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[Climax]
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...
The fight started with as little subtlety as could have been expected.
The instant Present Mic gave the start, both students rushed at each other. Bakugo released an all-out explosion the moment the two met, while Taka aimed a fire-and-electricity charged blast directly at Bakugo.
—BOOOOOOM!—
The follow-up was as catastrophic as anyone could have predicted.
The platform cracked and exploded as Bakugo's blast went off, making everyone's ears ring from the sheer violence of it. But as the smoke cleared, it revealed Taka standing unbothered, an arm seemingly having absorbed all that force without a single scratch.
Bakugo had done something similar with Taka's attack—with his other hand, he'd released an explosion to offset the incoming blast.
In comparison, however, he hadn't been as successful. There were plenty of burns on his arm, the skin along them an angry red.
As soon as the two became visible again, neither gave the other a moment's rest.
But of course, one was faster.
—BAM!—
"Ack—!"
A kick moved fast, striking Bakugo's chest before he could even react. His body folded the instant it hit, and his figure was sent flying backward like a bullet.
He managed to snap out of it before he could reach the border of the platform, however.
—Booom!—
Using his own explosions, he killed his momentum, sending himself into a chaotic spin before killing that too with another burst.
Seconds later, from the sky, he was finally able to lock onto Taka.
He was—
"You look a little lost."
Right in front of him.
Before he could react, his head was grabbed like a ball, and with a violent throw, Taka sent him back down to the platform.
-Thud!-
Bakugo's back arched as he hit the ground, eyes widening as the air left his lungs.
But he didn't have time to linger on it—he saw Taka descending on him like a meteor.
—Boom!—
In a hurried move, he used an explosion to get out of the way at the last second, just as a knee had been about to smash his face.
As he dodged, dust rose from the impact point, the entire platform splitting into several cracks.
Bakugo stared at Taka's figure emerging from the dust with wide eyes.
But he didn't hesitate for long.
Without hesitation, and letting out a guttural growl, he lunged back at him, both palms aimed directly.
From them—
—BOOOOOM!—
A giant explosion engulfed a great stretch of the platform, and Taka with it.
Smoke billowed out in thick clouds, swallowing the hit area... And from it, a figure cut through, shooting backward at high speed.
Taka had been sent reeling from the recoil of that explosion—and yet, even moving backward, he was still standing straight with both arms crossed, feet sliding through the concrete and leaving a trail of dust, as though his movement were entirely secondary to him.
Then, just as he was nearing the border, his feet dug into the concrete and brought him to an abrupt halt.
"DIEEE!!!"
The next instant, Bakugo emerged from the dust, shooting straight at him.
—BOOOM!—
—BOOOM!—
—BOOOM!—
—BOOOM!—
What followed was a barrage of explosions that Bakugo unleashed without restraint, whipping his arms back and forth relentlessly as Taka became engulfed in the flames, smoke, and dust created.
Most of the crowd had to cover their ears at the deafening barrage.
It went on for at least twenty seconds before Bakugo finally seemed to tire out, breathing heavily and taking a few shaky steps back from exhaustion.
"… How was that, you bastard?" He asked at the cloud of smoke now present before him.
"I felt something," The answer came faster than he could have liked.
The smoke cleared in a single burst from within, revealing Taka—once again—looking unbothered.
Bakugo grimaced, still too busy catching his breath to bother with a curse.
After a deep breath, however, his wavering focus snapped back together, ready for a second go.
So he did.
—BOOOM!—
Bakugo's figure shot violently toward Taka, who smiled and lifted both arms lazily, as if welcoming him in.
Seconds later, the two went at it again. Some explosions missed, others struck point-blank—and through all of them, Taka remained unaffected.
At the stands, in Class 1-A's section, the entire class could only watch in amazement at the ferocity of one fighter and the sheer calm with which the other was handling it—making it look more like a game than an actual fight.
