Chapter 30: Battle Trials (End) (Patreon)

A/N: Sorry for slow updates this week. Was very busy trying to get my documents in order to transfer schools. Hopefully, I'll have more time to write next week or this weekend.

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Right swing, duck. Left swing, tilt head to the right. Right uppercut, blast the fucker to the next day.

His threw his left hand forward and ignited the sweat covering his palm. What followed was a loud bang that interrupted lips’ attack. Or at least, that’s what Katsuki hoped.

A hard punch got him on the chin, teeth gritted as he felt the impact spread across the entirety of his face. Katsuki let out a groan, before he was tossed into the air from the sheer strength of lips’ uppercut.

He spotted another swing and Katsuki immediately created explosions from his palms that shifted his rotation in mid-air, narrowly dodging lips’ arm by a hair’s breadth.

Not one to be outdone by the brawn-for-brains, Katsuki thrust both of his palms forward and pushed away the yellow-clad moron - his face said it all. Lips’ even had drool dripping down his chin for fucks sake - while also adding a bit of an explosive flavor.

Fucker was sent flying to the nearby wall, served him right for getting a one up on him. But he didn’t let his guard down. Not yet. He may have an ego the size of the Fuji Mountain, but stupid, Katsuki isn’t.

He worked hard for his spot in the hero class, fucking damnit. The harassment and bullying not involved, there was a lick of sense he was spewing back to Izuku back when they were still middle schoolers.

You can’t go anywhere without the strength to prove it.

Maybe that’s why he always fixated on him. Because Izuku kept on dreaming without putting in the work. Always writing, always learning, but never doing. Sure, what he did was all levels of fucked up, but he did speak facts towards the nerd.

The quirkless bit was also an influence… Okay, it was a major influence as to why he was so harsh on him. Fucking quirk supremacy got into his head. He vowed it’d never happen again.

Which meant not being discriminatory against those with weaker quirks. His therapist made sure of that.

Fucking color changing quirk.

His attention was grabbed by Lips’ slowly, but surely, dragging himself out of the crater he made in the wall, his face a mix of pain and anger. Mostly anger.

Smirking, Katsuki crouched low and pounced towards the struggling student, palms exploding giving him an extra boost in movement. He couldn’t give him the time to recover, he still had to catch arms heading towards the paper mache bomb.

Even he had pity of a sort, no matter how little it is, and what ponytail had in store for arms made him shudder. Yeah, that’s right, Katsuki fucking Bakugo, shudder.

That chick was not right in the head.

Hands stretched outwards; Katsuki prepared to give lips one big blast to knock him out for good. He also had to calculate the amount needed to make sure he didn’t leave a grievous injury.

Brain working at rapid speeds, Katsuki gave off a self-satisfied smirk before he blew the fucker to kingdom come.

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Momo had some reservation as to her partner’s… personality. They may have not met for that long, at most a day, really, but just observing him for a few minutes was enough to let her know something was very, very wrong with the ash blond teen.

He was quiet… Too quiet, and the way he talked with that gruff demeanor of his somehow stroke her as someone who was previously outgoing that turned introvert.

It was confusing.

But alas, she was not a nosy person, and even she had her secrets that she didn’t want known to her friends… future friends… God, she hoped she could make friends here…

Being the heiress to a large company was not easy. It was harder already, but her quirk just made her life extremely difficult. Not in the way that she couldn’t afford to feed or clothe herself, but how suffocating it was to even stretch her metaphorical arms in a world riddled with politics and scheming bastards who were too rich for their own good.

Already, at the tender age of fifteen, she’d accrued a total amount of seventeen different marriage proposals from other influential families. For the record, the earliest marriage proposal she got was from a man in his thirties - thankfully, not too bad looking, but still disgusting to even think about - when she was but twelve years old.

Her parents went ballistic at the proposal, but a feud between another family whose company stretched through the globe was not something they could afford to have. At least refusing politely made them save face in the upper echelons of the so-called elite. Otherwise, had her parents made a fuss, it would have blown up in their faces.

Sometimes, she didn’t know why heroes didn’t just go for the rich people with skeletons in their closets. Was it because of the bribes? Another zero added to their paycheck?

Momo scoffed.

This was why she wanted to be a hero. To get away from that kind of lifestyle and maybe make a difference.

She loved her parents, she truly did, but their heated arguments about her being one in the first place instead of fully focusing on the company took a toll on her. Maybe they had their own skeletons, a thought that terrified her to no end and the cause of many a sleepless night.

If she graduated as a hero, parents or not, if she deemed what they had done too much… She banished the thought.

“Arms coming your way.” The earpiece neatly slotted into her left ear brought her out of her mind, a sigh of relief snaking its way out of her mouth at the nice timing.

“Understood.” She turned her head towards the door, the piece of wood reinforced and barricaded with steel. There were also mechanisms around it that would trigger if the door was somehow breached.

