★ ★ ★ ┊𝚃𝙴𝙰𝙼 𝙰 𝚅𝚂 𝚃𝙴𝙰𝙼 𝙳!
❪☯︎︎❫ ━━━━ ❪ CHPT NINE ❫
"THE VILLAIN TEAM GOES IN FIRST." Akane walked beside Iida as they walked towards the room that held the faux bomb. Bakugo trailed behind them, muttering curses to himself.
"I'm glad to have you on my team, Hanamaki!" Iida said i'm his usual stern voice, "I've heard great things about you! You have a very powerful quirk!" Akane furrowed her eyebrows, his statements causing multiple questions to go off in her head. Who'd he hear of her from? Why is he being so nice to her? Why is he praising her quirk if he's barely seen it in action?
Akane nodded in acknowledgement, not being able to say anything before Bakugo tried to shove himself in between them to walk in front, "I'm ten times more stronger than she'll ever be!"
"Calm down, Bakugo" Akane spoke nonchalantly.
"Don't tell me to calm down, freak!"
"Ok." As the trio entered the room with the fake bomb, Iida began mumbling to himself about having to act like a villain, and how much it 'pains' him, which Akane found amusing as she watched from a distance.
"Hey." Akane looked to Bakugo who's back was facing her, but she assumed he was talking to her since his voice wasn't too loud and they were at much closer proximity than him and Iida, "So Deku has a quirk...?"
"Yes."
"Did you... know?"
Akane bit the inside of her cheek and shook her head slowly.
Before Akane could explain that Izuku had told her it was some sudden mutation, Iida stepped in between them, "You saw his monstrous strength, no? Although it puts him at great risk... I'll ask you two not to charge straight at Midoriya."
"That damned nerd!" Bakugo scoffed, face contorted into a crazed smile that made Akane sweat drop.
"We need a solid plan!" Iida claimed, "It seems Hanamaki is the closest to leveling Midoriya's powers, so she should be the one to fight him if it comes to it—"
"No. I want to fight him." Bakugo put his foot down, "This is the plan," He turned his back to Iida and instead made eye contact with Akane, "I'll go fight Deku, you will stay watch in the hallways, and Iida will stay here guarding the bomb. Okay? Okay." Bakugo started his way to the exit, and after only a few minutes she could already hear faint explosions going off in the building.
"Wh-What?!" Iida seemed in distress by the way Bakugo handled the situation, but he shouldn't have been so surprised, it was Bakugo they were working with.
"Uh, sorry?" Akane muttered, shrugging her shoulders before jogging out of the room and into the hall. She said as told, walking around a couple of times, she was quite bored, and could hear All Might's commentary through her earpiece, that was her source of entertainment for now.
She couldn't help but worry for Izuku, sure she was mad at him, but after everything they've been through should it all be thrown away over one argument? Akane thought about apologizing, she wouldn't classify herself as bitter or incorrigible, so it shouldn't be so hard, right? She's willing to try and put her own feelings aside to talk to Izuku again.
Her train of thought was broken by the sound of footsteps coming her way. She pushed herself off the wall she was leaning on and smiled softly, maybe she could apologize right now? But the smile was wiped off when she noticed that it wasn't Izuku coming her way, it was Uraraka.
Akane groaned under her breath, fists clenching. She didn't bother to activate her quirk, she had the urge to beat Uraraka in hand-to-hand combat off pure strength, she didn't really know why though.
Lurching forward, Akane threw a punch Uraraka's way. The brunette was taken by surprise, but managed to barely dodge it.
Uraraka tried creating a distance between them, but Akane wouldn't let her, instead closing in on her closer. Akane swept her leg under Uraraka's foot, causing the shorter girl to land on her back, sending the air in her lungs out. Akane pinned her to the ground, arms in position to place her in a chokehold, being as she had greater body strength, it would've been easy, but the sound of a pained cry coming from a voice she knew too well distracted her.
