Chapter 22: The Winning Trio!
It wasn't long in the fight before Shoto froze the entire floor in a thin layer of ice. Izuku immediately started to put distance between him and his friend as Shoto built up icy obstacles all around from spikes to flat rocks.
Izuku decided to copy Mina's move in the earlier battle to skate across the ice. He used his staff to vault over an ice chunk blocking his way only to duck when a ball of fire launched right over his head.
"You have to be quicker than that, Sho!" Izuku called out, jumping through the air onto another ledge of ice, sliding down with throwing waves of fire aimed near him to throw him off his course.
Shoto glared at him before Izuku felt a warmth grow from the bottom edge of his gym shirt. Izuku skated until he slammed back into an icy spike, losing the ice to stop the small flame from spreading.
With a huff, Izuku skated behind a line of ice spikes to block Shoto's view of him. Almost immediately he felt rushes of flames that started melting the spikes so Shoto could see where he was. Every two spikes he moved past, one spike melted down behind him. If he slowed down, Shoto would be right on top of him.
Then, instead of another flash of heat, Izuku felt a cold shiver down his spine while a shadow eclipsed him. He looked up to see a tower of ice stretching towards the ceiling of the stadium like a mini palace. It didn't reach the top, only stopping right at the middle section of the stadium seats.
Izuku frowned at the sight, hearing everyone ooh and ahh at the distraction. But he did feel a tug of a smile when he heard Natsuo's loud cheer from the audience.
Izuku suddenly turned past the last spike and headed immediately towards Shoto, lunging for him once he was in sight. Shoto aimed a spiral of flames towards him that he dodged by dropping onto his knees to slide under the fire.
He slid right up to Shoto who immediately started to block the attacks he made with his staff, resulting in his friend backing up. Shoto evaded most of his attacks until Izuku managed to stomp his staff into the ground, vaulting his body onto his friend.
Shoto fell backwards onto a pile of melting ice that broke into pieces when he landed. Izuku pushed him further back before pinning his legs down by sitting on top of them.
As they both caught their breath, Midnight called that Shoto was out of bounds.
Izuku, who just a moment ago was smirking while he rested on top of his friend's legs, huffed at the declaration, "Aww. I wanted this to last longer."
"Too bad, you won fair and square," Shoto replied with ease, holding up his hands in surrender. He waited until Izuku climbed off his legs before slowly getting up on his own. Kneeling down, he started to melt the ice to melt with his quirk. "And after I melt all of this, I'm going to go and warm myself up. I think I used a bit more ice then I intended to."
"I'm guessing you had to hold out on the fire because of the amount you were relying on the ice to form an obstacle for me."
"Nothing gets past you," Shoto mumbled with a fond look in his eyes.
Izuku laughed at his friend's response, glancing up to their class in the audience only to find Bakugo staring right down at him from the seats behind the railing.
In the class 1-A's section, many of the classmates were conversing with each other while they waited for the next battle between Bakugo and Iida to start. Ojiro, Kirishima and Uraraka were talking with one another about fighting while Hagakure and Mina gossiped with each other.
Shoto smiled as he sat beside Izuku as they both waited for the next match to start. "Iida is going to kick his butt," Shoto declared, reclining in his seat with a relieve sigh.
Izuku crossed his arms, "You almost had me in the last round with that huge distraction." He sighed while Shoto turned to look at him. "I should have know you would have pulled that castle move."
"The castle move?" Shoto questioned. "What is the castle move?"
"Don't act dumb," Izuku tilted his head towards him with a knowing look. "You know I have a good memory. You did that all throughout that summer when Iida went away on a family vacation to that beach resort place with the hot springs."
"Oh, right," Shoto hummed. He pursed his lips, "I was pretty pissed about that."
"Yeah, and you were throwing up ice castles when we were supposed to distract me during training. Only to jump through it to land the blow, I know that move all too well," Izuku replied. He paused for a moment before asking, "Why were you mad in the first place?"
There was a long pause before Shoto coughed. "... He didn't even bring back a seashell."
