Koto's POV

The first two rounds leave Class B victorious and Monoma gloating like a child. Not to mention Vlad King was giving completely biased commentary the whole time. However, the third round is more successful, Iida leading the charge (literally) to victory for our class.

I walk to the area for the fourth battle with my team, knowing this battle could make or break the competition. If we win, we tie up the classes. But if we lose...

Descending the platform with both classes, Midnight coos her best wishes our way. She calls me out in particular, exclaiming how well I'll do. I give her a tense smile, but really just want to wave her off. I try to focus on my other classmates' words of encouragement.

As soon as we're out of earshot of the classes, Bakugo starts explaining his strategy. "We have to use their quirks against them. In life, if we know the opponent's quirk, that should be a weapon in our own arsenal. Of course, real weapons work too."

I blink at him, trying to understand what I'm hearing. Is he...lecturing us? With good intentions? I have to swallow and ignore the ever-growing pounding in my chest.

He unclips a few grenades from his hip and tosses them to us. I reach and snatch mine out of the air before they can connect with the ground. I cradle them with gentle hands. "Are you crazy?" I exclaim. "You're lucky we caught them."

On Bakugo's other side-standing farthest away from Shoji, might I add-Pony holds her two bombs close to her stomach. "I can catch fine. I play the...um what's the-softball," she assures me.

Even so, I roll my eyes at Bakugo. "What do we do with these?"

A conspiring grin splits the boy's face as he comes to a halt. Pony, Shoji, and I fan out before him. I notice once again that the blonde has stuck me between her and Shoji, and I have to roll my eyes at her pettiness.

"I've decided!" Bakugo declares with a conniving gleam in his red eyes. "We're gonna win this match with a perfect victory! 4-0 with everyone unscathed! This handicap won't slow us down! That's the only kind of victory there is for the strongest guys out there!"

"Wow, that was almost a compliment," I muse.

"Shuddup Curly. They have plenty of overwhelming quirks, so I'll keep them away and protect you guys as you take them down one by one. As long as we can see them, we have the advantage. Got it?" Bakugo doesn't look at me, but I can't help but feel that it was directed towards me. "Their plan is going to be obvious, but we can counter it..."

He goes on to further explain his strategy, giving a confident grin when he finishes, and marching off towards the center of the area. We have to shake ourselves and follow after him so we don't get too spread out.

"You're joking," Shoji says, jogging to catch up. "There's no way that plan will-"

"Shuddup," the boy snaps, breaking into a run too. Pony and I speed up to keep together. Shoji extends his limbs, and I can sense the girl beside me hanging back.

"He's your teammate, so get over it," I snap at her, grabbing her arm to pull her along.

"Are we sure we should go along with this plan?" Pony asks. "It makes us no better than sidekicks. I can do more than this."

I do consider her words, but end up shaking my head. "He knows more than even I do about their quirks. If he'd share that with us, then maybe we could come up with a strategy together. But as it stands, this sounds like it'll work. We can take them down and prove ourselves."

The girl's brow relaxes, almost like she's about to concede, but Bakugo snaps at us to hurry up.

"You know I'm also surveilling as we run, right?" Shoji asks, limbs still swiveling to all sides.

"Just shut up and follow me!"

"There's someone near us," Shoji exclaims, dropping his voice. We all pause, eyes on the boy. His eyebrows raise, and a ball of dread settles in my stomach. "They've got us!"

I sink into a steadying stance, ready to use my quirk.

"Okay, all done!" A voice exclaims from behind Bakugo. I glimpse a floating mouth before broken up pieces of somebody come flying in. I have to keep myself from cringing. From the looks of the fabric on the pieces, this is Tokage, the girl with a lizard quirk that lets her break pieces of herself off and control them separately.

I illuse a bunch of crashes near every piece of her I can see. Nyikang's training really paid off.

While I'm focused on batting her away, another member of Class B appears: Bondo. Glue streams from his mouth, pouring over the terrain.

"Pony!" I illuse, still trying to keep Tokage away with my quirk as I jump up to a ladder. She leaps from her spot on the ground and avoids the torrent. I notice he can only distribute the glue in one big stream, not so helpful when he's working with a person like Tokage who needs to be in many places. He doesn't spread the glue as fast as he might be able to. That at least gives us an advantage. I illuse sharp raps into random pieces of Tokage to fling her into the glue.

"Take out Yamada first!" Tokage calls. "She's the most troublesome." For that, Pony sends a barrage of horns against her many pieces. Maybe to assert dominance.

I hear a sharp shink from above and look up to see another student descending upon me: Kamakiri. Blades extend from his elbows, and he brandishes them in the light. I reach behind myself to grab my katana. I brace myself as best as I can on the rungs of the ladder, despite glue lapping at my heels. I raise my blade, ready to take the force of his attack and hopefully redirect it.

