AN: James Birdsong - Thanks!
After a break, everyone reassembled for the third round of the festival.
The first round was between two students from class 2-A. Sone Yae was an elegant girl with a dog mutation. She was facing off against Aoi Mihara, a small brown-haired girl that transferred in from Ketsubutsu with a rather exotic quirk. Whenever she sings, she can change the properties of inorganic matter that she is in contact with, reinforcing it in a variety of ways based on the type of song she was singing.
Unfortunately for Yae, her dog mutation was not strong enough to counter Mihara's reinforcement quirk. As soon as the match had begun, Mihara began singing, reinforcing her gym uniform so that it acted as an armored shell, and while Yae has some additional strength due to her mutation, it was not enough. It only took a few minutes for Mihara to shove her opponent out of the ring.
"Looks like that'll be my opponent next round." Habiki said.
"Hey! Don't get ahead of yourself yet!" Himiko defended herself.
Habiki smirked back. "I'm just saying, currently in matches where we can use our quirks, I am ahead 15 to 5."
Himiko stuck out her tongue at him. "That just means I'm due! Let's go get ready."
The two excused themselves and walked down to the waiting area for their names to be called.
Despite her earlier bluster, Himiko was nervous. She really wanted to advance past the top 16 this year, but she also knew her limitations. If she could take down Habiki, then Mihara would be an even harder matchup. She would have to rely on grapples and throws and hope it was enough.
Thankfully she wasn't given much time to worry about the next match before Mic called her name over the speakers. Wiping away her frown, she walked out to the stage, smiling and waving at the underground heroes. While she hoped they would remember her, her classes have taught her that it was always a good idea to make an impression. After making her way to the stage, she stood casually while waiting for Habiki.
Midnight looked back and forth between the two, as if expecting something to happen, before raising her microphone.
"Begin!"
Himiko and Habiki walked forward, and Himiko flashed a smile at Midnight. Midnight responded by giving her a small nod of approval. Himiko then turned towards Habiki, who was offering his arm out. Gently taking it, she bit into his arm, drinking a mouthful of blood and activating her quirk.
She was thrilled when the reaction from the crowd was better this year. Last year she remembered the shocked silence, and this year it felt like the crowd was at least neutral on her activation condition, if not sympathetic. She let a smile split her face as she waved to the crowd, giving a little twirl before bowing to Habiki and dropping her transformation, his form melting away into a pile of slime before she returned to her starting position.
She waited until Habiki had also returned to his starting position, before the two bowed to each other. She slid into her fighting stance, watching Habiki do the same.
"Begin!" Midnight knew it was superfluous, but she called out a second time. With her call, the two rushed towards each other.
Himiko dropped low to the ground and opened with a leg sweep, trying to knock Habiki off his feet. He was able to jump out of the way, responding with a downward punch that connected with Himiko's shoulder. The additional force provided by his quirk was enough to send her slamming into the ground.
Refusing to go down so easily, Himiko countered by throwing an elbow jab as she was standing up, connecting with Habiki's nose. She couldn't help but watch the drops of blood go flying from his nose to land on the concrete, as if something inside her was drawn towards them. She shook her head to clear it, and then she realized she had missed her window to attack.
What is wrong with me? I don't normally get distracted like that!
Habiki began slamming his fist into his palm to build up some additional kinetic energy, before he was charging at her again. She managed to duck below his swing, landing another elbow into his gut before she got behind him, and used the moment to stop breathing, vanishing from Habiki's sight.
Taking advantage of her moment of freedom she adjusted herself and grabbed Habiki's arm, throwing him towards the edge of the arena. He landed close to the edge, but not close enough. Trying to vanish again, she charged towards Habiki, hoping to catch him off-balance as he was standing up.
What she did not expect was to run right into a punch, sending her flying back across the arena, her head bouncing off the concrete.
"Sorry, I knew you were coming even if I couldn't see where you were. Didn't matter as long as you touched my fist."
Himiko struggled to push herself back up to a standing position, trying to regain her balance. He was slowly walking towards her, his hand practically crackling with stored energy. "It's been a good fight, Himiko, but it's over."
