Author's Note: Hey everyone! Here's chapter 15! The end of the battle portion of sports festival and the middle portion of the massive slog. I'm through all of the slog because I'm done with chapter 16 as well. Chapter 17 is coming along, and I should be able to do a lot of work over Thanksgiving week (for those living in America). For those that are remotely spiritual, prayer would be appreciated as my life keeps changing and moving in directions that I didn't anticipate even just a month ago, and it's very exciting but also scary.
Also, if you want to get into a place with other lovers of MHA, and specifically IzuJirou stuff, come on and join this Discord server that I'm on:
/eFtmT8cTbY
We're only kind of crazy, and not at all a cult... except, we also kind of are. Anyway, yeah, join that!
I hope you enjoy this chapter! It's cross-posted on Ao3 as well. Leave a review if you want to. I welcome the feedback! See you next week.
"Welcome back to our First Year Battle Tournament!" Mic shouted. "We're back for round two! We've got a solid matchup of four fights in the quarterfinals! Ashido vs Yaoyorozu, Tokage vs Shiozaki, Bakugou vs Kirishima, and Todoroki vs Honenuki. Who's ready for some action?" His question was met with screams of the people in the stadium. Screams of excitement and joy. "Then let's get right into the fights! Up first is the acid slinging warrior that can melt your heart. Mina Ashido! Against her is the talented top of class 1-A. Momo Yaoyorozu!"
"Are you ready, girls?" Midnight asked.
"Oh yeah!" Mina yelled. Momo just nodded.
"Very well. Let's begin!" Midnight said as she cracked her whip.
Yaoyorozu immediately created the shield and staff from before, stepping forward towards Ashido who was already skating towards her. As Ashido got closer, she began to fling acid at Yaoyorozu with almost reckless abandon. The latter blocked with her shield only for it to be riddled with pock-marks from the acid. Yaoyorozu took the offensive and dashed through the onslaught, bashing Ashido with her shield. Right at the point of contact, Ashido placed her hands on the shield and secreted a powerful acid, rendering it useless. She was pushed back by the attack, but slid to a halt using a hand to help.
Yaoyorozu threw the shield away and gripped her staff with both hands. She began to swing at Ashido with surprising precision, but the acidic girl dodged every attack as though she was dancing. She eyed the staff as it was swung at her, looking for an opening. Then she finally found one. As the staff careened towards Ashido's midsection, she braced herself and caught the attack, gripping the staff and melting right through it with her left hand. She used her right hand to pull the taller girl towards her. As Yaoyorozu stumbled forward due to the unforeseen force, her face was met with Ashido's elbow, and she was sent backwards, falling to the ground.
She stood up slowly and created a crossbow from her shoulder. Placing the bolt, she fired at the pink skinned girl, only for said girl to throw her hands in front of her, creating a shield of acid as she raised her hands into the air. "Acid Veil!" Ashido yelled. The bolt hit the acid and instantly melted. Ashido rushed forward as Yaoyorozu tried to knock another bolt. The latter was able to aim at Ashido, but it was too late as she was knocked flat on her back once again by an uppercut from Ashido.
She tried to stand up again, but as she got to her knees, Midnight spoke. "Yaoyorozu is out of bounds! The winner of this match is Mina Ashido!"
"Wow." Kyouka said. "That one was definitely more interesting than either of their first matches."
"Oh for sure. I was surprised that that Yaoyorozu girl was able to take a stand like she did. She looked scared in the last match." Mei said.
"A surprise, to be sure." Fumikage said. "Perhaps she was emboldened by her previous victory." He suggested.
"That would make enough sense." Hitoshi nodded. A few moments of silence passed before he spoke again. "I think they might be starting the next match." He pointed at the TV, its camera showing an eagle eye view over the arena. Two people were walking up the steps.
"Here we have both of our 1-B girls in the tournament. The girl with a green thumb, or should I say hair? Ibara Shiozaki! Versus the girl who kind of reminds me of Legos, Setsuna Tokage!"
"Begin!" Midnight cracked her whip.
Tokage immediately split her body into about 15 pieces: her head, her arms, and then the rest of her body being split at random places. She surged each part forward towards Shiozaki. Shiozaki detached part of her hair into the ground. Several columns of vines erupted from the ground directly underneath Tokage's detached parts, or rather, where they were. Said girl was able to control each piece of her at high speeds and with great efficiency. She sped past each erupting vine and sailed directly at Shiozaki.
