Chapter 23

Seeing his name on the board opposite Ochaco's, Bakugo sighed and looked for the girl.

Bakugo found her frozen as if seeing her name next to his had simply petrified him.

Bakugo shook his head and walked towards the stands, Ochaco's reaction was natural, in most superhero classes Bakugo had shown the best results, his capacity for pure destruction was clearly established since the accident of the USJ.

It was clear that fighting Bakugo in the first round felt more like punishment than just bad luck.

Once the announcement of the list of fights was made, Present Mic spoke again, UA had granted a break time for the students, during this time mini-games took place in the stadium to entertain the public and the students.

Choosing not to participate in the mini-games, Bakugo quietly sat in the seats reserved for his class while waiting for the tests to begin.

During the last tests, Bakugo had clearly abused his power, because of this he had to drink a large amount of water to encourage the creation of perspiration.

As Bakugo quietly sipped from a bottle of water, he glanced towards the girls in his class, more specifically he looked at Ochaco still dressed as a pow-pow girl.

A frown appeared on Bakugo's face as he clutched his water bottle tighter, staring at Ochaco.

'Her power is quite strong, all she needs to do is touch me to propel me out of the area... However it's her only option, in this arena where she can't use anything as a projectile, she's essentially unarmed...'

In the field, Ochaco felt a shiver run down her spine, she turned towards the source of the shiver to see Bakugo observing her with a menacing look.

Ochaco swallowed hard at Bakugo's gaze before she too tried to put on a mean look without much success.

'What is she doing ? She is sick ? It's really bad luck before the fight'

While Bakugo interpreted Ochaco's look in a strange way, the ignorant girl continued to stare at him for a few seconds with her eyebrows tilted in a strange way.

********

Eventually time resumed, the mini-games ended and Cimento started creating a gigantic pitch in the middle of the stadium.

The students gradually arrived in the stands, while Izuku and Shinso waited in their respective waiting rooms.

Bakugo being the first to arrive didn't pay much attention to the arrival of his comrades, instead he continued to consider the different methods he could use against Ochaco.

Finally Present Mic announced the start of the tournament and Izuku stepped onto the court facing Shinso.

Bakugo stared inattentively at his comrade's fight, the process was unnecessarily long and finally Izuku displayed his weak Martial Arts skills to defeat Shinso who had even weaker skills.

Bakugo sighed at Izuku's display 'Well after the internship he will really start to progress...'

The rest of the fights were boring, the only entertainment for Bakugo was the fight of Shoto who had no concept of holding back towards his comrade.

Finally, as the time for his fight drew closer and closer, Bakugo got up and calmly walked to his waiting room a little early.

As he passed his comrades, he felt their gazes follow him as he slowly left the bleachers, as he passed he received a few nods of encouragement to which he did not respond.

Finally, as he left the stands, he heard his comrades cheering Ochaco on for his fight.

"Don't worry, even though he acts like a bad guy, Bakugo is a nice guy."

"Toru is right, during the group duels at the beginning of the year, he was careful not to actually hurt us."

"don't listen to Mezo, hit him directly between the legs to win!"

Listening to these words from afar, Bakugo frowned 'why the hell do they have a favorable opinion of me? More importantly why did Denki say that at the end, he wants to die or what?'

Suddenly images of him using him as bait in front of journalists, of him stealing meat from the canteen and directly targeting him during the last ordeal replayed in his head.

"...Never mind, I guess I can forgive him for that."

A wry smile appeared on his face 'What am I, some kind of bad guy?'

Finally Bakugo walked away and headed to his waiting room, he turned on the small TV that was connected to the stadium to wait.

If Bakugo had left the stands so early it was to give Ochaco some time to decompress before their fight.

Bakugo closed his eyes for a moment while tilting his head back, 'I could just beat her, but that wouldn't mean much to me or her if I showed a power gap comparable to that of Shoto against Hanta, she will have no room for improvement...'

Bakugo suddenly smiled and stood up from his seat.

Kirishima's fight had just ended, Bakugo headed towards the arena.

"Just for today I will become a private teacher"