Last edited 15 December 2021


"I love nepotism!"

"None of us is actually related to each other though?"

The black-haired young man in the driver's seat of a nondescript gray sedan passed an ID to the guard at the tollbooth of U.A.'s underground parking lot. On the passenger's seat next to him was a sharp-eyed woman with rabbit ears and long, white hair tied into low pigtails.

"Huh?" Rumi Usagiyama looked over to her companion. "Wasn't Sese's biological dad a teacher at U.A.?"

"But he resigned over ten years ago," said Hokuto Miyaka, retrieving his alumni ID and the freshly printed ticket from the guard. Rolling the window back up, he put the car in drive and headed for the parking space allotted to him.

Rumi slapped a hand over her thigh. "That still means we have someone's relative to thank for being able to skip that damn giant line up front!"

"The reason we can skip that 'damn giant line up front,' " said Hokuto in a drawl, "is because I'm technically part of the security detail."

She snickered. "This still part of your punishment for leaving that backdoor, huh?"

He flinched. "Let's not talk about that, yeah?"

They finally found their parking space, and Hokuto killed the engine after pulling in to it. He grabbed his event badge from where it hung from the rearview mirror and put it on before picking up the ceramic-lined thermos sitting in the cupholder.

He glanced over at his companion. "Don't forget to bring Sese's kit."

"Yeah, yeah." Rumi reached over to the back seat, grabbing the metallic-pink hard-shell luggage by the handle on its side. "Wouldn't want to not be ready in case of any accidents. Hey, take the lunch boxes. I saw lots of food stalls, but I don't want Ayaya's cooking to go to waste."

She passed him the star-patterned tote bag containing their lunch boxes, and he shouldered it before stepping out of the car.

After making sure that the car doors were locked, they walked towards the elevator a few meters away.

"I've never been to this live before," said Rumi, rubbing her hands together as they waited for the elevator to come down. "So exciting!"

Hokuto shrugged. "Eh, it's not all that."

"As expected from the three-time winner!" She slapped him hard on the back, making him stumble forward.

He grimaced, reaching behind him to check if his spine was still aligned properly. Upon confirming that it was, he straightened out and adjusted the strap of the tote bag on his shoulder.

"Sese trained hard for this, right?" asked Rumi.

The elevator dinged, and the metal doors opened automatically.

Hokuto yawned as he stepped inside.

"Absolutely fucking not."


v. beacon


"Ahhhhh." Pink Girl stretched her arms out over their table in the waiting room. "I wish we could've worn our costumes."

"They're not allowed," said Tail Boy, "in the spirit of fairness."

"You can register some items though?" Sesera glanced up from the latest update of The Life and Teatimes of a Criminal Mastermind. "I got authorization for my regulator and baton."

"I get your regulator since it's a general Quirk-support item, but how'd you get your baton through?" asked Seaweed Head. "I'd have thought that that would count as a weapon."

"It's more dangerous for me if I don't have some way of focusing my power," answered Sesera, going back to her web novel. "It's not the extendable one though."

"Huh… For all the things you can do with it, your Quirk is very high-maintenance, isn't it, Miyaka?" mumbled Seaweed Head, writing something down on a notebook he pulled out from goodness knows where. "If you think about it, 'Electromagnetic Force' is one of the four fundamental forces that run the universe, and it's responsible for practically all natural phenomena that we encounter in daily life above the nuclear scale. It covers electricity, magnetism, light, and even chemical bonds. Pushing it to the limit, control of matter at the molecular level isn't theoretically impossible—"

"Midoriyaaa." Kaminari groaned from the next table over. "We're about to go out onto live national television. We don't need a physics lesson right now."

"Ah! Sorry!" Seaweed Head sheepishly scratched the back of his seaweed-covered head, closing his notebook with his other hand. "I got carried away, I guess."

Sesera's eyes took in the perfectly harmless expression on his adorably squishy face. It didn't match the blasphemous words that had been spilling from his lips just seconds ago.

She furrowed her brows and frowned.

Nerds are dangerous.

Glasses suddenly burst through the door of their waiting room. "Is everyone good and ready? The event is about to begin!"

Pink Girl shot up from her seat. "1-A Girls' Group Huddle!"

Earlobe Girl groaned, red dusting her cheeks. "Do we have to?"

"But you promised!" Pink Girl skipped over to her and practically dragged her out of her chair. "It builds confidence and camaraderie!"

"That's a great idea! Hey, guys!" Spiky Hair #2 turned to the other boys. "Are we gonna let the girls beat us on this or what?"

"No thanks."

"Pass."

"Do it yourself, dumbass."

"I'm not here to make friends," said Junior coldly.

Spiky Hair #2 bowed his head, clutching at his heart. "The rejection stings!"

Sesera looked over to him as she stood. "You can join us if you want?"

The small boy suddenly shot up from his seat. "Count me in!"

"Me too!" Kaminari followed at his heel.

"No! It's! Girls! Only!" Pink Girl stretched her arms out to the side to stop them from coming any closer.

"This is gender discrimination!" shouted the small boy, pointing a finger at her. "I can legally sue you for this!"

Earlobe Girl sighed. "Let's just get this over with already."

Pink Girl squealed and spun on her heel, swinging an arm over the other girl's shoulders. She pumped a fist into the air. "Alright! Let's do this!"

Invisible Girl jumped in from behind Sesera and Ponytail, slinging an arm each over their shoulders and dragging them into the huddle. Gravity Girl and Frog Girl soon joined in.

They all bent at the waist and brought their heads together at the center of the circle they made.

"Let's do this, 1-A Girls!" said Pink Girl. "Plus ultra!"

"Plus ultra!"

"I'm so jealous…" Spiky Hair #2 pinched the bridge of his nose. Small tears escaped from the corners of his eyes.

The small boy grinned. "Me too, but at least I got something good out of it."

From where Sesera stood in their huddle, she could see that his eyes were directed somewhere a bit lower than the girls' backs.

"Enough of this fuss!" Glasses clapped his hands together. "We're about to be called out! Everyone, line up according to your student numbers! Quickly now!"

They exited their class's waiting room in two neat lines, walking down the stadium's corridors with Glasses and Ponytail in the lead. They found the other classes gathering at their designated spots as well, though none in as neat a formation as their class was organized in.

Sesera spied Hitoshi in the group idling by the placard for Class C. He met her gaze, and she gave him a smile and wave.

He frowned and turned away from her immediately, red creeping into his ears. Some of his classmates saw the interaction, and they were quick to jump in to hound him about it.

