Chapter 1: Neophyte
A/N: This is a fic based off of TikTok series by creators .cos and vivian_blair_cos featuring an MHA fight club AU: The Pit! Please enjoy!
Potential spoilers: A character's true identity and quirk details, another character's hero name (tbh, I don't know how far the anime is, and I only know about this stuff from other fics/spoilers I've seen because I don't read the manga myself, so it might not even be accurate, but just to be safe, I figured I'd put this here!)
CW/TW: Blood and gore (as to be expected, right?), injuries, PTSD, trauma responses, suicide baiting [more to be added as things come up in later chapters]
Izuku held an ice pack to his blackened eye, hissing and wincing at the contact, but powering through anyway, knowing that he would be better off for it. He turned his head awkwardly, duly noting the soreness in his neck that he would have to attend to later, angling the ice pack to press between his face and shoulder so he could use both of his hands to type.
They were so damn lucky that they had him, and they were about to know it, too. Well, know it again.
Who else would recognize an underground hero sniffing around where he doesn't belong if not Izuku?
Reviewing the security footage, it seemed that Eraserhead had been sneaking around for at least three days, and even talked to a few of the security staff directly a few times without raising any red flags to any of the stakeholders.
He wouldn't have even gotten this bad of a bruise on his face if he hadn't been distracted by a pro hero standing there, staring at him from the front row on the other side of the fence, watching his fight with calculating eyes.
"I almost had you, there," his opponent grumbled as he entered the room.
"Almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades," Izuku quipped automatically, like he always did, tapping the little horseshoe tattoo behind his left ear. It couldn't currently be seen behind the messy, tangled mop of green, but everyone knew it was there all the same.
The fighter with the stage name of "Phoenix" huffed in annoyance, like he always did, and slid into the seat next to Izuku.
"Whatch'ya working on there, Viper?" he asked, leaning in close to squint at the screens through his own swelling eyes.
Izuku looked at the other fighter from the corner of his eye so as to not move his face from the relieving cold of the ice pack still positioned between his face and shoulder. Izuku truly did a number on him, but the scarring all over his face and body probably didn't help. A few of the staples were misaligned or missing completely and blood dripped from the separated skin. This wasn't a new sight to see, nothing out of the ordinary, really, so Izuku turned his attention back to the screen, navigating around to different camera angles during different nights and times to try to see if he could spot the underground hero anywhere else.
"Even if I explained it to you in simple words that you would understand," Izuku said with a teasing lilt lacing his voice, "you would forget by tomorrow because of your multiple concussions."
"Fuck you," Touya spat. "I have nine lives!"
"Cats have nine lives," Izuku corrected without pausing in his typing. Touya opened his mouth to argue, but Izuku wasn't finished. "A phoenix isn't so limited."
Touya barked out a laugh through his sore throat which quickly turned into a groan as he slumped over and held his ribs tenderly, breathing slowly through the pain.
"That almost sounded like a compliment," he rasped when he could breathe again without wincing.
"I give you plenty of compliments, Phoenix," Izuku dismissed.
"Your taunts disguised as flirting in the ring doesn't count."
"Don't they?" Izuku asked, pure innocence lacing his voice even as he was obviously distracted by whatever his eyes were seeking for on the screen.
Touya watched Izuku as he leaned forward, shifting to take the ice pack into his hand again so he could crane his neck forward, getting close to the screen that captured his attention. He didn't know how getting that close helped instead of showing anything but a colorful blend of lit up pixels, but Touya learned a long time ago that the guy knew what he was doing, both in and out of the ring. And if he happened to forget, he was reminded again just that night.
Izuku wasn't much to look at with his big green eyes that held faux innocence and naivety, but they held a lot more knowledge and experience than he would ever let on. His freckles dotting his round cheeks and curly green hair mopped on the top of his head just added to the perfect picture of pure virtue.
The bruising around his face might give him away and almost had a few times when the police had started to sniff around and knew what signs to look for in the fighters they were after. He could naturally talk his way out of it often enough, but sometimes the police were insistent about bringing him in. That would spell disaster for a lot of the fighters, but even more so for Izuku. He was a smooth talker, but it's hard to keep your mouth running when the world was against you and actively trying to kill you because of your lack of quirk, Touya had come to learn.
