Text"So, we pretty much just have to nab Ashido's and Uraraka's tags, and make sure we keep at least one of ours at a time, and we should be able to win, right?" Kirishama had revised the rules of the match with Izuku while the two of them awaited the Clarkson to sound for the training session to begin. The two teenagers found themselves stood on top of a multi-story building that was built to resemble an apartment lot, similar to the one Izuku lived in alongside his mother, except this was a lot taller.
It gave them a good overview of the rest of the training site, letting the Hardening and the One For All Quirk users to commit the layout to memory. In doing so, a plan of attack was an easy thing to create when you could see all the good ambush points and escape routes. Kirishima was looking intensely over the edge, to look for any good spots to make note of. Normally Izuku would have been right there alongside him, making plans and thinking a few steps ahead as to what options they had.
Not this time though.
"R-Right..." Izuku nodded, in confirmation. "We should have the advantage..." Theoretically, he and his partner had good Quirks for this sort of task. Long range Quirks were of limited effectiveness in this situation, since it required the users to get in close, where they may be at their weakest. It was like putting Sero or Aoyama in a close quarters fight. They would only have limited effectiveness. Since One For All and Hardening were strictly Close-Quarters-Combat Quirks, it would give them an edge in stealing their opponents tags.
Of course, Mina and Uraraka weren't weak in close quarters. Far from it. Both of their Quirks were also valuable when it came to close range conflict, Uraraka more so than Mina. Since the pink girl had an emission type Quirk, it meant that by classification, she would be better suited at medium range. Mina was quick on the draw though, and could secrete Acid from pretty much anywhere on her body, and use this to her advantage. In close range, she was just as dangerous as Kirishama was. Possibly more so, since her powers could allow her to erode away his powerful defence, and by extension, break his offence.
Not that this information seemed to bother the red haired Hero in training. In fact, he grinned, and slammed his fists together, in conjunction with the activation of his Quirk, the impact sending sparks flying either way, and sending a sound like two swords classing in a duel from his actions. "All right! This looks like it's gonna be pretty fun, eh Midoriya?"
"Not sure if I'd say fun, but I guess I see what you mean..." Unlike his teammate, Izuku hadn't been stood, taking in the sight of the training ground at the edge of the rooftop. He'd instead opted to sit down by a wall, thinking about the people he was going to have to fight.
"Hey, are you alright?" As he asked this, Kirishama attached his white coloured tag to his belt, the same one that kept up his waist-mounted cape, marking the position he would have to defend. "You seem down."
"D-Don't worry, I-Im fine! " Izuku jumped to reassure his classmate quickly, awkwardly laughing as he did so, fooling no one of his status. It had been a poor, in-vain attempt to save himself the inevitable embarrassment that was about to come in.
"It's Ashido, right?" It didn't take much for the Hardening Quirk user to figure out. He had been one of the original people Mina had admitted her feelings for Izuku to. He imagined that she felt the same was Izuku was feeling, particularly given their recent announcement. If he knew one thing about Midoriya, it was that he put his all into whatever he did. He didn't mess around. If he had agreed to date Ashido, then he was serious about it. It was one of the things Kirishama respected about Izuku. Say what you like about him, he was hard-wired when it came to anything he did.
Looking away to the side, and feeling his hands unconsciously turn into tightly gripped fists, the green haired boy gave his answer without ever meaning to.
Izuku was bothered by what was happening. Of course he was! It would be crazy for him not to be. He was being forced to fight his best friend and his new girlfriend in a combat scenario. Of course he wasn't alright. He was being forced to fight two people he never wanted to fight at any point in his life. Naturally, he knew a Hero didn't really get the choice as to who they worked with or against who, but he still didn't like this.
As much as he justified the fight to himself as a necessity on the road to becoming the Hero All Might believed he could become, that he himself wanted to become more than anything else on this planet, and how he and Mina and agreed that they would give the fight everything that they had with no negative feelings towards the other, Izuku still felt uneasy about getting into a genuine fight of the fists with her.
The feeling that someone got when they had to fight - As in, full-fledged Quirk-and-all fight - someone they cared about deeply... Care so much, that just thinking about that other person's name would send a flutter throughout the blood pumping organ, and butterflies into the stomach... Someone who was probably the closest friend of a person... To raise a hand against them, in any sort of environment... It felt wrong.
Reluctant to admit it, Izuku nodded slowly. "I don't... I don't really want to fight her. It feels wrong."
