Hello again, everyone. Now we finally come to the true heart of the Sports Festival Arc: The fighting Tournament. I'm just gonna come right out and say it, I was genuinely intimidated on how I was going to switch certain things around in order to serve the intended continuity of this story, while respecting the essential canon of the manga. But I feel confident that, with the help of one of my Beta readers in helping me figure out certain elements as opponents etc., I managed to pull this off. covering this entire first round of the tournament proved far more lengthy than I had initially thought, especially when trying to balance out what established events to fully highlight and which ones to glance over for the sake of importance of events as well as pacing. Hence why this chapter is essentially split into two parts, both of which you'll be receiving today.
I hope you all enjoy what I put out here in these next two chapters, and if so, please be so kind as to leave a review and let me know how you think i'm doing, how you think this story is progressing along etc. All feedback is appreciated, unless it's straight-up trolling.
My Hero Academia is the property of Kouhei Horikoshi and Shonen Jump. I only own my original characters, and the original events surrounding them, as well as the alterations of established events that occur as a result of their existence in this universe.
A/N: [[]] denotes that characters are contextually speaking Russian.
Chapter 16
First Round, Part One
(Первый Раунд, Часть Первая)
The air between the three Heroes had lost none of its tension from the moment they had seen each other. Only whereas All Might was as ever ready to try and diffuse it with his constant smile, Endeavor made no attempt to hide his utter distaste for the Symbol of Peace, nor did Tunguska try to hide his own distaste for the Second Top Heroes' abysmal attitude.
However, the large Russian was equally willing to try and ease things between the three as best he could, as he finally let out a tired sigh and began to descend the steps, hand extended. "I fear we've really started off on the wrong foot, allowing my colleague to try and speak for me. So allow me to introduce myself properly, Hero-to-Hero. I am—"Hapless imitators would be wise to not waste my time with meaningless chatter. The same goes for has-beens, as well."
In so many words, Endeavor had effectively spat right in Tunguskas' offer of civility, leaving the Russian Hero momentarily shocked, before flaring up with immense anger. What the hell kind of Top Hero was this man, to have such palpable arrogance and sheer disrespect for all his fellows in the field? 'As if you don't know the answer, you old fool: the same kind of Hero who snubbed the very idea of giving you a face-to-face meeting nearly twenty years ago. For all intents and purposes, he might as well have not aged a day, or changed worth a damn, in all those years.'
While Tunguska was still stewing in his indignation, All Might remained virtually unperturbed by his colleagues' completely insulting his friend. "Come now, Endeavor, do you really still have to act so cold? It's been far too long since we've last talked to each other; well over ten years, in fact! I just thought I'd give you a shout out, since I saw you." Despite his attempt to be civil, however, Endeavors' glare was still displaying nothing but outright contempt. "I see. Are you satisfied, then? Now, leave me. You can take your tea and your cheap foreign knock-off some other damned place. So be gone!"
As the Flame Hero once again turned his back on the two to take his leave, All Might immediately rushed to intercept him at the next level, either completely ignorant or deliberately ignoring how much his persistence was clearly irritating the man. "Why do you always insist on acting so cold, pal?! If anything, I would have thought the events of today, so far, would have softened up your attitude at least a little bit. Your son, Todoroki-shonen, was able to make such a great showing even without using half his power. You must have taught him quite well."
This mention thankfully managed to pull Tunguska out from his momentary loathing, as everything he had studied up about Shoto from before all came rushing back, and he soon found his own excitement matching All Mights'. "Yes, it really does take a skilled teacher to be able to have his own child display such versatility and control, not to mention strength, with only half his confirmed power set. I must admit I'm a touch envious. For years I've done everything within my power to try and teach my own boy how to properly master and evolve the ways in which he can use his own Quirk. However, I see today that it was only when I finally decided to back off from my role as his teacher, that my Kolya has finally started to show such drastic improvements."
Despite being spoken to with what amounted to little more than casual pleasantries, Endeavor was making it crystal clear he had no time or patience for the nonsensical platitudes of one fellow Hero, let alone two. "What are you getting at?" All Might and Tunguska exchanged glances with each other from across the stairs, and with an understanding nod, the Russian Hero finally descended to join the Symbol of Peaces' side, so they could both grant their fellow the courtesy of eye contact.
"We both come to you with nothing but genuine intention, Endeavor. We've both put in so much of ourselves into training our two disciples, our inheritors, but neither of us is foolish enough to think that our perspectives and experiences alone are enough to make them into the Heroes they are meant to become." Tunguska finally willed himself to admit, willing to put their animosity aside if it could potentially mean helping his and All Mights' charges advance even further towards their goals. "We mean it, we truly want to know! Please, we would love to hear your how-to on raising the next generation of Heroes!"
It had taken a lot for them to say as such, especially on Tunguskas' part; and the fact that for a few painful moments, Endeavor answered them with that same frigid silence, did not help. However, when he finally opened his mouth, the tension seemed to suck nearly all the air out of the stairwell. "You really think I'll teach you anything? You really will never quit that easy-breezy little attitude of yours, will you? And you think dragging some washed up never-was before me will actually soften me up towards the idea of helping you? Seriously, how annoying…"
Completely ignoring the incensed and disappointed looks on the other two Heroes' faces, Endeavor forced his way past them both, not even paying attention to almost deliberately burning part of Tunguskas' costume in the process, leaving the Russian red in the face with barely restrained anger at his total disrespect.
However, just as it seemed there was nothing left to be said, Endeavor suddenly stopped halfway down the stairs, the fire engulfing his face beginning to grow in intensity. "Just remember this, you fool: that no matter how many starry-eyed upstarts with meaningless and pitiful Quirks he has to tear his way through; someday, I'll have made him a Hero that shall surpass you. That is the very reason I made that boy."
All Might and Tunguska alike had the same looks of a very worrisome confusion at this statement, but Endeavor, as always, refused to grant them even the courtesy of a parting glance. "The ridiculous little cretin is going through his rebellious phase right now. But he WILL surpass you, All Might. I'll MAKE him…!"
His ultimate point having been made, Endeavor finally continued the rest of his way down, leaving Tunguska and All Might visibly concerned, exchanging such looks with each other. All Might had always known the Flame Hero to be standoffish and arrogant, and Tunguska had pretty much come to expect it at this point, long-time memory of his snubbing notwithstanding. However, neither of them had expected the man to have such hostility and absolute contempt for seemingly anyone and everyone, and to hear him speak of his own child like that left the fatherly nature in Tunguska feeling especially concerned. There was simply no telling just what on earth was laying in store for what they were going to see from Shoto Todoroki in the future.
In one of the exiting halls of the stadium, Nikolay Bezpalov and Izuku Midoriya stood awkwardly across from Shoto Todoroki, who had beckoned the two of them here because he had wanted to tell them something. However, in the few uncomfortably silent minutes since they had come here, all that had transpired was that the two boys felt their anxiety and apprehension gradually rise, as the red-and-white-haired boy never took his ice cold eyes off of them, arms crossed as though he were personally sizing them up.
Finally, unable to bear the silence a moment longer, Izuku was the one to step forward. "So…what is it, Todoroki-san? What do you want to tell us?" Once more, the boy didn't answer, however his eyes were now solely focused on Izuku. If it hadn't been for the fact that he had specifically asked them both to come here, Nikolays' gut instinct would have been telling him to inch away and let his two classmates have their standoffish moment to themselves. However, his heart was quick to remind him not to just leave his friends to fend for themselves like that.
"Midoriya…" Shoto finally spoke up as blunt as ever, forcing both boys to full attention. "…You blindsided me. So much so that I broke my own pledge." Although neither of them said anything, Nikolay and Izuku both instinctively looked down to Shotos' left arm, his Fire side. Nikolay distinctly remembered the boy specifically stating he would never, ever use it, only to have ended up doing so near the end of the Human Cavalry Battle barely a half an hour ago. What stuck out in his mind, especially, was just how much he saw it clearly unsettled the otherwise calm and calculated boy before him.
And as for Izuku, he could simply recall how in every other instance he had seen Shoto in action, even when it clearly would have benefited him to do so, he abjectly refused to ever use anything but the ice of his right side. Just what was it that made Shoto Todoroki so against the idea of using his full power like anybody else?
Finally, Shoto withdrew his left hand from his pocket, looking upon his hand as if it were something to be detested, a clear-as-day curse. "Neither Ashido, nor Tokage, nor Fumikage, nor Uraraka, nor even you, Bezpalov, ever felt it. Only I felt it, that moment. After all, it was only me…who'd seen All Might at his full power, up close." All at once, memories of the final battle at USJ came rushing back, and the memories of seeing that indescribable final blow against the creature known as Nomu; that one microcosm display of All Might at his full power. Just thinking back on it gave Nikolay especially; goosebumps up and down his arms.
However, Izuku was too wrapped up in what Shoto was trying to say, to waste time waxing nostalgic. "So…what…what is it…you want to say?" Again, Shoto couldn't take his eyes off his left hand; his eyes reflecting a distinct intensity. "I'm saying that what I felt from you was the same. Something too similar."
By now, Nikolay instinctively looked to his curly-haired friend, and saw a look of very specific anxiety on Izukus' face. He couldn't even begin to imagine just what Shoto could possibly have been getting at that could leave the boy looking so distinctly fearful. "So…are you All Mights' illegitimate son, or what? You've managed to get All Mights' eye on you, right?"
At this point, Izukus' wide-eyed fear had now changed to wide-eyed befuddlement; a clear sign that this guess was the last thing he had been expecting. However, having now finally heard it being expressed, Nikolay crossed his own arms and had to think back. "You know, I hate to say it, Midoriya-san, but given how much attention he pays you, especially, I have to admit the same thought had crossed my mind once or twice."
"Y-you've got it all wrong! I…well, of course that's exactly what a secret son would say, so I get if you two don't believe me, but I swear that's not it!" Izuku was nothing short of frantic, shaking his head to the point of nearly giving himself whiplash as he vehemently denied either of their claim. Once he had somewhat managed to calm himself back down, he brought his attention back to the still-stoic Shoto. "Actually…I'm going to ask you something, Todoroki-san. Why are you…I mean…why me…?"
Shotos' eyes narrowed only the slightest as he bowed his head, clearly dissatisfied with Izukus' answer. "The way you said that just now: 'that's not it.' In other words, you have some connection to All Might that you can't talk about…whatever that might be." At this point, Nikolay himself was able to finally swallow his own apprehension to this bizarre confrontation, and finally looked their confronter in the eye. "What exactly is the point of all this, Todoroki-san? You've explained why you wanted Midoriya-san here, but why both of us?"
Shotos' multicolored eyes observed both the other boys intently, once again crossing his arms in contemplation. "The two of you…you both have some strong connection to Heroes that were considered the Number Ones of their respective nations. I don't care what country you're in, the rank of Number One Hero is not a title that's handed out to just anybody on a whim, it's a title that is earned through blood, sweat and tears.
"You two are very different from one another, and yet in other ways you're also very similar, as are the Heroes looking after and training you. I used to think that nobody could remotely compare with All Might in terms of sheer power; hence he was the sole benchmark I felt I needed to surpass. After what I saw at USJ, though…now I can see that All Might and Tunguska really are two very similar sides of the same coin, both in terms of reputation and power. That's why those two Heroes are now both the penultimate benchmarks I need to surpass, even if my father may not remotely agree in Tunguskas' case. Of course, I can easily credit that to his own single-minded perspective on just what exactly 'The Top' means to him.
"I know what I've witnessed throughout all this time, and I can clearly see that All Might isn't the only Number One Hero I need to surpass in order to get where I want to be…not anymore." This was the first time either of the boys had heard Shoto mention anything about his own goals or aims, let alone hear him actually admit to wanting to surpass their respective mentors. And having witnessed firsthand just how strong the boy was already, the thought couldn't help but leave them even the slightest bit shaken. And he could easily tell this, as well.
"Being just who you are, and knowing just who you're connected to, you both need to know about my father. Endeavor." Nikolay didn't recognize the name, but the instinctive flinch he caught from Izuku just out the corner of his eye told him everything he needed to know in that moment. This Endeavor character was serious business, and he needed to take whatever he was about to hear just as such.
"He's been the Number Two Hero forever now. Bezpalov, you've already proven your connection to a former Number One like Tunguska at this point. You've been showing notably increased control, power and versatility with your Quirk, and ultimately made clear the subsequent power you have the potential to unlock. It's clear as day in that regard alone, that you are his son and protégé, and therefore, a worthy opponent. However, Midoriya…if you are connected to the Number One Hero All Might, then that means I need to win against both of you all the more." At last, an actual declaration of intent, one that sent a visible tremor through both boys, as he could clearly see. However, he knew he was far from done here.
"My old man will do anything to advance his position. He made a name for himself during his Hero career firing on all cylinders…but it was never enough to outpace a legend like All Might, who was an irremovable mite in his eyes. And because he knew he could never hack it by his own power, he devised a plan."
Neither Nikolay nor Izuku liked where this story was going, less and less so the further Shoto went. The boy up to this point had always spoken with the utmost seriousness, but there was an edge to his voice in this moment in particular, that downright intimidated them where they stood. "What are you talking about, Todoroki-san?" Izuku nervously asked, spurring his Russian classmate to speak up as well, trying to swallow his own nervousness. "Yeah, what exactly is it you're trying to tell us?"
Shoto gave a weary sigh as he stood himself back up against the wall, a flash of what looked like actual regret on his face for only a moment, for recalling what he was about to tell them. "You two know about 'Quirk Marriages', right?" Again, Izuku visibly flinched at this mention, while Nikolay, while not completely clueless as before; still felt a very unpleasant chill in the pit of his stomach at the term. "After the Quirk phenomenon had started, it came into the picture during the second or third generation. Choosing mates solely to enhance one's own Quirk to be inherited down the line…and forcing marriages for that purpose, a throwback to an idea devoid of any logic.
"As a man of means and merit…he easily ingratiated himself to my mothers' family…and took possession of her Quirk. All he wanted was to slake his own thirst and raise a Hero to rise above All Might." Shoto fell deathly silent for a moment, before his left hand actually began to start trembling. Once again, both boys felt a foreboding chill crawl up their spines, up to this point uncertain if anything was even capable of spurring such a reaction out of him. Finally, he brought his left hand to his face, a look of genuinely painful recollection in his right eye.
"To Hell with him! I'll never, never be that piece of shits' tool!" Shoto made this declaration with much more force and anger than Nikolay or Izuku had ever heard from him before, and that only served to make them recognize just how serious he was being, and furthermore, just how difficult it really was for him to will himself to tell them all this.
Taking it all in, Nikolay could only briefly recall a time before when his father had actually told him about the old practices of such things as Quirk Marriages, or 'Quirk Eugenics', as Oleg had taken to calling them, in his bitterness. The old man had seemed completely certain that such barbaric practices had long since faded into the annals of history where they belonged. To hear that there was someone in this day and age who had actually treaded into such a practice left a twisting sensation in his stomach, one of both distaste similar to Shotos', and even a touch of actual sympathy. No child deserved to go through their life thinking they were nothing more than just a tool for their own parents' ambition.