Hitoshi had been successfully avoiding her ever since their first meeting at the cafeteria. Every time she thought she caught a glimpse of his wild purple 'do, it'd disappear from her line of sight the next second.

So, he's aggressive but equally cautious. How bothersome.

For the guy who'd come up and slapped a declaration of war right in her face, it was a bit surprising to see him acting so skittish.

Mental abilities like Hitoshi's weren't rare per se, but they weren't all that common either. His Quirk was obviously an Emitter-type that functioned at the cerebral level, and that categorically made him an electric type like her.

She figured he was just being sensitive to the power difference between them. She'd made it rather clear that he didn't have the strength to take control of her after all.

Despite how common electric types were, very few could take control of their own bioelectricity as Sesera did, and Hitoshi had probably been surprised by her natural immunity to his power.

According to research, most mind-related Quirks worked by reading and affecting the electromagnetic field of consciousness. More complex control was usually achieved by manipulating the synaptic connections of the target's nervous system. While neurotransmission was, at its root, a chemical process, releasing neurotransmitters fundamentally required electrical stimulation.

Summarily, most mind-related Quirks ended up essentially being some form of electricity manipulation.

And as a subcategory of electricity manipulation, Sesera was even capable of mimicking such abilities to a degree. It was why sometimes, things like what happened at USJ occurred. Mostly, it made her resistant to a lot of, if not all, electricity-based, mind-related abilities.

Still, while there was potential there, Hitoshi didn't have the strength to truly become a risk factor to her. Quirks like his usually only grew in range and effective time, so it was unlikely that he would ever be able to reach the minimum output level needed to put someone so overflowing with power like she was under his control.

Acting as a power supply to him, however, wasn't theoretically unfeasible, and it was a possibility worth looking at. While Sesera herself was incapable of hijacking another person's bioelectricity without severe backlash, the negative feedback shouldn't register if it were technically Hitoshi doing the hijacking.

She had uses for a power like that. Her only problem was how she could sway him to her side without her manipulative bat of an aunt getting in the way.

A few meters away, Hitoshi and some of his classmates were whisper-arguing about something while huddled over. One of them noticed her staring, and after a sharp hiss to the others, they all turned to look at her.

Sesera usually found that teenage boys were pretty simple and that the direct route was oftentimes the most viable with them. She met Hitoshi's reluctant gaze, put on another friendly smile, and waved.

The boy who had an arm slung over Hitoshi's shoulders slapped him on the upside of his head, and another one started violently poking his sides.

"Ah, I'm so nervous…" Seaweed Head wrung out his hands, balling them into fists and opening them repeatedly.

"Write the kanji for 'person' on your palm, then swallow it," said the small boy as he did exactly that. Multiple times.

Seaweed Head glanced back at him. "I thought most people stopped doing that when the villain, Rasetsu the Devourer, appeared. They said that it was bad luck and that it would call him on."

"Rasetsu the Devourer hasn't been seen or heard from in over ten years," said the small boy petulantly. "I'll try anything that might work."

"I'd have thought that you'd be the type to imagine everyone in their underwear," commented Sesera. "Or naked."

He sniffed. "It's distasteful when there are men in the crowd."

Seaweed Head smiled faintly. "Miyaka, you're not nervous at all, huh?"

"There's not really any point," she said with a shrug. "It's all just one big show anyway."

He tilted his head at her, a bit of a curious gleam in his eyes.

"This is just something I overheard, but Uraraka mentioned you had a cousin you called Hokuto? Is he the same Hokuto Miyaka of the Department of Support, who is the only non–Hero Course student to ever dominate the U.A. Sports Festival three years in a row?"

His description of Hokuto sounded like something out of the latter's character blurb, but it wasn't wrong.

She blinked twice. "Well, yeah."

Seaweed Head's eyes shone. "I've watched him since his first year! He said in an interview that he never once used his Quirk in any of the events because it was useless in combat, and I thought that was amazing! The way he made such an impact using only support items he invented was really cool! I really admired him back in middle school! His internships with Detnerat, I-Island, and the Aidai National Center for Quirk Research were all well deserved!"

His brightness as he talked about Ahokuto, of all people, was blinding. Sesera had to squint to be able to look in his direction.

"Do you want to meet him then?" she asked tentatively. "He's here to watch today."

"Really?!" Seaweed Head's voice rose a couple of octaves. "You'd introduce me?! Can I ask for an autograph, a photo, and a handshake, or would that be too much?!"

Meeting such a fanboy would probably make Hokuto's ego shoot up a notch or two hundred, but Sesera couldn't exactly retract her offer at this point without feeling like she just kicked a puppy.

"It should be fine? I'll message him to meet up once we have a bit of free time," she said.

Seaweed Head thanked her profusely, bowing repetitively until the opening ceremonies just about finished up. Sesera dug out her pillbox and popped a blue-and-white gel capsule into her mouth.

Present Mic's voice echoed from the speakers.

"Hey, hey, hey!" he shouted. "Pay attention, audience, because it's finally time for this year's beloved rodeo of youth, the U.A. Sports Festival, to begin! Everybody, are you ready?"

The audience responded to his prompting wildly, and the stadium practically shook with the intensity of their cheers.

"Let me introduce you to the competitors of the first-year stage then!" said Present Mic. "First up, we have… you know who I'm talkin' about!

"They're the ones you've all been waiting for! Here come the miraculous rising stars who brushed off a villain attack with their steely willpower! From the Department of Heroics—it's Class A!"

With that cue, they marched forward into the light of the stadium and found themselves greeted by upbeat music and raucous cheers from the audience. The energy buzzing in the air was near tangible, and the sheer number of people present was enough to make anyone dizzy.

"W-W-W-Whoa…" Seaweed Head was shaking in his socks. "T-T-T-That's some c-c-c-crowd…"

"Pretty sure the stadium capacity is over ten thousand," commented Sesera offhandedly, and he stiffened up even more.

"T-T-T-Ten t-t-t-thousand—"

"But then again," she said, "it's being broadcast on national television, and there's a live stream available online as well, so that basically… triples the number of watchers, doesn't it?"

"T-T-T-Thirty t-t-t-thousand—"

That was a low estimate considering U.A. itself claimed that viewership was in the millions. Either Seaweed Head was unaware or his jitteriness caused him to forget that little tidbit. In any case, he looked like he was literally on the verge of fainting, so she decided to cut him some slack for now.

Instead, Sesera glanced around the stadium, trying to see if she could spot Hokuto and Big Sis Rumi in the crowd. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack when she couldn't magnetically attract it to her—a fun little challenge when she was bored beyond reason but not normally her kind of thing.

