The Sports Festival Arc: Round One!

Author note: Just like a certain quirk... I LIIIIIVE!

Dealing with heroes was never easy.

That wasn't to say they are difficult intentionally, though some are. The real issue was more that they were a major center of public attention. If a Hero made a mistake, it was either blown out of proportion or was so extreme by nature that it didn't need to be. Heroes are still heralded as Paragons of Good, held up to the highest of standards despite the fact that it was a rapidly growing profession, not something people did out of the kindness of their hearts.

No-one wanted to admit it, but civilian casualties were not unheard of. Every hero had that moment where they misjudged the collateral from an attack, didn't realize there were civilians in the area, or some other reason. Some even didn't care, preferring to get the glory of stopping a particular villain regardless of the cost.

When innocent blood spills, humanity acts like sharks, circling the area and investigating why. Some wanted to make sure it never happened again, others wanted to show their families as to why they dragged them away from their favorite celebrity. Most of them wanted 'the scoop', that first bit of meat to hang over the masses and cause controversy, make their station the most adored of all.

There really is no news quite like bad news.

The world's governments needed ways to make sure that riots didn't rage through the streets when a hero came out with a shocked face, blood on their hands, and a villain looking all too pleased with themselves. Each Government had their own way of doing this with varying levels of success, and there were mercenary companies that helped with the extreme situations so governments could keep their hands 'clean'.

In America, it was a branch of the Heroics Department that reviewed cases to see just how liable the hero really was according to certain laws, which varied from state to state. In the case things were out of control, steps would be taken to 'keep it quiet' with pre-planned scapegoats. In Europe, depending on the country it was either the same or completely different.

In Japan, it was kept quiet, always. Heroes were beyond mere public icons, but symbols of peace and prosperity thanks to the likes of All-Might and the heroes he inspired. To threaten the pedestal they were placed on could topple more than just reputations and public opinions. To that end, people capable of finding information and destroying it were considered valuable, not only to the country itself but to other countries in need of someone they can disavow.

This of course didn't mean that heroes didn't receive reprimands or some sort of punishment for their actions, just that it was kept quiet. That is where people like him came into play. They investigated what had happened, removed evidence, made it so public officials could come in, 'investigate', and clear the heroes name before handing in the real reports. From there, the government could impose their own punishment or hire him to act in their stead.

The things he's done to hammer it into a hero's head that they had to be careful, that they needed to put civilian lives first.

His job gave him a special point of view when it came to heroics, even made him understand The Hero Killer a bit. Real Heroes were a rare breed, very rare, and the world was full of people who just liked the paycheck and adoration. That said, he didn't see the Hero Killer as a 'revolutionary' or anything like that. Saved lives were saved lives, the motivation might take away from the honor of the action, but it doesn't change the fact that they're using their powers in a positive manner.

"Sir, your flight is ready for boarding."

His glowing green eyes flickered over towards the speaker, a woman with a blue and white uniform, mutant quirk that gave her skin the texture of crocodile scales. He nodded to her and stood up. "Thank you ma'am."

He made his way over to the terminal, ticket in hand. Once he was at the entrance to the boarding tube, an attendant held out their hand for his ticket. He held it out, she looked it over, and handed it back. "Thank you, have a nice flight Mr. Midoriya."

"I'm sure I will."

He found his seat, took a calming breath, and gazed out the window at the runway. Hizashi never wanted his daughter to be a hero and when he'd been told she was Quirkless he'd actually felt relief. Now she had a quirk, she'd been driven to suicide, and she was a student at U.A..

"Sir, is there anything you'd like to drink?"

"Just some water, alcohol and I don't mix."

He needed answers, and he was going to get them.

U.A. Cafeteria

"This is the perfect chance, all we have to do is keep quiet about our true abilities while they show off!"

Setsuna rolled her eyes. Just a day in and Neito was already at it. She wasn't surprised, even after everything that happened, he still seemed to have it in his head that they had to 'crush 1-A' at every chance they got. "I don't know, I kind of like working with that little girl who messed you up." Setsuna said before taking a bite of her lunch. "She's kind of funny, kind of makes me wonder what you did to make her 'crazy'."

"What I did has nothing to do with that, monster's insanity!" Neito said, acting keeping his voice down for all the aggravation in his tone. He attempted to be subtle as he gestured towards Izuku, who was eating what looked like a turkey leg with a vacant look on her face. "You know how my quirk works, I can copy any quirk and even if I don't get all of the benefits, I still get a look into what makes them tick!"

Setsuna gave him a cheeky smirk and pointed her chopsticks at him. "Oh, so what, you got a look into a girl's mind and couldn't handle it? Makes sense, a simple boy brain like yours couldn't even begin to comprehend how us girls work." She said, getting a quiet laugh from Juzo.

"That's not what I mean, that quirk of hers is seriously messed up, I don't understand how she's even here with a quirk that whispers in her ear things like that!" Neito said. His hand tightened around his chopsticks as he spoke, looking down at his food. Setsuna raised an eyebrow at that, actually feeling a bit concerned at that point. "She should be in a padded room or something!"

"Dude, chill, just cause you don't get it-"

"It encouraged me to die!" Neito whisper-shouted, getting Juzo to flinch back at the interruption and aggressive tone. "While she was attacking me, her quirk encouraged me to just let myself die, that things would be better that way! Her Quirk comes with it's own fucking depressive disorder!"

"... Okay, bullshit." Setsuna said as she pointed her chopsticks at him. "I've only known her for like, a day and a half, but even I can tell she's probably the happiest person in our year. Admittedly, a little scary, but with her quirk it's not surprising."

Neito clenched his fist a bit tighter, a small crackling sound coming from his knuckles and the strained chopsticks. He took a deep breath and relaxed his hands. "So, you're all backing out of the plan?"

Juzo shrugged. "We're partnered up with them, not fighting against them. It'd look bad in front of the pros if we let petty rivalries get in the way of getting a job done to the best of our abilities." He said as he picked at his food with his chopsticks. "Doesn't mean we can't use it early in though, I'm already thinking of sharing it with my team."