"I can't believe it. Bakugo's getting played around," Kaminari muttered, eyeing the fight below with wide eyes.
Mina looked at him with a deadpan. "What do you mean you can't believe it? Everyone here already saw this coming."
"It was just an expression. It's just surprising to see the high and mighty Bakugo getting played like that. I did expect it, though—Taka is just…"
"On another level." Todoroki finished his sentence.
He had already recovered from his fight with Taka and returned to the section to watch the remaining fights with everyone.
At his words, a nod rippled through the group, who very much agreed.
Taka was an irregular in their class—a blazing flame burning amidst sparking embers just beginning to light up.
If anyone had genuinely believed Bakugo could win, they had to be delusional.
'Kacchan…'
And of course, there was one right among them.
Midoriya stared at Bakugo fruitlessly unleashing everything he had against Taka, his grip tightening on the notebook in his hand.
His frown deepened as he studied the movements. An all-out rampage, hoping it would be enough to tear down Taka's defenses.
But he knew it wouldn't be enough.
He had told Kacchan that, right before the fight.
He had nothing against Taka, of course. But given the difference in power, it was only natural he wanted to give Bakugo as equal a chance as he could.
Ever since he'd started studying Taka's Quirk, he'd been scribbling down details, trying to make sense of it.
He'd failed, for the most part. It was a Quirk too bizarre, too chaotic to properly understand.
But that didn't mean everything he'd written down was pure nonsense.
He'd discovered patterns, momentary weaknesses or openings, Taka's own behavioral tendencies, and had sketched out some of the rules the Quirk might follow that Taka had never explained.
As the strongest in the class, he'd wanted to learn as much from him as he could—and their shared training had given him a lot to work with.
Which was what he'd tried to pass along to Bakugo before his fight started.
He'd shared as much as he could when he caught him right at the door of the waiting room—but clearly, his childhood friend hadn't listened.
If he had, he wouldn't be fighting so powerlessly now.
'Damn it.' Midoriya thought as his fist on his knee tightened.
He recalled what Bakugo had said to him during their own fight.
His friend—the one he'd admired most of his life—believed he'd deliberately hidden his Quirk from him. That he'd been laughed at for it.
Was that why he wasn't listening?
Should he have told him about One For All, even if not everything?
No—even then, he doubted Bakugo would have listened. He simply wouldn't want to win with someone else's help. That was all.
'But as he is…'
His eyes settled on Bakugo, whose breathing sped up with each explosion that went off on Taka's face—but did literally nothing.
'...He can't win!'
And just like Midoriya was thinking—
"Just… DIE ALREADY!"
Bakugo sent off his last explosion with what remained of his strength, his arm dragging like a barely thrown punch.
-Boom!-
It went off.
But as the smoke cleared, it showed Taka's hand covering Bakugo's palm—having completely absorbed the explosion.
And from the looks of it, without the slightest scratch.
"Seeing as your explosions are losing more and more power—I guess this is about as far as you can go, right?"
—WHAM!—
Without letting him answer, Taka drove a kick into Bakugo's side.
The blow was brutal. Bakugo's body folded, sent flying for a moment before rolling uncontrolled across the floor, closing in on the border.
-Boom!-
A small explosion at the last moment killed his momentum, letting him stop right at the line.
As quickly as someone running on empty could, Bakugo pushed himself to his knees, breathing hard.
As he did, Taka approached, stopping a few steps away, looking down at him with something close to pity.
"I guess I don't need to drag this out, do I?"
With those words, he aimed his palm at Bakugo.
And in tandem, his aura began flaring—
—Booom!—
"DIEEEEE!"
But just then, an explosion went off under Bakugo's palms, sending him straight at Taka.
Before anyone could process what happened in that instant, Bakugo brought both palms together, aiming at Taka.
And thus—
—BOOOOOOOOOOM!—
He released the biggest explosion he had managed yet.
