March 21th, Sports Festival Stadium, 1445.
The walk back from Recovery Girl's was as straining as expected. For the third time since his admission in U.A. Machibuse had been blessed by her very existence and had paid for her services with his will to keep on living with the subsequent exhaustion. How the hell did Midoriya managed to deal with the aftereffects of her Healing on a daily basis?
Too bad that Hatsume was out of the tournament, Hakuba could have used a longer break between his matches. Maybe Todoroki would be so kind as to get the arena unusable again…
"Hey, look who is back from the dead!" Jiro called out as Machibuse came through the door.
"Two cracked ribs and some mild nicking on my sternum hardly classifies me as dead Lieutenant." Machibuse responded as he made way towards his seat in front of Yaoyorozu.
"Try not pissing yourself to death before I can kill you, Pinprick." Bakugo shot him a threatening glare as his next opponent walked past him.
While Machibuse's face remained unfazed as he barely turned to meet Baguko's stare, he couldn't deny that he had found the nickname amusing to say the least. He had missed Bakugo's match but met with Uraraka in the infirmary room, and from what she told him about the battle Hakuba summarized that she gave him much more trouble than everyone expected.
"Well you sure look the spitting image of joy and excitement." Kaminari added as he adjusted himself on his seat, so his classmate could walk unobstructed.
"You mean right now or during this whole day Kaminari-san?" Hakuba retorted as he slumped onto his seat.
"Touché." the blonde answered.
"Yeah uh… sorry about that…" Kirishima offered sheepishly.
"Hakuba-chan was the one he was the one the failed to pay attention to his own fight and dodge the attack -gero" Tsuyu pointed out, apparently people noticed that his fighting was a little off the mark.
"Asui-san is right. Don't apologize, it was a good attack." Machibuse agreed.
"Call me Tsu." She corrected
"This goes against my protocol ma'am." Machibuse turned to her.
"You know that I don't really care -gero" Tsuyu, blunt as expected, responded back bringing a finger to her mouth.
Hakuba just stared at her for a moment before taking a deep breath, he was too tired for that.
"Still, Kirishima-san, you should try feinting like that more often. Feel free to ask for me if you need any help with that." Machibuse returned to the topic of his last match.
"Don't start tainting Kirishima's ways with your trickery." Momo spoke as she knocked on the back of Hakuba's head with the back of her hand, prompting him to turn to meet her stare.
"Save that shit for the marriage counseling and let me watch the damn fight!" Bakugo spat from his seat on the other side of the 1-A area interrupting their bickering.
"He is not…!" Momo started.
"She is not…!" Hakuba also began.
Both Hakuba and Momo quickly turned to each other, awkwardness visible in their faces as they turned back to Bakugo in unison "We are not…!"
"SHUT UP!" Bakugo roared with an expression that would require any normal person years of theatrics to pull off.
The pyres lit up once more.
"BOTH THESE COMPETITORS HAVE WON TOP MARKS IN THE FESTIVAL SO FAR, BUT THERE IS ROOM FOR ONLY ONE OF THEM IN THE NEXT PHASE OF THE TOURNAMENT! ITS MIDORIYA VERSUS TODOROKI! STAAAAART!" Present Mic shouted, causing everyone in the 1-A area to turn their attention towards the battlefield immediately.
The avalanche immediately closed in on Midoriya. Todoroki was a monster of an opponent.
But Midoriya had risen to be a monster of a challenger, the ice blasted away in a single strike.
"MIDORIYA SMASHED THROUGH!" the announcer shouted once more. By this point Machibuse just assumed that his English teacher was incapable of not doing as part of his respiratory cycle.
By now Machibuse had flashes of the conversation on the way towards the USJ about flashy Quirks as the scene repeated, another massive wave of ice surging forward from Todoroki only to be shattered immediately by the pressure created by Midoriya.
Both Machibuse and Bakugo were studying every single detail of the battle, from the damage Midoriya received from his own attacks to the angle and speed of Todoroki's ice.
"Man Bakugo, you and that Todoroki just fire crazy-strong attacks like this the whole day…" Kirishima mused.
