Ignited Spark

by 3PeopleInACoat

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

30. Round One, Part Two

So Midoriya won, huh …

Frowning as he stared up at the TV showing the results of the lastest round, Shouto felt himself scowl as the reporter on the screen showed the results of the first two matches, sitting at his spot at the table and tapping his finger against the metal. The second match had just been wrapped up - Izuku and his partner, the one who had helped him trick Shouto back at the pond, had gotten out of their fight with the boy with glasses and the crazy support student by the skin of their teeth; and the loud, annoying kid named Katsuki and Fumikage (who, at least, Shouto noted with a bit of respect, seeing as he worked quite well with them in the last round) had won their match with that redhead guy and the disgusting creep that had groped Momo at the start of the day, which had been far more one sided than the first one.

Still though, the sight of Izuku's dorky smile on the screen only made Shouto glare harder at the TV, remembering their talk from earlier and continuing to tap his finger against the table, before he finally let out a sigh and turned to look away from the television.

Well, in the end, it didn't matter much - from how it looked, those two pairs would be fighting each other next. And while Izuku was crafty, as seen during their fight at the pond, it was obvious that he had no idea how to really use his quirk, Shouto nodded slowly as he thought back to how clumsy he had looked on the pond -

"… my quirk is dangerous. Dangerous enough to myself and everyone around me that I have to use a support item to lower my blasts. And if I'm being honest … there's a part of me that hates it."

- and how he didn't even use his quirk at all during the match, Shouto felt his frown deepen as he shook that memory away. So either Katsuki would easily defeat him in the next round, or somehow, Izuku would get lucky again and have to face Shouto in the finals - and that would just mean that Shouto would be able to easily defeat him, since they would be on a stage that wouldn't be as unstable as the pond, and there being the risk of Izuku missing Shouto and hitting someone in the crowd. And from what he gathered from how Izuku acted with his quirk during the last couple of hours, if there was the slightest risk of hurting someone with his quirk … he wouldn't take it.

And he could use that to his advantage.

But that shouldn't be Shouto's main concern right now - not when, once he defeated his class representative and that Shinsou idiot, he would then have to go up against Itsuka and that annoying blue-haired girl - Nejire, her name was, he remembered. And that, he narrowed his eyes, was the match he needed to be prepared for.

Turning his gaze back down to the remote on the table beside him, he scooped it up and raised it to flip it to the next channel, wanting to take his mind off of Izuku for a while and put on some background noise so he could ready himself for his fight with Itsuka - but on the screen, the sight of someone very familiar to him made him pause, blinking, before he automatically turned up the volume to hear what was going on.

"Sol!" The reporter called out to the pro hero, quickly jogging over to the white-haired young man with piercings as he was surrounded by a few of his fans and fellow heroes. "We've heard from a reliable source that your youngest brother has been competing in the sports festival today, and has been taking the world by storm! But tell us - are you nervous for little Shouto?"

On the screen, Touya kept his back to the camera for a moment, staring ahead and not showing any indication that he had heard what she had said - and then he turned around to face the camera, raising his hand to show the audience.

"Well, I guess I'll answer that question with my own question - is my shaking noticeable?" He gave the reporter a sheepish, nervous grin, and then straightened up with a confident grin as she and the crowd around him laughed lightly at his joke. "But if I'm being serious for a second - yeah, I guess you could say that I am a little nervous for my little brother! I'm also kinda envious, too - I never went to UA, so I'm super jealous of him getting to compete today!"

"Oh? Is this a sibling rivalry I hear?"

"Well, I wouldn't call it that - more along the lines of me just being a bit pouty he gets to fight robots. I mean, I'd love to go up against robots!" Touya pretended to look disappointed, before shaking his head and putting his hands in his coat's pockets, the blue flames subtle around his shoulders so as not to burn anyone close by. "But back to your question, I have faith my little brother's going to crush it today - and he better! Our dad would probably throw a fit if Shouto stumbled over the finish line after all the hell he put us through to get ready to be heroes, right?"

The reporter and crowd laughed again as Touya scratched his head sheepishly, still grinning into the camera.

"So basically, Shouto, if you're watching this - you've got this, little bro! But if you are watching this, maybe think about turning off the TV and getting ready - don't worry, I'll be watching!"

Feeling himself frown again, Shouto did as his brother asked and turned off the TV as the laughter from Touya's jokes were silenced, leaving the waiting room quiet again as he turned to look back down at the table, putting down the remote before he folded his hands together. His brother had always been rather good at portraying the joking, relatable hero persona he put on for the cameras - especially when it came to pretending that he cared for his younger brother. In reality, it wouldn't be surprising if Touya completely ignored him when he got home tonight, whether he had a gold medal around his neck or not.

But … but that didn't matter, he shook his head again. This wasn't a matter of getting a pat on the back. It was an effort to show Touya that he understood, that he knew what he was going through, that Shouto could be seen as an equal -

"… I don't think you owe your brother anything. And - and you don't have anything to prove to your father."

His scowl deepening again at the intruding memory, Shouto felt ice begin to crack in his right hand, letting out a small noise as he moved his hands apart to shake the slight frost away as he glared angrily at the table. Ever since he had walked away from that conversation during lunch, he had … a pretty hard time shaking what Izuku had said to him out of his mind. No matter how foolish he thought Izuku was, or thinking that his advice was poor, he couldn't help but hear the words Izuku had said ringing in his mind again and again, with no way to shake them out.

He had gone into that conversation expecting to have gotten some information out of his rival's friend, to get more information about her and what her deal was. He … hadn't expected to suddenly dump all the details of his traumatic past on Izuku, though. He had just … started talking about it without thinking, and hadn't been able to stop himself until he got it all out. And then, when he had tried to leave that conversation with a bit of dignity, Izuku had not only stopped him, he had dared to counter Shouto's thoughts, telling him that he didn't need his brother's quirk or his father's spite. And that …

… that was a bit hard to put aside, Shouto thought as his fists clenched. It was hard to keep those stupid words from a boy he barely knew out of his mind, rattling around and making his previous convictions feel shaken.

He knew what he had to do - spite Endeavor, gain Touya's respect. That was all he had to do. That was it.

And yet …

"Everyone is out here giving their all, and you're deliberately holding back."

Gritting his teeth furiously, Shouto took some of his frustration out on the water bottle that had been sitting on the table beside him, hitting it with the back of his hand and sending it flying across the room to smack against the wall, and he quickly stood up to begin pacing around the table in a circle. It shouldn't matter, he furrowed his brow, what Izuku thought. He had to concentrate on the next round, and the round after that, and then it would be over. The day would be over, he would get the gold metal, and he'd bring it home as physical proof that he could stand alongside his brother.

It wouldn't be too hard to win the next round - Shinsou was all bark, no bite, and Yuuyu's power was pretty much nothing compared to his ice, although that wouldn't mean that he could just dismiss her as a threat - if he was slow enough, she might get a hit in on him, and a blast of electricity was … something he didn't want to have to experience. It was just a question of who would be faster on the draw - him or her. If she hit him, there would be a chance that she could take him down by taking advantage of him being stunned.

But if he hit her first, he could end the match as soon as it started.

He just had to -

Before he could get too lost in his thoughts, however, he was distracted by the sound of the door opening again behind him. Straightening up, he glanced over his shoulder to see Momo entering the room again, not looking entirely comfortable being in his presence but looking like she was trying to swallow her displeasure, at the very least. In her hands, she held two water bottles and a small open bag of chips, probably for her to build up some of her lipids, and she approached the table and put it and one of the bottles down before holding out the other to him.

"Here, Shouto," She said shortly, keeping her tone stoic and unemotive just like his, "I thought you would be thirsty."

"Hm," Shouto nodded, taking the water bottle and ignoring the one that he had just smacked to the floor laying on its side not far away, wanting to remain at least polite, "thank you."

She nodded slightly, and then turned to look over at the now turned off TV, and Shouto studied the wall opposite of her as he took a sip of water, leaning forward on the table and tapping it with his fingers as he thought quietly to himself. There were a few moments of quiet as they waited for the announcement overhead to tell them to head into the arena, neither of them looking at each other as Momo finished eating the bag of chips and put the now empty bag into the bin near the door.

And then Momo let out a quiet sigh, her shoulders sinking slightly, and she said, in a quiet voice, "I'm sorry."

Shouto, who had raised the water bottle to his lips to take another sip, found himself pausing for a moment, staring blankly ahead as he realized that she had spoken. Blinking slightly, he turned to look over at where Momo was still staring at the wall near the door.

"What?" He said bluntly.

"I said that …" She hesitated for another moment, as though she were trying to force the words from her mouth, and then let out another sigh, "… that I am sorry for … brushing you off after you - you got Mineta off of me, back during the first round. I spoke to my father during lunch, and he - he gave me some … some perspective, telling me that I had been rude to you. For that, I - I apologize."

Shouto stared blankly at her for a moment, her words slowly sinking in as he realized what she was talking about - and then he let out his own sigh, and instead of answering immediately, he raised the water bottle to begin drinking it all. She glanced over at him as he finished the water bottle and put it back down on the table, wiping his lip roughly with the back of his hand as he narrowed his eyes, and began walking over to the door.

"Don't worry about it," He said in a sharp voice, "you have nothing to apologize about."

"I - er -"

"Come on," He gestured with his head as he pulled the door open, not even waiting for her, "it's probably almost time to head out to the arena, we can at least go wait near the entrance."

With that, he began to walk out into the hall, keeping his eyes forward as he began marching down the hallway towards where the tunnel would be. He heard the sound of her quickly trying to hurry after him, knowing that she had probably needed a moment to get over his dismissal of her apology before she could follow him - although he couldn't spare much thought about that, seeing as what she had said was filling him with the same icy anger that he had been feeling since he had spoken to Izuku - albeit for an entirely different reason now.

"I spoke to my father during lunch, and he - he gave me some … some perspective, telling me that I had been rude to you."

A memory, one that he hadn't thought of in a long time, came to Shouto as they began walking down the hallway together, or rather, he walked in front while she walked behind him. It had been back in their childhood, when the two of them had still been on speaking terms, had still been … friends, he thought as his heart hurt a bit at the thought. It had been a silly game they used to play together - the prince and princess of two families, brought together and having adventures in the large shiny manor she had lived in. One of those days, they had gotten in a disagreement - about what, he couldn't remember - and they had gone to cry to his mother while she had been sitting with Momo's parents.

It had been … something he had done, he furrowed his brow. He knew that, at least - he had been acting like a brat, and hurt her feelings, causing her to cry. And yet, as she cried to his mom, who had paused the conversation she had been having with Momo's mother to comfort her, it had been her father, sitting at the other side of the table with Endeavor, who had sharply reprimanded her.

"Enough, Momo. You are supposed to be proper, so you need to act like it. Stop having a tantrum and apologize to Shouto, now."

It had been … something that had stuck with him. The way Momo had frozen when her father had spoken to her that sharply, and how she had quickly whipped her teary face and apologized to him, even when they both knew that the reason she had cried in the first place had been his fault. The way his mother had winced, her face twisting slightly as though Momo's father had reminded her of … of how it was at home. How Shouto had immediately felt awful for acting like a spoiled brat, that he had gotten Momo in trouble with her father.

And now to learn that her father had … 'given her perspective' … it made Shouto's hand curl into a tight fist, his fingernails cutting into the palm of his hand.

Of course … of course that bastard would make her apologize to him for his rudeness, as he always did. That was normal behavior for the head of the Yaoyorozus - barely reflect on the possibility that Shouto could be responsible for there being bad blood between him and his daughter, and then make Momo apologize to him. Shouto felt his stomach churn at the thought of the smug bastard - he hated Endeavor for everything he had done, but Daikoku Yaoyorozu … he knew, even as a child, that he was a similar breed of monster that his father was, but in an entirely different way.

He had always been uncomfortable at those strange dinners when he was a child, going over to the large mansion with his parents and all his silbings, and feeling uncomfortable under the gaze of the man sitting at the end of the table in his spot, smiling at the young child but filling him with nothing but unease. It had taken him a few years to realize, but Shouto knew that to the head of the Yaoyorozu estate, he was just a means to an end - nothing about Daikoku's kindess to him was real, only artificial.

He had no real feelings about Shouto, he had realized at a young age - he didn't see him as a young man, as a friend of his daughter, as a future son-in-law. He probably didn't even see him as a human being. He saw him as a tool, someone to marry his daughter off to for … reasons he didn't really know. That, of course, was between Daikoku and Endeavor.

Honestly, he had no idea how Momo could live with the bastard, assuming that he spent time at the biggest mansion in the world and wasn't travelling all over the world for business. Everything about Daikoku seemed so … fake. It almost made him appreciate his father, because at least he wore his expressions on his face - he knew when a brutal session of training was coming, or when he thought Shouto had failed him. Daikoku, on the other hand, always kept that same fake smile on his face, the one that showed absolutely nothing about how he really felt.

But speaking of the bastard …

Moving around the corner, Shouto found his eyes drifting upwards - and then, as he saw who was standing there waiting for them, leaning against the wall, he slowed his pace, his already sour mood due to thinking about Daikoku plummeting even more. Momo, who had been too busy studying her feet to look up as she followed behind Shouto, let out a small squeak as she unintentionally walked straight into him, blinking and looking up at her partner.

"Shouto?" She asked in an uncertain voice. "What is -?"

"You're in the way." He said in a short voice.

"W-what do you -?" She began to ask, her gaze lifting up to look over Shouto's shoulder - and then, as she saw who was leaning against the wall and staring at the boy in front of her, she quickly went quiet.

"Momo," Endeavor nodded politely at her, before turning his permanent glare and frown back to his son, "please excuse Shouto and I for a moment. We won't take long."

Momo felt her lips thin a bit, glancing between both Todorokis for a moment - Shouto glaring down at the floor and Endeavor leaning against the wall while staring coldly at him, and she opened her mouth as though to disagree - but then she closed it, feeling like she had done enough today. Bowing her head briefly to him, she quickly made her way past the Number Two Hero, moving around the corner to wait for her teammate at the end of the tunnel.

Still though, Shouto could only grit his teeth slightly as he began to walk past his father without a word, not even looking up at him as Endeavor let out a small huff.

"Today," He noted, "hasn't been a good day for you, Shouto."

"I'm aware."

"There is no excuse for you not winning the first round. You had the advantage right at the start, and each obstacle that came after it, you had the advantage over all your classmates. And yet," Endeavor scoffed, "you came in fifth."

Shouto said nothing to that, glaring at the floor.

"And in the second round, that other boy led you around by the nose," Endeavor shook his head, "even a fool could see that he was playing you, Shouto. You didn't pay enough attention - the way he crashed into that girl was pathetically telegraphed, it was obvious that he did it intentionally. And yet, you got arrogant, too busy thinking that you had brought them both down to consider the possibility of him giving her the ten million. I considered the possibility at once, so you have no excuse for that - I taught you to keep your eyes open to small details others missed, and yet, you missed it completely."

