BAM

The sound of several metallic suitcases slamming down against the forest floor filled the air of their meeting place, as everyone jumped slightly at how heavy the cases sounded as they kicked up a bit of dust from where they landed. With the unclasping of the metallic cases, they were all flipped open, revealing the various support items that rested inside - from rocket boots to jetpacks, from what looked to be some kind of wire connected to arrows neatly curled into circle to a weirdly shaped gun with a wide barrel, from what looked like a metal bar that got strapped around their chests to what looked like braces that connected to their legs - it seemed as though whoever this support student was, she brought the entire studio with her for today.

And that was just the tip of the iceberg - with more suitcases being laid onto the ground, being pulled out of nowhere by the support student and opened to reveal more and more support items, everyone else in the group, sans Katsuki as he leaned against a tree and gave a look of annoyance at all the suitcases laying across the ground, felt their jaws drop as the support student brought more and more items out of nowhere, from harpoon guns to what looked like circular drones.

Finally, there was a moment of calm as she finally finished bringing out all her the toys, standing up properly to wipe some sweat off her forehead - and then Mina let out a low whistle.

"Damn, girl," She grinned weakly over at the support student as her yellow eyes snapped to the pink girl, "you, uh - you might have overpacked a little bit."

"Nonsense!" Mei Hatsume straightened up, a wide grin on her face as she threw her arms back as though to envelop the group in a big hug. "When it comes to events like the sports festival, this is the time when support students are practically dying to show off what they've made! But most of my classmates only want to show off one or two items - bah! What a complete waste of an opportunity. No, I brought all my babies here today to show all the lovely support companies watching what I'm worth!"

"Er - 'babies'?" Momo tilted her head a bit, glancing down at the support items surrounding them in confusion while Mineta reached out to experimentally poke one of the devices laid near his feet, "Is that, er - is that what you refer to your items as?"

"Of course! They're all my cute, lovely babies!"

"Oh, my fucking god," Katsuki groaned from his spot near the group, crossing his arms across his chest.

While Mei turned to give the inventions she just laid down a proud look, the rest of the group cautiously approached the cases, almost as though they were somewhat expecting them to explode - which, based off the shapes of some of them, might have been an actual risk. Izuku, for one, knelt down to look at what seemed to be some kind of jetpack, tilting his head a bit as he gulped nervously while Ochako leaned over his shoulder, glancing around at the suitcases while she similarly gave off a small expression of worry, tilting her head somewhat.

When Mei had told them back in the forest that she wanted to use Izuku's reputation to show off her support items, they hadn't thought she wanted to show off … so many of them. In fact, it seemed to be a silent question shared between the two of them, glancing between each other in confusion, about where exactly she had grabbed all of these briefcases from since they hadn't seen her carry them over.

But a glance at the timer near one of the cameras showed that they only had close to fifteen minutes left to set up their plan and strategy before the second round officially began, which meant that they would, at least for now, have to put those questions on hold.

"Er … my apologies," Tenya looked over at the support student as she grinned affectionately at her inventions, "but I'm afraid that I'm a bit confused. You would like us all to use your inventions for this match?"

"Yes!" Mei happily nodded, "The more you use, the better!"

"But - well, isn't that against the rules?" Tenya tried to point out, chopping at Mei and making her blink at the hand being shoved slightly in her face, leaning back on her heels to avoid having his fingers poke her cheek. "Midoriya did mention that he had to get his own support item registered, but wouldn't we be disqualified for using items that we didn't register before the sports festival? We would not want to tarnish our reputations in front of several pro heroes by appearing as though we are cheating!"

"Ah," Mei's grin widened knowingly, using her hand to push Tenya's away from her face and giving him a slightly manic look, "but I did register them all! Everything here was approved by Midnight-sensei and Power Loader-sensei for me to bring today and use as I see fit."

"That," Izuku looked up at Tenya from where he was kneeling down, still poking the jetpack experimentally, "and that rule is mostly for the final round, Iida - just to make sure we don't cheat by bringing in something that Power Loader-sensei didn't inspect beforehand. For the first two rounds, it's okay for us to use support items we didn't bring in, as long as the person who did bring it in registered them beforehand."

"I see!" Tenya nodded, relief appearing on his face. "Thank goodness."

"But speaking of support items," Mei's smile suddenly dropped, looking around at Izuku as her eyes immediately fell to the Full Gauntlet on his arm, and her eyes narrowed sharply as she used her quirk to zoom in on it and have a closer look at the details, "I don't recognize what you have there. The material doesn't match anything we have at the support studio - looks more like nano-technology, that's more American based tech. Where'd you get it?"

"Huh? Oh," Izuku blinked, looking down at the Gauntlet as well as he lifted his arm, "this was, uh - it was a gift from one of my friends in America. It helps me control the output of my quirk."

"Aaaaaah," Mei slowly nodded, understanding filling her face as she tilted her head, "I see, I see, that makes sense. No wonder it's so shoddily made."

"Uh …" Izuku really didn't know how he was supposed to answer that, glancing over at Ochako with a slightly uncomfortable face as she slightly shrugged her shoulders, not sure how to address that comment either. Thankfully, Momo was able to save the conversation from ending on an awkward note by quickly changing the subject.

"So you want us to use … all of these devices for this game?" She inquired, tilting her head as she glanced back down into the contents of one box and feeling herself gulp nervously. "Er - I apologize, but how exactly will this help you get your support items noticed again? Or - how specifically?"

"Isn't it obvious?!" Mei quickly whirled around to grin at the taller girl, everyone gulping nervously at how manic her eyes had started to look, and the weird twitch near her left eye as she practically began shaking. They had thought that she had just been quiet and disinterested in the game before, but they had no idea that she was … well … no knock to her, but they were starting to think that Mei was a little … crazy.

"If everyone uses my super cute babies," Mei glanced down at one of the suitcases, beaming widely, "then they'll inevitably be seen by the big companies. And that means that those big companies will see my babies in action, know how well they work with the future generation of heroes, and know what I'm worth! My name will be well known after today! I bet I'll be getting boatloads of offers from all the big support companies to get my babies into the hands of popular heroes!"

There was a short pause.

"Oh," Mei tilted her head as she thought of something, "and you guys will probably benefit from using them too somehow."

"Oh, how nice of you to think of us too," Mina mumbled a bit sarcastically.

"The support course develops equipment that helps heroes use their quirks more effectively," Mei giggled with glee, "and I have lots of babies, so I'm sure that each of you will be able to find one that you like! For example … you!"

Izuku blinked in surprise as Mei wheeled around and pointed right at him, seeing her wide grin somehow stretch even more as she hurried over and scooped up the jetpack that Izuku had been inspecting, holding it up.

"I see that this one has caught your eye," She said knowingly, turning it around to show him the back of the support item, "I based this baby's design on a hero I saw once, and added my own original twist to it!"

"Wait," Izuku blinked, his eyes widening as he pointed at the jetpack in Mei's hands, "I had thought this jetpack looked kind of familiar … are you talking about Air Jet?"

"That I am! I saw him flying around one day and immediately started making notes on how to replicate his jetpack!"

"That's awesome! I'm actually a fan of Air Jet!"

"Really?"

"Yeah! His agency is close to where I live, so Occhan and I went to tour it before! His jetpack is actually some pretty awesome tech!"

While those two excitedly talked about the hero and his air pack, Izuku excitedly rambling and Mei nodding along and pointing out the similarities with the jetpack in her hands, Ochako took a small step back off to the side, feeling herself begin to stare dully at Mei getting back in Izuku's face to point things out on the support item. As she stared at how close those two were getting, Ochako absently rubbed at the hand mark the inventor had left on her face after she had shoved Ochako out of hers and Izuku's hug in the forest (whether it be a weird bruise or Mei's gloves being covered in soot) when she had confronted them, and continued to glare at the two of them.

Of course, she was so concentrated on those two she didn't notice Mina trying her hardest not to smirk at the scowl on Ochako's face.

"Er," Tenya cleared his throat to get Izuku and Mei's attention back on him, both of them looking around as he stood up straight, "my apologies for interrupting, but … I do believe that we should start planning relatively soon. We are running out of time, after all."

"O-oh!" Izuku blinked, going a bit red as he quickly snapped out of fanboy mode and taking a step back from Mei and the jetpack in her hands, "Yeah, of - of course, Iida. Sorry."

Straightening up, he looked around at the group as they turned to him, Katsuki merely huffing and turning to glare off in the opposite direction - clearly upset about Izuku's challenge a few minutes ago, but not saying anything so far.

Which … was good, if it made him cooperate for at least the rest of this round.

"A-anyway," Izuku shook his head, trying to refocus on the plan he had been brainstorming as he looked around at his teammates, "I talked with Hatsume for a bit in the forest before we came back - like she said, she's willing to let us use her support items for this round. So we can use her inventions to set up traps in our territory, and also use them to potential get an advantage over the rest of the other teams. And, uh - well, I did come up with a plan, if - if anyone was interested in hearing it."

"Of course!" Tenya nodded, gesturing to Izuku with his hand and a smile to continue. "I believe that everyone should have a chance to propose a plan, even if it may not be accepted by the group."

"That," Mina grimaced slightly, shrugging guiltedly, "and I don't think anyone else is coming up with something."

That, at least, made Tenya and Momo wince, the latter quickly shaking her head and trying to focus.

"Er - anyway, Midoriya," She turned to him, "what have you been thinking?"

"Right." Izuku nodded, while Katsuki glanced at him out of the corner of his eyes and scowled as Izuku pointed to Ochako, who quickly straightened up. "So, to get this out of the way - I think that Occhan should be the one who's the point-keeper. With her quirk and Hatsume's support items, she'd be the hardest out of us to catch if anyone were to somehow come through our district to come after. I would have had Iida serve as the point-keeper, but … well, with his speed, I think it would be better to have him be out in the forest collecting points."

"A good point," Tenya nodded in agreement, cupping his chin, "while I could theoretically keep the points safe, and my speed would make me theoretically one of the harder ones to catch, I would also be at risk of running into any traps our classmates set up. So yes, I agree with you that Uraraka would be the hardest of us to catch."

"Yeah." Izuku quickly took out his notebook from his back pocket, flipping it open and turning to look at their group. "With that out of the way, I'll be honest - I'm still brainstorming everyone else's roles in our team, and who will be on the offence and who will be on the defense. If it's alright with you all, would you mind if I ask you more about your quirks? I - I do realize that you guys would probably wanna keep the details of your quirks a secret for the next round, so -"

"I can use my eyes to zoom in on tiny details," Mei offhandedly stated as she knelt down to adjust something on one of her support items, not really listening anymore now that the attention was off her babies, "good for making inventions but useless in combat. I'll stay here to make any repairs to my babies that you all end up breaking."

Everyone blinked at that, glancing down at her as she already got to work tweaking one of her devices, and Mineta glanced back down at the box in front of him, which looked like a ball with several sharp spikes poking out of it, and gulped nervously.

"Er … well, I guess in that case," Mina shrugged a bit, smiling a bit shakingly, "I guess we're sharing. It's all good, I don't have anything to hide."

Taking a step forward, she raised her hand, giving everyone a sheepish grin as they looked around at her volunteering to technically go first.

"So, uh - I guess other than Hatsume, my quirk is the simplest here," She giggled despite herself, "I can generate acid out of my body. Mostly, I use it offensively, like throwing it at people, but I can also use it to climb by burning holes into stuff. There's a limit to how long I can use it before my body loses resistance, though, so I run the risk of burning myself too if I use it too much. But the best part," She lifted her foot, showing everyone the holes on the bottom of her shoe, "is that I can use a non-corrosive version of my acid to slide around."

"So it gives you some versatility," Momo noted, while Izuku quickly scribbled down what she said into his notebook, "interesting … so that means you can move around a lot faster than many of us."

"Yep!"

"Okay …" Izuku finished writing in Mina's notes, nodding, and then looked around at the rest of the group. Taking her cue, Momo stepped forward.

"As for myself," She put her hand on her chest, "my quirk, as you probably know by now, gives me the ability to create anything from my body by transforming the molecular structure of my fat cells. However, I do need to understand the structure of what the material is made of - so I won't be able to create anything unless I already understand the structure of what it's made of."

"Oh!" Ochako blinked, realizing something. "Is that why you carry that book on your back?"

"Indeed," Momo nodded, "if I do need to look up the molecular structure of something, I use the book - although I don't have it with me right now, and there would be no way I could create a copy with how complex it would be. Besides my quirk, I also have experience fighting with different weapons, such as bo staffs and the such, but I can also create larger weapons that I have practiced with should they be needed."

"Okay, okay …" Izuku muttered to himself, scrubbing more notes into his book while continuing to brainstorm - he was already thinking of various ways to incorporate Mei, Mina and Momo in his plan - and then turned to Tenya.

"So what about you, Iida?" He asked. "I know a bit about your quirk from when you talked about it with me, back when we were doing Aizawa-sensei's tests on the first day … you talk about your quirk as though you go through gearshifts, right?"

"That's correct," Tenya pushed his glasses up to the bridge of his nose, and let out a small sigh, "but the truth is … well, if we're sharing details about our quirks with each other, there is … something that I haven't mentioned to everyone."

Everyone blinked at that, Izuku pausing his note taking as he flipped to Tenya's page to quickly look up at him in confusion, and they watched as Tenya lowered the hand he had on his face and then gave a short bow.

"I apologize to you all," He said to the ground, sounding ashamed of himself, "but the truth is … well, I haven't been entirely honest about the abilities of my quirk. During our first day at UA, when we were doing the test in which Aizawa-sensei had us use our quirks while doing the runs … I … I may have deliberately underperformed."

Mina, Momo and Ochako raised their eyebrows at that, while Katsuki merely scoffed and turned to glare out at the forest again, and Mineta looked like he didn't really care while Mei continued to play with her support items, tweaking anything she saw was out of place. Izuku, on the other hand, whipped up from glancing down at his notebook to stare at Tenya so fast, his neck audibly cracked.

"You … I'm sorry?" Momo asked, a bit confused. "You underperformed?"

"Indeed," Tenya nodded, looking ashamed of himself, "the truth is … there's another speed that I'm capable of getting to. I believe that it's going to be my first ultimate move - I call it 'Recipro Burst'. It can help me reach incredible speeds for about … ten or so seconds, I believe. It's one of the moves my brother uses, and I've only recently managed to replicate it - only a few weeks before the entrance exam, in fact. I didn't use it during the tests during our first day, however, because I knew that the sports festival would be around the corner, and I wished to keep it secret in case anyone was underestimating me. I know that it was underhanded, and not a proper reflection of my abilities during our first day, but I wanted to keep it under wraps in case I needed to pull out an unexpected move for the festival."

"Oh," Mina blinked, not entirely sure why this was such a big deal as she shrugged, "well, I mean, I guess that makes sense, Iida, no need to get upset about it, right?"

"No," Momo shook her head, smiling at the boy in glasses, "I certainly understand your logic, Iida - it makes sense not to show everyone your full hand if you don't have to. If … I believe that's how the saying goes?"

"Mm-hm," Mina nodded in confirmation as Momo looked around at her for clarification, and grinned, "and hey, at least we ended up on your side when you're gonna pull that move out! Right, Midori?"

There was a moment's pause where no one spoke - but at the mention of Izuku's name, everyone suddenly became aware that he was speaking … really quietly, and very quickly. They looked around at him, and Tenya felt himself falter at the sight of Izuku glaring right at him, his hand raising to tug on his lower lip while he muttered at speeds no one thought he was capable of.

"Uh …" Mina tilted her head a bit at the wide-eyed, almost insulted look on Izuku's face as he stared unblinkingly at Tenya, who was also looking confused and slightly alarmed, "… you good, Midori?"

"Oh," Ochako blinked at the wild look on Izuku's face, and let out a small sigh, "his info got invalidated."

"Huh?"

"He always gets like this when he gets presented by something quirk-related that completely contradicts what he knows. It's the only thing that really gets him mad. Hold on, I'll get him back to normal."

With that, she walked over to Izuku, gently taking him by the shoulder while he still glared at Tenya, but he still allowed her to lead him away from the group so they could speak privately. They all watched them in confusion, or in Katsuki's case rolling his eyes, as Izuku began ranting at Ochako in a fast, quiet mutter, which Ochako nodded along to.

"…"

"I know, Deku."

"…"

"I understand that."

"…"

"No, we wouldn't have time to fully interrogate him."

"…"

"No."

"…"

"It's not that big a deal."

"…"

"No, we can't put spiders in his mailbox. The last time we did that, Auntie Mitsuki nearly ripped our heads off."

"S-spiders?!" Tenya sputtered a bit, and Katsuki straightened up from his spot near the tree, his eyes widening in rage as he suddenly experienced a traumatic flashback and had a weird shuddering feeling pass through his arms, as though there was something crawling up them.

"That was you, Shitty Deku?!" He barked angrily at him, and Ochako turned to give him a small smirk as Izuku jumped a bit, shaken out of his anger at Tenya.

"Actually, it was me," She giggled, "you shoved me into a puddle earlier that day, so I took Deku's idea and mailed you a box of spiders. Made my grounding so worth it."

"You little bit-"

"Kacchan," Izuku sharply said, apparently shaken out of his comedic anger at Tenya to look over at Katsuki with a small scowl, "don't."

Katsuki seemed to want to bite back at that, but Mina, Momo and Ochako turning to glare him caused him to hold his tongue and quiet down, although his glare directed towards Izuku only increased as Izuku sighed and smacked his cheeks to refocus, both he and Ochako walking back to the group circle they had formed.

"Okay, okay," He nodded slowly to himself, "moving past the … sandbagging thing."

"Midoriya, I do apologize!"

"W-we still have one more quirk that we need to know the details of." Izuku then turned to Mineta, the support student blinking up at him in surprise, "Mineta, you're the only one here besides Hatsume we haven't seen your quirk in action before. So, uh - what exactly is your quirk? How does it work?"

"My quirk?" Mineta blinked, reaching up and plucking one of the purple balls off his head, another one automatically growing in its place. "It lets me make the balls on my head super sticky. Depending on my bowel movements, they can stick to something all day, but if I pull off too many, I'll start bleeding. I don't stick to them, by the way, I just bounce off of them. Luckily, though, I took a big dump this morning, so my balls should be pretty sticky."

At that last unnecessary bit of information, silence fell on their group. Everyone stared down at Mineta as he glanced around at all of them to gauge their reactions. Momo was giving him a look of disgust and horror at the mention of the word 'dump', her hand slowly going back to rub at where he had attached himself to her last round while Mina patted her shoulder sympathetically. Katsuki was glaring in disgust as well. Tenya was looking confusedly at him. Izuku and Ochako looked unsure what to even say. Mei wasn't even listening.

Immediately, Mineta began to tear up.

"I know it's useless!" He wailed, throwing his arms up into the air as tears burst from his eyes. "I thought I had the entrance exam in the bag with my quirk, but I got beat out by someone else! It's just not good for fighting!"

"N-no, that's not what I was thinking at all!" Izuku quickly tried to assure him while Momo held her hand over her eyes, breathing out a bit heavily and resisting the urge to kick the smaller boy away from her while feeling like she needed a shower, "I wasn't thinking that you would have to use your quirk to fight! That's why I'm thinking that you should be on the defensive!"

Trying to ignore Mineta's sniveling and complaining, Izuku turned back to his notebook, flipping through the pages briefly as he attempted to remind himself of what everyone said - running through Mei, Mina, Momo, Tenya and Mineta's quirks, and reminding himself of what he knew about Ochako and Katsuki's quirks. Once he was sure he had everything down, he closed the book, and let out a sigh as he put it back in his pocket.

"Okay," He nodded, and felt thankful that everyone looked back around at him, although he felt a shot of nervousness pass through him with all the attention on him again, but Ochako patting his back when she saw the look of anxiety on his face did help him gather at least a little courage, "so … I do have a plan. Now that I know what your quirks can do, I think I know how to position us."

"Er … okay?" Mina shrugged, giving him a small smile as she turned to him. "So what do you have in mind, Midori?"

"Right," Izuku nodded, and then turned to Tenya, "so with Iida's speed, Ashido's quirk letting her slide around, and Kacchan being able to blast himself around and being able to go on the offensive as well - we'll go out to the other districts to gather up all the points. While we do that, Yaoyorozu, Mineta and Hatsume will stay here to guard Occhan with our points, and set up traps throughout the zone while Occhan floats up in the air and uses Hatsume's inventions to move around. Yaoyorozu," He then turned to Momo, "you can create cannons, right? Like you did back at the USJ."

