“My date was a total bust.” I said as I boarded the early morning train with Izuku. “I tried way too hard and mom made me wear a three piece suit.”
Izuku had a laugh at my expense. “Maybe next time.”
“No next time. We agreed to only be friends. Instead of a date, we hung out and talked as friends. It was a much better time for the both of us.”
“She wasn't angry about that?” Izuku asked, a little surprised.
“She was at first. I was wasting her time, after all.” I said with a sigh and turned up the power on the weighted backpack I wore. “By the end of the meal, she was talking normally, which was weird, because she only ever talked in short sentences before.”
“So, with the pressure off, you both relaxed and had a better time.” Izuku said. “What does that tell you?”
“It tells me that I had a better date with Ming while rubbing her feet after the assessment yesterday.” I joked and we both laughed.
“You got it.” Izuku said and started his calisthenic exercises with his weighted backpack powered up as well. “You're overthinking what to say, what to do, and how to handle things. Don't do that. Just... be.”
I thought about it and had to agree. “Don't push or expect anything. Let things alone and if they happen, they will. If not, then they won't.”
“Exactly. If you relax and don't expect anything, you'll be like Mei and I before you know it.”
“Kissing each other every second we're around someone else?” I asked and he swung at me. I easily blocked the cheap shot and then we began our weighted sparring session.
*
“Hey, guys.” Ming said as we stepped off the train. “You're even sweater than yesterday!”
I pointed at Izuku. “It's his fault. He gave me incomplete advice yesterday and I totally blew it during my date last night.”
No one missed how happy that made her.
“He tried to take it out on me.” Izuku said as we started walking. “Thanks to the small space inside the train, we were more evenly matched.”
“Says the guy holding back.” I countered.
“We would get in too much trouble if we used our quirks openly.”
“True.” I said as we reached the gate to the school and I turned the weighted backpack off. “See you girls in physics class.”
They nodded and Izuku and I took off almost faster than they could see.
“We're getting faster.” I commented when we reached the locker room and we stripped off and showered.
“I'm up to cycling fifteen percent of One for All through my body without strain and twenty-eight percent for short power boosts.”
“That's great!” I slapped his back. “I think you'll get to fifty for short bursts by the sports festival.”
“Mei's already working on the new upgrades for the backpacks.” Izuku said with a smile.
I had to laugh. “I don't know what we would do without that girl!”
“Stagnate.” Izuku said and we ran from the locker room to get to class before the bell rang.
*
“Welcome to Hero Training 101.” A muscular woman wearing a skin-tight red bodysuit said that afternoon. She had long white hair and was quite pretty, with red shorts and a loose red tank top. She was also six feet tall and didn't have heels on her short boots. “My hero name is Red Fury. I can kick your asses all day and never break a sweat.”
“I doubt that.” Bosco whispered.
“I also have excellent hearing.” Red Fury said and waved the large boy forward. “You doubt my claim?”
“A little.” Bosco responded.
“Have you spent much time in the infirmary?” Red Fury asked with a feral grin.
“Uh... no.”
“They do have good healers here.” Red Fury said and clenched her hands into fists. “What are you waiting for? Attack me.”
“Excuse me?”
“You said I couldn't kick your ass. I'm going to prove you wrong.”
Bosco held his hands up in surrender. “I meant all day.”
Red Fury chuckled and waved for him to step back. “You need to be more assertive when in a confrontation with a villain. I could have pounded you silly as soon as I saw you were going to withdraw and not fight.” She looked around and saw me. “Kent! Front and center.”
I nodded and stepped forward. When I was close enough, I dropped into a fighting stance. “Ready when you are.”
“Good! Confidence is a virtue. Overconfidence is a hindrance. Know your limits and strive to surpass them.” Red Fury said and dropped into a fighting stance herself. “I reviewed your UA entrance exam.”
“So have I.” I said and braced myself.
Red Fury chuckled, then she glowed red for a second as her muscles expanded by almost fifty percent. Her loose top became tight as her chest expanded and her normal shorts became short shorts as she grew almost a foot in height.
“Ladies first.” I said and changed to a defensive position.
“Such a gentleman!” Red Fury growled and then she lunged at me with her fists flying in quick jabs.
I ignored the potential threat and lifted my foot to catch her in the side. She dodged from my feint and flipped up onto her hands to kick me in the face. I ducked and grabbed her elbows and pulled. Her arms buckled under her own weight and she rolled away.
“Not bad.” Red Fury growled, recovered, then used her hands and feet like a sprinting runner on the ground to launch herself at full speed towards me.
