In the preliminary round before the quarterfinals, from first to last, the eight individual matches were [Midoriya v Shinso], [Todoroki v Sero], [Shiozaki v Kaminari], [Iida v Hatsume], [Uraraka v Bakugou], [Tetsutetsu v Kirishima], [Tokoyami v Yaoyarozu], and at the very end was [Gokiburi v Minoru], the winner of which would go on to fight Mina.
An upset from previous years where only Hero Course students received any sort of representation in the final event, was the presence of the two General Course dark horses, Gokiburi Genki and Shinso Hitoshi, as well as the Support Course student Hatsume Mei. This in addition to the villain attack at the USJ and Class 1-A's involvement with said altercation, meant that the first-year Sports Festival would receive as-much viewership, if not more-than, the third-year Sports Festival that commonly dominated aforementioned viewership.
Whether it was intentional or not, the first fight of the preliminary round featuring a General Course student guaranteed it that the two fighters would have everyone's undivided attention.
*MHA*
"The first match! Making a weird face despite his excellent performance, it's Midoriya Izuku, from the Hero Course, versus… Sorry, but this guy hasn't really done anything to stand out yet! It's Shinso Hitoshi, from the General Course!" Present Mic announced as the two stepped onto their stage, Midoriya looking like he had something impossibly-heavy weighing on his mind, while Hitoshi had a lackluster, almost half-asleep expression on his face. "The rules are simple! Win by knocking your opponent out of the ring, immobilizing them, or getting them to say 'I give up'! Bring the pain! We've got our good old Recovery Girl on standby, and fight dirty if you must! 'Ethics'? Never heard of 'em! And of course, going for the kill is a no-no! You'll be disqualified, because a true Hero's fists fly only when in pursuit of villains!" he said as Cementoss bent a throne of cement for himself.
"'I give up,' huh?" Shinso asked. "Get it, Midoriya? This battle's going to test your strength of will. If you've got any kind of vision for your future, there's no sense in worrying about how you got here."
"Now, let's get this thing started!"
"Like that monkey babbling about his stupid pride."
"READYYYYYYYYY!" Present Mic announced, Izuku's face contorted into a cringe-inducing WTF. "START!"
"What kind of dumbass throws away a chance like this?" Shinso went on to say, egging Izuku on more and more.
"WHAT'D YOU SAY?!"
Before Izuku could bridge the gap between them and knock out Shinso's lights out however, his body suddenly froze, Genki finding himself face-palming in the stands next to his mother.
"That idiot…" the oily-haired teen groaned, wondering how the guy who got second place in the Obstacle Course Race without even using his Quirk let himself be egged on like that.
"Must not've been his smarts if he fell for something so transparent."
"Gen-chan, can't he just shrug it off like you did when you first met him?" Oki questioned, thinking about the story her son had told her after his first week at Yuuei while Present Mic gave the play-by-play.
When Genki and Hitoshi had first met, they'd had a small altercation that caused Hitoshi to let loose his Quirk. However, much to the indigo-haired teen's shock, Genki was able to break the [Brainwashing] after a few seconds with only a shake of his head and a clap to his cheeks. [Brainwashing] worked just fine on everyone else, even the second-year students that had tried to bully them out of the money in their wallets, but the indigo-haired teen could never get it to work on Genki.
Or at least, not for very long.
"It's not that easy," Genki said shaking his head. "Shinso's Quirk might seem magical, but it has very clear limits. Shinso can only use his Quirk on one person at a time, he can't make anyone do anything that requires speech or thought, and a sufficiently-strong jolt or shock will snap a person right out of it. Of course, the thing that gives me resistance to [Brainwashing] is that his and my nervous systems are fundamentally different. Shinso's body has a centralized nervous system, whereas mine is the exact opposite; a side-effect of our Mutant-Type anatomy."
"So basically since your 'thoughts' aren't all gathered in one place, it's like your brain is password protected?"
"More like we're running on incompatible operating systems," Genki hummed. "From what I remember, [Brainwashing] felt like a thin mist I could easily shake off. For someone with a centralized nervous system… Based on what I felt, I imagine to anyone else it's like their head's filled with a thick, inescapable fog. That or 'pea soup', if I'm using the expression right."
"So then Midoriya is toast then?"
"Well…" Genki hummed as Izuku neared the edge of the ring. "The fat lady isn't singing just yet."
*FWOOOSH!*
A blast of air suddenly kicked up from the arena, the toe of Izuku's left foot mere centimeters from the out-of-bounds like, the green-haired teen panted heavily as he took a step back, wide eyes going to Shinso as he realized how-close he'd come to losing.
"Wh-What's this…? Midoriya stopped himself, at the last possible moment!" Present Mic gawped.
"So, Midoriya used his Quirk to hurt himself enough to shake it off… Hmmm…" Genki hummed as he squinted his eyes, spying Midoriya's bruised and battered fingers.
From that point on, the tone of the fight shifted radically.
While at the beginning, Shinso's laid-back barbs had been enough to put Izuku under his spell, now, his taunting was frantic, almost desperate, as he attempted to [Brainwash] the green-haired teen once again. Izuku trying to push him out of the ring, Shinso was able to hit his opponent with a wicked right hook to the face, and even went so far as to turn them around so it was Izuku's back to the abyss. However, before he could lose any more ground, Izuku pulled off a stunning over-the-shoulder throw, a loud *WHAM* sounding as Shinso's back met the ground, his heels going out-of-bounds.
