Ignited Spark

by 3PeopleInACoat

When Midoriya Izuku was four years old, his quirk finally manifested - not a combination of his parents' quirks, but an entirely different mutation of its own. With the ability to blast lightning out of his body, a horrible accident convinces Izuku to give up his dreams of becoming a hero. But with the help of two girls, Izuku finds the inspiration to fight and become a true hero!

25. The Sports Festival Begins!

At long last, this was it.

Two long, grueling weeks of training had finally come to pass.

Two weeks filled with sweat, tears, blood, and a bit of the three mixed together.

Two weeks filled with determination, nervousness, and a bit of terror at the thought of performing in front of hundreds - potentially thousands - of people.

And here it was. The day of the sports festival had finally arrived.

And Izuku, Ochako and Itsuka, at the current moment, were in a panic.

But not for the reason one would expect.

Finally reaching the UA gate after walking up the busy sidewalk, so early in the morning that the sun was just beginning to shine over the campus and Eri yawned widely, still holding onto Itsuka's hand as they walked, the trio couldn't help but gulp nervously as they glanced to their left, seeing the line that had started for the civilians wanting to come watch the festival. The sun was just beginning to rise, and the line already stretching down the street, with people lined up down the sidewalk next to the UA barrier while talking excitedly or peeking around people's shoulders to see what the holdup was. Inside the campus itself, several small stores were already set up along the pillars that would lead to the school, with the entrance to the school having a billboard that displayed a small map of the area and how to get to the arena.

From the looks of things, everything was pretty much ready to go, and simply waiting for UA to begin bringing in the guests - reporters were lined up outside the barrier talking excitedly among each other, some of them turning to look around at the group standing at the gate and raising their cameras to get pictures of the three students in their school uniforms, with Itsuka quickly scowling at them and moving to stand in front of Eri to block her from their view. Other than that, the civilians along the wall were simply content with standing around chatting, clearly anticipating what was about to come as they pointed up at UA and looking excited to finally pass through the school gates.

So everything seemed to be in place, and the sports festival was only a few hours away from getting started.

Alas, the three teenagers couldn't truly bring themselves to feel nervous, or excited, about competing today. Mostly due to the fact that they were a little distracted by not being able to look at each other without going red - but for Izuku and Ochako, it was a bit harder for them to look at Itsuka than it usually was.

Mostly due to their eyes raising to the top of her head, and blushing as they took in her new appearance.

Indeed, as Itsuka had been instructed by the teachers, she had bought some temporary hair dye for today's events, so as to disguise herself from whoever may be specifically watching for her. After a bit of debate on what to do, Itsuka had decided to keep things simple, and picked out a dye that would turn her normally flaming red hair a simple black color, which had made Tenohira giggle non-stop this morning when her daughter emerged from the bathroom looking just like she did when she was younger.

But the problem had started once they had all left the house to go meet with the Midoriyas and the Urarakas, and Izuku and Ochako had taken one look at her new hair -

- and went extremely red, looking away from her quickly so as not to be caught staring. Which confused Itsuka, and kind of made her sad that neither of them were complimenting her new hairdo.

So … believe it or not, surprisingly, things were pretty eyeball-rolling at the moment.

"Wow," Taiyo let out a low whistle as the group stood right outside the barrier and looked up at the main building of the school, putting his hands in the pockets of his jacket while gulping a bit nervously, "y'know, I wasn't payin' too much attention back when I firs' swung by 'ere, but I never realized how … er … intimidatin' this place looked."

"You're telling me," Hisashi likewise looked nervous, chuckling while Hakushu scratched his beard and glanced around while feeling rather out of place, "it's kinda dumb, but I never really expected this place to be so … big."

"Oh, you three are just being babies," Tenohira giggled while Teko, standing beside her in his regular traditional Japanese clothing, merely frowned and crossed his arms across his chest, not looking impressed at all as he looked back down the street, "this place is amazing! I wonder if we can do a little tour before the sports festival starts - what do you think, Itsuka? Do you think we can walk around the grounds a little bit?"

"Uh … maybe, Mom?" Itsuka shrugged, still looking through the gate for who was supposed to meet up with them, "I'm not exactly sure the teachers would be okay with it, but maybe if you're with …"

"Well, I think that would be exciting!" Miwa clapped her hands together, moving to look down at Eri as the little girl looked around at her from behind Itsuka's leg, "Wouldn't it, Eri?"

"Mm-hm." Eri nodded, glancing down at her feet while squeezing on Itsuka's hand.

As one could see, Eri was still a little bit nervous around the Midoriyas and the Urarakas - which was to be expected, of course. She had only met them last weekend, with Izuku fulfilling his promise to let her visit where he and Ochako lived, and brought her to their apartments so she could have a look around, and during her little tour she had ended up meeting both sets of parents. They had been extremely kind to her, having been brought up to speed on her situation well in advance, and it wasn't as though Eri disliked them - she was just a little nervous around people she barely knew.

At the very least, she seemed to like Inko, with the little girl giving her a small wave this morning when they had met up that nearly caused Inko to burst into tears at the cuteness, and had to restrain herself so as not to flood their group down the street with her crying.

Thankfully, before any of them could stand around awkwardly for any longer than they had to, trying to ignore the media who were obviously trying to take pictures of them, a familiar voice suddenly called out to them from within the gate.

"Good morning, everyone!"

At the sound of footsteps quickly jogging towards them, the Midoriya-Uraraka-Kendou clan (as Taiyo had jokingly referred to them this morning as they set out towards UA) looked around through the gate, seeing the man they had been waiting to meet up with quickly hurrying towards them wearing a nice black suit for the event today. Inko, who had been giggling at something Tenohira had been whispering to her, quickly straightened up as All Might, in his weakened form, gave them all a wave as he jogged over towards them, and she quickly cleared her throat as a small blush appeared on her face. Izuku, who had been likewise looking happy to see their mentor, glanced around at her and blinked at how red face had suddenly become as she tried to quickly smooth out her dress, while Hisashi likewise caught the look from his ex-wife and let out a small chuckle.

"I'm sorry for keeping you all waiting!" All Might panted a bit as he reached their group, moving to put his hands down on his knees - evidently, to the three teenagers, he wasn't used to running around in this form - "I was helping out with something near the stadium before I remembered you were all waiting for me - I almost forgot to keep track of the time!"

"That's alright, Yagi," Hakushu chuckled, reaching out to pat his shoulder as the taller man looked up at them, "we haven't been waiting for long, we actually just got here. It's good to see you!"

"Yeah," Taiyo grinned, "nice tah see ya so bright and early. And thanks again for gettin' us tickets for this thing!"

"It's the least I - or, you know, All Might - could do," All Might straightened his back up, having caught his breath, and smiled as he took out the eight tickets from his pockets for the adults and Eri, passing them around carefully as he checked the names on the ballets to be scanned on the UA barrier, "he thought that it would be nice to have you all come and watch the sports festival personally! Er - don't tell him that I thought this," He leaned in to mutter to the Kendous, looking a bit sheepish, "but I also think it's why he has me working at the school today to help out UA with the festival - he wanted me to come watch Young Itsuka, Young Ochako and Young Izuku perform personally, and thought he'd reach out to you all as well."

"Well, I don't think any of us will be complaining," Tenohira giggled as she accepted her ticket, "and it's nice of All Might to have wanted you to see your trainees perform."

"Yeah," Itsuka nodded, turning down to smile down at Eri as she awkwardly shuffled behind her leg at the sight of All Might - she had briefly met him last week when she had come to the apartments, but Itsuka could tell that his sickly appearance still took the little girl aback, "Eri, do you wanna say hi to Coach?"

"Um …" Eri gulped rather nervously, but still glanced out from behind Itsuka towards All Might, who turned to smile down at her, which thankfully seemed to help her be a bit more at ease - even in his sickly form, his smile was still kind and assuring - "… hi, coach."

"Hello there, Eri."

"Is …" Eri turned back to stare up at the main building of UA again, still looking a bit nervous but turning to look at Izuku, reaching out to tug on his hand to get his attention, "… is this the place where you learn things, Deku?"

"Huh? Oh," Izuku blinked, remembering their conversation a few weeks ago and turning to look down at her with a smile, "y-yeah, Eri! This is UA - it's my school. And - and it's Kendou and Occhan's school too."

Ochako turned to nod happily at the little girl as well, while Itsuka frowned a bit sadly at the sound of her last name leaving Izuku's lips again and turned to pout at the ground.

"Yep!" Ochako tried to sound excited for Eri as the little girl turned to look up at the brown-haired girl in curiosity. "This is where we go to learn how to be heroes! And it's also where we're gonna be doing our sports festival - are you excited?"

"Mm-hm," She nodded, "Hira said there might be apples …"

"Oh! Yeah, there should be - you might even be able to get a candy apple!"

"Candy apple?" Eri blinked a bit at that.

"Yeah," Itsuka nodded, looking up from her pout and smiling at the clear interest the little girl had in that little concept, "it's a kind of candy - they dip the apple in sugar to make it taste sweeter."

"A sweeter … apple …?"

The adults tried not to laugh too much at the intrigued look on Eri's face as she thought of an apple that tasted even sweeter than she was used to, and Inko let out a giggle as she reached down to take Eri's other hand, the little girl looking up at her with a bit of hope.

"Can I have a candy apple, Inko?"

"I'm sure they're not ready just yet," Inko smiled down at her, "but once they are, of course you can! We'll buy you one so we can share, just in case you end up not liking it."

"Okay!"

"Kendou, Uraraka, Midoriya."

Izuku, Ochako and Itsuka blinked at the sound of a familiar monotone voice calling their names, and everyone looked back around through the gate. Coming up the path towards them was Aizawa, still wrapped up in bandages with his arms in casts, but he was still clearly staring at his students as he walked stiffly towards them.

The three students quickly straightened up nervously - there was a smidge of annoyance in their homeroom teacher's voice, and quickly figured out that he probably wasn't in the mood for any fun and games at the moment.

"You shouldn't just be standing out in front of the crowd just yet," He told them in a flat voice as he finally reached their group, glancing at the reporters with a clear look of dislike, "just to make sure you don't get bombarded by the media. You three should head for the classroom - we're going to do a quick homeroom meeting once the bell rings before we head out to the stadium."

"Y-yes, sir!" Izuku quickly confirmed for the three of them, and then turned to Eri as she glanced up between the three teenagers. "It sounds like we're gonna have to head inside, Eri - we'll see you later, okay?"

"Okay," She nodded, glancing around at Ochako and opening her arms. Ochako, for her part, took the hint immediately, giggling as she moved down to give the little girl a hug.

"Kendou," Aizawa turned to look at his class's representative, who looked around at him as his own gaze behind the gauze looked up towards her head, "I see you did as instructed by Principal Nezu."

"Yeah," Itsuka nodded, raising her hand to run through her now black hair, not noticing Izuku and Ochako glance at her again and then quickly away as their faces went red again, "it's just some temporary stuff - it'll wash out once I have a shower tonight. Although it … might keep my hair a bit dark for the next few days, I think that was a side effect of the hair dye."

"Hm," Aizawa hummed, not really caring for the side effects, "well, as long as whoever was coming around that corner doesn't recognize you, you could dye your hair all the colors of the rainbow for all I care. Now then - as I said, you three need to head over to the classroom. I've got things to tell you all once the bell rings."

Quickly nodding to their homeroom teacher, the three students quickly turned to say bye to their parents, while All Might and Aizawa took a small step back so they could wait for the three teenagers to be wished good luck, Eri walking up to Aizawa to poke his leg as the pro hero glanced down at her.

"H-hello, Ai- uh -" Eri stuttered a bit, not entirely certain how to pronounce his name, but luckily for her the annoyed look behind Aizawa's bandages softened as he looked down at her.

"Hello, Eri," He greeted her in a much gentler tone, "you can just call me Ai-san."

"Ai-san ..." Eri repeated, and then quickly nodded. She then turned to look back at the three families that were exchanging goodbyes, and then quickly hurried back over towards the Kendous as Tenohira hugged Itsuka, the little girl seemingly content that Aizawa's sour mood from before seemed a bit less now.

"Izuku," Inko said in a clearly worried voice, reaching up to pat his cheeks with both hands, "please be careful, okay?"

"I will, Mom," Izuku assured her, while Hisashi moved to pat his shoulder with a grin.

"Do your best, kiddo!"

"Alrigh', Chipmunk," Taiyo rubbed his daughter's back while Miwa gave her a hug, "kick some ass out there! Er - well, don' actually kick someone's ass - or - or do? Y-yeah, be sure to - uh - literally kick some kid's ass."

"Taiyo," Miwa looked up at her husband with a raised eyebrow.

"I - y'know wha' I mean! Righ', Ochako?"

"Uh … I think I'm gonna stay out of this one."

"Now, Eri," Tenohira knelt down as Itsuka also knelt before Eri, the little girl looking around a bit confusedly at the Kendou matriarch, "Itsuka has to go get ready for the sports festival now, so we're not gonna see her for a little bit. But we will see her out on the field in a few hours or so, okay? So be sure to cheer extra hard for her so she can hear you!"

"Okay," Eri nodded at that, and then turned so she could give Itsuka a hug. The now black-haired girl let out a small giggle and hugged her right back as she glanced up at her dad and her grandfather. Hakushu reached down to pat her head affectionately, and Teko, who had kept quiet for the last hour or so it took to get to UA, put his hands in his pockets and gave a curt nod to his granddaughter - which was all Itsuka really needed to know that he was wishing her good luck.

With their goodbyes and various 'good lucks' given, the three students straightened back up, flashing smiles to their parents and Eri as All Might stepped forward.

"I suppose if that's that, we should let them head to the classroom," The disguised pro hero confirmed, aware of Aizawa glancing at him as though wondering what he was doing and feeling strangely nervous for some reason, "so, er … if you would all like to have a look around the grounds, perhaps I could be of assistance? All Might's agency is having me work the entire time during the festival, but I do have some free time now before it starts. I'd be more than happy to give you all a small tour."

"Oh!" Inko blinked at that, a smile of delight appearing on her slightly rosy face as she quickly nodded on behalf of the group, "W-well, if it isn't any trouble for you, Coach Yagi."

"'Coach Yagi'?" Aizawa muttered to himself, sounding more than a little confused and annoyed about whatever was happening at the moment as All Might purposefully tried not to look at his colleague, gesturing for the adults and Eri to follow him while also trying not to meet Izuku's eyes, the young man glancing at his mother in similar confusion for that reaction and back to All Might in clear suspicion.

As the small group walked away, Miwa and Tenohira giving Inko amused looks while their husbands (or ex-husband in Hisashi's case) tried to pretend they weren't noticing anything out of the ordinary, and Teko merely followed in silence while Eri waved goodbye to the three teenagers while holding Inko's hand, there was a moment of silence left in their wake, with Itsuka and Ochako trying to pretend they didn't notice anything weird as they strolled away. And then their bandaged teacher let out a small sigh, shaking his head as he turned to walk away, his eyes on Izuku as his student was still staring at All Might with a small, suspicious glare.

"I have no idea who that guy was," Aizawa said in a dry voice, the three teenagers somehow automatically knowing that he was lying through his teeth, "but he seems to be hitting on your mother, Midoriya."

Izuku let out a small sputter, whipping around to stare at his homeroom teacher with an expression that seemed to be a mix of 'how dare you say that about my mom' and 'please be joking, sensei', but alas, it was too late to try and counter what his teacher said as Aizawa turned to begin walking away, walking a bit slowly and hunched over from his injuries.

Ochako and Itsuka could only turn to give Izuku a sympathetic look as he slumped forward, looking like life was draining out of his eyes as he tried to grapple with what he was now forced to see with his own two eyes.

"All Might is hitting on my mom," He muttered, sounding completely horrified as he began to slowly walk forward, staring at the ground, "All Might is hitting on my mom. She's … my mom was hitting on All Might, but she doesn't know that he's - I -"

"Deku," Ochako reached over to pat his shoulder, although she felt herself go red as she touched him and quickly withdrew her hand before it go weird, "I'm sure that Aizawa-sensei is just pulling your chain."

"I'm not," Itsuka quietly said while grimacing, not wanting to push Izuku further into despair, and let out a small sigh as she finished waving to Eri as the group of their parents rounded the corner and vanished from sight, Izuku's wide, scandalized eyes quickly whipped up to follow All Might as he turned to chat with Inko before they both moved out of his vision, "anyway, it's like Aizawa said - we should probably head to class before some reporter stops us to talk and we get swarmed."

"Uh … yeah," Izuku slowly nodded, still in despair at the thought of his mother fancying someone (he loved his mom, of course, and he liked All Might, but those two thoughts put together just made him feel clammy), but before they could start moving forward towards the school, a few familiar voices suddenly spoke up behind them.

"Yo! Guys!"

"Good morning!"

"Oh, man! Kendou, your hair!"

Blinking, the trio looked around at who was clearly calling to them, feeling surprised at the rather … odd trio coming towards them. Sure, seeing Eijirou and Mina walking together didn't seem too weird to Itsuka, seeing as they all went to the same middle school together, but seeing Tenya walking behind them both, raising his hand stiffly in greeting towards the three training partners, was enough to make them falter somewhat in surprise.

"Uh … hey," Itsuka greeted them, glancing between the three of them, "good morning, guys. Did you … come to school together?"

"We ran into each other at the train station," Eijirou explained, seeing Itsuka nod in understanding, "I wanted to be at school a bit earlier today than usual - y'know, just in case there was a delay - and I ran into Ashido, and then we both ran into Iida."

"I had thought it would make sense to come together!" Tenya chopped his hand, "As we are all students in the same class, we were discussing our individual strategies for the festival later today. I hope that you three, and everyone in our class, is prepared! We are facing a long, strenuous day ahead of us, so I will be making sure that everyone drinks enough water and keeps hydrated enough to hopefully lower the risk of students potentially collapsing!"

