Chapter 14
Izuku stared at the largest screen on the wall as it displayed the current teams as they attempted to protect or capture the bomb, all the while scribbling notes into the open notebook he held in his hands.
Already, several of his classmates had finished their trials, some faster than others.
The first match had been between Team B and Team I, with Team B acting as the heroes. When the beginning of their match commenced, Todoroki had stomped a foot down immediately upon entering the building, coating everything in a layer of ice.
It was just thin enough that it froze Ojiro and Hagakure's feet to the ground, locking them in place.
By the time Ojiro had managed to smash their way out with his tail, the hero team had already located them. As they entered the room, Todoroki stomped out a fresh wave of ice, this time freezing far enough up their bodies that it caught Ojiro's tail in place.
"Todoroki really has an amazing amount of control over his quirk. I wonder why it only comes out of his right side. Maybe an odd limitation on his quirk? I wonder if something other than ice comes from his left side. Very likely fire, if the way the ice melted around him is anything to go by."
After touching the bomb, Todoroki seemed to let of a haze turned the ice around him to slush and water, freeing the villain team and making the trek out of the building much easier than when they had entered.
"Holy crap, that was awesome!" Kaminari cried out, his eyes wide in awe.
"That was so MANLY!" Kirishima screamed out. His sharp teeth were bared in excitement as he stared at the screen.
"Tch! He wouldn't be able to trap me with that cheap trick. My explosions would blow away that weak-ass ice!" Bakugou glared up at the screen, watching the four as they exited the test building on screen.
"Dude, I'm not sure any of us could beat that!" Kaminari risked his life rebutting, gesturing up at the still frozen building.
"Indeed, the amount of power put on display is quite incredible. I imagine it would be quite difficult to win without preparation against such overwhelming force." Yaoyorozu spoke up, a hand holding her chin in thought.
"The strength of his quirk isn't what's so incredible, it's his control." His mind still focused on his notes, he barely registered his own voice as the words escaped his lips.
Izuku froze his notetaking, coughing into a fist as his classmates turned their gazes on him.
"Control, ribbit? He just froze an entire building." Tsuyu asked. Her head was tilted in curiosity, a finger resting against her chin. "It looks more he just let loose his quirk than put any semblance of control into it."
"While it may not seem like it at first glance, it's a bit more obvious when you consider the fact that the only the walls, floors, and outside of the building are frozen over. While most people with an ice quirk would be able to spread the cold over surfaces like that, it would take time. For him to freeze the entire building that fast without turning the entire thing into a giant iceberg that quickly requires an amazing amount of control. Not to mention the fact that he was able to keep it from spreading over the bomb and freezing just Hagakure and Ojiro's shoes to keep them in place requires a lot of forethought. Especially since he couldn't have known precisely where they were at the time."
As Izuku spoke, he flipped between the 5 pages of notes he had already made on the Ice-User's quirk.
"I really need to pick Todoroki's brain about how he managed that."
"How I did what?"
All eyes snapped to the doors, seeing Todoroki, Mezo, Ojiro, and Hagakure enter. The red and white-haired man was in the lead, his heterochromatic eyes meeting Izuku's green.
Everyone was so enraptured by Izuku's explanation that they hadn't even noticed the doors open until Todoroki had spoken.
The man blinked when, suddenly, the wolf-man was standing right before him. His notebook was open and his pencil already aiming at the page, ready to make more notes.
"Todoroki! How did you manage to keep your ice from freezing Ojiro, Hagakure, and the bomb while just freezing their shoes?"
Todoroki blinked again when Izuku asked the question, this time more slowly.
"All Might said to not damage the bomb." His answer provided; the silent man proceeded to walk away.
"W-wait, that doesn't explain how you actually did it!" Izuku took a panicked step forward, his hand raised in a vain attempt to get the answer from Todoroki.
His shoulders slumped in dismay. His eyes drifted back to his notebook, a groan escaping his lips as he accepted that his notes would have to be left unfinished.
Before he could wallow too much, he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned, seeing Mezo standing behind him.
Izuku watched as a tentacle rose, shaping into the form of a mouth.
"I was how he did it." The greenette watch in awe as another tentacle rose, shaping into an ear. "I made an ear using my quirk to locate them by listening for Hagakure's voice."
