"You're sure that's what they said?" Kadachi asked, bringing a hand to his chin. Izuku had made it back to the stands with ten minutes or so before the next event, relaying the fact that he learned the League of Villains' warper was detected somewhere nearby. The greenette nodded at his mentor's comment. Kadachi put his head in his hands and wiped his face. "Well, that can't be good." Kadachi lifted his head up and looked at Izuku. "Do you want to leave then? Get ourselves out of dodge?"

Izuku pulled his head back as an expression of pure confusion ran across his face. "W-what?" He asked, shaking his head. "No." The boy's voice was firm and resolute. "We can't just leave! What if something happens?"

Kadachi sighed. He ran his tongue over his lips as he thought of an appropriate response. "I don't know what to tell you. We can't get involved in what's happening." Kadachi's tone held hints of regret. "This place is swarming with police and pros. I know you don't want to hear this, but we need to just sit back and let them handle it."

Izuku shook his head. "But sensei—"

"But nothing," Kadachi interrupted. "We cannot get involved here. We don't know enough about what the League is planning, nor would we have a means of escape after dealing with the League." Kadachi put his hand on Izuku's shoulder. "Listen, even though you are fighting for what you believe in, don't think that the pros are going to side with you. They might help you out during the fight, but the second it ends it is their duty and obligation to capture and detain you."

Izuku pouted. His teacher was right, and he knew it. Until he called checkmate, Izuku would be seen on the wrong side of the law. This world would be fighting against him and he needed to be careful. A myriad of possible plans flashed through the geenette's mind as he tried to find a way to help without getting himself too involved. Eventually, Izuku let out a heavy sigh. He slumped down in the stadium seat, and looked ahead, not wanting to look at his teacher for the time being.

"Midoriya-kun, I'm not saying this to be mean." Kadachi leaned back in his own seat. "I want everyone here to be as safe as possible, including you." Izuku didn't respond or acknowledge the statement, causing Kadachi to let out his own sigh. "You know, Midoriya-kun, I've met your mother only once." Izuku turned his head slightly before quickly flicking it back to where it was. Kadachi took this as a sign of interest. "It was at a parent-teacher conference. Usually it would have been your homeroom teacher present; however, he urgently had to deal with his own affairs the day off. I was already in the building, and was asked to take his place. We had the same students so I was happy to do it. There were only three parents there anyway."

Kadachi tilted his head back and looked up at the sky. He smiled as he noticed the gentle puffs of clouds rolling by. "Your mother was very interested in your studies. She asked about how 'her little Izuku' was doing, and wanted to know if everything was alright." Izuku turned his head again, this time watching his teacher. This was a story that Izuku had never heard before. "I didn't lie, but I didn't know the full truth. This was the year before you started visiting my office frequently." Kadachi turned his head back down, and looked at Izuku. "She asked me if you had a direction you were moving in. A goal to work towards." Kadachi cracked a warm smile. "She knew how difficult it would be for someone without a quirk to grow up in this society, and she wanted to make sure that you didn't lose hope."

Izuku leaned in. Kadachi saw that the boy's eyes were calculating. "Why are you telling me this?" Izuku asked, squinting his eyes. "Are you telling me I should stay safe?"

Kadachi shook his head. "No. I'm telling you that no matter how bleak your life feels, you are not alone. I can tell that you would give yourself up in a heartbeat to save people." Kadachi's eyes wandered while he tried to find the words. "That you would die so that someone can live. Your resolve scares me, Midoriya. Ever since we really started to talk I've known that you are a force to be reckoned with, but I want you to know that there are people who care deeply for you." Kadachi's gaze fell back on Izuku. "So please, don't be the hero if it would mean your end."

Izuku sighed again, shaking his head. "Y-yes." He turned away from his teacher. "Yeah." Izuku put his elbows on his knees and propped his head up with his hands. "I should think about you, Mom, and my friends. I just feel bad for not having a way to deal with the current situation!" Izuku leaned back and stretched in his chair. "It feels awful knowing that something is going to happen when there's nothing I can do about it!"

