IzuMina Week Day 1- Protection

Haymakers for Two

"No, Izuku! Your left, protect your left!" Mina winced as she saw her green haired boyfriend take another punch to face, the loud thud of the boxing glove slamming into Izuku's jaw echoing throughout the empty gym. Mirio and Nejire were off to the side, cheering on the fight while Tamaki seemed to be keeping score? On the other side of the gym, a duo of second years, a tall black boy and a shorter girl who seemed to be made out of water, were cheering on Izuku's training partner, a rather rough looking second year who looked like the kind of thug her parents taught her to be careful around. Long black hair matted with sweat, piercings throughout his face and chest, and even more scars than her Izuku. It didn't help that he was even more beaten and bloody than Izuku was, since apparently he'd been going through a few training rounds with Mirio before her Izuku even showed up today.

An older student, and she slept on him. It was no big deal, they've had to deal with people older than them ever since the Provisional Licence Exams, and there were some crazy maniacs taking part in that test. An older student, looking like he just walked away from a car crash, fought a bear, lost, and was still proving to be a tough fight? Mina wasn't at the top of her class by any means, but she wasn't stupid.

Izuku, meanwhile, was just barely able to dodge any of the punches coming at him, and any that he managed to block were either too strong and broke his guard, or battered his arms like he was being beaten with a metal pole. Both of his arms were bruised a sickening yellow color, and his eyes and jaw were puffy and swollen. Don't tell his mom, but he thinks he might have swallowed a tooth, too.

"You're too weak boy!" Izuku's opponent ground out through his mouthguard, "Arms up! You keep taking hits like that, and one day you won't be standing back up. Come on, arms up!" He lunged forward again, and luckily, Izuku was able to block the jab with his forearm.

Unluckily, this just caused his own arm to be mashed into his own face, pushing him back and into the ropes of the large boxing ring set up in the gym. Izuku leaned back against the ropes, his breath ragged as he felt sweat dripping from his hair and down his face. This crazy guy in front of him just stood ready, waiting to throw another crazy-strong punch. Izuku's body throbbed with his racing heartbeat as every second it would send a pulse of pain throughout his entire being. The verdette leaned back into the ropes one last time before using them as a slingshot, trying to charge forw-

A haymaker SLAMMED into his chin with enough force to spin him around, twice, before he collapsed to the ground like a puppet with it's string cut. With Mirio's cheering, he managed to push himself onto one knee, but the other student once again was on him in an instant, reeling his boxing glove covered fist back and flooring poor Izuku once again. His head bounced off of the floor of the ring, where he laid there groaning, desperately wishing for the training session to end.

The student stomped his foot against the floor, shaking the whole structure, "Get up, asshole! We're not done yet! Togota didn't ask me to throw away my free day on some pissant who doesn't know how to block!" He dropped down into a prone, pushing his face right into Izuku's ear, "GET! UP! ARMS! UP!"

Mina had finally had enough of this guy's attitude. She has to spend all day every day hearing Bakugou scream at her boyfriend, and she wasn't about to let another egotistical jerk do the same! She reached forward and grabbed into the elastic ropes of the ring, "Hey! He's on the ground already, what's your problem?!"

The second year almost went feral, turning to her with a nasty snarl, biting down on his mouthguard. "Unless you plan on getting in this ring yourself, girl, stay in your lane!" He bellowed, getting back to his feet.

It seemed like the older boy's own friends decided that a line had been crossed. The tall black boy called out, "Yo, Akira, come on man, I think it's a good time to call it a d-"

"One more word out of you and you'll be next." A gloved fist was pointed towards the other boy, who threw his arms up in surrender. The boxer, Akira his name seemed to be, turned to look back at Mina. "Well? What's it gonna be, Pinky?"

"What are you talking about?" She shot back, looking towards Mirio and the other upperclassmen for some help. The blonde seemed to be getting really excited for something, as did Nejire. Tamaki seemed to be trying to disappear into his jacket while avoiding eye contact with anyone. She looked back towards the jerk in front of her, who threw an arm out, gesturing at the boxing ring all dramatically.

"Either you get in the ring to replace your little boy toy, or you piss off and leave me alone!" He yelled back, "I very rarely get a free day, and Togata asked me to do him a favor and train this little moron here." Akira nudged her Izuku with his foot. "In greenie's eyes here, he's gettin' a lesson. In my eyes, I'm relieving some stress. So either you get in here and take the lesson for him, or you get the fuck out of this gym and leave me to my work!"

She felt her face heat up, not ready to have been put on the spot like she was. Aw man, now everyone was looking at her, too. Even Izu is staring at her with those big green eyes of his. Well, normally big, they seemed a bit, y'know, swollen at the moment…

Aw man.

"Fine!" She shot back, walking over to Mirio to get her hands taped up. Nejire seemed to be vibrating with excitement as Tamaki ran to grab her "The safest pair he could find" or whatever he said. It was so hard to hear him sometimes. In the meantime, Mirio jumped into the ring to pull out Izuku, carrying him over his shoulders like a fireman and setting him down on the bleachers. Her green haired hero glanced over towards her and gave her a weak thumbs up, one that she responded to with a confident nod.

