The smoke finally cleared completely, and on the other side stood Kaneki, his training uniform shirt completely destroyed, revealing his scar-covered torso to all of Japan.
His arms were in a horrible state, hanging limply at his sides, completely burned and immobile.
Where the explosion had hit directly, there was a hole of charred flesh, with parts of bone exposed.
Despite the horrific injury, which was probably being censored on TV, Kaneki remained standing, expressionless as he stared at his arms.
─── ◆ ───
Kaneki's POV
'At least my pants weren't carbonized… Somehow.' I take a deep breath and begin regenerating the damage.
In a few seconds, my arms return to normal. I raise my right one and open and close my hand a few times.
'That hurt…' I turn my gaze to Bakugo, deciding to repay him in kind.
The Rinkaku behind me dissolves, giving way to a crystalline red feathered shoulder guard, along with a plague doctor mask and a single segmented tail above my coccyx.
My incomplete Kakuja, though I wouldn't need more than that.
Bakugo's eyes widen, and a wild grin spreads across his face.
"YES! THAT'S what I—" He stops speaking as he sees me cross nearly the entire arena in the blink of an eye.
Bakugo is startled by the speed and tries to raise his right palm, since his other arm was unusable.
But I had already arrived. His movements seemed extremely slow and shaky, probably because of the strain of pushing his Quirk so far.
I clenched my fist, aiming at his stomach.
At that moment, I realized that if I continued, striking with the force I intended to use, I would kill him.
'Why hold back? He didn't care about doing it.' The world slowed down completely as I felt my subconscious whisper in my mind.
Shit… If I don't reduce the force, I'll punch a hole through his stomach…
'Kill him!'
My fist kept moving forward. Bakugo was sweating cold, staring at the punch that, in his vision, and the audience's, was coming like lightning.
'He hurt Himiko!' echoed in my head.
'Kill him!'
"No…" I murmured, managing to reduce the force of the punch at the last moment.
My fist sank into Bakugo's stomach, making him bend over and grunt before being sent flying out of the arena bounds, where he slammed his back against the wall and fell onto the ground.
There, he vomited his lunch and groaned in pain, lying on his back on the concrete.
"..."
I stared at my fist again for a few seconds, letting out a sigh of relief when I saw that Bakugo was fine, as much as possible.
"WINNER: KEN KANEKI!!!" Midnight announced with little hops, and the crowd roared, though my mind felt a bit hazy.
It was very similar to the first time I went out as a vigilante, almost killing a trafficker… The difference is that the doctor's face didn't appear this time.
─── ◆ ───
All Might placed the bronze medal around Todoroki's neck, offering a few words to the boy.
Next, he held the silver medal above Bakugo's head, who growled.
"I don't want a loser's medal!" The man gave a strange smile but continued, placing the medal around his neck.
"Second place may not be the top, young Bakugo, but it is still a victory to be celebrated." Bakugo grumbled in dissatisfaction but accepted the medal with clear disdain on his face.
And then, the number one hero came to me, that classic smile on his face.
"Congratulations, young Kaneki! You rightfully earned first place!"
He then placed the gold medal around my neck and hugged me, just as he did with the other two.
'I prefer it when Himiko or Nemuri do this…' I complained internally as I was buried in the man's muscles.
With two pats on the back (that nearly dislocated a few bones), he broke the hug, turned to the crowd, said a few words, and led a collective "Plus Ultra!" from the entire audience, thus closing the UA first-year Sports Festival.
─── ◆ ───
I was leaning against one of the corridor walls, waiting for Himiko so we could go home.
She had gone to say goodbye to her friends.
Then, some commotion caught my attention, and I turned my head to see what it was about.
'Bakugo, and… a female Bakugo?'
Words couldn't describe my confusion as I saw a female version of Bakugo dragging him toward me.
"Old hag! I don't ne—" Bakugo started to speak but got his ear pulled.
"Quiet!"
"Hello! You must be Ken Kaneki, right?" the woman asked me kindly, a huge contrast to how she had treated the boy beside her just seconds ago.
"Yes..." I nodded.
"I'm Mitsuki Bakugo, this brat's mother." She gave a few light pats on Bakugo's head, while he avoided my gaze at all costs, grinding his teeth.
"We need to talk to you…"
And then, to my surprise and confusion, she bowed her head, pulling her son's head down along with the motion.
"Thank you for saving my son during the USJ attack." Bakugo didn't resist his mother's pull, but he looked deeply embarrassed.
"I…"
"And also for beating some sense into this stinky brat, he needed it."
"HEY!! That wasn't a beating!"
"He caught me off guard!" Bakugo snapped back to normal, shouting at his mother, which earned him a smack on the head that immediately silenced him.
"Anyway, you're welcome at our house."
"Stop by sometime for dinner."
"HUH?!" Another smack echoed.
The kind lady gave me another wave and left.
"..."
"..."
"Don't tell anyone about this, or I'll kill you."
"..."
"Your mom is cool."
"Shut up." he replied immediately.
Bakugo then started to turn to leave, still looking somewhat shaken by his mother's actions.
"Bakugo," I called, making him turn back to me.
"What?"
"That was a good fight." I extended my fist toward him, still not changing my expression.
Bakugo's eyes widened for a moment as he looked at me and then at my fist.
Then, he smiled, not that wild, exaggerated grin, but a simple, genuine one.
"Yeah, it was. See you around." He returned the gesture and walked off with his hands in his pockets, heading toward where his mother had gone.
'He's not as bad as he seems. His attitude toward Midoriya is still strange, but maybe I'll find out what happened at some point.'
─── ◆ ───
[A/N]: Initially, instead of "female version of Bakugo," it was going to be a "MILF version of Bakugo", but... well... yeah...
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