Inquisitor

- Chapter: 52 -

"THE WINNER OF THIS MATCH, AND THE STUDENT MOVING ON TO THE THIRD ROUND IS...

The steam and dust cleared from the field, revealing a lone figure left standing inside the area.

"IZUMI MIDORIYAAAA!!"

Izumi stood on the field, her left arm had already been shattered, her right arm was now in the same state. She looked ahead of her, at Todoroki. He was lying on the ground a few feet from the edge of the field.

She heard Present Mic say something she couldn't make out, and blacked out.

---

Katsuo sat in a chair in the waiting room, one of his legs bouncing up and down. His thoughts should be on the match ahead of him. His opponent, Tokoyami, was not to be overlooked. Yet, he couldn't keep his mind from wandering to a different topic.

He had helped train Izumi in the two weeks before the sports festival, having her focus on finding out where the limits on her quirk were and how to exploit them, leading to her discovering a few tricks. The quirk amplified her strength by such a huge amount that she could create air waves from the force of her swinging a punch. Even a flick of her fingers could send out blasts like that, albeit weaker ones.

So, he had her practice with throwing a punch, then, flicking all her fingers so her attacks had extra power. It had helped her win the final exchange of blows between her and Todoroki, but it wasn't a free power up. Even holding her strength back to the bare minimum needed to use the attack, the strain of releasing all that power from her hands was there. She could use the attack around three times before her hand began fracturing. Katsuo had warned Izumi not to overuse the attack because of this.

But, she had not only ignored his warnings, but had used the move at full power. Full power. Katsuo's mind was filled with thoughts wondering how badly Izumi had injured herself.

"Contestants for the third quarter-final match, please make your way to the stage."

Katsuo stood up when he heard the announcement from the speaker. He grabbed his mask from the edge of the table as he walked out of the room.Sliding the mask on he thought, 'Well, hopefully this can take my mind off things.'

---

Tokoyami walked on the stage and looked at the student standing across from him. 'Okay I've thought this over already. He needs to get close to me to activate his quirk, so I'll just keep him away from me with mine. When an opening appears, strike and throw him out. Or, use your back-up plan.'

"READYYYY?!!!" Present Mic's voice echoed around Tokoyami, he could feel the vibrations from the man's voice.

"STAAARRT!!!!!"

Tokoyami, hearing Present Mic begin the match, unfurled his arms and cried out, "DARK SHADOW!" activating his quirk and unleashing Dark Shadow. The bird made of darkness barrelled towards Katsuo, crying out "Ai ai!" When Dark Shadow closed in on Katsuo, he stepped backwards dodging the swipe and swerving on his heel to the side.

The mass of darkness spun around to see him moving further back, and closed the distance. It would swing, and Katsuo would dodge and gain some distance.

When Katsuo was near the edge of the field, he dodged one last attack, and instead of going backwards, dashed forwards. He slipped past Dark Shadow, using it's previous attacks to learn how it moved to easily dodge it's attempt to stop him.

Tokoyami, realising his mistake, began recalling Dark Shadow in an attempt to defend himself.

Katsuo reached Tokoyami, frozen from his inexperience with close combat, as Katsuo's hand moved for his face. Dark Shadow reached him just in time to swing at Katsuo, who retracted his hand and grabbed the arm of coiling darkness.

It was a strange feeling, grabbing darkness. His hand slightly sunk into the shadow's arm, but with a strange resistance didn't pass through. Katsuo put another hand on the shadow, then used them to spring over it and at Tokoyami.

Only for him to slip inside Dark Shadow's body and become trapped.

Tokoyami looked at Katsuo, struggling against the mass of darkness spiraling around him. He felt the slight shaking in his body to fade. "I can't believe you can run almost as fast as Dark Shadow. Luckily I had a contingency plan for if you did. It seems that while you are quite skilled you lacked enough to reach me."

Katsuo hung his head as he struggled to free himself.

Midnight, watching from the sidelines, saw Katsuo struggle against the quirk holding him and realized that he couldn't move. She raised her whip, about to declare Tokoyami the winner as he restrained Katsuo, when Dark Shadow started squirming around more violently.

Katsuo's hair rose with his head, his gaze meeting Tokoyami's through his mask. "I'm the one still lacking?"

Katsuo burst out from Dark Shadow, his hand flying at Tokoyami's face too fast for him to react. The force of the collision knocking them to the floor. Dark Shadow reached out to try and grab Katsuo's arm, only for it's hand to dissipate as it reached him, along with the rest of it's shadow body.

Red arms shot out of Katsuo's body, holding Tokoyami's arms onto the ground. A red face with black eyes connected to a body followed. A red version of Dark Shadow.

"It's the other way around."

Midnight blinked at the sudden reversal in the match, but shook her head. After all, it was her job to declare the victor in this situation. She went to raise her whip, but Tokoyami spoke first, loud enough for people to hear.

"I surrender."

Midnight, felt herself get slightly agitated. It was the second time that the current contestants had overrode the decision she was about to make. She held back the sigh she desperately wanted to release and declared Katsuo the victor.

Katsuo stepped back from Tokoyami, deactivating his quirk as he did so. "That was a good fight."

Tokoyami looked at Katsuo and nodded slightly. "Yeah."

The two boys turned around and walked out of the stadium, Katsuo turning around a corner to head to the infirmary. He needed to check on Izumi.