I wake up groggily laying on a bed in a bright room. My lungs and throat feel like sandpaper and I'm tired, plus my torso on my left side is aching and burning.
"Don't even try to get up." Recovery Girl comes into view and scolds me. "You shouldn't even be awake yet. Your lungs, which were already heavily scarred and you should have made me aware of that long ago, were damaged further in your fight. You also have frost bite wounds on your torso that are going to be a painful recovery for a few days. The good news is, the ice missed your right eye and it's a shallow enough scratch that it won't scar." She lists off my injuries then proceeds to tell me I need to remain in bed for the next few hours to heal.
I, however, ignore her words as I struggle to sit up. I wince as my torso burns even more, but it's manageable. I can feel I probably can't speak right now, so I use sign language just in case she understands it.
'Is there still time for my next fight? Who is it against?' I sign to her sloppily.
"I don't understand sign language, but if you're even half as foolish as your classmate, I can only assume you're asking about your next fight." Recovery Girls sighs out tiredly. "You've only been asleep for 20 minutes, you technically haven't forfeited yet. I cannot recommend you fight though, you're far too injured. Plus your opponent is Bakugo, which would just mean more smoke for you to inhale."
I nod at her and look around the little hospital room. I see a stack of medical masks on the counter, so I gingerly stand back on my feet and walk shakily over to it, moderately glad to feel that my legs at least aren't injured right now. I grab a mask and put it on after a grin to the old lady.
"If you're going to be foolish and insist on this, at least let me heal the frost bite a bit more. It will tire you out, but will at least prevent further damage." She sighs out in disappointment as she walks up to me.
I nod multiple times in thanks as she lifts my shirt to reveal my now bandaged torso and moves a few of the straps around. She gives me a kiss on my lower ribs and I instantly feel the relief from the burning feeling, but at the same time feel my eyelids droop. A nap suddenly sounds like the best thing in the world.
"Drink this, it will give you a little energy and help sooth your throat." She offers me a warm tea-like beverage. I lower the mask and take a sip and almost spit it all over her because of how strong and bitter it tastes. "Drink all of it and consider it your punishment for being stubborn!" She scolds loudly and I instantly chug the whole thing, slightly terrified of the angry tiny little old lady.
"Thanks!" I choke out as I grin at her and leave the room, her scolding me even more for speaking as I walk away.
"Irisa!" Kirishima yells out to me as I walk out of the room. He runs up to me and throws his arms around my shoulders tightly before he pulls away slightly to get a better look at me. "Should you even be standing?! Your fight was crazy! You got so hurt and so angry! But it was also so passionate and manly!"
I giggle at him as I draw him into another hug before pulling away and pointing at my throat, letting him know with my hands that I can't speak.
"If you're still going to fight Bakugo, you better head to the arena. They gave you both a thirty minute break before the final match." He informs me and we both take off at light jog to make it to the gate in time. "Hey, don't go too hard out there in your fight. But also, like, totally kick his ass. But please be safe. Um, man I'm bad at this."
I giggle once again and simply step closer to him. I give him a quick kiss on his cheek before I grin at him in thanks and walk out onto the arena. I blush at the fact that I just kissed him so casually, but shake it off and focus on the task at hand for the moment. Kirishima just gives off so much natural energy, I feel like I soaked it up and now I'm ready to fight the loud blonde.
I pulled the mask back up before stepped out to face the surprisingly concerned red eyes waiting for me on the arena floor.
"What the hell are you doing out here?!" Bakugo yells at me once I walk out. I simply pull the mask down and smirk arrogantly at him in response before placing it back up and taking a battle stance. "I'm going to kick your ass back into that recovery bed!! You better be prepared for an even harder fight, Airhead! I'm not fucking going easy on you because you're tired, and you better come at me with everything you've got!"
"Begin!" Midnight calls out, only this time it's with worry. I don't know why everyone's so worried about me, several other of the students got knocked out during their fights and then patched up by the nurse.
Bakugo wastes no time in launching himself at me with his explosions. I know my quirk isn't the best to use carelessly against him, we already figured that out when we sparred together. My fighting and reactions will come into play more here in this fight. I dodge and strike as we exchange back and forth blows, but I start to feel the fatigue hitting in pretty strong. I take off into the sky to try and gain some distance so I can have a break from his attacks, but he just follows me up.
"You can't fly away from me, dumbass!" He yells as he maneuvers really well in the air. I start to feel my throat feeling a little better, so I start to taunt him.
"You're in my turf now, Baku-bitch." I sneer at him as I use the wind to throw off all his attacks. I then purposefully keep him in the air once he's realized his mistake, not letting him land as I strike and counter some more. I can feel myself winning, but it's only for a moment.
Bakugo's reaction times are freaking seamless, and his use of his quirk is as effortless as breathing, something that's already a struggle for me right now. He manages to ground me after only a minute in the sky, largely in contribution to my fatigue, but also because he's just really talented. He managed to get just a little bit above me in the air and sent me plummeting to the ground with a huge explosion, one I barely diverted the flames of but couldn't stop the impact into the arena floor.
I feel my quirk getting more and more difficult to use as my muscles grow tight from overuse and my mind begs me for sleep. My hits grow sloppy, slow, and weaker as he keeps getting stronger. This isn't how I wanted this fight to go, and I can see the loud blonde snapping in front of me as I'm resorting to just running away from his attacks.
"Fight fucking back! You're stronger than this, you asshole! Fight me like you fucking fought that Icy Hot Bastard!" He screams at me as he increases the speed and strength of his attacks, several of the explosions starting to land on me. "Fight me, Yoarashi! Why won't you fucking fight back!? Why was he so damn worthy of your full strength but I'm not!"
