey the higher authority no matter what, that was obvious. But at the same time, something felt off. Of course All Might knew a lot about teaching people about becoming a hero, but what he did earlier just… it did not feel right.
And why was Yaoyorozu trying to brush off what had happened to Midoriya so casually, as if it was a dropped pencil or book? Wasn't almost killing someone a very bad thing? Like a really bad thing? Was it normal for people to respond like that in a situation where someone is almost killed? Shouldn't the hero try to stop the attempt in the first place if they had the opportunity to do so? "But…"
"Look," Yaoyorozu abruptly cut in, letting out a sigh. "I'm assuming that Midoriya is your friend, correct? I think it is fair to say you might be reacting too emotionally. I understand being protective of your friends, but you need to realize that sometimes things need to be seen from a different, more critical angle."
She held up her hand in a disarming manner. "We should always start with the basics to develop depth of learning here. All of us should strive to change, and do our best to devote ourselves to becoming heroes wholeheartedly."
Jayluf simply stared back, unflinching.
Yaoyorozu relaxed her hands, letting them hang loosely on her sides. "In order to accomplish that, you might have to adjust the way you think or react to specific situations. It might be a difficult thing to do, but I promise you it's not impossible. Not everything in life is simple. It's not all black and white like it is in fiction, real life is much more complicated, and going in with the wrong mindset might backfire later down the road."
But to Jayluf, the situation was very simple. It was a simple thing to understand. Midoriya was hurt because of what Bakugo did. All Might did not stop it, despite having the chance to stop the fight multiple times. Why couldn't she understand that simple concept? Why was she wanting to move past it so quickly? Jayluf blinked multiple times, his brain cells starting to strain from the excessive thinking being done.
"I'm not asking you to completely change yourself as a person," Yaoyorozu quickly added, "or outright change your way of thinking entirely. I am just merely suggesting that you try thinking outside of the box for once. I know how easy it is to act purely on one's emotional state, and how it sometimes might be a struggle to control. But, if you manage to control your feelings, it will greatly help you in the future."
Jayluf was somewhat confused. Was she suggesting that he was acting on emotions, and wasn't thinking? He was being completely logical here! "My.. emotions?"
"Emotions will cloud your judgment, Jayluf." Yaoyorozu said calmly. "If you let it influence you too much, you will find yourself becoming an extremely biased person, which I don't think is something you want to become, right?"
"I am not being influenced by my emotions." Jayluf retorted. "I am simply stating the facts of what happened."
"But you are," Yaoyorozu cut in. "You're focusing on Midoriya by not listening to me, and treating as if the injuries he received are suddenly making his mistakes irrelevant. You're refusing to acknowledge the major errors that he had made."
"You are refusing to acknowledge what he'd accomplished," Jayluf replied.
"Ahem."
Before both students were able to begin bickering once more, the sound of someone loudly clearing their throat caused them to look to the side to see All Might, who had a rather stern expression on his face. "I apologize, but we have to move onto the next class battle. Your debate will have to wait until after class today, because today this class will take up the rest of the day."
Jayluf didn't know if he'd been imagining it, but it almost sounded like All Might's voice had a slight amount of strain.
Yaoyorozu immediately bowed in an apologetic manner. "I apologize sir, I did not intend to cause a scene."
Jayluf would have mimicked her body movement, had he been looking at her in the first place. However, he blankly stared at All Might, the events from the previous battle still fresh in his mind. "I apologize." he blurted out.
All Might looked at him for several seconds before his smile suddenly went back up, his personality abruptly changing. "It is alright! Everyone, let's change locations, and start the second match! Tackle this training after thinking about what we had been talking about before!"
"Yes sir!" Everyone called out at once, save for Jayluf.
Everyone began to file out of the room, following All Might who was in front of the line. But before Jayluf could go and place himself at the back of the line, someone tapped his shoulder, causing him to look behind him to see a certain brown haired girl with a meek look on her face. "Uraraka?"
"Hey, Jayluf…" Uraraka said softly.
"Is there something you require of me?"
"Ah, no. I was just uh, I'm just making sure that you're alright. Are you… okay?"
Jayluf blinked. "I am functional at the moment."
Uraraka let out a short and dry chuckle, almost as if she'd been expecting the response he gave. "Ha… well, that's good to hear I guess. I just uh, I wanted to say, thanks for standing up for Deku when he wasn't here to defend himself. It was a very nice thing to do, and I'm sure he'd appreciate it."
"I was merely stating the facts."
Uraraka rubbed the back of her head. "Although, I hope you know that uh, Yaoyorozu I think her name was? I uh, I hope you know that she wasn't targeting Deku specifically out of malicious intent or anything like that. And although I didn't like being called out like that, she was kinda right that I made mistakes..."
"But you still won."
"Yeah," She muttered. "But it doesn't erase the mistakes that I made, or suddenly make them irrelevant. I probably should have taken that fight more seriously, it's just, Iida was acting so goofy, I couldn't help myself. Anyways, we should go, yeah? Don't wanna lag behind or anything. Let's go watch the next battle."
"The next real battle," Jayluf corrected.
Uraraka simply let out a snort. "Pffft, very funny. Come on, let's go."
She turned and exited the room, leaving Jayluf to his own thoughts.
Real battle. He'd heard that phrase so many times today, it was starting to sound like white noise. Even if these were "real battles", he wouldn't hurt another student. He wouldn't be like Bakugo. Even if it was part of the assignment when it was his turn, he wouldn't use his quirk on another student. Jayluf knew his claws were able to tear through metal robots like they were made of nothing.
His eyes wandered down to his small mitten covered hands.
One could only imagine what his claws could do to the human body.
Momo: I'm sorry if Midoriya is your friend little guy, but he still should be criticized
Jayluf: (ง'̀-'́)ง
Hey yall! Yeah, so let me just dump out my feelings now. This was an extremely difficult chapter to write for many reasons. One was trying to write an extended argument/debate where the writing wouldn't villainize either side. I don't want to villainize Momo or All Might, and I hope they didn't come off as being written as the "bad guy" of the argument. I tried writing Momo as someone who's arguments are valid, considering she mentions not letting emotions cloud bias and such, I did my best to do the same! It was very challenging to do this, so I hope it paid off somewhat.
Another thing I struggled with is eventually deciding what kind of arguing technique Jayluf used, and I eventually decided on one that you've probably experienced in real life. "Bakugo hurt Midoriya, All Might did nothing" is something you see repeatedly in this chapter, due to Jayluf bringing it up over and over again. The type of arguing Jayluf does, is repeating his point several times in a debate, because he thinks that repeating it again might help the other person understand it more. I was dipping my toes into attempting to write Jayluf being stubborn for the first time.
In all honesty, Jayluf is kind of a difficult character to write outside of his unintentionally humorous one liners and borderline emotionless attitude, but I wanted to try and write this for his development, so I hope he didn't seem OOC.
It was hard not to write Jayluf sounding like a whiny brat who kept saying the same thing over and over to get the results he wanted, and I hope it didn't come off like that in the chapter.
I tried writing him as someone who couldn't compute why the other side disagreed, and is frustrated that the opposing side doesn't give the answers/replies he wants. I do wish I skipped some bits, but I don't want to be lazy. I apologize for the extended wait for this chapter, I'm sure yall weren't happy to see the under construction pic which was the changed cover art before, but the mini hiatus is over now. I hope you enjoyed, and if you do, maybe review, follow, or favorite!