CHAPTER FIFTEEN

      It was finally time.

      "Everybody, thanks for waiting! We finally cleared out that huge pile of ice. Now it's time for the third match. It's the girl with enchanting white flames, from 1-A! Megumi Okumura from the Hero Course!"

      Megumi took in a deep breath as she walked up the stairs of the stage. She could hear the people in the stadium cheering for her, but she couldn't pay attention to them. All she could think about was her match and how she was going to defeat her opponent. She released the breath she was holding and stood on the stage, a determined look on her face.

      "Versus the sparkling killing boy! Denki Kaminari from the Hero Course!"

      The blonde hair boy walked up on the stage, a rather determined smile on his face.

      "Now, now!" Present Mic's voice was as loud as always. "We are expecting another flashy battle today!"

      Megumi released another, relaxing all the tension in her muscles. And then, she got into her battle stance, ready to fight against Kaminari and his electricity.

      "Let's start!"

      "Oh man, you are a strong one," Kaminari said, almost grinning. "But there's no way I'll lose to you."

      "We'll see about that," Megumi answered with a smirk of her own. She already knew the exact move she was going to use. Electricity vs Fire...there could only be one coming out at the top.

      Kaminari's body crackled with lightning. Even from the few feet of distance, Megumi knew the attack that was coming was going to be a strong one. And besides, electricity was no joke. It could be very dangerous in its own way.

      "Indiscriminate Shock: 1.3 million volts!" Kaminari slammed his palms towards the ground, launching more than a million volts of electricity towards her.

      At that very instant, Megumi slammed her right leg into the ground, summoning the full force of her own quirk. The flames danced in the air, forming a protective boundary around her. There was one more thing about her own quirk that most people didn't know. Her dad had that same capability, her aunt Nao had that same capability and Natsume also had it. The bulletproof nature of Aunt Nao's quirk had come from the quirk named Defense that had belonged to her mother (Megumi's grandma). The name of that quirk clearly explained it. Whoever was a user of that quirk could use any and all types of defense. And some of that had been passed down to Aunt Nao, her father Kaito, Natsume and Megumi herself.

      And so, Megumi partly knew what the true outcome of this battle was going to be.

      As the electricity rushed towards her, her flames grew to an immense height. "White Flames, defend me!"

      The flames that erupted after that were much stronger, and to the shock of most people watching (except for those who already knew of this), the electricity simply bounced off the flames. Megumi pulled back the wall of flames as the after currents faded. She pointed her right hand towards Kaminari (who had a weirdly dumb look on his face). She summoned her white flames, clenching her fingers as she let the energy build up inside her. Once it reached its peak, she opened her hand, completely ready to attack.

      "White Flames: Laser!" Megumi yelled. The compressed flames shot out in the form of massive white beams from her right hand, slamming straight into Kaminari's body and sending him flying off the stage.

      "Instant defeat!" Present Mic yelled as the audience broke out into massive cheers. "Let me say it again. Instant defeat!"

      Midnight cracked her whip, declaring the winner of this match. "Okumura advances to the second round!"

      Finally, freaking finally, Megumi allowed herself to release a relaxing sigh of relief. She listened to the cheers, smiling a little. 'I did it. I actually did it. I can't believe it worked and I won!'

      She clutched at the front of her U.A. tracksuit, panting slightly. It had been the first time that she had used these two moves, especially her wall of flames (with its defensive nature) and the laser in conjunction with each other. Even at U.S.J, she hadn't done that. So, understandably, she was a little tired. But it would be okay. She had won.

      Megumi had actually won.

      As she walked back to the stadium, she could hear the heroes in the audience talking about the quirk, some even mentioning her father. She pushed her hair off her face, keeping a calm look as she stepped through the tunnel that she had walked through earlier.

      In the low lighting of the tunnel, she squealed in glee. "I can't believe that actually worked. I am so so freaking happy."

      Megumi stood up straight and started walking through the hallway, which had much better lighting as she got further inside. She reached the stairs and started climbing up, only to pause as she saw Todoroki at the top of the stairs, walking in a direction that was definitely not the 1-A seating area.

      Their eyes met. And for a second, Megumi swore she saw so much emotion in them (anger, sadness and everything in between) before it was hidden behind his usual aloof mask.

      "Todoroki, your fight was so amazing to watch," Megumi said. "And that ice glacier was so cool, pun not intended. You did really well."

     Todoroki was quiet for a few seconds, before replying, "Thank you."

     Neither of the two said a word for the next moment, before Megumi broke the silence with an awkward laugh. "Well, looks like you're not in the mood to talk so I am just gonna go."

      She turned away from him and slowly started walking away. 'Well, he's more awkward than I thought. I'm gonna walk away now.'

      Megumi hadn't walked too far, when Todoroki spoke out loud. "Your quirk is strange," He spoke bluntly, though there was an underlying tone of curiosity to it.

      "Uh what?" Megumi said as she turned around. "My quirk is strange? I've never heard that before."

