Disclaimer: Neither I or bunnyscribe own My Hero Academia or Mob Psycho 100

Chant for Victories That Feel Like Losses

By: bunnyscribe (AO3)

Note from MNL: Hey, just gonna put the list of matches here since the original list was displayed in an image, so here you go!

Mob vs Shinsou, Bakugo vs Uraraka, Mina vs Sero, Kirishima vs Tetsutetsu, Shouto vs Aoyama, Momo vs Izuku, Mei vs Iida, Kendo vs Kaminari

"Come on Midoriya, we should at least relax a little bit don't you think?" Sero says, bringing his hands up behind his head with a large grin.

After the names were drawn for the next round and the matches decided, Mob finds himself huddled up with his friends as they naturally seemed to move towards each other in the crowd. Midoriya barely seems to notice that Mob, Uraraka, and Sero have surrounded him, staring up at the glowing board with all the matches written on it and muttering up a storm, barely pausing for breath.

"I mean, we made it this far in the festival, you know? We at least deserve like, what, thirty minutes to hang out and play stupid games?" Sero continues. "Dwelling on what's next is no way to live."

Midoriya pauses in his mumbling to give him a doubtful look, thumb pressed up against his mouth. "We should at least start planning," he says. "Getting this far means nothing if we don't have an idea of what's coming up next. Aren't you worried at all?"

"Nope!" Sero says, popping the p. "Not at all." He ruffles Midoriya's hair, ignoring the choked sound he makes. "You're just overthinking this way too much. It's gonna be fine! I mean, look at Mob." He gestures at him, "Take a page out of his book, he's not even fazed. The true picture of calm stoicism right there."

Mob blinks, caught unaware as he's suddenly pulled into the conversation. "That's not true," he says, voice entirely deadpan. "I'm nervous too."

Eighty-two.

Uraraka snorts from beside him, close enough to be nearly brushing against him. She's practically glued herself to his side since he returned to the lunch room after his conversation with Bakugou, though he can't quite figure out why. He's trying not to feel bothered by it, but right now everything seems like it's too much, even the earplugs he put back in aren't helping as much as the did before.

He hasn't said anything about it though, not wanting to make her feel bad, especially since she hasn't actually touched him.

"Sero's right then!" she says. "If even you're nervous, we should do something to get our minds off it," she says. "Why don't we play some of the games? I think they're getting ready to start those."

Midoriya's frown deepens, but he pulls his thumb away from his mouth. He stares at Mob, looking at him in a way that somehow reminds Mob of Reigen's more serious moments. "I'll do whatever Mob wants to do," he says.

Mob's chest clenches as all three pairs of eyes turn towards him, and he feels a couple beads of sweat roll down his forehead as he tries to turn the idea over in his head. He suddenly realizes he's not particularly inclined one way or another, which somehow makes the pressure over deciding more intense.

"Dude," Sero says with a laugh. "Stop, you look like you're about to blow a fuse over there." He holds out a fist towards Mob, grinning at him. "How bout this? One game of rock-paper-scissors, you versus me. If I win, we go have some fun. If you win, we'll pour over Midoriya's nerd notes or whatever. Sound good?"

Mob stares at Sero's fist for a few moments too long, long enough that Sero's arm wavers, before holding out his own. "That sounds fair," he says, and is immediately rewarded with Sero's grin widening.

"Awesome," Sero says. "Two out of three then. Ready, set, throw!"

Two rounds of rather intense rock-paper-scissors later, Mob loses zero to two. He doesn't really feel bad about it though, because both Uraraka and Sero look very obviously happy.

"Alright!" Uraraka yells, clapping her hands together. "Games it is then!"

She grabs Mob's hand, and before he has time to flinch away, she latches onto Midoriya's too for good measure. "Come on, come on! We gotta hurry, it looks like they're passing out cards for the scavenger hunt now!"

She only pulls them a few steps when Ojiro steps in front of her blocking her path.

"Ojiro?" Midoriya says, voice going up in pitch. "Did you need something?"

Ojiro doesn't look at any of them, instead wringing his hands together in front of him. His tail swishes back and forth aggressively across the ground, and Mob is reminded of an anxious dog his master had recused from some rowdy kids in the neighbourhood who had decided it would be fun to throw rocks at it. He had been much younger at the time and it was the very first he had seen his master truly upset about something. The dog had cowered at the sight of it, and his master's face had smoothed out, immediately pulling out dog treats from seemingly nowhere.

