"It's time.. for round 1 of this year's Sports Festival finals!" Midnight shouts into her microphone, doing a idol-like pose which made the crowd go wild with anticipation. "I would firstly like to congratulate the 16 contestants who've made it this far! You're all amazing!"

The group of 1-A students who sat up in their designated stands, with the exception of Izuku, Ojiro, Shoto, Hanta, Denki and Tenya, had mixed emotions on her words. "Obviously i am, I don't know about the rest of these dweebs." Katsuki states, gaining an annoyed sigh from Eijiro, who sat next to him.

"C'mon man, we know you're strong." Eijiro whispers, but then gets a deadly stare from Katsuki which shut him up fairly fast.

Kokei ignored his peers, instead, taking a couple sips from a large water bottle. There was one of those water bottle refill stations in the 1-A waiting room, so he used it on the bottle he had bought. He had a nice glisten of sweat on his forehead already, and where he sat in the stands wasn't even in direct light of the sun.

This was due to the mild effort he had exerted during the recreational games. After his hangout with Tsuyu, Kokei went to the event to hone in on his skills. Fumikage also did it, so Kokei used this time to gauge the boy's moves. Most to all of his abilities were based around that dark shadow that propelled from his core. Fumikage used this bird-like thing to head-butt others, slam into others, etc. It looked pretty painful too, so Kokei grew wary of the boy. While Kokei sat in his seat, Ochaco to his right and Mezo to his left, he thought long and hard about a possible plan or strategy to use against his eventual opponent. Unfortunately, there weren't many options. One of the main ones was to use Black, but all the eyes would be on those two and using Black might be pushing it.

"Now, let's jump right into the first matchup!" Midnight announces, "the first one verses one match of this year is: Izuku Midoriya Vs. Mashirao Ojiro!"

With the end of her words, two people began to make their way onto the area below. In the center of the Stadium was a very large flat rectangle of a fighting area. The hero Cementoss was on the outside of the rectangle with his quirk at the ready, while Midnight was on the other side of the arena.

The two people stood up to the plate were none other than Izuku and Ojiro, going into the gladiator fighting arena. One person stood at one end, and the other at the opposite end. It was an imminent war, and it would be entertaining nonetheless. "Both contestants are in the arena, so.." Midnight began, "let the battle begin!"

With the final words from Midnight, the battle commenced. The countdown up at the end of the arena showed 10 minutes for fighting, but Kokei assumed there'd be little to no times seeing that timer reach 0. With the battle beginning, Izuku and Ojiro rushed toward each other and fought valiantly. Well, of course until Izuku used one "Smash!" On Ojiro while he was near the edge of the ring, blasting him out of bounds easily.

While the smoke cleared and it was shown that Izuku's right hand's pointer finger was broken, Midnight announced: "Finish! Round 1 is over, Izuku Midoriya is declared the victor!" As Midnight says this, the crowd erupts with cheers and celebratory shouts.

Ochaco was by far one of the loudest cheerers, going as far as to stand up and wave both her arms around in the air like she was during the Recreational Games while dressed as a cheerleader. Kokei, however, just clapped and admired Ochaco's intense clapping and cheering. Mezo notices this, and acts upon it. "Huh, you've got the hots for Ochaco?"

Kokei quickly faces Mezo, a sweat drop dripping down his forehead. "What're you talking about?!"

Mezo points at Kokei, then at the cheering Ochaco. "The intimate stare you have while looking at her is intense."

Kokei shakes his head and sighs, "no, man. It's just because of something else."

Mezo smirks and nods, "alright, Kokei. If that's what you believe is going on, then I'll believe your word for it." Mezo crosses both his arms and sits back in his seat, leaving Kokei with a sense of shock.

As Kokei turned to look back forward at the arena, Midnight announcing who the next fighters will be, he had a newfound feeling in his chest. This feeling was especially active when he thought, got near, or looked at Ochaco. It was a burning sensation in his chest, and a heart thumping feeling. The only thing he was able to relate it to was the feeling when hanging out with Jenny, which only made Kokei more confused.

