#class 1-x

“LLLLLLLADIESSSS, GENTLEMEN, AND OTHERS! Are you ready for the second battle of round two?!” Present Mic’s voice pumped up the crowd through the stadium loudspeakers, the responding cheers assaulting the competitors with a wall of noise as they ascended their staircases up to the arena platform. Kiyoko felt like she was shaking from the adrenaline, but it wasn’t observable as she flexed her fists nervously by her sides and appeared at the top of the stairs, looking across the length of the field as her opponent came into view in tandem. “First up, from Combined Class 1-Y, you saw her in that fearsome fight of overwhelming strength meeting an immovable force! Kiyoko Hagane, Quirk: Metallurgy! Metallurgy gives the user a steel endoskeleton, and allows the user to morph all four of her limbs into several different metal constructs! Wow!” “And in the other corner, second but not destined to be, with a shockingly fast first round, Tsutsumi Natsumi! Quirk: Shaaaaaade Demon! What a spicy name for a cool quirk! ‘Shade Demon’ allows the user to become stronger, faster, and demonstrates an enhanced tolerance for pain! In addition, Natsumi-chan can also form constructs from shadow! So COOL-!!” Present Mic was cut off by the sound of an elbow making contact with something near his ribs as Eraserhead kept him on track. “Focus, idiot.” “I know I know,” Sporting his signature sheepish expression for his friend for a moment before Present Mic whipped back around to lean enthusiastically towards his microphone once more with a cheer. “Let’s hear it for our young soon-to-be-champions!” The roar from the crowd fell away from her ears as Kiyoko focused on her opponent, approaching the arena. Tsutsumi Natsumi. All horns, lava-red hair, and fiery grit. Outside of classes, Kiyoko hadn’t yet had an opportunity to interact with the other girl very much, but what was a good indicator of her personality was the discussion the two had had when they found out they’d be fighting against each other in the second round.

“My blades?” Kiyoko blinked at the question, before offering an almost sheepish, half-shrug. “We didn’t use them in the first round because we knew that while Evan could make bone constructs, not only is steel easily stronger than bone every time, but we thought it’d be pretty disturbing for people to watch pieces of him still moving around after I’d cut them aside on live television. We thought it was a better idea to just avoid that scenario altogether.” Kiyoko paused for a moment, tilting her head to the side slightly as she considered her soon-to-be opponent. “...Why do you ask?”

Tsumi nodded, “I see. Good to know that we have similar views regarding these kinds of things.” Tsumi paused, “That doesn’t answer your question, sorry. I ask because I wanted to know your thoughts on the matter of using weapons. My quirk allows me to create constructs as well, so I wanted to discuss some ground rules for our fight. Don’t want our careers ending before they start now do we?”

“Take up your positions you two, and the fight will soon commence! The energy is high for this one in the stadium tonight, listeners!”

The discussion had been a welcome surprise to Kiyoko, and had immediately colored their competitive relationship in a positive light, she thought, as her foot passed over the boundary line and she entered the arena proper, Tsutsumi already awaiting her on the other side.

Miss Me was the presiding referee for their match.

She took in a breath, before exhaling slowly and offering Tsumi a smile and a nod as she lowered into a ready stance across from her. “Good luck Tsutsumi-chan!” The expression she’d earned with her comment was a quizzical one, before Tsutsumi shrugged. “Weird to wish your opponent good luck, but same to you I guess.” “...Ah.” Was Kiyoko’s brilliant response as she now recognized the problem. It got a nervous laugh out of her. “But I can’t help it- I want us both to do well!”

“ARE YOU REEEEEEEADY?!” Present Mic crowed. “ROUND Two, Fight Two, Begins!!”

Like the beginning of her round one, Kiyoko’s metal immediately snapped into place on her limbs and she bolted forward, her bare steel thundering against the concrete of the arena with the dull clanging of semi-hollow metal. Gotta stay away from that border as much as possible. That was the main goal hovering in the back of her mind as she focused everything else on her opponent as they rushed towards each other. Tsutsumi had a very similar approach, aiming to quickly close the distance between the two of them. Her plan: hit hard, hit fast, and don’t get hit. Pretty simple as far as plans though. Tsutsumi wasn’t one for grand battle plans, much preferring to adjust to how her opponent fights on the spot. It made her unpredictable, a challenge that Kiyoko would have to overcome. 

