Cursed Blood

by Magnus9284

Izuku was born with a quirk, just not the kind of quirk he wanted, or the kind that was liked by those around him; now he has to find his place among the heroes, with a curse that seems fit for the darkest villain. Rathed M for graphic descriptions, dark humor, and possible romantic stuff.

29. Sinister Influence

Magnus: Here is the proper next chapter, fully loaded with fights and some reactions! Enjoy! And remember: Read and Review!

Disclaimer: We are trying to publish twice a month, but please, be mindful that sometimes external factors will cause unforeseen delays.

Also Disclaimer: Thank you so much for your continued support, it may not look like much, but to us, it is invaluable.

The 0bservanc3: In that vein, a special thank you to our supporters! Thank you to those currently named Max, Lyruil, Kyle Rice, Nathan Hurley, Hades, AllAboutNothin, Henry Baumeister, J Robinson, LeafBladeFox, ChaosFox, Holo1916, Lord Sunshine, Carrotglace, Naes003, Mysticexarch, and TheGreatBubbaJ

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Cursed Blood

Chapter 28

A sinister influence.

As had become the norm as Quirks became the central focus of humanity's interest, all around the world, every man, woman, and child able had tuned in to the spectacle of UA's Sports Festival. It didn't matter if a country had its own internationally ranked hero school, it didn't matter how an individual even felt about pro heroes; from the humblest worker to the wealthiest tycoon, for the next three days everyone would be glued to the nearest screen.

UA had the market cornered, and for one reason or another, no one wanted to miss what was next on the chopping block.

This year in particular, many would agree later on that the first day of the event had become something of a paradigm shift. From the start, no prior iteration of the festival had developed quite like it. Never before had a Dark Mutant featured so prominently.

Sure, in the past a mutant-type could shine with an untamable determination powering their changed physique, or a dark Quirk-user could overshadow the competition through sheer power… but those examples were exceptions. And none could've ever have been said to have been so thoroughly dominant in their festivals.

Not like this Izuku Midoriya.

As the festival had progressed, it had been no secret to the world at large that the verdanette was a mutant-type Quirk-user whose powers had what many would consider… darker connotations. Not only were brochures filled with basic competitor information handed out to the audience who'd managed to make the pilgrimage to the stadium, but on the live broadcast up-to-date bios of each student would show up whenever they were on the screen for more than a few seconds. Names, Quirks, a general overview of skill—these and more were openly shared with anyone and everyone who cared to watch.

While Cursed Blood had become somewhat public knowledge thanks to the illegal recording of the incident involving the Final Judge, that same public wouldn't be able to truthfully say the Quirk in question had been seen in action. Judicious and perhaps overbearing damage control had all but erased the video from the Internet, with worm programs left behind to delete any copies the instant they were posted.

As such, witnessing for themselves the might of the Quirk that was growing to become a whispered legend was a treat many would remember as either a high or low point of the festival's first day, depending on who was asked. The fact that resistance to mental Quirks was an unregistered quality of Cursed Blood would only come up later.

"That f—ing monster!"

While not quite cursed, the sentiment behind Katsuki Bakugo's growled words was clear to any who'd listen.

Fortunately for the explosive blond, in the middle of the Seireitei's mess hall, full as it was with patients and visitors all packed together to watch UA's Sports Festival on the institutions three large screens, his grumbling didn't carry too far over their own commenting. Even as pissed as he was, he knew he couldn't afford to trip up now.

Bakugo was almost free. After an exhaustive battery of tests and therapy sessions that had lasted however-the-fuck-long, he'd proven that he could be reintroduced to society and not be a 'danger.' He was close to finishing this extended stay in purgatory… and he'd even take the constant monitoring and restricted movement if it meant getting out.

He was so close… and so was his… friend.

"Calm down you oaf!" Konno hissed lowly, quickly glancing around to check and see if Bo had caught the explosive blond's slip. He was getting restless. "Even if it's hard to watch, keep it down!"

If she were to be honest with herself, and Bakugo, Junko Konno truly had no reason for still remaining at Seireitei. The arachnotaur could've signed herself out of the institute the day after she'd shown signs of life again… if she'd had a place to go. But that was the problem, wasn't it?

Konno didn't exactly know how long it'd been since she was left behind at Seireitei, but what she did know was that all that she owned was the white garments on her back that had been provided to her by the Director free of charge. She had nothing. She had no one.

And in the back of her mind, the silvette was sure that if she left the institute alone, she'd surely fall back into her catatonia and be brought right back. Her only realistic ticket out, out of her room, out of Seireitei, out of her condition, was contingent on the barbarian… friend… she'd made. She was stuck with him.

Absolutely none of that had anything to do with the fact that the ashen blond was still incredibly vocal about seeing her as a girl. Nor did his mother incorrectly assuming they were in a relationship color her opinions at all. And the warmth she felt by being accepted so openly by other human beings after being ostracized by everyone she'd ever known? It was nice, but that's all.

This was all about getting out and keeping it together long enough to have a chance to get her life back.

That. Was. It.

The silvette did have to admit that the prospect of attending a Hero School was intriguing though. While she believed the professions of Idols and Heroines were ultimately incompatible, there were many successful pro heroes who were basically celebrities in everything but name. Perhaps… perhaps her dream wasn't as completely lost as she'd thought…

"Were you even watching Legs?!" Bakugo continued, waving a still cuffed arm haphazardly toward one of the mess hall's screens. Each wave visibly built up the blond's steam. "That was a fucking mental Quirk; a goddamn controller-type. And that freak not only fucking resisted it but it did shit to that brain-dead MONSTER!"

Well that was certainly loud enough to draw unwanted attention.

Having become partially arachnid in nature after that fateful dose of Springfield Trigger, Konno had come to realize that with her abominable form came certain… benefits. They in no way outweighed or even came close to balancing the ruining of her life, but even the silvette had to admit that wielding senses so acute that she could feel… well, everything, was amazing.

The arachnotaur could have closed her eyes and still followed the oaf's wildly flailing hand, or counted out how many times his jittery foot tapped the floor beneath his feet. She could've described the fly fifty meters away on the wall was rubbing its legs together, and that it only had five and a half.

And she could without a doubt feel the heavy gaze of the living mountain that was their handler looking their way.

"I know!" Konno hissed again, a few of her own legs beginning to skitter as her nerves began to frazzle. "But you need to—"

"FUCKING ROMERO!" Bakugo loudly interrupted with a roar, tensing as if to stand, "I BET HE DRAINED SOME EXTRA DRY TO—"

Feeling the quakes of the steadfast Bo coming from behind the staff room door, and a little pissed at being ignored, Konno decided in that instant to take action.

Faster than even what now constituted as a normal human could react to, the arachnotaur shot out one of her legs and pressed what would pass as her thigh against the open mouth of her violent companion. At the same time, another of her legs, as discretely as possible, arched down and pressed itself between the explosive blond's own legs; a warning against moving.

While on paper having a woman's legs all pressed up against you might sound sexy beyond belief, Konno was well aware that her spider limbs were perhaps the most repulsive things any human could ever suffer to have touching them.

That belief was quickly reinforced when the silvette felt the vulgar oaf immediately still at her actions.

"Something wrong here?" Bo rumbled as the giant reached the most fearsome duo the Seireitei had ever seen since that tall carrot-top and his icy midget had been released decades ago. "Why did I hear screaming?"

Having seen how things worked at Seireitei over the years, Konno knew that there was no point in trying to blame someone else. Even if they hadn't been sitting together, separated from the rest of the mess hall by at least one empty table on all sides, there were enough cameras and mics bugging the place that nothing got by the eagle eyes of the staff.

It was kind of funny, thinking about it, for the first time since she'd arrived, the silvette couldn't decide if the distance others gave her was because she was a horrifying freak of nature, or because her barbarian of a friend always looked ready to kill something. Maybe a little of both?

But, like she'd said, it ultimately didn't matter.

"We were just arguing over something dumb… again," Konno replied earnestly, only to receive a raised brow from their joint handler. "Honest. I just had to silence the oaf's stupidity for a moment. See?"

For a moment, the silvette panicked. Even as she held Bo's gaze with all the innocence she could muster, she felt as Bakugo opened his mouth against her thigh. The explosive blond was going to bite her in retaliation for what she'd done, or try to scream through her in a mindless rage. Either option would sink them. Fuck—

And then a whole different kind of panic flooded the fallen idol's veins.

For as rigid and tough as her lower exoskeleton appeared, the arachnid appendages were actually extremely sensitive to certain stimuli. So when she felt what could only be the blond oaf's tongue poke out from between his chapped lips and LICK a small bit of her thigh… she nearly yelped in flustered surprise. It was only by the grace of her idol training that Konno was able to maintain her innocuous mask in front of their hulking caretaker.

But every millisecond she could feel it slipping.