"Are you trying to make a point here?" Shouto spat, walking past his father, "I'm keeping Yaoyorozu waiting."

There was a short pause as Endeavor looked coldly down at his son.

"I'm aware," he narrowed his eyes, "of your conversation with Touya last week."

That, of course, made Shouto freeze in his tracks.

"… how?"

"One of the maids reported it to me," The pro hero shook his head, turning to glare at his son's back while his flame beard flared, "I knew that Touya was going to stop by for dinner with Fuyumi after visiting your mother, and I told my maids to keep an eye open in case he interfered with your training. I love him, but Touya has made it clear that he doesn't approve of you trying to follow in his footsteps."

"Yeah," Shouto scoffed quietly, under his breath, "he hasn't."

"And yet, you want to prove yourself to him."

He said nothing.

"That's fine," Endeavor shook his head, tapping his finger against his bicep as he kept his arms crossed, "in fact, I approve. If I can't get you to emulate me, then emulating your brother is the next best thing. But at the rate you're going," He turned to glare at his son's back again, "you will fail, Shouto. You continue to act disgracefully - had you used the power in your left side, you would've won both rounds easily. You could have gotten ahead in the race by using your flames and ice simultaneously to propel yourself, and melting the pond you had been fighting on would have taken out that Midoriya boy, if his lightning doesn't go well with water, and realizing his deception earlier would've clued you in that the girl had been your real target. At this point, you are insulting yourself and your classmates with your foolish behavior."

At that last comment, however, Shouto felt himself go still.

"Everyone is out here giving their all, and you're deliberately holding back."

"She told me about how you're always holding back during your lessons. Finds it kind of insulting, and to be honest, if I was in her shoes, I would be insulted too. It seems like you're mocking your classmates by always holding back. They're going to be out there giving their all, and then there's you not even trying that hard."

As the words said not only by Izuku, but Itsuka's insults from the forest earlier bounced around in his mind again Shouto stared down at the floor, his mouth thinning into a line.

"If you want to impress your brother," Endeavor moved off of the wall, looking at his son with the same narrowed eyes behind the mask of flames he always had, "then you'll need to stop holding yourself back. Surpassing All Might is your duty, and wasting your time trying to impress your brother by only using your mother's quirk is counteractive. Even if it works for now," He let out a small grunt, beginning to walk down the hallway away from his son, "you'll be reaching the limits of that power soon, as you did back at the pond. Don't fail again, Shouto."

With that, he began to stomp away back down the hall, the sound of his heavy footfalls fading around the corner and leaving Shouto standing there, staring at nothing. He was only dimly aware of Aizawa's voice above him telling them to head out to the arena, the words his father, Itsuka, and Izuku said earlier continuing to practically scream at him in his head -

- and then his eyes narrowed to slits, and he began storming down the corridor towards where the tunnel was. After all of that, and hearing his two classmates' words seemingly in agreement with what his father was saying … it made it pretty clear to Shouto that he should just disregard everything he had just heard, and focus on the present.

Stomping around the corner, he didn't even notice Momo standing there looking uncomfortable and pitying towards him, opening her mouth as though to say something and then blinking when she realized that he was leaving without her, quickly moving to catch up. Together, they both walked down the tunnel towards the distant light that would lead outside, the cheers echoing around the tunnel as Shouto glared ahead, keeping his fists clenched tightly at his sides.

Finally moving out onto the grass and towards the arena before them, Shouto didn't pay any attention to what Present Mic was narrating, only seeing red as he stormed up onto the stage with Momo quickly following behind him, keeping her distance relatively as she saw, by his body language, that he was clearly not in the mood for last minute strategizing. Coming up on the opposite side of the ring, Shinsou and Yuuyu were also moving up the stairs towards them - Shinsou with a confident smirk, and Yuuyu looking both annoyed and nervous, glancing over at the stormy look on her classmate's face and knowing, right and then, that this was going to suck.

As the four of them finally stood in the ring on top of the hill, waiting for the fight to begin Shouto staring vacantly at nothing, Momo looking nervous, and Yuuyu slowly beginning to edge away from what she assumed was going to be the blast zone, Shinsou suddenly began speaking.

"You know," He turned to look over at Momo, who quickly snapped her gaze to him as he smirked at her, speaking under Present Mic's narration, "I don't seem to recall seeing you anywhere during the second round. I suppose you were hiding somewhere in the forest, weren't you?"

Momo, for her part, didn't dignify that with a response, merely holding one hand on her wrist and the other tapping nervously on her leg, glancing at Yuuyu as she slowly backed up, and then over to Shouto as he glared down at the ground.

"Well, I'm not surprised," Shinsou huffed as Present Mic gave them the go ahead to begin, "someone as pathetic as you probably couldn't help your team out at all, so of course you went and hid while the rest of your team did the heavy lifting. And I bet that's what you're gonna do with Todoroki here," He smirked, "just ride his coattails and wait for him to do all the work for you. Just like he did when that pervert grabbed your chest - although I can't blame him. Your tits are pretty big, you were pretty much asking some perv to grab them."

Momo's eyes went wide, snapping right back to Shinsou, and immediately, a look of anger crossed her face.

"How dare -!"

However, before Shinsou could use his quirk on Momo in that moment of weakness, and Yuuyu could throw her hand forward and send out twin arrows of electricity to stun the two in her panic - Shouto stomped down hard on the ground.

---

About twenty minutes before that, Itsuka was starting to think that she was going to die of embarrassment. That, or she was five seconds from crawling under the table and hiding there forever.

"… and then we just … kissed," She groaned, moving her hands over her face as she leaned forward and covered herself in embarrassment, "stood up, leaned over the table, and just - kissed. I didn't resist or anything, it was just like, 'oh, Ochako's getting up? And leaning forward? Well, shucks, I gotta kiss her or - or -'"

She then let out something that sounded like a mix of a curse word and random gibberish as she furiously rubbed her red face with both hands. While she felt like she was about to burst into embarrassed flames, Nejire let out a soft gasp, her eyes twinkling and her hand moving over her mouth as she took in the story.

"Oooooooooooh …" She shook a bit in excitement, "… so … so what was it like? Was it hot?"

"No," Itsuka shook her head, blushing harder and harder, "it wasn't hot, it was just … it was nice."

"Nice?"

"Yeah. Very nice."

Indeed, almost an hour and a half had passed since they had been excused to go make a plan, and during that period of time, the final rounds of the sports festival had started, everyone got ready to fight, and Itsuka and Nejire … had done absolutely nothing to get themselves ready for it, instead getting lost in all of the stories that Itsuka had told the curious girl about how she had met Izuku and Ochako, and fell for them. Leaving out the obvious details, of course, what with the real context that they had started training together, but Nejire had been entertained anyway, clapping her hands together with a mystified look in her eyes, and Itsuka's face had been a somewhat permanent shade of red for the last hour, even if there was a small, bashful smile on her face as she recounted everything that had happened in the last year or so.

Normally, Itsuka would have been pretty embarrassed just … spilling everything to Nejire, someone she didn't really know, instead of someone close to her like Setsuna or Yui, but … it was surprising about how Nejire had honestly been really easy to talk to, with the blue-haired girl heavily restraining herself from asking overly detailed questions and trying not to get carried away by their talk. As of right now, she knew, more than anyone, how Itsuka felt about both her training partners - having complicated feelings for Ochako she couldn't quite put a name on, and being head over heels for Izuku.

And instead of feeling embarrassed … Itsuka felt strangely … relieved. Like a heavy weight had been taken off of her shoulders by just talking to Nejire about may have had something to do with Nejire having similar feelings for Izuku like she did, knowing what it was like to fall for him, but … honestly, explaining how she had fallen for Izuku to someone who had also fallen for him was … weirdly freeing.

Maybe … it was because Nejire had been surprisingly easy to talk to about it. Honestly, Itsuka couldn't say that she wasn't having a bit of fun telling Nejire about everything, taking enjoyment from Nejire's reactions, either gasping lightly at some points and gushing the next. Hanging out with Nejire and talking about her feelings, that had been stressing her out for who knows how long being all bottled up, it was … it was fun.

"Oh, but, so -" Nejire quickly leaned forward over the table again, her hands still up around her mouth from how flustered she was, "- your first kiss with Ochako, though - that was the one that was hot, right?"

"It was - I - okay, yes, that one was hot," Itsuka admitted with a bit of shame in her voice, lowering her head into her arms and burying it deeply in them as she glanced away with a fully red face, "like - I tried to undersell it to Set and Yui when I told them, but god … god, it was hot."

Nejire bounced around in her seat, shaking a bit.

"Like … we just almost died, and I wasn't thinking at all about it, just - just her, and … and … fuck," She groaned lowly, aware of Nejire's cheeks going a bit pink and feeling her own turn redder, "it was such a hot fucking kiss. Like, our tongues were wrestling, and her hair was so freaking soft, and there was - er, anyway," She quickly shook her head, realizing that she was maybe getting a little too carried away with her explanation, "after that, Izuku broke out of the conflagration zone, and we just kinda broke apart -"

"Oh, but what if he didn't?" Nejire gushed, continuing to bounce in her seat, "Would you two have kept kissing? Making out? French kissing? W-whatever you call it! Would you have?"

"I …" Itsuka found herself hesitating for a moment, her face practically on fire now from how much blood was rushing to her cheeks, "… I don't know. M-maybe? Probably? Y-yeah, probably. I mean, I probably would've - but wait, then Yaoyorozu and Jirou came down, so they probably would've caught us … you know … sucking each other's souls out with our mouths. S-so the kiss was probably going to end even if Izuku hadn't interrupted us."

With that, Itsuka promptly smacked her face into the table, groaning lowly in her humiliation.

"Fucking Izuku," She grumbled, "interrupting my hot kiss with Ochako, and then being all cute and hot afterwards. That fucking … fuck."

"Oh, but speaking of those two! Yaoyorozu and Jirou, I mean, not Izuku being a - er - 'fucking fuck'," Nejire giggled a bit, leaning forward and shaking her head to try to replace her giddy look with a serious one as Itsuka sneaked a glance up at her. "I've been thinking, and watching, and - you know, doing more thinking. But I think that Jirou might have a thing for Yaoyorozu, y'know? Like, today, she asked Yaoyorozu if she wanted to have lunch with her, and got really disappointed when she couldn't! What do you think?"

"Uh - Jirou and Yaoyorozu?" Itsuka blinked a bit, raising her head from where it had hit the table. "Oh, yeah, I - I know what you're talking about. And … yeah, a hundred percent. There's something going on there."

"Really?!"

"Oh, yeah. I mean, Jirou's super obvious about it. I don't really know how Yaoyorozu feels about it, though - honestly, I don't think she's even noticed Jirou looking at her yet. Or, you know, she has, but she's being polite and pretending not to notice."

"Oh, then - wait, is that a good thing? Is Jirou liking Yaoyorozu a good thing? I know Yaoyorozu's got her problems with Todoroki and the whole arranged marriage thingy, but her liking Jirou is good, right?"

"I mean, I would think so," Itsuka nodded, smiling a bit as she sat up in her chair and adjusted herself, "they'd be cute together. I was just … y'know, not gonna bring it up to either of them, at all. No need to poke my nose into something I shouldn't, right? Let them figure it out naturally and act from there."

"That's true!" Nejire quickly agreed with her, smiling happily. "No need to make things awkward for them, let them get together on their own! Oh, but they'd be so cute, wouldn't they? Like, when we first met Jirou, I thought she was all cool and tough, like Yuuyuu. All 'too kewl for school', you know?"

Itsuka snorted at that. "Yeah, I get that. 'Too kewl for school'."

"Yeah! But then whenever she's around Yaoyorozu, she gets all shy and nervous. It's so cute! And I don't think Yaoyorozu doesn't like her, you know? She's just got her whole thing with Todoroki to handle, but I wouldn't see her turning down Jirou if she asked her out, right? She seemed like she regretted not being able to eat with her today, I noticed! But maybe that's a friend thing, like me and Yuuyu - I sometimes get bummed when I can't eat with Yuuyu."

"I - maybe? I guess -"

However, before Itsuka could continue on with the slight shipping for Kyouka and Momo (something she would've thought had been more up Setsuna and Mina's alleys, but found it kind of fun talking to Nejire about it), she blinked when she suddenly felt her phone vibrating in her pocket. She initially wanted to ignore it, opening her mouth again, but then came several more vibrations, indicating that someone was either calling her or texting her.

"Uh … hold on a second," She quickly asked Nejire, who looked briefly confused at that, and saw her reach into her pocket to pull out her phone. Finally finishing it out of her gym pants, Itsuka sighed and turned the screen over to see who was texting her, thinking it to be her mom or her dad wishing her luck for the upcoming match -

- and then, when she saw the name on the top of the screen, she felt her eyes practically pop out of their sockets.

DEKU

hey guys

i know that it's pretty busy rn and you're probably

doing stuff, but i was

i was wondering if i could meet up with you guys

just for a bit

There was a moment of silence. And then she said, in a simple tone, "Shit."

"Hm?" Nejire looked around curiously at her. "What's up? What's going on?"

"It's - Izuku's texting me."

Nejire let out a small gasp at that, her eyes widening somewhat in delight, and quickly got up from her chair. As she started making her way around the table to read the texts over Itsuka's shoulder, the formerly orange-haired girl felt herself begin to tremble as she read over the last five messages that Izuku had just sent, feeling her heart begin to hammer in her chest and her jaw drop slightly as her hands started shaking.

Izuku wanted to … meet up? With - with her? Right now? To talk about what? W-what could be so important that they needed to talk without - wait, she realized as she glanced up at the name of the chat on the screen. He wasn't just specifically texting her, or messaging their group chat.

He was - he was using the chat that she shared with him and Ochako, back when they had started training on the beach. Which meant that …

… that he wanted to speak with her and Ochako. Both of them. At the same time.

However, before she could begin to panic at that, feeling fight-or-flight immediately kick in and, for once in her life, settle on 'flight', her phone vibrated in her hand again, and she squeaked in terror when Ochako suddenly answered.

OCCHAN

uh

hey deku

i'm

sort of free rn

just gotta shake hatsume off me

she's designing her inventions rn and

i'm kind of being a guinea pig against my will

"So what are you waiting for? Text back!"

Itsuka jumped a bit, almost forgetting at that moment that Nejire had been there, and quickly looked around at her standing over her shoulder. Looking over to her face, Nejire then made a face that clearly said 'what are you doing?', making it clear that she had to respond.

And … well, she did have to, Itsuka realized as she looked back at her phone and saw she had unlocked her phone automatically and the chat was open, meaning that both Izuku and Ochako would see that she was reading the messages. So she couldn't just … pretend she hadn't seen them.

