After the heavily extended promo Mei Hatsume cut with an unsuspecting Iida, the fight between Tokoyami and Sero had been the perfect thing to wake the crowds back up. Sero tried to corral Dark Shadow with his tape to keep it as out of play as possible while he attacked Tokoyami directly. The struggle lasted a good few minutes, showing off both boys' skills well, Tokoyami eventually taking the win by having Dark Shadow retreat completely into himself, just in time to counter Sero. The surprise rush from Dark Shadow was enough to remove Sero from the field. It was an engaging match.
But only a prologue for what happened on the stage next.
Saiki would readily admit, he knew next to nothing about the constantly blushing ball of innocent cutesiness that was Ochako Uraraka. He knew she and Izuku were friends, the latter currently gripping the railing with enough strength to warp it. He knew she had a gravity nullification quirk. But as a person? Cheerful, he would suppose. He had barely spoken to her at all.
But looking at the awestruck Izuku, he felt it wouldn't matter how well he knew Ochako before this, this unbridled tenacity would have come right out of left field.
"Looks like Uraraka keeps trying to get a grip on Bakugo but gets blasted back every time!"
"Hey, kid!" a woman in the crowd yelled, a hero based on her dress as she gestured with a gaudy Japanese fan, "Why don't you ease off a little, huh?! No one will want to root for a brutish girl like you!"
"Whoever just said that, you should just go home and hang up your cape if that's how you treat being a hero."
"Mister Aizawa?" Tsuyu asked on hearing the second voice over the loudspeakers.
What followed was a brutal takedown of the loudmouth in the stands, followed by some rare praise for the competitors on the field.
But all throughout, Saiki continued to watch. Uraraka slammed her head into the brick wall of Bakugo again and again as if she expected it to go differently. Or so it appeared until she tapped her fingertips together and a rain of debris plummeted from the sky towards Katsumi, Ochako once again rushing her opponent in hopes of catching her distracted.
BOOM!
The largest single blast Saiki had ever seen from Katsumi engulfed the rain of debris, obliterating most of it and scattering what's left. Ochako wasn't even halfway to the explosive girl before her distraction was vaporised, the blast wave knocking the severely injured girl off her feet.
So that was her play. It wasn't just tenacity. She had a plan, a good one. But it just wasn't enough to overcome the wall. The usually prideful boy mentally gave her some acknowledgement, regretting writing her off so quickly. But her plan failed. It was time for her to give up.
But she didn't.
Her plan was in shambles, she could barely stand, and even so she made one last attempt to rush her opponent.
Only to take two steps before falling unconscious while standing. Her last gasp failed.
Of course it failed! How could it not fail?! The dozen times she tried it didn't work, her great plan didn't work, so what in her mindlessly cheerful head made her believe this time when she was at her weakest somehow a miracle would happen?!
"I-I'm gonna make sure she's okay!" Izuku said as she runs for the exit.
Saiki just continued to stare as the girl got carted out of the arena on a stretcher by the assistant robots.
"Hey," he heard the scratchy voice of Kirishima, "It's gonna be a few minutes before they fix the arena but we should probably get down there."
"... Right."
"Good luck!" Momo offered as they headed into the tunnel, remembering to add, "Both of you!" before they disappeared.
"Man, that match was crazy, right?" the redhead said as the two boys headed down to the competitors' waiting area. "Who'd have thought Uraraka would have the kind of guts to go up against Bakugo head on like that!"
"Not me."
"It's got me all kinds of pumped up for our match!" Kirishima grinned with sharp teeth as he began shadow boxing as he walked.
Saiki shrugged. "That doesn't surprise me. It's going to go pretty much the same way after all."
"You think so, huh?" the redhead asked challengingly, thinking it was trash talk.
It wasn't. At least not to Saiki. Just like the last match, this one would be a foregone conclusion. Sometimes a will to succeed just... Wasn't enough. More and more during this tournament he learned where his place in the world was. He thought... He believed if he pushed himself hard enough he could be the best. Todoroki showed him where that thinking would get him. Power is power. If you don't have enough you get swept aside by those who do. If Todoroki could dominate this contest while half-assing it...
