Shoto lay in the hospital bed provided for him in the infirmary. He was surprised that after the sound beating Ben gave him, he was honestly not all that badly injured. Then again, he did feel a healing sensation run through him when Ben was close to him, almost as if he didn't want to permanently cripple him.
Speaking of Ben, he had been stabilized after his power seizure when the match concluded. Currently, he was hooked up to a breathing machine and was asleep, his vitals having been steadied.
"You did well out there, my boy."
Shoto turned to see Garp entering the infirmary, a proud look on his face.
"Garp the Fist? What are you doing here?"
"Can't an old man see the son of his old pupil and relay a message on how proud he is?" The old hero chuckled. "Hopefully that kick in the pants was what you needed to see your power as your own."
"Torekuroshi didn't pull any punches..." Shoto sighed, recalling the harrowing dark future Ben showed him, still fresh in his mind. "I had no idea his powers were that potent."
Garp looked sadly at Ben's unconscious body. "You may think he's some ruthless, pragmatic being, but that boy is still learning how to be human. He wasn't exactly born the conventional way, after all."
"Is Ben going to be okay?" Ochako asked worriedly. "And for that matter, what about Todoroki?"
"Todoroki is fine for the most part but from what I'm hearing, Ben is gonna have to be forced out of the tournament." Izuku frowned. "Meaning the fight he'd be in the next round will have to be skipped."
Penny looked greatly upset, Hilda and Kirby doing their best to console her. It was no secret that she and Ben were close to each other and him nearly dying from overusing his powers was not helping matters.
"Still, Ben was super manly out there! He managed to help snap Todoroki out of his funk!" Eijirou pointed out.
"Yeah, even he was a little brutal about it..." Denki muttered. "A few of the words he said were kinda uncalled for, to be honest."
Once the arena was repaired following the intense battle between Ben and Shoto, the matches continued with Hilda and Kirby being the next battle.
"Alright, our boyfriends had a good fight, let's see if we can follow their example!" Hilda said, stomping her feet like a professional sumo wrestler as Kirby grinned and took out a spider-themed cookie and ate it, transforming into Spider Kirby, tipping her decorative top hat with a smile.
"May I have this dance?"
"You may indeed, my friend!"
Hilda launched herself forward like a cannonball as Kirby fired webs from her palms that formed a trampoline that she bounced off of into the air. She then fired web bullets at Hilda to stick her to the ground but the plump brawler quickly rolled out of the way and then lashed out [Blackwhip], which Kirby countered with a tall web needle.
Hilda spun around and then delivered a sumo palm thrust, sending a massive air bullet at Kirby, who fired a large spray of webbing that covered the bullet in a web pod, which she then kicked at Hilda, who quickly jumped out of the way but was sent flying by the residual shockwave.
"Not bad..." Hilda grinned as she rolled onto her back to see Kirby diving down, firing multiple web bullets at her.
However, the energy of OFA charged through Hilda, pink lightning surrounding her as she sucked in her stomach before suddenly catapulting herself straight up toward Kirby, who was shocked by the sudden approach as Hilda slammed into her with her whole massive frame before spinning around and crushing her into the floor with a powerful belly flop.
"Hope that wasn't too hard a landing. I do have plenty of extra padding, after all." Hilda giggled as she got off Kirby, who had turned back to normal and had swirls in her eyes as well as a bright red blush on her face.
"So soft...like pudding and sponge cake."
Hilda giggled and picked up the pink-haired girl in her arms before walking out of the arena.
"Kirby Sakurai has been knocked out! The winner is Hilda Yasakani!" Midnight announced.
The next fight was against Mipha and Nia. Nia was quite fast and was able to play a good game of keep-away as Mipha sent various water attacks at her. However, when Nia thought she found an opening and was about to take Mipha down with a pounce attack, she was hit by a surprise geyser of high-pressure water, sending her rocketing out of the arena.
"Sorry, you probably should have paid attention to what I was setting up." Mipha giggled with an apologetic look on her face, having set up geyser traps around the arena while trying to hit Nia.
"Bloody hell..." Nia grumbled as she picked herself up off the ground. "I hate getting wet..."
