MHA Universe, Earth, Japan, Musutafu.
"Begin!"
Unlike most matches in the tournament, Akatsuki and Katsuki did not start moving as soon as the signal to begin was given. Instead, they stood across from each other waiting for the other to move.
While Akatsuki was waiting for Katsuki's usual explosive charge to slip into his blind spot and activate her [Sneak Quirk], Katsuki knew better than to let Akatsuki out of his sight, despite the fact that he had the ability to blanket the entire ring in his explosions. Because even if he could cover the entire ring in explosions, he could not engulf the whole thing at the same time.
"What's wrong, Bakugo-Kun?" Akatsuki asked in a casual tone. "You're not usually so patient. Don't tell me you're afraid of a little girl like me."
*Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!*
Katsuki's frown made it clear he did not find Akatsuki's insinuation amusing. And the small explosions repeatedly going off in his palms only cemented that feeling. However, to Akatsuki's surprise, he did not fly off the handle and charge at her in a blind rage.
'So, Tatsuo-Kun was right.' Akatsuki thought to herself as she tensed in preparation to move immediately. 'He really only loses his cool when Midoriya-Kun is involved... Well, that or when Tatsuo-Kun is involved. But the reasons are totally different for the two.'
"Fine... If you're not gonna make the first move..." Akatsuki said as she dropped into her fighting stance. "I guess I'll go first. Though, I never took you for the gentlemanly type. To think you're the type who believes in ladies first."
"Hmph!" Katsuki only snorted as he took his own fighting stance.
In the next instant, Akatsuki moved, covering the distance in what seemed like the blink of an eye. All the while, she kept Katsuki's hands, more specifically his palms, in her awareness.
Reacting quickly, Katsuki lowered his left arm to block a whip kick aimed at his waist. He then shot his right arm forward, palm first.
*Boom!*
However, faster than Katsuki expected, Akatsuki pushed off his block and spun her body away from the explosion that was mostly concussive force launched from Katsuki's right palm. In the same motion, she continued her spin and lashed her heel at the right side of Katsuki's head, causing him to duck his head to avoid what would probably result in a concussion.
After avoiding Akatsuki's roundhouse, Katsuki quickly lowered his left hand while pointing its palm at the ring behind him. Simultaneously, he stepped forward, launching a left uppercut just as Akatsuki's right foot touched the ring once again.
*Boom!*
On top of that, Katsuki fired an explosion from his left palm, adding even more speed and force to his uppercut.
Surprised by the instant acceleration, Akatsuki quickly threw up her hands to avoid taking Katsuki's fist to her chin. At the same time, she completely relaxed her legs.
*Bang!*
As a result, when Katsuki's fist landed on her crossed arms, instead of flying back from the force, Akatsuki tipped over, her back hitting the ring quite hard.
"Gah!" Akatsuki grunted as the breath was forced out of her lungs on impact.
However, that was exactly what Akatsuki wanted... Minus the loss of breath, of course... as for an instant, she managed to break Katsuki's line of sight on her. And as soon as that happened, she activated her [Quirk], disappearing from Katsuki's perception.
"Damn it." Katsuki groaned while going on high alert.
With his stance wide and his hands spread to either side, palms facing outwards, Katsuki blocked out all the sounds from the stadium while focusing to try and notice any movement in his surroundings. However, despite his best efforts, he was unable to sense Akatsuki at all. Even so, he never let his guard down.
"I'm not here to play hide and seek, Extra." Katsuki said, sounding as if he were getting impatient. "If you're not gonna come out, I'll just force you out into the open."
To be honest, Katsuki really was getting impatient. But at the same time, his impatience was not dulling his natural battle instincts. Instead, because of his personality, he was getting even sharper.
*Bang!*
*Boom!*
Even so, Katsuki's alertness did nothing to stop his head from snapping to the left after receiving an attack on his jaw. Yet, before he even turned his head back, Katsuki's right arm snapped in the direction he approximated the attack to have originated from before an explosion burst from his palm.
Unfortunately, there was no indication that Akatsuki was hit by his explosion. And the way Katsuki doubled over after being struck in the abdomen was enough to prove that theory correct.
And for the next few, long, moments, things continued in the same manner. Katsuki would take an attack, then he would retaliate with an explosion. One that never struckanything. And after the one-sided beating, Katsuki was starting to look worse for wear.
"Enough!" Katsuki shouted between attacks. "I won't be beaten by a damn extra!"
*Boom~~~~~~!*
After that bellow, Katsuki dropped to a knee and slammed his hands on the ring. As he did so, he channeled his [Quirk] and triggered an explosion at the same time he touched the ring, the explosion spreading outwards from the point of contact.
