The stadium felt different with only two people left on the field.
During the obstacle race, there had always been someone else to watch. Megumi disappearing into shadow. Bakugo tearing through the air on his own explosions. Todoroki swallowing entire sections of the course beneath ice. During the cavalry battle, the field had been even worse than that, teams colliding from every direction, headbands changing hands, quirks overlapping until one mistake simply disappeared beneath ten others.
Now there was nowhere left to look except forward.
Midoriya stepped onto the arena. Across from him, Shinso did the same.
The crowd rose around them in layers, tens of thousands of voices bleeding together until individual words became impossible to pick out. Midoriya barely heard any of it. His eyes moved past Shinso for half a second, toward the contestant stands.
Bakugo was there, arms crossed, scowling. Todoroki stood farther down, expression unreadable. Megumi leaned against the railing beside Kirishima.
Three students. Three problems Midoriya still had no answer for.
The obstacle race had proven that more clearly than anything else had. He'd finished second. That should have felt incredible. Instead, every time he replayed the race in his head, he remembered how he'd actually gotten there, the terrain, the robots, the mines, other people's movements, anything he could scavenge use out of. It had worked. But Megumi had won while controlling the race around him. Bakugo had flown through obstacles that slowed everyone else down. Todoroki had frozen entire sections of the course without ever breaking stride.
They had made their own paths. Midoriya had needed everything to go right.
Then came the cavalry battle, and again he'd survived by thinking his way through it, Uraraka, Hatsume, Shinso, a team built around compensating for what each of them lacked on their own. It had been a good strategy. He was proud of it. He was also painfully aware of the difference underneath it. Megumi could create openings by himself. Bakugo could force them open. Todoroki could erase the battlefield until the only route left standing was the one he wanted.
Midoriya had to find openings that already existed. For now, at least.
His fingers curled at his sides. He'd come a long way.
But it was nowhere near far enough.
Present Mic's voice exploded through the stadium.
"THE FINALS ARE FINALLY HERE! MATCH NUMBER ONE!"
The screens above the arena changed.
SHINSO HITOSHI
VS
MIDORIYA IZUKU
"From the hero course, Midoriya Izuku! And from general studies, Shinso Hitoshi!"
The crowd answered in a wall of noise. Shinso stopped several meters away, hands in his pockets, shoulders relaxed, his eyes tired in a way the rest of him didn't quite match. Midoriya knew his quirk unlike before the start of the calvary battle. Everyone who'd been close enough to the final scramble of the cavalry battle did.
Answer him. Lose control. That was the condition. Simple enough.
Which meant Midoriya only had one rule of his own.
Don't answer.
Shinso studied him. Midoriya stared back.
Midnight raised one arm. "Force your opponent out of bounds, immobilize them, or make them surrender. Those are your victory conditions."
Shinso glanced toward the white boundary, then back to Midoriya. "'I give up,' huh?"
Midoriya said nothing.
Something moved at the corner of Shinso's mouth. "This is a fight to test the strength of your spirit. If you know what you want for your future, then you can't worry about appearances."
Midoriya's eyes narrowed.
Midnight raised her hand higher. "Ready?"
Shinso looked straight at him. Midoriya lowered his stance.
"Start!"
...
Midoriya moved. Shinso didn't.
He crossed the distance immediately, closing it before Shinso could control the pace of the match, and reached for him. Shinso slipped backward, unhurried.
"You're being careful."
Midoriya kept his mouth shut and took another step. Shinso moved again, matching him without any real strain.
"You should be."
Midoriya cut toward his left. Shinso changed direction, and he'd expected him to retreat toward the boundary the way most people would. He didn't. Shinso kept himself near the center, close enough to make forcing him out difficult, far enough to stay out of reach.
Smart. He knew Midoriya's easiest path to victory was simply throwing him out of the ring.
Don't chase, Midoriya told himself. Corner him. Limit where he can go.
Shinso watched his feet the whole time. "You really think this'll be that easy?"
No response. Midoriya shifted right. Shinso mirrored him.
"You know my quirk."
Midoriya accelerated. Shinso barely avoided his hand, close enough that the crowd gasped.
"So now you think you've already won."
Midoriya stopped the frustration before it reached his face. Shinso noticed anyway, a faint smile creeping across his mouth that Midoriya hated on sight.
...
Megumi watched from the railing, Kirishima leaning beside him.
"They've barely done anything."
"Midoriya's trying to push him toward the edge."
Kirishima looked more carefully. Shinso took two steps sideways, and Midoriya adjusted immediately to match. "Oh."
"He can't answer him."
"Yeah, I figured that part out."
Megumi's eyes stayed on the arena. "Then Shinso doesn't need to beat him physically."
Kirishima frowned. "He just needs Midoriya to screw up once."
"Yeah."
Below them, Shinso kept talking, the crowd swallowing most of it from this distance. Megumi could only read the rhythm of it. Shinso spoke. Midoriya refused to answer. Shinso moved. Midoriya followed. Again. Again. A fight where only one person was allowed to talk.
