Heroes, Vigilantes, and Villains

Chapter twenty-five

The second task passed much like the first one did, with Hito using his quirk on the other students to form his team and him making it through to the next round with as little attention being drawn to himself as possible, a strategy that we discussed in length in the days before the festival. It wouldn't do him any good if others were to figure out his quirk and the activation requirements, especially not when everyone all over the world can watch the broadcast. It certainly wouldn't help him with the one on one fights.

When it was his turn to do his first fight of the last task, Hito was up against some pervy looking boy from the general studies course that had purple balls for hair that seemed to stick to everything but him. To avoid the harsher quirk drawback symptoms during the festival, I'd convinced the other teen to not use his quirk when it wasn't needed, which it certainly wasn't for a boy that didn't even reach half Hitoshi's height.

The fight was quick enough as Hito nimbly avoided the balls being thrown at him with something just shy of a practiced that he may or may not have learned from me throwing things of varying sizes at him over the past week. He did this until he could corner the boy and then throw him out of bounds with what some would call more force than necessary, but no one could tell the things that the smaller teen was saying to try and goad Hito into messing up, though I knew it had to be something really shitty to make him act on such a way.

—-

"So, what do you think?" The voice on the other end of the phone asked.

Right now was the lunch and game break, which for some reason involved the girls of 1A dressing up as cheerleaders, something that I didn't ask about and Hito didn't have answers for anyways.

"I think my favorite part was the pink haired girl from the support course that used robot boy as her own personal work demonstration," I told the other. The whole scene had gotten pretty old very fast for the competitors that had to watch it while waiting for their own fights, but it'd honestly been an entertaining few minutes for me since no one had done anything like that in past years that I've seen.

There was the smallest of laughs on the other end of the line and I knew that Hito had taken some enjoyment from the sufferings of the hero students as well. "Yeah, Ida has a bit of a stick up his ass," the boy said. "Maybe that will teach him to loosen up some."

My guess would be that it wouldn't, but I've never had the best social skills so you never know.

We talked for a while longer until the fights started back up and he was called for his own. Hito was fighting a boy from his class that looked like the embodiment of a human peppermint without any of the Christmas cheer. Looking at him, I was sure that most people thought that he was just born cold, but I recognized the darkness in his eyes as something akin to that in mine, in Hito's as well. I couldn't help but wonder if Hitoshi saw it too, if he noticed how alike we all were, or if I was just drawing connections where there were none. Didn't matter anyways as the fight started only a moment later.

The fight wasn't vicious or flashy in any way that you would expect it to be from Theo hero course students. The two rounded each other with a clear unfamiliarity as Hito screamed something that none of us could hear even if we wanted to. Ice swept out of the other boy's hand, aimed right for Hito in a way that seemed to simmer with the same anger that the boy had shown in the earlier fight with the boy with tape quirk. But then it stopped as soon as it had started, the ice barely touching Hito as the other boy's body went slack in an unnatural way. Hito said something to the other teen and the red and white haired boy walked out of the arena boundaries with movements that didn't match the way that he'd walked up it.

Roars exploded from the crowd, even as none of them truly understood what had just happened. All they knew was that the son of the number two hero had been defeated by a boy that didn't have any type of flashy or showy quirk. Some of them were angered, a lot of them were, but there were enough screams of congratulations to drown that out. The dual haired boy didn't even look angered or saddened by his loss, if anything I thought he looked pleased by it.

So his father really is as much of an asshole as he seems, even to his own children it appears.

The ice melted as the next fight was set up, but I didn't pay as much attention to them as I knew that I would've this time in years previous. Not because they were any less interesting than the others, in fact as I got older I saw that quirks were becoming more and mores powerful with each year, making them all the more interesting that the last, but because the engine boy, Ida, didn't show up for his fight against Hito at all. Something didn't sit right with me there, I knew that if he was as much of a stick in the mud as Hitoshi has made him out to be, then he should've been there.

Something's wrong.

But I didn't have time to think about that as the last fight was about to start: Hito and Bakugo.

—-

Hitoshi POV

The blond bastard was standing in front of me with what was supposed to be a menacing smirk on his otherwise pretty features, but I was too angry to see it as such. All I could think about as I watched the small sparks coming off of the other teen's hands was the scars on Isu's neck, carefully hidden by the choker that I'd given him all those months ago. It was an engulfing anger, but not so blind that I couldn't think well enough to formulate a plan.

To win.

As soon as the signal was given the blond teen ran forwards yelling obscenities at me that I chose not to listen to or respond to in the slightest, only avoiding his attacks and making my own when the chance arose. We fought like that until the signal was given that the fight was finished.

Bakugo looked around widely, cruising at the noise, not understanding how it could be done already when I was still conscious and neither of us had really landed a good hit just yet after only playing cat and mouse. I decided to help him out as a good classmate should.

"Look," I called out, pointing to the line between our feet.

And he did. Bakugo looked down between us and saw the line in the area dividing the pair of us. I was on the wrong side of it, green grass popping colorfully against my black shoes as the explosive teen was still in bounds and yet my chest filled with a sense of victory.

Bakugo Katsuki is a prideful boy, one that would absolutely hate losing without so much as a proper fight, but that's exactly what I just did. It doesn't take physical blows to hurt one's pride after all, words and actions are more than enough.

He screamed at me and everyone who would listen, among those that wouldn't, demanding that I fight him again, but I didn't listen, only walking away from the teen throwing a child's tantrum.

I win.

—-

Izuku POV

Hito came over after they were finished with the awards ceremony, making it just in time for the first round of the second year's fights. I went to my room and dug up some clothes that I thought might fit the boy and let him shower while I watched the rest of the Second year Sports festival. His hair was still damp and hung down, almost brushing against his shoulders when Hito walked out of the bathroom in an oversized hoodie and shorts that were teetering the edge of almost being too short to be acceptable, but neither of us commented on it.

"You were amazing," I told the other truthfully as he settled down on the couch next to me for the beginning of the third year's festival part.

"Don't go getting all mushy on me now," he teased lightly, in a way that friends were allowed to, nothing close to anything that I'd ever had with Bakugo when we were young.

"Wouldn't dream of it."

We watched the rest of the third year Sports Festival and ate through what was left on the couch while making the occasional comment about the fighting teens on the screen. Though only one real thing stuck out to me about any of them.

There was a blond boy that tended to fail miserably at the sports festival for the past two years even though he's in the hero course, though he was really only memorable because in years past, he's been an unintentional streaker at the festival due to his quirk.

That didn't happen this year, in fact Miro Togata's fighting style was completely different than it had been in years previous, relying on strength rather than permeation.

It's as if he got a new quirk altogether.

The thought might have sounded bazaar two months ago, but it couldn't sound closer to the truth now.