The episode started with a revisit of Uraraka's motivations, including wanting to care for her parents and to prove her abilities on her own during the upcoming fight.

"We're rooting for you!" Ashido cheered. Hagakure waved a couple of paper plates around like they were fans and she was a cheerleader.

"I'm expecting a good show from both of you." Kirishima grinned.

"I won't make it easy for you." Bakugo warned. Uraraka let out a breathy laugh.

"I wouldn't expect you to."

Before the round began, Bakugo warned that the match would be painful and gave her a chance to back out. Uraraka only looked more determined.

"Don't think it'll be that easy to scare me off." Uraraka declared. She was putting on a bit more bravado than she felt, still a bit nervous about how the pain factor would play out here, but only by a bit. 'I know I'll give it my all, no matter what!'

Aizawa hummed thoughtfully. Bakugo's choice of words was interesting. When he fought with others, especially Midoriya, he didn't seem to care about how much pain he put them through. Was this a sign that he was going to start changing that? Or that he didn't want to bother with the fight if it wouldn't meet his standards for a challenge?

Iida asked Izuku what advice he'd been planning to give Uraraka. Izuku broke down how strong Bakugo was in close combat and how difficult that would make things for her, but if she could just get close enough to touch him once, things would turn in her favor.

"That makes sense." Momo said. "Even with Bakugo's ability to propel himself with explosions, the affects of zero gravity would change how much those explosions moved him. If he tried to use them he might accidentally propel himself right out of the ring."

"The problem is getting that close to begin with." Ojiro noted.

"I can keep her back." Bakugo said confidently.

"Is that what you're planning to do, you think?" Izuku asked.

"I guess we'll see." she said with a small smirk.

"Not even a hint? You wound us Uraraka!" Iida gestured dramatically, but wore a small smile.

"Hey! Even I don't know for sure!" she giggled a little. If nothing else, teasing her friends was a good distraction.

When the match started, Uraraka dashed forward. She kept herself low, and tried to dodge when Bakugo made his move, but she still got blasted back.

Uraraka yelped when the explosion went off on screen. Her whole body jerked, and she swore she could feel the heat of the flames on her face and gravel scraping against her limbs.

"Uraraka!" Both Izuku and Iida cried in worry.

"I'm okay. It hurt, but I'm okay." She rushed to reassure them.

"Um, would you like to sit in the middle a while? So we can both help you like you do with me?" Izuku asked.

A part of her wanted to say it was fine and that she could deal with it, but they both looked so worried. "Sure, probably a good idea, just in case, you know."

Tsuyu made a comment about Bakugo not holding back for a girl.

"You thought I would?" Bakugo asked. Tsuyu shrugged.

"Thought you might. You see a lot of macho movie guys who are all about winning but say they don't hurt girls, kero."

"I'm not some actor, I'm the real deal!"

"Good."

Uraraka was shown thinking about how she could get past his defenses. In the next shot, Bakugo caught sight of a something in the smoke of his explosion and blasted it. This was revealed to be Uraraka's uniform jacket, which she'd used as a distraction.

"Brilliant!" Aoyama declared.

"Using the darkness he himself created to your advantage, clever." Tokoyami nodded in approval.

He wasn't distracted enough though, and blasted her back again when she made a move.

"Ahhh!" Uraraka's body burned, first from the heat and then from the flares of pain as her body rolled across the ground on-screen.

Izuku picked up the notebook he's used before, looked at the teeth marks on it, then went and got a new one from the back table. Uraraka couldn't help the amused quirk of her lips when he handed it to her.

"Dang, you move fast!" Kaminari said in awe.

"Yeah man, and you've barely moved from where you started." Kirishima noted.

"Yeah..." Bakugo's said lowly. 'The jacket thing wasn't bad, but she won't get anywhere if she just keeps rushing at me...' Yet as he pondered this, he couldn't help but feel like he was missing something. 'You didn't talk to Deku, so what else do you have up your sleeve?'

