AN: FF-loverHP1 - glad you like it
James Birdsong - Thanks again!
And we broke 50k views on the story. Thanks again everyone for your interest in this.
After the break, it was time for the third round to begin, starting with Izuku's match.
Saying his goodbyes to his friends, he returned to the waiting area and began mentally preparing himself, going over what he knew about his opponent. Ibara's quirk was powerful, and she finished the first round right behind his group, so he didn't want to underestimate her.
When he heard Mic call out his name over the PA system he returned to the field, walking onto the arena that Cementoss created over the break. In the distance, he was hearing Present Mic hyping up the crowd.
He heard Mic introduce him and he walked onto the stage. After that, he heard Present Mic call out an introduction for Ibara, but rather than join him, she turned around and looked towards the booth.
"Um, excuse me, but could you please not call me an assassin?"
"W-what?" Izuku heard Mic's surprise over the PA system.
"I am here to be a hero, not an assassin! Therefore I respectfully disagree with that description!"
"S-sorry. The queen of vines from class 1-B, Ibara Shiozaki!"
"Thank you!" She called out, seemingly satisfied with the answer as she walked onto the stage, giving Izuku a polite bow. "Sorry about that."
Izuku shook his head. "No problem! I can understand not wanting that title associated with you!"
She smiled at that. "Thank you for understanding, now then, shall we?"
Izuku nodded as he moved into a fighting stance. "Yep!"
They both looked towards Midnight, who went over the rules one final time, before raising her microphone.
"Begin!"
Izuku dropped low to the ground and began running towards Ibara. He saw her activate her quirk, the rumbling under his feet the only warning he was given before vines broke out of the ground underneath him. He jumped at the last moment, his quick reflexes the only thing saving him from a massive column of vines knocking him into the sky.
Landing several feet away, he continued to charge, preparing a smash attack. As he was swinging his fist Ibara smiled and created a shield of vines in front of her, catching his attack on them. The vines themselves were blown apart, but he saw Ibara standing there completely unharmed.
"You are fast, but not fast enough." She said as she launched a counterattack, and Izuku saw several vines coming straight at him.
Izuku jumped upwards to leap over the vines, landing in a crouch. Before he could recover, he was attacked by another group of vines, knocking him aside. By the time he caught himself and returned to a standing position he noticed that he was dangerously close to the edge of the ring.
"Now then, let's end this!" Ibara yelled, as she plunged another wave of vines into the ground. Not wanting to be caught again, Izuku began running, taking small running jumps around the arena as he tried to figure out more about her quirk.
Once she commits to doing something with her vines, there's a brief window before she can change her plans. I have to get her to commit and move fast.
Formulating a plan, Izuku stopped, and he saw Ibara pause her own attacks - she knew something was up, and recognized that whomever made the first move would be at a disadvantage.
Taking a deep breath, Izuku began charging Ibara, making it obvious he was going for another punch, while also reinforcing both of his legs. Ibara smirked as she began creating her shield again.
"What, are you out of tricks already?"
"Not at all!" Izuku called out as he jumped to the side, and as soon as he hit the ground kicked off with his other leg to launch himself straight at Ibara.
She gasped in surprise as she tried moving her shield, but wasn't fast enough as Izuku flew inside her defenses and finally connected with a punch, sending her flying.
Ibara caught herself with her vines, saving herself from going out of the ring immediately. But before she could recover Izuku was right next to her again, grabbing her arm and throwing her out of the ring.
"Midoriya wins!" Midnight calls out.
Izuku smiled and walked over to where Ibara was pushing herself up, and offered his hand.
"I'm sorry I had to hit you so hard, you weren't giving me many options."
Ibara smiled back and took his hand, using the leverage to pull herself up. "Thank you for not going easy on me."
"Of course! We're here to show everyone what we can do, right?"
Letting go, Izuku returned to the ring, where Midnight was waiting. "Oh my, and he is so humble about his win too!"
She grabbed his hand and raised it, presenting him as the winner, and Izuku couldn't help but smile.
After rejoining his friends, Izuku pulled out his phone and sent a text to Emily while they were waiting for the next match to begin.
Me: After the festival you are going to need to meet Hatsume. You're either going to kill her or you're going to want to introduce her to your parents.
Putting his phone down, he pulled out his notebook.
"You're starting a page for Hatsume?" Ochako asked him.
