It was such a repetitive thing.
Fight after fight after fight.
The crowds never even got tired of it.
Unlike you, they didn't really have an automatic method of analyzing who would win every round.
Granted, they never had a man reinforce a calculating instinct to fight for their entire childhood.
Still, even with all those people shouting and cheering and yelling for the next fight to commence, you felt... bored.
Your classmates were on the edge of their seats, chewing their fingernails, tapping their feet.
Meanwhile you stretched your neck back and forth, rocked your head side to side, absentmindedly counting the seconds like a ticking clock, waiting for Present Mic's announcements to end, for the fight to commence.
The sooner it started, the sooner it ended.
And the sooner you could get back down there yourself.
You weren't sure if the impatience stemmed in your quirk's will to fight or your own.
Wherever it came from, it was hungry for the violence and nothing else.
Bakugo held the same level-headedness down below.
The stress in him remained at the back of his mind as he faced Uraraka.
Not a single muscle in his body was shaky.
Game face on, intensity in the way he stared her down, he looked all of someone ready to win as he had from the start of the festival.
As you gazed down at the scene every now and then between your uninterested head tosses, you forgot that looks can be deceiving.
He may not have shown his worry.
But it was at the back of his mind.
The worry that even if he got through his matches- the person he'd most wanted to go up against- the person he wanted to see fight for themselves for once because they wanted to win too- well they might not come back.
He didn't dare look up at the stands for that very reason.
It was time to focus on this fight.
Take it one match at a time till he stood on the podium and owned up to his words.
"You're the bitch that screws around with gravity. Right pink cheeks?" He asked, hands in his pockets, carelessly.
"Pink cheeks!?" Uraraka protested his name calling.
"Well if you're gonna give up, do it now. Cause I'm not holding back."
You watched him blankly as he began stretching his arms, flexing his fingers and wrists to ready his quirk.
It was interesting to see him this way.
You noticed some of his more minute mannerisms, the dragging of his foot as he felt the ground, his little eye flutters as he took note of his surroundings, the dip in his voice as he got himself ready.
They were the same as when you trained in the woods.
So he really did give his all for everything huh?
Must be exhausting. You sat back. And wasteful.
"Midoriya, I'm curious." Kirishima leaned forward to speak to Deku in the front rows.
"What was that plan you had for Uruaka to defeat Bakugo?"
So they'd been scheming.
"Honestly it wasn't much of a plan." Deku scratched the back of his head anxiously. "Kacchan is so strong. When it comes to closed combat he never really has any openings."
True. you thought remembering how difficult it was to get past his blocking.
"And the more he moves, the more he sweats which just makes him more powerful. So it's obvious what she needs to do."
Yeah. You thought, your focus shifting back to the platform as the buzzer rang and Midnight's whip swung.
But he's smarter than you give him credit for.
