Midoriya sat upon an empty infirmary bed, while looking up as his mentor who was giving him a confused questioning gaze. They had managed to convince Recovery Girl to use her office to talk while no one was in it.
"So One for All is what saved you in there?" Toshinori questioned while scratching his head with a frown.
"I think so, it didn't feel the same as my magic. The world lit up in all these colors and….I saw these kind of shadows…." Midoriya explained as he gently run a finger over his mark. "There were eight of them…in fact I think you were one of them. Maybe they were ghosts?"
"I'm a….ghost?" The blonde questioned with a quirked brow. "Considering everything else you've taught me about magic so far I'd believe you if you said yes I think."
"Did you ever have any visions like that All Might?" The greenette questioned as he stood up. The skinny man shook his head as he turned and began to pace around. "Like the old users were rushing in to save you?"
"I mean….Once…when I was new to the power I did have this….vision of sorts. It's like a subconscious trace of the users I think, a sign your getting closer to the power becoming your own. It's most likely just your mind manifesting a sign that you can fight back!"
"I…don't think so…" Midoriya said as he rubbed the back of his neck. "There was something else that happened. I….One of the shadows became a person, a woman, she actually called you out by name-"
"Woman?" All Might suddenly stood stiff, before whirling around with a pained look on his face. "My boy, what did she look like?"
"Uh..well she was about the same height as you, she had long black hair and wore these really bright yellow gloves along with this bright white cape. The rest of her costume was just some sleeveless black suit of some kind…" Midoriya recalled, finger to his chin. He winced slightly as he did, the entire event making his head hurt just a little.
"Holy shit…" All Might muttered as his sunken eyes went wide, before a fist suddenly collided into his injured side, causing him to hunch over as Recovery girl glared at him.
"Watch your language in my infirmary!" The nurse reprimanded as the greenette cringed.
"I was just surprised…and that hurt!" The older man complained, sounding oddly like a petulant child for a moment before turning his gaze back to Midoriya. "That description…. There's no doubt that it was a previous user."
"Huh?"
"That was my mentor, definitely." The lanky man muttered, running a hand through his hair as the greenette blinked in shock. "Nana Shimura…..The seventh holder of One for All."
"Wait seriously?!" Midoriya asked as he jumped off the bed with wide eyes. "I mean I thought it was possible but…."
"You said it wasn't one hundred percent one for all though?" The blonde questioned and Midoriya nodded, turning to the man. "So some combination of your magic and our quirk together has dragged out something…new."
"Yeah. I don't…."
Midoriya sighed. He couldn't say to much yet, what with the Outsider's warning.
"He, the Outsider I mean, he showed up before the match. It wasn't too much important stuff but he did say something about seeing what One for All and my magic could do together." He said, scratching his head. "Annoyingly I guess he's all for fair competition or something because I can't get anything out of him today, like even more than usual he's avoiding saying anything."
"Sounds frustrating." The lanky man nodded and the greenette shrugged, walking to the door. "Leaving?"
"It's going to be on my mind either way, distracting me but we're not gonna get any answers just staying here probably. Not to mention my friends will probably want me to see their matches."
"Fair point. Remember you should be ready for who you might be fighting next." The blonde called after him and Midoriya grimaced as he left the room. 'Right. Todoroki. His match should be coming up next.'
He took off into a light jog, trying to make up for lost time as he made his way up to the spectator stands. For just a moment though, he was stopped when another sudden burst of anger overtook him, yet no one seemed to be around to cause it.
'It's not like the strangers….it's someone I know…..Todoroki?'
"Oh! Deku! We saved a seat for you!" Uraraka said while bouncing in her seat upon noticing the boy. He smiled slightly as the class, minus Bakugou all gave him a warm enough welcome.
"Nice going against that brain wash dude, that must have been super difficult." Hagakure commended him while moving about in that animated way onl she was capable of. Ojiro from behind her just gave a thumbs up, which Midoriya returned with a grin.
