Author's Note: Hello Everyone, sorry for the slightly later release, family gatherings, work and holidays have kind of tired me out. That being said, I hope you all enjoy my latest release of this story.
No one spoke or moved a muscle as Midoriya was carried off the field. That final clash was so sudden and breathtaking that there was not much else to say.
Present Mic, noticing the silence, tried to get the audience back into it despite being a bit out of it himself, " And there you have it folks! Midoriya has successfully punched his ticket to the next round where he will be facing off against whoever wins the next match!"
Seemingly taken out of their stupors by Present Mic's words, the crowd roared in approval at the exciting matchup that they had just witnessed.
As the roar of the crowd died down, Present Mic, taking note of the destroyed state of the stadium, said, " That being said, we will have to wait for the stage to be repaired for the next event so take this chance to stretch your legs and prepare sports fans! We will be back in a moment!!"
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The members of class A had been just as out of it as the others in the stands were until Present Mic spoke, even Merrilson had stopped writing in his notebook and was just staring at the stadium, though with his expressionless look, one would think that he was looking on with boredom.
Then, as the crowd cheered the spectacle they had just witnessed, catching the students up in it as well as they started talking excitedly amongst themselves, Merrilson turned to Iida and said, "Hey, you're up next right? Do you want to go see if Midoriya is alright first? I think you might have enough time for that."
This was followed by a brief but resolute nod from both him and Uraraka following a moment where they both internally shuddered as they immediately recalled that moment of rage that Merrilson just displayed before recollecting themselves (and mentally kicking themselves for feeling said fear). If Merrilson noticed their initial fear of him, he never acknowledged it.
And so, the three stood and started heading over to Recovery Girl's office and were soon joined by Tsu as they passed her on the way.
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All Might, maintaining his civilian form, had taken the opportunity to excuse himself from his place among the UA teachers to head over to Recovery Girl's office himself.
While he was heading there, his worry of Midoriya's current state battled with how pleased and impressed he was with how far his successor had come in this short amount of time, heck, he even managed to both beat and save Todoroki in a single fight.
With such thoughts warring in his mind, his face morphing from a gleeful look to a grimace of worry, he wasn't thinking much about his surroundings which resulted in him nearly getting run over by a fuming Endeavor, one he managed to avoid in time, who didn't even bother acknowledging him as he just stomped his way seemingly out of the arena entirely.
As All Might watched his receding and disappearing form, he couldn't help but recall when he and Endeavor were talking before the final round of the sports festival and the way he talked about young Shoto didn't sit well at all with All Might.
Endeavor, what have you done?" Was all he could think about before realizing that he had been standing there for a while, causing him to immediately continue to head off to where Recovery Girl's office was within the stadium while also thinking about how to approach this with Principal Nezu.
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Recovery Girl, who could already feel the headaches occurring as she saw the match unfold was only able to maintain her composure when Midoriya was brought in, followed closely by All Might in his civilian form looking comically worried about Midoriya as he lay prone in a hospital bed. She would've chuckled at the sight were it not for the severity of some of Midoriya's injuries.
That as well as how exhausted he was would make it difficult for her to heal Midoriya's injuries, " Thank goodness he has no need for surgery it seems, ever since he learned how to control his power and utilize it properly, he hasn't broken anything, I must thank that student that was able to help him figure it out."
As she set Midoriya down, All Might was just looking over Midoriya and asked with a clearly worried expression on his face, "So, he's going to be okay, right?"
Recovery Girl, fondly exasperated at All Might's worry said, "Now, now, calm down, I do know what I'm doing after all or did you already forget that."
All Might, suitably quieted down as he was chastened by her calming, and slightly reprimanding words, just sat there with a sheepish look on his face.
Recovery Girl then answered his question, "While it may look pretty bad, it could've been much worse had he not started developing control over his quirk which I believe in turn helped his body to gain more durability allowing him to keep from getting too gravely injured."