"Zuku?" She looked to the side, only to be met with a wall, but she was sure if she were able to look past it, him and Bakugo would be behind it. She felt a familiar feeling in her stomach, and she knew she had to go help him. 'Help, not save, 'cause he doesn't need protection' is what she kept repeating in her head.
Uraraka took her being distracted as a chance, and placed a piece of capture tape on Akane's arm. The strawberry blonde scowled at her, and Uraraka wanted to ask the question that was on the tip of her tongue, but before anything else could happen between them, Akane stood up and made a run for Izuku's location.
"Young Hanamaki! Stay down! You have been captured by the heroes!" Akane ignored the sound of her teacher's voice focused only on one thing.
A louder explosion than the rest sounded and once Akane finally made it to the same room—of you can even call it that anymore—as they were in, she realized Bakugo had exploded one of the walls off completely.
"Come on! Use your damn quirk on me Deku!"
Akane ran in between the two boys, glaring at Bakugo who looked shock, "What the hell are you doing, freak! You're ruining the plan!"
"There was never a plan! You just go off doing whatever you want!" Akane grunted extending her arm, "Now, he might not want to use his quirk
on you, but I will!"
"Are you demented or something?! We are on the same team!" Bakugo continued to yell, sparks forming from his palms again. Scarlet hues began forming around the sparks coming from his hand, rendering them useless.
"Why would I ever want to be on a team with you?!" Akane scoffed, getting in position to fight.
"Get out of my way!" Bakugo fumed, stomping forward and getting ready to push past Akane but she didn't budge, glaring at him.
Growling, the blond sprung forward with a right hook meant to take Akane's head off her neck. She read it like a book. Akane side stepped and moved her head along with it and grabbed Bakugo's outstretched arm at the elbow. She began to maneuver her leg behind the boy for a takedown but failed to notice his incoming leg aimed for her stomach. Out of sheer combat ability and instinct she moved her free knee upward to cushion the blow and quickly let go of his elbow. That hand Akane let go with quickly turned into a fist and hooked her right in the cheek. The punch turned her head slightly but wasn't enough to completely daze her, it was shocking to see a girl her size could hit so hard, and she was sure everyone in that was spectating had a reaction to it.
'Sensei, is this allowed?!'
'He looks like he's ready to kill!'
'Did he seriously just hit a girl?!'
Bakugo was geared up to throw a forceful blow but had to go in defense mode when he saw a leg coming straight for his jaw. He quickly checked it but the force of the kick stung his wrists like crazy. Bakugo slid backwards, debris flying everywhere as he skidded across the ground.
Realizing he now had an opening, Izuku pushed off the wall behind him, "You're wrong, Kacchan. 'm not looking down on you. It's because you're so awesome... That I want to beat you! I wanna win! I wanna beat you, you idiot!" Izuku prepared his own right hook as Bakugo stumbled to stand up, he also getting prepared to punch.
Both fists collided and the two boys dropped, Izuku unconscious and Bakugo to his knees in shock as he heard All Might announce the winners. While they were down here fighting each other, Uraraka had managed to get past Iida. Both corners of the building on the floors they're on was damaged due to the explosion, the building shaking, along with Akane who was trembling from exhaustion and Bakugo was shaking in anger.
Bakugo turned his head to Akane who was sat against a crumbling wall, her elbows on her knees as she caught for a breath despite the debris in the air. "You..." Akane looked up at Bakugo, already predicting what he will say, "If you had just stuck to the plan! We could've won this thing!" Bakugo struggled, but he stood up and began to stomp towards Akane again, hand ready to grab onto her collar, but before he could All Might had put his hand on his shoulder, "Now, now, let's head back, Bakugo. Time for your grading. Wether you win or lose... you can always come out ahead by learning from the experience."
All Might ushered Bakugo away before holding a hand out for Akane to grab. The gir stared up at him and felt a sense of déjá vu rush over her. She shrugged it off and took his hand, letting the hero help walk her back to the monitor room.
