PLASTIC FLOWERS ( k. bakugou )

chapter 20

' fire tempers steel '

━━━━━

Monotone flashes and Modern Literature ends. Cementoss dismisses the class, tells them that they have no more classes with the other teachers for the rest of the day so they can train for the upcoming Sports Festival.

Yuko is not excited, not by the least. Even when Uraraka seemed to be so fired up and even admitted that through being a professional, she could help her parents with money.

( Yuko might be needing money, but she aspired to be a hero for a different reason entirely. )

Even when she's in the gymnasium, clad in her blue PE uniform and doing cardiovascular exercises to improve her resistance to the recoil of her quirk.

She absolutely loathed the festival. Brief flashes of last year were still fresh in her mind, reminding her of how much physical pain, wasted time and utter humiliation she spent.

Yuko hopes to be strong, but she knows she's not. Unlike Katsuki, Todoroki, Midoriya, Tokoyami and Iida, Yuko doesn't strive to win, she strives to survive. She's a blot in the existence of Class A, being the first student to get eliminated during the second half of the challenges last year.

She remembers facing off against one of her classmates that year, a 6'2 male whose quirk enabled him to stretch limbs. In less than five seconds, Yuko was thrown out of the ring, landing butt first on the sand and hearing the chorus of laughter from the spectators.

She remembers sporting numerous cuts and bruises from the first trial, damaged by the swarm of mechanical bees they sent that year. If it weren't for the help of her classmates, Yuko would have been thrown out almost immediately.

She was weak. Utterly and hopelessly.

"Get out of the way!" a familiar voice calls and Yuko turns around to watch a dashing Bakugou and a trail of smoke after him. He was fast, she'd give him credit for that and when he overtook Yuko, she could see his rippling back muscles and the way they've been honed to the best condition.

By the time Yuko finished her first jog around the campus, Bakugou had done five. Fueled by a slight twinge of insecurity over the speed and endurance of the blond, Yuko decided to make ten more rounds and when she reached ten, Bakugou had headed to the gymnasium and she's fallen to the ground.

Curious, the white haired girl had followed after him after resting, wanting to figure out what could he possibly doing after that exhausting jog.

"Katsuki!" she called and watched as the crimson eyed entity positioned himself in the corner of the gymnasium flexing his hands.

When he looked up from his squatting position to see her, he merely gruffed and said, "Oh. It's you. Dog Girl."

"Dog Girl?" she asked, horrified. That was like calling her a bitch!

He didn't respond, just continued his stretching. "Move it, woman," he said. "Unless you can help in my training then you're just being a damn nuisance."

"Jeez, how very sensitive of you, Katsuki," she said to lighten up the hostile mood. "And how many times do I have to remind you, it's Yuko."

He didn't reply.

After having several encounters with Katsuki over the week, and knowing that he'd probably explode in anger if she continued bugging him, she decided to head to another corner of the gymnasium to try our her quirk. Just four or five times, she chanted to herself. Let's see if you can reach five.