Izuku rapidly flipped to another page in his notebook as he stared at the large man.
"You're telling me that not only can you change your arms to match other organs, but they are more sensitive than normal? How do you do that? Does it come naturally, or do you need to actively think about the change to make them more effective in action? Did you need to do a bunch of research on biology to do it? Can you taste with the mouths you make? If so, can you remove the ability to taste? How do the sensations make it back to your brain? Can you change the tasted buds that anything you eat tastes differently? I assume there is some form of neural pathways between your arms and your brain that people don't normally have…"
With Izuku successfully distracted from his previous dismay, the battle trials continued.
The following matches were exciting to watch for Izuku.
He watched Tsuyu break the lights in the building, allowing Tokoyami's quirk to swell in size as the shadows grew. This allowed them to easily defeat Kirishima and Sero, who were acting as the villains in their battle.
While Jiro's improved hearing made it easy to locate Yaoyorozu and Himiko, the creation woman's quirk allowed the villains to create fortifications that made it difficult for her and Kaminari to get anywhere close to the bomb.
The delay the new walls and traps caused allowed Himiko to come at the duo from behind, easily snaring the electricity quirk user from behind in her capture tape, before grabbing Jiro's ear jacks and wrapping the punk woman in them. Yaoyorozu swiftly came at the blonde's call, and wrapped the smaller woman in her capture tape, easily getting the victory.
The match between teams E and F seemed to have been balanced in the Hero team's victory… until a swarm of rodents came barreling down the hallway at them shortly after entering the building. Aoyama and Ashido were writhing and screaming on the ground as rats and more crawled over them. Even though they weren't biting, being buried underneath the animals was more than enough to terrify the hero team into inactivity for the time it took for the clock to run out.
Izuku had to suppress a shudder as he watched the last match, making a note to "NEVER anger Kouda with smaller animals nearby".
While Izuku had hunted many rodents and other creatures during the family camping trips, even hewasn't sure he could take on a pack of animals that large.
"Maybe stun them with a howl first? Their instincts as prey animals might force them to run away, regardless of Kouda's orders."
Izuku paused his note taking as the shivering and clearly traumatized forms of Ashido and Aoyama entered the room, Kouda hot on their heels, uttering quiet apologies over and over again. He made no effort to hide the guilt he felt for his tactics against the hero team.
When his team was called, he stowed his notebook away, ready to focus exclusively on the exercise.
As they stood outside the building, waiting for the bell announcing their permission to start, Izuku looked to his partner.
She looked up at the building wearily, a bead of sweat running down the side of her face. She was gripping the tip of one of her fingers, wringing it while making sure she kept at least one of her fingers from touching herself.
"What's wrong, Uraraka? You look nervous." He asked.
She jumped slightly, as if just realizing he was standing next to her. "W-what? Me, n-nervous? No, n-not at all!"
She put on a wobbly smile, raising one of her fists up in a thumbs up gesture.
Izuku chuckled at her forced bravery.
"It's ok to be nervous." His eyes drifted to the building in front of them. "To be honest, I'm pretty nervous too. Even with all of my training, I think this may be my first serious fight."
"What, really? But the way you fought the robots at the entrance exam, there's no way this is your first time fighting someone!" Uraraka looked at him incredulously.
Izuku scratched the back of his head sheepishly, remembering how he practically went feral once he realized he didn't need to hold back against the machines.
"W-well, I've sparred with Himiko and Tsu a bunch, but we always held back to make sure there weren't any major injuries." He dropped his arm, his gaze drifting back to the building before them. "But I doubt Ka-… Bakugou will be do the same."
"Well, yeah, but isn't that the point of this exercise? With All Might watching over us, we can go all out without the risk of hurting each other?"
Izuku knew what Uraraka meant. With the Number 1 hero watching them fight, if anything happened, he would obviously be there in the nick of time to save anyone. To stop any of his students from accidentally hurting themselves or their classmates.
…But she didn't know about All Might's time limit, nor how far his childhood friend was willing go in a fight against someone he thought weaker than himself, how far he would go against someone who stood up to him or was deemed as "Trying to show him up".
How far he was willing to go against Izuku. Against the "Dekumutt".
Izuku's mind considered how long the class had been running for. He tried to recall news reports from the morning, trying to run a tally for how much time All Might had used for today to calculate how much he could have left.