"Quite the turnaround at the end." Iida said before sighing with a teasing smile of his own. "And you had to wait until the last possible dramatic moment, like always."
The group snickered at that as Midoriya blushed slightly, taking a seat between Uraraka and Jirou. The purple haired girl just gave him a small smile when sat down, yet it seemed to be more than enough to say everything she was thinking.
Before they could talk anymore, Present Mic's voice cut into the air, signalling the start of the match.
"FROM CLASS 1-A, HE HAS A SWEET POWER AT THE COST OF SOME REALLY FUNKY LOOKING ELBOWS! IT'S THE HERO COURSES HANTA SERO!"
'I'll want to pay attention as best I can, especially here, though it's going to be difficult to focus without being distracted by everything that's going on'. Midoriya thought, leaning over the railing slightly. He grimaced as Todoroki took to the stage and he was once again assaulted by a wave of anger. 'What happened for it to be this strong? He's practically radiating it….'
"ALSO FROM THE 1-A, HE'S HOT AND HE'S COLD BUT HE WASN'T INDECISIVE ABOUT GETTING INTO THE HERO COURSE, IT'S SHOTO TODOROKI!"
In amongst the new rounds of applauding and cheering people were rather loudly discussing the fire and ice teen.
"Isn't that endeavours sons?!"
"The number two hero? No way! He's gonna win this for sure!"
"I mean, lets not go making hasty assumptions, they all got into U.A."
On the stage, Sero was stretching as he said something, Todoroki glaring straight at him.
'Hopefully it lasts long enough for me to get a few notes before it finishes, Sero should at leas-'
"BEGIN!"
Sero immediately threw tape out, wrapping it around the heterochromatic teen and trying to spin him around. Ice shot out from underneath Todoroki's foot and a moment later, it travelled up faster than Midoriya could track.
It certainly didn't leave his vision though as he gulped. In just a second Todoroki had created a gigantic iceberg that shot out over the stadium and almost took off the greenette's head in the process. 'Sweet void, just come at me with a knife if you're gonna try to kill me-Wait crap, that's literally what I'm walking into later, isn't it?'
A hand on his shoulder got his attention and he turned to see Jirou looking at him concerned. "Shit dude, you ok?"
"Yeah, just had my life flash before my eyes."
"I thought Todoroki of all people would be more careful about this kind of thing." Yaoyorozu said with a frown, while the marked boy turned to look at his would be murderer, who was freeing Sero now that he had been declared the winner.
Once more, emotion washed over him but the anger was but a faint memory in amongst a sea of sadness that was definitely visible of the boy's face. 'Todoroki….How can I help you?'
He really should've been focusing on the matches.
He WAS focusing on the matches! He totally was!
…..Ok he was focusing on who won and not really anything within. The greenette let out an audible groan, leaning back in his chair. Kaminari had lost to the girl from 1-B who had barely beat out Bakugou in the preliminary round due to her quirk being a perfect counter to his.
He'd stopped properly paying attention when Kirishima went out next and faced a boy from 1-B with an almost identical quirk that relied on metal instead of rock. They'd gone at each other for ages, as the magic teen lost his mind within the questions that had shown up to him today and ones not yet resolved.
"Who is the stranger? Why can't I send a pro after him now?"
"What was that during the match with shinsou? Did I summon a ghost to save me?"
"What's going on with the abbey investigation? By now they should of found the room, so would he find out what was happening today?"
That last one was starting to settle more into his mind once he realized. He couldn't shake the feeling he got that something was going to go wrong regarding.
"You ok, Midori?" Hagakure questioned beside him and he nodded, looking up at her where she had taken Iida's seat. "You've been a bit out of it…."
"Sorry, just….distracted by something that happened earlier. It's personal." He explained away, shaking his head and looking down towards the arena. He had practically completely blacked out during Aoyoma and Mina's fight but apparently the pink skinned girl ended it quickly. "I'll do my best not to black out on this one though."
"You better! I doubt Iida or Jirou would be happy to learn you missed their match." Uraraka said with a teasing laugh. The greenette nodded with a smile of his own.
