Izuku POV:
"Ow. Tashigi, that hurts." After the incident with Bergus, I reported the conflict to Smoker with both him and Tashigi fit to be tied.
"You deserve it for what you did. Do you honestly think picking a fight with one of the Yankos is a smart idea in the slightest? What happens if Blackbeard tries to come after you now!"
"To be fair, Bergus and Balckbeard started it themselves." Shoko pointed this out for it to be ignored by Tashigi.
"Well, it was going to happen anyway. Not like we didn't know that they were here." Monet spoke up while writing down some notes in her research book. "Then again, I figured it had something to do with Izuku from the beginning why major powers were here. I'm pretty sure I saw a Sweet Enforcer from Big Mom's crew and one of the All Stars of Kaido's."
"Eh, everything works themselves out. All we need to do is be patient." Baby 5 added while pulling out a cigarette. "Hey Izuku, you mind lighting a girl?"
"No problem."
"CAN YOU THREE PLEASE TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY!?" Jirou and Tashigi shouted in anger while I lit the end of Baby 5's cigarette.
"I knew there was going to be hell to pay the second my father was discovered. Right now, all we can do is take the enemies one step at a time. For now, I don't think Blackbeard is stupid enough to try something here right now. There's people from the Marines, the Big Mom pirates, the Beast Pirates, even some that help out the Worst Generation here. If he were to try something, it wouldn't end well."
"When you put it that way, Blackbeard would have to pick a fight with almost everyone if he were to try something here and now." Kirishima saw my logic with Uraraka adding in.
"Not only that, but you have the heroes and Sabo who's Chief of Staff for the Revolutionary Army in this too. He'd have to be really crazy if he was gonna pull something here and now."
The sound for the next event came with my name getting called to head over to the arena entrance. "That's my cue. Wish me luck." I got out of my seat and began heading out while giving a thumbs up to everyone.
Baby 5 POV:
As Izuku left, something felt really off with me for a strange chill to run down my spine. "What's wrong?"
"I don't know, I just have this crazy feeling something bad is going to happen."
"Just warn us if you notice something strange, ok?" I nodded at Monet before the jerk blond Izuku knew spoke up.
"I can't believe the fucking asshole was holding back all these years." This somewhat irritated me to speak up.
"Izuku didn't hold back because he wanted to. But if you ask me, someone should've smacked you into your place years ago. Then again, your head's probably so dense that you'd need a sledge hammer to just dent the skin."
"What was that?" He glared at me in rage for it to kinda scare me to avoid his gaze and turn to Tashigi.
"Uhhh...Is she ok?"
"She'll be fine, Kirishima. She just does this when some rather aggressive men give her a death glare."
"She did this with my father a few days back when she badmouthed him and made him scowl at her." Shoko reminded me of the time I called Endeavor an idiot of a pro as well as stating his parenting skills sucked to make him glare at me. I just wanted to find Izuku after this and hide behind him after hearing about that incident.
'Please let this match come faster.'
3rd person POV:
"ALRIGHT BOYS AND GIRLS, GET READY FOR THE FIRST ROUND OF THE THIRD EVENT! CAN I GET A YEAH!" The crowd shouted as Mic screamed into his microphone. "ON MY LEFT, WE'VE GOT THE SON OF THE MIGHTY FIRE FIST HIMSELF AND THE MAN WHO'S PROVED HIMSELF TO BE A POWERHOUSE ALREADY! CLASS A'S PORTGAS D. IZUKU! AND ON MY LEFT, HE'S AN UP AND COMING GENERAL STUDIES STUDENT THAT CAME INTO THE FINALS SOMEHOW! CLASS C'S HITOSHI SHINSO!"
Izuku prepared himself to fight with little to go on in regards to what Shinso could do. "So you're the son of Fire Fist? That must mean you're also the grandson of Gold Roger. That man was without a dout a criminal in all ways."
"BEGIN!"
"People like you should be shot dead before you have the ability to cause more problems for us all. Just like how Ace died."
This statement cut into Izuku for his anger to be beyond boiling. "TAKE THAT BACK-" Suddenly, the Flame quirk user felt his body go stiff and unable to move. Shinso only smiled before opening his mouth again.