"Nia Hanekoma is out of bounds! Mipha Hashimoto is the winner!" Midnight announced.
Shoto was discharged from the infirmary and made his way back to the Class 1-A stands to see the rest of the matches. The look on his face showed he was still contemplating things.
"Oh, Todoroki, glad to see you're okay." Penny smiled. "Is...Is Ben alright?"
"He's stabilized for right now. Recovery Girl told me that it'll be another hour before he wakes up." Shoto explained. "So, who's up next?"
"Rebecca-Chan and Fio-Chan." Izuku said.
Fio managed to construct several different gadgets to combat Rebecca's vast arsenal of weapons. A shield blocked a torrent of flames from an arm turned into a high-pressure flamethrower, an electric gauntlet clashed with ripper blades protruding from Rebecca's fist, and a grappling hook launcher allowed Fio to reel herself in to try and pin Rebecca down under her bulk.
"Nice try, fatass! But there's still some tricks up my sleeve!"
Heat lines suddenly appeared around Rebecca's cybernetics and she unleashed a powerful heat blast that not only pushed Fio back but sent her out of bounds and landed on her big butt, making her fall on her back and groan.
"Guess you couldn't handle my Heat Wave, huh?"
"Yeah...gonna need to think about building a cooling unit for that..." Fio laughed as she got up.
"Fio Germi is out of bounds! Rebecca Santiago wins!" Midnight announced.
The next match was between Tenya and Ibara. While Ibara's vines were very versatile and far-reaching, Tenya had her beat when it came to speed. There were a few close calls here and there, but Tenya eventually got behind Ibara and picked her up before carefully pushing her out of bounds.
"Gotta hand it to Iida, he knows how to handle a lady." Hilda chuckled.
"Winner by ring out; Tenya Iida!" Midnight announced.
The next fight was against Fumikage and Mina. Fumikage and Dark Shadow had a clear advantage since even with the amount of light out, Dark Shadow could easily evade Mina's acidic ammo. She soon found herself getting pushed out of the ring.
"The winner is Fumikage Tokoyami!" Midnight announced.
As Penny was preparing for her match against Eijirou, she went to the infirmary to check on Ben, who looked mostly okay for the most part.
"Don't worry, just a few more minutes and he'll be okay." Shizune smiled.
"That boy's powers are strong, but overusing them does more damage to his body than one might think." Recovery Girl sighed. "Honestly, he pushed himself so much just to hammer it into Todoroki how stupid his pledge was. Still, I like to say he went too far in that regard."
Penny walked over to Ben's unconscious body and gently kissed him on the forehead, smiling as she left for her match, but not before turning around to say one last thing:
"Thank you for being my first friend, Ben...I promise I'll win this for you."
Meanwhile, in the waiting rooms, Tenya made a call on his phone.
"Tensei, are you there? It's me, Tenya."
"I am currently on a mission and cannot answer the phone!"
Tenya sighed, it was his brother's voicemail. Putting away the phone, he went to head back to the stands when he noticed someone standing there. It was a young man, just loitering around.
"Excuse me, but it is highly unprofessional to be loitering around here." The bespectacled young man called out as the other boy looked up at him.
The man was not handsome but nor was he unattractive. His hair was short and grey, and his red eyes had black eyeliner and black lipstick. He was heavily tattooed with a number of gothic-styled rings and bracelets, including at least three lip piercings on the lower lip and four earrings on each ear.
He was dressed in an Ice Nine Kills t-shirt under a thin grey hoodie, black khakis, and red slip-on shoes. He stared at Tenya for what felt like the longest time before giving off a grin that showed many misshapen and crooked teeth.
Tenya felt greatly uncomfortable as he walked off, leaving the man alone. As he left, the man chuckled, his teeth snapping and crunching before turning into normal, straight clean teeth. Licking his lips, the man slinked off, his hands in his pockets...
In the streets of Hosu, Tensei Iida AKA The Turbo Hero: Ingenium was running through the back alleys before finding a shadowy figure holding a female Pro Hero by the throat, a sword poised to stab her through the heart.
"There you are... Hero Killer!"
