It was strange, Izuko noted, wearing a costume again. They were allowed to wear them because the first challenge involved heavy quirk usage that required the bonuses that a good costume could give. All the students from non-heroics courses were allowed to get one as well.

Kyoka stood there in her jacket and dress, with boots and wristbands that had speakers on them. It looked good on her, though with her usual haircut it looked much closer to a leisure outfit than a proper costume.

Izuko ended up straightening and tying up her hair.

She regretted it when she looked in the mirror, but it was too late to find another solution.

The Fire Princess stepped into the arena with the rest of the students. She did so in the middle of the crowd, next to her partner, and she did not look up.

And yet, as the classes were being introduced, she could see that people were disquieted by her appearance. They had not been told that she would be here, of course. The crowd was as surprised as the crew of news reporters and camera men.

Izuko looked around for a familiar face draped in crimson red wings.

Hawks stood there in the crowd, smiling at them. Mirko couldn't be here, but that was fine, she would be hearing about the results on her patrol anyway.

Izuko's back straightened. She could feel the stares of the people. The costume that they had prepared for her was not quite the same old blue kimono which she had used as the Fire Princess. It reminded her more of a gi, though with a lot more fire resistance than the usual U.A. uniforms.

It came in a purple that was suspiciously similar to Kyoka's hair color, and that would have given her a reason to feel embarrassed but right now she was much more worried about what she wanted to say.

She felt very small at the microphone.

Fortunately, nobody said a word.

"They t-told me," Izuko said, hating herself as she stumbled over her words, "that I should hold a short speech and give an oath of sportsmanship. I'm… not good with speeches, so we can skip that, I think."

That actually got a few chuckles from the younger people in the crowd. Someone shouted 'I'll allow it' from the crowd and sent more laughs through it.

She took a deep breath.

"I, I pledge," Izuko said, finding her pillar in Kyoka's smile. "To uphold the values of U.A. High for a fair competition, respecting and abiding the rules that govern it, in the spirit of sportsmanship and equality among the competitors."

The sound echoed for a moment longer, and she swallowed, stepping down the stairs towards Kyoka again. Hawks began clapping, and the crowd joined in, if not for her then for the competition itself. Izuko buried her face in her hands and told herself she would wait it out. Kyoka put an arm around her shoulders.

"A wonderful pledge," Present Mic said from his spot in the announcer box. "Welcome, dearest people! We have gathered here together for the union of competition and heroics! The Annual Sports Festival, Present Mic here speaking, with my second chair, Eraserhead!"

"First Year Festival," Aizawa corrected. "I'd appreciate it if you had fewer theatrics and more facts."

"Fair! E! Nough!" Present Mic continued without any shame. "There will be three competitions today, two of them to decide placement in the third, which will be a single elimination tournament!"

Izuku frowned.

That certainly wasn't what they did last year.

"I will hand it over to Midnight, on the ground, to tell us what the first task will be!"

"Thank you, Present Mic," Midnight said, appearing on a stage in the middle of the arena with a large screen growing out of the ground.

"The first competition will be out of the arena, but don't worry, we have plenty of Cameras!" Midnight announced, pointing at a bunch of busses. "We have prepared an appropriate environment for the first challenge!"

She pointed at the large screen behind her. The letters appeared one by one.

E

E

Izuku blinked. Kyoka raised an eyebrow.

"The teams will be competing in a hostage rescue operation!" Midnight announced to the cheers of the crowd. Todoroki and Iida were nodding at each other. "You have thirty minutes to rescue as many people from buildings as you can. Points for the next round will be split up based on your success. Your opponents will be robots!"

Izuko could hear some people in the crowd of students groan. Hero students, specifically. She could see Mina and Momo, the former waving at her. Kirishima and Setsuna Tokage from Class 1-B grinned at each other. Shinsou and Mei Hatsume were paired up, the former seemed to have hit off during the joint training, and the latter were looking ecstatic at showing off.

Izuko could also see the utterly gleeful face of Monoma, who had paired up with Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu.

This was going to be a fun task.

"What's the plan?" Kyoka asked, Izuko measured up the rest of the competition as well as the stage. A district-like garden of buildings, built with the help of quirks no doubt. Half of them looked intentionally fragile, and the other half largely empty except for the presence of some noise inside made by dolls that were playing the hostages.

They were also set at different entrances of the area, which meant that the buildings right next to them were free pickings.

"I'll handle any hostiles," Izuko said. "Until we meet them, we can clear the first buildings. Can you hear it?"

"Yes," Kyoka said, pushing her earphone jack into the ground. "The dolls are equipped with speakers. I can track them." Izuko smiled.

"Then our plan will work until we need to get closer to the middle."

"Let me explain the rules really quick," Midnight said, her voice echoing from a… blimp? Above them. It projected her face on screens at its side. "Any hostage hurt by your actions subtracts points. Child hostages are worth twice the points. You have to bring them to the marked extraction points, white squares on the edges of the crisis zone. Besides that there are no rules. Good luck!"