"The whole day? Are you an idiot? If you ran too much you end out of breath, and if you use strain your muscles too much they tear... Quirks are a physical ability too, so the guy gotta have some limit." Bakugo explained, looking down to the palms of his hands with some concern beneath his usual expression.
That small detail did not went unnoticed by Machibuse. He was a mutant-type, so there wasn't much he could relate to what an emitter-type would call backlash. Sure, he could overuse his chemical production and that would cause him to dehydrate, but that was a very extreme scenario akin to Iida going over his maximum speed or Mineta pulling on his hair too much. Producing the chemicals was as natural as salivating for him and his Chelicerae were always there as a party of his body, there was no thinking involved beyond the choice of what he would synthesize. Certain emitters like Midoriya, Uraraka and Aoyama had very visible backlashes related to their Quirks while others like Yaoyorozu and, he assumed, Tokoyami had to deal with fueling their abilities.
Both Bakugo and Todoroki had yet to display any of those behaviors, and Machibuse had his eyes open to see what he could exploit against who he viewed as the top two fighters in 1-A. It would be a much easier battle if he knew beforehand what kind of bodily process he needed to scramble in order to prevent them from attacking properly; a generic drug to knock out someone would take about a minute to kick in and about one more to fully subdue someone like Bakugo, but something synthesized to target one specific part of his biology would be in full effect in just a few seconds. A silver bullet of sorts.
If anything his meal had provided a very powerful cocktail of Zinc and Potassium, while those would not be enough to keep someone healthy down for long and both were simple compounds to absorb and break down, the intense nausea they caused when delivered would make anyone an easy target.
Machibuse's train of thought was interrupted as Todoroki started to close the distance, using his ice to gain the height advantage.
Midoriya jumped back, narrowly avoiding the follow up attack.
He swung his fist. Hard.
For a moment that was only the sound of the massive blast of wind that Midoriya caused echoing on the stadium.
Todoroki managed to brace himself on his ice to avoid a ring out, now Midoriya had four broken fingers in one hand and one completely shattered arm to keep fighting.
"Someone in his right mind would be throwing the towel by now. Then again its fucking Midoriya on that arena…" Machibuse pondered as he watched Todoroki walking towards the crippled teen.
While not exactly close to one another, Hakuba held Midoriya in very high regards. There was a clear reason why All Might had apparently taken interest in him, Midoriya was a hero to the very core, so much it was self-harming. Hakuba knew that his own aspirations as a hero would never come even close to what Midoriya stood for, but it was a good enough frame of comparison.
Todoroki rose his right hand slowly. A little too slowly… Todoroki wasn't one to care for dramatic effect. Something was off.
"Ma'am." Machibuse called for Yaoyorozu without taking his eyes from the battle.
"Huh?" she responded, caught a little off-guard.
"Can you provide me with some binoculars?" Machibuse's voice was serious, this caught Bakugo's attention.
It was very uncommon for Hakuba to ask her to create something with her Quirk, but this only compounded on the importance of his request. Momo gave a firm nod as she quickly created the object from her forearm, making it as simple as possible as to speed up the process.
Machibuse was on the edge of his seat as he received the binoculars and had less than a couple of seconds to observe the match through them before Midoriya launched another attack using one of his broken fingers.
"A fucking madman as always…" Machibuse mused as he focused on Midoriya for a moment as the dust settled down. He was speaking, angrily so… some lipreading gave away the issue.
Machibuse quickly turned to focus on Todoroki, who was just getting back on his feet. He was shivering in cold, thin ice forming over his right side.
"The damn imbecile…" Machibuse spat as he got two and two together. If Todoroki was offspring of a Quirk marriage then his ice was a likely selected as a countermeasure to becoming feverish due to overusing the fire Quirk he inherited from Endeavor. If so then the inverse was true, he could use his fire side to thaw the backlash from using the ice Quirk he inherited from his mother. And Todoroki refused to do so despite the risk to his health and the absurdity of crippling himself in a tournament where everyone pushed their limits over and over, just to get on his father's nerves.
"What happened?" Yaoyorozu asked, normally Machibuse would've explained why the need of her help by now.
