The stadium rocked with a powerful explosion followed by a massive wave of applause from the crowd. This year had a record turnout, more people wanted to see the festival live than ever before. And it was hardly difficult to understand why. This would be Class 1-A's final tournament, the last time they got to show off their talents before they entered the pro-hero world.
In the last three years, the students of UA had made quite the name for themselves. Both classes 1-A and 1-B had a strong presence in the public eye after the League of Villains and other criminals began heavily targeting the school. They'd had to mature and deal with a literal onslaught of obstacles that would have toppled any other class. No one could have ever predicted what the students of UA had gone through.
Now that the majority of Tomura Shigaraki's plans had been dealt with, there was a deeply cherished moment of peace to get things back to as normal as they could be. Though Deku had long given up the idea of anything resembling a normal life. He'd come to terms with that. As the future symbol of peace, there wouldn't be a moment that he could have to himself for a long time.
Deku readjusted his arm braces for the millionth time, shifting the fabric and metal around till it was comfortable even though he knew he would adjust it again in a few moments. He didn't want to think about why he was doing it. What it meant that he couldn't keep his hands from moving and his foot from tapping. He'd faced down more super villains than he could count and defeated every single one of them. Well, besides the few that had escaped. Yet now he felt that familiar nervous anticipation from his earliest fights.
Most third years though of their last Sports Festival as a sort of flashy sendoff for the program, nothing more than a last little flare before starting their already determined careers outside the school. Class 1-A had adopted a different mentality.
Though almost of them already had an agency lined up for after graduation, every member of Class 1-A was riled up for their last big competition. Maybe it was the sense of competition that had been driven into all of them over the years, maybe it was a result of their encounters with villains and the threats of the real world, or maybe everyone was just a bit too excited to finally unleash their newest moves.
At least it couldn't be as bad as last year's festival. In a mad drive for power and influence in their deciding year, the class had split along a few different lines. Izuku had led one camp and Bakugo the other, each absolutely driven to get as far as possible before a few tense allegiances were broken. The result was a hostile environment with just a few neutral parties to try and mitigate the damage. Izuku had honestly believed he'd lost a few good friends over some of the bigger issues.
In the very last moments of that year's second round, Tokoyami tricked everyone with a massive display of power; bringing both teams Bakugo and Todoroki to their knees in the jousting competition. His control over Dark Shadow had grown exponentially with the care and attention that had been paid to his unique situation. Along with a creative Night Ray that Momo had learned to create, his team easily took the round. Izuku's team had just barely managed to move on by keeping their heads down and not acting like a major threat.
In the finals Tokoyami hadn't managed to account for the lack of Momo's help in keeping his abilities at full power. Though he proved a powerful adversary none the less, Kaminari eventually defeated him. Izuku ultimately took the championship round from Iida with a battle that left both students with a newfound respect for each other. While bringing home the first-place medal, Izuku had never felt prouder but also ashamed of what everyone in his class had done just for a chance at victory. It took time and hardship, but eventually everyone agreed to put aside their grudges and never to resort to drawing battle lines between themselves again.
Bakugo was surprisingly quite amiable about his defeat, admiring Tokoyami's power while also berating him for being a fool and losing to that dipshit Kaminari. He was still just as hotheaded and abrasive with his fellow classmates, but didn't quite come to blows as often. Instead he completely ignored most of them for about three weeks.
This year was very different. While everyone was pumped up and boasting about their power, no one was picking sides or drawing up excessively complex schemes. The camaraderie that had permeated the class in their early days had returned, bringing a welcome air of intense friendly competition.
Deku looked up at the waiting room ceiling as the stadium shook again with a powerful blast. Bakugo was up against Monoma from Class 1-B, who had quickly copied his opponents quirk but didn't have nearly the same mastery of it as Lord Explosion Murder. It would be over soon and Bakugo would come out on top, that much Deku was sure of.
The final round this year was a simple one-on-one battle with a single major twist. Last year the stadium had been augmented with moving terrain and floating platforms. This twist however, was something that a lot more people were having trouble coping with.
