((im so bad at fight scenes i want to die))
You were taking a break from the break room- everyone in there was so loud it made you nauseous. You weren't all that hungry, either. Kirishima had invited you to sit with him, but you declined to go and explore the stadium. It wasn't like you were the only person skipping out on lunch.
Approaching another vending machine, you opted to drain its energy and store it up for later. Whatever the final event was, you felt that you'd be needing it. Somehow, you didn't feel all that tired after expelling so much energy during the cavalry battle, even though some of it had to be from your body's own supply. You still had yet to find out why your body had been acting so strangely ever since you'd started training. Maybe it was your quirk developing? You knew quirks grew stronger the more you practised with them, so maybe that was why. Not that you'd experienced much trouble with it today- your mental possession was better than ever, and the energy your body expelled was more strong and powerful than anything you'd managed to conjure up before.
It seemed like your quirk was developing nicely, there wasn't anything to worry about: Is what you told yourself- though you couldn't help but feel cautious about something. You had a bad feeling. What it was about was beyond you, but you knew something was going to happen.
"[M/n]?" A voice cut you away from your thoughts, and you drew your hand back from the vending machine to see Aleksei. Your chest tightened a little at the sight of him- it had been at least a week since you'd last spoken; you were both so busy with training for the sports festival that you couldn't find time for each other. He smiled at you and laughed. "God, you look sweaty," You glared and rolled your eyes.
"You're not much better off." You mumbled. Aleksei glanced down at his soaking wet shirt and chuckled.
"Yeah, you've got a point. How's the sports festival been for you so far?" He moved to lean against a wall, you following and sitting down next to him with a sigh.
"Good, I suppose." You replied. Aleksei nodded and copied your action, sliding down the wall and slumping against it with his long legs sprawled out in front of him.
"How good? I placed ninth and third in the first two events." He grinned cockily, running a hand through his messy fringe.
"I got first place in both." You said casually, causing him to choke on air.
"Seriously? [M/n], that's amazing!" He smiled so widely you thought his face would split and slapped your shoulder.
"It wasn't that cool, really. There were robots in the first event, so I possessed one and won that way. And we were all in teams in the second event, so I didn't really do much. I just had cool teammates." You explained, earning a sigh from Aleksei.
"You're allowed to give yourself credit, you know. Teammates or not, you still got first place. Anyway, good luck for the last event. I heard it's gonna be something like one-on-one battles." Aleksei slapped a hand on your shoulder again as he stood up. "I should probably get going, we've only got a couple minutes of lunch left. Good luck, [M/n]!" He gave you another one of those weirdly heartwarming smiles before retreating in a slight jog. You simply stayed on the floor for a while and stared after him.
One-on-one battles? How was he so cool with that? Even now your mind was filling up with horrific memories of those battles you had at the institute. You'd never fought against someone without the intent to kill them, so you weren't sure how well this was going to go for whoever you were up against. That is, assuming the last event was actually one-on-one battles. There was still a slight chance your year would be doing something else, so you had to hope and pray with everything you had that you wouldn't be doing those.
Of course, nothing ever really goes your way.
"Between the 16 members of the four winning teams... We'll have a formal tournament! A series of... One-on-one battles!!" Midnight exclaimed, earning a deflated sigh from you in the crowd of students. Why did you have to go and be on a winning team? Why couldn't you have just lost? 'Congratulations, [M/n].' You thought grumpily. 'Now you get to relive bad memories in front of your new friends. Hooray.'
Midnight explained that the matches would be decided by drawing lots, and that before the tournament starts you could all participate in festivities. You were thinking about opting to stay out of those, just as Ojiro raised his hand.
"I'd... Like to drop out." He said. You perked up slightly. You could do that?! A few people expressed their concerns, but Ojiro explained that he couldn't remember anything that happened during the cavalry battle and that it was likely due to the purple-haired boy's quirk. You glanced over to him for the second time that day, seeing that he had turned to face away from most of the crowd.
Another boy who was on Ojiro's team in the cavalry battle also opted to withdraw, and before you could do the same Midnight cracked her whip and accepted the two boys' withdrawals, then proceeding to invite two members from the cavalry battle into the tournament.