"I thought you two agreed to no hard feelings?" In asking, Kirishama scratched atop his head in confusion. "I don't get what the problem is."
One For All's current owner bit his lower lip and looked over the edge of the building, looking at the skyline. Bright blue. It was edging towards two-thirty in the afternoon, but still the sun hung his in the air as though it were midday. Two battles before this one had gone ahead, and each of them had been a spectacle to watch. In his head, he'd steeled himself beforehand, prepared to engage in the exercise he had to with full force. Now that he was here, that had all been reduced to mush.
"I... Me neither." Izuku sighed. "I guess... Mina-san has been really kind to me lately, and I... We only just... You - You know... Begun d-dating..." That word once again made his cheeks flare up crimson, almost like a code-word to reduce him to rubble. "I guess I'm just... Still getting used to everything, and this came around before I'd figured anything out."
It made sense to Kirishama, who crossed his arms across his bare, muscular chest and nodded in his understanding. He knew Midoriya as the type to think things through, to plan before making a move. He placed more value on his intelligence than he did his destructive force, a trait very few members of the class seemed to follow, Kirishama included. The more holes each member could punch through a wall, the better they seemed to do. Bakugou, Todoroki, himself, hell, even Mina were all pretty good at combat related subjects. Grades varied between them, but none of them applied a lot of thinking to their fighting. Bakugou had his instincts, sure, but that wasn't quite the same as intelligence. Not that any of them were particularly stupid, they just prioritised different things.
Suddenly, before Kirishama could interject with his opinion, a loud buzzing noise, one that prompted both he and his teammate to cover their ears due to its high volume and intensity, rang overhead. Sounding like a cross between a fire alarm, an air raid siren and an ambulance, both knew it as the Clarkson to begin the match immediately. After all their time at Yuuei, it was unmistakable. It vibrated through the air, violently shocking up the molecules that made it up, before coming to a stop as quickly as it started about five seconds later.
Removing his hands from his ears, Izuku blinked a few times before he sighed and stoop upright, resigning himself to the match fate had laid out for him.
"If you want my take on it Midoriya, if someone I cared about went easy on me in this situation, I think that'd annoy me more."
Looking straight at his teammate, Izuku saw how serious Kirishama was about what he had said. For a second, Izuku didn't know what to make of the statement, and wanted to accuse the Hardening Quirk user of not having any idea what he'd want in that situation.
After that brief second passed, Izuku realised, Kirishama was right.
For all his overthinking and over-analysis, Izuku's main flaw with this was that he sometimes overlooked the single most obvious solutions, the simplest things in life. This really came down to a couple of facts.
That both he and Mina were training to be Heroes, and that they both liked one another.
If they both were to become Heroes, they couldn't afford to go easier on one another simply die to their relationship. In fact, the opposite was true. They had to be ever harsher on one another to help one another achieve their goals. If they didn't go all out, if they didn't fight and push the other to the limit, what was the point of them even training together at all? Izuku may as well ask to be transferred to Class 1-B if that was going to be his attitude.
And the second reason was, if one side of them losing a mock battle was going to put a strain on their relationship, then they were inevitably doomed. If they did like one another, then the winner of this match should be completely irrelevant. They should understand. Hell, it shouldn't even require them to think like that. Winning and losing? It shouldn't be relevant. Why on earth should they even begin to feel like this was a contest between them? This was what they studied for - What they trained for.
If they both held back, then they both lost, and it would be unfair to their teammates. It really was that simple. Plus Ultra. That was the mantra Yuuei students lived by. If they forgot that now, or if they just ignored it, then they were screwed.
Mina could even take it worse if he didn't go all out on her. It could imply he felt she was frailer than she actually was, that she couldn't hold her own. It'd be like insulting her.
Without warning, Izuku slapped his cheeks with both his hands at the same time to get himself to snap out of his stupor. Once he'd done that, he snapped both his hands into fists and nodded towards Kirishama. "Thanks. I needed to hear that."
His ally grinned, showing off his sharp teeth once again. "You ready?"
"Yeah."
"Good, 'cause I already can see 'em."
Surprised to hear this, Izuku made his way towards the edge of the building to see the surrounding buildings, some still freshly damaged by the previous battles. As it turned out, bright pink, white, and a psychedelically brightly lit leotard stood out quite drastically against dark grey and lack of colour. Uraraka and Mina were a few paces apart, Uraraka about a meter and a half behind the Acid Quirk user, presumably guarding from attacks that came out from behind them.
