"That …" Ochako practically trembled in excitement, "… that was amazing, you guys! You were barely out there for two minutes before you won!"
"Yeah," Itsuka chuckled a bit sheepishly, glancing back down at her hand and raising her eyebrow slightly, "I, uh, didn't expect him to go down that easily. I just kinda …" She straightened her hand back out and brought it up and down through the air, "… chopped him to death? I guess?"
"I - I suppose so," Izuku smiled a bit weakly as both his training partner and Nejire entered the tunnel, the blue-haired girl hopping up and down briefly to get out all of her excitement, "still, uh - you both were great out there!"
Indeed, the fourth round of their sports festival had just concluded, and both Itsuka and Nejire couldn't help but be in high spirits, running back to the tunnel to greet Izuku and Ochako happily. For her part, Itsuka looked more alive than she had been all day long, beaming happily as she raised her hands to give her two best friends a big high five, while Nejire looked like she was three seconds from bouncing around the walls in glee as she raised both of her hands to Ochako for a high ten. To tell the truth, it was Itsuka's enthusiasm that infected their small group - she looked far more alive than she had been all day long, looking at both Izuku and Ochako with such obvious happiness it was making both of them blush slightly, although they could nothing else but beam right back.
Out in the ring, they could make out Monoma being wheeled into a tunnel by two robots to Recovery Girl's office, his butt still sticking out in the air. Mina, meanwhile, waved her hands around while still giving the audience a big, albeit slightly clenched smile as she ducked back down the tunnel and out of sight. Now that the first rounds had been concluded, the teachers were giving the audience a ten minute break before the next batch, to give everyone coming up a bit of time to recover from the fights and get ready for more. That, of course, and give the contestants a bit of breathing room so that they could organize their plans and get ready for the next two fights. It was so close to the end, and everyone was nervous to see who would be facing each other in the finals.
"Weren't we? Weren't we awesome?!" Nejire gushed, clenching her hands into fists and turning to grin happily at Itsuka. "I thought Itsuka was super awesome out there, too! Wailing on that air shield and then our cool thingy where she ducked under me and grabbed Ashido and threw her out of the ring! She was super cool, wasn't she?!"
"Er - y-yeah, she was," Izuku smiled awkwardly, turning to Itsuka, "uh - speaking of Ashido, is - is she okay?"
"Oh, yeah, she'll be fine," Itsuka confirmed, "she just burned her hands a little by accident. She's just going to zip over to Recovery Girl's office and maybe get them looked at before she goes back upstairs to the rest of the class."
"Right." He slowly nodded, looking away from the three of them and letting his shoulders sink a bit. Ochako, Itsuka and Nejire looked around at him as he raised a hand to brush his hair back. "That's … that's good."
"Deku?" Ochako blinked. "Are you okay?"
"Huh? Oh, uh, yeah, I'm - I'm fine, Occhan," He bit his lip slightly as his face fell, "it's just …"
There was a brief moment's pause, and then he fully slumped over.
"… I just … kinda realized that we have to go up against Kacchan now. That just - it just came to me."
The three girls collectively winced again as Izuku looked back up at them with a weak smile, and Ochako likewise felt her eyes widen.
"Oh," She said simply, "right. Shit. Forgot we - we had to do that."
"Yeah …" Izuku then turned to look down at his hands in obvious frustration, "… and I still have no idea what's going on with my quirk. N-not to mention that I - I probably made him angry when I told him to fuck off earlier, so we'll have to deal with -"
"Wait, what?" Itsuka interrupted him, feeling her jaw drop slightly as Ochako likewise spun around to look at him in shock. "You told Bakugou to - to fuck off? Seriously? When was this?"
"Yeah, he was … he was trying to stop me from getting to you guys earlier, so he could interrogate me about my quirk not working," Izuku shook his head, "and I was … a bit on the edge, so I just - it kinda slipped out. And now he's probably going to be angry at both of us once we get out into the arena."
He was staring down at his feet in shame, probably regretful of his loss of control, so he completely missed both Ochako and Itsuka staring at him in shock, and wonder. And … definitely something not so innocent, Nejire observed with a raised eyebrow as both girls blushed a bit again. Honestly, though, the blue-haired girl could hardly blame them - hearing Izuku telling the guy being a jerk to everyone to screw off made her subtly lick her lips, trying to think of how confident Izuku had been earlier in the waiting room and wondering how she could possibly get that confidence out of him again.
Fortunately for the three practically drooling girls, Ochako was quick to shake herself out of it first, smacking her cheeks and then reaching out to pat Izuku's shoulder to get his attention back on her.
"W-we'll figure it out, Deku," She promised, "we've got about ten minutes before the next match, don't we? In that case, let's head somewhere else and see if we can figure out what's going on with your quirk. Itsuka, do you wanna -?"
"Yeah, I'll come too," She confirmed, nodding and glancing over at Nejire, "three heads might be better than two, honestly, and you did just help me out with my quirk stuff, Izuku - I can try to return the favor. Uh - Nejire, do you wanna come with, too?"
"I'd love to!" Nejire happily said - and then she sighed and shook her head, surprising the other three as she took a step back. "But … well, I wanna go check on Yuuyu now that I have the time. I bet she'll be out of the ice and all recovered by this point, so I wanna at least walk her over to the stairs. But I'll meet up with you guys later! Okay?"
Nodding in agreement, the trio waved to her and began making their way down the hallway towards somewhere they could brainstorm, Izuku quickly whipping back out his notebook to start writing in it. Ochako, meanwhile, kept somewhat in the middle of her two training partners, looking like she was back to normal as well as she leaned over Izuku's shoulder to read something in the notebook, while Itsuka let out a small giggle at the both of them, and they soon turned around the corner and vanished from sight, the sound of their light chatting fading away.
As soon as the trio were all out of view, Nejire smiled happily after them, and let out another small hop at her joy that they seemed to be getting back to normal. Spinning on her heel, she started making her way over to where she knew Recovery Girl had set up shop. They had about ten minutes before Izuku and Ochako's match with Katsuki and Fumikage, and then after that would be their turn against Shouto and Momo.
But she also knew Izuku was making them a page with a few notes about their opponents' quirks. So once she and Itsuka had that, they could make a plan. No, she didn't have to think about that right now.
Right now, all she wanted to do was go over everything that had happened in the last two hours, and how much fun she had finally becoming proper friends with Itsuka! And probably go through the excitement of everything Itsuka revealed to her!
Honestly, she hadn't expected their conversation to have gone in the direction it did when she and Itsuka had gone to sit down and talk in that room. She had initially only wanted to hear more about … whatever One for All was, Nejire tilted her head slightly as she started walking through the halls. It wasn't like she'd just forgotten about it, it was just that Itsuka had asked for a little break from all the madness today had brought her, and Nejire had agreed. She was still super curious about it, though!
She was especially curious about who Itsuka had been talking to about it during lunch time - they had been behind Recovery Girl's door, so Nejire hadn't been able to see who it was. She had thought initially that whoever it was had sounded like All Might's voice, but it wasn't as bold or confident or 'ha ha ha' as she knew her teacher's voice sounded like. So - well, she would just have to ask about it another time.
Maybe, if Itsuka came to her again, like when she had during that time when they had gone to Gym Gamma to -
- wait a sec.
"… and when I hit the mountain, I ended up shattering it. I wasn't … aware that I could use my quirk with that much power, but it ended up breaking every bone in my arm."
Blinking, Nejire slowed her step, staring forward for a moment as a realization came to her. Wait - was One for All her volume thingy? The thingy she had come to ask Nejire about? Maybe it was!
That made sense, she guessed - that conversation with Itsuka back in Gym Gamma a few weeks ago had been a little odd, honestly. Like Itsuka had been trying to tell her stuff without really telling her stuff, trying to hold back all the details. So maybe … well, if One for All was her volume control thingy, then maybe Nejire had been helping her out with One for All all along!
That was a good thing, right? She thought so, at least!
Smiling with pride at her unexpected accomplishment, Nejire picked back up her step, humming excitedly to herself. She'd honor Itsuka's request to ask her about it at a less stressful time, of course, when it wasn't so busy, but she still wanted to know more about One for All! But she was okay with leaving it alone for now - especially since Itsuka already had another thing to worry about.
But … honestly, who could blame her for being excited about that as well? Nejire felt like practically swooning as she started skipping down the halls towards where Yuuyu might be. It was pretty clear, after that long conversation, that Itsuka was crushing on both her friends - wait, no, no, she shook her head. Not crushing. What she had seen from her new official friend was more than that.
She was in love with them both. Itsuka Kendou was in love with Izuku Midoriya and Ochako Uraraka at the same time.
And that excited her! It was romantic! She could totally see it! For all three of them!
Nejire let out a small giggle as she happily skipped. Hopefully, their alone time before and now would get some things moving forward just a tad bit - she wasn't going to go and pressure Itsuka into making a move, of course, not when she was so clearly tired and drained from the day. But she had meant what she said, too - Itsuka shouldn't force herself to sit on these feelings of hers, she should act on them. She should be kissing Izuku and/or Ochako stupid, not sitting off to the side all sad! That was sad to think about, so Nejire would make sure it didn't happen.
Even if … well, Nejire felt her smile fade a bit, even if she had to maybe make a bit of a sacrifice on her part. Itsuka talking to her friends about her feelings would somewhat complicate Nejire's whole situation with Izuku, of course - but that would have to be a risk she'd have to take.
Honestly, she knew Itsuka had her reservations when it came to her, Nejire and Ochako crushing on Izuku at the same time, but … well, Nejire didn't really see the problem, honestly. Honestly, even if Izuku was the guy she was crushing hard on, the idea of Izuku and Itsuka getting together didn't inspire any jealousy from her. Nor did the idea of Izuku and Ochako getting together, either - she saw the chemistry between the three of them, and she had no intentions of getting in the way of that.
Well … maybe not purposefully getting in the way, Nejire considered. Even if she was okay with Itsuka making a move on Izuku, that didn't necessarily mean that Nejire was just going to give up on her crush. She wanted another date, and by god, she was going to get it! Although, if Izuku and Itsuka got together, or Izuku and Ochako got together, and they decided that they were going to be monogamous … well, Nejire wouldn't argue about it, she pouted.
It would suck, and it would probably hurt her feelings, but she wouldn't try to shove her way in.
Still … it was cute, she smiled as she moved around another corner. It was cute to see how hard Itsuka had fallen for her training partners, seeing her blush brightly and look sheepish when she had admitted to Nejire all the private thoughts she had about the two. Itsuka was a cutie, now that Nejire was thinking about it - and not just because she was beautiful, and had a body that would normally make Nejire tremble at the knees.
She could tell that, initially, Itsuka had been on her guard about Nejire - and it made sense now, she realized, if Itsuka had been jealous of her getting closer to Izuku, she would keep her at arms length. But the fact that she had never done anything jealousy-related meant that Itsuka had at least enough control to shove them down. And she was kind, and thoughtful. And fun to talk to, and made Nejire feel as happy to talk to someone besides Yuuyu that Izuku did.
And cute. Very cute. Adorable. And had a booty that Nejire kind of wanted to pinch!
…
… wait.
Nejire felt herself slow to a stop, blinking slightly as her head turned to the side. Where had that thought come from? It was true, of course, but where had it come from? Itsuka did have a very nice butt, that was pretty much a fact (she overheard Denki and Yostetsu talking about it under their breaths one time during break, with Yosetsu kind of blushing when talking about Momo, and both of them had shut up at once when she had gotten closer), and she was good looking, of course!
And … well, Nejire knew that Itsuka was a cutie. She was beautiful, and confident, and her chest was almost as big as Nejire's, although not as big as Momo's, and had such full, kissy lips, and a butt that looked really nice in a skirt, and …
… and …
… and these were … not very platonic thoughts.
…
… thoughts for later, Nejire decided then and there with a touch of redness on her face. Itsuka had enough on her plate at the moment, Nejire didn't need to dump anything else on her right now. But these were thoughts that needed to be explored!
Later.
Maybe in her room.
When alone.
Maybe.
Besides, as she turned around the corner, she saw Recovery Girl's office at the end of the hall, and she felt her smile widen. She put her thoughts quickly aside - whether they be One for All, Izuku, Ochako and Itsuka's relationship, or the fact that Itsuka was a hottie (cutie! She was a cutie! Nejire thought frantically as she quickly shook her head), and quickly skipped over to the door.
Once she got up there, she knocked rhythmically against the door, straining to try and hear anything inside the room - while also acknowledging, with a bit of shame, that this wouldn't be the first time today she was snooping outside the nurse's office - but thankfully this time, she heard footsteps approaching, which allowed her to back up before someone swung the door open and hit her in the face.
"Oh," Himiko blinked as she spotted Nejire, the smirk she always had on her face widening slightly as she leaned against the door, holding a white juice box in her hand, "well, look who it is - a cutie."