After her first few steps towards Kiyoko, Tsutsumi activated her quirk. Black “smoke” formed around her hands and feet as her eyes began to glow like gold. Her speed also increased substantially as her quirk came to life. 

The dark masses surrounding her hands seemed to shift and in the blink of an eye formed into two daggers. She’d start with them, then change to another weapon if needed. For now though Tsumi just wanted to land the opening hit. Kiyoko brought her arms up with a screech of metal as the daggers deflected off of the metal blades she’d formed jutting out of her forearms. She quickly slashed back at her opponent, putting on the pressure in an attempt to make the other girl switch to the backfoot even if just for a moment, she would pursue her, before falling back again to a defensive form and looking for opportunities to capitalize on.

It didn’t take long for Tsumi to know that she was outmatched when it came to professional training. Kiyoko’s dedication to martial arts was omnipresent in her fighting. So she sought to be more unpredictable than normal, using moves that would catch Kiyoko off guard and would then give her time to recover from sticky situations. Her quirk did give her a speed boost but she’d still have to be careful to move out of risky positions her moves put her in.

Tsumi’s onslaught was powerful, and not without purpose, giving Kiyoko little to no openings to offer much of a reply herself - she had to be so careful not to take any of the attacks head-on, while keeping up her defenses before committing, finally, to offensive attacks. 

Once again Tsumi came in for an attack, utilizing both of her daggers in her attempt to get some damage off on her opponent. As long as at least one of her daggers hit she’d be in a good spot to go for another hit. If not, back up and try again. With that in mind she slashed at Kiyoko...and felt a jolt up her arm as the blade was stopped short suddenly. Kiyoko stared at her from where she stood, teeth clamped onto the blade and not budging. She hadn’t actually intended on blocking this way - it just sort of...happened once she’d realized she’d fallen for the feint with the right hand, and her left wouldn’t have been able to come up to block in time, so she’d lunged downward with her mouth open and bitten her opponent’s weapon. To her surprise, however, shadow was the sturdiest stuff she’d ever bitten - she couldn’t shatter it, even as she increased the pressure not unlike a hydraulic press. They were at an awkward impasse, as Kiyoko had yet to let go and could only stare awkwardly at Tsumi as she tried to figure out what to do. “...I didn’t think this through.” She admitted, a bit mumbled, around the blade.

“Uhh…” Tsumi trailed off. This was not the blocking technique that she had expected from Kiyoko, but it’s what happened and now she didn’t know what to do except stare at her equally confused opponent. “Umm maybe… you know let’s just take a couple steps back from each other, move on from this, and continue like it didn’t happen.” “A brilliant idea.” Kiyoko agreed, before unceremoniously spitting out the blade and back-pedaling as she wiped her mouth with the back of a hand. She can’t believe she just did that on national television. Gods. Tsumi nodded as she dissolved her daggers and backed up. Once they had both finished their back pedals, Tsumi looked at Kiyoko and spoke.”Ready? And Resume!” Kiyoko reformed her hand that she’d used to wipe her mouth into a sword in response, nodding shortly, before switching off the backfoot to meet her in the middle once more. 

The swords Kiyoko makes are never ordinary blades, however. Tsutsumi would quickly learn this, as Kiyoko warped her blades however she pleased to make a blocked blow into a very nearly successful one anyway as the blade, once stopped, would weave and shift its way around the blade that’d blocked it, and split off into spindly pointed ends, like sharpened steel chopsticks, that jabbed at her opponent’s arm. It was only thanks to Tsumi’s enhanced speed and quick thinking that she was able to evade having an arm imitate a pin cushion, but Kiyoko had only just begun to test Tsumi’s speed. She backpedaled, surprisingly, and clapped her hands together, where they fused into one long curved blade, that split into two as her biceps grew in and upwards to form an imitation of a samurai’s war mask and upper body armor over her face and the front of her torso. Kiyoko’s Soldier’s Veneer formed, she was now in a better position to commit to attacking more than defending. She planted her feet in a wide stance, and took in a breath. As she exhaled, her quirk exploded forth with speed as her eyes snapped open and the swords slithered through the air like snakes, going so far as to form snakeheads at the ends, towards her opponent. Though they may have looked intimidating to an onlooker, for those with a discerning gaze, it was clear Kiyoko was moving with the intent to latch on with the sword snakes and immobilize Tsumi. But first she had to catch her.

