"A-Ah, one more th-thing. Try not to come too close to me."

I looked down at the nervous boy, twitching and fiddling as he tried to overcome his emotions. I smiled, trying to be professional so my emotions don't overcome me, "Okay. I'll be here defending."

As soon as we got the signal from All Might, Tsukiyama ran off, not wasting a single second. I stood next to the paper maché bomb, not quite sure what I should do now. Of course, I should wait for Bakugou to show up.

Bakugou would charge straight ahead, not caring about strategy or timing. Since he seemed to have something against me, it should be easy to lure him away. I need to think, and I need to prepare.

This is assuming that Tsukiyama can keep Iida away long enough for me to beat Bakugou.

The building started to shaking and rumble as Bakugou's explosions echoed throughout the empty halls. While my blood began to boil and this indescribable excitement filled me, I was also not quite sure what to expect. I rolled my eyes, but a smile was still plastered on my face.

There are two things I can do now: taunt him and draw him to me, or wait quietly and try and lure him away from the bomb.

No, if I try and lure him away, there's always a chance Iida will be able to find it. There's also no guarantee that Bakugou will charge straight at me, ignoring the bomb.

I'll taunt him.

I smiled, unable to control my excitement, clearing my throat. "What's taking so long? I always tell myself not to have high expectations. I mean, what did I expect from a weakling who only beat me because I didn't try?"

The explosions got louder as he got closer and closer to where I was. I didn't know if he could hear me, but I kept on taunting.

"This is really boring. What's taking so long, oh my gosh. I have much better things to do than waste my time like this. I think my muscles are going to atrophy-"

Straining my ears, I managed to hear something.

"I'll kill you. I'll kill you. I'LL KILL YOU!"

I laughed, making sure he heard me that time, "You're going to kill me? I doubt you could even touch me!"

This was so uncomfortable.

I was standing outside the room the bomb was in with my arms crossed, waiting for Bakugou to show up with his pathetic death threats. Sooner or later, I see him flying towards me, propelling himself forward with his quirk.

As predicted, he swung with his right arm. I dodged, then kicked his face, throwing him off course. Of course, he recovered with ease and looked at me with the biggest grin I've seen. He smirked, "You kick like a girl."

"You couldn't dodge that kick from a girl."

I took a risk. It was a calculated risk that I knew would succeed. I had a feeling Bakugou didn't care about this task, and only wanted to beat me to prove he's better than me. Of course, that would never happen. The only person that could beat me in our class is Aizawa.

I gulped and gave him the middle finger then ran past him, reaching the end of the hall. Proving me right, he ran towards me, "Stop running! I'm going to fucking KILL YOU!"

I tried to tune in with Tsukiyama, "Is everything okay? Are you keeping Iida busy?"

There was no reply.

I groaned in frustrated. I couldn't stray too far from the bomb. When Bakugou caught up to me, I disappeared behind the corner. As soon as he darted around, I pulled a lariat and knocked him to the ground. As if on instinct, he threw a blast at me. I jumped out of the way, but he still managed to hit me.

The material of my costume remained intact, but I felt the blood.

"Heh!" He smirked in accomplishment, "I'm going to beat you to a pulp!"

"Is that all you got?"

He charged at me, swinging his right arm, getting impatient. I ducked down to all fours and jumped back up, my entire body pulsing with the strength of a tiger. I headbutted him in the stomach.

He stumbled and tried to fight back, but not until I rushed up to him and jumped, whirling around and kicking his face.

Surprisingly, he grabbed my arm and sent a blast to my stomach. I sucked in a breath, hissing in pain. The little bastard aimed for the same spot, widening the damage. Instead of being upset, I was a little impressed at his accuracy.

Of course, it hurt a lot, but I think the adrenaline downplayed how bad it actually felt, because I was buzzing.

I felt alive.

I laughed, and he flinched at me a sudden reaction, "What the fuck? Have you lost your mind, you fucking animal!"

"Oh, come on! Is that it?" I taunted.

He grinned, seemingly having fun with this, "HA! Try me!"

He charged at me, and I let him come. He made a smokescreen and tried to jump over me. Before he could do anything else, I tapped and aimed my wrist and prepared myself for the backlash.

I shot a condensed pellet of air. It ripped through the smokescreen, and the entire building shook from the force. I underestimated the backlash, and I flew backwards. Bakugou dodged it, but it still knocked him over.

I stared at my wrist in awe, not quite sure what I was seeing.

Did I do that?

As soon as I changed into my costume, I used my quirk to try and condense as much air as I could. It had other features, but this is what I wanted to test the most.

But this wasn't what I was expecting...

Bakugou's head popped out, and he stared at me, "What the hell was that!"

I bluffed my way through it, "A warning."

I sprinted toward him, wanting to disable him. He blasted himself upwards, dodging my blow which caused me to skid to a stop and spin around.

"I'm going to BEAT YOU!"

