I was a little nervous I admit that, but I couldn't let that take a hold of me yet. I was too caught up in my thoughts that I nearly didn't hear my name being announced onto the ring. I shook my hands and just let my feet walk me up to the arena as my name was being announced . . . although I would have appreciated Mic calling the mysterious problem child and Aizawa agree with a hum.
Sero and I face each other and smile, I nodded my head as a way to say 'let's have a great battle' and he returned the gesture. Flames exploded from the four corners of the arena signaling our battle about to begin and the crowd practically loses their mind in cheering.
Even with the high pitched screaming, I was able to hear Sero say something to me.
"Man I don't feel like I can win this fight." He was stretching his arms as he spoke but as soon as he finished, I felt his constricting tape wrap my arms to my torso and knees together. I felt myself being yanked across the arena. Sero finished his thought by saying, "but I don't plan on losing either."
I admit it was a good tactic to keep away from my penance stare but the fault in the plan was simple. I was wrapped in flammable tape and my feet were still on the ground. I simply planted my foot creating a gust of wind from the G force that aimed at the crowd unexpectedly. With my body planted, I let my fire burn the tape on my body and rush up the extensions of tape rapidly towards Sero. He freaked a little and tore the pieces of tape off himself as I rushed with both pieces in my hands wrapping around Sero's legs.
He fell to the floor instantly and with building fire in my fists, I took the opportunity to catapult him over my shoulder and to the opposite side of the arena and accidentally have him meet the ground with a slight dent.
Oops.
It was silent for a moment until around of cheers and some heavy commentary cut through the crowd.
"An amazing quirk but she could have given him a less painful defeat."
"Yeah if you think about it, that was kind of a villainous move. . ."
"Wow, what's wrong with her?"
So . . . this is what the other rider's faced back home . . . but to a minor degree.
My mood was ruined but that didn't matter, when I was announced the winner, I took Sero to the infirmary and returned to the stands not saying a word and just kept thinking about what kind of life as a rider lives. No one understands the circumstances, many will judge your actions as a rider and a person, and the ones you get close to end up getting hurt or leave. This is the life for a loner . . . sadly life doesn't choose people wisely.
After some self wallowing, I came back to reality only to be met with a giant block of ice in my face and then I realized the arena was silent.
I guess Shoto let his dad's words affect him.
I didn't even get to see the fight, apparently, the poor guy he went against was frozen and therefore disqualified the contestant. Oof is all I had to say and watch as staff got the rest of the ice cleared from the right half of the arena. After that, it was Denki's turn and seeing him get buzzed off by yet another flirting attempt was hilarious and sad at the same time. Of course, Monoma had something to say and this is where things get hilarious . . . at least for me, it does.
"Guess he was right. That match really was over in two seconds." As if out of nowhere, I heard the arrogant voice of a familiar blonde. Neito Monoma.
"I wonder if his real quirk is the ability to tell the future. Hey! Wasn't class 1-A supposed to be so much better than us? HAHAHAHAHA!" I was honestly about to get up in his face and scare him like I normally would while working but he just suddenly went limp. In his place, a girl popped up with an earnest smile and a side ponytail. She apologized for his actions, I couldn't help but chuckle at how that whole scenario reminds me of siblings.
I was trying to get lost in thought again but a little noise was keeping me from achieving that . . . and that noise was Izuku muttering a storm again and seemingly making everyone uncomfortable. Thankfully Ochaco snapped him out of his rant.
"Maybe you should take a sec. To relax before taking too many matches ahead."
I had to enjoy the interaction, it was nice to see Izuku talk to a girl other than me without breaking down immediately. All was going great until he showed the page of Ochaco in his hero analysis book and then Ochaco made a face.
"You know Deku, I've always known that you were amazing, you got so much drive and focus in you. And the sports festival is reminding me of that." Her voice faltered at the mention of the festival. I felt that it was time for me to show some compassion for my classmates (A/N: I wheezed while typing that.)