In that case, all the kid had to do was pull out his identification and present it to the officer. That outed him as a part of the quirkless population, and the police had what they assumed to be their answer: that this kid was just unlucky and being tormented by those with superior genes.
That was just the rule of the world, and rules were rules.
Some things just couldn't be helped.
They would tell him that it was not a safe area to be around with his condition, and Izuku would smile and nod and mutter, "Don't I know it." The police would laugh, charmed by the quirkless kid who had beat the odds so far by lasting until adulthood and still had a positive attitude, even with bruises all over his face, and hope that that kid whose name they already forgot would have an easier time of it in the future, though they knew he wouldn't.
Would they do anything about it?
No.
That was just the rule of the world, and rules were rules.
Some things just couldn't be helped.
Not that Izuku needed help anyway, because those bruises and abrasions were earned. Touya thought that, just once, Izuku should respond with, "You should see the other guy." Touya glanced at his reflection in a window that led to a view of the hallway outside the little office and thought that he would be the perfect volunteer for this little experiment, and he'd get to see the officers' reactions firsthand and up close.
It would give them both away, though. If he was being beaten that badly by a quirkless kid, why wouldn't he use his quirk? He didn't have a handy identification card that noted that he was quirkless because he was not. He didn't have an identification card at all because that would be a disaster all on its own.
He could imagine the headlines: 'Illegal quirkless underground fighter beats Endeavor's long-ago thought dead son.' Absolutely horrifying and not even creative.
And how exactly would he convince anyone he was quirkless with the burns he had all over him, anyway? It was painfully obvious that he had some kind of fire or heat quirk. Emphasis on the pain.
Touya hummed and closed his eyes when he felt the coolness of the ice pack pressed against a nasty bruise on his forehead, his hand coming up to hold the ice pack there to ensure continued relief.
"Now I'm not so sure that the concussion thing was a joke," Izuku hedged. "You've been zoning out for the past five minutes."
Touya hummed again. "It's nothing. I was just thinking about the headlines that would ever come out of this if the Pit was ever broken down."
Izuku's lips ticked up into a sharp smile. "I'm sure they'd be disappointing."
"That's what I'm saying!" Touya said, lurching forward, only to go back to groaning and holding his ribs once again. "Fuck. I think you cracked my ribs."
"I did not, you big baby."
Touya hissed dramatically as he curled in on himself, and Izuku nodded. "Okay," Izuku conceded. "I might have."
Izuku offered to walk Touya back to the apartment complex, and Touya took him up on that offer. It was a little manipulative on both sides. Izuku offered to get Touya to say yes so he would go home and sleep off the fight. Touya agreed so that Izuku would go with him and fall into his own bed to sleep off his own injuries.
It was Izuku's doing that Touya had an apartment at all, so Touya wasn't afraid to be a little sneaky about taking care of Izuku under the ruse of being taken care of himself.
Some things couldn't be helped.
But some things could.
And Izuku knew that better than anyone, Touya believed.
When Izuku was added to the list of stakeholders, a lot of things started changing. No one likes to change as it is, but everyone really hates it when it's for a barely 18 adult who has the audacity to still be alive while being quirkless no less. But despite the hate and the rule breaking against Izuku that led to extra bone-breaking in the ring that the referees kept coincidentally not seeing, Izuku was determined to make the Pit more sustainable and a better place for everyone involved, including the participants who were beating each other bloody in hopes of taking home some much needed cash.
The stakeholders used to just turn a blind eye to the fights that happened outside of the Pit after particularly brutal fights. They just didn't know what they could do besides having referees constantly follow all fighters around to keep them apart from one another once the fights were supposed to have ended, and a solution like that just wasn't feasible. These unofficial fights led to a lot of deaths of some really great people just because someone really needed to win to be able to eat that week and could not accept their earlier loss. Once a fighter won, they were an easy target to be jumped later because everyone knew they had cash on them from their winnings. The stakeholders knew it was a problem, they just could not see a solution within their power. Then Izuku signed on with little fanfare and immediately put allocated funds to good use, using up every penny.
