Chapter 29: Ego
The match between Awase and Hatsume had been going on for ten minutes now at this point, and was just starting to wind down to a conclusion. It had been more of a marketing act than an actual fight, with Awase going along with all of Hatsume's outlandish demonstrations. Hatsume had announced that after they had done basic demonstrations of all of her inventions, they would have an actual fight, but Shoto didn't much care to watch it.
Awase would win handily.
It wasn't clear if anyone else had even been paying attention to Awase as he worked as Hatsume's assistant. If they had been, they would have seen that he had sabotaged every single support item after it had been demonstrated. If Hatsume planned to use any of them in her fight against Awase, she would find them all welded to the ground and to themselves, unable to do anything that she might want.
Since the actual fight would not last very long, Shoto decided to head down to his preparation room early. He found himself still dwelling on the fact that he lost not only to Midoriya, but also Yanagi and Hagakure during the earlier rounds of the festival. So many of the students here were stronger than he had anticipated. It just meant he would have to work even harder to prove that he was the strongest with just his mother's quirk.
Shoto wanted his head to be clear for his match against Honenuki. Based on all of his previous interactions with the skull-faced boy, Shoto expected to be needled and insulted during their match. If he was not in the right frame of mind, he might end up seriously hurting Honenuki, something he wanted to avoid if possible.
Unfortunately, Endeavor was standing just outside his preparation room, arms crossed, glowering at everything in the area. Endeavor was the last person that Shoto wanted to see right now. Or ever. But especially right now. Shoto froze, willing his face to remain neutral and unperturbed. He'd learned long ago that showing any emotions around Endeavor was a good way to make things worse, one way or the other.
After a brief pause, Shoto decided to continue on his way. Endeavor wasn't actively blocking the door, so he would just enter the room and be done with it. "I don't have time for this right now."
"You're still clinging to your little adolescent rebellion are you, boy? You know that you could have won each of the first two rounds if you had simply used your left side and not wasted years of training." Shoto went to reach for the door handle, but Endeavor flung his left arm out to block the doorway.
"I could have you removed for interfering with a competitor." Shoto's heart was racing, but he made sure not to let it show on his face. Instead, he stared straight forward, at his escape route that was now blocked from him. If he looked at Endeavor's face, he wasn't sure what he would do, if he would give into his anger or his fear first.
"Is U.A encouraging this foolishness of yours? I had hoped that the education here would be more like when I was a student. It's where I got all of my inspiration from, after all." Shoto just barely repressed a shudder. Attending school full time for training like what Endeavor had put him through sounded like absolute hell. "But after that rat took over things have changed. Perhaps more than I had realized."
As Endeavor trailed off, Shoto simply waited. Based on the cheers and roar of the audience outside, Awase had finally finished off Hatsume. Kaibara and Asui would be starting their match soon.
The silence quickly grew stale, but Shoto refused to entertain this conversation any further. Instead, he would simply wait for Endeavor to let him into his waiting room. And if for whatever reason Endeavor refused to do so, Shoto would go straight to the ring.
"Hm, perhaps I have misjudged what would be best for you. I could always pull you out of U.A, after all. I'm sure that Shiketsu would be more than happy to take you as a transfer student." Shoto's jaw tightened to the point that his teeth were grinding together, but he still refused to give Endeavor the satisfaction of a response. After all, there was no response he could give that would end well for him.
"Hmph, still nothing to say? Fine. If you want to play games and only use your right side, that might work while you're in high school, but you'll reach your limit soon enough once you graduate." Endeavor leaned down to loom over Shoto. "Don't listen too much to your teachers here, because the real world is far more complicated than any of them will tell you. Just remember that you are duty-bound to surpass All Might, and I don't care how you do it. You are my greatest creation, Shoto."
With that, Endeavor straightened and unblocked the door to the waiting room. Without a second more than necessary, Shoto tucked himself into the room and shut the door behind him. Endeavor could still be standing on the other side of the door, so Shoto forced himself to stay quiet, no matter how much he wanted to scream.
Cold, righteous fury burned deep in Shoto's chest, tinged with the slightest hint of fear. How dare that man put so much pressure on Shoto to be accepted into U.A, just to threaten to pull him out not even a semester into the school year. How dare that many assume anything about what Shoto was going through?
Honestly, Shoto hadn't heard much of anything after Endeavor's threat to pull him out of U.A. Living in the dorms alone had been one of the best changes to his life ever, and he couldn't imagine going back to living with Endeavor now. It didn't matter that other hero schools had dorms as well, U.A was the first place that had offered him sanctuary from Endeavor, and Shoto did not want to lose that.
The fact that both faculty and students had encouraged him to use Endeavor's fire was a problem, but that wouldn't get better wherever he went. If anything, Endeavor would have more influence and more sway over what he was being taught. U.A was the only place where he had even the slightest hope of holding to his vow.
The gall of Endeavor, to think that he could just walk in and remove Shoto from U.A, to upend his life just to try and break his spirit further. It was infuriating.
