39 Chapter 38
With Todoroki defeating Tokoyami, Bakugo defeating Kaminari, and Mina beating Toru rather one-sidedly, it was time for the first round of the third brackets, Izuku vs. Todoroki.
Standing across from the icy-hot youth, Izuku, wearing a relaxed smile and exuding a calm, confident aura, remarked, "You saw what I could do during my match against Ochaco-san. Are you still thinking you can beat me with just half your power...?"
Furrowing his brows slightly, Todoroki replied, "I must..." in a firm, or, more accurately, stubborn tone. Izuku's previous remarks had given him a lot to think about, but now wasn't the time nor place for introspection. All he was concerned about was seizing victory with the Quirk he inherited from his mother.
With Present Mic announcing the start of their match, Todoroki wasted no time in sending a wave of ice surging toward Izuku. Most students would have struggled to dodge such an attack, but Izuku didn't even try, rearing back his right fist before unleashing a powerful punch that destroyed the ice and sent a wave of pressure crashing into Todoroki's body.
"Kuh...!"
Realizing that Izuku was trying to knock him out of the ring, Todoroki manifested a wall of ice behind him, declaring, "I won't lose...!" before sending a much stronger wave of ice, this time resembling an avalanche that enveloped most of the arena.
"Someone who half-asses things has no right to make such a claim...!" shouted Izuku, creating a divide within the avalanche by crossing his arms and sweeping them in a manner reminiscent of All Might's Missouri Smash.
As two walls of ice formed around him, Izuku extended several tendrils of Blackwhip into them, fracturing the ice and grabbing several large chunks to send hurtling toward Todoroki. The latter countered by creating a large wall of ice, but the frost building on his face, clothes, and right arm made it clear he was reaching his limit.
Leaping into the air, Izuku shouted, "Tell me, Todoroki-kun! What will you say to the families of the people you failed to save when they demand to know why you didn't utilize your full power!? Why you allowed their loved ones to die when you could have saved them!?"
Not giving Todoroki a chance to respond, Izuku controlled his strength just enough to shatter the ice wall the former had created. The moment he did so, a tremendous volume of icy energy impacted his face, but he just tore through it, grabbing the half-frozen brat by his collar and pulling him close as he shouted, "Will you tell them, 'Sorry your husband, wife, or children had to die! My daddy issues were far more important than giving it my all to save them...!?'"
Overwhelmed by Izuku's words and piercing, incredibly judgmental gaze, Todoroki found himself unable to respond. Unfortunately, Izuku had no intention of waiting for him to get his shit together, narrowing his eyes as he asserted, "Your existence is an insult to everyone who takes being a Hero seriously..." before shoving him, hard, toward the edge of the arena.
Unable to recover and arrest his momentum in time, Todoroki fell out of the arena and tumbled several meters before regaining his footing. Then, when he looked back up at the arena's edge, he found Izuku staring down at him, his expression seemingly devoid of emotion as he said, "You're just like your father. Shortsighted and egotistical..."
Abandoning his usual, apathetic mask, Todoroki's expression morphed into a fierce glower as he asserted, "I am NOTHING like that man...!" in a defiant tone.
Furrowing his own brows, Izuku replied, "Then prove me wrong. Be a real Hero, not someone obsessed with Rankings just to prove a point or spite someone. That isn't heroism; it's petulance..."
As Midnight had already declared him the victor, Izuku turned away from Todoroki and made his way to the opposite side of the arena, descending the stairs to return to his waiting room. The one assigned to him was on the complete opposite side of the stadium, but he didn't feel like walking past Todoroki or encountering Endeavor, waiting with arms crossed and a grim look on his face...
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"I'm an idiot..." remarked Izuku, barely making it halfway to his waiting room before Present Mic called for him to return over the intercom. He had known the second Semifinal match was between Bakugo and Mina, so he should have stuck around to console the latter when she inevitably had her ass kicked. Instead, he had to rush back to the arena, finding an impatient Bakugo waiting for him on the stage.
With crossed arms and a perpetually pissed-off look on his face, Bakugo stared down at Izuku, his husky voice filled with venom as he said, "Get up here, you moss-headed bastard. I don't know how you got so strong, but I'm going to kick your ass and prove to everyone here which of us really has what it takes to be a Hero!"
Staring up at Bakugo, Izuku didn't respond, remaining completely silent as he weighed the pros and cons of fighting the explosive teen. As bizarre as it sounded, withdrawing from the match would probably have the greatest effect, leaving Bakugo at his wits end with fury...
Shaking such thoughts from his mind, Izuku thought ("Whatever...maybe if I beat the shit out of him, it'll somehow have a positive influence on his character. This world is based on a shonen anime, after all...")
Having made up his mind, Izuku leaped onto the stage, intentionally jumping over Bakugo before twisting and flipping over mid-air to land on his feet. His base Dexterity was 100, ten times that of his Strength and Agility. With his passive 10x multiplier, that meant his base Dexterity was effectively 1000. As a result, his spatial awareness, muscle control, and sense of balance were off the charts, the secret that allowed him to wield Blackwhip and move his body however he pleased.
Seeing the 'smug' look on Izuku's face, Bakugo balled his hands into fists, clicked his tongue, and muttered, "Damn showoff. Let's see you grin when I kick your fucking teeth in..." under his breath.
Hearing Bakugo's utterance, another benefit of his extreme Dexterity, Izuku's smile became even broader as he briefly considered fighting with his hands behind his back. Unfortunately, while it might be effective in pissing Bakugo off, it would also make him look arrogant in the eyes of the spectators. As much as Bakugo annoyed him, he wasn't willing to sacrifice his 'good reputation' to teach him a lesson.
