"Round one! Setsuna Tokage vs Hitoshi Shinso! Contestants, to the arena!" - Present Mic announced Tokage's match.
She is first? She is first! Setsuna shuddered, still frightened by prospect of the whole stadium's eyes on her. She didn't really know her opponent, that was the boy from Gen Ed that challenged her class. He was in one team with Bakugou and Monoma, but didn't really show any flashy quirk.
She started on her way to the entrance to the arena, but Monoma caught her wrist. Setsuna instinctively activated her quirk, and broken out of the hold, locking her eyes on her opponent classmate.
"Stop, Tokage. A word of advice. Don't talk to him." - Neito whispered, motioning to the tournament bracket. His quirk relied on verbal response? Setsuna nodded, and started to walk away.
"Not like it would be hard for you anyways." - Monoma sighed, and returned to his seat.
Yeah. Not opening her mouth was second nature for Setsuna by now. Don't smile, don't laugh, don't open your maw. The rules that governed her life since her childhood. That helped her to belong, to be a part of proper society.
Tokage arrived at the arena, and stood there, waiting for her opponent. He took his sweet time getting here. She started tapping her foot, but caught herself – that is a breach in etiquette. She shouldn't do it, couldn't do it.
Shinso was tall. Taller than her by a good fifteen or so centimeters. Taller opponents were always trickier, but her quirk allowed her to ignore general rules of combat – reach was inconsequential to her. While inability to put her whole body weight into hits with her detached body part would've been ruinous, her rudimentary telekinesis, that allowed her to fly, helped in that regard, boosting her kicks and punches to compensate for the lack of weight in them.
"Cool mask." - Shinso said, smirking. Setsuna startled a bit, but composed herself, and nodded.
"Ready!" - Present Mic shouted.
"We are not doing the whole ready-steady-go routine for every bout, Mic." - Sensei sighed.
"Of course not! But this is the first match!" - Mic responded.
Setsuna broken her body into five pieces – her body and appendages. She locked her eyes on the boy, preparing for the upcoming match. He looked spindly, his arms, compared to Kamakiri and Midoriya, were bony.
"Steady!" - Mic shouted.
"But what is it hiding, though? Why wear a mask in the first place?" - Shinso continued.
A secret. A mark of corruption. Of impurity.
"GO!" - Mic yelled. Setsuna immediately broke into a flight, deciding to finish this match quickly. The boy looked weak, untrained, probably relying on his quirk. That's why he is saying those things – trying to goad a response out of her. Setsuna will not fall for his tricks.
Shinso continued to stand there, not even trying to engage her. He looked relax, hands tucked into his pockets, his face stony.
"A scar? A stupid birthmark? Maybe you are just ugly under it. Or maybe, just maybe, you are hiding your true self." - Hitoshi continued.
How? Did somebody tell him? No, only Kamakiri knows, he would never do it. Or is it part of his quirk, ability to say the most hurtful thing, to provoke a response. If not for her composure and experience in ignoring such things, Setsuna would have already told him to shut up.
Tokage was closing in, and stopped her body a couple of meters before Shinso, not wanting to engage him full force. Her arms and legs flew at him, and tried to dodge, but it was futile – where he moved his whole body, Tokage just moved an arm, or a leg. She threw a couple of probing punches and kicks, testing his defense, and found him lacking. He tried to block, or dodge, but was clearly unused to fighting – his form was sloppy, and he left a lot of opening for her to exploit.
Setsuna remembered how Jirou looked at her when she regaled her tale of downing that Gen Ed student, and tried to avoid painful spots – no liver, no solar plexus strikes. Jabs to his arms and kicks to his legs, trying to push him over the edge of the arena. Sadly, the boy realized her plan, and decided to rush her, trying to go for her body.
"I know your lot, Tokage. Masks, long sleeves, gloves, when they look stupid and out of place. Pants in thirty degrees heat, scarfs all year long." - Shinso said, running up to her. Setsuna froze, the only thought in her head – don't say it, please.
"You." - Shinso said, his speech broken by a punch that connected with his face, but he still continued on his path, too high on adrenaline.
"Are." - Hitoshi continued, even after several kicks hit his ribcage. Setsuna still continued to float in place, not even trying to fly away.
"A mutt." - Hitoshi said, his voice a low whisper – a small mercy. Setsuna saw red. She converged all her appendages back to her, tackled Shinso to the ground, and started punching. And punching, until his nose broke, until his face was a litany of bruises. Setsuna stood up, and waited for his surrender.
