While everyone rested, waiting for the tournament to start, Denki called her. "Hey, Asui! Aizawa-sensei told us you girls had to put this and do some cheering." He was holding a cheerleader outfit.
His usually friendly smile looked a bit forced, and standing just behind him was Minoru, looking at her with a creepy expression, like a spider ready to eat a fly that fell in its web.
"No way, kero."
Those two were acting too suspiciously to be saying the truth
"Eh?! But Aizawa-sensei-...!"
"No."
The electric guy sighed. "Okay, see you later, Asui." He walked away disappointed with Minoru at his side.
"We should ask Midoriya," Minoru muttered. "She would look so-...!"
Moving in a flash, Tsuyu pull them both by their collars and glared at them with all her soul. "Try doing that and I'll poison you."
""EH?!""
There was no unexpected cheering event that day.
(…)
Ochako was trembling slightly; her face on her hands. "Agh… I'm so nervous!"
"You w-will do it amazingly, Uraraka-chan," she said.
"It's just the anticipation, kero. If you are anything like in our training, you'll be fine."
While Tsuyu and her had already been in friendly terms with Ochako previously, their week of training had brought them even closer. Enough for her to exchange the -san for something friendlier and not feel awkward about it.
"Thank you, girls!"
She felt especially happy while interacting with Ochako and Tsuyu like that, considering she had no friends before. But as if a dark void looking to suck the happiness from the air, her ex-best friend decided to meddle.
"Deku, round-face, and frog-face. Fucking perfect. Just so you know, three fucking losers together are still losers," said Katsuki.
"You are aware everyone calls your friends and you the Baku-squad, don't you?" Tsuyu said. It felt like something random to mention, but it made Katsuki mad so the frog girl was okay with it.
"Those fuckers aren't my friends!"
"Katsuki. Back off," she said, not in the mood for dealing with him.
"Tsk. This place is not yours, Deku. I can be wherever I fucking want to." He snorted. "I truly don't know who pisses me off more; that half-and-half asshole believing he is the big shit, or you and your shitty girlfriend loitering around."
Both Tsuyu and her blushed scandalously.
"W-w-what?!"
"K-kero..."
"Whatever! I couldn't care less about your damn love life." He deadpanned. "I said I´d be the no. 1 and I will. That's fate. So don't get any funny ideas." And with that Katsuki started walking away.
"Assuming you don't lose first," sputtered Ochako, completely exasperated by the annoying blond.
Katsuki stopped and turned around to look at her. Surprisingly, instead of being angry, he smirked. "So you grew fangs, uh?! Fine, I´ll blow you to bits too!"
"Just try it!"
And that way, another challenge was issued.
(…)
Forgetting Katsuki´s comment -at least for the moment-, Izumi and Tsuyu went to their seats along with their classmates.
"Hmm, what do you think it will happen, Midoriya-kun?" Tenya asked her, knowing the girl had a great talent to analyze Quirks.
"Hmm, both Uraraka-chan and Yaoyorozu-san are equally incredible, and have their own particular strengths: Uraraka-chan only needs to touch her opponent once to incapacitate them. And Yaoyorozu-san can use her Quirk to build any kind of weapon or tool needed to confront her opponent..." Suddenly, Izumi noticed her friends were not the only ones paying attention, but also pretty much the rest of her classmates. "H-however, in this kind of scenario, I think Yaoyorozu-san will be in a d-difficult spot."
"Eh, what do you mean, Midori?" Mina, sitting some seats behind, was curious about her conclusion.
"Yeah, Yao-Momo is amazing, you know?" said Kyoka, with a slight frown on her face.
"A-ah, I know! I didn't m-mean anything bad about her or anything!" Izumi felt like just hiding.
"We know, Izumi-chan." Tsuyu patted her back, encouraging her to continue.
"It's just, um, Yaoyorozu-san´s main strength is t-that she can prepare in advance for any kind of situation, but I n-noticed she isn't doing that. Both during the obstacle race and the c-cavalry battle, she only used her Quirk after the events started."
Everyone slowly nodded, comprehension in their faces.
"She is probably doing it to keep things fair," said Tenya. "It could be seen as cheating if she just appeared with an arsenal, even if created by herself."