Izuku looked up. "Of course! Even if it's not a traditionally heroic quirk, there's still plenty of things she can do with it! Plus she has plenty of ideas about support gear."
"She needs to learn the meaning of personal space though." Ochako grumbles.
Izuku flushed at that. "Y-yeah. She came off a little strong."
That earned a laugh from Ochako. "That's saying a lot, coming from you."
Izuku couldn't help but laugh in agreement.
Midnight began announcing the next match and the two turned their attention toward the arena. Both were surprised to see Tenya walking out covered in support gear.
"Wait, why is Iida covered in support equipment?"
"I don't know, I thought Mei would be the only one with support equipment unless someone requested an exception."
Their question was answered as soon as Midnight called for the match to begin. As soon as she did, Mei held up what looked like a large trigger and pushed it, hijacking the speaker system in the arena.
"Hello support companies! I hope you're ready to watch as I, Mei Hatsume, stun you with my amazing gadgets!"
Everyone could only stare in shock until Izuku felt a buzzing in his pocket. Pulling it out, he saw he had a message.
Song: Oh yes, we need to meet! My parents aren't here today but a rep is in the crowd.
Izuku smiled at that, before typing out a reply.
Several minutes later, he heard his phone buzzing again, this time he received a message from Himiko.
Himi: I get the idea of a demonstration but this is excessive! I hope she didn't get the idea from me last year :(
Izuku couldn't help but snicker, and typed a response back.
After giving what amounted to a sales pitch for a solid ten minutes, Mei finally wrapped up the demonstration and landed outside of the ring, before taking one final bow and walking off. Even Midnight needed a minute to realize what just happened before she entered the ring and declared Tenya the winner.
A few minutes later Tenya returned to the bleachers and sat down, visibly upset at the way the match went.
Izuku turned to him. "I almost feel bad for saying this but congratulations on the win? And Himiko says she is sorry about the way things happened."
Tenya crossed his arms. "Hmph, why would she feel bad about what happened?"
"I don't know if you remember what happened at the sports festival last year, but she actually did something similar."
"Of course she would pull something like that. Of all the underhanded…!"
"No no, it was nothing like that!" Izuku waved his hands in front of him. "So, she made the elimination rounds last year."
"The mock sword fighting?"
Izuku nodded. "Yes. But she was going up against Atsuko, and there was no way a shapeshifting quirk was going to give her a chance vs her air barriers. Himi had the speed and agility advantage, but that wasn't going to be enough. So they made a deal. What Himi really wanted was for people to see her quirk. After all, the point of the sports festival is to show off, right? So Atsuko agreed to let her transform at the beginning of the match, and they made a show of it. After that it was no-holds barred."
Tenya closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose as he was processing the information. "And how did the match end?"
"As expected, Himi lost. But Atsuko letting her show off? It was enough to get her almost 100 internship requests."
"I see. So she feels sympathy for Hatsume then. Under normal circumstances she stood no chance against me but wanted to show off her ability to build support items."
"Exactly. Although Hatsume wasn't upfront about it, and her demonstration was a little much."
"Had she explained that in the same terms you just did, I may have been more inclined to go along with her plan." Tenya slammed his fist into an open palm. "As it was, her actions were shameful and underhanded!"
The next match ended almost as soon as it began. Midnight barely had time to call out to begin before Shoto launched a massive attack, freezing half of the stadium in a massive glacier. He succeeded in trapping Hanta, as well as several pro heroes in his ice. Midnight quickly called the match for Shoto, but then called for a break as everyone was forced to wait until the ice was removed before they could continue.
Hitoshi was up next, facing Denki, and the match turned out to be similarly lopsided. As they were standing there before the match began Denki appeared to be trash talking Hitoshi. But as soon as Midnight called to begin, Denki's face went blank and he turned around and walked out of the ring. As he was doing so Aizawa took over commentary, explaining Hitoshi's quirk to the crowd, while carefully avoiding mention of its activation condition.
When Midnight declared Hitoshi the winner the general studies section broke out into cheers for him. Curious, Izuku looked over to where the heroes were seated, and he saw a number of underground heroes were also talking amongst themselves. It looks like Hitoshi getting the attention he wanted.
The next round was Momo versus Tokoyami. Izuku leaned forward to watch the match, curious to see how Momo would put her analysis lessons into practice. At the signal to begin, Momo created a mirror, reflecting sunlight onto Dark Shadow, making him flinch back. This gave Momo the time she needed to create several flashbangs.