The crowd above cheered one last time and Mr. Aizawa announced Bakugo as the winner. Only a few moments before Deku would have to walk out there and face the trial ahead. It's not that he was scared of his opponent, quite the opposite. She was a good friend and more than a capable hero, but something about this felt very final. It was only the first bracket of the final round, but this might be the last real fight he'd ever have with her. Sure, they could spar later and maybe even go all out on one of the training grounds, but this was real. It meant much more than any practice.
Steeling his nerves, Deku adjusted his arm braces for the last time and stepped out the door. Third years were allowed to wear their costumes and bring whatever gear they wanted into the arena as a sort of test run of the public's reaction to their hero looks. Not to mention it improved some people's combat capabilities immensely to have the specialized gear that they had become so accustomed to over the years.
Deku's suit had been trimmed down and fit much better than his original version, though it still retained many common design elements. He'd forgone the full mask in favor of a loose hood that he never seemed to leave up anyway. The mouth guard had been considerably reduced and was rarely ever locked in place now, it was there more for the aesthetic. The rest of the suit was still a deep green with white highlights, tuned and slimmed to match Deku's form. Though still not quite the skin-tight spandex that All Might had favored.
He'd tried a small cape for a while, but just couldn't come around to seeing the benefits outweighing the drawbacks. He was spinning too often for his aerial kicks and the fabric kept getting tangled where he didn't want it. The last straw had been when Minetta had stuck himself to it and hitched a ride around the battlefield. Sure, the aesthetic looked very heroic, but it just wasn't all that practical.
Walking out into the stadium, Deku could hear the crowd go wild and was momentarily dazed by the noise and light. It would take some practice if he was ever going to be a natural at big events like this. It still felt like if he made one wrong move everyone would call him out for it.
Instead, he put on a big smile and waved his arms above his head, spinning around to see the entire stadium packed with people. It was an act, but it worked for now. Present Mic was blabbering on about the two competitors but Deku didn't pay much attention.
When he made it up to the final step of the battlefield, he shot a glance towards his opponent. She was smiling and waving just like he was, but she was much more natural at it. Even through her visor, her face radiated positive energy. Like nothing in the world could ever take her down.
Shaking himself back into the moment, Deku gave one last fist pump into the air as the crowd continued to go wild. Then Present Mic blarred through the speakers announcing the contestants and their fight. Not like anyone needed the information, most everyone in Japan knew who they were. Sometimes it was still surreal for young kids to run up to Deku and ask for his signature, treating him like a revered pro even though he didn't even have his full license yet.
"Contestants! Are you ready to face the dark?!" Present Mic hollered through the speakers. This year's twist came in the form of a second-year student from Shiketsu Academy. Standing next to Cementoss, she had used her quirk on every one of the previous contestants before they fought. As far as Deku could tell, the effects lasted between two and a half to three minutes and were nearly debilitating to the unprepared.
Both contestants nodded toward the girl and then her eyes lit up with a bright white light. The last thing Deku saw before his vision fully faded was the trademark pink and black jumpsuit of his opponent. The blindness was just as disorienting as he assumed it would be, total lack of vision and a minor pain in his head.
The crowd suddenly became very quiet, they'd been asked to do so at the start of the round so that the heroes could rely on their sense of hearing to locate their opponents. But there was no guarantee that some idiot wouldn't start shouting at the worst possible moment just to create confusion for fun. It had happened during Jrio and Todoroki's fight.
After giving both heroes a moment to adjust, Present Mic hollered probably louder than necessary; "Deku versus Uravity! Begiiiiiiin!"
Deku swung his arms in two quick arcs in front of him, propelling the air forward and covering most of the field with a strong gust. If she was floating, that should push her off balance. Normally he would charge in at full speed and try to land an early blow, but with so little information on his opponents' location and tactics it wasn't safe.
Instead he took a few careful steps forward, moving with caution and keenly aware of how loud his footsteps were. She was likely floating just enough to lighten her footfalls, clever. He took another swing with both his arms and sent out another blast of air across the field. This prompted an excited murmur from the crowd, likely reacting to what was going on with his opponent. Even this little bit of information was helpful to know at least he knew he'd done something.
Taking a more defensive stance, Deku listened closely to his surroundings. If she wanted to fight she would have to get in close, try and float him away. He still had no idea exactly what she was doing, but for now he was content to wait for her to go on the offensive.
He slowly crept one tiny step at a time to the center of the field and sent out a couple more waves of air. She had to have pinpointed his location by now, not much use trying to hide now.
