Chapter 31: Sports Festival (10 Finale)

[Ladies and gentlemen! With the last match of the quarter finals over, we have our Semi-finalists!

Tenya Iida

vs

Shoto Todoroki

And

Jōichirō Saiba

vs

Katsuki Bakugo

Let's give them a round of applause and invite Tenya Iida and Shoto Todoroki for the first semi-final.

Aizawa, what's your take on this tournament? As far as I can see, Class 1 has dominated the matches.]

Aizawa didn't reply to the question asked by Present Mic, and Present Mic just went back to his commentary for the match.

Shoto starts the match with a freezing attack. This forces Tenya to evade and sprint to Shoto's right with his Engine legs. Shoto covers his right by freezing the ground with his right arm. Tenya stops short to dodge and ends up trapped between the two waves of ice. Shoto tries to capitalize with another freezing attack, but this time Tenya avoids it with a standing long jump.

While in mid-air, Tenya activates his Recipro Burst technique. Shoto is able to duck Tenya's initial kick. Tenya quickly lands and immediately follows up with a second powerful kick that slams Shoto into the ground. Shoto recovers slightly and tries to freeze the ground. Tenya leaps over him and grabs the back of his shirt before sprinting towards the edge of the arena.

'I have eight seconds left before my engine stalls, I believe that I can run Shoto out of bounds.' However, he suddenly stops short. Tenya then realizes that his mufflers have been frozen shut. Shocked, he questions Shoto"When did you block them?"

"I blocked them when you kicked me. I have only been using ranged attacks during the festival, but you forgot that I can use precision attacks too." Shoto told Tenya.

Shoto freezes the ground and grabs Tenya's arm as he encases most of Tenya's body in ice. He gets up and says "I tried to dodge your kick, but it was too fast."

With Tenya immobilized, Midnight declares Shoto the winner.

In the stands, Fuyumi and Rei applauded for Shoto with beaming smiles on their faces. Yuki also joined in as she saw her big sister clapping with a happy face.

In another part of the stadium, Touya also applauded for his brother while muttering "Good work, Shoto."

[Now that was thrilling wasn't it!

Let's not waste the time and start the second semifinal!

Jōichirō Saiba!

vs

Katsuki Bakugo!]

As their names were called for their match, both Jōichirō and Katsuki left their waiting room at the same time. Thanks to that, both participants were walking up to the stage side by side, Jōichirō with a carefree smile on his face and Katsuki with a calm face instead of his usual scowl.

When the two contestants were on stage, Midnight asked them if they were ready and getting their confirmation she announced "START!"

Just as he had done in the prior matches, Katsuki used his explosion to propel towards Jōichirō, and Jōichirō just stood there waiting for Katsuki to reach him.

When Katsuki reached near Jōichirō, Katsuki brought one of his hands towards Jōichirō and made an explosion right in front of Jōichirō's face.

Jōichirō absorbed the explosion, and fired a stream of energy right back at Katsuki.

Katsuki, skillfully dodged the energy blast that came at him by propelling himself away from its path.

This process continued, Katsuki would blast explosions at Jōichirō, and Jōichirō would retaliate with energy blasts. The explosion's will be absorbed by Jōichirō and the energy blast will be dodged by Katsuki.

As the match continued like that, Katsuki started to feel his hands straining and reaching its limit. Jōichirō on the other hand was taking heavy breaths as continuous absorption of kinetic energy, heat energy and fire from the explosion's made by Katsuki, has also started to strain him out.

'Let's end this.' Jōichirō and Katsuki decided that simultaneously, not knowing that both of them decided to do the same thing.

Bakugo brought his hands together in front of him, with his palms facing Jōichirō and made an explosion that blinded everyone who was directly seeing the explosion. Jōichirō, had used his speed to dodge the explosion and with skillful maneuvering, he reached right in front of Katsuki and punched right in his guts, that punch, knocked the wind out of Katsuki making him lose consciousness.

Midnight seeing this immediately declared Jōichirō as the winner.

[There you have it folks! Jōichirō Saiba advances to the finals to fight against Shoto Todoroki!]

"So, Jōichirō will be fighting against Shoto. Who are you going to support Fuyumi?" Rei asked her daughter.

"Mom! Please don't start." Fuyumi told her mom, as she fully knows that her mom is only trying to tease her.

The students of class 1A were already celebrating, spearheaded by Denki as the top four are from their class.

Varying degrees of chattering was going on in the audience.

"Can you take on Jōichirō if you tried, Nejire?" Mirio asked his female friend who has long blue hair.

Nejire shook her head and said "I don't know. When I use my quirk I lose my stamina, but I'm sure that he can replenish his stamina just by absorbing the energy waves I send towards him. So technically it would be my loss."

"Mmm." Mirio did ask for something more and slowly creased the silver hair of Eri who was sitting on his lap, looking at her he thought 'Her horn is getting bigger than when we met. Hope it's nothing dangerous.'

[Ladies and gentlemen, let's welcome the finalists of this 1vs1 tournament!

Shoto Todoroki!

vs

Jōichirō Saiba!]

Cheers went on in the stands for the two young hero students.

As they were on stage, Shoto thought 'He can absorb any energy, so my option is to fight using ice, and a surprise attack with the fire. I don't know how effective this will be. But I need to give my all.'

Jōichirō on the other hand was thinking an entirely different thing: 'What should I have for dinner today?'

Midnight asked both of them if they were ready for the fight and both of them nodded in affirmation.

