Thanks to everyone that sent in questions for the Q&A! If you still have questions, I'm still delighted to answer them! And thanks for 200 followers and 20,000 hits!
"Hey, Tetsutetsu! Tsukino! How's the Pres doing?" Awase-kun called, waving at the pair as they reentered the stands.
"How do you think she's doin'; her foot nearly got burned off by that 1-A bi-!"
"She's resting," Aito cut in swiftly. "Ashido-san and Pressure Wash were able to clean her foot before any real damage could be done, so she'll be fine after Recovery Girl-sensei uses her quirk."
"That's good," Awase-kun smiled, obviously relieved as he settled back into his chair beside Kaibara-kun.
"I was concerned at the close of their fight, but it would seem Uraraka-kun is not the only student among the ranks of those in Class 1-A with a kind heart," Shiozaki-kun agreed, her gleaming dark eyes reflecting a small smile.
"Shut up, idiots, I wanna see that blond bastard get creamed!" Kamakiri-kun yelled.
"Honestly, there's a part of me hoping he'll win a few fights so Tsukino can beat the shit out of him," Honenuki-kun mused.
Aito laughed as he and Tetsu quickly reclaimed their seats. Honestly, a part of him was hoping for that as well, but as Present Mic-sensei began to announce the next match over the roar of the crowd, he knew who he was rooting for.
"Offense and defense in one! From the Hero Course, the dark samurai Tokoyami Fumikage! And from General Studies, the dark horse that hasn't done much to stand out yet, please welcome Monoma Neito!"
"I'mma set a stopwatch. You know, to see how long he lasts against a real hero student," Awase-kun grinned, pulling out his phone. Aito chuckled at that. If there was one thing everyone in the first year Hero Course could agree on, it was their dislike of the arrogant General Studies student.
"Final match of the first round!" Midnight-sensei called. "Ready? Begin!"
"Start!" yelled Awase-kun
"Are you prepared to be defeated by my superior-?"
"Dark Shadow!"
"Eh!? Oof!"
"Stop!"
"Winner: Tokoyami!"
"How long was that?!" Rin-kun shouted, grabbing the back of Awase-kun's chair. Cackling madly, the dark-haired boy held up his phone for everyone else to see: 4.23 seconds.
"Oh my God screenshot that please!"
"Send it to the group chat, Awase!"
"Oh hell yeah!"
"He lasted fewer than five seconds!"
"Hey, would you mind sending me that pic, too?"
Aito glanced up with no small amount of surprise towards the grimly satisfied smirk of a girl with purple hair poking her head up over the divider between their class and 1-A. She seemed vaguely familiar, so Aito was fairly certain she was in the other class, but he couldn't recall seeing her during the Festival. "Why the hell not?" Awase-kun laughed, too delighted by the blonde's suffering to be irritated by the interruption. The dark-haired girl's smirk widened as she gave him her number, then she broke into a full grin when her phone pinged with a text.
"Perfect, thanks guys!" she called, dropping back down and fumbling with her keyboard. A minute later, Aito could hear most of Class 1-A breaking out in wild laughter as well, equally thrilled to see Monoma's ego taken down a peg or two. Unexpectedly, a few of them actually popped up over the divider as well to thank Awase-kun for his foresight, including his former opponent Kaminari-san and a boy with purple hair and dark bags under his eyes that he also couldn't recall seeing in the contest, but vaguely recognized from the entrance exam.
"Before we take a quick break to prepare for the second round of the tournament, please welcome back to the stage for their tiebreaker match, our passionate, manly fighters Kirishima Eijirou and Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu!"
Huh. Somewhere in the chaos, Tetsu must have excused himself from the class. Both boys now marched out glowering at each other, deaf to the roars of excitement ringing out from the crowd. Midnight-sensei and Cementoss-sensei stood on either side of a cement block that had been raised up in the center of the stage. Rules were briefly explained by Midnight-sensei, and both Tetsu and Kirishima-san prepped for the most high-stakes arm-wrestling match of the century.
"Begin!"
A screaming match instantly started in the stands, heroes and support teams howling for their favorite to win, Class 1-A cheering for Kirishima-san, and Class 1-B yelling encouragement to Tetsutetsu. For a full minute, the competition looked to be gridlocked, then, seemingly without warning, Tetsu flinched.
It was only the barest break in concentration, but for Kirishima-san it was apparently enough.
"And the winner is: Kirishima!"
"What the hell just happened!?" Kamakiri-kun yelled. "He had him!"
"Iron deficiency," Aito groaned as Kirishima roared in victory. "He's overused his quirk."
"You shitting me?! Since when the hell has that been a problem?!" Awase-kun piped up.
"Since forever. Why do you think Tetsu's always eating beef and shellfish at lunch? They have really high iron content."
"I just thought he really liked meat," Shoda-kun admitted quietly.
"Well, that, too," Aito acknowledged, watching with interest as the redhead helped his best friend back to his feet. He couldn't hear what was being said between them over the cheering of the crowd, but it at least looked like they parted on relatively good terms.
"We will now take a twenty minute break before we start on the second round! Please take this time to get water or any other necessities you may need!"
"Second round," Honenuki-kun mumbled. "Do us proud, Tsukino! The last member of 1-B in the ring!"
"No pressure or anything," Aito snorted even as his heart began to race.
"Ah, you'll do fine," Tokage-kun assured him, reaching over a row of seats to squeeze his shoulder. "You did so well on the first match, remember?"
"I only managed to do that well because Kaminari-san underestimated me," her classmate shrugged. "Somehow I doubt that Uraraka-san will make the same mistake."