When everyone was able to see the arena again, they saw that Momo was standing at the edge of the arena, and Tokoyami was outside the arena. Momo looked happy as Midnight recovered, walking into the arena and declaring her the winner.
Tsuyu was next, facing Mina. At the beginning Tsuyu appeared to have the early advantage, using her agility to avoid the acid, and getting a few solid hits in with her tongue. Mina soon switched up her tactics, however and began coating the entire arena in her slick acid.
This strategy worked surprisingly well, and Tsuyu quickly found herself running out of clear space to stand. Unable to stick to the ground, Tsuyu found herself thrown off-balance, while Mina was used to skating around on top of her acid. Once she had claimed the advantage, Mina knocked Tsuyu out of the arena.
After that was Eijrio vs Hiryu Rin from class 1-B. Hiryu's dragon quirk worked both on offense and defense, but Eijiro's hardening proved to be the more effective quirk for the event format. Not only was he able to block the scales Hiryu fired off as attacks, but his hardened punches were strong enough to break through the scales on Hiryu's body. It took a few minutes, but Eijiro eventually managed to wear down his opponent and win.
Izuku swallowed as Present Mic announced the final match from the top 16 - Ochako versus Katsuki.
He turned to the brown-haired girl and forced a smile to his face. "Good luck! Take him down!"
Ochako forced a smile of her own and gave him a thumb's up. "Don't worry, I will! I have a plan!"
Watching Ochako take on Katsuki was rough. Despite watching Ochako get thrown around so much, Izuku found himself impressed by the tactics Ochako had come up with over the past couple of hours. She was staying low, using Katsuki's explosions to her advantage by having him aim downwards, exploding against the ground and creating debris. Then, using the smoke as cover, she was able to touch the debris and remove its gravity, pushing it into the air and building a large cloud of objects in the sky.
Despite constantly being pushed back, she wore a face of determination the entire time, refusing to back down. It was inspiring to watch, really. Izuku hoped that when the time came, he was able to push past his limits the same way he was watching Ochako do right now. Doing some quick mental calculations, he guessed she was already past the current weight capacity for her quirk, and somehow she was still adding more and more debris.
Finally, she decided it was now or never and she used her ultimate attack on Katsuki. Unfortunately, Katsuki surprised everybody, even Izuku, with his counter. He raised his hand and let loose a massive explosion - Izuku failed to notice that Katsuki was only attacking with his right hand, and building up sweat on his left arm, saving it for one massive attack of his own.
Even after her attack failed, Ochako was still standing, trying to continue. Sadly her body finally gave out and she collapsed onto the ground.
Izuku dropped his notebook and took off towards the temporary infirmary.
Himiko was sitting there, her mouth hanging open as she watched the match conclude.
"So, that's your future sister-in-law huh?" Atsuko asked from next to her.
Himiko took a moment to recover. "Screw Izu, I'm going to marry her!"
"What!? Are you freaking kidding me!?" She could hear Emily's indignant cry from her other side.
This caused Himiko and Atsuko to burst out laughing.
"Of course I'm kidding! I've seen how Izu and Uraraka look at each other." Himiko smiled fondly. "Izu deserves to be happy. I'm not going to mess that up for him."
"So you're saying that she is, in fact, going to be your future sister-in-law?" Atsuko asked again.
"I mean, obviously."
Himiko stuck out her tongue at her friend and then pulled out her phone to text her brother.
"What are you doing?"
"Just because I'm not going to make any moves towards her doesn't mean I can't threaten Izu a little."
Himiko showed her friend the message she wrote, causing Atsuko to giggle as she hit send. They were too busy laughing to notice that next to them, Tomoe put a comforting hand on Emily's shoulder and offered her a comforting smile.
After missing her at the infirmary, Izuku ran to the locker room, wanting to make sure Ochako was ok. When he got there he took a moment to calm down, before opening the door.
"Oh, hey Deku!" Ochako gave him a wobbly smile.
"I wanted to see how you're doing after that match."
"Oh, I'm disappointed but I'll be fine." She closed her eyes to try and contain her tears, giving him a shaky thumb's up. Her arm felt heavy but she refused to show weakness.
Deku closed the door behind him and closed the gap between them, pulling Ochako into a hug. "You don't have to hide it, you know."
"W-what do you mean?" Ochako felt her face heating up from the sudden contact.
