Dulan

test 1: 50-meter dash.

you looked around at everyone else, they looked nervous but determined. the challenge was to run 50-meters using your quirk to improve your mobility. that seemed pretty easy, right? the first duo up was tenya iida and tsuyu asui. you watch as they both set off quickly at the end of aizawa’s countdown, tenya crosses first with an astonishing 3.04 seconds. damn, he’s fast. you thought. tsuyu followed some time after, 5.58 seconds. not too shabby. you thought again.

next was ochako and ojiro, then mina and aoyama. soon afterwards, it came to you and bakugou. you were nervous, you weren’t gonna lie. bakugou seemed like a very strong competitor—but you weren’t gonna let that bring you down. you both walked up to the starting line and got in your starting positions. you began to get ready to activate your quirk: air. you planned to use it to glide across the ground in the quickest way possible.

“ready…” aizawa's voice rang, interrupting your deep thoughts. you and bakugou both got into first position.

“set..” you both got into second position.

“begin.” you both set off. you and bakugou were traveling at the same speed, but you just happened to be a little faster. this angered him. he attempted to go faster by igniting his fire hands and making a bigger flame. but by the time got a chance to do so, you both passed the finish line. you passed first with 4.11 seconds and bakugou following with 4.13 seconds.

you smirked at bakugou. “good job.”

you sauntered back towards the group, not knowing the effect your words had on him. he was angry—how the hell did you do that? how the hell were you faster than him? his quirk is supposed to be better than all of these dumbass extras, including you. so how was it possible that you beat him?  and by only 0.2 seconds? he was gonna show your ass. he wasn’t gonna let you get away with it.

test 2: standing long jump.

the challenge was to use your quirk to clear a sandbox designed for standing long jumps. this was basically a repeat of the 50-meter dash, but you had to jump over an entire sandbox. this was easy, definitely. you were up first. you jumped and cleared the sandbox quick and efficiently. you walked back to the group of students, but this time you spot bakugou fuming. what the hell was his problem? but you decided to shrug it off, it was probably something stupid.

he was up after a few people and he cleared the sandbox as well. you weren’t super impressed as he wanted everyone to be. he just wanted to be the cynosure, or the center of attention. he walked from the sandbox with the utmost confidence. he made direct eye contact with you and smirked. the same way you smirked at him during the first test. you rolled your eyes — he was just being petty.

the final test: ball throw.

the challenge was pretty explanatory. you test how far you could throw the ball with your quirk. another easy one, you thought. you prepared your quirk and we’re called up after bakugou. you goal to beat him, just to break his ‘i’m fucking better than all you losers’ facade. you got called up. aizawa gave the ball and nodded your way.

you stood in the circle and activated your quirk. you held your arm back for more momentum, activated your quirk, and threw the ball as hard you could in the sky. it flew fast and you squinted your eyes to see where it went. you chuckled and looked back at aizawa. we was still calculating the results. the wait was nerve-racking. did you really throw it that far? aizawa soon smiled.

“805.2.” you jumped up and down in excitement. 

the class was in shock. everyone started clapping but there was one sour puss in the crowd as always. “what the fuck?!” bakugou’s voice roared over the rest of the class. everyone else went silent and looked at him. he couldn’t believe that that loser deku AND you beat him. he couldn’t fathom how that could possibly happen.

“how the hell did she do that? and how she go exactly 100 meters high than me?” he started to complain to aizawa. he started to walk towards you but was quickly held back by aizawa. he tried to fight his tape but it was no use.

“what.. what is this tape made out of?!” aizawa rolled his eyes. “no attacking your classmates, bakugou.” you crossed your arms.

“control your temper, bakugou. it won’t get you anywhere.” you walked past his defeated state. if he wasn’t being held back—he would’ve challenged you to a 1v1 right there. But he kept his composure, for now.