"Shinso is out of the ring! Midoriya moves on to the second round!" Midnight announced, Izuku's eyes going wide as the adrenaline rush died, the teen winced from both his busted-up fingers and his bloodied nose.
"Goodness gracious! We're off to an uneventful start!" Present Mic said, his disappointment at the lack of panache palpable. "Well, put your hands together for our fierce competitors!" he announced, feeling like the guy trying to start a car with a dying battery.
"So… He lost…" Oki hummed.
"Yeah… But he came really close…" Genki sighed.
Even though they'd only known one another for a few weeks, he and Hitoshi had become really good friends.
Even though Hitoshi's Quirk was perceived as being "villainous" and his own being considered "filthy", after their initial altercation, the two had found common ground in that they both wanted to overcome the societal stigmas leveled against them and become great Heroes. That neither of their Quirks repulsed the other due to lacking the ego to care about such a minor detail…
Had they met in middle school, the two could've been like brothers.
"Still…" Genki couldn't help but smile as the students from the General Course and Pro Heroes alike showered him with adulation, either directly or indirectly. "I feel like Shinso has a real shot at this, even if he can't take that shot right now."
"Aren't you going to cheer him up?" his mom asked.
"Nah… It'd be too-weird if I said anything. Shinso had to get this far while staying under the radar, but I had to slap a neon sign across my back and literally make everyone eat my dust," Genki said shaking his head. "It might feel like a slap across the face if I try to console him too soon."
*MHA*
"The wait is over!" Present Mic announced after the field was vacated and the cleaning drones sand blasted the small bloodspatter away. "The cream of the crop, yet this guy's somehow still as plain as they come, Sero Hanta of the Hero Course, versus… The best of the best! The strongest of the strong in 1-A! Todoroki Shoto!"
"Mmm… I don't really feel much like winning…" Sero said cracking his neck.
"Second match! START!"
The moment the match started, Sero's demeanor pulled a 180, the teen snapping out his arms like a gunshot and constricting "the strongest of the strong in 1-A" around the arms and legs.
"BUT I DON'T FEEL LIKE LOSING EITHER!" he said as he twisted himself around, attempting an instantaneous out-of-bound before his stronger opponent could retaliate.
"INCOMING!" Genki and Oki both cried, throwing themselves to the ground the moment they felt the air pressure dropping like a lead weight.
An enormous glacier of ice shooting up nearly double-as-tall as the stadium itself a moment later… students, Pro Heroes, and faculty alike could only gape at the massive ice formation that'd sprouted from the arena, Sero's half-frozen body a pinprick against the mountain of ice that had been suddenly called forth, the two torches over his shoulders summarily extinguished from the sudden cold front.
"Sero… Can you move?" Midnight asked from the referee stand, the right side of her body covered in ice.
"Y-Y-Y-You're k-k-kidding, right? Ow ow ow…"
"Sero is immobilized!"
"You're going up against that?" Genki's mother gawped as Todoroki began melting the enormous berg, turning the spectator stands immediately under it into a bit of a splash zone. "Geez, Yuki-chan's Quirk is no joke," she said looking up at the giant ice wall looming overhead.
"Yeah… I guess I am…" Genki answered, wondering if he stood any sort of chance agains a high-end Quirk like [Subzero].
"Todoroki moves on to the second round!"
*MHA*
"With the arena all thawed out, it's time for the next match!" Present Mic announced a few minutes later, several spectators in sopping wet clothing suffering in silence while those of the aquatic or even amphibious nature appreciated the unexpected 'accommodations'. "It's class B's own assassin, every rose has its thorns, right?! It's Shiozaki Ibara, versus… The sparking, killer boy, Kaminari Denki!"
"Pardon my objection, but what exactly did you mean by 'assassin'?" the vine-haired girl asked worriedly. "I have merely come this far seeking victory, not to take my opponent's life."
Ibara's spiel going on for several more minutes, the girl knowingly or unknowing sufficiently cowing Present Mic and even leaving him speechless, a feat unto itself, Genki's mother couldn't help but nudge her son in the ribs.
"Heeheehee… Who knew hair-pulling was your kink~" she said pointing to the almost-bald spot on the girl's head.
"Okaa-saaan…!" Genki whined as spectators nearby gave him weird looks, a momentary blast of light causing him to blink his eyes.
"In case you didn't hear me… It's already over!"
"What the…? I blinked and I missed everything…!" Genki gawped. One moment Ibara and Denki had been standing across from one another, the prior yackety-yak-yakking about hero philosophy and platitudes. The next, the wielder of [Electrification] was strung up by an entire forest of vines, while Ibara stood behind a wall of vines separating them, hands clasped like an angel.
"Shiozaki advances to the second round!"
"No seriously, what did I miss?!" Genki gawped while his mother giggled.
*MHA*
"Moving on… Who's next in the battle for the top?" Present Mic asked after the shortest fight in the history of Yuuei Sports Festival fights. "The first round's just about half over! Next up is Iida Tenya of the Hero Course, versus… Covered head-to-toe in support items, the girl that Gokiburi Genki sled-dog-ran to victory… Hatsume Mei of the Support Course!"
