Chapter 21: Heading into the Finals!

Iida walked down the hallway with the light at the end from the outside greeting him and guiding him to the area. As soon as he entered, the audience cheered while Present Mic announced over the speaker.

"These next competitors are both from Class 1-A!" Present Mic's voice shouted over the speakers. "From one side, Iida Tenya approaches the stage quickly! And from the other, Tokoyami Fumikage marches in with the power of darkness!"

He looked up to see his rather quiet and rooting classmate matching his gaze from the other side of the battle area. Tokoyami silently met his gaze with no other reaction other than Dark Shadow sliding up his arm to snap their beak at him sharply.

Midnight's voice called the start of the fight after Present Mic finished his announcement. Iida set his face into a fine line as he bent his knees, his engines starting up as Dark Shadow whipped around in the air.

Iida launched himself forward with his intent to push Tokoyami out of bounds with his speed. But Tokoyami dodged out of the way with Dark Shadow dragging him off to the side. Shocked, Iida stopped right at the white edge until Dark Shadow started to lash at him with all of their might, making him stumble back.

With a shout, he ran at them while Tokoyami kept dodging in short spurts of jumps from Dark Shadow. Iida kept running at them, changing his tactic to punch at his opponent. Tokoyami kept blocking and throwing his own punches with Dark Shadow getting a hit in every now and then.

It was like a stalemate until the sunshine started to peek out behind the cloudy overcast over the stadium. With the bright light shining down, Iida was able to catch Tokoyami in a weak position and successfully push him out of bounds.

"Tokoyami Fumikage is out of bounds. Iida Tenya is the winner!"

"Revelry..." Tokoyami mumbled as Iida held out his hand. Tokoyami grabbed Iida's hand to shake his hand respectfully while Dark Shadow wrapped themself around Tokoyami's torso.

"That was a good, respectable match," Iida said with a proud grin. "I'm glad I was able to fight against you."

"Truthfully, I think the same," Tokoyami said while walking into the more shadowy area near the entrance he entered through. "However, I will best you the next time we spar like this."

"I look forward to it," Iida waved as Tokoyami retreated back into the darkness in the awaiting hall compared to the sunny arena.

"And onto our NEXT MATCH!" Present Mic's voice cracked up louder. "YEAH! You better be paying attention! On one side, we have the hot and cold, yes or no, Fukuyama Shoto! And from the other, we have the strong and silent teen Shinso Hitoshi! Both come from the same class of 1-A! But who will come out on top?!"

Shoto walked up to the center of the arena with Shinso waiting across from him. He glanced behind him up to the stands to see a spot of green hair in the seats watching him. He heard a few things about Shinso from Izuku, so he knew exactly how much potential that the purple-haired teen had.

"Hey..."

But unluckily for him, Shoto wouldn't fall for his trick when he knew his quirk from all the ramblings from his friend.

"No," Shoto muttered under his breaths before shooting a massive shot of ice towards his feet to freeze Shinso to the ground.

Shinso froze and couldn't get out of the way in time before being stuck. The ice covered his feet, gluing him to the floor of the battleground. He clicked his tongue at the ruined chance of winning the fight.

Midnight called out, "Can you move, Shinso?"

Shinso shook his head with a frown in response which made Midnight call out that Fukuyama had won the battle. After the call had been made, Shoto rushed over to the other side with a fire burning in his palm. Shinso waited with his arms folded as the other teen jogged over to him.

"Please hold still," Shoto announced before being down to melt down the ice holding him down. Shinso stepped out of the half melted puddle as soon as he could.

"Yeah yeah," Shinso waved him off with a bored expression. "Can't really do anything much now."

"I thought you did well in previous rounds," Shoto began, glancing back at the stands. "If it were anyone else not in our class, I'm sure you would have succeeded."

Shinso shrugged, "Or I could have been paired with someone that I would just irritate enough to get them to respond."

Shoto spotted the blonde hair sitting amongst the stands when Shinso said that line. "Many people fit that description."

"Such a shame I got the mostly quiet one, huh? That's just my luck," Shinso kicked at the last bits of ice in the puddle in front of him. He had no idea what he would have said to make the other mad enough to replicate the same reaction from the first day he walked into class. He sighed, "Anyway, see you back in the stands, Fukuyama."