He got death threats from all sides at first. The other stakeholders thought it was a mistake bringing him on if he was immediately going to start spending more money instead of making it. Eventually, they saw that less death and burnout of fighters meant lower turnover, which in turn led to more experienced and higher stakes fighting, which meant higher cuts for the house.
They never outright apologized, but Izuku never thrived on apologies, anyway. 'Apologies made him queasy' is the excuse he always gave with a laugh when Touya offered to hand deliver some apologies straight from their mouths for him, kneeling and groveling and begging with tears and snot bubbles and everything.
The participants were quick to warm up to him because having a warm place to stay at night and a communal garden and fully stocked kitchen to use after having your fifth loss in a row was sure to warm some hearts. The fighters had never felt safer participating in the Pit since Izuku had ascended into a position of power. Even when they lost, they could still rely on the Pit resources allocated to their wellbeing to keep them healthy and happy until their next fight where they could throw themselves into the ring to try again. When they won, their winnings were more securely their own because the losing participant was more thoroughly taken care of instead of thrown onto the streets and basically told, "Thanks for the entertainment! Better luck next time!"
Not every fighter needed to take advantage of the free housing situation that Izuku's position brought, which left room in their cold, empty hearts for their hatred to grow and fester. These other participants were pissed that this scrawny, quirkless kid who lost more than he won was offered such a prestigious bid only to have the bosses snarling and sneering at him every time he entered the room or ring, making the whole atmosphere tense and risky for everyone. It stung even worse when the quirkless kid won; the quirked fighters would bitch and moan about how Viper had it easy because he was quirkless and didn't have to worry about accidentally using his quirk during a fight. It stung the worst when the bosses got over themselves and started clapping him on the back and bringing him up to the offices to chat and ask his opinion about more things than he was initially raised to stakeholder for.
Touya still snorted every time he thought about it. Imagine that: someone saying that Izuku had something easy because he was quirkless. The mental gymnastics to get to that point must have been Olympic level, and Touya knew that Izuku himself would be wholeheartedly intrigued by the thought process. The idea of Izuku nodding enthusiastically and taking notes as an angry fighter argued about how the quirkless teenager had it so much easier would have Touya rolling on the floor if he thought his ribs wouldn't collapse under the pressure.
And Izuku had an answer to that, too. When he caught wind of others complaining that he had it easier because he didn't have to control his quirk, he went on a research binge that led to the dark web, and he somehow tracked down a drug to temporarily nullify a person's quirk before the week was out. With some planning and networking, he was able to add it to the Pit's pre-fight rituals, and it was offered to every fighter before each fight. Unsurprisingly, there weren't many takers, but it sure as hell shut them up about Izuku having an easier time of things when the offer to "level the playing field" was right there and they were too fucking scared to take it.
Some things couldn't be helped, but Izuku sure covered all his bases.
Everyone had quickly found out Touya's thoughts on the matter when it first became big news the year prior and Touya was a newer fighter to the Pit.
"It was one thing to allow Viper to fight. I get it; the Pit wants to be charitable or equitable or whatever. It's another thing entirely to allow him to become a stakeholder. Like—come on! This guy—Phoenix—knows what I'm talking about!"
"Wha—?" Touya started dumbly, acting as if he hadn't been paying attention to the conversation and was just then tuning in. "Oh! Viper? Yeah, that dude kicked my ass! Scrawny fucker can pack a punch, that's for sure. He's not one to be underestimated."
"Oh, man. Don't you know? Viper is quirkless," the fighter sneered, like it was an insult.
Touya shrugged, unphased. "What's that matter?" Touya drawled. "We're all quirkless in the Pit, aren't we?"
That wasn't exactly true, Touya knew, even as he regurgitated the common phrase. Izuku had more experiences that none of them would ever truly understand. Fighting without a quirk for a few minutes didn't make someone quirkless by any stretch of the imagination. Even having a shitty quirk gave Touya a better time in society than no quirk at all, even with a father like Enji and the gnarly scars that came out of it. But it was a good way to shut quirkists up.
