warnings: capslock, Endeavor
"HEY HEY HEY AND WELCOME BACK! WHAT GREAT RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES, HUH? ARE YOU READY FOR OUR TOURNAMENT?"
The crowd cheers. Izuku can hear them, standing where he is, waiting to be called into the arena, where he will fight Tsuyu.
"IT'S PROMISING TO BE QUITE THE INTERESTING ONE! I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE WHAT THESE STUDENTS HAVE IN STORE FOR US, ESPECIALLY AFTER THAT CAVALRY BATTLE!"
"FIRST UP: WE HAVE CLASS A'S RESIDENT BELOVED FROG GIRL, ASUI TSUYU!"
The crowd roars as Tsuyu, presumably, steps into the arena.
"VERSUS…. CLASS C'S MIDORIYA IZUKU, THE MASTERMIND BEHIND THE ALLIANCE THAT TURNED THE TABLES! HE'S ONLY USED HIS QUIRK ONCE FOR THE ENTIRE FESTIVAL, AND I DOUBT ANY OF YOU COULD TELL ME WHAT HE DID!"
Izuku steps forward, into the light. The crowd is cheering, and Izuku can see Tsuyu waiting for him, up on the platform. She waves as he joins her, and he waves back.
"THE RULES ARE SIMPLE: FIGHT UNTIL ONE OF YOU IS IMMOBILIZED OR OUT OF BOUNDS!"
"FIND YOUR PLACES!"
Tsuyu and Izuku are already in their places, staring each other down across the space of the court. He has a small advantage: he knows her quirk, while she knows nothing of his.
"No hard feelings?" he asks.
"No hard feelings," she confirms.
"FIGHT!"
Tsuyu makes the first move, leaping forwards, crossing meters of space with a single jump. Izuku pivots, sending her sailing past him, and she lands just beyond where she'd been aiming. She turns, just a little too slow to counter his fist, and it smashes into her cheek, knocking her backwards. Izuku follows up with a sharp knee to the stomach. Her breath wheezes out of her, and he hooks one leg behind hers with the intention of throwing her to the ground.
It works, and he hesitates. He knows the spectators are there for a show. Most of him says: make it efficient. Don't draw it out. Don't make it any more humiliating than it has to be. Another part, though, asks: what if the crowd is bored? They just got robbed of seeing the flashiest quirks in action.
He doesn't get a choice. Tsuyu kicks him, sending him flying halfway across the court and rolling a few meters more. She almost knocked him out of bounds with that one kick, and he scrambles to his feet as she stares at him from across the arena.
"You hesitated," she says.
"Just thinking. The crowd wants a show, right?"
She nods. "Right. You want to give them a show?"
"Do you?"
Her eyes narrow, and Izuku feels a fresh dose of adrenaline hit his veins. "Come get me," she says.
Oh.
Oh no.
She's making him chase her.
Izuku sighs. Well, he wanted to give them a show, so this'll be a show. He starts running across the court, dodging her tongue once, twice, and then she jumps away.
They spend several minutes doing this, and the whole time, Izuku wishes he had just thrown her out of bounds when he had the chance. She's not letting him get close, and he'll never be able to close, considering how easily she leaps away, and he's just going to get tired—
A pink tongue flashes by his ear as he ducks to the right.
Wait.
He could bring her to him.
She leaps away again, and he pauses to catch his breath.
"What's wrong?" Tsuyu asks, her voice warm with amusement. "Getting tired?"
"You wish," Izuku replies, grinning and pivoting to run towards her again. His focus narrows down to one moment—There! Her tongue! It's aimed at his left shoulder, and as it reaches him, his left hand flashes out and wraps around it. Automatically, he leaves his pinky up, despite his quirk generally not working against mutations.
He turns, his stance widening, and brings his right arm up to also grab Tsuyu's tongue. It's pretty sticky, thankfully, so it's not like he's trying to hold onto something as slippery as a normal tongue (he's also trying not to think of the fact he's holding onto her tongue).
