A Fool's Bonds

Chapter 25

-Momo-

Biting her knuckle nervously, Momo watched as Izuku and his opponent stepped out of the tunnels, heading to the cement ring. The blond Monoma from class B seemed composed but something about him had her on edge and she couldn't place it.

"Alright boys, I want a nice, clean match." Midnight stated, cracking her whip as they got onto the platform.

"Of course, Ma'am." Monoma gave a smile that felt too practiced, too forcibly charming to be real or genuine as he held out a hand to Izuku.

"Of course." Izuku nodded in turn, accepting the handshake. Monoma couldn't do anything debilitating to him until Midnight called for the fight to start anyway without getting disqualified and even something like priming a quirk to debilitate through touch would still count if set up before the fight.

The boys went to the far sides of the arena and the second Midnight loudly declared "Fight!", Monoma began to cackle, the charming persona vanishing in an instant.

"I can't believe it was that easy!" Monoma laughed as the audience began to mutter confused, "You Class A swine really are full of yourselves!" as he gloated, Monoma became enveloped in cerulean flames. Very familiar, cerulean flames, his pupils shining gold as Izuku hastily brought forth his own matching power.

"Number Zero, Fool!" the two shouted in tandem, but while Izuku called for the name of 'Momotaro', Monoma's declaration was different.

"ROMULUS!"

-Izuku-

Izuku, now in his first form of Momotaro, readied his blade, eyeing his opponent. Momotaro resembled him to a degree, with almost identical green hair and eyes, and similar facial features. Monoma, who clearly had some sort of copying quirk, still had his golden hair and blue eyes but was far stronger, muscles replacing the previously thin frame.

Momotaro had Japanese armor imprinted with the animals from his legend, a katana at his waist, the gear of good quality but humble. Romulus was adorned in golden armaments, breastplate and spear gleaming in the light with a wolf pelt over one shoulder. One was a humble hero, the other was a confident King.

"This power…is incredible!" Monoma laughed, the laugh more of a boom than the high-pitched cackle from before, "Come at me Momotaro!" Monoma levied his spear, "Show me your strength! Show me, can the boy from the peach surpass a King?!" along with his declaration, Monoma charged, spear thrusting out as Izuku swung it up to parry the strike away.

As they fought, sparks flying with each clash of steel, he worked to break down the situation. Monoma had to have a copy quirk, the cerulean flames and golden eyes, along with the activation phrase were identical to his own. Far too identical for it to be a mere coincidence of similar quirk. That said, his Fool wasn't Momotaro, meaning he copied the quirk's base concept, not anything it had 'accumulated'. Momotaro was the Fool for Izuku, Romulus for Monoma.

If the fool was the start of a Hero's journey, then the forms they got couldn't be a Hero from the end of the journey. Not only was Momotaro a simpler form, a story of a boy who was determined to be a hero and protect those he cared for from monsters, but he wasn't the Momotaro who had finished the story. This form couldn't summon the riches and treasures Momotaro brought back after beating the Island of Ogres. The Government had already made him test that just to be sure.

By those parameters, Monoma's fool form had to be the Romulus who'd founded Rome, a mortal or half mortal at best. It couldn't be the deified Romulus Quirinus who was supposed to have attained Apotheosis upon his death. Added to that, copy quirks always had some form of limit, not to mention Monoma wouldn't be used to holding one of these forms.

Izuku didn't have to overpower the Founder King of Rome, he just had to outlast him.

"Give me everything you've got!" Izuku met Monoma's roar, the three animals on his armor peeling off as they helped him harry the golden king who.

"Excellent!" Monoma laughed, eyes alight with the eagerness for battle, but not showing the same derision that they had before his transformation, "VENI! VIDI! VICI!"

"Not yet you haven't!" Izuku parried Monoma's hard thrust, noting that the Romulus form seemed to have given Monoma better technical combat skills than Momotaro had given him initially, but Momotaro granted him greater strength and speed. The real difference though, was the training that Aizawa had put him through to work on mastering the blade in his base form, the training having born fruit.

He saw Monoma stagger, the cerulean eyes of Romulus widening before, in a bust of blue flames, the golden king vanished to reveal a lightly steaming UA first year who let out a gasp before their eyes rolled up and they passed out.

"Neito Monoma is unconscious!" Midnight's voice snapped him back to reality as the roar of the crowd at the spectacle hit him with the force of a truck "Izuku Midoriya will be moving to the next round!" Ignoring the crowd, he picked up his unconscious opponent, carrying him towards where he'd been informed recovery Girl had set up for the day, mind still whirring after that fight.

-Momo-

Jumping to her feet, Momo cheered for Izuku's victory as he carried his opponent to the infirmary, the majority of her class celebrating as well although with varying degrees of enthusiasm.