However, she stopped about three seconds into her attempt after seeing something she couldn't ignore.

Near one of the first-level exits of the stadium's northwest quadrant, the flickering mess of orange flames was like a beacon that lit up and shone on everything that was right in the world. Refracting light was a complex process that usually resulted in a headache, but this time, it didn't take Sesera more than two seconds to create a pseudo–magnifying glass out of thin air so she could confirm her suspicions.

Her effort proved fruitful, because there, standing in all his burning glory, was the number two hero Endeavor himself. He was more than a kilometer away, but Sesera was rendered to a cathartic-like state by the aura of his presence.

She had very few happy memories in the windowless building, and the moment his spiraling flames broke down the white walls enclosing her was one of the happiest.

Suddenly, it was as if she could once again hear that starry-eyed silver girl who danced among flowers whispering in her ear—just like she did the moment they first saw him.

"This is our chance. He is our chance."

That fateful day from four years ago was the first time they'd tasted freedom, and it had tasted of ash.

Sesera felt the ghost of that same silver-haired girl take hold of her hands, and she looked into red eyes that sparkled like they were the only stars in the sky.

Small hands gently squeezed hers, and she felt herself being tugged forward. Azalea Garden's lips parted, asking her the same question she had once, long ago.

"Don't you want to see the world burn?"

That had been the moment her red-tinted world burst into orange and blue.

Sesera remembered a garden in flames, and the first glimpse she ever got of the night sky blanketed by stars. She remembered stepping into the highest heaven, and the face of the man who had offered her salvation.

She remembered seeing fire—fire everywhere—and brought a hand up to soothe the dry itch around her throat.

Endeavor probably wouldn't be able to recall some random little girl he'd seen only once. She was just one of the many faces he'd rescued throughout his career. After all, saving people was literally his job.

Sesera had only spent an accumulated two minutes and forty-three seconds conscious while within three meters of his existence. But even that short amount of time had been enough to change her life forever.

There weren't enough things in this world for her to accomplish to be able to pay him back for all he did for her.

Her heart beat hard in her chest.

It would be nice if he could look at me though.

"Miyaka?"

Wide, bright green eyes looked up at her.

"Sorry, my throat suddenly felt kind of dry," she said. "I guess I'm more nervous than I thought."

He offered her a smile, and it was crooked and sweet.

"That's perfectly understandable," said Seaweed Head. His eyes shifted to the side as he brought up a hand to scratch at his chin. "You're still a lot calmer than I am. To be honest, I'm not even confident that I'll do all that well today. I've… had a lot of things to think about. The Sports Festival has been the last thing on my mind as of late."

Honestly, Sesera hadn't paid much mind to the Sports Festival either. As part of her punishment game for clueing U.A. in on the backdoor, her aunt had already made arrangements for her upcoming internship. Of course, she still had to put on a good show, but there wasn't as much pressure on her to win as there had been on Hokuto.

"Well, it's not like you won't get any other chances after this," she told him. "It's only ever the medalists who get any sort of attention in this event. The others are just cannon fodder to the public. No matter how well they perform in the preliminary rounds, if they're unable to show any tangible results for it, they're not worth the media's time."

Seaweed Head looked contemplative. "Someone told me not too long ago that the slight difference between those who always aim for the top and those who don't will come to matter in a big way once we all emerge into society."

He smiled up at her.

"I didn't really get it back then," he told her, "but I think your words have helped me understand it a bit more, at least. Thank you for that."

Receiving such sincere gratitude out of the blue like this seriously threw Sesera for a loop. Seaweed Head had a way of knocking her off balance with the simplest things, and she couldn't decide whether or not it was a good thing.

"Oh, uh, you're welcome," she said lamely, "I guess."

The conversation petered off as Present Mic continued introducing the rest of the first-year classes. It was awkwardly noticeable that no one else had as extravagant a welcome, and she could sense the animosity directed at them filling the air.

The other classes each walked in one at a time until all the first years were gathered. A small stage had been set up off to the side of the marked area, and Midnight stood atop it with her usual sultry smile on her lips and her curves jutting out in all the right places.

"We'll start with the Athlete's Pledge!" She swished her flogger in a forward arc. "First-year representative, Katsuki Bakugo! Come on up!"

"You're on damage control," whispered Sesera to Spiky Hair #2 as the delinquent stalked toward the stage.

He threw her a strained grin. "Help me out?"

"I'll take a rain check on that."

The delinquent stood in front of the microphone stand with his shoulders slouched and his hands shoved deep into the pockets of his pants.

"I pledge," he said, "to take first place!"

Immediately, the students from the other classes started booing and shouting insults at him. The delinquent simply turned his nose up at them and made a slashing motion across his neck with his thumb.

"Why must you insist on spouting such disgraceful things?" shouted Glasses, stiffly waving his arms in the air.

Spiky Hair #2 groaned. "Miyakaaa."

"Rain check."

"But it's not raining!"

"It will," she told him patiently.

"Now, without further delay, let's get the first event started!" said Midnight. "This year, we've prepared something extra special for you!"

The holo-screen that appeared overhead played a spinning animation until it settled on three words.

OBSTACLE COURSE RACE

"It's a race between every member of all eleven classes!" exclaimed Midnight. "The course runs the four-kilometer circumference of the stadium! Our school's selling point is freedom, so as long as you stay on track, anything is fair game!"

Sesera had seen enough of U.A.'s past sports festivals to know that "fair game" meant Quirks—and inventions, depending on which department one was from. Either way, the school in general had a propensity for the big and the flashy, and Hokuto had told her that if she meant to put her name out there, she needed to be willing to make as much of a show of herself as possible.

Snowdrop would probably have a conniption if Sesera hacked into any more U.A. systems, and in any case, even with the advantage her Quirk gave her, Hokuto was better at that sort of thing. She didn't have the patience to sit and sift through walls and walls of security code, and it wasn't like she had the time to do so right now either.

Sesera settled for gathering information through basic electrolocation. The sheer number of people present blurred her perception, but she managed to filter them out with only a little difficulty.

There looked to be three major checkpoints on the course, and the first one included a bunch of the same robots from the practical entrance exam.

She totally had this thing in the bag. It wasn't even funny.

"Racers, to your positions!"

The set of tall metal doors to their right began opening up. People fought to take places at the front of the pack, but Sesera simply took out her baton, twirling it in her hand as she gathered and focused power. She strayed over to the back of the crowd and lightly bounced on her heels.

"Three! Two! One! Start!"

Light flashed as Sesera fired an electroshock pulse at the crowd. Strands of blue-white electricity danced over people's bodies and disrupted their muscle functions.

