When Uraraka said she would have been fine fighting anyone she was lying. Big time.
She realized that as she stood before Midoriya on one of the many fighting platforms in the training facility.
Crushes aside, Midoriya was a beast, she knew for a fact that he was faster and stronger than her. Not to mention his analytical skills and reaction time were incredible. What did she have against that?
Uraraka took a stance as All Might counted down over a loudspeaker and shook her head. She had to stop thinking negatively.
She had technique and some knowledge on basic takedowns and grabs that Midoriya didn't have. She had noticed he mainly used punches and throws to take his opponents out, she could use that.
She decided to go with her normal strategy, grabbing her opponent and throwing them in the air rendering them useless. For that however, she was going to need to get all five fingers of one of her hands on him for about a second.
Time slowed as she zeroed in on the task before her. Midoriya was going to expect that approach. Her quirk didn't have much versatility when it came to combat unlike Midoriya's.
Screw all that. She couldn't overthink this. She needed to beat Midoriya, no feelings attached. He was an enemy right now.
Uraraka felt herself entering what her friends had dubbed as her Battle-raka zone right as All Might announced to start.
Midoriya was terrified. He looked at Uraraka before him uncertainty. He always had trouble fighting girls. It was how he was raised and he was only slowly but surely getting out of that mindset.
He was absolutely sure that if Stain was a woman, hesitation would have definitely gotten him killed.
Even so he wished he was fighting anyone else right now. He could handle Bakugo. He could handle Todoroki or Iida. He couldn't handle Uraraka.
Not in the sense he couldn't attack her but that he knew he was going to have a hard time doing it. Especially now that he wanted to apologize for what happened earlier.
Midoriya readied himself as All Might started counting down. He needed to use this time to strategize not to whine about fighting a girl. He cursed himself.
Midoriya had long abandoned breaking his body to win a fight. It was a waste of a limb and usually the attack could be blocked. Also knocking your opponent away wasn't a solution here like the sports festival.
Midoriya was knocked out of his thoughts by All Might starting the fights. Midoriya looked around. Yelling and various other noises erupted from across the facility instantly.
He looked back forward to find Uraraka less than five feet from him and closing fast. Instinct saved him as One For All coursed through his entire body and he committed to a five percent jump over Uraraka. He hit the ground rolling and erupted into a fighting stance.
As Uraraka turned around and sprinted towards him with what he could only describe as a terrifying expression on her face, Midoriya switched to the offensive, running right at her.
He had to hit five percent punches in critical areas to tire her before doing a take down while avoiding her hands. This would be difficult.
They met as Uraraka threw a left hook. Midoriya parried to his left side, sending a right punch right into her stomach.
Right before his fist connected Midoriya felt a wave of hesitation and One For All powered down from his fist. Midoriya immediately noticed that Uraraka had hardened her stomach and barely moved from his objectively weak punch.
Uraraka quickly brought her elbow supported by her other arm into Midoriya's exposed back, sending him to the floor. Midoriya grunted in pain and surprise and quickly pressed his feet into the ground behind him and pushed with One For All, saving him from Uraraka's now extended hand.
Midoriya jumped up into a stance trying to figure out what to do. He knew if he wanted to win he had to attack but why couldn't he? He wanted to win right?
"Deku! Fight seriously!" Uraraka yelled, dropping the honorific and raising her fists once again.
He knew she was right. Midoriya gritted his teeth as he dashed to Uraraka.
"Right!" He responded, throwing a right hook while keeping his left hand extended to catch or block an attack to his left side. "Detroit Smash!"
Uraraka rushed inside his guard, parrying his punch with her hand before reaching up and grabbing his head pulling it hard into her right elbow.
Midoriya used his readied left arm by throwing it up into an uppercut. Instinct overriding hesitation it connected with One For All this time directly into Uraraka's chin.
A sickening crack was heard as Uraraka jolted and flew upwards. Midoriya's left arm twitched. He looked down in horrified disbelief. He had thrown an eight percent punch into someone's jaw, Uraraka's jaw
Pain and instinct had caused his percentage to increase, he wasn't levelheaded enough to control himself. A ridiculous excuse.
Midoriya gasped as Uraraka landed on the ground stomach first.
She didn't move.
Midoriya instantly panicked. He ran to her in overwhelming fear.
"Uraraka! I'm so sorry! A-are you al-" Midoriya began, dread overpowering his persistent stutter for a moment.
He was cut off by Uraraka flying into him, tackling Midoriya into the ground and effectively winding him.
