"During the first round, this man literally froze the crowd with his victory, from the Hero Course, Todoroki Shouto!" Todoroki appeared at one end of the stage. "The man who barely made it through the first round, also from the Hero Course, Midoriya Izuku!"

Todoroki started the match off with another huge ice attack, which Midoriya countered with a flick of his finger. "Ah, so cold," Minoko said, layering herself with a blanket.

"Not fair!" Kaminari exclaimed, tugging on the blanket.

"You realize I'm sitting between you two, right," Sero asked, as the two tugged the blanket back and forth, shoving Sero left and right in the process.

"It's already starting?!" Kirishima exclaimed, rushing down the stairs.

"Kirishima, congrats on advancing!" Minoko and Kaminari said.

"Yeah," Kirishima grinned, "I'm up against you next, Bakugou."

"I'll kill you," Bakugou said.

Kirishima laughs, "Just try…or so I'd like to say, but you and Todoroki shoot off powerful, broadrange attacks. Like boom!" He said, imitating an explosion with his hands.

"And it's without any time lag or delay," Sero said as he switched seats with Minoko so that she and Kaminari could share the blanket.

"I'm not just shooting it out," Bakugou said, "Don't underestimate me."

"Hm?"

"Abusing the muscles cause the muscle fibers to rip, and running causes shortness of breath," Bakugou started, "Quirks are the same. It's a physical ability that has its own limit."

"Now that you mention it, that's true," Kirishima said. "Then Midoriya's plan for the 'instant killer'..."

"So you're saying this battle is pretty much just an endurance match?" Minoko said, looking back at the stage where Todoroki shot out ice, and Midoriya once again countered with a flick of his finger.

Todoroki attacked again, this time consecutive formations of ice followed Midoriya as he tried to back away. His foot got caught in one of Todoroki's attacks, prompting him to use his whole arm to deflect. "SMASH!"

"I don't think this is working out in Midoriya's favor at all," Minoko muttered, observing the purple color covering the boy's finger and arms. "Both his hands are already broken."

"Todoroki continues with his overwhelming attack!" Present Mic announced as ice sprouted from below Todoroki, racing towards Midoriya. "The finishing ice attack!"

A large gust of wind blew away the ice, and Todoroki started speeding towards the edge of the stage, only being able to stop with the help of his ice forming behind him.

I was sure Midoriya had no more fingers to attack with,Minoko thought as she searched the stage for the green haired boy. Her eyes widened when she saw one of his broken fingers extended with a darker shade of purple. "What the hell is he doing?" Minoko hissed to herself.

"I get wanting to win, but isn't this a bit much?" she hears Sero mutter.

Minoko nodded in agreement, "He's gonna cause permanent damage to himself if he keeps this up."

The two were at a moment of standstill, talking. They couldn't hear the entire conversation, but Midoriya was saying something about Todoroki's limit being solved by using both sides to counter the drawbacks of his quirk. "You haven't been able to give me a single scratch," Midoriya said, a little louder this time. "Come at me with all you've got!"

Their fight continued with the same moves, except this time, Midoriya was also going for offense and not staying back to defend.Todoroki's attacks are getting weaker and slower,Minoko thought.He must be closing in on his limits then, and Midoriya's using this to his advantage.

And that advantage is definitely working. "A direct hit!!" Present Mic exclaimed as Midoriya's fist connected with Todoroki's abdomen, sending the boy flying back.

She shifted in her seat,Still though. He's being too reckless. Even if Recovery Girl could heal him, there's things that just can't be healed anymore.The fight continued anyway, with Midoriya getting a few hits in. But Todoroki was persistent in staying inside the ring.

Something shifted when Midoriya delivered this one punch.

A burst of warmth engulfed the stadium as fire blasted from the middle of the stage. "Fire," Minoko muttered. She knew Todoroki was capable of it, being able to melt his own ice and everything, but this is the first time she'd seen actual flames coming from the boy.He was already so strong with just his ice, so if you add this…

"SHOTO!!" Endeavor yelled from where he was in the stands.

