"You don't have to hold back?"
"What?" were the words Izuku responded with, out of nowhere his partner Setsuna dropped that statement on him minutes before their match was able to start and he does not know what to do with it. What was she even referring to?
His secretive seaweed-haired partner smirked back at him, saying, "You and Bakugo, Katsuki, or Kacchan, whatever you call him. You got quite a messy relationship right?"
"How did you–"
"I got an ear literally everywhere," Setsuna stated, taunting him by having her ear detach from her head and fly around poking at Izuku, "Not to mention, people here have loose lips. I can put together the pieces before these guys arrive at it two months from now."
Scratching his head, Midoriya mumbled, "So people are already starting to talk. Argh, I had hoped I could put an end to this beforehand. The semester just started."
"You still have time. That's why I say don't hold back, let it all out and air out all your dirty laundry with each other."
"I don't think this is the best place to put it all out there."
"Don't worry about it. Don't ask how but let's just say I know that the monitoring systems here will suddenly lose all its audio when our match begins. Making everyone, including all the other students and All Might, unable to hear what's happening. They can still see and exchange words buuuuuuut~" the silver-tongued woman gave him a caring wink, "It'll be a minor issue, not big enough to stop the match over. Perfect timing if you ask me to speak openly about a few subjects."
Stunned and not sure what to speak about first, Izuku settled on one pressing question, "W-why?"
"Call it my gift for being gone so long, just don't waste it, it's a one-time use only. No need to thank me," Setsuna then gets uncomfortably close to Izuku's ear before whispering, "I'm getting my compensation picking up the pieces and causing a little chaos along the way."
That's when without warning Setsuna subtly pecked Izuku's cheek and then winked, not at Izuku but a positioned camera behind him.
Exactly five seconds later, Izuku's communications get triggered with All Might on the other line.
"Young Midoriya what the fuck?"
Gapping from that statement even existing, Izuku replied, "Wh-what? What I do?"
As All Might spoke again, Izuku could tell he was whispering, "I know you're young and I'm the last person to speak on flirting with too many beautiful women at once but it's called timing! Also, I was under the impression that you and Miss Rumi were already a knot? Loyalty, commitment, and respect are key traits for being a hero and a good person Young Midoriya."
"A- That wasn't me All Might!"
"Midoriya, I'm looking at the monitor right now."
"I meant I didn't do anything! That came out of nowhere and there was nothing I did to provoke it!"
"I'll take your word for it. Unfortunately, I'm not the one you need to convince."
Rumbling could be heard on the comms
Swallowing a wad of saliva, Izuku asked "...Is it that bad?"
All on cue, Izuku overheard on the comms a familiar voice, "A WHORE IS WHAT SHE IS!"
...
"Yes," was All Might's reply, "But I'm sure she'll understand as long as you talk about it. Communication is important in a relationship."
*CRASH!*
...
"Good luck, Young Midoriya."
Izuku let out a sigh.
"... Thank you for this All Might," Izuku genuinely replied.
His mentor replied in the same manner, "Do your best."
"You ready?" Setsuna asked with a cheeky smile, she knows what she did.
Izuku told her, "As much as I can be, thanks to that stunt of yours."
"Don't sweat it, I'll be the ire in her eyes but she already distrusted me so nothing changes. But you needed a break, you were tighter tuned than a drilled-in screw. You loose yet?"
"Heh, I guess I am."
"Well then, let's get to work."
While Team A had prepared themself outside, Team D was having a different kind of conversation on the inside.
"Listen Octofucker, I don't care what the fuck you do but don't touch Deku," asserted Bakugo, aggressively pointing his finger at his partner, "He's mine and mine alone."
Shoji was unmoved by the explosive blond, replying in his usual calm collective voice, "Listen, I don't care what your relationship with him is, I just want to win. Don't screw that up."
"Fuck off! An extra like you should be the one on guard! That Lizard bitch can be tricky, so grow some more eyes and fucking peeled them before she pulls one over on you," stated Bakugo, marching toward the door, "Do that and we'll have this in the bag."
Letting his teammate leave, the body of Shoji began rumbling, morphing grotesquely as the student prepared himself, "You talk such a big game, better back it up."
Unbeknownst to him, Katsuki did hear his comment and merely scoffed at the assertion, "As if there's anything to worry about."
That memory now haunted Katsuki as he found himself flat on his back staring at the ceiling.
