Rewind
Chapter VII: Victory or Defeat
When Izuku thought about the Cavalry Battle, he had planned to use it as a chance to build a stronger relationship between the two hero courses. Unfortunately, things didn't work out the way he had hoped. Monoma didn't believe him when he said that Shinso was planning on replacing someone in the hero course and left him to talk to Shinso in order get his side of the story, which immediately resulted in Monoma being brainwashed into joining Shinso's team. As a result, no one from Class B wanted to work with him and he decided to stick with his original team (even if Mei was way too enthusiastic for his tastes. He couldn't wait to meet Melissa again so he could get all his support items from her instead.) As a result, the cavalry battle basically didn't change at all, with a few exceptions. First, due to Dark Shadow's weakness to light, Izuku refused to let it take on Kacchan's explosions and Izuku threw him back with a Delaware Smash. Naturally, Sero managed to catch Kacchan every time. Second, he had Dark Shadow grab as many headbands as it could after Kaminari's Indiscriminate Shock immobilized their rivals. Third, since he was expecting Reciproburst, he managed to guide his team to dodge it, resulting in them holding onto their ten million starting points. When it came to points though, in the end, while Izuku's team remained in first, the line-up remained the same.
"That's it for the cavalry battle!" Midnight declared. "Tomorrow, the finals will begin with one-on-one battles! Now, let's see who's up!"
"Wait!" Ojiro called out. "I wish to drop out." As before, people tried to talk him out of it, but Ojiro stood firm. Then to everyone's shock, Monoma also dropped out, giving the same reason Ojiro had, which resulted in the exact same roster for the start that there had been in Izuku's first life. What are the odds? Or is this just the universe playing a joke on me? When the matches were set though, Izuku just stared in shock.
Kirishima Eijiro vs Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu
Shiozaki Ibara vs Ashido Mina
Uraraka Ochaco vs Hatsume Mei
Todoroki Shoto vs Sero Hanta
Yaoyorozu Momo vs Iida Tenya
Tokoyami Fumikage vs Aoyama
Kaminari Denki vs Bakugou Katsuki
Midoriya Izuku vs Shinso Hitoshi
Almost half the fights are the same. That's surprising, both at how many, and how few, Izuku thought. And when will I fight Shoto? Hmm, not until ... the semi-final?! But before he could think of anything else, Shoto pulled him aside. This time, he stood and waited for Shoto to speak, rather than try and start a conversation. Knowing what he wanted to talk about was both a relief and a burden. It was a relief because now Izuku had no concerns about what he was about to hear, but it was a burden because all Izuku had wanted to do for the last three weeks was to help Shoto deal with his issues, but even after this conversation, it was simply not the right time.
Then Shoto asked the big question: "Midoriya, tell me, are you All Might's secret love-child or something?"
Even though he had been expecting it, it was still shocking to see how poor Shoto's social skills were. For a moment, Izuku just stood there before finally bursting out in laughter. "Wow, I figured you were going somewhere, but that ... is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard! Trust me, I would have found out if I was related to All Might in some way by now!"
"But there is a connection, isn't there? One that you're not supposed to talk about." Izuku nodded at that. "I'm sure you know that my father has been stuck at the number two spot for quite some time now, but he's ambitious, he aims for the top. He used his overwhelming power to make a name for himself, but he was never able to top All Might the living legend, and it's made him bitter as a result. When he realized he could never beat All Might himself, he moved on to his next plan."
"A stupid quirk marriage, right?" Shoto looked shocked at the guess. "It's the only thing that makes sense considering your quirk, and your dad's obvious weakness."
"Obvious weakness?" Shoto asked in shock. Since when was his old man's weakness obvious?
"Yeah, those with fire quirks tend to overheat, the more powerful the quirk, the quicker they overheat, and he has the most powerful fire quirk on record, so all one really needs to do to beat him is avoid his attacks until he can't use his quirk any longer. So, he went with someone who has an ice quirk, and since their natural weakness is their body temperature dropping to a point where they risk hypothermia or frostbite, hypothetically the two powers would balance each other out. And with him being who he is, he had the money and power to secure a quirk marriage with anyone he wanted, right?"