I gave her a little pat on the back and was about to ask what she meant by that statement but the next match was starting and it was a pair up between Iida and the pink-haired girl from the support class Mei Hatsume. The fight was . . . eventful, it was more of a showcase for her gadgets than an actual fight and she ended up going out of bounds on purpose. This was more confusing than anything intense, although I may go to her to make some changes to the dynamic of my hero costume.
For Izuku, this was valuable source material for his book, but looking over to Ochaco she seemed like the world may fall apart for her at any minute. She soon got up and left her seat. I contemplated whether or not to follow her and the only reason I left my seat was so I didn't take Mineta's soul for having unholy thoughts about women.
Soon I was alone in the halls trying to find Ochaco but instead, I was met with the uneasiness of someone watching my every move and negativity cloud my thoughts.
Man. I haven't felt this weird since . . . Dad-
"I'm only making things better for us." I whipped around at the sound of my dad's dark voice saying that line, I readied myself to fight but I was just met with an empty hallway on either side. I had enough of this and decided just to hang out in the backstage area for students. When I got there, low and behold, I found Ochaco and Iida.
"H-Hey Angel, you ok? You look like you saw a ghost."
More like heard one.
"I'm fine Ochaco, but you look like the world may explode."
"W-what do you mean?" At that remark, I just gave an unamused face. Honestly, when was she going to learn she can't lie to me. I opened my mouth to say something but Izuku appeared in the door looking for Ochaco as well. This whole thing wasn't going well for Ochaco since she was the next candidate to fight and her opponent was Katsuki. Izuku didn't help her spirits any by saying how Katsuki would most likely cream her even if she was a girl. The sad part about that was that it was true.
I looked at Ochaco and grabbed her hand and began to rub soothing circles on top of it and remarked to Izuku,
"You know, shockingly this isn't helping her feel better." He and Iida awkwardly coughed and looked away from me as I gave them an unamused glare. I turned to Ochaco and said,
"Listen, Katsuki is an asshole with anger issues but that doesn't mean he's invincible. . . Maybe Izuku can shed some light on what points to look out for." Izuku nodded and presented his hero analysis book and said,
"I have a plan for you to defeat Kacchan. It's not much but I did my best."
"Hey. Well alright, this is perfect!" Iida was quick to chime in but Ochaco did not seem interested.
"Thank you so much for doing that, but no. Sorry."
Oh?
"You're wonderful. I keep seeing that over and over again. Deku During the cavalry battle, I told you it was good to team up with friends, but the more I think about it, I might have been relying on you to get by. That's why when Iida said he was trying to beat you and the way Angel took the declaration of war so confidently. I actually felt embarrassed for myself." She then stood and walked to the door.
"So it's fine, really. Everyone is facing their future and giving this their best. That means we are all rivals, even me and you Deku so," She turns to us with a shaky thumbs up, an askew smile, and eyes filled with unsure determination.
"I'll see you in the finals." And with that, she left.
Godspeed Ochaco.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sitting in the stands and watching Ochaco's small frame enter the arena was the equivalent to a lamb walking into a bear's cave. Though when the match started I didn't expect so much mixed commentary about how the fight was playing out. Ochaco was getting as close as she could and Katsuki continuously blasted her away. Many members of the crowd were outraged until Aizawa came up on the mic and said something to clear the air of negativity but they were all missing the big picture, all they had to do was look up to see the debris building up over Katsukis head.
When it was time, it seemed like the heavens were coming down to bring havoc on Katsuki. Every rock pummeled the earth with great momentum and the entire arena looked like War of the Worlds. It was spectacular and a pretty clever since she knew Katsuki wasn't going to let her anywhere near her. When I thought she was about to get close enough to make him float out of bounds, Katsuki managed to release a blast powerful enough to knock her back a few feet away from him while simultaneously destroying the debris.
A lingering silence fell over everyone we watched as Katsuki took a running stride she stood and attempted to take a step towards him but instead et the ground in the fetal position. She was crawling at this point just trying to get to Katsuki. It was painful seeing her pushing herself past her limit but there was no way she could fight again, no matter how hard she would push herself.
