"Recipro Burst!"

Tsuyu jumped out of the way, only a moment before Tenya's foot reduced the wall beside her to chunks. Then she wrapped her tongue around his other foot to destabilize him. That and the great momentum he had accumulated made him stumble through the damaged wall, making her flinch at the sound of the boy striking a column on the other side.

It was only a question of time for her to reclaim victory. After all, things had gone just as Izumi expected. No surprise there.

Tenya couldn't do appropriate use of his speed in such narrow hallways, while they worked perfectly for her jumps.

She only needed to be careful. If the engines in Tenya's calves worked as regular engines, then he shouldn't be able to use them for too much without eventually overheating them or something similar. And that would be the moment for her to strike!

"...Y-You seriously want me to punch you?"

It was about two weeks before UA's entrance exam, and a month after receiving One For All and experiencing in her own arms and legs what the Symbol of Hope's power could do, that her mentor gave her such an outrageous task.

"Yes, young Midoriya." Said the man in his skeletal form. "You have gotten considerably proficient compared to when we started. So we need to take the next step."

"I-I'm just going to break my arm again." She said nervously, remembering how much that had hurt.

"No. I think it will work fine this time." She looked at him with curiosity. "I have been thinking about it since the incident in our training two days ago..." She cringed at the memory.

She just got THIS close to hitting a poor dog by accident while practicing with her Delaware Smash. Fortunately, she somehow regulated the energy used at the last second so the only thing her technique did was scare the animal.

But surprisingly, despite the resulting pain, her finger didn't break. So no more visits to Recovery Girl. Thank God, she was kind of scared of the old woman...

Since then, as All Might recommended, she continued her training while maintaining the event present in her mind. It was bizarre, but it worked and she didn't break her fingers anymore.

"It seems to me, young Midoriya, that you subconsciously regulate One For All's power when you fear severely hurting someone else... Even though you rarely make the same consideration for yourself." He directed an amused but worried look at her.

"S-Sorry." She avoided his eyes and looked at her feet instead.

"It's fine. Any hero aspiring to be the Symbol of Hope needs the quality of self-sacrifice... Just be careful and think about your wellbeing too... As few as it is, this old man still has some time left." He chuckled softly.

"You are not that old." She murmured, upset. After the ten months of training, the hero had become a more important and present father-figure for her than her actual father... So it didn't sit well with her when the man said stuff like that... As if he was just going to die soon.

"Haha, In any case." He took his hero form. " WE SHOULD START. " He opened his palm and moved it towards her. " HERE. PUNCH USING YOUR CURRENT MAXIMUM. "

"A-Are you sure?" She asked nervously. And when the hero smiled brightly, Izumi put a serious expression, the picture of her mentor in his sickly real form flashing through her mind, and then she threw her punch.

The moment it connected with All Might's palm, it resulted in a deafening sound, causing fear invading her mind for an instant because of the possible consequences...

And then she noticed that pain aside, her arm was completely unharmed.

She did it. She suppressed the damage that One For All caused on her body.

" HAH... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA-! " The hero chucked proudly. Stopping only when he started coughing blood.

"A-ALL MIGHT!"

Izumi didn't take away her eyes from Katsuki, and how his body tensed.

"Dammit, Deku. Move...! I'm already getting fucking tired of seeing your stupid, ugly face in my way."

"I'm thinking the same, Kaachan." Her voice sounded so cold that she surprised even herself.

"...This is the last chance I'll give you." Katsuki's red eyes promised pain, as well as the sizzling noise that accompanied the brief explosions surging on his right arm. "GET-THE-FUCK-OUTTA-HERE."

It was funny... In the past, she would have been absolutely terrified of him.

The truth is that she had never been the victim of his Quirk's attacks but once before, and that occasion was a genuine accident... But she eventually was a witness of the damage and pain Katsuki could cause to others. And she still received his threats and some looks that made her feel as if her blood was about to freeze...

But right now... She couldn't care less about what Katsuki did or say.

"Make me." That phrase ended the little patience Katsuki still had.

"Fucking fine." He walked again, initially dragging his feet. "Just don't regret this later, nerd!" Then he began picking up speed until he started running.