She vaulted upwards, leaping off the shoulders of the boy in front of her. Flipping in midair, she twisted so that her feet were directed towards the doors. The metal in the arches attracted the metal at the soles of her boots, and she shot to the head of the pack.

Upon making contact with the arches, she angled her body forward, reversing the flow of power so that she was repelled from the metal. She flipped in midair again, landing on the dirt path just outside the tunnel in a crouch.

The telltale crackle of ice somewhere behind her told her who was in second place.

"Whoa! That preemptive attack was so sudden that I forgot to begin my play-by-play commentary!" said Present Mic. "For those of you who were as surprised as I was, let me catch you up: the two powerhouses of 1-A have culled the competition by going all out right from the start! After Miyaka shocked everyone still, Todoroki froze them to the ground!

"But what's this? There seem to be quite a few people who avoided that combination attack of electricity and ice!"

"I ain't letting the two of you get ahead that easy!" Sesera heard the delinquent shout from somewhere behind her. "Pigtails, Half 'n' Half!"

She and Endeavor Jr. had thinned the flock quite a bit with their unintended cooperation, but as expected, most of their classmates were quick on the uptake and managed to react to it. Compared to the people from the other classes, there was less to no hesitation in their movements.

The experience in USJ had taught them that every second counted, and even a momentary delay could end up for the worse.

The frozen ground Junior left in his wake helped slow the others down though, and the two of them kept a decent lead on everyone else. Spewing glitter wasn't the kind of show Sesera wanted to make of herself, so she settled for a normal run.

They were neck and neck until they reached the point where the path opened up, and the ground in front of them was dimmed by the shadows of several towering robots.

"Every obstacle course needs obstacles!" Outside the stadium, Present Mic's commentary came from the speakers installed on the camera-bots that idled by the fringes. "Some students should be familiar with them from the practical entrance exam! We present to you the first barrier: Robo Inferno!"

"So, these are what they used for everyone else's test?"

She and Junior had stopped running, catching their breaths as they stood just outside the shadow made by the looming zero-pointers. The others behind them were quickly closing in.

"Oh, right. You got in through recommendation," said Sesera casually, and she saw him spare her a glance out of the corner of his eye. "Didn't you guys run an obstacle course though? I guess this is management's way of making things fair."

Aside from the zero-pointers, the one- to three-point robots were also present, and a bunch of them was zipping towards the mouth of the course to obstruct the way.

The zero-pointers were autonomous units, but the one- to three-pointers all ran on a single wireless network. It'd taken Sesera nearly eight minutes to crack the password back during the entrance exam, and in the end, the task had only taken away focus she instead could've directed to just destroying them head-on.

Still, now that she had a way in, if the point of this first obstacle was to take down as many of them as possible again, she'd only need a minute or two to dominate the task.

Sadly, it wasn't, and Sesera was wary enough of being on the receiving end of another one of Snowdrop's uninterruptible lectures that she didn't bother trying anything related to hacking.

She settled for forcefully controlling one of the speedy one-pointers through magnetism. Junior took a cautious step back when it came too near, but she ran forward and jumped onto it, magnetizing the soles of her boots to part of its armor. She stuck one end of her baton to its back to have something to hold on to and keep her balance.

"I'll be going on ahead then!"

Sesera smiled and waved her free hand at him, just catching sight of his narrowed gaze before another robot blocked him off from view.

"Would you look at that? Miyaka's hitched a ride on one of the robots and is speeding through the first obstacle without breaking a sweat!"

If only it was as easy as Present Mic made it out to be. Sesera didn't even make it past the underside of the zero-pointers before she felt the bite of cold wind on her skin.

She chanced a glance back. One of the giant robots was covered in frost, dangerously tilting forward. Watching it slowly fall over to create what was surely a disaster made her crave popcorn.

The frozen robot crashed into the earth like a crumbling white tower, and if she closed her eyes, Sesera could probably superimpose the memory of streams of bright orange flames piercing through the smoke and debris like an inescapable spider web.

From out of the destruction, Junior leaped out, propelling himself forward by continuously stacking ice behind him at an impressive speed.

He slowed down a bit once he caught up with her, obviously unwilling to expend any more energy than necessary when she didn't make any move to keep her lead.

"You crushed a couple of people with that frozen robot earlier, you know!" she told him.

He ignored her comment completely. "You're pretty relaxed for someone who just lost the lead."

"Because I already know what's up ahead!" she said.

"Looks like the first barrier was a little too easy for these upcoming heroes, but what about the second?" asked Present Mic. "Our leaders are approaching it now! Fall in and you're out! You gotta crawl across if you wanna make it! This is the Fall!"

The course led toward a deep canyon that spread across and beyond the entire width of the marked path. Sesera had gathered from her electrolocation that it was a bit over a kilometer deep and that there was a thick layer of fine sand at the bottom to cushion anyone who fell. Sprouting out from the dark depths were several tall and thin rock towers, all interconnected by lengths of steel wire rope.

Power Loader clearly put in a lot of effort digging up all that earth, and it almost pained Sesera how easily she was going to pass this thing.

This is the entrance exam all over again.

She straightened up on the robot, grabbing the edge of the armor plate attached to its arm. With her baton in her other hand, she cut off the joint connecting it to the main body using a focused laser and planted a foot on the inside.

She leaped off, making the one-pointer take a U-turn right into Junior's path while she used the armor plate as a hover board and easily crossed the canyon.

"Hey, c'mon now! Miyaka's used a part of the robot she rode on to surf her way across the Fall in one swift move!" said Present Mic. "Talk about resourceful! This makes me wonder if we really should have put those robots up front!"

Too late for them to question their decisions now, she thought idly, bringing a hand up to cover her yawn.

Before Sesera was even a quarter of the way across the canyon, there was a loud crash somewhere behind her. The moment she turned her head, she saw a frozen robot flying toward her.

Gathering the power needed to blow it to bits small enough to not hurt her seemed like a waste, so she chose to dodge instead, swerving to the right to avoid a head-on collision.

The frozen robot smashed against the side of one of the rock towers, crumbling the top off. The steel wire rope attached to the heavy slab that fell dragged down the top of the other rock tower it was connected to. The domino effect continued down the line until that one small attack took down almost a third of all the pillars—mostly the ones closest to the side coming in from the first obstacle.

Aw, shit. Oops?

Sesera puffed up her cheeks, sparing a few seconds to just… take in and appreciate the destruction.

Present Mic's mad cackle echoed from the speakers. "Vicious! The competition between our two leaders results in some serious damage to the second obstacle! What kind of trouble will this spell for the rest of the participants?"