Bakugo stood several meters away, arms still crossed. "What a stupid matchup."
Kirishima looked toward him. "Because Shinso's quirk is weird?"
"Because Deku never shuts up."
...
Midoriya stepped forward. Shinso stepped back.
"You've had a pretty good day."
Silence.
"Second place in the obstacle race." Midoriya kept advancing. "Fourth in the cavalry battle." He shifted left, and Shinso noticed. "You keep getting through."
Midoriya reached for him. Shinso avoided the grab, barely, and Midoriya corrected his stance immediately. He was faster than Shinso. Stronger too. He could feel that much already, and if the quirk stopped mattering entirely, this match favored him.
That should have made him confident. Instead, his eyes betrayed him again, flicking toward the stands. Bakugo. Todoroki. Megumi.
Shinso caught the glance. His expression sharpened.
There.
Midoriya realized it a full second too late. Shinso hadn't been testing his reflexes. He'd been testing his attention.
"You keep looking at them."
Midoriya stopped moving.
Shinso's eyes drifted toward the contestant stands. "Fushiguro." Silence. "Bakugo." More silence. "Todoroki."
Midoriya's jaw tightened. Shinso looked back at him.
"That's who you're chasing, right?"
Midoriya advanced, faster this time. Shinso retreated. "You finished ahead of two of them in the obstacle race." Midoriya cut off his left. "Still doesn't look like you believe you're stronger."
Midoriya's hand twitched. Shinso smiled, faint and satisfied.
Got you.
Midoriya saw it happen and hated that Shinso was right.
...
Second place. He should have been proud of it. He was proud of it. But there was a difference between finishing ahead of someone and actually believing you could beat them.
Bakugo had years of experience behind his quirk. His body moved with his explosions like they were another set of muscles he'd simply grown into, no thought required before every blast. He just acted. Todoroki controlled more raw power than anyone Midoriya had ever met their age, could freeze an entire field in seconds, and that was only half of what he was capable of. Megumi was worse in a different way entirely. There was no single problem to solve with him. Dogs. Birds. Serpents. Frogs. Rabbits. Elephants. The shadows itself, moving him from one place to another like distance didn't apply the same way to him it did to everyone else. Every time Midoriya thought he'd finally mapped the shape of that quirk, another piece of it appeared that he hadn't accounted for. And underneath all of it was Megumi himself, calm, fast, always watching, always adapting before anyone else had finished reacting.
Midoriya had spent his whole life studying heroes. He knew what a gap looked like.
This was one. A large one. He believed he could close it. He had to believe that. But pretending it wasn't there in the first place would have been stupid, and Shinso watched the conflict move across his face like he could read every line of it.
"You know what's funny?"
Midoriya forced himself forward.
"You're in the hero course." Silence. "I'm not." Midoriya kept moving. "But you're still looking at those three like you're standing outside the same door I am."
Midoriya's eyes sharpened. Shinso saw it.
"You don't think you belong beside them yet."
Midoriya's fingers curled. Don't answer.
Shinso stepped backward. "Maybe you don't."
Midoriya rushed him. Shinso pivoted away, and Midoriya's hand closed on empty air to a reaction from the crowd. Shinso was breathing harder now, and both of them knew he couldn't keep dodging forever.
So Shinso changed targets.
"You know what I figured about you?" Midoriya came at him again. "You probably had people telling you how amazing your quirk was your whole life."
Midoriya stopped, only for a fraction of a second. It was enough.
"Strong quirk." Midoriya stared at him. "Hero course." Another step back. "Teachers paying attention to you."
Something twisted in Midoriya's stomach. Shinso had no idea.
"You probably grew up hearing that you could become whatever you wanted."
Midoriya's teeth pressed together. His mother's face flashed through his mind, four years old, tears, an apology. I'm sorry, Izuku.
Shinso saw anger and misread exactly where it came from. Of course he did.
"You know what people said about mine?"
Midoriya said nothing.
"Villain." His voice stayed level. "Criminal." Another step. "Creepy."
Midoriya's expression shifted. He remembered the cavalry battle, Shinso dismissing what people thought of the quirk, saying he'd heard it enough times that he'd stopped caring what it looked like from the outside.
Maybe he hadn't stopped caring. Maybe he'd just gotten better at carrying it.
Shinso kept going. "You were born with something everyone looks at and says hero." Midoriya's breathing changed. "You know what they look at when they see mine."
Midoriya did know. He'd heard the crowd. He'd seen people's faces when Shinso controlled Jiro during the cavalry battle. Interest. Unease. Fear.
Shinso stepped closer. "We both took the same entrance exam." Midoriya stayed silent. "Except mine was built around destroying robots." His voice hardened. "My quirk doesn't work on robots."
Midoriya's eyes lowered for half a second. That part was unfair. He couldn't deny it. Shinso had a quirk that could stop a human opponent without throwing a single punch, and against the entrance exam's faux villains, it had given him nothing at all.