Tsumi watched Kiyoko change and form her constructs into a completely different form that she had seen before. Now Kiyoko was turning up the heat, and that seemed to mean that daggers weren’t going to cut it anymore. A different strategy was going to be needed to combat this. It was time to get creative with how she would attack, especially since there was now armor in her way. Her mind quickly ran through a wide variety of things she could try to break through Kiyoko’s new defense, until it hit her. The perfect way to break through. 

 Seeing a chance to follow through on her idea, Tsumi used her full speed to quickly set herself up. Charging at Kiyoko, Tsumi jumped off the ground then used the top of Kiyoko’s sword as a springboard to launch herself up higher, setting herself up for a hit as she forced the tip of the blade down with her jump. Forming her claymore mid-air the sudden added weight added momentum to Tsumi’s attack. It was a risky move, that was for sure. But it was the first time she’d done it, so Kiyoko had to be caught a little off guard. Add her enhanced speed onto that and a fair amount of risk had been mitigated. Though she knew that she wouldn’t be able to pull the same trick twice. The claymore came down faster than Kiyoko could move. Her arms were angled down, her guard broken from the weight of Tsumi’s jump, and it was a panicked scramble to try to intercept the claymore as she split her sword in two and it started to shrink as she brought her arms up to guard- Just as a loud CLIANGK!!! reverberated out from where the claymore had slipped in between her arms that she had been bringing up to stop it, too slow, and Kiyoko’s eyes widened as she watched the claymore halt, embedded in the exact center of the false forehead of the armor...and continued to watch as a crack split down the entire length of the construct until it fell off to either side of her, pinging off the concrete by her feet. She didn’t have time to give the shells of her former armor more than a stunned glance before she was gritting her teeth and bringing up her sword arms to smash the claymore to the side and lash out with an extended metal-leg kick to Tsumi’s left side, aiming for the kidney. It went on like this for what felt like forever for the two girls; one would come up with a creative rebuttal and the other would parry, dodge, or tear the attempt to gain an upperhand apart. And then the other side would swap tactics and come up with a creative attack, only for the other to somehow twist out of the way or parry or jump to dodge it. Slipping free, ducking, twisting, punching, shoving, jumping, any way for the two to escape the other and prevail was attempted and responded to in kind for minutes on end. Kiyoko lashed out with her right leg as her swords turned into hands to grasp the claymore and try to hold it in place even if just for a second or two as the leg extended, grew another leg near the base of the thigh to support her torso in its absence, and grow a hand in the place of the original foot as it snatched at Tsumi’s ankle, Kiyoko jerking her leg back to roughly yank Tsumi’s leg out from under her as she twisted the claymore down and to the side, deflecting it and lunging forward as her leg brought Tsumi’s towards her.

Tsumi’s eyes widened as Kiyoko pulled her in. This wasn’t a position she’d want to be in.  Especially as Kiyoko moved to make it a proper grapple. If she didn’t do something quick she could lose it here. She tried to brute force her way out of Kiyoko's grasp, however that appeared wildly ineffective. The grapple made it impossible for her to utilize her strength by not allowing her any leverage in the position. There didn’t seem like there was much she could do at this point. Unless…   

It was risky but it would cause a break if done right. So in a last attempt to break through Tsumi formed a sword to surprise Kiyoko and force a break. Making sure that it’s initial position wasn’t going to lead to a major accidental stab wound.  

Kiyoko couldn’t help the shocked yelp that escaped her as a sword appeared in Tsumi’s grasp - (was this how people felt when she did it?!?!?) - hovering with the tip pointed at her right shoulder, and Kiyoko immediately broke the grapple and shoved Tsumi off of her, rolling away as fast as she could before scrambling to her feet, forming her forearms into blades once more.

There was twisting at the metal knees at impossible angles in order to dodge a split-second sword summoning, a condensed pair of arms to withstand Tsumi’s blows better as they blocked and parried and punched at the gaps in her odd defense. Her legs would suddenly shrink her height by three feet, - ducking under two swipes of Tsumi’s knives, - and send her forward under Tsutsumi’s guard before having her grow and throw the top of her skull up at her chin, narrowly missing as Tsumi used her enhanced speed to barely jerk her head back and out of the way as she stumbled into a backpedal, gaining space between her and Kiyoko again and keeping her back as she re-summoned her claymore and swiped at her legs.

“Almost ten minutes and neither of them seem to be making any ground,” Miss me...couldn’t help but agree with the comms chatter she was hearing from the piece in her ear, her brow furrowing. She watched the two girls go back and forth. Typical matches were maybe a third of what their match was, and they weren’t even done yet. In fact she didn’t know when they would be, it was a stalemate. 

