I sat down next to Ojiro while the "fight" between Kaminari and that support course girl continued. I say "fight" because it was more the girl giving a presentation while Kaminari was played like a fiddle to her tune, forced to show off all the tech he'd been given.

"…Thanks," Ojiro muttered.

I nodded, saying nothing.

Kaminari's match continued for a few minutes before he eventually got fed up and started glowing with electricity.

"Nooo! My babies!" the girl presenting cried out, loud enough that she would have been heard even without her microphone. The electricity from Kaminari had obviously fried the tech, causing some of it to smoke dangerously. The girl slumped her shoulders and just walked out of the ring, effectively forfeiting.

The next round was Tokoyami against Yaoyorozu. It was a match to keep an eye on, as the winner was likely to be able to beat Kaminari after how much the blond had used his quirk so far. And then, assuming I won against Hagakure, I would be facing the winner of this match in the semi-finals.

"Wazawa," a voice croaked behind me. Asui was sat in the seat directly behind me, having not made it through the cavalry battle after we stole a chunk of her team's points. "You were very violent against your opponent."

Even though I really didn't like how she kept on insisting on familiarity, I could at least respect how Asui never danced around what she meant. I just shrugged in response. "He irritated me."

"Why did you barely use your quirk?" Sato chimed in.

"To prove a point. He kept talking as if quirks were everything, so I beat him quirkless."

"But doesn't that mean the pros don't know what you're capable of?"

Before I could respond, Present Mic interrupted with the call out for Tokoyami and Yaoyorozu. The two students faced each other in the ring, and after a brief word from Midnight — which wasn't audible from our seating — the match commenced.

And then the match was over. In less than ten seconds, Dark Shadow had attacked Yaoyorozu, who blocked with a small shield, but wasn't able to respond the second strike and was knocked out of the ring. Compared to my match and the comedy routine that was Kaminari's, it was blazing fast.

So, I would likely be up against Tokoyami if I made it to the semifinals. That was going to be an interesting fight. Dark Shadow outranged my tentacles, so I'd need to get close, though doing so against its impressive capabilities would be difficult. Plus, like my quirk, it had a will of its own, so even if I distracted Tokoyami with something, Dark Shadow would still be able to defend him. It was essentially a two versus one fight.

But that was for later. Right now, I had to plan for my fight against Hagakure. Though, it's hard to exactly plan when I haven't seen her capabilities since her training. I was in the preparation room while her match against Sero happened, but considering she would have seen up close how Sero fought back in the battle trial, she could probably avoid his initial attack and surprise him with invisible punches.

As I planned, the match between Kirishima and Aoyama took place. It was fairly bland, with Kirishima being pushed close to the edge of the ring multiple times by the force behind Navel Laser, but able to resist any major damage using Hardening. The fight came to a close when Aoyama doubled over in pain from using his quirk too much, leaving allowing Kirishima to eliminate him without much resistance.

The next match, however, would likely be anything but bland. I hadn't gotten much chance to see Iida's speed in action, though what I did see was impressive. And I had seen quite a bit of Bakugo's Explosion. It would likely be a close match, but Bakugo probably would come out on top.

Immediately upon starting, Iida shot forwards with a quirk boosted kick, which Bakugo dodged by using an explosion to move out of the way. The fight quickly became a game of cat and mouse, except both were simultaneously the cat and the mouse. Both used their quirks to avoid the other, while trying to close in for an attack of their own.

Suddenly, a flash of light came from Iida's legs. I had briefly noticed a similar sight during the cavalry battle, followed by an astonishing burst of speed. And just like before, Iida practically blurred out of sight, reappearing in front of Bakugo and tackling him to the edge of the ring. For a moment it looked like he was going to win.

And then the entire stadium shook as Bakugo blew up. The sheer concussive force from the blast knocked both of the contestants to the middle of the ring, and also managed to practically destroy the edge they had been on.

The match was short lived after that. Iida had been taken by surprise by the sudden blast, and from the puffs of smoke coming from his legs, he couldn't use his quirk anymore. Bakugo only needed to throw him off the edge to win.

"That was intense!" Kaminari commented from where he had just sat down. "As expected of Bakugo."

"Iida was super cool too," Sero said. "He almost won for a second there."

I hummed in response. "He might have had he not used that technique earlier. He ruined the surprise by using it during the second round."

Midoriya and Uraraka walked out for their match on the debris covered stage. Despite Cementoss being right there, they opted to leave it in its partially destroyed state for now. The stood across from each other, Uraraka looking determined, and Midoriya seeming more nervous than usual.

The match started, and Uraraka charged, hands low to the ground. Her main strategy was obvious: get in close and use her quirk on Midoriya, removing his ability to control his direction.

Midoriya obviously knew this, as when she got within a few metres of him, he flicked his finger and knocked her back with a blast of air. It wasn't powerful enough to eliminate her, but she skidded back a couple of metres, hand on the ground to support herself.

The same exchange happened a few more times, Uraraka getting close only to be knocked back by an air blast. The real question would be which would happen first. Would Uraraka tire and be knocked out, or would Midoriya run out of fingers?

