Chapter Text
During his first and second years, Bakugou Katsuki had had no problem destroying his competition in both preliminary sports festival events, and his third year was no different.
The first event had been very similar to their entrance exam. In a cityscape arena, various robots of different point values waited, poised to go after the students, who were placed outside of one of eleven gates—one for each homeroom. Katsuki had been a little pressed to have to compete so closely with Deku and Half-n-Half from the get go, but he’d lost them early on. He threw himself across the arena, going after the robots the Business Department students would have no chance of defeating. That way, he had a time advantage on a heap of points.
Once the hour was up, he wasn’t surprised to see that he’d earned the most points; he was surprised, however, that his decision to attack robots going after business students had inadvertently given him rescue points as well. His score was astronomically higher than Half-n-Half, who’d easily achieved second place. Further down the list, but still top ten, Deku and Round Face had been an incredible save-and-attack duo, helping out the General Department students, judging by the highlight reel. The replays of some of Katsuki’s best takedowns were met with uproarious applause from both the audience and the Business Department, and he felt his chest swell. Maybe he was becoming a better hero than he realized.
The top 48 made the cut to the second round, a twist on capture the flag. In the center of a wooded arena, there stood a mountain. At the peak, 24 flags were stuck into the soil. All of the students that hadn’t made it into the top 48 were positioned throughout the forest and across the mountain. The 48 who had moved on were spread out across the outermost perimeter, marked with a chalky white line. To advance to the battle tournament, the students had to make it to the top of the mountain, grab a flag, and return to the perimeter still holding the flag. Full Quirk usage was allowed, of course, and the other students were beyond ready to try and stop the top 48 from making it into the top 16.
As soon as R18 waved her whip to begin, several students were up in the air. Katsuki was using his explosions to propel himself, Half-n-Half was skating on an ice wave, the religious Vine Girl rose like an eldritch spider horror on her vines, and Round Face was holding her breath. When Katsuki made it to the top, Round Face was already there, fooling some kid with spiky black hair into fusing her jacket into the ground, giving her an opening to grab a flag. The trick worked even better than it had in their first year when she’d used it in the tournament; she really was shaping up to be a seasoned young hero. Katsuki blasted some extra in the face in order to grab his own flag. Just as he turned to go down the mountain the harder—but the arguably much more fun—way, he watched Round Face run to the edge of the cliff and jump.
The stadium had been filled with noise before then, but it suddenly went dead silent, making Katsuki feel like something was horrifically wrong. Working on their own, Katsuki’s legs propelled him to the edge of the cliff to watch as Round Face fell faster and faster towards the floor of the arena. Seconds stretched impossibly long; people across the arena were standing to get a better look. Was her Quirk not working? Had she overused it?
Then, like a shot ringing in the dead of night, the Living Microphone screamed over his loudspeaker, “Uraraka!!”
Others followed suit, shouting at her to do something, but the shouting sounded like a far-away din in Katsuki’s ears. He couldn’t focus on anything except his heart hammering in his ears and the look of Round Face getting smaller and smaller. His chest felt incredibly tight, as if his ribcage was trying to suffocate him. Was he…worried about her?
Then, what looked like barely ten feet above the ground, Round Face activated her Quirk and floated the rest of the way to the ground, landing perfectly on her tiptoes. Worried shouts turned into thunderous applause, and Living Microphone announced, “Uraraka Ochako is the first to move on to the battle tournament!”
Several more seconds passed before Katsuki was able to move. On his way down the mountain, he used his Quirk more than necessary, blowing trees out of the way that he could have easily dodged. He told himself it was to make sure there was no one hiding behind them, but he was trying to make his ears ring so loud he couldn’t think. Then, his mind would stop replaying Round Face’s body plummeting to the earth. Why did it bother him so much? Why was his chest still tight, even though he knew she was fine?
He was still so far in his own head that he barely heard that he was the second one to move on.