Even he suffered recoil from it—blown backward, and when he caught himself, stumbling several steps.
The dust covered nearly the whole arena. The crowd went silent, their breath caught.
In Class 1-A's section, Midoriya nearly stood up from the shock, eyes widening.
'He listened!'
Through the months he'd spent around Taka, there was one thing he'd always noticed.
Whenever Taka was about to use his telekinesis, the red aura around him would flare up first.
Like he was charging himself.
According to Taka, his telekinesis was a direct conversion of his physical strength—which was itself boosted by his Quirk.
But with that description, Midoriya had noticed something.
Just like a sprinter in a race, or a weightlifter at the bar, no one could go from zero to full output in an instant. Whether because it was physically impossible, or because doing so would tear their own body apart, even if they could theoretically handle that level of force after enough build-up.
Considering Taka's body directly affected his telekinesis—the time he took to charge, and the intensity the aura reached before he acted—Midoriya had theorized there might be a charge dynamic at work.
Maybe Taka's body needed time to adapt to the output. Or maybe he simply couldn't access everything from the start.
Whatever the answer, the fact that Taka had to pause to charge remained.
And thus, an opportunity to strike.
Perhaps even a moment of vulnerability.
He swallowed nervously as saw Bakugo finally catch himself and stare hard into the cloud of smoke covering everything.
The silence was deafening, and the vexing slowness that the smoke was taking in dissipating was making both of them anxious.
But eventually, as nothing seemed to happen, both had the same thought.
'Did it work?'
And for a moment, it seemed so.
No movement could be seen through the smoke, and pure silence fell over the stadium.
It wasn't only them who had caught their breath in anxiousness. Everyone else did so too.
Everyone wanted to know whether the unstoppable star had finally been brought down.
—Unfortunately, their hopes were shut down pretty quickly.
-Swooooosh!-
Suddenly, the wind changed.
And not in a natural way.
"Crap." Bakugo clicked his tongue, readying himself.
The smoke around him began siphoning forward, like a hurricane forming.
Then—
"…!"
Bakugo's palms detonated and launched him into the air, letting him dodge at the last second as something shot out from the smoke and struck exactly where he'd been standing.
Looking down, he saw a hand. Large, crimson, flaming, and skeletal.
"Shit!"
And following his curse—
—FWOOOSH!—
All the smoke exploded outward, finally revealing what had been hidden inside.
—ROAAAAR!—
Taka's flaming skeleton.
"You were acting exhausted so I could lower my guard, weren't you?!" Suddenly, Taka's shout rang out from within the skeleton.
As Bakugo squinted through the flaming light composing the skeleton's body, he caught sight of him.
He was grinning widely. A small burn marked his cheek.
"…!" Bakugo's eyes widened.
His earlier attack had worked. He had hurt him.
He had reached him.
'So that was it.'
Bakugo began grinning too.
The road that had seemed endless, with the goal that had seemed unreachable… had both lost their mystery.
He had damaged him.
And if he could damage him…
—he could WIN!
With a wide grin, he began diving back down, straight at the skeleton.
"I broke through this thing before, and I'll do it again!"
"Did you?! I thought that was the whole rest of the school plus you!"
"Shut up!"
Both traded words as they prepared to clash.
Soon, the skeleton began striking at Bakugo, who used his explosions to skid left and right through the air, dodging its blows and delivering bursts of his own whenever an opening appeared.
"You're just a bigger target on this thing!"
"And you're just a fly buzzing around!"
Bakugo's explosion struck the skeleton one last time, and the recoil sent him straight up—several small explosions propelling him further like a rocket.
"Let's see if this is enough for a fly, then!"
Once he was high enough, he twisted and aimed himself downward, diving straight at his target.
As he fell, he crossed both arms and began releasing small controlled explosions, each one spinning his body faster and faster.
Until, eventually, a vortex began forming around him, condensing the oxygen around him and fueling his explosions—until, at last—
"HOWITZER—"
—he reached the skeleton.