The shadowy figure dropped the Pro, turning to Tensei with a cold, icy glare. Tensei suddenly felt an overwhelming pressure coming off the figure but steeled his nerves as best he could and rushed forward to face his foe...
Meanwhile, the Sport Festival was starting to heat up with the match between Eijirou and Penny. Penny switched to Configuration: Explosion, firing explosive blasts from holes that opened up in her palms as Eijirou hardened himself to tank them.
"Come on, Penny! I know you have a configuration for my Hardening Quirk in you!"
"Yes, but I would like not to have a repeat of your match with Tetsutetsu."
"Fair point!" Eijirou then rushed forward. "Guess I'll just have to push you out of the ring!"
"Kirishima's got Penny on the defensive there," Izuku noted from the stands as Tenya showed up.
"Good, I didn't miss the fight."
"Oh, hey Iida!" Kirby smiled. "Why'd you head off to the waiting rooms? It's gonna be a while until your next fight."
"I was hoping my brother Tensei might be watching from the stands," Tenya admitted. "But I didn't see him after my last match. I tried calling him but it seems he's on a mission in the city. Still, this might be for the best. When we do talk, I can tell him about my success so far."
"I'm sure your bro is watching on livestream or something," Sero said. "Maybe he's on break and cheering you on right now."
"I do hope so..." Tenya sighed. "But there was this peculiar young man loitering around the waiting room. He seemed like a normal civilian who just got lost but I couldn't help but get an uneasy feeling about him..."
"Well, there's a lot of creepy guys who aren't all that bad once you get to know them." Mina pointed out. "Maybe he was just hanging around coincidentally."
"Somehow I doubt it, Ashido."
Back down below, Penny had found her opening. Eijirou had been overextending with his Quirk in order to keep on the offensive, which is what Penny was counting on.
"Configuration: Dupli-Arms!"
Multiple techno-organic arms protruded from Penny's sides and pummeled Eijirou from all sides. Soon, the redhead boy was down and out.
"And the winner by knockout; Penny Polendina!" Midnight announced.
"And now we have our Quarter-Finals set!" Present Mic said. "However, with Benio Torekuroshi out of commission, whoever ends up facing him will get a free pass! Considering what he did to Todoroki, this might be a good thing!"
The jumbotron spun once more, setting up the randomized matches for the Quarter-Finals:
Izuku Midoriya vs Mipha Hashimoto
Hilda Yasakani vs Tenya Iida
Penny Polendina vs Rebecca Santiago
Benio Torekuroshi vs Fumikage Tokoyami [PASS]
"Awwww, I wanted to see what he could do!" Dark Shadow complained in disappointment.
"It cannot be helped, Dark Shadow," Fumikage said. "You saw the grievous state Torekuroshi was in. We will just have to see who will become our opponent in the Semi-Finals."
Izuku and Mipha's match was up first, as the two old friends stepped onto the arena, both of them were thinking of the day they first met...
*Flashback*
Young 7-year-old Izuku breathed heavily after another rigorous training session with Rayleigh. The old hero had taken him to a special place at the beach where a miraculous kingdom lived in secret, inhabited by humanoid fish people named Zora. Like humans, they could also use Quirks, but the Quirks they had were usually more Sea-based,
"The boy's strength is already impressive." The Zora King, Dorephan Hashimoto, noted as Rayleigh chuckled.
"The brat's potential grows each and every day." The Dark King said. "And how's that lovely daughter of yours?"
"Mipha has a fascination with the outside world," Dorephan said. "I feel like once she is old enough, she can venture out. She desires to be a Hero, just like your young ward."
As Izuku picked himself up off the ground, he noticed a red scaly soft hand being offered to him and saw a beautiful girl in front of him, a blush decorated his freckled cheeks.
"Are you an angel?"
The girl giggled. "No, but thank you. I'm Mipha, I couldn't help but admire how determined you were, even against such overwhelming odds."
"Well, I want to be a super strong hero like All-Might so I can protect everyone!" Izuku proudly said, putting his fists to his hips. "What about you? Do you wanna be a Hero too?"
