A/N: Sorry for the wait, everyone! Thanks a billion to Huynher for his excellent ideas and beta-ing skills! Enjoy the newest chapter!

"AAAAAAAAAaaaaand We're BACK, sports fans! Wow, that was a lot of commercials... but for those of you NOT calling to order your Bonco Rotisserie, IT'S TIME FOR ROUND ONE OF THE FINAL PART OF OUR SPORTS FESTIVAL TO BEGIIIIIIN! Now, let's meet the contestants who'll kick off this first rockin' round!"

The crowd cheered wildly and Snipe leaned slightly away while covering his ears as Present Mic delivered his patented style of commentary.

"First up, he's one half of a pair that's been putting on quite the epic show today, and now we get to see if he can shine on his own! From Class 1-A, CASEY MIDORIYAAAAAAA!"

Loud cheers followed once again as the boy in question approached the center of the ring, waving to the crowd and smiling as he did so.

"VERSUS! A boy who flew a bit under the radar during the race, but who made a great showing in the Riot Ball match and looks more than ready to step into the limelight! From Class 1-B, NEITO MONOMAAAAAAA!"

The blonde in question practically swaggered into the ring, an extremely confident smirk on his face. The two faced each other and began speaking, though whatever they were saying was inaudible to all but them. Man, thought Mic as he observed the exchange from the announcer's box, we really ought to get microphones down there so I can hear what they're saying...

The most obnoxious member of Class 1-B stood in front of me with that insanely punchable expression on his face. "Hmph. Even the announcer hypes you up more than me," Neito observed with a pointed look toward the announcer's box before turning back to look me in the eye. "Of course, it makes sense, given the fact that he's your homeroom teacher now."

I said nothing in response. This guy may not have been Shinso, but responding to his obvious bait wasn't a mistake I planned to make regardless. It also seemed to irritate him more, as evidenced by his slowly shifting expression as he continued trying to taunt me.

"What's the matter, Midoriya? Nervous now that you have to fight without your brother to help you out?"

That one nearly got under my skin, but I managed to keep a lid on it as he tried one more time to bait me.

"You 1-A fools think you're all so much better than us. Well, now it's time to put you in your place and show who really deserves the recognition that was handed to you by the media!"

I finally responded with a feigned look of surprise. "Oh, I'm sorry, were you saying something?"

Neito growled and charged, hand out in a clear attempt to touch me and copy my quirk. I sidestepped him fairly easily, keeping my hands in my pockets to further aggravate him. Izuku and I had done quite a bit of sparring in preparation for the Sports Festival, and I became very good at dodging. Neito simply wasn't anywhere near the level of skill he thought he was, and it was showing. After a few more successful dodges, I kicked him in the gut—minus any kinetic energy boost—sending him reeling back onto his butt.

"'Put me in my place', Monoma? You obviously have no clue how I got this 'place' or what it really takes."

"I know full well how you got it," the blonde replied; "YOU WERE HANDED IT! You survive one villain attack and the media start treating you like you're already heroes! Meanwhile, people with quirks every bit as good as yours get pushed to the side! You may have an impressive quirk, Midoriya, but without that you're nothing... and I'll prove it right now!"

This time, Neito was able to touch me and copy my quirk. Which, incidentally, I allowed to happen because this jerk needed a lesson in humility.

"Heheh... I already figured out your little quirk from watching you! You absorb kinetic energy from impact, and build it up by running around! I'll just do the same and launch you out of the ring!"

Neito made a big leap, clearly planning to use it as the starting point for a number of them... but after only two such leaps, he stopped, clearly approaching the limit of kinetic energy storage. "What? But... why can't I build up more?"

"Because I wasn't handed this. Unlike you, I don't rely on my power to the exception of everything else. You may be clever enough to form strategies and analyze other quirks, but you completely overlook one key weakness of your own."

I ran over to Neito and delivered a couple of unpowered punches to fill him up a little more. "You copy the quirk itself, but you can't copy training and physical conditioning. Around a year ago I could only take exactly one fastball's worth of kinetic energy before I couldn't take any more, something that basically made the quirk useless in a real fight." I hit him a couple of more times. "I had to train constantly, working my butt off to near-collapse and more, going above and beyond my ordinary limits just to get to my current level. You've obviously had basic fitness and hand-to-hand training, but not much beyond that. As for the USJ thing..."

