❝ 竜頭蛇尾 ❞

"A MATCH WE'VE ALL been looking forward to!" Present Mic announces dramatically, his own excitement shining through. "A fight between two competitive people! Explosions versus Flames!"

The audience roars in an extraordinarily loud tone, all of them captivated in the exhilaration and gratefulness to witness this powerful combat.

"The cunning and fiery strategist, Shirohono Yue versus the determined and passionate Explosion-Boy himself, Bakugou Katsuki! Both from Class A!"

On the opposite side of her stands Bakugou, an almost evil expression on his face. His hands are outstretched and in position - ready to attack her. "You better quit now before I destroy your pretty little face, Fireball."

Yue swallows down her fiery comeback, reminding herself to act composed and with a clever, rational mind. She breathes thoroughly.

Defense is how she usually starts—considering that she has learned that ever since she was a kid—but, in this case, it's better to act on the offense. And so, the blue-haired girl gets into the right position, breathing calmly.

"START!"

Wasting no time, Yue sends a huge wave of blue flames his way. As it's about to touch her opponent, she gracefully waves her hands around; the blaze soon creating a ball of fire that Bakugou is locked inside.

She takes slow steps toward him while continuing the movement of her hands, the searing fire almost clutching his form.

This must cause him to sweat a lot.

Suddenly, though, a huge explosion goes off. Shirohono is taken aback, eyes widening ever so slightly, while she watches the angry Pomeranian flying at her.

"Don't underestimate me!" shouts Bakugou. Utter anger drips from his voice. While flying, he directs his hand at her and throws another explosion her way.

How the hell could this happen? He shouldn't even be able to touch it!

Almost immediately, Yue does a backflip—dodging his attack—while sending two jabs of fire his way by her feet.

I have to boost up everything about him.

Analyzing the entirety of her class is something she's been doing ever since she first saw them. Their strengths, weaknesses, choice of words; anything to use for her own advantage.

And so Yue is well aware of the flawless way to irritate the hot-tempered Bakugou Katsuki.

"Must suck to have no chance against someone like Todoroki, huh?" She begins, evading all of this explosions by her flexible acrobat-skills. "I mean, you'd be combating against someone who has two Quirks. Considering that you can't even stop my fire, how are you supposed to win against his fire and ice?"

He only grunts as a response, throwing more blasts toward her. But Yue notices how they are getting hotter and hotter with every burst, causing her to grin in satisfaction.

"You can't even compete with stupid Deku, can you?"

"Hey, that's mean! Midoriya complains from the stands, eyes widened.

"Shut the hell up and start attacking me!" Bakugou has lost all of his teaspoon-ranged patience now, dashing toward her by the explosions behind him.

Graciously, she lets herself float in the air by the fire beneath her hands and feet. "Why should I? You're not my biggest rival after all. Or is your name Todoroki Shoto. Or even better: Midoriya Izuku?"

"She's turned completely insane now..." mutters Kaminari, his eyes ripped open. "There's no way in stopping Bakugou."

Kirishima nods, gulping. "He's going to kill her. I'm sure of it."

Meanwhile, Yaoyorozu simply watches her, wondering if the blue-eyed girl has a death-wish. Yet it clicks in her head after some time. "She's doing it on purpose!"

"She wants to make him angry!" explains Momo, to which the others still ask questions in confusion.

"But... why?"

Yaoyorozu shakes her head lightly, her eyes focused on Shirohono's figure in curiosity. "I don't know yet..."

"That's it, you little fuck!"

By using both of his hands, Bakugou points at her and releases two huge explosions.

What happens next has already been calculated in Yue's mind - her body has obviously caught onto his bursts, flipping over the ground for countless of times. She clutches her upper abdomen, making sure that that spot isn't damaged.

Regardless of the pain she's feeling, Shirohono swallows it down and stands up straight. "Is that all you got, you ugly gremlin?"

Right after those words are said, Yue raises both hands and one feet to ignite majestic flames of blue orbs. Though Bakugou swiftly dodges them, she continues blasting them at him with numerous attacks in order to make her plan work.