"It would be among the gravest of errors for us to cast aside your accomplishments up to this point, Tsukino-san. We would be remiss not to acknowledge your fortitude in battle," Kuroiro-kun murmured quietly.
Shishida-kun blinked at the quiet, goth boy. Then he shrugged, grinning brightly. "What he said!"
"Are strong! Will victory!" Tsunotori-kun agreed eagerly, her huge eyes bright and earnest, expressing her excitement even through her garbled Japanese.
"She's right!"
"Guys, stop!" Aito blushed, although he couldn't hide his broad grin just the same.
"Are we all embarrassing Tsukino?! I want in!" Tetsu shouted as he reentered the stands, grinning fiercely.
"Tetsu! Welcome back!" Aito immediately called, eager to turn the spotlight to someone else for a minute.
"Hey dude, how'd you feel about the match?!"
"Yeah, no kidding; what a shitty ending!"
"Actually, it wasn't so bad," Tetsutetsu shrugged, to the shock of all present. "What? Kirishima's a pretty stand-up guy."
"Tetsu, you literally ranted about him for ten minutes straight at lunch."
"Well yeah, but it's not like it's his fault that we have similar quirks! And anyway, he's a pretty passionate fighter! Might be cool to form a team some day!"
"Dude, that is literally the opposite of what you've been saying all day!"
"No it isn't!"
"You'll just dig yourself a deeper hole if you keep denying it."
"Would you all just back off?!"
Aito chuckled softly at his friends' antics as he glanced at the time. The break was already half-way over. That meant he had ten minutes before his match with Uraraka-san. "Hey guys, I'm gonna head to the prep room!" he called, rising to his feet. Instantly, the class's attention swung back to him.
"Good luck, Tsukino-kun!"
"Beat that chick!"
"You can do it!"
"Be victory!"
"Do your best!"
"Will do! I'll see you all when it's over!"
Honestly, he hadn't expected so much support when he arrived at UA. He'd been told to give up on his dream for as long as he could remember, from classmates, teachers, bullies, and so on. He was just grateful that his family had never given up on him, his dad signing him up for gymnastics, martial arts classes, and sword-fighting lessons while Kira vowed to work hard so that one day she could make all of his support gear. He'd honestly been prepared for the two of them to be the only support system he would ever have.
But then he'd arrived at UA. Then he'd met Tetsutetsu and Kendo. His other classmates were a little more wary of him. Not outwardly hostile, as he'd feared, but uncertain of what to think. Then they had their first bout of training and he'd had the chance to show his classmates what he was capable of. They had quickly warmed up to him after that. Suddenly, his support system had grown by twenty people. Then he'd overheard some of the kids from Class 1-A defending him as well, even though they'd never so much as met him, and realized that it may have grown by as many as forty people.
And now, with his preparation time over, here he was, being cheered on by hundreds-no, thousands-of pro heroes from across Japan. Perhaps he had more support than he'd truly realized.
"Alrighty then, folks, let's get back into it! Our next match-up features two incredible students that shocked us with their tactical skills in the initial competitions of the Festival and the first round of the tournament! Please welcome back to the stadium Uraraka Ochaco and Tsukino Aito, both from the Hero Course!"
The crowd roared their approval as the two students stepped onto the pitch, Aito once again holding his sword, this time unsheathed from the start. Both of their faces were set in expressions of calm focus and determination as they assessed one another. At their core, Aito knew that they were both close-range fighters, although of the two of them, his sword gave him the longer reach. She would be wary of his blade-thus the reason why he chose to use the sword itself and not just the cane-which might give him the time he needed to force her to the edge of the ring and drive her out, but if she got her hands on him even for a moment, the match would be over.
Which was why it was a good thing his sword would give him the advantage of keeping Uraraka-san at a distance, but he had already been warned and was very aware of the fact that he could cause lethal injury. Should that happen, he would be disqualified from the tournament and could potentially even be expelled from UA. He knew that, had known that from the moment he had submitted his request papers and already knew that he could never intentionally hurt anyone in such a way, but it also meant that his tactical abilities were severely limited.
"Ready?! Begin!"
Aito strode towards the center of the pitch, unwilling to use up his stamina just yet. Uraraka seemed to have a similar idea, her hands held out slightly to either side as she walked forward, fingers twitching in anticipation. When they were about seven or eight meters apart, by some unspoken agreement, the two of them broke into a run, rushing to meet in the middle of the arena.
As expected, he was able to reach her with his sword well before she could touch him with her hand. He slashed sideways, his sword a silver blur as he struck, forcing Uraraka to leap back and dodge out of the way. He quickly brought his sword back, close to his body and ready to defend instead of allowing himself to hyperextend. It was a wise strategy, considering the way that Uraraka didn't even pause to try to reevaluate the situation, simply changing direction and trying to charge in from another angle. It wasn't exactly the most elegant of approaches, but all things considered, it was likely the most effective. She needed either to touch him or to distract him enough to force him to the edge of the ring-something that he forced himself to remain keenly aware of, remembering what happened to Shiozaki and even Kendo. Once or twice, he did have to alter his tactics from preemptive defensive strikes to dodging in order to maneuver back to the center of the arena; Uraraka had excellent spatial awareness on the battlefield, manipulating her opponents' movement as subtly as she did.
Meanwhile, Aito tried to focus on how he could knock his opponent out. He could only win one of three ways: knocking her out of the ring, keeping her from moving, or making her surrender. Uraraka had clearly taken the lead in this fight, her continuous, though one-note attacks directing their movement as a combative pair, so it would be difficult if not impossible to force her to the edge, especially if he wanted to maintain the illusion of the danger behind his sword. The only ways to immobilize her would require that he use his weapon to cause brutal harm to the girl or to get in close and grapple her-something that he really shouldn't do, considering the threat that her quirk posed. Getting her to cry uncle would be challenging. The only way he could see that happening was by exhausting her or badly injuring her, which he really didn't want to do, and he didn't think he had the stamina to push her to that limit. He needed something quick and decisive-a blow that would end this fight in one hit.