Then, she felt it. The leg between the oaf's legs picked up the feeling of something… something going from soft and ignorable to really hot, hard, and demanding attention.

"Well, try to keep it quiet would you?" Bo replied with a cheeky grin after a moment. The handler had caught the hot flush that had erupted across the arachnotaur's cheeks after she'd spoken, and he could imagine the look on his other charge's face, if he could've seen it. "It's kind of hard to pay attention to the tournament when you two are having the day's lover's quarrel at the same time."

"I-It's not like that!" Konno sputtered out, full on blushing now. However, the fire blistering the silevette's cheeks had next to nothing to do with being accused of being in a relationship with the vulgar oak—oaf! "It's not!"

The mountainous Bo merely rolled his eyes, chuckling. Teasing his two charges had become one of the highlights of his job, alongside being an eyewitness to their improvements. In fact, Bakugo had been getting more tolerant as of late. And Konno had been much more expressive, not to mention less afraid of what others might say about her body.

Still, was it too much to ask for the Pomeranian to get over his resentment of a certain verdanette from his past?

"Of course it's not," the handler agreed, sarcasm dripping from his words. "Just… keep it down. The third match is about to start."

Confusion washed away much of the red coloring Konno's face.

"The third match?" The arachnotaur asked as the living mountain walked away, "What happened to the second one?"

When no answer came, Konno huffed and turned to look at her still trapped companion. Freeing Bakugo… oddly enough, the thought of freeing the explosive blond felt more difficult a task than she'd imagined it to be. All she had to do was lift and retract her legs, easy right? But…

It wasn't that the silvette found her companion attractive or anything. Not hardly. It was just… from the day she'd woken up and found herself with the body of a monster, she'd accepted that no one, anywhere, would find her new form attractive. Ever.

Finally finding the will to pull back her limbs with a sigh, Konno instantly latched onto the fact that the normally loudmouthed blond immediately turned away and remained silent. From her very core, the silvette felt a heat wash over her as long dormant hunting instincts lit into existence.

Ara ara~ Oh she was going to have fun with this. Oh yes. She was going to tease the blond hard once they returned to their room.

It would be a fitting punishment for the vulgar oak—oaf's misbehavior!

UA's Sports Festival Stadium, Contestant Arena…

Meanwhile, the third match of the First Year tournament had kicked off without a hitch. The muscular redheaded Eijiro Kirishima and the exotic all pink Mina Ashido had walked out from their tunnels to questionable introductions from Present Mic, posed for the audience a handful of times, and had even shaken hands in a public display of friendship and sportsmanship that had almost had the Voice Hero so excitably loud he'd almost shattered glass.

Honest cheering and positivity filled the air, and it was a welcome sight for the two battling friends.

"Remember the deal Mina!" Eijiro shouted as the 'Hardening'-user launched himself forward. Powered by Quirk-enhanced musculature, the redhead's flying haymaker swung down toward the 'Acid'-user like a living sledgehammer. "OORRAAAA!"

BOOM!

Eijiro's fist slammed into the arena floor, debris spraying everywhere as a cloud of dust billowed into existence. The crowd went wild, not put off at all at having to wait to see the results of an attack packed with so much raw power. In fact, the suspense only made it better.

"YAHOO!"

Mina's cheer was met with a resounding applause as the rosette slide away out of the results of her best friend's attack, completely unharmed. Eijiro's strike had missed by a fraction of an inch.

But the horned girl's counter didn't.

Belatedly, Eijiro realized the lower front of his gym uniform was smoking. And then it was gone.

Re-Hardening his entire upper body, the spiked redheaded teen smirked as he waited a second… but felt nothing. He'd just confirmed something he'd long tried to convince Mina of; his Quirk completely protected his body from her acid. She couldn't hurt him physically, even by accident.

Straightening into a front double bicep pose with a sharp grin to match, Eijiro made sure the rosette, and the world at large, caught enough of an eye full to get the message across. Judging by how the horned girl nearly slipped out of her own acid slide at the sight, the redhead was pretty sure he'd been successful.

And he had been. Mina, knocked out of her battle headspace, could only think of one thing at that moment.

'Abs…'

"OH MY FOLKS! JUST LOOK AT THAT! SUCH STRENGTH, SUCH AGILITY! THESE TWO ARE DANCING AROUND EACH OTHER IN THE DEADIEST CASE OF FLIRTING I'VE EVER SEEN! AND I'M FRIENDS WITH MIDNIGHT!"

Present Mic's commentary whipped the public up into even more of a frenzy. The match had become the long awaited spectacle that UA's Sports Festival was supposed to showcase. After witnessing a truly terrifying first round, and a lackluster comedy act of the second, the general audience was overly enthusiastic that they'd finally gotten what they'd been waiting for.

"Look at her go! She's so flexible and energetic!"

"That'a boy Red! Show us what those arms can do!"

"Those two would look great together on the front of a magazine!"

In the heat of the battle, with their blood up and dust and acid flying through the air, the majority of the crowd became enraptured by Mina Ashido's fighting prowess, the derisive opinions of a few hardliner Quirkists were drowned out in the face of her fierceness. In the moment, it didn't matter to them that she looked quintessentially non-human with her pink skin, black eyes, and curled horns.

She was a compact Amazon, a nascent femme fatale, an alien warrior. There was no denying she was an incredibly attractive young woman.

But Eijiro gave as good as he got. As more and more of Mina's acid struck glancing blows, bits and strips of his literally rock-hard body became exposed. The redhead's basic workout routine would put pre-Quirk bodybuilding champions to shame, and his physique showed as much. Ever dip and cut of his muscles bulged and rippled for all to see as he did his best to catch the giggling pixie that remained just out of his reach.

Activating his Quirk only gave the 'Hardening'-user's body even more definition too. He was like a living Greek statue, a conquering barbarian, an immovable object on the hunt.

The crowd loved it.

The duo's sensei, however, hardly appreciated the fact that he could tell his two students were just playing around.

"Eijiro Kirishima is, as he's shown this entire match, a close quarters combat specialist. He uses his Quirk-derived high resistance to maximum effect in both defense and offense. Mina Ashido, in contrast, is currently a mid-range fighter. She uses the increased mobility her Quirk grants her to maintain the optimum distance from opponents while attacking at her leisure."

While he knew he would never be one for all this showboating and blood sport, Eraserhead still did his best to keep from ruining the spectacle. As much as he hated to admit it, this was something his students, and the school, needed.

He'd just have to lecture the two on taking things seriously when classes resumed next week.

Joy.

"It's entirely likely that this battle will be decided by whoever makes the first mistake."

Down below, in the best seat in the house, Midnight could barely contain the squeal of delight that threatened to escape her. She loved these younglings; their passion in showcasing their skills, their earlier determination to keep their friendship intact… the sexual tension she could smell wafting off of them any time they got too close.

Oh, they couldn't fool her trained eyes, even if they'd tried. And even if the rosy duo didn't fully understand what they were doing themselves, the 18+ Only Heroine could see clear as day the sexy delicacy unfolding before her. Each attack, each counter, each dodge, or step back, or roll; the two were slowly peeling away each other's clothes. Be it by acid, hardened skin, or flying debris…

There could be only one outcome.

"Come on Kiri! Don't you wanna catch me?" Mina taunted in a sing-song voice as she circled her best friend on another strafing run, splashing the redhead with more of her acid. "Get serious and try to grapple me already!"

The horned girl would admit, to herself, that she was enjoying this fight… maybe a bit too much. Yeah, they'd agreed to let the match play out so that they'd both get exposure and have a good time… but, at some point, their fun had evolved into something… else…

Mina slipped away again, enjoying the sight of even more of Eijiro's bare skin being exposed as her acid melted away his shirt and pants, even as she felt herself get closer to her limit. She'd never used her Quirk for this long, moved this much, without a break in between before. Her tolerance, not to mention endurance, was running low.

And that was totally the only reason the rosette was feeling so hot as she raced around her best friend, why her skin itched whenever she got close during a strike, and why her insides burned whenever Eijiro scored another near miss and part of her own uniform tore off, exposing her to him. She was just getting tired. Geez!

"You're so impatient!" Eijiro laughed as he turned to face the now heavily breathing figure of his best friend. His tactic was working. While he could weather the storm, Mina would tire herself out with all her moving around. Suddenly, the redhead noticed a new development in regards to the rosette's uniform. A blushing grin spread across his face. "Hey Mina! Love the birthmark by the way! Was that always on your tummy?!"

The loudly asked question immediately froze the rosette in her tracks, utter mortification chilling her to the core as she belatedly realized she COULD feel a breeze against her left side and stomach area.

Oh shit her Quirk had melted her own uniform while she'd been distracted with picking away Eijiro's!

"WHAT BIRTHMARK?!" Mina shrieked, wrapping her arms around her belly instinctively.

"YOU'RE MINE NOW!" Eijiro instantly reacted, lunging forward with the power of a freight train. Two Hardened hands snapped out, intent on capturing their target and forcing the redhead's best friend into a grapple. Once the two were on the ground, the match would be his.