I almost laughed at her and hopped up to punch down as she passed under me. I hit the shoulder blade I was aiming for and the loud crack was heard across the field.
Everyone winced at the sound, except for Izuku. He had guessed the same thing that I had.
Red Fury rolled over the ground and stopped in a low crouch, her arm hanging down on her side. “Nice debilitating blow. It's efficient and would normally reduce a combatant's effectiveness to half.”
There was another crunch as she used her still working arm to shove the useless arm up and held the broken shoulder blade in place for a second.
Red Fury watched my face and didn't see any surprise there, so she smiled. “You knew I could heal minor injuries.”
“Extrapolated from your quirk usage. You're overstimulating your bodily functions to expand your muscles and making them work about ten times as hard. That would also increase your metabolism and healing.”
“Very good.” Red Fury said and casually walked over to me. “Now, I wonder if..” Her hand darted out to smack me in the face and I grabbed it, turned, and flipped her over my back. She grabbed on with her other hand and twisted her body, then she slammed both of her feet into my gut. I grunted and didn't let her go.
She looked surprised by that, so I turned the arm I still held around and backwards, forcing her to turn slightly to not have her elbow snap. I quickly let her go and drop-kicked her upper back. She flew almost thirty feet away before she hit the dirt and dug a deep furrow into the ground. I ran over to her to follow up and her fist was suddenly in my face and buried itself into my cheek.
My head snapped around and my body spun because she had put all of her strength behind it, then she grabbed me by the back of the neck and shoved my head into the torn up ground. Her foot then connected to my side and launched me twenty feet up into the air. I had just enough time to blink before she was beside me in the air and her clasped hands whacked my chest. I shot down to the ground from the hit and made a crater a few feet wide.
Red Fury's jump momentum brought her almost straight down to me, so I played possum until she was just about to land. I flipped up and lunged at her in a classic tackle that caught her completely off-guard and knocked the wind out of her. We tumbled to the ground and wrestled for a few seconds, our hands moving almost faster than the other students could see as we punched each other.
It was then that I made a rookie mistake and extended my arm trying to get a good punch at her face.
“Gotcha!” Red Fury growled in triumph and wrapped her arms around mine. Her legs wrapped around my neck half a second later, and she pulled.
The sickening crunch of my forearm and the pop as my shoulder dislocated cut through the air and everyone looked shocked by it. Some even looked a little sick about it.
Red Fury laughed as she let my broken arm go, then she stood up and looked down at my beaten and bruised face. Realization flowed over her own face and she was shocked at what she had just done. She started to tremble and reduced in size to her normal height before she dropped to her knees beside me.
“Kent! KENT! I'm sorry! I got caught up in the fight and...”
I started to laugh with a huge smile on my face and she looked horrified, as did most of the students.
“That fight was AWESOME!” Izuku yelled and ran over to us. “Connor! You countered perfectly!”
“I know! Isn't that great? I held my own against a seasoned fighter!” I said, just as excited as Izuku. “Hey, pop my shoulder back in, will you?”
“Sure!” Izuku said and rolled me onto my side. He braced me properly and felt my shoulder to see where it was, then yanked in the right direction to make it pop back into place. “You'll need a brace on the forearm for a few days, though.”
“Not a problem. I write mostly with my right hand, anyway.” I said and he helped me stand up. “Ooo, I'll be feeling that tomorrow.” I said and rubbed my back with my good arm. “Miss Fury, you kick really hard.”
Red Fury stared at the two of us for a moment before she spoke. “Are the two of you insane?”
Izuku and I laughed at that and her still surprised face.
“No, we just train really hard.” I said and held a hand to her.
Red Fury looked at it for a moment, then took it and I helped her stand up from her kneeling position.
“You're the first person we've met that didn't bother holding back while fighting.” Izuku said. “Don't worry about Connor's black eyes or the bruises. They'll be healed by tomorrow morning.”
“His forearm...”
“Two days, once it's properly set.” I said and wiggled my fingers. “I better get to the infirmary before it sets the way it is.”
“Go.” Red Fury said and waved me off of the field.
I took off at a jog towards the main building.
“What the hell am I going to do with you?” Red Fury asked Izuku.
“I have a girlfriend.” Izuku said, and that made me laugh out loud.
“Stop flirting, Izuku!” I shouted at him and he flipped me off. I laughed harder and entered the building before quickly finding the infirmary.
The nurse there shot to her feet when she saw me. “What the hell happened to you?” She exclaimed and the doctor ran over at her near shout.
