Round Of 16 Begins...

Chapter 29 - Round Of 16 Begins...

Izuku sat in the infirmary having been there for a while following the conclusion of the previous event. His team had placed in third which secured them a spot in the following round of one-on-one battles, the fun part. From there the matches had been determined completely at random which was the fairest way of deciding how to make people fight each other.

Looking at the future matches he took a deep breath coming up with ways that each match was likely to end. He had yet to go and eat his lunch which was desperately needed, but he was waiting for Recovery Girl to fix his hands so he could stuff as much food into his mouth. This would allow him to recover energy and would just be nice in general considering that he was a person who had liked to eat even before he got this quirk.

The television screen in the infirmary showed the matches that would occur in the the following hours and boy were they going to be very interesting as they went on longer and longer. They were as followed:

Match 1: Bakugou Vs. Mineta

Match 2: Shinsou Vs. Asui

Match 3: Midoriya Vs. Kirishima

Match 4: Iida Vs. Yaoyorozu

Match 5: Ashido Vs. Ochako

Match 6: Tokoyami Vs. Hatsume

Match 7: Setou Vs. Kendou

Match 8: Todoroki Vs. Shoji

Izuku's own match would be against Kirishima and even now, in his injured state, he began to come up with ways of taking him out. He'd have a difficult enough time taking the harden Quirk-user out of the ring simply my the fact that punching him was out of the picture if he didn't want to get his stamina sapped again by Recovery Girl. Any punches at his speed would likely cause cuts on his hands due to the sharpness that Kirishima's skin developed when his quirk was in use. Because of this he would very likely have to find a way of weathering down his fellow classmate

Some of his friends would be having interesting fights, specially Momo ad Iida who would be going up against each other. In this situation Iida definitely had the speed advantage, but if the fight carried on for too long then the tide would certainly turn in Momo's favor with her ability to produce whatever she wanted. Of course if it went on for too long the lipids in her body would be exhausted and Momo would have no choice but to give the match up. Needless to say, this would be a match that was in the air just like several of the other ones in this round. The winner of that would also go up against Izuku in the next round, not that he had won yet, but he was hopeful.

"Why must you children be so reckless during this festival every year?" Recovery girl asked him right after undoing the bandages that Momo had placed on his hands earlier. She inspected them for a second before shaking her head like a person who had seen so many injuries in her long life."Well, it looks to me like you have done a number on your hands. Midoriya, be more careful next time. You kids might be young, but that doesn't make you invincible." She gave him a kiss and then proceeded to go back to her temporary office. Izuku had been her last patient so she would be able to take a small break before the rest of the festival continued, that would most certainly produce more injuries because of the rash youth.

Flexing his hands and making sure that they still worked like he remembered, the speedster jumped off the bed, instantly regretting his choice as he felt the side-effects of Recovery Girl's quirk. As soon as his weight was supported on his own two feet he grew severely tired and tried thinking on some way to not fall asleep on the spot. At first he simply fell on his face and got back up as he realized that the floor wasn't his bed.

Coming to the conclusion that his friends were most likely waiting for him outside he sped to the door and stumbled as he reached the wooden structure. He literally phased through without thinking, pushing the person who was leaning on the door.

In her defense, Itsuka Kendou was really tired and just wanted to rest a little before going to go get a meal with the people she had worked together with. During the cavalry battle her hand had taken a beating from having to fight Tokoyami's Dark Shadow with just one hand so she had needed a bit of healing before going up against the boy who could produce tape from his elbows.

The girl with the large fists had just wanted to rest a little against the door of the infirmary and normally people opened the door if they wished to go through it. Thus she blamed Izuku for pushing her to the ground and falling on her because he was the one to simply walk through the door. Izuku also couldn't truly be blamed for this because right now he was hungry, sore and tired.

"Oh." He said simply as he realized that he had missed the doorknob and was lying next to Kendou who he had befriended in the previous event. "H-hello Kendou, why are you on the floor." She laughed at he quickly picked himself up and so did the other two members of their team. They'd been smart to lean on the other side of the hall predicting that Izuku would just run through the door and tear it down, they'd been half right.

"I would think that you are responsible for that." She took the arm offered by Izuku and picked herself up before straightening out her PE uniform. "How did you even go through the door? I thought your quirk was a speed buff?" Izuku shrugged at the question and proceeded to put the attention to where it was needed. It also brought the attention away from Izuku's quirk which he wasn't really comfortable sharing just yet.

