Their Hero Academia – Chapter 33: The Sports Festival Part 6: Round Two—FIGHT!
Toshi's first fight was still a few matches away and for the moment, all of Class 1-A except for Haimawari (whose fight was up after the next one) were seated in the stands. The fights so far had been amazing and intense and even though he wasn't quite as fascinated by Quirks as his dad, he'd made sure to take plenty of notes so they could talk about all of it later. He wasn't so drawn into his own little world though, that he didn't notice that Katsumi and Izumi weren't sitting together. Which was very unusual. They'd been getting along fine as recently as before lunch.
Unfortunately, he suspected he knew the answer. The two of them were going to be matched up against each other in the Tournament. And while Izumi probably had no problems fighting Katsumi, he wasn't so sure it worked in the other direction. He thought Katsumi had worked everything out after her talk with Izumi, but maybe she hadn't. And while he may not have had the strongest sense of self-preservation in the universe, even he knew better than to poke that hornet's nest. Trying to mediate that would only lead to trouble.
On the other hand, there was a lot to think about from the fights so far. Koharu Kocho, the moth-girl from the General Studies Course, had definitely done a number on Shiro Monoma. Her Quirk gave her a lot of different and useful abilities, which made him wonder how she'd missed out on making it into the Hero Course. The Hero classes were normally sixteen strong, but it wasn't a hard and fast rule. If there were more qualified applicants, then they just expanded the classes. So what had gone wrong there? He could ask her that later, if he had the opportunity. He'd watched the Sports Festival for years with his dad and between the two of them, they'd gotten pretty good at figuring out which General Studies kids were going to make it into the Hero Course. He had a good feeling about her.
Of course, that meant there was a chance he'd be fighting her later. He'd have to remember to hold his breath as much as he could. His gravity-jumps could probably keep up against her flying, but that sticky stuff of hers was going to be a problem too…
Kimiko Ojiro's fight against Anime Fukidashi had been hard to follow and it really made him want to know more about how exactly Fukidashi's Quirk worked or what exactly it even was. She'd demonstrated transformation, weapons generation, even some kind of solid air blast. Add in the fact that she seemed to be some kind of living cartoon and he didn't even know where to start analyzing it. But Ojiro had managed to overcome all of that, which was impressive too. She was a good martial artist and the invisibility thing made for perfect stealth. If he fought her, he'd have to be careful.
And then there was Mika Mineta's fight against Yoru Kan. He was pretty sure he wouldn't fall for any of Mineta's tricks like that, but really, when it came to Mineta, no one could say what she would do. The important thing was not to underestimate her. She acted the fool, but she was definitely smarter than she let on.
Down on the field, the next fight was starting.
"And now for our next round!" Present Mic announced. "From Class 1-C comes the wheeled-wonder, Yui Aoki! From Class 1-B, the top traffic cop, Kimiko Dashi! Keep your eyes peeled, everyone, because I think this one's going to be quick!"
Aoki was a red-haired girl and looked normal from the waist up. Below, though, her legs merged together around a large wheel. She'd been one of the front-runners during the obstacle course, moving nearly as fast as Haimawari. Dashi had striped hair of red, yellow, and blue, and wore what looked like a traffic signal over her right arm. If he remembered right, she could project similarly colored beams from it and speed things up or slow them down.
Yeah, Present Mic was right. This was definitely going to go quickly.
After Hawkeye gave them the signal to begin the fight, Aoki revved back and then shot forward. But just as quickly, Dashi fired a beam of red light from her hand. The beam struck Aoki and immediately froze her in place.
"Do you think there is a time limit?" Sora, who was sitting to his left, asked. "The energy requirements to complete halt kinetic energy on that level would have to be significant."
"Probably," Toshi agreed. "I saw her doing it a few times during the Obstacle Course and Quirkball too. It didn't seem to last too long any time. Just enough to be useful."
"Wow!" Shota, who was to his right, said. "Look at them! She just stopped her flat! Can you imagine the Villains she could catch?!"
"Great Quirk," Toshi agreed, leaning slightly forward to keep watching.
Dashi quickly stepped out of the way, then hit Aoki with a blue-colored beam of energy. This time, it appeared to super-charge Aoki's speed, propelling her far faster than she'd be on her own and sending her right out of the ring.
"Aoki is out of bounds!" Hawkeye announced. "Dashi wins!"
"I told you that was going to be a fast one, folks!" Present Mic announced. "But as another one bites the dust, we continue on!"
"All right!" Shota shouted. "Haimawari's up next!"
"Just remember not to cheer too loud," Toshi said. "We don't want you bringing down the stands or anything."
"Aw," Shota said, looking down, "that only happened one time!"
