My Hero Automata

Chapter 22: Heroics Tournament Day 3 (Round 2)

Summary: Another set of matches! Some predictable, others unexpected, and one that makes hundreds of thousands of people wince!

Chapter 22: Heroics Tournament Day 3 (Round 2)

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The first round of the Heroics 1 vs 1 tournament had produced quite a few more upsets than most students expected. Matches like Fukidashi vs Honenuki and Bondo vs Kuroiro had proven that luck was a factor that should never be dismissed, no matter who you were. Fukidashi had essentially sent depth charges into the concrete and got lucky when Honenuki ran face-first into one. While Bondo had gotten similarly lucky when he simply started hosing down every shadow with his glue right from the whip crack, catching Kuroiro by more-or-less blind chance.

Meanwhile, their earlier discussion about withdrawals and mutual eliminations had proven accurate, as Sato and Kendo had battered each other so badly that, despite winning, Kendo had been deemed unable to continue. Similarly, the high-mobility pair of Ashido vs Uraraka had ended in victory for Mina...but left her sufficiently exhausted from the tooth-and-nail fight Ochaco had put up that Ashido had ended up withdrawing. Mineta had withdrawn by his own choice, claiming he'd pushed his Quirk too far, and Kaminari had been talked into doing the same by Midnight after his victory against Monoma. While Kaminari had done incredibly well, Monoma had done quite a lot of damage to Kaminari's equipment with his well-chosen set of copied Quirks. Midnight's strong suggestion he withdraw had been the result of combat damage having destroyed contact points for his new energy-siphon system. The damage had resulted in him nearly reaching his wattage limit against Monoma. Now that everyone was aware such overage could be avoided, the staff was reluctant to let him risk the possible long-term consequences when it wasn't necessary. He'd grumbled more than any of the others, but had been pleased enough with how well he'd done so far that he'd ultimately allowed himself to be convinced.

With those eliminations and withdrawals, the field had been paired down to a 16-student bracket. Group B, in particular, was actually quite pleased that their numbers had matched up to Group A's by the time the new brackets were announced. Their pride had been a bit stung by both their First Day performances and none of their students being bracketed into initial fights with Group A's powerhouses. Much more surprising than the regained equilibrium between the Groups, was how little shifting had needed to be done to line the Round 2 brackets up properly. Though perhaps it shouldn't have been a surprise, given the whole point of the seed system UA used was to balance the fights without completely discounting chance. Pleased with their performance or not, even most of those previously eliminated were in attendance as the new brackets were displayed.

Bracket 1

Tokoyami Fumikage vs Yaoyorozu Momo

Jiro Kyoka vs Hagakure Toru

Kinoko Komori vs Iida Tenya

Awase Yosetsu vs Bondo Kojiro

Bracket 2

Asui Tsuyu vs Midoriya Izumi

Fukidashi Manga vs Tsunotori Pony

Sero Hanta vs Shoji Mezo

Kamakiri vs Yanagi Reiko

Most of the new matches seemed fairly balanced, though those who knew them had quickly noticed Tokoyami and Asui pale a bit. Neither were the type to show it much, even if absolutely no one would have blamed them in this case. But both of them knew they were pretty much screwed, though neither looked ready to back down from the challenge despite that fact...