-

and that’s when your rivalry with bakugou started.

most of your conversations consisted of arguing, spitting insults at each other, and passive aggressive comments. your classmates, at this point, were tired of your arguing. they often made fun of you and you vividly remember one time where kaminari remarked on your arguing as how “married couple” would. you and bakugou were disgusted. you could NEVER see bakugou in that way. he was just too much of a kid for you. he had the temper of a toddler - and personally, you couldn’t handle that. bakugou didn’t waste any time chasing kaminari around the dorms and around the whole school. 

everyday you never failed to piss bakugou off somehow. even when you didn’t mean to do it intentionally, you just did and you loved having that power over him. but then, you finally ticked him off, he went off the deep end because of the events at the sports festival, specifically the battle tournament. bakugou had already advanced a few rounds due to his sporadic but amazing attacks and technique. not a lot of the competitors could keep up with that and you viciously studied his techniques in order to be able to keep up with him whenever you fought him.

you already beat all of your competitors and you and bakugou were due for the final fight.

he’d already been heated after fighting todoroki, due to him beating him “easily” and not putting up much of a fight.  and honestly, you were a bit afraid of his wrath. todoroki was extremely strong and bakugou knocked him out just like that? you knew he wouldn’t go easy on you just because you were a girl, just like ochako and that’s fair. so you just prepare yourself mentally for this fight. deciding your battle strategies and closely observing bakugou’s quick reaction time.

It was finally time for the final fight. you and bakugou stood, making intense eye contact. It was finally time for him to claim his title as the best. you felt as if all eyes were on you. You both stood, center of the attention in the stadium. the crowd around you were huge fans of the pro-heroes, and especially the new ones coming up and protecting them.

“we have our final competitors in the ring! we have, from the hero course, (y/n) (l/n)! ” the crowd is clapping and screaming, excited from your previous fights.

“versus her classmate, katsuki bakugou!” the crowd roars even louder, everyone knowing his strength from his past fights and they were all betting on who was gonna win.

“it all comes down to here folks! who will take the crown? who will win the battle tournament?” present mic screamed into his microphone, raising the hype of the crowd. you began to activate your quirk. you decided you would start off the battle off with water, to fight against his fire attacks. as you eyed your blonde-haired opponent, you only had one objective. To do the best you could, and go to the limit of your power.

“now… begin!” bakugou immediately charged towards you, his hands flaming.

you began to form a water tornado to put out his flames. bakugou took notice of this and prepared a ball of flame to counter it. but all of a sudden, a huge wave of water washed bakugou across the entire podium, and he almost fell off it. he slid and you could hear the crowd ‘ooo’ed and his face turned red, it was only the beginning. you ran towards him ready to land the final blow, thinking this was too easy, but as soon as you got your attack ready, bakugou made a huge explosion that knocked you backwards a few feet. you landed on your back and slid across the podium again but on your back. you couldn’t breathe for a second. damn it, so close. you thought. you clutched your chest and stood up slowly, using your back leg as support for keeping your balance.

bakugou zoomed towards you once again, seemingly stronger than before. he noticed your state of weakness and used that as his advantage. you both started having hand to hand combat. he would punch with his flamed hands but you would use water to knock the flame out of his hands. it ended with him kicking you all the way across the podium, luckily, you used your earth element to lift the ground to you back forward preventing you from falling off the edge. 

bakugou got impatient and started to spew constant explosions at you to keep you distracted. now i see how no one could beat him, you thought. you weren’t stupid, you knew he would use the explosions as a way to sneak in and knock you off the podium with one blow. “breathe…” you told yourself as you began to use air to blow all the smoke from explosions to clear your sight and be able to deflect his next attack. 

the air blew the smoke out of the way and now that you could see him, your hands started to move and you began to use air, and lifted yourself up in the sky. he looked shocked that you predicted his moves. bakugou begins to viciously set off his fire attacks and you dodge every single one of them which prolongs the fights. he doesn’t stop. how does he have this much energy? his explosions become more grand and stronger and one almost knocks you out of the sky.

then he stops for a second. you wonder why he does, but then he hurls a huge explosion towards you, probably big enough to blow up the entire stadium if he wanted to. by instinct, you use air and hold back the attack. you realize what happened and you now realize you could counter this and end the entire match. so with all your strength, you parry the explosion and it goes back in his direction. because of how big the explosion was, even if he dodged it, it would still knock him off the podium. you slowly glide back towards the ground after the explosion sets off. the smoke clears and you spot a knocked out bakugou, well it was an educated guess, you didn’t know if he was or not, and the ground is cracked, terribly.

the crowd erupts in applause and screaming. you look up at your classmates and see them jumping up and down. you won?

