Chapter Thirty-One: Youthful Earnestness
Tooru Hagakure was feeling just a little bit guilty. This wasn't necessarily a new feeling for her, since she had gotten up to her share of mischief in her life so far. After all, what was the point of being invisible if you didn't have the occasional bit of fun with it? What made this particular case stand out was that she hadn't actually done anything wrong.
No, it was just that the second event was so freaking easy.
Team Todoroki's defenses were ironclad. Yaomomo was producing handy capture tools such as ropes and netting, Koda was essentially blocking the entrance with his large frame and Tooru was just strolling around and casually tagging people while they tried to figure out how to get past the other two.
"Gotcha again, Sero."
"Damn it!" the dejected Tape user slouched back towards his base for what had to be the fourth time, "I thought I saw where you were that time! How do you keep doing that?!"
"I'm just that good~" in reality, it was because Yaomomo had produced a low-profile hunk of metal that was shaped roughly like the soles of someone's feet, which she had instructed Tooru to occasionally move around in order to throw off anyone who was trying to gauge her position. Naturally, Tooru made no effort whatsoever to conceal the position of the metal and was mostly tiptoeing around in order to disturb the grass as little as possible.
This alone, while it may have felt a little bit like cheating, wasn't enough to make Tooru feel guilty though. After all, what they were doing was perfectly allowed and really amounted to nothing more or less than awesome teamwork. Go Team Todoroki, rah rah rah.
No, the thing that was bothering her was that their titular captain was basically doing all of the real work by himself. He was a force of nature on the field, freezing anyone who got in his way (or at least making them change course) and Tooru couldn't help but feel that she was just sort of coasting along by riding his proverbial coattails. Granted, this was what he had asked them all to do, but still. She wanted to do more to help him.
…She just couldn't figure out how.
Oh, there he is. He's got a flag too.
…Why does he look upset?
"Heya, Todo! Welcome back!"
"Yeah."
"You got a flag!"
"Yeah."
"…Did something happen?"
"Not really."
"You wanna talk about it?" at this, he paused, planted the flag in the ground a bit harder than was necessary, and turned his head slightly to glare at her through his right eye. The gray one.
He was looking at her too. He knew exactly where she was just from her voice as she walked with him. Honestly, it gave Tooru chills which, she supposed, was appropriate.
"What I want to do is get this into the base, throw up a barrier of ice no less than two feet thick in every direction and just get through the rest of this goddamn event. Okay?"
Wow. He was pissed. Tooru had gotten his hackles up before, but this was different. Shoto Todoroki was well and truly angry and Tooru didn't like the way it felt. He had been on edge since before the first event, even though he did his best to hide it. Tooru wouldn't have been surprised if he had managed to fool everyone else, at least mostly, but he couldn't fool her.
After all, out of everyone in their class, she had spent the most time learning to read him. Coupled with her already observant nature, he may as well have been holding a sign that said "I am in desperate need of a hug." This was why she had been trying so hard to lighten his mood and before he had left on his attack run, Tooru had thought that she was making some headway. She had even gotten him to crack a joke, however terrible it might have been.
Then he had gone off and something had happened to take the progress she had made, flip it completely around and run it through the wall behind the starting point.
I wish he would just open up to somebody. Talking about whatever it is might not fix his problems, but it'll sure as hell be more productive than bottling them up like this.
Strike three when it came to the things currently making Tooru Hagakure feel guilty was a new and sudden addition.
Without getting too full of herself, she considered her and Todo to be friends. She might even go so far as to suggest that she was the only member of their class that he truly saw as a friend, even if he probably wouldn't say such a thing aloud.
It was the little things he did. He put up with her antics even though she knew for a fact that she got on his nerves sometimes. He showed little bits and pieces of what he was really thinking behind that icy wall that he presented to everyone else. Hell, just a moment ago that wall had had a chunk taken out of it and Todo had done his equivalent of grabbing her by the shoulders and shouting at her.
In spite of what he may have fooled most people into thinking, he was every bit as human as the rest of them. He had all the same emotions as everyone else, even if he kept a tight lid on them. The fact that he was letting those feelings show now of all times only served as proof that something was very, very wrong.
And Tooru didn't know how to help him.
He closed his eyes for a moment and turned away from her, picking the flag up again.
"Sorry." Help me. "Come on, let's get inside." Something's wrong. "We can just wait for it to be over." I'm in pain and I want it to stop. "We should have enough points; don't worry." I didn't mean to hurt you; I just don't know what to do.
Tooru didn't know what to do either, so she silently followed him back into their base along with Yaomomo and Koda. She watched as he planted their new flag next to their original one, sealed them off with a thick ice wall and then sat with his back against the wall facing the entrance, arms wrapped around his knees. It was such a closed-off position. He wasn't letting anyone in and he wasn't letting anything out.
It all felt incredibly sad to Tooru as she put her gym uniform back on.
A lot of good she was doing right then.
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Katsuki Bakugo was experiencing a rather volatile mixture of emotions at the moment. On the one hand, Ashido had managed to lose their flag. On the other hand, from what she had described to him, it was less because of her own screw-up and more because of a mixture of Quirk matchup and devious planning on the part of the other team.