With his grip found, he pulls, seeing Tsuyu's eyes widen. She makes the choice to leap forward and up, over him, but he reels her tongue in like he's reeling in a rope and she's pulled down, towards him. Her arms open up, and she crashes into him, wrapping her limbs around his body like a starfish and sending him crashing to the ground. His arms are free, thankfully, and he reaches behind her head, grabs a handful of hair, and yanks.
She cries out, startled, and her right arm lets go of his torso to reach around and free her hair from his grip. With his free hand, his left hand, Izuku jabs her in the solar plexus and throwing her off. In the moments she tries to recover, he picks her up and carries her to the boundary line. She struggles, but also she's trying to breathe again, and it's not much trouble to just… toss her out of bounds.
"ASUI IS OUT OF BOUNDS! MIDORIYA WINS!"
A couple of the on-call nurses run to the court from the sidelines to fuss over Tsuyu. One of them glances him over but, well, he only took one hit that entire fight, really, so they're not very concerned about him.
The two nurses help Tsuyu off the field as she regains the ability to breathe, with Izuku hovering awkwardly around them. Yeah, they said the whole "no hard feelings" thing before they started, but it's one thing to say that and another to carry it out after getting punched.
"That was a good fight," Tsuyu croaks, now walking under her own power. "Thanks for letting me show off a little. Can I call you Midori?"
"Yeah, of course!" Izuku replies, grinning at her. "You made it a real challenge, too! I started chasing you and I was thinking, I have made a mistake, because I didn't think there was any way I could catch you! And of course you can call me Midori."
"But you figured it out," Tsuyu replies. She blinks up at him, and he gets the destabilizing feeling that she's looking through him to his soul. "You're very resourceful, aren't you." It's not a question, and Izuku reaches up to twirl a lock of hair in his fingers.
"Yeah," he shrugs, feeling a blush rising to his cheeks. "Anyways, I'm sure your classmates are waiting for you to join them!"
"They are," Tsuyu agrees. "Good luck in the rest of your fights."
"Thanks!"
They separate, heading for their individual class sections. Izuku turns the corner…
…And runs right into Endeavor, bouncing off his chest.
Endeavor towers over him. The flames on his shoulders, on his face make him to be some sort of titan, and the expression in his eyes as he looks down at Izuku makes his blood freeze.
There's so much hatred there.
"I'm sorry," Izuku says, straightening up and keeping eye contact with Endeavor. "I didn't see you there."
Endeavor says nothing, and Izuku keeps his shoulders back and chin up as they stare each other down.
"You got lucky in the cavalry battle," Endeavor speaks first.
"That wasn't luck," Izuku snaps back, meeting the pro's glare with one of his own for the first time.
Endeavor's eyes narrow, his glare, if possible, growing more severe.
"Just know," he growls, "the next time you compete against Shouto, you won't be so lucky."
With that, Endeavor shoves past Izuku, shoulder-checking him into the wall. Izuku's stunned for a moment before he turns to look over his shoulder at Endeavor's back.
"There's a whole hallway, you know!" he calls. There's no response, so Izuku just rubs the shoulder that had hit the wall and continues up to where the rest of his class is waiting. Mori waves him over, patting the open spot next to her. Izuku joins her, since Wakana and Shinsou are both already down in the waiting rooms, preparing for their goes.
Down in the arena, the match between Hamasaki and Rin has just started.
"That was a great match!" Mori says, slinging an arm around Izuku's shoulder. He tenses, for just a moment, and she's about to remove it when he reaches up and stops her. He relaxes, and she leaves her arm there.
"Thanks," he says.
Down in the ring, Hamasaki dodges another round of Rin's scales. So he can fire them off for distance attacks. That's important to remember if Rin's the one to win this round.
"Who do you think will win?" Akiyama leans down. His eyes are tired, but he's watching the ring below with interest.
"Hamasaki stands a strong chance of winning if she can just close the distance," Izuku replies, one hand coming up to cradle his chin. He wishes he'd brought one of his notebooks up, or grabbed his phone out of 1-C's staging room. "If Rin can keep her at range, then he'll probably win by virtue of outlasting her. I doubt he's figured out exactly what her quirk is, so he might be waiting until she uses it to make any big moves."
