Their Hero Academia

by Zylly

Twenty-five years after Izuki Midoriya and the rest of Class 1-A first set foot in the halls of U.A., their children begin their own hero academia. What adventures and challenges await the newest generation of future heroes? Can they possibly live up to the standard their parents set? Will they put Aizawa into an early grave? Or will this be the most Plus Ultra class of them all?

38. Chapter 34: Round Three -- FIGHT!

Their Hero Academia – Chapter 34: The Sports Festival Part 7: Round Three—FIGHT!

"Yay, she's waking up!"

Katsumi's eyes sprung open and she found herself staring into the wide-eyed face of a little blond five year old. Her younger brother, Tai. Instantly, he threw his arms around her and squeezed her tight. "Yay! You're okay!"

Slowly, she put her arms around him. Everything kind of hurt right now. "Easy there, Squirt," she said. "I still kind of feel like I got run over by a train."

Reluctantly, he pulled his arms away. But it only sullied his cheery demeanor for a moment. "Sorry, Big Sister! But I was so worried about you! Papa and Daddy were too!"

"He's right," a voice from the foot of the bed said. Katsumi looked past Tai to see Dad and Papa standing there. Papa looked visibly relieved. Dad looked like he was trying hard to hide how worried he'd been and was mostly succeeding.

"You have us quite the scare, Kid," Dad said. "I had to keep your papa here from rushing the stage."

Papa turned nearly as red as his hair, turning to look at Dad with indignation. "So I got a little worried! I'm allowed! It's my right as a parent!"

"It's your right to be a dumb…butt," Dad said, quickly correcting his last word, since he was in front of Tai.

It was only then that Katsumi realized she was in the Infirmary. It all came back to her in a rush, the fight, the numerous chunks of ice she'd taken to the head, the things she and Izzy had said to each other. She was certainly never going to underestimate Izzy like that ever again.

Wait.

"Izzy!" she shrieked, bolting up to a fully seated position, making Tai jump in surprise. She was probably lucky it didn't make him explode. His Quirk to explode himself and reform was on something of a hair-trigger. Dad was teaching him to control it, but accidents still happened. "Is she…?"

"She's fine," Dad said. "IcyHot just texted me before you woke up. Just exhausted herself. You two smacked each other around pretty good."

Papa crossed his arms over his chest. "You gave us quite a shock, young lady," he said, attempting to look stern and failing at it, like he always did. He threw his hands up into the air. "Almost throwing in the towel like that! What were you thinking? What happened to your Wo-Manly pride?"

Katsumi looked down for a moment. She'd almost done that, hadn't she? Out of some kind of misguided sense of… something. "Yeah, well, just needed a few things pounded into my head, I guess."

"Speaking of pounding your head, don't worry," Dad said. "Eri already fixed your nose and wound back some of your other injuries. You'll be scrapping again in no time and still prettier than me.."

"Such a Manly display!" Papa added, his disappointment in her already forgotten. "Both of you, giving it all your fighting spirit! I was on the edge of my seat the whole time!"

Dad gave him a punch in the arm, getting a yelp out of Papa. "Settle down, you." He shook his head. "But we are proud of you, Kid. You made the right decision, fighting. Still, now I owe IcyHot ¥5000. So that's your next several allowances." Only the twitching of his lips betrayed that he was probably kidding about that last part.

"You made a bet on our daughter!?" Papa shrieked, placing a hand over his heart. "Bakubabe, how could you?"

"Relax," Dad said. "IcyHot didn't technically agree to it anyway…"

"I'm sorry you lost, Big Sister," Tai said, looking so forlorn and sad about it that it took everything Katsumi had not to laugh.

Dad came up to him and bent down so he was at eye level with Tai. "Hey, what'd we talk about, Champ?"

"That Big Sister tried her best and gave it her all! And that she'll try even harder next time! And then she'll win!"

"Right!" Dad said. "So no frowning, okay?"

"Okay!"

"Do I get a say in this?" Katsumi asked. Not that she didn't appreciate the vote of confidence, of course.

As one, Dad and Tai both said, "No!"

So she hadn't won. Hadn't even cracked the top eight finalists. Top sixteen, sure. But not nearly as good as she'd have liked. Dad had come in the top three all three of his years at U.A. Papa had done better than she had too. Maybe she wasn't as good as she thought she was?

