Chapter 15

Akane stared down at her phone as she walked to Ground Omega. She had skimmed all through the Cognitive chapter of Psychology last night, which seemed to detail a person's memory, how they calculate and solve certain problems, and how they communicate with others. That wasn't what she was looking for, but it did give some helpful tips on how she can focus better when studying. The next chapter was for the Forensic side of psychology, which usually dealt with criminal minds. Although Bakugo might fit the category, she decided to come back to that later and move on to the Developmental chapter. This one, as she read, went over how certain conditions affect a growing mind throughout a person's life, starting from childhood. Children are the ones who are at the most influential stage, their minds are like sponges that absorb everything around them. Most adult behaviors are the ones that are learned from their own parents as kids as well as other environmental factors, which got the gears in her head turning. Maybe Bakugo was like that because of something with his parents.

It was so interesting that it completely absolved her from everything else, so much that she didn't pay attention to where she was going and bumped right into the person in front of her. The impact shoved the phone out of her hand, but thankfully the person grabbed it just before it hit the pavement. When she looked up to properly thank them, she was immediately linked to his two–colored eyes. Todoroki?

Though the color in his pupils were opposite, they were incredibly captivating, almost like looking in depth at a unique painting at a museum. Seeing him this close, even with that unsightly scar, he was rather… handsome.

"You should be more careful where you walk." He offered her phone back.

The realization hit her at how long she was actually staring, which began to twist knots in her chest and form an embarrassing shade of pink across her cheeks. In silence, she quickly grabbed the phone and focused her eyes anywhere else. She was such a hypocrite, and after giving him so much shit for staring at her last night. At the moment, she was so caught up in her own anxiousness that she forgot how to speak.

"By the way, I'm sorry," he said.

"?" Her brow furrowed questionably.

"I must've said something that made you uncomfortable last night. For that, I'm sorry."

She relaxed her shoulders. "It's not your fault… It's as you said, I'm not used to living with new people…"

"It took me some time as well. Rest assured, that feeling won't be for too long."

There was a pause that dragged on for quite a while. The longer the silence, the more unsettling it became as the seconds went by. Small talk wasn't something she was good at, she didn't really know what to say. She never knew what to say! How could she when she didn't know anything about the guy? What was the right question to ask at a time like this? Hey, how're you doing? What's the weather like? For fuck's sake, she could see how he was doing, they're both outside! And weather talk is so boring! What are they, old? This was always so annoying!

"We should go. Group training starts in a few minutes."

"Oh… Right." She answered. Stupid Akane...

Together, they walked down the pavement until they were joined with the other students heading to Ground Omega. They didn't say much along the way, which wasn't a big deal for Todoroki, but it left her feeling a little stressed. Yuto told her several times that if she wasn't willing to make an effort to talk to people, then everyone would think she's weird. For the most part, she tried not to let it bother her so much, but she couldn't deny that some part of her life was a bit lonely, and it was her own fault for choosing to be this way.

It was definitely different going so far with him close by. He could've broken off to join his own friends, but oddly, he didn't. Was he following her? If so, what for? Despite all the questions swarming inside her head, she decided not to ask about it and just let it be.

He continued to walk with her all the way to the tree, where her three group members sat down waiting for her. Everyone looked a bit surprised to see that she wasn't alone this time. She stopped, which he did the same just before turning to her.

"I liked walking with you. Let's do it again sometime."

Huh?! Wait, what?!

She subconsciously went to shake her head no, but quickly remembered what Yuto said and realized that it would have been rude, so she caught herself and gave him a weird head rotation until it turned into a nod. God, she felt even more stupid…

Todoroki curled a half smile before he walked away, leaving her behind in a daze. What did he mean by that?

"What was that about, huh, idiot?"

Her brow dropped, knowing that she didn't have to guess whose voice it belonged to. The cocky asshole stepped forward, giving her that same annoyed scowl as always.

"What're you doing with that icy hot bastard?"