She was titled as K.O. by Midnight and a break was followed after this match for arena repairs, which meant I could go and visit her and maybe heal some of her muscles since she strained herself.
Thankfully she was okay just tired and with a slip of Recovery Girl's kisses, she was back to being bubbly self and Recovery Girl helped Eijiro and some dude named TetsutetsuTetsutetsu like that isn't confusing. It was weirding me out about how bubbly she was as we walked back to the waiting room. Izuku actually showed up to chill in the waiting room to and get as evenly freaked out like I was. I noticed Ochaco's cellphone was going off and the caller ID seemed to be her father but, she soon covered it up and carried on her conversation with Izuku. We all heard Present Mic's voice announce the next round is soon to begin, meaning Izuku was to go up against Shoto. It was silent between us before I got up and said,
"I'm gonna head back to my seat. . . and you are amazingly strong. It takes a lot to get Katsuki off guard." I soon left and walk quietly down the hall. I actually caught up to Izuku and began to try and calm him a little before the match, but my plan was interrupted by Endeavor.
Izuku got flustered as he shrieked Endeavor as for me I just went rigid and tried to not met his gaze again.
"Ah. I was actually looking for you," He was talking to Izuku, which was fine if e was talking to me I would ignore him as well.
"Oh yeah hi. So uh. What are you doing back here?" Izuku took a step back as Endeavor took one forward and instinctively I grabbed Izuku's arm as a way to ask 'should I intervene?' his response was a light pat to my fingers signaling he was ok.
"I watched your fight against the brainwashing guy and would like to discuss your quirk if you don't mind . . . and a little bit about your friend's as well." This statement made me look up slowly only to meet his gaze for a millisecond before looking to Izuku. I could tell he did not want to be here and frankly neither did I, but before we had a chance to answer Endeavor spoke once again.
"Your powers are pretty impressive" He faced Izuku as he spoke, "To create so much wind power just by flicking your fingers. It reminds me of another quirk. You seem to have much in common with All Might." Izuku freezes and sputters but his timidness was interrupted by endeavor continuing on to me.
"And you. You seem to have a number of different talents with your quirk, almost like you have multiple quirks within you. Speed, strength, fire, transformation, and some kind of eye involved quirk without any of it seeming to weigh you down or have a drawback. . . so tell me, what exactly is your quirk." I stayed silent and internally cursed myself for thinking using my penance stare was a good idea when the entire world was watching this tournament.
"We need to go." Was all I said as I grabbed Izuku's arm and began walking down the hallway. The funny thing about walking away is that you would assume a conversation was over, but apparently not to this guy.
"It's my Shoto's duty to surpass All Might as the number one hero."
This again?
We both stopped walking as we listened to Endeavor carry on,
"And a match with either of you is a good testing ground to see how much training he has left. So hit him hard, don't disgrace yourself or him by holding back." My eye twitched at the thought of this person raising a child, but he was right about something other than his analyzations. The world was watching, they got a taste of what the rider could do. Even if I could win this tournament. I couldn't allow that. I needed to stay under the radar and judging by how the murmurs from other heroes reacted to my last battle with Sero, I may be a possible threat. So my decision was set in stone . . . I might have to throw my next match.
Sorry if I can't keep our promise Shinso.
Izuku broke the silence soon after,
"Endeavor, I am not All Might and the same goes for Todoroki." I looked at Izuku with amazement as he continued to say, "He may be your son, but he isn't you."
I walked away from both Izuku and Endeavor but not without saying a 'Good luck' to Izuku before making it back to the arena. It was amazing to see Izuku stand u for a friend even if Shoto didn't know it. As I made it back everyone was seated and ready for this heated battle, now it was time for me to make a decision.
Do I throw the match to save my cover or attempt to win the tournament and risk losing control?
Time was running out for me to think about and right now I had to cheer on my best friend and hope he doesn't get too injured.