How long can Rin keep firing his scales, though, before he runs out of stamina? He also needs to save energy for future fights, if he expects to make it past the fight with Hamasaki, which means he can't afford to keep firing scales at her indefinitely.
Down in the ring, Hamasaki is making moves. She extends her arms, the elastic limbs coming at Rin from two sides while she extends her legs to jump over his projectile scales. It's over in moments after that. He dodges one hand, but the other one is there, grabbing a wrist, and then the other arm is wrapping itself around him, and then he's wrapped in her arms, writhing like a snake.
"RIN IS IMMOBILIZED! HAMASAKI WINS!"
The arena starts cheering, and in the 1-C seats, the whole class jumps to their feet, yelling and screaming.
"WHAT A TWIST! SO FAR, TWO OUT OF TWO MATCHES HAVE GONE TO GENERAL STUDIES STUDENTS! WHO WOULD'VE THOUGHT THAT'S HOW THIS FESTIVAL WOULD GO?"
On the other side of Mori, Yamazaki is screaming her head off.
"I didn't take you as someone to be so invested," the student sitting on Yamazaki's left, Nakamura, says.
"Kyou is actually very competitive!" Mori answers for her friend, clasping her hands in front of her as she smiles.
"Then why didn't she move on to the tournament?" Nakamura asks, tilting her head.
"Because I don't want to move to the hero course," Yamazaki replies, shrugging. "Others do. I'd rather give them that chance than steal it for myself when I don't even want it."
"Oh," Nakamura says, and Izuku feels a flash of warmth towards Yamazaki.
"That's super cool of you," he says, leaning around Mori to smile at the short girl. "That's really generous!"
Yamazaki looks back at him, narrowing her eyes, and then nods and ducks her head.
"NEXT UP: WE HAVE THE BEAST OF CLASS B, SHISHIDA JUROTA!"
Izuku leans forwards, recognizing the name of Shishida's quirk. It's a transformer type, according to Aomi, allowing him to grow to a larger size (not that he needs much help with that), with the downside of making him much more… rash.
"AND ON THE OTHER SIDE, CLASS C'S SYREN SONG, NAKANO WAKANA!"
Wakana looks tiny standing across from Shishida, but her shoulders are squared and Izuku knows exactly what her expression must be, despite being unable to see it.
"FIGHT!"
Shishida immediately activates his quirk while Wakana begins singing. Most of the stadium can't hear it, since she really doesn't want to put all the spectators to sleep, but there's no doubt in Izuku's mind that Shishida is getting the full brunt of it.
His powered-up form must grant him a resistance to it, though, because it's slow to take effect, and Wakana needs to put a lot of effort into dodging, which occasionally interrupts her voice, which makes it take even longer to take full effect on him.
It's inevitable, though, and five minutes in, Shishida slumps to the group.
"ACCORDING TO THE RULEBOOK, UNCONSCIOUSNESS COUNTS AS IMMOBILITY! NAKANO WINS!"
Once again, the 1-C section loses their shit, and the excitement is beginning to spread to the other general course sections, with 1-D and 1-E starting to throw support behind their fellow general studies students. Mori turns and wraps her arms around Izuku in exaltation, and he can't help but hug back.
"THAT'S THREE FOR THREE IN THE GENERAL COURSE MATCHUPS! THE NEXT ONE IS A BIT DIFFERENT, THOUGH, NO GENERAL STUDIES STUDENTS HERE!"
There's an electric current running through them as they all sit down, chattering and talking to each other. They just have Shinsou and Fukui left to go, from their class, but Izuku is looking forward to watching the next match.
"NOW COMING IN, WE HAVE URARAKA OCHAKO, CLASS A'S INFINITY GIRL!"
Ah, she's probably called that after her score on the softball throw, one that Mashirao had relayed to the rest of the friend group with excitement.
