Their Hero Academia – Chapter 32: The Sports Festival Part 5: ROUND ONE… FIGHT!
"All right, welcome back Sports fans, Pro-Heroes, and people watching at home! This is Present Mic, freshly fed and ready for the Tournament Round! Eraser here tried to escape during the break, but fortunately he was rounded up by his fellow teachers and returned to the broadcast booth!"
"Hn. Tell Hopper and Skyline I know where they live."
"I'll be sure to pass that on! Before we begin the first fights of the Tournament, Principal Nezu and Vice-Principal Midnight have asked me to issue the following reminder to any Pro-Hero Parents in the stands or VIP boxes that they are not to interfere with the fights, no matter how much it looks like their kid is getting beat!"
"That means you, Red Riot."
"For those of you who have spent the last few decades on another planet, let me remind everyone how this is going to go! The top sixteen finalists will face off against each other in a series of one-on-one matches! They'll win by either knocking their opponent out of the ring or by otherwise rendering them unable to continue. Of course, competitors are allowed to withdraw at any time if the kitchen's getting too hot! Now that you know the rules, let's get this show on the road!
"First up is Shiro Monoma of Class 1-B in the Hero Course versus Koharu Kocho of Class 1-F of the General Studies Department! The Master Mimic vs the Moth Maiden! Let's get to it!"
Koharu took a deep breath to try and steady her nerves, trying very hard to ignore the fact that there were thousands of people in the stadium and millions watching on TV, including some of the very best Pro-Heroes in the country. It had been one thing when it was the Obstacle Course or Quirkball. There, she'd been just one face in the crowd. But here, it was just her. Against a Hero Course student.
She wasn't an obsessive fangirl, but she could definitely recognize names associated with some of the higher ranked Heroes. And the name Monoma was definitely a familiar one. The Phantom Thief currently occupied the Number Eleven spot in the rankings. Any kid of a Hero ranked that high had to be pretty skilled and well-taught.
There were no Heroes in her family. Her uncle on her mom's side did work the night shift as dispatch and answering the phones in Might Tower, but that was about as close as she got.
But she'd worked hard and she'd practiced and she really had to remember that she'd very nearly gotten into the Hero Course. Would have, if not for a run of bad luck. This was her chance to make up for it.
"All right!" Hawkeye shouted, from the edge of the ring. "I want a good, clean fight! Remember, if you become overwhelmed, there is no shame is tapping out early! We will be closely monitoring the fight to make certain you don't do yourself or your opponent undue injury."
She raised a hand. "And fight!"
Monoma didn't wait, unfurling his Binding Cloth and slinging it out at her. Quickly, she flapped her wings, hard, stirring up enough wind to blow it back. He quickly reeled it in, then started rushing towards her. "Sorry to end a promising showing so early," he said, "but I have to win!"
"You can try!" Koharu flapped her wings again, pushing off into the sky. She knew, on some level, that even with her impressive wingspan (nearly 3 meters), shouldn't be enough not allow her to fly, no matter how light she was, especially with how rarely she had to flap her wings. Nevertheless, fly she did, sailing over him as he executed a perfect flying kick.
As he hit the ground, she turned in mid-air, firing a volley of her String-Shot from her mouth, each blast of sticky stuff punctuated with a "Hack!" Monoma was good though, dodging and springing out of the way of each blob. He was fast and agile, but she had even greater mobility and just had to stay out of his range.
The Binding Cloth came out again, further than she thought it could go, wrapping around one of her legs! Caught by surprise, she found herself being yanked down closer to him, flapping her wings hard enough to slow it down, but not enough to keep from getting within striking range. He threw a punch, one that probably would have given her one hell of a headache, if she hadn't been able to dodge at the last moment. She took the blow to the shoulder instead, making her let out a cry of pain. But she brought both feet up and kicked, knocking him hard in the chest and loosening the Binding Cloth. She flapped hard again, gaining altitude once more.
