Gasps erupted.

"Whoa! Manderly has struck Shinzo, the very contender she helped pass the challenge!"

"Shinzo's quirk allows him to manipulate the actions of others." Eraser explained calmly, "He likely used the attention class A got from the USJ event to study their abilities and select who he thought would be most helpful to him in the first challenge. Due to her remarkable speed, that person was Manderly."

Shinzo held his face, looking at me, taken aback. By the expression on his stupid face, I had the feeling he hadn't expected me to actually hit him. But not only had he used me, gotten me hurt, and skirted by without so much as taking a step, but he'd risked me hurting him and now I'd be exhausted for the events to come. I'd planned on regulating my exertion. Now I just wanted to go to bed.

I cleared my throat. No use worrying or complaining now. He'd wronged me, and I'd hit him. If I avoided him, we could move on with our days. I'd just have to adapt.

Midorya flew past the finish line on a piece of broken robot. He tumbled off it, scraped and bruised. My mind took a fe seconds to process what the hell I'd just seen.

"...you okay?" I called, simply turning my back to Shinzo.

"I… I made it." He said, sweaty and incredulous. The crowd cheered. I smiled at him.

"Go team!"

He was having the time of his life, eyes all shiny and staring into the sky like he could see angels singing, so I let him bask.

Bakugo burst through soon after, furious at Deku, and I decided to get two birds with one stone: avoid an embarrassing conflict and get some help.

Asking for help was okay every now and then… right?

"Hey, hothead!" I called, stopping him mid-shout, "I need you over here at minute."

"And what the hell is with you, dragging an extra with you?" He turned to chastise me instead. I took a moment to admire the sheer confidence of this guy: he wasn't even celebrating that he'd passed, like he believed it was set before he stepped into the arena.

"Let's just say I was an unwilling taxi." I grumbled, "Anyhow, congrats on passing."

"Don't congratulate me if I didn't win!"

"Okay, okay. Hey, you're good at first-aid right?" Bakugo hated going to the nurse's office, so I'd caught him patching himself up more than once.

"What?"

"I stepped on a mine." I said, "They were more flashy than damaging, but it still hurts like the dickens. Mind taking a look?"

"Why the hell would I help you?"

"Because… you're so confident about winning that even if you help your opponents, you'll still crush them?" He glared. I sighed, "because it'll make you look good to all the heroes that are watching?"

"Just cause I have nothing better to do." He told me, "It'll be ages before everyone else finishes. Sit down."

"Any chance we can do this standing up? I get the feeling I'll drop the moment my adrenaline calms down." He shoved me so I fell back. "Ow."

I lifted my pant leg up to my knee and he sat in front of me, looking. The skin was purple and scathed.

"It shouldn't be hurting so bad, you wimp." He told me, checking for fractures, "Oh." His eyes landed on the scar, "This your cyborg leg?"

"That it is." I replied glumly.

"Then that's probably it. You're just bruised, a bit burnt, but the pain is probably from the mine vibrating that hunk of metal."

"Then I'm not actually hurt." I said, shaking my leg as if that would make the pain fall off, "Dumb leg."

"Nothing major." He confirmed, pushing to his feet.

"Here's a free tip." I said from the ground, "I can get up by myself just fine, but if you hold your hand out and help me, you'll look like a team player."

"Quit trying to get into my head." He stalked off, so I stood, putting all my weight on the good leg.

Sixteen people passed. We were told we had a short break before the next challenge. Tsu quickly made her way over to me and helped me limp to the break room.

"Well crap." I said loudly, resting my leg up on a table.

"I don't know why you're complaining." Kirishima told me, winded and bruised, "I almost didn't make the cut."

"Yeah, Juniper, you were first!" Ochaco said excitedly, "Congratulations!" I didn't bother telling her that the jerk had made me push him past the finish line ahead of me. I didn't want to relive it, lest my anger bubble up again.

