In the 1-A locker room, Izuku ran through some basic stretches and kept half an eye on the screen in the corner. He hadn't seen the start of Uraraka-san and Sero-san's match, but it was fairly even. Sero-san had the advantage of reach, but Uraraka-san's quirk offered greater maneuverability on flat land. Either one of them getting a hit would be the end of it.
It should have been anyway. As it was they were scrambling to push the other out floating several feet in the air with tape loosely dangling between and around them. And they were vicious. Izuku was fairly certain Uraraka-san had bit Sero-san at some point, though to be fair, it looked like Sero-san had broken her nose. He was pretty sure that Uraraka-san had the advantage in the air like this if she had been using the exercises he had suggested from when Korosensei had trained them to hijack the ISS, but all the tape floating around meant she had to be careful not to get tangled before she could either restrain Sero-san or get him out of the ring.
And then she dropped her quirk. They both tumbled to the ground, Uraraka-san lading and rolling quickly back to her feet and pouncing on Sero-san who was still reeling from the drop. She grabbed, him, activating her quirk again and threw him, sending him sailing smoothly out of the ring.
Izuku couldn't help the grin as he finished his preparations and headed to the field. "Good job," he said as Uraraka-san stepped out of the light, a manic smile on her face. "I'd give you a high five, but my hands are a bit full."
"Fuck yeah!" Uraraka-san cheered, throwing her hands in the air. "Sero-kun didn't know what hit him!" A short pause and she looked back over at Izuku, her eyes landing on his bulging pockets. "Um… whatcha got there Mido-kun?"
Izuku grinned. "A surprise."
Uraraka-san frowned. "We're not allowed extra gear."
Izuku nodded. "It's all been approved." The rules for the Sports Festival were similar to the entrance exam. Either fully licensed support gear, or things they built themselves (though this time they could get their supplies either from a hardware store or from the Support Course workshops.) With the added caveat of it being fully wearable or able to fit in their pockets for anyone that wasn't in the Support Course. Getting things approved hadn't been all that difficult.
"Alright then…" she nodded slowly. "Should I be worried for Iida-kun?"
Izuku shrugged. "Only for his pride."
"Well," her cheery smile popped back up, "good luck Mido-kun!"
Izuku grinned wider. "Thanks! I won't need it!"
"Well, that was an intense first round of matches," Present Mic-sensei said, "I can hardly imagine what we'll be getting this round!"
"Probably more of the same," Aizawa-sensei drawled. "Hopefully with fewer delays."
"Aw, don't be like that! You know you're enjoying this!"
"Can we keep this moving? Midoriya Izuku against Iida Tenya, both from 1-A."
"Fine, Midnight, they're all yours!"
"Excuse me," Iida-san interrupted before Midnight-sensei could start the match. "I thought hero students were not permitted any gear outside of our gym uniforms!"
Midnight closed her mouth again and blinked in Izuku's direction, then turned back in the direction of the commentators' booth. "Eraser, what is he doing?"
"It's been approved," Izuku said.
"If you have a problem with it, take it up with Nedzu-sama," Aizawa-sensei sighed into his microphone. "You know he handles all that paperwork."
Iida-san sputtered. "You got gear approved!?"
Izuku shrugged, keeping his hands in his pockets, fingers pinching the "hidden" bags shut. "I read the rules and applied. Take it up with Nedzu-sama."
"I swear, you kids get weirder every year," Midnight-sensei muttered. "Well, if it's all clean, then I see no reason to delay!"
Izuku tensed and prayed. Now it was all or nothing.
Iida-san's eyes widened, but in a moment he was prepared in a runners stance. Just what Izuku wanted.
Midnight-sensei's whip cracked and Iida-san was off his line in the space between one heart beat and the next.
Against someone else, Iida-san's plan probably would have worked. But Izuku was not someone else. He was a student of Korosensei's assassination classroom. He had spent the last school year training his kinetic vision to let him (nearly) track a target moving faster than the speed of sound. Iida-san had nothing on Izuku's eyes. All Izuku had to do was react. All Izuku had to do was move and let go.