Unable to decide if she'd been tricked or not, Mina nearly floundered as she barely had any time to react. Muscle memory won the day, and years of dance lessons kicked in. The panicking horned girl sidestepped at the last possible nanosecond, twisting to the side as gracefully as her tired body would allow.

RRRRRRIIIIIP!

It wasn't quite enough. Mina had avoided the grasping hands headed her way, but her clothes, nearly in tatters at this point, had not.

Eijiro missed his target, but the redhead had grabbed a hold of his best friend's purple and white spotted undershirt. The momentum he'd had due to his reckless charge combined with Mina's desperate move to evade. The abused garment was trapped between them, and as it had been locked in his death grip as he'd sailed by…

"E…Eh?" Eijiro was flummoxed. He'd expected to have a handful of a squirming and pink best friend. Instead, he was holding a piece of clo—

"KYYYAAAAAAA!"

Flashing back to the nightmare that had been their USJ experience, Eijiro dropped the rag in his hands and immediately turned to check on Mina, her scream setting ice in his veins.

SLAP!

A sizzling red mark in the shape of a hand on his Hardened cheek, the manliest member of Class 1-A could only watch in utter shock as his best friend fled the stadium with her arms wrapped around her chest… Half naked. Way too much of her perfectly toned back was exposed—Eijiro's brain restarted with a jolt.

"MINA!" the frantic redhead screamed as he fumbled after his escaping best friend, "WAIT! I'M SORRY!"

"HEY!" Midnight shouted after the scrambling competitors. Cheers, laughter, and not a few catcalls all combined to nearly overpower even her speaker-enhanced voice. "What about the match?! The victor—?!"

The R-Rated Heroine was conflicted. On one hand, she really wanted to reprimand the redheaded blockhead for what he'd done. Exposing a girl like that in public? The fuck?! But on the other hand, she'd been watching too closely to know the move had been nothing more than an unfortunate accident. Could she really tan his hide when he already looked so ashamed and horrified?

"MINA WINS!" VICTORY'S HERS!" Eijiro shouted so loudly his voice could be heard even over the riled public. Not wasting any more time, the redhead jumped off the raised arena flooring and took off toward the exit tunnel his pink-hued best friend had fled down as soon as his feet touched grass. "MINA! I'M SORRRRRRYYYYY!"

For a moment, Midnight stood there, clearly lost on what to do. Ashido had left the arena first, but Kirishima had forfeited. What to do? What to do? Suddenly, the domineering heroine's ear mic crackled.

"Alright…" the domineering ravenette murmured, nodding once before whipping her hand away from her ear. "Well there you have it folks! Ashido wins by forfeit! The Daredevil in Pink will move on to the next stage of the tournament!"

Cheers and laughter in equal measure filled the air and shook the walls of the stadium. The match had been a success! Most viewers felt as if the playfulness and joy they'd witnessed during the round had lifted their own spirits. The rest? Well, they were happy to have gotten such a… flashy fight.

UA's Sports Festival Stadium, Class 1-A Seating Box…

"Hagakure…" Mezo Shoji asked to the now wriggling UA gym uniform that appeared to be floating in its seat next to him, "What… exactly was that meant to accomplish?"

The gentle giant was not, in fact, referring to the last move of their redheaded classmate prior to the end of the third match. Instead, the multi-armed teen was directing his question to the knee-jerk reaction of the invisible girl sitting beside him.

When Ashido's shirts had torn, and her breasts had been exposed for the world to see for less than a split second, Hagakure had launched herself at Mezo. The frantic girl had slapped her hands over the giant's eyes… only to realize right after that her efforts would be absolutely futile.

"I… I was—I didn't…!" Toru squirmed in place, conflicted on whether or not to tell her… friend the truth. The last thing the unseen member of Class 1-A wanted to do was get on his bad side, and she honestly didn't know how he'd react to the truth. "It's just that—You! You shouldn't ogle a girl's boobies without permission!"

At the last second, Toru bailed, spouting something embarrassing instead of what she truly felt, her shaky confidence folding like a house of cards before the gentle gaze of the 'Dupli-arm'-user. There'd be time to reveal how she really felt… later.

"I wasn't looking," Mezo revealed calmly, keeping three eyes on the arena while the ones attached to his face stared down at Toru. "I looked away the moment I realized Kirishima-san was going too fast to stop after grabbing Ashido-san's clothes. That fabric was barely holding together due to all of her acid; there could only be one outcome."

Toru hunched in her seat, now feeling embarrassment and mortification for entirely different reasons.

"Oh…" the invisible girl sighed, relief visibly sagging her shoulders. She was beyond grateful that no one else could see her massive blush. "Sorry for overreacting."

Witnessing such a scene unfolding beside him, Mezo did something that, only a few weeks ago, he'd never have considered doing. The gentle giant reached out… and gave his dejected classmate a head pat. Wisely, the multi-armed teen decided to ignore what sounded like a purr coming from the girl. Just as wisely, he chose not mention that the two were nothing more than friends, and that Hagakure shouldn't act like a jealous girlfriend.

UA's Sports Festival Stadium, Class 1-B Seating Box, Next Partition Over…

"I-Iba-chan!" Shishida stammered, the beastly teen absolutely frightened at the terrifying sight unfolding next to him, "I saw nothing! At all! I swear!"

Beside the quivering intellectual, Shiozaki's hair had gone wild, vines writhing through the air like thorny snakes. Even as her face remained impassive, the religious girl gave off an aura that promised pain.

"You shouldn't swear Shi-kun," the plant-based heroine-in-training admonished flatly, refusing to break her thousand-yard stare. The complete juxtaposition of her calm tone against her violent hair was made all the more eerie when added to the fact that Shiozaki hadn't blinked in over four minutes. "The Lord doesn't like it."

And neither did she of course. But at the moment the vine-haired teen was more focused on the fact that no matter what he said, she knew she'd seen Shishida blushing when she'd turned to look at him after that 1-A girl's… accident. And really, Shiozaki wouldn't have been so upset if the pink devil girl hadn't turned out to be so much more… gifted… than her.

Lord give her strength.

UA's Sports Festival Stadium, Commentator Press Box…

"I'm so glad this year's flasher wasn't one of my kids!" Hizashi crowed, grinning widely at his friend and coworker as the gruff man banged his head against their shared desk. "I sure hope you're planning on getting that little listener prepared for what's coming. All those perverts who watch this thing just hoping for a wardrobe malfunction? She's just made their night. And I doubt they're planning on being quiet about it either…"

The two pros had turned off their mics as soon as they'd seen what had happened, more to prevent any stray comments from leaking to the stadium at large than protocol, but that had only given Hizashi license to laugh all the harder. The blond couldn't wait to see what unfolded over the next few weeks; his buddy might've tried to hide it, but he was one of the most over-protective teachers UA had.

To Aizawa, there was no such thing as overkill when it came to keeping his students safe. From anything.

Even Internet trolls and perverts.

While his longtime friend got his kicks off to his misery, Aizawa was mentally going over the lecture he knew he was now going to have to give those two idiots. Even if no one had been hurt, lack of situational awareness had led to both of them suffering, and it would be better to correct them now than later on down the line when it would be too late to keep a certain mistake from happening and one, or both, of them would be forced to drop out of heroics.

That being said, he was totally going to make it exceptionally agonizing this time, maybe break out some of the sex ed charts Nemuri used to teach the Second Years?

Choices, choices…

Back in UA's Sports Festival Stadium, Contestant Arena…

After letting them wind down a little, Midnight eventually managed to wrangle the crowd back under an acceptable level of control. The festival had to continue, and really, it'd be best for Aizawa's kid if they moved on and everyone got distracted from what they'd seen of her wonderfully gifted young body.

Ahem.

The next fight was important in another way as well. A fan favorite was taking the stage, and the R-Rated Heroine couldn't wait to pinpoint the imbecilic piece of shit that dared tamper with her tournament. A vicious grin carved a beautifully wicked track against the domineering ravenette's face.

If Nezu dearest didn't skin that dipshit alive, she sure as hell would. Maybe bring Hitoshi a souvenir?

Could he even use a larynx if it was ripped out of someone's throat?

Oh well, they'd find out!

"AND NOW! FROM THE NORTHEAST GATE, HAILING FROM THE HEROICS COURSE CLASS 1-B! HE'S BIG! HE'S STRONG! HE'S HARD AND CAN GET EVEN HARDER! IT'S TETSUTETSU TETSUTETSU!"

Stepping out of the tunnel and walking to the arena, the literal man of steel of Class 1-B couldn't help but scowl a bit. He wasn't against humor, hell, he was more than willing to serve as the butt of any joke if it made his friends laugh and feel happier. And he normally loved the energy of the Voice Hero, as a teacher and a hero, but…

"Really?" Tetsutetsu growled, more to himself than anyone else. "You're gonna use the exact same opening you used for that 1-A look-a-like?"

