Shoto Todoroki and Yoarashi Inasa had already walked into the arena as the crowd went absolutely nuts.
Meanwhile, Izuku Midoriya was still scribbling in his notebook, muttering to himself. Tenya Iida tried to get his attention a few times, but Izuku didn't snap out of it. Iida just gave up and let him be.
That's when Momo Yaoyorozu came back.
Mina Ashido leaned over, curious. "Hey, Momo, why are you alone? Where's Arthur?"
Momo tucked her hair behind her ear and gave a weak smile. "Arthur said he hadn't eaten lunch and needed to go grab something."
"Huh?"
Mina stopped herself mid-sentence and quickly covered her mouth.
She was about to say "this match will decide his opponent next round," but she didn't want to piss off Katsuki Bakugo. Because it would sound like she was assuming Arthur would definitely beat him.
But even though Mina didn't finish, Bakugo, sitting nearby, could totally guess what she meant. His eyes were red and his knuckles were white, but weirdly enough, he hadn't started cursing yet.
Honestly, it wasn't just Mina. Pretty much no one in Class A thought Bakugo could beat Arthur.
Forget all the stuff Arthur did in class. His terrifying Stand ability was still a complete mystery.
Bakugo just couldn't win.
Momo gave a soft smile. "Arthur said he's seen Todoroki and Yoarashi fight plenty of times. No need to watch again."
"He's really that confident, huh..."
Mina pouted and turned her attention back to the arena.
"We've finally made it to one of the most hyped matches of this U.A. Sports Festival! Both of these guys have insanely powerful Quirks, top-tier students from Class A! Shoto Todoroki! Yoarashi Inasa!"
Present Mic was so hyped he literally kicked the desk. He turned to Shota Aizawa. "Hey, Eraserhead, who do you think has the better shot?"
Aizawa, actually awake for once, said seriously, "Todoroki's gotten stronger now that he's willing to use his fire, but Yoarashi isn't someone to underestimate. They're pretty evenly matched."
"Ooh! That's what his homeroom teacher thinks! Alright folks, are you ready?!"
Present Mic raised a finger and shouted.
"HELL YEAH!!!"
All 120,000 spectators threw their arms up and cheered.
"Then... start!!!"
The second Present Mic said that, Shoto Todoroki stepped forward with his right foot, and Yoarashi Inasa swung his left hand.
An ice mountain and a tornado launched toward each other.
BOOM!!!
Even outside the arena, the ground shook violently. A bunch of spectators lost their balance and fell over.
Looking up, they saw wild winds mixed with ice shards spiral up from the center of the arena and scatter everywhere.
Then came more and more chaos fire, ice, wind clashing nonstop.
"How the hell are these two students this strong? Even plenty of pro heroes can't keep up with them, right?"
Kamui Woods had been called to help with security outside the arena. He looked up at the chaos and had to admit, even he wouldn't feel confident fighting either Yoarashi or Todoroki.
"Hey, look at that guy..."
Mount Lady, also on security duty, pointed to her left with a gasp.
Kamui Woods and another pro hero turned to look.
Arthur was sitting under a tree, chugging canned coffee.
The nonstop noise from the arena seemed to have nothing to do with him.
"Does he seriously not care about his own match at all? Or is he just that confident?"
Kamui Woods said, surprised.
Through the big screen outside the venue, he'd seen Arthur's creepy, weird Quirk in action.
"He's kinda hot. Should I go hit on him?"
Mount Lady laughed behind her hand. It was hard to tell if she was joking.
"Don't mess around and make pro heroes look bad."
Kamui Woods shot her down with a dark look.
The fight between Shoto Todoroki and Yoarashi Inasa showed just how insane element-type Quirks could get. Cementoss was constantly rebuilding the arena, but he couldn't keep up with how fast they were destroying it.
Katsuki Bakugo sat in the stands, jaw clenched, staring at the wrecked arena below.
He didn't want to admit it, but he had to. Against those two, he wasn't even sure he could win.
"Don't worry about it. You're not winning your next match anyway."
If Arthur were here, he'd definitely mock Bakugo like that.
After ten minutes of fighting, both of them were starting to breathe hard.
"Next move decides it."
That's when Izuku Midoriya finally snapped out of his deep thinking about how to counter Arthur's Stand. Like waking up from a dream.
Humans have limits. The stronger the Quirk, the more stamina and focus it eats up. Those two were running on empty.
"This is amazing! But the one who wins and gets to fight Arthur will be me!"
Yoarashi Inasa shouted, pouring every last bit of strength into pushing himself forward with the wind, closing in on Shoto Todoroki.
Was he trying to end this in close combat?!
Bakugo heard that and almost ground his teeth to dust. What the hell did this bald guy mean? Saying he couldn't win against that bastard in the next round?!
Shoto Todoroki saw him coming and threw out a burst of flames.
Yoarashi's eyes went wide. He used the wind pressure to shoot upward and yelled, "Todoroki, you're gonna follow up with an ice double snipe. I've seen through it!"
But then, to Yoarashi's shock...
Todoroki didn't use his best long-range attack.
Instead, after throwing the flames, he charged right into them, hiding inside, and rushed underneath Yoarashi.
Oh crap.
Yoarashi panicked and tried to raise his hands to block.
But Todoroki, who normally sucked at close combat, landed a right hook on his jaw a split second faster.
Yoarashi went flying backward in the air.
Two seconds later, two heavy thuds hit the ground. They landed less than a second apart.
"Yoarashi Inasa is out of bounds!"
"Shoto Todoroki is in bounds!"
Midnight cracked her whip to make the call. "Shoto Todoroki advances to the finals!"
...
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