She opened her mouth in slight horror, realizing how screwed she was - and then she let out a sharp breath, shaking her head and looking back down at the phone.

Okay … okay. No avoiding it. Just … she needed to get more info first before she panicked. She needed to see what Izuku was asking them to meet up about, and then go from there.

So, letting out a small sigh, she decided to start by being casual.

YOU

is everything okay, izuku?

DEKU

oh yeah, everything's

it's fine

just

wanted to talk to you both before the next match, if it's cool

… that vague butthole, she pouted. Biting her lip briefly, she slowly nodded.

YOU

...

okay

i

think we can meet up real quick

i got my match with monoma and ashido coming up soon, and then

y'know

you guys are back up again

but

anyway

where do you wanna meet?

DEKU

er

YOU

or maybe

i'm sitting down in a waiting room with hadou rn

we've been

talking

if you guys don't mind her being here, we can chat there

OCCHAN

i guess that works

where is it?

YOU

i'll send the gps

bottom floor, near the tunnel, btw

waiting room 4

OCCHAN

i think i'm close to there

DEKU

okay

i'll be there soon

Slowly nodding to herself, Itsuka put the phone back down on the cool surface of the table, staring blankly ahead at nothing for a moment - and then she promptly slumped down, her face hitting the table with a low groan. Nejire, meanwhile, quickly moved back around the table, hopping up and down slightly as she scooped up Itsuka's phone to read over the messages again.

"Oooooooooh …" She, at least, seemed to be excited, "… so Midoriya's coming? And Uraraka, too? What are you guys gonna talk about? I mean, obviously you don't know, but what do you think you're gonna talk about?"

"I … I have no freaking clue," Itsuka groaned again, moving to drag herself to her feet and grabbing the sides of her head as she felt herself begin to panic at last. "I - what is even going on?! Why does Izuku wanna meet up?! Did - oh god," She felt her eyes widen in horror, "you don't think … you don't think Ochako told him about what happened?"

"Hm?" Nejire blinked, looking up at her in confusion. "What happened? Remind me again what happened."

"Our - our kiss!"

"Oh," Nejire nodded in understanding, "oooooh. I get it!"

There was a pause.

"Wait, actually, no, I don't." Nejire realized. "Which kiss are you talking about?"

"W-what? What do you mean?"

"You kissed Uraraka twice," She pointed out helpfully, "so are you talking about the USJ kiss, or -"

"The - the one that happened today!"

"Ooh, I see. But - wait, would Uraraka tell him about it? Maybe? I don't think so, it seems kinda … personal. Y'know, between you two. I'm not sure why she would go and tell Midoriya about it."

"I -" Itsuka hesitated for a moment, "- maybe she didn't mean to, and - or - oh, god, this is gonna be so bad!"

"Hey, hey!" Nejire quickly hopped out of her seat as well, moving around the table and gently taking Itsuka's shoulders, giving her a kind smile as she realized she had to be the one to calm her down. "Come on, it'll be fine! This is good! Midoriya and Uraraka are gonna come talk to you! Isn't that what you want? You wanna be done with how awkward it is between you guys, right? You told me that! Well, this is your chance to clear the air!"

"I - I don't know, Hadou," Itsuka sighed, flopping back down into her chair while Nejire looked down at her in confusion, "I don't know if - what if I'm not ready to face Ochako? The last time we saw each other, I was yelling at her one second and then kissing her the next, and - and - god, I don't even know what's going on with me right now, and why I keep bouncing from Izuku to Ochako and back again!"

"Bisexuality," Nejire sagely nodded, "I know it well."

"I - no, not that!" She shook her head. "The problem is that I've done nothing but send her mixed signals ever since what happened at the mountain zone, and now I don't even - I don't even know what to say to her when I see her. What, am I supposed to go, 'Hey, Ochako, sorry about arguing with you and then letting you kiss me out of nowhere, now can we go back to me trying to hook you up with Izuku while I fade into the background'?" Letting out a small scoff and shaking her head, Itsuka scowled as she leaned her elbow on the table. "Not a chance."

"Hey," Nejire suddenly gave her a pout, moving to sit down on the table itself beside Itsuka and patting her leg with her foot, "I knew I had to talk to you about that not being a good idea! Sealing up your feelings, by the way. Which it is! Not a good idea, I mean. It's not!"

"Come on," She sighed in defeat, biting the inside of her cheek slightly, "I'm not just gonna -"

"I'm not saying that you should tell him how you feel the moment he shows up! No, no, no! That would probably take a lot of courage and prep time, and it'd be unfair to you if I suddenly told you to do it! But what I'm saying is that putting your feelings down and trying to ignore them isn't gonna do you any favors in the long run! And hey, think of it like this! Think of it, please? Say that Midoriya does ask out Uraraka, and she says yes, and they start dating. You think that'd be good for you, right?"

"I … guess it would?"

"You guess incorrectly!" Nejire indignantly pointed in her face, as though Itsuka were some kind of game show contestant that just embarrassed herself in front of a live studio audience, and Itsuka half-heartedly pushed her hand out of her face so her fingernail didn't dig into her cheek. "It wouldn't be good for you! Not at all! In fact, it would be awful!"

"Okay …" Itsuka raised a skeptical eyebrow while looking back up at her, "… but why, though? I mean - Izuku and Ochako going out is what I want."

"While you still have feelings for him?" She likewise raised an eyebrow. "And maybe have feelings for her? Tell me, Kendou, would those feelings that you have for them magically go away once they start going out? Would they?"

That, at least, caused Itsuka to pause.

"Yeah, see?!" She gestured to Itsuka as though she had just made her point, smiling a bit smugly as she rested her other hand on her chest. "Midoriya and Uraraka dating isn't going to suddenly stop you from having feelings for maybe both of them! It'll probably only make you feel more lonely, and this time, you wouldn't have either of them to lean on! Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if it was just Midoriya you missed out on - although that would suck super bad, because he's such a cool guy -"

She pouted a bit at the thought of not being able to romantically pursue Izuku, feeling her heart hurt a bit, before waving its silliness away, knowing at least it was never going to happen with her.

"- but you have some kind of feelings for Uraraka, don't you? You kissed her twice, after all! You regretted it, though, but I don't think it's because you dislike her!"

"I … no, I don't." Itsuka said in a small voice, her face becoming redder again as she buried her face in her arms again, slumping over on the table.

"Yeah! So that might mean that - you know, you have feelings for her!" Nejire gave her a soft look. "I mean, that's kind of obvious, but you know! And she might have feelings for you, too, since you said she was the one who kissed you the second time! See? See? It's not as simple as you taking a step back and letting your best friends date! It'll just hurt you, and I don't want that. I'd rather you take a risk and be open with your feelings than bottle them up and let them hurt you."

"But …" She tried to come up with a defense from that very good point. "… Izuku doesn't …"

"Kendou," Nejire hopped down from the table and gave her a serious look - a look that, coming from her, was pretty surprising - and knelt down before flopping slightly on top of Itsuka, wrapping her arms around her and giving her a little hug, "I will bet you a million yen that Midoriya one hundred percent has feelings for you. And even if he doesn't, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't tell him anyway! Didn't telling me you had feelings for both of them make you feel better?"

"I …" Itsuka hesitated for another moment, and then sighed as she started sitting up, causing Nejire to somewhat lessen her grip, although Itsuka still leaned against Nejire and let her rewrap her arms around her, "… it did."

"See?!" She giggled, nuzzling her head into Itsuka's. "And even if it doesn't work out when you tell him, it'll be okay. You'll still be friends - and I'll just beat him up for you! Don't worry, Kendou, no one's gonna be mean to you while I'm in your corner!"

Itsuka let out a small snort at that, unable to stop herself from smiling.

It was … pretty true, she winced - she was feeling rather intimidated at the thought of Izuku and Ochako heading towards her right now, what Izuku could possibly want kind of scaring her. But … but it was hard to stay unfocused and frightened when Nejire was there beside her, giving her an adorable look while cuddling into her, something that she didn't think had happened between the two girls yet but still liking it.

And … yeah, she felt just a little bit better, knowing that there was someone in her corner, even if that someone was only there because of the fact they had feelings for the same guy. Knowing that no matter what, Nejire would support her.

It honestly … it made her feel just a bit bad about how she had acted before, before she had confronted Nejire on her feelings for her best friend. Whenever Nejire had done something to cause Itsuka to enter jealous mode. It honesty …

… it made her …

"Hey, uh … Nejire?"

Nejire blinked at the sudden use of her first name coming from Itsuka, her smile widening slightly, but she still hummed to let Itsuka know that she was listening, hearing a bit of guilt in the other girl's voice from where she was hugging her and moving her head back to look at her.

"Yeah, Kendou? What's up?"

"I just …" She sighed, "… wanted to say sorry."

"Huh? Sorry? About what?"

"About … you know … earlier, when we first met," Itsuka looked a bit uncomfortable, making Nejire blink a bit in confusion, "I didn't exactly … treat you the nicest, whenever you got close to Izuku. Honestly, I tended to get … I got pretty jealous whenever you got close to him, getting up in his space. But I know that you never meant anything by it, and you're being here for me now, so I guess … well … I'm sorry for being a jerk."

Nejire blinked a bit again, thinking back - and then she felt her eyes widen.

"Wait -" She realized, "- you mean those times where you glared at me - that was you being jealous?"

"Yeah."

"Oh," She said simply, and then she was unable to stop herself from giggling, which made Itsuka pout.

"Hey …"

"Sorry, sorry! Honestly, I didn't even realize you were jealous," She admitted, giggling when Itsuka rolled her eyes, "so I think that's good, right? I always got good vibes coming from you, Kendou - or - uh - Itsuka? Is that okay? Can I call you Itsuka?"

"Yes," She giggled a bit, unable to stop the pout from before from disappearing as she returned Nejire's hug, "that's fine, Nejire."

"Yay!" She laughed, nuzzling against Itsuka a bit more. "But back to what I was saying, it's okay. People can get jealous, it's not something they can just control! So I think the fact you were always nice to me even if you were a bit jealous is - well - I like it. You're a good friend, Itsuka!"

"I, uh …" Itsuka paused, and then was unable to stop a bashful smile from crossing her face as she glanced away, her face turning a bit red again, "… thanks, Nejire. Seriously, I - thank you."

---

Okay … okay. This was it.

Opening the door to the bottom floor, Izuku let out a shaky breath as he stepped out of the stairwell, feeling his heart beating quickly in his chest as he began walking, and keeping one eye on his phone. From what Itsuka had texted, she and Nejire were in a waiting room on the other side of the stadium, which wouldn't be … too hard to get to, it would just be a bit of a walk.

Which, of course, was supposed to be good for Izuku, so that on the way to the room, he could figure out what he was going to say.

… which … was a problem. He had no idea … what he was actually supposed to say when he saw his two training partners.

Izuku let out a small sigh as he put his phone back into his pocket, looking up at the end of the hall with a grimace. Now that he was heading there, even if he was walking forward with determination,he had no idea what he was going to say in order to solve the awkwardness that was plaguing their friendship. So … well, obviosuly, he needed to think of something, and freaking quickly too. He would have to …

…what, tell them both that he had been feeling weird … feelings for the both of them, and he was still trying to figure out what those feelings were? And the closest he had gotten to somewhat understanding what those feelings were was throwing the word 'love' in there somewhere, and he'd gotten the idea of that from his mom?

… no. No freaking way. Izuku felt like he would die from humiliation if he ever admitted that.

But on the other hand, he couldn't be vague about it either, because then Ochako and Itsuka would want to know what was going on. And he wasn't sure if he could cover all these weird thoughts in about ten minutes before Itsuka had to go and do her match. And she didn't need … well, she didn't need any horrible truth bombs from Izuku to impede her today.

Izuku groaned a bit as his shoulders sank - the closer and closer he got to the meeting spot, the more and more he thought that this was going to be a very bad idea, and at the absolute worst time he could try to bring it up. But it wasn't like he could stop himself, continuing to walk towards the meeting spot - he had asked to see them, so he needed to be there. He just knew that the moment he saw his two best friends, what little confidence he had gained upstairs would evaporate instantly and he'd try to hide underneath the table.

But … but he needed his girls back, Izuku felt his eyes narrow in determination, a bit of bravery from before returning. He needed to talk to them both, make sure this weird awkwardness between them ended so they could go back to normal.

But how was he going to do that? What was he supposed to -

"Yo! Mido-bro! Heads up!"

Blinking at the sound of a voice coming from the hallway he was just passing by, Izuku paused and quickly looked around - and then let out a yelp as he quickly moved out of the way of two robots zipping right by him, carrying a somewhat dazed and clearly beat up Mineta on the stretcher between them. The small student was staring up at the ceiling in confusion and pain, his face puffy from all the bruises and cuts lining there as he held his stomach.

"Why …?" He rasped out as he passed Izuku by. "Why was it so terrifying…? I just … I just said she had a nice ass …"

Feeling his brow wrinkle at what the general studies' student could possibly be muttering about (and feeling like he wouldn't like it if he found out), Izuku still took a step back and let the robots drive Mineta away, presumably down to where Recovery Girl had set up her office. Once they had sped up around the corner and out of sight, he heard footsteps coming up behind him, and he quickly looked around and blinked at the three students slowly walking down from the end of one of the tunnels that would lead outside, where he could hear the sound of the crowd cheering distantly.

"Hey, man," Eijirou gave him a nod, trying to grin despite the obvious pain the redhead was in. Izuku felt himself wince at the familiar sight before him - his gym clothes were ripped and blown apart at various parts, with his shoulder and two pants legs ripped apart and parts of his stomach exposed with burnt clothes at the edges. His skin was obviously singed as well, meaning that he had been - as Izuku presumed - relentlessly bombarded by Katsuki's explosions. He was being supported by Dark Shadow, the sentient quirk looking somewhat peeved, while Fumikage walked a bit behind them and Katsuki stalked down the hallway behind them.

"Oh, man, Kirishima …" Izuku muttered, giving his friend a worried look, but thankfully, Eijirou raised his head and gave him a slightly pained grin.

"It's all good," He chuckled, glancing around at where Katsuki was slowly walking behind them, "looks worse than it is, man. I had a strategy, but Baku-bro, dude … he's too good. Saw right through the plan I made with Mineta and just kept going. Gotta give him props, he was manly out there!"

"Uh … sure," Izuku slowly nodded, glancing back over at Fumikage as the raven-headed boy paused at the curious look Izuku sent his was, "and, er - what happened to Mineta?"

