PAPER FLOWERS ( k. bakugou )

chapter 14

' citius altius forties '

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"Weak!"

Kaede clicks her tongue in distaste, glares at the man in front of her.

"That punch has the force of only half of your original punches as a child," he deduced and she feels something acrid crawling up the walls of her stomach and scorching her from within.

Following with a forceful punch, in which if compared to Kaede's would be a supernova explosion, she barely manages to avoid .

A breath escapes carnation lips and she takes three steps back, assesses the situation and when Kohaku moves to impale her with that knife of his, Kaede ducks.

The knife misses her by a hairdsbreath and fringes of raven hair fall to the ground, but she doesn't even mind, Kaede immediately uses her right foot to hit his right knee and makes him fall to his feet face-first.

Kohaku, unfortunately, regains his balance and hits Kaede's face with a punch that she swore broke a couple of bones.

Wincing in pain, the teen doesn't notice another onslaught of attacks attempting to hit her. First, a kick to the gut. Second, an elbow to the chest that sends saliva escaping her mouth and then, an uppercut that sends her unconscious.

"Definitely weak," she hears Kohaku murmur as she collapses into a world of pain.

The world blurs and her failures catch up to her and in the seventh attempt to defeat Kohaku, her jaw breaks.

Fast forward to the twenty-fourth attempt and it's extremely embarrassing for a girl such as her, whose tiny ten year old self was stronger than the current. And it's already the twenty-fourth attempt, but Kohaku isn't breaking at all. It hurts her body, all those broken bones, scratches and stabs. But what's experiencing more pain is her pride.

Eleventh attempt, Dabi decided to watch the training and when he saw how weak she was, how easily overpowered she was, he made it a point to criticize her entire existence to bits.

"You can't even beat an old man," he said, following with derisive laughter and that laughter followed by another scornful statement. "What's more is that he's not even using his quirk."

And on the beginning of the thirteenth attempt. "Looks like the floor will be shiny later," he said. "You know 'cause old man Kohaku's going to wipe the floor with you."

Dabi disappeared on the fifteenth attempt, after receiving another mission from Tomura and the fact that she can't even defend herself from stupid barbs hurt.

"No time for fleeting dalliance!" Kohaku screams, grabs her by the elbow and hits her against the floor resulting in a reverberating thud! that echoes across the room, points a knife at her throat. "Keep your guard up at all times!"

Incessant screams of pain escape her lips as she's punched back and forth and she counts fifteen in all before she goes back to that realm of unconsciousness again.

"This is not progressing at all," Kohaku notes at her wheezing form, lying on the ground as her mouth begged for air. "Your last chance will begin tomorrow and if you don't manage to defeat me, we'll go back to the basics."

Boot pressed onto her face, cold azure eyes and lips formed into a straight line. That was how the twenty fifth attempt ended. Basic- the word stung so much.

When she was training at U.A., she had only improved endurance towards her quirk and a couple of attacks mixed with the Gust quirk which wasn't hers at all. Now, back to reality with her quirk that wasn't helpful at all, Kaede is weak.