"So anyone up for lunch?" That was all that was needed to be said in order to bring everyone from a tired state, due to Recovery Girl's healing, to a mood of joy and laughter. Even Shinsou gave Midoriya a smile as he also felt that he needed food of some kind.

After a quick meal, very quick for Izuku, he didn't go back to the arena to play with the other competitors of the sports festival. He ate lots, chatted quite a bit with his friends, and even asked them what they thought about the matchups in the next event. Despite all that, he needed just a little time to himself to put his thoughts in order.

While they went on to participate in the silly and fun activities that had been selected by a few teachers, he found himself an isolated corner to sit and think. He would've been outside with his friends, but he wanted a little time to himself to think properly. He wasn't anti-social, he just liked to be on his own at times to think through the problems that were bothering him.

It's almost over, the test of your capabilities has been shown to everyone. You were the first place for the obstacle race and qualified for the one-on-one battles. Overall, you didn't do too badly, but there's something that's been bugging me for the longest time. Where are the League of Villains? They took my blood, broke my legs and then attacked me again not too long ago. They must have something planned, there's no way that they'll accept defeat after losing that badly. Heck they even took my first pair of fancy goggles, what sort of people actually do that?

To make matters worse for myself, Mirio hasn't talked to me in a while and his eyes always shake a little when he's does decided to pop by. Then there's All Might who hasn't even given me time to correct me when we are in class. I get that he's the Number One Hero, but a little teaching here and there would be appreciated very much.

Then after this we're supposed to go and choose some hero's agency to go and intern at for a week or something of that sort. I really don't know how that's going to work for me considering that if people look into my history they'll see that I was classified as Quirkless for fourteen years.

Pulling out his phone and earbuds, Izuku decided that he needed a little run outside. The music always made clearing his mind better. Besides, the security in this place was just a little much for him and wouldn't allow him to actually stretch his legs fully. All he wanted right now was to clear his mind, and there was no better way than for him to run.

It was just a simple plan of avoiding cameras, security, and any other personnel that could find him then phasing through a wall and make his way around the city. If only he could have stayed and seen Momo Yaoyorozu wear a cheerleader outfit, now that would have seriously changed his mind. Then again he had only been able to put himself to the limit when he ran the first event in record time.

As Izuku Midoriya ran out of the stadium, wearing a green hoodie and listening to music after phasing through the wall of the large building, there was a person watching him. He was simply doing it so that he could clear his head a little before going out to compete in the one-on-one battles. The competition would be difficult, but Izuku was determined that he would be fighting his way to the finals and then would take first place. It was a goal that he was working hard to achieve, and only time would show what the outcome would be.

The day was meant to be one of showing to the world what the next generation of heroes was capable of, but there was always the League of Villains to worry about. Of course there were the two who had gathered all the villains and brought them to the USJ in order to kill All Might, but that plan had failed. Tomura Shigaraki and Kurogiri had tried their best to recover from the incident, though times were a bit hard. At the moment they had no one to keep them company but each other, which at times could be quite straining.

The young adult male had been infuriated that his plans had gone up in fire, but when Sensei told him that he had done well….he felt as if all was alright. The blood that he had collected from the boy, it was something that was invaluable. Due to his collection of the substance, they now had an invaluable ally one who was just like the speedster who they had stolen the blood from, but he was better, much better. This duplicate of sorts had no name at the moment, he just had a face and a quirk, both were the same as Izuku Midoriya.

For this reason, the League of Villains sent this boy into the stadium to gather information. It was a risky move, but they had an exact duplicate, with some personality tampering, of the boy. This allowed him to get in and out without warning the officials that anything was wrong. If worse came to worse, he was more than capable of handling himself against a skilled foe, he had shown that to several Nomus at the same time.

In the present time, the faux Midoriya just walked in through the front gates of the stadium wearing the exact same thing that the previous Midoriya had been wearing while holding a little food that he'd bought from one of the stands. It was a pretty obvious thing that he ate a lot so the gate security didn't even think twice about letting him in. He also gave that new upcoming female hero a wink with a confident smile just so that his original would have some problems if the two ever interacted.