"Todoroki revealed his weakness, and he is stupid enough to…" Machibuse started, now he definitely had Bakugo's attention.
But before he could explain Midoriya dashed to the offensive, dodging a visibly weaker wave of ice before smashing one of his destroyed fists into Todoroki's midsection.
Over and over Midoriya now attacked, shouting the whole time but his words losing themselves into the distance and sounds in the stadium.
One thing however called his attention as he watched Midoriya turning the tables, one quick adjustment to the focus of his binoculars showed Cementoss speaking on the com, apparently Midnight and he were talking.
Suddenly Todoroki's left side busted into flames. His face now hidden behind the flares made impossible for Machibuse to read the situation properly
"WHAT IS THIS!?" Present Mic was taken aback by the turn of events.
Soon enough another voice roared in the crowd, Endeavor was going absolutely ballistic as he approached the edge of the stands. Whatever he shouted falling to deaf ears as Machibuse could see his smile dropping through the binoculars.
One quick movement back to the arena showed Midoriya… smiling?
Both Midoriya and Todoroki prepared to attack.
Machibuse widened his eyes as he quickly dropped the binoculars.
"BRACE FOR IMPACT!" Machibuse shouted as he, following instincts that he normally lacked, poised himself in between the incoming blast and Yaoyorozu.
"…the fuck am I doing?" The thought quickly crossed his mind as he realized what he just did.
From the corner of his eye Hakuba saw the cement arena springing up into many barriers to reduce the damage.
Good thing.
Because there was still a lot of damage incoming.
Took a few seconds after the shockwave for everyone to recover and for the smoke to settle.
Mic was completely silent for a moment as the arena was finally coming back into view.
"HAS THE MATCH BEEN DECIDED!?"
Only one silhouette remained standing in the still clearing arena.
*Thud*
Eyes quickly dashed to the outer area.
Midoriya had fallen.
-.
March 21th, Sports Festival Stadium, 1500.
Once more the event's estimated time of ending was postponed, this time to 1600. Someone in the marketing department was sure getting scolded tonight for missing the mark so hard.
Iida was currently taking to the arena to fight 1-B's Shiozaki, but it was surely going to be a quick battle. It was up to Iida to finish the battle before Shiozaki managed to trap him.
Machibuse was hardly caring for the match however. He was too pissed off to do that, hard eyes directed at the arena, sitting on the edge of his seat, hunched as his elbows rested on his knees. The Chelicerae on his back armed for a moment but now had retracted.
Kaminari decided to take Iida's vacant seat for the moment, and Yaoyorozu had decided that it would be best for her to take his.
Yaoyorozu had already seen her friend snapping once today and dreaded to see that image again. But this felt different… it was not the mindless rage from before. Whatever he saw during Todoroki's battle had clearly touched a raw nerve.
"Should I take this as a cancelation of our date?" Momo questioned as she studied his face, she kept her voice low as to not draw more attention to tomorrow's events.
Hakuba's expression softened a little. A mix of annoyance and amusement on his face as he looked at her.
"I will take that as no…" Momo sighed, relieved to see that he was still himself.
"SHIOZAKI IS OUT OF BOUNDS! THIS TOURNAMENT IS CLASS 1-A'S NOW!" Present Mic as usual interrupted the conversation.
"Care to explain what got you like that?" she changed the question once the noise from the crowd died down.
"Promise me you will not get angry ma'am?" Hakuba asked as he took a deep breath and got up to his feet.
"Will I regret this?" Momo quirked an eyebrow as she watched him stretching, his fight with Bakugo was getting close.
"Unlikely." Hakuba assured her, now cracking his knuckles.
"Go on then…." Momo sighed.
Machibuse gave a nod and began walking away from her. "I will give you more details later ma'am, but for the moment this should do…"
Momo got up but didn't follow, she really wasn't expecting Hakuba to just walk away…
"Todoroki-san!" Machibuse called as he made his way towards the silent teen. Todoroki had been aloof since he came back from his match.
Todoroki didn't answer verbally, but slowly got up from his seat to face Machibuse.
