The next match seemed completely fair and balanced.

On either end was a member of UA's elite, recommendation students who were judged based on different criteria. Students who were a cut above the rest of their cohorts, both in the schools they graduated from and UA which they were set to attend.

But what the audience saw that match was a completely one sided slaughter.

Although they were both recommended students, cut from the same cloth, taught in the same class, advanced from the same team even. In a school comprised of the top students in all of Japan, those top students had to have a top student of their own. Between the best there had to be one who was better, even in the world of heroes no matter how powerful the top 10 were, they were the top 10 because they were given ranks.

Yaoyorozu Momo just so happened to be the weaker one.

She came from a rich and prestigious family, she was the valedictorian of her previous school, she possessed one of the most powerful quirks the hero industry had laid their eyes on, if you went by test scores alone she would undeniably be number one.

But that didn't mean that she was the strongest.

Not when Todoroki Shoto, the son of the number one hero was her opponent.

She tried whatever she could, she used whatever knowledge she gained from being in the same team as him, she utilised every speck of training, studying, whatever she could pull out in that desperate attempt at winning. But it was inevitably futile…

In the end, no matter how hard one trained, no matter how hard one studied, no one could simply outmanoeuvre or outthink a nuclear bomb. No amount of thought and calculated action could possibly overcome the overwhelming raw power of a superhuman.

She had to think hard and fast, the calculations for a thermite grenade flooded her frontal lobe as the volatile disaster formed out of her bare skin.

"START!"

She threw one and began to form another, there wasn't a second to waste…

Because all Todoroki had to do was step forward.

And a giant glacier encompassed the arena, completely surrounding Momo and her grenade. While it did explode it wasn't enough to counter the sheer mass of the stampeding ice, it was as if she threw a firecracker into a tsunami.

*CRASH*

And the match ended as soon as it began.

*Rumble*

"Woah!" Izuku nearly lost his balance.

He could barely make out the words of "Todoroki Shoto is the winner!", from his position in the tunnels.

"Seriously? I haven't even made it back to the my seat and the match is already over? That's even faster than mine! Man, these hero kids are nuts!" Izuku lamented to himself, sadly realising that he had to fight whoever OTK'd the previous match.

As he walked Izuku wondered if the hero students would bear a grudge for making them look so bad in front of National TV. No matter what technicalities lied behind his win and his situation, to the public they simply saw a quirkless Gen Ed student take out a hero student with two semesters of training. That may have made Izuku sound impressive and all, but it still presented UA's hero course in a very negative light. Win or not, Izuku might have to watch his back from now on.

"DEKU!"

Case in point.

"K-Kacchan! Hey! What's u- AHH!"

*BREAK*

"What the fuck!? How the fuck are you doing that!? Who the fuck is helping you cheat!?"

Izuku shook the smoke off his hand. "Now Kacchan I know what you're think-ING!"

*BREAK*

"And the answer may surprise you…"

*BREAK*

"Just shut up and give me some answers!"

"That demand didn't make any sense!"

*BREAK*

Sensing that Katsuki was probably attacking more out of rage than genuine confusion, Izuku ran the other way, all the way back to the entrance of the arena.

'Hopefully whoever was in that last match is done by now!' Izuku prayed. 'I could probably hide out in the waiting room until the next guy comes alo-' "OOF!"

Izuku regained his bearings and started to profusely bow and apologise to whoever he rudely ran into. "I'm so sorry, I should have looked where I was going, I'm a complete idiot, please forgive me kind…"

Izuku looked up and saw nothing but red.

He wasn't angry or anything, but it was hard to see anything else when there was a literal wall of flames in front of him.

'Such Misfortune.' "…P-Please forgive me? E-Endeavour-sama?"

The number one hero in question raised a brow. "It's quite alright young man…"

Izuku eyed Todoroki right behind Endeavour looking angrier than he was before. Did Izuku's win really make him that mad?

"If you're done with this farce of yours, then I'd like to head back up to the seats. It would be nice if I could rest uninterrupted before my next match." Todoroki coldly spoke out.

"…Of course Shoto, you deserve a break."

Todoroki simply scoffed at his father and stormed away.

Izuku took that as his cue and slowly tip toed his way, away from the number one hero.

"Where the fuck are you DEKU!?"

Which quickly turned into him running for his life.

"Where th- Fucking, Icy Hot!?"

