章 2278: 20
Chapter 20: Warrior
Notes:
Well, it looks like the final stretch of the sports festival sort of ran away on me. So it's a bit longer than I originally planned, but it doesn't take up the whole chapter, so there's that.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Izuku watched on with an inquisitive fascination as the second round of the quarter finals started up. Down below, two of his classmates from 1-A had been paired, the matchup consisting of Bakugo and Tokoyami. Izuku was standing further up than the rest of his class, with his arms hanging over the railing and him leaning forward as much as he could to watch the fight. It wasn't a necessary effort, of course, considering he could watch the fight with much greater efficiency if he used his bugs, but the excitement of seeing the fight firsthand had Izuku disregard the use of his bugs for now. But as fortune would have it, it was as the match had barely even started when the Izuku sensed a couple of forms walking toward him.
"I… I, um, Midoriya! ...kun," came the voice of Uraraka, much more reserved than usual. Izuku shifted his attention to his side — delegating some of his bugs to watch the fight — to find Uraraka accompanied by Iida.
"Hey guys. How's it going?" asked Izuku, shifting his gaze back on the fight.
"We are doing well, Midoriya. Thank you for asking," Iida said.
"Yeah. But other than that, oh, not much. Iida-kun's still waiting for his match. But I'm just watching the rest of the fights from up here, you know?" Uraraka added.
"Ah, yes," Izuku said in understanding. "It's too bad you didn't get past the cavalry battle. I would have liked to see some more combat scenarios with your quirk. You have a very versatile power, after all."
"Oh! Uh, thank you, Midoriya-kun. But really, if any of us has a versatile quirk, it's you. Even with all the… bugs. I mean, your fight with — with Shinso was interesting!"
"It was indeed interesting, Midoriya," Iida interrupted. "Uraraka and I didn't know what was happening, and Ashido wasn't back yet so we couldn't ask her what Shinso had done with her.. Much of our class was in the same position, but then Ojiro-san told us that Shinso probably had a sort of mind control quirk."
"Oh? He did?" Izuku asked. "How'd Ojiro figure that out?"
"He said it was from the Cavalry Battle. Apparently, that was the reason he forfeited his position to Shiozaki."
"Really? Did he now?" Izuku asked. A few moments passed before he spoke again, a bit more tense this time around. "But neither Rin nor Kaibara left their positions open for someone else to take their place. I guess it just goes to how much Ojiro respects his own moral code and sense of honor."
Down below, Tokoyami found himself on the ground, pinned against Bakugo's body and with his Dark Shadow weakened immensely from the explosions Bakugo produced from his hands. It wasn't long until the match went to Bakugo. It wasn't a surprise to Izuku, who knew that it was likely that Tokoyami would lose due to his weakness to light sources. Izuku sat down on the seat behind him.
"Dang. I supposed that I shouldn't have expected anything less. Who's next, again? I wasn't paying attention earlier."
Iida and Uraraka followed suit, sitting on one side of Izuku. "It's Tsu and that vine-hair girl!" Uraraka said. "This one's going to be fun!" The atmosphere grew a little less tense, the friends delegating their mind to the fight in front of them.
Shiozaki and Tsu had an interesting fight. Tsu's agility had her dodging left and right from Shiozaki's vines. Shiozaki herself was having trouble in getting a grasp on her frog-like opponent, only being able to prevent Tsu from coming in too close. Tsu attempted to secrete her toxins across the battlefield, but it did little to affect Shiozaki since she was stationary and surrounded by her vines for the majority of the match. It was that factor that decided the match in Shiozaki's favor, her personal fortress proving to be unable to be penetrated by Tsu.
Then Iida went down to have his match with Todoroki. The spectacle that came after showed that Todoroki was right in believing Iida to be amongst the most powerful in class. While Iiida was holding his own against the ice-wielding Todoroki, Iida ultimately failed to his legs getting frozen. But at the cost of Todoroki growing even more tired and fatigued due to his ice.