Minoko watched as the man slowly came down the stairs, closer to the stage. "You've finally accepted me? That's right. Good job. This is your beginning. Take my blood and surpass me. You'll fulfill my ambitions!"

"Endeavor, are you suddenly sending encouragement?" Present Mic asked. "You must be a proud father."

Well that's a weird way of phrasing it,Minoko thought, putting away the blanket now that it was warmer.

Todoroki and Midoriya were starting to power up for their next attacks, when Cementoss and Midnight began to work on stopping the fight. Minoko stared up at the tall wall of ice Todoroki made that he sent crashing down on Midoriya—who used his quirk to avoid the attack, closing in on the other.

Todoroki raised his left arm as Midoriya pulled back his right, but before their attacks came in contact with each other, pillars of cement stood in between them.

Minoko closed her eyes, looking away with her arms formed an 'x' in front of her to keep herself from getting hit by any flying debris, or getting blasted away by the air pressure coming towards them. "Are they serious?!" she hears Kaminari exclaim from beside her.

Slowly, she brought her hands down to look at the stage as the effects of the attack cleared off. They watched intensely as the clouds of smoke slowly moved away. "Midoriya is…out of bounds!" Midnight exclaimed, as Midoriya slumped down from where he stood next to the wall of the bleachers. "Todoroki advances to the third round!"

The helper robots came in and helped Midoriya to the infirmary. Not even five minutes later, Ochako stood up, "I'm going to see Deku," she said.

"I shall come with you," Iida declared.

"I wanna go too," Minoko said, following Ochako's lead.

Soon enough almost the whole class was asking to go. In the end, Minoko walked the corridor with Ochako, Iida, Tsuyu, and Mineta. There were only five of them—as limited by Iida since all of them would be too many.

"Midoriya!" They exclaimed, opening the door to the infirmary.

"Are you okay?" Ochako asked as they entered the room. "Ah, hello there," she gave a slight bow to the sickly looking blond man.

Minoko stared at the man.He looks familiar. I just can't tell who he looks like."Hello," she greeted, not wanting to seem rude.

"Everyone…" Midoriya started, "How's the next match going?"

"You're literally in a hospital bed with both arms and a leg bandaged up, andthat'swhat concerns you?" Minoko asked with a light chuckle.

"We're on a short break since the stage was destroyed," Iida said. "They're doing repairs right now."

"Midoriya, your match just now was really scary," Mineta started, "Even a pro wouldn't want you like that."

Tsuyu hit him with her tongue, "It's not nice to rub salt on his wounds," she said.

"But it's true!"

"You guys are so noisy," Recovery Girl said, waving her hand around, gathering them at the door. "I know you're worried, but I have to perform surgery now."

"Surgery!" They exclaimed.

"Come on, out you go," she ushered.

"Are his injuries really that bad?" Minoko asked.

"Surgery is a big deal!" Ochako exclaimed.

"Will he be able to recover?" Iida asked.

"Just leave it to me."

The door closed in front of them.

"Well…" Minoko started, "She's not Recovery Girl for nothing, right? I'm sure he'll be fine," she said.

"Yeah," Ochako trailed off, "I hope so."

Their little group walked back to the stands, waving goodbye to Iida who decided to head for the waiting rooms halfway through. "How about you, Minoko?" Ochako asked. "Isn't your match after Iida's?"

"Yeah," Minoko said, tilting her head with her eyes closed, wondering what to do. "I think I'll watch a bit of Iida's match first."

They got back to the stands and Minoko sat back at the front row with Kirishima. "How is he?" he asked.

"He's in surgery," she said.

"Surgery?!" It seems that everyone received the news at the same time considering their reactions were in sync.

"That's what we said too," she sighed. "But Recovery Girl said he should be fine, so we should trust her, yeah?"

Their conversation was interrupted by Present Mic yelling for the match to start. It was Iida vs Shiozaki. Minoko could see Shiozaki with her eyes closed and hands together as the vines around her started to slither quickly towards Iida. Unfortunately for her, Iida was faster than the vines and he managed to get behind her. His next move was surprising.

"Shiozaki is out of bounds!" Midnight exclaimed. "Iida advances to the next round."