"Hey Gen-chan, isn't that all the stuff you were wearing?" Oki questioned, observing the gear that the younger brother of Ingenium was decked out in.
"Yeah, but why would Mei…?" Genki asked before realizing how many cameras, social media screencasters, and sponsors were scattered all about. " . . . Clever girl," the oily-haired teen then said with a grin. Even though he only met the girl a couple hours ago, he knew exactly what was going through the manic engineer's head.
From a purely economic standpoint, it made a ton of sense.
"Aren't those forbidden for Hero Course students? You have to put in a special request for those things beforehand."
"Oh! I forgot! I didn't think it'd be a problem, seeing as how Aoyama wears that belt of his…" Iida confessed.
"Right. He applied for an exception," Midnight explained.
"I'm terribly sorry then! Except… I was so touched by my opponent's sense of sportsmanship!" he said with a bow. "Although she's a member of the Support Course… she came to me and said 'if we're to be seen as equals, then we should fight on equal footing.' She gave me these items to use! Her earnest spirit… I could never look down on it! That was my thinking!" Iida proclaimed boldly for all the world to hear, his hand upon his chest as though he were reciting Shakespeare.
'So naïve…' Genki thought, facial muscles twitching as he tried not to bust out laughing the moment Midnight allowed it.
"Well, at least Muri-chan loves the new job," Oki giggled.
"Fourth match! START!" Midnight called out, Iida breaking out into a sprint towards her.
"What incredible speed, huh, Iida-kun?" Mei suddenly spoke into a microphone, the speakers scattered across her harness amplifying her voice so even those in the nosebleed section could hear her.
"Oh I am so glad I recorded this," Genki said with a grin as he rested his phone on the banister in front of his seat, recording this for posterity.
"Your legs feel even lighter than usual, do they not?!" Mei asked. "That's what you can expect from my Custom Leg Parts, which keep up with their user's speed and amplify it! Something Gokiburi Genki knows all-too-well from our landslide victory in the Cavalry Battle!"
The next moment a hydraulic bar shot out of the bottom of Mei's backpack, stabbing into the ground and thrusting the girl sidelong before a perpendicular bar came out, suspending the girl in mid-air as Iida tripped.
"However, dodging is no problem with my Hydraulic Attachment Bars!" the girl said as her eyes drifted into the nosebleed section, Iida's back-mounted support equipment letting out gusts of air and helping him regain his balance faster and better than he could've on his own. "What deft maneuvering, Iida! My Auto-Balancer makes the impossible movements, possible!"
The ensuing game of tag, complete with play-by-play sales pitch, went on for another ten minutes, the pink-haired girl showing off an impossibly-large amount of Support Items at Iida's expense, until finally…
"Phew… I believe they've seen it all now," Mei said with a self-satisfied look on her face. "There's nothing left to show!"
"YOU DECEIVED MEEEEEEE!" Iida cried as the "glowing" girl wiped the "glow" from her brow.
"Um… Hatsume is out of the ring! Iida moves on to the second round!"
"Sorry for using you like that, heh heh heh heh heh…" Mei said robotically, giggling as Iida cried-
"I REALLY DISLIKE YOUUUUU!" the younger brother of Ingenium wailed at being used.
"Well, you know what they say about suckers…" Genki hummed, his mother laughing her ass off in a very unladylike manner.
*MHA*
"For the fifth matchup of the first round… A celebrity since his middle school days with a face only a mother could love… It's Bakugou Katsuki of the Hero Course, versus… My personal pick, a bubbly energetic girl, Uraraka Ochako, also of the Hero Course!" Present Mic announced as beauty and the beast squared off.
"You're the floaty one, right, round-face?" Bakugou asked. "If you're gonna back down, do it now, cuze crying uncle later won't cut it."
As Ochako's brow twitched at the unflattering nickname, Genki couldn't help but think- 'Puberty must've hit that guy like a truck.' –because his voice was insanely deep for a fifteen year-old.
"Fifth match! START!"
The moment the fight began, Ochako ran in low, Genki realizing the girl was trying to get a TKO right off the bat. However, Bakugou wouldn't have any of it as he repelled the girl with an explosion from his hand, sending the adorable cinnamon roll skidding backwards. Seeing the outline of the girl's sleeve, Bakugou drove his opponent into the ground… only to find empty cloth as Ochako used the smokescreen to try and flank him. However, Bakugou once again sent her backwards, this time kicking up debris.
However, Ochako wasted no time, charging back in, only to get blasted by the teen's [Explosion] Quirk again, and again, and again, and again. Thick clouds of acrid black smoke belched into the air, furrows drawn into the arena as both fighter and debris were tossed around, after a while it got painful to even watch, but despite it all, Ochako held strong. She may've been soft and round, maybe even downright adorable, but this girl had freakin' Adamantium in her spine if she could get up after all this punishment.
However, it wasn't long before a Pro Hero became more vocal about the proceedings.
"Hey! That's not the way someone who wants to be a Hero acts! If you're so much stronger than her, just throw her out of the ring and finish it! Stop toying with the poor girl!"
"Yeah, he's right!"
"A group in the crowd has started booing!" Present Mic howled as the audience began to heckle him, though clearly, Bakugou didn't give two shits. Hell, he didn't even give one shit. "But to be honest, I agree-ack! An elbow? What's he big idea?" he cried as he was suddenly interrupted.