The answer left him less than assured. He realized that the Number 1 hero likely had barely enough time to finish the class for the day, so any last-second daring rescues risked pushing his body too far.
This would be the first time in years that Bakugou would be given carte blanche to not just fight, but attack Izuku since Himiko joined his school. And with All Might's time running low, he probably wouldn't be in a position to stop whatever Bakugou was likely to do.
"Even so, we need to go into this assuming he is willing to go all out on us." Izuku said resolutely.
Overhead, a 1-minute warning played from a speaker mounted above the entrance.
Izuku shook his head, doing some light stretches.
"We don't have a whole lot of time left to plan, but thankfully we don't need it to be complicated." Izuku said as he hopped from one foot to the other, limbering up.
"Does that mean you have a plan?" Uraraka asked. Her fists were pumped up in front of her, looking excited.
"Yep, we're going to split up!" He said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"S-split up?! Wouldn't it be better if we stuck together? What if Bakugou and Iida come at one of us while we're alone?" Her look of excitement revert back to her previous nervousness.
"That's not likely to happen. Knowing Bakugou, he'll come for me right out the gate, completely ignoring anything Iida suggests. And if what I've seen of Iida so far, he's likely to stay with the bomb."
"How do you know that?" Uraraka seemed to calm at his words. "I mean, we've only been classmates for a couple of days."
Izuku turned to the woman, pulling his notebook from the recess he had in the back of his suit. Since he would likely spend most of his time fighting in his transformed state, he wasn't too worried about it being damaged.
Flipping to a seemingly random page, he spoke.
"From what I've seen of Iida so far, he seems like a serious stickler for the rules. I believe he's most likely to stay next to the bomb because of the rules for this exercise. While the main goals of the heroes are to either capture the villains or touch the bomb, the villain's main objective is to protect the bomb, and since his partner isn't going to cooperate with him, he will likely default to performing the main objective. With the way the room is set up, wide open yet filled with pillars he can use as cover, it's probable he will use the default location the defend the bomb."
"How do you know Bakugou won't cooperate with Iida? The way you talk about him, it's almost like you knew him before UA."
Uraraka's question made him pause his muttering storm. Izuku looked down at his notebook, before snapping it shut.
"Something like that." He took a moment to consider his next words carefully. "We went to the same school since we were kids…"
"Woah~ So you two are childhood friends! You said he would be coming for you. Does that mean you two are some sort of rivals?"
Izuku cringed at her words. She sounded genuinely thrilled at the idea, sparkles practically flashing in her eyes.
He really didn't want to burst her bubble like this. She looked really cute when she got excited.
"I wouldn't exactly call us friends…" He failed to stifle a growl as he spoke. Something about considering the explosive blonde his "friend" seemed to set something off within him.
"Geez, what is wrong with me lately? I swear, ever since the entrance exam, somethings been-"
"BEGIN!"
"Shoot! It's time already?" Izuku started to move towards the door at a jog. He looked back towards his teammate as they neared the entrance. "Once we enter, I'm going to head directly towards the stairs, you need to head around the floor and wait until I've got Bakugou's attention. Once I've done that, you come around from the far side, and head up the stairs behind him to find the bomb. It should be on the third floor, in the center-most room."
"Got it!"
Entering the building, they immediately separated.
Izuku's hair glowed as his wolf ears appeared on top of his head, enhancing his hearing. Almost instantly he heard the door of the stairway slam open nearby.
Stifling a curse, he ran to the noise. He needed to buy Uraraka more time-
A tingle ran up Izuku's spine, and he dove to the ground rolling underneath the explosion that blasted from around the corner. As he rolled up to his feet in a practiced maneuver, he was met face to face with his longtime friend bully.
"Where do you think you're going, Dekumutt?! I hope you aren't thinking of running away!"
Bakugou Katsuki stood in the clearing smoke. His hands were poised in the air towards Izuku, sparks popping off of the palms. His grin was practically feral as he stepped forward.
"This is the perfect opportunity to show you your place. No teachers to stop me, no quirk laws to prevent me from showing just how powerful I am, and that damned cat isn't here to protect you!"
Izuku felt a drop of sweat running down his back. While he had become much better in terms of confidence since Himiko "convinced" Bakugou(or the teachers, she still wouldn't tell him what she did), to stop… bullying… him, he never forgot the years of abuse. All the scars that even his quirk couldn't heal.