Despite why Shoto had come into the prep room in the first place, he allowed himself to feed his anger, to cultivate it. He would show Endeavor exactly what could be done with just his mother's quirk. Honenuki was strong, he could handle it. And it would show once and for all that he only needed his mother's ice.
Some time later, Shoto wasn't sure how long, he realized that the television in the prep room had been left on. Kaibara had just defeated Asui, in what had apparently been a fast-paced and high-intensity duel. Now, though, it was time for Shoto to fight. He stalked towards the ring, unaware of the emotions flickering across his face.
---
Juzo walked towards the ring with the eerily calm serenity of a man approaching his own execution. Despite his bold commentary to Shoji at lunch, he really wasn't sure if he had any chance at all of beating Todoroki. Regardless, he was going to try his best. There was no point in assuming that all was lost before even getting in the ring.
He knew that he could melt through Todoroki's ice with his quirk, but softening anything that was generated by a quirk was always a little more difficult than softening natural materials. There was probably some scientific reason for that, but Juzo had never gone looking. People who could create matter ex nihilo with their quirk were few and far between, after all. Juzo had expected that he'd run into one or two while at U.A, but figured they'd be more like Kamakiri or Rin, rather than like Todoroki.
"And now, it's time for the penultimate fight of the first round of our battle tournament! On one side we have the skeletal master of mud, from Class 1-A, Juzo Honenuki! On the other side we have the ice king who has shown us just the tip of the iceberg, also from Class 1-A, Shoto Todoroki!"
The cheers were far louder for Todoroki than they were for Juzo, but that didn't concern him. He was slightly peeved that Present Mic related his quirk to mud, though. It only counted as mud if he softened actual earth and dirt. His quirk was so much more versatile than that. Hopefully Juzo would have a chance to show that off in this fight.
Looking up at Todoroki, though, and taking in the stormy cast to his face, Juzo was less and less confident in his chances. Despite Todoroki's typical stoic expression, he looked like he was ready to murder someone. Juzo just hoped that it wouldn't end up being him.
There were flashes, though, of a deep sadness behind the rage in his eyes. Whatever was going through Todoroki's mind right now was a mystery to Juzo. It did help him decide on his opening gambit to the fight. If Todoroki was mad, he'd bring out a massive opening attack, after all.
After confirming that the rules for their fight were the same as the previous six, Midnight raised her whip once again and announced, "Begin!"
As the first syllable left her mouth, Juzo had already turned the stadium directly beneath him into the thinnest liquid he could manage. As he dropped into the ground, he could see a massive glacier speeding across the ring towards him. Just as the top of his head sank into the liquid, he could feel the glacier expanding above him, both through the vibrations of its expansion and the bone cold chill that it brought with it.
Now safely underground, Juzo had a moment to reorient himself and attempt to take down Todoroki. Todoroki was one of the few students in the tournament that could effectively attack even without moving his body, so simply encasing him up to his neck in the ground would not be a fool-proof strategy for winning. No, Juzo would have to ring out or knock out his opponent, and that meant he'd have to get a little bit violent.
Juzo had some martial arts training before coming to U.A, but his parents hadn't pushed too hard. He certainly didn't have anything approaching the skill of Kendo, Midoriya, Kaibara, or even Yaoyorozu. That didn't mean he couldn't hold his own in a fight, but just that he'd have to be a little more creative against Todoroki.
Realizing that if he didn't come up soon, he'd probably lose by default, Juzo angled himself towards where Todoroki had been standing and formed a platform beneath his feet. As he had done in his training with Tsu, Juzo pushed off of that platform before moving it to follow him upwards. As he ascended, he continued making the material directly in front of him into a liquid, so he ultimately emerged from the floor of the ring right next to Todoroki.
This time, Juzo was able to control his exit from the floor, despite his speed. As he flew by Todoroki, he swung his right fist at Todoroki's face, hearing a 'crack' as he sped on by. Todoroki recoiled from the punch, going down to one knee and holding his face in shock. This thankfully gave Juzo a chance to land semi-gracefully on the ground and reassess the situation.
"And just like that Honenuki staves off elimination by reappearing outside of Todoroki's giant glacier! He even managed to get a blow in on Todoroki! And it looked like it hurt!" Present Mic's commentary was once again audible now that Juzo was above ground.
"He'll have to be careful with how long he spends underground so he won't be disqualified, but it's a logical way to avoid Todoroki's attacks." Rare praise from Aizawa. If Juzo had a moment more to contemplate it, he might even feel proud that their prickly teacher had said such things about him on national television. "Turning it into a surprise attack was also a good move, but he should have followed up on it. Todoroki is already recovering." Indeed, Todoroki was already straightening to a full stand, glaring openly now at Juzo.
"Honenuki." Midnight held her whip up to pause the fight and spoke loudly through her own chattering teeth. Todoroki's opening assault had nearly frozen her as well. Would that have disqualified him? Questions for later. "If you spend more than fifteen seconds underground, we will consider it to be your forfeit, understood?"