"Is the one who said he's toying with her a Pro? How many years of active duty?" Aizawa said, speaking up for the first time since the match began. "If that's what you're taking away from this than you can leave. No point in watching. Go home and start looking at job-hunting sites. She's come this far, and he knows her strength. His caution shows that he recognizes her as a worthy opponent," he said, saying the most at one time he'd said all day, sufficiently cowing the booing Heroes. "It's exactly because he wants to win so badly… that there's no room for carelessness or holding back."
"Almost ready… Thanks Bakugou…" Ochako said as she slowly rose to her feet. "Thanks for not dropping your guard," she said bringing her fingertips together, the physical strain stretched across her visage disappearing like the tension on a loosed bow string.
Feeling the air pressure shift above them, moreso than it had before, Genki and Oki both looked up to see that the debris Ochako had been subtly lifting high into the air was suddenly all coming down, a veritable avalanche minus the mountain screaming down like a meteor shower!
As Ochako rushed in for the TKO however, Bakugou brought up his arm and obliterated the entire concrete deluge in a single blast with the force of a tactical missile, the backlash whipping those in the front seats back while Ochako was sent flying backwards, practically out-of-bounds.
"Man… that was pretty intense…" Oki hummed as tiny shards and pebbles of concrete drizzled like rain.
"Yeah… Really intense…" Genki said as he looked at the round-faced girl, her eyes wide with shock and despair as her clutch move was foiled.
"What an explosion! Uraraka's secret plan just went up in smoke!"
"You know… I'm actually pretty glad she's in a different block from me, because…" Genki said as Ochako forced herself back to her feet, diving into the meat grinder once more. "I'm not sure I could stand up to that kind of determination," he said singing the girl's praises.
A moment later however, Ochako listed to the side, falling flat on her stomach, her body trembling as the strain of over-using her [Zero Gravity] caught up with her.
"Not yet…" Ochako bit out as Midnight ran to her side. "I can do this… I can still… fight…" she said as she crawled across the ground, her sheer, staggering willpower keeping her in the fight when all others would've fallen. "Otou-san… Okaa-san…" she said as she kept on going, even after going so-far beyond her limit, the unwavering love she held for her family spurring her onward, the crowd's cheers washing her over like a tsunami, nearly enough to drown out the memory of the promise she'd made.
However… no matter how much the spectators rooted for her, urging her on… it was all for naught in the end.
No matter how much she struggled, Uraraka Ochako… just wasn't strong-enough.
"Uraraka… is unable to continue. Bakugou moves on to the second round!" Midnight announced once Ochako fell silent.
*MHA*
"For the sixth matchup of the first round… Manly and passionate steel! From the Hero Course, it's Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu, versus… Manly and passionate hardening! From the Hero Course, it's Eijirou Kirishima!" Present Mic announced.
"Even our/their intros are the same?!" Kirishima and Genki alike both squawked at the same time, Kirishima on the verge of tears while Genki was completely exacerbated.
"I can't tell if he's being redundant on accident or on purpose…" Oki hummed as the match began with a cry of- "Sixth match! START!"
"That didn't hurt at all!" Tetsutetsu growled after the first hit he received after their knuckles clashed.
"That didn't hurt, either!" Kirishima growled after the first hit he received after their knuckles clashed.
For the next ten minutes, Kirishima and Tetsutetsu beat one another off-er, I mean, up, the two of them going unconscious after a final cross-counter.
"Hey, anyone who can last ten minutes is a fucking stallion," a crass Hero in red-and-black one-piece suit sitting behind Genki and his mother said aloud. "What? We were all thinking it…" he pouted.
'Who is this guy talking to?' Genki wondered.
"It's a mirror image Quirk matchup, Tetsutetsu vs Kirishima!" Present Mic announced. "Just a straight-up beatdown with these two! And the winner is…" he paused as Midnight stepped forward to appraise the damage.
" . . . They are both down! We have a tie!" Midnight proclaimed. "In the event of said tie, we'll determine our winner after they recover with a quick arm wrestling match! . . . Or something."
*MHA*
"For the seventh matchup of the first round… Offense and defense in one body. The dark samurai accompanied by Dark Shadow! From the Hero Course, it's Tokoyami Fumikage, versus… All-purpose Creation! She was admitted through recommendations, so her abilities are certified! Also from the Hero Course, it's Yaoyarozu Momo!"
"That Yaoyarozu girl… She doesn't look very confident, does she?" Genki asked as the girl drew her arm across her body, hand on her bicep.
"On the other end of the spectrum, bird-boy seems way too into this," Hitoshi hummed seeing Tokoyami crossing his arms, motionless, eyes closed, and completely stoic.
"Seventh Match! START!"
"So that's what he meant by 'all-purpose creation'," Genki hummed as Momo formed a metallic kite shield out of her own skin, [Dark Shadow] battering her a step backwards, flying up before swooping down for another attack.
Like a bird of prey, the jet-black Quirk swooped down again and again, Momo put completely on the defensive in the wake of those relentless attacks. Her shield knocked loose, Momo summoned another shield in half the time, only for what followed to play out the same way.