"Sounds like something Yaoyorozu-chan would do. But it still leaves her in a disadvantageous position, kero."
Kyoka scowled at their comments. "Guys, you are seriously underestimating Yao-Momo. So what if she has to create her weapons during the fight? Uraraka´s Quirk is strong, but Yao-Momo is smart as heck. I'm sure she can keep Uraraka at a distance, just like she did with the villains at the USJ. Tell them, Kaminari!" She nudged the blonde guy sitting by her side.
"H-hey, I was semi-stupid during half of that, so don't ask me." His comment made Kyoka scowl in displeasure.
Meanwhile, Izumi and Tsuyu shared a look.
Kyoka was right about the fact they didn't know that much about Momo. But in the same way, Kyoka didn't know much about Ochako either.
Tsuyu and her trained and sparred with the gravity-defying girl multiple times, so they knew; Ochako could be a ruthless opponent if she wanted to.
Especially considering that, if things went south for her, she still had some aces under her sleeves.
"LADIES AND OTHERS! HERE WE ARE FINALLY! THE FIRST MATCH!"said Present Mic, as the two participants walked to the platform. "ON THE RIGHT SIDE, WE HAVE THE BRILLIANT CREATION HEIRESS AND RECOMMENDED STUDENT, MOMO YAOYOROZU...! AND ON THE LEFT, THE -ETERNALLY BLUSHED- INFINITE LITTLE ASTRONAUT, OCHAKO URARAKA! BOTH FROM HERO CLASS 1-A!"
The two girls stood at the edges of the platform, opposite from each other. They looked tense, but Momo looked more sure of herself.
However, just as Izumi predicted, Momo didn't carry any weapons.
"SO LET'S – START!"
Any doubt on Ochako disappeared, and she sprinted towards Momo like the devil itself. While he taller girl created a weapon.
Maybe Ochako was fast, but Momo´s creation Quirk was faster, so her weapon was ready by the time Ochako was at half of the distance between them.
But of course, a machinegun was useless without ammo.
"OH, GOD, IS THAT A GUN?!" Present-Mic looked at his best friend and co-worker, Eraserhead. "WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOUR STUDENTS?!"
"That model uses rubber bullets, genius. Stop being noisy and pay attention."
It took Momo only two seconds to create a cartridge and load it into her weapon.
Initially, her plan had been to defeat her opponent with only that cartridge. All she needed to do was to wait and shoot once the smaller girl was too close to dodge.
But when she saw the fiery brunette approaching her like a force of nature, she got nervous and pulled the trigger before the time arrived.
The consequent rain of bullets speeded towards Ochako, but only a few managed to hit. The girl winced but kept advancing despite the numbing pain.
There were only about 3 - 4 meters between them now. Just enough for Momo to create a second cartridge and shoot Ochako at point-blank range. Like she originally intended.
Unfortunately for Momo, she doubted in herself once again.
Desperate for more time, she threw the machinegun at Ochako -failing miserably on hitting her. And created a Bo, being one of the objects she could create faster after her loved Russian dolls.
Then, with her opponent already at close distance, Momo attacked her diagonally, but Ochako dodged, moving to the other side.
The black-haired girl followed with a swipe, but the brunette inclined her body backward, avoiding the strike. And tapped the Bo, making it float out from Momo´s grasp.
It was then Ochako finally closed the distance between them. Whatever thoughts Momo had, trying to find a way to counter-attack or escape, were useless. As Ochako hit her in the stomach using her palm.
The taller girl floated away with an incredulous expression on her face until Ochako joined her fingertips, cancelling her Quirk. "Release!" And Momo fell unceremonially to the ground.
"Momo Yaoyorozu is out of bounds! So the victory is for Ochako Uraraka!" exclaimed Midnight.
With the match ended, the brunette´s expression returned to being as friendly as always. With a precious smile on her face, Ochako looked at their friends, and gave them a thumbs-up. Then went to help her defeated classmate.
Ochako Uraraka was definitely an amazing -scary- girl.
"Damn. You were right, Midoriya," said Kyoka. "Since when is Uraraka that strong?"
"S-since always, I think, " Izumi felt bad for Momo, but after Ochako trained so hard it was a deserved victory.
"And I'm supposed to fight against her after that weird girl from the Support Department..." Denki sighed.