But it never came. Hitoshi picked himself up, wiped his face from blood, and went into a stance, trying to compose himself after her assault. He spat a glob of blood on the ground, and locked his eyes onto hers.
"Weak punches, bitch. You have to try harder than that." - Hitoshi said, wobbling like a drunk.
Spectators were roaring, probably admiring his tenacity, or crying out at her brutality. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered at this moment, beyond putting the fucker in front of her on the ground.
"Cat got your tongue, or something? Or did somebody spoil my quirk, motherfuckers." - Shinso continued ranting.
Setsuna got tired of waiting for him to give up. She ran up to him, he tried to punch her, but she easily avoided the strike by detaching her head, all the while she lowered herself, and threw a clean jab at his solar plexus. Air rushed out of Shinsou's lungs, he doubled over in pain, breathless. Setsuna took a step back, and delivered a kick to his head, finally knocking him out. The fight over, in less than five seconds.
The stadium was silent, for a moment, but then broke into applause.
"Winner – Tokage Setsuna, by knockout! Stardust Crusader trained her well!" - Present Mic announced. Her brothers hero name made her shiver at what would come next.
What did Yanagi say – teens beating up each other for clout?
At that moment, Tokage really understood what she meant.
Kamakiri stood in the corridor leading to the arena, waiting to congratulate Setsuna, and for his own match. Sero didn't really look like a tough opponent to him – Togaru's quirk is almost a direct counter to his flimsy tapes.
Another person was waiting here too – a young man, in his twenty's, wearing a suit of armor reminiscent of knights, adorned with heraldry of stars and crosses. A hero? Maybe the guy who recommended Setsuna to the hero course.
"Who are you, boy? Do you know Setsuna?" - the man said, his voice low, and muffled by the helmet.
"Kamakiri Togaru, and I am waiting for my match. And… yeah, I know Tokage. She is my…" - Kamakiri started, but broke off. Who was she to him? They didn't really hang out that much, the only thing that connected them was sitting together in class, and sometimes speaking to each other. Is she his friend?
"Acquaintance. We barely spoke to each other, brother. He is just seating beside me in class." - Tokage entered the conversation, her voice aloof, and her face stony. She was tense, her fists tightened.
"Is that so? Well, okay. It was good meeting you, Kamakiri." - Setsuna's brother replied, his voice tingling with disbelief. Kamakiri decided that he didn't like the guy already.
"Kamakiri, can you leave us? I wish to speak to my brother." - Setsuna said, turning her body to face him. Is she for real? He is not here only for her, his match is coming up soon.
"No, no. His bout is soon, and besides, I am here only to congratulate you, sister. Though, that beat down in the end was… a bit excessive. You are not a barbarian, after all, young lady." - the knight replied, and walked away.
Setsuna tried to follow him, but Kamakiri caught her by the shoulder. Tokage immediately detached her arm, and whirled on him, eyes blazing.
"Don't touch me, you…" - Setsuna started, but caught herself.
"Me what, Tokage? What's with the cold shoulder? Who was that guy?" - Togaru questioned her extensively, pissed off at the interaction.
"You… nothing. That was my brother, Pure Hero : Stardust Crusader. As for the cold shoulder – who are you to begrudge me for that? My friend? As I said – we barely know each other. You know nothing, Kamakiri Togaru!" - Tokage shouted at the end, her eyes wide. Her body tensed, she looked around, as if waiting for something, and then suddenly flew away, without even wishing him good luck in the upcoming match.
What the fuck was that? Kamakiri stood there, dumbfounded by the one sided conversation that happened.
"Togaru Kamakiri vs Hanta Sero!" - Present Mic announced, and Togaru decided to put this shit behind him, for the time being.
It didn't work.
"What's with the frown, big guy?" - Sero said with a wide smile on his face, which infuriated Togaru. He would wipe it off.
"Nothing. Shut the fuck up." - Kamakiri replied.
Sero's smile fell, and he opened his mouth to say something else, but was interrupted by Present Mic announcing the start of the bout. Kamakiri quickly took off his t-shirt, and transformed his upper body. He couldn't keep up this partial state for long – before long, he would be forced to fully commit. Which he didn't want to do – ripping his uniform to shreds was followed by embarrassment afterwards.