That was too close. If she lost here, then it was all over. Sure, Hitoshi Shinso, the Voice, was a legend in the General Studies Department, having come in sixteenth in the Festival twenty-five years ago and still having made it to the Heroics Department. But that was a long time ago and the standards had changed. Losing her first fight wasn't going to cut it. She had to win this. And that meant giving it her all, no matter what.
This time, once she had a little space, she flapped her wings hard, unleashing her Wing-Scales. Orange-yellow powder filled the air with each flap of her wings. This time she used her sleep powder rather than the paralytic she'd used during Quirkball.
"What're you…?" Monoma started, quickly realizing that he was beginning to slow down, slurring his words with drowsiness. He reacted quickly though, wrapping the Binding Cloth around mouth and nose to try and screen some of her Scales out. He couldn't possibly have had a chance to have taken a very big breath of clean air though…
Koharu flapped her wings hard again, filling the air with more sleep powder. Just enough to make it harder for him to take a clean breath. She swooped down, wings flapping hard, as she aimed right for him. Monoma dropped into a fighting stance, but she could tell his movements were dull and slowed. His guard was high, ready to protect his face from her fists, but she changed direction at the last moment, flying upwards, bringing her feet up to kick him hard, squarely in the chest.
It knocked what breath he had left out of him, sucking in her sleep powder instead. That much, that fast put him right out. He slumped to the ground, already snoring. Koharu flapped once, steadying herself, and then dropped back down to the ground. She'd done it. She'd actually done it!
"Monoma is unable to continue!" Hawkeye announced. "Kocho wins!"
"WOW!" came the voice of Present Mic. "Score one for General Studies! Koharu Kocho takes the win! I think we've got one to keep an eye on, folks!"
"Not the best match up," Eraserhead added, and for a moment she felt her sink. "Monoma's Quirk was a poor match up against hers. Then again… almost everyone needs to breathe. A logical strategy. Midnight might like this one."
Koharu took a moment to take in the cheers of the crowd and was surprised to find that it wasn't just coming from her class or the other General Studies courses. There were people cheering for her in the Hero Course seats too… and even in the rest of the stadium.
Maybe she'd just gotten lucky… but right now, this felt pretty good.
Kimiko Ojiro didn't know much about her opponent, Anime Fukidashi. Other than the obvious, of course, that she appeared to be a cartoon character and that she was the daughter of the Pro-Hero Comicman. Even her gym uniform appeared animated on her body. In fact, everything she touched turned animated for as long as she held it. There was something unsettling about watching her move too, as though there was something missing from her movements, going from one position to the next just a little too quickly. She was aware of the irony of calling anyone else's appearance weird, but she couldn't help it. She was just invisible. This was freaky.
She needed to be careful how she played this, though. She really didn't know what exactly Fukidashi's Quirk did. She was friends with Mineta and Koda, apparently, but that was all she really knew. But her own Quirk was extremely specialized. It offered a lot of stealth options, but not a lot of physical power. If she was going to do any attacking, that was purely reliant on training and skill.
Present Mic's voice cut through the noise of the crowd. "And now for our next match, we have Kimiko Ojiro of Class 1-A and Anime Fukidashi of Class 1-B! It's a Hero Course showdown here for these two ladies! One's invisible, one's animated! Which visual will win out? Keep your eyes peeled, because this one's going to be hard to follow!"
Kimiko and Fukidashi approached each other in the center of the ring. Both looked to Hawkeye. The teacher looked over both of them before speaking. "As you both have Quirks which provide visual distortion, be aware that we have sensors that will still detect if you step outside the ring when we can't visually confirm it. Other than that… FIGHT!"
"OMIGOSH!" Fukidashi said, little hearts floating around her head. "I love your blog! I never miss an episode! Is that cutie from the Support Course still single? Can you introduce me?"
Kimiko felt her face break out into a grin, despite the seriousness of the match. "Let me guess… otaku49?"
Fukidashi suddenly turned two dimensional and significantly less detailed, appearing almost as a rectangle with a rounded head. "How did you know?!"
"Lucky guess!"