While Tsu and Himiko did an amazing job filling in the gap losing his childhood best friend left, a part of him still wished he could have kept his friend. That they could still be friends.
Another part of him rankled at the idea of the loud man standing before him ever being called "friend" after all the years.
Izuku felt a snarl unconsciously bubble its way up from somewhere deep inside him.
"No teacher? You realize All Might can hear everything you say, right?" He struggled to say even that.
"Can he? I tossed that stupid ear piece long before this fight started, and I know he can't hear you with your ears transformed. So while he may be able to watch us, he can't hear a damned thing!"
Somehow, Bakugou's grin became even wider.
"If we happen to go a little too far? As far as he knows, we're just a couple of kids who got a little too excited, and we accidentally forgot to hold back."
Izuku's eyes danced between the mad blonde's expression and the large grenade shaped gauntlets he wore around his forearms. Something about them seemed to itch at the back of his mind, like there was something just on the tip of his memories, but couldn't quite recall what it was.
The sparks coming off of the man's hands grew into smaller explosions, filling the hall with smoke that framed the bomber as he prepared to pounce.
Izuku's arms glowed, fur sprouting as he engaged his partial transformation, preparing to brawl it out with Bakugou.
"Don't even think about going easy, Dekumutt! I know your strongest when you become that mangy mutt you call a transformation. I want everyone to watch as I PROVE that I'm the strongest here. To show those bitches of yours how weak you really are." The blonde seethed out.
The snarling ceased as the words registered.
"…What did you just say?" Izuku barely registered the words as they escaped his lips. Something about the way he spoke seemed off to him, but an unfamiliar feeling roiling in his gut had him too distracted as he stared at the man in front of him.
"What? That I'm the strongest in this class? That you're so weak?!" Bakugou's eyes practically glowedwith cruelty. "Or was it that I called those two animals you called friends bitches."
Izuku stood there, silently, as the roiling suddenly stilled. What he now realized was anger cooled, settling into a overwhelming need to act.
He pulled up his hood, his hair and ears popping out of openings made in the top and back of the fabric. It was designed to be loose enough to not restrict the movements of his ears, and let his wild hair fan behind him like a wild tail flowing behind him as he moved.
He pulled the hood further down as the hand grasping it shook. He crouched down onto all fours. His clawed hands scraped against the floor and his legs transformed, allowing his clawed feet to dig in as well.
He let the crouched position to pull his hood down further, shadows covering his face as the overhead lighting shone down upon him.
"Ooh, are you mad~?" Bakugou teased, sounding absolutely pleased with himself.
The blonde bent down, arms pointed behind himself. His palms turning red as they heated up.
"Don't like having those girls being called what they are? It's normal to call female animals that, didn't you know that? Nothing wrong with me calling them bitche-"
The hall flared with silver light as Izuku lunged at Bakugou, his maw wide as his lupine form reached for the enemy standing before him.
Bakugou grunted in surprise as the wolf was suddenly before him, faster than he could have expected. He was barely able to lift an arm to block the bite that could have engulfed his entire head.
Izuku slammed his jaws shut on the raised appendage, barely registering the taste of burnt caramel as his teeth crunched down. He met Bakugou's gaze as he dug into the destroyed gauntlet wedged between his teeth, and he took a deep breath in.
A pleased growl rumbled from his chest as he caught a whiff of possibly the most enticing smell he could ever remember.
The stench of fear.
Toshinori watched the screen with not a small amount of worry. While Bakugou was correct that he couldn't hear anything from their earpieces, it was naïve of him to assume the building itself was not bugged for the eventuality that students would either lose or be unable to use them.
The purpose of the students having the devices was mainly so that each team would have a means of communication with their partners.
It would also allow All Might or other teachers to communicate directly with the students in case of reprimand or further instruction meant only for a specific set of participants.
Toshinori clenched his teeth, fighting hard to make sure he kept his smile so as to not let on that anything may have been wrong to his class.
He felt his fists clench tighter, having crossed his arms to hide them to the best of his ability.
As he listened to Bakugou talk, he couldn't help but think about how familiar it sounded. How the man took pleasure in tormenting Young Midoriya.
It reminded Toshinori of him.