“Multiple contusions, bruising over sixty percent of my body and face, and my forearm is broken.” I said. “Oh, and my shoulder was dislocated and is now back in place. The muscles there are slightly strained.”
“Good god! Were you jumped by a pack of villains?” The nurse asked.
I chuckled. “No, I just got into a great sparring match with Red Fury. She probably won't be coming in to get checked out, though. She looked fine from what I could tell.”
“You were the example?” The doctor asked. “She usually picks one of the students to single out.”
“Nope! That was Bosco. He declined and I stepped up when she asked me to.” I said and the doctor stared at my arm. I felt the energy passing through my arm and guessed that he had used x-ray vision.
“Give me a second. There's a shard... no, two... that needs to be gathered and removed.” The doctor said.
“You need a tensile strength six scalpel.” I told him and he gave me a look, shrugged, and nodded at the nurse.
After a quick incision and tweezers plucking out the tiny bone shards, the doctor put my arm back in place and expertly held the skin together as the nurse used her quirk to heal it. A brace was applied and wrapped to secure my lower arm, then it was put into a sling. The nurse rubbed a creme on my face and arms for the bruises she could see.
“Thanks.” I said and wiggled my fingers. “I feel better already.”
“No heroics or training with that arm for a week. Even if you heal quickly, you still need recovery time for the muscles to adjust to the slight change the bone breaking did.” The doctor cautioned me. “Use the creme to sooth the bruise pain for a couple of days.”
“It was worth it. That fight was epic!” I said and left with a happy smile on my face. I didn't see the looks of dismay on the doctor's and nurse's faces.
Like Izuku told the teacher, we haven't found anyone to fight us normally and could only spar with each other. That would only let us go so far because we were almost at the point where we could predict each others moves. Now that we had a teacher that would actually try to kick our asses for real, this was going to be one of the best classes we've ever had.
I went back to the track field and sat on the sidelines as I watched Red Fury instruct the others in basic fighting stances and how to brace for actual fighting.
Izuku came over to me and sat down. “You look like someone chewed you up and spit you out.”
“It'll be worse by tonight.” I chuckled. “Mom's going to freak.”
“Just tell her about Red Fury not caring who we are and she'll be okay with it.” Izuku said and then smiled. “Assuming you don't keep going home looking like that every week.”
“OH! Did she say yes?” I asked, excited.
“Provisionally.” Izuku said and looked over at the HPE teacher.
“I'll take anything we can get.” I said and he nodded. “I was just thinking that this might become one of the best classes we've ever had.”
Izuku smiled. “I actually told her that to help sell her on the idea to not hold back against us, even though she wants to.”
“Ha! Nice one.” I said and leaned back against the building.
“Storm incoming.” Izuku whispered and gave me a wink before he stood up and practically ran away.
“Coward.” I whispered and then turned my head to see a very angry Ming striding towards me.
“Just what the hell were you thinking?” Ming spat at me and put her arms on her hips to glare at me.
“I needed some tenderizing to soften myself up enough to hug you.” I said with a straight face.
Ming glared at me for about ten seconds more before her face changed to sadness and tears came to her eyes. “She hurt you.”
I pat my lap and she didn't hesitate as she sat down across my legs and wrapped her arms around my neck. “It was my first serious fight and I was happy that she didn't hold back. She went at me with both respect and confidence, because she was sure that I could take it and dish it out in equal measure.”
“She hurt you!” Ming repeated and I used my working arm to wipe the tears from her face.
“Yes, and she also stopped when the fight was over and she had won. She didn't keep going, pound my face in, or broke the rest of my limbs. She disabled me and nothing more. I respect her for that and you should, too.”
Ming nodded and cried some more as she held onto me. We stayed there for several minutes and didn't do anything except hold each other.
“Connor.” Ming whispered and wouldn't look at me. “About... your date last night...”
“It started out as one.” I said and she stiffened slightly as she listened intensely. “Partway through, Tougi and I agreed to only be friends and we hung out to have a bite to eat and then went home. Separately. No hug and no kiss. I waved to her from the train. That's it.”
Ming let out the breath she was holding and looked at me. “Connor, I know I told you that...”
I leaned my head forward slightly and kissed her.
“Mmm!” Ming moaned into my mouth and she kissed me back enthusiastically.
I was a bit surprised by that at first, then I took Izuku's revised advice and let things happen as they may. I moved my lips and held her with my good arm, and made out with a girl who was probably now my girlfriend.
