Symbyosis

Chapter Twenty Two: Round One...

"You there!" The voice was clear in the nearly empty train station.

Akuto had to fight the urge to stop dead in his tracks, instead slowing to a stop in front of a nearby vending machine. He let out the breath he had been holding in once the station attendant jogged past him, heading up to a woman with a child. He watched as he handed her the stuffed toy he was holding, a Ryukyu plush that the little girl must have dropped. The zipper on the back of the doll indicated that it 'transformed' into the hero's dragon form, and his paranoia induced focus sent a spike of tension through him as the attendant jogged back to his station.

He pretended to mull over the selection in the window for a few minutes while he let his nerves calm, as much as they would at any rate. The UA Sports Festival was in full swing, and he had determined that now that the tournament rounds were being held it would be in his best interest to make his way back toward Saga. Nearby he could see several people crowded under a display television that was tuned into the coverage and he subconsciously pulled his hood tighter around his face.

"That boy isn't right..."

His paranoia surged momentarily as the all too familiar phrase crossed his awareness before he reminded himself that it had been more than a decade since anyone could call him a boy. The spectators were watching footage of the first place team from the last round, and making remarks about the blond with the explosion quirk. Against his wishes his ears caught every word in their hyper aware state.

"You can't argue with the results though," another one replied. "He might be aggressive, but he seems to have the skills to back it up."

"I dunno," the first one trailed off for a moment. The hesitation clearly indicated that he was trying to articulate his thoughts. "I just don't know if I like the hyper aggressive types in the hero biz. Endeavor always rubbed me the wrong way for the same reasons." His companion scoffed.

"That's what you need to get the job done though." He pointed at the other man, "Even All Might is pretty aggressive in battle and you've seen the footage yourself."

"Sure," the reluctant one said, "But All Might doesn't scare the living Buddha out of me. Have you seen the smile on that kid?" He gestured at the blond on screen, "I swear that's the face a villain makes right before they off someone." That seemed to give his companion pause for a second and an awkward silence hung between them.

"You may have a point," he said after a moment, "At least Endeavor keeps it professional, I guess."

Akuto snorted and decided it wasn't worth listening to this drivel any more. He resumed his walk towards the westbound train platforms and tried not to look suspicious, an exercise in contradictions he knew. People were idiots, as always, and the conversation he'd just overheard proved it again. Everyone took one look at you and before even a few seconds had passed they had already made up their minds about you. This one looks like a hero, this one looks like a villain – or a freak, weirdo, or some other such nonsense.

He tried to push the incident out of his mind and focus on making his escape. The next train would be here in less than fifteen minutes, and he needed to be on it before it left if he was going to make it to Osaka by sundown. At least in that city it would be easier to lay low than in Mustafa, far more out of the way places that even heroes left well enough alone. If he hadn't been dumped in Yokohama...

He finally came to his platform and leaned against a nearby pillar as he waited. Just a few more days – a week at most – and he would be back in Saga ready to resume his lifestyle like nothing had happened. No flashy heroes, and no delusional villains to bother him for a long time.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"ARE YOU SERIOUS!"

Shouto winced a bit as Mineta screeched at the top of his lungs. He had been on the fourth place team with Hitoshi Shinso from class 1-C, Bondo from class 1-B, and Sato from their own class and had subsequently qualified for the final event. Bondo and Sato however, had bowed out of the competition over concerns of not remembering how they had qualified. Sato had said that he remember being approached by the boy from general studies before everything went blank and he could only recall vague flashes of lucidity during the event. Midnight had offered to allow them to continue regardless, but Sato at least had cited not feeling like he'd earned his spot and refused.

Mineta on the other hand had been all too happy to 'make his debut', as he put it, by taking her up on the offer. Evidently the first round match schedule was not to his liking as he continued to complain. "Why do I have to fight Bakugo?" he lamented. "And we're the first stinkin' match too! This is so unfair!" Since his volume had dropped from a screech to a whine Shouto tuned him out as he went over the match pairings one by one. They had been determined by 'random seed', but Shouto had no idea how that worked so he simply tried to assess the matches with what he knew of the students.

The first match would likely be an easy win for Bakugo, unless Mineta was secretly a powerhouse fighter. That seemed unlikely to Shouto and he dismissed the idea with ease. The second match was a little harder to pin down, as he knew next to nothing about one of the students. Sero Hanta was one of his classmates, and while he knew he would be no pushover, he had not seen the Hatsume girl in action during the previous event. The highlights from earlier had shown that she relied heavily on gadgets, and that was perhaps not unusual for a student from the support course. He supposed he would see when the match started how things would play out.