The top 16 were entirely unsurprising to Katsuki: himself (of course), Round Face, Deku, Half-n-Half, Ponytail, Four Eyes, Frog, the annoying copycat bastard, Vine Girl, Bird Brain, Shitty Hair, Eye Bags, plus a few extras that he didn’t care enough to name. For the first round, he was paired with an extra, and didn’t pay much attention to eliminating her. He tried to focus on the other matches, to analyze his potential opponents’ fighting styles, how they’d adapted since the last festival, but his mind kept replaying the second preliminary event like a broken record. He hadn’t felt so shaken since…well…since All Might’s retirement, maybe? After getting bored of watching Bird Brain try to chase Copy Cat out of the arena, Katsuki returned to the waiting rooms to blow off steam on a punching bag.
“You’re supposed to rest between rounds, you know,” a bubbly voice rang through the room, shocking Katsuki to stillness, “but maybe I shouldn’t give you advice, since we’re finally battling again.”
Katsuki turned, wiping sweat off his brow as he did. “Beat Vine Girl, eh, Round Face?”
“Yeah!” She nodded. “Felt kind of weird about making all of her hair float like that, and I puked afterwards, but yeah!”
“You puked? I thought you didn’t do that anymore.”
Her pink cheeks turned bright red. “Well, sometimes, it can still be a lot. At least, I didn’t puke in front of everyone this time.”
They both laughed at the memory of their second year festival, and Katsuki ignored how tight his chest felt, like his heart was going to burst.
“Well, anyways, good luck, Bakugou! But I’m going to win this year!” Her eyes were lit with such a fiery determination that, for just a moment, he believed her.
Katsuki knew just how worthy of an opponent Round Face was. After all, they’d battled in the exact same situation two years before, and he’d used his full power against her. Her Quirk could be seen as dainty, he supposed, but she used it in a way that was not at all frail, not something to dismiss. If she wasn’t going against him, he could see Round Face winning the entire festival. Unfortunately for her, however, Katsuki was sure the two years of improvement would make no difference in a one-on-one battle.
To an extent, her strategy was the same as their first year fight. She stayed low to the ground, causing his blows to break the floor of the arena, giving Round Face plenty of ammunition to use against him later. As they danced circles around each other, the number of rocks in the sky above them continued to grow, but Katsuki couldn’t afford to worry about them. He couldn’t take his eyes off Round Face; she was too quick. If he were to focus his explosions upward, she’d have an opening to attack him physically. Since they had never actually fought before, Katsuki had no gauge on her strength, and he didn’t want the sports festival to be the day he found out just how strong she was.
She was moving so fast that Katsuki could only get a decent look at her in the split second he took to aim his blasts. With her darting out of the way every time he attacked, he didn’t have enough time to think, to plan. He could feel frustration bubbling up in his throat, but he swallowed it down. Now was no time for an outburst; he could release his anger by destroying Round Face and moving on in the tournament. That would be enough.
He tried to focus, tried to stay ahead of her, but she’d learned how to use her Quirk extremely successfully. When he set off a blast, she held her breath, spinning out of the way. Katsuki had to whirl around to even attempt to send another attack her direction, but she was moving as if she knew what he was thinking. Usually, he was the one with the upper hand, but he was clearly the one who was a step behind. He felt an icy pang in his chest: He was anxious.
Then, he wasn’t blowing Round Face back; his blasts were aimed at rocks flying right toward his face. She’d moved on to her final attack. In quick succession, she would send three or four rocks his way, and he would explode them before they’d even come close. He’d line up an attack to send at her, but, every time, more rocks would get in his way. Even through it was frustrating, he decided to play her little game. Eventually, she would run out of rocks, and then he’d be able to blow her across the arena.
Then, the attacks stopped. They stopped so suddenly that Katsuki took a moment to line up his attack. Smiling, Round Face dropped the rest of the rocks on the ground. She looked…victorious? Why? The match wasn’t finished; he was clearly still standing.
He looked down to see his feet just on the other side of the white chalk boundary line. His stomach dropped as he heard R18 announce, “Bakugou Katsuki is out of bounds! Uraraka Ochako wins!”
The applause was deafening. For a long moment, he stood still, eyes fixated on his shoes. He hadn’t focused at all on his position in the arena because Round Face’s attacks were so incredibly fast. If he’d taken even a moment to analyze, she would have been able to attack him in a fashion reminiscent of their first year. He would have lost either way. She’d checkmated him.