Izuku and Touya made their way to the elevator, both convinced that they were doing it for the other's sake and secretly relieved that they had a reason other than themselves to not take the stairs that night.
"Do you need help with any of your staples?" Izuku asked.
It was a genuine offer, and one that Touya had taken up multiple times before. He looked over at the mirror attached firmly to the elevator wall to see which ones had been displaced and thought about the angle needed to fix them and if it was manageable by himself, not only in his everyday condition, but how he was right then with potentially busted ribs and all.
After a moment of thorough examination, Touya answered, "Nah. I should be okay."
Izuku hummed. "You know where to find me if you change your mind."
"I won't hesitate," Touya promised.
And it was a bitch to replace those staples, but truly nothing he couldn't handle on his own. It wasn't anything worth disrupting Izuku's own recovery and rest for, even if Izuku wouldn't see it that way. Sometimes that guy had no sense of self-preservation if someone else's well-being was at risk in his line of sight. It's like he got tunnel vision and could only focus on helping and assisting and making something just a little bit better for someone else, regardless of what was going on with himself.
The other stakeholders were mad before because Izuku was spending money, sure. But they were really mad because they were convinced that he was spending money for something that was doomed to fail.
How would it be possible for people who were just at each other's throats to live amicably under the same roof? Izuku said it would decrease fighting outside of the ring, but the stakeholders could only predict that the death and destruction would increase. When they anxiously viewed the cameras in the lobby and outside of the apartment complex, ready to wince at the unprecedented gore from the unrefereed fighting and to tell Izuku that they knew from the beginning, only to see the same thing over and over again. Night after night, they were awestruck. How did they not predict that the comradery of being participants in the Pit might overshadow the competition enough for at least surface level friendships to form, if not something a little deeper? And how did a quirkless teenager see that when they didn't?
This was part of the reason how Izuku got the quirk-nullifying drug option in stock so quickly, and why it stays in stock despite its lack of use. Izuku has proven that he knows what he's talking about, and no one has any room to doubt him.
Because rules are rules, and when the Pit rules dictate that "what happens in the Pit, stays in the Pit," the participants took that to the next level.
When their basic needs are met, and the fights are over, they have someone right next to them, either waking up off the floor, looking up at an offered hand that was once a fist that put them on the floor to begin with, or the one dropping the stage persona to help the person off the floor, hoping that their gesture won't be swatted away. They have someone who is there for a reason that, although might be different from their own, might be made of the same stuff at its core, right there in front of them. It would be stupid to not take advantage of something like that. "What happens in the Pit, stays in the Pit" was the written rule, and it was finally put into active practice, and it's all thanks to Izuku and his forward, progressive thinking.
Viper and Phoenix's fights happened in the Pit, so they stayed in the Pit. And that left a lot of empty space for Izuku and Touya's friendship to flourish and grow.
Izuku slept like the dead. He always did after fights. His body knew how to recover after what he put it through; he had enough practice from middle school, so he adapted easily enough to Pit life.
Izuku's next fight wasn't scheduled yet and wouldn't be until he saw the healer and was cleared.
That annoyed him a little bit. He insisted that the participants deserved a healer, yes, so it was technically his fault, but he didn't think that he should also be held to that same standard. When he made the argument, he was sure the other stakeholders would bend, but they just laughed, clasped him roughly on the shoulder, laughed harder when he winced, and told him to follow the rules that he himself had put into place and be a good role model for the other participants.
Because rules were rules, after all.
Some things couldn't be helped.
Maybe he had shown his hand too early, made himself so invaluable that they actually liked having him around and wouldn't allow him to be a little reckless. It was strange, but he found that he could get used to the feeling pretty easily. It was nice to be cared about.
So, he was on the sidelines until the healer got there later that evening. He would be given a timeline of healing and exercises to accomplish to get into tip top shape to fight again, and a release date that he would be able to sign up for another fight for, which he would on that exact date, like he always did.
