18

Chapter 18: Sports Festival VI – Give It Your AllNotes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

"I hope you're ready to be glued to your seats, folks, 'cause here's the plan!" 

"Aren't you trembling for the excitement?! I sure am! Let's GOOOOOO!" Yamada shouted into the microphone. 

Reactions varied. 

- Oh, well, it could have been worse. - Koda thought, making up his mind. 

"I'd better look up bug spray again," Momo frowned at the thought of being stung or bitten. 

"Did those vines hurt, Sero?" Asui asked, receiving back a sighed "Like hell." 

"Holy father..." Shiozaki prayed. 

"I'd better not lose sight of her," Ida strategized. 

"I wonder if he's easily embarrassed..." Setsuna grinned. 

Shoto kept his arms crossed, soothing the pain on his left. 

"Oh goddammit," Pony cursed in her mother language, stomping hard with her hooves.

"Midoriya's friend... She's going to be an interesting fight." Kendo smirked as she covered her ears from Tetsutetsu's yell of "Avenge me, Kendo!". 

-Wait, didn't she join Izuku's team? Oh no. - Uraraka tried to come up with a strategy. 

Izuku simply kept smiling.

"Oh yeah, I'm fighting Midori!" Mina spoke before realizing her situation. "Oh fuck, I'm fighting Midori!" 

- I've got your weakness, shadow bastard. - Katsuki growled. 

"The mad beast will be unleashed upon us," Tokoyami muttered. "Let's give him a collar," [Dark Shadow] cackled. 

Yui kept her silence, barely humming as her name appeared. 

Shinso frowned. - Just my luck... -

The first match of the second round, despite Present Mic's introductions, wasn't really all that exciting. Instead, it was heartwarming. 

Koji didn't have a chance against Yaoyorozu. He knew it well, having witnessed both her normal day-to-day classes and Midoriya's training afternoons. 

He'd seen what their Vice Representative could do, and he knew that she was amazing. The little brute force that he could use (if he wanted to, that is), would be countered by her skills. Speed wasn't his strong suit, so he had no chances of reaching or even touching her before she made something to gain an advantage. She'd also seen his trick with his little friends during his two-on-two, and right now he was all out of alternatives. And the fact that she could easily summon a bug spray from her skin to rid herself of the problem directly was no small weight on his decision. 

So, Koji walked up to the platform, listened to Midnight's fair-fighting speech, and raised his hands up as soon as the kickoff was called. 

Yaoyorozu had begun to run, but now stood in place, a staff and a can already in her hands, watching as his little ants occupied a couple of clean tiles in front of him, writing a message with their black bodies. The words changed little by little as Koji moved his mouth, making sounds inaudible to humans. 

" I surrender. I'm sorry for not giving you a fight, but I want to be a Rescue Hero, and I don't want my friends to be hurt for no reason. I have come this far thanks to you all. You've given me courage. Thank you. "  

Some people seemed displeased by the lack of action, but Mic's voice soon covered any unconvinced mutterings. 

"Well, you heard- uh, you've read it, folks! Koda surrenders, so Yaoyorozu moves on to the third round! What a fine choice to value life above a petty fight! You'll make a fine Rescue Hero!" 

Koji nodded his head, grateful that his teachers could understand. He knew his family would also agree. 

Raising his head, he saw Yaoyorozu coming closer, bowing lightly with a smile. "Thank you, Koda. I really didn't want to use this," she raised the bug spray with a sour expression. 

"I'll cheer for you all," he signed, forgetting he didn't have Midoriya as an interpreter, but receiving a grateful look of understanding, nonetheless. Had she started learning JSL? 

"Here, something for your friends," she replied in the same way, albeit slower, lowering herself on her knees. 

The insects were returning to him swiftly, but not before the girl could gift them some small sugar cubes. 

A defeat had never been sweeter.

Tsuyu jumped as Shiozaki's vines broke the cement where she had been standing but a moment before, her hop bringing her incredibly close to her target. 