"Hi, senpai!" Nejire happily greeted her, ignoring how blatantly Himiko was looking up and down her while licking her lips, accepting that her horny senpai was probably always going to check her out whenever she came by. "I was wondering if Yuuyu was doing okay? And if she could move? And maybe if she could have someone hang out with her for a bit? It can't be for very long, though, because my next match is coming up soon and that means I'll have to get ready for it, but I wanted to make sure Yuuyu was okay before I went back. Say, what are you drinking?" She pointed to the juice box in Himiko's hand. "I don't recognize that kind of juice - does it taste good? Is there any I could try? Or maybe not, if you don't want me to drink your stuff?"
Himiko slowly blinked at the utter barrage of questions that had just been thrown at her, her smirk fading somewhat in confusion - and then it returned full force as she giggled a bit mischievous, and held the box up.
"What, this?" She giggled, shaking the small juice box and holding it out. "Oh, it's super good. Do you wanna have a taste? If you don't mind indirect kisses, of course."
"Ooh!" Nejire looked excited, reaching for the box. "Don't mind if I -"
WHAM
Before Nejire could take the box and have a sip, however, a cane shaped like a syringe suddenly slammed down hard on the top of Himiko's head, making her yelp as she was forced forward out the door, and Nejire quickly took a step back as Recovery Girl held her cane threateningly above her head, looking thunderous.
"Are you crazy?!" She barked at her assistant as Himiko whined and grabbed the top of her head with her free hand. "You would've let her drink that?! You're really trying my patience today, Toga!"
"I was just kidding, granny! I wasn't gonna actually give it to her! Goddamnit, woman, are you trying to give me a concussion?!"
"Hadou, please ignore whatever she was saying," Recovery Girl calmed down a bit as she turned to the confused Nejire, giving her a kind smile, "the box she has is specifically for her to drink - they contain blood for her quirk."
"Oh," Nejire blinked in realization, "oh, well, in that case, never mind! I don't need to have a sip of the forbidden juice. Nope, nope, nope."
"Good girl," Recovery Girl shook her head, smiling a bit at the innocent look on Nejire's face, "anyway, I believe I heard you say you were here for Haya?"
"Oh! Right! Yes, I was! Is she okay? Is she -?"
"Nej, I'm fine," A tired voice suddenly said from within the room, and the three of them looked around to see Yuuyu walking towards the door, wincing slightly and shivering as she kept the gray blanket wrapped around her, "just got turned into a freaking popsicle. Not the end of the world."
"That's a good mindset to have," Recovery Girl gave her a reassuring smile, reaching out and putting a few gummy bears in Yuuyu's hand, "you did as well as you could have, Haya. Now then, I'd advise you to go find someplace to sit and have a rest - I didn't use my quirk too much on you, but you should still relax for the rest of the day, and concentrate on trying to warm up."
"Yeah, I'll do that," She nodded, popping the pieces of gummy into her mouth, "thanks, doc."
With that, Yuuyu slid her way past the youthful heroine and the nurse so that she could stand outside in the hall with Nejire, turning to give Recovery Girl a small bow. The two girls watched as Recovery Girl made her way back inside, starting to reprimand Himiko for her prank again while the blonde girl whined and rubbed the top of her head where the elderly nurse had hit her, shutting the door behind her.
As the sound of their bickering was muffled by the door, Yuuyu turned to look at Nejire as she likewise spun around, smiling widely before launching herself at her best friend for a hug.
"Hi, Yuuyu!" She happily embraced her best friend, smiling when she felt Yuuyu patting her back as best she could. "Are you okay? Are you feeling cold? Well, obviously you're cold since you got frozen and have a blanket now, so that was kind of a dumb question. But are you feeling any warmer? I know Midoriya and Uraraka weren't really warm until they went to the showers, do you need to take a hot shower? I mean, not that I think you stink, but -"
"Yeah, yeah, I get it," Yuuyu finally took a step back from her best friend, trying to fight down a small blush as Nejire likewise stepped back, "and I'm fine, Nej. Just need to relax under the sun for a bit, maybe nap. What about you? How did your match go?"
"Pretty good! We kicked booty! Anyway, do you want me to walk you back upstairs?" Nejire gave her a concerned look, "Or maybe just over to the stairs? I've still gotta run back and meet up with Itsuka so we can go over our plan for the next match."
"Yeah," Yuuyu nodded, "stairs sounds fine, Nej. Let's go."
"Okay!" Nejire clapped her hands happily together, and together, the two of them began walking together down the hallway towards the stairs.
While they walked together, Yuuyu seemed … well, uncomfortable would be the wrong word, but she was glancing at her best friend out of the corner of her eyes as she kept her hands in her pockets, the blanket around her dragging against the floor slightly like a cape while Nejire hummed happily to herself.
"So, uh …" She cleared her throat, "… where've you been all day, Nej? You kinda vanished after we got dismissed."
"Oh! Well," Nejire looked off to the side, "I went off with Itsuka, because I …"
Had to ask her about something top secret.
"… had stuff to talk about with her. After that, though, I was just kinda chilling out with her! She's really fun to talk to, you know."
"That right?" Yuuyu raised her eyebrow. "I kinda got the vibe that she didn't really like you all that much, Nej. Er - no offense."
"None taken!" Nejire shook her head with a giggle. "And no, she doesn't not like me! She likes me very much! But you're right that she was kinda acting weird around me, because I got to find out why!"
"Oh? And why's that?"
"She likes Midoriya!" Nejire giggled happily, continuing to walk towards the stairs with her best friend, unaware that Yuuyu had suddenly fallen silent. Although, she couldn't concentrate on that, what with how she faltered when she realized what she had just said, her hands quickly moving up to her mouth.
"I - oh, no, I shouldn't have said that!" She quickly stomped her foot, frustration at herself suddenly appearing. "I pinky-swore with her that I wouldn't say anything! Oh, man, what was I thinking?!"
"Nej, it's cool," Yuuyu said, although her voice had lost a bit of the enthusiasm that was there before, "I … kinda already knew that Kendou liked him. I mean … it was obvious."
"Wait, was it? That's surprising! I mean, I didn't know!"
"I mean, yeah, it - it was. So, uh …" Yuuyu tucked some of her pink hair behind her ear, trying not to sound too hopeful, "… Kendou liking Midoriya … you're cool with that?"
"I mean, I don't know why I wouldn't be!" Nejire giggled. "They'd be cute, wouldn't they?"
"I guess." Yuuyu tried to look nonchalant, even if her back suddenly straightened up a bit as she stole another glance at her best friend. "So, uh … well, I - I guess that's … pretty mature of you, Nej. Hearing that Kendou likes - y'know - y-yeah, you know what I mean. So I guess you - you wanna help her out."
"I … guess so?" Nejire questioned slightly, not entirely sure what her best friend meant but still smiling softly. "I mean, yeah, I'd love it if they got together. They'd be adorable together."
"Y-yeah, I - sure."
"Well, I think so! Like, I don't know why I didn't see it at all at first! Like, they're super best friends, and they do everything together, and - yeah!"
"Uh-huh. Sure." Yuuyu cleared her throat - unknown to Nejire, what she had heard had loosened up the tense feeling in her shoulders a bit, glancing over at her. "Uh … a-anyway, Nej, I … I guess this is the time I should ask … uh …"
"Hm?" Nejire hummed, glancing around at her curiously, "What's up, Yuuyu?"
"You …" Yuuyu looked away, which was a good thing, since Nejire would've seen the look on her face and wondered why she looked like she was about to swallow her tongue, "… like … Midoriya, don't you?"
Nejire blinked a bit at the question, thinking it a bit out of nowhere, but still, she shrugged a bit as a small, bashful smile appeared on her face after a moment.
"Uh … yeah," She nodded, "I do. Was it obvious, Yuuyu?"
"Yes," She decided to say bluntly, with Nejire having no idea how hard her heart was starting to beat harder and harder as they made their way down the hall together, "but … well, if Kendou might be making a play for Midoriya, and - and you support it, I - I guess this means …"
Nejire tilted her head curiously.
"… you're, uh … you're giving up on him?" Yuuyu managed to get out, trying as hard as she could not to sound like she was praying she was. "Maybe?"
"Huh?" Nejire felt her brow wrinkle a bit, giving Yuuyu a confused look for a moment before she looked back around for the door to the stairway. "Oh, no, I'm not giving up on Midoriya."
She nodded a bit at her own answer, glancing around for a moment before she finally found the door for the stairs. Letting out a small noise of happiness, she quickly walked over to it so that she could hold the door open for her best friend to walk upstairs to where their classes were seated. However, it was only when she reached the door that she looked around at where Yuuyu was and … realized she wasn't there anymore.
Blinking in confusion, Nejire quickly looked around, and felt her brows furrow in confusion when she saw that Yuuyu had stopped walking a few paces back, staring at Nejire like she had grown a second head - and she was kind of upset about it, for some reason.
"Uh … Yuuyu?" Nejire called to her. "You okay? Why did you stop walking? Wait, are you so cold that you froze in place? I mean, that doesn't make much sense, but I'm not sure how Todoroki's quirk works exactly, so -"
"You're not giving up on Midoriya?"
Nejire found herself falling silent at the quiet question coming from her best friend. But before she could answer, Yuuyu started moving again, quickly hurrying to Nejire, who blinked at how shocked and hurt her best friend looked.
"You - you're not giving up on him?" She repeated as she stopped just short of her friend. "But - but you said that - that you wanted Kendou to ask him out. If - if you want them to get together, then - then why -?"
"I - well, I didn't say that I wouldn't!" Nejire quickly told her, not entirely sure why her best friend was looking so worked up.
"You - but -"
"I mean, I was - I was gonna talk to Itsuka about it later, when we weren't so busy and she wasn't all stressed," Nejire smiled a bit awkwardly, "but - well, I was thinking - I mean, I did encourage her to go for it, but I was also thinking of asking him for a date later, too! Our date last time got interrupted when Itsuka found Eri, but it's not like I didn't mind at the time, I understood! But I was thinking, maybe I could ask him to go see that romcom I've been looking at the last few days? The one that's coming out soon? I was thinking of asking him to come with me to see it!"
Yuuyu fell silent at last, staring at her indubiously while her expression fell.
"But those are plans for later!" Nejire hummed, looking away from Yuuyu for a moment as she thought. "Maybe … well, I know that they're probably alone right now - actually, wait, no they're not, Uraraka's there too. But that's a whole thing to figure out another time! I still need to figure out how to -"
"You should probably stay away from Midoriya."
That quiet statement from Yuuyu finally yanked Nejire out of her contemplative mood, making her blink as she realized what exactly her best friend had said. Nejire stared at the wall for a moment, her eyes fluttering slightly, before she finally turned to look at Yuuyu, seeing the pink-haired girl staring down at the floor with such an obvious frown, Nejire would've normally commented on it at once.
She would have, if not for finally registering what Yuuyu had said.
"… huh?" She stared at Yuuyu in confusion. "W-what do you mean?"
"I mean …" Yuuyu hesitated for a moment, and then shook her head and looked over at Nejire with that same frown, "… d-doesn't it bother you? Knowing he's got like - like three girls lined up for him? I - like - I know you like him, and - and Kendou does too, and Uraraka probably does, that's - that's obvious. A-and you mentioned a few weeks ago that Toga-senpai seemed to be hitting on him too. That's - that's kinda sketchy, isn't it?"
"Uh … is it?" Nejire tilted her head. "W-what about it is sketchy?"
"Like …" She bit her lip, "… like he's … playing them. I mean - like - c'mon, what kind of guy does that, Nej? He took you out on a date, and then he - he was gonna ditch you to go help Kendou out with Eri. A-and then he goes and hangs out with Kendou and Uraraka all the time, and leaves you hanging? What kind of guy does that?"
"I … I don't know …"
"And - and if I'm being honest, he - he kinda gives me the creeps," She looked uncomfortable with admitting that, although it didn't stop her from going on, "always muttering under his breath about something or another. I just - I don't know, Nej, maybe - maybe if he's gonna be hanging around Kendou, you should - you should take this chance to give him some space. Like - let him sort that shit out, and -"
"W-well, I - I don't think it's a bad thing!" Nejire quickly protested, unaware of Yuuyu's fist clenching at her side. "I mean - I - I don't mind if Midoriya flirts with Kendou or Uraraka, that doesn't - it doesn't bother me."
"Why not?" Yuuyu challenged, feeling her voice dropping as she got worked up. "Why aren't you bothered about it, Nej? Isn't it fucked up to flirt with three or four separate girls at the same time?"
"I - well -"
"Because to me," Yuuyu scowled, "it makes him a dirtbag."
"H-hey!" Nejire suddenly pouted, looking adorable but still angry. "He's not a dirtbag! He's nice, and - and kind, and -"
"And you've only had like - only two conversations with him that were one on one," Yuuyu rolled her eyes, "just because he's nice to you during those conversations, doesn't mean he isn't an asshole behind the scenes."
"W-what's with you, Yuuyu?" Nejire balled her own fists now. "You're being mean!"
"Yeah?" She huffed, glaring over at her best friend. "Well, I am mean, Nej. Nothing new. And I'm just calling out the facts."
"No, I mean - you're being really rude! Midoriya's our friend -"
"He's your friend," Yuuyu scowled, "I never said anything about him being my friend."
Nejire sputtered a bit at that, watching as Yuuyu suddenly turned towards the door and opened it up, blinking as Yuuyu gathered the blanket up around her shoulders so it would drag against the floor, and stomped up into the stairwell.