“My date was a total bust.” I said as I boarded the early morning train with Izuku. “I tried way too hard and mom made me wear a three piece suit.”
Izuku had a laugh at my expense. “Maybe next time.”
“No next time. We agreed to only be friends. Instead of a date, we hung out and talked as friends. It was a much better time for the both of us.”
“She wasn't angry about that?” Izuku asked, a little surprised.
“She was at first. I was wasting her time, after all.” I said with a sigh and turned up the power on the weighted backpack I wore. “By the end of the meal, she was talking normally, which was weird, because she only ever talked in short sentences before.”
“So, with the pressure off, you both relaxed and had a better time.” Izuku said. “What does that tell you?”
“It tells me that I had a better date with Ming while rubbing her feet after the assessment yesterday.” I joked and we both laughed.
“You got it.” Izuku said and started his calisthenic exercises with his weighted backpack powered up as well. “You're overthinking what to say, what to do, and how to handle things. Don't do that. Just... be.”
I thought about it and had to agree. “Don't push or expect anything. Let things alone and if they happen, they will. If not, then they won't.”
“Exactly. If you relax and don't expect anything, you'll be like Mei and I before you know it.”
“Kissing each other every second we're around someone else?” I asked and he swung at me. I easily blocked the cheap shot and then we began our weighted sparring session.
*
“Hey, guys.” Ming said as we stepped off the train. “You're even sweater than yesterday!”
I pointed at Izuku. “It's his fault. He gave me incomplete advice yesterday and I totally blew it during my date last night.”
No one missed how happy that made her.
“He tried to take it out on me.” Izuku said as we started walking. “Thanks to the small space inside the train, we were more evenly matched.”
“Says the guy holding back.” I countered.
“We would get in too much trouble if we used our quirks openly.”
“True.” I said as we reached the gate to the school and I turned the weighted backpack off. “See you girls in physics class.”
They nodded and Izuku and I took off almost faster than they could see.
“We're getting faster.” I commented when we reached the locker room and we stripped off and showered.
“I'm up to cycling fifteen percent of One for All through my body without strain and twenty-eight percent for short power boosts.”
“That's great!” I slapped his back. “I think you'll get to fifty for short bursts by the sports festival.”
“Mei's already working on the new upgrades for the backpacks.” Izuku said with a smile.
I had to laugh. “I don't know what we would do without that girl!”
“Stagnate.” Izuku said and we ran from the locker room to get to class before the bell rang.
*
“Welcome to Hero Training 101.” A muscular woman wearing a skin-tight red bodysuit said that afternoon. She had long white hair and was quite pretty, with red shorts and a loose red tank top. She was also six feet tall and didn't have heels on her short boots. “My hero name is Red Fury. I can kick your asses all day and never break a sweat.”
“I doubt that.” Bosco whispered.
“I also have excellent hearing.” Red Fury said and waved the large boy forward. “You doubt my claim?”
“A little.” Bosco responded.
“Have you spent much time in the infirmary?” Red Fury asked with a feral grin.
“Uh... no.”
“They do have good healers here.” Red Fury said and clenched her hands into fists. “What are you waiting for? Attack me.”
“Excuse me?”
“You said I couldn't kick your ass. I'm going to prove you wrong.”
Bosco held his hands up in surrender. “I meant all day.”
Red Fury chuckled and waved for him to step back. “You need to be more assertive when in a confrontation with a villain. I could have pounded you silly as soon as I saw you were going to withdraw and not fight.” She looked around and saw me. “Kent! Front and center.”
I nodded and stepped forward. When I was close enough, I dropped into a fighting stance. “Ready when you are.”
“Good! Confidence is a virtue. Overconfidence is a hindrance. Know your limits and strive to surpass them.” Red Fury said and dropped into a fighting stance herself. “I reviewed your UA entrance exam.”
“So have I.” I said and braced myself.
Red Fury chuckled, then she glowed red for a second as her muscles expanded by almost fifty percent. Her loose top became tight as her chest expanded and her normal shorts became short shorts as she grew almost a foot in height.
“Ladies first.” I said and changed to a defensive position.
“Such a gentleman!” Red Fury growled and then she lunged at me with her fists flying in quick jabs.
I ignored the potential threat and lifted my foot to catch her in the side. She dodged from my feint and flipped up onto her hands to kick me in the face. I ducked and grabbed her elbows and pulled. Her arms buckled under her own weight and she rolled away.
“Not bad.” Red Fury growled, recovered, then used her hands and feet like a sprinting runner on the ground to launch herself at full speed towards me.