He sort of wished that he had thought of it first and had to respect whatever mastermind had concocted this particular scheme, however grudgingly. If it hadn't been for the fact that the invaders had been two members of 1-B, along with the fact that he knew that Deku's plan was to stay on the defensive, he would have suspected his old friend. As it was, he had absolutely no idea who could have orchestrated this attack, which meant that he had no idea where their flag actually was, just that it was Team Monoma that had it.
The clock was ticking down, but he might still have a chance of getting it back. He just needed for Kirishima and Ojiro to get back and-
"Yo, Ashido! Bakubro! Check out what we got!" ah, there they were. They had a flag worth three-hundred and seventy-five points too. Combined with the three-hundred and thirty that Katsuki himself had acquired, that brought them to seven-hundred and five. If only they had their original flag, they'd be in a good spot…
"Yes, you might say it was a bit of a sticky situation." Ojiro was saying to Ashido, "I had no idea that there was a 1-B student that could spray adhesive everywhere. In some ways, I suppose he could be seen as your counterpart, Ashido-san."
"On that note, could you help me get this flag un-stuck from my hand?" Kirishima was trying in vain to pry the flag in question off of his hand, but had only succeeded in separating his thumb.
"While we're on the subject of unusual flag retrievals," Ojiro indicated Katsuki's flag, "why does yours have a chunk of the ground attached to it?"
"It was fused to the ground somehow, so I just had to dig it out using my explosions." Katsuki explained, "I thought about trying to blow that crap off of it, but that might damage the flag, so I just hauled it back here as-is."
After Ashido had successfully dissolved the adhesive keeping the flag glued to Kirishima's hand, Katsuki gave them the revised game plan.
"We're in a decent spot, but we could really use one more flag. I'm gonna go get ours back. You three stay here and guard what we've got." he glanced at the massive scoreboard, "I'm gonna go figure out who this "Monoma" bastard is and get our flag back."
It was at that point that Team Kaminari's point total shot up to one-thousand two-hundred and twenty-five.
"WHAT THE FUCK?!"
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Fumikage Tokoyami considered himself to be rather good at going with the flow when things started to get weird. After all, he was a birdman who had another birdman made of concentrated darkness living inside of him that fed off of his emotions and mental state, not to mention that said birdman was also sentient. Even in a world of Quirks, that was on the weirder side of things.
Still, having to of his team members return, one of them bleeding from her ears, with the aid of an opposing team member whose flag they had taken was certainly not something he had expected. That both of said teammates would prove to have lost their hearing (hopefully temporarily) and would proceed to get into a tickle fight before being retrieved by medical robots a couple of minutes later was even more bizarre.
His final teammate diving headfirst into their base, flag in hand and shouting "Tag him, tag him, for the love of GOD, tag him!" while being followed by some sort of raging beast that was bellowing at him to "Stand fast and uphold your honor, Sir Iida!" was pushing the limits of what even Fumikage was able to handle all at once.
"And stay gone!" Dark Shadow shouted at the now-retreating beast man who had seemingly snapped out of whatever rage had possessed him and reverted to a more human form.
"Thank you, Tokoyami-san, Dark Shadow-san." Iida gasped as smoke leaked from his calf engines, "I was nearing the end of my rope."
At Fumikage's prompting, Iida explained the situation. It turned out that he had purposefully antagonized the beast man, who was apparently named Shishida, in order to goad him into leaving his guard post. Iida's intent was to then dash past both him and the other guard, grab the flag and hightail it back, to their base.
"But he was faster than I had anticipated." Iida said as he began to lightly massage his oversized calf muscles, "I had no choice but to use Recipro Burst to force my way past him and then escape. He did not relent, however. He chased me all the way back here, even after I had reached our territory! He must have been taken by some form of madness!"
"Maybe you just really pissed him off?" Dark Shadow suggested.
"I don't know." Iida shook his head, "He seemed to be a composed gentleman at heart, but after his transformation it was as though he was gradually becoming more and more bestial in nature to match his new appearance. Honestly, if the situation had not been what it was, I rather feel as though we would have gotten along swimmingly. I believe I shall make it a point to apologize to him after this is over." he then turned his head from side to side, brow crinkling in confusion, "Forgive my lapse in attention, but where are Kaminari-san and Jiro-san?"
"Do you wanna tell him, or should I?"
"I'll do it. You keep watch."
"Aye aye."
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Mezo Shoji was in a pickle. It was pitch black, the entrance to his team's cave had collapsed and there was someone in the cave with him who was laughing and mocking him.
Less than a minute prior, things had been going well. Hatsume had proven to be extremely effective at hindering anyone who attempted to enter their territory by firing capture nets at them with a pair of specially-developed "babies" that could fire up to five times each before needing to be reloaded. The result was that there were several students littering their territory who were, simply put, S.O.L. They had not been tagged, but neither could they move, effectively removing them from the game unless someone helped them.
The occasional update from Midoriya and Uraraka revealed that their misdirection was working about as often as not. Their biggest success had come right away, with them managing to fool Todoroki of all people.