"He seemed … insistant on stating uncloth comments about our female classmates," Fumikage explained shortly, his frown deep and his hands clenched into fists, while Dark Shadow growled lowly, "and when he eventually began speaking about Yanagi in an … uncomfortable manner, I will put it … Dark Shadow decided to … well …"

"I beat that little shitstain up!" Dark Shadow stretched his arm around where he was supporting Eijirou to punch into his open palm, giving Izuku a fierce look. "How dare he talk about Rei-Rei like that?! I taught him a lesson he won't soon be forgetting!"

"Uh … Rei-Rei?" Izuku repeated, feeling his cheeks go a bit red.

"Dark Shadow, we don't have permission to use Yanagi's first name," Fumikage sighed, as his cheeks went a bit red, "let alone give her an informal nickname. Please, stick to just referring to her by her last name when we see her."

"But, Fumi -!"

"Oh, my fucking god!" Katsuki barked behind them, making the three boys jump and Eijirou wince slightly as he pulled on something. "Just get out of the fucking way already!"

"Very well." Fumikage sighed at his partner, but still did as instructed, starting to walk forward with Eijirou and Dark Shadow down the hallway, but not before he turned to look at Izuku. "Midoriya, I believe that we will next see each other out on the field. While I will be trying my hardest to win, I still wish you luck."

"Oh, uh - the same to you, Tokoyami," Izuku tried to smile at his serious classmate, "I'm gonna give it my all, too."

He was aware of Katsuki snorting in derision at that, but tried to ignore him. Taking a step back, he let Fumikage, Eijirou and Dark Shadow move past him, walking down the hall towards Recovery Girl's office where Eijirou would presumably be healed back to normal, and gave his friend a sympathetic look over his defeat, even if Eijirou seemed to be fine with it and gave him a small salute.

Once they both (or all three, counting Dark Shadow) moved around the corner and vanished from sight, Izuku let out a sigh as he turned back towards where the waiting room was, his thoughts returning to his -

"Oi. Deku."

Before he could walk away, Izuku felt himself wince at Katsuki's sharp voice behind him, almost forgetting that he had been there - and worse, it was clear that he wanted to talk to him about something. Despite himself, Izuku let out a small breath and glanced down at his phone where Itsuka and Ochako had texted him, and let out another sigh as he glanced over at where Katsuki was glaring at him, standing with his back to Izuku while glaring over his shoulder.

Probably trying to look cool, Izuku felt himself frown.

"Uh … what is it, Kacchan?" Izuku asked, not really in the mood for this, "I'm, uh - I'm kinda busy right now."

"What the fuck was that earlier?" Katsuki snapped at him, gesturing with his head towards the arena as he continued glaring heatedly at him. "Out there, you didn't use your damn quirk at all. What the fuck was that about, nerd?"

"Huh?" Izuku blinked, confused by whatever his old friend was talking about, and then he sighed and shook his head - the more time he wasted standing here getting interrogated by Katsuki over nothing, the less time he would have to talk to his training partners.

"I - I don't know," He said, taking another step forward, "I'm not sure. A-anyway, I'm sorry, Kacchan, but I have to go meet with Occhan and -"

"Those two don't need you third wheeling around them any more than you already do, nerd. So shut the fuck up about them and answer my damn question."

Those two magical words that came from Katsuki were enough to make Izuku freeze in his tracks yet again, staring ahead for a moment as he slowly blinked. And, unintentionally, he felt his face fall as he suddenly was reminded of the words his former friend had said to him so many weeks ago.

"You can keep trying to get their attention and make them dote on you, but eventually they're gonna forget about you and tell you to fuck off. Just like everyone else did back in middle school. I'm just surprised it took Round Face this long."

As though he had sensed that he had just hit a sore spot with Izuku, Katsuki turned and marched forward, grabbing Izuku's shoulder as though to stop him from physically walking away, and let his quirk activate subtly, smoke beginning to rise from Izuku's shoulder as he singed it.

"Listen," He growled menacingly as Izuku continued to stare forward, "I don't give a fucking shit about where you need to go and whatever you wanna bug those bitches about. All I know is that you're deliberately holding back, and I'm not gonna fucking stand for that shit. The only reason I'm letting Bird-brain share my glory is because I have to - if I had it my way, I'd toss his ass out of the ring first thing so I could teach both you and Round Face a lesson. If you hold back on me again -"

"Fuck off."

Katsuki's taunts and threats immediately faltered the moment Izuku had said two words that he had never heard before. Feeling his eyes widen for a moment, Katsuki stared blankly at Izuku - and then his face twisted into a snarl, and the subtle smoke coming from Izuku's shoulder turned darker as he began burning him hotter.

"What," He said through gritted teeth, "the fuck did you just -"

He didn't have time to finish that threat, as Izuku suddenly spun around, yanking himself out of Katsuki's grip, and before he could blink, Izuku had grabbed the blonde boy's wrist in turn. And a weird chill ran up Katsuki's spine from the grab, seeing Izuku glaring at him hard, and he squeezed the hand he had on Katsuki's wrist.

"I said," Izuku spoke while enunicating his words, "fuck off, Kacchan. I don't care about anything you have to say right now. I want to go talk to my friends without you trying to - to make me feel bad for doing so. So turn around and leave me alone. Now."

Katsuki's nostrils flared a bit, feeling sweat begin to run down his arm as he clenched the hand Izuku was gripping, both boys glaring at each other - and Katsuki wondering if they had to wait for their match for this fight - before he finally let out a huff, and ripped his arm out of Izuku's grasp. With a glare, Katsuki shoved his way past Izuku, bumping his shoulder roughly into his to unbalance him, and started stomping down the hall.

Izuku turned to watch him with a glare as Katsuki paused before he could go around the corner, and saw the blonde boy shoot him a glare of his own.

"Next round," He growled, "we settle this, once and for all."

With that, he finally disappeared from sight, Izuku hearing his boots stomping away on the floor. After staring for a moment, Izuku let out a small sigh and straightened up, raising a hand to rub the slightly burnt shoulder, while frowning and biting his lip gently. For a moment, he wondered if Katsuki would come back and throw the punch he had been obviously wanting to throw, but after a moment, and seeing no sudden reappearances, he sighed and glanced back down at his phone.

That was … unexpected, and would probably bite him in the ass later, but right now, he needed to get to his girls and make sure he could talk to them. He didn't see any more messages sent to him, so -

"Well, that was intense."

For the second time, at the sound of an unexpected voice coming right from behind him, Izuku let out a yelp as he jumped slightly, yanking him right out of his frustrated thoughts about Katsuki that had slowly started turning back towards his two best friends. Quickly looking around again, Izuku found himself going red as he realized that he was … still very much not alone, with the woman that had come seemingly out of nowhere standing behind him giving him an amused look while she tapped her pen against her notepad.

At once, Izuku knew that she must've been someone that … probably didn't belong down here. She was quite beautiful, Izuku thought as his cheeks went a bit red, and quite striking as well with her pale blue skin and dark pupils, looking alarmingly similar to Mina - except, of course, for the fact that her eyes were a dark green instead of yellow, and no horns were present in her long lilac hair that fell down to her mid-back. She used her free hand to adjust the red jacket with black fur that she was wearing over her dark dress, and continued to smile at him as she tilted her head somewhat.

"Uh …" Izuku found himself hesitating to say anything for a moment, as though he were confused if the woman before him was actually talking to him, even if they were the only ones in the hallway. Luckily for him, she seemed to find his slightly slack-jawed expression amusing, letting out a small giggle as she walked a bit closer towards him.

"Ah, sorry - I didn't mean to sneak up on you, I was just … watching your little interaction with your friend there," She clarified, "very intense, I was thinking. I'm sensing there's a history between you two - and it isn't something good. Is that right?"

"Er … I … guess you could say that," Izuku muttered, not entirely sure why he answered.

"Wait a moment -" She seemed to realize, her dark eyes widening, "- I recognize you. You were just in that match with the inventor girl, weren't you?"

"H-huh? Oh, uh - yeah, I was. Hatsume."

"Yes …" She smiled, straightening up and bringing her notebook to her chest as she stopped just short of him - she was a bit taller than him, meaning that he had to look up at her. "… that match was a tad bit different than what most of the audience is used to seeing, but … well, that's not to say that it wasn't amusing in its own way. I found it funny, at least - I had thought we were all done with the commercials, only for one of your classmates to start her own right in the middle of the festival."

"Oh, uh …" Izuku found himself faltering then, not entirely sure what to say to that as he glanced around awkwardly, "… yeah, that was a … that was definitely … a bit weird."

"Hm," The woman hummed, her dark eyes widening a bit again as her smirk lessened slightly, "I just realized, I completely forgot my manners."

With that, she took a step back and sank into a mid-bow, Izuku blinking at how formal she had suddenly become.

"My name," She smiled as she straightened up, "is Chitose Kizuki. I'm the executive director of Shoowaysha Publishing."

"Uh - Shoowaysha Publishing?" Izuku blinked a bit, the name somewhat familiar to him but not entirely knowing where from. Luckily for him, Chitose seemed to pick up on his confusion, smiling and taking a step forward again.

"We publish several different kinds of novels and magazines," She explained, "all for different kinds of readers, of course. My days of reporting were initially a bit behind me once I took a leadership position in the company, but after hearing about all the fabulous rumors of the infamous Class 1A, I simply had to come and have a look for myself. And … well, as luck would have it, it seems as though you're one of the more fascinating members of your class, according to your friend Kaminari."

"Er - Kaminari?" Izuku found himself feeling more and more confused by the second by this woman, but there was also something else about that made him feel … almost as though he should be on guard, for some reason.

As though he was in the presence of someone who was watching all of his movements, keeping an eye on what he was doing and where he was going, as Chitose raised the notebook again, giving him a strange smile as she tapped her foot on the floor.

"Well, from what he said when I talked to him," She raised a fascinated eyebrow, "you had a run in with the villains calling themselves the 'Villain Consortium', didn't you? And not just any villain, but their leader. Nine, wasn't it?"

At that name, Izuku found himself going still, feeling as though his stomach dropped - but the reporter had all she needed to know when the confused look on his face fell, replaced by a small scowl.

"Ah … not a good history, I assume," She guessed, giggling as she quickly scribbled something down on her notepad, "I was curious, was it just a run in with him? Or did you actually speak to him?"

"Huh? I - uh -" Izuku found himself stammering a bit, blinking as he finally just realized that he had basically run head first into something that he probably shouldn't have as Chitose leaned forward, looking at him interestingly -

"Deku! Run!"

Thankfully, fate would smile on Izuku that day, due to the panicked, terrified and very familiar voice coming at both of them from the side made Izuku blink, and quickly looked around, with Chitose likewise looking confused and looking around as well. Running at both of them extremely quickly, and looking utterly traumatized, was Ochako, her eyes wide and her arms pumping back and forth as she sprinted as fast as she could down the hall.

And coming from around the corner, skidding slightly before continuing to run after his best friend, was … oh, Izuku felt his own eyes widen in terror, that made sense.

"Come on, Uraraka!" Mei giggled gleefully, her own eyes wide and full of manic energy as she lifted what looked like a mechanical backpack mixed with spider legs above her head, running after Ochako with a surprising speed. "You said you were interested in my babies! Try this one on, it's a good jetpack, with several properties and other abilities you may be interested in!"

"Deku, run!" Ochako yelled at him in her panic, apparently forgetting all about their awkwardness in her fear of the support student chasing her down.

Izuku, for his part, acted automatically, spinning around from the reporter without another thought and quickly catching up with Ochako as they both started running away together, not even looking back at Chitose as she looked between the three students in confusion, Mei sprinting by her without even looking back as the two training partners looked around for anywhere that they could hide from the inventor.

Unfortunately for them, however, for someone that wasn't in the hero course, Mei had a surprising amount of stamina, easily running after them and turning her attention to the Gauntlet that was deactivated on Izuku's arm.

"I have babies that can replace the red toilet paper, Midoriya! Come, we have a lot of testing to do!"

"I'm good! I'm really, really good!"

It took a little bit, but once they got a bit ahead of Mei, Izuku and Ochako quickly tried to figure out a place that they could hide as they quickly ran through the halls of the lower floor, panting as they ran together. Once they managed to run a decent amount of distance away from Mei, they found a small waiting room, with a panting and sweating Izuku quickly testing the doorknob and cursing when it seemed locked.

"Crap!" He whispered as Ochako skidded to a halt beside him, panting and holding her hands on her knees, and both of them felt themselves shiver in terror at the sound of Mei's intense giggling coming from around the corner. "What do we do?!"

"Keep running! We gotta -"

But thankfully for the two, they heard the sound of the door before them unlocking, both of them looking up in time to see it slowly open. Poking her head out, Itsuka blinked a bit as she looked down at her two friends, her cheeks going slightly red, although her small fluster was quickly replaced by confusion at how tired and terrified they both looked.

"Uh … guys?" She asked uncertainly. "What's -"

"Inside!" Izuku and Ochako squeaked at the same time, not even considering why Itsuka looked slightly uncomfortable in their presence, and quickly moved to push Itsuka back so that they could get inside, the class representative letting out a squeak and her face turning red quickly as Izuku's hands went to her waist to push her back, and together, they shoved their way inside, almost tripping over themselves in their haste.

As soon as they were inside the waiting room, Izuku quickly shut the door behind them, twisting the lock shut in order to keep Mei out, and both he and Ochako leaned heavily against the door, trying to quiet their panting breaths as they listened for Mei, praying that they actually lost her and they hadn't just pinned themselves in a room that she would trap them in and force them to become her guinea pigs. Fortunately for them, they heard the sound of footsteps running past their door after a moment, the sound of Mei's muffled giggling fading away, and both of them let out tired, relieved sighs as they both collapsed.

"Uh …" Itsuka felt herself sweat a bit nervously at her two training partners as they tried to regain their breath, Izuku holding one hand over his eyes and Ochako flopping on the floor to stare up at the ceiling, while Itsuka's hands nervously patted at where Izuku had gripped her waist.

"Sorry," Ochako managed to get out, "one … one sec. She's been … chasing me … ever since I … asked her about the - the boots."

"H-huh …" Izuku panted, not paying much attention to anything else as he leaned against the door, coughing a bit.

Itsuka gave them both a concerned look before turning to glance back over at where Nejire was standing at the desk, who was likewise giving the arriving students a confused look. Thankfully, she seemed to pull herself together much faster than Itsuka could, clapping her hands together and hurrying over to where the water dispenser in the corner was, quickly grabbing two cups and filling them up. Walking over to the two on the floor, she handed them both to Izuku and Ochako, who took them gratefully and greedily drank, letting out satisfied noises as they both managed to crawl up onto their knees, and Itsuka and Nejire took a step back.

Slowly, the two of them got back up, still panting slightly, and glanced up at the two girls that they had come to meet. Now that she wasn't running for her life and remembered why she was supposed to be here, Ochako glanced over at Itsuka for a moment, their eyes meeting, and it seemed to remind her of the last time they had met in a room like this - remembering their argument - and Ochako quickly averted her gaze as Itsuka likewise glanced away.