"I thought you wanted a real fight Uravity, this is a game of hide and seek." Deku hadn't gotten all that good at sounding threatening either, another skill he needed to work on. Then he sensed it, a slight shift in the air behind him. Without even thinking he pushed off with his legs and leapt forward. The superhuman force propelled him nearly to the edge of the field but he skidded to a stop just short of the line. He'd internalized the size and shape of the field and done more than a few practice-jumps to know exactly where he was at any moment for this exact reason. He would need the space to escape.
Quickly Deku took another shot at sweeping his arms with the force of a small hurricane at where he'd last sensed her. Even over the rush of air, he could hear the crowd erupt with concern. Another blast quickly followed but this one didn't elicit any reaction from the stands. What was she doing?
"You're pretty good at this. What was your plan, to sneak around? Keep away and use the darkness to your advantage?" Deku was hoping to try and get a response, but she wasn't falling for that. Instead he concentrated closely and thought he felt something behind him. He quickly swept around and threw a punch in that direction, causing a cone of wind to jet in that direction. No reaction from the crowd.
"This is going nowhere. Are we going to fight or… augh!" Deku had lowed his defensive stance, wanting to focus on getting his opponents attention. She wasn't so easily distracted. The heel of one of her boots had smashed into his stomach.
Deku doubled over and heaved. His suit had very little padding, more suited for mobility than tanking hits. One of his arms lashed out and sent a shockwave of air forward in a last-ditch defense to keep his opponent away. It worked, he still had his gravity to anchor him to the field. He took a moment to get his legs under himself again, but it was clear that the fight was just getting started.
It was also clear that Deku needed a new plan. His tactic of destabilizing his opponent with air blasts wasn't working. She was neutralizing it somehow, likely having predicted his tactics before the match even started. Deku had intentionally tried not to over analyze his opponents' possible tactics too much beforehand, she was clever enough to out maneuver him no matter how much he planned for it. The air blasts had been his first option, but certainly not his only one.
With a resounding shout, Deku raised his right foot and slammed it back down onto the battlefield with enough force to send a shockwave rippling through the concrete. That got the crowd excited about something. Though he still couldn't see, Deku knew that most of the terrain should be destroyed and his opponent would be floating to have avoided his attack. Gathering a bit of his power, he rotated his torso to have his arms make a circle of wind that covered the field. No reaction from the crowd. What was she doing?!
Just then Deku felt a pinprick in the back of his head. A tiny white light appeared in his vision and slowly expanded until he could barely make out a blurry and distorted version of his surroundings. Todoroki had described this to him in between rounds, his vision would slowly focus and stabilize but it was really disorienting after having gotten used to the blindness.
Deku did a slow turn, searching the fuzzy and swaying landscape for any sign of his opponents brightly colored suit. If his vision had returned, hers likely had as well. He was still very disoriented however, and his balance was thrown off by the wavy input his eyes were sending to his brain. Stumbling over his own feet, he finished a full rotation and hadn't spotted her. The ground was broken and jagged but not nearly enough for her to be hiding anywhere.
Suddenly a weight dropped onto Deku's shoulders. Before he could even react, he felt the familiar loss of weight that came from her quirk. She had used it on him so many times over the years that it was almost instinctual to let it float him away. It was a split second before he even realized what had happened, she had floated directly above him and dropped down with perfect precision. She had certainly gotten much better at controlling her quick without letting on to anyone else about it. What else had she managed to do in the last few weeks of training?
In a flash of instinct, Deku reached up and grabbed her right upper arm, using it to pull her off of him and fling her away. The toss wasn't exactly elegant, but it worked. He couldn't see where she went, but he had a bigger problem at the moment. He began to float upward and quickly lost touch with the ground. Fortunately, he *had* planned for this.
A flick of his wrist sent a blast of air upward to propel himself back to the ground just long enough to slam the fingers of his left hand into the ground to form a sort of handhold. This allowed him to pull himself back down and crouch on the ground where he was now stuck.
"That was a clever plan, you got me there. But it won't happen again." This time he could see her. Still blurry, but clearer than a moment ago, he focused on the black and pink outline of her suit on the other side of the field.
