Incipient, Part II

"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen," Present Mic began. "To the moment you've been waiting for...THE THIRD STAGE OF THE SPORTS FESTIVAL!" From where he was standing on the arena platform, Izuku wiped his sweaty palms on his gym pants as he attempted to ignore his raging heartbeat, trying to instead focus on the good luck kiss Ochako had given him instead of the anxiety of being right about to fight his first opponent.

This was it. This was the part that mattered the most in showing the Pro Heroes what he could do.

For the Obstacle Race, Izuku had managed to secure a massive lead over most of the other students by making use of Gold Experience's enhanced speed at the beginning to dodge Shōto Todoroki's ice trap and rush through a large portion of the course. His lead stopped at the minefield portion, however, where he was eventually outperformed by Katsuki flying over and Shōto creating a frozen pathway, and managed to beat the latter and finish in second place.

In contrast, the Cavalry Battle ended up being pitifully easy. With a team consisting of himself, Fumikage, Ochako, and a girl named Mei Hatsume from the Support Course, it took almost no effort at all to rack up as many points as possible and form an impenetrable defense by using Gold Experience to completely shield his headbands, which confused anyone who made a go for them.

"Let me just say you're all in for a treat," Present Mic continued. "Because for the first match of this year's tournament, we'll get to see two people from the same hero class duke it out! We have...MIDORIYA IZUKU! Versus...TOKOYAMI FUMIKAGE!" Sparing a glance towards his friend on the other side of the arena, he saw Fumikage standing with his arms crossed and looking at the roaring crowd. When he met Izuku's gaze, he nodded to him, which he returned.

It was clear from their first interaction and their subsequent talks, Dark Shadow functioned very similar to Gold Experience. But even in the sunlight, Fumikage's Quirk still possessed enough speed and power to wipe the floor with most of Class 1-A without even breaking a sweat.

But the biggest advantage Izuku had over him was the fact that no one but him could see Gold Experience, and what it lacked in strength, it made up for in versatility. In spades.

"Are you two ready?" Midnight asked, and after receiving nods from both of them, raised her whip into the air.

"Then..." She stayed silent for a few moments, before bringing it down, with a crack! reverberating through the air. "Begin!"

Taking a moment to close his eyes and take a deep breath, Izuku looked back to his opponent and took his first step, the air around him shimmering as he summoned his Quirk.

"Gold Experience."

---

"Well, would you look at that?" Shōta Aizawa murmured to himself, as he read the files of each student who had qualified for the tournament stage. Apparently, this couldn't have been a more perfect matchup. With Quirks so similar to each other, it was hard to tell who'd come out on top, but it was clear that Midoriya had the inherent advantage here. It would be up to Tokoyami to properly manage his own Quirk in order to beat an invisible opponent.

Just then, his thoughts were interrupted by a large BOOM! coming from the arena below, and Shōta's eyebrows shot up at the sight of a massively-sized arm belonging to Tokoyami's Quirk erupt from the ground in front of Midoriya, before coming down hard.

"WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT?!" Hizashi Yamada cried next to him, but Shōta mainly paid attention to the fact that the man's overly-enthusiastic voice, coupled with his own sleep deprivation, caused his already manageable headache to become even worse.

"Goddamn it, Yamada," he growled. "Could you at least tone it down a little?"

"Huh?" Yamada turned to him, before giving him a sheepish smile. "Oh right, sorry 'bout that." He went back to commentating on the fight, and Shōta was left back to his thoughts.

When he looked back to the arena, it looked like Midoriya had been able to dodge the attack, much to Yamada's excitement. Having just read the information that his student had the ability to strengthen his own body with his Quirk, Shōta fully expected the outcome.

Now, he just had to see what else the two had in store.

---

"ORA! ORA!"

This was going to go nowhere. Fumikage ended up realizing too late that their opening attack, while definitely impressive (according to the noise the audience had made in response), caused Dark Shadow to end up overextending itself and using up a considerable amount of energy. Which meant that he had to be very careful in deploying his Quirk for each following attack.

Which was why Dark Shadow was now trying to hurl large pieces of debris at Izuku. Who was just dodging them. Easily.

Yeah...it wasn't exactly his finest moment.

"Dark Shadow, retreat," Fumikage sighed, and his Quirk drew back into himself, and his hands balled into fists out of frustration.

"So," his Quirk said. you got any other bright ideas?"