*BAM*
Machibuse sucker punched Todoroki. A right hook across the jaw with enough strength to send the teen down to his seat once more and to leave Class 1-A absolutely shocked.
"I heard the conversation you had with Midoriya-san earlier today. Refused to hear everything but I got the big picture… I don't know what you both discussed during your battle, but he got you to see through this stupidity of yours somehow, so you better not waste his efforts." Machibuse spoke glaring daggers towards the stunned Todoroki as he flexed his right hand, walking towards the doorway once he was finished.
"I am well aware of how hard it can be to deal with the ghosts of the past... to look into the mirror every morning and having the memories shoved in your face. But you are a lot stronger than I am, so if I can face my problems for once, so can you."
-.
March 21th, Sports Festival Stadium, 1510.
"THIS IS IT MY DEAR AUDIENCE, THE LAST MATCH OF THE SECOND PHASE OF THE TOURNAMENT! IT WILL BE JUST THE TOP FOUR AFTER THIS ONE! ITS MACHIBUSE HAKUBA VERSUS BAKUGO KATSUKI!" Present Mic announced as both the combatants assumed their positions in the arena. This time Machibuse remembered to take his shoes off.
Machibuse took a deep breath, his hands were visibly shaking. Luckily his mind was too busy during his match against Kirishima to pay attention to the match itself, let alone the spectators. But now he couldn't give himself the luxury of tuning everything out even if he knew how to do so, Bakugo was not going to play nice and just allow him to dodge on instinct.
"I've wanted to have a go at you for a while… You got ahead of me on that Quirk Apprehension bullshit, got to appear on the news after the USJ attack, got me beaten on the Obstacle Course today as far a I care… AND I STILL WANT TO MURDER THE SHIT OUT OF YOU BECAUSE OF THAT DODGEBALL GAME!" Bakugo now shouted as smoke escaped from his palms.
His threat however fell to deaf ears, Machibuse was barely functioning at this point as he instinctively grasped his left shoulder, just a few seconds standing there in the arena was already enough to toll his state of mind already…
"Not gonna run away after that little motivational speech of yours, will you Pinprick?" Bakugo questioned as he noticed the frightened state of his opponent.
This brought Hakuba back.
His voice was… different. The usual anger and defiance in his voice were still there, but it didn't felt like the same Bakugo. It was the same tone Bakugo used during that joke of an Athlete's Oath earlier that day.
"Are you ready?" Midnight called both them. There was a limit to how much time she could leave the combatants bantering, her whip now held high.
"I sure am, can't say the same about the joke of a competitor right there." Bakugo spat as he waited for Machibuse to take control of himself.
"I am not ready sensei. Might never be." Machibuse admitted as he lowered his head.
By now Midnight already understood that her student had been troubled since the games began, his meteoric decent in the rankings during the final moments of the first event and his final words to Kirishima during their battle were proof that something was wrong with him.
"There is no shame in withdrawing." She offered to reassure him.
Suddenly Machibuse pulled something from his pocket…
One surgery mask with a very poorly drawn smile similar to the one of his hero costume, a single sideways D, that he now donned over his mouth before assuming his combat stance, the weapons in his body poised to strike.
Still, he trembled.
"I can't withdraw ma'am. Bakugo is right. Even if the whole world has their eyes on my back right now… even if I can't save someone by my own hands, a hero's smile may inspire the others to do their best to save themselves." Machibuse declared.
The referee allowed herself an honest smile, if anything she hoped that her microphone had picked up what Machibuse just said so his words could make it to more people than just herself and Bakugo.
Didn't take long for Recovery Girl to inform her via radio that she had been the one to provide the mask, Machibuse had stopped by her office on his way to the arena.
"Bakugo, any objections to your opponent fighting with a mask?" Midnight asked to keep procedures going.
"Hell no." Bakugo said as he assumed his own stance, his maniac grin came back.
"Very well." Midnight signaled the start of the match.
"STAAAART!" Present Mic shouted as he took the cue.
There was no delay, Bakugo blasted himself forwards the moment the battle began.
Both were very technical fighters with very sharpened battle instincts, both had had observed each other in battle more than once in great detail, and both had already faced off against each other, albeit it was a match of dodgeball.