Catching Bakugo off guard, Izuku channeled his inner Deku as he raised his fist and said, "I know better than anyone how powerful you are, Kat-chan, so I'm going to give it my all. That way, regardless of the outcome, I won't have any regrets."
Gritting his teeth hard enough that the muscles in his jaw became visible, Bakugo suppressed the urge to tell Izuku to go fuck himself as he lowered his body into his starting position, hands angled behind him like the boosters of a rocket. Izuku was the one to state they shouldn't refer to each other familiarly, so Bakugo interpreted his words as nothing but provocation and an attempt to make himself look good.
Exhaling a faint sigh through his nose, Izuku got into a loose variation of a Muay Thai pose, a no-frills stance that allowed him to transition between punching and kicking freely. His Vitality had decreased below the halfway point after his matches with Ochaco and Todoroki, but he wasn't worried. After all, with just a 10x base multiplier, all his attributes were higher than Bakugo's.
With Present Mic announcing the start of the match, Bakugo shouted his usual, "Dekuuuuu...!" as he propelled himself forward, transitioning into a flying kick partway.
Extending his left hand, Izuku produced multiple tendrils of Blackwhip, attempting to entangle Bakugo's ankle. In response, the latter used his Explosion Quirk to abruptly change his trajectory, spinning to evade the lightning-like tendrils as he shouted, "The same trick won't work on me twice!"
Punctuating his statement, Bakugo released a decently-sized explosion a few meters away from Izuku's face, mostly to obscure his vision but also to push him back. Unfortunately, while he succeeded in the former, Izuku rushed 'into' the ball of flame, leaving Bakugo somewhat confused when he flipped over it to find the former missing.
"Where the fu-"
Before Bakugo could finish asking where he had gone, Izuku revealed his location by grabbing the former's ankle with his hand, stating, "You're kind of slow." in a matter-of-factly tone of voice.
Without giving Bakugo a chance to respond, Izuku spun him around like a professional hammer thrower. Unfortunately, Bakugo had no intention of playing along or letting him do as he pleased, interrupting the spin with an explosion before twisting his body in a surprising display of flexibility, his foot nearly hitting Izuku's face but ultimately impacting his palm.
"This makes things easier," remarked Izuku, once-again proceeding to spin Bakugo like a hammer. This time, however, he began ramping up the energy of One-for-All, drastically increasing his speed and ramping up the centripetal forces faster than Bakugo could disrupt them.
Since he might accidentally kill Bakugo if he threw the explosive youth into one of the stadium's walls, Izuku ultimately flung him high into the sky, literally flinging him hundreds of meters into the air while the crowd watched on with stupefied looks on their faces.
With plenty of time to recover, Bakugo eventually regained his balance and suspended himself in the air with his explosions. He had passed out for a moment from the g-forces, enough to cause his nose to bleed and eyes to become bloodshot, but he pretended to be unaffected, bellowing, "I won't go down that easily...!" before descending toward the arena like a meteor.
Using his explosions to spin himself like a bullet, Bakugo shouted, "Let's see how you like my Ultimate Move! Howitzer Impact...!" an attack that caused a veritable tornado of flames to form around him.
"Hmmm..."
Taking advantage of his accelerated thought processes and enhanced perception of time, Izuku marveled as Bakugo's attributes increased in real-time. It wasn't nearly as extreme as the boost provided by One-for-All, but it was still fairly impressive.
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Name: [Katsuki Bakugo]
Quirk: Explosion
Current Level: 25
Effective Level: 50->111
[Attributes]
Strength: 53->318
Agility: 48->291
Vitality: 153->75
Intelligence: 81
Dexterity: 88->270
Luck: 78
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("An increase of sixty-one Levels when using an Ultimate Move. The hit to his Vitality is pretty extreme, but it's an excellent finishing move. At least, it would be against a normal opponent...")
As Bakugo descended toward him like a meteor, Izuku reinforced his hands and arms with Blackwhip, boosting his attributes by around 500x as he clapped his hands together. The main benefit of One-for-All, at least in his opinion, was that it allowed its user to generate shockwaves as if they were some form of Ki blast. 5000 Strength and Agility wouldn't be enough to produce a significant amount of wind pressure on their own, but as most of the energy was 'discharged' rather than being transmitted back into his hands, it created a visible wall of pressure that stopped both Bakugo and his Ultimate Move mid-air, making him look as though he had his face and body pressed up to a glass pane.
Reminded of one of his favorite manga series from his previous life, Air Gear, a nostalgic smile developed across Izuku's face as he mused, "Not bad. But you'll need more than that to overcome my Defensive Ultimate, Ode to the Rumble King, Over Road!"
Suppressing the feeling of cringe that seemed to exude from the very core of his soul, Izuku leaped into the air, inverting his body to perform a flying kick as the pressure wave preventing Bakugo's fall faded. His base Vitality had dipped below 30% after his little stunt, so he decided it was best to end the fight before he could embarrass himself further. What he didn't expect was for Bakugo to already be knocked out, the whites of the boy's eyes showing as he tumbled out of the sky like a ragdoll...
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Name: [Katsuki Bakugo]
Quirk: Explosion
Current Level: 25
Effective Level: 50
[Attributes]
Strength: 53->8
Agility: 48->0
Vitality: 153->23
Intelligence: 81->65
Dexterity: 88->0
Luck: 78->80
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(A/N: Izuku just needs to get Mei or Melissa to invent him some Air Trek xD...)