"In my memories, my mom is always crying. She told me that my left side is ugly…and she dumped boiling water on me."
Blood turned to ice in Nikolay and Izukus' veins alike, the weight of an anvil dropping in their chests. How Shoto could have possibly worked up the courage to admit something so horrifying was beyond either of them. It explained the burn scar over his left eye, but that mattered little next to the sheer gravity of what they had just learned. To think that a Hero of such repute was essentially responsible for driving his significant other to do something so unspeakable to their own child seemed almost otherworldly, insane.
However, simply thinking back to everything they each respectively had come to see and know from the likes of All Might and Tunguska, this seemed to only further show and prove that no matter how society liked to paint Heroes, they were still no more human than anyone else, ugly flaws and all.
"Don't do that, Bezpalov." Shotos' icy voice suddenly broke through Nikolays' fog of thought, bringing him back to reality. There was an especially sharp edge in Shotos' gaze this time, looking at the Russian intently, and when Nikolay was about to ask him to clarify, he suddenly felt the sensation of a tear running down his face. "Don't do that. Don't feel sorry for me. That's not the reason I chose to tell you both this. If nothing else, this mark is simply a reminder of just what that rotten bastard did to both of us."
As soon as he was satisfied that the other boys weren't about to risk getting emotional over him again, Shoto stood tall and firm in his ultimate statement: "The reason I'm aiming to beat you both is as a personal triumph. I won't use my shitty old mans' Quirk…or rather…I'll surpass both your Number Ones, and become the undisputed Number One Hero without needing to. This is my total disavowal of him."
This was so, so much for the two boys to take in and properly digest. It was crazy to think they had never once considered just what kind of backgrounds some of their very own classmates were coming from, just what was driving them to want to reach the level of Pro Hero to begin with. It was naïve to think every single one of them had wanted to come for the sake of being a Hero that helps people. Of course things like pride and personal vindication had to be a part of it. Nikolay knew it all too well; just looking at the state he had first come here in, compared to where he liked to think he was standing now.
"If neither of you have anything to say, that's fine. Midoriya, you keep being All Mights' something-or-other. Bezpalov, you keep trying to claw your way out of Tunguskas' shadow towards whatever kind of Hero you're trying to convince yourself of being. And I'll climb over both of you using only my right side. Sorry I took your time." With that, Shoto was finally beginning to take his leave; leaving both boys with the gravity of everything he had just laid out on the table for them. Both were momentarily speechless, having now finally understood just where he stood in the grand scheme of this Festival, of this entire school year, and just how deathly serious he was about getting through both of them to get there.
There was no denying that their respective Quirks, and better yet their grasps of them, paled in comparison to Shoto. He was ultimately on a whole other level compared to them. However, even knowing all that, didn't stop a spark of sudden motivation in both their chests from driving them to step back out into the sunlight with him, the words coming out all on their own.
"I…I've just been the beneficiary of outside help, all this time. That was true earlier, too…I…the reason I'm standing here is because someone always saved me." Izukus' admittance clearly weighed heavily on him; both boys could feel it. The green-haired boy couldn't even lift his gaze from his own two hands as he stood there as defiantly as he possibly could, as though he were replaying everything he had gone through up to this moment as he spoke from his heart.
"All Might…I want to be like him…and I need to become strong enough to accomplish that, and become Number One. It may be a trifling motive compared to yours, Todoroki-san…but…all the same, I can't lose. Not only for myself, but to pay back the people who've helped me along the way!" With every word, a whole new sense of confidence, and more importantly, of motivation, arose in Izukus' voice, as he finally worked up the courage to meet Shotos' inquisitive gaze with his own.
To hear it being said, and to be able to bear witness to such a change in spirit, Nikolay finally opened his mouth in turn to let himself be heard and understood all the same. "Neither can I. Midoriya-san and I…we've both been helped along for so long by other people. Even when drowning in a situation that would have left so many other people hopeless and suffocating in despair…my father never let his own spirit fade, for my sake. He went through untold hardships, nearly twelve years of a never-ending hell, just to try and keep my own sense of hope alive, and all in order to bring me here, to this very moment. I can't let that suffering, that clinging onto one little mite of hope, be for nothing. I won't let it be for nothing.
"He suffered and lost so much in order to get me here, and from there, so many others have put so much faith, confidence and trust in me to keep moving forward, least of all myself…and I intend to make sure I pay back every last ounce of that faith, work and trust in full!"
Nikolay and Izuku exchanged similarly meaningful glances with each other, having an unspoken mutual understanding of just where it was they now stood in this moment and for the foreseeable future; just how it was they were both going to achieve their goals.
"Even if it means we end up having to face against each other, for now, we're taking your declaration of war, Todoroki-san, and we're echoing it!" Izuku stated with all the conviction one would have expected from All Might himself, as Nikolay joined his side; both boys standing tall and proud as two vigilant guardians of justice itself, while Shoto watched this transformation of their attitude with only the mildest trace of interest in his eyes. "One way or another, before this day is over, Todoroki-san, one of us is going to beat you, too!"
Shoto had nothing further to say, instead turning his back on them once more and taking his leave. While Nikolay and Izuku couldn't bring themselves to say anything else, they both felt deep in their chests that an unbreakable understanding had officially been made between them right at that moment. They were both going for the same goal, being driven by the same noble desire to repay all those that had sacrificed so much for their sakes.
Yes, the potential for them to eventually face against each other today was nigh undeniable, and it was regrettable. However, meeting each others' eyes in that moment, they both knew that in their own symbolic way, Nikolay Bezpalov and Izuku Midoriya had essentially just become veritable brothers-in-arms in their journey towards becoming Pro Heroes, a swelling of immense respect for each other present in their hearts.
It hadn't been long after the surprise conversation with Shoto, that Nikolay and Izuku had returned with everyone else to the stadium, knowing the announcement of the main event was going to be coming any minute. As Nikolay was walking across the stadium grounds with the rest of the students still involved, he soon noticed Denki Kaminari and Minoru Mineta standing off to the side; both boys grinning from ear-to-ear and chuckling amongst themselves. Against his better judgment, the Russian boy let his curiosity get the better of him as he actually approached.
"Dobriy den (Good day). You two seem to be in pretty good spirits for having been eliminated from the rest of the Festival. Just what could have you both looking so giddy?" he greeted with a smile of his own, finding their chipper demeanors a touch contagious. Simultaneously crossing their arms with a confident grin on both their faces, the two boys looked nothing if not downright mischievous.
"Yeah, we may be eliminated, but we got a little something cooking up that's gonna make everything else totally worth it. Hell, you just might thank us when the time comes, Kolya-san." Denki explained as cryptically as he could, while Minoru looked to be anxious looking back and forth from his comrade to one of the stadium tunnels. "Stick around and enjoy the show, Bezpalov-san. This is what high school life is all about."
Nikolays' curiosity was only growing with each word, but just before he could ask them to get to the point, the intercoms for the stadium suddenly went off, punctuated by Present Mics' voice, sending the audience into a further frenzy, and getting Denki and Minoru exceptionally excited.
" WELCOME BACK FROM THE NOONDAY BREAK, EVERYBODY! BEFORE WE GET STARTED WITH THE FINAL EVENT, THERE'S GOOD NEWS FOR THOSE WHO DROPPED OUT OF THE PRELIMINARIES! IN THE END, THIS IS STILL A SPORTS FESTIVAL, SO TO HAVE EVERYONE CONTINUE TO BE ABLE TO PARTICIPATE, WE'VE GOT SOME RECREATIONAL EVENTS IN STORE! JUST LOOK HOW FIRED UP THOSE CHEERLEADERS WE CALLED FROM AMERICA ARE!"
Like a hive mind, nearly all the eyes in the stadium shifted to observe the aforementioned line of young women in matching orange-and-white uniforms dancing and twirling and flipping in near perfect unison. In a way, it really was quite a sight to behold. However, even at this moment, Nikolay noticed Denki and Minoru weren't even watching, but still were switching their respective gazes back and forth from the tunnel.
All of a sudden, the cheering of the audience began to give way to what sounded like confused mutterings collected en masse, snapping Nikolays' attention from the spectacle. "HUH? WHAT'S THIS?!" "What are they even…?" "WHAT HAPPENED, CLASS A?!"
Nikolays' head perked up like an animal hearing a dog whistle, and knowing just what end of the stadium he and his class were to typically come from, he immediately turned on a swivel to see just what could have gotten someone like Present Mic, let alone the entire stadium, in such a surprised uproar. And what he saw nearly made his entire body burst into flames from surprise, embarrassment, and adolescent hormones going into maximum overdrive.
Standing shoulder to shoulder in the mouth of the tunnel, although none of them displaying any of the enthusiasm of the official cheerleaders themselves, all the girls of Class 1-A were dressed in the exact same orange-and-white cheerleader uniforms: bristling yellow pom-poms in their hands, shirts that clung tightly to their bodies and resultantly accentuated their chests and figures, and short skirts and white socks that ended above and below their knees respectively, thus showing off their legs.
There wasn't a single girl in their class that was anywhere near bad-looking (at least as far as he could tell with Hagakure to consider), but those uniforms brought their natural attractiveness to a different level altogether, and among them, Nikolay couldn't bring himself to take his eyes off Mina Ashido specifically. On one hand he wanted to take in the image of her in such a uniform and dedicate it to his adolescent memory, while on the other he wanted to practically sew his eyes shut to spare her the embarrassment of knowing he was seeing this. Unfortunately, the clearly embarrassed looks on all the girls' faces did not help the overall mood, as they all looked like they never wanted to be seen wearing such things.
"MINETA! KAMINARI! YOU TRICKED US, DIDN'T YOU?!" Momo shouted from across the stadium, and as if right on cue, Nikolay followed her path of righteous indignation to find the two boys in question shooting each other a congratulatory thumbs up. And when they saw the deep red, flabbergasted look on their Russian classmates' face, looking like he was struggling to breathe, let alone speak, their self-satisfied smiles only seemed to grow that much more. "Drink it all in and savor it, comrade! This is the essence of a mans' youth in its purest form!" Minoru practically proclaimed to the heavens, while Nikolay was in a mental state of tug-of-war between wanting to keep his eyes off of Mina and the rest of the girls for their sake, and wanting to get one last look.
"H-how…how in the…how the hell…?" he struggled to put the words together, only for Denki to rest a lecturing arm over his shoulder, practically riding the high of success, himself. "How did we convince them to do it? Simple, my friend: we told them that all the girls needed to go do a 'cheering battle' for later in the Festival. We said it was a message passed down directly from Aizawa-sensei, so they had no reason to question it. Even convinced Yaoyorozu-san to make the uniforms herself, too."
Nikolays' gaze upon Denki and Minoru looked like he wanted to kill them, but his natural adolescent train of thought almost wanted to thank them for allowing him a chance to witness such a vision. He had gone the last couple of his teenage years never even once stopping to consider thinking about girls, and now it was like those last few years of withheld hormones came and hit him like a sack of bricks.
All the while, among the girls, with the exception of a particularly excited Tooru, they were all practically steaming with indignation and embarrassment, being seen by so many people in something so revealing. Kyouka was practically seething with anger, while Mina, having accidentally made eye-contact with Nikolay at the initial reveal, had actually taken to hiding her face behind her pom-poms and hiding the rest of herself behind Ochako; her pink face almost entirely red with a surprisingly intense embarrassment.
However, the one who was taking it by far the worst, was Momo herself, who had nearly half her body slouched over with a crippling sensation of defeat churning in her head. "I can't believe this. First I get eliminated before the main event…and now I even let the likes of those two make a total fool of me. What kind of vice-president of 1-A am I?"
"ALL RIGHT, EVERYONE! COMPETE YOUR HEARTS OUT! RECREATION! AND AFTER THAT, IT'S THE FINAL EVENT!" Finally, all the students began to file out and gather at the main screen, all of them feeling nothing short of anxious for just what the penultimate event of this Festival was going to be (at least now that the teenage embarrassment had run its course, for the most part). Steeling himself, Nikolay had his eyes laser focused on the board, mentally psyching himself up for whatever it may be, knowing now just what he was prepared to do to make it to the top.
"FROM 4 TEAMS, 16 INDIVIDUALS HAVE MADE IT THROUGH! IT'S A TOURNAMENT! WE'RE PITTING THEM AGAINST EACH OTHER IN ONE-ON-ONE COMBAT!"
The entire stadium was a veritable cacophony of cheers, almost to the point of what sounded like bloodlust, while among all the students, a whole new air of anticipation, anxiety and apprehension was awash, amid numerous conversations, of course. Nikolay felt his whole body momentarily tremble at the thought. This was it: the one thing he had silently dreaded most all throughout today. Before today was over, he was actually going to have to fight his own classmates in order to reach his goal, just like they all realized they would have to.
Of course, he also couldn't deny that even after the major declaration he and Izuku had made to Shoto just before that even if they were to face each other, they would ultimately beat him; he honestly hadn't expected those words to turn out quite so literally.
Without missing a beat, Midnight approached the stage with a lot box in hand, that devious smile never once leaving her face. "All right, now I'll determine who fights whom through this lottery. Once the match-ups are decided, we'll do a fun bit of recreation, and then we'll commence! Whether or not the sixteen who will be competing want to join in on the recreation activities is up to you. Since I'm sure many of you will be wanting to take a breather or preserve your strength. So, starting from the team that placed first, let's determine the order…"
All of a sudden, a single hand shot up into the air from amid the crowd of students. "Umm…excuse me, sorry!" Every head in the crowd automatically turned to find it was the blonde tailed boy, Mashirao Ojiro, who had chosen to suddenly speak up, but there was a visibly troubled look on his normally confident face. "I'm…sitting this one out."
Nearly everyone let out their own exclamations of surprise at this out-of-nowhere declaration, with many clearly trying to get the blonde boy to reconsider. "The truth is…I don't remember anything that happened during the Human Cavalry Battle up until the very last seconds. Probably due to that damn kids' Quirk." From throughout the crowd, Izuku and Nikolay both found themselves inexorably drawn to watching the purple-haired boy from the General Education department, who simply stood among the others with his hands in his pockets, as though it were just another ordinary day. However, if they had looked closely enough, they would have seen his eyes were focused on Mashirao especially at this point.
"I know, I know. It's my big chance…and I know it's stupid to throw it away. But this is the place everyone earned by clashing at their full power. I wouldn't feel right standing among you without even understanding how I got here. I just can't do it." By this point, even Tooru and Mina had worked up the determination to speak out from amid the rest of their peers. "Don't worry about it, Ojiro-kun! As long as you get results at this stage, it's fine!" "Yeah, it's not as though I put in the most stellar performance, either!"