Each part of Tokage surrounded the vine haired girl and began to rotate around the girl quickly. "Scale Storm!" The girl yelled. As Tokage's body parts orbited around Shiozaki, the latter released her vine hair in a wide burst, doing her best to wrap any of the parts up. Unfortunately for her, the body parts were too fast to be contained that way. Instead, the orbiting parts started pummeling Shiozaki with a flurry of blows. Slowly, Tokage began to shift her storm towards the edge of the arena, and once Shiozaki was at the edge, Tokage used all of her parts to shove her opponent out of the ring and out of bounds.
"Ibara Shiozaki is out of bounds! Setsuna Tokage is the winner!" Midnight yelled. "There will be a brief hiatus to repair the damage to the battlefield, but once Cementoss is done, we will continue as scheduled!"
Several minutes later, the next group of combatants made their way out. "Here we go! Back to the fights! We have the unstoppable force, Katsuki Bakugou versus the immovable object, Eijiro Kirishima!" Present Mic said. The cheers got louder. Clearly, this was a match that people wanted to see. Izuku, all things considered, was looking forward to this match, but only because there was a possibility that Bakugou could lose. Fumikage was right alongside him with that mindset.
"Begin!" Midnight yelled.
Bakugou immediately rocketed towards Kirishima with his explosions propelling him forward. He landed a devastating right hook on the red haired boy coupled with an explosion. Said victim, however, brushed the blow off like it was nothing as his quirk activated. He made a move to counterattack, but Bakugou was too fast and landed another explosion. Time after time, explosion after explosion, this continued for a good few minutes. The ground around the two was absolutely demolished by the constant explosions going on. Kirishima was starting to feel fatigue, but he knew that if he could just get one good hit against Bakugou, the tables would turn. He was already the opponent that had lasted the longest against the explosion boy. If he could just last for a few seconds longer… But as Bakugou screamed "DIE!", that one last blast across the face knocked him down and out.
"Eijiro Kirishima is unable to continue. The winner is Katsugi Bakugou!"
"That certainly was a powerful match. I can see why you told me to use those descriptions for those students, Eraser." Mic said.
"You weren't supposed to tell them that…" Eraserhead said as he sighed. "But yes. There is a reason for those."
"There will need to be yet another time of repair for the arena, but we will be getting to the final match of the quarterfinals!" Present Mic said. Fumikage and Hitoshi used this opportunity to get a drink from the fridge for everyone. A small chorus of 'thank you's from the rest of the group came out in response.
A few minutes and a thumbs up from Cementoss later, Present Mic began to speak again. "And we're back! Alright, our final match in the quarterfinals is about to begin! The glacier god, Shouto Todoroki versus the man with mud Juzo Honenuki!"
"You could have done better, Mic." Eraserhead said.
"Hey, I've run out of all of my material by this point, I'm on the spot here!"
Both students stepped forward and took up a stance before Midnight told them they could start. As soon as the whip cracked, Todoroki shot out a massive glacier of ice at his opponent. Honenuki activated his quirk forward on the ground. As the ice approached, his quirk began to affect the ice as well. The ice wall made contact with Honenuki who began to walk through it. He exited the other side of the ice and stepped towards Todoroki. Todoroki launched another wave of ice at the skeletal mouthed man only for it to be softened as well.
Honenuki stepped through the soft ice block once more. "If you keep doing that, this is going to be a very short match. You haven't used your fire at all today. I wonder why that is. I can't soften fire." He shrugged. Todoroki didn't say anything in response. He simply activated his quirk again, but on a much smaller scale. A single foot-wide line of ice shot towards Honenuki at a much faster speed than before. Honenuki prepared his quirk to take down this attack, but right before its effects reached said attack, the ice broke and splintered, showering his body in shards of ice. A few shards pierced through his skin. Multiple points of impact included his right shoulder, his left thigh, and one grazed his left cheek.
Groaning, Honenuki pulled the shards out of himself and took a shaky step forward. Deciding to stop playing around, he used his quirk to soften the ground around Todoroki's feet, but his target had already skated out of the way on his own ice. Said boy approached much faster than Honenuki anticipated, and before he could use his quirk again, he fell to the ground as Todoroki's knee impacted his stomach. As he tumbled, Honenuki tried to stand up. But as soon as he found purchase with his feet on the ground, he was knocked down again… and then he tumbled off of the concrete slab arena and onto the grass.