He briefly tore his eyes away from the monitor to glance at Midoriya's two best friends, concerned by what he saw.
If looks could kill, Young Himiko's glare would certainly have dropped the object of her ire dead faster than he could say "I AM HERE!". He had a feeling she would be doing more than glaring if she weren't clinging so tightly Young Asui, holding the smaller woman to her chest as if she were a large teddy bear.
If Toshinori hadn't been training the girl for the past two years, he would have assumed that Asui seemed calm. Yet something about her posture, the way she stood absolutely still as her eyes were fixed on the screen showing Young Midoriya and Bakugou, told him otherwise.
She was just as wired up as Young Himiko.
As he considered them, that niggling feeling in his gut, like something was very wrong, grew. He turned back to the fight as his mind returned to a little over a year and a half ago.
It was a few month's into the three's training, and Young Midoriya and Himiko had just arrived at the beach right after leaving school. On that particular day, Izuku was too excited to stop at home to change, and arrived while still wearing his school uniform.
When he had asked about Midoriya's bedraggled clothing, and clearly scuffed and scorched backpack, Himiko informed him that the boy had been subjected to bullying for most of his young life.
The Hero had found this rather hard to believe at the time, considering the dedication the greenette put into his training and the heroic spirit All Might had seen during the Sludge Villain Incident.
When Young Asui corroborated those fact a few weeks later, he started to find it hard to ignore. Especially when he looked closer.
Bruises that didn't originate from training, torn clothing that Midoriya tried hard to hide, and even the scars Toshinori caught hints of when he had worn loose clothing during the summer seasons.
He put effort into researching the schools his trainee had gone through, but even with the resources he as the number one hero had access to, nothing of note could be found.
Every teacher, student, and record found showed no evidence of Young Midoriya being bullied or being a victim of abuse of any kind.
In fact, the records showed that Midoriya had been the one to instigate several acts of abuse, leading to a few cases of property damage. The same cases didn't list exactly how he had caused the damage, simply that he was the cause of it.
At the time, he had narrowed his eyes when his grades showed a barely above-average score. He knew, even based on his limited interactions at the time, that Izuku Midoriya was far smarter than his grades implied.
It was as he watched Midoriya and Bakugou interact, that things started to slot into place.
The burn marks, the spotless record that Bakugou's background checks from before admittance into UA showed.
… The absolute malice in Bakugou's expression as he ridiculed Young Midoriya and the distain dripping from his words as he insulted Midoriya's two friends.
"Oh gods…" Toshinori's eyes widened in sudden realization.
His hand rose, but before he could press the button to call off the match, he froze as Izuku lungedforward.
The large man's grin dropped as he watch the large wolf crush down on the blonde's gauntleted arm, breaking the contraption like it was a toy, possibly breaking the arm beneath it.
Before he could move to push the button again, he felt something wrap around his arm.
He looked down, seeing a wet appendage wrapped around his wrist several times, its grip firm. He followed it back to Tsuyu Asui, still wrapped in Himiko's arms.
"I'm sorry, but please don't interfere, ribbit." Said frog girl spoke around her tongue.
"What…?" Toshinori blink in confusion.
"Izu-kins needs this." Himiko spoke with a deadly seriousness that he wasn't sure he had ever heard from the girl. "For years we've been trying to get him to stand up for himself. To fight back."
Young Himiko expression softened, as something akin to worry seemed to take over.
"He's been holding so much inside of himself all this time. If he doesn't let it out now…" Her next words were barely a whisper. "I don't know if he'll be able to bottle it back up again."
Toshinori took in her words, unable to immediately respond. He turned his gaze back to the screen showing the fight. He watch as the moment of fear fled Bakugou's expression, his free hand raising into the air as he glared at the wolf biting onto his arm.
He let his mind wonder, old memories playing as if time barely moved.
As the moment passed, he spoke. Quietly, hopefully just enough for Himiko and Asui to hear.
"…Ok. I will watch over them, but if things go too far, I will stop the fight."
From the corner of his eyes, he could barely see both girl's eyes start to tear up.
"Just how bad were things for you, Young Midoriya?"
Katsuki grit his teeth as he grunted in surprise and fear as the animal bit into his gauntlet.
He felt sweat roll down his back as the thing grinding its teeth, trying to get at his arm, growled at him.