Well that was easy, didn't even ask for an ID or anything, some security this is. Apparently my counterpart is an extremely selfless person, so I think that my acting skills will be put to the test here. Same powers, same memories, same everything, except I somehow came out like a self-aware comic anti-hero. These villains sure know how to clone themselves a good clone….what assholes. I was made for the sole purpose of beating a kid up, who do they take me for. I am a person who has depth and the ability to do so much more, and who would probably beat the shit out of every one of them if I wanted to, but I don't. Not at the moment that is.

Walking into the locker rooms, the clone walked right up to the one that contained the belongings of Izuku Midoriya, it wasn't that hard finding it. He was pretty sure that he had his phone on him, but that wasn't the item that he was sent to retrieve today. The funny thing about these teachers of Izuku Midoriya, was just how stupid they were to think that a lock would be enough to keep a skilled thief out of here. With a slight vibration of his palm the lock keeping Izuku's belonging secure was undone. It took him less than a second, and now he had access to a powerful tool which the heroes would regret one day in the near future.

This idiot seriously only kept his stuff safe with one measly lock, what a dumbass. Well I can't really complain, sure does make my job a whole lot easier. Now let us see where my big brother keeps his inhibitor band. Oh here it is. What a fucking dumbasses those teachers are, making a tool that would completely incapacitate one of the most powerful people in their community, and giving it to the person who it would most effect. Like I said, it's almost like these heroes are asking to be taken down.

The replica of Izuku pulled out a thin metallic band from the locker and inspected it. His instructions were to take it to that big lab that everyone was talking about and get a copy of this before delivering it back to this same locker. The copy of it would remain in the labs where it would serve as a tool that would be improved while this band was going to be tampered with just a little longer. One would screw with Midoriya when he wore it, while the other would be messed with to mess with him in the future.

Walking out of the locker room with his prize pocketed, he opened the door to find Momo Yaoyorozu walking down the hallway right at him. She wore what could only be described as a cheerleader outfit and had a large embarrassed smile on her face, she truly did think that he was the other Midoriya by how embarrassed she looked. Currently Kurogiri was keeping track of his counterpart so he would be aware of when the original Midoriya would be returning, so that meant he had time. That didn't matter right now though, he had an attractive girl in front of him who wanted some form of his attention so it would be a good idea for him to talk to her, like Midoriya.

"H-h-hi Momo!" With the control over his vocal chords he made it so that his voice sounded higher than it was for just a second in order to imitate embarrassment. "Um why are you wearing an American styled cheerleader outfit?" Inside he couldn't believe that the other Midoriya had gotten a friend like this in the first place, actually he did, he had all of his memories so he was able to recall the memory of Izuku saving this girl from the mugger all those months ago.

"Well, I-um, you see, it was a trick by Kaminari and I didn't think that he was lying so I…." She was clearly embarrassed by the whole affair, but this version of Izuku needed to get out of here soon and he thought that he knew how.

Let's think about this, what can I do to take Izuku's mind off the League of Villains for just a little while. Something to put his mind on another topic, maybe a person that could occupy his attention while we are able to move a little more freely around the general area or just me. Without him on the streets, I'll be the only on fast enough to see me which means no trouble.

"Hey, listen Momo….after the Sports Festival, do you want to come over to my house and watch the other two years compete? We get those days off so I thought that they might be good days to relax and just yeah…I mean I go over to your house all the time so maybe you should come over." Just as he had suspected, she blushed and started answering his question in a shy tone, she really did like the other Midoriya and he couldn't tell, that was just hilarious. Perhaps he should play with this just a tiny bit, all in good fun.

"I mean if you don't want to then I'll just tell my mom that you're busy and can't meet her at the moment. I'm sure she'll understand…" He was having way too much fun with this, but she thought that he was being serious, or the other Midoriya.

"Wait! I didn't say no. I-" She'd been caught off guard by this request and faux-Izuku's neutral voice wasn't helping much either. "I mean, I would love to come over to your home." She crossed her hands in front of her and gave a cute smile which he assumed that she gave Midoriya all the time. Even if this was fun, he really did need to get going, so he needed to come up with something that would truly put her in a position of vulnerability where she'd want to get some room for herself immediately.

