"Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti."

She was a Aerokreet. A bird of Atlas, inhabiting the mountain ranges that dominated that area of the world. They were famed for their pure white feathers, their slight frames, and their almost uncanny ability as songbirds. Legend in her part of the world had long claimed that humanity had in fact been taught to sing by the Aerokreet, as it was all the small, too small to eat, creature could provide to mankind.

Of course, that was a fairy tale. She had actually been to parties that had stuffed Aerokreet on the menu. But...there were times she dreamed she actually lived in one of those old rhymes. That she was one of those birds, out in the crisp mountain air.

"Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti."

Luckily, this Aerokreet had been deigned too...valuable to be filled with some over prepared stuffing from her father's master chef. No, instead, she had been granted the wonderful position as Jacque Schnee's beloved song bird. Since her fifth birthday, when she had performed at a small play in the hope of pleasing her mother, her father had sent her to a wide variety of tutors, teachers and more than a few hacks, all with the express purpose of turning her into the next great performer of the Atlas Social Scene. She had learned not only the best way to use her own voice, but so much about the proper way to be a musician: she knew the Circle of Fifths backwards and forwards, she had been instructed in the classics on both piano and violin, and had become adept at general chord structure. Beyond that, she had been taught strict etiquette, not only for a member of the Schnee, but also as a star on the Atlesian Ball Circuit. That was to be her scene...and she had accepted that.

Then her sister had given up her position as heir, and Weiss had found herself moved up. It had been five years ago, long enough for her training to actively change, but there was always this small amount of doubt that had been in the back of her mind.

"Do-Re-Mi-F-"

"Oops, sorry."

Weiss felt her cheeks burn, and she turned away front the window. This had been her quiet time, her time away from her teammate who, as much as she loved the insane redhead, happened to be insane. She had found this small study room of the library tower, a great window showing off Forever Falls, a few days after classes had started, and had made the trip there at least once a week to give herself some breathing space. She finally looked up, and recognized the young man at the door.

"Oh, hello Shoto."

Shoto Todoroki. While Tenya Iida may have been the other Atlesian to have joined with her class, and his family's service had been impeachable over the years, Weiss had always thought that Shoto was her classmate who was most similar to her. Destined for greatness by a great father, clearly immensely talented, and generally rather good looking. She had been impressed by him on their first day, though they had rarely actually seen one another beyond the group sessions, and Shoto tended to be one of the least open members of their group of...friends?

It was really hard to understand how Katsuki Bakugo could ever be a friend of hers, but there you go.

"Hello Weiss," Todoroki bowed, his multi colored hair seemingly rendering his head a red white ball, "I did not know anyone else used this room. I did not mean to disturb your studying."

"Yes well," Weiss's eyes shifted back to her bag, which actually did contain her books, but she hadn't actually opened once during any of her stays in the room, "I was just getting ready to start going over Oobleck's new history assignment. I needed some time out of the room to think because" she felt the blush return, and began to twist her hand in circles, "well...you know what my partner is like."

"Ah yes, that makes sense," Todoroki nodded, and Weiss almost thought she saw him quake for just a second, "I just use this room to train a bit, but I can co-"

"Wait," Weiss knew opportunity when she saw it, and right now she was being presented a golden one. She had become...friends with her teammates over the past few weeks, but she hadn't really connected with anyone else that closely besides, ironically, the Frog Faunus Tsuyu. This gave her a shot to further expand her social connections with someone who was clearly going to be a mover and shaker in the near future. she coughed, and then continued, "I wouldn't mind you staying here and training at all. As long as it's not too loud or too distracting, I'm sure it will be fine."

"Oh," Todoroki seemed slightly perplexed, but then bowed rigidly the next instant, "Thank you very much Weiss."

Todoroki walked over to the barest corner of the room, and sat down. He crossed his legs, and placed out his hand. Weiss stared for a moment, just as she was pulling out her assignment which she did eventually have to complete for the class. Part of her hoped that no matter what kind of training that Todoroki did, it would at least be relatively quiet.

A large snowflake, nearly the size of Todoroki's palm, emerged from above his right outstretched palm, and crystallized into a intricate shape. It floated up away from his skin, and began to twirl around Todoroki's head. Weiss felt her eyebrow raise slightly at this, until a second snowflake materialized, formed, and then joined its brother in its revolution around Todoroki's head. Then a third appeared. And a fourth.

In under three minutes, Todoroki had a small blizzard circling around his body, dozens of the flakes dancing around his aura. Weiss felt her jaw remain unhinged from the rest of her skull, as she saw the storm around him. This was Todoroki's semblance, but where every other instance she had observed it had merely been a force of pure power, a mighty wall of sheer ice, here she got to see just how in control of it he was. He was a master of this more delicate state.

