Chapter 30

The break between rounds wasn't long enough to actually rest, more like just enough to remember how tired you were before getting thrown back into the arena. Midnight called Ashido and me onto the stage a few minutes later.

"So, zero quirks used so far, huh?" Mina stretched her arms over her head, rolling her shoulders with a grin as we walked up the steps into the ring. 

"Are you saving all the cool stuff for Todoroki and Bakugo, or do you think you can take me down with just your bare hands too?"

"Honestly? Your acid is pretty annoying to deal with." I said, offering a small shrug as we took our positions.

"No hard feelings if I melt your shoes a little, right?" She asked jokingly.

"Could you try not to?"

"No promises." She laughed, finishing her stretch by bouncing on her feet. 

Midnight raised her whip. " Are both fighters ready?"

Ashido dropped into a loose stance, palms turned towards me. I didn't bother matching her posture; I just stood near the center line, still relaxed with my hands at my sides.

"START!"

Ashido moved instantly. She swept her arms forward, launching acid ahead so I couldn't come close to her.

‘ That's smart; with this move she can take advantage by controlling the terrain. Unfortunately, her moves are too straightforward.’

I moved before the first spray could land, running towards her while avoiding the acid instead of retreating.

"You're quick, but don't think that will be enough to beat me," she said, already redirecting the next spray to stop me.

The streams of pink liquid hissed loudly as soon as they touched the concrete, creating a dangerous barrier between us. She was trying to corner me into an area where she could catch me with a wider spray.

‘It's a good tactic against standard close-range fighters.’

She is not wrong to be confident. Her control over the acid was good; it was thin enough to spread fast and thick enough to actually stay on the ground once it landed, to force me to change paths.

Unfortunately for her, I didn't bother dodging backward or jumping into the air where I'd lose mobility. Instead, I stepped directly toward the expanding pool, while observing her hand movements. Before she could change the direction of her acid spray, I turned suddenly to the left, using the untouched edge of the arena to bypass her zone of control entirely.

"Wait, really?!” Her eyes widened in surprise. 

She twisted on her heel, swinging her left arm to sweep another wave of acid toward me to slow me down. As the corrosive spray arced through the air, I dropped to the ground to slide beneath the liquid, 

‘ She's starting to panic, making the arc of her acid spread too wide.’

Two more sprays came my way, both aimed to stop me from coming closer to her. I stopped letting her think it had worked. 

Seeing me stop, Ashido lunged forward the second she thought she had me cornered, closing the last few feet fast, hand already reaching forward to send the last stream of acid.

I stepped inside her reach, closer than she expected, close enough to startle her.

Ashido tried to pull her arms back, but before she could do so, I caught her wrist, redirecting the lunge a few degrees off its line. She stumbled past me instead, shoes skidding on her own acid as she caught herself before falling.

Her balance was gone, and by the time she turned back, I was already close enough to follow through with my own attack. I didn't use a heavy blow. Instead, I drove my palm directly into her solar plexus. The air rushed out of her lungs in a sharp gasp.

Her legs buckled immediately. Before she could fall and risk getting burned by her own residual acid, I caught her by the shoulder and threw her towards the clean floor just outside the arena boundary.

She hit the ground a second later, more surprised by the fact that I threw her outside the arena than hurt.

"...Okay, that was annoying," she said, laying on her back. 

"Ashido is out of bounds!" Midnight announced, raising her whip toward me, "Winner — Arata Seiji!”

I offered her a hand, which she took, still shaking her head as we walked off the ring together with the crowd cheering behind us.

Back in the stands, I caught the next match just as it was being called.

"Katsuki Bakugo versus Hitoshi Shinso!"

Shinso walked out looking as tired and unbothered as ever, hands loose at his sides. Bakugo, on the other hand, was practically vibrating with rage, already treating this like a fight that had personally wronged him before it even started.

Once they were both ready, Midnight gave the signal to start the match.

Bakugo didn't hesitate. He launched himself forward, his explosions like thrusters to close the distance.

Shinso just stood there, watching Bakugo close the distance, before asking him a question.

"Do you really think you can beat Arata?" 

Shinso asked, not expecting any response from his opponent.

Bakugo, however, snapped back almost immediately, palms already crackling. 

"Shut your fucking—"

That was as far as he got. Bakugo froze mid-sentence. His eyes losing focus, the aggression draining out of him all at once as he skidded across the concrete, stopping just ten feet away from Shinso.