Izuku rose an eyebrow at his wording, "Seriously?"
"I was pretty petty when I was younger." Izuku paused and slowly looked over at Shoto with a knowing gaze. Shoto blinked back at him, "What?"
"You are still petty."
Shoto blinked back at him then cocked his head, "And?"
"Fair enough," Izuku shrugged right before Present Mic's voice interrupted their conversation. Their classmates' talk simmered down as Bakugo and Iida were called onto the stage.
"Go Iida!" Izuku yelled out. Iida turned to look at them while Shoto made a little flame dance in the air like a ribbon. Iida smiled back at them before steadying his form to walk straight to his position across from the angry blonde.
As soon as Midnight signaled the start of the match, Iida rushed forward as Bakugo met his dash with an explosion. They watched as Iida skidded under the explosion from Bakugo's hand, and promptly kicked up from the ground to land a kick right on Bakugo's rear.
"Wow, he took my words seriously," Shoto whispered as Bakugo raged at Iida who was escaping his blasts. Izuku nodded at Shoto's words, watching Bakugo's spinning move as he tried to follow Iida's quick movements.
Iida rushed forward again with his arms out to push Bakugo out of bounds, but Bakugo aimed an explosion right at his face which threw Iida off his trajectory.
"You got this!" Izuku yelled from his seat.
Iida tried to come at his opponent with a flying kick, but then Bakugo exploded to the side to dodge the attack. They both watched as Bakugo kept evading his moves only to attack when Iida was more vulnerable. Iida used his speed to dodge explosions while Bakugo used his explosions to keep himself away.
It wasn't until they were at complete opposite ends that something big happened. Shoto and Izuku watched as their friend charged up his engine right as Bakugo started to spin in his explosion, making a forceful tornado move.
And right as Iida was about to charge in, Bakugo's tornado-like attack knocked him out of bounds.
"Iida Tenya has been knocked out of bounds. Bakugo Katsuki wins!"
"I think I know how to take him down now," Izuku said, watching Bakugo march off in a different direction while Iida solemnly walked back to where he came.
"You did great, Iida!" Shoto commented loudly as their friend passed by. Iida looked up right as Izuku whistled. They both waved happily at their friend who started to smile back at their enthusiasm
Iida waved before heading underneath the stands while the announcement for the final fight between Bakugo and Izuku played on the speakers.
Iida was a bit disappointed that the battle ended so quickly with Bakugo being declared as the winner. He tried his hardest, yet he still lost. Maybe it was because he wasn't fast enough yet.
His thoughts were interrupted by his cell phone vibrating in his pocket. Iida could almost feel his glasses bouncing on his noise from the intense vibration.
Hurriedly, Iida changed direction from the audience seats where his friends were waiting for a waiting room nearby. He quickly speed-walked into the empty room and closed the door behind him.
Without another thought, he brought out his phone and accepted the call once he saw it was his mother.
"Hello, mother," Iida answered with a smile. Maybe she saw his fights and was just calling to congratulate him. "Why are you calling?"
"Tenya!" Iida's face froze when he heard his mother's frantic voice over the receiver. His eyebrows drew together in worry while his mother continued. "It's Tensei. He got hurt in Hosu. I'm at the hospital waiting on any updates, but it—"
And just like that, Iida felt the growing pit in his stomach lurch at her words. He stood there as his mother struggled to contain her tears on the other side of the phone call as she continued to explain what had happened.
"And now for the final match! Class 1-A vs Class 1-A! Here they are, Bakugo Katsuki and Midoriya Izuku!" Present Mic announced loudly as Izuku walked onto the area.
"Woooh!" Shoto's voice yelled out from behind him as Izuku walked onto the stage for the final round, he turned back to wave at his two friends only to pause with his hand in the air in confusion.
'That's strange. Tenya should be sitting in the stands by now. Maybe he went to get some orange juice?' Izuku thought to himself, walking backwards while keeping an eye on Shoto. Shoto looked on both sides before shrugging.
With a final wave, he turned around to face the scowling expression of the blonde across from him.