Himiko finally got her legs under her. She had to move if she didn't want to take another hit from his quirk. It was then that she noticed the droplets of Habiki's blood from earlier, a small bead of crimson against the gray arena. And suddenly it felt like time had stopped.
She remembers Ochako's match yesterday. She was beaten up by Katsuki, but she refused to give up, not until she physically collapsed when her body gave out.
Himiko stepped forward, stopping right in front of the blood. She was focused on the sight in front of her, everything else vanished into a haze. All she heard was the pounding of her own heart in her ears. Part of her was screaming to snap out of it, that Habiki was right there, but the rest of her was caught up in her own world.
She remembers her nightmares about Izuku in the wake of the USJ incident. Her brother lay broken and battered on the ground. Not unlike yesterday, but in her dreams, he didn't get back up.
Himiko grimaced and shook her head, trying to regain control. She needed to focus, not think about all of the things that could happen to Izuku. She was going to be a hero! She was going to protect him!
But her body was moving as if it had a will of its own. She reached down and collected the blood on her finger, pulling the precious liquid off of the ground.
Images of Emily getting crushed behind concrete flashed into her head. Her heart felt like it stopped when she saw it happen. But even then, the stubborn American refused to give up.
Himiko stood back up. She couldn't give up! Everyone around her was trying so hard, she refused to be the one to slow them down!
It felt like time began moving again, and she finally noticed that Habiki was practically on top of her. Himiko was in no position to dodge his next attack.
Use it.
Use your quirk.
Himiko brought the blood to her lips, licking it off of her finger.
It tasted like fire.
Habiki swung his fist at Himiko, aiming to knock her out of the ring with one decisive blow…
…Only for Himiko to raise her now-transformed hand to block it, feeling a surge of energy pouring into her.
She wasn't moving. She had expected him to connect with his attack, the kinetic energy discharge sending her flying.
Instead, she felt like she was touching a live wire, electricity building up inside of her.
The two looked at each other in shock, before both turning their gaze to their hands. Himiko was holding Habiki's fist back with her own palm, exactly how Habiki defends himself.
Neither of them ever imagined that Himiko would suddenly be able to use Habiki's quirk, absorbing his kinetic energy.
Himiko recovered from the shock first, a grin splitting her face. "Sorry, not sorry about this."
She closed her other hand into a fist and threw a punch at Habiki's chest, feeling the energy discharging back into Habiki as he went flying across the arena.
"Hideo is out, Midoriya wins!" She heard Midnight call, and from the loud speaker she could hear Present Mic's excited commentary.
"What just happened? In a surprising turn of events, Midoriya redirected Hideo's quirk right back at him!"
Himiko dropped her transformation and with unsteady steps walked over to Midnight, who held her hand up as the winner.
She couldn't stop smiling.
In the stands Izuku dropped his pen, his eyes going wide. "Did… did her quirk just awaken?" He quickly got up and left.
In his wake, Ochako and Tsuyu looked at each other. "She is terrifying, kero."
Ochako nodded vigorously in agreement.
Izuku rushed down to the temporary infirmary, where he saw Himiko lying on a bed. Recovery Girl was hovering over her, running some sort of test.
"Himi, that was amazing!"
"Izu!" Himiko sounded excited and tried to push herself up, but Recovery Girl's glare forced her to lay back down onto the bed.
"What happened?"
"I'm not really sure. I saw some of Habiki's blood on the ground, and was filled with this pressing need to activate my quirk, and the next thing I know, I'm using Habiki's quirk?"
"I was shocked." They heard Habiki call from behind Izuku as he stepped in. "It's not like Himiko hasn't transformed into me during class, but she's never done that before."
Izuku brought his thumb to his lip as he began thinking out loud. "Quirks becoming stronger is a well documented thing, but for quirks to awaken like that and gain additional functionality is much more uncommon and usually occurs under extreme conditions. While you two were going pretty hard at each other, it's not like you haven't fought before and it's not like your lives were on the line. So there must have been some external factor to help trigger it."
"You." Himiko stated, matter of factly.
Izuku looked up in surprise at his sister.
"Me?"
Himiko sighed and looked away, biting her lip and causing a droplet of blood to well up. "I keep thinking about what happened to your class at the USJ."
