It was time. The final event was starting. Izuku walked down the hall and approached the exit. Uraraka was with him, but he'd have to leave her side in a few moments to fight. Midnight had announced the final event before lunch, but Izuku hadn't felt truly nervous until the moment he could see the light of the sun peering in through the exit, where he'd walk out and face the world in a few seconds. The final event ended up being one on one combat, no gimmicks or tricks on the part of UA. That meant that Izuku was at a disadvantage for every single one of the fights he'd take part in, because he couldn't use his Quirk in combat against people. It'd probably constitute unwarranted force at the least, and attempted murder at the most. He needed to figure out a way to face his opponent fast, because he was a ranged fighter, and Izuku wasn't. Why did he have to go first? The universe really did hate him. It didn't help matters when his first opponent's Quirk was thrown into the mix, as it was an area of effect type of power, and not a traditional attack that Izuku could dodge. He'd have to be clever, and not miss a single second of time with him.
"Are you okay?" Uraraka asked, drawing him back to reality.
"Yeah, totally fine. What's up?" he asked, looking at her curiously.
"You seem worried," she said.
"Well, yeah. Anybody would be if they were the first to fight in the last event. Don't even get me started on who I'm fighting," Izuku sighed.
"You'll be fine. He's not anything you can't handle," Uraraka said. She waved, as if to dismiss the thought entirely, but Izuku couldn't do that.
"I think you're underestimating the role that types of Quirks play in matchups like these," Izuku said matter-of-factly.
"Oh, yeah? What's that?" Uraraka asked, raising her eyebrows as she leaned against the wall.
"Touch Quirks are good against area of effect and ranged Quirks if they're already in close range. If I have to start from a distance, I'll just get taken down immediately with overwhelming force that I can't do anything about," he explained.
"That's true. You'll win, though," she shot back, without hesitation.
"That's my problem; I don't know how I'm going to win if he can just zap me right away," Izuku whined.
"You'll figure something out. You always do!" Uraraka cheered.
"Thanks for the ego boost, at least," Izuku said with a small laugh at himself.
"I think you have the opposite of an ego," Uraraka said, her chuckle much more genuine than Izuku's. "That, or the biggest ego I've ever seen. Not sure which some days."
Izuku looked at her and smiled as she laughed in earnest. It was a heartier laugh than any of Izuku's, and it made him feel a little better about being the first match of the final event. That did still mean that, while he listened to her giggle herself back to being calm and collected, he was inching closer and closer to fighting in front of the whole world. They'd been watching him closely, and he couldn't afford to mess this up. He just had too much he wanted to do to fail now.
"I guess you'll just have to Plus Ultra your way through it," Uraraka said with a serene smile on her face.
"I guess so," Izuku said, his own frown fading away at the sight of her confidence in him.
Izuku heard a distant voice say his name, and snapped to attention as he realised that it must be time for him to enter the arena. He knew it was Present Mic talking, but he couldn't understand the words; he was too deep in his own nerves to process them. Instead, he simply took a final glance at Uraraka, for courage, and walked forward, letting the sunlight shine down on him and reveal him to the world. The crowd cheered as he made his way across the grass, filling him both with dread and with hope. He didn't know which was worse to feel at the moment, considering that his opponent was likely to simply eliminate him on the spot. Izuku had a fraction of an idea on how to combat his preferred method of attack, but he wasn't sure that it would work. Basing it off an old piece of movie trivia also wasn't a great idea, but Izuku didn't really care about that, because if his opponent could get an attack off, then he was screwed. He needed this to work.
Izuku reached the arena where they'd be fighting. He climbed the steps and stood tall, the audience's cheers dying down slightly as the two fighters arrived at their starting positions. Denki Kaminari stood before Izuku, smiling wide like he didn't have a care in the world. He didn't know what to think about Kaminari, since they had only really talked once, and it hadn't been a very pleasant conversation for Izuku. He was friendly, and he was a decent guy from all he'd seen, but something about the way he acted rubbed Izuku the wrong way. He was bowing and waving and blowing kisses to the audience like he was on some game show. It was like this didn't matter to him, like the festival wasn't a big deal. Maybe he was still angry at Todoroki, or maybe Kaminari was actually getting on his nerves, but Izuku took a deep breath to ground himself as Present Mic spoke again, clear now that he wasn't muffled by any walls.
"Here we have a hell of a matchup, folks! Izuku Midoriya, the relentless runner-up, and Denki Kaminari, the sleeper hit that'll put you to sleep with that shocking Quirk of his!" Present Mic babbled. Izuku didn't appreciate that Kaminari's Quirk was highlighted and not his own, but it wasn't a massive thing. At least he highlighted a quality of Izuku's that he actually valued, and not his love of fried pork.
"Are you both ready to begin?" Midnight asked from her podium beside the arena.
Izuku nodded, and Kaminari gave an enthusiastic whoop in reply. The two boys locked eyes, and it might've been a trick of the light, but Kaminari looked almost smug.
"Alright. Start!" Midnight yelled, and the fight began.
