I sprint down the hall and into the classroom. Falling into my seat, I let out a sigh. I can feel Koda's confused stare on the back of my head which makes me curl into myself, self-consciously. 

"Koto!!" Ochaco shrieks from the door. She runs to her seat, Midoriya, Iida, Todoroki, and Tsu following close behind. They all go to their seats, except Midoriya who stands behind her, his desk being all the way across the room from the rest of his squad. "What happened in the cafeteria?" She asks, worriedly. They stare at me expectantly, all except Todoroki who is now either asleep or meditating at his desk. 

I consider my answer for a brief moment. If I sign something to her, there are others in the class now who can understand me. But at the same time, if I illuse right into her ear, someone could hear. Best to just say something general and hope nobody looks into it. "Family stuff. I'll explain later," I sign with a lopsided frown. 

She translates to the rest of the group that it's just family stuff. She knows better than to tell them they'll be getting an explanation, because they certainly won't. 

The Bakusquad, now officially including Mina, walks through the door and to their seats, rowdy as ever, as this interaction is taking place. Kirishima turns around in his seat to talk to me, but Iida beats him to it. 

"Yamada, why didn't you eat anything in the cafeteria?" He makes chopping motions with his hands and I can feel multiple pairs of eyes on me as I shrink further into my seat. "Without proper sustenance, you cannot hope to perform well in school or your training!"

At the feeling of holes being burned into the side of my head, I lift my gaze from the desk to see crimson eyes flaring at me. Bakugo mumbles something akin to "fucking dumbass" as he turns away and hunches over his own desk. 

I feel tears prick at my eyes because of all the attention. I raise my hands from my lap to sign something, all while keeping my head lowered, so my hair mostly covers my face. The only person who can theoretically see my face is Kirishima, but I don't think he will mention anything. 

"She said she had a big breakfast this morning, so she'll be fine," Kirishima translates, his gravelly voice soft, yet commanding enough to serve as a warning to leave me be. 

I don't know if I've ever been so thankful, my heart swells in my chest. My first positive emotion in days. Thank you Kiri. It wasn't expected, but I appreciate it. 

"Lying bitch," a mumble from across the room says, immediately squashing the warm feeling. However, Kirishima's statement has turned pretty much the rest of the class away, unconcerned, so I offer him a small smile. It might reach my eyes, and it might not. I don't really care at the moment. 

"I AM HERE!!!" All Might bursts through the door, interrupting Iida from continuing to scold me. Midoriya squeaks and runs to his desk, sitting down quickly. 

"Get into your gym uniforms, kiddos!!! We're doing combat training today!! The rain has let up for now, so we're going outside!!" His voice booms. We all stand and make our way to the locker rooms. I pretty much ignore everyone on the way there, absentmindedly nodding my head at Ochaco and Tsu's discussion. Slipping into the locker rooms, I change quickly and head outside. 

The cement is slick with water and the smell of damp earth reaches towards me. It would almost be comforting in a way, if the smell of gasoline from the city below didn't also seep into the air.

"Yamada," I jump, hearing my name from behind me. I turn to see Shoji walking out of the building a few paces back. The immediate shock of hearing my name dissipates at the sight of him. 

I cock my head, silently asking him what he wants as he falls into step beside me. "I couldn't help but overhear what Bakugo was saying back there. I'm not here to pry about what's going on there, but he was fairly certain you were lying. Whether you were or not, I'd hate to think you're training on an empty stomach." One of his hands reaches out to offer me a granola bar. I look up at his face, his usually intense eyes, softened into a caring gaze.

For the millionth time in the past few days, I feel my eyes well up with tears at how thoughtful my classmates and...friends are to me. I grab the bar from him and wrap my arms around his torso in a tight hug. Screw anxiety. Screw shyness. If I want to give him a hug, I will.

He stumbles a bit to the side, bringing me with him. He clearly wasn't expecting this from me. I refuse to let my tears fall, but I try to express my gratitude in the small gesture. His arms hesitantly wrap around me for a brief hug before we both pull away. 

"Thank you," I illuse just in front of us as we continue walking. 

"Any time," he replies, a smile evident in his voice. "Though I don't recommend making it a habit to skip meals."

I let out a breathy laugh as we step into the training grounds. I unwrap the granola bar and take a bite out of it. "Of course not."

"This looks interesting," his eyes rake over the field, covered in ten large, white circles, labeled 1-10. "I guess it's one on one combat today."

