Chapter 98: The Final That Tore the Sky Apart?! One For All Against the Telekinetic Tempest and the Instant the Whole Stadium Took Flight!

Cementoss pressed both palms onto the ruined ground, and the arena answered immediately. Block after block of concrete rose from the earth to lock into place until the platform was whole again.

The massive screens above the stadium displayed the final matchup in glowing letters that reflected back across thousands of faces.

SPORTS FESTIVAL GRAND FINAL

INKO MIDORIYA vs REN HAYASHI

Inko stepped out of the west tunnel with her right hand wrapped in white tape, three fingers locked inside their splints, and a brace strapped tight around her right leg.

Don't think about Recovery Girl's warning, she told herself. All Might fought through worse than this and never took a single step back, so I'm not gonna start now.

Ren walked out from the east tunnel on the opposite side, his hands relaxed at his sides and his eyes already scanning the repaired surface beneath his feet.

Wow, Cementoss is really thorough, he thought. How generous of him.

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEEEN!" Present Mic's voice rattled the speakers. "ARE YOU READY?! THE MOMENT EVERYONE'S BEEN WAITING FOR HAS FINALLY ARRIVED! IT'S TIME FOR THE GRAND FINAL OF THE U.A. SPORTS FESTIVAL!"

The crowd answered with a roar that made the ground tremble.

"IN THE WEST CORNER! THE BREAKOUT STAR OF THE TOURNAMENT, THE GIRL WHO'S CRUSHED EVERY OPPONENT IN HER PATH WITHOUT SHOWING A SINGLE SIGN OF SLOWING DOWN! THE UNSTOPPABLE GREEN LIGHTNING OF CLASS 1-A... INKO MIDORIYAAAAA!"

Green banners exploded across the stands, and one section of the crowd started chanting her name in unison.

"AND IN THE EAST CORNER! THE MAN, THE MYTH, THE WALKING DISASTER! THE FIGHTER WHO SENT HALF THE ARENA FLYING WITH ONE WAVE OF HIS HAND AND DIDN'T EVEN BREAK A SWEAT DOING IT! REEEEN HAYASHIIIII!"

A smaller but enthusiastic group of fans waved signs with his name, and somewhere in the middle rows a girl held up a poster that read MARRY ME, BALDY in bright pink letters.

"TWO TITANS! ONE CHAMPION! SO DON'T BLINK, LISTENERS, BECAUSE THIS BATTLE IS GONNA BE ABSOLUTELY PLUS ULTRAAAAA!"

Midnight planted herself at the center of the platform with her whip coiled in one hand and a sultry smile on her lips.

"Competitors, to the center!"

Both walked toward the middle of the arena and stopped a meter apart.

"Inko," Ren said quietly, "you're still hurt... Are you sure you wanna do this?"

Inko gave him a tired smile, but her green eyes didn't waver for even a second.

"I'm gonna win, Hayashi-kun," she said. "There are people who believed in me when nobody else did, and I refuse to let them down today, so I hope you can forgive me for whatever I have to do to keep that promise."

She's completely serious, Ren realized.

"Then don't hold back on my account," he answered, "because I'm not gonna hold back either."

They bowed, and the stadium fell into a deep silence.

Up in the stands, Mitsuki set her drink on the floor without a word and leaned forward with her arms crossed over the railing. A few rows away, Makoto was already on her feet with her notebook pressed against her chest, gripping the pen so tight it looked ready to snap.

"Here it comes, here it comes," Makoto whispered, eyes locked on Ren. "Whatever he's been hiding all afternoon is about to come out, I can feel it."

Kazuho glanced at her sideways.

"You've been saying that for several matches now, Makoto."

"And I've been right every single time!"

In the infirmary, Momo had pushed her food tray aside, and the four of them were huddled in front of the small screen. Ochako had scooted to the edge of the bed with her fists clenched over the sheets, while Toru's floating uniform vibrated right beside her and Mina stood against the wall with her arms crossed, biting her lower lip.

Midnight raised the whip above her head and let the silence stretch for one perfect, agonizing second.

"BEGIN!"