Despite the invisible girl and the pink girls' respective attempts at convincing the tailed boy to reconsider, it was clear to anyone that Mashirao was resolute in his decision. "You don't understand! This is my pride we're talking about here. I can't stand the thought of it!"
Mashirao was burying his face in his hand, what little of his face that was visible reflecting a deep, existential kind of pain that struck a chord with many of those watching. Pride was one of the few things boys and men alike had to maintain above all else, as Tunguska would have once said. Wherever he was in the stands, Nikolay could easily imagine that his father would have understood and respected Mashiraos' desire to withdraw under these circumstances, without a doubt.
"Um…I-I don't remember what happened, either. I want to abstain, too! No matter how strong he may actually be…for a person who didn't do anything to rise up would defeat the point of this Sports Festival!" A second, unfamiliar voice had taken that chance to speak up as well, with many parting to reveal a shorter, pudgier boy with light gray hair, the one known as 'Nirengeki Shouda', as Nikolay recalled on the Human Cavalry roster.
In fact, considering they both, along with Aoyama, had been on the same team, and were now resigning for the same reason, now Nikolays' curiosity was piqued. Just what exactly was their rider, this Hitoshi Shinso, capable of that would have them making claims like this apparent selective amnesia? In fact, thinking back even further, he finally recalled seeing the same boy being carried over Shotos' ice by several other random students back in the Obstacle Race!
All the while, Midnight remained standing before them, her expression unreadable, as though she were the final judge and jury before their pleas. "How callow…I'll have you know that greenhorns like you…" for a moment, all was still. Half the students were at this point expecting the 18+ Only Hero to start having the two boys whipped right there with the very cat o' nine tails she always kept on hand.
"…GET ALL MY LOVE!" she suddenly declared with an especially strong sense of adoration, slapping it to and fro as her voice practically climbed to the heavens with her approval. "I hereby recognize Shouda-kun and Ojiro-kun pulling out!"
A veritable wave of relief washed over the students and crowd alike, as Mashirao and Nirengeki departed from their gathering with mutual looks of what could only be described as graceful resignation on their faces, but not without Aoyama placing a supportive hand upon his fellow classmates' shoulder, with Nikolay barely able to make out him saying: "Don't think I won't participate, understand?" That was certainly surprising. Given the sparkly blonde boys' seeming obsession with doing everything gracefully, Nikolay would've thought for sure he would've likewise wanted to bow out, having gotten here from means outside his own control.
"So the team that technically placed 5th, Team Kendou, would go on up." Midnight continued to announce, and once again following everyone elses' lead, Nikolay found himself looking upon a three-person grouping of girls. One of whom was clearly the leader among them based simply on the confidence with which she stood. Her hair was orange and done in a high ponytail, and she had piercing eyes of teal. For some reason, the Russian boy couldn't help but think that he had somehow seen her face before, but for the life of him, he couldn't pinpoint how or where. Among her other three teammates were a much more demure looking girl with short lilac-colored hair that hung over one of her eyes, and the third among them was considerably shorter than her peers, with semi-long light brown hair that hung over both her eyes, and almost seemed to carry the shape of a mushroom cap atop her head.
Despite all the attention now being put upon her and her teammates, the orange-haired girl, clearly the one who bore the name of 'Kendou', gave a casual shrug of the shoulders at their referees' announcement. "Sorry, ref, but if any team should be advancing, it shouldn't be us, who could barely move, but rather them…right? Right, girls? The team that fought to the bitter end and kept a high place all throughout: Team Tetsutetsu deserves to advance, don't'cha think?"
All at once, everyone once again drew their attention to the titular team, where the Class 1-B boy with the metallic protrusions around his eyes looked utterly dumbstruck, if not on the verge of being downright emotional. At this sight, the girl called Kendou put on what had to be one of the most casual, friendly smiles Nikolay had seen from anyone that wasn't Mina Ashido. "And hey, this ain't a favor, so I don't expect to be paid back, got it? This is just how it oughta be."
At this point, the metal boy really was crying, as he forced himself to give Kendou one of the most respectful salutes a boy could ever give, while the rest of the audience around applauded in crystal clear approval of such surprising comradery. "So now it's settled. With Tetsutetsu-kun and Shiozaki-chan entering, we now have sixteen competitors once again! And the match-ups are as follows!"
Finally, everyone returned their attention to the screen, and Nikolay immediately felt his heart catch in his throat when he saw the final roster of the first round of this combat tournament:
Shinso Hitoshi vs. Midoriya Izuku
Todoroki Shoto vs. Sero Hanta
Shiozaki Ibara vs. Tokage Setsuna
Iida Tenya vs. Nikolay Bezpalov
Aoyama Yuuga vs. Ashido Mina
Hatsume Mei vs. Fumikage Tokoyami
Kirishima Eijirou vs. Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu
Uraraka Ochako vs. Bakugo Katsuki
"OKAY, SO NOW LET'S PUT THE TOURNAMENT ON HOLD FOR A MOMENT AND ENJOY SOME FINE RECREATION!" Despite Present Mic announcing for everyone to do so, Nikolay felt absolutely no desire to do any such thing. He couldn't take his eyes off the board for the life of him. It wasn't even the fact that his first fight was going to be against their very own Class President of all people, but just the general concept that he was now essentially going to be giving his all to defeat the people he called his friends in full-on combat. No matter how much of a festive air this day tried to put on such a thing, he simply could not completely make peace with that fact, no matter how much he wanted to.
"Are you nervous, Kolya-kun? I mean, this is pretty much what you said you had been afraid of all day, right?" The sound of Minas' blessed voice was exactly what Nikolay had needed to hear in that moment, as he took in a deep, sharp breath through his anxiety-shut teeth. The involuntary trembling his entire body had started going through, thankfully managed to subside for at least a few moments. That was about as best as he could hope for.
"Yes…yes, I am. I'm nervous…but I'm not afraid; not anymore." He knew she was going to want to hear more than just that, given the state she had seen him in at the beginning of the day, so he steeled himself with another unsteady breath, ready to lay out everything he had come to decide since last seeing her. "I have to admit, what Bakugo said to us after the Human Cavalry Battle…I didn't want to say anything at that moment, cause I saw how happy us winning had made you, and it made me happy, too. But the truth is that what he said really got to me. I've been doing a lot of thinking between then and now, and I've decided that…no, I made a promise to myself, just as I'm now making a promise to everyone who's been supporting and cheering me on all this time. I'm going to try my very best to make it to the top, just like everybody else, by my own drive, my own skill. I want to prove him wrong, just as much as I want to help prove everybody else right; you included, Mina. I want to get up there, and I want to be able to do so, knowing that I truly earned it."
While his eyes were still glued to the screen, even after everyone else had long since parted to do whatever they wanted before the tournament could officially begin; Mina herself had probably the most heartwarming smile on her face to hear her Russian best friend finally say so with as much determination and confidence as she was seeing from him. "I'm happy to hear you finally say so, Kolya-kun. It's perfectly okay to be nervous, and it's even okay to be afraid, just so long as we don't let ourselves get held down by it. I know it sucks, knowing that there's a chance of you and me having to fight later on, but I want you to remember what I've been telling you all day today…"
At this, Mina stepped forward and leaned in to whisper into Nikolays' ear, the softness of her always cheerful voice carrying all the sincerity in the world: "Even if we do end up fighting today, just remember that no matter what, we'll always, always be best friends. Cross my heart, and whatever equivalent you Russians have back home."
Her always-casual means of being able to express something so heartfelt brought a grateful smile to Nikolays' face, only further accentuated when he felt Mina bring her arms around his sides and pull him in for another comforting and affectionate hug to further prove how serious she was in her declaration of unbreakable friendship, which he found himself happily reciprocating as he held her in kind.
Of course, it was only a fraction of a moment later that he found himself feeling fabric against his palms far different from their P.E. uniforms, and then felt a particularly fluffy material against his back, just barely tickling the base of his neck. Only now finally taking the chance to really look, he felt his heart rate immediately begin skyrocketing and his face go red hot when he realized Mina was hugging him, while still wearing her cheerleader outfit. 'How?! How in the hell are you so capable of getting so consumed in your own head, that you don't even put it together she couldn't possibly have had time to change out of that and back into her uniform in just these last few minutes?! Idiot!'
At the same time, Mina could also feel the poor boys' whole body begin trembling with nervousness against her, and she just as quickly realized why. With that, the two quickly separated from each other, too embarrassed to look each other in the eye, both their faces utterly flushed.
"Oooh, stupid Kaminari and Mineta! When this Festival's over, I should kick their asses for tricking us like this!" It was so clear just how embarrassed Mina was already, being dressed like this, but to have let her own self-awareness slip to this degree and leave her and Nikolay both so flustered afterward; it made the pouting look on her pink face almost heartbreaking in a way.
Unwilling to let his best friend wallow in her own embarrassment for a moment longer, Nikolay swallowed the lump in his throat and said the very first thing that came to mind to try and ease her spirits: "Well, be honest; would it make you feel any better if I just said I didn't see anything? Maybe ask some of the other boys to say the same?"
Mina could see just how hard Nikolay was trying to maintain a semblance of composure, and even if they both knew such an idea was utterly pointless, that didn't stop her from giggling in appreciation and amusement, giving him a smile of gratitude that melted the boys' heart. "Well, we both know that would be a lie, but…it's still really sweet of you to say anyway, Kolya-kun."
Both teens were thankfully smiling much more casually to each other again, but the heavy blush on both their faces still didn't fade. This was only made worse when, seemingly out of nowhere and with great effort on her own part, Mina took a deep breath and asked something she never would have imagined herself asking only minutes before: "Kolya-kun, the recreational period's probably gonna go on for a little while. Would you maybe wanna watch me and the girls do some practice routines; from a good distance, of course. I mean, Yaomomo went to the trouble of making these outfits for us, even if she was tricked into doing so, and Tooru-chan is really into the idea, so we thought maybe this would help take some of the edge off."
Nikolay looked like he had no doubt in his mind he was hearing things, but the deep red shade of Minas' naturally pink face, and the way her black-gold eyes couldn't lift from the grass beneath her feet, and the way her lips were even quivering with nervousness, made the Russian boy realize just how genuine she was being, which only made him blush that much more.
Nikolay knew without a single doubt in his mind that sticking around to actually watch Mina and the rest of the girls dance in those outfits was going to do anything but take the edge off, but he also could tell just how much courage she needed to work up in order to actually ask him such a thing, and he could feel in his gut that if he said no, it would doubtless wreak havoc on her own confidence. And so, unable to find the proper words, and just barely managing to meet her eyes when she finally managed to lift her head to look at him, he managed the most awkward of accepting nods, earning yet another grateful, and reasonably excited, smile from her again.
Needless to say, even watching from a relative distance for the sake of the other girls' maintained sense of privacy and comfort, Nikolay and Mina had both felt respectively awkward partaking in this whole display. However, once Mina and Ochako had begun to similarly feel the same kind of excitement Tooru had for the whole affair, the air had managed to become much more enjoyable, and Nikolay likewise found himself becoming genuinely wrapped up in watching their impressively athletic and gymnastic display, aided in no small part by Minas' natural sense of balance, rhythm and impressive flexibility.
Of course, even this positive change in overall demeanor did nothing to lift Momos' spirits in particular, though nobody paying casual attention was able to tell.
After a short while, after everyone had been cleared from the stadium ground itself for the tournament ring to be constructed by Cementoss, the long-awaited announcement had finally been made for the audience and students alike: "HEY GUYS, AAAARE YOU REEEADY?! WE'VE GOT A BUNCH IN STORE FOR YOU! IT'S HERE THAT YOU WILL BRAWL! AND THE ONLY PERSON YOU CAN RELY ON IS YOURSELF!"
Nikolay and the rest of the participating students had long since taken to the tunnels of the stadium to pass the time, and once the echo of Present Mics' voice could be heard, a whole new air of anticipation could be felt all across the grounds.
Nikolay in particular was trying to steady his racing heart as he began traversing the halls for the designated waiting room where he and all the other tournament participants were to wait for their respective fights to begin. Present Mics' voice could still manage to be heard crystal clear, even bouncing down the walls of the tunnels all around. "YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE A HERO TO FACE SUCH TRIALS IN LIFE! YOU GET IT, RIGHT?! THIS WILL TEST YOUR BODY! YOUR SKILLS! YOUR VERY SOUL! YOUR WISDOM AND INTUITION! EVERYBODY MOBILIZE AND GET YOUR BUTTS OUT HERE!"
If not for the signs adorning every wall, these tunnels would have been like an outright maze. Thankfully, from the ambient sounds of the crowd, Nikolay could tell he was getting close. However, as he began to round yet another corner, he found himself looking down to find not only Izuku, but also Tunguska standing before him, of all people. Acting out of pure reflex, Nikolay immediately stepped back behind the corner, unwilling to interrupt whatever his father and friend may have had to talk about as student and mentor. However, he also wasn't about to risk running late by trying to find another way to the waiting room, so he decided, against his better judgment to wait and hope they wouldn't take too long.
"I'm glad we could catch you, malenkii Midoriya. I had been hoping we would have this chance to talk long before the tournament would start, but I suppose beggars can't be choosers. I just wanted to personally congratulate you on making it this far. You've been conducting yourself admirably on the field today. That trick you had of using the robot pieces throughout the Obstacle Race was an especially flattering touch. Clearly my lessons in using your environment to your advantage are working in your favor. The way you and your teammates used your Quirks in conjunction with each other during the Cavalry Battle was, likewise, very well thought out."
Even listening in from a distance, Nikolay could tell just how proud his father was of his sudden pupil for pulling through like he had been. On the one hand, he was happy to hear his father express such pride in knowing that his knowledge had been passed down and learned so sufficiently, just as he had been hoping from the beginning. On the other hand, he could not deny a trace of what he knew to be envy in the pit of his stomach. Yes, they had both made the point of distancing themselves from their dynamic as mentor and student, in favor of trying to be more like a traditional father and son again, but one could only subdue instinctive emotions in situations like this so much.
"Oh, I-I didn't really utilize all that much of what you've been training me to do, Sensei. I really just took your lessons on Quirk History to heart, that's all. I mean, your lesson on the first Hero Teams really—"Oh, please, malenkii Midoriya, if there's ever a time you don't have to be so modest, I think it's safe to say this is it. I'm just trying to express to you my appreciation to see that you've been taking my lessons just as seriously as you have All Mights'; that's all."
Further down the hall from where Nikolay was standing in wait, Toshinori Yagi had also been at Tunguskas' side, having noticed the second boys' arrival right from the start, and having had the wherewithal to keep himself hidden behind the Russian Heroes' large frame. With a careful nudge to Tunguskas' side, he motioned for the older man to make his way forward to address the situation, while he imparted his own words of wisdom to his disciple. With a nod of understanding, Tunguska bid Izuku a silent but all-telling farewell and show of good luck, before continuing on his way, leaving the boy and the Symbol of Peace to themselves.
