The bleachers in 1-A's section were silent as overwhelming darkness started to seep out from both Izuku and Ochako as they listened into the announcement of Momo's defeat.
Neiro obviously did not get the message.
"Things are not looking good for 1-A are they?" She taunted over the wall separating the two classes. "Your best just walked right off the ring without even fighting back! She must've known she couldn't even win against a… General…" Her taunts crawled to a halt as both of Momo's secret lovers' eyes slowly creaked towards the obnoxious source.
Neiro quickly realized she made a mistake as the combination of brown and green eyes stared deep into her soul, clearly wanting to tear something apart.
And after Izuku's show of power against the metal monster, she doubted that he would have more trouble plucking her head off her shoulders then anyone would have plucking a stem off an apple.
"Talking pretty big for someone that didn't even make it to the last event, extra ," Katsumi shot back, trying to diffuse the situation wither her own brand of de-escalation.
She turned to Izuku, poking him on the shoulder. "You should go back there and talk with High-Class."
He didn't respond verbally, possibly not trusting his voice just yet, and simply nodded, getting up to track down where Momo was in the bowels of the stadium, with Ochako following closely behind.
" The next contestants are Kirishima Eiko and Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu "
Momo flinched as she heard footsteps making their way towards her. She quickly rubbed her eyes, trying to look like she hadn't just been bawling her eyes out for the oncoming guests. It's Eiko's turn, isn't it?... I should wish her luck…
As she rose from the side of the wall she had slid down on her way to the ground, her sorrow hid successfully for the moment, her visitors rounded the corner.
Momo gasped as she felt her weight disappear, Ochako crashing into her and hugging her tightly.
Uraraka wasn't in the frame of mind to avoid touching her with all 5 of her fingers. Momo looked up from the brown bob shoved into her chest at the other visitor. She felt her stomach begin to twist in grief once more.
"What happened out there?" Izuku muttered out, his face frozen in a neutral expression. Even then she could see his eyes burning with something. Probably disappointment…
"I… I broke my promise." She huffed out as she looked away, not returning Ochako's hug nor Izuku's gaze. She could feel her eyes start to tear up again, but she adamantly refused to cry. Not in front of them…
She saw Izuku flinch from the corner of her eye, and felt Ochako flinch against her.
"I don't deserve to be in a-"
Mei crashed into her and her argument like a cruise missile, causing both her and Ochako to tumble onto the floor as her arms found their way around the two of them. "FOUND YOU!"
Momo couldn't handle the bold show of affection and tried to push away from the two of them "S-stop it- why are you hugging me? I lost! I couldn't even fight back!" Her eyes were wet with unshed tears already "I- I don't…"
Izuku closed the gap finally, bending down and easily picking up the three on the floor with a hug, adding pressure to the hug until he felt confident that they could feel his warmth enveloping them, in addition to the pleasant pressure of a hug. "Because we love you."
Momo's resolve finally failed and she started crying again. "WHY? Why do you..." She sniffled, voice cracking slightly as she continued "I- I couldn't even fight! I was a failure in every aspect, why would amazing people like you…"
The three hugging her slowly let go, but she remained floating in the air as Ochako's quirk was still active. She felt exposed, hovering in front of all of their gazes.
"Are you kidding me?" Mei broke the silence, staring incredulously at Momo as she curled up in shame. "Momo you came second place in the first event! You were in the top six of the second event!" She folded her arms across her chest. "How is that not justamazing ?!"
Izuku chuckled sadly. "Oh, so this is how you guys feel when I call myself an idiot?" He shook his head as he reached forward and gently pulled Momo by the head to look at him. "Momo, you created a gun from the atoms-up during a race. How are you not seeing how amazing that is just on its own? And before you claim it's ' just your quirk' , No. It wasn't, and we all know that."
"Just cause you lost doesn't change who or what you are, Momo," Ochako added from his side, shrugging slightly. "We still love you, and that's not gonna change over something as simple as you losing in a battle… we aren't that shallow."
The sounds of metal clashing and grinding against stone echoed throughout the halls as the match started in the main hall, breaking the silence caused by Ochako's declaration.
"B-but I-" Momo tried to argue back grabbing Izuku's hands and pulling them away to look at Ochako. "I couldn't even fight bac-"
"So?" Mei shoved her way into the argument. "Did you see me fighting against Izuku?"
"B-but that's-"
"Momo, did you forget what you told me at the beach?" Ochako pulled her attention back. "Not everyone fights the same way, you know this."
"I…" She stopped resisting and used Izuku as an anchor point to lower her feet back onto the ground. "I remember…"
Izuku stared down at her, thinking silently as the other two kept bringing up valid points to try and get her to accept that she was just being too hard on herself.
"She has a mind control quirk, doesn't she?"