The battle went on, with Uraraka dashing toward Bakugo again and again, and getting blown back every time.

Uraraka was suddenly very thankful for the notebook. The paper absorbed her shriek as she was shown getting thrown around the stage, 'You could have at least shown me running to give me a break!' she whimpered internally. Though, with how much she was rolling on the ground she'd probably get some pain just from moving at this point. She yelped again when another explosion went off, and squeezed her friends hands. Funny, she didn't remember grabbing them in the first place.

"It'll be okay, you'll get through this." Izuku assured her.

"It won't last forever." Iida agreed.

"Oh no oh no..." Hagakure wiggled in her seat as she watched Uraraka's body fly away among the rubble. She clearly wasn't the only one having trouble with having to watch this. Many other students were tense, or had their hands pressed against their mouths or stomachs, and Koda wrung his in worry. He murmured something to Shoji who replied softly: "Kirishima and that other kid's match didn't stop until they passed out, so maybe not."

A couple audience reactions were shown, including Monoma saying 'what an idiot'.

"Was that meant for Bakugo or Uraraka?" Mineta wondered.

"Either way, he's more of an idiot than either of them." Sero folded his arms. "I mean, Uraraka's move from earlier was smart even if it didn't work, and Bakugo isn't doing anything dumb right now."

"Perhaps he referred to Uraraka seemingly doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Tokoyami pointed out.

The crowd started acting up, accusing Bakugo of bullying and toying with Uraraka as he blasted her back once again.

Jirou dared to look away from the screen long enough to look at Midoriya and Iida comforting Uraraka over the newest wave of pain. "I'm insulted that the audience seems to think he should hold back for a girl, but I still don't feel good watching this..."

"Kero, I think I know what you mean. I want her pain to stop, but if he ends it quickly like Tokoyami did then Uraraka misses out on her chance to show what she can do."

"Stupid extras." Bakugo growled. "I don't mess around in a fight, no matter who I'm facing." 'No way am I letting my guard down, not this far in.'

Present Mic started to agree with the audience, and got an elbow to the face from Aizawa.

"Ow! What the heck was that for?" Yamada asked, rubbing his jaw.

"Looks like the other me is about to tell you, and everyone else." Aizawa noted, looking at the screen.

Aizawa took the microphone and scolded the audience member for their comments. He said that Bakugo wasn't playing, he was acknowledging how strong his opponent was for getting so far and not underestimating her by letting his guard down.

Bakugo sat up in surprise. He knew Aizawa was the real deal, but he hadn't expected the teacher to mirror his thoughts so closely.

Kirishima smiled and glanced at the boy next to him, that's just what he'd expect from Bakugo.

Murmurs of surprise and understanding briefly went up around the room. Uraraka, briefly free from her pain, thanked her friends and shot Bakugo a considering look.

'Perhaps I actually did both Yoayorozu and myself a disservice by ending things so quickly.' Tokoyami thought to himself. 'No, our situations were different, I think. I would not be in such danger from my opponent touching me the way Bakugo is here. I didn't have much of a reason to play defensively, the way he is.'

Uraraka stood up straight now, rather than rushing forward. She thanked Bakugo for not letting his guard down.

The class and teachers leaned forward, immediately interested. It seemed like Uraraka had just been uselessly rushing Bakugo the whole match, so what was she doing now?

'She's bringing her hands together like she's about to use her quirk.' Izuku realized. Suddenly, observations clicked together in his head, the way she held her hands, the way she had kept so low to the ground while running. He turned to look at Uraraka, and saw she had a satisfied smirk on her face.

Monoma's voice was heard, explaining what Uraraka had been doing this whole time. The camera panned up to show a bunch of rubble hovering far above the ring.

"That's brilliant!" Izuku blurted upon seeing what looked like a mini asteroid belt.

"I hadn't even suspected! You did a wonderful job of misdirecting both Bakugo and the audience." Iida praised.

Uraraka gave them a tired, but appreciative, smile.

"Huh, the 'idiot' line makes more sense now." Mineta observed. "And ho boy, that's gonna hurt."