Her tongue whipped forward, but she quickly had to retract it as the 1-B girl summoned more thorns calling a "Faith's Shield" in her defense. The green branches moved to her call, shifting from a shield to a net. Tsuyu evaded, this time using the rebound of her landing to spring once more with the hope of being faster than the girl's eyes. Getting some mucus on her would probably be one of the few ways to gain some advantage. 

The speed proved to be too much for her to handle yet: she wasn't able to turn around in mid-air, colliding with her opponent on her side, barely scraping their arms together. 

They regained their footings, Shiozaki hastily deepening the distance between the two of them by breaking the ground thrice, making her retreat. A vine lunged at her ankle, tearing the edge of her pants' leg apart and leaving a nasty mark. 

Looking up, she saw that the most her own attack had done was make the girl's arm itch. Fastidious, but not win-worthy. 

Tsuyu counted her remaining courses of action. 

Camouflage wasn't an option in a one-on-one fight, not at her level. Needing perfect stillness was too big of a requirement and trying to stay so would only further her disadvantage. 

Using more mucus could work in the long run, but she'd probably be exhausted before Shiozaki. 

She had no walls to attach herself to or water to swim in. 

Her tongue was long, but the vines were longer and more numerous. 

"I see why Kendo warned us of your capabilities," Shiozaki said, holding her scraped arm with the other, flinching in her attempt not to scratch it. "I would have expected a shorter match, but you seem blessed with a wonderful constitution. I dare say most of my classmates would not have been able to avoid getting defeated by you." 

Shiozaki was complimenting her in a really, really mild tone. Did others feel like that when she was the one talking? 

She shook her head lightly. "I'm grateful to my parents, but I worked hard for this, ribbit." 

"Of course, 'the plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance'. Proverbs, 21:5." Shiozaki nodded, understanding. "I thank you for your commitment, Asui, but I fear I cannot waste this chance bestowed upon me." 

Shiozaki's vines moved as she spoke, slowly enveloping the surface of the platform in a tight net. Now, even if she could jump away from her attacks, she would just end up caught somewhere else. 

"Pardon my French, ribbit. But this is bullshit," she stated, bending her legs and preparing a final attempt. 

Shiozaki's face frowned only a bit, turning serious as she focused. "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." 

Tsuyu hopped as the thorns closed in. Her tongue reached Shiozaki, but only hit her shoulder, making her stumble back and onto the ground. Her vines enveloped Tsu's body before she had time to do anything else.

Setsuna would admit to having underestimated how little of an effect her flirting could have. She was starting to regret not looking for alternatives.

I mean, it had worked wonders for the vast majority of the boys, and some girls, of class 1-B during their fighting lessons. The two worst receivers, as impassive as cold stone statues, had been Shishida and Kodai. The gentleman's sobriety just couldn't be broken, and with his Quirk active he wouldn't have ears to listen to any of her words anyway. Kodai just deadpanned and ignored everything. 

This Ida guy was just as uptight as their Beast Boy, if not more. He didn't blush, nope. Instead, he got that "how can she say that?!" look Shiozaki had shown too many times already. 

And now things had gotten worse. Who the hell would give her a talk during a match?! 

"...and I believe that saying such things on live television may be particularly awful, as children may be watching!" Ida kicked at her flying arm, sending it rolling to the ground as she winched in pain. 

"Dude, no one is hearing this but you and me!" she growled, already regretting all her choices. 

Why couldn't she have ended up against that green bean their Prez had worked with? He seemed like such an easy guy to mess with! Or, you know, someone like Koda or Pony? Those two would have been so easy to distract! 

Ida stopped for a moment, blinking at her words. "Oh, you may be right, we have no microphones. My sincere apologies." 

"Eh, think nothing of it," she shrugged, more annoyed than anything else. "Just get ready and grit your teeth." 

