"What the hell was that?"

In the time it took for Kei to get out of Bakugō's line of sight, dry off, make it halfway back to the 1-C box and discover that she'd managed to destroy her second cell phone in a month, she was just about done with today. The tournament had been a fun distraction, for what it was worth, but she'd wrung every scrap of entertainment out of it before it became a chore to keep going. For a lot of reasons.

That was when Shinsō found her.

"Is this some kind of teenage rebellion?" he demanded. While his glare was intense and his voice was more a growl than his usual drawl, Kei got the sense that he was more hurt than angry. Surprised, maybe a bit betrayed, but more asking for a reason instead of just yelling.

At least he wasn't literally hurt anymore. Recovery Girl did good work.

"Hi, Shinsō-san. Glad to see your arm's better," Kei said, because that was the part of the situation easiest to address.

"Don't change the subject, Gekkō," Shinsō snapped. Kei noted the dropped honorific, but more important was way his voice was almost in a knot. "You just—is this just some kind of game to you? Don't you care about getting anywhere?"

Shinsō probably wouldn't have appreciating hearing Kei's honest answer. Still, he deserved something from her after all of this. "Shinsō—"

But he cut her off. "You could have won! You were handing that loudmouth his ass from start to finish," Shinsō went on, hardly listening. His voice cracked as he stepped forward, not boxing her in but definitely trying to make himself heard.

Kei crossed her arms and bit the inside of her cheek, waiting out the tide. Walking away might've been practical, or just mercenary, but this was important. Shinsō was crushed.

"Gekkō, you might've been able to win the entire tournament! Anybody with eyes could tell you were sandbagging the entire preliminary, but…" Shinsō trailed off, running out of steam. He backed off and scrubbed furiously at his eyes, before she could prod him for extra space. When he finally met her eyes again, the shadows under his were about as bad as she'd ever seen them. "Why'd you throw it all away?"

Yeah, this wasn't a conversation for an open hallway. Even if people seemed to think so. "It's not that simple," she said, while pushing off the wall. "Come on, let's find a place to sit down. Then we'll actually talk."

Shinsō did follow her, but at a distance that made it clear he was still rattled. The two of them wandered down the hallway until they reached daylight again, exiting the stadium and heading into the same woods where they'd been having a number of conversations lately. Even Tokoyami had left to go watch the first match of the final four, or whatever, which meant the immediate area was abandoned. It was a lot better that way, in Kei's humble opinion.

Shinsō ended up taking a seat on a tree root while Kei plunked herself down in lotus position on the manicured grass. Neither of them spoke for a minute or so, which gave Shinsō a little time to calm down and Kei an opportunity to gather her thoughts.

"The truth is… I'm not you, Shinsō-san," Kei said, settling her hands on her knees. "You want to be the greatest hero you can. You're working hard to get into Heroics so you can be one step closer to your dream, and performing well in the Sports Festival is one of the ways you can grab the spotlight."

Shinsō glared, but his heart wasn't in it. "My whole life in two sentences. Were you always this condescending and I'm only just noticing?"

Kei debated responding, then shook her head slowly. She leaned back instead, bracing her hands in the grass and staring up at the canopy. "Here's the truth: I don't want to be a hero. Never have, never will."

The world we were born in ruined the idea before we ever met. Honoring a person as a war hero there is another way to congratulate them for a life drenched in blood.

Kei sighed internally. You can say that again.

When Kei looked back to Shinsō, she could practically hear the record needle scratch sound playing through his head. She went on, still unruffled, "Don't get me wrong—I like my Quirk, and I like being strong. But I've only ever wanted to live quietly with my family and friends." She flashed a crooked smile. "My old sensei always used to tell me my worst character flaw was a total lack of ambition, and I agree with him."

"Then…why'd you become strong?" Shinsō leaned forward, eyebrows knitting together as he thought. He was trying to get a handle on the shape of Kei's character, and she had to admit he'd been given nothing better than breadcrumbs so far. "Nobody's Quirk starts out that powerful or that controlled. They have to be trained or developed, and people can try for years without getting where you are."

That was something Kei would probably tell him a little about, much later. After she'd thought of a properly compelling half-truthful story to stitch together. "That's…a heavy story for someone I've only known for a couple weeks. Sorry, Shinsō-san."

He eyed her shrewdly, but still hesitated for a few seconds. "Does it have to do with the scar on your face?"

Well, using her powers didn't not have anything to do with it. Kei mentally assigned him an eight-point-five for logical deduction.

But as for the actual reaction to his words, Kei just shrugged. "Enough. I got as strong as I am because someone had to be," Kei said, letting her hand fall back to her lap. "I'm not here because I want to make a big impact and change the world. Or even really make a difference, except to the people I know. But you are." She waved a hand in the direction of the stadium. "Everyone in that tournament is. Except me. I just…I hit the point where I realized I don't matter. The dreams of every student here are way more important than me wasting opportunities other people deserve."

Shinsō was quiet for a long time. His fingers formed fists against his thighs for a few seconds here and there, and then all the tension went out of him at once like a snuffed candle. "So, why'd you agree to help me get stronger? And don't tell me it was because you really needed a tutor—your brother's a nice kid, but he's not that persuasive."

"He's not," Kei agreed. She put as much honesty as she could into her voice as she explained, gently, "I don't have a lot of drive, but I admire people who do. Even if it sucked and you were scared, you tried to be a hero when Hayate was in danger and that means a lot to me."