It didn't help that whenever Kokei looked at Ochaco, and she looks back as they lock eyes, she always got red cheeks and turned away. Did he do something wrong? And if that was the case, what was it and how could he fix it? And most importantly, why did he care so greatly?

And yet with all these questions at mind, Kokei decided to ignore all of them and attempt small talk. Kokei leans up in his chair, looking down at the cool fight of Shoto and Hanta. Which was coming to a urgent close, with Shoto winning. "That's a uh.. pretty intense fight, huh?" Kokei questions, looking to Ochaco.

Ochaco glances at Kokei, then blushes and looks down. "Y-yeah.."

'Why the hell is she so weird around me!? Was she always like this, is it something i did?' Kokei ran through the ideas in his mind, and yet all he could think of was her just being embarrassed. So instead, he took the offensive approach. "Ochaco, what's up? Why're you so- uhm.. hesitant to talk to me?"

Ochaco doesn't take her eyes from off the ground, talking to floor instead of Kokei. "Because.. you peeped on me."

Kokei sighs and face palms, it all made sense now. Why she looked so flustered when speaking to him, the rosy cheeks and the avoidance. "Oh, yeah, my bad. It was an honest mistake, really."

Ochaco slowly raises her head to look up at Kokei. "Well.. I'm not too upset that you saw me like that.. I'm more mad that Denki and Minoru did!" Ochaco pauses for a moment, "they didn't see much.. did they?"

Kokei blinks a couple times in awe, what she said stunned him. 'She.. she didn't care that i saw!? What the hell?!' Kokei gulped the spit in his mouth before he dared speak again. "Y-y-yeah, they didn't see much at all."

Ochaco smiles and breathes a sigh of relief, "that's good to hear."

"Round 3: Kro vs. Denki Kaminari!" Midnight shouts, causing for the two boys to approach the center stage. Kro stood with a relaxed posture, a flock of crows swooping and swirling around the boy. Meanwhile Denki stood at the other end with a smug smirk on his face. "Both the contestants are in the ring, so, let the battle begin!"

As soon as Midnight finished speaking, Denki charges at Kro. He quickly sprints at the boy with a confident smile on his face. Kro, on the other hand, just stood in the same place. The entire crowd went silent in anticipation, this fight was bound to be a good one. It didn't take all too long for Denki to get within 10 feet of Kro, and once he got there, Denki charged up an electric punch attack. Still, Kro stood and waited.

Until finally, Denki got within a few feet away from Kro and went to land his shocking punch. Then... Denki stopped moving completely. Denki, Kro, Midnight and Cementoss were all standing firmly still. ".. what the..?" Kokei asks, it was like life itself was lagging. The entire crowd had the exact same reaction.

And then, after about 5 seconds, everything resumed as normal. Now, Denki was outside the ring and as for Kro, he stood facing Denki. Kros' crows flocking around him like always. Midnight blinks a couple times at the result of the battle, then, she announces. "Alright, Kro is the victor of this battle!"

And so, without so much as even a word, Kro walks off the arena and leaves. Leaving everyone with many questions, and the only answers they had were odd. Just peculiar and impossible answers for an unanswerable. Luckily, Midnight easily transitions into the next and final event for Section 1 of 2. Tenya vs. Mei.

As the fight commenced, the crowd slowly began shutting up about the weirdness that transpired earlier and get themselves invested in Mei's apparent commercial for her products. Kokei wasn't too interested in this, so, he decided to start up some conversation. "Hey Ochaco uhm.." Ochaco looks to Kokei with a curious look on her face, allowing for Kokei to continue. "Why aren't you mad that i saw you.. like that? It's hard for me to wrap my head around." Kokei questions, causing for Ochaco to get flustered again.

"Because those other two are complete perverts! And i trust you a lot more than them, i know you wouldn't do anything perverted like them." Ochaco states with a smile and a head tilt, making her look only more adorable.

Kokei shakes his head, 'if only she knew.. I'm gonna use that image of her for weeks!'

Shihai sighs, "we didn't need to know all that, dude. I kinda got the point already."