Izuku knew the look on Ochako's face. He has seen it in the mirror far too often. "I've seen that look before. You're more than just disappointed, aren't you?"
Ochako felt her eyes clouding up. "I… I feel like I failed."
She grabbed Izuku's shirt as the tears she was trying to hold back began to fall. "I wanted to show off my quirk more, to let people see more of what I can do, and I couldn't even get past the first round. It sucks."
"Uraraka, you did great. Everyone was rooting for you, and the strategy you were able to put together was impressive!"
"It still hurts."
"You know what makes us heroes? Even when it hurts, we keep getting back up again. As long as we can still stand up, we can learn from our failures and continue forward." Izuku slowly rubbed Ochako's back to comfort her.
"Thanks Deku. It helps hearing that." She rubbed her eyes to wipe away the remaining tears, before finally pulling away and offering him a genuine smile. "I promise I'll be ok, and your match starts soon right? So go out there and win, ok?"
"I'll do my best." Izuku smiled softly back at her.
As Izuku pulled out his cell phone to set it down, he saw one message from his sister. He opened it up.
Himi: If you don't marry her I will.
Izuku quickly locked the screen on his phone and slammed it down, his face turning bright red. Suddenly unable to look at Ochako, he opened the door and bolted out of the room, giving her privacy while she answered a phone call.
Izuku had recovered from his embarrassment by the time he made it to the waiting room. His next opponent was Tenya, and he was going to be a tough opponent to face. Tenya is already fast, and his super move could end the match immediately if he wasn't careful.
"Midoriya, I hope you are ready!" Tenya called out as they both got into position.
Izuku nodded. "Of course!"
"Begin!" Midnight called.
Tenya immediately began running towards Izuku, trying to land a powered kick, but Izuku was able to jump out of the way.
"You telegraph your kicks!" Izuku called out.
This seemed to offend Tenya, who rushed in and rammed into Izuku, trying to shove him out of the arena. Izuku stumbled for a moment before punching Tenya in the gut, knocking the wind out of him and giving Izuku the precious seconds he needed to escape, putting some space between the two of them.
"I see, my normal attacks aren't enough." Tenya appeared to be talking to himself. "I'm going to have to use it."
Izuku saw Tenya change his stance, and recognized he was getting ready to use his super move. Mind racing, he thought about how to counter it. He is too fast, I won't have the time I need to avoid him with my normal jumps.
Unless…
Izuku looked down. Can I hold continuous power in my legs for ten seconds? That would give me the mobility I need.
"Recipro Burst!" Tenya yelled, as he overcharged his engines and began running towards his opponent..
Seeing no other options, Izuku called upon One For All and felt the energy flowing into his legs. He wasn't even sure he could use it this way, but he was out of time to come up with another plan.
Ten
Tenya was on him impossibly fast, and Izuku barely was able to jump away in time.
Nine, Eight
Izuku landed, but managed to keep One For All moving through his legs. Tenya had to waste precious time to stop and start moving again, and Izuku jumped past him, continuing to keep his distance.
Seven, Six, Five, Four
It has only been seconds, but Izuku was already feeling more confident about his ability to hold power in his legs. Unfortunately, Tenya was also getting better at changing direction after a failed attempt to grab him. He just had to hold out a little longer.
Three, Two, One
Izuku landed in the middle of the arena, letting the energy in his legs dissipate and powering his arms instead. As expected, Tenya was immediately on top of him, and began pushing him towards the arena edge.
Zero
Izuku felt Tenya stall out, as he lost the strength to push him out of the ring. Tenya had a disappointed look on his face as he looked down at his engines.
"Sorry." Izuku apologized before grabbing Tenya's arm, and throwing him out of the ring.
"Midoriya wins!" Midnight calls, and the crowd cheered.
Izuku walked out of the ring to Tenya and offered up his hand.
"You knew exactly how long I could use my Recipro Burst!" Tenya said as he took the offered hand.
Izuku responded sheepishly. "I may have been keeping track when you used it in training."
"I see." Tenya pulled himself up. "I made the right choice then, I must strive harder to improve myself."
"You made me push myself to even stand a chance against your Recipro Burst." Izuku admitted. "How about we continue to help each other improve?"
"Gladly!" Tenya smiled, before releasing his hand and walking away.
"My my. Two young students, honing their skills in the trials of combat. What can be more exciting!" Midnight spoke to the crowd as Izuku returned to the arena.
