The UA fight music blared over the loudspeakers again one final time as the final two competitors walked into the arena, the crowds cheering for them with enthusiasm. The battle for third place had been a good showing of technique, Mina Ashido quite literally running circles around Tokoyami. The bird man had been his usually unflappable self, however. Letting Dark Shadow take the rain of acid Ashido sent his way while harassing her at every turn. For all that Dark Shadow had been taking a beating through both that and the previous match, none of it was anything that would truly diminish it. In the end, while Ashido's use of her quirk was a little more showy, Tokoyami displayed superior skill. It was a good, technique-focused match. A good show for the crowd.
This though. The finals. This match the crowds expect a clash of power and endurance.
"Ladies and gentlemen they've come a long way to get here! Through giant robots and minefields, they battled it out against the best of the best that UA has to offer! Let's hear you give it up for your UA Sports Festival first year finalists!" Impassioned cheers drowned out Present Mic's last words as the stadium erupted. "From the left side of the bracket! You've seen her duke it out with the Mistress of Creation! You've seen her fend off the Queen of Acid! And she made this whole stadium rock battling a master of fire and ice! She's the littlest powerhouse of Class 1-A! The girl who will never say 'die'! IZUKUUUUUUU MIDORIYAAAAAAA!"
The noise of the crowd rose from cacophonous to deafening. Izuku put on a hell of a show through the whole tournament. The girl herself blushed being at the receiving end of that kind of adulation, but she smiled all the same.
"And from the right side of the bracket! You watched him push back the immovable object! You watched him wrestle with a creature of pure darkness! And you saw just how tenacious he is as he got blown to hell and back and would! Not! Go! Down! He's the soul of hard work! The boy with the unbreakable spirit! SAIKIIIIII SAISEIIIIIIIII!"
The crowds were noticeably quieter after his introduction, though perhaps surprising to himself, Saiki didn't particularly mind. In this instance, he would cheer harder for Izuku too if he were in their position. He was pretty sure he put on a good show, particularly against Katsumi, but Izuku's match against Todorok had blown anything Saiki did out of the water.
"Don't use your left hand, alright?" Saiki requested, grabbing Izuku's attention. The girl looked down at her wrapped, splinted fingers. "It's already bad. Don't mess up your career for a tournament."
"I already wasn't going to," she answered. "How about you don't use it either. Make things fair."
"Sure," he responded with an easy shrug, "I promise not to use your left hand."
Izuku thought over his words. It sounded flippant. Like he was making fun of her. He wasn't. He went through his own hardships in this tournament. Even after the extended rest he wasn't back to full strength. It wasn't as bad as what Izuku had to deal with but that was also her choice. He wanted to win and he could only be so accommodating.
What he really meant by his statement was entirely genuine. He could use her left hand. An injury like that was a severe weakness, something easily targeted to get the upper hand. His promise was to not do that.
In the end, she nodded in acceptance.
"Are both competitors ready?" Midnight posed the rhetorical question. Izuku slid into a fighter's stance, largely leading with her right side. Saiki opted for one better suited for movement. "BEGIN!"
It was a strange thing, what the audience saw in that arena in that moment. They had expected a fierce clash of two teenagers with unshakeable will. A clash of two wrecking balls in the middle of the ring. They got that. They certainly got that. As Saiki kicked away from his starting position with a force that cracked the concrete with every step. As he met the more measured approach of Izuku, fist smashing into her blocking arm with the power to send her skidding backwards, only to imitate him by smashing the floor with her own charge.
In the action it was everything they expected. But the atmosphere, it wasn't a tense, pulse-pounding battle to dominate. In the wide smiles of the competitors, there wasn't a care for the tournament anymore. Nothing on the line. Just the joy of challenging one another and the chance to grow from it. In truth, neither of them cared who would win the tournament at that point. They both felt the other had earned it. The non-competitive atmosphere ended up being infectious, less seeming like a battle and more like a celebration.
Izuku moved in, grinning wide as her fist swung to smash open Saiki's guard. It caught him by surprise, not expecting a move like that given she had no way to capitalise. Only to then learn she did, a full rotation with the momentum brought her leg up to strike at his unprotected head. She sent his body smashing into the floor before he flipped forward and spun, charging at her as she turnsed, ducking under her elbow and slamming his fist into her chin. It staggered her for only an instant before she came at him again.
