Midoriya flinched when he saw tears grow in Nensu’s eyes. He was attempting to pull the words’I’m fine’ out of his throat when she finally burst into tears, collapsing against the infirmary bed and soaking its clean white mattress wet with her tears. To the sobbing girl, Midoriya stretched out a slightly trembling, but firm hand. His fingers ran down her soft strands of hair as he gave her a soothing pat on her head.
“At least you stopped her in the end. You won. She was weaker than you.”
He told her. Nensu overcame Loma, what Endeavor left in her mind that bothered her for so long. For him that was what mattered rather than the fact that Loma rose in such an event and almost caused a disastrous scene in front of and to everyone present.
“And I’m fine, trust me.”
He added.

---

Without much time for Nensu to calm down her frightened mind, her turn to fight again had approached. Midoriya said farewell to the girl as she disappeared out the infirmary door to the arena. They had just saved themselves from a big disaster, and the damage was lingering, but the Festival still had to progress. All Midoriya could do was cheer for her. He nervously clenched his fist. There was no screen to look at the Festival in the infirmary, so he had to sit and wait there without a clue of what was going on.

-

Small explosions sprouted from Bakugou's hands. His ever angry eyes were fixed on Nensu, ignoring the half frozen stage with pieces of ice littered all across the arena. Their battle, the final one of the first grade Sports Festival, was seemingly coming to an end after countless clashing between the two. The ash blonde teen raised his hands and pointed them at the girl. One last shot would do it.
"Pretty good job laating this much, half and half."
He spat out.

Nensu softly whimpered and cried as she let out those feelings she had been truly holding back, since the end of their fight. However, to feel a gentle touch upon her head, the teenaged girl gasped, having to open her eyes, and slowly look up to see the green-haired boy tell her that everything became lighter in the end; genuine compassion evident in his matching green eyes. In coming to learn that Loma was weaker than her, she wasn't very certain, considering that her father was still living, breathing, and waiting to speak to her at any time he may wish.
Her eyes softened at his reassuring words, even though they was a slight bit of doubt within them. She was worried about him, yes, and it came to the point where she didn't want him to get involved in her own battles, mainly in fear of what just transpired not too long ago. This made her feel the desire to protect him.

------

This feeling replayed itself, before she clenched her right fist, and begin to run towards Bakugou, once he made that comment. She would take it as a compliment, even though she found it strange to hear such things come from him. "Same for yourself, Katsuki", with agility, she dodged his shot, by sliding underneath him, on her knees. "With that quirk of yours, you just might be able to reach the top", Nensu had managed to see the blonde fight on many occasions and, at this rate, he's Class-1A's fiercest of competitors".

The explosion went off from his hand, sending shock and a wave of heated air against Bakugou's face. Even in the short storm of heat, he kept his eyes open in track of his opponent's movement. He saw a flash of red and silver slide below him. The boy flinched, surprised by the sudden choice of move Nensu had decided to execute. His reflexes reacted with a blast toward the floor, but it missed and hit the cold concrete floor. Bakugou growled and turned around as pieces of concrete hit against his chest and arm. The girl was putting up quite a fight, and it wasn't too bad. Bakugou fired two short bursts of explosions at her.

Nensu was up on her feet, by the time Bakugou began firing once more. It was a close call, but she managed to barely shield herself with her right hand; the effect of the blast knocking her back from where she stood. A quiet thump of pain went through her head, and she could already sense the creeping feeling of Loma, who was laughing inside of her subconscious mind. The thumping faded, as quickly as it came, however.
‘Not this time’, she thought, before she opened her eyes, and faced her final opponent. If he fired again, she would send a swirl of flames upon him, in retaliation, allowing the two to collide and create a cloud of smoke.
Before Bakugou could react, Nensu had already jumped through the cloud, and gave a kick to his chest.
She was going to finish this; she was going to win.
’For Midoriya’, the girl thought. ’I owe it to him’, Nensu panted.

