Byakko's Hero Academia (My Hero Academia FanFic - Female OC X Bakugo)

Chapter Thirteen: Run, Byakko!

A huge crowd of people is already filling the stadium and the air is heavy with different smells of food coming from the many stands and kiosks. Everyone around her seems to be excited and elated, but Masha's not able to adopt their carefree enthusiasm for herself. As she thinks back at how Izukyun had told her that he had talked to All Might about the sports festival during their more or less secret lunch meeting, she can feel the tension of concern for her best friend making her body grow increasingly rigid. The blond number one hero had revealed that the time he's able to remain in his muscle form for a day has decreased again to fifty minutes only after the fight against Nomu at the USJ and the new injuries and the overexertion of his sickish body. In consequence of the bulky guy weakening faster than he had thought he would, Izukyun's mentor had pressured the poor green haired boy to hurry and become the new symbol of peace, taking the U.A. sports festival as his debut as the next All Might in front of the whole world and especially making a great appearance in presence of the other pro heroes.

Masha heaves a sigh. Her messy haired childhood friend isn't the only one being stressed. The two weeks of training under uncle Shota's strict eyes had been hell itself and her little prank with Present Mic at the gala event hadn't helped to make him go easy on her at all. Additionally the cat girl feels anxious about having to fight her own classmates and still can't understand why they're all so supportive of that idea. There should be another way to show off their abilities properly, right? However Masha's friends don't seem to be worried about it and on the contrary await the beginning of the festival eagerly. 

Reaching the doors of the large arena a certain bright and colourful booth with hero merchandise catches her interest. The young tigress walks over and scans the table finding a lot of merch of many of her teachers. Smiling at the young woman behind the counter she searches through a bunch of T-shirts for children. "Are you searching for something specific?", the friendly sales lady asks causing Masha to nod her head. "I was hoping to get something... uhm for my little brother. He's a big Hawks fan.", she replies remembering small Isamu-kun from the therapy centre who hadn't been able to smile until very recently when the cat girl was watching a documentary on the current number three hero with him. His big blue eyes behind his glasses were sticking on the screen while following every movement of the winged pro hero with rosy cheeks and then a very bright and happy smile suddenly lit up the tiny boy's usually rather serious and somewhat sad face. 

"Oh, how nice of you to think about your brother today!", the seller praises the teenage girl while starting to rummage under her table. "How old is he if I may ask?" Masha twitches her tiger ears thoughtfully. "Six, but he's kinda small and thin for his age and his quirk doesn't affect his physics either." The nice lady hums understandingly finally pulling out a boxed set of clothing with a satisfied smile. "We got this brand new!", she announces with excitement in her voice. "It's a complete set of Hawks' original hero costume with earmuffs, yellow toned glasses, jacket, shirt, pants, socks, boots and gloves. If you can manage to make him some red wings of cardboard or something similar and do his hair a little your brother will soon look like a miniature of Hawks himself. And don't bother if it's a little big, kids that age grow pretty fast."

After getting the Hawks merch and buying an All Might tank top for herself, the cat girl thanks the young woman and takes her leave in order to go to the girl's changing rooms. Leaving her casual clothes and her backpack in a locker and having changed into the U.A.'s royal blue athletic clothes, Masha meets Mina in one of the stadium's corridors. "Aw man!", the pink girl whines disappointedly and pinches her sports uniform. "I was totally hoping to wear my costume!" The tiger girl raises her eyebrows at her classmate and notices Ojiro walking up to them coming from the boy's locker room. "At least everyone will be in uniforms.", he states moving his tail as he speaks to the girls. "That'll keep things fair, right?" Masha snorts at his remark. "Well, generally speaking, yes. As for me... no.", she points out referring to her shape shifting ability. "Not that I actually want to use it against one of you guys, but even if I planned to, I couldn't use my tiger form in combat. At least if I'd have to turn back in front of everyone..."