And once he was close enough he created an explosion, impulsing himself forwards to strike her with a right hook... Just as he always.

Instead of backing up as most people would do, she actually dived forwards, Katsuki's attack passing over her head, and then side-stepped, positioning herself to his left.

"DETROIT...!" She took advantage of his opening and punched at his side. Initially, when it connected, it didn't feel that different to a regular punch, but then One For All's energy flowed through her arm, focusing on her fist, and then it happened. "SMASH!" With a boom, the full force of her strengthened punch thrust Katsuki through the hallways.

It was only thanks to some perfectly timed explosions that he stabilized himself and could land on his feet.

"...I h-hope you will not regret this either." She said, noticing the way he cringed in pain before he put on his perpetual hateful scowl.

"Y-You... Fucking nerd." He grunted, locking his eyes with hers.

She remained still, waiting for his next move.

"DIE!" He created two explosions to propel himself at a greater velocity. But this time she wasn't going to let him get closer.

"DELAWARE SMASH!" She flicked her finger and the resulting wind blast caught Katsuki in mid-flight, forcing him back to the ground, where he landed on his feet again. "SMASH!" She repeated her move with a different finger. And Katsuki was forced to cover himself with his arms and try to advance blindly through the gale to stop it from pushing him away.

Sawing her opportunity, she charged her feet with One For All and jumped towards Katsuki, the gale she coursed through increasing her speed even more.

Katsuki didn't see her coming until the last moment, but it was too late for him to block her dropkick, which hit his head with all the accumulated momentum.

Any other opponent would have been instantly knocked out after such an attack. But Katsuki was Katsuki, and there were few people in the world with a tougher skull than him.

So before she could land, Katsuki grabbed her leg, twirled her around, and launched her to the wall. Her head hitting first.

Izumi felt her consciousness slip away for a second. She blinked slowly and looked at the guy in front of her. His red eyes burning, even redder than the blood flowing from the cut over his eyebrow that her feet had caused.

And this time it was Izumi the one that wasn't able to react.

"HOWITZER IMPACT!"

One thing Tsuyu had noticed fast was that Tenya was the kind of opponent that got easy to deal with in the long run...

She had continued the game of the cat and mouse, Tenya looking progressively more exhausted by the minute. To the point, he hadn't used his max-speed in a while.

Besides that, as fast as he was, not only his movements weren't that varied, but Tenya also had the bad habit to telegraph most of his attacks.

So she had a 100% of the probabilities to dodge when he threw another kick at her.

Then she suddenly felt it. A weird pressure and numbness in her chest. It disturbed her how alien it felt. So much, that she almost got hit by Tenya, dodging only at the last second.

'What was that?' It wasn't a physical sensation, not hers at least. Because her body was perfectly fine. '...Izumi.' The face of the girl she fell in love with flashed in her mind and she was sure of it.

Izumi was feeling pain.

She didn't understand how she knew it. And her parents didn't tell her anything about such a thing.

But she knew that Izumi was in danger, and she needed to help her.

"Stop running from me, villain! Confront your sins and fight as a proper human being!" Yelled Tenya.

"But I refuse... I'm a frog, gero."

But she had to defeat Tenya first.

The oversized explosion hit Izumi with enough force to make her go through the wall, which broke as if it was made from cardboard.

She hit the ground on the other side, feeling pain everywhere...

Except for some small scorched parts here and there, her uniform relatively endured the explosion. But her torso still felt as if she was hit with a battering ram.

It felt awful. So much, that she could feel the tears about to spill from her eyes... But she had felt worse before, both physically and emotionally.

She slowly stood up. And her eyes immediately fixed on the other side of the wall where Katsuki was.

Her eyes flashed with defiance, while his contained a mixture of almost every negative emotion possible for a human being.

"Give up, Deku. You won't hit me again." He brushed the blood from his face and walked through the hole.

"H-Heroes don't give up."

With no more words, Katsuki advanced again, repeating the same attack he did at the start of their fight. But when he was about to get to her, he followed with a second explosion that propelled himself over her head. She immediately turned around just to find him about to shoot another explosion, this time aimed at her back.

Despite her reaction, Katsuki's attack hit true. But as she fell to the ground a second time, Izumi shot another Delaware Smash at him, making him crash against a column.

