Their Hero Academia – Chapter 37: The Sports Festival Part 10: FINAL ROUND!
"And now we come down to the Final Four!" came the voice of Present Mic. "Let's take a minute to recap our finalists!"
"Do you really think people's attention spans are that short?"
"Were you saying something, Eraser?"
"…Never mind, just continue."
"Right on! First up, we have Koharu Kocho from General Studies! This moth-maiden's made it past some pretty challenging competition, but shown us to never count General Studies out! Then we have Mika Mineta from the Hero Course! She got past her first match with a smart mouth, but showed us she also has sharp skills in her second round! After that, we have Isamu Haimawari from the Hero Course, Class 1-A's only non-legacy! With high speed and a surprise secret attack, he's raced past some pretty strong adversaries! And finally, Toshinori Midoriya, who took us all by surprise with a massive gravity-powered Smash that would do his dear old granddad proud!"
Mic continued, "And now, for the final match roll-out! First up, Kocho will face Mineta! Then, we'll get to see Haimawari fight Midoriya! The winners of those two matches will then face off in the Final Round! It's still anyone's match!"
"I just want to reiterate that anyone deliberately breaking their bones or using this for dramatic pronouncements will be expelled."
"Thank you for that, Eraser! Now let's get to it!"
The Final Four of the Sports Festival. Koharu hadn't believed it when she'd made the Top Eight; now she really didn't believe it. If her heart beat any faster, she was pretty sure it was going to come pounding out of her chest.
She wanted to tell herself that she didn't have to do better than this. That she'd already done better than almost all of the General Studies students who'd participated in the Sports Festival before her (Almost all. There was the Festival about six years ago where a General Studies student had actually taken first place, but that had been because their Quirk had been a particularly strong form of invulnerability and they'd just outlasted all the competition. She heard they were working in nuclear clean-up these days.). She wanted to tell herself that she'd already raised the bar for what a General Studies kid could do by a large amount.
Yes, she wanted to tell herself that. But some other part of her mind told her that it still didn't matter. That she'd missed her chance when she'd failed the Entrance Exam and that nothing she did was ever going to make up for that. That she might have a useful Quirk, but she was never going to be a Hero.
It was really hard not to listen to that part of her brain.
Across from her, Mika Mineta was taking her place on the other side of the ring. The hooved and horned girl was known even to the General Studies classes and not much of what was known about her was flattering. After seeing her first match, it was easy to see why. But she'd also demonstrated some real skill in her second match. Koharu was going to have to be careful if she was going to win this.
Hawkeye pointed a finger at Mineta as she entered the ring. "If you speak right now, if you make any innuendos before the match begins, I will disqualify you. Understood?" Mineta only nodded in response.
The sharp-shooting teacher looked over both of them, then nodded. "Let's keep it clean, ladies. FIGHT!"
Koharu flapped her wings hard, desperate to gain some air as quickly as possible. Mineta was dangerous at both close and long range, which meant staying mobile was most important than anything else. As she climbed skyward, Mineta lowered her head slightly.
Plop! Plop!
From the girl's horns, a pair of purple balls fired out, starting small, but growing in size until they were about as big as softballs, flying through the air toward her. Koharu twisted in the air, letting the balls go flying past her.
"What?" Mineta asked. "You don't want to touch my balls?"
Well, the rumors about the girl were certainly proving themselves to be true. Who even said things like that?! Let alone in the middle of a fight?
Mineta lowered her head again and Koharu took in a deep breath, then fired a sticky blob of her String-Shot. It met Mineta's balls in mid-air, smacking them out of the air and sending them falling back to the ground where the combined sticky attacks hit the ground with a wet sound that even Koharu found more than a little disgusting.
"Okay," Mineta said, stomping a hoof. "Guess I'll just have to make you come down!" She lowered her head again, filling the air with those purple balls.
Koharu was forced into an aerial dance, dodging the sticky projectiles as quickly as she could. It wasn't enough to keep them from hitting her body, she had to make sure they didn't hit her wings either. With her wingspan… she was a big target. She returned fire as best she could, spraying her String-Shot, but Mineta was at least as mobile on the ground as she was in the air. One thing was for sure though, they were leaving the ring a mess.