If it weren't for the cheering he was receiving as he stepped onto the raised arena floor, the steely teen would've had to consider taking the joke as more of an insult.

"AND FROM THE SOUTHWEST GATE, IT'S ANOTHER CLASS 1-A CONTENDER! WITH A PEDIGREE SO PRESTIGIOUS HE'S ALMOST ROYALTY AND A COUNTENANCE ALREADY AT THE LEVEL OF SOME PROS… IT'S TENYA IIDA!"

As the stadium shook with wild applause and cheer, Tenya couldn't help but wince at the over-the-top greeting.

The speedster had learned long ago that he had to tune out the empty praise and expectations of glory that weighed upon his family name. His older brother had made it very clear to him, back when he'd first gotten his first 'Engine' blowout at four and a half, that he, Tenya Iida, was his own man. He was the only one who could decide how he would tackle his life. If he wanted to be hero, that was great, but his victories and defeats, especially today, would never impact his family's love for him.

"AND LOOK AT THAT! THE SPEEDSTER OF 1-A HAS HIS OWN CHEERLEADERS!"

Wait… cheerleaders?!

Sure enough, as Tenya whipped his head to the side, the bespectacled teen could see clustered together in the student section designated for… Business? Or was that Support? Regardless, a bunch of non-Hero Course girls were holding up signs with his name colored brightly upon them.

Whipping back around, the thoroughly mortified speedster hoped that Uraraka-san wouldn't take such a sight the wrong way!

Needless to say, if the son of the Iida clan could see his class's seating section, he would've seen the rest of his classmates inching away from a now furiously blank-faced brunette. They were smart enough to not let their eyes deceive them; the aura bleeding off of the gravity manipulator was deadly.

"Alright gentlemen!" Midnight called out, graciously receiving both competitors' attention, "You know the rules by now. BEGIN!"

As expected, Tetsutetsu immediately activated his Quirk the second he was allowed. His skin rapidly turned to steel, and in no time, the manliest man of 1-B was ready to give it his all in the fight.

But the steely teen had learned his lesson since the last time he'd fought anyone. Osowiec and Sila had beaten it into even his metal head what his weaknesses had been, and the price he'd one day pay if he didn't work to correct them. Giving an opponent the chance to think, learn, and or adapt was a deadly mistake, and underestimating anyone was just asking for pain or death. It was all well and good to be manly, but the manliest thing of all was making sure everyone came home at the end of the day.

Perhaps a bit dark and macabre compared to how he'd been before, but Tetsutetsu's therapist had said during their last meeting that he was progressing as well as could be expected through the trauma from the training. And if he'd had a few at-home study nights with Pony since everything went down? The doc hadn't disapproved.

But back to business. To honor the two brutal teachers who'd taught him, Tetsutetsu swore he was going to win. He'd learned his lesson, it was time to compare notes with 1-A.

The youngest son of Iida knew every well that he'd need to treat his opponent seriously. As a fellow Heroics student, the steel teen deserved nothing less of course. More than that, such a defensive Quirk would put him at a supreme disadvantage right from the start. He'd have to give it his all if he wanted a chance to win.

Just like that, the battle kicked into gear.

Tenya accelerated forward in a blaze of speed, clearing the distance between the two opponents in a single second. But Tetsutetsu had been ready for just that sort of attack.

BOOM!

The navy speedster's enhanced side kick crashed into the metal man's chest with an explosion of power and displaced air. The monstrous collision stole the breath from many a spectator, but after the dust had cleared… Tetsutetsu was revealed to have not moved more than half an inch backward.

"What the…?!" Tenya was understandably surprised. He'd been capable of kicking through a solid wood log forty-five centimeters thick since he'd been a child, and while he hadn't expected one strike to be enough… to be stopped like that?

"ORA!"

Tetsutetsu's shout jarred the speedster from his shock, but it was too late. The steely teen grabbed the offending limb lodged against his pecs and yanked his opponent with all his might. Letting go immediately, the bespectacled teen was sent rolling behind him before he slowed enough to even attempt to stand back up.

"AND WHAT A START LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! IIDA'S ATTEMPT AT A SURPRISE ATTACK ONLY LEFT HIM AS THE ONE LEFT IN SHOCK!"

Present Mic's on-the-ball commentary earned many positive reactions from the crowd. If the last match had gotten everyone excited and laughing, this match proved to be the battle of body and spirit they'd been waiting for. After all, who didn't love an underdog?

"What incredible strength!" Tenya huffed, unable to keep from praising his opponent as he flipped onto his back prepared to spring back up to his feet as his brother had taught him. Perhaps he'd have to take a more intellectual approach? "It seems I need to—"

"GGRRRAAAAAA!"

There was barely any time to react.

In the blink of an eye, Tetsutetsu had counterattacked, unwilling to allow Tenya even the chance of getting back up. The speedster instead had to roll to the left to narrowly avoid a steel-covered elbow drop, courtesy of 1-B's manliest man.

BOOM!

The arena's concrete flooring fractured, small pebbles scattering under the savage force of the metal man's impact. In a moment of complete randomosity, a stray piece of gravel shot out and managed to crash against the youngest Iida's glasses.

Rolling again to get clear of ground zero, Tenya quickly jumped to his feet and put some real distance between himself and the metal monster he'd unexpectedly found himself facing. Since Midnight hadn't stopped the fight, it was clear to the bespectacled teen that apparently destroying the arena wasn't against the rules. Quite an interesting fighting style. But then, it'd been the height of arrogance and foolishness to believe his own style would've dictated the entire match.

"Once upon a time I would've labeled Tetsutetsu as brash and boastful and thoroughly dependent on his Quirk's toughness. Now, however, I see that certain… rigorous… training methods have allowed him to grow as a hero and discard much of his uneducated baggage. It seems he's learned a lot under Kan's tutelage."

Eraserhead's rough words only worried the navy speedster down below. It seemed as if he wouldn't be able to keep enough room to breathe then.

Pushing himself off the divot in the concrete he'd made, Tetsutetsu felt the monotonous words of praise fan the flames of his determination.

"YOU'RE NOT GETTING AWAY!"

The metal man's roar almost sounded… pained.

Tenya didn't have time to think. The steely teen was on him, pressing forward, blocking any chance for maneuverability. The speedster couldn't find a proper line for acceleration. Dodging was all he could do.

To say he'd never felt so powerless before would have been an understatement for Tenya. He may have more speed than others, and a certain type of strength derived from that speed, but against this relentlessly offensive defense? His power would mean nothing if he couldn't get a chance to use it.

In the stands, at home, at bars, in the streets, everywhere, the public was going crazy. It was a spectacle! The youngest Iida had been expected to win the fight hands down, but the tenacious Transformer's brutality was bringing around the odds with each passing second. Cries of support for both competitors rang through the air, and with every strike blocked or evaded, every blow that landed or glanced aside, civilians and pros alike got even more hyped up.

UA's Sports Festival Stadium, Class 1-A Seating Box…

In his seat, Izuku could only silently seethe as he took in all the mindless bloodlust around him. What—

Sheep.

Reaping pleasure on the backs of the suffering of children. Cheering for their pain. How—

Sinful.

Coins traded hands and filled pockets freely. The greed of Man unleashed to show their deprived—

Decadence.

The pressure inside had built to a boiling point. Just as Izuku was about to erupt…

"TENYA-KUN!"

Ochaco Uraraka jumped to her feet and screamed so loudly that those of Class 1-A feared the brunette would collapse her own lungs. The cry had not been unexpected, but what surprised those who listened was that the young woman had not bellowed so loudly with despair, but…

"YOU CAN FLY!"

Hope.

Back in UA's Sports Festival Stadium, Contestant Arena…

Against all odds, Tenya managed to hear that one scream, that one shout of encouragement from the young lady on his mind. It should've been impossible, a cute and bubbly voice such as hers shouldn't have had the power to overcome the noise of thousands. But judging the speedster's suddenly stiffened posture, he had.

"YOU'RE GOING DOWN!" Tetsutetsu roared, lunging in to attack once again. Nothing about the match had changed for him; allowing his opponent any room at all would cost him dearly.

"Not today!" Tenya shouted right back, making a lunge of his own even though he had no room to accelerate, "Because—"

Instead of the expected kick, the youngest Iida made a half step and… hopped. Landing on Tetsutetsu's chest, the speedster used the metal man's moment of confusion to push his Engines, which had never stopped accelerating, into the next gear. Kicking downward with everything he had, Tenya launched himself into the air like a rocket.

"I CAN FLY!"

It wasn't his secret special move, Recipro Burst, not by a long shot, but maybe it was best to keep his trump card for later anyway. And this move was close enough regardless, special in its own way as it reminded the speedster of the time he'd spent with the girl he was training with slash dating.