"I-I'm not... going to b-be the only one hurt after this."

Meanwhile, in the observation rooms, the rest of Class 1-A watched the fights.

They certainly couldn't be more contrasting.

Tsuyu had a huge edge on Tenya, so the boy's winning possibilities relied only on luck and taking advantage of how the frog-girl suddenly seemed weirdly distracted while fighting.

'Is she hurt?' Thought All Might. 'I don't think young Iida has connected a single hit in all the exercise.'

Meanwhile, Izumi and Katsuki seemed to be on equal foot.

The boy was obviously better at controlling his Quirk and had greater mobility than Izumi, but she still kept up with him no matter how many hits she received... She always stood up again and made sure to return the favor to him.

Both teens' endurance and pain tolerance were probably at the same level.

However...

There was something weird about it. Something only All Might and some of the students with more fighting experience could notice.

'Oh, no... You are committing a colossal mistake, young Bakugou... I just hope young Midoriya doesn't notice it.'

But that was just too much to ask.

Katsuki and Izumi were fighting at close quarters.

That normally would be to Katsuki's advantage. But it wasn't the case this time.

For the first time in all their fight, Izumi's movements were now slightly awkward and full of openings... And she was doing it completely on purpose.

Because she knew any person who wasn't a complete numbskull would try to take advantage of those openings or at least try to test if they were real or just a trick.

...But Katsuki wasn't doing anything.

She threw a punch at his face, which he evaded easily, propelling himself backwards. The explosion making Izumi stumble a bit.

Then Katsuki landed swiftly and smirked at her.

"What?! Are you finally regretting being such a loser...?!"

Anyone that cared for anything more than themselves would have noticed the frown that made its home on Izumi's face a long while ago, turning colder and darker by the minute.

Besides how tense she was and the way her body shivered, her increasing anger so obvious that anyone with eyes would have noticed.

But Katsuki didn't.

"You are getting fucking slow Deku!" He frowned when she didn't talk back at him. "And apparently mute too...! Don't you have anything to say-?!"

"Shut up." She said.

"Wha-?"

"JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP!"

"...Did Deku-chan just cursed?" Asked Ochako, feeling astonished. Her friend wasn't acting at all as the shy, polite person she was anymore.

"HOW MANLY!"

"Kirishima-san, this is not the moment."

"Oh, ho ho, some blondie is about to get his ass kicked!" Said Ashido.

'Seems it's too late now.' All Might sighed while his students were distracted by the events on the screens. 'The wrath of a woman can be an unstoppable force, young Bakugou. Now you have to take responsibility for your actions.'

"You...! You are possibly the worst non-villain person that I had ever met in all my life!"

"What...?!"

"I KNOW ABOUT EVERYTHING...!" She yelled at Katsuki. Her face distorted in an expression of hate he would have never expected in someone like her.

"What the fuck are you spouting, bitch?!"

"THAT YOU WERE GOING EASY ON ME!" She clasped her fist so hard that her hand hurt.

Katsuki's eyes went wide at her words.

"...I j-just trained and trained. I gave everything I had, sweat, blood, and tears, and continued giving my all even after I could barely keep moving and breathing... Even after m-my arms and legs literally broke...! And I still did it, again and again, non-stopping! All for an opportunity to be HERE!" Then her tears dropped. "And I a-always knew this encounter was going to happen... That you would be one of the challenges I would need to o-overcome to be a hero. And I expected that when it finally happened it w-would be SO cathartic...! But you had to ruin even that for me!"

"What...? Are you fucking high?!"

"I hate you, Katsuki." Her expression turned disturbingly blank. "Whatever little appreciation I still felt for you just died... Because e-even though I expected you to be a complete and mocking bastard, I at least thought you would fight me seriously... But you couldn't even do that for me. You acted like the lowest scum p-possible and just pulled your punches, t-treating me as if I was made of crystal..." A green electric current started coursing around Izumi's body. "And I won't forgive you for that ever!"

Izumi blurred out of existence and reappeared in front of him. His reflexes activated just in time to connect a punch and explosion straight to the girl's face.

That would have knocked anyone out easily or would at least make them stumble.