"I have to say I'm very proud as well, Midoriya-shonen. You were admittedly a bit slow on the uptake, but it seems you've finally gotten a hold of One For All." Despite the congratulatory thumb-up from his personal Hero, however, Izuku didn't look nearly as uplifted. "All Might…No, I…I'm…still shaky on it. I applied the image of when I hit the Villain, which is what popped into my head, but…if I lose my concentration, my bones feel dangerously close to breaking…plus, as I'm sure you saw earlier, even though I'm able to keep my body going okay afterwards, I'm still having trouble keeping the power output down to the proper level."
As sure as Izuku sounded in his own talking-down of his newly developed capabilities, Toshinori himself remained as stalwart and unconvinced as ever before. "Hmm…before, we talked about how you were stuck at either 0 or 100. What your body is capable of outputting now, using that metaphor, is a 5." As much as Toshinori spoke of this as though it were the single best news he could hope to give the boy, Izuku himself looked comparatively devastated by comparison. "'5'?! If you put it like that…you make it sound like I'm blessed by fate, helped by everyone…!"
WHACK!
Izukus' latest moment of self-degradation was swiftly silenced by a singular smack to the top of the head, while Toshinori stood as tall and upright as any authority figure possibly could. "Say it with me, O Prince of Nonsense: 'Whatever, I'll do my best!' How will you ever be the Hero you want to be without some game-face? Now listen here, boy. It's during times of duress and unease…"
POOF!
In a sudden burst of smoke, the once scrawny form of Toshinori Yagi had once again reverted to the inspiring muscular behemoth that was All Might, that same hopeful smile etched upon his face as ever. "…that you must especially smile and spring with hope! You reached this point, didn't you? So it doesn't matter if it's just a bluff, puff out your chest anyway! And don't forget, not only me, and not only Tunguska, but all the great Pro Heroes out there are all expecting great things of you, even if they may not even know it yet!"
At that same time, as Nikolay was still waiting for a sign that he was clear to move the rest of the way down the hall, he was swiftly caught off guard by the massive visage of his father rounding the corner, and looking down upon him like the boys' presence was the last thing he had expected.
[[Kolya, I was hoping I would find you before the tournament started. I'm sorry I didn't come to you sooner; it's still too easy to get lost in a place like this. I just…before you go out there; I just wanted you to know just how proud I am of you. I don't mean just for making it to the main event, or for how you conducted yourself at the Cavalry Battle or the Obstacle Race. I mean I'm just immensely proud of you in general. You've shown so much improvement today alone, and it truly warms my heart to see you doing so well in keeping to your goal of becoming a Hero, son.]]
This had so far been the most Tunguska had been able to say in relation to all the effort Nikolay had been putting in over the last two weeks, and it truly did the boy good to finally hear his father say as much. And yet, that childish sense of envy was still ever-present, more so after having just heard Tunguska express such similar praise to Izuku, the boy Nikolay still knew to be his friend; he only wished he knew why he was letting their new dynamic get to him this much.
[[Thank you for saying so, Dad. I wanted to make you proud of all my training for today. I'm just grateful that so far it's been managing to pay off this much. I really have that, you taking the time for all our sparring practice, and my friends constantly supporting me, to thank for all of that. So for everything you've done to help me…thank you.]]
At that moment, the signifying bell for the approaching start of the tournament echoed down the tunnel, and Nikolay felt his sense of anticipation and urgency kick start once more as he hurried past his father, and even past the unexpected bulk of All Might, who had come to rejoin his colleague, no doubt. [[I'm going to do my best out there, Dad, just you wait and see!]] Nikolay called back down the hall before rushing the rest of the way for the waiting room or the stadium ring, whichever place his classmates and future opponents would be waiting.
As the two veteran Heroes rejoined each other, they were both watching the young Russians' departure with particular attention. "Bezpalov-shonens' attitude really seems to have taken a marked turn for the better, wouldn't you say? He's been performing just as admirably out there as Midoriya-shonen, at any rate."
However, despite All Mights' praise of the boys' change in overall demeanor, there was something notably off that Tunguska hadn't been able to help but notice. "Perhaps…but is it just me, or did Kolyas' overall expression seem unusually…blunt to you? It seemed almost as though he were just saying what he thought I wanted to hear, just to be on his way, like he didn't even want to take the time to tell me whatever was really on his mind?"
All Might could not personally deny that, for the overall positive change in Nikolays' attitude he had been witnessing over the last couple of weeks, today there did seem to be a bit of something else behind it all, almost as though a portion of his positive attitude was nothing more than a veil for something more personal, more serious. "Well, you may be right. However, it could also be possible Bezpalov-shonen is trying to keep his mind focused on doing the best he can in the tournament. It has been known to happen, people can hide the things that are truly bothering them for after they get through to the other side of a major conflict. Of course…such a thing can also serve as a detriment, as well. There's unfortunately nothing we can really do about it as of right now, but perhaps you can take the chance to talk to him about it when this first round is over. For now, try not to dwell too much on it, Tunguska. One way or another, I am confident that Bezpalov-shonen will be back to his normal self with you once this whole Festival is over. Now come on, we need to get back so we can observe this tournament to the end. The students will all be needing our support, I just know it."
The commencement of the Sports Festival Fighting Tournament was only minutes away, and as Nikolay had stepped out into the sunlight to rejoin the rest of his fellow participants, he looked out in visible impression at the large and elaborate concrete arena that had been built right in the center of the ground in the course of less than an hour.
The thunderous applause of the audience was still as overwhelming as ever, as the young Russian hurriedly rejoined all the other students he was potentially going to be facing off against, quick to find Minas' familiar head of pink hair from among the crowd, and she just as quick to notice him and eagerly wave him over. The beaming smile on her face was a very welcome change from the look of constant embarrassment from before, clearly helped by the fact she was finally back in her P.E. uniform again, just like Ochako a short ways away in the crowd.
"The excitement really feels different, seeing the arena with your own eyes, doesn't it?" Nikolay eventually asked as he looked at the sheer scale of it, struggling to psyche himself up for exactly what they were all going to witness here soon. "Oh, it really does! It's like I'm nervous, pumped, and excited all at the same time!" Mina answered, the eagerness in her voice contradicting only the nervousness she spoke of.
"Hey, there you are! I was hoping I'd be able to see you guys before we got the ball rolling!" A familiar voice suddenly called out, steadily approaching from within the crowd. Nikolay and Mina both looked to find the source, and both were visibly elated to see the now-familiar green-hair and fanged smile of Setsuna Tokage from 1-B, as she made her way to rejoin her former teammates.
"Setsuna-chan! I was hoping we'd get to see you, too, preferably without having to fight first!" Mina greeted the reptile-like girl in return, with Nikolay expressing a pleased smile of his own. "It's nice to see you're still in good spirits, even knowing what's about to happen. I mean; we all know whom we're fighting first. You're not nervous, are you?"
"Nervous? Why would I be nervous? We all pretty much knew something like this was going to cap off the Festival." Setsuna answered as nonchalantly as could be, while Nikolay just looked equally as awkward. "Well, I mean, we don't know what this Shiozaki-sans' Quirk is, so I kinda figure it's only natural to be nervous about just who we could potentially be going up against. Assuming you don't win, of course."
Setsuna only slightly nodded, a look of realization on her still smirking face as she now looked to be thinking very intently. "I see, trying to get a gauge on who you could potentially be fighting later, eh, Bezpalov-kun? Well, sorry; like Todoroki-kun said, our team relationship is over, and I'm not about to deliberately screw over one of my classmates by giving her possible opponent a heads up on her Quirk."
Nikolay bowed his head with a defeated sigh, knowing her answer and sense of class comradery was only natural. However, Setsuna then broke into another cocky smirk as she looked at that admittedly adorable defeated expression. "But that doesn't mean I can't at least give you an idea what you're potentially gonna be up against, at least. All I'll tell you is that Shiozaki-chans' Quirk is basically tailor-made to give her the advantage in a prolonged fight. So with that in mind, I'm gonna be going in there against her hard and fast. I'm aiming to get our fight over and done with ASAP, for my sake, at least."
"Wow. This Shiozaki girl must be really tough if she's got you pretty much rushing in, Setsuna-chan. You didn't act like that once during the Cavalry Battle." Mina recalled, clearly impressed, even by such a vague description on Setsunas' part. "Yeah, maybe take that as a warning to keep your guard up for this thing. The kiddy gloves are off now."
Before the three could say another words, the intercoms suddenly came back on, and the crowd once again erupted into cacophonous applause, as Izuku and the purple-haired boy Hitoshi, finally emerged from their respective tunnels and stepped up onto the arena.
"MATCH 1! WHAT'S WITH THAT FACE, YOU DID WELL UP UNTIL NOW, DIDN'T YOU?! DEPARTMENT OF HEROICS, MIDORIYA IZUKU!
"VERSUS!
"SORRY, YOU HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING REALLY NOTABLE OR EYE-CATCHING YET! DEPARTMENT OF GENERAL EDUCATION, SHINSO HITOSHI!
"THE RULES ARE SIMPLE! THIS IS A SCUFFLE WON BY EITHER RINGING OUT YOUR OPPONENT, RENDERING HIM OR HER UNABLE TO MOVE, OR GETTING HIM OR HER TO SAY 'I GIVE'! FEEL FREE TO WOUND! WE HAVE OUR RECOVERY GIRL WAITING IN THE WINGS! I HOPE YOU'VE LEFT YOUR SENSE OF MORALS AND DECENCY AT THE DOOR!
"WELL, OBVIOUSLY, YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO ENDANGER EACH OTHERS' LIVES, THAT'D BE SHITTY! SO THAT'S AN INSTANT OUT! IT'S ONLY WHEN CAPTURING A VILLAIN THAT A HERO MUST NEVER STAY HIS OR HER HAND! NOW LET'S START THE BATTLE!"
Everyone was watching the two boys staring each other down, intently. For Nikolay and those that observed closely enough, it looked like the boy, Hitoshi Shinso, was actually saying something, but with the distance and the added wall of noise from the crowd, it was impossible to tell what he was saying.
"Remember what I said, Midoriya; don't answer anything he says to you. For your own sake, don't!" Mashirao Ojiro was standing amid the rest of his classmates, muttering to himself with an especially poignant air of intensity, as though he were hoping his words would reach their curly-haired classmate in the arena.
"REEEEADY!"
Nikolay and Mina were among the handful that actually overheard the tailed-boys' mutterings, but just as they were about to ask what he was talking about…
"STAAART!"
The crowd all but exploded with anticipatory cheers as everyone looked back to the arena to see Izuku was already charging at Hitoshi…until he suddenly stopped dead in his tracks, a visibly shocked and confused look on his own face, while Hitoshi remained where he stood with an almost cocky swagger in his posture.
"No, Midoriya, I told you, I warned you! You fell into his trap just like me, Aoyama-san and Shouda-san did!" Mashirao exclaimed in what was undoubtedly despair, only making the confusion and anxiety of all his classmates even worse. Even from the mouth of the nearest tunnel, All Might and Tunguska were watching this bizarre turn of events with a strong, shared sense of apprehension.
"HEY NOW, WHAT'S THE MATTER?! THIS MATCH HAS STARTED! WHY AREN'T YOU GETTING MORE FIRED UP FOR US?! AS SOON AS THE MATCH OPENED, MIDORIYA CAME TO A FULL STOP!? HE'S JUST STANDING THERE, GAPING LIKE A MORON! COULD IT BE SHINSOS' QUIRK AT PLAY?!"
The question from Present Mic finally spurred Nikolay to take action, rushing back to the regretful-looking Mashirao, who still couldn't take his eyes off the arena, a nervous sweat beading on his brow.
"Ojiro-san, what's going on with Midoriya-san? What is that kid, Shinso, doing? You must have some kind of idea!" Mashirao steeled himself as he tried to put his observations to words as best he could. "Back when we were trying to form our teams for the Cavalry Battle, Shinso approached me and Aoyama-san, straight up telling us to join his team. I told him I wasn't interested, but then the next thing I knew, we were just at the ending of the whole event; me, Aoyama-san and that Shouda kid. Everything else between those points in time is just a blank. I just know in my gut his Quirk must have something to do with actually answering anything he says."
Nikolay felt a chill of apprehension as he likewise returned his gaze to the arena, where Izuku was still standing as motionless as a scarecrow in front of his opponent. 'If Ojiro-san and that Shouda kid both withdrew for the same reasons, and if what's happening with Midoriya-san is anything to go by…then that Shinso kids' Quirk must have something to do with…mind control.'
It was another instance where he couldn't help but be impressed by the sheer range of Quirks he was witnessing firsthand since coming to this school, but that of course gave way to a feeling of hopeless ruminating, as to just how on earth Izuku was going to get himself out of this situation. Of course the young Russian couldn't get in there and intervene, he'd be screwing things up royally for both of them. He instinctively grit his teeth in frustration, hoping for some kind of answer.
At that moment, he noticed Shinso mouth something else indecipherable, and Izuku suddenly turned on his heels and began to march for the edge of the arena. Now Nikolays' worry was through the roof, worsened only by the numerous cries of indignation from across the audience.
In the nearby tunnel, Tunguska and the newly reverted Toshinori were watching their shared disciple start approaching them with increasing anxiety. "No, no, no, Midoriya-shonen, you can't! Don't come this way!" Toshinori was repeatedly mumbling nervously to himself, while Tunguska had taken to the same approach, only in rapid fire Russian: "Ne hodi syuda! Povernis'! Vernis'! (Don't come this way! Turn around! Go back!)
"What the hell does he do now?! How is he supposed to win if he can't even control himself anymore?!" Nikolay asked himself in growing frustration, completely ignorant to the reflective look in Mashiraos' eyes. "Before the match, I was able to warn Midoriya about Shinsos' Quirk as best I could. Remember how I said I was able to regain my memory in the last seconds of the Cavalry Battle?"
Nikolay instinctively looked back to the blonde tailed boy, almost beseeching for an explanation. "The reason for that was because I got a blow to my head when we swiped the headband from Team Tetsutetsu. Their warhorse ended up bumping into me. So it seems to me that a hard enough bump to the head can break Shinsos' Quirk. The only problem is I have no idea how hard a bump it'll actually take." The Russian boy once again mentally cursed to himself as he looked back, watching Izuku take one helpless step after another. "That's great to know, but how does that help him now? It's not like we can just throw something at him and hope that's enough!"
All of a sudden, Izuku came to another full stop, this time visibly surprising Shinso, as well as everyone else. And within seconds, his whole body had begun trembling with great intensity, while Toshinori and Tunguska could clearly see a wide-eyed fearful look in the boys' eyes, as though he were seeing something that nobody else could.
"What on earth is happening to him? It almost looks like he's trying to fight what that Shinso boy did to him!" Tunguska asked, all the while not expecting his colleague to have an actual answer. Good thing for him, as well, for Toshinori didn't even have an answer for what they were witnessing.
