A Fool's Bonds
Chapter 26
-Momo-
Head held high, she climbed the steps into the ring, Kyoka climbing up on the other side.
"Alright girls, you ready?" Midnight grinned, cracking her whip to the side as the audience cheered, eager for another fight that wasn't as embarrassing as Ida's had been.
"Yep." Kyoka nodded with a grin before looking in Momo's direction, "First things first though, Momo, you gotta make me a promise."
"A promise?" She blinked in surprise.
"Promise me that no matter what, whoever wins has to kick the Boss' ass in the finals." Kyoka gave a wide teasing grin as Momo laughed despite herself, "Hear that Izuku, we're coming for you!"
"I'll see one of you in the finals then!" Izuku was laughing too, Mina and Eijiro giving exaggerated looks of mock offense. Th various people in the stands took the banter in stride, clearly happy to have fights without any drama or bad feelings like all the previous ones had seemed to include.
"It's a promise." Momo nodded, "I'll be sure to beat Izuku when I meet him in the finals."
"Oh, it's on girl." Jiro dropped into a stance.
"Alright ladies, begin!" Midnight gave the signal as Momo brought her arm up quickly, a series of barrels extending from her palms as she began rapidly firing rubber bullets at Kyoka.
The purplette dove forward, rolling under the barrage of rubber bullets, ear jacks jamming into the ground as the concrete platform started to crack apart. Sharp stone jutted upward from the vibrations Kyoka was pumping into the ground, the parts that didn't break shaking ominously.
Leaping to the side to avoid being caught in Kyoka's attack, Momo charged closer to her friend, using a small bit of One for All to subtly boost her speed. Cutting off the barrels in her left arm, she let the tubes fall to the ground as she created an air horn in her palm, blaring it right by Kyoka to make the purple haired rocker flinch at the unexpected and loud sound.
Grabbing Kyoka's arm as she flinches back, her jacks pulling just out of the ground, Momo grit her teeth, hurling her friend in a Judo throw as she flung the smaller girl out of the ring.
"Kyoka Jiro is out of bounds, Momo Yaoyorozu advances!" Midnight declared even as Momo ran over to her dazed friend.
"Daaamn Yaomomo, you're tougher than I thought." Kyoka laughed, thankfully not put out at her defeat, "Well, you'd better keep up your end of the deal and kick the Boss' ass." Kyoka's grin grew wider as they walked back into the tunnel, "Who knows, maybe he's into that."
"KYOKA!" Momo's face burned red even as her best female friend cackled gleefully.
-Aizawa-
"At least those two are still friendly." Hizashi sighed in relief, microphone shut off as the two girls entered the tunnel, "Am I going crazy, or has this year had a lot more 'drama' with these fights than normal?"
"You were already crazy," Shota didn't even bat an eye as he took a jab at his best friend "but no, you're not wrong here." Monoma had adopted Kan's insufferable rivalry with Shota's class, Shinso clearly had a chip on his shoulder, Shoto had come out of that gate already furious about something, and then Mei had to make a mockery of the festival and abuse the trust of a schoolmate. It wasn't a good look for any of them looking to get offers for internships.
"Next fight is another couple from your class." Mic noted as the roulette wheel finished selecting the names, flipping his microphone back on "And we have our next competitors! Who will be the one moving forward? The pink acid queen of the first years, or Class A's raven of shadows?"
"It'll be a close fight." Shota admitted, "They each have distinct advantages in their favor so I could see this match going either way. It all depends on who can find the best opening and capitalize on that opening to seize victory."
With that, Midnight gave the signal to begin, Ashido charging towards Tokoyami while hurling fistfuls of diluted acid. The spectral quirk dodged, turning at sharp unnatural angles to avoid the liquid attack as it moved closer to Ashido while Tokoyami moved further away. It made sense, Ashido's quirk was a dangerous counter to any form of close quarters combat, able to burn skin and destroy equipment.
Tokoyami, however, had the benefit of being two minds in one. Minds that possessed the ability to think, act, and most importantly here fight completely independent of one another. Added to that, Dark Shadow was far more resilient than Tokoyami himself and could easily be withdrawn and emerge again unscathed if need be.
"This is turning into a battle of attrition." Hizashi noted, seeing Ashido drop into a split to avoid a lunge from Dark Shadow, a hurled handful of acid hitting the quirk's 'tether' to Tokoyami and making it screech angrily, spinning around to attack again.
"Yes and no." Shota pointed nodded to the ring, "Ashido's being herded, slowly, toward the edge. If this was a free form fight or in a more diverse area, then she'd have a better chance. But with a small space like this then Tokoyami has a clear advantage and he's capitalizing on it. Honestly, it's just a bad match up for her." Sure enough, just as he predicted, Ashido was eventually forced out of the ring. Thankfully taking the loss gratefully, she accepted the hand up and grasped both Tokoyami and Dark Shadow's hands to raise them up in victory. The heroes in the stands, or at least most of them, cheering for the show of sportsmanship.
