Musume

Chapter 16

Yagi stumbled on the steps up to the arena and she couldn’t help blushing. Her nerves had returned with a vengeance.

However, as soon as she stepped foot on the arena, they disappeared as suddenly as they came.

There was only her and her opponent: Tsuyu Asui.

Midnight signaled for them to start and Yumi immediately adopted a defensive stance.

Just in time, for Asui whipped at her with her tongue immediately before closing her eyes firmly.

She could distantly hear the crowd’s surprise at the daring move as well as Aizawa-sensei’s explanation.

“…can paralyze someone with direct eye contact.”

So Asui had her eyes firmly closed, probably trusting in her instincts and reflexes to move, and leaving her without her main weapon.

Without a pause, Asui sent her tongue out in blind whipping arcs, probably hoping to tie her up with it and put an early end to the combat.

But Yumi had the advantage of her eyesight and she nimbly sidestepped or jumped around her, putting every trick Midnight had taught her to practice.

Midnight was mainly a close combat fighter, due to her quirk, and as such she’d taught Yumi to fight in the same range.

So Yumi slowly but steadily made her way forward, backing Asui into a corner.

When she had her where she wanted, she stopped evading Asui’s tongue and just grabbed onto it. With the other teen’s small size and weight, it wasn’t difficult to turn it against her and whip her into the air from her grip on her tongue before throwing her out of the arena.

Asui opened her eyes just before impacting the ground.

“Asui is out of the arena! Yagi Hiroyumi wins!”

And just like that, the combat was over and Yagi Yumi passed onto the next round.

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The final combat was hard to watch; despite Uraraka’s passion and effort, there was a big gap in their abilities.

After a frightfully intense combat, Bakugo Katsuki won.

And thus finished the first round of the last trial.

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The second round of the third trial started off strong, with a duel between Shoto Todoroki and Midoriya Izuku.

It was another passionate encounter, with Izuku reaching his limit and Todoroki being pushed to the point he had to use his left side’s fire. She would’ve liked to be able to hear what they’d said to each other during the fight.

When it finished, Yumi stood up, exchanged a look with Shinso and followed after Todoroki. She found him in the middle of a brief exchange with his father, and as soon as he finished, the teen grabbed her arm and walked them away from the man.

“Todoroki?” she asked once they entered the room allotted to the students taking part in the combats.

“Did you mean it? About my power being my own and me not being my father?” he asked in return, still not looking at her.

She studied his profile, his left side to her. She could see a bright blue eye peering ahead, surrounded by a stark burn mark. Without any conscious thought, she reached a hand out and caressed the sensitive skin, making him turn towards her at the same time as he leaned into her touch.

“Of course I did.” She answered softly. “Your father or your power don’t define you, it’s what you do with it that does. And you… you could be great, Shoto-kun. You’re going to be great. That’s nothing to do with your father, only you.”

He looked her in the eyes, seemingly searching for something with his own grey and blue ones, and seemed to find it because he gave her a small smile. Somehow the gesture transformed his usually detached face into something full of warmth and she felt herself blush.

“Thank you, Yumi-chan.”

For a few seconds neither moved or said anything, until she noticed she was still touching his face and she hurriedly pulled back her hand.

“I wanted to ask you something.” Said Shoto then. “My father, unfortunately, was right about something. That last attack… it was uncontrolled, wild. I need to learn how to control my left side. Will you help me do it?”

“Me? But, what could I do?” she asked doubtfully.

“You could make sure nobody gets hurt: a touch from you would turn my flames into healing ones, right?”

Yumi nodded, then nodded again.

“Are you sure?” he insisted. “After all, we’re rivals.”

“We’re also friends, right?” she replied.

Shoto kept silent for a few seconds, still looking her in the eyes.

“I think so? Yes, we are.”

“Good. Then, Shoto, I’ll of course help you.” She said verbally before smiling. “But now, let’s go back. Fumikage is up next and I want to cheer him on.”

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The battle between Fumikage and Monoma was interesting. This time, it seemed Monoma had copied Kirishima’s quirk again ―the red-headed boy complained at being caught unaware a second time from where he was sitting next to Bakugo and Kaminari―, alongside the Quirks of two more students from Class 1-B ―Itsuka Kendo’s Big Fist and another that he never got a chance to use.

Fumikage won, but not without some trouble, as Monoma could stand quiet a lot of Dark Shadow’s attacks thanks to Hardening before he ran out of resistance. Still, Monoma’s Copy had a five minute time limit whilst Dark Shadow had none.

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The next combat consisted on Iida Tenya against Yagi Yumi.

Shinso watched from the edge of his seat as Tenya got into a running position with his eyes closed and sped past Yumi.

Once he was at her back, Tenya opened his eyes and… froze.

Yumi had turned almost faster than his eyes could follow and her eyes shone a poisonous mix of green and yellow that the public couldn’t see, but they could see that they were looking straight into Tenya’s.

He’s body had gone rigid and he didn’t seem to be breathing; he’d fallen directly into Yumi’s quirk’s hold, the very thing he’d been trying to avoid by placing himself at her back.

“Tenya, can you continue the combat?” asked Midnight more for the public’s sake than her own.

There was no answer.

“Tenya Iida can’t continue the combat! Yagi Hiroyumi wins!” she announced to the crowd.

Yumi looked up to the teacher stands, but her father wasn’t there.

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After her own combat was over, Yumi finally had time to see how Izuku was doing, so she left the crowd in search for the infirmary. Fumikage, Mezo, Shoto and Shinso decided to accompany her.

When they were reaching the door, it opened and out came her father.

“Yumi-hime! I’m sorry for missing your combat, how did it go?” he asked, looking more subdued than she had seen him in a while.

“It’s fine, dad, I understand.” She answered. “I won against Tenya.”

The man smiled sincerely and ruffled her red hair.

“Of course you did, I did not expect any less.”

“How’s Midoriya?” asked Shoto quietly as she rearranged her hair with a sigh.

“He’s having surgery.”

“But he’ll be okay?”

“Yes, though there may be… lasting effects.”

When Shoto started to look guilty, she took his hand and squeezed it ―never seen Toshinori’s narrowed eyes at the gesture.

“It’s not your fault, Shoto.”

He also didn’t miss how she used his first name now or how he clung to her hand for a moment.

“Indeed, Todoroki-kun.” He added with a sigh. “Midoriya knew that he couldn’t properly control his quirk yet, but I guess I pressured him too much.”

It was Shoto’s eyes that narrowed at that last comment and Toshinori cursed himself for speaking too much in front of someone so bright. Even Tokoyami and Shoji looked about to comment, but Shinso ―bless that boy, he was so glad his daughter had such a good friend― caught up and intervened.

“Yagi-san is a UA teacher and he knew Midoriya through us before we started in UA. He’s always telling us to do our best, but I guess Midoriya takes everything too seriously.”

Toshinori sweat dropped at the way he dropped all the fault on his pupil; he’d hoped telling him about All Might would bring his three students closer, but instead it had mostly created a healthy rivalry between Shinso and Izuku.

“That sounds like him.” Concluded Shoji, with Tokoyami nodding beside him.

Shoto didn’t appear to buy into it completely.

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The final combat before the semi-finals was between Katsuki Bakugo and Eijiro Kirishima.

Kirishima had a good beginning, putting Bakugo on the defense, but in the end the effort was too much for him and his resistance failed him. Bakugo’s explosion was the last straw.

And as the combat came to an end, the semifinalists were depicted in the big screen: Katsuki Bakugo, Yagi Hiroyumi, Fumikage Tokoyami and Shoto Todoroki.