That was when his eyes suddenly caught sight of a very familiar red spark emanating from Izukus' left hand, first in the tip of one finger, then another, and another. Tunguska noticed immediately after, and felt all his anxiety give way to almost childlike curiosity. "Is…is he actually activating One For All, even in a state of mind control?" Toshinori was on the verge of speechlessness, himself. "I think…I think it may be activating…on its own."
Tunguska nearly felt himself reel back with shock from the gravity of such an idea. Never before had he ever heard of a Quirk activating itself outside of its users' conscious willing. And yet, from where they both stood, and from what they were seeing, it didn't look like Izuku was in any further control of himself now than mere seconds ago. And yet, he had come to recognize that brilliant red glow now encompassing his hand anywhere.
SNAP!
A deafening noise pierced through the air from where Izuku stood, momentarily rendering the entire stadium silent, before just as quickly rising back to the amalgamation of cheers and confusion. As soon as the air current had cleared, all the watching students looked in shock to see that now, Izuku was moving freely again, turning back to the now visibly shocked Shinso, with his right index and middle finger sporting that familiar broken discoloration, noticeable from a mile away. Among everyone elses' expressions of confused shock, Nikolay was barely able to form the coherent thought: 'Did he…did he seriously just manage to break Shinsos' mind control…through sheer force alone?!'
"This fight's gotta be in the bag now, right?! I mean, if Midori-kun now knows that Shinso kids' Quirk, there's no way he's gonna fall for it again!" Mina finally spoke up, unable to hide her anxious anticipation for the end of this fight, as Izuku was finally approaching Shinso once more, and this time not stopping when his opponent was clearly trying to get a verbal answer out of him again. Behind them, Mashirao was watching the whole procession with a look of complete awe in his eyes. "I don't believe it…he actually pulled through. Midoriya…you really are something else."
With each passing second, Izukus' steady walk quickly broke into a desperate sprint, and Shinsos' once vacant expression had grown into one of indignation and anger, all culminating when the two boys finally collided, and Izuku began trying to force him out of the ring. By this point, most of the 1-A students had broken into desperate cheers of support for their miracle kid to win. Even Nikolay found himself getting absorbed into the emotion of the moment at last: "C'MON, MIDORIYA-SAN! YOU CAN DO IT! WIN THIS THING FOR US! WIN!"
In a last second act of desperation, Shinso actually threw a noticeably driven punch straight into Izukus' face, earning some proclamations of knee-jerk pain from the audience. Nevertheless, Izuku was not stopping, and neither were his classmates' cheers and cries.
Finally, just as they reached the very edge, Shinso actually managed to sidestep out of Izukus' trajectory, before just as quickly latching his hand onto the green-haired boys' throat. However, with a furious cry fitting even the most hardened of ancient warriors, Izuku grabbed onto Shinsos' arm with his injured hand, and to the astonishment of all those watching, used his momentum to flip the purple-haired boy over his shoulder, driving him into the concrete floor as hard as he possibly could, drawing further reactions from everyone.
And just as soon as Shinsos' body had gone completely flat, the air was suddenly pierced by a decisive bell, leaving everyones' hearts caught up in their throats, as Midnight swiftly swung her cat o' nine tails through the air in a decisive motion. "SHINSOS' OUT! MIDORIYA, YOU ADVANCE TO ROUND 2!"
The entire stadium was awash in cheers, the students of 1-A practically leaping with joy as they cheered like there was no tomorrow at Izukus' victory. Amid the throng, Mina was crying out her excitement to a degree that almost rivaled everyone else (with the exception of an equally ecstatic Ochako), and Nikolay was cheering and applauding with an unprecedented enthusiasm at seeing his friend emerge victorious when all genuinely seemed lost.
"YAH-HAH! BIT OF A NO-FRILLS BATTLE TO START THE TOURNAMENT OFF, BUT CLAP YOUR HANDS AND GIVE THESE TWO A ROUND OF APPLAUSE! YOU BOTH FOUGHT WELL, BOYS!"
As Shinso turned his back to take his leave, while Izuku simply remained watching over him, a particular number of voices from above the formers' tunnel began to overpower the rest of the cheers, bringing Shinso to a stop. It was hard to make out from this distance among everything else, but listening closely, Nikolay could distinctly make out their referring to Shinso as the Hero of the General Education Department, among other things. Watching through the continuously moving throngs of his classmates amid their cheers, he could have sworn he had seen Shinso actually begin trembling with what looked like raw emotion as those other students above continued to cheer for him.
By the end of it all, he looked to turn back to address Izuku, but once again, he couldn't hear a thing, much to his chagrin.
Once Shinso had finally taken his leave and Izuku descended from the arena, nearly all the other students began to rush for him to personally extend their own congratulations for his miracle win. Nikolay had to practically force himself through everyone else in order to make it to the boy of the hour, unable to resist his own curiosity. "Congratulations, Midoriya-san! You really had us all scared for a while!"
Despite his attempt at trying to ease the mood, he immediately saw the deeply contemplative look in Izukus' eyes, as though he were going through an entire reflection or introspective moment. Now the Russians' desire for an answer was nigh unbearable. "That Shinso kid…it looked like he was saying something to you after the fight. You don't have to tell me if it's too personal, but…what exactly did he say?"
Izuku didn't say anything at first, simply staring down at his two broken fingers, while miraculously not showing anywhere near as much pain as anyone else would have. Finally, clenching his unwounded hand with an especial intensity, the boy lifted his eyes to the sky. "Shinso-san…everybody at this school…no matter what their Quirks are, how they appear on the surface or how they may initially be judged in terms of usefulness…despite all of those factors decided on by our society, he and everyone else is still aiming to make it into the Department of Heroics, because they all want to be Heroes, just like us. It's kind of sad how easy we can forget that.
"He wants to become a Hero…and even if he may not have said it as such, I think he sees me as a benchmark to surpass in order to get there, just like Todoroki-san. But no matter what, I want to become a Hero, too, and if serving as his benchmark to strive towards, and facing any challenge he and anyone else may come to me with, is what I have to do in order to reach that goal, and in turn help them reach further towards their own…then I will, without question, and without fail."
With that reaffirmed declaration made, Izuku continued the rest of the way into the tunnel, leaving Nikolay and the rest of the participating students visibly shaken by the utter dedication the boy was radiant with.
Nikolay could feel a fire in his chest as he let Izukus' words sink in. In a way, he felt deeply ashamed. He was right; it was so easy for him and everyone else to willingly forget that, at the end of the day, none of their opponents here were bad people. They were all striving towards the same noble goal, taking the advantages or shortcomings they had been granted at birth, and trying to find ways to make them work to their advantage, simply because they wanted to reach that pinnacle of Heroism, to prove that they had what it took to stand tall and proud, and be able to use their lives to do good for the world.
Everyone that was here had essentially promised themselves to push beyond their limits in order to become the Heroes they envisioned themselves to be, that they wanted to be, and he once again had to remind himself that he was no different. He had started out that way, but not anymore. Being a Hero meant inspiring others, just as much as it meant helping or saving others, and if that inspiration meant facing the challenges of his peers in order to help themselves reach their utmost potential, then he had an inherent responsibility to meet those challenges head on, just like everybody else around him.
Standing there outside that tunnel, completely deaf to the continuous applause, Nikolay Bezpalov felt his continuously simmering desire to finally accept his potential future and desire to become a Hero, re-ignite with greater determination than ever before to get there with every ounce of himself he had to give, even in order to help those that today would stand against him get further to that pinnacle as well.
A good number of his fellow 1-A classmates could just see this newly strengthened resolve reflected in the otherwise delicate-looking Russian boys' green eyes, as he turned his head to look resolutely up at the arena, knowing that before long, the first step towards his and everyone elses' futures would be decided upon it.
Inside Recovery Girls' office, Tunguska and Toshinori had been right on Izukus' trail, both visibly eager to both express their congratulations for the boy managing to secure a miracle win, but also eager to see what they could learn from the boy as to exactly how he had managed in the first place.
"I'm sorry, All Might. There was no way…I could put on a smile, like you said I should," the boy had immediately apologized, while Recovery Girl had planted her healing kiss on his busted fingers. "Well, that fight must have been painful for you, given Shinsos' cries of plight." Toshinori tried to soften the overall pain of the experience, albeit poorly. "Indeed, I can't imagine how it could have been otherwise. But the important thing, is that even despite the pain, you still managed to pull through in the end, malenkii Midoriya. Miraculous saves are veritably part-and-parcel of the Hero life."
Despite his two mentors' respective attempts to try and brighten his spirits, unfortunately, Izuku didn't look any more relieved, and no less reflective on just what it was he had experienced and witnessed out there. "Well, of course, I couldn't just buckle under and let him win, no matter how much pain I was in. So this is…what it means to aim for the top…right?"
Neither of the Veteran Heroes could bring themselves to tell Izuku otherwise. He deserved nothing but the truth. Being a Top Hero was a life of glory and adventure, but it of course came with seemingly never-ending conflict as well. It wasn't something many Pro Heroes liked to talk about, but it was still a difficult and unavoidable truth, and they both knew that the sooner their disciple realize it, the better off he would be for it.
"Oh, All Might, I…I must have hallucinated something earlier," Izuku suddenly exclaimed in quick remembrance, earning both his teachers' attention. "There were eight figures…maybe nine…I'm not exactly sure how many, but…when I got that fuzzy feeling in my head from Shinso-sans' Brainwash, they appeared as though riding on that illusion…and then my fingers managed to move somehow, all of a sudden.
"One among them had your hairstyle. Could it have been the will of the people who wove this power before me?" To Izuku and Tunguskas' shared surprise, Toshinori looked just as clueless as the boy himself, even visibly flinching at his vivid description. "What the? Sounds scary!" "EH?! I THOUGHT YOU'D KNOW ABOUT IT!" Izukus' exclamation of disbelief was likewise echoed by the towering Russian Hero at Toshinoris' side, his blue eyes wide with utter shock. "How is that even possible that he knows something about your own Quirk that you don't?! What kind of mentor doesn't know every single in and out of his own power before he passes it on to someone else?!"
Toshinori visibly shrunk in the wake of Tunguskas' booming voice, but was just as quick to recollect himself as he had a now very thoughtful look to his sunken face. "Actually, thinking back on it, yes, in my younger days I did see something like that. It might even serve as a good way to tell you've gotten a grip on One For All. Consider it a milestone of sorts."
"Toshinori-san, do you have any idea what something like this means?" Tunguska immediately asked, not out of excitement, but simply because this was yet another potential aspect of Quirks he hadn't thought possible before. Crossing his arms in contemplation, Toshinori went with the only answer that seemed to make any sense in his mind: "I'm not entirely certain, but I may have a theory. I think it could be possible that the figures you saw, Midoriya-shonen, are just the imprints of those who used One For All before you. It's not the sort of thing where they would have the 'will' with which they could intervene on your behalf. In other words, it's not the illusion you saw that broke the brainwashing. Rather, it was your own unbending willpower that caused that vision to appear, and broke Shinsos' brainwash. Even if just for a split second, even if it was just your fingertips! Isn't it easier to conclude that you simply overcame it on your own?"
To his disappointment, though, Izuku instead looked away with an embarrassed scratching of the back of his head, afraid to make eye contact as he mumbled: "Honestly, I can't say I'm totally satisfied with that explanation, but—"Too right, neither am I! Toshinori-san, we could be looking at an unexplored aspect of your Quirk, it stands to reason we should try to examine and understand it to its fullest. Something like this is downright unprecedented!"
Tunguskas' enthusiasm came on far stronger than the larger man had intended, but he wasn't about to risk letting his passion for learning about this be misconstrued. All the same, Toshinori remained unconvinced. "Honestly, don't dwell on it, you two! Midoriya-shonen, do you really want to just stew on what's going through your head right now, and risk missing out on this chance to observe your next opponent?!"
Izukus' more reserved demeanor immediately twitched in realization at his mentors' words, and with a quick and awkward expression of thanks, was quickly out the door to the office, once again leaving Toshinori, Tunguska and Recovery Girl alone.
"He said he saw nine people at that moment, All Might. You know that means he saw you in there, as well." Recovery Girl finally broke the silence, finally acknowledging that which made the air between them the heaviest. Knowing this as well as she did, Toshinori solemnly bowed his head in resignation. "Yes…but in the end, that's a good thing."
"I just can't stop thinking about it. It's nothing short of truly fascinating. Even more so if your theory proves only to be partially correct, Toshinori-san." The lanky man immediately lifted his head to meet Tunguskas' surprisingly enthusiastic gaze, as the larger mans' brain was visibly firing on all cylinders. "I mean, just try to follow me here for a second. If One For All was indeed activated solely by malenkii Midoriyas' willpower, that's impressive enough on its own.
"However, if it were to turn out that it was a combination of his willpower, and the remotely activated residual willpowers of all those that wielded One For All beforehand, we could be looking at a Quirk with the potential for limitless evolution and growth! Just the fact that a Quirk is capable of being passed down from one to another outside of genetic relation is still mind-blowing to me, but if it were possible to also be gradually strengthened and grown with every single generation it's passed on to…that boy may be wielding a well-and-true game changer in the world of Heroes."
Both Toshinori and Recovery Girl observed their peers' almost boyish enthusiasm with reservation, but the scrawny blonde man was clearly thinking about it all, as he brought a contemplative hand to his chin. "You're certainly not wrong in that regard, Tunguska-san. It's especially surprising to me that Midoriya-shonen is experiencing an aspect of One For All I was not well aware of. I had been confident at this point that I knew my own Quirks' properties inside and out. It's definitely given me a lot to think about. However, at this precise moment, Midoriya-shonen simply needs to focus on mastering One For All using only his own power, rather than risk weighing him down with curiosity as to just how much of it is being powered by himself, or the imprints of those that wielded it before."
Elsewhere within the bowels of the stadium, just waiting for the announcement of the next fight, Shoto Todoroki had taken to pacing through the halls, working out numerous potential strategies for his upcoming fight against Hanta Sero. In comparison to some of the other students he would potentially be facing, he already felt this one would be simple enough.
However, that constant strategizing and ruminating was swiftly gone from his head when he rounded the next corner for the arena, only to find a very familiar, very unwelcome sight blocking his way; a sight of muscle and fire. "Out of my way."
Standing against the wall, clearly having been kept waiting for some time, the Flame Hero Endeavor stood domineeringly against his son, making no attempt to hide the clear distaste on his fiery face. "Your behavior has been nothing but disgraceful, Shoto. If you had used the power at your left side, you could have crushed both the Obstacle Race and the Cavalry Battle easily."
Even as his own father spoke down to him with all the sternness a father could express, Shoto continued on his way, refusing Endeavor even the common courtesy of eye contact.