The stands were extra crowded that night. There were some old favorites fighting new participants just added to the roster. People were excited to see the bloodbath. Sometimes people liked long, drawn-out, strategic fights where anyone could win. Sometimes people just wanted to see an old favorite wipe the floor with an arrogant newbie within the first minute of the match starting. It was also one of the nights the healer was available, so some of the fighters from previous fight nights came earlier to watch the fights to make their trip out worthwhile.
Izuku hung around the back of the stands. He knew he made some of the newer fighters nervous once they got word that he was a stakeholder, so it was always a better fight if he wasn't right against the fence when fighters were making their debut.
The dull roar of the crowd conversing increased in volume to a rumble of anticipation when the announcer asked how the crowd was doing that fine night. There were a few high-pitched yelps of appreciation that could be heard above the rest, but the answer was resoundingly positive, even if no definitive answer ever left anyone's lips.
"First fight of the night!" the man bellowed into the microphone, blasting above the cheers of the crowd. "Fan favorite—though I don't know why—Cadaver!"
Cadaver entered the ring, with a lazy wave, whispering something to the announcer that made him flush bright red. Izuku guessed it was a response to the insulting quip, and based on the posture and general demeanor of the announcer, it was probably along the lines of, "I'll show you why I'm a favorite later, if you'd like," or something similarly flirty. His face was red, but not in an angry, how-dare-he type of way, so Cadaver must not have returned the same energy directed at him, even if it was all in good fun from the start.
"Uh—shit," the announcer sputtered, shaking his head to clear his thoughts and get back on track. He laughed nervously, but then recovered easily enough. "Against Cadaver, tonight, a new fighter who will be making his debut…" the crowd increased its volume with cheering, people leaned forward, craning, trying to be the first to see the new fighter. "Fugue!"
Izuku took mental notes of the new fighter as everyone else also took him in. He was shorter than Cadaver but had a similar build: lean and lethal. His hair was grey and fluffy and Izuku wanted to see if it felt as soft as it looked. Maybe he would ask Cadaver after the match or just swallow his nerves and ask Fugue himself if he can touch his hair. He wondered if that would be weird or if he got questions like that all the time.
The buzzer sounded, indicating the start of the match, and Fugue stood still in a crouched and ready position as Cadaver lazily strolled in circles around him. Izuku watched as the bright lights reflected off of Fugue's alert, grey eyes, and wondered what his quirk might be.
Based on his alias, Izuku so badly wanted to guess some kind of mental quirk, or at least some kind of physical quirk that messed with people's minds, even if it was beyond Fugue's control what happened after initiated, but that didn't feel right for a few reasons. He was dressed in all grey, and the various shades tended to stay on the lighter side of things, despite fighters normally choosing darker colors to better hide the inevitable stains that would accumulate. Some sort of camouflage related to his quirk, perhaps? The theory went well with the color of his eyes and hair and the paleness of his skin, but maybe that was to intentionally throw people off.
It wouldn't have been the first time someone alluded to the true nature of their quirk through their chosen alias, only to throw suspicion in the opposite direction using their appearance and personality. Everyone had assumed that the fighter in question was trying to seem more intimidating by alluding to the fact that she had a scarier quirk than she actually did. Even if no quirk usage was allowed in the ring, it was a valid strategy, but not the one she was going for. She used misdirection in the most convoluted of ways and Izuku was absolutely intrigued the whole time as others tried to guess only to have their theories come crashing down and having to start from square one when proven wrong.
When Cadaver made his first move, he was quick, but Fugue was able to match his speed with little fanfare. What made Cadaver difficult to beat, though, was not only his speed. It was the combination of his speed, his experience, his versatility, and the fact that he came from a nothing-to-lose mindset that made him always go all in, determined to either win or die trying. In his mind, those were the only options, and he just felt lucky when he lost and woke up to see another day, but he never expected it. He always seemed a little surprised, a little starstruck, like he had been blessed by the galaxy, like he was deemed a god by the universe.
It made him all the more reckless and feral the next fight he had. Like he was invincible, but also definitely going to perish at the same time.
Schrodinger's fighter.
