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“This is so damn boring,” Bakugou muttered to himself when Aizawa-sensei told Class 1-A what they would be doing during their fourth period.
“It’s nothing complicated, to be honest. Four teams will be formed, each with five people, and they’ll be positioned at each corner of the field. You have to push your opponents out of the white line until the fewest of them remain. If only one person stays inside by the final hour, the whole team wins and gets an outstanding grade.”
That was way too easy for him! Of course, he would beat that bunch of extras, no doubt about it.
“Aizawa-sensei, I have a question!” Iida exclaimed, cutting through the air with his arm unnecessarily. The man standing in front of the group sighed wearily.
“Yes, Iida?”
“Will there be any restrictions on our quirks, or can we use them however we want?” Another air chop.
“Be creative, I don’t really care. Make your teams; I’ll blow the whistle in three minutes,” he shrugged, showing his lack of interest and walked far enough away.
Quickly, the students began to group up in small teams, looking around to see who would be willing to join them. Katsuki, for his part, didn’t have to move at all from his spot, as the four idiots who called themselves the “BakuSquad” stood by his side with cheerful shouts and fist bumps, waiting for the activity to start.
Iida, Todoroki, Tsuyu, and Uraraka teamed up with Deku. Jiro, Momo, Aoyama, Hagaruke, and Ojiro formed a rather interesting group. The final group consisted of Koda, Sato, Tokoyami, Shoji, and, well… Mineta. No one wanted to team up with him, but they had to.
“Ready? Because if you’re not, I don’t care.” The sleepy professor blew the whistle immediately, even though the students hadn’t finished positioning themselves.
Everything that happened after that sound was pure and utter chaos. Bakugou planned with his team to get rid of the weaker ones first, so they could fight the “less weak” without any interference. They rushed to attack, with strength, speed, and strategy.
The first ones to be taken out were Aoyama and Koda, though they had to admit it took a bit of time to start the eliminations. Obviously, the classes had helped them with endurance and counterattacks. The next to step out was Ojiro, who was grabbed by the tail and thrown out of the field, with nothing to hold onto to stay in the ring.
Explosions, ice, jumps, shocks, and strong blows—there was so much noise it was hard not to get dazed, especially with all the racket the quirks caused. Uraraka thought she’d go completely deaf any moment now.
Little by little, the opponents dwindled with each blow, each takedown, and even with each knockout. Kirishima apologized more than once, aware that his quirk could sometimes be too much even for him. Kaminari and Sero were taken out after the blond sent an electric shock toward Jiro, who agilely dodged it, causing the attack to hit Sero, knocking him out instantly. Denki, dazed and babbling incoherently, left on his own without even realizing it.
Most of Deku’s group remained standing, except for Iida, who, after pushing his quirk too hard, caused it to malfunction, giving Katsuki the opportunity to take him out of the line.
There was an opening that the explosive boy wanted to take advantage of: Uraraka was distracted, and her nearest teammate was over ten meters away. He could finish her off easily.
An explosion burst from his palm with savagery and was sent in her direction. Katsuki grinned. The brunette barely managed to gasp as she realized her mistake before a wall of ice stood between her and the attack. The ice cracked. Bakugou cursed. Uraraka felt a cold sweat trickle down her neck and turned toward Todoroki, exclaiming his name in astonishment. The bicolor stood at a certain distance, with his right foot forward in an attack stance. When had he gotten so close? She had just seen him on the other side of the field.
The blonde growled in anger and ran toward the ice wall, having to hit it twice before it shattered before him. Ochako shielded herself from the ice with her arm, then looked at her teammate in horror, wondering if she’d have the chance to touch him before he blew her up completely. He began to attack, and she began to dodge swiftly, sometimes making herself float to get away from him. But Bakugou didn’t tire; he didn’t see other opponents. He wanted to finish her off once and for all. Even so, the young girl wasn’t easy to eliminate.
"I can finish her off easily," Katsuki mockingly repeated to himself, because it wasn’t easy at all, damn it. Suddenly, Uraraka grew tired of running and trying to keep away, realizing just how stubborn he could be. She began to counterattack, making the debris he had created with his quirk float and hurling it at him with force. Both experienced a sort of déjà vu at that moment.
“I won’t be eliminated, I won’t allow it!” screamed the tiny purple-haired boy, with half his team out and running to save themselves, making his voice sound like a very sick and terrified rooster. It seemed like Mina and Kirishima were trying to get him out of the game between the two of them, but he was so small that, with some effort, he managed to dodge their attacks.
“Come here, you little pervert!” shouted the pink-skinned girl, running after him.
“Take this!” And suddenly he began to launch his sticky purple balls at his attackers excessively. The problem was that, thanks to his fear, he couldn’t even aim properly, so there were sticky balls all over the field. They flew everywhere like rain, more like a deluge—also like party confetti. Despite his head bleeding profusely, he didn’t stop throwing them, as if his life depended on it. It was disgusting and disturbing.