For a brief moment, Shoto smiled at Izuku. "You truly are brilliant, Midoriya. He considers me his ultimate creation and intends for me to replace All Might. His drive and mad ambition are so overwhelming, he broke my mother. In all of my memories of her, she's crying. By the end, she so despised my father that she considered my left side unsightly and poured boiling water on my face. Worse, I recently learned that my father's been using his wealth to keep her in the hospital and keep us away from her, even though the doctors need one of us to check on her progress! I hate him, and I challenged you to show him that I can win without using his damned fire quirk." Izuku raised an eyebrow, as that reminded him of an interview All Might had given years ago. But which one? He'd need to talk to Toshi-sensei to get a reminder. Also, that was what had happened after USJ? Wow, that explained a lot. Shoto started walking away at that, but Izuku called out to him. "Wait! I have a question first."
"What do you want to know?"
Izuku briefly hesitated before responding. "You don't have to answer if you don't feel comfortable, but what really happened to Touya?"
Shoto turned around in shock. "How do you even know about him?"
"Shoto, as much of an ass as your dad is, he's still the number two hero and things like Touya going missing was going to hit the news. So, what happened?" Izuku had his own theory, but he had to talk to a certain burned villain first.
The bi-colored teen sighed in response to the question. "I wish I knew. All I know is that he often trained alone and one day he just didn't come back. There was a horrible fire the night he left, and no one found so much as a trace of him."
Fortunately, Izuku had planned to meet with Toshinori after the first day in order to go over the results. Once they had done so, Izuku brought up Shoto. "We definitely need to tell Shoto soon," he started.
"Oh, why's that?"
"Because of what he asked me today once we were alone."
Toshinori raised an eyebrow. Why was Izuku being so ... evasive? He wasn't usually like this. "And what did he ask?" he questioned while picking up his cup of tea.
Izuku waited until his mentor was taking a drink and answered. "He asked if I was your 'secret love child or something.'"
Tea and blood shot out of Toshinori's mouth at the answer. "He said what?!" he demanded, the blood still flowing. "Please tell me he wasn't serious," the blond asked once the blood had stopped.
"Well, he asked with a completely straight face, so yeah, he was serious."
"And you're certain he can be trusted?"
"Absolutely," Izuku responded, thinking of all the times Shoto had been there for him. "Oh, and I was wondering, didn't you say something in an interview about inherited quirks? Do you remember which one?"
"Heh, just when I start to forget how much of a fanboy you are, you pull something like this! Yeah, I talked about inherited quirks once, you couldn't have been more than five or six at the time though. Why?"
"Because Shoto's having problems with his dad, and it's causing him to reject his fire side. Somehow, I've got to get through to him, I'm just trying to figure out how." Unfortunately, he didn't really have the option of breaking himself to win Shoto over. Together, he and Toshi worked to try and figure out how to help him, but nothing they could think of would certainly work, so they split up for the day. But before Izuku went off on his own, he caught up with Momo and Uraraka and warned them about Mineta and Kaminari's cheerleader plan. With any luck, there would be no embarrassment for 1-A this time around.
The next morning, Izuku stopped by the tech room and asked, "Is it ready?"
"Yeah, though I don't see the use of something like this," Matsumoto Sana replied. "All it does is electrocute you if your heart rate drops too low, I don't think your heart rate is going to drop much during the Sports Festival." Izuku just smiled in response. "You know, you could have had this sooner if you had talked to Mei, she's much better at this than everyone else in the Support Course."
"Yeah, but she's terrifying when it comes to her 'babies,' and I prefer someone a little more ... sane than her."
"Heh, I can't blame you for that," Matsumoto replied. "Good luck with the finals today." Izuku thanked him and walked off to the stadium to deal with Shinso. Much to his surprise though, he wasn't first on the list, it was Ashido and Shiozaki, which ended fairly quickly with a victory for Ashido as her acid melted Shiozaki's vines. He wasn't even the second fight, that was given to one of the fights he honestly couldn't even begin to calculate the odds of who would win: Mei vs Uraraka.
The fight started much how Mei's fight with Iida had, with Mei avoiding Uraraka while advertising her babies. For the first minute or two, Izuku worried that the whole thing would end up a repeat of Iida's fight with her in his first life, but he underestimated Uraraka. "What, are you going to just be a walking advertisement for your poor little babies? I'm betting you don't even think they could stand up in a real fight!"
No one could miss Mei's reaction to that. Her rage was so strong and palpable that one could almost see the flames surrounding the young inventor. "Alright you little bitch, now you're going to pay!" With that, Mei charged at Uraraka using the jetpack that had caught Izuku's eye. However, that was exactly what Uraraka had wanted the inventor to do, as it allowed her to grab the other girl, activate her quirk, and send Mei flying out of the stadium.