Shoto starts the match with a freezing attack and Jōichirō counters with a powerful smash that breaks apart the ice wave. Shoto creates a shield of ice behind him to prevent him from being blown out of bounds. Shoto barrages Jōichirō with ice again, but the ice was easily destroyed by Jōichirō with his punches. And everytime Jōichirō punched, Shoto would make a shield behind so that he wouldn't go out of bounds.

Deciding it's best to use both elements simultaneously than using the fire for a surprise attack, Shot froze the stage and unleashed his flames at Jōichirō.

Skillfully dodging the ice on the floor and absorbing the fire that was unleashed by Shoto, Jōichirō melted the ice in the area he was standing.

Taking a deep breath, Shoto looked Jōichirō straight in the eye, both of them communicated with their eyes and decided to end the fight with one final attack.

They both charge up their Quirks and prepare for one final clash. Cementoss and Midnight, sensing that their next attack will be devastating, steps in to stop them from killing one another.

Shoto sends a giant ice wave at Jōichirō, which the latter avoids by jumping over it and diving straight at Shoto while cocking his hand back for a punch. Shoto heats up the air and melts all the ice in preparation for a giant flame attack. Jōichirō counters with a powerful punch that creates sonic booms due to the sheer power of it. Although Cementoss interrupts, their attacks collide and destroy the stadium.

When the smoke from the explosion clears, Jōichirō was standing where the stage was and Shoto out of bounds of the stage with half his shirt burned off. Midnight announces that Shoto is out of bounds and that Jōichirō Saiba is the victor.

The audience stood up and cheered for the victor as both contestants left the stage, with Jōichirō supporting Shoto to walk.

Yuki, who saw her brother win the whole tournament, jumped up and down in joy with a wide smile plastered on her face.

Jun and Tomo were happy as their son won the sports festival undefeated in any of the three formats.

Fuyumi was also happy that her boyfriend Jōichirō won, but a part of her wanted her brother to win the sport's festival.

Rei on the other hand was observing Jōichirō as he helped Shoto, who looked disoriented, to reach where their classmates were and thought 'He's a good kid.'

{A couple of minutes later}

"All of the first-year events for this year's UA Sports Festival have been completed. So now, we will begin with the award ceremony!" Midnight announced, with all students but four were standing there with cameras flashing behind them.

In front of them, three students came out of the underground while standing on their platforms that showed their rankings.

The third place was taken by the explosion master, Katsuki Bakugo seemed to be in deep thoughts different from his usual behavior of lashing out at everyone. Second place was being occupied by now a clean and patched-up Shoto Todoroki, he had a smile on his face, getting second place haven't changed anything for him as the one who he fought was simply strong. Finally, the first place was occupied by the undefeated Jōichirō Saiba, who also had a smile on his face and his golden eyes were locked on to the small bright blue eyes filled with innocence.

Cameras constantly flashed on all three of them to get their pictures. "And to present the medals! The man himself, All Might!" Midnight announced and a familiar laugh sounded out. Seeing the silhouette of the number one Pro Hero, everyone within the crowd began to cheer loudly, with most of the students joining in as well.

"I have brought the medals here!" All Might shouted as he perfectly landed with no sort of difficulty whatsoever.

Walking up to Katsuki who had his head down with a contemplating look on his face, All Might put the bronze medal on his neck.

"Don't be so down Young Bakugo. You have showcased a brilliant performance in the tournament and your mastery of your quirk and the skillful use of it is astonishing. If you can keep this calmness everytime, it will help you in growing more stronger." All Might told Katsuki.

In return, Katsuki only nodded at All Might, acknowledging what he said.

Next, All Might gave the silver medal to Shoto and said "Getting second place is not something to be ashamed about, as you have fought spectacularly in this tournament. I believe the training you're getting from your brother is effective. I wish you good luck, Young Todoroki."

"Thank you, All Might." Shoto replied, and took a hold of his silver medal and showed it in the direction where he saw his elder brother Touya.

After giving the medal to Shoto, All Might walked up to Jōichirō. "And finally! Jōichirō Saiba, the winner of today's sports festival. I gotta say, you have the most versatile Quirk I have ever seen. The only thing I have to say is to keep working hard because I am sure that you will be an amazing Hero one day" All might said while putting the gold medal around Jōichirō's neck and gave him a hug.

After the hug he patted his shoulder with a laugh, All Might spoke again but this time only loud enough so that only Jōichirō could hear him. "You did good, Young Saiba, and judging from the conversations I have heard from the Heroes, I am sure you will get tons of nominations, so choose wisely to ensure your bright future".

"Yes, thank you All Might" Jōichirō said to him with a bright smile on his face. After that walked away from Jōichirō and went towards Midnight and took the mic from her.

"Well, these are your winners! But listen up, everyone, pay attention to what I have to say. Anyone could have ended up here and won the sports festival. Don't feel so down at your loss because here at UA, you will have time to grow and shape yourself to become splendid heroes! All you students here did a wonderful job today, so can we please get a round of applause!" All Might said as the arena became filled with the sound of everyone clapping.

Most of the first years happily smiled because of his words and others began to feel better because of the encouragement he gave them.

"The next generation of Heroes is definitely looking promising!" All Might declared which got him another round of applause. He raised his hands up in the air "And I would like to say one more thing, so everyone please say it with me! Thank you for everyone's hard work!

Plus Ultra!"

With that, this year's U.A sport's festival came to an end.