Chapter 15: Challenger
It was dark. So dark.
Deku became tense when memories from his past flashed through his head, the memories that scarred his heart. He knew he was only dreaming, but he wasn't able to force himself awake. Deku couldn't kill the memories.
"You should probably give up." Hearing those words again hurt Deku. He tried drowning the voices out by covering his ears, but it was no good. He felt like he was floating, alone in the darkness. He shut his dreaming eyes but even that done nothing.
Feeling like he was in danger, Deku subconsciously began powering up his quirk. He was scared, more than he had ever been before. The words "give up" echoed all around him.
"Shut up. Die, just die!" Deku thought to himself, screaming in his head. Nothing was working, and everything was wrong. Deku was on the verge of tears, feeling both sadness and hate. He couldn't take it. Deku just screamed as loud as he could until he woke up on the couch, breathing heavily. As he woke up, the sound of objects falling onto the floor surrounded him for a second.
It had only just turned to a new day a few minutes before, and the sky was still black. It seemed Toga made her way up to the bedroom after they fell asleep on the couch. Deku's breathing began to slow down when he grabbed a pillow from the couch and hugged it.
He looked down the hall at the side of the kitchen where the stairs would be to lead up to the bedroom. Deku put the pillow down and slowly made his way to the bedroom. He looked in and saw Toga sleeping so peacefully. A warm smile came onto his face as he walked over to the bed in the far corner of the room and looked down at her.
Deku sat on the floor with his knees on the ground and took Toga's hand that was out of the bed sheets. Deku then rested his head on the bed, and fell asleep.
When the sun had finally lifted itself into the sky, Deku and Toga both woke up at the same time. For a second, they just stared at each other. Deku was the first to react, jumping back and letting go of her hand. Toga sat up in the bed, rubbing her tired eyes.
"Morning, Izuku." Once her mind had woken up, she became energetic again. Deku's face was red from embarrassment, and Toga tilted her head in confusion.
"I-it's nothing, I'll go make breakfast!" Deku stumbled on his words as he stood up and ran back down to the kitchen. He took a few breaths to calm himself down. Toga eventually came down the stairs wearing typical plain pajamas that were over sized for her, making her look even cuter to Deku.
There wasn't much time for Deku to make the usual breakfast, so he resorted to making something simple that would be enough to make sure they didn't starve before lunch.
"We should try to make something together!" Toga had an idea, and it was a great one. Deku thought about it for a second before turning around the moment he finished making the breakfast for them both.
"We should!" Deku agreed with a warm smile.
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"Today we will be preparing for the sports festival.�� Aizawa got the lesson started as quickly as he could, "The faculty have allowed access to any facility we control to be used for training as long as you bring it up to us first."
The class got excited, now they could train and focus on what they want. Everyone's quirk was different, so they needed to make their own training decisions from time to time. An idea came through Deku's thoughts, so he put his hand up to voice the idea.
"I wanna fight Kacchan!" As Deku called out his idea, Bakugo looked back in confusion.
"Bakugo, do you accept the challenge?" Aizawa didn't care much about Bakugo's answer, but he still needed to know. A practice fight can't happen if only one person agrees to it.
"Fine. But don't think for one second you're gonna win, Deku!" Bakugo seemed slightly irritated, but a part of him was also excited to finally get another chance to fight Deku. In reality, Deku didn't want to fight Bakugo for training, but rather to make it clear that Deku was more powerful.
"Very well. All Might will be watching over your fight. I'll see if I can get you two access to one of the training grounds." With both sides accepting the challenge, Aizawa had no choice but to allow it.
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At first Deku didn't like his hero costume, but it had started to grow on him now that he was wearing it for the fight that was about to come. Deku and Bakugo both stood in a street in Training Ground C with a tense and chilled air surrounding them. Bakugo was more than ready to start the fight, but All Might was yet to let it start.
"I'm gonna crush you!" Even though they were twenty meters apart, Deku could still hear Bakugo's threats. Deku smirked with confidence as he tightened his gloves and got into a fighting stance.
All Might walked into the monitory room with the Headmaster, who decided he wanted to see the fight for himself. All Might was curious about Deku's quirk, so he also needed thoughts from another faculty member that knew of his situation.
"Young Midoriya has a powerful quirk, but it is far too similar to mine. That's why I requested for you to come, Headmaster." He explained his thoughts, and his suspicion about Deku.
"No need to worry, I'm sure all will be fine." The Headmaster had confidence that All Might was just overthinking things, but didn't brush off the chance that All Might was correct. With both faculty members ready, as well as the students, All Might walked up to the mic.
"Is this thing on?" His voice echoed through the buildings, getting no reaction out of both Deku and Bakugo. All Might cleared his throat and made the announcement, "Let the fight… begin!" One those words, the fight had finally started.
