Cherry Bomb

No Hard Feelings, Right?

Author's Note. Listen to the Steve Aoki remix of Mic Drop while you read this. You won't regret it ;D

Bakugo

The look in her eyes pissed me off. I'd worn that look myself. This girl was looking for a fight. "Deku, go home," I said, pulling him away from her grasp and standing in front of him.

"Kacchan," he warned.

Dammit. I knew that tone. It meant, don't do anything stupid. I glared down at the girl. "Whadda you want with Deku?"

"We were just talking," Deku insisted, pulling on my shirt cuff. "Let's go meet back up with the others."

She smirked at me. "You should listen to him. Wouldn't wanna get yourself disqualified from competing tomorrow."

I breathed in sharply. The hell? "What did you do to him?"

Deku pulled my shirt cuff again. "Nothing, Kacchan. Really. I'm fine. Let's just go."

"I didn't ask you," I snapped, not breaking away my gaze.

I heard footsteps and felt a hand on my shoulder. "Is everything okay over here, man?" Kirishima asked. I felt his gaze darting between the two of us, trying to evaluate the situation.

Ero made his way over with Mina. "What's going on?"

The girl snickered. "It's sweet how your boyfriends jump to your defense," she commented snidely. "Good thing they're here to protect you. You won't be able to rely on them during the festival."

I snarled at her. "I don't know who you think you're talking to, Cotton Candy - "

" - Katsuki Bakugo. One of the big three of Class 2-A, and a guy who needs an entourage just to stay in one piece."

I threw a punch in her direction but she dodged it, ending up behind me with her fists raised.

"Kacchan, don't!" Deku warned. "We can't use our quirks against civilians!"

"I know!" But that didn't mean I couldn't use good old-fashioned hand-to-hand combat.

"Don't! She's trying to provoke you into fighting her!" Mina yelled at me.

By this point, everyone in the club was staring at us. We circled around each other, not breaking our gazes for a second. A song by some Korean boy band started to play.

"I won't hurt her that bad," I insisted. "Just enough to wipe that stupid smirk off her face."

I threw another punch, but once again she dodged it with a backward flip, rolling on the floor to end up behind me. I leaped into the air and changed my trajectory to face her. We continued on like that for several minutes. I hit most of my marks but my timing was still off. It was almost as if...

She's predicting all my moves. How is that possible? She had a countermove for every punch I threw at her. Even when I changed up my fight patterns. But she hadn't managed to lay a finger on me, either.

"Come on, Bakugo! You're gonna get us kicked out!" Kaminari cried out.

I karate-kicked straight up, aiming for her face. She jumped in the air and somersaulted over my head, dodging it.

I raised my hand, palm open but froze when I remembered. One blast or an AP shot would've knocked her out. But I couldn't use my quirk. Crap!

She landed on my chest, forcing me to fall backward. Then she had me pinned, her arm pressing down my face.

She was fast, I'd give her that. But she wasn't faster than me. I threw a feint punch with my left hand and grabbed her shirt with my right. Finally, I had her trapped. I rolled over and slammed her down into the ground, pinning her with my hand around her throat. I held her down with enough force to keep her still but not enough to cut off her air supply.