A/N: Hey guys, just a little announcement. I've changed the quirk of Audrey to something less vague, and want to nerf Zero's "sharpness". It can only increase in increments of 25%. At 25% he can cut paper, at 50% he can cut wood, at 75% he can cut through steel and at 100% he can cut through flesh or humans. I know flesh is easy to cut through same as cutting paper but I guess on a moral standpoint, it's tougher. And going through the legend of Muramasa and Masamune, cutting selectively is Muramasa's strongpoint, unlike Masamune who cuts indiscriminately.

It's been a week since 1-B's trip to Beacon. Many things have happened in Japan while on their trip. Class 1-A has appeared all across the media outlets, garnering them attention because of their encounter with villains at USJ just the other day. Monoma got irked and developed a grudge towards class A due to their rise in popularity, overshadowing the rest of the first year classes. He tries to spite them everytime he sees them but Kendo keeps him in check. T'was an amusing sight for the class B students. Some other class B students shared Monoma's jealousy and rivalry towards the class A students, pledging they will prove themselves in the Sports Festival that will begin in a week. This festival for Japan has taken the place of the Olympics.

"Wow, that's one heck of a crowd," Zero remarked as he exited the classroom, being greeted by a mob around class A.

"Everyone is interested in the class that survived a villain attack. They would have the edge against all the students for having more experience in battle," Shiozaki commented.

"Practical experience... That's what Weiss told me. If I had more experience, things may get easier for me..." Zero muttered to himself.

"What was that?" Shiozaki asked.

"Nothing."

Suddenly they heard a loud and recognizable voice boom from the direction of class A. It was Tetsutetsu, making himself known to class A.

"You better not make fools of the hero course at this thing!" Tetsutetsu yelled.

"Yeah, yeah... Sorry about that you guys," Zero told them, dragging Tetsutetsu away.

"Wha- Zero?! Where are you taking me?! Let me go!"

"No, we are leaving."

"Zero! It's been a while!" Deku exclaimed as he saw Zero from the doorway.

"Nice to see you too, Midoriya. However, you are my rival, and right now I cannot show weakness in front of you," Zero replied, dragging Tetsutetsu towards the exit.

It is a known fact that the third round of the festival would be a Battle Tournament.

"I wonder how I will do...?" Zero pondered, lying down on the couch, "my sword style is quite fearsome."

"I doubt that lil' bro. Your sword style is a wreck, and the world is gonna see it? Pfft!"

His sister's quirk is Spit Shaper. She can use her spit to manipulate it however she likes. The drawback is that she will become dehydrated if she keeps manipulating her spit for a certain amount of time. She becomes fatigued, dizzy, and experiences muscle cramps. She detests her quirk saying it's unladylike but Zero believes she's too much of a tomboy so it doesn't matter, earning a beating after.

"Hey! The Zero Style is the best style I've ever made!"

"It's the only sword style you've made. I keep telling you to listen to Senketsu and Eterna but you only want to be and I quote, 'As anime as possible' end quote."

"I mean... You can't lie, Shockwave and Raikiri are cool though," Zero winked his left eye rapidly.

"It's funny cause you ripped off your sword's ideas and just claim it as your own," Audrey scoffed.

"YOU'RE RIGHT! My Zero Style only comprises two techniques Senketsu and Eterna taught me! It's not even my style! It's not even Zero Style!"

"Yeah, your whole life is a lie, lil' bro..."

"Well, I'll deal with this whole identity crisis some other time... I'll just focus on the task at hand."

"You do that. I'm gonna take a nap here."

"You're not gonna give me any tips?"

"Nah."

Zero sighed. He left his sister to nap while he went into his room and turned on his PC. He and Weiss have been messaging each other for the past few days, continually teasing each other, but casually talking from time to time. Shockingly, it was Weiss who first messaged him on Nosebook, since the chat they first used was on a holopc, and it was school property.

"Hey, you busy?" Zero typed. After a few seconds, the Weiss is typing... prompt appeared.

"Doing some homework. Why?"

"I wanted to ask something."

"I have some time right now. Make it quick, however."

"How did you develop your way of using a sword?"

"You mean my technique?"

"Yeah."

"My sister trained me in that regard. But I did add my own twists and tricks and further expanded on what she taught me. What's this all of a sudden?"