Momo sent skidding back once more with a shriek, all of a sudden Fumikage retracted [Dark Shadow]. The girl blinking in confusion, in an instant she summoned a four-foot-long bo staff-
"Yaoyarozu!" Midnight suddenly cut in. "Out of bounds!"
Momo's eyes going wide, the girl looked down to see she had-in-fact, been knocked out-of-bounds. [Dark Shadow]'s retreat hadn't been because of a limit of time or range, there was simply no more reason to fight.
"An overwhelming victory! A completely overwhelming victory!" Present Mic announced, driving the knife deeper in as Momo processed just how-badly she had lost.
"Itai, that has got to hurt her confidence…" Genki winced, seeing the defeated look in the girl's eyes.
"She'll bounce back. Remember, girls are tough. And if she can't bounce back… maybe she wasn't meant to be a Hero at all," Oki said with crossed arms. "Well…" she said looking up at the electronic tournament board. "Looks like you're up next."
"Yeah… Looks like it," Genki nodded as he exhaled deeply, his tailored clothes rippling. "Wish me luck?" he asked over his shoulder.
"Where you're going, you don't need luck, just a little skin. Gotta build the fanbase while they're young~" Oki said striking a pose, blowing him a kiss.
"Okaa-saaan… You're embarrassing me…" Genki said flushing red.
"Genki," Hitoshi said walking up to them. "Don't you worry about your mother. I'll keep her in line while you're down there."
"Hey, what's that-" Oki said before going fish eyed… for all of three seconds before shaking it off. "-supposed to mean?"
"I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree," Shinso huffed at how-easily his [Brainwashing] was broken. "Like mother, like son I guess," he sighed rubbing the back of his head. "Still, my statement stands. I'll try to reign her in."
"I temper my sense of decency in expectation."
Walking off, as he made his way to the tunnel, Genki was met with applause and good luck not only from the audience, but the General Course and even the Pro Heroes as well. He'd heard plenty of times that people loved an underdog story because they could more-vicariously self-insert themselves into them, like harem anime with a super-bland protagonist, but to actually receive this kind of adulation when years before his stigma had caused people to hold him beyond-arm's-length…
It felt really good. Like all the effort he'd put in would finally pay off, even if it hadn't returned dividends right-away.
*MHA*
"Alright, folks! Our pre-preliminary fight is about to begin," Present Mic announced as the General and Hero Course students faced off against one another. "On one side we have the dark horse of the Sports Festival, the underdog who pulled his way through two rounds remaining undefeated and rocking those short pants… From the General Course, Gokiburi Genkiiiiiii!"
Waves of applause spilling down into the arena, none louder than his own mother, Genki drew a soft smile to his face as he waved to his adoring public. Playing to the crowd was just another part of what it meant to be a Hero.
Albeit, not-as-much as during the age of corporate Heroes where all you had to do was show up and flash as many logos to the camera as physically possible.
"And on the other, facing off against his own partner from the last round, the grape-headed boy with the tiny character design… Minoru Mineta!"
'Don't bring my character design into this…!' Mineta wilted.
"Eighth match pre-match fight! START!"
"Mineta… I appreciate you helping me get this far… but I can't afford to lose here," Genki said as he got into a stance.
"Ultimate Move: GRAPE RUUUUUSH!"Mineta called out as he rushed forward, any form of witty banter pushed to the back of his mind as he tore countless protrusions from his scalp and threw them, a deluge of "purple rain" sailing toward the bug-like teen.
"Well alright then!" Genki said as Mineta got straight to the point, the teen rapidly dodging from side to side, contorting himself into odd angles in impressive feats of balance and agility as he dodged the projectiles.
A [Pop Off] soaring toward his face that Mineta had lead him into with his previous volley, to his and 1-A's shock, the oily-haired teen actually slapped it aside with a loud *WHAP*, the sticky ball flying sidelong forcing Midnight to dodge with an undignified yelp.
"What the hell?!" Mineta cried in shock, his assault momentarily ceasing while up in the stands, Izuku frantically scribbled into his notebook, wondering what kind of abilities would allow someone to completely nullify a super-powerful adhesive like [Pop Off].
"Don't forget, Mineta, I've witnessed what your Quirk could do first-hand too," Genki said stepping forward, walking over and even atop the teen's [Pop Off] with seeming impunity as the orbs squished under his oily soles like overripe fruit. "And I know exactly how to fight Quirks like that," he said with a smile as he let his hand rest at his side, a droplet of oil falling from his fingertip.
"Well that isn't fair at all…!" Mineta whined.
"Oh I'm sorry. I don't give a fuck," Genki said with a menacing smile as he ground his heel into the ground. "Goki RUSH!" he cried out as he suddenly accelerated.
"EYAAAAAAAGH!" Mineta screamed as Genki suddenly closed in on him in a blur, right leg drawn back.
"GOKI KIIIIIIICK!" Genki roared as three vents similar to on his palms dilated in a line down the back of his right calf, the compressed air that shot out giving the kick a little extra punch as he caught Mineta in the chest with his shin, the grape-headed teen sent soaring out of bounds like an American football a moment later.
As if fate had decided to come full circle, instead of landing harshly on the concrete steps or even a vacant seat as spectators fled out of the way, the grape-headed teen landed atop the rotund stomach of the man whose [Back Fat] had been acquired by him during the Scavenger Hunt prior.
