Once More (My Hero Academia)

23: Sensory Overload

Izuku's classmates greeted him when he came back to their little corner of the stadium.

"Congrats for winning the match!" Kaminari patted Izuku on the back.

"Thanks," Izuku made his way back to his seat, "but I think Todoroki deserved a much higher ranking."

"Still, though, you gotta be proud of yourself," Sero said, "I literally lost my round against Todoroki in two seconds. So honestly, he could've easily demolished any of us out there, but you sure made defeating him look... straightforward."

"Todoroki is really strong," Izuku said, "I only won because he has relatively less expertise in his fire."

"But you forced it out of him," Uraraka pointed out, "By the way, how are your wounds now?"

"You know Recovery Girl. I'm feeling much better now."

"You broke your bones again, right? Just like the entrance exam," she sighed, "people will start thinking that self-destruction is your default mode."

"Recovery Girl already does," Izuku said with a shrug.

"Also, Iida just won the match against Shiozaki from class B," Uraraka said.

Izuku nodded, "Which means I'll be going against him next."

•••

Iida Tenya marched onto the area for the third time. He couldn't help but feel proud, a buzzing excitement mingled with nervousness tying a knot in his chest. He was not going to let his brother down.

On the other side of the arena, Tenya spotted his friend, Midoriya, whose bushy green hair bobbed up and down in the breeze. As usual, Midoriya's mouth fluttered as he muttered to himself in an unintelligible way, and Tenya wondered for the millionth time what was happening in his friend's mysterious brain.

But whatever Midoriya had planned, Tenya would do his best to win.

"THREE, TWO, ONE... START!"

Tenya's engines whirred to life and burst forward toward his opponent. When it came to long-range attacks, Midoriya had the upper hand, so Tenya's priority was to close the distance.

He mentally prepared for anything Midoriya might do in response. Maybe Midoriya will use his new Blackwhip move to bind Tenya, which would be easy to dodge. Or... maybe Midoriya will just demolish him with one of those All Might-level hurricanes.

But none of the attacks arrived.

Midoriya stood still in his place, not attempting to dodge or attack. Instead, his sharp gaze studied Tenya's movements, and for a moment Tenya felt exposed -- as if all his possible moves and thoughts were written down in a script, and Midoriya simply had to glance at it to predict everything Tenya would do.

At the audience stands, the 1-A students were also confused.

"What is Midoriya doing?" Kirishima squinted at the arena.

"He's throwing his long-range advantage away," Yaoyorozu analyzed with a frown, "if Midoriya simply let Iida get close, it would be purely a competition of close-range fighting skills and speed."

When he got close enough, Tenya blasted off the ground and his kick propelled toward Midoriya at breakneck speed.

Green lightning surged around Midoriya and he sidestepped to dodge Tenya's attack, but Tenya still managed to graze Midoriya's arm.

Giving no time for his opponent to recover, Tenya immediately twisted around and sent another kick flying at Midoriya's face.

This time, Midoriya stepped towards Tenya and blocked the kick with his arm, then followed it with a swift punch, which Tenya barely ducked away from.