19

Chapter 19: Thunderdome

Chapter Text

The second round of the festival began with a bang—well, two bangs actually. The first was, of course, the starting pistol that announced the beginning of the game. The second was Bakugo, using his quirk to launch himself across the arena towards the throne.

"That throne is mine!" Bakugo howled, heedless of the teammates blasted with dust and hot wind from the backdraft.

"Son of a…" Midoriya cursed as he wiped the dirt from his face, "damn it Kacchan, we talked about this!"

"Your friend is a raging asshole," Tsuburaba said to Kirishima, "how can you stand him?"

Kirishima shrugged, "He's not actually that bad of a guy once you get past…everything. He complained about it, but he took the time to tutor me for the last test when I asked for help."

"Kacchan tutored you?" Midoriya asked with raised eyebrows. "He's never tutored anybody before."

"Hey guys, this character study of our illustrious leader is fascinating and all," Kendo interrupted, "but can we keep our heads in the game?" She pointed to Bakugo in the middle of a brawl with 3 other people at the same time.

"Oh," Tsuburaba said. "Right. This is happening."

"Thanks Kendo," Midoriya said. "Does everyone remember their assignments?"

Shiozaki nodded, "Tsuburaba, Hatsume and I will cover the north side."

Tsuburaba grinned and rubbed his chin. "They've got another thing coming if they plan on sneaking past with any ranged attacks."

Hatsume cackled as she patted the bulky bag strapped to her back. "And I've got few surprises in store for them when they close in."

Midoriya shifted his gaze over to his other teammates, "The rest of you are with me in the south side. Don't let yourselves get separated, and be aware of each other at all times, we don't want any friendly fire mucking things up," Midoriya ignited One for All and nodded once. "Let's go."

XXX

HEROES NEVER DIE

XXX

It had only been fifteen seconds at most since the round started, but Bakugo was barely hanging on. He was confident that in a one-on-one fight with anyone in the arena—and outside of it too, for that matter—he would win. However, he wasn't in a one-on-one fight, and it seemed as if his opponents were not above cooperating in order to take him down. He was still holding his own for now, but he needed backup, urgently.

Bakugo grunted as he unleashed a blast towards Tokoyami's Dark Shadow, the flash of light forcing the nigh-invincible shadow being to halt its assault for a moment. "Get your Peter Pan bullshit out of my face, birdbrain!" Whatever reply Tokoyami might have had was drowned out by the whistling of Iida's leg moving at blistering speed towards Bakugo's head. "Shit," Bakugo cursed as he ducked and rolled out of the way of the jet-powered kick before snapping Iida's head back with a jab, "where the fuck are those losers?"

A strip of tape from Sero came flying towards his crown, forcing Bakugo to weave between it and a laser blast from Aoyama in a specific direction, and his red eyes widened as a familiar muscular tail rapidly filled his vision. 'Son of a bitch! Tail-boy read my dodge; I can't avoid it!' Bakugo clenched his teeth and braced for the blow, when his backup finally arrived in a blur of green.

"Don't call your teammates losers, Kacchan," Green sparks flew wildly off of his body as Midoriya chided his longtime rival, "It's bad for morale."

"Fuck your morale!" Bakugo retorted, "where the fuck were you assholes?"

"Charging in here like a crazy person wasn't part of the plan Kacchan," Midoriya replied. "We had to readjust."

"Let me go!" Ojiro growled, trying to yank his tail out of Midoriya's iron grip with little success.

Midoriya grinned wickedly and tightened his hold on the tail. "As you wish," he said, letting out a grunt as he hurled Ojiro into a short, somewhat chubby boy from Iida's team. Midoriya didn't get a moment to rest, and reinforced his forearms with OFA to block a shockingly powerful kick from Ashido before yanking her headband off and front kicking her away from him. Quick as lightning, he dashed towards the two downed and disoriented boys and yanked off their headbands. On the electronic scoreboard behind the judge's stand, three points were added to the tally next to Midoriya's name.

"Anyways," Midoriya continued, tossing the headbands over his shoulder, "this isn't the time for you to be a lone wolf, Kacchan. We're a team, and you're supposed to be the leader, so start acting like it and work with us!"

"Goddamn it," Bakugo swore and sidestepped another laser blast from Aoyama, "I am trying to lead, you dumbass, how is it my fault if you stupid fucks won't follow me? Do you assholes need me to spell everything out for you?" Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a blur of movement, and he had to bend backwards sharply at the waist to narrowly avoid an attempt from Jirou to snag his crown with her earphone jacks. 'That was fucking close! Deku wasn't kidding about Dangle-ears' quirk, I almost missed that!'

"No," Midoriya replied, stepping away from a powerful attack from Satou. Reinforcing his fingers with One for All, he poked him hard in a major nerve cluster in his chest, clouding over the larger boy's face with agony. Before Satou could shake off the pain, Midoriya ripped his headband off. "But a little communication works wonders."

'Was that a nerve strike?' Bakugo raised an eyebrow at the technique his rival had just used. 'Figures that fucking nerd would learn something as pointless as that…what's the point of giving someone a love tap when you can just blow them the fuck away?'