Kokei scratches the back of his head innocently, "I'm glad that you feel comfortable around me.. maybe we can do it again sometime?" Ochaco's eyes suddenly widen, and her mouth slowly gapes as she stares terrifyingly as Kokei. It didn't take long for Kokei to see the fault in his words, but it was already too late. "I-i'm sorry! I didn't mean it in a bad way, that just came out wrong!"

Ochaco turns away from Kokei, giving him the cold shoulder. And the worst part was that he felt he deserved it, not even trying any harder to apologize for his actions. Instead, simply watching the final match.

The fight didn't last long, after a few minutes of Mei using Tenya as her model for all of her tool and gadgets, she walked out the rectangle and forfeited the fight. "Oh? It's over?" Midnight questions, she was bored beyond belief during the whole fight duration. "Well, we now have a victor for Match 4: Iida Tenya!" The crowd applauses, not as strong as normal, but they applause. "And that marks the end of Section 1 of the 1v1 finals! After our short intermission, Section 2 will begin!"

Upon hearing Midnight's words, everyone left in the 1-A seating area stand in unison. "Looks like time to warm up." Katsuki says with a grin, and so, the group of 8 marched. Marching to the place where they'd battled each other one-by-one.

The fight between Tsuyu and Momo was a one sided duel. Momo wasn't too good at thinking on her toes, causing for her to stay on the defensive. Which allowed for Tsuyu to sweep up the victory. "Finish!" Midnight shouts, "We have a winner for Match 5: Asui Tsuyu!"

The crowd roars in cheer, and so does Kokei. He stood at the corridor that lead into the arena, it's where the upcoming fighters waited out until their matches. Kokei felt nervous, but he tried to hide it by smiling snd clapping for Tsuyu. Tsuyu had won, so he felt obligated to win his match as well. It was a necessity now, like eating food and drinking water. "Next up, can i have the Match 6 fighters come up to the stage? Fumikage Tokoyami and Kokei Kyōryokuna!"

'Deep breaths, Kokei, In and out, calm yourself. You're up, no need in fearing now.' Kokei thinks, giving himself a mediocre pep talk.

"This is it, young Kyōryokuna, calm yourself down and don't let them know you're nervous. You mustn't show fear." All for One tells the boy, his voice as calm and knowing as ever. "He has a bird, and you're a air-wielding beast. Victory is ever-so yours, as long as you reach out and grab hold of it. Remember, fear and disbelief on yourself are your only enemies."

Kokei nods his head, jumping side to side to pump himself up for his event. "Yeah, that's right.. i can win!"

AfO huffs and nods, "exactly, now, go on and give these people a show."

With All for One's last few words, Kokei energizes himself up majorly. Practically running out the corridor and looking out at the large sea of crowd above and surrounding him. Their cheers were so loud, and it made him feel like a star, a hero, a somebody.

Kokei swiftly jogged up the stairs to get onto the arena, Fumikage positioned at the other end of the field. It all felt so surreal, he was really going to battle this guy who he knew so little of. "Well, since both competitors are present.. let the battle begin!" Midnight shouts, and just like that, the challenge was underway.

The moment the battle began, both Kokei and Fumikage ran toward one another. This was a first for the battles today, always only having one person race at the other. The crowd waited in anticipation while the two boys neared each other, and then, they met halfway. Fumikage's dark shadow erects from his core, and shifts to slam into Kokei.

Kokei narrows his eyes and prepares himself for impact, he had no plan so he had to devise one on the spot. The shadow slams into Kokei, hitting the center of his chest roughly. Kokei wraps both his arms around the shadow to hold it in place, but, the shadow was too narrow to hold still. Instead, Fumikage pulls the shadow out from Kokei's grips just for it to slam into his face.

Kokei blocks his face off from the attack, hitting his forearms instead. The crowd fell silent in anticipation. So far, it'd been a one sided fight with only one person using their quirk. Kokei takes a few steps away from Fumikage, but he didn't let up. Dark shadow relentlessly slams into Kokei time and time again, making Kokei need to block and dodge as many attacks as he could. He still got hit by a great many of the hits, but he now had a good distance from Fumikage. There was now 20 feet between the two now, and Fumikage wasn't attacking now.