Her body parts swarmed him from all sides, as she had scattered them with the intent of tripping him up. Twenty pieces from all directions were a lot: even if he luckily countered some, most would grab onto him. Or at least, that had been the plan. 

Ida moved, his reflexes letting him hit, avoid and grab the torrential rain of attacks in a matter of seconds. Setsuna felt her body ache a lot and saw that she hadn't managed to grab onto him at all. 

The teen was smiling gratefully. "A good effort. Still, I should finish this. My brother's watching." He got down, touching the ground with his hands while moving into a perfect start position. 

Setsuna felt a very impelling need to dodge. Her pieces started to scatter again, but the boy was gone in a blink, only to reappear with a kick to her side that felt like getting hit by a truck. Next thing she knew, Setsuna was out of the ring, grumbling. 

"I'm sorry for being too rough, but I feared I wouldn't have been able to counter another swarming attack from you," Ida commended while offering back some of her pieces. 

"All fine, dude," she waved her hand as it reattached, thinking back of the first time she'd seen the guy. "But how the hell weren't you accepted in the recommendation exam? Those reflexes were killer." 

Ida assumed a smiling yet serious look as he pointed towards his class's stands. "Thank you, I've had help in developing those only recently! A friend of mine really has an eye for Quirks." 

She raised an eyebrow, intrigued. Putting on a small grin, she questioned. "May I ask who he is?"

"So, any dice on Tsunotori?" Minoru asked, looking as the girl joined the same stage as their heterochrome classmate. 

Izuku shook his head. - It's Shoto we're talking about. Pony would need her secrets before she's able to put up a decent fight. - 

"What do you think is gonna happen?" Kyoka, behind him, asked. 

"She's seen how much ground he can cover with his ice in one go. She'll run and blast some holes, but nothing more. She's missing a couple of things on her Quirk, I think." 

Denki huffed with a smirk. "Damn. Midoriya, a man with no mercy." 

He jokingly pushed against the blonde's arm. "He's bound to start using his fire too now, thanks to Kirishima and Shoji. Hard to counter that." 

"Come on, we just followed your suggestion Midobro," Eijiro waved his hand up and down, as to reject the compliment. "We would've been toast without those." 

"I'd say 'icicles'. More fitting," Mina smirked, receiving a "uh-uh" from her horn buddy. 

"And I'll still thank you for getting him to do that," Izuku smiled, holding out a fist to bump Eijiro's. 

"I'm glad he's overcome his troubles," Mezo nodded. 

"Has he though?" Momo questioned, as they could see that Todoroki wasn't even hinting at using his left side during this match. 

Izuku knew the problem. "Imagine not making anything from one side of your body for years, and then suddenly trying to create a motorcycle. He's probably feeling his overuse now." 

"And yet he's still badass," Hanta sighed, "at least it's not me down there now." 

- Ah, that brings back some memories. - Hanta had the unluck of matching against Shoto a lot before Izuku had gotten a good handle on what words to say to him. Even starting to suggest two-on-twos as the first round hadn't impacted on his fate that much, for some reason. At least he'd been "lucky" this time: Ibara didn't hit that hard in comparison. 

"He's going to ice the whole arena at this rate," Mashirao surmised, his tail wrapped around his waist. 

"And it's getting too cold, ribbit," Tsuyu noted, scooting closer to Ochaco to keep away some of the cold that was leaving the arena. 

"Sounds rough," Ochaco noted, accepting her friend under and arm, but keeping the other free to handle her food. 

Mina snickered, looking at the brunette. "Not as rough as you've been with Midori." 

Turning her face the other way to hide a blush, Ochaco stuffed her mouth with another serving of the mochi he'd bribed her with. He'd learned to bring more money around for emergencies a long time ago. Bribes as "mochi" and "anything Momo could want to eat" definitely fell into that category. 

Toru came to her help. "Well, I'd be angry too after that match." 

"And hungry," Momo nodded, replenishing her Quirk's fuel with a portion of taiyaki. 