That was an unfortunate restriction, but still something that Juzo could work with. He nodded at Midnight, but she wasn't done. "Todoroki, if you come any closer to hitting me with an attack, then you will be disqualified, understand?" There was a moment where Juzo was sure that Todoroki was going to do something unwise, but eventually, he gave the barest nod towards Midnight as well. "All right then, continue." Midnight brought her whip down to restart the fight.
Once again, Juzo dropped himself into the ground immediately, and once again, he saw a glacier rushing towards him as he did. This time, Juzo wasn't quite fast enough to slip underground before the glacier hit him.
Thankfully, he was able to let his quirk flow into the iceberg as well. For a second there was resistance, but with an effort, Juzo was able to soften just enough of the iceberg to drop below the surface. The strain of using his quirk so rapidly to escape, attack, and then soften quirk made material was already getting to him. He'd have to end this quickly.
Juzo again repositioned himself, and aimed for where Todoroki had remained standing through the entire fight. Todoroki was an arrogant fighter, unlikely to move unless he had to, confident in his quirk to carry the day. Ignoring the pain in his head, Juzo forced himself forward, through the softened ground to try and end this fight now. But as soon as he broke through to the surface, Juzo saw that he had drastically miscalculated.
Todoroki wasn't there.
Flying through the air, punching at nothing, Juzo swung his head rapidly side to side to try and see where Todoroki was. There he was, no more than five steps to the right. But before Juzo could even land and try to reposition, a pillar of ice grew up out of the ground and snagged him.
As the ice worked its way over his body, Juzo noted that it carefully avoided his hands and feet. Todoroki must have gathered that Juzo could only use his quirk if his hands or feet were touching the surface that he was softening.
The ice quickly encased his entire body, leaving only his hands and feet free. Juzo strained to twist his wrists in such a way that he could get even a finger on the ice and begin to free himself, but Todoroki had been precise enough to prevent even that.
Midnight called down to see if he was able to escape, and after a moment more of trying, Juzo gave in and forfeited. There really wasn't any other way out of this situation.
As Todoroki came closer to use his left side to help melt the ice faster, Juzo noted that the anger behind his mask of stoicism was all but gone, while the sadness remained. It almost made him feel bad about punching Todoroki in the face.
Almost.
---
"And now, the final match of the opening round of our battle tournament! In one corner, the living, breathing acid trip from Class 1-A, it's Mina Ashido. And in the other corner, here after shooting to the top of the boards in both of the first two rounds, it's Izuku Midoriya from Class 1-A! Who knows what will happen when these two clash?!"
The roar of the crowd and the pressure of the thousands of eyes in the stadium all being focused on him, let alone however many millions watching from home, weighed heavily on Izuku. Despite being the last fight of the round, Izuku still found himself wishing that he had had longer to prepare himself.
Instead of focusing on his upcoming match, he had spent the first six matches watching and taking as many notes on quirks and fighting styles as he could. Even though there were only two quirks that he really needed more notes on (Aoyama's and Hatsume's), getting a look at how his classmates reacted under pressure and used their quirks in one-on-one situations was still important.
However, that meant that he hadn't gone down to the prep rooms until Honenuki and Todoroki were almost ready to start, and that fight had barely lasted even a minute. Sure, they had had to take some time to melt all of Todoroki's ice and repair the ring from Honenuki's softening, but that still didn't take too long, all things considered.
Izuku shook his head and slapped his face lightly to pull his focus to the task in front of him. He couldn't let himself get into his head now. All Might had said that he didn't have to announce himself or anything along those lines, but that didn't mean that Izuku didn't want to show his mentor just how far he had come. And what better way to do so than by winning the Sports Festival?
Mentally filtering out Midnight explaining the rules for the eighth time so far, Izuku focused on his opponent: Mina Ashido. She might play up her air-headedness, but Izuku knew that she was just as smart and determined as any other student in the class. She had made it into U.A, after all.
While Izuku knew he was stronger and faster than her, her quirk gave her a decided advantage at range. He'd just have to close the distance as quickly as possible. Once he was close enough, he could end the battle quickly by just throwing her out of the ring.
Midnight raised her whip, and Izuku shot off towards Ashido, One For All sparking at eight percent around his body, just a hair under his maximum. If he needed to, he could put forth just a little extra burst of speed to surprise Ashido still without straining his body too hard.
Instead of a punch or a kick, Izuku went first for a bull rush, hoping to force Ashido out of bounds without hurting either of them too much. He lowered his shoulders in anticipation of colliding with her, but was surprised to find that he had missed. His surprise was only heightened by the burning sensation of acid along his back and shoulders.
Ashido had leapt to the side at the last minute, evidently surprised by Izuku's speed, but she had still managed to tag him with some acid as she dodged. She further attempted to fling some acid by Izuku's feet as well to interfere with his footing, but Izuku was able to avoid it and quickly, if awkwardly, turn to face Ashido once again.
