Camellya_Addams
patreon
Izumi Miyamura: Xover - Chapter 52
🕑 Added 2025-01-25 01:12:17 +0000 UTCAuthor's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Vongrak.
Taylor and Bakugo stood in the ring facing each other as the sky began to darken… darken… there shouldn't be any clouds.
I looked up and paled slightly.
"Taylor took a break during recreational events, right? " I asked despite already knowing the answer.
"…Yeah"
"And by any chance... do you know if she went for a very long walk?" I asked fearfully.
"That… that's what it would seem."
If people ask when Taylor brought insects to the fight, the answer is Yes.
The sky was covered in insects. Completely covered, all that could be seen above the stadium were Taylor's insects. At first it looked like a huge black cloud due to the density of the insects Taylor had gathered.
That amount of bugs was far more than she should have in her normal effective area, so she should have brought all the bugs she could find during the break between the knight competition and the duels and had kept them hidden until now.
"NN-DON'T WORRY MY LISTENERS! ALL THE INSECTS ARE UNDER THE CONTROL OF STUDENT HEBERT! THIS IS ANOTHER LEVEL I TELL YOU!! AS EXPECTED FROM A S RANK, THEY WORK AT ANOTHER LEVEL! MILLIONS! BILLIONS OF INSECTS UNDER YOUR TOTAL CONTROL."
Taylor was going to generate a lot of insect phobia. Except for Bakugo who had a determined expression on her face, barely fazed by the apocalyptic swarm above her.
"Taylor... does Taylor have any limits?" Azula asked in surprise. I grimaced.
"I don't think so, she’s never needed many insects at once, it's the first time I've seen a swarm of that size and Taylor doesn't seem pressured by controlling so many at the same time." I said as I looked at Taylor, she really did seem as fresh as a daisy, not a hint of stress was noticeable in her expressions, let alone in her aura. Taylor could suppress her expressions, but definitely not her aura so it would really feel like Taylor was struggling to control that many insects.
"OK GUYS, LET'S STOP DELAYING THIS EPIC SHOWDOWN! START!!"
"DIE!!" Bakugo exclaimed loudly, a pair of explosions arose behind Bakugo that propelled her towards Taylor, at the same time, the swarm fell like the fury of a god, they all stuck together and fell like a huge black pillar and intercepted Bakugo, who made the insects explode in front of her.
That didn't stop the massive amount of bugs from crashing into her. Bakugo started exploding everything around her trying to get the bugs off of her, but for every thousand bugs she exploded, another tens of thousands replaced them instantly. Bakugo was being overwhelmed with tremendous ease.
Bakugo's quirk only worked on her arms, specifically from her palms. And as powerful as the explosions were, she had a limit, a limit that Taylor could easily break through as she continued to throw bugs in Bakugo’s direction. The density of the bugs never seemed to decrease, they kept coming and-oh.
More insects began to enter the stadium, this time through the corridors, emerging like a wave of insects. Not all of the insects flew, so it would clearly take them longer to crawl to the ring, but now the density had doubled.
Bakugo was trying her best, she really, really was trying. Her explosions were getting louder, wider, deadlier. But it was just so many, many bugs. Within a few seconds she almost looked like she was swimming in bugs. It looked like… the villain Sludge that had trapped Bakugo earlier in the series.
Bakugo was able to momentarily free herself from the insects on top of her and rose into the sky and began to spin while using her explosions to propel herself, her target was Taylor who had been standing until now in a corner of the Ring, away from Bakugo's explosions. Good idea on Bakugo's part, she finishes off Taylor and no more insects.
"HOWITZER IMPACT!" The resulting explosion from her ultimate move was the largest yet, clearing most of the ring of the bugs that were there, but Taylor was nowhere to be found. Bakugo landed in the ring and quickly scanned the entire area, but all she saw were bugs everywhere that began to crawl into the ring once again, until a shadow approached behind her.
Bakugo's reaction was immediate, she turned around forcefully and blew up her target, only to see a group of insects destroyed. Taylor appeared behind her, Bakugo turned around once more only to receive the tip of Shusui's hilt in the solar plexus leaving her breathless as all the air in her lungs was forcefully removed. Taylor turned where she was and kicked Bakugo out of the ring.
Bakugo reacted quickly and stopped her momentum in mid-air, only to be crushed by a pillar made of insects, due to the amount of them, the impact must have felt like a vehicle crashing into her. Once she hit the ground once more, she was accosted by hundreds of thousands of insects again.
"Taylor is scary," Ruby muttered in a slightly scared voice. "If I were Bakugo I would have given up a long time ago, the thought of so many insects on top of me just-" she shuddered violently.