Izuku snorted at his own thoughts. Those around him barely spared him a second glance, used to his odd antics. Most of them figured that there had to be something strange about him for him to be a statistical anomaly anyway, making it to adulthood as a quirkless individual, and still seeming to not only survive, but to have found a place where he thrives.
Within 90 seconds, the match was over, and Fugue was knocked out cold on the floor. That was enough to declare Cadaver the undisputed winner of the match within the first round, but everyone knew and expected a show with Cadaver.
Cadaver was always scheduled to be the first fight of the night for a reason.
The two referees that swapped out throughout the matches and rounds were both present in the ring for all of Cadaver's fights, because once Cadaver won and knocked his opponent out, he didn't stop there.
Just as expected, as Fugue's unconscious body dropped, Cadaver lunged forward to land on top of him, landing a few extra punches to the man's face and ribs for good measure before the referees were able to wrangle him away, feet striking out to kick at Fugue's leg as he was finally pulled out of reach.
The fans pushed up against the fence, a rallying chant of Cadaver's name and just general screaming in support as Cadaver regained his bearings. One referee continued to restrain Cadaver while the other went to check on Fugue before declaring Cadaver the winner officially, much to the delight of the onlookers if their cheers were anything to go by. It wasn't really necessary to restrain him; once pulled away, Cadaver was able to refrain from going back in and finishing the job, but he didn't hold it against anyone for being extra cautious.
Izuku made his way to the back rooms to greet Cadaver and saw that Jupiter had beat him to it.
Izuku heard Jupiter's voice tearing into Cadaver as he neared, leading him to the right room without having to ask anyone for help, drawing a smile unbidden to his face at his friends' antics. "—new, for fuck's sake. You could have just left."
"I didn't have it in myself to go with grace," Cadaver dismissed easily, rolling his eyes.
"You never do," Jupiter said. "I'm surprised the word 'grace' is even in your vocabulary."
"Is that a word?" Cadaver asked sardonically, wrapping his hand with gauze. "I was just guessing, honestly. Taking a stab in the dark…"
"Don't you have a fight to get ready for?" Izuku asked Jupiter, wedging himself casually against the door frame. "And why are you wrapping that up? The healer is going to just undo all of that to take a look themselves, you know?"
"Ah, shit. I forgot it was healer night," Cadaver said, stopping his progression of wrapping in its tracks and dropping his hands down onto his lap. "They're going to rip me a new one for what I did to the new guy."
"How about I really mess up the other new guy to take the heat off of you," Jupiter offered, cracking her knuckles and bouncing on her toes to keep her muscles warm as she awaited her own turn for some, in her opinion, well-deserved violence.
"That might just work," Cadaver said. "I'd owe you big time."
"I'll just add it to your tab," she said with a laugh, blowing her brown bangs out of her face and promptly ignoring them when they fell back down exactly how they were before.
She blew them a kiss and left to stand at the entrance to the ring, ready to be announced.
"Do you want to go see the healer now?" Izuku asked Cadaver.
"And miss Jupiter's fight?" Cadaver shot Izuku an unimpressed look. "Are you trying to get me murdered so you don't have to face me again?" he asked as he heaved himself to standing, making his way back out to the stands with Izuku following close behind in the narrow hallway.
Izuku hummed and shrugged noncommittally. "It's a solid strategy to quit while I'm ahead. I finally won last time."
"Yeah, speaking of—" Cadaver started, pushing the door open and nodding to the bouncer stationed there. Izuku slipped through the door, made sure it closed firmly behind him, and followed along seamlessly, at ease in the familiar environment and routine that the Pit offered. "I woke up in a lot less pain than expected. What the fuck was that about?"
"What are you talking about?" Izuku asked, sincerely confused. "You think I magically healed you or something? Maybe Fugue got a few more good hits than I originally thought. You did forget it was healer night, too," Izuku half-seriously accused.
Hitoshi snorted. Hitoshi, not Cadaver, because in the stands, he was no longer Cadaver, but just another face in the anxious crowd that was ramping up to see the next fight.
