Chapter 13: The Sports Festival Part 3

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              Izuku and Todoroki both stood in the ring, their match scheduled to begin momentarily. This would be a match in which Izuku put his former savior-complex bullshit back on full display. He'd make Todoroki use his fire again, because he cared and it didn't sit right with him that he was neglecting that it was his own quirk--at least that's what everyone else would see. While he felt slight sympathy for Todoroki, he could've cared less and was more or less using this to add to his cover.

The match began and both Izuku and Todoroki prepared to attack.

         Izuku began his side of the battle trying to strategize against Todoroki. Todoroki quickly made the first move, as he used his quirk to shoot pillars of ice towards Izuku. Izuku quickly used One for All on his middle finger and flicked it to destroy Todoroki's ice. Izuku repeated the move again with his index finger to strike Todoroki directly. This attack landed, but Todoroki quickly created ice behind him to prevent himself from being blown out of the ring.

         Todoroki then used his ice again and Izuku destroyed the incoming ice with One for All once again. Todoroki used his ice power on the ground again, knocking Izuku back and in the process and trapping his foot.Todoroki charged so as to directly attack Izuku while he was defenseless, but Izuku quickly used One for All to free himself and knocked Todoroki away from him.

        Todoroki launched another wave of ice, and it seemed he was trying to end the fight--probably due to Izuku's messed up state. However, Izuku wasn't ready to give in and  fired another attack to  destroy the ice, which seemed to shock Todoroki.

         "Todoroki...you only use half your power to aim for the top? Look at me! You haven't even managed to put a scratch on me! This was all me!" Izuku clenches his broken right hand into a fist--wincing  slightly at the pain-- and glared harshly at Todoroki, he had to make it look like he meant this--which in a way he did. He wanted to face opponents at their best, so he could prove he could beat anyone, despite differing strengths, without them going easy on him. "Come at me with all you've got!".

         "Did my  father bribe you to go all out against me or something?" Todoroki said, enraged as he charged toward Izuku. Izuku wished  he would've been paid to do this--this pain was almost not worth the cover it'd provide. He was now heavily debating whether this was even worth it, only to remember that he needed as much cover as he could get.

         In spite of this, Izuku noticed Todoroki was frostbitten on most of his body as he charged forward, his movements slow and sloppy, as he clearly started to experience the drawbacks from using his right side too much. This stopped him from evading a hit in the stomach by Izuku's One for All enhanced punch properly, knocking him down to the ground.

         Todoroki quickly got back up and launched another wave of ice at Izuku, but it was much weaker than before. Izuku destroyed the ice attack with another attack with One for All and knocked Todoroki back, as he winced at the horrible pain it caused.

          "Why are you going so far?" Todoroki asked, his gaze shifting towards Izuku's terribly broken fingers.

         "I want to live up to my mentor's expectations and I want to become a great hero who can save people with a smile, that's all. Nothing more, nothing less." Izuku replied, giving an answer that he felt fit with the picture of himself that he was trying to paint.

Izuku then landed another hit, and continued, "While I may never understand your circumstances, I believe that becoming number one without using your full strength and doing it to get back at someone is no way to become a proper hero.".

         "Shut the hell up. You have no idea what you're talking about!", Todoroki angrily retorted.

         "It's your quirk! It's your quirk and not his! Get that through your head Todoroki!" Izuku exclaimed, slightly annoyed. Sure a grudge over an abuser is great, but Todoroki couldn't possibly expect to become a proper hero if he half-assed everything because of said grudge.

         At Izuku's words, Todoroki's left side burst into flames--which Izuku saw made Endeavor smile wickedly in the stands.

         "I want to become a hero too. I don't understand it, you're basically throwing the match, but so be it." Todoroki said, smiling back at Izuku.

         Above them, Endeavor walked down from the bleachers to watch the match at a closer range, before yelling down at Todoroki.

         "That's right, Shouto! You must surpass me and realize your ambition!" Endeavor cried, gaining more than a few weird looks from the surrounding crowd.

          Meanwhile, both Todoroki and Izuku powered up their final attacks; Shoto launched a great wave of ice at Izuku while Izuku jumped using One for All to get as close to Todoroki as he could and launched a larger scale attack at Todoroki.

         It was then that Cementoss created a cement wall between the two students in an attempt to stop them.  Despite this, they both proceeded with their attacks.

         Todoroki used his fire power to ignite the cold air generated by his wave of ice, so as to create a huge wind blast which, and along with Izuku'sOne for All, it created a huge blast which launched both of them back and destroyed Cementoss' cement wall in the process.

         After the blast subsided and the dust and smoke cleared, Todoroki stood in the ring mostly uninjured, with Izuku out of bounds. Izuku finally succumbed to his wounds and fell flat onto the ground. Todoroki being declared the winner was the last thing Izuku heard
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         Izuku woke up in Recovery Girl's office, his injuries having been attended to already, but still remaining in the form of aches and bruises

         "You can't encourage the boy to push his limits so heavily All Might! You cannot praise him for going so far,". Izuku, even though he was weak and in pain from his severe injuries, listened to what Recovery Girl said and let out a small laugh, turning to All Might.