His anger rose at the feeling. It rose even higher as he watched as the sweat he had built up before the fight started dripped from the broken mechanism, rendering it useless.
He was pissed that he hesitated for a second when the attack came at him.
He was livid when he registered that this, this MUTT dared attack him. Tried to get in HIS way of showing all these extras their place and becoming the next number one hero.
Katsuki forced himself to ignore the rumbling emanating from his opponent, traveling through his arm and shaking his entire body. He raised his free hand and aimed it at the beast.
"DIE!"
The explosion he released directly into Deku-mutt's face brought a grin to his face as it yelped in pain, releasing his arm.
He would show this bastard his place. He would prove that no one would get in his way, not even this freak of nature!
This time he was ready when his opponent rushed through the smoke. He shot into the air with a quick use of his quirk so that he would be above the wolf as it lunged forward-
Something grabbed his face, throwing him off balance and sending him down to the ground.
He let off another explosion to stop himself from slamming into the floor.
In the moment he took to reorient himself, Bakugou notice the bastard in his half-changed form. Deku's arms were covered in fur, his fingers changed so that they had claws extending from each tip.
"He must have transformed to undo the damage from the point-blank blast."
"Try and heal from this!" Katsuki brought his hands together, his wrists pressed against each other, aiming both palms down the hall at his opponent. "DIE!"
The explosion he let loose covered the corridor from wall to wall in fire and smoke.
Satisfied that Deku couldn't have dodged the blast, he prepared for a charge from his wolf form-
His eyes snapped to the side, having caught a shadow moving through the smoke as it leaped to the side. He saw Deku attached to the wall by his claws, arms and legs coiling, preparing to leap at Katsuki.
The left side of his costume was burned away, exposing that side of his chest. Enough of it was missing that the hood of his suit fell from his head, too little left to stay up.
Somehow, the fur and hair on his head barely showed any scorching, the ends of the hairs showing slight embers that smoked.
Katsuki dodged back as the greenette launched himself from the wall, claws extended. He had to contain a wince as he felt those claws scratch his cheek as the man flew past.
The blonde raised a hand to the injury, noting the blood as he pulled the appendage away.
Katsuki snarled as he turned towards the wolf-man, red eyes meeting cold, determined green.
The next few minutes were a whirlwind of fur, claws, teeth, and fire as the two battled.
Katsuki managed to get several good blasts in, but Deku kept removing the damage by using that damned transformation of his to wipe it away. Even still, the greenette was breathing deeply, showing that, even while he was healing, he was getting tired.
Bakugou himself was covered in cuts from the few times the abomination had managed to get in a few slashes with its claws.
One particularly bad wound left his leg shaking. The mutt had taken a several explosions while in his full human form, lulling Bakugou into thinking whatever unknown well of power that kept his transformation going had run out, only to be caught off guard by a full transformation while they were in close.
Katsuki had managed to parry a bite by blowing his opponent's muzzle upwards, but missed the swiping paw as it caught the side of his thigh.
Katsuki fought to keep Deku-mutt from catching on to how hard it was for him to stand. It was convenient he had been training his quirk's ability to keep his body in the air, or the next part would be difficult-
BEEP
Katsuki's eyes dropped down to his remaining gauntlet, his grin coming back in full force as he noticed the indicator light, marking it as full.
"About damned time!" He raised his arm up, meeting the mutt's gaze. "It's clear you can't beat me, so it's about time I finished this!"
"It's not about beating you."
Katsuki hesitated at those words. He grit his teeth as noticed the complete lack of fear on the other man's face.
"What's that, Deku-mutt?!"
"You say that I can't beat you? That's funny." He felt a vain on his forehead ticking when that bastard started to chuckle.
"What's so fucking FUNNY?!"
The other man stopped laughing suddenly. Katsuki felt a bead of sweat roll down his face as an eerie silence fell over them.
Suddenly, the greenette was right in front of him, barreling a punch right into his stomach.
Katsuki felt the air expel from his lunges as he was thrown back. He coughed, trying to force in a breath of air as he rolled down the corridor.
Pushing through the pain, the blonde forced himself onto hands and knees, watching as Deku stood straight, flexing the clawed hand he had hit Bakugou with.
"All this time, you thought my quirk was weak. Just a simple transformation quirk."