"Next up is Isamu Haimawari of Class 1-A! You saw him come in first during the Obstacle Course, but now he's up against Sasuke Kido of Class 1-B! Unstoppable force meets immoveable object! A clash of opposites, right before our eyes! ARRRE YOU READY, Eraser?!"
"Yes. Yes, I am."
"Could you sound less enthusiastic?"
"I'm willing to try."
Isamu stepped into the ring and gulped hard. Kido was shorter than him by a couple inches, but more muscular. He had red hair and was shimmering slightly in the sunlight, an orangish-glow surrounding him: his force field. That was going to be hard to get past. But he'd knocked bigger over during training. He just needed to get enough speed up first. The ring wasn't big, but if he could keep moving…
"Both of you ready?" Hawkeye asked. When they both nodded, she stepped back and yelled, "FIGHT!"
Kido took a step forward, but didn't seem inclined to make the first move. He didn't have to, not really. His Quirk required a lot less mobility than Isamu's did. So it was up to him to strike first. Of course, it was. Isamu took a deep breath, dropped to all fours, and launched himself towards Kido.
Kido's reaction time was good though, forming his force field into a staff and swinging it in a wide arc as Isamu got closer. Fortunately, his own reaction time was just as good and he fired a blast of reverse thrust, propelling himself just out of range of the swing.
Then, he gave himself another forward push, ready to shoulder check Kido. Kido, though, switched back to a force field and bent his legs slightly, bracing himself. Isamu slammed into it and bounced off, thrown back a few feet.
"You're going to have to do better than that," Kido said, following up with an attack, his force field formed into a mace. He swung again and Isamu pushed to the side, dodging subsequent blows by moving to the left or right with his Quirk. He could "push" himself in any direction, reacting with incredible speed. Kido was strong and those force field constructs looked like they would hurt if they connected, but right now, that was a pretty big if.
Granted, it didn't give Isamu a lot of space to attack either. And if Kido shifted to guarding rather than attacking again…
Isamu saw an opening and applied a careful stream of force, just from his left hand. With his other limbs in neutral, it set him spinning and he brought his legs around, slamming his legs into Kido's. The blow took the force-field wielder by surprise and knocked him down, but left them both tangled. Before Isamu could get away, Kido moved first, getting up and grabbing the front his uniform as he did. He lifted Isamu off the ground.
"Got you now," Kido said, drawing back a fist, his whole body glowing with his force field.
"Oh, no you don't!" Isamu yelled. He took a desperate gamble and planted his feet and his left hand on Kido's force field. With a grunt, he ignited his Quirk and pushed off. His Quirk treated the force field like a contiguous solid object and he went up and over… and since Kido was holding onto him, he got dragged along, flipped and slammed hard on his back on the ground. Unfortunately, he still had his force field up, so while Kido was rattled, he wasn't knocked out. He was back on his feet in a flash.
Isamu propelled himself backwards out of fist range, circling around. They were both tiring, but neither was giving up. Between his speed and Kido's guard, all it would take would be someone getting lucky once, taking an opening the other didn't see. They were still close enough to the middle of the ring for his next idea to work though. Kido's force field was protective, but the fact that he'd been able to flip him and trip him up suggested it was purely that, lacking any anchoring capabilities…
He applied more speed, carefully modulating his output with quick bursts of power from different hands and feet. Faster and faster he went, circling Kido again and again until he was nothing but a blur. Only his goggles allowed him to see well enough here, even with the reflexes and enhanced perceptions that came with a speed Quirk, he needed that little boost against the wind he was kicking up. Kido was struggling to try and follow him, occasionally striking out with a punch, but always where he had been, not where he was.
Finally, when he'd disoriented his opponent enough, Isamu rushed forward. Kido didn't even bother to get out of the way, putting up his force field as a strong guard. As he got closer to Kido, Isamu threw out his other arm and slapped a palm against Kido's force field. And then he extended his repulsive field out all his limps at once. The pulse pushed him backwards, hard… but it was also a powerful enough kick to send Kido sailing back too, lacking any anchoring to go with his force field.
Maybe too powerful a kick! Isamu very nearly went out of the ring, but he was able to apply his Quirk's adhesive powers, clinging to the concrete of the ring just before he went out. Kido wasn't so lucky. Isamu's push had been strong enough knock him just outside the ring. Not much. But enough.
"And Kido is out of bounds!' Hawkeye announced. "Haimawari wins!"
"GO HAIMAWARI!" Shinso's voice, probably empowered by his Quirk, somehow cut through the roar of the crowd. It cut itself off pretty quickly, so Midoriya or Tokoyami probably reigned him in.
So he'd come in "first" in the Obstacle Course, survived Quirkball, and won his first match in the Tournament Round. He was definitely still in a "set on fire" induced coma and still back in the medical wing.
"YOW! That was one fast-paced fighting frenzy! Talk about your high-speed action!"
"Sound strategy on Haimawari's part. And do try to control yourself, Shinso."