'He understands his semblance better than I understand mine,' her brow furrowed, 'probably better than anyone in our year...besides perhaps Bakugo.' she clenched her jaw and ground her teeth together, before letting out her anger in a short breath, 'calm down. Jealousy will only make getting better harder,' she stared at the snow storm currently surrounding Todoroki, 'Just have to let it go.'

"Weiss," the heiress snapped out of her musings, and looked directly at the young man sharing the room with her, a slight blush creeping up her face. Had she said anything out loud...no, he didn't seem angry, and his eyes seemed perfectly calm.

Those eyes, one grey and one turquoise, the reminded her of the Telit Falke. A popular pet of the Atlesian nobility for decades, it was primarily used for falconry, hunting small animals for sport... including Aerokreets now that she thought about it. They were named Split because of the weird quirk in their biology which meant that each bird had a different color in each eye. These eyes were famous disconnected, and thus allowed the eyes to scan on both sides of its head, making ideal for hunting in the mountains.

"Weiss," Todoroki continued, causing Weiss to snap out of her musings, "I have a question I have been meaning to ask you. Do you mind answering it for me?"

"Oh," Weiss returned to the room, and then nodded at her classmate, "Of course, what is it?"

"...why are you even here in Beacon?"

"Wha-well I would have thought it was obvious. It's the best place to be trained to be a huntsman in all of Remnant."

"Yes," Todoroki began to open and close his hand reflexively, "But why do you care about that. You are the current heir to the most important company in all of Atlas. There is no real reason to ever really leave Atlas."

"Well I wanted to be-"

"Even if your dream is to be a huntress, rather than just some passing hobby," he continued, "You could easily get certification from the Atlas Huntsman Academy. I certainly think that someone with the...reputation of Jacques Schnee would prefer his heir to at least be studying within his social sphere."

"...I really don't like where you're going. After all, it is rude to pry."

"I was just wondering," he paused for a second, "I just have heard from some people with close connections to the courts of Atlas that there is a small uproar about one of the most popular acts on the circuit leaving for no discernible reason," he looked her in the eye, "One does not usually expect some pampered diva to just up and disappear. It pays to pay attention to Atlesian politics at times."

"Ah yes, the rumor mill can be quite proficient there," Weiss waved her hand, "of course, you should hear some of the things I have heard," she felt a small bit of vicious glee peak up, "Such as the boy that was born of two elements."

Todoroki's blizzard froze. The two looked each other dead in the eye. Weiss placed her book, which she had just managed to get in her hands, back in her bag. She got up from her table, and walked to the door, and opened it back into the main library. She turned one look back at Todoroki, who still had not moved, but now the flakes around him were circling in a far more manic and less controlled manner.

"It was nice to speak with you," she added, "Hope we can do this again sometime soon."

She closed the door, and then she heard a creek. She pushed her hand back on the door, and could not feel it give even a tenth of an inch, as though something had slammed into it and held it in place. She rolled her eyes, and turned back to the rest of the library. Might as well head back to the room. Nora would probably be off somewhere with Ren by now, so that would give her time to think to herself. As she marched her way down between the bookshelves, she began to return to her scales.

'Do-re-me-fa-so-la-ti.'

"Alright young man! Once more, with gusto!"

"I don't know if I can keep giving this gusto, Toshinori!"

Another week, another afternoon spent training with his mentor and predecessor Toshinori Yagi. As had grown to be the norm for training with Toshinori, he was working with Izuku on his forms when it came to fighting. Tossing Izuku around to demonstrate techniques, letting him toss him around in order to get some practice in and then just some general exercises to help the younger man get his form down. This was what he was down to at the moment; Toshinori had shrunken down into his more skeletal form not too long ago, leading to him sitting off to the side and shouting words of encouragement to Izuku as he went through drill after drill after drill. Sweat was pouring down his brow as he kept the work up and, though he still worked as hard as he could, that limit was quickly plummeting as tiredness eked into his very bones.

"Nonsense Midoriya! You're a strong, young man in the prime of your youth! I'm sure you got plenty of juice in ya!" Izuku gave a short nod as he reached forward and tried to throw the Atlesian Knight that had been his training dummy again... only for the droid to collapse on top of him after he discovered, to his chagrin, that he didn't really have the strength in him to bodily toss the thing right at the moment. He heard a quick 'yeesh' from Toshinori as the older man scratched the back of his head. "Alright, maybe that youthful vigor of yours has been spent for right now. Okay Midoriya, just hold on a second." Toshinori pushed himself up off his seat as he walked over to Izuku and pressed a few buttons on the Atlesian Knight's back. Soon enough the droid whirred to life and pushed itself up off of the young man, returning to a standing position.

"Thank you Toshinori..." Izuku managed to wheeze out as you take long, deep breaths to try to capture as much oxygen as he could. The blond Huntsman just nodded slowly as he scratched his cheek.