He must be right. Twenty students. Ten circles. Oh, I hope we can pick our opponent. But knowing our luck, we obviously won't. 

I scarf down the granola bar quickly, despite the anxiety now gnawing at me, and shove the wrapper into my pocket. We continue to discuss the possibilities of training today while the rest of our class joins us. 

"Right! Now that we're all here, I'll give you the rundown!" All Might announces. "In some situations, your quirk may not have a desired effect on your opponent. Those with a simple augmentation type quirk are able to give themselves the edge while fighting. All of you with a more ranged attack based quirk should focus on this today. Find a way to use your quirk to enhance your own combat abilities instead of using it directly against your opponent."

I guess that makes enough sense. I can't illuse sound against my opponent, but I can use it to speed up and put more power into a punch or kick. 

"You will face off against an opponent chosen by me! Those with augmentations will go against each other with more specific instructions while the others will be put against each other, seeing as they are at more of a disadvantage."

I hear Bakugo scoff behind me. Yeah, as long as he can still use his quirk, he's not at a disadvantage. At least the poor soul he's up against can't get an explosion to the face now. 

"Here are the pairings!!" Our teacher announces joyfully, displaying a hologram list. I search for my name. 

1. Shoji vs. Hagakure
2. Kirishima vs. Tokoyami
3. Sero vs. Yaoyorozu
4. Ojiro vs. Tsu
5. Midoriya vs. Aoyama
6. Bakugo vs. Yamada
7. Kaminari vs. Ashido
8. Uraraka vs. Todoroki
9. Koda vs. Sato
10. Iida vs. Mineta

My eyes widen at the display and I feel somebody's eyes on me. 

Oh shit. 

He's gonna get me back for what I did the other day. If we could use the full range of our quirks, I could take him out in a second. But of course, luck isn't on my side today. He's much better than me at hand to hand combat. I can only hope I can land at least a few powerful hits before he knocks me out. 

"Each of the teams will go to their own circle and wait for my word! At my signal, you will begin hand to hand combat without using your quirks. I will then signal when you can begin using your quirks. And remember! No use of your quirk on your opponent directly! You aren't disqualified if you leave the circle, but please try to stay in it so as to not disrupt the other students." 

All Might claps his hands once and gestures in a sweeping motion for us to go to our places. He moves to give the augmentation kids specific instructions. 

Deep breaths, Koto. Don't let him get to you. Channel the rage from the other day and you can easily take him down. 

My body tingles with anxiety. Or adrenaline. Maybe both. Whichever way, it makes me jump a few times in place, shaking out my hands as I find my way to the circle with a large 6 in the middle of it. I close my eyes and take a deep breath, rolling my head as I exhale. My pulse beats heavily in my ears. I open my eyes to see Bakugo standing across from me. 

His ruby eyes are narrowed into a cold glare and he has sunken into a fighting stance. Forcing myself to get a grip, I follow suit, matching his deadly crimson gaze with my own determined sky blue one. Neither of our glares wavers as the field falls silent, each person waiting with bated breath. 

"FIGHT!" All Might booms. My attention narrows to the blonde boy running full speed at me, and me towards him. 

He pulls back his right fist, but I remember some offhand comment Midoriya had made a while back. 

"Kacchan always starts out a fight by using a big right hook."

Honestly, I'm not surprised. Most fighters want to get the fight over and done with as quickly as possible and seem to show their strength in their first move. Even if Midoriya hadn't said anything, I would have still figured out his plan. 

Time to put ballet training to use. I'll have to be as agile as possible while fighting him. Give no openings. 

I push hard off the ground, launching myself directly at him. I flip, midair so my head is in the crook of his arm and my whole body is above him. I grab his collar and let myself fall on the other side of him, landing on my feet and slamming his body to the ground. 

I spin around quickly to face him as he stands and land a quick jab to his side. His elbow connects with my nose in retaliation and I stumble back. He goes for a left hook which I dip down to avoid, spinning to knock his feet out from under him. His legs wrap around mine and trip me down with him. He quickly grabs my arms to restrain me but I use his momentum to flip him over with me pinning him. 

Pinned ya again, I think smugly in Nala's voice, but he quickly turns the tables on me again. Being so much lighter than him doesn't help me when it comes to pinning him. 