"That's right," She nodded, lowering her hand from her eyes, "although it may take a little while, it's one of the bigger things I can create. But yes, I have enough lipids to create one."

"Okay, then you'll be the one that shoots down any flyers that tries to bypass our traps - if the other groups come after us, they'll try to send people like Tokage, Tsunotori and anyone from Class 1B that can use their quirks to go above the forest for Occhan. And Hatsume, you can use your … uh …" He went a bit red as she looked up at him, "… your babies … to trap the zone. I'm also thinking … Yaoyorozu, I know I asked for you to make a cannon, but I also think you should make a few copper wires to wrap around the trees, and use Mineta's balls could pin them to the trees - I assume you can also make a taser?"

"I certainly can, Midoriya," Momo nodded, knowing where Izuku was going with this, "and yes, setting up wire traps will slow anyone who comes into our zone down."

"So you, Bakugou, Ashido and myself will be gathering the points?" Tenya asked, nodding and smiling slightly. "That sounds more than fine by me, Midoriya! And indeed, the rest of the group can stay behind to defend Uraraka and the ten million -"

"I'm gonna keep the ten million points."

The relief of the entire group finally having a plan to go forward with grinded to a halt as Izuku said that. Slowly, they looked around at him as he gulped nervously, grimacing, but Ochako patting his shoulder again managed to give him a bit of courage as he straightened his back.

"I … know what everyone is saying about keeping the ten million safe," He said in a quiet, yet determined tone, "but … well, I'm thinking the opposite."

Momo stared at him for a moment as her eyes widened slightly - and then she let out a long, shuddering breath, one that indicated to Izuku that she was just barely restraining herself from yelling, and he gulped again as she slowly turned towards him.

"Midoriya," She managed to get out through slightly gritted teeth, "having one person that isn't the point-keeper keep the ten million is what we were trying to make sure Bakugou didn't do. And yet, you want to take all those points and go out onto the field with them?"

"I - well, yes," Izuku winced slightly, "but it's for a different reason than Kacchan's."

Looking around at the group again, Izuku sighed as he put his hands down on his hips, feeling himself wither slightly at everyone staring at him like an idiot (with the exception of Ochako, obviously, and Mei, who was too busy playing with her support items), and tried to gather his courage again.

"Look," He started to explain, "I know why you guys would want to keep the points here, and - and I understand how important it would be to focus more on defence, since they're a surefire guarantee for us to continue on to the next round. But like I said, I think the opposite - all these points are doing is painting a massive target on our backs - I'm betting all three of the other groups will be focusing on coming to our base and taking them from us. So I'm thinking … why don't we take this chance to sow a bit of chaos out on the field? Taking most of the attention off of us, and focusing it on … well … me."

Tenya and Mina raised their eyebrows at that, while Momo tilted her head.

"What I'm thinking," Izuku patted the headband wrapped around his forehead where the number '10,000,000' was resting, "is that I'll take the ten million - and only the ten million - and go out to get everyone's attention. With Hatsume's support items, I'm betting that I can keep out of everyone's reach for at least a while. Hatsume," He turned to the girl still kneeling beside one of her briefcases, "would you have a support item that could keep me in the air for long periods of time?"

"Of course!" She immediately snapped to attention, reaching over to another case and lifting up the jetpack that Izuku had been inspecting, tilting her head as she inspected it, "Oh, what a twist of fate that this baby was the one you were interested in, because she's definitely what you're looking for! Hmmm, but you said that you need it for longer periods of time up in the air … well, nothing I can't adjust quickly!"

With that, she quickly raised her hand to bite the finger of her glove, and pulled it off with her teeth to reveal her bare hand. Suddenly, a wrench popped out of her finger, making everyone jump a bit in surprise as she immediately began wiggling her finger around the jetpack to tweak something in place.

Everyone stared, blinking, as she finished using the wrench her finger had turned into, and watched as it slowly moved back into her index finger, the tip of the finger closing with a small click.

"Uh … hey, girl?" Mina gulped nervously. "Your, uh … you said that you could use your quirk to look at stuff, right?"

"Hm? Yes, what about it?"

"So, uh … how can you make tools with your fingers?"

Mei blinked in confusion for a moment, glancing down at her hand again for a moment as though unsure about what Mina was talking about - and then she seemed to realize what she was talking about, her eyes widening along with her grin.

"Oh! You like these babies?" She giggled, wiggling her fingers, and was unaware of everyone staring at them in shock and horror as they realized that her middle and index fingers moved … a lot more robotically than the other three. "Got my fingers trapped in another baby a few years back, and oh, how it wouldn't let them go without a fight! So my parents ended up designing me some new fingers that wouldn't get hurt if they got caught again. Oooooh, but imagine it!"

Leaning back from where she was kneeling on the ground, she turned to smile dreamily up at the sky.

"Robotic limbs," She sighed in bliss, "arms, legs, the ability to work on my babies without the need for rest … oh, that would be the dream! If I could transmit my consciousness into a machine to work on my babies forever, you bet I would!"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"… what the fuck is wrong with you?" Katsuki stared at her as though she had gone insane. Which … probably wasn't that far off from the truth.

"Let's … uh … let's move on," Momo quickly tried to move on from that awkwardness, watching as Mei finished tweaking the jetpack and heading over to the now clearly nervous Izuku as he stared down at her fingers, as though regretting ever agreeing to help her out, but alas, it was too late for backsies as she attached the jetpack onto his back, and then moved back over to the briefcase for more support items.

Soon, he had two support items strapped to his back - the jetpack on his upper back, and another, slightly larger one with a spinning metal wheel on his lower back. Taking a step back, Mei pressed the button to the one on his lower back, and without warning, a long hydraulic pole suddenly shot out from the support item attached to his back underneath the jetpack, making Izuku jump a bit as it shot out and slammed into a nearby tree, narrowly avoiding Mineta's head as he froze in horror at being nearly decapitated.

"There!" Mei smiled proudly, backing up and putting her hands on her hips, while Mineta flopped down onto his back as he stared up at the hydraulic press retracting back into the support item in horror. "Now you'll be agile! These babies can release hydraulic presses for you to move around the forest with, with sensors inside that can move you even if you're being attacked from behind! And the jetpack, now that I've modified it, is estimated to keep you up in the air for up to a minute! Assuming it doesn't explode, of course."

"Oh, great," Izuku pouted a bit while Ochako giggled nervously, "another support item that I have to worry about exploding while I'm wearing it. Great."

"Er … back to your plan," Tenya tried to get them all back on track, keeping his eyes on the clock ticking down on one of the screens near them while sweating nervously at how much time they were running out of, "you said that you want the attention of the other groups on you? Pardon my rudeness, but doesn't that seem foolish? Wouldn't we want to keep the points here, and safe?"

"It does seem idiotic," Izuku gave him, looking up from the support items and back to the group, "but I also think it's foolish to keep them with Occhan. Either way, it's almost certain that everyone will be coming after our team - like I said, we've got the guarantee that we'll be moving on to the next round so long as we have them, so the smartest thing the other groups would do is to take the ten million from our team and take them back to their own point-keepers. Which would mean that all three teams are going to be coming after us, and that would mean that we'd be forced to be on the defensive for the entire round.

"But," He then raised his eyebrow, "if I were to go out with the ten million points and keep moving around - and we keep the other points here … that would mean that everyone's attention is taken off our district and put on me exclusively."

"Oh," Momo gasped lightly, understanding filling her eyes, "I … I believe I see."

"Er - you do?" Mina looked confused, looking around at her.

"Ten million points will be enough to get us to the next round," She explained as her eyes widened slightly, "but we don't necessarily need them to move on to the next round."

"Exactly," Izuku smiled at her, feeling relieved as everyone blinked at the two of them, "as long as Occhan doesn't have the ten million, no one will bother going after her - and that means that no one will be keeping an eye on her if Iida, Kacchan and Ashido bring her points from the other teams. While I have the ten million, they'd be useless if I don't make it back to Occhan in time to add them to our count - and everyone will be too busy chasing me around for them to gather points from each other, much less get them back to their point-keepers in time."

"So if you outrun them for the entire fifteen minutes," Tenya realized, straightening up, "while Ashido, Bakugou and myself go around to get their points, and bring them to Uraraka …"

"We can win," Ochako smiled proudly at Izuku for his plan, "even without the ten million."

There was a short pause - and then Katsuki snorted, getting everyone's attention as he stopped leaning against the tree, and turned to give Izuku a challenging look.

"That's a nice plan, nerd," He scoffed, which drew Ochako's glare to him, "but that's all hinging on the small chance that no one goes after Round Face. What happens if someone decides to take the points from her anyway, and we're stuck at zero while you're off fucking around with the ten million?"

Ochako merely gave him a dirty look for that, but Izuku slowly nodded in acknowledgement, sighing as he turned towards his best friend, who looked around at him with the glare quickly fading from her eyes, and quickly nodded.

"That's why," He said in a small sigh, "I also came up with Plan B."

"Er … Plan B?" Mina gave him a confused look.

"Yep," Izuku nodded, "a backup plan just in case someone does what Kacchan says and takes the rest of our points from Occhan. But, … well, this one relies on a lot of dumb luck. I'll explain while we start setting up the traps - I know that we're running out of time, so when Midnight-sensei gives us the go ahead, I'm heading out right away to get their attention and start running around."

There was a short pause - and then Mineta, staring up at Izuku in shock and a bit of amazement, said, "You know, you're kinda crazy. You know that, man?"

"Trust me," Ochako sighed while Izuku grimaced slightly, "I know that."

"You want all these points?! T-then come and get them!"

As the sound of Izuku's shout echoed through the forest, the area in which everyone had confronted each other went quiet. Everyone on the ground froze, staring up at him as he pushed his hair away from his forehead to show them the '10,000,000' points on his bandana. Izuku, for his part, tried to stop himself from shaking as he quickly looked around as well, knowing, then and there, that his life was going to be very chaotic for the next fifteen minutes, and his little plan was going to be a lot more complicated than what he had been selling to his teammates.

With the attention of everyone on the other teams fixed squarely on him, Izuku fought down the urge to run away immediately, trying as best he could to stop himself from bolting, and tried to look determined as his eyes swept around. Everyone, from Class 1B to his own classmates, was emitting the same uneasy feeling he had felt back when it was announced that he had ten million points - a wave of pure malice being focused right on him, as though he were in a cage filled to the brim with hungry lions.

Still, he did his best to fight down the terror and nervousness running through his entire body as he glanced around, seeing Setsuna slowly lick her lips as she gave him a malicious grin, Yui giving him a surprisingly intense glare even with her blank face, Nejire giving him a look of surprise, Shouto glaring right at the points on his forehead, Pony slowly rotating around in the air to point herself straight at him, and Itsuka, the only one who's eyes he met, giving him a 'what the fuck are you doing' look as her mouth dropped open at the sheer audacity of what he was doing.

Which … well, the last one was something he was pretty used to, so at least he had been expecting Itsuka's reaction.

The entire forest was silent, filled to the brim with tension as everyone stared at Izuku and he back at them. He felt the cameras turn to point at him as well, meaning that everyone back at the arena was probably watching as well as his foot twitched slightly, everyone waiting for him to make the first move so they knew where to chase him - or were bracing themselves to start the chase themselves, what with Denki below taking a small step forward.

And then, without warning, there was a loud explosion near the bottom of the tree Izuku was standing on.

"DIE!" Katsuki roared, blasting through the shrubbery with a wide, malicious grin, wearing two gauntlets on his wrists. The three (technically two) groups jumped in surprise as he twirled through the air, boosted thanks to the twin shots of hot air shooting out of Mei's devices, and before any of them to blink, his hand landed on Denki's shoulder. With a loud explosion, the other electric-quirk user was sent flying through the air with a yelp, and Katsuki turned to smash through the small group, everyone quickly snapping out of the tense mood to whip around and see his head moving on a swivel, looking for any points he might snag.

And then there was the sound of an engine rumbling as well, and everyone looked around - and Reiko only managed to duck just in time as Tenya shot out from where Katsuki had emerged, his hand only barely missing her shoulder, but luckily the boy in glasses managed to catch himself before he crashed into another tree, and, with speeds that no one thought he was capable of with what looked to be braces along his legs propelling him along with two small pipes on his back balancing him, sprinted towards one of the girls from 1B.

His hand slammed down on the invisible girl's shoulder, making her squeak, and before anyone could blink, the bandana on her head, which displayed the number '20', suddenly went down to '10', while on Tenya's bandana, the number '10' appeared as well.

"Crap!" Setsuna growled loudly, quickly zipping down to where both Yui and Kyouka were standing, and shook Yui's shoulder to get her attention as the quiet girl stared at how Tenya posed with a slightly red face, trying to shake Yui out of her obvious leering.

"Spread the points out, guys! Just to be safe!"

Both Yui and Kyouka nodded, and quickly reached out to grab Setsuna's hands at the same time, Setsuna detaching them by the wrist to reach down for her two partners as she floated her upper body back up. Itsuka, who had quickly whipped around as her best friend swooped down low to the ground, saw Kyouka and Yui grab Setsuna's hands -

- and then watched as, rather than have Setsuna's hundred and seventy points cut in half on her forehead, went down to zero, and both Kyouka and Yui's headbands divided Setsuna's points between them.

Itsuka felt herself blink in surprise as Setsuna, now with zero points in her headband, began to rise back up to float above the crowd that was now breaking up slightly from Katsuki and Tenya's sudden attacks, and pointed straight at Izuku, who jumped as he was jolted out of watching his two teammates causing chaos.

"Get the ten million!" Setsuna shouted, baring her teeth, and immediately began flying over to Izuku as he squeaked a bit. As everyone complied with her order and quickly began heading towards the tree Itsuka's traininer partner was on, Tetsutetsu quickly turned to where Itsuka was standing, on the other hand, who looked around as he began charging right at her, his quirk immediately hardening into steel.

"While they handle Midoriya," He shouted right at Itsuka, "I'll show you for bein' so smug before!"

Itsuka, to her credit, only narrowed her eyes, growing out her hands and bracing herself as Tetsutetsu ran straight at her, Shouto moving his hand back while ice cracked in his palm -

- and then, without warning, Eijirou suddenly exploded out of the bushes behind Itsuka, making her jump as he roared at Tetsutetsu in challenge right in her ear. Tetsutetsu let out a grunt as Eijirou tackled him right off his feet, slamming him into the dirt, and both Itsuka and Shouto blinked in surprise as the two rolled over each other in the dirt briefly before they both got back to their feet, glaring into each other's eyes.

"You again," Tetstetsu gritted his teeth in fury, ignoring how everyone was charging forward to attack Izuku behind them, "it's always you, you copycat! First at Ground Omega, then on the roof trainin' my quirk … it's always you!"

"You kiddin'?!" Eijirou gritted his own teeth, slamming his hardened fists together, "It's you that's been copying me! I've had to deal with you for weeks now - copying my moves, my training strategies, my own freakin' quirk!"

"So it's come down to this!" Tetsutetsu cracked his knuckles, getting ready to run forward, "We're settlin' this right now!"

"That's what I'm thinking!"

And with twin roars, both of them charged at each other, their fists hardening and smashing together as they began a fight that's … apparently been building up for some time now. Itsuka, for her part, only stared in confusion over the fact that Eijirou had apparently been going through his own little shonen arc for the last few weeks and no one had noticed as Nejire floated down to stare at the two battling boys, her finger poking her lip.

"A fated battle between rivals?" She questioned out loud, and Itsuka was unable to suppress a small snort.

"Yeah," She shrugged, "apparentl-"

KRACK-BOOM

At the sudden blast of lightning that sounded out through the forest, both girls nearly jumped out of their skins, whipping back around as Izuku launched himself off the branch he had stayed on, narrowly avoiding Setsuna scratching at him as he pointed at the clear space on the ground and fired, sending him flying up into the air. Flailing a bit, Izuku looked panicked as he quickly looked around, seeing several people quickly looking up to where he had disappeared to and seeing him flying up helplessly into the air.

On the ground, one of the girls from Class 1B quickly clasped her hands together, and several vines from her head shot up into the sky, directly towards Izuku with the intention to snatch him out of the air now that he was completely immobile and unable to dodge out of the way -

- only for the support item on his back to suddenly beep, and, after something rotated around on his back, a hydraulic press suddenly shot out from the support item on his shoulder to push him out of the way of the vines.

"Huh?!" The girl with vines for hair blinked, staring up in surprise as Izuku was shoved through the trees, and everyone quickly tried to look around for where he had vanished. At once, Pony, Setsuna, Hanta and a few people from Class 1B immediately took off through the trees for where he had gone off to, Setsuna and Pony quickly floating up to the top of the trees to spot him.

In the back, however, Itsuka felt her eyes narrow as her mind began to spin, seeing Izuku briefly pop up from the trees again as he flew away from where everyone was now beginning to chase him, and her gaze flickered to Tenya and Katsuki as they chased after the people who were now scattered, trying to get away from them as Mina slipped around the group and went off in the direction that Setsuna's group had arrived from - and then she felt her eyes widen.

Wait - wait a moment. When they had gone off to the forest, someone on Izuku's team had specifically caught her eye. A girl with pink, weird hair, wearing some kind of goggles on her head and wearing a few items on her body. And the things on Izuku's arms and back - they were clearly support items, as were the things that Tenya and Katsuki were wearing.

Was it possible that - no, no, she shook her head, it was more than likely that the girl was from the support class - and she had shared her toys with her training partner. So that meant that it might not just be Izuku that's armed with support items - his entire team might have a few tricks up their sleeves.

So that meant, Itsuka nodded to herself as she began running towards where Denki was now chasing after Izuku, that they should avoid -

"We can take the ten million from him."

At the voice on her left, Itsuka faltered in her step, blinking, and quickly looked back around. Staring up at where Izuku had vanished, Shouto's eyes were still narrowed, and he looked around at her as he raised an eyebrow at her confused look.

"You saw what that one girl did," He pointed out, "she had two people touch her, and she lost all of her points."

"I did see that," Itsuka slowly nodded, still frowning slightly as she looked around at where the crowd was moving through the forest after her training partner, "must be some kind of glitch. What of it?"

"It means," Shouto glanced back around at where Izuku had vanished, ignoring Present Mic's loud commentary over the speakers spread throughout the forest as he scowled, "that if you and I catch up with him and touch him at the same time …"

Itsuka felt her eyes widen, and looked back around at Shouto as he likewise glanced back at her. Nejire looked between both of them in worry, with Monoma raising an eyebrow, and together, they all stepped aside as Eijirou tackled Tetsutetsu into the ice to ram him against it with his shoulder, all of them ignoring the surprisingly intense fight beside them as Tetsutetsu slammed both his arms down on Eijirou's shoulders, and Eijirou retaliated by moving his head up to slam the back of his head into Tetsutetsu's steel nose.

"Hold on," Itsuka raised her hand, frowning, "that isn't our plan, Todoroki."

"Plans change," He shrugged, "and it's clear that we never anticipated Midoriya doing something like this. But it's something that we can't just ignore - we know how to get the ten million points all for ourselves."

"But -"

"Besides," Shouto then gave her a judgmental glare, "it's like I said. I don't trust you being on my team, Kendou, because it's clear where your real loyalties lie."

That caused Itsuka to scowl at him.

"If you want me to take you seriously as my rival," Shouto's eyes darkened, "you have to show me that you're willing to put yourself on top of Midoriya and Uraraka. And this? This is the perfect time to show me that - to get me to actually respect you."

There was a moment of silence in their small group, with Nejire and Monoma watching the other two's silent stare off while Tetsutetsu and Eijirou continued to pound on each other - and then Itsuka exhaled through her nose, her own eyes growing colder as she met Shouto's glare tit-for-tat.

"Let's make something clear, Todoroki," She spat out, "I have no idea why you're so intense about being my rival. And to tell you the truth? I don't care. If I'm being honest, I'm half tempted to just end this rivalry here and now just to get you off my back."

That caused Shouto to raise his eyebrow.

"I don't care," Itsuka repeated, staring him in the eye, "I'm doing this - the sports festival - for my own reasons. I'm here to get the attention of the pro heroes I want to eventually intern with, not to get into a dick measuring contest with you. The only reason I'm even considering going after Izuku is because he's the best bet to get to the next round - not because I'm answering your stupid challenge."