Not even a second after, Deku appeared centimetres in front of Bakugo with his quirk powered up. A punch in the stomach sent Bakugo further down the street, but he managed to keep his balance, unlike last time.
"I know what to expect now, Deku. I won't let you beat me!" After fighting Deku before, he knew just how powerful he could get. The element of surprise is what beat him last time.
Quickly after stopping himself from falling to the ground, Bakugo used his quirk to blast his way towards Deku and went in for a kick on the right side of the face that had actually managed to hit Deku. When Bakugo's feet touched the ground again, he went in for another attack with a punch, but Deku blocked it and counterattacked with a punch in Bakugo's chest.
They were back where they started, and the fight seemed fairly even. Deku got slightly irritated, even though he was yet to use the full strength of his quirk.
In silence, they just stood in the street, waiting for the other to make the first move. Eventually, they both went in for a punch at the same time. They got closer and closer to each other until Deku vanished with a psychotic smile and appeared behind Bakugo. Before Bakugo could react when he realised what had happened, Deku roundhouse kicked Bakugo into a building on the side.
There they were again, in a situation similar to the last. Deku made his way to the entrance of the building as Bakugo got back up onto his feet. Now Bakugo was more irritated than before, he couldn't control his anger.
"Deku, you bastard!" He rushed over to Deku with a blind punch, and just like before, Deku blocked it and sent power into his middle finger to flick Bakugo away.
Bakugo was now on the floor, breathing heavily. It seemed like he was about to rage again, but he calmed his mind. This was unusual for him. Something had changed. Bakugo had realised that he almost lost control like last time, and then remembered the lecture All Might had given him.
"Losing control means the villain has already won, try your best to control your rage and use it to your advantage." When Bakugo was called by Aizawa to head to the faculty office after losing control before the lesson started, All Might took the responsibility of helping Bakugo. The advice he gave was one that Bakugo would follow for every battle.
With a deep breath, Bakugo stood back up, only centimetres away from Deku. Like before, Deku tried flicking Bakugo through the wall, but this time, Bakugo caught Deku's arm, powered up his quirk and hit Deku's lower torso. Bakugo now had the advantage.
"I won't let you win." His voice was aggressive, sure, but he had control over his anger. All Might felt proud of Bakugo, but Deku had only become more irritated. The roles had switched. Aimlessly trying to punch and kick Bakugo, Deku had lost control over his emotions. Bakugo avoided the attacks and successfully fought back with more power.
Deku was beaten down to the ground. He laid on the floor, motionless after feeling as if he had lost the fight. There was no way he actually lost, right?
"You lost, Deku. Just give up." Bakugo tried to get Deku to stand down, but he didn't respond. Deku's mind wasn't there, he was basically unconscious.
His mind was dark like before, it was happening again. Deku's breathing was heavy as the voice of everyone in the class echoed around him, calling him weak and quirkless. The voice of the doctor was there again, telling him to give up.
Deku covered his ears, tears almost running down his face.
Whilst in the real world, every stone around Deku began floating in the air. Deku's body stood up as he regained consciousness. Bakugo looked at Deku in shock.
Deku looked the same way he did before when he was intimidating the men that were flirting with Toga. His eyes glowed; the air was heavy and sent shivers down Bakugo's spine like he had never felt before. Deku was angry.
"I'm not weak. I'm not weak. I'm not weak." Deku repeated those words over and over again. All Might watched in shock, but knew he had to do something.
Before it got too serious, All Might left the monitory room and tried to get to Deku before it was too late. When he was in the monitory room, he wasn't in his hero form so he didn't waste the short amount of time he could stay in that form, but he needed to use his quirk to stop what was happening.
Bakugo took a few steps back, seeing the green glow around all the stones. Deku's mind was in the back of his head, he didn't even know what he was doing. Deku began raising his hand to point his arm at Bakugo.
"That's enough." All Might appeared behind Deku and hit him in the neck, just enough to knock Deku out without severely injuring him. The stones around them had also fell with Deku.
"What was that!?" Bakugo then became irritated. Angry. Like everything he knew before had just been ripped away. Had Deku been making a fool out of him this whole time? He questioned everything.
All Might returned to his normal form.
"You need to calm down Bakugo." He put his hand on Bakugo's shoulder in an attempt to calm Bakugo down. It did calm him down, but only a little bit. Deku was sent to the nurses office, still unconscious, whilst All Might decided to have a word with Bakugo.
Everything that had happened was kept as a secret, but not everything after.
Deku had woken up as was let out of the nurses office. The situation was explained to him and he made his way to the classroom. When he entered, he had a saddened look on his face. He walked in, and the class was silent. Silent until Bakugo spoke up.
"Deku!" He tried to keep in his anger, but he was fed up and felt like he needed to act just as Deku passed him. There were no teachers around, no one to stop them from what was about to happen.
---End Of Chapter---
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