Present Mic announced that the stage was now dry and ready for another match.

"I wonder how long everyone had to wait for that in real time. The media would probably get antsy if they had to wait too long." Sato mused.

"Oh I'm sure they could find someone to bother during the wait." Aizawa grumbled. He just hoped they stayed away from the booth where he and Hizashi were.

"I hope they didn't bring Endeavor out to melt it. That would be super awkward." Mineta said. Several cringed at that massive understatement. Todoroki just scowled at the floor.

Present Mic announced the next fight, Kaminari vs Ibara.

"Alright, I've got the bets all listed up here, let's see how this plays out." Kaminari said, bringing out his own notebook. His own match wasn't one of the ones with a lot of bets, but the ones that were on it were all for him winning. Well, except for Jirou, she'd put a hefty amount of homework help on Ibara winning. He was looking forward to getting her to pay up.

Before the match could start, Ibara interrupted to gently scold Mic for implying she had impure reasons for being here in his description of her, making Mic stumble to apologize.

"Is that light shining on her actually happening, or is it just another symbolic thing?" Ojiro wondered.

"The context does not make it clear." Tokoyami said distractedly. He was internally trying to shush Dark Shadow, who had taken some issue with such blatant 'revelry in the light'.

"Maybe it's symbolic of how Kaminari is looking at her during that speech." Sero said, elbowing the blonde and smirking at him.

"Knock it off." Kaminari pushed him back with a grin.

Kaminari's thoughts showed he was a bit dismayed that class B also had 'people like this' in it.

"Oh, I see how it really is. 'people like this too'? What, you saying our class is full of a bunch of weirdos Kaminari?" Sero demanded in mock offense.

"Of course there is, he's in it!" Mineta laughed.

"No comment." Kaminari said, as diplomatically as he could while trying not to laugh.

"Why not? I'll have you know I wear the label of 'weirdo' with pride." Ashido declared.

"Shut up so we can get on with the fight!" Bakugo yelled.

Kaminari started to psych himself up for the fight, but got distracted by Ibara's looks and thoughts of asking her out sometime.

While the ribbing by Sero and Mineta started anew, Ashido took the opportunity to whisper with Aoyama.

"We've got a potential paring here, what do we think of it?" Ashido asked.

"Hm, they would certainly look adorable together, but I don't think that's enough here."

"You're right, I think we need to watch more and see if they have any chemistry."

"Of course, we'll discuss it's potential later then."

Kaminari asked Ibara if she wanted to get together later so he could comfort her about the loss, since this fight would only take a second, then immediately attacked her.

Aoyama tsked. "Mon amie, you must at least give the lady a chance to reply."

"I'm pretty sure that line would have worked better on a villain too, instead of a potential date." Ashido said, nodding sagely.

"Yeah, against a villain that would be cool, but to her you probably just sound arrogant." Hagakure added.

Kaminari now looked confused. "How did this turn into critiquing my pick up lines?"

The confirmation of what he was doing made Ashido shake her head in disappointment. "You've got a lot to learn, but we'll try to help you over the next break, okay?"

Kaminari looked more confused than ever. Mineta made a mental note to see if they'd let him join in on whatever was going to happen during the next break.

Ibara used her vines to block Kaminari's attack and restrain him in one swift action. She was declared the winner.

Jirou cackled. "You were right! It only took a second!"

"Buhhh..." Kaminari moaned, slumping in his seat.

"Aw man, he buzzed his brain again. Now I gotta wait till he's better to rub our bet in his face." she sighed dramatically.

Recovery Girl grimaced, and made her way over to him. As amusing as the after affects might be, they couldn't be good for him. She might need to have a talk with the students about how serious electrical damage could be, or at least remind Aizawa to do so. She was going to talk to Kaminari once he was lucid, so she could start thinking up what to do about that side affect once they were out of here.

Ibara got a close up quirk explanation, and her classmates cheered her on.

"Okay, that light affect can't be natural." Ojiro said.

"It did mention her needing water and sunlight for her quirk, perhaps that was merely her 'reaching for the sun' as plants are wont to do." Tokoyami theorized.