"It's going… It's going… IT'S GOOOOD!" Present Mic cheered, many of the Americans in the audience shooting up to their feet and raising their arms like a field goal.
"Minoru is out-of-bounds! The winner is Gokiburi!" Midnight announced, the audience cheering at the spectacle. For as-short a fight as that was, the Ultimate Moves –at least in the declarative sense- added a nice bit of kick (read: spectacle)to the fight. "Gokiburi, even though you completed your match in almost-record time, you still have the option of taking a brief recess before your follow-up fight with Ashido Mina."
"I'm good to go another round!" he said pounding his fist, causing the audience to cheer. "Buuut it'll take a while for Ashido-san to get down here, so I'd be left waiting anyway," he interrupted, causing the fanfare to die down. "I'll be back after a quick water break. How does that sound?"
"I'll allow it!" Midnight said with a smile, still grinning from his clever double entendre.
*MHA*
While Genki stepped out of the stage to have his aforementioned water break, nervous murmuring rose across 1-A's spectator box.
"Well… Guess he didn't tire himself out that much. By the time he finishes that water break, he'll probably be back to a full tank," Sero sighed as he pat Mina on the shoulder. "My condolences."
"Hey, don't make it sound like I've lost already," Mina pouted, turning her attention to the most Quirk-savvy person in their class. "Any advice, Midoriya?"
"Speed… Wings… Compressed air… Reaction time… Oil… Antennae…" Izuku muttered frantically. "I feel like I've seen these abilities in one place before… It's right on the tip of my tongue, but I just can't recall…"
"You keep doing you, sweetie," Mina said patting the teen on the shoulder as he continued to mutter, oblivious to everything going on around him. "Well, wish me luck everyone!"
"Try not to let him kick you," Tsuyu put in. As a girl who never skipped leg day, in a way she could appreciate the technique he'd put into Mineta's airtime.
"And don't get caught up in his oil slick!" Iida then spoke up. "If that stuff gets onto your shoes, you can say farewell to your coefficient of friction!"
"Don't let him get his hands on you," Jiro added with a small shudder. "So gross…"
"Give him one for me, Ashido-san," Aoyama said giving her a thumbs-up. "Avenge meeeeeee!" he wailed dramatically.
"Hey, don't you guys worry about me," Mina said with a grin. "What could he possibly dish out that we haven't seen already?"
If only she knew.
*MHA*
"You know him! You love him! The dark horse underdog of the Yuuei Sports Festival! How far will he climb to the top? From the General Course, it's Gokiburi Genki, versus… Is something going to come out of hose horns? Well? From the Hero Course, the pretty-in-pink superheroine to-be, it's Ashido Mina!" Present Mic announced a few minutes later as the two teens limbered up, Genki stretching out his legs while Mina stretched her arms above her head.
"Gokiburi, get her!" a voice suddenly cried out, Genki looking up into 1-A's spectator box to see the guy he'd just kicked up and at it again. "Beat her like in those fighting games where their clothes get ripped off!"
"Well he sure recovered quick," Genki deadpanned. "Sorry I took him of all people into the final round," he apologized to the girl in front of him. "With a ten-million-point bullseye slapped across my back, I was desperate for anyone to team up with me."
"Hey, no worries, Gen-kun, in a minute none of that will even matter!" Mina taunted good-naturedly, an infectious grin on her face.
"Final match of the Preliminary Round! START!"
"Ashido Mina!" Genki shouted the moment Present Mic's announcement ended. "Don't hold back on me just because I'm from the General Course, because I'm going to come at you with everything I've got!"
" . . . Right! Cause I wouldn't have it any other way!" Mina said enthusiastically after a shocked pause. "Show me what you're made of!"
"Oh my! What a bold declaration!" Present Mic crooned. "Genki certainly has the mettle to back it up! Just how will our little pink alien fare against the dark horse of the Sports Festival?"
'On the surface, Genki's words might not have all that much meaning, but on a subliminal level, what he's doing is actually quite brilliant,' Aizawa thought with a wry smile as what the Gokiburi boy was scheming beneath the surface.
By using pre-fight dialogue at the point of the fight where everyone would be paying more attention to what was being said and take it super-literally, Genki was bringing both himself and Mina onto a neutral middle-ground. On the surface it was purely for the sake of good sportsmanship, but underneath that, he was running preemptive damage control so nothing like in Bakugou's fight would happen to him if he "beat up" his female opponent.
Because for some reason in the twenty-third century people still bitched about that sort of thing.
'What a logical ruse…' Aizawa thought with a wry smile as Genki made the crowd, and even his opponent, dance atop the palm of his hand.
Brand protection aside…
"Hey! Quit copying me!" Mina cried as she and Genki both skate/strafed around one another in an attempt to flank, one propelling themselves with a weak acid while the other used oil.
"What're you talking about? My oil was out of my soles a half-second before your acid was!" Genki bit back, adding a bit of levity to the start of their fight.
"Well… Quit followin' me!" she retorted.
"Hey, I started first, so you're the one following me!" Genki bit back.
"Well if you won't attack first, I will!" Mina said as she changed direction. "Yoshaa! Ashido Mina goes on the offensive!" she said with a grin as fat globules of acid formed on her raised palms, the pinkette chucking them with a cry of- "Acid Throw!"