"If I tell her the truth, I would definitely not hear the end of this..."

"Just curious..."

"Well, whatever. Is this for the Sports Festival on Friday?"

"How did you know?!"

"Please. Even here in Remnant, we can still watch broadcasts from Pangea. And Dr. Oobleck told us about the festival. Our team and JNPR will be watching in our room, so you better put on a good show for us."

"My purpose isn't to entertain, it's to succeed!"

"Well then succeed. That will prove to be entertaining in its own way for us."

"Wow, thanks, I guess?"

"No problem. Well, I gotta go, talk to you later."

"See you.


"What's this? Talking to Zero again?" Yang teased.

Ignoring the tone of her voice, Weiss replied, "Yeah. He just wanted to know how I developed my sword technique."

"What? That's so boring! You should talk about more exciting stuff!" Yang boomed.

"Oh yeah? Give me an example of this 'exciting stuff' to talk about."

"Talk about your personal lives! Get to know each other more!"

"Huh? You think I see him in that way? A lowly commoner like him doesn't suit me."

"Argh! You're insufferable!" Yang stormed off.

"Now, now..." Ruby whispered weakly, trying not to get involved. Blake was blocking out the whole thing as she read one of her books that she borrowed from the library.

"What's with her?" Weiss asked.

"Uhh... Nothing...? I think she's just frustrated that her ship isn't leaving the dock," Ruby smiled nervously.

"Well, I don't approve of this 'ship' anyway."

Ruby just scratched the back of her head, laughing nervously as she slipped out of the room.

"Do you have anything to say?" Weiss asked Blake, who was no longer reading her book but looking at Weiss.

"I ship it," is all she said before returning to her book.

"Not you too!" Weiss groaned as she turned around to return to her homework.


A week passed, and everyone prepared in their own way. The day of the first year festival began, with excited and nervous first years gathering at their prep rooms assigned to each class.

Zero took one last glance at his phone, with a message that read, "Good luck! You better not make me ashamed of knowing you! Everyone will be cheering for class B!" It was from Weiss. The exclamation marks were definitely uncharacteristic of Weiss, indicating it may be from Ruby or Yang, but he didn't think much of it. For now, he needed to concentrate on the task at hand. And for some reason, he felt giddy every time he kept reading the message.

It was time to go. All of class B headed towards the entrance to the field, with fiery resolve gleaming apparent in their eyes.

Weiss' words resounded inside Zero's head, with him responding out loud, "Roger that, Weiss."

Present Mic introduced all the first year classes, with Midnight calling up Bakugou for the Athlete's oath. He walked up to the podium, disturbingly calm.

"Make no mistake about it. I'm gonna take first place!" he proclaimed, earning contempt from the other classes.

"Overconfident jerk! I'll be the one to crush him!" Testutetsu spat, clearly agitated by his words. He wasn't the only one. Most of the boys in class B were irked by his words.

"Ugh... He's going to be a pain in the ass, 100 percent," Zero whispered, looking at Bakugou as he got off the podium.

"Now without delay, let's get the first event started! These are the qualifiers! It's in the stage that so many are sent home crying every year! And the fateful first even this year is... this!" Midnight announced pointing to the big screen that read "Obstacle Course Race."

"It's a race between every member of all eleven classes! The course is a four-kilometer lap around the stadium itself. Our school preaches freedom in all things! Heh heh heh..."

"I don't like the sound of that," Zero thought.

"So as long as you don't go off the course, anything is fair game!" She concluded, "Now, everyone, to your positions!"

Everyone positioned themselves at the starting line. When the signal went off, everyone rushed immediately towards the gate, causing students to get stuck inside the narrow gate.

"I can't move!" Zero yelled, trying to pierce through.

"I'm frozen!" he heard someone yell, near the end of the gate.

"Ugh... Fine! Senketsu! Let's go, Zero Style: Raikiri!" Zero slashed within the limited space he head, pushing him out of the gate in two slashes, forcibly pushing through people. Of course, his blade was dulled. Once he got out of the tunnel, he nearly slept on the ice on the ground that Todoroki left to slow people and impede them from catching up. However, Zero could see members of class A ahead of him, making through Todoroki's ice.