"Turn around and walk out of the stadium." Izuku didn't say anything, but followed what he said.
'What? Why am I following his orders?' Izuku's body began moving for everyone in the stadium to see this happen. 'C'mon Izuku, move!'
"What's going on?" Momo spoke up seeing this happen for Monet to turn to another page of written down notes.
"Hitoshi Shinso. From what I can gather, he has some sort of quirk that allows him to control people. Thanks to this, he was able to gather some people for his group."
"The kid originally wanted to join the Hero Course from what the records said, but couldn't make the cut and went down to General." Smoker came over to sit beside Izuku's peanut gallery and breathe out some smoke. "From what I can gather, all you gotta do is respond to him when his quirk's active to fall under his hypnotic suggestion."
"Simple to activate, but can be really hard if you don't know what his quirk is or have the ability to avoid responding." Tashigi mentioned this for Baby 5 to stand up and shout.
"IZUKU! SNAP OUT OF IT! C'MON!"
Izuku's body kept moving closer and closer to the edge of the ring with his mind now shouting in anger. 'C'mon body! STOP!' He neared the edge of the ring with everything he's fought so hard against up till now to get where he is in the Sports Festival coming back to him. He didn't want this to be his end, but he didn't know what was possible for him to pull away from the hypnotic suggestion. As his foot was about to cross the line, eight spectors and a strange flame made themselves known to Izuku in the darkness of the opening he came out of. As if by their own will, they activated both Flame and OFA in his fingers to give a max percentage attack to burn and break his right middle and index finger. This worked in taking him out of the trance and stop right before getting out of the line of bounds.
"HE STOPPED FOLKS! PORTGUS STOPPED WHERE HE IS AND IS STILL IN BOUNDS!"
"How did you move!? You should've been under my control!" Izuku was going to speak up, but stopped remembering what happened the last time he did. Now angry, he moved as fast as he could to Shinso while pulling his arm back. As he did, the purple-haired man tried to put Izuku back into his hypnotic suggestions again. "You don't get it, do you!? People like you have greatness in you! You were born with the ability to reach heights beyond most!"
'And it's because of that I'm hunted down.'
Izuku punched Shinso in the face before grabbing his shirt collar and getting ready to throw him out of bounds. "Not everyone has a great Marine to rely on or some cushy quirk to gain favoritism by others! You're truly one that's blessed while everyone else is stuck playing catchup to you!"
'I'm blessed I know, but I'm no way ahead of anyone! If I could do something to at least allow me to use my powers without fear, I would!' Pivoting his foot, Izuku threw Shinso out of the ring and onto the soft ground outside it with Midnight calling the match.
"Shinso is out of bounds, Portgus wins!" Everyone began cheering with Izuku walking over to Shinso who was sitting up.
"What, are you here to gloat?"
"No. I came to apologize." Shinso didn't answer immediately for Izuku to point out what he needed to. "You spent most of your life with people thinking your quirk is evil, didn't you?...To be honest, I don't blame you for thinking I'm blessed. So please understand, I don't want to be a villain just as much as you do. The problem is, people will still see me as one more than you. And even though I hate it, I still need to keep going. That's what makes life what it is. That's what both my father and grandfather knew life should be and willingly sacrificed themselves for that pursuit. What I'm trying to say is, don't give up and let people help. You'd be amazed how many people would be on your side." The two started hearing people around them talk about the fight for Shinso to understand what he meant. He might've lost, but it's not the end for him.
"Thanks. Also, sorry about what I said about your dad. I was just trying to get you to speak up."
"No proble-" Izuku was placed under Shinso's quirk again before having his face get pulled to take him out.
"Try not to be so optimistic about people. It'll make you live longer." The two left the stadium somewhat feeling better about themselves during it.