"Alright, I think that's about all we're going to be getting out of you as far as training's concerned for today. Take a quick breather and then we'll talk about what you want these plans to be for today." He just gave a quick nod as his head collapsed back onto the ground, his sweat dripping onto the floor as Toshinori walked back to the bench.

"I do have to admit, I'm a little bit surprised." Izuku blinked slightly as he turned his head slowly to look over at Toshinori, the older Huntsman just awkwardly scratching at the back of his head as he looked off to the side. "I really didn't have any expectations that you'd want to hang out again so soon, if ever, after last time. Old man like me hanging around and cramping your style can't be too fun, right?" Izuku saw a slight grin on Toshinori's face as he said this. After so much time spent around Yang he could 'feel' that he was getting teased though, at the moment, he couldn't say for certain how. So instead he just grinned back at his mentor and shrugged.

"You're not that old Toshinori." Again a small chuckle erupted from his predecessor's throat as he continued. " Besides... I really did enjoy talking with you last time. I learned some new stuff about you and about what all this means for me and... I thought it was really interesting. Besides, you said it yourself; you don't do much for fun on your own so I gotta be there to make you have some fun, I guess." At that Toshinori barks out a particularly loud laugh... one that turned into a spout of blood as he brought his hand up to his mouth to cover up the spray of blood. After a few coughs and hacks Toshinori wiped his mouth as he gave Izuku a grin.

"Your little friends are rubbin' off on you Midoriya. That's good." It was an earnest smile on the older man's face as he said this, before he crossed his arms and shrugged his shoulder. "And heck, if that's what you want then I'm not gonna stop you." Izuku could tell that Toshinori was, himself, on some level eager and just trying to play this off as cool as he could. It was a bit uplifting for him to know that his hero was looking forward to this almost as much as he was.

"Did you ever hang out with your predecessor like this?" Izuku asked, still somewhat breathless, as he tilted his head. "I mean, you seem to find it so weird so I have to imagine..."

"Mmm... it was a weird thing. I trained with Nana a lot longer than you've trained with me, so our relation was much more deeply rooted in our the identities as master and student, predecessor and successor. She also didn't actually work as a teacher at Beacon during my time as a student here; she went off into the wilderness to work as a Huntress a lot of the time. After all, she wasn't in my position where One For All was weakening in her very quickly. Her loss of the Semblance was more gradual because her body could hold onto it a bit better than mine can right now. So she was actually still a Full-Time Huntress. Besides that she also just spent time with her own family; her... her husband and son." Izuku saw there was a moment where Toshinori's mood dropped and he looked off to the side. Before he could move to ask he just shook his head and continued. "Anyway, our relationship was a little more strictly student/teacher because we didn't have much time to spend together after I started attending Beacon. Still, whenever she was around to help complement what I was learning, I enjoyed what time I did have with her. Even if we didn't exactly 'hang out'." He put his fingers up into air quotes as he said that, he nodded in understanding as he put his hands back on his knees again.

"But that's not important right now. What is important is what your plan is young Midoriya. Can't waste all day waiting for you to catch your breath after all." Izuku saw a wide grin stretch itself across Toshinori's skeletal face and Izuku couldn't help but smile back.

xXxXxXxXxXx

"So... what was Professor Goodwitch like as a teammate?"

A couple confused blinks from Toshinori were his initial response to that question as he looked down at Izuku. "Where'd that one come from, young man?"

Izuku shrugged as the continued their walk. After taking several minutes to catch their breath and get feeling back into Izuku's arms and legs, he and Toshinori quickly got out of the arena and out of the school, doing their best to go unnoticed by the broader student body as they both made their way out onto an empty part of the campus. It was comparatively easy, a lot of people were either training, studying or hanging out somewhere either in their dorms or, for the really outgoing, the City of Vale itself. The walk started off simple enough, a little bit of small talk here and there as the two eased into their laps around Beacon, Izuku still recovering a bit and he just got into the groove of a nice walk around the School. They'd both taken to bundling up a bit; it was getting late into September and, this late into the afternoon, the chill of Autumn could begin to be felt in the air.

"Well she's been overseeing my training with One For All to make sure I don't get hurt so I've been spending a little bit of time around her myself." Toshinori nodded understandingly as Izuku placed his hands in his pockets. "She's nice, don't get me wrong, but... I dunno. She's also pretty strict sometimes... it moves like this weird scale. One moment she can seem just really calm and careful, just letting me go with the flow of my training but at other times it's like..."

"She's not taking any of your shit no matter what you try to sell her?" Toshinori responded idly as he rubbed his chin, causing Izuku to blink a few times.

"Y-Yeah, maybe not so much in those words but yeah, pretty much like that." Toshinori nodded understandingly as he gave a small grin.