One of those balls landed on Bakugou’s neck, much to his bad luck. Then Uraraka saw her chance and tried to make him float, but he acted faster and managed to get the purple ball in her way, so now the brunette was stuck to Katsuki through the ball. Now it was the blonde’s turn to take advantage, but before one of his explosions could go off, seven more of those things flew at them.
They stuck to Ochako’s legs, Katsuki’s chest, and both of their hair. In all the struggling, the balls ended up sticking together, and then many more fell. Now they looked like two plastic toys a small child had squashed together with purple clay.
“Damn it, don’t move, Round Face,” he scolded her, trying to move away in vain, accidentally placing a hand on her waist, right where there was another ball. Uraraka flinched at the unexpected touch, and another ball, which was stuck to Bakugou’s forehead, joined with hers, leaving their faces so close that they couldn’t see anything but each other’s eyes. Ochako was a bit frightened by the deep, vibrant red of her companion’s irises. It was undeniably intimidating.
They were in an embarrassingly awkward position. Katsuki didn’t like that fact, and Ochako was nervous about it. “B-Bakugou-kun… I-I think… I think if you stop moving, it’ll be a bit less uncomfortable,” she said with great effort, knowing that speaking meant he could feel her breath on his face and neck. He was much taller, so he was hunched over her, thanks to that thing from Mineta, and that made it even more mortifying.
“Shut up, damn it,” he growled, moving even more just to annoy her. It backfired because, as he shifted, his left hand ended up on her thigh, and her arm stuck to his broad chest. Now they were even more stuck than before—maybe he should stop moving after all.
A crash on the ground shook them both completely, and they tripped and rolled out of the white line they had been so close to. Katsuki screamed in rage, and Ochako’s eardrums nearly burst. They were still extremely close, feeling each other’s presence, which was beyond uncomfortable for both of them.
The whistle blew again, and they both turned their heads with great effort. Hagakure was the only one standing in the middle of the field. No one had paid much attention to her, and she had managed to camouflage herself by getting rid of her training uniform.
“DAMN IT!” yelled the explosive boy even louder, and the brunette beneath him squealed from the pain her ears suffered.
Later, while waiting in line to enter the infirmary with Recovery Girl, they had to wait for the woman to treat the more seriously injured students since neither of them had suffered any real physical damage. Minutes passed—they dared to think it might have been hours—but it was okay because Aizawa had given them the rest of the day off.
Katsuki huffed like a bull about to charge at someone. It was scary, but at least he had stopped yelling, and the girl’s ears were grateful for that. “Bakugou-kun, you’re… bleeding,” she whispered, using the hand of the arm that had stuck to his (very well-built) chest to touch his chin, from which a few drops of blood were quietly dripping. It burned slightly, but it didn’t hurt at all. Even so, the girl’s touch gave him irritating chills. The huffing stopped.
“So? What about it? Your forehead is bleeding too,” he snapped, feeling the wetness of her blood on his own forehead, knowing it wasn’t his.
“Huh? I hadn’t noticed,” she chuckled softly, lifting her gaze to meet his. “I guess that was you. You’re so strong, you must have hurt yourself at some point.” Bakugou clicked his tongue.
“I couldn’t even hit you, Round Face. You were moving damn fast,” he complained. She couldn’t help but smile a little.
“The training’s working, then. That’s a relief,” she said. “Why do you say that?” he asked, trying to sound uninterested.
“Well… ever since our match at the Sports Festival, I’ve been trying to get much faster. What I lack in strength, I can make up for with agility and speed—or so Aizawa-sensei told me.”
Katsuki nodded slowly… The words came out on their own:
“You’ve done it… You’ve gotten stronger too. I almost didn’t see that chunk of rock you threw at me. It hit me right in the face.”
“I’m sorry… I didn’t think I could actually hurt you.”
“Well, you did. And stop apologizing for things like that, damn it.”
“I’m sorry…— Okay, okay, I’m not sorry,” she quickly corrected when he growled.
Silence fell again. They were the only ones left in the hallway. Everyone else had either left or was inside the infirmary recovering. That’s why Uraraka needed to say it.
“Bakugou-kun?”
“What do you want, Angel Face?” he asked, exasperated. Ochako could remember the scarce three or four times he had called her that, and she still didn’t know how to feel about it.
“I… Thank you.” The boy frowned, slightly confused.
“Why the hell are you thanking me?”
“For what you just told me. I always try to better myself, and the fact that one of the people I admire most for strength and skill said that to me means a lot. So, thank you, Bakugou-kun.” The boy’s heart skipped slightly; she could feel it, but neither said anything about it.
“Yeah, whatever,” he said, brushing off the moment.
Before they could say anything else, the infirmary door opened, and the small white-haired woman supporting herself with a wooden cane came out.
“Oh my… What a sticky situation!” the elderly woman chuckled. Katsuki growled again. “Come in, that’s going to need a lot of soap and water.”