No, she couldn't go down that line of thought. She'd been ready to throw in the towel without even trying and come out of that pit motivated to fight as hard as she could. One blow different, maybe one or two different moves, maybe she'd have been the one coming up on top. The important thing was that she'd done the Wo-Manly thing and fought to the very end. That was what she had to keep in mind. And maybe now she'd be able to fight with a clearer head if she was ever up against Izzy again.

"They gonna let me out of here to go see the rest of the show?" she asked. "I wanna see more of the girl that kicked Monoma's… butt." Right. Gotta watch the language around Tai. "Plus Izzy. Did the math. Whoever won was gonna get to kick the Newb around the ring for a while. Sorry it ain't me. I'd say she'd go soft on him, but she sure as heck didn't on me…"

Papa nodded. "Eri said you were good to go when you woke up."

"But you are supposed to take it easy the next couple days," Dad added, his tone of voice suggesting he didn't believe she would. "Which is why Tai's going to be on guard duty."

Tai drew himself up to his full height, proudly. "I'll be the best bodyguard ever!"

Katsumi reached over and tussled his hair. "Sure you will, Squirt."

It had taken them a bit to clear the rubble and ice that Katsumi and Izumi's fight had created, with FireFox melting away the ice and Power Loader and a couple Support Class students clearing away the rubble. So by the time Toshi stepped into the ring, it was practically fresh.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, ignoring the sounds of the crowd. As the son of the Number One Hero, he'd been in the public eye since he was a baby. Before he was born, really. It was easy enough to tune it out. And he was definitely going to need his wits about him for the fight ahead. He wasn't bothered by fighting his girlfriend from a relationship-damaging point of view. No, he was worried about it because his girlfriend was a) crazy brilliant, b) crazy fast, and c) crazy unpredictable. It made it very hard to figure out what Sora was going to do next under normal circumstances, let alone in a fight.

"And now, it's another Class 1-A showdown!" Present Mic announced. "Toshinori Midoriya and Sora Iida! One a master of gravity, the other an aerial ace! Will this battle be won in the skies or down on the ground? Only one way to find out!"

"Just tell me someone has All Might accounted for."

That was a bit unfair, Toshi thought. Grandpa Might hadn't tried spying on him a few weeks now. That he knew of, anyway.

Hawkeye looked back and forth between him and Sora. "Remember the flight ceiling rule," she told both of them. "We've got cameras and range-finders set up to catch anything. Other than that… FIGHT!"

"My apologies, Toshi, but this victory will be mine!" Sora shouted, before launching herself at him like a missile, the Jetpack pipes on her back firing.

Toshi knew he only had a couple of seconds to act and brought his own gravity down to almost nothing, leaping over Sora just before she impacted with him. "Don't be so sure about that!" he said, as he turned in midair, landing facing the other direction. She executed a tight turn to keep herself from going out of the ring.

Sora came at him again. He couldn't help to match her speed flat out, but so long as he acted in time, he could keep out of her reach. Each time he forced her to turn around, he gained a few precious seconds to think and formulate his own strategy. He leapt over her again, steadying himself for the next go round.

She was racing for him again, her Jetpack still firing strong. Toshi wasn't sure what Sora's limits were, didn't know how long she could keep this up. But he'd seen her fly for long stretches before during training and they hadn't even hit that amount of time yet. It made outlasting her a dicey proposition at best and foolish at worst.

This time, when he jumped, he twisted in mid-air again, not to adjust his landing, but to give him a chance to grab her. His hand snapped out, grabbing her ankle. Of course, he was still near-weightless at the time, so he was dragged along as she kept flying.

"Be careful," Sora said, executing a tighter turn than before. "I would hate to see you go flying!"

Instead of a straight path, she jerked back and forth, zigzagging to try and dislodge him. Toshi had to close his eyes to keep from throwing up. He didn't have Mom's problems with nausea, but that didn't mean he couldn't just flat out get motion sickness.

Concentrating, he increased his gravity to three times its normal amount, his feet making cracks in the ground as they impacted with it. Still holding on to Sora, he fought against her pull as she increased the power to her Jetpack, a great blast of flame nearly singing him. It quickly got the point where he had to increase his gravity more and dig in his heels… and even then, he was slowly being dragged across the ring, digging great gouges in the concrete!

So he did the only logical thing. He let go.

Sora shot forward like a rocket, no longer impeded by his increased gravity. At the last second before she would have gone out of the ring, she tilted sharply upward, flying up into the air, before circling around to come at him again.