"Yeah that's Glyn alright." Toshinori chuckled as he scratched the back of his head. "I may have to apologize to you on that count young man; Glyn's probably like that because she's already gotten so sick of my own shit from back in the day. Trust me young man; this isn't Glyn's first time patching up a guy who got himself a bit busted up training with One For All." Izuku tilted his head to the side inquisitively as he looked up at Toshinori.

"But... I mean, sir, you've said it yourself that you're naturally skilled with One For All. How did you get hurt from training with it?" Toshinori chuckled sheepishly as he phrased the question like that, the old man grinning down at Izuku.

"Believe me kid, I might've been naturally skilled with One For All, such that I didn't hurt myself with 'it', necessarily, but that only made me really, really, 'really' careless when I did train with it." The 8th User of One For All pointed to himself as he gave a small chuckle. "For you, pushing your limits and hurting yourself involves breaking your bones, and it did for me too... thing is, for you it's a necessity, something that comes with how your body responds to using One For All. For me? It was purely a matter of me being careless. I'd push all kinds of limits of what my body could handle with One For All, and all-too often I'd be able to handle the Semblance itself... but the training would just leave me busted up all to Hell.

"Oh Gods, I remember one time in particular; I was testing just how much power I could pack into a Beacon Smash at the time so I got up on one of the mountain ranges and just punched it as hard as I could. As you might imagine, the mountain didn't exactly give much. I broke a huge chunk off it, don't get me wrong, but in the ensuing destruction I also pretty much ended up breaking several of my own bones." Izuku's eyes pretty much bugged out of his skull as Toshinori said this, the older Huntsman just nodding. "I know, I know, that was-"

"Pretty awesome sounding..." Izuku mumbled to himself, imagining just what a 100% Beacon Smash must've looked like for Toshinori way back when.

"-that, yes, but also incredibly dangerous, especially given I was so close to the Emerald Forest and its Grimm. Stuff like this kept happening too; I was young, newly empowered with One For All and an Aura thanks to Nana and I felt like I was unstoppable. I pushed myself way past what even I was capable of again and again because I thought that was proper training. I didn't keep to an 'Valean Dream, Diet and Exercise Plan' like I probably should have... heck, my usual training regime that I had built up with Nana after so long was essentially down the drain because Aura and One For All made it all so dirt simple. So I thought, hey, instead of just ratcheting up the amount of time I train and reasonably increasing the difficulty, why not push my luck 100% of the time."

"I'd go out into the Emerald Forest just looking for the biggest, baddest Grimm that were around and I'd try to wrestle them, I'd do that really cool looking thing from the movies where I'd just keep punching stuff until my knuckles bled through my Aura and stamina, anything I could think to do that would push the limits of my new body." Toshinori brought his hands up and squeezed them. "It's amazing. Feeling that strong for the first time in your life. Growing up Broken, not even knowing what you're missing because you never had it, and then suddenly... a True Soul, Aura, a Semblance, and a Semblance as powerful as One For All to boot... I lost my damn mind."

"Yeah, I know what you mean..." Toshinori nodded his head as he placed his hands back in his own pockets.

"It's why I reacted the way I did when I found out you were over training back at Mountain Glenn. I know the kind of strain that pushing yourself in such a way can have on your body, and you didn't have Aura to help you recover yet. It isn't healthy... but I didn't recognize that back then. I just kept making a mess of myself." Then Izuku saw his mentor crack a smile. "But Gods be damned if Glyn wasn't nearly always around to help put my dumb ass back together." Izuku heard a chuckle echo in Toshinori's throat before he continued. "Gods be damned if she wasn't 'so pissed' every time I dragged myself back to Beacon like that though. 'I'm serious Toshinori, this time I'll just leave you like this. We'll see how Beacon decides to handle you if you continue to insist on being so careless with your own health. No I don't give a damn about your dream or whatever nonsense speech you have ready, I'm not budging this time'. I felt bad about it of course but... well, this is one place where you and I are pretty similar. We're both stubborn when it comes to this whole Huntsman thing." They both laughed a little at that, though a frown did form on Izuku's face.

"Did Professor Goodwitch ever give up on fixing you though?"

"Nah, she didn't... Hell, if we'd stuck together after I started the whole gig as the 'Symbol of Peace' I don't think she would have either. You'll learn this about Glyn the more time you spend with her; she puts up a good act of acting cold and indifferent and she can get frustrated when you act like an idiot... but I'll be damned if there aren't a lot of Huntsmen or Huntresses who give a damn about people quite like Glyn does." Toshinori chuckled. "In a way Naomasa was a great partner for her; he had the charisma, intuition when it came to people and likability that Glyn didn't quite have so when the two of them would go out on missions, he'd usually be able to paper over any incidents that people's reactions Glyn's seeming indifference might cause. She was always a little rough around the edges... guess she still is even after all these years, if your description is anything to go by. The more things change, I suppose." A dry chuckle escaped Toshinori's lips as Izuku nodded his head.

