"It's Izuku Midoriya from the hero class versus..." Io says. "Hitoshi Shinso from general studies."

The two students make their way to the stage.

"The rules are simple." Present Mic yells. "Force your opponent out of bounds, or immobilize them! You can also win by making your opponent say, 'I give up!' Bring on the injuries!"

"Please try not to seriously injure your opponent." Io says.

Izuku and Shinso stands across from each other.

"But we have got our very own Recovery Girl waiting on standby! Put your morals and ethics aside for a moment! But of course, anything life-threatening is crap! It's not allowed!"

Cementoss sits in a chair he made.

"Real heroes use their power to throw villains in jail, not kill them." Io states.

"I'll stop things if they go too far." Cementoss states.

Izuku takes a deep breath.

"'I give up,' huh?" Shinso says. "This is a fight to test the strength of your spirit. If you know what you want for your future, then you can't worry about appearances."

"Ready?" Present Mic yells.

"That monkey was going on about his pride..."

"Start!"

"...but don't you think he was dumb for throwing away his chance?"

Izuku growls and takes a step forward. "What did you say?!" He begins to run towards Shinso. Then he stops and stands still as Shinso smirks.

"I win."

Ojiro groans as he stands up from his seat. "I went through the trouble of warning him, too!"

Naoko looks on in confusion. "Why did he stop?"

"Hey, hey, hey, what's the matter!" Present Mic yells. "It's the important first match! Liven things up!" Izuku still doesn't move. "Midoriya! The match just started... and he's completely frozen?!"

"Midoriya! Move!" Naoko yells.

"He's got a blank look on his face and isn't moving a muscle!" Present Mic shouts. "Is this Shinso's Quirk? He didn't stand out at all, but could he actually be someone amazing?"

"Anyone could be amazing, they just have to work hard." Io states.

"Hitoshi Shinso from general studies has gotten the better of Izuku Midoriya from the hero course!" Up in the announcer booth Present Mic slams both hands onto the sides of his face." Who would've imagined this?! Will the bottom really overthrow the top?"

"That's why I said the entrance exam wasn't rational." Aizawa speaks up.

"He's right." Io says.

"Huh? What?" Present Mic is confused as he turns to the two.

"Here's some basic data on the two of them." Aizawa starts and holds up two papers. "Since it's individual matches from here on out, I had someone compile it for me.  Shinso failed the practical exam for the hero course. Since he also applied for general studies, he probably knew that would happen. His Quirk is very powerful, but the practical exam consisted of fighting faux villains. That gave an advantage to those with physical attack Quirks. Shinso wouldn't have been able to rack up any points with his Quirk."

Back down at the stage.

"You're lucky that you've been blessed, Izuku Midoriya." Shinso claims. "Turn around and walk out of bounds."

Izuku turns around and begins walking towards the boundary.

"Huh?" Present Mic calmly says then he shouts. "What?! Midoriya's being so obedient!"

"Oh?" Io calmly says.

Over with Class 1-A.

"Deku, why?" Uraraka questions.

Iida chops the air.

"If you go out of bounds, then you'll lose the match!" Iida shouts as he waves his hands in front of him.

"Come on, Midoriya!" Naoko shouts. 'This is a dangerous Quirk! If he's able to get anyone to respond to him, they're screwed! Oh, Fluff! I wanted to fight Midoriya!'

Down at the stage Izuku is near the boundary line. In the entrance to the arena All Might, in shinny form, is peaking around the corner. 

"Young Midoriya!" All Might whisper shouts. "You can't come here!"

For Izuku his world is all fuzzy as he keeps walking towards the boundary line.

'No!' Izuku shouts in his mind. 'My body's moving on its own... It's like... my head's filled with fog... No! Damn it! Stop! Stop! Even though... Even though Ojiro warned me... Crap! Damn it! Damn it... This... quickly! Even though... everyone is counting on me!' Izuku nears the boundary. 'In a place like this... Like this...!'

Suddenly in the entrance to the arena Izuku sees eight shadowy figures. 

But far behind the shadows figures is another pair of strange yellow eyes, a ninth person.

Suddenly Izuku uses his pointer and middle finger on his left hand and shoots off his Quirk.

Izuku snaps out of Shinso's brainwashing and he hunches over and takes a few deep breaths. His feet are right along the boundary line.

"T-This is..." Present Mic shouts. "Midoriya's stopped!" The audience cheers. 

Up with Class 1-A, Tenya throws his arms up. "Midoriya!"

"Yes!" Naoko shouts as he slams his hands together as he stands up.