"Hell yeah Boss!" Kyoka shouted, the purplette rocker sharing a high five with Momo even as the screen at the top began to spin to select the next contestants. All around them, Momo could hear the crowd wondering just what had been going on in the fight with the quirks, something Aizawa clearly heard too.

"To answer the questions I know you're wondering, Neito Monoma's quirk is a copying ability that draws on the base concept of a quirk." Aizawa's tired voice carried through the PA system, "While Midoriya's transformations are formed by the bonds and relationships he has with others." Given that she knew Izuku was planning to use the bonds in his eventual marketing, this wasn't exactly secret information. If anything, it would probably help him 'sell himself' to the various pros watching.

"I wonder if he'll bring out the other forms that he hasn't had a chance to use yet." Present Mic wondered aloud, likely knowing full well that he was just drumming up the crowd's curiosity.

"We'll see." Aizawa's tone was blasé, but Momo was sure the man was smirking. Honestly, she was just as eager to see everyone give these fights their all.

-Kendo-

Frowning, Kendo made her way towards the medical ward for the Sports Festival. The second fight had ended almost instantly, that Shinso guy having said something that clearly made Kamakiri furious before the bug like blade user went emotionless and walked out of the ring as if in a trance. The third one had been almost as quick, although given one fighter had the ability to make tape and the other could make glaciers, the fight was a more than a little imbalanced with how the rules were arranged.

Currently, the speedster of Class A, Ida, was fighting some support girl in a humiliating looking glorified commercial so she took the chance to slip away and check on Monoma. Stepping into the entry room of the medical area, she saw Recovery Girl putting away some supplies.

"Hmm, you haven't had your match yet. I assume you're here to check on Monoma then?" the old heroine asked, jerking her thumb at a closed door when she nodded "He's in there if you want to pop in on him. A good night's rest and he'll be right as rain."

"Thank you, ma'am." Kendo bowed gratefully to the woman before quickly moving to check on her most 'enthusiastic' classmate. Inside the room, she saw Monoma sitting up, staring at his hand and seemingly lost in thought.

Clearing her through softly, she saw the blond jerk startled before calming down, "Oh…hey Kendo."

"Monoma, are you alright?" Kendo frowned as she sat on the chair by his bed. All during the fight she had felt that something was off, and this was only confirming it for her. Monoma playing up the 'charming gentleman' angle to get close to someone? Completely in character. Monoma cackling and gloating about the superiority of Class B or defeating Class A? Also, unfortunately, completely in character. But this sad thoughtful looking Monoma was out of character, and something told her it wasn't just him being in a funk from losing.

"That obvious huh?" Monoma gave her a tired smile, a soft chuckle escaping past his lips "I…it was his quirk."

"Did it have some sort of side effect after your time ran out?" Kendo frowned in concern for her classmate. Pain in the ass or not, he was still her friend.

"No, no…this is entirely on me." Monoma shook his head, "You know, I'm not even sure if Midoriya himself is aware of this or not."

"Aware of what?" Kendo pushed, feeling like she was about to hear something important.

"When…when I was Romulus…it wasn't just power." Monoma held his hand up, eyes boring at it as if trying to will cerulean flames to appear again, "Oh, I still felt that for sure. I felt the strength of Romes mythical 'Founder King'. The strength to build a nation, the wisdom to lead them, the determination to never give up…but he also didn't…didn't look down on Midoriya. He didn't gloat, he didn't grandstand. He was strong, but compassionate. He's…he's what I want to be, what I wish I was. All throughout the fight, I felt impulses, emotions, and more from Romulus. That form didn't exactly speak, but I could feel things from him…and the last feeling I got before my time ran out, was that he believed I could be better." This quieter Monoma was a jarring change, but she wondered if it would last, and just what it would lead to.

-Shigaraki-

"Fascinating!" All for One laughed, rewatching the Midoriya Monoma fight once again as the absurd commercial farce continued, "So his quirk isn't one set form for whoever has it but based off the individual."

"Are you wondering what your 'Number Zero' form would be sir?" Kurogiri questioned, wisely choosing to not use the term 'Fool'.

"Admittedly, yes." All for One chuckled before growing serious "That said, it's too big a risk."

"A risk?" Tomura looked at his master through the screen in utter confusion, "What kind of risk?"

"I've been paying attention to that Midoriya boy each time he transforms here, how he acts when not transformed, and how you described him at the USJ." All for One lectured "It's clear that those 'other forms' of his have some sort of feedback. They affect his behavior, his emotions, everything. I already have some residual fragments of the people who originally owned the quirks I have collected, the more strong willed the 'soul' the more troublesome the quirk is to use. A quirk like that? Who knows what sort of chaos it could unleash, especially if it was able to access the other quirks that I have within me. No, that is one quirk I can unfortunately never risk holding for myself." Tomura mulled over his sensei's words as the absurd fight of Ida against Hatsume came to a close, the names for the next fight appearing.

Momo Yaoyorozu against Kyoka Jiro.