Then things had gone south. While Hatsume had been distracted by the latest wave of invaders who seemed to be more focused on retrieving their teammates by this point than actually taking their flag, a boy with pitch black skin and white hair had strolled into the cave as if he belonged there. Before Mezo could do more than register his sudden appearance and strangely laid-back behavior, he had caught a glimpse of another boy with pale skin and no discernible lips, rendering all of his teeth visible and giving him a somewhat skull-like appearance.
A glimpse was all he got because the other boy had placed a hand on the entrance, waved at him and then the entrance had seemed to melt and collapse in on itself.
"Baby! What the heck just happened?!"
"I don't know." Mezo respoinded, "That student with the exposed teeth just trapped his teammate in here with me for some reason."
"Oh, is that what you think?" a voice, presumably belonging to the boy who was in the cave with him, echoed throughout the darkness, "I think you'll find it's the other way around, Shoji-san. You are trapped in here with me."
The voice was changing locations as the boy spoke, but not just as though he were circling Mezo. No, he seemed to have full three-dimensional freedom of movement somehow. Either that or he was really, really good at throwing his voice.
"What do you mean by that?" Mezo inquired, doing his best to keep the boy talking while he figured out what was going on.
His answer was the sudden sound of movement to his immediate left. Mezo reflexively grasped the flag with two of his hands and was immediately vindicated by the wrenching sensation of someone battling with him for possession of the ten-million points. The boy was not as physically powerful as Mezo and soon changed tactics, which involved Mezo being assaulted from multiple angles at a dizzying pace.
Right shin. Left shoulders. Solar plexus. Head. Lower back. Try as he might, Mezo could not discern a pattern to the rain of blows. He made a broad, swiping motion with his four free arms, but failed to strike anything.
"It's ironic, really." the voice resumed once the flurry of blows had subsided, "I'm in your base, but you're in myworld now. Black, black, black. Even with all of those extra eyes, I'm betting that you can't even see your fist in front of your face," a sudden impact to his face caused Mezo's head to jerk to the side, "much less mine."
"Hatsume-san, I require backup. Is there anything you can do to clear the blockage?"
"I'm in a bit of a tight spot myself right now! Come on, babies! Momma needs you!"
"Oh, I probably should've mentioned:" the self-proclaimed master of the cave cackled from directly above Mezo, "My teammate, Honenuki? He's a bit tough to deal with. It makes sense, since he was one of the students who got in through recommendations this year. With a Quirk as versatile as his, I'm honestly not surprised."
"Shoji-kun, Hatsume-san, Deku-kun and I are heading over! Hang tight!"
"No!" Shoji barked into his headset, "Stay where you are. It's probable that this "Honenuki" can capture you and Midoriya-san using whatever methods he used to incapacitate Hatsume-san."
"But the flag-"
"Do not worry. I will not allow them to take it."
"Six minutes." Midoriya revealed, his tone grave, "That's how long we have left."
"Understood." Mezo solidified his grip on the flag and rose to his full height.
"You won't let us take it, huh?" a foot buried itself in Mezo's gut before a fist struck him in between his shoulder blades, causing him to stagger forward, "You'd better get comfortable then, Shoji-san, because if we're not taking it, then you're going to be taking it." cue a new barrage of strikes from seemingly impossible angles that had absolutely no sense of fluidity. They weren't overly powerful individually, but Mezo's inability to predict where they were coming from meant that he could not properly prepare himself to receiver the damage. As a result, most of the blows were clean.
"I guess we should get to know each other a bit. Name's Shihai Kuroiro. I have a tendency to stand out in crowds, which I'm sure you can relate to. Honenuki knows that feeling too. Apparently more than one kid's been scared by that winning smile of his."
Another rain of blows, which Mezo was able to cut short by swiping his arms through the air once more.
"Ooh, close one. Anyway, I'm wondering if that mask you're always wearing means that maybe you have more in common with Honenuki than one might think? Face-wise, I mean. You wouldn't be wearing it for no reason, that's for sure."
"Maybe I just like the look." Mezo replied with a dry tone, earning himself another strike across the face.
Those were really starting to annoy him. To make things worse, he had no idea how much time had passed. Had it been two minutes? Three? Was he fortunate enough for it to have been four? He would have asked for an update but his assailant had managed to dislodge the communicator with what had felt like a kick to the head.
"Don't lie now, Shoji-san." Kuroiro chastised him, "What kind of healthy relationship is built on lies? Here I was hoping we could be friends."
"Your actions don't match your words."
"True." cue another round of pummeling for Mezo.
"You know," Kuroiro said with the audible cracking of some joint or other, "I've been very sporting about this so far. This is a friendly competition, after all; I have no desire to actually hurt you, at least not too badly."
"I'm sensing a 'but.'"
"But," Kuroiro confirmed, "my team wants to advance, just like yours does. You've proven to be pretty stubborn, which is admirable in its own way, but we're on the clock here. Since I'm a nice guy, I'm giving you one final chance: drop the flag or the kid gloves are coming off. Fingers, joints, your eyes, your throat and more will be fair game." after a moment, Kuroiro added, "Or maybe I should start with that mask? Then we can see what you really look like. After all, we're both monsters in our own way, aren't we? Give up the façade and join the club. Honenuki, Kamakiri and me would be happy to have you, I'm sure."