Reaching the top of his arc, the youngest Iida gave it all he had, one of his Engines shrieking with the effort of gaining just a meter more. Doing this naturally caused his body to begin rotating, and when he finally heeded gravity's call and fell back to Earth, Tenya took all of that force and put it into accelerating even faster into a spiraling kick.

The attack was too quick for Tetsutetsu's inexperienced eyes to follow, aerial combat something he'd never handled before. The spinning kick found its mark, his head, and the force of impact alone was powerful enough to leave the metal man disoriented, on top of being driven into the concrete like a railroad spike up to his waist.

Tenya landed in a crouch, instinctively switching gears. Now pushing his other leg's Engine to its limit, the speedster leaned forward to put every ounce of energy he had into this last attack… when something went wrong.

CRACK!

With a sinking feeling even amidst all the adrenaline, Tenya recognized the sound of his glasses breaking. The hairline fracture caused by the seemingly innocuous piece of gravel that had kicked up at the beginning of the fight, combined with the deadly G-forces of his new move, had proven too much for the athletic eyewear.

Losing his eyesight, Tenya hesitated. He knew where his target was, but he just couldn't make himself move as smoothly now that he couldn't see. In turn, that threw off the youngest Iida's aim, missing Tetsutetsu's head by barely a millimeter.

The steely teen, however, seized his chance. All it took was a straight to the face.

WHAM!

Tenya skidded back onto the ground, face to the sky. He didn't get back up.

"AND IT'S LIGHTS OUT FOR THE STIFF SPEEDSTER! THE MANLY MAN OF METAL TAKES THE CLEAR WIN!"

The Voice Hero's words earned more than few groans, but mostly the audience had been too enthralled with the fight to notice. Many had been rooting for Iida, either due to his pedigree or generally believing in the boy, while others had seen the young Transformer with the repetitive name and taken a liking to his impenetrable defense.

"Actually…"

Normally only speaking as minimally as possible, the addition of Eraserhead caught everyone's attention. A massive screen on the jumbo screen flickered to life, and a rerun of the fight's last few seconds began to play. A slow effect was added as the camera zoomed in on Iida's glasses.

"It's entirely possible that this match could've ended differently if not for one single factor. Gear malfunction is a very real hazard we, as Heroes, deal with out in the field. Both students did well, and I'm sure from now on they'll always remember to correct any defects in their Hero personas, be they physical, psychological… or material."

Loud applause answered the spur-of-the-moment lesson and the stadium soaked in the wise words shared to them by one of the most mysterious underground pros in the world.

Down in the ring, Tetsutetsu pulled himself out of the ground with a heave of effort, scrambling to his feet as the cheering only got louder. Realizing his opponent was beginning to stir, the manliest man of 1-B hobbled over and stuck out a hand to the downed Iida. Truly, the steely teen might've been ready to take on a Behemoth at a moment's notice, but he was likewise always ready to be a real man and show proper sportsmanship.

Midnight cooing at the 'action' kicking off in front of her somewhat reduced the impact of the nascent moment however.

Generally, the post-match vibes were positive, the fight had been intense and both students had shown their all. However, a certain pink-haired woman of middling age was not feeling too keen about how the third round had gone.

UA's Sports Festival Stadium, Fourth Level Balcony Room, Authorized Personnel Only…

"This… this isn't how it was supposed to go!" Haruno growled from her hidden away vantage point, biting at her nails. "How could a child of Iida lose to some no-name upstart?"

Tenya Iida had been meant to win that match. He'd had the Quirk, the pedigree, and a carefully selected opponent. There was no way the son of some random small-time transportation business could've hoped to compare to the blood of Heroes. 'Steel' was impressive, for what it was, but no commoner should've been able to develop such combat potential before they'd even finished their first year at UA!

"Perhaps… the Quirk and the pedigree have less to do with a person's true potential than you think, ne?"

The calm and eloquent voice, coming from right behind the hidden security advisor, caused the woman to yelp in surprise. Whipping around, Haruno saw the thin woman from before, the one who'd been with Nezu. That smile, those oddly pitch-black sunglasses, that mug of coffee…

Why did such innocuous sights send a wave of dread crashing through her?

Haruno felt as if her heart was beats away from freezing up at any moment.

"Well now, you did exactly as I knew you would!" Smith chirped, lighthearted snickering contrasting with the growing weight of malevolence the pinkette could feel crushing her every second. "I guess it's time for us to… get to know each other a little better. What do you say?"

Had Haruno been able to move, the middle-aged woman would've run as far away from the younger ravenette as fast as her body would've allowed. But… her legs refused to move.

CREAK…

And the door to her room had just closed.

There was no escaping now.

UA's Sports Festival Stadium, Contestant Arena…

With the damage to the ring having been more spot-specific than widespread, Cementoss took his time to refill Tetsutetsu's divots individually, deciding to leave the few piles of debris that had managed to accumulate for later, after the entire first set of matches had been completed. Meanwhile, the next two competitors were making their way from the waiting room to their entrance tunnels.

At her spot, Midnight stood and surveyed the stadium, for once at ease. The order of the tournament might've been obviously fixed beyond acceptable levels, there'd now been a fight that proved students would still be able to showcase their skills and power just fine. The ravenette had to wonder though, what was the thinking for putting these two against one another?

"AND NOW, FROM THE NORTHEAST GATE, RISING UP FROM HUMBLE BEGINNINGS AND WIELDING STRONG DISCIPLINE AND DETERMINATION AS SKILLFULLY AS SHE DOES HER FISTS—IT'S THE CLASS PRESIDENT AND BIG SISTER OF THE HEROICS COURSE 1-B! ITSUKA KENDO!"

From the tunnel stepped the muscular ginger herself, Itsuka Kendo sprinting those last few meters to the arena. Nervous as she was, and as embarrassed as that intro had made her feel, the martial artist still managed to wave to the cheering public and the flashing cameras. A big smile and clear eyes reflected the young woman's heart, easily understood by her family and friends back home—she was here to do her best for the world to see.

The crowd quieted…

"AND FROM THE SOUTHEAST GATE, SPORTING A PEDIGREE WORTH A COUNTRY-SIZED DIAMOND, AN EDUCATED MIND FIT FOR A QUEEN, AND A BODY THAT MAKES EVEN PRO-HEROINES GREEN WITH ENVY—IT'S THE PRESIDENT OF THE HEROICS COURSE 1-A! MOMO YAOYOROZU!"

As the mature young woman gracefully glided out from the shadow of her tunnel, the raucous cheering that met her could not have contrasted her more. It wasn't that the heiress was nervous, or even embarrassed by being announced in such a way and had clammed up. In actuality, Momo had just been raised and trained from a young age to never let mentions of her wealth affect her, at least on the outside.

And that left her walking up to the arena with all the regal stiffness of a monarch.

Of course, when the cheering began to take on a more… lewd… tone, the young ravenette was happy she'd taken such lessons in her childhood.

"I will remind all of you right now that these young heroines-in-training, regardless of their development in any way, are still legally considered minors. They're protected by laws their seniors aren't, especially those regarding… inappropriate attentions. So don't. Try. It."

The cold, gravelly words of the Erasure Hero caused a ripple of nervous chuckling to roll through the stadium. Luckily, it also managed to successfully quiet the lewder cheers that both girls had begun to pick out from the general noise.

"And as another reminder, as their teachers, misbehavior of any sort from us will also be swiftly punished," Aizawa growled to his friend, flicking his mic off before anyone could hear the venom in his voice. "By Nezu."

"Geez! Chill out!" Hizashi warbled, a nervous tick flaring up as he moved his hands in a placating gesture. "Since when were you Mr. Sensitive when it comes to your students?"

The other UA faculty member presiding over the tournament, meanwhile, was sure as hell not glancing at the young Yaoyorozu with envy, hell no. She was the definition of sensuality and provocation; she plagued the dreams and nightmares of youngsters and adults alike; she'd changed the very laws with her daring…

Oh who was she kidding? She envied that girl her metabolism something fierce!

It just wasn't fair! As soon as the heiress had realized that she didn't have to follow her parents' restrictive dietary rules when in Lunch Rush's domain, Momo had quickly indulged in the one habit she loved with a passion that her mother and father absolutely detested… eating like a goddamn pig. Or, now she could say, Izuku after heavy Quirk use.

For a normal person, gorging as much as the Yaoyorozu girl would in one sitting was unhealthy at best and dangerous at worst. Not to mention 'regular' people could hardly stomach watching her when she really got going. In fact many of the boys who'd come sniffing around the princess those first weeks of the semester had been immediately put off by witnessing their goddess scarf down three double burgers in as many minutes, as her appetizer.

And through all that eating, the heiress hadn't appeared to have gained a single pound. A quick study in Recovery Girl's office, not that Midnight had been eavesdropping, had revealed that the Yaoyorozu girl had actually been underweight this entire time! She needed to eat at least three times as much as the everyday Joe, or her Quirked physiology began to wither.