"You didn't even hurt me one bit and are already giving up, whilst I'm here with the minimum of my Quirk!" yells the blue-haired girl. Her two hands have a firm hold on fiery whips now, directing them at him. "You're weaker than I thought!"

Bakugou shouts on the top of his lungs, "Shut up!"

As he bombs her once again, she whirls her legs around rapidly; a ball of fire protecting her from it.

Yet the constant usage of her Quirk causes Yue to breathe heavily. Sweat drips from her forehead. Bakugou keeps on throwing new bursts of explosions at her as she's caged in her own fire, not backing down.

For a second, he's distracted because of the new blaze she attacks him with. Yue takes her chance and frees herself, and then moves over to continue pushing him into the corner - igniting fire from her balled fists, balancing her body into a gracious front-flip, just to strike another dazzling flame by her feet that are precisely directed at him.

"This is oddly interesting to watch," mutters Iida. "I've never seen someone use fire the same way Shirohono-kun does."

Todoroki thinks the same way as he watches the scenario alone. His head tilts to the side, allured.

"You can't win against me, Fireball!" Somehow, her flames cause new explosions to be burst every single time—but, since it's for her advantage, she doesn't mind.

Both of their Quirks damage yet also compliment each other magnificently. The audience and teachers watch the match in full delight, mouths gaping open.

Within time, though, Yue notices the extreme heat that flows through her body like blood. She wipes the sweat away, charging Bakugou with another stream of fire, nonetheless.

Obviously, he swerves it by one huge explosion. The crimson-eyed male exhales deeply, clutching his wrist swiftly to soothe it, before releasing another burst by his other hand.

"What is it, Blondie?" Yue chuckles in an incredibly degrading way, not stopping in throwing more flames after flying through the air smoothly. "Don't tell me that you've reached your limit after just a few hits! Our fight has just started!"

"Oh, I'll show you a fight."

With that, he lunges himself at Shirohono, grabbing her collar while his other hand sparks soundly. Yet, before he could pounce at her, she does a low-sweeping kick that is also supported by a leash of fire, knocking him down instantly.

One of her hands is ready to attack again as the other one alights another fire-jab at him. Swiftly, Bakugou holds his hands up, but they catch her flames before he could use his own Quirk.

Thus, the two of them are unexplainably flown apart. Yue clutches her arm, looking up with confusion evident in her slightly blurry eyes.

A few seconds pass as she finally realizes it. The new important knowledge causes all of her energy to be recharged, standing up rapidly before flying toward him whilst her flames carry her.

Her devious grin is the reason why Bakugou slowly registers that she knows now, too. In anger he grunts, but gets up to continue, nevertheless.

"There's no need in fighting anymore, Kacchan!" She laughs viciously, her opened palm smoothly peppering him with an extra sea of flames. "Your biggest secret between us isn't a secret anymore!"

"You aren't the only one gaining knowledge over weaknesses." After swerving her with another bomb, he smirks and continues, "Your body. It's getting too hot for you, isn't it?"

Silencing, Yue scowls while dodging his attempted attack. She swirls in the air once, and then blazes him with new flames.

Bakugou watches her every move with analyzing eyes, which is the reason as to why he notices that her flames are getting less hotter over time. He's also conscious to the fact that her eyes are begging to finally droop close, her heavy breaths not being overlooked by him.

"All three of you can just blast out super huge range attacks willy-nilly, one after another..." said Kirishima, talking about Bakugou, Todoroki, and Shirohono.

An unexpected response came from the red-eyed boy, "Don't make it sound light. I can't do willy-nilly. If I overwork my muscles, my muscle fibers will give in. And if I run too long, I'll run out of breath. A Quirk is just another function of the body. Everyone has their own limits."

Then, he pointed at the mute Yue beside him. "Even this dumb-ass does."

"Shut up and focus on yourself, roach," countered the blue-haired girl in an instant, sinking deeper down into her seat.

"Don't worry. This'll be over sooner than thought," he snarls at her.

Deeply, she exhales. She's distracted - gaze located at her hand that is placed on her upper abdomen. The area is starting to throb unbearably.

Yue weakly raises her trembling right arm into the air, middle and pointer finger directed at the sky.

