Torn Down The Middle Chapter 30: Test of Courage Part 2- Duel

Suddenly there was a loud bang and an explosion detonated from nearby.

Shouto knew who it was immediately and spun you around behind him before holding his arm out to block the oncoming threat.

“He’s here.” Shouto called, “go now, Y/N.”

You ran from behind him, aiming for a tree nearby so you could watch the fight and intervene if need be.

“Get your fucking hands off her, bastard.” Bakugou hollered as he hurdled through the air, propelled by his explosion.

“I clearly do not have my hands on her currently, Bakugou.” Shouto replied cooly as he raised his right arm and shot up a wall of ice between him and the, mid air, Bakugou.

Bakugou’s eyes widened as he realized he was about to slam headfirst into Shouto’s ice wall but at the last minute he threw his right arm out to the side and blasted a shot, changing his course instantly and aiming himself at a tree.

He tucked his feet up under himself and as he connected with the tree trunk he launched from it and around the ice wall, towards Shouto.

“FUCKING DIE!” He screamed, his white ‘ghost’ outfit flapping furiously as he flew towards his opponent.

Shouto raised his left arm out to the side and activated his fire quirk, flames burst from his being, almost blindingly bright, showing Bakugou exactly where he was as the explosive blond hurled towards him.

“DIE!” Bakugou screamed as he approached, his right arm reared back ready to throw a hard right hook once he got close enough but at the last moment, Shouto deactivated his quirk and jumped away, leaving Bakugou temporarily blinded by the sudden loss of light and unable to locate his target.

Shouto had already calculated where Bakugou would be at when he jumped away and as the duel haired hero landed, he stomped his right foot and shot a shard of ice in Bakugou’s direction, just grazing Bakugou on the back as he flew past, ripping the ghost costume and sending the blond careering off course.

You gasped as you heard the sickening thud of Bakugou hitting the ground heavily, followed by a gasp and heavy coughing.

“Shouto, wait!!” You called out, springing from behind the tree and running towards where you could just make out Shouto’s form. “Stop, please stop.” You begged, grabbing onto Shouto’s shirt as you reached him.

“I’m sorry, Y/N.” Shouto said softly upon hearing the distress in your voice.

“Who says….we’re done here…fucking half and half.” Bakugou’s gasping voice growled from the darkness.

“You don’t know when to quit, Bakugou.” Shouto replied darkly. “Clearly, you are no match for me.”

That reply angered Bakugou and he released a throaty roar, releasing small explosions from his palms as he staggered to his feet.

“Bro! Bakugou, wait! Hold on!” Kirishima’s voice pierced the darkness.

“Oh, thank god!” You breathed.

Kirishima seemed to be the only one that Bakugou would listen to and the adorable red head was the voice of reason a lot of the time.

“Is everything ok?” You heard Mina call as she ran towards you.

“YES! We’re fine now!” You called back, still in Shouto’s embrace as you heard Kirishima talking Bakugou down from a second duel.

“What happened??” Mina asked as she jogged up to you.

“Prickle, got his All Might knickers in a knot and needed to get them ironed out by Shouto.” You stated calmly to Mina.

“Ahh.” She replied, nodding knowingly.

“Y-you know what kind of underwear— ???” Shouto stammered with a heavy blush that went unseen in the darkness. “I didn’t know you already had that type of relationship with Bakugou, Y/N.”

“Huh? OH! NO! No, not like that, it’s a figure of speech, I’ve never… we’ve never—,” You blabbered, gripping harder onto his shirt and shaking the material.

“And I’ve never ironed Bakugou undergarments before either.” Shouto said seriously.

“Shut up, you icyhot asshole!” Bakugou screamed from nearby.

After Kirishima had diffused the situation all four of the rest of courage attendee’s headed into the finish line, leaving Bakugou to scare the rest of the students coming though.

You had been impressed with Shouto’s calm and intelligent fighting style and you couldn’t get over how clever he had been to use his fire as a blinding tool instead of an attack strategy.

During the fight he hadn’t said anything except for at the beginning and end and had let Bakugou spiral out of control with his own rage, basically letting him self destruct.

But then your mind would keep replaying the sound of Bakugou hitting the ground and your heart would sink a little.

“That must have hurt like a motherfucker, hitting the ground so heavily…not to mention the feeling of losing to someone you consider a fierce rival. Kinda feel sorry for Katsuki’s ego right now.”

…………….

Bakugou was fuming with humiliation and he was aching from the fight.

When Shouto had sent the ice shard towards him a jagged edge had just grazed his back, ripping the back of his costume and shirt open.

His back stung and he could feel blood running down his torso which only seemed to fuel his anger.

His arm ached slightly too where he had only just managed to raise it up to break his fall.

He sighed forcefully. All he could hear in his mind was your pleading for Shouto to stop.

“She thinks I’m pathetic…”

………………

You collected your things together for the hot tub and joined Mina and Jirou as they headed to the bath house.

The owner was waiting for everyone to assemble before giving a little run down of how the rules worked.

“This bath house is many centuries old.” He started by saying, giving a brief history on the original owner and some interesting facts about how and why it was built.

Bakugou scowled and glanced at you. His eyes travelled your body, taking in your curves as he stood behind and slightly to the side of you.

He was so distracted they he didn’t hear the part where the owner explained the signs.

Instead of a male and female sign above the hot springs pools it was a ‘dragonfly’ and ‘bee’ sign.

Neither of these related to male or female, they had been put there because one pool seemed to attract more dragonflies to the plants nearby and the other; bees.

The bee side was now known as the female only hot spring pool and the dragonfly side was now, the male only hot spring pool. 

<<< Torn Down The Middle Chapter 29: Test of Courage Part 1

Torn Down The Middle Chapter 31: Dragonflies And Bees >>>