That left Bakugo, Shiozaki, Todoroki, and Izuku himself as the semi-finalists. And it seemed that Todoroki's icy fatigue would be working in Izuku's favor.
Izuku had been making his way to his next match when a swath of his bugs came into focus onto the waiting form of Endeavor. The fire hero was leaning against the wall of the hallway that led to Izuku's match, leaving out any potential ways Izuku could miss running into the Flame Hero. Seeing no way to avoid the upcoming confrontation, Izuku braced himself for the insured drama that was to come.
Turning the corner, Izuku could feel the inherent heat that emanated from the hero covered in his own flame quirk. When Izuku came into view, Endeavor focused his gaze, his eyes filled with an animalistic delight that his target had arrived.
"Ah, there you are," came the gruff voice of Endeavor. "I've been waiting for you, kid."
Izuku had never liked Endeavor. Despite the fact that he was the second best hero after All Might, Endeavor was aggressive, brash, rude, and — quite ironically — cold whenever he appeared in public. Never once had Izuku seen an honest smile on the man, and never had the media. It reminded Izuku too much of Bakugo after he had grown egotistical from his quirk.
And if any of the things Todoroki had said were true, (which Izuku was finding hard to refute) it didn't paint a nice picture of the man who was known as Endeavor.
"Have you?" asked Izuku in a curt manner. "My apologies, then, if you've stood there too long. But… it makes me wonder. Shouldn't you be on the other end of the stadium, cheering on your son, instead?"
The man let out a grunt of dismissal towards the comment. "I'm here for a similar reason. This is actually about my son, so in a way I am cheering him on. First, you must know; my Shoto serves a purpose. It is his destiny to surpass All Might."
Izuku narrowed his eyes. "I'm aware of that," he said..
"Oh? You do?" Endeavor chuckled. "Good! Then you must know that I am sincere when I say that I am grateful that you forced his fire out of him. Nobody that I've put him up against has ever done such a thing ever since he's started up this rebellion of his. In fact, I was surprised when it was you who did it. I never would have thought that someone with a quirk like yours would ever be so useful."
A few bugs began buzzing around Izuku. However, he held tight onto his control, subduing the bugs the were subconsciously reacting to Izuku's emotions.
"Is that all?"
"Hpmh. Not much of a talker, then? I suppose I'll keep this short. You keep doing what you are doing. Shoto needs to learn that he needs his fire just as much as he needs his ice."
Izuku took a deep breath. I can see why Todoroki was so mad before. This man is infuriating. Just talking to him makes me mad. Almost like my old principal. Great. He reminds me of two people that I despise.
"My apologies, Endeavor."
"Huh? What for?" the hero asked.
"You ask of me something that I won't do. But no matter what it looks like, just know that whatever I do out their will be to my own accord. I won't follow the whims of someone like you."
Endeavor narrowed his own eyes, but didn't offer up anything further. Izuku simply walked past him, entering the stadium proper and making his way to the battlefield.
"And here we are, folks! Both are top contenders in their class, and both are equally as fearsome in their own right! Introducing Shoto Todoroki, son of Endeavor! And Izuku Midoriya, master of creepy crawly bugs! H— hey Shota! Hold up a—"
Across from Izuku stood Todoroki, still visually worn down from his previous fights. The bug Izuku had planted on his opponent was barely alive, clinging on to the boy despite the gradual decrease in his body temperature. The cold emanating off of Todoroki, plus the small flakes of ice that dotted his right side, made Izuku to believe that Todoroki's quirk had a limit. Or, at least, that he needed both his fire and ice to cancel out the negative effects both quirks held when used individually. And considering Todoroki's reckless and immediate attacks… With that, Izuku had a strategy in mind. Even if it was very likely he'd lose here. He felt his body twitch.
Izuku edged closer to the right of the battleground so that he was diagonal from Todoroki's right. It would provide a little extra time for his first step of his plan. And then he planted the bug on Midnight, waiting for his cue.