Second best. Second best was... Second best was fine. That was what he told himself, finally admitting why he was so eager to align with Todoroki for the cavalry battle. Fear of going against him.
On their way they came across Katsumi in the halls. Saiki's eye immediately caught the trembling in the girl's arms. "Recovery Girl," he told her, ordered her. He wouldn't accept a win with a handicap.
"Tch," she tutted at him, already having been headed in that direction.
-(-)-
"And now for our eighth match of round one! On one side we have the true hard man of Class 1-A! Putting every other competitor between a rock and a hard place, Eijiro Kirishima! And facing him, the future self-improvement hero who breaks through his limits again and again! Saiki Saisei!"
The description made him wince. It was how he always saw himself, like the hero who would always come through. Who would get broken down only to build himself back up again even stronger. The kind of hero no one could ever truly stop.
Giving up childish dreams is a painful thing.
"Ready... BEGIN!"
Saiki was practically on autopilot during the match. He wasn't bluffing when he said the match would be a foregone conclusion. Kirishima was durable, there was no getting around that. There wasn't much chance of Saiki winning from a knockout. Truth be told there wasn't so much chance of it happening for his opponent either, not if the match was going to end within the day. So instead it became a struggle to send each other out of the ring. And in that fight? Saiki had all of the advantages.
Enhanced strength. Enhanced speed. Enhanced agility. Enhanced senses. Not only that, he trained as a hand to hand fighter, knowing his quirk didn't give him any extra abilities beyond what came naturally. Kirishima? It seemed he did some work, just not the right kind of work to win this fight. His fighting style was all about throwing heavy blows, using his hardness to put more power into his punches without suffering any backlash.
It was so basic Saiki felt like he could win even without his quirk-trained enhancements. Grapples and holds. Too strong to be broken, too flexible to give Kirishima any chance of wriggling out, pain tolerance more than enough to ignore anything Kirishima did to escape.
"Kirishima is out of bounds! Saiki Saisei is the victor!"
It hurt Saiki to look at Kirishima in that moment. The frustration, the despair. It was like looking at himself in the inevitable future of losing to Todoroki. Maybe that was the reason he offered the sharp-toothed boy a hand up. "You need to work on your fighting style. You need to be ready for people who know not to duke it out with you. I can help with that."
The fangs were hidden as the redhead frowned up at him, before smirking as he took the offered hand up. "I guess you're not a complete asshole like Bakugo says! I'd be glad for the help, man!"
"Oh, such decency and sportsmanship! It makes my knees weak!" Midnight squealed.
"Midnight, the next match?" Cementoss reminded her.
"Ah, right! There will be a brief intermission before the start of round two so get yourselves a drink and get comfortable! You're not going to want to miss a single moment of this pulse-pounding action!"
The two boys vacated the arena, Kirishima running ahead back to the stands. Saiki didn't follow, instead choosing to hang around in the waiting area, wanting to be alone for the moment. He knew he has to get his head back in the game. Kirishima was one thing but getting in his own head against Katsumi would be a recipe for disaster. Hell, he warned her about the same damn thing.
Not that his self-recriminations seemed to help any. Before he even realised how much time had passed he heard renewed cheering from the stadium.
"Saiki?" Izuku's voice. Looking up, he saw the small, frizzy-haired girl leaning over where he was slumped against the wall. "Are you alright?"
Right. Her match was next. Against Todoroki. "Yeah, I just wanted to... Wish you luck for your match," he lied.
"Oh," she blushed lightly, "Well, thanks. But I don't think I need luck."
'Of course not. You'll need a miracle,' he agreed silently.
She closed her eyes as she clenched a fist against her chest. "I've got something to fight for, that's all I need. I'll see you in the finals, okay?"
"Right," he answered, lying again.