It looked like they were planning on just charging in head first and seeing what happened. They had remained on ground level, despite having been given the option to start pretty much anywhere they desired. Their lack of long range type attacks, and a limit to their Quirks versatility must have contributed to that strategy. Unlike Kirishama and Izuku, their Quirks only had limited usage. Going out headstrong was probably the best option they had.
'Go all out, or there isn't a point.' Izuku repeated in his head. Mina wouldn't hold it against him. Seeing the gap between the two girls whom he interacted with regularly lessen, he swallowed, and glanced at his partner. "Kirishama, how durable is your Quirk? How much impact can you take in one strike?"
"Hard as rock. You'll need to batter me a while before my Quirk'll reach its limit." The Hardening Quirk user demonstrated his Quirk on his left hand, striking it with his right had a few times, like he were sharpening two knives against one another.
"What about a fall from this height? Would you be able to withstand that?"
"Piece of cake." Kirishama then tilted his head, arching an eyebrow above his scarred eye. "What've you got in mind, Midoriya?"
Before Uraraka had even really had the time to comprehend what she had heard when Izuku and Mina were revealed to be dating, homeroom had begun, and left her in a wild flurry of emotion that she couldn't even begin to describe in any capacity. She had felt... So much that she didn't even know what to think anymore.
There had been... A combination of the joyful initial reactions, which filled her with little more than happiness and joy for her close friends, hoping that they would be happy together, and would let her know all the details. But this was drowned out very quickly by something Uraraka hadn't been aware that she'd even possessed. There was sadness. A genuine, blue gloom that had fallen over the Zero-Gravity user. The part of her that had wanted to squeal had been sent to die by the part of her that wanted to scream.
But why? Why had this feeling come to her, when she should be feeling nothing but glee for them? She hadn't been able to come up with an answer by the time she and Ashido had made their way to the battle grounds.
She sat next to Ashido on a bench the two of them had found outside a building meant to represent a supermarket, which had been the site of an intense fight between Tsuyu and Iida's teams. Taking off her helmet until the Clarkson sounded, Uraraka played with the bangs that dangled in front of her face. She wasn't sure what exactly there was to even say. The fact there was a part of her that wanted nothing more than to send Mina floating into the stratosphere was something that genuinely scared the brunette. What the hell was wrong with her?! How could she even think something like that?
Visibly, she shuddered, like a poltergeist had just phased through her body and left her with a chill. Shaking her head violently, she looked to start a conversation with Mina, but didn't know what to say. She liked Mina. She considered Mina to be a good friend. Her quirky personality that exerted energy was always there whenever she needed the comfort or pick-me-up, and Mina was the sweetest thing in their entire class.
So why did Uraraka feel like she was in direct contest with the girl to her side for some reason?
"You okay, Uraraka?" The voice snapped the contemplating partner back into reality, where she found a worrying theory stuck into her head. "Something wrong?"
'Am I ... Jealous of Mina? '
"No, I'm alright!" The rosy cheeked girl shook her head rapidly to dispel any ideas that she was troubled, despite very clearly being so. In a hurried attempt to shift the conversation, she brought up the first subject she could think of. Given her thought process, she regretted it as soon as she finished her sentence. "I was actually wondering, since we've got a bit of time to kill, how did you and Deku end up an item?"
Mina blinked twice, then took off her white face mask, and rubbed her eyes. It had been on a bit too tightly, and was slightly angled in a way that uncomfortably left her eyes feeling like they were bulging out her head. Fondly, she recalled the series of events that lead them to their weekend date not three days ago. "I sorta asked him out last Monday. You know, after you and Iida left to catch your own trains."
It had been then? Uraraka felt her eyes widen just a bit. It had been then of all times? She'd barely been gone before Mina had asked?
"We just kind of admitted we liked each other after our date, and well, here we are!" Her trademark smile broke out as she finished her sentence, adding on a small chime to her final word, letting it drag on a few seconds longer than it absolutely had to. It had to have been the most bare-boned explanation she could have possibly given to Uraraka, but it wasn't like there really was a whole lot more to it.
"So... You like him then?"