"You're free to think about it," Yuuyu spat at Nejire as the blue-haired girl spun around where her friend was standing, "but I know how much of a tool he really is. He's playing with your feelings, Nej, just like he's playing with Uraraka and Kendou's feelings. What, do you think no one's noticed he's been flirting with his two 'training partners' this whole time? Fuck, the only one who hasn't noticed is Iida, and that's because he's got the social skills of a goldfish."
"I - that's mean, Yuuyu!" Nejire accused her again, almost stomping after her as Yuuyu turned to walk into the stairwell. "I don't know why you're -"
"Nej," Yuuyu suddenly whirled around again, showing Nejire the anger on her face - and the tears in her eyes, making Nejire falter slightly, "do me a solid. Figure out what the hell you're doing before you get hurt, because you aren't gonna be able to come crying to me about it this time."
With that, she grabbed the door and slammed it right in Nejire's face, making the blue-haired girl flinch slightly as she took a step back. Nejire blinked rapidly for a moment as she heard Yuuyu storming up the stairs - and then she let out a small growl, stomping her foot against the floor and glaring at where her best friend had been. Whipping around so fast her hair swung and hit her right in the face, Nejire started stalking back down the hallway away from where Yuuyu had been, positively fuming.
Of course, what neither girl had noticed during their argument was that they … hadn't exactly been alone. Standing around the corner, another girl peaked out again to make sure that Nejire was properly gone, and then she let out a small sigh as she moved back around the corner, leaning against the wall and nodding slowly to herself, her stoic expression unchanging.
"Well, that was awkward," Yui noted quietly to herself, before she nodded and began moving back down the hallways to start looking around again.
Indeed, Yui had not meant to eavesdrop on the conversation - or, more accurately, the argument between the two friends, only coming over when she had heard their voices rising and feeling intrigued. Of course, unlike Setsuna, she didn't quite care much to interfere with the potential gossip and drama, since the only one she was concerned with teasing was Itsuka. She had been more concerned with listening and seeing if the argument was going to end in a huff or with Yuuyu suddenly passionately kissing Nejire - but of course, Yuuyu had to go and pick the first one.
Still though, she noted how worked up Yuuyu had gotten about the conversation, and felt herself roll her eyes slightly. As though the love square Itsuka was involved in couldn't get more complicated, now there was an actual complication being thrown in there with the obvious, giant lesbian crush Yuuyu had on Nejire. And now it had the possibility of screwing up a few of the dynamics in their group, which would probably affect everyone else, including her.
But … but that wasn't important right now, she reminded herself. Right now, she wanted to find Tenya.
Feeling herself go a bit red, Yui hurried her pace, continuing to poke her head inside each room on the bottom floor in search of her friend. She had excused herself from the booth quite a while ago to go looking for Tenya and Izuku when neither of them had showed up, wanting a chance to stretch her legs - that, and get away from Tsuburaba and Kaibara coming over to hit on Setsuna, her best friend getting enough energy back to tease them. Yui had had enough of Hanta dully staring in their direction while sipping on his drink, so she had gotten up with the excuse of heading to the bathroom.
And of course, instead of going to the bathroom, she had quickly jogged through the halls so that she could head downstairs and find Tenya - and Izuku too, but, well, it sounded like he was with Itsuka at the moment, so he'd obviously be fine - and get the bespectacled boy back to the booth so they could watch the upcoming match together. Which … kind of honestly, she wasn't interested in watching.
… okay, that wasn't entirely true. It wasn't like Yui wasn't uninterested in the upcoming grudge match. She knew enough despite how vague Izuku and Ochako were about their pasts that there had to be some kind of history there with Katsuki, and it wasn't the good kind. And he was such a jackass, she'd love to see him brought down a peg. But Tenya had said he would come back up to the booth when the first match ended, and he just … didn't.
So that currently took priority over watching Katsuki get a lightning bolt to the face.
Besides … Yui couldn't help but feel her heartbeat accelerate in her chest as she looked around in the long hallways for her friend. Remembering clearly what they had agreed to back in the forest a few weeks ago.
"You don't have to give me a genuine answer until after the sports festival. I know that we're both supposed to be getting ready for that, and you don't need me distracting you. So we'll leave it as this - acknowledging us as being attracted to each other. And once the sports festival is done, we can talk about where we want our relationship to go from there."
"That's … y-yes, Kodai, that - that seems reasonable - I will - I will put some serious thought into how our r-relationship will progress after the sports festival."
Well … it was still technically the day of the sports festival, but … they were both out of the running, now. They were both done for the day. So there wasn't much stopping her from finding him and talking to him about it.
That … and definitely go to town on him for smacking her ass on live TV, Yui thought as she scowled, blushing. She already knew that she was going to be a laughing stock by the end of the weekend, because Setsuna had been cackling about the memes that were already popping up on their social medias. Tenya didn't even seem to realize he did it, which only added to her annoyance, but hopefully once she talked him into touching it a lot gentler than he did out in the forest, her annoyance could be pushed to the side.
Continuing to move through the halls, Yui pouted as she kept attempting to find the bespectacled boy she had come to fancy quite a bit, narrowing her eyes as she listened for his voice. Down each hall she went, once spotting Izuku, Ochako and Itsuka moving outside and deciding to leave them to their own devices, and then ignoring Shinsou as the lavender-haired boy punched a vending machine while ranting under his breath.
Eventually, she moved down another hallway far from the entrances to the field, hearing Present Mic start to monologue above her on the intercom, and finally, finally, she heard his voice. Straightening her back and looking around to a half-closed door, Yui hurried over towards it, taking a moment to fan the small blush on her face, and got ready to tease him for his moment of perversion.
But then, as she approached the door, Tenya's voice suddenly cut through her thoughts. And she felt her good mood falter at how …
… off he sounded.
"Yes, I - I understand, Aizawa-sensei," She heard him muttering, in a voice so quiet she almost had to strain her ears to hear him, "and - and thank you again, thank you so much. I'll - my mother will let Midnight-sensei know more when we - yes. I - I understand. Thank you again."
Outside the door, Yui found herself pausing, unsure about what he was talking about - and why Tenya sounded like he was on the verge of a panic attack - but before she could think of what to do, she heard the sound of footsteps approaching the door. Before she could back up, it quickly swung inwards, showing Tenya standing there and blinking down at her as she took a step back.
Tenya looked … well, Yui wasn't sure what to make of it, but there was an expression on his face that she had never seen before, one that took her off guard and making her eyes widen just a tad bit. He looked … flustered, panicked, worried. He was breathing rather sharply, some of his hair shoved back as though he had roughly pushed it out of his face, and he was staring at her like he had never seen her before.
It was … it was almost like how he had looked at the USJ, but … but somehow, even worse. And that made Yui's heartbeat quicken.
But not for the reason she wanted.
"K-Kodai," Tenya managed to get out, which really didn't put her at ease, "I - what are you doing here?"
"Looking for you," She decided to answer honestly, although she didn't say it in a mean way or as an accusation, "we sent you and Midoriya our location almost an hour ago, and … you never showed up. I came looking for you - I just wanted to make sure you were okay."
"I - I see," He nodded stiffly, quickly beginning to move around her as he shook his head, "and - and I am fine. My apologies, I was - I was trying to get ahold of Aizawa-sensei over the phone. I just - I have to leave early."
"Huh?" Yui blinked at the abruptness of that last sentence. "Leave? Like - leave the school?"
"Y-yes."
"I … I see," Yui reached out, touching his arm gently and making him jump as he looked back around at her, "Iida, what - what happened? Is everything okay?"
"I - I'm sorry, Kodai, but I can't - I can't get into it now," Tenya continued to look weirdly frazzled, taking another step away from her as she stared after him in that same stoic yet worried way, "just - please inform the rest of our classmates that I had to take an early leave, and that - that Aizawa-sensei is aware, and has given me permission to go."
"I - yeah, of course," Yui quickly nodded, taking another step after him, "but is everything okay, Iida?"
"… I …" Tenya hesitated again, looking so weirdly shaken, it made Yui feel like her stomach was clenching, "… like I said, Kodai, I - I can't go into it right now, but - but my brother -"
She felt her eyes widen.
"- something - happened," Tenya's eyes squeezed shut for a second before they opened again, "and - and he needs me. So I'm going to go and see him. Just - please inform our friends that I will not be here for the end of the festival, and - and please give my congratulations to whoever wins. I - I must be off now, I have to catch my train."
Without looking back at her again, he turned on his heel and began practically running down the hallway - something that made Yui's eyes widen even more. He … Tenya never ran down a hallway, and usually yelled at others who did it, like her or Setsuna if they were late getting back from lunch. So to see him taking off so fast, it made her …
… it made her feel worried, like her stomach was now filling with lead.
Something … happened to his brother? Ingenium? Yui found herself frowning slightly as she watched Tenya round the corner and vanish from sight, fighting down the sudden urge to run after him and make him tell her what exactly happened. She remembered that - that Tenya had said something before the sports festival had begun, about Tensei going off on a mission today, and that had been why Mina had recorded that message to him wishing him good luck.
If he was on a mission today, and Tenya had just gotten a call summoning him, and had to have him leave early, looking that worried …
… then whatever happened … it had to have been something bad.
Worry continuing to fill her, Yui bit her lip slightly, moving to the wall and leaning against it as she looked up at the ceiling, her mind racing. If Tensei had gotten hurt, then … then it made sense for Tenya to immediately head out. It was just … if his brother had gotten hurt, or … or worse …
"My brother is a likable hero, and leads his agency with unwavering adherence to rules and regulations. Truly, he's a beloved hero! It's my admiration for my brother that inspired my own desire to become a hero."
Ingenium-sensei, Yui thought as she looked up at the ceiling, I hope you're okay - for Iida's sake.
"…"
"…"
CLAP
As both Itsuka and Ochako's hands suddenly clapped right in his ears, Izuku let out a small yelp at the loud sound as he jumped about a mile high, his hand still pointing out at the forest - but still, no lightning shot out of his hands.
"Ah, man," Ochako groaned as she took a step back, allowing Izuku to rub both his ears while Itsuka likewise frowned, and both girls gave him an apologetic look as he looked around at them, "are you sure that's how Nighteye did it?"
"Kind of," Izuku shrugged, "he pretty much hit my back without warning, and - you know - boom."
"Yeah, but the problem is that you're pretty much expecting it," Itsuka grimaced, "so if you're anticipating us surprising you, then … I don't know."
"Me neither," He shook his head, putting his hands down at his sides and frowning down at his shoes, "just … okay, okay, there's - there's no use getting upset about it. We just … have to work around it, somehow. Like - like back during the battle trial."
"… that …" Ochako raised her eyebrow, "… you lost?"
"I mean, I wasn't expecting you to suddenly come crashing into me and send us both down the stairs," Izuku pouted at her, "that kind of derailed my plans."
"I guess," She was unable to stop herself from giggling slightly, while Itsuka merely shook her head with a smile as she looked back towards the tunnel.
"Well, I think we spent enough time out here as is," She gestured towards the entrance to the stadium, "the match is probably gonna start any time now. C'mon, let's head to the tunnel."
With twin sighs, Izuku and Ochako followed Itsuka back into the stadium, walking down the hallway while Izuku held his notebook in one hand and rubbed his eyes with the other. About five minutes had passed since their splitting off from Nejire, and Izuku had the idea of going outside to try and get the girls to surprise him into using his quirk - an idea that yielded absolutely no results, much to his growing frustration. He was still shivering slightly, and now feeling more than a little annoyed that hours had passed and he still felt cold from his time as a popsicle - especially since Ochako seemed to have completely warmed up, no shivering in sight at all from her time in Shouto's ice wall.
And … well, it was hard not to feel frustrated. He had no idea what was going on with his quirk, and that meant that he was about to walk into the one fight where he knew he needed it, completely defenseless - even if he still had his reservations about going up against someone and using his quirk. But … but it was Katsuki he was talking about, he shivered a bit. The one guy who would have reasons - both legitimate (Izuku telling him to fuck off) and petty (whatever the hell else reason he had to hate him) to want to ram his foot up Izuku's ass.
He was … pretty much going into this fight with just his fists and determination, and as much as he wanted to say it would be enough, he knew it wasn't going to be.
"So …" Ochako shook her head, sighing and stretching her arms above her head, "… okay, so if we can't make your quirk appear, I - I guess we'll just plan around it."
"How, though?" Izuku grumbled as he tucked his notebook away. "I … think we both know that I'm gonna need my quirk for this, Occhan."
"W-well, you still have the Full Gauntlet," She pointed out, reaching over to pat the red bracelet with her fingers, "so all else fails, you can … I don't know, punch Bakugou hard enough to knock him out."
Izuku was unable to stop himself from snorting a bit at that.
"Besides," Itsuka helpfully jumped in, "Midnight-sensei is also gonna be there, Izuku. She'll make sure Bakugou can't do anything too drastic - if he tries anything crazy, she'll stop him."
"So … that's the plan?" Izuku let out a small sigh, although he still smiled in amusement. "Wait until Kacchan does something super crazy, and pray Midnight-sensei will disqualify him?"