Biting back an acerbic response to Midoriya's criticism, the blond bomber glanced around the arena and saw his team scattered about in the chaos, separated from each other despite their best efforts. The members of the team who were stronger in combat were holding their own—if barely—as they struggled to make their way to the throne, but the weaker members stood no chance against the more consolidated forces of the other teams. Mei and Shiozaki already waiting in their starting zone, and Kendo was caught in some kind of glue-like substance, only moments away from getting her headband stolen.

'Son of a bitch…even if I take the throne right now, I can't fight once I'm sitting there…I can't even resist, and there's no way Deku can protect both his headband and my crown without backup.' With one last glance at the throne—empty and tantalizingly within reach—Bakugo scowled and made his decision. "Fine…Deku, we're falling back to regroup. You go get Carrot Top while I bail out Hair-for-brains. We'll just have to take the throne from whoever gets it in the meantime. And next time I go in, fucking follow me!"

"Understood, see you at the starting zone," Midoriya replied, reflexively biting back any words of praise for Bakugo's decision. 'Any positive reinforcement from me will just twinge his pride and have the opposite effect, best keep quiet.'

The temperature in the area dropped. "Giving up so soon, Midoriya?" A cool voice inquired, freezing both Bakugo and Midoriya in place as surely as if they had been encased by the ice coating the concrete floor surrounding the throne and forming into barriers. "I guess all of that big talk of yours was exactly that…talk. I guess you and what's-his-name have more in common than I thought."

The sound of grinding teeth could be heard over the chaos of the fighting teams. Midoriya slowly turned towards Bakugo and his heart dropped at the thunderous expression on his face. It seemed that Todoroki's barb had struck several nerves. 'Oh, shit.'

"The fuck did you just say, you piece of shit?"

"Kacchan," Midoriya said in a calm, but insistent tone, "ignore him. He's trying to provoke you and waste our time."

"He needs to die," Bakugo declared, whirling around with sparks dancing upon his palms. He took a step towards Todoroki, steam pouring off of his body from the temperature differential.

"Kacchan!" Midoriya barked, he roughly grabbed Bakugo by the arm, "Use your eyes for a second and assess the situation!"

Bakugo glared at Midoriya, but paused in his approach. With the exception of Ashido—who had recovered her headband and was now waiting in her team's starting zone—all of Todoroki's teammates had made their way to the central throne area. 'Wait, that's not right, one's missing. Where's the shark-tooth girl?'

"Kacchan, your crown!" Midoriya cried, darting forward only to feel his own headband get yanked off from behind. 'What the—?'

"Wha—?" Bakugo's eyes widened and he turned just in time to see a floating, disembodied hand neatly pluck the red circlet off of his head.

"Wow," a feminine voice chuckled from behind them, prompting the two boys to spin around once more to see a girl's floating torso reassemble itself in a whirlwind of flying body parts. Tokage Setsuna flashed a smile full of sharp teeth and tossed the crown to the corner of the yard with a dismissive motion. "I have to say, after all of the rumors about you two—number one and two in the entrance exam; highest test scores since All Might—I'm a little disappointed. This was just too easy."

"Son of a bitch!"

Tokage let out a hearty laugh at the steady stream of curses which flowed from Bakugo as he launched himself towards his crown with an explosive leap. "What a potty mouth," she snickered while Todoroki took his place upon the throne. On the massive television screens throughout the arena, his picture appeared along with a timer.

"And just like that, the first major development of this match! King Bakugo has been sent to the starting zone, and King Todoroki becomes the first to hold to throne, putting him and his team in first place!"

As Midoriya moved to pick up his own headband, he shot a glance at Tokage, cocking his head with interest. "What a fascinating quirk," he remarked in a neutral tone, "you didn't use it during the race, either, that was well played. Mind if I ask you some questions about it later?"

Tokage quirked an eyebrow at Midoriya's casual attitude regarding this development. "You're awfully relaxed for someone who just got 'killed'." She grinned and shot Midoriya a wink. "I know I'm super-hot and everything, but are you sure that now's the time for you to be hitting on girls?"

"The only hitting that I'm planning on doing in the immediate future is with my fists," Midoriya countered, "or possibly my feet. I share a class with Ashido Mina, if you want to fluster me, you'll have to try harder than that."

"You're no fun," Tokage pouted. Midoriya smiled and sprinted back to the starting zone with a crackle of green sparks. She blinked, "Woah, he's really fast…how did he not place higher in the race?"

XXX

HEROES NEVER DIE

XXX

Midoriya hated to admit it, but the more accustomed he became to combat, the more he was beginning to understand how powerful he really was, and at the same time, how Bakugo's ego had become so horribly inflated. It felt good to be strong, to look at an opponent and know that not only could he defeat them, he very likely would.

True, a large percentage of the gap between Midoriya and the rest of field was based on experience. With the exception of a few, there was a hesitance in their motions, a tiny moment lasting less than a tenth of a second where they had to struggle against a lifetime of social programming forbidding them from using their quirks in a fight. They were still unsure of themselves, wary of their power, afraid of hurting someone. Even Class 1-A, whose trials at the USJ had given them a taste of the dangers of the real world, paled in comparison to Midoriya. Their ordeal had been over in a matter of minutes, while Midoriya had been living on the edge of death for most of his life.