"Alright, first blood: Mina!" Ashido crowed. "You may as well give up now, Midori. I've got this fight in the bag!" That was a new nickname, but there was certainly no way Izuku was giving up.
Focus. He had already learned that Mina had great reflexes and she obviously had the physical training to avoid him if she saw him coming soon enough. If Izuku wanted to win, he'd have to figure out exactly what she was capable of. In the end, it might just come down to an endurance match.
Izuku rushed at Mina again, this time keeping his eyes on her and attempting a punch rather than a bull rush. This time when she spun away, he tracked her and turned his punch into a grab to keep them close, but the fabric of her uniform remained just out of his grasp. He saw her riposte coming this time, though, and managed to avoid having another globule of acid end up on his arm. Instead of taking the time to reposition, Izuku simply threw himself back at Ashido, hoping that the suddenness would give him more of an opening.
It didn't, although he did come ever so slightly closer to grabbing her.
That was how the fight progressed for a period. Time and again Izuku would rush at Ashido only for her to dance out of the way. Throughout it all, Izuku kept track of just how quickly she could react, how close he was before she would spin out of the way, and how fast he'd have to go to actually make contact.
Each time that Izuku would get close, not only did Ashido manage to avoid him, but she even usually had the time to spray some acid at him. Her aim was not always true, but now and then Izuku would feel the sting of acid on his arms, back, or chest. The pain wasn't anything serious, certainly less than he'd dealt with before, so Ashido must not be using that concentrated of an acid.
Izuku did manage to get a few glancing blows in on Ashido in return. A kick here or there that he hoped would slow her down ever so slightly. She was far more evasive around his hands, obviously wanting to avoid being trapped in close combat with him.
"Looks like you're hurting over there, Midori." Ashido panted slightly as she ducked under a kick, sliding away on her own acid. "And your jacket has certainly seen better days." It was obvious that she was trying to get Izuku to focus on something else, if only for a moment to catch her breath.
Luckily for her, Izuku was also slightly winded, and not at all opposed to taking a moment to reassess. A glance at his P.E jacket, however, showed that she was exactly right. Ashido's acid had eaten all the way through multiple locations on his jacket, and left the majority of it threadbare at best. Not only was his jacket worn down, but the black tanktop that he wore underneath was also patchy and falling apart. There must have been more acid than he thought that had splashed on him.
At this point they were just getting in his way. With a chuckle, Izuku simply ripped the remnants of the jacket and his undershirt off of his body, leaving him shirtless. He allowed himself to briefly feel lucky that Ashido's acid hadn't made too much of a mess of his pants.
"Holy shit, Midori." Ashido seemed somewhat surprised by the casual way he had torn off his clothes. "No one ever told me you were so jacked." Izuku hadn't planned on a conversation at this point, but he was confused now.
"We're in the hero course. Why wouldn't I be in shape?" Izuku was genuinely baffled by this line of conversation.
"Well, there's being in shape, and then there's … that." Ashido gestured roughly at basically all of Izuku. "And that's a good thing! I thought Ei was ripped, but you give him a run for his money!" Izuku felt his cheeks warming quickly as Ashido continued to ogle him, uncomfortable with the attention. A smirk bloomed on her face before she continued in a surprisingly sultry tone. "I bet there's someone in our class that is just loving seeing exactly how jacked you are, Midori." Ashido followed up her words with a wink, to boot.
It was obvious that she was referring to Kyoka, and based on her smirk and tone of voice, Ashido was probably trying to put Izuku off his game by embarrassing him even more than she already had with her ogling of him.
The sad thing was, even knowing that, it was kind of working. Izuku could feel his cheeks heating up even more at the thought of Kyoka seeing him shirtless, and the inevitable thoughts of seeing her in a similar state of dress.
It wasn't like she had never seen like this before. Working out together in the summer led to a lot of moments where Izuku had gone shirtless just due to the heat. He didn't think anything of it at the time, but perhaps he should have.
Regardless, Izuku forced himself to fight through his embarrassment and focus on the battle at hand. If Ashido was trying to push him off his game, it meant she was feeling less confident in her own chances. If Izuku could turn the tables on her, he should be able to get close enough to force her out of the ring.
And Izuku thought he knew just how to do it. He just had to channel some of the confidence that he had bantering with Kyoka into this conversation. No big deal.
"I don't know why you're being coy about it, Ashido, but Kyoka already knows how I look shirtless." That got the pink girl's attention. Now to bring the hammer down. "After all, we have been dating for a few weeks. I thought you'd have picked that up."
"WHAT?!" Ashido's eyes went wide and her jaw dropped. Izuku made his move, but found Ashido rushing towards him at the same moment, real anger flashing in her eyes. "And you didn't tell me?!" The two of them clashed again, faster now, and Izuku realized he may have miscalculated.
---
From way up in the stands, Ochako couldn't hear exactly what Midoriya and Mina were talking about when they paused their fight. It had been an entertaining fight so far, with Mina just barely keeping ahead of Midoriya's attempts to get close, dousing him with acid whenever she could. Her efforts at evasion had left trenches gouged in the ring surface, while her attempts at offense had further pockmarked the ring.
