***
"Okay everyone!" All Might stands on the podium in front, gathering everyone's attention. "In honor of you're new classmate," He hands out his palm towards Eli.
Eli sees his gesture and shows a kid smile.
"-we'll be having a one-on-one quirk duel." He then pointed his right index finger up to the ceiling. "This is to show everyone what they had been practicing with their quirk in the past weekend, at the same time, showing young Akimoto what your quirks are."
Eli looked up fast. Witnessing and observing her new classmates' quirks is exciting for her. Only because she wanted to know who has a fire quirk that can help her and be useful to her. She looks around the room and takes a wild guess.
Maybe it's that red-and-white guy? Eli furrows her eyebrows and subtly stares at the boy behind Sero. She stops her staring and looks around the room again. That red-haired guy?
"Wear your costumes and meet me at TDL!" All Might dismisses 1-A as he leaves the classroom.
Eli stands up at the same time as the ash-blonde in front of her. On purpose, she hits the shoulders of Bakugou and the girl yelps in pain. "Ow! What the hell, dude?" Emphasizing on the dude and trying to get his attention.
The grumpy boy, looked even more grumpier. He closes his eyes and his mouth morphed into a growl. "I didn't do anything." He defended himself between his teeth. "Stop what you're playing at, dumbass."
"What I'm playing at? You purposely hit my shoulder!" Eli whines in a high-pitched tone and it irritated Bakugou's ears. Deep inside, Eli was holding back a giggle.
"Dude, it's so unmanly to hit a girl." Kirishima walks closer to Eli and consoles the 'hurt' girl, patting her back. Eli nodded in agreement and Bakugou catches the smirk trying to escape from her lips.
"Atleast hold back, damn."
"He's right, Kacchan..." Two other students sided with the new girl.
The now furious Bakugou stops in his tracks and refrains himself from lashing out again. But of course, he fails. "Oh for fucks sake, I didn't hit her!!!" He threw another tantrum. His red eyes digging into Eli's orange ones as she sits there pretend hurt. "Look at her! She's fucking laughing like a fucking idiot!!!" He points a finger at her and Eli's eyes widen in shock and disbelief.
This keeps getting better!
"Young Bakugou, please don't yell at your new classmate." All Might peeks at the door as half of the class started to go out of the room.
Bakugou exclaimed a harsh tch and passed by Eli, now avoiding her. This girl is so fucking annoying.
_____
Akimoto surveyed her classmates. She was now observing Yaoyorozu and Uraraka's quirk in their duel. While the two girls were having their turn, the rest of Class 1-A were at the floor above them so that everyone will have a good view.
The rest of her classmates were behind Akimoto as they gave a pass to the orange-head to stand in front, just beside All Might who was orchestrating the battle and polishing their new moves.
"Yaoyorozu, don't hold back, have confidence in yourself." All Might's voice reached down to where the two girls were practicing. Yaoyorozu yelled an answer back and began to fight back.
Eli squints her eyes as she leaned on the metal handles, the cold feeling comforting Eli. Her eyes followed Yaoyorozu's movement and focused on the thick metal debris coming out of her. Eli widens her eyes in amazement. "A creation quirk!" She acknowledged. Her palms pushing on the metal handles as it supports her weight.
All Might nods at the girl next to him. "Correct, how about Uraraka?"
"Uhm..." Orange eyes started to follow the brunette's movement and she witnessed her touching the free debris and sees it levitating. "-levitation?" Eli guessed, looking back to her teacher.
"Hmm. Close enough. Zero-gravity." He corrects her, crossing his arms over his chest. "Whatever she touches will lose gravity and only she can bring it back."
Eli forms an 'o' shape with her mouth and observes the two again. Her head turns around as she felt a pair of eyes staring at her bottom. She meets the eyes of the grape-like guy and shrieks. "What are you looking at?!" Eli was wearing her slightly revealing Hero costume.
Her attire was a combination of her mother and father's hero costume. An all-white off-shoulders top that reaches down to the middle of her thigh and black compression fireproof-sleeves on her limbs to avoid burning herself. Her white gloves tinkered with the texture of that of a matchbox to produce her own spark and use it. The dress from her mother's and the compression-fireproof-sleeves from her father's. With red and orange hues lined around the edge of every cloth.
Mineta was clearly looking at Eli's butt. "N-nothing." He hides his blush.
Out of nervousness, Eli used her quirk to get away from the pervy Mineta.
In under a second, all she sees is black and white and everyone's mouth agape from talking to someone, except for one person. Her eyes caught a glimpse of the ash-blonde who has his arms crossed and leaning over the metal handles, also studying and observing the fight. He was far-away from the group, the opposite side to where she was.
She leaves her hydroflask near the teacher and runs over to the ash-blonde while she is in the motionless world.
This was a chance to look at his face more clearly. Akimoto leaned over to the handles, her face on the edge. Akimoto studies his focused face and sees that his relaxed face was only a frown. Not a smile, a pout, or anything, it was as if his face was so used to frowning it was now his normal face. Eli stands just on his left and copies his position and deactivates her quirk.