Turning to look up at the sky, Itsuka let out a slow, slightly shuddering breath.

"And for the record," She glanced back at him, "Putting myself on top of Izuku and Ochako was never going to be a problem."

Before any of them could respond to that, Itsuka turned to look up at Nejire, who had been watching the surprisingly intense stare-off with widened eyes, and jolted as Itsuka reached up to grab Nejire's ankle, pulling on it lightly to get her full attention.

"Hadou," She sighed as she flipped her ponytail off her shoulder, "can you go and find whoever Izuku's point-keeper is?"

"Eh?" Nejire blinked. "Uh - well, yeah, I guess so, but why? For what reason?"

"I'm betting," She began to explain as quickly as she could, "that Izuku left the rest of his points behind with his team. He's got the ten million, but that's the only points he has right now - that means that his team is probably hiding the rest of the points somewhere in their district. Now that we know that Bakugou, Ashido and Iida are going around too, we'll be competing with them to get the other teams' points, and they're much faster than anyone on this team. And from what I saw," She narrowed her eyes, "they left their points behind too. So if we can't get the ten million, then we'll go and grab the rest of their points."

"I … guess that makes sense?" Nejire shrugged.

"Yeah," Itsuka nodded, "so you go and find whoever their point-keeper is and nab their points. I'm betting that since they have a support student, they're lining their zone with traps. Fly above the forest and see if you can spot anything out of the ordinary, or if one of them is wearing more support gear than the rest - I bet that'll be the point-keeper."

"O-okay! Sounds good!" Nejire quickly saluted her, and then quickly took off into the sky, and Itsuka nodded slowly as she turned towards where Monoma was staring haughtily at her.

"Monoma," She nodded, "you keep to our original plan and go around to get us the points from anyone you come across. Make sure to run them to Haya and Shinsou, and they'll get them to Tokoyami."

"Ha! And why would I -"

"Monoma," Itsuka's eyes narrowed dangerously, "don't even right now."

Thankfully, the annoying boy seemed to register that Itsuka wasn't making a simple request of him, and quickly turned to take off after the small mob that had chased after Izuku. With a sigh, Itsuka cracked her knuckles, and grew her hands out. Shouto took a step back, wrinkling his brow as Itsuka turned back towards him with a frown.

"Well, Todoroki?" She gestured with her giant hands, "Make me a few blocks of ice. Izuku probably can't go much higher than the trees, since his support item is just pushing him around. We make him go above the treelines -"

"- we can bring him down." Shouto nodded, turning around and began making a few blocks of ice for her. Itsuka nodded and looked back up at the sky, trying to strain her ears to listen for wherever Izuku had gone off to -

- and being unaware of two pairs of eyes turning towards her, one pair from the side and one from behind her, and sending her two glares.

Well, on the one hand, Izuku's plan worked pretty much flawlessly.

On the other hand, however, Izuku's plan … worked pretty much flawlessly.

With a yelp, Izuku ducked underneath another attack that came at him out of nowhere, Tsuyu letting out an annoyed ribbit as she narrowly missed kicking him in the head and was forced to move back down to the trees as the hydraulic press on his back pushed Izuku all over the place to avoid the massive crowd of people that was now flinging all of their quirks at him in order to stop him from moving. Landing on another tree, Izuku let out a small, shaking yelp as it suddenly began shaking, and quickly looked down to see Kyouka plugging her earphone jacks into the base of the tree, intending to shake him off, and quickly jumped off the tree as he ducked underneath a shot of tape being fired right at his face by Hanta.

Izuku grunted each time the hydraulic press shoved him off to the side with barely a warning, yanking him all over the place as it shoved him away from any attack that might come close enough to hit him, from someone jumping in the air in an attempt to grab his arm or ankle and drag him down, or a quirk trying to shoot him out of the air.

So there was one flaw in Mei's inventions, Izuku winced - it didn't really consider that bones weren't supposed to be jerked around so much.

"Stay still!" One of the guys from Class 1B shouted, a huge guy with very prominent lips as he crunched down on some kind of powdery substance, and then, with a roar as his body suddenly swelled with muscles, his shirt ripping slightly, charged through the trees to head to one of the bounders laying off one of the paths. Izuku felt his eyes widen as the guy picked it up as though it weighed nothing, and with an almighty shout, threw it straight at Izuku -

- only for the jetpack on his upper back to suddenly activate as Izuku reached around quickly to press the button as fast as he could, and he was jerked straight up through the trees, managing to completely avoid the rock being thrown at him but being rewarded with getting hit repeatedly with branches and leaves, grunting and yelping in pain as the back of his head was smacked repeatedly by branches until he was sent straight up above the forest.

Now high above the trees, Izuku flailed for a moment in panic before the jetpack's thrusters properly kicked in, and he was allowed to briefly hover in the air, Izuku taking advantage of finally being alone up in the sky to quickly scan the top of the trees for any sign of his classmates as he began to slowly descend. As Mei had explained, the jetpack was designed to allow him to float in the air for up to a minute as he slowly descended, so he took this moment to try and gather himself, and get ready for anything that might come his way while Present Mic continued to scream commentary through the speakers spread throughout the forest.

Thankfully for him, it looked like everyone was taking their time to come up after him, giving him a chance to breathe. Of course, he had to also consider that they were probably coming up with their own strategies while he was immobile - running around and letting everyone chase him for fifteen minutes was an okay plan to start with, but eventually, they'd figure out a way to corner him unless he kept light on his toes and avoided running into any traps they might spring on him.

So at the moment, he had to strategize as well - as long as he could keep using the hydraulic press on his back to keep himself moving through the trees, and continue to outrun the rest of his classmates while Tenya, Mina and Katsuki brought the points they were gathering to Ochako, everything would be okay.

Speaking of Ochako, somewhere far on his right, he saw something rustling in the trees, quickly turning around to look at it - but as he glanced to the right to double check where he was, and saw the pond in the distance, he knew that was his own district, and who was coming out. Soon enough, Ochako popped out of the trees, Izuku unable to stop himself from smiling brightly at the sight of his best friend raising her hands to brush some of the leaves out of her hair as she floated up into the air, and raised his hand to wave at her, letting out a chuckle as he saw Ochako give him a wave back.

She had her own support items from Mei strapped onto her body - she was wearing what looked to be a jetpack similar to his own strapped to her back, and two small gauntlets she had on her arms that had pointed wires on the tips, presumably to help her move around. And thanks to using her quirk to float herself, she could position herself above the trees without the risk of falling into the sky, which she did by firing one of the wires into the trees to keep herself still.

So that meant that, if anyone somehow got through the traps that Momo, Mineta and Mei had been setting up in their district, they wouldn't be able to reach her. And speaking of that …

Bringing his finger to the small earpiece Mei had given him, Izuku pressed on it and said, in a clear voice, "Occhan? Can you hear me?"

There was a brief pause before the earpiece in his ear beeped.

"I can hear you, Deku." Ochako's voice filled the earpiece, and Izuku, for some reason, felt his heart start hammering a bit faster - something that didn't have to do with the adrenaline and panic he was feeling having half the class chasing him as it sounded like her soft voice was speaking in a hushed tone directly in his ear. "Is everything going okay?"

"S-so far," Izuku stuttered a bit there, feeling his face go red in embarrassment, but he continued to sweep the top of the trees with his eyes, narrowing them slightly as he tried to refocus and concentrate on anyone who might come out of nowhere, "everyone's after me, at least - but I also think Tokage and Kodai's teams have teamed up. They seem to be working together to bring me down, so, uh … that's … pretty bad, if they're both focusing on me instead of attacking each other."

"They teamed up?" Momo suddenly spoke up over the line, making Izuku jump a bit as he remembered that everyone had access to this feed, not just him and Ochako. "So does that mean that they'll both be coming towards us?"

"Maybe," He nodded, grimacing slightly, "but the good news at least is that they're all following me at least for now. And from how many were out in the field, they didn't leave any defenses behind in their districts - which means that Iida, Ashido and Kacchan will have free reign to go into their districts to get their point-keepers."

"Indeed!" Tenya spoke up, all of them hearing the sound of his engines roaring over the line, "I am heading towards Tokage's district now! I believe that they only left the point-keeper here to secure the points!"

"Okay … try to do one more sweep through the crowd following me, and then yeah, head to Tokage's district. We can take advantage of them being focused on me to go through them once with Recipro Burst before you go after her point-keeper."

"Very good! I'm on the way!"

"Yeaaaaah, uh … sorry, Midori, but I'm not going into Kendou's zone," Mina giggled nervously over the line, "I'm just scoping it out right now, and there's two big icebergs in the way. Plus, I can hear some kind of electricity running in there, so I guess they left behind some guys to guard whoever their point-keeper is."

"Okay," Izuku slowly nodded, understanding that as he glanced up and saw the massive iceberg poking out from the trees, "okay, Ashido. In that case, come and help Iida with picking off points from the crowd - I can see the iceberg from here - it looks like it's spread pretty far, it'd take too long to go around anyway. Yaoyorozu, are all the traps set up?"

"Most of them," Momo confirmed, "Mineta's balls have secured the wire traps Hatsume set up while you went out to confront the groups, and Mineta is still setting up a few more wires with his quirk. Since he'll be setting them up at his height, that means that if people do come into our zone, they'll have to move carefully over them lest they get a particularly nasty shock. And I'm working on the cannon now - it should be ready soon."

"Good," Izuku sighed in relief, "and I bet Kacchan's heading to where Kodai's group set up to deal with their point-keeper. Ashido's right, it's better to avoid Kendou's zone unless absolutely necessary - Todoroki's quirk makes it too hard to go around it. You guys just keep doing what you're doing, or come and sneak up on the people chasing me while I lead them around."

"Deku," Ochako spoke up again, "did you see -"

However, before she could finish her question, and Izuku could squirm with his best friend's voice in his ear - seriously, what was going on with that?! He'd had her phone number for years and spoken to her over the phone multiple times, why was her speaking directly into his ear now making him feel so flustered?! - there was a small rustling of branches to Izuku's left. Immediately snapping to attention, Izuku whirled around to look at the top of the tree, feeling his eyes widen at a sudden, familiar grunt of annoyance.

There was a moment's pause, and then, suddenly, something blasted out from the branches of the tree - a familiar blast of yellow, spiraling light.

"Peh!" Nejire finally emerged, spitting out a leaf and looking somewhat grossed out as she flew up to float above the trees along with him, and quickly looked around at Izuku as he quickly turned to her, his eyes widening. Fortunately for him, Nejire didn't seem to be focused on attacking him, instead giving him a big smile.

"Hi, Midoriya!" She waved at him before her gaze trailed down to the support items he was wearing, and her eyes brightened. "Wow, those look really cool! Where'd you get them? They all look so shiny and white! I gotta say, though, I kinda like your gauntlet more! It's got way more color!"

Izuku, for his part, merely gulped nervously, not trusting himself to say anything - this was the first time he had gone up against Nejire, and remembering the way she had crumbled a wall effortlessly during the battle trial was making him nervous.

"Eh?!" He heard Mei suddenly growl over the line, "Did someone just shittalk my babies?! Where is she?! Tits McGee, blast her out of the sky with your cannon!"

"The cannon is not ready yet, and do not call me Tits McGee!"

Izuku, for his part, tried to ignore the bickering in his ear as he kept his eyes on Nejire's hands, waiting for her to suddenly blast at him as he slowly descended. Nejire, meanwhile, merely pouted at the lack of response from him.

"Not gonna talk to me?" She said in slight disappointment, sighing and shaking her head while looking pretty sad - and then she shrugged, tilting her head as a thought came to her. "Well, it is probably really stressful for you right now, so maybe I can't blame you for not wanting to chat with me right now. But don't worry! I'll talk to you later at lunch! That'd be a good time to talk, right? Then I can talk to you all about those thingies you're wearing! Well, anyhoo, don't worry! I'm not gonna attack you!"

"H-huh?" Izuku blinked, jolted out of his nervous state and felt surprised and confused as Nejire began looking around.

"Nope! I'm not! I'm actually gonna …" She trailed off, her eyes searching around for a moment - and then she spotted Ochako, and her eyes widened in delight.

"Oh! I guess Uraraka's your point-keeper!"

And with that, she turned, completely ignoring Izuku now as he squeaked in shock, and blasted off through the air. Izuku's eyes widened as he saw her begin flying straight towards Ochako, a bit too fast for his comfort, and quickly raised his hand to the earpiece.

"Occhan! Hadou's headed right for you!"

"Oh, of course she is," Ochako groaned, and he could see the distant shape that was Ochako floating in the air tense as she attempted to straighten up, "I guess in that case, Deku, we … we might have to do Plan B."

"R-right," Izuku nodded, already regretting making this plan as he looked around again, "d-do you hear that, everyone? We're probably gonna have to -"

"MIDORIYA!"

Jolting at the sound of someone shouting his name behind him, Izuku quickly looked over his shoulder - and squeaked as he barely avoided getting hit in the face with a piece of tape, jerking his head barely out of the way in time as it slammed down on the tree he had been gently floating beside due to the jetpack.

Seeing more students approaching him on the ground, and Pony flying straight towards him with an adorable pout on her face, Izuku let out a yelp as the hydraulic presses pushed him out of the way of Pony lunging at him, the horse girl letting out a curse in English as he barely avoided her, and Izuku quickly ducked as Reiko, throwing her hands in the air from where she was down on the ground, threw a large branch at him, Izuku only barely avoiding getting hit in the head with the broken tree as he began moving again, feeling panic surge through him.

Managing to land down on a tree, Izuku quickly looked around, reprimanding himself internally for getting distracted talking to Ochako as he saw everyone gathering below him to begin attacking again. Down below, Yui, storming up towards where Izuku was and narrowing her eyes, let out a small grunt of exertion as she threw several pebbles at him - but Izuku knew what they really were at once, his eyes widening in horror, and quickly leapt off the tree as Yui pressed her fingers together.

Regrowing the boulders, Yui watched as Izuku barely got out of the way as they crashed through the trees, and her blue eyes watched as he flew forward for a moment - only for the girl named Shiozaki to send several of her vines up to intercept him, Izuku letting out a grunt as he tried to move out of the way. With a small huff, Yui began walking over to more boulders, intending to shrink them down and throw them at the backpacks Izuku was wearing to disable them -

- but then the hum of engines suddenly distracted her, and she quickly turned as Tenya stood near the front of their group facing them, kneeling down on the ground in a running position. Before she could even blink, however, Tenya moved faster than any of them could follow, making them all wince and flinch as he sped past them, and his hand was thrown out to touch Yui to take half her points, not paying any attention to how low he was as he reached out and tapped Yui as quickly - and slightly harder than he anticipated - as he could.

If he had been paying attention, of course, he would've noticed Yui jump a mile high as his hand smacked her lower body, her eyes widening, and then quickly whip around to where he vanished off to, her face going very red very quickly.

Back above the trees, meanwhile, Izuku let out another grunt as he dodged through Shiozaki's vines, unable to stop himself from feeling a bit impressed by them - it was as though he were fighting off a massive group of people trying to reach out to him, to wrap around his arms and legs to prevent him from moving. As Shiozaki let out a small grunt of annoyance, clasping her hands tighter together, Izuku knew that if he didn't get out of this girl's reach soon, she could very easily bring him down, and quickly pressed the button on the jetpack again.

Quickly, Izuku began blasting off into the air, managing to avoid Shiozaki's vines as he looked around - and then his eyes turned to where Setsuna was perched on a nearby tree, grinning evilly at him as he realized his mistake.

"There!" She yelled at her team. "He's back in the air!"

"Crap!" Izuku cursed, only now realizing that she had purposefully had her team put the pressure on him to get him back in the air, and quickly looked around as Hanta jumped up with help from his tape, and shot another line of tape down into the crowd below staring up at Izuku to lift someone up into the air.

"C'mon, man!" Hanta complained to Denki as he wrapped him up in his tape, "You just had to fucking call out to him?! We almost had him back there!"

"Sorry, dude!" Denki winced at his mistake, but still shook his head and looked around at Izuku with a wide grin. "Just throw me at him! I'll give him a good shock!"

Hanta merely rolled his eyes at the lame pun, but still did as instructed, and, with a grunt of exertion, threw Denki as hard as he could towards Izuku as the green-haired boy floated up in the air, who quickly looked around as Denki began activating his quirk, bathing himself in yellow electricity as he gave Izuku an audacious grin.

"It's just you and me, Midoriya!" He laughed loudly, "Electricity versus electricity! You're pretty cool with your lightning, I'll admit, but I gotta say -"

He reached out for Izuku's arm.

"- my quirk's way cooler!"

Alas, before Denki could grab onto Izuku, the hydraulic press on Izuku's back beeped, and shoved him out of the way, making Izuku yelp as he was jerked aside, and Denki sailed right over where his prey had been.

"… huh?" Denki's eyes widened and his grin froze as he began plummeting back towards the ground, letting out a yelp of fear as he began flailing through the air with his electricity still sparking around him.

"Kaminari- kun!" Pony gasped, and quickly used her horns to fly over, her arms outstretched, and quickly caught the falling Denki.

Unfortunately for Pony, Denki's quirk was … still very much active. And she only had about a second to realize that as she realized what was about to happen.

"Oh,"She said dumbly, "oh, shit."

ZAP!

Izuku winced in sympathy as both Pony and Denki immediately lit up like a light socket, and everyone down in the forest quickly covered their eyes at the burst of light that came from the two of them as Denki's quirk electrocuted her. Pony, her long bushy hair immediately standing up as she absorbed the shock, lost her balance on her two horns as she sailed low along the ground, and accidentally fell off, dropping Denki as she flailed through the air

- and Denki was dropped right down onto the ground in the middle of the group of students who were chasing Izuku, where the rest of his electricity could spread out to everyone else.

ZAP!

Above them, Izuku stared in horror as everyone on the ground got a good taste of electricity from Denki, everyone immediately seizing up as it coursed through them - from Mezo, who had jumped out to catch Pony before she fell onto the ground and got a good shock for the both of them for his trouble; to Kyouka, who impressively looked like she was going to power through the shock to go kick Denki before she finally collapsed onto the ground face first; to the guys of Class 1B, who had absolutely no idea what to expect, unfortunately getting a good shock with Denki landing very close to them; to Reiko, who's gray hair in her face immediately stood up and showed her full face for the first time, eyes widening in pain; and then to Shiozaki, who immediately straightened up as electricity hit her and gave her a good shock for her troubles, the electric currents moving up her vines as she let out a few jabbering noises.

Finally, Denki's power shorted out, and everyone, stunned by Denki's quirk, collapsed onto the ground, twitching with smoke beginning to rise up into the air, while Denki lazily sat up with a 'wheeeeeeey' and started giving everyone a thumbs up, a derpy look on his face.

"AMAZING!" Present Mic screamed through the speakers. "ONE SMALL MOVEMENT BY MIDORIYA HAS NEARLY TWO TEAMS ENTIRELY COMPROMISED! A SINGLE MOVEMENT AND SEVERAL STUDENTS DOWN! NOT BAD FOR YOUR STUDENT, EH, ERASERHEAD?!"

"I suppose it would be," Aizawa said dryly, "if Midoriya actually meant to do that."

"Uh …" Izuku gulped, sweating nervously, "… oops."

"Oi! Parsley-head!"

At the name calling out to him, Izuku blinked in shock at the fact there were apparently still people standing, and quickly looked around. Setsuna gave him a taunting grin as she kept her upper body wrapped around Hanta's waist as he flew up towards Izuku, reaching out to grab Izuku's arm, and the hydraulic press on his back quickly pushed Izuku out of the way before he could get snatched.

"P-parsley-head?!" Izuku was unable to stop himself from balking, automatically raising a hand to pat his hair.

"So buddy!" Setsuna continued to call out to him, watching as the hydraulic press of Mei's support item continued to push him away from Hanta as he gave chase, tape pushing past his elbows as he squinted his eyes in determination to keep up with Izuku moving through the trees with Setsuna clinging to his back, "I've been having a few thoughts, y'know? About you specifically!"

