Izuku had a headache.
It was to be expected, he’d been using his Quirks fairly often throughout the day, but the stabbing pain in his skull was never something he enjoyed.
The throbbing was making him more irritable, and all he really wanted to do was eat and find a quiet place to stay until he had to compete. It had been stupid of him to let himself get this far in the tournament, and he would just fake losing to whoever was his first opponent. If anyone got suspicious he’d blame exhaustion, and at this point, it wasn’t that far off.
Shinsou plopped in front of him, two bowls of katsdon on his tray. “Hey Green Bean.” He said, placing one of the bowls in front of him.
Uraraka slid down next to him. “We were awesome.” She grinned. “I was worried for a minute near the end, but we totally kicked ass.”
Iida placed his own tray next to Shinsou. “Please refrain from using such language, Uraraka.” He pushed his glasses up his nose. “It is improper for a U.A. student.”
Mei slammed a gadget on the table and began tinkering with it. “We are now friends.” She announced. “And all of you are going to help me advertise my babies.”
Izuku huffed a laugh. Maybe things weren’t that bad after all…
…
Of course because Izuku had the worst luck ever, Todoroki approached the table, eyes focused intently on him.
“I need to speak to you.”
Why is this my life.
Shinsou’s eyes went hard, and an unsettling grin settled over his lips. “Why don’t you say that a little nicer, pretty boy.”
Todoroki didn’t even glance at him. “This has nothing to do with you.”
“If it has to do with Midoriya it has to do with me.” Shinsou’s expression was flinty. “And you’ll have to forgive me if I don’t believe you’ll be a good sport about loosing.”
There was a tense silence.
If he were being honest, he’d rather allow Shinsou to snark Todoroki into annoyance, and hopefully make the other boy leave. Unfortunately, Izuku knew he wouldn’t be lucky, not with the determined way Todoroki was staring at him.
Releasing a heavy sigh, he pulled himself to his feet.
“You don’t have to go.” Uraraka said, glancing at Todoroki. “We’re all in the third round, and we need to rest.”
Izuku smiled tiredly. “I’ll be fine.” He reassured. “We won’t be long.” At least, he hoped not. He was liable to just walk out of his conversation with Todoroki if it lasted too long.
Shinsou met his eyes briefly before giving a miniscule nod. It was clear he wasn’t happy about it, but he trusted Izuku to take care of himself.
Todoroki’s expression was unreadable.
“Lead the way.”
…
Shouto did not know what to make of Izuku Midoriya.
He was quiet, not usually prone to drawing attention to himself even if he were in the spotlight. He didn’t seem concerned with winning, even when he was one of the biggest contenders in the whole Festival.
He was frightening. He had eyes that were colder than any ice Shouto could produce and a grin that made him more terrified than anything his bastard of a father had ever done.
“Did you drag me away from my lunch for a reason, or did you just want to waste both of our time?” A green eyebrow rose.
Shouto mentally slapped himself. None of that mattered. He just needed to make the other boy understand.
“You made me break my vow.”
Midoriya paused. “What vow?”
This Shouto could do. “Do you know what Quirk Marriages are?” he ignored the way his heart clenched, the way his hands wanted to tremble, and spoke.
Midoriya was silent for a very long time.
His expression was unreadable, and Shouto wanted to demand he speak, demand he say something after he practically poured his heart out to the other teen.
“That’s why I will win without his fire.” He continued. “I’ll be number one without it.”
“Your father should be in jail.”
That…was not what he was expecting.
“What?” He blurted.
Midoriya’s eyes had gone frigid. “He should be in jail.” He said simply, as though he hadn’t just shattered every argument Shouto had been planning. “Endeavor should be arrested, put to trial, found guilty and locked up.”
He forced himself to shake off his surprise. “That’s not why I wanted to talk to you.” He snapped. “If you think that way than you understand why I won’t use my fire-”
“No I actually don’t get that.” Midoriya tilted his head. “Seems to me like he just wants you to be Number One, and doesn’t really care how that happens. The only thing refusing to use your fire is actually doing is hurting yourself.”
Shouto’s temper flared. “You don’t understand. This is my disavowal of him, I refuse-”
“To use your Quirk in a healthy way? To give your all even if there were lives on the line? Are you saying that if someone was about to die and the only way to save them was to use your fire, you wouldn’t?”
He gritted his teeth. “That won’t happen.”
Midoriya’s laugh was a cold thing.
“Arrogance like that is what gets people killed.”
…
Dabi didn’t know what he was doing.
He believed Stain’s ideals to be true, believed that he was removing the fake Heroes from the world but-
But why was he going after Ingenium, who had been kind and had a stellar reputation-maybe he looked the Hero up after he’d been saved by him but would die before admitting it-rather than Endeavor?
“I think you’re making a mistake here.” He said, not lowering his flaming hands. “I can’t imagine what this goody two shoes could have done to get on your bad side.”
Ingenium may not have been perfect but Dabi didn’t think he deserved to die.
Stain narrowed his eyes. “He is not a true Hero, he is a fake masquerading as one, and it is my duty to-”
“And who, by your standards, is a true Hero?” Dabi interrupted.
The Hero Killer regarded him disdainfully. “All Might is the one true Hero.”
And that was all Dabi really needed to hear. Stain would kill anyone who didn’t reach the unattainable height of All Might, would kill his baby brother if he was old enough to be a Hero.