As a result, instead of blowing himself up, Katsuki caused an explosion that damaged the ring around him, sending pieces of debris flying in all directions.
Unfortunately, Akatsuki, who was circling Katsuki at close range, was caught off guard by Katsuki's attack that he had never used during any of their training sessions in class. So, she unable to dodge the flying debris and explosion.
"Kya~~~~~~~!" Akatsuki screamed as she was sent flying.
Even worse, by the time Akatsuki was able to regain control of her unplanned flight, she was already outside of the ring's boundary. So, although she landed on her feet, albeit with a few bruises from being struck by the debris and her P.E. uniform singed by the explosion; she ended up outside of the ring.
"*Sigh* I didn't know he could do that." Akatsuki muttered to herself while looking at the dust cloud in the ring. "Things would have been different if I was allowed to use my support items, though. But that's not really an excuse. We all knew the rules before the festival started. Besides, I'm not the only one who couldn't use their support items. That explosion would have been even bigger if Bakugo-Kun was allowed to use those grenade gauntlets he always wears."
Reaching that point, Akatsuki shook her head. Then, she waved to the crowd, signaling that she was alright before turning to leave the stadium.
Meanwhile, the dust in the ring settled slowly. And when visibility was restored, Katsuki was the only one left in the ring, his breath ragged from pushing his [Quirk] the way he did. All the while, he watched Akatsuki walk away. And based on the expression he was wearing, he was clearly unhappy about the way the match ended, if not the outcome as a whole.
"Winner of the second semi-final match by ring-out, Bakugo Katsuki!" Nemuri shouted into her microphone. "We will have a half hour break before moving onto the final round of the tournament."
*Cheer~~~~~~~~~~!*
The crowd cheered loudly for a while. Then, when the applause settled, Hizashi and Shota began discussing the final match between Tatsuo and Katsuki to keep the audience engaged. Meanwhile, Katsuki went to see Recovery Girl so that he would be in good shape for the last match while Tatsuo went to his waiting room to wait.
"I wasn't expecting Bakugo to use an attack like that in the tournament." Tatsuo muttered to himself. "I thought he used it much later in the canon. Then again, I've been putting a lot of pressure on him this year. So, it makes sense."
Nodding to himself, Tatsuo then closed his eyes to relax.
"Even so, if he doesn't show me more, I'm gonna be disappointed." Tatsuo continued nonchalantly.
"You're sounding pretty arrogant." A familiar voice said from the other side of the room.
"I only said that out loud because I knew you were there." Tatsuo replied.
As Tatsuo's words ended, the door to the waiting room was opened from the outside. And standing in the doorway was Alfonzo, who separated with Rumi and Ryuko with the excuse of giving his cousin a pep talk. Though, neither Heroine believed that he needed one.
"Anyway." Alfonzo said while rolling his eyes as he stepped into the waiting room. He then closed the door behind him before continuing. "We're almost done with this [Mission]. The only [Objective] we have left is to defeat All for One."
"Yeah, but he's not even supposed to show up until summer break." Tatsuo replied with a shrug. "And that's, like, two months away."
"*Sigh* I know." Alfonzo replied. "But I really don't wanna wait here that long. I miss Amar'e and Lici. Plus, Mira is pregnant, and I hate being away from her for so long. Not that she'll even feel how long it's been."
"She'll know..." Tatsuo said with a smile. "She won't have felt the passage of time. But women always seem to know stuff like that. At least, Mai-Nee and Kasumi-Neechan always do."
"Why didn't you mention Yakumo?" Alfonzo asked in a tone mixed with mischief and curiosity.
"*Sigh* I'm not even sure if she'll wanna see me when I get back." Tatsuo replied, sounding genuinely worried. "She didn't seem to take the whole harem thing very well."
"Really?" Alfonzo asked with a raised eyebrow. "She didn't seem to take it badly, either, though. It was more like she just needed to process what it meant."
"I hope you're right..." Tatsuo replied. "I'd hate to lose her. She's someone I really treasure."
"Why don't you just say you love the girl?" Alfonzo asked. "I mean, it's obvious to everyone that your feelings are deeper for her than your actual girlfriend, Violet."
"Love, huh?" Tatsuo asked. "Do I really? Honestly, I'm not even sure I'm capable of that after all the shit DOATEC... No, Donavan's scientists put me through. My emotions are all fucked up, you know?"
Reaching that point, Tatsuo shook his head to put those thoughts out of his mind for the moment. He then went back to the original topic with a determined expression on his face.
"Anyway, what do you plan to do to find All for One?" Tatsuo asked. "I'm sure if I had the time, I could find him no matter how well he hides. But I'd have to travel the whole country for that."