Praying that Todoroki would distract him for long enough, Izuku ran a whole round underneath the stadium and hid in a gym storage room. Kacchan would need to go eventually for his match anyway, so Izuku had to hold out just long enough. Sadly he couldn't get to see how Shinsou and Uraraka's matches were going to go, but at least he knew how Hatsume's was going to go… Sort of?

*Sniff*

Izuku stiffened. What was that sound? Was someone here? Did Kacchan already find him? Was the number two hero here as well?

Slowly, Izuku creeped over to the corners of the room and found a girl crouched next to a cage full of exercise balls. She had buried her head in her knees and was sobbing for some reason.

Izuku was in a dilemma. On one hand there was a crying girl in this room and he really shouldn't be here, on the other hand if he left right now Kacchan may catch up to him and blow him to bits, or worse Izuku would fight back and they'd both get disqualified from the sports festival.

So Izuku picked the third option…

"Hey, uhhh… Don't mind me! I'm uhh… How are you doing today?"

Be an insensitive idiot and make a complete ass out of himself.

*Sniff*

The girl raised her damp, tear stained face from darkness and took a look at whoever decided to come in and disturb her wallowing.

"…Midoriya Izuku right?"

Izuku perked up. "Oh! You uh… You know who I am."

"They announce your name after every match."

"Oh, right… Sorry to bother you, but I kinda need to stay here for a while. It's kind of a life and death situation, if that helps my argument."

"Oh… ok." The girl stood up.

Izku waved his hands in a panicked frenzy. "Ah! That doesn't mean you have to leave!"

"Oh… ok…" The girl sat back down.

Izuku let out a sigh of relief, but quickly started panicking right after. What was he supposed to do in this situation? Was he supposed to comfort her? Was he supposed to make small talk? Or should he just shut his mouth before he said anything stupid?

"So… What's got you so down?"

He should have picked the third option.

"…You wouldn't understand."

"Eh? Umm, I wouldn't understand because you're not telling me anything?"

"You wouldn't understand because you're not me."

Understatement of the year. "Listen umm…"

"Yaoyorozu Momo."

"Thank you. Listen Yaoyorozu-san, are you really going to stay here for the rest of the festival? I mean, I'm no expert but you could at least you know? Talk to your friends about it? That has to be better than just cooping up here in this cramped, stuffy room right?"

"…No."

"And why not?"

"Because I don't want to let them see me like this ok!? ARE YOU HAPPY!?"

Izuku recoiled from the girl's sudden outburst.

"Even so… It's not good to bottle stuff like this up. I'm sure if they're truly your friends they would understand, you just have to… open up to them?"

"I… No, I'm sorry but I can't… I just can't right now…" Yaoyorozu buried her face back into her knees. "I understand your intentions, I've been through the talks, I've given the very same advice before in high school but I really just can't right now…"

Izuku paused as he watched the girl sob. "You're afraid of what they're going to think right? You're afraid of how they'll see you. Not just like this, but every day after. You don't want to be seen as vulnerable to them."

Yaoyorozu cried. "How could I even dare? I'm supposed to be that classes Vice-president! I'm supposed to be the one they come for council and advice, not the other way around! If I crumble here who are they supposed to turn to then? Iida-kun is an excellent leader but he is far too blunt and straightforward, I'm supposed to be the more emotionally reserved one! If I go back and break down in front of them, then who are they supposed to turn to!?"

Izuku contemplated as he sat down on a stack of planks facing her. "Then why don't you talk to me?"

"?"

"I'm not in your class am I? And I've already seen you in this state. So you have nothing to lose, no mask or appearance to maintain, if you spill everything to me."

"…To a complete stranger?"

Izuku nodded. "To a complete stranger. Take it like a counselling session or therapy with some random psychiatrist. If you don't want me to talk I'll won't even say a word, just… let everything out before you explode ok?"

"…Fine."

Izuku grinned and crossed his legs as he patiently waited for Yaoyorozu to start talking.

"I thought I was doing well, after all the work I put into getting that recommendation into UA, getting past the recommendation exam. I thought I was set, I was on a course to be one of the best heroes in our generation. I could finally make my parents proud, I could finally take pride in something that I did. I wasn't the richest girl in a rich girl school anymore, I was the one who got into hero school. And it was fantastic, the class was fantastic. Even with a few bad eggs here and there I still felt like I belonged, felt so liberated in the thought that my efforts bore fruit, that if I just kept going at it like this I would become a hero alongside them. But it wouldn't last forever…"

Yaoyorozu sniffed as she continued. "I started studying harder, training harder, trying to improve myself. I saw everyone doing the same and I felt so proud to be part of this class… and so disappointed when I didn't improve alongside them."