Coming into his peripheral vision, Setsuna with a shit-eating grin taunted the blond's rather pathetic position, "Didn't see that coming did ya?"
Her sass ignited a flame under Katsuki's ass as he shot up and swiped a sparking palm toward her. It was only due to Setsuna's fast reflexes and Izuku restraining Katsuki's wrist back with Black Whip that prevented impact.
"Setsuna go! I got this!" directed Izuku, not taking his eyes off Katsuki as their strengths struggled against one another.
Departing with a wave to both of them, Setsuna told them, "Alright, have fun boys. And Izuku, don't forget what I said."
"I won't."
Thus only the two boys were left in the hallway.
Snatching his hand away from the ebony bonding, the blond turned to Izuku stating, "Facing me alone? When did you grow the balls?"
"I'll warn you now Katsuki, this'll be nothing like when we were kids! Refusing to accept that will end in your loss," Izuku told him, standing his ground.
A crooked smile crept its way onto Katsuki's face, a truly abnormal reaction. Borderline sadistically replying, "To declare that to my face, you've become far too bold. Time for a reality check!"
Blasting himself forward Katsuki threw out a flurry of blows, each attack was thrown with the same ferocity of a wild tiger amidst a hunt. While Izuku dodged the initial barrage, a tricky elbow slammed him against the wall, the fox only had a millisecond to dive out of the way of an explosive swing that cindered the tips of his fur.
"Heh, look at you!" exclaimed Katsuki, blasting the greenet back with another explosion, "Already can't keep up!"
Taunting the fox, the blond continued, "What was with all that fucking talk beforehand!? This was always your issue, you know how to run that damn mouth of yours but have little to back it up! That's why no one took you seriously about becoming a hero."
Lunging forward, Katsuki charged up his right hand for a devastating attack, "Hero business is no game! I'll send you home to mommy before you get yourself hurt as always!"
The embellishment of his ego allowed Izuku the perfect opportunity to slip into range to grab Katsuki's right arm before his strike as the fox read this attack from a mile away. With a heave, Izuku tosses Katsuki over his shoulder to the ground, yelling, "Why do you have to be such a dick!"
As the blond have to live with the revelation that Izuku got one over him not just once but twice within the span of a few minutes, Izuku continued to berate Katsuki, "I don't know what got into you, but ever since I moved in you've just been getting progressively worse! You were always a bit brass but now you're completely insufferable! What happened?"
Katsuki's answer? An explosion that made Izuku jump back. Getting to his feet, the blond growled back, "Nothing you'll ever understand, and nor will I waste time here explaining."
"It's just me and you, no one else can interrupt us and I'm not going so easily without an answer!" replied Izuku, prepping himself for a lengthy battle.
Gritting his teeth, Katsuki spat, "There you go, acting grown again. Who gave you the right to demand anything from me."
"You're that convinced I haven't grown since we were kids, huh."
"I don't care what anyone says, nothing is worth a damn until I decide it!"
As Izuku gets low in his usual Hunt stance, he sighs, "You never make anything simple."
"What are you talking about? I aim for an utter complete victory and not a damn step less, that's as simple as it needs to be," smirked Bakugo, taking a stance more akin to a goalkeeper.
"What's with the TV, I can't hear anything!?" Sero stated in the observing room. While the TVs stationed there had no problems displaying the epic confrontation occurring, not a beep of sound was coming out.
Obviously this is upsetting to the class as watching the trial with no sounds is like watching a good anime fight with no sound, good sound design can really make the experience. Not to mention the curiosity about what they're saying, there are no subtitles and thankfully for Izuku, no one watching them can read lips... to their knowledge.
All Might kept a strong pose but was panicking on the inside, he couldn't hear anything and he questioned if he could even still communicate with the students.
"Come on you stupid thing, work. Right when Young Bakugo first went to attack Young Midoriya, the sound suddenly cut out. Displeased crowd aside, what if I need to stop the match? Should I pause it now till we can fix the audio? But the IT department can be so slow getting to minor issues like these, it might take them a while which would waste precious class time. Aizawa would kill me if I try to take up more class time than already allotted to me, that would mean the battle trail would be delayed till another week. Izuku has been looking forward to this for a while, he needs this closure and it may cause more harm if I stop him now. Why did this need to happen now!?"
"Professor All Might," called Momo, walking over to the brick house teacher, "Is this supposed to happen?"