Bakugo had his right arm cocked to strike.
Machibuse was well aware that he usually opened with a right hook.
Bakugo knew that his opponent would read his move.
It was a split-second decision, was Bakugo going for signature opener or it was a feint?
Twitchy from tension, Machibuse's muscles followed his gut feeling. He weaved to Bakugo's right, making it just in time to clear under the hook.
Bakugo had swung his arm downwards instead of the usual sideways strike.
The explosion on his back propelled Machibuse forward, one quick dive got him out of peril.
Bakugo quickly followed.
Pulling from the same idea he used during the opening race Machibuse planted one hand to the floor and kicked towards Bakugo with the chelicera on his right sole.
Bakugo blasted past Machibuse's foot, twisting his torso painfully to avoid the hit and keep the offensive.
Bakugo's arm came crashing top down, giving the still tense Machibuse only enough time to push himself out of the floor and brace for the incoming explosion. His instincts were still not up to speed with his resolve.
"BAKUGO LANDS THE FIRST ATTACK!" Present Mic shouted as the shockwave rumbled echoed through the stadium.
"I WAS UNDER THE IMPRESSION THAT YOU GOT YOUR SHIT TOGETHER PINPRICK!" Bakugo shouted as he landed in a crouching position.
The blast pushed both fighters away from each other. Bakugo obviously in much better shape.
The smiling mask was mostly intact, a little singed but still up to show. The rest of Machibuse's situation was not so good, the left side of his shirt blown away to shreds and his skin was visibly burnt and bruised.
Machibuse clenched the tattooed shoulder once more, but this time it had more to do with pain than phobia.
At least his fear of not getting hit like that again would push some of his nervousness aside for the moment.
Bakugo would not let him have time to banter and, if his suspicion was right, the blonde had learned one thing from observing his fight with Yaoyorozu a week ago. Machibuse relied heavily on using the terrain to fight, and since they had no walls in their fighting space he had to rely solely on the floor. That was why Bakugo was attacking from top down.
Bakugo was closing in once more and Machibuse needed to adapt. He definitely was one enemy Machibuse didn't want to face in these conditions again… unless he managed to forge his silver bullet.
Then something got his attention as he redirected one of Bakugo's palms up with his forearm…
That smell… nitroglycerin?
Machibuse wasn't that much of an expert in explosives but remembered one thing of the few demonstrations of nitroglycerin-based explosives he had witnessed back in Okinawa: The thing had a characteristic smell of burnt sugar.
And for some reason Bakugo had the same smell. The explosions didn't just come from thin air, Bakugo created and detonated nitroglycerin in his hands.
But how?
Another wide swing came from Machibuse's left. This time he stepped in, regardless of the method behind the explosions the delivery was always the same: Bakugo's palms.
Bakugo would have to adapt if Machibuse decided to fight at a clinch range. If his predictions were right, Bakugo would either jump back or counterattack to the sudden decrease in fighting space, the former was far more likely considering that neither of his hands were in proper position to deal with the situation. Machibuse would press on.
"MACHIBUSE TURNED TO THE OFFENSIVE!" Present Mic shouted as the momentum turned. Bakugo visibly clenched his teeth as he jumped back, narrowly avoiding Machibuse's hand from scraping against his chest.
"Bingo." Machibuse allowed himself the praise as he closed in once more with his guard up, his eyes carefully following the movement of Bakugo's hands. His left would surely rise to block or to create another explosion to push both fighters apart again.
Blocking the chelicerae barehanded was game over and Bakugo knew that.
"How far are you willing to push, Kacchan?" Machibuse pondered as he watched Bakugo's left palm being directed at him.
It was time…
*BOOM*
"BAKUGO BLASTS MACHIBUSE ONCE AGAIN!" the announcer now cried as both combatants were launched back.
"Payload delivered." Machibuse stated painfully as he quickly got up to his feet, the mask now torn apart now revealed his focused expression, blood and chemicals pooled around his position as they ran down his hand.
"MOTHERFUCKER!" Bakugo shouted as he ripped two broken chelicerae from his left palm.