"I'm thinking," he replied, irritated. Truth be told, he had several ideas, but each of them involved having to get within melee range, and he didn't want Dark Shadow to contend with Gold Experience just yet. But it seemed the decision was taken out of his hands, because all of a sudden Fumikage was brought out of his thoughts by the crowd roaring in excitement, and turned to see a pair of cheetahs running towards him at full speed.

'Well...shit.' Resisting every urge to run away out of fear, Fumikage steeled himself as watched the cheetahs Izuku had created continue to get closer and closer, while silently telling- no, pleaded for Dark Shadow to keep waiting until the right moment.

"They're getting closer, Fumi!"

"I said not yet!" Fumikage growled. If Dark Shadow tried to extend itself to deal with the threat, then there might not be enough energy left to see the fight through, meaning the best option was to wait until the cheetahs were in its natural range.

So until then, they needed to stay put until the right moment.

Ten meters.

Eight meters.

Six meters.

At four meters, the two large cats suddenly leapt into the air...before turning back into the boulders they had transformed from.

At two meters, he finally called the signal. "NOW!"

Almost instantaneously, Dark Shadow sprung out from his sternum, and with speed and power that would have given Star Platinum a run for its money, met the boulders head-on with a flurry of punches.

"ORAORAORAORAORAORAORA!"

The first few punches quickly broke both boulders in half, but with each consecutive punch, they continued to break and break until they reduced them into pebbles and dust, before enveloping Fumikage in a cloud of dust. However, the boulders were large enough that Dark Shadow simply wasn't able to stop all of the debris, and Fumikage hissed as his arms flared with the pain of being cut open from the multitude of jagged rocks after using them to protect his face.

Using the little time he had while concealed from his opponent, he quickly took off his U.A. gym shirt (leaving him with a dark tank-top that he had been wearing underneath), and tore strips of the fabric off to clean and wrap around his arms as best he could.

Yeah, he really should have thought this through.

'Damn it.' Looking at the other side of the stage, Fumikage grit his teeth in frustration when he noticed that Izuku didn't seem to be tired at all. It was clear that he would just keep launching predator after predator towards him as much as he wanted, and Dark Shadow would keep trying to dispel the debris they would inevitably turn back into.

It would be a stalemate until Dark Shadow ran out of energy to stay manifested, or until Fumikage decided to take the risk of getting seriously injured and sending Dark Shadow to overpower Izuku. Except that would just cause him to maintain the transformation, not to mention that if it took too long, then Dark Shadow would also run out of energy. The fight wouldn't end until one of them was forcefully ejected from the platform or knocked out by the other.

It was clear that the audience wouldn't accept anything less than an epic conclusion. Neither would Fumikage's pride.

As if on cue, a group of clouds started to block the sun and a light shade covered the entire stadium and a good chunk of U.A.'s campus.

Under any other circumstance, the average person would glance at the sky for a brief second and then go on about their day. But because he possessed a Quirk that grew stronger in any and all levels of darker light, Fumikage embraced the appearance of shade with a sigh of relief, even if the increase in strength was only marginal at best.

While the shade wasn't dark enough to be favorable at all, the event caused Fumikage to be filled with an odd sense of peace and hope. That this fight, no matter the winner and how brief it was, helped him and Dark Shadow gain the unique sort of experience he didn't know he needed his entire life.

And after all, it wasn't like he hurt his chances of getting noticed by the Pros, right?

"Dark Shadow..." Taking a page from Izuku's book, Fumikage commanded Dark Shadow to form around his body, taking a second to admire the process of his arms and legs being reinforced by his Quirk's like a suit of armor, before he smirked from satisfaction and raised his fist to his face, looking back towards Izuku with a glint of determination in his eyes.

"...Cruel Moon."

---

As the cloud of dust was still obstructing his view of his opponent, Izuku stayed ready in case of any sudden attack, with a command given to Gold Experience to keep its fist aimed towards the ground for an immediate counterattack with Life Giver. But when the dust finally dissipated, he winced in regret at the sight of Fumikage having taken his gym shirt off and had wrapped strips of it around his arms, with blood still dripping down to his fingertips.

(He didn't think the debris would've done that much damage.)

He didn't pay any real attention to the sudden appearance of shade, but when he saw Dark Shadow start to bond itself to Fumikage just like how he would reinforce his own body with his own Quirk, Izuku unconsciously took a step back out of fear.