It would be a risk, but battles would always be risky for a quirkless hero.
Aito suddenly switched from a defensive stance to an offensive one, nimbly darting forward and slashing towards Uraraka's head, turning his wrist so that the flat of the blade would strike her temple, hopefully giving her enough of a concussion to knock her out of the match. He saw her brown eyes grow wide before they suddenly hardened and she lunged forward.
There's not enough time-!
Uraraka's hand seized his sleeve the same moment that his sword clanged against the back of her head, his opponent having turned her neck to avoid the strike to her temple. The girl staggered and collapsed to hands and knees even as an unfamiliar sensation rushed through Aito's entire body, making his stomach swoop like he was on a roller coaster. He heard his own voice yelp in alarm when he tried to step forward only for his feet not to make it back to the ground. He was floating, unable to take a single productive step towards his opponent, who continued to kneel at a lopsided angle, panting hard, fingers curled into fists before she unsteadily pushed herself to her feet.
Uraraka stumbled slightly as she turned to face him, hands up and ready to strike if necessary, but Aito couldn't exactly attack her considering that he wasn't able to direct his own movements. He could throw his sword in a last ditch attack, but without any modicum of control over the weapon and her likely with some level of concussion, he couldn't risk potentially seriously injuring her.
"Tsukino-kun, can you attack Uraraka-kun as you are now?" Midnight-sensei asked, drawing his attention away from his blinders and back to the stadium as a whole.
"No ma'am, I don't think I can," he admitted reluctantly.
"Tsukino has been effectively immobilized! Winner, Uraraka!"
"Oh thank goodness!" Uraraka-san gasped, immediately slumping back to her knees, clutching both sides of her head with both pinkies raised as the crowd roared in delight. "So loud."
"Uh, Uraraka-san, could you let me down now?" Aito called uncertainly, still floating.
"Huh? Oh… Right, I should let you down shouldn't I," the brunette mumbled, grimacing as she pulled her hands from her ears and pressed her fingers together, mumbling something that he didn't quite catch.
Gravity instantly returned to him, leaving Aito yelping in surprise before he collapsed back to the ground, not having been quite balanced or prepared for his literal return to Earth. Uraraka-san winced. "S-Sorry, I should've… Um… Sorry."
"Nah, you're fine," Aito grimaced back, rubbing his newly-scraped and bruised arm. "Um, are you okay?"
"I'll be fine," she mumbled back, trying and failing to stagger to her feet before he managed to catch her arm.
"I think you have a concussion."
"I'm sure I'll get worse. Y'know, some day…"
Her eyes were slightly crossed as she trailed off. Aito was glad that the medical bots were on their way to collect her. Honestly, Recovery Girl would probably want him there too so that she could take a look at his arm, superficial though it was.
"You're really good you know," Uraraka-san mumbled as she took a shaky step towards the stretcher. "You're gonna be awesome. All you guys are awesome." The brunette offered him a dazed smile. "Keep being awesome, okay?"
"Um," he blinked at her. "Okay."
Aito grabbed his fallen sword and discarded sheath from the arena before trailing after her stretcher all the way to the infirmary. The poor girl was only semi-conscious most of that time, but she didn't seem too badly hurt. There was a part of him that wondered at the girl's recklessness. Had she really just been banking on the hope that he probably hadn't been about to do anything that would actually get her killed, seizing what could be her only opportunity to get a grip on him? Well, it had worked in her favor this time, but he seriously hoped that wasn't her plan for the rest of the matches, not to mention how she intended to fight against villains in some future day.
"Honestly, one of these days someone's going to end up killed in one of these matches," Recovery Girl was grousing as they entered the room. She immediately hopped out of her office chair, bustling over to Uraraka-san. "How are you feeling, dear?" she asked in a soft, almost-clipped tone. Considering the girl's condition, Aito was willing to bet it was just formality.
"…Head hurts," the brunette mumbled back eventually. "Kinda sick. I don't think I used my quirk that much though?"
"Definitely concussed," the doctor clicked her tongue. "Alright, I'm going to use my quirk on you, young miss. You're going to fall asleep, but you should be up before your next match."
"M'kay."
"What's this?! The great quirkless hero met his match?!" a voice sneered. Aito didn't even bother to fight back a groan, turning to where Monoma was seated on a hospital bed, his manic grin stretched from ear to ear. "And to think that you were going to beat me! What about now, little hero, do you really believe yourself capable of being a hero after such a crushing defeat?! All she had to do was touch you, and-!"
"At least he hit me back," Uraraka-san snapped from where she was stumbling to a different cot, her weight largely supported by Recovery Girl-sensei. "And he managed to do it hard enough to give me a splitting headache, so would you shut up?"
Monoma choked, obviously flabbergasted. "Y-You don't get to talk to me like that when you're obviously too weak to properly win a fight, you… you-!"
"My my, young Monoma, since you're obviously so well recovered from your injury, it seems that it's time for you to leave and return to the arena while I tend to my patients," Recovery Girl cut in, a rather fixed smile curling her face as Uraraka-san got herself settled.
The belligerent blonde paled at the expression. Mumbling excuses, he stood and quickly left the room, making sure to 'accidentally' bump Aito in the shoulder on his way out. "Little brat," Recovery Girl scowled, taking Uraraka-san's wrist and kissing it lightly. True to her word, the brunette was out like a light a moment later. Aito couldn't help but smirk a little bit at the woman's commentary.