And then the match started with a shout from Midnight followed up by Present Mic's voice cheering from the speakers. As soon as the match started, Bakugo rushed forward with his arms raised to launch an explosion at him.
Izuku met Bakugo's explosion with his baton to block the impact from his fists, but it ended with half of his baton blowing off in another direction. Izuku gritted his teeth as he blocked Bakugo's attacks with his fists until rushing to the side to spin kick him in the middle of his back.
He rushed to his fallen baton piece to collect it just in time to dodge another explosion by the fiery blonde.
"Hey, quick question! Does winning mean that much to you?" Izuku asked as he twirled his broken baton in both of his hands.
"I'm going to show them that in the best way," A small explosion happened between the two, making Izuku jump back. Bakugo walked through the smoke like an action movie character, "With or without you butting in. Now stop talking and fight me!"
Izuku bit back a smile growing in his face. He didn't know Bakugo for that long which was a shame. But he knew that Bakugo seemed to hold himself to a high level of confidence in his abilities.
He knew what he fought like from two of the three fights he had witnessed. Bakugo fights strategically with his quirk to showcase the defense and offense abilities of the destructive explosions. All around, Bakugo had plenty of years to narrow down his moves and train himself to do better in fights.
And Izuku was doing the same in his own way under his father's tutelage. Much like his two friends Tenya and Shoto. And now it's time for him to show off all he can do.
Izuku hummed, tapping part of his baton to his chin as he casually dodged another attack. "I don't know if that's really the best you could bring out."
He was going to fight Bakugo mentally.
Bakugo charged forward with his hand sparking up from his palm, "The hell do you mean?!"
"Listen, I've been fighting and training since I was about five or six. I know how to do a multitude of things. From my observations," Izuku paused to catch Bakugo's wrist and twist him over and into his back. "You have been training for a few years honing in on your quirk. But from what I'm seeing, it looks like you slacked off a bit in some areas."
Bakugo sneered from the ground as he skipped away to the other side, watching the blonde hop back onto his feet.
"Well for one, you haven't even bothered to show how much quirkless fighting you can do," Izuku tutted as the blonde exploded his way to him. He ducked under his explosion, kicking him right in the abdomen with force. "Even in class with Toshinori-Sensei, you always seem to spark up."
"Secondly," Izuku started, walking around Bakugo who had fallen again. With an explosion the blonde was back on his feet and running towards him. Izuku twirled his baton and punched the sturdy cylinder into the softness of his stomach. "You seem to rely on your quirk quite a lot despite the fact that you could do a lot more with it and without it."
There was one thing that Izuku could exploit that would drive the blonde crazy.
"And lastly," Izuku bit down on his lip to stop a crazed chuckle, "I don't really need to fight you to prove anything to anyone else. So in this case, how about I just give the match to you?"
Bakugo's need to win. If he wasn't fighting or giving it his all, no doubt that the blonde will take that as an insult.
"OI! You aren't doing shit," Bakugo stormed forward where Izuku was teasingly swinging his foot near the out of bounds line.
Izuku laughed loudly, "Or what? Are you going to explode me into a wall?" Izuku waited until Bakugo sneered at him until smiling wider. "Aww, was that your actual plan? That is a bit disappointing. I wanted something more spectacular out of you if you actually want to continue this fight to the end."
"Shut up and fight!" Bakugo yelled in frustration.
Izuku laughed before rushing off to the white lines of the area with Bakugo charging after him, adamant about keeping him inside the lines until he won.
Which was exactly his plan after all.
He looked over his shoulder before slowly raising his foot like he was about to steal over the line.
"Don't you dare!"
"What? I'm just touching the air," Izuku taunted and shrugged at the approaching opponent. "I don't know what you're talking about."
He watched Bakugo's movements carefully, waiting until the perfect moment for his plan to fall into place. He waited until Bakugo launched at him to try and flip their position which would result in Bakugo falling behind the line that would secure him the win.
