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[Shonen Fight]
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...
"She's putting up some resistance, that's for sure," Taka muttered as he observed the battle below, resting his cheek on his fist as one leg dangled by the stadium's ceiling and the other rested against his chest.
To say Todoroki was in real trouble would be a stretch. He didn't look overly worried, but the faint frown on his face made it clear this fight wasn't going the way he'd planned.
Not only had he been forced onto the defensive, hiding behind ice walls to hold off the cannon blasts coming his way, but it seemed Yaoyorozu had methodically made him use his own ice in a way that restricted his movement around the arena throughout their fight so far—thus trapping him where he was now.
Unlike in the show, where she had barely been able to hold her own against Tokoyami due to her inexperience in real fights, this was a massive step up.
'Although, looking more carefully, it's not going well for her.' Taka mused.
Yaoyorozu's Quirk used the lipids in her body to produce materials and objects. Judging by everything she'd created so far, she was probably running close to her limit.
If she hadn't hit it already.
He didn't know what would happen if she pushed her Quirk that far. Hopefully, not her becoming like that sucked-up alien.
Still, if she wanted to push herself that hard, he wasn't going to stop her.
But this was a tournament. Managing resources mattered—if she won, there'd be another fight after this one.
Which made this matchup even more unfortunate. Of all the people she could have faced first, it had to be Todoroki, the one she had to go all out if she wanted to win.
—Even if going all out here meant arriving at the next fight practically Quirkless.
And judging from her expression as she quickly reloaded the pair of cannons she'd somehow found time to build, she knew that too.
But without going all out, she had no chance.
So there was only one conclusion to arrive at.
No matter the future.
She had to go all out here, or there wouldn't be a future combat to worry about.
Which is what she did—holding nothing back against Todoroki and making sure to show everything she had to the pros watching from the stands in this one fight.
-Boom!-
-Boom!-
-Boom!-
The barrage continued for a while more. Todoroki stayed behind his wall, and Yaoyorozu kept hammering it with the cannons while skating away fast enough whenever he sent back a wave of ice in her direction, only to go back to the cannons right away so Todoroki wouldn't run away.
Eventually, though, just as expected, she hit her limit.
The ammunition ran dry, as did her Quirk's resources. Soon, the cannons fell silent.
And Todoroki seemed to have been waiting for exactly that. The moment the impacts stopped, he moved.
—Tsssssssss!—
He pressed his palm to the ice, and it began dissolving rapidly. Within seconds, the arena had cleared entirely—leaving just the two of them on opposite sides, facing each other.
Yaoyorozu looked nervous. She raised her staff and tightened her grip on it.
Todoroki looked like he was ready to end it, not an ounce of worry on his face.
There wasn't much of a standoff.
—Sssssshhhhhh!—
The instant they locked eyes, he sent a rising wave of ice surging toward her.
She moved fast on the skates, dodging by narrow margins the freezing wave and closing on Todoroki as quickly as she could.
As she got closer, she reached into a bag she was carrying, pulled out a handful of small spheres, and tossed them toward Todoroki.
He raised a wall before they could reach him.
They weren't meant to be offensive, though.
-Puff!-
—Tsssss…—
"...?!" Todoroki's face contorted into a frown.
The moment the spheres hit the ice wall, smoke burst outward and swallowed a wide stretch of the arena.
Moving quickly while her momentum was still carrying her, Yaoyorozu pulled down a small visor that had been resting on her head and brought it over her eyes as she dove into the cloud.
Even from above, where Taka was, it wasn't hard to work out what it was.
An infrared visor.
She was cutting off Todoroki's vision while keeping her own.
'Just how much prep time did Todoroki give her…?' Taka watched, a little baffled.
Cannons, gadgets, ammunition—as far as he could recall from her Quirk's specifics, all of it took time to produce.
A lot of it. Especially the cannons.
Could Todoroki have given her prep time due to overconfidence?
'Like hell.' Taka snorted. Todoroki was arrogant, but he didn't go easy on anyone.
At least he didn't think so.
The most likely explanation was that after she dodged an opening move he'd thought would be enough, Yaoyorozu had stayed hidden behind his ice long enough to build what she needed.
Then, she'd probably used the same trick for the cannons—leading him into creating a labyrinth of ice that worked against him while she used the cover to prepare.
'Well, she sure gets troublesome once you give her time and a class on how not to freeze up in a fight…' Taka smiled wryly, then squinted as Yaoyorozu disappeared into the smoke cloud.