"Yeah," Shoto responded before walking back to his own side to exit the arena. It wouldn't be long until he would see how well his friend would battle against the student from Class 1-B.

"Straight from Class 1-A, Midoriya Izuku!"

Izuku walked onto the battle arena only to hear multiple cheers from his class' section. He turned around to see Shoto and Tenya waving at him from their seats. He smiled up at them, turning around and walking backwards to return their wave happily. He smoothly turned back around, not stumbling in his stride as he moved to the indicated position.

"And walking up to the stage. From Class 1-B, here he is, Monoma Neito!"

Izuku greeted Monoma with a wave as Class 1-B shouted in their seats for him, cheering him on in the competition. "I've been waiting for our fight," he cheerfully told Monoma as Midnight started to count down.

"Ah, Yes. I see you came prepared with that staff in your hands," Monoma looked down at his hands to the staff clutched inside his first. "That is... regulated, right?"

Right as Midnight called time to begin the match, he answered with a flick, opening the staff to its full length. "Don't worry, I got permission since I made it myself. It's fully allowed."

"Interesting," Monoma commented right as Midnight's voice called time for the match.

He knew that his opponent might have copied someone else's quirk before he walked into battle. It was only the question of who he would have copied. And when Monoma started to run at him with gyrating hands, he got his answer.

Izuku dodged to the left as Monoma aimed for his right, swinging his staff at the Class 1-B student only to be mildly shocked that Monoma created a solid air block from sharply blowing towards him.

Monoma met his eyes with a smirk, "You think I only came to the fight with one quirk under my belt?"

"I must say that I am pleasantly surprised," Izuku returned, jumping back with a swirl of his hand to twirl the staff in his hands. He grinned at the blonde, "And now I am even more interested in seeing how this match will go."

Monoma's quirk worked on a time limit, so all he needed to do was either wait out or defeat him before it. His answer was given to him when Monoma started to charge at him again with his left hand spinning widely like a drill.

Izuku is going to tire out his opponent until he can easily secure his victory. With his strategy planned out, he started to dodge Monoma's attacks, running away from him before he would be able to land any hit on him with his gyrating punches. The solid air blocks were a bit harder to dodge, but with his staff to help him, he was able to get away fast.

As he dodged and dived out of the way for minutes, Monoma's swirling hands started to slow down in pace . Izuku watched as Monoma looked down in panic when the hands slowly came to a stop. And with that look of panic, he knew that Monoma's time was officially out.

Izuku grinned as he circled his staff in his hands and walked towards Monoma steadily. "Guess it's just you and me fighting quirkless now."

He threw a punch which Monoma caught in his hand. Izuku watched as Monoma's eyes flickered between his hand and his face. With another word between them, they started to fight hand and hand.

They moved with each other as Izuku gained the upper hand against Monoma, pushing him towards the white line as he punched him. Izuku ducked out of Monoma's reach and swept the other's leg to make him fall back. He heard Monoma's frustrated yell since he had fallen right behind the line as Izuku stood back up.

"Monoma Neito is out of bounds. Midoriya Izuku wins!"

"I just know that you caught the attention of some of those sponsors," Izuku said, tilting his head towards the sponsors booth at the very top of the stadium seats. He reached down and extended his hand towards the other, "They'll be fighting over you if I have anything to say about it."

"You're just saying that to flatter me," Monoma sighed as he took the other's hand, allowing Izuku to pull him to his feet begrudgingly.

"I'm serious. Plus, if they didn't notice you now, they will regret not picking you sooner. Your quirk can help out a lot more than on first glance."

Monoma rolled his eyes, "You are just a flatterer."

"It's one of my many traits," Izuku pressed a hand to his chest. "Another one being that I'm very honest."

"And how honest are you?" Monoma asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

Izuku returned Monoma's disbelieving look with a knowing grin, "You'll just have to see, won't you?"

Kirishima battles against Bakugo after Izuku has returned to his seat. He made sure to watch the battle to nail down any moves the blonde and redhead made for any future analysis he would make.

Kirishima was strong in his defense, but Bakugo's explosions were too strong in their impact which caused Kirishima to lose since the blows caused him to slip out of bounds.