...
Up in the commentary booth, Aizawa leaned toward the microphone. "That's why I said the entrance exam wasn't rational."
Present Mic looked over. "Huh? What?"
Aizawa glanced down at the data in front of him. "Here's some basic information on the two of them. Since it's individual matches from here on out, I had someone compile it for me." The screen displayed Shinso's file. "Shinso failed the practical exam for the hero course. Since he also applied for general studies, he probably knew that would happen. His quirk is very powerful, but the practical exam consisted of fighting faux villains, which gave the advantage to anyone with a physical attack quirk. Shinso wouldn't have been able to rack up any points with his."
Present Mic went quiet for once. Professional heroes throughout the stadium started looking at Shinso a little differently.
...
Down on the arena floor, neither student heard any of it. Shinso's attention stayed locked on Midoriya.
"So I had to start from the bottom. Unlike You."
Midoriya's hands tightened. I did. The word arrived instantly, unspoken. Shinso didn't know. He couldn't know. Midoriya had started farther behind than almost anyone in that stadium. No quirk. No chance. No realistic path into the hero course at all. He remembered staring at the U.A. website anyway, hero videos, analysis notebooks, years spent chasing something everyone around him had already quietly accepted he could never reach.
Shinso mistook his silence for discomfort and pushed harder.
"You got lucky." Midoriya's heart beat faster. "People like you always do." Wrong. "Good quirk." Wrong. "Hero course." Midoriya's shoulders tightened. "You probably never had to wonder whether the thing you were born with meant you'd never get your chance."
Midoriya stared at him. That sentence landed harder than the others, because Shinso genuinely believed it. There was no performance left in his eyes, no calculated smirk. He actually thought Midoriya could never understand him, that Midoriya had been standing on the easy side of that line his entire life.
Midoriya wanted to tell him. He wanted to tell Shinso exactly how wrong he was, about the doctor, about his mother, about Bakugo, about the years of being quirkless, about standing in front of All Might and asking the question he'd carried since childhood. Can someone without a quirk become a hero?
He couldn't. Not only because answering meant losing. Because the truth wasn't only his to give away anymore.
Shinso stepped closer. "You're lucky that you've been blessed, Izuku Midoriya."
Midoriya's breath caught. Lucky. Blessed. He thought of All Might, and decided, distantly, that maybe Shinso was right about that part after all. He had been blessed. With a chance. With people who believed in him. With power that had belonged to someone greater before it ever belonged to him.
That made the distance between him and the others feel heavier, not lighter. All Might had trusted him with something extraordinary, and Midoriya still couldn't stand beside Megumi, Bakugo, and Todoroki without feeling exactly how far that trust still had to travel before it caught up to them.
He had so far to go. So much left to learn. So much strength he still couldn't reach.
But he would. He had to.
Shinso's voice cut through the thought. "Someone like you wouldn't understand what it feels like to start with the wrong quirk."
Midoriya's frustration surged, not at Shinso. At himself. At the secret sitting between what Shinso believed and what Midoriya was allowed to say out loud.
Shinso saw the reaction and leaned into it. "You got everything you needed from the start."
Midoriya's mouth opened. He stopped himself, barely.
Shinso's eyes narrowed. "What's wrong?" Silence. "Want to tell me I'm wrong?"
Midoriya's fist trembled. Don't.
Shinso took one more step. "Go ahead. Tell me how easy you had it."
The words escaped before he could stop them. "You don't know anything about me."
Midoriya's expression went blank the instant it left his mouth. His whole body went still.
Shinso exhaled. "I know enough."
...
Kirishima's hands tightened around the railing. "Midoriya?"
Megumi straightened. Something had changed instantly, no stagger, no visible attack. Midoriya had simply stopped. His posture emptied. His hands fell loose at his sides. His eyes lost focus entirely.
Bakugo's face twisted. "That idiot."
Kirishima looked toward Megumi. "He answered him."
"Yeah."
Present Mic's voice rose. "HEY, HEY! WHAT'S GOING ON?! MIDORIYA JUST STOPPED!"
The giant screen changed.
HITOSHI SHINSO
QUIRK: BRAINWASHING
Aizawa kept watching the field while Present Mic read the rest of it aloud. "Hitoshi Shinso. Quirk: Brainwashing! Answering his question turns on a brainwashing switch in his opponent's brain, forcing them to do what he says! If he doesn't want the switch to turn on, it won't!"
Aizawa's eyes stayed on Midoriya. "In the fitness test on the first day of school, Midoriya scored pretty low for the hero course, but even in the events where he didn't use his quirk, he still did better than Shinso. So if they fought normally, Midoriya would win. If he can just overcome the brainwashing, this ends quickly either way."
Megumi heard that clearly enough. So Shinso's whole plan had been exactly what it looked like from the start. Avoid the physical fight. Get one answer. End it there.
Shinso pointed toward the boundary. "Turn around and walk out of bounds."
Midoriya obeyed.
...
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