Those words gave All Might a sense of relief but also a sharp stab of quick guilt at not having been responsible for the revelation that gave Midoriya the chance to even figure out how to control the quirk.
He would've thought more about it but Recovery Girl quickly brought him out of his thoughts with what she said next, "That being said, these injuries are pretty bad and I can't do much except basic first aid treatment until he wakes up and replenishes his energy, I don't want to risk my quirk on him right now especially with how much energy he has used up to this point."
All Might, his newly revamped fears being soothed by Recovery Girl's words, if only slightly before his heart jumped and his chronic blood issue nearly made itself known yet again as the door opened and a few voices shouted, "MIDORIYA!"
Turning around quickly, he saw that Iida, Uraraka, Merrilson and Asui were at the entrance, which gave him a good idea who actually shouted out Midoriya's name.
Merrilson, for his part, was quick to calm the ones who shouted down, "Guys, I don't think that Midoriya would've appreciated his eardrums being destroyed when just barely waking up in an injured state."
Suitably chastened, the two in question that were mostly at fault blushed a bit in embarrassment and mumbled a quick sorry.
Uraraka then noticed the (seemingly) random stranger in the room and assuming he was a teacher said, "Oh, it's nice to meet you sir." to which he replied with a hand scratching the back of his head, "Likewise".
Merrilson, taking a quick look around, noticed the state Midoriya was in and asked, "How bad is it?"
Recovery Girl answered with the same reply she gave All Might to which Merrilson replied, "How much of his body will you be able to heal after he wakes up then?"
Recovery Girl, surprised by his relatively calm questions, replied, "I should be able to heal most of it but I will most likely have to wait until after his next battle to finish the rest, that is if he doesn't severely injure himself again,"
This allowed the three students who didn't ask to breathe a sigh of relief glad that Midoriya was going to be okay.
Once that was done, Merrilson turned over to Iida and asked him, "Hey, now that we were able to see that Midoriya is going to be okay, don't you think you should go and prepare for your match?"
No sooner had he said that did Present Mic announce, " Alright Sports Fans! Our stadium has been fixed and the next match is about to start! Would our next two contestants please make their way to the stadium!"
All the conscious people in the room, almost in disbelief, turned around to face Merrilson as if he had predicted that. Taking a moment to notice their reaction, raised his hands in a "wait a moment" manner and said, "I figured they would fix it fairly quickly what with Cementoss and all, but I didn't think they would fix it that quickly, plus, given the intensity of that last match, I'd have figured they'd have give the audience more time to process it instead of chuggin right along."
Taking that as a good enough explanation for now, Iida stood up and said, "Right then, wish me luck everyone."
Uraraka said, "You don't need it, go get 'em Iida."
Nodding and smiling at the camaraderie he felt, he left the room with his head high.
As soon as he left, some mumbling and grunting could be heard from Midoriya which caused everyone to immediately turn their attention just in time to see his face grimace a bit and his eyes open.
This immediately caused a stir with Uraraka and Asui as the two immediately rushed over, Tsu being the calmer of the two, and exclaimed, "Deku/Midoriya-chan are you alright?"
Which caused Merrilson to say, clear exasperation in his voice despite his usual deadpan tone, "He's just begun to wake up you two, give him a chance to get his bearings first before you start pestering him and asking him if he's alright or not."
That caused the two to back away and mumble an apology.
As for Midoriya, he hadn't actually heard them since he was just waking up, his body instantly feeling the spasms of pain that had been dulled down by the adrenaline-inducing situation he was in both on the stage, and what occurred after.
With his eyes quickly adjusting to the light. Midoriya was able to take a look around and see three of his friends as well as his mentor and Recovery Girl and was quick to deduce where he was, "H-how long have I been out?" He asked in some pain as he began to feel the aftermath of his fight after the loss of adrenaline.
"It hasn't been too long sonny, I'm actually pleasantly surprised that you woke up so soon. The next match after yours is about to begin."
This caused Midoriya to temporarily forget his pain in panic as he tried, key word being tried to get up while saying, "Oh crap really! I have to go and write down what happens in my- AAGH!!"