Shinsō's jaw worked, but no sound came out at first. "…I didn't have the slightest fucking clue what I was doing back then."

"That's why you need to get into 1-A or 1-B. You, not me." As his purple eyes met her much darker ones, she said, "I'm sorry. It probably doesn't mean much, but…"

"You wouldn't actually do anything differently." And Shinsō had just wandered from "mad" and "confused" to "disappointed." He got to his feet, refusing to meet her gaze again. "Look, I'm just… I need to think. Leave me alone, all right?"

Kei couldn't honestly say she deserved better, on that front. She just said, "All right," and she let him go.

That could have gone better, Isobu said.

Not everyone can be Naruto. Or Midoriya, come to that, Kei told him as she debated the relative merits of taking a nap in the grass or going back into the stadium.

If Shinsō was any indication, the 1-C kids were as flabbergasted by her decision to throw the match as Bakugō and Kayama-sensei had been. Present Mic played up whatever reactions he wanted people to have, but that didn't mean anything. She was pretty sure Aizawa-sensei was pleased. It got her out of the way, and the three kids left in the tournament besides Shinsō were all his. Getting out early saved her trouble and time.

Didn't seem to have saved her the reactions of her "peers," though.

Still, even if Shinsō was pissed off at her now, maybe it was worth going back and watching his match. Between the inevitable explosions and Bakugō's shouting, he wouldn't be able to hear her cheer even if she did, but…

Damn her weirdass conscience.

Hey.

You not only don't count, but can't even see the role from where you're standing.

…Fair enough.

Kei, with a sigh only Isobu could hear, wandered back inside.

Todoroki had already beaten Iida by the time the conversation was over and Kei had a chance to check the huge screens outside of the stadium. Kei checked the time on an analog wall clock to confirm that the entire thing had taken less than five minutes, then shook her head. Should've figured.

Shinsō's match with Bakugō was…um. It was certainly loud. And for the exact reasons Kei predicted, even if the contents of the conversation were a little different.

Kei didn't go back to the 1-C box to watch. Instead, she snuck her way back to the competitor entrance tunnels and sat down just out of view, more listening than bothering to watch. She'd catch the match on video or something once she went back to her apartment, assuming her boys had figured out how to record programs.

And because of the acoustics of the tunnel, she could hear every word the two competitors said.

It was, at first, mostly Bakugō.

"You damn extra, what the hell is that expression for?! What happened to pulling the rug out from under Heroics huh?!" Pause, inhale. "Declaration of war, my ass! You're just a worthless side character like the rest of your class! Hell, that seaweed bitch is even lower!"

Shinsō didn't immediately reply, which told Kei exactly how far off his game he was. Then, "What must it be like to get to the semifinals just because your opponent forfeited instead of dealing with your sparkling personality? Oh look, an expert."

I have become ammunition in a trash talk battle, and I hate everything.

Isobu sent Kei the impression of a shrug, as payback for her sass earlier. You made your bed. Now lie in it.

"Hey, how about we just get this over with real quick before I have to humiliate him?" This remark appeared to be directed at Kayama-sensei, not Shinsō. Which meant that Bakugō might've figured out how Shinsō's Quirk worked.

Not great news.

"Too afraid to say that to my face?" Shinsō ground out, his temper getting the best of him. But it was, as always, both an attack and a taunt. Still, he could've been more oblique about it and actually baited Bakugō properly. "Or did getting treated with kid gloves last round mean you can't find your balls with both hands and a map?"

Kei bonked her head against the wall, emphasizing her frustration to nobody who couldn't already read her emotions. This is a playground pissing match, and I am going to kick Shinsō's ass later if this doesn't work.

…I am not allowed to help.

Absolutely correct. Kei sighed as Bakugō, out on the battlefield, let out an inarticulate scream of rage. Which did not, apparently, count as a response for Shinsō's Quirk, because the rest of today's theme song apparently involved nitroglycerin as percussion.

The next couple of seconds were just a series of earth-shattering kabooms, to use the Looney Tunes parlance. Kei almost melted into the shadows of the tunnel, turning her head away as the crowd above groaned and shrieked. It was listening to a huge monster, worse in every way than Isobu or Kurama or Shukaku. There wasn't really any pity or mercy in that sound. She spared a glance for the unseen audience, as though she could see through solid cement, and then sighed.

There was one final explosion before Kayama-sensei finally intervened.

"Shinsō is out of bounds! Bakugō advances!"

Kei liked to pretend Kayama-sensei might've spared either competitor injuries by just jumping in a little sooner than she and Cementoss had with Midoriya and Todoroki's match. The daydreaming lasted a few seconds, but hearing medical technicians on their way put a stop to that . The tunnel was about to get crowded.

Obito's chakra and his voice popped out of the wall near her. The usual spaghettifying effect, but in reverse, heralded his arrival in the still-empty hallway. He extended a hand. "Kei, you wanna just head out?"

She thought about it. Once Shinsō recovered, he'd be up against Iida for third place. It wasn't a match Kei imagined would take long, one way or another. Too little time for her to properly gauge the other students' reactions or bother navigating the social web.

Today had been fun, until it wasn't. Feelings complicated even the simple joy of putting her and Isobu's immense power to work.

"School first. I've got a few things to do," Kei replied at last, taking Obito's outstretched hand.

And the pair of them made themselves scarce.