Izuku POV:
"ALRIGHT FOLKS, TIME FOR OUR FIRST SEMI FINAL MATCH UP!" The crowd began cheering as the semi finals were started up. For now, I'm currently facing Kendo who won against her classmate Shiozaki during the last round by forcing her out of the ring before she could make enough vines to stop her Big Fist classmate. "ON MY LEFT, HE'S THE SON OF THE FIRE FIST AND THE MAN THAT'S BLAZED HIS WAY HERE! CLASS A'S PORTGUS D. IZUKU! AND ON MY RIGHT, SHE'S THE CLASS REP AND A VISCIOUS BRAWLER OF CLASS B! ITSUKA KENDO!"
I started cracking my knuckles before getting into a fighting stance. "Sorry Kendo, but I'm not going down today."
"Good. That's what I like to hear." She smirked while making her fists twice the size of what they normally are.
"BEGIN!" Immediately, Kendo comes at me with a devastating karate chop for me to jump out of the way. She followed this with a kick while I was in midair to force me to use Moonwalk to get out of the way. "AND JUST LIKE ALWAYS, WE'RE STARTING OFF WITH A MAJOR START!"
'She's got martial arts on her side. She's definitely different than almost everyone else here.' Kendo came at me again with countless punches for me to respond by dodging. "Paper Art." I evaded them before getting close enough to her to try and karate chop her neck to knock her out. This failed on my end with Kendo hardening her neck with Haki. "So. You also have Haki?"
"What? Thought you were the only one here that could?" I didn't understand the feeling I had right now, but for the most part, it made me feel excited this was happening. Before I could respond, I was sent a distance away by Kendo with a punch of her's that was with an enlarged fist that was her body's size. I quickly recovered from the problem with Moonwalk to stand in the sky and hop.
"I'll admit, you're tougher than I originally though. But just cause you are, the gloves are coming off now."
"Fine by me." Kendo coated her fists in Haki for me to do the same with mine. We both immediately charged at one another for our fists to connect and neither giving an inch. "To be honest, I was hoping to fight you. This gives me the chance to see just how far my Haki right now could take me!" Kendo began giving several flurries of punches while I used my Haki to encase my forearms to block the attacks. "You can't block forever!"
"WHAT'S THIS FOLKS!? LOOKS LIKE KENDO'S GOT PORTGUS ON THE ROPES! COULD THIS BE THE END!?"
In the stands, Sabo POV:
"Well, if it isn't the White Chase himself." After seeing the match before with Izuku, I decided to pay a little visit to Smoker and Izuku's mother.
"What are you doing here? You know it'll look suspicious if a Marine Vice Admiral and the Chief of Staff of the Revolutionary Army are seen in the same place like this."
"Consider this a pleasant meeting. I just happened to be in the area and chose to sit down next to the two of you." I plopped down next to Smoker and glanced over to Izuku's mother. "Inko Midoriya, right? I looked into you a little to see what made Ace fall head over heels to have a baby with you. Gotta say, you seem to be a nice lady from what I've found."
"Thanks. But I'm nothing special." She glanced back at the arena where Izuku was still blocking the attacks. "Izuku on the other hand, he's truly the special one between us."
"I can tell. He reminds me of Ace a lot." I kept watching before glancing over to see Smoker seem somewhat satisfied with something. "Happy with how your student's handling himself?"
"I just wish he'd stop loll gaging. I know for a fact he'd be able to send this girl out of the ring if he actually fought her seriously." Seeing Izuku start to get near the edge Smoker started to really lace into him. "MIDORIYA! GET YOUR ASS IN GEAR! STOP PLAYING AROUND AND TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY! THIS ISN'T THE TIME TO MESS AROUND, DAMMIT!"
Seeing Smoker get as angry as he did somewhat made me happy to see. 'Ace. Your son has a tough male role model in his life just like Garp was. Except unlike us, Izuku listens to this one.'
3rd person POV:
As the fight between Itsuka and Izuku raged on, Monet stopped taking notes for some reason while sitting calmly in her seat. "Not taking notes anymore for Izuku?"