Monoma stuck his head over the barrier between the class 1A and class 1B seating areas so he could mock them for the loss, but was quickly stopped by his classmate, Kendo.

"Shut up Monoma, nobody asked for your opinion." Hagakure grumbled. Others just sighed or shook their heads in exasperation. After a while, Monoma's vitriol was more tiring than anything else.

The heroes on guard duty were shown admiring Ibara's victory before Kamui woods told Mt Lady to get back to work.

"Having screens even out there does seem a bit excessive, and distracting for those on guard duty." Momo said.

"I guess they really don't want to risk the audience missing a moment, even if they have to step out, kero."

"I suppose. It makes me feel like their priorities are a bit skewed though."

Audience members discussed Ibara's victory and quirk use, and Kaminari was shown being carried away on a stretcher.

Kaminari straightened back up. "Oh, I think I'm good now."

Jirou grinned. "Great! Good to hear it, now about our bet- hey! Don't you try to act all brain dead again, because I'm not buying it!"

In the stands, Izuku was gaining some looks due to him getting into another mumbling trance as he wrote down theories.

Roughly the same thing was happening in the room right then, with Izuku frantically writing down his theories despite everything else that was going on. Both on screen and in real life, Uraraka was the one to break him out of it.

"Deku, your observations are really amazing! It might be a good idea to talk a little quieter when others are trying to watch though."

Izuku rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry! I just get so into it I forget, but I'll try."

Izuku showed off that he'd done a page in his book for Uraraka too, which prompted her to say how amazing he was again before looking away.

Izuku shifted nervously in his seat. "Um, you, you're amazing too, you know?"

Uraraka blushed. "Thanks."

"That's why you're one of the first entries for class 1A."

"Really? Thank you! Um, you're drawing was good too."

"Thanks..."

Ashido watched the exchange with a big smile, and Aoyama had his arms crossed in satisfaction. Even if they weren't close enough to hear what exactly was being said, the body language between the two spoke volumes.

The next fight was Iida vs Hatsume. He was shown to be wearing a support item, and when Midnight called him out on not having asked previous permission he explained that Hatsume had offered it to him in the name of fairness. Midnight allowed the use of the equipment.

"I see! Of course I was moved by such an offer! It shows true sportsmanship!"

Izuku and Uraraka gave each other a wary look. It wasn't that they distrusted Iida, but after what they'd seen of Hatsume during the cavalry battle they didn't entirely trust her not to have ulterior motives.

On screen Izuku seemed to agree that Mei was up to no good, and Mei was shown giggling to herself.

Only now did Iida himself start to feel a bit worried.

What followed was unlike any one on one 'fight' any of them had seen. It turned out Hatsume had a mic and speakers on her, and used the fight purely to show off all of her inventions. Each time Iida tried to get her out of the ring, she used one of her inventions to avoid it, and continue the sales pitch, much to Iida's mounting frustration. When she was all done, she stepped out of the ring and let Iida win.

One of Iida's fists was clenched and the other was covering his face. "I can't believe I let myself be used like that."

"Well, to be fair, none of us really saw that coming." Uraraka said. 'Well, we didn't see that specific thing coming, anyway.'

"Yeah, and even if you had suspected her of tricking you, turning down a piece of equipment like that would have been hard. Especially since you saw how good her stuff was during the cavalry battle." Izuku agreed.

"That doesn't change the fact that she used my humiliation, which was on live TV, to promote herself." he bemoaned. This was punctuated by a few class members who were still recovering from laughing earlier.

"That's true...but hey! We're seeing the future! So if this still happens after we change things then you'll know not to trust her about stuff like that." Uraraka pointed out.

"Right! Plus you still get to go on, so even with things as they are now it's not your last chance to prove yourself." Midoriya added.

Iida took a breath, and let his fist relax. He dropped his other hand so he could look at his friends properly. "You are both right. I'll just have to take this as a lesson for next time, and do better going forward."

"That's the spirit Iida! And look on the bright side, even if things were to play out like this for real you'd end up being unforgettable!"

