"Welcome back, sports fans! It's the moment you've all been waiting for! It's time for the final round of the UA Sports Festival to begin! These sixteen crazy kids have braved giant robots, bottomless pits, minefields and a crazy mad melee to get here and fight for that all-important top spot!" As Present Mic talked, the bracket for the finals was shown on several of the screens around the arena. "And if you look at our finalists, it looks like Class 1-A hold a narrow majority presence coming into this thing! Eraserhead, as their homeroom teacher you must be so proud of them!"
"I expect excellence from my students," the more sedate commentator neither agreed nor disagreed with the assertion, "But I also expect it from every student who attends UA and it seems like they're all managing to deliver. The attention might be on 1-A but the students from 1-B are proving what makes UA a cut above right alongside them. Not to mention we have to give all the credit in the world to the support course and general education students that have managed to make it this far. They've received none of the combat training the hero course students got and yet here they are, standing among the best UA have to offer."
"Well how about that! You sound impressed!"
"You could say that."
"Oh-ho! Inspiring words as we get into the first match of the first round! First up, she's a sight for sore eyes or she would be if we could see her! Toru Hagakure from Class 1-A! And her opponent, the young man with the voice of an angel! Koji Koda also from Class 1-A!"
"Oh," Hagakure worried, hopping foot to foot though no one could see it. "I can't believe I'm naked on national TV! I'm never gonna live this down!"
Koda opposite her looked around nervously, his teeth chattering from fear of being at the centre of attention.
"Fighters ready? Begin!"
It was a short battle. Very short. Koda's quirk had very little to work with. Not even birds in the sky at that moment, even if he had felt confident enough to yell for their assistance. Meanwhile Hagakure rushed him, taking advantage of his indecision and inability to put up any kind of a decent fight. She grabbed him and not expecting to be able to knock him out took the obvious alternative of trying to force him out of the ring. With her arms on him pushing him back, he obviously knew where she was and tried to grab her in turn. His head might have looked like a rock face, but he was still able to blush.
"Where are you grabbing?!" Hagakure screeched. Out of embarrassment, shame and apology, Koda let go of the soft orb he had accidentally groped and quickly found himself overpowered without a fight. Shoved out of the ring.
"Hagakure wins!" Midnight announced.
"Hmph! Fresh!" the invisible girl harumphed before leaving the arena. Not that anyone could see her do so.
-(-)-
"Next up! The dark horse of the tournament, coming out of nowhere to steal a march on the competition! Representing the General Studies course, it's Hitoshi Shinso from Class 1-C! And his opponent! The assassin of Class 1-B! Ibara Shiozaki!"
Hitoshi Shinso watched as the girl with vines for hair took exception to the commentator's description of her before giving a long speech about spreading good in the world and flowers and hugs, as well as some religious nonsense. He wondered if he should thank her for giving him such an easy way to get a rise out of her.
"Fighters ready?"
"So you're that type, huh?" Shinso asked, with a scowl. "You hero course students usually have a superior attitude but it takes a real pompous egomaniac to think they're literally holier than thou."
"Begin!"
"How dare you–!"
In an instant, her eyes went wide. Vacant. Her threatening posture slackened. She simply stood there staring across the ring at her opponent showing no emotion whatsoever.
"And there it is. It's over," Shinso declared flatly. "Turn around and walk out of the ring."
With casual movements, Shiozaki did exactly that, her feet taking her one step over the line and stopping there.
"Uh... Wow! Okay! With that strange match, Hitoshi Shinso moves on to the next round!"
-(-)-
"From the first place team in the cavalry battle, it's the girl willing to give anyone a hand! From Class 1-B it's Itsuka Kendo! And her opponent, the light that twinkles in the darkness! It's Class 1-A's Yuga Aoyama!"
"No hard feelings when you lose, okay?" Kendo requested with a smile.
Opposite her, Aoyama posed pointing at her. "Ma cherie, prepare to be dazzled by your own defeat!"
"Fighters ready? Begin!"