Izuku narrowed his eyes a bit as he pushed off another tree, disappearing through the bushes as the two of them pushed him back to his zone. Unfortunately for him, it appeared that Hanta had way more experience moving around this way - Izuku's movements were jerky and harder to control, while Hanta easily and expertly swung through the trees as he kept himself and Setsuna up in the air, chasing Izuku in an attempt to corner him. Which meant that Izuku was at a disadvantage - he couldn't keep his eyes on Hanta while running away, and Setsuna could fly on her own, which meant if they split up and ambushed him …

Of course, it was possible that they didn't know about the traps they had been laying out, Izuku quickly thought as he glanced down to see the wires spread out throughout the trees attached there by Mineta's balls, and felt his mind begin to race. If he could somehow get them close enough to the ground, so that Hanta would swing directly into one of their traps …

"I was thinking!" Setsuna continued to taunt him from behind, Izuku doing his best to ignore her and keeping his head on a swivel in case Hanta did something to disrupt his movements, "We were going over strategies before the game started, with our group - and I had a revelation about you, y'know? After what happened back at the battle trial with you and Ken!"

Izuku continued to try and ignore her, the hydraulic press pushing him out of the way before Hanta fired a line of tape at his back and damaged the equipment.

"You didn't use your quirk at all!" She helpfully reminded him. "And then, when we were watching you fight with Togata-senpai, I overheard something Tenko-sensei said - the teachers want you to try using your quirk offensively. Which means … you're probably hesitant to use it against other people, aren't you?"

"Uh," Hanta muttered to her, rolling his eyes, "yeah. No shit, Tokage. Tenko-sensei literally said that in front of everyone, that was obvious."

"Shut it, tush bro, I'm trying to work my magic." She muttered back, giving the hand she had on his shoulder a slightly tight squeeze, before quickly looking back up at Izuku to continue addressing him, watching as he used the support item on his back to dodge out of the way of Hanta firing another shot of tape at his back, her hands beginning to detach from her wrists as she automatically wrapped her arms around Hanta's neck.

"Anyway, buddy," She grinned sharply, "that was just what I was noticing, is all … you not being able to use your quirk against us."

Izuku merely grunted as he grabbed a branch from a nearby tree, yanking himself around the hard wood to avoid Hanta and Setsuna as he tried to ignore Setsuna's words. However, Hanta easily kept pace by swinging around as well, using his other hand to grab Setsuna's back and prevent her from falling off, although the feeling of her chest pressing into his back was making him blush a bit.

"So …" Setsuna smirked evilly, "… I guess that means you're too busy being a coward to properly fight, right?"

That, at least, finally caused Izuku to pause.

Standing there, frozen, for a moment, Izuku panted slightly as he stood on the top branch, and then, slowly, turned around to look at Setsuna as she and Hanta landed on a tree opposite of the one he was on. Setsuna raised herself slightly on his back to continue grinning sharply at him, making sure Izuku could see her.

"What's the matter," She began to sneer at him, "not brave enough to stop running and fight us one on one? Afraid of getting your hands dirty? Choosing to just run? Is that what a real hero would do, parsley-head? Or is that what a coward would do?!"

Izuku felt himself shake at the taunts being thrown his way - but not out of fear, or anxiety, or hurt feelings. He could feel his hands curl into fists, his breath leaving a bit shakily through his mouth, and staring at Setsuna right in the eye as anger began to course through him, feeling himself tense slightly -

- but then he blinked, feeling his eyes widen slightly.

The way she had said that word … the way she had called him a coward … it was … familiar, he realized. The way his chest felt a bit tighter, his stomach tensing, his thoughts grinding slightly to a halt in favor of anger towards one of his friends. It was familiar, because …

… because …

"You know, I'm glad that you probably won't apply for UA, Deku - not that you would get in anyway. A school for heroes doesn't take cowards."

The words that day, the taunt that Katsuki had thrown at him … at the time, Izuku had been hurt by the accusation, but there had been several emotions moving through him when Katsuki had called him a coward. One of those feelings was … was anger at the accusation. Of course he had gotten angry - being called out as a coward was enough that Izuku's blood had boiled. And the way that Setsuna had said it, as though she had known that it would set him off …

He realized, then and there, what Setsuna was doing as his eyes widened slightly. She had found one of his buttons, and was pressing it as hard as she could. She was trying to get him to lose focus and turn to anger. She was trying to make him abandon any strategic thoughts he had in favor of just fighting her and Hanta - and that would be where the two of them would overwhelm him.

He suddenly remembered something that Itsuka had told him once, back on the beach while they were getting ready for the entrance exam, as he turned to look at both of them still perched on the tree and waiting for his reaction. They had been sitting around with Ochako, chatting about their childhoods, when Itsuka had told them about what she had gotten up to with Yui and Setsuna growing up. And there had been one thing that had stuck out to Izuku, for some reason, that he hadn't realized up until this very moment. Itsuka had told him …

… that Setsuna fought dirty. She liked to tease. She liked to taunt. That people avoided fighting her because they knew she would use anything she had to win. And when she had to face down a bully, or got into a fight, Setsuna was not the cleanest fighter.

And now … now Izuku fully understood what that meant, as he turned to look Setsuna in the eye as she smirked at him.

"Or maybe," Setsuna smirked, leaning forward and licking her lips, "you're gonna be a good boy and give me all your points right now?"

This was what Setsuna was capable of as an opponent. She knew how to taunt, to get under other people's skin, just like she got under his. He hadn't spent much time with her outside their group hanging out, but it was clear that she, at the very least, had been paying more attention to him than he paid attention to her.

All those pokes and teases from before … all of those while trying to understand what it took to get a reaction out of him. This was …

… this was what Setsuna Tokage was capable of. He had never noticed it before, but … but quite honestly, she was probably one of the more dangerous members of their little group.

Izuku stared at her for a moment, his heart pounding in his chest - and then he tried to shake his head, taking a shuddering breath and trying to calm himself down from her taunts as he glanced down -

- and caught sight of Mineta hiding behind the tree Setsuna and Hanta were on, peeking out and meeting his eyes.

Izuku blinked, wondering just what on earth Mineta was doing. The general studies student definitely looked more than a little nervous, sweating hard while glancing up at the two Izuku was facing off against - and then he pointed at the tree they were on, where a small purple ball was attached to.

Izuku immediately knew what that meant, feeling his eyes widen. If his ball was there - it was holding down a wire. Which meant … that the two trees that they were standing on … it had a wire trap.

So if he could get Hanta and Setsuna down there …

Feeling his mind race for a moment, Izuku stared blankly - and then, before he looked back up at his two opponents, he tried to morph his face so it appeared to be casual, looking back up at Setsuna.

"Y-you know," He tried to sound calm and collected as he thought, trying to internally strategize a way he could get those two down low enough to get hit by the trap, "you, uh - you could really hurt my feelings here, Tokage - you don't know all that much about me."

"Yeah," Setsuna giggled, while Hanta braced himself, "yeah, maybe you're right, parsley-head, this might be a bit under the belt. But you know what, dude? I'll apologize after the game!"

And then, suddenly, her two hands which had been resting against Hanta's shoulders, shot out towards him, disconnected from her wrists, and flew straight for Izuku. Hanta, meanwhile, leapt up into the air, shooting his tape at the tree above Izuku's head and reeling himself and the girl on his back in much faster than Izuku was ready for.

Izuku let out a small gasp as Setsuna's hands zoomed right over towards where he was standing, preparing to yank his wrist back as her left hand reached out to grab it -

- and that was when a sudden wall of ice came completely out of nowhere, smashing Setsuna's hand away.

Izuku let out a shout of surprise as a giant glacier suddenly shot up into the sky, hearing Setsuna's smug laughter disappear at once as she let out a loud scream of pain as the sudden wall of ice slammed her disembodied hand out of the way. He was also aware of Hanta letting out a shout of surprise and panic as the iceberg cut his tape in half, causing both him and Setsuna to flail in the air before the glacier completely cut them off from Izuku, but he heard the sound of them colliding against the block of ice as Izuku found himself on one side while they were on the other.

On the ground, Mineta let out a loud shout of pain as he was likewise slammed back from the tall glacier, hitting the back of his head against the ground, and, with a groan of pain, passed out at once, flopping against the ground. On the other side, Hanta acted quickly, wrapping his arm around Setsuna's head as she almost passed out from the pain, only one hand returning to attach itself to her waist - and then both of them hit the wire on the ground.

Hanta only had a second to realize what was about to happen, his eyes wide, as a current of electricity passed through the wire - and with that shock, they both flopped off the wire and onto the ground, stunned, while Setsuna rolled over, tears streaming down her face as she clutched her other wrist, the disembodied hand she could still feel even when it was detached from her absolutely freezing her to the bone.

On the other side, and feeling himself blink at the giant block of ice that appeared out of nowhere, Izuku quickly whirled around, his eyes scanning the ground below - and he let out a squeak as a smaller block of ice (and by smaller, that meant a block of ice at least as big as he was) was thrown straight at him. Thankfully for Izuku, he only got out of the way in time thanks to the hydraulic press pushing away from the tree and to the side, and he quickly activated the jetpack to let him float there for at least a second.

Panting in shock and slight exhaustion, Izuku was quick to look down again at the base of the ice wall, knowing that only one person could have the quirk capable of doing that. And sure enough, Shouto stepped out from behind the nearby tree, glaring right up at him as ice cracked in his palm. And coming in right behind him, her hands grown out to hold two giant pieces of ice, was Itsuka, looking up at him with a conflicted and apologetic look before she shook her head and narrowed her eyes, winding her hand back to throw another iceberg at him.

"Uh … guys?" Izuku gulped nervously, raising his hand to the earpiece, "I've … kinda got a problem."

"I hear you, Deku -" Ochako squeaked as she was forced to duck underneath another blast of spiraling yellow energy, "- but I've kinda got problems of my own!"

"Eh? Did you say 'Deku'? Wait, are you talking to Midoriya right now?" Nejire asked interestingly, sounding incredibly casual even as she threw her hands forward and sent out another blast of energy, Ochako only narrowly avoiding getting hit due to Mei's support item shooting out a wire that pulled her out of the way. "But how? Do you have really good hearing? Or a secondary quirk that lets you hear? Wait, that doesn't make any sense! If you had a second quirk, we'd know! And it doesn't make sense for it to be a hearing quirk, or you'd look like Jirou, wouldn't you? With ear thingies! Oh! But now that I'm thinking about it - maybe you've got one of those earpiece thingies? Like in heist movies! That would be cool, right? So do you have one? Do you, do you, do you?"

With another grunt, Ochako ducked underneath the blast that Nejire sent straight at her head, feeling herself begin to sweat in a mixture of nervousness and exhaustion as she attempted to use Mei's support items to get as far away from Nejire as possible. Which … was admittedly a very hard thing to do, seeing as Nejire was the only one who was up in the air with her at the moment, following her determinately and attempting to knock Ochako out of the air with wave after wave of spiraling energy.

It was a repeat of what had happened during their battle trial, when Ochako had faced off against Nejire - only this time, they were up in the air, with no place for Ochako to try and duck for cover from her. And it seemed that Nejire knew it, continuing to concentrate on knocking Ochako off balance even while trying to chat idly with her.

She was hyper focused on her, and knew that she had the advantage over Ochako - they were out in the open, and there wasn't anything that Ochako could use to float and use as a weapon against her. And even if she somehow floated Nejire, that would do absolutely nothing since Nejire could still fly! There was also the fact that, unlike Nejire, Ochako's attempts to move around were far more jerky than Nejire's graceful flying.

The support items on her arms and legs pulled and yanked her around, Ochako not fully in control of them as she yelped everytime she was dragged through the air to avoid Nejire, while the blue-haired girl had full control of her mobility, flying through the air gracefully and trying to grab Ochako in order to take all her points.

But … well, as Ochako narrowed her eyes as they swept along the trees, she did have one card up her sleeve, one that she didn't think Nejire knew yet since she floated above their zone. It was still booby-trapped, thanks to Momo, Mineta and Mei, so that meant that if she could get Nejire down there and low enough … they could potentially take her out.

And all else fails, she could get Nejire over to where Momo had created a cannon, and have her shot her out of the sky. A bit mean, yes, but … well, they had a cannon! Why would they have Momo make a cannon if they couldn't use it?

The problem, though, was getting Nejire down there. But, as Ochako squinted her eyes and quickly scanned the trees for anything that might assist her in getting away from Nejire, it didn't mean that she should just run - she should look for ways to knock Nejire off balance, or get her low enough so that one of their traps could trip her up.

After they had made their plans and quickly went over their Plan B, Izuku had taken off immediately to go and confront the three groups - they had needed the time to set up, so he had volunteered to run out and grab all of their attention while they put the finishing touches on their traps, lining the trees with wires made of copper that Momo created to spread throughout the zone, and connected back to where she was standing with their cannon, so that if someone hit the wire, they would receive a nasty shock. And that wasn't also mentioning the small drones that Mei had sent out through the zone - although she did warn that they were a bit faulty, so they shouldn't rely on them.

The plan was clear - Izuku would move through the forest and distract the groups, Tenya, Katsuki and Mina would get the points, and Ochako would move above the trees, go down to meet them, and take the points to add to their count. That plan, of course, had been based on the assumption that no one would try to come into their zone instead of going after Izuku and the ten million points.

But they hadn't anticipated Nejire's team sending her specifically over to come after Ochako, and completely avoid the traps they had set up. They had Plan B, of course, but it had only been a few minutes since the game began - they had planned, if all else failed and they had to go through with it, to use their backup plan near the end of the game. Not this soon.

Which meant that, somehow, Ochako needed to get Nejire over to where Momo had set up their failsafe for the flyers. And hopefully she'd be able to do that before Nejire got lucky and grabbed Ochako, and they would have to resort to Plan B a lot earlier than they would've liked.

But to be honest, at this point, it was looking more and more likely that Nejire was eventually going to catch her, Ochako grimaced as Mei's support items zipped her away from where Nejire was chasing her. The blue-haired girl was going to eventually corner her, and make their plans to get to the next round a lot more complicated.

So what she needed was …

"Round Face! Where the fuck are you?!"

Ochako gritted her teeth at the annoying voice in her ear - which really didn't help with her current mood, being chased down by the human equivalent of an excited puppy - and reluctantly brought her hand up to the earpiece to press the button.

"What do you want, Bakugou?"

"I got the shitty points from one of their point-keepers! It's fucking chaos out here, get your ass down near the ground so I can fork 'em over and get back to taking the other points from their zones!"

"Indeed! I'm also continuing to gather up points!" Tenya responded as well, Ochako hearing the sound of engines running in the background. "As Bakugou said, it's starting to become chaotic out here! Midoriya managed to knock a few of them down with Kaminari's quirk, but a few of them are starting to rouse! It won't be long until everyone starts trying to pursue us and going into our zone if they realize we're the ones who have all the points!"

"Yeah!" Mina spoke up for the first time in a few minutes, sounding panicked, "Jirou's already up, and she's chasing me down! I've got a few hundred points, so they're gunning pretty hard for me!"

"I understand that," Ochako grimaced again as she avoided another blast from Nejire, grunting as she was yanked to the side by a wire connected to the support item, "but I've kind of got Hadou right on my ass! She isn't going after Deku, she's actually after me! Yaoyorozu, can you hit her with the cannon from here?!"

"I - I'm trying," She heard Momo groan slightly with frustration over the line, "but she's moving too fast! I can't hit her - can you draw her closer to the ground?!"

"I don't think I exactly have that option!" Ochako quickly looked around the forest as she was pulled around, ducking under Nejire's attempt to grab the back of her shirt. "Hadou's probably going to grab me in a few seconds! I don't have enough mobility to avoid her!"

"Mobility?" Mei's voice suddenly came over the line for the first time in a few minutes, sounding excited. "Well, why didn't you just say so! I have the perfect thing for you! Babies, come back!"

"Huh?" Ochako blinked, becoming aware of the lines in the support items she was wearing suddenly tense, "Come … back? What does that meaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

The reason she started suddenly screaming, of course, was due to being yanked without warning straight through the trees, the support items whirling around and shooting a few hooks into the nearby trees to pull her through the air a lot faster than she was anticipating. Nejire blinked in surprise as Ochako suddenly vanished into the forest like some kind of monster had dragged her into the trees, the sound of her screaming several curse words in rapid succession so loud that the speakers easily picked them up and transferred them back to the UA stadium.

While everyone in the stadium blinked in shock, staring in horror and scandalization at the very colorful language Ochako was screaming at the top of her lungs, Teko reached over to place his hands over Eri's ears, the little girl blinking in confusion. Ochako's parents, meanwhile, suddenly found their shoes very fascinating, looking down at them and pretending not to notice the Kendous looking around at them with raised eyebrows.

"Quite the potty mouth Ochako has there." Hakushu chuckled despite himself. "I wonder where she learned those words from?"

"I mean," Tenohira giggled, "she is a construction worker's daughter, Hakushu."

"Ah, yeah - that makes sense, Tenohira."

"Please stop talkin'," Taiyo muttered in shame.

Meanwhile, a bit further down the stadium, Ryukyu raised her eyebrow as she looked around at Miruko, who was too busy barking with laughter as she slapped her knee.

"Girl knows how to curse!" She cackled loudly.

"You can't choose a student to intern for you based on how well they swear, Rumi."

"- AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUuuuh?"

As soon as Ochako finally slowed down, being yanked down where Mei was standing with the rest of the support items that they didn't equip for this exercise, the crazy support student hurried over as Ochako's screaming faded into confused silence as she got to work, slipping her goggles down onto her face to cover her eyes. Ochako watched, completely and utterly befuddled, as Mei quickly slipped the jetpack off of Ochako's shoulders and applied a few new support items to the hero student as though she were working in some kind of pit stop, quickly ripping the support items on Ochako's legs and arms off, and replacing them with two huge boots similar to the pair she was wearing.

Once the weird boots with engines similar looking to Tenya's own engines were firmly attached to Ochako's legs, and she was handed two jolt sticks, Mei let out a triumphant laugh, and took out another wrench from her robotic fingers to quickly screw something into place on both boots before she straightened up.

"There!" She proclaimed proudly, tapping her wrench against the side of her goggles. "We're all done! Get going!"

As though to encourage her, Mei gave her a good smack on the lower back, making Ochako jump a bit - and then the two rocket boots suddenly activated, twin blasts of fire shooting out of each boot, and Ochako looked back at the sound of what appeared to be …

… turbo engines starting to rumble?

"Uh … what exactly did you -"

BOOM

And without warning, the rocket boots blasted off, and Ochako's question quickly turned into another scream of panic as she was shot straight out of the forest and back through the trees.

"Where did you go, UrarakaaaaaaaaaaaaaAH?!"

Ochako barely heard Nejire's loud shriek of surprise as she shot straight past the blue haired girl, barely avoiding accidentally headbutting her (which was a good thing, because at the speeds Ochako was moving it would inevitably result in Nejire getting yet another concussion) as she was, for the second time that day, sent blasting off into the sky.

As Ochako's face wobbled and warped as the winds immediately hit it, she discovered right away that the boots were … even more ridiculously hard to control than the last support items that Mei had slapped on her. Ochako was unable to stop herself from letting out several wobbling screams as she was flipped up and down through the air, feeling like she was about to vomit - and not from overextending her quirk. Instead, it felt more like she was on a roller coaster that wouldn't stop spinning, and was about to lean over the side to vomit on the poor people below.

"Oops!" She heard Mei giggling in her ear over the comms. "Maybe I set the output a little too high. Sorry about that!"

"JUST STOP THESE THINGS!" Ochako managed to scream out.

"Okay, okay! Hold on just a sec."

Slowly, thankfully, the power from the boots began to slowly decrease in volume, until at last, Ochako managed to straighten herself up in the air, letting out several loud pants as she finally managed to stop spinning. Moving her hands to her knees, Ochako let out a gagging noise slightly as she tried to stop her breakfast from making a reappearance, not wanting to accidentally hit someone down below - that, and she'd rather the pro heroes back at the stadium not watch her puke all over the place, what with all the cameras she now felt on her now that she had finally stopped.

"Whew!" Mei giggled through the earpiece, "That was awesome, baby! I had a thought that the kickback from the rocket boots was a little too weak when I was first testing them. I'm glad that you got to experience how my babies were always meant to be firsthand!"

"I … yeah," Ochako managed to wheeze out, "I'm … so lucky. Whoopie."

"Uraraka, are you okay?!" She heard Mina ask, the concern in her voice obvious, "I saw you from way over here, I thought you were gonna take off into space again!"

"I - yeah, I'm - I'm good." Ochako panted a bit, wobbling in the air. "Just … just let me check where my stomach is, I - I think I left it back with Hatsume."

"Huh? No, I don't see any intestines where I am, you're all good. Or, y'know, you lost them while you were spinning around."