"Wouldn't you like to know…"

His eyes narrowed as he clicked his tongue. "Whatever. We already wasted too much time waiting on your dumbass. Let's go."

As per usual, she dropped her bag with the others in the pile by the tree and went over to the open field to prepare for the warm up exercises. With the new modifications to her hero costume, there was a bit more weight added to the soles of her boots for added durability and force behind her kicks. The adjustable weighted cuffs would need more time before they would be considered complete, so instead, Hatsume developed a simple set of studded knuckle gloves for her to try out. If Power Loader Sensei hadn't left the room, he might've been able to stop Hatsume from forcing on another invention, but she stupidly allowed herself to be a pushover, and agreed to try her new baby out for a test run and return it right after class. It kind of sucked not having the adjustable weights yet because the ones that Bakugo made her wear were starting to chafe her skin pretty bad. Oh well… She had to suck it up. Besides, Bakugo promised that he had plenty of miserable challenges prepared for her today.

"So you got your costume back, huh?" he asked her.

"Yea… They say the weights we requested won't be ready until Monday." She explained.

"Like that matters now."

Internally, she rolled her eyes at him. She was just letting him know… Geeze.

"First things first, you gotta train your endurance so that your quirk will last longer. You'll eat shit in the tournament if you can't increase your own limits. So we're gonna tear every muscle in your body!" Bakugo's eyes gleamed sinisterly as he curled his lips in such a way that made her cringe.

"I don't know about this." Said Jurota.

"Actually, in a way,... I think Bakugo's right. Pros can do some pretty unbelievable things with their quirk without even breaking a sweat. A lot of experience goes behind that kind of strength and the only way to get to that point would be to break yourself." Explained Sato.

"I see, so you want her to do the same stuff we did at the summer training camp." Jurota confirmed.

Bakugo's eyes changed once he said that, just for a brief moment. His shoulders rolled as he straightened his back and clenched his hands. The smile on his face became a straight line, he didn't glower. How weird, she thought. Pieces of the book started coming back to her on how to read certain signs of developed negative behavior. She couldn't be completely sure, but that one tense look he gave definitely sparked her to observe him a bit more.

He relaxed himself in a shrug and went to grab his bag.

"Come on. We're allowed to walk on campus again, so we're gonna go to the place I picked out."

"What's wrong with where we are now?" asked Jurota as he pushed his glasses back on the bridge of his nose.

Bakugo growled in frustration and walked off. "Just shut up with the questions and fucking move it already!"

With a sigh in defeat, all three of them did as told, grabbed their stuff, and caught up behind him. He led them deeper into Ground Omega, a good distance off campus to rocky terrain. There were boulders nearly everywhere you looked, but one rock stood out among the rest. It towered over them by roughly thirty feet and was just as wide. Now she had an idea of where he was going with this. He leaned his backpack against the side before he turned around and placed his hand on the rough exterior.

"By the end of this month, you're gonna break this damn thing."

Hattori's mouth parted as her brow raised in bewilderment. That's definitely ambitious to say the least, but hell, if he thinks he can help her get to that point, by all means. This'll be interesting.

"Alright, idiot, go do reps with those damn rocks. Pick only the ones that you'll actually struggle with." He pointed off the side.

"And what're you gonna be doing?" she asked, hoping that he wasn't going to just give her some BS weightlifting assignment and be done with it.

"None of your business, that's what! Get going!"

It took nearly everything in her willpower not to shove his face into the fucking rock just then. With a deep breath in through her nose, she huffed it out and begrudgingly did as told. At least she wouldn't have to look at him for a little bit.

"And don't even think about stopping or you're dead!" he yelled in the distance.

