"NOW FOLKS, IT'S TIME FOR THE FIRST MATCH OF THE FIRST ROUND!! AKIMITSU YOSHIKO VERSUS MONOMA NEITO!! HOW MANY QUIRKS IS AKIMITSU GOING TO HAVE TO FIGHT AGAINST??"
Monoma and Yoshiko got onto the concrete stage, the latter devilishly smirking at the former. Monoma scowled at her in response. All Might, seated in a high chair outside the stage, yelled, "START!"
As soon as the words left All Might's mouth, Yoshiko rushed into him, sparks dancing in her fist with smoke dispersing. She closed the distance between them and swung her fist for a hook. But she hit solid air instead of Monoma's smirking face.
She realised she was caught in a big air prison. She kicked on the air wall, but it was of no use. She resided to trying to blast the wall with her quirk, which also proved futile, unlike last time in the first game. She could hear the faint sound of Monoma's blabbing about class 2-A's incompetence, making her click her tongue.
"MONOMA HAS ALREADY CAPTURED AKIMITSU IN AN AIR PRISON?! IS THIS THE END OF THE FIRST M- OH MY! LOOK AT THESE FLASHY GOLDEN LIGHT BALLS!"
She had her light balls surround the air prison and let them blast, breaking out of the prison. She took advantage of the smoke formed and lunged in for Monoma's guts. With a punch accompanied by the power of her explosions, she delivered a steaming fist to his stomach, making spittle and a groan escape his mouth.
When the smoke cleared, the audience gasped, followed by Present Mic's enthusiastic commentary. Yoshiko threw an explosion at Monoma, but he dodged by rolling away to his left and getting up. He touched the ground, and the broken pieces of cement flew up, with purple light surrounding them. He was using his classmate's quirk, Poltergeist.
Yoshiko smirked at him. He didnt have much long until he ran out of time for his borrowed quirks. How sad.
*Earlier*
After having lunch with Bakugo, Yoshiko went looking for Midoriya. She found Iida by a food stall and asked for his whereabouts. Iida directed her to waiting room 3. She found the waiting room and knocked on the door, waiting for a response.
"Come in!" Came Midoriya's cheery voice. She opened the door and found him sitting on a chair with a bowl of pork cutlets, rice, and chopsticks in hand. "Akimitsu-san!"
"Hey Midoriya." She said, dragging the chair and seating herself across from him on the table. Midoriya tilted his head in question. "So, you're the keeper of information on everyone's quirks, right?"
"Uhm- w-well, most people, I guess." Midoriya stammered, cheeks red when she called him the keeper of information. Yoshiko chuckled at his reaction.
"I was wondering if you could tell me about class B's quirks. I'm fighting Monoma, and I'd like to know what sort of quirks he can use."
"Mhm! I can tell you! Kendo-san's quirk is Big Fist, and Awase-san's quirk is Weld-- actually, you can have my notebook! So you can analyse their quirks for yourself!"
Midoriya bought out his hero notebook out of thin air. Yoshiko wondered if he had another quirk called, 'storing notebooks and producing them whenever needed.' She took the notebook from him and flipped over to the class-B section.
It's not that she was afraid of surprises Monoma could have. She just wanted to know more about her pretentious opponent. She wanted Monoma to copy her quirk. She spent many years honing, mastering, and fighting against the recoil. She wanted him to copy it and end up not being able to use it the way she could.
Apparently, Monoma couldn't copy it due to the nature of his quirk.
Monoma couldn't copy quirks that relied on a previously stored resource. And Yoshiko's quirk relied on the sunlight she stored in the cells of her body. Unfortunate.
His copied quirks only lasted 10 minutes, and he couldn't copy more than four quirks at once.
She wasn't bothered by anyone else's quirk in class B. She thanked Midoriya and returned his notebook with a smile, going to chill in her waiting room.
*Present*
Yoshiko blasted all the rocks that came her way with fluid ease. When she was done crumbling a swarm of cement, her eyes widened at the huge piece of cement aiming straight for her head. She quickly ducked, cursing. If that hit her head, she'd die with her brain on the floor. Did Monoma want to kill her?!
Yoshiko charged in at him again and, this time managed to throw an explosion at him. Monoma let out a 'geh'. When the smoke cleared a little she saw that his skin had turned to steel.
Monoma smirked at her and collided his fist with her cheek. Yoshiko staggered back and spat out blood. A steel fist hurt. But she was not stopping. She formed balls of light and had them spin in a tornado, letting them blast and catch Monoma in an explosive tornado. Present Mic was yapping out something in the commentary, which Yoshiko tried to ignore. This move required focus.
The explosions did not have much effect on Monoma's steel skin. He charged in at her again. Yoshiko used her explosion to fly up and land behind him. She held her palms out, pretending to go in for a huge explosion. Monoma formed an X in front of his face defensively.