"And there goes the roulette wheel again." Hizashi glanced up at the screen before rolling his eyes "Ah, another year, yet another ironic fight. I'm starting to think Nezu might be having a hand in how often those happen."
"Starting? Well, I guess you always have been a little slow on the uptake." Shota smirked at his pouting friend.
-Kirishima-
Track suit jacket tied around his waist, Eijiro strode up the stairs onto the Sports Festival Arena. Across from him, he could see the determined angry expression of his opponent from 1B, Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu.
"You boys ready?" Midnight grinned, striking a pose as the crowd cheered.
"Yeah!" Tetsutetsu roared, skin and hair turning to solid iron, the first near now a smooth seamless being of metal. Eijiro simply nodded, dropping into a combat stance, his quirk not yet activated. Tetsutetsu's expression got even angrier at that, the other hardening quirk user likely seeing it as an insult.
When Midnight gave the signal to begin, Tetsutetsu charged in like a berserker, a massive right hook being swung back highly telegraphed. Lashing out, he hardened just his forearm mid swing, crashing his rock like limb against Tetsutetsu's chrome wrist, knocking it aside as his other hardened fist lashed out to slam into his opponent's face. Not wasting a moment, Eijiro disengaged, not wanting to risk Tetsutetsu being smarter than he was acting and moving to grapple.
"Stand still you cowardly copycat!" Testutetsu roared, continuing to charge like an angry bull. Eijiro could tell that his opponent was definitely strong, and he could feel how hard that steel was on impact, but Tetsutetsu was clearly relying on that quirk over any sort of form or training. To trust in his 'invulnerability' to not need to bother focusing on technique or defense, but pure offense.
To be fair, if it hadn't been for the USJ he might have been the same.
Seeing villains, actual villains, up close had been…a changing experience for him. It made everything, his goals, his ambitions, his schooling, suddenly become a lot more real. That was what he was training to face, and he couldn't risk half assing it, couldn't hesitate.
He threw himself into his training with even more dedication after that; refining his quirk, his mind, and his skills to a razor's edge.
He pushed how strong he could harden his body along with the control he had over how quickly could transform, even the precision to only harden certain places.
He trained his mind with Izuku, his best friend besides Mina. Eijiro knew he wasn't the smartest guy around, but Izuku wasn't just smart, he was smart about quirks. Whenever they worked on the beach hauling trash, they'd spitball ideas back and forth. He gave Midoriya an outside perspective to bounce ideas off of while Midoriya helped him come up with new ways he could train.
Then there was skill. He'd gone to Aizawa outside of class and asked for suggestions on what sort of combat style to learn and where he could find a place to learn it. Aizawa had suggested Krav Maga for him, his quirk and recent training to quickly harden specific points a good fit for that style, and introduced him to a retired hero he knew that had mastered the style. He'd been training hard, throwing himself into it whenever he wasn't spending time with his friends.
And now he had the chance to prove it.
"I SAID TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY!" Tetsutetsu roared, coming in for another brutal punch that would have hurt if the steel quirk user could make the blow connect.
Deflecting the attack again, Eijiro finally let a bit of annoyance show, "You know, I wanted to save this move. I wanted to use it against my best bro Izuku. But I'm not going to waste my time and stamina on a long-drawn-out fight just to save a single attack." He charged Tetsutetsu who eagerly copied him, "Let's see how you like this!" Eijiro roared, throwing his punch forward even as Tetsutetsu did the same.
The steel fist parted his hair as he moved his head to the side to avoid the impact, the momentum carrying Tetsutetsu into Eijiro's own blow "Fist of the Northern Star!" Ejiro roared, hardening his fist JUST at the moment of impact. He and Izuku had noted that unlike a lot of hardening quirks, Ejiro's body expanded when he hardened, along with gaining sharp edges. By putting his fist at max hardness, it added an extra half inch or so of solid sharp rock that, combined with the momentum of his own punch and Tetsutetsu charging into it, lifted the 1B first year into the air, the steel quirk user unconscious before he even hit the ground.
-Izuku-
"Kiri! That was awesome!" Mina threw herself at Ejiro in a massive hug as the redhead returned to their booth.
"Damn straight it was!" Kyoka slapped Eijiro on the back, "Nice punch dude."
"You're one of the first in our class to have a super move." Momo clapped excitedly.
"You said you were saving that attack for me. I guess we'll just have to make our fight even better when we get to it then, won't we?" Izuku smiled, clasping arms with his male best friend while, down below, the last of the first-round competitors took their places.
Bakugo against Honenuki of Class B.
Izuku barely had time to blink after Midnight declared the match to begin before Bakugo was moving, leaping skyward with his quirk, the detonation scattering the suddenly softened cement.
Bakugo, if he was surprised by the attack, didn't show it as he literally flew toward his shocked opponent, grabbing them and hurling them from the ring in a single fluid motion.
That fight had been as short as Shinso or Shoto's had been.
Eijiro wasn't the only one who'd grown stronger since the USJ.