Yea, like he could try…

Akane fought the intense urge to flip him off and kept on going until she picked a nice spot loaded with rocks to begin. She concentrated until her entire body was consumed with dense red muscle and latched onto a massive gray boulder that stood out from the pile. It took a bit of straining, for almost half of it was secured deep into the ground, but she was able to pull it out of the dirt. Her muscles contracted as she went to lift it above her head. The gloves helped her hold it in place, but the weight cuffs started to tighten, nearly suffocating the blood flow of her wrists. She did her best to ignore it. As told, she focused her breaths, moved her arms up and down, and started to count off the reps in her head.

After what seemed like a solid twenty minutes, her arms began to stiffen with soreness. It was time to move onto a different stance. As she adjusted herself, she took a moment to glance around for her group mates. Surely one of them would come and check on her progress, hopefully one of the nice guys, Sato or Shishida and not Bakugo. When she checked, she noticed that they weren't anywhere, not even in the direction she had come from. That's strange.

Akane quickly focussed her ears to listen, but all she heard was the wind. Did they just ditch her and leave? It didn't sound like a bad argument when it came to Bakugo, but Sato and Shishida wouldn't do something like that, or at least she assumed they wouldn't. The quiet stillness was all too mischievous. Maybe something happened. Should she go back? It took maybe five seconds for her to make up her mind. She stopped counting and went to lower the boulder to the ground.

BAM!

The explosion ruptured the ground just below her feet, sending crumbled pieces of rock zooming through the air. She managed to jump back a good distance away from the impact at the moment of shift, but she couldn't escape the flying debris that smacked against her skin. Bakugo landed on one knee directly in front of her, his hands sparkling like tiny little firecrackers.

"I didn't tell you to stop!" he yelled, standing straight up.

She opened her mouth to say something, but her words were quickly replaced with an aching groan as a sharp pain struck the center of her back. The boulder dropped in between her legs, missing her feet by barely an inch. Hattori hissed as she went to put pressure on her back, but unfortunately, her bulky arms made it impossible to reach.

The sting of the nasty cut started to suck her in, taking all her focus away from reality towards the dark fathoms of her mind. The evil memory cloud that she had repressed, she could feel it starting to scurry its way back to her. No, she couldn't let that happen. She didn't want to think of him. Shaking her head, she pushed it back to focus on what was in front of her.

She turned to see who had injured her, but there was only a flash of massive brown fur. The creature ran on all four claws before he circled back around to her distant left side. When he finally stilled, Jurota stood up normally and pushed his glasses back on his nose.

"Come on! Let's see your fighting spirit!" said the Beast.

Two opponents so far, now where was the third one?

As if to answer her question, he let out a deafening battlecry before jumping down from the giant boulder right on top of her. Instinctively, she tumbled herself out of his landing spot, where he rumbled the surface from the weight of his own feet.

So this was what they were planning? A surprise attack, and from all three of them? This would certainly be a challenge.

Both Sato and Shishida paused and looked back to Bakugo. Without a word, he nodded, which signaled them to dive back into the action and attack. Sato tossed a handful of sugarcubes in his mouth as Jurota crouched down on all fours. The pain in her back was still there, but it was tolerable. When it came to these two, she could hold her own for quite a while, but that was only when they fought one on one. It was never at the same time, let alone adding a third person. It wouldn't be good if she were to face Bakugo again. Last time, she let him win, so there was no doubt that he would show her how much he hated her for that. But if he was signaling for those two to fight, what was he planning to do? There had to be something.

"Let's go!" screamed Sato as he picked up a giant rock and threw it at her.

She yanked her boulder back from the ground and hurled it right at his projectile. With an echoing smack, they smashed together in a big blast of gravel and dirt. The sound of rapid padding claws suddenly swept by her side, giving a slight breeze in her hair. Another flash of brown fur hurtled right on by before she could land a punch. Her knuckles cracked harshly through the rocky ground, which made her nose crinkle in annoyance. She pulled it out of the rubble and twisted her hand around a few times to loosen the joints.