10 minutes were up. She knew he probably copied his classmate's quirks a minute before he came down to the stage. Now she'd actually make him eat shit.
Monoma's eyes widened as he realised his skin had gone back to its original form. But he didnt waver for long and closed the distance between them and touched her shoulder. Yoshiko willingly let him. Just to see the look on his face.
Monoma smirked and held a palm out, expecting an explosion to come out. His expression dropped when he realised he couldn't copy her quirk.
"Unfortunate, huh?" Yoshiko said, sparks dancing on her palm.
"Shut up." Monoma hissed, getting in a defensive position.
"There's two minutes left till the match is over." Yoshiko went on. "I hope you're good at hand-to-hand combat because I've had enough fun toying around."
Yoshiko decided to fight him without explosions, even though it would be easy to blast him out of bounds. Yoshiko charged in first. She then threw punch after punch at him as he blocked them with his forearms, his teeth bared at her. He kept stepping back as she delivered a shower of fists at him.
Monoma happened to be weak at hand-to-hand combat since he relied on copying the quirk of his opponent or copying them from those around him. From the bleachers, she could hear her class cheering her name.
"GO, AKIMITSU!!" She heard Uraraka cheer.
"DO IT FOR CLASS A!!" Kirishima yelled.
"KICK HIS BLONDE ASS!" Mina shouted.
Yoshiko couldn't help but smile to herself. Monoma finally took a step towards her to throw a punch at her. She quickly ducked low. She put one hand on the floor for balance and lashed her leg out onto his stomach with full strength, sending him flying back with spit escaping his mouth.
Monoma happened to be very close to the boundaries when she delivered the kick, and he fell out of bounds.
"Monoma is out of bounds." All Might declared.
"AND WE HAVE A WINNER! AKIMITSU YOSHIKO WINS THE FIRST MATCH. A ROUND OF APPLAUSE FOR THE EXPLOSION QUEEN PLEASE!" Sounds of clapping, whistles and cheers overtook the stadium. Yoshiko winked at a camera and gave monoma a glance before heading off the stage.
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After getting a few bruises healed, Yoshiko made her way to the bleachers and sat amongst her classmates beside Shinsou.
"You were pretty cool out there!" Kaminari exclaimed.
"Yeah, man! The look on Monoma's face was incredible." Sero snickered.
"He deserved it." Jirou rolled her eyes. "Great job, Yoshi."
"Thanks guys." Yoshiko smiled, taking a seat beside Shinsou.
"She was average!" Bakugo yelled, getting annoyed with all the praise his classmates were giving her. She did amazing, but he wasn't going to tell her that.
Yoshiko leaned her head back, resting her neck on the chair so she could see Bakugo sitting behind her. She raised her eyebrows at him, silently saying, 'You know I was fucking amazing.'
Bakugo glanced at her silvery eyes and scoffed. She gave him a smirk and fixed her eyes on the match going on down below between Mina and Kendo. "Great match, Yoshi," Shinsou said beside her.
"Thanks, Hito." She grinned.
Kendo was having a hard time capturing Mina as she skated with the help of her acid and included dance moves to escape Kendo's giant hands hitting the ground in an attempt to catch Mina.
Hitoshi got up, cracking his knuckles. "You're leaving?" Yoshiko asked, looking up at him.
"Yeah, my match is next." He replied.
"Good luck. I'll be rooting for you."
"You better." He playfully flicked her freckled nose before going. Yoshiko smiled to herself, rubbing her nose.
Mina ended up being the victor of the second match. Class A cheered on her, and the girls blew her whistles and kisses. Mina sat beside Yoshiko, beaming at her victory. Yoshiko gave her a fist bump and eagerly waited for Shinsou and Sero to start fighting.
Sero and Shinsou made their way to the stage. Shinsou's capture weapon was around his neck. Since Sero agreed to let Shinsou use the support item, All Might was fine with it.
Yoshiko sat on the edge of her seat, watching Sero trying to tape up Shinsou. Shinsou's agility seemed to have increased so much since their first year. Yoshiko was grinning with pride for her best friend. She could see Shinsou's mouth moving, trying to provoke Sero. It wasn't audible from all the way up there.
Shinsou almost managed to have the capture weapon wrap around Sero's arms and waist, but Sero was quick to slip away. Shinsou smirked at Sero, mouthing something Yoshiko couldn't hear. A flash of hurt flashed in Sero's eyes. Yoshiko knew Shinsou didn't mean any of what he said. It was just to try to get Sero to respond.
Midway through the fight, Sero tore off a piece of tape and put it in his mouth, making the entire stadium laugh. The two were now sharing kicks and punches, dodging each other's tape and capture weapon. Yoshiko could tell Sero was growing irate of Shinsou's desperate insults... which finally worked.
