The Apex Hero: Bioterror

Chapter 15

Izuku allowed the crowd a moment to process what he just did while staring down a trembling Shinso, Present Mic making his thoughts known. "Eraser, what the hell have you been teaching these kids, man?"
"Do I seem like the type of person to encourage self mutilation as a tactic?"
"You came to work two days after having every bone in your body broken and suffering major internal bleeding so, kinda?"
"...go fuck yourself, Mic."

Down below, Izuku and Shinso hadn't moved from their spots. Izuku gestures once again, urging Shinso to make the first move. After hesitating, he very slowly inches his way forward, to the relative boredom of the audience. After Izuku's intimidating display they were expecting an absolute wipeout.

When he was face to face with Izuku, Shinso hesitantly swung a fist that was easily side stepped. And another one. And another. Each swing was slow and wide with too much build up. The fighting style of someone far below amateur level. Izuku never swung back, only stepping away from each attack, creating the illusion of being on the defensive. All the while Shinso was desperately throwing jabs about how blessed Izuku was and how impossible it was for him with his quirk, trying to get him to say something.

Despite the very obvious futility of it, Shinso refuses to stop swinging or talking. Until eventually Izuku simply stuck out his foot and tripped Shinso over, Midnight announcing the end of the match. "Shinso's out! Midoriya moves on to round 2!"
Present Mic makes his commentary for the crowds. "Bit of a lacklustre fight outside the... rather intense psychological warfare taking place at the start of the round. Either way, give them a round of applause folks!"

On the floor, Shinso had a scowl on his face. "There, you beat me on live TV."
"Yeah, and I did it without using my quirk or even touching you. Do you know why?"
"So you could humiliate me."
This kid seemed determined to test his patience, so he prayed to the closest thing this world once had to a god before his father fought him and accidentally triggered the rise of super powered society. 'PARIAH, give me strength.'

"No. It was to teach you a lesson. I didn't even enhance my ability or speed. You essentially lost a fight with a quirkless rando that didn't even touch you. I told you weeks ago what you needed to do in order to have a chance, and you didn't change a thing. You're stubborn, hard headed and arrogant as all hell. But you did do one thing right. Even when you knew you were outmatched a thousand times over, you went out swinging. It's not much. But it's a start." He turns around and walks away, exiting the stadium. "This festival is an annual thing, Shinso. And a lot can change in a year."

The next few fights ended pretty quickly. Poor Sero was paired with Todoroki. Seeing the ridiculously sized glacier the peppermint boy summoned, Izuku couldn't help but shake his head. With his knowledge and appreciation of complex genetics and the premise of his existence, the idea of someone being ASHAMED of their genes just... didn't make sense in his bacteria riddled brain. Especially if those genetics gave you the power to make an entire glacier in less than a second.

Kaminari was also taken out rather quickly, but that was more so due to a situational disadvantage since Shiozaki's vines seemed to act as an insulator for his electric attacks. Izuku had a little fun taking notes on the quirks being displayed.

The next fight was between Iida and a pink haired girl who was on the team that was substituted in after Ojiro and a few others stepped out. He actually saw her during the obstacle race decked out in a concerning amount of support items, although he hadn't seen anything that indicated what her quirk could be.

During the rather one sided and somewhat humiliating fight which was obviously a ploy to advertise her skills to support companies, she seemed to regularly glance at a very specific point in the crowd. Izuku leans over to the seat in front of him. "Yaoyorozu, could you make me some binoculars please?"
"Sure thing Midoriya."

With binoculars in hand, Izuku focused on the pink haired girl, apparently called Hatsume if the leaderboard was to be believed. She did have one feature that wasn't common on the average human being. Her eyes were surrounded by a crosshair that rotated when she looked into the crowd. 'On ocular quirk. Something akin to built-in binoculars. I'll have to pay a visit to the support department later.'

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Uraraka getting up from her seat and leaving, a nervous look on her face. It was a natural thing to feel, he supposed. Her first fight was with a walking warhead with anger management problems. Of course, Izuku had ways of... mitigating risk. He takes a notebook out of his bag and starts writing. He can simply use the Blacknet to watch his memories of these next few fights later.

After he was done writing, Izuku found Uraraka in the locker room with Iida, obviously nervous about her upcoming fight. "Hey Uraraka."
She looks up from the table she was staring a hole through. "Oh, hey Midoriya. Aren't you missing the fights?"
"Not really. Mina socked Aoyama in the jaw and Yaoyorozu took out Rin with some kind of foam cannon. Kirishima and Tetsutetsu are fighting right now, and the most they can do is punch each other. The next fight will be yours."

Iida tries to comfort Uraraka. "Even Bakugou will have to go easier on a female opponent."
"Oh absolutely not, he'll piledrive her face into the dirt."
Iida grits his teeth while Uraraka shakes in her seat. "Not helping."
"Oh don't worry. He's gonna lose, and he's gonna lose hard." He drops his notebook onto the table. "I've devised a strategy customised to opposing Bakugou, with a few tweaks to account for the conditions of the tournament. If this works, he'll barely even touch you."

Uraraka flips through a few pages. "Step one is to make him angry? I feel like that's already taken care of, but thanks Midoriya."
"For this plan to work, he needs to be beyond angry. He needs to be foaming at the mouth. You need to make it personal."
"WHAT?! Why would I want to make the guy who already plans on carving my tombstone angrier?!"

Izuku crosses his arms, looking contemplative. "Bakugou is many things. Powerful, smart, strategic-"
"Not filling me with confidence here."
"But he's also short tempered. He loses focus easily. In the obstacle race he was offended that Todoroki challenged me instead of him and focused more on making sure Todoroki lost than he won. During the cavalry battle he did nothing but chase me around and the only reason he maintained second place is because all the other points were constantly being shuffled around. From his perspective, he "lost" twice in a row. He'll be desperate, unfocused, he'll start getting tunnel vision. Use that."