Chapter 29 – Strong Contender

Izuku was up first and he was going up against someone from another class that Mika had never heard of before. Once her Brother had started shouting about the commencement of the next stage of the festival, everyone started to fall into hushed whispered.

"Who is he again?" She leaned forward in her seat, eyes sliding over to Kaminari.

"He's in general studies… he's the guy with the wild purple hair that came to our class to intimidate us all, remember?" He tried to explain, waving his arms around as he did. Mika smirked at how expressive he was with his hands. She didn't remember him though; she remembered a lot of people massing outside their classroom. Words were said, she got pissed and left. That was about all that stuck in her mind.

"He had some kind of mind control quirk" Ojiro piped up from a few seats over from her. "That's why I don't remember the cavalry battle"

"Oh shoot" Kaminari gushed.

"THE FIRST MATCH!"

Everyone fell silent then as they looked down, spotting Izuku making his way out onto the brand-new concrete pitch that Cementos had created in the break. Even from all the way up in the stands Mika could see that Izuku looked super nervous. He was doing something weird with his face. Mika let her eyes sweep across to his opponent and once she set her eyes on him, she realised she did remember him. He had those tired eyes that looked almost right through her when he had been with the rest of the first-year classes at their door. Immediately she 'tch'ed.

"I remember him now…" She mumbled to Kaminari as her Brother read the rules over the speakers.

"… and fight dirty if you must, ethics have no meaning here!" Present Mic finished.

"Fight dirty?" both Mika and Katsuki snorted at the exact same time with the same level of wickedness making those around them shiver a little. Especially Aoyama and Uraraka who were up against them first. Good, bring it on!

She turned in her seat to where Kirishima and Bakugo were sat behind herself, Kaminari and Ashido. They both exchanged smirks and she turned back to the front.

"You are both so scary" Kirishima sighed.

Mika chuckled under her breath as she leaned further forwards, her elbows now on her knees so that she could see clearer. It looked like that Hitoshi kid was talking, he looked pissed as hell and when Mika swung her eyes over to Izuku, she could tell that he was triggered.

"I wonder what he's saying to Izuku" She wondered out loud to no one in particular.

"He's talking to Midoriya?" Ojiro piped up, sounding worried.

"Yeah, look…" She was completely drowned out by her Brother screaming 'Start'.

The match start had the whole stadium erupting into cheers. They all watched with bated breath as Izuku immediately started rushing forwards shouting out at Hitoshi, then as if he had hit a wall he froze. His limbs solidified and his face went blank.

"What the hell!" Kaminari shouted.

"DAMMIT MIDORIYA! I WARNED YOU!" Ojiro shouted, his hands flying up to his head in frustration.

"Is that it… that's all it took?" Yaoyoruzo gasped.

"Mere seconds into the match, Midoriya's frozen into place?" Present Mic announced through the speakers.

Mika could not believe her eyes, he would be a definite opponent to watch out for, if all it took was the get a verbal reaction out of someone, the reach must be insane. She knew for a fact that if someone was good enough at ruffling feathers, there was no way that their opponents would not bite, they just had to know what buttons to press. She was one of the worst people for that, she would bite at any given opportunity, that was just how she was built, she would have been in the same boat as Izuku.

She watched with wide eyes as Izuku limply turned on the stop and started to slowly trudge towards the edge of the pitch.

"No way!" Ashido screeched next to her.

"That's insane…"

Everyone started to stand then, almost all of Class-1A was on their feet screaming at Izuku to stop. Yet no matter what, he kept stepping towards the white out of bounds lines. They were all on the edge of their seats, closer and closer and closer he got, till all of a sudden there was a swish of dust swirling out. Once it cleared the whole of Class-1A were on their feet trying to see if Izuku had crossed the line.

