PLASTIC FLOWERS ( k. bakugou )

chapter 22

' an angel rising '

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The breeze ruffles her hair but Akihisa Yuko's gaze remains steady and unnerving as she watches the windchime chime. She directs another concentrated puff of air on it and the ringing turns louder.

With a quick snap of her finger, the air stills and she wills it to recollect on her palm until she's create an air arrow the size of a small dagger. Strangely, it fits perfectly on her palms.

She raises it, uses the other hand to gather force and thwap! it zooms past the empty space and hits the second circle. Almost there, she reminded herself and wiped a streak of shiny sweat from her shoulders.

Yuko wills the air again, and just like what she's been doing for the past week, creates an air arrow just the size of her palm. Like a kunai but longer and made of air (obviously).

Only three days remain before the festival and Yuko has learned as to what to do to her air arrows so they can be more efficient. Unfortunately, that didn't make it easier to create them and perfect their aim.

She has expanded her thoughts just like Katsuki told her and since her limit is four breezes, five if she's at her best, she decides to make four small air arrows using one breeze so she can use sixteen or twenty. Her stamina is coping (after doing twelve rounds during mornings and afternoons around school it must cope), but she's still bad at aiming and as it stood, the highest number of air arrow she could create was seven.

Create not aim. There were particular happenstances when the arrows would hit a post or another object entirely. So far she hadn't manage to hit other people.

( Probably because there were no other people- Katsuki had terrified all of them and Yuko was the only one [stupid] brave enough to stay and use the gymnasium with him. )

A chorus of explosions resonated throughout the gymnasium and it would have deafen ears but Yuko was too concentrated (rarest of the rare event here folks!) to even bother. Despite the ludicrous thoughts and the stupid commentary, there were things she couldn't deny.

Seven wasn't enough. And the remaining three days before the Sports Festival was definitely not enough to perfect the attack.

A breath escapes her lips and she wills another chunk of air and uses it to ruffle the windchime and in a span of twenty seconds, creates another air arrow.

She watches the innermost circle, takes a deep breath and steadies her trembling fingers. The sixth air arrow is trembling and she tries hard to steady it.

Another pant escapes her lips and she closes her eyes, still tugging at the air arrow and to gather momentum, her right foot takes a step back.

"Go!" Yuko screams and the air arrow soars past the air and hits the second circle again.

Yuko adjusts quickly, creating another one, the seventh arrow, but unlike the others, it's wobbly and it's unable to sharpen the edges. She raises her palms and it follows, steadying, pulsating and with a quick movement tosses it into the direction of the target, hitting the fourth circle much to her disappointment. It'll be okay, she chanted.

She'll be at the eight arrow if she can still do it. She can. She takes another deep breath, wills the air to coalesce and although it doesn't at first, the second attempt poured with emotion and power makes it move to create an air arrow. It is even more deformed than the seventh arrow, but Yuko doesn't lose hope. She adjusts the angle, then releases the arrow so it lands on the first circle.