As he tended to, Aoyama started the bout with a flash. Hands behind his head, he thrust his hips in the direction of his opponent, sending a beam of light her way. Kendo dodged, rolling out of the way, only to be forced to keep moving as he followed her movements and kept blasting. Over and over. Had any one of them hit it might have earned him a victory. But, more than anything else, Itsuka Kendo had trained her body and her reactions to stay one step ahead of her opponent. Aoyama played it smart, choosing to cut off her path toward him rather than give himself a slightly better chance of hitting her. He knew if she got close it would be over for him. But in a battle of stamina he was always the one that was going to come up short. Before long, the laser blasts slowed, weakened. Enough that Kendo was able to close even as he tried to stop her. With a swing of her arm, her fist enlarged to the size of her whole body and gently swatted the pained blond out of the ring.
"In a battle of agility and reflexes against an artillery platform, it looks like Kendo's sheer ability puts her through to the next round!"
-(-)-
"Next up! The ultimate muscle of Class 1-A, Rikido Sato! Facing him, the rockstar of Class 1-A, Kyoka Jiro!"
"Remember, Sato," Midnight warned, "No outside assistance once the match starts. That means–"
"Yeah, I know," the musclebound boy acknowledged, pulling a packet of sugar out of his pocket.
"Fighters ready?"
Sato opened and upended the sugar, pouring it into his mouth before throwing away the packet.
"Begin!"
As Kyoka watched the muscle-bound boy visibly bulk up thanks to his quirk, she wished there weren't provisions for outside assistance before the match. So long as it was specifically for quirk functionality it was fine. Similar to the rule Aoyama made use of to wear his belt in his match. Sato got one boost and that was it. That meant all she had to do was outlast him for five minutes. A small person surviving in a ring with a roided out beefcake for a few minutes. This scenario felt familiar somehow.
Not that she had any time to contemplate it further as Sato rushed her with his arms out. It was clear he was going for a grapple. She was grateful this match wouldn't last long enough for his mental faculties to fade. If he got stupid enough to think punching her was okay she'd end up a bloody smear on the cement. She watched his heavy steps crack the floor of the ring. She decided to add an addendum to surviving. Don't fall over and get underfoot.
She moved, dove out of the way and rolled back onto her feet, running from where the bulky teen chased her down. It was like something out of a horror movie, the terrified, determined girl fleeing from a beefy serial killer. Five minutes. How long had it been?
Nineteen seconds.
Unfortunately, despite being bigger, heavier and less agile than her, that didn't make him slower. In fact with his added strength he was a good bit faster than he had been before, able to put much greater distance in a single bound. He dove on top of her, caught his limbs to make sure he wouldn't crush her underneath his bulk and grappled her as he flipped over. She gasped in pain as she felt her legs and arms stretched to restrict her movements. She felt him get his feet underneath him, loose one arm and turn to the nearest edge of the ring.
But he hadn't bound her earjacks. Everyone forgot that where most people had four limbs, she effectively had six. She only waited long enough to offer, "Sorry about this," before her earjacks reared back like snakes and struck.
His ears.
The boy yelled in pain as the small spikes jammed in both ears and were ripped out again. He was in no condition to hold her any longer. His hands slammed over his ears as if that might do anything for the pain. However, the pain wasn't the only impairment to his abilities. He struggled to keep his feet under him. He swayed in place, feeling dizzy and disoriented.
Kyoka took advantage of the opportunity, knowing this was now her match to lose. She moved behind him knowing he couldn't hear her any longer and heaved him with all her strength and weight to shove him out of the ring. He still knew he was in a match, still knew he had to fight but the damage to his sense of balance made a coherent retaliation a difficult prospect. He tipped, rolled. His bicep rested on the edge of the ring, his shoulder touching down on the outside.
"Sato is out of bounds! Kyoka Jiro wins!"
Jiro panted. Less than a minute of fighting and it felt like she had run a marathon. Even as gentle as he was being, fighting Sato was a scary prospect. She was damn sure going to go with him to Recovery Girl to make sure he would be okay though. Ear damage was recoverable but still, the blood on her jacks was a disturbing enough sight. After doing that to a classmate she had to look after him.
-(-)-
"We're into the back half of our first round matches, sports fans! From Class 1-A it's the boy who'll grip you with his talons and drag you into the abyss, Fumikage Tokoyami! And facing him is the girl who'll slip the surly bonds of Earth to touch the face of god!"