"Not helping Kaminari!" Both of his friends yelled back, making Iida smile.

Izuku was taking notes up in the stands again, while Uraraka was shown to walk out with a strange look on her face.

"What's wrong?" Shoji asked.

"I'm not sure..." Uraraka admitted, she'd been so focused on comforting Iida that she hadn't thought of what her other self might be thinking. "My match isn't coming up yet is it?"

"No, it shouldn't be for a while yet." Izuku confirmed.

The next match was Aoyama vs Ashido. A couple of the girls started rooting for Ashido.

"Awww! Thanks guys!" Ashido addressed Tsuyu and Jirou. Jirou gave a thumbs up.

"Girls gotta have each others backs."

"I'm sure we weren't the only ones cheering for you, kero."

Then Mineta yelled for Aoyama to win in a way that would strategically rip Ashido's clothing.

"Sorry!" Mineta cried quickly. "I'm sorry that was very rude and I promise to not to say anything like that for real."

Tsuyu looked at him appraisingly, and slowly closed her mouth without giving him a tongue lashing.

"We'll hold you to that." Jirou warned.

"Honestly, I'm surprised she didn't slap him in the stands." Hagakure confessed. Momo nodded thoughtfully.

"Perhaps she didn't want to risk getting in trouble with any of the event's security."

"Probably, kero."

Midoriya immediately started predicting how each of them would fight and how the match might go.

Several people turned toward Kaminari.

"No, I'm not making any last minute changes to the bets." he said, and they turned back in disappointment.

Aoyama took the first shot, and Ashido ducked out of the way. They both pointed out that being on the same team for the battle trial meant they knew all about each others quirk.

"Oh, I didn't even think about that..." Izuku started muttering again. Those that had made bets leaned forward a bit, trying to hear what he was saying while still paying attention.

Ashido reminded Aoyama that he'd already told her and a few others his quirk's duration based weakness.

Aoyama sighed dramatically, "I revealed too much too soon!"

"Take this as a lesson." Aizawa announced. "Only reveal the specifics of your quirk's downsides to people you trust."

"The moment it becomes common knowledge is the moment it becomes exploitable." Nedzu agreed.

Yagi took a surreptitious glance around the room, and his hand unconsciously moved to his side. He really hoped his trust in these students and teachers was well placed.

Aoyama continued to shoot his laser at Ashido, while she pulled off some truly impressive dodging.

"Look at you go!" Uraraka cried.

"You're so cool!" Hagakure squealed.

"Yeah! Nice moves!" Kirishima gushed.

"Never underestimate the dancer!" Ashido cried triumphantly, soaking up the praise.

Izuku was wresting with his desire to watch and his desire to jot down the new information on just how flexible and athletic Ashido was.

Ashido ducked forward, close enough to throw some acid at Aoyama's belt, which destroyed his support item and, apparently, his regular belt as well as he now had to struggle to keep his pants up.

The room burst into laughter.

"Hey, it's just like with Iida! Even though you lost you'll still be super memorable!" Kaminari snickered.

"Aoyama I think you misheard Mineta earlier." Sero said with mock seriousness.

"Yeah man, I so didn't need to see that." Mineta said. At least he could enjoy some of the poses Ashido had pulled off.

Then she ran in and socked him in the jaw, knocking him out.

Aoyama let out a loud yelp and slumped into the couch.

"Uh, you okay?" Sato asked.

"Ugh, I am, oof, alright. Ah...or I will be." He said, sounding very pained. "You, mph, pack quite a punch, dear Ashido."

"You bet I do!" She said with a smile, which quickly went from triumphant to sheepish. "Sorry for the pain right now though."

"It is fine, a natural consequence of our line of work as they say." He still didn't sound fine, but at this point he was just happy that, apparently, none of her acid had made it's way to his skin. Mineta patted him sympathetically on the back, and was suddenly grateful that Tsuyu was the one to respond the most to his comments rather than Ashido.

Mineta bemoaned the outcome, specifically about the clothes, while Midoriya continued to update his notes based on what he was seeing.