Kadachi was about to say something when the piercing voice of Present Mic cut through the arena. "Welcome back, listeners!" His voice was just as shrill as its always been. "It's about time for us to start the second event!" The various competitors started to filter their way into the arena. They moved as a large group, making their way to the center of the playing field. "While we wait for them to get situated, I would like to take this moment and thank one of our sponsors: the kind medical professionals at Jaku General Hospital giving their time to help our own dear Recovery Girl with any injuries that arise. If you think hero work is important, then you should hold doctors and nurses in even higher regard." Present Mic then clapped into their microphone before being interrupted by the sound of Midnight clearing her throat directly into the mic.

"Mic—I think it's time I introduce the next event?" The female hero called out. The crowd around her gave a roaring applause. Midnight was standing on the stage located in the center of the play area and had a table with a box on it in front of her. She reached into the box and took out a flag. "This is the next event! You all will be playing Ultimate Capture the Flag." A large screen popped up behind the pro, and all the various displays located around the arena changed to match the one behind her. On it was a picture of a flag on a pole. "Now, the rules are simple. You all will break into teams of three to five and each team will receive one flag and a flag pole. You get to pick where you start, and put up your flag and pole at that location.

"You will have ten minutes to assemble a team and five minutes to choose where you start." The display changed to show three poles on it: a green pole, a blue pole, and a red pole. The green pole had no flags, the red pole had a red flag, and the blue pole had a blue and green flag. "Here's how the scoring works! For every flag you collect you gain one point; however, if you are missing your own flag that is minus two points!" Below the pole with no flags was a negative two, the pole with one flag was a zero, and the pole with two flags was one. "So if your flag gets stolen you'll need to get another two flags to get back to zero!

"The flags will have numbers on them that correspond to your team number, so make sure you know what your number is when the game starts!" Midnight smiled at the students below her. Some of them were already talking with each other about forming a team. Several of them were even starting to approach Bakugou. Midnight simply smirked. "Oh! One final thing: Bakugou Katsuki! You came in first last game, so you get a special advantage for this one!"

All movement froze between the students. They all grew deathly quiet. Bakugou's face contorted into a smirk. He happily looked up at Midnight, awaiting to hear what his advantage was. There was a glint of pleasure in Midnight's eyes, accompanied by a devilish smirk. "Bakugou-kun, this is your advantage: any team with you on it gets a special golden flag instead of these boring flags with numbers on them. The golden flag works a bit differently! The flag isn't worth any points! Instead, the team that has the golden flag in its possession when time is called automatically comes in first place for this game. Isn't that such a fantastic advantage?!"

It didn't even take a second for every pair of eyes to suddenly shift over to glare at Bakugou. In one swift moment he went from being a good option to choose as a teammate to one of the biggest targets of the game. The select people who were going to possibly ask to be his team member immediately turned around and walked away. Bakugou normally had a bit of space separating him from the rest of people—he had the aura of someone who was tired of everyones shit after all—but this only caused the radius to expand. Bakugou felt something cold and thorny wrap around his heart. The tendril of despair gripped him tightly. His dreams and ambitions of being in the hero course were slowly being crushed, and he got to experience every second of this emotional anguish in real time. He needed a good time to make it to the third and final game, and at this rate he would be left with the other unpicked people.

Then he felt a hand on his shoulder. He spun around quickly, not wasting a single moment to see what person would be on his team. Considering he needed at least two other people to participate in this event he would take almost anyone. He had the skills to make even the most pathetic person viable… right? When Bakugou completed his rotation he found himself looking off at nothing. It was only when his eyes tracked downwards did he see the face of Ikioi smiling back at him. "Hello, Bakugou-san. I have a proposition for you."
...

Right before the second event was scheduled to start, Aizawa got a message on his phone. He opened it, revealing a text from Recovery Girl. She told him that Fudo was close to waking up. The underground hero showed the message to the man in the booth with him. Present Mic just gave him a silent nod and a thumbs up. Aizawa promptly left the announcer's booth without another word, making his way towards the first aid tent.

Once there he found Fudo sitting up on a cot, holding a warm cup of tea in his hands. The nurse sitting next to him gave a nod to the pro before leaving. That nurse in particular had worked many during many sports fests, and knew that teachers usually wanted alone time with the students who might have been injured.