"Don't need to. This fight is Izuku's and it's all more of a stamina reason."
"What exactly do you mean?" Iida questioned for a blond guy to go over the wall separating class A and B to start laughing hysterically.
"AHAHAHAHA! LOOKS LIKE THAT IDIOT SON OF THE FIRE FIST DOESN'T KNOW WHAT HE'S DEALING WITH! KENDO IS GOING TO WIPE THE FLOOR WITH HIM! HAHAHAHAHA!"
"I wouldn't be too sure of that." Tashigi explained with everyone turning to the stadium and seeing Itsuka start to slow down before stopping and panting as if she was out of breath.
"She overdid herself." Monet went into detail what she meant by saying Izuku had the match by explaining to those that don't know of Armament Haki it's downside. "Though having Armament Haki is a great thing to have and allows you to touch what you normally can't, if someone were to have the same skill of Haki as you do, then that would mean it's a fight against stamina. However in Izuku's case, he's known Haki for a notable amount of time where his body is used to the constant attacks."
"Not only that, but this Kendo girl is attacking more than Izuku, so she's wasting stamina on fighting." Tashigi explained what Monet meant. "If we're talking about if they were on even stamina and Haki ability, Izuku would still probably win since he's using it more as a defense. Kendo on the other hand, is wasting more stamina fighting as opposed to Izuku. All he'd need to do is wait for an opening." Izuku smirked on the stadium before coming directly at Itsuka to send her flying back into the ground past the line of scrimmage to have the match be called.
"Kendo is out of bounds, Portgus wins!" The crowd cheered for Izuku as he walked over to help Itsuka up.
"Nice job. I didn't expect you to have Haki. You really surprised me there." He gave a heartwarming smile before his hand was grasped.
"Thanks. But it's still nowhere near what you're capable of."
"Give it time. The joy of Haki is you learn how to use it more as time goes on. Armament is something that you get better with the more you use it. So don't feel bad that something like this happens." She seemed to brighten her mood up more before hugging Izuku and giving him a kiss on the cheek. In the stands, some girls looked at this and held a tick mark on their faces to prove in their minds, this was something they felt some irritability with.
Izuku POV:
After the ordeal with Kendo, I started heading over to the waiting room expecting the match with Kaachan to happen fairly quickly. In a theory I have, Tokoyami was going to lose fairly quickly because of Dark Shadow. In some past events, I noticed Tokoyami have his quirk avoid light to get the idea his quirk may alter with light. With that in mind, I don't see Kaachan losing or having a drawn out battle. "Tokoyami is unable to continue, Bakugou wins!"
"Figures." I say calmly in the waiting room in silence until the door opened. Glancing over, I saw it was Monet with my notebook in her hands.
"I took the liberty of writing down notes for you on Kendo, Todoroki and Shinso. Also, I wrote down something extra in the back for you." I looked in the back to see a couple of messages on it.
Izuku. I'll always be on your side. Baby 5
If you want us to be with you, please let us help where we can. Uraraka
Let us take some of your burden, Portgus. Yaoyorozu
You don't gotta do this alone anymore. Jirou
I'd like us to be friends and....*Unreadable erased writing*. Todoroki
If you want, we could train a bit together to help one another. Kendo
Please let us help you from now on, Izuku. We worry for you. Tashigi
"We all care for you and worry about you. Especially me." Monet's hands went around my head to pull me into her chest to hear her heartbeat. "This heart. You helped make it happen. To be honest, I don't think I could ever repay you as much as I had." I started to remember what happened in the past with Monet and how she came to live with us.
Two years ago
After leaving Punk Hazard with Tashigi, I waited in a room on the ship we were taking to transport the kids to Dr. Vegapunk's lab to hopefully get them turned back to normal and send them back to their parents. From what I gathered, they were brought there under the false pretense that they were deathly sick and kept there for years. During the situation, I was able to find this woman with bird body features on her death bed. Upon closer research, I found out that she didn't have a heart from it being taken out to work quickly. I only had a few minutes before irreversible damage was done for me to have enough things on me at the time to make a fake heart that could transport the woman until I got to G-5's ship. There, I fixed her up while the Straw Hats were dealing with some other things and took her to the ship that was transporting the children.