In that split second of recovery, Shishida took advantage of it by striking across her jawline, or what he called the knockout point. It was a futile attempt, seeing as how his beast-mode quirk made his enormous furry body impossible to ignore. Though he was unquestionably exceptional with his speed and delivery, Akane matched in perception. The moment his massive claws motioned their way near her eyes, she leaned back far enough that only his hook shaped thumbnail grazed the bottom of her chin, leaving only a small scratch behind.

Akane decided to take the opportunity with his body leaning in the direction of his fist by grabbing onto his arm and pulling him all the way down to the ground. Shishida knelt down on his hands and knees to break his fall, and that was when she realized she should have held onto him. Then again, his beast-like body was just as heavy as her own, which meant it would be stupid to try, knowing he could just break out.

Her chest ached a bit, trying to catch her breath, but she couldn't think about that right now. Clasping both her hands together, she raised it above her head and sent it straight down to the sweet spot, the kidney area.

SMACK!

Jurota backhanded the side of her torso with such brute force that her body limply fumbled until the back of her head met solid stone. Fuck, he was strong! Akane bit down on her bottom cheek in an attempt to dry up the forceful tears about to leak out her eyes. A warm liquid welled up in the back of her throat that she forced herself to swallow, leaving behind a bitter taste of vomit and something metallic... Blood, definitely blood.

She went down to clench her side to try and relieve some of the pain, but she instantly regretted it, for it was much too tender. The impact left her a bit disoriented from the mild concussion, leaving her sight abnormally blurry. From what she could make out, Jurota was just a foggy brown ball, and he was heading in her direction.

Shit!

Akane immediately clamped onto the stone wall to pick herself up and shook her already aching head to clear her vision. It took a couple of seconds, but when it finally came to, he was back on all fours, coming at her with full speed. She forced herself to ignore all the damaged signs from her body and instead of dodging or running away, like he wanted her to do, she decided to come at him with the same amount of energy. In a sprint, she held her arms near the front, ready to receive whatever form of attack he gave. This'll show him!

Shishida smirked behind his massive fangs. "That's it, Hattori! Let's dance!"

With his hands to the ground, she went in to make her move by upper-cutting his jaw. The force cracked his neck backwards and nearly made him swallow his own Adam's apple. His throat constricted as he coughed and leaned his head to his shoulder to pop it back in place.

To be honest with himself, he was completely taken aback that she nailed that move. It looked like Bakugo's idea was starting to get some actual results. He was right, they shouldn't be so restrictive just because she's a girl. She's more than proven how strong she really is to have lasted this long already.

Together they went back and forth at hand to hand combat. With every attack she tried, he was able to avoid and counter nearly every time. It just goes to show how much experience she needed to rack up before she could get to their level. Then again, compared to the other students in the evaluations, she had a crazy amount of skill when it came to combat that the others didn't have, and that was something he could acknowledge.

She threw a punch forward with her body leaning more towards her injured side to protect it. As much as the man inside him didn't want to make it worse, the beast implored him to follow Bakugo's instructions and use it against her. Once you've created a weak spot in your opponent, you use it.

Trying to cover his nails into a fist to make it less brutal, he hit her left side once again, but this time went much deeper. The look in her eyes brought instant guilt. No longer able to suppress it, the bloody vomit sputtered out her mouth all over the ground. Quickly, Shishida took a step back and swatted the fluid off his hairy arm. He tried his best not to gag about it.

Sweat dripped down her cheeks along with a few tears, her body now exhausted and thoroughly bruised. It was so unreal how intense these guys were coming at her. So far, the time spent training, they had been fairly lenient with her, so she never expected that it would be like this. If Yuto saw her now, he'd be so livid that he'd probably call her mom to take her out of U.A. just so that she would be safe. As much as it sucked being beaten up like a guy who owed a ton of money to a mobster, she understood that they wouldn't be putting her through this for nothing. She needed to keep fighting if she was ever going to get stronger.

He eyed her up and down. There was no way that she was going to make it another round, and he for sure didn't want to make her throw up again. Her reaction time started to slow down, which meant that he needed to take advantage of that while he still could. Maybe then they could call it quits for the day.

