A soft chuckle resonated through Kurogiri's form as a small stream of dust flowed out from Tomura's hand before what was left of the bar stool was flung across the small room. The blatant display of anger and frustration from the younger man was oddly cathartic to witness, bringing the phrase "angry enough for the both of us" into a whole new light. Quietly, he added a tally mark to the slowly growing list of repairs he had started keeping during Tomura's small tantrum. "At least we don't have to worry about neighbors," he muttered to himself, setting his notebook aside as he redirected his attention to the TV set.

The green-haired anomaly was squared off against a pink-haired, pink-skinned girl, another of the students Kurogiri recognized from their raid. She seemed to be skating around the small arena, taking advantage of her obvious agility and flexibility to avoid the boy's attacks, even managing to counter with some strikes of her own. He had to admit it was an impressive display from both of the children, regardless of how one-sided the matchup was quickly becoming. The pink girl was being steadily pushed back towards the edge of the stage as the boy was seemingly only gaining more and more speed.

"How…?" Tormura asked no one in particular for what seemed to be the hundredth time. It was a question with a dozen possibilities, yet with frustratingly few answers. "How…?"

"He certainly is intriguing," Master's voice crackled through the old TV set. "And his Quirk. Electricity? No, that would not explain his speed…"

Kurogiri reached below the counter, grabbing a small stack of papers and quickly shuffling through them. "Our information had him listed as having a physical enhancement Quirk, Master. The source of the lightning is unknown."

"Your 'information' also told us there were nineteen students that would be present at our attack." Tomura didn't look away from the screen as he spoke through gritted teeth, genuinely surprising Kurogiri that the boy had been paying attention to their conversation. "Maybe next time, just steal a roster instead."

Biting back a retort, Kurogiri simply nodded, tugging idly at the metal bracers surrounding his core. The chuckling from the old TV did little to help his mood, so he simply decided to keep quiet and return his focus to the tournament.

Mina knew she was going to lose. She knew it from the moment she watched Midoriya's Quirk come to life, the tell-tale green lightning arcing across his skin. Yet even in the face of this futile match-up, she couldn't stop smiling. To her, the fight had quickly become more about the little victories: every punch or kick she dodged, every strike of her own that landed, every globule of acid that hit its mark. They may not be turning the match in her favor, but she savored them all nonetheless.

Midoriya's own smile had been growing through the fight, she realized as it suddenly appeared much closer than before, directly next to her shoulder. A jab to her back sent her spinning, and as Mina tried to move her feet under her to keep her balance, she felt her upper body continue to rotate, angling down towards the floor. The breath was driven from her lungs as she impacted the concrete, and she felt the press of the boy's knee against the small of her back, holding her in place.

"Can you keep going, Miss Ashido?" Midnight's voice sounded distant as Mina's head continued to spin. After a moment of weakly fighting against Midoriya's grip, she shook her head, admitting her defeat. The pro hero stepped back to her stand, raising her flag and reactivating her mic to announce the results of the match. At the same time, Mina felt the pressure on her back and shoulder disappear as Midoriya moved to kneel beside her.

"Need a hand?" the boy asked, voice raised enough for her to hear over the noise of the crowd and Present Mic announcing the final match of the round.

Mina shook her head. "Nah, I'm good," she replied, pushing herself up to her knees. As she did so, she felt pain lance up her leg from her ankle. The girl winced and sucked in a sharp breath through her teeth, falling back into a sitting position with the injured leg stretched out. "A-actually, maybe…"

The green-haired boy grimaced, but wasted no time in putting one arm high around Mina's back. In return, she put her own arm around the boy's shoulders and together they pushed up to their feet, Mina keeping all her weight on her uninjured leg as they made their way off the platform. "I was worried about that." Midoriya's voice was quiet, almost regretful. "I thought I was in the right position for that trip."

"Seriously?" Mina raised an eyebrow as she laughed tiredly. "You beat me fair and square, and now you're not only helping me walk out, but you're also worried about having hurt me?" Midoriya opened and closed his mouth a few times, a faint blush creeping onto his cheeks as they reached the exit. "There's no way you're gonna beat Todoroki with that attitude."

"No, th-that's not—" He paused, then looked at her incredulously. "Todoroki hasn't even had his match yet. I could be going up against Sero for all you know."

Mina simply laughed and shook her head, turning briefly to wave off a pair of medical bots carrying a stretcher obviously meant for her. "You really think Sero could beat Todoroki head-to-head? He's good and all, but fighting's definitely not his strong suit. Especially not against someone like Todoroki."

"I guess you're right," Midoriya said with a sigh, closing his eyes. "He'd probably do better against someone who can't attack from a range…"

To Mina's surprise, the boy's mutterings ended there, his voice trailing off into silence. Worried that she might have struck a nerve or made him nervous about his upcoming match, she nudged him with her elbow. "We passed the infirmary, you know," she lied, grinning as the boy's head snapped up, eyes widening for a second before he looked at her with a fake scowl. She laughed as Midoriya shook his head, the two of them now just outside Recovery Girl's door.

"Want me to wait here, or…?" Midoriya opened the door and led the way in as Mina just shook her head.

"Nah, you've done more than enough," she replied with a warm smile. "Besides, your girlfriend is probably gonna get jealous if you're gone too much longer.

With one last sigh, his blush returning slowly, Midoriya waved farewell to his classmate and hurried back towards his seat.