"Assuming the weird girl doesn't kick your ass first." Kyoka snorted.
"Oh, come on! That won't happen."
And that way, they knew his karma was going to bite him in the ass.
(...)
When Denki approached at the platform his classmates could only stare at him. There was a weird weapon -similar to a crossbow- attached to his arm, and a belt with various yellow discs around his waist.
"That idiot. What the hell is he doing with all that stuff?" said Kyoka.
"FOR THE SECOND COMBAT, WE HAVE THE UNEXPECTED PARTICIPANT FROM THE SUPPORT DEPARTMENT, THE MAD GENIUS, MEI HATSUME!" The girl waved at the public with excitement. In her case, she was using a pair of mechanic-like boots, what looked like a big wrist-watch, and a headset microphone. "AND THE 1.000.000 VOLTS BOY, THE HUMAN BATTERY, DENKI KAMINARI! ALSO, THEY ARE BOTH USING SUPPORT EQUIPMENT...! Isn't that against the rules or something?"
"Hatsume has a permit for her tools," said Midnight. "And in the boy´s case, it's fine as long as both parties agree." The blond boy and the pink-haired girl nodded.
"In that case – START!"
Denki covered his body with low voltage electricity, causing each of the yellow disks to emit a red light.
"Wow, can you see those cute yellow babies?" said Mei. Her voice amplified, so all the public could hear her clearly. "They are special projectiles capable of storing Quirk-generated energy and free it upon impact!" The light on the disks changed from red to green. "And it seems now they are fully charged!"
Stopping his quirk, the blond boy loaded a disk on his weapon, pointed his arm at Mei and pulled the trigger with his other hand.
Mei dodged the incoming projectile using the small thrusters on her boots. And the moment the disk hit the ground it generated an electric field of one meter radius that lasted for about two seconds. "Powerful, don't you think?! But in this current version, they can only be used once. Anyway, they won't be a problem as long as I'm using my amazing rocket babies to avoid them!"
Denki shot disk after disk trying to ambush her, but Mei kept dodging until he only had two disks remaining.
"With these babies, not only I can move incredibly fast, but they are also highly maneuverable and their batteries last for a whole day!"
Taking advantage of how Mei wasn't being serious at all, Denki shot a disk at her with his weapon and then threw the last one immediately after using his own hand. "Take this!"
Mei dodged the first, but couldn't do the same with the latter. However, she didn't need to.
She simply pushed a button in her watch, and a bluish glow covered her body. So when the disk impacted near her feet, the electricity generated only danced around her harmlessly. "As you can see, there's no need to fear being electrocuted if you use one of my anti-electric force-fields! Just keep it on as long as you need it and then push the button again to turn it off." She deactivated it once the disk stopped working. "Just try not to use it for too long with high voltages or it will overheat and explode," she said, talking very fast.
"WHAT WAS THAT?!"
"Not fair!" Denki chase after the girl desperately trying to catch her, but it was useless. Mei was in control of the fight, and she wouldn't allow him to get close unless that's what she wanted.
That was the point of inflection of their fight.
Because unknowing to Denki, all he needed to do was to endure a bit more of that humiliating cat-and-mouse charade, and Mei would give up by herself.
But instead of that, he left his frustration to control his actions.
"Stop running!" He took off the disk-shooter from his arm and threw it at Mei.
It was a bad thrown, destined to fail, but when the pink-haired girl saw her precious invention about to crash to the ground and break into tiny little pieces, she couldn't do anything but jump to catch it.
And she succeeded. "That was close." But it gave her opponent the chance to make his move.
"Catcha!" said Denki, as he jumped at the girl, who immediately turned on her force-field. "Five Million Volts!" And electricity covered them.
"You shouldn't do that," the girl warned him.
"No way! I won't lose like this!" The boy kept her trapped, expecting his Quirk to surpass her gadget.
"At least it won't be my fault this time!" She closed her eyes.
The boy´s attack prolonged for some painfully long five seconds, and then Mei´s force-field watch exploded.
It was a ridiculously big explosion for an object so small, covering the whole platform with smoke, but once it dissipated, Mei was still over it, looking dirty -and all her equipment destroyed- but unharmed.