Seconds passed. And then Midnight had barely had the "s" sound of "Start!" rolling off of her tongue when the bug on Todoroki felt the immediate drop in temperature. Izuku moved, zooming forward and to the left as fast as he could.
Todoroki's stream of ice sprung itself up towards the corner of the field, slowly expanding in its width as it was aimed towards where Izuku was last seen. The blast of ice shrouded the field, particles of snow and ice littering Todoroki's already fading vision. The crowd gaped in awe yet again at the display of power, seconds going by in silence. Yet Midnight had yet to call the match.
Some in the audience some gasped in surprise at what they saw next. Emerging from different points from behind the icy attack, nearly a dozen human shaped swarm clones appeared, all in different stances and locations. The swarm was effectively spread out, with there being no way to take them all out at once with a single attack. And Todoroki knew that he couldn't waste any of his attacks. The boy set in stone on only using his ice tensed up, awaiting for the swarm to converge on his position and trying to determine where the real Midoriya was on the battlefield.
"Todoroki."
The boy immediately reacted to the voice, creating a wall twice as tall and four times as wide as where the voice originated directly behind him. The wall wasn't something new to Todoroki, having been used in spars against opponents that attempted to attack as his defenseless back. But what Todoroki didn't account for was the fact that the bugs could fly, and easily did so as they flew over the top of the wall.
The other swarms clones began to descend onto him, edging closer to his position at surprising speeds. Todoroki did the only thing that he could, and constructed a dome made of ice around himself, effectively cutting of any way of attack from the bugs.
"That's all you have?" asked the swarm, slightly muffled through the ice, yet still audible enough to discern. " Surely you can do better than that? Perhaps… you should use your fire?"
A righteous fury filled Todoroku at the statement, his dome of ice exploding outward and scattering the bugs clone gathered outside it. "I will not use my right side to fight!"
Another swarm clone appeared and began to speak to Todoroki. "But why not?" Another blast of cold dispersed the clone into a cloud of bugs. The voice continued. "Surely you'd be much more powerful with your right? Why limit yourself? Why diminish the conflict?"
Another shape appeared, this time much more robust and eerily similar in shape to a similar Flame Hero. "Is it because of your father?" Another wave of ice crashed into figure, this time crushing a good majority of the bugs.
"What do you want, Midoriya!?!" yelled Todoroki.
Another figure appeared, this one in the shape of Izuku himself. It tilted its head, gazing at Todoroki with two glowing eyes. "It's rather simple, really," came the voice, distorted yet recognisably Izuku's. "Are you trying to become a hero, or not?" The ice rammed into the figure, the space once filled with bugs replaced with a glacier of ice.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean? Of course I am!" responded Todoroki, more of his ice beginning to encompass his right side.
Another Izuku copy came into formation, the bugs perfectly replicating Izuku's physique, right down to his strands of hair. "And you plan on doing that with only your ice?"
Todoroki's foot slammed onto the ground, a pillar of ice springing up around the bug clone, instantly killing all of the bugs. "I will not use my father's power!"
The bugs neglected to take any form this time, simply amassing into an enormous, floating clump of bugs. " Your father's power?!" yelled the bugs. "Don't give me that crap! Reject your father all you want!
"You don't understand!"
"Don't I? Isn't your quirk your own?!"
Todoroki stopped in his tracks, his mind recalling a different time in his life. Time seemed to stop. And then fire emerged from Todoroki's left side, the sudden change in temperature turning many of the nearby bugs into a crisp.
"There we are!" came Izuku's voice, this time without the distortion that came with using his bugs. Izuku — the real version of him — jumped out of his hiding place, removing himself from behind Todoroki's initial wave of ice. An almost manic glee shone in his eyes, quite unlike the much more reserved Izuku most knew him as.
The bugs began swarming again, this time surrounding the battlefield in an enormous ring. A dozen or so more clones appeared, using their earlier tactics of spreading themselves out to avoid being decimated in one attack.
"Are you ready to fight?" asked Izuku.