She shouldn't have been surprised. Mineta might have been a nutjob, but she did have an effective Quirk.
Koharu folded her wings for a second, letting herself drop, then opened them again, catching the air. The balls fired by Mineta sailed over her head harmlessly. Koharu flapped her wings hard and unleashed her Scales. Orange powder filled the air, her Sleep Powder. Her Paralytic Powder might have been good here too, but she'd used that more during Quirkball. Too much of any one of her Scales would render her unable to fly and she still potentially had another fights to fight. She might be able to pull off a couple other Powders too, if she had to…
Mineta sucked in a breath before the Sleep Powder reached her, then fired a pair of sticky balls straight up into the air. They fell back quickly and she caught them in her hands, before throwing them in front of her. They stuck to the ground with a rubbery sound and she ran to them, bouncing off them and up into the air.
Okay, she really hadn't been expecting that, even with having seen the same trick in Mineta's fight against Dashi.
Koharu tried to flap out of the way, but Mineta sailed through the air and grabbed her around the middle. Instantly, Koharu began losing altitude. She'd been able to fly somewhat with Ojiro wrapped around her, but with those hooves and those horns, Mineta was a lot heavier than the invisible girl had been.
"Let me go!" she cried out, pounding her fists on Mineta's back and head. The girl's skull was harder than she'd expected, but it probably to be, to support those horns.
"Aw, babe, we can just cuddle!" Mineta taunted back. As Koharu struggled against her, flapping hard continuing to pound on the girl, Mineta reared her head back and fired a volley of sticky balls straight up into the air again. "Fine! Let's see how you like this… PURPLE RAIN!"
Struggling to keep in the air as it was, Koharu could barely manage to look up and see the balls falling back down. One of them stuck to her back, but the rest of them stuck to her wings, three on her left side, two on her right. And then one right where her upper and lower right wings met, sticking them together and another on the tip of her left wing. Combined with the weight of the balls themselves…
Mineta released her, landing in a three-point landing and quickly backing away. Koharu struggled to stay airborne, but she simply couldn't. She fell, managing to stay upright, but her wings dropped under the weight of the balls, touching the ground. Touching it… right where the ball on the tip of her left wing was. She tried to flap it, but found her wing stuck firmly to the ground, pinned by the ball. She could barely lift her other.
The horned girl was circling her, looking for another opening.
Maybe she could still get Mineta with her String-Shot? One good spray, take her down? No. Too risky. It was all too risky right now. Real, true, fear started to grip her heart, and she felt herself shaking. Koharu held up her hands in defeat.
"Stop!" she yelled. "Stop, stop! I give up! I can't… I can't risk tearing my wings!" She wanted to cry. She'd made it this far and now she was blowing it all, just because she was scared. But she'd never really hurt her wings before. They'd gotten a little bruised, a little bent, but she'd managed to never tear them before, didn't know what would happen if she did.
For her own safety, she had to give up.
"Kocho has yieled!" Hawkeye announced. "Mineta wins!"
Koharu let out a small sigh, clenching her hands into fists. She'd failed.
"And that's it for this match, folks! It's a new record for General Studies! This was one for the history books!"
Toshi honestly hadn't thought much about making it this far. He'd certainly thought he'd do well, but he hadn't particular thought about whether he'd come in first or anything like that. While he'd gone in with no intention of costing on his dad's reputation or giving it anything less than his all, placing really hadn't been that important to him. He'd much more concerned about giving his classmates the chance to shine. Especially people like Haimawari, who didn't have any legacies to draw on or connections in the Hero community, or people whose parents were lower ranked Heroes, like Koda or Sato. They were his friends, his classmates, and his family. He'd decided way back at the start of the year he'd do whatever he could to help them succeed, even before they'd elected him Class Rep.
He was impressed by Haimawari's performance, really. He knew his friend had a lot of potential, but even he hadn't been expecting him to do as well as he had. And he definitely hadn't expected the long-range applications of his Quirk.
Now though, with first place in both of their grasps, he needed to give it his all and focus on himself. He wanted to do his best. That didn't necessarily mean winning… but it did mean he had to give it everything he had. No half-measures.