I struggle underneath him, but he holds strong. He sneers menacingly down at me. "Now let's talk about the other night, huh?" I push against him harder, making sounds of protest, but he refuses to give. "Now I'm just curious why you're here," Bakugo growls. My struggling increases tenfold. I look up to meet his glaring eyes, though they have an emotion in them I can't quite put my finger on. He is obviously trying to harden his expression. "A hero with a death wish isn't exactly the most comforting to the public, now is it, Mute?"

"YOU MAY NOW USE YOUR QUIRKS!"

Took you long enough, All Might!

I illuse the baseline to Barracuda underneath my hands, forcing Bakugo off me. I roll away from him and stand up, taking a fighting stance once more. We take no time to regain our bearings. My bass drum tones and his explosions meld with the cacophony of the rest of the class as we once again charge at each other. 

Fueled by the anger he has caused me the past few days, I force my right hand forward with my sound, effectively landing a powerful right hook straight to his face. A loud crack fills the air as my punch hits him. He had lifted his knee to connect with my gut, but my attack beat him hard into the ground. My entire arm is numb, having essentially been wedged between the sound and his face. I shake it out, trying to get rid of the horrible tingly feeling.

With wobbling arms, he props himself up and shakes his head as though to clear it. I run over to restrain him, but he reacts too quickly, projecting himself up into the air while spinning, landing a hard kick on my ribs before I can even think about what he's doing. He makes a few more quick jabs which I hop out of the way of before making one of my own, propelled forward once more by sound to hit his face. 

Bakugo clutches his jaw for a moment before advancing again, seemingly not fazed by the power I'm putting in. 

A few drops of rain land on my skin, but I pay them no mind. Hopefully it starts downpouring and dilutes his sweat enough that his explosions are less powerful. 

We continue exchanging blows, knocking each other back as the rain comes down harder. I take advantage of him stumbling on the slick ground to charge up my most powerful hit yet. Illusing under my feet, I fling myself across the circle at him, a full symphony accompanying me. 

"TIME!" All Might calls, but not soon enough. With all the force behind me, I can't stop my fist from slamming into his face, sending the blonde boy flying back and into the ground. A resounding crack fills the air as the sound of our classmates' quirks ceases. I can only stare in horror at what I have just caused. 

No.

Eyes narrowed, Bakugo pushes himself up and aims his hand at me. Without any time to react, he sends a massive blast my way. The explosion sears my skin as it throws me back. I land hard on my elbow, sending immense pain shooting through me. 

I stand up again, seeing red. So this is how you wanna play, huh? You have some nerve. 

My anger races through me as I finally let loose on him. The boy's entire body contorts in pain with illused sound gripping him. It forces all his muscles to tense and release violently. 

His jaw clenches, seemingly to prevent himself from crying out, but pained whines still find their way out. 

"Stop!" He chokes out in a broken voice. 

If you want me to stop, then you should consider your own actions and why I'm doing this.

In the midst of his squirming, I get a glimpse of his face. His red eyes give away that he's crying, but the rain disguises the tears. His face has distorted into the most painful grimace I have ever seen, but it only pushes me to amplify the sound and make it worse.

"Stop, stop, stop!!!"

"Koto! What are you doing?!?"

I release my power, widening my eyes as I turn to see Ochaco and Kirishima running towards me, followed closely by All Might and the rest of the class. 

My stomach drops at the terrified look on all their faces. Suddenly, a mortifying thought occurs to me as I look back at Bakugo who is still lying on the ground in pain, gasping for air. 

I didn't stop myself. I...liked it.

------Author's Note------

Hey guys!

I'm officially done with this semester! My engineering final sucked, but that's to be expected. My GPA is probably gonna plummet, but there's not much I can do now.

Anyways, it's summer and I'm hyped!! I've got a lot more time to write now, so I'm planning on stockpiling chapters so I can continue to update even if the fall semester is time consuming (which I expect it to be).

But right now, I'm about 15 chapters ahead and I'm so excited to get to that point because some of my favorite moments yet are coming up. So to celebrate, I'm going to upload another chapter tonight, because as much as I love this one, it's just not complete without its second part and I don't want to leave it for too long.

Also, sidenote about this chapter, I went through the class roster, visualizing the fights between each of the students and methodically choosing the opponents. I visualize each one of their battles and planned them out extensively only to remember that this story is written in first person and Koto has no clue what everyone else is doing. Oh well.

That's all my rambling for now. If you've kept reading till this point, thank you!

Keep an eye out for the next chapter later today!