Recovery Girl paused her tests to look at her charge. "Now I know you have a therapist. If it is affecting you that badly, you should schedule an appointment."
Himiko blushed.
With a heavy sigh, Recovery Girl shook her head. "I really need to speak to Hound Dog again. We must be getting lax about the mental health of our students."
Finishing her scans, Recovery Girl let Himiko stand up.
"Your vital signs look normal. Some minor signs of quirk exhaustion, but that is to be expected. I know that you aren't going to listen to me because it's the sports festival, but try not to push your quirk too much today. And you had better rest the next four days!"
Himiko nodded. "I can do that!"
The two were ushered out of the room so that Recovery Girl could look at Habiki.
Once outside Izuku turned to his sister. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"I do, but not now."
"Ok. Just know I'm here for you."
"I know!" Himiko grinned at Izuku. "And I need your notebook. Hand it over!"
"Oh! Sure." Izuku returned Himiko's grin and opened his bag, fishing out the correct notebook. "I hope it helps!"
"If it doesn't I'll blame you later!" Himiko pulled Izuku into a tight hug, before grabbing the notebook and running back towards the stands.
By the time Himiko returned to her friends, Emily was up, facing off against their classmate Akira. When the fight started, Akira did something that would seem strange to people who weren't aware of his quirk - he removed the top half of his gym uniform and balled it up around his fist, turning it into a makeshift boxing glove.
"Interesting strategy." Tomoe said. "Since he doesn't have anything to throw or use as a weapon, he intends to use his uniform."
"Does that even work?" Himiko asked. "I mean, it's still cloth, right?"
"I guess we'll see? Even cloth would hurt if he can make it dense enough."
Himiko nodded and watched, before looking down at the notebook in her lap. She opened it and flipped to Izuku's notes on Akira. She was suddenly very thankful for all of those late nights when she let Izuku talk to her about quirks.
Down in the arena, Emily didn't seem like she was interested in finding out what it was like to be hit by super dense cloth. She was doing her best to keep some distance, using her light arrows to force her opponent backwards, forcing him to dodge to avoid being burned by her bolts.
She eventually scored a lucky hit, igniting the cloth wrapped around his hand. Cursing, Akira struggled to tear it off of him and threw it to the ground. The distraction was everything Emily needed, and she hit his legs with two precision bolts, causing him to collapse. Emily kept her distance but was preparing another salvo when Akira raised his hands in surrender.
Midnight walked out onto the field and raised Emily's arm. "Song wins!"
Emily looked towards the stands, and locked eyes with Himiko. As soon as she saw that Himiko had returned, she bolted towards the exit, ignoring Midnight. Himiko knew her objective, and was proven correct seconds later when she heard her friend's voice behind her.
"Himi! Talk! Now!" Emily crashed into the seat next to her dramatically.
Himiko couldn't keep the grin off of her face. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Oh please. What. Was. That?"
"What was what?" Himiko asked innocently.
Emily rolled her eyes. "How the heck did you use Habiki's quirk?!"
Himiko laughed. "Izu thinks I had something called a quirk awakening? Apparently I can copy more than just appearances now?"
Emily looked like her eyes were going to bulge out of her head. "Really? How?"
Himiko finally broke eye contact, looking down. "I may have been hiding how much the USJ attack was really affecting me."
Himiko let out a startled yelp as she felt Emily wrap herself around her. "Why didn't you tell us?!"
"Because I don't need you worrying about me." Himiko muttered into Emily's shoulder.
Emily heard that and shoved her back, glaring at her. Himiko found herself unable to tear herself away from Emily's piercing gaze.
"Himiko Midoriya. Don't. You. Dare! You're important to m-us! You've had to put up with my stuff. The least we can do is return the favor!"
Himiko suddenly felt her heart beating faster. Hearing the girl calling her out like this was doing dangerous things to her emotions. Not trusting her voice, Himiko could only nod.
"Good!" Emily let Himiko go and repositioned herself back in her chair, grabbing her bag and pulling out her tablet. "Now, you are going to tell. Me. Everything."
Himiko groaned.