This time, I decked the bastard, which set him all the way to full. "We got the media treatment because we had real villains trying to kill us. Real, actual threats that we nearly died from. And by the way, our first homeroom teacher, the one this entire festival is in memory to? He actually did die, right in front of us. Bringing that whole incident up... was a mistake."

I grabbed his arm and pulled him into an arm drag, slamming him down onto the arena floor and causing minor "overflow" damage in the process. "With an attitude like yours... you'll never beat us. So until you start working to earn a place like ours, or go through the same crap we went through to get here? Shut up."

I punctuated that last remark with a slap to his face, which added just enough overflow damage to put him down for the count.

Up in the stands, Kaminari winced in sympathetic pain at the result of the match. "Oof! Talk about a curb-stomp..."

"Serves the bastard right," Bakugo replied with a snarl. "That arrogant little prick didn't know who he was messing with. His copy quirk is annoying as hell, but if the other guy has a quirk that only got good through training, copying it is useless."

Part of Bakugo hated complimenting either of the Midoriya brothers, even indirectly and backhandedly, but his humiliation at the hands of Neito during the Riot Ball match was just fresh enough to tip the balance in favor of the Fake. Just this once.

"It's a good thing we all trained hard for the festival, then," Iida observed. "I get the distinct feeling that the rest of Class 1-B weren't nearly as lazy."

Tokoyami nodded. "We let our guard down at our own risk."

"Well, this next match ought to be interesting."

All eyes turned to see Casey approaching from the stairwell and sitting down next to Kaminari. The latter raised an eyebrow in response. "So who is next?"

The voice of Present Mic provided an immediate answer. "Now entering the ring, a girl whose tricks and traps made short work of Blue Team's secondary offense during the Riot Ball match! Representing Class 1-A, MOMO YAOYOROZU! Her opponent also managed to make an impression during the same match with her own gadgets and gizmos; from the support course, MEI HATSUME!"

Dammit, how does she fit all of these things into one backpack?!

Momo growled in frustration as a shot from a small catapult was deflected by a round shield that unfolded from a mechanical spider-like limb protruding from said backpack.

"As you can see, the Automated Defense Reflex system installed into the Extendo-Legs reacts instantaneously to any threat!"

The gadgeteer genius gestured toward Momo, who had just enough time to bring up her own small shield to defend against a small rubber bullet fired back from another leg.

"Every limb in the Extendo-Legs contains both a small shield AND a miniature gun that can accommodate and fire any small-caliber projectile! Isn't it glorious?"

This is getting ridiculous, Momo thought, She's turning this whole match into one big commercial!

Thinking quickly, Momo used her quirk to create a face mask and a few smoke grenades. She tossed them on the ground in front of her, concealing her from view as she prepared to make a couple more things. I'll be spent after this. Hopefully it'll pay off...

"If the villain you're fighting tries to conceal themselves in smoke, never fear! My patented Visual Enhancement goggles can see through any smoke with perfect clarity!"

A large net fired out and covered its target before tightening. The smoke cleared... to reveal that the net had only covered a lifelike statue of Momo. At that moment, an equally impressive net fell from the sky onto Mei and similarly shrunk to capture as Momo landed, her own hastily-made replicas of the former's metallic limbs retracting. With that finished, Momo collapsed to her knees, exhausted.

"Whew... I w-won—"

Before she could even complete the sentence, Momo's net fell to pieces as a number of blades emerged from Mei's Extendo-Legs. "Last but not least, the Extendo-Legs come with automatic wire-cutters to free you from any trap or net your opponent can send your way!"

Momo's heart fell as quickly as her smile. She was too winded to make anything else, and even standing would be a genuine struggle...

And then the hyperactive gadget girl simply stepped out of the ring, throwing her hands in the air. "And that concludes my presentation! All of these gadgets and more, invented by yours truly, Mei Hatsume! REMEMBER THE NAME!"

Stunned silence had never been so loud.

The next two fights went by fairly quickly. First off, Kaminari took on Tokoyami; the latter was at a disadvantage, but he put on a decent showing before the former cut loose and unleashed the full power of his quirk on Tokoyami. Surprisingly, aside from the loss of Dark Shadow and falling out-of-bounds, Tokoyami left the arena mostly intact. Kaminari, on the other hand, had to be carried out because the victorious moron was, for the time being, too dumb to be guided out of the ring on his own. After that came Kirishima vs. Tetsutetsu, which went exactly the same as it did in canon when they simultaneously knocked each other out cold; whether the outcome of their tiebreaker would be different would have to wait, because after them came Izuku's first matchup against his canon opponent, Shinso.