The sharp edges are about a millimeter from making contact when Bakugo blasts the student away. I cling to the ladder to avoid being thrown as well. Against my better judgment, I recall Bakugo saying he would protect us and that unwelcome knot returns to my stomach.

Kamakiri slams into an array of precariously placed pipes draped in stringy glue. If those were to fall, we'd all be trapped under the net of stickiness. I blast Bondo in the face with a cymbal crash to get him to shut his mouth and hopefully spill some glue on himself. Pony shoots her horn projectiles after him.

Bakugo promised he would hold them back so I could do my thing. But as I look around, I only see my team. Pony recalls her horns, only for there to be nothing captured by them.

"Don't make so much noise,'' Shoji advises. "They're all getting further away! Tokage's interfering so it's hard to get a handle on them, but...there's less of those sounds than before! If I focus, I should be able to discern their actual sounds."

"They're underestimating me," Bakugo growls. "Let's go!"

With a blast, Bakugo makes to follow after the retreating team. However, he's jerked to a stop when Awase uses his quirk to weld pieces of metal to the boy, holding him in place. Bakugo strains against these new, most likely painful restraints. They tug at his skin and clothes. The strongest ones hold his gauntlets to the mess of metal and concrete structures around the area.

I have to give Pony props as she lowers her head to launch a pair of horns and break Bakugo free. Unfortunately, she also destroys his gauntlets in the process. I'm unsure of whether or not that was on purpose, but taking the initiative was a good decision. I only wish I had gotten there quicker.

Bakugo continues his explosive flight path after Awase as I turn to stare down Bondo. I sheath my sword, metal flashing in what I hope is a menacing display of power. Globs of glue drip from the boy's mouth, plopping on the thick adhesive already coating the ground. He inhales deeply, surely procuring the glue from wherever it's stored.

Before he can blast me with it, I balance myself on the ladder rung to free up my hands. I make a wave motion with my right hand, then connect it in a fist with my left palm to sign my ultimate move. When I pull my hands apart in an explosive motion, I let the Sonic Boom ring out.

The deafening crack pulses out from me, every ounce of my brain focused on adding to the amplitude. In a split second, the shock wave is upon Bondo, sending him flying back into the building behind him. He smashes through the wall, being lost to the dust and debris.

The training ground shudders with the force of my attack. Pony stumbles, trying to right herself and not fall to the sticky ground. Her big blue eyes narrow on the Bondo-shaped hole in the wall, and she shoots her horns into it. "I got him!"

My jaw tenses, but I can't be bothered to remind myself to relax it. Sure, it's not like I just took him down or anything. Go ahead and take credit, I think sarcastically. It takes an immense amount of effort to not say it out loud.

A loud boom draws my attention away in time to see Bakugo blast Awase into the still dripping glue around the arena. Lurking in the shadows, Shoji breaks away pipes and gathers debris around Awase, locking him into a trap.

Just Tokage now.

The thought doesn't bring me much solace. After all, it seems impossible to capture somebody who's in many places at once. But I know I have to have confidence in Bakugo's plan. If I go back now, we might lose this chance for a complete victory.

As intense as Bakugo is...I like the sound of winning.

We know that Tokage has a time limit that all the pieces of her can be away from her "main" body for. After that, we assume she has to reform, at least partially. We can only hope that battering her with constant attacks makes her tire quicker.

I try to open up my awareness and focus on all the pieces of her around me, just like Nyikang had taught me. I illuse brash trumpets into each one, watching the scaly scraps writhe at the feeling.

Pony's horns fly around in a torrent, poking and stabbing every piece of Tokage they can find, smashing her up against the concrete walls or ground. Specks of purple in the distance begin coalescing in the sky. I cautiously move my hand to my pocket, careful to make sure any piece of Tokage that could be watching me doesn't notice.

Bondo may have passed out and, as such, his glue has begun to thin out and drip, but it's thankfully sticky enough for one last thing. I swipe Bakugo's grenade in the glue, letting it coat one side of it, then pull out another to do the same. I meet Pony's eyes as she does the same.

Tokage's severed pieces begin flying past us as her body tries to take form on the top of a building. I lunge from my ladder, illusing drums under my feet to propel myself and away from the glue as I reach for the retreating pieces. I pull the pins and stick the explosives to pieces of the girl as they whiz past and fall back to the ground in a spot relatively clear of glue.

"Tokage! Look out!" Kamakiri calls out from his confinement. His movements are sluggish, but he still tries to shuck the glue from his body. I lilluse a cymbal crash into his ear. He yowls and rears his head back, but my attack against him was too late.

It almost seems like an out of body experience to watch in silence as Tokage floats aside, making all six grenades from our team just detonate with each other. My breath freezes in my throat.

What now?

BOOM!