"Experience, huh?" Zero muttered as he ran along the course. After running for a few minutes, a few small robots appeared near the front of the pack, and behind them, casting a huge shadow over the students were the robots that were not required to beat due to them not giving any points, the Robo Inferno's.

Suddenly, ice covered multiple Robo Inferno's immobilizing them. It was Todoroki, pushing through. Some other students took the opportunity to follow but the robots fell down before them. There were apparently people stuck under the robots.

"They've gotta be dead! I didn't know we could be killed during this thing!"

Then, somebody emerged from the fallen robot.

"Dead? As if!" It was Kirishima from class A, "That bastard Todoroki! Timing their fall like that! I'd be dead if I wasn't me!"

"Class A's just full of jerks, huh...!" another voice erupted from underneath the robots, "I'd be dead if I wasn't me!" Testutetsu yelled as he also emerged from the robots.

"The dude from class B!" Kirishima exclaimed, "You copycat!" Kirishima cried as he dashed off.

"Well, looks like everyone is teaming up to pierce through..." Zero sighed and readied his Raikiri stance, "SENKETSU!"

"What?" Senketsu replied.

"Let's go!"

"Where?"

"Stop messing around! We're wasting time!"

"But what do you want me to do?"

"Raikiri at 75 percent!"

"Okay."

Zero then drew Senketsu, slashing through multiple robots, not through all of them, giving him enough space to continue on his way. Multiple students were already ahead of him, including some of his classmates.

"A path has been opened! Quick, before it the robots block it!" Other students this time followed Zero's path.

The next barrier was a bunch of cliffs with ropes from one cliff to another. They were separated by pits that if you fell, you were out.

"How are we going to do this one?" Zero exclaimed to himself.

Then, the frog girl from class A easily made her way across using the ropes.

"What do you think Senketsu?"

"We gotta do it the old-fashioned way. Don't hesitate! Keep moving. Other people will have the advantage due to their quirks. We don't, so you need to work harder."

"Right!" Zero exclaimed as he grabbed the rope and hang upside down as he made his way to each cliff.

"The leads keep breaking ahead, while the rest of the pack is bunched up! Our racers don't know how many will get to move on, so all they can do is aim for first place! And our leader has reached the final barrier! That is to say... This minefield! It's set up so that you can tell where the mines are if you look carefully! Keep both your eyes open and watch your step!" Present Mic announced once Todoroki made it to the third and final barrier.

"I should mention that our mines don't pack a deadly punch but... They're loud and flashy enough to make you wet your pants!"

"Already?!" Zero thought as he was still making it through the second barrier. Near him was Midoriya, also using the same technique to make his way through with a metal shield on his back.

Once the two got to the third barrier, they could see Bakugou and Todoroki far off into the lead.

"What am I to do? Raikiri won't be enough... Shockwave... Shockwave!" Zero turned around to see Midoriya digging up a pile of mines, for who knows what reason.

Zero then jumped, and drew Senketsu, sending a shockwave backward, propelling him forward.

"This is the only way I can get through quickly!" Zero yelled, continually swinging Senketsu, propelling him forward through the air.

"What is this?! Zero from class B is using his sword to propel him through the air, quickly clearing the minefield!"

"An interesting maneuver. Class B is part of the Hero course and is not meant to be underestimated."

As Zero was closing in the distance between him and the leads, a big explosion occurred near the start of the minefield, and from the smoke, a person emerged flying at high speed, towards the front of the pack.

"Wha- Midoriya?!" Zero exclaimed as Deku overtook the lead, and was soaring through the air.

Midoriya was falling, however, and was losing speed. Todoroki and Bakugou were already catching up. In order to prevent them from regaining the lead, Deku used the metal plate he had and smashed it on the ground, causing mines to explode and to propel Deku forward once again, impeding the other two.

Deku cleared the minefield with Todoroki and Bakugou right behind him.

"Damn it!" Zero cried, as his arm got tired, crashing him into the ground but was able to clear the minefield. He ran for the rest of the way but Shiozaki was right behind him, overtaking Zero.

And, at the finish line, it was Deku who came in first, Todoroki second, and Bakugou third. Shiozaki came fourth with Zero in fifth. The students of class A and B made it, and some students of other departments made it as well. A total of 42 people advanced to the next round.

A/N: That'll be all for this chapter! Thanks for reading and I hope to see you in the second round!