"Kageyama, may I speak to you?" Ojiro asks, interrupting the memory. His eyes dart up for a moment, mouth drawn in thin line, before quickly looking back at the ground. "Alone?"

Mob's mind immediately goes blank.

Ojiro had never approached him after the incident at USJ, and Mob had never attempted to seek him out. He still has no idea of what he wants to say to him yet, and had been doing his best not to think about it at all. He opens his mouth, and then closes it. An 'I'm sorry,' sits heavy on his tongue despite not feeling like a strong enough word choice to convey what he wants to say.

"Sure," he says instead.

Ojiro nods and starts to move away, Mob trailing awkwardly behind him. He can feel stares on the back of his head and looks over his shoulder to find his friends watching him. Midoriya in particular looks upset, though Mob can think of no reason why he should be.

"You can start without me," he says. "I'll be back in time to join you."

"If you're sure dude," Sero says slowly.

"Do you want me to come wait for you?" Midoriya asks, stepping forward.

Mob glances at Ojiro, who has paused to wait for him, then back at the others. "No," he says, "it'll be fine, I think."

"Kageyama," Ojiro says. "Are you coming?"

Mob hesitates, then lifts a hand to wave at his friends. "I'll be back," he tells them, before turning back around.

Ojiro leads him into the room that they got ready in, and, without waiting for Mob, he throws himself into one of the chairs. His eyes close and he props himself up with his elbows, looking tired.

Mob pauses, trying to think of what he should do next. "...Are you alright?" he asks eventually.

This gets Ojiro to actually look at him, eyes wide, and then he huffs, looking away just as quickly. "I'm fine," he says.

Mob hums. "I don't know if you're being honest," he says bluntly. "What did you want to talk to me about?"

Ojiro looks at him oddly, face twitching as though it's not quite sure what to do with itself. "I-" he says. "At USJ- I mean- I just wanted to tell you-" He stops.

The pressure in Mob's chest gathers, and suddenly he finds it a bit hard to breath. The air is taut, like a pulled out string. "Yes?" he eventually manages.

"I'm sorry," Ojiro says. "I just- I feel like I need to apologize to you first." He runs a hand through his hair. "I should've noticed how bad off you were and figured something else out."

"No," Mob says, and the conviction in his voice surprises the both of them if the look on Ojiro's face is anything to go by.

"No?"

Mob stares at him, trying to piece together what he wants to say. "You shouldn't apologize," he settles on. "I should." He bows his head. "I didn't know what I wanted, and I hurt you because of that. I'm sorry."

The next pause goes on long enough for even Mob to notice it and when he picks his head back, he finds Ojiro smiling at him. It's small and strained, but it's still there. "I guess we were both kinda in the wrong there, hun?"

Mob's not sure how to respond to that. "I guess," he says.

Ojiro studies him intensely, and then sighs. "Look," he says, "that isn't all I brought you in here to talk about. I'm sure you can guess, with your first fight and all, but I feel like I need to give you a heads up anyway."

Mob tilts his head, gears turning in his mind for anything else there could be but coming up empty. "What is it?"

Ojiro mouth tilts downward. "The guy you're fight against, he's the reason I dropped out."

Mob blinks, confused. It's not an unfamiliar feeling, but uncomfortable nonetheless. "Why?"

"It's his quirk," Ojiro says, running his hand through his hair again and glaring intently at the floor. "It's some sort of brainwashing of some kind, I don't know."

"Oh," Mob says, and it takes a second for him to truly understand the weight of that. "Oh."

"That's what I wanted to tell you," Ojiro says. "All I know is that when I spoke to him, everything went blank afterwards. I think that's how it works, you have to talk to him."

"What do I do if I talk to him?"

"Well," Ojiro says, bringing his hand up to his mouth in a move that reminds him of Midoriya. "I came back too when I got bumped into, so my guess is you need physical contact to break it. You can't really count on that though since it's one on one." He glances sharply at Mob. "So don't say anything, no matter what."

Mob processes that, thinks about how easily it would be to lose after coming so far. He thinks about winning for his friends, he thinks about Midoriya's nervousness, thinks about Bakugou.

He doesn't vocalize this. "I won't," he says instead.

The small, tight smile appears back on Ojiro's face and suddenly he's standing. He goes to pat Mob shoulder, but stops when he jerks away from the contact. His smile twitches, but he just as easily switches to a thumbs up.