"Juzo Honenuki is out of bounds! Shouto Todoroki is the winner!" Midnight announced.
"Well," Present Mic started. "That's our quarterfinals! Have you been enjoying the tournament so far?" If the roar of the crowd said anything, it was clear that the people in the stands were enjoying the tournament. "It's great to hear that! We'll be right back after these commercial breaks for our Semifinals!" The screen faded to show four students' busts on a solid blue background.
"Semifinals"
"Mina Ashido vs Setsuna Tokage"
"Katsuki Bakugou vs Shouto Todoroki"
Shortly after that, the screen faded to black, and commercials started. Mei immediately started to fast forward, and eventually, she got to the end of where she could fast forward with a few more commercials left in the break. A commercial about the coffee shop, which was apparently named Leblanc, was played, followed by a short commercial about applying to UA next year. The latter earned a laugh from the group.
"Fat chance." Hitoshi said as he rolled his eyes.
"We're back!" Present Mic said, snapping the group from their distraction. "We're ready for our Semifinals! Coming up first, we have Mina Ashido from class 1-A against Setsuna Tokage from class 1-B!" The crowd cheered loudly. The pink skinned Ashido stepped up and waved with a cocky smile. Tokage mirrored her almost perfectly, just with a much larger smirk.
"Alright ladies. I don't want too many problems here. Let's begin!"
"Hey Tokage! You're pretty strong, right? I'd love to take you down, that would really boost up my reputation." Mina smirked.
"Ha! We'll see about that. You can try, but I'm the one who's coming out on top." She replied.
"Then come at me!" Ashido yelled as she began to skate towards the green haired girl.
"You just… You just started coming at me…" Tokage said. She shrugged. "Oh well." She stepped forward to meet Ashido. Each step she took, she detached different parts of her body until she was only floating body parts heading towards the skating pink-skinned girl in front of her. Each individual piece began rotating forward, barreling over each other. She had used this attack before. "Scale Wave!" she yelled as her parts sped towards Ashido.
Ashido splashed acid in front of her, forming a barrier of sorts. "Acid Veil!" Unfortunately for her, Setsuna's attack diverted at the last second, each piece swerving around the acid veil attack. Each piece turned on a dime and collided with Ashido, pummelling the girl over and over again. Each hit seemed to make her angrier as she began to launch acid in the direction that each hit came from, only to miss each attack because the attacking parts had already moved away. Ashido cried out in frustration and began to sling acid at each flying body part that she saw, missing most, but grazing some slightly.
Tokage hissed in pain. "Your acid hurts. Too bad you won't be hitting me anymore." She said as her pieces started to move faster and faster. Each punch and slam from different parts of Tokage knocked Ashido further off balance until one final attack hit her off of the side of the arena and onto the ground.
"Setsuna Tokage has won the match! Mina Ashido fell out of bounds!" Midnight officiated.
"Setsuna Tokage advances to the finals!" Mic said. "Will she be facing Katsuki Bakugou or Shouto Todoroki? We'll see after the next round!" Tokage's hand lowered down to help Ashido up, which the girl took almost immediately. Tokage pulled her to her feet as she reformed herself. "What sportsmanship!" Mic said. "She is helping her opponent up from the ground! This is inspiring!"
As Tokage and Ashido left the stadium,Cementoss repaired the cement in the arena of any damage that was due to Ashido's acid. Once that was done, Bakugou and Todoroki both stepped forward into the arena. "Competitors, are you ready?" Midnight asked. Todoroki nodded, and Bakugou just growled.
"You haven't used your fire yet, you half and half bastard. What, are they not strong enough to go all out against?" Bakugou asked. Todoroki didn't respond. He only stepped forward and encased his right side in ice. "You better not look down on me!"
Bakugou began to slowly creep forward, but was stopped by Todoroki as wave after wave of ice was launched at him, creating a massive slab of ice similar in size to that of the match between the latter and Sero. The cameras barely caught Bakugou's retaliation against the attack, but the quick flurry of explosions destroying every chunk of ice that came his way was certainly impressive.