For the next match, Kenji was up against Amaya, the matchup unfair for the water-quirk user. Without an external source of water, she had limited options to handle Kenji's super-regeneration.
She put up a valiant effort, quickly shifting between her physical and water forms for the leverage needed to grapple and throw him, but his sheer size made it difficult for her to move him a significant distance. Plus, every time she tried to attack he made sure to do his best to disrupt the water that made up her body, separating as much of it from her main body as he could.
She tried to absorb what she could back into her, but everyone saw that it was taking its toll. Every time she returned to her physical form they could see bright red patches that were slowly spreading across her skin.
Amaya knew this as well and soon she went for one final desperation attack, turning her entire body into liquid and trying to capture her classmate inside of her. It looked like it may have worked, as Kenji was disoriented for a moment, but he was able to recover and burst out of his watery prison.
When Amaya held up her hands in her liquid form, her classmates knew she was done. Behind them, Himiko heard a couple of her friends rushing off. She felt bad when she realized that Amaya was in such bad shape she was going to need help absorbing more water before she could return to her solid form.
"Ryo wins!" Midnight proclaimed.
Himiko turned to her friend, who was getting up to leave for the final round. "Good luck Suko!"
Atsuko smiled back. "Thanks! I need to make Tomoe proud, after all."
A few minutes later, the final match began - Atsuko vs Kurosawa Kado, the beetle mutant from 2-A. His quirk gave him enhanced strength and durability, and he even had limited flight capabilities thanks to his wings.
"Begin!"
When Midnight called the match start, Kado began by rushing straight at Atsuko. She responded by throwing up a shield in front of her, and he crashed right into it, momentarily stunning him. Atsuko went on the offensive, trying to shove him back with her quirk, but as soon as he recovered he took to the skies, hovering above her before stopping his flight, dropping down right on top of her.
Atsuko collapsed under Kado, but immediately created a pillar out of air to shove him off of her, giving her a chance to roll away. She stood up, but her stance was unsteady. The last attack was still affecting her.
Kado began flying again, trying to hit her with a dive bomb attack before she could recover, but Atsuko held up her hands and was able to create two small spherical objects in the air. Kado couldn't dodge in time and crashed into them, a loud crunch heard as part of his exoskeleton cracked.
He fell to the ground and was already beginning to rise, but Atsuko gave him no time, dropping to her knees and pressing her hands to the ground.
"Ultimate move, sky cage!"
Kado tried to escape but found that he was now surrounded by four walls, and in desperation, tried to take off, but hit his head against another barrier, finding himself trapped completely. He spent the next minute desperately trying to break out, while Atsuko kneeled there in deep concentration.
Finally, Midnight sympathized with Kado's plight. "Are you unable to escape?"
Kado just had a look of disappointment on his face as he nodded.
Midnight nodded. "Then unfortunately you are out. Hotoko wins!"
Atsuko looked relieved as she released the cage, standing up and walking unsteadily towards Midnight.
Himiko noticed it from where she was sitting. She saw the blood dripping out of Atsuko's nose, and swallowed the lump in her throat. She turned and looked at Tomoe, confirming that the other girl saw it as well.
"She really doesn't want to let me down, does she?"
Himiko frowned and shook her head.
Making her decision, Himiko handed Izuku's notebook to Emily and turned towards Habiki.
"Sorry Habiki, but I need more blood."
Habiki looked surprised by her statement. "Didn't you get enough of my blood last round?"
Atsuko laughed while Himiko shook her head. "I used up everything when I used your quirk. If you give them a day, tops, I'm sure Emmy and Izu will figure out why."
With an exaggerated sigh, Habiki offered out his arm. "Just don't drain me dry. I may be out of the tournament, but I still want to watch. Gotta make sure you don't embarrass me, you know?"
Himiko smiled as she gently grabbed his arm, biting into his wrist. She drank a couple mouthfuls before she stopped.
"That should be good! Wish me luck!"
Himiko stood up and waved to her friends, before taking off.
Once she heard her name called over the speakers, she walked out of the waiting area onto the field. The energy she felt was different now. While she previously was hoping to just show off her quirk, now she intended to go as far as she could.
I know you don't watch the sports festival, but I still hope you see what I have become. I want you to know what you thoughtlessly threw away.