         "Sorry for being unable to live up to your expectations properly, All Might. All I really wanted to do was help Todoroki. I felt like I couldn't just let him stay in such an awful mindset. He can still hate his father, but if he wants to be a good hero he can't let it interfere so heavily. I do hope you can forgive me for losing though." Izuku told All Might quietly. He almost laughed at how fake this whole spiel sounded--at least to him. He was pretty sure, at least by his expression, that it had convinced All Might.

         "The result of your match was simply an unfortunate outcome, but you did well in helping young Todoroki. If I'm honest,  reaching out and helping people with their personal problems is one of the principal qualities of a hero, and I'm happy you possess such a quality." All Might replied. He then got up to leave, leaving Izuku to have a final word with Recovery Girl.

         "You need to learn not to abuse your power like this. I'll tell you now that I won't heal anymore of your self-inflicted injuries. They're simply awful, and you ought to tell All Might to find a different method you can use to make better use of One For All." Recovery Girl told him. Well Izuku thought that last bit was absurdly obvious, but he simply gave a sharp look towards Recovery Girl to express this--even if her back was turned, it still helped him outwardly express his thoughts in some way. After a moment, Recovery Girl spoke again, "You can go now, but take it easy.".  With that, Izuku left to watch the rest of the festival.

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         Upon returning, Izuku was informed that he had missed two matches while being taken care of by Recovery Girl. A moment later, Iida approached him.
         "Midoriya! It's good to see that you're doing well! I was able to get Shiozaki out of the ring in our match, my elder brother has been watching the Sports Festival but he can't watch it fully due to how busy he is. I've promised to do my best for him." Iida said as he came up to Izuku.

         "That's great Iida! More than I could do anyways." Izuku let out a small laugh at that. Despite his former misgivings about Iida, he did consider him somewhat of a friend now, even if his overly strict and polite nature made Izuku want to vomit sometimes. Iida had grown on him, though he wasn't all that mad.

He liked having a few genuine friends--even if he was lying sometimes, he truly enjoyed their company. He was glad not to be alone anymore. The two took their seats, and watched the ongoing match below.

         Kirishima and Bakugou were fighting below to determine the final contender in the top four. Kirishima was managing to give Bakugou a bit more trouble than Uraraka had, but that changed when Bakugou seemed to notice the same weakness of Kirishima's that Izuku saw. Bakugou had launched an explosion at Kirishima, and seemed to realize the critical weakness of Kirishima's quirk.

         Kirishima's Hardening quirk was weak against consecutive strikes. Using this to his advantage, Bakugou launched a continuous barrage of explosions against Kirishima which greatly wounded him and ended up knocking him out, making Baugou the winner of the match, which  placed him as a top contender in the festival.

        The first match of the semi-finals was Todoroki versus Iida. The match began,and Todoroki immediately launched a heavy ice attack, which Iida dodged by jumping into the air. Iida activated his best move, something he apparently called his "recipro burst'' or so he had  told Izuku and Uraraka earlier. He used it to  attack Todoroki with a speed-enhanced kick, but Todoroki dodged, even if it was by a narrow margin.

Iida quickly blocked Todoroki's follow up attack, and aimed another speed-enhanced kick towards him, which slammed him onto the ground. Despite being hurt, Todoroki grabbed onto Iida's leg, and Iida kicked Todoroki away in response. Iida grabbed Todoroki and proceeded to try and fling him out of bounds before the effects of his recipro burst ended and he was out of commission.

While trying to do this however, Iida  realized that there was ice stalling his engines and he slowed down a great deal. Izuku suspected that Todoroki must have  put ice in his engines when he grabbed Iida's leg. Todoroki then froze Iida's entire body, and due to being unable to move, Iida was declared defeated and Todoroki advanced to the final round of the tournament event.

         The second match began, shortly after Iida and Todoroki's match. It was Tokoyami versus Bakugou.

Unlike his previous matches, Tokoyami was at a clear and major disadvantage and was forced to go  on the complete defensive due to the light from Bakugou's explosions, which weakened his dark shadow. It didn't help that dark shadow clearly hadn't fully replenished it's strength. Even worse for Tokyami--something that Izuku had gotten past, even if it was with drastic methods--, was that Bakugou's fierce and persistent fighting style prevented Tokoyami from countering.

         Despite this, Tokoyami did manage to keep Bakuugou at bay for a short while. Tired of his persistence, however, Bakugou managed to get past dark shadow and landed behind Tokoyami. Bakugou launched an explosion around himself, hitting Tokoyami and his dark shadow in the process.