"Hah, and let anyone from Class 1-A gain from our hard work and genius!?" Neito said as Juzo brought some food to his mouth and took a bite. "You can't be serious!"

"Why not, when we all graduate we'll probably end up working with them more often than not anyway. Plus, wouldn't it make it a lot easier to utilize your quirk if you had good relationships with everyone in the hero course?" Juzo said after swallowing his food. "Who'd you get as a partner anyway?"

"Some tiny kid with grapes for hair," Neito said. "They must have known what was coming and hacked the system to pair me with him, he's a joke. Either he's in his book or hitting himself for perverted comments."

"Hey, what's going on?"

Sestuna looked up to see Itsuka with a tray full of food in her hands, taking a seat next to Neito. She smirked and pointed her chopsticks at the blond copycat. "Just listening to Neito moan about his terrible partner and how 1-A is evil for ruining our plans with their cooperativeness."

"Setsuna on the other hand got one of their scare-dorable members, Izuku. I think UA had a bit of fun partnering us up." Juzo added before bringing some noodles to his mouth and slurping them up.

"She's not adorable, she's a menace! She could have, would have killed me, and her quirk was excited about what it would do to me when I died!" Neito said, controlling himself just enough to keep his comments from leaving the table. "You should ask for a new partner, Osore and Nirengeki are partnered up, maybe you could ask for a switch."

"Nah." Setsuna said as she grinned at the blond. He made a surprised face at her reaction. "Dude, you messed with her, of course you got a peak at her bad side. I've gotten a glimpse of her good side and to be honest, with her questions about my quirk, her excited face when she saw I can literally fall apart and control the pieces… it's like hanging out with a kid sister."

"Fine, ignore my warning, hope you enjoy her ruining your shot at any good internships." Neito said as he stood up, heading to a different table. Setsuna huffed at his back and turned to Itsuka and Juzo.

"So, who'd you two get partnered with?"

Itsuka smiled and pointed her chopsticks at Momo, who sat at a table on the opposite side of the aisle. "That one, Momo Yaoyarozu, one of the clinic recommendation students. Her quirk is something else, kind of scares me but in a good way." She said as Juzo finished his noodles. "You?"

"A frog girl, Tsuyu Asui, couldn't ask for better. Her agility plus my quirk, we'll have the terrain advantage regardless of the situation."

"Oh, those sound like fighting words Juzo, didn't you just preach working together?" Setsuna said as she turned her head towards him. The sandy haired boy shrugged in response, looking entirely unapologetic.

"Make no mistake, we should work together. That's why we're put together into these teams, but it's still a competition, one I don't plan on losing." Juzo said as Itsuka moved to take a bite of her food. "For Neito, his quirks dependent on working with someone, so showing off that he's good at that in the competition will work wonders in getting a pro to want him as an intern. Me, my quirk works best when I have the element of surprise, but every hero can take advantage of that, so I need to be able to fight even when I'm out of my element."

"So you're just going to declare war now, make sure we're already watching out for you?"

"Exactly, and then I'll win regardless."

Itsuka swallowed the food in her mouth and looked at the boy. "Right back at you, my team will flatten you when the time comes in the festival." She said, getting a chuckle from Juzo. "So, you got Izuku huh, have you thought about asking Hitoshi, Tetsutetsu, or Osore about her?"

"She's pretty open about asking what my quirk can do, and she showed off a bit of her quirk yesterday. Seems to work similar to mine but… messier. I'll admit Neito isn't wrong that her quirk might be on the scarier side." Setsuna said as she remembered their attempt at pranking each other the moment they met. "I tried the whole 'my hand fell off' prank with Lizard Tail Splitter, but she had the same idea. With her though, blood sort of drips from the break off point."

Juzo choked on his water at that comment, hitting his chest a couple times and clearing his throat before looking over. "Seriously? Wonder what kind of mental wiring that takes."

"Wait, do you agree with him now?" Itsuka asked, a slight frown on her face. "Because of something like that?"

Setsuna watched as Juzo shook his head and held his hands up. "No way, chances are someone more qualified than Neito to say whether or not she can be a hero already picked her brain, but the weirder the quirk, the weirder the person." Juzo said, getting a confused look from Kendo. "For you, it's probably not much of an issue, all you do is make your hands bigger."

"What's that supposed to mean!?"

"But for people like Manga, there's more to it than just accepting the fact you'll never find a pair of gloves you can get attached to." Juzo said as he ignored Itsuka's annoyed question and instead jabbed a thumb towards a certain word bubble headed friend of theirs a few tables over. "Ever notice how Manga ducked for cover whenever Vlad used onomatopoeias' like Bang or Boom? He's hardwired to understand when those words are said, things explode, even though for everyone else that makes no sense. Another good example is Ibara, ever notice how she tries really hard to put herself under sunlight and seems to think Shihai's preference for dark corners is literally unhealthy?"

"I… guess, I thought it was just a religious thing though." Itsuka said. Setsuna snorted and shook her head. "What?"

"It's her quirk, she literally has vines growing out of her head, she needs sunlight for photosynthesis, to her it doesn't make sense that other people don't need that." Setsuna said, getting a nod from Juzo.

"Exactly. Now imagine what kind of mental state someone needs to be able to cut themselves apart?" Juzo said. Itsuka blinked, then went pale as her eyes opened wide. "Now you're getting it."

Setsuna popped her head off and let it fall to the table. "Probably similar to mine, maybe a bit more capable of ignoring pain since, well, this doesn't exactly hurt." She said before using her quirk to make her head float into the air. "Come to think of it, she did seem extraordinarily happy, maybe some of it was faked, hero persona and all that."

"Well, whatever it is, it should be fun for you." Juzo said before bringing some more noodles up to his mouth. "Quirk Instability isn't exactly sunshine and rainbows… are you going to put that back on your neck?"

"In a minute, still don't get why this bothers you."

"You're a floating head!" Itsuka said in exasperation as Juzo slurped his noodles. "It's disturbing to look at!"