Instead, Katsuki received a kick in the jaw that made him crash against the ceiling. And before he could even hit the ground a punch connected with his stomach smashing him against a wall.

...While her opponent twitched on the ground, Izumi tore the scorched mask from her uniform and took out her capture band.

She was exhausted and felt a weird heaviness in her body... It was because of what she did... She didn't know how, but just for a moment there, she moved as fast as All Might could. And now her body was obviously close to its limit because of it.

The only reason she could still be on her feet was because of the adrenaline fueling her.

"A HERO HAS BEEN CAPTURED!" Announced suddenly All Might through her earphones. "FIVE MINUTES UNTIL THE END OF THE EXERCISE." She smiled... Tsuyu won, just as she expected.

Slightly relieved, Izumi advanced towards Katsuki as fast as she could.

But of course, nothing could be that easy.

"...Y-You must be joking!" Somehow still conscious, Katsuki aimed an explosion to the ground that pushed him up. But his stance looked so lacking and fragile, as though he were to fall on his knees at any second. "I'm not going to leave this shit end like this..." Then he extended his right arm in her direction and moved his other hand to his gauntlet.

"What are you doing...?" She asked, feeling too tired to deal with the blond guy.

"What? Don't you recognize it?" He asked with an ugly bloody smirk on his face. "It fucking annoys me to say it, but I based it on one of your stupid designs. I simply made it more bad-ass looking and the Support Department did the rest."

Izumi observed the grenade-looking gauntlet, which she had ignored until that moment, and noticed how Katsuki was grabbing the pin on it.

Then everything made sense.

'Oh, no.'

Tsuyu's kick connected with the back of Tenya's head and he collapsed on the ground like a potato bag.

She didn't waste a second to wrap the boy's hands and feet with the capture band.

" A HERO HAS BEEN CAPTURED! FIVE MINUTES UNTIL THE END OF THE EXERCISE."

"Fine, there's still time." She sighed and then tried to walk away. She wasn't only exhausted but also worried and stressed because of the weird sensations that she had been feeling, which only had become more intense in the last minutes...

"STOP THERE, YOU CRIMINAL!" Yelled Tenya. Tsuyu could only sigh again.

"...Tenya-chan." She turned around.

"How could you do this to me?! Is there no end to your twistedness?!" The guy crept on the floor like an oversized worm.

"Tenya-chan." She repeated, but he ignored her.

"But I will not fall victim to your mind games. I will endure anything you do to me until my partner-!"

"Iida!" She yelled.

"Yes, ma'am?"

"...You were captured, gero. So you don't need to keep acting like that."

"Is that so?" Tenya tilted his head. He was almost like a puppy. A huge and incredibly dumb one.

"...Yes."

Then she felt her earphone activate.

"Tsu." It was Izumi's voice. And she didn't sound particularly good.

"Izumi-chan?!"

"You n-need to move yourself and Iida-san far away from the north-east p-part of the building." Her voice tense.

"Eh...? I already am... Why?" She asked, but she didn't receive any answer.

Then she knew something terrible was about to happen.

"What? Did you already warned frog-face, so she doesn't end up roasted?" Izumi frowned at his words.

How dare he insult her friend...! She would leave no damage to come to Tsuyu or Tenya because of their quarrels.

"S-Stop with this ridiculousness!" She said more annoyed than angry. What was he pretending to gain from something like that? "You are going to throw the entire building on us!"

"AS IF!" He snorted. "I'm not a fucking idiot, Deku." He certainly seemed so. "There's no important column around. Even if I blow this corner of the building, nothing will happen!"

"ARE YOU EVEN HEARING YOURSELF?!" She yelled at him, finally losing her patience. "A-Are you truly such an idiot?!"

"THAT'S WHAT I SHOULD SAY!" He yelled back. "You are the stupid one here! A stupid useless naive little girl that thinks she can be a hero only because one day she pulled an equally stupid useless Quirk out of her ass!" She ground her teeth, almost wishing to throw him out of the building to shut him up.

"SHUT UP, KATSUKI! YOU DONT KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT ME!"