The third match would be Uraraka against Kirishima, and wasn't that an interesting paring. He supposed Uraraka might be able to win by pushing Kirishima out of bounds with her quirk, but he knew that the redhead trained with Bakugo and having heard about his contest with Midoriya from the first event surmised it would be no easy win. Kirishima wouldn't give in so easily, even if his opponent was female. Match four would also be hard to pin down, because the boy from general studies was going up against Shoji. Shouto knew that Shoji was strong, and while his quirk was better for reconnaissance than fighting, he was no slouch when it came to combat. Shinso's quirk was worrisome though, as none of his teammates could really say what he had done to them and it was a wild card until it could be seen in action.

Match number five was where Shouto would go up against Kaminari Denki. The other boy's electric attacks would be something of a concern, but he was certain that he could win his match before too much harm could come to him. His strategy for the match was simple, freeze his opponent before they could get too close and use no fire. No sooner had the cursed flames crossed his mind than the previous event's conclusion came chasing after it.

"Take that power and MAKE IT YOURS!" The words echoed inside his head like a bad dream. Over the past hour nothing he had done could drive it from his mind, and every time it came there was a pang in his chest. Memories from his childhood kept flooding back to him and it was seriously starting to affect his concentration. He shook his head, "He doesn't know anything." Shouto had probably said something similar about a dozen times since the intermission began. His doubts remained.

Forcing himself to refocus on the tournament schedule his eyes scrolled to the sixth match. Their class president Iida Tenya was going up against Asui Tsuyu, which promised to be worth watching. Asui had one of the most versatile quirks in their class and was easily in the top ten students of the class. Iida was fast and smart, which would likely be a good match against Asui. Despite himself Shouto found himself looking forward to the fight, as it would be the first match that would likely provide some real contest between the students.

The number of matches was a little odd since two of the qualifying students had dropped out, so the winner of the seventh and final match of the first round would get a by in the second round. Midoriya Izuku would be fighting against Ashido Mina. Shouto fought down another swell of thoughts and feelings upon reading the name of his armored classmate and focused on the assessment of the match. Midoriya's quirk would likely be able to handle Ashido's acid, but the question would be if it would be enough to be able to defend against her. After having seen some of Midoriya's maneuvers in the highlights it was clear that he was one to be watched, and he had run into Ashido early during the previous event. She was of little concern to Shouto, but she would not go down easily if her agility was any indication of her skill.

Running through the matches in his head again, Shouto was certain of only two things - Bakugo would almost certainly be in the finals, and Midoriya stood a good chance of being Shouto's opponent during the semi-finals. The thought of facing off against Midoriya again made him tense, and he was more bothered than he would readily admit to himself. It would be unfair to his classmates to cheer for one over another, and Shouto would not normally have a preference for who should win, but he secretly held out hope that Ashido would win her match.

"Endeavor doesn't own fire!"

He clutched the side of his head in the vain hope that it would help him chase away the memories and uncertainties that kept interrupting his focus. He had to remain calm, because he was going to win the sports festival. He was going to use only his ice, and his father would get no satisfaction out of his triumph. He would not dignify the curse of his blood by using his flame even despite the slip he had made. He tried to focus on the strategy he would be using in his first match, taking as many scenarios into account as he could foresee in the event Kaminari didn't go down as easily as he was anticipating. He didn't get very far before the echoes came back with a vengeance.

"THEN DO IT FOR YOURSELF!"

He decided to head for the courtyard outside the stadium to try and get some fresh air.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Get back here and fight you little twerp!" Bakugo's yelling was audible even in the stands, and Izuku felt just a little sorry for Mineta. The platform where the matches took place was quickly becoming littered with hairballs as the shorter boy was chased around, and he could hear people laughing at the spectacle of it all. Bakugo was more than easily able to avoid stepping on any of the little traps and with each explosive leap was getting closer and closer to catching his opponent. They couldn't hear Mineta's reply, but Izuku was pretty sure it would be mostly incoherent anyway.

The whole match ended up spanning maybe five minutes before Bakugo snatched Mineta up by the back of his collar and heaved him out of bounds. The shorter boy flopped against the ground and lay dazed for several moments while Bakugo was declared the winner of the match. It took barely any time for Cementos to clear the platform of the obstacles that were left behind, and the next match would follow a five minute break.