Regardless, putting aside his experiences and even the schemes and contingencies he was so proud of—Midoriya was, quite simply, better than the vast majority of his competition on a purely physical level. He couldn't compete with specialists like Iida in speed, or Satou in strength yet—but even at a mere fraction of its potential, the combined, crystallized strength of eight prior generations put him head and shoulders above most of the competition.

Competition such as the person currently attacking him:

"Damn it! Stay still!" Awase Yosetsu cursed, 'I just need one hand on him, just a touch and he's mine.' Considering that his powers consisted of sticking things together, the whole 'no sticking your headband/crown to yourself' rule was a major bummer for him, but he didn't let it get him down—even without that, he was one of the most dangerous people in this game. With just one touch, he could fuse an opponent's feet with the ground and take them out of the game for good.

Not that it was doing him much good against Midoriya—it was like fighting a ghost. Hundreds of hours of yoga and agility drills were paying dividends as Midoriya used his flexibility and footwork to slip, sway and float away from the grasping hands of his opponent with graceful ease. Dodging another swipe from Awase, Midoriya tripped him, moving so suddenly that his foe couldn't hope to react in time, snatched his headband and moved on to assist Kirishima, who had gotten bogged down in an all-out slug match with Tetsutetsu. Midoriya shook his head with a sigh as the two defense specialists traded powerful blows whose sounds echoed throughout the arena.

In the heat of the moment, it seemed that both had forgotten that knocking each other unconscious wasn't the point of the exercise. 'No matter,' Midoriya thought, dancing and dodging the various attacks haphazardly being thrown around in the chaos, 'that's what I'm here for.' He reached the two brawling students and plucked the headband from a completely clueless Tetsutetsu with a simple motion. Both boys turned and stared at Midoriya with identically shocked and slightly offended expressions.

"Shouldn't you be getting back to your zone?" Midoriya held up Tetsutetsu's headband and waved it a bit before tossing it behind him.

"Damn it!" Tetsutetsu cried, "I'll be back to settle this, Kirishima!"

"What the hell, Midoriya?" Kirishima complained, "You interrupted our manly battle! Not cool!"

"Save your manly battle for the finals," Midoriya retorted, "we're on the clock. Go and assist Kacchan with Kaminari, you're the only one on the team who can handle his attacks without a problem. We're taking the throne."

"Nice!" Kirishima grinned, his annoyance at the interrupted battle banished by the exciting news, "let's do this! We're gonna totally rock this!"

Midoriya couldn't help but shake his head at Kirishima's bone-deep optimism and friendliness. He might not have been the optimal choice for this event, but Midoriya would be lying if he said that having Kirishima on the team wasn't good for morale. With a fond smile, Midoriya began his rush towards the throne, but his advance came to a grinding halt when a number of small metal cannisters landed near his feet and the feet of his teammates. All around him, similar cannisters were being thrown into the crowds of competitors. Looking up from the cannisters, his eyes widened at the sight of Todoroki's team slipping on identical gas masks.

"Tear gas!" He shouted, kicking the cannister away just as thick white smoke began to pour out of the small device. "Squint and keep one eye closed to keep a good eye for when it clears. Cover your mouth and nose if you can, don't breathe it in!"

Working quickly, Midoriya took off his PE shirt and tied it around his face to act as an improvised filter—it wouldn't work very well without some vinegar to neutralize the chemicals, but it was better than nothing. All around him, he could hear his teammates—as well as anyone else unfortunate to get caught up in the attack—begin to cough and choke within the noxious gas.

"What a stunning move!" Present Mic shouted, "Donning gas masks, Team Todoroki has just deployed what appears to be tear gas against the competition, giving them a formidable advantage on the field."

"That would be the work of Yaoyorozu Momo," Aizawa remarked, "Her quirk allows her to create anything, as long as she knows the chemical and mechanical structure. She's easily one of our most promising talents."

"You adapted to the situation in an instant…as expected of you, Midoriya," a muffled female voice came from the rapidly thickening mist surrounding the throne, "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that you caught on immediately…I learned the chemical formula for tear gas at your suggestion, after all."

"Happy…" Midoriya coughed and rubbed at his watering eye, "happy to be of help. I kind of wish it weren't being used against me though."

Yaoyorozu chuckled, "I bet."

In the corner of his watering eye, Midoriya saw a grey blur of motion and ducked on instinct. He felt the wind from an attack pass over his head before he was cracked in the face by the follow-up blow, filling his already impaired vision with stars and sent him staggering several steps to the side. 'If I didn't have One for All active, that might have knocked me out! What was that?'

"You know, Midoriya," Yaoyorozu said, her form briefly appearing within the swirling smoke, expertly wielding a metal staff. "I really do respect you."

"Is…is that so?" Midoriya replied with a cough, watching for any hints of attacks until he was forced to rub the tears out of his one open eye again. The moment his vision was impaired, Midoriya was struck hard in the stomach with a jab that doubled him over before he was cracked in the skull once again. 'Ow.'

