Izuku walked up to the fighting ring for the second time, this time Iida would be his opponent. Last time he won by using the weakness of his quirk's time limit against Monoma, this time he would have to work with Iida's weaknesses. Because his thought process and fighting style were both incredibly straightforward the best way to throw him off of his game would be some simple mind games.

He walked to the very edge of his side of the ring, his heels directly up against the white line. Izuku then turned to Midnight.

"Is it fine if I start from here instead of the regular spot further forwards?"

"Uh, sure? I don't see why not. There's not really an advantage to starting further back."

He then slid off his jacket (which was more of a vest after taking the sleeves off last round) and held it out beside him. After shaking the fabric he called out, "Olay!" to make his intentions as clear as possible.

"You would compare me to a bull? How rude!"

"Yes, that is what I'm getting at. In fact, you're such a bull that I can already tell you exactly how you're going to lose this fight."

Izuku was doing his best to channel Tanaka's ability to taunt and infuriate just about anyone, because Iida being angry would only make this plan work better.

"What nonsense is this?!"

"Here's what's going to happen. I'm going to continue taunting you until you get furious with me, that way when Midnight starts the match you'll charge at me with all your speed. Then, right before you hit me, I'll leap as far as I can to the left and you'll run right out of bounds like the charging bull you are."

"Why would you tell me your strategy?! You don't make any sense!"

Midnight was well within her rights to start the fight already, but she (and the audience) were finally getting some drama that was interesting. So she decided to let them keep bickering for another minute or so.

"Because, I know you think I'm lying. Which means you'll swerve to the right to stop me from dodging, but you'll miss me entirely because I'm being honest and will dodge to the left. Of course, if you believe me and it turns out I'm lying, you'll miss me all the same."

Iida looked angry at first, then looked confused, trying to determine if Izuku was lying about where he would jump, or if he was telling the truth. In reality, telling him he would dodge to the right didn't change anything, it was still a 50/50 shot of Iida guessing the side correctly. But by adding that piece, it made it seem like it was actually a battle of wits and caused Iida to both overthink and hyperfocus.

Midnight sensed that the interesting part of the conversation was over and raised her arm holding the whip. "Students!" She cracked the whip loudly. "Fight!"

Iida came shooting towards him at incredible speed while Izuku held his ground, jacket held out to the right of him while he was crouched and leaning to the left, loudly projecting that he was still planning on jumping that direction.

What Iida didn't know was that with all of his yelling about rules and regulations, Tanaka had come to really dislike Iida. To the slime man, Iida was the worst kind of hero, one who truly sees themselves as good while not actually being particularly heroic. Iida was becoming a hero for nepostistic reasons and never showed a desire to help others unless commanded to or because it would benefit him.

Izuku personally didn't care much, as long as he followed the rules he loved so dearly and saved people as a hero, he didn't think why he saved people mattered too much. Regardless, it meant that while Iida had all of his attention on Izuku, Tanaka had spread out across the ground, leaving a thin layer of slick slime everywhere within about five to ten feet of Izuku. It was a small enough usage of their quirk that it wouldn't give anyone a reason to suspect either of their quirk secrets.

While Tanaka didn't want to partake in the festival, he would never turn down the chance to humiliate a pretentious asshole on national television and knock him down a few pegs. Even if Izuku didn't fully agree, he would take what he could get from Tanaka. Plus, he could see how Iida's outlook on life would run very counter to Tanaka's life experiences and cause plenty of frustration.

Iida came sprinting at Izuku with a speed that would rival most cars. His eyes remained glued to his target, looking for any sign of which direction he would jump. Then he reached Tanaka and lost all traction. He couldn't do much other than flail his arms in an attempt to at least stay upright but still fell face first. However, with all that momentum, he went flying forwards and slid right past Izuku and only the grass.

Izuku was declared the winner and walked over to Iida, who was still lying down on the grass after flying out of the ring and landing with quite a bit of force.

Izuku offered a hand to help him up, "Good match."

