Izuku didn't waste any time. The ground broke under his feet. Thanks to the brutal training with Master Roshi, Garp, and Zephyr, Izuku became a green blur. He rushed forward to end the fight instantly.
Shinso didn't panic. He got into a low defensive stance.
Izuku appeared right in front of him and threw a heavy punch. But Shinso moved his hands in a circle, using a little bit of Silver Fang's martial arts style. He wasn't a genius, but his training paid off. He deflected Izuku's punch just enough so it missed his shoulder.
"You're fast," Shinso muttered, leaning close to Izuku. "Must be nice. Having a quirk that makes you a god. It must be so easy for you. You even started awakening a second weird quirk, didn't you?"
Izuku kept his mouth shut. He remembered the warnings: 'Do not talk to him.' He reset his stance to punch Shinso in the ribs.
Shinso stepped back. He looked past Izuku and stared up at the stands, where Gray sat. He gave a nasty smile. "Must be even easier when the strongest guy in the world favors you," Shinso sneered. "I bet your mom must've given him a few favors just so he could help you some more-"
"SHUT YOUR MOUTH!" Izuku yelled. Hearing his mom's name made him snap.
Instantly, Izuku's world went gray. His Full Cowl disappeared. His eyes went blank. He was completely brainwashed.
'You moron...' Gray thought as he saw Izuku had stopped moving.
"Turn around," Shinso said. "And walk off the stage."
The crowd gasped. Izuku turned like a robot and started walking toward the edge of the stage.
Three steps. Two steps. One step. His foot tipped right over the edge of the elevated stage.
Inside Izuku's mind, everything was dark. Suddenly, a group of glowing, shadowy figures appeared.
"Not yet, Kiddo," a loud voice boomed.
A tall, bald man stepped forward. It was Daigoro Banjo, the fifth user. He grinned, and a massive burst of black energy exploded from his shadow.
In the real world, a sudden flick of power snapped Izuku's left finger. The sharp pain shattered the brainwashing chains, and Izuku's eyes snapped back to normal just as he was falling off the stage.
BOOM!
Izuku's injured left hand shot out a thick, black rope of energy; it blasted forward and dug deep into the stage's concrete blocks, acting like a grappling hook to stop his fall.
Meanwhile, his right hand went completely out of control. Several more black whips shot out, running rampant and tearing up the arena's heavy cement blocks. Without Izuku's control, these rogue whips whipped through the air and began aggressively attacking Shinso, smashing the ground all around him.
Up in the VIP stands, Gray saw the stage cracking apart and leaned forward. He was ready to step in and stop the rampage at any second. Right next to him, Mirko gave him the nastiest side-eye, but Gray just ignored her completely. His eyes stayed glued to the arena.
Thankfully, he didn't need to jump in.
Izuku gritted his teeth and managed to get his bearings. With a harsh pull, he subdued the wild black whips just in time and climbed back onto the elevated stone stage. He stood there breathing heavily, clutching his broken finger. He forced himself to stay as calm as possible, though his chest was still pounding, not just from the fight, but from the silhouettes he had seen. This time, those figures had felt incredibly real.
From her podium at the edge of the ring, Midnight raised her microphone, looking closely at his bleeding hand. "Midoriya! Can you continue?"
Izuku took a deep breath, looked back at her, and nodded. "Yes, I can still fight."
Across the ring, Shinso was breathing hard. He had managed to dodge all of the erratic whips without getting injured, but he was shaken. 'What the hell was that?' he thought. Nobody had ever broken free from his control like that. Realizing he was out of options, he desperately tried to bait Izuku again.
"Well, well, well, it seems I wasn't wrong about you," Shinso shouted, sweating. "Making my quirk fail and using that second quirk... just how many quirks do you have, man?!"
Izuku didn't say a word; he had learned his lesson. Activating Full Cowl again, he pressed forward and closed the distance instantly.
Izuku unleashed a flurry of rapid martial arts combos. Shinso desperately tried to use his unpolished Silver Fang defensive style to hold on, but the sheer strength and weight behind each of Izuku's punches and kicks were too much. The conditioning from Roshi, Garp, and Zephyr made every blow feel like a solid steel plate hitting Shinso's arms.
Shinso was knocked back little by little until he simply couldn't keep up with the overwhelming speed. Finding a clean opening, Izuku drove a solid punch straight into Shinso's gut. The impact sent Shinso flying several feet through the air, completely clearing the edge of the elevated arena and landing hard on the grass below.
Midnight cracked her whip from her podium, pointing toward the grass. "Shinso is out of bounds! Midoriya advances to the next round!" She raised her microphone once again. "The next contestants, please start getting ready! Your match will begin shortly!"
Izuku immediately walked over to the grass to check on Shinso, but Cementoss beat him to it. Cementoss knelt down, checked Shinso's pulse, and noticed the kid was completely unconscious. A few medical robots rolled out, carefully placing Shinso onto a stretcher to take him to Recovery Girl for medical attention. Cementoss looked up, saw Izuku standing there clutching his hand, and pointed toward the tunnel. "You should go get checked out by Recovery Girl too, Midoriya."
With a bit of free time before the next round, Gray left the VIP stands and made his way down to the nurse's office.
Inside the clinic, he found Izuku sitting on a bed. Recovery Girl was only wrapping a bandage around his broken index finger for now. She explained that if she used her quirk to heal him right now, he would lose too much stamina and feel sluggish for the rest of his fights.
That gave Gray a perfect idea. He remembered watching Goku share his energy with Frieza so he could survive and leave planet Namek. Gray had practiced that exact technique inside the training dimension a few times. He obviously wouldn't give Izuku anything close to 10% of his power; even 1% would be overkill, but he wanted to see these kids fight at their full strength.