Privately, Momo had been utterly over the moon at the news. While she loved them dearly, watching her parents get officially scolded for enforcing a diet 'detrimental to the growth of one of Japan's future heroes' had been a treat. And if she had in fact gained some weight over that past few months, well… it'd all gone to places she was sure no one would complain about. No one but her and her back that is.

"Alright ladies!" Midnight called out, shaking herself back to reality, "Remember the rules; no dirty fighting but otherwise anything goes. BEGIN!"

Years of training her body to react instantly snapped Itsuka into motion, hurtling toward Momo like a fiery missile. The martial artist knew that the 'Creation'-user was more dangerous the longer she was given time to think and use her Quirk, so the only chance she had was to go on the offensive and never stop. Just like Tetsutetsu had.

She too had learned her lesson.

What was the difference between 1-A and 1-B?

What did it take to be selected for that other, seemingly more prestigious class?

The only difference Itsuka could find… was their lack of hesitance. They leapt to fight, to defend, while others stayed back.

She was guilty of it. Even as the president and big sister of Class 1-B, she'd hesitated against Nevesta. The 'villainess' had been an unknown, and that had been enough for her to not go all in. She'd been unsure; would her opponent play fair? What was her combat style?

Those questions had been nothing more than the excuses of a girl afraid to put her life on the line to save others.

And she didn't want to be that little girl anymore.

Already, her opposite in 1-A had faced down an entire gang of rapists and murderers, knowing full well the fate that awaited her should she have lost to such scum. Yaoyorozu had tackled the threat head on, with no hesitation, all to protect her friends.

Itsuka had sworn, first to herself, then her dad, her friends, her therapist, anyone who'd listen… she was going to change herself. She was going to become that hero who'd never hesitate.

And this would be her first step.

"HYAAAA!"

The war cry resonated through the air as Itsuka swung a gigantified hand at Yaoyorozu in a classic cross chop.

The 'Creation'-user pulled a rudimentary kite shield from her stomach, slinging the sheet of iron up at the last second.

THWACK!

The impact shook both combatants, but Itsuka noticed something… off.

Yaoyorozu had almost sailed to the side, as if she'd been hit with far more force than she knew she'd put into the strike. What was she up to?

Huddled behind her shield, Momo skid over the concrete a fair distance from her opponent. Standing tall, the ravenette lowered her creation and showed off a rather playful smirk.

"Clever…" Itsuka murmured, finally realizing what had happened, "You jumped in the direction of my attack, reducing the impact and getting you more distance…"

Instead of answering, Momo began to strafe to the side, a move that she could see her fiery opponent recognized as her bidding her time. As long as she didn't—

"OOOOORRRAAAA!"

Itsuka roared as she dashed toward Yaoyorozu again, covering the distance in an instant once again due to her rigorous training. It was time to unleash her assault.

BAM!

A powerful jab, but this time there was no Quirk-use. If the heiress was just going to use her own force against her, then she'd just keep it old school to keep the pressure up.

BAM!

The jab flowed into a kick, forcing the 'Creation'-user to take a step back or take a foot to the gut. It was moments like these that made Itsuka glad she'd followed her dad's bushido in regards to martial arts, as goofy as the man could be sometimes. While most practitioners nowadays couldn't separate themselves from their Quirks, becoming dependent on them to perform the moves they'd learned, she'd been taught the original way of doing things.

That was to say, Quirklessly.

Itsuka didn't make a point to bring it up, but she'd gone through her own kind of hell to make sure she'd mastered her family's style without ever having to activate 'Big Fist' if she needed to. Now that perseverance was paying off in spades as she dominated an opponent who'd been meant to be her superior.

BAM!

A second, lightning fast roundhouse kick. The power behind the strike was enough to rip the desperately held shield from Class 1-A's princess, leaving Yaoyorozu defenseless. Victory at hand, Itsuka decided she wasn't going to leave anything to chance. Normally she'd never consider being so brutal to a friend, and Yaoyorozu was a friend, but her counterpart needed to learn this lesson apparently. Overreliance on one's Quirk, complacency with one's abilities, those were ingredients for one's downfall. Just as they'd proven to be the ravenette's today.

Spinning as she came down from her kick, Itsuka activated her Quirk as her body rotated around, gathering momentum to deliver an overwhelmingly powerful chop with the back of her hand to Yaoyorozu. This was going to be the end—

CRACK!

"GGHHAAAAA!" Itsuka's cry of agony caused many who were watching the beat down to wince in sympathetic pain.

Stumbling back, the redheaded president of 1-B deactivated her Quirk, shocks pulsing through her hand. Already a bruise was forming along the side, and her pinky and ring fingers were bent at odd angles. On top of that, the rest of the entire limb wouldn't respond either.

Itsuka's hand was entirely broken.

Lifting watering teal eyes up, the martial artist zeroed in on her opponent, quickly understanding exactly what had happened.

Yaoyorozu had created a pair of tonfas from her forearms, probably when she'd been in mid-spin, and had raised the solid weapons together to aggressively block her attack.

And now the ravenette was charging at her.

"I'M SORRY!" Momo shouted, beginning her counter-assault. The heiress mightn't have been an official martial artist per se, but she did have years of weapons training under her belt that may or may not have been done in secret from her parents.

The tonfas flew with grace and precision, targeting non-lethal zones that would nonetheless incapacitate any recipient with enough repetition. To Momo's surprise, her strikes managed to land true more often than not. Each swing, each successful attack caused her opponent to cry out in pain.

And take a step back. Already they were almost to the edge of the arena.

"WHOA! WHOA! WHOA! THIS BATTLE JUST GOT ENTIRELY ONE-SIDED FOLKS! WHAT HAPPENED?!"

Present Mic's commentary almost didn't overcome the sheer volume of the loudly cheering stadium audience, but just barely did. If she weren't trying to keep from getting the ever-loving shit beaten out of her, Kendo's pride would've been hurt at such a blatant description of the fight's turnaround.

"While Kendo had the right idea in the beginning, her initial analysis is what ultimately failed her. She perceived Yaoyorozu's shield as the largest obstacle between her attacks and her opponent, and with anyone else it might've been. But against someone with near limitless potential when it comes to creating objects on the fly, a single shield is nothing. Instead, Kendo should've gone for something that would've actually affected Yaoyorozu regardless of what she schemed, like her balance. That would've assured she couldn't utilize her intellect and come up with this plan."

Hearing her homeroom teacher's words caused Momo to wince.

There was no great scheme or multistep plan. She'd only used a shield to hold Kendo off because it was one of the most basic things she knew how to create. After she'd stayed in the game long enough, she'd been able to create her tonfas. Those in turn were really only tools to buy time while she slowly recounted how to build a taser.

Itsuka used that split second Momo wasted to wince and did the only thing she could think of; she tackled her fellow class president to the ground, erasing the ravenette's range advantage. She wouldn't be able to use the tonfa effectively if she couldn't build up a little momentum behind them.

The suddenness of the move threw Momo off balance, but as she fell, she managed to twist, toss her creations away, and grab hold of the now shocked martial artist. Shifting into a half Judo throw, the ravenette ensured that at the very least her redheaded rival wouldn't come out of their encounter with the upper hand.

"AUGH!" Itsuka bit down on her pain as she fell on her broken hand, the hot wave of prickling agony washing over her and leaving her stunned for three whole seconds.

That was more than enough time for Momo to grab her opponent's legs, step over her, and put her into a Full Boston Crab hold.

"GHAAAA!" Hearing their class president and big sis cry out in such gut-wrenching agony tore at the hearts of Class 1-B, but none made any attempt to stop the fight. Not only would it have been a fruitless endeavor, but they knew better than to interfere in a battle between warriors.

Midnight, having watched the entire match from the best seat in the house, decided at that moment that the criteria for win-by-submission had been fulfilled and stepped closer to the two girls to ask if Kendo wished to yield. Seeing the heroine, an inspiration for young Japanese girls everywhere, walking toward her sparked the redhead's flickering spirit into full blaze.

Itsuka Kendo made her last stand.

Pushing ever bit of will she had had left into her Quirk, Itsuka managed one last activation in her good hand. With the momentary enhanced strength of the enlarged limb, the martial artist pounded the ground under her.

THUMP!

The desperate strength was just enough, and Momo was unseated, this time leaving the ravenette as the one stunned on the ground for a couple of seconds. Scrambling, the martial artist used that scant time as best she could.

Jumping on top of Momo, Itsuka positioned herself over the heiress and grabbed for her shirt so she could use her elbow and smack her into submission… then things went… weird.

"Kyaaa!"

Instead of the expected cry of pain, a delightful sound escaped Momo's lips. The pitch gave Itsuka pause, and that was enough for the redhead to notice her hand had grabbed something more than just the collar of the heiress' shirt. Looking down, the martial artist realized she'd gotten a fierce grip on… Momo's breast.