"Huh!?" The woman got up and looked around to see me. "Where am I? What happened to the self destruct mechanism for Punk Hazard?"
"You know, a thank you is in order possibly. I risked everything just to save you, lady. So the least you could do is thank me for making a prosthetic heart for you and avoiding irreversible damage by hustling to make and transplant it." I tried to get the woman to speak with her looking at her chest to see the bandages. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Izuku Midoriya and we're right now on a Marine naval ship to bring kids to Dr. Vegapunk to turn them back to normal."
The woman got up and began moving towards the window. "Thanks. But I have no objective to stay here any longer than I have to."
"Why? Because Doflamingo asked you to die?" She turned to me with anger before I answered. "I know who you are, Monet. An executive member of the Donquixote family that also happens to hold quite a bit of knowledge on medicine. You're also the reason why those kids out there are stuck the way they are."
Monet got up to glare at me like she was ready to fight me. "So what do you want?"
"Tell me something. Why do you follow Doflamingo? Is it because you feel in debt to him? Because he 'saved you'? Or is it something else?" She looked away in anger refusing to hear anything bad about Doflamingo. "Look. I'm not trying to judge you on who you side with, but Doflamingo is bad news. You can do more under his flag, but you're nothing but his pawn."
"And? I owe a life debt. Both me and my sister did what we needed to to survive with the young master saving us from the hell we were in before. If that is deemed evil, then so be it."
"I'm not saying it's evil, but those that are siding with others because of this and be thrown away like garbage don't deserve that respect. What Doflamingo did for you is admirable, but now you've given your life for his. This means you are free of that life debt."
"It's not that simple, kid."
"Is it, or are you afraid of not being needed again and thrown away like a ragdoll." This got her attention to glare me down. "What happened to you Monet is sad yes, but you're better than this. Better than Doflamingo."
"AND WHY SHOULD I BELIEVE YOU!?" I remained silent before showing my hand lit on fire. "Wait, but we have the Flame Flame Fruit, how do you-"
"Trust me when I say I know what it feels like to want out of a hell hole. My life has been one after the other with this blood in me. Yes, the choice to live free is yours. But on this ship, there's several Marines as well as the children you wronged. I know you didn't join the Donquixote family because of anyone else but Sugar. What happened was horrible, but now I'm giving you the chance to turn your life around. If you agree, we can work something out where your origins are hidden. If not, You'll be taken to Impel Down after dropping the kids off to hopefully return to normal by the Marine's top scientist. The choice is yours."
Monet thought about it while looking at what her body was right now. She's sacrificed so much just to be useful and now has nothing to show for it because of her 'death'. "I'm in."
Back to present
"You know, Izuku. Everything started to get better after what you did. I was able to find people that I really care for, have a somewhat normal life and find a way to hide my real body. I don't know what I can do to thank you."
I smiled hearing this before answering. "Just do what you want and live your life without regrets."
"And if that 'want' involves you, will you take responsibility?" I blushed a bit before hearing my name called.
"I gotta go. I'll answer that later."
"Fine. Also, the girls and I wish to talk to you after the Sports Festival. Make sure you can do that."
"I will."
3rd person POV:
"ALRIGHT BOYS AND GIRLS, TIME FOR THE FINAL ROUND OF THE FIRST YEAR SPORTS FESTIVAL!" The crowd cheered frantically with Izuku and Bakugo walking out. While looking at his opponent, Izuku noticed something off with the ash blond's emotions. Then again, they never had an actual conversation after the truth of Izuku's father came out. "ON MY LEFT, HE'S THE SON OF FIRE'S INCARNATE HIMSELF! CLASS A'S PORTGUS D. IZUKU! AND ON MY RIGHT, HE'S A SHORT FUSE GUY WITH A QUIRK THAT MATCHES! ALSO FROM CLASS A, KATSUKI BAKUGOU!" Bakugo held a fighting stance while Izuku remained as he was. "BEGIN!"