Izuku took off at a dead sprint, not thinking about anything but moving his legs and pumping his arms to get him as close to Kaminari as possible before he could do what he clearly was thinking of doing. As he moved across the cement stage, he saw Kaminari grin.
"Sorry, Midoriya. I know you're, like, uber strong and stuff when you're up close and personal. I just have to get you at mid-range and you're done!" Kaminari yelled, his voice ringing louder in Izuku's ears as he closed the distance.
Unfortunately, Izuku didn't manage to reach Kaminari before he let off his massive attack. He was still a number of steps away when he heard some numbers get thrown out confidently, but thought that they couldn't possibly be accurate; just the approximations of a teenager who didn't know anything about electricity. Lucky for him, Izuku did know some things about electricity, particularly the way a circuit worked. He'd read somewhere that the way most people would get electrocuted was that they touched a live wire or something that started the circuit, and the ground completed the circuit, which caused the electricity to shoot through their body, thus shocking them. If someone wasn't touching the ground, however, it became a different story. The circuit couldn't complete itself, and a shock never came. Or, at least, the shock that did come was much lesser in severity. That's all Izuku needed to know as he saw Kaminari's body spark with yellow electricity, the golden lightning flickering all over him as he thrust his hands down at the ground.
Izuku leapt into the air, soaring and riding his momentum as he almost flew with the speed he'd been maintaining during his sprint. He'd pushed himself during that run, focusing all his energy on moving as fast as he could, and it showed as he rose a metre or two into the air, his feet swinging back behind him and his whole body tipping forward as he shot towards Kaminari like a rocket. The electricity was expelled from Kaminari's body a millisecond later, pulsing out and travelling through the ground harmlessly. Unfortunately, a large amount of the charge released from Kaminari's body was also conducted by the air, causing Izuku's whole body to go numb and all the hair on his body to stand on end as he composed himself in midair. He let his left hand fly back and ball into a fist as it convulsed under the effect of the electricity flooding his body, and he forced his right hand forward as he closed in on Kaminari, holding his fingers steadily spread apart and flying towards the blond without pause of hesitation.
Kaminari looked up at Izuku with his smug grin and saw the hand flying toward him, wide open and looming above him as Izuku got closer and closer with each passing heartbeat. His face changed in an instant, the cocky smile twisting into an ugly expression of sheer terror, his eyes becoming wide as he stared up at Izuku's hand, and then his face. Izuku himself didn't know what kind of face he was making, likely something strange looking since that was the exact moment his face also went numb from the surge of electricity and all the muscles in his face tensed painfully. In fact, tremors were racking his body in that moment of anticipation before the two boys clashed, as the waves of electrical impulses streaked through him and caused every muscle in his body to spasm, including his outstretched hand, which twitched closer to Kaminari's face as the blond boy froze in fear. He looked like he was staring down death itself, and his touch was getting nearer with every passing fraction of a second. In a way, he was right, but Izuku wasn't going to kill Kaminari.
As gravity and momentum closed the distance between Izuku and Kaminari, he swung his right arm back and took his hand away and instead threw his other hand, still balled up into a fist from the convulsions, at the blond boy's face, landing a solid hit on Kaminari and staggering him. As he shut off his Quirk out of shock, Kaminari stumbled back and held his nose, where the hit had impacted, with a whine. Izuku kept moving, closing the distance yet again and throwing another punch before his opponent had time to recover from the first. It landed, with Kaminari reeling back yet and again groaning out objections as red streaks began to run down his face. Izuku kept up this assault for a few moments, Kaminari still dazed from that first punch to the face. Another hit landed, this time to the temple, and that seemed to be the thing that did Kaminari in, as he yelped as he stumbled back even further, a few steps from the boundary of the arena. Izuku's shoe, however, had a spark of electricity follow it away from Kaminari's head, which told Izuku that he was going to go for another attack.
Thank whatever god existed for rubber-soled shoes.
Kaminari sparked again, and Izuku could feel the air become heavy as it was charged with electricity, but it was no use. Izuku took a runup and jumped high into the air in front of Kaminari, pulling his knees to his chest and avoiding the brunt of the attack. He still was hit with waves of muscle cramps and convulsions, but he pushed through it. He kicked his legs out and landed a dropkick on Kaminar's sternum, sending him tumbling backwards but flooding Izuku with a searing burst of pain that sent him sprawling on the cold, hard ground in a heap. Izuku felt a shout of pain tear from his throat, but he couldn't hear it, as his ears were overwhelmed by the screams of the crowd, cheering and shouting at something, and Izuku hoped it was because he'd sent Kaminari out of bounds like he'd wanted to.
Standing up was an excruciating experience, and Izuku didn't wish it upon his greatest enemy. His legs burned and his arms were aching from the involuntary spasms. He pushed himself up off the ground, though, and beheld the sight he'd hoped to see. Kaminari, short-circuiting after his two big attacks and being knocked around a bit by Izuku, was laying on the ground and babbling to himself after landing with his legs touching the dirt over the lines marking the boundary. He'd done it. He'd won.
"Midoriya wins!" Midnight declared.
The audience cheered.
They applauded him.