"Next up is a rivalry for the ages! Izumi Todoroki and Katsumi Kirishima-Bakugo! If their father's rivalry is anything to go by, this should be one heck of a match! Two classmates, locked in battle! Fire and ice against explosions! It's gonna get hot down there!"
"I'm hoping these two have more sense than that, myself."
"Aw, where's the fun in that?"
Katsumi stepped into the ring and watched Izzy do the same on the other end. Hawkeye was about to give them the signal to fight when she raised a hand, having finally made up her mind on what she was going to do. "Nope, nope, nope," she said. "Not gonna fight Izzy. I'll just go ahead and withdraw and save everybody the trouble."
Katsumi would have sworn that the air suddenly got several degrees colder. Then again, with Izzy, it probably had. She looked over at her friend and actually took a step back. She had never seen Izzy look that angry before. Hell, she wasn't entirely sure she'd ever seen Izzy look angry before. Not at anyone and especially not at her. But right now, if looks could kill, she'd be dead. She was honestly a little impressed. Katsumi had thought she'd cornered the market on angry glares.
"Fight me!" Izzy demanded, taking a step forward, fists tightly clenched. Her entire tiny body seemed to be trembling with rage.
"Izz, I can't…" Katsumi began, her heart pounding in her chest.
"Fight me!" Izzy insisted again. Katsumi wasn't sure she'd ever heard Izzy at this volume before. "Would you fight Toshi?"
"Of course, I would!" Katsumi shot back. "I've been scrapping with him all my life!"
"And what about Tetsutetsu? Would you fight her?"
Katsumi frowned, not liking where this was headed at all. "Kana? Damn right, I would."
"Then why will you not fight me?" Izzy growled. The temperature dropped another few degrees.
"Ladies…" Hawkeye began. "Are we going to be fighting today?"
Izzy pointed at her and it felt like a knife in her heart. "I am not some fragile china doll in need of constant protection! I will not shatter in the wind if you fight me! If you are truly my friend, if you truly respect me… then fight me, dammit!"
In spite of it all, Katsumi found herself laughing, nearly bending over double as the laughter broke the tension like a rubber band snapping. Did Izzy just swear at her? When was swearing a thing Izzy did? "Damn, Izz. Where'd you learn to talk like that?"
"I learned it by watching you."
That got another laugh from Katsumi. But Izzy was right. Maybe her head wasn't still screwed on right when it came to her. You didn't fall out of love with a person that fast or that easy. But she'd always thought of Izzy as someone who needed her, someone who needed protection. Soft and fragile Izzy, who'd she'd always looked out for and who she would try and move mountains for.
Izzy, who she'd never actually asked if she needed or wanted the protection. Izzy, who always excelled in her training, even when Katsumi wasn't there to watch over her. Izzy, who pushed beyond her limits, even when her limits might be more than the limits of others.
Izzy, who she claimed to love and respect more than almost anyone else in the world… and whose wants she hadn't even thought of. Would she have been happy being handed a victory like this? Never. Then she owed her friend the same respect.
"Fine then," Katsumi said. She dropped into a fighting stance and brought one hand up, palm up, bringing her fingers in. "You wanna fight? I'll fight you, Izz."
"Wonderful," Hawkeye said, making it clear her patience had just about been at an end. "Now that that's settled… FIGHT!"
Katsumi was expecting ice. She was prepared for ice. It was Izzy's go-to move; she preferred to rely on her ice to contain or restrain when possible, only using her fire when necessary. She got the heat for her fire by creating ice anyway, but now, Katsumi noticed the bands of Izzy's regulator rig were blinking bright orange. She must have made some ice beforehand, storing up heat for the fight.
That gave her a split-second's advantage when Izzy unleashed a powerful blast of flame. She slid under it, grabbing a small chunk of rubble from one of the earlier fights with her left hand and using her Quirk on it. As she came up, she gave it a toss so that it landed at Izzy's feet, where it exploded with more bang than bomb, just enough to get Izzy to shriek and get moving.
But Izzy stayed on the offensive, pointing, and Katsumi felt the temperature around her feet drop a half-second before the ice started to form. She let out a growl and jumped, landing next to Izzy and coming out swinging.
Crack! Her blow actually connected with Izzy's face, snapping her head around. But it didn't knock her down. Recovering faster than Katsumi would have expected, Izzy swung her arm in a wide arc and released a sphere of ice, nearly the size of a bowling ball. They were too close for her to dodge and the ball of ice smacked her right in the face. It nearly knocked her over and she felt the blood dripping down her face; her nose was probably broken.
Izzy put a hand to her mouth, shocked at the damage she had done. But Katsumi didn't begrudge her the damage. It wasn't the first time her nose had been broken and it wouldn't be the last. She wiped away the blood again and put on her best feral grin. She got herself back in the fight, going after Izzy with another punch.
