Chapter 16: Onto the Second Round
"Offense and defense in one! With a face only a mother could love… Class 1-A's Katsuki Bakugou! Versus! The dark shadow who sneaks up on you… from Class 1-B, Shihai Kurorio!"
"Okay, that's just unfair," Katsuki said.
"Huh? What are you talking about?" the pitch-black kid asked.
"From what Present Mic said, along with your overall appearance, it's safe to say that your Quirk has something to do with darkness, either by creating it, or manipulating it in some way," the blond said. "If it's the second one, then you might be in for a bad time."
Kurorio looked around himself for a second, before he realized that Katsuki was right. "Okay, you're right. Then how about we make it fair? No Quirks, just physical strength?"
"No."
"Excuse me?"
"Do you think real Villains will play fair because you asked them nicely? You have to use every advantage you have, even if it means fighting dirty," Katsuki simply said. "And as for me? I already told you during my speech, punk, I'm gonna do my very best!"
"THIRD MATCH… BEGIN!"
To call the third match a fight would be a disservice.
It was a one-sided massacre.
Without any shadows to merge with Kurorio was out in the open, with Bakugou, a person whose hands also double as flashbangs. It was already decided who the victor was.
As Bakugou carried a downed Kurorio to Recovery Girl's temporary clinic, Present Mic continued his announcements, with the next two competitors appearing in the arena.
Mezo Shoji watched the fight from the sidelines, and could feel the wind impact from the part of the hallway he was in. Bakugou had skills, he had to admit it. But now, it was his turn.
Walking towards the arena, Mezo saw his opponent do the same.
"LET'S SEE WHO WE GOT FOR YOU NEXT!" Present Mic shouted. "We've got two completely different Quirks! On the one hand, we have a versatile Mutant… MEZO SHOJI OF CLASS 1-A! Versus, a versatile Emitter… NEITO MONOMA OF CLASS 1-B! BEGIN!"
Mezo immediately charged towards Monoma, his arms ready to punch, when –
SLAM!
"Oh, what's the matter?" Monoma smiled. "Didn't see that coming?"
Mezo had no idea what just happened. He felt the space around him, only to notice that the air around him was… solid? Monoma must have made it solid while he was charging in –
SLAM!
Mezo felt spit stick to the inside of his mask, as something extremely hard hit his gut. Looking down, he saw that Monoma's fist was now one of steel, and –
"Twin Impact!"
BOOM!
Pain exploded once again on Mezo's abdominal region, as Monoma did something to cause the first strike to now feel even worse. Were all of these Quirks? How many did he have?!
Mezo needed to be faster than this. Creating several new arms, he struck Monoma, who morphed more of his body into steel. Then, he opened his mouth, and the air coming out of it started to take shape. So that's how those solid air walls came to be.
One defense, one offense, and one Quirk that's both. Smart.
Using one of his arms as an uppercut, Mezo hit the bottom of Monoma's chin. The blond boy jumped up from the impact, but he also tapped Mezo's wrist. "Twin Impact!"
BOOM!
It doesn't hurt as much as the metal punch to the gut? That's when the Dupli-Arms user realized something. I see… that attack only doubles the initial impact, no more, no less. By that logic, a light tap would feel like a slap, and a punch would be even worse.
Still, Mezo didn't understand Monoma's angle. Was he trying to wear Mezo down? It would take a while, and he didn't seem to have that sort of endurance. He seemed to be more of a trickster rather than a fighter, using misdirection rather than brute force to beat his opponent.
Kind of like Aizawa-sensei, now that Mezo thought about it.
Another dodge, another weave, another hit. The two of them kept going at it, until… Mezo saw an opening. He rushed towards his steel-covered opponent, who had created another air wall, but that wouldn't stop him. He used his body to break through it, and –
Monoma sidestepped. NO –
"MEZO SHOJI IS OUT OF BOUNDS! NEITO MONOMA ADVANCES!"
Mezo had to admit, that was indeed clever. Tricking him into running towards the barrier? Not bad. Getting up, Mezo headed over to where Monoma was. "Hey, good match."