"HE'S THE KIDS WITH ENGINES IN HIS LEGS! FROM 1-A, IT'S TENYA IIDA!"
The crowd roared with applauds as the tall teen practically bowed to them all.
"ALSO FROM 1-A, WITH HER MUTATED EARLOBES, YOU CAN'T HIDE ANYTHING FROM THIS HEARING HEROINE! IT'S KYOKA JIROU!"
The girl stood twirling her earjacks lazily as she stared the blue haired teen down.
"Who you rooting for Midori? Either one got more support?" Hagakure asked curiously. The boy shook his head in response as he looked down at his two friends. 'Speaking completely objectively, iida has more of an advantage than Jirou, so if I had to say who was more likely to win it would have to be Iida…'
"There both my friends, Iida was one of my first in a long time and Jirou was my teammate before. I can't root for one or the other, so I'll just hope they put up a good fight with each other." He decided, crossing his arms.
"So basically, you want them to beat each other up instead of finsishing it quickly." Uraraka chimed in, causing the boy to blush.
"T-that's not what I meant Ura-chan!"
"BEGIN!"
Iida made the first move, rushing across the field and reaching out. He seemed to be trying to push Jirou out but the girl was saved barely by her reaction time as she leapt to the side just enough as one of her Earjacks shot out and wrapped around the blue haired teens legs.
'A trap?'
The earjack immediately pulled back with force, using the tall teen's momentum against him and sending him spinning towards the edge, just in time however he managed to redirect and use the flames from his engine to cancel out the speed he had gained.
"She used the same trick you did in practice." Uraraka muttered. "Guess there's only so much you can do to stop Iida when he's using his quirk…"
Both earjacks flew at the boy, the first he dodged however the second he wasn't as fortunate with as it pierced into his arm. He stood straight up as his body seemed to go stiff.
'What the? Is that the same move she used to destroy those one pointers earlier?'
The girl the sent her other Earjack at him, grabbing his leg and tugging as she rushed forth. She looked to be trying to just barrel straight into the boy with her full body weight, seeing as the far outclassed her in terms of weight.
Unfortunately Iida recovered just in time, managing to grab her as she leapt at him and grab her, using the same trick she tried earlier with his momentum to throw her out of bounds.
"JIROU IS OUT OF BOUNDS! IIDA ADVANCES TO THE NEXT ROUND!"
The crowd cheered and clapped wildly as Iida helped his opponent up. Neither seemed to harbour any Ill-will over it, walking off the stage together.
"Well that was quick, not as quick as I expected though." The greenette muttered under his breathe. "What matches are left?"
"Tokoyami and Momo are gonna go toe to toe, then all that's left is Bakugou vs Uraraka and Kirishima's rematch." Hagakure quickly informed and the boy nodded his thanks.
'I wonder….'
He rummaged through his pockets, finding his phone and pulling it out. 'I entirely forgot that the sports festival page has a list of visitors publicly available. I wonder if….'
He blanched as he noted there were over one thousand people. 'Right…..I should have realized that just by looking around. No way I could look up every person on that list and pay attention to the games at the same time.'
Sighing the boy let his gaze wander and realized that Uraraka had walked away at some point, in preparation for her match. 'Maybe….I can help her? It's something to keep my mind busy at least while I watch.'
Momo lost, faster than the greenette had expected. He had been expcecting a mostly fair fight with only a slight advantage towards Tokoyami with Yaourozu's creation needing a moment to form.
Unlike what he had expected of a cat and mouse game of dodging and deflection, Dark Shadow forced the girl out of the ring in no time, leaving her looking defeated.
"Damn…That's gotta feel bad." Ojiro muttered looking on as Hagakure made a noise of agreement. "And I have a bad feeling the next match will be same."
"Right….Bakugou vs Uraraka….I don't envy her right now." Asui jumped in as Midoriya stood up. "Where are you going? Ribbit."
"To wish her luck…."