Thinking of himself first didn't come easy to Toshi. He'd always had a big heart, always tried to look out for everyone else. But if ever it was any time to do so, it was now.
"And here it is, Sports Fans! Toshinori Midoriya versus Isamu Haimawari! THE legacy to beat against the great unknown!"
"You know as well as I do where you come from doesn't matter as much as what you do."
"Yeah, but fans eat up the hype!"
As Toshi and Haimawari stepped into the ring, Hawkeye gave each of them a glance. "Try not to destroy the ring this time, Midoriya," she said sharply.
Toshi gave her a sheepish grin. "Yes, ma'am."
"I'm… I'm not gonna hesitate, Midoriya!" Haimawari said. "I've got to give this my all!"
Toshi grinned. "So do I!" No animosity, just both of them doing their best. He might have only known Haimawari a few weeks now, but he was as good a friend as he'd ever had.
Satisfied with that, Hawkeye gave them both one last look. "Good luck to you both. FIGHT!"
Haimawari launched himself forward on all fours at high speed, nearly matching the Twins for acceleration. Toshi had just enough time to leap over him with one of his gravity-less jumps, making sure he was high enough to avoid the reach of Haimawari's long arms. He landed lightly on his feet, spinning around immediately. It was still a little too late though, Haimawari had spun around in place once Toshi had gone over him and accelerated again. It was too fast for Toshi, who managed only a slight sidestep, and Haimawari's high speed charge slammed into him off center, knocking him back.
Haimawari spun around near the edge of the ring, coming at him again. Jumping over him… wasn't going to work. Unlike Sora, his turning radius was a lot tighter. It didn't give Toshi anywhere near enough time to get his own Quirk in line when it happened. But…
Toshi brought his right leg up and then back down quickly, increasing his gravity five times over when he did. The ground cracked under the impact, radiating out in a line from his foot. Haimawari was forced to swerve around it, giving Toshi time to take a quick step back and then launch himself forward. Toshi increased his gravity at the last moment, dealing him a glancing blow than sent him skidding away and knocking him out of his slide.
Haimawari scrambled to his feet, then pointed with his right arm, palm out. He fired off more of those blue-white energy bolts (That was so cool! How was he doing that? Had to be something with his his repulsion field…), but Toshi was already moving and the blasts trailed behind him. Toshi canceled the majority of his gravity and took a leap towards Haimawari, but his friend was quick, stepping backwards while reaching out with one of his long arms. His hand slapped against Toshi's chest and he unleashed a pulse of energy that made him feel like he'd been kicked hard, shooting him up into the air.
At the apex of the arc, Toshi increased his gravity enough to overcome his momentum, dropping straight back down to the ring in a three-point landing. The ground underneath him cracked, but not enough to disrupt the rest of the ring. Haimawari was already pressing his attack, firing more energy pulses. Toshi had to scramble to get out of the way, but Haimawari's aim was getting worse. Like Toshi, he had to be getting tired. They'd both had a long day of rough battles.
Toshi took a low-gravity leap again, just a short one, carrying him over the distance between himself and Haimawari. Quickly, he shifted into triple-gravity, throwing punches as fast as he could move. Haimawari dodged, side to side, avoiding his slightly slow, but powerful blows. It looked like those lessons he'd been giving him had been paying off!
Haimawari peppered Toshi's body with blows of his own, faster, but not nearly as strong. With each blow, he unleashed a burst of power, and Toshi winced against the impact. He was going to be sore and bruised, that was for sure. But with his gravity up, the repulsion blasts couldn't knock him off his feet.
Seeing that this wasn't working, Haimawari tried to step away, dropping back down into a crouch to start sliding again. He raced to the right, starting to circle around. But this time, Toshi was ready, anticipating where he'd go, using another gravity jump to put himself right in his path. Upping his gravity as soon as he landed, Haimawari slammed into him, but Toshi held his ground and Haimawari bounced off, stunned. One good blow would be enough to knock him out.
Toshi closed the gap between them, readying a gravity powered punch…
Haimawari's hands snapped up and he unleashed blast after blast, hammering into Toshi's chest. They were low powered shots, stinging more than they hurt, especially against his increased durability. But they made advancing almost impossible.
