She-Wolf || A My Hero Academia OC Fan-Fiction

Chapter Six: Defeat?

     "Run for it!" Lovette shouted and scrambled to get moving. Her claws scraped against the tile, making her skid for a second before she rocketed towards the back door that she had left open just a crack.

    It rebounded off the wall as she burst through. She skidded to a stop when a loud yelp echoed through the silent streets.

     "Agh!" She whipped around, her ears pinned to the back of her head.

     There was a strange sound from within the store, like the skittering of mice within the walls or wind rustling through dry, crinkly tree branches. Poor Taichi had been knocked over beside the door, which had slammed shut on the faces of the opposing team.

     She bounded over as he stood up on four legs again, shaking himself off to try to get his wind back. "You okay?" She asked, turning into position to run.

     "Yes," he nodded, taking a few wobbly steps.

     "You sure?"

     He nodded again, trotting  a bit faster. Darting in front of him, she rounded a corner straight into the street. A quick glance up and down the rubble-littered streets and a quick sniff of the air gave the all-clear. She motioned for him to follow her, taking a sharp left and doubling back around the shop.

     "The fire and flood areas are out, since those aren't good for either of us," she panted, nimbly dodging through a collapsed section of wall that hung above their head like a stone arch. "I think our best  bet is to stay here and clean this area out, then wait for other teams to come to us."

     "Yes, that sound good."

     Something clung to her suddenly, grabbing at her paws and tightening around them as they dragged her into the air. "Wha--hey!" She shouted, looking around wildly for the source of the thorny vines entangling her legs as she hung upside down yards above the street. Blood rushed to her head, making her dizzy almost instantly. Taichi was hanging beside her with his limbs entangled in the thorny knot and his ears flopping down towards the pavement.

     "Got you! You guys are out!" A soft yet haughty voice called out. The minty-haired girl grinned from ear to ear as a vine tore Lovette's scarf from her neck and deposited it in the palm of her hand. She patted the twisted vine like it was a puppy retrieving a ball and waved the scarf around in an arrogant display. "Ha! See Darkside? I told you I could get someone out!"

     Shadows moved strangely across the street, colliding in the middle and billowing into a strange form before retreating back to their natural positions, leaving a small but well-muscled boy with his black hair cropped just short enough to avoid getting into his eyes. "Yes, I see. Now let's go get the rest out, shall we?" he mumbled  with his hands stuck in the front pocket of his black hoodie.

     "Aww, come on! I deserve at least a little credit, right?" She begged with a sigh and skipped after him. The vines slowly let them down on the street and withered away before their eyes. "You're lucky I didn't have to use my Venus Fly Traps on you!" She shouted back at them, twirling her skirt.

     Lovette stood up, her tail pinned between her legs in defeat. They were out of the game already.

     "I'm so sorry." She dragged her paw in a semi circle on the asphalt. "I guess we should go back now."

     He nodded, standing up. "You can undo quirk now, yes?"

     Her eyes widened and she blinked a few times. "Uh..."

     Ears perking with interest, he tilted his head.

     "No, you kind of have to wait it out. It's going to be probably a good five to ten minutes before it wears off, at least. I've had it take up to an hour and a half before, though, so there's really no telling," she admitted quietly, staring down at her paws. "Sorry, I forgot to tell you."

     "Ah, I see. Then I just wait, right? No problem," he started walking in the direction of the front of the building, where Aizawa was waiting.

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     The teacher didn't pay any attention to them as they climbed back up the stairs to where the defeated students had gathered. Instead, he stared and scrolled through his phone like they weren't even there.

     Lovette trotted off to the bathroom, de-transforming and changing quickly as she could. She slung her bag across her shoulder and walked back through the empty hallway.

     Her shoulders were slung back casually to help reinforce her sense of self-confidence. After all, looking confident was a lot easier than actually being confident.

     In reality, she felt like yelling at herself for getting caught so easily. Looking at her, the only way you could pick up on her sourness would be to watch the way her glare lighted up in fury at seemingly insignificant things or the way her jaw clenched when something ticked her off.

     "Hey, I'm back," she said softly, standing next to the sitting Taichi. His clothing still hung loosely around him like she'd advised. If he didn't want to sit in the bathroom until he de-transformed, then it was usually best to keep the clothes on.

     He nodded as their attention was called over by the teacher.

     "Well, that was over nice and quick," he said, putting away his phone. "Good job. I saw it all on the camera bots. Now, for the constructive criticism and feedback and such." He started telling each team what they could work on, and what they did well in that situation.

     Lovette unintentionally tuned it all out, her glazed-over eyes fixed on the pavement and her sneer revealing sharp, canine-like teeth as her fury focused on a single gray pebble. Her mind kept replaying the scene over and over, analyzing everything she'd done wrong.

      If she'd dodged at the last moment; if she'd looked behind her; if she'd took a long listen or sniff of the air; if she'd taken a different route. All the 'ifs' collided together, painting a web-like picture in her head of all the different things she could have done.

     "Lovette!" An impatient voice startled her from her reflection.

      She shook her head as she relapsed into reality from her trance. There were several snickers, but she could now feel the concerned stares as she realized that she was giving a rock the death glare. "My apologies," she bowed, speaking rapid Japanese. "I was merely thinking about ways I can improve my fighting in the future. I didn't intend to ignore you."

     "It's fine," he said, glancing at his phone quickly then back at her. "I actually need to see you before class tomorrow. Stop by about a half hour early. Anyways, you both did fairly well. You were the sixth team out. Just work on your awareness. Also, don't give up as soon as you're captured. You still had chance for escape up until your scarf was taken."

     Lovette nodded. "Thank you, sir. I shall take that to heart and try to work on it." She looked down to see Taichi squinting at her, and remembered that she wasn't supposed to know how to speak Japanese.

      "I thought you couldn't understand Japanese!" He laughed. "Why didn't you tell me you could understand everything?"

     She rubbed her neck, biting her lip. "Sorry! It was so nice of you to translate for me; I didn't want to ruin it!"

      A smile and soft shake of his head was his reply.

      Ugh, that didn't feel good. Hopefully he wasn't mad at her. Likely not, since he had only smiled like it was funny. But still, she'd just been called to talk to the teacher before class.

     That'd never happened to her before. Terror began to seep its way into her veins. She'd done something wrong, she knew it. He was going to kick her out of U.A. and she was never going to be a hero. Either that, or he was just really, really mean about giving compliments.