"So what happened with you and Glynda after you became The Symbol of Peace, then?" Izuku asked as he trudged along with Toshinori, his predecessor just shrugging as the two of them kept moving.

"It's not necessarily that something happened but that something had been happening. I'd always wanted to be a Hero that everyone in Remnant could look to and feel safe with. Even if I didn't have a name for the idea back then, being The Symbol of Peace was what I wanted to define my career as a Hunter. Meanwhile Glyn was more interested in eventually becoming a professor herself; she wanted to be able to reach out and help kids like professors and teachers had helped us. Again she can be a bit rough about it, but I'd still say she's shaken out to be a fine educator." Izuku nodded in agreement before Toshinori continued. "As you can imagine, those two career paths don't exactly line up easily. Still, before Mountain Glenn, I nor my team quite had the fame to do anything too big so, for the most part, we just stuck together and kept working as a unit... then, well, Mountain Glenn did happen. Suddenly, being The Symbol of Peace wasn't just a dream for me anymore; it was a reality.

"Suddenly there were missions that had specifically asked for my help popping up all over The Four Kingdoms... like I said before, this pretty much broke our team. Enji was furious and went off on his own to try to outmatch my reputation, Naomasa ended up retiring early to become a detective and work with the governments. It wasn't negative or anything like with Enji, like I said occasionally he gets together with Glyn and I for a drink, but well he just saw that my rise as The Symbol of Peace was as good a time as any to make good on something he'd wanted to do for a while. Glyn and I stuck it out the longest but, in the end, Beacon was calling her and the Four Kingdoms were calling me. Every time I passed through Vale I'd visit of course but, well, Team EGNT was pretty much done at that point."

"Did you ever try to convince her to come with you, or did she try to get you to stay at Beacon?" Izuku saw that Toshinori's smile dropped slightly at his question, the man's black and blue eyes narrowing slightly as it seemed like old memories danced through his mind.

"Yeah, she did... but no, I didn't. There were... circumstances that I knew would be part and parcel to the whole Symbol of Peace thing." It was an unconscious move on Toshinori's part, Izuku reckoned, as Toshinori's hand drifted up to hover over the wound on his torso. "Glyn wanted to be a teacher and, well Hell, I'd have ended up being a pretty big hypocrite if I tried to convince her to not follow her own dreams. Wasn't acrimonious or anything it was just... well, it was just a thing that happened." Toshinori shrugged his shoulders as he placed his hand back in his pocket. "Sorry if it isn't as dramatic as you were imagining but it is what it is."

Izuku shook his head as he smiled up at his mentor. "No, thanks for telling me." He grinned back at Izuku as the two of them continued walking along. Eventually Izuku turned back to face him, a curious tilt to his head.

"So, what kind of food do you like? I've gotten pretty good at cooking so I might be able to whip some stuff up for ya." Izuku saw a grin stretch across Toshinori's face as the old man stroked his chin.

"What, you mean like that mountain of pancakes you've been making every morning for the past month?" Izuku's face went a bit red though before he could defend himself Toshinori just waved it off. "Relax young man... nice as it is for you to offer that to me, I'm afraid I probably wouldn't be able to eat much of anything you'd be able to make." Izuku flinched a bit, wondering if his cooking skill wasn't good enough for Toshinori's pallet or if he just didn't want to risk his cooking... up until Toshinori raised his shirt to, again, show off his wound...

His...

"Pretty gross right? I got this in a big fight five years back. My respiratory system was basically destroyed and I lost my whole stomach."

"Oh... right..." Toshinori nodded, his own face slightly downcast as he dropped his shirt.

"Have to be really careful these days about what I put in me. Anything that doesn't go down and through my system easy is bound to upset what's left of my digestive system pretty badly. I'd be able to shove down what you give me young man but I can't guarantee that it'd stay down... don't think that'd be all that appetizing of a sight, I have to imagine." Izuku nodded in understanding. Sometimes, with all the things Toshinori could still do, it was hard to imagine that he was as badly injured as he was. Sure, Izuku reminded every time he practically vomited blood or with how frail he generally looked... but then there was his time as a Hero, the moments when The All Mighty Huntsman showed through and Toshinori lived up to his name as The Symbol of Peace.

"Hey come on kid don't look so down. It's fine; you get used to this kind of stuff over five years. So don't worry too much about me alright, I'm doing fine." Izuku looked up at Toshinori again and nodded as the two of them continued on their walk, their discussion dying down into short bursts of conversation here and there.

Still, he couldn't help but feel some slight unease that sat in the back of his mind.

