Neito Monoma had a plan.
Rally his classmates and show up 1-A.
He couldn't let those show boaters keep one upping him at all junctions, his pride simply would not allow it.
He knew it was a sin to be prideful, not that he was as overly religious as Shiozaki, but from the little he had paid attention to her preaching, he understood that being overly prideful was definitely a bad thing.
He just couldn't help it.
Since he was little he'd always been made fun of for his quirk, just because he needed to mooch off of other people for their power. Nothing he ever did was given the right kind of praise, people would smile to his face and then as soon as he turned his back they'd go on about how he was piggybacking off of other people's strong quirks.
He'd let most of it go, they lacked a fundamental understanding of his quirk, he might have copied someone's quirk, but it didn't necessarily mean he could use it, some powers were just duds in general, but the ones he could use still required carefully applied skills and knowledge.
Neito was just glad he was intelligent enough to acquire said skills and knowledge.
Anyway, all his life he'd never gotten any credit for anything, not from his teachers, his friends, or even his parents, they, in particular, were the worst, he'd overheard them talking about how his quirk was evil and something to do with his grandfather, but he hadn't quite got to that bit after the realisation that his own parents hated him had set in and he had run off to cry in seclusion.
He thought that making it into U.A would be different, surrounded by the best of the best that understood the hard work it took to get here, and at first it had been.
Monoma absolutely loved his class and his new friends, truly high school had been his turning point.
Then the USJ incident happened.
It rubbed him the wrong way to see a bunch of kids his age become famous on the news for being attacked by villains, what had they realistically done to deserve that fame?
Hidden behind the number one hero?
It was hugely unfair and it made the blonde furious to watch the other class think of themselves as the golden children just because their lives had been endangered once.
He'd been trying to sway his classmates to his way of thinking, and it was having minimal effect until the president of the other class had decided to set up his little quirk training club.
Who he thought he was to tell them how they should be using their powers Neito didn't know, but it was the straw that broke the camel's back.
He'd managed to incite and convince his fellow classmates to join in on his plan.
The first step was to have everyone make it into the second round, which had been a success, not that anyone in the hero course had failed to make it, but that didn't matter the plan could still move forward.
For the second round, which was predictably a challenge that allowed co-operation, as it tended to be every year, he had split his class of twenty into five groups and they'd set off to gather all the items in the challenge, there were only sixteen, so sacrifices would need to be made, but it was all for the good of the class, so he was sure they would understand when it came down to picking who would move on.
Neito's team consisted of himself, Shiozaki, Kendo, Pony and Shoda, mostly because he had a better handle on those four than anyone else in his class.
He was sure his plan was flawless, hell, they even had two items on them already just from the mad scramble at the start, one went to him and the other to Shiozaki, simply because she was the hardest to lead by the nose and so needed to be placated.
However, no one had ever told him that meeting Tokoyami in a place as dark as a faux underground sewer should not be added to any plan that wanted to succeed.
His attack was unrelenting and unexpected, before they knew it, the so called dark shadow was within their ranks and tearing their formation apart.
Within seconds they were all on the floor, beaten by a member of the class Neito hated so much.
"I only need one to concrete my victory, so I shall allow you to keep one of your prizes." the bird boy said with an arrogant tone of grandiosity before swiping the silver laurel from Monoma's head. "Good day." with his final words said, Tokoyami slinked back into the shadows.
God, he hated 1-A.
Momo was rather pleased with the team she had managed to rally, mostly because it helped reassure her that she was not isolated from her classmates as she often thought.
Growing up as well off as she had was a double edged sword, on the one hand she had never wanted for anything, not that she ever would have anyway with the quirk she possessed, but on the other hand her money created this invisible distance between her and those she came to meet, this paired with the danger it put her in from kidnappers and the like, Momo had made all of no friends as a child.
She had never minded it, studying had always filled that void.
Until she came to U.A that was.