Ren moved before the whip finished falling.

He stretched his arms out and the platform tore open beneath Inko's feet. Six concrete slabs ripped from the ground at once and launched at her from every direction.

Inko's eyes went wide as the green lightning lit up her body, and she shot upward, dodging two blocks that collided where she'd been with a crash that shook the arena.

CRASH!

He's coming at me with everything from the first second, she realized mid jump, pushing off a chunk of debris to change her trajectory in midair.

She snapped her fingers and unleashed a burst of compressed air that pulverized a block before it could reach her. The wind explosion swept through the front rows and sent the hats of a dozen spectators flying.

Ren didn't stop. He gathered the scattered debris into a spinning ring around himself and hurled it forward in staggered waves. Inko punched through the first one with a Full Cowling strike that reduced a slab to gravel, ducked under the second, and came out the other side already closing the distance between them.

If she gets in range, one clean hit ends this, Ren thought, and he pushed off the ground.

His feet left the platform and he rose into the air, debris following him upward in a spiral.

"OOOH, LISTENERS!" Present Mic howled into his microphone. "HE'S DOING IT AGAIN! HAYASHI IS FLYING, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! HE'S TURNED THE WHOLE ARENA INTO HIS PERSONAL WEAPON AND HE'S RAINING IT DOWN ON MIDORIYA FROM THE SKY!"

Inko shot after him with One For All blazing in her legs, pushing off hard enough to leave a crater in the concrete. She rose up and drove her fist into the center of the debris storm. The shockwave punched a hole through the spinning wall, and the fragments slammed into Cementoss's first barrier, cracking it from top to bottom.

Ren felt the impact through every piece he was holding and gritted his teeth when the spike of pain hit his temples.

This girl is a walking wrecking ball.

He swept his hand down and a cluster of debris shot at Inko from above, but she twisted in the air and pulverized them with another Smash. The fragments bounced off Cementoss's walls and the crowd ducked on instinct.

"THE SAFETY BARRIERS ARE HOLDING, BUT JUST BARELY!" Present Mic reported. "CEMENTOSS IS PUTTING IN OVERTIME DOWN THERE, FOLKS!"

Inko landed hard on the platform and launched herself again right away, this time aiming the jump to attack Ren from below his debris shield. Her sparking green fist was aimed straight at his unprotected legs.

Ren compressed the air below him into a telekinetic barrier, and Inko hit it with everything. The barrier held for a beat before One For All punched right through, the impact catching his shin and sending him spinning through the air.

"Ugh."

"That one landed, didn't it?" Inko called up at him, landing in a crouch on the ruined platform. "Come down here and fight me properly, Hayashi-kun!"

"Why would I do that when the view from up here is so much better?" Ren shot back, stretching out both arms.

Every slab left in the field rose at once. The platform shattered even further as Ren pulled material from the ground, and the pieces assembled above Inko into a multilayered dome that blocked out the stadium lights and plunged the arena into shadow.

Same move I used on Momo, but with triple the mass.

He brought his hands together and the dome collapsed inward. The weight of half the arena dropped on Inko all at once, and the platform caved under the impact. Cementoss raised three new barriers while Midnight ordered the evacuation of the front rows.

"ALL SPECTATORS IN THE LOWER SECTIONS, BACK AWAY IMMEDIATELY!" Midnight ordered. "THIS MATCH HAS EXCEEDED STANDARD SAFETY PARAMETERS! HEROES, ASSIST WITH THE EVACUATION!"

KABOOM!

The impact shook the whole stadium and a cloud of dust expanded out from the collapse point, swallowing the arena whole.

For two seconds, nothing moved.

Did I just bury the One For All successor under a mountain of concrete? Ren thought, floating above the dust cloud. Somehow, I seriously doubt it.

The pile exploded outward.

Inko was standing at the bottom of a crater with her left arm raised above her head, the green lightning crackling across every inch of her body. Her splints had been completely shattered, the tape on her right hand torn and hanging loose, and a thin trickle of blood ran from a cut on her hairline down past her left eye. But she was on her feet, and the light in her eyes hadn't dimmed in the slightest.