Monster. That was a word that Mezo had heard before. There were many possible frames of mind that could bring that label about: fear, disgust, ignorance, condemnation, even just a sore loser who couldn't understand that he wasn't as big as he had thought. Kuroiro obviously didn't feel any of these things in regards to the word; when he said it, it was in the matter-of-fact way that one might describe the sky to be blue or water to be wet.
"I see. So you truly see yourself as a monster? I suppose we do have certain things in common, at least from your perspective."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Kuroiro's voice carried a definite note of surprise.
"Your threats to become more violent are not solely because of the time limit. You've accepted that there is simply no way that you are going to get me to give you this flag. In doing so, you acknowledge your own weakness and seek to overcome it with pinpoint tactics. There is nothing inherently wrong with this strategy, but it must really stick in your craw." Mezo bared his teeth beneath his mask, "After all, here we are in your ideal conditions, with a task that should be a simple matter for you and yet you are powerless against me."
"Are you trying to get me to hurt you?"
"Quite the opposite." Mezo refuted, "You've gotten tired of this? I have too. That's why I'm going to end it, here and now." Mezo took his hands off of the flag and cracked the fingers on all six of his hands simultaneously, "Come. Give everything you have in the pursuit of taking this flag. I will grind you into the dirt and show you who the real monster is!"
"Fine." silence followed this one word. Mezo turned two of his arms into tentaclears, closing his eyes as he did so. In all honesty, he did not doubt for a single moment that Kuroiro would have made good on his threat to get more painful with his assaults. As willing as Mezo was to just take whatever beatings the denizen of darkness could dish out, his injuries were beginning to mount. A well-placed shot to the throat, knees or groin carried with them the strong possibility of loosening his grip enough for Kuroiro to take the flag, at which point Honenuki had no doubt devised an escape plan.
However, his opponent was becoming desperate. More than half of the allotted time must have passed by then and from what he was suggesting, Team Honenuki did not have enough points to reliably pass the second event.
His Quirk has something to do with the darkness, that much is clear. If this is the case…
Noise! Movement!
…then it only makes sense that he would stage his final assault from where the darkness is densest!
Mezo whirled about, ripping the flag out of the ground with his right arms as he made a grab with his left ones and felt them close on what must have been Kuroiro's uniform.
"What?!"
"You have varied your attack patterns up until now," Mezo spun around, taking a single, large step towards where he knew the entrance of the cave to be, "but when people are backed into a corner, they always go with the plan that has the greatest chance of success! HAH!"
*KROOM*
With a single mighty heave, Mezo hurled the disoriented Kuroiro completely through the layer of earth concealing the entrance, which turned out to be thinner and softer than everywhere else. Sunlight burst through the opening, illuminating the interior of the cave once more.
"Kuroiro! What the hell?!" Honenuki was waiting outside and his lipless mouth was currently agape.
"Your plan has failed." Mezo informed him, "Leave now."
Honenuki, who had dropped to one knee, presumably to check the status of Kuroiro, narrowed his eyes at Mezo, who only realized that something was wrong a half-second before he started sinking into the ground as though it was quicksand.
"Failed? Well, maybe that one did, but so what?" Honenuki chuckled, "The most important thing is to be flexible in your approach, you know?"
"I couldn't agree more." Midoriya suddenly fell from the sky, slapping Honenuki on the back as he did so before landing on all-fours, "Tag."
"Shoji-kun! Catch me please!" reacting on instinct, Shoji held out his arms and caught Uraraka as she fell from where she and Midoriya had clearly been just a moment earlier.
"Heh. Well-played." Honenuki admitted as he helped a groaning Kuroiro to his feet, "Obviously I'm bummed, but at least we gave it our all."
"Why are you making it sound as though it is already over?" Mezo inquired.
"Well, you see…" Midoriya began before being interrupted by the blaring of a horn.
"TIME! The second event of the U.A. Sports Festival has hereby come to a close!"
"…that's why."
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Izuku Midoriya turned to scan the scoreboard, eager to see the final results of the competition. He knew that his team had gotten first place, but it still filled him with joy and relief to know that they had made it.
"In first place, keeping possession of the ten-million four-hundred points through out the entire duration of the competition, we have TEAM MIDORIYA!"
Present Mic confirmed what the scoreboard was already saying, much to the delight of the audience, who exploded into applause.
Now, where was Kacchan's team?
"In second place, with a whopping one-thousand two-hundred and twenty-five points, TEAM KAMINARI! Everybody give them a round of applause and here's hoping that the two members who were taken to the infirmary will be back with us shortly!"
Right. Izuku had heard the announcement. He was honestly worried about Kaminari and Jiro, since they were the only ones who had been hurt badly enough to warrant a trip to the infirmary in the middle of the event.
Where was Kacchan's team though? Every time he started to scan the board, he was cut off by some thought or other and had to start over.
"In third place, with a commanding one-thousand one-hundred and forty points, we have TEAM MONOMA! They managed to recover from their early loss of points and then some! Give it up!"
Monoma? Right, that was the team from 1-B. Izuku had caught a glimpse of them during his and Ochako's circuit around the field.
Still, to have Kacchan stuck in fourth place, wow. He must have been pretty irritated by that. Oh well, at least they made it into the top sixteen-
"In fourth place, with a solid eight-hundred and five points, TEAM TODOROKI! They wreaked havoc on the battlefield, secured their position and then put their base on lockdown until it was time to move on! That's what I call strategy!"