Kokei quickly looks down to the ground, making sure he was still in the rectangle- to which- he was. But for some reason, Fumikage stopped attacking. Was this the distance limit he could use dark shadow from? Kokei smirks, 'good, this is really good.' Kokei stands up tall, practically showing off his bruises and scrapes from battle that put many holes in his uniform. 'This was why i haven't been attacking, i wanted to accurately assess his range. And considering grabbing the shadow was near impossible, it's looking like a ranged battle would suit me better.'

Kokei raises his left hand at Fumikage, time to finally attack. "Push." Kokei speaks, a gust of air shooting at Fumikage. He blocks using dark shadow, covering his face and upper body from the fairly light attack. 'A push won't do much, I should've guessed.' Kokei sighs, looking away from Fumikage for a moment before saying another word. "Destroy."

A hard and forceful gust of air slams into Fumikage, even with him blocking made him slide back. Fumikage vaults to the side of the attack, getting outside its narrow range. Then, he quickly sprints toward Kokei. His only goal: cover the distance between the two.

'Time to test my main strategy.' Kokei brings up both his fists near his chin, pushing himself up onto his toes. And, he simply waited for Fumikage to get closer. Once within 10 feet of Kokei, Fumikage stops running and uses dark shadow for the rest of the distance. The shadow reaches Kokei at a very quick speed, and when it got to him, Kokei swings a hard right punch at it. As he did, his right hand became dark.

There was a moment of pure silence after this, many of the crowd- even Fumikage- were completely confused at Kokei's obnoxious fighting strategy. After a moment of staying still, Dark shadow capitalizes on Kokei's weird attack pattern. But, as Dark shadow got close to Kokei, Kokei simply raises his arm above the shadow. And then, just like when he punched it, dark shadow stayed completely still with a dazed look.

Fumikage narrows his eyes while he on-looked the stalemate dark shadow apparently found itself in. Fumikage huffs, "what is the meaning of this?"

Kokei leans his head up to look Fumikage in the eye, a smirk on his face. "It worked." Kokei's plan had worked, to his surprise. His strategy, seeing if black was effective on dark shadow, was a success.

See, as Kokei punched the dark shadow, the two entities shadows' combined for a moment. Allowing for Kokei to attempt at taking control over the darkness, something he's rarely tried before. This made it possible to stop dark shadow from attacking him, making it paralyzed instead.

But, as their shadows disconnected from being launched away due to the punch, dark shadow had mobility again. This was still futile as soon as Kokei connected their shadows once more by raising his arm over the dark shadow. Now, he had control over the shadow once more.

'I can't just used black in plain sight of everyone, that'd only raise more questions. I have to make some type of cover..' Kokei ponders, then, he moves his arm away from dark shadow. Once he took his hand off dark shadow, Kokei quickly sprints away from Fumikage. Getting around 25 feet distance from him now.

Fumikage sighs, "this fight has gone on for quite long now. Stop your fleeing and fight me like a hero." Fumikage calls out to Kokei, slowly pacing toward the boy.

Kokei nods his head, a drip of sweat dripping down the side of his face. He had a new plan, it should work.. hopefully. It didn't take long for Fumikage to get within 15 feet of Kokei, and as he did, Kokei aimed his left hand at Fumikage. Fumikage stops walking at this sight, he knew the power that hand beheld. "Destroy!" Kokei shouts, but his target wasn't Fumikage.

Instead, he was aiming for the stone between the two. The sheer amount of power this destroy had caused for the stone to crack and piece off. One-by-one pieces broke off and were went up into the air. All this uprooting caused for a good amount of dust, and a fairly thick layer of it.

Kokei quickly runs toward Fumikage, activating Infrared Ray to see the boy through the rubble. And in no time, both Kokei and Fumikage were inside the cloud of dust. "This was the worst choice you could've made, Kokei." Fumikage speaks, his dark shadow letting out a small roar and becoming visibly buffer. "Covering us from the sun like this."

Fumikage sends dark shadow in the direction of Kokei's approaching dark outline. But, there was no collision, dark shadow didn't hit the outline. Kokei grins, holding dark shadow in the palm of his darkened left hand. "No, I've just won."