"AND ON THE OTHER SIDE, THE ONLY SUPPORT COURSE STUDENT TO MAKE IT TO THE TOURNAMENT, HATSUME MEI OF CLASS H!"
Hatsume strides out, grinning and waving to the crowd. She's wearing her 'babies', yes, but so is Uraraka? Izuku is… a little confused.
"Why is Uraraka wearing support gear?" Akiyama asks, echoing Izuku's thoughts.
It becomes obvious as soon as Mic calls for the fight to begin. It's a marketing ploy. Uraraka can't even get close to Hatsume.
Rather than watching the match, most of class 1-C turns their attention to Hamasaki and Wakana as they walk up together. The two girls are chatting, Wakana grinning as wide as Izuku's ever seen her, and Izuku can't help the smile that spreads across his own face in response.
"I can't wait to meet you in the pit," Hamasaki says, walking towards Izuku with a lopsided smile on her face. "You're going down."
Izuku hums, noncommittally. "Don't get cocky," he says, smile returning. "You don't even know my quirk yet."
"You… don't have one, right?" Hamasaki asks, frowning. "I could've sworn I heard somewhere that you're quirkless."
"Oh, I have a quirk," Izuku replies, his smile growing just a little wider and just a little toothier. Hamasaki gulps.
"That sounds threatening," she says, taking a step back. "I feel threatened."
The match ends after Hatsume's shown off all her support gear, the 1-H student stepping out of bounds on her own and bowing to the audience.
"AND HATSUME'S STEPPED OUT OF BOUNDS! URARAKA WINS!"
"That is not a win," Izuku whispers. Meanwhile, Yamazaki turns and looks over her shoulder at the rest of the class.
"Look alive, everyone!" she yells. "Shinsou's next!"
A cheer rises from the class, shouts of 'go Shinsou!' and 'yeah!' and 'Let's go, Class C!' rising up. Most of them are participating excitedly, but Adachihara looks angry and Oshiro's lip is curled up in a small sneer. Oshiro, at least, cheers for Shinsou, despite looking like she'd rather rip his skin off herself.
"AND FOR OUR NEXT MATCH, STANDING OUT FOR HIS FOUL MOUTH DURING THE CAVALRY BATTLE, CLASS C'S SHINSOU HITOSHI!"
…Shinsou yelled loud enough that the spectators could understand what he was saying? Okay. Whatever. The roar from the general studies section is still loud, and Shinsou glances back, catching sight of all three classes on their feet, cheering for him.
Please win, Shinsou, Izuku thinks.
"AND IN THE OTHER CORNER, CLASS B'S GHOST GIRL IN RESIDENCY, YANAGIIIII REIKO!"
Yanagi was one of the Class B students that Aomi brought around to lunch with the group as often as possible. Out of everyone, she got along the best with Tokoyami. Hopefully Shinsou had seen enough of her to know what buttons to push.
"FIGHT!"
There's no way to hear what Shinsou says, and no way to read his lips with his back to Izuku and his head tilted down like that. Yanagi responds, though, and goes still, and then she turns and walks herself right out of bounds.
"AND YANAGI IS OUT OF BOUNDS! FOUR FOR FOUR WITH THE GENERAL STUDIES STUDENTS, SHINSOU WINS! WHAT AN UPSET!"
There's a moment of confused silence from the General Studies classes, but Izuku and Wakana both take the courage to jump to their feet and cheer for their friend, and like a spell is broken, the rest of the class follows suit.
Yanagi and Shinsou speak with each other as they walk out of the field together. It's hard to tell, with those two, what the emotions involved are, and Izuku resolves to ask Shinsou as soon as he gets upstairs.
"FOR THIS ROUND, WE FINALLY HAVE TWO HERO COURSE STUDENTS FACING EACH OTHER! BOTH FROM CLASS A, WE HAVE OUR MANY-ARMED FRIEND, SHOUJI MEZOU, AND OUR PURE-HEARTED LADY OF NATURE, SHIOZAKI IBARA!"
Shiozaki was the rider of the team that had challenged Team Todoroki for the entire length of the cavalry battle. That took some guts, and some confidence, and she had a powerful quirk to back her up.
