Aizawa was waiting for everyone at the entrance to 1-A's dorm. Tapping his foot lightly, he glanced up at Midoriya as he reached the dorm's front doors. He somehow looked even more tired than usual, yawning as he stopped next to Uraraka who flashed him a small smile.
"Good, everyone's here now. As you all know by now, this festival is a pretty big deal, how well you perform is just as much of a pitch to intern with hero agencies as it is to show off the next generation's best of the best hero course students," Aizawa said. The whole class muttered in agreement, wondering where he was headed with this.
"That's not all it is though, it's also a chance for teachers to weed out those students that don't belong in a heroics course and add in the students who they think deserve a shot… as it stands, four of you are on thin ice," he threatened. Glaring at everyone, his hair stood up, signifying his quirk activating for a brief moment.
"That's all. Do your best and remember that the better you, do the more offers you'll probably get," he said as he walked out of the dorms abruptly. Izuku blinked rapidly, surprised that he would threaten them like that. It made sense though, it would raise their anxiety, and the teachers could see how they would perform under pressure.
"We must prove ourselves worthy of staying in this course. I am sure that he only said that as an encouragement towards us!" Iida said. A few people nodded but most of the class looked worried.
"Whatever, most of you aren't even going to be full blown heroes anyways. Extras are always sidekicks and you're all extras to me." Bakugo said. The whole class let out a unanimous sigh as the bombastic blonde left.
"Aaaand on that cheery note, we need to hurry to the stadium!" Momo said, holding her hand over Iida's mouth as he started shouting after Bakugo. Izuku shook his head, taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, today was the tournament. The last event was always a tournament no matter what, so that meant fighting his fellow students. Holding his hand up and letting magical energy flow around it for a second, he clenched his fist and started walking towards the stadium with his class.
"Hey Deku, got any strategies for your matches? Like in general?" Uraraka asked. He smiled at her softly before shaking his head.
"Sorry Uraraka, but if I told you that'd be unfair wouldn't it? I mean, what if you figured out a way to beat me just by me telling you my basic strategies?" He asked teasingly. She rolled her eyes and nudged his ribs with her elbow softly.
"Oh yeah, I'm sure I'm at the top of your biggest worries list in this tournament. Besides, we both know that if it came down to it, you could just blow me out of the arena in one attack," she said. Izuku noticed that the smile that followed didn't quite reach her eyes, making him blink in surprise before she shrugged.
"Well if you don't wanna tell me, I guess—"
"I'm going to focus on forcing people out of the arena with wind. It's not capable of inflicting deadly injuries unless I specifically use it that way, and there's not much people can do against it if I blast them repeatedly out of the arena. If that fails, I'll use light magic to restrain them and force them out of the arena," he whispered to her. She blinked before smiling and looking up at the sky, stretching her arms above her head he saw her muttering to herself a little.
"...have to do better if I'm going to..." she muttered. He tilted his head at her, used to being the one muttering, not the one having to decipher what someone else was muttering about.
"Uraraka?" he asked. She froze mid-stride for a moment, before smiling at him with her cheeks turning rosy.
"N-nothing Deku, let's both do our best and see each other in the finals!" she shouted, earning looks from the rest of the class. Smiling at her, he nodded and turned back towards the stadium, observing at the structure. He finally felt calm after talking to her, the only two who he knew could be a problem were… well it was obvious who they were. Those were the fights he'd have to do something besides wind blasts.
Miruko was walking through the stadium corridors, the air conditioned hallways confusing her. They'd changed the layout of the building since she had graduated. She was supposed to be headed towards the stage to perform a demonstration for the tournament. Honestly, she wouldn't normally waste her time with something like this, but All Might had promised her a good opponent in his phone call with her. She wanted to fight the Number one himself, but he said that they needed to see a demonstration, not to evacuate the stadium. Sighing as she walked towards the colosseum, she spotted the Number two pro hero stalking the hallway. She grinned as she skipped closer to him.
"Sup, you burning edge lord? I wonder how far your brat will go," Miruko taunted, knowing that it would spark an argument. His response didn't fail, his flames spiking up as he glanced over his shoulder, his eyes twitching and full of rage.