As he tried to get up and was instantly assaulted by a wave of new pain that caused him to grimace and fall down almost immediately back onto the bed, to the great concern of most of his friends and mentor, and to the exasperation of Recovery Girl.
"You shouldn't try so soon to get up after what you just went through, give your body some time to adjust and get used to the pain it's in before moving around." Recovery Girl said, barely refraining from beating his shins off with her cane, only stopping from doing that when remembering just how injured his legs were.
Merrilson, the only other one who didn't overtly express concern for Midoriya simply said, "You really should listen to her, no matter how annoyed with you she might be at times, she does have your best interests at heart after all."
Recovery Girl sent a quick, appreciative glance Merrilson's way before turning back to Midoriya, "He's right, now before anything, here, have some gummies." Before placing a few of them in Midoriya's uninjured hand, "You'll need to replenish your energy so that I can heal you as soon as possible."
Grimacing a bit as the pain continued to assault him, Midoriya ate the gummies he was given before slowly retaking his position on the bed.
As that happened, Merrilson turned over to Yagi and said, "You just couldn't help yourself, huh Mr. Yagi?"
Uraraka turned to look between Merrilson and Yagi in surprise as Yagi, "Merrilson, you know this guy?"
Yagi and Midoriya, palling at the question and unsure of what to say, were further shocked and flabbergasted when Merrilson said, "Oh, this guy is pretty much Midoriya's mentor, his name is Toshinori Yagi."
Both of them, after getting over their shock, just looked at him, grateful that he was able to take control of the situation with apparent ease.
As for Asui and Uraraka, they looked at Yagi in a new light but then looked over to Merrilson and asked, "How do you know about that though?"
Merrilson, who had grabbed a pencil from his pocket and started playing around with it, said, "Since the two of you pretty much know already, I met him while I was training with Midoriya before the Sports Festival."
Taking that as a good enough answer, they were about to say more when Merrilson abruptly said while standing up, "We should probably get going ourselves. I have to go and prepare for my match and I think Mr. Yagi and Midoriya need to talk about something in private."
Midoriya, his shock subdued due to exposure, was still pleasantly surprised that Merrilson was able to pick up on his (in his mind) subtle cue. Yagi, who was also confused, took a quick look at Midoriya to see that that was indeed the case.
Uraraka and Tsu were understandably reluctant to leave him as they wanted to stay and make sure he had fully recovered until Merrilson said, "He's not going to disappear once you leave, Recovery Girl said it herself, besides we have other friends to support do we not?"
Realizing that Merrilson had a point, Uraraka and Asui were about to leave, but not before looking back to Midoriya.
"Get better soon Deku." Uraraka said, her permanent blush growing slightly, something that didn't go unnoticed by Asui, though ultimately, she decided to wait until she was in a more private setting to discuss what she thought she thought she saw (and maybe tease her a bit about it, who says frogs don't like to tease?).
Midoriya, his own face flaming up, said, "Yeah, u-uh-huh, s-sure."
At that, Uraraka gave him a brief smile before she and Asui left.
Merrilson, who had stayed behind for a little bit, started heading to the door and said, "Well, I should be heading out as well."
Before he made it out the door however, he stopped and, without turning, said, "Midoriya,"
Though he couldn't see it, Yagi, Recovery Girl and Midoriya turned to face him.
Again, without turning around, Merrilson simply said, "Good work and good luck in your next match." and then left without saying another word.
After a moment of silence, Recovery Girl said, "He seems to be a pretty good kid, despite his seeming lack of emotions. You two got lucky when he offered to help Midoriya."
The other two in question nodded before turning to each other to have their discussion.
Yagi, realizing that it was Midoriya who wanted to talk, asked him what was wrong and patiently waited while Midoriya, who was trying to get his thoughts in order before saying, "All Might, when I was unconscious, I had a dream."
To the shocked but realizing understanding of Yagi, he recalled the dream.