But that wasn't exactly what happened because Bakugo gripped onto his shoulders with his burning hands. Izuku yelled as he was dragged down by Bakugo, both of them falling behind the line by a few inches. They both landed with a thud while Midnight screamed something about showing the replay on the monitor.
Izuku blinked while Bakugo coughed as the monitor screen started to play footage to find out who had landed first to declare the winner.
The footage played on the screen in slow motion, highlighting their expressions on the large television. Izuku could almost hear some restrained laughter from the Class 1-A section at the sight. The footage continued until it showed how Bakugo came into contact with the ground only a second before Izuku.
"Midoriya Izuku has won the round!" Midnight cheered, unable to hide the little amount of excitement from her voice.
"You little—you tricked me, didn't you?"
"Maybe," Izuku shrugged, sitting up from the ground as Bakugo scrambled to follow him. The green haired boy started to walk away as soon as he got up only to be met with Bakugo following after him quickly.
"The round is over, children! It's time to rest," Midnight called out as Bakugo and Izuku started to engage in another fight as the audience looked confused on whether to keep cheering for the encore fight or to remain silent.
"But it's fun to have a rematch!" Izuku argued loudly until Midnight, trying to convey that he was alright with the unexpected situation. Especially when he knew an outcome like this was possible since he spent some time poking fun at the blonde.
"Hah! This is fun," Izuku said happily before frowning as Bakugo's explosion burned a bit of his skin. He glanced down at the reddening skin that matched patches of his arms and legs from all of the fighting. While he started to run away from his grasp, he noticed just how much fire damage his costume had. "Ow."
Izuku started to slap Bakugo's hands, striking him on his arms with his baton pieces. Cementoss eventually jogged up to the area and planted his hands on the ground. When Izuku ran to avoid another light attack, Cementoss built up a wall between the two.
Izuku blinked at the gray cement wall that formed in front of him. "Oh."
A few seconds passed until an explosion made a red hole right in the middle that allowed Bakugo to jump through it. "GET OVER HERE!"
"OH!" Izuku loudly replied before running in the opposite direction. Bakugo trailed after him, even following him into the dark tunnel with explosions propelling him forward.
Midnight called after them with a sharp laugh before Bakugo needed to launch himself at his back, making Izuku fall onto the tiled floor of the dark hallway. Aizawa's voice announced over the speakers that the winners will be announced after everything is fixed.
Izuku grimaced at his broken baton pieces digging into his sides as Bakugo pinned him down to the floor. He blinked up innocently at the other student holding him down. "Is this like a kabedon but on the floor?" Izuku asked to break the silent tension. The blonde scoffed at their position.
"Shut up."
"You have to do a lot more than pinning me to the floor to shut me up," Izuku replied strongly in defiance. His tone shifted when he continued, "By the way, you did a great job in the fight. Those special moves were hard to keep up with."
"Shut up, nerd. I'm winning next time, so count on that because I want to see your face when I do," Bakugo declared strongly as he looked down at Izuku with determined eyes.
"I'll look forward to that day," Izuku promised with a smile despite his broken baton digging into his back and side. And the fact he can feel the burn of some of Bakugo's attacks catching up with him. Bakugo lazily got up from the ground, leaving him alone on the tiled floors without even an extended hand.
Maybe he should go see Recovery Girl before the Sports Festival ends.
With a quick nap in Recovery girl's area and a mouthful of gummy bear vitamins, Izuku was ushered into the area under the main stage area. He walked until he could see Shoto standing near the signature podium while Bakugo fought against Cementoss' hold nearby.
"I don't need your cement ass trying to help me up. I can get on this by myself!"
"He won't keep still," Midnight whispered right as Izuku walked into the room.
"Hello, everyone!" Izuku clapped his hands and rubbed them together "I can't wait to start."
"Great job, kiddo!" Midnight pulled him into a crushing hug that lasted only a few seconds while Bakugo jumped onto the second place podium, ignoring how Cementoss mentioned how there were stairs he could have taken. "Ooh, I knew you both would make it high in the games."
"Thank you, Aunt Midnight," Shoto said while he stepped up to take his place on the third place podium.