"He pushed her out?" Minoko said to herself, "So that means—I gotta go!" She said standing up from her seat.

"Goodluck!" She hears some of her classmates cheer as she rushes out of the bleachers.

"That was a fast one folks!" She hears Present Mic say as she arrives at her designated entrance. "On one side, we have our very own dark knight, Tokoyami Fumikage!" Tokoyami made his way to the stage. "On the other hand, quick and nimble, she reaches the entrance just in time, Kaeda Minoko!"

Once Minoko reached the stage, Midnight announced for them to begin.

"Dark Shadow," Tokoyami summoned. "You know the plan."

"Yes sir!" Dark Shadow said,

Before Minoko could even process anything that the two were saying, she found herself trapped in her spot as Dark Shadow circled around her. She was enclosed in one spot, neither side had an opening, and even above her was closed off. She didn't even manage to get any of her accessories thrown down, meaning she can't use them as an escape.

"Oh! Tokoyami with a quick attack! How will Kaeda get herself out of this!" She hears Present Mic say.

Minoko could feel the space in front of her slowly shrinking forcing her to move a few steps back. It was then she realized what they were planning.Mina was hard to get because she can attack from afar,she thought.But with Tokoyami this close…She reached forward with her right hand, submerging it in the shadow, at first she felt nothing, but soon something bumped into her hand—presumably Dark Shadow's head—and the entire enclosure disappeared.

"What is this! Dark Shadow disappeared!" Present Mic exclaimed. "This leaves Tokoyami alone, is that even possible!"

Minoko perked up at the commentary, and true it was, Tokoyami was still in front of her and not in her inventory. Both of them seemed confused, "How is he—" Minoko's question to herself was cut off with Tokoyami regaining his composure and coming in with a punch.

She stumbled backwards as she dodged. Minoko then swung her leg, making Tokoyami topple over. With both of them on the floor, Minoko tried reaching for Tokoyami's arm, but he was fast to kick her arm away. He backed away from Minoko, who stood up. Tokoyami has his hands fisted in front of him, in a defensive stance.

Minoko reached for her bracelets and quickly threw one on each side of Tokoyami before charging at him. She sees him steel himself in his position. Minoko raises her right hand, slowly reaching for her own arm as she approached Tokoyami. She smirked as Tokoyami instinctively looked to his right, expecting her to show up there, but instead, Minoko pulled her right hand away from herself and bac towards Tokoyami who attempted to dodge, but his earlier mistake made his reaction too slow.

Once her hand made contact with Tokoyami's arm, she grabbed another bracelet and flung it out of bounds as she switched it with Tokoyami, who rolled over on the ground as he reappeared.

"Tokoyami is out of bounds! Kaeda moves onto the next round!" Midnight announced.

Minoko let out a sigh of relief before jumping down of the stage and approaching Tokoyami offering him her left hand. "You are a formidable opponent, as I expected," Tokoyami said, as the two of them walked off of the arena. "However, I did not expect you to be able to put Dark Shadow in your inventory."

"Me neither," Minoko said, "Speaking off, this little rascal's still, giving me a headache," she chuckled, grabbing her necklace. She grabbed Tokoyami's hand and placed the necklace on it as she swapped it out with Dark Shadow. "Oh thank goodness that worked," she said as she watched Dark Shadow retreat back to wherever he comes from when Tokoyami isn't summoning him.

"What worked?" Tokoyami asked.

Minoko let out a nervous chuckle, "I'm gonna be honest with you, I was expecting both you and Dark Shadow to be put into my inventory if I was able to touch Dark Shadow," she explained, "So whenyouweren't affected I sorta don't know if that was supposed to happen so I wasn't sure if I could like bring him back for you to be able to control and all that. Like I though you two were just one entity, apparently my quirk thinks otherwise."

Tokoyami hummed as they reached the stairs to their bleachers, "A quirk doesn't make the person," he says. "In any case, it all turned out alright. Congratulations," he said, making Minoko smile.

"Minoko!" She almost stumbled back as Ashido leaped on her as she entered the bleachers. "You won! Oh I'm so proud!"