Flashback
As Midoriya was opening his eyes, the first thing he registered was that he couldn't feel the pain from his injuries, rather, he couldn't feel anything past the top half of his head. Upon that realization his eyes snapped open in a panic thinking that he paralyzed himself somehow after that last big clash, only to find himself in a seemingly blank void.
His confusion of where he was only increased further when something started to materialize in front of him from the emptiness around him.
As the shapes began to become more and more clear, Midoriya could make them out faintly as shadow-esque figures, each with a pair of glowing yellow eyes, there were eight of them in total and one of them bore a striking resemblance to his favorite hero in civilian form.
Before he could even make sense of what was going on a voice was heard saying, " Not yet, it's still too soon, we must wait until he has gained more control." As soon as those words were said, he woke up.
End of Flashback
".... And that's when I woke up. I'm so confused as to what that dream meant, could it maybe have something to do with One For All." As he concluded, he looked up to All Might expecting an answer, and instantly grew concerned as All Might was now shaking in his seat that he was currently sitting in.
"Woah kid, I'm a ghost?" To which Midoriya exasperatedly exclaimed, "I thought you'd know about it?!"
As Recovery Girl, watching the exchange unfold in silence pursed her lips a bit at All Might's next words, "Well, to be honest, I did see that before myself, during my younger years mainly, I think what it means is that it proves that your control and grasp of One For All is improving more and more."
Midoriya, who understood, at least partially, what All Might was talking about still had something to ask, "Okay, but what is it exactly?"
All Might, folding his arms across his chest and leaning back in the chair as he tried his best to explain, "I think it's like a trace of something left behind in One for All by the previous users. To the best of my knowledge it's not something with intent or something that you can truly interfere with. I do recall what it said to me as well but it never truly occurred after that so I never really gave it that much thought."
Before they could say anything else, they heard a noticeable clapping sound and turning around, the two saw that Recovery Girl was getting their attention who once she had it, said, "I know that you would like to speak some more about this to each other but if we want Midoriya to be able to make it to his next match, I should really get to healing him right now as there is a good chance that he's going to pass out after I use my quirk on him."
Seeing that she had a point, they allowed her to do her work where her words proved to be truthful as once she finished using her quirk and his legs were now fully healed. As for his arm, while it was now somewhat healed, it still had a slight purple color to it indicating it would need more time to properly heal.
As she got up to grab some bandages to bandage Midoriya's arm to keep it from getting injured further she mentioned to All Might, "So, he saw you as well, didn't he?"
All Might, staring off into the distance, simply said, "It's a good thing." And he truly believed that to be the case though he didn't elaborate further on his remark despite the side-eye glare Recovery Girl gave him.
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While this was going on, the match between Iida and Shiozaki had just begun and it began with Shiozaki attempting to entangle Iida in her vines like she did before with Kaminari.
Unfortunately for her, that strategy proved ineffective against Iida as he shouted, "Recipro... BURST!"
And just as the vines were about to reach him, he sidestepped it and sped past Shiozaki until he was behind her. Before she had a chance to even try to react, Iida put his hands on her shoulders and just started running to the edge of the stadium, stopping right at the edge and pushing her with enough force to send her out of bounds.
Midnight took a moment to recollect herself in regards to Iida's burst of speed, then announced, " Shiozaki, out of bounds! Iida advances to the next round!"
As the audience cheered, having been given a moment to recollect themselves after the previous fight's intensity, Iida gave a bow of respect to Shiozaki before leaving.
As for Shiozaki, she was frustrated that she didn't get any further in the tournament but at the same time, she was grateful for the opportunity that she had been given, hoping that it would be enough for the pro heroes watching to give her more opportunities to thrive. As she was walking through the hallway, lost in thought, she abruptly ran into a solid, yet warm structure that caused her to fall backward, luckily, before she could fall very far, she felt an arm snake around her, keeping her from hitting the ground, after these events played out, resulting in her being held up by a single arm that was keeping her from falling, an emotionless voice said, "Sorry, I should've been paying attention to where I was going, are you alright?"