He stared at her back as she headedd towards her inevitable knockout. He didn't understand. Did she not see Todoroki before? In the battle training? In the earlier rounds? What made her think she even had a chance? Uraraka was one thing but he thought Izuku was smarter than that.
He heard the muffled voice of Present Mic announcing the competitors. He should go to the stands. He should watch.
He didn't want to see it again. See someone else get destroyed, especially Izuku.
But then he felt the rumbling of the arena and he knew he had to. He ran, bounding up the stairs, not to the student box but the low seats. Both to get out there faster and for a better view. Bursting out of the halls he leapt down the stairs between the stadium seating, getting funny looks from the crowds as they saw a student in the general seating but no one stopped him as he leaned on the front railing.
It was... Amazing. The arena was a mess of great chunks of ice formations. Izuku stood strong against Todoroki, holding on through the first few seconds. The frosty student probably used the same blitz attack he did against Shiozaki.
Izuku's survival past that cost her though. Saiki could see from where he was the two mangled fingers of her left hand. She went full power to hold him back. She couldn't keep doing that. It was hopeless! She should know was hopeless! But even if it was hopeless she carried on. Todoroki changed tactics, hoping to push her to waste her strength faster with smaller, more compact waves of ice. It wasn't quite as successful as he hoped. Izuku sacrificed another finger to a big one but the others she managed to evade or smash through with her superior speed and strength.
Saiki's eyes focused harder, not wanting to miss a single detail of this amazing fight. So close he could see their lips move? They were talking?
"IT'S YOURS! YOUR QUIRK, NOT HIS!"
What?
Whatever was going on between them it was enough to get Todoroki's assault to stop cold. Whatever they were talking about was important to him.
As a few seconds later, his left side blazed to life. A roaring fire exploded from him to sweep across the arena, melting most of the scattered ice. It was only then that Saiki saw the frost coating Todoroki's right half, and noticed how it started to melt away. There was a weakness. Todoroki had a weakness. All this time he thought the boy was untouchable. Izuku could have won this match if he hadn't started using that left side.
'IT'S YOURS! YOUR QUIRK NOT HIS!'
… She knew. She knew and didn't care. She wanted him to use his left side. She wanted him to fight at his best, even if it meant she would lose.
But even so... She was still fighting. A monster like Todoroki, even more dangerous than he was before... And she still wasn't giving up, evading the flames chasing her and firing off another full power blast of air, breaking another finger.
Saiki wondered how he forgot. He had always believed in himself. He had to, no one else would. He always pushed himself harder than anyone else he knew because he knew he would have to. No one else could do the work for him. No one else could take him to the top and no one else would ever want to. He knew if he ever stopped he would never get there. So what the hell kind of bullshit thinking got him believing he could settle for second place?! Izuku wasn't! Even as she was making her opponent stronger she fought like hell to beat him! Even fucking Uraraka tore herself the fuck up trying to chase the number one spot! What the fuck kind of weak shit would he be if he gave up the top spot just because ice boy was a little fucking scary!
The air blast Izuku fired was countered by a manufactured return blast, Todoroki using a combination of heat and cold to mirror the effect. Cementoss tried to stop the match, a concrete wall blocking the attacks but it wasn't enough to stop them completely. The blast as the attacks met the wall was immense, most of the audience shielding themselves. Saiki didn't, choosing to watch to the end. As the dust cleared...
Todoroki was on his back.
Out of the arena.
Izuku clung to the concrete floor with bloodied fingers digging into the solid material.
"Todoroki is out of bounds! Izuku Midoriya moves on to the semi-finals!"
Todoroki... Lost?
The crowds went crazy with cheering. Enough to deafen a lesser man. Saiki took one step back. Two. Then bolted back down to the hallway, the last thing he saw of the arena was Midnight approaching Izuku to talk to her. He sprinted through the halls down to where he knew Izuku would be coming back through. When he found her she was nursing her broken fingers. "Izuku!" he called out.