"Why are you getting poetic all of a sudden–?"
"It's Ochako Uraraka from Class 1-A!"
"Fighters ready? Begin!"
"Dark Shadow!" Tokoyami shouted as he began running toward his opponent.
"Comin' atcha, baby!" the avian shadow crowed as it emerged from Tokoyami's abdomen. The birdman's thoughts for this fight were simple. Uraraka's fingers were to be avoided at all costs. He didn't know whether she could nullify gravity's effect on him by touching Dark Shadow and likely neither did she. If she could, this battle might be over with just a single touch. In these circumstances of ring out disqualification, Uraraka's quirk was one of the most worrisome in the tournament. His plan was to keep Dark Shadow on a short leash. No great trail of body for her to easily slap or grab. He needed to outmanoeuvre her at every turn to never give her a chance to score an easy win.
At first, it wasn't so difficult. Uraraka wasn't a fighter by inclination or training. A pure amateur at hand to hand, or hand to claw as the current case might be. But her tenacity proved impressive. She simply refused to fall at any point. Moreover, even for an amateur she seemed to grasp one of the fundamental principles of battle. The idea of accepting injury if it would lead to victory. Multiple body blows had landed and the girl took them gladly for the chance to slap at the limb buried in her abdomen. It forced Tokoyami to settle for hit and run tactics, retreating the instant he landed any blow lest she take advantage.
There was one downside of his plan, however. With the way he was fighting, with Dark Shadow so very close, visibility of the fight in progress was poor. It was like trying to fight around another person who was blocking the way. Even if she wasn't well trained, she eventually spotted this weakness and began using Dark Shadow's presence as a blind spot, tricking the bird and Tokoyami both at once and brushing three of her fingertips across the surface of Dark Shadow's body.
It took a second for Tokoyami to notice, so secure in his stance that he didn't even realise that his feet were no longer on the floor. "Oh no." Dark Shadow retreated back into his body but that only showed him Uraraka's victorious grin as he continued to float upward against his will. She rushed him, grabbed his weightless body and tossed him out of the ring, still airborne.
However, she had made the mistake of throwing him up. "Dark Shadow! The ring!" he called out as he sailed away.
"So high maintenance!" the avian quirk complained as it shot out of him again, driving its claws into the concrete.
Ochako tapped her fingertips together. "Release!"
With Dark Shadow's claws lodged in the surface of the ring, Tokoyami used the claw almost like a grapple line, reeling himself in back toward the ring by withdrawing Dark Shadow back within himself. As he felt the effect of Zero Gravity leave him, his eyes widened as he found himself falling, still pulling himself back in bounds. "Ugh!" he groaned as he landed atop the manifestation of his quirk still forming a long trail between the head and claws and his own body. While his body had a cushioned landing, he wished he could say the same for his head. He knew how to fall to not injure himself but that only went for controlled falls. With Uraraka deciding when the laws of physics applied to him he had no control whatsoever. Dizzily, through bleary eyes, he looked down and saw himself just within the boundary.
But he was still vulnerable and Uraraka wasn't above taking advantage. She grabbed the claw binding him to the floor and pulled it out after making it weightless again. He needed to grab on again. He, if he lost grip with Dark Shadow then she could... It was difficult to think. He was confused, looking at his opponent. She wasn't trying to pull Dark Shadow free anymore?
As it turned out, no. This time she took no chances, running toward his weightless body and tackling it to make sure he stayed out this time. "Release!"
He felt Dark Shadow pull, but it was meaningless effort. With Uraraka weighing them down and the early afternoon light, the shadow bird wasn't strong enough to do much of anything to save them.
They both landed outside the ring, but she landed atop him.
"Ochako Uraraka moves on to the next round!"
-(-)-
"Here we go, ladies and gentlemen in the stands and all our listeners at home! This Is the one you've been waiting for! It's the heat-powered engine of destruction, Class 1-A's Izuku Midoriya! His first opponent! The ghost with the most, the ethereal spectre of Class 1-B: Reiko Yanagi!"
Izuku looked at the frowning girl across from him, her hands hanging limply in front of her. He smiled, hoping to be encouraging and friendly. Present Mic was hyping him up too much. It was slight, but he thought he saw her smile back. Just a little bit.
