Chapter 59: Hearts in the Sand

The break between the first and second rounds was an oasis of relative calm in the desert of competition. The team had gathered at a table in the break room, analyzing the quarterfinal bracket that had just been revealed on the giant screens. The atmosphere was a strange mix of euphoria from their victories and a growing tension for what was to come.

"So... the quarterfinals," Toru said, swirling a soda in her hand. "Ochako-chan versus Kirishima-kun, and then... Momo-chan versus me."

"And the winner of their match will face the winner of Iida-kun's versus Shiozaki-san," Momo added, her mind already mapping out the potential tournament brackets. "It's logical that we'd have to face each other at some point."

"Still... it's weird, isn't it?" Ochako commented, a small wrinkle of concern on her brow. "Fighting against friends."

Izuku, who was reviewing his own notes on Todoroki, looked up. "It's a test. The festival doesn't just measure power, but also professionalism. Being able to fight a comrade with everything you've got, and still be comrades at the end... that's what it means to be a hero."

Just then, Ochako's phone vibrated on the table. The name on the screen made her face light up.

"It's my dad!" she exclaimed, moving a little to the side to answer. In the relatively quiet room, her excited voice was perfectly audible. "Dad! Yes, yes, I saw everything! Incredible, right?! I won!"

The conversation that followed was a whirlwind of pure emotion. Her father, on the other end of the line, told her with a cracking voice how immensely proud he was. Not just for the victory, which had made the whole neighborhood scream, but for how strong, brave, and determined he had seen her. Ochako was moved to tears, her free hand wiping them away as she laughed, touched by her family's unconditional support.

"Thanks, Dad... really, thank you..."

And then, just as the conversation reached its sweetest point, her father changed the subject with the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

"I'm so proud, my little girl! And by the way, I'm very, very grateful for that boy, Izuku! What a good kid! You can tell he's helped you a lot, he's got a good head on his shoulders! And he's so polite! Speaking of which... have you confessed to him yet?"

A deathly silence fell over the small group. Izuku, who was drinking from a water bottle, choked, spitting out a bit of water in a strangled cough. Momo covered her mouth with both hands to hide a smile that reached her eyes. Toru's eyes went wide as she leaned forward, fascinated by the unfolding drama.

"DAD!!" Ochako hissed into the phone, her face going from pale pink to crimson in a nanosecond. "I'm with them right now! Please, for the love of God, don't say things like that!"

"Huh? Why not? It's the truth!" her father's cheerful and completely oblivious voice replied, loud enough for everyone to hear. "At home, you never stop talking about him! It's always 'Izuku-kun taught me this,' and 'Izuku-kun told me that'! Your mother told me you even have dinner with his mom, Inko-san, every night! He's practically family already! Tell him we say hello and that he's invited for dinner when he gets back!"

Ochako, wishing her Quirk could make her float into the stratosphere and never return, hung up abruptly. She stood motionless for a second, her back to her friends. Then, she slowly turned around, wanting the earth to swallow her whole.

"So..." Toru began, her voice filled with irrepressible mischief. "Izuku's already family, huh, Ochako-chan? Should we start calling him brother-in-law?"

Ochako hid her face in her hands, letting out a groan of pure mortification. Izuku, for his part, clumsily tried to deflect, his face as red as hers.

"Kirishima-kun's match!" he exclaimed, his voice a little higher than usual. "Against Tetsutetsu-kun! It was an incredible draw! The toughness of their Quirks is so similar, but the application...!"

It was a valiant, but useless, attempt. The secret, or what was left of it, was out in the open, hanging in the air with the subtlety of a flaming airship. Shortly after, the announcement for the first quarterfinal match snapped them out of their stupor, forcing them to head to the stands and take their seats.

"WE'RE BACK IN THE ARENA FOR THE FIRST MATCH OF THE QUARTERFINALS!!" Present Mic roared. "ON ONE SIDE, THE WOMAN WHO DEFEATED THE EXPLOSIVE WOLF WITH THE FORCE OF A HURRICANE, OCHAKO URARAKA! AND ON THE OTHER, THE MAN WHOSE SPIRIT IS AS TOUGH AS HIS SKIN, EIJIRO KIRISHIMA!"

In the ring, the two friends looked at each other with respect.

"Your fight against Bakugo was super manly, Uraraka!" Kirishima said with a toothy grin. "You showed incredible strength and strategy! It'll be an honor! I won't hold back!"

"Me neither, Kirishima-kun," Ochako replied, her earlier embarrassment replaced by a steely focus. "Let's give it our best!"

The battle was a clear clash of the unstoppable force against the immovable object—or rather, the untouchable object. Kirishima hardened and charged, a human battering ram. Ochako, true to her strategy, slid away. She used her control over gravity to skate across the concrete, dodging his direct attacks with a fluidity that frustrated her opponent.

"Hold still!" he grunted, throwing a wide hook that only hit the air.

The fight became a war of attrition. Ochako couldn't directly harm him through his hardening, but Kirishima couldn't touch her. He grew frustrated, wasting energy on increasingly wide and predictable attacks. She, on the other hand, patiently waited for her chance, conserving her energy and eroding his stamina. Tired of missing, Kirishima attempted a massive attack.

"If I can't hit you, I'll hit the ground!"

He leaped and slammed the ring with both hardened fists, creating a shockwave that cracked the concrete. It was the mistake Ochako had been waiting for. She used the shockwave itself to propel herself into the air, an improvised catapult that lifted her up and over him. Before he could turn, his body still recovering from the impact, her hand gently touched his back.

"It's over," she said.

She made him weightless. Kirishima, despite his hardening and mass, floated helplessly in the air, his expression a mixture of surprise and resignation.

