36

Chapter Text

"Are you sure you don't want to adopt him?" Hizashi teased. 

Shouta glared at him, "I hope you at least made sure our mics are muted before saying something so stupid."

"I'm a professional radio host, of course I did, that's old hat." Hizashi waved away his worries. "Come on Shouta! The kid literally just won his last fight by taking a nap! If that's not your son, I don't think anyone is."

"He won his fight by confusing his opponent and focusing on his quirk." Shouta argued. "It was only logical."

Hizashi grinned, "Exactly! He's logical just like you are!"

"He already has parents." Shouta repeated. "And are you forgetting that you would also be his parent in this hypothetical? The way you're describing it, you'd basically be adopting a smaller version of your husband, which would just be weird."

"Nah, he's chaotic enough that I'm sure we'd have fun!" Hizashi shrugged. "So…?"

"Still not happening."

Kirishima could practically feel the confused rage coming off of Bakugo in waves as they waited for the match to begin. He could relate, at least a little bit. This sports festival hadn't gone anything like how Kirishima had thought his first sports festival would go when he was growing up. Looking back, it was kinda stupid, but for some reason he'd thought that he'd mostly be fighting his classmates in flashy fights that would be determined by who was stronger. It was supposed to be simple, straightforward, and easy to understand, but instead he'd gotten a good mix of both 1A, 1B and even a few support and gen-ed thrown into the mix that were actually pretty decent threats. The support students had both disqualified themselves by stepping out of the ring, so he couldn't even assume that everyone's goal was always to win! It made things more complicated and harder to predict, but Kirishima thought he was doing a pretty decent job at rolling with the punches. 

Which was what his job was now as well. Bakugo was having a much harder time adjusting to the reality of the festival and Kirishima thought he'd heard something about him being childhood friends with the support student that was supposed to fight him last round, so it made sense that he was getting angry and frustrated. They'd all come into this event with a set of expectations that had been immediately turned on their heads and Bakugo wanted to be the best, so it probably hurt a lot that he'd had his victories swept out from under him in practically every round so far, which was why Kirishima was determined to let his friend fight out all those tricky feelings. He wasn't sure if he'd be able to win, even though he was definitely gonna try, but the support students had shown him that his motivation didn't have to be to get first place. It could be just to help his friend feel better. 

That didn't mean that it wasn't going to hurt getting pelted with explosion after explosion, but that was why Kirishima had his quirk! The second midnight began the match, Bakugo launched himself forward and Kirishima instinctively hardened his body right as an explosion went off in his face. He immediately returned a punch that Bakugo dodged, but he didn't give up. He'd probably reach his quirk's limits before Bakugo did, and if that happened, the fight would be over.

"It's ok, Baku-bro!" Kirishima grinned and launched another punch. "Let it all out!"

"Shut up, Shitty Hair!" Bakugo yelled back. "This isn't some stupid therapy session, I'm gonna kill you and I'm gonna win!"

Kirishima laughed, "Alright, bro, I believe you! Just keep those explosions coming, I can hardly feel them!"

"That's because you're skin is a fucking mountain." Bakugo grumbled, dodging another one of Kirishima's blows. "And stop smiling! You're just like stupid fucking deku!"

"Deku?" Kirishima asked curiously. "Is that the support student you're friends with?"

"We're not friends." Bakugo growled. "I think the nerd made that pretty fucking clear." 

The explosion that followed seemed slightly hotter than some of the others, so Kirishima figured he must have hit a nerve, "Is that part of why you're so frustrated? He seems like a nice guy, I'm sure you two can work things out!"

"Shut up!" Bakugo let off another huge explosion that made Kirishima hiss as some of his skin chipped under the force. "That stupid nerd gave up! He gave up being a hero and he gave up on our fight before I could even give him the beating he deserved!"

"Well then, don't give up!" Kirishima shot back, pushing through the urge to soften his body. "You can be better than him!"

"I already am!" Bakugo screamed. "I already am and that's the point! The idiot deku is looking down on me and he won't even fight me! I'm a threat, dammit! Fight me!"

Kirishima rolled his eyes and kept talking even though he was quickly running out of breath, "I am fighting you, Bakugo."

"Then why! Didn't! He!" Every word was punctuated by an explosion and Kirishima felt his quirk finally give out after only two. "He! Owed! Me! A! Fight!"