Uraraka started attacking from a range, picking up the rubble left by Bakugo and Iida's fight, and tossing it at Midoriya, who was forced to dodge out of the way of the weightless projectiles. As he did so, Uraraka took the opportunity to jump in and just managed to graze him with all five fingers.

Midoriya began floating upward, legs flailing for purchase on the ground no longer in reach. If he didn't pull something out of his ass quick, he would definitely lose this. As he floated over the edge of the ring, Uraraka brought shaking fingers up in the pose she takes to stop her quirk, waiting for the perfect moment.

Suddenly, I caught a brief flash of determination in Midoriya's eyes, as he reared one arm back. Due to how he had spun in the air, he was faced directly towards our class's seating.

I got a very bad feeling about what was to come.

Midoriya thrust he arm forward, releasing a blast of air much stronger than the ones he attacked Uraraka with. The propulsion, combined with his current weightless state, sent him rocketing straight to Uraraka, who was struggling to stand.

Watching the match was not on my priority list, however, as I quickly opened three gates to use the tentacles to shield myself from the gale of wind. I was one of the lucky ones. At least I could use my quirk to block some of the wind. From the sounds behind me, my classmates were struggling to cope.

By the time everything settled down, the match was over. Uraraka was sprawled out of bounds, knocked over by Midoriya's sudden flight. Midoriya had also collapsed… on top of Uraraka.

I stood up from my seat, intending on preparing for my match with Hagakure, while Midoriya realised the position he was in and jumped up, no doubt blabbering a thousand apologies. As I twisted my back, popping it a bit — the seats were really uncomfortable — I could see the effect the wind had on the rest of the class. Hair was everywhere, thrown every which way and making them all look like they had just been skydiving.

With a suppressed smile, I left the stands before the match between Ashido and Todoroki could begin.

~X~

"Not going to watch the match?" Hagakure said, sliding into view as I walked to the preparation room.

"Nope," I replied. "They're on the opposite side of the bracket, so the chance of me fighting either of them is low, and even if I do, there will be two more rounds to watch."

"But why leave so early? There'll be a break before our fight starts either way."

I just shrugged. "Stretching."

We walked side by side in silence. Despite the fact that Hagakure needed to be on the other side of the arena to start the fight, she decided to follow me into the preparation room and do her stretches there.

After a few minutes, the muffled voice of Present Mic announcing that Todoroki was the winner. I pretty much expected that, no matter how skilled Ashido was, she couldn't overcome the gap in sheer power between the two.

"And with that, we are on to the quarter finals! We'll be taking a five-minute break before the next round starts, so contestants, please make your way to the marshalling area."

I straightened up. "Well, you better head off," I told her. "You still need to go to the other side of the stadium.

"It'll be fine," Hagakure waved me off.

We left the room together, but before we could part, Ashido rushed out from the main stage, shaking and an odd shade of purple.

"Eh? Mina?" Hagakure asked, rushing over to her and grabbing on to her arms. "You're freezing!"

"T-T-Todoroki f-froze me… in a g-glacier," she stuttered out through chattering teeth.

That would do it. It would also explain the purple skin. I kind of had to wonder whether that was the upper limit of Todoroki's strength, since he had shown he was capable of freezing an entire building over during the battle trial, but an entire glacier was far beyond anything he had shown before.

There was a fairly decent chance that if I made it to the finals, I would be facing Todoroki. In that case, could I avoid an entire glacier? It would of course depend on the size, but my tentacles should be able to break through the ice, it was just a matter of if I could do so fast enough.

As I was thinking to myself, Hagakure had wandered off with Ashido in the direction of her marshalling area. I was left all alone to think of how to approach this coming match.

To be honest, I hadn't thought much on how to fight Hagakure. Unlike some of our classmates, she had no flashy abilities to watch out for, so it would be a fairly straightforward fight. And though I had experience with sparring with her during our two weeks of preparation, I also was aware that she must have improved leaps and bounds since we last sparred. If she hadn't, I don't think she would have been able to beat Sero.

The ten-minute break was over, and I was called over to enter the ring.

~X~

"You know the drill already, you lose by forfeiting, ring out, or falling unconscious. Don't die, and please don't spend half the match having a conversation," Midnight said, directing that last part at me. "Well then, let the first match of the quarter finals… Begin!"

Immediately, I opened a portal over my face, and grew a tentacle out of each shoulder. Hagakure ran in, body low to the ground as she initiated combat. I held back on any counterattacks for the moment, partially because I wanted to see if there was any pattern to her hits, but it was mostly because I wanted to see how her fighting style had changed.

She went for a punch, which I easily brushed aside with a tentacle, being able to see the trajectory due to her sleeves. She followed up with another punch, which I dodged, and then I quickly hopped over the incoming leg sweep. I could see in the stands some people were muttering to each other.

To be perfectly honest, I was sort of… disappointed. It felt so similar to how she was fighting before that I could already almost predict what her next move would be.

When the expected right hook came I caught the fist with a tentacle and landed a solid punch across Hagakure's jaw. She was knocked away by the hit, tripping and landing sprawled on the floor.