The problem was, he had no idea what her quirk was so he couldn't come up with any kind of plan in advance. 1-B students had deliberately stayed under the radar so 1-A couldn't get a good idea of their abilities. A good tactic since it got a bunch of the 1-A favourites for the Sports Festival knocked out. Unfortunate as it was, Izuku knew he'd have to wing it. He had strength and speed on his side. That didn't guarantee a win but it was a good starting point.
"Fighters ready? Begin!"
Izuku knew he was best as an analytical fighter. He fought best knowing what his opponent could do. His instinct was to stay defensive until he figured out her quirk. But his first instinct was stupid. Waiting like that was foolish. She was a hero course student. That alone said she had a reasonably strong quirk and knew how to use it. Letting her take the initiative would be stupid.
He rushed her, staying aware in hopes of seeing what she was capable of. She wouldn't just watch him come at her. She had seen what he was capable of. Everyone had. Even just looking at her he could tell he had the physical advantage in strength.
But she stayed where she was. Something that only sent his paranoia to new heights.
What Izuku didn't know was that she was preparing her own weapons. Her arms swept across each other as if to hug herself.
Izuku felt a sudden spike of pain across his cheek, his head turned by the force of a strike he never saw coming. Appearing in his vision was... A whip? MIdnight's whip? His leg met unexpected resistance, dragged backward to stagger and trip him. He called on One for All to fight the pull and right himself but by the time he had done so, Yanagi had moved, her eyes wide yet focused. Her arms swaying gently as objects floated around the arena, dancing to her movements.
Felicitations for prospering prior to this juncture," she spoke softly, "Nevertheless, your supremacy shall conclude forthwith!"
"What? Woah!" Izuku's confusion in trying to figure out what she had just said had to be shelved as he barely evaded what looked like a length of metal pipe swinging for his head. So her quirk was some sort of telekinesis. Once again his analysis had to be put on hold as he found his backward step dodge obstructed a coil of rope that immediately tried to ensnare his leg. In avoiding that, a towel wrapped around his head blocking his vision. Tearing it away, he firmed up his stance. He knew her game now and... He had to admit he was impressed. Did she know he was the analytical type somehow? If she didn't, then she had lucked into a great strategy for undermining him. A cavalcade of minor threats and inconveniences that would occupy his mind, denying him a chance to come up with a plan for victory. Constantly on the back foot.
But.
Clever and numerous as they were, they were still only minor inconveniences. Only minor threats. If her plan was to defeat him by attrition, wear him down until the gap in raw physicality was not so wide, she would find herself disappointed.
He made a point of walking directly into one of her traps. Stepped over another rope that coiled and wrapped around his legs, binding them together. He flexed the power of One for All and tore the rope.
For an instant, she looked a touch worried, but quickly regained her focus. A gauntlet of obstacles quickly formed in the path between him and her. If that was the way she wanted to play it, that was fine by him. He moved.
Another towel wrapped around his head. The half-second his face was covered, she sent several mildly heavy objects crashing into him. Some he dodged simply by moving too fast, more slammed into him with full force. He removed the towel only for it to fly back around to cover his eyes again and once again a barrage of impacts. The third time he tore off the towel he realised it had been the same one every time and balled it up into his hand. She hadn't tried to move him or his clothes so he suspected she simply couldn't if he had sufficient control of the object. Or maybe she knew it would be harder for her if he was already fighting her movements so didn't bother?
Either way, her determination didn't flag even as he drew nearer. Throwing her arms up, her armada of random objects rose with them, and then she brought them down again. Her entire arsenal raining down upon him all at once. His stubborn charge halted and he found himself forced to move aside, to evade the mass of bric-a-brac even as he brought himself around to keep chasing her. He stumbled as something slapped him in the face and once again wrapped around his head. Not a towel. It was thinner, didn't obscure his vision as much. And very blue. It also held much more stubbornly to his face, or maybe Yanagi really wanted to keep it there. He was forced to rip it to get it out of the way. He dropped to the ground as he saw at the last second her mass of detritus coming his way. Looking up, he realised what was still partially hanging off of his head. Yanagi had taken off her gym jacket and used it as another blind.
