Straight to the Heart! (Bakugou x Gender Neutral Reader)

Chapter 8

A floor made of pure, smoothed out cement spans the arena. A high domed ceiling made out of glass, with sturdy walls shape out the rest of the building. An audible "woah" leaves your mouth as you take in the grandeur. They never had anything this big back at Moed. UA truly lived up to it's reputation as one of the greatest hero institutes in the world.

Juni nudges you with a smirk, noticing your awed expression. "It's real nice, eh?"

"Oh for sure. Hah, maybe I should take some pictures to send to Moed..." You mutter, thinking about your former school. Moed Academy's hero training buildings were amazing, no doubt but..nothing like this. This was next level.

Your brother walks past you to stand in front of the class, next to Mr. Aizawa. He smiles wide and claps his hands together. "Alright future heroes! Sorry for the quick rush over here, I should introduce myself. I am Chronos, the time stop hero. More importantly, I'm N/N's older brother!" 

You stifle an uncomfortable groan.Oh god please Juni you're so cringey .

"You all spend a lot of your quirk training in your hero suits. More so, you spend a lot of training simply enhancing your quirk. But, here's the thing - You will find yourself out of suit when your job needs to be done as many times as you will be all suited up while on patrol. Without trying, many of you, myself included, rely heavily on our support tech. Yes, that's what they're there for, to be relied on and to support us, but it is still good to utilize your quirk without suits, without items, only your quirk as your sole reliance."

The air in the room shifts. We'd all be fighting today. The gleam in Junichi's eyes tell you everything else. You'd all be fighting him today. Your pro-hero older brother. His gaze falls on you. "N/N, do you mind?"

"Of course not." You stride confidently beside your brother, standing beside him. 

He places a hand on your head, ruffling your hair. "Now, from what Mr. Aizawa told me, you said that my lil sib here relies hell ton on their support items, which is true...can't deny that. But our parents raised us to keep our quirks and abilites in top shape, support tech or not. A neat little spar will demonstrate what being suitless looks like."

You both situate yourselves on opposite sides of the cement floor,  a faint circle being risen from the ground, courtesy of Cementoss, indicates the boundaries. You stretch your legs, find your footing. Lower stance, hands up and ready. You always knew your brother to be fast, lightning fast. But it's been so long since you've spared with him like this, a proper spar. Not quirkless, not a quick exchange of blows. Full force, full throttle, all out sparring. 

It made the adrenaline buzz in your bones, fear and excitement running through your veins. You spike your inertia so high, you almost feel the weight of being immovable. 

"Now watch, 1-A! You should know your quirk, yourself, the best. Know your fighting skills, know what you need to keep your footing. For me, I'm being light as possible, straining no energy to make any movement that requires too much eye-strain. I can tell you right now, Y/N has their inertia spiked so high-" He disappears from sight and you brace for impact.  His voice is loud and quiet all the same, a blur of sound like a whisper in your ear. "I could punch them hard and they wouldn't budge."

A bright burst of pain muffles your vision, but you stand your ground. Your hands rise to shield your face, an onslaught of hits finding contact with your form. You already know what this looks like. You're getting brutalized. You notice Bakugou's glare,  reminding you of the note from a few days before. 

The blur in front of you stalls, and you find your opening. One hand drops from blocking, and the blur moves again, before stopping, an "oomph" echoing in the hall. Junichi is solid, his clothes stopped in mid-air. You stretch and smile, shaking off the blows, the throbbing pain promising bruises later. "Oh, well will you look at that," You tease, going in front of him. "You can't move, either."

"Ugh, my boxers too, seriously? That's real uncomfortable, you know."

You smile wide. "Yeah? How about this then?" You tap his forehead, and Juni is sent flying backwards. You let go of his clothing's inertia, the sudden release pushing him back even harder. He leaves the ring boundaries, leaving you with the win. You let go of his inertia completely, and the sudden force of gravity and the surrounding air takes hold, dropping him right before he hits the wall.  He drops to the floor with a groan, propping himself up with his elbows. 

"Ow." Junichi rises up to a sitting position, wiping off the dust on his clothing.

"I win! I think last time we did this, that meant you paid for lunch."

Aizawa claps for your attention, and you both turn to look at the class. Aizawa turns to address the class, before his eyes widen. You notice his hair start to rise before a force hits you in the stomach, making you sink to your knees and keel over.

"That's a foul! I won, dammit," You mutter, coughing.

Your brother helps you up with a neutral face. "You turned your back," he answers, his voice more authoritative. He turns to address your class. "What diffrentiates you from the pros isn't only skill level. It's restraint, understanding, and overall reliance and knowledge of your quirk. You can have your hand forever, know it so intimately well as yours...but do you understand it? Know why it looks the way it does, works the way it does? What are it's fullest functions, what shouldn't it do? Knowing how to utilize your quirk to the best of it's abilities will launch your skills faster than you can comprehend." He pauses, let's his words take weight. You've heard this speech before. He was right, of course, knowing how to utilize your skills improved your overall performance greatly.

He smiles again, less of the leader, serious pro-hero demeanor and more of your goofball brother. "Once you get that down, well...who needs tech when you become your greatest asset? You noticed here that Y/N and I already have this idea down. My quirk is used best in rapid fire succession, to land blows at high speeds to overwhelm my target, as well as coming in at unexpected points."

"Still a foul," you mutter, realizing that that was part of the demonstration.

"N/N here does best to wait out for an opportunity, being a tank with hits until a crucial moment of vulnerability. Had this ground be more than just plain cement, I'm sure they'd also break it for high speed projectiles. The purpose of the next few hours is to make you learn how to rely on your knowledge of your quirk and how to apply them to be efficient. Learn new applications, be creative, and most importantly, have some fun. Your best comes when you feel good, that I can promise you."

Mr. Aizawa brandishes a sheet of paper, and from what you can see, they are partner pairings. His tired voice carries across the room as he gives instructions. "You will all be partnered up, at random and written on this paper. This will mean that not every pairing will be ideal, like we normally have it done. There will be one group of three with Kansei, since their presence makes our class number uneven."

He calls out partners, your peers separating off into different sections of the gym, until there is three of you left. You feel dread creep itself into your stomach.

"And finally, Kansei, Todoroki, and Bakugou. Cementoss will create a bigger arena to compensate with your larger group."

You look up to Junichi for reassurance, but a dark light in his gaze tells you that the pairings weren't random. Not entirely. 

There's a ferocious glare in Bakugou's general direction, and you know that the comment from earlier is still on his mind. Hero or not, Juni was your older brother, and you knew from experience, no one looks down on you, not with him around.

Junichi made sure of that, and you feel doomed.

______________________________________________

Author's Note: I almost forgot to do this lol

Oh god it's so hot here which is insane bc it's not even summer yet. Summer will kill me, I'm sure of it. Anyways...Uhm...So the fic was based around a comment I made on a playlist (found in the preface) and if you find my comment....you'll know there's someone else mentioned in that lovely little pov.

hehehehe

No matter what happens with Kansei and anyone else, i promise you that this will remain a bakugou fic...Mostly. lol.

Happy reading!