"Todoroki gets a blow in right away!" Present Mic yelled. "Is he trying to avoid close quarter combat with Bakugou? Has the winner been decided already?!" The massive wall of ice began to shake, softly at first, and then more profusely as time went by. The entire stadium went silent. Softened explosion sounds could be heard, and eventually a hole blasted through the ice, revealing Bakugou's face. After a few seconds, he blasted himself towards Todoroki, rocketing forward. Todoroki braced himself and prepared to grab his opponent's arm, but at the last second, Bakugou changed direction mid-air with an explosion. Instead, Todoroki was the one that was grabbed by Bakugou. The latter forced Todoroki to the ground, slamming him into the concrete before planting his foot, pivoting, and throwing the boy towards the edge of the arena. A wall of ice rose from the concrete, stopping Todoroki's descent. He began to create more ice to skate around Bakugou, kiting him. Bakugou launched himself at his opponent, but Todoroki moved just out of the way to avoid being hit by an explosion. He grabbed hold of Bakugou's right arm, and, after a moment of hesitation, threw Bakugou out of the way.
"Quit screwing around!" Bakugou shouted. "Am I not strong enough to make you use your fire? You bastard… I'll show you what happens when you make a fool out of me! I'll kill you! I want an indisputable first place! And I can't get that even if I beat some extras who underestimate me! I have to be number one, and if you don't have any intentions of winning, then step aside!" He began to run at his opponent, explosions sparking from his hands as he did. He launched himself into the air, using the explosions to rotate at high speeds before he finally slammed into Todoroki, releasing a huge explosion that covered most of the arena and slamming him towards out of bounds.
As the dust settled, Mic spoke. "The winner is…" The entire crowd watched in anticipation. The smoke finally cleared to reveal Todoroki against his own ice, unconscious, and out of bounds.
"Todoroki is out of bounds. The winner is Bakugou!" Midnight said, raising her hand to the sky.
Bakugou stood up and ran towards the fallen boy, grabbing his shirt and pulling him close. "You didn't use your fire. You're going to just give up like that?" Bakugou's hand started to spark, but before he could do anything, a purple mist settled over the two, knocking Bakugou unconscious. Midnight stepped forward, her hand holding a ripped piece of her costume.
"Well, the uh… The winner seems to be Bakugou…" Mic said, his voice somewhat low. "I'm just getting word that we're going to have to go to commercial break." He said hurriedly.
Izuku scoffed. "Some hero he's going to be."
"I've never seen Katsuki like that…" Inko said. "It's… I don't know what to say."
"People like him are part of the reason that we're doing this, Miss Inko." Kyouka said. "We're all here for Izuku, but we're also here for various reasons regarding our quirks."
"I… I see…" Inko said. "Seeing things like this makes it a bit more clear."
"When people like him can become heroes just because of a flashy powerful quirk, but those with actual heroic spirits like Izuku's without the big flashy powerful quirks are left on the sideline to suffer." Hitoshi said. "And people say that I have a villainous quirk. Bakugou's quirk literally blows things up. If he can be a hero, any of us can, too."
"Let's just be glad that we're the ones turning vigilante, and not him. If he went rogue, there would be the possibility of a lot of damage and deaths." Izuku said. "We're at least doing this for a good cause. I feel like he'd be acting out of rage most of the time."
"I can most definitely see that." Fumikage said, nodding. "I cannot imagine what would happen if he fell to the call of the darkness."
Before anyone else could say anything, the commercials that had faded into background noise ended. Present Mic began to speak. "The officials of this tournament have met and made a decision. Due to Katsuki Bakugou attacking a downed student after the match had been called, he has been disqualified from the tournament." The audience had several different reactions. There were several 'boo's, some cheering, and quite a few people in the audience were silent. "Due to this, and the fact that Shouto Todoroki has been drained of most of his stamina in order to heal him of the injuries suffered in the battle with Bakugou, he will be unable to fight in a finals round of the tournament. We have gathered the podium standings, and we are ready to proceed with them. Midnight, would you want to lead them in?"