"MACHIBUSE SACRIFICED HIS RIGHT TO STRIKE BAKUGO! IS HE GOING FULL MIDORIYA RIGHT NOW!?" Mic was in disbelief as Machibuse ripped what remained of his shirt and wrapped the burnt article around his wounded hand.
"Seafood does wonders for my Quirk. Zinc poisoning gets pretty ugly pretty fast and I made sure to pile-in Potassium as well for the same effect... Am I going to bleed out or your insides are going to give in?" Machibuse taunted, his right arm visibly limp from the pain, the cloth around his wounded hand quickly turning crimson.
Bakugo glared him viciously as he dashed in, wincing and clutching his abdomen in pain. A puny thing such as street food would not deter the might Bakugo. From what he knew about Machibuse's Quirk there was a short time window between a drug's administration and the full effect.
Both now fought the clock, Machibuse weaved between Bakugo's heavily impaired strikes. The blasts however were getting considerably more powerful to Machibuse's surprise.
"The smell is stronger now…why is he producing more nitroglycerin?" Machibuse questioned as he dodged under another blast. His own movements were getting sloppy from the blood loss.
The response literally dropped on his face as he moved under Bakugo's now heavy arms.
"Son of a bitch sweats like a pig!" Machibuse contorted his face in disgust before turning to one of realization.
Zinc and Potassium both caused fever and sweating. Bakugo's blasts got more powerful since the attack.
Bakugo sweated fucking nitroglycerin.
Machibuse had found his silver bullet.
It would take him twenty seconds or so to add something to suppress Bakugo's thyroidal hormones to his current payload.
From now on he could simply turn off Bakugo's Quirk whenever they faced off again.
Unfortunately now he likely didn't have twenty seconds to spare with two of his chelicerae blown open. He was losing a lot of blood and his vision was starting to blur because of it.
Machibuse wobbled, standing up was a massive effort.
A quick look towards the 1-A area vaguely allowed him to see a blur rushing out the doorway… his friends were worried now… Momo was worried now… Machibuse proved his point already. He had faced his fear and hopefully convinced Todoroki to do the same… he would apologize for the punch later.
Midnight was quick to understand the severity of Machibuse's bleeding, she would need to stop this fight immediately. She reached to rip her clothing but…
Bakugo turned to strike again, only to find Machibuse standing still.
"Permission to break protocol?" Machibuse asked between shallow breaths as Bakugo stopped his attack.
"Shove that protocol up your ass…" the blonde spat back.
Machibuse chuckled.
"I will take that as a yes… Now listen up you damn imbecile, if that half and half idiot decides not to give his all you better beat the shit out of him… Beat the shit out of him either way, if I'm to lose to someone it better be to the champion." Machibuse spoke as he bumped the bloodied fist into Bakugo's chest, falling backwards after doing so.
"Next time we fight on my terms…" he added weakly.
Everything turned dark.
-.
March 21th, Sports Festival Stadium, Nursery Room, Time Unknown.
"Not dead huh? Well, better luck next time…" Machibuse slowly came back to his senses. The bright lamp above his eyes proving to be more powerful than his will to keep his eyes open. A weak groan escaped his dry throat as he forced himself to sit.
A hand touched his shoulder, gesturing him to stay down.
"You have no idea how hard it is to operate on someone with absolute zero response to stantard medicine." Recovery Girl joked as she handed him a glass of water.
Machibuse drank it all greedily. Took him a while to speak still.
"I will try my best to avoid troubling you like that again ma'am. You have my thanks once more." he nodded apologetically, still refusing to lay down.
"Please do. It was a good thing that your friends predicted the issue and came to help. You lost something around a fifth of your blood, Todoroki-kun had to freeze your arm while I stemmed the bleeding on your hand." The nurse explained.
"Todoroki huh?" Machibuse mused, no wonder his arm felt stiff.
"He said that it was his way of saying "thank you"." Recovery girl added.
"What time is it ma'am?" he asked as he took in this last bit of information, now trying to get back to his feet.
"You slept for just about half an hour. If you are wondering about the tournament, the final match started just a few moments ago… Back to bed, you are still weak." Recovery Girl informed as she watched her patient getting a feeling of his footing.