With the sharp, static-like appearance of Dark Shadow's form greatly giving the appearance of a dark aura on its user, it gave Fumikage a seriously menacing feeling to him as he slowly walked towards Izuku, as if he was looking at an angel of death. It was clear now that their fight was in the endgame now, and this was the last shot he had to give.

Truth be told, Izuku couldn't help but feel a newfound respect for his friend. It hadn't even been five minutes yet, but this fight had been quite the experience, especially against someone whose Quirk was so similar to his own.

"Tokoyami-kun," he called out. "Are you seriously walking to me?"

"Well, I can't exactly do anything without getting closer."

"Fair enough," Izuku snorted. "Then by all means, come closer." Once again imbuing his body with Gold Experience's in response, he made a fist as he walked towards Fumikage, eventually matching his friend's pace when he saw him break out into a sprint. When they were just a mere two meters away from each other, they both leapt into the air with their fists trained towards each other.

The fist-bump to end all fist-bumps, one might even say.

"ORA!"

"MUDA!"

A violent shockwave pierced through the air as Fumikage's and Izuku's powers violently clashed with each other, causing both of them to be forcefully knocked back to the ground. It was Izuku who was able to recover first, and it took everything he had in him not to scream from the pure, unadulterated pain that pulsated from his arm after having been effectively shattered.

He took a moment or two to watch Fumikage's prone form for any signs of movement, but when he found none, he breathed out a sigh of relief as he continued with his makeshift plan.

Because even though Gold Experience was outmatched by Dark Shadow in raw power (especially when it came to reinforcing its user with its own body), the one thing Fumikage seemed to have overlooked was that except for his head, only half of his body was reinforced. Something Izuku immediately caught onto and exploited when he commanded Gold Experience to use its other arm to make contact with Fumikage's exposed skin and imbue Life Giver into him, leaving him stunned for a few seconds.

With Gold Experience carrying Fumikage over its shoulder, Izuku moved towards the white line that made up the arena's border, but stopped when out of the corner of his eye, he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. As he curiously turned to see what it was, he was left reeling at the sight of a purple star behind Fumikage's left shoulder.

No, not just a star, a star-shaped birthmark.

"What...?" Izuku just continued to stare at the birthmark in shock, as he was hit with an overwhelming sense of déjà vu. He...he recognized that birthmark. Why would someone like Fumikage have a birthmark like-

His thoughts were interrupted by a groan coming from none other than Fumikage, and Izuku quickly remembered that he needed to get him out of bounds now, so he quickly ordered Gold Experience to gently lay him down on the outside of the white line.

Behind him, he vaguely heard the telltale crack of Midnight's whip. "Midoriya is the winner!"

---

From his place in the audience, Mirio Tōgata kept silent as he watched the matchup between the two first-years play out. While the fight itself was relatively short, there was just so much going on that he was kept on the edge of his seat, and when it finally ended, he joined in on the roaring crowd's applause.

"Tōgata-kun!" his friend Nejire exclaimed, once the noise finally calmed down enough for him to hear her. "Was that one of those Stand things you told us about?"

"I, uh...don't know, exactly," he replied. I know the thing that Tokoyami guy has isn't one, but Midoriya? I'm not sure."

All the signs throughout the fight pointed to Midoriya having a Stand, which left Mirio in a state of awe, because as far as he knew, there were no more Stand users left at this point in time.

However, he specifically remembered that there was only one person who could've had a Stand that could create life like Midoriya did, that the user, Giorno Giovanna died more than a century ago. And from what he remembered about working in the Speedwagon Foundation, Stands and their abilities were completely unique (with Jōtarō's Star Platinum being the obvious exception), what with them being tied to their user's soul and all.

But if Izuku Midoriya had that ability, too (and Mirio was positive that what he just saw wasn't a Quirk), then...yeah, he's going to need to tell Jōshirō and Old Man Toshinori about this.

There was a good chance they already knew, actually.

It made him wonder just how many other former Stand users were still kicking around in the world. Once upon a time, there had been an emptiness somewhere in him when the Foundation told him they couldn't find anything about his friends living a new life like he was, but most of it slowly went away after he was reminded that he still had Nejire and Tamaki, and when Sir Nighteye started helping him out with his Quirk.

But Mirio still felt that pang of loneliness every once in a while whenever he tried to think about the past.

And sure, Permeation was a pretty cool Quirk and all (especially once he finally got good at using it), but he really missed having Crazy Diamond with him sometimes.