Third, he reached in third place. Officially he was supposed to be in second place considering the fact that the first place Inazuma was just there for that marathon alone and not the entire competition. But even then the fact that he was third made him face a reality that he was not even strong as he had thought he was.
The first person to reach the finish line was Inazuma and he had reached that place without even using his quirk which according to others is short term teleportation and he did it while carrying a child with him all the way until the finish line. His skills were not quirk based and completely made out of his own physical body. Bakugo had watched the recorded video tape again and again and he can say for sure that he will be able to those moves and skills he showed with practice. But doing that in a situation he can't anticipate and in ways that Inazuma had done. Bakugo knew he can't do that. Inazuma's reaction speed and the skills of acrobatics is something he can't do alone, forget the fact about carrying a baby along with it.
He also lost to Deku who was in second place and as he remembered the minefield part of the marathon, after Inazuma made the explosion in front of the three of them, he only pushed Deku and left the other two including him to the shockwave alone.
That meant Inazuma had considered only Deku as the threat among the three and made sure to push him back a bit more compared to the others, and even then Deku had won second prize and was officially declared as first in the marathon.
This pissed off Bakugo even more. And he decided to get back in the matches and to get the first place he had promised he would get.
The second event happened, and he easily qualified by beating down the annoying copycat. But he did not feel completely fulfilled as he knew the guy had made a mistake in copying one of the quirks that had backfired on him. But he shook off everything he was thinking and got ready for the next round where he will prove that he is the strongest.
He won.
He got first place, exactly as he had said he would, but he did not shout out loud that he proved himself, he did not even shout out that he was the strongest. He only felt empty. Even when Allmight came and congratulated him for his victory, other than a sarcastic comment that he spat out, he was not able to even look in the eyes of his idol and say he was strong.
He knew that he was not the strongest in the matches. He remembered each one of them and he can say for sure that most of them were as strong as him or close to it. He did not dominate them like he had planned, no. he had pushed them out of the stage thereby disqualifying them and gaining the victory. Others may say that he won fair and square, but he knew deep down that winning fair and square is not what he had targeted, and his main aim was to beat them into submission completely.
And in the last match, Todoroki had fainted due to exhaustion and not his attack making that victory worthless. Even if the fact that he would have fainted a few minutes after due to the exhaustion of using his quirk at full power in the last few matches, he still did not feel that he had won it as Todoroki had not used most of his skills due to how drained he was. whereas in the match with Deku, he had used moves that would have proved challenging for Bakugo and he can say for sure that if Deku had not pushed Todoroki by this much, he would not have won.
The most frustrating part of it was that all of them had improved. In many ways they had surpassed him as well. He remembered how they had performed in the first hero vs villain match, and he can say for sure that they had improved leaps and bounds as well compared to how they had first performed.
He knew the reason for their rise was the person who had told him that only if he talks about his flaws, will he advice about how to improve. Bakugo knew that he had flaws and that he had bullied Deku all throughout the years as well. But even while standing in front of that man, he was not able to utter a single word. Something inside him denied him from speaking out the words that were in his throat.
But then that man gave advice on where to intern in the work studies and since he had thought about going there and the fact that he was the strongest among the list of people that had sent him invitations for work studies, he easily agreed. But his words about Jeanist helping him in a different manner somehow unnerved him a bit.
The whole internship did not involve any training to improve his power, but he was forced to think about things that he did not want to before. He felt many things that he cannot describe and thoughts that did not allow him to sleep because he was not able to find out the answers.
But then something came on the news that shocked him deeply.
Blood Lightning was Enmado Inazuma.
The strongest hero he had ever seen was that close to him and he did not even know about it. This would explain the way he had won the tournament. But he had watched every move he made in the match carefully and he did not see a single spark in his movements saying that he had not used his speed to win.
When it comes to quirk, he had surpassed Allmight in a way and when it comes to skills without quirk, he had surpassed many pro heroes. And his track record was impeccable.
Bakugo knew he had a lot of questions he needed answers to and the next time he sees the guy, he will make sure to get it as well.
A/N- hope you like it and every 100 powerstone get extra chapter of Jason