"I do, I've always wanted to explore the world outside my kingdom and help as many people as I can." Mipha smiled. "But I need to grow stronger first, as the future ruler of my people and as a Hero-to-be."
Izuku beamed as a friendship was formed at that very moment, the two of them holding hands. In fact, Izuku seemed to feel his fatigue fade away as he and Mipha touched.
"Rayleigh-Sensei, I'm ready for another round!"
*End Flashback*
The two were snapped out of their nostalgic musings when Midnight called the match to begin. Mipha quickly swam forward, surrounded by a small wave of water as Izuku quickly used the [Glint-Glint Fruit] to separate himself into light particles, each one forming a hardlight clone.
"LIGHT CLONES!"
Mipha quickly gracefully flipped into the air before landing down, slamming her palms on the ground as she created multiple geysers of water that pierced through the light clones, dissipating them, only for the real Izuku to lunge forward and send out a soap cloud in the shape of a sheep with the [Bubble-Bubble Fruit].
"SHEEP CLOUD RELAXING BUBBLES!"
Mipha smiled before slamming her palm against the ground, creating a giant dome of water that sucked in the bubbles and dissipated them. Izuku couldn't help but nod in approval of a clever tactic before phasing through the arena floor. Mipha was confused at first before realizing what Izuku was doing as half of the arena rose up, taking his shape.
"The power of the [Stone-Stone Fruit]!" Present Mic cried. "Truly an admirable ability!"
"You better repair the arena when you're done, Midoriya!" Cementoss called out as Izuku smiled playfully.
"Sorry, Cementoss-Sensei!" Izuku then turned to Mipha and sent out tentacles of stone toward her. "PULPOSTONE!"
Mipha gracefully swam across the tentacles before forming a trident made of water and thrusting it into the stone Izuku construct, breaking it apart and exposing part of Izuku's real body as he gasped, only to grin when he held his hands out, causing Mipha to realize what was happening.
"WHITE OUT!"
Firing clouds of smoke from his hands with the [Plume-Plume Fruit], Izuku increased the density to trap Mipha inside and push her out of bounds. The Zora Princess tumbled to the ground and breathed heavily, beaten but also happy that Izuku proved his strength.
"You really are amazing, Izuku...just like I always knew."
Izuku smiled as he walked over to Mipha and helped her up, the two of them taking a moment to gaze into each other's eyes.
"Shouldn't you be jealous, Hilda?" Minoru asked the big beautiful girl in question, who casually ate a hot dog before smiling.
"What? Mipha's cute! I don't mind sharing!"
"Dammit, Midoriya, you lucky bastard!"
"And now for the second match of the Quarter-Finals! It's speed against strength as Tenya Iida, son of the esteemed Ingenium Family, faces off against Hilda Yasakani, the big beautiful brawler!" Present Mic called out.
"We may be friends Yasakani, but that's no reason to hold back," Tenya said.
"Wasn't planning on it, Iida!" Hilda said, taking a Sumo Stance. "But you're gonna have to find a way to move me first!"
"AND START!"
Tenya seemed to vanish into thin air before reappearing in front of Hilda delivering a spinning kick that she blocked with her hammy arm, a shockwave exploding outward.
"Damn, just going for the head? Shame on you!"
Tenya rolled his eyes. "I don't intend to just wail on you while you stand there and take it! Show me everything you have!"
"Alright, you asked for it!"
Now both of them vanished, only to reappear in the air to strike with a flying kick meeting a mighty punch, another shockwave bursting out from the collision.
"RECIPRO BURST!"
"HOENN SMASH!"
"Kind of a dumb idea, don't you think?" Hilda pointed out. "Once you use that move, you have ten seconds before your engine stalls."
"Seems Midoriya isn't the only one with an analytical mind..." Tenya noted before being decked in the chin by Hilda's fist, which she then pulled back for another blow.
"KANTO SMASH!"
With a powerful strike, Hilda had Tenya knocked down on the ground, long enough for his engines to stall. Tenya quickly realized he wasn't winning this fight, not with his Quirk unable to properly fire.
"I yield..."
"And Iida surrenders!" Midnight announced, "The winner is Hilda Yasakani!"