Activating her Quirk, Kimiko turned the rest of her clothing invisible, completely disappearing from view. Not for the first time, she was grateful that she didn't have to get naked in order to use her Quirk to its fullest like her mom did. It would have just made things awkward, really.
She dropped low, doing a leg sweep that knocked Fukidashi off her feet. First points for her! Almost instantly though, she sprang right back up. "Hey!" she shouted, her head suddenly growing to giant size compared to the rest of her body. "What're you trying to do!? I was complementing you!"
Kimiko readied herself for another strike, when Fukidashi's head returned to normal size. "Ah, well," Fukidashi said, "guess we've got to fight." Her shoulders slumped and she let out a sigh, which manifested as a small cloud from her mouth. The cloud impacted Kimiko like a solid object, bowling her over!
Her concentration broken, Kimiko's clothes snapped back into visibility. "How the heck did you hit me?! I'm invisible!"
"Oh, that?" Fukidashi asked. "I just looked around until I could hear the background music. I knew that's where you had to be!"
Okay, she was officially crazy. She'd read about this in some of the medical books Doc Clock had lent her. Quirk-Induced Psychosis, where someone's Quirk so colored their perceptions on reality that it made it difficult for them to fit into normal society. Maybe she was reading too much into it, but…
She launched a flurry of kicks, one after the other. Fukidashi was good though, dodging them as fast she could. Suddenly, she reached behind her back and when she brought her hand back, she was holding a giant hammer! "Hiii-yaaa!" Fukidashi yelled, swinging the hammer in a wide arc. Kimiko ducked under it, rolling to avoid a follow-up strike that cracked the concrete of the ring. She quickly made herself invisible again.
She might have one shot at this. All she needed to do was get a hand on Fukidashi…
Fukidashi raised her hammer up again, looking around. "Now, where did you…"
Kimiko grabbed Fukidashi's ankle and activated her Quirk, turning her invisible. When she made other people invisible, she could pull it back just enough to leave parts of their eyes visible so they could see… or she could just make them all the way invisible. Fukidashi faded completely from sight.
"What did you…? I can't see! Wait… Aw, crap! You Say Run is playing! I'm going to lose!"
You needed a very strongly developed sense of proprioception when you were invisible. Kimiko had a great one, having been invisible since she was born. Other people, typically, did not react as well. It gave her an opening. Rising up, she grabbed onto Fukidashi with her other hand and executed a judo throw that sent her out of the ring. As soon as she left Kimiko's grasp, she turned visible again, landing in a slump.
"Fukidashi is out of the ring!" Hawkeye said. "Ojiro wins!"
Kimiko let her clothes return to visibility again and took a bow.
"Well that was… interesting! Did you follow any of that, Eraser?"
"All of it. Of course. Weren't you paying attention?"
"Next up," Present Mic said, "is another Hero Course showdown! Mika Mineta of Class 1-A and Yoru Kan of Class 1-C! Horn versus fang! Who will come out the winner?!"
While some of her classmates may have been nervous, Mika definitely wasn't. She did well in her Heroics Classes and she had a highly useful Quirk, especially for something like this. Her Pop-Horn and the sticky balls it could create had come in extremely handy during Quirkball, immobilizing several people on the opposing team and letting them be taken out easily. Combined with her inherited mutations, she knew she was a formidable opponent.
Plus she looked damn good. That had to count for something.
Not that her opponent was bad looking by any means. Yoru Kan was tall, probably nearly as tall as Akaya or Shoji, with skin nearly as white as snow, blood-red lips, and short-cropped red hair. She was also heavily muscled, the bulges of her arms and legs clearly defined by her uniform in a way that was… very distracting.
Focus, Mika!
Okay, so what was her Quirk exactly? She had little fangs poking out from her mouth. Biting powers? No, that probably wasn't it. Mika knew she was the daughter of the Pro-Hero and former U.A. teacher Vlad King. The Blood Hero had married a much younger woman, which had been something of a scandal at the time, according to articles that still circulated the internet. Mika wasn't one to judge in that regard. Unless it was weird or creepy. Or somebody just going after somebody older for their money. That was wrong. Unless it was a whole lot of money.