"What the-" Bakugou clearly shocked at the sudden presence of the girl he hated at the moment. His red eyes took a quick peek at his left and grunts, he pretends she wasn't beside him.
Just pretend she's not here...
"You're still annoyed at me, aren't you?" She nudges her right shoulder to the ash-blonde's. Smirking and keeping her eyes on him.
"Go die, Tangerine." He spat, clearly showing he wasn't interested and was busy focusing on the fight.
Eli pushes herself from the handles as she places her right hand on her heart, puts on a pained expression, pretending she was hurt by what the ash-blonde had told her. "I'm hurt," She pauses, that he hasn't introduced himself to her. "-what was your name?"
"Leave me alone."
"Funny, but that isn't a name." She retorted. Akimoto turns around and goes back to where she was before.
Bakugou, who was now ignoring the annoying orange, puts all his attention back to the duel between Uraraka and Yaoyorozu. To his dismay, the battle had ended and it meant that Akimoto will choose her duel partner.
Meanwhile, Akimoto taps All Might's right upper arm and whispers something to him. The pro-hero bends to his right, just right to where his ear reaches her mouth. Bakugou sees her as she was just at the opposite part of the second floor.
Don't tell me she's... Bakugou prayed that she didn't choose him as her duel partner. Although he believed that he would just beat her in an instant, he can't help but think if she has some tricks up her sleeve.
Bakugou squints his eyes at the orange-haired girl and he sees her giving him a side-eye as she whispers to All Might.
"This fucking girl." He grunted, stopping his body from twitching in anger. His blood boiling as he walks toward the girl, beginning to plan how he would mess her pretty face up and how he would kick her ass.
"It seems like young Akimoto has chosen her opponent!" All Might mentions to everyone in the gym. "Young Bakugou will be her partner! Everyone gather up!"
Bakugou, huh? Eli remembers the mean ash-blonde's name. Looking up while she thinks of a plan. It was peaceful until Bakugou himself stomps to Eli's way.
"Oi! Tangerine!" He barked, his voice high and deep at the same time. "I hope you don't fucking regret who you chose, Dumbass!" He snarled and points a finger at her, scaring her and making her think she's no match for Bakugou.
Eli's face remained normal. "The only reason I chose you," she paused, mirroring his gesture and movements, "Baka-gou," She emphasized on the 'Baka'.
What the fuck?!
"-is because I want to train with a quirk like yours." She explained. Her eyes closed and left cheek popping out, hugging herself with her own arms.
Bakugou stopped listening after she mocked his name. His eyes wide and boomed his face with anger. "You're gonna get what you asked for, Tangerine bitch!!!" And he stormed off, going down to their area.
Eli grins in triumph. Now crossing her arms and raising her chin as if she just stood up to Satan himself and scaring him off.
_____
"Akimoto Eli," The number one hero's voice boomed in the gymnasium. "-and Bakugou Katsuki!"
Eli stifles a chortle at hearing Bakugou's full name. Katsuki? A grin very visible on her face.
Bakugou, who was on the opposite side of the field, was already sparking his explosions out of his palm, making sure the only thing in his mind when he sees her is:
I'm gonna kill you, Tangerine bitch.
Eli looks at Katsuki in amusement, feeling confident that she would win this in no time. She hasn't practiced much with people who can make explosions, so this was a solo-experiment for her. The only thing bothering her in her mind was:
Where did my hydroflask go?
"And, start!"
In no time, Bakugou dashes and pounces over to Eli's figure and she smirks, Bakugou not realizing she can stop the sparks. He pulls back his right hand, his body twisted for more power and mobility. "DIE!" He yelled as he wraps his right hand around her round face, or so he thinks.
In one blink, she disappeared, along with the quirk he possesses, causing him to fall down as he didn't expect his weight to lean on nothing.
"What the fu-" He cuts off, trying to spark up his explosions, but to no avail, nothing worked. His eyes furrowed into a worried and infuriated look. He looked behind him to see they switched places with Eli. "What the fuck do you think you're doing, newbie?!" He stands up, going back to his usual fighting stance, his chest rising and falling due to his blood boiling deep inside.
The tension in the gymnasium rising, the students of 1-A started to think if Eli knows what she's doing. Bakugou doesn't want to get beaten, especially by a girl that just showed up today. It wasn't in his nature to lose to someone he barely knew, and to someone that was stronger than him in terms of quirks and abilities.
Eli, remains in an optimistic and relaxed stature. Her body straight, her hands on the side of her hips. "Well," She exhales, taking her time. "-I did plan to let you keep your quirk," She shifts into a shrug. "-but I didn't want you to get all the fun."
Her bright face turned into one with a serious intent, her smile faded. Her eyes turned dark and she pulls her hands out, a solid-red flame levitating on the palms of her hands. The more her eyes and the birthmark on her face glowed the more serious she got.