"Do me a favor, Kageyama," he says, "and win this."

.-.-.

"I just can't believe you were hiding such a super cool secret power move from us!" Uraraka says, pouting at Iida. "It's just not fair!"

Iida gestures, arm swinging up and down as though it was sitting on a pivot. "I told you already! It's not as though I was just trying to be secretive or anything of the sort!"

"Yeah," Sero says, poking Uraraka's shoulder from behind her and wearing a wide grin. "And I mean, you got admit it was pretty cool of him, whipping something out like that at last second."

"Besides," Iida says, stiffly turning back to the arena. "My goal was to prove myself to all of you, I think doing the unexpected was a good way of accomplishing that. Especially to Midoriya, whose strategies usually revolve around quick thinking."

At the mention of his name, Izuku looks up from where he was staring at the back of Todoroki's head. "Hun?" he asks smartly. He feels all his friend's eyes move onto him, and looks back and forth between Uraraka and Iida who sit on either side of him. "What?"

Uraraka frowns at him. "Are you ok Deku?" she says, "You've been acting funny since lunch."

Izuku blinks, a bit thrown off kilter as he tries to shift gears. His thoughts feel like they've been stretched in all directions for the last hour or so, and he finds himself cycling through all the different anxieties that the day has presented to him. It doesn't really feel like he has space in his head for much else, but he tries to force himself back to the present moment, sparing one last glance at Todoroki before turning his attention back to his friends.

"Sorry," he says with a sheepish grin. "You don't have to worry about me, I'm just getting a little bit nervous with all the waiting."

Uraraka bites her lips, eyes darting to the arena and back to him, and he immediately knows that she's thinking about Mob. "I know what you mean," she says, reaching out to pat his shoulder. "But it's gonna be fine. He'll do his best, I just know it."

And that brings up an entirely different concern for Izuku: Mob. He hasn't seen the other boy since he disappeared with Ojiro after the matches were announced, despite promising he'd be back.

Ojiro is there though, sitting a couple rows ahead and a little to the right, in the middle of what seems to be a deep conversation with Tokoyami. Izuku kind of wants to go interrupt, but it's both politeness and anxiety that keeps him from going over. He can connect the dots though, even without discussing it without Ojiro.

Whoever Mob is fighting in the first round was the same person who Ojiro was teamed up with during the cavalry battle, and going off the assumption that he dropped out of afterwards because of memory issues, he can only assume that Ojiro pulled him aside to talk about whatever quirk the boy had that affected him. But what kind of quirk could cause memory issues like that? And for what purpose what you use it on team members trying to help you?

A long finger taps Izuku's shoulder.

Izuku startles, spine straightening out, and looks behind him to find Tsuyu looking at him intently.

"You were mumbling a lot," Tsuyu says with a croak. "Are you nervous?"

"I-" Izuku starts and stops, eyes darting to the arena and back. "Yeah, I guess I am." He sighs, bringing his thumb up to his mouth so he can bite on it. "I just- I wanted to wish Mob luck before his fight."

Tsuyu blinks slowly at him. "I'm sure he knows."

"Oooh!" Uraraka says, suddenly latching onto Izuku's arm. "Look! I think it's starting!"

Mob appears first, exiting the tunnel on the left side. Izuku can't see his expression from this far out, covered entirely by his signature bowl cut as it bobs along towards the arena. There's hesitancy in each one of steps, as if he's considering every move he's making carefully even before the fight has begun.

On the other side of the field, Shinsou emerges, posture loose and relaxed. He looks calm and stone faced, even from this distance. It's a different type of calm stoicism than Mob's or even Tsuyu's though. His is less thoughtful and more closed off, guarded. A choice rather than something natural to him.

"The first match!" Present Mic shouts over the speakers, and Izuku almost falls out of his seat.

"Looking as bland as possible, but still packing quite the punch is Kageyama Shigeo from the hero course! Verus, this guy who we really don't know anything about from the general studies course Shinsou Hitoshi!

"Remember, the rules are simple! Win by defeating your opponent, whether that's immobilizing them or getting them to give up is up to you! Bring on the pain, good ole Recovery Girl is on standby so do whatever you need to! Just no going for the kill though, remember folks, only villians do that! Now is everybody ready?!"

Mob and Shinsou stand across from each other, staring each other down. Izuku can feel the immediate tension in the air, even with all the crowd's excitement buzzing through the air. He bites down on his thumb, watching in anticipation.