To her right, she saw Junior speeding over the still-intact wires, using his ice to balance and propel himself forward. There was frost building up on the right side of his face, and his breaths were coming out in white wisps.

Despite sitting next to each other, Sesera and Endeavor Jr. didn't interact much.

She'd managed to drag him into casual conversations about schoolwork and heroics a few times. Surprisingly enough, he wasn't as ill-mannered as she expected from their initial exchange on the first day of classes.

The lone wolf aura in him just came off a bit too strong. He didn't exactly make himself approachable with his constantly uninterested expression either. He spoke harshly sometimes, but on the whole, it wasn't like he was blatantly unfriendly.

He even helped her out at USJ, though that was on Eraser Head's orders.

She remembered Keigo asking her all about him when she said she was kind of on speaking terms with Endeavor's son.

He has a nice face, but he's kind of boring? was what she replied with.

He sent her three bird-themed ROFL stickers as a reply.

Sesera was nice to people on principle. Each person had their uses, so she strove to be liked as much as possible. It made it more likely for others to do her favors when she needed them. She could soften up even rude jerks like the delinquent as long as she played her cards right. Conquering Hitoshi was only a matter of time as well.

But there was just something about that look of bitterness she sometimes saw on Junior's face that rubbed at her the wrong way.

In those moments, she automatically drew away from him. Even when his face was displaying his usual indifference, she couldn't find it in herself to actively try to curry his favor.

Meeting his gaze was difficult, to be honest.

She saw him reach the ledge at the other side of the canyon. A cold gray eye glanced back at her, but it didn't feel like he was really seeing her.

"Hey," had whispered a voice that should've been a little girl's but wasn't, "what's going on with your eyes?"

Righting her balance, Sesera crouched down on her makeshift hover board, making sure that she was properly grounded on it. Focusing power under the metal plate, she took care to stabilize her static suspension mechanics before shifting her weight forward.

The moment she shot past him, Junior wasted no time in propelling himself ahead with more ice. They covered the distance between the second and third checkpoints within seconds, and the obstacle course race became more race than obstacle course.

The minefield that was supposed to be the third barrier wasn't even one. Sesera surfed right over it on her pseudo–hover board, and Junior didn't give a second thought to the ice trail he left behind.

This was a competition of pure speed between the two of them now.

They passed into the shadow of the tunnel leading back into the stadium at the same time. Smoke and confetti shot out into their faces as the light hit them.

"There you have it, ladies and gents!" shouted Present Mic over the music and cheering. "From start to finish, the lead just kept seesawing between Class A's two big powerhouses, but by a hair's breadth, Sesera Miyaka claims first place in our first event!"

The metal plate Sesera rode on skidded across the dirt ground, kicking up a cloud of dust. With a glance upwards, she saw the giant holo-screens that lined the stadium displaying her name and face.

Sesera looked to her right.

Junior heaved out a long breath, his hands on his waist and his head bowed. The frost covering his skin was gradually melting, and clouds of steam were rolling off him.

Sesera approached with slow steps. Junior only had a few centimeters on her, but she still made a show of tilting her head up to look at him, even bending slightly at the waist so that he could easily look down on her.

Despite the numerous stolen glances, this was the first time she had a good look at him. He had that signature Todoroki roughness about him, fierce and wild, though the overall effect was softened by a quaint sort of beauty—clear and lovely, almost like glass. Probably from his mother's side.

His face really is so very, very—

Sesera wasn't afraid of being burnt, but ice was awfully easy to shatter. Not to mention that the cold reminded her bitterly of an empty white room, metal pressing against her skin, and the piercing touch of silver needles.

Of icy fingers rubbing circles on her temples, freezing her to her bones until she was cold as a corpse.

"This doesn't need to hurt."

She put on the brightest smile she could and went right for the throat. "Congratulations on getting second place, Mr. Number Two."

The look he gave her was deadly.


It seemed like the damage Sesera and Junior did to the second obstacle was more significant than she thought.

She'd managed to coax Midnight into teaching her two very interesting things one could do with a flogger, as well as the recipe for a lemon balm and passionflower honey tea that she decided to test on Hokuto, all before the third placer entered the stadium.

"Hey, Pigtails! What's the big deal with you and that damned Half 'n' Half sabotaging the fucking course?" shouted the delinquent as soon as he caught sight of her.

Judging by the way he held on to his shaking hands, he'd overexerted himself a little.

Sesera waved Midnight's flogger at him and with a placating smile said, "It was an accident?"

"Accident, my ass!" He managed to stop his shaking long enough to flip her off. "I'll crush both of you in the next event! Remember that!"

He stalked away to an empty part of the field, far from either her or Junior. Sesera had been sitting on the stage beside Midnight, their legs dangling from the edge facing the tunnel that the participants were entering from.

"Ah, youth." Midnight sighed, a wide and satisfied smile on her lips as she held her face in her hands. "How dazzling."

The way the delinquent had acted so crudely toward her while she was literally sitting right next to a teacher wasn't what Sesera would normally call "dazzling," but based on Midnight's reaction, it wasn't exactly not that either.

At the very least, she was certainly bedazzled by how much shit he managed to get away with even with that foul mouth of his.

More people trickled into the stadium over the next few minutes. A girl from Class B with thorny vines for hair got fourth, and Bird Boy and Tape Dispenser Elbows came in one after the other, getting fifth and sixth.

The rest of her classmates arrived both individually and in groups. All of them looked a bit worse for wear as they staggered back into the stadium. One group of them had apparently agreed to cooperate through the ruined second obstacle, and Pink Girl and Invisible Girl called her over the moment they laid eyes on her.

"I am being summoned," said Sesera, and she handed the flogger back to its original owner. She politely excused herself, and Midnight waved her ahead with a hum.

Sesera pushed herself off the stage, landing lightly on her feet. She walked over to where Pink Girl and Invisible Girl stood with some of their classmates.

As soon as she was within range, Pink Girl launched herself at her, arms wrapping around her neck. She had to swing the two of them in a circle to keep from being thrown to the ground.

"What the hell, Miyaka? Seriously!" Pink Girl groaned. "What you and Todoroki did to the second obstacle was too unfair!"

"It was an accident. Sorry," she said, setting the other girl back down on her feet. She raised her hands in surrender as Pink Girl glowered, a pout on her face and her eyes narrowed to slits. "We got a little too caught up with each other."

"I'll say!" Invisible Girl huffed. "Bakugo was screaming his top off in jealousy!"

"I promise to give him some attention in the next round," said Sesera.