"Should I saw sorry again?" Mineta quietly asked as a couple of glares were sent his way.

"Couldn't hurt dude." Sero said.

While Mineta did just that, Izuku hoped his memory would be good enough to reproduce his notes on the class once he left this place. Maybe he should ask Truth for clarification on whether or not they could take anything with them.

Ashido once again puffed up with pride when Midoriya noted that her quirk wasn't he only reason she'd won, and how great her athleticism once.

"This is why we do physical training on top of quirk training people, make a note of it." Aizawa said. Momo did exactly that.

The next match was Yoayorozu vs Tokoyami. Ojiro asked Izuku about his prediction, and it was shown that he and Momo were having similar thoughts about how time would be of the essence. Unfortunately, Momo got too caught up in her head and was taken off guard by the match start. She created a shield to defend herself, but she wasn't fast enough to keep Dark Shadow from pushing her out of the ring. The fight was over in a minute.

Both the on screen and real Momo wore similar looks of shocked devastation.

'I lost so quickly? So easily?' she thought in disbelief.

"It was a good fight." Tokoyami said once he'd mentally congratulated Dark Shadow.

"...you are too kind." Momo said softly, shame filling her mind and core. "I was clearly outmatched; you took care of me easily."

"Not as easily as it appeared, I think. Dark Shadow informs me that he had to push very hard to get you to move back that much, and I don't think he could have broken through your shield."

"You made mistakes." Aizawa acknowledged. "You should have used the time before the match to better advantage, so that you wouldn't get caught up in thought just before it. But part of the reason why the sports festival is so important is that it gives the students an opportunity to learn, to find out how they fight and use their quirks in an environment that is more high stakes than that classroom, but not as dangerous as a real fight. You should take this as an opportunity to reflect on what went wrong, so you can find ways of getting past it in the future."

"I see...I will do my best, sir."

"It's also important to remember that things like thinking on your feet and reacting quickly are going to come more easily with experience. You may regret your performance here, but you have already shown you can defend yourself and your classmates admirably when it counts. Now you just need to hone that." Yagi said, seeing how down the girl still looked down. Aizawa nodded in agreement.

This got a small smile out of her. "I'll remember that. Thank you."

Present Mic's narration speculated that Tokoyami's quirk may be the greatest ever.

"I appreciate the praise, but I feel that is overselling it." Tokoyami stated.

"I'm not saying it is, that's why I phrased it as a question. It keeps the fun atmosphere going while also giving the audience something to discuss. If you wanna get the hype up you gotta give people something to talk about." Present Mic explained.

Momo was still in some level of shock. Midoriya and Ojiro talked about the match in the stands, and theorized that Tokoyami must be pretty amazing if he'd got her out of bounds so quickly while also trying not to hurt her much.

Shame once again filled Momo, sinking like a rock in her stomach. Jirou looked at her in concern, and even Todoroki gave her a glance.

"Uh, sorry Yoayorozu, we didn't mean you did bad." Ojiro said awkwardly.

"Y-yeah! You created a really good shield and did it quickly, and I bet it would have gone a lot different if the you in the future had known about Dark Shadow's weakness." Tokoyami nodded in agreement as Izuku said that. "I just, um..."

"We learned more about Tokoyami's abilities than yours." Ojiro explained.

"Right!" Izuku agreed quickly.

'And you didn't think I'd hear you.' Momo thought glumly. "It's okay, he did well. It would be silly to assume people wouldn't talk about it."

"It was a bad type match up. You'll get better, just like the teachers said." Jirou assured her, patting her arm, and Ojiro and Izuku were quick to voice their agreement.

Even thought Momo was having a hard time believing it, she was grateful for their confidence in her.

"Just remember that I'll do my best to improve too. I look forward to fighting you again after we've both grown." Tokoyami said.

Momo felt just a little bit of her confidence return. They were all still learning after all, she just needed to do more than she thought before.

It was at this point that Izuku noticed that Uraraka had not come back in a while. Then the match of Kirishima vs Tetsutetsu was announced.

"This is sort of a bad match up too." Shoji said.