"AND YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THE WORLD...!" He shot two explosions to his sides, blowing up both walls. "Just fucking look at yourself!" She didn't need to. She knew she was a mess. "You were spouting shit about me not taking your sorry ass seriously, but how the hell can I...?" He looked at her with a disgusted expression. "You had been acting like the big shit because you hit me once or twice, but what do you think?!" He smiled wildly, extending his arms as if welcoming her. "I can keep with this shit for the rest of the fucking day if I wanted, bitch! My fucking mom punches harder than you...!" Then he turned somber again. "But you...? You can barely fucking stand and half of that shit is your own fucking fault... The fucking world is not a friendly place to weaklings like you, Deku! The real villains out there won't spare your life just because you are a kind-hearted idiot...! So tell me... DO YOU SERIOUSLY THINK SOMEONE LIKE YOU CAN BE A HERO...?!"

She glared at him. And she absolutely hated that he was partly true.

She was still a novice at controlling One For All. Not good enough to be at the same level as Katsuki. So she truly wouldn't have caused him that much damage if he had fought seriously from the start.

However, that was the only thing of his words she would accept.

"I DON'T THINK, I KNOW FOR SURE THAT I CAN!"

"...You stupid idiot." He ground his teeth, unbelieving.

"This is my life, Katsuki. And I'm tired of being just an extra on my own story, understand it from a goddam time...! I'm not the same weak little girl whose life you used to mess with all your passive-aggressive bullshit. And I will not be the same girl barely standing in front of you the day of tomorrow. Every day I'll be stronger than the previous one, much stronger than you ever dream of, and one day I'll show you what my DEKU truly means!"

"Then show it to me now!" He extended his right arm at her again. "Show me you aren't the absolute loser I think you are and stop my attack using yours...! Or just run away with your fucking tail between your legs as an irredeemable coward... BUT FUCKING BELIEVE IT! IF YOU DO THAT, I WILL NEVER ACCEPT YOU, DEKU!"

There was only silence for some seconds, and then she changed her stance.

"Katsuki... I really hate you." She charged her arm with One for All.

"NO, SHIT!" He smirked and finally retired the pin from his gauntlet.

The explosion that resulted was of ridiculous proportions, and it advanced towards her, destroying everything in its path.

She should have felt scared. But she was busier feeling simply annoyed at the whole situation.

...Katsuki had always had a great talent for bringing out the worst in people.

"DETROIT SMASH!" She threw her punch, focussing on the maximum power she could control without hurting herself too much, and felt the recoil and pain throwing her to the ground.

Her attack advanced swiftly through the hallway and impacted the center of Katsuki's explosion. For a moment she feared it would be absorbed, but soon enough it pierced through the explosion and destabilize it, resulting in the dissipation of a part of the energy, while the rest changed its direction to upwards and downwards the building. It seemed to damage various floors, but just as Katsuki had claimed, the building remained standing.

Meanwhile, she was sprawled on the floor. Full of pain and deafened because of the booming sound occurring so close to her.

Soon, her hearing recuperated enough for her to hear the voice in her earphones.

"T-THE TIME'S UP!" Said All Might, sounding worried despite his usual energy. "BECAUSE THE HEROES LOST A MEMBER AND DIDN'T SECURED THE BOMB, THE VICTORY IS FOR THE VILLAINS!" She smiled weakly at that. At least they won... "NOW, IF IS NEEDED, WE'LL SEND HELP TO CARRY YOUNG MIDORIYA." She smiled again and touched her earphone.

"...I'm fine, Yag-, I m-mean All Might-sensei... I only need a bit of time to rest."

But soon enough, she noticed steps getting closer.

"Huh?" She tried to lift her head a bit and saw her froggy-looking exercise partner running to her. "Tsu?"

"I-Izumi-chan!" Tsuyu squatted at her side and looked at her damaged body, her eyes about to cry. She was obviously scared and seemed restless, as if she wanted to just hug her, but didn't want to hurt her even more.

"...I-I'm fine." She said, slowly sitting, trying to keep the pain she felt off her expression.

"...Your right arm." Said the frog girl softly.

Then Izumi slowly looked at it, expecting the worst...

But the damage wasn't that bad, actually.

Her glove and sleeve were completely obliterated by her previous attack, revealing her scarred arm.

It was bruised, and she felt pain, of course. But it didn't look or hurt as bad as usual.

