Izuku, after waiting for the field to be cleared again, was ready for the one-on-ones.
The students had some fun during the games, which was quite a good sign in his eyes since at the very least some of them would maybe get some attention, he wasn't even sure the business course was making any attempts to network and were just offering the normal concessions.
Shaking his head Izuku quickly re-read the rule list Nezu had texted over to him.
There were a few more than the ones any of the previous umpires stated but Izuku did suppose there wasn't much reason to say anything about the ones that applied to him as the umpire.
Still Izuku felt a bit more confident now before he would have to go out in a few minutes and watch over the fights.
It wouldn't be the first time he observed a fight, he saw more than one with his time with the Vespas, his hand-to-hand contact training while not as in-depth as the other Vespa members was still rather thorough.
And this certainly wouldn't be his first time breaking up a fight if it did get to that point, he almost lost count of how many times he's stopped the various gangs from killing each other.
But this time his actions would be under much more scrutiny than in any of the red light districts, and these one-on-ones were going to require more of his attention.
To keep each student from taking things too far and hurting themselves or each other.
Smoothing out his clothes he made his way out to the now cleared field and checked that the arena was made correctly before taking his place where the umpire could watch the matches.
Izuku let his eyes roam over the crowd briefly and while there was still a part of him that wanted to wince, knowing that he would be heavily watched during the fights, and that any call outs would be considered controversial just because of who he was.
Shaking his head Izuku waited for Yamada-San and Takami-San to introduce the first two students.
"Hey, hey, hey little listeners! Who's ready to see our students rumble?" Yamada-San exclaimed, getting the crowd to start cheering.
Izuku wondered if they thought that the students would start using their quirks now?
He allowed himself to quietly huff at the thought.
The students had shown how stubborn they could be, suppressing their instinctual reactions to use their quirks for two whole rounds now and Izuku was pretty sure they weren't going to stop now.
"Great! Let me reintroduce you all to Goldman of the hero course, our biomechanical unicorn of the year." Yamada-San said as the boy walked out to the field from the gate on Izuku's left.
The boy didn't raise his head to look at the crowd, only giving a small nod to Izuku when he was at the starting position.
A small tingle of warmth tickling him as the quiet boy chose that he needed to acknowledge Izuku but not the crowd of heroes around them.
Izuku made sure to return the respect and nodded back to the boy.
"And here on the other side, we have Kita his classmate, a blooming young lad that will help us kick off the first fight." Takami-San said in turn and Kita came out boldly wearing a floral shower cap on top.
Izuku blinked kind of wondering where he could have gotten a shower cap from, maybe the business course offered to get him one?
He would have to ask in between the rounds.
"Hm, it seems that the students that pledged not to use their quirks are quite serious about it." Yamada-San commented and Izuku imaged that Takami-San was nodding along given what he said next.
A low whisper from the crowd talking, most likely because they were asking each other if the students would really go that far.
If they were saying anything else, then Izuku didn't want to know.
"Wonder what kind of fight they'll have, hand-to-hand would likely get intense." Takami replied and Izuku agreed.
Goldman-San did have a couple of years of MAC under his belt and while Kita didn't have any formal training Kita was rather vicious in the hand-to-hand training sessions so far.
Besides, an untrained opponent could be just as dangerous as a trained person, in the right circumstances.
Kita nodded to Izuku and Izuku returned the gesture before bringing his hand up to get everyone's attention.
"Aright, before we begin and I state the rules, can we get a bow for our opponent?" Izuku requested, both of the boys complying and bowing deeply to each other "Thank you boys." Izuku added with a smile.
"As a quick reminder of the rules for you guys," Izuku said before taking a deep breath in, mentally reassuring himself by reciting them first in his mind.
"There will be no mauling or serious injury to each other, if I feel that either of you cannot continue, I will end the match and physically restrain you if I need to, is that understood?" Izuku questioned.
"Hai Deku-Sensei." both boys replied, most likely out of habit since Ito-San had accepted no less, Izuku nodded regardless.
"Good. Now in order to win you'll have to either have to pin the other for ten seconds or get the person you're fighting outside of the ring." Izuku outlined for them "And both of you have the right to forfeit or surrender at any point during the match. Do you both understand and accept these terms." Izuku asked.
"Hai Deku-Sensei." the boys repeated.
Izuku nodded, this time more to himself than anyone else.
"Alright, the fight will start in three, two, one. Begin!" Izuku announced and both boys ran at each other.
Goldman dropping to a crouch as Kita tried to swing at him, the red-haired boy sweeping his legs the next second, successfully knocking Kita off his feet.
"Gah!" Kita cried as he hit the ground and Goldman leapt to get on top of Kita to pin him, but Kita wasn't going to let him win that easily.
So, with both legs Kita sent Goldman overhead and a few feet away from himself.
