"THE FIRST ROUND'S JUST ABOUT HALF OVER! NEXT UP IS TENYA IIDA OF THE HERO COURSE! VS - COVERED HEAD TO TOE IN SUPPORT ITEMS, MEI HATSUME OF THE SUPPORT COURSE!"

"What is that?" voices from the crowd echoed around me. I was decked out in Hatsume's support items, the ones she'd given me to even the score.

"Aren't those forbidden for hero course students?" Sensei asked me. "You have to put in a special request for those things beforehand."

"Oh!" I gasped. "I forgot! I didn't think it'd be a problem, since Aoyama wears that belt of us."

"Right. He applied for an exception."

Oops…"I'm terribly sorry, then! Except…I was touched my my opponent's sense of sportsmanship. Although she's a member of the support course, she came to me and said that if we were to be seen as equals, then we should fight on equal footing. She gave me these items to use. Her earnest spirit, I could never look down on it! That was my thinking."

Sensei smiled widely then. "So naive! But good enough for me."

"If both parties are fine with it, we can probably allow this, right?" mumbled Mr. Aizawa.

And with it all agreed to, I was free to charge at Hatsume. As I moved, I felt my speed increased by the gear she'd given me. I was free to move easily towards my opponent. Who was - standing there, and smiling?

"WHAT INCREDIBLE SPEED, IIDA!" she announced, her voice booming throughout the stands from a microphone attached to her head.

"A microphone?" I asked myself. She continued "YOUR LEGS FEEL EVEN LIGHTER THAN USUAL, DO THEY NOT? THAT'S WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT WITH MY CUSTOM LEG PARTS, WHICH KEEP UP WITH THEIR USER'S SPEED!"

And just as I'd gotten close enough to land a blow on her -

"BUT DODGING THEM IS NO PROBLEM FOR ME WITH MY HYDRAULIC ATTACHMENT BARS!" And she had easily jumped away from me. She wasn't even looking at me. With her gear, evading me was so easy she didn't even have to pay attention.

"What's she doing?" I painted in frustrating as I turned around - very fast, almost on a dime.

"WHAT DEFT MANEUVERING, IDIA! MY AUTO BALANCER MAKES THOSE SORTS OF MOVEMENTS POSSIBLE!"

This continued. Every thing I tried - every direction I took, Hatsume turned it to her own advantage. And she wasn't watching me. The whole time, her eyes were far away, on the boxes with the companies she was pitching to. She barely even noticed me.

Ten minutes later, and she simply stepped out of the ring as I panted, winded in the corner.

"I believe they've seen ti all now, nothing left to show!" she said cheerfully.

"Hatsume is out of the ring. Iida moves on to the second round," said Sensei.

"YOU DECEIVED ME!" I screamed at her in unutterable frustration.

She turned away. "Sorry for using you like that."

"I really dislike you!" I shouted back at her, almost inarticulate at this point. How can anyone be so infuriating, so selfish, so - so dramatic? So arrogant?

I headed back to the prep room. I was moving onto the next round, it wasn't like I'd lost. But still, it felt as though I'd been humiliated and defeated nonetheless. Really, aren't you secretly impressed? That girl made herself the star of the show…and it's not like she lied to you.

Still, what a deceitful, arrogant, annoying…

"Good work out there, Iida!"

I looked up. I'd walked into the room where Uraraka was sitting, waiting for her match. Only she didn't look like Uraraka at all. Her face was scrunched up so that she looked angry.

"Is that you? Why the furrowed brows?"

"Brows? Ah, I'm just a little nervous," she admitted, scratching the back of her head. "Guess it shows on my face."

"Right," I said, remembering the line-up. "Your opponent is Bakugou."

She looked down at the table, her face in shadow. "Yeah. I'm really scared. But…but seeing you at there, Iida, - I - "

I stared at her, not sure what she meant. Seeing me out there? Seeing my match? Why?

The door opened. "Uraraka!" said Midoriya, walking in to join us.

"Deku? Wait, shouldn't you be watching the other matches?" asked Uraraka.

"Midoriya," I cut in. "What's the story behind that support girl?"

He ignored me to answer Uraraka's question. "Another two matches were already decided. They were pretty short. And it looks like Kirishima's match is gonna go for some time."

"So I'm up soon," sighed Uraraka.

"But I can't imagine Bakugou would give it his explosive all against a female opponent," I reasoned. Even Bakugou wouldn't go that far!

"No, he will." Midoriya's face made it clear. And I had to admit, nobody knew Bakugou better than he did. So if he said so…

"Everyone's competing here with the dream of becoming number one. No one's holding back. Kacchan least of all. But you've helped me so much already, Uraraka, so I thought I might return the favor." And he removed his notebook from his back pocket. "You need a counter-strategy for Kacchan. One that uses your quirk. I came up with this on the fly, but it might work."

"Oh, how fortunate for you, Uraraka!" I smiled at her. But she didn't smile back.

"Thanks, Deku." She turned to us and smiled. "But that's ok."

She looked down again. "You're amazing, Deku. You do amazing things all the time. During the Cavalry Battle, I thought the easiest strategy would be to team up with friends, but when I think about it, I was actually just putting my faith in you. That's why, when Iida said 'I challenge you', That left me feeling a little embarrassed for myself."

"Uraraka," gasped Midoriya, as I stared at her, a little awestruck.

"That's why, thanks, but no thanks," she said, as she headed out the door. "Everyone here is fighting for their futures. Doesn't that make us all rivals? So…" She turned to look back at us and held up a simple thumbs up. "I'll see you in the finals."

Her hand was shaking, but she seemed ok. She wasn't going to take any help. She was going to do this all on her own.