She walked to her starting spot and stood there. Mihara was similarly standing there casually.
"That was an impressive trick you pulled last round!"
"Thanks!" Himiko gave her a predatory smile.
"Too bad you're going to lose!"
"I'd like to see you try and take me down!"
Midnight interrupted the banter between the two. "Oh my, our competitors are fired up. Let's see how that carries them in battle. Begin!"
Himiko immediately used her quirk to transform into Habiki. She knew he stored kinetic energy passively just from fighting, and that he got his biggest charge by blocking his opponents blows. However, she also knew he frequently punched his own hands to build up charge. She tested that by holding up a palm and punching it with her other hand, repeating the motion she has seen countless times. She felt a small jolt with each punch, and could feel a small static building under her skin. Smiling, she nodded to herself and dropped into a combat stance.
Meanwhile, Mihara removed her shirt, revealing an orange tank-top. "I hope you don't mind, but since you're experimenting I'm also going to borrow a move from one of your classmates!" She wrapped the uniform over her right arm, tying it off to form a makeshift gauntlet.
And then she began singing.
Himiko watched as Mihara charged her and punched with her covered arm, and barely got her hands up in time to block it. Even though she felt the jolt of energy as she absorbed the kinetic energy, she still felt the effects of whatever her quirk was doing to the fabric, and it stung.
Himiko managed to reverse the attack, twisting inside of Mihara's grip and grabbing her arm, before throwing her. Mihara was able to land in a roll and spring back to her feet, before charging Himiko again. Himiko attempted to go for a leg sweep, but it felt like she was hitting steel when her leg connected with her opponent.
Mihara was smart enough to keep singing instead of taunting her opponent, but the triumphant look on her face told Himiko everything she needed to know. Gritting her teeth she jumped back and waited for Mihara to come at her a second time.
Her fiery opponent obliged, emboldened by how ineffective Himiko's last attack was. Himiko once again blocked her opponent's swing with her hand, getting pushed back despite Habiki's quirk absorbing the kinetic energy behind it. But she saw her opening.
She charged up all of the stored up energy into her hand, and threw a punch at Mihara's chest. Her hand stung as she connected with the shirt. She felt like she just punched steel, but for Habiki's quirk it didn't matter. Using his quirk, she discharged enough stored up kinetic energy that Mihara was sent flying out of the ring, landing in the grass outside.
"Midoriya wins!" Midnight proclaimed.
Himiko felt herself smiling again as she dropped her transformation and looked up at the crowds. People looked genuinely excited by her quirk! It filled her with warmth, and she couldn't help but smile.
You were wrong. I'm not some demon with a cursed quirk. I have the best quirk ever.
Himiko made it back to the stands in time to watch the next match. Fuwa was facing off against another one of her classmates - Arita Kanjiro. Kanjiro was another transfer student into 2-A that had a mental manipulation quirk. If he was able to touch someone, he could make them feel a wide range of emotions and sensations. It was extremely useful in taking down opponents, if he could physically touch them to activate it.
The problem was that Fuwa wasn't an easy opponent to pin down. She had filled the arena with her fog and was constantly teleporting around, relying on hit and run tactics to wear her opponent down. It didn't take long for her to overpower Kanjiro. After a short fight she finished him off by grabbing his arm and pulling him into her clouds with her, before reappearing at the edge of the arena, tossing him out.
"Fuwa wins." Midnight declared as the girl stood there smiling.
When she heard the results, Emily turned to Himiko and smirked. "You'd better kick her ass next round!"
Himiko crossed her arms. "Are you going to help me with that?"
"What do you - oh." Emily began blushing as she realized what Himiko was asking for.
Himiko giggled as she wrapped her hands around Emily's wrist, pulling it towards her mouth with a fanged grin on her face. "Yep."
Emily's face turned bright red and she pulled her arm away. "J-just wait until after my match! I don't want to deal with blood loss right before I have to leave!"
Himiko broke into full laughter. She loved how flustered Emily always got when she leaned into her vampire aesthetic.
"Fine. I'll wait. You'd better win as well! I need to kick your ass in the finals!"
