My Hero Academia: A Hero's Will

Chapter 5

We trudged through the hall on the ground floor, silently moving towards the stairs. I could sense Katsuki coming down from the fifth floor. Nodding to Uraraka, I signalled her that Katsuki was approaching.

We waited for him to turn around the corner when I ambushed him with a quick backhanded strike on his face. I sent him tumbling across the hallway while Uraraka took the chance to run up the stairs.

"You haven't learnt anything about my quirk have you, Katsuki?"

Spitting out a small amount of blood, Katsuki got up and grinned, "Yeah, I kinda forgot you could sense your surroundings. But it doesn't matter. I'll beat you this time and show you that I'm better than you! Do you hear me?! Ever since you got your quirk you've been an obstacle in my way to become the top hero. I'll show you that you're just a pebble for me to crush under my feet, Deku!!"

Again with that flawed mentality. It didn't matter if you were the top hero or just some hero who no one knew about. That was not the point. What mattered was the principle behind what a hero truly was. But Katsuki never understood.

"You'll never beat me. For such a selfish reason, you'll never be a good hero, Katsuki."

I had enough of him and charged towards him, my body entirely covered with armament. Katsuki, as always, began with a right swing. It was so obvious I didn't even need to use observation. I ducked under his attack and rammed my head into his abdomen, sending him skidding backwards as he coughed out some bile.

He ignored his pain and with an angry shout, he charged at me and we entered into a high paced brawl. He kept sending blasts with every swing of his palms at my vital points which I dodged flawlessly. Sometimes, I really thanked whatever god up there granted me with this quirk. Katsuki would have turned me into charred meat by then. Soon we fell into a pattern. I knew he was getting frustrated as his attacks were getting more wild.

Though I didn't want to admit it, Katsuki had gotten much better than the last time we had a brawl. He was faster and had better control over his anger. His attacks were sharper, more precise and were more powerful. I could feel the vibrations of the blasts as they grazed my vest.

If Katsuki wasn't such a jerk, we could have been great friends and rivals.

Then I saw my chance. One of his swings went wider than it was meant to and I immediately responded with a spinning heel kick to his chest, sending rolling on the ground.

I didn't want to hurt him a lot and I could see that he was in immense pain. Even though I wasn't as strong as All Might, my punches and kicks packed quite a lot of power behind them. If I wanted to, I could break every bone in Katsuki's body without putting much effort.

I ran towards his fallen form and quickly bound him with capture tape. Immediately, I heard All Might's voice from my earpiece, "Bakugou Katsuki, captured!"

Katsuki looked up at me from his downed position with blazing anger. I knew he hated it. He hated it when I looked down at him. It always reminded him that there was someone out there who was better and stronger than him. For Katsuki, a hero was someone who always won. He was supposed to win every single time. So whenever he lost, he'd think he wasn't good enough to be a hero.

But that didn't matter to me. For me, winning against him had worked wonders for his character. Even though he was still a bully and had a very bad temper, he had mellowed down from what he was a few years ago. Perhaps he would improve in the near future, but it wasn't happening right then.

I considered it a small victory. Perhaps he was beginning to understand that winning didn't matter and that winning was not what defined a true hero. I always tried to explain what being a hero meant to me. But he never listened. Perhaps, exchanging blows with him could do what words couldn't.