Izuku, meanwhile, glanced between both girls, his heart still hammering in his chest from all the running but managing to quiet his pants down so he wasn't the loudest sounding person in the room.

The room was quiet for a moment - and then Nejire, glancing between the three of them, cleared her throat.

"Uh … hi, guys!" She waved happily to Izuku and Ochako. "How are you both feeling? How was your match? Did it go well? We wanted to watch it, but we kinda got caught up with talking about - oh, wait!" She suddenly blinked again. "I almost forgot that you two were coming down to talk to Kendou! Well, come in! Do you guys want more water?"

"I'm … good," Ochako managed to get out in a quiet mutter, hesitantly taking a step forward into the room, and slowly, she walked over towards where the table was, taking a small breath before sitting down. Itsuka, meanwhile, also walked forward and moved to sit down on the opposite side of the table from her.

It was clear that, from the way they were both positioned, they were both being reminded of their argument, so all they could do was avoid eye contact as Nejire quickly hopped over into the corner, happily humming as she rocked back and forth on her toes. Gulping a bit nervously, Izuku likewise made his way over towards the table, noting the way that the two girls' hands were clenched slightly and making him frown, before shaking his head and moving to put his hands down on the surface of the table, not having a seat to sit down on.

The room continued to be quiet for a moment -

- and then Nejire said, simply, "This is awkward."

All three of them blinked slightly at the interruption, before quickly looking around at where Nejire was standing. The blue-haired girl shrugged a bit, her cheeks turning pink from her stating the obvious, before she suddenly straightened up and smiled at the three of them.

"So, uh - this seems to be a thing between you three!" She pointed out. "It'd be kind of awkward if I was just standing in the corner the whole time, so I'm gonna go and stand out in the hall."

"H-huh?" Izuku blinked a bit, before feeling slightly guilty. "Oh, uh - n-no, Hadou, you don't need to -"

"Yeah, I do," She smiled softly, flashing him a thumbs up. "It's cool, Midoriya. I wanna listen, I really, really do, but I know that it'd be kind of awkward if I stood here listening to something you guys didn't want me to hear. So I'll just go stand outside in the hall and keep guard! And try not to eavesdrop. Which … kinda sounds like a hollow promise since I already did that today, but - ah, well, I'll give it a try! You three take your time, I'll just be outside!"

With that, she quickly stepped through the open door, sending them a wink, and then closed it behind her, leaving the room that the three of them were pretty much sealed in filled with silence. Izuku stared after where his other friend had gone briefly in confusion, feeling his cheeks flush at the knowing wink she had sent them, but the sound of Itsuka shuffling on the chair behind him made him remember why he was there - or rather, why he had called the meeting in the first place.

Gulping, Izuku quickly looked over his shoulder at the two girls, seeing them sitting there in silence and not looking at each other - or him - at all. Feeling himself shiver slightly, Izuku put his hands back down on the table, leaning against it and feeling himself go a bit red. The fluster of being confronted by that weird woman and getting chased around by Mei had caused him to lose the mini-script that he had been trying to come up with in his head, and now he could feel the nerves and anxiety from earlier return, especially as he glanced between both of their awkward yet oddly saddened faces.

But … but he couldn't lose his courage now. Not when he was so close to getting them back to normal.

"So, uh …" He said quietly, clearing his throat, "… hey, guys."

There was a pause as Izuku cringed at how awkward that sounded.

"Uh …" Itsuka said in a quiet voice, "… hey."

"Hey," Ochako slowly nodded.

"Er … right," Izuku felt himself sweat a bit, "uh … w-well, thanks - thanks for coming here so quickly, Occhan, and - and responding so … quickly … too."

"…"

"…"

Oh, god, he was losing it, Izuku internally groaned. He just - he needed to get what he was thinking out, and quickly. Just … with grace. And not sounding stupid.

"Uh - a-anyway, I just … there was something that I -" He swallowed quickly, "- that I wanted to say to you both, and … uh …"

He found himself pausing yet again, trying to grasp on something for him to start this conversation with - something smart, something that would cut to the heart of their problems and help them find a solution to all of this awkwardness - but then, as both girls continued to look anywhere but him, he found himself suddenly thinking back to a few minutes ago.

"Those two don't need you third wheeling around them any more than you already do."

Staring down at the two girls for a moment, Izuku found himself faltering - and then his mouth moved before he had a chance to think through what he wanted to say.

"… is … everything okay with us?"

Both Itsuka and Ochako were quiet for a moment, staring down at the table as Izuku cringed inwardly, not intending to have said that at all. And then what he said apparently registered to them both, causing both girls to blink.

At the same time, their awkwardness was completely forgotten, and they both quickly looked back around at Izuku as he leaned forward, putting both his hands on the table and staring down at it in defeat.

"Huh?" They both squeaked at the same time.

"I just … wanna know if … if everything's okay," Izuku repeated, lifting his head up and glancing unsurely between both girls as they stared at him with their jaws hanging slightly at him pretty much cutting straight to the problem, "because I … well …"

He paused again.

"… look," He sighed, "I … I don't know if I - I did something wrong. But I - I feel like I have, and … and I wanna make it right. I've got a - a thousand thoughts rolling around in my head right now, but I know that something must've happened today that - that's made everything this awkward between all three of us. I just … I don't know what exactly I did, honestly, but - but if I did something to you both, I'm sorry. I just - I don't know why -"

"W-wait, hold - hold on," Itsuka suddenly interrupted him, making Izuku blink a bit as he glanced up at the utterly astonished look on her face, realizing that he had been rambling a bit, "you - you think you did something wrong?"

"I …" Izuku hesitated for a moment again, a brief look of confusion crossing his face - and then it settled back down into guilt, and he nodded.

"… yeah," He muttered, "I … I know that I must've - I must've done something wrong. I just - I know that I made you both uncomfortable for some reason, and it's scummy that I can't even figure out why, and - but - but I wanna make it up to you both. So things can - can go back to normal."

For a moment, the trio were quiet, with Izuku staring down at the table for a moment, before he finally turned his gaze back up to them to gauge their reactions. He knew that his face was currently red, feeling himself shrink a bit as they both stared at him in surprise, and simply waited for their reactions to his apology, while hoping that they weren't angry at him for his lack of knowledge for why he made them upset.

And then, slowly, the two girls turned to look at each other.

Izuku found himself blinking as he glanced between both girls, seeing their faces looking … strangely conflicted, staring at each other for a long moment, in which Itsuka's face fell slightly, and Ochako's lips thinned. And then, slowly, they both turned to look back at Izuku at the same time, and he found his eyes widening when they both looked at him with guilt on their faces.

"… no," Itsuka slowly shook her head, looking up at Izuku with clear guilt as she unclenched her hand from the fist she had balled it in, "no, Izuku, it's … you didn't do anything wrong. Seriously."

"I -" Izuku faltered briefly, and then shook his head, "- no, I - I must've -"

"Deku, she's right."

Both of them looked around at Ochako as she finally spoke up for the first time in a few minutes, Izuku's protests dying in his throat. Ochako continued to stare down at the table for a moment, biting her lip gently as she stared down at her hands - and then, finally, she turned to look up at Izuku, showing him the guilt in her own eyes as she let out a small, shuddering breath.

"You … you didn't do anything wrong, Deku," She mumbled, tears beginning to well in her eyes, "and I'm being serious about that. It's just … me doing stuff that's … making me … god, I don't even know."

"I - then -" Izuku found himself stuttering again, taken aback by the tears in his best friend's eyes (and fighting down the impulse to try wiping them away) and then shook his head, "… then what's going on, guys? I - I know that things have been awkward all day, I just - I wanna make sure that everything's okay, and we can - we can go back to normal."

The room was quiet again, with both girls watching as Izuku let out a small sigh and moved to crouch down on the table so that they were all at relative face level. There was such a look of guilt on Izuku's face, he didn't know that both girls felt shame begin to crawl through them as he turned to look at the table.

"I … I know that things have been … really awkward, Occhan," He said to her, not looking up at either girl at all, "since we … ever since we hugged in the forest, and - and then what happened when we crashed into the pond."

Ochako stiffened up slightly, her cheeks turning pinker at the mention of those two events, while Itsuka blinked and glanced between them.

"And then … then when I hugged Kendou during our lunch break," He continued on, unaware of the situation reversing with Ochako glancing over at Itsuka as she in turn suddenly looked very interested in the table, "I just … I … I've been having these weird … feelings in my gut all day, and - and when I talked to my mom about it a few minutes ago, she - she asked me -"

That, right about then, was when Izuku suddenly realized what he was blurting out, and let out a small squeak as he quickly shut himself up. Alas, it was a bit too late to take it back, seeing as Ochako and Itsuka had looked over at him in curiosity as he froze.

"- she … asked me … uh …"

"What?" Itsuka raised her eyebrow slightly, making it clear to all three of them that they were aware Izuku was holding back on something, and it wasn't going to be something they could just let go of. "Izuku, what's going on?"

Izuku couldn't help but feel like he had just gotten cornered, glancing between both his best friends for a moment as he realized that he had not only just laid out a trap for himself, he had eagerly stepped into it. And it was far too late to get himself out of it now, seeing as Ochako was looking at Izuku with a clearly unsure face, her fingers tapping slightly on the table, and Itsuka was giving him a concerned look.

After a few moments of being quiet, Izuku turned back down to look at the table, feeling himself bite his lip as his face turned red.

"… my mom … she asked me if … if I knew how I - how I felt about you two."

Itsuka and Ochako both blinked slightly, staring at Izuku in shock as he continued to stare down at the table. He could feel terror coursing through him at the moment, obviously scared of what they were going to say to him once he was finished speaking - but at that point, whatever hesitance he was feeling died. All he knew was that … now that he was talking about it …

… he didn't want to stop. He just … wanted to get everything off his chest right now.

So he took a deep breath, clenched his fist, and tried to summon his courage.

"Back a … a couple of weeks ago, when we visited the USJ for the second time …" He swallowed a bit loudly, settling on finishing this specific worry of his now, "… when I was sitting next to Kacchan on the bus, he - he told me that I was a - a third wheel to you both. He pointed out that - that you two had gotten really close, and - and at least, to him, it seemed like I was - I was trying to keep your attention on me and not each other. And eventually - you'd both forget about me and move on with each other."

The two girls continued to stare at Izuku in shock - and unknown to him, Itsuka looking like she was five seconds from getting up to go wring Katsuki's neck - but before they could say anything to counter that, Izuku kept going.

"At the time, I - I tried to just ignore him," He shook his head, "trying to think that it was just me being paranoid, or Kacchan was just trying to get in my head. But … but after you found Eri, Kendou, I - I started thinking about it a bit more. And … there was a part of me that just kind of … even if I thought Kacchan was being full of crap, I just realized that … there was a part of me that was upset by that thought. I mean - of course I would, but - but there was a part of me that was afraid of it being true."

"I - Deku," Ochako shook her head, feeling tears continuing to build in her eyes, "that - of course that wouldn't happen. Of course not!"

"I know that," He slowly nodded, "but … but I also remember when - when we did go to the USJ the second time, and …"

He began to feel his own eyes start to sting.

"… and you two checked up on each other," He muttered, "and didn't do anything about me. You two held hands, but you didn't bother to check if I was alright."

Both Ochako and Itsuka sucked in sharp breaths at that, feeling their hearts clench.

"And - and I know that's immature of me to think that way," He shook his head, "and stupid. I was doing okay anyway, you two didn't need to check up on me. But I think just then, I didn't realize that … that I did feel like a third wheel. I tried as hard as I could to try ignoring it, pushing it to the side, but … but there was a part of me that felt like Kacchan had a point."

"Deku -" Ochako tried to interrupt him again, but Izuku shook his head.

"But then …" He swallowed again, "… today happened. And now, I - I have no idea what's going on with the three of us."

Both girls quickly snapped their mouths closed, paying more attention to Izuku than they ever had before. Izuku had no way of knowing how hard their hearts were beating at the moment, and hanging on his every word as he continued to stare down at the table.

"I have … no idea what's going on with me," He said in a low voice, "and why I've been so - so weird and awkward around the both of you. I don't know why I can't hug and hang out with you anymore, Occhan, without it - it feeling weird. I don't know why I'm so skittish and stupid around you, Kendou. I - I talked to my mom about it, and she said that she - she thought I already knew why, but I just need time to figure it out. And she told me … she told me when I did … I would have to make a choice. A choice," He frowned, "that might hurt one of you."

"H-huh?" Itsuka blinked a bit.

"And … and I realized …" He took a deep breath, and at last, turned to look up at the both of them. They both faltered and felt their cheeks heat up slightly at the look of determination on his face, glancing between the both of them.

"… I don't want to hurt either of you," He made clear, "not at all. I don't wanna be a third wheel, but I don't wanna choose to hurt one of you. I don't know what's going on, but - but I'm gonna figure it out, and … and I'll go from there. My mom, she … she told me that she doesn't think we can go back to how we were before, but it - it doesn't have to be a bad thing. And I don't know what she meant by that, but I wanna figure it out."

He found himself shaking a bit, glancing back down at the table.

"I don't know what's going on between us, but I - I don't wanna hurt either of you, and I'm not going to. I'm not going to lose you both because I'm - I'm feeling weird. It doesn't matter what Kacchan tried to tell me, or how weird I'm feeling around you both - you're my girls, and I'm not gonna let this keep going. So I just - I wanna ask that - that for now, we can try to - to ignore the weird feelings, and - and try to be normal. At - at least for now. At least until the sports festival is over, and we can -"

"Your girls?"

Izuku's speech, his bravery, his attempts to get everything back to normal - all of that grinded to a halt as he suddenly heard Ochako's squeak. Feeling his brow wrinkle, he finally glanced back up at both of the girls -

- and it was only when he saw how red their faces had gotten, with Itsuka's jaw hanging right open and Ochako looking two seconds from freaking out, did it suddenly register what he had said, and what he had accidentally slipped in there, his own eyes widening and his face suddenly filling with red.

He just … said that out loud. He just called them 'his girls' out loud. In front of their faces.

And he started freaking out.

"I - I mean -! I - I didn't mean to - you know -!" He blabbered briefly, arms beginning to flail around in his panic. Alas, it was a bit too late to calm down Ochako, as her hands slammed against her face and she immediately began floating up to the ceiling, while Itsuka continued to stare at Izuku in a mix of shock and embarrassment as she continuously tried to close her mouth, only for it to fall open again after a few seconds. Trying to ignore his fluster, Izuku quickly stood up to grab Ochako's foot before she could float up high enough they wouldn't be able to get her, despite how awkward and humiliated he felt grabbing onto his best friend's foot and tried to bring her back down as she curled over herself, holding her hands to her face.