I almost laughed at her and hopped up to punch down as she passed under me. I hit the shoulder blade I was aiming for and the loud crack was heard across the field.
Everyone winced at the sound, except for Izuku. He had guessed the same thing that I had.
Red Fury rolled over the ground and stopped in a low crouch, her arm hanging down on her side. “Nice debilitating blow. It's efficient and would normally reduce a combatant's effectiveness to half.”
There was another crunch as she used her still working arm to shove the useless arm up and held the broken shoulder blade in place for a second.
Red Fury watched my face and didn't see any surprise there, so she smiled. “You knew I could heal minor injuries.”
“Extrapolated from your quirk usage. You're overstimulating your bodily functions to expand your muscles and making them work about ten times as hard. That would also increase your metabolism and healing.”
“Very good.” Red Fury said and casually walked over to me. “Now, I wonder if..” Her hand darted out to smack me in the face and I grabbed it, turned, and flipped her over my back. She grabbed on with her other hand and twisted her body, then she slammed both of her feet into my gut. I grunted and didn't let her go.
She looked surprised by that, so I turned the arm I still held around and backwards, forcing her to turn slightly to not have her elbow snap. I quickly let her go and drop-kicked her upper back. She flew almost thirty feet away before she hit the dirt and dug a deep furrow into the ground. I ran over to her to follow up and her fist was suddenly in my face and buried itself into my cheek.
My head snapped around and my body spun because she had put all of her strength behind it, then she grabbed me by the back of the neck and shoved my head into the torn up ground. Her foot then connected to my side and launched me twenty feet up into the air. I had just enough time to blink before she was beside me in the air and her clasped hands whacked my chest. I shot down to the ground from the hit and made a crater a few feet wide.
Red Fury's jump momentum brought her almost straight down to me, so I played possum until she was just about to land. I flipped up and lunged at her in a classic tackle that caught her completely off-guard and knocked the wind out of her. We tumbled to the ground and wrestled for a few seconds, our hands moving almost faster than the other students could see as we punched each other.
It was then that I made a rookie mistake and extended my arm trying to get a good punch at her face.
“Gotcha!” Red Fury growled in triumph and wrapped her arms around mine. Her legs wrapped around my neck half a second later, and she pulled.
The sickening crunch of my forearm and the pop as my shoulder dislocated cut through the air and everyone looked shocked by it. Some even looked a little sick about it.
Red Fury laughed as she let my broken arm go, then she stood up and looked down at my beaten and bruised face. Realization flowed over her own face and she was shocked at what she had just done. She started to tremble and reduced in size to her normal height before she dropped to her knees beside me.
“Kent! KENT! I'm sorry! I got caught up in the fight and...”
I started to laugh with a huge smile on my face and she looked horrified, as did most of the students.
“That fight was AWESOME!” Izuku yelled and ran over to us. “Connor! You countered perfectly!”
“I know! Isn't that great? I held my own against a seasoned fighter!” I said, just as excited as Izuku. “Hey, pop my shoulder back in, will you?”
“Sure!” Izuku said and rolled me onto my side. He braced me properly and felt my shoulder to see where it was, then yanked in the right direction to make it pop back into place. “You'll need a brace on the forearm for a few days, though.”
“Not a problem. I write mostly with my right hand, anyway.” I said and he helped me stand up. “Ooo, I'll be feeling that tomorrow.” I said and rubbed my back with my good arm. “Miss Fury, you kick really hard.”
Red Fury stared at the two of us for a moment before she spoke. “Are the two of you insane?”
Izuku and I laughed at that and her still surprised face.
“No, we just train really hard.” I said and held a hand to her.
Red Fury looked at it for a moment, then took it and I helped her stand up from her kneeling position.
“You're the first person we've met that didn't bother holding back while fighting.” Izuku said. “Don't worry about Connor's black eyes or the bruises. They'll be healed by tomorrow morning.”
“His forearm...”
“Two days, once it's properly set.” I said and wiggled my fingers. “I better get to the infirmary before it sets the way it is.”
“Go.” Red Fury said and waved me off of the field.
I took off at a jog towards the main building.
“What the hell am I going to do with you?” Red Fury asked Izuku.
“I have a girlfriend.” Izuku said, and that made me laugh out loud.
“Stop flirting, Izuku!” I shouted at him and he flipped me off. I laughed harder and entered the building before quickly finding the infirmary.
The nurse there shot to her feet when she saw me. “What the hell happened to you?” She exclaimed and the doctor ran over at her near shout.