Katsuki felt his diaphragm shudder as he finally managed to suck in a breath.
"Did you know it also enhances my human body?"
Katsuki felt his brows scrunch up in confusion. How the hell did a transformation quirk enhance the base form?
"It doesn't do it by much. Just a slight increase to my movement speed and my senses."
Deku continued to speak as Bakugou forced himself to his feet, his hands pushing against his knees as he continued to fight for a full breath of air.
"It's why I've been using this form. Mid-way between my human and animal form. It gives me a much bigger boost, without the limitations to mobility my wolf form has. It lets me move much faster."
Katsuki flinched back as the greenette threw another fist at him, this time impacting the side of his face, throwing him back to the ground.
"It also increases my strength. Not a huge amount, mind you, but enough."
The blonde pushed himself back to his feet, snarling as he felt the side of his head throb in pain.
"That's why I laughed. You say I can't beat you.You've got it backwards."
Katsuki's fists clenched until he swore his palms would be bleeding if he weren't wearing gloves.
"It's you that can't beat me."
The snarling became a full on growl as rage bubbled up in the explosion-user's gut.
"But that's not what this is about." The mutt's gaze hardened again. "You insulted my friends. That's unacceptable."
The man-thing's last word was filled with a growl that made a part of Katsuki want to shrivel up, to huddle into a corner and wait until the monster went away.
"You think you're better than me?!" He screeched. Raising his arm again, this time making sure to raise his other hand. "I'll show you who the superior hero is!"
Katsuki felt a grin spread across his aching cheeks as he caught the look of recognition come over the other man. He swore he even saw a bit of fear as his finger hooked into the pin coming from the raised gauntlet.
Toshinori watched the screen in confusion as the blonde lifted a hand to his costume's gauntlet.
"Why is he grabbing that pin? Aren't those just to guard his arms? Aren't those just to guard his arms? Perhaps it's to help him aim? After all, it would likely be very difficult to keep a hold on grenades of that size."
He paused as the last thought occurred to him.
"Grenades. Surely they don't contain actual explosives… right? I mean, where would he get the fuel-"
Toshinori's eyes widened as realization struck him. He raced forward, a finger pressed against the button to activate the building's intercom.
"Young Bakugou, do NOT use that attack! It has not been properly vetted, and could cause severe injury or damage to the building!"
"If he thinks he's so much faster than me. ALL HE HAS TO DO IS DODGE!"
The large man froze at those words. The complete lack of hesitation. Words filled with cruelty. He wanted to hurt Young Midoriya with this attack.
Toshinori felt a throbbing in his side as he considered his next actions.
…Oh who was he kidding. He didn't have time to think about it. He would save Young Midoriya's life, even if it meant pushing his body beyond its limits.
Izuku's eyes widened as he realized why the gauntlets had been bothering him. Why the grenade shapes were so familiar to him.
Back when they were kids, before the… incident, they had been working on costumes designs for when they would become heroes. One of those designs was for gauntlets created to store Bakugou's sweat, so that he could release an incredibly large blast, meant to only be used against quirks that gave insane durability, or those that made the villains ginormous.
What the blonde was about to do wasn't just overkill, those gauntlets shouldn't have even been allowed for use before the class on costume corrections and proper use of lethal force.
"Who the heck even approved them for use at all?!"
If All Might's announcement was anything to go by, even the Number 1 hero recognized the danger.
Bakugou's words only made the worry burning in his gut even worse.
How was he supposed to dodge the blast the other man was about to unleash? He was in the middle of a hallway, no corners anywhere nearby. With them being in the center of the building, the damage was going to be immense-
Wait.
Center of the building…?
Izuku looked up, mind running calculations. His eyes widened when an idea popped into his head.
He transformed his ears back to his human ones, bringing a hand up to activate the ear piece.
"Uraraka, have you found the bomb yet?!"
"I'm in the room, but I can't get to it. Iida keeps cutting me off!"
Izuku couldn't help the grin spreading across his face.
"Get away from the center of the room, I've got an idea! When you see the signal, go all out!"
"Got it! But uh, w-what's the signal?" A tone of worry clear in the brunettes tone.
"Don't worry! You'll know…"
Izuku dropped his hand, watching Bakugou as he tensed his arms.
"Have to time this just right."