Sero engaged him, trying to wrap Kamakiri in his tape, and fling him out of bounds. The tape was stronger than it looked, but Togaru still ripped it to shreds with his blades. Sero, understanding that engaging him in melee is suicidal, continue with the assault, slowing him down considerably, tripping him up and forcing him to direct his attention at the bindings.
But it was nothing but a delay. Hanta was not strong enough to move him even if he was completely ensnared by the tape – he was too heavy, even in partial transform. Kamakiri prowled through, cutting the tape to ribbons, shooting out his chains at Sero, forcing him to redirect his attention to dodging, or even hitting him square in the chest, eliciting a pained grunt from the teen.
"Fuck man, this is unfair." - Hanta complained. It was – Kamakiri and his quirk were built for this arena – no obstacles, nowhere to run, nowhere to hide or kite him. A pure one-on-one fight. Kamakiri growled, and sliced through the last several rolls of tape, before finally getting face-to-face with Hanta. The boy tried to kick him, but only managed to trap his leg in Kamakiri's chains. Togaru forced him on the ground, and placed his foot on Hanta's chest, pointing his amalgamated arm at his face.
"Okay, I give up. No need to beat me up like your buddy did to the last guy." - Sero said, squirming under his boot.
Kamakiri snorted. His buddy? If only. His 'acquaintance', as she so eloquently put. Togaru shifted his weight on the foot he had on the fuckers chest, and watched his face scrunch up in pain.
"As I said – shut the fuck up." - Togaru said, and walked away without offering a hand to help Sero up. Bending to pick up his shirt felt extremely anticlimactic.
"Motherfucker." - Sero muttered, thinking that Kamakiri was far enough to not hear him.
Kamakiri returned to his seat, right beside Tokage.
They didn't speak until it was time for their fight.
Kaminari versus Shiozaki. It really could go either way, in Izuku's opinion. If Kaminari gets the jump on somebody, than that's a guaranteed win most of the time, except for edge cases of strong Brutes or Breakers. Shiozaki was just plain powerful – her vines were strong enough to give Lung trouble when he was pretty far into his transform.
Kaminari immediately went on offensive, trying to close the distance and blast Shiozaki with electricity point blank. Shiozaki was, of course, not stupid – and tried to tie him up in vines, going for a quick knockout from the match. Denki grabbed several of them, and pushed his quirk into them, shocking Shiozaki in the process. Ibara immediately disconnected those vines, and went for a different approach – grounding her quirk in the ground by forcing it through the concrete, and only after that ensnaring Kaminari in her quirk. Denki tried using his quirk once again, but it was ineffective.
He said something to Midnight, and the bout ended at that. Well, the first couple of these would be boring as fuck. The only good one so far was Tokage's – her fucking destroying Eyebags was glorious. Next match was his, and so Izuku proceeded to the entrance. Kaminari met him on the way here, and wished him good luck. Not like he would need it.
"Izuku Midoriya vs Mei Hatsume!" - Present Mic announced the fight.
This bitch was fucking annoying. From the moment they announced the lots, she was constantly in his face, pestering him to use her support items in their fight, spouting bullshit about 'fairness' and that support department kids got it easy because they could use their toys, or something. Support department needed those gadgets to even clear the gap that was between them and hero students. Izuku told her to shut the fuck up, but she still continued whining. Starting the fight prematurely would be very satisfying for Lung, but it would considerably impact his chances of getting further in the tournament. So Izuku just sat there. Or stood. All the while being verbally assaulted by the pink haired gremlin.
At least there was a silver lining – his quirk always strongly reacted to his emotions, and nothing fueled it better than fury and rage. And Izuku had a shit-ton of those.
"I am going to fuck you up, bitch." - Izuku said, his voice already distorted a bit by his quirk.
The pink haired fucker didn't reply – just smiled at him, while adjusting something in the array of stuff she was carrying with her.
"Start!" - Present Mic announced the start of Izuku's revenge for the last half an hour. Lung went for the same move Kamakiri did and got rid of his t-shirt. No need to ruin it.
"Here we have a prime specimen of a very angry person, who I was riling up for the last twenty minutes, and now I will proceed to completely defend from all of his attacks! Watch this!" - the fucker spoke into her microphone. What the fuck was she doing? It didn't matter.
Lung rushed at Mei, intent on closing the distance to prevent her from using some bullshit guns or some shit like that. He already was around thirty centimeters taller, scales were bursting from his skin, protecting him. He sent a couple of fireballs at Hatsume, trying to gauge her defense. She avoided them… using some kind of device, that helped her jump out of the way.
