Mha oc

Sports Festival-part nine.

The stadium buzzed with excitement, but I was tuned out. Standing on the third-place podium, I barely registered the weight of the bronze medal All Might had just draped over my neck. My muscles ached from the tournament, and the sting on my neck from my match with Bakugou wasn't doing me any favors. But none of that mattered right now.

All I could focus on was the blond on the top podium, thrashing against his restraints like a caged animal.

Bakugou Katsuki was furious—like apocalyptic furious. His muffled shouts tore through the stadium, making some in the crowd flinch. I could hear them whispering, see their judgmental stares aimed at him. But as I stood there, my eyes locked onto his face, and it hit me like a punch to the gut.

Under all that rage, there it was. Fear.

His pupils were blown wide, his breathing ragged despite the snarl he was trying to hold. This wasn't just anger at losing—or winning, in his case. No, this was something else entirely. Something deeper.

I knew that look. It wasn't just rage. It was the kind of panic you feel when you're backed into a corner, when the walls feel like they're closing in and you can't breathe.

And then it clicked—the fucking muzzle.

They'd strapped his face shut, probably to keep him from cussing out the crowd or biting someone, but all it was doing was making things worse. I thought back to what I'd read about the sludge villain incident. The way he'd nearly suffocated in its grip, how helpless he must've felt.

A chill ran down my spine. This isn't okay.

I glanced at All Might as he hesitated to approach Bakugou with the gold medal. The crowd kept shouting, some laughing, others booing, treating him like he was some kind of spectacle instead of a person. My hands curled into fists.

"...Fuck this."

Before I could stop myself, I jumped down from my podium, landing in front of Bakugou with a dull thud. The crowd gasped, and All Might started to say something, but I wasn't listening.

I reached for the restraints, ignoring Bakugou's muffled curses and the officials running toward me. With a grunt, I used my quirk, cracking the metal chains like they were brittle plastic. They shattered and fell to the ground in pieces, the muzzle following with a loud clink.

Bakugou's thrashing stopped immediately. His mouth was open like he was about to yell, but no sound came out. He stood there, frozen, his chest heaving as he sucked in a sharp breath of air.

The stadium went silent, save for the whispers spreading through the crowd.

"Oi! What the hell do you think you're doing?!" one of the officials barked, storming toward me.

I didn't care.

I turned toward the crowd, my voice amplified by my quirk so they'd all hear me.

"Bakugou Katsuki is NOT a monster!" I shouted, my voice echoing through the stadium. "So stop chaining him up like he's one!"

The silence that followed was deafening. My chest heaved as I glared at the crowd, daring anyone to say something back.

Bakugou still hadn't moved. He just stood there, staring at me like he couldn't figure out whether to thank me or punch me in the face. He was staring at me, stunned and...something else.

Finally, he muttered, his lips twitched into something that wasn't quite a smile, and he muttered, "Dumbass."

"Likewise," I shot back, stepping back to my podium as if nothing had happened.

Bakugou stood on his first-place podium, glaring at the world like usual. But his shoulders weren't as tense anymore.

And me? I didn't care about the crowd or the bronze medal hanging around my neck. For the first time all day, I felt like I'd done something right. 

The rest of the ceremony passed in a blur. All Might finally managed to get the medals on all of us, but the tension in the stadium lingered. I could still feel the stares, hear the murmurs, but I didn't care.

Bakugou might've been angry, rude, and volatile as hell, but he wasn't a monster. He was just a kid, like the rest of us, and he didn't deserve to be treated like anything less.