Her concern for the match only grew. The first signs of fatigue were starting to show in the two, and in a weapons fight that becomes dangerous quickly. But to end it now, is that really something she could do in good faith? The way ties are decided are the same every year: an arm wrestle. It’s a quick show of strength, perfect for moving things along. But this match, these two...calling it as a draw...Could she really do that to either of them? 

Their blades let out a rippling clang as metal screeched against congealed shadow and sparks flew, Kiyoko ducking under a slash as she batted it away with her arm only to have to form a shield out of her right arm to catch the incoming blow Tsumi retorted the parry with, in her opposite hand. She watched as Tsumi dented the metal once, twice, three times, as the groaning of metal punched through the air like a blow to Miss Me’s gut. Kiyoko reformed the shield into a fist that caught the next blow by snatching Tsumi’s hand and twisting her wrist in her grip by the thumb and forcing the knife from her grasp as she broke her grip - and had to quickly use her quirk in her legs to front flip over Tsutsumi who had lashed out after reversing the grip on her wrist and using Kiyoko’s arm as a brace to whip a roundhouse kick at her torso. She was rewarded with metal stretching from her hand to behind her, and for all of Kiyoko’s effort, the disarming move hadn’t given her any ground. The two recovered their weapons, and in a perfect parallel, lunged back into the fight.

Miss Me took a deep breath, there was only one thing to do. Even if it hurt her in the moment. She wouldn’t be able to live with herself if she allowed for two of her students to get injured because she didn’t call the match earlier. She grabbed the whistle around her neck, and her whistle screeched shrilly, reaching the walls of the arena and causing the two students to stumble awkwardly as they forced their moves to miss the other at the last second, before turning to look at her with two equally confused (and fatigued) faces.

“Girls, come over here.” Miss Me waved the students her way, and they shared a glance, Tsumi cocking an eyebrow and Kiyoko shrugging in response, before they joined her. “I’m calling your match a tie, girls. I’m sorry, but I’ve determined it’s too dangerous for you two to continue fighting like this for much longer, you’re both losing steam AND-” She said, sharply cutting off complaints before they could leave either of their faces. She wasn’t finished speaking. “And, that neither of you are making headway against the other. You’re getting nowhere, and I really am sorry.” She made sure to hold them both in a heavy gaze as she tried to impart as much sincerity in her words as possible.“But I have to call the match, we have to think of the other contestants and their matches too.” Kiyoko stared at her in a stunned silence as Miss Me turned away from the two of them to face the rest of the stadium, flipping down the microphone attached to her headpiece. “After much consideration, I am declaring this match has ended in a tie!” Her voice rang out through the stadium speakers, earning a variety of reactions from both the outcries of the crowd and the announcers at this unexpected turn of events. Miss Me spoke up again after a second or two of bearing the uproarious response, waiting for a break in the wall of sound to continue. “A tie-breaker will take place to determine the winner of this match, and we will proceed with the traditional tie-breaker shortly. The rules are to be presented by the match’s presenters.”

Aizawa couldn’t say he was surprised, though he did narrow his eyes a little bit in...consideration of how this turn of events would affect the two first years. But everyone had to remember life wasn’t fair sometimes. Even for heroes. It was still a shame, though. “W-Well, this is certainly an unusual turn of events, BUT!” Present Mic shot right back up to his usual energy levels as he smoothed things over. “Not so unusual that we’ve never planned for something like this before! That’s right folks, a tie-breaker is in order for this match, and the rules are simple! A good old-fashioned arm wrestle to determine the winner! Elbows on the surface at all times, no additional assistance from opposite hands, and quirk use is A-OKAY!”

Kiyoko felt like the world had just fallen from around her as her stomach sailed through her feet in quiet, stunned horror. They had to know. There was no way Miss Me didn’t know. The armwrestle was as good as a death sentence to any chance of Kiyoko winning the round. Her physical strength just couldn’t keep up with Tsumi’s, even with condensing her quirk - there was a reason she knew she’d have to deflect all of her attacks from the very beginning. It was her only chance at all to survive as a competitor in the fight. And they’d just announced they’d taken it away from her. In front of everyone. No...No…!!! She could feel her face heating up and a burning start to sting her eyes as she lowered her gaze to the tops of her silvered feet as she gripped her hands into fists at her sides in an attempt to get the emotions to stop.