"I'm not concussed… probably," Hitoshi said with a shrug, waving off the idea for when he sees the healer later and getting back on topic. "I'm saying that every time you wake up after a fight with me, you wake up with more injuries than you went down with. I just thought you'd like to return the favor once you finally got the chance, but it didn't happen."
Hitoshi led the way up the stairs to the back row, already knowing that Izuku liked to be in the back when the new fighters took the stage for the first time. He plopped down in an empty seat and Izuku sat down gingerly next to him, eyes analyzing his face intensely. Hitoshi groaned quietly. Whatever he had said had not gotten a playful response that would fall into endless banter like he had wanted, but rather Izuku's intense, analytical gaze that would inevitably result in a question that cut deeper than expected.
"You want someone to return the favor," Izuku accused. Before Hitoshi could deny or defend, he continued, "is it because you don't want to be the only one who the referees have to intervene for or because you think you deserve the extra pain and suffering?"
And there it was.
Hitoshi grit his teeth in anxiety and frustration. "Second one."
Izuku hummed in thought.
If it was anyone else, Hitoshi might have just decked them right there and left them lying unconscious or dead on the floor. If it was someone else that he cared about, he would have just ignored the question. They would have gotten the hint. But this was Izuku.
Izuku, who knew from their first meeting from just looking at his eyes that he had some kind of mental quirk but interacted with him freely and without hesitation anyway. Izuku, who never stood up for himself but would go scorched Earth for the ones he cared about. Izuku, who asked heavy questions but never gave any pitying looks or irrelevant advice when given a heavy answer, but just took the answer as it was. Unless he was asked for more.
And this time, Hitoshi did.
"I think some others that you fought against would be happy to give you what you want," Izuku said.
Hitoshi sighed. "It wouldn't be the same because I don't feel bad after matches with just anyone."
Izuku could have said a lot of things there. "We both know it's just a trauma response, so there's no hard feelings," but they both already knew that. "You don't need to feel bad; I know what I'm getting into when I step into the ring with you," which is all fine and dandy, but doesn't fix what Hitoshi is feeling.
What Izuku actually says is: "I'll just have to keep winning every match we have, then."
Hitoshi gaped, looking at Izuku with wide eyes. Then Hitoshi laughed and the tension left his body like a floodgate was opened. "Right, Viper. You do that."
"What?" Izuku asked, voice laced with dramatic incredulity. "You don't think I can? Even if I don't have the pure power and luck, I have the connections! What are you afraid of, Cadaver? Snakes? Spiders? I'll have the place filled with your fears and you'll be too distracted to see me coming at you, even if it was from a mile away with flashing neon signs and sirens blaring!"
"Too bad I'm only afraid of one thing," Hitoshi said vaguely.
Izuku made a circular motion with his hand to prompt Hitoshi to continue.
"A wild Viper surrounded by flashing neon signs and blaring sirens," Hitoshi whispered with a solemn nod.
Izuku brought his hands to his face to smother his obnoxious laughter as he nudged Hitoshi with his shoulder in retribution for making him laugh.
"Viper the snake or Viper the fighter?" Izuku asked for clarification through his wheezing.
"The fighter!" Hitoshi answered without hesitation. "Have you seen the guy? Mad skills! Heard he took out Cadaver last time they matched up. And Phoenix last night!"
"Phoenix and I don't seem to be a great match up," Izuku said, coming down from his laughing high as Jupiter was announced to the ring below. "He is really reckless, but it really pays off for him so well. He has beaten people who have absolutely demolished me, but I have won more than I've lost against him."
"You think he's going easy on you?" Hitoshi asked.
"No," Izuku said. "I don't think that's it at all. It's more like he's…"
Izuku caught the announcer's pitch for the new fighter's debut who went by the alias "Pitbull," but something strangely familiar and nostalgic, but also uncanny, caught his attention down by the ring.
"We have to get closer," Izuku demanded, standing up, grabbing Hitoshi's arm to pull him along right behind him.
He couldn't hear from up in the stands what Uraraka was saying to her opponent who was still standing in the doorway and unable to be seen by most of the crowd, including Izuku, but his stomach dropped at what she was doing to taunt her opponent and get him riled up before the fight even began.