"Anyway, here are the matchups!" Midnight called out, and you begrudgingly turned to the board to see who you had to fight. ((this is where things get different for the sake of development my bois))
[M/n] vs Shinsou
Kaminari vs Ashido
Shiozaki vs Tokoyami
Iida vs Hatsume
Todoroki vs Aoyama
Midoriya vs Yaoyorozu
Tetsutetsu vs Kirishima
Uraraka vs Bakugou
Shinsou? That was the only person you hadn't seen, so you bet it was-
"You're [M/n], aren't you?" You flinched when a low voice came from directly behind you. Turning your head, you saw the same boy with purple hair glowering down at you. You kept your face stoic and nodded. "You were good in the first event. Shame there's not gonna be any robots to help you this time." Why was he provoking you all of a sudden? Did he want a reaction? You shrugged at him.
"I don't need robots." A wicked grin suddenly spread across his face, and you cocked an eyebrow. "I wanted to talk to you, actually." As quickly as the grin appeared, it faltered and dropped, and his glare returned.
"About what?"
"That time when you came to my class- you looked me dead in the eyes while that guy was strangling me and walked away." You said nonchalantly, seeing his glare intensify. You knew you wouldn't get a straight answer out of him if he thought you were trying to expose him, so you lightened your tone a little. "I'm not mad or anything, I just wanted to know why you didn't help?" He said nothing for a moment, just continued to glare at you before turning away.
"None of your business." He spat as he followed some of the other students out of the stadium to avoid the festivities. You raised an eyebrow at his strange behaviour, before feeling a hand on your shoulder. That hand turned out to be a tail- you realised after seeing Ojiro standing next to you.
"[M/n], I just wanted to warn you about that guy before you fight him." You hummed as a signal for him to continue. "If he talks to you during the battle, don't answer him. I think he has some sort of mind control quirk. The last thing I remember in the cavalry battle is answering a question from him, so I'm assuming he uses your voice to control you. If you want to win, don't speak to him." He said, to which you nodded slowly. That explained the scary face he pulled when you answered back to him. Ojiro pat your shoulder with his tail and went about his day, leaving you to your thoughts as to how you would go about beating him.
With a quirk like that, you assumed he'd be a more intellectual type fighter, not dissimilar to yourself. He'd obviously try to provoke you again. All you had to do was stay level-headed and attack him to the best of your ability. That didn't sound too hard.
As you stood in the gateway before your match, you were beginning to get more and more confident. What could this guy possibly say that would warrant an answer from you? You had this in the bag.
"The first match!!" Present Mic hollered as you stepped out of the gate, your eyes meeting Shinsou's. "Given his excellent performance in the last two events, we're expecting big things from him, it's [M/n], from the hero course!!" He yelled, eliciting a large cheer from the crowd. Those cheers went straight to your head and boosted your confidence higher than it had ever been- it working so well that you lifted your chin up slightly. Your dominance was practically radiating off of you at this point, it was obvious you thought there was no way you could lose. "Versus... Sorry, but this guy hasn't really done anything to stand out yet! It's Shinsou Hitoshi, from general studies!!"
The two of you stepped onto the platform and stared each other down. Shinsou honestly looked bored out of his mind, like he couldn't care less about being there, and if it were any other day you would have sported the same expression. But this was the sports festival, and you were so close to coming out on top, so you felt that you could afford to act a little cocky. Present Mic explained the rules, and you and Shinsou both perked up a little at the mention of ethics being non-existent there. Killing was out of the question, of course, but you didn't need to kill him. He seemed physically weak, you could probably pick him up and throw him out of the arena.
"Looks like I'll have to make you test your strength of will, huh, [M/n]?" Shinsou called out, earning no reaction from you whatsoever. "If you've got any kind of vision for your future, there's no sense in worrying about how you get there." You were starting to tune him out. "Like that monkey, babbling about his stupid pride." Monkey? Did he mean Ojiro? Why call him a monkey? He clearly wasn't one. "What kind of dumbass throws away a chance like this?"
He finished his little monologue right as Present Mic called for the battle to start. You kept your mouth shut and ran forward, curling your fist back and throwing a punch towards him. He dodged and grabbed your arm, yanking you towards him and kicking you in the back, sending you plummeting to the ground.
"Wow, guess that quirk of yours really is useless in physical combat. You're pretty weak. Then again, people like you never train their bodies." The hell was he rambling about now? "You're so confident in your amazing quirks that you rely on them. You think you're special for winning first place? You only got there because of something you were naturally blessed with!" You rose from where you'd been knocked down and turned to give him a confused look, still sitting on the floor. "I bet you've been pampered since day one for having a quirk like that. You and the rest of the damn hero course! Because of my quirk's nature, I could never enter the golden gates!" He rose his leg to send you a kick, but you beat him to it and swept his feet out from under him.