"Er … great, Iida, that's great. Honestly, that sounds like a good idea."

"Wow! Kendou, your hair looks awesome!" Mina giggled as she moved towards her class rep, staring up at her dark hair. "Kinda wish you went for something more extravagant, though - like pink! We could've been twinsies!"

"Nah," Itsuka shook her head, giggling, "I wanted to keep things simple. But who knows? Maybe I'll like it enough to consider dyeing my hair pink next time."

"Ooh! Maybe like a permanent dye? Like Kiri-"

"Eh, uh -" Eijirou quickly stuttered, interrupting Mina as the two girls looked around at him, "- m-maybe we can talk about hairdyes later? We, uh - we gotta concentrate on the sports festival, after all!"

Mina tried not to roll her eyes at Eijirou glancing over at Tenya as though fearing his reaction, but still waved her hand and smirked a bit, giving him some mercy and dropping the subject.

Her lack of surprise over Itsuka dyeing her hair, of course, was due to Itsuka having explained to the class the previous day, once school had finished, an abridged version of what was going on with Eri, and why she needed to dye her hair for the day. For the most part, everyone had understood, giving her thumbs up and promising to not overreact in shock when she came to school the next day with much darker hair - everyone, at least, except for Katsuki, who had of course just stalked out of the classroom without a care when Itsuka had asked them to stay behind.

Of course, the only people who felt like they were somewhat overreacting to Itsuka's new hairdo was Izuku and Ochako, who stole a small glance at Itsuka again and glanced up at her now dark hair, and glanced away, Izuku feeling weirdly nervous for some reason and Ochako fighting the urge to look again.

"Kinda weird, isn't it?"

Izuku jumped a bit at the voice chuckling behind him, and quickly whipped around to look at Eijirou as he stood beside him, crossing his arms and grinning at Itsuka and Mina before looking back around at Izuku.

"You're so used to seeing someone with their usual hair for so long," He laughed, "then once they change it, it's hard not to look."

"I - uh -" Izuku stuttered, feeling himself go red as he realized he had been caught staring, but thankfully, Eijirou didn't seem to be in the judging mood, letting out a sigh as he moved his hands into his pockets. Instead, Eijirou's grin fell slightly, and he cleared his throat as he looked back around at Izuku, aware of Ochako standing closeby as Tenya walked over to look at some of the stalls that had been set up.

"Er … anyway, Mido-bro," Eijirou glanced down at his shoes, looking awkward, "there was actually … uh … something I wanted to apologize to you guys about."

"H-huh?" Izuku blinked, looking around at Eijirou in surprise while Ochako likewise turned to look at Eijirou with her eyebrows raised. "You want to -? Uh - what about?"

"Uh … yeah," Ochako nodded in agreement, looking a bit confused, "I didn't realize you did something to apologize about."

"Yeah, well …" Eijirou kept his eyes locked on his shoes, looking guilty as he awkwardly shuffled, "… I just … noticed that I've been really flakey on you guys lately. I've been hanging out a lot with Kami-bro and Awase, and I just … well, I realized that I haven't really been talking in our group chat lately, and haven't really been hanging out with you guys at lunch either."

Both Izuku and Ochako blinked, turning to glance at each other briefly before looking back at Eijirou.

"Things have been so hectic lately, I just kinda …" Eijirou hesitated for a moment, and then quickly shook his head, "… no, it's - it's not manly to be making excuses. I've been a bad friend, so - I'm sorry, bro."

"I - oh, no, Kirishima, it's - it's okay!" Izuku quickly assured him, reaching over to pat his shoulder and seeing Eijirou glance up at him with a small, sad frown, "Seriously, we - well, we did notice that you weren't hanging out with us, of course, but - but we understood that it wasn't because you didn't want to. We can't seriously be angry at you for making other friends, right?"

"Yeah," Ochako nodded in agreement, smiling gently at their friend, "we can't be mad at you for hanging out with other people. I mean, we've been spending a lot of time with Hadou, Yaoyorozu and Iida - does that mean we're being bad friends too?"

"I … I mean …" Eijirou grimaced slightly, still not looking entirely convinced by that, but their quiet conversation was suddenly interrupted by Tenya clearing his throat, making their small group look around at him, Mina and Itsuka pausing their own small talk, to see him gesturing towards the school stiffly.

"I believe that it's time to head to class!" He informed them as he continued to gesture with his hands. "Kendou broughty me up to speed on Aizawa-sensei's instructions - it's clear that we are not to hang around outside until the festival, so I believe that we should head inside to make sure that our preparations are complete. As well, if you'd like, I can show you the message Tensei sent me last night to share with the class."

"Ooh! Your brother wanted to ask about us?" Mina asked excitedly, her eyes shining with excitement, "Was he offering us good luck?"

"Indeed! Tensei won't be able to watch the festival until much later, since he has a mission to do in Hosu later today, but he wished for me to tell the rest of our class good luck. He's very interested in how we perform today!"

"Aw, that's sweet! Maybe we can send him a message later? Before the festival starts?"

"Well … perhaps! But I believe that we should be concentrating on getting ready!"

"Nah, I'm sure he'd love a bit of love from us before his mission! We can send him a message wishing him good luck!"

"I - well, that would be a distraction from his duties, wouldn't it?!"

As Mina and Tenya walked together down the path towards the school, lightly arguing about whether or not to send his brother a message, Eijirou let out an awkward chuckle, rubbing the back of his head, and turned back to glance at Izuku and Ochako. Both of them likewise looked up at him, and Izuku, although he looked a bit nervous, still smiled and raised his closed hand for a fist bump.

"Are we cool?" He asked in an unsure voice, but Eijirou laughed a bit, looking a bit embarrassed, and gave him a fist bump.

"Yeah, we're cool, Mido-bro," He nodded, "just … me be dramatic. Still, you and me still need to head out on the town to do something eventually! We got interrupted by those stupid villains the last weekend, so eventually you and me are heading out to the arcade!"

Izuku nodded a bit at that, more than willing to hang out with his friend, and Eijirou, with his spirits noticeably lifted, began jogging forward to catch up with Itsuka as she followed Tenya and Mina into the school in order to compliment her new hair, to which she giggled and likewise pointed up at his own red hair. Straightening up, Izuku let out a small sigh as he likewise began to follow the small group down the path towards the school -

- only for him to accidentally bump his shoulder into Ochako's causing them both to blink as they looked around at each other.

"Oh, uh - sorry, Occhan," He tried to give her a confident, albeit shaky smile, as he took a step back, "after you."

Letting out a small chuckling-noise while smiling weakly, Ochako took the invitation to walk in front of him, feeling her face turn a bit hotter - but it wasn't due to the warm weather. As for Izuku, of course, he likewise looked a bit unsure about her reaction, his shoulders sagging slightly again as he began to follow her towards the school.

Indeed, as one might have noticed from their interactions that morning, there was something … rather strange going on with the three training partners. For one, Itsuka couldn't help but pout a bit as she glanced behind her shoulder at Izuku and Ochako, having expected her two friends to at least make some kind of comment about her new black hair - it looked pretty simple, of course, and would wash out easily, but she at least expected Ochako to compliment her, and her getting absolutely nothing caused Itsuka's mood to go down considerably. Ochako, meanwhile, turned her gaze to her feet, trying as hard as she could to not look up at either of her two best friends as she quickly put her hands in her blazer's pockets, and feeling her face continue to burn as Izuku moved around to walk right beside her. And Izuku, for his part, glanced back up at Itsuka's hair, feeling himself gulp nervously, and then turned back to glance off to the side at the various stands that were still being put up, feeling himself frown a bit at Ochako subtly trying to put a little distance between them, glancing off to the side and staring at anything else but him.

Yes, for various reasons, it was kind of hard for Izuku, Ochako and Itsuka to look at each other, talk to each other, even think about each other, without feeling weirdly embarrassed - but for reasons, as mentioned before, that were very different.

It started, really, about a week ago, when Izuku had shown Mirio and Recovery Girl to where Nejire had been in the changing room with her concussion. Left alone outside with Itsuka, he had attempted to avoid looking directly at her as though she had somehow gained a mind-reading quirk that could pick up how embarrassed he was about defending her so passionately from Nighteye and accidentally calling her by her first name, despite her telling him earlier that was alright to take his time. And, because he kept looking away from her, he completely missed how Itsuka was unable to look at him either, her entire face red as she nervously wrung her hands together and tried to fight down a grin that just wouldn't go away as she thought about him.

Once Nejire had enough energy back to go home, the bouncy girl glancing between the two embarrassed teenagers in confusion for a moment before she left, Izuku and Itsuka had gotten changed and left Gym Gamma, still unable to look at each other, to go find Ochako after she had been dragged off by Himiko to parts unknown. They eventually found her walking back to the gym in an almost trance-like state, and when she had glanced up at them, she likewise went completely red, quickly moving her gaze to her feet as they walked back to the train station together.

And now … it had been an entire week, and now neither one of them had any idea what was going on with the other.

Itsuka feared that glancing at Izuku for too long would reward her treacherous mind for falling in love with him (a thought that made her shrivel up and die on the inside, and had made her come home that very evening to jump into bed, slam her burning face into her pillow, and kick her feet up and down, much to Eri's confusion), so she would try not to look at him anymore than she had to. Izuku, while initially getting over his embarrassment overnight, still felt weirdly nervous around Itsuka the following days, feeling his heart thump in his chest nervously whenever he glanced at Itsuka, and would try to glance around for Ochako whenever he and their training partner were left alone. And Ochako, meanwhile, would have difficulties looking at the both of them without being reminded of what Himiko had said to her in the nurse's office.

"I take love very seriously, you know. And how you look at Kendou … you aren't subtle. It's not just her butt you're looking at. From how you look at her? You're in it deep, girl - which is why I'm surprised that Kendou isn't the only one you look at like that. You're just … not very subtle when it comes to looking at people you're interested in."

"If you say you're just friends, then fine. I won't argue with you. But like I said before, I take love very seriously. I can always see when people have feelings for each other. And you - love him. Even if you don't realize it."

God damn it, Ochako scowled as she walked forward with one training partner beside her and the other in front of her, this was all because Himiko couldn't keep her tongue in her mouth, and insisted on putting it in hers! That stupid conversation that they had just - it had done something to her that made sure that she wasn't looking at Itsuka and Izuku like she should be.

For the last two weeks, it had been hard to think about Itsuka and Izuku without a voice that sounded weirdly like Himiko's trying to force her to remember the conversation about her potentially … liking them. And to Ochako, it was frustrating.

She shouldn't be looking at Itsuka and Izuku like she has been. She shouldn't be remembering the kiss with Itsuka and feeling her legs shake at how intense it had been, having weird dreams about soft lips and hands roaming all over her body that made her wake up in a cold sweat. She shouldn't see Izuku in his gym uniform and stare at his arms, wondering how they had gotten so muscular without her even noticing. She shouldn't listen to Itsuka laugh about something Setsuna was joking about and feel her heart skip a beat at how cute her training partner's giggles sounded. She shouldn't see Izuku sitting across from her at the dinner table, see him laugh at something her dad said, and her heart begin to beat a bit harder in her chest.

Himiko had no idea what she was talking about. She wasn't in love with Izuku. And she definitely didn't have feelings for Itsuka. What had happened in the nurse's office had just made her feel suddenly disoriented. She'd be back to normal in no time.

But there was one thing that neither Izuku, Ochako or Itsuka could deny - they knew that there was soemthing going on with the other two.

Itsuka glanced behind her shoulder at Izuku and Ochako again, seeing how awkwardly they were looking away from each other, and feeling herself frown a bit sadly as she turned back to talk to Eijirou. Izuku glanced between Itsuka and Ochako, and wondered if they had been talking to each other when he wasn't there, closing his eyes for a moment and sighing. Ochako glanced between Izuku and Itsuka, feeling her heart beat a bit faster and hating that she was thinking such weird things about them, guilt starting to course through her.

Something was going on with them. And they all knew that, sooner or later, something was going to come to a head.

They just weren't sure what.

---

About an hour later, multicolored fireworks began to explode over UA. The sun had finally risen up into the blue sky, white clouds floating above all their heads as the school bursted with activity. Reporters were still in the long, boring line at the front of the school doing the bag checks, some of them complaining but most of them knowing that there would be no way they could get into the school without having their things checked, accepting that UA wasn't dumb enough to not do a thorough search after having been attacked by villains.

Inside the gate, several people burst with activity as they walked along the various stalls, excitedly looking over the foods and desserts that were being offered, stopping by some of the stores that had masks shaped like the faces of All Might, Endeavor, Present Mic and other popular heroes. Excited gossip filled the air, from how Endeavor's son was apparently competing today to what small rumors they had heard regarding the highly talked about Class 1A, who had survived the attack against a group of villains - something that the HSPC had tried to downplay, but word still got out around the hero community and caused probably the most bookings for heroes to come watch the festival UA had gotten in years.

Normally, the third years had been the main event in the last few years, due to a combination of this being their last festival, and a perfect chance to show off how passionate and experienced they had grown over the years, with heroes, reporters and civilians all waiting for the first and second years to finish their festivals before they all converged on UA on the third day. And yet this year, a massive amount of people were heading towards the first year stage, with the various civilians who were allowed to walk the grounds talking excitedly about the highly talked about Class 1A, or else heroes that wanted to head over and see for themselves. They were all so excited, in fact, that many of them weren't even stopping to look over at Mt. Lady shamelessly using her looks to earn free food while Kamui Woods and Death Arms watched her in judgment and contempt.

And that, of course, meant that they weren't also looking over at the two heroes standing together near the road that would lead to the UA stadium. It was understandable that they would look them over, on the other hand, due to them being dressed rather casually, one blonde woman wearing her leather jacket and a hoodie while her headband kept some of her short blonde hair out of her face, and the other woman wore a nice red long shirt and blue jeans, her long white hair tied back in a ponytail while waiting for her friend to finish looking at her phone.

Rather … impatiently waiting, as her long bunny ears twitched and her foot tapped against the ground rapidly.

thump thump thump thump thump

"…"

thump thump thump thump thump

"…"

thump thump thump thump thump

"You stomping your foot on the ground," Ryukyu let out a small sigh, a begrudging smile appearing on her face as her friend scowled beside her, "isn't going to make me text faster."

"Well, what do you expect me to do?!" Miruko barked, causing a few of the other civilians to look around at her in surprise at the outburst. "I'm bored! I thought you said that we were gonna come watch some kids bash each other's heads in! Not walk around some dull school looking at stalls!"

"The sports festival doesn't start for another hour, Rumi. Do you really wanna sit around in our seats and wait for it to start?"

"… if it doesn't start for another hour, then why the hell are we here so early?!" Miruko growled, unable to really counter that (because sitting around and doing nothing sounded boring as fuck as well).

"Because I wanted to come have a look around," Ryukyu lowered her phone as she looked around at UA's main building, smiling, "it's been so long since I've been at UA - I think the last time I was here and got to look around, I was graduating. It's almost been ten years now - am I not allowed to feel nostalgic?"

"You are," Miruko crossed her arms with a small huff, "just don't expect me to get it. I couldn't get out of my high school fast enough."

"Oh, that's right, you graduated from a hero school down in Hiroshima, right? What was the name again?"

"Don't remember, and don't care to," Miruko shook her head, at least grateful that they started walking down the road towards the stadium as Ryukyu put her phone back in her pocket, "all I know is that it got a whole lot harder to break into fight clubs with all my teachers breathing down my neck. Stupid monitor on my ankle preventing me from running away from school - Osaka was honestly a gift from the gods, what a freakin' fight that was!"

"I imagine so."

"Nah, I don't think you do, Miss Goody-Two-Shoes."

Ryukyu chuckled, glancing around at more of the stalls interestingly while Miruko picked up a bit of fuzz off her shirt, frowning as she likewise looked around.

"So," Miruko glanced around at her friend, "dumb question."

"I was raised to believe that there was no such thing as a dumb question, Rumi," Ryukyu was unable to stop herself from smirking a bit, "but if you have a challenge for me, I'd love to hear it."

"Oh, ha, ha, ha." Miruko sarcastically clapped for her, punctuating each dry laugh with a clap of her hands. "Funny. Anyway, why did you insist on dragging me to this stupid high school stuff?"

"Because I'm looking for interns," Ryukyu explained in a patient voice, as though she were speaking to a tantrum-throwing little girl, "I've never had any hero students as interns before - I have sidekicks, of course, but I never participated in UA's work studies program. It's something that I'm interested in trying."

"Okay, but that's you," Miruko shook her head, pouting, "why do I have to be here?"

"Well, I was thinking that having an intern would help you out too," Ryukyu turned to smile hopefully at the scowling smaller woman, "someone for you to look after, and give some of your wisdom to. You've been working all over Japan ever since you graduated - are you saying that you would have nothing to teach a student?"

"Yeah, sure," Miruko shook her head, "maybe I would be able to teach a runt something. But there's one thing you aren't considering."

"And what's that?"

"I don't want an intern!" She barked, shaking her head and ignoring the people continuing to give her surprised, weird looks. "Like - c'mon, Ryu! How many times have I told you that I work alone? Teams are for weaklings!"

"Ouch," Ryukyu dryly commented.

"So thanks for thinkin' of me, but I'm good."

"I'm not saying that you have to overanalyze the sports festival," Ryukyu shook her head with a sigh, "but at least keep an eye open for anyone who catches your interest, alright? You've gotten in enough trouble with the HSPC lately as it is - they're pretty much just waiting for you to give them an excuse to take away your hero license."

"Ha! I'd love to see them pry it from my cold, dead hands!"