Something was different. Not about Hagakure, no she was definitely the same as usual. But when I punched her, there was no rush of joy, no pleasure at seeing her knocked down. It didn't make any sense, I'd been feeling that pretty much all day, and especially so in my previous fight, the only thing different now was…

Oh. How hadn't I realised? The only thing that was different about this time was the fact that it was Hagakure that I was fighting. I'd initially put it to the side, thinking that because she was invisible, it caused a similar effect as to how I could tolerate Tsuchigumo a lot more over text. But no.

I didn't hate Hagakure.

Boos and shouts came from the stand, voices undecipherable from this distance but no doubt directed at me. I tuned them out, ignoring their idiotic cries. They came here to watch teenagers fight; they shouldn't complain when exactly that happens.

Hagakure began to pick herself up off the ground. Her shoulders were bent forwards and shaking a bit, her posture closed in and completely open to attack. I couldn't ignore that, especially not after my realisation.

"Fuck them."

"Huh?"

"They care more for their performative display of morality than they do about you. They were never going to see you as capable. So just forget the rabble exists for the moment and focus solely on the fight ahead. Prove yourself to you."

She straightened up a bit and sniffled. "You are horrible at cheering someone up."

I briefly noted Aizawa-sensei saying something from the announcer booth — which was essentially the first time he had spoken into the mic — but I ignored it in favour of watching Hagakure closely for the moment she chose to attack.

She rolled up the legs of her pants, making it so I couldn't tell where she would be stepping. She also didn't have any shoes on still. I really hope she hadn't just left them from where they had been frozen during the obstacle race.

Seeing that she was now taking this more seriously, I stepped it up a notch myself, creating two more tentacles which came out of our lower back. We both stood facing each other for a moment, waiting to see which of us would strike first.

This time, it was us who went on the offensive. Launching ourselves forward with the tentacles acting as a slingshot, we closed the distance in an instant between us. Our tentacles had a range of roughly ten metres. We stopped five metres away from The Refractor.

The two shoulder tendrils attacked The Refractor simultaneously, one going high, the other low. She twisted in a way that was difficult to tell and cleanly avoided the strike, before jumping to the side with a handspring. She bounced in close aiming for a punch which we could deflect easily.

Another punch came, which we ducked under, only to be kicked in the side. The movement from that punch into a kick was unnatural. Impressive. The Refractor kept wailing on us, doing an almost random assortment of punches and kicks. The logical follow up for a strike was often foregone for a different attack, or even nothing at all.

That being said, it wasn't truly random. The human mind is not really capable of making random decisions, always having some reasoning behind it. For example, The Refractor would never go for three punches in a row, she would always do something else after the second punch. And when there is a pattern, there is a way to exploit it.

After we took a kick to the shoulder, the next move that The Refractor would likely take would be a low punch. Before it even had a chance to come, a tentacle was ready to block her fist. As expected, the punch came for the stomach, but was pushed to the side. In that brief moment where her guard would be down, we sent out a tendril from our face, rocketing towards the Refractor.

We did not expect her to lean backwards far enough that she was basically folded in half. The tentacle strike went way over her. It made some sense; she had seen us use the same trick before. Even though our initial plan was not a success, The Refractor was still in a compromised state, and it would be easy to—

Our thoughts were cut off by an impact on the jaw. The Refractor had done a backbend kickover to attack using the momentum from her dodge and had hit us hard enough our feet briefly left the ground.

We shook our head, clearing the dizziness that came from the hit. Just as we regained our bearings, The Refractor jumped in again. Caught a bit off guard, we blocked the obvious attack coming, but it was just a feint.

Everything went dark as a jacket was thrown at our face. We blindly struck out with all four tentacles, hoping to catch The Refractor before she could move, but based on the lack of a sound, we must have missed.

We removed the article from our face to find nothing. The Refractor had vanished. It shouldn't be too surprising considering she was invisible, but she was still wearing pants at the very least, so her position should still be visible.

A kick landed on the back of our neck, sending us stumbling forward. It was only through the use of the two tendrils from our back stabbing deep into the concrete that we did not stumble off the edge of the arena.

She had used our moment of blindness to climb on one of the tentacles. Clever. We had mentioned it only offhandedly that we couldn't feel anything they touched, but she had obviously remembered that.

We saw a brief flash of dark blue as The Refractor swung off a different tendril before a fist impacted with our jaw, much like how we hit her earlier. This was a proper use of invisibility. We couldn't tell where she would be coming from, or how she would attack.

Too bad for her we had a counter. A fifth tentacle slithered out of our face, and we could now 'see' everything. It was somewhat distracting to feel all those quirks in the stands watching us fight, but we were able to focus on the one that was closest.

The Refractor was swinging around on the tentacle coming from our left shoulder, about to kick at our head again. Right at the correct moment, we dropped to the ground, letting the kick fly over us.

Normally, she would have probably jumped off that tendril and onto a different one. But we were aware of this, so when she aimed so that her feet went right to the right shoulder's tentacle, I closed all five gates on my body.

Immediately, the tendrils turned into smoke, and I watched as the pair of rolled up pants that was all that was visible of Hagakure passed right through the gas and out of the ring, rolling as she hit the ground.

"Wazawa Sotoki wins!"