He couldn't see anything from up here.
That wouldn't do.
Closing his eyes, he separated a small bubble of aura from himself—still connected by a thin thread—and sent it drifting down toward the arena below.
The instant it touched the platform, it spread out silently and rapidly, expanding until it covered the whole area.
Invisible, of course.
But with it in place, Taka, whose eyes remained closed, smiled.
Now, he could feel what was happening inside there.
Yaoyorozu was circling Todoroki with her skates, moving swiftly and unpredictably, looking for the right moment to strike.
Todoroki, in turn, was standing still and listening carefully, reading the air around him, waiting for her to commit.
Which she did soon enough.
Suddenly, she broke the circle and drove straight at him, winding up her staff for a good hit.
However, despite not being able to see her, Todoroki reacted fast. Before she could get to him, a rising wave of ice shot out in her direction, forcing her to dodge in a hurry.
The skates made the dodge clumsy, and Todoroki, of course, didn't miss the chance to capitalize on that mistake.
—Sssshhhh!—
Before she could recover, another wave came.
And this time, she didn't get out of the way in time.
Taka huffed.
—And just like that, Yaoyorozu was encased in ice before she could react.
Todoroki let out a quiet sigh as the fight settled.
The smoke took a few seconds more to clear, but the moment it did, the call came.
{"Yaoyorozu can't continue—Todoroki advances to the next round!"}
"So in the end, he still makes it through." He muttered with a calm smile.
That meant their fight would be the first in the next stage.
Taka looked at Todoroki's expression. He looked a little shaken—he had probably used way too much ice in too little time, and clearly, he hadn't expected the fight to be that complicated.
In the show, it probably wouldn't have been.
'But this isn't the show, is it?' His smile turned into a smirk.
Yaoyorozu may have lost, but she'd given the guy a real fight, and performed well above what the gap in power between them would have suggested.
In the case of Mina during his combat with her, she too had done well. A lot better than he thought the show Mina could have done.
It seemed his training had not been wasted.
Following that thought, his eyes drifted toward the class section, settling on two figures in particular.
Bakugo and Midoriya.
The next fight.
He was curious to see what this clash would look like, given how different both parties were from their counterparts in the show.
And even more so because now Midoriya wouldn't need to use self-mutilation as his only victory card.
...
°
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| A few minutes later... |
...
Taka was lying on his back on the stadium roof, bobbing his head faintly to a rhythm in his head.
The pause until the next fight had dragged on for a bit, so he had decided to relax for a bit until it began.
As he did, enjoying the music inside his head, his mind slowly drifted to what he did earlier to check what was happening inside the smoke, a small smirk taking over his face as he did so.
'It sure has turned out to be useful today. Good thing I was able to come up with it on time.'
His new skill: Aura Sense.
· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·
[Aura Sense] (Active)
Description: Hidden like a shadow, far, far away, a sniper shoots to kill.
The bullet travels the distance in seconds, too fast for the eye, too silent for any eye to perceive. An undetected assassin, incapable of being predicted by anyone common.
Only, just as the bullet is about to hit, the target turns around, looking straight in the eyes of the sniper, while he tilts his head, letting the bullet pass harmlessly.
For nothing can escape his knowledge, nothing can escape his detection.
He sees it all.
▸You have learned the art of feeling through your aura.
▸By spending a certain amount of aura, you can expand it into a zone with you at the center, and feel the movement of anything that is contained within.
▸The more aura used, the bigger the zone that can be created.
▸Separating the zone from you requires more aura, as does increasing the distance between you and the zone.
▸When the zone is undone, all the aura spent comes back immediately.
· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·
It was basically the reconnaissance skill he had been waiting for.
Aside from earlier, when he used it to check what was happening inside the smoke, he had also used it during the first game, the race, to check how close the main trio was to the finish line, so he could estimate when to do his big entrance.
It was a very useful skill.
Of course, it had some defects for now. Whether because those were its limits, or because he just hadn't perfected it yet, he didn't know for sure.
For starters, the "sense" that came from the zone of aura was only useful for movement, not noise or sight.
If he had to express it somehow, it was similar to the sense of touch, when the skin feels the wind moving—or not even the skin, the sense that comes from your hair receiving air was also similar in that sense. Basically, he was sensitive to any changes occurring within the aura zone's domain.
However, due to that restricted level of perception, things like picturing colors, sounds, voices, smells, and more within the zone just weren't possible for now.
After today passed, he would check if he could improve it or not, but for now, it was what it was.
