"Let's welcome our next two contestants, Fujiwara Kyoko of class 1-A and Sato Kanami of 1-B!" Kanami takes a deep breath, tightens her ponytail, and walks out into the stadium. The number of people there isn't what makes her nervous. The idea that one of them could be her mentor, however, is enough to make her take another, deeper breath. As she approaches the stage in the center, she sees Fujiwara popping her neck and stretching her arms across her chest. The girl sends a rather vicious looking smirk her way.
"Hey, if you wanna go ahead and back out now, nobody would blame you. You've done well getting this far, your class will be proud enough. Take the loss before you get hurt." Kanami narrows her eyes at Fujiwara's tone, recalling her quirk: duplication. Knowing that Fujiwara can make any number of duplicates of herself puts Kanami at an advantage, the girl across from her could create an army of Fujiwaras and she wouldn't be able to counteract Kanami's quirk. Yamada Hazashi sounds the buzzer, signaling for the fight to start. Kanami quirks an eyebrow at Fujiwara, fully expecting an immediate attack, but is shocked to find the other girl just staring at her. "Tell you what. I'm feeling generous. You get the first move." Her voice conveys her arrogance, She thinks she's going to win. Kanami smirks to herself. Let's fix that. At that moment something shifts in Kanami, and everyone in the stadium feels it. Kanami opens her mouth and, soon, the stadium is filled with a soft, melodious voice as she sings,
"I never thought that anyone could make me feel this way." She takes a few steps towards Fujiwara, who was staring at her in confusion, even as Kanami's quirk began to take effect. "Now that you're here, well all I want, is just a chance to say, get out! Right now. It's the end of you and me." Kanami smiles as she points at the set of stairs the girl had come up from just moments before and the stadium watches in awe as Fujiwara began to back off of the platform. "It's too late, and I can't wait for you to be gone." At the last step, Fujiwara hesitates, trying to fight back Kanami's quirk. Kanami chuckles softly to herself before letting out one last belted sentence, "Get out!" Fujiwara turns around and all but runs down the stairs before Kanami releases the girl from her control and she turns around to stare in complete shock. "Maybe next time you won't be so generous," Kanami suggests with a wink.
"We have a winner!" Yamada yells from his booth. "Sato Kanami of class 1-B will be progressing to the next round!" In the stadium, people are cheering wildly for the fifteen-year-old, who just blushes under the praise and quickly retreats to the waiting room inside the stadium. One section of the stadium, in particular, is particularly shocked by her accomplishment: the class 3-A section.
"Hey, Midoriya! Isn't that kind of what Shinsou tried to do to you?" Kirishima Eijiro yells.
"Yeah, I can't believe it, I don't think she has the same quirk though." Midoriya Izuku turns to Shinsou Hitoshi who is sitting beside him, staring at the area where the girl had just disappeared into. His sleep-deprived eyes wide in surprise, still in awe, not only by her victory or quirk but by her voice and presence. "What do you think, Shinsou?" The now seventeen-year-old can only shake his head in wonder.
"She did it..." He can't help but feel proud of the girl, she certainly did 1-B proud, but what would happen now that everyone had seen what her quirk could do? Shaking his head quickly to clear his thoughts, he barely notices as Izuku stands up.
"I'll be right back," he yells over his shoulder while running to the stairs in hope of catching the girl before she made it to the waiting room. He catches the slightest glimpse of the pink and purple ends her ponytail before it disappears around a corner. He runs over as fast as he can, without using his quirk, and catches her just as she is about to go inside the waiting room.
"Hey!" He yells, effectively getting her attention. Whereas before, in the sunlight, her hair had looked blue at the roots, in the hallway lighting Izuku notices the colourful strands shifting between light blue and grey at the top, with pink and purple climbing its way up. Every time she moves her head, the colours seem to change with her. Her eyes widen as she recognises who called out to her.