The next match was Shoto vs Sero and that went as before, including the use of the Heaven Piercing Ice Wall. After that was Kirishima vs Tetsutetsu, and for a while it looked like it would go the same way as before, but then Izuku noticed something: Kirishima didn't look as tired as Tetsutetsu did. Huh, I guess all that stamina work paid off, he thought as Kirishima took the victory, and made a new friend. Momo and Iida were next, and though Momo put up a good fight, Iida's speed won the fight for him. Tokoyami vs Aoyama went even faster than Ashido's fight with Aoyama the first time around, as Dark Shadow easily avoided Aoyama's laser and cut the belt in less than thirty seconds. Then Kacchan went up against Kaminari, who actually tried something smart. Kaminari attempted to use his million-volt attack as an instant-win, but as smart as that was, Kacchan was smarter, and he used his explosions to create a rock barrier to intercept the electricity. After that, it was easy. "Not bad, Pikachu, but you can't be much of a hero if you knock yourself out with one attack."
"Well, you're too good for anything else to work, Bakugou. I gambled with my best attack and failed. You really are too good." Finally, it was time, and Izuku had to wonder what had changed. Why was he the last person in the first round rather than the first? Eh, it doesn't matter, what did matter was that he was prepared to deal with Hitoshi Shinso this time, and all he needed to do was talk and hope he listens.
It started off like normal, with Shinso insulting Ojiro and Izuku responding to defend his classmate, resulting in Shinso gaining control of Izuku. However, that was when Matsumoto's device kicked in, shocking Izuku out of the trance. "You're going to have to try harder than that if you want to beat me, Shinso."
"How did you do that?" the lavender-haired boy asked.
"I requested the use of a single piece of support equipment," here, he raised his arm, revealing what looked like a watch. "This item shocks me if my heart rate gets too low. No one expects a low heart rate during the Sports Festival ... unless they face a quirk that could cause that, such as your Brainwashing!"
"You bastard! My quirk leaves me at a huge disadvantage, but I've always wanted to be a hero. Why should I be denied the chance because of unhappy fate? You were born with the perfect quirk, while mine was always denigrated as a villain's quirk!"
"'Perfect quirk?'" Izuku asked, rage clear in his eyes. "Midnight, can you pause the fight long enough for Aizawa-sensei to come down and-"
"I'm not having him erase Shinso's quirk, that's unfair to you," she said, cutting him off.
"I don't want him to erase Shinso's quirk, I want him to erase mine."
Everyone in the audience gasped at that, shocked to hear anyone say that they wanted to win a fight quirkless. "Unconventional, but I like it! The match will be paused long enough to grant Midoriya's request."
While Aizawa descended from his booth, Midoriya turned to Shinso. "You think my quirk is perfect? You have no idea what kind of hell I've gone through to get this far! Two years ago, I would have traded places with you in an instant!"
"What? Why would you want a villain's quirk?"
"Because you knew what your quirk was! Mine was hidden so well that I went through hell as a result! I was bullied throughout school as weak, defenseless, useless, worthless, quirkless Deku." Once again, the audience was left speechless at that. One of the more promising students in Class 1 was thought to be quirkless? "I was constantly told to kill myself from the time I turned five until I made it to UA! One classmate told me that the only way for me to be a hero was for me to jump off the roof and pray I was born with a quirk in my next life! Do you have any idea what I would have done to have your quirk?!"
"But you have a quirk now, what changed?" Shinso asked.
"I got lucky, and someone from Might Tower recognized that I had a power accumulation quirk. If it weren't for that, I would still think I was quirkless. Shinso, your quirk is the greatest quirk I've ever heard of, not as a villain's quirk, but for hero work! Villains are known for being talkative, and your quirk can stop them in their tracks!" That was when Aizawa showed up. "Good, now, Aizawa-sensei, before we start up again, could you look at Shinso with your quirk and then immediately blink? We're going to fight fair, and then I'm going to show Shinso just how hard I've worked to get here." Aizawa did as he asked, and when Midnight finished her countdown and ordered the fight to be resumed, Shinso didn't even get a chance to say one thing before Izuku swept his legs out from under him, then broke his arms and legs in one hit each. "Do you yield?"
Shinso was quick to agree, and at Izuku's proposal, Midnight knocked him out with her pheromones while he carried the boy to Recovery Girl. When Shinso woke up fifteen minutes later and was told what Izuku did, he found the boy and asked "Why did you do that? Help me after you made it impossible for me to continue."