Immediately after the buzzer rang, Bakugo came charging at Izuku with an explosion to the face. Everyone expected this to be harmless, but when Izuku's face was revealed, it showed that the blast actually did damage. "Wait, I thought Izuku couldn't get hurt so easily because of his quirk?" Inko asked Smoker for both him and Sabo to glance down and see what's happening.
"He didn't use his quirk. But why?" Smoker let out a bit of smoke before seeing another blast get sent to Izuku's stomach. Once again, this caused injury for everyone to question it.
"WHAT'S GOING ON FOLKS!? IS THIS THE END OF PORTGUS'S WIN STREAK!?"
"What the fuck, Deku!? Why aren't you fighting me!?" Izuku remained silent as the ash blond erupted even more. He sent another blast to Izuku's arm for another direct hit to happen. "FIGHT ME! FIGHT ME FOR REAL AND DON'T HOLD BACK!" One more blast came to Izuku's face for him to not budge before the blast turned to a fist.
"IZUKU!" Tashigi got up from her seat uneasy before noticing Bakugo grab Izuku's shirt.
"Why? Why did you lie to me!? We grew up together and we were friends. SO WHY DIDN'T YOU LET ME HELP WHEN I COULD'VE!?" Izuku looked away before getting a punch to the face. "ANSWER ME! FOR YEARS I THOUGHT I WAS TOUGHER THAN ANYONE, YET YOU HELD BACK THE FACT YOU WERE TOUGHER FOR YEARS! YOU HELD BACK THE FACT YOU WERE SCARED AND HIDING! WHY DIDN'T YOU WANT MY HELP DAMMIT!? WAS IT BECAUSE I WAS TOO WEAK!? HUH!?"
Izuku felt tears fall on him to look up and see Bakugo crying. "I fucking bullied you trying to make you step off the hero path thinking you were gonna die and save your mom the problem of that happening. But in the end, you didn't need me to. What made me so inferior that you couldn't tell someone who respected Ace just as much as you that you were his son? Just fucking tell me dammit, WHY DIDN'T YOU WANT TO TELL YOUR FRIEND WHAT HAPPENED AND SECLUDE YOURSELF FROM ME!?"
Understanding now what happened, Izuku pulled Bakugo in for a hug before answering. "I knew you respected dad, and nothing made me happier knowing you did. But there wasn't anything I could do. All I was able to do was take the pain I had from my dad's death, and bear it."
"But you didn't have to alone. I would've stood by you dammit. You didn't have to take on the fucking Marines alone." Bakugo's voice started to crack as he hugged Izuku back. "Why didn't you want to tell me this and let me help you?"
"I did. But I was afraid. Afraid I might bring you and your family into mine and my mom's problems when you didn't have to. I'm sorry I couldn't tell you. And I'm sorry I hurt you for years without intending to. I just...I didn't want to lose anyone else close to me. I'm sorry Kaachan." Izuku held back his tears as Bakugo began to break down and sob into his friend's shoulders. As this happened, Midnight walked over to see if they were ok for Izuku to say one thing to the pro. "I withdraw. I don't wanna hurt my friend anymore than I already have."
Midnight nodded before raising her hand up. "Portgus officially resigns the match. The winner of the UA Sports Festival is Katsuki Bakugou" None of the crowd began cheering as they saw this to see the duo struggling to take hold of what the secret of Fire Fist had done to them. Some in the audience who were able to hear their voices started to cry understanding what happened to realize why Izuku did this. One thing was for certain, the pain between the two was shown and could now begin to heal.
And that finishes this chapter. So for those to understand Bakugo's sadness in this, it was more because Izuku chose not to tell him when they were friends that Ace was his father. The two did respect him equally and this made the hurt more intense especially with what the Marines have done so far in the past chapters. See what happens next time with the ordeals of this battle playing out as they did. Hope you all enjoyed and thanks for reading.