"It'll take more than a cheap move like that to take me down bird-bones!" Kita loudly but playfully jeered as he rolled over and back on to his feet at the same time that Goldman was doing so.
Both boys circled each other like a pair of boxers with their hands raised to their sides and ready to strike the moment either of them chose to get bold.
After about a minute Kita chose to rush forward and he managed to get a nice right hook on Goldman, but not without getting a punch himself from Goldman in return, the slug fest continued as the boys traded blow for blow.
Izuku watched carefully, they hadn't taken things too far yet, both would likely have bruises and maybe some split knuckles, but overall, nothing too serious or concerning just yet, if one of them broke their nose then he'd step in to at least pause and make sure they were alright.
He can hear Yamada-San and Takami-San talking distantly, had the whole time apparently, but Izuku has managed to effectively block their voices out so that he could focus on both of the boys and their fight.
Once it felt like two minutes of punching themselves senselessly Goldman bit down Kita's hand when it got close enough and the shock of it had Kita stumble back a few steps.
Something that gave Goldman the chance to kick Kita in the abdomen, sending the other boy back and on his rear with a short cry of pain.
Before Kita could recover though Goldman grabbed Kita's ankle and he began to drag the other boy even with Kita's squirming and trying to wrench himself out of his classmates grip, managing to do so after a few seconds and scrambled back.
Kita wasn't paying attention to where he was though and once he put his hand on the outside of the borderline Izuku called out.
"Stop! The match is over." Izuku informed the boys and they both stilled, looking at each other and then noticed that Kita's hand was on the other side of the line.
"Kita crossed the line and Goldman is the winner." Izuku declared.
Kita sighed "Damn it, had money on winning, at least I was able to keep my cap on though right?" Kita commented, the second part aimed towards Goldman and raised his hand to the boy, likely waiting for Goldman to pull him up.
Which Goldman did after a moment, but he didn't reply to the boy's mock question.
"Right, still keeping up the stoic loner stuff." Kita joked once back on his feet "Still though nice fight, good luck bud." Kita added before moving to go back in the tunnel he exited from in the beginning.
"And our boy Kita is quite the gracious loser, not to say Goldman is all that boastful over his win." Yamada-San said, his voice filtering back into Izuku's attention Takami-San's hum following soon after.
"The fight was a bit more exciting than I thought it would be without quirks." Takami-San commented off-handedly.
"Yep, genuine hand-to-hand tends to be like that, more visceral ya know?" Yamada-San responded.
Takami-San gave a chuckle "Afraid not, don't do much hand-to-hand, not a lot of opportunity." Takami-San answered in turn.
"So you say, though I can't blame you, don't get in that close most of the time with my quirk being what it is." Yamada-San offered in turn.
"Anything else you want to add, Hawks before we ask the next pair of students to come out next?" Yamada-San asked.
"Nah, I think I'm more than ready to see the next fight." Takami-San told him "Mind if we bring the next couple of students in and introduce them to the stage Midoriya-San?" Takami-San inquired.
Izuku made a show of hemming and hawing, mostly to give the pair of students some more time to get to the plate.
"I suppose, but do let Goldman have a few minutes to get off of the field first." Izuku told him in reply, Goldman was still on the field after all, and he sent the boy a look.
Goldman nodded, before walking off the entrance that he'd taken to come out of.
Izuku watched him carefully and reminded himself to double check with Shuzenji-San that Goldman had gotten checked out, the boy's hollow bones did lead to more fractures than the average person.
Goldman did seem like the type to ignore a broken finger to go on, something that Izuku very much wouldn't stand for.
Yes, fingers weren't that big, and the breaks wouldn't be that major even if the boy had any, Goldman could probably continue but who'd willingly let someone, much less one of their students mutilate themselves or something like that?
"Okay folks I think we're ready to get the next two up for the second fight." Yamada-San said a few seconds after Goldman disappeared from the view.
"Right, let's first welcome Yokino, the white knight." Takami-San followed up with and the girl walked out with her chin jutted up and an almost mocking wave to the crowd.
The girl even blowing a kiss up to the commenter booth before she gave a slight bow to him, grinning to herself clearly proud of her dramatics.
Izuku merely shook his head, the girl was going to be quite the character once she burst into the lime-light hero scene.
"Her opponent for this first round will be one of the girls from the support course Groki, and this steam punk looks ready to rumble." Yamada-San told the crowd as the metal armed girl was also grinning as she marched out with her own made armor.
Izuku's eyes flickered between the two a few times after Groki gave a similar bow to him.
Suddenly he got the feeling that the girls had something under their sleeves, because they both had the devious grins he's seen on his students faces before.
Still though Izuku raised his arm and got ready to parrot the rules once again, he was a professional and he had a job to do.
Izuku could only feel torn between hoping that Groki wouldn't trash the field that badly, and a tiny part of him wondering if he could personally see to getting Goldman to the nurses office.