And then, before he or Ochako could say anything, Itsuka suddenly snorted.

Blinking, both Izuku and Ochako looked around, Ochako lowering her hands while looking confused, to see Itsuka suddenly holding her hand over her mouth as she gave over to a giggle fit, leaning forward with her shoulders shaking, and the sound of her muffled laughter sounded throughout the room. Izuku and Ochako stared for a moment in shock - and then Ochako let out her own sputter, and Izuku unintentionally let out a small 'pfft' before they both began laughing as well, taken completely out of the emotional moment a few seconds ago, and together, the three of them started intensely laughing together.

It took them about a minute to calm down, with a shaking Izuku getting the giggling Ochako back down to her seat so she could deactivate her quirk, and once they did, they all let out small sighs as they leaned forward in their seats, glancing amongst each other. But to Izuku, it was his immense relief that all three of them could glance among each other, and … and he didn't feel weird.

He didn't feel awkward, like he had to look away. Looking between Ochako and Itsuka, seeing them try to calm their giggling while smiling goofily … it made his heart skip happily in his chest, feeling more relaxed and free than he had all day, despite what had just … called them.

"Uh … listen," He tried to say, feeling his face burning, "a-about - about what I said -"

"Izuku," Itsuka shook her head, managing to calm herself down enough as she flipped her ponytail behind her shoulder and smiled at him, "it's fine. I'm … I mean, pretty sure that between Ochako and me, we've called you … you know … 'our boy' a few times."

Izuku found himself faltering at that, staring at Itsuka's embarrassed smile and Ochako nodding slowly, before he quickly looked away, his face going red.

"Uh … yeah," Ochako mumbled, twirling her fingers together while smiling bashfully, "it's all good, Deku. You're … our boy, I guess."

"I … guess," Izuku mumbled, feeling his stomach was shriveling up even as his heart skipped a beat, "and … I guess … you're my girls."

The three of them had to look away from each other at that point, looking around at different parts of the room as they tried to calm down just how flustered they had become in the space of a minute. As Ochako slowly waved her hands in front of her face to cool off how hot it felt, Izuku stole another glance between them as Itsuka cleared her throat and rubbed her cheek - and then the formerly orange-haired girl let out a small sigh, looking around at Izuku as her smile faded.

"Uh … listen, Izuku …" She hesitated for a moment before shaking her head, "… do you … really consider yourself a third wheel?"

Izuku paused a bit, staring between both girls as they calmed down from their bashfulness, and Itsuka gave him a slightly more serious look, while Ochako managed to calm down her embarrassment to give him a serious, concerned look. And he let out a small sigh, raising his hand to scratch his cheekbone awkwardly.

"I … no," He shook his head, "I - I know that deep down, Kacchan is … well, he's being full of crap -"

"No surprise there," Ochako grumbled under her breath, while Itsuka nodded with a frown.

"- but it just … it stuck to me, that's all," He bit the inside of his cheek, "made me feel insecure. I - I know that you two don't really - I mean, I shouldn't be upset that you two are close -"

"No, you shouldn't be," Itsuka shook her head, frowning sadly, "but … I mean, I understand if you were feeling that we were - I - sorry," She shook her head, "I'm all over the place today. But back at the USJ, we … we should've checked up on you. Even if you were doing okay. I'm sorry, Izuku."

"Me too," Ochako likewise looked ashamed of herself, "it was uncomfortable for us, and - and we thought you were handling it a lot better since you were the first one inside the USJ, but we still should've asked you if you were okay."

"It's fine," Izuku smiled at them both, "I … knew that you two didn't mean anything by it. It was just … Kacchan getting to me."

"Yeah, but …" Ochako gave him a concerned look, glancing down at his hand after a moment - and then, after taking a deep breath and trying to make sure her face wasn't that red, reached out to put her own hand over his. Izuku blinked a bit and went red as she held it, although he didn't slide it away.

"… Deku," She quietly said, "you're not a third wheel. Don't listen to that asshole, okay? You're my best friend, and - and I'd never do that to you. I promise."

"I … I know," He smiled gently at her, "it was just … with you both distancing yourselves from me, and those stupid feelings, I … and I mean, Kacchan also put it in my head when I saw him a few minutes ago, but - but that's not an excuse. I should know better than that - you both are way better than that. I just … after all the awkwardness between us today, I just … wasn't thinking clearly."

A silence - this time, not an uncomfortable one - fell upon the room again as the three training partners sat there, glancing between each other for a few moments. Izuku, even if he felt slightly more relaxed after their little giggle fit, noticed the way Itsuka and Ochako were still glancing at each other - slightly timid, kind of awkward, but … definitely looking at each other this time, not unlike before when they could barely look at each other.

So … there was something going on there, Izuku realized as he glanced between his two friends. However, before he could open his mouth to ask if there was something wrong, Itsuka took a deep breath.

"Okay," She muttered to herself, having apparently been thinking things over privately, "okay. Both of you, please stand up."

That small request made both Izuku and Ochako blink, looking between each other for a moment before turning their gazes back to Itsuka as she slowly got to her feet, letting out a small grunt as she stretched her arms above her head. Her face was still a bit red, and there was nervousness there as well, but she still gestured at the two of them to get up along with her. Not entirely sure what was going on, but not wanting to make her repeat herself, Izuku let out his own grunt as he got up, and Ochako likewise started getting out of her seat, their hands sliding away from each other (to both their disappointment and confusion).

Once they were both standing, Itsuka nodded.

"Thank you," She smiled weakly at them both, "now, uh … come here, please?"

Still looking rather unsure, Izuku and Ochako nonetheless did as she requested and moved around the table, standing a bit awkwardly beside each other and sharing another glance again as Itsuka took a deep breath.

"Okay," She nodded slowly, and then, after a moment of hesitation, reached out with both hands. Both of them blinked as she gently rested both her hands on their shoulders - Ochako's right shoulder and Izuku's left - and brought them a bit closer together. Gulping nervously, Ochako tried not to look too embarrassed and Izuku tried not to look so awkward as their free shoulders gently brushed together.

Once they were both standing close enough, Itsuka stopped guiding them, standing there for a moment and taking a deep breath - and then, before either of them could think to ask what was going on, she suddenly moved in, wrapping her arms around the both of them, and bringing them all in for a group hug.

The moment her chin rested on Izuku's shoulder and her arm wrapped around Ochako's neck, the two childhood friends stiffened up, eyes blowing open and their faces immediately going from a moderate fifty to a hundred in the blushing department. Still though, Itsuka didn't move back at all, instead squeezing her arms around the both of them to prevent any escape as she embraced them both tightly. It wasn't, of course, like Itsuka wasn't obviously embarrassed as well - one glance at the side of her head from Izuku showed her own face burning - but she still didn't move back as she continued holding them.

"Sorry," She mumbled, "today's been … kinda shitty. Needed a pick-me-up."

"Uh …" Izuku went a bit redder, "… a - a hug is a pick-me-up?"

"Mm-hm."

"Er …" Ochako likewise looked confused by what Itsuka meant, but still (albeit hesitantly) began reciprocating the hug, even as awkward as she felt, by wrapping her arm around Itsuka's waist. After another moment, Izuku felt Ochako's other arm move around his back, and he went a bit redder.

"Uh … guys?"

"Izuku," Itsuka said in a quiet voice, "I'm … I'm not gonna lie to you two, I'm … I'm tired. Like - physically, mentally, emotionally, you know it. I don't … I'm sorry, but I don't think I have the mental capacity to deal with all this today. As - as much as I hate to ask this, could we maybe … maybe have this conversation another time? Talk about all this … weird stuff … later?"

"I …" Izuku hesitated for a moment - still obviously confused and a bit terrified of being in Itsuka's grasp, with the weird feeling he'd been having earlier pretty much magnified within him at both girls hugging him - but he managed to power through the embarrassment to let out a small sigh.

"… if … if I'm being honest, I don't know if I can," He mumbled, awkwardly raising one arm to hug Itsuka back, and the other arm to hug around Ochako to reciprocate her own awkward embrace, "I … I kinda feel like getting this out of the way."

The three training partners were quiet for a moment - and then Ochako let out her own sigh.

"… then tomorrow."

Both Izuku and Itsuka blinked a bit, looking back around at Ochako as she continued to awkwardly look down at her feet.

"Tomorrow," She offered, "we … we have this conversation sometime tomorrow. We just …" She hesitated again, and then shook her head, "… we just put it off for now, and then tomorrow, we'll - we'll meet up, and - and put everything on the table."

"Tomorrow?" Izuku wrinkled his brow. "Are - are you sure?"

"I … I like tomorrow," Itsuka agreed with Ochako, still backing up to look at Izuku with a serious look, "i-it's not like I'm trying to put you off, Izuku, I - I want to have this conversation, too. Just - just to get it out of the way. But I'm honestly way too exhausted to go through another emotional talk today, and … and we don't need this hanging over us for the next few rounds, do we?"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"… oh," Izuku said simply, going red, "right. I … kinda forgot we had to do that."

Both Ochako and Itsuka rolled their eyes, although indulgent smiles appeared on their faces.

"Yeah," Itsuka nodded, "and - and honestly, I also wanna know what I'm gonna say, and if we are going to have this conversation … I wanna make sure I say everything I need to. So … so tomorrow, we can meet up, and we'll talk."

The three friends slowly nodded between themselves, and Itsuka put her head back down on Izuku's shoulder to continue the hug - and then Izuku breathed out.

"I … I missed you guys," He found himself admitting in a low, embarrassed voice, something that made both girls go red at the honesty in his voice but finding himself unable to stop speaking, "I - I know that I've seen you both all day, but - but after all this dumb stuff, I - I just missed hanging out with you guys."

"Me too," Ochako mumbled, slowly nuzzling against Itsuka's shoulder even if both girls went a bit pink at the action, "I - I missed you both."

"… are you both kidding?" Itsuka snorted, digging her chin down slightly on Izuku's shoulder while giggling. "Like I told Izuku earlier, you two at least got to team up during the last few rounds. I've been dealing with assholes for the entire sports festival - I think I've missed you both more than you both missed me combined."

"We … won't fight you on that," Izuku chuckled.

"Still," Itsuka sighed, taking another step back while still keeping her arms wrapped around her friends, looking at both of them, "I … know that this conversation is - it's gonna be important. But … how about, for the rest of the day, we just … pretend that nothing weird is going on. Everything's normal. Tomorrow, we - as scary as it'll be, we'll talk about everything. Right now, though, we're just … normal."

"Everything, huh …" Ochako was unable to stop herself from glancing unsurely at Itsuka, wondering just how much they would cover, but Itsuka gave nothing away, turning to look at her and giving her an uncertain look. Izuku, of course, noticed the small shift between them, feeling himself frown slightly - before he shook his head and nodded, trying to smile.

"Okay," He slowly nodded, patting both girls with his hands (even if the action left him feeling like all the blood in his body was currently filling his head) to get their attention back on him, "that - that sounds good."

Ochako slowly nodded, taking another moment to glance back at Itsuka - and then she let out a shuddering sigh, trying her best to smile. Itsuka, for her part, gently smiled back at Ochako for a moment, her eyes clearly trying to communicate something to her friend, and Ochako seemed to have gotten it, closing her eyes and looking down for a moment.

There was another quiet moment before Izuku cleared his throat slightly, his face remaining red.

"I, uh … I didn't mention it this morning," He glanced away as Itsuka glanced around at him, "but, uh … your hair looks - it look n-nice, Kendou."

That, of course, caused Itsuka to go a bit stiff, blinking at him as Izuku stole a small glance at her and then immediately glanced back away. To the side, Ochako also let out a small noise, causing Itsuka to glance over at her and see Ochako's own cheeks turning pink again.

"I … uh … yeah," She nodded a bit stiffly, acting without thinking to reach out and pat Itsuka's ponytail, "it's a - a good look. T-though I - I do like your hair as it normally is a bit better."

"S-same," Izuku nervously agreed, "orange hair is - it's - yeah."

Itsuka glanced between both of them again for another moment, feeling her cheeks start to warm - and then she let out a small giggle and brought the two back to her for another hug, both of them squeaking in shock again.

"God," She shook her head between them, "I missed you two dorks so much."

Both Izuku and Ochako chuckled a bit nervously, especially as Itsuka continued to cling to them, and Izuku found his mouth opening to say something else, anything else, now that he was relieved that they were all talking again -

- but he was interrupted suddenly by what felt like an earthquake.

Quickly, the three friends jumped apart in alarm, eyes quickly moving to the ceiling in their shock as the room began to shake. The rumbling continued for a few seconds, the water jug in the corner rattling ominously and the chairs falling over as the vibration shook what appeared to be the entire stadium, until finally, the rumbling came to a slow stop, and they were left back in relative calm.

"Uh …" Ochako glanced around at them in confusion, "… what was that?"

Before Izuku and Itsuka could answer her, they heard footsteps outside the door, and they all turned to see Nejire poking her head back in, her eyes widened.

"Uh … did anyone else feel that?" She asked in a slightly weak voice. "I'm gonna be honest, I think I'm going crazy out here - first I think there's someone watching me, and then earthquakes suddenly start? Am I nuts? I don't think I am, but it's kinda weird if I hear footsteps but don't see anyone, right?"

"I don't …" Itsuka began to tell her that she wasn't going crazy, her eyebrows scrunching slightly - and then a sudden thought came to her, making her stop and blink.

Her eyes slowly turning to the turned off television screen on the wall, she suddenly had a suspicious thought come to her. Grabbing the remote from the table and pointing it at the screen, she turned the television on, flipping to a random channel that would be playing the sports festival -

- and then all four of them felt their eyes widen in shock at what looked to be an aerial shot of the very stadium they were in, with a giant iceberg shooting out of the side of it, its base forming from the middle of the arena.

"Whoa …" Izuku felt his jaw drop slightly in awe, staring at the scene on the screen as the camera pushed in on the ring in the middle of the field. They could make out where Shouto was slowly approaching the iceberg, while Momo appeared to have fallen onto her butt beside him from the massive display of power he had shown, while staring at him in shock. Within the iceberg, they saw what looked to be Shinsou, completely trapped inside with the exception of an arm and the side of his face, while Yuuyu had been caught on the side, her lower body and a part of her arm trapped inside the ice while she stared in frozen horror at her classmate as he approached the iceberg.

"Oh …" Nejire said simply, her eyes becoming sympathetic as she stared at her best friend on the screen, "… oh, poor Yuuyu."

"Yeah," Itsuka nodded, her face turning into a grimace, "there's … not much you can do against something like that."

On the screen, they saw a display suddenly pop on the screen confirming that both Yuuyu and Shinsou were immobilized, and that Shouto and Momo would be advancing to the next round. Once he apparently got that confirmation (if they looked closely, the four winced at the sight of Midnight also getting caught in the blast zone, looking peeved as she was half submerged in the ice), Shouto put his hand down on the iceberg he created and started to melt it, steam rising from where his hand had been laid on the cold ice.