Fighting teammates wasn't all that unusual at Beacon when it came to combat practice. Bakugo had fought Ruby essentially to see how the team dynamic work end up working out, to see if she 'could' lead him, Izuku guessed, and other members of other teams used the spar as an opportunity to just test each other's growth or to have fun. Izuku really didn't have such dire reasons as Bakugo for challenging who he did that time around, though they weren't quite as relaxed as some other people's either. No, Izuku had a reason...

He wanted to show Weiss she was right to put her faith in him.

As Izuku slipped on his gauntlets and boots, securing them with a 'click' as he got ready for another week's fight, Izuku considered this fact. Weiss had made it clear that, at the beginning of all this, that she had reservations. Reservations that she disliked having, but reservations nonetheless. However, she had wanted to give Izuku a chance, she had wanted the team to work. Izuku promised her that it'd be okay. That he didn't hold any ill will, that he understood her position perfectly and that he was going to try his absolute best to show that he was worthy of leading Team MNVW, that it was okay for those three, who had all been so much stronger and better than Izuku, to put their faith in him. To believe that he could lead them.

It might've been a little soon for such a hard test of that promise, but he couldn't miss the opportunity. He wanted to show Weiss that he'd grown, that he'd improved, that he knew what he was doing. That he was going to keep getting stronger and that she could have faith in his ability to lead and protect her, Nora and Pyrrha. It was his chance to prove that he could be trusted...

Now, all he had to do was give a good fight. It'd be hard; Izuku knew what Weiss was capable of and he knew that the only reason he so easily won his practice bouts with her was because she didn't get to use the armaments and skills that made her a powerful Huntress in her own right. It wouldn't be fisticuffs where Weiss tried to fight back against him and he showed her how it was done. No, Weiss would be bringing her A game to the fight. After all, she wouldn't let Izuku show his stuff with anything less than her own best, that was just how she was.

So it was that Izuku and Weiss entered the arena at the same time. Unlike with Bakugo there wasn't any overly violent or threatening overtones to his journey here but, unlike Yang, there wasn't anything chummy or friendly about it. Weiss took her life as a Huntress quite seriously and, he could tell, that she was taking 'him' quite seriously. She was going to throw everything she could at Izuku so long as it wouldn't permanently hurt Izuku. She wanted to win as a part of proving that she had what it took to be a Huntress.

It wasn't anything personal, she just wanted to win as much as Izuku did.

So they both reached the center of the arena, Weiss finishing some quick flourishes with Myrtenaster as she did so, as she stood opposite to Izuku, her rapier at the ready, while Izuku just brought his fists up into a defensive stance.

"Our next match: Weiss Schnee vs. Izuku Midoriya. Are both combatants ready?" A quick nod from both of them was all the answer Glynda needed. "Then begin!"

Izuku was stronger and faster than Weiss. That much Izuku already knew; even without Aura and even without One For All, both of these things were true. It was something he'd taken notes about in his Notebook entries on Weiss. He didn't want to insult her, but it was just the plain old fact of the matter. Weiss' strengths weren't in direct combat, save for maybe with her Rapier.

However, on the other hand, she was 'exceedingly' skilled with her Glyphs and her Dust. If Izuku allowed her the opportunity to use them, if she could activate her various abilities then, wow, Izuku was in for a bad time. He didn't even want to imagine what would happen if she used her Lightning Dust with a Glyph to boost her own speed to those ludicrous degrees she was capable of. He'd be screwed. So there was only one option; he had to get in there and just 'stay on top of her'. Izuku couldn't let her get away, he couldn't let her just run off, he couldn't let her avoid him or activate a meaningful Glyph. He needed to stay in her face. He needed to stay right on top of her. So that's what he decide to do; he was going to take advantage of his strength over Weiss and he was going to keep her pinned down until he could win.

So with that plan settled in his mind, once the battle began, he just made a B-Line for Weiss. No tactics, no dancing around, no waiting for her to make the first move. He just ran right in and got in her face. He was aware she was capable with that Rapier, however, and knew that he'd need to keep her off her game if he was going to have any hope of actually grabbing her. So he reared back and threw a punch, meant only to distract her. It was a feint, meant to leave her thinking that he was 'only' interested in trying to fight her man-to-woman. There's a certain light of recognition in Weiss eyes; she bought into it, wholesale. After all, she'd thought that it'd make sense. He was being hyper-aggressive in order to keep her off her game. It was just that, in this case, it was clear she hadn't seen to what end he were going for.

There was a brief moment as she avoided Izuku's feint where he saw Myrtenaster's cartridges swivel about to some of the Ice Dust she had on hand. Izuku could see her other hand practice its motions as she got ready to raise a Glyph. Izuku gritted his teeth, expecting her to just back up and let him have the ground...

