Hey hope yall enjoy the chapter. Also please give me feed back on the fight scene. tell me if anything needs changeing or done differently for future fight scenes.
Anywho have a good night
Chapter 46: a solid win
Dust and broken concrete still hung in the air when Stars and Stripes stepped out of the wreckage.
Her suit was torn in a few places and streaked with dirt, but she looked otherwise unharmed. A wide grin split her face as she locked eyes with Cid.
"This is getting good!" she called out, voice full of energy. "C'mon, Cid! Is that all you've got?!"
Cid was panting slightly from the effort of expanding multiple buildings and throwing them at her. Before he could fully catch his breath, Stars vanished.
He barely had time to snap his head toward the blur of motion and throw Infinity up. It flared into place just as her fist was hair's breadth from his face, the air distorting faintly around the point of contact.
She didn't give him a second to think.
Stars began attacking him from every angle at super speed, forcing him to constantly shift Infinity's focus. There was no time to plan, no time to set up anything elaborate. Every time he tried to track her, she was already attacking from a new direction.
Cid clicked his tongue and pushed both hands outward.
A violent blast of expanded space erupted around him, shoving everything nearby backward including stars. She skidded across the broken pavement but recovered almost instantly, already rushing him again.
This time Cid met her head-on.
He coated his right fist with attraction, the knuckles taking on a faint blue glow as space itself pulled the punch forward. At the same time, repulsion flared red behind his elbow, launching the strike even faster. The enhanced punch cracked solidly into Stars' chin, snapping her head to the side.
But she had anticipated it.
The fist he blocked with Infinity had been nothing but a feint. Her other hand drove into his stomach the moment his guard was committed. The impact lifted him off his feet and sent him skidding backward across the cracked road and landed on his knee winded. Then Cid coughed and spit a glob of blood that hit the ground next to his boot.
Stars rolled her shoulders and grinned even wider.
"C'mon, Cid! Is that all you have?!"
Cid stayed on one knee for a second, one hand braced against the pavement as he pushed himself up and a real smile spread across his face. 'This is actually kinda fun' he thought
"…Not even close."
Star's grin widened the moment she saw the look on Cid's face.
"Then let's take this up a notch."
She shot forward again, faster than before. Cid braced for another clash, but she never threw a real punch at him. Instead, she muttered under her breath, thrust her fist through the air.
A crushing wave of compressed air pressure slammed into Infinity. The air distorting and stopping just short of his body, cid stared as the surrounding block was demolished, the force behind that punch was on another level. Before he could drop the barrier and counter, she was already moving, repeating the process from a different angle. Then another. Then another.
Within seconds Cid was completely surrounded.
Invisible walls of hyper-compressed air pressure hammered Infinity from every direction at once. He was forced to keep the technique expanded across his entire body, holding it stable under constant assault. The strain hit him almost immediately. His breathing locked up as he held his breath due to having to block everything coming in the shield so he was running out of oxygen quickly. Sweat poured down his face and His arms trembled from the effort of maintaining the full area defense.
'Dam she trapped me'
He grit his teeth, mind racing. The only way out was to warp while still holding Infinity up, something he'd never even tried before, but now was as good a time as any. He could feel the pressure above him was vastly weaker. She had left that path open on purpose, probably waiting to crush him the second he emerged.
A sharper grin pulled at Cid's mouth.
She didn't know how fast he could move when he was trying his hardest though.
Cid forced everything he had into the technique. Infinity shuddered and rippled, almost falling apart, but he pushed through the resistance and warped.
Space folded. He vanished from the center of the barrage and reappeared dozens of meters away in a low crouch, finally able to suck in a rough breath. The clunky teleport left his head ringing and his control frayed for a second, but it worked.
Stars was already launching at him.
She had read the movement and adjusted, closing the distance almost as fast as he relocated. The two of them fell into a brutal cat-and-mouse across the ruined streets — Cid using short bursts of repulsion to accelerate and attraction to yank himself out of her path, while Stars chased him with relentless speed and more air pressure punches destroying more of the city. Every exchange forced him to make decisions in fractions of a second.