The light arguing stopped at his question.
"I think so… I just said 'likewise' and control left my body…" Momo looked down at the floor again, shoulders slumping. "I am a-"
"That Trojan-Horse-ass daughter of a bitch!" Mei screeched, face shifting in rage for the first time since Izuku had met her.
"M-Mei?" He mumbled out, taking a step back, along with Ochako and Momo.
"Izuku you gotta beat the shit out of her!" She took a few steps forward, closing the distance the others had made. "Show that system hijacker that shit won't go unpunished!"
"W-what?" Ochako questioned, half-hiding behind Momo, who herself was sporting a slight dusting of pink on her cheeks.
"Izuku! Explain!" Mei commanded simply, huffing and pouting slightly, still grumbling something under her breath.
"Oh- Ohhh Trojan horse…" He sighed blinking. "That's a good analogy… Momo, I am guessing you responded to something she said with 'likewise' right?"
With Mei's anger dissipating, Ochako and Momo relaxed a bit, turning to Izuku and listening to his reasoning.
"Y-yeah She said 'may the best hero win' and I said 'likewise'," Momo responded with a nod, trying to connect the dots. Honestly, the match seemed to be turning from a solid memory to more of a dream she was trying to recall as time passed.
"That's how her quirk works, exactly like a trojan-horse type of virus." Izuku pointed out slamming his fist down on an open palm, "Her voice is the 'data' your brain processes. That 'data' basically acts as a carrier for the 'computer virus'..."
"And me responding verbally activates it, letting her take over my motor functions…" Momo finished the rest, hanging her head down.
"So my own incompetence made me lose the ma-"
"Would you stop with that?" Ochako huffed from her side with a small pout. "From that explanation, the only way you could have won was if you already knew what her quirk was."
Momo opened and closed her mouth as she failed to see how to argue against that.
"You lost cause we didn't know someone's quirk that we didn't have time to research on…" Izuku rubbed his chin again "It's a learning experience, as heroes we won't always know what we are fighting against… that's what we are here for, to learn."
"To be heroes." Ochako added, smiling softly "and that hasn't changed at all Momo"
Momo couldn't help but grow a soft smile at that declaration.
When the three returned to their seats, Mei dashing off to her own section, they witnessed the continuing fight between the two similarly quirked women.
Izuku took a mental note of how shiny Tetsutetsu looked. Some kind of metal transformation? Wonder if the malleability of metals lets her be more agile than Eiko?
The match had been going on for a while, both sides panting with exhaustion as the stalemate dragged on.
He perked up as both started screaming about a final attack the other shouldn't dodge, getting their second wind.
Metal against something rough and hard was something Izuku had gotten used to hearing, but even then the hardened fists clashing sent caused the hair on his neck to stand on its end as the screeching noise reverberated through the air.
Then the clash shifted .
Unlike his clashes with Mecha Might, Eiko's and Tetsutetsu's fists were similarly sized
Meaning it was easier for their fists to push past each other in a clash.
And they did.
Eiko's fist found its way to Tetsutetsu's face, and Tetsutetsu's fist shot against her ribcage, both contestants stumbling back.
"ITS A CROSS COUNTER!" Mic announced with energy only a radio DJ could produce.
Tetsutetsu shook her face, the metal covering her face that blocked the last punch fading away as she did so. Eiko was rubbing her side doing the same.
...huh… Izuku blinked at the thought that passed through his mind Eiko said her quirk was like flexing a muscle… does that mean she could harden her breasts… since that's not musculature…
"Ho̥w ̥aṟe ̙you͎ ̞t̠hink͙in̫g ̖a̱bo̠uṭ ̱ti̟t̬s̻ ͍i̫ṉ a non̻sex͟u̗a̮l ͔w͉a̞y?̘"
I- shutup its a valid question!
"Su̟u͙uu̮uu̺r̥e,̼ ci̤nnaṃǫn̦ ̮roll"
Wh-
Before he could argue back something took his attention back. Is that the sound of tearing fabri...
Eiko wasn't rubbing the area, she was trying to hold something in place.
That something being the binder under her tracksuit.
Her efforts were in vain.
Tetsutetsu paused for a second as Eiko's chest shifted slightly, then exploded, filling the tracksuit to near-bursting.
The whole stadium paused for a second.
Kyoka mumbled an " are you fucking kidding me? "
Momo blushed, remembering that first time in the showers that she had realized that Eiko was the bustiest out of anyone in the class, barely passing Momo in size.
She could still hear Minerva whining about how unfair it all was.
Izuku was currently choking on his own spit. She had those bound up this entire time?!
Eiko capitalized on the shock the reveal of her endowment made, clumsily moving in for the finisher as she tried to compensate for the sudden shift in her center of mass. "THE MATCH IS FAR FROM OVER!"