"Hydraulic Belt Attachment! For easy dodging!" - pink bitch shouted.
Is she for real? That seemed a bit unwieldy to Lung, but he is not an expert on this shit. The thing probably has a battery, or something – it's going to run out of power eventually, all the while Izuku will only grow stronger as the fight progresses. So, he started throwing more fire her way, all of which she either dodged, or used some kind of shield to block, once again advertising it.
Like, if she is not going to do anything more than dodging and blocking, then she is going to eventually lose. That's how fighting works – you don't win by being constantly on the defensive. Izuku just stood in the middle of the arena, blowing more and more fire at the bitch with every second. And she started to notice it, her smile getting more and more strained, her equipment getting hotter and hotter.
She pulled out a gun from the holster at her back, and pointed at him. Fucking guns. Izuku immediately zeroed on it, and shot a stream of fire at it, but it was too late. Izuku mentally prepared himself for another gunshot wound, but then caught himself – how the fuck would a support student manage to get a gun approved for the festival. The net ensnared him, tightening around his body. Okay, this is just rude.
"Capture Gun! Five cartridges, five nets to capture villains! Very effective!" - Hatsume continued her ad run.
It was tough. But Izuku went for his usual tactic of dealing with strong material – heat them up, and tear them with claws. Or in this occasion, teeth. His jaw bit onto the strands, his fire breath heating them up enough to tear through with ease.
"That was fast, hehe. You should have squirmed a bit there, buddy." - Hatsume whispered to him, looking more and more stressed by the second.
Fuck this. Izuku blew a whole fucking wall of fire at her, leaving no place for her to dodge except for the out of bounds, or over the wall. The girl tried to jump over it with her super boots, but got a nasty hit on the arm with a fire bolt. She screamed, and fell to the floor, cradling her arm with her other one. Izuku marched up to her, picked her up from the floor, and grabbed her by the throat, lifting her up.
"Not so fucking bubbly now, bitch?" - Lung said, anger clear in his voice. Hatsume couldn't respond, the burn holding her entire attention. So unused to the pain. Izuku ripped of all of the stupid gadgets from her body, and stomped them into bits and pieces. Man winning over the machine.
He slammed her into the ground for good measure, and threw her over the boundary, winning this stupid match. He was still seething, but smashing all of her toys felt good, even if Izuku probably looked like a five year old throwing a fit.
"Fiery! Midoriya Izuku – winner!" - Present Mic said, a bit uncomfortable at the display.
Izuku picked up his shirt from the ground, and walked off from the arena.
His thirst for violence and pain quenched, but not eradicated.
Never eradicated.
Bakugou sat, watching Weird Hair's match. The fight was even – two Brutes, two Shakers duking it out. Metal beams against concrete fists, steel spears against rock skin, a match made in hell. For commentators. Because this shit was going for around ten minutes now, and had no signs of stopping.
"Fucking hell. I think this is going to be decided by endurance alone." - Katsuki said, propping his head up on a fist.
"At least it's entertaining. Better than watching Tokage stomp purple hair guy, or Lung destroy that support girl."- Reiko replied.
Bakugou turned his head to her. Is the bitch for real? This – entertaining. Watching paint dry is more entertaining. Two guys who can't AP each other, whose attacks are so similar, they practically cancel each other.
"Lung fucking that girl up was fire, literally. She was so fucking annoying. We get it, you are a menace to society about advertising yourself. Go sell out to support companies, who the fuck would actually consider using first years support items?" - Bakugou ranted.
"Imagine using support items. Couldn't be me." - Reiko said, smirking.
Katsuki is so not starting this argument once again. Her being a retard about relying only on her quirk was infuriating.
Nothing fundamentally changed in the Weird Hair – Metal Guy fight. Still the same attacks, still the same defenses. But at least they were slowing down, tired from this clown shit.
"So, Jirou. What do you think?" - Reiko suddenly asked.
What a vague question.
"I am going to fuck her up? Like, she is good, but not that good. And her quirk has limited uses in those head-to-head one-on-one fights. Without prep time, at that." - Bakugou said.
"Oh yeah. If we had like, ten seconds prep time. That would be great. I still don't really know what the fuck I would be doing against Copycat." - Reiko switched topics on the fly.
"He is shit at using picked up quirks. He is not going to speed blitz you, if he picks up mine, for example. It's like… he is picking them up at a basic bitch state. He still can blast you in the face, but no flying with explosions, or anything like that. And you need to just stall him – he has a time limit. Five minutes or so." - Bakugou said.