"Well," Ryukyu shook her head, "when all you do is pick fights with villains and don't solve crimes or participate in rescue missions, it tends to reflect badly on you, Rumi. God knows how you rank as highly as you do. So just … promise me that you'll at least consider an intern? Please?"

Miruko took a moment to glance over at her friend, scowling at the puppy-dog look in her eyes (or eye, in this case, since one of her hair's fringes covered the one on the right), and then let out a long groan as she thumped her foot against the ground again, a bit harder this time, as though she were a petulant child stomping her foot.

"Fiiiiiiiiiine," She growled out, "I'll keep my eyes open. But don't expect me to walk away from this stupid thing wanting to adopt some runt."

"That's all I ask," Ryukyu smiled happily, patting her friend's shoulder, "now, come on - we can go find our seats."

"Eh? But I thought that this thing doesn't start for another hour."

"Oh, it doesn't. I was thinking that we could sit down so I can advise you what to look out for when selecting an intern - I've been doing a bit of research."

"Wha -?! Then we'd just be sitting around and doing nothing! At least let us walk if you're insisting on lecturing me, especially if you're gonna make me sit down all day! And speaking of that, don't expect me not to do a few crunches in the stands!"

As the two women continued to walk over to the stadium, Miruko complaining the entire time while Ryukyu shook her head and smiled gently, back at the front of the school, the workers outside continued to slowly let the reporters make their way inside. They had strict rules, of course - they would all have to wait in a long line, with those who made it in the front having to open their bags to allow the workers to inspect their gear, and allow them to double check their booking in the sports festival. As expected, it was a long, boring process.

But at least, at the front, there was one person who didn't mind, flashing a smile to the gulping worker as he blushed a bit at her appearance, and glanced down to the names he had on the official list while holding his hand out.

"Uh - name, please?"

"Chitose Kizuki," She continued to smile as she handed him her purse, the man gulping nervously and accepting it as she tucked some of her lilac hair behind her ear, "executive director of Shoowaysha Publishing."

"Er … ah, yes, here you are, Ms. Kizuki," He quickly handed her the purse back after glancing inside and seeing the notepad and pen, and nervously scratched his cheek as he handed her the pass, "our apologies for the wait - security has to be a bit more strict after those villains broke in a few weeks ago."

"Oh, no worries," She giggled, slinging her purse over her shoulder, "I completely understand. After all, you wouldn't want to let more villains in, would you?"

Stepping through the gate, she looked up into the sky, watching as fireworks continued to blast above her as she strolled into the school. Walking past the stalls that the heroes and workers had set up, her green and black eyes trailing over the heroes she spotted in the crowds. But as she moved around the corner, seeing the large stadium in the distance, she felt a smile spread across her face as she began following the massive crowd towards where the first years would be performing, wanting to find her seat so she could start writing.

Ordinarily, she would've left it to a few of her own employees to come to UA this year, but after all the rumors she had heard over the last few weeks, she simply had to come and attend this year's sports festival herself. She'd normally avoid coming here like the plague - it had always been the third years that had been the main event of the past few years, and Re-Destro was always content with watching the event by himself to scout out those with strong quirks that could potentially be recruited to their cause.

But this year was different - this year, it was the first years that everyone was watching. But scouting a couple of teenagers wasn't exactly what Chitose had in mind, she shook her head to herself. Even ignoring the fact that Endeavor's son was competing this year, she had to come and watch Class 1A personally. If not to gauge how strong their quirks were, then she would be able to find … alternative means to get information.

After all … the rumor on the street was that the Villain Consortium attacked one of the most secure schools in Japan, and got away scott free. And now they were back on the streets, looking for others to join their cause.

Villains who desired strength above all else … those who may wish to use their quirks freely …

… well, Chitose smirked, that wasn't something the Meta Liberation Army could ignore, was it?

---

"HEY THERE, EVERYONE!"

At the sight of a familiar DJ appearing on the massive screens around the stadium, raising his arms happily into the air as he greeted the guests with a grin, the entire stadium roared back with cheers from the various civilians who had managed to get seats for this year's festival, throwing their arms up into the air as well as they all leapt up to stand. Multicolored fireworks continued to blast above the stadium as several members of the media began snapping pictures as quickly as they could, looking down at the massive field the stadium was surrounding on all sides as Present Mic continued to make happy gestures for the camera facing him.

"PAY ATTENTION, LISTENERS!" He commanded the cheering crowd, his voice audible even over the loud cheers to show how excited he was to deal with an actual lively crowd instead of the students who always cringed at his attempts to be cool. "SWARM, MASS MEDIA HORDES! THIS YEAR'S HIGH SCHOOL RODEO OF ADOLESCENCE THAT YOU ALL LOVE - THE ANNUAL UA SPORTS FESTIVAL - IS ABOUT TO BEGIN! THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR YOUR PATIENCE. SO TELL ME, EVERYBODY - ARE YOU READY TO PARTY?!"

As several more shouts and cheers rang through the air, on the sides of the stadium near the field, several doors began to slide open, prompting everyone in the crowd to look around excitedly as the cameras immediately zoomed in on the dark corridors, and the shapes that were beginning to appear as the classes walked out onto the field.

"ALRIGHTY, THEN! IF YOU'RE ALL READY, THEN IT'S TIME FOR THE STUDENTS TO ENTER THE FIRST-YEAR STAGE! PLEASE GIVE THEM A CHEER!"

As triumphant music began to play from the speakers, the first years started walking out of the corridors onto the field, to loud applause and cheers. Leading the first group out, walking with his arms chopping at his sides, was Tenya, glancing around a bit nervously as he led the rest of his classmates out to the roaring of the crowd, followed quickly by Momo. Behind them, Itsuka grimaced slightly, still regretful that she couldn't lead her class out but knowing that the less time she spent at the front of the group the better, and thus allowed Tenya and Momo to lead their group out with Izuku and Ochako at her sides, Nejire rapidly patting Izuku's shoulder excitedly while he sweated nervously at how many people were surrounding them.

"THE UA SPORTS FESTIVAL!" Present Mic continued to dramatically scream over the speakers and the roar of the crowd, the sound of fireworks blasting in the air making sure that everything was extremely loud for the students walking out onto the field, "THE TENSE BATTLE WHERE A FLEDGLING HERO CAN SHARPEN THEIR SWORD ONCE A YEAR! LET'S HAVE A LOOK AT OUR CONTESTANTS FOR THE DAY, HUH?! COMIN' UP FIRST IS THE MIRACULOUS NEW STARS WHO OVERCAME A VILLAIN ATTACK WITH THEIR HARD HEARTS OF STEEL! LET'S GIVE A BIG CHEER TO HERO COURSE, CLASS 1A!"

"Oh, man," Setsuna let out a small grumble, going a bit red as their group continued to walk across the field, "Mic did not have to call us out like that - now I feel like everyone's watching us."

"Technically, everyone is," Itsuka shrugged, although she looked pretty nervous as well as she put her hands in her pockets, "but I get what you mean - he really didn't need to play us up too much."

"T-there's - there's so many people …" Izuku nervously muttered, sweating a bit as he walked between Nejire and Itsuka, with Tenya falling back a bit to walk in front of him, "… this is … uh … really different than watching this kind of thing on TV."

"Are you gonna be okay, Deku?" Ochako asked worriedly, hesitantly reaching around Itsuka so she could pat his shoulder while her face went a bit red, "I get that it's a lot of people …"

"I believe Midoriya has a point," Tenya grimaced, looking around at their small group as well, "will we really be able to give our best while being watched by so many people?"

"It's something we'll have to be used to," Momo pointed out, patting Pony's shoulder as the smaller girl likewise looked nervous, "it'll be a bit harder with all this attention and pressure on us, but being in the spotlight is something heroes have to get used to."

"Nah, I think Tokage and Kendou's right," Eijirou felt a shaky grin cross his face, "I'd have handled this kind of thing a lot better if we just got a normal introduction, but Mic went overboard with the praise. I'm actually gettin' kinda nervous! What about you, Bakugou?"

"Nah," Katsuki grinned to himself, "I'm just getting more into it."

"COMING UP NEXT!" Mic continued his presentation, unaware of the students' lowkey complaining about him on the field. "THESE COOL DUDES AND GALS HAVEN'T BEEN GETTING AS MUCH AIRTIME AS THEIR CLASSMATES, BUT THIS CLASS IS ALSO FULL OF TALENT! ALSO FROM THE HERO COURSE, CLASS 1B!"

Itsuka glanced, out of the corner of her eye, as Yuuyu led her own class out from the door that had opened for them, turning to shoot a small glare at Mic's face on the giant screen as he didn't give her class a grand introduction like he did for Class 1A, but at least she smiled when Nejire gave her a dorky wave from her spot in the Class 1A crowd, the punkish girl unable to resist waving back with a cheeky look. The guys behind her, meanwhile, tried to give off several looks of confidence in front of the massive cheering crowd, all of them scowling and looking serious. The one guy with gray hair, Tetsutestu, glanced over at Class 1A and caught Itsuka's eye, and he gave her a determined look while clenching his fist.

Raising her eyebrow at the weird guy looking like he was challenging her, Itsuka glanced around again, watching as Nejire jogged over to walk with Yuuyu, but as her eyes flickered around the group, her gaze fell onto the one guy she had been looking for. As he walked out onto the field, Shouto kept a calm, stoic face, looking around at the crowd for a moment, before he felt someone's gaze on him and he turned to look over at Itsuka, their eyes meeting.

Remembering their declarations of war, Itsuka tried, at least, to remain polite, giving him a curt nod. After a moment, Shouto's eyes narrowed a fraction, glancing up at her now black hair with a slight raise of his eyebrow, but he at least returned the nod with one of his own, as though to acknowledge her, before he went back to continue scanning the crowd as though he were looking for someone.

With a sigh, Itsuka turned back towards the large podium both their classes were walking towards.

"AND THEN FOLLOWING THEM, GENERAL STUDIES CLASSES C, D AND E! SUPPORT COURSE, CLASSES F, G AND H ARE HERE TOO! AND BRINGING UP THE REAR IN THE BUSINESS COURSES, CLASSES I, J AND K!"

"Oh, jeez, way to just speed through them, Mic-sensei," Setsuna grimaced as she and Hanta looked around at the group strapped from head to toe in support gear walking towards the podium excitedly, while the students from the general courses, Shinsou in the lead, turned to give Classes 1A and 1B a bunch of dirty glares for their trouble, "it's not like they need any more reasons to hate us."

"At this point, there's nothing we can do," Momo assured her, although she likewise looked a bit peeved at their teacher, "Mic-sensei probably should have spent more time talking about them, but … well, like I told Kendou before, they are already certain about how they feel about us."

"ALL OF UA'S FIRST YEARS ARE OUT ON THE FIELD!" Present Mic continued his announcements, bouncing up and down in his seat as the first years walked onto the dirt field in the middle of the field, moving towards the podium in the middle of the field. "AND NOW, WITHOUT FURTHER DELAY, LET'S GET STARTED WITH OUR OPENING SPEECH, WHICH WILL BE HANDLED BY OUR BEAUTIFUL UMPIRE! EVERYONE, PLEASE GIVE A WARM WELCOME TO THE R-RATED HEROINE, MIDNIGHT!"

As Midnight strutted onto the podium facing the students, the massive screen behind her showing off UA's logo, Itsuka, Momo, Ochako, Setsuna and most of the girls tried their hardest to ignore several cat calls coming from the crowd, and feeling their eyes nearly roll into the back of their skulls as Midnight stuck her hip out provocatively, shaking her head as though teasingly enjoying the attention she was getting. Up in the stands, both Miwa and Tenohira turned to glare at their husbands as though to make it clear that their eyes should not be on the teacher, and both Taiyo and Hakushu quickly looked away from the field so as not to displease their wives, while Hisashi merely shook his head and chuckled.

"Now then! Let's quiet down!" Midnight suddenly smacked her flogger-styled whip down on the stage, making everyone in the crowd, field and everywhere else immediately silence their cheers and noises. "It's time for the opening pledge. For everyone out there who isn't aware of our traditions, every year, before we begin our festival, we have an opening pledge from the student representing their year. As she came in first place in the entrance exam, and has proven to be a capable leader for her class, please welcome to the stage - Itsuka Kendou!"

Straightening her back and feeling herself stiffen up slightly, Itsuka still nodded when Midnight looked around at her, and began to walk her way over to the stage, moving through the crowd of students to head towards the podium. Pausing at the steps, she glanced behind her at Izuku and Ochako, who, while still looking nervous, flashed her a thumbs up, while Setsuna gave her a confident yet assuring grin and Yui nodded.

With that being about all the assurance she needed, she took a deep breath as she began walking up the steps towards the microphone. Once she was up on the podium, mentally going over the speech that she had written and memorized in her free time, Midnight took a step back and let her have access to the microphone, giving her student a teasing smile.

"Knock 'em dead," She winked, and Itsuka slowly nodded, letting out another deep breath and trying not to look at all the cameras that were now probably zooming in on her, and feeling herself begin to sweat nervously - but not for the reason one would probably feel nervous in front of a camera.

It's okay, she mentally reassured herself, I'm in disguise. If Eri's caretaker is watching, he won't recognize me. It's okay.

Closing her eyes for a brief moment, Itsuka cleared her throat, and then opened them to look up at the now quiet audience waiting for her to speak.

"Good morning, everyone," She said into the microphone, trying her best to smile confidently and keep the shaking out of her voice, "I know how excited everyone must be for the sports festival to begin, so I won't take up too much of your time."

That at least got a few chuckles from the crowd, which did help Itsuka's shoulders loosen up a bit.

"I don't have much to say," She admitted to them, "but I will say this: I know that everyone out here in this field will be doing their best today. Everyone standing behind me made it into one of the top hero schools in the world. Everyone here is worthy to be a hero -" She hesitated for a moment, and then let out a small sigh as she continued her speech, "- and I am not just talking about the people in my own class."

Glancing over her shoulder, she saw some of the students from the other courses that were glaring at her back blink at what she just said. Shinsou, on the other hand, just gave her an unamused look, which she just decided to ignore.

"Everyone on this field with me has the ability, and the drive to win today. Just like I am, everyone will do their best to win. Please don't allow anyone to make you feel like you're not capable of excelling. Let's work hard together to show the world why we are UA students!"

Throwing her fist into the air, she tried to grin as confidently as she could.

"Plus Ultra!"

"PLUS ULTRA!"The audience, and the students from behind her, roared in approval, and began to cheer for the girl on the podium. Feeling her nervous grin return, Itsuka lowered her fist, bowing quickly and thanking everyone for listening to her, and then made her way to quickly jump off the stage, hurrying back to her classmates. There, they were all grinning and raising their hands to give her some high-fives.

"Very well put, Kendou," Momo gave her a warm smile.

"Indeed!" Tenya fixed his glasses, grinning, "That was very well said!"

"That was awesome!" Nejire likewise praised her, grabbing Itsuka's shoulders from behind and giving her a small shake to share her excitement, "Oooooh, you've got me all pumped up now!"

"Yeah, good going, Ken."

"Mm. I kinda expected you to fumble at some point."

"Oh, thanks so much for your confidence in me, Yui," Itsuka sarcastically thanked her while giggling, and glanced around at Izuku and Ochako. While they both were still sort of red while looking at her, they were both grinning and giving her a thumbs up, which made her smile warmly -

"Pfft. Oh, please."

At the scoff on the side, the small group blinked, and looked over to see a few general studies students scowling at them, Shinsou staring dully ahead at Midnight as the pro hero moved the microphone off the stage.

"Telling us to bring it when no one's around, and then saying sappy shit when there's a camera on you?" One girl huffed. "Hypocrite, much?"

"Yeah," The guy beside her nodded in agreement, "saying you don't intimidate easily, and then immediately sucking up to the adults when they're looking at you."

Itsuka felt her smile from before fade while Izuku and Ochako straightened up behind her, looking around at the two students with clearly offended and angry expressions - and then Itsuka let out a small sigh, and shrugged her shoulders as she returned her gaze to the podium before them.

"I meant what I said," She told them, "I said a few weeks ago that we don't intimidate easily when you came to our class to pressure us out of our seats. But I also meant what I said about you guys being capable of winning today. But it's on you guys to actually win. And like I said, I'm fighting to win too."

The two general studies students scoffed again, and turned back to look at Midnight as she snapped her whip again.

"Now then! With our speeches out of the way, let's get started." Midnight grinned audaciously as she spun around to gesture towards the giant monitor behind her, "Our first contest is what you'd call a qualifier! Let's have a look at what our first game will be!"

The monitor suddenly displayed a massive rolling wheel, and everyone let out gasps as it began spinning without warning, making them all gulp as it spun too quickly for anyone to make out the potential games they would play - and then, just as suddenly as it had started spinning, it stopped, landing on one specific game.

OBSTACLE RACE

Our first game is … this!" Midnight happily announced as she wheeled back around. "All eleven classes will be participating in an obstacle course! Normally, we'd be having you do this course on the outer circumference of the stadium - about four kilometers - but we decided to take a little pity on you all," She sent a wink towards the students, getting a few blushes in response, "and we're going to keep it in the stadium this year!"

There were a few sighs of relief in the crowd of students - while the stadium was pretty big, it wasn't like it would kill anyone to run from one end of the field to the other -

"Of course," Midnight suddenly spoke again, her voice filled with mischievousness, "we can't just make it too easy on you all, now can we?"

And, right about then, was about the time the ground beneath their feet began rumbling.

Everyone - from the students on the field, to the people in the crowd - began to mutter in slight alarm as the entire arena began to shake, almost as though there was some kind of earthquake beginning. Then they heard the sudden noise of what sounded like gears being turned, as though there was something underneath the grass - and then Midnight turned her gaze up to the crowds surrounding the field, a large smile on her face.