"That hits too close for comfort," Rikido sighed, gratefully receiving another sweet from the pile. 

"At least Midobro knows how to earn forgiveness," Eijiro patted his back. 

- The way to a man's heart is through his stomach. And it works wonders for others too. - But they would need to wait until the dormitory to really feel that. 

"I try," Izuku said, his arms crossed as Pony finally got her lower half encased in ice, making Midnight end the match in Shoto's favor. 

"It's the least you could do for letting Hatsume run circles around them," Toru said, picking a candy for herself and letting Ochaco trough, taking her place near the frog girl. 

"I still don't understand how that happened anyway," Tsuyu croaked, a finger on her lips. 

"A mystery shrouded by layers of metal," Fumikage muttered. 

"For real, Midoriya, that chick seemed crazier than you," Denki laughed. 

- If only you knew... - 

"Mei's just misunderstood," Izuku sighed, shrugging a bit. 

"Whatever you say Green," Kyoka shook her head with an unconvinced grin. 

"Mei?" Tenya interjected as he rejoined them. "You sound already pretty close. Your proclivity for forging bonds astounds me yet again, Midoriya." 

Izuku barely contained a flinch as he noticed his fuck-up. - Damn you Tenya, they could have missed it. - And now he had too many attentive eyes on him again. 

"Midori~" Mina began, her grin clear as day. 

He could have a discussion now, or... 

"Nope!" He jumped up, thinking of the first thing he could to get out of an impromptu interrogation. "Gotta take Uraraka to her match! And I'm next!" 

The girl in question, who had already reached the bottom of stairs, widened her eyes as he grabbed her after he'd jumped down, sprinting away immediately after. 

"But I'm next too!" Mina shouted behind them, running to keep up, "And I want deets!" 

"Oh boy," Denki whistled, "She's not going to let that go, is she?" 

"Not a chance," Eijiro confirmed. 

"What a guy," Minoru shook his head with sentiment. 

Tenya looked at the other guys. "Did I say something wrong?" 

Hanta and Mezo put their arms around Ida's shoulders. "Never change Ida, never change."

"Do you think we've lost her?" Ochaco asked.

She didn't know why Izuku had rushed so fast to get away from their classmate, but given the girl's expression and hints it was probably something to make them uncomfortable or heavily blushing again. 

And she didn't need to get more distracted before a fight. 

"I think so. She must have gone to the room on the other side," Midoriya said, letting her down. "Sorry for that, but I wouldn't have you waste your breath before a match." 

- Then why... Never mind. - 

"Thank you." She still appreciated the gesture, despite having to handle her imagination running rampant at the idea of being princess-carried. 

He nodded, opening the door for her. She sat down in the middle of the room, waiting for her exit to let her in, barely noticing that he'd remained by the door. 

"Uraraka," he started, "I believe Kendo to be a great fighter. She's the second greatest of our year in hand-to-hand skills, and won't fall for a little trick like the one you've used on Tetsutetsu. Do you have a strategy in mind?" 

She blinked in surprise. "I..." 

What could she say? That she hadn't thought of anything more than going in and doing her best? That she'd hoped she could touch her opponent before getting knocked out? That her current strategy was riding more on her desire to hold on onto her pride and stubbornness than on actual experience? 

Midoriya wasn't one to miss her stalling. "I could help, if you want to," he offered, putting his hands in his pockets. 

She looked down, then closed her eyes. 

The proposal was tantalizing. Izuku seemed to possess insights on every last person he put his eyes on, and he'd surely found Kendo's weaknesses with the fair amount of time he'd spent with her. With one of his strategies her win would be almost assured. 

And that was precisely why she couldn't accept. 

"No, thank you." Ochaco shook her head, letting her breath out. "I've been thinking since the cavalry battle. The first thing I could imagine myself doing was coming to you, because I knew that you would excel despite the odds. Partying with friends would have been easy, and I wasn't even thinking of what others may have wanted to do. Momo, Ida, Tsuyu and the others had already found their groups before I managed to turn around. I even accepted what you suggested without second guessing anything... and I'm thankful for that, of course, but now can I really say I deserve my place in this round?" 