"Say that again Number seven? You'll be a pebble on the side of the road once he stops being a child about his quirk," Endeavour said, turning around to face her. Miruko just laughed, getting ready to egg him on when they both heard a heavy footstep. A figure cloaked in black sporting a bright blue skull mask stepped down the hallway. If the figure wasn't as tall as Endeavour, it was damn close. Miruko blinked before turning to face the stranger, as did Endeavour, his flames burning hotter.
"I'm k-kind of l-l-lost. The l-last time I was h-here there wasn't a s-s-stadium. A-All Might c-called me and asked m-me to h-help demonstrate the c-c-combat portion of th-the f-festival. I kn-know I'm almost l-late, but th-there were v-villains I had to f-fight on m-my way b-back to U-UA." She said. Miruko let out a sarcastic laugh before turning around and starting to walk away.
"Welp, the stadium's this way j-j-junior." Miruko turned and started walking towards the arena's entrance, not waiting to see if the stranger followed. "All Might promised me a fight, not a training dummy," Miruko muttered. Endeavour scoffed at Miruko, turning back to face the cloaked Hero.
"Number eleven, right? Just behind Orca if I recall correctly, and you don't even publicly report your villains defeated. You've risen just on the public reporting the villains you've stopped, correct?" Miruko turned around at that. Someone raising that high based on just civilian reports was unheard of. Who was this amazon of a woman? How strong was she?
"R-right. I-I'm surprised T-T-Todoroki, n-normally you're pretty s-self centered r-right? A-anyways, I'm not h-here for publicity's s-sake. Th-th-there's a s-student I'm s-scouting for an in-internship." The skull woman said. As she stepped past the two of them, her long black cloak billowed as she walked.
"Do we know each other?" Endeavour asked. His eyebrow raised at her casual use of his civilian name. The skull woman shook her head, continuing to walk away from the two pros.
"N-not anymore, n-not since y-you did what you d-did," she said simply as she walked out of sight. Miruko stole a glance at Endeavour as the pressure in the hallway slowly faded. His eyes were difficult to read before he turned and walked away.
"You have a match to get to, Miruko. Try not to embarrass yourself out there, you have a country watching you," he said quietly. She blinked, surprised that he was so reserved.
"Yeah, thanks," she said. Her eyes followed the blazing hero as he turned the corner and walked out of sight. What did that hero mean about "what he did?" She shook her head as she started to follow the faint footsteps of the amazon of a woman. She had a match to win.
Walking into the student seating area, Izuku glanced down at the arena to see two participants already waiting. His eyes shooting wide and a massive smile spreading across his face, he hopped a little in his seat excitedly. Miruko was here! His smile turned into a look of confusion at her opponent, a towering figure dressed in black and blue, her tattered cloak blowing lightly in the wind. Sitting down roughly, wincing as his butt hit the seat hard, he blinked at her. He'd been looking all over the web for her, but she'd never given him her hero name, even after she'd talked him down on that rooftop. From what he could find, she usually left without giving anyone her name. Izuku quickly pulled out his notebook and got ready to start writing.
"Deku, are you sure you should be writing about them instead of focusing on yourself?" Uraraka asked. Izuku shook his head, sipping on some water while he turned to face her.
"I have my basic strategies. The first round is going to be improvising since I might not know my opponent's quirk. Knowing that, I'd rather take notes from two pros fighting to see what I can learn, you know?" he asked, blushing lightly and rubbing the back of his head. Uraraka, for her part, nodded intensely, leaning forward in her seat to observe.
"You're right, I should learn from them too!" she said. Leaning forward, Izuku fell silent as Present Mic started casting the fight.
Miruko was feeling tense. She tried to shake it off as she hopped in place. Her opponent looked like she was cool as ice. The only thing moving on her were her eyes and head, along with that kick-ass cloak, scanning the crowd as they waited on Present Mic to announce the match's start. Miruko couldn't pick up on what was making her so tense. She'd faced down some of society's worst and never worried about fighting them, but something about this mysterious giant had her on edge.
"LAAAAAAAAAAAAADIES AND GENTLEMEN! ARE YOU READY FOR THIS DEMONSTRATION MATCH BETWEEN TWO OF UA'S ALUMNI?" Present Mic shouted. The crowd roared with excitement. Miruko smiled as he went on about her own accomplishments, excited to fight someone who had her so on edge.
"In our other corner—" He started. Miruko's ears perked up, finally tuning into the blonde dork's announcements as he started listing off her opponents accomplishments.