Nensu's kick cut through the cloud of smoke and landed straight in the center of Bakugou's chest. She knocked him off balance, pushing both him and herself to the ground after a short moment of stillness. Bakugou crashed onto the cold concrete ground empty headed. The impact knocked some sense into him, and the teen blasted himself away from under her. He could get that there was something between her and that nerd Midoriya, but he hardly cared about that now. If she was fighting for the first place then he was to fight back with one last move he had in mind. Bakugou positioned his hands below him and sent himself up into the air.
"This is it, try dodging all you want!"
He yelled.

Nensu continued to pant, keeping her eyes pinned on her opponent, as she tried to keep her focus on fighting and win. It was for Midoriya, as payment, after what she unintentionally did to him in the last round. He risked his own wellbeing to help her, and that was what made him truly a hero; in this case, he was also her hero. Hearing Bakugou shout, the girl looked down at her left hand, shortly before clenching it into a fist.
‘I’m going to finish this’, the fire flared, and looking up at the approaching airborne Katsuki, she pulled back her left fist, and waited for the other teen to come towards her.
’I can do this. I can do this. I..I...’, she paused, as she watched him come closer. However, no matter how much fight Nensu put into her body, she began to suddenly tremble on the spot, until her fist fell back to her side, and that her flame had disappeared altogether. ’...c-can’t..’, the next thing she knew, there was an impact, smoke, and black in her vision.

Bakugou spun himself in the air, explosions from his palms fueling his spin. A cloud of smoke and flames formed midair, spiraling as Bakugou gained more momentum over time. Soon the arena was filled with gusts of wind and smoke.
"HOWITZER IMPACT!"
Bakugou sent himself straight forward and with him the immense force he had collected. The last thing he caught in his fiery eyes before the collision was, out of his expectations, Nensu extinguishing her flames.

The next few seconds were dead silence for the crowd after a gigantic explosion that seemed to have swept the arena, wrecking it into a even worse giant mess. The cloud of smoke and dust cleared soon, revealing Nensu lying in the middle of the waste and Bakugou towering before her.
"Why didn't you fight back?!"
He said.
"WHY FID YOU STOP?!"
He stumbled down and grabbed her by the scruff, shaking her roughly back and forth.
"Get up. GET UP! THIS IS NOT HOW I WANTED TO GET THE FIRST PLACE! THSI FIGHT'S Not-"
A pink aura filled the arena and Bakugou fell down asleep. Midnight approached the two with a small section of her tights ripped off and directed the robots to escort the two.
"...by the rules, Bakugou wins, and gets the first place!"
She announced.
"...I guess the events will be delayed until he gets back up..."
The hero muttered under her breath.

Her vision indeed went black, and the last thing she could recall was a numbing pain going through her body. Nensu didn’t register what was going on around her, even when Katsuki started shaking her. There was a lingering feeling that what she just did, resulted in her loss of the final match. No one could even understand on why she yielded, even though she had a chance to defend herself.
When her vision came too, she was looking at the ceiling of the infirmary. She faintly grunted and whimpered in pain. Bakugou could definitely deliver a crushing impact upon his opponents, making the assumption all the more clear for others to notice. Nensu tried to sit up, but a jolt of pain sparked in her chest.
’Dammit, Katsuki. You carry guts, that’s for sure’, she mentally cursed.

"She's up."
A voice said as Nensu whimpered. She was lying in an infirmary bed with the curtain set around the three sides of her bed, the side of her head against the wall. From the corner of her eyes, a part of the curtain moved. A bush of green hair popped out from behind the curtain and stared at her worriedly. Midoriya's right hand, holding the curtain open, had bandage rolled around the fingers. Their fight had cost him some fingers. The boy looked down at Nensu worriedly, his other hand stretched out instinctively to help to the sound of her in pain. Some seconds after Nensu had tried and failed to sit up, a pair of lazy blue eyes popped up over Midoriya's head and stared down at Nensu. Hiems looked at her for the next few seconds and slowly retreated back away behind the curtain.
"You should relax."
He said.