"I agree, their quirks are so similar in the way they provide offense and defense that I'm sure both of them will have difficulties with this match." Iida said.

"Maybe that will force them to get creative?" Sato suggested.

"I hope so." Izuku's pencil was already poised over the paper, ready to record even slight differences between the two quirks.

Todoroki said nothing, but he couldn't help studying the two boys faces for any resemblance.

Present Mic gave very similar intros for the two. Jirou used her headphone jack to wake a sleeping Mineta.

"Yow!" Mineta yelped.

"Serves you right." Bakugo muttered.

"I didn't actually do anything! I mean, not yet anyway."

"We'll call that the other Jirou's delayed reaction for your comments during Ashido's match." Jirou said dryly. Mineta thought about that for a moment, then nodded his acceptance.

"You better not sleep on our fight in the future! It's gonna be so manly when I beat this guy!" Kirishima declared, hoping that it wouldn't come back to bite him.

The two opponents ran forward and struck each other...and then the scene immediately shifted to one of the waiting rooms.

"Oh come on!" Kirishima shouted.

"They better go back to that." Bakugo muttered. He'd much rather see the fight than listen to whatever was going on backstage.

"Yeah! My hand actually felt that hit, so it'll definitely be a manly match!"

Iida walked into the room and saw a very nervous Uraraka. She admitted her fears about the match, and he said it was understandable given her opponent was Bakugo. Then Izuku entered the room.

'Don't remind me...' Uraraka thought when the on-screen Iida spoke. Whether her other self managed to win or not, and she was hoping the strategy she had brewing in her mind would work if she used it, she knew the match was going to be a big pain. Literally.

'Psh, stupid extra. Deku's probably gonna try and win this thing for her anyway.' Bakugo thought dismissively.

Izuku mentioned who was currently fighting, and the scene briefly switched back to the fight.

'Well, clearly the other me is lying about it not hurting.' Kirishima thought, rubbing his jaw. 'I hope he's lying about it too.'

Iida suggested that Bakugo wouldn't use his full strength against a girl. Izuku immediately refuted that he would.

"Shows what you know, Glasses." Bakugo said snidely. He tried not to think about how Deku had immediately known he wouldn't hold back.

"Bakugo takes these things too seriously to hold back for something like that." Izuku acknowledged, and Bakugo grudgingly nodded in agreement.

"So you better bring your all!" he growled at the girl. He was surprised when she looked right back at him and said.

"I will, all I've got."

"Plus, dude, not giving your all just because your opponent is a girl is so not manly." Kirishima said.

"You didn't hold back for me did you?" Ashido asked, narrowing her eyes at Aoyama.

"I assure you I would not do such a thing."

"Good."

"I admit that my attempt to comfort was misplaced." Iida said with a bow of his head.

Izuku offered to share a plan that he'd come up with based off the information he had about Bakugo's quirk, but Uraraka declined. She didn't want to rely on him too much, and wanted to see what she could do on her own.

Bakugo sat up a bit, and gave the screen, and the girl near the front of the room, speculative looks. So she wasn't going to go with whatever Deku came up with? This might end up being interesting after all.

"That's an excellent step forward." Iida said proudly.

"I'm disappointed I can't help, but I respect you wanting to do things your own way." Izuku said.

"Thanks guys." she smiled warmly at them.

"Yeah! Go out there and kick is butt Uraraka!" Ashido cheered, which made Uraraka blush.

The scene switched back to the fight, only to have both boys fall after a few more hits and the match to be declared a tie.

"Seriously?!" Kirishima whined. He winced as the pain of those last blows hit him, and he sank into the couch with a moan. 'Yeesh, talk about a crick in the neck.'

"At least you gave as good as you got, man." Kaminari gave him a thumbs up.

"Yeah, even Monoma would have a hard time spinning this as Tetsutetsu being better than you." Hagakure said.

"At least you duked it out that long. Still cheap that a whole round is gonna get decided by an arm wrestling match." Bakugo declared.

"Assuming that doesn't end in a tie too." Shoji pointed out.