It put Izzy on the defensive, letting out a small gasp, but she put up a wall of ice between them and Katsumi let out a cry of pain at her knuckles impacted the cold wall. But she also passed her Quirk on to it, giving it another strike that let it explode, sending chunks of ice flying. One of those struck Izzy as she was darting away, hitting her in the back and sending her down to her knees.
No! Part of her brain rebelled. It wanted her to rush to Izzy's side, to make sure she was okay. Another part of her brain argued against it, telling her not to embarrass Izzy in front of everyone like that, that this fight was what she wanted.
Izzy settled the problem for her, scrambling back to her feet. Katsumi felt the sudden temperature change that more ice was incoming, but the form of it, combined with her distraction, took her by surprise. A pillar of ice formed under her feet, rapidly rocketing her upward. Then, Izzy followed up with a blast of flame, slicing right through the pillar and sending Katsumi tumbling down to Earth.
She really needed to figure out better uses of her Quirk, she realized, maybe even some kind of support equipment. Dad could use his to fly, attack at a greater distance, all kinds of things. She had to touch something to make it blow up and her range was only as far as she could throw it. And that was it.
Not nearly the kind of utility she needed against Izzy going all out.
She had never really realized just how powerful Izzy was before. And to think, I was protecting her…
She rolled when she hit the ground, trying to distribute some of the kinetic energy involved. It still hurt like hell, but she was still fighting. She hit the ground with a palm again, forcing her Quirk out and into it. Seconds later, a column of explosions shot towards Izzy, knocking her off her feet.
Quickly getting up, Izzy unleashed staccato blasts of flame, forcing Katsumi to dodge left and right, back and forth. And then she shifted to ice, pointing with a flourish and filling the air with more hard-packed ice balls. The first of these slammed into her, shoulders, stomach, and chest. She withstood the barrage, keeping herself on her feet through sheer willpower and reached out, grabbed a pair of the ice balls in flight. She used her Quirk on them and threw them back at Izzy. The first—and she winced at this—struck Izzy dead on, a concussive explosion that halted her attack and knocked her down. The second hit the ground next to her, an explosion of mostly light and noise, keeping her from getting to her feet. Izzy faltered for a moment, staying there on the ground.
Katsumi got unsteadily to hers, grabbing a chunk of ice and readying herself to use her Quirk on it as she approached Izzy. "Izz…" she started. Was she breathing? Was she out cold? What if she'd really hurt her? What if she'd killed her?
Dammit, she was hesitating again. Izzy got to her feet just as unsteadily as Katsumi had. They'd been knocking each other around pretty hard. She was definitely going to be sore tomorrow, that was for sure.
"No regrets?" she asked Izzy.
"No… none," Izzy said. She'd lost her ponytail at some point, her head now framed by a halo of white hair that went red further down and she sported a nasty looking bruise on her pale cheek. She had done that. She'd done that. She'd done that to Izzy. She probably looked quite the sight herself, though that bothered her considerably less.
"Good," Katsumi said, with a confidence she did not entirely feel. She tossed the ice block with all her might.
Izzy was just as quick on the draw, shooting a rapidly expanding solid stream of ice from her hand. The icicle struck out, hitting Katsumi in the head, hard enough to make her see stars, and knocking her down again, while she saw the bombified chunk of ice she'd thrown at Izzy explode, knocking her down again as well.
As she struggled to get up, Katsumi placed both hands on the ground and sent out her Quick, creating a massive explosion between herself and Izzy. Through the smoke and flames, she saw Izzy forming a makeshift ice shield, but she didn't have the strength anymore to make it solid enough and it shattered, bombarding Izzy with shards of ice that knocked her back down.
Katsumi tried to get up. Oh, how she tried. But right now, the ring was spinning and her legs didn't seem to want to support her. She tried to turn her head and focus. Was Izzy okay…?
It looked like Izzy was on one knee, trying to get back up. Well, that was a little better than Katsumi was doing… And she realized the temperature was dropping again, saw Izzy gritting her teeth in concentration. There was a sharp crackle and then great, cold weight on her back, a giant block of ice, pinning her down. If she could just touch it…
Maybe she just needed to lie here for a little while? Katsumi tried to get back up again, straining try and lift the ice block off of her, and slumped down. Yeah, staying here sounded really good…
"Kirishima-Bakugo is unable to continue!" Hawkeye announced. "Todoroki wins!"
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Izzy unleashing another blast of flame skyward, all the bands on her regulator rig bright red. And then she saw Izzy collapse too…! She tried to get up again, but had no power in her limbs…s
"Well, those two certainly pushed themselves to their limits and beyond! We'll take a brief break to get them off the field and then be back for more action!"
"Irresponsible and overly dramatic… I don't know why I was expecting anything different."