In the monitor room, the four students (albeit Izuku was wheeled to the clinic) stood in a line, Bakugo and Akane standing on opposite sides to avoid confrontation between them.
"Well, I'd say the v.i.p in this battle was Iida!" All Might announced, shocking the said boy. Bakugo's face had fallen into an emotionless one, Uraraka looked ready to throw up at any second, an Akane looked almost embarrassed at the fact that she had lashed out so badly.
"Not Ochako or Midoriya? Even though they won?"
"I wonder why? Anyone know?"
"I do, All Might sensei." Momo raised her hand, making everyone turn their attention to her next, "It's because Iida was most able to adapt to the scenario. From what I saw, Bakugo's every action was motivated by an obvious personal grudge. And as you mentioned before, sensei, using destructive attacks indoors is foolish. Midoriya's performance suffered from the same faults. Uraraka lost focus halfway through. And her final attack was far too hazardous. Such an attack would b unthinkable if the nuclear weapon were real. And Hanamaki let her emotions get in her way. She risked her mission to ensure the safety of Midoriya. it might've proved her loyalty to him, but that wasn't the point of the exercise, not to mention she abandoned her teammates."
"But Iida formed an actual counterstrategy and he envisioned what the actual struggle would be like. He was only too late in reacting at the very end. The hero team only won because this was a training exercise with exploitable constraints."
The class went silent as Momo finished her speech and Akane had to admit she was impressed at how observant the girl was.
"I-I'd also like to add that Iida was a bit too stiff, but... Yes, you're correct." All Might raised a thumbs up.
Instead of staying as the rest of the teams went in to do their own training, Akane decided to go down to the clinic to see Izuku, he seemed pretty beat up—well, very beat up after their battle finished.
"Ah, you must be Akane?" The girl was confused when that was thing she heard when she stepped into the clinic. An old lady sat at a desk beside the cot Izuku slept in, "I'm Recovery Girl. If you're Akane, then you must be the girl Midoriya was mumbling about in his sleep!" Akane frowned her eyebrows, head lolling to the side, she couldn't comprehend why Midoriya would do that, so instead she just shrugged awkwardly, not knowing what to say or do. "I'll leave you two." The old lady walked out of the room, in fact leaving an unconscious Izuku and nervous Akane.
Taking a seat in the chair Recovery Girl had been sitting in formerly, she rolled it closer to the cot. Hesitantly, she placed her hand on Izuku's casted arm softly, not wanting to hurt him any more. The small contact was enough to knock Izuku back into the land of the living as his eyes snapped open.
"A-Akane?"
"Hi." Akane smiled awkwardly. "How are you feeling."
"Never been better. Heh." Izuku snickered, but noticing Akane thought he was serious he shook his head, "It hurts a little, but I'm fine."
"Oh." Akane nodded slowly, looking away from Izuku and around the room, "Uh... Sorry I know you said not to keep babying you... And I'm also sorry for getting mad at you and ignoring you."
Despite how sore he felt, Izuku brought the arm that wasn't in a cast up and softly punched her arm, "You're not babying me, remember? just protecting me?"
"Well then... Sorry for protecting you?"
Izuku laughed quietly, "It's fine, Akane. I'm not mad."
"Really?"
"Yeah." Akane cursed Izuku's smile, because now she was smiling too. "I'm also sorry. Really." Izuku added, "I didn't mean what I said, I think I do need you by my side forever."
"I know that." Akane joked, "Wha-What are you doing?" She whisper-screamed as Izuku started to sit up, but instead of an answer, she received an awkward, mostly one-armed hug.
She wrapped her arms lightly around his waist back, "You think Inko would be proud of us?"
"Very."
𝐀/𝐍 !!!
akane kinda warming up to iida
and making up with izuku
😈 her and uraraka sadly
won't become friends until
around sports festival arc cause
i already have it all planned
out but it's going to be so
cute you guys 💪