"Saiki!" she called back, grinning as she saw him, looking utterly pumped full of endorphins from her shock victory.
"Are you okay? We should get you to Recovery Girl!" he insisted, grabbing her good arm, ready to march the girl right over there himself.
"No! No no!" she denied, taking back her arm, "If I do that she'll disqualify me. I said we'll meet in the finals, right?" she repeated, grinning.
Stepping on this incredible girl's grit was the last thing he wanted to do in this moment but he couldn't take his eyes off her busted fingers. "Okay, come with me. I'll wrap them for you real quick. The waiting rooms should have something." He marched off, stopping as he realised she wasn't following. "It's this or I carry you to Recovery Girl!"
"O-Okay!" she agreed, following him back to the waiting room. Finding it empty, Saiki quickly rummaged through every container in the room, gathering odds and ends that he couldfashion into makeshift bandage splints. "It's like you've done this before," Izuku noted as he got to work, wrapping her bruised and broken fingers.
"I told you didn't I? The only way I could get as strong as I am was to break myself over and over." Snipping the end off the material wrapped around her finger, he bound it together with tape, moving on to the next one. "I got a lot of practice dealing with the aftermath, especially when the school nurse got sick of seeing my face and started teaching me how to do it properly."
"Oh."
"Your match was amazing," Saiki admitted, not wanting to look at her, knowing he would feel embarrassed if he did. "I had no idea anyone could step up to Todoroki's ice. And you went even further than that. Why?"
"It's not really my story to tell," Izuku prevaricated, "I just... I wanted to help him. I couldn't not help him."
"I see." He didn't see. But it felt better than admitting he didn't understand at all.
He wanted to tell her that she helped him too.
But he didn't.
Suddenly, he felt a wetness pressed against the cheek facing Izuku while he worked. Looking over, he saw the girl's face turned cherry red. "Did you just–?"
"I mean I wanted, was going to, was so happy and it felt like a good time to–!" Her eyes flicked down to her fingers, "Oh look you're done okay thanks bye!"
Before she could bolt, he grabbed her by the shoulder, turned her face to his, pressed his lips to hers. Even if he didn't feel like he could say it, he wanted to express his thanks with this, trying desperately to get that message across. "I wanted to do that too," he told her as their lips parted. "See you at the finals."
Saiki felt good as he left. Better than he'd felt since this damn sports festival started. It was surprising to him how little that had to do with Todoroki being out of the competition. Now that the illusion of the two-tone unstoppable juggernaut had been broken Saiki wouldn't mind trying his own luck to see how far he got. He had a good chance of taking the whole thing now, the greatest threats being Katsumi and Izuku. Though he wasn't about to count out the bird boy and his shadow bird.
Thinking of whom, "Hey," Saiki greeted, seeing Tokoyami making his way down. "Second match is over already?"
"Yes, Ashido took a quick victory."
"Cool. See you in the semi-finals maybe."
"I wish you luck against your next opponent. I feel you might need it." The usually unflappable boy shuddered. "Bakugo has been... irritable, since Midoriya's match."
That made sense. Izuku going around inspiring everyone, even if not in the best way. "Thanks for the warning."
"Mm," the black-feathered boy nods, continuing on his way.
-(-)-
Saiki didn't see Tokoyami fight Iida. He expected one way or another it would be a short match, maybe even over before he would get back to the stands. Sure enough, Tokoyami moved on to the semi-finals, leaving only a single match left for the second round.
"Our first fighter for this fourth quarter-final match! You all know her! It's that girl with the explosive temper who laid down the gauntlet calling her victory before this festival even started! It's Katsumi Bakugo! And facing her is a boy seeing a reversal in his fortunes since his first match! Last time he was the one smashing through a rock wall, now he's fighting to avoid getting blasted open! It's Saiki Saisei!"
"Same stakes?" Katsumi spoke up from across the arena with an eager smile and a twinkle of malice in her eye.
"I'm game if you are."
"Ready... BEGIN!"