This time, Toshi tried to meet her head on. He brought his gravity back down to nearly nothing, took several steps back, and then, with a running start, jumped into the air. Unaffected by gravity's pull, it was like being fired out of a canon. Seconds before impacted with Sora, he increased his gravity, turning himself into a human canon ball.

POW!

His fist slammed into his girlfriend's torso with considerable force, causing her to cry out. Toshi bounced off, falling back to the ground, and springing back up again. This time, she was faster, accelerating forward to meet him, striking him hard enough to break his concentration, restoring his gravity and making him fall. He recovered in time to bounce back up again, this time hitting Sora hard enough to make her fall. As he drifted back to the ground, she righted herself, flying back at him and clipping him with her fist as she went by.

And so it went, blow after blow, each of them nearly falling flat but recovering to strike at the other. But on his last bounce, rather than trying to strike her, Toshi grabbed on, heavily increasing his gravity.

Entangled with Toshi, her Jetpack flared, trying to support both their weights, then sputtered, faltered, and failed, sending them both falling towards the ground. "I am really sorry about this, okay?" he said. "But we said no regrets!" Perhaps just a bit reluctantly, he let Sora go and decreased his own gravity again, floating down.

Sora stopped herself though, her Jetpack Quirk firing in one quick burst before she hit the ground. She landed awkwardly, but was on her feet quickly, ready by the time Toshi landed.

"That," she said, "could have hurt! But I am willing to forgive you!" Still on foot, she raced towards him and then activated her Quirk.

He wasn't expecting it. Sora's Quirk was primarily flight-based; he hadn't even thought of her activating it on the ground. But with it accelerating her body and his own gravity at normal, it added enough power to his punch to snap his head around and have him seeing stars.

Again and again, Sora struck him, punches given extra rocket-propulsion by her Quirk. If she wasn't using it to punch the stuffing out of him, he'd have been impressed by her ingenuity. He just needed to get his head on straight for a second, so he could use his.

And…there. Sora's punches were slowing down; she must have been overheating her Jetpack after that much use. It gave Toshi the moment he needed, amplifying his gravity several times over. Sora's next blow struck home, but bolstered by his enhanced gravity, he barely felt it. Surprise rose on her face and she pulled her hand back, clutching her knuckles with her other hand.

There. This was his moment. Toshi struck out with a right handed blow, a Smash-worthy punch that would have done Grandpa Might proud. He hit Sora dead on, spinning her around like a top, until she fell to the ground unconscious.

…He really hoped she'd been serious about the "no regrets" thing. Or that Tensei or Uncle Tenya wouldn't be too mad at him.

"Iida is unable to continue!" Hawkeye announced. "Midoriya wins!"

"Talk about your high-speed fights!" Present Mic cheered. "I hope they got that on the slow-motion replay, because that was a rush!"

"At least this Midoriya isn't breaking any bones."

"Absolutely not," Mother said. Worry marred her features, and Izumi could see that she had been crying. "You nearly collapsed during the Obstacle Course, had to be helped off the Quirkball field, and then you did collapse fighting Katsumi. We can't allow you to keep up this kind of pace."

Izumi frowned, uncertain of how to respond, the silence broken only by the slight deep of the monitoring machines Doctor Izumi had hooked her up to. It was true, she had pushed herself to her limits during the Festival so far, perhaps even a bit beyond them. But was the school motto not "Plus Ultra"? Still, it had felt good, giving her all, using her abilities to their fullest, even as her body had ached and she had felt exhaustion working its way into her every cell. She felt… not cold, but not hot either. So much heat had passed through her body; if not for her regulator rig, she very likely would have burned up, maybe even taken someone with her. But she had pushed through it and fought. And won. Against Katsumi, one of the fiercest fighters in their class.

Her cheek still stung where Katsumi had punched her and she imagined she had a rather nasty bruise forming, perhaps even a black eye. That, in and of itself, was a victory. She dearly loved her friend, but she could not have allowed Katsumi to simply throw her chance away like that. It would have eaten away at her, little by little, poisoning her mind. Nor, she realized, could she have thrived under such conditions herself. Katsumi cared for her, protected her, but now understood that she could stand on her own as well. She only wished she had realized earlier just how deeply her friend's feelings towards her went. Even with Katsumi's confession and their conversation, it had obviously not been as settled as she thought.

"I shall manage, Mother," she said. "There is time enough to rest before my next match. Doctor Izumi said I did no permanent damage to myself."

