The facts are your ally. Remember the facts, remember what's directly stated by who you're targeting, and what you tell them. If you lie, memorize it in detail and prepare for it to fall. "We can deposit our points from a station over there." There was a station, but the real one was farther.

"Alright, the two of us should go, we have a big enough haul for now. Everyone else should keep gathering. Remember, the big pile is points, the small pile is food!" The boy he was tricking shouted as the duo made their way through the forest.

It was hard to believe just a little growth could cause this, but that's what made it all interesting, didn't it? The festival, for as much as it rounded up the most confident and rowdy of the school, held a surplus of naive and desperate lots that would do just about anything to gain the advantage. In the next four days, the entire school knew one simple truth that most forget any other time: Knowledge is Power. And who had more knowledge than the King of feats, the number one ranked student of the end of terminus himself?

"Here here!" Jazz called out from his booth. It was surprisingly easy to make with some wood and special plants smeared onto it. "I'll judge whatever you turn in under your name! Please feel free to hand your stuff to me." The friendly approach, contrasted most but made it seem 'cool' and naive of a teacher.

"Alright, we're splitting the profits, right? Equal shares." The 'leader' of the group he 'allied' with himself confirmed with a smirk, probably assuming he could rack up enough points with these little alliances alone. It sounded crafty, but one must be wary of those even craftier.

"Indeed. A fair split between us." No one even bothered to question his mask, and that made lying all the more easier. To think he thought his expressions were so unreadable beforehand. Oh how that cost him so many days in that hell. "I'll stay back, try and con someone who comes by into joining our group."

"Right, of course." The kid smirked, walking away oh so innocently. After a few minutes he and Jazz laughed. They were gonna win for sure, brains over brawns after all.


Sabro huffed as he held the corpse of the tiger three times his own size. Brawns over brains after all. "This isn't gonna be enough." He muttered. "Anything that takes three seconds is too slow for any real value."

"Right, we can't afford to waste our time on little prey. Not with the strength we've gathered." Asmodues huffed in agreement. It felt weird for either of them to be on the same page for once. "I never thought much about Izuku's insistence on saving magic until now. In life or death, that can be the difference."

Yes, they learned many lessons on that tightrope. The one which let them fall into the world of the living or the world of the dead. They grew strong and powerful on it, and now he understood as well how to make his weapons match the situation at hand better. "The problem is we have to find a place where they can actually get that dangerous …" Maybe the trees were the problem. Start walking until they found a barren wasteland?

"We need to aim for boss class. Anything less will just slow us down." Asmodeus looked at a student. "Hey, where the hell are the dangerous creatures?"

"That … that almost killed us … and you said it's not dangerous?" The shaking student asked with horror in their eyes.

"Alright, they're useless." Asmodeus sighed. Yep, if they couldn't handle something as puny as this, they should just walk away. "And starting a forest fire would be too dangerous … I guess our only solution is to try and push on and see if we can get something bigger."

Damn it, all this combat training and they didn't learn one thing about tracking animals. Who would have any idea where to look?


"So you say the double headed cat is three trees down?" Kamui asks of the beast, after all, he always had an idea where to look for a lovely lady.

"Yes, just take a right and you'll find their den. Be careful, they don't like trespassers." One of the timberwolves spoke back calmly despite their scary appearance. All this time the boy has been a fool. He's spent so much time trying to look deep into the inner beauty of the ladies around him he's neglected how much he could do the same with Translator! Understanding each of his brethren on a deep and emotional level. Ladies did love a man who was good with cute and cuddly pets.

The sheer amount of porn they could share as well. After all, women didn't care if a cerberus looked up their skirt, and female foxes didn't care when he bathed them! Truly, the community of gentlemen has reached further then he could possibly imagine. "Now then, have you dispatched the intruders?"

"Yep. All wrapped up and dangling right up there." The clever monkeys pointed at the poor helpless demons.

"Hey-hey, we don't want any trouble! We just want one one of the animals here! You've practically got a whole jungle's worth! You could spare a Cockatrice or manticore or two!" One of the welps pleaded.

"If that's the case, you should take it up with the fair and lovely queen. She decides the fate of all around these parts." Kaumi pointed to an entire line of creatures bowing their heads, placing offerings before the throne of the beauty known as Kerori Crocell, a pinnacle of icy beauty, surrounded by her two familiars, a Blizzard Wolf and a Snow King Fox.

She gazed upon the students, coldness pouring from her very aura. "... A manticore you say? You would have to understand something. To want something is to risk … and thus, you may as well be food." The students screamed. "However, I shall spare you for two small favors."

