The two walked in silence for a while until the hustle and bustle from the stalls became more of a background noise. Shinso shoved his hands in his pockets and Ayumu fidgeted with the hem of her shirt. Shinso stole a few glances at Ayumu, trying to gauge how to approach the subject of the fight.

"We shouldn't go too far. I don't want to miss the next matches." Ayumu finally spoke up.

Shinso swallowed, "Yeah the rest of the contestants are your classmates aren't they?"

Ayumu nodded awkwardly, "Most of them. One of the girls is from class 1-B."

"Oh…" Shinso stopped walking and turned toward her suddenly, "Ayumu, I'm sorry for using all of your support items. I didn't know that it took you so long to get them approved."

Ayumu sighed, "I know and I'm sorry I yelled at you. I know you needed to show off your quirk, I just didn't think you'd ever use me to do it." She swallowed hard, "It really hurt my feelings and once I realized my support items were gone, I felt useless."

"You're not useless." Shinso interjected.

Ayumu gave him a small smile, "I know, but I also know that my quirk relies heavily on what I have available. I'm not like my classmates or you who have their quirks at their fingertips."

"You know my quirk-"

"Has its challenges, but it's all you." Ayumu pressed, "And I am so proud of how far you made it today. I just wish I could've gotten there with you."

Shinso gave a humorless laugh, "You're already ahead of me. You're the one in the hero course."

Ayumu grabbed his hand, "And you will be too. I know it."

Shinso gave her hand a light squeeze, "So you forgive me then? For using my quirk on you?"

Ayumu met his gaze, "Don't be so dramatic. I was never not going to forgive you. I just needed a little bit of time." Ayumu dropped his hand, "But… you owe me for being so forgiving and understanding."

Shinso rolled his eyes and bumped her with his shoulder before starting back toward the front of the stadium, "What do you want?"

Ayumu laced her arm through his, "For you to go with me to that new Boba place across from the mall."

Shinso glanced down at her for a moment before sighing, "Fine. We can go after school tomorrow."

Ayumu made her way back to her seat with a renewed skip in her step. She noticed Bakugo's seat was now empty and instead turned to where Mina was sitting with Yaoyorozu. Ayumu took the steps two at a time and fell into the empty space between Yaoyorozu and Uraraka.

"You seem happier." Mina commented.

Ayumu nodded, "Yeah, I talked with Hitoshi. I'm feeling a lot better."

"Well, that's great." Mina smiled brightly, "I would've hated to see you guys break up over this."

Ayumu rolled her eyes, "Very funny. Anyways, what are you doing up here? I thought you'd already be getting ready for your match." Ayumu said, turning to Mina.

Mina gave her a confused look, "I already went. It's Bakugo and Kirishima's turn."

Ayumu glanced down at the scene below to see that, sure enough, Bakugo and Kirishima were fighting. She turned her gaze back to Mina.

"So I missed Iida's fight and yours?" Ayumu slumped in her seat, "Well how did they go?"

Mina sighed, "Well, I'm up here with you. Obviously I lost, but Iida won."

"Oh yeah!" Uraraka interjected and Ayumu turned to her, "Iida did great! He shoved her out of the ring before she even really had a chance to attack at all!"

"Yeah, he did a lot better than Kaminari against here, that's for sure." Jiro teased.

"Hey! I heard that!" Kaminari shot back.

"How's Midoriya? I know he was pretty messed up after the fight." Ayumu asked looking back to Uraraka.

Uraraka gave a small, unsure smile, "Well, Recovery Girl said he'd have to have surgery, but she is the best so I think he'll be okay." Uraraka exchanged a look with Tsyu that told Ayumu that she wasn't entirely convinced.

Ayumu placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder, "I'm sure he'll be okay. It's not like he hasn't gotten hurt before."

"Yeah, I'm sure he'll be okay."

Ayumu smiled and turned back to the match and watched as Bakugo continued to dodge Kirishima's relentless attacks.

"Woah! Bakugo counters again! But what's this? It seems to be working this time!" Present Mic shouted.

Bakugo let out a blast at Kirishima, followed by a series of smaller, powerful blasts. After a moment's pause, Bakugo let out a huge blast and Kirishima fell to the ground.

"Kirishima has been knocked out. Bakugo is the winner!" Midnight announced and the bracket reflected Bakugos win.

"With that vicious carpet bombing, Bakugo advances to the third round! Ladies and gentlemen, our final four!" Present Mic announced as the photos of Todoroki, Iida, Tokoyami, and Bakugo appeared on the screen.

"Deku!" Uraraka turned to face Midoriya and scooted down one seat toward the stairs.

"It looks like your surgery went okay." Tsyu said.

Ayumu turned to look at Midoriya standing at the edge of the row. His training jacket hung open over his shoulders with one bandaged arm through the sleeve. His right arm was held up in a sling over his bandaged chest. His cheek had a bandaid over it as well. Overall, he looked as bad as one might have expected after the beating he took from Todoroki, but he seemed to be in good spirits.

"Yeah. Recovery Girl healed me up enough to walk." He said coming to sit between Uraraka and Ayumu.

"Sure, but shouldn't you be taking it easy?" Uraraka suggested.

"Yeah, Midoriya, there's a TV in the waiting room where you can still watch and rest up." Ayumu agreed.

