Beauty vs the Beast (Katsuki Bakugo fanfic)

4:「 His Fury 」

The next day, almost every student spent their morning classes counting down the clock until it was time for their favorite course: Hero Basic Training. It was finally time, Carine thought, as she heard All Might's voice from outside the classroom.

Much to the students' surprise however, All Might had bursted in through the actual door. "I HAVE COME THROUGH THE DOOR, LIKE A NORMAL PERSON!" he bellowed with accompanying laughter. Immediately, the classroom filled with excitement and wonder.

 "It's All Might! Incredible, he's really going to teach us!" someone shouted.

 "That's his silver age costume!" another voiced piped.

"Hero Basic Training! This is the class that's going to mold you into heroes. No time to waste; today's activity is Battle Training!" All Might shouted. "And for that, you need these!" With a click of a button, All Might had opened a series of columns emerging from the wall. "With the quirk registry and the special request forms you filled out..."

"Costumes!" All Might was interrupted by the students' surge of pure excitement. Each of them were given a bag of their very own original hero costumes.

 "After you change, come out in ranking order to ground beta!!" All Might instructed.

Carine walked into the fitting rooms and opened her bag to discover the costume that she had spend countless days designing. She remembered the numerous sketches that took nights to perfect on paper. 

The translucent sleeves did more than just look pretty. Everything, from the layered costume that came down in the form of a skirt for quick and simple maneuvering, bits of armor to protect the body, to the boots, were all to preserve the cold that her quirk provided. The costume was designed not only to enhance her quirk, but to also aid in both long and close range battle. And all of those designs on paper had come to life, folded in her arms.

Carine walked out into the ground as soon as she finished dressing, and saw all of her classmates in stunning, original costumes. She had no time to waste however, because as soon as she reached the center, All Might spoke.

"We're all here then? Shall we begin!? It's time for battle training!" he shouted with enthusiasm. "Since you have already successfully maneuvered outdoors during the entrance exam, we will be moving on to indoor-anti personnel training." Puzzled looks began to appear on the students' faces.

"Although battles with villains are most likely to be seen outdoors, the most heinous villains' are most likely to appear indoors," All Might explained. "You'll now be split into Villain teams and Hero teams, and face off in two-on-two indoor battles!" he continued.

"How do we proceed to divide ourselves?" A student raised his hand.

"What determines victory?" another asked.

One question after another piled up, up until All Might grew unsettled and silenced the students: "Listen up! Here's the deal. The villains will be hiding a nuclear weapon in the hideout, and the heroes have to go in and take care of it. Your battle partners will be decided by drawing lots!" he exemplified.

From the results of the lot, Carine happened to be a sorted into Team A for the exercise, and her partner was none other than the green haired boy she had met yesterday. Deku? She remembered the name that Uraraka had called him the day before, believing that to be his real name by mistake. 

"Guess we're on the same team then!" she smiled at Deku, whose face was turning into a rather intense color of beet red.

"For the first round: Heroes are Team A, and villains are Team D!" All Might announced. Team D? Carine thought. She looked over at Deku, who had a face of bewilderment.

"The villain team goes first! The timer will start in five minutes, when the hero team sneaks in. The rest of us will watch via CCTG," All Might explained. "Iida! Bakugo! You two need to adopt a villain mindset! Go all out. Don't hold back, but I will step in if things go to far."

"We need to memorize these building blueprints," Carine spoke. "At least there's no punishment for losing this time around, though." 

The villain team had already stepped in, meaning she and Deku only had 5 minutes to come up with a plan. She turned to speak to her partner, but was taken by surprise, seeing balls of sweat drip from his forehead. 

"Are you okay? You seem really worried.." Carine asked with concern.

 "Well, we're up against Kaachan...and Iida too...we have to be on guard," there was a slight quiver in Deku's voice.

 "Bakugo's the one who keeps causing trouble, right?" Carine thought back to the impulsive blonde boy who picked a fight with Iida on the first day of class, and who lunged at Deku during Aizawa's quirk test.

"He may be a jerk, but he's amazing. His goals, his confidence, his quirk...he's stronger than me in every way." The quiver in his voice had vanished as it was replaced by compete and utter determination. Deku reattached his mask. "And that's why I don't want to lose to him."

The alarm had gone off, and it was time for the battle to start. Deku and Carine had successfully infiltrated the building through the window. As they walked through the halls together, Carine looked closely at every corner.

But even with both of their sharp eyes, they were caught off guard. They hadn't noticed Bakugo slipping through the tight corners, until he leaped onto Deku and set off an explosion.

Fortunately, both of their reflexes were quick enough to jump out of the way in time. Carine regained her footing midair and slid across the floor, halting her movement with the palm of her hand. Deku had leaped out of the way, but half of his mask had been torn off when he exposed himself to the blast, in order to prevent it from harming Carine.

"He grazed me! You okay, Minazuki?" Deku asked, exasperated. 

"I'm fine, but he came out of nowhere. I didn't even hear him..." Carine looked up at the corner where Bakugo had leapt.

"Nice dodge, Deku." The smoke from the explosion had cleared just enough to reveal Bakugo.

"I knew he was going to come for me," Deku gritted his teeth.

"I'll mess you up just enough not to get disqualified!" Bakugo lunged at Deku, who grabbed Bakugo's arm and slammed him onto the floor. 

"Kaachan, I've seen your moves enough to know how to react. I've analyzed every hero I think are awesome in that notebook...the one you blew up and chucked out the window!" the emotions began to leak out of Deku's voice. "I'm not going to be your worthless punching bag forever, Kacchan. I'm...the Deku who always does his best!"

Carine looked on at Deku in astonishment. He was a literal pool of sweat just before the match started. To think that he would have such a transformation. She let out a small smile. If this were any other match, she would have helped Deku, but something in this fight was too personal. She didn't want to interfere, because it would have been unfair to her partner.

Of course, Bakugo would never allow himself to be lectured by the pest he called Deku.

"You spout all that crap, while being scared out of your mind. It pisses me off."

With those words, he looked past Deku and narrowed his eyes at Carine, letting out a menacing grin.

"Don't think I've forgotten about you, snowflake. I'll deal with you after I've finished off Deku."

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** The picture above was drawn by my very talented friend :> She's @Tiburme on insta!