"No kidding, some of those rocks are nearly as big as his head." Ojiro agreed.

Sero gulped. "Yeah, Recovery Girl's gonna have her work cut out for her."

"Heh, not bad round face." Bakugo leaned forward, elbows on his knees. The more intense interest was the only sign he showed he was worried about whether or not he'd be able to fend the attack off in time.

Uraraka let the debris fall, and started running forward. She used her quirk on herself, trying to get to Bakugo faster, but she was blasted back when he used his quirk to fend off the hail of meteorites.

Uraraka's cry of pain blended together with the room's yells of surprise and astonishment.

"After all those previous attacks, I wouldn't have guessed Bakugo had enough left for such a large explosion." Yagi said in slight awe.

"The explosions he used against Uraraka were rather small compared to ones he's been shown to use before, so he might have been saving up a large attack, just in case." Present Mic theorized.

"He might be brash in personality, but he plans well when it comes to fights." Aizawa said.

Bakugo kept his tense posture, waiting to see how things played out before celebrating. Plus, his shoulders naturally tensed at the familiar pain in his shoulder and arm.

Debris was shown falling outside the stadium.

"You ever wonder how the audience manages not to get hurt by anything here? Or at any other sports festival?" Shoji asked.

"I never thought about it before." Ashido admitted.

"We are lucky none of that debris landed in the audience." 'Or on Uraraka as she was running.' Recovery Girl thought.

Bakugo told Uraraka, who was now sitting up, that he expected a trick since she was friends with Deku. To himself, he admitted it was close and held his arms stiffly.

Bakugo grunted, and clenched the arm of the sofa as pain radiated through his arm. Big blasts like that always did do a number on him.

"You okay?" Kirishima asked.

"Fine." Bakugo said.

Despite her despair at her plan not working, Uraraka forced herself to get up.

Uraraka gasped in pain, and ended up spitting out the notebook to get more air. She noticed the teeth marks she left in it. 'At least I'm like Deku in one way.' A strangely giddy part of her brain supplied.

"Uraraka..." Izuku whispered. He hovered over her, wanting to help but knowing there was nothing he could do. Iida sat stiffly on her other side, bemoaning his own inability to help.

Uraraka started to run forward, and Bakugo grinned and ran to meet her, but he stopped when Uraraka's legs suddenly gave out.

"Uraraka!" Iida and Izuku cried when Uraraka suddenly slumped in her seat. Recovery Girl got up and started to make her way over, while the others stared resolutely at the screen. As amazing as the fight ended up being, everyone was eager for it to come to a close now.

Uraraka started trying to crawl forward despite being wiped out, thinking of her parents as she did so.

"Here w-we go ag-gain." Hagakure managed to say through her tears.

"Where did we leave that toilet paper roll?" Ashido asked, swiping at her own eyes as she looked around. Kirishima handed it to her after taking a bit for himself. When both girls had gotten some, Ashido placed it next to Midoriya's seat. The boy didn't notice it then, but he'd be grateful for it later.

Finally, Uraraka stopped moving, and Midnight came forward to call the round to a close.

There was a near collective sigh of relief at this. Midoriya now noticed the roll he'd been given, and picked it up as he made room for Recovery Girl to look over his friend. He passed few squares to Iida when he saw the other boy's eyes glisten slightly.

Uraraka was sent off to recover, and Bakugo was shown leaving the battle. Present Mic had to pull himself together to get back into announcing.

"You really do get a little too involved with that job sometimes." Aizawa said, agreeing with his on-screen self.

"That's half the fun!" Present Mic went from a smile to a grimace. "Usually anyway.

Bakugo clenched and relaxed his hand in sequence. He'd won, but he didn't feel like he usually did after winning.

Izuku was shown walking down the hall and thinking about Uraraka.

"It s'okay Deku." Uraraka patted his hand, despite being so tired now that she slurred the words a bit. Izuku's heart clenched at her comforting him after she just went through all of that

Izuku ran into Bakugo in the hall and Bakugo yelled at him before Izuku tried to leave to go to the waiting room for his own fight.