"I promised I wouldn't fall here," she said, her voice carrying across the field, "and I meant it."

She just absorbed the weight of half the arena and she's still standing. Recovery Girl is gonna kill both of us, Ren thought, his pulse kicking up.

"INCREDIBLE!" Present Mic was on his feet in the booth, and even Aizawa had leaned forward in his chair. "MIDORIYA JUST SURVIVED AN ATTACK THAT WOULD'VE FLATTENED A BUILDING, AND SHE'S STILL STANDING! I'M RUNNING OUT OF WORDS, FOLKS!"

Inko burst out of the crater moving faster than at any other point in the whole tournament. The green lightning left afterimages trailing behind her as she crossed the distance in a blink, and Ren barely managed to throw up a wall of broken stone in her path before she reached him.

She tore through it without slowing down.

The concrete disintegrated around her fist and she was already past his defense before the fragments finished falling, covering the last couple of meters with her hand drawn back for the strike. Ren dropped from the air and met her on the ground, throwing a telekinetically charged punch at her shoulder.

Their forearms collided with a crack that echoed across the field, and Ren felt the vibration travel all the way up his arm.

She's stronger than me in close range, he acknowledged, dodging her counter and driving a knee at her stomach while pushing telekinetic force into the strike. But I'm not defenseless either.

Inko caught the knee with her palm and shoved him back, then advanced with a combination that had All Might's fingerprints all over it. The final hook came loaded with green sparks, and Ren blocked it with his telekinetically reinforced forearm.

WHAM!

The block held, but the force pushed him back a couple of meters.

"You can do hand to hand too?" Inko said, caught off guard.

"I'm full of surprises!" Ren answered, and he flung a chunk of debris at her from behind while she was focused on the exchange.

Inko ducked without looking. The block flew over her head, and she used the low stance to sweep his legs. Ren jumped over it, but Inko was already rising into an uppercut that grazed his chin and snapped his head back, the green lightning leaving a tingling burn along his jaw.

Okay, close range is definitely her territory, Ren thought, tasting his own blood. I need to get back to long range before she takes me apart.

He pushed himself back with telekinesis, opening a gap between them, and started pulling debris from the edges of the arena to rebuild his ammunition. But Inko didn't give him a break, launching at him again with Full Cowling burning in her legs.

Ren compressed every floating fragment into a shield five slabs thick.

The shield exploded outward when the full force of One For All shredded the whole construction, and her fist kept going straight at Ren's ribs.

WHAM!

The air left his lungs, and for an instant Ren felt his ribs giving way under the impact before the force lifted him off his feet and sent him flying backward across the arena. He tore through a pile of debris with the world spinning in a gray blur and crashed back first into the far edge of the platform, sliding to a stop near the white line.

A dust cloud swallowed him whole.

The stadium went silent.

"R-Ren-kun?" Ochako's voice came out small, her hands frozen over the sheets.

"REN!" Toru jumped to her feet.

Momo didn't say anything. She pressed a hand to her mouth and kept her eyes fixed on the dust cloud where Ren had landed.

Down on the field, Inko was swaying on her one good leg, her chest heaving. She didn't throw up a fist in victory, instead staring at the dust with her lips tight and worry plain on her face through the exhaustion.

Please be okay, she thought, fear creeping in through the fatigue. I didn't mean to hit you that hard, I just couldn't control the output at that speed, please Hayashi-kun, move...

Present Mic leaned into his microphone, his voice unusually shaky.

"IS THAT IT, FOLKS? DID MIDORIYA JUST DECIDE THE GRAND FINAL WITH A SINGLE PUNCH? I CAN'T SEE A THING THROUGH ALL THAT DUST! MIDNIGHT, I NEED A CALL DOWN THERE!"

Midnight stepped to the edge of the platform with her whip raised, her eyes locked on the dust as it started to settle. She waited, and when she was about to raise her arm, something moved on the ground.

It was just a wooden toothpick lying on the concrete beside the edge of the stands.

