Chapter 49: First Bracket

A/N: Thank you for the reviews

"Well, folks! The scavenger hunt is over and the final round will be starting soon! Are you guys pumped for it!?" Mic yelled.

The crowd roared its approval.

As Cementoss formed the new arena for the final round, Midnight explained the rules, "The contestants will have to fight it out. The winner progresses to the next round. If the contestant goes out of bounds, they are disqualified. If the contestants take things too fast, we, the referees will stop the match,"

Cementoss nodded to agree with Midnight.

"Now, it's time for our first match!" Midnight announced, "Tokoyami Fumikage vs Tsuburaba Kosei!"

The two students entered with confident looks about them but Tsuburaba looked slightly hesitant at having to go up against one of the best performers so far in the competition.

The two came to a stop facing each other.

"Are you two ready?" Midnight asked. The two nodded shortly.

"Start!"

Immediately, Tokoyami activated Dark Shadow while Tsuburaba formed several air shields around him to protect himself. Neither moved, waiting for their opponent to act first.

This caused the crowd to start booing but still, neither budged. Both of them were hoping to defend rather than attack. Finally, Tokoyami shot Dark Shadow forward to attack Tsuburaba who smirked knowing that his air shields would keep him safe. But, to his surprise, Dark Shadow completely missed him and instead arced around him like a circle.

Next, it flew up and then dive-bombed down towards Tsuburaba who paled, knowing that he had not covered the top. He hastily formed a shield upwards to protect himself.

Dark shadow deflected off the top as Tsuburaba anticipated but the arc that it had formed tightened and caught Tsuburaba's exposed legs. Tsuburaba tripped over Dark Shadow and crashed onto his own barrier.

The crowd winced slightly as blood sprayed from his mouth. Tsuburaba spat out some more blood reformed the air shields, this time making sure that no part of his body was exposed to Dark Shadow, "Nice try, but you showed me the holes in my defense now. There's no way you're getting me again,"

"Perhaps," Tokoyami agreed, "But, I can go both offense and defense, can you?" he asked rhetorically before sending Dark Shadow to repeatedly smash on the barriers.

Tsuburaba grimaced knowing that Tokoyami was right. He tried his best to keep Dark Shadow out but soon, the barriers gave way.

"Tsuburaba's barriers give way! Is this it?" Mic yelled at the top of his lungs.

Tokoyami readied his dark shadow accordingly to go in for the kill but Tsuburaba had already moved by then. Tsuburaba created several air barriers, but this time on the ground and mid-air. He used the barriers as steps and ran up.

"Is Tsuburaba flying?" Mic asked in disbelief. The crowd looked stunned too but Tokoyami kept his cool and diverted dark shadow towards Tsuburaba. The boy smirked as he formed another shield to his back.

Dark Shadow hit it as strong as he could but the barrier held up. Dark Shadow groaned in pain. Tsuburaba took Dark Shadow's disorientation to his advantage and jumped down to attack the exposed Tokoyami.

Tokoyami's eyes widened. He knew his physical strength wasn't good enough to dodge the attack or fight back. Tsuburaba punched Tokoyami in the face as hard as he could.

Tokoyami flew backward, a trail of blood following him. Tsuburaba also hit the ground with a painful thud.

"Ah! Tsuburaba has surprisingly landed a hit in Tokoyami. No one could have expected the underdog to land a hit on one of the competition's best!" Mic yelled.

"This is why you don't underestimate anyone," Aizawa interrupted, clearly unpleased one of his students had dropped their guard so easily, "With the momentum from the fall, Tsuburaba has probably knocked out Tokoyami,"

The crowd watched in bated breath as Tokoyami struggled to get up, Dark Shadow falling back to protect him.

"Why isn't Tsuburaba trying to fight Tokoyami while he's down?" Hitoshi asked.

"TSUBURABA! GO! HE'S EXPOSED NOW!" Monoma yelled to his classmate.

"Idiot, he can't fight anymore," Watanabe said.

"What, why?"

"Did you see how he had run up with his quirk? He might have injured Tokoyami very badly but the fall will have broken his bones too," Watanabe explained.

Sure enough, Tsuburaba put up his arms in defeat, "My legs! My legs!" he groaned with pain. Midnight moved to check on him, her face concerned, "Tokoyami wins the match due to Tsuburaba not being able to continue!"

Some of the crowd booed at the dull ending of what was turning out to be a promising match but the rest applauded Tsuburaba for his effort.

Mic didn't bother to address the boos, "Well folks, Tokoyami is the first contestant to advance to the quarter-finals. We'll start the next match as soon as Tokoyami and Tsuburaba are escorted off the field,"

Tokoyami was still able to move and walked off the field to the recovery girl's office but Tsuburaba had to be put on a stretcher by some medical robots and carried out.

"These humans are really fragile,"

"Why don't we just replace them?"

Midnight looked skeptical, "Pretty weird for them to say that considering they all got destroyed during the entrance exam," Midnight told Cementoss who shrugged.

"Now then folks, we'll be heading straight on to the second match!" Mic announced, "Iida Tenya vs Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu,"

Iida and Tetsutetsu entered. Unlike Tokoyami and Tsuburaba who had serious faces on, Iida and Tetsutetsu smiled at each other and shook hands respectfully.

"Let's have a manly fight!" Tetsutetsu grinned.

"Indeed! Good luck to you," Iida bowed.

"Are you two ready?" Midnight asked.

"YES!" Tetsutetsu yelled energetically while Iida nodded curtly.

"Then, START!" Midnight shouted.

Iida immediately ran straight towards TetsuTestsu. He knew that he had no hope of fighting him one on one and was determined to push him off the ring.

