Arthur POV
Mina and Toru walked into the class 1A stands, both looking a bit worse for wear but smiling nonetheless. Mina had a slight bruise forming on her jaw where Toru's uppercut had connected, while Toru was favoring her left leg where the acid had splashed.
"That was an amazing fight!" Kirishima called out as they approached our section. "Both of you were so manly out there!"
"Thanks, Kirishima," Mina said, carefully settling into her seat next to me. "Though I gotta say, Toru, you really caught me off guard with that light trick."
"Are you okay?" I asked Mina, as I noticed her massaging her jaw.
"Yeah, I'm fine," she replied, working her jaw gently. "Just didn't expect invisible girl here to pack such a punch."
"Same here," Toru added, though I could hear the slight wince in her voice as she sat down. "That acid kick really stung. Thanks for not burning me though."
I smiled, they seemed genuinely okay, just minor injuries that would heal quickly. Recovery Girl could patch them up after the tournament if needed.
"So you're gonna explain what that light thing was about?" Tsuyu asked, her large eyes fixed on where Toru sat. "That was definitely not part of your quirk before."
Toru looked down for a moment, and even though I couldn't see her face, I could see her cheeks were... fuller? Was she... embarrassed?
"Uhm, well actually it all started at the battle trial," she began, her voice growing more confident as she spoke. "But the big push forward was actually at the USJ incident." She turned toward me, and I felt her invisible gaze. "Well, when Arthur released that stream of light, it kind of interfered with my invisibility for only a second, then my hands glowed, and I kind of thought that you know... I could... manipulate it?"
My eyes widened slightly. I hadn't noticed its effect on Toru's quirk. Then again, I'd been a bit preoccupied with the aftermath of what I'd done.
"That's amazing! Why didn't you say anything?" Kirishima asked, leaning forward with excitement.
"Well, I kinda wanted to keep it as a surprise for the sports festival just in case," Toru replied, and I could hear the shy smile in her voice as she pressed her fingers together. "Plus, I wasn't even sure if I could do it consistently."
"So you can manipulate light, huh," I finally said, looking down at Excalibur resting at my side. I wondered what she would be able to do, if I laid Excalibur in front of her.
"Yeah, kind of," Toru said somewhat shyly. "Still bad at it, though. I spent the last two weeks trying to improve it. Most of the time I just ended up blinding myself."
Mina laughed at that. "Well it worked out in the end."
"Yeah, you both did great," I added, smiling toward both Mina and Toru.
"Thanks, Art," Mina said, bumping my shoulder lightly. "Still a little disappointed don't get me wrong," she added crossing her arms under her neck.
We all turned our attention back to the arena.
"Let's move on to the sixth match!" Present Mic's voice boomed across the stadium, his enthusiasm never wavering. "The dark samurai accompanied by Dark Shadow! From the hero course, it's Fumikage Tokoyami!"
Tokoyami emerged from one of the tunnels, his bird-like head held high, his arms crossed in front of him and dark shadow, nowhere in sight.
"Versus! All-Purpose Creation! She was admitted through recommendation so her abilities are certified! From the hero course, it's Momo Yaoyorozu!"
Yaoyorozu walked out from the opposite tunnel, her posture perfect and her expression focused.
"If she has enough time, she could win," I murmured, watching as both contestants took their positions. "But it's going to be hard either way."
"Sixth match start!" Midnight announced.
The battle began exactly as I'd predicted. Dark Shadow erupted from Tokoyami like a living shadow, wait like? He was a living shadow wasn't he? The point is that it rushed toward Yaoyorozu with frightening speed for most people.
She was ready though, a shield materialized from her arm just in time to block Dark Shadow's initial assault.
The impact sent her skidding backward, but she maintained her footing. Almost immediately, a staff began forming from her other hand as she leaped to the side, trying to create distance between herself and her opponent.
"She's trying to buy time," Midoriya observed, his pencil moving rapidly across his notebook. "But Dark Shadow is too fast for her to create anything substantial."
Dark Shadow pursued her relentlessly, forcing Yaoyorozu to focus on defense rather than offense. She managed to complete the staff and used it to vault over Dark Shadow's reaching arms, but the sentient quirk was already turning to track her movement.
"Come on, Yaoyorozu!" Jirou called out, though her voice was tense with worry.
Dark Shadow slammed down toward Yaoyorozu from above. She raised her shield, but the force of the impact sent her sprawling across the ground. I winced as she hit the concrete, but she'd had the foresight to create a pillow from the back of her neck that expanded to cushion her fall.
"Smart," I muttered. Which was a given, since I was talking about Yaoyorozu of all people.
Dark Shadow didn't give her a moment to recover, diving toward her again. Yaoyorozu rolled to the side, her staff splintering as Dark Shadow's claws raked across it.
"She doesn't have enough time to make something worthwhile," I said.
But Yaoyorozu wasn't giving up, at the same time as Dark Shadow broke her staff, she slipped under it. A bola appeared in her free hand, a type of throwing weapon made of weights on the ends of interconnected cords that could entangle Tokoyami's legs, she threw it as hard as she could.
Dark Shadow intercepted it easily, but those precious seconds gave Yaoyorozu the opening she needed. The fabric of her sports uniform around her stomach began to tear as something large began forming.
"Is that...?" Toru started to ask.
"A cannon," I breathed, impressed despite the dire situation.
The cannon completed its formation and fired immediately. The concussive blast echoed through the stadium as a cannonball shot toward Tokoyami's position.
For a moment, it looked like Yaoyorozu might actually pull off a victory. The cannonball was moving fast enough that even Dark Shadow might not be able to stop it.
