Amethyst. (Katsuki Bakugo x Reader)

Part 28 - No Strategy. No Mercy.

After the fight against Aizawa, Shoto and I returned to the command center together.

My face was still warm—not just from the frost and fire that had danced across my skin minutes ago, but from something deeper. Maybe pride. Maybe relief. Maybe both. For once, we hadn't been Todoroki and Todoroki, stuck on opposite sides of a name we didn't choose. We were just... us.

"You're quiet," Shoto said beside me.

I glanced at him. His usual stoic expression was in place, but I knew him better than that now. His voice held something softer. Concern, maybe.

"I'm just thinking," I replied, crossing my arms as the screens lit up in front of us.

He nodded, not pushing further. And that—his silence without judgment—said more than any words.

One by one, the screens shifted to show the remaining student-teacher battles.

Ochaco and Yuga were facing Thirteen. I hadn't expected much from Yuga - I mean, who does? - but he surprised me. The two of them actually worked well together. Ochaco's zero-gravity paired with his laser quirk? Chaotic, but effective. In the end, they won. Barely. But a win was a win.

"Nice," I muttered to myself.

The next screen made my chest tighten.

Mina and Denki vs. Principal Nezu.

Two of my closest friends against... our genius rat-mouse like principal. I still didn't fully understand his Quirk—High Specs—but I knew enough to be nervous. At first, it looked almost comical. Mina slipping through tight corridors, Denki charging up in the background.

But then Nezu showed us why he was the principal of U.A.

He climbed into a crane. An actual construction crane. And with terrifying precision, he brought the whole training ground to chaos—dropping beams, demolishing buildings, setting traps before they even thought to move. It wasn't a fight.

It was strategy. Brutal, brilliant, calculated.

"He's acting like a villain," I whispered.

Mina and Denki didn't stand a chance.

When the screen cut out, I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding.

"Good thing he's on our side," I muttered. "God, I'm just glad they're okay."

Next up: Jiro and Koda vs. Present Mic.

That fight took place in the forest section—tons of trees, tight spaces, echo chambers. Hell for eardrums. Present Mic's voice blasted through the trees like a bomb going off.

Jiro winced more than once, but she didn't back down. And Koda... I don't know what got into him, but he was fierce. Like, actual beast mode. The way he directed the animals, protected Jiro, stood his ground—he wasn't the shy boy we all knew. He was... a partner.

And together? They brought Mic down. Barely, but damn, they did it.

The screen changed again.

Hagakure and Shoji vs. Snipe.

Now that was clever.

Snipe's precision was insane, and Shoji's size made him an easy target—but with Hagakure being completely invisible, they turned the whole fight on its head. Misdirection, silence, traps from nowhere. Snipe never saw it coming.

Victory.

Then came Sero and Yaoyorozu versus Midnight.

Yaoyorozu's brain and Sero's tape—unexpected combo, but weirdly effective. Midnight tried to use her Quirk early on, but Yaoyorozu had prepped something—some kind of filter device they wore like masks. It bought them time. And Sero used every wall, pole, and shadow like he owned them.