"Absolutely," Yaoyorozu said, "you're intelligent, powerful and resourceful. More than that, you've never looked down on me or the other girls. As far as I can tell, you take me and the other girls just as seriously as the boys in the class."

Midoriya channeled an extra surge of power to his arm to reinforce the limb and blocked another strike aimed at the right side of his head. He swiped at the air, predicting another blow to his left only to whiff and take another thrust to the stomach. "Clearly not seriously enough," he replied with a pained grunt, letting out another cough, "or else I would have prepared better for this." He leapt backwards, just barely avoiding another blow from Yaoyorozu's staff.

"That's true," Yaoyorozu agreed, resetting her posture with a twirl of her staff and going back on the attack, "but I've learned to expect as much from boys, even the good ones." Unable to completely avoid the combinations coming from Yaoyorozu's staff, Midoriya took a glancing thrust to the forehead that set his ears ringing and forced him to reassess his current methods.

'This isn't working,' Midoriya thought, wiping his watering eye again. 'and she's not even trying to go for my headband…she's trying to break me. I didn't want to use this, but if I keep playing her game, she's going to whittle me down until I can't fight anymore. This is going to suck,' he grit his teeth in anticipation and channeled power into his left pinky. 'One for All: 100% Smash!' 

He released the energy with a flick of his pinky, directing the attack at the ground and creating gale-force winds which blew away all of the tear gas within the arena.

"What on earth?" Present Mic screeched, "The gas within the arena has been dispersed by a powerful blast of wind with Midoriya Izuku at its heart! He doesn't have a wind quirk, so how is this possible? Eraserhead!"

"That's impossible!" Yaoyorozu exclaimed, her composure shattered by the display of power, "…how is this…you've never done anything like this before!"

"It's actually very simple." Aizawa explained, "He's just that strong. He blasted the gas away with pure, brute strength. He's demonstrated a similar level of power just once before…during the entrance exam, when he obliterated a zero-point robot with a single punch…" his voice took on an irritated note to it, "it also landed him in the hospital for a week with life-threatening injuries."

"Did he really have to mention that?" Midoriya asked, clutching his hand with a pained expression. "That wasn't exactly my finest moment."

Noticing his swollen, purple finger, Yaoyorozu let out a horrified gasp. "Midoriya…your finger!"

Crackling with energy, Midoriya darted forward in a sudden explosive motion and snatched Yaoyorozu's headband off before she could react. "Don't ever let your guard down like that," he chastised Yaoyorozu before tossing the headband over his shoulder, "an injured opponent is still dangerous."

"Midoriya," Yaoyorozu grabbed his shoulder to stop him from approaching the throne, "you need to get to Recovery Girl, now."

"I appreciate the concern," Midoriya replied, knocking her hand off of his shoulder, "but you should probably worry more about yourself. We're still in the middle of the game, you know."

"Forget the game!" Yaoyorozu yelled, too concerned for the well-being of someone she considered a friend to bother picking up her headband, "Your finger wouldn't be that color without severe damage…you could lose it if you don't get medical attention, fast!"

"I'll be fine for the next 11 minutes, it's just pain," Midoriya glanced over his shoulder, freezing her in place with a piercing gaze, his eyes glowing with green fire. "And I've been through much worse pain than this, now if you'll excuse me, we have a throne to take."

…

Red-eyed and teary from the tear gas attack, Bakugo approached the throne with his team in tow, thoroughly pissed off.

"Zombie-boy is down," Bakugo tossed a white headband over his shoulder with a growl. He cracked his knuckles as he stepped over the groaning, prone form of Shinsou Hitoshi and made his way towards the seated Todoroki.

Shinsou had managed to briefly catch Kirishima with his Brainwash, but hadn't counted on Bakugo blasting Kirishima without a moment of hesitation the instant he turned around at Shinsou's order. Bakugo didn't take kindly to having his teammate being mind controlled. Also, the very idea of Shinsou's quirk turning him into a puppet made him angry, so he made sure to lay down a generous helping of physical punishment before snatching Shinsou's headband.

"Sparkplug is down." Kaminari had been surprisingly annoying to deal with—Yaoyorozu had made sure of that, creating grounding devices that protected her team from his indiscriminate attacks while still leaving the opposing teams vulnerable. In fact, it was Kirishima who actually had to handle Kaminari by tanking his electricity in his hardened form.

"Homeless girl is down—"

"Her name is Kodai! Kodai Yui! What is wrong with you?" Kendo cut in, irritated on Kodai's behalf at the horribly unflattering nickname Bakugo had bestowed upon the girl for her fighting style of throwing random objects in her pockets and enlarging them with her quirk—in this case, Kodai had thrown her spare change at Bakugo until he closed the distance and yanked off her headband.

"Don't interrupt me, Carrot Top," Bakugo shot back, "I'm trying to have a fucking moment here…now where was I? Seaweed Hair—"

"Tokage," Kendo interrupted.

"Seaweed Hair," Bakugo repeated, "is in pieces."

"How do you like my net caster, Mr. Customer!" Mei enthusiastically interjected, indicating the net slung over her shoulder like Santa's bag—except instead of presents, it was full of disassembled body parts.

"Let my body out of there you crazy-eyed nutjob!" Tokage's floating head berated Mei, "This isn't funny!"