Izuku's notebook sat in his lap, and he had just finished up with a few additions to Mineta's page. He had asked most of his classmates if he could take notes on their quirks, and no one had turned him down yet. He had yet to ask Koda, as he'd not had time before the festival. He would need to get his permission once the events were over, and there were two more people that remained to ask. He knew flat out that Bakugo would either refuse him outright or simply not answer at all, so he had put off asking him. It helped that he already knew a lot about Explosion due to growing up around Bakugo.

The other student he had yet to ask was Todoroki. He had not spoken much to the boy since they had become classmates, their recent interactions had been a little strained and Izuku had been hesitant to approach him with the request. Izuku wasn't sure if the other boy would allow him to take notes considering how their recent confrontations had turned out. He felt a twinge of guilt over all of the things he'd said during their standoff in the last event, but in the end he couldn't help how things had turned out. He shook his head and determined that he would just have to ask once the sports festival was over.

As he flipped through his notes to find Sero's page, he felt someone sit next to him. He looked up to see Uraraka settling into the seat to his left, and he gave her a smile in greeting. For some reason he couldn't pin down his heart fluttered a little and he felt his face heat, but he recovered quickly and continued flipping through his notes. "How are you feeling, Deku?" He found Sero's page and looked back up to answer her.

"After getting healed by Recovery Girl, I was pretty tired," he said, "But after a nap and a hearty lunch I'm feeling much better." She nodded at him and went silent for a moment. Uraraka looked away from him, and he noted that she seemed a bit skittish. "Is everything okay with you?" She looked back at him, her face unsure. There was something about her demeanor as she mulled it over a moment that Izuku couldn't place.

"I'm fine," she said, "I'm just glad you're doing okay. You were pretty unsteady on the way to the infirmary." Izuku could tell that something was bothering her, but she didn't seem to want to talk about it. He only remembered bits and pieces from the walk to the infirmary, so he wasn't sure if he might have acted strangely. He sent a silent thought to Kish asking if he'd been weird, but Kish didn't answer.

"Okay," he said, "But I hope I didn't do something to upset you while I was out of it." She shook her head, but didn't answer right away. She had this far away look in her eyes and Izuku couldn't help but take in her profile while he waited. There was a delicate pinkness to her face that he really liked if he was honest with himself. Once the festival was over, he was going to have to give some serious thought to all of the strange feelings that had been overcoming him whenever he was with her. He had an idea of what was going on, but he didn't want to jump to any conclusions until he gave it some consideration.

"Midoriya! Uraraka!" Both of them startled at the sound of their names and they turned to see Iida striding down the stairs to the row they were sitting in. "Good to see you both survived the second event," he moved to take the seat to Izuku's right, "I'm impressed with both of your performances." He waved one arm stiffly in front of him in greeting.

"Oh," Izuku recovered from his surprise first, "Thanks! You did really well too." He gave his other friend a big smile. "I saw the footage of you and Todoroki's joint assault on Monoma's base. That was some great maneuvering on your part in avoiding Kamakiri's attacks." Izuku had been delighted to see that Iida had been able to work so well with their stoic classmate in the team event.

"Indeed." Iida adjusted his glasses and sat down before replying. "The way you handled the assault on Shiozaki's base was quite stunning." As they chatted, Izuku heard a relieved sigh from his left and wondered if Uraraka was doing as well as she had let on.

"Thanks," he said, "I can't wait to see everyone's matches. You and Tsuyu will be an interesting match up." Iida nodded and Izuku turned back to Uraraka. "I'm also looking forward to seeing how you do against Kirishima." He was sure that Uraraka had the upper hand in her match because of her quirk, but he also knew how determined an opponent Kirishima could be from experience.

She looked up at her friends and gave a slow shake of her head. "I don't know how I'm going to win." She leaned against the back of her seat and directed her eyes up into the sky. "All I did in the last event was fall into someone's trap." Izuku's brow furrowed, not liking that she was being down on herself. Was that what had been bothering her before?

"That's not true at all!" He was a little surprised at his own outburst but continued as her head snapped back down to face him again. "If not for you we never would have made it to Shiozaki's base in time." Izuku put a hand on her shoulder and tried to ignore the tingling sensation that seemed to climb up his arm at the contact. "You worked well with Hatsume and were able to get the flag before time ran out. We wouldn't have qualified otherwise." He stared into her eyes, watching as they sparkled a little bit before she looked away.