"Are you really allowed to talk about your students that way?"
"I am when they talk rudely about my patients, yes," the elderly doctor snapped. "Speaking of, did you need me for anything?"
"Just a few scratches," he shrugged. "I probably don't need your quirk, but I thought it would be a good idea to wash and bandage them at least."
"Hm. Well, at least we have one hero student this year that's concerned with his personal health," she sighed, grabbing a simple first aid kit from under her desk and beckoning for him to approach. "Unfortunately, recklessness seems to be a common trait among heroes."
"So I've noticed," Aito winced.
"Well, I suppose it's not your fault that Ms. Uraraka chose to take the hit rather than dodge it, although there's a part of me that wishes you hadn't hit her so hard," came the weary sigh as the doctor took his arm, inspecting his scrapes. Then, under her breath, "Honestly Yagi, what did you say to the girl?"
Who's Yagi? Aito wondered, but didn't ask. If Recovery Girl-sensei meant to elaborate, then she would; if not, then it wasn't his business. Before long, the doctor had finished cleaning and bandaging his cuts and sent him on his way with a small handful of gummies, which he popped into his mouth as he walked back up to the stadium. He passed by a girl with long maroon pigtails and soft pink eyes along the way, humming to herself as she skipped down the hallway. He didn't recognize her, but she had a good bit of high tech gear attached to her belt, so maybe she was a support student, like Hatsume-kun.
"Tsukino!"
Aito was mobbed the moment he walked into the stands, all of his classmates jabbering at once about what awesome skills he had and several of the guys (as well as one or two of the girls) complaining that he should have been declared the winner considering what state Uraraka-san had been in at the end of the match or huffing about how rude she had been just to drop him the way she did while Kendo grinned up at him from her seat next to Tetsu and waved for him to join them.
"You did really well," she praised quietly as he took his seat next to her. "You should've heard all of the pros in the stands talking about your swordplay skills and lamenting what a bad match-up it was; they really wanted the chance to see how you'd do against someone like Tetsutetsu, where you would've been able to go hand-to-hand, not to mention fight all-out without the risk of hurting anyone."
"Well, can't be helped," Aito shrugged, setting his sword to one side. "Uraraka-san was really good too, though."
"Without a doubt, but if that had been a straight fight where you weren't so worried about hurting her, I bet you could've won."
"Heh. Thanks. Anyway, how's your foot?"
"Good, thanks!" the strawberry-haired girl grinned, lifting her leg so that her friend could see the simple bandages winding around her ankle and the plain slippers she was wearing over them. "Recovery Girl said that the skin would probably still be a little bit sensitive for a few days-hence the bandage-but the injury's totally fine. Which reminds me, Mina asked if me and Tetsutetsu wanted to go out for ice cream with her, Kirishima and a few of their friends after the Festival; wanna come?"
"Really?" Aito blinked in surprise, perking up. "Sure, that'd be great!"
"Cool!"
"Shut up guys, Kirishima's up next!" Tetsu snapped, eagerly leaning against the row of seats in front of them. My, how opinions can change.
"What do you think's gonna happen Tsukino?" Kendo asked as the redhead stepped onto the pitch, Aoyama-san entering from the other side.
"Considering how similar he acts to Tetsu, I'm willing to bet he'll just tank the hits to get in close and then down Aoyama-san with a few punches."
"You really think it'll be that easy for him?"
"You mean you didn't notice? The more Aoyama uses his ability, the more it seems to hurt him somehow," Aito replied, thinking back to the way the blond boy's laser attacks had grown slower and shorter throughout his… performance with Hatsume-san.
"Huh," Kendo mused. "Guess I'll have to pay a bit more attention."
The match played out essentially the way that Aito had predicted. Aoyama-san's lasers obviously hurt-they tore holes in Kirishima-san's uniform and left dark scorch marks on his hardened skin-but the redhead just grit his shark-like teeth and bore the pain, charging in with a ferocity that probably would have been terrifying to face head-on. One fierce uppercut from the redhead's hardened fist sent his opponent flying, instantly KOed.
"Wha'd'ya know, it all worked out as planned," Kendo grinned, leaning back comfortably as Tetsu screamed his support. Aito snorted.
"It's not like I strategized with Kirishima beforehand."
"I know, but it's still nice to see that our resident strategist hasn't lost his touch."
"I'm hardly the only person in the class with an eye for tactics, Kendo."
"Yeah, yeah. So how do you think the next match is going to turn out?"
"Next match is Todoroki-san and Bakugou-san, right?" Aito mused.
"Right."
Todoroki-san and Bakugou-san were Class 1-A's two resident powerhouses. They'd both demonstrated that in their first matches, plus they'd both been frontrunners in the first event. Not to mention both had created teams in the Cavalry Battle that played excellently to their strengths, thinking mainly of tactics over cliques. They were both strong and skilled; there could be no doubt of that.
But Todoroki-san had demonstrated one clear weakness: he refused to attack from his left side.
Of course, Aito had no context to place that information in. It could be that there was an injury beyond the obvious scar around his eye. Maybe it had something to do with his ice quirk, or maybe there was something else entirely. Either way, he was certain that Bakugou-san would take advantage of the opening if presented to him. The only potential problem was Todoroki-san's frankly overwhelming power. If he opened the match with another massive glacier, then he might manage to end things before they really began. They'd just have to wait and see how Bakugou-san's power matched up to his rival's.
"Yeah, I guess you're right," Kendo murmured once he'd finished explaining his thoughts to her. "It's kind of a toss-up. It'll all depend on if Todoroki can maintain that level of output he demonstrated earlier."
