Would you give up?"
Kirishima asked while he faced Bakugou with a renewed determination and spirit, a defiance that Bakugou did not appreciate, it was a defiance that denied the natural power of his quirk and his own prowess at wielding it.
"Hmph! then I'll put you down like a dog!"
Bakugou expressed as he began charging towards his opponent, planning to finish this fight that was beneath him. His true opponent was Taro. Defeating him would be the first step in proving that he has the strength to be a hero.
..
Meanwhile, on the monitoring room, All Might kept a keen sight on the fight between the two boys. At this point, Bakugou and Kirishima were the only ones engaged in battle, Taro was seemingly talking to Momo, so it was safe to ignore them for a bit.
"Young Kirishima has quite the mental fortitude"
All Might expressed as he witnessed the young man withstand a point blank blast of explosion. He also noted the ferocious nature of Bakugou's attacks. He could tell the blonde was taking this exercise as seriously as he could.
"I didn't think his hardening quirk would be so strong"
Tsuyu gave a comment, her voice conveying that she was quite impressed with Kirishima. Everyone in the class was aware by now that Bakugou was quite ruthles and if not handled properly his quite could literally kill, however with this showing, it was obvious that Kirishima's hardening quirk had a solid chance against it.
"Yeah, I guess that just tells us more about how strong Taro is, considering he took him out in one punch"
Uraraka said, bringing up the events of the last exercise with Mr Aizawa. in her head and mostly everyone of her classmates Taro was far above them in pure physical might and the fact that even Bakugou's explosion had a hard time taking out Kirishima, someone Taro defeated with a single attack really put it into perspective how strong he truly was.
Of course, this inturn made it apparent to all of them that, at the very least, they were not all that far behind compared to Bakugou, Taro is just exceptional.
"In terms of quirks, It would be an apt assessment to say Kirishima is quite gifted, not in the same sense as Taro or Todoroki but in his own sense."
Tenya uttered, his eyes looking at the screen as he straightened his glasses to focus on the battle more, as someone who lost to Bakugou previously, the boy was intent on finding a winning strategy against his explosive classmate.
Kirishima's quirk was not flashy or extremely powerful on his own. However, it was by no means unimpressive.
"Ha! Eijiro's quirk isn't that good. In fact, back in middle school, he could barely take a punch, and he only began training his quirk during our last year of middle school"
Mina quickly corrected the misunderstanding that had begun to form in the minds of her classmates. What they were seeing in Kirishima was not a result of his quirk simply awakening strong but instead years of diligence and hard work.
She couldn't help but smile, as her mind went back towards their middle school days. She wouldn't say he was a coward, but he certainly wasn't as assertive. That incident really did spur him to becoming better.
'Can't say I hate the red hair though'
She thought to herself as she was reminded he had black hair before. The hair style was better as well.
"So he wasn't always that strong then? He does seem like the type to train a lot, so it makes sense"
Denki surmised while using his quirk to quickly charge his phone that had suddenly died because he had forgotten to charge it last night.
"You'd be surprised how different he was back then,"
She expressed, her tone sounding more nostalgic than she intended.
"You guys are pretty close"
Kyouka stated blunty, pointing out the obvious. It's something everyone has noticed but never voiced so far.
"I mean, we used to live in the same neighborhood when we were younger, then I moved, but we eventually ended up in the same middle and high school"
She answered, and everyone raised a curious eyebrow as they began to suspect something. If Toru had been present, she probably would have blurted out what they were all thinking.
All Might was still focused on the fight, but I couldn't help but appreciate Kirishima a bit more after hearing what Mina had to say. It seemed the young man had the heart of a hero already.
"hmm"
All Might hummed, his mind committing the young man to memory and making a mental note about considering him as a potential candidate for inheriting One for All.
Bakugou was a good candidate as well, but he was a bit too aggressive for All Might's tastes at the moment.
…
The battle between the two young men continued, with Bakugou determined to put down his foe at all cost.
He easily stepped to the side, evading another charge by Kirishima and then using his quirk to blast Kirishima on the flank and sent the young man crashing through the wall of the nearby room.
Kirishima rolled on the floor before getting back on his feet as quickly as possible, shrugging off the attack and ignoring the pain.
In terms of attack, he didn't have much in terms of variety, not only that, but he did not have the necessary speed to reach him before he could use his hands.
'I just have to take his explosions and get close enough to grab–'
He quickly paused as he heard running footsteps, and he quickly realised it was Bakugou abandoning the fight.
He ran out of the room and saw the blonde making a break for the stairs
"Where are you going!!"
Kirishima shouted, and Bakugou responded without turning his head to look at him.
"I'm not an idiot you stupid Bastard!!"
Bakugou had realised that, After this battle, no doubt he was going to fight someone else, either Todoroki or Taro's sister and he can't waste anymore of his energy on Kirishima especially if his next opponent is Todoroki.
"Dammit!!"
Kirishima cursed as he decided to abandon the fight. He decided to continue with the plan and go after the bomb
...…..
Meanwhile, on the roof, the two siblings faced each other. Taro floated above with his prize already before his eyes and the only thing that defended it was a meager cage and his sister who seemed a bit too tired, next to her was what looked to be bucket full of water
"Momo, you're OK? You don't look so hot?"
He asked, noticing the unusually pale skin on her. not only that, but she was breathing quite heavily and seemed to be barely standing up.
"What took you so long, Taro? I was getting bored here"
She taunted or at least tried and put her finger on the red button of the remote she was holding however Taro ignored it, she was sickly pale and he couldn't be bothered to care about anything right now.
Clearly, there was something wrong with her at the moment. He slowly floated down and touched the ground and quickly got close, and as he did, he saw she was much thinner than he remembered.
"What happened Mo-chan, why are you so pale? what did you do?"
He said with worry practically dripping from his voice, and Momo frowned slightly at the mention of the words "Mo-chan" she had worked hard to stop him from referring to her as that.
"Oh no, I'm fine, and thanks…"
She said as she suddenly stood straight and determination showed on her face, surprising Taro, who took the step back unfortunately just as he did so.
Momo was quick to capitalise on his surprise and pressed the red button, and suddenly steel wires shot out from every corner of the roof and immediately wrapped themselves around Taro's arms, legs, neck, and torso.
"What the…"
He exclaimed in slight surprise, but there was no worry on his face.
"Thanks for being so predictable Taro"
Momo said with a smile on her face before taking the bucket next to her and walking towards the cage that had surrounded the bomb.
She sat down near it, sighing in relief as she did so, catching her breath. She was actually tired, as she ended up having to use too much of her fat, but she wasn't in any life-threatening danger, just tired.
"Really? come on"
He asked in disappointment, he had thought she was smarter, although she did fool him by pretending to be sick, but he was expecting a bit of a challenge, like maybe battle Todoroki and for him to use his fire.
'oh well'
He shrugged his shoulders and then shook his head in a bit of disappointment. He tried to pull his left arm to the right in an attempt to just snap the wire in two to free his arm.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you"
She warned him, and he looked at her with a confused raised eyebrow, so she elaborated.
"The rules say that you can't cause too much damage to the building. Otherwise, you're disqualified"
"OK and?"
"Each of those wires is connected to a part of this roof if you pull on them hard, you'll remove a significant chunk of the roof and risk being disqualified"
....
A/N: what do you think of Kirishima so far? he was always among my favorite characters in the series, and I feel like giving him a more main character role in this fic.