Monoma looked at the hand Mezo extended. "Hm? What's this?"
"It's my hand… I'm extending it to you. You're supposed to shake it."
"Oh! I see. Well, I suppose it's appropriate, even if you are from Class A," Monoma said, grabbing the hand. "Still though, I never had anyone offer me their hand before. Most people who figured out what my Quirk was were afraid of touching me."
"I understand that feeling completely," Mezo said. "Of others being afraid of you."
For a slight second, Mezo could have sworn that a new emotion creeped up on Monoma's face, before he reverted to his usual smile. "Hmm… I suppose that between you, the Kodai girl, and the blond brute, you Class A vagabonds are not that bad yourselves."
"You know, that's the nicest thing I've heard you say all day. Mezo Shoji."
"Oh… Neito Monoma. Wait, you heard everything I've said?"
"Only when I changed my arms into ears. They're pretty versatile."
"Oh. Could I try copying them? Your Quirk, I mean."
"Sure," Mezo said. "You're free to try."
"NOW, LET'S WELCOME TO THE RING… OUR NEXT PLAYERS!" Present Mic announced. "His blades are as sharp as his attitude, from Class 1-B, IT'S TOGARU KAMAKIRI! Versus, someone who got into Class 1-A on recommendations, IT'S SHOTO TODOROKI!"
"This is gonna be fun," Kamakiri said, licking his lips.
"AND NOW, FOR THE SECOND MATCH OF THE FINALS! READY?! BEGIN!"
"Get ready to lose, Class A scum!" Immediately, Kamakiri rushed towards Todoroki, several sharp blades already erupting from his arms, preparing to slice and dice him.
"An intense opening from our underdog! WAY TO SHOW OFF, KAMAKIRI!"
"AHAHAHA!" Kamakiri laughed. "I'M GONNA ENJOY CHOPPING YOU TO BITS!"
"Apologies," Todoorki simply said.
"Eh?"
SHINK!
BOOOOOM!
The ground itself seemed to rumble from what suddenly happened, as confused watchers suddenly had their jaws dropped at the… mountain of ice in front of them.
Everyone could feel the cold radiating off of it. No one could move or speak, either due to how cold it was, or due to the shock they were experiencing.
"Umm…" Kamakiri shivered in his ice prison. "Don't you think you went overboard?"
"Tell the truth, Kamakiri," Midnight spoke through her mic, despite being half-frozen herself (talk about mental fortitude) in ice. "Can you even move at all?"
"ARE YOU K-K-KIDDING?! O-O-OBVIOUSLY NOT! MY B-B-BODY IS FREEZING!"
"KAMAKIRI HAS BEEN IMMOBILIZED! TODOROKRI ADVANCES TO THE SECOND ROUND!" Midnight announced, to the very-much shocked audience.
As the audience slowly began to accept what they saw with their eyes and began to cheer, Todokri went up to the frozen Kamakiri and began to melt him.
"Sorry, it was a bit much," he apologized. "I just was angry, that's all."
As Ochako watched Todoroki melt Kamakiri (she learned his name from Kendo), from the ice prison the peppermint-haired boy created, Ochako couldn't help but feel sad.
She had a feeling she knew what sparked this sort of reaction from him.
And from who it came from.
"WELCOME BACK TO THE FINALS, EVERTONE! SORRY FOR THE LONG WAIT!" Present Mic shouted once again. "The insane amount of ice from the fifth match has been cleared, though, so it's time to welcome new competitors!"
The two newest competitors made their way to the stage. On one side, there was a blonde girl with blue eyes and horns, and on the other, a green-haired girl with a very large mouth.
"Our very own transfer student from the United States… from Class 1-B, PONY TSUNOTORI! Versus, the one I'm personally rooting for… from Class 1-A, TSUYU ASUI!"
Tsunotori launched two of her horns towards Asui like rockets, but the frog girl was quicker. Using her hind legs, she leaped forward before the horns could pin her down, and headed straight for the horned girl, her tongue extended.