"IS A FRIEND OF ALL MIGHT'S THAT HE INVITED TO PERFORM A DEMONSTRATION MATCH WITH MIRUKO! NOT MUCH IS KNOWN ABOUT HER AND ALL MIGHT REFUSED TO ANSWER ANY OF MY QUESTIONS ABOUT HER! SHE'S RISING QUICKLY THROUGH THE HERO RANKS VIA CIVILIAN REPORTS OF HER HEROICS ALONE! THE MYSTERIOUS HERO MINERVA IS READY TO FIGHT!" he said. Miruko balked at that announcement before proceeding to glare at her opponent. That's ALL they had on her? That she knew All Might and was mysterious? She shook her head and stretched her legs out as Present Mic explained the rules.
"THE TWO WAYS TO WIN ARE EITHER INCAPACITATING YOUR OPPONENT BY EXHAUSTING THEM, KNOCKING THEM OUT, OR SOMEHOW RESTRAINING THEM, OR YOU CAN TRY FOR A RING OUT! IF ANY PART OF YOU CROSSES THE LINE AT THE EDGE OF THE ARENA, YOU'RE OUT INSTANTLY!" Present Mic shouted. Miruko shrugged and leaned forward, getting ready to rush her amazonian opponent.
"WITH THAT, WE'RE READY TO START! GIVE IT UP FOR OUR TWO DEMONSTRATORS WHO TOOK TIME OUT OF THEIR BUSY SCHEDULES TO GIVE US A SHOW TO START OFF THIS TOURNAMENT !" The crowd cheered as the buzzer went off and Miruko launched herself at Minerva.
"Sorry lady, but this match is ov—" Miruko started. Her eyes shot open as Minerva, quick as lightning, shot a hand out and grabbed her ankle before throwing her like a doll towards the edge of the arena. Slamming her feet into the arena, Miruko stopped herself from flying out of the arena, though just barely. Minerva finally adopted a fighting stance, albeit a casual one. A single hand held out in front of her, her fingers straight and steady as she turned to face Miruko again.
"Damn, for someone who stutters so much, you're pretty calm and collected when you're fighting. Especially when you're fighting someone like me!" Miruko said. Pointing a hand at her own chest, Miruko let out a laugh before she sensed danger and opened her eyes from laughing. Leaping to the side as Minerva's lightning-covered hand shot out and tried to grab her, Miruko swung her legs up, Minerva's next grab barely missing Miruko's leg, before landing on her hands and springing back to her feet away from Minerva. The black cloak she wore only now caught up to her movements as she stood up and turned once again to face Miruko.
'How is this bitch only in the top twenty?! With speed and power like that she should definitely be in the top ten! Hell, she might even be a contender for my spot!' Miruko thought. Grinning as she shot a quick mental thank you to All Might for actually coming through with an actual competent opponent, Miruko got ready to launch herself at Minerva again when suddenly the giant raised her arm and crossed over the out of bounds line.
"I g-give up. I-I-I trust th-that was a g-good enough demonst-stration M-midnight?" Minerva asked. Midnight blinked at her, confused, before nodding. Minerva adjusted her cloak and started to walk off the stage before Miruko stomped furiously. Ignoring the cracks in the arena's floor, Miruko started stomping towards Minerva.
"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT? I THOUGHT WE WERE GOING TO FIGHT!" Miruko shouted. Minerva didn't even look over her shoulder to speak to Miruko, infuriating the bunny hero even more.
"W-we d-demonstrated what th-the students have to d-do. I-I d-didn't c-c-come here to s-spar. I t-t-told you and E-En-Endeavor why I was here. I'm n-not going to w-waste anyone's t-time with a m-match b-between us. This is t-time for the n-next generation of he-heros to s-strut their s-s-stuff." Minerva answered, before continuing to walk away. Miruko let out a scream of frustration before walking in the opposite direction.
Izuku stared in shock. Minerva hadn't just held her own against Miruko; the match, as short as it was, made it seem like Minerva might have had the advantage from the start! Writing in his journal, from what little he'd been able to gleam from their battle, Minerva used electricity in some way to enhance her abilities.
"DEKU!" Izuku shot up from his notebook to see Uraraka smiling at him awkwardly. Feeling a hot burn in his cheeks before quickly rubbing the back of his head and closing his notebook, he gave Uraraka an apologetic smile.
"I was muttering again huh? Sorry," he said. Uraraka shook her head and pointed at one of the screens.