The first thing Saiki discovered about fighting Izuku? It was mildly frustrating. He knew she has gotten a good grasp of her super strength quirk, at least enough to modulate it to a level her body could handle, or go beyond if she felt the need. But what he found on duking it out with her was just what that kind of variable super strength meant. With only one hand he should have had an advantage. However her variable strength and speed made for an unpredictable opponent. Sometimes her strikes only had the power and speed of a peak quirkless. Others she moved with enough speed and power to get the better of him without the handicap. If there was any kind of consistency to it he could find a rhythm.
Another kick came in to crash into his abdomen. He had confidence he could block it in time until the speed of the kick suddenly exploded, her foot smashing into him and sending him rolling. Her style was a slapdash thing, a half-formed adaptation to focus on her legs more. He knew he could take it apart without much trouble if her capabilities weren't so damn inconsistent!
Rolling back to his feet he saw her standing only feet away, arm outstretched, the nail of her index finger pressing against her thumb. Saiki's eyes widened as he dropped to the floor.
Bwoom! The incalculable power of her quirk functioning at one hundred percent blasted a shockwave of force in Saiki's direction, enough to bowl over any competitor in the tournament.
But Saiki stayed right where he was, clutching the jagged hole he punched into the floor with both hands.
"Woah! And Saisei manages to literally hang in there, Midoriya's finisher defeated by the very same move she used to outlast Todoroki in her earlier match!"
"They have similar abilities. It's only rational that in an environment like this they would learn from each other and grow as future heroes."
Saiki brought lumps of concrete with him as he rose from the floor. The finger she used to blast him twitched as she grimaced in fresh pain. That injury was a double-edged sword for Saiki. Izuku would be reluctant to use it in hand to hand but more willing to break her other fingers if he pushed her. In the course of the match the arena had become cracked and broken all over so he could easily repeat Izuku's trick to survive but...
He flung one, then the other chunk of concrete at her with his full strength as he rushed her again. Much like against Katsumi, he kept his stance low, though with their height difference he didn't know how effective that would be to avoid Izuku blasting him upwards. That would be her best strategy, blasting him up so he would have as little time to recover as possible before going out of bounds, so he had to watch out for it.
The frizzy-haired girl didn't bother blocking the concrete bullets headed her way, sidestepping and backing off. A trickle of blood leaked from the corner of her lips, something that only enhanced the intense concentration written on her features as her eyes flicked about. Planning again. A dangerous sign.
Saiki finally caught her halfway to the edge of the ring. Another good strategy on her part. Even less room to recover if she sent him the right direction. He had no way of winning from a distance so he had to meet her there, he just resolved to stay on the right side of the field.
Her fighting style had become even more clumsy. He had been right that she had become more reluctant to use her mostly good hand but that didn't mean she wouldn't. Something that frustrated Saiki to no end as he slapped away a weak punch. At least she wasn't rash enough to put any force behind it but it made for an obvious feint. That out of the way, all that remained was her half-assed kickboxing. On top of that, fatigue seemed to be setting in. While Saiki felt drained, he couldn't imagine having to continue fighting more rounds with injuries like Izuku's. His confidence swelled. It was all over but the finish–
Is what he thought until he saw a poised finger and thumb pointed at him! His confusion didn't stop him from dropping to cover from it–
He didn't even see the leg coming.
"SMAAAAAAASH!"
Saiki's world was reduced to blurring sights and sounds and pain as his bell was thoroughly rung by Izuku's kick. Tumbling and tumbling and crashing. As sense slowly came back to him he realised what happened. Feint after feint after feint. Backing off but letting him stay in the advantageous position. The weak punch to confuse his focus. The threat of a flick. And the real kicker, the left leg striking with full power. A real all-or-nothing gambit. He knew the immensity of Izuku's full power. He saw as much against Todoroki. He felt as much just from a long distance finger flick. A full contact kick at full power?
He lost. Well, he couldn't say Izuku didn't earn it. Regretfully, he rose to his feet as the ringing in his ears slowly went quiet. "–aisei? Saisei, are you able to continue?"
He blinked. Continue? He looked over at Midnight through bleary eyes, at the shocked face of Izuku as she looked down at her unbroken leg like it betrayed her, down at his own feet where he stood still within the ring.
What?
"Saisei, can you hear me?"
"Uh, yeah," he cleared his throat, hearing how croaky it was, "Yeah, I can go on." He wasn't sure why he could go on. He expected to have made an imprint in the arena wall.