"You're Midoriya, right? From class 3-A?" He nods his head, smiling at her as he closes the distance between them and extends his hand for her to shake. She quickly puts her hand in his, smiling up at him. "Wow, it's incredible to meet you! You're kind of a legend, you know?" He rubs the back of his neck in embarrassment before looking at the girl in front of him.
"You're Sato, right?" She nods her head, quickly, more than a little surprised he remembered her name. "That's an amazing quirk you have, are you a brainwasher too?" He asks, using the name of Hitoshi's quirk. She shakes her head, looking at the ground in front of her.
"No, I'm an enchantress," She replies, shyly. Izuku goes through his mental catalog of known quirks but doesn't recognise it. His face must have said as much, because Kanami gave a nervous giggle before explaining, "I can influence the environment around me when I sing, whether it's people's feelings, making them do things, or altering the actual environment that I'm in." He looks at her in awe, wishing he'd brought his notebook with him.
"That's incredible! I've never heard of anything like that! It must be super rare."
"Yeah, I guess it is," she replies, embarrassment clearly lacing her tone, as she takes her hair out of its scrunchie, letting the waves fall around her shoulders and partially down her back.
"I have a friend with a brainwasher quirk, but it only works if someone answers his - "
"You mean Shinsou?" She asks, immediately looking down, angry with herself for interrupting. Izuku, however, doesn't seem to mind at all.
"Yeah, him! Does your quirk have any kind of setback like that?" She shakes her head again.
"No, if they can hear me it'll work. I'm trying to work on making it more battle practical, but I know I'll most likely end up a support type of hero, gathering intel or reconnaissance, something like that."
"That incredible! You've really put a lot of thought into this." She blushes at the compliment and looks at the ground again. "I can't believe you're not in 1-A, a quirk like your's has a ton of uses!" She shrugs.
"So does Shinsou's but he started in 1-C." She shrugs. "It doesn't really help that robots don't hear quite the same way people do. I'm pretty sure I just scraped by in my entrance exam." Izuku remembers Shinsou saying something similar when they had fought in the sports festival two years ago and can't help feel there had to be a better way to divide the classes.
"I'm sure you did better than you think. I should get back to my seat, but good luck in the next round!" He starts to turn around to leave but quickly thinks of something. "Oh! Do you mind if I tell my friends about your quirk? We were all really curious about you." She blushes again, an embarrassed expression taking over her features.
"Go ahead, it's not like you're telling the people I'm going against!"
"Cool, thanks! Good luck again!" He yells before running back to his seat.
"Thank you!" She calls after him. The others were right about him, she thinks to herself, walking into the waiting room. He really is excitable.
Once he makes it back to his seat, his class immediately jumps on him to find out what he'd learned. He tells them about her quirk, her thoughts on being a support hero, and her concern over it not being "battle practical", much to his class's shock after seeing her very quickly win the last match.
"It doesn't matter if you can make someone do what you want," Hitoshi cuts in, "if someone else isn't effected or gets out of it. She'll have to know how to defend herself." Everyone stares at the brainwasher in shock, as someone that doesn't usually say or seem to care about much, they're surprised he cared enough about this person to have considered the idea of what would happen if someone had the edge on her. No doubt stemming from his own defeat at the same festival two years ago. He is certainly interested, to say the least, to see what the first year will do in the next round. It isn't too soon after that Kanami is called up for her next round, someone from her own class this time. Hada Jurou, a boy with a super-strong quirk.
"Hey there, princess." Kanami scowls at the nickname and suppresses an eye-roll. "I came prepared," he explains, showing off a pair of earplugs before shoving them, rather roughly, into his ears. "This is gonna be over real quick, doll." Despite having the obvious disadvantage now, Kanami doesn't look concerned in the slightest. Class 1-A recognises the look she gives her opponent, they'd seen it many times when Midoriya was coming up with a strategy that would somehow work out, much to everyone's surprise. At this look, Izuku, Hitoshi, Bakugou Katsuki, and Eijiro are among the hundreds of others right against the bar to watch the fight. Yamada sounds the alarm and, unlike Fujiwara, Hada jumps on the chance, leaving a crater where Kanami had just been. She had somehow been fast enough to get out of the way. They can just see her lips moving, but the sounds around them are too loud for them to hear her words. Momo quickly makes a speaker for Kyouka Jirou to plug into so they can hear what the strange first year is singing this time.
