This girl had come closer to making his old dreams a reality than he ever had. In fact, he had pretty much abandoned the idea of quirkless people becoming heroes once he had gotten powers of his own. It was just now that he realized that fact.
He wasn't entirely sure how to feel about any of it.
...
As for the coming battle itself though, he felt distinct worry for Iida, a worry, which the rest of the class didn't share, instead chatting cheerfully about Iida's chances.
Well, everyone except Uraraka(Who seemed to share Izuku's worries), and Mina(Who just glared down at the pink-haired girl below without saying anything.) anyway.
Izuku winced as Present Mic began announcing the combatants.
"NOW, THE FIRST ROUNDS ARE REACHING THEIR HALFWAY POINT! NEXT UP WE HAVE IIDA TENYA OF THE HERO COURSE! AGAINST HIM WE HAVE THE UNEXPECTED MECHANICAL OCTOPUS OF THE SUPPORT COURSE, HATSUME MEI!"
There was a lot of murmuring around the stadium, as Present Mic paused for dramatic effect.
Then…
"START!!!"
Iida speed towards Mei, the powerful engines in his legs going full out.
"WHAT INCREDIBLE SPEED IDA!!!"
Izuku was startled at the volume of her voice. Did she have a speaker set up somewhere? To maximize the volume?
Then, as she finished her sentence, she lifted her right hand up, an open palm towards the charging Iida, like she was Iron man and about to hit him with a beam.
Iida instantly tried to jump to the side.
He was fast, incredibly fast. But not fast enough.
With a massive " CRACK!!! " that was amplified by whatever it was that Mei had set up to amplify her voice, and accompanied by a blinding flash of red light, a bolt of lightning shot out of Mei's hand and collided with Tenya, instantly knocking him out.
His speed kept him moving forward though, and had Mei's mechanical arms not shot forward to grab him, he probably would have gotten seriously hurt crashing and skidding across the floor.
All around, a lot of the audience swore, having been temporarily blinded by the sudden, unexpected flash.
Izuku was one of those, but his sight recovered way faster than the rest of the audience.
As he blinked the spots of light away, his eyes went wide as he stared down at Mei, holding up the unconscious Iida by her metal arms, her actual arms going up and to the sides as if she was trying to embrace someone who was standing just a bit above her.
"BUT NO MAN CAN OUTRUN THE LIGHTNING! BEHOLD! MIKASA 72.13! THE LIGHTNING GAUNTLETS! CAPABLE OF HARNESSING THE POWER OF ELECTRICITY IN AIMABLE, PRACTICAL BOLTS, RATHER THAN JUST SPEWING IT FORTH IN AN UNCONTROLLABLE STORM!"
She raised her hands to the sky, and with two new sets of deafening thunderclaps and bright red lights, two bolts of red lightning shot up into the sky!
"IF KAMINARI DENKI HAD THESE IN THE PREVIOUS ROUND, SURELY HE WOULD HAVE TRIUMPHED, INSTEAD OF LOSING LIKE A COMPLETE CHUMP! BUT THIS IS NOT MERELY FOR THOSE WITH LIGHTNING QUIRKS THEMSELVES! NO, ANYONE WITH A POWERFUL ENOUGH SOURCE OF ENERGY CAN USE THESE AMAZING GAUNTLETS TO FIRE FORTH BOLTS WITH THE FORCE OF TAS-" ENOUGH ALREADY!!!"
Midnight halted Mei's speech(Though sales pitch was a better description), with a pretty annoyed expression.
"THIS IS A TOURNAMENT, NOT A COMMERCIAL! YOU WON, NOW GET OUT OF THE RING SO THE NEXT COMBATANTS CAN TAKE THEIR PLACE!!!"
Mei did not look the least bit bashful at the chastisement and simply bowed her head, still wearing that chipper smile on her face as she deposited Iida on the ground for the mechanical carriers to come and pick up.
The audience though was far, far more impressed by the display than Midnight had been. As Mei walked towards the exit of the ring, Izuku could hear the sounds of thousands of people muttering, and chatting as the shock of the sudden blinding light had gone away.
Izuku and Uraraka just stared, both of them slackjawed by the display of power.
Mina on the other hand was way more blatant about her feelings on the matter.
"Holy shit! That's… That's bad! That's really, really bad!"
She looked over at Izuku with a worried expression.
For his own part, Izuku felt a sense of creeping dread, that overshadowed any feelings he had of being nervous about facing Todoroki.
He had expected Mei's additional gadgets to be dangerous, but he had assumed that her arms were what would be the most dangerous thing she had going for her. He had apparently been sorely mistaken by that.
-Huh, yeah we're gonna have to deal with those first. Lightning is never a joke.-
---
"He'll be fine." Recovery Girl's voice was calm, and somewhat reassuring, though still with an edge that warned she would not suffer any nonsense in her presence.
Izuku let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding.
Iida didn't exactly look fine, with an expression of someone who had been knocked out cold, with an open mouth and hanging jaw and non-seeing eyes.
"It looks much worse than it is." Recovery girl motioned her cane up and used the butt of it to close his jaw, and gently move his head over so it wasn't at it's side.
"Despite the flashy effects, the bolts that crazy girl used against him weren't much stronger than a taser."
"So he'll be fine?" Uraraka asked in a relieved tone.
"Yes, yes so long as he gets time to recover, he'll be fine. Now then, since you two are NOT injured at the moment, and he will not wake up for the foreseeable future, I'm going to have to ask you two to leave.
And just like that, the three of them were thrown out of the room for wounded students.
They stood in silence for a moment, before Izuku sighed.
"We… Should get going."
In the distance, he could hear the sounds of Mina's first match starting up against Aoyama.
"I… I suppose."
They walked in silence for a moment.
"So… Why does Mei hate you so much?" Uraraka finally asked.
"I really wish I knew." Izuku answered truthfully.
"According to her, we've met before, but I can't for the love of me remember any time I've seen her before today."
"Really? So like… You've got no idea who she is?"
"No."
Uraraka looked at him as they walked, then turned her head forward, and brought her hand up in a manner that made it obvious she was mulling that piece of information over.
"You… Don't have amnesia or something like that? Like, maybe you've got some time period missing in your head?"
"No, not really." Not to mention he actually had a date for their supposed meeting. And he was pretty sure he remembered that time exactly.
He was gonna ask his mom about it when he got back home. If there was anything about that time he was missing, then she would be the only person who would know.
Their silence was interrupted by a cheerful Mina, as the pink girl came up the staircase from the entrance. She was in high spirits so it was pretty obvious she had won her bout.
"Yo guys, so how was Iida?"
"He was fine." Izuku replied, not really wanting to break Mina's good mood.
"Good to hear." She turned to Uraraka. "Bg the way, you should probably go down to the waiting room and get ready. It's your match after this next one."
Uraraka glanced down the steps, and nodded, then headed down the stairs, before coming to a halt, then turning back up to look at the two of them.
"Hey, Izuku…"
"Yes?"
It looked like the girl wanted to say something, but had trouble getting it out. Then she raised her hand in with a thumb up sign.
"Let's meet in the finals."
Izuku blinked then, with only just a bit of prodding from Venom, he lifted his hand in a similar sign and nodded.
As Uraraka ended out of eyesight, Mina whistled.
"You think she's more worried about fighting Bakugou than she let's on?"
"...Yes."
They began moving to the stands.
...
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