Suddenly, Haimawari dropped his hands, firing a single, powerful blast at the ground beneath Toshi's feet. The blue-white bolt practically exploded, shattering the ground and knocking Toshi off his feet, breaking his concentration. Haimawari moved after that, hitting a high speed slide that enabled him to slam into Toshi before he even hit the ground. One arm wrapped around Toshi, he kept going, pushing Toshi along. He tried to pump up his gravity, but Haimawari just applied more thrust, barely slowing down. His repulsion force was way different than Sora's Jetpack, taking the extra weight a lot more easily.
Haimawari braked as they neared the edge of the ring and Toshi kept going on pure momentum. Increasing his gravity, he dug his fingers into the ground, barely stopping himself. He staggered back to his feet…
And then Haimawari hit him with one last blast, dead on. It hit him dead center and knocked him off his feet and out of the ring.
He bounced once, twice, three times, then landed. Back on his feet in an instant, let out a cheer. "That was awesome!" Who'd known Haimawari could do that?
"Midoriya is out of bounds!" Hawkeye yelled. "Haimawari wins!"
Then the reality of what had happened had sunk in. He'd lost. He… didn't know what to think about that. He'd been going all out, as best as he could, and still lost. He'd made it pretty far though, better than Dad had his first time out. That was something. And he'd helped get a lot of his friends pretty far too.
Maybe that was enough? As much as he hadn't thought about winning… he hadn't really thought about losing either. And now that it was over, he didn't know what to think.
"Now that was one heck of a match! I was on the edge of my seat the whole time! But now, Sports Fans, it's time for the Final Round! Be back in five minutes for the Fight for First Place!"
"And here it is, folks! The Final Round! Will it be Mika Mineta or Isamu Haimawari? Who's it gonna be!?"
The burn-coma theory was really starting to look pretty good right about now. Because that was the only logical explanation for how he'd managed to get to the last round of the Sports Festival. It also provided as good an explanation for how the victories that had propelled him here had been against Izumi and Toshi. It was his unconscious mind working something out.
What that said about the fact that this fight was against Mineta, Isamu wasn't really sure. He hadn't had long to strategize for fighting her, but after watching her other fights, he'd come up with the basics. He just had to not get hit, that was all, and watch where he was going if she tried putting some of them in his path. She was strong and had a kick like a mule, but he was fast and capable of fighting at a distance if he had to. He may have blown the surprise of his new technique, but at least he had a new technique to use. None of his classmates had seen him use it before his fight with Izumi; even having used it against Toshi, that still gave him the advantage.
He'd been pretty sure he was never going to crack the top sixteen, let alone the Final Four, and he definitely never expected to be competing for first place. Even if he got knocked out now, that was something to be proud of. Deku himself didn't even make it this far his first Sports Festival.
From across the ring, Mineta blew him a kiss. He tried not to flinch.
Hawkeye fixed Mineta with a glare, but didn't say anything. A small blessing, at least. He couldn't let her get inside his head.
"You both ready?" Hawkeye asked. Isamu gave her a thumbs up and a nod. After confirming Mineta's agreement, she stepped out of the ring. "Then… FIGHT!"
"Tell you what, Haimawari," Mineta shouted. "When you lose, I'll let you touch my boobs to make up for it, okay?"
Behind the bandanna covering the lower half of his face and the goggles covering his eyes, Isamu felt himself go red. Just ignore her. He had to just ignore her. She was trying to mess with his mind, throw him off.
Isamu didn't wait for her to speak again, instead making the first move. He pointed his right palm at Mineta and unleased a volley of low power shots. Probably not more than enough than to knock a can over, but she didn't know that. None of them hit her anyway; she dodged out of the way easily.
With Mineta on the move, it was time to get moving himself. Isamu got his hands on the ground and fired up his Quirk, sliding along the edge of the ring. Mineta had stopped running by this point and laid down a volley of balls right in his path. He took in a sharp breath and unleashed a small pulse from his hands and feet, lifting him up and over them, while his momentum still carried him forward.