Izuku Midoriya, he was a new name in the more well off echelons of society, slowly creating a monopoly over the merchandising world, from All Might to the lowest ranking hero, the greenette was slowly buying it all.
Alongside his takeovers of various materials and tech companies that had recently placed almost alien technology on their shelves, the boy was the very definition of new money.
She had no doubt he could coast through the rest of his life just on what he had already achieved.
Yet he was here, in U.A, learning to be a hero just like her, and excelling at it.
He was rich, he was definitely intelligent, and he was one hell of a hero in training.
He was so similar to Momo in all but one aspect.
Friends.
He was always surrounded by a group of people that seemed to adore him, despite being rather grumpy in Momo's opinion.
Momo would trade the world for the method he had used to gain them.
She just didn't think her classmates liked her.
She was glad to be proven wrong though.
Ochako, Tsuyu, Mina, Jirou and Tooru, all the girls in 1-A had rallied under her banner, they'd apparently bonded in the changing room between hero studies, not that Momo had been aware that she was part of the bonding, mostly she just silently listened as the rest of them talked about boys, clothes, and their bodies.
It was intriguing to listen to, but the raven haired girl was unsure of how to join in and was somewhat anxious of how her responses would be taken, but now she even had a nickname, courtesy of her pink skinned friend, Yaomomo, not the most original but she'd never had a nickname before so she took it.
Her teammates and her were doing quite well for themselves, and almost all the members had one of the silver laurels scattered around the small city.
Their formation was quite effective, with Jirou doing reconnaissance, herself and Mina acting as frontal assault and distractions, Ochako and Tsuyu using their advanced mobility to ambush and flank and Tooru sneaking in to steal the laurels in all the confusion.
She was markedly impressed by how brutally efficient some of her classmates turned out to be, namely Ochako, Tsuyu and Mina, three of the people, she noted, that spent the most time with the greenette she so often compared herself to.
She watched Ochako perform a flip off one of the buildings, flawlessly dodging an attack from one of the members of class B, Momo hadn't ever gotten their names, and they seemed less than keen on sharing, before the brunette came down with an axe kick that would have surely knocked out her opponent, if it wasn't terribly telegraphed and easily dodged, but that was only a ploy, as Tsuyu's long tongue struck out from the students blindspot, knocking him into a wall and finishing off the fight against the group of five they had encountered.
Once the battle was done, the girls swiped up the last few laurels they needed and began to leave the location to find a better place to hide out the rest of the game.
Curiosity overtook Momo, however.
"Hey, Ochako-chan, um, would you mind revealing how you got so strong?" the raven haired girl asked tentatively, hoping her question wouldn't offend the girl.
Thankfully, the ever blushing brunette just smiled at her, "hehe, no problem Yaomomo," she giggled, before bending an arm up to reveal surprisingly lithe muscle, "this is all thanks to Deku-kun's training, he's quite drill sergeant at times, but I can't argue with the results it's gotten me."
Momo fell into contemplative silence.
So it was because of Izuku, that boy truly never ceased to amaze her.
She'd even considered joining his quirk training club, but she had thought that in the two weeks she had until the sports festival it would be best for her to brush up on her knowledge, especially since her quirk was only limited by that aspect, due to this she had thought it best to practice on her own for now and join the club once she thought she was reaching her limit in terms of knowledge.
The way her friends seemed to incorporate their quirks seamlessly with their fighting styles, the new applications they had suddenly started showing off, and their overall improvements in physique had changed her mind.
This line of thinking also brought to question U.A's curriculum, sure the school heavily encouraged extra training and self study, but what they had been teaching to the students seemed rather lackluster in front of the strength training with Izuku seemed to display.
However, that was a question for another time.
Perhaps one she would go to Izuku with, that boy did always manage to amaze her.
Katsuki grit his teeth as an explosion from his palm pushed him away from an oncoming spear of ice.
The half and half bastard was strong, the blonde had to give him that, in a proper all out fight, he was sure that he'd come out ahead, but right now he was struggling to keep himself afloat.