Izuku smiled as Midnight walked him to the back of the podium, "Thanks Auntie." He said before climbing up to the top spot.
After they all were standing on the podium, Midnight rushed off to start the medal ceremony. So all three of them had to stand in a somewhat semi dark area on a podium with Cementoss watching over them.
"I bet Natsuo is going to yell as soon as you come up," Izuku looked at Shoto who was wringing his hands together.
Shoto breathed out like he was holding back a laugh, "I know Tenya is going to be clapping the loudest out of everyone in this section."
"Shut the hell up," Bakugo sharply responded, which made Shoto scoff at him.
"Hey, it's okay, Bakugo," Izuku replied cheerfully to the irritated blonde. "I just know that Kirishima is going to cheer really hard for you.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing," Izuku smiled happily. "It's just that he's going to be so happy for you because you're his friend."
"Tsk."
The speakers above them were muffled as they started to start the medal ceremony. It wasn't long before their podium started to rise with the help of Cementoss.
As all three of them rose up, they were met with cheering from the audience. Shouts of encouragement called out from the stands as Present Mic's voice tried to drown them out with his exclamation of "YEAH!"
Both Izuku and Shoto looked towards the stand only to look back at each other in confusion when they noticed that Iida was still not there.
"Without further ado, it is time to acknowledge the top three winners of the Sports Festival. And the person in charge of the medals is none other than—"
"I AM HERE!"
The audience cheered even louder as the figure of blue, yellow and red appeared on the arena in front of the podium with all three medals in hand.
Present Mic's started the ceremony, "Unfortunately Iida Tenya had to leave due to a family emergency, so he won't be taking the third place medal due to his request. And so, the third place winner is Fukuyama Shoto!"
"You did well, young Fukuyama. You really 'let it go' on the stage to show the audience your strength," All Might commented.
Shoto froze as All Might placed the medal around his neck. Izuku watched the interaction, frozen stiff as well as he desperately glanced back at the section of their classmates. And as All Might walked over to Bakugo, Izuku couldn't spot a single blue haired head out of anyone he could see.
"The second place winner is Bakugo Katsuki," Present Mic continued. Izuku almost blanked out on what All Might said to Bakugo only catching words and phrases that sounded like the hero was proud of him.
"And the first place winner is Midoriya Izuku."
"I'm very proud of you as well," All Might lowered his voice, "I'm sure your father is watching this moment and is very proud of what you did to accomplish this victory."
Izuku absently nodded back at the number one hero before the muscled man turned back to the audience and raised his arms. The audience followed All Might's strong lead of shouting Plus Ultra before All Might seemed to jump up and disappear over the stadium.
The rest of the celebration was a blur to him. The heavy gold medal around his neck was suffocating as the confetti rained down on them. He was sure he could slightly hear Natsuo and Fuyumi chanting together in the crowd for their little brother.
Bakugo jumped down from his pedestal after the medal was given to him and started to walk straight into the hallway. He angrily scrubbed the confetti out of his hair as both Shoto and Izuku stood still on the podiums.
Slowly, the two friends climbed down from their positions and walked together towards the opposite hallway. Surprisingly, their walk was interrupted by Cementoss who was walking their way.
"Hey, Uncle Cementoss!"
"Hello there. You did great up there," Cementoss replies, his eyes crinkling on his cement face. "No doubt that Nedzu will be proud of you. And your family is very excited about your win as well Fukuyama." But then he paused, "But I would appreciate it, Izuku, if you didn't fight like that when the match was already over."
"Thanks. And don't worry, it won't happen again anytime soon," Izuku said. The next sports festival isn't for another year. "By the way, do you know where Iida is? He left a while ago after his match with Bakugo, and we haven't seen him since then."
"We couldn't find him in the stands when we were out there either," Shoto added. "And then they announced a family emergency. What happened?"
Cementoss' lip pursed together, "There was a family emergency resulting in him rushing to the hospital for one of his family members. Shoto, your brother informed me that he should be waiting outside to take you both to the hospital when you were ready."