"Every day when I wake." She just barely dodges another hit, tucking and rolling off to the side, mindful of the square outlined for her. "I'm trying to get up, they're knocking me down, chewing me up, spitting me out." She ducks again and lands a swift hit to Hada's abdomen before jumping backward, out of reach. "When I need to be saved, you're making me strong, you're making me stand." Hada comes back, ready to land a kick to her head, but Kanami quickly ducks and sweeps his leg out from under him.
"Shot like a rocket up into the sky, nothing could stop me tonight." She rolls out of the way of his next hit, slamming her hands onto the ground. "You make me feel invincible, earthquake, powerful." The second she says the word earthquake, the whole stage begins to shake and nearly splits in two, sending Hada backward, stumbling for balance. The crowd goes absolutely berserk seeing such an incredible use of her quirk, even Katsuki is stunned into silence. "Just like a tidal wave." She sweeps her arms over the wreckage and, with her gesture, sweeps Hada off the stage as though by a massive wave. She won again! This time, Hitoshi is the first to cheer for her victory. I'm definitely going to have to keep an eye on this one. Quickly jumping off the stage, Kanami goes to make sure Hada is alright, she hadn't meant to cause such a powerful reaction.
"Damn, Sato, that's one hell of a quirk," Hada remarks upon seeing her worried face, "I almost wish I'd just let you make me walk off!" He laughs, allowing her to help him up.
"You're not mad?" She asks, hesitantly. He shakes his head.
"No way, you came at me with everything you had, that's what these games are for. You earned it, chick." At his last statement, he points at the large screen where her face is projected for the entire stadium to see. Almost immediately, she goes red in the face and awkwardly waves, which only serves to send another wave of cheers from the crowd. The two classmates exit the stadium together while a team starts working on clearing the stage and rebuilding it.
"It would appear Sato Kanami is not one to be underestimated, eh Eraserhead?" Yamada yells into the mic, followed by a rather unenthusiastic,
"Guess not." Yamada continued as though Aizawa Shouta hadn't even answered.
"Coming out of nowhere, Sato Kanami's quirk, Enchantress, gives her the ability to alter the environment around her while singing. It's an incredibly rare quirk, never before used for hero purposes! In fact, I don't think I've seen anyone use it quite like this before!" As Katsuki watches the first year disappear, he feels oddly out of character. His heart starts racing, his palms sweating, and he feels overly concerned with how she's doing or going to do in the upcoming round. Where the hell is this coming from? He asks himself. Naturally, his best friend, Eijiro, picks up on Katsuki's odd behavior and smirks to himself, knowing exactly what's ailing his friend. His suspicions are confirmed when Kanami comes back out for her third round.
Shima Hiroyuki, another one of class 1-A's kids, steps up. Class 3-A, and most of the others present, had already heard of him as he'd gotten in on a recommendation. His quirk is Teleport, allowing him to teleport himself and others to any other location. At the sound of the buzzer, rather than just teleport Kanami out of the square, as most had expected, he teleports to her and kicks her in her side, sending her flying. Before she can go out of bounds, however, he teleports where she would have flown out and punches her back into the ring, sending her rolling, coughing harshly. He waits for her to get her breath back before raising an eyebrow at her, waiting. There's no way he's going to let me open my mouth, let alone get a note out. Kanami takes her time getting to her feet, trying to come up with something that might get her out of this. Okay, she takes a deep breath, standing up, fists in front of her. If I can just slow him down enough to track his movements, I might not spend the rest of the week with Recovery Girl at the very least. She nods her head at the boy, signaling she is ready. I'll take it.