"Exactly," Aito nodded. "That, and who's willing to fight harder, I guess."
"And on we go to the third match of the second round!" Present Mic-sensei crowed to the roar of the crowd. "Two frontrunners of the festival from the very start, please welcome to the stage Todoroki Shouto and Bakugou Katsuki!"
The screaming that filled the stadium was loud enough to make Aito wonder if a riot had started. He supposed that he couldn't be too surprised, though. Todoroki-san and Bakugou-san were, as he'd already noted, powerhouses, which was likely to mean that this was going to be one hell of a fight to watch. Still, the pro heroes sounded a little too much like rabid animals for his taste.
"Ready~?" Midnight-sensei called, her tone of voice indicating that she was just as eager for this battle as her peers. "Begin!"
Both hero students acted in the same instant, Bakugou launching forward with explosions bursting from both of his hands while Todoroki dropped into a crouch, his right hand pressing to the floor. Instantly, another massive glacier arose, blasting forwards and outwards and consuming the opposite side of the arena. Aito couldn't help but shiver at the blast of cold air that washed over him before the arena grew still and quiet again.
"Ah shit, I guess it's over then," Awase-kun groaned somewhere nearby, his voice eerily loud in the sudden silence.
"Hold up," Shishida-kun countered, his ears almost seeming to twitch, "do you guys hear that?"
Everyone in Class 1-B went utterly still, listening intently. And suddenly, Aito could hear it. A distant boom, like thunder, drawing steadily louder, closer, until-
BANG! CRACK!
All at once the front of the glacier shattered, revealing a panting, but still very-much-in-the-game, Bakugou, his face set in a ferocious snarl. With a sound almost like a roar, he launched himself forward once again. Todoroki, after an initial moment of surprise, raised his right hand once again, ready to counterattack, only for Bakugou-in a superb feat of dexterity that had even Aito yelling in excitement-to use another explosion at the very last instant to dodge out of the way, seize the other boy's left arm, and use the momentum to fling him towards the out-of-bounds line, shouting at the top of his lungs.
"Especially when you only use half of it!"
Huh? What does that mean? Aito wondered. Once again, he had the distinct impression that he was missing some sort of context for this fight, but that wasn't something he would be able to rectify while it was happening.
Especially when Todoroki just formed an ice wall in midair and was using it to surf back to the center of the stage so that he could face Bakugou head-on once more. The blonde was ready to meet him though, blasting forward and, once again, catching Todoroki's left arm, setting his base, and throwing him over his shoulder in a judo flip that left the ice-wielder skidding across a thin sheet of ice for several meters, gasping for breath when he finally came to a stop and struggling to reach his feet.
"Come on, Icyhot! If you have no intention of winning, then why the hell are you here at all?!" Bakugou screamed now, explosions crackling across his palms in his frustration, nearly drowning out his voice.
"Icyhot?" Tetsutetsu scoffed. "What kind of name is that for a guy with an ice quirk?"
"It's a name for the kind of guy that only uses half his quirk," Aito realized, pointing to the screens at the top of the stadium displaying the names and quirks of the current match-up: Bakugou Katsuki, Explosion, and Todoroki Shouto, Half-Cold, Half-Hot.
"So wait, that guy has a fire quirk too?!"
When Aito snapped his gaze back to the fight, not much had changed. Todoroki had managed to reach his feet; his hands were balled into fists and his head was slightly bowed. He seemed to be speaking, his head snapping up somewhere in the middle of his speech to glower at Bakugou with such ferocity that if looks could kill, the blond boy would be massacred. But instead, Bakugou just stared at him.
Then he started laughing.
It wasn't amused laughter. It was high, wild, and bitter, and it seemed to take Todoroki aback just as much as it startled everyone else in the stadium. Whatever Todoroki had said to his opponent, he most certainly had not expected this response. Eventually though, Bakugou managed to calm himself down, at which point he looked at Todoroki with such a grim smile that it sent a chill through everyone that could see it.
A few more unheard words were spoken.
The next time Bakugou literally exploded towards Todoroki, Aito could just hear the words he yelled: "I refuse to let my past control my future!"
Whether it was the shock or just a slow reaction, Todoroki wasn't quite able to get an ice barrier up in time as Bakgou's arms swung forward and he roared at the top of his lungs, "HOWITZER IMPACT!"
The explosion that Bakugou managed to produce in that instant shook the entire stadium, causing Aito's vision to flash white with the sheer intensity of it. Hot and cold air crashed over him all at once and somewhere he heard Tsunotori-kun and Komori-kun scream.
"The hell just happened?!" Tetsu shouted, instinctively turning to steel to protect himself against the shards of ice flying across the stands.
"I have no idea!" Kendo shouted back.
When the mist and dust settled, Bakugou had been thrown back against the remnants of the massive ice glacier and stood there slumped and panting for breath. The ice 'wave' that Todoroki had made had been utterly demolished, massive chunks scattered across the grass outside of the ring, and Todoroki himself lay unconscious amid its remnants.
"Uh. Winner: Bakugou Katsuki!"
Bakugou-san finally raised his head as the crowd started cheering, roaring its approval at the epic, if somewhat stunning, conclusion to the match. Slowly, Bakugou managed to force himself to straighten up, standing tall and strong before his audience, his expression stony and cold before he turned and began to march away.
Aito might have been imagining it, but for a moment, he could have sworn that the blond boy's hands were shaking.
The next few fights went rather quickly. Tokoyami-san defeated Ashido-san almost as quickly as he'd managed to defeat Monoma, but she at least was able to fight back, throwing fistfuls of acid at his Dark Shadow and dodging his first strike before the creature managed to catch her around the waist and shove her out of the ring. She was disappointed of course (and a little miffed that Awase-kun hadn't thought to track her time against him), but she was a good sport about it.