"Woah, that was close!" Kaminari gushed, as they all realised that Izuku had stopped just before the white line. He shook his head a few times as if he was shaking out the brainwashing that he had just gone through. Once he was settled, they all watched him explode into a sprint towards Hitoshi. The purple haired kid looked super pissed now and took a few steps back as Izuku rushed him.

Once he met, the started grappling and the Hitoshi kid even landed a pretty hard punch across Izuku's jaw. Kaminari and a few of the others around Mika winced as they heard the thud, yet she could see that it only urged Izuku on even more. She could practically feel the intensity flying out from him. Everyone was screaming and cheering as Izuku finally managed to get a good enough hold of the purple haired kid and flung him up and over his shoulder in an arch. Slamming him down with his feet over the white line.

"SHINSO IS OUT OF THE RING!" Midnight-Sensei shouted and the whole arena erupted, including the Class-1A Section. "MIDORIYA MOVES ONTO THE SECOND ROUND!"

Everyone had gone absolutely mad as the match ended and Izuku and Hitoshi were ushered back into the stadium tunnels to get them out the way before the next match. Everyone was buzzing with excitement, and everyone around her was animatedly running over it play by play.

"Didn't Izuku use the same over the shoulder move on you too Bakugo?" Kaminari chuckled as he leaned back over his shoulder, arm propped against the back of Mika's chair smiling brightly at Bakugo.

"Shut up dunce face!" Bakugo shot back.

"HA dunce face" Mika snorted. Kaminari nudging her as he turned back around with a sulking face.

"Your face ain't too clever either, Curly" Bakugo sneered down at her. She offered him her middle finger without even looking.

Watching as Todoroki and Sero moved out onto the pitch, the crowd was busy looking between them both, trying to make them out to see if they could figure out who would win. The atmosphere was amazing, and as Mika let her eyes sweep across the huge stadium, she could not help but get swept up in it all. Watching everyone in the crowd be together, laughing, cheering and screaming along to the festival had her anticipating how they would react when her fight would come. There was a small kind of feeling hiding deep in her chest that was scared of people 'booing' her, but no one had been so far so she was hoping that it was just an irrational fear coming out due to the nerves of waiting.

The more and more she thought about it, the more she realised that she wouldn't even be that surprised if people boo'ed her.

'No one is ever going to understand you… not like me, you're mine'.

The words filtered through her head and made her eyes scrunch shut and her fists clench. The image of her Fathers eyes were seared into her brain and even though Endeavours eyes had scared her, nothing compared to what the memory of her Fathers did. She could feel a chill settle in her spine.

Before long everyone was ready, and Midnight had started off the next battle. Mika was oblivious though, her mind was completely lost and it had not gone unnoticed. Everyone else was on the edge of their seat looking down and waiting for the action to start, to watch and work out tactics for their own battles. Yet Mika's eyes were glued to the floor before her, hands balled into fists on her lap, left leg bouncing up and down at such a pace.

"Ne, Mika-chan?"

Mina placed a gentle hand on Mika's fist and leaned forwards to look into her eyes. Mika flinched at the contact, but once seeing that it was only Mina, she blinked a few times trying to clear her head. Mina's worried eyes melted her heart a little.

"You ok?" Mina asked quietly.

"Yeah, got lost in my own head" Mika replied, her voice low so no one else would notice.

"Are you nervous for your battle?"

"Yes, but also no… I don't know"

"I know you will do amazing; I will be cheering for you" Mina broke into a huge grin then.

"Thank you, Mina-chan" Mika breathed, deflating a little at the fact that someone would be cheering for her. Her Fathers words drifted out of her mind and she was about to nudge Mina and thank her when there was an explosion of freezing cold air and the crowd screaming out around them.

Her head span round in time to catch a wall of ice shooting up past them and towards the roof of the stadium.

"SHIT" She shuddered as she reached out to touch a rather sharp looking ice point mere inches from her face.

"I guess Todoroki won, huh?" Mina burst into a fit of laughter next to her.

Yeah, he's definitely a strong contender… but this is just showing off!