"Please don't call me professor, I feel guilty since I mostly got this job because of my popularity," thought All Might, making sure he got his voice right before speaking, "Fear not Young Yaoyorozu, this is only a minor convenience. I can hear them just fine through the comms."
The answer seemed to have satisfied Momo's curiosity, who replied, "Hm, ok. I hope it'll be resolved soon."
"At most, it'll be fixed by the next match," All Might told her, though on the inside his confidence in his words was vastly different, "I hope! For now, I'll let it play out. Hopefully, it doesn't get too out of hand."
"What are they doing?" questioned Tsuyu, looking at the screen.
With no sound for context, all the girls in the nursing rooms saw was the battle swiftly changing from a fight to Izuku attempting to dash past Katsuki but getting caught and thrown back.
Tsuyu continued to comment, "Why they're fighting this way aside, all he's doing is failing over and over again. Insanity is literally defined by this."
"And what's wrong with that?" replied Rumi, not seeing why she spoke of insanity like it's purely a negative concept, "Sanity can be overrated, and sometimes you need to be a little crazy to beat the odds."
"I don't know what world you came from but in this normal one, people don't fail at doing something a thousand times. They usually stop after twenty."
Rumi simply shrugged at her assertion, "I compare it to learning how to do a backflip. You're going to fall flat on your face a couple of times, of course, I'm heavily understating the number of tries it'll take. Unless you're a prodigy like me, heh."
She was bullshitting, it took months before she could stick the landing of a backflip.... once. Afterward she tried to do it in front of someone to show off and ended up breaking her arm. Her pride never let her live it down and she became delusional about the entire event; this wouldn't be the first or last time of this habit.
"Grands rewards are on top of tall mountains many won't confront, so if your heart is in it, you can achieve something amazing!"
A proud declaration Rumi made, because internally she was in a panic at Izuku's struggle, "Come on Izuku, pull out something good already, it's hard to hype you up when you're losing!"
Once again, Katsuki catches Izuku and throws him back with a heave exclaiming, "Another victory for ME!"
As he watched Izuku roll on the floor, he continued, "And another failure from you! When are you going to stop? I can do this all day, as long as it takes till you get the message!"
...
"Hehehe," a sly chuckle emerged from the fox as he got to his feet once again, "You're the one who's not getting the message Katsuki."
This defiance displeases Katsuki, no matter what he does Izuku is still heading toward a path the blond wants him to abandon; like a moth toward a lightbulb.
"I'm not stopping, ever," Izuku states as he gets ready once again to charge through, "If anyone needs to give up on something, it's you!"
Katsuki's eye twitched at the audacity for Izuku to insist he should forfeit something. Him, a child who used to cry all the time when they were kids. The boy who he was ordered by their parents to always watch over him. This weakling who once had his lunch money stolen by a gang of geese.
"Apologies, that must've gutted your pride," commented Izuku, "Since I'm gonna have to shred mine, I might as well do yours as well. Let's both peels our outdated shells."
Hearing his ramblings, Katsuki's rage was being drowned out with skeptic confusion, prompting him to ask, "What the fuck are you on about?"
"Losing that game we played a few nights ago, when you were supposed to drop me off at the train station, admittedly it stuck with me for days. I couldn't get it out of my head and I was trying to cope with that failure by attempting to win using the exact same tactics. A little foolish but worth a shot," as Izuku gets low again into his Hunt stance, as his body begins a slow glow up from the surge of energy that was building inside. With his sharp eyes snapping all his attention onto Bakugo, he tells him, "Let the real match begin."
Calling out his boldness, Bakugo scoffed, "Trying to act flashy because you're losing won't change anything."
As the beastly form of Izuku flashed forward, Bakugo was taken aback as he lost track of the fox from the absurd amount of speed he exhibited. It was only thanks to his insanely great instinct that the explosive student was able to lock back onto his opponent, spotting the tricky fox aiming to slip by his right side.
"Nice try, but that won't work!" Bakugo thought as he sparked into action to stop him.
Right as he started throwing his weight toward guarding this right flank, Izuku completely redirected the force behind his extraordinary speed with a single pounce, blitzing to Katsuki's now exposed left side.
This wasn't the same kind of speed Izuku displayed the previous night they played this game, it carried a whole new energized feel to it that flowed like a calm river; silent but rushing. But not to be so easily outdone, crackling followed by an EXPLOSION launch Katsuki, allowing himself to change his momentum to the opposite side to meet Izuku's charge!