Yeah, I was really feeling bad for Bakugo. She was really trying her best , she had no concept of holding back to begin with, but right now she was pushing her quirk to its literal limit, but…
"Bakugo is reaching her limit." I said simply, Azula narrowed her eyes and looked at Bakugo.
"I'm not seeing it." Azula looked more carefully, trusting my words completely, and finally noticed what I was saying. "Her explosions are more careless." She said after a while.
"Wait what? How can they be careless if she is just blowing up everything around them?" Ruby asked, confused. I wrinkled my nose.
"She's not talking about her target, but her arms." I said simply, Ruby looked at Bakugo. After a few seconds her eyes opened.
"I see it!" Ruby finally exclaimed, I nodded.
The fight hadn't been going on for long since it started. But Bakugo has been using her explosions at their maximum output level, but since Taylor's bugs don't seem to have an end, she was forced to keep using it at full power all the time to try and break free from the bugs.
Not only that, the obstacle course, the human cavalry war, her duel against Uraraka, it had all been building up despite the breaks in between and it was finally starting to take its toll on her.
Her arms were finally feeling their limit.
Her hands were shaking slightly as were her shoulders and she couldn't keep her arms steady as she continued to throw out her explosions, in fact her hands were starting to feel the recoil and were being thrown back with each strong explosion, she was getting slower.
The most incredible thing was that Bakugo wasn't slowing down, her explosions were still just as strong or stronger than they were at the beginning of the fight. She had no concept of self-preservation and the idea of giving up never seemed to cross her mind.
To my surprise, Bakugo exploded a nearby wave of insects, placed her palms on the ring, before making it explode the ground creating a strong shockwave that pushed all the insects around her giving her a breather that she really needed. Even so, she didn't stop and she shot out again in the direction of Taylor who had been revealed from her hiding place within the insects.
"Die, die, die, die already!!" Bakugo's scream filled the stadium as she spun once more, another Howitzer Impact, this time Taylor made no effort to dodge it, but to my surprise, while she still didn't unsheathe Shusui, I saw the beginnings of a sword form.
Water Breathing: Seventh Form: Drop Ripple Thrust, Taylor moved quickly and performed a forward thrust with Shusui. Bakugo's arms weren't responding properly, it took a moment for the explosion to start, enough for Taylor, using the sheathed Shusui, to hit Bakugo's arm and lift her into the sky. Then the explosion happened.
It was the strongest one yet, I could feel my entire skeleton vibrating. But sadly it was of no use, the explosion launched into the air, towards absolutely no target. Bakugo gritted her teeth as she tried to hit Taylor once again, but that explosion seemed to take everything she had so she couldn't react this time when Taylor kicked her body out of the ring.
Bakugo tried to stabilize herself in the air, but the weak explosions she was able to generate did not slow her fall quickly enough, causing her to finally fall out of the ring.
Victory for Taylor.
"Student Bakugo is out of the ring, therefore, Hebert wins!!" As soon as Midnight finished her announcement, the crowd exploded into excited cheers.
"AMAZING!!!!!! THAT WAS AMAZING GUYS!!! IT WAS LIKE SOMETHING OUT OF A MOVIE!!! PARTICIPANT BAKUGO DID EVERYTHING SHE COULD, BUT COULD NOT HOLD AGAINST HEBERT'S ENDLESS SWARM!!!" As Present Mic finished her tale, Taylor had slowly herded all of the remaining insects, of which there were still many, out of the stadium, much to the relief of much of the audience.
Before long, all that was left were the charred remains of hundreds of thousands of insects on the ground. Taylor grimaced as she approached Midnight and began to speak.
"What's going on?" Ruby asked.
"She's asking if they need help cleaning up the dead bugs." I said, having simply listened to the conversation. I could see Midnight smiling gratefully at her, Taylor brought a portion of her bugs which either began to devour the remains, or took them out of the Ring. "Alright, I have to go get ready, actually, I should have done so a few minutes ago, but I wanted to see Taylor fight, say hello to her for me." I kissed them both goodbye and went to the waiting room.
My next match was against Todoroki, or quite possibly Todoroki having an existential crisis, so it's quite possible that the fight would end up being ridiculously easy.
It was a shame, I really wanted to face a full-powered Todoroki.
"You, boy." I stopped at the voice calling me, looked over my shoulder and saw her.
Endeavor.
Of course it had to be Endeavor.
I sighed tiredly as I turned around to face her.
Let's see what the winner of the Worst Mother of the Year award has to say. For 20 consecutive years.