Izuku rushed back to the bleachers in time to see the next match, catching up with Tenya along the way. He wanted to see if Hitoshi was capable of catching Shoto with his quirk, or if Shoto was going to end the match immediately a second time. No matter who won, Izuku was not looking forward to the next round.
Midnight announced the match, and he saw the two face off. From where he was sitting, Izuku couldn't hear what was being said, but it looked like Hitoshi was trying to bait Shinso. Opening his notebook, Izuku took out a pencil and began scribbling theories about it.
Hopefully Hitoshi will be more open to talking about his quirk after the tournament. He has understandably been quiet about his quirk the few times they have talked over the past two weeks. Izuku couldn't blame him - knowing the activation conditions for his quirk would give anyone a huge advantage against him going into the sports festival. Izuku couldn't help but be curious though, so he continued to speculate.
As soon as Midnight announced for the match to begin, Shoto shot out a wave of ice, freezing Hitoshi's legs into place. Not taking any chances, Shoto sent out a second wave of ice that captured Hitoshi's arms and torso, preventing him from moving. Shoto then turned to Midnight, who briefly talked to Hitoshi, before declaring Shoto the winner.
Izuku frowned. That meant he was taking on Shoto next round after all. Flipping the pages of his notebook, he began reviewing what he knew about his classmate's quirk.
The next match was Momo facing off against Mina. Mina had the agility advantage over her opponent, but Momo's quirk gave her the edge.
Mina opened the match by throwing a volley of acid at Momo, and Momo responded by creating a shield, stopping most of it and protecting herself. She discarded the shield and formed a second, reinforced, shield to keep her safe from any further attacks. Izuku saw she was creating something else, using the shield to hide it from Mina.
Momo played the defense for a few moments, blocking Mina's attacks and only putting up token resistance as she backed closer to the edge.
"What is she doing? At this rate she's going to lose!" Tenya observed.
"I think she's planning something." Izuku responded. "She has something that she is hiding from Mina."
Finally, the opportunity Momo was waiting for arrived. Mina began skating towards her, using her acid to quickly slide towards Momo and build momentum, when Momo revealed the object she had been hiding - a large net. Throwing it, she was able to catch Mina in it, tangling her up. While Mina was trying to use her acid to untangle herself, Momo stepped aside, using Mina's momentum against her as she shoved her out of the arena.
"That was super cool!" Ochako said.
"She just needed the right opening for her plan." Izuku said.
"I see. So Yaoyorozu was feigning weakness to make the enemy overconfident." Tenya mused to himself.
"Exactly. Yaoyorozu used her enemy's strength against them. It's the same principle that many martial arts styles use."
"Maybe I should try picking up martial arts…" Ochako was talking to herself as Izuku looked back down at his notebook, adding some new information to his classmate's pages.
After a short break to clear the arena of acid, the final round of the top eight began - Eijiro versus Katsuki. The match went roughly as Izuku expected it to. Eijiro has the durability to stand up to some of Katsuki's explosions, but the way Katsuki's quirk worked meant that pushing himself harder only gave him more fuel to power his explosions.
After a few minutes of Katsuki keeping Eijiro on the defensive, he hit Eijiro with an explosion to the stomach, and Eijiro was actually thrown back.
"What just happened?"
"Bakugo overwhelmed Kirishima's hardening." Izuku replied, thinking back to his analysis lessons. "Kirishima may appear invulnerable, but there is actually a limit to how long he can use his quirk for, and it looks like Bakugo figured that out."
"So he just kept blasting until Kirishima couldn't keep his hardening up?"
"Yeah. Kirishima was always going to reach his limit before Bakugo."
"That's a shame."
It took several more explosions, but in the end Katsuki forced Eijiro out of the ring, and Midnight declared him the winner.
Izuku stood up to go to the locker room and prepare for the match. Turning around, he saw Shoto was already standing, a strange look on his face as their eyes met. Shoto broke eye contact first, turning away and heading into the stadium.
"What was that about?"
"I'm not sure." Izuku replied. He had shoved their earlier conversation aside, but now that he was going to be facing him, everything was flooding back.
"Good luck! I would hate to see you fail now!"
"Thanks!"
Izuku turned around to smile at his friends before he left. He had a few minutes, and wanted to use the time to think about how he wanted to handle the next match.
AN: Some new matches, some unchanged matches. See you all Sunday, where I wrap up the first day of the sports festival.