As Bakugo's name was announced, he had a victorious smirk on his face with his hands still smoking lightly from the explosions. Right after the two had left the stadium, Present Mic announced that the judges were putting together the matchups for the semi finals coming up.

"Who do you think will be paired together?" Shoto asked, leaning forward in his seat.

"I'm not entirely sure," Iida answered. He hummed, "Do you think they will draw random lots?"

"Hmm. Who knows?" Izuku hummed with a bright grin on his face. "I mean it will be just us three and Bakugo going into the second to last round."

Shoto's eyes twinkled, "I wonder which one of us will get to put him in his place."

With a crackle of static, the speaker came on with Present Mic announcing, "And into the second to final battle stage! Fukuyama Shoto versus Midoriya Izuku. And Bakugo Katsuki versus Iida Tenya!"

Izuku looked over only to stifle a laugh at the pout on Shoto's face. No doubt he was disappointed he wouldn't be able to kick Bakugo's butt. Shoto turned to Iida and patted his shoulder, making the taller teen turn to his friend. "Beat him, Iida. I'm counting on you."

Iida nodded at his friend's sincere request with a determined expression growing on his face, "I'll do my best to defeat him."

"From one side, Class 1-A's own hot and cold hero in training, Fukuyama Shoto!"

"And from the other side, Class 1-A's analyst Midoriya Izuku!"

Shoto called out to him as Midnight announced over the speakers that the battle was about to begin, "Hey, you ready for it?"

"You bet," Izuku grinned back.

And right on Midnight's mark, the two friends hurried towards each other with Izuku wielding his staff and Shoto enclosing his fist in a layer of ice.

With quick thinking, Izuku cracked his staff against Shoto's ice covered hand, using the hit to dodge to the other side. He twirled around before striking his opponent against his side.

"I should have known you were going to do that."

Izuku swirled his staff, "You never know my next move when I have a weapon in my hand."

"It's better than the airsoft gun that Snipe got you," Shoto remarked, pushing him back. "You are a lot more scared with that in your hands."

"Just wait until I get a paintball gun."

"This fight is extra interesting!" Present Mic lowered his voice like he was whispering a deep secret into the microphone. "Fun fact for our viewers: they have known each other for a long time, so it will be hard to move against each other when the other knows their moves."

"Can't believe he let out the truth so early in the match. It would have been more fun to see everyone's reaction. Ah well," Izuku grinned back at his friend as he easily dodged a snowball aimed at his midsection. "Do you have any new moves that you've been working on?"

"Yeah. I have one," Shoto said, extinguishing his hands with a blank expression coming onto his face. Confused, Izuku paused only to see his friend backing up to the white line that circled them.

His eyes widened before he frantically jogged to his friend to stop him from going out of bounds. "I swear to god. If you try to throw the match, I'm going to fight you."

"We are already fighting right now," Shoto gestured around them, fist fingers starting to burn with flames. "Plus, I want you to succeed."

"If you try to do it to me, I'll do it for you," Izuku responded with a pout on his face. "Don't think I won't!"

Shoto gasped dramatically, his fingers extinguishing again, "Don't you dare."

"Try me," Izuku narrowed his gaze. "Sho, you deserve to be in the finals. We both know how strong you are."

"And? So what? You are the smartest one out of the three of us," Shoto argued back. " If anything, you should go to the finals. Don't you want to win?"

"Yes and no. I want to win, but I also want you to win." Izuku looked at his friend with a bewildered expression, "Besides that point, you said that you wanted to fight against Bakugo! So if he defeats Iida, you can make that happen."

"Correct. But that also means that you can take him down a peg even further." Shoto lit his fist on flames again right as Izuku got right in front of him.

"True. But both of us can do that. So we are still in equal standing," Izuku put his forehead against his friend's as he talked quietly to him. "I am not going to allow you to just walk out of bounds until we actually have a good fight like the sparring matches we have had in the past."

Shoto smiled, "So first one to get hurt or the first one out of bounds."

"Out of bounds. But we have to push the other there," Izuku returned the smile, backing away with the grin growing on his face. He raised his staff to be horizontal between the two of their bodies. Izuku poked him in the chest for emphasis as he said, "No surrendering."

"Agreed," Shoto replied, pushing away the end of the staff from his chest with a fond look in his eyes like he was remembering old sparring sessions.