Right, focus. She needed to focus.
"Let's have a nice clear match, ladies," Hawkeye said. "FIGHT!"
"I vas warned about you," Kan said, baring those fangs of hers. "You vill not distract me with your vords."
Mika felt her jaw drop. That was what she sounded like? "Okay, I could listen to you talk all day. But I'm kind of sort of seeing someone right now? It's an open relationship thing though, haven't really talked about all the details, so you know, I could probably make the time, if you wanted to?"
"Cease your babbling!" Kan roared, charging at her.
Mika's flirt, fight, or flight response kicked over to fight. She lowered her head, aimed her horns, and hired a volley of purple sticky spheres at Kan. Some would hopefully stick and immobilize her, but even if they didn't, they packed enough mass and speed to be a pretty effective projectile all on their own.
Unfortunately for her, as the balls neared her, Kan transformed into a shimmering cloud of blood-red mist, clothes and all (disappointing!), letting them pass harmlessly through her. The mist cloud neared Mika then reshaped itself back into Kan, who launched a punch that hit her hard in the midsection, knocking the breath out of her with a mighty whomp!
Kan struck out again with another punch, this one sending her flying. Mika landed hard, bouncing once, but she was still inside the ring. Her head was spinning though, making it hard to focus. Kan was coming at her again though, so she knew she had to act.
Kan was stronger than her, maybe faster, and the mist trick meant it would be hard, if not impossible, to use her Quirk on her. Fortunately, Mika had a secret weapon. She was strong and fast herself, but more importantly… she was annoying.
"So the mist thing," she said, running out to meet Kan, "can you feel anything when you're like that? Because I can think of at least six different uses for that. Can you work your way into tight places? Are you cold or warm? Because I'm thinking either one would actually be pretty nice, but it does make a big difference!"
Kan swung a fist, a powerful blow made clumsier as Mika's words began breaking her focus. "Shut up! Shut up, you perverted freak! I vill make you shut up!"
Her follow-up blow was just as clumsy and Mika got a good kick in, her hoof connected solidly with Kan's chest. It was a shame she didn't have a lot of feeling in her hooves, a waste of perfectly good boob contact really, but it was what it was. A small price to pay for victory.
"Third base on the first date?" Mika laughed. "Who knew it was this easy?"
Kan let out an incoherent yell that would have done Kirishima-Bakugo proud, striking out again. Ready for it, Mika dodged and kicked. Kan did manage to turn partway to mist this time and her leg passed through her harmlessly. But Mika kept up the chatter. "Well, I guess I can always say I've been inside you now…"
"Vhy don't you shut up?!" Another wild blow, which Mika dodged, backpedaling away from it.
There she was, just enough space to aim… "You going to give me something else to do with my mouth, then?" Mika asked.
That set Kan off again, screaming with rage. And that was the moment Mika struck, firing off as many of her sticky balls as she could, filling the air with them. One by one they hit Kan, sticking to her, until she was completely covered in them, leaving only parts of her face exposed, just enough for her to breathe. The multiple impacts must have had an effect on her, because her words were slowed and slurred, punch-drunk. "At least… I no longer have… to listen… to you."
And then she fell over.
For a minute, there was silence. And then Hawkeye spoke up. "Kan is unable to continue! Mineta wins!"
"I… don't feel good about having seen that," Present Mic said. "I kind of feel like I want a shower."
"Being a Hero is about using every skill you have to your advantage," Aizawa replied. "Mineta was able to do that quite successfully. And don't think I don't know that you're cheering up in the teacher's box, Midnight."
"How long is she going to be stuck like that?" Hawkeye asked her, pointing to Kan's immobilized form.
Mika shrugged. "Kind of varies. At least an hour though. Maybe more."
Hawekeye just sighed in an "I don't get paid enough for this" sort of way as the medical robots came to collect Kan. "I'll see if Power Loader can't develop a solvent."
Still, Mika really hoped that if her dad was watching, it wasn't with the sound or she was due for a loooong and awkward conversation at home.