Izuku didn't know if the cameras could see it, but he felt no embarrassment as he wept. He let the swell of emotion in his chest guide him, and he sobbed as his knees failed him. He sank to the ground and let the tears flow, the hot tracks streaking down his face and the cries escaping him as he was overwhelmed by this development. He hadn't expected to be so affected by the crowd's approval, but he'd clearly been in want of it. It was his whole goal with the festival, to make them acknowledge him, but this was something different, something deeper than the desire to prove bullies wrong. This was something in his chest coming undone, a knot that he hadn't been aware he was holding in place, tugging on it every time he needed motivation to do better. He felt his heart beat hard in his chest as he cried in front of thousands of people, all watching him as they clapped and cheered and hollered at his victory. Izuku felt the weight of everything he'd been holding onto just melt away as he basked in the glory of this wonderful feeling, the acceptance he'd been chasing for a decade simply overpowering his sense of shame.
"Hey, kid! Are you okay?" Midnight asked as she approached him warily.
"Huh?" Izuku asked, snapping to attention and snapping out of his daze. "Oh, yeah! I-I'm good!"
"Are you … sure?" she asked, hesitantly reaching out to pat him on the shoulder as he climbed to his feet again.
"I am, I just—I needed that, I think," Izuku said with a watery laugh as he wiped the tears off his face.
"Okay," Midnight said with a baffled expression.
A sound caught Izuku's attention, and he looked over at Kaminari to see him mumbling to himself as he smiled vacantly. He had overloaded himself with his last attack and fried his own brain. Izuku felt bad for him, so he carefully pulled a glove out of his pocket and slipped it onto his hand. He then approached and offered that hand to Kaminari to help him get up, because as he was, he was just lying there and rambling nonsense. Kaminari's empty eyes looked up at Izuku, and the boy smiled and took his hand, gladly being pulled to his feet. The braindead boy gave Izuku a thumbs up and a wide, dopey grin, and Izuku couldn't help but laugh. Kaminari was alright—he probably wasn't a bad guy, he was just having a good time, which Izuku couldn't fault him for. Their life as UA students, when it wasn't terrifying and life-threatening, was fun, and Kaminari just seemed like the type to enjoy life to its fullest no matter where he was, so that was admirable at the very least. Izuku bowed to Kaminari, as Midnight instructed, and turned to walk away. He did his best to keep a straight face as he left the arena and walked under the cover of the hallway, where Uraraka was waiting for him.
"You were so good!" she said as she rushed forward, barely waiting for him to step foot out of the cameras' field of view before pouncing and wrapping him up in a crushing hug.
"Thanks!" he said.
"Oh, that was so cool!" Uraraka said, retreating from the hug and excitedly mimicking martial arts moves that Izuku was fairly sure were made up on the spot. "The way you kicked him at the end was awesome!" She paused and looked at Izuku, confusion clear in her eyes. "Why'd you keep jumping, though?"
"I noticed that Kaminari sends a lot of his big attacks through the ground. That makes sense, because the ground is the one thing most people will be touching in a fight. If he's sending it through the ground, then I can't be on the ground when he tries to hit me with a big shock. So I jumped," Izuku explained. Uraraka reached up to start poking at his hair, which still stood up on his head, and he didn't stop her as he kept speaking. "I did get zapped a little bit, just because the air also conducts electricity, but yeah."
"Ow!" Uraraka said, reeling away from Izuku as a loud pop rang out and a shock of static electricity lurched at her finger. "Guess you're still charged."
"Yeah! I honestly do feel a little invigorated. That's because of the crowd, though. Did you see them?" Izuku said with a smile.
"I didn't see 'em, but I can hear 'em alright. They love you! Just like I knew they would!" Uraraka said. She had the look in her eyes of so badly wanting to say 'I told you so', but she didn't voice that thought. Izuku knew she'd been saying for a while that he'd do great and that it'd be fine, but he really did just go to the worst case scenario every time. He really should work that out some day, but it wasn't the time for that right that moment.
Uraraka reached up a curled up fist and grinned at him, and Izuku did the same, bumpings their fists together while they shared a smile. Those smiles quickly faded when, once again, Uraraka was shocked by static electricity, a small yellow arc biting at her hand as his bare one made contact.
"Ah!" she squeaked, unprepared for the small stinging pain.
"How do you get rid of static electricity? Am I like this forever?!" Izuku asked as the two of them started moving down further into the hall as Present Mic began talking on the loudspeaker again. Uraraka laughed, and so did Izuku, even though it was a genuine question. He didn't know how to rid himself of a charge after getting pumped full of electricity like he had been, so what happened then? Did he need to not touch anyone for a while? Did he need to be isolated?
"I don't know, it'd be pretty funny to shake Iida's hand and watch his sleek, combed hair frizz up!" Uraraka said with a laugh.
"Yeah," Izuku agreed with a laugh of his own.
If it made Uraraka happy to see people get shocked, then he could relax for a little bit. The life of a UA student was fun. He just had to start looking properly, and he'd probably think so, too. Yeah, Izuku thought Kaminari was a pretty decent guy now. It was a shame it took a likely broken nose for him to figure that out.