"Of course I do!" Giggling to herself and looking like she was on the verge of jumping up and performing a ceremonious dance to expel the sheer energy she was filled with, Mina grinned. "Izuku's tough and smart. He's kind of a nerd, but he's really sweet and cute. And he's kind of surprising the more time you spend with him. He beat me at Dance Dance Revolution, for God's sake!" At that point, she did just burst out laughing at the memory of him flailing around like an utter lunatic and somehow gathering more points than she did. Only a second later did she realise she'd called him by his first name, but that didn't matter too much.
Disregarding her shock at the fact that Izuku of all people, had beaten Mina of all people, at a game based on reactions of all things, the thing that Uraraka hung onto in that myriad of information was how fondly, and how easily openly Mina used Deku's first name. She knew that Mina wasn't the best example of formality - In fact, literally the opposite - But even she used her honorifics. The fact she didn't... Wasn't that a statement as to how close they were, despite being together for so little? Shouldn't she be happy for them?
What was it that Uraraka felt now then? Part of it was a feeling of envy, that Mina seemed to be so unbridledly happy right now that she seemed fit to burst, and the young girl wondered what it felt like to be that jovial thanks to another person. Maybe it was a touch of anxiety and insecurity that Mina and Deku were the first people in their class to officially be a couple. Maybe a drop of sadness and worry that Deku might drift away from her and Iida slightly because of Mina...
It... Couldn't be that it was jealous that Mina was with Izuku? As in, that it was Izuku, of all the people in the class that she'd managed to get a date with? Her best friend? It...
That... That couldn't be it, could it?
"S-So... A-Aren't you a bit worried about fighting him here then?" Uraraka questioned further, this time leaning a bit further into the conversation. She noticed her voice wavering as she asked, a worrying sign.
"Nope!" Came the instant reply with next to no hesitation. In doing so, Mina threw her face mask back on, continuing to speak as she fiddled with the eye-holes, practically humming a tune as she spoke. "Midori and I both wanna be Heroes. That's why we're here, so I know any punches or hits we trade are just occupational deals. He... His Quirk is a lot stronger than mine is, but I'm not just gonna give him a free win. One of us has to lose the match, so I'm not gonna be upset if I lose." She tightened the appendages at the back of her head, until she heard the fabric hit the back of her head. In doing so, she smiled and grinned. "He has to be thinking the same way. I'm not just gonna let him win without a fight."
Was it that Uraraka was jealous of just how happy Mina was... Or was it because it was Izuku that made her happy?
The second thought caused her nothing but blushing distress. Izuku was her best friend, not some dumb high school crush! But then why was her heart both beating and breaking at once?
She sighed. Right now, Mina had to be the worst possible person for her to be partnered with. Bakugou would have been better. She would have preferred Bakugou. Bakugou at least wouldn't be causing her this level of distress. She'd just be terrified that he'd throw her into a building. Something manageable.
In that moment, the Clarkson rang aloud, deafening the two girls for a few seconds.
"Owww..." Mina moaned, shaking her head to try and snap herself back into reality. "Why do they make those things so loud?..."
"Come on." Uraraka stood up, and fastened her helmet onto her head and the rest of her costume, knocking down the visor to slightly obscure her face. "We should get going."
"Yeah." Mina nodded, getting up while doing a little hop with that exuberant energy she always had. "Let's go~!" She led the way, her left hand constantly pumping into the air as she walked, like she was leading a marching band.
Following closely behind, Uraraka made sure her colour tag was firmly attached to her Hero Costume's shin guards. Mina's was attached using the specially grafted belts since her costume didn't have a good point of holding by default, holstered at the waistline. The waist had to be the most obvious choice, Uraraka thought, and a moving leg would be more difficult to grab ahold of than a fairly stationary waistline.
They walked about two meters apart at the most, Mina not really noticing the gap between them since she was leading from the front, and had to be alert because of it.
It wasn't an entirely intentional choice that Uraraka made to be further away from Mina. Her mind was in overload, and she was thinking far too much about something too stupid to be of importance, especially not during the middle of lesson time, and it was causing her to lag behind. When she noticed this gap, she made an effort to shorten it.
Only to be cut off by a foreign cry from a sentient ballistic missile.
"Rrrrrrraaaaargh!"
"You ready?"
Hardening his skin to its most durable levels, Kirishama nodded. This plan was certainly very Midoriya-like, no question about that whatsoever. Incredibly unorthodox, and it wasn't the kind of plan someone could have come up with on the fly. He'd planned this through. He'd taken what he knew about both their Quirks, and formulated a strategy and this plan of attack around both. It was clever.
"Let's rock this." Was the Hardening Quirk user's response.