It didn't take away the fact that it remained an incredibly useful skill both for reconnaissance and combat… Which he hadn't tried out yet, but he was excited to do so.
Smiling at the thought of perceiving his opponent's movements without even looking, he sighed and relaxed further, letting the sunrays hit his face placidly.
—Until Present Mic's voice snapped him back upright.
{"Now that the arena has been cleaned of all the leftover ice and rebuilt, it's time to give a warm welcome to our next fighters!"}
As he pushed himself up, his gaze dropped down, locking onto the two figures making their way toward the arena.
The two walked with very different kinds of presence.
Bakugo was confident—he knew exactly what he was capable of, and had no hesitation or doubt in his gaze about how the battle would go. He also looked angrier than usual, though that was difficult to gauge at baseline.
Midoriya, on the other hand, wasn't radiating confidence exactly—but he wasn't scared either. His eyes carried something more specific than bravado.
Determination.
A goal in mind.
If it had been the Midoriya from the show, he would have said something along the lines of "I don't want to lose this fight."
The one walking to the platform right now was saying "I want to win," with his eyes.
It seemed the green-head had grown a lot without him noticing.
Soon, both climbed onto the arena and took their positions at opposite ends.
{"Readyyy?!"} Present Mic began the countdown, making the entire stadium catch their breath.
As the pause stretched, Bakugo's legs coiled like springs, and his hands pointed backwards, ready to launch forward the moment the word dropped.
Midoriya's body began to pulse with energy, electric arcs flickering around him as his muscles tensed.
One more second of stillness passed.
Then—
{"START!"}
Both exploded forward, their figures blurring.
To Taka, they were still followable. But even so, his eyebrows pulled into a slight frown as they closed in on each other.
"Huh?"
Just as they were about to clash, with Bakugo winding up an explosion in his palm—Midoriya pushed a beat faster than the blonde had accounted for.
Ducking under the swing, he grabbed the extended arm and, before Bakugo could react—
-Bam!-
Threw him clean over his shoulder.
Bakugo's back hit the platform hard, the air knocked clean out of him, eyes going wide.
But before he could even process that, a fist was already coming straight at his face.
"Urgh!"
—BOOOM!—
He released an uncontrolled explosion from one hand, hurling himself sideways in a rough, chaotic roll across the platform.
—BAM!—
The next second, Midoriya's fist cracked the concrete exactly where his head had been a moment before, throwing up a small burst of dust.
"You're not getting away!"
He, however, didn't stop there—he chased immediately, shooting after the rolling blonde.
Since Bakugo was still tumbling without control, Midoriya closed the gap fast with his grand speed, winding up another punch.
"Don't—"
—BOOM!—
Mid-roll, Bakugo's palms slammed into the platform and detonated, kicking him into the air.
—BOOM!—
—BOOM!—
—BOOM!—
From there, a chain of explosions ricocheted him across the air, gradually wrestling back control of his own movement.
And once he had it—
"—look down on me!"
He shot himself back at Midoriya, palm blazing.
Like before, Midoriya rushed to meet him, moving to grab the arm again.
—BOOM!—
But to his shock, this time, Bakugo aimed the explosion at the approaching ground instead of at him, and the resulting force kicked him up and overhead before Midoriya could close the gap.
He missed the arm completely. Bakugo was already past him—at his back.
And with such a wide target at his disposal, he aimed his palm and…
—BOOM!—
Released an explosion on Midoriya's back point-blank.
"Aaaargh!"
Midoriya was sent flying, rolling hard across the platform for several meters.
After enough rolls, he dug his fingers into the concrete and slowed himself down while recovering his control.
As he did, however, Bakugo was already after him. His scowl made Midoriya panic and dash away once again, this time on his feet instead of rolling.
While the two did their thing, trading roles and chasing each other across the arena, Taka watched with a slightly narrowed look.
"That's strange… how did Bakugo fall for that throw? Didn't he already—oh."
He slapped his forehead.
"Right, that didn't happen this time. Those two weren't pitted against each other at the combat exercise."
Which meant this was Bakugo's first real taste of Midoriya's complete knowledge of how he fought.
'Which also means this is the first time they've actually clashed in a proper fight.'
He pressed his chin into his hand, brow creasing further.
'I might have forgotten about the importance of that fight in their relationship… it led to Midoriya letting Bakugo in on more than he should have regarding One For All, didn't it? Without that happening, their relationship is probably sitting right where it was when they left middle school.'
No wonder Bakugo was looking angrier than usual.