Fortunately, Mina didn't have to prepare much other than the boxing tape and the gloves, since she'd still been wearing her training clothes from class earlier that day. Climbing into the ring and getting into a corner, she found a large pair of rough hands clamping down on her shoulders. Mirio was massaging her shoulders, leaning in to whisper to her, "You're gonna want to aim for his right- your left, don't forget! When we were fighting earlier, I managed to catch him right in the liver by accident. It put him down right quick, and it should put him down again if you can catch it."

Before she could say anything else, Nejire suddenly shoved a bright pink mouthguard into, well, her mouth, and Mirio pushed her forward. The dark skinned second year who had spoken up earlier did the same for that Akira guy, sending him away with a slap on the shoulder. Mina had expected him to reach out and tap their gloves together like they did in the movies, but judging by the way he immediately reeled back to start punching, she figured she'd been expecting wrong.

She immediately had to jump away to avoid one helluva swing, her eyes going wide. What was this guy's deal?! She kept her distance from him, trying to find an opening in his guard, but he wouldn't let her move far. She held her gloves in front of her face, her arms tucked in close to her chest. When he had been fighting Izuku, this was how he had stood himself, and she could only assume this is what he meant when he would scream "Arms up!".

His eyes narrowed, and he gave an almost unnoticeable nod towards her. She guessed that meant she did something right? She had to jump backwards when he lunged forward without any warning, barely missing a wide swing aimed for her face. Akira's glove passed so close she could feel the air whipping around in front of her, and she had to quickly duck down as a follow up swing followed right after the first.

The pinkette realized that he was moving really slow with his swings. Sure, his footwork and body movements were all crazy fast, so fast that she couldn't imagine landing a punch on him. But, his arms were way slower compared to the rest of him. It was so weird, was he trying to fake her out, trick her into getting closer? The look on his face didn't seem like that was the case, he looked really annoyed at something? Maybe his fight with Mirio and Izu had worn him down more than he'd thought?

Dangit, what should she do? Uuuuh, come on, what would Izu- yeah. No. Not following that line of thought, her green idiot, lovable as he may be, would just charge ahead and pray for the best in a situation like this.

…

She charged ahead, her body bent and her head aimed forward, praying for the best. She pulled back her arm as she saw Akira's eyes widen a tad, rapidly stepping to his left to avoid her sudden rush. She guessed he figured to use her momentum against her, and he swung with his right arm, a helluva punch that she just barely managed to dodge.

There! She saw her target, a fist-sized bruise, so purple that it was almost black. Mirio hit him with a punch like that "by accident"? She almost felt bad for the guy.

Almost.

Target in sight, and with Akira's large, wide swing leaving his right side open, she planted her foot and swung her arm as hard as she could, her fist making solid contact with the right side of his stomach. She felt something give, like feeling your kneecap move around underneath the skin of your leg, meaning she must have hit his liver directly. She did it! She g-

She found herself on her back, writhing on the ground. She never saw what happened, but she couldn't breathe anymore, gasping for hair as she laid on the ground. She thinks she heard a bell going off, but that's weird, since she didn't see anyone with a bell earlier. Nejire was suddenly beside her, helping her sit up and patting her on the back. She finally managed to get some air back into her lungs, breathing deeply to try and calm herself down.

"You didn't have enough strength behind that punch."

Mina looked over to where that Akira guy was sitting, his friends helping him remove his boxing gloves. His eyes were still angry, but his body language looked way more relaxed than before.

"Huh?" Her head was pounding, and she was a bit lightheaded, so it took her a minute to register what he was saying, "What, uh, wh-what punch?"

He frowned, "That cheap shot to my liver, I know that's what you were aiming for. Not enough strength behind it, even if your punch was on the mark. If you're gonna aim for a low blow, you better make damn sure it works out… else you're just gonna piss them off even more."

Mina took notice of the small trickle of blood that was leaking from the corner of his mouth. Something told her that her punch was more effective than he was letting on, but she just nodded her head. Let him play tough, she figured. Akira nodded back, before jerking his head towards the bleachers. "Check your boyfriend, make sure he's not dead. I'm out of here." He stood up with that, slowly maneuvering himself out of the ring where his friends used their bodies to support him. They almost dragged him out of the gym, the doors closing behind them with a clang that echoed throughout the building.

She felt Mirio give her an overly strong pat on the back, making her back ache more than it already did. He was laughing, talking about "Oh man, he's gonna be as angry as a villain the next time I talk to him. You did way better than I thought you would, Pinky!" He flashed her a blinding smile, one that was somehow outshined by Nejire's smile and flurry of questions. But, Mina wasn't really interested in all that right about now. She craned her neck, trying to see behind her the best she could.

Over at the bleachers, Izu gave her a weak thumbs up, a goofy smile on his face that made her cheeks burn. She raised her arm and sent one back, her heart beginning to race once again. That crazy idiot was gonna get the both of them into some huge trouble one day, she could already feel it, but maybe it won't be so bad as long as she keeps him from getting beaten up too badly.