"IMPACT!!!"
—BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!—
The next instant, an explosion engulfed the entire flaming skeleton—and a great stretch of the arena beyond it as it reached the ground and kept expanding.
Cementoss had to shield both himself and Midnight as the blast pushed past the platform entirely.
Bakugo, for his part, was sent spinning upward from the sheer repulsion force—dazed from the violence of it and from the blast catching him too.
He managed to catch himself before hitting the ground, an explosion from his palms slowing his descent as he dropped into the remaining smoke.
He got to his feet with shaky steps, eyes narrowed against the sting of the smoke.
As he looked around, he lifted a hand and stared at his palm for a moment, a wince crossing his face.
His reserves were running dry.
That last attack had been just about his maximum output, and it had left him with very little left in the tank.
If Taka hadn't gone down here…
'He must at least be injured.' Bakugo refused to accept otherwise, scanning around through the dark cloud that covered the whole area.
Luckily, it didn't take long to find him.
Soon, the skeleton began dissolving. Its outline was plain enough, given the light it gave off, even as it faded.
And in the center of its ribcage, two red eyes could be seen.
Bakugo didn't hesitate.
He had to strike while the iron was hot.
—Boom!—
Ignoring the pain in his hands and his body's protests, he shot toward Taka.
—BOOOM!—
Only—as the explosion tore through the spot where he thought his opponent would be—all he found were two red orbs of light hovering there like eyes.
"You fell for the not-oldest trick in the book."
The voice came from behind him.
He snapped around—and saw Taka, aura beginning to seep off him.
—BOOOM!—
Without thinking twice, he shot at him, ready to deliver the final blow while he was vulnerable.
He wound up his arms, face twisting into a wide grin.
But as he closed in on Taka—
"In a hurry?"
"…?!"
All his momentum died.
He stopped completely, right in the middle of the air, and found he couldn't move.
Almost as if he… had been caught in his telekinesis?
"How?"
His eyes caught a faint crimson hue around himself—a sign he was under Taka's aura's control.
He had been caught.
He looked back at Taka, shock written across his face.
"You… how are you…?"
Hadn't he needed time to charge?
He himself and the nerd had noticed it.
He always did so.
So how come not now?!
Had he charged himself while he was hidden in the smoke?
Luckily to Bakugo's confusion, Taka soon answered his questions, even if he didn't voice them.
"Seeing your shocked face, I can assume you thought I needed time to charge or something like that. The thing is, that was only for dramatic effect."
Then, Taka lifted his hand, pointing his palm at him.
"As was pointing my hand at you."
"…!" Bakugo's face twisted in disbelief.
The bastard in front of him—didn't even need to lift his hand to control his telekinesis.
All of it… had been his mere antics?!
Had there never been any weakness at all?
"Now, that was fun—but I doubt you have much left in you, right?" Taka asked, his smirk settling into something quieter, almost like the fun was winding down. "Then I suppose I truly don't need to drag this out. You were fun to fight—you can be proud of that."
Then, swinging his arm.
"But this has gone for long enough."
"You damn attention who—"
Before he could say anything in protest, Bakugo was sent flying, cutting through the smoke and becoming visible to the whole stadium.
He crashed into the outer wall, well out of bounds.
It didn't take long for the teachers to confirm it.
Following that, the air on the platform shifted again, and the smoke began swirling before exploding outward in every direction and dispersing.
—Revealing Taka, with no visible injury, only some singes on his clothes and a hair or two out of place.
A second or two of sheer disbelief passed before Present Mic caught up.
{"B-Bakugo is out of bounds—Takahashi advances to the final round!"}
Thus, bringing an end to the third to last combat of the tournament.
...
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-To Be Continued…-
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(A/N: Sorry for the wait guys, university got intense this week. Got to close one of my classes though, so that's one thing less to worry about from now on.)