"Aw, man."

With a gentle push, Ochako guided him out of the ring's boundaries.

"Kirishima-kun is out! The winner is Ochako Uraraka!"

The crowd erupted in applause as Ochako returned to the stands, where Izuku greeted her with a proud smile that brought the heat rushing back to her cheeks. Now, their gazes turned to the arena, where their other two teammates were preparing for the next duel.

"AND NOW, A MATCH NO ONE EXPECTED TO SEE!! A DUEL BETWEEN TEAMMATES! THE LOGIC OF CREATION, MOMO YAOYOROZU, VERSUS THE PLAYFUL PHANTOM, TORU HAGAKURE!!"

From their seats, Izuku and Ochako watched, their hearts divided.

"This is going to be tough for both of them," Ochako whispered.

"Toru has improved a lot," Izuku added, his voice that of a proud coach. "Her control over light refraction isn't just defensive anymore. She's become a master of deception. Momo can't let her guard down."

The battle began and proved to be a tense and brilliant game of cat and mouse. Toru didn't use full invisibility. Instead, she flickered. She would make parts of her body—a foot, an arm, her torso—turn transparent for moments at a time, breaking her silhouette and making it impossible to predict her movements.

"I can't get a lock on her," Momo exclaimed to herself, backing away as she created a small shield on her forearm to block a blow that seemed to come from nowhere.

Furthermore, Toru was using the stadium lights, subtly bending them around herself to create a mirage effect. She appeared to be a few inches to the left of her actual position, an optical trick that turned Momo's attempts to grab her into a frustrating exercise of grasping at air.

"INCREDIBLE!! HAGAKURE IS USING HER QUIRK IN WAYS WE'VE NEVER SEEN BEFORE!" Present Mic shouted. "SHE'S NOT JUST INVISIBLE, SHE'S BENDING LIGHT! SHE'S FIGHTING LIKE A GHOST!"

Momo, realizing her eyes were deceiving her, switched tactics.

"If I can't see you, then I'll hear you."

With absolute calm, she held her ground and created a dozen small metal discs, which she threw all over the ring. They were hypersensitive acoustic sensors.

"YAOYOROZU IS TRIANGULATING HAGAKURE'S POSITION BASED ON THE SOUND OF HER FOOTSTEPS! WHAT A SMART STRATEGY!"

Toru, seeing the sensors, smiled. Izuku had taught her how to counter such tactics. She changed the way she moved. She no longer ran. She took soft leaps, landing on the balls of her feet, moving with almost total silence. She confused the sensors, their signals becoming erratic.

Frustration began to creep onto Momo's face. Toru was dictating the pace of the fight, wearing her down. In a bold move, Toru used a flash of light to disorient Momo for a second and lunged forward, managing to land a blow on her shoulder. It was in that moment that Momo saw it. A pattern. Toru was erratic, but her finishing attacks, her attempts to land a decisive blow, always followed a similar trajectory—an arc from her right blind spot. It was her instinct, her go-to move.

It was a gamble, but it was the only one she had.

She feigned an opening on her left side, an obvious invitation. Toru, believing her harassment strategy had finally worked, took the bait. She lunged forward, her invisible fist ready for the final blow.

"Now," Momo whispered.

At that exact moment, the skin on her legs transformed, creating and spreading a large amount of a clear, viscous, non-adherent liquid at her feet. Synthetic oil. Toru, invisible and at a full run, didn't see the danger. Her feet hit the puddle with an audible splash, and she slipped spectacularly. For one crucial second, her fall and the splash of the oil revealed her exact position.

It was all Momo needed. She already had the item ready: a launcher. She fired a heavy, sticky capture net, not at where Toru should have been, but where she would be after slipping. The net trapped a now-visible Toru, covered in oil and completely immobilized.

"Hagakure has been immobilized! The winner is Momo Yaoyorozu!"

Momo immediately ran to help her friend, dissolving the net. She offered her a hand with a relieved smile.

"Your speed and your light tricks are incredible, Toru-san. If I hadn't anticipated your final trajectory, you would have beaten me. That was very close."

Toru, laughing despite the defeat, took her hand. "Next time, I'll wear cleats! I promise!"

The next match pitted pure speed against a steadfast defense. On the arena floor, Tenya Iida used his incredible swiftness to try and flank Ibara Shiozaki, but the girl's vines created a nearly impenetrable fortress of thorns. With time running out, Iida, realizing he needed a decisive move, bet everything on a single attack.

"RECIPRO BURST!"

He unleashed his power not for a direct assault, but for a flanking maneuver so dizzying that Ibara's vines couldn't react. He broke through her defense in an instant and pushed her out of the ring's boundaries, securing his victory just before the timer hit zero.

"AND NOW, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE MAIN EVENT YOU'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR!!" Present Mic's voice reached a new level of excitement. "THE FINAL MATCH OF THE QUARTERFINALS THAT WILL DECIDE OUR LAST SEMIFINALIST!! ON ONE SIDE, THE TITAN OF ICE AND FIRE, THE PRODIGY WHO HAS DOMINATED THE COMPETITION WITH OVERWHELMING POWER, SHOTO TODOROKI!!"

"AND ON THE OTHER, THE MAN WHOSE MIND IS HIS MOST DANGEROUS WEAPON, THE STRATEGIST WHO CHANGED THE RULES OF THE GAME, IZUKU MIDORIYA!!"

From opposite tunnels, the two finalists emerged into the blinding light of the arena. Todoroki's gaze was a promise of absolute power, a storm of contained emotions. Izuku's was one of calm, analysis, and unwavering determination. The crowd roared, their anticipation reaching a boiling point. The battle that could decide the fate of the festival was about to begin.