Tsunotori dodged the long tongue, and proceeded to launch two more of her horns to the dodging frog gilr, all while shouting, "I'm gonna beat your meat!"
"Ribbit? I think you mean you'll beat me into meat."
"Yes, that is what I said!"
Asui decided to ignore that for now, as she continued jumping around the arena, trying to wrap her tongue around the horned girl without getting nailed by one of her flying projectiles.
Eventually, however…
BAM!
"WHOA! Tsuyu Asui decided to forgo the tongue and just went straight for the legs!" Present Mic shouted. "Pony Tsunotori has been knocked back by Asui's powerful legs!"
The blond American tried to regain her footing, but it was too late. Asui kicked her again, and again, until eventually, she was knocked out of bounds. Not even her horns saved her.
"PONY TSUNOTORI IS OUT! TSUYU ASUI AVENCES TO THE NEXT ROUND!"
As the crowd cheered, Asui went and offered a hand to the downed student. If she could smile, she would be doing it right now. "You did great out there, ribbit."
The American girl took Asui's hand. "Thanks, you were also bad."
"Ribbit. I think you meant that I was not bad."
"Sorry, sorry," she said. "English is my native language."
"It's okay, I can help you learn Japanese, if you want."
"Really? Thank you so much, nice Kermit lady!"
"Ribbit?!"
On the two different sides of the area, a girl with gray hair and blue eyes appeared, while on the other side was a boy with dark hair tied into a braid, with their introductions being, "The spooky girls are sometimes the deadliest, it's Class 1-B's REIKO YANAGI! VERSUS! The boy with the personality of a dragon, another member of Class 1-B… HIRYU RIN!"
Rin smiled. "Oh, yeah, this is gonna be over in two seconds."
"Anyways… BEGIN!"
"SPROUTING SCALES!" Rin shouted. The Chinese student activated the scales on his arms, which began to fire at Yanagi at rapid speeds, almost like bullets. Ha! Too easy –
They didn't hit her.
Rin had to do a double-take, but he soon realized that none of his scales landed on Yanagi. In fact, they just stood there, in mid-air, covered in some sort of purple aura… ohhh…
It was at that moment that Hiryu Rin knew he fucked up. Big time.
"You're right, this will be over in two seconds," the usually quiet girl of 1-B said, as she used her Quirk to redirect the scales towards Rin, shooting him down. "For you, I mean."
"Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!"
As Rin kept getting pelted by his own scales, he didn't realize that –
"HE'S OUT OF BOUNDS! THAT'S ALL, FOLKS! IT WAS OVER IN AN INSTANT!"
Yanagi let out a ghost of a smile, as she knew she'd advance to the next round.
"LET'S KEEP PUMPING OUT THESE HITS AND MOVE ON! TIME FOR THE FOURTH MATCH! GET READY TO WATCH TWO NEW PLAYERS DUKE IT OUT!"
Nemuri Kayama, better known as Midnight, was excited for this next round. After all, Tensei's baby brother was up next! He exited from his part of the hallway and into the arena, and…
"He's the kid with engines in his legs, Tenya Iida from the Hero Course! Versus… a fully-equipped gadget dynamo! MEI HATSUME OF THE SUPPORT COURSE!"
…what the hell was he wearing?
Baby Tenya was decked out in a bunch of support gear. Something didn't add up with Nemuri. She knew for a fact that Tensei's little brother didn't file the proper paperwork for all of that.
She may have loved him like a little brother but she had a job to do.
"Hero Course students can't use support gear unless they have to," she called out, grabbing his attention. "And you didn't fill out any of the proper paperwork for that."
"I apologize, ma'am! It's just… I was so moved by my opponent's sportsmanship. Even though she's from the Support Course, she wanted this to be as even a match as possible since she made it this far," Tenya explained. "So, she offered to give me this equipment. I respect her integrity! That's why I'd like to honor her by wearing this gear!"
Wait… was this… a crush?!
Oh my gosh! Baby Tenya has his first crush! I have to support it! Which means…
"I'll allow it!" Nemuri quickly said. Tensei's gonna love this!