Opening her eyes, she saw the one person that has been plaguing her mind for a while now, Winston Merrilson, close enough for her to make out the steely flecks in his otherwise sea green eyes.
With a slight blush on her face at the close proximity, she tried to say in as calm a tone as possible, "Yes, I'm fine, I should've been paying attention myself as well, thanks for catching me."
With a nod, Merrilson helped stabilize her before backing away and giving her some space, something she was grateful for as it helped the small blush on her face to die down.
Before she could say anything to him, he said, "Well, I should get going, I have my own match to get to after all, umm, great job in the tournament by the way." and made to leave but before he could some vines appeared in front of him, not completely blocking his way, but enough for him to see that Shiozaki wanted his attention. And so, turning around to face her, he waited patiently to see what she wanted to talk with him about.
Taking a moment to collect herself, ( whilst simultaneously checking if he had any of the scars she thought she saw those couple of years ago ) she began by saying, "First off, thanks for telling me that, even though I didn't make it very far. Second, I know you don't have much time so I'll make this brief, would you happen to know someone who looks like you, just with, and please forgive me for my rudeness, scars all across his face?"
That last part, she said with closed eyes and her hands clasped together in a prayer as if she was literally praying for forgiveness for sounding so shallow, as such, she didn't notice the barely noticeable twitch in Merrilson's eyes as she asked.
When she opened her eyes, he had that same deadpan face that he always had on, which Shiozaki couldn't help but draw comparisons to class B's own resident emotionless student in Yui Kodai. Her attention was drawn back to her current situation when Merrilson responded to her questions, "Even if you didn't go very far, I'd say you gave off an impressive display of your skills as for the other thing, I don't know if I have the time to answer that right now, maybe after this Festival is over, we can talk about it more?"
Shiozaki, grateful and understanding, nodded her head in agreement.
Taking that as a sign of her acceptance, he turned around and said, "Thanks, anyway, I should get going myself." And left her there with her own thoughts until she, with happiness at hopefully getting some answers to her dilemma and resolute determination in her stride, headed off to the class B stands to watch the remainder of the Sports Festival.
She was unaware of Merrilson pausing and turning around to watch her leave before walking to the stadium, a contemplative hand reaching up to his face.
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" Alright sports fans, give it up for our next two contestants!"
As the crowd cheered as the two in question started entering the stadium, Present Mic continued his job of hyping the contestants up.
" In the first corner, with a seemingly overwhelming quirk of pure darkness, FUMIKAGE TOKOYAMIII!"
As Tokoyamii walked up to the stage, he couldn't help but instantly feel wary as his opponent made his way up to the stage to the tune of Present Mic shouting out, " And his opponent, who won his previous fight in a display of quick and decisive efficiency. WINSTON MERRILSOOOON!!!"
Noting the way Present Mic announced the match Tokoyami couldn't help but think, " So he's making this fight out to be a matchup between speed and power." Which was soon clarified as true by Present Mic's continued announcements.
Tokoyami, taking a breath to calm his nerves but couldn't help having some troubling thoughts engulf his mind, " Not only is my opponent quick and decisive as we've all seen. He has proven himself to have good combat intelligence and if what we saw during Midoriya and Todoroki's match was anything to go off of, he also hides a darkness within, how vast it is I've yet to see."
Noticing that Midnight was about to announce the start of the match, Tokoyami crouched down in preparation to bring Dark Shadow out as quick as possible in hopes that it would be enough to catch Merrilson off guard
At first, it seemed like that would be the case since as soon as Midnight announced the beginning of the match followed up by Tokoyami immediately sent Dark Shadow after Merrilson which seemed to catch him off guard as he was just standing there.
Unfortunately for Tokoyami, that proved to not be the case as Merrilson somehow managed to dodge Dark Shadow and rush towards Tokoyami. Dark Shadow, momentarily shocked by Merrilson's agile dodge, attempted to redirect herself in midair to go for another attack, she thought she would be successful this time as she was a hair's breadth away from Merrilson. However, before she could connect, Merrilson expertly dodged her yet again while still maintaining his forward progress towards Tokoyami.
