The day had finally arrived. It was the sports festival, and students milled about in their classrooms as they prepared to head to the arena. Class 1-A was filled with chatter and excited students gushing about what the events might be. Izuku had a few guesses of his own, but mainly he was just incredibly nervous-so many things could go wrong!

What if he accidentally shorted out the videos and then everybody watching at home would hate him and he'd get sued by the newsfeeds? What if the cameras focused on him when he tripped-what if they focused on him at all? What if he had to make a speech or something equally as horrible-

"Midoriya, Bakugou," came Aizawa's deadpan voice from the doorway. "As the student representatives due to your performance at the hero course exam, you're expected to give the Athlete's pledge," he paused, sighing. "Athletes' pledges."

"EHHHH?" This was worst case scenario! Was it okay for Izuku to break down and cry? Why wasn't he informed of this?

Aizawa seemed to have read his expression because he continued. "We usually give a warning slightly more in advance, but the gist of it is that we want your honest speech without overblown preparation. In your cases, we forgot."

SO BLUNT! But Izuku could understand that they'd likely been dealing with things a fair bit more important than a speech at the shorts festival-but it wouldn't have taken that much time, right? They only had a few minutes left!

Katsuki scoffed beside him before stalking off to sit in a corner seat-to sulk, maybe? Kacchan had been in the moody teenager phase for years after all. Izuku started mumbling into his fist, wondering what he could say. Plus Ultra, right? Could he say that and nothing else? It was fine, right? Kacchan would come up with something amazing right? Right? He wouldn't just scream die because that was-

"Midoriya?" Izuku jolted, pulling his head up as Todoroki approached him.

"A-Hai, Todoroki? What is it?"

"Objectively speaking, I'm stronger than you."

"H-huh? Sure?" Was he though? Izuku was the last person to be arrogant, but Todoroki had only shown a small amount of ice usage before, and sure it could be big, but that wasn't very refined? And didn't the fire half he seemed to have represent power more classically?

"All Might's got his eye on you, doesn't he? I'm not going to pry into why, but," Dammnit All Might, why did he have to go making enemies for Izuku? All he wanted was friends! "I'm going to beat you."

"Okay," Izuku said absentmindedly before blinking. "Wait-hey, you can't say that! Anybody could beat me and anyone could beat you, right?"

Sero cheered in the background. "Yeah Todoroki, don't go discounting us like Bakugou yet, yeah?"

Kaminari snickered by his side. "A declaration of war from the strongest in the class? Good luck, Midoriya!" Kirishima stood silently by his locker, sending a slightly concerned glance over but choosing not to step in. He was probably still mad.

Todoroki ignored them. "I'm not here to make friends." Why tho? That was all Izuku really wanted-that and to save lives, of course! He was kinda angry actually-why did Todoroki act like no body else mattered? They were all here and all doing there best to be heros! (Izuku ignored his own voice asking him if he could really count himself among them)

"Todoroki…" Izuku started carefully, making sure he didn't come off too angrily. "I don't know why you feel the need to tell me that, or why you choose to ignore everyone else. I know well enough that I have flaws, and I mean, you probably know that better than most-" he struggled not to dissolve into muttering, tightening his fists until he could feel that slightly reassuring pinch of pain. "But! Like everyone else, even the kids from the other courses, everyone aiming for the top, even people who have been turned away from the dreams and told they couldn't succeed," He brought his head up, forcing determination into his expression, as he realized what he was doing here.

"I'm not going to fall behind-I'm going to go for it with everything I've got." He took a steadying breath, turning his determination into a grin. "I'm going to do my best!"

Todoroki looked at him, something like condensation or disbelief set on his stoich face. "...Right."

Izuku could feel a presence stalk up behind him, but didn't turn at the slight smell of carmel as Kacchan shoulder-checked him. Coming to stand in front of Izuku, almost guarding him away from Todoroki.

"Look here, Pizza Hut," He growled. Izuku struggled not to laugh at the blatant confusion that overtook Todoroki's face as he blinked at the nickname. "I don't give a fuck who you think you are or how strong you think you might be-the only thing that matters is how strong you show yourself to be, so don't make any declarations you can't keep."

• • •

Izuku stared nervously at the eager faces in the crowd staring down at him as he walked beside Katsuki up to the microphone. He took a deep breath-just simple, encourage everyone to do their best, Plus Ultra- Easy!

He reached out, and opened his mouth, only for a piercing, scream shriek of interference to ring through the arena, tearing at everyones eardrums. Izuku jumped back with a shriek of his own, recognizing it as his fault. Of course that would happen!