"I heard how you did at the final round."
Midoriya said. He tried to force a smile on his face.
"You did well."

Nensu turned her eyes, having to manage on catching Midoriya in her field of vision; a worried glint in his eyes, shortly before feeling a hand. The green-haired teen was still on the verge of recovering, judging by the looks of the bandages around the fingers of his right hand. “Yeah”, she said in a whisper, in response to the concern in his voice.
However, she took the last-gutted attempt to sit up, once more. This time, a loud groan of pain came, by the time she had managed to pull herself up into a sitting position. Hearing his comment, however, the girl looked down at her lap, at her hands, and then to the side. “I guess so. That was probably the hardest part of the tournament, aside from what happened...b-before that”, she lightly trembled at the thought.
“I let Bakugou have it, Midoriya. I let him deliver the final blow, whether if he liked it or not. I yielded, because I was scared. After what happened to you, I felt that no one else deserved to feel the flame. It was my choice”, she explained, although there was a bit of guilt in her voice.

"He's pretty hard to fight when it's just a ball of constant explosions flying around everywhere."
Hiems said as he poked his head in again. In his hand was a handful of candies.
"Candy?"

Midoriya took a candy with a green wrapper and turned to Nensu. Even after that Loma still came to her concern. Maybe it was something about himself that gave her the motivation to fight against Loma? As the question popped in his head he felt himself blush. Shaking his head left and right he willed the thought away.
"It's okay."
The boy said.
"You don't have to be the first place. I'm just glad you're alright."

Nensu continued to look down into her lap, as she was deeply troubled by today’s experiences. “Thanks”, she quietly replied back to him. ’The old man had some nerve to speak at a bad time. Put one of my only friends in the danger of my other-half?’, she thought to herself, as she clenched one of her hands in her lap.
The girl was already unforgiving for what he did to her family, but then, this kind of scenario only furthered her coldness and displeasure towards him. She wasn’t going to take something like this lightly, although it kind of surprised her that such a strong feeling would develop because of Midoriya.

Midoriya kept his worried eyes on Nensu, but had no idea what to say to her anymore. Especially when she went silent, he had no idea what she was thinking about. But he still wanted to say something for her- he had no idea, but he felt the urge to comfort her. After a series of such events she deserved a good rest, with a calm mind and calm body. But how could he help her other than by talking to her?
".."
Was it Endeavor she was thinking about? How he shouted in the middle of their fight? How he woke up Loma? Or the fights she had wth him and Bakugou? He could only guess between the two.

"If you need to take a rest, I can tell the teachers so you don't have to walk out there for the ending ceremony."
Hiems said, breaking the silence Midoriya was keeping.
"They delayed it a bit for you to heal up, but could just do it with you resting in the infirmary if you're not feeling like it."

Nensu looked at her lap, even as she heard the two other students speak up, and inform her on the status of the awards ceremony. In all honesty, she was trying to figure out whether or not if she should attend. She felt as if she needed some distance, but then, in all honesty, she felt that Midoriya would want to help her overcome the biggest obstacle of her life, no matter how dangerous. He already fought Loma, and her gut told her that he would do it again. As a plus, she kind of wanted him to be there with her.
“I’ll go, but then I feel like I also need Midoriya to go with me”, it was kind of an odd and awkward thing to say, but she felt like she needed the green-haired teen to be with her. She knew about the boundaries, in regards to the other teen, but she felt like she would also need his encouragement, like how he was, during their fight.

Hiems, seated behind the curtain from Nensu's point of view, felt lucky he chose to stay that way. His face, out of many rare occasions, had managed to express something else than an inhuman amount of laziness he had inside. He understood there was a little something between the two, but now that was a little bit odd request to make. Hopefully Endeavor won't go raging flames again, and even if he did the cheering crowd would easily overpower the shouting voice of one man. His eyes moved to Midoriya to see his reaction. The green haired boy showed no much reaction except scratching his head.
"I... that's an unexpected request."
Midoriya said.