Just as Bakugou pulled the pin, Izuku transformed. As Bakugou's palm sparked, Izuku breathed in. As Bakugou released the single largest explosion he's ever seen…
Izuku howled.
The world was drowned out by noise and fire as the two forces met in the center. Before Izuku could see the results, he was blown back, everything going black as he impacted the wall behind him.
Ochako dove to the side as Iida made another pass. As she leaned against a nearby pillar to catch her breath, she watched as the speedster adjusted his path by grabbing a pillar and using that point of connection to quickly spin around and redirect himself back at her.
She let out an embarrassingly loud "EEP!" as she dove to the side again, eyes wide as the man's swinging kick passed just centimeters above her head.
Ochako groaned as she pushed herself to her feet, watching Iida circle back to the far side of the room where the bomb stood.
She had lost track of how long this fight had lasted a long time ago. Her attention was laser focused on her opponent lest he catch her off guard.
At first she thought this room would be to her advantage. Yes it was large, but it was filled to the brim with concrete pillars she was sure Iida would struggle to navigate through at the speeds he ran at.
…She was quickly disillusioned of that possibility when his first kick impacted, then broke through the concrete pillar she had been hiding behind.
It was unfortunate that he had the forethought to remove all loose objects from the room, giving her no ammunition to use against him, making the entire fight a game of high speed cat and mouse.
His attention never left her, the only moments she had away from his sight were when Iida's speed threw him to the farther edges of the room, right before he would spin and throw himself back.
Whenever she tried to make some headway towards the bomb, he always returned in just the right place at just the right time to drive her back. Any time she tried to lure him away from the bomb, and hopefully out of the room, he would return to his original position in front of the objective.
For once, that worked in her favor however, as she waited on this far side of the room, watching for Midoriya's signal.
"I really hope his plan is a good one, I'm not sure how much longer I can hold this. Hopefully his plan helped him get past Bakugou, otherwise-"
Ochako's thoughts were cut off as the center of the room exploded upwards in an immense wave of fire and destruction, blowing up and through the rest of the building.
As the dust started to clear, she saw that a hole that encompassed almost half of the entire room was created by the destruction, making her very glad she heeded his warning.
Ochako coughed, her lungs filled with dust thrown about by the explosion. She stumbled forward, fully confident that if this wasn't the signal, then nothing was.
Thankfully, she made preparations throughout the fight, and what she saw lying on the ground only made her more confident her plan would work.
Tenya was still recovering from the absolutely obnoxious level of power required to blow a hole through what must have been five stories worth of concrete, thankful that his mask came with filters that not only helped him breath while at high speeds, but also kept him from breathing in the cloud of dust filling the room.
He stood before the massive hole preparing himself for whatever nefarious plot the heroes had concocted, only to freeze in place as a form started to become clear past all the still hanging debris.
"Wait, debris-?"
As the massive shadow moved, all of the hanging rocks and broken bits of concrete floating in the air launched in his direction.
The cloud of dust was blown aside, revealing Uraraka holding a broken pillar almost four times as long as she was tall, swung to the side like some kind of over-sized baseball bat.
Tenya barely managed to bring his arms up in time to block the oncoming hail storm of concrete and other detritus.
As his eyes widened in shock at the absurdity of such a maneuver, he barely caught sight of a form float past him in his periphery.
As the multiple impacts threw him to the ground, he managed to turn just in time to see Uraraka land on the bomb.
"HERO TEAM WIIIIIIINS!"
"NOOOOOOO!" Tenya cried out in horror.
As Toshinori released the button for the intercom, he sighed in relief. He had just barely managed to stop himself from running in when he heard Midoriya speak into his earpiece.
That moment of hesitation allowed him to catch the ending of the fight on the screen, and to witness the boy not only stop Bakugou's reckless attack, but to turn it to his advantage.
He probably would have shed a proud tear, if all the stress wasn't making it difficult for him to keep his muscles inflated.
He watched as one of the few remaining cameras on the first floor caught the greenette push his way out from under a pile of rubble, his costume completely shredded from the force of the blast.
He smiled as he watched the young man shake dust from his hair.
"Young Midoriya, I swear you're going to be the death of me, one of these days."
Toshinori looked to another screen, showing the massive hole in the roof of the building.
"…Assuming Cementoss doesn't kill me first."