Kokei's plan of using Air Cannon to create a fog of debris, that'd make cover for himself to use Black. Using Air Cannon, Infrared Ray and black, almost all of the current quirks he had access to. All to make Fumikage defenseless, that's what he was without dark shadow after all.

Kokei firmly grips dark shadow, whispering commands to it. "Dark shadow, attack Fumikage repeatedly. Hard." Kokei removes his hand from Dark shadow, allowing for the thing to fulfill its tasks. Since Kokei had a layer of darkness all around him, he kept the connection to dark shadow alive by embedding himself into the dust.

"Dark shadow- what're you-!" Fumikage shouts, evading and dodging the attacks from the shadow connected to him. But, it was faster and stronger than him. It was only a matter of time before dark shadow got the upper hand on Fumikage, hitting the boy with a flurry of attacks. Head slams, punches, anything it could muster over and over.

It didn't take very long until dark shadow launched its user out of the dust cloud, making Fumikage land fully on the ground. Slowly, Kokei emerges from the dust as well. A condescending stance he had over Fumikage. Fumikage weakly attempts to stand, but Kokei aims his left palm at the boy. "Push."

Cheers rang throughout the crowd loudly, they were loving the amount of action this match had in it now. The forceful air shoves Fumikage back far, but not fully out of the circle. There was around 25 feet until the end of the rectangle. "Push, push, push." Kokei shouts repeatedly, forcefully making Fumikage fall back over and over again. Until finally, he toppled over the barriers of the ring.

"Wow- Fumikage has fallen outside the ring!" Midnight announces, even she was surprised by the state Fumikage was in. Battered, bruised and bloody, even worse shape than Kokei was in at the beginning of the battle. "The winner of match 6: Kokei Kyōryokuna!"

"Amazing, young Kyōryokuna!" AfO congratulates Kokei, patting him on the back. "That was a beautiful display, I'm sure the press'll eat it up! Not to mention all the heroes here, you'll definitely get throughly recognized."

Kokei looks up at the sky, it was nighttime. Of course it was, they were at the same scene where the two had met- which occurred at night. "I really beat Fumikage.. that's kinda hard to believe."

All for One chuckles, "I didn't have a doubt in my mind that you'd succeed. You defeated a strong foe by your lonesome, i really did choose right in making you the successor to my quirk."

Kokei smiles, all the compliments from All for One were nice to hear. "Thanks, Afo. Say, you think my mom saw me win that?"

AfO scoffs, "as if she wouldn't."

Kokei nods, "good point." Kokei kneels down to grab a pebble and throws it at the other side of the alleyway. "So, what am i here for now? Am I sleeping?"

All for One crosses both his arms, "something like that. When you went to the Nurse so you'd get examined, she puckered up to kiss you and you fainted. Out of embarrassment, or disgust.. maybe even lust."

Kokei gasps, "as if I'd pass out from being lusty for her! She's so.. not my type!" All for One begins to loudly laugh, his deep voice making him still sound menacing even when joyed. "What's so funny?"

All for One finally starts slowing down his laughter, "how badly you denied that was hilarious."

Kokei huffs, "it wasn't all that funny.."

AfO doesn't stop laughing, though. He laughs so much that he began to lean on the wall for stability. "You looked so petrified." AfO states between loud bits of laughter.

Kokei looked down to the ground while he stayed squatted, he didn't even notice he was giggling now too. And after a few seconds, he laughed loudly too. All for One slowly calms down his laughter to a halt, gripping at his stomach when he did. "Wow, I haven't laughed like that in countless years. Thank you for that, Kyōryokuna."

Kokei gives All for One a thumbs up, "anytime, man. Anytime."

All for One stands tall once more, giving off his intimidating aura. "That's enough of that. It's time for you to go back in reality, all i ask is you stay focused and determined." All for One speaks, and Kokei felt his vision becoming blurry. All at once, turning him into a wave of colors before making his body disappear completely. AfO chuckles, "The victory and conquering will come with time."

Authors note: That was an intense battle for the first 1v1, and Kokei is the victor! Only a few more battles separate him from the gold. I wonder how much further he'll get.. That's all I've got to say so ill talk to you all later.