After Todoroki's match against Sero, the next few matches were either very quick, in the case of Shiozaki and Kaminari, along with Aoyama and Ashido, or very long and drawn out, but without much actually going on, like with Iida and Hatsume's match, or Kirishima and Tetsutetsu's. Shiozaki, Ashido, and Iida were the winners of their three matches respectively, and Kirishima and Tetsutetsu ended up with a draw, which was to be settled after the end of the preliminaries with a different competition.
Uraraka and Kacchan's fight, however, was another story entirely. Izuku knew how strong Kacchan was, and as much as he felt Uraraka was strong as well, he could tell she was outmatched from the beginning. She did everything she could to distract Kacchan from her building up of one large attack, by making Kacchan blow up the concrete below them and then using her quirk to levitate the debris over the arena, before dropping it all like a meteor shower on Kacchan's head.
When Kacchan let off a massive explosion to destroy the rocks hurtling towards him, Uraraka rushed forwards and managed to finally tag him with her quirk, removing his gravity as he started to float away. Unfortunately, he simply used his explosions as thrusters to bring him back down and knock her out. Even if she hadn't won, she'd pushed Kacchan harder than Izuku had ever seen anyone else manage.
Momo clapped her hands against her cheeks in an effort to psyche herself up for the next match, since she would be going against Izuku, after all. She knew what all of his attacks did, but the sheer variety of powers Izuku wielded made predicting what he would do difficult. She'd just have to try her best to predict what he'd use on her and adapt accordingly.
As the two of them stood in the arena, Midnight called the beginning of the quarterfinals.
"I know all your moves, Izuku, since I was the one who made them for you. I read all your books on the different ideas, so you I'm ready for whatever you've got!" Momo called out to her friend as she formed a sword similar to Kuromu in her right hand -she had grown quite fond of the sword's feel the longer she used it- and a heater shield over her left.
"You're right Momo, you have read all three of my notebooks," Izuku admitted, before smiling at her, "but there IS a fourth you never saw!"
Momo paled, since she was banking on knowing what he'd be doing before he did it, and now that plan was out the window. She watched him closely for movement, and saw only his shirt flapping gently in the wind and... some odd distortions in the air, with a bright light every once in a while behind him. What was that effect?
Before Momo could figure it out, she felt at least half a dozen strikes hitting her simultaneously. "What!?" she cried out, since she couldn't see what it was that was hitting her. She focused as hard as she could, and... there! She could make out a thin crystal flying through the air towards her, and sliced it in half. The two halves split apart, but kept approaching her all the same, even as dozens of the near-invisible crystals hit her from the front, pushing her back towards the boundary.
She had to figure out how to defend against them, some way to see them... powder! If she sprayed out powder into the air, it would coat the crystals and let her see them better!
"AND THE WINNER BY RING-OUT IS IZUKU MIDORIYA!" Momo looked down, shocked to find that her foot had slid past the line marking the arena while she was trying to come up with a new plan.
"You got a bit flustered there for a bit after the first attack, are you okay Momo?" Izuku said as he jogged over to her, the crystals in the air having retreated back into his shirt.
"Yeah, I was just... I couldn't come up with a plan fast enough to take care of the new attack..."
"Well that's something you can work on then, right? I'm sure you can come up with ideas fast enough, you're a smart girl, you just have to work on not getting so stressed by the unknown, you know?"
"Yeah... yeah, you're right! I'll work on that, and next time, I won't lose!" Momo could tel he had been trying to cheer her up, and it definitely worked. She felt a new fire light under her as she left the arena with Izuku, the two walking beside each other as they discussed different approaches she could have taken.
Shiozaki's match with Todoroki went about as Izuku expected, in that it ended quickly with Shiozaki in a large block of ice, although noticeably it was smaller than the one he used against Sero, so perhaps he was holding back.
Ashido's match with Iida was nearly as quick, since Ashido didn't really have anything she could do with her acid that could account for Iida's raw speed, allowing him the victory. Kirishima and Kacchan took quite a bit longer, but when it comes to a battle of attrition, Kacchan's quirk functions based on his sweat, so he tends to get stronger the longer a battle lasts, up to a point. Kirishima wasn't able to hold out long enough for Kacchan's strength to start waning, and was defeated rather quickly once he ran out of stamina for his quirk.
Izuku stepped up to the arena for the third time, this time with Todoroki facing him down, the boy's face a mask of cold indifference.
"So, have you decided to use your full power this time Todoroki?" At his lack of reaction, Izuku shook his head. "A shame, then, I'll have to find a way to make you realize that you can't hold back all the time then.
Izuku lifted up his left hand, and snapped it downwards. The sound of crackling could be heard before the metal surrounding his ring finger and reaching up towards his shoulder slid inwards, revealing a slightly misshapen, clear crystal with a white tinge to it, cold water vapor drifting down from it's surface. The panels around his thumb and running up his forearm shifted outwards, creating a barrier between the metal below and the rest of his arm and body, and he brought his middle finger up to his thumb.
"LET THE SEMIFINALS, BEGIN!"
Izuku snapped his fingers as Todoroki's wave of ice rushed forwards, and white light engulfed the arena.