"Great. Thank you, Hatsume. Do - do we know how much time we have left?"

"Eight minutes!" Momo quickly responded. "And Tokage and Sero are down - I felt something hit the wires and sent a shock through the cables, and Present Mic confirmed it was them over the speakers."

"Eight minutes … okay. Okay." She nodded, finally managing to stabilize herself in the air as she looked down at the forest below - she was relatively high up, so hopefully she would have a second to calm herself before she inevitably got spotted again. "Okay … Hatsume, how do I use these things to -"

"Uraraka! Can you please stop moving around so fast?!"

She jolted at the sound of a familiar voice calling her name below her, and quickly looked around, her eyes widening and her stomach clenching dangerously. Nejire was flying up towards her as fast as she could, the normally happy look on her face all but gone, with her eyes narrowed in determination.

With a small squeak at how fast Nejire was flying up towards her, Ochako quickly looked down at the two controllers in her hands in panic.

"Hatsume, how do I make these boots go?!" She quickly asked.

"Huh? Oh, yeah - just press and hold the two buttons, and lean in the direction you wanna go."

Quickly nodding (even if Mei couldn't see her), Ochako leaned herself forward, hoping not to flip upside down again, and as Mei said, pressed the two buttons on the controllers. At once, the engines roared to life, making her tremble a bit and pray that she wasn't about to go flying out of control again, and kept herself leaned forward as she blasted ahead.

Thankfully, instead of flipping in circles, she was sent flying forward, Ochako attempting to keep herself balanced and not flail around as Nejire once again gave chase.

The one advantage of these rocket boots, at least, was that she was at least a bit faster than Nejire. While extremely hard to control, Ochako tried her best to follow Mei's advice, carefully leaning forward in the direction she wanted to go. She didn't have to keep low to the ground or above the trees - instead of the jetpack, where it would send her up and down, it was as though she was gliding forward on skates. Very unstable, shaking, noisy skates.

However, as mentioned before, it was very hard to keep control of these things. She forced her body to lean slightly to the left, and let out a yelp as she was jerked completely to the left, Nejire grumbling as she swiped out to hit her but completely missed. But at least she was moving, and could somewhat avoid Nejire while moving like this - so as long as she kept moving for the next eight minutes, they would hopefully be able to win the match without having to resort to Plan B.

Hopefully.

"Engh!" Nejire grunted pathetically as she made another grab for Ochako's wrist, only missing by an inch and pouting at Ochako as she flew away. "That's not fair! I'm not allowed to have cool rocket boots! Where'd you get them? Did you grab them when you went down to the forest? They're pretty cool, but very unfair!"

"C'mon, Yaoyorozu," Ochako muttered to her earpiece, glancing left and right, "can you take the shot at her now?"

"I - I'm trying! You're both moving too quickly for me to line up a shot! I need her to be stationary!"

"I … don't exactly have that option."

"Hey! You wanna know something, Uraraka?" Nejire continued to blab behind her, although she had to shout in order for Ochako to hear her over the blowing wind and rocket boots roaring loud enough to actually hurt their ears. "I actually trained for this kind of activity! With Midoriya! Flying through the air and playing tag with him! That's why I was so excited for this game, because I actually know what I'm doing! Although he actually kept on the ground, and I was up in the air, so it's a bit different!"

Ochako, for her part, tried to ignore Nejire's chatting as best she could, attempting to concentrate on getting away from her and at least getting Nejire close enough to the cannon as she flew near the top of the trees, letting out a small gasp as another blast of yellow spiraling energy barely missed her.

"And it was fun, you know! Me and Midoriya got to play tag, and that was fun, and we ran along the beach! And then we talked for a little bit about ourselves, and then we went out for dinner! The food was really good! And then Kendou texted Midoriya about what was going on about Eri, and he talked to her, and we went to go help you guys out!"

… but … as Nejire's words started to slowly get Ochako's attention, she felt herself blink a bit, slightly turning her head to glance over her shoulder at Nejire. What … what was she talking about?

Wait - wait, no! Ochako quickly shook her head, trying to look forward again. No, don't listen to Nejire! She was just talking to talk!

Concentrate on moving. Just get over to -

"I'm just kinda disappointed that I wasn't able to ask him out for another date afterwards! But I get it, since we had to help Eri! Still, I was kinda disappointed we didn't get to go for another walk!"

- and that, right then, was when Ochako felt herself finally go still, staring blankly ahead as her mind blanked, and her thumbs accidentally slipped from the two controllers, the boots somewhat beginning to slow down.

"A …" She muttered to herself, eyes widening, "… date?"

And unfortunately for Ochako, that was all Nejire needed.

As Ochako realized her mistake at once, quickly whipping around and her thumbs frantically moving back down towards the buttons on the controllers to blast forward again, Nejire reached out, a wide smile on her face. And before Ochako could even blink, Nejire's hand slammed down on Ochako's wrist, and held on tight.

With a sharp gasp, Ochako quickly leaned off to the side, attempting to free her wrist from Nejire's grasp, but the damage was done. Her gaze quickly flickered up to Nejire's headband, just as the numbers on it briefly flickered, and then suddenly displayed … all of the points that Ochako was supposed to have on her head. And from how Nejire smiled when her own gaze flickered to Ochako's headband, it was clear that the brown-haired girl's number was now a big, fat '0'.

"Whew! I did it!" She let out a laugh of joy. "Sorry, Uraraka!"

And with that, she let go of Ochako's wrist to begin flying back over to the large iceberg that hid her zone. Ochako desperately swiped out at her to try and get back the points, but it was too late as Nejire flew out of her grasp, and the blue-haired girl flew away at speeds Ochako knew she couldn't catch up with, seeing as she had dropped both controllers to hang uselessly in the air beneath her, and a loud curse left her lips.

"Deku!" She quickly called through the earpiece, raising her hand to turn it on and trying to push past the guilt she felt for getting distracted. "Hadou's got all our points! We have to do Plan B!"

"For fuck's sakes, Round Face!" Katsuki shouted through the earpiece, making a vein clench in Ochako's forehead. "How the fuck did you mess up -?!"

"Shut the fuck up!" She shouted right back at him, having absolutely no patience to deal with him at the moment, and then returned to talking to Izuku, "I'll get into position, Deku, just - just hurry! We don't have that much time left!"

"I …" She heard Izuku respond quietly, before he let out a small grunt and she heard the sound of something smashing in the background, "… yeah, Occhan, I'll - I'll be there. Just a sec!"

Nodding, Ochako quickly began looking around for the spot she and Izuku had looked at when they had walked through the forest to their zone, and pulling the two controllers up so she could fly over to the pond they had spotted while talking to Mei in the forest, before they had gone back to the group to discuss their plan -

- while her gaze flickered to where Nejire was flying away, and without even meaning to, thought of how her and Izuku left school together the day they had met Eri. And how excited Nejire had looked as she pulled him out of the classroom, and how nervous yet excited Izuku had looked as well.

And the guilt in her stomach for messing up was suddenly replaced by … another uncomfortable feeling. One that made her scowl as she thought of her best friend and Nejire sitting on some beach together talking the day away.

Izuku, for his part, knew that he was probably going to need more than 'just a sec' to get over to Ochako. Mostly because of how difficult Itsuka and Shouto were making it for him to move anywhere - forward or back.

With another grunt, he dodged out of the way of another pillar of ice that had been shot out of the ground straight at his chest, letting out a small shiver as he braced his hands against the ice to push himself away from it, as the hydraulic press kept him moving around but not away from the two people trying to knock him out of the sky. For Shouto's part, however, he seemed to have figured out how Mei's device worked, continuing to circle around Izuku as quickly as he could to prevent him from launching himself through the trees as he kept pushing endless amounts of ice on either side of Izuku, trying to pin him enough for Itsuka to knock him out of the air.

Which … was starting to work, Izuku realized in horror as another hydraulic press shot out, only for another pillar of ice to suddenly interrupt it and jolt Izuku, knocking him somewhat off balance.

Itsuka, meanwhile, definitely wasn't making things any easier on her end, picking up a few blocks of ice that Shouto had made for her and trying to knock Izuku out of the air while he was occupied with the boy from Class 1B, throwing them with her enlarged hands. And that was starting to make things … progressively more difficult for Izuku, wincing as huge boulders of ice narrowly missed hitting him. And from the creaking noises that Mei's support items were starting making, it was clear that Izuku was starting to get into some serious trouble.

So it had been almost a relief when Ochako had confirmed that they needed to get started with Plan B - even if he wasn't exactly looking forward to it.

With another grunt, Izuku was jerked back by the now groaning hydraulic presses up into the air, being pushed off of Shouto's iceberg - but it was the chance he needed. Shouto, for his part, only growled lowly as he launched another pillar of ice after Izuku, with the boy with ten million points wincing as he narrowly avoided getting sealed inside it as he flailed a bit in the air - but the momentum of the hydraulic presses pushing him sent him straight into the air, and he took that chance to activate the jetpack on his back, blasting up into the sky and looking around wildly for Ochako.

To his relief, he spotted Ochako relatively quickly - she was wobbling dangerously in the air with a pair of rocket boots he hadn't seen her with before strapped to her feet, but she had quickly looked around at him as well, waving to get his attention in case he didn't see her. Nodding quickly, Izuku pressed a button on the side of the hydraulic presses to begin moving towards her, quickly trying to think up a reason as to why he was moving closer to Ochako to sell their plan -

- but then the sound of ice forming right behind him made his eyes widen, quickly whipping around.

Rising up and gliding along a pillar of ice that he was forming with his boot, Shouto's eyes continued to lock on Izuku, while Itsuka had one of her arms wrapped around her teammate's waist to keep herself from falling off, although she was looking a bit uncomfortable as she kept one arm wrapped around Shouto and the other holding up a huge block of ice to throw at Izuku. Trying to fight down a sudden scowl as his gaze moved down to the arm she had around Shouto's waist, Izuku shook his head as he tried to refocus, his gaze flickering to the block of ice in Itsuka's hand.

That … that would work.

Quickly, Izuku tried to move closer to Ochako, trying to give the impression that he was running as Itsuka wound back her hand, Izuku quickly glanced behind his shoulder to know when she threw the block.

"Sorry about this, Izuku!" She shouted out to him, and then, with a loud grunt, threw the iceberg at him.

Izuku slowed down slightly, letting out a few shaky breaths as he glanced up at Ochako again as she looked around at him, knowing that he was close enough for them to get started -

- and then, he quickly whipped around, feeling lightning pour out from his body into the Full Gauntlet, and unleashed the full blast, gritting his teeth in case this hurt, and fired at the iceberg thrown at him just before it was about to hit him.

KRACK-BOOM

As expected by Izuku, the lightning slammed straight into the iceberg and shattered it into several tiny pieces, making both Shouto and Itsuka flinch at the sound as the force of the blast nearly broke the ice that they were sliding on. Quickly, Itsuka recovered and whipped her gaze up as Izuku flailed through the air, panic on his face as he flew through the sky completely out of control, and she watched, blinking in slight confusion, as he flew straight towards where Ochako was now hovering.

She felt her eyes widen as she realized what was about to happen to her friends, with Ochako looking around at Izuku as he flew straight at her, her jaw dropping as -

BAM

Itsuka winced in sympathy as Izuku crashed straight into Ochako, his head slamming into her chin to snap her mouth shut as they both grunted, and combined with Izuku's weight and Ochako's lack of due to her quirk, were completely knocked out of the air. Letting out a gasp, Itsuka quickly followed the two as they flailed through the air in panic, falling towards the ground at alarming speeds - up until Izuku threw his arm back down and unleashed another blast of lightning towards the ground.

Bouncing up, Izuku and Ochako flew briefly back up, Izuku holding onto Ochako's wrist to pull her along, and then, falling sideways, angled so that instead of crashing into the ground, they instead landed right in a pond in the middle of their zone, Itsuka wincing in sympathy as they splashed into the water and disappeared from sight.

"Oh, crap," She shook her head, "we shouldn't have done that."

"Doesn't matter," Shouto, on the other hand, seemed entirely unsympathetic as he turned to move towards the pond, "they landed safely. We've got the advantage now, anyway - we can head over and grab the points while they're distracted."

"Dude," Itsuka narrowed her eyes at him as he kept his gaze locked on the pond, "those are your classmates. And we did just knock them out of the air. Feeling remorseful for hurting them isn't going to kill you."

"My brother wouldn't let it bother him," He countered as he aimed to head to the pond, "so I'm good with making sure sympathy won't screw over our chances to get to the next round. I'll apologize after we get the points."

Itsuka merely rolled her eyes as Shouto moved them towards where her training partners had fallen into the pond, while sincerely doubting that he would ever apologize for any of his stupid behavior.

Meanwhile, in the pond, both Izuku and Ochako let out gasps as they finally swam up and broke the surface of the water, letting out several coughs and panting as they tried to swim back towards the shore, Ochako trying to keep herself from puking as he brought her hands together to release her quirk and felt her stomach clench painfully. Izuku, for his part, kept the arm he had the Full Gauntlet on raised in the air just in case, knowing his quirk wasn't active but not wanting to take any chances in case there was any leftover energy crackling along it.

Eventually, they reached the shore of the pond, and Izuku collapsed, his body screaming in pain and soreness as he finally came down from all the yanking around Mei's support items had done with him. Ochako, meanwhile only managed to crawl after Izuku after following him out of the pond, and without even thinking, collapsed right on his back, Izuku grumbling a bit from her weight on him but not complaining as they finally took a chance to try and catch their breaths, closing their eyes briefly.

"You -" Izuku wheezed, "- you good?"

"Not … not really," Ochako panted, "but … but at least I'm alive. So - so that's good."

"G-great."

"Yeah."

Both of them let out sighs as they tried to recover from Mei's inventions jerking them around, the abeforementioned support items creaking and sputtering to indicate that they hadn't done much better than they had from all the abuse they had been put under. Exhaling a bit, Izuku managed to raise himself somewhat, even with the support items and Ochako on his back, and turned his head to look up -

- just as Ochako likewise opened her eyes and tried to get off of Izuku, and as his head turned to look up, their eyes met.

For one moment, they both paused, staring at each other blankly as they suddenly realized … how close they were to each other. As in, Ochako's nose was just a few inches from his cheek, not to mention how she was bracing her hands on the ground under Izuku's arms to somewhat lift her off of him. Izuku, for his part, blinked, feeling his cheeks go a bit red as he realized how she was laying on top of him.

Ochako, meanwhile, went a lot redder than he did, the stickers on her cheeks immediately darkening, and yet, she couldn't find herself able to move at all. They both definitely weren't at their most graceful, with their wet hair sticking to their faces and still dripping wet from their little plunge into the pond. And yet …

… and yet, for some reason, they couldn't help but stare at each other blankly, and their hearts, unknown to each other, were beginning to beat a little faster.

What … what exactly was going on? Izuku could feel his hands shake a little bit as he braced them against the ground, and Ochako could feel one of her legs shaking as well. They had no idea what was happened to the two of them - why Izuku was staring down at her with his heart beating like a jackhammer in their chests, why Ochako suddenly felt bashful staring into his eyes but unable to look away. It felt like … like back at the forest, before Mei had interrupted them when they had hugged.

Like the hug they had shared this time felt different from all the hugs they had shared before. It was a strange feeling - like butterflies were moving around their stomachs and their hearts were doing a weird tango in their chests.

But … as Izuku gulped and Ochako bit her lip slightly … it wasn't … a bad feeling.

Whatever was going on with them at the current moment didn't feel like a bad feeling. It felt … quite the opposite. Ochako felt herself tremble for a moment staring up at Izuku while he gulped nervously, but neither of them felt uncomfortable. It had made them both feel … similar emotions when they were with …

… when they were with -

"Oi!"

At the sudden loud shout in their ears, however, both Izuku and Ochako were jolted out of their strange staring contest, and reminded just where they were and what they were doing. Ochako, realizing she was still laying on top of Izuku and had been for the last minute or so, let out a squeak of mortification and very quickly rolled off of him, landing on her butt on the pebbled shore of the pond, and very quickly began busying herself by reaching down to take off the rocket boots, her face becoming so red she felt like she was about to pass out. Izuku, meanwhile, also gulped nervously as he rolled over, and likewise imitated Ochako by quickly getting to work taking off Mei's support items, quickly clearing his throat and looking anywhere else but Ochako.

But then, as he gaze flickered upward, he froze as he finally noticed, for the first time, a camera pointed straight at the two of them, right underneath a screen displaying that they only had five minutes left of the second round. Izuku, feeling his eyes widen in horror and embarrassment as he realized that the entire stadium had probably just seen him staring at Ochako like a complete weirdo, quickly felt his face explode in a red, blushing mess, probably so hot there would be steam rising from it.

Back in the stadium, admist all the giggling and gossiping through the crowd, Tenohira tried not to scowl too much and clench her hands too tightly as Miwa continued to poke her shoulder while likewise bouncing in her seat from sheer glee of what she had witnessed.

"Look at how they were staring at each other," She smugly whispered right in her ear, while their husbands pretended that Tenohira wasn't too seconds from raging and Inko wasn't two seconds from fainting again, "look at those longing gazes. That's love, bitch."

"Midoriya! Uraraka!" Tenya's voice suddenly came over the line, replacing Katsuki's low growls and thankfully giving the blushing Izuku and Ochako something to focus on, "I saw your collision from over here! Are you both alright?! Did you reach the pond safely?"

"We're - we're good," Izuku managed to stutter out, aiming his gaze at his feet as he finally got the support items off of him, rubbing his back where they had been digging in while Ochako likewise rubbed her ankle where the rocket boot had clung to her, "just - we had a bit of a rough landing. Is - so - uh -"

"We have five minutes left," Momo's voice came over the line, thankfully interrupting Izuku's stuttering question as both he and Ochako unsteadily rose to their feet, automatically smoothing their hair over their foreheads while desperately not looking at each other, "and I think I can see Bakugou and Iida coming back! How do we go from here? Should they be bringing Uraraka the points or -"

However, before Momo could finish her question, both Izuku and Ochako blinked when they heard a familiar sound - the sound of ice beginning to spread.

Izuku suddenly remembered who exactly had 'knocked them out of the sky', his eyes widening, and quickly turned around to see a huge amount of ice beginning to freeze up the entire pond - and then from beside him, Ochako let out a gasp of surprise and pain, and making him whip around and grunt as he was shoved aside by a huge tower of ice that began to rise from the ground and move up into the sky -

- and Ochako was currently inside it, the brown-haired girl letting out a cry of pain as her legs got sealed inside and she was yanked straight up.

"Occhan!" Izuku quickly called out for her, his embarrassment from staring at her before long forgotten as panic for his best friend overcame him. He could only watch helplessly as Ochako was hoisted up into the air, trapped up to her knees in the ice and forced to hang upside down against the wall of ice.

But before he could try to jump up and help her, Ochako, realizing what was happening, quickly looked around as to where the ice was coming from, and as she spotted movement in the dark forest, quickly pointed out, making sure to use her other hand to smooth her wet hair against her forehead as she hung upside down.

"D-Deku! I-it's - it's t-t-them!"

Trying to ignore the obvious shiver and trembling in her voice, which made Izuku's hands clench tightly into fists, he quickly turned back around, automatically raising one fist to use the back of his hand to push his wet hair down against his forehead. It didn't take long for Shouto to make his appearance - he slowly and menacingly emerged from the forest towards the pond, glaring straight at Izuku as ice crawled along his arm in an attempt to intimidate the green-haired boy.

But hearing Ochako shivering behind him pushed aside any fear Izuku may have, glaring back at the boy from Class 1B as he slowly walked out onto the ice, slipping only a bit before he managed to get his footing.

There were footsteps behind Shouto, and Izuku quickly glanced over to see Itsuka emerging from the forest as well to join her teammate, stumbling a bit and picking out a leaf from her hair as she turned to shoot Shouto a small glare - it was apparent that she hadn't had the most graceful of landings when they had gotten off their little ice slide to confront them. But then her gaze turned back to Izuku, looking somewhat regretful but still determined, which meant that Izuku shouldn't be counting on any sudden frictions between their team.

It was two against one, Izuku frowned, and he was the one at the disadvantage - Shouto's quirk meant that one misstep would seal him in ice and be rendered immobile, and it was pretty much a fact that Itsuka was a far better fighter than he was. But …

… but at least Ochako couldn't be easily reached, Izuku thought as he glanced back up at her and seeing her hanging quite a ways off the ground - not even jumping up would let him snag her hand - so that meant that Itsuka and Shouto's attention were focused on him rather than her.