Tsumi looked over at Kiyoko, they both had the same thoughts. This can’t be how it ends. It can’t. This match could have ended the normal way, so why? Why call it a tie? Tsumi wanted to fight it, to call it out and demand they fight as normal. And she almost did, opening her mouth to start her rebuttal, but she stopped. Even if she did say something it wouldn’t change what was happening, and that only served to piss her off more. Her mind spiralled with thoughts and emotions. The most prominent of them all were why and the reasons her brain could think of. Despite all the emotions she was feeling, her expression remained neutral. She couldn’t lose her control now, not with basically all of Japan watching.

Once again, she swallowed her feelings for the sake of other people.

“I’ll do it.” Kiyoko broke her silence, looking up from her feet to level a gaze somewhere between resignation and determination towards Miss Me. “I’ll do the armwrestle.” With those words, she’d sealed her fate. She wondered what her parents would do, if they were in her situation. She had no idea, at all.

That sudden declaration from Kiyoko snapped Tsumi out of her thoughts. Kiyoko wasn’t backing down from this so neither should she. “I’ll agree to it as well,” she paused and looked Kiyoko dead in the eye, “on one condition. Kiyoko, you give me everything you’ve got. No giving up just yet.” Tsumi forced a smile in an attempt to help Kiyoko feel a bit better about their situation, though the pain behind it was clear. 

Fight to the bitter end, huh? What a silly condition. Kiyoko had thought that went without saying.

She clapped her hands on her cheeks twice to psyche herself up, before letting out a breath and fixing a determined gaze on Tsumi as she nodded fiercely, shoving down the despair that had been trying to bubble up, burning it up with her determination. Tsumi deserved her best attempt, even if Kiyoko knew what the result would be. “Of course.” Seeing that the two girls had reached an agreement, Miss Me led them over to the table Cementoss raised from the floor of the arena for the two of them, letting them each take their positions on either side.

Tsumi walked to her side of the table. She didn’t even realize it but she was biting her tongue, perhaps to distract herself from how much she wanted to fight what was happening and to stop her emotions from triggering a quirk activation. Betraying the appearance of calmness she had on. She exhaled sharply before placing her elbow on the table, ready for Kiyoko to take her hand to start the arm wrestle. Kiyoko was...handling her emotions with slightly more subtlety, if only because she couldn’t actually afford to bite her lip. She lowered herself to brace an elbow on the table, the silver of her metal sliding into place as it slid down from her shoulder until it closed over her fingertips, cool to the touch as she clasped Tsumi’s hand in hers. She was trying to ignore her heart beating in her ears as Miss Me raised a hand, preparing to declare the start of the bout. Kiyoko thought, maybe, her arm would be shaking if it weren’t solid metal at the moment. She exhaled slowly, and locked eyes with Tsumi as Miss Me’s hand stilled its apex. “BEGIN!” Miss Me’s arm fell, and Kiyoko, having condensed all the metal she could into her one arm, put every ounce of her remaining strength into pushing Tsutsumi’s hand down. ...And to her confusion, there was some give, and then more, and slightly more ground was given - and Kiyoko risked switching her gaze from their hands to Tsutsumi’s eyes and- She felt like she’d just been slapped in the face as she didn’t see the tell-tale yellow glow of Tsutsumi’s quirk consistently in her eyes. She was using it in short spurts, putting on a show, as if Kiyoko actually stood a chance. For the first time, Kiyoko felt a well of anger burn bright enough and swiftly enough to burst forth from her in a bark. “Tsutsumi I am giving it my all, the least I deserve is your all in kind.” Don’t insult me. She mentally braced herself, and refused to close her eyes or look away as she held Tsutsumi’s eyes in her steely gaze. End it, Tsutsumi. 

Tsumi didn’t look at Kiyoko. She couldn’t. Her emotions were all over the place and a feeling of overstimulation was starting to come over her. The flickering of her quirk on and off wasn’t her putting on a show, it was her losing control and Kiyoko’s words didn’t help. She wanted to win this festival more than anything but this didn’t feel like the right way to do it. But this is how it has to be done now and Kiyoko was right, she needed to give it her all and push her emotions aside. Wouldn’t be the first time she had done so. After one last deep breath Tsumi looked up at Kiyoko and whispered, “I’m sorry.”

Tsumi’s quirk activated, and there was a loud groaning of metal in that same instant.

Kiyoko offered her a tiny, relieved smile, shared only between the two of them.

Me too.

Creeeeeeakashk!