"Now, for our dear audience," She giggled, "I suggest you hold onto your seats."

And at once, the entire arena began to open.

Several screams of shock, panic and exhilaration sounded out from the crowd as the students looked around, eyes widening, to see the entire arena beginning to spread open. The cracks opening up in the arena revealed several hydraulic presses pushing one side of the arena away so that the entire field nearly tripped in size, pushed away so that it wouldn't be so easy to run to the other side - meaning, essentially, that instead of running about four kilometers outside the arena, it was more likely that they'd have to run four kilometers inside it.

But then, as they all became resigned that they would have to run across this now huge field, the ground rumbled again. Itsuka, in a panic, grabbed both Izuku and Ochako's shoulders automatically to keep them steady as they suddenly began to move - the students letting out gasps as the grass beneath their feet pushed up, and then began sliding back as they, and the podium Midnight was smirking on, were moved onto the other side of the arena where more of the audience were letting out gasps of amazement, and they all glanced out to see …

… oh, boy.

Class 1A found themselves gulping at the sight of a gigantic hole in the middle of the field, and several platforms began to slowly rise from the hole that had just been created in the ground, the sound of engines rumbling as they floated out of the pit. Some of them stayed stationary, while others began slowly moving around as though this were some kind of platformer video game, one platform on the end shaking slightly before a blast of purple air pressure blasted up, and some teetered around and rolled due to their shapes. Along the walls, what looked to be a massive armada of cannons suddenly shot out, as though the walls along the stadium were some kind of pirate ship, and immediately spun around to aim at the students standing on the other side of the wall, as though holding them at gunpoint.

And on the large platform on the other end of the arena, a red holographic line suddenly appeared, flashing Principal Nezu's smiling face, before a small wall suddenly blocked their vision.

"Not feeling so confident anymore, now are you?" Midnight mused sadistically, smirking as several students whirled around at her in panic. "The rules of this obstacle race are as follows! You have to make it across this field of death without falling into the hole. Don't worry if you do end up falling - we have trampolines and safety nets waiting to catch you in case you slip off the platform, and several heroes are also below to catch you. But your objective is to make it across this field and pass through that red line. Sounds simple, doesn't it?"

"Nothing about this seems simple," Mina whimpered a bit to Setsuna, who was likewise looking very nervously at all the cannons pointing at them.

"But there will be a few catches," Midnight giggled, "number one - those cannons aiming at you? They'll be shooting at you in attempts to knock you off the platforms. Those platforms, meanwhile, will always be moving themselves - so be sure to time your jumps, or you'll be falling right down into the pit. You are able to use your quirks, of course, and we won't disqualify you for attempting to use them to disrupt your other classmates - but know that direct quirk usage, or deliberately pushing someone off the platforms, will get you kicked out of the game! I'll repeat that in case there's some of you who don't understand - use your quirk to push someone off, or just push them off yourself, and you might as well jump off the platform as well!"

Katsuki merely let out a grumble.

"As long as you stay on the course, don't directly attack your classmates, and make it across the field in one piece, it doesn't matter what you do! Now then, take your places, everyone! We'll give you two minutes to get ready, and once the horn on the other end of the stadium sounds, the race will begin! The first forty-two students to cross the red line at the other end of the stadium will move on to our next challenge! And as one last piece of advice …"

She licked her lips mischievously.

"… don't stay still."

Everyone gulped nervously at that menacing piece of advice, but without further delay, the students out on the field all turned towards the massive pit, watching as the platforms continued to slowly move from side to side as though this were some kind of video game. Itsuka, meanwhile, gulped nervously - the platforms were big, but it was clear that they weren't big enough to fit multiple people without tipping over.

And what Midnight had said about not staying still repeated on a loop in her head, making her let out a small sigh - she knew that slowing down for even a moment in this game would mean her adventures during the sports festival would come to an end, so she needed to think fast on her feet.

Glancing up at where the red holographic line was now blocked by the floating walls, Itsuka tried to come up with a plan as quickly as she could. She tried to remember the various sports festivals of the past she had seen before, of races and games of king of the hill and all that kind of stuff, and tried to rack her brains as to what she was supposed to remember - and then she felt herself blink.

Wait a second …

Staring at where the red line was supposed to be, Itsuka felt her eyes widen as she remembered a few sports festivals of the past and what they occasionally did - and then turned to where Izuku and Ochako were getting ready. Both of them were looking about as nervous as she felt, but at least Izuku seemed to be getting himself ready, hopping up and down, while Ochako looked like she was going to bring her fingers together to float herself.

Quickly, she reached over to poke her two training partners, making them blink and look around at her. While their faces did go a bit red when their eyes met, Itsuka tried to shake away her fluster.

"Listen," She told them in a quiet voice, "whatever you two do, don't get first place."

"H-huh?" Izuku blinked, his eyes widening a bit as he stared at her in shock. "What - what does that mean? Shouldn't we -?"

"I think it's a trick," She quickly explained to them both, with Ochako shaking herself out of her surprise as she hurried over towards where the crowd was beginning to walk towards the pit, Yosetsu gulping nervously near them as they approached, "usually, back in some of the sports festivals I researched for my assignment back in middle school, there's some kind of - I don't know, a drawback to getting first place that hampers you when we get to the second round. If we get first place, it could backfire on us."

"But - but we also want the heroes to notice us," Ochako pointed out, glancing up at the crowds of civilians and heroes in obvious conflict, "and wouldn't getting first place get us that attention?"

"Yeah, but then if we have something that's gonna affect us in the next round," Itsuka raised her eyebrow, "then there's an even bigger chance that we won't make it to the third."

Izuku and Ochako paused for a moment, turning to each other as though to gauge their own reactions - and then Izuku let out a small sigh as he nodded.

"I … I think you're right," He gave her, glancing between his two training partners as he bit his lip, "so … what do you think we should do?"

"Okay," Itsuka nodded as well, looking determined, "so we should be aiming for the top - but not the top. Second, third, fourth - anything but first place."

Both of them nodded at that, feeling themselves grin a bit - but before they could say anything else, there was the sudden sound of a horn going off. They quickly looked around to see a pair of three green lights on the other end of the pit, shining brightly so everyone both in and out of the field could see.

"Everyone take your places!" Midnight commanded from her spot on the side, "Once that last light goes off, the game will begin!"

The crowd around the field let out another loud cheer, and the students lining the field gulped nervously, the ones closest to the hole glancing down into the dark hole with sweat dripping down their faces. But they all knew that they needed to get over their fears and get ready - things were about to get very busy, with everyone glancing between the closest floating platforms that they could jump onto, glancing around at their fellow students in paranoia.

Momo, meanwhile, created a bo staff, intending to use it to propel herself over the gap. Tenya lowered himself to the ground, the engines in his legs beginning to rumble as he narrowed his eyes in determination. Setsuna disconnected her body parts, determined to float across the gap above the floating platforms as she nervously eyed the cannons. Near the middle, Katsuki sneered, throwing his hands back and letting explosions begin to pop in his palms.

And Izuku, Ochako and Itsuka tried to get themselves ready as well, unaware of someone watching Itsuka from behind.

"On your marks!" Midnight called.

One of the green buttons on the other end of the elongated arena suddenly blared, flashing off, and the crowd quickly hushed themselves, waiting in anticipation. In the crowd, Inko was holding on tight to both Tenohira and Miwa's hands, shaking with tears in her eyes while the two women held their excited breaths, and Hakushu and Taiyo both leaned forward in anticipation. Teko leaned back in his seat and watched as his foot tapped on the ground, and Eri munched on her candy apple.

"Get set!"

Another green button blared, flashing off, and the crowd were on their seats, waiting for this to begin. Several students began to edge their way towards the hole, looking to the floating platforms they would have to jump to. Pony hopped onto her horns to begin floating above the crowd, looking nervous. Nejire likewise began to float up, flashing the peace sign to Yuuyu as she backed up with the rest of her class, all of them getting ready to put their plan in motion, although many of them were looking pretty nervous that their big plan didn't really anticipate this.

And up in the booth for the teachers above the arena, All Might clenched his hands tightly together, feeling nervous for his students as he stared down at the three training partners he had trained so hard.

Remember, Young Kendou, He thought mentally to himself, remembering their conversation on the beach, you need to tell them that you're here.

And the last green button flashed off with a blare.

"GO!" Midnight yelled.

And the moment she yelled that, a sudden blast of ice suddenly rocketed under everyone's feet, making them all gasp and look down as they were suddenly held in place by the blocks of ice crawling up their legs.

"What the -?!" Ochako gasped, immediately beginning to shiver as her shoes were encased in ice, preventing her from taking a step forward.

"Huh?" Pony glanced down, her eyes widening in surprise at the state of her classmates, while Katsuki let out a small snarl as he tried to rip his foot out from the ice, gritting his teeth when it wasn't so easily done.

"Wait a second," Itsuka's eyes widened a smidge, "this is -!"

"Sorry, Kendou."

At the soft-spoken yet somehow arrogant voice speaking up behind them, Itsuka, Ochako and Izuku quickly looked around, and flinched when Shouto suddenly charged right past them.

"I said that I would declare war on you," He told her in a short voice, not even looking around at her as he passed, "but I didn't say anything about making things easy on you."

With that, he leapt through the air, letting out a grunt as he landed on the first platform and rolled to his feet. At once, ice began to spread across the platform, encasing it as he ran forward.

"OKAY! TIME FOR US TO DO A PLAY BY PLAY!" Mic excitedly exclaimed as he leaned forward over his seat, the crowd immediately beginning to cheer as the games started. "READY TO START COMMENTING, MUMMY MAN?"

Over the speakers, the crowd heard a low, suffering groan.

"How do you convince me to do this every year?"

"BECAUSE YOU LIKE ME!"

"Debatable."

"OKAY, TSUNDERE MUMMY MAN! SO WHAT SHOULD WE BE PAYING ATTENTION TO DURING THE EARLY STAGES OF THIS MATCH!"

There was a pause.

"What's happening right now."

As Aizawa and Mic continued their bickering over the loudspeakers, Itsuka stared after Shouto for a moment, her eyes going wide in indignation - and then, with a shout, she grew out both her hands to full size and threw them down towards the ice on her feet.

CRACK

The moment her fists hit the ground, the ice broke apart into tiny pieces, allowing her, Izuku and Ochako to get their feet out of the ice encasing them - along with several people around them - but Itsuka only hesitated for a moment to look behind her shoulder at her training partners.

"Todoroki's targeting me!" She quickly told them, "I'll make sure his attention stays on me - just remember! Anything but first place!"

"But Kendou -!"

Alas, before Izuku could protest - probably to say something about the three of them needing to stick together for this race - Itsuka immediately took off in a dead sprint after Shouto, glancing at the iced platform he left in his wake and knowing that it would be schmuck's bait to try and run across that, so she instead moved towards the one on the left.

Letting out a grunt as she leapt over the pit, mentally ordering herself not to look down, she flew through the air for a moment before she came down on a cylinder, stumbling a bit before she managed to regain her balance, and began to run across the now enlarged field with the giant pit beneath her feet.

"Where the fuck do you think you're going, Ginger?!" Katsuki barked behind her, finally exploding himself out of the ice he had been captured in, and propelling himself into the air. He was followed swiftly by Pony, Setsuna, Nejire and Momo, the latter girl slamming her bo staff onto the ground and propelling herself through the air.

Pony let out a small squeak as Katsuki's quirk nearly blew her away as he streaked by her, throwing the transfer student off somewhat, but she luckily managed to regain her balance as Setsuna likewise passed her easily.

"Ha!" She laughed loudly, grinning widely as she soared over the platforms. "This'll be -"

BOOM

At the sound of a cannon being fired from the side, Setsuna glanced around slightly, and let out a yelp of surprise as she quickly dodged under the black ball launched straight at her face, but before anyone else could blink, the sound of cannon fire began blasting throughout the arena, aimed specifically for those who were flying above the platforms instead of jumping on them. Katsuki snarled as he was forced to blast himself off to the side to dodge underneath the cannonballs shot straight at him, but was unable to stop himself from getting clipped in the shoulder, leaving a black mark on his gym uniform and sending him spinning through the air as he landed on one of the platforms.

Feeling it shake beneath his feet, Katsuki grunted as he blasted off again, just barely avoiding a blast of purple air pressure emitting from the platform that would've knocked him straight up into the air.

"W-whoa!" Izuku winced as he landed on his own platform, wobbling slightly, but thankfully was able to regain his balance just as Ochako landed on the other platform next to him, and together, both of them began running. Now that people were managing to break out from Shouto's surprise attack, they were all now making their way onto the platforms to follow those who were now getting a head start, with Izuku glancing over his shoulder to see Yui, Tenya, Reiko and Fumikage quickly taking off, Dark Shadow using himself as a human shield for his master to block the cannonballs, and Yui landing on her platform made it wobble dangerously as the stoic girl's eyes briefly widened in panic, waving her hands as she nearly leaned over the side of the platform and into the pit before she managed to regain her balance.

Back on the patch of grass that they had all started on, Izuku could make out more people continuing to break out of the ice, which made him gulp nervously at how many people were starting to make their way onto the platforms, which would make sure that it would be dangerous to stay on a platform for any longer than he had to. So he was quick to turn back around, spotting a spinning platform to jump on, and grunted as he hopped off the current floating square he was on and onto it.

There was still a large pit of spinning wheels and platforms to get through, so Izuku needed to get some distance between himself and everyone else before he got knocked over by someone using their quirk to disrupt him.

So, with little options left for him, Izuku raised the arm he had the red bracelet on, and pressed down on the blue panel to activate the Full Gauntlet. Once it formed around his arm, he took a deep breath, and threw his arm back so that it faced the platform beneath him, taking one moment to brace himself, and fired.

KRACK-BOOM

With a small yelp, Izuku was shot straight into the air, his eyes widening and his arms waving in panic for a moment as he flew up. In the crowd, Inko threw her hands over her mouth, her eyes watering as her baby boy was sent flying in the air, Miwa and Tenohira quickly trying to assure her that he'll be okay while Hisashi glanced around at the other kids running along the platforms.

"It's okay, Inko, it's okay!" Tenohira tried to assure her friend, "Izuku's got this!"

"Oh, goodness, I think I'm going to faint," Inko fanned her face.

In the stadium itself, Izuku quickly looked over to the side, seeing a few of the cannons starting to aim at him and follow his movements, so he turned his gaze quickly to the platform he was aiming for, knowing that as long as he landed on his feet -

- and that was when he heard an explosion to the side, and someone slammed straight into Izuku.

"Ah!"

"Shit!"

"OOOOOF!" Mic's teasing commentary sounded throughout the stadium, "LOOKS LIKE A MID-AIR COLLISION BETWEEN BAKUGOU AND MIDORIYA! YE-OUCH!"

"Watch where you're going, Shitty Deku!" Katsuki barked at him, planting his feet against Izuku's chest, and blasted off. The force of the explosion pushed Izuku back towards the ground - and far off course of where he had been aiming, Izuku realized in horror as he glanced back at where the edge of the platform was coming up a bit too fast for his liking.

Alas, it was a bit too late to attempt to fire off another blast with his quirk, as Izuku quickly hit the platform with a grunt - disrupting another girl with pink hair and support equipment, who gave him a small pout as he nearly clipped one of the items she was holding and quickly zipped off, and Izuku rolled dangerously near the edge - thankfully the platform seemed to be made of some kind of styrofoam so it wasn't too hard on his back, but he was still close enough to the edge that he began to fall off.

With a gasp of panic, Izuku scrambled to grab onto the edge, only barely managing to grab it with his left hand as he began dangling above a very long drop. Grunting, he tried to swing his other hand to grab onto the platform and lift himself up, glancing around briefly - and then spotting a cannon slowly turning to point at him, aiming right for his face.

"Oh, no," He let out a small whimper, "please don't let that be -"

BOOM

The cannon fired straight at him, prepared to break his nose and shoot him right off the platform into the pit below - but a hand suddenly slapped onto his, and he felt his weight disappear.

Realizing what was happening, he quickly let go of the platform so that Ochako could easily lift him up into the air, the cannonball barely missing its chance to knock him into next week as he began floating up in the air like a balloon. As he dangled there, Ochako quickly began running along the platform, and Izuku could only hold onto her hand to prevent himself from flying off into the sky.

"Are you okay?!" Ochako quickly asked Izuku as she looked up at him from around her shoulder, Izuku gulping at the obvious stress and panic on her face as they both somehow forgot about the awkwardness that had been plaguing them for the last week or so, "Let me just jump to the next platform, and I can let you down so -"

"There. He. Is."

Both teenagers faltered at the sound of a robotic voice suddenly speaking up a few feet away from them, and Ochako quickly looked around as she skidded to a halt - and then her eyes bulged out of her head as what appeared to be several robots suddenly began crawling out of the pit like zombies, climbing up carefully onto the platforms before them. There were several gasps from the other students behind them as more robots continued to appear on the platforms, and Itsuka quickly looked around as she landed on her own platform ahead of them, what looked like a two-pointer appearing on the other end as several red eyes flashed at the students.

And then, with another rumble, several giant hands began rising out of the pit, making most of the ensemble classes widen their eyes in horror as they realized what else had come out to the party in order to block the path before them as the zero-pointers menacingly towered over them.

"Oh, no," Inko groaned, "I really am going to faint."

"WHAT IS THIIIIIIIS?" Present Mic screeched dramatically as the zero-pointers rose out of the pit, and several audience members gasped in shock, delight or a mixture of the two. "STRANGE OBSTACLES HAVE SUDDENLY SHOWN UP FROM THE PIT! STARTING WITH ... UA'S TRADITIONAL FIRST BARRIER! THE ROBOOOOOOOO INFERNO!"

"... why are you like this?" Aizawa asked his fellow commenter dryly.