Uraraka-san versus Kirishima-san was an interesting fight as well. After the twenty minute break between the second and third rounds, the two faced each other in hand-to-hand combat, but again, Uraraka-san's quirk was better suited to a one-on-one fight. That being said, she didn't actually take him down by floating him into submission. Instead, when she managed to touch him, Kirishima-san panicked and hardened his feet, slamming them into the concrete to give himself an anchor. However, since he wasn't capable of moving or reacting in that state, Uraraka-san was able to pull some kind of martial arts move too quickly for him to follow that resulted in the redhead being pinned on his stomach with his hands firmly trapped behind his back and his ankle badly swollen from being wrenched out of the arena floor. Midnight-sensei declared Uraraka-san the winner, and Kirishima-san took it like a champ, laughing as his opponent helped him hobble out of the arena while Cementoss did repairs.
The second and final fight of the third round was a little disappointing in some ways. After winning two previous matches completely uncontested, it seemed that Tokoyami-san had finally encountered a terrible match-up. After dodging the first couple of attacks by Dark Shadow using his explosions, Bakugou dove straight for Tokoyami, firing explosion after explosion off at his sentient quirk at close range, somehow driving the bird-headed student completely on the defensive. Then, with another special move called 'Stun Grenade', Bakugou managed to unleash a blaze of light that completely incapacitated Dark Shadow, leaving his user with no choice but to surrender. It was something of an anticlimactic ending after everything else he'd managed to accomplish.
But nothing could have prepared Aito for the finals.
"This is it, people! We're on to the final match of the first year's UA Sports Festival! On one side, we have an early front runner and certified quirk powerhouse, Bakugou Katsuki! And on the other, we have our strategist and martial artist, Uraraka Ochaco!"
The crowd roared in excitement as the two hero students began making their separate ways towards the arena, both tense and determined. "Does anybody else get the feeling that this is gonna be one hell of a match?" Kodai-kun commented quietly.
"Yeah," Kendo nodded in agreement. "You can tell just by looking at their faces."
Tetsutetsu was too busy screaming in excitement, but Aito found himself nodding as well, watching as Midnight-sensei raised her whip and called, "Final match! Ready~? Begin!"
Uraraka instantly sprinted forward, keeping herself low to the ground in much the same way she had when going up against Shiozaki. A chorus of oohs! rose through the crowd as Bakugou immediately responded with a massive explosion, sending the brunette tumbling backwards and skidding back to her feet.
"She has really good footwork," Kendo commented past a wince.
"Yeah, you can tell that she has a martial arts background given her recovery time," Aito nodded in agreement as the girl recklessly charged once again. This time, there was an instant after the explosion where, in the midst of the light and debris, Aito lost track of Uraraka. Bakugou seemed to have found her though, whirling on the spot and lashing out, only for the smoke to clear and reveal that what he'd actually managed to grab hold of was Uraraka's empty jacket-the girl herself was charging him from behind.
"She got win!" Tsunotori-kun squealed.
But she'd spoken too soon. With impressive reaction time, Bakugou twisted and fired off another massive explosion, this one also knocking the brunette off of her feet. Again, again, and again, Uraraka charged, and over, and over, and over again, Bakugou blasted her back, the force of his explosions never faltering, the speed of her charges never wavering. And slowly, little by little, the stands grew quiet.
"This… This is hard to watch, right?" Shishida-kun muttered. "It's not just me?"
"Yeah," Awase-kun agreed softly, wincing as yet another explosion threw Uraraka back.
"I think it'd be worse otherwise," Aito said quietly.
"Huh?"
"When I won the obstacle course, Bakugou approached me for a minute. He told me not to expect him to go easy on me just because I was quirkless. I told him I'd be insulted if he did, and I meant it." Aito turned towards his friends, his blue eyes hard and unrelenting, determined to impress upon them the intensity of his feelings. "As somebody who's quirkless, I've been told all my life that I'm incapable: that I could never stand up against a real villain, that I'll only get myself killed, that I should give up. Having someone hold back against me in a one-on-one fight like this would essentially be like them telling me the exact same thing, just in a different way. So no matter how much it hurt, even if I couldn't beat him, if I were ever to fight against Bakugou, I'd want him to give it everything."
Tetsutetsu shot him a wide-eyed look at that. "That… That is actually kind of awesome."
"That's basically what Bakugou's friends told me earlier," Kendo murmured thoughtfully as another series of explosions rang out. "He fights all-out as a sign of respect. Not to mention what he said at the start of the Festival. 'If you don't give it everything, you don't have a right to be here'."
"Exactly," Aito nodded, "and anyway, I get the feeling that Uraraka has more up her sleeve than any of us realize."
Still, it was difficult to see such unrelenting determination on both sides, and to see someone with so much drive and focus getting knocked down over and over and over and over. It was really only a matter of time before somebody snapped.
"Hey, shouldn't one of the teachers step in?!" a voice cried out from the middle of the crowd.
"Yeah, this is too rough!"
"This is shameful! Listen kid, you really wanna be a hero?! If you're so good, just send her out of bounds!"
"Yeah, you heard the guy!"
"Stop toying with her!"
Aito was flabbergasted. Don't they see that the reason she hasn't been sent out of bounds yet is because she's so good? Come on, they witnessed her performance through the earlier matches; haven't they realized how capable she is?!
"In a stunning turn of events, the crowd is booing Bakugou! And honestly, I kinda get it- Whoa, hey!"
"Where is the man who started this uproar?!" Aizawa's voice snarled over the PA system. "Are you a pro? Because if you're serious, you can just go and hang up your cape. I suggest looking into another career."