He was fighting the person he'd thought had been hiding a Quirk from him his entire childhood, fooling him into thinking he was weaker for whatever reason.
'Whoops.'
While Taka turned that over, the fight below continued at the same intensity it had started. Only now, Bakugo had stopped chasing and went for the aerial assault option, while Midoriya was left trying to keep up with his opponent's attacks.
The blonde was bouncing between points in the air, using explosions as launch pads, trying to make Midoriya lose track of him.
Whenever he managed it—even for a moment—Bakugo dove like a predator, driving an explosion into him.
Whenever it happened, Midoriya could only bring his arms up to absorb some of the damage before Bakugo had already launched himself back into the air.
Needless to say, he was in trouble. Midoriya was fast, but he couldn't redirect mid-air the way Bakugo could. So if he tried to intercept him during a maneuver and missed, he'd be wide open in the air.
He needed to bring him down.
'Guess I've got no choice.' Midoriya thought, brows furrowing wryly.
He had to use his ultimate move.
His face tightened as he fought to track Bakugo's chaotic path, eyes narrowing into slits.
When he finally had him locked for long enough—
—BAM!—
He kicked off the ground and launched himself straight at the blonde.
Bakugo caught it immediately and detonated an explosion to evade. By his read, Midoriya would miss by just enough.
That's what he'd thought—until he saw Midoriya shift his posture. Pulling back not a fist.
But a kick.
"What?!"
—BAM!!!—
"Urgh—!
Before he could adjust, the kick landed cleanly into his side, hurling him downward with force that dragged the air out of him.
The hit hurt badly, but pushing through it, Bakugo swung a hand as he fell.
—BOOM!—
An explosion from his palm broke his fall and spun him enough that he was able to land on his feet, though barely.
As he steadied himself, he couldn't help clutching his side, the pain twisting his expression.
"Damn it…!"
He snapped his head back up.
On the other side of the arena, Midoriya had landed with a backflip and was catching his breath—burns and injuries across him, but otherwise composed.
At the sight, Bakugo's teeth came together.
"Why you…!"
He pushed himself upright—shaky, but he got there.
Once he was on his feet, he fixed his glare on Midoriya. A rough, unsteady laugh slipped out.
"Must have been funny, eh, Deku?"
Midoriya flinched at that, his guard dropping slightly.
"All these years making me think you were Quirkless—only for it to turn out you had one all along, and a powerful one at that… must have been quite the laugh."
"Kacchan…"
"And now here you are, blocking my way, sporting that irritating face…"
—BOOOOM!—
"YOU MUST LOVE MAKING ME LOOK LIKE AN IDIOT!"
The moment Midoriya's guard slipped, Bakugo launched himself forward.
Midoriya reacted a beat late. With no way of blocking, countering, or evading efficiently, he found himself forced to dodge the incoming explosion by throwing himself sideways in a desperate lunge.
—BOOOOM!—
Luckily, he got out of the way by a hair.
Unluckily, Bakugo was already on him before he could get upright.
Using his speed, Midoriya doubled down on not fighting back and sprang back, putting distance between them.
"Damn it, don't run away, Dek—"
"I won't!"
In the brief window while Bakugo was switching from attack back to pursuit, hands shifting from aiming at the green-head to pointing behind him for propulsion, Midoriya reversed his momentum—kicking off and shooting back at him.
Bakugo barely had time to react before a kick came swinging at him.
—BAM!—
"Kgh—!"
He blocked with his forearms in a hurry, managing to cushion some of the force.
"...!"
But it was not enough. The recoil launched him off the platform and left him just a meter above the grass outside the platform.
The moment he landed, it'd be his instant loss.
With the line of his defeat right there, below him, Bakugo's eyes sharpened, and everything slowed for a moment.
'What am I doing?'
He'd trained, mentalized, and planned, all to come here today to show that guy what he was made of.
To prove that his beliefs had never been wrong, and that he should in fact be up there…
The top.
—And yet…
'I'm about to lose, in the first round, against Deku of all people…?'
The least impressive guy he had ever met, the guy who'd always looked up at him worriedly, even though he was supposed to be so much inferior… was about to beat him?
What was he doing?
—BOOM!—
An explosion cut his momentum and kept him from touching the ground.
Then—
—BOOOOM!—
A bigger one launched him upward, fast.
Midoriya watched him rocket skyward, blinking, then slowly took a few steps back, preparing for whatever was coming next.