There was some sighs and grumbles of "He was just standing there" in response to Bakugo's reaction. But everyone was feeling a little too emotionally wrung out to yell at him.

Izuku found himself swallowing dryly. He got so caught up in his friend's fight that he hadn't thought about what fight was coming up next...

"Oh man, Midoriya's fight coming up means that we're probably gonna see him vs Todoroki next!" Kaminari voiced his realization to the whole room. Tension started to creep back into the air again, and a couple people had to resist the urge to groan. If that last fight had been tiring to watch, they could only imagine what the next fight would be like.

Bakugo accused Izuku of thinking up that plan for Uraraka, but Izuku told him that plan had all been Uraraka's idea, she was the one to trick him.

Uraraka's lips turned up just a little at that. If nothing else, she'd managed to catch Bakugo off guard and mess with his expectations. She felt that counted for something.

"You rocked that." Ashido said quietly behind her.

"Yeah, that whole plan was really cool." Jirou agreed.

"You surprised everyone, kero."

Her ghost of a smile became a little more visible.

The classmates in the stands talked about the match when Bakugo joined them. Kaminari said he couldn't send such a powerful attack at a frail girl. Bakugo asked what part of her was frail.

'Huh, I think Uraraka just took a level badass in Bakugo's eyes.' Kirishima mused. He looked at Bakugo, who was staring off in deep thought.

"Oh, is that why that vine girl won? Because you were going easy on her?" Sero teased.

"Shut up, Tsuyu already gave it to me on screen." Kaminari grumbled.

"I should have scolded you for calling her frail after all of that, kero."

"You know what? She's right! How dare you call her frail!" Jirou yelled. Kaminari shrunk down in his seat.

"You know, Ibara might be up for going out still. I mean, I always thought girls liked guys who looked good, but it would make sense for them to also like guys who make them look good too right?" Mineta said, trying to find a way to cheer up his friend. Kaminari just groaned.

Izuku entered the waiting room, and was very surprised to see Uraraka already there. She was overly upbeat as she talked about the fight and how frustrated she was that Bakugo had won. When Izuku showed clear worry over her seemingly brushing the whole thing off, she said that she wanted to be like him and look to the future.

"There is no shame in taking time to mourn a loss, Uraraka. There is no need to hide your feelings from us." Iida said. Izuku nodded.

"Yeah, um, I mean, neither of us would judge you for that."

"I, I know that, I just, I probably didn't want you guys to worry even more after all that." Uraraka explained. Izuku snorted.

"Well, now you're being too much like me." To his surprise, this earned him quiet laughter from both of them.

The scene changed to the tie breaker arm wrestling match, which Kirishima won.

"Yes! Finally!" Kirishima cheered, as did many of his classmates.

"Heh, nice take down." Bakugo complimented.

After the match, Kirishima extended a hand to his opponent, and they shared a moment of solidarity as the light shined around them.

"Is it manly to sparkle like that?" Mineta asked. Kirishima took on an uncharacteristically solemn air.

"Mineta, the manliness isn't always about what you do, it can also be about how you do it. If you do it right, there's a lot of things that can be manly."

"Even sparkles?"

"Even sparkles."

"Huh..." Mineta looked thoughtful for a moment, and made another note to himself.

Present Mic announced the next round. Uraraka apologized for getting in the way of Izuku's preparation, and he brushed off her concern. She wished him luck as he left.

"You two are so cute." Aoyama said. Ashido just watched the screen with dreamy eyes.

Uraraka and Izuku just looked at Aoyama in oblivious confusion.

Uraraka was shown calling her father. The man talked about seeing her fight on TV, and said she got really close and was amazing. Uraraka said she was neither of those things, and should have planned more.

"Uraraka, if you are going to keep telling Midoriya not to talk down to himself then I insist you give us the same courtesy." Iida said, chopping his hands through the air. Izuku nodded along eagerly.

