From the moment Nanami started to neutralise Bakougo's fire, the viewers in the stands started theorizing. However, since other than the students and the teachers, no one knew about her quirk in any amount of detail, their theories were mostly baseless. Nonetheless, everyone was on the edge of their seat as Bakougo had been on the attack throughout the event, even when he didn't need to! But, on 2 occasions he either shifted his attention from someone or was thwarted in his offence Nanami was always there. If there was someone, who people were looking out for, other than Todoroki, it had to be Bakougo who managed to stay at everyone's centre of attention. However, with her mysterious application and interesting quirk, Nanami also entered that spotlight!
"If it's not Mina's quirk, then whose quirk is she copying?", was a question on the mind of the students. Mina, for a fact, knew that it wasn't her quirk, and others realised that soon enough. But they were no closer than that. For the first time in a long while, Monoma had nothing to say. However, Kendo had a hunch. As it turns out, so did Yaoyorozu!
As Yaoyorozu tried to produce a shield on her hand, she couldn't do it! Though she was still uncertain as to what Nanami was producing using her quirk. Bakougo, on the other hand, just managed to piece it all together a moment too late! Kendo's eyes widened up when she put it all together, still the most surprising thing for her that Nanami paid attention in the Chemistry class because she always seemed to be dozing off during class!
"I got it!", Kendo exclaimed at that point.
"What is it?"
"She's using Yaoyorozu's quirk to make Carbon Dioxide. Liquid Carbon Dioxide to be exact, which is a Fire extinguisher, a major part of it to be precise."
"Ah, so that's why she wanted to know what Bakougo exploded?", Monoma still had a few doubts though this explanation a lot of sense.
"But I don't know how she was so sure that Bakougo doesn't create the oxygen for the explosion himself…"
At this point, Setsuna realised what had happened, and she jumped into the conversation to explain the technicalities, "The Fire extinguisher would still work if he was producing his oxygen because the equilibrium would shift backwards…"
Most people zoned out once they got to know that Nanami created a fire extinguisher but they were surprised that she thought it through.
"I always thought she jumped headfirst into battle", was what most people were thinking. Monoma, however, understood what happened after his discussion and felt a need to be himself and brag to section A how a B-section student got the upper hand against their 'best' student!
However, as Nanami followed this attack up by using Todoroki's quirk and freezing the fire extinguisher on Bakougo's arm, frost started developing on her body. Todoroki needs to overuse his quirk to be hindered by frost, but Nanami's inferior copy hindered her almost instantly even though she just froze someone's hands. Thankfully, she didn't take out her anger of her parent's parenting by not using a quirk and so she couldeasily melt the frost using the fire on the right side of her body.
"Wait, when did she copy Todoroki's quirk?"
"Maybe in the first race, they were almost head to head near the end…"
"Yeah that's quite possible"
The 'how' didn't bother Bakouogo in the least, but seeing his opponent slowed down was all he needed to go on the offensive. He landed a clean punch, but Nanami returned the favour with an equally strong counter and pushed him back. With the time she gained by pushing back her opponent, she melted her frost and then snapped her fingers.
Bakougo, being unable to attack using his quirk, attacked her with his frozen hands, hoping to have them unfrozen while attacking. But as Nanami returned to her normal state, she could easily avoid Bakougo's attacks and counter with a strong kick to his gut! This not only sent Bakougo flying away but he couldn't even land on his legs and fell to the ground.
But he wasn't out of bounds and hadn't given up, the fight was still on! As Nanami approached a knocked down Bakougo, he frantically smashed his hands onto the ground to break the ice. But once he broke the ice, the foam had almost solidified and would take some time melt off his hand. However, time was the one thing he didn't have!
As Bakougo tried to create distance between them, Nanami easily caught up and landed a punch on his face and knocked him down again! At this point, the match seemed like a sealed deal. If anyone doubted that soon changed their minds as Bakougo tried to get up again only to be knocked down by another punch from Nanami. It was painful to look at for a few people, some 'Pros' thought that it was well deserved for what he did in his match against Uraraka. However, amidst all this Bakougo hadn't given up as he stood up once again.
"His sheer will to not lose is… excellent, but… is there any point?", the gossip started in the stand but it increased manifolds when Nanami sat down next to Bakougo!