"That won't be necessary." Alfonzo replied while shaking his head. "I'm gonna send you, Sakura, and Akatsuki internship offers. And we'll do our patrol in Yokohama. After that, finding Tomura and Kurogiri should be easy. And with you there, Kurogiri won't be able to teleport them away from the trouble we're gonna bring. Meaning..."
"If All for One wants his puppet to survive, he'll have to show up to save him." Tatsuo replied with a nod of understanding. "That's a pretty good plan, actually. But..."
"But?" Alfonzo asked.
"What if he sends that big bastard, Gigantomachia?" Tatsuo continued. "Forgetting the fact that he's the tankiest thing on the planet, the collateral damage he'll cause in his rampage will be astronomical. And don't get me started on the number of civilians who will die in his wake."
"You actually care about stuff like that?" Alfonzo asked curiously. "I mean, dragon plus assassin build don't really sound like two things that would care about collateral damage and civilian casualties."
"To be honest, I don't." Tatsuo replied with a shrug. "But right now, I'm in the role of a Hero. And when I'm playing a role, I play it to the fullest. Meaning, I have to consider things like that while making it look like I actually care in front of people who don't know the real me."
"*Sigh* I kinda expected you to say something like that." Alfonzo said in a slightly sad tone. "I just hope that changes as you spend more time around people."
"Honestly, so do I." Tatsuo replied. "I'm pretty sure I wasn't always like this. But I doubt things will get better until I can deal with Donavan and all his scientists."
"Speaking of his scientists..." Alfonzo said.
"You're talking about Lisa Hamilton, aka La mariposa, right?" Tatsuo said, cutting Alfonzo off. "Yeah, I know she's some kind of double agent. But why should I care? She still led all the fucking experiments they performed on me."
Alfonzo could only sigh in response to that. Although he could understand Tatsuo's feelings on the matter, he doubted that Lisa really wanted to do any of those experiments on him. Still, he could only wait and see what happened in the end.
"Anyway, what's your plan for dealing with Bakugo?" Alfonzo asked, deciding to drop the topic. "You gonna make it flashy?"
"Not sure." Tatsuo replied, also happy to let the last topic fade. "It depends on how he handles it. But if he bores me, I'll just end it quickly."
"Well, I hope he doesn't bore you." Alfonzo replied with a shrug. "Because if you one shot the guy, he's probably gonna be real annoying when school starts again."
Tatsuo simply grinned, stretching his arms behind his head as if the outcome hardly mattered to him.
"I'll just have to give him a show he'll never forget," Tatsuo said, a note of challenge slipping into his voice.
Alfonzo rolled his eyes, but there was a hint of amusement there too, the tension in the room slowly fading into the usual banter between the two. The air was thick with anticipation, each of them silently acknowledging the weight of the upcoming battle, yet neither willing to admit to any nerves. As their conversation drifted toward trivial matters, the distant buzz of the stadium promised that the finals, and everything they meant, were just moments away.
"He'll get over it." Tatsuo replied with another shrug.
"I guess he'll have to." Alfonzo said in an uncaring tone. "Anyway, now that the serious stuff is out of the way, what do you want for dinner tonight?"
While the two continued to chat until the announcement for the beginning of the finals sounded throughout the stadium, Katsuki was sitting in a sick bed in the infirmary while replaying the match he had with Akatsuki in his mind. However, that was not what he wanted to be thinking about at the moment, as despite the fact that the match with Akatsuki was one of the tougher matches he ever had, he knew that fighting Tatsuo would be even harder.
Even so, he just could not get the thought of how easily Akatsuki, despite not having an offensive [Quirk], toyed with him until he caused that explosion that pushed her out of the ring.
"She wasn't even allowed to use her weapons…" Katsuki muttered to himself while clenching his fists. "If she was allowed to use everything, would I have been able to win?"
For the first time since his [Quirk] awakened, Katsuki doubted his own strength. Though, that doubt did not last for long.
"No, I would have definitely won!" Katsuki growled to himself. "I'm going to be the number one Hero. And no one, not that stealth extra or the pretty boy bastard is going to stop me!"
"This is an infirmary." Recovery Girl, who was sitting at her desk in the infirmary, said sternly. "Even if you're the only one here, keep your voice down."
In response, Katsuki glared at Recovery Girl. However, the little old lady only stared at him impassively, causing Katsuki to click his tongue and look away without a word. Even so, Katsuki continued to shout in his head, reaffirming to himself that he would destroy Tatsuo in the finals and let everyone know that he was going to be the strongest.
Not long after that, the announcement for the two fighters to make their way to the stadium could be heard over the PA system and Katsuki got out of bed before starting the walk to the entrance tunnel.