"It's not something they'd turn down."
Recovery Girl said, joining the conversation on her spinning chair. She turned herself from the desk to face Nensu and Midoriya.
"But you're just advertising that you two have a little.. 'spark' going on between yourselves."
Midoriya could do nothing but laugh awkwardly. He had nothing against it. It wasn't that bad, standing at the awards even if he didn't get any of the top 3 ranks. The only thing he was concerned about was that he'd be standing next to Nensu the whole time. He doubted he could keep himself calm after all that happening. Deep down he wanted Nensu to keep herself in the infirmary, but if she wanted to go out then he wasn't stopping her.

Nensu looked up when she heard Midoriya’s response, and she couldn’t agree more that it would be said at such an odd time. But then, she felt like she needed the assist, both mentally and physically, even if her father was present. It was only an offer, so she wasn’t going to pressure him, if he didn’t want to.
“It’s okay if you say ‘no’. You don’t have to”, she said, but deep down, the girl felt the need for his presence, just to stay calm. When she heard Reocvery Girl, though, it did surprise her and make her blush a little bit.
’Whoa! Is everybody assuming that about us?’, she mentally thought.

Midoriya shook his head. Though the image of them standing side by side already made him nervous, he was to support her as far as Nensu herself was willing to go.
"No, I'm fine. I'll be there for you if you need me."
The boy said.

"I'll go check on the teachers then."
Hiems said. He pulled himself up from the chair and walked out of the infirmary, leaving the two and Recovery Girl the only ones left inside the small room. Midoriya felt an awkward silence linger in his mind as he tried to figure out what he could say to keep a bright conversation going. His eyes settled on Nensu as his mind debated over the right thing to say. But before the boy could say anything Recovery Girl commented first.
"Things became quite obvious the moment you picked him up and walked out the arena. Midnight was standing there admiring it and all."
Midoriya's face lit up bright red, reminded of the fact that they were watched for that whole time Nensu carried him away.
"W...we'll be fine, I hope..."
He squealed.

The blush lingered upon Nensu’s face, and the discussion only made her nearly cover her face with the pillow that was behind her. She hadn’t planned nor really thought of going that far with Midoriya; if not, with anyone. As much as she found the very thought to be rather embarrassing and, as much as she knew on the concept of dating, she was an amateur, while they’re on the subject. She wouldn’t even know where to start.
As long as the girl had known the other teen, she knew about his own limitations, therefore she didn’t quite want to make things awkward between them, hoping to maintain the friendship she had with him. However, at the same time, she was still oblivious on the crush that he had developed for her.
Her face brightened in red, at the same time that Midoriya did.
’Does that makes us both on the front page? I didn’t really think of being seen like that’.

It took a few minutes for Nensu to gather her bearings, putting her uniform and boots back on, before they were on their way back to the arena. She had to admit that her ribs ached a little, but she managed to hold onto as much strength as she could. Hope was what she could onto, at the moment, and the passing of her father didn’t exactly help. It practically didn’t help her entire being, as she froze on the spot, and feel the uprise of the same rage she had for him, not too long ago.

Midoriya felt himself stiffen as he saw the flaming beard enter his sights. He didn't even need to turn at Nensu to see that his companion was feeling a similar emotion- he could feel it standing right next to her. In front of the two stood a man, the second highest hero in whole Japan, the source of Nensu's second personality. Also known as Endeavor. Midoriya's gaze fixed on the man, not daring to stand back. If Nensu fought back against Loma, he was going to make sure she could stand proud, and walk past Endeavor without any problems.
"...hello."
He said.
"Your quirk, it was similar to the power of All Might's."
The man said dryly.

What could go wrong? It was the last question Hiems had to ask to his careless mind when he was on his way back to the infirmary after telling the teachers. The answer was a shortly considered yes. If it helped deal with the situation then there was no reason not to do it. But now they had another matter to deal with. The boy slowly backed away behind the wall as he saw the sight of a man with his face on fire stand before the two of his classmates, and peeked from the corner as he observed the situation. 'This could go wrong.' There was the answer.