"Can't do ma'am." Machibuse braced himself against the wall as he now stood back on his feet. He could now see himself in the mirror across the room. Bandages across most of his torso and right forearm. There was a plastic bag containing a new uniform for him on the table.
There was a brief silence as Machibuse dressed himself.
"Before your fight, you asked me for a mask and a marker. You did that for him didn't you?" Recovery Girl asked as she resigned on trying to keep Machibuse from leaving.
"I have been told that a hero should smile to inspire, and Todoroki-san needed the push." Machibuse explained as he opened the door.
"It is good to see that your friends can rely on you." Recovery Girl remarked with a smile.
"Yeah... Suppose he is my friend now ma'am."
-.
March 21th, Sports Festival Stadium, 1555.
Machibuse had just rejoined his classmates for the closing ceremony, he had watched the final moments of the championship match between Todoroki and Bakugo from the traverse that bordered the stadium's bleachers. His bravado had left as he could feel himself getting tense whenever the spectators turned to talk with him every once in a while to congratulate him on his performance. Apparently the stunt he pulled on Kirishima and the smiling mask turned him into a mildly popular figure.
Ashido couldn't deny that she expected some loving embrace once the Machibuse and Yaoyorozu got reunited, Yaoyorozu rushed in panic to the infirmary with Todoroki in tow during the final moments of Machibuse's match versus Bakugo shouting that if he had passed out from bleeding then he would likely bleed to death since his Quirk would just nullify whatever Recovery Girl injected into his system to slow down the hemorrhage.
Yaoyorozu came back from the infirmary with quite a worried look on her face, apparently Machibuse had lost more than just a spoonful of blood. Took Ashido and Jiro some convincing to ease her worries.
"OWOWOW! I GET IT! I GET IT!" Hakuba protested as Momo squeezed his temples between her knuckles.
Ashido's expectations were met by Momo scolding Hakuba the moment they found each other. Not what she wanted to see but she couldn't deny that seeing those two losing their usual composure was pretty funny.
"So Captain, those grow back, right?" Jiro asked out after Yaoyorozu released her prisoner.
"Affirmative Lieutenant, normally it would take about a week for my body to regenerate a broken chelicera, but due to Recovery Girl's Quirk speeding up my healing I should be done in two or three days." Machibuse explained as he looked to his bandaged right hand, slowly recovering his façade while massaging his temples with his left hand.
"You always bleed like this when they break? We better know just in case." Shoji now asked, that was some very important information to keep in mind.
"Never this much, and normally I can just synthesize something to boost hemostasis. Was one of the first things I learned to do with my Quirk. Never had to deal with one of my chelicerae blowing up, it surprised me as much as it did you." Machibuse added to his explanation.
"Yeah, you kinda high-fived a landmine back there…" Ashido observed.
Something started moving under the floor.
"Now everyone! Let's move on to the awards ceremony!" Midnight informed as the fireworks went out above the stadium, a large podium rising behind her.
Tokoyami was the third place.
Todoroki the second, although he likely would have won if he fought with all his power. He tried to use his flames at least, Machibuse couldn't just ask him to put everything behind and just flip the switch, baby steps would do if he was willing to keep moving forward.
And the star of the show…
Bakugo was fucking chained to the first place, mouth and hands restrained as he trashed about. Apparently he didn't take kindly to Todoroki basically throwing the final match.
Bakugo was a very special snowflake to say the least.
"In third place we have both Tokoyami and Iida, but Iida was forced to leave early due to an emergency. We hope you all understand." Midnight explained to the crowd.
Midoriya visibly tensed at that.
Something Machibuse would need to ask about later.
For now he just wanted to enjoy the fact that this hellish day was over, things would be finally going back to normal…
Ashido's hand landed on his shoulder. She had that smile on her face.
"Tomorrow is the big day eh?"
…
..
.
AN: Don't bleed to death kids.
Finally got over the Sports Festival so now we can go back to not having to deal with Hakuba having a mental breakdown every turn. Is he over his fears? Fuck no, the idiot is likely counting down the seconds to next year's event.
And yes, he is counting down for the next day as well…