"Everything you accomplished is yours alone," his tone was gentle, yet firm. "I merely proposed something that I thought might work. You're the one that put in the effort so that it could." 

She let out a small giggle. He had kind words for any occasion. 

"Okay, I helped and was helped. But now it'll just be me on that ring, and I want to make this with my own strength. So, thank you, but I refuse." 

She raised her eyes, now steeled, and met his. Izuku seemed really proud. 

"Go get them," he said as the exit opened for her. "I'll see you next round." 

She reciprocated his smile and headed towards her fight. 

The brunette and the redhead met under the stadium's cheers, both of their gazes narrating how deep their concentration and determination were. Kendo's hands seemed itchy by how she rubbed them with her fingers, and Ochaco couldn't help but mimic the gesture. 

Her tension was sky-high as the starting call was given. 

Besides, perhaps, her shoes and her uniform, she didn't have anything to use her Quirk on. Kendo couldn't just crash her bare fists onto the concrete, but they would be enough to get to her quickly. Honestly speaking, her disadvantages were clear. 

But Ochaco had noticed something in Kendo's last match, gaining the barest sliver of hope: the girl's own hands were the greatest enemy of her perception. She just had to push what little advantage she had with everything she could give. 

She ran to meet Kendo in the middle of the field, barely evading a swing made to grapple her. Then, taking that brief moment when Itsuka's green eyes were blocked by her Quirk, she leaped forward, touching the girl's arm before she could retract. 

Kendo wasn't one to go down easily though, and Ochaco realized they had shared the plan of getting up close a moment too late, when her other hand grabbed her side, holding her into a blocking embrace. Kendo wouldn't be going anywhere, unless Ochaco herself was. 

After a second spent at an impasse, she sighed. "You're not letting me go, are you?" 

The martial artist grinned. "Not a chance." Her eyes had that "try to throw me now" glint. 

Now, there are moments when you get to plan, and there are moments when you follow your guts heart. And Ochaco liked to believe her heart knew what she was doing when she removed her gravity too, jumping to bring them both meters above. 

What came next was later often described as "the flying deathmatch" by the public, though the Hero students instead seldom referred to it as "the clumsiest two-minutes of the year."

Neither wanted to be launched away for fear of falling, and had little to none control of where they were going. The two struggled to get anywhere, each trying to get the other to face the ground first. They pushed, pulled, and hit each other until Ochaco had to release her power. 

Then, it all came down to a last-second push: the gravity-defying girl used her Quirk on herself, but instead of pushing up she tried to launch herself diagonally, yanking herself away from Itsuka as hard as possible. The two landed on slides as Cementoss altered the ground to cushion the fall, both rolling down and out of bounds. 

Laying on the hard ground, Ochaco felt her everything hurting, with her ribs and tummy screaming in revolt. But her mouth turned into a satisfied smile as Midnight exchanged words with the other referee. 

"Kendo touched the ground first. Uraraka moves on to the next round!"

Mina locked eyes with Izuku as they were announced. They both had opted to fight without their jackets, albeit for different reasons. She, of course, could use additional skin surface for her acid, while he... had strong-looking arms? 

She thought for a second about why he'd discard more protection against her acid before remembering who Midori was. He probably had twenty or so plans ready to go. 

"Is there a chance I could convince you to go easy on me?" Mina asked with a smirk. 

The boy snickered. "Did you pay attention to anything I said today?" 

"I dunno~," she played, letting out a small laugh. "Just kiddin', come at me Midori." 

He responded by letting the energy crackle around him, pouncing like a hungry tiger. 