Uraraka landed directly on top of Midoriya and sent a right hook to Midoriya's face.
Midoriya, already recovered from having the wind knocked out of him, grabbed her wrist before it could connect with his cheek. Uraraka threw a left punch, which Midoriya also grabbed. He looked up to Uraraka and noticed her lip was bleeding and her jaw was swollen.
They then both froze as they realized the situation they were in.
Midoriya was lying down, and Uraraka... Was sitting right on his midsection with her wrists trapped.
Both Uraraka and Midoriya erupted in red but didn't move, both for different reasons. Midoriya, having left fighting mode and into teenager mode, his mind thrown far into the gutter against his will. Uraraka was sitting right on top of him, and was looking at him. Her skintight hero costume didn't help either.
Uraraka was frozen due to her thoughts. What if Midoriya thought she did this on purpose? What if he figured out her feelings from that? Those thoughts got quieter as a bold new one came up. What was she feeling bellow her?
Midoriya quickly moved before Uraraka could notice something downstairs that he was confident would terminate any chances with her he may have had. He pulled Uraraka to his left and got on top of her, trying to restrain Uraraka so she couldn't pull another attack like before.
This unfortunately meant Midoriya was pinning Uraraka, who was now in the same position he was a moment ago, by the wrists.
Ah. This was much worse.
Midoriya had nothing other to do than to look into Uraraka's wide eyes trying to figure out his next move to get out of there.
It was Uraraka's turn to get her mind tossed into the gutter, having been very aware of the arrangement they were in now.
Her much earlier thought of Midoriya dominating her came back full force and hit significantly harder than Midoriya's punch to her jaw.
Uraraka looked up to see Midoriya breathing hard on top of her staring deep into her eyes. She couldn't move under his strong grip. With that realization she lost all remaining calm she had.
"D-d-d-d-d-eku-ku-" Uraraka quickly stuttered out before fainting below Midoriya.
Midoriya panicked again and he stood up, shakily confident that Uraraka wouldn't be able to counter him now.
What had he just done? Uraraka would surely be mad at him right? He had practically violated her. Midoriya started to sweat.
A billion what-if's flooded his head until he glanced down at Uraraka on the ground. She was completely out. Her eyes closed and her mouth open, forcefully by the injury on her beautiful face. He needed to get her to Recovery Girl.
He picked her up bridal style and speedily took her to All Might where some of 1A were standing having finished their matches. Ashido was among them.
Thankfully the nose bleed he had could be covered by his swollen nose from where Uraraka had elbowed him. She could hit a lot harder than she seemed.
"Oooooohhhh~ Midori! That's a very suggestive arrangement you have going on there!". She immediately commented, taking several photos with her phone.
"Where did you even get that, Ashido?" Kirishima stated quizzically.
Ashido turned to Kirishima with a beaming smile. "Girl's secret!". This left Kirishima with a laugh.
Kirishima had saved him from answering. Midoriya silently decided to thank Kirishima for that later.
If only Ashido knew what had just transpired. Midoriya became immensely grateful to All Might for not making the matches one after the other with spectators. That would have killed him. He was red enough as it was.
As Midoriya carried Uraraka's unconscious body to Recovery Girls Office he thought about what the hell he was meant to do now. He had to apologize for much more than anticipated.
It had turned out that Uraraka had sustained a fracture to her Mental Protuberance which apparently was her lower jaw, and a busted lip. Midoriya was informed that after a nap Uraraka would be alright.
Recovery Girl also mentioned that if it wasn't for her then Uraraka might never have been able to open her mouth again before lecturing him on controlling himself when using his power on other people now that it didn't hurt himself.
As Midoriya started his journey back to his homeroom classroom he started thinking.
Midoriya had decided not to tell Recovery Girl that he injured his arm slightly when using over his set limit of five percent on Uraraka. That he was fine healing on his own. It wasn't worth the lecture, he concluded.
He also wanted to live with that pain for a while. That pain would stand as another reminder not to go overboard with his quirk. It also served to force him to understand the debilitating injuries that he could give if he didn't control himself.
Regardless of any of that, Midoriya felt horrible. He had gone through the day without apologizing for anything, in fact he left it with more to apologize for.
Uraraka remained in the Nurse's Office until after 1A left for Heights Alliance and Midoriya was left alone for the night, wondering what he was going to do when he saw Uraraka next.
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Howdy lads!! So first combat chapter. What did ya think? Again I tried a lot out in this one and want to know what you think I should improve.
I am still really excited about what is to come with this book and especially the book after. Stay tuned and have a great day lads!