Just before he teleports again, she drops to the ground, just barely missing being sent flying again and starts humming the song "Let Me Down Slowly", just quiet enough for him not to hear her, but loud enough that it will take effect as she wills the boy's movements to slow down with the tempo of the song. It takes a while, she's halfway through the chorus before the effect is noticeable to those watching. By that point, she's already taken several more hits but is starting to block more than she takes. She's bleeding in several areas while Shima looks untouched, save a red mark on his jaw that should turn into a bruise later where she managed to land a quick blow before getting hit herself. While Shima's movements are slow enough to see just before he teleports, she gets in a few good hits and manages to back him up against the boundary line. However, it's at that moment that he teleports behind her and plants a hard kick to the center of her back, sending the small girl flying out of bounds.
Katsuki stands up, looking ready to fly over the railing at Shima before he catches himself and sits back down, not even noticing Eijiro's chuckle. Izuku and he share a knowing look, both trying to suppress their laughter before they have to deal with Katsuki's temper. Shima doesn't even glance at Kanami, who is still having a hard time getting up, as he exits the stadium to go wait for the finals. All Might hurries over to help the fallen first year up and Kanami smiles up at him in thanks, not quite able to talk yet from the numerous hits to her back and abdomen. Everyone cheers when she's upright once more and All Might leans down to her ear.
"You did good, kid. You've got a lot of potential, and it seems everyone here saw that." Kanami feels her face flush at the praise and tries to say thank you, but the words just won't come out of her mouth. Rolling her eyes in frustration, she makes the sign for thank you while mouthing the words to the retired hero. His eyebrows furrow a bit and, once they are out of sight of the crowds, he asks her,
"Pardon me for asking, but are you deaf?" She smiles, shaking her head, using basic gestures to ask if he knows sign language while mouthing the words. "Only a little, I've had a lot of free time lately." She laughs, silently, and explains in the same manner that when she was younger, she would overuse her quirk and lose her voice for a few days, so she learned as a way to still communicate. She also explained that she wouldn't lose her voice from today, but that she can't get her breath enough to form words from the fight. "I got most of that," he replies, a sheepish grin on his face. She scratches the back of her head in embarrassment, trying to figure out another way to explain. "But I think you should see Recovery Girl anyway, just to make sure nothing permanent happened to your lungs." So he got the important stuff. Kanami nods her head and allows All Might to show her to Recovery Girl's office. On the way there, she manages to get out a few whispered sentences to him, one being her offer to help him practice if he'd like. He smiles down at her. "I would very much appreciate that." She smiles excitedly as she nods her head, even as he holds the door open for her. "Hey Recovery Girl, could you do a quick scan for my friend here? She took a few too many blows to the torso." The short, older woman turns to face the pair, shaking her head.
"I saw the whole thing. That Shima has Todoroki's skill and Bakugou's lack of discipline," She says, shaking her head in disappointment. "You need to get on that, young man." Kanami tries not to laugh at All Might's face as he gets scolded by the tiny woman. "Now dear, just lay down here and let me have a look at you." Kanami nods her head and does as instructed. "Can you tell me your name?" Swallowing against the dryness of her throat, she nods her head.
"Sato Kanami," she replies, her voice slightly stronger than before, but still just above a whisper. Recovery Girl scowled.
"I don't like the sound of that voice of yours. How old are you?" She asks as she begins poking and prodding at the injured girl's sides.
"Fifteen." She winces as Recovery Girl finds a particularly tender spot.
"And do you know what just happened?" Smirking to herself, Kanami replies,
"I got my butt handed to me." All Might smiles at the girl's attitude, glad she doesn't seem to be too upset at losing so close to the finals.
"Pish posh, you did exceptionally well dear, especially with your quirk as it is. Nothing's broken, no punctured lungs, just a lot of bruising. It'll just take me a moment to heal, if you don't mind." Her last sentence is directed at All Might who had lingered in the background to make sure Kanami was alright. Recovery Girl quickly shut the curtain around Kanami's bed and helps her lift her shirt, exposing the already darkly coloured bruises. "You can escort her back to her seat when I'm done."