"My adorable little baby is super helpful, right?" Mei continued, ignoring Tokage completely in favor of her pitch. "It's lightweight, collapsible, and comes with easy to load net cartridges!"

"I don't give a shit, crazy girl," Bakugo growled, "pitch your gadgets to someone who cares." He turned to Todoroki, "Anyways…you're out of allies, Half-and-half," Bakugo snatched the crown off of Todoroki's head and tossed it across the arena, "now get the fuck off of my throne."

"Don't get too comfortable," Todoroki said as he stood up to make way for Bakugo, "I'll be back in that seat in a moment."

"Don't count on it, Icy-Hot."

"After holding the throne for an impressive stretch of 1:45.32, King Todoroki has been uncrowned by King Bakugo, making him the second person to hold the throne. How long will the Red King's reign last?"

XXX

HEROES NEVER DIE

XXX

Midoriya did his best to avoid the attacks of his classmates while guarding Bakugo and the throne. Even with his Blast Shield active, the defensive technique did nothing to stop the vibrations of blows from Iida's kicks, Tokoyami's Dark Shadow, or Ojiro's tail from rattling his shattered finger, sending waves of agony coursing through him. He glanced at the electronic screen displaying the timer to see how long they'd held the throne so far and his already ashen face went even paler.

'It's only been 18 seconds?' Midoriya took a deep breath and forced himself to smile. With the exception of Tsuburaba, Shiozaki, and maybe Mei, his team's composition was offensively lopsided. There was very little that they could do to discourage the other teams from attacking them.

"Behind you, Deku!" Bakugo barked, twitching anxiously upon the throne, clearly struggling with his inability to participate in the fight.

Responding instantly to Bakugo's callout, Midoriya spun around and knocked away an attempted sneak attack from Hagakure with a circular block from Tai Chi before completing the motion with a powerful palm strike that smacked the invisible girl squarely in a very sensitive part of her anatomy, making her cry out in pain.

Bakugo began to laugh uproariously. "Holy shit, Deku! You just punched the see-through nudist in the fucking tit!"

"That was a palm strike," Midoriya corrected Bakugo, "not a punch."

"OW! What the hell, Midoriya?" Hagakure yelled, her eyes watering from the pain, "You don't do that to a girl!"

"Sorry," Midoriya apologized—he felt bad, but not bad enough to not take advantage of her debilitated state and snatched her headband. "Didn't mean to hit you there, but this is a fight, stuff like that happens. Also, I'm pretty sure I saw you kick Satou in the groin like 10 seconds ago."

"Crap, watch out! The girl with the ears got me, she's coming through!" Tsuburaba cried, returning Midoriya and Bakugo's attention to the battlefield at large just in the nick of time for Midoriya to jump into the path of Jirou's Earphone Jack and knock it off course before it could remove Bakugo's crown. Midoriya flinched as the small, yet powerful cord of flesh sliced a thin line across his cheek, making it bleed.

"Wow Midoriya, color me shocked," Jirou said with a smirk, "I might have expected that kind of thing from Mineta, but you definitely didn't seem the type to molest your classmates. Was that the first time you touched a boob before?"

Midoriya fought the urge to roll his eyes as he stepped out of the way of Asui's tongue striking at his headband from behind Jirou. "You ladies need to find a new tactic, you're like the third person to try and fluster me as a distraction. It's getting old."

"Well, it was worth a shot," Jirou shrugged before dashing to the side and lashing out at Midoriya with her Earphone Jacks, coordinating her assault with Asui to keep him on the defensive.

"Uh, Kendo?" Midoriya called out to his closest teammate, sweating as he dodged the quick, accurate attacks from the two girls by the skin of his teeth. "A little help, please?"

"I've got my hands a little full here!" Kendo shouted back, swinging her enormous fists, desperately trying to hold off Tokoyami while simultaneously dealing with a number of birds divebombing her head under Kouda's orders. "Get someone else to help!"

"Kirishima?" Midoriya called out, knocking away a tongue strike with a fist.

"Sorry Midoriya!" Kirishima called out from the sidelines, "My headband just seemed to come off on its own…it floated right off of my head! I think someone might be telekinetic!"

"Must have been Yanagi Reiko," Tsuburaba shouted to the team from the starting zone as well. "She can move things with her mind!"

"Crap," Midoriya muttered, executing a roll in order to dodge another coordinated attack. 'This is bad.' He thought, 'They're getting used to my movements. I can't keep dodging, but I also can't attack without backup…the moment I move on one of them, the other will snatch the crown from Kacchan.'

"Got you!" Iida cried, snatching the headband off of Midoriya in a blur of motion while he was busy defending himself from Asui and Jirou. "It pains me to resort to underhanded methods like this," Iida said as he handed Midoriya his headband, "but time is of the essence. Consider it as proof of my respect for you as a combatant."

"No hard feelings," Midoriya replied before heading back to his starting zone. "I'd do the same."

Iida nodded before turning to Bakugo and removing the crown from his head. "I believe that it is my turn to hold the throne now."

Bakugo scowled.