Mina twirled and slid, smearing her acidic solution through her feet to soften the ground and put some distance between them. She threw an undiluted lash in his direction, making him evade and land inches away from the compromised terrain. A bigger ball of liquid was dodged quite more easily, giving Izuku the chance to grab- no, push against her arm and send her rolling onto the ground. 

She recovered immediately with a spin, seeing that he'd taken the time to swat her "trap" away from the hand he'd used: she had let a thinner layer of stronger stuff flow on her forearms as a countermeasure to his melee maneuvers. 

 "You like that, Midori?" she grinned, renewing her protection. 

"Oh, yeah, it tickles," he shot back, making her pout as she got moving again. Being hard to catch was her only chance. 

"You're still forgetting to use your legs, Ashido," he called her out. 

"I've got pants on!" she growled, jumping away. 

"And how is that working for you?" 

"It's not!" she shouted, letting some acid out of her shins to melt what she could. A few second of fabric-melting later, she swirled and shot a couple of stronger lashes directly from the newly opened path. 

Izuku dodged, but his grin seemed to grow. "Now we're talking." 

Their game of cat and mouse was one of the most intense workouts she'd ever faced. Midori could match her pace, instinctively reacting to everything she threw at him. Jets, puddles, and balls, every ranged attack seemed avoidable by the greenette. He was keeping her on the defensive, gaining on her step by step. If things continued like this, she would eventually tire out. 

- Gotta try that, sink or swim! - she thought, leaving a moment of opening as she gathered her strength. 

His next approach met with her new move as she spread her arms wide, releasing a hail of sticky and dangerous spheres she'd been holding between her fingers and palms. The shower of bullets was too tightly packed to give him a chance of avoiding it completely, and it would probably make at least a dozen of marble-like acid candies impact with his body. 

If he didn't dodge it. Which Mina knew he could do. Which Mina had expected him to do. 

And that made it all the more surprising as he dove through the attack, taking the full brunt of every damn little acid ball, barely covering his head by placing his arms in front of it. 

He was within a meter of her in the next breath. 

Her brain went into overdrive, kicking out the flight response and option for a fast, if possibly disastrous, confrontation. She still had aces up her sleeves! 

Mina was extremely proud of her agility and coordination, honed in years of dancing that only served to further her natural talent. She'd been a very, very, very active child, and dancing had been one of the things she could pour all her energy into. Her reflexes made her capable of dodging things by a hair's breadth all the time... And of surviving against Midori's attack for a good thirty seconds. 

- I'll have to ask him how he did that- ow... - she thought after he'd restrained her, stomach down, making the match end. 

"Need a hand?" he asked as he freed her. 

She hummed as she took the offer. "Geez, Midori, now I really wish I wasn't kidding back there..." 

"You were great," he smiled. "Those little things did quite a number on me." 

Yeah, they had. The adrenaline and concentration of the battle must have kept her eyes on his hands and feet, because... wow, how had they missed that? Midoriya was standing with his shirt in tatters, more hole than textile, giving quite a nice view of his constitution. 

- Damn, he's built like a damn marble statue. - 

Kirishima would have called it "manly." A shier girl would have turned away, blushing at the sight. 

Mina looked with interest and whistled in appreciation. 

Izuku seemed to find it funny, chuckling as they left. "I'll take that as a compliment." 

"Yeeep. Who knew you could rival Kiri?" 

"Every other guy in our locker rooms?" he raised an eyebrow. 

"Fiiine," she huffed. Thinking for a second, she changed the subject. "Midori, have you ever tried dancing?" 

He gave her a look she couldn't quite place. 

"As a matter of fact, I have..."

Between the teaching staff, Shota watched as the fights between two of his most promising kids grew to unexpected (by outsiders) levels. 

Bakugo and Tokoyami were clashing in the sort of way you'd expect in the final round, not in the last sixteen. Nobody could disagree on the two having some of the most destructive Quirks in the class, and they were showing how hard they could push each other. 

Bakugo had entered the ring knowing of [Dark Shadow]'s weakness, as he was keeping a constant source of light on his palms with small explosions to keep most of the Quirk's power at bay.