Mei smiled as she listened to Iida discuss why he was wearing her support items. Sure, it was a gamble, but Midnight loved his little speech. She didn't expect it, but it helped.
"LET'S BEGIN THE EIGHTH AND FINAL MATCH!"
The blue-haired boy began running towards her, but Mei kept her calm face. "Bet you love how fast that gear makes you, huh, Iida? Do your legs feel lighter than usual? That's to be expected! I designed those leg parts to increase the user's speed and mobility!"
As Iida approached her, she quickly clicked a button.
This nightmare went on for ten minutes.
Ochako and the others had to watch as Iida was used as a walking advertisement by Hatsume. It was like watching puppies drown or Santa getting shot: Horrible, but you couldn't look away.
Hydraulic tentacles, omni-directional sensors, course-correction auto-balancers, electromagnetic shoes, a net-shooting gun (she was using Shinso's terminology, sue her), all of those insane products and more were displayed by the pink-haired maniac.
To the displeasure of Iida, and for some reason, Midnight.
Eventually, she stepped out of bounds on purpose, sweaty, but with a clear smile on her face. It seemed like she had shown off everything she had, and let Iida take an easy win.
"I CAN'T BELIEVE I LET YOU TRICK ME!"
Wow, even I could hear his scream from here, Ochako thought to herself.
"Wow, that was cold," Kendo deadpanned.
The brown-haired girl had to agree: Their former cavalry battle teammate was vicious.
"IIDA ADVANCES TO THE NEXT ROUND! WITH THAT, THE FIRST ROUND IS COMPLETE! AFTER A LITTLE BREAK, AND THEN WE'RE COMING BACK WITH MORE MATCHES!"
As soon as Present Mic announced that, the black-haired boy got up from his seat. "Yui, head back with your friends in 1-A, if you'd like. I'm gonna go lurk around the hallways."
"Mm." The blue-eyed girl nodded. "Sure thing."
"You're leaving already?" Komori asked, somewhat disappointed.
Akatani nodded. "Yeah, sorry. It was fun analyzing all of your Quirks, but I gotta go. If Ms. Joke saw me hanging out with non-Business Course students, I might get in trouble."
"Oooh, a bad boy!" Tokage teased.
"It's been fun, though! I do hope we get to hang out again some more!"
As the red-eyed boy waved good-bye to Class 1-B, he headed over to the hallways, thinking to himself, Over twenty Quirks down, less than nineteen more to go…
Ochako walked down the hallways of the waiting areas, preparing for her next fight. Honestly, she didn't wanna fight Shinso. They were friends. Friends shouldn't fight.
But she also knew that they were rivals for the Sports Festival. There could only be one winner, after all. And All Might told her to show the world that she was here.
She was sure Shinso-kun could understand that.
Suddenly, she heard loud footsteps turn the corner towards her.
"Ah, I was looking for you," a deep and commanding voice said. In front of her was now a body of nearly two meters tall, covered in dark blue spandex, with flames all around it.
It was the Number Two Hero, Endeavor. Yippee.
"What are you doing back here?" Ochako asked, cautiously.
"I watched your fight against the girl with the large hands. Your power is pretty impressive. The speed, not to mention your strength. And to top it all off, the way you jumped around the obstacle course, almost like you were flying," he said, narrowing his eyes at her. "It reminds me of another Quirk. You seem to have much in common with All Might."
"O-oh, well, I guess I never thought about it that way…" she said, trying to act as calm as possible. All For One already knew about the power she had, along with all of Class 1-A, and Aizawa-sensei. She really wasn't interested in expanding that circle, even by accident.
Especially for power-hungry "Heroes" like Endeavor.
"Sorry, I should really get going –"
"It's my Shoto's duty to surpass All Might as the No. 1 Hero. And I really do hope you fight him in the final round," Endeavor said. "His match with you should be a good testing ground to see how much training he has left. So… hit him hard. Don't disgrace yourself or him by holding back. That's all I wanted to say. I apologize for bothering you."
He was leaving. Ochako could hear his footsteps getting smaller. All she had to do was keep her mouth shut, and she could proceed, without incident. But… she couldn't.
