The Favor [Bakugou x Reader]

Chapter 17 - Heartbeat

If possible, the crowd seemed to have even more energy as the second round of the tournament started. You rejoined your friends in the stands and waited for the first match—Bakugou vs. Tsuburaba.

"Hey Mina, remember when Bakugou punched through that kid's solid air last year during the cavalry battle?" Sero leaned his head back to face the pink girl in the row behind. Your eyebrows lifted. Sero couldn't even break through with his punches and tape in the previous round. Was Bakugou that much stronger? Or had this guy gotten way better?

The crowd boomed as two figures emerged from the tunnels. Tsuburaba appeared to be a similar height to Bakugou with a leaner build. His short brown hair was spiked randomly across his head, giving the impression of bedhead. Once again, Bakugou strode in radiating confidence and power.

"START!" Tsuburaba attempted to build another wall of air, supposedly to push Bakugou out of the ring as had succeeded with Sero. But Bakugou was faster, smarter, more deadly. As the Class B boy inhaled air to build his wall Bakugou flew toward him, explosions pushing him at terrifying speed. Tsuburaba abandoned his first plan and went on the defensive, blowing solid steps to jump and climb out of Bakugou's reach.

"Jump as high as you like but that just means it'll hurt more when you FALL!" Bakugou used one of Tsuburaba's platforms to spring up high, above his opponent's head. Within a flash he grabbed the boy's right shoulder and slammed him through the platform below his feet. The air Tsuburaba was standing on cracked and he fell, eight, perhaps ten meters down to the floor of the stadium. Bakugou glided down easily, hovering with the power of slow even explosions.

"Bakugou Katsuki moves onto the semi-finals," Snipe's voice called out from the podium as med-bots came to take Tsuburaba to see Recovery Girl.

***

"Who're you rooting for in this next match [y/n]?" Jirou came to sit beside Kaminari. She handed the sparky boy a box of pocky and three bags of gummy bears. He dug into the gummy bears immediately.

He's really putting it away today...

"Iida's been doing so well I'd love to see him go far, but I think I have to root for Shouto," you answered as Kaminari offered you some pocky. You declined. You could barely drink water with all the fresh anxious knots in your stomach, let along eat anything.

"Well, Todoroki beat Iida last year in the semi-finals. Interesting that they're facing off again now," The mass of gelatin muffled Kaminari's voice, red blobs sticking to his teeth.

"Yeah and Todoroki actually uses his fire now. Iida's going to need a better plan than just being fast," Sero chimed in from behind your left.

A mop of red and white hair walked to the center of the arena. Iida's slick blue strode forward. Todoroki's back was toward you so you couldn't see his face, but you were sure he was focused.

"What'd I miss?" Kirishima slid into the seat beside you, wrapping an arm around your shoulder as you chewed on your lower lip. With his other hand he fist-bumped Kaminari before snatching one of his bags of gummy bears, tearing it open with his pointed teeth.

"They just walked in. I think it's about to -"

"START!" Todoroki once again sent a wave of ice toward Iida, but this time quickly followed with a second wave of fire. While Iida broke through the ice with a powerful kick, he was unable to dodge the roaring flames as they collided with his frame, knocking him backwards and scorching his uniform.

Todoroki took Iida's momentary stumble to send a second ice attack at the boy, freezing his feet to the ground. A sharp crack was heard before you saw jets of blue flame ignite from Iida's calves, wrenching his lower body from the growing ice and out into the center of the stage. Todoroki spun in a circle to face Iida, but not before the blue-haired boy had shot forward once again, grabbing the heterochromatic hero by the collar and attempting to toss him from the ring.