She was... Very pale all over, it looked like. She had worn a sports bra underneath the jacket. Very sensible. And appealing. And... He heard a clatter behind him.
But the path ahead was clear. That last assault had put her weapons behind him leaving open space between him and her. He barely got his feet under him for a sprinter's start, blasting himself toward her with a superpowered kick, racing to outpace the array of trash chasing him down. She tried to evade but it was a meaningless effort. He grabbed her arm, his other hand landing on her exposed belly and shoved her with all his weight behind it. She was a small girl, very slim. Easily lifted and then brought down as softly as Izuku could given the circumstances.
"Reiko Yanagi is out of bounds! Izuku Midoriya wins!"
The mass of bric-a-brac sailed over the two students as Midnight made her pronouncement. Still with his hand on her abdomen, Izuku smiled apologetically at his opponent. "You're really impressive."
"My gratitude for your commiserating commendation remains undercut by my discontent at this disheartening subjugation."
It... Honestly took him a second to parse that sentence. A second he used to pull her back to her feet and extricate his hands. "I mean it. With a quirk and a mind to use it like you have, I'm kinda worried what you'll be like next year," he laughed awkwardly, though he wasn't joking in the slightest. A wall of trash swarming him was not an experience he looked forward to repeating.
She smiled again, quite a bit easier than she had the first time. "Then I shall anticipate our rematch."
-(-)-
"For the first time in the tournament it's B vs B! The best beast, Jurota Shishida. And his opponent! One of the two reptiles of the hero course! Setsuna Tokage!"
"No hard feelings, right big guy?" Setsuna asked with a sharp-tooted grin.
"Of course."
"Fighters ready? Begin!"
Two things happened immediately at the call. Shishida transformed into his beast form and Setsuna split into a dozen pieces and flew upward. Shishida leapt using his enhanced strength, knowing this was his one chance of scoring an easy victory but he wasn't fast enough. Setsuna's parts flew away before he could grab one and spike it over the line.
Setsuna's head grinned smugly far about the arena. "Hey ref! What's the rule on this? I could do this all day and he can't touch me!" As if to test her boast, Shishida leapt straight up, hoping to snatch her smug face and prove her wrong. He got close. She just floated higher. "See?"
"Can you beat him like that?" Midnight asked.
"Ehehhhh?" the smiling lizard girl laughed awkwardly, looking down at her distinctly unimpressed classmate.
"Well then you have two choices. Fight to win or we'll call it in Shishida's favour. He's in the ring ready to fight. You aren't."
"Shiiiiit," Setsuna cursed under her breath. Carefully her parts floated down, spread out to avoid Shishida's first attack that came immediately after she got into a range he could reach. Only in the air did he realise she had actually been clever about it and positioned that part as bait, hoping he would leap at it and knowing it would send his leap in an arc that could potentially end outside the ring. No such luck. And he was warier about such tactics from then on. Somewhat dirty as her initial ploy might have been, she was a recommended student for a reason.
The battle was long. The longest yet. A game of chicken seeing who could bait the other into failing. From that context the winner might have been obvious, though with how dangerous Shishida was in his bestial form very few would blame Setsuna for trying to play it safe.
"Shishida is out of bounds! Setsuna Tokage wins!"
There were boos mixed into the reaction of the crowd. Setsuna kind of got why, but hey. It was worth a try if it might've gotten her the win. Besides, not like she could do it in her next match anyway.
-(-)-
"Folks, it's the last match of the first round of this Sports Festival finals tournament! Our tenacious support course student is here! The ever-inventive and industrious Mei Hatsume! Facing her, the second reptile of the hero course! Hiryu Rin!"
Mei's smile was manic as usual. A distinct contrast to the scowl on the face of her opponent. She didn't know what he was angry about. She offered him help! In the spirit of fairness! Out of the goodness of her heart! Her generosity of spirit! It wasn't just anyone who got to test out Mei Hatsume's precious babies! Not yet anyway. Not until she got a sweet contract with a support company.
"Fighters ready?"
Mei lowered the microphone to settle at the side of her lips. Her grin turning slightly vindictive. Well, if he wanted to turn down her generosity, she would just have to make sure he understood his mistake by the end of the match.
"Begin!"