"S-spare us?! B-but you're a first year student!" The fools cried in confusion and fear.

"Yes, and the rules state that students can't harm other students … tell me where it says a beast may not attack and kill another student?" She asked them with a cold glint of nurture and malice.

"I shall prepare the executioners at your command, milady." Kaumi humbly bowed. The Phoenix was getting particularly hungry at the moment.

"Alright, alright, what are your demands! We'll follow through with them!" A smart student shouted, understanding the beauty of the dangerous woman before them.

"First, there is the matter of points. Anything you have gathered must be given unto me, unless my subjects may feed upon it." The Blizzard Wolf growled.

"Understood!" The fools threw their offering before her feet.

"The second … There is a traitor, someone who abandoned the call of my kingdom. An abandoner for their own delusional ruling." Ice formed from her anger. "The dragon known as Gaako. Where is she? What is the forbidden one planning?"


"We need cannons and chains here and here. Giant traps here, if you can heat it up we need the ground to act as magma in these halls." Gaako commanded the surprisingly pretty but equally drowsy Picero, laying out her blueprints. She hated to admit it, but her dad having her trace his old plans instead of giving her a coloring book was starting to pay off. "We're going to need a narrow hall here and there, we're going to need multiple escape routes if/when shit hits the fan."

"Gah, so annoying. I don't know how Izuku and Asmodeus put up with you." Picero muttered, but otherwise made no genuine complaint as he formed his structure. Goemon was off gathering ingredients, so that was covered at the very least. "Why did you even join us anyway? Weren't you supposed to be with Kerori or something?" He asked half heartedly.

"We don't speak her name here." She scoffed. "Our ambitions just differed too much from each other. She tried to force me into compliance, forgetting one simple fact. She may be a queen, but I'm a fucking dragon." She growled. "I'm an overlord that takes what I want, when I want, and how I fucking want it."

"Is that how you took Azz's virginity?"

"We didn't go that far!"

"So you went somewhere?" Why did she fall for that twice now?

"Look, how I go about with my boyfriend isn't your damn business. I'll take whatever I want from him when I feel like it." She grabbed the plans into her hand. "I've been far too laxed about my ranking this past year. If I'm going to get anywhere in life, it's going to be by the Calamity Cult's side, so I need to catch up with them on my own merits before we can get stronger together."

"Sure sure … by the way if you're really expecting some big scale attack, we won't have any numbers." He said. It was fine, the numbers would come later, when those that would be close to dying would seek refuge and safety, they would provide and dominate. She could just imagine someone trying to lax their way without any form of preparation and violence, they would die for sure, horribly and painfully.


Clara was having so much fun! The Tea Party Lady kept walking up to the boys and made them jiggle like jelly, while she popped up from the bushes, making them scream before they played the quiet game! So many boys were falling for her all at once! Raimy-teach was right, the right clothes made a world of difference!

Right now she was wearing this dino suit, it created imagination. Then the next step was to slowly take it off and reveal more and more. And if someone wasn't interested, she brought them to her new toy box for a super fun game time! It was super exciting, even if the Tea Party Lady was being pretty distant and quiet around her lately.

"Hey, Tea Party Lady, who are you trying to seduce?" Clara asked her partner in the game.

"Well, my main idea right now is to just gather points for easy targets. After an hour or two, the others in our class will gather enough of their own points." She smiled brightly, even at her. "And I can't wait to seduce them all, without any full gauge to boot. What about you?"

"Haven't you been listening at all this entire time? Izuku-kins! I need to make him happy before Deku comes back!" Clara clarified. "He's barely seen me and hasn't played with me or anyone else in weeks! You saw him curse his teacher! He's close to Deku, and I'm going to stop it!"

"Yes, Izuku-kins. All that talent for a single male, the luck of the world." Tea Party Lady said while grabbing her really tight. "That's just how it works right? Talent and effort of years going down the drain towards someone else." Oh, she was thinking about something else again. She always got super distracted when it came to her. That was probably because her seduction leveled up.

Oh, she should try it out on Eistring! Then she would have to admit Izuku-kins would be hers! "Yeah! Why wouldn't I do everything for him? He's the first one to do so for me! Playing with me without asking for anything!"

"The first one … now that I think about it, he probably partnered with my first choice with the misfits." She smiled. "Alright, we'll target them next, Valac."


Eiko picked yet another mushroom. She convinced Robin-sensei, the erratic bastard he was, that they should be tested on ingredients in the forest rather than just random candy and sweets. If they were going to be tortured, might as well be in something they'll actually USE in the Festival.