"Begin!" yells Present Mic.

.-.-.

Mob's not to sure what to do when the fight starts.

He's not sure Shinsou is either, as they just stand across from each other, watching, neither making a move. Shinsou looks him up and down, eyes sharp and judgemental.

"You know," Shinsou says after a minute. "You seem like a really pathetic dude."

Mob opens his mouth and then clicks it shut, remembering Ojiro's warning.

"You seem to have so much power. I mean, you obviously don't look like much, but after watching you in those first two competitions…"

Mob takes a step forward, uncertain of where this is going.

"It's clear that you really got the lucky ticket, hun?" Shinsou slouches, hands going into his pockets. "With a power like that, there's no stopping you from doing whatever you want. And you seem like such a pushover that of course people are going to be clamoring all over you to get a hold of it."

The air gets tenser, a foreboding hanging over the arena that Mob can't put a name too.

"I guess, I just want to ask...Do you think friends even care about you?" Shinsou asks, face impassive, eyes piercing. "Or are they just using you for your power?"

"You're wrong," Mob says reflexively. "My friends-"

"Got you."

Zero percent.

Mob's mind goes fuzzy, filling with a static that reaches the deepest parts of his subconscious. Every bit of pressure that had been building up in him throughout the day disappears, like the weight has been lifted from his shoulders and he's handed it over to someone else.

It feels amazing.

His body turns around without him asking it to, feet dragging him forward. His vision paints over red and black, surrounded by the colors appearing in long, seemingly never ending streaks. They rush past him, washing over him in a way he knows should be overwhelming, but isn't.

It isn't?

His body takes another step- he needs to stop, why does he need to stop?- He walks upon ground that no longer looks still, that flows underneath his feet like an angry river - he needs - he doesn't want, not like this -

He doesn't want this.

It's that realization that snaps him back into himself, allows him to think just a bit more clearly. Other colors start slipping into the sides of his vision again, though the shapes still are spotty and out of focus. Those hues of red and black that had been tunneling around him start gathering together, forming the shape of a person in front of him.

The shape looks about his size, similar in height and build, but it doesn't seem to be holding itself together right. The edges of it flicker and blur, smudging the air around it. It stands just outside the boundary line Mob is still walking towards, just watching him as he gets closer.

"This is your loss, Kageyama," Shinsou says from somewhere behind them, his voice muted.

Mob's only a couple steps away from the figure now, from the end of the match. Pressure is steadily leaking back into him, like a facet left dripping. The person watches.

? ? ?

And then it raises its hand, and Mob is pushed back into the arena in a burst of energy.

His back scrapes against the concrete, pain shooting all the way down his spine. He gasps desperately for air. Everything that had been weighing on him before clicks back into place, pouring into him again, and he feels tears start burning paths down his cheeks as though they were fire spreading across a line of gasoline.

Eighty eight. Eighty eight. Eighty eight.

"What?" Shinsou says, shocked. "What did you just do? Did you just use your quirk?"

Mob presses his palm against the ground, struggling to push himself upright. He looks up at Shinsou, their eyes meeting.

Shinsou's teeth are clamped together, sweat dripping down his cheek. "What? Nothing to say now?"

Mob stands on unsteady legs, breathing heavily.

Eighty eight.

"Ha," Shinsou huffs. "Someone like you...you are really blessed aren't you?"

Mob takes a shaky step towards Shinsou. Then another.

"Thanks to my quirk, I didn't even stand a chance compared to you!" Shinsou yells, grinning, a wild look in his eyes. "You people born with awesome quirks, you really are better off than all of us aren't you?!"

Mob's running at him now, legs moving without knowing what he's going to do next.

"Getting to follow your dreams!" And then Shinsou's moving towards him too, stepping forward. "In a world meant just for you!"

Mob stretches out his arms and grabs Shinsou's shoulders, pushing him backward towards the edge of the arena.

Shinsou's mouth parts into an o, stumbling back a couple feet. The surprise doesn't last long, his face sets in grim determination and he reels back a fist, punching Mob squarely in the face.

Time seems to slow for a second, long enough for Mob to think through his adrenaline. Is this right? he wonders. Am I making my master proud of me?

Then Shinsou punches him again and something in his nose cracks. Mob's head flings back and Shinsou takes the opportunity to push it further back away from him, hand pressing against his cheek.