He was brought back to the present when a hand with pink finger pads was shoved into his view, “Great match, Bakugou! Told ya I had ya!”
He shook her hand, still dazed. “You deserved the win, without a doubt.” She blinked slowly, as if she hadn’t expected him to compliment her. “But you better win the whole fucking thing since you knocked me out, got it?”
She grinned so wide her eyes were almost shut. “You got it!”
R18 announced the final four: Round Face, Frog, Eye Bags, and Bird Brain. Apparently, this year, Half-n-Half had wasted no time with Deku and frozen the idiot like he had Duct Tape during their first year, but Eye Bags had tricked him into talking. He’d walked his bastard ass right over the boundary line. Something about the final four really satisfied Katsuki; neither of his biggest rivals had made i, and he had no doubt Round Face could destroy all the way to the top.
Eye Bags and Bird Brain fought first. For a long time, Eye Bags just dodged Bird Brain’s demon while he asked a bunch of questions, trying to use his Quirk. Then, he turned his attention to the demon, who immediately parroted some sort of response. It froze before turning and chasing Bird Brain out of the arena. To the entire audience’s surprise, a kid who’d started in the General Studies Department was in the final two.
Before Frog could move, Round Face was floating in the air. Frog had to jump to even reach her. Then, when Frog used her tongue to attack, Round Face used her Quirk to render her tongue weightless. Frog landed, her tongue floating above her. She leapt again, and Round Face dove under her, tapping her back. Then, she brought herself to the ground. Frog was rendered incapable of fighting, meaning Round Face was a finalist. Katsuki bit his tongue—hard—so that he wouldn’t shout his excitement alongside Deku and Four Eyes.
After a short break, Round Face and Eye Bags were finally set up to fight for the top spot—the final top spot, the one that would mark their class at Yuuei forever. The two stared at each other for a long time, silence stretching across the arena. From the looks of it, Eye Bags knew he wasn’t going to trick Round Face into talking. They’d be doing this the hard way: an old-fashioned, hand-to-hand fight.
Eye Bags knew that Round Face’s Quirk was centered in her fingertips from being in their class for an entire year. He stayed just out of reach of her fingers, forcing her to primarily use her feet to strike. As they dueled in the center of the arena, Round Face kept trying to get behind him, get some sort of sneak attack in, but Eye Bags seemed to be a step ahead of her, as if…he’d studied her match with Katsuki. He remembered every trick she’d pulled and wasn’t letting her use the same ones on him. And she’d already destroyed her jacket in the prelims.
Katsuki didn’t remember standing, but suddenly he was leaning against the railing, shouting, “Don’t fight him like he’s me, Cheeks! He knows all your—”
Katsuki suddenly lost control of every muscle in his body. Fucking Eye Bags. Down in the arena, Round Face was looking up at him, eyes wide and face red, but why? All he’d done was… Katsuki, what the fuck? Cheeks?
Eye Bags took her embarrassment as an opportunity, landing a blow square in Round Face’s abdomen. Before he could take his arm back, however, she grabbed him, activating her Quirk. He floated upward, losing his footing, allowing Round Face to carry him to the edge of the arena and place him out of bounds.
She did it. She won.
Katsuki wrestled for almost two whole weeks with the feelings he had from the sports festival. Round Face scaring the shit out of him, and then beating him, and then winning the entire festival. Calling her Cheeks like some kind of fool, in front of every one of his potential employers. Even with so many other things going on with classes and training, his mind always circled back to Round Face, and he couldn’t for the life of him figure out why. Why had it scared him so much when he thought she was in danger? Why did his chest get tight every time she smiled at him? Why had he called her fucking Cheeks out of nowhere?
Then, lost in thought during class, Katsuki found himself thinking about Round Face and how beautiful she was. How the pink of her cheeks made her seem innocent, but her personality was so undeniably kickass. How her big, brown eyes held all the wonder in the whole wide world, and how—
Katsuki sat bolt upright as if he’d been doused with ice-cold water. The Caterpillar gave him a tired look, but said nothing. He thanked the spirits, because he had no idea what would have come out of his mouth. If he was daydreaming about Round Face, thinking about how pretty her eyes were, then, didn’t that mean…?
Oh.
Oh no.
No way.