Nodding, Izuku grabbed a tight hold of the cog-shaped arm holsters that ran from Kirishama's shoulders, and activated his own Quirk. The power that surged throughout his veins whenever he activated One For All was still like adrenaline implanted straight to his bloodstream, but he was getting less of that rush right now, because he was only using 5% of his Quirk's full power to not break his bones. It was significantly weaker than his full power, but it was still nothing to laugh at.
He was easily capable of picking up Kirishama, and spinning him in a circle once, twice, and then, with careful aim, throw him overhead, directly at Uraraka and Mina, using the Sturdy Hero as an improvised Tank shell, and with about as much force as one too.
"Arizona Smash!"
The second the kinetic energy transferred to Kirishama, he went flying at an incredible speed, plummeting towards the opposing team so quickly that neither of them even really had the time to reach before the human-shell smashed into the ground, throwing up a dust cloud, sending cracks spiralling throughout the concrete on the road with ruthless force, and sending both the targets flying back, but they remained covered by a thick layer of the dirt that was flying through the air.
Using his Quirk to leap down safely, Izuku launched himself from atop the apartment-like building, down to a two-story complex, and then across the road to the supermarket building, and finally made his way onto the ground, all before the dust had cleared. His plan was a simple shock-and-awe tactic, using Kirishama as a method to cause some serious shock, the plan was to dash behind Mina and Uraraka, and steal their tags while they were distracted.
This would have worked had the two girls been thrown backwards like Izuku had predicted.
Upon making contact with the ground, and recovering himself from the initial impact, Kirishama had deactivated his Quirk in order to crack his now stiff bones. He did a sharp crack to his neck before he felt like normal again. "Damn, Midoriya can throw... Argh, nearly knocked my Quirk straight offa me."
Broken out of his thoughts by rapidly encroaching footsteps, Kirishama looked around desperately, for any sign of an individual within the thick smog thrown up, like a shadow or silhouette, or anything that would imply a location for him to work with.
Rapidly, they grew closer.
Behind him!
Using his arm like a sword, Kirishama spun around and swung his Hardened arm, aiming for the region where the head would be. Just because his opponents were women, that didn't mean he had any intention of going easy on them.
His actions were rewarded by a slosh of Acid covering his arm and parts of his torso, covering him in a dissolving and stinging liquid. Mina had regulated the viscosity and concentration to a level strong enough to wipe Kirishama's Quirk straight off of his body, but not enough to mark him with any permanent damage. With regular acid, this would be impossible, but this was Mina's Quirk. She could make her deadly Quirk as harmless as she desired if she wanted to.
"Aaargh!" Kirishama growled at the stinging pain against his bare akin, and leaped backwards to gain some distance. He needed to keep away from Mina at least, for until his Quirk was ready to activate again. Fighting while his Quirk was disabled was a huge disadvantage. Running away wasn't manly, but he didn't have a whole lot of other options, between Midoriya slinging him like a spear, and his shower of acidity, he needed time to recover.
"Uraraka!"
Outside the dust cloud, only hearing the sounds of battle from inside, Izuku tried to pinpoint a location where his teammate and his opponents were, albeit unsuccessfully. The thick layers of dust and dirt only stung at his eyes when he tried to peer in. If he could only figure out a way to get rid of all this dust...
Suddenly, an idea popped into his head. Shockwaves. If he could generate one that shot through the air, then it would act in a manner similar to that of wind, and disperse the cloud, restoring visibility.
"No better chance to try this out, I guess..."
He just needed a few seconds to prepare his Quirk. And his nerves.
From the inside of the match on the inside of the foggy battlefield, Kirishama found himself floating into the air, now about two feet of the ground. Trying to fight the lack of gravity didn't yield any sort of constructive result. He was too far off the ground to grab hold of something to keep him on the earth's surface. The experience could not be more disorientating.
It was Uraraka's Quirk. Taking advantage of the muscular teenager being distracted by Mina, Uraraka had charged in and tapped Kirishama with her fingers sensory pads, completely removing the force of gravity from his body, causing him to float up.
Since his Quirk only worked by physical transmission, there was nothing he could do to stop the two young girls from stealing his tag, and putting them in the lead. Their quick reflexes and recovery time had helped turn what sound have been a huge disadvantageous start into one that would give them three out of four of the tags needed.
