Frostbite

Chapter 10: Round 2. FINISH HIM!

- Some Time Later -

I jerked awake with a start, hyperventilating, and feeling my heart race. I couldn't tell exactly how much time had passed, but I guessed it was not a lot: Because I could still hear the crowd and see that the sun was overhead.

I sat up, looking around. I had been moved to the back of the 1A stand area, laid down on a bench.

"Hey hey, don't move around too much!" Called a deep voice from behind me.

I turned sharply, ignoring their request. It was Mezo Shoji, or more accurately a mouth at the end of one of his tentacle arms.

"What... What happened?" I asked, putting a hand to my head.

"You passed out shortly after coming into the stands. Collapsed straight forward onto several of us. I carried you up here to rest." He explained.

"Well that's not embarrassing at all." I responded, mortified.

"You just pushed your body too hard today. You should rest while you can." He insisted.

I nodded in return. "I will. And I won't go anywhere until my next fight. What did I miss?"

Several of his stalks scoped out the surroundings while the mouth continued to talk. "Kirishima had his fight with Tetsutetsu. It was a draw. They have very similar quirks actually. When they regain consciousness the judges want to settle the fight with an arm wrestling tournament. The Bakugo/Uraraka fight hasn't begun yet."

"That's a bizarre solution at best. Also, very coincidental that they would face each other. Did Deku take notes?" I probed.

"Hmm, unsure. He isn't here right now, Iida either. They are probably both with Uraraka currently." He reasoned.

"Fair guess. Thank you for... all this, but you can head back down, I'll be alright."

He nodded from behind his mask and casually walked back to the group. The class did seem thin on numbers, but I suppose it's not unusual if we've all been (or are about to be) fighting.

I caught Jiro peeking paranoid glances back to me, now more worried than ever. I'd have a lot of explaining to do, but not here and not now.

Just then: Class Rep, alongside the resident otaku, strolled into the area. I waved Izuku up to me as relaxed as I could.

He came bounding up, "Great fight out there! I didn't realize your quirk could do things like that."

"Yeah. I've been able to display a lot of showy applications with the small window of opportunity I have, but that's not what this is about. I have questions about some quirks. Would you mind if I picked your brain or books for a little while? I'll probably need to borrow them considering the circumstances right now, if that's ok?"

His face lit up, "You want to study my hero books? Which ones?! I've got loads of books going back to ten years and more in my head that might be only circumstantial..." He began to ramble.

I held up a hand. "Sorry, gotta stop you there. I'm looking for notes about mixed rank, pro, Japanese heroes, specifically: Edgeshot, Hawks, and Mirko."

"That's an interesting list, what about them? My data isn't really compiled by the hero, unless I learned about them all at once." He expanded.

"I'd like to see if you've done a risk analysis on Mirko. Tracked the lethality or potential for it in Edgeshot. And lastly, the breakdown for Hawks' quirks; assuming they don't conform to any single mutation." I concluded.

"Well it's nothing I have a lot on, though I could tell you Mirko is probably the highest risk pro I've seen operate in a while. No sidekicks, no history of team-ups, and a generally bad track record of playing well with others, not to mention her flash-point anger." He answered a bit dismayed.