"Is that really what you want, Izumi?" Father asked. He did not wear his emotions on his sleeve like Mother did, but for someone as familiar with him as she was, they were quite clear. He was worried about her too, both her physical health and her mental health. The scars, both figurative and literal, of his own upbringing ran deep. He worried constantly about her limits and pushing her too hard; they had her grandfather to blame for that. "You don't have to prove anything. Not to us, not to anyone."

"Except to myself," she said. "I may or may not have the strength to continue the Tournament, but I will not know unless I try."

"I'm not letting you endanger your health for some point of pride," Mother said, firmly. "There'll be other chances, next year, or…"

"No!" Izumi snapped. "I want to do this. I need to do this! I have to know if I can!"

"You've got to think about your future, about your health! You're just like your father, full of stubborn pride!" Mother pointed an accusing finger, trembling with anger, albeit anger born of concern. "I just want what's best for you!"

Mother was acting just like Katsumi. Trying to protect her, look out for her. But she had left the nest. She was here to learn to be her best. And she could not do that if everyone kept treating her like she would break if left to her own devices or was allowed to actually push herself the way others were.

"I am thinking about my future! How do you think anyone will look upon a future Hero who had to withdraw because she was 'tired'?" Izumi too, was shaking. Not her first angry outburst of the day. She wondered if she was making a habit of it.

"Izumi!" Mother snapped, ready to unleash another tirade.

"I think we should let her," Father said, before either of them could bombard the other with another argument.

Izumi's eyes widened in surprise. Father had always been more on her side about this than Mother, but he rarely directly contradicted her like this.

Mother shot him an angry glare. "Shoto, how can you even suggest she…"

Father shook his head. "Were you listening, Momo? To what she told Katsumi?"

Mother crossed her arms. "Of course I did! She stood up for herself! Told Katsumi to take her seriously and not shelter her! And…"

Her mother trailed off for a moment, then her eyes went wide and she pressed a hand to her mouth. "And I'm doing the same thing… aren't I?"

Father crossed the room and put Mother's shoulders. "You are. You always have. I'm guilty of it too. We both know why. I understand it, but it doesn't make it right. But I think we have to let her be try. You and I both know about too many regrets and what if's."

There was something more being unsaid here, Izumi thought. Something she wasn't being told. But she could pursue that line of questioning another day. For now, her heart beat rapidly in her chest; the possibility that she might actually get to continue was so very close.

Mother frowned. "I… You're right. Of course, you are. I worry…" She looked at Izumi again. "We both worry about you, Izumi. Always. After how we nearly lost you… It nearly killed me to see you fighting like that out there."

Perhaps this wasn't going her way after all.

"But," Mother went on, "I suppose I am just going to have to get used to it. I'll worry no less when you become a Hero yourself."

Her parents separated, each taking up a spot on either side of her bed. "I can't promise I won't be a nervous wreck," Mother said, "but you have my permission to keep fighting."

"Mine too," Father said. And then he smiled. "We're proud of you, you know. And I can lord your victory over Bakugo for weeks."

"And now we come to the last fight of the first seed! Asuka Tokoyami versus Kana Tetsutetsu! The familiar fighter against the steel-fisted striker! Can Tokoyami's Frog-Shadow pierce Tetsutetsu's guard, or will Tetsutetsu's Iron Fist triumph over the floating, fighting frog? Let's find out!"

"Hn. At least I can count on these two to be sensible in their fight."

"Are you ready?" Asuka said out loud.

Let me at her, Boss! I'll go full amphibian on her!

Frog-Shadow, it seemed, was as excitable as always. But her other half had demonstrated remarkable synchronicity with her during the other two events, so Asuka was actually confident that Frog-Shadow would fall in line as best she could for this fight.

Her opponent was no joke. Kana Tetsutetsu was a good friend of both Kirishima-Bakugo and Toshi, as well as Mineta and Koda, so she was hardly a stranger to Class 1-A. Asuka herself had been getting to know her during Student Council meetings. And while her Quirk of transforming her arms into metal was a relatively simple one, she backed it up with martial skill that more than made up for the simplicity of her Quirk.

"Ready?" Hawkeye asked, and when they both nodded, the teacher took a step back, out of the ring. "Fight!"

Tetsutetsu gave her a small bow. "May the best woman win," she said.

Asuka returned the bow in kind. "May the best woman win," she agreed.