Nervous energy filled Tooru as she paced around the large empty hallway. The second round of the tournament wasn't set to start for another ten minutes or so, but the anticipation was too much to handle. Unable to keep still, she'd decided to try to walk off some of her nervousness, barely even noticing that Izuku still hadn't come back from his own match. All she could think about was her upcoming fight with Tokoyami, and whether or not her practice from the past couple of days would pay off in full.

A second set of footsteps caught her attention and she looked around the corner from the entryway she'd been pacing in. Even in her nervous state, she couldn't help but smile as she saw Izuku making his way down the hall towards her. "You did amazing!" she called out, all but rushing the boy and pulling him into a tight embrace. "I knew you could do it!"

Izuku chuckled softly as he returned the hug, rubbing his girlfriend's back for a moment before they released each other. "I feel a little bad," he admitted, rubbing at the back of his head with a sheepish grin. "I wanted to give Ashido a fighting chance, but it was just a bad matchup for her."

Tooru rolled her eyes in response. "You would say that, wouldn't you? Always too worried about the other person's feelings to be excited that you won. Classic Izuku." Her boyfriend pouted and gave her a light shove, obviously trying to hide his embarrassment at being called out yet again for his selfless nature. The action only caused her to laugh as she turned and began leading the way back to the entryway where she'd been pacing.

The two of them stayed in silence for a while, seating themselves beside each other against the concrete wall. Tooru laid her head on Izuku's shoulder and closed her eyes, trying to dispel some of her nervousness. She felt the boy turn, planting a gentle kiss to the top of her head that sent a tingle through her. He stayed like that, lips still pressed to her head, for a long moment before taking a deep breath and finally breaking the silence that had fallen between them. "You know," he said, sounding as though he were deep in thought. "I actually feel a little bad for Tokoyami."

"What?" Tooru pulled back a little, turning to raise an eyebrow at her boyfriend. "What do you mean by that?"

Izuku leaned his head back against the wall, eyes aimed up towards the ceiling. "Just that—how do I explain it?—he's got a Quirk that gives him a huge advantage in a one-on-one fight, basically turning it into a two-on-one. But it's not gonna be much of an advantage against someone he can't see."

It took a moment for Izuku's words to sink in, but once they did Tooru couldn't help but slap herself mentally. All her nervousness and self-doubt had somehow caused her to forget the biggest advantage her Quirk gave her; the fact that her opponents literally couldn't see her coming. Sure, her invisibility wouldn't protect from Bakugou's explosions or Todoroki's fireballs, but against a physical fighter she would easily have the upper hand. The reminder left the girl with a soft smile as she shook her head. "Why can't I ever remember that? You'd think I would know that by now."

Any reply Izuku was about to give was cut off by Present Mic's voice coming over the PA system again, reminding them that her next fight was about to start in just a few minutes. Tooru took a deep breath, holding it in to steady herself before leaning back against the wall and letting it out slowly. Her boyfriend offered a reassuring smile as he stood, holding out one hand to help her to her feet. "You've got this," he said simply, moving in close to give her a quick peck on the cheek. "You're gonna do great."

Tooru smiled at the kiss, giving her boyfriend one more tight hug before he made his leave back down the hallway towards their class's seats. After another steadying breath, she turned back to face the entryway, going over in her mind a few of the possible ways this fight would go. It wasn't long before Present Mic once again called out over the sound system. "Alright listeners, the moment has arrived! The first match of the second round is about to start! We've got an interesting matchup here, with the Master of Shadows against the Maiden of Mystery!"

'Maiden of Mystery?' Tooru thought to herself as she stepped through the entryway and onto the field, trying her best to ignore the roar of the crowd as she made her way towards the ring. Across the way she could see Tokoyami approaching as well, his face as stoic and unreadable as always.

As the two students took their places across from each other on the concrete arena, Midnight stepped forward. "Remember, kids. Your goal is to incapacitate your opponent or to push them out of bounds. If you're unable to keep going, call it out and we'll end the match there. Ready?"

"Ready," Tokoyami replied, lowering his arms and shifting one foot back into a loose fighting stance, already treating this match much differently than his earlier fight against Yaoyorozu.

"Ready." Tooru grinned as she answered the teacher, already undoing her tracksuit and tossing the clothing aside, wanting to take full advantage of her Quirk right off the bat.

After returning to her post, Midnight cracked her trademark whip to signal the start of the round. Immediately Tooru lept to the side, wanting to throw her opponent off as much as possible in case he was expecting a frontal attack right from the start. As she moved, however, she watched as Tokoyami's Quirk began to manifest far differently than she had expected. She had only ever seen Dark Shadow appear as a bird-like entity, anchored to Tokoyami's chest as it moved about like an extended limb. This time, the shadow Quirk seemed to encompass the bird-headed boy as a sort of cloak, covering his back, arms, and legs in a seething black mist-like substance.

Changing her direction, Tooru lept back towards the edge of the ring, the sound of her footfalls pulling Tokoyami's attention in her general direction. Part of her still wanted to make this a close quarters fight, but the possibility of triggering a trap held her at bay. The last thing she wanted was to throw a punch and have Dark Shadow grab her and render her helpless. As she began to slowly circle the edge of the ring, an idea she'd had earlier returned to her mind, one that had taken root after hearing Izuku theorizing about Tokoyami's Quirk. All she could hope is that she would still have enough energy to fight if she was able to pull it off correctly. With one more steadying breath, Tooru raised both hands up to her forehead, palms facing outwards.

Then, she tensed.

"SOLAR FLARE!"