Before she could pull herself together, Shishida crouched down and sprinted on all fours. Using his claws, he suddenly sliced her thigh through the uniform, first the right, then the left. Akane pursed her lips to contain her scream as she knelt down and clutched the cuts to suppress the pain. She hated those fucking nails, but she had to hand it to him, those claws were as lethal as any knife. To be honest, she wished she possessed a quality like that.

"Seriously! After all that, and you're down by a few scratches?!" Bakugo yelled, immediately drawing her attention. "If that's all it takes to get you out, then you're weaker than I imagined!"

Akane furiously huffed a growl under her breath as she straightened up her back. With her arms held up and her legs stanced out, she pushed through the pain, ready to fight again. Bakugo nodded in for Sato to join in. Jurota internally sighed in annoyance with this moron for pushing her so far, but they all made an agreement and he had to stick with it. A few months wasn't exactly a lot of time, not that they could spare.

He once again circled all around the area before he and Sato jumped in simultaneously towards her. Quickly, she closed her eyes and covered her face, accepting both blows in both shoulders. Her skin, she could already feel one side starting to swell up and bruise, and the other side cut up, bleeding profusely, but that wasn't going to stop her now.

Contracting her muscles, she flung her arms open, smacking them both out of her line of sight with the back of her hands. Sato tumbled over in the distance while Jurota was able to catch himself by clawing at the dirt.

The aggressive beast then pulled himself together and went back in. His arms splayed apart, like an angry cat about to pounce, but she caught his hands just before they were inches away from slicing her flesh. No way was she going to let him do that again.

Together, they went back and forth, one trying to resist the strength of the other, leaning in and out, side to side until they were broken apart by an explosive trauma to her back. The blow seared right through the leather of her costume, over the open injury, almost cauterizing it. Akane grit her teeth hard as she fell forward. She caught herself on her knees and elbows before she completely hit the ground.

The burn lingered there, damaging her nerves in the most excruciating way she ever felt. As awful as it was, she swallowed her own words. If she spoke, if she said any complaint, that would only prove him to be right, that she was weak. She didn't want to give him the satisfaction, but this whole day was taking a lot out of her. Unfortunately, that was the least of her worries. If it wasn't bad enough that she felt like she was going to pass out, that blow started to stir up some energy, energy she had been trying to seal off for the last eight years. That dark memory cloud had come back again.

Shakily, she kneeled to try and stand herself up, but a foot stomped her from moving. His sole dug deeper into the burn wound to the point where a cry escaped her teeth, trying to resist it, but failing.

The mind cloud engorged itself, and started to take shape... the shape of him, her enemy, with those vile, devilish eyes looking down on her. The weight of his boot felt as though a couple hundred pounds added on to it, trapping her there. This feeling... It was just like before, the same paralyzing fear that she couldn't stand against him, and the same series of abuse to her small child body.

She rolled her fingers into a fist to try and remain in control of herself, but the pain he was purposely causing wasn't doing her any good. These guys were her group mates, her classmates, ... her friends. She had to get it together. She needed to keep herself together, and stop thinking about it. It's just these triggers that made it damn near impossible. She had to keep reminding herself that she wasn't the same fragile little girl from before, she was a strong, powerful woman. In her head, she tried to drown out the thoughts by telling herself that she was stronger than this, that she was stronger than him, and when her time at U.A. is over, she'll finally defeat him!

He let off his foot, allowing her to recover. The building tension eased, finally giving her a chance to calm herself.

"You really are pathetic. How can you ever call yourself a hero if you can't fight back?" Bakugo muttered under his breath.

This wasn't getting to where he wanted to be. She wasn't doing what he thought she would with these surprise attacks. What the hell was the point of continuing if she wasn't going to give it her all? She might as well give up! But that's not what she wanted, that's not what any of them wanted. So what the hell was her problem? What was he supposed to do?