With unparalleled speed, he tipped her backwards and then sped forwards to keep her from falling. If his counterpart had done it then perhaps it would have been more obvious what had happened, but this unnamed person wouldn't be spotted. The entire time that Momo was watching him it only appeared as if he were standing in front of her paying careful attention to what was being said. He was too good to not be able to do something so simple.

To make conditions even more favorable for himself, he caught her just at the last moment possible. Right before her head touched the ground, that's where he came in to save the day. One hand around her waist the other holding her hand, just how he needed it to be so that their faces were mere inches from one another. If the real Izuku were here right now then he would probably freeze up and fall flat on his face, but he wasn't here at the moment.

His eyes stared into hers, both of them were silent as the exchange occurred, her face slowly developing a blush that this faux-Izuku soon imitated using his quirk. For Momo this was a new area in general as she had never formed a type of romantic relationship before and wasn't aware of how to approach this. The other person in the interaction was just waiting to see what would happen as he very slowly moved his head forward, too slow to notice. He just needed to figure out how to seal this deal and then destroy it in the slight future….

….Then again, it would be much easier to deal with Izuku's friends and family if he knew where they all stood in relationship with his. Helping out in the love department was too much charity, the boy would need to figure it out on his own. Thus the Izuku clone helped Momo get back onto her feet and then gave her a smile before heading off to complete his mission.

So Izuku does have someone as a potential love interest? Who would have thought? I'm certainly going to keep this little bit of information to myself, only I'm allowed to make his life hard in this department. Tomura can go screw himself and try and attack him on his own if the boy ever does try to go a date with that girl. Now to deal with this bracelet and try to figure out a name to place on my unofficial birth certificate. I am growing more and more fond of the name Jack, just seems to flow right off the tongue.

With this speedster heading off to the nearest Star Labs going at a speed that was untraceable to any heroes who would be on patrol. As he did this, the other speedster returned from his run feeling better than ever. With the music cheering him up just a tiny bit, he felt as if these one-on-one battles were going to be much easier than he was stressing about. He even caught Momo's eye on the way up to the stands which caused her to turn away in a blush that covered her entire face, that was apparently very new.

"Welcome back folks and I hope everyone here put their bets in for this last event. Remember folks, you can only bet on the the event as a whole and not on the individual battles. So now let's get back to the action and meet our first two gladiators. On one end we have the small purple Minoru Mineta from General Studies who stole the competition the first two events. On the other we have Katsuki Bakugou from the Heroics Course. Now take it away Midnight!"

With the intro announced by loud and magnificent Present Mic, the two opponents took their place on the field. The stadium was loud and excited by start of the favorite part of every person, the one-on-one battles. For the most part, these festivals always shined the brightest when students were able to fight against each other head on with no one else to interfere, except Cementos, but he was just for safety.

Izuku looked at the two people on the field and couldn't help but feel bad for Mineta. Although the boy had been able to perform superbly in the first two events, Bakugou was out for blood in this event. Not only had he come in fourth place twice in a row, but it had been due to Mineta's interference. Not only that, but Bakugou was a natural fighter and would have the advantage in the following events more than ever. If Mineta was lucky, then Bakugou would knock him out of the arena before the boy got any hope of winning, it would make taking off the bandaid less painful.

"To win the match you must either knock your opponent out of the ring, incapacitate them, or have them in a condition where they can no longer fight. If we, the judges, deem that the match is too dangerous to continue then we will step in and stop it immediately using one of our own quirks. Now begin!" Midnight's rules were quick, the audience wanted the fight to begin already and an over explanation wouldn't be good in this case.

Izuku placed his entire attention on the match to examine techniques that could possibly be used in the future against him, so he didn't notice the way that Momo looked at him from afar. Nor did he notice the missing presence of Shinsou who would be going up in a few minutes after this match concluded. Though he did notice how Bakugou wasn't wearing his usual chaotic smile.

After the match was announced to begin, Mineta knew right away that Bakugou would stop at nothing to get him, so he threw sticky-ball after sticky-ball at the hero in-training. The explosive hero merely looked at this and used his explosions to fire the balls right back where they came from. Then he started to walk forward as well, making it even more obvious that time was limited for the student from General Studies.

To Bakugou this match was just a stepping stone that would put him against Deku in two short matches. His former friend would obviously pass on to the next round, so would he. He didn't have an option of losing, already people thought so little of him for his attitude and for his aggressive nature concerning heroics, he needed to show that it all had its purpose.