After that, he started walking towards the boundary line at the edge of the ring.

"...Huh," Shinso said, mildly surprised.

"I didn't expect him to fall for it that easily."

The crowd noise dipped in confusion, watching Bakugo walk toward the white line like it was the most natural thing in the world.

He was halfway across the arena when something in his expression cracked.

Bakugo forced his right wrist towards his own chest as an explosion went off point-blank. He staggered backward from the force of his own quirk, smoke pouring off him. He was coughing hard, but his eyes had cleared. Whatever hold Shinso had on him, the pain had blown straight through it.

"That's insane," Yaoyorozu, who was seated next to me, said in disbelief.

Bakugo didn't hesitate once he had control back. He surged forward immediately, ignoring whatever damage he'd just done to himself, closing the last distance. Shinso tried to bait him into speaking again, but Bakugo had apparently decided talking wasn't worth the risk anymore.

One clean hit sent Shinso down hard, and the match ended a second later on Midnight's call.

"Winner — Katsuki Bakugo!"

Bakugo stood there a moment, chest heaving, one hand pressed to his ribs where the blast had caught him. He didn't celebrate. Didn't even look satisfied. He just turned, found me in the stands without seeming to look very hard for me, and held the stare for a long second before walking off toward the medical staff waiting at the tunnel entrance.

"He blew himself up," Ojiro said from a few seats below, sounding almost impressed despite himself. "Just to win a first-round mid game. That's insane."

I didn't argue on that part.

The last two quarterfinals wrapped quickly after that, Todoroki putting Midoriya down with a wall of ice before he could close the distance a third time, and Iida grinding out a win over Yaoyorozu that came down to raw speed outlasting her ability to keep building new gadgets fast enough to counter it. Yaoyorozu walked off looking more thoughtful than disappointed, already muttering something about reaction time under her breath.

The bracket screen updated a few minutes later, names locking into place with that.

Semifinals.

Shoto Todoroki vs. Katsuki Bakugo.

Arata Seiji vs. Tenya Iida.

I was heading for the exit when someone called me.

"Arata."

I turned around to see Iida walking towards me, his posture straighter than usual, if that was even possible for him, but as he drew closer, I noticed the sharp, uncharacteristic focus in his eyes behind his glasses. There was no hesitation in his stride.

"Iida, congratulations on your win against Yaoyorozu,” I said. 

"Thank you. She was a formidable opponent," Iida replied, stopping three paces away. He chopped his hand through the air, his tone still as straightforward. "I've watched every match you've fought so far," he said. "Kirishima. Ashido. Neither of them saw you use your quirk once; you relied entirely on your martial arts to beat both of them.”

He paused, his gaze narrowing as he looked me dead in the eye.

I gave a small, noncommittal tilt of my head. 

"It hasn't been necessary. Why waste energy when simple methods work?"

"That's not good enough for me." He adjusted his glasses, a small, deliberate motion, like he was resetting himself before continuing. "I've been studying you since Aizawa’s evaluation. Your reaction times, your positioning, even your judgment, they're all exceptional on their own."

"Is there a question somewhere in this?"

"This is the U.A. Sports Festival," Iida said, his voice getting louder. 

"We are here to test our absolute limits against one another. To hold back against your peers is to disrespect the effort everyone has put into reaching this stage."

He took one step closer,

"Even if you refuse to, I intend to be the reason you have to use your quirk," he said, with no hesitation whatsoever. "Whatever it is. I've trained specifically to close distances faster than anyone in our year. I don't intend to give you the option of winning this the same way you won the last two rounds."

I studied him for a second, "You've thought about this a lot."

"I take every match seriously."

He held my gaze a moment longer, like he was waiting for something more, anything to confirm whatever theory he'd built up watching my last two fights. I didn't give him one.

A small smile touched the corner of my lips.

"Fair enough, Iida. Don't regret asking for it,” I said, turning my back to him and walking off without waiting for a response.

Yaoyorozu caught up to me a moment later, glancing back at Iida's retreating figure with something between amusement and concern.

"He's serious, you know."

"I noticed."

"Are you going to use your quirk against him?"

I thought about how fast Iida actually was when his Engine hit full output, about how much distance a dodge alone could actually buy against something moving that quickly.

"Probably, it all depends on how fast he can go," I said.

She raised an eyebrow, 

"That's the first time you've said that all tournament."

"First time I've actually needed to."