"I've got three lyrhentrope, a patch of demigratia, and a side of keroticin. What about you?" Lied asked, adding his share to the pile.

"About a dozen or so Devitake Mushrooms. It's not much, but it's a good start." She also convinced the teacher to actually have them memorize a few books on diabontany. Thank Devi for giving her the gift of quick study! Made up for not having a bloodline in all honesty.

"That just leaves Izuku then, I wonder how much he managed to collect compared to our memorization." Lied asked with a smirk. A smirk that quickly died down as a massive sack of plants and herbs landed between them. Said sack was connected to a metal wire, connected to her Izu, who slowly lowered himself with a second wire acting as a hook.

"Alright, I don't know what I gathered, but this seems like a good start." He muttered.

"Dude….How the hell do you do that!?" Lied shouted in surprise. "The whole suit, the arms, how did you make all of this!?"

"Oh, I combined Sabro's ability to make metal in any range shape or form so long as it's being bitten, and Claras ability to make any image as long as it's slowly generated from a pocket." He detached the bag and showed them two holes at the end of the metal cables.

"Wait, you managed to figure out how to combine the bloodlines you take without a full transformation?" Eiko gasped in glee. "That's amazing! Looks like you were able to make use of all those weeks apart after all! I started getting worried for a second."

"So did I … luckily she got off her ass. I like to think I wore her down." Weird, but whatever. "Anyway, I still haven't got a lot of the kinks out, but this suit is filled with apparatus that utilize pre-made abilities two at a time. Haven't gotten any conceptualization with three. Well I could, but time crunch and all." He gestured to the wires that moved like snakes. "I call this one, Tool Arms."

"Name's kinda lame, but I can't deny how cool it is!" Eh, Lied had a point with that. Izu was horrible at coming up with names. "Now that One For All name makes sense now. With your crazy magic on our side, there's now way we can lose!"

"Not quite. I'm still not fully used to using the ring like this for long periods of time. Actually I better shut it down now." With a glow Izu reverted to hunting gear, his bushy hair cut shorter than normal, and fingerless gloves on his hands. "Also I can't strain the powers too much or the whole thing kind of falls apart."

"Well at the very least we have some muscle on our side …" Lied turned to Eiko. "No offense but I've seen you at Devi dance, I know you're not the most physically dangerous demon."

"Hey, I know at least six different plants in the surrounding area I could poison you with! How'd you like that?" They growled with sparks between them.

"Well regardless, we need to separate these for what we're eating tonight." Eiko and Lied tilted their heads curiously.

"Ah, won't eating our supplies dwindle our chances at winning?" Lied asked Izu.

"Yeah, we have to aim for rank ups, that means as many points as possible!" She reminded him.

"I know, but remember, this entire festival lasts four whole days. If we waste our energy gathering every single item for points, we're eventually going to run ourselves down to the bone." Shoot! She almost ignored Izu's well-being. Damn it Eiko, this isn't a video game, you can't just keep playing with unlimited stamina bars!

"Well you have a point … but if we're aiming for a high enough rank while we eat our supplies compared to some of the more insane students..." It was sad that Lied's sentence made that much sense. "Then we'll have to aim for larger ingredients soon."

"I know. I'm aiming to find the legendary leaf."

"The legendary … but that's-" Lied started with wide eyes.

"Incredible!" Eiko shouted. "I should have known you were aiming for something so high. The sky's the limit!"

"No, IMPOSSIBLE! IMPOSSIBLE!" Lied shook her hero. "I know, Plus Ultra and going beyond and all that, but no one's ever found it! It's an urban myth founded by miserable losers who wanted to slow down the competition."

"Maybe, but I've lived around here long enough to never doubt the impossible." Izu smirked confidently. "Besides, it was the one item Ameri wanted to find but never could, and she won the entire thing by a landslide last year." Izu paused. "I actually asked her about how she tried to get it, but then she just started laughing louder and louder until the phone hung up." If only Eiko could make her laugh like that.

"And that didn't discourage you from this crazy plan of yours?" Lied was still skeptical.

"No, if anything I was only more convinced that there was something to find. One thing you should really know about me at this point is that I hate the word impossible." Izu chuckled. "It's only legendary until someone proves it real."

Something was different in Izu today. There was more confidence in his expressions. More joy, less cynicism, and more optimism. He was actually believing in himself! "Well, who am I to argue with the hero of Walter Park, One For All?" Lied finally complied with an accepting shrug.

"Glad to hear it Lied!" Izu smiled brightly. "Now then, who here knows how to cook?" The silence began to drag on awkwardly.