Why would she be striking a pose from a pro hero? Let alone one of Dynamight's poses?
Jupiter stood in the center of the ring, a scowl on her face as she yelled. Her legs were spread to accommodate her crouch, elbows tucked tight against her waist with her hands out to either side, palms up toward the ceiling and fingers grasping and tensing around nothing. A perfect imitation.
Izuku shoved his way through to the front, pulling Hitoshi closely through the gap he made in the crowd right behind him. The ones who were dedicated enough to get close to all the action were regulars, so when people turned around to snarl and spit and threaten for daring to shove his way forward, they recognized him as the newest stakeholder and also Viper who had fought the night before, towing along a confused but determined looking Cadaver behind him, and they quickly made extra room for them to get right up against the fence where they could finally hear what Jupiter was saying.
"—always going on and on about power. You wanna talk about power?" she taunted, throwing her head back and cackling. "Let me show you power! You're in the Pit now, Dynamight!"
Hitoshi pushed his face against the fence right along Izuku as they both tried to get a glimpse of her opponent.
"It can't really be the actual Dynamight, can it?" Hitoshi asked, seeming unsure.
Izuku gulped, swallowing around the knot in his throat before he found the words to respond. "It doesn't seem likely, but it's not impossible. With the way that Jupiter is carrying on, it's either the real deal or a sidekick or an intense fan or something. But even if the real Dynamight showed up here and agreed to all the rules, I don't think he'd be turned away."
Because that's a rule of the Pit, and rules are rules.
Some things can't be helped.
"They didn't run this by you?" Hitoshi asked. "You don't know who it is?"
"No," Izuku said. "That's not really how any of it works. Not any one of us has a say in every little thing. It would be too much power and too much time to oversee everything that goes on in the Pit all of the time. I'm not involved with the screening of new participants."
"Well, maybe you should be," Hitoshi sassed.
"I'll add it to my to-do list," Izuku agreed meekly, face pale as his gaze continued to be locked onto the entrance to the ring.
The world wouldn't be that cruel right? To put Izuku's old friend right in the center of his field of vision once more when everything else was already so tense?
But the world didn't care about Izuku. It never did.
That was just the rule of the world, and rules were rules.
Some things just couldn't be helped.
Izuku should have known that by now.
When Bakugou Katsuki stepped into view, glaring right back at Jupiter with his hands relaxed at his sides and not rising to take her bait, Izuku had to wonder what the actual fuck was going on. First, Eraserhead is outside of the ring during his fight. And now, the very next day, Dynamight is inside the ring?!
When he commented that he was not expecting to see her and had hoped he was getting someone else, the crowd rushed forward, hissing and snarling and demanding his blood.
The crowd was quick to assume that Pitbull was a misogynistic, arrogant ass who was about to get his ass beat at the hands of the very woman he dared insult. In fact, the crowd was hopeful for it. After all, what was better than a powerful, arrogant man falling at the hands of a scrappy, underdog female fighter in the ring? You don't see that kind of entertainment often, not outside of the Pit.
Izuku and Ochako knew, however, that Katsuki, ever the adrenaline junkie, would have just wanted his first fight to be full of unknowns, and it's hard to have a fight full of unknowns when it's kind of like a rematch, Katsuki having already faced Ochako during their first year at UA during the sports festival.
"Maybe next time," Jupiter quipped. "If you survive your injuries from tonight," she added lazily, as if it was an impulsive afterthought.
Pitbull smiled sharply, but still stood in a relaxed position, seemingly unbothered that the match was about to start any second. The crowd was shouting threats and throwing themselves against the fencing that separated them from the fighters at the disrespect.
The buzzer sounded, and it became clear that Pitbull's relaxed stance was a ruse, a misdirection. Pitbull's gaze immediately hardened as he lunged forward, wasting no time going for his opening move as he twisted his body to put the maximum amount of force behind it, the one he always used: a right hook.
A/N: Here's the character list so far!
Viper – Midoriya Izuku
Phoenix – Todoroki Touya
Cadaver – Shinsou Hitoshi
Jupiter – Uraraka Ochako
Pitbull – Bakugou Katsuki