Todoroki simply smirked. "Thank you, Midoriya."
Each stared down the other, both too caught up in the moment to consider their actions. It took but a moment for the blast to shake the whole stadium.
"What. The hell. Was that?!?" Jiro exclaimed.
"It was a freakin' cool fight, that's what!" yelled Ashido. "Todoroki was all 'Blam!' and 'Fwoosh with his ice and then Midoriya was being all cool and crafty with his bug clones! Woohoo!"
"I don't know about that," Kaminari said in a much more reserved tone compared to Ashido's upbeat attitude, interrupting the cheers amongst his class. "I still think that Mi—"
"Kaminari! Come on man," berated Kirishima. "As my friend, I really mean it when I say that you need to back off on all that stuff regarding Midoriya. You're the only one still caught up in all that stuff."
"That's not true and you know it, Kirishima!" Kaminari said. "I'm just the must overt in sharing and voicing my opinions regarding my worries!"
A few of those present in 1-A shuffled in their seats nervously. It may have been quite some time since U.S.J., but that didn't mean that everyone just forgot about what happened regarding the swarm of bugs present during the time. Kaminari went on to continue his rant. "Midoriya is— OWW!!"
"Stop yelling, jamming-whey. We're all sitting right next to each other," Jiro said, retracting her ear jack from Kaminari's side. "On the other hand, I still don't understand this thing you have going on with Midoriya. He's a cool dude. So what if he controls bugs? It wasn't his fault, what happened at U.S.J. We all know that."
Kaminari huffed in frustration. "I don't know, okay? I just don't feel safe around him, you know? I feel like he isn't as stable as he seems. What's stopping him from having one bad day away before he loses control? Or if he decides to switch sides?"
Tsu hopped over, leaving her seat on the other side of the group due to having heard the conversation being held. Her tongue lashed out and smacked Kaminari in the head. "You still seem to be forgetting that he saved your from being disintegrated, kero. I think that you are associating Midoriya with your trauma, despite it spawning from the villains that attacked us."
Kaminari froze up, the words penetrating his mind. "I— Well you know what? You saw what happened to all those villains! And their leader! What happened to that hand guy when Midoriya was knocked out? He got stung! Dozens of times! I'd be surprised if he still has his hands after all those bugs swarmed them!"
"Come on, Kaminari," Mineta said from beside Kaminari. "Midoriya isn't that bad. You should of seen him when I was stuck with him in that storm dome! He was like an actual hero then!"
Kaminari huffed in annoyance. "I'll believe it when I see it." He looked back at the field was beginning to take shape again. Todoroki and Midoriy each walked away surprisingly injury-free. On the other hand, the fight between Shiozaki and Bakugo was on the cusp of its start.
"So you're saying that the entirety of your class purposely strayed behind during the race?" Izuku asked, walking towards home after the Sports Festival.
"Mhm!" intoned Pony. "Well, the ones who could get away with it, at least. People like Shiozaki and Honenuki had to… couldn't limit themselves of it would've been suspicious."
"Especially to you," Manga added, ignoring Pony's stumble in words. "It was supposed to give our class an advantage over yours. But, well... you saw how that went."
"What do you mean? I say it worked. Shiozaki got third place with me, after all," Izuku said. "And she's pretty nice. Pretty deserving of such an achievement, if I'd say so myself."
"She is!" exclaimed Pony. "She was so cool. Too bad she lost to Explodey, though."
"Nevermind that!" interrupted Mei, getting into Izuku's face. "What do you think you were doing, fighting Glacierman back there? You could've been killed from that blast!"
"Hey, for your information, my bugs took the brunt of that attack. And as you can see," Izuku waved around his arms, then motioned to his face, "I'm completely fine."
"Doesn't excuse the fact that you have a death wish! What were you thinking? You trying to deprive me of my only assistant?"
Izuku gave out a weak laugh. "Funny you should ask, since… I'm not really sure." Izuku thought back upon those unexplained urges, and the unmistakable presence of something large, folding and unfolding unto itself for a profound expanse. Something's… wrong with me.