Before Dark Shadow could make any more attempts to attack Merrilson, he managed to make it to Tokoyami and, before Tokoyami could do anything, Merrilson slipped behind him and put him in a chokehold, effectively putting Tokoyami between him and Dark Shadow, neutralizing most of Dark Shadow's effectiveness.
Having his breathing slightly restricted, Tokoyami could feel himself being dragged to the edge of the stadium.
Fighting to get out of the situation he was currently in, with Dark Shadow trying to find a way to attack Merrilson whilst not endangering Tokoyami, resulted in a series of events where Dark Shadow attempted to flank Merrilson, unfortunately, before she could capitalize on it, Merrilson placed Tokoyami once again between him and her, effectively halting her attack whilst maintaining his progress towards the out-of-bounds line.
Growing desperate and at that point trying anything he could to get out of his situation, he started to try and fight back, elbow strikes to the guts, attacking legs, anything, but no matter how hard he tried, nothing he did seemed to even faze his opponent, however, he did notice that whenever he tried to attack around his face, Merrilson actually dodged out of the way, he would've tried to capitalize on that but a quick tightening of the grip around his throat followed by an equally quick release dissuaded him from trying that.
Just as they were at the edge Merrilson stopped and in that moment, said to Tokoyami, "You know what your biggest weakness is, despite the issues you have with light?"
Tokoyami, surprised at his knowledge but also confused as to what he was getting at, asked with some difficulty, "What, are you, talking about? And how did you know about my weakness to light?"
To which, Merrilson replied, "Your quirk gives you incredible long range combative capabilities, however, looking at it from a different perspective, one could also see that as a way of hiding a lack of close quarters combat capability. I developed my strategy to fight you based on that particular assumption. I was lucky that my hunch turned out to be correct."
The shock that Tokoyami felt from that statement gave way to some self reflection as he realized that Merrilson had a point about this particular weakness.
However, before he could comment any further he was suddenly turned around and pushed out of the stadium whilst hearing Merrilson say, "As for your second question, I didn't, I just guessed that based on the name and nature of your quirk and how it operates."
As Midnight announced the end of the match and Merrilson's advancement. Merrilson bowed in respect to Tokoyami and left, leaving Tokoyami to piece together what Merrilson had said about his quirk and figuring out what to do with this information that he was given.
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While the matches were going on Iida had made his way to the waiting room, he grabbed his phone to call his brother. Unfortunately, all he got in return was his brother's voice message.
" Hmmm, he must be on a mission, I hope he's doing okay." He thought while pocketing his phone and heading back to the class A stands.
He would leave the room completely unaware of the current predicament that his brother was in.
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Unfortunately for many, the UA Sports Festival doesn't completely halt villainy in the world, much less in Japan, as such, heroes are still on the clock needing to put a stop to it wherever it may lie.
It is in such a situation where a man running around in futuristic knight style armor that had what could best be described as sleek car mufflers and exhausts on his arms, was running around in a place called Hosu. This was Tensei Iida, big brother of Tenya Iida, aka the Hero Ingenium, and he was currently running through these very streets whilst leading a few of his many sidekicks on a mission of searching for any suspicious activity in the area.
As he was running around, he came across a certain alleyway where he noticed something off, causing him to stop in his tracks, he went to check it out and once he went inside, he saw a gruesome sight of a truly menacing figure towering over someone that was clearly heavily injured.
Of course during this time, there was one particular individual that had recently been wreaking havoc on the hero population in Japan. As such, Ingenium instantly knew who it must have been and immediately made that known in his accusatory shout, "It's you! Hero Killer, Stain!"
Which in turn, caused the menacing figure to turn around to face Ingenium with red eyes that seemed to glow in the dark alleyway. Before Ingenium could react, a creepy and menacing smile appeared on his face as he moved away from the downed individual and charged at Ingenium.