Iida's frustrated look turned softer at his words, but then returned to anger after Tanaka spoke loud enough for Iida to hear but not loud enough for any cameras to pick up.

"Get good, scrub. You should have checked yourself before wrecking yourself."

"You would have lost if you hadn't tricked me! You never planned on dodging and made a fool of me."

"Sorry about that, I just needed a way to get you to focus all your attention on me, that's why I was so rude at the beginning. Otherwise you might have taken your eyes off of me and seen that we'd slimed the floor."

"Hm, I suppose that is true. While I find your methods dishonorable, you most certainly outsmarted me and have won without breaking any rules."

They shook hands in a show of good sportsmanship for the cameras and walked back to their respective tunnels. After they left the arena Tanaka started talking again as soon as they were out of earshot.

"You know, Iida would be great to bring on a camping trip."

Izuku paused with a very confused look. "Why's that?"

"Because he has such a big stick up his ass we'd never run out of firewood."

Izuku snickered a little, "Ok, that one was actually pretty funny."

"I'm just saying, that guy loves the rules so much I'm pretty sure the pages of his student handbook are stuck together, if you know what I mean."

Izuku laughed even harder, "Ew, that's gross. I don't want to think about Iida getting off on a book of rules."

"That's fair, but I'd like to point out that you didn't say you thought I was wrong."

"Ok, enough of that, we're heading back up to the student section to watch the next round and I don't think anyone would appreciate those jokes."

"Ok, ok, I'll stop for now. But I think you're wrong and at the very least Jiro and Dark Shadow would laugh with me. They're always down for roasting someone."

He made his way up to the student viewing section and smiled wide when his classmates congratulated him.

"You were totally manly out there! Standing your ground while Iida was charging at you was so cool and manly!"

Mina nodded as well. "Right! It was super cool and clever, I never would have thought of something like that. I might try it in the future, using my weakest acid as a way to make people slip and fall."

"Thanks! I knew I wouldn't be able to beat Iida in a straightforward fight, so I had to be a bit more sneaky about it."

He walked over to his friends, Tanaka immediately getting a high five from Dark Shadow.

Shoji looked down at him and smiled at him with one of his hand-mouths, "You did a really good job out there. You looked very handsome out there, the tank top revealed how deceptively muscular you are." Shoji coughed and looked to the side. "I'm saying this because you also deserve to be told you are handsome."

Izuku of course blushed as much as one can while fumbling through his words. "Oh, um, thanks, yeah, it was nothing. Um. Wow. Well, hm."

Jiro snickered a little, "Damnit Shoji, you broke him."

Tokoyami tapped Izuku on the shoulder and pointed at the arena, "Yaoyorozu and Shinso are up now, what do you think his quirk is? No one has figured out exactly how it works."

Izuku was very thankful for the shift in conversation and something to focus on. He knew how to do quirk analysis, even if a lot of other things were confusing he knew how to do that.

"Well, based on what I saw during Jiro's fight, he has some sort of psychic quirk that let's him control others. There are plenty of quirks that can do that, but we can narrow it down a bit. For example, we can rule out anything telekinesis based like a marionette quirk since Jiro doesn't remember walking out of the arena. And we can rule out a possession quirk since he still had control over his own body while she was walking away."

Jiro looked at him in shock. "Possession quirks?!"

"Huh? Oh, that's that classification for quirks that basically let you enter a person's body and take control. Usually the main drawback for the quirk is either your body goes limp, or you switch bodies and now the target has control over your body."

"That doesn't actually tell us much. If it isn't any of those options, then what is it?"

"Everything we've seen points to it only working over short time periods and the target not remembering anything." His voice trailed off as he watched Yaoyorozu and Shinsou out and shaked hands in a show of good sportsmanship, they then exchanged a few words before the match started. Shinsou gave a friendly smile, "May the best one win, right?"

She smiled in return, "Right."