"I was thinking of just ditching the trainers. And using my soles as conductors for my quirk. Will probably look stupid, but I don't care. I wanna win. But thanks for the tips." - Reiko said, turning her head to watch the match.
Weird Hair and Tetsu stopped using their ranged attacks, and are just fighting in melee. As Bakugou predicted – endurance match. And his bet is on Weird Hair. Two punches, flying at each others face – one blocked, the other not.
"Winner – Kirishima Eijiro!" - Present Mic yelled.
"Fucking finally." - Bakugou said, standing up.
"Good luck." - Reiko said, waving her hand.
Walking down to the arena, Katsuki contemplated his battle plan. Jirou was not someone he was particularly worried about, but being prepared never hurt anyone. Earphone jacks, can hurt stuff through creating sound waves. Can extend to around four to five meters. Maybe more. Can crack concrete with her attack – getting hit by one is probably a guaranteed lose. But would Earphone actually aim for body shots? Katsuki didn't think that she had the nerve to do it.
"Katsuki Bakugou vs Kyoka Jirou!" - Present Mic announced his match.
He walked out of the gate, and strolled to the arena itself. Earphone looked nervous, agitated.
"At least you made into the third round, Earphone. Better than most." - Katsuki said.
"Shut up, Bakugou. I am beating you here." - Kyoka said, trying to hype herself up.
Katsuki snorted, but didn't reply. He went into a stance, legs wide, arms outstretched by his sides – ready to blast off at a moments notice.
"Start!" - Present Mic yelled.
Bakugou engaged his quirk, flying over the arena towards his target. Kyoka reacted accordingly – rushing towards him, ear jacks out to catch him. At the last moment, she blasted sound out of them, hurting Bakugou's inner ear, catching him off guard and unbalancing him in the air. He dropped to the ground, and blasted in front of him, suppressing Kyoka and buying himself time to recover.
Fucking hell, he didn't know that she could do it. She continued to do it, making him dizzy as hell. An ear jack surged at him, trying to tie him up, but Katsuki blasted it off course, and decided to close distance. His vision swam, so he opted in for walking instead of flying, not confident in his ability to keep balance with Jirou affecting him. He continued blasting in different directions, concealing his precise position and hoping that the constant sound of explosions confuses her senses.
Bakugou dropped to one knee, and cradled his head with one hand, continuing to summon explosions from the other one. Fuck, this shit just got serious. Did she train this during the week they had off? It's a strong ability, though it would be leagues better if she had anyone else with her. Her quirk by itself was not strong enough to win fight one-on-one, but this shit is a great disable.
He saw another jack, but it was different from the first one. It was… less precise, lost. She probably aims them based on sounds, and his explosions threw her off. Bakugou traced it, getting a general location where she could be. Fuck it. Katsuki stood up, and ran in her general direction, immediately alerting the jack to his position. Bakugou let out a blast from his arms, throwing himself in its direction, ducked down, and grabbed it right at the base in an iron grip, and started following it to her master. Another one came at him, but this one Katsuki decided to just ward off with blasts – he needed his other arm to hurt Earphone herself.
The jacks were incessantly blasting the dizzying sounds, and having them so close was annoying as fuck. But Katsuki persevered – the end was in sight. The arena was not very big, so he came across Kyoka quite fast – the improvised cord that was connecting them didn't allow her to dodge him. The smog from his blasts was clouding the arena, was fucking with his vision, he was in constant threat of throwing up – but the difference in training and general quirk strength won out in the end. A blast from his right hand caught Earphone straight in the face, throwing her to the ground. The sound stopped, and Katsuki proceeded to let out a couple more explosions at her general direction.
"I surrender!", Kyoka shouted, coughing from all the smoke inhalation. Katsuki stopped his blasts, and stared at her. She was much better than he expected. Bakugou walked up to her, and offered his hand.
"Good fight. Should've pierced me with your jacks though, just trying to harass me into submission would've never worked.", Katsuki said. Kyoka grabbed his hand, and stood up.
"F-fuck you…", Kyoka stopped to cough, "…Bakugou. How the f-fuck did you even walk through that shit."
"On feet." - Katsuki replied, and walked off the arena.
It was a good start on his path to first place.
He looked at the bracket board.
His next one is going to be against Weird Hair.
But the one after that.
Reiko or Half and Half.
The anticipation was killing him.