Bakugo, on the other hand, kept climbing. His momentum seemingly unstoppable…
Until he was level with the top of the stadium.
From up there, he took it all in for one breath—the whole arena spread below him, the crowd observing his every movement, Midoriya observing him with concern—and prepared for his last move.
As he swept his eyes across the stadium, though, something caught them for a moment.
Far away, sitting on the edge of the roof, was Taka.
His red eyes were glaring directly at him.
'So that's where he went…'
Seeing him there, something clicked back into focus.
His goal.
The person he had come here to surpass.
As that dawned, a grin took over Bakugo's face.
His gaze dropped back down, locking on Midoriya.
"I'LL WIN!"
And with that statement, he dove.
—BOOM!—
—BOOM!—
—BOOM!—
—BOOM!—
—BOOM!—
Explosions fired off around him as he fell, gradually making his body spin at crazy speeds, and building a vortex that pulled the surrounding oxygen inward.
For one last shot.
Midoriya, on the other side, dug in the moment he saw the blonde plummeting.
His legs bent low, muscles coiling like metal springs, loading an enormous amount of force.
Until, at last—
He released.
—BAM!—
His figure launched upward like a rocket, aimed straight at the descending vortex.
Two forces, bearing down on each other. Again.
Energy surged into Midoriya's arm, far more than before—his sleeve peeling apart, the skin beneath pulsing with violent light.
"Texas—!"
Bakugo's grin widened from within the vortex. His palms burned bright, the small pops feeding into each other faster and faster as he closed in.
"Howitzer—!"
Down below, Midnight and Cementoss exchanged a look and moved.
"We have to stop them!"
Cementoss rushed to the platform and drove his hands into it, forcing the concrete to surge upward and put itself between the two students.
But—
"I won't make it!" Cementoss called out.
"At that height, my Quirk can't reach them either!" Midnight added.
Neither of them could.
With nothing in the way, both students completed their arc.
And clashed.
"—SMAAAAASH!"
"—IMPAAAACT!"
—BOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!—
The next instant, an explosion of enormous scale tore through the air—then amplified, as the shockwave of pure compressed wind that followed surged out from the center and rolled across the entire stadium.
The crowd couldn't help but cover their ears. The rumble was enough to deafen any noise coming from them.
But, contrastingly, a few seconds later... came the silence.
From the crowd, from Present Mic, from the arena, and from the settling explosion.
Until, slowly, two figures cut through the lingering smoke cloud in the sky and came into view—both falling in parallel, both toward the bounds.
Cementoss moved immediately to catch them with the concrete.
But just before he reached them—
—BOOM!—
Bakugo let off one small explosion midair, redirecting his fall back toward the platform, out of Cementoss' reach.
Midoriya didn't do anything, so he was caught and carried back to the platform without much trouble.
Bakugo landed harder. Cementoss could only react so quickly, throwing up a concrete ramp to redirect the momentum at the last second.
It was enough to keep him from hitting the ground at full force, but not enough to make it clean. He rolled across the platform in a heap and eventually came to a stop.
And then, slowly, clearly at the limit of what he had left—he pushed himself into fours, clearly not capable of more after that clash.
But that was enough.
Because Midoriya couldn't even do that.
A brief, stunned silence settled over the arena for a moment as the realization dawned on both the crowd and Bakugo.
Then, the announcement came.
{"Midoriya is unconscious—Bakugo advances to the next round!"}
Thus, at last, finalizing the fight.
The crowd erupted in cheers right away, hyped to the limit after such a gruelling and high-level fight.
"..."
From up on the roof, Taka watched the result with a wry huff, sweatdropping.
"Typical shonen rivalry… fighting until they nearly kill each other. I almost jumped in to make sure they didn't."
He let out a sigh, then smiled faintly.
"… Fortunately, it looks like they have some sense."
…
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-To Be Continued...-
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(A/N: In the end, I couldn't stop myself from writing a chapter for Izuku and Bakugo's fight.
As to why I thought Bakugo would be the winner, despite Midoriya's massive improvement in repertoire, t he reason is that the greenhead hasn't had much progress in his percentage of One For All. A Bakugo that went through the training camp and ultimate move training was able to fight on even terms with a 8% Izuku. This one, although still massively behind in terms of time, had a much greater goal to aim at than in the show, that being Taka, who overwhelms him completely, and he knows it. So I judged that Bakugo must have trained like crazy to fight against something like that, and that despite Midoriya's progress, it still isn't enough to serve him the victory.
Tell me what you think, though.)