The gray-eyed Hero immediately recognizes the sign. He stands up in alarm, yelling to the others to stop the fight instantly.

Even though his body aches and craves for a pause, Bakugou goes in for one last punch. So, as he witnesses Yue breathing profoundly—her back facing him—he jolts toward her, right hand sparking.

He reaches for her upper abdomen, which she clenches in unknown search. But, before he could fully touch that spot—his hand mere inches away from it—her hand suddenly grips his in a firm manner.

Fire licks around the place like it means to play, burning the grasses an astonishing beryl by the dark night, engulfing all its people with it.

Yue watches with devoid eyes as her parents burn into single ashes whilst all she can do is stare blankly.

Everything is washed out of her two sights, illustrating a bitterly, snowy night.

It all happens in a snap. Yue spins around rapidly—too fast for the human eye—and Bakugou's mouth gapes open at the view of completely white eyes, not one trace of color in them.

Waves of heat coursed through her blood, a cold sweat glistened in her gaunt features. Her eyes sunken and her skin sallow, everything ached, everything sagged. She gulped, trying to escape - but the constant rattling of the chains do her no justice nor freedom.

Behind Yue's now uplifted figure, a fog is beginning to spread itself. Everything is becoming colder, and time seems to spin slower.

A sudden gush of pain jolted throughout her body. Her stomach ached, her arms lost tension, and her legs began to weaken - the chains whirring in appall.

In the gloom, there is steam, rising in short puffs, miniature clouds disappearing into the sky. The creature behind Shirohono gets more visible for the boy in front of her too see as it stretches its limbs and majestic wings, as if awakening after being asleep for way too long.

Her tongue was soaked in the taste of blood. Bruised and winded, with a body in agony, she pushed her head back up and spit the sour taste out.

As her white, devoid eyes looked up at the man, a euphoric yet maniacal laugh escaped him.

His sight widened in delight, utterly glad that his plan had finally been accomplished.

Just like that, the dragon unleashes itself.

"I knew it," mutters Aizawa, standing up form his seat with pried open eyes.

Bakugou watches with widened eyes its thick skin is a hue of a snowy winter night, glowing in all its glory. The creature's scales are as cold as ice that blazes bright as an ever flickering white flame. In its chest it holds often times a hearth of burning fire, although in its remorseless heart lay rime.

Rage is all she's feeling at the moment. Rage toward the culprit, rage toward the world, but most likely - rage toward herself.

At the rear of these deeply set azure eyes that form a callous glare, in a language carved before the age of ice, is the mind of the serpent king, the beast of the darkened cave.

Slowly, its petrifying eyes find sight of him.

She's jumping and whirling in her stance, which makes him laugh even more. His eyes are focused on the chains around her neck and lower head area, which make sure to keep her mouth shut to prevent any more fiery incidents.

There is no control Yue has over herself anymore, the creature taking over her usually guarded wall and composure; breaking it brick by brick to finally unleash its true form.

Out of nowhere, it releases a sublime yet also scaring breath of azure fire into the air. The fire reaches the sky and is able to even escape the land of the stadium. Its eyes soon find his again, irritation lingering in them.

The immense beating of her heart, the heavy odor of smoke, the hues of beryl all over the place.

He is glued to the spot like a statue, not believing his own eyes. In shock, Bakugou observes as its flames strike for him now.

Two azure specks flicker through Yue's eyes at the exact same moment as the dragon wants to attack him, her mouth gaping open.

"Bakugou..."

And then, Yue falls to the ground, the monstrous creature and its following fog disappearing. She's laying on the ground, unconscious.

Sitting up, she clutches her throbbing head, groaning because of the pain. Yue looks around, but everything is dark, nothing visible to her eye.

"Sh-Shirohono-san?" A familiar voice calls out.

"Ah, Midoriya." She recognizes it. "Could you please turn the lights on? I can't see anything."

Midoriya hesitates.

"The lights are on, Shirohono-san..."

Fun-Fact: Shirohono has long, dainty hands, which are constantly manicured and being taken care of. Considering that she mostly uses her fingers with her Quirk, they're the thing she stares at the most at. It's one of her most love and hated features at the same time.