"Don't jinx it." Kirishima sighed.

The crowd discussed the match, while the boys were taken away to the medics.

"Well, at least we made an impression." Kirishima said, upon hearing someone call them sidekick material.

"That's half the battle listener!"

"You know, I didn't think about it too much before, but it's kind of concerning how many people get carried away on stretchers during this." Tsuyu pointed out.

"I can see what you mean, since physically defeating your opponent isn't strictly necessary." Momo said, her own fight had shown that. She turned to Recovery Girl. "We're lucky to have you ma'am."

"Thank you dear. I do wish I weren't quite so necessary though." It wouldn't be the first time Chiyo wondered if her abilities fed into the students general recklessness.

The match of Uraraka vs Bakugo was announced. Jirou admitted she almost didn't want to watch.

"Sorry." Jirou said in response to Uraraka's pout. "I'm not trying to say you're a pushover or anything. It's just that we've all seen what Bakugo is like."

"The hell is that supposed to mean Earlobes?!"

"You should know perfectly well at this point."

Izuku wished Uraraka luck from the stands as the two opponents walked out to face each other.

Uraraka felt just a little more confident seeing how determined Izuku looked.

"Dude, what is that face." Kaminari asked with a laugh.

"You should really remember there are camera's watching, dear Bakugo." Aoyama chided.

"Shut up."

Present Mic said he was rooting for Uraraka in his announcement.

"Such blatant favoritism." Aizawa shook his head.

"I'm aloud to have my favorites! At least when it comes to he festival, when it comes to grades and classwork then everyone is equal."

The two faced each other, and the episode cut off just as the fight was about to begin.

"Every time!" Bakugo complained.

"Yeah, come on! I wanna see what our girl can do!" Hagakure cheered.

"Same here!" Ashido cried.

"Now, now, the match isn't going anywhere. We should have another quirk break before moving on." Nedzu said.


"Are you alright Uraraka?" Iida asked as they milled about the room.

"Um, mostly, just worried." she said, biting her lip.

"About the match?" Izuku asked.

"Well, that's some of it, yeah." Though a portion of that had been assuaged by the other girls and a few others coming up and wishing her well and such. "But, more about the timing. I mean, if the 'episode' stopped there that means our fight is probably gonna take a while."

"Ah, I see, that means you likely don't have to worry about it ending too quickly, but drawing it out could mean more pain."

"Yeah...but either way, I'm excited to see how it goes. Even if its painful, others have gotten worse here, so I can deal with it."

"Others being mainly me." Izuku said with an embarrassed laugh. "But really, I hope you never have injuries that bad. Um, can you tell us what you plan to do? Assuming you know, I mean."

"I've got a good idea...but you'll just have to wait and see." she teased.

The boys spent the rest of the break trying to badger a hint out of their friend.


Elsewhere, Momo psyched herself up, then went to talk to Tokoyami, and hopefully the teachers afterward, about her match. The advice and encouragement she'd gotten had been good, but she wanted as many details as possible to assist in her future training. Plus, Tokoyami might be able to give advice on how to become a bit more decisive in battle. If Dark Shadow had as much of a mind as he seemed to, then he must have had to put a lot of effort into it after all.

Meanwhile, the other girls gathered together with Kaminari and Mineta and started giving a lecture about pick up lines and why some were genuinely sweet while others were unsettling or off-putting. The boys listened very attentively.


"Todoroki."

"Sir." Todoroki acknowledged the principle.

"I know you may not want to talk about your home life at this point, and possibly not with me, but I wanted to assure you of something. If you ever feel you are unsafe at home, you may contact me about staying at the school. We do have some sleeping quarters for when the teachers work long hours, and I'd be more than happy to lend you that space for a while."

Todoroki just stared at the principle for a minute, then slowly nodded. "Alright."

"The number for the school is on the website, or you could inform Aizawa or any other teacher at any time before or after class if you wish to take us up on it."

Todoroki nodded again, and the principle smiled at him, a nice one this time, before leaving. Todoroki watched him go, unsure of what to do with this new knowledge and the feelings it brought up.