       "I apologise if I have offended you," Todoroki said, in a strangely formal tone. "Your quirk works differently than a lot of our classmates. That is why I was curious about it."

      "It's okay; you haven't offended me at all. I guess my quirk does work pretty differently," Megumi answered, rather intrigued by his statement. The fact that he was curious about her quirk was rather...flattering, if she had to admit. "It's probably because it's a really weird mixture of my parents' power. Some parts are from my mom, and the others from Dad. I don't really know how much of it is from either of them so..."

      "I see," Todoroki's expression was unreadable. As flattering as it was, it was rather strange, how he had suddenly asked her about her quirk. And there was that expression post his fight with Sero and even now. Something must be going on with him.

      "Well, if that's all, then I'm gonna go," Megumi said, motioning to the hallway. She turned back around, facing away.

      "And Todoroki? Whatever you're going through...you do have people to talk, including me. You should learn to let people close."

      She didn't look back at Todoroki's expression as she started walking again. Megumi had absolutely no clue about what was going on with him, but she had the slightest feeling that it was something that Todoroki needed to talk to someone about.

      'Well, he just needs to make friends.'

      After that weird conversation with Todoroki, she was finally back in the 1-A seating area. She thanked everyone who complimented her on her fight as she got comfortable in her seat next to Natsume. He handed her phone back to her.

      "What took you so long?" He asked. "You got a bit late."

      "Nothing much. I just wanted to stretch my legs after the match," Megumi replied. She didn't like lying to Natsume, but she wanted to keep that conversation a secret between her and Todoroki.

      "Oh okay," Natsume nodded, clearly believing what she had said. "By the way, you should probably check your messages."

      "Why?" Megumi looked at him curiously.

      Natsume merely smiled. "Just see it."

      "Okay, if you say so," Megumi opened her phone and tapped on the messages app. Right at the top of all the messages was the notification of a text from her dad. Curiosity piqued, she tapped on it.

DAD: Megumi, you fought so well!! I am so proud of you! I'm sorry I can't be there to congratulate you in person. This workload is just killing me. But know that I am watching you and cheering you on. Go on and show the world how amazing you are. I love you <3

      Megumi smiled softly and sent a short 'Thank you' as her reply. She turned her attention back to the stage, where it was finally time for Uraraka to face off against Bakugo. She had missed all the other fights before this because she actually had been walking about the stadium a bit before getting to the seating area. But this was a fight she did not want to miss.

      The signal to start the match was yelled out by Present Mic. The second after that, Uraraka immediately ran at Bakugo.

      "If I had to guess," Natsume looked at the match with an analytical stare. "Uraraka is trying to touch Bakugo so that she can make him float. So Bakugo will want to keep his distance."

      "But his quirk is good for long range attacks too, right?" Megumi added.

      "Yeah," Natsume said. "This matchup is pretty disadvantageous for Uraraka."

      "She's a fighter," Megumi said as she watched the fierce match that was going on in the stadium below. "She can do it."

      The match progressed and no one could deny that Uraraka was putting up an extremely good fight. But her efforts, against Bakugo's strong quirk and great reaction time, were in vain. There was an imbalance in their powers.

      Megumi winced as Uraraka was thrown back by Bakugo's explosions. Dark smoke completely covered the battle stage. Suddenly, she noticed movement above the smoke. Her eyes caught on the debris from the stage floating in the air.

      'Holy shit,' Megumi thought with awe. 'She took all those hits to distract him from the debris. That's clever!'

     The crowd, which had started booing Bakugo, was immediately silenced by a few strong words from Aizawa.

      By then, the smoke had cleared. Uraraka's voice echoed loudly. "I'm gonna win!"

     Uraraka touched her fingertips together and the debris in the sky came shooting down, almost like a storm of meteors. Taking advantage of the chaos, she ran through the rubble towards Bakugo, ready to attack him.

     But Bakugo had immediately taken notice of the falling rocks. He raised his arm above his hand and with a massive explosion, blowing back most of the debris. The shockwave from the explosion threw Uraraka backwards and onto the ground.

      Uraraka hurriedly stood up and started running towards Bakugo again, but halfway through, she crashed to the ground.

      Immediately, Midnight ran to the stage to check on her. After a few seconds, she announced, "Uraraka is unable to continue. Bakugo moves onto the next round!"

      Megumi released a breath she didn't realise she was holding. Uraraka and Bakugo's match was by far the most intense of the tournament. And there were still many matches to come.

     'What's gonna happen now?'

I realised that I had completely forgotten to include one thing about Megumi's quirk, so I chose to do that here. It basically explains how Natsume has bulletproof fur when he transforms into a tiger; how his mom Nao has bulletproof skin and how Megumi's father's quirk also has a defensive part to it. Overall, this chapter was pretty fun to write. Especially that little Megumi and Todoroki interaction. 

Everytime they interact, Todoroki points out something about something about her and Megumi awkwardly gives a reply. I can tell you that a lot of their interactions are going to be like that. And yes, there's gonna be a lot more as we move through the Sports Festival Arc. 

Till then, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Let me know your thoughts in the comments!