Midnight began to walk the three people onto the stage, where the podiums stood. "Here we have this year's Sports Festival winners! Here to give the medals out is-"
Midnight was cut off by a shout that came from the top of the arena. "I AM HERE TO HAND OUT THE MEDALS!" The cameras panned up to show All Might standing on the roof of the ring of the stadium. Soon after, he jumped into the ring, landing in a puff of concrete dust. Once it settled, he coughed slightly. "I'm… sorry about that. But onto the medals!" He approached the pink skinned girl Mina Ashido first. "Young Ashido. You have proven yourself to be a quick thinker and adaptable in many situations. You have done quite well for yourself here today. I am looking forward to seeing how you progress in your time here at UA."
"Thank you, sir!" Ashido smiled.
All Might placed the bronze medal around her neck before moving to Todoroki. He had a few bandages on him and some ointment that was clearly visible, but he could walk well enough to be there. "Young Todoroki, you performed exceptionally well against young Bakugou, despite not using your full power. Whatever the reason that this may be, you have a bright future at UA and as a Hero." Todoroki said nothing. He just nodded briefly. All Might placed the silver medal around Todoroki's neck and moved on to the first place podium. The camera followed him to see the green haired Setsuna Tokage completely giddy with excitement.
"Young Tokage. Congratulations for winning this year's Sports Festival. This is no easy feat, and yet here you are at the top. All of us here at UA are proud of you, and we look forward to the changes that you can make in this world. I know you're going to do some great things." He finished by putting the gold medal around her neck. Tokage jumped up and down, happily clutching the medal.
The cameras cut back to Present Mic. He smiled and waved. "Well, that's this year's First Year Sports Festival! We here at UA hope that you enjoyed it, and we'll see you next year! This is Present Mic and Eraserhead signing off! Have a good day, listeners!" The last thing that could be seen before the screen faded out into commercials was Eraserhead grabbing some red string and a few thumb tacks from the inside of the desk that he was sitting at.
Mei turned the TV off and sat back down. "So that last little bit was interesting for sure. Bakugou being disqualified, and all that. How does that make you two feel?" She looked at Izuku and Fumikage. The latter gave a simple thumbs up, joined by Dark Shadow as he did so.
Izuku thought for a few seconds before speaking. "I hope this teaches him a lesson, but I'm not counting on it."
"Yeah, I doubt that the bit-... I mean… the bully can learn." Kyouka corrected herself as she eyed Inko. The latter, oblivious to her almost slip up, smiled and waved at the girl, who returned the action.
"If only I could have told Mitsuki and Masaru then what I know now." Inko said. "Maybe things could be different."
Izuku tried to stand up, and after being held down by Kyouka for a few seconds, he finally managed to, earning a groan from the girl at the lack of Izuku. He shook his head, addressing his mom. "I don't think that anything they could have said would have changed anything. I think that Kacchan was always going to be like this once people in power started stroking his ego."
"Maybe not…" Inko sighed. "Oh well. I think I'm going to head out soon. I'll let you all plan for your next actions because goodness knows that I won't want to hear it. Goodbye, you five. I love you, Izuku. Let me know how things go, but not in too much detail!"
"Bye mom, I love you too."
"Goodbye, Miss Inko." Kyouka said with a smile.
As soon as Inko left the building and the door closed, Izuku sat back down, looking at everyone in his group. "So…" The air became heavier in an instant. "Now we need to talk about going after Stain, don't we?"
The TV replayed the same scene over and over again. The spiky haired blonde boy sprinting forward at the number two Hero's son even after the match had been called. He was about to blow him up. About to kill him. The TV finally was paused. A single voice echoed throughout the relatively empty bar room. The owner of the voice, a rather skinny teen with blue hair, spoke. "I want him, Kurogiri. He's going to be a good addition to our cause. We have to cover up with the losses that our party took whenever we went to the USJ boss raid."
The black mist, Kurogiri, looked at a much smaller screen. "What do you think, master?"
A voice from the smaller screen spoke. "I think young Shigaraki has an eye for this kind of thing. And for leadership. I authorize your actions for this. You may capture this Bakugou kid. I believe that we have some new information coming our way about their location. Now, as we get that set up, you must concentrate on gaining more members in the time between now and then. And don't forget about your meeting tomorrow. Stain will be beneficial for gaining new members. Treat him with respect, and he will do the same for you."
"Yes, master." Both Kurogiri and Shigaraki said at the same time.
"Keep me informed. I look forward to seeing how you progress. The time is quickly approaching for the beginning of the end."