Watching the screen, Izuku found his shock from before fading, and watched Shouto carefully on the television. Now that the camera was zoomed into the recommended student's face, Izuku could see some of the emotions there - anger from whatever had happened during the match, of course, but there was also … some sadness in there, Izuku realized, feeling his face fall watching the screen.

"Huh …" Nejire tilted her head slightly as she likewise stared at the screen, entering the room properly to stand beside Ochako, before she suddenly blinked. "Wait. Does this mean - this means that we're going up against Todoroki and Yaoyorozu next? Isn't that right? We'll have to go up against that?"

"I mean - technically," Itsuka sighed and shook her head as she turned away from the screen at last, showing the three of them how nervous she looked at the moment, "but … well, we still need to get past Monoma and Ashido first. Which … we should probably start getting ready for that, since if Todoroki's match just ended -"

Before she could finish that thought, however, the intercom suddenly activated above them, causing them to glance up.

"Er …" Aizawa's voice sounded above them, sounding surprisingly taken aback, "… due to needing repairs done on the stadium, the next match will be delayed for five minutes to give Cementoss some time to fix the stage. Please standby while we repair the arena."

With the intercom turning off, the four friends blinked a bit.

"Er … I guess that's that," Ochako shrugged, glancing back at the screen and frowning as Shouto dethawed their two classmates out, "they probably want to make sure Haya and Shinsou are okay too before they move forward with the next round."

"That's also true!" Nejire punched her hand against her open palm, looking slightly determined as she spun away again, not noticing Izuku continuing to stare at the screen with a frown. "In that case, I should probably go and - wait, no, Yuuyu would still be stuck in ice, wouldn't she? I wanted to go and see if she was okay - and tell her that I'm proud of her! I bet she was so cool - fighting Todoroki and Yaoyorozu at the same time, even if Todoroki was a douche-canoe and froze her in a giant - wait, if he froze her in a big block of ice, does that mean he was afraid she was gonna do something bad to him? I bet so! She's scary when she's mad! I bet Todoroki wet his pants!"

"I - I guess," Itsuka giggled a bit, shrugging and giving her a weak smile. The three of them sighed as they went back to sit down at the table, not noticing Izuku continuing to watch the screen with a strange look on his face, none of the girls really considering it as they picked up and sat in their chairs and Ochako stood above them at the end of the table.

"Still … I guess you have a point, worrying about the round after this," Itsuka gave Nejire, wincing a bit, "we're gonna have to deal with … that. Not to mention that Todoroki's already probably mad at me - I'm gonna guess he'll be throwing the iceberg move at us too."

"I … guess," Ochako bit her lip in worry, remembering her time stuck in Shouto's ice wall back in the second round, "do you have a plan for him?"

"I … honestly, I don't," Itsuka sighed, pouting slightly as she folded her hands together, and Nejire blinked in alarm, "I mean, what can I even do against that? Especially when he has -"

"You can use - you can use your secret move."

Both girls blinked at Izuku's quiet statement, and quickly looked around at him as he straightened his shoulders. He was still staring at the screen, an uncomfortable look on his face there before he shook his head, and quickly replaced it with a stormy expression, and then turned back around to look at Itsuka again.

"If … if you want to stop that from happening," He pointed back at the screen, which was still showing replays of the giant iceberg, "then you'll have to use - uh - the volume thing Nejire mentioned."

"The volume thing …?" Itsuka found herself pausing for a moment, not entirely sure what Izuku was referring to - and then she suddenly got it, feeling her eyes snap open. As Ochako likewise looked around quickly at Izuku in surprise, Nejire also seemed to catch on to what they were talking about, letting out a small gasp.

"Oh!" She clapped her hands happily together. "Are you talking about that super strength Itsuka mentioned a while back? That she broke the mountain with? At the USJ? That volume thingy?"

"I - yeah," Izuku nodded, "the - the volume thingy."

"Awesome! I didn't think of that!"

"Okay, but-" Itsuka tried to interrupt the pair of them as she waved her hands in the air, sighing and shaking her head as Ochako shot a small glance at her, "- Izuku, we both know that - even if I wanted to, I - I can't. I have no idea how to really -"

"Then we'll figure it out now," Izuku's voice had no room for debate, clenching his fist as he quickly pulled out his notebook, "I'll go over how we can try using - uh - that super strength during your match. And I'll also go over Monoma's quirk with you guys - I didn't have much time to write anything down, but after fighting him at the pond, I think I've got a basic understanding of how his quirk works."

"I - uh - Izuku -?"

"Look," He sighed, shaking his head, "I just … you can't go up against Todoroki when he'll just hit you with all that ice. I - I don't want you to. So let's - we're gonna figure out how you can use that super strength. Right now."

"Right … now …?" Ochako repeated after him in confusion - but then she blinked as Izuku moved to the table and put down his notebook, looking back up at all three girls with that same determination on his face. He was so into it, of course, that he totally missed the light blushes that crossed their faces at the look he was sending them.

"Yeah," He nodded at both of them confidently, "right now. Let's figure this out."

He then bent down to begin scribbling on the open page of his journal, taking a moment to flip the page over to check something in his notes. Slowly closing her mouth, Itsuka stood up from her spot at the table, staring at Izuku's serious look as he began writing down a strategy - and then, against her better judgment, she glanced over at Ochako and Nejire, seeing them both staring at Izuku as well with the same blush that was probably on Itsuka's face.

Gulping slightly, Itsuka saw Nejire steal a glance up at her, slowly nodding as well, and then gestured for her to come over. Slowly walking over, Itsuka leaned in as Nejire raised her hand to her mouth to cover what she was saying, and Ochako looked around in confusion as the blue-haired girl slightly pulled on her sleeve to bring her over, so that she could whisper to all three of them.

"Hey, hey," Nejire whispered, a shaky smile on her face, "is it just me, or is Midoriya super duper hot when he's confident?"

Ochako and Itsuka paused at that - and then, with their faces turning red as they glanced back down at Izuku as he frowned at his notebook, they both stiffly nodded in agreement.

---

"The repairs for the ring have been completed, and we are ready to move on to the next round. Kendou, Hadou, Ashido and Monoma, please make your way to the stadium now."

Slowly walking out of the tunnel, Itsuka let out a small grumble as she raised her hand to block the sunlight hitting her eyes, listening to the roar of the crowd as she and Nejire started walking out towards the now repaired ring in the middle of the stadium, where Midnight was rubbing her arms up and down to get some of the warmth back in her body. Glancing around at the stage and seeing everyone cheering happily for them, Itsuka tried to give them a weak smile as she waved up at the crowd, hoping that her parents and Eri were in that direction so it looked like she was waving to them.

Their talk about her volume thingy - or, more accurately, One for All - went … a bit productively, Itsuka winced as she glanced back around and saw Izuku and Ochako standing by the entrance of the tunnel so that they could watch, Izuku taking the time as well to write a brief summary of what he had noticed about Shouto's quirk from their fight in the pond for her to use in the next match. Well, it wasn't productive in the sense that she could suddenly use her second quirk, but ... but at least Izuku had put some thought into how she should use it, giving her general advice that she had pretended that she could try and understand.

"Right now, we're considering your volume control as some kind of 'special move'. But of course I didn't notice - why didn't I notice before?! You need to use that super strength as naturally as you would your original quirk. Not as though you use Big Fist one moment and then the 'volume control' the next - it isn't like flipping on a switch! You need to learn how to use it without even thinking. So maybe …"

"Er … Deku?"

"… if you can use your power at 5% like you're breathing, theoretically, you could do moves like Kacchan. His combat abilities are flexible in the air, and … and combined with your martial arts - and then after that, as you get more and more control over the strength, there'll be a lot more you can do! So you need to use it instantaneously and intermittently!"

"… Izuku, I realize you're kind of having a breakthrough, but do you mind breaking down what exactly you're talking about so that I can understand it?"

"Mm-hm! Not really getting it over here."

"O-oh! Right, yeah, sorry. What I'm thinking, Kendou, is that you can't view it as 'using' the super strength. Like - using it when you need it, in the places that need it. It isn't a special move - it's your quirk. If you insist on using it like a switch, your reaction time gets slower and slower with the second and third moves. So instead of using it only when you need to - it should be on from the beginning!"

"Okay … and how do I do that?"

"What I think you should do is imagine how you felt when you used that super strength at the USJ. And when you saved Eri. And … and I guess when you used it against Todoroki and Kacchan back during the first round. Do you remember how you felt during those times?"

"Yeah. So … scared. And … and determined."

"Yeah. Now what you want to do is - well, concentrate on that feeling! What did it feel like to use the super strength?"

"I'm … not sure what you mean, Izuku?"

"Like - was it a 'bzzt'? Or a 'whoosh'? Or a - uh - like imagine this! Imagine like using your volume control is like - uh - like an egg in a microwave!"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"… okay, that -"

"Pfft!"

"Ha! Deku, you - ha, ha, ha!"

"An egg in a microwave? That's cute! But why are you microwaving eggs? I think that would be bad for the egg, wouldn't it? Unless it's already scrambled and you're just heating it up?"

"It's a metaphor! Just - imagine it, please?"

So … here she was, Itsuka winced, imagining eggs in microwaves and trying to make sure that they didn't explode. Which was … Izuku's big idea on how to control One for All. Just don't imagine the egg exploding, he said. Lowering the wattage. Shortening the cook time.

…

… god, she loved that nerd, she blushed.

"AND NOW," Present Mic screeched over the crowds still cheering for them, "WRAPPING UP THE FIRST ROUNDS OF OUR COMPETITION ARE THESE LOVELY LADIES AND ONE DUDE! COMING FROM THE TUNNEL, HAVING GIVEN A GREAT SPEECH THIS MORNING AND HAS BEEN WORKING HARD TO KICK SOME BUTT WITH HER KARATE SKILLS, IT'S ITSUKA KENDOU!"

"Yeah," Itsuka huffed quietly while the crowd roared for her and Nejire giggled a bit nervously, "my karate skills. That's all I got going for me, Mic-sensei."

"AND BESIDE HER! CUTE AS A BUTTON AND PACKING ONE HECK OF A PUNCH WITH IT, BUT HOW DOES SHE MOVE AROUND WITH ALL THAT HEAVY HAIR?! IT'S NEJIRE HADOU!"

Nejire, for her part, merely giggled as she gave the peace sign to the crowd, hopping up and down as they approached the stairs to the circle above, and quickly began moving up to where the match would take place. As soon as they reached the top, they saw their opponents coming up as well - Mina, for her part, looked disgruntled and uncomfortable with her partner while she tried to look positive for the crowd, and Monoma's gaze swept over to the two girls on the opposite side of the arena, his smirk widening a bit as his eyes met Itsuka's, and making her frown.

Oh, yeah. They'd also gone over what Monoma could possibly do, but she wasn't worried about him. Monoma, she knew she was going to kick his ass, with what she, Izuku, Ochako and Nejire had discussed on their way to the tunnel that would've taken them to the field.

"So Monoma didn't tell you guys what his quirk was?"

"Nope! And he was a real jerk about it, too! Was trying to be all smug and mysterious, but that just made him look dumb!"

"H-huh. Well, I - I do think I know what his strategy is. And what his quirk is."

"Oh?"

"He's a copier. Copies people's quirks, uses them for himself. I don't have all the details, but I remember back at the pond, he shouted at Todoroki to let him copy his quirk. And he was able to use Haya and that Tetsutetsu guy's quirks - not to mention that attack he hit you with, Kendou."

"Okay … so we should be expecting him to hit us with an iceberg?"

"I … don't think so. Todoroki seemed adamant that Monoma didn't copy his quirk. But knowing that … I wouldn't be surprised if he went around trying to copy other people's quirks to use against you. I'd expect him to use Ashido's quirk, since she's with him - and I wouldn't be surprised if he tries to get others to help him out. I don't know if there's a time limit for his quirk, but …"

"… but if he copies other people's quirks, Deku, doesn't that mean he could copy Shinsou's quirk?"

"Yep, if they pass each other by. So …"

"Let him talk and don't respond. Gotcha. Nejire - I think I know what to do."

So yep, Itsuka slowly nodded, she had no idea what she was going to do with One for All in the next match. But Monoma? She knew exactly how to deal with him.

"AND COMING UP ON THE OTHER SIDE!" Present Mic called over the stadium's intercom system. "IS THERE GONNA BE SOMETHING COMING OUT OF THOSE HORNS OF HERS?! EVEN IF NOT, I'M EXCITED! FROM THE HERO COURSE, IT'S MINA ASHIDO! AND BESIDE HER! LOOKING PRETTY CONFIDENT AND ASSURED OF HIMSELF, BUT HOW LONG WILL IT LAST?! ALSO FROM THE HERO COURSE, IT'S NEITO MONOMA!"

While Mina stretched her arms above her head to try and limber herself up, four columns of fire blasting out from the sides of the circle surrounding them, Monoma let out a long, suffering sigh as he flicked some of his hair out of his face. Itsuka, however, found her gaze moving back towards the tunnel the two opponents had emerged from, and felt her eyes narrow as she spotted what she thought to be shapes moving away into the darkness.

Well … looks like Izuku had been right, she bit her lip. Monoma must have brought people along so he could copy their quirks right out of the gate. Which … also meant that there must be a time limit for him to pull something out of his ass.

And that … ultimately didn't matter in the long run. She and Nejire had their plan, and that didn't involve waiting for Monoma to run out of time to use his quirks.

"So," Monoma finally said over the announcements above them, speaking directly to Itsuka, "here you are, I suppose. How's your stomach feeling?"

Itsuka merely rolled her eyes and turned to look off to the side, completely ignoring him. Nejire also sent a pout at him, but remembering what they had discussed before, didn't say a word, being mindful of what kind of quirks their opponent might have.

"Oh? What's this, no response?" Monoma let out a low laugh at that, shaking his head dramatically while sending both girls a smug look. "Well, isn't that rude? After all the work we did together to get to the next round, you choose to simply ignore me? I suppose that's expected of Class 1A, wanting to hog the glory all to themselves and get all the attention on them while casting everyone else aside. I have to say, I curse the fates that decided to pair me against Todoroki next - I'd have found Midnight if I could and asked to switch partners had she not left to do something else before I could reach her."

Both Itsuka and Nejire turned to glance at each other, and proceeded to almost roll their eyes into the back of their heads. The more and more he talked, the more clear it was that he just loved the sound of his own voice. They kind of pitied Mina, who would have had to endure hours of this guy during their planning, and was indeed looking exhausted by the sound of his voice as she tried to prepare herself for the fight.

"Still," Monoma casually slid his hands into his pockets, "this should be easier than expected, shouldn't it? No offense to you two, of course, but neither of you struck me as … particularly smart while we were planning during the second round."