Even if Ochako had been able to hear what they were saying, she wasn't sure if she would have been listening too closely after Midoriya tore off his tattered PE uniform jacket and undershirt. Even apart from any other considerations, it was just a surprising and entertaining moment in the fight. Of course, the fact that Midoriya was apparently ripped under his typically loose clothing also did catch her eye. Ochako knew that Jiro and Midoriya were dating, though, so she tried to keep her interest in Midoriya purely academic.
Ochako took a moment to glance at Jiro to her left, and found that the girl was almost comically focused on Midoriya's form, with her eyes wide and her earjacks twitch just slightly. A blush was growing in her cheeks, threatening to overtake her entire face.
Sitting on the other side of Jiro was Yaomomo, who was also glancing at Jiro with amusement on her face. Ochako met eyes with Yaomomo and the two began giggling uncontrollably at their friend's obvious obsession. Their read of Jiro was simply reinforced as she didn't respond at all to the sudden laughter all around her.
To be fair to Jiro, it was only because Ochako and Yaomomo knew her relatively well that they could tell just how obvious she was being. Someone who didn't know her as well would not necessarily understand just how focused she was in this moment.
Mina's sudden scream from the ring ripped Jiro out of the trance she had been in, and pulled Ochako's attention back to the match.
The two combatants below had resumed their fight, but the details had changed. First, the tempo of the fight was faster than before. It wasn't a massive increase, but both of them were moving more quickly and with greater precision than they were before.
More importantly, it was no longer a game of cat and mouse with Midoriya chasing Mina around the ring. Instead, Mina was far more willing to stay close to Midoriya as long as it gave her a chance to fling more acid at him, even if it meant that Midoriya was more able to land blows on her. Every so often the two of them would separate and reassess before jumping back into close combat with each other.
The difference in fighting style on Midoriya's side was just that he appeared to be pulling on more of his quirk, with a greater amount of lightning sparking around him. Mina, on the other hand, had appeared to cover her entire body with a small amount of very dilute but slippery acid. Ochako had seen her slip literally through Midoriya's hands on multiple occasions, and any blows from Midoriya looked dampened. Through all of it, Mina was still yelling at Midoriya, though it was no longer quite so loud as her outburst earlier.
"Wow, what did Midoriya say to her?" Ochako found herself wondering out loud. She looked to her left on hearing Jiro snort, and found her now suppressing laughter.
"Mina was trying to make him uncomfortable by teasing him about me and seeing him shirtless. So Green tried to surprise her by letting her know that we have been dating for a few weeks now. She … didn't take it well." That was an understatement, Ochako thought, but not a surprise. Anyone who knew Mina should have known that aside from bullying, the easiest way to get her angry was to keep juicy relationship gossip from her.
"Ashido is that upset that she wasn't told?" Yaomomo asked, confusion tinging her voice.
"Yeah. She's still yelling at him about it." Jiro laughed. "I was going to give him grief for telling her, but I think he's getting his punishment just now."
"Well I'm still going to give him grief." Tokage's head, minus one ear, floated over, joining the conversation. "I wanted to see how long we could string Mina along. Your broccoli boy ruined all of my fun!" There was a pout on Tokage's face, but her voice made it obvious that she wasn't actually upset.
The latest clash between Mina and Midoriya made it clear that the fight was coming to an end. While Mina was still able to use her whole-body acid to keep out of Midoriya's hands and avoid being grappled, it was now clear that it was taking a toll on her, and she could no longer as easily block his strikes.
As the two separated for what was likely to be one of the last times, they were both breathing heavily. Mina's visible skin was starting to take on a blotchy appearance in places, presumably from where the acid was irritating it. She was also clutching at her side where Midoriya had landed one of his more solid kicks in the latest melee. Midoriya, on the other hand, appeared fine apart from a handful of acid burns across his chest and back.
This time, though, instead of immediately racing back towards his opponent, Midoriya drew himself up and started speaking to Mina with a stern expression on her face. No matter how much Ochako strained, she couldn't hear exactly what he was saying over the noise of the crowd.
Glancing again towards Jiro, she found the girl laughing even harder, wiping tears from her eyes. She was obviously in no condition to share anything right now, so Ochako turned to her right instead, to where Shoji was sitting with Honenuki.
"You want to know what's going on, right?" Shoji spared an arm for an eye and one for a mouth to speak to her, but kept his head focused on the fight below. Ochako quickly nodded, as Midoriya continued to speak to Mina. Shoji's quirk had initially confused Ochako, but she had gotten used to it over their time as classmates, and was no longer intimidated by his various appendages coming from his arms.
"He's telling her off for all of her teasing of him and Jiro, saying that she doesn't have the right to any information that they don't want her to have, and that she has made both of them uncomfortable on several occasions, despite being asked to stop." Ochako had heard Jiro ask Mina to stop, but wasn't sure if she had heard Midoriya had. It didn't matter either way; Mina's teasing had obviously had an impact on both of them, and her apparent feelings of entitlement to knowledge on their relationship status was emphatically not cool.