Izuku saw her eyes go blank. Shinsou's smile turned into more of a grin as he told her to walk out of bounds and she readily obeyed the order.

Izuku jumped in the air a little and grabbed Tokoyami (who definitely didn't squawk in surprise) by the arm in excitement. "That's it! It's a voice based hypnosis quirk! It seems to require both parties speaking, probably some sort of call and response. He made sure to speak in a way where she would respond to her, but once she did she started following any verbal commands mindlessly! That's such an interesting quirk!"

Tokoyami regained his composure and nodded. "Indeed, he is a fellow being of the darkness."

"He'll probably join the class, either him or the girl I fought. Speaking of which, Tokoyami, your fight with Suzuki is about to begin."

"Hell yeah Fumi, she doesn't stand a chance! Let's go kick some ass!"

The fight was quickly ended as Dark Shadow easily picked up the ged ed student and placed her out of bounds. Izuku almost felt bad as the fight ended. Since Dark Shadow didn't have any muscles there was nothing for Suzuki to use her quirk on and she never stood a chance. Izuku really hoped that her swift loss wouldn't stop her from becoming a hero.

The final match of round 2 was just as anticlimactic, which could be expected when someone with a quirk that can weld things together was up against a boy that could create glaciers with a thought.

After the match ended a break was called so the fighters could rest and prepare for the upcoming fights. There was also the unspoken reason of them needing to clear the arena of all the ice. Barely a minute after the fight ended, Todoroki walked into the student section and stared directly at Izuku who simply waved back.

"Hey Todoroki! You did a great job out there!" Izuku was still upset about the whole dropping robots on people thing, but it was becoming clear he wasn't actually malicious, he was just awful at gauging the strengths of his opponents. And by that Izuku meant his gauge was set to assuming that everyone was incredibly powerful by default and seemed to have a hard time learning to dial back his attacks accordingly. He supposed that made sense though if he was used to fighting Endeavor

Plus, Rei had asked him to befriend Shouto, so he made it his duty to be as friendly and supportive as possible.

"Midoriya, I would like to speak with you."

"Sure, what's up?"

Todoroki glared slightly and looked back and forth at their classmates who were all watching this interaction.

"In private."

"Ohhh, sure, we can talk in my waiting room." He looked over his shoulder at his other friends, "I'll be back in a few minutes I guess. If not then I'll see you after my fight with Shinsou."

Once they got there Todoroki stared directly into Midoriya's eyes for nearly a minute. Izuku was tempted to ask a follow up question but decided it was best to just let him work through whatever his process was.

"Are you All Might's secret love child?"

The question caught him so off guard that he coughed/laughed up a chunk of Tanaka (who was also laughing). "No, it's nothing like that. My dad is a deadbeat that left me and my mom when I was a little kid. Why would you think that?"

"I see. Based on your interactions and incredible strength I had thought you were related but that it was covered up. However, you said 'it's nothing like that', which means it is something else. No matter, if you're connected to him then I have to defeat you with my mother's ice."

"Whoa whoa whoa, let's back it up a little. I'm not sure what order we should unpack that in, but let's start with 'defeat you with my mother's ice'. What on Earth does that mean?"

Shouto gave him a questioning look. "I thought you knew my origin. My father purchased my-"

"Not to cut you off before you go on a rant, but we're on a time limit here. I do know about all of that stuff from your mom. My question is why you would refer to it as her's? Wait a minute, is that why you don't use your fire?! Because you consider the fire aspect of your quirk a literal extension of your father?!"

"Yes. It is my father's quirk and I won't use it. And I'm going to win this festival and beat you to show that I can become a hero stronger than him with only my mother's quirk."

Izuku rubbed his temples in exasperation, "Wow, you definitely need a therapist. But that's for another day. For now let's cover the easy stuff, your quirk is inherently different than either of your parents. You only have your father's quirk as much as you have his kidneys. Sure, his genes played a part in how your body developed, but it's still your body and he has no say over it."