After the smoke cleared, Bakugou had Tokoyami pinned down. Although he could still get up and fight, Tokyami, knowing he was at such a severe disadvantage, surrendered--something Izuku believed was the smarter move. Tokoyami's surrender caused Bakugou to win, thus the final match would be between Bakugou and Todoroki.

          Beside Izuku, Iida's phone rang and  Iida excused himself to answer. Izuku was curious as to who it could have been, but decided to focus on the final match instead.

         The final match of the tournament event was between Bakugou and Todoroki. Present Mic signaled for the match to begin, and Todoroki made his move first and launched a huge pillar of ice at Bakugou, and it appeared to Izuku that he was probably feeling conflicted after what happened during their match, and was trying to end the fight quickly.

However, Bakugou used his explosions to barrage his way out of Todoroki's trap, and. used some explosions to somersault himself into the air. While in the air, Bakugou grabbed his opponent's hair and shirt and threw him onto the ground, but Todoroki created an ice wall behind himself to prevent himself from being thrown out of the ring.

Bakugou immediately charged at Todoroki again with an explosion blaring. Todoroki dodged the attack and countered by throwing Bakugou into his ice wall while throwing himself out of harm's way in the process.

         "Don't stand in front of me if you aren't fighting to win. Got it?" Bakugou told Todoroki furiously, Bakugou then prepared his next attack by jumping into the air and spinning himself around, an explosion in each palm. Todoroki looked so conflicted, and Izuku felt that this would be one of those times his old self would jump in to help, so that's just what he did.

         "Come on! Keep fighting Todoroki!"  Izuku yelled down at Todoroki. Apparently Izuku's words inspired Todoroki, who decided to finally get his head in the game and activate his left side. After he activated his left side, however, something quickly made him feel somewhat disheartened, which caused him to deactivate his fire power. Bakugou's attack comes full force at Todoroki, hitting him head on with full force. The huge attack caused a lot of smoke to fill the arena.

         After the smoke cleared, Todoroki could be seen out of bounds, seemingly knocked out. Bakugou furiously walked over to Todoroki and grabbed him by his shirt, visibly dissatisfied with Todoroki's performance against him.

By then, Midnight stepped in and used her quirk to knock Bakugou out before he could do anything to Todoroki. Since Todoroki went out of bounds, Bakugou was declared the winner of the match and tournament event as well as the winner of U.A.'s Sports Festival itself.

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         The reward ceremony of the U.A. Sports Festival also served as the closing ceremony as well. Izuku looked up from his spot in the crowd of students in the middle of the stadium, to see Tokoyami, Todoroki, and Bakugou standing on the third, second, and first place podiums respectively to receive their medals.


Unfortunately, due to being furious at Todoroki for the result of their match and to prevent him from letting his fury go unleashed, Bakugou was fully restrained; his arms and hands restrained with locks, his body wrapped around a wooden log, chained to the podium with a face mask to muffle his yelling, which remained clear as day to Izuku.


         Dropping from the sky, All Might appeared to give the winners their medals. All Might gave Todoroki his medal for placing third, and while he did so, he congratulated him and acknowledged his strength. All Might gave Tokoyami a pat on the back, paired with a congratulatory hug, before he moved to Todoroki.

At this point Izuku stopped listening, zoning out and thinking of whatever Toga might have in store for them to do that night. All Might gave Shoto his medal for placing second, and tries to give Bakugou his. Izuku was snapped out of his thoughts as Bakugou's incessant screaming began again, and realized that All Might had made the unfortunate choice to remove his mask.

         "I don't deserve to be number one!  My final match was unworthy, half-and-half barely fought! I didn't win properly!". Bakugou shouted at All Might, Izuku thought he ought to tell Bakugou he really need to chill the fuck out after the day ended, before zoning out again. Izuku didn't even bother to listen to All Might's speech to everyone; something about how "everyone who participated in the Sports Festival had a chance to win, and that they were all so strong" or something cheesy like that.

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         At his home the next morning, during breakfast, Izuku and his mother talked to each other.

         "I fainted at least seven times during the entire Sports Festival! I was so worried and so proud of you Izuku!" Izuku's mother told him, she looked exhausted, more from worry than lack of sleep.

         "Thanks Mom, but it sounds like you almost had it harder than I did!" Izuku replied, laughing a bit tiredly. He was tired because Toga had insisted on playing horror games on the VR headset she had stolen earlier that day as a surprise for Izuku, for most of the night, and it had definitely been one hell of a night. The two of them screamed and shouted, and it had been fun, but Izuku had gotten up earlier than he would have liked so that he could enjoy breakfast with his mother.

         "Your quirk is such a risky one...that risk really doesn't put my mind at ease, but I will keep cheering you on, son." Izuku's mother replied.

         "I'm sorry for making you worry Mom. I'll make sure I get better at it, so you don't have to worry as much anymore.", Izuku said, giving a small laugh as a worried smile came across his face.

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