"Daaaaang," Tokage-kun hissed, bringing a hand to her mouth, eyes wide with something between shock and amusement.
"Bakugou's fierceness is an acknowledgment of his opponent's strength; he knows that she deserves to have made it this far. So he's making sure he does whatever it takes to keep her at bay, making sure that he'll come out on top. Besides, it's just embarrassing that a pro wouldn't have noticed Uraraka's aptitude for strategy, especially after Mic talked it up so damn much."
"What does he mean by that?" Shiozaki-kun frowned.
"Holy shit, you guys! Look!"
Aito grinned when he glanced up, discovering dozens upon dozens of shards of cement suspended in midair above the stadium, all pieces that Bakugou had blown out of the arena because of Uraraka's relentless, low-to-the-ground charges, which she'd then touched and sent flying above the stage. Even as he watched, Uraraka yelled and pressed her hands together, releasing her quirk's hold on the shards and sending them plummeting back towards Earth.
"A meteor shower?!"
"Now you notice."
Uraraka charged one last time as the debris crashed towards the ground, touching her own arm to increase her speed as she leaped forward. But at the same moment, Bakugou raised his hands towards the sky, sparks flying up his arm before another massive explosion, possibly even bigger than the one he'd fired off against Todoroki, burst from his palm, the shockwave sending a blast of air outwards in all directions, knocking back everyone in the stands and sending Uraraka flying one last time.
"Incredible! Bakugou's explosion has just blown apart Uraraka's finishing move, and now he stands completely untouched!"
The entire stadium watched with bated breath as the trembling brunette slowly pushed herself to her hands and knees, then staggered to her feet. Bakugou, who'd waited until his opponent had regained at least a semblance of a stance, now charged towards her, his expression unquestionably grim as his hands sparked in readiness. Uraraka turned to face him, ready to fight back-
-only to collapse, her legs completely giving out on her. Almost more startling though was Bakugou's reaction.
The ash blonde immediately flinched, almost tripping over his own feet as he stumbled to a halt, not even attempting to take a stance. He just watched, his mouth open in something like horror, his arms and shoulders unusually tense. There was a moment, after Uraraka finally went still, when he took a step towards her, but Midnight-sensei stepped between them, holding out a hand as she knelt by Uraraka's side and announced quietly, "Uraraka is KOed. Bakugou wins the tournament!"
Little by little, the crowd built back into a frenzied crescendo of cheering, many of them praising Uraraka-san's fortitude, others Bakugou-san's respect or ferocity. Then, abruptly, the crowd quieted down again, some measure of worry rippling through the onlookers as the blond boy marched decisively forward and, to the surprise of everyone, knelt down at his opponent's side.
Aito couldn't hear what the champion said, but he did see, as everyone else did, Uraraka-san twitch slightly as she came back to the land of the living, and he watched with no small sense of amazement as Bakugou-san helped her to her feet and supported her weight as she stumbled off the stage, both quietly talking, wearing unsteady smiles.
When the cheering came back, it came back tenfold, stunned by the display of sportsmanship and goodwill between the two hero students. Even Tetsutetsu slumped back in his chair, more than a little bit awed by the abrasive boy's unexpected show of compassion (although, there was a brief moment when Aito could have sworn he heard Bakugou-san's voice shouting down below him before Present Mic-sensei began with his announcements once again).
"Let's give it up for all of our incredible competitors today! What a remarkable way to finish off a day of competition!"
Fifteen minutes later, the awards ceremony began. Aito joined the rest of the competitors out on the field while fireworks and confetti exploded overhead. (He did not envy whoever would be tasked with cleaning that up.) The podiums rose from the ground, since literally everything at UA had to be Plus Ultra, revealing a subdued and surly Bakugou-san standing on the top tier with his hands in his pockets (had he changed out of his boots?), an unsteady but still brightly smiling Uraraka-san on the second tier, and a cheering Kirishima-san and solemn Tokoyami-san sharing the third.
"Now, let's break out the hardware!" Midnight-sensei called. "Of course, there's only one person worthy of distributing the awards~!"
Iconic laughter boomed over the field, and the entire stadium went nuts as All Might himself leaped in front of the podium. There was an awkward moment when Midnight-sensei messed up a cue line, but it didn't really matter once he got into the presentation of the medals themselves. Aito was actually close enough to the front of the field to hear him quietly imparting words of congratulations and advice to the winners; praising Tokoyami-san for his strength but cautioning him that he wouldn't always be able to rely on his quirk, and encouraging Kirishima-san's energy and enthusiasm but reminding him to work on strategy and mobility.
His soft conversation with Uraraka-san seemed considerably more emotional than the previous two, as All Might rested one hand on her shoulder and murmured, "We'll talk more later Uraraka-shoujo, but just know that I am very, very proud of you."
"Ya- All Might-sensei… do you think I'm ready?" Uraraka-san asked softly as the silver medal settled around her neck.
"Yes, my girl," the man replied with a soft, fond smile, "I most certainly do."
Who knew what exactly that meant, but either way, Uraraka-san had tears streaming past her bright smile when he moved on, stepping up to Bakugou-san's podium.
"Bakugou-shounen, I am very impressed by your performance today!" All Might beamed as he slipped the gold medal over the boy's head.
"Yeah. Whatever," Bakugou-san mumbled back. Aito frowned, wondering what had the boy so down, all things considered. It seemed that All Might had a better sense for that than he did, though, because suddenly his iconic smile seemed to slip, just a little bit, and he reached out to gently squeeze his student's shoulder. "You know, Bakugou-shounen, I've been meaning to have a word with you for quite some time. This isn't the time or the place, but please… try to remember that what happened to Midoriya-shounen wasn't your fault."