Setsuna's body shrugged as her head spun over her food. "I'm pretty sure we'll all see worse once we're officially heroes, so you should probably get used to it."

"Like you're used to Kinoki growing mushrooms to snack on under her desk?"

"She grows 'em from her waist! How am I supposed to resist laughing when Vlad makes her stand up and it bounces like a doorstop!?"

Juzo snorted and accidentally bit down on his noodles, causing the remaining noodles to fall back onto their plate. He hit his chest twice before taking a deep breath. "Is that what makes you die of laughter every time it happens!?" He said as he choked out laughter. "I never saw that part cause Pony's horns are always in the way!"

Setsuna grinned as her head bobbed up and down. "It totally is, seriously, she stands up and it's like Spro-o-o-o-ong!"

Itsuka looked between the two with a twitching eye before her face crinkled up, trying to hold back a snort of her own. "Okay, fine, that one's not fair."

"Not even slightly, but I forgive you." Setsuna said as her head came back to her neck, reconnecting with her body. As the other two dug back into their food, she glanced at Izuku from the corner of her eye. The green haired girls eyes were staring aimlessly in front of her as she bit into a large steak. 'She doesn't even cut her food, just bites right through it as if she's literally a zombie.'

On the other side of the cafeteria, Katsuki sat across from two students from the general education course. To his left sat a short boy with various bat-like features, the same boy who'd come up to him demanding the chance to be a hero. His name was Yasashi Kawamori, though Katsuki was sticking to Squeaks. To his right was Yasashi's classmate, a girl with disproportionately long legs and arms compared to her torso. She had black hair that was cut in a rather messy bowl cut, with large glasses over her eyes. Her name was Hachishi Hiname, but Katsuki's name for her was Stick Bitch.

The two of them were the only general education students interested in moving to the Hero course, and so he decided he'd lead them. There was no way he was leaving it to some vine headed girl from 1-B. First step, getting these two in positions they'll do well in.

"Alright, listen up. You two are weak, don't bother getting mad about it, I can see flab on your arms." He said, pointing his chopsticks at them. Yasashi looked annoyed while Hachishi looked embarrassed at the comment. "That's why Mei and I already came up with plans for the two of you. Once lunch is over, we'll have a rest period to prepare ourselves for the festival in our assigned 'agency' rooms. You two are going to be backing me up."

"Really?" Yasashi asked. "But yesterday-"

"Yesterday I said for someone who wants to be a hero, you sure aren't putting any effort behind it." Katsuki said, grinning at the two of them. "Today, that changes. Mei figured out your specs and made gear for the two of you. That stuff will help make up for the lack of physical strength and highlight your quirks advantages. Between the three of us, we'll be ready for whatever the school throws at us."

Katsuki lowered his chopsticks to his food and snatched up some noodles, bringing them to his mouth and slurping them up. The two general education students looked at each other, then at Katsuki. He waited for them to speak up, and when they didn't he swallowed his noodles. "What, is there a problem?"

"Are you sure she'll have it all ready, they only told us about this teamwork thing yesterday." Hachishi said. Katsuki barked out a laugh and shook his head in amusement. "What, it's a reasonable-"

"I know, that's what makes it funny." Katsuki said as he picked up his rice bowl. He probably should have figured they'd get nervous, they were part of the general education course, and they'd never met Mei, they were used to ordinary. "First rule about being a hero, the unreasonable is the only reasonable thing to expect from the people around you. She'll have the equipment ready, because if she couldn't manage an unreasonable request like that, she wouldn't be in U.A.'s Support Department."

"That's-"

"Plus Ultra." Katsuki said, interrupting the small boy. "That's what it means to go Plus Ultra. To look at something everyone else would call an unreasonable, impossible task and say 'Watch me.'."

Hachishi and Yasashi looked at Katsuki as he started scooping rice into his mouth. "... But, how do you do something that's impossible?" Yasashi said. "That what impossible means, that you can't do it."

The explosive blond put his rice bowl down and looked at him, then shook his head. "When I was growing up, my dad introduced me to a pre-quirk game that survived the introduction of quirks. In that game there was a class that was all about justice, and he explained it with a motto." Katsuki said. "That Perfection is Impossible doesn't mean one shouldn't strive for it. You might think what you're asked to do is impossible, U.A. might even put us against things pros would find hard to deal with… but you have to try anyway, to do your best, because heroes don't sit back and wait for someone better."

Katsuki's hand clenched tight as he looked at his food, phantom pains spiking through his jaw, throat, and nostrils. "Heroes do everything they can, no matter what. If you two want to be heroes, you have to be able to do whatever it takes, even the impossible." He said, "That's how you're going to impress the heroes, the teachers, by proving that you won't falter just because you're at a disadvantage."

The two general course students looked at each other and nodded. "Right!"

Timeskip - Some Hours Later - U.A. Stadium

"I can't believe this, why'd we get stuck with patrol duty?"

Yui Takayama, otherwise known as Mt. Lady, crossed her arms as she walked alongside two other pro heroes Death Arms and Kamui Woods. The three of them got along better than most would expect, given how they would steal captured from each other. The three of them worked in the same prefecture, and often coordinated their patrols, working together and calling one another for back-up.

The 'interference' with each others work was nothing more than an act played to capitalize on the idea of various rivalries growing between heroes. Endeavor had, unintentionally, created a demand for it in the media and amongst hero otakus in Japan with his constant effort to keep up with and surpass All Might. The three of them just set up their debuts to go with that theme.

Death Arms debuted first, and was the hero to corner the villain Kamui Woods captured for his debut, and Mt. Lady had debuted stealing one from Kamui Woods.

It was a game for them, one they decided drinks over, and one that got them incentive pay from the government. It looked good when heroes had to compete for captures after all, like there was a surplus of heroes compared to the level of active criminals. They even had a plan to have Kamui Woods pay Mt. Lady back by stealing a capture from her, just to have Death Arms capture the villain instead to pay Kamui back.