And that was the one advantage Izuku had, he nodded as he turned back to the two advancing on him. They were fighting to win. He wasn't. He just had to avoid them long enough for the time to run out.

There was a moment of hesitating for all three of them, each wondering who would make the first move. However, before any of them could even think to start the fight, there was another rustling in the bushes behind the two members of the opposite team.

Both Shouto and Itsuka quickly looked back at the rustling, expecting someone from Izuku's team to have reached them - but then, much to Itsuka's surprise, the person who came out of the bush ended up being … the one person she hadn't expected to swing by.

"Monoma?" She blinked, her eyes widening. "What are you doing?"

Emerging from the shrubbery, Monoma let out a small sigh as he dusted himself off, ignoring Itsuka entirely as he looked around to where Izuku was standing, and his eyes widened slightly as his trademark smirk returned to his face.

"Well, well," He laughed, walking forward and hitting Itsuka slightly in the stomach as he elbowed his way past her, making her stutter a bit in shock and anger as he moved to stand beside Shouto, "looks like we have him right where we want him. Excellent work, Todoroki."

"Monoma, what are you doing?" Itsuka repeated herself, narrowing her eyes and glancing between her teammate and Izuku as the green-haired boy glanced between them as well in confusion. "I told you to go around and grab everyone's points while we got Midoriya."

"And that is what I did!" Monoma chuckled, "I got all the points I gathered up to Haya - I picked them up from all the people from 1A that got downed when one of your idiots misfired his quirk. And when I saw Todoroki use his quirk to enter this zone, I thought I'd come and assist. Now then, with that out of the way, why don't we go ahead and take the ten million now, Todoroki? I believe that you and I can take him together - we don't need anyone from Class 1A to get our ticket to victory."

Shouto, for his part didn't acknowledge his classmate at all, instead continuing to glare at Izuku as ice formed on his arm again - but then Izuku felt his gaze flicker down to it, and he felt himself blink as he saw it begin to tremble.

Was … was he shivering? He was, Izuku's eyes widened as he glanced up, seeing Shouto continuing to glare at him while subtly trembling. He was shivering … wait, but of course he was. Quirks were physical abilities … and physical abilities had limits. Like Ochako and her weight limit, Setsuna and the number of ways she could duplicate herself, Eijirou and how much damage he could take in his hardened form, Tenya and how fast he could run, Momo and how much she could create with her lipids.

And if Izuku could be damaged by his own quirk, he thought as he glanced down at his own hand, lined with red marks … then that meant that Shouto could be damaged by his own quirk as well. But …

"He's got a killer quirk - he can create fire and ice. He's pretty freaking powerful too - he froze the entire building we were using for our battle trial in seconds, and dethawed it just as quickly. But the thing is, he only insists on using his ice quirk - he barely uses the fire side. He only uses it to melt us out of the freaking ice blocks he freezes us in."

If Shouto could also use fire … why hadn't he used it yet? He was clearly freezing from using his ice quirk too much, but fire could easily mitigate that weakness. So why hadn't he used it to warm himself up?

"Are you kidding?" Itsuka was continuing to snap at Monoma while Izuku analyzed Shouto, and she turned back around at her training partner as he glanced over at her, no one noticing how Monoma was bringing his hands together. "Just stop with the antagonizing for one minute and let's just get the -"

"Fire."

BAM

Izuku, who had glanced back at Shouto as he continued to shiver, was jolted out of his analysis at the sound of Itsuka gasping out, quickly whipping around as what looked to be an invisible force hit her hard in the stomach - right where Monoma had elbowed her when he had come through the bushes.

The air taken out of her lungs, Itsuka was launched straight back into the forest, eyes wide and spit flying from her mouth as she crashed back through the trees. Both Izuku and Ochako gasped, staring in horror at where their best friend had been blasted back, hitting the ground so hard dust began to rise.

"Itsuka!" Ochako called out for her in panic, and Izuku quickly whipped around at Monoma, watching him begin to smirk smugly at where he had sent Itsuka crashing into the trees.

"Sorry," He didn't sound that apologetic, "but I've had enough of her ordering me around."

"HUH?!" Present Mic's voice suddenly shrieked from the speakers above them. "DID MONOMA JUST FLING HIS OWN TEAMMATE AWAY?! IS THAT REALLY A SMART MOVE?!"

"… no, Mic-sensei," Izuku muttered to himself, all thoughts about Shouto's shivering and possible limitations fading away as he turned from where he had seen Itsuka be launched off to to glare at Monoma, feeling electricity flickering on his arm as the Full Gauntlet began to absorb his quirk's power, "it wasn't."

"Now then," Monoma turned back to Izuku and moved down into a crouch, with Shouto preparing to take a step forward to unleash another blast of ice, despite his own shivering, "let's get those points, Todoroki - and we can go on to achieve victory for Class 1B in the next round!"

Continuing to glare at Monoma - while flashes of waking up at the USJ to see Ochako being crushed by the hooded man flared through his mind, unintentionally reminding him of what happened the last time one of his training partners had gotten hurt in his presence - Izuku raised his finger to his ear, and pressed the button. He suddenly wasn't feeling very nervous to be facing off against these two anymore.

"Iida, Kacchan, Ashido," He said through gritted teeth, "Uraraka's been sealed in ice by Todoroki, she can't move anymore. And we're almost out of time. Keep the points to yourselves and let the time run out, avoid anyone who might try and take your points, and run back into the zone if you have to let them run into the traps. Yaoyorozu, be sure to be on the lookout for Hadou in case she comes back, and shoot her out of the sky."

"Huh?! But Midori -!"

"Don't worry," He said in a clear, angry voice as he glanced between Monoma and Shouto again, the Full Gauntlet's palm filling with electricity, "we aren't going to lose the ten million."

"Ha!" Monoma let out a haughty laugh, and raised his hand in a 'shooting' expression, allowing a spark of yellow electricity run up his arm, "And I suppose this means that you'll be taking on both of us -"

KRACK-BOOM

Both boys from Class 1B flinched as Izuku, without a moment of hesitation, unleashed a loud blast of lightning from the support item - but it wasn't aimed at them.

Instead, he purposefully swept his arm out in an arch along the frozen pond between them, cracking the ice at once - and reminding them both that there was still water underneath all that ice, thus making it a pretty bad idea to fall in as the piece of ice they were both on swayed dangerously and were at risk of falling in.

Quickly, Shouto stomped his foot down again to unleash another blast of ice to prevent them from falling into the water, but the initial blast from Izuku had done the job well enough. As the ice formed into uneven chunks, Shouto realized what Izuku had wanted to do as the green-haired boy quickly began to slide forward, and fired off another blast of lightning at the ice between them, making both Shouto and Monoma grunt as they were tripped up again, and Shouto quickly stomped down again to seal the hole in the ice.

Attempting to keep himself balanced on the now uneven ice, Izuku poured a bit more lightning into the gauntlet, and his gaze flickered up to the time under the camera and saw the clock ticking down closer and closer to zero. Just keep them occupied for that amount of time, Izuku thought to himself as he blasted out at the ice again to knock Shouto off balance, and then the game would be over.

He just had to keep their attention on him until then.

With a loud, frenzied laugh, Monoma charged forward, jumping over the hole Izuku had created, and his skin hardened into steel as he threw his fist back. Blinking, and his mind beginning to race at the possible quirk Monoma had, Izuku felt his eyes narrow slightly - he didn't have all the clues, of course, but since Monoma just turned to steel, had electricity run up his hand before, and earlier he could've sworn that Tetsutetsu guy had turned his skin to steel - not to mention how Monoma had somehow blasted Itsuka back with some kind of telekinetic hit - Izuku would bet that Monoma had some kind of copying quirk.

And since it appeared that he could only use one at a time - he had the electricity presumably from either Denki or Yuuyu before, and now steel - that meant he had one weakness Izuku could exploit.

As Monoma threw his fist out to strike him in the face, Izuku easily ducked beneath it, and slid back as Monoma threw out another wild punch. The way he was throwing his punches so desperately told Izuku all that he needed to know - Monoma wasn't a fighter. Or at least, he wasn't a fighter like Izuku was, who had trained at an actual dojo.

And since he knew Teko was watching this fight right now, Izuku felt his eyes narrow in determination as he used the ice to slide back. He had to impress his teacher.

So that meant that, as Monoma threw out more wild punches in attempts to knock Izuku on his ass, Izuku easily ducked beneath and around them as he slid around on the ice, using his training from the dojo to easily outmaneuver the blonde boy. But at the sound of ice cracking behind him, he felt his eyes widen, and looked around as Shouto threw out his hand again, taking advantage of Izuku being too distracted to try cracking the ice again.

Izuku yelped as he was forced to duck underneath another column of ice sent directly at him, sliding out of the way just in time as it shot out a bit too quickly for his liking. As he barely managed to dodge the attack, the ice hit the wall that Ochako was now attached to, the ice creaking ominously as she let out a small gasp of panic at the way a crack appeared beneath her - and since she was hanging pretty high upside down, that meant if she fell, her head would be the first thing that hit the ice.

Down below, however, Izuku still had the advantage over both of them - from how Shouto's shivering became even more obvious, it was clear that overusing his ice was starting to slow him down, and Monoma was obviously getting tired from his quick and fast assault on Izuku, the green-haired boy easily sliding under Monoma's spread legs as he missed another punch.

With a snarl, Monoma quickly whipped around to look at Shouto, cursing himself for revealing himself to Izuku during the start of this fight.

"Todoroki!" He called to his classmate, "Let me copy your quirk!"

"No," Shouto growled, not even looking at Monoma as Izuku ducked underneath another blast of ice, which only caused the recommended student to shiver harder, "I told you -"

"I don't care what you told me! You can try freezing him if you insist, I can burn him -"

"Raaaaah!"

CRACK

The three combatants on the ice, and Ochako hanging upside down jumped slightly at the sound of someone yelling out behind them, along with the undeniable wood being broken in half. Eyes widening, they all quickly looked around to where Itsuka had just returned, panting unevenly with her large hand having split a fallen tree, which had been in her way, effortlessly in half with one hit, and then stomped back out onto the ice, moving carefully enough not to slip around.

As she marched back out onto their uneven battlefield, her angry eyes snapped over to Monoma, who stood there in shock for a moment while Izuku paused at the angry look on her face, and Ochako likewise stared at her in stunned silence.

"For one minute," She said through gritted teeth as she glared at Monoma, her other hand rubbing her stomach where he had hit her, "would you stop being an asshole for one minute?!"

Slowly, the three boys and Ochako glanced between her and the massive tree that Itsuka had snapped in half in her anger, and several thoughts flew through all four of their minds.

Avoid her hits when she uses her quirk, Shouto noted to himself.

Watch out for the hand chops, Monoma shuddered.

God, I wish I was that tree, Izuku and Ochako were unable to stop themselves from blushing.

However, before Itsuka could actually enter the fight - either to go after Izuku or beat Monoma's as, either option good enough for her to seriously consider - they all became aware of a bunch of rustling on the side. Quickly, and once again, they all looked around as they saw someone coming towards them through the dark woods.

Shouto, for his part, tried to fight through how numb he was starting to get and immediately prepared to stomp down in case that it was someone from Izuku and Ochako's team coming to help, intending to freeze them in place before they could interfere. But then, as a familiar head of lavender hair appeared, all three members of Itsuka's team blinked, while Itsuka's own eyes widened in shock and anger.

"What are you doing?!" She snapped at Shinsou as he finally made his way onto the lake, brushing some leaves from his legs as he turned to give her a bored stare. "You're supposed to be guarding our zone! Why are you here?!"

"Sorry," He huffed, "but I got pretty bored being a watchdog, and Todoroki's ice wall from earlier broke a few of their trap wires. I decided to come help."

"Then who's defending Tokoyami?! Did you just leave Haya by herself?!"

"She can handle it. We're already close to winning the round anyway - we've just gotta take these points from him and run them over to the bird head."

"We've got this!" Itsuka yelled at him before quickly turning back around, where Izuku was ducking underneath another one of Monoma's desperate punches and grabs as he slid around the uneven ice, both boys tripping a bit from how unsteady the frozen pond was. "Go back and defend Tokoyami! We've only got a few minutes left!"

There was a pause behind her as Itsuka prepared to run over and try and grab Izuku with her now enlarged hands - it would be harder for him to dodge her attempts to grab him on this slippery ice, and she could hold on until they managed to get all the points - but then, before she could charge forward to grab Izuku, a hand suddenly landed on her shoulder, making her blink and look around at where Shinsou was now glaring down at her.

"I think," He said in a cold voice, "I've had just about enough of you ordering me around."

"What are you -?!" Itsuka began to say, whipping around at him with angry eyes, and about to use her arm to throw his hand off her shoulder -

- and then, the moment the words left her lips, she stopped. Her jaw dropped slightly, and her eyes quickly went vacant.

It was only in the back of her mind that she realized that something was wrong. She couldn't move a single muscle, simply standing there with her eyes widened and her mind racing as Shinsou gave her a dry, amused look. He then turned to look at Izuku, seeing him dodging underneath one of Shouto's attempts to grab him and freeze him in place, and watched as Izuku continued to use the training he received at the Kendou's dojo to slip through both Shouto and Monoma's attempts to pin him down.

"I didn't speak up about it before," Shinsou said, and his voice echoed through her mind - it was clear, in her panic, that this must be his quirk that kept her in place, "but I actually agree with Todoroki. The way you're practically throwing yourself down at this guy's feet is pathetic. You've been blessed with a quirk that let you get into the hero course, and you have the nerve to look down on me while practically begging for this guy's attention … and now here you are, ready to toss away my chance to get into the hero course."

Itsuka tried to scream out, but her lungs, her mouth, nothing could move.

"So," Shinsou smirked, "you're gonna go over there and give Midoriya a concussion. Make sure that he can't go on to the next match."

And with that order, Itsuka turned to look over at Izuku, entirely out of her control. She felt her mind race as her hands grew out, and she could feel One for All begin to flare -

- but then, as she felt One for All begin to run up her arm … her gaze flickered over into the dark woods, and she saw something.

What looked to be eight shining lights twinkling.

And then, without warning, they suddenly shifted into eight pairs of glowing yellow eyes staring straight at her, making Itsuka feel herself shake a bit as colors suddenly began to flow at her, and she felt One for All begin to activate.

"EH?!" Present Mic's voice screeched over the intercom, unaware of what was happening. "IT LOOKS LIKE KENDOU HAS SUDDENLY FROZEN! HER OWN TEAMMATE PUT HER UNDER SOME KIND OF TRANCE?! WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THE DYNAMICS OF TEAM KENDOU?!"

Away from them, blinking at that bit of commentary, Ochako, who was still hanging upside and keeping her hair in her face as best she could, felt her eyes widen. Quickly looking around the small frozen pond as Izuku continued to duck beneath Shouto and Monoma's attempts to grab him, she quickly spotted what Present Mic was screaming about - Itsuka standing there, eyes vacant as she stared blankly ahead, and Shinsou looking around at where Izuku was fighting with a smirk as he leaned forward to whisper in her training partner's ear.

It was clear that something was wrong - Itsuka wasn't moving at all, merely staring ahead while her mouth fell open slightly, but the way her eyes lost all color and emotion made her panic at once as she wheeled around at the general studies student.

"Hey!" She yelled at Shinsou, knowing that she should just keep quiet to get the attention off her but unable to stop herself. "Leave her alone!"

Shinsou, for his part, merely ignored her yelling as he stared at Izuku and directed his puppet to go and take him out of the festival, just as he had taken out most of the other hero students the last round - but then his smirk faltered as Itsuka made no attempt to move, and he quickly looked around at her.

"Huh?" He blinked, staring at her briefly in shock for a moment as she made no attempts to move, before narrowed his eyes. "What are you doing? Go and beat Midoriya into the ground! Do as I say!"

Itsuka continued to stare blankly ahead for a moment, turning slightly towards where Izuku was charging up his Full Gauntlet again to presumably fire down at the ice again. Ochako stared at her for a moment, considering calling out to Itsuka to try and snap her out of whatever Shinsou had done to her -

- but then her gaze fell to Itsuka's hand, and she felt her eyes widen into dinner plates at the sight of Itsuka's hand beginning to glow.

But before she could call out to Shinsou to stop her, it was already too late. Itsuka took one small step forward -

- and then her hand, charging up with energy, suddenly pointed down at the icy ground, and her middle finger and thumb quickly moved together in order to snap.

And a huge gust of wind blasted in all directions, hitting everyone in the general vicinity and causing them to go flying.

Shouto, who had been reaching out to grab Izuku's arm, felt himself be launched back by the unexpected gust of wind, only barely managing to create a wall of ice for him to slam his back again with a grunt of pain, sliding down as he shivered, trying desperately to ignore how cold he felt to continue fighting as he bit his lip in anger. Monoma, meanwhile, who had stopped using Tetsutetsu's quirk and switched over to Denki's to try and fry Izuku with a grab, let out a yelp as he was pushed away onto his back and slid down the ice, grunting as he rolled over each bump Izuku's quirk and Shouto's quirk had created in the ice, and eventually hitting the shore of the pond as he rolled away.

Ochako, who was still hanging from the wall of ice, flinched as the wind shoved her back to press into it a bit too hard for her liking, only barely managing to stop herself from hitting her head against the wall. Shinsou, who had been standing right beside Itsuka, got the worst of it, letting out a yell as he was sent flying through the air momentarily before he came down hard to hit the ground, grunting as he landed on his back and felt the air escape his lungs.

But it was Izuku who had been the most unprepared for Itsuka's sudden blast of wind, having been dealing with Monoma and Shouto attacking him at the same time, and thus was launched straight off his feet like Shinsou had been. With a small gasp, he flew briefly through the air before he slammed back against the wall of ice, the air being taken out of his lungs as well as he slipped down and fell onto his butt.

And in that moment, Shouto acted, recovering enough from the hit to slam his hand down against the frozen pond, and sent a blast of ice towards Izuku - one that he wouldn't be able to dodge.

The ice came at Izuku far too quickly this time, with the green-haired boy barely having any time to raise his hand to fire a blast at it before it reached him. He let out a cry of panic and pain as ice immediately spread up his feet, looking down in panic as he tried to get up and run away, but he was quickly encased - soon, he couldn't move his legs at all, his lower body, and then his torso as ice began spreading across his arms, closing him inside.

He winced at the icy chill completely covering him as the block of ice completely sealed him in, chilling him to the bone and making him squeeze his eyes shut at how cold and painful it felt to be completely covered in a thick layer of ice -

- and then, something in him … flared.

As he was encased in the ice, Izuku felt himself falter at a strange feeling - something he felt inside his body, rather than the icy chill surrounding him. It was like his insides suddenly clenched - it wasn't a comfortable feeling, making him wince as it felt like his heart and stomach were shrinking suddenly before going back to normal. And just as ice encased his hands, sparks popped out of both his palms, as though he was about to fire off a blast of lightning.

But before he could, the ice completely encased his body, save for his head and a bit of his arm as it poked out from the ice, as he stood there completely immobilized.

"IT'S AMAZING, ERASER!" Present Mic continued to screech over the speakers. "IN JUST A SINGLE MOMENT! THE TIDES HAVE BEEN TURNED AGAINST TEAM MIDORIYA! AND WITH ONLY A MINUTE AND A HALF LEFT!"

That made both Shouto and Monoma blink from their places laying down on the ground, sitting up on the frozen pond - and then, they both quickly scrambled to their feet so that they could run over to Izuku, Shouto stumbling a bit from how cold he felt. The now trapped boy, shivering from the ice completely covering his body, looked up at Ochako dangling helplessly from the wall of ice, giving him a look of concern as the two boys quickly returned to surround him, Monoma's smirk returning.

"Now then," He panted a bit, smiling wickedly down at the trapped Izuku as he looked up at him, "let's finish this up, Todoroki, and you can slide back to our zone to give the points to the bird head. Even if we don't get the ten million there in time, let's make sure we're the only ones who advance."

Shouto didn't look like he cared much for whatever Monoma was blabbering about, nor Shinsou getting up from where he landed to stiffly move towards them as well. None of them noticed Itsuka beginning to pant raggedly behind them, broken out of her trance and now clutching her purple hand as she quickly looked around in panic, as though she were searching for someone.