"Ah! My new shirt!" Genki cried as he was struck in the chest, the teen backing away from her as the textile fibers steamed, breaking down and exposing his flat stomach.
"I'm not letting you get away! Acid Throw! Acid Throw! Acid Throw! Acid Throw! Acid Throohoohoohooohhhwww…" her declaration trailed off as she inadvertently melted away more than she'd bargained for.
"Ashido Mina! If you melt away any more of his clothing, you will be disqualified!" Midnight cut in.
"Too little too late…" Genki grumbled, the layer of oil forming a membrane over his skin as his attire was melted down to naught but rags and threads. The shirt a lost cause, Genki discarded the now-ruined garment before commenting- "Does anyone else feel a draft?" –before looking down. "Son of a-"
"Language!"
The majority of Genki's pants melted away as well, instead of boxers or briefs, it was revealed that he was instead clad in a pair of black speedo-style trunks with white racing stripes down the sides, glistening with the same oily sheen as the rest of his body.
While before the audience became privy to what he looked like topless because he wanted to reduce drag and wind resistance for The Fall, now, almost the whole of his body was on view for everyone to see as threads snapped and the rest of his clothing fell away to pool around his ankles, leaving him in nothing but a swimsuit and his sneakers.
Which-of-course made it really creepy -at least to the Americans- that it was a fifteen-year-old who was now being sexually objectified by the masses, if the whistling and cat-calls were anything to go by.
"Nice butt," Tsuyu said making her thoughts known as another strip of cloth was melted away from his speedo-clad derriere.
"DAMNIIIIIIIIT! WHY COULDN'T THEIR QUIRKS BE REVERRRRRSED!?" Mineta wailed before Kyoka made her thoughts on the issue known.
"Holy crap, did you plan this!?" Mina gawped as she covered her reddening face, peeking between splayed fingers.
"First off, EYES UP HERE!" Genki raged as his opponent's eyes wandered. "Second, THIS WAS JUST IN CASE THERE WAS A WATER OBSTACLE LIKE LAST YEAR!"
" . . . I suppose that's fair…" Mina admitted with a pout as her eyes darted.
"Also, WHAT THE HECK DID YOU THINK WOULD HAPPEN WHEN YOU STARTED FLINGING ACID EVERYWHERE!? IF I DIDN'T USE [OILPERATION] AT THE LAST SECOND, I'D HAVE HAD TO SUE YOU FOR SEXUAL HARASSMENT!" he raged as he kicked away the remaining scraps of cloth at his feet.
"Well, okay, but… You think maybe we could take a brief recess so you could put a change of clothes on?" Mina asked. "I swear not to use my [Acid] on you anymo-"
"Denied!" Midnight cut in.
"Well that was fast," Present Mic chuckled. "The fight will resume uninterrupted!"
"At least we don't have to cut to commercial because of another wardrobe malfunction," Aizawa sighed when he remembered last year's Sports Festival.
"What's the matter, Mii-chan?" Genki taunted. "You afraid of a little skinship?" he asked as he took a step towards her, his nose scrunching a moment later. "OH CRAP! IT GOT ON MY SHOES!" he then cried as the tops of his sneakers began to melt from the runoff. "Dammit, Mii-chan! This is why we can't have nice things!"
"HEY! IT'S NOT LIKE I PLANNED IT THIS WAY!" Mina cried, since by the looks on everyone's faces beings sent her way, she was being made out to be some kinda pervert.
"Once again, WHAT THE HECK DID YOU THINK WOULD HAPPEN WHEN YOU STARTED FLINING ACID EVERYWHERE!?"
"Trust me, I'm not keen on seeing anymore skin than I already am."
"Your darting eyes do not inspire confidence," Genki deadpanned.
"Enough! Let's just fight already!" Mina said with a reddening face. "Get over here!"
"With pleasure!" Genki grinned as he ran at her as well.
While Midnight squealed giddily about "teenaged oil wrestling", Mina and Genki met in the middle, fingers interlocked as the two teens grappled. Acid and oil dribbling from both their palms, pooling at their feet, the two teens circled one another as they attempted to overpower the other.
"Heh… You're pretty good," Mina said with a grin as the oily teen held his ground against her.
"Oh, I'm just getting started!"
The next moment Genki grabbed Mina's shoulders, throwing both legs under her right armpit before circling around beneath her left, his legs sweeping up and trapping her neck between his thighs. Genki's torso swinging back around, the centrifugal motion spun them once, twice, three times over before he swung his torso back under Mina's arm, planted his feet firmly on the ground, and sent Mina for a loop.
"Whoa! What an epic Black Widow throw!" Present Mic crooned as Mina was thrown onto her back.
"How the heck did you do that?! Who even taught you that!?" Mina cried, flushed redder in the face than usual thinking back to the teen's oily, lean, speedo-clad thighs wrapped around her face.
"Hey, it's embarrassing for me too you know," Genki said, a dusting of red on his own cheeks as he got back into a stance.
"Don't think I'll let you out of here unscathed, ecchi-kun!"
"If I'm a pervert, you're a super pervert for trying to make me naked!" Genki cried as Mina rushed at him.