That however, had been screwed up nearly a year ago when all three of them together had failed to stop a single villain. Some nameless villain with a sludge quirk who had no violence in their record outmaneuvered three combat heroes. They had to put the rivalry on hold and show they were still capable and not just one hit wonders.

Which also meant taking on extra assignments rather than normal hero work.

"We're going to miss Everything!" She said, getting a sigh from Kamui woods and Death Arms. "How am I supposed to pick an intern if I don't get a good look at their quirks in action!?"

"Hello And Welcome to the U.A. Sports Festivaaaal!"

"Go to hell!"

In the announcers booth, oblivious to the complaints of Mt. Lady, Hizashi Yamada, also known as Present Mic, began the process of introducing the Festival. "For those of you watching at home, you tuned in just in time the First Year Games!" He said, keeping his quirk under control as he spoke into a microphone. "Good thing too, because we've thrown a bit of a twist into the games this year!"

"Recently there's been claims of U.A. giving the Hero Course preferential treatment, so to better show that we teach each student to the best of our abilities and their willingness to learn, they were placed on teams comprised of members from each course." Shouta said from next to him. His calm, almost bored voice was just as loud as Hizashis, thanks to the audio technicians who set up the microphones with the two in mind. "Each team was designed to allow each student to show off exactly what they want to do and what they're capable of."

"Because they'll be working together, the level of the challenges they'll be facing are to be harder than anything we've done for our First Year category before!" He said as the students came onto the field. "And here they come!"

Izuku grinned as she looked around, her team walking alongside her. "Wooooow, look at how many heroes there are…" She said as the stands exploded into cheers.

"No kidding…" One of her teammates, a redheaded boy named Kikaiko said. He was from the Support course, and had been in charge of creating their teams gadgets as well as a few costume adjustments. "Think any of them have their eyes on us?"

"Now that's what I call a team, take a look at Team Twelve, making sure no-one is standing behind the others or looking like a bystander in the background!"

"They certainly do now." Setsuna said, grinning as she waved to the crowd.

The students all came up to a white, concrete stage, where a certain hero was standing and waiting with a smirk on her face.

"No way-!"

"Is that-!?"

"And here to announce the first event and act as the first referee for the first year students… Pro-Hero Midniiiiight!"

Standing in her Hero outfit, a breastless black leotard with red, gemstone accents over a white bodysuit, translucent black stockings and black knee high boots was Midnight, The R-Rated Heroine.

"Hello boys and girls, ready to have some fun?" She said as she slapped a small flogging whip in her hands, her handcuff shaped bracelets jingling slightly. She brought her hand up and tapped a small headset she was wearing, smiling as she heard a bit of feedback. "While the plans for what our students might be facing might have changed, there are certain parts of the Festival that stayed the same. First things first however, our Student Pledge!"

"This year, the student representative for the first years is… Izuku Midoriya!"

Izuku blinked as Midnight pointed at her with her flogging whip. "Come on up and give your teams pledge!"

Setsuna laughed and slapped a hand against her back to push her forward. "Go on, let'em all know we're gonna win this thing!" She said, gesturing for Izuku to move forward.

The greenette nodded and made her way up the stage. Izuku couldn't help but wonder if she was dreaming as she walked to Midnight and the microphone. Before she could put her hands on it however, Midnight knelt down to her level. "For the sake of keeping people from freaking out in the stands, don't talk about how you got your quirk." She said before patting the girl on the shoulder and standing back up. Izuku looked at the hero, then the microphone, and thought for a moment about what she was going to say.

A sound caught her ear from the crowd, and she looked out to see Katsuki, who looked rather impatient next to Mei and the rest of his team. Her eyes sparkled and she grinned as an idea came to mind. She walked up to the microphone and took a deep breath through her nose before speaking.

"We vow to win." She said, immediately getting cries of indignation and boos from her fellow students. "We're not going to hold back, we're going to fight with everything we've got, cause we know everyone else has made the same promise to themselves and their teammates. So, We vow to win with everything we've got!"

The booing died down and she looked over to Midnight. A shiver ran down Izuku's spine at the look on Midnight's face before the woman schooled her features and looked out to the crowd again. "And with that out of the way, lets see what the first event's gonna be!"

Part of the stage opened up and a large wheel with different words written on it rose up from the opening. Izuku scanned over a few of the words, Obstacle Course, Free-For-All, Go-Kart Racing, Minesweeper… before she could read any of the other possibilities Midnight gripped the wheel and threw it into a spin. A tab near the top clicked against small rods around the edge for a good minute before the wheel came to a stop and the tab pointed at a single word.

MANHUNT

"Looks like it's going to be a Manhunt for the First Round, I'm almost jealous of these kids~!" Midnight declared from the stage, getting a roaring cheer from the stadium audience. Present Mic on the other hand just nodded and pulled out his notes on the challenge from his seat in the announcers booth. "Won't you tell them why boys?"

"For one, it's been a while since this challenge has had the chance to show up, and it couldn't have picked a better time to come back into the spotlight!" Present Mic said as he put his notes away. "Hell, it's even got my fellow commentator Eraserhead looking pleased, what's up with that huh!?"

Eraserhead didn't bother to respond, so Present Mic gave a shrug and looked back out to the stadium field. "Anyway, The Manhunt's not as straightforward as a race or free-for-all, but it's still a perfect showcase of this year's changes! In just a few moments, these first year teams will be facing off against each other in a race to get as many points as possible to stay in the top fifty percent!"

Midnight gestured for Izuku to head back to her team. "Students, while they go through the details, get your equipment and head to Starting Gate U!" She said, waving her flog towards the students and then towards the doors situated around the stadium. "Round One starts in Ten Minutes!"

"Come on, let's get all dolled up for the cameras." Setsuna said as she put an arm around Izuku's shoulders, leading her towards one of the doors. Their team followed suit, walking with them as the two teachers went over the basics of the challenge.