"I…" Itsuka failed to formulate any sentence whatsoever. What did one say in this kind of situation?

Instead of immediately letting go, as she didn't want to give her opponent the chance to attack her in turn, the president of 1-B shifted slightly, causing Momo to lift her knee instinctively.

Right between her opponent's legs.

Nerves of an entirely different sort lit up in Itsuka's brain as a certain sensitive area was stimulated. The feeling… didn't feel bad. Like, at all.

Unfortunately for some unfathomable reason, possibly the unexpectedly addictive sensation of lightning coursing through her brain, Itsuka found herself squeezing the large breast captured in her good hand in return.

There was no moan this time.

Looking down at Momo with teal eyes beginning to haze over, Itsuka found the ravenette glowering back at her with a cold glare.

BZZZT!

The nice feeling electricity that had been scrambling Itsuka's brain was immediately replaced by agonizing bolts of actual electricity as a taser was jabbed into her side, right under her own cloth-bound chest and between two ribs. The device's discharge sent the martial artist into a muscular seizure, and Momo quickly stood up as soon as her opponent collapsed off of her.

Then she tased the martial artist again.

BZZZT!

And then a third time for good measure.

BZZZT!

"And that's the match!" Midnight cut in before Momo could go for a fourth jab, a stiff grin on the dominatrix cum heroine's face. "Itsuka Kendo is unable to continue, victory goes to Momo Yaoyorozu!"

The stadium erupted in cheers, the outcome finally lining up with what had been expected. Immediately civilians and pros alike began discussing the fight they'd just seen with their neighbors, points and counterpoints whizzing through the air like bullets. Here and there, a quick-witted soul or two even managed to save and back up clips of the soon-to-be-famous 'groping moment' for later study.

[REDACTED] Underground Facility, [REDACTED] [REDACTED]…

From amongst the refurbished machines whirring away around him, a man wearing an accented plague mask scowled as he read another output of data from the generations old computer that took up a majority of his desk. The racket from the TV placed on the table beside him was grating on his nerves; his itch to cleanse the world of the infection that had engulfed it flaring uselessly.

"Such decadence and corruption. Each and every one of them… are sick and putrid on the inside," the man said to himself as he watched a recap of the first event. The flickering screen landed on a still image of the event's winner, the monster wearing the skin of a boy. "But I'll bring them all the medicine you so desperately need. But you? For you there will only be death!"

Strapped to an old hospital gurney behind the masked man, a small girl laid as quietly as possible, hoping her closed eyes and slowed breathing would pass for sleeping and she'd be left alone. Her old rags had apparently ended up dirtied beyond saving during the last operation, so now a large shirt almost engulfed her, but that was fine. Its size covered the slight flinches she couldn't help as her 'father' began to quietly rage at the picture box next to him.

Time had taught the girl that it was better to be as nonexistent as possible when her 'father' got like that, otherwise she'd be punished severely. And those were worse than even the punishments she'd get for not eating all the yucky paste she was given to eat on a daily basis. Even though it was gone now, she could still feel the phantom pain of the hole they'd cut into her throat, and the tube they'd jammed into, it when she'd last refused the paste.

At least now she got an apple along with the paste.

But that didn't make up for what came after. Needles still really hurt, and being conscious while she was ripped apart whenever her 'father' needed something else deeper inside her always made the day a nightmare that never ended.

Today though, had been special… unlike anything else had ever been to her.

Her 'father' had always called her a monster, worth only what was inside her, 'the key to wiping out all the sick people outside.' But she'd never seen another monster before… until earlier today.

'The Monster of UA…' The moniker resonated inside the little girl's heart far stronger than she'd believed possible, 'I want to meet him, that Monster. Maybe we could be happy together, away from people we could hurt…'

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Magnus: The next chapter will see the end of the first round! Also, more insight on the other factions in play will be shown, so, stay tuned!

The_0bservanc3: Hey all! So with everything going on right now, we realize that times are tough for everyone. But if you feel able to support Magnus and myself we'd love to have you! Just use the wonderful site of P-A-T-R-E-O-N and add "thewriterstwo" after the "/" in the URL.

In the meantime, please enjoy this Omake requested by one of our patrons!

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Omake – Blood and Science – For LeafBladeFox

For Chiyo Shuzenji, her birthday might've well have come early; the day she was able to properly study Cursed Blood had finally come! And she was ecstatic.

Recovery Girl had been nearly frantic over the past weeks, gathering over twenty presentations for why certain procedures should be allowed, and had given them all to Nezu for review. While many she'd desired to carry out had been denied, many more of the most needed ones had still been approved.

"Will that be all?" Izuku asked, eyeing the two adults that had taken over the testing lab as he sat in the padded chair. His arm was still turned up and had an IV line lodged in its biggest vein.

When the young necromancer had heard that Lily's father, the infamous Takeo Go, had basically moved into UA's medical wing, he'd been understandably nervous. Fortunately, or unfortunately, just as Lily had prophesized, the massive scientist had barely bothered them at all after that first day. Apparently, studying the data coming in from his Quirk consumed a lot of the bald man's time.

It better have, he'd only checked on Lily once a week since finding her again. And while Izuku wouldn't say anything yet, he could clearly see, and feel, how that fact affected the littlest zombie's mood.

"Not yet," Go replied sternly, not quite glaring at him with no little animosity, "You still must verbally command your… Quirk… to cooperate with the tests."

It seemed that neglectful as he was, and as absorbed in his work as he was, Takeo Go would remain a resentful father.

Well shit.

"Here," Recovery Girl said, handing Izuku a sheet of paper, "Read this to the test tubes, then you can go."

The verdanette pulled out the IV before either scientist could and got to his feet, grabbing the paper from the elderly nurse. Giving the words a once over, the necromancer almost failed to hold in a snort.

"To my blood, Quirk of mine, hear me…" Izuku dutifully recited, almost cringing at how bad the words spilling from his mouth were. It was clear to him that whoever had written these lines had had no idea what they were doing to rhythm and rhyme at the time. It was atrocious. But he read on. "The tests to come are yours to heed. Their aid is mine, your master, as your limitations I seek to know. Your power is mine and it is for the people these trials you'll undergo. Obey and remain, time you're foe, until no longer your strength you can sustain."

When he was finished, Izuku did end up giving a small snort, followed immediately by a small apology. He couldn't help but think it was kind of hilarious though. These agents of science had just assumed his stylistic approach to giving his Quirk verbal commands was the ONLY way to make his blood obey him. Was he being too dramatic?

"That's it, you can go now," Recovery Girl said, motioning toward the exit, only to change gears at the last second. "Remember to come back for the results after the festival. I might have to be on-call as usual but the tests will still be going on for the duration. I'm sure our findings will be as beneficial to you."

Izuku nodded, giving a warm, sincere smile to the elderly nurse. He was grateful to her… for finally letting him leave this claustrophia-inducing place. Just as the verdanette turned around to face the door to freedom, he was met with a wall of muscle.

"You tell Masao that Pappy will be taking her to the movies this Saturday," Go said, his tone low enough that it was clear he was in no way asking. The menacing glare helped too. "And I do not want to be hearing you have been making her cry when we go."

The young necromancer gave a firm nod before fleeing the area. Would it kill the guy to be less aggressive with even the simplest of things?

A moment of silence filled the lab…

"Alright, let's begin Takkun!" Chiyo cried with a cheerful voice, nearly hopping in place if her old bones had let her. "It's time to see what makes this Quirk really tick."

A stoic nod from her giant of a coworker, one she'd acquired… sometime in the past… was all the elderly nurse needed. Faster than one would expect from one her age, Chiyo moved about and had set up cameras to properly record their research before Takkun had even looked away from the door he'd been glaring at.

Test #1: Reanimation Activation Limit…

Several rats had been laid upon a table, the lot ranging from two days dead to six hours fresh. Each and every one had met their end at the hands of Recovery Girl's scalpel, or had been subjects in other tests focused samples of other UA students with flesh and or blood related Quirks.

The results? They made Chiyo clench her teeth.

"Twenty-four hours…" the elderly nurse grumbled, "On the goddamn dot."

There went her dream of reviving the greatest heroes of old and ushering in a second Golden Age of Heroics.

"It's at least consistent with what has been previously observed," Takkun said, going over old notes and writing down extensive new ones. "In the Nikaido case, the father was unable to be raised, while the daughter faced no issues. The only difference was time and cause of death. The latter had already been ruled out as a contributing variable."

It was still disheartening to the elderly nurse as she prodded one of the dead rats fruitlessly. It had been dead for only twenty-four hours and five minutes but gave as little response as one of the ones that had been dead for two days now. Meanwhile, one that had been prepared only twenty-three hours and fifty-five minutes ago sat within arms reach, staring at her as if waiting for a command.

Its glowing scarlet gaze was disturbing.

