Chapter Text
Both Ojiro and that 1-B kid, Shouda, quit before the one-on-one fights. Izuku wasn’t really sure what they were on about. Something about not feeling in control? Shiozaki and Tetsutetsu from 1-B took their places.
It wasn’t long before UA posted what the fights would be. Izuku glanced through the list. It looked like Izuku’s fight was 7th and he’d be facing… Sero! Izuku flipped open his analysis page on Sero. Not the worst person to be facing, not the best. He internally nodded to himself. He could make this work.
Vlad King was observing the matches. He was a bit disappointed that so few of his kids got into the final round of this Sports Festival, but it was what it was. He’d just have to train them extra hard this year so they’d do better in the next Sports Festival.
The results of most of the matches weren’t very surprising. Todoroki defeating Kaminari with a giant glacier? Expected, really. Kirishima losing to Shiozaki? Again, expected, his hardening quirk wouldn’t allow him to escape her vines. Even Shoji’s seemingly surprising victory against Tokoyami battle wasn’t unpredictable, he had heard Aizawa note in the teacher’s lounge that Tokoyami struggled in close-combat situations, the place where Shoji excelled. And of course Bakugou won his match. He was quite skilled in combat.
He was rather surprised at Uraraka seemingly quitting against the purple general education kid. She just walked out of the arena. Strange.
The next real surprise came in the 7th match. Vlad King didn’t think himself very prejudiced, but he knew Midoriya was quirkless. It was simply a bad matchup against Sero, was all. It would be very easy for someone with a physical quirk (or no quirk) to get caught up in his tape, which might end the match.
Which is why he was surprised Midoriya beat him so easily.
It was all about angles. Izuku knew the exact angle that Sero usually released his tape and ever since he figured that out, everything Sero did was painfully telegraphed. He knew where he was going to try and shoot. He just had to dodge. Izuku jumped, ducked, and dodged, avoiding all the tape. Then, he leapt behind Sero. As Sero turned around, Izuku grabbed him, and Judo-threw him across the out-of-bounds line a short distance away.
The crowd went wild (though not as loud as they did during flashier fights) as Present Mic announced his victory. Izuku felt a smile rise on his face. One down, just a few matches to go.
Izuku walked over to the break room to see Uraraka, looking upset and staring into the floor. What… oh, she lost her match.
“Hey, Urara-”
“I knew his quirk,” she interrupted. “Ojiro told me what Shinsou’s quirk was and I still fell for it the moment he started insulting Iida! I’m such a moron.” She buried her face in her hands.
“Hey, it’s okay,” Izuku said, even though he was just itching to ask what Shinou’s quirk was. “You can always try again next year, and besides, you got in the Top 16 so everyone will be curious about you! Especially considering how well you did in the first two rounds.”
She sniffed. “Really?”
“Really,” he said, giving her a pat on the back.
She gave a wobbly smile. “Thanks…”
After a few more minutes of trying to cheer her up, Uraraka shook her head and told him she needed a little more time to sulk. He understood what she meant, and said they should all go out for ice cream or mochi after this. She seemed to like that idea.
By the time Izuku left the room, Ashido had beaten Tsuyu. He was rather surprised by it. He had guessed Tsuyu’s agility would have been enough to take Ashido out, but he supposed that if Tsu didn’t do it fast enough and Ashido coated the battlefield in acid… well, small spaces with no vertical jumping areas weren’t exactly well-suited conditions for Tsuyu’s quirk.
This meant he was going to fight Ashido instead of Tsuyu now. He nodded to himself and started planning for the next round.
It wasn’t uncommon for Iida Tensei to patrol alone. After all, while he was known for his teamwork skills, he was quick and could cover a lot of ground on his own. He could easily take down most villains alone, anyway.
The Hero Killer was not most villains. Tensei barely dodged the first attack.
In a strange way, he had the analyst Deku to thank for that.
Deku had suggested he try different orange juice types to power his quirk, and while at first he scoffed (of course I found the one that made me the fastest, I’m a pro-hero!) he had to put aside his pride when Deku had made many suggestions he hadn’t thought of. For one, Deku suggested that he test if certain orange juices would make his engines quieter, because an issue he had was a) if villains heard vroom vroom sounds, they knew he was coming and b) it made it harder to hear other noises, like someone yelling for help.
(They could drown out the noise of someone trying to sneak up on him.)
There was a specific brand of orange juice that made his engines run very smoothly and quietly. It didn’t give him as much raw power or speed, so he didn’t use that kind for daytime patrols. But, when he was patrolling certain areas of Hosu at night, stealth and subtlety beat raw power every time. So he’d been using the new kind of orange juice.
Stain was very quiet and stealthy. If his engines had been any louder… well, he probably wouldn’t have heard Stain coming and gotten stabbed in the back.
He quickly patched in a call for backup, then focused on fighting Stain. After a few minutes of dodging and fighting and crashing, Stain managed to paralyze him (somehow? how does his quirk work??) but by that point his backup had arrived. Stain growled threats but was forced to retreat in the face of so many sidekicks. Stain escaped, but Tensei also escaped relatively unscathed. If he could figure out how (Deku was notoriously impossible to contact) he decided he’d send Deku a thank-you note for the help.
Izuku glanced at the scoreboard.
Todoroki vs. Yaoyorozu
Shinsou vs. Bakugou
Shoji vs. Shiozaki
Midoriya vs. Ashido
Izuku was anxious, waiting for his match as he watched the others.
Todoroki and Yaoyorozu’s match only lasted a few seconds. As impressive as Yoayorozu’s flamethrower was, Todoroki was just making too much ice. The Bakugou vs. Shinsou match was short too, but not exactly in the way Izuku expected. Amazed, Izuku watched as Shinsou easily goaded Bakugou into yelling something and then asked him to walk out of the ring. (Izuku thought back. Did anyone ever tell Bakugou about Shinsou’s quirk? Well, Uraraka would never tell him, and Ojiro was still a bit miffed about the speech…) Once Bakugou was out of the ring, he seemed to snap out of it. He did a lot of shouting, and seemed to accuse Shinsou of cheating, but ultimately stormed off the field without trying to attack him. Izuku was a bit surprised at that.
The Shoji vs Shiozaki match was something Izuku wasn’t sure on who would win. It ended up being Shoji, who could easily rip through Shiozaki’s vines with raw strength. She did her best, and nearly managed to throw him out of the ring with how rapidly her vines grew, but Shoji ultimately was the victor.
And then it was time for Izuku’s match. Honestly, the whole thing was a lot easier than he’d assumed. Ashido didn’t lose because of a lack of skill or because of Izuku’s martial arts. She was overconfident and underestimated him. Perhaps if she’d focused, strategized, tried to cut off his exit routes with her acid… but she didn’t. She playfully threw it everywhere with no rhyme or reason. It was showy and the crowd was entertained, but Izuku won with relative ease. A few well-placed punches and kicks, and Ashido was forced to retreat back far enough it was easy for Izuku to push her out-of-bounds.
“Moving on to our semifinals!” Present Mic announced. “We have two matches remaining: Todoroki vs Shinsou and Midoriya vs. Shoji!”
Midoriya huffed in determination. He was so close! He was going to win.