She pitied the poor fool who would be assaulted with what she had prepared.

And if they weren’t able to breach through the door, there was still the window. She also made sure there was a nasty surprise waiting for the person who thought it genius to go through the piece of glass like a hero would.

In the case that they created a third entry point, she had a backup just hanging on her waist, so she was prepared.

Slipping on the muffling headset she had created, as well as a mask that was sure to reduce, if not block, bright flashes of light, she made her way to the corner of the room where the bomb prop was located.

There were even more defenses in placed, such as sandbags. As for why sandbags, they were less dense than other materials used with creating durable defenses. It would no doubt hold poorly in a melee, but it was enough to hamper movement and shield her from the trap she had in place next to the door.

Right next to the sandbag, a long metal staff laid quietly, its plain features something Momo had gotten quite used to during her rigorous training to prepare for UA.

Taking her spot right next to the sandbags, she crouched low and gripped the staff in her hands tightly.

Now, all that was left was to wait.

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Mezo swiftly rushed through the stairs as the ears on his arms caught sound coming from a room on the fourth floor. Eyes determined, the silver-haired teen with tentacle-like arms skidded across the floor, his legs pumping as much energy as it could to hasten his steps along the upward trek.

He knew sacrificing Sato was in their plans if ever one of them decides to meet them head on, his quirk being tailored in a way for extended fights. That said, from he mentioned earlier, the more sugar he ingests, the dumber he gets but in exchange for more power.

So really, he was made to be a human juggernaut, making villains pause on their feet if they ever had to fight him head on, which Katsuki was doing right now.

Another flight of stairs and he finally found his feet slamming on the fourth floor. Refreshing his memory, he turned his head towards where the noise came from while he was scanning the building with his quirk.

His quirk may look simple, but the beauty lied in its versatility. He could create any sensory organs with heightened efficiency. He always wondered if he could try using animal sensory organs, but so far, his experiments gave less than stellar results.

So, he was stuck with using human-equivalent senses, but better. Kind of like a blind man’s hearing multiplied ten-fold. At least, until he could get a grasp on how to structure the organs he makes to work similarly to its animal counterparts.

Just imagining being able to see infrared or having the nose of a bloodhound made him giddy. That will show those quirkists…

He shook his head. Now was not the time to dwell on that.

After what seemed to be like an hour, when in reality, it only took a few seconds, Mezo finally arrived right in front of the room where he heard the noise coming from. Knowing that something was probably waiting for him from the other side, Mezo hesitated, before he steeled himself.

Grabbing the doorknob, he gave it a twist and a brief push.

It didn’t budge.

He tried once more, and once again, the boor stood ramrod still. Throwing his entire weight against the door, the piece of wood buckled, but held firm.

The door was a bust, so Mezo quickly thought of another way to get in. He then remembered that most rooms had windows, so he quickly went to the next room and opened the window post haste, before he stopped.

Now what? He couldn’t fly, and no matter how much his arms looked like wings, they couldn’t support his weight if he flapped.

Kids were a different breed of monsters, that he was sure of.

Anyway, with the window open, there was only one thing to do. Stretch his arms and create an eye. Maybe get a glimpse into the room before storming the place like lunatic.

Stretching his arm, Mezo focused on creating more joints while extending its length. He made sure to create an eye at the tip and once he saw it was close to the window, he quietly took a peek inside.

His mouth nearly gaped when he saw the state of the door. No wonder he wouldn’t be able to push through that, that looks like a damn bunker door! There was also some kind of trap hanging right next to it.

He winced.

Those trap in question had various mechanical gimmicks, but the items he focused on were the grenades, or rather, it’s cylindrical shape with no label, but he was sure those things were flashbangs.

That was going to be murder on the ears and eyes inside that room. Momo no doubt had created items to help her defend against that. And judging by her intellect - there was no doubt the girl was intelligent. Just her bearing alone was proof - she also booby trapped the window.

That left him with only one option left, create his own opening, but how? As person who has a mutant quirk, he had increased physical capabilities, but even that isn’t enough to break through walls unless he had a strength augmenting quirk or animal-like properties that enhances strength.

So, no matter what he did, he was stuck. The door was out - he couldn’t break through even if he tried - the window was trapped too and he was sure the moment he went in, off goes the flashbangs, and the walls were too sturdy for his meager strength.

Wracking his brain for a method to get in without suffering extreme damage, Mezo was left wanting when an explosion shook the building, causing him to stumble to the ground.

He guessed that was Katsuki beating Sato.

Mezo gritted his teeth. Looks like today’s exercise was their loss. It stung, knowing that there was nothing they could do against the enemy team. Either through preparation, or through combat.

They were just that outmatched.

Sighing, Mezo palmed his face as he let out a groan.

“All Might, the hero team surrenders. This is an impossible match to win for us.”