So he did. He stepped to the left and slightly back, turning as he went, loosening his grip on the bags.
Small metal ball bearings scattered everywhere, spilling from their bags and the holes Izuku had cut in his pockets and down his pant legs. He had a moment to see Iida-san's eyes widen, but it was too late. He might have speed, but he was best in a straight line. He struggled to turn or stop quickly once he was in gear.
He wouldn't be able to get the traction once his feet hit Izuku's trap.
His arms pinwheeled and his feet slipped and slid. The balls kept him moving, sliding from one to the next as he tried in vain to change direction. He fell backwards, but continued to slide. Further, and further, and…
"Iida-kun is out of bounds! Midoriya-kun advances to the next round!"
Silence, then confused cheering. Present Mic-sensei howled with laughter over the speakers and Aizawa-sensei sighed.
There were still ball bearings falling out of Izuku's pants. He pinched the openings again and carefully pulled the bags out of his pockets and glanced around him. He might have won the match, but at the cost of bobby trapping the entire area around him. He chose his steps carefully, sometimes sliding his foot across the ground and shuffling slightly to push the balls out of the way and make a safe path. Half way across he stopped, "Uh, do you want me to help clean this up…?"
Midnight-sensei snorted and shook her head. "Nah, you're fine, kid. We'll just have Cementoss bury them in the cement."
Izuku nodded and continued his slow trek off the stage. At the edge, finally (mostly) free of his own hubris, Izuku stopped at Iida-san's side. "Are you okay?" he asked, shifting his bags to one hand so he could offer the other to his classmate.
Iida-san blinked at him. "I am… fine," he said. He pushed himself up, ignoring Izuku's offered hand. He looked out at the field of metal spheres and winced. "Defeated by a cartoon's trick…" he muttered. Izuku knew he wasn't supposed to hear that and held in his own wince of sympathy.
He didn't look at Izuku as he walked away. Izuku sighed and followed, letting Iida-san take a little distance and turning down a different hallway. He doubted Iida-san wanted to see him right now.
He probably didn't want to see anyone right now.
But what did Izuku do next?
Todoroki-san needed a wake up call, but could Izuku give him one? He odds were stacked so high against him… but he still had to try. And maybe… find another option. If Izuku couldn't take Todoroki-san down and shred his pride, he needed someone else to do it for him.
Izuku sighed and slumped into a chair as he stepped into the 1-A changing room and finally set down his bags of ball bearings. There really weren't a lot of options left that could beat Todoroki-san.
So he took out his phone and sent a text.
Izuku: come down to the changing room. I need to talk.
"I'm going to be quick," Izuku said, "your match is going to start sooner rather than later, so we don't have a lot of time."
"Well, yeah…" Kirishima-san muttered, eyes darting between Izuku and Bakugou.
"Just spit it out, nerd."
"One of you needs to beat Todoroki-san. I don't care which of you makes it to the finals, but he can't win."
"Aren't you facing him next?" Kirishima-san asked.
Bakugou snorted. "Shitty nerd knows his limits."
Izuku shrugged. "I'll try, but honestly, you two are the only ones left that stand a chance of beating him."
"And I didn't need you to tell me to win, asshole," Bakugou continued. "I'm going to get first place and there's not a single thing that Half-and-Half bastard, or anyone else, could do to stop me."
"Nothing's set in stone yet, Baku-bro," Kirishima-san said with a roll of his eyes. "But why do you care, Midoriya-kun? You don't normally…"
"He's not trying," Izuku said. "He needs to lose. He needs to understand that literally half his power won't be enough. Under different circumstance I could easily take him out, but this festival is a bad set up for me. I could use the rules against Iida-san, heck, I had a plan for Kaminari-san and Ashido-san. But with limited time and resources, I wasn't able to set anything up to deal with Todoroki-san."
"He's not trying!?" Bakugou snapped. "What do you mean he's not trying!?"
Izuku sighed. "He's literally only using half his quirk. Maybe a little over that on technicality, but his left side doesn't just melt his ice. His left side is fire. Actual flames fire. And apparently he's sworn to never use it in a fight. For some reason."