"In order to stay ahead, each agency will have to show more than just firepower. They'll have to be able to find, subdue, and escort targets ranging from groups of low value thugs, to hard to find and even harder to fight targets." Eraserhead added as the students got into their assigned rooms. "They'll have to show good judgement in how much power they put behind their blows so they don't cause excessive collateral, severely maim, and or cripple targets beyond certain boundaries, as well as in verifying they only go after actual targets and not 'civilians'."

Kikaiko grinned as he held up a pair of suitcases. "Alright, let's start with the gear." He said as he pushed the suitcases into Setsuna and Izuku's hands. The two greenettes looked at the cases, then at him as he gestured for them to open the cases up. Setsuna gave a shrug before holding up the case and flipping the tabs open. Izuku did the same, looking at the contents and grinning. "So, how'd I do?"

Izuku pulled out what looked like a small backpack, looking a lot like her usual school backpack but with the black and red coloration of her hero costume.

Neito looked at the brass pocket watch in his right hand as the rest of his team began to mentally prepare. They along with everyone else were waiting in a large, undecorated corridor for the first round to begin. While not packed shoulder to shoulder, he didn't exactly have room to stretch and he could already tell from the size of main exit doors that if he rushed forward he'd get stuck between way too many people. He clicked the watch open and looked at the hands inside and let a smirk tug at the corner of his mouth.

"Round One, Manhunt will begin in three!"

The 1-A student on his team, a Mineta Minoru, finally put his book away and plucked a pair of hairballs from his scalp.

"Two!"

"Stick to the plan." He said his team as one of the general education students reached out towards him.

"One!"

Neito felt his quirk take effect the moment his teammate touched him, the change in his quirk factor triggering a sensor in the pocket watch as he clipped it to his belt.

"Begin!"

The Second hand moved three seconds counter clockwise from the six, and the Minute hand moved two minutes clockwise from the nine as Mineta started throwing his hairballs onto the walls. As anticipated in the rush to get out and start searching for points, the teams were getting in each other's way, as if not realizing how tall the doors were and how much space there was to move through right about their heads. "Ready!"

Neito grabbed Mineta by his feet and activated the general education student's quirk, Arm Cannon. His hand retracted into his arm, bringing Mineta with it as he aimed the boy up towards the closest of the balls. "Remember, scout ahead, lock in place a few points, and find a vantage point for us to work with!" Neito said before releasing the quirk. His hand sprung back into its original position with enough force to fling Mineta straight at the pre-placed balls, which he then ricocheted off of.

"And first out of the starting is… Mineta Minoru!"

Neito let his smirk widen as he heard the other students cry out in frustration. "Alright, now, let's make our way out of here!"

As soon as he said it, the temperature took a nosedive and ice formed around the bottom of the entrance. Soon after a pillar of ice catapulted a group of students out while a shorter wall of ice blocked the lower half. "Shit, Ganseki, you're with me, Tsuika, prepare the explosive rounds!"

The two nodded as he looked over the ice as people started scaling it or using their quirks to leap over it, finally realizing that they didn't need to run or stampede over each other to get through the starting gate. "Alright team, right now that ice is impeding not only us, but every other student here. Our job is to get through, meet up with Mineta, and begin sweeping for points… but first we're going to earn some points with the spectating heroes!"

"...When we all graduate we'll probably end up working with them more often than not anyway."

"… Wouldn't it make it a lot easier to utilize your quirk if you had good relationships…"

"We're going to shatter that ice, so everyone can get out of here!" Neito said as Tsuika tossed to him a large, spherical object. He held it up, activated Ganseki's quirk, and aimed his arm at the ice. "We'll show them we're able to take first place even if we're giving up a possible advantage!"

'And lull those idiots into a false sense of comradery before we take advantage of them all!'

Closer to the front, Denki held back a curse as he put a hand to his headset. "I am so going to joy buzz his chair!" He said before unmuting his microphone. "This is Denki requesting Status!"

"Suzu here, I'm alright and so's Yoiban!"

"Togaru here and I'm just fine. I've got the rest of our team in sight, no injuries."

Denki sighed before looking at the ice, while a few teams appeared to be climbing the ice he wasn't sure his team had the kind of tools necessary to do the same. "Togaru, any chance you can slice through this crap?"

"Already tried, cutting through would take too long."

"Yoiban here, I might have an idea if Haretsu has some small explosives?"

Denki started making his way to the ice. "I have the materials for a bomb or two, what sort of charge are we thinking."

"I can make some holes in the ice with my Spiral Fingers."

"Let's do it, everyone regroup around Yoiban so we can get out of here and start gathering points!"

Izuku looked between her teammates and the ice. Once Shouto had created it most of the teams that had been scrambling to get through the door instead backed up to figure out their own ways through it. "Setsuna, think you could carry us over it?" She asked, looking over at her fellow greenette.

"I could, but I'd be stuck here and it'd take way too long." She said, looking over the ice. "Funnily enough, it looks lower the closer you get to where the pillar was formed…"

"He likely formed two walls on either side of him, then formed the pillar in the middle to close the gap and launch themselves into the air. Where the pillar connects to the wall is going to be lower as a result, as the ice had to climb up at an angle from his initial position." Kikaiko said, a set of goggles over his eyes as he scanned the wall for any weak points. "His team is going to have a huge advantage if we don't hurry and get through or over that thing."

"We'd need one hell of a fire quirk to melt through that, so I think over is probably our best bet." Setsuna said after a moment's thought. "What about-"

"Fire in the hole!"

"Fire in the hole!"

Izuku immediately moved to try and cover Setsuna and Kikaiko, colliding into Setsuna as she tried to do the same. What happened next would probably go down in Sports Festival History as the craziest bit of accidental teamwork. Denki's team began blocking people from coming close to the left side of the ice wall, where they'd set a few charges within drilled holes in the wall. The charges went off just in time for a set of cannonballs to fly from the back, slamming into the cracked ice and causing it to shatter, completely opening it up for other teams to move through.

"Now's our chance!" Setsuna said, grabbing Izuku and Kikaiko and rushing forward. "Kikaiko, get in contact with the rest of the team, tell them to stick to the plan but double time it!"