She could even move it and her fingers normally. So apparently nothing was broken or dislocated...

"I-I've felt worse." She said trying to encourage the other girl to relax. Instead, Tsuyu hugged her softly while crying.

It hurt a bit... But she didn't want the girl to stop. It was nice. And it was easier to ignore the pain when she focused on the warmth.

Sadly, after a moment the frog-girl let go.

They sat silently, one in front of each other. Now that she was more relaxed, she could only feel dumb and embarrassed for letting Katsuki -who seemed to have vanished from the scene- rile her up that much.

That hardly would have happened with someone like Tsuyu around to keep her from doing something reckless or stupid... But they probably wouldn't have won in such a scenario.

She didn't really know what to say.

"H-Hey, w-we won!" She said dumbly, receiving an unamused glare. "...I-I'll better j-just shut up..." Tsuyu looked at her with a slightly exasperated smile and sighed.

"Yes, we won, gero. Your plan went just as you expected. Now... I wonder if it was under your predictions to wreck yourself and disintegrate Bakugou."

"I k-knew I would not end unscathed... And I didn't d-disintegrate anyone!" At least she thought so...

"Yeah." She seemed to read her thoughts because she added. "Tenya-chan should come down now that All Might-sensei announced the end of the exercise, and I was joking about Katsuki. I think I saw him jumping down the hole you two made."

"W-Why would he do that?"

"I think you said he was a sore loser."

"Uh, yeah. I did." She tried to stand up for herself, but her legs felt weak.

"Let me." Tsuyu stood up and extended her arm to her. It was then that Izumi fully noticed in what a perfect state the frog-girl was.

Tsuyu was a bit sweaty, but Izumi couldn't detect any kind of bruise or damage on her. She had definitely curb-stomped the poor Tenya.

It has been a terrible match for him. But it reminded her once again of how behind she was compared to her peers...

But what she told Katsuki was the truth. She wasn't going to allow herself to be this weak... She would continue growing up stronger every day... She had to.

She took Tsuyu's hand, and the frog-girl pulled her.

"S-Sorry." Because of her weakened legs, she found herself again in the arms of the frog girl. But this time their faces ended up closer to each other. So she carefully took a step back. "I think I m-may have sprained my left leg."

"N-No problem." Tsuyu blushed. "Here." She moved to her left and locked arms with her. "I can help you walk, gero."

"T-Thanks." She smiled. Her day was getting brighter.

When Tsuyu's fist encountered Izumi on the floor, she almost fainted. Just that image brought an irrational fear to her mind, even knowing that she was still alive. It was just difficult to think clearly while feeling that heaviness growing on her chest the closer she got to the girl.

Fortunately, that awful sensation had already vanished while they walked, arms linked, to the building exit.

And once she was less worried, she felt flustered about the feeling of her closeness to Izumi. Besides, she confirmed her previous theory, Izumi clearly had the physique of a fighter. Her arms being muscled and well-built.

However, there was something that caught her attention the most.

It was how damaged her right arm was...

She knew that Izumi had broken her arms before. She said it herself... But Tsuyu sure didn't expect it to be that bad.

Her arm was covered in long thick scars. And what probably was once a thin delicate hand, now was hardened and slightly twisted.

Now it finally made sense for Tsuyu why Izumi always used long sleeves and gloves.

"I-I'm sorry..." Suddenly Izumi moved her right arm out of Tsuyu's gaze.

"Gero?"

"S-Sorry to gross you out. I-..." Without warning, Izumi tried to free her other arm, but she didn't let her.

"I don't found your arms gross." Izumi looked incredulous.

"...T-They are ugly. I have too m-many scars and my hands..."

"They look cool." She said, unlinking her arm from Izumi's, and grabbing her hand instead. Her thumb slowly caressing the girl's palm. "Kinda cute actually..."

"C-C-CUTE?!" She looked away, her cheeks blushed. "N-No way..."

"They are cute to me." It was the truth. She always had a likeness for gap-moe. "All of you are cute to me, actually." She recognized causing Izumi to look at her with a surprised expression. Then Izumi looked at her feet, a tiny smile on her face, and gave Tsuyu's hand a tentative squeeze.

Her day was getting brighter, too.

---