"Sounds good to me," Ochako giggled.
However, before the three of them could start taking things seriously again and try to think of a way to somehow get Izuku's flakey quirk to cooperate with them, they heard the sound of the intercom turn on above them. Blinking, the three friends paused their walking, looking up at it as Izuku felt his heart leap up into his throat.
"Midoriya, Uraraka, Tokoyami, Bakugou - please make your way to the stadium now."
Feeling himself begin to shake as Aizawa officially summoned the four of them, Izuku felt himself begin to sweat nervously, shaking in a mixture of shivering from Shouto's quirk being used on him, and nervousness as he realized that he really was screwed now. Before he could freak out, though, Ochako reached out, gently taking his arm and making him look around at her, seeing her give him a reassuring look even though her cheeks were red as well.
"Well … that's us, Deku," She gestured with her head down the hall, "let's get this over with."
"Y-yeah," He nodded stiffly, glancing around at Itsuka as she gave the both of them a worried look as well, and together, they continued walking down the hallway towards the tunnel that would lead into the stadium.
It didn't take them too long to get to the end of the tunnel that they would use to go to the ring, although the trip over there was quite quiet. Itsuka stayed behind her two friends a bit as both Izuku and Ochako marched towards what they were both probably considering their doom, with Izuku absently activating the Full Gauntlet to wrap around his arm while Ochako took several deep breaths to steady herself. As they moved towards the light that would lead out to the field, they could hear the sounds of the crowds cheering as Present Mic got back over the intercom, wanting to rile the people up for the next fight.
And then, as they got closer and closer to the end of the tunnel, Itsuka let out a sigh.
"Okay, uh - hold on, you two," She requested, making both of them stop walking forward. Izuku and Ochako looked around as their friend took a deep breath, and then opened her arms, her face turning a bit red.
"Before you head out there," She requested, "let's do one more group hug."
"H-huh?" Izuku blinked, his own cheeks turning pink, while Ochako looked around in flustered surprise.
"Another hug, please," Itsuka repeated, frowning, "you two are gonna be walking into a fight with an asshole we know is gonna try to hurt you as much as he can. I can get over my embarrassment for a few seconds. Now come over here and hug me."
The two best friends paused briefly, glancing between each other for a moment while being obviously taken aback (and embarrassed) by Itsuka's request. But still, they both nodded slowly, turning back to their training partner as she kept her arms open, obviously waiting for them to come back into her embrace. So, gulping very nervously, Izuku stiffly moved forward, ready to jump back at once in case this was some kind of trick, and Ochako likewise awkwardly moved around Izuku to hug Itsuka, the class rep wrapping her arms around both of them to hold them to her.
There was a small moment of silence between the three of them as they breathed out, Izuku awkwardly wrapping his arm around Itsuka's lower back as they listened to the cheering outside. And then Itsuka muttered, "I am … really scared for you two."
"I -" Izuku paused, and then let out a small, embarrassed sigh as her grip on him tightened slightly, "- yeah. I'm - I'm kinda scared, too."
"Yeah. So you two better be fucking careful out there, okay? I don't wanna have to jump into the ring and slam that asshole to the ground for you."
"We'll definitely try," Ochako giggled despite herself.
Itsuka let out a small hum at that, and finally moved her head back while keeping her arms around them. For a moment, the three glanced between each other, both Izuku and Ochako feeling themselves suddenly feel confused as Itsuka suddenly glanced between them with a blush. She slowly shook her head for a moment -
- and then she let out a small groan, and muttered, "Ah, fuck it."
"Uh …" Izuku felt his brow furrow as Itsuka took a deep breath, "… did you say something, Ken-"
But he wasn't able to finish that question, as the moment his mouth opened, Itsuka suddenly moved in. And before he could blink, Itsuka pressed her lips against his cheek, holding them there for a moment.
Before his brain registered what was happening, heat exploding onto his cheeks in almost record speed, Itsuka quickly moved back from his cheek, causing him to stare blankly forward for a moment before he whipped his wide-eyed, horrified gaze at her. Before he could ask, Itsuka suddenly turned to the shocked Ochako, who was standing there staring at the two of them in complete and utter mind blown silence, and then it was Izuku's turn for his jaw to drop as Itsuka leaned down and kissed her cheek as well.
Finally moving back, Itsuka quickly jumped out of the embrace and whipped around, her black hair briefly flying through the air and over her shoulder as both childhood friends stared at her back in shock.
"Now," Itsuka gulped, her bravery quickly abandoning her as she fully realized what she had just done, "kick that asshole in the dick."
With that, she all but ran back down the hallway away from the two of them, her arms pumping back and forth as she quickly speed-walked out of the tunnel, around the corner and out of sight. For a few moments, Izuku and Ochako continued to stare after where Itsuka had gone, Izuku subconsciously raising a hand to brush his cheek where Itsuka's lips had been -
- and then, with a sudden hot flare in his stomach and a loud buzzing noise, electricity suddenly burst out of Izuku's arms, covering him briefly in green lightning and causing the Full Gauntlet to charge up to a hundred percent a lot quicker than it usually did.
"Wagh!" Ochako yelped in surprise as she whipped around, feeling her eyes widen as Izuku squeaked and was likewise snapped out of his flustered state, staring down at his lightning-covered arms in shock before they dissipated in a burst of sparks. "W-what did - how did -?!"
"I - I don't know!" He quickly examined his arms in surprise, experimentally turning on his quirk and feeling his eyebrow twitch when sharks briefly popped out of his hand. "I just - I don't know if - she - I don't -"
There was a pause as Izuku attempted to find his words - and then he dropped his arm with a sigh.
"- I'll - I'll figure it out later," He grumped, turning back around to face the exit of the tunnel, "we just … need to get through them first. Now that my quirk's working again, it's - it's all good."
"R-right," Ochako nodded, shaking her head and moving to stand beside Izuku as they got ready to step outside, "that's - yeah."
"…"
"…"
"… so, uh …" Izuku cleared his throat, "why … did Kendou kiss your cheek, too?"
"…"
"…"
"… why'd she kiss your cheek?" Ochako mumbled, feeling defensive.
"…"
"…"
"… right," Izuku cleared his throat again, blushing, "we'll … figure that out later."
"Mm-hm. Much later. After - after we kick pomeranian ass."
Izuku was unable to stop himself from snorting again, shaking his head. And then, both of them took twin deep breaths, and stepped out of the tunnel for the second time that day, and into the sunlight.
In the living room, far away from UA and in Musutafu, the young boy sitting on the couch staring at the TV straightened up again, his eyes widening, as the familiar boy came into view on the screen. He was walking beside that one pretty girl with brown hair, both of them looking nervous but determined as they looked around at the people probably in the stands, but for him, it didn't quite matter how nervous the boy looked. The way he was walking into the fight, looking determined even if he looked nervous, was enough to send a small bolt of inspiration and excitement through his body.
"Mahoro!" He called out to his sister. "It's back on!"
"Ah!" His sister cried in panic from the kitchen. "Hold on, hold on, I've almost got the popcorn!"
"There," Slice smirked, leaning against the bar as Nine stared at the screen, "it's our golden boy again. And the little brat that let me in."
"Mm," Nine hummed, tapping his fingers against the bar again as he took another sip of his drink.
On the large screen of the doctor's computer beneath Jakku General Hospital, Dr. Garaki clicked on the button that opened up Izuku Midoriya's file, and scrolled down to the information that summarized up what he had written about his quirk, Spark, all those years ago. Behind him, All For One stared at the camera footage from the tunnel, seeing the girl kiss his cheek, and smiled.
The large jumbotrons surrounding the arena showed the semi-finalists on screen, with Izuku, Ochako, Katsuki, Fumikage, Shouto, Momo, Itsuka and Nejire's faces showing up in their own small corners of the screen. The entire crowd roared as Izuku and Ochako stepped back onto the field, quickly starting to jog back over to the ring where Midnight was waiting for them on her podium. They couldn't see Katsuki or Fumikage yet, but both teenagers tried to straighten their backs and look serious as they marched across the field.
"FOUR ROUNDS! FOUR PAIRS OF VICTORS! AND NOW HERE WE ARE IN THE SEMI-FINALS!" Present Mic announced over the cheering crowds. "NOW THAT WE HAVE EVERYONE WHO'S ADVANCING TO THE NEXT ROUND, WE'LL BE GOING FULL STEAM AHEAD FROM HERE! THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR YOUR PATIENCE WHILE WE GET READY!"
Izuku and Ochako gulped as they felt rather than saw the cameras turn towards them as they approached the stairs, staring to quickly make their way up as the four pillars of fire blasted in the ring above them.
"COMING UP ON ONE SIDE OF OUR FIRST BIG MATCH OF THE SEMI-FINALS! LOOKING QUITE FIERCE AND DETERMINED - BUT WHY IS THE GUY LOOKING SO SWEATY?! AND THE GIRL LOOKING LIKE SHE'S ABOUT TO HURL THE RAINBOW?! IT'S IZUKU MIDORIYA AND OCHAKO URARAKA!"
Both of them were unable to stop themselves from frowning up at the commentary box, Izuku self-consciously wiping his forehead while Ochako flashed the Danger Pout. Near the tunnel's entrance, Nejire poked her head out curiously, trying to shake away her own pout from earlier, while Itsuka hid slightly behind her with a flushed face and looking like she was about to bolt away again even if her two training partners didn't notice her standing behind them.
"AND ON THE OTHER SIDE!" Mic continued to shout. "THE PAIR WHO WON A PRETTY FIERCE BATTLE OF MANLINESS A FEW ROUNDS AGO! BUT THAT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE A REGULAR PERSON'S FACE, AND THAT GUY'S SHADOW QUIRK - ISN'T THAT CHEATING?! ANYWAY, IT'S KATSUKI BAKUGOU AND FUMIKAGE TOKOYAMI!"
As they neared the top of the hill, Izuku and Ochako somehow straightened up even more, their faces falling into scowls, as their opponents finally came into view on the other side of the ring. Fumikage, for his part, was looking determined, giving the two of them a polite nod as Dark Shadow hovered ominously over him. Beside him, however, Katsuki wasn't looking nearly as welcoming, his own scowl deepening as he caught sight of the two of them, and explosions popped in his palms as they all entered the ring.
For a moment, as they all came to a stop at a reasonable distance from each other, both duos quietly studied each other as Present Mic continued to go on and on about whatever it was he was talking about above them.
"Deku," Katsuki growled.
"K-Kacchan," Izuku nodded stiffly.
"Bakugou," Ochako glared.
"Dark Shadow!" The shadow quirk suddenly jumped in, throwing its dark hands happily into the air.
As the four of them turned to look at it in confusion (with Fumikage sighing), Dark Shadow glanced between them before it looked suddenly sheepish, twirling its dark thumbs together.
"Oh, uh - sorry, I thought we were doing a thing."
Rolling his eyes, Katsuki turned his attention back to the two standing together on the other side of the ring before him, putting his hands in his pockets as he scowled. Izuku found his shoulders tensing as he gulped, and beside him, Ochako balled her hands into fists, the Danger Pout beginning to slowly form on her face as she hopped up and down a bit. And then Katsuki huffed, shaking his head.
"You know," He said dismissively while glancing over at Ochako, "I'm not even sure why you're here, Round Face."
"To kick your ass," Ochako answered at once, not in the mood for any psychological games Katsuki might think he was an expert at, "so shut the fuck up or get ready to lose a few teeth."
Katsuki's eyebrow twitched slightly, but thankfully, he didn't continue with his psychological taunting, glancing over at Izuku and seeing the green-haired boy narrowing his eyes to indicate that he also wasn't in the mood for Katsuki's bull either. So instead, as Present Mic wrapped up his speech above them, Katsuki started crouching down, his hands moving out of his pockets and behind him as explosions started crackling in his palms.
"Before we begin," Midnight said into her mic, although she specifically stared at Katsuki as she said this, "I'd like to remind you all again that we're here to have a nice, clean fight, not to beat on each other like wild animals. No overly violent moves, from any of you - especially not any move that ends with any of you savagely attacking each other. Remember what I said during your last match, Bakugou, Tokoyami."
Fumikage, at least, nodded in confirmation, while Katsuki merely gritted his teeth.
"NOW!" Present Mic screamed. "THE MOMENT YOU'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR!"
Izuku bit the inside of his cheek, and moved down into a fighting stance at the same time as Ochako.
"MIDORIYA AND URARAKA!"
Katsuki sneered while Fumikage crouched down, Dark Shadow tensing its claws.
"BAKUGOU AND TOKOYAMI!"
In the crowd, Inko clung to Miwa, the other mother looking just as worried as her friend for once, while Taiyo held his wife's hand in a tight grip. Up in the teacher's box, both Tenko and Thirteen leaned forward with frowns, Vlad King writing something in his notebook, and All Might nervously tapped his finger against his leg.
"THIS BATTLE BEGINS NOW!"
Unknown to any of them, far away from the stadium in Kamino Ward, Nine's eyes narrowed.
"STAAAAAART!"