…It was unlikely that Shouji would win.
"FIGHT!"
It's over in moments. Shouji runs forwards, Shiozaki sends her vines out, and he can't even reach her before her vines wrap around him like a spider snaring her prey. Present Mic doesn't call it for a few moments, to see if Shouji has enough strength to break free, but he doesn't.
"SHOUJI IS IMMOBILIZED! SHIOZAKI WINS!"
"I hope Yanagi doesn't say anything to her about my quirk."
Izuku whips around to see Shinsou taking the seat next to him.
"I don't think they know each other," Izuku replies, leaning over to nudge Shinsou with his shoulder. "You did great, by the way!"
"Thanks," Shinsou replies. The corner of his mouth tips up in a smile, and Izuku grins back at him.
"OUR NEXT FIGHT CONTAINS THE FINAL COMPETITOR FROM CLASS C, DRAGON BOY FUKUI RYUUNOSUKE, UP AGAINST CLASS A'S PUNK-ROCK PRINCESS, JIROU KYOUKA!"
Izuku cheers for both of them. He can't necessarily call Fukui a friend, because they barely know each other, but he needs to stand in solidarity with the rest of his class.
On the other hand, Jirou is definitely a friend and definitely someone he's rooting for.
"FIGHT!"
Fukui has training. So does Jirou. In the end, it will come down to whoever can make the best opening for themselves most consistently.
And that's Jirou.
Despite his size advantage and his quirk, Jirou's constant feints with her earphone jacks has him almost always on the back foot, and she knocks him out-of-bounds with a final solid kick.
"FUKUI'S OUT OF BOUNDS! JIROU WINS!"
A roar, from Class A. While Shiozaki is a member of their class, she won in moments by beating another member of their class. Jirou's fight was drawn-out, close in skill level, and against a student of another class. Uraraka didn't get the same cheer because her win could only be called that on a technicality, given that Hatsume had controlled the whole fight.
"There's a fifteen-minute break between rounds, right?" Shinsou asks, and Izuku nods.
"Yeah. That's good for me—I get to see what Tokoyami is capable of," he says. Shinsou nudges his side with an elbow.
"You're getting awfully cocky there if you're already acting like you're going to face Tokoyami in the finals."
Izuku chuckles and ducks his head, heat rising to his face. "W-well! Not cocky! But I do think there's a strong chance I'll make it there."
"I know," Shinsou agrees. His smile is slightly bigger now. "But it might be me you're fighting in the finals, you know."
"Well then we already know how that's going to go," Izuku replies, grinning at him. "I'll walk myself right out of bounds and save you the trouble of having to brainwash me."
That draws a laugh out of Shinsou, who covers the lower half of his face with a hand.
A heat rises to Izuku's cheeks that has nothing to do with embarrassment or the excitement of the day.
Present Mic's voice snaps his attention back to the arena.
"IT'S TIME FOR THE FINAL FIGHT OF OUR FIRST ROUND! BOTH STUDENTS OF CLASS A, WE HAVE OUR TAIL-WIELDING TEEN, OJIRO MASHIRAO, FACING DOWN THE DREAD DENIZEN OF THE DARK, TOKOYAMI FUMIKAGE!"
Izuku, Shinsou, and Wakana all cheer loudly for their friend.
"Go Mashirao!" Wakana's leaning over the railing, projecting her voice as loud as it'll go (which is, given her quirk, pretty loud). "Kick his ass!"
Mashirao glances back, surprise on his face before a smile spreads across his features and he turns back to the fight, facing Tokoyami.
"WOW! CLASS C SURE HAS QUITE THE MOUTH ON THEM! DID YOU KNOW ABOUT THIS, SNIPE?"
"Ooh, called out," Shinsou says, quiet enough only Izuku can hear him.
"FIGHT!"
Mashirao rushes forwards as Tokoyami summons Dark Shadow. He dodges the first strike by the quirk, but the second one lands, Dark Shadow nailing in the abdomen with his head and pushing Mashirao right out of the court.