"It only needed to work once." Uravity steadied herself and took a fighting stance. "Now I've got you right where I want you, Deku,"
He couldn't see her face well enough, but he could hear the determination and strength in her voice. This was the Uravity he'd come to know and… admire. She was so incredibly driven that maybe even Bakugo could learn a thing or two from her attitude. Not to mention the lengths to which she had gone to improve her combat prowess for the tournament. In her own words, 'being a rescue hero and being a top-class fighter aren't exclusive'.
Deku snapped back to reality, where he was actually in a bit of a terrible predicament. Letting go of his grip on the broken concrete would cause him to start floating again and he couldn't keep propelling himself back to the ground forever. Essentially, he was trapped. This was going to end soon, one way or another.
Uravity kept her distance and circled her opponent with some caution. Deku might be immobilized for the moment, but that didn't mean he no longer posed a threat. Even from this distance he could launch another blast of air to knock her away.
Deku had gone through a lot of plans for this moment just in case it came down to it. Even his best attempts at strategizing a win from this situation just felt like prolonging his defeat. But he would never give anyone the chance to say they defeated him without a real fight. Pulling back his free arm, Deku threw a punch at Uravity that created just enough wind force to knock her away without ripping him free of his improvised handhold.
When the gust finally cleared, Deku could hardly believe what he was seeing. Certainly, a lot of people had been keeping their newest advancements and tricks secret to use in the tournament, but this was something else entirely. Uravity was crouched down on one knee with one arm guarding her face while the other was pressed to the shattered concrete. She'd been right in the middle of the air blast, where the force should have sent her flying backwards. There's no way she could have kept her ground unless…
"I told you Deku, there's still a lot about me you don't know." Uravity stood and rolled her shoulders. "Like… THIS!" She threw her arms up and suddenly Deku wasn't just floating but being forcefully pulled up into the sky. His handhold broke with a harsh snap and he was flying at an accelerating speed up away from the battlefield.
In a panic, he threw both of his arms back and tried to counteract the upward momentum. Twisting over, Deku wildly threw punch after punch up into the sky, each one propelling him just a bit further back down, but not quite enough to get back to the ground. He couldn't keep this up forever and even now he was losing ground to his opponents' power, drifting further and further up with each second. It wouldn't take more than a few moments for him to be out of bounds.
Then the upward pull stopped and Deku's last punch shot him back to the ground. He quickly scanned his surroundings until he saw Uravity just a short distance away. She was out of breath and clutching her left shoulder, apparently there was a limit to how much she could use her new trick. In fact, Deku didn't seem to be floating at all anymore, that exertion probably made her release her quirk.
Unfortunately, Deku was capping out too. He still couldn't access one hundred percent of the nearly limitless power well that was One for All. All Might's best estimate was that he was at about thirty-five percent of his potential, forty if he pushed himself. He couldn't summon it all at once and even if he could, that much would still tear him apart. Instead, he sufficed with a measly ten percent constant output and only used more for finishing attacks.
This also meant that he had a sort of 'cap' on his daily power usage. Too much more and it would start to overload his body. He'd never come close to reaching it until recently when certain events had made him intimately aware of exactly where it was. And he'd been using his quirk extensively all day, at every event in the sports festival and even stupidly showing off for a crowd during the break. If he wanted to have any hope of facing Bakugo or Todoroki in the upcoming brackets, he needed to start conserving some of his power.
Deku pulled himself to his feet with heavy breaths. "That was really incredible, Uraraka. I knew you'd been working on enhancing your quirk, but that kind of control is really powerful. You nearly got me."
Ochaco didn't respond for a moment. Her head was turned just so the glare from her helmet obscured her face. Her voice was much quieter and less confident than it had been. "I thought it would work. But I couldn't hold it long enough, I'm too weak for a real fight."
This shocked Deku more than anything. She had been so confident these past few weeks, positively radiating an air of victory everywhere she went. To see her crumble like this after just one failed attempt, it was… well it was very out of character.
"No, you're not! Uraraka don't say that! What about all the work you've put in to learning how to fight? What about everything you've done to make it this far? You can stand up to everyone in this tournament and win! Even me!" For just a moment Deku forgot all about the fight.
"No, you've always been more powerful than me, Deku. Stronger, braver, smarter. Even All Might saw that from early on. It was always going to be you who won this." Uraraka took a few steps and close the distance between them. Her face was still obscured.