The smoke cleared and Kirishima didn't know how he looked, but considering the gasps of the crowd, it couldn't be good. He could already tell that one eye was swollen shut and the places that his skin had chipped away when he was in his hardened form had already started to bleed. 

"You did it, bro. You won." Kirishima smiled and looked up at his friend, unable to really see his expression with only one eye. "I hope you're feeling better. Glad I could help."

He could feel his head spinning until he finally gave into blissful darkness.

"Kirishima is KO'd." Midnight announced. "Bakugo advances to the finals!"

The stadium erupted into cheers, but Katsuki couldn't help watching with muted horror as the medbots wheeled Kirishia from the field. That beating hadn't been meant for him. It had been meant for Deku, but then Deku had flat out refused to fight him. Katsuki's rage had been growing so much all day that he just needed to take it out on someone, and he'd thought that with his quirk, Kirishima would be able to take it, but either Kirishima was weaker than he'd thought, or Katsuki was a lot angrier than he'd realized. He hadn't meant to really hurt him!

Katsuki numbly made his way back into the tunnels, Kirishima's injuries burned into his brain. That beating hadn't been meant for him, but he'd taken it because he thought that's what Katsuki needed. He did need it, but...well, maybe he needed a better outlet?

"So, still no idea how Shinso's quirk works?" Kamakiri asked. 

"I almost thought it might be something like verbal response or something." Kendo said. "But he didn't say anything to Dark Shadow before taking control of him in the last fight."

"I think the nap has something to do with it." Kodai suggested. "He might have a limit of people that he can control before he has to sleep and reset."

"That would explain why his eyebags are so bad." Tsuburaba agreed. "But then why wouldn't he do that backstage? He had time between rounds, right?"

"That she-demon from support probably distracted him." Monoma dismissed. "But it doesn't matter, it shouldn't be too difficult to figure out once I get my hands on it."

Monoma smirked confidently and reached out to grab the quirks he wanted for the fight. Shiozaki's vines would help him pull Shinso in close so he could steal his quirk, Komorri's spores would be a good backup plan just in case he wasn't able to steal brainwashing, and Tetsutetsu's steel would be good if it came to a hand to hand fight, with the added bonus that he could use it to anchor himself into the concrete so that Shinso couldn't tell him to walk out of bounds. There was absolutely no way he could lose! 

He confidently made his way through the tunnels and out onto the field, where Shinso was already waiting, a bored expression on his face. Midnight nodded to him and Monoma tuned out whatever introductions Present Mic gave before the match officially began. He'd show everyone that 1B was the best in the whole school. 

"Begin!"

"So…" Shinso raised one eyebrow, still looking infuriatingly bored. "You're the 1B guy who thinks he's so superior, aren't you?"

"I don't think I'm superior." Monoma laughed. "I am superior. It's only a matter of time before I take that perfect little brainwashing quirk and turn it against you."

"Is it?" Shinso asked. "Well, I would be looking forward to it, if I thought you could actually do it."

Monoma snarled and snapped some vines toward Shinso, who even dodging looked just as bored as he had at the start. Perhaps the lack of expression was his quirk's limit. It would be inconvenient if he had to maintain the same emotion or facial expression to activate brainwashing, but Monoma wouldn't let something small like that keep him from taking his rightful place on the winner's stand. 

Shinso was obviously fairly physically fit, because no matter how many vines Monoma sent after him, he just kept dodging! In frustration, Monoma sent a sparse cloud of spores in his direction, just enough to mess with Shinso's breathing and give him the opening he needed. Sure enough, it took less than a minute of this treatment for his opponent to start running out of breath. Monoma smirked and finally wrapped Shinso in tight vines from his shoulders down, then sauntered up to him and within seconds, had a copy of his quirk replacing the spores. It was like taking candy from a baby. 

"Well, time to finally solve the mystery!" Monoma laughed. "How does this quirk…"

His copy of brainwashing only gave him a few seconds of warning before his mind started going fuzzy. If he hadn't already copied the quirk, he probably wouldn't have gotten any warning at all, but as it was he had barely enough time to harden his body into steel and drive his feet into the concrete before he lost control of his body entirely. 

"Cute." Shinso smiled. "But unfortunately, not enough. Deactivate your quirk."

The vines loosened and Monoma's skin reverted back to it's normal texture as he was forced to let go of his stockpile of quirks. Shinso's hold on his mind just got tighter as Monoma's copy dissipated into nothing more than hopeless wisps of smoke in his mind. He would have grit his teeth if he had any control left, but unfortunately, he was nothing better than a trained monkey that could only follow orders. 

