I stood up and headed to my waiting room, thinking about my next match. "Kaina is a tough opponent. She's agile and has amazing reflexes. Plus her accuracy with her gun is nearly perfect. I'll need to keep my guard up if I want to win quickly."
His thoughts quickly devolved. 'Her cute face. The cute laugh she has. Her adorable sneezes. Her big b-' "Ugh, you're not helping, brain!"
Kaina was sitting in her waiting room, thinking up her plan. "Acho!" She rubbed her nose. "Ugh, someone must be talking about me or something."
"Contestants please report to your respective entrance."
Izuku sighed, standing and headed to start his fight. "Guess I'll have to come up with a plan on the fly."
——
Izuku and Kaina stood across from each other, both ready to fight. Midnight raised her hand, "Ready!" before bringing it down. "Fight!"
Izuku quickly tried to run to the side but his head got knocked back. "Ah, son of a bitch!" Reaching his hand up and grabbing the foreign object from his forehead, seeing a blank bullet.
He looked up and saw Kaina had her gun trained on him, the barrel of said gun smoking. Kaina was smiling at Izuku. "Come on, I~zu~ku~. You just gonna stand there all day staring?" Giving a quick wink, Izuku felt his face begining to burn.
'Damn feelings!' Izuku ran towards Kaina, trying to dodge the bullets flying towards him. Getting hit a few times, Izuku easily managed to shrug them off.
"You take hits pretty well, scale face. Why don't you use those red eyes of yours?"
Izuku reached out to try and grab Kaina but she easily dodged and quickly made some distance. "I can't use that against you."
"So you're treating me like a fragile little flower? I thought you knew better then that, scale face."
"Grr, I know how strong you are."
"Then fight me for real!"
Izuku felt his blood beginning to boil, unable to hold himself back anymore. His eye flashed to red as a smile crept across his face. "Heh, you're really making my blood boil."
Kaina smiled and began firing shots at Izuku. Izuku quickly dodged out of the way of the bullets and ran towards Kaina at high speeds, reaching her before she could move out of the way.
He grabbed her and pinned her to the ground, his red eyes staring into her purple ones. "Kaina Tsutsumi is unable to move! Izuku Tatsuma-Usagiyama is the winner!"
Izuku picked himself up, pulling Kaina with him. "Hey, uh, Kaina, do you wanna… get something to eat later?"
"Hmm… Yeah, sure." The two walked out of the field, the sound of cheers echoing around them.
"I like her. She's got spunk." Miruko looked at the two as they walked into the the hall leading out of the arena.
Ryukyu watched the two, seeing Izuku's reaction. "Seems like he finally has a crush on someone."
——
Izumi was sitting in her waiting room, looking at her hands. "Izumi, when I give you my quirk, no one will be able to stop you. You'll be the strongest hero there and no one will be able to stand in your way." Her father's words rang through her head.
Izumi kept thinking about what her dad had told her the day she got his quirk. "He was wrong. I'm not the strongest one."
"Can Izumi Yagi and Fumikage Tokoyami please report to their respective entrances to the arena!" The PA knocked Izumi out of her thoughts and made her way out of the waiting room.
"I'm not the best…"
——
"And now we'll give the last two contestants fifteen minutes before the final match!" The voice of Present Mic resounded through the area.
Izuku stood up and stretched before walking out of his class sitting area. He walked down the hall, stopping at a vending machine, pressing a few buttons and taking the bag of chips that fell out.
"Mmm, sweet!" Quickly opening the bag, he took a chip and began eating, walking back to his class. Suddenly, he ducked out of the way, chips flying out of his hands, as something connected to the wall beside him.
"Ha! Still got those reflexes!" Izuku looked over at Miruko as her foot was embedded in the wall beside him.
"Ah, come on, Rumi! You made me spill my chips!" Izuku looked over at the discarded bag that was now nearly empty with chips scattered around it.
Miruko pulled her foot back as Ryukyu walked past her. "I think you'll live without the chips, Izuku." She gave Izuku a smile as he sighed.
"You ready for the finals?" Miruko gave him a more serious look.
Izuku gave her a nod. "Yeah. I'm ready."
"Remember what we taught you, Izuku. It doesn't matter that this is just a sports festival. Out in the field, real lives are going to be at stake. Your opponent is strong, if a bit under prepared to fight properly with her full quirk."
Izuku nodded. "I won't be holding back. When we fought our first time, I noticed that she seemed to have to hold back the strength part of her quirk. Like if she went too hard with it, it would hurt her."
"It's most likely that she wasn't properly trained in using its power." Ryukyu turned her gaze towards a corner as saw a certain green haired girl spying on them. "A parent can have both a positive and negative effect on their children."
Izuku thought about what she said, remembering what he had gone through. He nodded at Ryukyu. "Yeah, you're right. I think Izumi is realizing that too."
Miruko put her hand on his shoulder. "You still hate them?"
Izuku thought to himself for a second before looking at the rabbit hero. "I-I don't know yet. They've changed a lot but…"
Miruko nodded, smiling at Izuku. "Don't worry about it, kid. I get it. Just take it at your own pace, yeah?" Izuku smiled and nodded, hugging the rabbit hero, who in turn, returned the hug.
Izumi watched from behind the corner, thinking to herself. She was even feeling slightly… jealous of Izuku. 'He… really is happy with them. They're like a family.' Izumi thought about her own childhood. How despite having parents that loved her, she still felt alone. Despite having friends, she felt like she was missing something.
She always pushed those thoughts away, thinking she was overthinking things. She turned and walked back to her class sitting area to wait for her next match. 'After this, I need to talk with him.'