A countdown began at fifteen seconds.

"Ready?" Izuko asked. They settled next to the entrance, waiting for the signal. Kyoka nodded, raising her fist towards Izuko.

"Ready," Kyoka said as Izuko bumped fists with her.

The signal came with a loud screech.

Izuko tried not to grin.

But it was too much damn fun.

They had already saved the first five hostages easily, set up at the outer rims of the area. Extraction, six points. Not a bad score for the first three minutes, she imagined.

Then they had to dig a bit deeper to find the dolls. Twelve minutes in, they had tripled their score. The way to the extraction point became longer and longer, and in between the rescuing they were avoiding meeting other people as well as the robots.

Kyoka's quirk was amazing for reconnaissance.

But no plan survives contact with the enemy, and right now the enemy was in front of her and blocking her girlfriend's way.

She flew forward using the flames to push herself. Her knee bashed into the face of one of the more humanoid robots, before landing and spinning her body around and swinging her leg around to send fire into every direction.

Kyoka was still holding onto the child-shaped hostage doll, though it was clear she wasn't going to sprint around with it. Children were surprisingly heavy. Izuko had to clear the way for her. The blue flames parted and melted robots in Kyoka's way. Kyoka gave her a nod and ran forward.

It was then the alarm rang.

Fifteen minutes into the thirty minute challenge, and massive robots with the number zero painted on them were released into the area. Hostages would die in the buildings, crushed under debris. They were not there to fight, but to destroy.

How exciting.

"Izuko!" Kyoka shouted. "I'll get the hostage to the extraction point, keep my way clear!"

"Yes!" Izuko shouted. She lowered her stance, her fingers touching the ground before she spun. Flames shot out under her and sent her flying upwards. "As you command!"

The level zero tried to swat her out of the air but ended up merely melting its own arm off. She was untouchable. She was powerful. She was fierce.

For one moment, she was not Izuko Midoriya.

She was the Fire Princess. And under her was the kingdom that she would inherit through flames.

Fire exploded outward, creating a blue sphere around her as she melted the robot down to nothing but its base metals. One of the buildings ended up singed, but she kept the range focused. It would not do well to hurt the hostage dolls herself.

A pillar of ice, cold enough to resist her flames until it touched her feet, interrupted her concentration.

The sphere vanished into nothing, and Izuko began to fall. She grabbed the ice and spun around it on her way down, glaring at the obvious troublemaker. Iida was much faster at getting hostages out, which left Todoroki as the fighter, and there were no rules that said they couldn't interfere with each other.

"Not yet," she said. She was too far away from him to hear it, of course, but she imagined he could tell what she wanted to say. She kicked off the pillar, more flames flickering around her as she aimed at the sky above Kyoka.

Before she could help out, Kyoka herself jumped up and kicked the robot into the curb, allowing her to reach the extraction point.

Plus two points.

Izuko came crashing down and broke her fall before landing. There were still ten minutes left. The leaderboards were hidden, but she knew that they were not in the lead. That didn't matter. She didn't want to win anyway, she wanted to show off.

Izuko loved to show off.

Todoroki once again came between them and the buildings, this time close enough for Izuko to feel the cold of his quirk encroaching when he activated it. She challenged it with a heat that caused a massive burst wind between them.

She really wanted to fight. She could hear the distant cheers in the arena. People screamed when they were happy. They also screamed when they were afraid. Izuko didn't know much about happiness, but she knew a lot about fear. So when the crowd roared like tinder beneath a match, their voices hot and sharp against her ears, she forgot where she was. Forgot why she was. Lost it all beneath the drum-taught tension of her skin and the little thing inside her that said make them scream louder.

She could reach that heaven through violence.

Kyoka's hand on her wrist felt not like a chain, but like a thin thread that would rip if she pulled away.

Izuko vented. Blue flames licked the air from the tip of her tongue and vanished into nothing.

"This is the extraction point," she warned. "If you cause damages here, you'll lose points."

Todoroki had the exact same look on his face that Dabi had back then.

The kind of look that shouted 'I don't care'.

It was the voice of Iida, calling out to him, that stopped the escalation much like Kyoka's hand did.

"We'll fight," Todoroki said. Izuko nodded.

The results were about as expected.

Though, she had not thought they would be able to tie with Iida and Todoroki. It looked like Todoroki's refusal to use his fire half made him slower the longer the task went on, and Iida himself could not find as many hostages as Kyoka could.

The crowd's cheers and screams were still in her ears.

Tension left her body as Kyoka walked her back to the bus.

Chapter 18, upcoming:

"More."

Dabi's voice was slowly turning less raw. Slowly, his skin began to take on the more natural hue. The piercings fell out of his cheeks, wounds sealing shut.

Small flames of blue danced on the tips of his fingers.

"More."

The young girl with the red eyes frowned as she put her other hand on his cheek. Flames roared at the top of his hand and she flinched. His black hair had returned to red. His scars were gone. He would have been almost unrecognizable if it weren't for his striking blue eyes.