"It is him," One of the robots droned out, before suddenly snapping into a battle stance, its voice becoming rather sinister, "the murderer of Villain Bot Serial Number 1678323!"

"The …" Ochako gulped nervously, pressing her fingers together to let Izuku land on the platform beside her, "… murderer of who?"

"I … I don't even know," Izuku shrugged a bit, still looking nervously around as the other robots began menacingly moving towards the other students coming up behind them, and turned to glance at Ochako, "so, uh - are we gonna -?"

"Wanna work together?" Ochako finished the question for him, and Izuku smiled gratefully at her as they both began to run together towards the robot still declaring vengeance against him, "Better than trying to fight each other and facing these guys alone, right?"

"Y-yeah! Let's do this, Occhan!"

On the other side of the stadium, Itsuka glanced over at her two training partners out of the corner of her eye, having already picked up the two-pointer coming at her and tossing it back over the side and into the pit, and let out a small sigh of relief as she saw Izuku and Ochako working together to jump over the robot that was advancing on them. Thankfully, they seemed to have the same idea that she did - get the robots out of the way rather than fight them, so they could keep moving forward.

Midnight's warning from earlier - to not stand still - kept ringing in her head, and she glanced around as she saw one of the general studies students, who had somehow gotten ahead of most of them, suddenly slow down as he came across a one-pointer, letting out a squeak as he stopped running forward.

Feeling her eyes widen, Itsuka quickly began running over, looking for a platform to jump onto as she called out to him, "Don't stop! Just jump to -!"

Alas, it was too late, as the guy quickly tried to back away as the one-pointer advanced on him, not thinking to jump on one of the closer platforms - and instead, his foot slipped near the side, and, with a shout of alarm, topped backwards, too out of Itsuka's reach for her to reach for him, and fell right off the platform.

Her words dying in her throat, Itsuka followed his descent with her eyes as she continued on, watching as he fell screaming into the darkness, and felt her knees shake a bit as she moved to stay as far away from the edge as possible. She had admittedly never been afraid of heights, but … well … she would much rather avoid falling into dark, scary pits in which she couldn't see the bottom.

So she needed to keep moving.

Shaking her head and letting out another grunt of exertion as she leapt onto the next platform, she snapped her eyes up as the zero-pointers looked down on her. They were large, of course, large enough that they easily blocked the way to the other platforms - but at this height, she was up to their chests. And she already had plenty of experience climbing one of them, Itsuka smirked a bit, although it might be a bit harder to do without a gravity girl on her back floating her around.

But still, she felt herself grin as she ran forwards -

- and then, on her right, she felt a sudden chill.

She managed to look around just in time as Shouto, who had been slowed down slightly in his lead by the appearance of the robots, scooped his hand down from near the ground and, with a grunt, threw it upwards, flinging it at the zero-pointer reaching towards him - and a huge blast of ice erupted from the ground.

Indeed, with a loud crack, what was essentially a giant pillar of ice suddenly shot up and impaled the zero-pointer right through the face. Itsuka let out a squeak at how suddenly violent that was, skidding to a stop and whirling around to look at where Shouto was now leaned over and glaring up at the frozen robot, its hand twitching as the entire audience gasped in shock at the display of power.

"So these are the kind of robots that were used in the general entrance exam?" He asked himself, huffing, "Hm. If they went through all the trouble to get these things here, I wish they could've used their time to bring in something better - my stupid old man is watching."

"Er …" Itsuka felt herself trail off, not entirely sure how to respond to that, but she quickly shook her head as she tried to ignore him. She still had to get around her own zero-pointer, after all, so she should try to forget about … whatever the hell he was supposed to mean by that.

And she did this, of course, by running forward, only slowing down a bit as the zero-pointer's head loomed menacingly over her - and then, with a loud shout, leapt up into the air. As she jumped, her hands grew to their full size, which made it much easier for her to grab a hold of the robot's hand as she was pulled up into the air, dangling for a moment before she managed to tighten her grip, and grunted as she swung a leg up.

Shouto, down on his own platform, quickly looked up as Itsuka was lifted further into the air by the zero-pointer she was holding onto, and lifted his eyebrow as Itsuka managed to swing her way up onto the giant robot's hand. Once she was on top, however, Itsuka shrunk her hands down and quickly scrambled to her feet, sprinting down the zero-pointer's arm while keeping her eyes open for any cannonballs that might try and smack her off the robot, and ducked as one attempted to fire at her face as she climbed up its shoulder.

With a small scowl, Shouto began to run again as well, stomping his foot down and beginning to slide along the platform, before jumping up into the air and beginning to move through the air on a continuous trail of ice, sliding easily around the zero-pointer he just effortlessly put out of commission.

"AND LOOK AT THAT!" Present Mic screeched, "KENDOU AND TODOROKI ARE NECK IN NECK! KENDOU HAS CHOSEN TO GO 'SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS' ON THESE BAD BOYS, WHILE TODOROKI JUST DID THE SIMPLE THING AND STABBED HIS THROUGH THE FACE! KENDOU FROM CLASS 1A, AND TODOROKI FROM CLASS 1B! TODOROKI DEFEATING HIS OPPONENT IN ONE HIT, AND KENDOU CHOOSING THE HARDER WAY AROUND! ELEGANT! THEY'RE GOING TO BE THE FIRST ONES THROUGH!"

"It's logical," Aizawa seemed to agree, although there was a small hint of annoyance in his voice, "if reckless on Todoroki's part."

"WELL, IT'S TO BE EXPECTED! FROM SOMEONE WHO GOT IN THROUGH RECOMMENDATIONS, AND SOMEONE WHO CAME IN FIRST IN THE GENERAL ENTRANCE EXAM! ARE WE LOOKING AT WHAT APPEAR TO BE RIVALS IN THE MAKING?!"

"Okay, okay, Mic-sensei," Itsuka grumbled as she started hopping down from the zero-pointer, "you don't have to play me up that much."

With a grunt, she leapt down from the zero-pointer, landing on the platform with a grunt just as Shouto slid down onto his own platform. He was quick to look over at her as she started running again, and narrowed his eyes as he likewise did the same. Itsuka, meanwhile, was also quick to notice Shouto racing her, narrowing her eyes somewhat as she turned her gaze to the next platform she had to jump to.

It was clear, to both of them, that this race no longer involved the rest of their classmates or the people behind them - it was just them. Itsuka glanced over at Shouto again as he ran forward on his own platform, turning back to the next platform she spotted and was already beginning to time her jump for.

Still, though, as long as Shouto kept his attention solely on her, everything would be fine. As long as she kept on her toes to avoid any more tricks, and slowed down enough to let him have the win, she would be able to -

BOOM

And that was when the explosion sounded above her, the only warning Itsuka got as someone landed on the other side of the platform Itsuka was currently on - hard enough to propel its other side, and her, up into the air, Itsuka letting out a squeak as she barely managed to jump off the end and land on the next one.

"OOOOOOOOH! AND BAKUGOU FROM CLASS 1A WENT OVER THE ZERO-POINTER'S HEAD! CLEVER!"

"What the fuck do you think you're doing, Ginger?!" Katsuki barked behind her, and leapt off the platform with another explosion, leaping into the air and keeping his red eyes locked on Itsuka's back as she stumbled a bit with her landing, "I'm getting an overwhelming victory today! You aren't messing that up for me this time! Today's the day I'm gonna show everyone who's really the top of our class!"

"Oh, fuck off!" Itsuka yelled back at him, not up for any of his bullcrap as she started running along the next platform. Katsuki let out another snarl, and, using his explosions, blasted down onto Itsuka's next platform. She let out a gasp as she wobbled dangerously close to the edge, only barely managing to jump off in time before she would've been knocked over into the pit, and landed on the next platform with a grunt, rolling slightly.

"OH? WHAT'S THIS?!" Present Mic excitedly asked the crowd, everyone cheering and watching the sudden intense match with glee. "IS BAKUGOU FROM CLASS 1A TRYING TO KNOCK KENDOU OFF THE PLATFORM?! IS THIS EVEN LEGAL?!"

"It is!" Midnight declared from her spot near the red line, no one even knowing how she got over there as she threw her hand into the air. "As I said, using your quirks and body to directly knock someone off the platform is a no go - but everything else is fair game!"

"Come on, sensei …" Itsuka let out a small growl under her breath, already tired of her other classmate as he rocketed back up into the air, and deliberately began to slow herself down, beginning to run across the new platform at a much slower pace.

"Eh?" Katsuki suddenly sneered, as though sensing weakness as he blasted down again, "What's the matter, Ginger? You heard the teacher - as long as I don't use my quirk directly on you, I'm good to knock you out of the game!"

"Yeah …" Itsuka nodded slowly, talking in a low voice to herself as Katsuki launched himself towards her, about to slam down and completely knock her off - and then, just as he was about to land down, Itsuka spun on her heel, a vicious gleam in her eye.

"… and I suppose this is good as long as you stay on the platform!"

And with that, Itsuka did what she's been wanting to do ever since Izuku told her about Katsuki in her garage a year ago. And boy, oh boy, did it feel good to finally spin around, her leg in the air, and kick Katsuki in his smug, stupid face.

"OUCH!" Mic continued to commentate. "A GOOD SOLID KICK FROM KENDOU!"

"YEAH!" Hakushu shouted, leaping up from his seat and throwing his arms in the air. "THAT'S MY GIRL!"

"Oh, god," Tenohira groaned, looking around at Miwa as the other mother tried to hold in her giggles, "we don't … have to call that kid's mom to apologize later, right?"

"No, no," Miwa shook her head, laughing, "knowing Mitsuki? She's probably laughing her ass off right now."

---

"HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAAAAA!"

"Dear," Masaru groaned from his spot near the kitchen table as his wife's cackles rang throughout their house, turning the page for his book, "I'm sure it's not that funny."

"You kiddin'?! Look at his face! Thank fuck we're recording this, I'm gonna print that out and frame that face on the wall!"

---

His eyes widening, Katsuki could do nothing but stare blankly ahead for a moment as Itsuka's foot slammed into the side of his face, looking as though he had no idea what was happening as she kicked him. With a shout, Itsuka completed the spin kick and deliberately smacked him to the floor, where his head banged against the soft platform, and without further comment, whirled around and began sprinting away from him as fast as she could, praying that he would be stunned enough for her to get some decent distance away while Shouto ran ahead of her.

Alas, things couldn't be that simple, as once she jumped off the platform onto another, she heard the telltale sound of a loud explosion behind her.

"YOU FUCKING BITCH!"

Meanwhile, back around the zero-pointers, Izuku and Ochako both leapt down from the one they had confronted (which had pretty much consisted of Izuku firing a shot at its face to briefly stun it while Ochako floated them up and around its head), landing with two grunts as they were careful not to tip the platform over with their combined weight. From the looks of things, other people were deciding to imitate them and just go around the zero-pointers; Hanta was flipping around on his tape, letting out a grunt as he briefly flew above the excited crowd; Fumikage leapt into the air with Dark Shadow as a brace; and Momo had been working on creating something from her stomach earlier, probably to blast at the robots.

So it wouldn't take long for Izuku and Ochako to lose what little headstart they had.

On the other side of the arena, meanwhile, the two training partners, as they ran together on the platforms, heard the sound of something banging. Taking a chance to glance around, they saw something in the zero-pointer's back start to bend, as though there were two … things in its leg trying to punch their way out.

BAM BAM BAM

BAM BAM BAM

At the exact same time, Eijirou and Tetsutetsu from Class 1B suddenly punched their way through the back of the zero-pointer, both of them shouting victoriously as they raised their fists into the air - and then immediately wheeled around at each other, snarling as they kept the same pace as they ran along the platform.

"Stop imitating me, man!"

"You're the one who's making me look bad!"

Trying not to roll their eyes, Izuku and Ochako turned back to continue running through the platforms, keeping pace so as not to overtake each other or knock their partner off balance. They glanced around to see Katsuki going after Itsuka, which made them worry for their teammate (although the way Itsuka was keeping ahead of Katsuki did make them feel a bit relieved), and another glance around showed Shouto clearly in the lead, sliding across the platforms on his ice.

They both knew that, at the end of the day, it didn't matter if they didn't get close to first place - as long as they made it to the next round, they would be in the clear. But a glance between each other told them both what they wanted - to place near the top, as close to the top as possible.

So that was what they were going to do.

Still, there was a brief problem that came before them as the platforms suddenly began to thin out, and they both blinked as they landed on one platform that wasn't moving. And a single glance up at what was now in front of them, which had been blocked from sight by the zero-pointers, made both of their eyes widen in shock. Mostly due to the fact that the wall that had blocked the next section had slid back down into the pit, and the section that they had now come across was … definitely not going to be as easy at all.

"OH HO! LOOKS LIKE OUR STUDENTS THOUGHT THE FIRST BARRIER WAS GOING TO BE A PIECE OF CAKE! SO DIG ON THIS!" Present Mic commented gleefully, the crowd gasping at the sight of a series of thin lines suddenly stretched out from one platform to the other, "OUR LITTLE LISTENERS DOWN THERE HAVE GOTTA GET TO THE OTHER SIDE IN ONE PIECE! IF YOU FALL, YOU'RE OUT! IF YOU DON'T WANNA FALL, THEN YOU BETTER BE READY TO CRAWL ACROSS! JUST MAKE SURE YOU DON'T GET HIT BY THE CANNONS! ENJOY YOUR REST STOP WHILE YOU CAN, BECAUSE YOU'RE GONNA BE CLIMBING FOR A WHILE!"

Both Izuku and Ochako grimaced just a little bit at that, staring down at what they had to deal with. From the looks of things, as Mic had suggested, the floating platforms were pretty far away, in favor of what looked to be a series of cables stretched out from one end of the field to the other. Some were straight lines, but others were more zigzagged, attaching to each other to make climbing a bit harder. They turned towards where Itsuka, Shouto and Katsuki were now climbing across - or in Shouto's case, sliding along the cable on his ice, while Katsuki blasted ahead (and a slight turn showed what looked to be a weird shoeprint on the side of his face) and Itsuka climbed.

Well, at least Itsuka seemed to be having fun, enlarging her hands to easily swing her way across as though she were Tarzan, grunting as she climbed through. The cables, however, tensed dangerously at her weight, making Itsuka grimace a bit -

- and then a cannon shot at her on the side, making her squeak as she forced herself to swing a bit faster in order to avoid getting hit. Katsuki, meanwhile, snarled as the cannons continued to fire at him, the only one in the air, and Shouto scowled as he was forced to slow his sliding in order to avoid getting knocked off while he was off-balance.

Both Izuku and Ochako stared in shock as Itsuka tried to make her way across the pit as quickly as she could, the cables tensing under her weight, while Katsuki had to blast himself back and forth with wild snarls and shouts, and Shouto had to duck underneath the cannons being shot directly at his head. There was another moment's pause -

- and then Izuku shook his head, frowning as he looked around at Ochako.

"Nope." He said simply, "we aren't doing this."

"Then what're we gonna do?" She asked, feeling her brow furrow as she began pacing up and down their rest stop while glancing behind her, seeing Eijirou, Tetsutetsu, Momo and a few other members of Class 1A and 1B come around the zero-pointers (although Momo was weirdly slowing down, for some reason). "We can't just fly across - there's no way that we could make it, and then the cannonballs -"

"- will shoot us out of the sky." Izuku finished for her, nodding and raising one hand to tug on his lip as he thought. There was a few moment's pause while Ochako tried to scan their surroundings for any answer that wouldn't require them to climb around - and then Izuku suddenly blinked, and lowered his hand, now forming into a fist, to smack into his open palm.

"I've got it," He nodded as he looked back at her, "I think I can get us across in one jump, with one blast. So, uh - so what we're gonna do, is - you'll climb onto my back, without your weight, and I can fire behind us with the Full Gauntlet. Once I jump up, you'll take away my weight, and we can use the momentum to fly us across. Once you unfloat us, we'll have completely bypassed the cables."

"Okay, but …" Ochako started to say, and then blinked, and shook her head, "… well, I wanted to ask if you had any alternative plans, but I don't have any, so - well, yeah, I wanna avoid the cables too."

With a sigh, she hopped up and down once before she turned to Izuku, balling her fists.

"Let's do it!"

Nodding, Izuku quickly flexed his quirk to fill up the Full Gauntlet again, and then moved down, lowering his hands as he prepared to carry Ochako.

Realizing that she needed to climb onto his back, Ochako felt herself blink - it would be far from the first time he carried her on his back, of course, it had been something they'd done since they were kids - but for some reason, she felt herself go a bit red. But there wasn't any time to think it over - the longer they stayed still, the more chances something would come along to knock them both off the platforms. And while she could float herself above the pit, it would leave her unable to move forward, and make her easy pickings for the cannons.

So, trying to fight down how suddenly flustered she felt, Ochako put her hands on Izuku's shoulders, keeping her pinkies up, and with a grunt, lifted herself onto his back. Izuku felt himself go a bit red as well as Ochako wrapped her arms a bit around his neck, and he held onto her legs as he straightened up - the feeling of her soft thighs in his hands, even through their gym clothes, was enough to suddenly make him feel woozy, for a reason he didn't quite understand - but soon, Ochako moved her hands to rest on his shoulders, and then raised one hand to touch her leg, and her weight disappeared.

"Okay," She tried to sound calm, although there was a slight shake in her voice, "I'm good to go. Once you jump, I'll float you too."

"Alright," Izuku nodded, glancing over to the platform on the other side of the cables and trying to swallow his embarrassment, "I'm gonna jump, you'll float me, and then I'll fire off a blast."

"S-sounds good!"

Once she gave him that shaky confirmation, Izuku let out a small sigh, making sure that his arm with the Full Gauntlet was pointed behind them and wouldn't accidentally hit Ochako by mistake, and just as the sound of their classmates coming up behind them filled his ears, jumped.