"Pull your feet from the ground, gently. Then walk out of bounds."

The rough edges of the broken concrete scraped at his legs, but the pain wasn't enough to really bother him as he pulled himself from the ground and started slowly making his way toward the line. There was a slightly pained expression on Shinso's face as Monoma passed him, like he was having to fight to maintain his quirk and Monoma felt a brief ray of hope. Whatever move he'd pulled during his fight with that birdbrain from 1A had made him pass out, so he must still be tired from it! If he could just find a way to maybe slow down and stay in the ring for long enough for quirk exhaustion to set in. 

Unfortunately, he wasn't having much luck and he was starting to have trouble focusing on escaping since the scrapes on his legs were starting to sting. One of the cuts throbbed and there was a split second where Monoma almost felt like himself again before Shinso's hold over him tightened again. 

Pull your feet from the ground, gently.

If Shinso had just wanted him to free himself, he would have just ordered Monoma to pull himself from the ground, but he didn't. He took the time to specify that he did so gently so that he wouldn't injure himself! Monoma smirked internally and focused on the pain. Shinso had obviously had practiced maintaining control in non-optimal conditions, but if the link was mental, if Monoma was more aware of the pain he was in, that might be enough to strain the link and make it more difficult for Shinso to maintain the connection. 

He heard Shinso let out a sharp breath and then Monoma's head finally cleared. He cheered in triumph and whirled around, feet less than a foot from the line, "Nice try, gen-ed, but you're going to have to try harder if you want to beat a member of class 1B!"

Shinso lowered himself into a fighting stance, "I guess we'll just have to do this the old fashioned way." 

Monoma laughed as Shinso ran toward him and reached out to steal his quirk again. Now that he had a taste of it, he had no doubt that he'd be able to figure it out quickly and turn this fight around. He blocked a punch to the face by grabbing Shinso's wrist and started to explore the quirk, but before he had a chance to really understand it, his feet were being swept out from underneath him. His eyes widened and he instinctively loosened his hold on Shinso's wrist, which turned out to be a mistake because the next thing he felt was Shinso planting both hands on his chest and shoving him as hard as he could. Monoma stumbled, just barely managing to maintain his footing, and tensed for the next attack. 

"Monoma is out of bounds!" Midnight yelled. "Shinso advances to the finals!"

"What?!" Monoma looked down, hoping that perhaps Midnight had made a mistake, but sure enough, he was two inches away from the line, on the wrong side. He'd lost. Not only had he lost, he'd lost to some nobody from general education! He growled and let go of Shinso's quirk in frustration. How?!

Monoma expected Shinso to make some snarky comment rubbing in his win, but to his surprise, Shinso simply turned around and started heading back to the tunnels. 

"What, you're not even going to acknowledge your win?" Monoma snarled. "Do you really think you're so much better than the rest of us that I don't even merit a snide insult?"

Shinso looked over his shoulder and raised one eyebrow, almost like he thought the answer was obvious, then a look of confusion passed over his face briefly before something seemed to click. A smirk slowly made its way onto Shinso's face, but he didn't make any other response before he turned back around and disappeared into the tunnels.

"Alright, the lights are off, and we already gave you water…" Izuku fretted. "Is there anything else we can do?"

"It's just a migraine, Izuku…" Hitoshi groaned. "I get them all the time and I overused my quirk against Tokoyami, so it was gonna happen anyway. We're just lucky that blond kid's an idiot and didn't bother to figure out my quirk after the match, otherwise the secret would be out."

"He's not an idiot, Hitoshi, be nice!" Izuku squeaked. "He's actually got semi-decent grades and he's at UA, so even that...

Hitoshi tuned him out as he felt something cool touch his forehead. He cracked one eye open to see Mei holding some kind of ice pack that he was 90% sure she'd only brought along in case one of her inventions overheated.

"Be quiet, Izu-kun!" Mei whisper-yelled. "Don't you know that too much noise makes migraines worse?"

"But you…!"

"Quiet!" 

Mei glared at Izuku until he started silently pouting and Hitoshi couldn't hold back a small smile as he closed his eyes again and settled back into whatever nap he would be able to get between rounds. Considering that, from what he'd gathered, his next opponent used to be Izuku's bully, he'd need every second of rest he could get.

Notes: