"BAKUGO MOVES ON!" Present Mic's voice echoed with the energy of a rock concert. "The left side of the bracket is decided! Now, let's shift focus! Kicking off the right side, a clash everyone's keen to see! The prodigy of ice, SHOTO TODOROKI! VERSUS! The gravity-defying girl, OCHACO URARAKA!"
Shoto walked onto the stage, his usual stoicism now coated in a harsh, brittle layer of ice. The emotional turmoil of the day had left him feeling raw, and he walled it off with coldness. His eyes scanned over Uraraka, seeing her not as a person, but as a mandatory step in a tournament he felt a bitter obligation to win.
Across from him, Uraraka bounced on her feet, a frantic rhythm of nerves and resolve. The odds weren't just long; they were a towering mountain she had to somehow climb. But she had a plan, a desperate one-shot strategy. Get close. Just get close enough to touch him. It's the only way.
"Match 5... BEGIN!"
With no ceremony, Shoto stomped his right foot. A colossal tsunami of jagged, glistening ice roared from the point of impact, surging across the stage with the terrifying speed of an avalanche. The very air in the stadium seemed to crystallize, the temperature plummeting in a wave of cold that made the audience gasp.
The frigid air hit Uraraka like a physical blow. This was the power she was up against. Steeling herself, she waited for the last possible second. As the ice wall loomed, she slammed her hands on the concrete, channeling her Quirk. "Release!"
Before even fully rising from her crouch, she touched her boots, making her uniform and herself completely weightless. The unbound sections of the stage gave her just enough lift for a desperate leap, launching her airborne as the deadly glacier surged harmlessly beneath her.
For a moment, she floated high above the new ice field. The use of her Quirk on herself, however, sent a wave of dizziness through her. She felt unsteady, a familiar nausea churning in her stomach, but she fought it down. Her hand was outstretched, fingers straining towards Shoto. This was it. Cancelling her Quirk, she let gravity take hold, plummeting towards her target. This is my chance!
Shoto tracked her descent, his expression a mask of indifference. He had anticipated this. Another burst of ice erupted from the glacier, forming a thick, impossibly tall pillar aimed to swat her from the sky.
But Uraraka had anticipated a counter. Mid-air, she tore off her jacket, made it weightless, and flung it as a decoy. Shoto's eyes instinctively flickered towards the motion, and in that split second, Uraraka fired off small, controlled bursts of Zero Gravity from her fingertips, shifting her trajectory just enough to dodge the pillar. She was still falling, still reaching, a testament to pure grit.
Her agility, born from desperate training, was remarkable. But the chasm in their power was staggering.
Seeing her bypass his second defense, a flicker of something—annoyance, maybe even surprise—crossed Shoto's face before being suppressed. He stomped his foot again, harder this time.
There was no single wave to dodge. The entire ice field beneath Uraraka exploded upwards in a chaotic forest of razor-sharp spikes. They erupted without warning, a prison of ice shooting towards her from all angles. There was no room to dodge, no time to think. Ice seized her legs, encasing her boots and ankles in a solid, unforgiving grip. She gasped, a sharp cry of shock from the biting cold and sudden immobility as she dangled, struggling fruitlessly.
Shoto stood silently, raising one hand slightly. The air around his fingers frosted over, a clear and unspoken threat to encase her fully. The fight was over.
"O-Ochaco Uraraka is immobilized!" Midnight declared into the tense silence. "Shoto Todoroki wins!"
Shoto lowered his hand, the ice receding just enough to release its hold. He turned and walked off the stage, offering no word, no glance, no acknowledgment at all.
---
"TODOROKI'S ICY POWER IS ABSOLUTE!" shouted Mic. "But sometimes overwhelming power can beat cunning and tactic. LET'S SEE HOW IT WILL PROGRESS FURTHER! Up next, someone who already showed promise in the previous round, IZUKU MIDORIYA! VERSUS! The absolute underdog from General Studies, who no one had expected, HITOSHI SHINSO!"
Midoriya stepped onto the pristine platform, his mind a fortress of focus. Don't answer. No matter what, don't say a word. Shinso appeared from the opposite tunnel, his posture deceptively relaxed, but his tired eyes were sharp, analytical, already searching for a crack in Midoriya's armor.
"Match 6... BEGIN!"
"So," Shinso began casually, his voice carrying easily across the stage. "How does such a 'heroic quirk' feel, huh?"
Midoriya's only response was action. Green sparks of One For All danced around him as he activated Full Cowling and charged in utter silence.
"Doesn't seem fair, does it?" Shinso continued, his voice a venomous drone. "Some of us have Quirks people call 'villainous'. We get sorted into roles before we even get a chance, while people like you get the V.I.P. treatment."
Midoriya's jaw tightened. The words were barbs, and he could feel them trying to hook into him. He stayed silent, focusing on closing the distance.
Shinso saw the irritation flicker in his eyes. He'd found his angle. "Speaking of fairness, what about your friends? What about those two, oh so special, Todoroki brothers? One, burning hotter than Endeavor himself, and the other as cold as the ice he wields. Guess you're not the only 'special' one, huh? How does it feel to, even with a gift like that, still be below those 'chosen ones' who look down on everyone else?"
Something in those words, the jab at his friends, the implication of his own inadequacy, hit a raw nerve. Protective anger surged, overwhelming his control. "Shut up!" The words escaped before he could stop them.
Instantly, the world snapped white. His limbs locked, Full Cowling vanished. He felt like a marionette whose strings had just been seized. Shinso's voice echoed in the void, triumphant and cold: "Now, turn around and walk out of bounds." His legs began to move, no longer his own.
Panic flared, a silent scream in his mind. No! I can't lose like this! He fought the mental chains, pouring every ounce of will into the struggle. Memories surged: All Might's smile, Uraraka's desperate fight, Souta's relentless hard work. His promise to master this power.
Pressure built behind his eyes. In the distant white haze, several faint, colorful lights began to shine, like distant stars. The glimmers solidified, taking on the vague shapes of phantom figures. Incomprehensible whispers brushed against his mind, a chorus of wills rejecting the foreign control. With a strangled gasp that tore through his throat, a powerful surge went through his entire body. The white haze dissolved. Control snapped back just as his foot hovered inches from the boundary line.
Shinso stared, his calm facade shattering into pure shock. "Impossible... He broke out?"
Midoriya didn't give him another chance. He would not fall for the same trick twice. Whirling around, Full Cowling flared with renewed intensity. In the time it took Shinso to blink, Midoriya was behind him. A single, precise chop to the back of the neck sent Shinso crumpling to the concrete, unconscious.
"H-Hitoshi Shinso is unconscious! Izuku Midoriya wins!" Midnight announced, her voice filled with surprise. Midoriya panted, his body trembling, deeply shaken by the near defeat.
---
"MIDORIYA SNATCHES VICTORY!" Present Mic roared. "NEXT UP, A BLITZING BATTLE! THE LIVING ENGINE, TENYA IIDA! VERSUS! CREATION HERSELF, MOMO YAOYOROZU!"
Iida settled into a perfect sprinter's stance, methodically adjusting his glasses. His engines hummed with contained power. This would be a test of speed and precision.
Yaoyorozu smoothed her PE uniform, her mind racing. He'll open with his ultimate move. Reaction time is everything. A wall of tungsten? Too slow to generate. A net of carbon nanotubes? Might not be strong enough. A shield? It has to be a shield. Could she possibly form it in time?
"Match 7... BEGIN!"
"RECIPRO BURST!"
Iida exploded from his stance. He wasn't just a blur; he was a blue-and-white missile, a physical shockwave aimed at ending the match before it could truly begin.