Wait…
What?
But that meant…
"No way…"
"And in fifth place with seven-hundred and five points, TEAM BAKUGO! They were so CLOSE! Let's give them a nice round of applause along with all of the teams who wound up with zero points!"
Kacchan…didn't make it?
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Denki Kaminari was currently dealing with the absolute worst itch that he had ever felt in his life. He couldn't even scratch it, since it was coming from inside his head.
"Oh, stop fidgeting!" Recovery Girl admonished him as she handed him a hard candy, "Just suck on that and by the time it's gone you'll be all done. You're lucky that there was a wall between you and that noise otherwise it might not have been so simple to heal. Not like this poor girl."
That stopped Denki dead in his proverbial tracks.
"You aren't saying that…well…" he was cut off by a dismissive wave of her hand.
"Don't be silly. She'll be fine. Granted, if this was left to heal on its own then she would likely have some degree of hearing loss, but with my help she'll recover. It will take some time though."
Denki got off of the bed that Recovery Girl had sat him down on and walked over to Jiro, who was lying on the bed next to his with a calm expression on her face.
"Hey." she said as Recovery Girl started working on her.
"Hey, Denki replied, giving a small wave to show that he had heard her."
"Geez, dude, who died?" she raised her arm and indicated his face.
"How can you be so casual about this?" he took one of the cotton balls that Recovery Girl was using to clean out her ears and showed it to her. There was blood on it.
"Don't touch that!" Recovery Girl snatched the cotton ball from his hand and threw it in the medical waste bin that was nearby, "Seriously, don't you know anything about sanitation? You make sure to wash your hands!"
Denki did as he was instructed and then returned to see Jiro, ears now free of blood and emanating the subtle glow that told him that Recovery Girl's Quirk was hard at work, giving him an amused smile.
"You don't have to freak out so much." she reassured him, "It's not the first time I've had my eardrums blown out, you know? Heck, it's not even the worst. I remember when I had the bright idea to plug my jacks into a pair of my dad's woofers, crank the volume and hit the bass." she grimaced at the memory, "Not one of my best moments."
"I should think not!" Recovery Girl grumbled her disapproval as she started applying some bandages and cotton to Jiro's ears, making sure that her jacks were blocked as well, "I'd much prefer it if you stayed in here for the remainder of the festival, but I know that unless I strap you to the bed there's precious little chance of that happening. A large crowd isn't where you want to be when recovering from an ear injury like this, but with this much to muffle the sounds you should be alright."
The little old lady gave Denki a stern look.
"Did you catch all of that, young man?"
"Yes, Ma'am!"
"You make sure she doesn't take it off, you hear?"
"Yes, Ma'am!"
"I'll expect her back here before class on Friday for her follow-up. She can take off the bandages when she gets home tonight if she must, but no loud noises! She likely won't regain all of her hearing until our follow-up appointment, so tell her not to feel alarmed if everything sounds muffled for a couple of days."
"Yes, Ma'am! Um, if I can ask, why Friday?"
"You have the next two days off from classes. Didn't you know that?"
Now that she mentioned it, Denki vaguely remembered something like that. He nodded and Recovery Girl went back to her temporary office to watch the broadcast of the festival until she was needed again.
"So…" Jiro said, getting Denki's attention, "I guess I won't be able to move on to the third event, huh?"
Denki shook his head, lips pressed together.
"Damn." her expression screwed up for a moment and she reached for her bandages, "Itches like a-"
Denki grabbed her wrist gently, but firmly, and shook his head again.
"Right. No touching."
He nodded, releasing her wrist and retracting his hand before she caught his sleeve, stopping him.
"You need to snap out of it, alright? It sucks that this happened, but you can't let that stop you from giving it your all out there. You're Class 1-A's front man, after all."
Denki blinked, wondering if the air in the infirmary was a bit dry from the burning sensation in his eyes.
"I'm sorry." he knew that she couldn't hear him, but he didn't care, "I'm sorry that my plan got you hurt. I'm sorry that you won't be able to keep going." he had her hand clasped between both of his as his shoulders shook, "I'm sorry that I'm so bad at this. I'm sorry that you always have to pull my ass out of the fire." he gritted his teeth, refusing to break down, "First Midoriya and now you! Why can't I stop shit like this from happening?! I'm Class President goddamn it!" he was hunched over, clasped hands making him look like a man absorbed in a desperate prayer, "I was out of it when Midoriya got hurt but…when I saw you…when I saw…" as he trailed off, he felt a hand running along his hair in slow, soothing motions.
"You need to get a grip, boss man," Jiro said, voice pitched perhaps a bit differently than usual, "otherwise you're gonna get me started too and between the two of us we might not stop in time." Denki looked up to see unshed tears in those dark purple, almost-black eyes, "Seriously, I'm the one who should be getting all worked up here. I'm the one who might not get an internship because of how quickly I got taken out. I'm the one who gets to be deaf for a couple days. I'm the one who should be worried and hurt and scared, but here you are upstaging me. What kind of sense does that make, huh?"
Denki pulled Jiro to him and squeezed her in his arms.