Minoru Mineta at this point was out of options. With his quirk soon to take a toll on his body, he needed to figure out what the best way of dealing with Bakugou was, and there was only one….his special move. It would only work once, and it only held a small chance of success. There was no guaranteed that he would be placed in the heroics course even after doing this well, there was nothing guarantees in this school, but he had to earn back the spot that he had lost on the first day.

"GRAPE RUSH!" Charging at the much taller boy, Mineta unleashed handfuls of balls as he announced his special move. The crowd was in awe as the small boy, with a very small chance of winning, literally put his entire opportunity in one throw. The projectiles all seemed to be heading in a direction where they would all hit their intended target, it just seemed like there was no other way.

As for Bakugou, he was definitely amused, but that wasn't going to cause him to lose this competition. Putting both of his hands together, he unleashed a medium sized blast and destroyed all chances of the small boy's victory. The blast tore apart the small purple balls, and was followed by a large cloud of smoke from which Bakugou walked out of. From here he got close to the other boy and released a small explosion in front of his opponent in order launch Mineta out of the ring and conclude the first match.

It was short, anti-climatic, and brutal but it was just the way it was. The boy from the heroics department didn't even appear to be that full of himself after this victory. It might have been a win for Katsuki Bakugou, but it had been against the kid who had been booted in the first day of school, that was hardly worth a celebration. The real person that he wanted to get even with was the current heroics student who had been brought from the General Studies.

In Bakugou's eyes, his arrival wasn't reasonable. He had done nothing to prove himself and it was obvious that there was something behind the decision of bringing him up among the departments. The next match would be Shinsou against Asui, and he wanted the purple haired boy to win so that he would be the one to put him back down. He hadn't had the chance to even out the score after the battle trials so this would be the perfect opportunity to do so.

After exiting the ring, Mineta felt lost. He had put so much work into this festival. Many would have thought that he had gotten through this entire thing merely on luck. But he had tried so hard, all for it all to be blown away in one single match. He went deeper into the building and headed for the locker rooms. At this point he felt….sad. He'd wished to be a hero, but right now he didn't think that his dream was approachable.

"You're the kid who Eraserhead booted on the first day aren't you?" Next to the door of the locker rooms there seemed to be a large man standing. He was wearing a mostly red suit and had visible fangs coming from his bottom jaw. Mineta gave a slow nod as he wondered what the hero wanted to know. "I'm not one to criticize a colleague, but seeing you out there really makes me think that he had a lapse in his judgement. I'm not like Aizawa so I don't care about having an even number of students for exercises. You clearly have the makings of a hero in you, do you want to come back to the Heroics department?." The hero Vlad King from 1-B asked the young student as Mineta's eyes began to produce some tears.

The student had been given a second chance at being a hero, a chance that he wasn't going to throw away. He would become a hero just like he had said at the start of the year, no one was going to stop him now. He'd been a joke before, nothing more than a measly pervert who had only wanted to look up girls' skirts, now he needed to get over that if he wanted to be the hero that he knew he could be. Thus Minoru Mineta began his path once again to become a hero...

At a Star Labs:

"So doc, could you tell me what's going on?" A certain green-haired copy of a speedster sat on a table as a scientist worked efficiently to see what UA had done to make the bracelet that could neutralize the other speedster's powers. He simply put his empty hand in the air and waited for this clone to give him the tool that he needed. "Sheesh, I'm just doing my job here, would it kill to have a little acknowledgement of a job well done?"

Although the copy had already been made of the bracelet, the original one had to be returned and externally appear the same. To make sure that Izuku Midoriya didn't get suspiscious the weight had to remain the same as to not cause any alarm, there was just a few tweaks that they had to make.

"Do you think that he'll be shocked when he meets me, I mean I would certainly be amazed if a man like myself told me that he was my brother, just look at me." He hopped off the table and twirled as he put his hands out to his sides smiling. "If only father thought so about me, right now he just has me test out the monsters that he makes and doesn't let me talk to the cute girls my age." He pouted and then went for a walk around the premises.

He'd be here for a while so it was a good idea for him to at least get a general idea of where everything was. It wasn't a bad outcome for his second mission ever, then again the first one had been to beat up a schoolboy so he didn't have much to compare his success to.

Yeah I do like the name Jack.