"That's not true at all, I've always thought you were amazing! You shouldn't think of yourself as any less than you really are! A true hero!" In the back of his mind Deku could sense that she was getting very close, and maybe if he hadn't been so distracted he would have seen it.
"Really? You think that I'm a true hero?" Uraraka was now within arms reach of her opponent. The crowd was obviously quite puzzled at this turn of events. The conversation between the two students was far too quiet for anyone to hear at this point.
"Yes, I've… I've always admired your attitude and how you can handle situations. Not to mention how versatile your quirk is. There's always been something about you…" Deku had let his guard down. Maybe if it had been anyone else but her… he would have stood a chance.
"I've felt the same about you, Izuku." As a look of utter shock and embarrassment crossed the future symbol of peace's face, Uraraka reached out and laid a hand on his cheek. "But…"
She met his gaze with eyes filled with a burning intensity. "I'm going to win." Activating her quirk on both of them simultaneously, Uraraka pulled both of her legs up and then drove her heels into Deku's midsection. Taken completely off guard, Deku went flying backwards and then suddenly felt himself again being pulled upward at an alarming speed.
No more than three seconds later he was out of bounds. Mr. Aizawa called the match and Uraraka released her quirk. Deku came hurtling back down to the ground but was able to cushion his fall with a well-timed smash. He knelt on the broken ground and considered what had just happened.
There was the obvious implication that he had lost the match and that Uraraka had outwitted him. But there was a lot to process about how exactly she had done it. Izuku stole a glance at his friend as she celebrated her victory. She was ecstatic, shouting and throwing her arms in the air. Even going so far as to make herself weightless and do a few flips above the destroyed battlefield, much to the delight of the crowd.
Izuku didn't care much that he had lost. There wasn't a lot riding on this tournament and he knew that his chances later in the bracket against some of his fully powered classmates were dim. In fact, he was very proud of Uraraka for her victory and hoped that she would make it all the way. The thing that was troubling him was how she had stolen his attention. No doubt All Might would reprimand him for being so air-headed and seeing her as a friend rather than an opponent, even if only for a moment. He'd never been so distracted in a fight before, so how had Uraraka been so successful?
"Deeekuuu!" Izuku looked up just in time to see Uraraka float down and touch his shoulder. The familiar feeling of weightlessness came over him again as she pulled him up and they floated a few feet above the ground. She was still laughing and beaming from her victory. Izuku couldn't help but smile because of her infectious energy.
"That was amazing Uraraka, when did you learn to control your quirk like that? It was so powerful! It has so many applications that could really change your fighting style, like how you were able to increase your gravitational pull to stay anchored during my air blasts. That's an entirely new facet of your quirk, I didn't even know it was possible to develop something like that. I wonder what else you could control…"
Ochaco giggled. "You're rambling again. Might want to get a hold of that habit before you go blabbing to some villain about how awesome their quirk is."
The pair were holding each other's arms and drifting slowly through the air, rotating ever so slightly. There was a silent understanding between them that something needed to be said. Something to explain what had just happened between them in the fight.
"I… uh, well. About… what I said…" Ochaco blushed and looked away.
And suddenly they were falling. The drop was only a few feet but the impact with the newly restored concrete field still hurt.
"All competitors are to leave the battlefield as soon as the match ends. Even big shots like you two. We gave you until Cementoss restored the battlefield and even that was being lenient." Mr. Aizawa returned their quirks and waved them toward the exit. "Have your personal conversations on your own time."
"Yes, sir!" Both students instinctively responded. Izuku helped Ochaco up from the ground and the pair ran toward the exit. As much as Izuku had wanted to finish their conversation, maybe it would be better to continue it in private rather than in front of a crowd of thousands of spectators and all of their classmates and teachers. Of course, private wasn't going to happen for a while. He could already see Iida and Tsuyu waiting for them just inside the stadium. No doubt wanting to grill them for details of their mid-fight conversation.
Izuku didn't know exactly what they were going to tell their friends right away, or how they would explain the odd set of events. Least of all did he want to think about how he was going to explain his incompetence to All Might. But one thing he did know is that he could rely on Ochaco to have his back through all of it. They had always made a great team.