When he arrived, he found Jirou and Iida had beat him to waiting room. 'So this is where they were.'
"-feel worse?" Came Iida's voice.
"You were both super respectful while still taking each other seriously, while Bakugou is probably just going to want to blow me to kingdom come even after it's all over." Uraraka's answered whatever the question iida asked was as the greenette stepped in, grabbing their attention. "Oh, Deku? Shouldn't you be watching the matches?"
"Not much point really. I keep blacking out and most have ended how I'd predict them to anyways." The greenette explained, only to meet with concerned stares.
"Yeah you were pretty out of it, what was that about anyways?" The brunette questioned and the boy scratched the back of his head.
"Just….something I saw while Shinsou was brainwashing me. It's nothing worth getting into." He deflected, pulling out his notebook. "As for why I came here, I wanted to wish you luck."
"Yeah, you're going to be in for one hell of a fight." Jirou said as she began twirling her earjack around her fingers. Iida placed his hand to his chin as if in thought as he added his own two cents.
"Still, he'll probably hold back because Uraraka's a girl right?" He asked and immediately was hit by a jack from Jirou.
"Wanna elaborate on that prez?"
"I just meant he doesn't seem like the type to acknowledge that any gender can be equal in almost anything!" The blue haired teen expressed as he rubbed his arm.
"He won't hold back." The greenette put in simply, causing Uraraka to squeak. "He may seem that way but….that's not quite right. He doesn't outwardly acknowledge most people because he sees it as admitting weakness in himself, but that also means he'll never hold back no matter who is opponent is."
"Great…" The zero gravity user said as she stood up.
"Ura-chan…..When we first got into U.A, you helped me more than I think you realized. Not just when you saved me from my two falls at the entrance exam but also when we got into U.A proper, you helped me in little ways like building my confidence before fighting Bakugou." The greenette explained, holding out the book. "Even if it's something small, I want to try to repay you. It's not much but I did put together a strategy on how you could face down Kacchan."
"Hey, a plan straight from the most well versed person in Bakugou fighting techniques around. That should definitely be a confidence booster!" Iida said as Jirou nodded along, only for Uraraka to shake her head.
"Heh….you're too good Deku." The brunette said with an almost sad smile. "You really are wonderful…. but…I have to refuse."
"Wait, you're not taking it?" Jirou questioned with a surprised look upon her face, letting her earjack drop out of her hand.
"No….Iida said something earlier that…stuck with me. He said that everyone here was rivals, and that he'd do his best to beat you. That's why….I honestly felt kinda embarrassed then, for myself with how quickly I jumped onto your team. I know it was good from a tactical standpoint but….I feel like I was piggybacking off you at the same time just because I knew you could get through it. That's why, for my own sake, I want to face this battle myself."
"Ura-chan…"
The brunette made her way to the door, though she was visibly shaking. "So….I'll see you guys in the finals….."
With that, she left.
"Dang….Hope she knows what she's doing…" Jirou muttered as she walked off. "We should get back to the stands quick before her match starts. Shall we?"
"Yes, let's go." Iida said as he began to walk. Midoriya paused for a moment to grab his notebook and went to follow behind them, eyes landing on Iida when….
"TENSEI!" Iida's terrified voice rang out.
The waiting room was replaced by an Alley where man with a striking resemblance to the greenette's friend laid, slowly bleeding out as a man with many knives ran off.
Then he was back in the waiting room, Iida and Jirou looking at him oddly.
"Dude? You in there?"
"H-huh? What?" He questioned as he shook his head, looking between them. The two shared a look of concern at that.
"You blacked out again. You sure you're ok?" Jirou questioned and the greenette shook his head, pulling out his phone.
"I…need to go see ectoplasm." He said, giving Iida the phone. "Please, I don't want to miss her match so record for me in case I miss anything."
"Uh…right."
With that, the teen took off before they could question him anymore. As he hurried along to the teacher's stands he recalled the moment just before Midnight announced Bakugou would announce the student pledge.
'Please don't be what I think you are….'