"This resistance of yours is childish and tiresome. Stop wasting your time putting so much of your focus on two measly disciples, one of whom isn't even connected to anything more than a washed up imitation! Stop wasting your talents, and see to your duty to surpass All Might."
At that moment, Shoto finally froze in his tracks, but he still refused to even look at his father, lest he see just how easily his words were getting under his skin. "Has it gotten through that thick, stubborn skull of yours yet?! You're different from your siblings, Shoto! You are my great MASTERPIECE!" Finally, clenching his fists and teeth alike, Shoto finally found the wherewithal to speak, every word dripping with nothing but venomous contempt for the so-called Hero behind his back.
"Honestly…is that all you will ever spew out of your goddamn mouth? I've seen what Tunguska-sensei can do, even in his age; and I've seen what Bezpalov has already pushed himself to be able to do, and as a result, what he has the potential to do. Seriously, it's not enough that you're so blinded by your own grudge that you can't even recognize, as I do, that All Might and Midoriya are no longer the only Number One Hero and disciple for me to surpass; you have to be so damn repetitive, to boot. I will earn my victories using only moms' power. And I will never, ever use your power in any battle."
He continued on his way down the hall, but to his unspoken chagrin, he knew, he could just feel, that his defiance was once again rolling right off of his fathers' stubborn and toughened hide. "If you keep placing such pedestals on fake Heroes and their pathetic offspring, you'll never get strong enough to surpass All Might. This little defiant tactic of yours…it may work for you now in high school, but mark my words, Shoto…you'll reach the limit soon enough."
With that, Endeavor finally took his leave, abandoning his son to be alone with his thoughts. Thoughts that, in that moment, were consumed with feelings of barely restrained rage and frustration that would have no doubt stricken even a twinge of fear into the Flame Heroes' blackened husk of a heart.
"SORRY TO KEEP YOU WAITING, FOLKS! NEXT UP, IT'S…THESE TWO! HE'S TURNED IN AN EXCELLENT PERFORMANCE TO MAKE IT THIS FAR, AND YET, WHAT'S WITH THAT PLAIN JANE EXPRESSION?! DOES IT EVER COME OFF?! SERO HANTA OF THE HEROICS DEPARTMENT!
"VERSUS!
"YOU WHO STAND AT THE TOP OF THE TOP! HE IS WAY TOO DAMN STRONG! FROM THE SELFSAME DEPARTMENT OF HEROICS, TODOROKI SHOTO!"
The crowds were once again fired up, participants included; as they watched Shoto and Hanta step up onto the arena. From among them, Nikolay was watching Shoto with the most intent, hands cupped together, as he was watching for even the most minute of movements to indicate what he would do first.
"Wow, you're really getting into this fast, aren't you, Kolya-kun? You look so intense." Mina teased from the seat next to his, but for once, the Russian wasn't listening. Ever since his and Izukus' declaration back at Shoto, he hadn't been able to stop thinking about it all, everything Shoto had told them, and just why it was he was determined to beat them both, even though Nikolay could not rightly understand why Shoto placed him in the same category as someone like Izuku. Regardless, there was so much riding on this day outside of himself, and he had come to appreciate that fact more with each passing minute.
Thus, if he was going to have any chance of reaching his goal and repaying everyone for their constant support, then he needed to observe everything he could from Shoto in these fights, on top of everyone else.
STAAART!"
After taking the first moment to stretch his neck out, Hanta was surprisingly the one to make the first move, launching twin lines of tape from his elbows, and effectively wrangling Shoto where he stood, lifting him off the ground like a fly in a spiders' web.
"A LIGHTNING QUICK SURPRISE ASSAULT AIMING FOR A RING-OUT! ALMOST WITHOUT A DOUBT THE BEST CHOICE HE COULD HAVE MADE! EARNESTLY GIVE IT YOUR ALL, SERO!"
Despite everybody elses' cheers, Nikolay was watching the proceeding events with noted trepidation. There was no way it could end this easily, no way possible. Shoto would never let his run for the top end like this. Even if he was unaware of it, he and Izuku were essentially thinking the same thing, watching this.
In the blink of an eye, the stadium was enveloped in an inhumanly fast cold front, and like the press of a button, a colossal blizzard-force wind suddenly shot out from Shoto, even in his bound state, with Hanta standing square in its trajectory and disappearing in its haze, just as a massive column of ice quickly took the blizzards' place, drawing shocked exclamations from the entire audience, especially those like Nikolay, Mina and Izuku, who had been seated right in the columns' path. By the time it was over, they were all left trembling in their seats, staring at a colossal spire of jagged ice protruding so high that it even dwarfed the entire stadium. It had been such a close call, they could even see their own reflections in the ice itself.
It was such an unbelievable and shocking display, there wasn't even a single muttering from among the crowd, even those that had been lucky enough to avoid being in Shotos' attack path. The silence was honestly rather foreboding, before Midnight was finally the one to speak up, nearly half her own body caked in ice: "Sero…can you move?"
Nobody could hear the tape boys' answer, mainly because many were too preoccupied with their own shivering, being so close to a monolith of pure ice. But soon enough, the shock and awe was once again replaced with the same familiar cheering as Midnight soon made the official announcement: "SERO HANTA IS UNABLE TO MOVE! TODOROKI, YOU ADVANCE TO ROUND 2!"
Amid the cacophonous cheers, the ice spire soon began to melt, and once everyone sitting underneath its shadow had thought to move to avoid getting drenched in arctic-temperature waters, Nikolay took the chance to look back down into the arena, to see Shoto was actually using the fire of his left side to thaw Hanta out.
"Huh, that's weird." Mina suddenly said, breaking Nikolay out of his momentary staring. "What is?" "Well, Todoroki-kun just won, you'd think he'd at least look a little excited, or maybe proud at the very least. But from here, he actually looks…sad." Nikolay instinctively returned his gaze to see what she meant, and sure enough, looking closely, even through the steam of melting ice, he could clearly make out a look of what almost resembled defeat on Shotos' face. She was right, this image of him melting what he himself had created, had an inherently sad air to it, only punctuated by Shotos' expression, itself.
Of course, whereas Mina and the other students could only see this display and be left confused, Nikolay and Izuku felt a much heavier weight of understanding, themselves, now knowing what they did about the boy before them.
Nikolay had heard such raw conviction in Shotos' decision to never use his fire, and yet to watch him use it now, and not even as a gut reaction as it was in the Cavalry Battle, carried an undeniable essence of defeat. The Russian boy couldn't even begin to imagine how painful that had to have felt, not just for Shoto, but also with anyone so affirmed in their decisions and beliefs, to have to break them like that for any reason.
In fact, simply thinking back on everything Shoto had opened up to them about his life, it inevitably brought Nikolay back to where he had once been, harboring such similar hate for his own father despite everything he had done to keep the boy alive and safe. For so long, his mind had been filled with nothing but fear and hate for the man, himself, his own Quirk, and Quirks in general.
With Shotos' declaration echoing in his mind, for only a moment, he had been able to picture himself back in those days, echoing the very same sentiment: to never use his Quirk for anything, as a disavowal of the Heroes he had let himself be taught to fear and hate.
Thinking back on it now, that whole period of his life felt like it was the life of an entirely different person from himself. Hell, for all intents and purposes, that's exactly what it was. Nikolay didn't want to believe he could still be that same person so intoxicated with fear and self-loathing anymore.
And yet, for how overpowering all those horrible feelings towards his own father had felt for so long, he had still somehow managed to find the strength inside to at least begin trying to repair their bond as father-and-son. Thinking on it now, Nikolay couldn't help but momentarily wonder if it would ever be remotely possible for someone like Shoto Todoroki to be able to make the same kind of turn-around with his own father, once he was able to reach his coveted position of Number One his own way.
Given what he now knew of the Flame Hero, however, a voice in the back of his head seriously doubted it.
"ALL RIGHT, NOW COMES THE THIRD MATCHUP OF THE FIRST ROUND! THE COMBINATION OF HER IMPRESSIVE STRATEGIC MIND ALONGSIDE THE SURPRISING VERSATILITY OF HER QUIRK NABBED HER AN HONORARY PLACE AT THE TOP OF THE SPORTS FESTIVAL, AND HAS HELPED SOLIDIFY HER AS A STANDOUT OF HER CLASS! DEPARTMENT OF HEROICS CLASS B, TOKAGE SETSUNA!
"VERSUS!
"AN ENIGMA OF A STUDENT WHOSE IMPRESSIVE INTELLIGENCE, SKILL AND MASTERY OF HER QUIRK MANAGED TO NAB HER NOT ONLY A PLACE IN THE TOP FOUR OF TODAYS' OBSTACLE RACE AMONG 42 OTHERS, BUT ALSO FOURTH PLACE IN THE ENTRANCE EXAMS, ABOVE THOUSANDS MORE! SELFSAME DEPARTMENT AND CLASS, SHIOZAKI IBARA!"
The third round had managed to get itself put together much faster than most had expected once the last of the ice had managed to get melted down. Now everyone was watching as the two girls who were now essentially the representatives of all 1-B, approached the arena. Among the observing students, Nikolay and Mina were finding themselves watching with especially rapt attention.
Setsuna was easy to recognize, but this new girl, Ibara Shiozaki, was just as eye catching, having a head of long, saturated green hair…or, perhaps hair was inaccurate, as it more resembled thick strands of thorny vines, with two even crossing over her forehead in a formation resembling the stigmata.
"You two aren't worried, are you?" Rikido suddenly asked from the next row over, spurring Nikolay and Mina out of their focus, to realize he, Denki and Mezo were now watching them intently. "About fighting her later if she wins, he means. I mean, considering you were just on the same team with her, you've gotta be feeling some kind of sentimental, right?" Denki chimed in further.
"Yeah, and considering you both have some idea what her Quirk is, and just how strong it can be, you've gotta be feeling at least a little nervous. Of course, if it were Todoroki facing her in any case, he'd have that taken care of no problem." Mezo likewise added, while Nikolay and Mina were both visibly trying to think how best to answer all these questions.
"Well, being teammates aside, Setsuna-chan is really nice, regardless, so of course we're rooting for her to win as her friends." Mina started off with her same pleasant smile at the thought, which Nikolay soon reflected as well. "Yeah, but at the same time, there is also how versatile her Quirk is, and just how good she is at using it, to consider as well. So in that case, I guess you could say there's also a good reason for us to feel nervous, no matter which of us would end up fighting her."
At that, they and the rest of their classmates returned to watching the two competitors enter the arena and stand off, but their eyes were set on Shiozaki, specifically in the next few moments of silence. "Of course, the possibility of facing off against that girl, Shiozaki, whose Quirk we don't even know, is something else entirely." At this, Mina began eagerly nodding in both excitement and anxiousness. "Yeah, and Setsuna-chan made her sound like she's really tough. I mean, people who are good at strategy don't just rush headlong into a fight to try and end it quick if the person they're fighting isn't really strong, right?"
"STAAART!"
And just like that, everything went off in a flash. Setsuna immediately kicked off in a charge for Shiozaki, who turned her back on her opponent of all things, hands clasped together as though she were praying. Setsuna suddenly detached both her arms and legs, alongside several chunks of her own torso, and sent them all flying in a wide circular arc across the arena for Ibaras' back, and both her sides, like a massive pincer maneuver, while the rest of her main body remained levitating in midair.
However, just when it seemed like all those pieces of her were about to converge, Shiozakis' vine hair suddenly extended out to meet them in numerous ever-growing strands, either deflecting the pieces off their track, or ensnaring them and thus, immobilizing them. However, a few pieces of Setsuna managed to get through her vines' counterattack and managed to either make direct impact with Shiozakis' midsection, or graze her face.
As soon as they had made their respective passes, and it looked as though her opponent had been sufficiently stunned, Setsunas' torso immediately began to fly for Shiozaki; her detached limbs flying in tandem to reattach to her mid-flight. Once they were back in place, she immediately met the ground running, only taking a few strides before just as quickly kicking herself off the ground and detaching her legs and one of her arms again, sending them flying around both sides, while the rest of her flew over Shiozakis' head in a bizarre flip-like maneuver, guided by her one still-attached hand.
However, at that last moment before contact, multiple vines suddenly burst from under the arena, snatching both of Setsunas' legs in the air and immobilizing them. In a miraculous turn, Setsuna spun herself in her descent to reconnect with her one projectile arm, just in time to meet Shiozaki with another punch from her returned arm, with all the needed additional momentum flying behind it.
However, even as her fist managed to make direct contact with Shiozakis' face, the vine girl didn't go down. All this had managed to do was make her bring her folded hands apart in order to go on the defensive, with her vine hair seeming to have rooted itself to the ground to keep her as stationary as could be, with her whole body actually managing to be lifted off the ground by them.
For the next several seconds, the fight had devolved to a continuous trading of blows, as Setsuna kept recalling one piece of herself after another from the immobilizing hold the vines had on them, before just as quickly detaching more pieces and sending them like projectiles for Shiozaki herself. Most of the time she sent more and more vines to knock them off course or tangle them up altogether, but there were a few times a lucky piece managed to get through her increasingly dense protection net of vines, and hit her in the midsection with considerable force.
This continuous game of trying to force Shiozaki back carried on, with numerous reactions eliciting from the crowd as either Setsuna managed to hit Shiozaki with a piece of herself, or Shiozaki managed to either entangle another object, or even manage a lucky blow on Setsuna herself.
However, what many, including Nikolay and Mina, had failed to notice in the midst of the fray, was that as Shiozaki kept moving herself further and further back as Setsuna pressed on her assault, more and more of her longest vines were embedding themselves deeper and deeper into the ground.
Finally, it all came to a head, as just when Setsuna threw herself for another powerful punch for Shiozakis' face, several dozen towering masses of vines suddenly erupted from out of the ground all around them in a perfect circle. Neither Setsuna nor anyone else had any time to react, before the vines suddenly coalesced around the two girls, forming a gigantic sphere of vines and thorns, having swallowed nearly the entire arena around them like a subterranean Venus flytrap.
"UNBELIEVABLE! WHILE KEEPING TOKAGE PREOCCUPIED WITH MAINTAINING HER MULTI-DIRECTIONAL ASSAULT, SHIOZAKI ACTUALLY WAS PUTTING TOGETHER A MASSIVE ENVIRONMENTAL SNEAK ATTACK! TRULY THE KIND OF FAR-PLANNING STRATEGIZING MIND NECESSARY FOR A STUDENT WHO SCORED SO HIGH IN THE ENTRANCE EXAMS!"
As soon as Present Mics' commentary had stopped, a small partition began to open from the vine sphere, before Shiozaki slowly exited out, hands once more folded, before slowly being lowered back onto the ground by her hair. As soon as she made touchdown, the sphere itself began to constrict, shrinking down more and more, before finally having reduced to the size of a regular person, with Setsunas' head protruding from the top of the mass, and several other detached vine bundles lay across the stadium, clearly holding her pieces inside so she couldn't attack any further.