Pink Girl snickered. "You better. He was already unhappy about Shinso, and of all the people in our class, Todoroki is probably the one who pisses him off the most without actually needing to do anything."

"I thought it was weird that you left him alone, but now I see you were just waiting for the right opportunity to strike." Invisible Girl spoke in a tone that said she was squinting and judging her. "You really like the difficult ones, huh?"

"It was the USJ incident that made you make a move, wasn't it?" Pink Girl smirked. "His white knight aura back then was super impressive. The prince sweeping his princess off her feet to safety—it was the full works. If our lives weren't on the line, I would've been swooning the entire time watching the two of you cozy up to each other like that."

Sesera thought it over and was mildly surprised she hadn't made the comparison immediately. That was good material right there.

"Well," she said airily, "if we're talking strictly about faces, Todoroki is definitely at the top of the class."

Pink Girl shrugged. "Can't say I don't agree. Out of curiosity, what's Bakugo's rank?"

"Three," answered Sesera immediately. "Yaoyorozu is two."

The two of them shared a look. Or, as much of a look that could be shared when one side was invisible.

"Knowing your tastes as well as I do," said Pink Girl with a completely serious expression on her face as she clapped a hand over Sesera's shoulder, "and taking into consideration the fact that you went to an all-girls school, I can't say I'm surprised."

The collar of Invisible Girl's top moved just enough for Sesera to be able to tell that she was bobbing her head in agreement.

She blinked twice. "OK then."

They continued to chat while waiting for more people to arrive. To Sesera's slight surprise, Hitoshi also made it to the next round after ranking in the upper thirties. Aside from that one Support Course girl who placed somewhere in the upper twenties, he was the only other non–Hero Course student to make it into the second round.

She blithely became aware of the fact that he was absolutely serious about that declaration of war. It would have been better in the long run if he didn't try to make too much of an appeal to the public considering his Quirk, but he had the look of someone who had something to prove. It was going to be hard to convince him to back down.

Still, with the way the Sports Festival was usually structured, he was would reach his limit either in the next round or in the early stages of the final one. Hitoshi was driven, that much was obvious, but one could only get so far on pure willpower alone.

He was definitely a work in progress. Currently, her best option was to simply ignore his existence lest she drew any unwanted—read: her aunt's—attention to him. He was perfectly capable of knocking himself out of the game without needing her intervention.

The doors closed as soon as the forty-second finisher entered the stadium, and Present Mic announced the official end of the obstacle course race. The holo-screens displayed the names of those who were eligible to proceed to the next round, and he read them off one by one.

In the meantime, Midnight had everyone gather in front of the stage.

"Onto the second event!" she shouted as soon as Present Mic finished his spiel. "This is where the main selection really begins! Prepare yourselves!"

The holo-screen behind her displayed two words.

CAVALRY BATTLE

"Participants will have to form teams of two to four members!" said Midnight. "The rules are fundamentally the same as those in an ordinary cavalry battle—snag your opponents' headbands while guarding your own!

"There is only one difference: each of you has been assigned a point value based on your ranking in the last event!"

"So, the point value of each team changes depending on its members!" exclaimed Invisible Girl.

"I was just about to explain that!" Midnight looked peeved that her thunder had been stolen. "Your individual point values start at five points for forty-second place and go up in increments of five. With one exception!

"The first place participant is worth ten million points!"

Sesera blinked. "Huh? Doesn't that basically give me and whoever I bring in to my team a free pass to the next round?"

Spiky Hair #2 pinched the bridge of his nose, tears prickling the corners of his eyes. "So manly…"

"As expected from Miss Blow-Them-All-Away-With-Electricity…" muttered Tape Dispenser Elbows.

Kaminari just clapped a hand over her shoulder, solemnly shaking his head at her.

Sesera frowned. She was clearly missing something here, but for the life of her she couldn't figure out what.

"Those at the top will encounter more suffering than others," said Midnight as a smirk slowly grew on her lips. "You'll hear this countless times during your stay at this school—this is part of what Plus ultra means."

Oh.

Sesera felt the stares piercing her back after she came to finally understand Midnight's words.

A golden ticket had been handed over to the winner of the previous event, but there was no assurance that they would be able to keep it for the duration of the cavalry battle.

Like Sesera herself had said, the ten million points gave its holder an automatic pass into the next round, so of course, everyone would be after it. In what was supposed to be a no-holds-barred competition for more points, the person who held on to the ten million would instead be forced into a defensive game.

So, that's how they want to play it, huh?

Midnight summarized the rules. "The match will last for fifteen minutes. Each team's point value will be determined by its members, and the rider will wear a headband displaying the total number of points.

"Until the match ends, you'll all compete to grab each other's points and maintain the ones you have. Any headbands you grab must be worn around the neck or higher, so the more you've got, the harder it'll be to manage. Most importantly, even if your headband is taken, even if your formation is broken, it's not over till it's over!

"Quirks are allowed, of course, so it'll be brutal! However, it's still a cavalry battle," she said. "Maliciously attacking another team with the intent of making them fall will get you a red card, and you're out of the game!"

Sesera heard someone sharply click their tongue, and she didn't even need to turn around to guess who it could have been.

"You have fifteen minutes to form your teams!" A holo-screen showing a timer popped up behind Midnight, and she waved her flogger at them. "Chop, chop!"

Sesera turned on her heel and latched onto Ponytail's arm as soon as she found her.

"You'll be on my team, right?" said Sesera.

Ponytail blinked twice, her surprise clear on her face. She broke out into a friendly smile mere seconds later.

"Of course, Miyaka," she replied. "I'd be honored."

From over the other girl's shoulder, Sesera saw Junior's gaze directed at them, a slight furrow between his brows. Obviously, they'd had the same idea.

Though not as battle-oriented as certain other members of their class, Ponytail was excellent for all-around support, and her Quirk was essentially a loophole to the "no items" rule that applied to most of the participants. For people who needed outer foci to be able to use their abilities more effectively, she was indispensable.

Sesera stuck a tongue out at Junior, and he narrowed his eyes at her.

"Hey! First-place girl!"

Sesera glanced back to see the pink-haired Support Course girl muscling her way through the crowd.

"Let me join—"

"You're in."

"That was a fast reply!" she said but grinned right after. "I like you! The name's Mei Hatsume, from the Department of Support. Pleasure to be working with you!"

Sesera was well aware of the fact that Support students were allowed to bring in and use any inventions they made themselves. Most of those were probably made of metal, and they most likely ran on electric power as well. She had no reason to refuse.

Hokuto would probably give me the cold shoulder if I did.

Sesera took the proffered hand and gave it a solid shake.