"Awesome!" Mina shouted aloud at the success of their counter attack. For it being completely done on the go, it had actually been very effective. Turning to Uraraka, Mina suggested, "Hey, use your Quirk on me. I'll jump up and grab his colour ta -"
Cut off before she could finish, Uraraka began to float into the air on her own, the girl having used her Quirk on herself. Even with her face slightly blocked thanks to the opaque pink visor she had on, it was clear that she was holding herself from spilling her guts onto the floor as nausea took her over. This was the main reason Mina had volunteered herself to grab hold of Kirishama's colour tag, but it looked like Uraraka wasn't interested in that plan.
"...Or you could do that, I guess." Mina trailed off, blinking a few times. Whether or not that was due to some debris hitting her black sclera, or her own confusion was up to speculation. The pink girl was curious as to what was causing the brunette to so recklessly use her Quirk despite knowing fully well that it would cause her power's drawbacks to kick in. "Uraraka, wouldn't it make more sense for me to do this? Won't doing that make you sick?"
"I'm... Fine..." A lie seeped through tightly shut lips and a strained throat trying to keep back the sickness. Even her Hero Costume's pressure point system, specifically designed to limit the drawbacks of her Quirk wasn't enough to fully protect the Zero-Gravity Quirk user from the full extent of her use of the ability on herself. It always threw her sense of orientation around and jumbled up her insides.
Truth being told, Uraraka didn't even know why she was insistent on doing this herself. It wasn't like her at all. She had no problems accepting help and tactically using her Quirk to best suit the situation. But for whatever reason, she wanted to do this one herself.
Out of nowhere, a loud clap, a bang, and suddenly, a violent shockwave of wind ripped the dust clouds apart, sending both the individuals floating in the air shooting in the direction of the wind with extreme speed. Mina had been able to avoid being thrown across the streets, but had to use a combination of using her Quirk to melt herself a grabbing point in the floor, and using her other hand to cling to a lamppost for dear life. Gusts of winds almost like those of a hurricane shot from a single point and expanded the further away the ripples came from that point.
Izuku had activated Full cowl throughout his entire body for this move, and had simply clapped his hands together in front of him. This ended up resulting in the air his hands captured in the movement meeting in one very small, very refined point, and then shot out once a tiny opening was available, at the speed of a bullet, resulting in a huge shockwave that had shot straight towards all three of his classmates. Normally, he achieved this effect by using Delaware Smash by flicking his finger, but he wanted to try this method, to see if he could simulate the same result without breaking his finger whenever he used it.
Mina had to rub her eyes in order to get the debris from them out, before she even look at Izuku properly. Had he been working on that technique as a move, or had he just come up with that on the spot? Whatever it had been, it had certainly been a powerful strike, having sent both their respective teammates flying.
"You tryin' to kill me, Midoriya?!" Kirishama had been flung into the side of a building, and the impact hadn't been gentle in the slightest. He had been able to negate the damage somewhat thanks to his Quirk, but by this point was getting a bit annoyed with being thrown all over the place and constantly winding up dizzy.
"S-Sorry!"
"Urgh… Was that Deku?..." A combination of nausea and disorientation rattled Uraraka's senses, leaving her rocking back and forth slightly as she attempted to steady herself, albeit failingly. Her eyes had basically been reduced to swivels, struggling to find focus on any one target.
Having managed to stagger his way onto his own two feet, Kirishama made a lunge for Uraraka's tag, only to miss when she quickly snapped back into reality and stood upright and away from the red haired attacker, despite being wobbly on her feet thanks to her Quirks drawbacks. Kirishama attempted a few more swings, each of them missing their target.
"Think you can handle Ashido?!" The Hardening Quirk user called over, dashing after the Zero-Gravity Quirk user as she attempted to gain some distance between the two of them.
"No hard feelings, yeah?" Mina repeated, smiling kindly at Izuku. In her left hand, a generous level of non-lethal acid was pooling itself, ready to be unleashed by its holder the second she engaged in combat. There was a fire in her eyes, but no malic whatsoever. This was determination, not anger.
She almost looked like she was enjoying herself.
"Right." Izuku responded. Allowing the power within him to shoot throughout his body again, he activated Full Cowl. Five percent of his Quirks overall potential output wasn't deadly, but he wanted to be safe. He made no fists, instead opting to go for a more open hand style of combat for this particular opponent.
Mina's colour Tag was around her waist. So was Izuku's around his. Both were bright red, and against the colours of their respective Hero Costumes, they were completely impossible to miss. They stood out like Mina stood out in a crowd – Instantly noticeable.