"Thank you." I said, "But now I'm tired." I whined, sleepy, "And my leg hurts. I mean, I was never aiming to win this thing, but I would have liked to at least participate on my terms. I can't let it end like this."

"Then don't!" Asui told me, "Remember, you have to try to have fun. I mean, from what I hear, you really hit that guy!" I allowed myself a bit of a sinister grin.

"That was fun."

.

The next round was announced and though I limped a little, I felt well enough to give it a shot. I really only felt like I'd pulled an all nighter; exhausted but able to push through.

Apparently, we were given points depending on our ranking in the race. Lucky for me. I'd have a significantly smaller target on my back than…

Shinzo. He was seeming discouraged, and with good reason. He was worth a million points if you stole his bandana. An instant win. Only the two top teams would pass. Teams of four, that was. We'd have to make horses out of three with one mount. The mount could never touch the ground. The horse members could only disconnect for a maximum of thirty seconds. We could steal bandanas for thirty minutes, then time was up.

The tough part was that this would rely a lot on teamwork… and strength… and collective speed, and walking and running. On legs.

Who in their right mind would take me?

Ida was first to approach me. I offered a smile.

"I'm sure you can imagine my logic." He said, gesturing at us both, "I'd gather we're the fastest in the group, so any horse we form would be able to move incredibly swiftly."

"Well, yes and no." I said uneasily, "First, it would be hard for me to match your speed. In the sense that… I…" How did I say he went too slow for me to imitate? "Also," I brushed past that, "Unlike you, I can only do short bursts, especially after wearing myself out. And with my leg…" I trailed off, a little upset, "Sorry, but you should know, it won't work out the way you're picturing."

"I see." He straightened his glasses, "Thank you for you honesty. I hope you won't be too affronted if I look elsewhere then."

"Do what you gotta do, class rep." I told him, and then, with fake confidence, "I'll make you regret it on the battlefield." He matched my smile with his own confident look,

"We shall see!"

As long as I didn't end up with Mr. Mind Games, I'd take any team… but I didn't want to keep explaining how useless I'd be…

"Juniper!" Deku ran over, out of breath, "Are we too late?" Behind him were Todoroki and Uraraka. "Ah, did another team get you yet?" I was startled, but only briefly.

"No," I said, "What with my bad leg and exhaustion."

"That should be fine." Todoroki said, "We want you to be the mount." Relief flooded through me, but the self-saboteur in me said,

"Why?"

"Well, all of us got in pretty early, so we have a good sum of points already between us. Not to mention, your quick reflexes could save our bandanas from being stolen!" Deku told me, "Even if we don't get first, it's a good way to stay in a solid second."

"That is smart." I admitted, glad it wasn't pity. "You sure you guys are okay carrying me?"

"For sure!" Ochaco said, "You're probably the lightest among us, not to mention I can remove your weight entirely if we need to for any reason."

"Okay," I agreed, "Yeah, let's do it."

Due to height more than anything else, Todoroki was the front of the horse, while Deku and Ochaco were the back. Which meant the two in the back placed their inner arms on the front's shoulders. I sat on said arms, while Todoroki supported my feet with his hands. I leaned forward to maintain balance and gave a nod. We were in business.

Unsurprisingly, Bakugo ignored Shinzo's team entirely and came for our throats. His vendetta against Deku was strong, and his hatred for Todoroki wasn't far behind. With an ice rink forming to let us skate away, we narrowly missed the human ram.

"Hey, Bakugo!" I called as we passed, "Good luck!"

"DIE!"

When we were a good distance away, I lowered my voice and said,

"Hey, if we do run into the Shinzo team, we need to be careful; if any one of us falls under his power, we're toast."

"What's the situation there?" Todoroki asked, not turning. His eyes were scanning for threats.

"I don't know, he bumped into me, apologized, and the moment I answered back, he had me under his control. I don't know if he needs all those circumstances or just one. But just to be safe, I'd say we avoid contact and talking to him."

"Right!" My team chimed.

