Izuku found peace in waiting despite this fight being one of his biggest so far. Not just for the chance to be chosen by a pro hero, but also for Izuku himself. Eventually, the match was called, and he made his way into the arena calmly. Maki was standing in the middle of the arena with her arms crossed. Slowly the noise in the arena was starting to fade out and all of his focus was on the opponent before him.
"Fighters, are you ready?" Midnight called. There was a small nod from both, and Midnight called for the two to begin. It was sudden, but they both exploded forward meeting in the middle of the ring quickly. They exchanged blows in the middle neither quite landing on the other as they countered each other's moves easily.
Seeing no point in continuing the exchange, they separated before clashing again. This time, Maki led with her quirk, quickly disappearing from in front of Izuku and appearing on his side. Izuku reacted quickly and turned meeting her blow head on and forcing her back before rushing forward himself. Suddenly, Izuku felt immense pain in his side and was flying towards the wall.
'Shit!' Izuku thought as he forced flames from his palms, launching himself upward and flying around the arena. He took a moment to look over Maki and decided on a course of action. This time making an 'ok' sign with his hand, Izuku flew past Maki, grabbing her by the leg and slinging her towards the out of bounds line.
As she was about to hit the out of bounds line, the world paused, and Maki calmly righted herself before resetting in the middle. Maki drew her sword which she had been saving for this moment and shot forward. Izuku prepared his own counter, 'Iai Chop, Form Seven: Sun Wheel'. The attacks collided forcing them both backwards, Maki managing to leave a small cut on Izuku's side.
"You're a lot better than when we were kids, but I should've figured. You've greatly improved since you abandoned us to go play hero." Maki taunted. Izuku froze in his tracks and the match came to a screeching halt. "You used us up and learned some of our techniques and left us for bigger and better. You don't care about any of us. All you wanna do is become some hotshot hero."
"If you think I spent all those four years playing hero, you're wrong. There were certain things I needed to practice in order to keep moving forward. I'll show you the results of what I've worked towards." Izuku stretched out a bit before taking a crouching position. Suddenly, the temperature started increasing.
Maki focused on Izuku carefully. Suddenly, he looked up and the orange wings around his eyes ignited. He closed the gap in an instant fist reared back, 'Calidos Brachium.' Maki could only duck to barely dodge the punch and suddenly Izuku was coming from another direction just as quickly.
Maki activated her quirk, attacking Izuku and sending him flying towards the out of bounds line. As he approached though, he made a motion as if kicking off of something and changed his direction. Before landing again back in the ring. "What the hell is that?" Maki questioned "Your quirk never did anything like that when we trained together."
"It's simple, honestly. My quirk is fire and has always been somewhat tied to my emotions. Some of my emotions raged and expanded my quirk. This one specifically represents ferocity!
Suddenly, Izuku jumped forward again to apply pressure onto Maki. She countered by using her quirk to send Izuku flying again, but his newfound mobility allowed him to continue to pressure her. So, at times Maki could only dodge and recover from using her quirk.
At this point, the audience was stunned at the sight they were seeing. The fight was quite vicious despite the fact that Izuku hadn't yet landed a single substantial blow. Even Izuku's classmates were in shock because none of them had seen his powers before. Meanwhile, Bakugo was fuming at the discovery of Izuku's new powers.
"Midoriya continues his ferocious assault!" Present Mic called knocked out of his own stupor for the match.
"Despite the amount of effort, he's expending he's got very little to show for it. It's impressive, but not very rational." Eraserhead drawled.
Izuku continued his relentless assault, but it wasn't all meaningless in his mind. '1,2,3,4' Izuku repeated in his head after each of Maki's attacks. He was slowly figuring out the approximate down time between uses of Maki's quirk. Finally, Maki overextended and began to look quite tired from the extended repeated uses of her quirk.
Izuku kicked off the air and came in low straight towards Maki with his fist alight. Maki tried to dodge; but because of her overextension, she didn't have enough time and was suddenly met with a punch to the stomach, sending her flying straight into the air.
"Like this, even you won't be able to dodge what's coming!" Izuku declared. Maki took note that the once full wings around his eyes were less than a quarter of what they once were. "Now take this! Heat Zone: Calidos Brachium Barrage!" Suddenly, flames started to form around Maki in every direction. Izuku swung his fists and attacks started flying from each flame to attack Maki.
Maki froze time to avoid some of the attacks and readjust herself. However, there was nowhere to go once her quirk ran out and eventually the barrage of flames fired at her relentlessly. "Sorry, but this is as far as you go, Maki!" Izuku continued the barrage until Maki stopped resisting the barrage allowing her to fall to the ground.
Maki was unconscious, but not much worse for wear overall. However, Izuku looked much closer to the loser of the match because of the damage he allowed himself to take. Izuku looked himself over before walking over to the robots taking Maki and following them towards Recovery Girl's office. Even if the stamina loss would hurt having this many wounds would definitely be more detrimental to becoming the champion.
As Izuku approached Recovery Girl's office, he felt a sense of danger and suddenly the door swung open. The woman in question opened the door and swung at Izuku hitting him in the shin.
"It was quite reckless, for both of you, what you did young man. Do you have anything to say for yourself?" Recovery Girl questioned as she allowed the robots to carry Maki inside.
"Sorry Granny, this fight just meant a little more to me. I felt like this was one I had to win at any cost." Izuku replied.