Tetsutetsu, who was just as stunned as the rest of the audience, barely had time to respond as she came to her senses at the last minute, crossing her arms in a last ditch effort to defend herself.
She couldn't block the full force of the punch and got knocked down hard, her swift connection with the ground and subsequent loss of consciousness sealing the deal.
Midnight's voice broke everyone's trance "Tetsutetsu has been knocked out! Kirishima wins!"
Autumn made her way to the field, the crowd cheering as she stared ahead at her opponent:
Asui Tsuyu.
Midnight rose her whip up. "You know the rules! Let's skip the foreplay! MATCH! START!"
The frog heroes' tongue darted with deadly accuracy towards her, the mucus covering it grazing Autumns leg as she managed to roll to the side at the last second. Oh, Jesus Christ, she is fast.
As fast as the tongue darted out, Tsuyu used the new anchor point to pull herself forward, aiming to kick Autumn out, only to fall a little short as she rolled to the side again. Frogs are scary.
But I have something scarier…
She bit into her thumb at the spot she had been cut earlier that day, causing it to start bleeding profusely, wincing at the pain.
Just gotta work on it...
"THE GAME OF CAT AND MOUSE CONTINUES AS SHIBURA KEEPS DODGING ASUI'S ATTACKS!" Mic cheered in the booth "OR SHOULD I SAY FROG AND-" Aizawa proceeded to smack her upside the head, silencing the weird comparison before it left her lips.
"Her motions are erratic, in a way no person would usually move in. It's making it harder for Asui to guess where she is going. It's a good strategy, but it won't last the entire match if she can't get a full hit in."
Tsuyu finally managed to wrap her tongue around Autumn after a long struggle.
"As her stamina runs low it makes it easier for her opponent to grab a hold of her," Aizawa smirked under her scarf and bandages. Nice linework...
Tsuyu panted and tossed Autumn out of the ring.
Well, tried to.
As Autumn was being pulled away from the ground, she started pulling it out with her.
"I would have liked to add more detail but this will have to do!" Autumn declared as her creation took form, the rough humanoid form towering over Tsuyu and gripping onto the flying form of its master, preventing her from getting tossed out. "Asui-san, say hello to Fluffy!"
The cement goliath roared in introduction.
Tsuyu tried to pull her tongue away only, for her to be dragged closer by the beast. Even with the mucus coating it, the organ couldn't slip through the fingers of the beast.
"Mistakes were made." She croaked.
The Goliath swung its arm back, her tongue dragging Tsuyu along causing her to fly towards itself. Its free hand grabbing onto Tsuyu mid-air.
Then it proceeded to gently lay her outside of the ring.
"H-huh…" Midnight looked at the goliath then at Tsuyu sitting outside of the ring. "Shibura Autumn wins!"
The golem waved at Tsuyu as it faded away.
"What just-"
"-happened?" Momo blinked at the stage as both Tsuyu and Autumn made their way back to the gates.
"Looks like she can bring anything she draws into reality…" Tomoyo mumbled.
Izuku was still recalling how well she had set up the construction lines for the drawing. Maybe I should talk to her about drawing techniques?
"She used her blood for paint..." Eiko held a fist close to her chest, unintentionally causing her recently freed breasts to jiggle slightly. "So manly…"
Minerva grumbled 'show off' under her breath.
"Not so 'manly' after she collapsed while on her way out of the arena" Hana mumbled next to her. "I guess she lost too much blood?"
Izuku blinked a few times "That makes sense. Tsuyu didn't see it coming huh?"
"I didn't even notice the red lines on the cement, plus from my angle, it would've been hard to see that they meant anything, kero." Tsuyu added from the back, making herself known, causing Izuku to flinch. How did she make it up here so fast?
Shaking their shock off Izuku and Ochako turned to Momo, glaring expectantly at her.
She started blushing. "F-fine, not knowing other's quirks isn't our fault…"
Izuku sat back down into his seat, Momo and Ochako sitting at his sides, looking at the fixed ring with Katsumi and Kyoka standing and staring at each other, ready to battle.
Ochako leaned over to him with a worried expression on her face. "Why does this feel like the worst matchup?"
"MATCH! START!"
Kyoka sent out her jacks to attack, only for Katsumi to counter with a loud explosion, causing her to fall to her knees holding her ears, Izuku swore he could see blood dripping down from under her hands.
"That's cause it is." He hummed sadly as Katsumi marched forward, pointing her palm to her face.
"I-I give" Jirou's voice echoed throughout the stadium
"Jirou admits defeat! Bakugou wins!"
Izuku shifted uncomfortably in his seat when Todoroki walked up to the stage, remembering the revelation she had shared with him just prior to the start of the final event. He noticed that even from here, her expression seemed… strained, and her body language, as much as he could see, screamed of anger.