"No! They're announcing the matchups for the tournament, look!" She shouted over the roar of the crowd. Izuku opened his notebook to the part containing his classmates, quickly flipping between each page with a classmate who'd made it to the tournament. He saved his place with a finger holding each page while the names flashed on screen.
"Tokoyami versus Asu—" Izuku heard a soft kero behind him and let out a small eep. "—Tsuyu." Izuku didn't need his notebook for this one.
"Tsuyu is probably going to win," he said. He heard a happy sigh behind him along with a gasp from Tokoyami.
"What do you mean Midoriya? How will she beat Dark Shadow?" Tokoyami asked. Izuku shook his head and ducked his head down, he hadn't meant to say that out loud.
"Sorry Tokoyami, but I'm not going to explain to you why she's probably going to win. That would be unfair, especially since everyone should have been studying everyone while we were training in case any of us made it to the tournament part of the festival. I shouldn't even say anythin—" he started, before a hand lightly squeezed his shoulder. Looking to his right, he saw Iida smiling at him.
"Nonsense Midoriya! Analyzing how a fight between two people will play out could help in our endeavors as heroes! Please do continue to try and deduct who will win, I'm sure each of us have our own guesses as to who will win the coming matches." Iida said. The class behind them mostly muttered in agreement, asides from Tokoyami.
"I'm not going to lose to a frog when I have darkness on my side. Dark Shadow will overpower Tsuyu easily I'm sure!" Tokoyami boasted.
"I'm going to throw you out of the ring so hard they'll have to peel you off the wall, Tokoyami," Tsuyu said. Izuku glanced at the two of them glaring at each other, his eye twitching a little at the animosity between the two classmates. Glancing back at the board, Momo and Uraraka's names came up. Both girls looked at Izuku with blank stares, making Izuku shrink in his seat a little bit.
"U-u-um w-well I-I mean, M-momo has better quirk mastery, b-but Uraraka is probably going to win, that's just a guess though! I-I haven't really been studying your quirk as much as some of our classmates Momo, it seems pretty straightforward to me," he admitted. It was true that Momo's quirk seemed pretty self-explanatory, to him anyways, and it's power was totally dependent on her creativity with it. Uraraka's quirk on the other hand, well it negated an entire law of physics and she obviously hadn't practiced much with it before UA, other than the construction work she'd told him about, so he had no idea how it would interact with Momo. Momo was glaring at him, while Uraraka had her eyes halfway closed with a smile directed at him. Quickly blushing and grimacing at the same time, Izuku turned back to the screen.
"A-anyways they're putting up the next names! Iida up against someone named Pony? I'm pretty sure she's from class 1-B. Well my money is on you Iida but, y'know, don't underestimate her," Izuku advised with a smile. Iida gave him a winning smile and a thumbs up.
"Of course not! Heroes never underestimate their opponent, no matter who it is! Though I will try my best to win of course!" Iida said. Izuku smiled at him, happy to see Iida enthused about fighting someone they'd never met and respecting whoever it was. Quickly turning back to the screen, Izuku felt his smile fall.
"Well that match doesn't even need to be discussed." Izuku said. The names Setsuna and Todoroki popped up on screen. The whole class muttered in agreement about the outcome of that match, not even bothering to think about Setsuna's quirk or abilities. Izuku felt bad for her really, but even on his worst day Todoroki could probably overpower most of the people in both hero course classes. Only Izuku and Bakugo could probably go toe to toe with him in terms of a fair fight like they were going to have to do in the tournament.
"True." Todoroki said simply. Most of the class looked at him in their usual awe whenever he spoke, even the usually level headed Momo seemed to think Todoroki was some kind of unapproachable genius. Izuku narrowed his eyes at Todoroki, squeezing his fist at the memory of the icy boy's declaration in the locker room a few days ago.
"Oooh, Deku! You're up against some guy named Monoma, looks like he's from 1-B!" Uraraka shouted. Throwing a fist up in the air, Uraraka turned to Izuku with a blank expression.
"Defeat him utterly and completely. Make him regret ever making it to the tournament stage!" she ordered. Izuku blinked with a confused smile on his face. Tsuyu asked a question before Izuku could respond to Uraraka's command.
"Ochako, I don't think I've ever seen you so serious before. What's up with telling Midoriya to wreck the 1-B student?" Tsuyu asked. Ochako blushed and shrugged.