"That stupid piece of shit," Bakugou growled. "Who does he think he is!? What because he's Endeavor's perfect little boy, he couldn't possibly lose!? Is that it!?"
Kirishima-san's ever present smile had dropped. "He's sworn off half of himself? Why?"
Izuku shrugged, looking at the ground. He didn't really know just anything for sure just yet, but the way Endeavor-san had talked to Todoroki-san in the hall… Izuku didn't doubt that Todoroki-san was trying to distance himself from his father. Which wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't going to put others in danger when he took to the field as a licensed hero. "I don't know," he finally said. "I didn't ask."
"Fuck this shit," Bakugou snapped. "It doesn't matter why, but if he thinks he can win like that? That I'll let him win when he's got a hand tied behind his back, then I guess I'll just have to beat the shit out of him until he gets the message."
Kirishima-san looked like he'd swallowed a lemon as he glared at the floor. "I need to go prepare for my match," he said softly. He cast a quick glance between the other two boys. "Save the fights for the matches, though, yeah? No need to get your selves disqualified." Then he spun on his heel and left.
Bakugou grit his teeth and turned back to Izuku as the door swung shut behind Kirishima-san. His mouth opened to speak, but his eyes caught Izuku's and he snapped his mouth shut and almost ran from the room.
Izuku: cliff notes?
Izuku: other than the who one bit
Izuku: like, any sign of weakness?
Karma: no massive glacier this time
Nagisa: though I can't tell if thats cuz of fatigue or control
Izuku nodded to himself, finally flopping down into a seat in 1-A's section. The match between Kirishima-san and Tokoyami-san had already started. It looked like a knock down, drag out fight. Nothing special or technical. Just two boys trying very hard to either knock their opponent unconscious or knock them out of the ring. On the one hand, Kirishima-san was struggling to get close to Tokoyami-san because of Dark Shadow. On the other, Dark Shadow was not winning against Kirishima-san. It hadn't landed too many hits, and even fewer that Kirishima-san cared about through his Hardening, and Kirishima-san's hardened fists were not fun to get hit with, especially with One for All adding an extra punch. Apparently, even when you were made of shadow.
"Shouldn't you be with Uraraka-chan?" Ashido-san said, leaning over the back of Izuku's seat.
Izuku frowned. "Why should I be there?"
"'Cause she's going up against Bakugou-kun?"
"And?"
"Cold, man, just cold."
"What? I'm really not following you here."
"Come on, man," Sero-san said, glancing over from the match for a moment. "She's your friend isn't she? She's about to go up against the most explosive personality in the class and you're just sitting here?"
"If you're worried about her, maybe you should be with her. Or maybe you can have a little faith."
Satou-san glanced back. "You really think she's going to win? Against him?" He shook his head and turned back to the fight.
"I don't know if she'll win, but she has options, she has a chance. And she's smart, she'll figure something out."
Ashido-san hummed, looking thoughtful. "I still say you should be with her. Moral support and all that."
"Kirishima-kun has broken past Dark Shadow and is inside Tokoyami-kun's defenses!" Present Mic-sensei cheered. "Can Tokoyami-kun counter? No! He's out of bounds!"
"Kirishima-kun wins and advances to the next round!"
"Too late now," Izuku muttered just loud enough for Ashido-san to hear.
The class shifted uncomfortably, but no one spoke. They all knew what the next match was. And the rest of the class seemed uncomfortable with it. Izuku fought the urge to roll his eyes at them. Sure, they were the heroic types, all honor and fair play and the like, but they needed to get over this squeamishness before they underestimated someone and held back in a fight.
"Well, looks like we don't have any clean up this time, so let's keep this moving shall we?"
"Right on! For the last match before the semi-finals we have… the boy who's been famous since middle school with the face of a delinquent, Bakugou Katsuki! Versus… the one I'll be rooting for, Uraraka Ochako!"
Wow. "Isn't he supposed to be unbiased?" Izuku asked. "Or at least be more subtle about it?"
There were a few nervous chuckles from the group.
"Begin!"
Uraraka-san didn't waste a moment, bursting forward with speed enhanced by her gravity reduction, just barely skimming the ground.