"Tokage, can you move?" Midnight finally asked once the spectacle had finished, and she could see where the fight now stood. Gritting her sharp teeth in frustration as she tried in vain to wriggle about, Setsuna finally let out a defeated sigh as she hung her head low. "No…no, Sensei, I can't."
"TOKAGE SETSUNA IS UNABLE TO MOVE! SHIOZAKI, YOU ADVANCE TO ROUND 2!"
The crowd around them erupted into clamorous cheers of excitement, as Shiozaki departed from the arena, still keeping her praying hands folded the entire way. All the while, the students watching had all been virtually left speechless. Nikolay and Mina, in particular, felt a foreboding chill for a moment, having just watched this spectacle unfold. From the way she moved and the aggression she showed, Setsuna was clearly approaching this battle with far more intensity than she ever had during the Cavalry Battle, as intense as that in itself was. And yet, despite all that, it had proven completely fruitless against this mysterious vine girl.
As she watched the vines below slowly unravel and release Setsuna from her imprisonment, Mina caught a visible trembling out of the Russian beside her, accompanied by an especially intimidated glimmer in his green eyes. Of course, she didn't even need to ask why. If Nikolay was lucky enough to win his upcoming fight against Tenya, then Shiozaki was inevitably going to be his next opponent.
Of course, even knowing that as well as he did, Mina wasn't about to let that discourage him, as she gave him another attention-grabbing friendly tug on his sleeve, thankfully snapping him out of his own head.
"Hey, try not to worry, okay? I know it looks crazy intense down there, but this isn't like that whole mess at USJ, remember? Nobody's down there fighting to kill each other; that's gotta be reassuring for you in its own way, right? Besides, you've been doing so incredibly today; I bet you'll be able to come up with a surprise of your own at the last second. You're really smart like that, you know?"
Even as the pink girl before him reached up to brush a pesky lock of his brown hair from out of his face with that same heartwarming and supportive smile, Nikolay couldn't completely do away with his own nervousness, now knowing just what lay in store for him if he somehow managed to pull through against their Class President.
And as much as she didn't want to admit it to him, and even less, herself; Mina couldn't fully put aside her own feeling of anxiety for them both, either. Everybody here really was giving it their all, and one way or another, all their skills were going to be put to the test again and again if they were going to make it to the top of the Festival.
"I should probably be getting ready, huh?" Nikolay finally spoke up rhetorically as he got up from his seat to head for the waiting room. However, just as he did, he immediately noticed Ochako exiting for the same tunnel, an especially intense urgency to her movements he hadn't been expecting. Looking back to where she had come from, he also noticed Izuku was busily scribbling down in his notebook, continuously switching his gaze between it and the arena. Clearly, he had been already busying himself with notes on everyones' Quirks, just preparing himself for whoever he could possibly find himself fighting today and for the future.
That's what Nikolay would have been doing in his position, at least.
However, considering what he had just witnessed, he was quick to once again remember just how much was truly riding on everyones' shoulders, especially Ochakos'. That girl had absolutely everything depending on how she did today, and remembering that her first fight was going to be against Bakugo of all people, the Russian boy felt a twisting of understanding and sympathy alike in his gut. She clearly needed as much time as she could afford to try and psyche herself up for it, surely.
The minutes leading up to the next fight, his fight, felt like they were passing at a snails' pace, which was only serving to rack up Nikolays' anxiety something awful. He had taken to pacing up and down the halls around the waiting room, figuring Ochako wanted the privacy to keep preparing herself for her fight. If anything, at least the constant movement was keeping him from risking falling into a panic attack.
To borrow some of the videogame terminology he often heard Denki throw around in casual conversation, he felt like he was graduating from training, straight into fighting someone of final boss-levels of skill and difficulty. He had been dedicating every moment of his free time for two entire weeks towards preparing for the Festival, but that still paled in comparison to Tenya Iida, who had to have been training in perfecting the use of his Quirk for years. The Class President was pretty much the paragon of preparation and dedication to his craft, and to think that this was who his first fight was going to against, almost felt unfair on a cosmic level.
[[Kolya.]] The echoing voice of Tunguska stopped Nikolay in his tracks, turning back to find his father standing around the corner, watching his son intently. [[I was hoping I would be able to find you before your fight starts. Is there anything on your mind that's got you looking so anxious?]] The Russian Hero nearly wanted to slap himself for asking something so obvious, but he had to lead in with something, anything, to try and help ease his sons' nerves. Nikolay bowed his head in retrospective thought.
[[Yeah. I've just been thinking about this fight, trying to convince myself not to be so scared. It's just hard, knowing the sheer difference between Iida-san and I. I'm honestly trying to tell myself not to be surprised if I lose right out the gate.]] He was too embarrassed from admitting so to look in Tunguskas' blue eyes, so instead the Hero approached and knelt to his sons' level, looking at the boy with as much understanding as a father could give. [[Kolya, we've talked about this before: you have been pushing yourself so hard for the last few weeks, and your skills have already shown so much improvement, as well as your grasp of the fighting lessons I've been giving you. I know it's scary when you're walking into a fight, but when you get caught up in the experience itself, I think you'll find all your senses heighten to a new degree, just like they did for you at USJ. Don't be so quick to discredit yourself, son. I know in my heart that you'll do the very best you can out there, and no matter what happens as a result, I'll still be just as proud of you.]]
Nikolay took each word for their worth, nodding his head in nervous acceptance of just what Tunguska was trying to impart on him in these final minutes before he would officially have to throw down. Still catching a hint of apprehension in those green eyes, Tunguska remained as steadfast as the guardian he essentially was. [[Is there anything else troubling you, Kolya?]]
This was the part Nikolay had truly been trying to figure out how to communicate, just what it was that was happening here beyond his own personal sphere that still weighed so heavy on his heart. [[I've been constantly trying to remind myself of this all day, Dad. I know that this is supposed to be the day where we have to go out there and prove ourselves to the Pro Hero world, but this whole setup still isn't sitting right with me, at least not 100%. At first, I was scared because I didn't want to go out there and risk hurting anyone. They're my classmates, my friends; I don't want to hurt them. But I also know that every single student here is working towards the exact same goal, even if they may be for different reasons. And standing here now, knowing just what's riding on everyones' shoulders, I can't help but feel like I would be stomping on their dreams, ruining their chances, just for the sake of furthering my own position in front of them. I don't know how to reconcile with something like that.]]
It was true, knowing now just how similar his goals and driving motivators were to Izukus'; just who it was that was depending on Ochako to make it to the top; the sense of deep familial pride that drove Tenya, and Shoto wanting to achieve his own success as payback for all the abuse he and his family had suffered. How could someone like Nikolay Bezpalov make peace with the idea of crushing any one of those dreams and ambitions, even in an air of what was supposed to ultimately be friendly competition?
He almost felt embarrassed, admitting such a crippling notion of sentimentality in the one scenario it was uncalled for. However, to the contrary, Tunguska simply looked upon his son with compassion, an understanding glow in his blue eyes, expressing so, first and foremost, with a warm and supportive hand atop his head, almost instinctively mussing his hair.
[[Kolya…that very same sense of compassion you think is handicapping you for this, is actually one of the most fundamental building blocks of any truly worthwhile Hero. I see it in you and your classmates, in the way you all bounce off of each other, the way you all work together and talk to each other, whether in training or even just in a casual moment. You all have it in you, and no matter what you might think; it makes you stronger than you can ever truly comprehend.
[[You do make a good point, though. It is very difficult, nigh impossible, to ever be able to truly separate what's in your own best interest from what's in everyone elses', and you may not ever fully have the answer as to which is right, especially in a scenario like this Festival. However, you should not, you must not, go through your life worrying whether every choice you make will risk alienating yourself from those around you, and neither should you go through life thinking you can do no wrong. One is the road to cowardice, just as the other is the road to arrogance. I know it's not the concrete answer you were probably hoping for, but all I can tell you right now, son, is that as far as the rest of the Festival is concerned, you need to go with what in your heart, not in your head, you think is the best course of action in the heat of this moment. In the field of actual Heroics, is when you must be able to balance thinking with your heart and your head.]]
Nikolay, while unable to say so, couldn't have been more grateful for an outside perspective in that moment, swallowing the brunt of his anxieties to the point his body was physically trembling with it, before finally stilling himself and clutching his fists in resolve. It was true, all of it was; he couldn't afford to bog himself down with worrying about resentments, that was what Mina had been constantly trying to remind him of every chance she got: this wasn't do-or-die, this was simply about doing the best you could, and accepting whatever the results were after. If anyone was going to hold what would happen against him when all was said and done, that would be on their shoulders, not his. Those kids out there were his comrades and friends, and if there was any semblance of order in their world, then something like a loss at a Sports Festival wouldn't destroy that.
[[Tell me, Kolya: is there anyone in particular you're thinking of when you have these worries?]] Tunguska finally asked, regaining his sons' attention while Nikolay couldn't help but chuckle in embarrassment at just how easily he was letting himself disconnect from reality with his own train of thought. The boy began to open his mouth to give as honest an answer as he could when, "ALRIGHT, LADIES AND GERMS, GET YOURSELVES SEATED AND READY, AND PREPARE TO COME FLYING RIGHT BACK UP FROM THEM, CAUSE OUR FOURTH MATCH OF THE DAY IS ABOUT TO BEGIN!"
Nikolays' whole body instinctively flinched at Present Mics' echo, as he realized it was finally time to begin. Tunguska just as eagerly motioned for his son to go, unable to hide the deeply proud smile on his bearded face as he watched Nikolays' once timid posture grow tall and firm as he went down the hall, before ultimately disappearing from sight, leaving his father alone in the hall, with nothing but the echoed cheers to be heard.
What Tunguska never noticed, however, was that just behind another corner behind him, Shoto Todoroki had stood alone, silent as the grave, listening to the Slavic father-and-sons' heart-to-heart. His eyes were glued to the wall, arms crossed over his chest, as he took in everything the two had said to each other. He didn't understand a word of it, but in a strange way, he didn't actually need to. All he needed to see was just the body language between them, the soft inflections in the way they spoke to one another. It carried an air of such understanding between them that he knew he and Endeavor could never even remotely hope to have, nor would the boy himself ever want it.
All the same, though, having taken in their interaction, Shoto could not so easily erase it from his head, simply digesting the feeling and weight behind it all. Once he could hear Tunguskas' heavy footsteps beginning to depart, he quickly followed suit, anticipating the fight to come.
"ALL RIGHT, HERE COME THE NEXT MATCHUPS! SPRINT TO THE TOP! IT'S TIME FOR OUR FOURTH MATCH! HE'S COMING ACROSS LIKE A CENTER FIELDER?! IT'S IIDA TENYA OF THE HEROICS DEPARTMENT, CLASS A!
"VERSUS!
"HE'S THE SON OF A HEROICS LEGEND IN HIS OWN RIGHT; THE BOY WHO, ALBEIT THROUGH NOBLE INTENTIONS, FUMBLED IN THE OBSTACLE RACE, ONLY TO LATER PULL A MIRACULOUS JUMP TO THE TOP! GIVE A BIG, SUPPORTIVE HAND TO OUR SURPRISE EXPORT STUDENT STRAIGHT FROM THE MOTHERLAND! SELFSAME DEPARTMENT AND CLASS, NIKOLAY BEZPALOV!"
Present Mics' commentary and the resultant cheers of the crowd all around him, were honestly falling upon deaf ears, as Nikolay stood awkwardly within the arena, staring at Tenya across from him, feeling so much smaller than all the cheering would have led anyone else to believe. All he could hear was the thundering beat of his heart, driven by age-old anxiety, and the ever-present flowing of adrenaline in his veins, as he clutched his hands into the tightest fists he possibly could. He could feel Tenyas' eyes boring into him even from this distance, focusing on him like a total killing machine.
Everyone watching, but especially the other students of 1-A, was all cheering like mad for their two classmates standing in that honored ring. Shouts of 'President', 'Emergency Exit', 'Comrade' and 'Bezpalov' were most commonly heard from their peers cheering from above the tunnels, but the voices of Mina and Eijirou rang out especially strong, cheering for Nikolay to give it his absolute best.
Once the cheering finally began to settle down, Tenya began to remove his glasses, before neatly tucking them into his pocket. All the while, Nikolay couldn't bring himself to move from his spot, his body just barely trembling in anxious expectation. When the Class President finally lifted his head to look the Russian in the eyes, there was actually a very confident smile on his usually rigid face.
"Before we begin, Bezpalov-san, I want you to know that I've been carefully observing how you've been handling yourself and your Quirk today. Speaking as your Class President, and as your friend, I wish to let you know that I am very proud of you, and I deeply respect just how far you've come since this year started, not only in your Quirk handling, but also in your overall attitude.
"However, even if I may not be able to see him right now, I know that my brother is watching, as is the entire Pro Hero world of Japan, and if I am to meet my families' standards as a Hero, then I hope you understand that it falls to me to bring absolutely everything I have to this fight. I can only express hope that there be no hard feelings between us once this is over."
Nikolay could feel every bit of sincerity in Tenyas' sentiment, and thus was able to let his own anxiety slip as he smiled likewise in return. "I do understand…and I hope you understand as well, Iida-san, that I can't afford to lose, either. There are too many people whose constant support I wish to repay in full for helping me get this far. So with that in mind, I'm bringing everything I have here as well."
With that, Nikolay could finally feel his body begin to loosen up, bending his knees and getting his arms and hands at the ready, never once taking his eyes off Tenya, who simply replied with a deeply moved smile upon his chiseled jaw, and a fire of deep-seeded respect burning in his intense eyes. "I would not ask for it to be any other way."
"STAAART!"
In that instant, Tenya kicked himself forward from the ground, closing the distance between himself and Nikolay in less than a second. However, Nikolay had his president spotted, immediately kicking his own end off by launching himself in that catapult arc right over Tenyas' head, right before impact could have been made.
However, Tenya was already adjusting his plans several steps ahead of time, as he immediately kicked backwards and up likewise, immediately following in Nikolays' trajectory at a greater speed. With his Engines roaring in third gear, Tenya immediately kicked his outward right leg forward, driving the sole of his foot square into Nikolays' lower back at full force.
Nikolay nearly felt his whole body go stiff as a board as incredible pain shot up and down his spine, killing his momentum, and sending him crumpling down to the concrete floor with equal force. His entire body was rife with aching pain as he tried to get back onto his feet, his head spinning from the pain.
His vision managed to clear itself up just as he saw Tenya touch back down to the ground. Focusing the reverb rippling through his body thanks to that kick, Nikolay immediately went on the offensive in turn, launching himself forward with both hands, ready to drive an accelerated single hands' worth into his opponents' face.
However, Tenyas' reaction time was impeccable, as he just as quickly shifted his Engines back into first gear, and launched himself forward to meet the Russian boy early, before immediately swinging his right leg around in a perfectly executed roundhouse kick, connecting with Nikolays' left side.