"I, uh, don't know if I should share this," Shoji continued, "but he's also saying that she shouldn't have been enjoying him being shirtless quite so much." Ochako gave a quick glance to Kirishima, sitting nearby, who didn't seem particularly bothered by the comment.
"Eh, dude put in the work, Mina's just admiring the view." Kirishima shrugged. "I know she's not going to go chasing after anyone else, she just likes to look. I don't have any problems with her doing that. Midobro has a point, though, that if he doesn't want her to look, she shouldn't. It ain't manly."
A roar of the crowd brought everyone's attention back to the ring, where Midoriya had once again launched himself at Mina, and this time, successfully managed to get a solid grip on her. Three seconds later, Mina had been launched out of the ring.
"And the winner via ring-out is Izuku Midoriya!" Present Mic announced. "We're going to have a short break to repair the ring before the first fight in the quarterfinals: Denki Kaminari versus Ochako Uraraka! We'll be back in just a bit, listeners!"
Oh, right, Ochako had to go get ready to face Kaminari, someone who had already taken down Yaomomo. Midoriya was escorting Mina to Recovery Girl's office, and Jiro was already stepping down out of the audience box to catch up with him.
Ochako went to hurry down to the prep room, but Yaomomo caught her arm, looking up at her with concern. "Kaminari can take you down with just a touch, but you can do the same to him." Oh, she was trying to give advice. Ochako had her own ideas, but it certainly wouldn't hurt to hear Yaomomo out. "But the very first thing he did against me was ask me on a date."
What.
That wasn't what Ochako had been expecting, and Yaomomo seemed to understand her confusion, nodding in commiseration. After a moment to process what she had just heard, Ochako could only nod slowly. "So my best chance to beat him is going to be right at the beginning. I've got it! Thanks Yaomomo!"
With her plan altered to account for Kaminari apparently being a terminal flirt, Ochako trotted off towards the prep rooms, feeling far more ready for her next fight.
---
Even if Kyoka hadn't had enhanced hearing, she still would have been able to hear Recovery Girl well before she stepped into the nurse's office. Most of the elderly nurse's ire was focused on the HPSC and Nezu for continuing on with such a 'barbaric' tradition. Kyoka would be lying if she said that she didn't entirely disagree with Recovery Girl's points on that front at least.
As Kyoka approached the door, however, the nurse had turned her attention to Izuku and Mina.
"There was no reason to use so much of your quirk, either of you! You had both been doing just fine for the first half of the fight, and neither of you got too injured." Kyoka quietly opened the door and walked in, seeing Recovery Girl pointing her cane at Mina who was reclining in one of the beds. "And then you had to cover your body in acid," The cane shifted targets to Izuku, "And you had to start punching hard enough to cause serious damage."
Izuku was still shirtless, although the various acid burns had apparently already been healed by Recovery Girl. Since his injuries had been relatively minor, he was standing somewhat awkwardly in the middle of the room looking suitably chastened by the nurse.
Recovery Girl sighed, before lowering her cane back to the ground, using it as intended. "I suppose I can't get too upset with either of you." She fixed Izuku with a glare. "Just try not to hurt your opponent too badly in the rest of the festival." Izuku kept his gaze on the ground as he nodded rapidly. "Good. You can go, Midoriya. But you, young lady," Her gaze swung back to Mina, "You need to stay here to recover your energy before I let you go."
With that Recovery Girl stalked back off to her desk, shaking her head and muttering about teenagers thinking they were invincible. Quietly, so as not to become the target of Recovery Girl's wrath, Kyoka cleared her throat, alerting Izuku and Mina to her presence.
Izuku's eyes went wide on seeing her and he began to blush. In that instant, Kyoka learned two important things. First, he apparently was no longer quite so nonchalant about being shirtless around her as he had been during the summer, which was a damn shame. Second, his blushes apparently extended down his neck to his upper chest, which was actually kind of adorable.
Mina, on the other hand, looked terrified of Kyoka, and immediately bowed her head. "I'm so sorry, Kyoka. I didn't realize how much of an ass I was being to you and Midori. I promise that I will do better."
"Y'know, I think Green already said everything that needed to be said, and it sounds like you learned your lesson." Mina nodded almost as rapidly as Izuku had earlier. "What did you end up doing to her, anyway, for Recovery Girl to tear into you like that?"
Izuku went to speak, but Recovery Girl herself spoke up first. "He broke three of her ribs, dislocated her left arm, and gave her a minor concussion. It would have been worse if she hadn't been dampening the blows with her acid, which in and of itself gave her body wide acid burns." Kyoka turned her eyes back to Izuku who simply nodded bashfully.
"Well then, Mina, I think you've been punished more than enough." Mina looked up at Kyoka hopefully. "Just try to remember in the future that not everyone is quite so outgoing as you are, ok?" Again, Mina nodded rapidly. "Then we're all good. Water under the bridge." A relieved smile broke out across Mina's face as she laid back in her bed, suddenly looking far more tired than a moment before.