Izuku took a deep breath. "Secondly, and most importantly for the moment. If you're doing your whole 'I won't use my fire' thing to piss off your dad, it's not working. He doesn't care about you using your fire."

"That's incorrect, he has gotten very upset at me only using ice."

"Let me rephrase it then. What he wants is for you to be powerful, at the end of the day he doesn't care how you become powerful, it's simply that using the entirety of your quirk would objectively make you stronger. So, if you go through with your plan the only person you'll hurt is yourself and you'll still have given him exactly what he wants."

Todoroki stared directly into Izuku's eyes as he thought that through. "Then what do you suggest I do?"

Izuku grinned wide. "I have the perfect plan of how to piss your father off without hurting yourself and definitely not giving him anything he wants. We can make a plan for the long term later, it seems like what you need right now is just a way to ruin his day while refusing to use your fire in the festival because we don't have time today to work through years of hating and repressing half of your body."

Izuku made his way up the Ring for the third time now and faced Shinsou with hair that definitely reminded him of Aizawa. The boy walked to his position and smiled.

"Let's have a fair match, ok?"

Izuku didn't respond, not particularly wanting to be hypnotized out of the ring. He wouldn't have had an issue with losing to the gen ed student before, but now he needed to win this in order to help out Todoroki.

He sighed. "So, did someone tell you or did you figure it out yourself?"

Midnight called the beginning of the match and Izuku walked towards Shinsou with the intent to end this as quickly as he could without hurting him too much.

There were a few more questions here and there, which cemented his theory of it being response based. Shinsou remained on the defensive, just trying to buy time while backing up while asking questions intended to get a response. A few were insults, but Izuku didn't take it to heart. Though he was a bit frustrated when Shinsou claimed Izuku didn't know what it was like for things to be stacked against him.

He sighed deeply. "I don't stand a chance do I? Damn, I guess I should just give up on this whole hero thing?"

"What?! Don't give up on your dreams!"

Izuku's eyes went dull as Shinsou took control. "Holy shit, I can't believe that worked. You seemed like you were way too friendly, but that's just ridiculous. You broke your silence and tossed the match just to cheer me on. Well, walk out of bounds."

Izuku turned around and took a few steps before he came back to himself. Izuku looked back and forth in confusion.

"Huh? I'm still in the ring?"

"What?! How'd you break out of my mind control?!"

"Uh, what are the release conditions?"

Izuku went back under only to come back a few steps later.

"Why doesn't it work on you?"

"If you just told me how it releases I'd be able to answer-"

And he went in and out of Shinsou's control once more.

"Dammit! You shouldn't be able to break free without outside help! You'd need someone to shove you or cause some level of pain, but no one is in the ring but us!" Shinsou was sounding more than a little exasperated at his quirk failing for the first time in his life.

"Ohhhh, that's a very unfortunate release condition. You're really going to have to train that up if you want it to work in the field rather than just on civilians."

"Huh?"

"Oh, because heroes and villains are way more likely to have chronic pain, which seems to be your kryptonite. You see, I shattered my legs badly a little over a year ago and now my legs hurt if I'm not careful, and I guess that's just enough to break your hold."

In all honesty, that was only half true. He neglected to mention that most of the pain that was releasing him came from Tanaka rather than a chronic issue. As they had learned over and over, it hurt quite a bit if they moved in different directions, and by only controlling Izuku and not Tanaka he kept running into that problem.

"Well fuck. So my quirk just doesn't work on you?"

"I suppose it might one day if you're able to strengthen your hold on your targets so they don't break out as easily."

"I guess we're doing this the hard way then." He ran forward and threw a sloppy punch at Izuku who raised his arms to block it. Izuku just kept blocking as he moved forwards, eventually moving them to the line and pushing Shinsou over.

Izuku smiled at him after the match was called. "You did great today, it was just a bad matchup. I hope you get to join our class, I'd love to talk more about your quirk with you, it's so interesting!"

"Uh, sure, but for now I think we have to get off the field so the next match can go, Midnight is glaring at us."