“Multiple contusions, bruising over sixty percent of my body and face, and my forearm is broken.” I said. “Oh, and my shoulder was dislocated and is now back in place. The muscles there are slightly strained.”
“Good god! Were you jumped by a pack of villains?” The nurse asked.
I chuckled. “No, I just got into a great sparring match with Red Fury. She probably won't be coming in to get checked out, though. She looked fine from what I could tell.”
“You were the example?” The doctor asked. “She usually picks one of the students to single out.”
“Nope! That was Bosco. He declined and I stepped up when she asked me to.” I said and the doctor stared at my arm. I felt the energy passing through my arm and guessed that he had used x-ray vision.
“Give me a second. There's a shard... no, two... that needs to be gathered and removed.” The doctor said.
“You need a tensile strength six scalpel.” I told him and he gave me a look, shrugged, and nodded at the nurse.
After a quick incision and tweezers plucking out the tiny bone shards, the doctor put my arm back in place and expertly held the skin together as the nurse used her quirk to heal it. A brace was applied and wrapped to secure my lower arm, then it was put into a sling. The nurse rubbed a creme on my face and arms for the bruises she could see.
“Thanks.” I said and wiggled my fingers. “I feel better already.”
“No heroics or training with that arm for a week. Even if you heal quickly, you still need recovery time for the muscles to adjust to the slight change the bone breaking did.” The doctor cautioned me. “Use the creme to sooth the bruise pain for a couple of days.”
“It was worth it. That fight was epic!” I said and left with a happy smile on my face. I didn't see the looks of dismay on the doctor's and nurse's faces.
Like Izuku told the teacher, we haven't found anyone to fight us normally and could only spar with each other. That would only let us go so far because we were almost at the point where we could predict each others moves. Now that we had a teacher that would actually try to kick our asses for real, this was going to be one of the best classes we've ever had.
I went back to the track field and sat on the sidelines as I watched Red Fury instruct the others in basic fighting stances and how to brace for actual fighting.
Izuku came over to me and sat down. “You look like someone chewed you up and spit you out.”
“It'll be worse by tonight.” I chuckled. “Mom's going to freak.”
“Just tell her about Red Fury not caring who we are and she'll be okay with it.” Izuku said and then smiled. “Assuming you don't keep going home looking like that every week.”
“OH! Did she say yes?” I asked, excited.
“Provisionally.” Izuku said and looked over at the HPE teacher.
“I'll take anything we can get.” I said and he nodded. “I was just thinking that this might become one of the best classes we've ever had.”
Izuku smiled. “I actually told her that to help sell her on the idea to not hold back against us, even though she wants to.”
“Ha! Nice one.” I said and leaned back against the building.
“Storm incoming.” Izuku whispered and gave me a wink before he stood up and practically ran away.
“Coward.” I whispered and then turned my head to see a very angry Ming striding towards me.
“Just what the hell were you thinking?” Ming spat at me and put her arms on her hips to glare at me.
“I needed some tenderizing to soften myself up enough to hug you.” I said with a straight face.
Ming glared at me for about ten seconds more before her face changed to sadness and tears came to her eyes. “She hurt you.”
I pat my lap and she didn't hesitate as she sat down across my legs and wrapped her arms around my neck. “It was my first serious fight and I was happy that she didn't hold back. She went at me with both respect and confidence, because she was sure that I could take it and dish it out in equal measure.”
“She hurt you!” Ming repeated and I used my working arm to wipe the tears from her face.
“Yes, and she also stopped when the fight was over and she had won. She didn't keep going, pound my face in, or broke the rest of my limbs. She disabled me and nothing more. I respect her for that and you should, too.”
Ming nodded and cried some more as she held onto me. We stayed there for several minutes and didn't do anything except hold each other.
“Connor.” Ming whispered and wouldn't look at me. “About... your date last night...”
“It started out as one.” I said and she stiffened slightly as she listened intensely. “Partway through, Tougi and I agreed to only be friends and we hung out to have a bite to eat and then went home. Separately. No hug and no kiss. I waved to her from the train. That's it.”
Ming let out the breath she was holding and looked at me. “Connor, I know I told you that...”
I leaned my head forward slightly and kissed her.
“Mmm!” Ming moaned into my mouth and she kissed me back enthusiastically.
I was a bit surprised by that at first, then I took Izuku's revised advice and let things happen as they may. I moved my lips and held her with my good arm, and made out with a girl who was probably now my girlfriend.