“and our winner is, (y/n) (l/n)!” you stood in shock. A part of you wants to be happy, but another part of you is worried. did you hurt him? did you kill him? you are soon ushered away and the competition is over. you end up in first place, bakugou in second, and todoroki in third. you won the entire tournament, but at what cost?

-

the next week, you were sitting in the class waiting for aizawa for show up along with everyone else. soon the class became filled with people. you were surrounded by your classmates. they wondered how you finally beat bakugou, and they were thanking you for shutting bakugou up because all he did was brag and say how he was better than everyone else the whole time. you were enjoying it - until he came into the classroom. You spotted him walking towards you angrily and looked at you like a man on a mission.

“(y/n)!” he yelled, shutting up the crowd of chattering teens around you. 

“bakugou.” you spat back, obviously already tired of his bullshit. 

“how did you beat me! how?” he was furious.

“I just did. deal with it.” you didn’t really wanna argue with him, this early in the morning anyways. a part of you was still waking up. you sat in silence as bakugou yelled at you in confusion and shock, as if the fight ended 5 minutes ago. suddenly, a miracle happened. aizawa came into the class.

“bakugou, sit down.” aizawa used his tape to drag him to his seat. he sat there the entire class period mumbling and breaking every single pencil he grabbed out of his booksack. 

“and that’s the end of class. go to lunch. also, (y/n) and bakugou, please stay behind.” you rolled your eyes and gathered your things. the class scurried out of the class at the thought of food, leaving you and bakugou at aizawa’s desk.

“now,” he rests his elbows and his hands beneath his chin. “i’ll need both of you to do a very important job for me.” you raise your eyebrow curiously, and bakugou slightly grunts stuffing his hands inside his pockets. his eyes wouldn’t meet aizawa’s. “i want you both to patrol the grounds tonight-” 

“what?!” you and bakugou say in unison. 

“the people we have to do it from 8 to 12 are out and mr. nezu asked me to recruit someone from class 1-a. I believe you both are capable.” he continues the statement, blatantly ignoring the shock on both of your faces. “i couldn’t honestly care less about how you both feel about each other. I just want you to be mature and be able to handle your first hero job.” 

you sigh. as much as he irritates, you’ll suck it up for the job. but that wouldn’t be the same for bakugou.  “hell no!” bakugou shouts. “i can never work with her!”

but of annoyance, you thank aizawa and say that you would both be up for the job in spite of bakugou’s constant protests and him yelling at you to let him go. he’s all bark and no bite.

-

it’s 9pm. you and bakugou are patrolling the grounds, as instructed. you both haven’t said a word to each other even though you constantly argue. this was new for you because you had been ready to spew insults and argue with him the entire time. although, it’s not like you loved doing that. bakugou just wouldn’t leave you alone. but it seems he went against his ideals tonight and you liked that. you liked the peace and quiet until you just couldn’t help but ask him the question to cure your curiosity.

“what’s your problem, bakugou?” you looked at him.

“the fuck you mean, my problem? ‘m perfectly fine.” he retorted. 

“your problem with me.” your hands landed on your hips. “I know you hate me and all, but why?” 

his eyes moved away from yours and he struggled with finding the words to your question. he didn’t wanna seem weak by being vulnerable and expressing his emotions, so he decided he would keep it short and simple.

“yes. i do hate you. i really just can’t fathom how you beat me that easily in the battle tournament.”

“oh, trust me, it wasn’t easy. If i didn’t act on instinct on the final blow, you would’ve won definitely.” this made him not feel any better because it revealed how close he was to beating you.

“i need to be just as strong as you so i can beat you every other time we fight. I will beat you. no matter what it takes. if i have to work out everyday for more than an hour, i will. if i have to get up in the ass crack of dawn to be able to, i will. and when i beat you,” he pointed in your face, trying to be intimidating. “i’ll wipe that smug off your face. just trust me, i'll be the best soon enough.” he walked away. You processed his words and started to laugh to yourself.

did he really just say that his goal is to get as strong as you?