"OJIRO IS OUT OF BOUNDS! TOKOYAMI WINS!"
Izuku cheers for his other friend, despite Mashirao's loss. It was disappointing, sure, but sometimes bad quirk matchups just… happened.
"Let's head down to the waiting room," Wakana says, standing. Fukui walks in, his head down and eyes narrowed, and he ignores his four classmates who leave as they pass by him. Izuku, the last in line, reaches out to grab his bicep.
"Hey, that was a good fight," he says.
"…Yeah. Thanks," Fukui replies, glancing over at Izuku. Izuku lets go and follows his classmates out.
Hamasaki splits off from them, ostensibly to go use the bathroom, and so the three of them can talk freely.
"Are you going to use your quirk on her?" Shinsou asks.
"I haven't decided yet." Izuku frowns. "Her win condition is to wrap her limbs around me. My win condition is to knock her out-of-bounds. I think…" he glances down at his hands. His wrists are wrapped, like usual, and all ten fingers are bare. "I think I'll use my quirk if I need to. I won't open with it, but I can probably use it even if she gets her arms around me. Hopefully I'll get her out before that happens."
"How?" Wakana asks.
"I'll probably play around the boundary lines," Izuku replies, imagining the fight in his head, thinking about what he'd seen of Hamasaki's fight against Rin. He hadn't seen much, but it would have to be enough. "Hamasaki is… raw. I don't think she has much training. She'll probably rely on me being unable to fend off attacks from multiple directions, like Rin. I'll probably just… try to grab and throw, like I did with Tsuyu. Although she might be expecting that…" he trails off into a mutter, considering plans and strategies until the three of them were standing by the waiting rooms.
"Well, good luck," Shinsou says, and Izuku smiles.
"Yeah, you too!" he says. "I'm sure you'll both do great."
"Thanks." Wakana's smile is small but genuine, once again not showing her teeth, while Shinsou nods.
"I'll see you in the finals," he says, putting a hand on Izuku's shoulder and pushing him into the waiting room. Izuku turns to wave before closing the door. He runs through some exercises, warming up his muscles until Midnight's voice over the PA summons him up to the field again.
"ARE YOU READY FOR ROUND TWO OF THE TOURNAMENT?"
The crowd roars. Izuku can't judge, properly, whether the crowd is any more or less excited than normal years, but he knows that they've given the world something to talk about.
"WE START WITH THE CUNNING CLASS C STUDENT WITH THE MYSTERY QUIRK, MIDORIYA IZUKU!"
Izuku steps out, once again, into the light.
"AND IN THE OTHER CORNER, ANOTHER MEMBER OF CLASS C, SHE OF THE BENDY LIMBS, HAMASAKI MIO!"
Hamasaki walks up to stand across the court from Izuku. She's swinging her arms and rocking forwards and backwards, but she smiles widely at him when he catches her eye.
He smiles back. "No hard feelings?"
"No hard feelings!" she agrees. "No matter which one of us wins, Class C advances to the semifinals!"
His smile widens to a grin.
"FIGHT!"
Izuku: hey Tsuyu let's make this fun for the spectators!
Tsuyu: *baits him and jumps around the arena*
Izuku: *chasing her* I have made a Mistake
Izuku, surrounded by amazing people: I am TOO BI FOR THIS
i had a lot of fun with this chapter, particularly in coming up with Mic's epithets for the teens, lol. i hope you're enjoying your false cliffhangers, because they're going to be getting a lot more real soon!
i, too, like Izuku, have realized that i have also Made A Mistake. i'm looking at what i have written, and i'm looking at my outline, and realizing this is going to be a BEAST of a story. i'm at 57k written, and i've barely gotten to the final exams. so i will, on ao3 at least, be splitting this up into multiple stories since the series function there makes it a lot easier to do that. i am uncertain if i will do that here, since i don't like the fact that multiple stories of a series aren't linked to each other here.
thank you for everyone who's read, reviewed, faved, and followed. i appreciate every one of you.
(x-posted on ao3, username: orkestrations)