Nikolay felt his whole body nearly fold over in half at his left side as Tenyas' foot made another devastating impact. It felt like his whole stomach was on fire as he felt his momentum shatter, and his body get sent flying helplessly, rolling across the concrete floor like a rag doll, barely able to think at all through the pain, let alone think straight.
As he struggled back onto his knees and elbows; his eyes burning with pained tears, everything else around him sounded like he was hearing it from underwater. Honestly, a majority of the pain felt like it was all coalescing with every fiber of his body, as though he were actually submerged and becoming one with it. 'Maybe…maybe that's what internal bleeding feels like.'
However, the one sound he could unmistakably identify through the haze was the roar of Tenyas' engines rapidly approaching. However, Nikolays' reflexes had been muddied up so badly from the last two hits; he couldn't even think of how to react, before Tenya met his prone form with a single determined driving of his foot directly into the center of Nikolays' stomach.
The Russians' body was as listless as a plastic bag as it practically belly flopped up into the air from the hit, the newest wave of pain emanating from his gut so intensely, that the instant he face-planted into the ground again, Nikolays' muscle spasm-driven reaction was to instinctively vomit from the pain, as Tenyas' latest attack had driven every last ounce of air straight out of him, leaving him a writhing, twitching wreck.
"Forgive me, Bezpalov-san. I'm going to end this as quickly as I can." Tenyas' apology, however, was barely registering in Nikolays' chaotic brain right at that moment. It was honestly nothing short of a miracle that he hadn't already completely blacked out from the seemingly endless pain rippling through every fiber of his being.
However, amid that pain was something else he instinctively recognized: power. All those engine-enhanced kicks had sent waves of resultant kinetic energy from the impacts like Nikolay couldn't believe, even in his delirium. It almost felt like his body was full to bursting with it. If he could just get his senses back together, at least to the point of being able to fire off one burst, maybe it would be enough to get him back in the game.
The air was soon filled with the mechanical whirring of Tenyas' Engines, ready to fire off his special move from back in the Cavalry Battle. His eyes were focused on Nikolays' prone form like a hawk, as he could feel his power stores reaching maximum, ready to launch himself and end this in the blink of an eye.
Just as Tenya finally launched himself with the power of his Recipro Burst, however, Nikolay felt like time around him had slowed down; unable to decide if it was his own survival instincts taking over, or if his brain had somehow started hemorrhaging and was distorting his procession of time.
The only thing that was certain, however, was that as he could just feel the current of the air distorting as a result of Tenyas' enhanced approaching speed, he could feel just a portion of his collected vibration energy rushing down his arms and to his hands. And without even thinking about it, he could feel the resultant shockwave emanate out his palms, and his body simultaneously lift off from the ground, launching himself straight up out of Tenyas' path, as he dashed right through the space the Russian had just been lying helplessly.
However, Tenyas' perception was no less heightened, as he was already on the counter-offensive, kicking himself back and up, once again to deliver a final finishing kick on reflex. As Tenya flew through the air, preparing to drive his foot into Nikolays' mass for the fourth and final time, the Russian boy had his president spotted once more, and like he was watching his body simply react on its own while watching from the outside, he swiftly aimed both his hands to his other side, aiming away from Tenya himself.
'All I need to do…is just wait for the last moment…and…'
As Tenyas' aggressive form inched closer and closer, it was at the moment right before he was about to send his leg outward to make contact, that Nikolay felt the next surge of his kinetic energy shoot back down his arms into his hands.
BWOOOM!
With no wasted space to weaken his built up power, Nikolay resultantly launched his whole body mass at full force, shoulder-first into Tenyas' exposed stomach. The Class President felt the wind get knocked right out of him, as he and Nikolay both were propelled like a two-man human cannonball across the arena and into the concrete, both of them rolling and sprawling out on the ground.
Once both boys had come to a stop, they were both slow to get back on their feet, struggling to get air back into their lungs. Nikolays' head was still spinning and ringing something fierce from all the blows and the sheer noise of his shockwaves, while Tenya was trying to resist the gut reaction to heave from the sheer force he had just taken to his gut.
Soon enough, though, they were both back on their feet, to the applause of the audience, and even as they tried to re-orient themselves as the dizziness wore off, they were quickly able to spot each other, barely managing to stay on their feet. And in the midst of all that cheering, even through the waves of lingering pain they were both feeling, both Tenya and Nikolay instinctively smiled in deep respect of one another. "You forced me to waste my Recipro Burst. I won't be able to use it again for another ten seconds…more than enough time for this fight to be properly decided. Very well played, Bezpalov-san."
Nikolays' ears were still ringing, and his head was still slightly swimming, hence why he couldn't find words to meet Tenya with. Instead, he could only give his friend and opponent an accepting nod, before slowly bringing his open hands back up for his next move.
Still smiling with proud satisfaction, Tenya kicked himself forward before propelling himself up with another kick halfway through, using his momentum and gravity to deliver a descending drop kick straight down at Nikolay below. However, managing to miraculously follow his motions, and knowing he could not possibly change his trajectory in midair, Nikolay let gravity do its thing for himself, and fell to his knees, letting his bodies' motion and resultant lean back bring his open hands right back up in what would have been considered by many looking from the outside to be a gesture of surrender.
However, he and Tenya both instantly recognized what it really was; the latter especially realizing the mistake of his momentary recklessness.
BWOOOM!
The following shockwave from the Russian boys' hands sent a tremor through the air and all those watching, while Tenya took the full brunt of it head on, and was once more sent flying back, rolling and tumbling hard across the concrete, only barely managing to stop himself right on the border of the ring.
Nikolay, sensing he had managed to buy himself a few extra seconds, his head finally starting to clear up again despite the ringing in his ears, finally managed to get back onto his feet, watching as Tenya was already recovering as well.
The Class Presidents' normally focused eyes were clearly in a state of disorientation from taking the shockwave full blast into himself. His ears were ringing terribly, but he was somehow managing to physically force himself to deal with it while trying to get another bead on his Slavic opponent.
He knew Nikolay wasn't going to be brazen enough to try charging at him on his own. His strategy was clearly molded on acting on the reactionary defensive. He needed Tenya to come to him in order for his Quirk to have maximum utility in their fight. Knowing this, Tenya realized what he was going to have to do, and luckily for him, enough time had managed to pass. He could feel it.
Steadying his momentarily racing heart in order to regain his focus, while Nikolay simply stood in observation of whatever his next action was going to be, Tenya began to rush straight at him, mentally counting down the seconds before doing what needed to be done. The Russian boy watched with razor sharp intent as his opponent quickly closed the distance between them.
Nikolay mentally counted down the moments, already trying to will as much power as he could to his hands in order to fire on time. What he didn't realize, though, was that Tenya was simply watching as he ran, looking for that telltale vibration to go down his arms, signifying his moment of attack.
And for a fraction of a moment, there it was, descending from his shoulders down to his forearms. This fraction of a moment was his chance, and Tenya knew it. Focusing all his willpower to activating his Recipro Burst, he could feel the incredible power build in his Engines, and coalesce into a momentary overflow of adrenaline and strength.
In that one solitary moment, just as the crux of Nikolays' collected power put into this latest blast began to fire from his palms, Tenya activated his Recipro Burst, and instantly zipped right around the Russian boy, positioning himself right behind him, just as the resultant kickback of Nikolays' latest attack took affect, sending him flying backwards, momentarily helpless, right into Tenyas' waiting grasp.
Before Nikolay even realized what had happened, he felt Tenyas' powerful arms hook around his own, effectively seizing him and rendering him helpless. Without wasting a moment, Tenya put every last ounce of his weight into a backwards leap, pulling Nikolay right along with him off his feet, and driving the young Russian boy straight into the concrete with a beautifully performed German suplex, drawing exclamations of surprise and instinctive pain from the audience.
Nikolays' head may have been ringing before, but by now it felt like his entire body was made of clamoring bells, unable to focus or see or think straight worth a damn. His whole body had gone completely listless, to the point he couldn't even feel the pain from where his head had made impact. Nevertheless, this didn't stop Tenya from following through.
He knew he only had a few precious seconds of his Recipro Burst left, and one way or another, he was going to finish this fight in that time span. He hurriedly got back onto his feet, grabbed tight onto the collar of Nikolays' uniform, and immediately began dashing for the edge of the ring, intending to use his momentum to throw Nikolay out and end this fight at last.
Had Nikolay known just how fast Tenya was going in that moment, he would've looked upon what happened as a bona fide miracle. As he felt himself getting lifted up and carried along with the force of a hurricane wind, he could feel his previously dwindling energy stores come back almost instantaneously, and with it, the pure reflexive action that followed.
He didn't even stop to think, let alone formulate a plan. It was as though his very power was guiding him along, and he was simply following its command on instinct. Nevertheless, it made no difference as to what happened from the moment Tenya finally took off with the rest of his Recipro Burst.
At the last moment before they reached the rings' edge, Nikolay absentmindedly brought both his hands up in a clapping motion, and just as Tenya reeled the arm carrying Nikolay back for the deciding throw, the Russian boys' hands finally came together to where his palms were essentially cupping Tenyas' momentarily ignorant face, only just then beginning to realize the boy was still moving.
BWOOOM!
The sheer force of the blasts emanating from both his hands point blank into Tenyas' head disoriented the speedy young man so immensely, he almost flipped himself up and over from the instantaneous loss of coordination and direction. However, he still managed to follow through with his throw, only now he had ended up tossing Nikolay face first into the concrete going deeper into the ring, essentially saving his opponent from his intended ring-out.
Nikolay bounced and flopped across the ring, not even aware of the taste of blood spilling into his mouth with his lip and nose now very badly busted. As he finally came to a stop, sprawled out on the concrete like a discarded mannequin, Tenya was trying to not only stop his running, but also regain his sense of where he was, as his disorientation remained so severe that he was essentially dashing haphazardly across the ring.
Fortunately for him, his Recipro Burst finally ran its course just as the disorientation and god-awful ringing in his head had begun to fade, just enough to where he noticed he was just about to go sprinting right across the ring border. Tenya practically dug his heels into the ground, almost literally bringing himself to a screeching halt, just as he was right on the border, only barely still standing upon the balls of his feet, and trying to use his body weight and extended arms to regain his balance.
Behind him, Nikolay was still laid out flat, but he was still somehow managing to keep himself conscious, trying with all his remaining physical strength to lift himself up off the ground and back onto his still trembling feet. It was as though all the pain his body was going through was producing involuntary muscle spasms at this point.
However, despite how hard he tried to will himself to do so, Nikolay could not get his legs to move the way he wanted them to, only still managing to make them spasm out of sheer reflex. Finally, at the last moment before his arms gave out and he face planted into the concrete again, his swimming head ended up focusing the last smidgeons of kinetic energy he still had in him, right back down to his palms, and without even thinking of it, Nikolay inadvertently ended up firing them point blank into the ground below, producing the faintest rumbling shockwave across the arena.
A shockwave only just powerful enough to nudge Tenya Iidas' center of gravity that one millimeter forward required, to send the Class President tumbling head over heels across the border of the ring, earning a collective gasp from the entire crowd, followed by a few lingering moments of eerie silence.
Nobody could rightfully figure out what to call from this match. Technically, Nikolay had just come out the winner, since he had forced Tenya out of the ring. And yet, the Russian boy was still lying motionless, which in other circumstances would have had Tenya declared the winner. It almost felt impossible to make a decision.
Until Nikolay, in a momentary restoration of consciousness, began to move his arms again, and slowly, slowly begin pushing his upper body back up off the ground, struggling to pull his legs back in to try and stand up. But the fact that he was miraculously managing to move still, allowed the silence to be swiftly broken by another crack of Midnights' cat o' nine tails.
"IIDAS' OUT! BEZPALOV, YOU ADVANCE TO ROUND 2!"
Nikolays' continuously fading in and out of consciousness thankfully spared him the pounding headache of the absolutely insane amounts of applause that erupted from the referees' declaration of his victory. Collapsing back onto the ground, he could only momentarily think straight long enough to wish he could've at least heard his classmates cheers.
"Have the medical bots take Bezpalov-kun and Iida-kun to Recovery Girl. We need our winner in tip top shape in time for the next round." Midnight ordered, and in less than a minute, even in his delirium, Nikolay could feel his listless body being placed onto a stretcher, before being swiftly wheeled out of the arena and out of the glaring light of the sun.
It was still hard for him to properly gauge where he was at any given moment, constantly on the verge of completely blacking out, but at least his hearing had begun to return to normal, just in time to hear the increasingly approaching voices of several of his classmates come echoing down the halls, before he could start hearing them clear as day around his stretcher.
"Holy crap, Bezpalov-san, you're just full of surprises today, man! Good on you!" Rikido exclaimed, before just as quickly being replaced with the boisterous inflections of Aoyama, proclaiming: "Even as you improve, your finesse is severely lacking. However, a win is still a win in the end, non?"
"I can't believe he actually won against Emergency Exit! That was like a straight-up miracle!" Hanta Sero commented from behind everyone else, while Kyouka could likewise just barely be heard amid everyone else: "Sloppy execution or not, his control over his Quirk and reactions have certainly gotten a lot better. Good for him."
Everything else amid all their voices was still considerably fuzzy, but there was one thing he could perceive with absolute clarity, as a distinct pair of footsteps echoed louder than anything else, and Nikolay soon after managed to feel a very familiar warmth and softness envelope his right hand. "Oh, Kolya-kun, you did it! I knew you could, I just knew you could win! You were so awesome out there! I'm so, so proud of you!"
Even as loud as Minas' boundless excitement had made her voice, in Nikolays' addled head, it came through as clear as a bell, in that moment the single most pleasant sound he could have hoped to hear. "I promise, I promise you I'm gonna win my fight next! We're gonna go into the second round together, Kolya-kun! Cross my heart!" Mina proclaimed with all the eagerness and sincerity in the world, just before Nikolay finally felt her hands let go of his right. And yet, despite that, he could hear another pair of footsteps keeping up in tandem with him.
"Way to pull through and show everybody your potential, man! That was actually way manlier of a fight than I was honestly expecting from you two! Good on you, dude! Now you go and get yourself patched up and back to normal, you hear? You've earned it! I'll be seeing you in the second round, also! You're effectively the man of the minute, Kolya-san!"
Eijirous' eager voice echoed down the hall after him as they further approached the medical office, but his sentiments still came through loud and clear, and that on top of the congratulations and cheers of Mina and so many of his other classmates, elicited a deeply emotional smile onto Nikolays' face, finally able to let himself feel the sweet sensation of his own victory in his heart, before his muddled vision finally gave in, and he officially blacked out from the lingering swells of pain.
And there was the first half of the First Round chapter of the tournament. Expect to see the second half, hopefully, immediately after you finish reading this one. If you liked what you saw here, please be so kind as to share your thoughts, as long as they're constructive, in a review. See you all with the second half soon.