Tetsutetsu dodged at the last moment and Iida almost skids out of bounds. He managed to use his hands to make a U-turn and face Tetsutetsu.

"Your quirk speeds you up, right?" Tetsutetsu asked rhetorically, "Well, you're gonna have to try harder,"

Iida growled slightly with exasperation but made another attempt to catch Tetsutetsu. This time he just scraped past Tetsutetsu's skin. He skidded with a stop once more and turned to face, "I'm much faster, so there's no way you can keep dodging me,"

"That's now what I meant," Tetsutetsu said as Iida ran at him again. This time Iida was able to grasp him, but to his surprise, Tetsutetsu would not budge. Iida grunted, increasing the throttle on his engine.

However, Tetsutetsu simply picked him up and threw him off. Iida scowled as he shakily got up and stared at Tetsutetsu with an enquiring look.

"My quirk," Tetsutetsu answered, seeing the curious look, "is Steel. Unlike Kirishima whose quirk is only hardening, my quirk makes me become steel!"

Iida's eyes widened. Tetsutetsu saw the realization on his face and smirked, "Yup, my quirk increases my density and mass which makes me heavier. If you want to push me off, you'll have to go full speed which would make you skid off with me too. And there's no way of knowing who'll go out first," Tetsutetsu presented.

Iida frowned, "So you just pretended to be dumb?"

"All of us in 1B did. Everyone always underestimates us but we're gonna win!" Tetsutetsu grinned, "You said it yourself, you thought we're dumb,"

Iida looked embarrassed at that, "I apologize,"

"Don't worry dude. At least you are owning up to it like a man!"

Iida nodded, "That's why, I'm not going to give up either," he said and started his engine with full throttle. Tetsutetsu turned his whole body into steel and shifted into a stance for preparation.

Iida ran straight at him. Tetsutetsu readied a punch to hit him straight on but Iida used the momentum to jump over him. He flipped back and went for Tetsutetsu's exposed back. But, Tetsutetsu laid himself flat such that Iida missed him completely.

Iida stopped his throttle and barely stopped at the edge but Tetsutetsu had already gotten up and went to punch him. Iida had just enough time to turn around and use his engine to counter the momentum of the punch.

Iida caught Tetsutetsu's hand and having gotten a huge grasp, he turned his engine to full power again. Tetsutetsu's eyes widened and both of them sped up.

Tetsutetsu knew he was going to be thrown out of bounds and so, out of instinct he deactivated his quirk. The rapid reduction in mass increased their speed, catching Iida off guard.

The added acceleration shifted the weight towards Iida who crashed out of bounds before Tetsutetsu.

"Both Tetsutetsu and Iida are out of bounds. But who was out first!?" Mic asked, "To see that, we simply replay the clip!"

The clip was played in slow motion, "Tetsutetsu wins!" Midnight judged. The crowd cheered.

"Very quick thinking by the 1B student," Mic praised.

Tetsutetsu ignored the commentary and helped Iida up, "That was a manly fight,"

Iida nodded with a smirk, "Well played. You deactivated your quirk to shift the weight to me, didn't you?" he asked, his keen mind understanding what had happened very fast.

"Yup, but it was more out of a gut feeling than a tactic," Tetsutetsu clarified, "Are you injured?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure I dislocated my shoulder,"

"I'll take you to recovery Girl. I'm unhurt anyway,"

"What sportsmanship between the two!" Mic pointed out to the crowd.

Kirishima was crying tears of joy, "So manly! Ah, if only I could have fought him!"

"Should have tried harder shitty hair!"

"We only lost because of you!"

"Tetsutetsu is smart," Momo praised.

"So you noticed it too huh?" Izuku asked.

"It's pretty plain to see," Shouto agreed.

"We have no clue what you're talking about!" Hiroshi pointed to their confused looks.

"I need to get to my match. You guys explain," Momo ran.

"Tetsutetsu's quirk is steel which means?" Izuku asked like a teacher.

"Quit being a smartass!" Kaminari ordered his friend.

"Oh!" Watanabe realized, "His density and mass will increase too!"

"Exactly. So Iida was forced to use more acceleration and when he did that..."

"He skid off?"

"Not quite,"

Kaminari's electricity crackled in annoyance as 1A also looked to be irritated. Luckily, Bakugou took over, "The steel guy deactivated his quirk and all the extra momentum diverted to Iida pushing him out of bounds faster,,

The class looked surprised, "Wow, that's smart," Hitoshi admitted, clearly impressed.

Kaminari meanwhile wasn't too pleased, "You had to bring physics into this didn't you?"

"It's simple physics. Greater the mass, more acceleration you need to produce a resultant force and-"

"Izu, we really want to keep a clear head. Please don't start," Kaminari begged.

Izuku chuckled, "Fine, I guess I'll just theorize with Watanabe," Izuku stuck out his tongue.

"You know Bakugou is slowly becoming more merciful than Midoriya," Kirishima pointed out.

"What did you say shitty hair!?"

"Well you did just explain what Tetsutetsu did much faster than Izuku who was being a smartass. It was a mercy," Sero pointed out.

"Merciful Bakugou, that will be your hero name," Jiro said.

"As if!" Bakugou yelled.

"Relax we're just kidding," Sero laughed.

"Yeah well I don't like it! Shut up!" Bakugou plead

"Nah you deserve it for making us lose," Kirishima gave a friendly grin, "Bow, Izuku says you wet your bed till you were 8?"

"Tch,"

A/N: Apologies for the slightly rushed state of the chapter. It will be more evened out next chapter.