"Thanks, Deku." She wiped her eyes and turned back to them with a shaky smile. "That means a lot."

He squeezed her shoulder once before removing his hand and giving her one of his most reassuring smiles. "Of course!"

"Look," Iida brought their attention back to the arena, "The next match is about to start."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Shouta watched Hizashi's eye twitch as the second match played out. As soon as Nemuri had sounded the start of the match, the Hatsume girl had commandeered the PA system and started commentating her own match as though it was some sort of shopping program. Poor Sero couldn't seem to find any kind of opening to make a move and somehow he had been convinced to strap himself down with various gadgets and gizmos of his own. He wasn't sure exactly how the girl had slipped it past the judges, but it showed that some of his pupils needed extra coaching on being critical when dealing with other operators. He could think of at least a few other students that might have been convinced to do the same as Hatsume's current victim.

"As you can see," the girl's voice boomed out of the loudspeakers, "This net launcher is ideal for use in subduing even the rowdiest of mutant villains with the strong carbon polymer fibers woven into the net!" The girl was bandying about all of the gadgets in spectacular fashion and Shouta would be lying if he said he wasn't a little satisfied at seeing the annoyance on Hizashi's face. If there was one thing that he hated it was being upstaged.

"She's stealing my spotlight," he grumbled. Rarely was there anything that tweaked Hizashi's ridiculous mustache and Shouta was enjoying it more than he should have been. He couldn't even hide his smirk as he replied to his friend's dismay.

"Now, now," he admonished, "We certainly can't fault her enthusiasm in showing off her work." His smile faded just a little before he continued on, "Though we will have to speak with Higari about updating the equipment to avoid this sort of thing in the future." Hizashi simply pouted from his seat and waited for the match to end.

For his part Sero seemed to be trying to get a hit in on his opponent, but the occasional length of tape he shot at her was dealt with easily by some gadget or another. Shouta hummed thoughtfully, as he had seen her use something similar to Sero's quirk during the second event and he wondered just how many quirks could be replicated by support items. It might be worth looking into developing quirk mimicking devices for use in training exercises, just another item on his ever increasing docket for improvements to his lesson plans.

If this kept up, he was going to have to completely revise his plans for classes leading up to the midterm exams. Reflecting on Bakugo's performance in the last event, he had noticed that the boy barely seemed to be able to restrain himself within the bounds of the regulations. His aggression and drive could be good things when harnessed properly, but they always seemed just moments away from spiraling out of control. A number of his students needed to be coached on being over reliant on showy maneuvers or brute force that could get them in trouble in the wild, and that wasn't even to mention how many needed to improve their situational awareness when dealing with multiple threats in close proximity.

He was pulled out of his thoughts by another quote from Hatsume. "Keep your eyes on how these hover boots allow for an effortless glide across even rough surfaces!" If Power Loader could tame the girl's boundless energy, Hatsume would no doubt become one of the leading support developers in the country once she graduated. "In conjunction with the arm mounted afterburners mobility can be increased ten fold!" Shouta was starting to get a little dizzy watching Sero whiz around the arena, and he felt a little bad for the boy.

He was just hoping that this little presentation would end soon, when Hatsume surprised the crowd by stepping out of bounds and ending her match in a forfeit. There was a dumbfounded silence in the arena as Sero was declared the winner of the match, much to his own confusion.

The conclusion to this festival was going to be something to behold.

A/N: The first round of the tournament round has begun! I tried to choose each match to be as interesting as possible. Bakugo v. Mineta was chosen because I thought it would be funny, and Sero v. Hatsume was chosen because I thought Sero would be the next most likely to be taken in by Hatsume's ruse. I also wanted to give Iida a break. In the end I'm working to make each match fun in some way.

Shouto is still grappling with the ramifications of his fight with Izuku, and it will be interesting to see how that efects his performance going forward. Ochaco is doubting her performance leading up to now, but her friends are having none of it.

I'm working on trying to get ahead in writing again, but if all else fails I hope to be at least one chapter ahead by each Saturday. Things have settled down a bit, but I'm still trying to smooth out some rough patches IRL. As always I appreciate any reviews I get, and I hope you guys look forward to tuning in every week. Thanks for all the support!

Till next week!

~AQ