XXX

HEROES NEVER DIE

XXX

It was nearly ten minutes into the second event. The holder of the throne had changed nearly a dozen times already, and so far every team had held it at least once, though Bakugo and Todoroki's teams held a commanding lead over the others.

Team Todoroki had excellent defenses: between Todoroki's ice, Ashido's Acid, and Yaoyorozu's sheer versatility, approaching the throne while they held it was a difficult and risky proposition and every time they had taken the throne, it remained in their possession for nearly a minute or more. Luckily, every other team was aware of this and collectively decided that it was in their best interest to ensure that Todoroki stayed as far away from the throne as possible. Anyone wearing a white headband was very often the target of a dogpile.

Team Bakugo, on the other hand, was pure offensive power. While their other teammates were extremely helpful, as long as the powerhouse trio of Midoriya, Kirishima and Bakugo were on the field, they easily smashed through any defensive strategy that the other teams could devise, and had seized the throne more times than any other team combined. Unfortunately, their lopsided team balance made holding the throne a difficult task—they had yet to hold the throne for longer than 30 seconds. 

For his part, Bakugo had officially had enough of people's shit. Not only had first-place finish in the race been treated like an afterthought, not only did he feel the need to swallow his pride and take Midoriya as a teammate—and boy, did that sting—but he had spent the entire day being insulted, downplayed, and overlooked by the competition. He was the king, and yet here he was, surrounded by incompetents who couldn't protect one measly crown, forcing him to have to repeatedly break through a crowd of nobodies to take the throne back from some heterochromatic douche who thought that he was better than him.

'He's not better than me,' Bakugo thought, not sparing an insect-like boy a second glance as he blasted dirt into his face and ripped off his headband. 'He's just a half-assed loser who wastes his talent.'

"Typical arrogance coming from a 1-A member," Monoma Neito stepped into Bakugo's path and leveled a disdainful gaze at him. "You didn't even take Kamakiri's headband before moving forward. No wonder you got caught off guard by Tokage so easily."

Bakugo didn't say a word. He merely dashed towards Monoma and swung an explosive punch, only to be stopped by a transparent barrier. "The fuck? That's the fish-eyed baldy's quirk."

"Tsuburaba," Monoma scoffed, "his name is Tsuburaba, and he's on your team. Did fighting a couple of low-rent villains at the USJ swell your head so much that you can't even remember your teammate's names?" Bakugo's eye began to twitch, "Come to think of it," Monoma continued with a smirk, "that wasn't the first time you were attacked by a villain, was it? You were pretty famous from that Sludge Villain incident before you even got here…as the damsel in distress. Isn't that right, Mr. Victim?"

"Don't…" Bakugo snarled, smashing one explosive attack after another into the barrier.

Monoma smirked as he renewed the barrier with another burst of air. "It seems like you're incapable of learning. You aren't going to lay a finger on me!"

Bakugo continued his assault, and cracks began to appear in the transparent shield faster than Monoma could repair them. "Don't you dare…"

A nervous bead of sweat dripped down Monoma's face as he continued to try and maintain his barrier. He took a step back, trying to increase the distance between himself and his homicidally furious opponent.

"Don't you dare fuck with me!" Bakugo roared, shattering Monoma's shield with an explosive strike and he stepped right into Monoma's face.

"All right," Monoma said, "I realize now that I might have been a little rude, but let's not do anything drastic, okay?"

Bakugo placed a palm on Monoma's chest. "Die," he growled softly, ripping of Monoma's headband and unleashing a point-blank blast that sent him flying through the air. Monoma squeezed his eyes tight and braced for impact, only to collide with something surprisingly soft.

"Thanks for catching me," Monoma thanked his rescuer, and sighed with relief. When he stuck out a hand to push himself to his feet, instead of meeting hard ground, his hand was greeted by an unfamiliar, but incredibly pleasant sensation—soft, supple, and yet firm at the same time. 'Huh? What is this?' Unsure of what was in his hands, he gave the mystery substance a squeeze and heard a gasp. His eyes shot open at the sound and saw that he had grabbed a handful of Uraraka's chest…and was still squeezing it.

"Oh…" Monoma said in a faint, vacant voice, squeezing one last time for good measure. His eyes widened when his brain finally caught up to the situation. "OH!" He scampered off of Uraraka as quickly as he could. "I, uh…sorry?"

Uraraka's face was beet red as she pulled herself to her feet and brushed the dust off of her pants. "Monoma," she said in a low, falsely cheerful voice that filled him with dread, "it was pretty obvious that your personality is kinda twisted, but I didn't expect you to have this sort of hobby." She smiled at him. "I trust you know what's coming next?"

"I didn't…" Monoma stammered, "I mean I don't…I…" he sighed in resignation. "Please be gentle."

"No." Uraraka bluntly replied. She slapped Monoma across the face with all of her strength before picking him up and hurling his weightless body out of the arena at high speed.

"Somebody catch me!" Monoma shouted, shrieking in terror during the entirety of his flight until he crashed into Cementoss. "Thanks," Monoma mumbled to a chuckling Cementoss before grabbing the hero's blocky hand like a lifeline and gazing at him with a look of desperation in his eyes. "Say, uh, sensei…you don't think there's any chance the cameras missed that just now, right?"

