We trudged through the hall on the ground floor, silently moving towards the stairs. I could sense Katsuki coming down from the fifth floor. Nodding to Uraraka, I signalled her that Katsuki was approaching.
We waited for him to turn around the corner when I ambushed him with a quick back handed strike on his face. I sent him tumbling across the hallway while Uraraka took the chance to run up the stairs.
"You haven't learnt anything about my quirk have you, Katsuki?"
Spitting out a small amount of blood, Katsuki got up and grinned, "Yeah, I kinda forgot you could sense your surroundings. But it doesn't matter. I'll beat you this time and show you that I'm better than you! You hear me?! Ever since you got your quirk you've been an obstacle in my way to become top hero. I'll show you that you're just a pebble for me to crush under my feet, Deku!!"
Again with that flawed mentality. It didn't matter if you were the top hero or just some hero who no one knew about. That was not the point. What mattered was the principle behind what a hero truly was. But Katsuki never understood.
"You'll never beat me. For such a selfish reason, you'll never be a good hero, Katsuki."
I had enough of him and charged towards him, my body entirely covered with armament. Katsuki, as always, began with a right swing. It was so obvious I didn't even need to use observation. I ducked under his attack and rammed my head into his abdomen, sending him skidding backwards as he coughed out some bile.
He ignored his pain and with an angry shout, he charged at me and we entered into a high paced brawl. He kept sending blasts with every swing of his palms at my vital points which I dodged flawlessly. Sometimes, I really thanked whatever god up there granyed me with this quirk. Katsuki would have turned me into charred meat by then. Soon we fell into a pattern. I knew he was getting frustrated as his attacks were getting more wild.
Though I didn't want to admit it, but Katsuki had gotten much better than the last time we had a brawl. He was faster and had better control over his anger. His attacks were sharper, more precise and were more powerful. I could feel the vibrations of the blasts as they grazed my vest.
If Katsuki wasn't such a jerk, we could have been great friends and rivals.
Then I saw my chance. One of his swings went wider than it was meant to and I immediately responded with a spinning heel kick to his chest, sending rolling on the ground.
I didn't want to hurt him a lot and I could see that he was in immense pain. Even though I wasn't as strong as All Might, my punches and kicks packed quite a lot of power behind them. If I wanted to, I could break every bone in Katsuki's body without putting much effort.
I ran towards his fallen form and quickly bound him with capture tape. Immediately, I heard All Might's voice from my ear piece, "Bakugou Katsuki, captured!"
Katsuki looked up at me from his downed position with blazing anger. I knew he hated it. He hated it when I looked down at him. It always reminded him that there was someone out there who was better and stronger than him. For Katsuki, a hero was someone who always won. He was supposed to win every single time. So whenever he lost, he'd think he wasn't good enough to be a hero.
But that didn't matter to me. For me, winning against him had worked wonders for his character. Even though he was still a bully and had a very bad temper, he had mellowed down from what he was a few years ago. Perhaps he would improve in the near future, but it wasn't happening right then.
I considered it as a small victory. Perhaps he was beginning to understand that winning didn't matter and that winning was not what defined a true hero. I always tried to explain what being a hero meant to me. But he never listened. Perhaps, exchanging blows with him could do what words couldn't.
As I walked away from him, Katsuki cursed under his breath and undid the tape while preparing to lunge at me. How stupid. He really never learnt.
Without looking back, I blasted him with an adequate amount of Conqueror's Will, making him fall on his butt. I was done with him for that day. There would be many opportunities for us to fight it out, but he had to accept his loss.
I made my way towards Uraraka who had heen hiding near the door of the room where the faux weapon was located. Iida was making exaggerated poses and oaths about doing his best at being the villain. It was quite funny and I tried hard not to laugh. But Uraraka didn't have that much control and she giggled.
Well, out location was exposed. There was no other choice but to attack.
I and Uraraka rushed into the room and while Uraraka ran straight to the faux weapon, I engaged Iida and prevented him from going after Uraraka.
To be honest, Iida was good at close combat. His kicks were sharp and their speed was greatly enhanced by his quirk. But his technique was severely lacking. I was easily able to discern the flaws and within a few seconds, I pinned him on the floor and before he could free himself from my hold, I tied the capture tape around him. Meanwhile, Uraraka managed to touch the weapon by the time I subdued Iida.
It was our complete victory.
"Team D captured! The hero team wins!!"
"We won Midoriya-kun!"
I smiled and clapped my hand with hers. As Iida undid the capture tape, we tried to console him though he wasn't too depressed.
Both the teams were practically uninjured, with Katsuki suffering from minor bruises on his chest and face.
In the observation room, everyone approached me and gave a pat on my shoulder.
"You were really manly! Midoriya!"
"You were like a pro kung-fu master!"
"You were really scary!"
"Isn't my cape shiny?"
"..."
When everyone calmed down, All Might addressed us, "Well, I'd say the M.V.P. of this battle trial is Midoriya!!"
There was no disputing that conclusion. We had won and I played a major role in our victory.
As the battle trials continued, I kept a close eye on Katsuki as he observed how other teams won their battles.
There were some good battles, some heavily one sided and some downright waste.
But as Katsuki watched, his ego took harsh blows. There were students other than I who could have defeated him. There were students who were better than him.
That was good. It was a possitive sign. It showed that he was maturing, though very slowly, but he was.
With a quirk like his, Katsuki could become a very strong hero. If only he applied himself the right way.
He looked towards where I stood and our eyes met. His eyes momentarily widened before he turned his head away and refocused to the screen. I didn't know what was going on in his brain. Only time would tell.
Later that day, I confronted him at the school gates.
"Katsuki, I wanted to talk to you."
He didn't reply, just turned around and looked at me. He had tears in his eyes. I was a little shocked. That was the first time I saw him vulnerable.
I looked into his eyes and said, "I hope you understood what you've been doing so far was wrong. I never wanted to show you up. To be honest, I used to admire you. I don't know what went wrong, how you turned out to be like this, but I want to see that same Katsuki I used to call my friend. If you'd allow me, I'd like to be your rival."
Katsuki glared at me and replied, "Rivals are those who are equals in power. Right now, you are stronger than me. But just you wait! I'll get stronger that you! And that half-n-half guy! Even that girl with ponytail! I'll show you all!! I'll be a great hero!! Better than you could ever be!!"
Having said his piece, Katsuki turned around and stomped out of the school gate. I sighed in relief. Good, he wasn't broken by his defeat. And he didn't rant about becoming the top hero. He was aiming much higher than just the top. He was improving.
Soon I was joined by Uraraka and Iida and we walked together to the subway station. From the corner of my eye, I could see All Might smiling.
'Young Midoriya, I was worried about young Bakugou being affected by today's events. But you took care of it, even though you have some form of enemity with him. Perhaps, you are the one... my successor. The next Symbol of Peace.'