MHA Fanfiction: Inbound

Steadfast

Iylla's POV

I opened the doors to the gym only to find that it was empty. I made my way to the girl's locker room and got changed into my PE uniform. I unfastened my wrist braces and dropped them on the floor of the locker room. When I emerged, Bakugo was waiting in the center of the gym. He was in his PE clothes and ready to start our first sparring match since the USJ attack.

I must have gotten here while he was changing.

"I was surprised that you called." He said while I walked up to him. "I didn't think they would be too happy about you returning to sparring so soon after the festival."

"They wouldn't be," I said, speaking of my family. "Which is why I didn't tell them."

Bakugo and I lowered ourselves into fighting positions. 

"Rebel much?"

"I'm not rebelling." He threw the first punch, which I easily deflected. "I'm twenty years old; I can do whatever I want."

I swung my foot behind his knee and forced him forward. Bakugo grunted as he hit the floor, but he was on his feet in a flash.

"Then why not just tell them where you're going? Huh, Quirkless?"

Bakugo rushed me, throwing punches as a distraction from what his feet were doing.

"Because no matter how old I get, they'll only ever treat me like their family. They'd make me stay home, and I wouldn't get to do this."

Just as Bakugo made the move to swipe my feet out from under me, I jumped. I rotated my body until I was directly behind him. I slammed my leg into the back of his knees, sending him to the ground. I forced his arms behind his back at an odd angle.

"Gah!"

"Listen up, Bakugo," I spoke loudly and unashamed. "I won't lose to you. Not ever again. Especially not at close combat fighting."

I released him, and he flung forward, resting on his hands.

"Why especially close combat?" He asked.

"Because I'm better than you."

He laughed and stood up. "Funny. As I recall, close combat is how you lost at the sports festival."

"I lost because your quirk outmatches mine." I was practically growling at him. "For now, anyway."

I shook my left leg while He prepared for the next bout. There was hardly any pain left from breaking my leg at the sports festival, but it was still a little stiff. At the direction of my family, the only thing I've done since the sports festival was recuperate. Which was the entire reason I called Bakugo last night. My leg needed to get better, but sitting around doing nothing was not going to heal me. What I needed was to start getting back into the swing of things. 

"Alright, let's do this." Bakugo came at me all over again.

We fought countless battles, but no matter how many matches we fought, I always won. That's not to say that I was winning easily. Bakugo was getting increasingly agitated, which made it harder to tell what he would do, but I made a promise; I was not going to lose to him again. Sometimes I won with a punch. Sometimes I won with a kick. Sometimes it was a mad scramble for victory, but victory was always mine.

"Ugh, I don't get it!" Bakugo punched the floor in frustration. "Were you holding out on me before? Because we used to be on equal footing!"

"No. I wasn't holding back."

"Don't lie to me!"

"I wasn't holding back." I wanted to yell back, but I kept my even tone. "I just never realized how much I had left to give until we fought at the sports festival."