Both of them glanced at their targets. Then at one another.
And then they both charged at each other.
The first one to launch an attack was Mina, throwing the Acid she had collected straight at Izuku. The girl had taken special care to make sure that this acid wouldn't do any serious damage to him, but it would be enough to solicit a response from him it would attack his stimuli, being more akin to that of a nettle sting than an acidic coating. It was just the same sort of limits that she put on herself whenever she fought against any other human opponent.
With a deliberate motion, Izuku ducked as he ran when the acid hurled towards him, and threw a left hook towards the side of the head. He restrained himself as per normal to his limits, so as not to harm anyone excessively, but aside from that, he put in just as much force into his attack as he normally would.
The pressure of the boy's Quirk could be felt from a distance, and Mina used this to her advantage. Her incredible reflexes kicked in, allowing her to dodge before she was even aware that she was evading a swing, the tips of her horns narrowly missing the boys attack.
Next came a right uppercut-cross, but Mina was able to dodge this one as well, this time with a lot more room for error, since she saw this move coming from a mile away. She even managed to do a spin as she skimmed the attack, and while Izuku was still being pulled by his own momentum, Mina made a dive to grab his colour tag. With an outreached palm, she was just an inch away from grabbing hold of it.
Suddenly, Izuku was in the air, having propelled himself up by sending his Quirk's power to his legs and jumping up a couple of feet. Having saved his tag by a fraction of a second, he twisted his body, and as he fell to the ground, slammed his fist into the tarmac beneath him. "5% Detroit Smash!"
It might have only been five percent, but it was more than enough to create a crater of impact where his fist connected with the ground, and send out a shockwave which pushed Mina back before she was able to do anything about it. The girl was pushed back by the sheer force of the attack, blocking her eyes with her arms before digging into the ground with her feet as best she could manage.
It was a mistake to do so.
Since her visibility became limited with this motion, Mina was unable to see the actions Izuku took next. Making a powerful stride and pushing his speed to the absolute height that it would go, he shot straight past the distracted Acid Quirk user, and snatched her colour tag right off of her.
With his swift motion complete, the Clarkson rung.
Izuku and Kirishama had won. Wherever they had ended up, Kirishama must have managed to steal Uraraka's tag, and hold her off while he defended it. The match was, in any case, over.
Mina sighed with a smile.
"Well, that could've gone worse." Mina cheerfully commented as the lesson, and by extension the school day, came to a close. She rose from her seat with a stretch, and swung her grey jacket and tie into her rucksack, not really feeling like letting them build up constant heat while on the subway back home. Darker clothing, she had discovered, stored up more heat, and she was prone to heating up rather quickly. So, she had removed the schools trademarked jacket and stored it in her decorated backpack.
Due to the large number of books that she'd had to dig out of her back in order to make notes on the many, many subjects she was slipping in, she had taken the longest time of everyone in the class to get ready to go, even the teacher having left before Mina had finished packing away. The only other person in the room was Izuku, who was waiting for her patiently.
"I… Yeah, I guess so…" Izuku agreed, nodding slowly at the comment. There was a part of him that felt guilty about having gone through with the fight, even though he'd known that it was a necessity, and that the positives to the fight vastly outweighed the negatives to it, but by this point, he couldn't help it. Overthinking was leading him to nothing but stress and worry. "A-Are you sure you're okay, Mina-san?"
"Still just Mina." She jokingly smiled towards him. She pulled the zipper on her bag tightly up, sealing the compartments. "And yeah, I'm fine. Stop worrying."
"B-But-"
"Izuku, you didn't even hit me. The worst you did was get some dirt in my eyes."
"A-Are your eyes –"
"My eyes are fine." Mina sighed and threw her backpack over her shoulders, the weight causing them to dip down lightly until her shoulders could bounce back to their natural position. A hand made its way onto her slightly cocked out hip. "You really do worry about some dumb stuff, don't you?"
Blushing, Izuku looked out the window, suddenly finding the patterns on the pathway leading into Yuuei very interesting from even this distance. He was overthinking things. He knew he was, and he was totally aware that was what he was doing, but he still couldn't help himself. Always relapsing back into it whenever he was nervous or worried, Izuku had just come to accept that this was something he did.
Only now he didn't mutter to himself. Well he did, but he didn't do it quite as often as he used to. Now that he was dating Mina, he was fairly audible with his concerns for her. Always, she would assure him that she was okay, but the hyperactive imagination on the student refused to just let him have some peace with that statement.