Timeskip to the next round
After every match in the first round went, Izuku found himself facing off against Shoko in the second. Itsuka won her match against Iida with her facing off against Shiozaki next. Kirishima sorta won his match against Hatsume who more took him for a ride as showing off her gadgets before walking out of the arena herself. Momo sadly lost her match to Tokoyami because of her focusing mainly on defense and not seeing where she was to be knocked out of bounds. This hurt her sense of pride for Izuku to try and console her saying there's always next time. What really had Izuku's blood boil though was seeing Ochako be beaten down by Bakugou who moved onto the next round after she was knocked out from overusing her quirk. In an attempt to make sure she was ok, Izuku crossed paths with Bakugou in the halls for both to glare at one another. Nothing was said, but it was clear to both that they wanted to face the other in the finals. Now though, Izuku was faced with his next big hurdle, helping Shoko accept her fire and becoming her own person again.
"ALRIGHT FOLKS, TIME FOR THE FIRST MATCH OF THE SECOND ROUND! ON MY LEFT, THE SON OF FIRE FIST HIMSELF! CLASS A'S PORTGUS D. IZUKU! AND ON MY RIGHT, SHE'S THE DAUGHTER OF THE NUMBER 2 HERO HIMSELF! ALSO FROM CLASS A, SHOKO TODOROKI!" The two prepared to fight one another with Izuku getting into a running stance. "BEGIN!"
In a flash, Izuku charged at Shoko as she activated her ice powers. Izuku dodged this and gave an open palmed attack that stopped inches away. However, the feeling of an impact was felt to send Shoko backwards. Before she could be sent out of the ring, the dual hair colored woman stopped herself with a small glacier of ice. Continuing his momentum, Izuku closed the gap between them with his hand about to attack again. In concern, Shoko activated her fire half to send Izuku back. "I guess I did the right thing by talking to you. How do you feel using it?"
Glancing down at her hand, Shoko saw her left side hold fire in it and saw images of her mother's mental breakdown to shake. However, an image of Izuku came to her mind and his words about what she's been doing all this time to calm her a little. "It still hurts to use, but it's a step in the right direction I think."
"That's the way. Now I don't have a problem using this." Izuku activated his flame quirk to storm over at Shoko. She activated both her powers to send a glacier of ice to try and stop Izuku while activating her fire half. Izuku turned himself into flames to evade the glacier while coating his hand in Armament Haki and holding his flames in it. "RED HAWK!"
The two collided with the intense pressure of both sending a shockwave and causing an explosion. When the dust settled, both stood in front of one another as if nothing happened. "WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT!?" Mic shouted as neither seemed to have any difficulties. However, this changed when Shoko held her stomach in pain as if she had the wind nocked out of her. Unknown to most, Izuku's first attack was a decoy to gain her attention while he simultaneously gave a second attack with Armament Haki towards her stomach below her main focus of sight. The impact leveled her with Izuku relaxing himself and walking over to sit on Shoko's back.
"Alright, I think I win this. She's unable to move now and I think all the fight in her is kinda gone from the punch I gave." Midnight came over to see if this was true for Shoko to shamefully nod.
"Todoroki is unable to continue, Portgus wins!" The crowd cheered with Izuku picking Shoko up and placing her on his back to piggyback to Recovery Girl as a complementary prize for her.
While on his back, Shoko felt Izuku's body to be somewhat interested. 'His body is solid, but his hands are soft. It's almost as if he'd rather avoid hurting others but won't back down.' Her head began to rest on Izuku's shoulder enjoying the ride with a smile.
In the stands
"DAMMIT! I WANNA BE CARRIED ON IZUKU'S BACK!" Baby 5 began biting a handkerchief in rage as the image of Izuku carrying Shoko was shown on the big screen. "WHY CAN'T I BE THAT TODOROKI GIRL RIGHT NOW!?"
As she shouted in anger, a similar sense of irritability swept over both Tashigi and Monet. 'I don't want to be held by Izuku like that. This is only Baby 5 saying this to put it in my head.' Tashigi glanced at the screen to see Shoko move her head to be in kissing distance. 'WHY DOES THIS IRK ME SO MUCH!?'
'Hmm...For some reason, I feel a strange form of irritability from what I am seeing. Perhaps I can get Izuku to do that to myself for research purposes here.' Monet tried to make an excuse for her while Ochako, Momo, Kyoka and Itsuka were all watching somewhat irritatedly as well with the same mindset to want to be carried like that as well.
And that finishes this chapter. See what happens next times with the finals being more and more intense as they go. Hope you all enjoyed and thanks for reading.