"Is there anything you can't do with those hands?" Mineta asked, firing off another volley of balls. Isamu shot sideways, directly to the right, narrowly avoiding them. He was grateful most of her shots were landing outside the ring. The more that stuck to the inside of it, the less space he'd have to slide around.
He gave himself an extra burst of thrust, racing towards Mineta, then turned at the last second, stretching his legs out to full extension. Her reaction time was good though and she jumped over his legs as they passed, then struck out with a kick when she landed. He had just enough time to jerk his head out of the way, her leg sailing by the space his head had been occupying. He didn't even want to think about how much that would have hurt.
His hand shot out and touched her leg, applying his adhesive force to it.
"Hey, that kinda tingles!" Mineta said, trying to keep her balance. "I like it!"
Keeping the adhesive force going in his left hand, he applied thrust out his other hands, sending him sliding back, dragging Mineta along with him. He spun, straightened out, but kept his grip on her. Able to drive forward now, he continued to drag her along. He just had to make it to the edge of the ring and he could throw her out…
"Okay," Mineta said, "this has gotta stop! I'm gonna hurl!" He couldn't spare the moment to look over his shoulder—maintaining two different outputs for his energy was taking up a lot of concentrating—and couldn't see what she was doing, but the slight plop sound of her using her Quirk told him it wasn't good. A half dozen purple balls sailed past him, hitting the ground in front of him. He was forced to swerve and that sudden directional shift cost him his "grip" on Mineta, letting her bounce a couple times on the ground but roll to a stop. Narrowly avoiding the balls, he swerved again, bringing himself back to facing her.
Keeping his left hand on the ground as he slid around, he brought his right hand up and took aim at one of the balls on the ground between him and Mineta. Concentrating on drawing up his energy, he pushed out another blast. It struck the purple sphere head on and the ball exploded in a shower of purple gunk. It splattered all over Mineta, covering her face and eyes.
"Eyuck!" Mineta yelled, wiping the gunk away from her face with her hands. "Really? Didn't know you liked to play dirty!"
Isamu used this time to rush forward, slamming into her at high speed. The impact knocked her back and down, but as he tried to press his attack, she drew back her legs and then unleashed a powerful double kick. Her hooves struck him hard in the shoulders, throwing him back as well, wincing in pain.
And then Mineta was back on her hooves. She pressed her attack, firing another pair of balls while he was knocked down. Protectively, he threw up a hand.
WHUMP!
One of the balls missed, but the other hit his hand with a thick, wet sound. No, not his hand… He'd activated his attraction field! The ball was adhering to that, the attraction field he used to cling to surfaces, not his hand! Behind his bandanna, Isamu broke into a grin. He pointed the ball and unleashed the repulsion part of his Quirk.
Ka-POW!
Boosted by his Quirk, the ball rocketed away from him at high speed. Mineta, too surprised by this sudden shift (especially after how the same trick had pretty much taken Dashi out of the fight) to move, got struck head on. The ball bounced off her head with a rubbery sound, but the impact was strong enough to knock her flat on her back.
Isamu sprang back up to a crouch and rocketed forward. He had scant seconds before Mineta was up. He closed the gap between them just as she was pulling herself up, slapped his hand against her… against her… against her… chest and unleashed another repulsive charge. The force it shoved her back like a shot and out of the ring!
She didn't look particular put out by any of it, landing on her rear. "And here I thought you didn't like me! she called out. "Don't worry, I won't tell Kana! It can just stay out little secret!"
She was going to be the death of him!
"Mineta is out of bounds!" Hawkeye announced. "Haimawari wins!"
So… he'd won.
He'd won the Sports Festival.
Him. The son of a couple long-retired vigilantes against a bunch of children of Pro-Heroes. The crowd was cheering, cheering for him. It was almost deafening.
If this was a coma, he hoped he'd never wake up.
"HAIMAWARI WINS! HAIMAWARI WINS! THAT'S GAME, EVERYBODY! FROM UNKNOWN TO FIRST PLACE! LET'S GIVE HIM A BIG HAND!"
"…I have to admit, I did not see any of this coming."
"Did you just admit you didn't know something?"
"Don't get used to it."