But then Izuku watched as her light blue eyes transfix themselves on his fingers. There was a certain unease there, a worry. It wasn't so much worry for Izuku though; a worry that he might hurt himself or that he'd be willing to shatter his fingers in order to break through one of her barriers. No. No, it was worry for her. A worry for her own position in that fight. Worry that Izuku'd just blast away any barrier she'd raise up if she tried. She'd seen his fight with Yang, she knew what just his fingers were capable of and, in her mind, she thought he'd do it too.

She wasn't wrong either. She was also probably just as aware as Izuku was that she couldn't take nearly as much punishment on that front as Yang could. Her fighting style revolved around the use of Dust and Aura. If she had to expend vast amounts of it trying to tank hits from Glenn Smash, then she'd run out of options sooner rather than later. Yang was a brawler with a Semblance that benefited from his use of Glenn Smash. Weiss was most certainly not Yang. So instead Izuku watched as Weiss settled down into a fencing position, her eyes locked with his as she swished her rapier about.

Her movements were lightning fast. With practiced grace Weiss thrust her rapier forward at him and he moved out of the way... but he also saw something. Weiss had taken aim at a weird spot...

She was trying to psyche Izuku out. To draw his defenses one way so she could send her attack another way. Izuku gritted his teeth in preparation and, furthermore, grunted in frustration as Weiss took the opportunity to step back and away from him. He didn't let it deter him, however; instead he bolted forward and, with shock on Weiss' face, instead of bringing his arms up to punch her he flared them wide open to grab her. Izuku's attempt was met with an Aura-Empowered jab to his chest, causing Izuku to grunt slightly as the pressure from the tip of Weiss' Rapier ended up sending him off to the side, away from her as she took a few corrective steps. Weiss herself frowned as she brought her rapier up and sent multiple jabs of it Izuku's way. Having expended her Aura on her own defense, it was clear that she didn't have it ready yet again; a couple of her strikes were off their marks. Fine by Izuku as he managed to quickly parry the last one away from him. It took a bit of his own Aura but he managed it all the same.

That's when he forced himself back up and just 'threw' himself at Weiss. The Heiress' eyes went wide as he immediately launch his hands forward, trying to get a good grab on her somewhere on her torso. The excitement of battle kept her from blushing as she batted one of his attempts away with her rapier but, then, he ducked underneath another rapier slash and he practically tackled her as he threw his arms around her torso.

He got her.

"IZUKU, GET OFF OF ME YOU BRUTE!" As Izuku settled into a grapple he wound up catching one of her arms slightly, leaving her unable to swing or thrust her sword around, as planned. Izuku watched her light blue eyes scan around, trying to look for some weakness. It seemed she'd came to the same realization as he did; she couldn't break out of his grip, not with what he was capable of. So he was treated to something he'd never thought he'd have had to do before.

Izuku quickly shimmied his hips out of the way as he felt Weiss try to... knee him.

Okay, that would 'definitely' hurt if he let her do that. Izuku took a deep breath as he swung his body around Weiss, coming in right behind her as he forced her into a full nelson.

"IZUKU, I SAID GET OOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Port probably would've had tears in his eyes if he saw Izuku then. As he reared forward for a moment and then, pulling his entire body back, he drove Weiss into the ground with a textbook suplex. "GET OFF OF ME!" It was surprising how dexterous Weiss was and, at the same time, he was feeling quite unnerved as he barely avoided the heel of Weiss' high heels heading towards him. Izuku swallowed another lump in his throat as he maneuvered around again, pulling Weiss with him until he'd trapped her, head pinned up to her knee with one arm wrapped around both, freeing up his other arm.

Weiss had stopped with the kicks and was just trying to punch him. He'd decided he better get it over with quick, not sure how long he could keep dodging.

So Izuku just start swinging. After the second swing Emerald Gust's grip, somehow, went a bit loose in his hand, forcing Izuku to shake it off so he could just keep throwing punches in an attempt to get Weiss to quit. Weiss on the other hand just started snarling, getting progressively angrier as she thrashed about in his grip. It's almost comical, judging by how a lot of the crowd was either in one combination laughing, another hooting and hollering and, for some of the girls in the audience, thoroughly red faced at the display. Izuku had to admit, he himself was pretty much just forcing himself to go through with punching the daylights out of Weiss while so close to her, ignoring the fact that he had a girl pinned, just trying to keep his mind on the fight.

In the end, it was as he thought; Weiss just wasn't strong enough to break his grip once he got it on her and, soon enough, her Aura dipped into the red.

"That's enough, fight's over. Izuku Midoriya wins." He could not get off of Weiss fast enough as he practically leapt up off of her, said reaction causing more chuckles in the crowd as Weiss forced herself back up onto her feat, stumbling around a bit from all the punches he drilled into her as she tried to regain her bearings.

'Holy woah she looks 'livid'.' Like, angrier than Izuku thought he'd ever seen her. Yet, as she approached Glynda, he saw he school her features into that even, calm expression that Weiss seemed to put forward whenever she was trying to look 'professional'. As Glynda took some notes, she gave the both of them some nods.