Suddenly, he felt a warm hand wrap itself around his. Shooting his head back, he saw Mina had closed the gap between them, and was smiling at him with that same warmth she always showed. That same beautiful smile that made his heart flutter. Her fingers interlocked with his, and she stood just that little bit closer to him than she normally did. "Come on, let's go."
"Al-Alright."
The young couple walked, hand in hand, through all the corridors of the school to the entrance of the school. With all the other students having made their way out already, or attending some of the clubs that the campus offered, they only passed by a couple of students, who didn't seem to give them too much thought.
As usual, they engaged in conversation as they walked.
"So… What d'you think? Today good or bad?" Mina questioned her boyfriend, drumming her fingers on his knuckles gently.
It had been a long day, Izuku felt, what with them essentially announcing that they were now dating to the entire class, even though that hadn't been the original plan. That had been a… Particularly embarrassing way for people to find out, and coupled with everything else, and the lack of opportunities that Izuku had had to explain things properly to his friends like Uraraka…
The combined that with the training exercise they had just been through…
"… It's been a… Rough day." Izuku admitted. Emotionally, and physically, he was exhausted right about now.
Nodding, Mina signified that she understood. "I think it's been good though."
"H-Huh?"
"I mean… Now that everyone knows about us, we can do this," She tightened her grip around Izuku's hand with a smile, "Without having to worry about some stupid rumours."
Unable to stop himself, he smiled softly. She had a point…
"There's that smile."
Both of them made their way further forward, eventually getting out of the main building and onto the pathway that led to the main gate of the campus. Still no one was around the area, apparently all of them having made their way out a while ago. It was quiet, peaceful, and serene. There wasn't even any sounds of the wind rattling tree leaves. Just pure silence. To Mina, it was probably one of the most relaxing –
"Are you sure you're alright?..."
He had asked in a much quieter voice this time, but she didn't miss what he had said when he thought that she couldn't hear him. The worry, anxiety, all of it, it still was hidden in the boy's face, showing her that he really was remorseful about a fight he had had no say in, and one in which he hadn't laid a finger on her.
With a sigh, she looked at him. "Honestly, are you still worried about the match? Do you want to give you a kiss to make you feel better?"
"E-Eh?!" Izuku suddenly shot a red scarlet colour far deeper and vibrant than any blood would ever hope to be. His already large eyes shot open even wider than Mina had ever seen, and his body, the hand she held included, suddenly turned rigid and stiff, like he was some sort of insect that froze to protect itself from predators. His hair even seemed to stand on end, like a hedgehog.
Mina shook the comparisons of her boyfriend to various harmless animals from her head and asked again, this time adding a flirtatious edge to her voice, along with a haughty smile.
"Seriously, do you want me to kiss you to prove it's alright? Go on, close your eyes and pucker up. I'll deliver~"
In actuality, she was mostly teasing him, knowing how awkward that he tended to be, she was mostly aiming to fluster him into not worrying about the match, to make him stop overthinking it by making him overthink something that was a hell of a lot more entertaining to watch.
She didn't actually expect him to actually do it. It took him a few seconds to actually get there, but he eventually did as she had told him to. He stood there with his eyes tightly shut as instructed with equally pursed lips. Evidently, he was really having to fight his nerves here to stop himself from making a run for it, or using his Quirk to shoot off into the sky like an embarrassed artillery shell.
Mina would have laughed if her own cheeks weren't turning dark violet, just as embarrassed by Izuku's willingness to allow her to kiss him so readily. It actually made her feel a little bad when she leaned in and instead planted a kiss on his cheek instead.
Still, it gave her a new weapon. With a grin, she tapped his lips gently. "Good to know you're so easily willing to let that happen." She had to stifle a chuckle as she finished speaking.
Izuku was looking at her with a face that was a mix of that of abject horror and embarrassment. His eyes shot wide open when he realized what was happening, thoroughly scarlet in the face. "Wha –"
"You're gonna need to do a little bit more than that to earn that reward, Izuku." Mina told him in a sing-song voice, before dragging him along with her, leading him by the hand. "C'mon. I wanna get a drink!"
All her teasing and joking aside, Mina was just as embarrassed as Izuku, blushing a huge amount as soon she turned away from him. She'd wanted to take that opportunity to kiss him. She had.
It was just her own nerves that were getting in the way of that.