Yaoyorozu's eyes widened. She had anticipated speed, but this was something else entirely. It was terrifying. All her complex strategies vanished, replaced by a single, desperate imperative: NOW! Her hand flew to her forearm, her skin shimmering with the light of creation.
A small, thick, circular buckler materialized in her hand, an incredible feat of high-speed creation born of pure necessity. She thrust it forward.
But Recipro Burst was simply too fast, too powerful. Iida crashed into the shield like a train hitting a sheet of glass. It shattered into a million glittering fragments instantly.
Yaoyorozu had no time to brace. The raw kinetic force lifted her clean off her feet, sending her tumbling helplessly backwards through the air, the world a spinning collage of sky and stadium.
She landed hard on the grass outside the boundary line, the impact knocking the wind from her lungs. She lay stunned, dazed by the sheer, unanswerable velocity. On the stage, Iida skidded to a halt, his engines venting hot steam as he stood straight. The entire confrontation had lasted maybe two seconds.
A beat of stunned silence fell over the crowd. Midnight stepped forward. "Momo Yaoyorozu is out of bounds! The winner is Tenya Iida!" The crowd finally gasped, then erupted into applause for the blindingly fast victory. Iida bowed crisply to his fallen opponent.
---
"IIDA DEMONSTRATES OVERWHELMING SPEED!" Mic declared. "AND NOW FOR THE FINAL MATCH OF ROUND ONE! GET READY FOR SPARKS! CLASS 1-A'S HUMAN STUN GUN, DENKI KAMINARI! VERSUS! CLASS 1-B'S PIOUS PROTECTOR, IBARA SHIOZAKI!"
Kaminari offered a shaky grin, fiddling with the pointer on his wrist. This was a bad matchup, plain and simple.
Across the stage, Shiozaki serenely clasped her hands, her vine-like hair uncoiling and rustling with life.
"Match 8... BEGIN!"
Instantly, Shiozaki's vines wove into a wall of thick, thorny constructs. Kaminari grinned, trying to project confidence. "Okay, let's start strong here!" He aimed his pointer. "True discharge: 1 Million Volts!"
A bright, concentrated explosion of lightning struck the thorny wall. Sparks flew and vines smoked, but the barrier held firm, proving incredibly resistant. "Divine barriers protect the faithful," Shiozaki murmured, lashing out with other vines like whips.
"Whoa!" Kaminari yelped, hopping back, frantically trying to discharge smaller bolts to defend himself from the relentless, incoming tendrils. He was immediately forced onto the defensive, constantly moving, firing off sparks that seemed to do nothing, all while dodging the ceaseless attacks.
It was exhausting. He could already feel his energy draining, the familiar fuzzy precursor to his Quirk's drawback setting in. "This isn't working!" he muttered, ducking under a thorny lash. His focused attacks were useless. "Okay, gotta go all out! Sorry, brain!"
He planted his feet and began to charge up his power, the air around him crackling violently with gathering electricity. "INDISCRIMINATE SHOCK! WHEY!"
Seeing him preparing a massive, area-of-effect blast, Shiozaki intensified her defense, her vines weaving into a dense, green dome. But just as Kaminari unleashed his attack, a single, fast vine shot out from the base of her defense, snaking low across the ground and wrapping tight around his ankle.
Kaminari roared, unleashing the untamed power. The wave of raw electricity slammed into Shiozaki's dome, which smoked and shrank under the assault but miraculously held. The massive output, however, instantly short-circuited Kaminari's brain.
His eyes went vacant, a dopey grin spreading across his face as he gave two weak thumbs-up. "Wheyyyy..." he drooled, completely immobilized.
Protected inside her smoldering shelter, Shiozaki tightened the vine and gave a firm, steady tug. The incapacitated Kaminari was easily pulled off his feet and dragged across the stage.
"Denki Kaminari is incapacitated!" Midnight declared. "Ibara Shiozaki wins!" Shiozaki unfolded her vines, bowing her head in a silent prayer of thanks. The quarter-finals were complete.