At once, Ochako slammed her hand down onto his shoulder, Izuku feeling his weight disappear at once as the two training partners began floating in the air - and then, with a backwards glance to make sure he wouldn't be hitting anyone standing directly behind them, fired his quirk.

KRACK-BOOM

Now, in the split second that it took for both Izuku and Ochako to achieve liftoff, there were a few things that they suddenly became aware of.

Number one, that while the Full Gauntlet was specifically designed to lower the firepower of Izuku's quirk, that didn't mean the blasts it did fire out weren't still extremely powerful.

Number two, that Izuku and Ochako, by both being weightless, could be easily pushed around by anything, from strong winds to a simple push from one of their classmates.

And number three, Izuku wasn't exactly aiming directly backwards - since they were floating up in the air, they had turned a bit off course, so instead of aiming directly behind him at the zero-pointer Shouto destroyed, he was aiming at the ground directly below them.

So, with all of those points summarized up, that meant that instead of being shot straight over the second obstacle like a bullet, easily avoiding the cables - they were instead sent up.

Straight up.

Itsuka, who had been swinging along the cables trying hard not to get hit by the cannonballs, jumped a bit in surprise at the sound of lightning clapping behind her, almost loosening her grip on the ropes, and quickly looked around - and then up, her eyes bulging out of her sockets in shock, as Izuku and Ochako were suddenly launched straight into the sky. Shouto and Katsuki were likewise surprised by the two classmates suddenly blasting off, and the cheers of the crowd were silenced at once as everyone was quick to follow the two participants that had suddenly flown straight out of the stadium.

As Itsuka's eyes widened in horror, Katsuki couldn't help but let out an amused snort at their failure. Behind the other three farther ahead in the course, all the students that had been racing each other to the finish line likewise paused, their eyes moving up to follow Izuku and Ochako as they blasted off. Tenya froze up a bit, skidding to a halt as his eyes widened. Momo likewise was distracted enough from the other distraction now clinging to her back and getting elbowed in the face, staring up at her friends in confusion. Setsuna paused, her head tilting as though she didn't quite understand what she was seeing. Shinsou raised an eyebrow, and then moved to another student to talk to them. And Nejire, who had been flying above the obstacle course and having lots of fun dodging the cannonballs being fired at her, felt her own eyes widen as she recognized the green hair soaring away.

And that, right about then, was when chaos ensued, as when everyone suddenly came to a stop to watch the students rapidly ascend, they forgot the one rule Midnight emphasized above all others - don't stand still.

And for that, they were rewarded by the platforms suddenly jerking them around, causing everyone to let out noises of surprise as they realized that they had completely forgotten that they were in an obstacle course race, or up in the air, the cannonballs fired at the now still students, causing Pony to yelp in pain as she got hit in the back, Setsuna get one of her body pieces hit and causing her to swear loudly, and Nejire to squeak as she was forced to duck.

As for Katsuki, his amused snort at Izuku and Ochako's failure got him rewarded by a cannonball being fired directly at his face, smacking him in the cheek and causing him to grunt in pain as he was sent spinning through the air, clutching his face with one hand while firing off an explosion to prevent him from falling into the pit, jerking him around.

"Why?!" He growled to himself, "Why do I keep getting hit in the face?!"

---

"Hey, boss" Chimera huffed, reaching for the bottle of scotch left on the table and pouring himself another drink as his eyes stayed on the TV, "it's them."

The bar room was quiet, except for the sound of the TV and their newest recruit leaning back in her own chair on the other side of the room, uninterested in the television and instead playing with her illusions in the corner. At the bar, Chimera and Mummy leaned forward in their stools, dressed in their civilian clothes in case someone came in, and quietly watched the TV beside them as they leaned on the bar.

At the nearest table, Nine let out a small sigh as his gray eyes studied the television, a small smile appearing on his face as he tapped his finger against the wood. Beside him, Slice frowned at the mere sight of the boy, her fist clenching slightly.

But Nine didn't mind that - not when he was able to read the names being flashed across the screen for the green-haired boy and his brunette friend.

"Izuku Midoriya," He noted quietly, "and Ochako Uraraka."

"Heh, look at that," Chimera chuckled at the nervous look on the kid's face, his yellow eyes trailing to the scars on his forehead and cheek, "looks like our monster gave him a good few scratches."

"Good," Mummy put his bottle down, scowling at the TV, "serves him right for what he did to Nine. He deserves to have a reminder of what it means to cross us whenever he looks in the mirror."

"Oh, come now," Nine chuckled, shaking his head and looking around at his friend, "let's not be like that."

"Huh?" Slice blinked. "But Nine -"

"He gave me a scar," He gently poked his chest, smiling slightly, "which I will be taking as a lesson. And our beast gave him a few scars of his own. I'm going to try and not hold it against our young friend too much - he was just saving his teacher."

"Oh!" Camie gasped, having looked up from her illusions to the TV. "The hottie!"

"Quiet," Mummy said in a small, annoyed voice - it was clear to the rest of the Consortium that he was still put off by their newest recruit, and had no problem with voicing his irritation, "I still don't know why you insisted she be here with us, Nine - she's clearly not interested."

"She's a part of the Consortium now," Nine said plainly, "you are allowed to have your reservations, my friend, but we'll be putting her to work soon enough."

"Give her a break, Mummy," Slice rolled her eyes, reaching for her own drink, "she's new. We'll be having her -"

"Er …"

Hearing the sudden change in Chimera's tone, the other three members of the Consortium looked back around at the TV, and Nine and Slice blinked at the odd sight of the two students doing some kind of piggy-back maneuver - before the boy pointed his hand backwards, jumped, and once she used her gravity quirk on him, launched the both of them in the air. The camera followed their sudden quick exit from the stadium, with the shrill commentary suddenly faltering out.

There was a pause in the bar - and then Chimera let out a loud laugh, slamming his glass down on the table while Mummy rolled his eyes.

"Come now, Chimera," Nine himself was unable to stop himself from letting out a small chuckle as Slice shook her head, "it's not that funny."

---

"WHAAAAAAAAAA?! ERASERHEAD! YOUR TWO STUDENTS JUST HURLED THEMSELVES OUT OF THE STADIUM! WHAT AN UNEXPECTED TWIST! WHAT DO YOU THINK THEIR STRATEGY IS?!"

"Your mistake is thinking that anyone in my class actually stops to think."

Way up in the air, the sound of Present Mic's loud, screechy voice began to dangerously fade the higher they went up, Izuku and Ochako continuing to stare blankly ahead as they ascended rather quickly into the sky. Hearing the noise of the sports festival's audience fade into surprised shouts as they flew higher and higher into the air, both of them slowly realized what had just happened, and why it was suddenly so windy.

And then Ochako glanced down, and let out a terrified squeak.

"D-don't look down, Occhan!" Izuku quickly snapped out of his shock, trying his hardest not to panic himself as he looked around wildly. "We - we don't need to freak out any more than -"

"Uh - Deku, you should really look down!"

Blinking, Izuku found himself feeling confused by that statement, and did as she said as he glanced down - and his warnings for her not to panic immediately went out the window as his eyes widened in horror, seeing the stadium continue to grow smaller and smaller as they flew up higher and higher into the sky.

"Oh, crap!" He squeaked. "W-what do we do?!"

"I don't know!" Ochako screamed, her eyes likewise bulging out of their sockets as she looked around in panic. "How are we gonna get down?! We'll overshoot the stadium at this point!"

"I -" Izuku faltered, trying to recollect himself as he looked around desperately. Indeed, they were flying rather ominously up into the air - similar to how he and Nejire had flown up together during the entrance exam, and faced a rather major problem when they fell down. But Hound Dog wouldn't be jumping out to save them this time - and if they didn't stop ascending soon, they'd be at risk of getting hit by a freaking plane.

So they needed to stop going up, that much was certain. But that presented the tiny problem of them being so high up in the air, falling now would mean certain death. So … what could they possibly …

… maybe …

"Occhan!" Izuku yelled to her over the blowing wind in their ears, "Release us!"

"What?!" Ochako shrieked, whipping around to look at him as she looked absolutely panicked, and staring at him as though he had gone insane, "Are you crazy?!"

"Trust me!" He quickly looked around at her over his shoulder, "I think we can fall enough that we can get back into the arena, and you can use your quirk again to slow our fall! Once we're back in the race, we can still move on to the second round!"

"I'm not really concerned about the sports festival right now, Deku!"

"Just - trust me, okay?!"

Ochako let out a small, whining groan at yet another one of her best friend's brilliant ideas, but still did as she was told, taking a small, deep breath before she brought her hands together and released her quirk.

At once, they both felt their ascent begin to slow, Izuku taking a very audible gulp over the wind blowing their hair back as Ochako quickly wrapped her arms around his neck to prevent her from slipping off, and tightened her legs' grip on his waist as they finally stopped flying up.

And, slowly, they began to fall.

"Okay!" He managed to squeak out, feeling Ochako cling tighter to him as she buried her face against the back of his head, but the panic of the situation prevented either of them from being flustered about it. "When I say 'now', take away our gravity again! I'll calculate the exact time we'll be at a safe distance for you to use your quirk!"

"Okay - but if we splat on the ground, I'm blaming you!"

"I - if we end up splattering on the ground, we'll probably be -"

"Don't say it! I know what you wanna say, Deku, don't do it! Don't put that thought in my head!"

Meanwhile, down below, Itsuka was still staring up at the small dot her training partners had become up in the air, her mouth dropped open. She wasn't even aware of the feeling of cannonballs continuing to hit her in the back and stomach, staring up at the rapidly falling Izuku and Ochako as she felt her heart hammering in terror as everyone in the crowds started gasping and screaming. It was clear, at least to everyone, that the two students were no longer flying up, but rather, coming down, and that was enough to make Itsuka begin to panic.

They were coming back down rather fast, and judging from where they were falling, there was no way either of them could slow their descent in time to have a soft landing - or at least, one that wouldn't result in them breaking every bone in their body.

And then the panic within Itsuka faded away, and she narrowed her eyes in determination.

With a grunt, she began to swing again on the cables - not at her rather slower pace before, but rather swinging back and forth from the cables like they were monkey-bars. The ropes did burn her hands slightly, but she ignored the pain in favor of getting to the other end of the obstacle, keeping her head swivelling between grabbing each rope she swung to and from and Izuku and Ochako falling from the sky. At the sight of their opponent suddenly moving much faster, however, Shouto and Katsuki both narrowed their eyes, and began to chase after her, Shouto ducking under any cannonball fired at him and Katsuki leaping through the air so he could just blast his way through, ignoring the balls being fired at him as his eyes narrowed at Itsuka swinging beneath him.

Back in the air, above the stadium, Izuku screwed his eyes nearly completely shut, the wind stinging his eyes, but he fought to keep them open so he could figure out where they could land safely while Ochako clung to his back - but then a flicker of yellow light suddenly appeared in his vision, and he quickly looked around as a familiar girl suddenly shot out from the stadium, her eyes wide in shock.

"Hey!" Nejire gasped, quickly managing to angle herself so she could fly (or descend) beside them both as she quickly reached out for them. "Hey, hey, hey, what are you guys doing?! Skydiving?! That's dangerous to do without a parachute! Should I help? I can grab you guys!"

"N-no!" Izuku quickly shook his head, making Nejire blink at how fast he was to deny her help, "I - thank you, Hadou, but - but if you grab onto us, you might just get yanked off course! Occhan and I - we've got a plan!"

"I guess!" Nejire decided not to argue, although she did pout a little bit, "If you've got this, you got this! But I'm gonna still be here, just in case! Better safe than sorry, right? I think so, at least!"

"I - I guess so! Sure!" Izuku quickly agreed, knowing better than to disagree with her, and turned his gaze back towards the stadium - and then it moved up to the platform Midnight was standing on, talking to someone on her comm quickly as she stared up at them.

Quickly, Izuku nodded to himself - it was the largest platform, and on that they could at least trust not to collapse on them, so he narrowed his eyes in determination and began to angle himself and Ochako towards it, the girl on his back clinging tightly to Izuku and having one of her hands, one finger up, resting on his arm in preparation to float them whenever he gave her the word.

Down below, Present Mic managed to flicker his gaze back down to the stadium, with Aizawa turning away to talk to All Might about catching the two falling students, and blinked as he saw Itsuka suddenly flip up onto the other rest stop before the third obstacle, and quickly cleared his throat.

"WELL, UH - BACK TO THE CHALLENGE, AS I SEE A FEW OF OUR LITTLE LISTENERS HAVE MANAGED TO REACH THE THIRD AND FINAL PART! TO PROCEED HERE, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE KEY IS TO - huh?" Present Mic faltered, and then leapt out of his seat, his eyes bulging, "WHAT'S THIS?! KENDOU ISN'T EVEN LETTING ME FINISH MY EXPLANATION!"

Indeed, back down in the obstacle course, Itsuka wasn't even listening to her teacher as she continued to run across the second rest stop, letting out a shout as she leapt out onto the pillars that had risen up from the dark pit. Coming down on one, she heard an ominous beep, but paid it no mind as she turned back to the sky briefly to see where Izuku and Ochako were falling, mentally calculating where they would land as her hands grew out again.

Jumping from the platform and hearing a weird noise as the pillar fell a second after she had touched it, Itsuka continued to run forward, narrowing her eyes in determination as she tried to mentally figure out where she would need to be in order to -

"GINGER!"

Her eyes widening slightly, Itsuka whipped around to look over her shoulder, feeling her jaw drop and her eyes widen with exasperation. Both Katsuki and Shouto were still in obvious pursuit of her, Katsuki blasting his way into the air and grinning audaciously down at her as he prepared to blast down at her - but Shouto, she realized, stood back as he stomped his foot down, his eyes narrowed, and sent a large torrent of ice towards her to halt her process.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME RIGHT NOW?!" She screamed at both of them, her teeth gnashing in rage, and quickly turned back around, her hand forming into a fist.

Keeping her hand grown out, she turned to the ice blasting towards her. With a shout, she threw her fist forward, unaware of her hand flickering and glowing briefly with red veins beginning to crawl through her skin - and punched the ice as hard as she could.

And instead of freezing her in place, the power of the punch instead shattered the ice, and sent a torrent of wind straight at Shouto and Katsuki.

With his eyes widening in shock, Shouto barely managed to create enough ice behind him to keep him from flying back into the second obstacle, grunting in pain as he slammed against the shield of ice and slumped forward. Katsuki wasn't so lucky, being pushed back by the winds back into the second obstacle again, hitting his back on the ropes and grunting as he fell through. He managed to explode his way to a stop, preventing him from falling into the pit, and growled as he attempted to rush back forward to assault Itsuka again - but one of the cannons shot at him again, forcing him to move back in order to avoid it.

Itsuka, meanwhile, returned her attention to Izuku and Ochako falling from the sky, her eyes narrowed in determination now that she had gotten rid of the distractions. She continued to jump from pillar to pillar as they thinned out, ignoring Mic's commentary as she ran forward and not even caring that she was getting closer and closer to the finish line.

All she could focus on was her training partners plummeting towards the ground, and fast, and having no way to slow their descent without breaking several bones.

And there was no way in hell she was going to let that happen.

She felt herself pant as she ran forward as fast as she could, ignoring the pillars falling beneath her feet as she left her hands grown out. She ignored the shouting of the crowd as they saw one of the students heading towards first place. She ignored Midnight talking into her mic to one of the teachers for some reason or another. All she saw was Izuku and Ochako falling fast towards where Midnight was, eyes widened and screams of panic leaving their mouths as Nejire flew with them as Itsuka reached the end of the pillars where she was supposed to jump across and through the red line, and without a moment of hesitation, instead jumped up.

She didn't even consider that she leapt up far higher than she usually could, and that her legs ached. All that mattered is that she caught her two training partners. Itsuka leapt up to intercede them, twisting in the air and opening her hands to catch them -

- just as Ochako suddenly touched Izuku's shoulder, floating the two of them and immediately beginning to slow their descent.

There was one good, long moment where Izuku and Ochako looked around at Itsuka, and Itsuka paused in the air, and all three of them realized what had gone wrong. Itsuka didn't realize that Izuku and Ochako obviously had a plan to get down safely, with Ochako's gravity quirk that she had somehow completely forgotten about. Izuku and Ochako, meanwhile, didn't realize that there would've been someone down there that could definitely catch them, her hands growing to grab them both. And Nejire, above the three of them, blinked at the looks of comical shock on all three of their faces.

And then … Izuku and Ochako promptly crashed into Itsuka.

Hard.

"Agh!"

"Oof!"

"Ow!"

Slamming hard into Itsuka's open palms, their weights fully restored, all three training partners were knocked back. Ochako flew off of Izuku's back, her arms flailing in panic as she tumbled through the air; Itsuka winced as both of them slammed into her, throwing her backwards; and Izuku grunted as he bounced off of Itsuka's enlarged hand, sending all three of them tumbling briefly through the air -

- and right through the red holographic finish line, Principal Nezu's holographic face smiling and spinning around as they fell through.

BEEP

BEEP

BEEP

The three loud noises blared out at almost the same time, with no one initially realizing it as Midnight squeaked and quickly jumped out of the way so she wasn't completely taken out by the three falling students. With grunts, Izuku, Ochako and Itsuka hit the soft mat, Ochako briefly landing on Itsuka before bouncing off, before they rolled away from each other and finally came to a stop near the wall of the last floating platform, Izuku sliding off the wall at an awkward angle with his butt and legs in the air, while Itsuka slid down onto her face and Ochako slammed down onto her back, knocking the air out of her lungs.

There was a pause, the crowd staring at the three teenagers laying there in defeat, letting out small groans as they slowly realized they were still alive and Ochako tried desperately to catch her breath after having it knocked out of her - and then Present Mic let out a scream.