She remembered what she told Todoroki when he talked to her. That neither his left or right side belonged to either one of his parents. Looks like it was time to practice her belief.
"Endeavor," she called out to him. "I am not All Might."
"What? What are you talking about?"
"And the same thing goes for Todoroki," she said, turning back around. "He may be your son, but he for sure is not you. Each one of us is our own person. Sure, our parents and mentors may influence us to a degree, but at the end of the day, we are still ourselves."
Endeavor narrowed her eyes at her, when… suddenly, his flames went out.
"Oh, dear. I seem to have walked in on something."
The two of them turned around, to see a smiling black-haired boy that Ochako recognized. "Endeavor, what are you doing here? Don't you know this area is for students and faculty only?"
"Who are you?" he asked. "Did you do something with my Quirk?"
"Oh, yeah, that was me. You won't be able to use it as long as I'm around you," Akatani said. "I suggest you head back to your box. Uraraka, you have a match to win, don't you?"
Ochako slowly nodded, as she left.
For some odd reason, she felt like Akatani had this covered.
"IT'S THE FIRST MATCH OF THE SECOND ROUND! IT'S THE QUEEN OF GRAVITY, OCHAKO URARAKA, VERSUS THE MASTER OF PUPPETS, HITOSHI SHINSO!"
I can't let him talk to me, Ochako thought to herself, as she stared at her friend on the other side of the arena. If I answer any of his questions, I'm probably done for.
She used the term "probably" because the alternative was what happened last time, where Ochako saw a bunch of shadowy figures, and she really didn't want to do that again.
"BUT WHO OF THESE TWO WILL ADVANCE TO THE NEXT ROUND?!"
"Hey, Uraraka!" Shinso called out to her. "I know you won't answer anything I say to you, and for good reason! But before we begin, just listen to what I have to say, all right?!"
The brown-haired girl nodded slowly, gesturing for him to continue.
"I know you can walk right through me with that awesome power of yours! But I still want to show the world what I can do, show them I'm more than my Quirk! I haven't told anyone, but I've been secretly training with Aizawa-sensei, learning how to actually fight!"
Wait, does he mean…?
"I want to show that to everyone. So, here's what I'm thinking: No Quirks. Just a normal brawl, with only our skills and bodies, no powers. Please nod if you accept!"
"ARE THE FIGHTERS READY?!"
Ochako was amazed by what she heard. Shinso wanted to show what he had learned to her. As equals. As friends. Who was she to reject that? She nodded instantly.
Shinso smiled. "I'm glad to hear that!"
"BEGIN!"
Ochako charged straight towards Shinso. To everyone's confusion, her familiar pink streaks of lightning were nowhere to be seen, as she prepared a normal punch straight for Shinso. However, Shinso blocked the obviously telegraphed punch, and hit her straight in the gut.
"WHAT?! NEITHER URARAKA NOR SHINSO ARE USING THEIR QUIRKS?!"
"It appears that this is a contest of physical strength," Eraserhead cut in. "And just to be clear to the audience, there are no rules against this. Students can or can't use any means of theirs to choose to win. These two simply wanted to fight more on fair grounds."
Shinso continued pummeling Ochako's stomach, but she wasn't letting go. Both her hands were gripping Shinso's body with a death grip, with the only exceptions being her pinkies.
She didn't want to accidentally activate her Quirk, after all.
Ochako knew that she couldn't beat Shinso if she let go. If what he said was true, then that meant he amped up his fighting skills after the USJ, while all Ochako did was train to take in greater bits of One For All's power. In Quirkless close quarters combat, he'd win.
Which meant she needed to make sure he didn't move!
Using all of her natural strength, she held onto Shinso, and rushed straight for the border of the arena. She spent ten months alongside him and Yui-chan hauling garbage, but she still did the brunt of the work. She needed to, in order to make sure her body was ready.
That meant, she was technically stronger than Shinso right now!
She could feel her purple-haired friend squirming to get out, and he did. Shinso managed to use his free hand to sock her in the face, freeing a bit more of him, before he proceeded to jump above Ochako with some improvised acrobatics, knocking her down to the floor.