Ingenium was watching the exchange, his helmet having been torn off at one point in his fight with Stain, revealing black hair and strong features.
“Will you stand in the way of justice?” The Hero Killer asked him.
Dabi lit his hands in response.
…
Midoriya had not bothered to look at who he was facing.
It didn’t matter to him, because he was planning to lose to them in a hopefully convincing way, and move on with his life.
Then he walked into the arena and saw the blond bastard who had accused his class of being attention seeking fame whores.
…
“LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, I CAN’T BELIEVE IT! MIDORIYA IZUKU THREW NEITO MONOMA OUT OF THE RING ONLY SECONDS AFTER THIS ROUND STARTED! HE SURE WILL BE A STRONG CONTENDER IN THE UPCOMING ROUNDS!”
“Midoriya really didn’t hold back, did he?” Uraraka mused.
Hitoshi was too busy laughing to respond.
…
Sero’s fight with Todoroki was…a complete joke.
Ashido knew he’d done his best, but there wasn’t a whole lot tape could do to an entire fucking glacier.
She glanced at the upcoming fight and winced.
Uraraka was no pushover, you’d have to be blind, deaf and stupid to think that, but Bakugou was a force of nature, and one that she’d never seen denied. His athletes pledge had been a declaration of war, one he clearly meant to win.
…
Ochako took a deep breath, steeling herself.
No matter the outcome of this fight, it was going to be rough.
“Uraraka.”
She looked up to see Midoriya watching her with his unnervingly observant eyes.
“Give him hell.”
And Ochako smiled, because she may not win this fight, may not even put a scratch on the powerhouse that was Bakugou, but she would not make this easy, no she would make him work for it.
Ochako has never had the easy route in life, so she didn’t see why shouldn’t make Bakugou’s just as difficult.
…
Tenya watched as Uraraka fell to the ground, exhausted after her last hurrah.
“You ready for the greatest promotional fight ever seen?” Mei asked, eyes glittering menacingly.
He had been appalled with the idea to begin with, but he also understood that Mei would do this one way or the other, and at least this way he would have some modicum of control.
“I am.”
…
Denki could not stop laughing.
He had never imagined that Iida, the stuck-up class president would willingly become a promotional add in something as well broadcasted as the Sports Festival. Then again, he did win his fight (Denki suspected that the Mei girl would have whooped his ass if it had really been a fight. Her gadgets were scary.) so there may have been a trade.
He could totally see Iida taking it way too seriously, if his booming promotional voice was anything to go by.
Denki cracked his knuckles. It was his turn now, and he’d be facing Iida next. After all, there was no way he was gonna lose to some random plant chick…
…
Hitoshi couldn’t help but roll his eyes.
Was the electric dude serious? Going easy on the vine girl just because she was a girl? He deserved every bit of that humiliating loss.
It was lucky that Midoriya was in the same class as his opponent, so he’d been able to ask questions about the pink skinned girl. Call it cheating, but when you were born with every disadvantage, you took what you could get.
Mina grinned fiercely from across the field.
“You ready?” He questioned.
“Hell yea-”
…
Kirishima was confused as to why Mina began walking out of the ring, but decided not to question it too much.
He was so pumped for his match! It wasn’t everyday you got to fight someone with a similar Quirk! That meant he didn’t have to pull any punches!
This was gonna be so manly!
…
Itsuka not encouraged by her chances.
Yaoyorozu was a recommendations student, and anyone with half a brain could figure out that she was good in a fight.
Because of her Quirk, Itsuka was reduced to almost exclusively close combat, but the other girl had no such limitations. Her only boon was that it seemed to take Yaoyorozu longer to make bigger objects, so she’d have to be fast.
And as Monoma would say (and no she didn’t make it a habit of listening to him. That boy had an inferiority complex so large it made her want to boot him out the window at times.) she needed to represent 1B with pride.
Let’s do this.
…
If asked point blank, Shota would deny it to his grave, but he was very proud of his students.
He knew Vlad would be too, even if he only had one kid who’d made it past the first part of the final round. He’d need to drill in Kaminari the fact that you couldn’t underestimate anyone, especially for something as inconsequential as gender.
“Who do you think is gonna win?” Hizashi asked.
He leaned back in his chair. “Bakugou or Todoroki are strong contenders.” He said eventually.
“But…?” Hizashi had a sly grin on his face.
Shota rolled his eyes. “But I have a feeling we’re going to be surprised. They’re not the only powerhouses here, just the most obvious.”
“You want to teach that Shinsou kid, don’t you.” It wasn’t a question. Times like these made him wish Hizashi couldn’t read him to well.
“He has potential.”
Hizashi gave him a knowing look. “And he seems a hell of a lot like you when you were U.A.. Spiteful and getting far too little sleep.”
Shota shrugged. “Coincidence.”
“Uh huh.”
…
Everything was burning.
Dabi wasn’t used to using his flames for this long, and it was beginning to take a toll.
Stain was fast, faster than him and had no qualms about sacrificing a few knives if he thought it might nick him. The only reason Dabi wasn’t paralyzed like Ingenium was because he melted everything that came within five feet of him.
But he wasn’t getting any colder, and Stain wasn’t slowing.
If he was going to burn, he was going take everything with him.
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