"I'm... I'm so glad!" Uraraka says in relief. 

Ojiro puts a hand over his heart as he sits down. "That's crazy..."

Back down at the stage Shinso is looking at Izuku in disbelief; as Izuku looks back at him. "Why?" He scowls. "You shouldn't be able to move freely! What did you do?"

Izuku uses his right hand to cover his mouth. 'I'm the one who discharged my fingers. But I wasn't the one who moved them. What happened?' He thinks back to the shadowy figures. 'People I didn't know came to mind, and for a second, my mind was clear! That was...' He thinks back to what All Might said about One For All. 'The people... The presence of the people who spun together this power...' He looks at his two broken fingers. 'Did they save me? Is that even possible?'

"What did you do?!" Shinso yells.

Izuku removes his hand from his mouth and his left wrist. 'Even if I think about it now, I won't find the answer.' He shakes his head. 'Later... Thinking can come later!'  He turns to Shinso and stares him down.

Shinso smirks. "Say something." Izuku doesn't respond. "You can produce that much power just by moving your fingers? I'm jealous."

Izuku begins to run towards Shinso.

Shinso continues. "Thanks to my Quirk, I've been behind from the start. Someone who's been blessed like you can't understand, can you?" Izuku doesn't respond and just keeps running. "Someone like you who was born with the ideal Quirk! Someone who can reach your goal!"

Izuku reaches Shinso and puts his left arm on Shinso's chest and his right hand on Shinso's shoulder, and begins to push him.

"Say something!" Shinso yells and then he punches Izuku across the face. Blood trickles out of Izuku's nose as he keeps pushing Shinso. 

Shinso punches Izuku's bad hand, causing Izuku to stumble and Shinso moves to the side and Izuku stumbles forward; holding his bad hand.

"You've got to be kidding!" Shinso yells and he grabs Izuku's face and begins to push him. "You get out!"

But Izuku grabs Shinso's jacket with his right hand and Shinso's arm with his left, casuing him to yelp in pain. Then Izuku plants his foot and throws Shinso over his shoulder and out of bounds.

Everyone is in shock.

Midnight holds a hand up. "Shinso is out of bounds! Midoriya advances to round two!" The audience cheers. 

"In the finals, the first person to advance to the second round is Izuku Midoriya from Class A!" Present Mic shouts.

Uraraka sits down. "I was so nervous."

Iida smiles. "Turning the tables at the last moment! As expected of Midoriya!"

Naoko laughs. "That was really cool, but not gonna be as cool as my fights."

Hagakure waves her arms. "I was so worried for him, but he pulled through!"

Kaminari turns to Bakugo and slightly mimics Izuku's shoulder toss.  "He did that shoulder toss on you before, too, didn't he?"

"Shut up, Dunce Face." Bakugo orders.

Naoko rubs the scar on his right cheek as he stares down at Izuku. 'He's gotten a lot better at controlling his Quirk. I just hope he last long enough so I can fight him.'

"Yahooo!" Present Mic shouts. "That was kind of a boring first match, but we should praise them both for a bravely fought match. Clap your hands." The audience cheers. 

"I liked it." Io comments.

Izuku and Shinso stand across from each other in the middle of the fighting stage. 

Izuku look at Shinso; as Shinso stares down at the ground. "Shinso, why do you want to be a hero?"

Shinso turns slightly away from Izuku. "You can't help the things you long for." He walks away.

Later

Io, Naoko, All Might and Izuku are in Recovery Girls clinic and Izuku is getting his fingers fixed. 

"Kiss!" Recovery girl kisses Izuku's broken fingers and wraps them up. "That should do it."

Naoko sighs. "Man, I'm glad I didn't receive One For All." He rubs left hand and Io elbows him.

"In the match with Shinso, I couldn't smile at all." Izuku states.

All Might puts a hand on the side of his neck. "Well, his cries hit close to home for you, huh?"

"But that didn't mean that I could lose." Izuku looks up at All Might. "That's what is means to aim for number one, right?"

Recovery Girl sighs. "Poor thing." She then glares at Io and All Might. "Have you two put some weird pressure on him again, didn't you?" She punches both Io and All Might in the gut. Naoko's eyes widen and he takes a few steps away.

Io points to All Might while holding his stomach in pain. "It was All Might."

"Hey!" All might cries out. "It was necessary! Ouch."

"Oh yeah, All Might." Izuku starts as All Might is rubbing his side. "I had a vision..." Both Io and All Might look at him. "There were eight or nine people... I'm not sure exactly how many..." Naoko looks at Izuku like he's crazy. "But when it felt like my mind was filled with fog from the brainwashing, the vision appeared as if to drive away the fog, it was like I was barely able to move just my fingertips for a moment... There were two people with eyes like you two, All Might, Io. Was it... the people who had inherited One For All who did it?"