"I know you can't hear me but I promise I won't lose. Not until I make it to the top. And when they ask me to make some sort of comment, I'll say that I'd never have made it that far without you. They'll have no choice but to recognize you then. My spotlight will be big enough that it'll shine on you too!"
Jiro froze up for a moment before sighing and resting her head on his shoulder.
"You get one, Denki. You got that? One."
"…Glad we had this talk."
"Yeah, sure. Whatever you just said."
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There was a break between the end of the second event and the third being announced while the field was cleaned up a bit. In the meantime, everyone was eating lunch. Well, everyone except for Tooru. She had seen Todo break off from the crowd at his first opportunity and had decided to follow him. Much to her surprise, she heard him before she saw him and he wasn't alone. Midoriya was with him.
"Not only did you fool me, you won first place in the second event without ever using your Quirk, didn't you?"
"Well, I used it towards the end to help break my fall."
"You know what I mean."
"I…no. No I didn't really use it."
"My team made it to the final event with me only using half of my power, but your team made it with you using even less than that, huh? I can see that I was right to challenge you. No…perhaps it would be more accurate to say that you're the only one that I could have challenged."
"Todoroki-san, what are you talking about?"
Yes. Please. For the love of god someone explain what was happening!
"You're an observant guy, Midoriya. You've obviously noticed by now that I don't use my left side."
It wasn't a question and from the lack of a verbal response, Tooru guessed that Midoriya had only nodded.
"You know who Endeavor is, right? The number two Hero?"
"O-of course I know him! He's been the number two for a long time now! Aside from All Might, he's the strongest in Japan! In fact, if you're looking at the total number of cases closed, he actually surpasses All Might!"
"He's my dad."
It took nearly all of Tooru's self-control not to say something to the effect of "WHAT?!"
"Since you're in the know about a lot of Hero-related stuff, you probably also know about the one-sided rivalry between him and All Might. That makes it even more important that I beat you today."
"So, you want to beat me for your dad?"
"No. I want to beat you in spite of my dad."
"You've lost me."
"Endeavor made a name for himself by giving his all into his career as a Pro Hero. He shot up the ranks like a rocket but he could never compare to All Might. No matter what he did, All Might was an immovable pillar to him. So, once he accepted that he couldn't surpass him on his own, he decided to take a different route."
Something in Todo's tone told Tooru that she wasn't going to like what came next. Even so, she didn't move.
"Have you heard of Quirk Marriages? I wouldn't be surprised if you hadn't, since they're not as much of a problem as they used to be."
Another nonverbal response from Midoriya.
"The concept of choosing a mate based on the idea of creating enhanced versions of one's own Quirk…it sounds simple enough on paper, but the reality was more like forced arranged marriages. As a man with both power and prestige, Endeavor found it easy to get on good terms with my mother's family and get ahold of her Quirk via marriage. His idea was that if he couldn't surpass All Might, then he'd just have a batch of super-babies that would do it for him. Eventually, this resulted in me."
Tooru heard him sigh before he continued.
"The hell of it is, there were more than a few Quirk Marriages that still ended up happy in the end. My mother wasn't one of those, though. I'm the youngest kid, so this was several years in the making before I came along, but in most of my memories of her, my mom is crying. She couldn't take looking at my left side, you see. It reminded her too much of him. So, she poured boiling water on me one night when I walked in on her making tea."
This…this couldn't be right, could it? It was too much.
"Because he focused all of his time and energy on furthering his Hero career, my mother was neglected and abused until she just couldn't take it anymore. Honestly, I can't blame her for what she did. That's why I'm going to take you down, Midoriya. I'll take the number one Hero's golden boy, one who uses fire no less, and prove to my shitty old man that I can be the best. Without relying on his thrice-damned power."
The anger was back, but it was different. It was worse. Before he had flared up like an autumn fire, but this…this was a slow, deep burning. Like glowing coals that persisted all throughout a winter blizzard.
It was that feeling, more than anything, that convinced Tooru that he was telling the truth. You just couldn't fake such a…such a horrible anger. It was the kind of thing that could eat a person alive from the inside out.
Tooru was scared. Not of Todo, but for him.
"I don't know what your relationship with All Might is and frankly, it doesn't really matter. No matter what you are, I'm going to take full advantage of your position. Sorry in advance."
"Todoroki-san." the sound of Todo's footsteps stopped and Tooru, against her better judgement, peeked around the corner, doing her best to keep her shoulder out of view. Midoriya's back was to her and Todo had half-turned to look at him properly.
"I…I can't claim to understand what you've been through. I can't just say something like 'I know how you feel' or 'I can imagine what that's like.' So, instead, I'm just going to ask you a question."
Todo gave a short nod, permitting the question.
"Did you mean what you said before the first event? About the second reason why you think that I'm a better Hero than you?"
"Yes."
"Then don't make the same mistake twice. If you want to apologize to me for what happened back then, even though I still don't blame you, then you need to take whatever mental block you have on your left side and throw it away. Otherwise, all you'll prove to me is that you haven't changed."
Todo was dumbstruck as Midoriya turned around and walked down the hall towards where Tooru was. His expression was intense and…were his eyes orange? She blinked and they were back to their usual green. Must have imagined it. Midoriya turned down the opposite hall from where Tooru was and didn't notice her. After he had gone, Todo slumped against a wall and slid to the floor.