"Y-yeah! Plus, you really were close! I bet that if you'd kept running instead of using zero gravity on yourself at the end then there's a chance your plan would have worked. That really is amazing!"
"You came up with a clever plan using your quirk and your opponent's all while playing on everyone's expectations. Even if you didn't plan for afterwards, that is still quite a feat." Momo agreed.

Uraraka blushed at the praise. "You're right about one thing." she turned to Deku "I won't talk badly about myself if you promise to do the same, okay?"

"Okay, I'll try." Izuku promised.

Her father tried to comfort her, saying that this wasn't the end and she had plenty of time to prove herself still. She was still being down on herself, and her father told her there was no rush. Her kindness and desire to help would make her a great hero no matter what.

Uraraka started crying along with her on-screen self. It had been a long day...

"You're dad is pretty great too." Izuku told her. She could only nod in agreement, and let out a tearful laugh when the toilet paper roll got passed up from behind her.

While walking down the hall toward his match, Izuku lamented that he couldn't do anything to help Uraraka and that she ended up encouraging him instead.

"Heh, we can't go one minute without talking down at ourselves right now, huh?" Izuku said.

"Yeah." she said with a sigh. "It's not your fault I hid it from you, though, okay?"

"If anything, I should be the one to apologize! I didn't come to offer any help at all!" Iida got up to bow and that and they hurriedly talked him into sitting back down.

Endeavor suddenly came to the corner at the same time Izuku did.

"Oh what fresh hell is this?" Sato asked in exasperation. Todoroki stiffened upon seeing his father.

"I know right!? First that whole fight, then the aftermath, now we have to deal with this jerk again? I'm starting to really hate this episode." Ashido ranted.

"Exactly! The only reason it's not the worst one so far is because there haven't been any villains trying to kill people."

"Doesn't that say something about our lives?" Jirou muttered.

The teachers all scowled upon seeing Endeavor, save for Nedzu whose smile went from small to sharp.

Endeavor turned and got into Midoriya's space.

Todoroki's grit his teeth and his hands clenched. Surely his father wouldn't dare to hurt someone outside their family...

Unnoticed by Todoroki, he wasn't the only one to become tense when Endeavor got close to Midoriya. Yagi's urge to put himself between the two was so strong he almost went and sat by Midoriya to satisfy it.

Endeavor commented on how powerful Midoriya's quirk was and compared it to All Might's. Izuku took that as his cue to leave, knowing that this was one person he couldn't let find out about All Might's secret.

"Good." Todoroki nodded, unconsciously relaxing at the distance put between his father and classmate. "At least you can tell that much."

Endeavor said it was his son's duty to surpass All Might, and ordered Izuku to put up a good fight so his son could use the fight as another step toward that. He apologized for interrupting Midoriya.

Todoroki was almost tempted to laugh. He honestly thought his father never apologized for anything outside of PR interviews.

"Get your own life you flaming trash heap!" Jirou yelled.

"I agree! Todoroki is not obligated to do such things for you." Iida declared.

Todoroki looked at him with his eyebrows slightly raised in surprise. Iida was from a hero family as well, so didn't he get pressure to become a hero a certain way too?

Izuku stared intensely at the screen, too many emotions and thoughts running through his mind for him to know what to do with them.

On screen Izuku didn't have that problem. "I'm not All Might, that's obvious, right? Todoroki isn't you either!"

There was a small chorus of 'ooo' after that and Kaminari gave a soft 'oh snap'.

"Very well put, my boy." All Might said, instantly proud of him for finding something to say that dismissed Enji's entire speech. When Izuku turned to look at his mentor, Yagi gave him a thumbs up, which Izuku returned.

"The darkness of the parent should not be the responsibility of the child." Tokoyami said.

Todoroki frowned. He'd only talked to Midoriya once about this, and challenged him the whole time. Why would this boy care enough to talk back to Endeavor after just that? And why did those words leave him feeling something akin to validation?

Midoriya, Todoroki, and All Might were all shown to be thinking about things they'd heard from or about Endeavor as the two boys approached the arena.