And then, at the same time as Monoma, Shouto reached down and grabbed Izuku's arm to take the points from him, making Izuku wince from how cold his hand was, just as Monoma roughly grabbed the side of Izuku's head to split the points between them.

Monoma let out a triumphant laugh as they both held onto Izuku for a few moments, wanting to take a few seconds just to make sure that they got all the points. Turning towards where his classmate was with a smirk, he glanced over at Shouto, and up towards where his bandana was on his head to see the points being added to the count -

- only to notice that the number wasn't changing at all. As in … as in there wasn't even a flicker. It was just … the same number as before.

"… er. Todoroki?"

"Hm?" He grunted, glancing over at Monoma in annoyance. And then his own gaze flickered to Monoma's headband, and from the way he blinked and straightened up, it was clear that points weren't being added to Monoma's headband either.

From behind them, Itsuka managed to straighten herself up, holding her broken hand as she winced in pain, and looked around in time for Shouto and Monoma to glance back at her. She likewise went still, what she had seen earlier while under Shinsou's hypnosis fading slightly from her mind, as she realized that both of them were holding onto Izuku, and no points were being added to their headbands. Quickly, they all looked back at Izuku, still encased and ice and glancing between Shouto, Monoma, Itsuka and Shinsou as he made his way back onto the frozen pond -

- and then his face turned suddenly blank, as though he was trying to come off as casual even while trapped in ice.

It was only then that Shouto had a sudden, suspicious feeling, his gaze flickering to where Izuku's bandana was still covered by his wet hair, and after a moment of hesitation, reached out. Izuku winced as Shouto's cold hand moved the wet hair away from his forehead, allowing them to look at the screen in the middle of Izuku's headband -

- and gave them all a good look at the big '0' in the middle of the screen.

At once, Itsuka, Monoma, Shouto and Shinsou straightened up, staring down at Izuku while Itsuka felt her eyes widen, Monoma's somewhat confused smirk vanishing at once, Shouto's eyes narrowing, and Shinsou's jaw dropping. While all three boys stared at the sealed Izuku in confusion and shock, Itsuka, on the other hand, suddenly realized it, putting the pieces together as Izuku tried to innocently stare up at her -

- even as his face cracked a bit, trying to fight down a smile. And suddenly, Itsuka remembered what had happened before Izuku had fallen into the pond, back when she had thrown that iceberg at him.

He had blasted at it with lightning, and got pushed up by the momentum and slammed against Ochako. She had … thought it had looked weird, the way he had flown up and hit Ochako right on. Almost as though …

… as though he had meant to crash into her.

Slowly, she turned to look back up at where Ochako was now trapped and hanging from the wall of ice, having been watching them quietly this entire time after glancing over and checking the time. Ochako, for her part, met her eyes for a moment, staring blankly down at them with her own neutral expression - and then, a small smirk broke through as she let out a small giggle.

Slowly, as the four of them looked up at Ochako, Izuku also turning to give Itsuka a bold smile when she glanced down at him, as though he were unable to keep it off his face anymore, Ochako moved her hand to where her wet fringe was hiding her own headband, and smoothed it back …

… to reveal the '10,000,000' points on her bandana.

"Sorry," She continued to giggle at the absolutely gobsmacked look on Itsuka's face, "we had a Plan B."

Itsuka continued to stare up at her in shock for a moment, before her gaze began flickering between her and Izuku as he tried his hardest not to look too smug either - and then, without even thinking, she let out a small, disbelieving laugh.

"You … bastards," She shook her head in astonishment, unable to stop herself from feeling completely and utterly amazed by her two training partners, and if she had both her hands working and unbroken, she would've had the urge to clap for them.

"You bastards!" Monoma repeated after her, but definitely not as affectionately. Eyes wide with outrage, he whipped around at Shouto, looking panicked as the stoic boy glared up at Ochako from where she was dangling, and Shinsou likewise looking enraged and glaring down at Izuku as though he was two seconds from punching the immobile Izuku.

"Todoroki!" He yelled at him. "We need to get up there and -!"

And that was when a horn suddenly blared over the speakers of the forest, making them all jump - well, everyone jumped except for Izuku, as he was currently frozen in a block of ice, but he still looked around in surprise.

"TIME'S UP!" Present Mic screeched over the intercom. "THAT'S THE END OF THE SECOND ROUND, AND OUR LITTLE GAME OF TAG! I HOPE YOU KIDS MADE SURE TO GET ALL YOUR POINTS TO YOUR POINT-KEEPER IN TIME, BECAUSE FROM HERE ON OUT, NO MORE POINTS ARE GONNA BE ADDED TO YOUR COUNTS!"

"You could've said that," Aizawa said in a deadpan voice, "a whole lot simpler. I thought you taught language?"

"IGNORE THE PARTY POOPER!" Present Mic continued to gleefully shout. "EVERYONE MAKE YOUR WAY BACK TO THE STADIUM SO WE CAN COUNT YOUR POINTS!"

The six people at the frozen pond went still at the call that the game was over (or in Izuku's case, just stopped moving his head) as the announcement echoed throughout the forest. There was a moment of silence as everyone from Itsuka's team glanced at each other in anger and slight defeat, and Ochako flopped over where she was dangling with a sigh of relief, reaching up to grab the bandana and take it off to make sure she still had all the points while fighting down the feeling that she was going to pass out (either from all the stress, her quirk making her stomach clench painfully, or all the blood rushing to her head from hanging upside down).

Meanwhile, below where Ochako was hanging, Izuku tried to clear his throat to get the other three boys' attention, all of them turning to give him three looks of utter contempt.

"Uh …" He glanced up at Shouto, shivering slightly, "… h-h-hey. Could y-you, uh … l-l-let me out now? P-please?"

Shouto gave him a very dirty look at that, and seemed almost half-tempted to just leave him there to freeze, with Monoma already turning away to leave Izuku to his fate. But before any of them could move and leave Izuku to fend for himself, there was the sound of footsteps on the ice behind them, and they turned to see Itsuka stomping over towards them, her head low and one hand clutching the broken other one.

As she moved towards him, Shinsou felt his eyes widen.

"You shouldn't be able to move," He gasped, staring at her in shock as Itsuka stormed up to him, her hand subtly growing just a tad bit bigger, "how did you -?!"

BAM

Shinsou's demands to know how she broke through his quirk, however, was quickly silenced by Itsuka punching him straight in the mouth. With a grunt, he landed hard on his ass, quickly grabbing his now busted lip as he stared up in anger and shock at Itsuka, who brushed some of her dark hair out of her eyes so she could glare down at him in contempt.

"Sorry," She didn't sound that apologetic, already turning towards the trapped Izuku as he stared up at her in shock and wonder, and she was sure to raise her hand so Shinsou could see it shrink back down, "was just using my quirk a bit there. Thought it was cool, since we're apparently using our quirks on each other."

Walking over to where Izuku was trapped, she put her hand on the ice, and then turned to Shouto as he quietly studied her.

"Don't be a sore loser," She spat at him, "let him out."

Shouto merely glared at her for a moment, and then, with a sharp exhale, reached over with his right hand to lay it against the ice Izuku and Ochako were imprisoned in, steam immediately beginning to rise.

With her own sigh, Itsuka hopped up slightly onto the ice wall Ochako was imprisoned in, hoping that she didn't slip off, and grew out her good hand to bring Ochako's torso into a position where she wasn't hanging upside down - that, and if she did fall out of the ice Itsuka could easily catch her. Ochako, for her part, let out a relieved sigh as she laid in Itsuka's enlarged hand, but she then turned to glance down at her other, broken one, and looked at Itsuka in worry.

"Are you okay, Itsuka?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Itsuka sighed as well, although she grimaced, "it, uh - well, it does hurt like hell, but I'll see Recovery Girl once we go on lunch."

"O-okay, g-great," Izuku nodded, still shivering as Shouto used his quirk to get him out of the iceberg, "uh - a-anyway, what h-h-happened with S-Shinsou? Did - did he u-use his q-quirk o-o-on you?"

Itsuka paused for a moment, staring down at the ground for a moment - and then she sighed again as she nodded, glancing over her shoulder at where Shinsou was now walking away, clutching his bloody lip. She then turned back to her training partners, and both of them blinked at the slightly haunted look in her eyes.

"Yeah, he … he did," She said in a careful voice, aware of Shouto standing right there, "I'm … probably gonna talk to Coach Yagi about it. Later."

The two of them blinked, glancing between each other - Ochako, for her part, knew what Itsuka was implying, what with her having seen Itsuka's hand starting to glow while under Shinsou's control - and both of them quickly nodded at her. Itsuka smiled at them in thanks, and let out a small breath as she glanced away.

And then she turned to look back down at Izuku, her eyebrow raising as she gave him a bemused look.

"By the way, I'm still very angry at you two," She smirked down at him while Izuku gave her a weak grimace, "you sneaky little shits."

Izuku, for his part, only gave her a small smile in turn.

Back in the stadium, Miwa stared glumly at the screen before them of Itsuka and Izuku exchanging a smile, gently fanning Inko after she fainted for the seventh time. And tried to ignore Tenohira smugly poking her shoulder.

"Hey," She giggled with glee, "look at that."

"…"

"Look at how my daughter is smiling at him."

"…"

"Look how he's smiling back at her."

"…"

"That's love, bitch."

"Fuck you."

"Welcome back, lovelies," Midnight threw her hand into the air, unable to stop herself from giggling at the group of students standing on the ground below her stage, "and my, oh my, wasn't that fun?"

As cheers roared throughout the stadium again, the students, currently gathered into a small group, looked wearily around, looking like they had anything but fun. Indeed, a lot of girls were currently trying to comb their now frizzy hair back down while aiming dirty looks at Denki, the blonde boy still in 'whey' mode as he continued to give everyone thumbs up with the derpiest look on their faces, and everyone else was looking too disgruntled and disappointed that they had lost. Hell, even the people who had won were a bit too busy rubbing their sore bodies, looking absolutely exhausted as the adrenaline of the last few minutes finally started wearing off, leaving them more tired than they had ever felt.

The overall mood of the group was fairly down - from Setsuna staring down at the ground while clutching the wrist her hand was currently missing from, not looking at anyone as her green hair hung around her face; to Yui pouting up at Tenya, poking him repeatedly in the side while he gave a slightly confused but apologetic look to her; to Mineta, still swaying around from getting knocked out from Shouto's iceberg hitting him; to Mei, who was far more concerned with repairing the babies that Izuku and Ochako had accidentally broken, the support student throwing a dirty glare at the both of them while everyone glanced up at the screen to look at all the points being counted up there.

On the other side of the group, Itsuka was likewise holding her broken hand carefully to her, wincing slightly in pain as she tried to push aside what she had seen while under Shinsou's control, while beside her, Izuku and Ochako were wrapped very tightly in blankets that Momo had created for them while continuing to shiver from their short time being popsicles, while the heiress gave them both a worried look and regretted being out of lipids, wanting to have made them a heater to share but only having enough fat to make them blankets. Hopefully, once Midnight broke them for lunch, they could slip downstairs to jump into the showers and heat up.

"Now, as you all know," Midnight snapped her whip against the stage again to get everyone's attention back on her again, "the two teams with the most points are the ones to move on to the next round! So with ten million points in first place, Team Midoriya shall advance on! And with four thousand, four hundred and twenty five points in second place, Team Kendou shall also move on to the next round!"

While the crowds let out a huge cheer again, Momo let out a small sigh and wrapped her arms around her waist, Kyouka glancing over at her while trying to get her slightly static-y hair under control

"I must admit, I'm a bit disappointed," Momo admitted in a low, sad voice, "I don't think I did as much as I could have."

"Nah, don't be like that," Kyouka shrugged, still very disappointed and peeved by her loss but giving her taller friend a small smile, "you kicked ass out there, Yaoyorozu. Honestly, the fact that the only person who could've got through your traps was freakin' Todoroki should tell you how freaking awesome you were."

"Perhaps," She shook her head, "but … well, I can't help but feel disappointed that I wasn't able to shoot the cannon."

"… er," Kyouka felt a bit of sweat drip down her forehead, "sorry you … weren't able to do that?"

"Yes," Momo sighed, "I am as well."

Izuku let out a weak laugh at Momo's disappointment, although he still couldn't control how much he was shivering while trying to wrap his blanket around him, being unaware of Shouto glaring specifically at him off to the side in their group. Although thankfully, Itsuka certainly noticed, being shirt to throw her now former teammate a dirty look as she leaned over to help Izuku adjust the blanket over his shoulders, and then turning to glare at where Monoma was sulking, the bruise now forming on her stomach aching painfully.

"NOW THEN!" Present Mic called happily over the speakers, "WE'RE GONNA TAKE AN HOUR LONG BREAK FOR LUNCH TO LET OUR STUDENTS RECOOPERATE AND GET BACK THEIR ENERGY! AND AFTER THAT, WE'LL COME BACK AND START THE AFTERNOON'S FESTIVITIES! SEE YA GUYS THEN! Okay, Eraser, let's go grab food."

"I'm gonna take a nap."

With one final cheer, the stadium stood up so that they could go and grab some food from the various stalls set up in both the stadium and around the school. With Midnight's encouraging nod, the students down on the ground also began moving towards the changing rooms, wanting to grab their things before heading to the cafeteria where Lunch Rush would be preparing their own lunch for them.

As everyone started walking, Setsuna, for her part, quickly hurried on ahead in front of the crowd, Hanta watching with a worried look as she kept her head low and jogged over to where the door in the side of the stadium had slid open. Beside where her best friend had run off, Itsuka blinked at Setsuna quickly vanishing through the door, turning to Yui with a concerned look.

"Hey, uh - what happened to Set?" She asked as they walked together, Izuku and Ochako trailing behind them with their blankets. "What happened to her hand?"

"It got hit by one of Todoroki's icebergs," Yui softly explained her expression turning a bit darker, "she couldn't bring it back in time because she fell down and got shocked by one of Yaoyorozu's wiretraps. So it's … probably a good thing we didn't get enough points to advance to the next round - I don't think she'd be able to participate without her hand anyway."

"Oh, man …" Itsuka tsked, looking around at where Setsuna had vanished off to with a sympathetic look. Hanta, for his part, was also staring after where Setsuna had gone, a conflicted, sad look on his face, but just as he took a deep breath and tried to hurry forward to catch up to his tush bro, Yui quickly reached out to grab his sleeve, stopping him in his tracks and causing him to look around at her staring up at him.

"Just give her a bit of time to herself," She told him quietly, "her pride took a pretty big hit. I'll find her later and take her to Recovery Girl later to do a check up, but let's give her some space for now."

"I …" Hanta hesitated, and then sighed and nodded, "… yeah. Okay."

As they approached the hallway that would lead them back to the waiting room, with Shinsou, Mei and Mineta splitting off to head down their own hallways where they had emerged from this morning, Fumikage walked solemnly on, but a hand patting his shoulder caused him to blink and look around.

"Tokoyami," Reiko nodded at him, finally fixing her hair to cover one side of her face with her fringe, "congratulations for advancing on to the next round."

"Thank you, Yanagi," Fumikage nodded, letting Nejire pass by him as the blue-haired girl hurried forward to help Ochako with her blanket, reaching down to grab the end of it so it didn't drag, "although I'm not sure if I should be congratulated - I spent most of the time running around with Dark Shadow while having points passed on to me by Haya. I did not do much."

"That's bull!" Dark Shadow emerged from his partner as they traveled down the dark tunnel, separating from Class 1B as he looked around happily at Reiko. "Fumi did a lot! I did a lot too, but he was super awesome! Wish you could've seen him, Yanagi, we were all cool and sexy and that jazz!"

"Dark Shadow …" Fumikage growled in warning, going a bit red behind his feathers, but Reiko merely smiled and reached up to scratch Dark Shadow's chin, the shadow monster letting out a satisfied noise and Fumikage quickly turned away to hide his blushing cheeks.

"Yes, I'm sure you were fantastic as well, Dark Shadow," She praised him as they made their way into the waiting room, Eijirou trailing a bit behind so he could nurse the bruises and cuts he got from the fight with Tetsutetsu, although he, at the very least, looked energetic enough to grin to himself. He also was sure to head to his locker to grab his phone and text Yosetsu - when entering the waiting room, their bandana-wearing classmate was nowhere to be seen, so the first order of business was figuring out where he was and if he was okay.

As everyone moved to their lockers to grab their phones and other necessities, Momo let out a small sigh as she reached in for her phone and scooped it up. Turning it around and turning it on, she found herself blinking when she glanced at her messages and saw a little red one, indicating that someone had reached out to her. Furrowing her brow, she opened the app to read through it, unaware of Kyouka staring at her back as she slowly closed the locker beside where Nejire was also grabbing her stuff.

Kyouka stared at her back for a second, feeling her heart beat a bit quicker as she turned away - and then, quickly smacking her cheeks, she took a deep breath, and then turned around to pat Momo's shoulder to get her attention. At the tap, Momo jumped a bit, shaken out of her staring contest with her phone, and quickly looked around at her.

"Er - hey, Yaoyorozu," Kyouka gave her an awkward smile while her heart beat a bit faster, "so, uh … I was just … wondering if, uh … maybe you'd … do you wanna have lunch with me again?"

She winced at how fast that last question came out, and felt herself begin to panic.

"I - I mean, I just kinda - you know, got knocked out for a bit during the last round," She quickly tried to clarify, "and … and I was wondering if we could … uh … compare … notes? Maybe?"

"Oh." Momo said blankly for a moment, blinking slowly, but then a look of regret quickly spread across her face, making Kyouka's small hopes shatter in that moment. "Oh, I'd, uh - well, I would love to have lunch with you, Jirou, so - so we can - to - to compare notes. It's just … well … my father actually just texted me," She lifted up her phone awkwardly for Kyouka to see, "and he wants to meet with me so that we could speak before we have to come back. So, er … I will … have to excuse myself from eating with you all, as my father sent our chauffeur to meet with me."

"Ah," Kyouka stiffly nodded, disappointment and awkwardness filling her quickly as she was shot down, "ah. I - I gotcha."

"I - I really am sorry." Momo, for her part, looked disappointed as well. "M-maybe next time, though?"

"O-oh, uh - y-yeah!" She quickly nodded again. "Yeah, of - of course. It's no big."

Momo gave her an awkward, yet still thankful smile, and then turned to close her locket door and walk out of the room, giving Itsuka a half-hearted wave as she walked out of the room. However, Kyouka couldn't help but feel her awkward smile slip off her face as she looked after her friend.

It was … well, maybe it was just her seeing things, but Momo seemed … off, for some reason. Her back was a bit too straight, her shoulders back, and there was some kind of strange air of anxiety around her as she quickly left the room, to go and … what was it she said … go and meet with her dad. Was … was everything okay?

Was there something going on with -

"What do you think that's all about?"

Kyouka felt herself jump in surprise at the high-pitched voice in her ear, and quickly whipped around, her face exploding in red, to see Nejire staring off after Momo as well, raising a finger to poke her cheek as she tilted her head.

"That was weird, wasn't it?" She asked curiously, turning to look at Kyouka as she blushed heavily from the realization that the class chatterbox had just seen her get shot down. "I would've thought Yaoyorozu would've jumped at the chance to hang out! I mean, I get it if her mom and dad wanted to talk to her, but you know, she was really awkward there, wasn't she? And it wasn't like she didn't wanna have lunch with you, by the way! I saw it! She wanted to hang! It was like -"

"H-Hadou, be quiet!" Kyouka hissed, quickly trying to shush her loud classmate by raising her hands to cover Nejire's mouth, and the blue-haired girl let out a muffled squeak of confusion.

While those two briefly struggled, Izuku, meanwhile, let out a small sigh on the other side of the room, taking off the blanket at last and folding it up while he continued to shiver. As Ochako imitated him and folded up her blanket, Itsuka gave them both a worried look - there was still a part of her from this morning that was feeling awkward looking at her two best friends, but the way they were trembling still was pushing those awkward thoughts from her head and filling her with concern instead.

"Are you two sure you're okay?" She asked them gently, reaching out to pat Ochako's shoulder. "We can all go to Recovery Girl."

"N-no, that's - that's okay," Izuku shivered, trying to give her a small smile even through his teeth clattering as he made his way towards the door, "j-just - just a warm s-s-shower would do g-good. C-change of c-c-clothes, too. You - you don't h-h-have to wait for u-us."