He charged at me and swung another right. I blocked it but didn't realise that he'd opened his palm at the last second. Catching me off guard, he burnt my left arm. I had wrapped the hero tape around his arm and dashed around and tried to tie him up. At the last second, he used his left arm and bounced away. I grinned.

I paused, "You look just like my brother..."

He paused, confused, "What?"

I kicked off the ground, and he swung out. I flipped over him, and wrapped my legs around his neck, successfully chocking him. But then, I heard the small crackles of him building up and explosion, and I tried to move out of the way, but he grabbed my hair.

He laughed, "You fucking dumbass! Who'd so something as stupid as giving the enemy to grab onto something?"

I scoffed.

He let go of my hair with a yelp and cradled his bleeding hand, "The fuck?"

I shook my head, and sighed, not wanting to explain and give him an advantage.

I smashed my hand into the back of his neck, knocking him out before he realised what had happened. I wrapped him in the hero tape, restricting his movements even after he would eventually wake up.

Since that one was thing out of the way, I still had another problem.

Tsukiyama was refusing to cooperate and tell me his whereabouts.

"Hello? Tsukiyama? Do you have Iida, or not?"

He laughed, "Of course I do."

For a second, I was sure this was a different person. It was the same voice, I know, but something was different. It almost felt like it was a whole other person. Something else was worrying me.

If both Iida and Bakugou were unable to fight, why hasn't All Might said anything?

I stumbled a bit from the loss of blood. I pressed my hand into the wound to try and stop the bleeding. I stumbled around, listening very closely so I could find the boys as quickly as I could.

Eventually, I did find them. It didn't take very long but I was still confused as to why the exercise wasn't over.

He turned to me and frowned, "Ugh, why did you came find me? Didn't I say I had him?"

He was like a different person. He was still the same, I just knew, but there was something just weird about this. I groaned a little, "Isn't the exercise over? Bakugou is passed out."

For what felt like forever, he didn't saying. I couldn't see his expression because he was faced away from me, but I knew it wasn't pretty. He looked so conflicted, his fingers would balance and fiddle with a shard of glass in his hands.

"I disagree." He said, so plainly, "What even was the point of this? To test the use of our quirk in combat? Then, why pair us with such weak fuckers? You should pair us with someone stronger, tests your will power and it'll see how far you'll go to survive..."

I wasn't sure if he knew I was listening, because he was muttering very quietly under his breath, and I was listening in using my quirk. I didn't know what I was supposed to do. Was I supposed to say anything?

"This fucking sucks, why do I have to do this?"

He finally turned around and gave me a look, like I was so insignificant that I wasn't even worth addressing. He scratched his head and sighed, as if even talking was a chore, "We'll just have to wait then. Maybe the cameras got cut, or something?"

Tsukiyama casually gave me a glance. It was nothing much. Just a halfhearted look as if he was saying, 'oh, you're still here'.

Everything went dark.

No warning. I blinked, as you do, and all of a sudden I couldn't see anything anymore.

My lips parted in surprised, but that's all I tried to show. I waited a bit, to see if my eyes could adjust to the darkness, but they never did. I gulped, feeling very anxious and in a lot of pain because now that I stopped moving, the adrenaline wore off.

I stayed calm. I did my best to stay calm.

I had no problem 'seeing', but this made me think about Tomomi. I was already exhausted, because it look a lot of strength. I clicked my chapped lips and opened my mouth to ask him the first question to mind, because I wanted to know where he was, "What's your favourite animal?"

His voice was closer to me than I thought, "Cats."

He was watching me, I realised.

"They're cute. I like birds."

What do I do? How do I get the upper hand?

"Are you kids, alright? We lost connection for a bit."

He sighed, "We're fine. We won seeing as the other two are out cold."

My sight came back and I stumbled a bit. The left side of my waist, where Bakugou got me, started to bleed a lot. I had a nasty gash on my right leg from some broken glass, and my shoulder was the same way. I didn't even notice them. I didn't notice at all. My left arm hung limply at my side, and I didn't want to try moving it.

I opened my mouth to say something, but was interrupted by a flustered Tsukiyama, "A-Are you okay? That's looks pretty bad."

I started at the ground, "I'm fine. This is nothing."

I was lying, of course.

I distinctively remember looking at him and seeing a cockroach. There was something so off about him that it made me uncomfortable to even be around him. Still, I wanted to know.

When we got out of the building, a nurse rushed up to me and gasped when she saw how injured I was. I shook my head out of her, and avoided eye contact. "It looks worse than it is. I'll visit the nurse's office after, I just want to get the feedback."

I walked over to where everyone else was, not paying attention to the pain that came with it. Moments later, stretchers arrived out of the building carrying an alert Iida and Bakugou, who both insisted they were okay.

Bakugou was glaring at the ground, not daring to look at anyone.

~~~

Finished reading All The Young Dudes and I don't know what to do with my life. I enough reading about a gay werewolf and his boyfriend so what do I do now

Also I was daydreaming and imagine Todoroki falling asleep on your shoulder like just imagine that holy heck-

Hope you have a lovely day! 💛