I try to lift my shaking arms to fight him, but they feel like lead at my sides. My eyes widen in fear as he powers up a strong blast, and I only just manage to roll out of the way of the worst of it, but feel my body roll like a rag doll from the after effect. I stand back up shakily, having to take a knee to catch my breath. My coughing resumes again, and I can feel the mask starting to get wet as the taste of blood fills my mouth again. It could only filter out so much of the smoke, and it seems I've neared my limit.
"Stop dodging and fucking fight me! It doesn't count as a win if you don't fight fucking back!!" Bakugo screams in rage as I tiredly lift my head to face him.
I try to fight then like Inasa does. He can use our quirk without moving his body at all, but I'm not quite as strong or experienced with it as he is. It takes a lot of concentration, but I finally get a good gust of wind starting to form with only my mind so I can attack. I still have to prove myself today, I still have to fight. I want to be a hero, and winning here and proving I'm the best will prove to my father I deserve to be here, I just know it. I have to win, I have to fight.
Bakugo saw my attack forming and started to create a huge tornado of his own with his explosions. He was aiming to ram at me with it. I wanted to attack him, I wanted to meet his energy head on, I wanted to show him I wasn't messing with him or taking it easy. I didn't want him to think this fight didn't matter to me as much as my last one did.
I wanted to do all that, but my body had other plans.
As Bakugo was heading to meet my forming attack head on, my body shut down entirely. My attack dissolved and I fell face forward, leaving myself entirely defenseless to receive the full brunt of his hit. It was agonizingly painful as I was blasted completely out of the ring and thrown into the stadium wall. I blacked out entirely with only a ringing noise in my ears as the pain consumed me.
An hour later, I blearily stood on the second place platform. I was swaying on my feet, and my body was wrapped up almost as bad as Aizawa's. Recovery Girl scolded me a whole lot when I woke up in the hospital a second time, only this time with a few extra burns and bruises. She almost had to do surgery on my lungs, and I'm officially not allowed to use my quirk for the next week to give myself time to recover properly. Thankfully, my throat is ok this time, but I bruised a few ribs and my hip on the impact from the final attack, and I have a small concussion as well, not to mention several tiny burns from his explosions I couldn't dodge. Most of the wounds were healed, but will take a few days to fully recover from my fights.
Bakugo is strapped and glaring like a rabid dog to the first place podium, a muzzle on his mouth and everything. I think the muzzle is overkill, but I'm far too tired right now to do anything about it. Todoroki and Tokoyami are on the third place platform, and all four of us are about to receive our medals from All Might.
All Might gives a short congratulations speech to those two boys first, as well as awkward hugs that look comical with how huge and muscular he is. He approaches me next, and I blink owlishly at him as I try to focus on him. My subconscious quirk usage isn't even active right now, so my balance and depth perception are kind of thrown off, causing me to almost fall backwards when I try to look all the way up at his face. He catches me with a strong hand on my shoulder before he starts to talk to me.
"Young Yoarashi!" All Might says loudly but sincerely. "You have fought wonderfully today! You showed passion in everything you did, and you proved yourself to be at the top of your class. You still have a ways to go in developing your quirk and making it second nature, but with how much progress I've seen so far, I have no doubt you will be a force of nature once you're a Pro. Congratulations on getting second place, Yoarashi! It was an honor to watch you fight."
"Thank you, All Might." I say with a genuine smile, bowing and accepting my medal as I grin up at him when I stand back up with a little wobble. "I hope it was enough to prove that I'm going to be a hero in the future."
"You've proven it to me and everyone watching." He says loudly before turning to a whisper. "And I'm sure you're proven it to Gale Storm as well. He would be a fool not to acknowledge your growth after this." My eyes widen at his statement and I feel my right eye water slightly. I haven't told the teachers at all that I was doing this to prove anything to my father, but I guess he figured it out on his own.
"Thank you, that really means a lot." I say genuinely while he smiles broadly and moves on to Bakugo.
I stare down at my second place medal with a smile. It figures I'd finish second. Though I thought I would feel bitter about not winning, second place has been serving me just fine all day, so I'm not too mad at this now.
Looking over at the incredibly angry blonde as he rejects his first place trophy, I can't help but feel bad. When he and I sparred and trained together, I could tell he was looking forward to an all-out fight with me. I was just too tired and drained from my fight with Todoroki to give him a real match. I had wanted to fight him too, he's the top of the class in skills, and I wanted to prove I was strong enough. But really, I was too slow in the end, and his seamless reactions were faster than I could counter, and my hits were too weak to affect him. Had I fought him before Todoroki, then maybe it would have been a more even match.
As for my fight with Todoroki... I let my emotions control the fight. I'm not usually angry, like ever, so fighting while truly angry like that made me use too much of my quirk and I ended up hurting myself. I knew my wind wasn't strong enough to cut his ice, yet I did it anyway and tired myself out way too early. Then having to use it to smother all that fire, it was just too much. I was too slow in my movements against him, and it even almost cost my right eye. As it is, that fight defeated my whole purpose of wearing the goggles to conceal my weakness from future villains. Everyone saw my eyepatch today, so my air of mystery I could have had is lessened by now.
All in all, it's been a long and exhausting day. But I know this day isn't over, not by a long shot. I bid farewell to all my friends for the day, hoping this wasn't going to be the last time I saw most of them.
As I walk back into the changing rooms and take my bag out, I turn on my phone with resignation, knowing there's going to be hell to pay. I expected dozens of calls from my father. I expected angry texts. Hell, I half expected him to drop patrol and take just show up here and take me home in a rage. I was prepared for any of those. So seeing only one single text from him almost made me more scared.
Papa Storm🌪️: We'll discuss your punishment when you get home.