Golden Touch (BnHA)

Chapter 25: Speed is Key

Like I said a few chapters earlier, I'm not gonna be going into great details on the fights Kula and Mika are not in. I don't want to repeat stuff everyone already knows.

-Sin
_________

After the break, Kula was sitting with the rest of her class as two students walked up onto the stage. It was Midoriya against Todoroki.

"The first match of the second round!" Present Mic shouted. "At this year's sports festival, both have shown top class performances! Midoriya versus— Todoroki! It's like great rivals fighting against each other! Start!"

Almost immediately Todroki sent a wave of ice towards Midoriya, who raised is hand and flicked, a giant shock wave breaking the ice into shards just before it hit him. Though, on the screens, Kula spotted that his finger was now purple and bleeding slightly. She couldn't help but wince when she realized it was broken.

Todoroki sent wave after wave of ice towards Midoriya, each one being broken with a flick of Midoriya's fingers. He's going to run out of fingers eventually. Kula thought to herself as she shivered slightly from the cold that was rising up from the stage.

As the fight went on, Kula saw that Todoroki was slowing down, and she noticed that frost was covering his skin. It must be a drawback of his quirk... she thought to herself, and her mind started rolling as she thought of possible ideas for what support gear would work best for him. Though a sudden wave of intense heat got her attention back on the fight.

Todoroki was flaming— literally. Apparently during the fight Midoriya had said something to him to get the half-n-half boy to use his flames. And if the look on Todoroki's face meant anything, there was a strong chance that the battle was going to be over soon, and it was. Todoroki blasted Midoriya out of bounds with a strong wave a fire.

"Midoriya is out of bounds! Todoroki moves onto the next round!" Midnight announced as the Staduim erupted into cheers. After Midoriya was carted off the field and Todoroki walked off, Kula stood up and started walking down to sit in the waiting room— they were going to have to clean up the stage anyways so she would have time to plan for her next battle.

"Hey Kula!" Someone shouted, causing Kula to stop walking and look behind her to see Mika standing right behind her. "This battle, you'd better win it. Show the world that the Support Course is just as good as the Hero Course!"

Kula looked at Mika for a second before nodding, "Of course." She said before turning back around and continuing towards the waiting room.

As she walked down, she passed by her opponent, Iida Tenya. The two of them stopped in front of each other, both having serious expressions on their faces.

"You're Saito, my opponent, correct?" He asked.

"That's me." Kula said simply.

"Then know this. Just because you're not in the hero course, I won't be going easy on you."

She scoffed, "Thanks for the warning, but I already assumed that, Engine Calves." She started walking, glancing over her shoulder after passing him, "And don't even think about underestimating me just because you think I don't have as much battle experience as you. And besides, there's someone I'm winning this for."

***

"Now that the stage is cleared, we have the second battle of the second round!" Present Mic announced as Kula and Iida started walking up to the stage. "This student has shown his speed before, and hopefully will be able to show us his fightning ability this time, it's Iida Tenya! Vs. a student who knows how to use her gadgets to her advantage and is not afraid to shout her beliefs, it's Saito Kula! Match start!"

The crowd cheered loudly as Iida sped towards Kula, who just barely made it out of the way in time by jumping out of the way. Narrowing her eyes, she started to think about what the best course of action was.

With his quirk, Iida was fast, and would eventually be able to catch her off guard and push her out of bounds if she wasn't careful. She had been thinking of ways to stop him. But either she never had the correct devices, or Iida would be too fast for the device to work. For now, her best course of action was hand to hand combat and dodging.

Iida sped straight towards her again, and again Kula jumped to the side, just barely missing him once again.

"The match starts with Iida showing off his speed and Saito showing off her surprising agility in dodging!" Present Mic announced.

Kula turned and faced Iida, who skidded to a stop just before the boundary line. As he was turning to speed towards her once again, a sudden idea came to Kula. At the speed he was going, it would be hard for him to make sudden sharp turns, and the only way for him to win this is if she was pushed out of bounds. A grin came to her face as she thought of a plan.

Iida sped towards her once again, and Kula jumped to the side, making sure to stay light on her feet. For once she was grateful for the police chases she's been involved in when doing her vigilante work. She's learned to be able to keep light on her feet and make quick last minute movements to avoid speeding obstacles.

The rhythm repeated a few more times before Kula had been cornered by Iida, the speeding teen standing in front of her and the boundary line not too far behind her.

"Could this be the end? Iida's managed to corner Saito and it seems like there's no way out for her!" Present Mic announced.

There was a tension in the air, and what was only a few seconds felt like days. Iida got ready to speed towards Kula to push her out of bounds and finally end the match, and Kula shifted her weight from foot to foot, keeping her eyes on Iida. It was only a split second, too fast too see exactly what happened, but when the dust settled, the crowed was in shock.

"N-No way!" Present Mic shouted, "This is quite the turn of events!"

Kula was still standing on the stage, she was on the ground, sure, but she was still within bounds. Iida on the other hand was standing on the white line with his body rigid as he processed what had happened.

As Iida had sped towards Kula, she had jumped up and used his shoulder to propel her higher in the air and push him forwards a bit further to get him slightly off balance. It had ended with her landing on the ground, and scraping her knees, but if it meant she was going to win the match, a little pain was nothing— besides, she's felt worse than some scraped knees.

"Iida is out of bound! Sato moves onto the next round!" Midnight announced, and the crowd erupted into cheers.

As Kula was getting up and dusting off her uniform, Iida walked up to her.

"What do you want?" Kula asked cooly.

"I want to congratulate you on your win. Your speed was remarkable, being able to dodge me at my speeds."

"Well, thanks." Kula said, "but it's really nothing remarkable."

"On the contrary!" Iida exclaimed, looking as if he wanted to say more but was silenced by a glare from Kula, who did not want to be there.

"Yeah yeah. Now if you'll excuse me, I'd like to get back to my seat." She said, walking past Iida and ignoring her knees as they stung with movement. If anything, she really just wanted to get herknees cleaned up.

"Of course! I wish you luck on your next match!" Iida exclaimed as Kula walked off the field and towards the bathroom. Her injury wasn't bad enough for her to ask for Recovery Girl's help, and she just needed to clean herself up.

After cleaning up the scrapes on her knees to avoid infections, she grabbed a paper towel and cleaned off the spots of blood that were welling up from the scrapes. Once she was done, she balled the paper towel and threw it in the trash can, heading out of the bathroom and to her classes seating area, Mika was fightning the next match, and she didn't want to miss it.