Bakugou-san's head snapped up at the number one pro hero's words, his crimson eyes wide with shock and something far more vulnerable before he quickly looked away. "But I… Fine. I'll try," he murmured. All Might nodded, squeezed the boy's arm one last time, and turned back to face the crowd.
"Here they are, the winners of this year's Sports Festival! But listen closely: any of you first years could have ended up standing on these podiums. Think about what you've done today: you've challenged each other, learned, and climbed even closer to being pros! I think our next generation of heroes is going to be our most promising one yet! So I have only one more thing to say, and I want to hear everyone say it with me! Go beyond…"
"PLUS ULTRA!"
Outtake:
Katsuki's ears were ringing in the eerie silence as Round Cheeks continued to struggle weakly on the ground, even with the help of his hearing aids. He was panting heavily, arms trembling and wrists pulsing with the effort of firing off another Howitzer Impact without the aid of his gauntlets. Even his legs and ankles hurt from the effort of bracing himself against the shockwave.
But all he could see was the broken figure lying in front of him, covered in soot and unconscious. All he could remember was messy green hair and empty green eyes because he had knocked the life out of them.
He didn't realize he'd moved forward until Midnight-sensei held up a hand to stop him. Somewhere in the distance, he knew she had called his name as the victor and the subdued roar that sounded in response was the shouting of the audience, but Katsuki still flinched, hearing only the jeers of his old cronies, mocking the person that should have been his friend.
Katsuki closed his eyes, curling his trembling hands into fists and forcing himself to breathe, listening intently to the ringing in his ears and tuning out the crowd as he reminded himself where he was.
This wasn't like back then.
He wasn't like back then.
He wasn't going to leave his friend on the ground again.
Ignoring the crowd, ignoring even Midnight-sensei, ignoring the way that his hands continued to shake and his legs felt just shy of giving out, Katsuki stepped forward and crouched down beside the unmoving figure, lightly shaking her shoulder. "Oi, Round Cheeks, you seriously just gonna take that lying down?"
The brunette groaned softly, her face scrunching up before those too-big eyes of hers flickered open. She was definitely out of it, her gaze slack and unfocused even as she managed to raise her head towards him. "Baku…kun? Did I… lose?" she mumbled blearily.
Well, at least it didn't look like she had a concussion. Remarkable, considering the number of times he'd thrown her across the pitch.
"Yeah, but you sure as hell made me work for it," Katsuki grunted as he took her arm and pulled it over his shoulders, wrapping his other arm around her waist to assist his classmate to her feet. "Come on, Round Cheeks, up and at 'em."
The shorter hero-in-training stumbled upright alongside him, pressing her free hand over her mouth as she swayed slightly. Katsuki raised an eyebrow at her. "Think you can walk to Recovery Girl's, or should I carry you?"
"Try to pick me up, and I'll-urp-float you i-into the sun."
Katsuki snorted, not even bothering to hide his amusement as he led the way towards the tunnel. "Glad to hear you haven't lost your fire, Round Cheeks."
"You can bet on that, P-Pomeranian."
Katsuki stopped short, gaping down at her wry little grin. "The hell did you call me?"
"Ah, don't worry ab-bout it. Urp," the girl groaned suddenly, pressing her hand over her mouth again and stumbling slightly. "Ugh, I really overd-did it this time, didn' I."
"Frick yeah, you did, ya' badass," Katsuki smirked, heading off again once she'd regained her balance. "The hell kinda finishing move was that, anyway? Mighta killed anyone else. 'cept maybe Weird Hair and his twin."
"Tha' mean… you approve?"
"Damn straight, Round Cheeks."
Uraraka grinned weakly.
Then she promptly threw up all over both of their shoes.
Later on, they found out from Kirishima that the cursing and apologies could be heard all the way up in the stands.
I considered doing the trip to get ice cream for the outtake, but this interaction felt more important. Also, I wanted to emphasize that I intended for this to be platonic Ochaco & Bakugou bonding, but if you wanna read a ship into it, then fine; you do you. Personally I like the respect/friendship/siblingly relationship angle, I just really don't think their personalities would mesh well as a couple. Like at all. But you're free to your own opinions. (PS the ice cream trip would have included the Bakusquad and what I'm gonna call the Tsukisquad: Kendo, Tetsutetsu, and Tsukino. I'm sure that wherever they went would have thrown them out if not for Kendo and Tsukino. Normally I realize that Kirishima is the voice of reason, but right now he's still too wired up from the Festival, and I think he and Tetsutetsu feed off each other energy-wise.)
Anyway, given that I've tagged this story as Ochaco having One for All, I'm sure some of you are wondering why the heck this fight went the same way it did in canon. Well to sum up, considering the way events play out in this AU, I wanted All Might to be a little bit more cautious about passing on One for All (I mean, I can't be the only one that thought his passing it to Izuku in canon was remarkably spontaneous for such an important decision…), so he's taken the last few weeks to really get to know Ochaco and the other candidate, namely Mirio, before making a decision. Just before the Sports Festival, he settled on Ochaco and told her so, and although she accepted, she decided that a) having a sudden power boost right before a major event where she would be relying on her quirk seemed like a bad idea for control purposes, and b) she wanted to prove to herself that she was worthy/capable of wielding that power. Hence that little conversation on the podium. Basically, she'll be getting One for All in the next couple of days. Hopefully that makes sense to everyone. :)
Next update comes out July 30th! We will be seeing the aftermath of Bakugou's fight with Icyhot, as well as finally get the background to my outtake from last chapter. I'll see you all then! PLUS ULTRA!