Meanwhile, Ingenium was having troubles of his own, having just been taken out by the Hero Killer he was hunting, now lying in a pool of his own blood.
"Fame... Money... That's what all of you so-called heroes are really after." He stomped on Ingenium's phone. "You bastards are not heroes at all. But there is one exception..."
Blood dripped from his blade as Tensei struggled to remain conscious. The female Pro Hero he had tried to rescue was lying dead beside him, her eyes wide open and tears pouring down them as her throat was slashed.
"He's the only one with permission to kill me. Only All-Might is worthy..."
"Well, well, well, guess it's time for our match," Rebecca smirked as she stepped in along with Penny, who kept a friendly smile on her face.
"Indeed, Friend Rebecca! How is your brother doing, by the way?"
"Pilar? He's still doing shady deals here and there but we still run with our Edgerunner crowd." Rebecca shrugged. "Now, are you ready to do this?"
Penny smiled as she activated Configuration: Zero-Gravity, creating special pads on her palms that could fire anti-gravity beams. Seeing this, Rebecca activated her Gravity Spikes, forming a pair of high-tech spikes from her arms that she gripped in her hands.
"Oh, it's on now!"
The two charged at each other, Penny using her jet boots and Rebecca boosting herself into the air with her jetpack, the two let out a battle cry as they crashed into each other, creating a massive gravitational discharge that forced everyone back in their seats.
"WHOOOOOOA!" Eijirou cried. "That's some manly firepower right there!"
When the dust settled, Rebecca had been knocked out of bounds but she still left a mark on Penny, much to the audience's shock when they saw parts of her gym uniform torn up and her skin damaged...revealing sparking metallic parts.
"Oh no...I-I didn't want people to learn like this..." The android weakly said before falling on her face.
"Oh crap, that's my bad..." Rebecca groaned, realizing that she had just revealed a very high-trade secret.
"Wait..." Sero gawked. "PENNY IS A ROBOT?!"
"Lot of secrets being let out today..." Kirby noted to Hilda, who nodded nervously in agreement.
"Rebecca Santiago has been knocked out of bounds! The winner is Penny Polendina!" Midnight urgently said as she got a blanket to cover Penny with. "Come on, sweetie, let's get you fixed up."
Izuku frowned as he watched Midnight take Penny to the infirmary. Suddenly, many things about the quirky girl made sense to him, as did her connection with Ben. He knew it wasn't his place to pry, but he'd need to ask them both about it later when they got better.
Suddenly, Tenya began shaking, freaking out his classmates.
"Don't worry. It's just my phone."
"What kind of phone even is that?!" Denki asked.
Tenya ignored the comment and answered, surprised when the number he was getting was his mom. He headed out to take the call.
"Hey, Mom. Sorry to tell you, but I was stopped at the quarter-finals."
"That's not why I'm calling..." his mom clarified, sounding close to tears. "It's about your brother...A villain got Tensei."
Tenya's eyes widened in shock. "What!? Is he alright!?"
"He's still alive, thankfully. They called Sister Sage to tend to him." Mrs. Iida assured him. "But he's been rushed to Hosu General Hospital..."
"I'll be right there!" Tenya said, hanging up and praying to every god imaginable that his dear brother was okay.
The Hero Killer, Stain, looked down on the scene as Ingenium was taken away on a stretcher while the dead female Pro Hero was dragged away in a body bag.
"This world is filled with hypocrisy. I will open its eyes, and those of its heroes."
He sensed something behind him and stabbed, only for his blade to find itself caught by the ironclad fist of the Merciless.
"A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Hero Killer...I believe we can be of mutual aid to each other."
Sorry if things were rushed in this chapter. Penny was the only one whose secret hadn't been revealed yet and I wanted to get it out of the way. Plus, the Sports Festival is really wearing me down, so you can understand why I'm not very creative at the moment.
We'll get into more detail about Penny's backstory and how she and Ben are connected in the following chapters. This also brings into context her powers, which obviously aren't a Quirk. In fact, due to her robot nature, they can be considered similar to Mega Man's Power Copying abilities.
As always, be sure to check out this story's TV Tropes page. Additions are highly appreciated.