He tried to overtake her, but Ochako slammed her shoe into his stomach, knocking him over. Shinso scrambled to get back up, and looked to see if he was still within bounds.
Ochako smiled. That was just the distraction she needed.
She ran forward, high on adrenaline, and socked Shinso straight in the chin.
BAM!
"SHINSO IS OUT OF BOUNDS! URARAKA MOVED ON TO THE NEXT ROUND!"
Ochako immediately collapsed, right next to Shinso. That boy knew how to throw his punches. "Owee…" she groaned. "You know, ugh… you almost got me…"
"I know," Shinso heaved. "If I had an extra week of training with Aizawa-sensei, I probably would have beaten you. Too bad the USJ cut my first week of extra training in half…"
"You're gonna be an amazing Hero when we graduate…"
"Same to you," he said, getting up. "Come on, let's go to Recovery Girl…"
"Sure," she said, grabbing his hand. "I feel like you might have cracked a rib…"
"And I feel like you might have cracked two of mine…"
The two of them proceeded to laugh all the way to Recovery Girl's clinic.
"Hi, there!" Akatani waved at Class 1-A. "Can I sit with you guys?"
"Huh?" Iida looked towards the black-haired student. "Well, I suppose –"
"Great!" Akatani cut him off, sitting down. Now, let's see what Quirks you all have…
"This is Carmilla. The snake is in the nest. Repeat, the snake is in the nest."
"Roger that, Carmilla," Tenko spoke into the radio. Switching channels, he said, "Kurogiri, it's Tomura. Carmilla's got what we needed. Time to warp in the distractions."
"Understood," the deep voice on the walkie-talkie said.
Soon enough, in several parts of the city, Kurogiri opened up warp gates, and a bunch of Nomu walked out. Three, specifically. The skinny four-eyed one, the tan one with the wings, and the creepy eyeless bastard, who kinda reminded Tomura of their Nomu from the USJ.
"Everyone, this is Tomura Shigaraki," the blue-haired teen spoke into his radio. "Kurogiri has warped the Nomu. Once they've drawn enough attention, we enter the building.
"Read you loud and clear," Hephausteus said.
"Yep yep!" Waverider responded.
As the rest of the League's members responded from wherever Kurogiri warped them, Tenko placed one of his fake hands on his face. The world couldn't know who he was, after all.
After all, Tenko Shimura supposedly died a long time ago.
Author's Note: Things are getting more intense, aren't they?
Even if most of the fights were kinda skippable, there's still plenty of meat on this story, from Endeavor interacting with Uraraka and Akatani, to Shinso's match with a One For All user, to whatever schemes Akatani is cooking up, we've got lots of stuff for you to talk about! But that's for the next chapter! Right now, we've got some comments!
Knightmare Lord: That's a pretty safe assumption to make, yeah.
EmilMobile: Okay, so I didn't see my laptop registering the first chapter, so I re-submitted it, hence the two chapters. Anyways, now that that's fixed, let's actually talk about it. One of the things I want to do with this series is, while making it follow canon, not to the letter. Hence, the Sports Festival, Hosu, and Final Exam will be similar, but the entire story will get completely derailed by the time Kamino rolls around. Todoroki is a bit more, I guess understanding, in this story due to the fact his beliefs almost got people killed, so I added a bit more nuance, I guess. Monoma is still Monoma no matter where he is, I suppose. Also, the whole joke with Aizawa and his multiple potential love children might have been due to my headcanon that he's a top bachelor within the Hero community, with Ms. Joke and Thirteen usually being the two people gunning for him the most.
And now, for the last bit of shilling…
If you want more content, visit my Discord, the link is /3PFYSt8Dqz. You can chat with others, post memes, fanfic recommendations and prompts, role play, fan art, and we even have a writer's corner now! I'll also drop by with announcements and chat with you all every now and then! Also, if you want to add me as a friend, my username is Ernalore#8663! Just please make sure to follow the rules!
Thanks for reading, and once again, see you next time!
- Ernalore