𝐃𝐄𝐈𝐓𝐘 || ᵇ.ᵏᵃᵗˢᵘᵏⁱ

XLVII

my god i forgot how long it takes to write sports festivals.

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"Next up, Bakugou Katsuki Vs Kirishima Eijirou!"

"That was fast, you went from going last to going second." Aeri smiled, patting Bakugou's rock hard thigh lovingly.

Bakugou smirked, determined, and then turned to Kirishima, who was behind him and already getting up.

"Why do I keep getting paired against my friends?" Kirishima huffed, slinging an arm around Bakugou's shoulders. The latter's eye twitched but he made no move to remove Kirishima's arm.

"Good luck, you two!" Jungwon called after them.

Bakugou turned and looked to Aeri, who grinned and gave him an encouraging nod as he rounded the corner.

Jungwon moved away from his seat in the second row in favour of sitting beside his twin. Jiho followed absentmindedly, still not fully comfortable around the rest of his new classmates. He sat on Aeri's other side silently, leaning forward to get a better look at Bakugou and Kirishima, who were just entering the arena.

"So who are we thinking for this round?" Jiho questioned.

"Bakugou," Aeri answered without hesitation.

Jungwon sighed, "as much as I'd like to say Eijirou, it's gonna be Bakugou."

"I want to fight him," Jiho said, out of the blue.

"Bakugou? Why? He's a brute." Jungwon scoffed.

"No he's not, he's a sweetheart." Aeri clicked her tongue, eyebrows furrowing at the way Jungwon still found ways to sneak in subtle jabs at her boyfriend.

"To you, the rest of us barely exist to him."

"I thought you two got along now? Why are you calling him names?" Aeri turned to her brother, seeming crestfallen. "Please don't go back to how you used to be with him. He's warmed up to you and he makes an effort."

"We do get along, I just meant that he's ruthless to go up against," Jungwon shook his head. "I don't dislike him anymore."

"Shush, they're starting!" Jiho reached over Aeri and slapped Jungwon's forearm lightly.

Contrary to his nature, Bakugou was patient and didn't strike first, knowing that Kirishima would simply harden his skin to take the brunt off the explosion. It would be wasted energy to pull off explosion after explosion when they would have little to no effect on Kirishima, so Bakugou decided to think of a plan instead of using brute force to win.

Kirishima looked confused on the other side of the pitch, poised to harden yet faltering when Bakugou didn't move an inch. He was forcing Kirishima to make the first move.

And that's exactly what happened. Kirishima hesitated but charged, his skin hardening jaggedly as he angled himself to sweep Bakugou's legs out from under him.

Bakugou waited until the last moment, planted his feet, grabbed Kirishima's rock hard arm and used the momentum to swing Kirishima around, using an explosion to send him flying out of bounds.

"Kirishima is out of bounds, Bakugou wins!"

Surprising the crowd yet again, Bakugou jogged over to where Eijirou was pushing himself up and offered him is hand, yanking the red-haired male off the ground. The two boys wrapped their arms over each others shoulders as they walked off the pitch.

Bakugou frowned and shooed Jungwon out of his seat beside Aeri. Jungwon sighed but stood up and returned to his previous seat to which Jiho unsurprisingly followed.

Aeri smiled and slid her hand into Bakugou's awaiting grasp, raising his hand to her lips to press a kiss to it. "Now we wait for the quarterfinals."

"At this rate, we're gonna meet in the finals again."

"Yeah, the heroes are gonna be bored out of their minds," Aeri snickered. "Knowing our luck we'll be in the finals together next year too."

"Fuck the heroes, we're the best."

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Shinsou won the next match against Shoji and then it was announced that the last match of the semifinal round would be Jungwon Vs Todoroki.

Neither of them looked too happy to be going up against the other which meant that it'd be a close match. They were both in the group of top students in 2A, but with Jungwon being away, neither of them knew how much the other had improved.

Todoroki began with the usual song and dance, a cage of ice, restricting movement with flames, but things were always more difficult when your opponent could teleport anywhere they wanted.

But Todoroki was no longer easy as to wear down and after being in the hospital for so long and skipping extra training in favour of rugby, Jungwon was slightly out of practice with his quirk. Jungwon became tired faster than Todoroki did, and as a result, he became sloppy with his teleportation and the force of his throws.

After ten whole minutes, Jungwon found his feet glued to the floor by a thick layer of Todoroki's ice which made him falter, pausing for a moment to look down at his feet. That's when Todoroki froze up the rest of Jungwon's body, securing his win.

Aeri groaned. She had been on edge for the duration of the match, watching as both boys wore themselves out for ten minutes straight only for her twin brother to lose. She knew Jungwon would be in a terrible mood for the rest of the day, but at least she wasn't the one to beat him this time around.

"It was a fluke, Todoroki just got lucky," Aeri whispered as her brother slumped into his chair. Jungwon nodded with a small smile, perking up when Jiho slung a comforting arm over his shoulders. Aeri gave Jungwon a knowing look before turning back towards the arena to wait for the quarterfinal match-up announcements.

"This is gettin' real boring now," Bakugou groaned as they waited for the teachers and volunteers to get the pitch ready for the next match.

"You wanna go for a walk? Skip everything until it's our go?" Aeri offered.

Bakugou tugged her closer with the arm that was wrapped around her shoulders and nodded, pressing a sly kiss to her temple as they stood up.

"One of us might be fighting in a few minutes so we'd better not go far," Aeri said.

"One of us or maybe both of us," Bakugou pointed out.

"I hope not," Aeri whined, "If we have to fight each other, I want it to be in the finals so one of us doesn't lose in the quarterfinals."

Bakugou hummed in agreement, "you think we can go persuade your dad to make sure we don't get paired up in this round?"

"Absolutely not, he'd sooner quit his job than show bias towards his children. In fact, I wouldn't put it past him to do the opposite and forego the randomised results just to make sure we are paired up instead of making sure we aren't."

"He's that petty?" Bakugou raised an eyebrow.

"Where do you think, Hyunjin, Jungwon and I got it from? Definitely not from our mom." Aeri let out an incredulous laugh.

"So we just gotta hope we're lucky?" Bakugou sighed.

"Yeah, but if we are paired up, we'll just have to deal with it. This sports festival holds no significance so I'm not going to get too competitive with you." Aeri stopped walking and laced her hands with Bakugou's.

"You're gonna let me win?" Bakugou raised an eyebrow.

"I didn't say that, I said I wouldn't get too competitive."

Bakugou scoffed teasingly, "Yeah, whatever."

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