It would be wrong to call that event boring, exactly, what with the mess of explosions and ice and the high-speed chases. More like I kept almost drifting off, so it passed in a haze. At one point, Shinzo's team went right for us, and I reacted when he'd already grabbed my bandana. Instead of trying to pry it from his grip, which would be both difficult and likely to tear it, I replaced his bandana, which was hanging around his neck, with Uraraka's. Then, I resumed my former position and pretended to have missed my opportunity entirely.

"Did he get it?" Deku asked urgently.

"Yeah!" I responded loudly, "Damn it!" I felt guilty for lying, especially since this lie in particular made me look useless, but it was imperative Shinzo didn't notice, and mistook any movement for a failed attempt.

Bakugo came at us again, and just as the force of his explosion sent me flying back, the final whistle blew. Uraraka jumped and tapped my knee, which made me float in time to stop my back bashing against the ground. She lowered me down and let me go. Now I was really tired.

"I don't know if we have enough." Deku said, distressed.

"Hey, why don't you ask Uraraka." I said, yawning. She pulled her bandana off. One million points.

As the crowd went wild, I gave a modest grin, watching the crayon-blue sky above me. It's funny how tiredness lets you feel comfortable in the most unlikely places. But my face was warm and the cacophony of noise was just a buzz. Just a quick power nap…

Cold water to my face woke me.

I gasped sharply, ready to get pissed.

"You're up, good." Uraraka said, relieved, "We're back in the lounge." So we were; sitting in the waiting room. I felt ready to go right back to sleep. But Bakugo held another threatening glass of water. We exchanged wordless glares, each containing a plethora of unspoken swearing.

"We won." Todoroki told me emotionlessly, "Good swap."

"Hey, I'm glad to hear it." I said, yawning again, "Don't suppose it's storming outside and they rescheduled the last event for tomorrow."

"It's sunny."

"Ah."

"I thought I saw you move!" Deku said excitedly, "When Shinzo passed us, I felt your weight shift and thought you must have made a move, but then I figured I'd been wrong. You really are fast!"

"I'm glad I could help after all." I told him, truly relieved. Then, without a word, I closed my eyes again.

"No, no." Tsu grabbed my arm and pulled me to a sitting position.

"But naps." I complained.

"When it's over." She promised.

"Did you make it too?" I asked sleepily.

"Yes, ribbit! I guess I'll see you on the battlefield."

"Yay fighting." I said tiredly, "At least I'm too tired to worry. Lineups announced yet?"

"Not yet."

"So that means I have time to sleep." Another thing about tiredness: it makes you stop caring about anything but sleep. She laughed, pulling at me so I'd stand. I pouted at my aching leg.

"No, sorry." She said, pulling me along, down the hallway, "We have to step back out to hear the lineup. If neither of us are first, I'll let you sleep for a minute then."

"Yay sleep." I cheered groggily, blinking at the blinding light of day. The crowd cheered for us as we stepped in. I gave generic smiles in their direction, just for fun.

Right, I had to have fun.

So far, I'd taken pretty good care of myself and avoided seriously hurting any of my opponents. That was good. Just one more thing to check off my list, and I could consider the whole event a success. As much as I'd enjoyed punching Shinzo, I was pretty sure that didn't count for my fun requirement, since I'd been so angry.

Eight of us had made it to the final event. That meant there'd be four preliminary fights, then two semifinals, and one final. I clapped on my cheeks to wake up a bit and looked at the big screen showing my possible opponents.

From class A: me, Bakugo, Midorya, Todoroki, Asui, Uraraka

From class B: Monoma, Awase

Right, so a lot of big power types. Asui would actually be a big challenge, seeing as she'd be able to maneuver me better than the others. I didn't know much about the guys from the other class though.

"You and Bakugo teamed up with them, right?" I asked Asui as everyone gathered, "Any insight?"

"Honestly, I didn't see either of them use their quirks." She told me with a frown, "Bakugo mostly took the lead."

"That makes sense." I shrugged, "I guess we'll find out."