But Tokoyami hadn't showed the results of his training yet, and it was impossible for light to shine under the bird-headed teen's clothes, where the shadow had hidden itself. Most would have thought that to be an act brought on by fear, but the immediate change in the bird-headed boy movements sang another song. The teen and the Quirk were still working together on a shorter range, and they now packed a much greater punch. 

The blonde bomber was feeling all of that combined might with every exchange, just as the duo was tasting the smoky burn of his explosions up close. 

Shota could almost hear the gritting of Bakugo's teeth from his seat. He certainly saw the glare. 

The fight had gone on for a long five minutes now. The two contestants were breathing heavily, both finding it hard to waste energy. The explosive lights couldn't stay up much longer, but [Dark Shadow] was starting to fade. 

Tokoyami rushed forward in one last attempt to topple Bakugo, being met with an equally determined unmovable wall of determination and anger. An ear-breaking eruption broke the silence as the center of the arena got covered in a bright light, the kids flying away in opposite directions and collapsing out of bounds. 

Shota, like the referee, noticed that Bakugo had mitigated his own descent at the last moment, before collapsing. They would be brought to Recovery Girl, but Eraser Head was sure the winner would pull through and get up before his next round. 

He sat back and smiled, as he'd been pleasantly impressed by the fight. 

And if he had been impressed, it meant that most Pros out there would fight to put offers for his kids. 

- Another two offers from the top ten, I'd say... - he mused.

For the umpteenth time since the matchup had been shown, Hitoshi cursed under his breath. 

What are the odds of the guy with a Quirk that requires a verbal response to end up fighting the only girl who was as silent as a grave? 

Apparently, with his luck, the answer was: enough. 

His easy ticket to the next round had burned with one unlucky pairing. The only benediction to counter his misfortune was the fact that, without objects to use, Kodai was effectively as virtually Quirkless as he was. 

He even had to try and show that he wanted to fight like this, because otherwise his trick could be discerned even before he could make use of it for real. A quick "You can't use your Quirk, so I won't use mine. It's only fair." had gathered a bunch of huffs from the public (damn voyeurs, hoping to see kids blow each other up with flashy powers), and, for some reason, an approving hum from Kodai. 

She probably could have used her shoes or something, but she seemed pretty intent on having a "fair fight." Or something like that, at least. 

Kodai wasn't the strongest in her class, not by a long shot. Most, if not all, of her fighting style relied heavily on her Quirk, and the chance of accessing a variety of object, prepared or improvised. By the rules of the tournament, she was to be empty-handed, and could only rely on her techniques. 

Still, she was a Hero Course student, who had a month of experience in training under Vlad King and All Might. 

Would a dozen days spent sweating and struggling be enough to fill the gap? 

Apparently, if your trainer was Izuku Midoriya, the answer was: yes. 

Two weeks hadn't changed him drastically. 

Physically, Hitoshi was still the same lanky, tired, and powerless teen he'd always been. A fourth of a kilogram of muscles overall wasn't that much of an increase. 

Mentally, he had become something else. Midoriya had put him through series of exercises meant to test his everything, had taught his body how to react before he could think, and had ingrained into his brain and muscles the bare minimum of martial art knowledge he would need to stand a chance in his chosen career. 

Did that green-haired devil put the fear of god into him? Yes. 

Was he absurdly grateful for his help? Yes. 

Was it enough to survive the round of sixteen? 

As Hitoshi managed to yank Kodai down and over the bound line, keeping his mouth clenched to quell the pain of the bruises he could feel everywhere, he discovered that yes, it was enough. 

Hearing Midnight announce that he would move on to the next round, he mentally added another check to his list of things he'd managed to accomplish, and another to the one of things he'd rather not repeat. Kodai fought viciously, and he'd rather stay clear of her for a while. 

Later, he would discover that the girl had a very different opinion on the matter.