Bakugou brought his hand back, then bowled it forward, down and low, directly into Uraraka-san's face as it blow chunks of cement from the arena. A change from his old pattern of the opening wide right hook, but maybe he was aware enough to realize he'd gotten predictable.
The crowd murmured, the usual cheers tapering off. Smoke and dust filled the air, surrounding Uraraka-san. From Izuku's position, he could just barely make out some swirls and eddies in the air flow that may have shown where she was moving, but he knew Bakugou had just shot himself in the foot. Not being able to see Uraraka-san was dangerous. He pounced forward on something just as Uraraka-san jumped out of the smoke behind him, closing in on his exposed back.
"Wow, she made her jersey float as a decoy! That's some real quick thinking!"
Bakugou swung back around before Uraraka-san made contact, throwing another explosion to force her to back off.
And she rushed in again, head on.
Bakugou pushed her back with another explosion. Filling the arena again with smoke and dust.
And again.
And again.
Izuku sat forward, there was movement. Not Uraraka-san or Bakugou. Something else.
Another rushed attack, another explosion.
There. Just after the explosion before the smoke could clear, pieces of rubble rose out of it. Some small pebbles, other large chunks. All from Bakugou's blast tearing up the floor.
Izuku watched again. Uraraka-san stayed low, Bakugou struck low. More debris floated up. Into a growing cloud of waiting ammunition. He leaned back, grinning. This might be a bit of a wrench in his plan to knock Todoroki-san down a peg, but he wouldn't say he would be unhappy for Bakugou to learn a bit of humility as well.
"Is this what a hero should be acting like!?" a voice carried up from the stands, barely audible over the explosions. "If you're that much stronger, just knock her out of bounds already!"
Other heroes joined in, booing and calling for Bakugou to be eliminated. "Are they dumb?" Izuku asked.
Hagakure-san shifted in her seat. "Are you serious?"
Izuku looked at her. "Yes, I'm serious! How can they possibly all be this dumb!?"
"Or maybe they just have some honor," Ojirou-san muttered, wincing as another explosion ripped the air.
There was a scuffle in the announcing booth, Present Mic-sensei complaining about something…
"Who just said he's toying with her?" Aizawa-sensei said, his voice scathingly cold. "Are you a pro? How many years? If you said that in your right mind, there's no point in you watching this match. Do us all a favor and just go home. Better yet, just turn in your license."
No one in 1-A spoke, or even moved. Even on the field it seemed like there was a pause in the action. Everyone listening to their teacher with the same attention they'd give him in class.
"He clearly recognizes his opponent's strength for her to have gotten this far, and is on guard as a result. It's because he's doing everything in his power to win that he's not going easy on her."
Uraraka-san dropped her meteors.
From the other side of the divider with 1-B, Izuku heard a scoff. "Really, a pro didn't notice from the stands? It's one thing for Bakugou-kun to not notice, she was deliberately keeping him distracted and limiting his field of view, but we've all got a clear line of sight on the whole thing."
Izuku nodded. "And she deliberately kept low too," he added on, speaking to the other student.
"All to force Bakugou-kun to make her weapons for her," the voice agreed. "I'm glad to hear someone was paying attention."
"I told you she had a chance," Izuku said, throwing a look over his shoulder at Ashido-san.
Another explosion. Izuku glanced back down to see the debris that Uraraka-san had carefully collected to drop on Bakugou's head being thrown in every direction, knocked off course by a massive blast. Bigger than anything Bakugou had used so far.
"That was a huge demonstration of power!" Present Mic-sensei yelled. "He's blasted apart Uraraka-chan's finishing move and remains untouched!"
Uraraka-san tried to pull herself back to her feet. She stumbled forward, lurching in a last desperate attack… and fell. Down for the count.
"… Uraraka-kun is unable to move," Midnight-sensei spoke, moving down to check on the girl. "Bakugou-kun advances to the next round."
Set and match. It was too bad that Uraraka-san couldn't beat Bakugou, but Todoroki-san was guaranteed to learn something over the next couple rounds. All Izuku had to do was try his best.