"How are you feeling, Tsukatte-kun?" Aizawa asked. He grabbed a chair and sat across from the boy.

Fudo just looked up at the pro. His expression was neutral and his eyes were blank. "I lost the race." Fudo slowly tilted his head down and stared into his teacup. "The other student is alright… right?"

Aizawa nodded. "Yeah, they are in another tent nearby. They seem to have undergone some kind of shock, but other than that—they're fine."

The corners of Fudo's mouth partially lifted upon hearing that. "Good." Fudo put the cup down and laid back down on the bed. "S-sensei…" Fudo clenched his eyes shut, and moved his hands to cover his ears. "C-can you leave for now? It's… it's too loud at the moment…" Fudo opened his eyes and reached for his headphones. Once he was holding them he looked at Aizawa again, before slipping the headphones on.

Aizawa stood up and nodded to Fudo. He knew that this child needed space occasionally; and considering that he didn't even make it through the first round, even though everyone else in his class did, the kid likely was screaming in his head. However, Aizawa didn't want to just leave, so he tapped Fudo on the shoulder to get his attention. This is going to be a shot in the dark, the pro thought to himself. He then raised his hands and used sign language to state: 'I'm proud of you,' before leaving the tent.

Fudo laid back in bed, tears forming in his eyes as the gentle sounds of his songs carried him back into exhaustion-induced sleep.
...

"I like your plan, speedy." Bakugou smirked while clenching his fists. "That's one helluva scheme, but I love it."

Ikioi bowed slightly to the blond. "I'm happy to hear it. However, there is the issue that we need one more member for our team." Ikioi ran his eyes over the crowd of students before him. "It's going to be difficult to find the last member. I don't have very many friends in my own class, and from what I've gathered most people outside of our class don't like the hero course students very much." Ikioi put a hand to his chin. "Do you have any friends you could call upon in this time of need?"

Bakugou went to yell at him that of course he did, before biting his tongue. The blond really didn't have any friends. Anyone who approached him he pushed away… but, there was one person. Bakugou glared at Ikioi. "Wait here." Before trudging off into the crowd. He soon returned with a purple-haired student. "Shitty-hair—" Bakugou shut his mouth. It was clear he was fuming internally, but trying to steady his breathing. "Shinso—this is speedy." Bakugou gestured at Ikioi. "Speedy, this is Shinso."

The two students looked at each other. Ikioi was the first to pipe up. "Don't take this the wrong way, but I am surprised you have someone willing to work with you." Ikioi turned to look at Bakugou, who grit his teeth and tried to not get upset from that remark. Ikioi held up his hands. "Again, I don't mean any offense! You just seem like a very aggressive person and that can rub people the wrong way."

Hitoshi smirked. "Yeah, Bakugou-san is like that. I'm not so much a friend of his, but more of a… training partner." He extended his hand for Ikioi to shake. "My name is Shinso Hitoshi. I thought we should formally introduce ourselves."

Ikioi nodded, grabbing the boy's hand and shaking it. "Right. I am Shuriko Ikioi. Has Bakugou-san informed you of the plan?"

Hitoshi smiled. "Yes, he has. I only agreed to be on the team because I think the plan has a high chance of working." The purple-haired boy stared at Bakugou. Bakugou rolled his eyes, looking away.

"Alright, that sounds like a good enough plan, but I want one more thing."

"What?! What more could you want, shitty-hair! That plan is solid."

"I want you to be nice to me and the person we're going to work with."

"Wha—why the fuck is that a requirement!?"

"Consider it part of our deal. So don't use any insulting nicknames."

"Fucking hell, fine!"

Hitoshi felt slightly smug at the way Bakugou didn't want to look at him. He had managed to help tame the beast that was the blond. Hitoshi really did want Bakugou to improve, and if he had to abuse the fact that Bakugou was in a tight spot to do it, he would. The three of them then walked up to the stage to grab their special golden flag. All eyes were on them as they grabbed it and walked over to a distant part of the arena.