Letting out a bellowing roar, Katsuki shouted, "Not fast enough!"
"Oh, you think this is my fastest?"
With another pounce, Izuku was gone, out of Katsuki's sight. Left, right, below; where did he go? That question ran rapidly in the blond's mind as he wasn't willing to lose so simply, and the answer came quickly but not with deductive reasoning or by choice, but with a loud assertion.
"Hey, Katsuki!"
The voice calling out to him dragged his head upward, accepting Izuku's invitation to spot on the roof; for only a moment.
A single frame of acknowledgement was all Izuku wanted, pouncing off the roof toward the victory ground. Still stubborn as ever, Katsuki instinctually reached out to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, getting so close to grabbing his tail but Izuku met it with a swift tail swipe. Smacking out the blond's last haymerry with a simple flick of a fluffy appendage.
"You lose."
Those were the calm words Izuku carefully chose as he safely landed behind his opponent as nothing else was needed. He got what he wanted and needed, now he had a glorious sensation washed over him that he couldn't help but give a fist bump to himself. He didn't need to lash out or scar Katsuki, that just wasn't the person Izuku was deep down and it brought little satisfaction to the fox. A victory like this was a honey he'll gladly gulp down.
For what happened was a dagger that pierced Katsuki deeper than any physical assault could.
.
Back in the nursing room, Rumi gave a strong cheer.
"See, tell ya. He'll eventually do it! I had absolutely no doubt in mind," claimed Rumi, already puffing up smoke to cover her ass, "In fact you saw that little tail trick he did? Yup, I taught him, he learned it like a champ in an hour."
Ignoring most of the nonsense, Tsuyu questions, "Are you serious?"
"A hundred percent."
"You don't even have a tail."
"Yes I do! Look!" Rumi exclaims, directing the frog to her backside where she promptly shook her tiny white rabbit tail.
Staring blankly at it, Tsuyu soon replied, "They're not even close to comparable."
"Tha- they can be!"
"That'll be like if Jirou gave Momo advice on breast-induced back pain."
Rumi wanted to shoot back a reply but her voice fell silent as she didn't have a defense. As a dominant woman with girls to work she doesn't pity the unfortunate females whose weak DNA left them underdeveloped in those areas. The rules of nature decide who lives or dies.
....Sometimes people question if it was a smart idea letting Nezu raise her considering what parts of him wears off on her; and it's almost never the intelligence.
Cutting away from the losing conversation, Rumi says, "Regardless, this is only the beginning! You won't even recognize what Izuku can do now, nothing can stop him.... Except me of course, I'll beat his ass black, blue, and green."
All Might could verbally show support to not seem biased but internally he couldn't help going, "Good job young Midoriya! I have no idea what's happening but I get the feeling that something good occurred. But you haven't won yet."
As Katsuki got to his feet, Izuku continued to speak, "What's our score now? It's probably a couple dozen to one but, I'll take it."
"Shut up!"
BOOM!
As the explosion blew up dust, an angered Katsuki walked out of the carnage he created in the hallway.
"It was just a stupid game we made up on the spot, who cares!" shouted Katsuki, a jigsaw puzzle of a crooked smile exposed how tacked on, "I didn't lose anything!"
Rapid, aggressive, and filled with more denial than a politician during a political scandal, it was a reaction the fox expected from someone like Katsuki.
With a sigh that his old friend couldn't make this easy, Izuku prepares himself to meet Katsuki's every attempt to win.
"Come on," Katsuki taunted, moving forward with crackling fists, "You wanna do a real game, let's play!"
Riding off the same energy with a smile, Izuku states, "Don't be a sore loser, everyone gotta fail sometimes."
TO BE CONTINUED
Next Time Teaser: Who will win? The Virgin "I've never lost!" vs The Chad "I've lost a thousand times and ain't afraid to lose a thousand more!"
((Long time no see, life and stuff happened to me. Being on that grindset ain't easy XD. But hey, I managed to finish this chapter and I don't plan on abandoning this story if I can help it along with my many other projects and workings.
Hope you enjoyed the story, follow it if it interests you, and leave a review on what you thought of the chapter.I also got a youtube and twitter you can check out: Hero DarkyDarkAlso check out my own original story Repent In Purgatory, you can read it on Webnovels or Wattpad ))