"You… Are you fucking UNDERESTIMATING ME? If you aren't going for the win…", Bakougo said as he tried to get up once again! Nanami said nothing but punched him down once again, but Bakougo wasn't done yet, she could feel it.
"What is this guy… We have won, why is he pushing himself so much?", Tetsuya 2.0 was confident when he thought that they had won. But, even knocked down, Bakougo's presence was intimidating!
"I may be weird, but this doesn't feel right…"
"This gimmick? I mean I know you are thinking that but why? You were the one who thought of this plan. I say 'you' not us, I didn't understand a bulk of it."
"I know what you are saying, I mean...", she knocked down Bakougo with an elbow to his back as he tried to get up again, "I agree with you. I guess you know that, but…"
"Jeez is this about pride? That you didn't earn this place?"
"It partially is, but not completely. I mean not only am I thankful for this opportunity, but I also wanted this in a way, I guess. But its more about him."
"I think he's scary and we should finish this match now by throwing him out or something.", Tetsuya 2.0 was genuinely scared of Bakougo and was most surprised as to how someone as scary as Bakougo entered a hero course! But as Nanami knocked him down once more, Tetsuya 2.0 realised that it might be his strong will. Something which Nanami clearly lacked.
"You are right, I think. But look at him! He fought his way through everything, never avoiding any danger, giving it his all. Don't want to be that guy, but if not to me, Kirishima would have easily lost to him. But this guy, he had a chance of going to the finals. He earned it and is worthy of that spot. Something he'd have earned on his own!"
"You are wrong though! Don't you dare think about throwing the match!"
"I won't and besides then he wouldn't have earned it and any half-baked reasoning I might have for throwing the match would be meaningless then."
"So, what are you waiting for finish it!", he couldn't put it in words, but Tetsuya 2.0 could feel an oncoming danger!
"I suppose you are right…"
"I don't think I am responsible for you having multiple personalities, you were definitely bipolar before I came here!"
"Rude but you are not completely wrong!"
As she snapped back to reality Bakougo, even though he was sluggish, managed to get back up again. This time, however, Nanami didn't knock him down with a punch, but she swept his legs off the ground and slammed him down! She then faced his palms down and held him in a lock to completely hinder his movement.
Since this immobilised him, if she held him in that position for long enough, she could win because her opponent is unable to move and even though, the fire extinguisher was not on his hands anymore, since his palms were forced to face down, any explosion would hurt him more than his opponent. Her lock was near perfect and so was her plan to deal with Bakougo's explosion. But she underestimated him, she underestimated what he would do for a chance to win!
Just as Midnight started lifting her hands to declare then winner, Nanami could hear small cracking sounds and so she loosened her grip on one of his hands by mistake. But that wasn't something Bakougo needed! He indiscriminately fired a huge explosion from both his hands, knowing full well that one of them would hurt him more than his opponent, but together, both his explosions could potentially damage his opponent more. He didn't know that, but if there was a chance, he was willing to take it!
As the shockwave from the huge explosion reached the viewers, both the fighters were in the ring. Bakougo had burnt the right side of his shirt but he could still stand. Nanami, however, had been pushed back to the other edge of the stadium. From the looks of it, she shielded most of her body by her right hand! Her right hand had completely been burnt but miraculously, rest of her body survived!
She had made a serious lapse in judgement and now she couldn't use one of her hands. The pain from the burn was so ridiculous that tears were flowing down from her eyes even though there was a smirk on her face!
Most people in the student's block were in shock. Monoma was scared that they'd lose to A-section, everyone else was worried about Nanami's right hand. Some people still had some faith that she could do something about it, but the hope was faltering! For the rest, the sudden reversal was shocking, but everyone looked in anticipation as an almost completely beaten down Bakougo, flew towards his opponent to try and finish the match!
Nanami lifted her left hand and snapped her fingers as Bakougo came crashing down near her feet. She kicked him back in the same manner as she did when she had both hands functioning. Nanami uttered her first words of the match, "Sorry for underestimating you…", as she lifted her left hand towards Bakougo, "but I'm stronger."
She could hear the same sound she heard when Bakougo fired his explosion, but louder. Not paying attention to that, she fired a huge explosion, as her hands started crumbling back onto her body as her bones broke due to the immense recoil from the blast which was now flying up instead of forward and Nanami blacked out…