"Sesera Miyaka."

Ponytail extended a hand of her own. "And I'm Momo Yaoyorozu. It's a pleasure to be working with you as well, Hatsume."

"So, we wrangled up three people pretty quickly," said the Support girl. "Any preferences on a fourth member?"

"Honestly? Not really." Sesera shrugged and turned to Ponytail. "As long as you can Create metal platforms and some marbles, I think we're good to go."

"You want to defend our points by going into the air then?" she asked. "It's a reasonable plan. The field is two-dimensional, so it shouldn't be against the rules for us to go as high as possible. Even long-range fighters will have a limit."

"More for mobility and offense, actually," said Sesera, tossing back one of her pigtails. "I still want to get as many points as possible."

The Support girl tilted her head. "Even though we already have ten million?"

"People would expect our team to focus on defense, so I doubt they'd be prepared to deal with an attack from us. If we do it right, we can even make the last round easier on ourselves by cutting down the number of people eligible to make it." Sesera smiled. "Also, I'm actually pretty greedy, you know?"

Ponytail placed a hand on her chin, nodding her head. "That's a good idea, actually. And on the off chance that our headband is stolen, then we'd still have points to fall back on. It's said that the best defense is a good offense after all."

The Support girl laughed. "You Hero Course kids do think differently. I like it!"

"Power supply and ammunition shouldn't be a problem, so you can bring out the big guns," Sesera told her.

She flashed a bright grin. "You got it, Leader!"

"If we're going on the offensive, it would be good if we can bring in another person with power and range to cover our general defense," said Ponytail. She gave Sesera a bit of a wan smile. "I don't doubt that Bakugo and Todoroki will come after us at some point. Not that I think you wouldn't be up to the task, Miyaka, but I feel that it would be more reassuring to have some extra support."

She had a point.

"Power and range, huh?"

Sesera turned her head to glance around at the teams being formed. As expected, classmates mostly stuck with each other, and there was a clear divide between Classes A and B.

She saw a crowd gathered around the delinquent, who had a solid hold on the scruff of Kaminari's shirt.

Probably to defend against me, she thought idly.

Sesera spotted Spiky Hair #2 and Tape Dispenser Elbows in the flock, as well as Pink Girl and Invisible Girl. Basically, their usual lunch group surrounded him, and she couldn't help but feel a bit left out and kind of rejected.

"The entire system of the game puts the first placer at a clear disadvantage." Ponytail suddenly spoke up. "Rather than trying to hold on to the ten million points for the whole fifteen minutes, strategically, it would be easier to keep accumulating points until the endgame."

Sesera tilted her head. "Why'd you two agree to join me then?"

"With your ten million points, the audience is sure to constantly keep an eye on you. It will allow me to show off my babies," answered the Support girl shamelessly.

"Thank you for your candidness."

"No problem!"

Sesera glanced over to Ponytail. The other girl's smile was a bit shy, and her entire face was tinged with pink.

It was glaringly obvious that Ponytail had a hard time refusing others. Sesera hadn't exactly made it any easier for her to do so when she recruited her either, so she was slightly curious about the kind of reply she would get.

"Of all people, I think you would be able to find a way through a challenge like this, Miyaka," said Ponytail. "And, well… It's more comfortable to team up with friends, is it not?"

Sesera smiled sweetly.

Honestly, even though Ponytail was the first one in their class that she ever spoke to, throughout the first few weeks of school, she found that they didn't particularly click.

They had a good relationship, and they spoke to each other quite a lot by virtue of being seat neighbors. The two of them had plenty to discuss when it came to tea and desserts, but other than schoolwork, they didn't talk about much else.

Frankly, Sesera found it easier for conversation to flow with Pink Girl and Invisible Girl.

Ponytail just didn't have that spark of wildness that Sesera preferred in the people she surrounded herself with. Ponytail was prim and proper—a traditionally raised lady from a good family and in possession of a strong moral backbone. She was one of the high-class elite, brought up to become an exemplary member of society.

She had that air of simplicity, naivety, and purity that Sesera appreciated and liked to look at but had vowed to never touch.

"Definitely," said Sesera, and Ponytail blinked once before her shy smile widened. "Any suggestions for our fourth member then?"

"I'm not particularly close with him, but I think Tokoyami suits our needs," said Ponytail. "He's flexible and cooperative from what I've seen, so we shouldn't have much trouble working together. Shall we ask him?"

Bird Boy, huh?

He definitely had the power and range they needed. He and his Dark Shadow had caught Sesera's interest as early as Eraser Head's appraisal test on the first day of classes, but she had yet to find the right time or opportunity to approach him. Aside from a few polite greetings and exchanges here and there, they'd only really had one conversation.

A couple of days after the press break-in but before the incident at USJ, Sesera had asked him where he got those fancy little sword keychains he'd had hanging from his bag. It was an unforgettable day if for the sole fact that she'd blown over ten thousand yen after only an hour in the hundred-yen store he'd sent to her map app.

It… wasn't her proudest moment. Even though she lived a mostly digital life, Sesera couldn't help her tendency for impulse-buying stationery and little knickknacks.

The fact that their first real exchange was so impactful on her only solidified her belief that people with sentient Quirks had rather intriguing characters.

After all, Quirks were, in the simplest terms, extensions of a human body. There was nothing magical, spiritual, or fantastical about them. Stories about Quirks allowing people to connect with others' souls, Quirks that led them to fateful encounters, that automatically activated without their users intending them to in order to fulfill some greater purpose—those sorts of urban legends were just the daydreams of ignorant people romanticizing what they weren't educated enough understand.

All things considered, the reality of it was pretty simple.

A Quirk that had its own "consciousness" separate from its user's was essentially a split personality—a repressed side of themselves that manifested a tangible form through the Quirk factor. There might've been something mystical in seeing what was only in one's head come to life before one's eyes, but that was the kind of thing imagination was.

In the end, it was all just so terribly, fascinatingly, disgustingly human.

Dark Shadow, indeed.

Sesera spotted Bird Boy a ways away, coolly standing by himself with his arms crossed and his gaze sweeping the crowd.

"Doesn't look like he's got a team yet," she said. "We've got nothing to lose by inviting him."

"Shall I approach him then?" asked Ponytail.

"No need," answered Sesera. She cupped a hand over her mouth. "Hey, Tokoyami!"

Said boy—and the couple dozen other people within hearing range—turned his head towards her.

"You want a harem?" she asked him.

The silence that followed was pierced only by the small boy's screeches about the utter unfairness of life.