Sero's response to Shinsou's, 'I'll keep my hot coffee cup on your arms', was an incoherent mumble due to the tape on his mouth. And that was enough for Shinsou to brainwash Sero.
Shinsou released Sero from his capture weapon and had him sprint out of bounds.
"OUR LITTLE BRAINWASHER STANDS THE VICTOR OF THIS MATCH!!" Present Mic yelled in the commentary. Yoshiko squinted her eyes at the little dribble of blood from Shinsou's mouth and got up to go after him.
She found Sero and Shinsou walking together, making their way to the recovery girl's office. "Hey, you two!" Yoshiko exclaimed, jogging up to the two. The two boys turned around to see Yoshiko.
"Akimitsu, hey," Sero said. Shinsou greeted her with a small smile.
"I can heal you two," Yoshiko said, taking a step closer to Sero. She placed her hand on his chest and healed him, her hair and eyes glowing gold. She hopped back with a grin as Sero sighed at the warmth dreamily.
"Man, that felt so nice." Sero smiled. "Oh, I dont wanna miss Iida and Todoroki's match. It's going to be intense."
"Wait," Shinsou said.
"Yeah?"
"I didn't mean the shit I said back there..." Shinsou said, putting a hand behind his neck. Sero chuckled and held a fist out.
"I know, man." He replied. "You had to say all that because of your quirk. No hard feelings."
"Yeah," Shinsou bumped his fist with Sero's. With a casual wave, Sero made his way back to the bleachers.
"Ugh, heal me," Shinsou complained. "My tongue won't stop bleeding."
"Yeah, yeah. You fought well, by the way."
"Thanks, Yoshi." She cupped his jaw and closed her eyes, healing away his bruises and tongue.
Just at that time, Aoi walked into the hallway, freezing when she Yoshiko with her eyes closed, glowing like a golden light bulb, cupping her boyfriend's jaw. Shinsou stared up at the ceiling with bored eyes as if this happened many times before.
"H-Hitoshi-kun...?" Aoi mumbled, clenching the hem of her skirt. His eyes drifted to her, and a soft smile she'd grown to love made its way to his face.
"Hey, Aoi."
Yoshiko finished healing and stumbled backwards, a lot of her energy leaving her body. Shinsou caught her by the shoulder as she stabilised her footing. She met Aoi's pale blue eyes.
"Oh, Aktugawa. Hi."
"Hey. What... were you doing?" Aoi asked.
"Hm?" Shinsou walled towards Aoi, casually slipping his hand on her waist. "She just healed me. I had a lot of blood in my mouth. I think I drank some..."
"You might get a stomachache, Hitoshi-kun." Aoi forced herself to laugh. "Congrats on your win, by the way."
"Thanks, Aoi." Shinsou smiled. Aoi then met Yoshiko's eye again. She hated how Yoshiko's hand was holding his jaw. Even if it was for healing.
Yoshiko, sensing Aoi's cold gaze, tilted her head in confusion. The usually smiling girl was staring at her with cold daggers. Even Shinsou felt it. He glanced back and forth between the girls, one reeking of cold anger and one looking back at her in confusion.
Suddenly, Aoi smiled at Yoshiko, ear to ear, as if she wasn't just glaring at her with disgust. "Thank you for healing him, Akimitsu-san!" She exclaimed, hopping over to Yoshiko and taking her hands with a million-dollar smile. Yoshiko felt her hands grow cold on Aoi's touch. Now that she recalled, Shinsou mentioned that Aoi's quirk was freezing touch.
Yoshiko stared back at Aoi with a blank face. Even though the blue-haired girl was smiling, her eyes held nothing but loathe for Yoshiko. Yoshiko could see that plain as day. In response to Aoi's freezing touch, Yoshiko activated her quirk slightly, warming both their hands.
Shinsou awkwardly stood behind them, unaware of the cold and hot silent battle going on between the girls. Aoi let Yoshiko's hands go and turned around to face Shinsou with a smile. She placed her hand on Shinsou's bicep.
"Hitoshi-kun, let's go back to the bleachers!" She exclaimed.
"Sure." He replied, trying not to blush under her bold touch. He gave one last look at Yoshiko's blank face. Something definitely happened between Aoi and Yoshiko. He made a point to ask Yoshiko later.
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Yoshiko stood in the same place, looking down at her hands. They were warm now that she had heated them enough. She soaked in the sunlight coming from the window. Yoshiko sighed and put her forehead on the window.
Todoroki's and Iida's match was already over. Todoroki won the match. She could hear Present Mic yelling about Uraraka and Juzo's match now.
Yoshiko opened her palm, letting tiny sparks like fireworks dance on it. She felt like she was losing her best friend.
And it scared her.
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