"Well, as disappointing as this was…" Chiyo eventually said, causing Takkun to look up from his work, "Let's continue with the next test."

Go personally found nothing bad at all in regards to the test's results. Twenty-four hours to reanimate a corpse was an extraordinarily large window. There was the easily considered limitation that a clever villain could just hide away the bodies of victims to render the ability null, but still… even then, the brat could just use his blood as a truth serum if they captured said villain.

But he didn't have enough data to determine which was a worse fate.

Test #2 Response and Connection to Immunology…

Izuku Midoriya was not the first regenerator that Recovery Girl had studied in her long and storied career in the medical field, but he was the first to apparently wield absolute immunity. As a given, regenerators healed quickly, so much so that in some cases there were reports of illness and diseases passing without notice entirely until routine blood work was done and the resultant antibodies were found.

However, not every regenerator was so lucky, and using their natural abilities as a treatment for others had been outlawed by the UN decades ago anyway after a scientist in some America city with an ice Quirk had gone mad when he'd diagnosed his ill wife as terminal. He'd frozen her solid and then had proceeded to kidnap every man, woman, and child he could find with Quirks even remotely related to healing blood and cut them to pieces, all to test and see if those Quirks could act like rudimentary vaccines.

It was for those reasons that diseases that attacked the immune system were still a huge problem today. That also didn't factor in that those with Quirks that granted them some degree of personal immunity or advanced regeneration could still be carriers for said viruses and risked infecting others while feeling fine themselves.

In the face of all of that medical history, Midoriya seemed to be the exception.

Finally being granted Tae Yamada's file, after citing its use for the tests, had brought to light some… rather disturbing revelations. According to the document, the undead young woman had been afflicted by no less than a dozen severely insidious sexually transmitted diseases, some of which had only even come into existence thanks to the Quirk Era. Two of those dozen, one an old hanger on from the past and the other one of the newer strains, were viruses that relentlessly attacked immune systems and were effectively incurable by the natural body, even Quirked.

And yet, the last test done on Miss Yamada showed that every trace of those dozen diseases was now gone… all thanks to Midoriya's Quirk.

"But this is impossible!" Takkun shouted from one of the printers as he read the data gathered from the antibodies test. "According to this, Midoriya-san has never been sick!"

Chiyo felt a shot of adrenaline light up her creaking joints as she bolted over and snatched the papers from Takkun's large hands. Perhaps her other dream, of developing a true panacea from the verdanette's super antibodies, could still come true?!

"I knew the Quirk was strong," the elderly nurse tittered as she began to scan the read outs, "But never? He was in direct contact with a disease ridden corpse, a bleeding corpse, for hours awhile back. Imagine the antibodies from that experience!"

"That's not what I meant…" Takkun said, shaking his head. The mountainous man pointed to a few key lines on the paper. "See, there's nothing. It's as if Midoriya-san has never been exposed to… to anything at all. Ever. Like he lives in a sealed box."

A thorough once over, clear of preemptive excitement, had Chiyo biting back a sailor's curse.

All the results… every one… was negative.

There were no signs of the antibodies that should've been produced from the last seasonal outbreak of the flu. There were no overactive allergy markers, no hereditary inheritances. There wasn't even a single antibody from the universal rhinovirus group that the general populace received.

Nothing.

"Did you run a blank by mistake?"

The question was given with no little amount of despair and grasping at straws. The results in their hands should not have been possible. Even the most powerful regenerator on record had antibodies from the mutation Quirk fighting off infections. Hell, the fever Midoriya-san had reported had during the USJ Incident was proof enough that he had some kind of immunological response.

Right?!

"I ran the test five times…" Takkun reported, scarred face grim. "There's something… else… going on here. Let's run another test… Separate this time."

Chiyo could only nod. This required immediate investigation, and if they hadn't cleared the coming test with Nezu then they'd have to beg for forgiveness later.

Minutes Later…

Through a special attachment that projected a certain finely tuned microscope's sight onto a monitor, both Chiyo and Takkun were able to closely examine the hastily put together petri dish currently under scrutiny. The dish contained a small amount of Midoriya's blood, untainted from the rat tests. Surprisingly, and perhaps thanks to the verdanette's orders, not only were the boy's red blood cells visible, but so too were translucent microorganisms.

'Cursed Blood' itself.

While they did their best to hide it, neither scientist could completely hide their unease at the sight of the… insectoids? Mollusks? Crustaceans?

"Ready?" Chiyo asked with as much calm as she could muster.

"Ready," Takkun replied, syringe in hand.

The experiment would be simple in principle. Midoriya's blood would be exposed to a shot of blood infected with AIDS. Could it be considered unethical? Perhaps, but they needed to know how it was possible that UA's healthiest student had no observable immunological history.

With the skill and care of a career scientist, Go injected the infected blood into the dish and immediately looked at the monitor.

On the screen, the powerful microscope recorded what could only be considered the bloodiest and most gruesome wholesale slaughter ever recorded… on a micro scale at least. As soon as the AIDS virus had touched a single red blood cell that had a microorganism attached to it, the Quirk entities as a whole had gone into a frenzy akin to starving piranha.

Every piece of biological matter the microorganisms could find they ripped apart and rendered down into base components. The deadly virus, so effective at entering the cells meant to hunt them, was torn asunder with extreme prejudice. Infected white blood cells, normally the Trojan horse the virus used to enter new hosts, were butchered with gleeful violence. Even the few remaining foreign red blood cells that had been healthy were dismantled without pause or hint of mercy.

And then, when there were only fragments and chains of proteins left… the Quirk entities feasted, devouring their haul like gluttons.

Meanwhile, Midoriya's own white blood cells? They hadn't even had a chance to react. A few had managed to wade into the feeding frenzy, but instead of ending up food for the microorganisms, the Quirk entities had… herded… the stray cells to safety, as if they were misbehaving children.

The answer had turned out to be more simple and yet far more horrifying than expected. Midoriya was immune to diseases not because he'd developed super-soldier antibodies thanks to his Quirk or had Quirk-produced resistances, nor because his body could differentiate friend from foe, but because anything that wasn't a part of him was seen as food by his Quirk. Anything not all-natural Midoriya was marked for immediate death and dismantling, storage or consumption.

And there went her dream of making the world's only true panacea.

"Sensei," Takkun whispered, "I think it's time we bring out the… special toys."

Chiyo nodded, it was all she could do.

Test #X [REDACTED]

Go held a larger syringe now, intently glaring at a zombified rat. All cameras, save one, had been turned off. The incinerator in the corner of the room, meant for biologically hazardous waste, had been fired up and its door was already open and waiting. There was no way to know what would happen as a result of this unsanctioned experiment, but being able to quickly and quietly destroy evidence of its existence was a must.

And anyway, they'd report it if it was successful. If not, well no one needed to know it ever happened. Especially the brat.

"There you go…" Go rumbled as he injected the staring rat with his nanomachines. "Now you're secrets will be ours and we'll see how you really work."

The intent behind this experiment was simple and straightforward; they needed to know how Midoriya's microorganisms actually operated. Go's nanites would latch onto the samples in the test rat and record every spec of data they could. There was so much they didn't know… how did they replicate? How did they repair tissue, or replace cells? Did they communicate?

Go's true purpose in proposing this experiment was for the hope that he could find a way to program his nanites to act like the brat's Quirk. If he succeeded, he'd be able to free Masao from the brat's Quirk, and return his baby boy to his waiting arms.

In the blink of an eye, something went wrong.

SSSCCCRRREEECCHHHHHH!

The rat Go had injected suddenly went berserk, its muscles bulging to unnatural proportions as the glow of its eyes became brighter and harsher. Just as suddenly, the rest of the zombified rats began to screech as well. As one, the undead vermin jumped at the two scientists.

"AAAAHHHHH!"

Both Chiyo and Go screamed in sheer terror, the pain of bites and scratches hardly registering in the moment as their fight or flight responses dials over completely to flight.

As they panicked, the rats ran all over the bodies of the two scientists, rampaging the entire time. With one last collective screech, the rats left the duo to their fear and pain and jumped away. Before either Chiyo or Go could think to stop them, the undead vermin made a break for the incinerator and without pause committed mass suicide.

Silence fell upon the lab immediately after, the roar of the incinerator's flames the only sound audible.

Snapping back to herself thanks to years of walking into the world's worst disasters as a part of relief efforts, Chiyo managed to scramble over to the blood samples that hadn't been injected into the rats. Maybe they still had a chance—

Black.

Every test tube, petri dish, and slab they'd kept samples in now showed the blood inside had blacked, as if it had already coagulated and rotted away. Any further experimentation was no physically impossible.

"At least we learned something," Chiyo muttered, "So, not a total loss."

No sooner had the elderly nurse spoken than the speakers set into her lab's ceiling crackled to life.

"Chiyo-san, Takeo-kun. Please report to my office… now."

Nezu… didn't sound pleased.

At all.