My Hero Academia: A Hero's Will

Chapter 18

I watched as Kendo and her classmate, Shiozaki Ibara, fought in the ring.

Kendo was very well trained in close combat as she was effortlessly dodging Shiozaki's vines. But, Shiozaki wasn't a pushover either. No matter how much Kendo tried, she wasn't able to get closer to hit Shiozaki.

After a long stalemate, Shiozaki finally managed to get a hold of Kendo, only for her to use her quirk to tear away Shiozaki's vines and free herself. Although, her hands were hurt because of the thorns on the vines.

Ignoring the pain, Kendo ran towards Shiozaki while using her quirk to tear the vines that came at her.

Finally, she managed to push Shiozaki out of the ring with a double-handed palm thrust.

"Shiozaki is out of the ring!! Kendo moves to the third round!!"

It was a good fight. Both had strong quirks and knew how to use them to their advantage. It could have ended in Shiozaki's favour, had she not hesitated when Kendo's palms were about to strike her.

Anyway, I got up from my seat and began to make my way to the preparation room. The words of motivation I recieved from my classmates were... quite colourful. It was like listening to motivating words from nineteen different Katsuki, at the same time. Oh, the shudders.

"Let's move right onto the next round!! Both of these competitors have proven to be formidable, not receiving any damage in all of their battles!! Midoriya Izuku, versus, Monoma Neito!!!"

"START!!!"

I didn't make any move and waited for the piece of shit to begin.

We kept staring at each other for a minute or two when he opened his stinking mouth, "I had to really think hard on whose quirk should I use against you. Looking at your performance so far, you are deceptively strong for having a lean physique. Your quirk must be very strong. I wonder, what would you when you don't have a quirk to use?"

I looked at him with a blank expression as his irises turned red and began glowing. His hair rose up in the air and I felt myself losing the ability to manifest willpower into existence.

Present Mic yelled into the microphone, "What?! Eraser!! He's using your quirk!!"

Aizawa-sensei grumbled, "I couldn't do anything as I am bandaged from head to toe. He just asked if he could use my quirk and without waiting for my response, he touched me and copied it."

"You're suddenly very chatty."

"I blame the painkillers."

Down in the ring, Monoma ran towards me and swung his fist to connect a haymaker on my jaw.

It was a clever plan, had I been a sissy who was only dependent on his quirk. I immediately defected his punch and in a very swift attack, I struck the sides of his trachea, thus impairing his ability to talk temporarily.

(A/N: I'm bullshitting here. There are no nerves on the sides of trachea that provide innervation for speech-related muscles in the throat. They are all behind the trachea. So, in my fanfiction, people have different anatomy).

I looked into his wide glowing eyes and spoke in a menacing voice, "I quit, that's what you have to say to forfeit the match. Now you can't even speak. I have enough time to punish you for being a scumbag today. I'll make this match very memorable for you."

The panic and fear in his eyes was euphoric. He had realised, he made a big mistake by underestimating me and using Aizawa-sensei's quirk.

He immediately pushed me away but I was too quick for him. I sped forward, bent my torso and drilled my fist into his abdomen like a sledgehammer. The force was enough to lift him off his feet.

I could hear a collective intake of breath by the spectators as the winced because of my punch.

Without letting his body to fall on the floor, I smashed his face with my knee and sent him flipping into the air. Without waiting for another moment, I grabbed his bleeding face in my palm and with an angry roar, I slammed him on the floor. Even though the son of a bitch was such a hateful boy, I had to admire his tenacity. He still had the quirk activated that he had copied.

With my palm still on his face, I bent down to the level of his ear and whispered, "You fucked up today, do you know that? You took things too far."

I picked him up by his collar and threw him towards the edge of the ring. Running faster than my throw, I grabbed him by his leg and threw him back towards the centre.

Monoma came to a tumbling stop in the centre of the ring. He struggled to get up on his feet and kept trying to speak but all that came out of his mouth was air.

I raised my fist and covered it with armament.

"I can use my quirk now. So, if you don't want me to beat you up with fists as hard as a sledgehammer, you better use the quirk that you so arrogantly and disrespectfully copied from my sensei."

Monoma snarled and activated the quirk once again.

I continued, "You had the gall to use our own quirks against us..."

I ran forward and flipped into the air to deliver a kick over his head, making him fall on his face.

"... You dared to copy Todoroki's quirk when he was incapacitated..."

I grabbed him by his hair and headbutted on his forehead, repeatedly, making cuts appear over his eyes.

"... You used that scumbag Endeavour's quirk and burnt Ashido's uniform. She was very lucky that she wasn't too exposed and the uniform was just singed at very few areas. The embarrassment it could have caused,  being seen naked in front of so many spectators, you have no idea about it. She could have suffered from severe burns with how recklessly you used his quirk..."

I once again slammed him on the floor and pounded on his face mercilessly.

"... We were attacked by villains in USJ and instead of being concerned, you ridiculed us on every chance you got for getting famous in the media. We decimated the villains that day. And right now? I don't see a hero getting his ass beaten by me. All I see... is a villain."

I stopped beating him when I finished. Monoma's eyes widened with shock, fear, panic and realization.

'How could I be so blinded by jealousy? I wanted to be a hero and prove to everyone that my quirk is not villainous. But today, I behaved like a villain.'

I soothed his nerves around his throat so that he could speak again.

He began crying uncontrollably and mumbled, "I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I'm sorry...."

I nodded and moved away from him. With his body trembling from pain and fatigue, he sat up and wiped his tears away while saying, "Midnight-sensei, I forfeit this match."

Her expression was sombre and a bit relieved. I guess she heard whatever I had said while I was brutalizing Monoma. Perhaps that was the reason she hadn't stopped the match midway to prevent me from doing some permanent damage to him.

He was taken away on a stretcher as Midnight announced, "Monoma forfeits the battle! Midoriya advances to the final round!!"

I went back to the stands and said with a smile, "Ashido, Todoroki, Monoma apologises for his conduct today. I hope you will forgive him."

Todoroki smiled and nodded slightly while Ashido immediately jumped up from her seat and gave me a tight hug, "Thank you! Midori!!"

I patted her head and laughed along with my friends as they excitedly talked about how I beat Monoma's ass. In the stands of 1-B, I noticed Kendo mouthing a 'Thank you' towards me. I grinned and nodded.

Suddenly, I noticed someone missing from my classmates.

"Where's Iida?"

Uraraka replied uncertainly, "Um, he recieved a phone call from his family. His brother is hurt in a villain attack so Iida-kun took off to visit him."

"Oh."

I wasn't too concerned as Ingenium was a strong hero. And anyway, heroes get hurt while doing their duty, it wasn't something rare. But how could I have known, a killer was on the loose targeting heroes in various prefectures. And Ingenium was his latest victim.