Cid's breathing grew heavier. He could feel the limits of his body and Quirk approaching fast. If this dragged on any longer, he was going to lose the ability to finish it cleanly.
' I have to end this now.' Cid thought
The next time Stars landed directly in front of him, Cid stopped running.
He poured more power into his Quirk than he ever had in training. Space around Stars collapsed inward with violent force sparking red around her, locking her in place. The pressure was extreme any more and he risked crushing her and he could feel her still slowly moving even now. His left eye flared with sharp pain as Blood ran down from the corner of it along with his nose from the strain of holding her.
Cid didn't waste the opening. He rushed forward and slapped the capture cuffs onto her wrists, and released the pressure right after. his legs to give out not even a second later.
Cid dropped to his knees hard, chest heaving, sweat dripping from his chin onto the cracked pavement. He sat there holding himself up with both hands as blood dripped from his eye and nose, his entire body felt like it was vibrating from the strain. Even so, a wide, exhausted grin stayed fixed on his face.
The match was called immediately.
For a second there was silence.
Then Stars burst out laughing a loud, genuine, and completely unrestrained. She looked down at the cuffs on her wrists, then at Cid still kneeling in front of her, and shook her head with an impressed grin.
"Damn, kid," she said, voice full of real approval. She reached down, grabbed him by the forearm, and hauled him back to his feet like he weighed nothing. "That was fun, we'll have to do that again sometime, I'll even hold back less to make it more fun."
As they walked back toward the control room together. Stars had the cuffs dangling from one finger, spinning them casually as she walked. Most of the tension from the fight had already faded, replaced by an easy, almost satisfied quiet between them.
"Well," she said after a moment, "you won fair and square. That means you get a favor you wnated, Within reason, of course."
Cid gave a small nod, still catching his breath. "Appreciated."
Stars slowed her pace a little, then stopped and placed a hand on his shoulder. Her expression shifted, it was still confident, but felt more genuine than her normal one.
"I still want you to consider coming to America for an internship at some point," she said. "Not just because of the bet. Watching you today… the way you adapt mid-fight, the way you refused to take the easy way out even when it's right in front of you, that kind of spirit isn't common. Your Quirk has a lot of room to grow, but more than that, the way you think under pressure is something worth developing properly. I think you'd benefit from training in a different environment for a while. Away from all the noise over here."
Cid scratched the back of his head, looking off to the side.
"…I'll think about it."
Stars grinned and gave his shoulder a light pat and continued walking. "That's all I ask."
Later that night, Cid lay on his back in bed, staring up at the ceiling. His body still felt heavy from the fight, but his mind was still thinking.
Yui shifted beside him, then rolled over until she was fully on top of him, resting her chin on his chest as she looked down at him.
"You've got that thinking look again," she said quietly. "What's on your mind?"
Cid let out a small breath and rested a hand on her back.
"Stars offered me an internship in America. I told her I'd think about it… and I am. I was considering seeing if I can go during summer break."
Yui's eyes widened slightly. "To America?!"
"Yeah. And…" He hesitated for a second. "If she agrees, would you like to come with me?"
For a moment Yui just stared at him. Then her usual calm expression completely broke. A bright, excited smile spread across her face as she let out a small squeal of pure joy and threw her arms around him, rubbing her face into his chest.
"Yes, yes yes! Of course I'd go!" she said, voice higher than usual. "I've always wanted to visit America!" She pulled back just enough to look at him, still smiling wide, then leaned down and kissed him deeply. "Thank you."
Cid blinked, a little caught off guard by how excited she was, before a small smile tugged at his own mouth. "Alright. I'll text her and see if it ok."
He reached over, grabbed his phone, and sent a short message:
Cid: [ I was thinking about coming over the summer instead of the regular internship period. Would it be alright, also would it be ok if Yui came with me as well?]
The reply came almost immediately.
S&S: [HELL YEAH 👍🫡🇺🇸]
S&S: [Bring her! The more the merrier. And this summer will work. We'll figure out the details tomorrow. Get some rest, you earned it.]
Yui read it over the top of his phone and let out a quiet giggle, still resting against his chest.
"…Well," he muttered. "That's time for sleep." he said as he kissed the top of yuis head and pulled her closer.