The moment Present Mic screamed out the order to go, Katsuki and Fumikage acted. Dark Shadow immediately launched itself across the arena, carefully avoiding Katsuki's blasts as he flung himself straight towards Izuku with a manic sneer; instead, the sentient shadow went straight for Ochako, intending to push her out of the ring. It was clear that, despite the two boys clearly being displeased with working with one another, they could, at least, temporarily put their problems aside to focus on the bigger problem.
But unfortunately for them, Izuku and Ochako were ready.
Without a moment's hesitation, Ochako quickly rolled underneath Dark Shadow's outreached claws, sliding slightly as she got back to her feet, and in the blink of an eye, she charged straight across the arena towards Fumikage, who blinked in surprise and took a reactive step back. Alas, he couldn't dodge out of the way fast enough as Ochako leapt up into the air, angling her feet so that they both collided with Fumikage's chest, and causing the boy with the raven head to grunt in surprise and pain as he was kicked straight off his feet, collapsing down hard on the ground while Dark Shadow looked around at them in surprise.
On the other side of the arena, Katsuki let out a vicious shout as he threw out his right hand, intending to grab Izuku's face in his palm and fire off his quirk - he didn't want to do so much damage that the fight got stopped, just close enough so that he could have a little fun. But instead of him just staying still like Katsuki had expected, Izuku quickly moved to the side, causing the blonde boy to miss the mark entirely. And then, before he could blink, Izuku wrapped his arm around Katsuki's, causing the blonde boy's smirk to flicker briefly.
Quickly twisting himself around and using Katsuki's momentum, Izuku let out a shout as he flipped Katsuki right over his shoulder, and threw him against the asphalt as hard as he could, Katsuki feeling the breath be knocked out of his body in a gasp as he slammed right against the ground.
Indeed - in just two seconds, the two boys that had charged the moment the fight had started were suddenly on their asses, and the other two contestants were still standing and ready for more.
"WHAAAAAT?!" Present Mic screeched as the crowd gasped in shock before divulging into cheers. "IN JUST THE BLINK OF AN EYE, TEAM BAKUGOU-TOKOYAMI WENT FROM BEING ON THE OFFENSE TO GETTING CAUGHT FLAT FOOTED! WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!"
"They were too predictable," Aizawa commented dryly over the intercom, "they telegraphed their first moves too easily - honestly, it would've been disappointing if Midoriya and Uraraka hadn't seen it coming."
"Yes!" Itsuka cheered near the tunnel's entrance, clenching her fist tightly while Nejire hopped up and down in her excitement.
Staring blankly up at the sky for a long moment, Katsuki slowly blinked as Fumikage rolled onto his hands and knees, the blonde boy's mouth hanging open as though he were wondering what the hell had happened. And then it suddenly clicked for him, making his eyes widen as he quickly flipped onto his own palms as his gaze whipped up at Izuku, seeing him carefully take a step back.
"You …" Katsuki growled through gritted teeth, igniting the sweat in his palms to blow himself off the ground and back onto his feet, "… you're fucking dead, Deku."
Izuku gulped a bit, but still brought his hands up to guard his face.
As Katsuki lunged forward, Fumikage quickly got back to his feet on the other side of the ring, but Ochako was quick to realize that her raven-headed classmate wasn't the main concern at the moment as she quickly whirled around. Yes, getting Fumikage out of the ring would remove him from the match altogether, but Ochako knew, at the moment, that the real threat coming from Fumikage was the dark creature suddenly zooming back in from behind her, causing her to look around and quickly duck as Dark Shadow's outstretched claw narrowly missed grabbing her torso, quickly using the moves she learned at the dojo to hop and dodge out of the way of Dark Shadow's lunges at her.
Ducking underneath another thrown punch from the sentient shadow, Ochako kept her gaze flickering between Dark Shadow's attempts to shove her out of bounds, and Fumikage carefully keeping his distance. She knew what Fumikage's strategy was - have Dark Shadow do the heavy lifting while he stayed back, far enough away from Ochako that it would be difficult for her to run over and float him.
And Dark Shadow would be … a bit too difficult to touch, or, hell, it might even be stupid to touch it, as Dark Shadow let out a snickering laugh and charged straight at her, seeing as it was already floating in the air and would be able to ignore her quirk if she used it on the creature. And she would have to be careful not to fall out of the ring while fighting him as well, what with Ochako glancing behind her and gulping at the sight of the hill starting to come up behind her as Dark Shadow kept slamming into her.
So keep on her feet, avoid Dark Shadow, stay in the middle of the ring, and find a way to get to Fumikage. Easy enough … hopefully.
On the other side, Izuku quickly took a step back as Katsuki flung himself into the air, a look of malice and excitement on his face as he twirled thanks to the power of his quirk. Thankfully, for Izuku, though, he had spent a bit of time over the last two months studying everyone's quirks in his off time - meaning that for a lot of his classmates, he knew how they fought. And that included Katsuki - he'd seen enough of his former friend's fights during their battle trial, some of the USJ, and when he had been a 'hostage' during All Might's exercise during their activity in the ruins zone to know how he fought.
So he just had to be patient and careful -
- but then, as Katsuki began descending towards him, his vision flickered. Izuku found himself stopping for a moment, staring up blankly, as the image of Katsuki flying down at him with that manic grin on his face suddenly flashed away - and in his place, grinning maniacally down at him, was the hooded man.
Izuku felt horror start to crawl up at him as he stared up, feeling his body shudder in pain from the memories that suddenly came to him as the vision of the monster that had hurt him twisted in the air, his foot coming down as the scars on Izuku's face and chest ached - and then, automatically, he raised his arms up to block.
CRUNCH
Izuku winced as Katsuki's red and black boot stomped right against the Full Gauntlet, causing him to stumble back as Katsuki threw out another explosion with a growl. The image of the hooded man vanished at once, replaced by Katsuki as he let out a crazed laugh and immediately began the beatdown. Izuku was quick to recollect himself, however, dodging underneath a punch from Katsuki -
- only to grunt as Katsuki's knee unexpectedly came up, slamming straight into the side of his head and causing him to jolt back up. His vicious grin returning, Katsuki let out a growling shout as he essentially backhanded Izuku away, the added force of an explosion to the blow causing Izuku to yelp as he was pushed off his feet and slammed against the ground.
Flinging himself up into the air, Katsuki ignited his palms, the fire of his explosion making Izuku wince again from the heat. This time, however, Izuku was quick to roll out of the way before the flames could hit him, rolling to his feet and keeping his arms up as Katsuki began beating against his arms with the explosions, causing Izuku to bite his lip in pain from the burning heat of Katsuki's strikes.
"What's the matter, Deku?" Katsuki sneered as he continued blasting Izuku. "Use your quirk. Do it!"
"I - agh!" Izuku winced as another explosion suddenly knocked him off balance, and Katsuki used that immediately. With another explosion, the blonde boy flipped himself over top of his opponent through the air, his hands coming down to grab a fistful of Izuku's hair, and once he had landed back on his feet, he used his other hand to grab Izuku's shoulder.
Laughing a bit maniacally, Katsuki practically ripped Izuku off his feet, twisting himself around before he threw Izuku to the ground as hard as he could, Izuku gasping as he landed on his back.
"AHA! SOME GOOD OLD FASHIONED PAYBACK!" Present Mic continued to commentate over the cheering crowds. "MIDORIYA FLIPPED BAKUGOU, AND NOW IT'S TIME FOR BAKUGOU TO REPAY THE FAVOR! WHAT A TWIST!"
"Not really a twist, Mic."
"Fuck," Katsuki breathed out as Izuku scrambled back to his feet, the blonde boy shaking with excitement, "fuck, this is great. I'm finally putting you back in your place, Shitty Deku, and everyone's cheering me on."
Izuku let out a shaky breath as he scrambled to his feet, wincing - some of the wind was still knocked out of him from being flipped onto the ground, and his mind kept reminding him of the hooded man from the USJ - but he still shook his head as he lifted his arms back up, causing Katsuki to falter slightly as Izuku tried to push past the images that kept coming to his mind, and trying to stay in the present.
"I'm … I'm still in the ring, Kacchan," Izuku reminded him through a slightly pain-filled voice, still wincing from how hard he had been slammed to the ground, "I'm not down yet."
"No, you're not," Katsuki shook his head, his face twisting into a sneer, "I'm keeping you in here until you use your quirk. I'm gonna prove once and for all that I'm better than you! So use your damn quirk, you shitty nerd!"
With that, he charged straight at Izuku, holding his hands closely together. Izuku found his eyes widening as he glimpsed three tiny explosions suddenly igniting between his palms, and, just as a large explosion suddenly blasted out, he quickly dodged out of the way once again, rolling through the air and just narrowly avoiding his old childhood friend's attack.
"STUN GRENADE!" Katsuki screeched with glee, his red eyes flickering around to where Izuku had rolled back to his feet.
On the other side of the ring, Ochako winced at the loud blast to the side, trying to keep herself concentrated on her own fight with Fumikage - or at least, what she wanted to call a fight, but in reality was more of a game of cat and mouse, with her as the unfortunate mouse. Dark Shadow continued to swipe out and try to push her away from Fumikage and out of the ring, and it was all she could do to not get knocked out of the match. As a sudden layer of smoke emerged from Katsuki's explosion, Ochako decided to use it as a cover, quickly ducking into the dark brown smoke to vanish from Fumikage and Dark Shadow's view.
This was bad, Ochako winced as she quickly unbuttoned her top - it was clear that this was a bad matchup either way for her. Fumikage and Dark Shadow would be next to impossible for her to get around, with the two apparently able to work independently from each other. She couldn't get to Fumikage if Dark Shadow was in her way, and she had no idea if the shadow had any weaknesses - or at least, a weakness she herself could exploit.
She and Izuku had been so concerned about Katsuki, they forgot Fumikage could be twice the threat their 'childhood friend' could be.
But still, Ochako shook her head as she slipped off her gym uniform's top, leaving her in her black tank top, she needed to think on her feet. One moment of hesitation, and that would be over for her. She needed to keep herself moving, and find any weakness of Dark Shadow she could exploit.
And, as the smoke faded away at least, Dark Shadow's yellow glowing eyes were quick to hone in on her, letting out a small laugh as it quickly zoomed back in - only for Ochako to quickly throw her gym shirt up, covering the head of the shadow creature.
"Gack!" It squeaked, quickly trying to get the shirt off of its line of sight, and Ochako quickly took advantage of that to duck underneath the creature, running straight towards Fumikage. The boy with the raven head was quick to understand what she was trying to do, jumping back as Ochako quickly swiped out at him with her hand, her three fingers barely able to graze his shirt.
"Dark Shadow!" He commanded, and Ochako let out a squeak as a claw suddenly smacked her away, letting out a yelp as she bounced briefly on the asphalt before she came to a stop, and quickly rolled away as another fist made of shadows slammed down on the ground where she would've been had she been two seconds slower.
So … no, Ochako winced as she limped slightly away, this wasn't going well at all.
For Izuku, at least, he wasn't having much luck either, wincing at each blast from Katsuki being deflected off the Full Gauntlet. Katsuki showed no mercy, continuing to fling explosion after explosion at him in an effort to knock him off balance. Something that … was kinda working, as Izuku was pushed back and forth around the ring.
At least Katsuki was concerned with keeping Izuku in the ring, not wanting to knock him out before he had a chance to fully beat him. Still, as Izuku winced at each explosion hitting him, it was clear that he was at a disadvantage, and if he didn't think of anything soon, the chances of him leaving the ring in a full body cast was pretty likely.
"What -" Katsuki's shouts were emphasized with each explosion thrown at him. "- are you waiting for, you damn nerd?! Use -"
BOOM
"- your -"
BOOM
"- damn -"
BOOM
"- QUIRK!"
BOOM
CRACK
As yet another explosion hit the Full Gauntlet, Izuku felt his eyes widen at the ominous cracking noise, and quickly leapt back as Katsuki growled and slammed his palms against the ground where Izuku had been, unleashing yet another explosion. Now that he was back a bit, Izuku quickly twisted his arm to the side, and felt his face when he saw pieces of the Full Gauntlet missing, some of the nanobots that made up the support item whining and fizzling slightly.
It seemed to still be working, what with Izuku seeing the meter still in green, but it was clear that using the Gauntlet as a shield from Katsuki was only going to result in it getting broken further. Not to mention that he had to be careful - he had no idea if using the Gauntlet with his quirk would just break it further either!
Still though, Izuku grimaced, at least Melissa was watching the sports festival today, and could see what was happening. She would understand why it was broken this time.
"Oh, you MOTHERFUCKER!"
"Right," David gulped nervously, quickly standing back up from the couch, "time for another bathroom break."
With another loud explosion, Izuku was thrown across the ring yet again, yelping as he landed hard on his back - and then squeaked when Ochako jumped right over him, the brown-haired girl letting out a small gasp as she quickly angled her feet so as not to accidentally step on his hand. Across from Ochako, Dark Shadow angled itself again, letting out an extremely evil cackle as it suddenly zoomed right over Izuku, wanting to take advantage of Ochako being off balance to shove her -
- only for Katsuki to suddenly collide into Dark Shadow with an explosion, causing the sentient shadow to recoil with a high-pitched yelp.