Izuku sees people starting to crowd the opening and swung her arms towards the pillar. Her cuffs immediately sliced off her hands, which proceeded to fly towards the ice pillar as Setsuna jumped up. Her muscle fibers reached out, re-attaching to her hands in time for them to grab onto the ice pillar and start reeling in. Kikaiko's backpack opens up, revealing a pair of small thrusters. The three of them swung on Izuku's muscle stings, their combined weight keeping them just over the other students heads as they finally made it out of the entrance hall.

"First things first, your new Hero-Pack, designed to fit all your hero needs while keeping to the whole school girl aesthetic you've got going on."

Izuku's hands let go of the pillar and were pulled back onto her arms, where her quirk made sure they were reattached. The thrusters sank into her Hero-Pack as a mechanical arm with a set of goggles popped out, placing the goggles over her eyes. Immediately the goggles started tracking heat signatures - reading not only where they were but the exact temperatures to give her an idea as to what was generating the heat.

"You don't need power, you're a powerhouse physically and even if the villain overpowers you, there's no stopping you from stopping them - you just need a way to find them and their victims as well as carry anything those victims need to make it out."

"Setsuna, there's a few heat signatures consistent with human body temperature on the third floor of that building." Izuku said as Kikaiko put the pack he'd been carrying on the ground. The pack opened up, the innards forming a computer with an antenna, radar dish, and various other dials Izuku didn't recognize.

"I'll find activity, you can scout it out and relay the details back to me before moving to capture or rescue while I send in back-up. It'll have everything you need to find out where people are hiding while also having anything you might need to prevent people from dying!"

"Communications are up, currently waiting for the radar to map the casualty."

"I've got an eye in the building, we've got our first villain."

Kamino Ward

Tomura rested his elbows on the counter as he held a glass of water in a tumbler glass. According to Kurogiri, he'd been banned from alcohol for the day - normally he was allowed minor drinks, usually a bitter liqueur - as he was to watch the U.A. Sports Festival with a clear mind. The idea made him sick, watching a bunch of grinning idiots pretending the world was perfect. Still, Sensei had given the order, and he always either had a reason or a lesson behind what he told him to do.

So he drank his water, wishing it was something else, and watched as the students of U.A. fought each other to prove they were better than each other. After the fight at the USJ, he'd been told to think back to what mistakes he could have made - and he'd been able to admit to more than just a few.

For one, he'd had the wrong goal - The Death of All-Might. While yes, he wanted that, the fact he wanted it was proof that hadn't been the goal of the job. He'd forgotten the number one reason you accepted a quest in his desire to get exactly that, the reason he'd accepted the quest.

A Reward.

He'd been working towards making the Reward happen, not towards doing what needed to be done to get his reward. It was a bitter pill to swallow, especially for him. Still, now he understood - he needed to work towards collapsing hero society and once it began to fall, All-Might would fall from the very top all the way down to him and then -

CRASH

He looked at his hand, seeing he'd gotten excited and shattered the glass. A sigh left his lips and he moved to wipe it up. Turning in his set to better orientate himself, he saw Toga looking at the TV Screen, a far away look on her face. She always had that look on her face unless someone was talking to her - this dream-like stare like she wasn't wholly aware of the fact she was in a real world. It was strange, and a part of him wondered what made her so obsessed with that weird hero wannabe.

Granted, he wasn't without interest himself, she had a face after he'd disintegrated it, that was new.

He looked back at the screen to see they were showing her and her team utilizing equipment he hadn't seen on her before to find and track down the robotic villains as well as see which ones were set up as civilian hostages. All and all, they looked like brats, scampering around blowing up robots. Was this really U.A.'s Best, the ones who'd taken down his league? What was he supposed to see here?

"Just a bunch of brats…"

"You're not very good at this, are you?" Toga said, her head propped up in her hands as she leaned over the counter. Tomura turned and glared at her from behind Father, the hand on his face. Was she disrespecting him? "You're missing the point, what they had over those weaklings you kept having me weed out the useless from."

"And what, exactly, is that? Those weaklings might have been low level, but against a strong opponent the weak can win, it's called action economy."

"Hmmm… look there, the guy with the ice. He's barely working with his team and while he has a bit of a leg up, people are catching up. Like you said, weaker people are surpassing someone stronger than them."

"Why are you just proving-"

"But." Kurogiri said, interrupting the villainous man child. "There's also the redhead, with the big hands. She's working alone too and her quirk isn't anywhere near as powerful as his - yet, not only is she catching up…"

Tomura took a moment to watch the screen, where it was now showing a girl named Itsuka Kendo demolishing machines with quick, rapid ambush strikes and overwhelming force. She was quickly moving up the ranks in the game - how was she keeping up with someone like Shoto Todoroki? Logically his tactics should be better at dealing with large numbers of opponents, so he should be able to rack up points faster than she could.

Yet… her points went up more often than his.

"She has a team, and they're working to her favor while he's just brute forcing it like you did~." Toga said, swinging her legs and sounding as if she was trying to sing.

Kurogiri sighed, shaking his head at Toga's antics. "She's not the only one dealing with robots, she has a team gathering intel on where the best groupings of points are. She then takes out the big ones while minor groups are dealt with by the less experienced general course students who want to be heroes but failed initially."

"And because of the constant flow of points, with a team working together to maximize their gain…"

The pieces clicked in Tomura's mind as he watched Itsuka's score push up to second place behind Shoto, then get kicked to third by Katsuki - and then get back to second before the system had them right next to each other in the scoreboard. "They're blasting through mobs quicker than his AoE can cooldown."

"Meanwhile, the forces you gathered were all bozos, all I could do was weed out the totally useless ones and hope you bound them together in teams that could work right… instead they all just sort of got punted into different zones with no synergy." Toga said, shrugging. "And they lost pretty hard as a result."

Tomura grunted and looked back at his hand. "Kind of like your quirk, it only really works when all five fingers are on something, if even one misses the memo… nothing happens."