"…It's not that simple…" she could just barely make out his words. He slammed his fist against the nearby wall, causing a smacking sound to echo through the mostly-empty space, "Damn it! It's not that simple! Don't you…don't you think I…"
The way his voice cracked at the end. The way that his story showed everything she thought she knew about Shoto Todoroki in a new light. The way that it was all he could do to just barely keep his famed composure.
It was too much for Tooru to take. So, while he beat his fist against the wall in a steady rhythm, she shed the invisible tears that he wouldn't.
Because right then, someone needed to.
T – o – r – c – h – b – e – a – r – e – r
Izuku Midoriya was a mixture of relieved and bummed out. He was relieved because, due to Kaminari and Jiro's explanation of her injuries, she had to withdraw from the third event, which mean that Kacchan could compete. Bummed out because, well, she had done her part to earn a spot in the final event and she couldn't participate now.
The third event, as it turned out, was a series of one-on-one matches organized into a tournament. It wasn't always a tournament per-se, but there was always some form of direct one-on-one competition and the years with tournaments always boasted the highest ratings.
"Alright," Midnight was back on her pedestal and was holding a box that was labeled "Lots," "I'm sure that everyone is super-eager to hear how this is going to work, so listen up! We're going to have you all pick a number from this box and that will decide the matchups! There will, as you have all heard, be some extra recreational activities before the third round to give us time to set everything up. It's up to the sixteen finalists to decide whether they want to participate or conserve their energy. So, we'll work our way down the ladder, starting with the team that placed first and moving on down until all sixteen numbers have been taken. Okay?"
"Um, *cough* excuse me?" a raspy voice accompanied by a raised hand drew everyone's attention to the student from Team Monoma that had a speech bubble where his head should have been.
"Fukidashi, save your voice. Are you sure about this?" Monoma asked, receiving a nod in return, "Alright then."
"Team Monoma, what is it that you would like to say?" Midnight prompted.
"Manga Fukidashi overused his Quirk while defending our base last round." Monoma explained, "He maintains that in his present condition, he would not be able to provide the level of competition that the final event deserves. As such, he requests that you allow him to withdraw and allow a member of the fifth-place team to take his place. He also wishes everyone else good luck."
Say what you will about this guy, but he knows how to work the crowd.
Indeed, the audience was giving Fukidashi polite applause and Midnight was panting slightly.
Another, much larger hand was raised. This time it was Koda from Team Todoroki.
"Koda-kun wants to withdraw too." Hagakure said on the quiet boy's behalf, "He doesn't feel like he contributed enough to warrant a spot here and wants his place to go to someone who actually earned it. I, for one…agree. Tooru Hagakure also wishes to withdraw."
"What?" it was Todoroki who reacted first to this information, staring at Hagakure with a look of mingled surprise and confusion.
"Let's face the facts, Todo: I didn't earn my place here. I used tools that Yaomomo produced and basically walked around and tagged people. Compared to someone like you or her, who was really giving it their all and making a difference, I…" she paused, as though she were cutting herself off, "I didn't do enough to earn my place and besides, I'm not cut out for a tournament like this. Look at everyone else, then look at me. Ochako-chan would send me flying as soon as I got close enough to land a hit. Shoji would catch me before I could get away from him. You would just freeze the whole stage and catch me in it. Midoriya would figure something out. Yaomomo-chan would make an ink bomb or something. Kaminari would fry me. Are you getting the picture, here?"
She walked to Todoroki and put a hand on his shoulder.
"I'm not cut out for something like this. I'm sorry that-" she cut herself off again, "I'm sorry that you worked so hard just for two of us to bail at the last moment. I'll be cheering for you, okay?"
"You three…this…" Midnight appeared to be short-circuiting, "SUCH YOUTHFUL EARNESTNESS! I feel like my blood is boiling in my veins! Innocent greenhorns like you really do get all of my love! I will allow these withdrawals!"
It was in this way that the entirety of Team Bakugo was able to participate in the tournament in spite of the fact that they placed fifth.
It was received with…mixed results.
"Fate! This is fate at work!"
"Bakubro! Ain't this awesome?!"
"I admit I am pleased at the opportunity."
"I…I want it, but I don't, but I do…"
By "mixed," Izuku really meant to say that Kacchan's teammates eagerly accepted, with only him showing any sign of reluctance.
"Kacchan, just go with it." he advised, "After all, you can't be number one if you don't participate, right?"
His friend was forced to admit the truth of this statement.
"Alright! Now, let's get this show on the road! Line up everybody!"
Team Midoriya was first. Izuku drew the number nine, Ochako drew the number one, Shoji drew the number three and Hatsume drew the number fifteen.
Okay, at least none of us are fighting each other right away. That's good, right?
Next was Team Kaminari minus Jiro. Kaminari drew the number eight, Iida drew the number sixteen and Tokoyami drew the number two.
"The first and last matchups have been decided! Ochako Uraraka vs. Fumikage Tokoyami is the first match of round one! Mei Hatsume vs. Tenya Iida is the last!"