"Ow!" It cried out. "Bright! Bright light, bright light!"
"Watch it, raven-head!" Katsuki barked at Fumikage as the smaller student hurried over, looking angry as Dark Shadow was forced to move back from the blonde boy and back to its master, looking less like a menacing monster and more of a kicked puppy. "If you're going to keep getting in the way, just fucking step out of the ring now so I can handle it! You're lucky that I'm letting you share my spotlight!"
"That isn't how it works, Bakugou!"
While the two of them briefly argued with each other, Ochako took advantage of their distraction to help Izuku up. Izuku quickly reached up to take her hand, letting her help him stand back up - and then they both turned to look over at Dark Shadow, the wheels in their heads beginning to spin at the same time.
"It's obvious," Izuku said in a low voice, with a look of obvious frustration, "god, why didn't I see it? Of course Dark Shadow would be averse to bright lights."
"Yeah," Ochako slowly nodded, "which … probably means that I've got no chance of getting him out of the ring."
"W-well, I'm not doing so hot against Kacchan either." He gave her. "We - we'll probably need to team up against him, but - but not while Tokoyami's in the ring. Dark Shadow would just take advantage of us trying to get Kacchan out together and throw us off balance."
"Right," Ochako grimaced slightly, "then … I guess we both know what that means."
"Huh?" Izuku blinked, glancing over at Ochako as she looked tired and nervous, as though not looking forward to whatever it was she was planning. "W-what do you mean, Occhan?"
"We'll …" She gulped, "… we'll need to change up dance partners."
"…"
"…"
"…"
"… wait a second -" Izuku immediately tried to protest.
"Deku, your lightning is bright enough to put Dark Shadow on the defense," Ochako shook her head, "and Bakugou's got as much reason to try going after me as he does you. It makes sense."
"Y-yeah, but -"
"Deku," She turned to give him a small smile, "do you trust me?"
"I do," Izuku made clear at once, still giving her a serious look, "but I don't trust him. I don't -"
"Well, you better hurry up and get Tokyoami out of the ring, then," Ochako said in a fake, cheerful voice, squaring her shoulders as Katsuki finally turned back towards them after arguing with his partner, "because then we can team up and kick the utter hell out of him together."
Izuku clearly didn't like the idea, glancing between Katsuki, Fumikage, Dark Shadow and Ochako for a few moments - and then he let out a small, defeated sigh. Shaking his head, he slowly straightened his back, and reached out to gently hold Ochako's shoulder - an action that sent a spike of that same weird feeling through their stomachs, but the situation was serious enough that they tried to ignore it.
"Just …" He hesitated for a moment, and then nodded, "… be careful, Occhan. I'll come to help you as soon as I can."
"What," Ochako said without thinking, "not gonna give me a kiss for luck like Itsuka did?"
There was a brief pause between both of them, and then what Ochako had just said suddenly registered. However, before either of them could jump away from each other in their embarrassed fluster, with Izuku looking like he was on the verge of passing out and Ochako about to slam her hands to her face to float herself to a far more suitable location for her (a.k.a the sun), they both heard the sound of an explosion.
"Deku!" Katsuki barked at him, flying across the ring again with his teeth barred. Dark Shadow likewise got back into the action, quickly and carefully zipping around Katsuki's explosions to get back at Ochako -
- but unluckily for it, Izuku quickly looked around, feeling electricity flare on the broken Gauntlet, and quickly flipped his hand up, acting automatically as he suddenly fired off a shot.
KRACK-BOOM
Dark Shadow let out a squeak as the volley of green lightning hit it dead center in the chest, causing a large electrical explosion that caused several people in the audience to flinch and cover their ears. Katsuki, meanwhile, flinched as well, feeling the scars on his chest ache as Izuku charged away from Ochako underneath him to begin fighting Dark Shadow - but then his attention turned to the brown-haired girl as she quickly went down to a crouch, and he felt his grin widen.
"You want a turn, Round Face? Fine by me!"
Throwing his hands back, Katsuki let out another roar as two explosions rocketed towards Ochako. It was only thanks to her previous training at the Kendou dojo that she dodged in time, Ochako quickly rolling away before the flames of her childhood bully's quirk could singe her -
- only for Katsuki to move faster, his grin widening as he finally got a clean hit on Ochako, his left arm sweeping up and catching her in an explosion. With a grunt, Ochako was sent flying back, hitting her back hard on the ground and rolling briefly before she finally managed to get up onto her feet, wobbling slightly before she managed to shake off the pain.
"Occhan!" Izuku looked after her in worry as Katsuki blew himself across the ring towards her, feeling himself shake slightly at the sight of his best friend going up against someone he knew was going to hurt her - and feeling himself start to glare at Katsuki's back - but then he shook his head, trying to refocus as he quickly turned back to Dark Shadow as the sentient shadow hung in the air, glaring straight at him as it punched its hand into its open palm while Fumikage took a cautious step back.
"Bring it on, Midoriya!" Dark Shadow laughed in a taunting manner. "Bright lights might hurt, but you gotta do more than that!"
KRACK-BOOM
Without pausing, Izuku threw out the Full Gauntlet, feeling palms spark from his hands as another volley of lightning shot straight out of his hand. Dark Shadow, on the other hand, was ready for it, quickly angling its body out of the way - but Izuku's attention quickly focused on his shot as he watched as the lightning bolt shot out of the arena and moved straight towards the wall on the opposite side of the arena, slamming and cracking the stone there and making some of the audience members there yelp in shock and concern.
"Oh, crap," He muttered, turning to glance down at his palms in horror - it was clear that he couldn't just fire off a shot without expecting it to hit someone in the audience if he missed!
Which meant … it meant that he couldn't just keep flinging lightning around, he growled as he glanced between his sparking hands and Dark Shadow. It meant that he had to …
… he had to …
… wait.
Glancing back down at the lightning flickering up and down his arms for a moment, Izuku stared - and then his gaze shifted towards the ground beneath them. An idea had suddenly come to him, one that made him blink as he glanced back up at Dark Shadow sweeping low across the ground towards him. It was a stupid idea, something that just came to him, but …
… but if it worked …
Izuku took a deep breath, before quickly dodging out of the way of Dark Shadow's claw again, and then, without another moment to second guess himself, took a deep breath as he activated his quirk again. Feeling his palms spark, Izuku let out a yell as, instead of throwing them towards Dark Shadow or Fumikage, he moved down to his knees, and slammed his open palms against the ground as he let out twin bolts of lightning from both hands, tensing at the pain already starting to ache in the arm that didn't have the Gauntlet on it.
"New move -" Izuku gritted out through clenched teeth, "- Ground Current!"
And as he had predicted, the lightning broke straight through the ground, twin bolts of green energy suddenly moving through the concrete floor towards Dark Shadow and Fumikage, the heat and power enough to break the concrete ground and singe it as they streaked towards him. The boy was quick to realize what was happening, his eyes widening in horror as he realized that there would be no way that he could dodge out of the way of two bolts coming at him from the ground -
- only for Dark Shadow to quickly zip back over to its master, grabbing Fumikage from underneath his armpits, and with a grunt, threw both itself and him up into the air before the electric current could hit either of them.
"WHAAAAAAA?!" Present Mic screeched as the lightning stopped traveling through the ground, and Izuku quickly withdrew his hands. "DID MIDORIYA JUST UNLEASH A BLAST OF LIGHTNING THROUGH CONCRETE?! IS THAT POSSIBLE?!"
"No," Aizawa sighed, "there isn't any metal wires or bars in Cementoss' concrete creations. I'm not too sure, but … okay, I'll be honest, I'm not too sure how exactly Midoriya did that. If I had to venture a guess, I'd say what happened was more like what happens when a tree gets hit by lightning."
"HUH? SO WHAT HAPPENS WHEN - UH - THAT HAPPENS, MUMMY MAN?"
"The energy travels outward from the object and along the ground surface. In this case … I guess we could call Midoriya the tree dispersing the energy. But unlike normal ground currents, he's making the lightning travel down a specific path instead of all around him."
"YOU SAY THAT LIKE IT ISN'T AMAZING, EITHER! I THINK WE JUST SAW A NEW SUPERMOVE IN THE MAKING!"
Meanwhile, on the other side of the arena, Katsuki got distracted by Izuku's slamming his hands against the ground, quickly looking around to see what he was doing (and trying not to flinch at each loud blast of lightning coming from Izuku), and Ochako decided to try taking her chances. With a grunt of exertion, she quickly sprinted straight at him, keeping her palms open so as she could float him out of the arena -
- but alas, Katsuki wasn't too distracted to not hear her footfalls on the ground, quickly looking around at her with bared teeth.
"You've got a fucking death wish, Round Face!" He cackled, his palms popping again as he began throwing his hand forward with another explosion. Ochako was quick to roll to the side, which was unfortunately what Katsuki had been waiting for, unleashing another blast that caught Ochako right in the side and sent her spinning away, landing on the ground with a grunt as she winced and held her side.
Yep, as predicted, both of these boys were terrible matchups for her, she scowled - she had to be able to touch either boy to get an advantage over them, and since Katsuki knew exactly how her quirk worked, there would be no possible way for her to catch him off guard, with Katsuki keeping a close eye on her as he stormed towards her. That, and adding to the fact that Katsuki clearly hated her guts as much as she hated his, there was probably an extra factor in Katsuki insisting on keeping her in the ring - this way, he could take out all of his aggression and anger on her that had probably been boiling up for the last ten years.
So he was going to make sure that she would stay in the ring long enough for him to beat her down. But that was where she had an advantage, Ochako thought as she slowly rolled to her feet - if Katsuki wanted to keep her in the ring, that meant that he wouldn't just get rid of her so easily. He wouldn't be satisfied with pushing her out of a ring - he wanted her beaten down. And that gave her more chances for him to slip up.
She just had to be patient, and hope Izuku wrapped up with Fumikage any moment now to come and help her out.
Up in the air, Fumikage let out a small grunt as Dark Shadow carefully held him up by the back of his shirt, the quirk quickly moving its other arm to the ground so they could stay up there. It looked quite foolish, with the sentient shadow looking less like it was holding its master up in the air and more like it was holding a kitten by its scruff, as the audience giggled a bit at him. Still though, at least it was better than being in the path of Izuku's lightning, with Fumikage having no real way of dodging out of the way if he had decided to -
- to -
- wait. Oh, no.
Feeling his eyes widen, Fumikage quickly looked back down at Izuku, and cursed when he saw Izuku carefully holding up his arm that the Full Gauntlet was wrapped around, one eye squinted closed as he aimed. It was only then that Fumikage realized his error - with Dark Shadow being careful to hold him high enough above the ground to avoid Izuku, it also meant that he was now immobile in the air - and Izuku had an immobile target that wouldn't dodge out of the way in time.
He had one only hopeful advantage - Izuku had clearly expressed discomfort with injuring people directly with his quirk, as shown when he had fought their senpai at Gym Gamma. So that meant …
"You're bluffing, Midoriya," Fumikage said in a careful voice, aware that he was still very much at a disadvantage here with Dark Shadow holding him up in the air, "I don't believe you'll hit me with your quirk."
"No," Izuku shook his head, "you're right, Tokoyami, I won't."
He then moved his hand a bit lower.
"So I'm not gonna hit you with my quirk."
KRACK-BOOM
A bolt of green lightning suddenly shot straight out of Izuku's palm, arcing just below Fumikage - and hit Dark Shadow right in the face. The sentient shadow let out a squawk as it had no choice but to take the full blast from Izuku, and its grip on Fumikage slipped.
With a small grunt of shock and panic, Fumikage began falling back to the ground, his arms flailing slightly. It wasn't like it was a long drop, or one that would injure Fumikage, but it would not be a graceful landing, he knew that even now. And he could see, with Dark Shadow clearly compromised and Izuku starting to run over towards him, he knew that he was about to be at a great disadvantage.
As Fumikage landed on his feet and bucked slightly, he watched, through widened eyes, as Izuku ran forward, looking determined as he raised his hands to shove Fumikage out of the ring now that he was unbalanced -
BOOM
- if not for a sudden explosion hitting Izuku square in the back, causing Izuku's eyes to widen as he was blasted right off his feet, feeling Katsuki kicking him right in the back.
"Deku!" Ochako cried out, panicked as Izuku slammed down on the ground hard with Katsuki standing on his back with a dominant sneer. She hadn't even seen Katsuki change his attention from her to her training partner, with Katsuki having flung an explosion at her that had knocked her right off her feet, forcing her to get back up while clutching the arm she had landed on, feeling pain rip through the arm.
Now, though, she saw Katsuki grinding his feet into the back of Izuku's head, Izuku's face twisted in pain, and she felt her fear and worry immediately give in to rage.
Leaping to her feet, Ochako sprinted straight at Katsuki, who looked around at her with a confident smirk as she charged blindly forward - and paid for it dearly, as Dark Shadow swooped in to blindside her, slamming straight into her back and shoving her right off her feet onto the ground. Now that she was on the ground, Dark Shadow quickly acted, grabbing her with both large claws while Fumikage managed to regain his balance.