Bird Boy just looked blankly at her come-hither gesture, turning his head left and right before seemingly accepting that it was directed at him. He uncrossed his arms and walked over to them.

He planted himself in front of their group with a straight spine and his usual serious look.

"I have no reason to refuse," he said flatly, "but before I officially accept, could you please reword your offer?"

Sesera placed a hand on her chin, squinting her eyes at him as she thought carefully.

After a few moments, she snapped her fingers and asked with a grin, "Will you become the head of my hippogriff?"

He blinked once before nodding.

"Good enough," he said. "Yes, I will."

"Is that really alright?" asked the Support girl in a low voice.

"If it is for them," replied Ponytail, giving the other girl a tender pat on the arm.

Sesera smiled and clapped her hands together. "OK then! Now that we've got a full team, let's go over the plan one more time."

And so they strategized. The Support girl brought out all the inventions that seemed like they could be useful, and Ponytail began Creating what they needed.

When Sesera returned from registering their team and collecting their headband, there were less than five minutes left on the timer, and everyone was running their final checks.

"You're a bird and all, so it's a shame that you can't fly."

Bird Boy neatly tied the strings of the cloak Ponytail had Created for him around his neck.

"Chickens are birds, yet they cannot fly either," he said.

Sesera blinked.

Keigo had an affinity for birds that sort of rubbed off on her, and of all of the different kinds, he seemed particularly fond of chickens. He periodically sent her KFC discount coupons, and since it was a waste to just let them expire, she and Hokuto ended up eating fried chicken more often than not.

Keigo had once told her that he had a Quirk that let him fly. With his bird affinity and him working under none other than the Wing Hero Hawks, she assumed that he had a pair of wings himself. Bird Boy had a bird's head.

Was… Was liking chicken a thing for people with bird-related Quirks?

Wasn't that like, cannibalism or something?

Sesera opened her mouth. "So, hey—"

He interrupted her before she could say anything else. "Whatever you're going to ask, my reply will likely be no."

"Is the fit alright?" asked the Support girl as she fastened the final clasp of her electro shoes around his legs. "I can tighten them a notch more."

Bird Boy paced in place. "It's fine."

"Hatsume, I've finished filling the cement gun with the quick-drying lime," said Ponytail, holding the device out. "I also found some extra empty cartridges of your compressor shells, so I took a few and filled them with substances that I think will be useful."

"Ooh! OK!" The Support girl approached her, taking the cement gun off her hands. "Was there any problem sealing them?"

"Hmm, the latch mechanism got a bit awkward with liquids, so it might be good if you could design alternative closing methods? Something like a cap lid maybe?"

The Support girl nodded eagerly, quickly taking notes on a small device she had on her.

Bird Boy inspected the capture gun Sesera had handed him, bringing it close to his face with the barrel pointed upwards.

He was clearly posing.

"Are you good with the plan?" she asked after letting him have his moment.

"Yes," he answered, putting the gun back into its holster. "It's unexpected enough that our opponents will be surprised, even for a moment. A lot depends on the first attack though."

"Hmm…" Sesera let some of the steel marbles Ponytail had Created for her spin over the back of her hand. "We're not allowed to purposely break formations, so I'd have to tone it down. Todoroki could probably block it with a thick enough wall of ice. Boom-Boom Boy picked up Kaminari to use against me, too. Not to mention I don't know the Quirks of those from Class B.

"But, well, as long as we can thin the playing field at the start, I'll have more focus to spare on those who escape the initial assault. I already know of two people who are most definitely going to be pains in our asses, so I'm counting on you and Dark Shadow to have my back."

His Quirk materialized from under his cloak. "Aiyo!"

Sesera reached up to scratch it under its chin, and though her gloves prevented her from feeling its texture, she did feel faint warmth radiating from it.

"Can you eat? Do you want me to give you a treat after this is over?" she asked.

"Apples!"

"He cannot eat, but candy apples do sound nice," said Bird Boy.

"Oh, Auntie Rinko's here every year, and she makes the best ones," said Sesera. "I'm bringing some of the girls on a stall tour during lunch, so I'll get a couple for you as well."

She won the first event, so she could probably bum extras for free. She gave them good business every year after all.

A ringing alarm echoed across the field as the timer ran out.

"Time's up! Formed your teams? Made your plans? Too bad if you haven't!" said Present Mic. "Everybody, get ready! We're starting the countdown for Round Two!"

Midnight instructed all the teams to position themselves on the edges of the designated playing field and get into their formations.

Sesera gave one last tug at the headband over her forehead, making sure it was secure.

Swinging her leg over Ponytail's and the Support girl's arms, she magnetized the soles of her boots to the steel armbands they wore and planted her hands on Bird Boy's shoulders to balance herself as they stood up. While riders usually opted to go barefoot, it wasn't an option for her, and the metal soles of her boots were too useful to let go of.

She twirled the baton in her hand, building up power for their first attack. She made sure that the light of it wasn't within the visible spectrum.

No use in tipping people off on what they were about to do.

Sesera put on her business smile, taking in all the eyes on them in stride. "Ha ha. Look at all the intent stares we're getting."

"It is the fate of those in the lead to be pursued by those behind them," said Bird Boy. "You've picked your poison, Miyaka."

"'Fate'…" muttered the Support girl.

"'Poison'…" whispered Ponytail.

Sesera glanced around at the teams.

Along with Kaminari, the delinquent had scooped up Spiky Hair #2 and Tape Dispenser Elbows into his horse. Pink Girl and Invisible Girl had joined up with Earlobe Girl and Frog Girl for an all-girls team.

Hitoshi had somehow conned Tail Boy and Sparkles into working under him, and filling out his team was some unknown who was most likely from Class B. Judging by the blank looks on their faces, he'd probably used his Quirk on them.

Still, the most interesting team was definitely Seaweed Head's. It was no surprise that he teamed up with Glasses and Gravity Girl, but to think he managed to convince Junior to be part of his horse.

"Unexpected" was the first word to come to mind. "Fuck" was the close second.

"Let's hear a battle cry, yeah?" shouted Present Mic. "It's time for this bloody battle royal to start! Light the signal fire! Here we go! Three! Two! One!"

Sesera raised her arm, pointing her baton skyward. Blue-white strands of electricity flickered from its tip.

"Dunce Face! Get ready!" said the delinquent.

Seaweed Head stared at her with a hard, determined gaze. She didn't know what happened exactly, but something in him had changed over the obstacle course race because that was not the look of someone who wasn't aiming for the top.

"Todoroki!" he shouted.

"I know!" said Junior, and frost flashed over the ground they stood on.

"Start!"

She brought her arm down.