"AMAZING! IT'S AMAZING, ERASERHEAD!"

"Stop screaming in my ears."

"SOMEHOW! IN SOME WAY! KENDOU, URARAKA AND MIDORIYA CROSSED THE FINISH LINE AT THE SAME TIME! WITH MIDORIYA AND URARAKA BYPASSING THE LAST TWO OBSTACLES, AND KENDOU BY RUNNING ALL THE WAY ACROSS TO CATCH THEM! IT'S AMAZING! I DON'T REMEMBER THE LAST TIME TWO OF OUR STUDENTS TIED FOR FIRST, LET ALONE THREE AT ONCE!"

"That isn't what happened," Aizawa groaned, "there was clearly a beep ahead of the other two."

"HUH?! THEN WHO CAME IN FIRST?!"

Midnight, for her part, quickly regained her composure from being nearly taken out by three of her students, moving around to a tablet on the table near where she had been standing to quickly scan through the recordings. After a moment of the audience holding their breaths as she double checked, Midnight slowly nodded as she replayed the last minute, and then turned back to the crowd as she quickly strutted over to the three students, checking that they were still breathing - which they were, simply groaning lowly in pain - and then raised her hand up in the air -

- and then brought it down to Izuku, his legs and butt still in the air as he slowly held the back of his head.

"It's clear!" She announced with a large grin, pointing down at Izuku, "Izuku Midoriya only barely crossed the finish line first! Which means that he is the first to finish the race!"

"YOU HEARD THE LADY!" Present Mic screeched. "THE FIRST PERSON TO CROSS THE FINISH LINE - IZUKU MIDORIYA IN FIRST PLACE!"

The audience positively exploded, cheers and roars sounding throughout the air as everyone leapt out of their seats, throwing their arms into the air and screaming as the stadium rumbled with all the sound. In the crowd, Inko promptly fainted, collapsing into her seat and causing both Tenohira and Miwa to panickingly look after her, while Eri clapped politely, unsure about why all the other adults were looking so distressed, with Taiyo, Hakushu and Hisashi holding their hands over their eyes and hearts, and Taiyo letting out a tired sigh as he massaged his forehead as though he had a headache.

"Well, congratulations, Midoriya," Midnight giggled as she looked down at Izuku, the boy slowly sliding over to lay down on his side, "it seems that you've won."

"Yaaaaaay," He said unenthusiastically in a small, painfilled voice.

"Do you three need to go to Recovery Girl?"

"I … I don't think so," Ochako managed to groan, sitting up slightly and rubbing her neck while her face was in an obvious grimace, "just … really big bruise on my back. Ow."

"Mm-hm," Itsuka nodded, shrinking her hands so she could put them down on the mat and raise her head, feeling her lip sting and licking it to feel a small cut there, "I'm good."

"Oh, excellent!" Midnight clapped her hands happily. "I'm sure Recovery Girl wouldn't be happy if she had to have you three back in her office immediately."

The three training partners grumbled at that.

"So …" Izuku flopped back down, staring at the sky, "… we weren't supposed to get first place."

"No," Ochako shook her head, "we were not."

"And … here I am. In first place."

"Don't look at me," Itsuka pouted a bit, "I was doing my own thing before you two launched yourselves into space."

"I … guess that's -"

BEEP

At the sound of the finish line beeping once again, Midnight looked around to see Nejire coming in for a landing, stumbling a bit before she managed to get control of herself, but her eyes widened in panic as she quickly hurried around her teacher. The R-Rated Heroine merely raised an eyebrow as Nejire quickly sank down beside Izuku, carefully taking his wrists to pull him up.

"Are you okay?!" She asked in a concerned voice, quickly looking around at Ochako and Itsuka as they likewise tried to get up. "That looked like it really hurt, guys! You just bounced off each other! It would have looked really funny if it didn't look so rough! Do you guys need to go to Recovery Girl? I can carry you!"

"I - I think we're good," Izuku managed to get out, allowing Nejire to pull him up so he was at least in a seated position, trying to ignore the blush on his cheeks as she kept her hands on his wrists, "or at least - we don't need to see Recovery Girl. T-thanks, Hadou."

"Okay," Nejire nodded, biting her lip slightly - and them, after a moment of hesitation, she moved forward to give him a hug. Izuku let out a small squeak, jolting slightly as she wrapped her arms around his neck, and went red as the crowd let out a few teasing 'ooooooh's.

Up in the stands, however, two women were not as happy to see the hug as the teasing crowd.

"So that's Hadou?" Miwa asked in a cold voice, still fanning Inko in order to wake her up.

"Mm-hm," Tenohira nodded, likewise scowling, "that's Hadou."

Back on the platform, Izuku felt himself grow redder and redder the longer Nejire held on, while Ochako and Itsuka, who were climbing to their feet, glanced over at the hug and felt themselves frown, while Midnight glanced between the four of them with a raised eyebrow.

"Just … don't do that again, okay?" Nejire asked in a small voice, making Izuku blink at how quiet she was, "That was really scary, Midoriya."

"I - uh -" He managed to stutter out for a moment, his arm automatically raising slightly around her back to -

BEEP

At the fifth beep, Nejire blinked, and finally moved away from Izuku so she could have a look around at who had just arrived, and thankfully letting Izuku breathe a little bit, his face still flushed bright red. Itsuka and Ochako likewise turned to look at who just arrived, and Itsuka felt her small frown turn into a proper scowl.

Panting, Shouto moved his hands down to his knees, taking a moment to try and catch his breath as he wiped his sweaty forehead. Slowly, he turned to look over at Itsuka, who was giving him a dirty look as she struggled to her feet, brushing some of the dust off her pants.

"Todoroki," She spat out, "I'm going to assume that you didn't know I was trying to catch Izuku and Ochako. But next time, when I'm looking up at the sky and clearly moving to catch someone, don't try and stop me."

Shouto merely glared at her for a moment, and then let out a small huff as he turned to look back down at the floor. Before he could find some kind of response to that, however, there was another loud beep, and Katsuki landed on the platform, black spots all over his gym uniform from all the cannonballs that had hit him, and the small bruise from Itsuka's kick continuing to form on the side of his face.

Gritting his teeth and growling furiously, he immediately whipped his gaze up to Itsuka as she leaned against the wall, still filled in pain from hitting the ground so hard, and his red eyes hardened into a manic, rage-filled glare.

"You did it again," He growled out, beginning to advance on the girl still leaning against the wall, and prompting both Izuku and Ochako to snap their gazes to him, "you made me look like an idiot again, Ginger!"

Stomping towards her, Katsuki swung his hand back, explosions beginning to pop in his hand - but then another hand suddenly shot out to wrap around his wrist tightly, at the same time another pair of hands grabbed his other arm. Blinking, Katsuki whipped around, and found himself faltering at the sight of Izuku suddenly standing up, using the arm he had the Full Gauntlet on to grab his wrist, and on the other side, Ochako kept her own tight grip on him while glaring up at him.

"Kacchan," Izuku took a small breath, sounding incredibly nervous to stand up to him but still determined as he lightly squeezed on his wrist, "stop. She won, you didn't. There's still a lot more stuff we've got to do today."

"Shitty Deku -" Katsuki began to snarl, very much tempted to rip his arm from Izuku's grasp and hit him with his own explosion, like he had when Izuku had annoyed him at their old school, but the sound of someone clearing their throat behind them caused the teenagers to look around at Midnight as she gave the group a small smirk, although her eyes were cold.

"I hate to interrupt," She said sweetly, "but I'd like to give you three a small reminder that you're in front of an audience. It would hardly look well on any of you to suddenly look like idiots, wouldn't it?"

Izuku and Ochako blinked, glancing around at the massive crowd surrounding the stadium, and knew what their teacher was implying, quickly letting go of Katsuki's arms and sitting back now that they knew that Midnight was taking care of whatever was going to happen if they hadn't interceded him.

"As for you, Bakugou," Midnight's cold gaze turned specifically towards him, "I very much hope that you were moving towards Kendou to help her stand up."

Katsuki merely stared at their teacher for a moment - and then, with a growl, he stomped away from the trio, moving to go and sulk in the corner as he crossed his arms across his chest. Itsuka felt herself blink up at Izuku and Ochako, a small blush on her cheeks, as she finally managed to start straightening up from the wall, Nejire quickly hurrying around Izuku to help her stand.

Once she was sure that Katsuki would behave, Midnight let out a small sigh, and straightened her own back.

"Now then," Her voice suddenly became cheerful again, "let's watch the rest of your classmates finish the course, shall we? I believe I can see a few people running along now."

Blinking a bit at the way she casually dismissed the tense mood, but knowing better than to argue with their teacher, the four teenagers turned to look back out at the field, gulping a bit at how quickly those pillars were shooting down as the students sprinted across the last obstacle. Honestly, Itsuka felt herself pale, she felt lucky she had been concentrating on saving Izuku and Ochako when she went through the last obstacle - she probably would've had an anxiety attack trying to run across this thing.

Although that … would've probably been preferable to thinking about Izuku and Ochako standing up to Katsuki for her, and the angry looks on their faces that made her stomach tense a little bit and her face feel warm.

Soon enough, the next student to join them behind the red line was none other than Tenya, jumping through the air and landing on the other side of the red line - and then immediately collapsing onto his hands and knees, making Izuku, Ochako, Itsuka and Nejire blink down at their friend as he looked completely and utterly despaired.

"Seventh place …?" He asked himself in a weak voice, "With my quirk … with a speed quirk … in a race … I ended up taking … seventh place? I still have … a long way to go … Tensei, I'm … I'm so sorry …"

"Uh - i-it's okay, Iida!" Izuku quickly assured him, running over to kneel down and pat his arm. "It - it was a pretty difficult race for people on foot - it wasn't like there was a straight line! I'm sure you'll do better in the next round."

"I … perhaps," Tenya sighed, still sinking his head to a bow as a few other students from the other class, a girl with vines in her hair and a guy with a strange mouth, jumped across the finish line as well, "but I must admit Midoriya, I'm a bit afraid that my performance overall wasn't very good … I know that Tensei will be watching this later, and … I just …"

"No! You were great!" Nejire was quick to join them, sinking down to her knees and balling her fists as more of their classmates started passing through the finish line, Eijirou and Tetsutetsu jumping through at the same time and immediately whipping around to growl at each other, "I was watching you, y'know! Up in the air! I saw you running that whole time! It was really hard, though, since I kept getting hit by cannonballs, and then Midoriya and Uraraka launched themselves into the sky, but I still saw! You did your best! Please don't think otherwise!"

"You …" Tenya hesitated again, and then shook his head, finally moving to sit up on his knees. Looking between Izuku and Nejire, the boy in glasses attempted to give the pair a small smile.

"… you're right. Both of you. I shouldn't be looking on the downside." He shook his head again, and balled a fist. "We still have several more opportunities to shine today! I'll find another way to excel in the upcoming challenges!"

"Yay! That's the spirit!" Nejire cheered for him, helping Tenya get back up to his feet as Izuku smiled at him, and then moved to look back around at the others still hopping through the finish line to join them.

With another beep, Momo leapt through the holographic red line, panting and looking utterly exhausted, while her face looked … a little more red than the situation should permit. Both Ochako and Itsuka blinked at how angry and humiliated she looked, panting and biting her lip in frustration.

"This wasn't …" She panted, "… how it was supposed to go …"

"Uh … Yaoyorozu?" Itsuka asked, feeling concerned as she approached her friend, "Are you feeling okay? What's -"

She was suddenly interrupted, however, by the sound of a loud, obnoxious laugh directly behind Momo, and both Itsuka and Ochako realized, blinking, that when Momo had passed through the gate, it had made a strange noise - as though it beeped twice very quickly.

"I killed two birds with one stone! I'm a genius!" The smaller boy clinging to Momo's back proclaimed happily, using what looked like small purple balls from his head to attach himself to Momo's back and butt, ignoring how bruised and bloody his face was as he gave the other two girls a massive shit-eating grin.

Itsuka and Ochako stared down at him in shock for a moment - and then a vein appeared in Itsuka's forehead.

"Hey!" She snapped, stomping around Momo and grabbing the back of the guy's gym shirt to yank him off of her - and blinking when he instead stuck on tightly to Momo's back, the polite girl looking distressed as she glanced over her shoulder and saw that he wasn't getting off her back so easily, the little punk turning to give her a big grin that made her shrink.

"Get off of her, jackass!" Ochako likewise joined Itsuka in trying to yank him off, although the boy just looked more and more smug with more girls grabbing him and trying to pull him off Momo.

"I can't!" He giggled with glee, looking up at Itsuka and not so subtly licking his lips, which sent a wave of disgust through the former-orange-haired girl. "My balls let me stick to any surface! And there's no way that I'm gonna just get off of her without getting to feel up her -"

Whatever horrible thing he was about to say, however, was thankfully interrupted when a hand suddenly wrapped around the back of his neck. The small boy blinked at the sudden chill spreading through his body, and slowly turned, with both Ochako and Itsuka glancing up as well, to see Shouto leaning over to grip the smaller guy's neck, his blank face holding a surprising amount of contempt that made Itsuka shiver a bit.

Okay … so note to self, he wasn't as emotionless as Yui was. He was fully capable of making other expressions.

Very … scary … expressions.

"I'm going to tell you this only once." Shouto said in a blank voice, but one that sounded even colder than before, "Let her go. Now."

The tiny guy gulped very nervously at the feeling of something very cold beginning to spread on his neck, and knew that it wasn't just him imagining things. Knowing better than to try and hold on to the girl who was looking around at Shouto in surprise, he very quickly released the balls he had attached to Momo.

Shouto didn't show much effort in lifting the boy up into the air, and then tossing him away like garbage, the tiny guy stumbling a bit and nearly falling over on his face, and quickly began to hurry away from them so he could go stand in the corner. Itsuka tried not to shudder as his eyes unsubtly turned to her - or, more accurately, her chest - before she shook her head and tried to ignore him as she looked back over at Shouto, his back to the three girls.

Momo, meanwhile, likewise looked up at Shouto, a small, conflicted look on her face before she cleared her throat.

"Er … thank you, Shouto." She bowed slightly, "I know that -"

Before she could finish that sentence, however, Shouto began to walk away. The three girls blinked as he began to walk over to his own side of the platform, watching more of the students quickly hurrying along to get past the finish line and not even looking back at the girl he helped out.

Momo faltered for a moment, looking confused and conflicted, before her face suddenly hardened, and she straightened back up so she could likewise turn away from her fiance, huffing a bit as she flipped her hair and walked away.

Standing alone, Ochako and Itsuka shared a small glance, both of them gulping.

"Huh," Itsuka felt herself sweat a bit nervously, "I … guess that's what they're like, huh?"

"Yep," Ochako nodded, scratching the side of her head, "that was … well, that was pretty much what they were like back on Friday, too."

"… he's a tool."

"Kinda, yeah."

With that, the two girls turned back to walk over to Momo, wanting to try and get those weird balls off of her and ask if she was okay. As they did so, more people continued to jump in, the red line beeping again and again, and at last, Yuuyu hopped through the finish line and fell onto her hands and knees, panting in exhaustion as she bent over and held her knees.

Her throat feeling positively raw and her mouth filled with drool from all the running she just did, Yuuyu glanced around at who else had made it in before her, her eyes trailing around - and then she found Nejire. Blinking a bit, a small smile appeared on the pink-haired girl's face as she leaned up a bit -

- just in time to see Nejire hurry over to Izuku, patting his shoulder to get his attention as he chatted with Eijirou, and smiled when he looked around.

Yuuyu stayed still for a second, her smile fading somewhat as she stared at Nejire's happy face as Izuku turned to talk to her, her best friend putting her hands behind her back and a small blush appearing on her face. And Yuuyu's frown returned, looking back down at the ground as her heart hammered angrily in her chest, and she bitterly spat some of the saliva out of her mouth and onto the platform as she made to stand up.

---

"Well, well, well," Midnight giggled in a sultry tone as she paced back and forth on the podium in front of the TV, "wasn't that fun?"

As cheers roared once again throughout the stadium those who had passed through the red line looked around as the sports stadium slowly began to close again, the black pit being closed off by the grass ground as everything was restored relatively to normal. It had only taken about ten more minutes for the rest of the competition to make it across the line, with Present Mic loudly announcing the obstacle race had come to its end and letting the sports stadium slide back to normal so that they could continue on with the second round.

Still, though, Itsuka couldn't help but glance around with her brow furrowed - she knew that at the beginning, Midnight had said that only forty-two people out of the over a hundred students would be able to move on to the next game. But it seemed as though there were … a few less people than expected.

The people from Class 1B were definitely in a smaller, tighter group, all of them scowling a bit as they looked around as well, and Shouto was off in his own corner as he stood near Itsuka, glaring up at the screen before them. There were only three different students from other classes - Shinsou, looking smugly around, the guy who had clung to Momo, giving all the girls around him a lecherous look on his face, and one girl from the support studio fiddling with one of her inventions with a bored look on her face.

And … it seemed as though there was … someone missing from Class 1A, Itsuka realized - but who?

"With that, the first game of the first-year stage has come to its conclusion!" Midnight announced on her podium, continuing to pace lightly as she looked around at the crowd, "Now that we all have a moment to read, let's have a look at our students' scores!"

She gestured dramatically towards the monitor behind her, and it quickly flipped over to a long list of names, flashing the names of everyone who had passed - and Itsuka quickly began to read, trying to figure out who she thought was missing.