"OUCH!" Present Mic winced over the audience's gasps, and Inko fought to keep herself from fainting while Taiyo and Miwa looked like they were going to be sick. "LOOKS LIKE THE ADVANTAGE TEAM MIDORIYA-URARAKA HAD IS GONE! HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?!"
As Ochako laid there, prone and unmoving, Fumikage let out a small sigh as dusted himself off, turning towards where Katsuki was pinning Izuku to the ground with his feet, while Midnight watched him carefully, frowning.
"My thanks, Bakugou," Fumikage nodded in acknowledgment, "that was a close one."
Dark Shadow, sensing its master's intent, moved back down towards where Ochako was laying on the ground, who had roused enough to start struggling to get up after getting knocked around. Much gentler than its earlier attempts to get her out of the ring, Dark Shadow began lifting Ochako up into the air, the shadow being fairly careful to bring the slightly struggling girl over towards the edge of the ring -
"What the fuck are you doing, bird-brain?"
Both Fumikage and Dark Shadow paused for a moment, blinking, and then turned back to where Katsuki was glaring at him. Dark Shadow even stopped its attempts to fly Ochako out of the ring, looking around in confusion.
"I am escorting Uraraka out of the ring," Fumikage raised an eyebrow, "she's been beaten."
"The hell she is," Katsuki growled, an explosion popping in his palm, "look at her, she's still struggling. I want an overwhelming victory, so put her the fuck down!"
"Er - Bakugou -'' Midnight tried to poke her way into the conversation, feeling her brow furrow - it was clear that Fumikage could remove Ochako from the ring without issue. However, before she could cut her way in, Katsuki bared his teeth and pointed right at his partner, explosions popping in his palms.
"The only reason I haven't shoved you out is because I can't win that way!" He barked at Fumikage. "Put her the fuck down and back up - I'm gonna handle both of them!"
"Bakugou, that's not -!"
Whatever Midnight was going to say, however, was interrupted by the sound of metal hitting the concrete floor beneath the blonde boy. Both Katsuki and Fumikage blinked and looked down, feeling their eyes widen, as Izuku suddenly slammed the palm of his hand against the floor, the Full Gauntlet looking cracked and fizzing -
- but still charged up.
KRACK-BOOM
The blast of lightning straight into the ground caused a huge explosion of stone and rock to suddenly blast up, with Izuku yelling in pain as he felt the recoil in his arm - but it did its job in causing Katsuki to lose his balance, flinching back, and allowing Izuku to twist himself up with a grunt, baring his teeth as he twisted his feet up to kick at his old childhood friend. Katsuki was still quicker, jumping away with a snarl as Izuku quickly moved to sit back up, and Fumikage attempted to get over his shock quickly, looking back around at Dark Shadow to order him to toss Ochako out of the ring -
- but Ochako took that moment to also twist in Dark Shadow's grasp, the sentient shadow quickly looking around in shock as she landed on her hands and knees on the ground, and quickly began sprinting towards Fumikage. The raven-headed boy was too slow this time to react as Ochako's palms quickly slammed down on his chest, all fingers raised, and his gravity was taken from him.
Before Dark Shadow could quickly move to grab its master and station him, Ochako grabbed Fumikage's shirt in a tight grasp, and with a loud shout, twirled around, Fumikage helpless in her grasp, as she threw her arm forwards and let go of her classmate. Fumikage, at the edge of the ring, was helpless to do anything as he sailed right over the white line, and Ochako pressing her fingers together resulted in his weight being restored. Falling briefly, Fumikage let out several grunts as he came down on the hill and started rolling down to the bottom.
"WHAAAAAAA?!" Mic screeched again as the audience began cheering. "IN JUST A FEW SECONDS, TEAM MIDORIYA-URARAKA MANAGED TO TURN THIS MATCH AROUND AGAIN! WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THIS ROUND, ERASER?! WHAT'S WITH YOUR STUDENTS?!"
Dark Shadow stared blankly for a moment at where its master had fallen, Fumikage moving up to his elbows to try and get up, and then turned towards Midnight as she raised her flogger to indicate the raven-headed boy was out of bounds.
"Er," It twirled its fingers together, "does that mean I'm out too, sensei?"
"Yes," Midnight nodded, turning to look over at Katsuki as he lunged at Izuku again, "you're out too, Dark Shadow."
"Ah, darn," The quirk snapped its fingers, flying past Ochako and giving her a thumbs up, "good match, Uraraka. Remember - violence solves nothing."
Ochako furrowed her brow slightly at whatever that was supposed to mean in a match specifically based around fighting, but quickly shook her head as she turned her attention back to the other opponent she needed to take care of. She felt her face twist into a snarl as Katsuki slammed another explosion into Izuku's side, and then took off running.
"What - the fuck - is with you?!" Katsuki shouted as he continued slamming explosion after explosion into Izuku, the green-haired boy doing his best to dodge through them and wincing whenever he was hit, and trying to keep his vision focused on Katsuki rather than the hooded man that kept randomly flashing in. "Stop holding back on me, Shitty Deku! Use your damn quirk against me!"
"I - don't -!" Izuku grunted through the pain, shielding his face and flinching as an explosion hit him in the side. "I don't - wanna - kill you, Kacchan!"
"Your shitty lightning can't fucking kill me! You got fucking lucky!" Katsuki shrieked at him, using his knee to hit him in the ribs. "You've always been lucky! You got a cheap fucking shot when we were kids, hid your shit for years, and then you pretended that you're fucking better than me! You've never been better than me! I've always been at the fucking top, and you never -"
BAM
Before his rant could continue, however, Katsuki felt a fist slam into his cheek, causing him to jerk his head back as Ochako threw her other hand out to use her quirk on him. Before she could make contact, however, Katsuki yelled as he threw his hands towards the ground, and blasted away from both of them.
Both Izuku and Ochako quickly looked around at Katsuki as he flew over to the other side of the ring, his fingers digging into the broken ground briefly as he threw up a dirty glare.
"That was fucking cheap, Round Face!"
"Screw you!" Ochako hurled at him, quickly helping Izuku to his feet and giving him a once over. It was clear that both of them were getting pretty much hammered by Katsuki - their clothes were singed and covered in dirt, Izuku having bruises around his face and arm where the Full Gauntlet had been blasting out lightning, and Ochako's arms and collarbone had some scratches that were bleeding.
But they were both still up, and turning to face Katsuki together as Izuku took a deep breath.
"Just him left," He shook his head, "let's do this, Occhan!"
"Yeah," Ochako nodded, "let's -"
"If you two are gonna stand in front of me," Katsuki suddenly shot forward before they were ready, both of them flinching as Katsuki suddenly began spinning in the air, explosions propelling him forward, "then stop with the fucking flirting and get on with it! I don't want anything else but for you two to be fucking serious!"
Continuing to twirl in the air, Katsuki spun faster and faster, until a cloud of smoke followed around him. Both Izuku and Ochako froze, Izuku feeling his eyes widen and Ochako feeling a sense of foreboding suddenly hit her, as Midnight suddenly seemed to realize what was happening, throwing her whip forward.
"Bakugou!" She shouted. "Don't! You could seriously hurt them -!"
"They won't die," Katsuki sneered crazily, "if they dodge!"
Spinning through the air, Katsuki threw his hand out, Izuku feeling his eyes widen as he saw Katsuki's hand suddenly start brightening up with a larger explosion than he had ever seen from him before -
- only for him to grunt as a pair of hands slammed into his side, shoving him out of the way.
"HOWITZER … IMPACT!"
Seven minutes.
The fight had only been going on for about seven minutes, and this was probably the tenth time Itsuka had to be held back from going in to help her training partners.
Having Nejire beside her definitely helped, with the blue-haired girl holding her shoulder if Itsuka suddenly couldn't fight down the urge to head out onto the field, but ITsuka knew that even Nejire was having problems with just standing there, being unusually silent as she watched in shock. The fight was … going rather poorly for Izuku and Ochako. With whatever advantage they got over the other team, Katsuki and Fumikage would hit back twice as hard.
It was a bad match up for both of them - even if Izuku could use his quirk now (and how he had figured out what was wrong, Itsuka didn't really know), Katsuki was taking advantage of the fact Izuku couldn't use it against him to continue beating him.
She had felt hopeful when Ochako had gotten Fumikage out of the ring at last, feeling relieved for a moment that at least now, her training partners could team up against Katsuki to get him out of the ring - but as though the fates had been mocking her, Katsuki had decided to bring out another ace up his sleeve.
An explosion - one far larger than Itsuka had ever seen Katsuki produce - suddenly blasted out on the stage, covering the entire ring in a fiery blast. A heat wave hit the entire crowd as everyone flinched from the sound, Itsuka and Nejire raising their hands to cover their ears as smoke filled the entire arena. They saw Midnight topple off her podium from the force, flailing slightly before she came down on the hill and started rolling down, their seductive teacher looking quite silly as she lost whatever composure she had, and they could see several of the cameras that were pointed at the ring start shaking from the force of the explosion.
But Itsuka's attention, instead of focusing on where the ring was, flickered around as she saw a distant shape land on the grass outside the ring, covered by the smoke coming from the center of the field.
"BAKUGOU ADDED MOMENTUM AND ROTATION TO THE HUGE BLAST! HE WAS LIKE A HUMAN PROJECTILE!" Present Mic commented quickly as everyone in the crowd stared down in shock. "BUT SUCH AN ACT WAS CLEARLY AGAINST MIDNIGHT'S ORDERS! OOOOOOOF, WHAT WAS HE THINKING?!"
"He probably wasn't," Aizawa dryly commented, although there was an icy chill to his voice.
The audience, rather than cheer or shout at what had happened, instead fell into silence, several people leaning out of their seats to see what had happened. Taiyo and Miwa were holding Inko's hands tightly, the green-haired woman once again on the verge of fainting, while Hakushu and Tenohira hurriedly stood up to get a better look at what happened, and Teko made sure Eri couldn't see anything, the little girl squirming in her seat as she looked utterly panicked.
Finally, the smoke around the arena began slowly dissipating - the first to come back into view on the field was Midnight, getting back to her feet on the ground below the arena and coughing as she waved her hand in front of her face, looking quite undignified as she scowled. And then the smoke surrounding the arena began fading at long last, showing the audience who was still up there as they all looked forward nervously and in anticipation.
As the smoke cleared up, the first one they saw up there was Katsuki, laying on his stomach and looking up in shock from where he had fired off the blast. The audience let out small hisses as they saw Katsuki's arms at last - they were clearly bruised and swelling, the last blast having obviously taken a lot out of him. But if he was in pain, he didn't show it, instead quickly climbing to his feet.
The next to show in the arena was Izuku, letting out a small, muttered curse as he struggled to get back to his feet. Half of his shirt had been blown off by the explosion, exposing to the audience several cuts and bruises on his chest, stomach and arms. Thin red lines were also shown clearly leading up from the now broken Full Gauntlet, his arm tense from the burning. Izuku, however, didn't seem to care for that, his gaze quickly moving around to where Ochako had been -
- only to not see her anywhere. In fact … it became clear, to Izuku and Katsuki, and the audience, that the two boys were the only ones left in the ring.
And that, right about then, was when Itsuka realized it, her eyes widening in horror. Quickly, she whipped back around to where she had seen that shape from earlier land on the grass, and she felt her stomach drop, and the audience gasped, as the smoke finally lifted from the arena - and showed Ochako laying face down on her side, unmoving.
Without even thinking, Itsuka broke out of Nejire's grasp (which wasn't hard, as the blue-haired girl staring in shock and terror felt her grip loosen on her partner) and started running as fast as she could towards the fallen form of her training partner. Sliding onto her hands and knees, Itsuka carefully rolled Ochako over, wincing at the horrible burn that she could see on the brown-haired girl's arm and shoulder.
Still though, she found herself releasing a quiet, shaking sigh of relief when she saw that Ochako was still breathing - her breath leaving in shaking trembles, but still clearly alive.
"ER - UH - OTHER STUDENTS SHOULDN'T BE OUT ON THE GROUND DURING A MATCH!" Present Mic tried to call out to Itsuka as the audience leaned out of their seats to get a better look at Ochako on the ground. "YOU SHOULD BE -"
"Mic, quiet," Midnight said through her mic as she quickly jogged over to where Ochako had fallen to the ground, moving to kneel down beside Itsuka to have a look at her, "Kendou, move back a bit, please, I need to make sure she's okay."
Itsuka, feeling tears begin to well in her eyes, still complied with her teacher's orders, sitting back as Midnight started inspecting Ochako, careful not to touch the burn mark on Ochako's arm. Letting out a small sigh, Midnight leaned back on her knees, and then turned to look back around at the stage where Izuku and Katsuki had moved to the edge of to see what had happened.
Katsuki didn't look … too shameful about what he had done, Midnight observed with a frown, but there was a clear look of discomfort on his face as he tried to look around Midnight to where Ochako had landed. Still, though, that didn't compare to how Izuku was looking down at Ochako - his eyes wide, his jaw dropped, and staring at his fallen friend in such horror it was as though he had stumbled upon her dead body. It was clear that he was fighting down the urge to run out of the ring to her, mostly due to Itsuka raising her hand to stop him, but he was practically trembling in shock.