Mina throwing her entire weight into his midsection, arms wrapped around his waist, the girl tried to force him to the ground, only to begin slipping off her opponent's lean, oiled-up body like a fireman's pole. Her hands scrambling for any kind of handhold, before Mina could grab his speedo and inadvertently cause a wardrobe malfunction, Genki leaned down and trapped the girl's head between his arms in a textbook standing Guillotine Choke. The pink-skinned girl flailing her arms as she tried to fight her way out of the choke, his oily hide only served to foil her at every turn, the oil around her neck actually making it harder to get out as an airtight seal was formed.
Before she could black out, Mina flooded her soles with acid, melting new footholds into the ground at her feet giving her the leverage she needed to finally force Genki to the ground. In a few moments, the teen's oily hide proved to be a detriment, as Mina started sliding him back-first towards the out-of-bounds line. Mina holding strong, Genki was forced to relinquish his grip of her, lest he lose on a technicality.
"Ewww… I'm all slimy!" Mina whined as she scraped the oil off of her neck. "I hope you'll take responsibility for this," she said tugging at her oiled-up clothes.
"Phrasing!" Present Mic whooped, muffling Genki's mirrored outburst as he and Mina got into ready stances oncemore.
"Come on…!" Mina said running at him, Genki circling around behind her and backpedaling away from the pink-skinned girl's grip. "Don't you want Mii-chan to give you another hug?"
"No…" Genki hummed as he waited, waited, waited until the opposite out-of-bound line was at his back. "I want you to make a mistake," he said suddenly zipping forward.
Dropping down, Genki slid between the girl's legs like a baseball player with the help of his oily hide. The oily-skinned teen rolling onto his belly and grabbing the girl's ankles as he went, Mina had to windmill her arms backwards so she wouldn't land out-of-bounds face-first.
The next moment Genki leapt up, straddling the girl's back and bringing her to the ground, the pink-skinned girl wincing as she planted her palms on the ground at her sides, arching her back so wouldn't bite off her tongue or have her chin hit the out-of-bounds line.
Mina soon found her chin being lifted away, but not for her own benefit. Genki's right arm snaking around her neck, Mina soon found her left arm being twisted behind her back and his knees at her hips as he bent her backwards, the girl yelping as she was drawn into a 90-degree angle Arm Bar.
"Itai! Itai! Itaitaitaitaitai!" Mina winced in pain as her right arm flailed and her legs kicked helplessly, secreting acid from her neck and wrist to no avail as once more her [Acid] slid off his [Oil] like water off a duck's back.
"Ashido Mina… Can you still move?" Midnight asked, a tiny rivulet of blood dribbling from her nose as the two teens writhed against one another.
"Yeah… I'm not out of this ye-"
*Crick*
"YOW! ALRIGHT ALRIGHT! I GIVE! I GIVE!" Mina cried as she was drawn into an acute angle Arm Bar.
"Mina has conceded! The winner is Gokiburi!" Midnight announced, the audience cheering from the edges of their seats as Mina was released, the girl letting a satisfied sigh mixed with a whine leave her lips as she laid parallel to the ground.
"Mina…" Genki said as he stood above his defeated opponent. "That was a wonderful fight. I hope we can spar again, someday," he said with a soft smile as he held out his hand.
" . . . Heh. You're not so bad yourself," Mina said with a grin as she took his hand, allowing herself to be pulled up. "Though next time, try to keep your clothes on."
"Hey, that was your fault, not mine."
"Still, that was a heckuva fight, Gen-kun! You better not lose to anyone else, ya hear?" she asked holding out her fist.
"I can only promise to do my best," Genki said as he returned the fist bump, Mina's infectious smile spreading to him.
"So… Not that I don't enjoy the free show and all…" she said as Midnight squealed about 'dreams come true' in the background, "but are you going to put your clothes back on, or…" she asked with a grin as she pointed to his near-naked body.
"Hey, you were the one getting all handsy!" Genki said crossing his hands over his chest like a girl bereft of their swimsuit.
"Only because you lubed yourself up and tried to wrestle me!" Mina said with a grin and an eye smile.
"And with that, the preliminary round is now concluded!" Present Mic announced as Genki and Mina continued to banter back-and-forth. "We'll need a brief intermission to get all the juices off the stadium floor, so grab your concessions and take your bathroom breaks! We'll be back real soon!"
*MHA*
AN:
While Genki's presence in the Cavalry Battle has more of a "butterfly affect" because of all the radial variables he can influence by snatching away two people from two teams and changing top-player mentality (like who is considered the biggest threat and how said-threat would retaliate), in the Battle Tournament, that isn't really the case.
Because Izuku's battles with Shinso and Todoroki both are major character development milestones for all of them, I couldn't in clear conscience change any of that out, because if I shoehorned Genki into those fights just for the heck of it, it would've done more harm than good to them in the long run; that and if I tried "shoehorning" him into those fights which are so titular to the canon, well... it'd be shorehorning. In addition to that, putting Genki and Shinso on opposite ends of the tournament bracket -so they couldn't hypothetically meet until the final round- made the most thematic sense.
While the Canon fights were largely third-person recaps/abridgements with a joke sprinkled here and there, I hope you'll comment and Review on Genki's one-two matchup, especially the fight Choreography since a person's Quirk will greatly influence how they fight, and I had so much fun working in how Mina's [Acid] and Genki's [Oilperation] sub-Quirk would clash.
Hope to hear from you soon.
GO BEYOND!
EXCELSIOR!