" MATCH! START! "
With the roaring sound of crystal on stone, Shoko brought her foot down and with a gesture of her hand, the stadium was suddenly covered in ice before Pony could even begin use her quirk. The glacier reached for the heavens, coming close to the bleachers but not quite.
" W̳e a̹r͉e go̥i̙ņg̯ ̫a̖g͓ḁi̹nst̗ ̞ţh͉a̠t̪…? "
Jesus…
"Wow. Uh, Tsunotori Pony is incapacitated! Todoroki Shoko wins!"
Mina and Ochako looked at each other as the glacier was slowly taken care of. They were the next ones to fight as the second leg of the tournament began.
"C'mon 'Rara, show me what you're made of!" Mina cheered, dragging the other woman along by the arm. Izuku and Momo watched the scene with small smiles on their faces.
"Someone's excited…" he mumbled, looking back at the melting glacier. "Who do you think will win?"
Momo squirmed a bit on her seat "I think that's… not something we could guess"
Izuku hummed and leaned back "Fair enough, Mina's and Ochako's quirks don't quite negate each other, and Mina has mobility on her side"
"But considering Ochako's previous fight it won't help her much" Momo countered "but Mina has her Acid."
"So," he smiled, "it's gonna be a game of chicken."
"How so?" Momo asked, turning to face the now, crumbling glacier again.
"You'll see," was the only response he gave as the glacier collapsed completely.
Mina hopped from one foot to the other as she and Ochako waited for Midnight to officially start to match, excited out of her mind to finally get on with the fight, and who knows, maybe I'll be fighting Izuku by the end.
Then she saw the focused and, honestly, intimidating look in Ochako's eyes, ...maybe not?
"MATCH! START" Midnight snapped her whip and the two of them were off
Mina skated across the ring, trying to get close to Ochako and get in her blind spot. That, plus peoples' inherent wariness of acid would probably cause her to stay ba-
Ochako darted forward, her hand shooting out as she quickly closed the distance the moment Mina came near her. Her fingers touched her arm right beneath the sleeve of her newly replaced tracksuit.
"Oh, goddammit"
"Sorry, Ashido!"
Her weight disappeared as Ochako leaned in, grabbed tight, and spun. Suddenly, Mina was soaring out of the ring with no way to hold onto the ground nor propel herself back into the ring.
"Well. Shit," she grumbled with a pout, crossing her arms as Ochako deactivated her quirk causing her to drop outside of the ring.
"Ashido is out of bounds! Uraraka wins!"
"Oh, so that's what you meant…" Momo nodded as the results were announced.
"Mina was scared of using her quirk on human targets, with good reason" he sighed "and Ochako knew that she wouldn't use it on her…"
"I see…" Momo mumbled back, before glancing at her boyfriend. "Shouldn't you go and prepare for the next match?"
"I'm going, I'm going," he singsonged slightly with a soft chuckle, getting up from his seat.
"And Izuku!" Momo called out as he made it to the door. "Remember to not respond to her!"
He couldn't help but get a scowl as Hitsuki made her way to the ring, standing across from him with her hands stuffed in her pockets. Something about how nonchalant she had been was rubbing him the wrong way.
Midnight seemed to notice the tension between the two, making her announcement sound eerily quieter than normal "Match, start"
"May the best fighter win?" Hitsuki called out, her face scrunching up when she noticed that he wasn't going to respond. "She told you didn't she?" He kept staring at her. She shrugged.
"You know, we have a lot in common, you and I. My quirk wasn't good enough for the hero course, and you're here without one. We both had to do whatever we had to to get here, right? It's not fair, is it?" She threw her arms wide. "A man in a woman's world. A villainous quirk like mine in a heroic one."
Her arms fell to her side as her tone darkened, bitterness dripping from her every word. "We didn't have the world laid at our feet, not like that naive bitch I fought before, we had-" her monologue was cut short as Izuku finally spoke up.
"What the fuck did you just say?" Izuku took a step forward, his voice full of unyielding rage.
Hitsuki felt her quirk slither through his words and activate in the back of her mind. Checkmate. She stretched loosely, and looked to the sky, confident that she had already won.
"I said that we didn't have the world laid at our feet like that naive bitch I took down on the first round." She smiled, "I'm sorry for this, but could you step out of the ring for me? I know you have something to prove, but so do I."
"You have five seconds to apologize."
Hitsuki's eyes snapped back down to the man who just responded back to a command, head tilted forwards and expression cast in shadow by his hair.
"Turn around and walk out of the ring, now ." Maybe he hadn't heard her, her quirk was active, she could feel it in her head. What is going on?
The man's foot raised up and took a step, cement groaning slightly under the force behind it.
A step forward.
"Five."
"W-wait, what?"