Bakugo groaned a frustrated sigh. If she wasn't going to go all in, then she'll suffer the consequences. It wouldn't be any different than dealing with a real villain attack anyways. He kicked his foot down again over her open wound, instantly forcing another yelp. God, she was so weak.

"Get up and destroy me! Now! Or I'm gonna make you bleed!"

"!"

'I'm gonna make you bleed...'

The blood started to rise up in her system, taking over her body. Akane could hear her own pulse thrashing inside her chest, like a caged animal, and riling up everything throughout her circulatory system. A growl escaped the back of her throat, drowning out the last remains of her composure as her body started to shake. At that point, there was no longer a match, there wasn't any pain, the only thing that she saw was red.

Bakugo's eyes narrowed as he removed his foot and watched her get up off the ground. She stood up straight and that was when he noticed it, the physical changes in her body. She had gotten bigger, a lot bigger.

Turning around, she stomped her feet against the ground, the heaviness of her own weight left fault cracks in the stone with every step. Her hero costume was so tightly wrapped around her body that it had started to tear. The size of her muscles weren't the same anymore. What the hell was going on? It wasn't until he noticed the look in her eyes that he became instantly aware of what was standing in front of him. This wasn't the same weak, annoying girl from before, no, this was... monstrous.

Bakugo took a few steps back to reevaluate his situation. At quick glance, Sato and Shishida were back in their original strike positions, but they merely stood there, too stunned at what was happening to want to move. Guess they were in the same boat as he was, trying to figure out what to do.

She narrowed her hollow green eyes down at him. It was a look that would give an experienced pro chills, but not for Bakugo. Instead, he shook his head to get him out of that funk and held out his arms to ignite the nitroglycerin sweat in his palms. The explosions cracked and popped, but the girl wasn't moved by it.

To Bakugo, it didn't matter that she made herself intimidatingly huge. No matter how she looked on the outside, she was still the same low-leveled weakling from class C. What could she possibly do to him? Sure, she may have gotten a hit in with him once or twice, but that's only because she got lucky. He wasn't thinking straight then, like he would in a traditional fight, and now here they were. After all the shit he got from the last two fights, he finally had the opportunity to make up for it.

From the looks of it, he was about to get his wish, that she was about to give him a real fight. And all it took was a few shots to her blindspot, just like he anticipated. No matter what, he was determined to win. He smirked as she squatted down to gain momentum. Looks like she was going to make the first move. Perfect.

In a flash, she lunged at him with both fists held high above her head. She landed with a powerful smash, quaking the earth by adding more pieces to the rocky terrain. Katsuki was able to propel himself into the air just in the nick of time, but he was amazed at the vast increase in her speed. It wasn't like it was before. She was so tired, she could barely throw a punch just a few minutes ago. Where did that come from all of a sudden?

In response to her attempt, he concentrated the pores in his palms to produce more sweat and focused it down to a fine point. Finally, he let it go.

"AP Shot!"

The blast obliterated the area, gathering up clouds of dust and smoke that temporarily covered his sight. He was confident his aim had hit the target on point, which didn't worry him. So few people could withstand his ultimate move. With it now used up, he was ready to let her have it with full power. He unleashed a fiery rainfall of detonations down below.

At this point, he didn't even take into consideration his other two group members standing nearby. Bakugo knew that if they were smart, they would move if they wanted to survive. As for Hattori, that was a different matter. The cloud built back up even bigger, keeping him from seeing the results of his actions, not that it really mattered. However, it was a bit strange that he didn't hear her howling in pain.

Suddenly, Bakugo felt a firm squeeze on his right ankle that swiftly yanked him down from the air. The dust cleared away enough for him to briefly glance over the outline of her massive red arm. Before he could react with another blow to get out of her grip, she hurled his body round and round until she released and sent him flying. His body flipped several times in the sky until he was able to refocus his quirk and explode side to side to steady the turbulence. At last, he was able to get his body to land in a safe spot.