Elsewhere, Shoto, Momo, Kaminari, and Tenya were gathered up. Shoto had the flag in his hands. "Yaoyorozu and Kaminari," Shoto began, "you both will focus on defense, correct?" The heterochromatic boy asked. Both of the people referenced nodded their heads.

"If anyone even gets close, I'll give them a good zap!" Kaminari smiled, giving the others a thumbs up.

"I'll try my best to make sure any sneaky attempts fail." Momo added.

Shoto nodded his head. "Good; that leaves you and me on offense." Shoto looked at Tenya.

"Understood, Todoroki-san." Tenya had a serious glint in his eye. "I will gather countless flags." The blue-haired boy smiled. "After all, my brother is watching!" Tenya looked over to the stands and saw the familiar face of his brother. When he had first entered the arena he scoured the sea of people to find his brother. Tenya looked up to his family; each one of them embodied aspects of being a hero, his brother most of all.

"Um, well, I do have one more question…" Momo said. "Are we going after the golden flag, or not? I know I'm not on the offensive team, but I was still curious on whether or not we should try for it?"

"I don't believe we should." "Yes. We need to." Shoto and Tenya glared at each other as their conflicting words registered in their minds.

"Why should we?" Tenya argued. "It would be detrimental to fight for something that everyone wants! The moment we take it we'll have a target on our backs! We won't come in first, but we can still get a firm second."

Shoto's face tightened. "We need to come in first." His words were cold and distant. Earlier he was speaking with tones of camaraderie, but now they had melted away and been replaced with the jagged edges of an order.

"Why though?" Tenya asked. "Second is just as good as first is in this context—"

Not for him. Shoto clenched his fists. "You have your brother, and I have my father." Shoto interrupted. Tenya opened his mouth but Shoto cut him off. "You want to impress your brother, and my father wants the same." There was a tension building inside of Shoto. "I do not want to elaborate any more than this. May we please just decide to go for the golden flag?"

"Is everything alright, bro?" Kaminari asked, reaching out to put his hand on Shoto's shoulder. The other just smacked his hand away.

"I am fine." Shoto clenched his teeth. "We have discussed enough and the event is starting. We should get into position." Shoto reached back and grabbed the flagpole that they had set up. Each team had to be holding onto their flagpole at the beginning of the game. Momo shot Tenya a concerned glance before looking forwards. Shoto was right about one thing: the game was really about to start.
...

The sound of a buzzer filled the arena. In the several seconds that followed, a number of explosive things happened. First of all, Tenya rocketed away from the flagpole with a previously unknown speed. He had already grabbed a nearby team's flag without them so much as moving yet. The second thing was Bakugou grabbing the golden flag and sending out a large blast, destroying it. Scraps of the broken flag floated down to the ground. The third and final thing was the crack of thunder booming through the arena. A white bolt of lightning arced from where Kirei was standing, and hit team Bakugou's flagpole, turning it red hot.

In that moment Shoto felt something inside of him snap. He was wound far too tightly, and seeing that which he needed to achieve destroyed in front of him was too much. Shoto shouted, his wail echoing throughout the arena as he slammed his right foot down, waves of ice shooting out. They completely encased the surrounding teams in ice as the rest of the participants looked on in awe. Shoto's breath burned as he inhaled. His legs shook and his vision clouded. He could already envision his father, standing before him with his arm crossed.

You've disappointed me again, Shoto.

Shoto shot his attention to Tenya, who had just barely managed to dodge the ice. He was slowly walking back to their flagpole, flag in hand. Shoto snarled through clenched teeth. "Change of plans," he growled. Momo, Kaminari, and Tenya could feel a fierce energy radiating from their usually calm friend. "We are going to get all the flags. We need to come in first." Shoto's breathing was ragged. "I will not lose my mom again."

As a burning fire raged on inside Shoto's heart, it might do some good to look back on why he was like this. Much like Bakugou, the boy's past is his own, and he should be the one to tell it.

So this chapter does fall below my minimum chapter size, sorry about that. I feel that the content of it ended where it needed to, and I think y'all are going to quite enjoy the next chapter! I hope you're all ready for My Name is Todoroki Shoto!