He was holding back immensely, not something he was used to doing, but it was necessary just this once.
The reason pissed him off more than the actual act of reducing his power.
Izuku Midoriya.
That green haired little shit was just the root of all his problems ever since they were kids, but the red eyed boy had to begrudgingly admit that he was also the only person who could piss him off so effectively.
Both him and the heterochromic turd bag he was fighting knew that getting that particular classmate involved in this fight was nothing but detrimental to the both of them, they were fairly certain they wouldn't lose to him, but if all three of them got involved in a free-for-all, they were unsure if the crafty freckled fiend wouldn't pull one on them like he seemed to love doing at every occasion.
Because of this, the two were trying to keep their battle for the golden laurel as discreet as possible, not something that was easy for either of them since they had the flashiest quirks in the year, but it was a small price to pay not to get Izuku involved in their fight for first place.
Katsuki back flipped to right himself before charging towards his opponent.
He'd lost the laurel, much to his frustration, when the boy in front of him had ambushed him with an entire glacier, he hadn't been able to put the laurel on his head for safe keeping since Deku had placed it in the most awkward place, and Katsuki had needed to climb a drain pipe to get it down, he really needed to learn controlled hovering at some point.
Since then, he'd been chasing Icy Hot across the small cityscape, and had finally managed to corner his opponent in a place that would lead to disqualification if he ran further, the roof of one of the corner buildings, and now they were battling it out as quietly as explosions and massive ice pillars would allow.
They were just thankful that they couldn't be seen from anywhere other than the adjacent rooftops, and if anyone got up there, the two boys could see them first and act accordingly.
Katsuki reached out to grab the laurel in his opponent's left hand, but the boy swiftly dodged and sent a wave of ice his way, Katsuki used a well placed explosion to move out of the way and redirect himself to deliver an axe kick.
Icy Hot dodged it, but fell into the perfect position for the blondes palm strike to hit him square in the chest, a small explosion adding some extra force to the attack.
The heterochromic boy used some ice to build a cushion behind him, stopping himself from falling off the edge and being disqualified, but making him a sitting duck for Katsuki's next attack.
The blonde spun around, snatching the laurel from his opponent's hand and kicking him in the chest to push himself away to a safe distance.
Icy Hot growled and jumped after him, riding a wave of ice to chase after him.
Katsuki dodged the horribly choreographed attack, only to be caught by surprise when his opponent full on body tackled him to the ground, pinning his free arm down to stop him from using his quirk whilst the laurel was in his hand.
The blonde released a frustrated rumble, before throwing the laurel into the air so he could strike Icy Hot with enough concussive force to stun a horse.
Once his opponent was off him, he go back up to grab his prize only to see the image of a rather large, orange dog creature grab it in its mouth like it was a fucking frisbee.
"DEKU!" The blonde roared, before falling into a coughing fit as his throat started to sting sharply.
He'd screamed too much today, and his wound was resurfacing.
The greenette in his Wildmutt form turned to face his rival with his eyeless head and released an amused snort, before turning and jumping over to another rooftop.
Katsuki searched around furiously for the spare silver laurel he'd grabbed right at the start of the game, finding it teetering precariously near the edge of the roof, the blonde wasn't stupid, he's recently been awakened to things being outside his control, so he'd taken extra care to prepare a backup in case someone stole the golden laurel from him.
Once the new laurel was safely on his ears, the boy turned to find his childhood acquaintance, only to hear Midnight call the end of the round.
"Fuck." The blonde whispered to himself. "Fuck" a little loude this time. "FUCK" this one a scream.
"DEKUUUU!" Katsuki roared, before clutching his throat in pain.
The blonde took stock of his situation, he was in the finals, and no way could anyone beat him or Deku.
He'd have his chance to beat Deku to a pulp, and no amount of guile would get that broccoli headed nerd out of it this time.
He was going to enjoy making that bastard die.