"I am truly sorry that the weight of this has been placed upon you two. Endeavor has no right trying to put it there." All Might said gravely.

Ashido, meanwhile, had sat up a bit straighter when both Todoroki and Izuku had said the others name as they started to go out, and gave them both thoughtful looks.

Uraraka joined her classmates in the stands. After a brief talk about Uraraka recovering from her match, Tokoyami gave advice to use the next fight as encouragement for later on.

"Not sure how effective that will be if this match ends up as draining as the last one." Sato said.

"True, my other self does not know the context that we do." Tokoyami admitted.

"Still, if the two of them can fight even with everything else going on, that can serve as a reminder that we can too." Iida declared loudly. If nothing else it would distract him from how bad his own first round fight had been.

Present Mic announced the next match, making a point to mention that Midoriya barely passed the first match.

"Way to call the guy out." Sero said.

"Well it was true." Mic muttered.

The two boys entered the ring, and stared each other down.

Just watching the two made tension start to rise in the room.

"Deku, please be careful." Uraraka urged. Izuku scratched the back of his head.

"I don't really have control over that right now..."

Uraraka sighed. "I know..."

Students started discussing how the match would go down, but then the match went from being seen in person to being seen on a screen. They were shown to be at the villain hide out again, where Shigaraki's 'sensei' was telling him to keep a close eye on these two.

The tension in the room suddenly skyrocketed.

"Oh man, oh man, its not even just Shigaraki watching us its the big bad guys behind him too!" Mineta wailed.

"He's not really watching us right now, just those two." Momo said, holding her pen too tightly in her hand. She, and most everyone else in the class, was suddenly even more worried about their two classmates than before.

"He's probably watching anyone that makes it far enough." Shoji pointed out.

'I knew there was a chance of this when I took All Might's quirk.' Midoriya reminded himself. After what All Might told him about this particular villain, it didn't really help.

Yagi felt like he'd swallowed a stone. He knew Izuku had been brought up to his old nemesis by Shigaraki, but to see the man taking such an active interest in young Midoriya...

"Maybe we really should cancel the festival this year." Present Mic said.

"Perhaps, but knowing you are being watched allows for certain advantages as well." Nedzu pointed out.

Inko was shown crying her eyes out in a sea of tissues.

Well, now Izuku felt bad for an entirely different reason. Though the chuckles around the room suggested the scene eased the tension for some of the others.

Koda looked sadly at the distraught woman. Maybe he should recommend to Midoriya that they get his mother a pet? Having a cuddly critter to hold might help her some, and he knew of a number of shelters.

All Might and 13 talked about how both of those boys had come to try and help during the USJ fight, and All Might said the two gave off similar vibes.

Todoroki frowned. What on earth could that mean? Was All Might saying that he was similar to Midoriya? How?

The episode ended just as the fight was about to start.

"Of course that's where it ends." Kirishima sighed.

"I'm actually glad for once, I need a break after all that." Ashido admitted.

"I think we all could, so let us take one now." Nedzu announced.


"Um..." Izuku fidgeted nervously while Todoroki stared back at him. "I just wanted to say, do your best! And I'll do mine too!"

There was a lot more he wanted to say to Todoroki, but he kept going back and forth on whether or not he should wait until after their Sports Festival fight was over.

"I hope that effort isn't because of what my father said." Todoroki's voice held a bit of an edge, and Izuku quickly shook his head.

"No, no it's not. It may not have been me that said it exactly, but I know I still meant it when I said that I'm not All Might and you're not Endeavor. Whatever happens, it's going to be a match between us, not the two of them, or me against Endeavor or anything like that."

"You're right. I won't use his fire, so it won't be like fighting him at all."

"Th-that's not-" but Todoroki was already leaving. Izuku sighed. Maybe he'd have a better idea of what to say and do after the fight.


A.N.

Sorry this chapter got posted so late. Things were really hectic today so I didn't have the time to sit down and get this up until now.