A strange look overcame Emily at those words, before she wiped it away with a smile. "Y-you've got that wrong, I'm going to be the one kicking your ass."
"We'll see about that!"
Instead of replying, Emily stood up and ran off to prepare for her next match.
Emily was facing off against Umeda Keisuke. Keisuke was among the original members of class 2-A, a short boy with curly black hair, who was able to touch inanimate objects and absorb a portions of them into himself. When Midnight announced to begin, he kneeled down and placed both hands on the cement floor, creating a shallow crater as he wrapped himself in an armored shell, complete with two massive cement fists.
Emily was not giving him any time, and immediately began firing bolts of light at her opponent, each bolt blowing a chunk of cement off and beginning to expose the student underneath.
It was a game of cat and mouse. Keisuke was trying to get close to hammer at Emily with his massive cement fists, and Emily was trying to stay away and wear him down. She knew that there was a limit to how much material he could absorb in a short amount of time, and it was just a matter of forcing him to reach his limit before she reached hers.
The primary advantage Emily had was that Keisuke was protecting his legs. By keeping his entire body wrapped in cement, he was slower than if he just kept all of the absorbed material in his upper body. It was a smart tactic if he was facing off against someone in close combat, but his opponent had no incentive to get close. It gave her the speed advantage she needed to avoid him.
It took almost fifteen minutes, but finally it happened. Emily blew away one of the cement fists, and Keisuke kneeled to try and absorb more cement - and he failed. Emily's face split into a predatory grin, one of the bad habits she had picked up from Himiko over the last year. She then unleashed another barrage of attacks, blowing away his other cement fist and most of the cement protecting the front of his torso, before charging.
Keisuke was thrown off balance by the sudden loss of weight on one side of him, and when Emily hit him with a shoulder charge he was knocked backwards, landing outside of the ring.
"What a battle of attrition that was! Song Wins!" Midnight announced, and Emily walked around the holes in the arena to the stage, a satisfied smirk on her face as Midnight took her arm and raised it.
The final match of the top 8 was Kenji versus Atsuko. Despite Tomoe pulling Atsuko aside earlier, Himiko was worried. She had only seen Atsuko suffer a quirk-induced nosebleed once before, when she pushed herself harder than she should have. When they took her to Recovery Girl, she was diagnosed with quirk exhaustion and excused from the rest of the day's training.
Atsuko was faster than Kenji, but she didn't have the muscle mass necessary to move her giant classmate. So that left her with only one option - using her barriers to trap him. It was just a question of if she could do it before she was hurt by the strain of overusing her quirk.
Her strategy was simple. She was using her speed to dance around him, trying to wear him down by having him constantly punching and running into her barriers. Her goal was to wear him down before she deployed her ultimate move. It was a reasonable strategy, under normal circumstances.
As Himiko watched, she felt her stomach twisting. She knew Kenji's limits, and as she watched him hammer against Atsuko's barriers, she could tell that he was nowhere near them. And she knew Atsuko was not in any condition to outlast him.
A few minutes into the fight, the moment Himiko was fearing arrived. Kenji was throwing a punch, and Atsuko held up both of her hands, erecting a thin barrier that left mere inches between her and her opponent. Instead of being fully stopped by the barrier, Kenji's fist merely was delayed, pausing in midair for a brief moment, before continuing onward. As the audience heard a sound that was reminiscent of glass shattering, Kenji hit his opponent squarely in the chest, causing her to double over.
Kenji immediately recognized that something was wrong, and decided to end the match in the gentlest way possible. Before Atsuko could recover, he wrapped his arms around her, pinned her hands behind her back, and carried her to the edge of the arena. Once there, he set her down outside of the ring.
"My, my, what a gentleman! Ryo Wins!" Midnight declared.
Even from here, Himiko could see that Atsuko was disappointed in herself. Looking out of the corner of her eye, she saw that Habiki and Tomoe were both getting up. She hoped they would be able to cheer her up.
AN: *queues Final Fantasy victory music*
Himi-chan has leveled up!
Aizawa is 99% certain that Emi Fukukado was responsible for Aoi Mihara transferring into Class 1-A specifically to torture him, but every time he brings it up she denies it completely.