"Very good Mr. Midoriya. You recognized your opponent's strengths and weaknesses and sought to avoid one while exploiting the other. You've come a long way from waiting for your opponent to get off a shot on you." Izuku nodded, still feeling nervous as he saw Weiss' right eye twitch at Glynda's words. "Miss Schnee, you were up against an opponent who exploited your form's holes. You did your best to counter under the circumstances of what your opponent was capable of, but I think doing what you can to polish the holes in your form is the obvious step from here." Weiss dipped her head reverently as she nodded in agreement.

"Of course Professor Goodwitch. This is a rather... glaring weakness in my form that I shall need to ensure can't be abused again in the future. Thank you... Izuku."

'Oh Gods' he thought 'she's trying to set me on fire with her gaze.'

"Very good. The both of you are excused." With that they both gave a quick nod to Glynda. Izuku turned to try to speak with Weiss only to find that she had 'immediately' headed off for the locker rooms, not even stopping to look at him as she stalks off, her entire body language tense.

'Hoo boy...'

There's a part of him that said that he needed to get over there and just 'beg' Weiss to forgive him. She was pissed, that was clear as day, and, well, Izuku's standard reaction for the longest time to people being so angry at him was to meekly submit and/or to try his best to get them to forgive him for whatever transgression had caused her foul mood. After all, he didn't want Weiss to be angry with him. As he picked up the pace to try and catch Weiss before they both reached the locker room, his mind ran with the ways he would apologize to her. So, there'd probably be a lot of bowing involved and trying to say he didn't mean to do what he had done...

Except he kind of did. Izuku knew Weiss' strengths and weaknesses and, like her, Izuku wanted to win that fight. The only reasonable way he saw to beat her without leaving her open to abuse him with her Glyphs was to get in close and grapple with her, as embarrassed as he now felt about it. To that extent, he did mean to do what he did. He was sorry that it caused her such embarrassment, but that didn't mean he had done it by accident. Okay so maybe starting off with that wasn't a good idea at all. Maybe just groveling, just some base begging for Weiss to forgive him... for winning a fight he had every intention of winning and that she had every intention of winning.

'Would that come off as patronizing?' It was weird to think that, wasn't that half the point of asking someone to forgive you, but the thought stuck in his mind as his pace slowed and he took a moment to consider the idea. Honestly, thinking things through, he really didn't have a lot of opportunities to apologize to Weiss... he was sorry for embarrassing her but that was about it. He wasn't going to patronize her by saying he was sorry for winning when, really, he wasn't. His frown deepened as he looked at Weiss' back as she continued to stiffly stalk away from him. Maybe... maybe he shouldn't get in her hair right now, while she was angry. If he knew anything about Weiss it was that she could be stubborn... if he tried to talk to her and tripped up, then she might end up doubling down…

...

'Maybe... maybe it is just better to leave this one alone for now?'

Izuku resigned himself to decision as he and Weiss put their weapons away, a stiff silence in the locker room hanging over their head before the two of them departed. Weiss was still tense as they both walked back to the seats that overlook the arena but Izuku watched as Weiss, again, did her best to school her expression and posture as they both entered the public eye again, Weiss decidedly ahead of him. If it weren't for the fact that he had watched her steaming not seconds ago, he'd have probably been fooled too.

Or at least he would have been fooled for a bit as a few stray jokes end up catching in Izuku's and, presumably, Weiss' ears, causing the Heiress to stiffen up and shoot a slight glare in the directions of said jokes. He was just grateful when their friends greet them and congratulate them both on the fight... sure the congratulations were pretty stiff, especially from Yang who seemed to be doing her best to hold back from teasing Weiss, thank the Gods, but it seemed like their friends had taken note of their plight and had taken steps to 'try' to not worsen it.

"Wow Fearless Leader, guess you've really taken to Port's lessons after all!"

At least not on purpose, as Nora went about congratulating Izuku in such a way that he watched Weiss stiffen as she stared a hole into the back of her partner's head.

'This weekend is going to be awkward…'

E/N: Starting us off we have Birds of Different Feathers by Wind-Waker.

-Shovern

This one is a bit of a beginning of a longer set of outtakes, so I will just say I tried to work with some characters I hadn't before with an idea exploring a relationship type I hadn't seen done before in this story. Little did I know that GF would take it, and offer it up as an option for the quest takers to explore, and the whole story arc would get away from what I originally planned.

-Wind-Waker

I Just thought it'd help make this a not so happy chapter.

-Shovern

A/N: In my defense, Birds of Different Feathers seemed like a rather complete one shot on its own. I hadn't expected that you had further plans so I just reacted to it on its own merit. I'd like to think that what came out of it was still grand, though, all things considered.

-gorilla_fingers