And thus the fight began. "Frog-Shadow… go!" Asuka shouted, summoning her familiar. Frog-Shadow erupted from her midsection, a glowing-green frog-shaped figure of light, radiant even in the afternoon sun.

"Face my wrath!" Frog-Shadow shouted, flying towards Tetsutetsu like a spear.

Tetsutetsu wasn't backing down though, instead, she converted both her arms to shining metal and brought them up in an X in front of her face. Her "Ultimate Guard" technique, Asuka believed it was called. Frog-Shadow impacted with a shower of green sparks, but bounced off, looping back around.

But Tetsutestsu didn't waste any time waiting for Frog-Shadow's next attack, racing forward. She crossed the distance between the two of them with remarkable speed, putting Asuka immediately on the defensive as she dodged blows from her steely fists. She had to protect her head. It was a large enough target and one blow from one of Tetsutetsu's metal fists was probably all it would take to knock her down.

"Frog-Shadow, to me!" Quickly, she recalled Frog-Shadow and the world went green.

"Oh, you done it now," Frog-Shadow said, settling over her like a suit of armor. "We're breaking out the combo-moves!"

Tetsutetsu just laughed. "Good! I like a challenge!" She took a step back and launched a kick towards them, connecting hard. Frog-Shadow's armor held, but there was still surprising force behind the blow.

"Off!"

"Off!"

The blow knocked Asuka back, even with Frog-Shadow protecting her. Curse her for a fool, she'd been so focused on Tetsutetsu's Quirk that she hadn't been thinking she would fight with anything else. It was not a mistake she'd be making again.

Tetsutetsu struck out again, this time with a metal arm. But Asuka got her guard up, blocking it with her left arm and delivering her own Frog-Shadow enhanced blow with her right. She struck Tetsutetsu hard in the solar plexus, knocking the wind out of her and buying a few seconds of space and time.

Asuka pressed her attack, sending Frog-Shadow out again to attack. Her familiar shot out, her "tether" wrapping around Tetsutetsu several times, finally ending up behind her, pinning her arms to her side.

"Ha! We've got you now!" Frog-Shadow taunted.

Tetsutetsu simply grinned. "Maybe." Her arms suddenly shifted back to flesh, shrinking just enough that Frog-Shadow was not so tightly wrapped around her. "Maybe not!"

Both of her arms shot up, slamming into Frog-Shadow's face. The light-being let out a cry of pain and retreated, snapping back to Asuka. She winced too, gritting her teeth. Frog-Shadow's pain wasn't exactly her pain… but the two of them were still deeply linked.

"She tricked me! She tricked me! No fair!"

"Quit complaining and fight!" Asuka shouted.

Frog-Shadow shot out again and again, each time blocked by Tetutetsu's guard. Neither of them was gaining much around and the reverse held true when Tetsutetsu found space to press her attack. Asuka would recall Frog-Shadow like armor, blocking until she could strike and drive her back. Their Quirks were very, very different, but provided both of them with enough attack and defense that neither could find space past the other.

This continued for several minutes and even though most of the blows had not impacted upon her directly, Asuka was beginning to tire. But so, it seemed, was Tetsutetsu. She'd taken several steps back in an attempt to buy herself a few moments.

"We gonna go for this, Boss?" Frog-Shadow asked.

Despite something telling her there was more to this than met the eye, Asuka knew they couldn't endure many more assaults. If this was to be ended, it had to be now. "Do it," she breathed.

"FROGGY….PUNCH!" Frog-Shadow shot out again, hands raised and ready to rain down blows on Tetsutetsu.

Tetsutetsu brought her metal hands up… just right to catch the sun. Light reflected off them like a mirror, right into Frog-Shadow's eyes. "What the heck?!" Frog-Shadow cried out, trying to shield her eyes, but failing.

With Frog-Shadow temporarily blinded, Asuka tried to recall her, but before she could, Tetsutetsu's arm snapped out, grabbing the tether that connected the two of them. She gave a powerful yank and Asuka found herself lifted off her feet, flying towards Tetsutetsu. The last thing she remembered seeing before all she could see were stars was a metal fist heading towards her face.

"Tokoyami is unable to continue!" she head Hawkeye shout. "Tetsutetsu wins!"

"Now that's what I call a knock-out fight! That finishes up the first seed of the Tournament, folks! We'll be back for the second seed in just a moment, with more hot U.A. action!"

"Is that enough time for a coffee, Mic?"

"Sure it… Ooooh no, you're not escaping that easy, Eraser!"