"N-nothing, I just wanna see Deku make it far in the tournament. I think he has a really good chance of winning, he's insanely strong." Uraraka praised. Izuku blushed and sank further down into his seat, opening his notebook and turning to Uraraka's pages before turning to write in a way that nobody could view what he was writing. Her pages were by far the most filled out in his journal, in fact she took up four pages and not all of the notes were even about her quirk.
"Pffft. Deku won't make it past the first fight, Round Cheeks," Bakugo boasted. Izuku glanced up, ignoring the slight hurt from Bakugo's words and seeing Uraraka turn to smile at Bakugo.
"Well I mean, he overwhelmed you during combat training sooooo, I guess that means you've already lost, right Blasty Boy?" she chided. Izuku blinked in surprise; he'd never heard anyone demean Bakugo in his life, well aside from Aunt Mitsuki, but that didn't really count. Izuku stole a glance up at Bakugo to see the bombing blonde shocked and rage filling his eyes as Uraraka kept a polite smile on her face. Half the class was staring at her in shock with whispers of "Guess she's got a deathwish." throughout the stands they were sitting in. Izuku quickly turned back to see the next names pop up on the screen only to feel instantly bad for Ojiro.
"Well I mean… sorry Ojiro, Bakugo's probably going to beat you." Izuku said. Rubbing the back of his head as he apologized and looked at the tailed hero in training shrugging.
"I'll do my best regardless, who knows what'll happen right?" Ojiro said with a smile. Pops happened behind everyone as Bakugo let off small explosions in his hands.
"I WILL COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY DESTROY YOU, TAIL FREAK!" Bakugo shouted loud enough for the stands next to and below their classes stands to hear him. Izuku sighed as there were even louder shouts around them, thinking that Bakugo was cheering set off another cheering match across the entire stadium. Izuku didn't want to be mean but… well Ojiro was probably going to get crushed in his match against Bakugo, not much to say about it.
"I'm up against someone from 1-B! Kendo, huh? Sounds like a manly opponent!" Kirishima shouted. Izuku didn't recognize the name at all. But at least Kirishima was excited to fight, though Izuku was pretty sure he already knew Kirishima's weakness too. Hopefully he'd keep his weakness in mind too during his matches, Izuku hoped the kindhearted redhead went far and impressed people.
"I. AM. SCREWED! Congrats on the win, Shoji," Jirou said. Izuku had sort of already done the mental gymnastics to figure out that they were going to have to fight each other, while it was fine of her to give her opponent respect…
"Just because he's strong doesn't mean he's unbeatable, Jirou. I mean, myself, Todoroki, and Bakugo are all fairly strong, but that doesn't mean we can just let our guard down. Don't give up before you've even fought him," Izuku said hoping his advice did something for her.
"Indeed. I've already thought of ways you could exploit your quirk against me Jirou. Don't think that you'll lose just because I'm physically strong. Personally, I feel sorry for whoever has to fight either Midoriya or Todoroki as their first match." Izuku blushed at Shoji's words before turning back to the screen and seeing the pairings for the following years flashing across the screen before each student had a locker room assigned to them to prep for the match.
"AND WITH THAT, WE'RE ALMOST READY TO START. EACH YEAR WILL PERFORM THE FIRST ROUND OF MATCHES TODAY, THE SECOND SET OF MATCHES WILL HAPPEN TOMORROW, AND THE SEMI-FINALS AND FINALS OF EACH CLASS WILL CONCLUDE THE SPORTS FESTIVAL THE FOLLOWING DAY! NOW FIRST YEAR STUDENTS TOKOYAMI AND TSUYU, GO TO THE LOCKER ROOMS ASSIGNED TO YOU AND WE'LL ANNOUNCE WHEN WE'RE READY FOR YOU TO COME OUT AND PUT ON A DISPLAY!" Present Mic shouted. Izuku looked up to see both Tokoyami and Tsuyu already on their feet leaving. Taking in a deep breath to gather his thoughts, Izuku got ready to start writing notes about both Tsuyu and Tokoyami during their match. Feeling his body tense up for a second seemingly on impulse, Izuku's head snapped to look behind him, his eyes scanning the entrance to their set of seats. Ignoring the stares from his classmates, the only thing he might have seen was a faint light fading. Shaking his head, he decided he must just be stressed out about the match. Picking up his notebook again and giving his classmates a nervous smile, he took in a deep breath again to relax.