Izuku winced as she tested resting her weight on her left leg. It may not have been broken but it wasn't in great shape either. She didn't understand why it didn't hit at full power but knowing she couldn't rely on that, she knew she couldn't use her original plan of blasting him across the arena even if she could hit him with another 'full power' kick. So what could she do? She still had three fingers of her right hand and a good leg. She had to meet him in the middle of the arena. Fighting at the edge put her in more danger than him with his better ability to manoeuvre around her. And with a bum leg the disparity would be even greater.
Her opponent didn't look to be recovering well either. Saiki still looked dazed even if he insisted he could continue. One last round then.
Izuku's powerful step snapped Saiki out of his malaise and returned his focus to the match. On autopilot, he kicked off to meet Izuku at the centre of the ring. His dazed mind expected her to engage in a fistfight again but instead he was immediately greeted by a middle and ring finger poised and ready. Right! That pushed him, he remembered. Grabbing her by the waist he rolled backwards to drag her up and over him. Halfway through the movement the fingers snapped out to blast the wind out of him as he got trapped between the pressure wave and the concrete floor.
Izuku, with no way to brace against her own generated force, sailed even further than his throw would have managed, tumbling over the edge of the ring. She landed with a rustling thud as she hit the grass, hissing in pain as her broken fingers bent against the dirt.
'Huh, so I lost I guess,' she thought to herself with a resigned smile, 'That's a shame. But at least the grass is comfy. Think I'll just... Rest here... For a while.'
"Victory by ringout! The winner of this year's UA Sports Festival first year competition is Saiki Saisei!"
The cheering crowds were just white noise to the boy lying in the ring. The best he could do was to raise a weary thumbs up. The ache in his bones and the probable concussion soon saw consciousness leave him.
-(-)-
By the standards of the twenty-first century, Recovery Girl was a miracle worker. By the standards of the twenty-third century? Recovery Girl was still a miracle worker. Within a mere half an hour, all three medallists were ready and able to attend the awards ceremony. Izuku had her left arm and right hand in casts and she and Saiki looked dead on their feet, but they were both able to stand on the podium without assistance.
Which was good. No one in the audience wanted to see just how severe their injuries got after all. It would put a damper on the mood of the event.
"Ladies and gentlemen, it's time for the award ceremony! And who better to hand them out than–!"
"HAAAAAA HA HA HA!" A booming laugh came from the roof of the stadium, loud enough to be heard by all. "Citizens! I am here for the medal ce–!"
"–The number one hero!"
…
"Ruined that, didn't I?" Midnight asked with an embarrassed giggle. "Uhh, now that you're here All Might, why don't you start the presentation?"
Ever the professional, the number one hero moved right along to do that without further comment, taking the bronze medal and looping it around Tokoyami's neck. "Young Tokoyami, you fought bravely."
"Your words humble me, sir."
"However," All Might continued as he wrapped his powerful arms around the young man, "You still have much training to do. You will not be able to rely on your quirk for every situation you face."
"Young Midoriya," his voice was notably warmer, softer, as he wrapped the silver medal around the girl's neck. "Congratulations. You have come a long way over the past year. Be proud. You have a bright future as an incredible hero."
Izuku sniffled, wiping her tears on her right arm. "Thanks, All Might."
"Young Saisei," the gold medal passed over the blue-haired boy's head, wine-red eyes looking up at his goal. "You have demonstrated incredible determination in this festival. I expect even greater achievements than this from you in the future."
"I couldn't have pulled through on my own," he admitted, averting his eyes from the number one hero to look at Izuku. "Somewhere I lost my nerve. But someone reminded me it doesn't matter what the odds are. You have to give your all, no matter what."
Tears still rimming her eyes, Izuku looked up only to see Saiki gazing down at her fondly, realising that he had been talking about her. Even as her face heated up in embarrassment, she still gave him a big smile.
"Well said, young man!" All Might agreed, stepping down from the podium. "Ladies and gentlemen, the winners of this year's sports festival! But listen close! Any of you first years could have been standing on this podium! Think about what you did here today! You learned, you challenged each other! Every one of you made a great stride forward as future heroes! Our next generation of heroes is proving to be the most promising one yet!
I only have one more thing to say and I want all of you to say it with me! You know what it is!"
"Plus Ultra!" / "Thanks for your hard work!" roared the crowd and All Might, respectively.
There was nothing more embarrassing than botched crowd work.