Well, talk about throwing a stone into stagnant waters. Each of those matchups sounded interesting. Izuku would have to start working on a game plan for Ochako. Tokoyami was a hell of an opponent to get right off the bat.
Third was Team Monoma minus Fukidashi. Monoma kicked things off right away by drawing the number ten while Tetsutetsu drew the number six and Shinso drew the number seven.
"Things are starting to fall into place, Listeners! The fourth match of round one is Hitoshi Shinso vs. Denki Kaminari! The fifth match is Izuku Midoriya vs. Neito Monoma!"
Well, that was…troubling. Izuku had no idea what either Shinso or Monoma could do apart from the fact that Monoma had apparently been the one to blow out Jiro's eardrums. He knew that Kacchan had been rebuffed from Team Monoma's base a few times towards the end of the event, but he hadn't had time to really talk to him about it thanks to his discussion with Todoroki and subsequent rush to eat lunch.
Team Todoroki, consisting of only Todoroki and Yaoyorozu, was next. Todoroki drew the number eleven while Yaoyorozu drew the number fourteen.
Great. So, if I beat Monoma then there's a chance that I'll have Todoroki to deal with after that. Well, better sooner than later, I guess.
Finally, there was Team Bakugo. Kacchan drew the number thirteen, Kirishima drew the number five, Ashido drew the number four and Ojiro gulped before he drew the final remaining number: twelve.
"And there you have it, Listeners! The second match of round one is Mezo Shoji vs. Mina Ashido! The third match is Eijiro Kirishima vs. Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu! The sixth match is Shoto Todoroki vs. Mashirao Ojiro! Finally, the seventh match is Katsuki Bakugo vs. Momo Yaoyorozu! How wonderful! How exciting! What could happen? ANYTHING! But first, let's all have a bit of fun, shall we?
Omake: Jimmy Samoa
Everybody has things from their past that they're not proud of. Pro Heroes are no exception. If anything, they have to be more careful than everyone else since the public eye is constantly upon them. Say, you look like the type who's interested in Heroes. How about a deal? Sit down and buy me a drink and I'll tell you the story of one such incident involving none other than All Might himself!
How about it?
…
*slurp*
Mmm…that's good stuff. Alright, you've held up your end of the bargain, so sit back and relax as I tell you about the time All Might made a boo-boo on live network television.
There was once a man named Jimmy Samoa Who Fucked A Jerboa And Found To His Surprise That He Liked It. Yes, that was his actual name. No, I am not kidding.
Anyway, old Jimmy was a small-time Villain in America who ended up having a big-time impact on society, at least during that particular week. As you may or may not know, All Might spent some of his early years fighting crime in the good old U.S. of A. Jimmy was one of the Villains that he brought low during his time there and, as I already said, he caused All Might to screw up something fierce.
You see, there was a lot of debate as to what Jimmy's Quirk actually was. The people who figured it out reportedly did so at some nondescript bar one night as they were drinking brewskis and swapping stories. Let's imagine for a moment how that conversation might have played out.
"So, y'all heard about that Villain what's been runnin' around lately?"
"This is the city, Hank. Place is lousy with Villains. You're gonna have to be more specific."
"Nah, see, there's a rumor going around about what happens if you say his name."
"Either quit being a pussy or shut up talking about random-ass Villains."
"Fine, fine. His name's Jimmy Samoa Who Fucked A Jerboa And Found To His Surprise That He Liked It."
*PPBBBTT*
"God damnit, Hank! You made me spit out my beer! Why'd you have to go and say all that other nonsense at the end of his name?!"
"That's what happens when you say his name, man. Go on. Try and just say his name."
"Jimmy Samoa Who Fucked A Jerboa And Found To His Surprise That He Liked It. FUCK!"
"Eh? You see? You get it?"
"The fuck did you do to me, Hank? That shit's not funny!"
"I didn't do nothin'! That's just how it is, man!"
"Would you two kindly take it down a notch? You're disturbing the other customers."
"Barkeep! This is serious! We think we figured out this feller's Quirk! You know, that one guy!"
"Oh, you mean Jimmy Samoa Who Fucked A Jerboa And Found To His Surprise That He Liked It? My word!"
"Shit, Hank, you got the barkeep in on it now too! You need to stop spreading that shit around!"
It so happens that the rumors of Jimmy did not stop spreading and he was soon found to be the root cause of several public disturbances and local parents were blaming him for the sudden upsurge in their children's cursing, since there was no way to say only part of his name.
All Might's managers saw this as a great way for him to get some good publicity, so he hunted down and captured poor old Jimmy. When he was interviewed, he had lots of good things to say.
"Yes, dear citizens! Never fear! We have captured this Villain and his spree of public indecency and corruption of the tongues of your children ends today! Upon researching his Quirk, we found that it only works with the name that he has tattooed across his left buttock, so we shall be taking him to a local specialist to have said tattoo altered into something more family-friendly."
"And All Might, for those around the country who are just now learning of this atrocity, could you tell us all what the name of this dastardly Villain is?"
"Most certainly! It is Jimmy Samoa Who Fucked A Jerboa And Found To His Surprise That He Liked It!"
"Cut the feed, CUT THE FEED!"
And that, my friend, is the story of the time All Might said "fuck" on live network television.
Hmm? My name?
You can call me "Jimmy."