"What was that?!" Kaminari exclaimed as she approached her seat with Ashido still hanging off of her like a koala. "That was a whole secret move you had there!"

Minoko huffed out a laugh, "Yep, definitely planned and knew that I could do that this whole time." She tapped on Mina's arms that were wrapped around her neck—who thankfully let go.

"How did you even do that?" Sero said, "That's like so op. You practically fought Tokoyami like he was quirkless."

Before Minoko could even process Sero's question, Ashido exclaimed. "Who cares! You're in the semi-finals and whoever you're fighting is about to get chosen!" She pointed to the stage where Kirishima and Bakugou was standing waiting for Midnight's signal.

And so off they go.

Kirishima was the first one to attack, grazing Bakugou with his hardened fist. Bakugou, in retaliation, sent an explosion towards Kirishima's side. They could barely hear it, but with Kirishima's loud voice they can hear him mocking Bakugou a bit, saying explosions don't work on him.

Honestly, if Minoko were to choose who she wants to fight, she'd rather Kirishima. He can't attack from a far, which means they'll need to have a close combat battle. Which isn't really worrying her as much considering the many times she had accidentally sent Kirishima away during their little pre-Sports Fest training. Also, Bakugou's scary and she'd rather not get burned by explosions.

"Go Kirishima!" She yells along with some other classmates, and she could even hear Tetsutetsu cheering from the neighboring bleacher. They watched as Kirishima threw punch after punch, some hitting Bakugou, some the blond was able to dodge. What was suspicious to Minoko was the lack of counters from Bakugou.

"Quirks are the same. It's a physical ability that has its own limit."Baugou's words from earlier echoed in Minoko's mind.

"Is he trying to wear him out?" She muttered to herself.

Sure enough, a few minutes later, Bakugou suddenly let out a large explosion, making Kirishima back off, with his arms in front of him in an attempt to shield himself. They could see Bakugou say something before a barrage of explosions was sent Kirishima's way.

A final explosive punch before Kirishima flies back and lands on the stage. "Kirishima is incapacitated! It's Bakugou's victory!" Midnight announced.

The screen displayed the bracket, with Bakugou moving up. "Now we have our top four players!" The brackets were replaced with their images, with hers between Iida's and Bakugou's.

"You can do this Minoko!" Uraraka cheered.

"Yeah! Beat that jerk for us!" Kaminari said.

"Wa-wait a minute!" Minoko said, waving her hands around, "You can't expect me to–"

"You gotta believe in yourself, ribbit," Asui said.

"Tsu, that would make me delusional," Minoko said.

"You saved him before, what's stopping you from beating him?" Jirou shrugged her shoulders.

"Either way," Mineta started, "with explosions tearing your uniform, it'll be a show for m—" he was silenced by Sero's tape/

"Whatever happens I doubt it'll be worse than my battle," Sero said.

"That doesn't really bring confidence in the situation," Minoko said.

With the classmates sitting near her cheering her on, she couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed. Both because of the praises they were throwing at her, but as well as the lingering thought of her losing to Bakugou anyways. She was sure that she couldn't beat him anyway. Despite wanting to dispute her friends' comments, she said nothing and instead let out an awkward laugh.

Well that wasn't what I wanted at all.

"For our semi-finals we have Todoroki vs Iida, and Bakugou vs Kaeda!" Present Mic exclaimed, "Who's excited?! BecauseIsure am!"

What have I gotten myself into?

Notes:

Hey guys! It's been *checks calendar* a year! since I last updated this. So sorry for those who were waiting for an update. School really got in the way lmao. But it's summer vacation again, I'll be continuing this fic since this is something that I actually really want to write. I actually have the outline finished until the Provisional Hero License Exam Arc--this includes all the OVAs and movies that happened in between. All I have to do is actually write it lol. That said, if you were readers before the unannounced hiatus, welcome back, and thanks for sticking around! If you're new here, I hope you enjoyed the fic so far!

TRIVIA!!

Minoko was supposed to lose in this chapter in the original outline, but as I was writing it I changed it as I genuinely cannot see her losing when Tokoyami doesn't even have Dark Shadow with him.