"I wanna watch these matches in person. This is where everyone's efforts are finally gonna pay off."

Present Mic's voice radiated throughout the stadium, "The first match of the semifinals! Both come from hero families, making this a battle of elites! From the hero course, Tenya Iida! Verses… his classmate, Shoto Todoroki! Start!"

Todoroki shot ice at Iida, who quickly dodged the attack as expected. As Iida ran, Todoroki shot another wall of ice in his path, forcing Iida to change course.

"Iida's been surrounded!" Present Mic announced and Midoriya let out a gasp beside Ayumu.

Todoroki shot another wall of ice down the center of the prison he'd made only for Iida to jump into the air.

"Woah! A standing long jump!" Uraraka praised.

Iida had jumped toward Todoroki, kicking his leg at him in midair and narrowly missing Todoroki's head. Upon landing, Iida jumped at him again, kicking Todoroki so he fell to the ground.

"Look at that speed!" Present Mic's voice echoed again.

"That was a heavy hit!" Sero's voice came from the row behind.

"I didn't know he could kick like that!" Kaminari stated, shocked.

Iida grabbed Todoroki by the back of the shirt while he was down and sprinted toward the edge of the boundary. Suddenly Iida stopped and ice began to encase him. All too soon, Iida was fully encased in an Ice prison.

"Iida has been immobilized. Todoroki advances!" Midnight announced.

"Todoroki moves onto the finals without even using his flames again!" Present Mic roared over the cheering crowd.

"Poor Iida." Midoriya mumbled quietly.

Ayumu clicked her tongue, "Don't say that. Make sure he knows how proud of him you are. Iida made it really far."

"Huh?" Midoriya glanced at her and smiled, "Oh yeah of course! He was just really hoping to be able to tell his brother he won."

"And now, Bakugo versus Tokoyami! Bakugo's vicious rushes are unstoppable!" Present Mic shouted, exciting the cheering crowd further. "Tokoyami has advanced this far with an almost unbearable Quirk. But this time, it looks like he's on the ropes!"

The crowd watched as Bakugo set off explosion after explosion at dark shadow, forcing him back.

"What is that bird brain doing? He attacked super hard when he was up against us!" Mina complained.

"There must be a reason." Yaoyorozu mumbled.

"Dark shadow." Ayumu and Uraraka said simultaneously. Ayumu motioned for Uraraka to continue the explanation.

"He can't go on the offensive because of all the light. This match up couldn't be any worse."

"Most people don't know about his weakness. Kacchan may not have figured it out yet." Midoriya added.

Ayumu shrugged, "He had an idea, but I don't think he knew for sure."

Midoriya looked at her, "What?"

She glanced at him before turning her gaze back to the field. "He mentioned it once when we were training together. We were talking about people's weaknesses and Tokoyami came up as an example."

"How am I supposed to commentate when I can't see? What's happening?" Present Mic questioned as smoke once again filled the arena.

As the smoke slowly cleared, Bakugo and Tokoyami were revealed. Bakugo held his hand in the air, an explosion sparking away in his hand as he pinned Tokoyami to the ground.

"Tokoyami gives up! Bakugo is the winner of this match!" Midnight shouted.

"That means our final fight will be between Todoroki and Bakugo!"

"Oh, what a bummer!" Uraraka said disappointed.

"I totally thought the bird would win for sure." Sero added.

"I guess that means his Quirk's not invincible after all." Kaminari interjected.

Kirishima's voice came from the stairs, "So light is his weakness. Interesting. And Bakugo's the kinda guy who would exploit that."

Ayumu sighed, "Why are we all surprised by that? His quirk is literally called DARK shadow. Light is literally the dark's natural enemy."

"I don't think that's right." Kaminari sounded skeptical.

Ayumu turned to him and gestured to the field, "Well I'm certainly not wrong."

"I wonder what this match will be like. Besides intense." Midoriya said, breaking through the argument that was sure to come.

"We'll have to take notes for next time."

"Iida." Midoriya called as the class representative appeared on the stairs.

"What's wrong?" Midoriya and Uraraka shouted as Iida began to shiver.

Iida's hand went to his pocket, "It's just my phone."

"Well that's a relief." His two friends said, relaxing in their seats.

Iida's face changed and he turned back up the stairs, "I'll be back. I'm going to call my mother back."

"Well hurry back, the last match is going to start soon." Midoriya reminded him.

Iida smiled, "I won't be long."

Midoriya and Uraraka moved down the aisle to make sure there was enough room for Iida when he returned and Ayumu turned her attention to Mina.

"So who do you think is going to win?" Ayumu asked.

Mina shrugged, "I hope it's Todoroki. Maybe it'll teach Bakugo to be a little less… himself."

Ayumu laughed, "Somehow I doubt that. Even if he loses I don't think he'll change."

Mina giggled, "Well, we know who you're rooting for."

Ayumu shifted in her seat and turned her attention to the field as the torches at the corners of the field lit up, "I'd like to see our hard work pay off, that's all."

"I'm sure." Mina teased again.

"Welcome to the final battle of the UA High School Sports Festival!" Present Mic's voice could barely be heard over the cheers of the crowd. "In just a moment here, we'll see which first years come out on top! Yes, it all comes down to this, folks! From the hero course, Shoto Todoroki. Verses his classmate, Katsuki Bakugo! Now begin!"