"Y-y-yeah," Ochako stiffly nodded as well, able to give Itsuka a small, shaky smile but unable to look over at Izuku, for some reason, "we'll - we'll be g–g-good."

"Okay," Itsuka bit her lip, "but … but I should still come with you guys, make sure you're okay."

"I-it's fine," Izuku reached the door, letting out a shaky sigh as he turned the knob and opened it, "we can -"

He paused his attempt to tell her that they were alright, however, when he pulled the door wide open and looked around - to reveal that the hallway right outside the door was filled to the brim with the students from Class 1B, with the exception of Monoma, and were staring right at him.

"Gah!" Izuku yelped, jumping back in surprise.

His exclamation got the attention of the entire class inside the waiting room, looking around and feeling themselves blink at how many students were now crowded around outside. Within the crowd, there was one loud grunt, and Yuuyu managed to force herself up to the front of the group, looking cross for a moment due to how hard everyone made it to get to the front, and then sighed as she finally managed to get inside the waiting room and turned to look at her classmates.

"Well?" She brushed some of her pink hair out from her forehead as she looked around. "They're all here. And you already talked to Awase in the cafeteria. Just say your thing, Tetsutetsu, so we can go for lunch."

Off to the side, Tetsutetsu nodded stiffly, and moved into the classroom, keeping his head low. Now that all of Class 1A were staring at him, the boy with weird eyelashes took a moment to look around, his expression serious -

- and then he let out a loud shout of anger, making them all jump again as Yuuyu shot him a glare.

"God damn it all!" He beat his fist against his chest. "You guys freakin' rock!"

There was a short moment of silence in the room - and then Pony, sitting down beside Mezo, squeaked, "I'm sorry?"

"What Sir Tetsutetsu is trying to say," Another tall boy on the side said, covered head to toe in fur as he looked around, "is that we all owe you a bit of an apology. A lot of us have been sharing the thoughts that Class 1A was arrogant from what happened at the USJ, and allowed it to cloud our judgment of you all. That, plus the fact that many of you went on through the sports festival instead of us, who failed in the first round, means that your reputations are not without merit."

"That," One guy with teeth outside his mouth, who Ochako recognized was named Honenuki, pointed out, "and we all kind of planned to push you all under the bus -"

"It was disgraceful," Shiozaki shook her head in disapproval.

"- and it backfired in our faces."

"Yeah!" Another girl in the back threw her invisible arm into the air, so it looked like her sleeve was rustling around in the wind. "Shishida is right! You guys are awesome! We're sorry that we thought you guys sucked!"

"While I wouldn't put it like that," Another boyish voice spoke up, and Izuku, Tenya and Nejire blinked as a familiar small boy made his way to the front of the group, looking a bit nervous but still bowing slightly, "Hagakure and Shishida are right. A lot of us were thinking some pretty negative thoughts, and Monoma only encouraged them. As vice rep, I should've tried to encourage our classes to get along, but … well, I let my own biases get the better of me. We shouldn't have underestimated you all, and … we're sorry."

"Shoda!" Izuku proclaimed in surprise, a smile appearing on his lips at the familiar face as the smaller boy with gray hair looked up at him. "You're a part of Class 1B?"

"Yeah," Shoda smiled a bit shakingly at him as Nejire likewise bounced over, beaming happily, "and, uh - well, it's a bit overdue, but I suppose I should thank you for helping me out during the entrance exam. You, Hadou and Iida."

"Oh, no worries, it's all good!" Nejire giggled happily, patting his chubby cheek and making the smaller boy blush. "But seriously, how did we not notice you get in? You're in the class next to us! We should've seen you at some point! Unless … maybe you were hiding yourself? But why? Nervousness? Anxiety? Wait," She gasped as she looked around at the rest of the guys from Class 1B, "maybe he's got a stealthy quirk! Like being able to turn invisible! Are you friends with the invisible girl over there? Or maybe -"

"Okay, we're stopping this here," Yuuyu deadpanned, reaching over to bop Nejire on the head before she got too out of control. While Nejire yelped and reached up to rub the spot Yuuyu headchopped her, the pink-haired girl turned to the rest of Class 1A with an awkward look, rolling her eyes at all the blushes from her male classmates (and Kinoko) over Nejire peering at them cutely.

"Anyway," She shrugged, "so sum it up, we're sorry we were jackasses, that we wanted to kick your asses, throw you under the bus, karma bit our asses, blah blah blah. We cool?"

"Yeah," Itsuka smiled, nodding and giving the group outside their door a thumbs up, "we're all good, guys."

With that, everyone from Class 1B let out sighs of relief, and came in to properly introduce themselves, a lot of the guys walking over to those who were moving on to the next round to shake their hands in congratulations. Katsuki, near the back, merely huffed as he closed his locker sharply, but thankfully everyone else in Class 1A were more welcoming, with Shishida walking over to shake Mezo's hand while introducing himself, the invisible girl speedwalking over to Mina to compliment her skin and giggle about how they had gotten into a fist fight in the forest, and Honenuki walking over to greet Iida to congratulate him from stealing the points from their zone, with Tenya shaking his hand while trying to awkwardly get out from under Yui's stare for something he didn't know what he did.

On one side of the room, meanwhile, both Eijirou and Tetsutetsu stared each other down, observing the bruises and cuts on both of them, and nodded slowly.

"I think," Eijirou raised his hand, light shining down on him, "it was a good fight, man."

Tetsutetsu merely shook his head, unable to stop grinning despite himself, and grabbed Eijirou's arm for a manly handshake.

"It was, man," He nodded, "it really was."

Beside them, Izuku felt a bit confused at the knowing looks the two boys were giving each other, but at least they … seemed to be getting along, so whatever they were talking about appeared to be resolved. With a small sigh, and a slight shiver, he turned back towards where Ochako and Itsuka were standing, chatting with Shiozaki as she shook their hands, and was about to tell them that he was going to go on ahead to the showers -

"You."

At the dry, emotionless voice right behind him, Izuku jumped a bit, and quickly looked around, his eyes wide as he saw who was standing before him. Nejire, who had been happily chatting with Yuuyu about what she did in the second round, trailed off a bit as she noticed, out of the corner of her eyes, Shouto glaring down at Izuku, his hands in his pockets as he fixed Izuku with a look.

When realizing that he wasn't mistaken, and Shouto really was talking to him, Izuku straightened up, feeling himself gulp nervously.

"Er … Todoroki?" He asked in an uncertain voice. "Uh - w-what's up?"

"Come with me for a bit," He said quietly over the chatter of their classes, gesturing with his hand and not bothering to look at Izuku as he turned towards the door, "there's something I wanted to ask you."

"Uh - c-can it wait? I do have to -"

"No." He said sharply, looking back around and glaring right into Izuku's eyes. "It can't. Unless you want me to ask you questions about Kendou in front of everyone."

Izuku felt himself falter at that, staring at Shouto in surprise as the recommended student glanced away with a bored look. Wait … Shouto wanted to ask Izuku something about Itsuka? But - but why?

But then, as Shouto stole a small look at Itsuka again before glancing back at Izuku, the green-haired boy felt his initial nervousness at being confronted by him fade away - and instead, it was replaced by a small, determined look, even while shivering from being a popsicle about twenty minutes ago.

He wasn't an idiot - he knew that Shouto was gunning for Itsuka today as his rival. And he also had noticed a lot of the dirty looks that those two had been throwing at each other, meaning that there was certainly no lost love between them (although the memory of Itsuka having her arm wrapped around Shouto was making Izuku scowl quite a bit). If Shouto wanted to interrogate him about Itsuka, then …

… well, first of all, he suddenly realized, Izuku should probably see what the recommended student actually wanted first of all. And then he could go from there.

Nodding slightly, Izuku began following Shouto out of the room, still shivering slightly but trying to keep himself warm by rubbing his arms up and down as they went out the door -

- but Izuku, while focusing on following Shouto to wherever the hell they were going, was unaware of a pair of blue eyes watching him as he left.

Staring after where Izuku had disappeared through the door, Nejire blinked slightly - she wasn't sure what that was all about, and why Shouto was acting so cold and aloof when Izuku was always so nice. It seemed unnecessary to be so mean, like Shouto was trying to act all tough, like 'oooh I'm so cool I drink orange juice after brushing my teeth'. Like Katsuki, but much less loud and shouty and more quiet and cold … er … cold-y.

But the longer she thought about those two being alone together, the more Nejire frowned - she wasn't sure what was going on, but it seemed to be pretty serious. After being on a team with Shouto, she knew enough to know that he was kind of a jerk - he definitely didn't treat Itsuka very politely, always talking down to her and treating everyone like crap while being all aloof. And now he wanted to drag Izuku off by himself?

That didn't seem very good. In fact … no, that didn't seem very good at all! Nejire felt herself straighten up, pouting. She knew that she wanted to talk to Itsuka about what happened back at the USJ, but … but this was important too. She wasn't going to let Izuku be confronted by that jerk alone. No way, no how!

"Anyway, Nej," Yuuyu turned back from where she had been looking at Itsuka and Shiozaki talking, "I guess if you want, we can go and … uh … Nej?"

She blinked, however, as Nejire had suddenly vanished from where she had been talking to her, and quickly looked around just in time to see her best friend hurrying out the door. As Nejire's long blue hair moved behind the door frame, Yuuyu's hopeful face somewhat fell, feeling her smile fade away as her best friend left without a word - and apparently right behind Izuku.

But Yuuyu wasn't the only one who had noticed Nejire leaving. On the other side of the room, Ochako had also stared as Nejire ran off feeling herself blink as she looked around - and noticed, for the first time, that Izuku had likewise vanished.

Feeling herself falter slightly, Ochako glanced around the room again for Izuku, and not seeing her best friend anywhere. Feeling her brow wrinkle, Ochako pursed her lips - did Izuku leave to go and take a shower? Then why didn't he let her know he was leaving? If he had let her know, then she would've gone with -

- but then, as she thought of Nejire leaving as well, she suddenly felt her stomach twist as a thought came to her.

Did … did they go off on their own again? Izuku and Nejire leaving and …

… and …

Ochako let out a small sigh, staring down at the floor as she frowned. She had … absolutely no idea what the hell was going on with her today. She had no idea why it had been so hard to get Himiko's stupid thoughts and accusations that she was in love with Izuku out of her head, but … but …

… but the way they had hugged back in the forest. The way they had stared at each other when they had gotten out of the pond. And … and the way she felt when Nejire revealed that they had gone out on a date.

But … but there was no way that was right, Ochako shook her head. She had no idea why she felt so weird when it came to Izuku. She had no idea why the thought of Izuku and Nejire being all buddy-buddy would twist her heart. What the hell was going on?! Why was she -?!

"Ochako?"

She felt herself jump a bit, shaken out of her thoughts, and looked around. Itsuka, for her part, was giving her training partner a concerned look as she held her broken hand carefully to her chest, tilting her head a bit so that her now black ponytail hung a bit off her shoulder.

"You, uh - you okay?" She asked in a quiet voice, soft enough that the people chatting around them didn't notice. "You've been really quiet for the last minute or so."

"Oh, uh …" Ochako felt herself falter, glancing around before looking back up at Itsuka. There was still a part of her that felt … kind of a little flustered around Itsuka, especially now when they weren't in high stakes situations in the sports festival, that she felt herself go a bit red in her presence. She was about to tell her that she was fine, that she had just gotten lost in her thoughts and that she just needed a moment to collect herself -

- but then she felt herself stop, blinking, as a sudden memory came to her.

"Um … is it just me, or do you - uh - do you not like seeing Hadou hanging around Deku?"

"What, uh … what do you mean? Do you not like seeing them together?"

"I … well … it's just … whenever she gets up in his face, I just … well … my stomach feels kinda uncomfortable. And my heart starts hammering, but not in a nice way. I just - I don't know, I just kinda feel uncomfortable and weird whenever they get talking, and I don't know why. Do I - am I the only one who feels that way?"

"..."

"..."

"... no, you're not, Uraraka. I - I think I know what you mean. It's just - I don't know. I'm not even sure what my problem is, I just … I don't like when she gets too close or gets up in Midoriya's business. I - I don't know why, I just - I don't like it."

Feeling herself blink slowly, Ochako stared blankly at Itsuka for a moment, while the formerly orange-haired girl gave her a slightly awkward look. This … this wasn't the first time she had felt this way around Nejire, Ochako remembered - feeling awkward about how much she got in Izuku's face, and made him flustered, and how that had made her feel weird.

But … but she had forgotten that Itsuka had also gotten this same feeling, back before what happened at the USJ. Both of them had felt weird about Izuku and Nejire getting closer.

So - so if she was feeling this way again, and Itsuka understood what she felt …

"Er … Ochako?" Itsuka raised an eyebrow. "Are you -"

"Can we talk?"

Itsuka faltered at how Ochako immediately blurted that out, staring at her in slight surprise, but Ochako quickly caught herself, going a bit red and glancing away. But before Itsuka could open her mouth again, Ochako shot her a small, uncomfortable look, one that made Itsuka's words die in her mouth as she stared down at her.

"Uh … I mean …" Ochako gulped slightly, taking a moment to glance around again before leaning in and muttering, "… can we talk? Privately?"

"Uh …" Itsuka felt a bit confused, and her cheeks went a bit red as Ochako leaned close to her, "… well, sure, but … what's up? Is everything okay?"

"Y-yeah, everything's fine. Just …" Ochako hesitated for a moment, wincing slightly at how awkward she was being, and then tried to clarify. "… I heard something back during the second round, and … I don't know, I just … need to talk to someone about it."

Itsuka blinked a bit at the weird request, but still, a smile appeared on her face, and she nodded.

"Okay," She nodded, and felt her smile widen just a bit when Ochako looked relieved, "yeah, of course, Ochako - let's go talk."

With that, the two girls quickly excused themselves from the group bonding between Classes 1A and 1B, and walked out of the room to find somewhere private to talk. Glancing back down at Itsuka's broken hand, Ochako asked if they should head to the nurse's office, but Itsuka had waved her off quickly, telling her that she could go later, since there were other people presumably there to get Recovery Girl's attention at the moment. They decided to compromise by heading down to the same floor Recovery Girl's office was on, so that after their talk, Itsuka could hurry over and get her hand looked at and Ochako could head to the showers to finally warm up.

They walked through the halls looking for someplace to speak, until they finally came upon a small waiting room, relatively far enough for no one to walk in and interrupt them, and quickly made their way inside, Itsuka pulling the door closed behind them as Ochako walked over to the desk and sat down on one side.

"Okay …" Itsuka gave her a small, curious smile as she took a seat on the other end of the table, "… so, uh … what's going on?"

"Right," Ochako nodded quickly, glancing around the room for a moment and letting out a sigh, "so … this is … about the last round."

"Uh-huh …?"

"Uh … so Hadou confronted me," She started off, feeling her stomach twist a bit, "I guess because you told her to, right?"

"Er - yeah," Itsuka nodded, going a bit red but shrugging, "I figured that with Izuku running around with the ten million points, that meant you were keeping the rest. Uh … sorry, if you were mad about that."

"No, it's fine," She shook her head, and then leaned forward, "but … when Hadou was chasing me around, she said something that … that caught my attention."

Itsuka tilted her head, feeling curiosity fill her as she leaned forward as well.

"Okay …?"

"She said …" Ochako hesitated for a moment, and then sighed, "… do you … remember a few weeks ago, when we met Eri? When Hadou and Deku left school together?"

That question, at least, made Itsuka blink.

"Hadou said that …" Ochako bit her lip, feeling her stomach continue to twist, "… that before you called Deku about Eri … they were on a date."

At that, silence fell in their room as both girls looked at each other. Ochako gave her training partner an awkward look as she slowly nodded, unsure of what to really say after that. And Itsuka just … stared. Straightening up in her seat a bit and tilting her head as her face fell for a moment.

"They …" She repeated a bit quietly, and then cleared her throat a bit as she continued to blink a bit rapidly. "… went on a …?"

"Y-yeah."

"You're - you're sure she said it was a - a date?"

"I - yeah, that's - that's what she said." Ochako nodded, tapping her fingers together. "But I don't know if - you know, if it was - if it was an actual date. I mean - wouldn't Deku tell us about it?"

"I -" Itsuka shook her head a bit, and Ochako felt herself falter slightly at the way Itsuka suddenly pushed back from the table, quickly getting to her feet while holding her broken hand so it didn't swing around and hurt her.

But it was the expression on Itsuka's face that was making Ochako blink - she looked frazzled, conflicted, shocked and …

… and disappointed.

"I …" Itsuka started to say, unaware of Ochako staring up at her as she looked away, "… I … I knew that … Set and Yui pointed out that Hadou was getting closer to him, but … oh, my god, is … is that what she wanted to talk to me about …?"

Ochako stared blankly at her best friend as she began to slowly pace up and down, obvious in her own little world as the shock faded from her eyes and she began to scowl. And then, suddenly, Ochako felt her eyes widen as she thought back to the discussion they had on the bus that day.

"… no, you're not, Uraraka. I - I think I know what you mean. It's just - I don't know. I'm not even sure what my problem is, I just … I don't like when she gets too close or gets up in Midoriya's business. I - I don't know why, I just - I don't like it."

And then everything began clicking into place.

The way she had felt when she discovered Izuku initially training on the beach with Itsuka.

The way Izuku had complimented her hair while ignoring Ochako's new hairdo on New Years' Eve.

The smile they had shared out on the porch, and how Ochako had felt like she hadn't even been there.

The way that she shared Ochako's feelings of uneasiness around Nejire, and how she always had the same dull stare as she did whenever Nejire got in his face.

How ferociously she had attacked the hooded man when Izuku was on the brink of death.

How worried she had been for him.

How tightly she had hugged Izuku when he came out from Recovery Girl's office.

How she had smiled when she called him by his first name for the first time.

How she had a silly little smile on her face for the last two weeks whenever she looked or talked to Izuku.

As all those memories came back to Ochako, her open mouth slowly closed, and she felt her heart begin to hammer uncomfortably hard in her chest.

"I … oh, god, this is totally what she wanted to talk to me about!" Itsuka groaned, not aware of Ochako not listening for the last minute or so as she shook her head and continued to pace up and down. "Back in the forest, Hadou wanted to talk to me about something - was it about - about this date? She - she was telling me something about the USJ and how she nearly drowned, and - and - she said that she thought about something. Was - was it about him?"

"Itsuka …?"

"God, it makes sense. She's - she does like him." Itsuka stopped pacing at that, her eyes slightly widening in horror. "It's why she's always clinging to him and talking to him and - and all that shit. God, I feel so stupid for not realizing it sooner!"

"Itsuka …"

"I - I guess I'll have to talk to her, ask her not to - wait, how the hell am I supposed to talk to her about that? Tell her not to ask Izuku out?" She quickly shook her head, looking disgusted at what she was saying. "I can't just - tell her not to like someone. It - but it'll mess up everything, but - but it's not like I can -"

"Itsuka."

At the sharp voice suddenly cutting through her rambling, Itsuka finally went silent, and quickly looked back around at Ochako as the brown-haired girl looked up at her, straightening up a bit. Ochako, for her part, was staring Itsuka straight in the eye, her mouth slowly closing and her lips thinning, and Itsuka …

… in that moment, Itsuka felt her heart suddenly begin to beat rather quickly as she realized that she had said all of that out loud, and in front of Ochako.

There was a brief silence - and then Ochako, in the calmest, blankest voice Itsuka had ever heard, said, "You're in love with him."

The room had gone suddenly cold as the two girls stared each other in the eye. Ochako, for her part, looked strangely calm, staring Itsuka right in the eyes even as her heart beat heavily in her chest and her stomach clenched painfully. Itsuka, for her part, felt her face flicker for a moment at the accusation - but there were no denials. No flailing, no going red, no fluster.

Instead, she felt her back straighten as she stared down at Ochako, looking as though she was now in the same room as something dangerous. As though there was a bomb suddenly in front of her that she needed to disarm. And then …

… and then her face fell. And she gave Ochako a small, knowing, and tired look as she looked her right in the eye.

"You are," Ochako said quietly, almost so quietly it was hard to hear her, "aren't you? You're in love with Deku."

Itsuka stayed quiet for another moment, letting out a soft sigh as she slowly closed her eyes and looked down … and then she opened them again and looked up, staring at Ochako with a determined look on her face.

"Not as much," She said in a quiet, yet clear voice, "as you're in love with him."

And with those simple little words, the dynamic of their trio changed forever.