"A couple reasons. First is that you didn't deserve to suffer just because you made some assumptions about me, especially since I lost my temper over it."
"You did? But you barely did anything."
"Only because Aizawa-sensei had erased my quirk, and I had a couple minutes to cool off. Even then, with my quirk, I could have killed you easily. Super strength, especially at my level isn't as great as most people think it is, and it can be just as villainous as your own quirk. My second reason is because I meant every word I said out there: you can be a hero, and I would love it if you joined the hero course. I even know the perfect person you could replace!" Shinso started laughing, and Izuku joined him, happy to learn that his temper hadn't ruined things between them.
When he returned to the stadium, Kacchan was helping Uraraka walk out. "I guess you two were first in the quarter-finals?"
"Yeah, we were. Had to yell at the extras in the stadium though. They called me a villain because I wouldn't take it easy on her."
Izuku smiled at him as he took Uraraka's other arm. "They clearly don't know you then, you only go easy on people if you don't respect them."
"Yeah, I respect her too much to go easy on her, all our classmates, really." They had reached Recovery Girl's office by now and dropped Uraraka off. "You know, if I didn't know any better, I'd have said you helped her with her strategy, Deku."
"She was that good?"
"Any better and she would have won. Round Cheeks is better than I thought she was. Oh, and you're up next going against Shitty Hair." He stopped for a minute then asked, "Do you want me to stop calling you Deku?"
Izuku stared at his friend, utterly confused. "Why would I want you to do that?"
"Because of what you said during your fight. I was a complete jerk to you when we were kids, and even after we started sparring, I was still a jerk to you. I don't want things going bad between us now that we're really starting to get close again."
"Kacchan, I know you don't really mean anything when you call me Deku. Yeah, it's insulting, but you give insulting names to everyone who's earned your respect, and I don't think you've meant it as an insult for at least the last five years. You are one of the two people I don't mind calling me Deku."
"Thanks," he said with smile. "By the way, who told you to kill yourself? I'd like to make sure they don't do that again."
Izuku stared for a moment before laughing. "Kacchan, you wouldn't believe me if I told you! But remember when you asked about my quirk on our first day? Meet me in the waiting room after the festival is over and you'll get both your answers, I promise you." With that, he walked out to the field, where Kirishima was waiting for him. "Ready to give them a show, Kirishima?"
"You better believe it, Midoriya! Let's have some fun." As soon as Midnight called the start of the fight, the two rushed towards each other, throwing punches that collided hard enough to create a crack in the floor. Unlike the previous fights though, Izuku and Kirishima had decided to show off for the spectators and have some fun.
Eventually though, Izuku decided to help his friend. "Hey, Kirishima, how hard can you go, really?"
"You sure you want to know, Midoriya? It kind of feels like you're struggling as it is." Izuku smiled and moved his hand in the classic 'bring it on,' making his intentions clear. "Alright, you asked for it!" With that, Kirishima started becoming visibly ... different. First, his hair gained a rocky texture, then his fingers took on the appearance of talons, even his teeth and eyes took on rock-like traits. It wasn't quite Unbreakable, but Izuku could tell that he was well on his way to reaching his ultimate form, and he smiled at his friend. "Bring it on, Midoriya!"
Izuku just beamed as much as All Might would as he answered, "You may regret that, Kirishima!" With that, he charged at the redhead, pushing One For All to 30%, and the two clashed again. After another five minutes of sparring, Izuku spun around Kirishima and sent a kick at him "Iowa Smash!" With that, Kirishima was knocked out of the ring. While the crowd cheered Izuku's victory, Izuku went to Kirishima and helped him up. "Thanks for the great match."
"You too, Midoriya. For a minute, I thought I had you. Did I?" Izuku just smiled in response. "Come on, I had you there, right? Midoriya!"
A/N: In case you're wondering, Kacchan yelled at the audience when Aizawa was supposed to start lecturing them. His exact words were: "Who are you calling weak, you damned extras? Loudmouth-Sensei, you've taken a hit in my book. Look at her, her quirk is horrible for combat, yet she's still coming at me. That makes her one of the most courageous people I know. And the fact that she keeps coming at me shows how indefatigable she is. You all think I'm not taking it easy on her because I'm some kind of villain or because I'm a sadist? Well, you're wrong! I'm not taking it easy on her because I respect her too much to take it easy!"