"Now that that's done, can the two of you please leave my patient in peace? She needs rest right now to regain her energy." Recovery Girl's light tone made it clear that she wasn't actually upset with Kyoka and Izuku, but they quickly said their goodbyes and exited the nurses office to make sure they didn't get (further, in Izuku's case) on her bad side.
"I-I-I should go g-get another shirt and j-jacket. I-I don't want to f-freeze to death against T-Todoroki." Izuku managed to get out before trying to race off down the hallway. Kyoka simply caught his wrist with one of her earjacks, and even a small tug back was enough to stop him in his tracks.
"Stuttering again, Green? I thought you were doing better." If anything his blush got even worse at that. Kyoka realized that any extra teasing would just make things worse. Instead, she reached out and grabbed Izuku's hand, squeezing it tight in her own. "Hey, is everything ok?"
With her earjack wrapped around his wrist, Kyoka could hear his heart racing. As soon as her hand wrapped around his own though, it started slowing. A few deep breaths and a moment of peace and quiet and Izuku was nearly back down to his normal heart rate.
"Sorry. I guess Ashido got in my head more than I thought and got me focused on being shirtless. Even though I know I've been shirtless around you before, but now we're dating and I don't know if that changes things or not. And then I said some things to her that weren't exactly kind and may have put some words in your mouth and I don't want to speak for you…" Izuku was starting to pick up speed and Kyoka wanted to cut him off before he broke out into a full-bore ramble.
"Hey." She poked him in the forehead with an earjack to startle him out of his spiral. "I heard what you said, and I agreed with all of it." Izuku merely blinked back at her, seemingly not able to accept that he hadn't made some grievous error. "I may not have told her that we were dating, but that's only because I would have expected her to get super mad about it. Which she did."
"She did indeed." Izuku subconsciously rubbed at his shoulder where some of the worst acid burns have been.
"So you've got nothing to apologize for." She let her comforting smile morph into something of a smirk. "And don't think you need to put a shirt on for my sake. Mina wasn't wrong about you being attractive, you know. And I'm your girlfriend, after all. I get to enjoy the view."
"I still don't know what the fuss is about." Izuku mumbled so quietly that anyone other than Kyoka probably wouldn't have even heard him say anything, let alone exactly what it was. There was no way that Kyoka would let a statement like that stand, so after checking to make sure the coast was clear, she did the only thing she could think of.
Kyoka pulled Izuku into a hug and kissed him deep on the lips. After less than a second of shock, Izuku reciprocated both the hug and the kiss.
Neither of them knew exactly how long they stayed like that, but eventually, the sounds of the crowd up above reminded them that they had places to be. Reluctantly, the two teens pulled apart from one another.
"I know exactly how you feel, Izuku. I just can't understand how someone like you thinks I'm attractive." Izuku opened his mouth to reinforce that position, but Kyoka carried on. "But I know that you do, and I trust you. I think every so often we need to remind ourselves that the other one finds us attractive. It can only do good things for our self esteem."
Izuku was silent for a moment before whispering. "As long as it involves more kissing." It took everything Kyoka had not to break out into peals of laughter, but to instead plant one more soft kiss on Izuku's lips.
"Now then, let's go get you that jacket. No matter how much I like seeing you without a shirt, I'd rather you not come down with hypothermia against Todoroki."
"Well, if all he uses is his ice, I'm pretty sure I can win." Kyoka was more than confident that Izuku would win. He was always more than a little bit pessimistic about his own chances in these sorts of things. "But I'm not positive that he won't use his fire."
"You heard what he said before lunch." Kyoka reminded Izuku. "It sounded like a pretty serious promise to me."
Izuku nodded, looking unconvinced. "I don't know if you saw from the stands, but after Todoroki beat Honenuki, the cameras focused on his face. During the fight he looked angry, but afterwards, I got this feeling of sadness from him. I don't think his promise to not use his fire is really helping him at all."
"Why do I get the feeling that you're going to do something reckless during your fight with him."
"Hey, you always think I'm about to do something reckless."
"That's because you are." Izuku squawked at the accusation, but didn't exactly offer any defense of himself. Not that there was any defense to be had, of course. "Now go get dressed. It sounds like Uraraka's fight is about to start, and I should get to my prep room."
"Good luck against Hagakure! You're her worst nightmare. Someone who doesn't have to see to find her." Of course Izuku would be so optimistic about her fight while remaining pessimistic about his own.
Kyoka forced a smile on her face. "Let's just hope that it's that easy." Having seen how strong and skilled Hagakure really was during their training sessions, she knew it wouldn't be. But at this point, she was playing with house money. Nothing to do other than just go for it.
---
The hotel room was small, barely enough room for a bed, a desk, a dresser, and a bathroom. When he had first booked it, Hisashi hadn't expected to need to stay long, just long enough to convince Inko to allow him to move back in.
That hadn't worked out yet.