But I'd underestimated the sentient quirk. Dark Shadow suddenly expanded, growing larger and more imposing than I'd seen it before. It caught the cannonball mid-flight like it was nothing more than a baseball, then hurled it back toward the cannon with devastating force.
The impact destroyed the cannon and sent Yaoyorozu tumbling out of bounds, her body hitting the grass beyond the platform with a dull thud.
"And Yaoyorozu is out of bounds! What a match!! But one had to lose! Tokoyami advances to the second round!!"
The crowd erupted in cheers, but our section was notably quieter. Yaoyorozu had fought brilliantly, but so had Tokoyami and as Present Mic said, one had to lose.
"Phew," Mina whistled, breaking the silence. "That was brutal."
"Yeah, that was intense," Toru added. "Poor Yaoyorozu. She fought so smart, but..."
"Dark Shadow was just a bad matchup against her," Midoriya muttered as he scribbled something in his notebook. "If she'd had much more time to make long-range objects, she could have made a big enough cannon like the ones that took down the zero pointers in the obstacle race. Or maybe multiple smaller cannons for sustained fire."
The two combatants made their way back to the stands, Tokoyami's expression as unreadable as ever while Yaoyorozu looked visibly disappointed with her performance.
Yaoyorozu sat down with a heavy sigh, next to Jirou her posture finallybreaking from the perfection it always was.
"It's fine," Jirou said quietly, placing a comforting hand on her friend's shoulder. "You did great out there."
Yaoyorozu smiled slightly at the encouragement, but I could see the frustration in her eyes. As class vice-president and someone who'd gotten into U.A. through recommendations, she probably felt like she'd let people down.
I wanted to say something encouraging, but something held me back. Sometimes people needed time to process their losses, and empty platitudes wouldn't help right now. Better not to remind her of her defeat and let her work it out on her own.
"Well then, I'm off," Kirishima said suddenly, slapping his chest with characteristic enthusiasm. The sound of his hand hitting his skin was like stone striking stone.
Sato stood up as well, his usually cheerful expression replaced by one filled with determination. "Time to get serious," he said, pulling a small bag of sugar cubes from his pocket.
Kirishima extended his hand toward his opponent, his sharp-toothed grin wide and genuine. "To a manly fight!"
Sato clasped the offered hand firmly, his own smile appearing. "To a manly fight," he nodded with conviction.
They both walked out of the stands together, chatting quietly as they headed toward the preparation areas. I found myself smiling at their camaraderie.
It didn't take long for them to receive their grand introductions from Present Mic, whose energy seemed to be increasing rather than diminishing as the tournament progressed.
"The seventh match is a matchup of brawn against a slightly different brawn!"
Holy Present Mic, what a burn, I couldn't help but think.
"Manly and passionate hardening! From the hero course, it's Ejiro Kirishima! Versus! Let the sugar rush hit, it's Rikido Sato!"
Both contestants took their positions on the platform. Sato immediately opened his mouth and downed a significant portion of his sugar supply, his muscles visibly expanding as his quirk activated.
The transformation was always slightly unsettling to watch - his body mass increasing in real-time as the sugar converted to raw physical power.
Kirishima, meanwhile, activated his hardening quirk. His skin took on its characteristic rough, rocky texture, and his already impressive physique became even more imposing as his body prepared to both deal and absorb tremendous punishment.
"Come on Kirishima!" Mina yelled from the stands. "One of the horn buddies has to win!!"
The match began with both contestants charging straight at each other - no fancy tactics or complex strategies, just two powerhouses meeting head-on in the center of the platform.
Kirishima threw a thunderous left hook while Sato countered with a devastating right cross. Their fists collided in the middle with a sound like boulders smashing together, sending small shockwaves through the platform.
"Eehh," Toru exclaimed, and I could sense her leaning forward in excitement.
Neither fighter gave ground from that initial clash. Instead, they began trading blows with increasing intensity, each punch powerful enough to have laid out most of their classmates. Kirishima's hardened skin sparked where Sato's enhanced strength connected, while Sato grunted with each of Kirishima's counterattacks.
But as the exchange continued, I began to notice the subtle change.
Hit after hit, they battered each other's bodies. While they were both similar strength wise, Kirishima was able to keep up with the punishment much easier than Sato could, in fact Sato was already slowing down, even though he kept poruing all the strength he could into each punch.
And then I realized something that made me pause, my hand unconsciously moving to rest on Excalibur's hilt.
The impulse to intervene, the overwhelming urge that had driven me for most of my life, that had made me want to rush to help no matter the situations.
Was gone.
Not gone entirely, I corrected myself. But mellowed, controlled, as if my brain finally understood a subtle but crucial difference. These weren't people in mortal peril who needed saving.
These were heroes.
And I was going to be one of them.
As if to punctuate my realization, Kirishima landed a particularly solid punch to Sato's face. Sato's body leaned back under the impact, his enhanced muscles finally reaching their limit. His eyes rolled back and he collapsed, the sugar crash hitting him like a freight train.
Kirishima stood over his fallen friend for a moment, wobbling slightly from his own accumulated damage, before raising his fist triumphantly into the air.
"Brawn against brawn, well brawn won! Sato is unable to move! Ejiro Kirishima advances to the next round!!"
A/N: Welp I hope you all enjoyed this. Also as you can tell I changed the Momo and Tokoyami fight cause, I hated how it went in the original especiallly when working under pressure is what Momo does best, I get her not being able to make big stuff because of time constraints but still, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Oh I also explained where Toru's light manipulation grew from and finally got more development from Arthur himself, all around, I enjoyed writing this chapter a lot.
Send those stones if you guys and gals want bonus chapters. Thx for reading. Author out.