He clicked his tongue in annoyance as he clasped his hands together to warm them up. The damn air was getting colder by the day, and it was these stupid winter months that made his quirk more difficult to use. He had to find other means of gathering sweat in his palms, but it would take some time. He had to get back. No way in Hell was he going to call it quits now, not after pulling a move like that.

Once the sparks returned at the right level, he burst himself off the ground back towards the massive boulder. The moment his feet landed on top of the smooth rock, Bakugo's eyes widened at the fight before him. Sato and Shishida took turns attacking her up close from different angles, but she managed to dodge them by retaliating at a faster rate.

Sato downed his last set of sugar cubes just before he sent a fist hurling to the left-side of her jaw. She caught his wrist, leading both of them once again fighting with their own strengths. Surprise overtook them all as her shaky grip on his arm started moving away from her face. When it was far enough away, she yanked him forward, ducked herself underneath his arm, and pushed her free hand up under his elbow. With an echoing screech, Sato's arm snapped in half. Akane proceeded to shove her elbow back hard into his diaphragm, completely knocking the air out of his lungs as he was thrown back. Sato's body skidded hard against the ground until another giant rock was able to stop him from going any further.

Shishida circled around the area, trying to call for Sato to see if he was alright, but he was limp and unresponsive. He then decided to head in his direction to help, but was halted by the sudden explosion of a crushing rock that landed way too close to ignore. Shishida turned back to Akane and nudged his glasses up with his shoulder. He let out a breath as she watched her bend down to pick up a rock for each hand.

"Hattori, I think we should stop and help Sato." he projected to her.

She ignored him and sent them soaring straight to him. Jurota leaped against a nearby structure to get out of the line of fire. The blow crushed it into gravel rolling along the ground. She then went to pick up another one.

"Hattori, are you even listening to me?! Sato looks really hurt! He needs to see Recovery Girl fast!"

Once again, his cries fell on deaf ears as she continued to stockpile the earth. Shishida jumped back down, confused that she would keep on doing this sort of thing. It wasn't like her to give them the cold shoulder like this, especially if someone got hurt. Something didn't seem right with her.

When she raised them above her head, she shifted her stance. That's when they both knew she had changed the direction of her aim. All eyes grew wide as they followed it. It wasn't to Shishida or to Bakugo, this was aimed for Sato, who laid helplessly against the pavement, too beaten down to move.

"Shit." Bakugo cursed.

What the hell was she going after Sato for, knowing fully well that he was out for the count? This wasn't good. It was all getting out of hand.

He instantly remembered what she said that time outside their dorms. She only reacts that way when someone touches her, she can't control it, and it's much worse when they attack from behind. That was all he knew about her, at least as far he knew. It had to have been when he kicked her while she was down.

The memory of them talking then switched to the incident in the gym and what happened with Sparkplug and Ballboy. She almost killed them, but was stopped when that fucktard Hatsumodo stepped in to calm her down. Maybe that was it, that was the solution, but there was absolutely no fucking way that Bakugo was going to go crawling to that guy and ask for help. He'll find a way to get her back to normal, even if he has to knock her out. He wouldn't be independent if he relied on others, so like always, he was going to handle this himself.

On impulse, he activated his quirk out both sides of his hands and propelled himself in a powerful spin. His tornado-like movement allowed him to gather up the necessary amount of speed and force for his next ultimate move. She turned her head a second too late as his body flung into hers with a blinding, concussive blast.

"Howitzer blast!"

The stones scattered away from where she landed. With a snarl in pain, she dizzily gathered herself up.

Sweat beaded off Bakugo's brow, to which he wiped with the back of his hand before turning to Shishida. "You!" He pointed. "Get him to Recovery Girl, now!"

The blurrier distortion began to fade. In a fit of rage, she punched the ground, cracking the foundation as she glared down at Bakugo. There was a chilling sound that came along with it that tingled their spines. Rip! The boots around her feet had snapped apart, her pants split all along the seam line of her legs, and her leather vest had torn all the way down her back.

