It's Not a Muskateers Reference!

Just Pretend We're Sparring

Izuku paced in his waiting room for about two minutes before he was called up to the areana. He didn't know what had happened during the fight between Shiozaki and Shinsou, but it had been about as fast as Shinsou's first match.

As he walked up to the areana, he heard Present Mic yell, "On this side, 1-A's Muskateer, Midoriya Izuku!!"

"Did you just make a pun..?"

"Nope!! And on the other side, 1-A's rock hard student, Kirishima Eijiro!!"

Kirishima gave him a wide, toothy grin that seemed to melt away all of Izuku's worries about hurting him. Just pretend we're sparring, it'll be fine.

Midnight cracked her whip, and they were off.

Kirishima instantly hardened his body, and Izuku powered up One for All, spreading it throughout his body and creating the green electricity. It was at a lower amount of power than before, this time.

Kirishima's eyes widened slightly, "Woah, that looks so manly.."

Izuku tried not to splutter at that, rushing at Kirishima.

The fight that followed consisted mostly of Izuku attacking Kirishima, and Kirishima blocking it with a hardened arm, before sending an attack of his own that Izuku would have to dodge.

The crowd was silent, as if the whole world was holding it's breath. They must've expected that he would've stolen Kirishima's quirk by now. Or maybe Izuku was just blocking out the noise, but watching clips of the festival later on would prove otherwise.

Strength-boosted fists hit rock hard flesh. Rocky fists went in for their own hit, only to be dodged.

Izuku didn't think Kirishima could hold up too One for All for much longer. His hardening was strong, but it had it's limits. Izuku had his limits too, though, and he wasn't sure how long he could keep it under control for. He only had a little bit of practice with it, after all.

They continued on like that for awhile before Izuku jumped backwards, panting. Kirishima seemed tired as well.

Izuku went at him again, which Kirishima had little time to prepare for, meaning Izuku had been able to get a hit on Kirishima while he wasn't in his hardened state. Kirishima stumbled backwards, but he caught himself quickly, hardening his body again.

Izuku didn't even pay attention to where the line was, he was so caught up it the fight. Pretend we're sparring, and it worked, Izuku had completely forgotten his worries.

Izuku knew he couldn't continue on the same way as he had before, Kirishima was easily able to keep up with him like that.

One for All could make him faster, couldn't it? It had done so in the obstacle course earlier, so hopefully it would work again.

He started running around the area, too fast for Kirishima too see anything more than a green blur. Kirishima wouldn't be able too keep up with him very well, so maybe he could use that in order to get a hit on him without him hardening first?

Before he could test it, Midnight's voice called out, "Midoriya Izuku is out of bounds!! Kirishima moves on to the semi-finals!!"

He looked down, and sure enough, one foot was on the outside of the white line. "Oops?"

Kirishima chuckled, and walked over too where he stood with a grin. He stuck out a hand, "Good game, Midoribro!"

Izuku grinned back at him, grabbing Kirishima's hand and shaking it, "Good game. Sorry, I sorta forgot that the border lines were there.."

The crowd was cheering now, probably because Kirishima had won.

But despite that, Izuku couldn't feel any better. As the two of them walked out of the areana together, all Izuku could feel was joy.

He was glad that Kirishima was his friend.