You leapt on top of him and punched him in the jaw, before pulling back your arm for a second blow. He caught this one and used his legs to kick you up and flip you over onto your back, knocking the wind out of you and sending you into a fit of glitched out coughing.
"You wanna know why I didn't save you back then?!" He was trying way too hard now. You weren't going to talk, he knew that, but Shinsou was seemingly going to try every trick in the book to win this one. You pitied him, in a sense- he was trying so hard and not getting anywhere. "Because you piss me off! You and the rest of those villains that came here with you!" Alright, now you were listening. You raised an eyebrow and looked at his face as he pinned you down by your arms, hovering over you with his knees tucked by the top of your head. "I always wanted to be a hero, but because I have a villainous quirk, I was rejected! You're a villain! You attacked them and not only did they offer you a place at Yuuei, but they put you in the damn hero course!! Why the hell do you deserve to be here?!!" He roared. You stayed stoic, as usual, but your heart was internally breaking.
You could see his eyes becoming glassy with tears, whether it was because of all the shouting he was doing or because of sheer sadness, you weren't sure. His words didn't anger you, they humbled you, if anything. Everything he was saying was true- if he'd worked hard all his life to become a hero, he deserved that a million times more than you did. You felt such an overwhelming amount of pity for him that it almost made you want to give up.
Almost.
He was in a moment of weakness- something of which you'd learned from Krovnyy was good to exploit. You ripped your arms out of his grasp and used one of your free hands to grab the collar of his shirt, the other resting on his chest as you quickly hoisted him up and tossed him roughly over your shoulder, using a slight expel of energy to boost him out of the arena ((YEET)). He landed a few mere centimetres over the line, but it was enough.
"Shinsou is out of the ring!!" Midnight shouted, waving her arm to signal the end of the match. "[M/n] moves on to the next round!"
You and Shinsou were made to stand in the middle of the stadium and bow to each other- you weren't sure why, it was probably a respect thing. You weren't exactly familiar with the social rules of Japan.
"Goodness gracious! We're off to an uneventful start! Well, put your hands together for our fierce competitors!" Present Mic called out. Shinsou looked entirely dejected, and whatever confident high you were on was gone.
"Shinsou-san," you called out, him meeting your eyes with a harsh look. "You fought well. If I wasn't warned about your quirk, I'm positive I would have lost." Shinsou raised an eyebrow and sneered at you.
'What the hell is he trying to do?' He thought. 'Is he rubbing it in?'
"You said your quirk was villainous, right? I've seen villains up close and personal, and... You're nothing like them. I think you'll make an amazing hero one day." You finished softly, trying your best to show that you were sincere. He stared at you with a shocked expression, before stiffening up and quickly turning to leave. You saw his classmates in the crowd cheering him on, and he paused by the gate.
"They'll consider transfers to the hero course depending on the results here. Remember that." He started, his voice sounding slightly softer than what it had before. "Maybe I failed this time, but... I'm not giving up. I'll show them I've got what it takes to make the hero course, and I'll become a greater hero than all of you." He still wasn't facing you, but you nodded anyway. You couldn't help but feel uplifted by his speech- he really did deserve to be here more than you.
"In that case, I'll gladly look up to you as my superior." You said. He flinched at your words, and you suddenly found yourself unable to move or speak. For a moment you couldn't help but panic, unsure if there was something wrong with you, until you relaxed and chuckled inwardly. 'Ah, he got me...'
"Why're you so damn nice?" Shinsou turned to face you, the tips of his ears and cheeks slightly red, and spoke through gritted teeth. He suddenly sighed and released you from his hold, his face not losing its flushed glow. "I'm only saying this once, so listen up." You perked up to show you were paying attention. "I'm sorry for what I said about you. I was wrong... I think. I'm choosing to trust you, so don't make me look like an idiot." He glared at you again, though this one held no real malice in it. It wasn't like the way he'd glared at you at the start of the match, this look was more half-hearted and playful. Your chest swelled with happiness as you seemed to have gotten somewhere with him, not that you could show it.
"I won't," you replied, only to feel your body seize up again. 'Damn it,'
"You'd better not lose, either." Shinsou snapped, before turning and briskly walking through the gate, but not before releasing you from his quirk once again.
Your chest was still fluttering with happiness at your success in making a new friend. Shinsou was your friend now, right? Well, he didn't seem to entirely hate you, he even apologised, so you took it as an invitation to be friends. You walked through your gate and decided to go straight back to the crowd so you could watch the other matches, but you knew your interaction with Shinsou wouldn't soon be forgotten.