She dusted herself and stood up. "Okay! That DEFINITELY won't represent the final version!"
And while Denki was fine too, he didn't look in the right state of mind to fight. His stupid-self was too busy rolling in the ground for that.
"Because her opponent can't continue, Mei Hatsume is the winner!" said Midnight.
"What? I won...?" said the girl. "Oh! Of course, I won! My babies are the BEST!" She jumped excitedly, while Denki babbled something about the pretty lady.
Everyone in Class 1-A looked at the scene with embarrassment, not really sure what to say. Only Kyoka voiced her thoughts.
"Stupid yay-bastard."
(…)
In the universe, there are existences that represent the total opposite of the other. Unable to accept each other, they are fated to clash in their quest for each other destruction, because such a thing is in their nature.
This was completely not like that.
"THE FIGHT OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS HAS COME! THE ANGEL FROM CLASS 1-B, BRINGING RIGHTEOUS RETRIBUTION OVER THE BAD-DOERS AND SINNERS, IBARA SHIOZAKI! VERSUS CLASS 1-A DARK KNIGHT, FIGHTING EVIL FROM INSIDE DARKNESS ITSELF, FUMIKAGE TOKOYAMI!"
"Poor, ignorant creatures. Living in absolute darkness knowing nothing of god´s salvation and love," said Ibara, in a condescending tone.
"Darkness blemishes even the most pure of hearts. But thou can't grow as a person if thou don't accept it," Fumikage grunted. For its part, Dark Shadow seemed to agree with his master. "BAAAKA!"
Yes. This definitely wasn't like that.
Ibara and Fumikage were just two edgy teenagers so different but alike that they were obligated -in principle- to dislike each other. Or at least act as if they did.
"Okay, this is getting weird – JUST START!"
Dark Shadow rushed towards Ibara, while the girl´s vine-like hair shot like arrows towards the creature.
At first Dark Shadow sliced the vines with relative ease, but once the sentient Quirk got too close for Ibara´s comfort, her vines become faster and thicker, forcing Dark Shadow to back off to protect its host from the upcoming assault.
"Learn your lesson and repent!" The never-ending vines twisted around both Fumikage and its Quirk, and then slowly enclosed them in a dome-like prison.
Anyone looking would think the battle was decided, but they´d realize their mistakes the moment an inhuman growl escaped from inside the vines.
"You dare to resist?!" Ibara´s vines tightened even more around their opponents, trying to immobilize them, even if that required using brute force.
But she knew deep inside it would be useless.
"FREEDOM!" Dark Shadow -enhanced by the darkness- shredded the vines-prison to pieces, showing its enlarged and powerful form.
Its confused host recoiled, fearing the worst would occur. "Run, you foolish woman!"
The problem only lasted a moment, though, because as the sun shined its light over it, the shadowy creature quickly deflated to its initial size.
"It isn't freedom if you are still trapped inside yourself." Ibara turned around in a graceful movement, her back to them, and her hair grow and twisted to form a humongous arm-like braid that batted her opponents aside.
"Because her opponent it's out of bounds, the victory is for Ibara Shiozaki!"
The girl closed her eyes and smiled peacefully. Then she approached the raven-looking boy and extended a hand at him.
Fumikage scoffed and looked away, but he still took the girl´s hand.
(…)
It was time for the fourth encounter when a dubitative Eijiro got closer to Izumi.
"Hey, Midoriya."
"Kirishima-san?"
"Who do you think is going to win this time?" His expression was uncertain. "I mean, it is Baku-bro vs Mina, so I can't really take sides this time."
"Well. I can't say f-for sure, because I just know the basics about Ashido-san´s Quirk," she said, carefully. "But, I´d dare to say it d-depends on how far Ashido-san can go."
"How far she can go?"
"Y-yeah." She nodded. "Katsuki is the kind of person that always fights with everything he has no matter who is his opponent. He doesn't care about anything or anyone else, not even about himself. Just victory." His eyes widened. "It seems Ashido-san is a lot different, but she still has a really strong Quirk and braveness to back her up. So her victory or defeat will depend on her capacity to use her Quirk at its maximum capacity... Even if t-that means hurting Katsuki."
Kirishima gulped and looked away. "I s-see. Thanks, Midoriya. Though now I have the feeling this fight will be difficult to look at."