Fuck! Was she growing again?!

Shishida looked to Sato, then to Bakugo and Hattori. "I won't leave you like this! I don't know what, but something's wrong with her!"

"You think I don't know that?!" Bakugo yelled back.

"You can't fight her al-"

"Will you shut up and go! It's fine! I got this! Now get the fuck outta here already!"

Jurota bit his lip contemplating it all over. It wasn't right for him to leave Bakugo with such a strong opponent, and from the looks of it, she seemed to be getting stronger with every move they made. The biggest setback was when she tried to take out Sato just then. It wouldn't be good if she ended up knocking out Bakugo too. Who would protect them then?

If her focus was on both him and Bakugo, then they might have a chance at winning, but at this point, did winning even matter? If Sato couldn't beat her, who's to say that him or Bakugo would succeed? Bakugo may be an arrogant, boastful jerk, but he was without a doubt as confident and determined as a real pro-hero. Was that enough for him to defeat her? What would happen if he left?

Akane broke out in a sprint towards Bakugo. His hands fell in front of his body, unleashing all his power into a bright, blinding explosion. The ground shook as his scream echoed all around them.

"FUCKING GO!"

His hands were tied. You could only put off going to Recovery Girl for so long before the injuries became permanent. With strength like his, Jurota had to trust that he would be able to hold her off just enough for them to get away. If anything, he might be planning on luring her back to campus where the teachers could step in, but seeing as how it's Bakugo, that seemed unlikely. If not him, then he will. Right now, his main priority was retrieving Sato.

Shishida quickly scurried over to Sato's limp body. He was out cold. Jurota heaved him over his shoulders, positioning him more securely, and piggybacked him over the rocks through the forest. Normally, he was faster going on all fours, but at this moment, he ran as fast as he could on two. The trees flew past his eyes as he went. A while later, when he looked up ahead, he finally caught a glimpse of some of the groups walking back to campus. He was almost there, he couldn't stop now. The closer he got, he soon realized there were far too many classmates in his way.

"Make a path!" he yelled.

A few heads turned in his direction, but they didn't pay attention to what he said and dumbly remained still to see what was going on.

"MOVE!" He screamed. If they weren't going to move, he would have to ram them, and at this point, he could give a shit.

The crowd started to break apart with only a few students that had to be nudged out of the way. Some of his own classmates tried to call for him to stop and ask what was going on, but Shishida ignored them. He darted his eyes across the groups, hoping to find a teacher. Since they lifted the restriction of students walking around campus under supervision, he wondered if there was a teacher anywhere at all today. There had to be one in charge of the group training. If there was, he hoped it was Eraserhead.

"Shishida!" called an unfamiliar voice by his side.

He glanced down, startled to see that it was the student from class A, Midoriya, running alongside him.

"What happened to Sato? Is he alright?"

"No, I've got to get him to Recovery Girl and find Eraserhead."

"What for? Maybe I can help." he asked, panting for breath as he tried to keep up with him.

"Hattori's gone off the rails. Bakugo's trying to hold her off, but I'm not sure he'll be able to do it for long."

"Kacchan's fighting her again?"

"Only this time, Hattori's quirk is going rogue. She's completely lost her senses, and it's not like her. She won't listen. It's gotten way out of control. She keeps powering up and it's too destructive for me and Bakugo to tangle." he explained.

Midoriya's mouth parted as his eyebrows scrunched with confusion. He took a glance at Sato and cringed at how broken up he looked. If Hattori really did that, then Kacchan was in big trouble.

"I know where he is. I can get him. Where are they now?"

"On the back end of Omega, in the rock quarry."

"Got it! You get him to the Infirmary, I'll go get help." Assured Midoriya.

"Be quick!"

"Right!"

With that said, the boy broke away and headed into a different direction. The trees eventually parted, revealing the leveled asphalt road leading up to campus. Jurota kicked it into high gear and bolted to the building.