Mob reaches up and grabs his arm, twisting at it. And then, with his quirk, he pushes sending Shinsou sliding on his back out of the ring.

"Shinsou's out of the ring!" Midnight yells.

Mob stands, taking a couple steps till he's looming over Shinsou, and feels blood dripping down his face. He can't seem to catch his breath.

"And with that Kageyama moves on to the next round!"

Shinsou's face is pinched, eyes squeezed shut and teeth held tightly together. Neither of them move, suspended in a fight that just ended.

Mob blinks, the pressure in his chest pushing upward and burning like bile. He looks at his shaking hands, then up at the crowded stadium, roaring in applause for the violence that they just witnessed, and he wonders if Midoriya and his friends are among them.

Ninety.

.-.-.

Hitoshi sneers at Kageyama as he offers out a hand to help him up. He ignores it, instead pushing himself up with a hiss of breath as his back protests the movement.

He's unsure if he's more mad at himself for the loss or the other boy for reaffirming everything he already knows. But what he is certain of is that he that he just wants to get out of the spotlight and go lick his wounds in private. He shoots Kageyama one last glance.

The other kid looks absolutely pathetic, like he just lost instead of the other way around. His face is entirely blank, like he's shell shocked, hand still stretched out from where it was reaching out to help him. Blood drips from his nose, running down his face in a steady line.

Hitoshi scoffs, turning around to walk out of the arena.

"Good job!"

It's that first shout that reaches him. He looks up and sees a couple of students in his class smiling down at him, pressed against the rails of the bleachers. The girl who sits next him waves.

"You did awesome out there!" she yells. "Had me on the edge of my seat, you know?"

The cheers ripple outward from there, and Hitoshi watches, awestruck, as more and more of the crowd starts to applaud him.

His breath stutters in his throat.

"Shinsou," Kageyama says, voice so soft that it barely reaches him from the noise in the stands.

He turns around to find Kageyama staring at him, expression still stuck in that seemingly perpetual surprise. "What do you want?" he asks.

"What you said is wrong," Kageyama says. "About my friends and about yourself."

"Oh, yeah?" Hitoshi says, trying to keep his voice as neutral as Kageyama's so as not to give him the upper hand. "And what do you mean by that?"

"My friends are not using me," he says, and then pauses before he speaks again. His head lowers so his face is covered in thick shadows despite the sun bearing down on them. "I am not so pathetic as to be pushed around like that."

Hitoshi stares blankly at him, and then snorts. "You realize I just said that to get a rise out of you, right?"

Kageyama hums, picking his head back up. His expression doesn't change, but Hitoshi can almost sense the way the curveball hits him. "I guess," he says. "But the other things you said weren't a lie."

"Oh?"

"My quirk makes me no better than you," Kageyama says. "We are equals."

Hitoshi laughs before he can even stop himself, one high pitched "Ha!" that he cuts off immediately. "That's bullshit," he says, sneering, because how dare he? "We live in a society built just for people like you, quirks like mine are shunned and demonized."

Mob studies him, saying nothing. "We…" he says, stops, and then starts again. "My quirk really isn't that useful. It doesn't help me live a better life."

Hitoshi just looks at him, incredulously. "You're here aren't you?" he asks. "Your quirk has gotten you where you want to be, right? Your quirk has gotten yourself friends, right?"

"I-"

"Listen," Hitoshi cuts him off. "None of us can can help what we want, but none of us can change the fact that society also tries to shoehorn us into certain roles depending on the circumstances of our birth. You got lucky, congrats, but not all of us do."

He waits for Kageyama to say something, and when he doesn't, Hitoshi pushes forward. "I failed this time, but I won't fail again," he says. "I'll prove them all wrong."

Hitoshi looks out into the cheering crowd again. "They'll consider transfers to the hero course depending on our performance here, remember that," he says.

"...Right," Kageyama says eventually.

Shinsou starts walking off the stage again. "And Kageyama?" he says. "Don't lose in a stupid way that makes me look bad."

To be continued…

Hello guys! :D

This chapter is finished! I've been super excited for Mob's first fight and it was super fun to write, so I hope you guys enjoy it as well!

As always, there is a discord and my tumblr where you can ask my questions about SATSS!

Also, I've gotten a ton of really cool art which is super, super exciting! So go check it out! ^o^

Note from MNL: Alright everyone, this is the last of chapters available, so don't expect another one from this story too soon, okay? Be sure to show your support on AO3 for them there as well if you can :)