01. Class 1A - Midoriya Izuku. Points - ?

02. Class 1A - Kendou Itsuka. Points - 310

03. Class 1A - Uraraka Ochako. Points - 300

04. Class 1A - Hadou Nejire. Points - 290

05. Class 1B - Todoroki Shouto. Points - 280

06. Class 1A - Bakugou Katsuki. Points - 270

07. Class 1A - Iida Tenya. Points - 260

08. Class 1B - Shiozaki Ibara. Points - 250

09. Class 1B - Honenuki Juzo. Points - 240

10. Class 1A - Tokoyami Fumikage. Points - 230

11. Class 1A - Kirishima Eijirou. Points - 220

12. Class 1B - Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu. Points - 210

13. Class 1A - Yaoyorozu Momo. Points - 200

14. Class 1C - Mineta Mirou. Points - 190

15. Class 1A - Sero Hanta. Points - 180

16. Class 1A - Tokage Setsuna. Points - 170

17. Class 1A - Asui Tsuyu. Points - 160

18. Class 1A - Shouji Mezo. Points - 150

19. Class 1B - Sato Rikido. Points - 140

20. Class 1A - Ashido Mina. Points - 130

21. Class 1A - Jirou Kyouka. Points - 120

22. Class 1B - Haya Yuuyu. Points - 110

23. Class 1A - Kodai Yui. Points - 100

24. Class 1A - Kaminari Denki. Points - 90

25. Class 1A - Yanagi Reiko. Points - 80

26. Class 1A - Tsunotori Pony. Points - 70

27. Class 1C - Shinsou Hitoshi. Points - 60

28. Class 1B - Monoma Neito. Points - 50

29. Class 1B - Shoda Nirengeki. Points - 40

30. Class 1H - Hatsume Mei. Points - 30

31. Class 1B - Hagakure Tooru. Points - 20

32. Class 1B - Komori Kinoko. Points - 10

"There's only thirty-two of us," Tenya noted the same thing Itsuka did, frowning while everyone muttered about the points next to their names and Izuku blinked at the question marks beside his, "was … was everyone else knocked off the platforms?"

"Hey," Eijirou realized, his eyes widening, "I don't see Awase's name up there."

Feeling themselves blink, Class 1A finally realized who was missing, and with widened eyes, they began looking around quickly. Indeed, their classmate with the bandana was nowhere to be seen, with Eijirou, Hanta and Denki looking distressed for their friend as they tried to remember where they had lost him during the game.

Izuku and Pony, meanwhile, felt themselves begin to worry, remembering Yosetsu's fear of heights back at the USJ when they had escaped the conflagration zone together. If he had been knocked off the platform, into a hole of darkness with no hint of the bottom or where he would land … the two of them felt their hearts ache for Yosetsu. That must've been utterly terrifying for him.

Unknown to the hero class, Shinsou smirked to himself, putting his hands in his pockets as he scanned the ten blank columns that would've been competition for him had he not taken care of them during the last game.

"As the Top 32, you've all made it to the next round." Midnight stood before the gigantic screen behind her, grinning down at the students below her. "It's unfortunate for those who didn't make it, but don't worry! We've prepared other chances for you to shine later today. But now, the real competition is about to start! Give this next challenge your all!"

Throwing her flogger into the air, Midnight turned to look around at the gigantic screen, which stopped displaying the names of the students so it could turn into what looked like a giant wheel, spinning at such speeds some of the students looked away in fear of getting dizzy.

"Now then, here comes the second game! I already know what it is," Midnight let out a giggle, "but what could it be? What. Could. It. Beeeeee?"

There was a moment of tension, as the students all stared up at the screen nervously, feeling themselves sweat as the next game was decided - and then the wheel suddenly stopped, displaying one singular word:

TAG

"Tag?" Izuku read the word out loud, blinking. On his other side, Nejire let out a gasp, quickly moving to poke his shoulder with a big grin.

"Allow me to explain the rules," Midnight looked back to the screen as she cocked her hip, "we have already sorted you all into groups of eight, evenly divided amongst all thirty two of you. The purpose of this game is to make sure your team has, as a collective, enough points to make it through to the next round! There will be four teams all together, and your bases will be outside the arena in the forest. Terribly sorry for the audience, but our next game will have to be watched on the big screens! The forest has been divided into four districts - red, blue, green and yellow. And you will be wearing these!"

She held up a red headband - it looked like it was made of cloth, but there was a small screen in the center flashing the number 'zero' on it.

"How many points you gained in the last game will be reflected on this headband, with each person being assigned a different point value, similar to the entrance exam. Every person on the team that we assigned you to will be worth different points depending on who's on which team! And in the end, the two teams with the most points will advance to the next round!"

The list from before suddenly returned, starting at the bottom. The girl with brown hair covering her eyes blinked at her name being only worth ten points, and slowly moved up the list, each name having an additional ten points added to it.

"The points that are assigned go up by ten starting from the bottom. So for example, the one in last place gets ten points to start, and the second to last gets twenty. But keep this in mind," Midnight chuckled in a suddenly sinister tone, "the more points you have, the more you can possibly lose, and the less points you have, the less you can lose. For example ... if you only have ten points, if you get tagged, you lose five. If you have twenty points, if you get tagged, you lose ten."

"And if we have over a hundred points ..." Ochako realized, her eyes widening in horror at how many points she had beside her name.

"We lose fifty points." Itsuka slowly nodded, already realizing how much this was going to suck, what with her three-hundred and ten points.

"The less points you have, the better chance you have, but the more you'll have to work to get to the next round! The more points you have, the bigger the target you have on your back, but the easier it gets to move on to the next round!" Midnight put her hands on her hips. "And the point value assigned to first place is ... ten million!"

There was a good long pause at that last note - and Ochako and Itsuka, standing beside the now frozen Izuku, winced in sympathy. Izuku himself could do nothing else but stare up at the screen in horror, seeing all those questions marks beside his name be replaced by the ridiculously large number of ten million.

Slowly, everyone else began to look around at him, their faces still blank, but an undeniable wave of malice suddenly blasted over him - making him shiver at the realization that in a game where only two groups would advance with the most points, going after the one with the most points would be the smart thing to do.

And with ten million points, being divided the more he got tagged …

… oh, boy. Oh, he was screwed.

"But keep this in mind, in case there are a few of you that may wish to try and succeed on their own," Midnight giggled, "it doesn't matter how much you individually gather points! The only way your team can proceed to the next round is by combining all the points you earned with your team! Before the game starts, you will assign one of your teammates to stay in your district - you can hand the points off to them to start, or keep them to yourselves, but one thing is clear! By the end of the game, the only points that will be counted will be on the person assigned to be the point-keeper. So make sure you all get your points over to the point-keeper by the time the game is over! And keep them guarded - there's nothing to say that a player can't sneak in and take the points directly off the person."

Everyone gulped at that.

"Now then!" Midnight threw her flogger out. "Without further delay! Here are the teams!"

And, like she said, without warning the screen suddenly changed again, making everyone quickly look up to the four teams with eight names to see which teams they were on.

GROUP 1

Asui Tsuyu

Honenuki Juuzo

Kaminari Denki

Shiozaki Ibara

Shoda Nirengeki

Tokage Setsuna

Tsunotori Pony

Yanagi Reiko

GROUP 2

Hadou Nejire

Haya Yuuyu

Kendou Itsuka

Kirishima Eijirou

Monoma Neito

Shinsou Hitoshi

Todoroki Shouto

Tokoyami Fumikage

GROUP 3

Hagakure Tooru

Jirou Kyouka

Kodai Yui

Komori Kinoko

Sato Rikido

Sero Hanta

Shouji Mezo

Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu

GROUP 4

Ashido Mina

Bakugou Katsuki

Hatsume Mei

Iida Tenya

Midoriya Izuku

Mineta Minoru

Uraraka Ochako

Yaoyorozu Momo

Izuku quickly scanned the list for his name - and then he felt his jaw drop. Beside him, Ochako likewise felt her eyes widen in horror, and Itsuka let out a small hiss. Slowly, the two childhood friends, standing side by side, glanced over at where their other 'childhood friend' was standing, reading the list and feeling himself scowl at who was on his team.

On their other side, Itsuka likewise gulped, and slowly turned at where her 'rival' was standing. Shouto was scanning the list, his frown deepening, and then turned to look over at her, narrowing his eyes as his arms crossed, and he stared at her in obvious dislike.

So … Izuku and Ochako would have to work with Katsuki. And Itsuka would have to work with Shouto.

Well, at least Izuku wasn't going to be the only one who was completely screwed.

---

"Huh?" Tensei blinked, looking down at his phone, "Tenya responded to my message?"

Standing by himself in the conference room, he couldn't help but feel himself blink as he put his helmet down on the table - Tensei recalled that after their talk this morning, during his phone call with his younger brother, Tenya had specifically said that he would only try to check his phone while he was on break, and needed time to concentrate in the morning. So to see that Tenya had responded to his text to remind his classmates that he was wishing them good luck - that was surprising.

Feeling his head tilt slightly at the MP4 file that had been sent, Tensei opened his phone, flipping over to his messages with his brother - and blinked when he saw, while Tenya was still in the video waiting to be played, the sight of Mina, Setsuna, Eijirou and what looked to be their entire class in the background looking at the camera.

A small smile beginning to appear on his face, Tensei quickly sat down in the chair next to his helmet, and pressed the play button.

"Hi, Ingenium-sensei!" Mina giggled, giving the camera a wave as Setsuna pushed a clearly protesting and flailing Tenya back, with Yui wrapping her arms underneath his brother's armpits, "It's us! Class 1A! You know, the dummies you taught for a week or so -"

"Ashido, please give me back my phone! Tensei is busy!"

"Anyway! Your little bro told us that you wished us good luck, so we thought that we'd send you a message right back!"

"Yeah!" Setsuna giggled, waving at the camera while continuing to push Tenya back, "Just wanted to wish you good luck too!"

"Nah, that's bad luck!" Eijirou protested, turning to flash the camera a grin. "Break a leg out there, man!"

"Not literally, kero."

"H-he knows what I mean!"

"Anyway," Itsuka suddenly came into view of the camera, plucking it out of Mina's grasp and holding it up so that everyone in the class could be viewed, everyone except for Katsuki, Reiko and Fumikage waving happily to the camera (and for the two gothic students, they were content with nodding), "we just thought that we'd wish you good luck on your assignment, Ingenium-sensei. We're going to be fighting our hardest out there, and we hope you are too!"

"Yeah!"

"Good luck, sensei!"

"Come back to school soon!"

"Good luck, sensei."

With those cheers, the video ended, and Tensei continued to stare at the phone for a moment, a big grin on his face as he chuckled lightly - and then he turned on his own camera app, pressing the red button to begin recording, and gave the camera a grin.

"Hey, guys!" He gave them a small wave, chuckling, "Just saw your message - and since I know Tenya is going to make sure you guys don't see this message until after the sports festival wraps up, I wanted to tell you that I'm so proud of you guys. I know how hard you've fought, and I'm happy for those who got to continue on to the final round. For anyone who might not have made it, I know that you might be disappointed, but just remember that I failed my first sports festival right out of the gate. And so did Aizawa. Don't worry if you guys stumble and fall - I know that you can pick yourselves right back up."

After a pause, he shook his head and chuckled.

"Anyway, you guys have heard enough from me - go out and have a great weekend!"

Pressing the red button again, he quickly sent the video to Tenya, resisting the urge to play the video the class sent for him again, and let out a small sigh as he slipped his phone back into his pocket. Standing up to grab his helmet from the table, he began walking out towards the meeting, but this time with a definite pep in his step - he had been somewhat dreading this meeting, and the assignment they had to do today, but seeing those kids again had picked up his mood considerably, making him smile brightly as he walked into the conference room with the heroes waiting for him.

"Sorry I'm late, everyone," He smiled around at all the heroes as they gave him a wave, a nod of acknowledgement, or an eyeroll as he walked to the front of the room, "my brother's class just wanted a quick word before their sports festival. So anyway, now that we're all here - let's go over the plan."

Turning back to the screen on the wall, Tensei let out a sigh as his smile from before slipped from his face, grabbing a small laser pointer to point out specific spots on the map of Hosu.

"So here's how today's going to go," He nodded to himself, "I'll be taking the lead with our specialist to locate the Hero Killer's location. Mister Blaster -" He turned to the scowling hero standing near the back, "- I want you to be searching the alleyways - the Hero Killer has been slipping up lately, so we don't want him somehow getting away from us and blending in with the crowd."

"Fine," The pro hero grumbled.

"Enigma -" He turned towards his sidekick, her black beady eyes looking up at him as he put on hand on his hip, using the laser pointer to circle a part of the city, "- you'll be using your quirk to hurry people away from where we'll be going - make sure that the Hero Killer has fewer opportunities to slip away again."

"Gotcha."

"Manuel -" He turned to the man sitting at the table, nodding when Tensei acknowledge him, "- you'll be taking everyone else to work on crowd control outside of our search zone, make sure nobody gets in. Everyone else will be on standby for when we locate the Hero Killer - we wanna pin him in one of the alleys so he can't escape."

"If that's the plan," One of the sidekicks in the back raised his hand, "couldn't the Commission have sent any other heroes with quirks specialized in capture? Like Snatch, or Wash."

"They've got their own assignments that they couldn't be dragged out of," Tensei shook his head, sighing, "but don't worry - we'll be doing this carefully. Everyone will have their trackers on and their earphones in, we won't be far away in case something happens. But it's important that we find the Hero Killer - or at least, get enough information today to identify him."

There was a small pause, and then Tensei glanced around, his brow furrowing a bit.

"In any case, we'll be heading out soon. Where's -?"

"The edgelord?" Mister Blaster guessed, letting out an unamused snort, "He's up on the roof brooding."

"He's not an edgelord," Tensei shook his head, unable to stop himself from chuckling a bit, "he just … takes himself very seriously."

"Yep," One of the sidekicks nodded, "an edgelord."

"And the best chance we have to find the Hero Killer," The speed hero reminded them, straightening up and keeping his helmet securely under his arm, "he's been on his trail for months now. In any case, you guys go get ready - we'll be heading out once I go over the plan with him."

Nodding, everyone started to get up and get ready, moving to each other to go over the plan again or fasten their hero costumes, while Tensei let out a small sigh as he put the laser pointer down, and began to walk out of the room. Keeping his helmet secured under his arm, he walked down to the end of the hall and towards the stairwell, heading straight up to the roof - where their 'Hero Killer specialist' was apparently waiting.

Thankfully, it didn't take too long for Tensei to get up to the roof - the hero agency they were renting out was near the top floor, so it was only a few flights of stairs that Tensei needed to climb up so that he could reach the top of the building. Opening the door, Tensei raised a hand to his face to block the sun shining directly into his eyes, grumbling a bit as he scanned the rooftop - and then he found who he was looking for.

"There you are," He called out to him, closing the door behind him, "I was wondering why you weren't downstairs."

The man standing on the edge of the building didn't look back at Tensei at all, instead silently surveying the city as he knelt down. His long black hair was tied back into a ponytail, and the black and red clothing he wore crinkled a bit as he slowly glanced around his shoulder at the hero approaching him. Or … Tensei thought that he was looking at him - it was kind of hard to tell with the mask he wore.

One half completely black, and the other side red, both sides opaque enough to see a distant shadow of a mouth and eyes staring back at him, as he reached up to adjust the katana on his back, the six folding knives across his chest clinking together.

"There is no doubt," Stendhal said in his low, deep voice, "the Hero Killer is here."

"Here?" Tensei raised an eyebrow, walking over to join him at the edge of the roof. "As in … with us at this very moment? All I see is you and me right now."

"He lurks in the shadows of this city," Stendhal continued on, not paying any attention to Tensei's jokes as he returned his gaze to the various apartment buildings before them, "in the alleyways. It's his gimmick - wait for the heroes to come to the darkest parts of the city, alone, where he can lie in wait for them to lower their guard."

"So he'll definitely be in an alleyway, huh?" Tensei slowly nodded, glancing up at the city as his smile faded, and he moved to kneel down beside Stendhal. "And you're sure that your quirk can track him?"

"Of course," He nodded as well, "I will be able to smell him when I get close, I have the scent. But be warned - heroes faster than you have fallen to the Hero Killer. We still do not know what his quirk is, only that once he has a hold on you - you will not be able to escape."

"Alright," Tensei sighed, straightening up, "in that case, let's do this - you and I will go together to where you think the Hero Killer was last, and we'll go from there. I have everyone waiting as backup a few blocks away - we'll follow him back to wherever he's hiding and lead him out in cuffs. We don't want him escaping this time, the Commission is putting enough pressure on all of us to get at least something here."

"Be not worried," Stendhal shook his head, a ghost of a smile appearing behind his mask, "the Hero Killer is close. I can tell."

"Alright then," Tensei tried to smile as well, putting on his helmet as Stendhal stood up, "then I guess wherever you go, I'll follow."

"Very good," Stendhal nodded, and then lowered his hand to offer Tensei a hand up.

Smiling behind the helmet, Tenya accepted his hand up - and then let out a small wince as a small spike of pain suddenly flared from his palm. Blinking, he took his hand back once he was standing up to look at his glove, and blinked at the sight of a small hole there, a bit of blood escaping from the puncture.

"Ow," He shook his hand a bit, looking back up at Stendhal with a grin the other hero wouldn't be able to see, "gotta watch yourself, man - you're pretty sharp!"

With that small chuckle, Tensei turned back towards the door on the roof, continuing to shake his hand as the small pain from before eventually faded, and he heard Stendhal walking behind him, casually adjusting his uniform after having bent over for a while, as he followed the pro hero down the stairs to where everyone else was waiting to go.

Unknown to Tensei, Stendhal's smile faded from his face, glaring at the other hero's back while slowly sliding the small knife he had hidden in his glove back to his hand, glancing down to confirm that he had gotten a small bit of blood from the pro hero.

And that tiny little drop would be all he needed to do what needed to be done.