Cementoss had to avert his gaze to keep from laughing out loud. Feeling awkward, he patted Monoma on the shoulder. "…You should probably collect your headband and get back to your starting zone."

Monoma sighed and climbed down from the judges chair, making sure to catch Asui's gaze and give her a quick nod before ducking his head to hide the triumphant smirk on his face.

XXX

HEROES NEVER DIE

XXX

For once, Bakugo and Todoroki were on the same page—each had an identical look of shock on their faces as they watched Asui pull herself to the ground from her position floating above them with a flick of her tongue and tossed the red and white crowns in her hands in opposite directions. Just moments before, they had been battling furiously for possession of the empty throne. Though it had been in Todoroki's possession moments before, he'd learned early on that once Bakugo broke through their defensive line, the best move was to leave the throne—thereby pausing the timer—and join the fight rather than practically ensuring a trip back to the starting zone along with a 30 second penalty.

"I'm not sure why you're so surprised," Asui croaked, settling herself on the throne. "If anyone should be shocked, it's me. I can't believe that worked on you two…then again," she raised a finger to her lip thoughtfully, "nobody ever expects an attack from above. Not sure why, flying quirks aren't all that rare, especially in the hero business."

"Deku," Bakugo barked to Midoriya as he ran for his crown, "Frog kid isn't important right now, you know what to do!"

Midoriya nodded, he could easily take the throne from Asui in his current position, but there was no need to—they were in second place with nearly three minutes left in the round and they had an almost two-minute lead on Team Asui. In order for Asui to take their position, they would have to hold the throne for a longer single period than any team had managed as of yet.

Right now, his priority was grabbing as many headbands as possible from the remaining members of Team Todoroki to keep them staggered and unable to form a proper attack on the throne. Just as he turned away from the throne to go after Yaoyorozu—in his mind, the biggest threat after Todoroki—Asui spoke up.

"Bad move Midoriya," Asui said, "you underestimated us. You should have taken me out when you had the chance. Monoma."

Monoma grinned at the sound of his name and placed his hands on the concrete floor. "One victory, coming right up."

Midoriya's jaw dropped along with the rest of his fellow contestants when the concrete platform that the throne sat upon began to ripple and flow like water before forming into a concrete shell several meters thick. "No way, that quirk…" Midoriya said, his mind racing, "that quirk belongs to—"

"Cementoss!" Present Mic cried, "Somehow, Class 1-B's Monoma Neito has managed to copy Cementoss's quirk and used it to seal away the throne behind a thick wall of concrete! It's going to be very difficult for the other teams to retake the throne now!"

"It must have happened when he was nearly thrown out of the arena," Aizawa mused, "it seemed natural enough at the time, but now I wonder how much of that was planned in advance."

"Yeah," Uraraka agreed as Jirou relayed Aizawa's commentary to the team, glaring at Monoma from inside the dimly lit concrete bunker. The only source of illumination inside the shell was a tiny flashlight that Mineta had been carrying for some reason. "How much of that was planned?"

 Monoma winced under the glare of the normally cheery girl—his cheek was still red and tender from her full force slap. "I don't know how many times I have to say it, I'm sorry. I know I said I'd find a way to make it look natural, but I didn't mean to grope you," he insisted, his typical smugness completely absent from his tone. "I'm not some kind of pervert or sexual harasser! I want to be a hero, remember?"

"You say that as if those two things are mutually exclusive," Jirou said, leveling a pointed glance at Mineta, who was sporting an identical handprint on his face after he attempted to take advantage of the brief moment when the team was enveloped in total darkness to grope Uraraka as well.

"It wasn't fair that only he got to touch Uraraka's incredible boobs," Mineta complained from his position pinned beneath Shishida's knee. "As a guy, I had no choice but to do it!"

"It would behoove you to remain taciturn, you degenerate," Shishida growled, his vocabulary in stark contrast to his animalistic appearance. He pressed Mineta into the ground a little harder, driving the air from the small boy's lungs. "You should be ashamed of yourself. Reflect on your actions and refrain from projecting your moral deficiencies onto the rest of us before you make me angrier than I already am…am I clear?"

"Crystal," Mineta wheezed.

XXX

HEROES NEVER DIE

XXX

"Goddammit!" Bakugo swore with clear frustration in his voice as he attacked the concrete shell encasing Team Asui and the throne with blast after blast. He—and every heavy hitter from the other teams as well—had been at it for nearly two minutes, but the concrete simply reformed as fast as they could put a dent in it. The only person who had been able to break through was Honenuki Juzo from Iida's team, but he was quickly sent packing after learning that fighting Shishida—whose superhuman senses made fighting in the dark a non-issue—in an enclosed space was a horrifically bad idea. 

"Give it a rest Kacchan," Midoriya sighed, "we aren't getting anywhere by doing this, you're just tiring yourself out."

"You want me to just give up?" Bakugo shouted, bristling at the suggestion. "They just overtook our score, you dumbass! If we don't get in there and take the throne in the next 15 seconds, we're out of the finals!"