"Izuku?" Pony said.
"Hmm?"
"You alright, buddy?" Manga asked.
"I… yeah. Yeah. Just some stuff that I need to think about. Don't worry."
Aizawa excused the class from the next two days of school after the Sports Festival. What was meant to be a short reprieve proved to instead be filled with strife, Izuku spending most of the two days trying to figure out all the unknowns of his quirk. Hours of thought and he was no closer to an answer. There hadn't been any reference of what he'd seen online, nor from any of the libraries.
Izuku was so enveloped in his research that he hadn't even noticed the change in his daily route to school. Izuku let his bugs unconsciously lead him on his morning route. What was usually a struggle in making space for one's self against the tide of early morning travelers turned into a very uneventful contest of space.
Unlike most days, Izuku's immediate presence was void of others, most of the other passengers actively trying to avoid the green-headed boy. Unease was present in many of their faces, no doubt recognizing Izuku from the Sports Festival.
Izuku stayed oblivious, not breaking out of his stupor until he found himself in his seat within class 1-A, Aizawa at the front of the class talking about Hero Informatics and code names.
"As you can see here, these are the results of the Sports Festival," the surprisingly bandageless Aizawa said.
The board lit up with a blue text, displaying the names of a select few accompanied by a bar that was followed by a number. At the top was Todoroki with a whopping 3,923 offers from hero agencies. Below that was Bakugo with 3,193 offers. The gap between offers increased drastically after; Tokoyami and Iida having a little over two hundred with a couple others ranking below that. Izuku noticed his own name appearing as well, a rather generous forty-seven offers having been made to him.
The display was followed by the entrance of Midnight into the classroom, the 18+ hero going on to explain that she was here to help the class pick the code names that would be used for the duration of the internships.
The process was going as well as Izuku expected — his classmates picking names that easily matched up with their quirks and personalities — until Iida, much more tense than even his usual self, got up to present his choice.
Ingenium? But isn't that his brother's name?
"What's up with Iida?" Izuku asked to Uraraka. "He was missing during lunch, and then he just sped off when the bell rang. Did something happen?"
"You mean you haven't heard? It was all over the news!"
"Um… no? I was… kind of busy over the break. Didn't have any time to catch up onto any news."
Uraraka sighed. "It's… It's about his brother. Something happened during the Sports Festival. That's why Iida disappeared near towards the end."
"His brother…" Izuku breathed. "Why? What happened to Ingenium?"
"He got attacked by the Hero Killer Stain. But he's fine! Well, not really. Iida's brother's been crippled, unlikely to run ever again."
"Oh. Shoot. And I wasn't even aware of it. You think—"
"He'll be fine, Midoriya-kun. Or, at least, I hope so."
Izuku sighed. "Sorry that I brought this up. It's supposed to be happy and exciting and stuff with our hero names being chosen. And here I am reminding you of this when I could've just looked it up without having to invol—"
"Hey." Uraraka interrupted. "It's alright. Better you know than figuring it out later at a bad moment, right?"
"I… yeah. I suppose." The moment was plagued with silence.
"Well then!" Uraraka said, her mood taking a complete 180. "It's like you said, right? We'll deal with it when it comes, right?"
"I didn't—"
"Oi. Shush it, Dragonfly! Let's just find the others, yeah? I have some things to talk about with Pony."
"I…" Izuku chuckled. " Alright, Uravity. They should be at the front gate as usual."
"Cool! Oh, oh!" jumped Uraraka. "Have you decided on an agency yet? I only got seven offers, but you got a whole bunch! Have you chosen between your forty-seven?"
"Mmm… Not entirely. But I do have a couple in mind."
Notes:
Alrighty then! Internships and other things next time! Whose offer will be the one that Izuku will accept? And what about other butterflies? Still not so profound for now, but just you wait.
Next up, [Chapter 21 - Browbeat]!
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