Izuku looks up to see both All Might and Io shaking. Naoko is just confused about what's going on.

"Scary... What the heck?" All Might questions.

"Ghost are scary!" Io says.

"What? I thought you'd two know about it!" Izuku shouts.

"I would too, since you both have been around One For All." Naoko adds

"No, I also saw it before, in my younger days." All Might states.

"I have no idea about these visions, or why I'd be there." Io calmly states. "It makes no sense." 

All Might continues. "It's a clear sign that you've got a better grasp on One For All."

"What does that mean?" Izuku asks.

"I think it's like a trace of something they left behind in One For All. It's not something with intent that can interfere with you, and you can't interfere with them. In other words, that vision isn't what got rid of the brainwashing. It was that when you saw the vision, your strong emotions allowed you to overcome Young Shinso's Brainwashing for just ling enough to move your fingertips, I think."

It's silent for a few seconds before Izuku rubs his head. "That explanation's not satisfying at all, though..."

"I'd thought it'd be something cooler." Naoko mutters. 

All Might points at Izuku. "Don't get too hung up about it! More importantly, don't you you'll fight next?"

"Huh?" Izuku realizes and heads for the door, with Naoko following him. "Thank you both very much!" 

The two students exit the room.

"Midoriya, next time, make the fight more interesting." Naoko says as the two walk down the hall.

"You two... were there, too, he said." Recovery Girl says to the two pro heroes.

"That's a good thing." All Might says.

"I thought I wouldn't have made an impact on it." Io says.

Later

Endeavor is walking down the hall when a voice speaks up from behind him.

"You need to treat him better." Io says from behind Endeavor.

Endeavor turns around and looks down at Io; he has a small frown. "Like you know how to raise a child correctly."

"I know how to better than you, besides these students are all my children."

"Shoto will beat you one day."

Io's hands curl into firsts. "You're a real bad person for treating him like that. Especially with what you did to Rei!"

Endeavor scowls down at Io. "My family is none of your business." He then turns around and begins to walk away. "Especially, with what happened to your child and last wife."

Io freezes up and his eyes widen.

Endeavor smirks as he walks away.

A tear falls from Io's right eye as another starts to form in his left. "Yua." Io then whispers another name. Io shakily brings a hand up and wipes his tears away. "I need to get to the booth." Io takes a few shaky steps forward as his breath hitches and he starts to shake.

Io takes a couple breaths and he stops shaking. Then he continues walking as he rubs the cuffs on his wrists. 

Later

Naoko sits down next to Hagakure, she hugs his arm.

"How is he?" Hagakure asks.

"He's fine and ready for his next match." Naoko states

"Awesome!"

Down in the arena is Sero and Todoroki, both standing across from each other on the fighting stage.

"Thanks for waiting!" Present Mic yells. "Next up is... these guys!"

Present Mic continues. "He's good! He's good, but what's with the plainness he just can't get rid of? From the hero course, it's Hanta Sero!" The audience cheers.

"That's mean." Sero comments as he cracks his fingers.

"Versus-- Taking third, then first in the prelims! You're way too strong, kid! He wasn't recommended for admission for nothing! Also from the hero course, it's Shoto Todoroki!" The audience cheers again. "And now, for the second match of the finals-- Ready..."

Sero cracks his neck. "Well, I don't feel like I can win..."

"Start!"

Sero quickly uses his Qurik and wraps tape around Todoroki. "But I don't feel like losing, either!" He throws Todoroki towards the boundary. 

"A surprise attack aimed to push his opponent out of bounds!" Present Mic comments. "Don't you think that was the best choice for this situation?! Seriously, get him, Sero!"

Todoroki glares at Sero. "Sorry."

Suddenly a part of the entire stadium is covered in ice.

Todoroki easily breaks his frozen restraints. 

"Don't... Don't you think that's a bit much?" Present Mic quietly asks.

"Sero, can you move?" Midnight asks.

"O-Of course not..." Sero shivers.

"Sero is immobilized!" Midnight announces. "Todoroki advances to the second round!"

Everyone is too shocked to cheer for a few seconds, but then people start to yell. "Don't worry about it!" at Sero.

With Naoko, he's staring at a wall of ice in front of him in astonishment. Hagakure is using Naoko's tail as a blanket. 

"This is gonna be very hard." Naoko mutters.

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12-07-2022

2669 words