"Not necessarily," Midoriya said, pointing at the section of the scoreboard that was keeping track of eliminations. He currently held first by a large margin, with 30 eliminations to Tokoyami's 25. Bakugo was currently tied for 5th with 20 eliminations. "You're fortunate, even with all the time you spent sitting on the throne, you only need 4 more eliminations in the next minute to make it into the finals."

Bakugo clenched his fists, "I don't want to win like that!" He growled, "I want an undisputed victory!"

"Whatever you want," Midoriya replied with a shrug, "I guess you don't care about our promise to meet in the finals after all." Bakugo stiffened. "We might have our problems," Midoriya continued, "but I've never taken you as the kind of guy who'd break a promise."

For a brief moment, Bakugo could do nothing but tremble at Midoriya's words, grinding his teeth. "AAARGH!" He finally screamed into the sky in helpless fury. "FUCK!" With an explosive powered leap, he propelled himself towards a group of enemies like a bat out of hell.

Midoriya grinned and followed after Bakugo with a burst of speed to back the volatile boy up. After everything Bakugo had put him through over the years, it felt strange to put so much effort into helping him get to the next stage. Beyond the personal issues, it didn't make any sense from a rational standpoint—the development with Monoma copying Cementoss's powers had been a gift-wrapped chance. Yes, at the moment, Midoriya and Bakugo were on the same team, but at the end of the day, Midoriya wanted to win, and Bakugo was a formidable opponent.

The most logical, optimal course of action would have been to encourage Bakugo to waste his time attacking the concrete dome so Midoriya could move onto the next round without a major obstacle to his eventual victory. Midoriya was a practical person, a firm believer that the best victories were the ones achieved without a single punch being thrown, so why help Bakugo? Because he made a promise?

'No,' Midoriya shook his head, 'that's not it.' Promises held little sway over Midoriya—he avoided breaking them if he could help it, but if he judged keeping it more trouble than it was worth, he wouldn't hesitate.

While musing over his strange desire, Midoriya ripped the headband off of an opponent aiming for Bakugo from their blind spot and came to a realization—he simply wanted to fight him. After so many years of avoiding outright conflict with the prickly boy, Midoriya, like Bakugo, wanted to settle things, the bigger the stage, the better.

Glancing at Bakugo, Midoriya let out an amused snort at his own hypocrisy. 'Looks like he's not the only one with a childish outlook. Suddenly, a loud buzzer rang out and signaled the end of the round.

"Annnd that's time!" Present Mic announced, "What a thrilling round! With one brilliant move, Team Asui has managed a surprise turnaround and taken first place! With Team Bakugo pushed down to third, Team Asui and Team Todoroki will now be moving onto the finals! Now, let's have a look at the eliminations to see who from the losing teams will be going on without their teammates."

On the massive televisions scattered throughout the stadium, the video feed of the arena was replaced by the scores of the six teams.

1st Place: Team Asui: 04:37.32

2nd Place: Team Todoroki: 04:05.56

3rd Place: Team Bakugo: 03:45.35

4th Place: Team Iida: 01:59.34

5th Place: Team Sero: 00:19.22

6th Place: Team Tokoyami: 00:18.21

Most Eliminations:

Midoriya Izuku: 32 Eliminations

Bakugo Katsuki: 27 Eliminations

"And there we have it folks!" Present Mic announced, "Though they might have been squeezed out as a team, Midoriya Izuku and Bakugo Katsuki will be moving on to the next round. We'll be taking a break for some extracurricular events, but those of you at home better stay tuned! Coming up in just an hour is the most anticipated event of the day: the U.A. Sports Festival Finals!"

"Great," Aizawa's voice cut in, "Does this mean I can go back to sleep now?"

Present Mic sighed, "Your mic is still live."

Aizawa grinned. "I know."

…

Midoriya let out a relieved sigh. He and Bakugo had not been the only ones to realize that the chances of their team taking one of the top two slots were slim, and in the final minutes of the round, most teams had given up on taking the throne to focus on racking up as many eliminations as possible. Bakugo had barely squeaked by in the last second, beating Tokoyami by one point.

"I better get to Recovery Girl," Midoriya muttered to himself before heading in the direction of the infirmary.

"Midoriya," Todoroki's calm, cool voice called out to him, stopping him briefly in his tracks.

Midoriya let out a small groan. "What is it?" He replied, barely keeping a civil tone. "I need to get this finger looked at."

Todoroki glanced at the swollen, purple digit for a second and nodded curtly. "I'll come with you," he said.

"No offense," Midoriya replied stiffly, "but I'd rather you not."

Todoroki blinked at the swift refusal and shook his head. "Look, it's clear that you don't like me, and that's fine. Like I said, I'm not here to make friends, but there's something I want to talk to you about." Todoroki paused and shifted awkwardly, looking uncomfortable. "Something personal…please. It will only take a few minutes."

Midoriya sighed. If Todoroki was going to ask that politely, it would be incredibly petty to turn him away just because he irritated him. "…Fine," Midoriya said after a moment. "I'll listen to what you have to say…after my treatment."

AN: Well, it's been a while. Frankly, I have no excuses other than that this chapter had a lot of moving parts and I wasn't entirely sure how I wanted to proceed. Anyways, I'm back, and I plan to post the next chapter a lot sooner next time. Plus Ultra.