A paper cup tipped over and rolled before lifting off the ground entirely. A water bottle floated up from the concrete. A fallen banner peeled away from the railing and drifted into the air, followed by a takeout tray with half eaten takoyaki still in its compartments.

Every loose object in the entire stadium started trembling in place and rose off the ground at the same time.

Thousands of objects lifted off the stands, drifting upward in a slow, silent tide that filled the air over the stadium.

The crowd looked up.

"OH MY GOODNESS, AUDIENCE! WHAT KIND OF MADNESS IS THIS?! THE WHOLE DAMN STADIUM IS FLOATING! EVERY SINGLE THING THAT ISN'T BOLTED DOWN HAS JUST TURNED INTO AN UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT! THIS IS A COMPLETE AND TOTAL POWER MOVE!"

In the commentator's booth, Aizawa's eyes widened slightly as a pen lifted off his desk and floated past his face.

"That kind of range," he murmured, watching the pen drift away. "He's extending his telekinesis across the entire venue."

The dust cloud at the edge of the platform began to swirl, then rise.

Ren stood up.

He had one hand pressed against the ribs where Inko's punch had landed, blood running down his face, and his gym shirt was torn from collar to hem. His breathing was ragged and his left eye was swollen halfway shut, but he was on his feet, and above him the sky was full.

"So this is what it feels like to take a real hit from One For All," he said with a tired smile. He spat blood onto the cracked concrete and looked back at Inko across the ruined field. "Wow... that was a real punch, Inko. Pretty sure you just broke a couple of my ribs."

Inko stared at him with her eyes wide, the floating debris reflected in her pupils.

"You're still standing," she said breathlessly.

"Barely," Ren admitted, "but barely is enough."

He raised both arms, and the ocean of debris above him answered.

Every floating object in the stadium drifted toward the center of the arena, piling up overhead in a mass so wide it blotted out the sun completely.

In the stands, Makoto's notebook slipped out of her lap and rose up to join the ocean of debris floating above the arena.

"That isn't possible," she whispered. "A first year shouldn't be able to hold that much mass. The mental load should've dropped him minutes ago... and that's without counting the hit he just took."

Mitsuki's hands gripped the railing tight, her lips pressed into a thin line as she watched the sky.

In the infirmary, nobody was breathing.

"What the hell?!" Mina exclaimed from her spot against the wall, her eyes wide open. "That's absolutely insane! How is he still doing this?!"

On the field, Inko looked up at the mountain suspended over her, then down at her ruined right hand. She curled the fingers that still worked and felt One For All surge in response to the call.

If I try to block that, I lose. I have to punch through it head on with everything I have left, even if it costs me both arms.

She planted her feet, drew her left fist back, and One For All roared through her body past every limit Recovery Girl had warned her about. The energy burned so bright that her whole silhouette turned into a pillar of emerald light. The ground around her cracked in a wide circle from the sheer pressure of her presence, and the fragments of platform under her feet disintegrated from the force radiating off her skin.

"FULL COWLING!" Inko roared, her voice breaking the silence that had fallen over the stadium as every spectator held their breath. "ONE HUNDRED PERCENT!"

Ren looked down at her from above the field, arms still extended, the shadow of the mountain falling over both of them.

One hundred percent of the most powerful Quirk in history against everything I've got, he thought, and a smile spread across his face.

"THEN LET'S FINISH THIS!" he shouted back.

He brought both arms down and the mountain fell.

Inko launched herself upward to meet it, and One For All's green lightning at full power slammed into the crushing weight of debris and concrete from an entire stadium at the center of the arena.

For a moment, the world went white.

The shockwave hit Cementoss's barriers before anyone in the stands finished processing what they'd just seen, and the hero was already raising emergency walls around the spectator sections while Present Mic dove behind his desk with the microphone still in his hand. A cloud of dust and debris expanded out from the impact point until it erased the center of the field completely, and the two competitors disappeared along with it.

The stadium went silent.

In the teachers' box, ALL MIGHT didn't take his eyes off the dust cloud that kept growing over the arena. His hands were clenched into fists on top of his knees, and the only sound in the whole stadium was the debris still falling.

******

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