"That´ll p-probably be the case."
At that moment the two combatants approached the platform.
"OKAY FOLKS! FOR THIS FIGHT WE HAVE ONE OF THE FAVORITES! THIS YEAR´S REPRESENTATIVE, AND HOT-BLOODED EXPLOSIVE BOY, KATSUKI BAKUGO FROM CLASS 1-A!" The boy scowled. "AGAINST ONE OF HIS CAVALRY´S TEAM-MATES, THE ACIDIC PINK ALIEN-QUEEN, MINA ASHIDO!"
"Yay, he said it!" yelled the pink girl.
"NOW START!"
Not wasting one second, Katsuki sent himself towards Mina with an explosion. But was forced to dodge at the last moment to avoid being hit by her acid.
For everyone´s discomfort, the moment the substance hit the ground, it slowly corroded through the platform.
The pink-skinned girl was aware her opponent was more proficient than her in battle. So her plan was to keep him at a distance, using her stronger acid as a deterrent, and wait until he´d committed a mistake to strike.
"I would keep my distance if you want to keep your eyebrows, Bakugo-chan!" The girl winked at him and skidded away using the acid she produced through her feet.
"You are dead, pinky!" The guy chased after her. And while Mina was undoubtedly fast, it was no problem for Katsuki to catch her by chaining up his explosions.
But just when he was about to catch her, the girl twirled around, splattering acid in his direction.
Katsuki propelled himself up to avoid it and prepared to counter-attack, but as if reading his intent, the girl stood on her hands and kicked a ball of acid at him.
"FUCK!" Katsuki threw an explosion to his side to move out of the way, but a part of the acid still splashed on his right leg.
And it hurt. It hurt a lot.
"H-hey, you fine dude...?" Despite all the mental preparation she needed to possibly use her most dangerous acid on a classmate, she still faltered when she saw the bloody limb.
It was a mistake.
"Fucking peachy!" he roared, as he attacked back.
Mina had to use her extremely sticky acid to stop herself from being pushed out the platform, but Katsuki didn't intend to give her a moment to respite.
She threw another ball of acid at her opponent, but this time Katsuki didn't even try to dodge.
Simply protecting his upper-chest and face with his arms, Katsuki received the attack directly, giving no sign of fear or wavering despite the pain. "DIE!" He shot a second explosion at Mina, this time finishing what his previous attack couldn't.
"Mina Ashido is out of bounds," said Midnight.
"Drat…" the girl complained, while sprawled on the ground. Rubbing her now burned eyebrows.
She was pretty sure Katsuki did it on purpose.
"Katsuki Bakugo is the winner!"
"Of course, I am!" He walked away, not even sparing a look at his opponent.
"Hey, you are making a mess, boy." Midnight´s expression was soft as she looked at the damage Katsuki had suffered. "Better wait for a stretcher."
"I can fucking walk by myself, thanks." And that, he did.
"Hey, Aizawa-kun," said Present Mic, "I already asked that before but, WHATS WRONG WITH YOUR KIDS?!"
Meanwhile, back at the stands.
"Man, that was as awful as I expected. Badass, but awful," muttered Eijiro and the girls nodded, a bit disturbed by the blood that Katsuki left behind. "But I guess now it's our turn, right?" He stood up and smiled at Izumi. "I'll go ahead and make sure that Ashido and Bakugo are fine. See ya!"
Izumi saw him go and after a moment she stood herself. "I guess, I should b-be going too." She looked at her friends, feeling terribly nervous all of the sudden.
"Despite what you told Ochako-chan now you are the one worrying over nothing, kero." Tsuyu smiled, enjoying seeing her pouting. "If you didn't leave your nervousness stop you from fighting against that Nomu at the USJ, I think you can do the same with Kirishima-chan."
"Yeah! It's like you said, Izumi-chan. Everything will be fine. Just give your best!" Ochako cheered her. "Now go kick Kirishima-kun´s butt."
She giggled and her nervousness disappeared.
Feeling as if it was the right thing to do, Izumi hugged them tightly, being hyper-aware of Tsuyu´s closeness. But she didn't mind, even if it was embarrassing.
It made her feel energized and stronger than ever.
Now it was her time to fight.
