Family Business

Chapter 43 - Quarterfinals

The next round of the tournament was now underway with Midoriya Izumi facing Shinsou Hitoshi. The friends decided to show off their fighting skills, as the brainwasher knew that the quirkless girl would never respond to him and she knew that it would better their prospects if the audience could glimpse their abilities. And judging by the oohs and ahhs of the crowd and commentary by Present Mic their little martial arts match was in fact impressive.

Hitoshi hit hard, far harder than Izumi could, but rarely hit her due to her superior speed and reaction time. The green haired girl had trouble trying to take him down though, as he was also far better at tanking and deflecting her own blows and grabs between his usually missed attempts to hit her.

In the end the winner is chosen by experience.

Izumi has been fighting stronger and more dangerous opponents for over a year now. She's trained far longer with far more people than Hitoshi has and knows him and the moves he's using well. After a few minutes of taking in his technique she manages to work out a way to overpower him, finding a brief gap in his attacks and blocks to strike.

Tired purple eyes widen as green lock with them, vaulting over his punch rather than the ducks and weaves she's used until now, until his vision is blocked when Izumi wraps her thighs around his head in a vice. He falls back half from the momentum of her tackle and half out of being flustered by the intimate position. He isn't sure if he passed out from lack of air or embarrassment upon hitting the arena ground and he honestly isn't sure he wants to know.

The laugh the greenette has upon waking him and watching his face flush red is mortifying enough... The catcalls he's getting as he and his friend leave the stands only further flustering him.

Hazarding a glimpse at the suddenly very silent form of his friend's father - who'd done nothing but scream his support of his "princess" all Festival - the brainwasher is suitably terrified to see the man's green eyes fixed on him much in the same way an eagle would stare at a rabbit. Yeah... Mortified doesn't even begin to cover how he feels about this loss...

Hopefully Izumi can talk her father into not killing him for being in such a compromising and intimate position with her on live television.

-

The next fight, Setsuno Himiko vs Bakugou Katsuki, was hard for Hitoshi to watch.

Bakugou used Himiko's temper against her, knowing that she puts up with no ill words about her friends (especially Izumi and himself) and using that and his typical wonderful personality to piss her off enough to get sloppy. Pair that with his powerful explosions and general lack of restraint while facing an opponent regardless of their gender or potential handicaps and you end up with a very injured and in pain shapeshifter.

Hitoshi is pissed about her loss, and subsequent beating, at the bully's hands. But when he goes to check on her in the nurse's office the vampiric girl merely shrugs at him. "It was my own fault for falling for such obvious bait in the first place."

"Himiko..."

The blonde shakes her head "It's true! I should've known better! I trained with Izumi to be better than some hothead that charges an opponent with no plan, I earned this beat down fair and square."

The lilac haired boy heaved a sigh and conceded "Maybe so, but it still hurt to see you get hurt like that. I... I care about you Himiko, a lot, and seeing you get beaten up made me want to kick that asshole's teeth in."

Catlike golden eyes, one bearing a fading bruise that was once purple and swollen before Recovery girl got to healing the blonde, widened at that. Himiko's naturally blush covered cheeks darkened as she processed that, a soft smile pulling at her face. Kissing her friend - that hopefully won't just be a friend anymore - on the cheek the vampiric girl whispers back "I care about you a lot too Hitoshi."

From his place out in the hall, leaning against the wall next to the doorway, Monoma smiles. He's actually kind of glad that his big sister's here with her friends (though he'd prefer not to see her so injured again), she and Shinsou aren't too bad. Getting to know her, the real her and not the doll their parents wanted her to be, might actually be nice.

-

While The Gen Ed duo are bonding in the nurses office Iida Tenya faced off against Tokoyami Fumikage.

It was close, what with how bright it was making dark shadow a bit weaker than the raven headed boy would like in a battle. Luckily for him he'd managed to trick the speedster into charging out of bounds by barely managing to dodge his speedy head on charge. Thank darkness that the speedy boy had trouble stopping and turning when he goes fast enough.

And thank Midoriya for pointing that out to him while they were avoiding him in the Cavalry battle.

-

And last came Kirishima Eijirou vs Todoroki Shouto...

Kirishima was way outclassed in this fight, that was clear from the start, but tried his best. He broke the bicolored teen's ice attacks aimed at him and weathered his flames to charge in for a hardened punch. He even got a good hit in!

But the redhead just wasn't built to handle such rapid changes in temperature and wound up passing out from heatstroke from Shouto rapidly cooling and heating him over and over during the fight.

Oh well, at least he went down fighting like a man!

He even made a friend in that steel quirked boy from 1B after impressing him by lasting so long against a beast like Todoroki!

-

Izumi gulped as she prepared for her next match, a ball of nerves and excitement lodged in her stomach like a heavy rock. Breathing in deeply before letting it out in a calming breath green eyes fix the screen for her next match up...

Midoriya Izumi vs Bakugou Katsuki.