Gray walked deeper into the room, approaching Recovery Girl and Izuku. As he got closer to Izuku, he asked, "Are you not getting your finger healed?"
Izuku shook his head, looking down at his bandaged hand. "No, I would lose too much energy if I did."
Gray nodded along, crossing his arms. "I can help with that." He turned his gaze to Recovery Girl. "Would it be against the rules to give him some energy so he can continue fighting?"
Recovery Girl blinked, looking back and forth between them. "I... actually don't know the protocol for that," she admitted. She pulled out her phone, dialed Nezu, and explained the situation. On the other end of the line, Nezu chuckled. He said he would allow it, but on one condition: Gray had to offer the same energy boost to any upcoming contestant who took heavy damage in their matches.
"Great!" Gray said, hanging up the phone. He looked back down at Izuku. "You down for it, Izuku?"
Seeing a way to fight at 100% without any drawbacks, Izuku's eyes lit up, and he immediately agreed.
Gray watched from the side as Recovery Girl leaned in and kissed Izuku on the forehead. Instantly, the broken finger began mending itself, and the skin returned to normal in seconds. As expected, Izuku felt his energy draining fast. His shoulders slumped, his eyelids grew heavy, and he began panting from sudden exhaustion.
Once the finger healed, Gray simply aimed a palm at Izuku and sent over 1% of his energy to the kid.
Instantly, Izuku's eyes snapped wide open. A wave of warmth flooded his entire body. It felt as if he had just taken a dozen energy drinks at once.
He got up from the bed and moved his hands and feet around. Not feeling sore or hurt, he broke into a grateful smile and bowed deeply. "Thanks, Gray-sensei!"
"No worries," Gray said as he started taking his leave. He pushed the door open and looked back over his shoulder. "Great fight, by the way. Keep it up."
Monoma hadn't wasted any time. While Izuku's fight was going on, he came up with a plan on how to deal with Todoroki, but he had to act fast.
First, he went over to one of his classmates, Nirengeki Shoda. He touched him and copied his quirk, Twin Impact. Next, he left his class's designated space and started hunting for another one. Finally spotting him, Monoma made his way towards the teacher's space and touched Aizawa, effectively copying Erasure.
Aizawa noticed instantly but simply smiled under his scarf. There were no rules against it, and he had to give the kid props for actually using everything at hand to his advantage.
Now that Monoma had collected two slots, that left him with one remaining. He wanted to touch Izuku since he seemed like the strongest, but he couldn't find him anywhere. So, after debating for a while, he chose to keep it blank. Since he was going to force a close-quarters match against Todoroki, he knew just what to fill the third spot with.
Midnight's mic came booming over the speakers just as Gray made his way back to his seat. "Now! Todoroki and Monoma take the stage!"
Both contestants made their way to the recently fixed, elevated stone stage and stood a few feet apart. Monoma held his hand out to shake Todoroki's hand, but Todoroki simply stepped back a few more feet.
A bunch of people and heroes from the stands started booing him for refusing the handshake, but Midnight quieted them down almost instantly with a wave of her hand. "Well then, if both of you are ready... BEGIN!"
Shoto didn't hesitate. The moment Midnight screamed begin, he slammed his right foot into the concrete stage. A massive, jagged wave of ice erupted from the floor, hurtling directly toward Monoma to freeze him in place.
Monoma simply smiled. He stood his ground, locked his eyes onto Shoto, and activated Erasure. The crimson glow flared in his eyes, and the rushing wave of ice instantly stopped dead in its tracks just a few feet away from him, shattering into harmless mist.
Laughing maniacally, Monoma lunged forward. His copy quirk allowed him to hold multiple quirks, but the drawback was that he could only use one at a time for a limited duration. However, thanks to his grueling weekend sessions in the training dimension, Monoma had managed to push his natural limits. Instead of his old 5-minute restriction, he was now capable of maintaining a copied quirk for a solid 8 minutes.
Seeing Monoma charging down the center of the stage, Shoto didn't feel discouraged at all. Thanks to his training and preparation, he had done his research on Class 1-B. He knew Monoma could only manifest one copied quirk at a time. That meant that as long as Monoma kept Erasure active to suppress Shoto's power, Monoma himself was effectively fighting without an offensive quirk.
It was a battle of pure close-quarters combat. Shoto sprinted forward, meeting him right in the middle of the arena.
Monoma threw a straightforward right hook. Shoto, heavily conditioned by Uncle Iroh to keep his mind calm and his stance rooted, raised his arm and blocked the strike with ease. Monoma felt the burning strain in his eyes and knew he was about to blink, but he didn't care; he thought he had already achieved his goal.
However, Monoma hadn't fully thought his plan through. Because Erasure was still actively suppressing Shoto's quirk factor during the exact moment of physical contact, there was no active quirk for Monoma to copy. His replication failed, leaving his third slot blank.
Gritting his teeth in frustration as he backed away, Monoma refused to give up. He lunged forward for a second strike. This time, he perfectly timed the mechanics of his own power. The exact second his punch collided with Shoto's defensive block, Monoma intentionally deactivated Erasure.
The gamble worked flawlessly. With Erasure dropped, Monoma's hand made contact with Shoto's active quirk factor, successfully copying Half-Cold Half-Hot. But the sudden deactivation also meant the cuffs were off for Shoto.
Determined to put an end to the close-quarters fight, Shoto tapped into the balance he had discovered under Uncle Iroh. Instead of relying on just one side, Shoto attempted to activate both his ice and fire powers at the exact same time. A blinding swirl of frost exploded from his right side while a fierce torrent of roaring flames erupted from his left, creating a massive, expanding wall of elemental energy designed to force Monoma to retreat from him.