"Oops, sometimes I just get a bit too excited about quirks."

They walked out the open area but Izuku stopped in the exit tunnel. "I'll just wait here since I'll need to be back in a second anyways."

Shinsou gave him an odd look, probably thinking of the roughly half an hour break they have every time Todoroki covers everything in ice.

"Sure, whatever floats your boat."

Tokoyami walked up onto the stage along with Todoroki, but then he went up to midnight where her microphone caught their conversation.

"Hello, I shall be forfeiting this match. I am content with the laurels of third place and wish to avoid being frozen."

Tokoyami turned to walk away from a flabbergasted Midnight. Dark Shadow took this opportunity to grab the mic when no one was paying attention to him. "We are students not gladiators! We are heroes not entertainers! Down with the government! Under my rule as supreme shadow bird I promise everyone a free pony!"

Tokyami began wrestling the quirk back into his body. "Dark Shadow! Stop trying to antagonize everyone. Please ignore his words on destroying the government and distributing ponies." He handed the mic back to Midnight and walked away.

Izuku smiled and walked right back out and high fived Dark Shadow as he passed them. "Thanks for helping out."

"Of course, we are always willing to bring attention to the mad banquet of darkness."

Midnight looked between the two fighters, "Ready? Begin!"

Izuku nodded, "We'll be doing two out of three by the way."

She was clearly baffled by what that meant, were they going to fight three times?

They approached each other with serious expressions, meeting in the center of the ring and falling into fighting stances. They each had one fist in front which they raised up and down as they shouted together.

"Rock, paper, scissors!"

Aizawa's commentary could be heard throughout the stadium, sounding as bored and tired as ever.

"With Midoriya choosing rock while Todoroki going with scissors, the first round goes to Midoriya. The score stands at 1:0"

The spectators didn't know how to react to this, but it certainly wasn't what they paid for. While some were happy to watch the comedic finale, most were upset. They wanted to watch the next generation of heroes beat each other into the ground, not play children's games. The loudest protest of all came from Endeavor, who had erupted into flames and was screaming for Shouto to stop disrespecting his legacy and to fight his enemy.

"Todoroki wins round two by staying with scissors while Midoriya moves to paper. The score is 1:1, the next win will decide the victor of the tournament."

For the first time in their entire school year, he saw Shouto smile. It wasn't a big thing, just a small smirk at watching so many people, especially his father, lose their minds over something as simple as this. All his life, Todoroki had never really had any true options. His choices were decided for him, but in that moment, he took a little bit of that power back.

"Thank you Midoriya, this option is much nicer. I don't think I particularly like fighting, it's never brought me joy, it's just been a necessity."

Izuku gave him a big smile. "Remember, your quirk, every part of it, is yours and no one else's. That means it's your choice how you use it, if you use it at all."

Aizawa's voice came through again. "We have a tie for round three, with both sides choosing scissors, meaning we will go into round four."

"Well, if you weren't a hero, what would you want to be? What makes you happy?"

Todoroki paused in thought. "I think I'd like to run a little noodle shop and make people soba. Soba always made me feel better."

Izuku didn't think he could smile any wider, and tears began to form in his eyes, "That sounds amazing. I bet you'd be an amazing noodle chef. Your mom told me about how much you loved her soba, I bet I can get her recipe from her."

"Do- do you think I could go with you?"

"Of course, I think she'd love that. She misses you a lot."

Present Mic's voice boomed, "And the winner is Todoroki, using scissors once again and defeating Midoriya! He is our first place champion, with Midoriya taking second!"

This entire arc has just been me loving the intelligent and friendly side of Izuku. The one who analyzes quirks instead of solving every obstacle with punching. This story may be my least popular by the numbers, but it's my favorite to write. I hope all of you enjoy it as much as I do!

At the moment, I plan on Shouto staying in the hero course, but he'll definitely be going at things differently than he did in canon.

Any and all suggestions are welcome.