"... I get it. These brats, they're getting an easy, detailed tutorial. Meanwhile I'm stuck here, Sensei can teach a lot but what use is it if I don't understand them." Tomora said, getting an eye roll from Toga. Not quite what she meant, but if it made him happy and kept him from suspecting she was after her own thing, it worked just fine. She was just glad Kurogiri had unintentionally helped her cement that.

U.A Sports Festival

"Twelve!"

Izuku ducked down at Kikaiko's warning as a large, metallic fist flew over her head. She turned and swept her leg under the robot, causing it to fall to its side. Tokages hands flew in above her and locked a magnetic cuff over it's wrists, earning them bonus points for taking the 'villain' conscious and in relatively good health. They were in the fifty percent margin to pass - but she wanted more than just to pass.

They needed to get a lot of points, and they needed to get them really fast.

"Hey, where's the next biggest concentration of opponents?" Setsuna asked into the microphone while the general studies students on their team moved in to escort the civilian bots to safety. Izuku brought her hand up to her visor and switched back to thermal vision as she looked over the area. Thankfully, the shape of the robots helped in differentiating them from fellow students as the fights began to spread out, each team looking to maximize their scores. This unfortunately had the result of breaking apart the larger concentrations as some villain bots had AI's advanced enough to know when to run and avoid capture.

'If you need something just let me know, I'll make it for you!'

Make it… if there were no large concentrations of villains…

"Helloooo? Iz-imouto, wakey wakey~"

Izuku blinked as her thermal setting showed just a large, yellow and white blob right in front of her. When she switched it off, it was revealed to be Setsuna's hand. "Sooo, next group?"

"Change of plans - Kikaiko, can you track all the villain bots that are running from the other students?" Izuku asked as she went up to one of the windows.

"We should be able to, just give us a moment - Yui, send out a hack signal, let me know when you're in."

"...I'm in."

"Alright, Izuku, I'm taking remote control of the visor to turn a few things on, Yui, start upload file twenty seven into the hack."

"Huh, what's that supposed to do?" Setsuna said as she turned on her mic and joined in on the conversation. "And can we really afford to stop and chase down runners?"

Izuku nodded. "Right now everyone is trying to earn as many points as possible by bringing down and stopping the villains while saving the civilians. With each crackdown a bunch of robots are running when they see they'll be captured - and people are prioritizing saving the civilian robots for the quicker points."

"Which means there's a growing number of un-exploited points just piling up as they all go to new locations and await whatever the next phase of their programming dictates... and that's a lot." Kikaiko said over the comms as he brought up multiple camera feeds from around the arena.

Izuku's visor lit up with dots and arrows, and each dot had a corresponding number. "These are the hideout locations, and those numbers are the total points in villain captures associated with each one."

Setsuna's eyes went wide as her own visor showed the same numbers. "... Okay, I'm sold, let's take these guys out!"

"Does anyone else find it odd those hideouts are close to where the civilians need to be escorted? The nearest one to our location is in between us and the civilian evac location."

Izuku and Setsuna shared a worried look as Kikaiko told everyone to hold as he confirmed what the student said. There was a pause before only one dot showed up on Izuku's visor. "New plan, the robots are gathering to hit the evac zones, it must be a second phase of the game - Each of you has a hideout set to your visor, lock them down or capture them now before they can start ruining the evacuation zones!"

"Let's move!" Setsuna said, her body breaking apart as Izuku grabbed hold of her head, leaping from the window with a whirlwind of body parts following behind her. Izuku's feet hit a wall and she jumped down, wall hopping until she was at ground level. The streets were chaotic as other teams made streetside take downs or tried to escort civilians while shielding them from the effects of the other students' quirks in action. The two ran into a nearby alley and made their way to the hideout on their visor, Setsuna's head eventually floating up on it's own and splitting into small pieces - and keeping her mouth near Izuku. "Alright… where's the hideou -"

"Look out! I just saw Ms. Midnight press a button!"

Airspace above the Middle East

Hizashi watched on his laptop as the U.A. Sports Festival. The students were showing the usual bullheadedness he expected from new heroes - they weren't going after runners, focusing on escorting civilians out and letting the runners go. Bad move, and he had a feeling the teachers would use the chance to teach them a lesson to up the activity and hopefully show the quick thinking of their students.

"What's this? Seems Team Twelve has stopped!? I see lips moving - let's see what they've got in store!"

Team Twelve… his daughters team. His eyes hardened as he finally got to see what his daughter looked like after… after she…

His knuckles went white and the glow in his eyes grew - until his eyes resembled balls of flame, wisps of energy wafting up and away from them to complete the effect. Her skin was pale, her lips were blue, her face looked like it'd been stitched back together like a ragdoll.

The image of his little girl, laughing as she carried an ice cream cone and watched a group of people on a rollercoaster they were waiting in line to ride, came to mind, full of life and joy. He could feel his quirk spreading through his body, especially at his throat, as his blood veins took a green hue. Her eyes widened, revealing a bloodshot appearance as her lips moved and U.A.s system let everyone know what they were saying.

"Right now everyone is trying to earn as many points as possible by bringing down and stopping the villains while saving the civilians. With each crackdown a bunch of robots are running when they see they'll be captured - and people are prioritizing saving the civilian robots for the quicker points."

"Oh-ho! It seems our student representative's catching on to the game! Let's give them some privacy and see how far they go!" Present Mic exclaimed before cutting the feed to the team's communications. Hizashi wished that the fact his daughter was a bright, clever child despite what had happened could help ease the ache in his chest. The idea that maybe she just looked a bit different on the outside because she was still the same little girl who just wanted to help everyone. He couldn't do that, though she looked more alive than any corpse he'd ever seen. The fact was she resembled a fresh corpse stitched back together by Frankenstein himself.

And it hurt.

"Sir… is everything alright?"

"... Just a reminder that I've been away from home far too long." He said as he forced himself to calm down, then smiled at the woman with the mask of a happy father in place. "That's my daughter, you see, I haven't seen her in so long and now she's a student in U.A.'s Hero Course. I'm proud but… it hurts to see how much I've missed."