Izuku noticed her sudden shift in tone.

"But I kept at it, over the whole year I kept working hard. If nothing to prove that they didn't make a mistake when they voted me as their Vice-president. But what ended up happening? I still lost to Bakugou-san in our training match. I still failed my end of semester assessment against Aizawa-sensei. I completely relied on Todoroki-san to get to this far into the festival and what happened? I lost to the very hand that helped me climb this far."

The tears started pouring out of her eyes. "And I hated it! I hated that I had to resort to relying on someone else, just so that I could give myself a false sense of accomplishment! I hated that everything I learned, everything I trained for was useless in the end! I hated that after all that I just got taken out with just a single move! They all must think I'm some kind of fraud now! Some kind of rich posse that got in because she was lucky! Some idiot who managed to squirrel her way into the hero course that she didn't belong! I hate it! I hate it! I hate it! I HATE IT!"

As Yaoyorozu broke down into a full on meltdown, Izuku was left to process her words.

From what he could see Yaoyorozu Momo wasn't some kind of cliche rich ojou-sama. She didn't buy her way into the hero course, she didn't ask to be born in the position she was in, and with all those expectations, all that pressure she was putting on herself to keep up with that image of her being a hero was crushing her.

So Izuku did the one thing that came to mind.

"…Ha-Hahahahaha-HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Yaoyorozu glanced back up, startled at Izuku's sudden burst of manic laughter.

"-HAHAHAhahahaha… Is that what you want to hear?"

"Huh?"

"Is that what you really want to hear, Yaoyorozu-san? I thought everyone else was doing it, so I thought I'd join in."

"What are you talking about!? Hear what!? No one else is laughing but you!"

"Exactly, so why do you think that everyone is laughing at you?"

"!"

"Why do you keep thinking everyone is looking down on you? Looking down on all your efforts? Look at me! I'm an example of what people should really be laughing at! A weak, quirkless idiot who didn't put in effort into anything, who had his head stuck in the clouds for so long that it took reality to finally sink me in. You're the one who worked her ass off getting into this school, you're the one who's one of the top students in the hero course. So what if Todoroki beat you? So what if Todoroki is stronger? So what if he's the strongest in all of UA? That doesn't just wash away all of the effort you put in until now! That doesn't mean that you're a failure! Don't let his success be your downfall ok? Even if other's are stronger, that doesn't make you weak!"

Izuku stood up and declared to her. "Just because Todoroki is stronger, that doesn't mean Yaoyorozu Momo isn't strong!"

Now it was Yaoyorozu's turn to laugh. "If you're as weak as you say, then how could you speak so casually about that? What you saw today was merely a glimpse of full extent of what the hero course has to offer. You haven't seen what Todoroki-san is truly capable of, until now he's only been fighting at half power you know? He hasn't even unleashed the power of the his left side yet, the same power that the number one hero wields. Unless you have that kind of power, unless you possess a power that can conquer the power of the number one hero then every word you've said has simply been empty."

"WILL THE CONTESTANTS PLEASE START MAKING THEIR WAY TO THEIR STARTING POSITIONS! THE NEXT ROUND OF MATCHES WILL BEGIN SHORTLY! FIRST UP WITH MIDORYIA VERSUS TODOROKI!" Present Mic announced through the PA system.

"Then how about this?" Izuku smiled. "Let's have a little wager shall we? If I lose this round then you can say whatever you want to me, do whatever you want to me. You could use me as a target to spit insults to, a wall to let your cries out on, or even a punching bag to take all of your pent-up anger and frustration out on."

Yaoyorozu raised a brow. "Are you sure about that?"

"Trust me, I'm a pretty decent punching bag. But if I win, then I want something from you too." Izuku grinned.

"I want you to stop putting yourself down. You can have your doubts, a moment of weakness or even cry it out like you just did. But I don't want to hear a single word putting down Yaoyorozu Momo coming from your mouth ever again."

Izuku smiled at her again before he left. "After all, if a weak, quirkless idiot like me can defeat the strongest student in UA's hero course. Then there's nothing someone as talented and hardworking as you can't accomplish."

"…"

As the door shut, Izuku ran out to get to his starting position on time.

But on the other side of that door, for the first time Yaoyorozu Momo prayed that one of her classmates would lose.