I fall to my knees with my arms covering my head. Even from so high up, the explosion rocks the ground beneath my feet. Debris rains down from above, coating my curls in white dust. Chunks of cement and concrete rap against my forearms, and I throw up a wave of white noise to protect myself from any more.

I look up to see the sun shining through the cloud of dust, a figure falling limply to the ground as Bakugo stands triumphantly atop the building.

Pony's horns catch the free-falling Tokage and begin carrying her away to the cell. Shoji wraps up Awase and Bondo and follows after her. I approach Kamakiri, hearing the thud of boots behind me to let me know Bakugo has joined. The Class B student's eyes widen at our joint approach.

I give the boy a devilish grin. "You wanna do the honors?"

Bakugo grunts, "Go ahead."

•°•°•°•

"You moved quickly and in succession to compliment one another," Aizawa explains when we all return to the viewing stage. "Bakugo, you demonstrated great agility and attack power, which also worked well with the other three."

Vlad King grunts, as if he can't believe his class was taken out by ours, yet has a grudging respect. "You all had a very solid approach given your predictions and fighting power. However! You were too rigid and broke apart, much like Honenuki's softening quirk!"

"Looks like they can work together," Kendo observes, twirling her auburn ponytail.

"Hah," Monoma scoffs. "More like take direction from Bakugo."

Tokage approaches the boy and lays a bandaged hand on his shoulder. "Sometimes...you just lose, my guy. It was a good fight."

"I'm so proud of you guys!" Mina cheers, shaking both me and Bakugo. She turns to give Shoji a high-five. "A total win! That was awesome!"

"I hope we do just as well!" Ochaco exclaims, giving me a hug.

As I wish the next team luck, I catch Bakugo's eye. I almost think for a moment I see pride glittering in that deep ruby.

Pride for his class.

•°•°•°•

Despite the intensity of the last match, our classmates managed to get through it with another perfect score. I sit with Ochaco at her lunch table, talking about what I had seen happen during the fight.

"I don't know what came over me," she mumbles, eyes distant. "I just saw him there and...it looked like he was hurting. Or distressed. Or something."

"It was lucky you made it through all that," I observe, turning to where Midoriya is eating. "I've never seen a quirk explode like that. Are you okay?"

The boy's eyebrows tilt up, and he nods. "I'm better now, thanks to Uraraka. You really helped me out there. Thanks."

My friend's cheeks tinge a rosy pink, and she tries to wave him off. "Oh, it's no problem! I just didn't want-"

"Excuse me, Yamada," a low voice asks just behind me. My friends and I pause to look up at who has joined us. Shinso rubs the back of his neck with one hand, balancing his tray in the other. "Mind if I sit here?"

Something in a dark corner of my heart loosens at his request. Some bridge that was left half forgotten shines with a new light. I give the boy a smile. "Go right ahead."

He nods and places his tray down beside Midoriya, his lavender hair swishing as he sits. "I..." he starts before trailing off. His eyes look up from his plate to look at me, then pass over the rest of the table. "I'm sorry I treated you guys so poorly before. So many things were changing for me at once. It was hard to tell what was people being genuine after so long of people being mean." His eyes find me once again. "I realize now your intentions were good. I overreacted."

"We accept your apology," Iida announces with a bow of his head. "It is completely understandable, given your position. However, with the possibility of being in the same class, I believe it is a good idea to form a good connection with you. You're welcome to sit with us whenever you want."

"What Iida said!" Midoriya chirps. "We wouldn't be mean to you on purpose. Besides...I don't mean for it to be rude to keep asking you questions, but there are a few more things about your quirk I'd like to ask." The boy pulls out his notebook and begins frantically flipping pages.

My eyes catch Shinso's, and we share a smile. "All is forgiven," I say.

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

Thank you so much to everyone who has gotten me to 500k reads! I cannot express my gratitude for everyone who gave my story a shot.

Muted Voices started as just a silly little OC scenario that I looked forward to writing every day. In my heart, I figured that if I was passionate about writing it, I would reach at least one person who wanted to read it. I couldn't have expected how far it went from there.

To everyone who has made fanart, who has seen a part of themselves in Koto, who has gotten involved in the ship wars, or just picked up my story for fun, I am beyond grateful for you. Thank you to everyone who has supported me on this journey. Y'all mean the world to me <3

Additionally, we do have some new fanart this time around! This awesome piece of Koto announcing her hero name was made by thePhroggPhather! Thank you so much for this art, I can't believe I hadn't seen it sooner.

Thank you again to everyone. Don't forget to vote and comment if you enjoyed. And please drop a follow so you get updates! Muted Voices is nearing its end with only one arc to go, and my next story will be up shortly after. So if you're interested, be sure you're following and have Jaded added to your library.

Hope y'all have a lovely day! <3