Truth be told, I was a bit worried for Izuku. I made sure to tell him not to get riled up by the guy, and I didn't even have to tell him about his powers because everyone had seen plain as day in the Riot Ball match what those powers were. And even if Izuku did screw up, I knew that, in canon at least, he was saved from losing by the spirits of the previous wielders of One for All. In spite of all this, I couldn't help but ask to watch from the entrance as he battled. As a matter of fact, it would prove to be a camping spot of sorts for both of us throughout almost all of our matches in the festival.

As I descended the stairs toward the entrance ramp where Izuku was waiting, I passed Momo in the halls, looking a bit down.

"Hey, YaoMomo. What's wrong?"

She perked up in surprise at my voice. "Casey-kun? Oh, uh, just... thinking, that's all. No need to worry."

"Hey, if something is wrong, you can tell me. I won't say anything to anyone," I said, sensing something was definitely wrong. "And call me Keikkun if you like. Everyone aside from Izuku seems to have picked up on that anyway."

Momo opened her mouth as if to insist she was perfectly okay before sighing. "Well, it's just the way I won. I threw everything at that girl and got nowhere, and the only reason I'm moving on at all is because she forfeited. I dislike being handed things..." She turned her head away, almost in shame.

I might have guessed that was the problem, I mused before responding. "Hey, you yourself just said you threw everything you had at her. That last strategy you pulled off... it was brilliant. I mean, from just brief observation in the middle of a fight, you managed to replicate not one, but two of her gadgets with your quirk, and make a statue of yourself convincing enough to fool those super-advanced-looking goggles of hers."

"It wasn't enough. It still failed in the end."

I shook my head at her. "That's not the point. I mean, sure, she had an answer to that, but the fact that you were able to come up with that strategy and make all of that stuff on the fly must have definitely made an impression. As far as I'm concerned, you deserve to move on."

She looked up at me and blinked a couple of times as she processed what I was saying. "Really? You think so?"

"Definitely," I nodded. "the pros in the audience would have to be morons not to be interested in you after that performance."

That seemed to brighten her up a little bit. "I see your point. Thank you, Cas—er, Keikkun."

"No problem, Yao—"

"Ladies and gentlemen, it's almost time for the fifth match of the tournament to begin! From the General Studies course..."

The voice of Present Mic interrupted us; turning to run down the stairs, I gave her a smile and a wave. "Whoops, I just realized I was going to cheer Izuku on from the entry hall. See you later!"

I made it down the last flight of stairs just in time for the introductions to end and see Izuku step into the ring. Come on, bro, you got this...

"So, on top of getting the best score in the entrance exams, you won the race and the riot ball match. You must think pretty highly of yourself, huh?"

Izuku stared down Shinso as he waited for the signal to begin the match, but remained silent, remembering Casey's warning about his quirk. Something about the condescension dripping from the purple-haired boy's voice got on his nerves, though.

"Personally, I think you just got lucky. I had to deal with a system rigged against my powers and people who kept acting like I was destined to be a villain because of them, while your quirk just happened to be perfectly suited for everything you've faced so far and looks flashy enough to make people like you. It's not like you're really any more talented than anyone else... truth be told, you and your brother aren't really all that special when you get right down to it. You both were too weak to win alone, so you had to leech off each other to get ahead..."

"BEGIIIIIIIIN!"

"...how pathetic—"

In a flash, Izuku was in Shinso's face, shoving him out of the ring. The match didn't even last half a minute before Shinso was lying on the grass, glaring up at Izuku.

"I get it," Izuku said, not allowing Shinso the opportunity to speak first. "You think you're the only one who got mocked? Before my quirk showed up, I was constantly called worthless. I heard the exact same things you just said about me over and over again. But I never gave up, because in spite of everything that people said about me I knew I wasn't worthless. You want to be a hero; I can tell that right away. And I know for a fact that you'd be great at it! Your power could be insanely useful for hero work! You could end hostage crises without any violence at all, get villains to turn themselves in voluntarily, rescue people in disasters who are too frightened to get out of the way of danger themselves! So what if people don't understand that? You showed how useful you could be in the riot ball match, and I'm betting a number of pros saw that too. And if they didn't, you can just use that as motivation to get stronger for next year and find ways to overcome your weaknesses rather than just feel sorry for yourself or obsess over other people's opinions. If you focus on what they think about you, you'll never get anywhere."

Shinso looked at him in surprise before sighing as the words sank in. Izuku could only hope that his speech somehow took root as he turned to leave.

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