And how much I could have stopped, he kept himself from saying as he looked back at the screen. His daughter was moving through an alleyway with her teammate following in pieces - a useful quirk, and one he could exploit if she ever ended up making any particularly bad mistakes regarding hero work. They stopped a point and looked around - as if they missed something.

The screen changed to Midnight grinning and pressing a button.

"LET PHASE TWO OF THE MANHUNT BEGIN!"

U.A. Stadium

Katsuki watched over as a few of his teammates finished escorting the latest batch of civilians to the evac zone. Something in the back of his head felt like he was missing something. The General Coursers who wanted to work as sidekicks for the 'student agency' team were doing well, with him cleaning up anything out of their range. Shiozaki on the other hand was making quick work of any that ran away - her long reach was perfect for the job.

The fact that robots were even running was his first hint to something being wrong, especially after her reminded himself that Present Mic specifically said things weren't going to be straight forward about this challenge. Then the ground shook. His eyes immediately went up, searching for Zero Pointers - the fact he hadn't seen any yet was confusing in and of itself - but he didn't see any.

"Katsuki! The run-aways! The other teams must have let theirs get away - they're hitting the evac zones!"

Tall bitch was practically screaming into the microphone - he scoffed and brought a hand to his headset and began to speak. "Calm down, prioritize the civilians - Nun chick, they're coming to us now, think you can make a barricade?"

"My vines are already digging through the ground to surround the evac location - I'll leave an opening for further civilians to enter from."

Katsuki cracked his knuckles and grinned, looking at the biggest concentration of villain bots rushing the evac zone from the street. "Good, I'll move to flank them then - support from the evac zone, and don't let any of them get close!" He said as he threw his hands back and set off an explosion, flying straight at the villain bots with his leg pulled back to drive his knee into one.

The Robot had just enough time to turn it's sensors towards the explosion before one of Katsuki's knees - complete with a rounded metal guard - slammed into the 'stomach' of the robot, throwing it across the street and into a wall. "Now… DIE YOU ROBOT BASTARDS!"

Katsuki let himself grin as he felt back into a few of his old habits - if he'd learned one thing from Mirio and the other members of the Big Three, as well as his research into Retribution, there was one useful thing for taking villains in unharmed that he had in spades.

Intimidation - and his management student was just so certain he could sell that.

His hand crackled with micro explosions to reduce the amount of nitroglycerin on his palm before he thrust the hand forward and set the rest of it off. An explosion rang out and fire engulfed the robot he aimed the palm thrust at.

His team's score moved up to third place, and the ground shook again. "Huh, now wha-"

A glance at the skyline told him what he needed to know.

"Wait - are those the zero pointers!?"

"Well, they had to throw a bunch of them at us at some point - we were expected to deal with just one during initiation." Katsuki said as he put his attention back on the robots around him. "Hey, Thorny nun!"

"I'm already on my way to the nearest one."

"I'd like to go on record saying I think this is a BAD IDEA! Now that I've said it, this is going to be soooo awesome… Kikaiko, walk me through it."

"The Zero Pointers were one of the first things we learned how to fix - and if these are the same models we repaired, then there should be an access panel inside it. You can get in right?"

Izuku was hanging onto the hip of the Zero Pointer while Setsuna's body parts whizzed around it, looking for openings in the plates and joints. The mouth next to her grinned and the parts all converged on one point before her mouth zipped over to her reforming body as well.

"I found what looks like an access door… there's a fifteen on it. Izuku, we've got this - head down to help with the small fry!"

Izuku nodded and let go, letting herself fall from the machine and spin around so she was facing the incoming ground. Her backpack opened up, two thrusters slowing her descendant steering her to a nearby group of villain bots - all designed like robot centaurs with scorpion tails, She curled her legs as the thrusters spun and instead increased her fall speed - directing her to the back of one of the robots. Once she was close enough she extended her legs, kicking the robot with reinforced shoes and rocket enhanced super strength. The villain bot buckled and dropped to the ground before she took its tail and swung it like a flail, knocking another three back and to the ground.

Izuku licked her lips and tilted her head, dropping the robot villain she'd used as a weapon and rushing past the rest - and then continuing to run. The Robots turned to follow her movement, then chased after her as more robots came out from hiding, Izuku grinned as the plan started to come together… she took a left back towards the Zero-Pointer as it turned towards her and started taking steps.

Followed by the large machine bringing a fist down on the villain bots that were chasing her.

"Hey Izuku, we convinced him to help out for a lesser sentence! Kikaiko was very persuasive."

Izukus' grin grew wider as she watched their points skyrocket to the top five. They weren't going to just move on.

She planned on winning - just like she said she would.

When Life gives you options - select all of the above and make it happen, somehow.

If life wants to deny you - find the contradictions and change them until they compliment each other.

This Wickerbot was told either lose weight and get a better job, or sit around on a computer and stay the same. This Wickerbot wrote underneath those choices C. All of the Above and it might have taken a while, but By Jove he's done it!

And now, Omake!

OMAKE: THE MAKINGS OF A HEROIC DUO!

Four Izuku looked over the piece of paper Four year old Katsuki had handed her. Then she looked up at him, then at the paper, then back at him.

"But... what's it for?"

"Stupid Deku! It's your power sheet! You can't play hero the normal way so we gotta play it the way dad showed me!"

Izuku looked back over the paper, then at a few books Katsuki had put on the table between them. Watching over them from behind a screen, Masaru smiled, he hadn't been sure this would work but from the looks of it this might help make sure they stayed friends until Izuku's quirk came in. The two children looked over the books, filling in their pages - soon, they were filled out, with some help from himself and Inko (Mitsuki had never had the patience for this game, if he was honest.)

"Right, so, you arrive in the town of Norbrook, a quaint village on the edge of the kingdoms borders..."

Both Katsuki and Izuku grinned and started giggles, already getting immersed into their first game of Dungeons and Dragons.