He shrunk back, and Katsuki scowled pushing past him as he walked up to the mike.

"We're gonna win."

Izuku gaped at him, unable to help but remember what he'd said to Todoroki earlier. ' Don't make declarations you can't keep. ' Oh, Izuku flushed as he realized what Kacchan was doing. It was his own challenge, his own promise that he and Izuku were the strongest, that there was nobody who could beat them. But wait- WHY WAS KATSUKI IMPLICATING HIM? EVERYONE WAS GOING TO HATE HIM!

And hate them they did, jeers and shouts of affronation ringing from the other classes. On the bleachers, people shifted, eyeing Katsuki and murmuring amongst himself. Izuku blushed redder, and struggled to hid himself in his shirt collar-it was too embarrassing!

Katsuki remained solemn, expression set as he turned away from the podium, even amongst the cries of even their own classmates, but Izuku couldn't help but admire him-the old Kacchan would have said that with anger and confidence accompanied by a feral grin, but instead all he could see on his face was determination. The strength of hero who refuses to loose.

"Wipe that dopey smile off your face, idiot." Kacchan growled as they came face to face. "And don't make a fool of me." He didn't pause as he brushed past, heading into the angry crowd. I won't , Izuku promised silently. I won't let you down, Kacchan!

Next thing Izuku knew, he was in the midst of a jostling crowd, anticipation tensing everyone's shoulders as they waited for the race of the first event of the UA First Year Sports Festival to begin.

"RACERS TO YOUR POSITIONS…." Izuku set his feet apart, fingers twitching at his side. The crowd was dense, a mess of limbs and bodies-it would be difficult to notice if someone happened to go through someone else right? So… "START!"

Izuku shot forward, allowing his corporeality to flicker on and off as he darted through bodies and made his way to the front within seconds, leaving a mold of his shoe behind as he phased out of the ice. Some evidence-but it would surely be trampled behind him.

Out in the open, Izuku skidded to a stop in front of the robots-wasn't it kinda lame to reuse them? Definitely an advantage for those who took the hero course exam… Oh well, it was easy anyway. Charging forward, he took out a few robots using his usual tug and dodge telekinesis. Accidentally, Izuku yanked a loose plate of the robot with too much force, and it rammed into him, knocking him into the ground. Kicking it off, Izuku scowled at the hunk of metal. He might as well figure out if it could be useful, if it was gonna push him of course like that. Swinging it over his shoulder, Izuku resumed running.

The drop-off was easy to cross, just floating over them, though he could easily hear Present Mic's explanation that- "IT LOOKS LAME BUT MIDORIYA IZUKU OF CLASS 1-A EASILY CROSSES OVER THE FALL!"- which made him scowl a bit. It definitely wasn't impressive to limply float, but if he faked running that would be kinda weird too, right?

An aborted yell and a quick jolt had Izuku instinctively jumping forward and down, just in time to grab a wrist and drag a fellow participant up to safety. Quickly checking they were okay, he moved on. UA had better had nets a few feet down or he might need to consider suing them for child endangerment-how many times was this now?

Oh, and look. Let's put children against bombs! Sure, some of the 'children' had quirks that could easily rival bombs, but still! Even if they were made more mild than actual mines, what if someone set off a chain reaction of explosions, that would-

Needless to say, Izuku set off a chain reaction of explosions and used it to catapult himself into first place.

Katsuki came blasting in behind him in second, with a very disgruntled looking Todoroki in an extremely close third. "DEKUUUUUUuuuuuuuuu!" Katsuki growled stalking forward in stiff motions like a stop-motion T-rex before Kirishima swung an arm around his neck and restrained him as a flood of students reached the finish line.

"Whoa bro, chill out! You guys both won, right?"

"If you mean I'm the first fucking looser when Deku was supposed to take that place, then-"

"Hey, it's better than last looser, amiright!?" Kirishima steered Katsuki off, sending a glance toward Izuku. Izuku blinked after them, because, wow, Kirishima, what a poor way to try and distract Kacchan! But?, it?, had worked?

Izuku was still lost in the implications of the success and being brainstorming things he could due-it had to be taken into account that he couldn't harden himself against explosions but incorporeality worked in much the same way though it might make Kacchan angrier than anything else so maybe if he said it in a way that pandered more to Kacchan's pride then-

"AND FIRST PLACE, FOR ONE MILLION POINTS!"

Shit.