"Y-yes ma'am," All Might stutters out. Kanami chuckles again at his discomfort before Recovery Girl goes to work. Sure enough, within minutes, her bruising has severely gone down and she is able to catch her breath fully.
"Thank you so much, ma'am, I really appreciate it." Kanami fixes her shirt, looking at the woman with gratitude shining through her eyes. Recovery Girl is pleased to notice how much stronger her voice is now and feels her work is done.
"No trouble at all, dear, it's my pleasure. Go enjoy the rest of the games!" She opens the curtains to reveal All Might waiting, also relieved Kanami has her voice back and seems to be moving much better now. "Take care of her All Might." He nods at Recovery Girl, opening the door for Kanami. "And take care of that boy, before I do!" He flinches and practically runs out the door.
"That lady can be seriously scary when she wants to be." Kanami suppresses a giggle as All Might leads her back down the hallway towards the section the rest of her class is watching the festival from. "That's some quirk you have there. You have full control of it?" Kanami shrugs.
"More or less. I feel like there are more applications for it than I'm using but I'm just not sure what or how to get there." All Might nods his head, choosing his next question carefully.
"What are you hoping to do with your quirk?" She looks up at him, narrowly avoiding walking into a trash can.
"You mean as a hero or overall?" All Might shrugs in return, waiting for her answer. "I guess I want the same thing as most of the people here. I want to be able to help others, in any way that I can. I figure, assuming I finish school and manage to impress someone enough to take a chance on me," Given the crowd reaction she got out there, I don't think that'll be a problem, All Might thinks to himself, amused at her practical approach. "I'd be used for reconnaissance or to gather intel, maybe a distraction while the real heroes stop the villain or something." His eyebrows furrow together as he stops walking. Kanami stops a couple of steps ahead of him and turns to look at him, a confused expression on her face.
"Now, you listen to me Sato," her eyebrows raise and her eyes widen at how serious his tone is, "you are just as capable of being as much a real hero as anyone else here." He puts his hands on her petite shoulders, looking her in the eye. "I don't ever want to hear you saying something like that again, do you understand me?" Unable to speak, she nods her head. "Good. You've got real talent and a lot of control already, with a little finessing, you could be a great pro-hero, but only if you believe it. Got it?" She nods again, this time a little more enthusiastically. "Good. What areas are you concerned about enough to make you think that?" She shrugs as they continue walking, nearing their destination.
"I'm just not sure how battle practical my quirk is. I don't want to become a burden on my partner or team, just in the way when they're trying to save anyone." All Might chuckles, shaking his head.
"If your second and third rounds are anything to go by, that is not nearly as big a concern as you seem to think it is, kid." She looks up at him, confused.
"But, I lost the third round," she replies, incredulously.
"And you put up one hell of a fight the whole time, dragged it out long enough that any partner you may have in the future would be able to save civilians and still have time to come back and help you out. You're more capable than you think." She purses her lips in thought, considering his words. At last, they reach their destination. "How attached are you, really, to your classmates?" She looks up at him again, thinking of how to respond. Sure, they were nice enough, but it's not like she was particularly close to any of them. Her hesitation apparently answers his question, because he continues, "I wouldn't start changing that just yet. I think it's safe to say I can see a class change in your future." At his words, Kanami's mouth drops and her eyes grow even wider, disbelief clearly written in her features.
"You mean…" She doesn't dare finish her question for risk of getting her hopes up. All Might smirks, shrugging at the young girl.
"I know you have my vote." Kanami feels the breath rush out of her lungs and quickly falls into a bow in front of him.
"Thank you so much, sensei!" All Might chuckles again, seeing a little of himself, and young Midoriya, in the first year.
"Don't thank me yet. Go enjoy the festival, I'll see you soon." Standing up, she smiles and nods at him before running off to her seat. Oh yeah, she's gonna do great things.