"This is," Kirishima, who was watching this all unfold at the second floor. "-this is Akimoto's power!" His heart racing at the fight below them, though it wasn't much of a fight, more on Eli being a badder bitch than Bakugou. Kirishima wished he brought a bucket of popcorn if he knew it was gonna get this serious.
"Tch. Don't think you're so high and mighty," He huffs out, running fast again towards the orange-haired beauty in front of him. "Come at me with all you've got!!!"
Eli controlled the bright red flames that were now circling around her, she crosses her arms on top her chest like a 'wakanda forever' pose, causing the flames to narrow their circling motion. She breaks the cross and the flames followed, dividing into five balls of blinding hot blaze. She twists her body to face her left and shoots out two of the balls out of her right hand at the enraged Katsuki.
This happened in under three seconds.
Katsuki, who was expecting that long-ranged attack, jumps and twists his whole body midair, successfully dodging the balls of fire. "Tch." He clicks his tongue in amusement as he continues to lunge at the serious Eli. Landing both feet at the cement, he charged towards the female.
Eli catches on, another bitter smirk pulling at the corner of her lip. "You really think I'd overlook that?" She gives out a menacing laugh as the flames behind Katsuki followed behind him.
His eyes wider than before as he took a quick glance behind him, Eli wasn't lying. But once he looks back to where his body was facing, she was gone again, together with the red flames. Katsuki landed on his foot, perfectly this time. He swiveled around quickly and was met with a strong and heated punch, causing the skin on Katsuki's cheek to burn and sting.
Eli was giving atleast 15% in this fight. She hasn't even used her normal moves she would use against fire users.
The opponent of Eli felt a tear building up on his eyes out of pain and the burning feeling on his fair skin. "Damn it! Shitty Tangerine." He growled out trying his best to get close to her body.
He lets out a loud war cry and lunges to his partner. Eli winced as the male suddenly grabs her neck with full force, making the flames she was controlling vanish in thin air and felt her throat tighten because of Bakugou's grip.
Bakugou successfully predicted where Akimoto would move to.
Eli's back was now on the hard concrete. Her heart racing and breathing technique jagged and harsh. Katsuki was choking her, he wasn't holding back. Their bodies on top of each other, the temperature in the air around them rising even more. With the ash-blonde's free left hand on the side of her face, his legs trapping her underneath him, and faces practically shoved on each other, Eli knew this was his true identity. The Bakugou Katsuki that topped the entrance exams, the pride of Class 1-A.
Eli released a forced tch in front of the male's face that was just centimeters away from hers. "You want... your quirk," Tears builded up in her right eye. Her breaths quick and pressured due to the heavy male that was on top of her, "-fine, I'll give you your quirk back." She croaks out. Akimoto places a free hand on Katsuki's chest and mimics his explosion. Making him bounce away, but failed as he was a second too late from Eli's version of an explosion.
Class 1-A takes in what had happened. In their point of view, Eli was just appearing from point to point whenever Bakugou would try to lunge and charge at her. The punch that Akimoto landed made half of the class wince as if they were her opponent. Everyone aware that it had been just three minutes after the start signal.
The extremely high temperature was felt by everyone in the gym. Fortunately, the huge burst of flame and smoke wasn't facing the class, which Eli had to make sure.
Eli anticipated every move and thought about what outcome would happen if she used a specific ability. In her mind, she didn't want to make a mess and hurt her other classmates, every move she makes was well thought-out to make sure no huge damages can be done.
But now, the top one student of Class 1-A was lying on the ground, trying his best to prop his body up, but felt his stomach and arms ache because of the massive explosion.
"This isn't..." He paused for a cough.
Eli started to walk over to the lying-down Katsuki.
"This fight isn't over!" He roared, his voice cracking at the end.
Eli stopped in her tracks. Using her right hand, she snapped her fingers and a small flame sets off, Eli immediately manipulating it into a bigger one. Akimoto choosing to give her partner his quirk back so that she may get atleast a good fight out. But nevertheless, she still plans on winning. Beating the top one student of the Hero course would do good things for her.
"Then fight." Her voice low and clear, the sweetness in her voice changed into a serious and deep tone. Like she wants Katsuki to fight her with all the power he has.
The male glared at her, not giving up, not even a thought of it came in his mind.
"Is this how strong and powerful Class 1-A's top student is?"
The class yelled a confused and baffled "Ehh?!" at what the new student had proposed.
"She didn't just..."
"Did she threaten Bakugou?"
"Scary! I can't watch!" The voices of Bakugou's and Akimoto's classmates exclaimed as they stare at the brewing rivalry below them.
It wasn't Akimoto's intention to make him her rival, heck, she wanted him to be her friend. At most, she just wanted to make sure Katsuki would give his all, not holding back to the new girl. Driving him to the edge, stealing his quirk, and giving him a punch was planned in her head to test him.
Bakugou, however, wanted to make the human Tangerine believe that the best student of Class 1-A was strong enough for her. To make sure that she was way out of his league. His consciousness grateful for what Akimoto had said back there. Indeed, driving him to the edge and taunting him was the best choice to make him give his all.
And thus, round two began.