"Firstly, don't call me Granny. Secondly, you're reminding me of a certain number one idiot with that blatant disregard for your health. Follow me, I'll get both of you fixed up soon." Recovery Girl said as she led them into the office.
Maki was sat down in one bed and Izuku took the bed next to her. Recovery Girl gave Maki a full treatment and Izuku a partial treatment so that he would be able to finish the tournament without falling asleep. Laying down, Izuku faced the TV to see Bakugo and Iida's match.
Iida and Bakugo's match would be an interesting one in Izuku's opinion. There were several ways that it could play out and both of the fighters were highly intelligent even if they did have opposite personalities.
Izuku watched carefully as the two stood off from each other analyzing the other. Neither had fought against the other before, but they were somewhat familiar with the strengths of the other which made for an interesting battle.
Iida turned and took off with long strides around Bakugo circling him. Bakugo, for his part, sat in the same spot as his eyes darted after Iida. He wouldn't underestimate him since he made it this far, but Bakugo was confident in the skills he developed leading up to the tournament. Iida turned sharply and sprinted at Bakugo from the side and Bakugo reacted by launching himself upward. Iida stopped and watched as Bakugo brought himself down carefully.
As soon as Bakugo landed, he went on the offensive and launched a barrage of explosions at Iida, which Iida responded to by running away. Realizing Iida's strategy, Bakugo aimed ahead of Iida and let off a large explosion which engulfed a corner of the arena. However, the explosion only caught Iida's side and left minimal damage.
Iida took a moment to catch his breath as he watched his opponent. Bakugo was remaining a certain distance away from Iida in order to not get overwhelmed by his speed. Iida knew that he would need to get closer in order to take Bakugo down because tricks wouldn't work in an arena like this.
Izuku watched carefully as Iida readjusted his running position for directly towards Bakugo. Iida had a focused face as he sprinted towards Bakugo. And as Bakugo lifted off again, Iida's engines ignited. And he flew into the air after Bakugo. Bakugo was surprised for a moment, but he adjusted his course so that Iida would miss him. Because of the nature of Iida's Recipro, he couldn't change his course again and was left to careen out of bounds by his own hand.
Izuku frowned a bit disappointed that Iida hadn't gotten a chance to show his skills, but he believed he still had a respectable showing. For now, Izuku could only roll out of bed and begin to make his way to his match. He was stopped by a hand reaching out to stop him. "I'm sorry, for doubting you and thinking that you never cared about us, I-" Maki began before she was interrupted.
"Don't apologize. You're one of my closest friends and I shouldn't have let our friendship go like that. Let's go out one day and reconnect. Besides, I really want to try and learn your technique again." Izuku replied.
Maki sighed, "Of course we can reconnect you idiot, but do you really think you can learn that now. I recognize that you've gotten stronger, but it takes a lot of heat."
"I don't know, but I want to try again. I may have been imagining it, but I think I could see you during our fight. It was only for an instant, but I think if I work at it, I can use that technique." Izuku stated staring dead into Maki's eyes.
"How about a wager? We'll go out on me and I'll help you learn the technique if you win the tournament." Maki said with a sly smile on her face.
Izuku grinned as he turned to walk out. "Hey Gran keep my bed empty, I'm gonna sleep like a log when this is all over." Izuku rushed out of the recovery area and down the hall. As he turned the corner, Recovery Girl looked over to Maki before smiling.
"Young love at it's finest." Maki glared at the old woman before rolling over and getting some rest. Meanwhile, Iida was having a much more uncomfortable conversation.
"Are you serious? I'll be right over." Iida said as he rushed to gather his things and leave the arena. He would love to congratulate the winner since his class had made it so far in the tournament, but his brother had been badly injured, and he needed to get there immediately.
Izuku noticed Iida's absence in the stands, but for now he was determined to win this tournament and train with Maki again. It would be great since he wasn't that close with all of his classmates, but he would also fell better not hurting her again. Focusing on the moment, he saw Bakugo enter the ring across from him. Bakugo took a loose stance and the two faced off against each other.
As Midnight called the match, Bakugo rushed forward and instead of Izuku's normal calm and reaction-based fighting style; he once again came on the offensive. He flew forward faster than Bakugo could think and smashed his forehead into Bakugo's nose. Bakugo reeled back as his nose began bleeding and tried to let off an explosion to put some distance between the two.
Izuku cancelled the explosions. And came forward again quickly. This time Izuku feinted as if he were going to strike Bakugo with his elbow, however, he then changed course when Bakugo attempted to block. He delivered a stunning roundhouse kick and sent Bakugo flying out of bounds. Bakugo attempted to right himself with explosions, but once again they refused to heed his call. And Bakugo fell out of the arena. It was then that Bakugo realized he had undeniably lost.
Shamelessly, Bakugo rushed forward at Izuku yelling bloody murder. "I'll fucking kill you, you stuck up bastard!" Bakugo flew forward in a blind rage; and before he could react, Izuku moved to the side and subdued him, knocking him unconscious.
In the end, this rage carried over into the closing ceremony of the sports festival. Bakugo being forced into restraints and had his medal shoved into his mouth. Izuku frowned as he once again noticed the absence of Iida; but in the moment, he accepted the medal graciously. He would check on Iida later, but for now he would enjoy his victory.