Regardless, he generally wasn't unhappy with the accommodations. The price was right, and he was rarely present. His sister had quickly gotten him approved to a relatively high-ranking post of the Division of Intelligence and Surveillance of the HPSC, even if he unofficially was helping the commission prepare for All Might's retirement, and he was rarely present at the hotel for anything more than a few hours of stolen sleep now and then.
Weeks ago, however, he had asked to take off the days of the U.A Sports Festival. At the time, it had seemed like it would be one further step in getting to know his son better, and hopefully get closer to both him and Inko.
Instead, he was spending it holed away in his tiny room, reduced to squinting at the tiny television perched atop the dresser. Hisashi could have gone out and watched the festival from any bar in Tokyo, or likely even managed to secure tickets to attend in person. Neither seemed an appealing option.
Hisashi had learned long ago that his note-taking and quirk analysis habits were not fondly regarded by most of his peers. He didn't particularly want to be the only person in a bar scribbling in a notebook during the sports festival, and it was always so much harder to take good notes in person, without the aid of instant slow-motion replay.
And so he sat cross-legged on his lumpy mattress, notebook on his lap, focusing on the finer details of the quirks being used on the first day of the festival. The fact that this was also the first time he was able to observe his only child's quirk had nothing to do with his attentiveness. Thankfully, his son was doing quite well, making it to at least the quarterfinals of the final round, so Hisashi had had ample time to take notes on his quirk.
Suffice it to say he was not impressed.
Latent quirks generally fell into one of two categories. First there were quirks with obscure activation requirements. These were generally weak quirks, even disregarding their activation requirements and utterly unsuited for heroics. Second, however, were outstandingly powerful quirks that required the user's body to be strong enough (in some capacity) to avoid self-harm. The fact that Izuku's quirk was one of these, and that the last person on record to possess one was All Might himself, had given Hisashi hope that his son would wield similar amounts of power.
That had not been what Hisashi had observed today.
The first two rounds had been well-designed by the negotiation team, and only slightly corrupted by Nezu, to accurately represent essential aspects of heroism. Full-contact tag was a fantastic simulation of pursuing and chasing villains, while the team scavenger hunt recreated the effort of finding and securing villain's gear and weapons. The fact that neither lent themselves well to overwhelming displays of physical strength did put Izuku at a slight disadvantage compared to some of the stronger emitter quirks on display, but he still did well, placing highly in each event.
However, the battle tournament was where Hisashi expected Izuku to dominate. And in the first round he had done anything but, struggling against a girl with a much weaker quirk. Admittedly, her quirk was powerful and dangerous on an absolute level, just like the vast majority of the hero course quirks at schools like U.A and Shiketsu, but Izuku's should have blown her out of the water.
Instead the fight had been a struggle. Sure, Izuku had been obviously stronger and faster and able to up both when the fight called for it, but it was far from the utter domination that Hisashi had been hoping for.
All Might was retiring soon, and no matter how skilled Endeavor and Hawks were, they could not hold a candle to the man in terms of pure power nor his ability to prevent crime from occurring just by existing. Part of Hisashi had been hoping that Izuku would demonstrate comparable power to make the whole process of replacing the Symbol of Peace that much easier.
There had been a moment during the scavenger hunt when Hisashi had thought Izuku was going to stop holding back, breaking through Endeavor's son's ice wall without any difficulty. It was a display of pure power that only a few pro heroes could match, and Izuku was still just a first year student.
Perhaps Izuku had continued to hold back, even into the battle tournament. If so, that would be just another nail in the coffin of U.A's poor teaching choices. After all, the real world was far more complicated than those idealistic teachers liked to assume.
Heroes should only ever hold back enough to ensure that there wasn't excessive property damage. The subdual of villains and protection of innocent lives were more important than making sure the villains weren't injured in the conflict. Any hero worth their salt should be taught from early on how to approach a combat situation appropriately. Since the festival was occurring at U.A, where Recovery Girl provided front-line medical support, Izuku had even less reason to worry about seriously injuring his classmate.
The next round for Izuku was against Endeavor's son, who had actually shown a great deal of power with his quirk, even if he had only used half of it so far for some reason. If Izuku truly was holding back, like Hisashi suspected, perhaps going up against such a powerful foe would get him to start showing exactly what his quirk was capable of.
And if, for whatever reason, Izuku wasn't holding back and was far weaker than Hisashi had hoped, there were other candidates for the position of the Symbol of Peace. In general Hisashi was looking for first year students, because they were easier to mold, and because this year's crop of first years was particularly powerful.
The psychic girl who won the first round might possibly have enough power to fill the role, but would need to be properly educated, and it wasn't clear that U.A could do so. Endeavor's son was another candidate, despite his apparent distaste for half of his quirk, and had apparently resisted U.A's particular teaching methods so far. And if neither of them would do, there were a pair of first years at Shiketsu who were apparently on their level, or even stronger.
Perhaps that would be better overall. Hisashi made a note to look more deeply into the Shiketsu first years before moving back to his note taking.