"Uraraka is … out of bounds." Midnight regretfully said into her mic, standing up and walking back towards the ring while gesturing for the robots from Recovery Girl's office to come forwards. Her gaze then returned to Katsuki, her gaze turning colder. "But Bakugou performed an action that I expressly forbade him from doing. For that, I move to disqualify -"
"WHAT?!" Katsuki screamed at once, louder than Midnight even if she was speaking into a microphone, and explosions popped in his palms as he took a menacing step towards her. "What the fuck?! I did what you said! You didn't say anything about using supermoves! Deku gets to use a shitty supermove and I don't?!"
"Young man," Midnight glared up at him while Izuku slowly turned his wide-eyed gaze from where Itsuka was helping Ochako onto the stretcher the robots were wheeling towards her to Katsuki, "I said that overly violent moves were not permitted to be used. Are you saying that this was not an overly violent move from you? You said it was a supermove, but I don't recall any supermoves that end with the villain dying 'if they don't dodge'."
"Your bullshit rules are -!"
WHAM
Whatever Katsuki was about to say to Midnight was silenced, pretty much at once, by a fist slamming into his eye. The audience gasped as Izuku punched Katsuki as hard as he could, smashing the blonde boy right off his feet and through the air briefly before he came down on the broken concrete floor, bouncing off of it briefly before he finally slid a bit to a stop. Staring blankly at the sky for the second time that day, Katsuki then quickly whipped his wild gaze up to where Izuku was hunched over, breathing heavily.
"I - wait a minute!" Midnight shouted at both boys, feeling more than a little annoyed as the crowd immediately began 'oooh'ing, and she quickly began running back up the steps towards the stairs towards the stage, where Izuku was still breathing heavily and Katsuki stared up at him in shock and rage. "Midoriya, Bakugou has already been disqualified! There's no need to -"
"Let the fight finish!"
Midnight, who had gotten to the middle of the stairs, nearly tripped over herself when she realized that it was Izuku who had shouted over her this time. As quickly as she could in heels, she made her way all the way back up to the top of the hill in relative time, managing to see Katsuki slowly getting back to his feet while glaring crazily at Izuku, another bruise swelling near his eye as Izuku continued to stare at the ground.
"Let the fight finish," Izuku repeated, this time much quieter as Midnight stormed right into the ring, "he wants to keep fighting? I'll keep fighting."
Midnight gave Izuku a warning look as she scooped up her flogger from where she had dropped it during the explosion - she knew that anger in his voice, and didn't like it at all. Not to mention that Nezu and Aizawa's little plan for Katsuki was clearly backfiring in their faces, and stopping this fight now would be much better than letting it continue. However, before she could tell both boys off, she heard the sound of the crowds starting to cheer again.
No, not quite cheers - they were chanting something. Something that made the R-Rated Heroine's eyebrow twitch.
"LET THEM FIGHT!" The crowd chanted. "LET THEM FIGHT! LET THEM FIGHT! LET THEM FIGHT!"
As the crowds continued to chant, Midnight threw them all a scowl - she knew that there had to be reasonable pro heroes here that wanted the fight discontinued, but it was clear that everyone else's voices were drowning them out. She then glanced between the two boys again, seeing Katsuki's hands clenching tightly and Izuku continuing to stare at the ground, and knew, deep down, that if this fight didn't happen here, it might happen somewhere else. Somewhere they couldn't supervise and make sure that the boys didn't kill each other.
With a deep, annoyed noise, she threw the flogger back into the air.
"Very well," She confirmed, making the crowd cheer again and making her frown, "the fight will continue. But any more big moves like that, the fight will be over."
Katsuki didn't respond at all, instead glaring wildly at Izuku as the green-haired boy slowly nodded. Finally, Izuku looked up at where Katsuki was now hunched over, glaring at Izuku with such obvious hatred it made Midnight almost change her mind on the spot. Still, Izuku took a deep breath, looking down at the Full Gauntlet.
It was cracked, fizzing, and almost split in two. It was clear that it was now pretty much broken again - but for some reason, Izuku didn't care.
"You want me to be serious, Kacchan?" He said in a low, quiet voice, still staring at his arm for a moment - and then he reached down to grab the Gauntlet on his wrist, and practically ripped it off of him. The now shattered support item fell to the ground with a small clang, but Katsuki's attention quickly shifted between it and Izuku as the boy lifted his two arms in the air, and lightning began to run up both of them.
"Okay," Izuku glared at him furiously, "let's be serious."
Letting out a snarl, Katsuki didn't waste any more time. Throwing himself forward and into the air, he propelled himself forward with his quirk explosions blasting out behind him as he reached out for Izuku, the green-haired boy quickly moving away as Katsuki lunged at him, his hand coming up and slamming into Katsuki's ribs. But rather than balk at the pain, Katsuki's foot came back up, slamming into the side of Izuku's head and causing him to jerk to the side.
Landing on his feet, Katsuki threw his arm forward to slam another explosion against Izuku's head, but the smaller boy was faster, dodging underneath it and bringing his fist up to slam right into Katsuki's solar plexus. Katsuki winced in pain, but he still brought his other fist up to slam into Izuku's face, causing him to jerk back - but Izuku came back even quicker, a furious look on his face as he punched Katsuki right back, knocking him off course, before coming back at him with a bloody nose and returning Katsuki's glare tit for tat.
Letting out a growl, Katsuki shoved Izuku back, causing him to stumble, and Katsuki leapt straight at Izuku as he was knocked off balance, both hands reaching out. Katsuki knew that he would dodge, feeling a vicious grin appear on his face, and saw Izuku throw one arm back. He'd realize that he couldn't hit Katsuki with lightning, and have to go on the defensive -
BAM
And before the blonde boy could blink, Izuku's fist slammed straight into his cheek once again - but this time, there was a familiar electric feeling attached.
With a mini-explosion of electric energy, Katsuki was thrown off his feet. With a grunt of pain and surprise, Katsuki bounced once on the ground before managing to stop his stumbling, shaking his head and wincing at the feeling of numbness spreading across his face, as he quickly whipped around and looked at Izuku in shock.
The green-haired boy panted, lightning continuing to flicker and spark over his arms, but he let out a deep breath as he quickly shifted into a fighting stance, raising his arms and clenching his hands into fists. The lightning, rather than die down, instead intensified around his hands, two flickers of electric energy beginning to shimmer around his knuckles, as Izuku gave his hands a once over in surprise only once, before he shook his head.
"Okay," He muttered to himself, "come up with a supermove name for this later."
Katsuki merely stared at him for a moment - and then he felt his teeth grit, and leapt back to his feet. Instead of blasting himself forward, however, he ran straight at Izuku, and the green-haired boy answered his challenge with a yell. Bringing one of the fists coated in lightning towards Katsuki's face, Izuku growled as Katsuki ducked beneath it, an explosion slamming into his chest driving him back, and quickly looked around at Katsuki as he threw another explosion at him.
Katsuki's image kept flashing back and forth - one moment it would be him, and the next, the crazed hooded man striking out at Izuku. But Izuku didn't let it stop him this time - his eyes crazed, he threw out another fist, catching Katsuki in the shoulder, and the electrified punch forced Katsuki back again, making him stumble. Before Katuski could regain his balance, however, Izuku's foot came back up, and slammed right into his ribs, sending Katsuki right back to the ground.
"Get up!" Izuku barked. "Get up!"
With a furious roar, Katsuki did exactly as Izuku said and got up - and got up swinging. His fist slammed into Izuku's cheek again, jerking his head back around and causing him to stumble away as the lightning coating his arms flickered and faded for a moment.
And Katsuki took advantage of that, his crazed grin returning and widening maniacally, as he threw another couple of explosions right against Izuku - and because he had been disoriented by the punch, he couldn't dodge out of the way, with each blow yanking Izuku off his feet and sending him flying across the ring and down hard onto his back.
Eyes widening, Izuku quickly looked back up, seeing Katsuki leap back up into the air thanks to his quirk as his hand whipped back, his palms beginning to fill with light. The crazed, almost villainous look on Katsuki's face said everything - he knew that Izuku had no time to get up and out of the way, that Izuku was pretty much pinned, and there would be no way to dodge out of the way, seeing as Izuku was right at the edge of the ring, and any movement would have him cross that white line.
Immediately, the rage at what Katsuki did to Ochako vanished within Izuku, and was replaced by fear. Fear, and the urge to stop his old friend from hurting him or anyone else. Automatically, Izuku's hand raised, lightning starting to flicker in his palm, and his mind screaming at him to move, to do something, to do anything.
Stop him!
Stop him!
STOP HIM!
And then, for the third time that day, he felt it.
A sudden flare igniting within him, a shift. The electricity running up his arm suddenly vanished, and a chill crawled up his spine. Sparks flying out of his open palm.
And as Katsuki's hand came down with an explosion, Izuku's quirk activated.
For a single moment, outside of the ring, the entire audience held its breath, waiting for the smoke cloud that was created by Katsuki's explosion to fade away to show them what had happened to the two boys inside of it. Midnight was at the edge of the ring, ready to intervene as she raised her hand to her sleeve in order to rip some of her suit and use her quirk. Inko held both hands to her mouth while Tenohira ran her hand up and down her arm, and Miwa clung to Taiyo, neither of them saying anything.
Itsuka stood near the tunnel entrance, her eyes wide, as Nejire stepped aside for the robots to bring Ochako to Recovery Girl, her own eyes on the smoke cloud and looking like she was fighting down the urge to run in this time. All Might was standing in the teacher's box, sweat running down his forehead, while the other teachers were muttering and looking quite anxious at what may have happened.
And then, finally, the smoke began to slowly blow away with the wind. And within it, they could all make out … a weird shape. The audience blinked a bit and tried to look a bit closer to see what had happened, and as the smoke cloud finally blew away … they all let out a collective gasp.
In the 1A booth, Setsuna jumped to her feet, her eyes wide. Eijirou's jaw dropped. Pony and Mezo sat forward with small gasps. And in the stadium itself, inside one of the waiting rooms, Momo held her hand to her mouth, and Shouto shot to his feet, staring at the TV in surprise and anger.
Laying on his back, his hand still extended, Izuku stared in complete and utter shock at what had happened, blinking as though he were unable to make it out. Katsuki was still hovering over him, his hand still in the air, and he let out several shuddering breaths - and, even as he strained to move, he just … couldn't.
Because … because it hadn't been lightning that had come out of Izuku's hand.
Ice. Katsuki was covered in ice, colored the same green as Izuku's lightning, and had completely frozen Katsuki into a statue.
It wasn't like Shouto's iceberg, much smaller and focused on wrapping Katsuki up, but the blonde boy was clearly unable to move. All of his body except for his head was frozen into a statue, with several icicles pointing out on his back, making him strain as he attempted to free himself despite how cold it was. Izuku's fingers were blistered, shaking from the unexpected cold that had emerged from his palm, as he felt his hand finally lose its strength and flop down onto the ground beside him, his other arm shaking and barely supporting his weight.
There was a long moment of quiet in the stadium, the quietest the sports festival had been all day long. And then Midnight, hesitantly raising the mic to her mouth, said, "Bakugou. Can you move?"
Katsuki stared blankly ahead for a moment - and then, with a loud grunt of exertion, he moved his shoulder and arm, the best he could. There was a crack, and some of the green ice broke away from the statue he was in, allowing his arm to go free. Quickly, Izuku scrambled out from beneath Katsuki, carefully watching here his hands went so close to the white line as he stumbled away, seeing Katsuki start to raise his arm -
- but the way it shook, trembling, told Izuku all that was needed.
He was too cold to use his quirk. He couldn't use his nitroglycerin sweat because he was frozen. There was … there was no way he could …
And then, after a single moment, Katsuki let out another weak grunt, and his arm fell along with his head. He wasn't unconscious, of course, what with his shuddering breathing and the way his eyes were still twitching, but it was clear that he couldn't do anything else.
Midnight stared at him for a moment, as though wondering if he were faking it somehow, and then she turned to Izuku.
"Midoriya," She said carefully, "can you move?"
Izuku turned his gaze from the ice Katsuki was wrapped in to his teacher, as though confused with what she had said - and then, with a grunt, he started to stand up. The audience watched in shocked silence as Izuku managed to get to his feet, wobbling there, and looked down at his hand, feeling how cold his skin was.
There was a prickling feeling, a numbness - but he felt fine. He felt …
"Bakugou is incapacitated!" Midnight snapped her whip against the ground. "Midoriya and Uraraka win!"
As the audience continued to stare in stunned silence, no cheers or clapping filling the air, Izuku wobbled a bit more - and then his teacher moved to take his shoulder, Izuku looking around at the beautiful woman as she gave him a sympathetic, yet worried look as she reached up for the shoulder of her body costume, and gave it a small tear.
"Sorry, Midoriya," She apologized, "but it'll be easier for Recovery Girl to look at you if you were unconscious."
Izuku stared at her in confusion for a moment, not even thinking about the violet purple mist that came from her skin, inhaling the sweet smelling scent softly - and then his eyes rolled into the back of his head, his vision darkened, and he fell into a deep sleep.