That, at least, caused the two girls to pause for a moment, turning to glance at the smug boy as Mina realized what was about to happen and winced.

"Both of you … so clearly blind by your idiotic emotions," Monoma smirked knowingly, "especially when it's for the same guy."

Both Itsuka and Nejire's eyebrows shot up.

"It's honestly … well, it's quite pathetic how much you two fell over yourselves to make sure that Midoriya guy went forward," He continued to press and hold the 'angry button', his smirk slowly widening as he realized he found something to get under their skin, "you embarrassed your class and your teammates by being so willing to throw away your chances to win the sports festival just to make yourselves endearing to a guy so … unseemly. Plain, I would say is the kindest thing I can say about him."

Itsuka felt her head slowly tilt to the side. Nejire began to pout again.

"I mean," Monoma shook his head in mock sympathy, "I would understand if it was someone like Todoroki - someone who clearly has the looks - but I have to say, the guy you chose to slave after and beg for his attention is … hm, what's the word I'm looking for here …?"

"Hoe, don't do it," Mina winced.

"… ugly?" Monoma leaned forward, his smirk wide, and didn't even notice as Mina slowly slid away from him, obviously aware of the maelstrom he was about to bring onto himself.

There was a short pause between the four students as Present Mic concluded his speech above them. And Itsuka decided, then and there at the same time, that Monoma was a dead motherfucker.

And unknown to her, a pair of rabbit ears suddenly pointed up in the crowd, feeling the sudden bloodlust and leaning forward to watch the match interestingly.

"START!"

Mic's screech filled the air above them to signify the start of their fight, and at once, the crowd leaned forward in anticipation, wanting to see what these four would be capable of, especially after the last twelve pairings. Monoma, for his part, didn't make any first move, merely smirking and waiting for the two girls to run headfirst into the trap he had been setting up, feeling the quirks he had already copied a minute ago ready for use.

For a moment, the two girls glared heatedly at him, their hands curling into fists -

- and then promptly moved to sit down on the ground.

The cheers from the crowd very quickly died away, everyone staring in confused silence at the two girls as they got comfortable on the ground, Itsuka sitting with her legs crossed and Nejire moving down to her knees. Monoma felt himself freeze, staring down at them in equal confusion to the crowd, while Mina glanced between both girls unsurely as Itsuka and Nejire turned to look at each other.

Within the crowd, both Hakushu and Tenohira blinked for a moment at their daughter's actions, before they suddenly got it, and two large grins began to spread across their faces.

"Er …" Inko glanced over at Tenohira, "… is Itsuka okay?"

"Oh, she's more than okay," Hakushu chuckled darkly, "look at her, all relaxed and not worried at all."

"Yep," Tenohira nodded, giggling, "she's gonna hand that kid his ass."

Down below in the arena, Monoma blinked once more - and then a smirk reappeared on his face.

"Ah … not taking this seriously, are you?" He barked out a laugh. "Once again expected of Class 1A -"

"You know something, Nejire?"

Monoma, of course, immediately went silent when Itsuka suddenly spoke up for the first time since they entered the ring - but unfortunately for him, Shinsou's quirk, that he had copied when the robots passed the shivering boy by him, didn't activate. Of course, it had to do with the fact that she was speaking to her partner, even if her eyes stayed on him, which must have meant …

… damn it, he realized, she must've figured out his trick!

"I was just thinking," Itsuka said in a light voice, leaning back on her hands as she turned her gaze up to look at the sky, "about Class 1B. I mean, they all seem … nice, I guess, but after what I've seen today, they seem to be … I don't know … kinda pathetic, now that I'm thinking about it."

That, of course, caused Monoma to freeze.

"Huh?" Nejire looked curious, looking around at her friend in intrigue. "What do you mean, Itsuka?"

"I mean," Itsuka shrugged, smiling lightly, "they came up with this big scheme to throw us all under the bus, and make sure they all advanced while we faltered - but isn't it kind of pathetic that most of them were taken out right at the start of the sports festival? I'd been kind of worried before, but then they all just … kinda failed. Like, we lost one guy, but they lost more than half their class. Kind of a let down, now that I'm thinking about it."

"Hm," Nejire hummed, raising a hand to poke her cheek, "I … guess so! Yeah, now that you're thinking about it, a lot of them should be feeling really embarrassed right now, huh?"

"Yeah. I mean, I can't blame them - I bet they were all gonna use Todoroki to try and coax their way through," Itsuka nodded slowly, stealing a glance at Monoma and seeing the look of shock and insult on his face, feeling a smirk come to her own face, "like Monoma here was. But of course, Todoroki doesn't really care about that - he's more concerned with beating me. It's really weird, you know? Like, Class 1B seems more obsessed with 1A, and 1A just … doesn't really care."

Mina gulped a bit nervously, knowing that Itsuka was clearly up to something, and allowed some acid to begin sliding down her arms - and then winced as Monoma took a step forward, breathing sharply through his nose as an ugly sneer appeared on his face, acid likewise starting to slide down his arms from when he copied her.

"What was that?" He said through gritted teeth. "You're looking down on us?"

"Hm … do you think he's angry?" Itsuka continued to talk to Nejire rather than Monoma, unable to stop herself from giggling slightly, the sound making Monoma angrier. "I mean, I am just saying stuff to rile him up - not really meaning anything I say about Class 1B."

"That's right!" Nejire giggled, tapping her arm with her hand before throwing the other one carefully in the air.

"Yeah, but he looks angry," Itsuka observed, smirking as Monoma's face turned even more twisted, "kinda like Bakugou, can dish it out, but can't take it. Tsk, tsk."

"And is just as ugly!" Nejire added in. "Like, Bakugou can look ugly when he's angry, but that over there's not a good look. Ew."

"Ooh, I'll show you who can dish it out!" Monoma shouted, throwing his arm back and letting acid form in his hand -

- and that, right about then, was when Nejire used the hand she had thrown carelessly through the air to quickly turn towards their two opponents, and a swirl of yellow energy told Monoma, in that moment, that he had run straight into their trap.

"Full charge! Output level ten!"

BOOM

At once, a bolt of spiraling yellow energy blasted out of her open palm towards the two opponents. Squeaking, Mina jumped off to the side to try and avoid getting hit by it, but instead of dodging, Monoma took a deep breath, letting the acid fall from his hand, and blew out a circular disk of air, quickly creating a shield in front of him. His eyes quickly snapped to Nejire as she jumped up, twin pairs of spirals emerging from her feet, and began flying up in the air, turning her attention to Mina as the pink girl began sliding around with acid coming from her shoes.

"That's cool! I always wondered, Ashido, how do you do that?" Nejire asked excitedly, even as she threw another bolt of energy at Mina, and then yelped as she quickly flew to the side to avoid Mina throwing a glob of acid right at her. Monoma quickly realized that she must be an expert flier, what with how she moved so gracefully in the air, and let out a small growl as he took a step forward.

"So Ashido's quirk, this quirk, and probably Shinsou's quirk."

Monoma felt himself freeze as he felt a shadow fall on him, and glanced around - right in time to jump back as Itsuka came down from her jump, her hands grown out to their full size and smashing down on the shield of air that Monoma was still blowing on. The Class 1B boy growled as he was forced back from the force of the blow, taking a step back as Itsuka threw out another punch, hitting the shield with shocking strength.

"That's three quirks you can copy," Itsuka smirked at him, "is that all you can do?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Monoma taunted.

Itsuka, raising an eyebrow, didn't really respond to his obvious attempt to get her to answer - or at least, not with words. Instead, she threw her fist back, and with an almighty shout, drove it right into the air shield. It managed to hold, thankfully, but Itsuka's repeated blows on it at her full strength (at least, full strength as far as Monoma knew) meant that the shield was beginning to crack, making Monoma sweat slightly in panic at the look on the class representative's face.

The look signifying to him that he was screwed should she get her enlarged hands on him.

"Eep!" Mina squeaked again, attempting to follow where Nejire was flying around the ring and throwing fistfuls of acid towards Nejire. Thankfully, the blue haired girl was a graceful flier, spinning circles around Mina's attempts to hit her with acid, while still staying inside the ring, under Midnight's watchful eye as she went higher up. After all, Midnight said that she couldn't leave the ring, but she didn't say anything about rising above it.

"Okay!" Nejire clapped her hands together, before suddenly diving down towards the ground, making Mina blink a bit as the yellow energy swirling out of her hands and feet twisted through the air thanks to her body. "Diving bomb -!"

Realizing the name of an attack move, Mina let out a small squeak as Nejire suddenly dove straight towards her, quickly ducking and hoping that Nejire would miss. Fortunately for Mina, that was what happened, with Nejire soaring straight above her ducked form and heading straight for Itsuka's back while she pounded on Monoma's air shield.

Unfortunately for Mina, as Itsuka suddenly spun around and abandoned her pounding of Monoma's shield, that was exactly what the chatterbox had intended to do.

It happened rather instantaneously - Nejire driving her energy-laced hands into Monoma's shield, and it broke apart completely, the force of the blow causing him to be launched backwards through the air and landing on his back with a grunt, still in the ring but now looking absolutely furious. And Itsuka, gracefully spinning underneath her partner, used her large hand to grab the still ducked Mina, the pink girl squeaking as she was lifted right off her feet with a hand the size of her torso. Before she could think to coat her body with acid to cause the class representative to let go, Itsuka let out a grunt as she spun once as though to wind up her throw, and then, as Mina let out a gasp as she was suddenly thrown right out of the ring, flailing through the air before coming down on the hill and starting to roll down.

"Ashido is out of bounds!" Midnight announced, snapping her whip against the stage as the crowd cheered wildly.

"AMAZING! WHAT A MOVE!" Present Mic screamed. "IN ONE SECOND, TEAM MONOMA-ASHIDO IS NOW DOWN AN ASHIDO! WHAT'LL HAPPEN NEXT?!"

Growling, Monoma quickly climbed to his feet, forced to duck as Nejire tried to fly up to him and shove him out of the ring. His mind was pretty much scrambling to find a way that he could find an advantage to this - he'd only had time to copy the quirks of Tsuburaba, Shinsou and the pink idiot from 1A, which meant that he only had one advantage left up his sleeve - the fourth empty slot that he could use for one of these girls' quirks. Obviously, his thoughts went to Nejire as she spun through the air; not only could she fly, she had a ranged quirk, which would help him well against Itsuka as she came barrelling towards him again.

So that was the plan - copy Nejire's quirk, and use it against both of them.

Letting acid coat his arms again, he quickly threw the projectiles at Itsuka, who quickly sidestepped his attempts to burn her, and then threw another one at Nejire as she expertly dodged underneath it. Letting out a small growl, Monoma ran forward towards Itsuka, throwing his hand back to throw the acid again, and Itsuka instead met him head on, her face determined, as she shrank back down her hands.

Throwing his hand forward, Monoma let out a crazed laugh as Itsuka quickly ducked underneath it, rolling right under his arm and coming up behind him.

"Ha!" He cackled madly, whipping around as his hands filled with acid once again. "You really think you were gonna -?!"

And that, right about then, was when Itsuka suddenly grabbed his leg, and grew out her hand. So instead of just grabbing his ankle, her entire hand ended up encasing his leg. And Monoma froze, his crazed face going rigid, as he realized what was about to happen.

With a shout, Itsuka spun back up to her feet, gripping Monoma's leg tightly and ripping him right off his feet as he was spun by her hand and lifted up into the air. Monoma let out a yelp as he was yanked straight up, his hands flailing for a second before coming down on her enlarged hand, and then tried to use one hand to grab at the passing by Nejire - only for her to easily move out of the way, her eyebrow raising at his failed attempt to copy her quirk.

As Itsuka spun around in a circle again, Monoma's face temporarily blurred, ripping from the whiplash as Itsuka finished her spin and finally let go of his leg, just in time to let him go flying through the air towards the edge of the circle -

- only to feel her eyebrow twitch as Monoma's hands suddenly grew out like hers, digging them into the ground to prevent him from falling out of the ring. Feeling her eyes narrow to slits, Itsuka began sprinting over as Monoma slowly and menacingly rose to his feet, a bit dizzy but still looking crazed enough that Nejire began wondering if there was something wrong with him.

"Nice try," He chuckled darkly, beginning to look up just as Itsuka slid just to his right, throwing her hand back before driving it forward, "but if you think that I can just be thrown out of this ring like your dumb classmates, you have another thing -"

CHOP!

The audience let out small 'oohs' as Itsuka's hand, instead of forming a fist, instead straightened out and quickly struck down on the back of Monoma's neck, giving him a hard chop. The blonde boy froze where he stood for a moment, eyes widened briefly as he stared forward for a moment - and then he crumbled right onto the ground, Itsuka and Nejire blinking in surprise as he collapsed with his butt up in the air, completely knocked out.

Staring down at him in shock for a moment, Itsuka then turned to look at her hand in amazement.

"Wow," She said in a slightly confused voice, "I … didn't even really try to chop him that hard. Is - is his neck okay?"

"Monoma is incapacitated!" Midnight declared as she pointed her whip at the slumped over Class 1B student. "Kendou and Hadou advance to the next round!"

Blinking again in surprise at the announcement, and quickly glancing up at the crowd as they roared in celebration, Itsuka tried to quickly get over her confusion about how easily Monoma went down, giving them a smile. Looking over at Nejire as she landed from her flight, Itsuka's slightly awkward smile became a more natural grin as she raised a hand, and Nejire quickly and happily ran over to give her a high five. And then, as though remembering something, Itsuka stole a small glance back over at the tunnel entrance where Ochako and Izuku had been, suddenly feeling her gut clench nervously.

But as before, they were still there. Ochako was cheering loudly for the both of them, jumping up and down and flashing Itsuka and Nejire a thumbs up, while Izuku looked up from his notebook to give her a happy grin.

And Itsuka felt her heart clench at that - but not in the awkward, painful way as it did several times today. Instead, she felt like she was floating, a smile widely spreading across her face as she felt a sudden pep in her step, feeling more energetic than she had all day as she and Nejire went down to where Mina was brushing herself off and shaking her hands in pain at the bottom of the hill, clearly burning herself from her acid, to make sure that she was okay.

"WITH THAT, WE'VE GOT EVERYONE WHO'S ADVANCING TO THE SECOND ROUND!" Present Mic gleefully yelled over the crowd. "SO WE'LL GET STARTED WITH OUR FIFTH MATCH OF THE DAY! MIDORIYA AND URARAKA VS BAKUGOU AND TOKOYAMI! LOOK FORWARD TO IT!"

Of course, in the crowd itself, no one was aware of a certain pro hero watching both girls in intrigue, letting out a small hum. Pulling out her pen and paper, Ryukyu raised her gaze up to the screen above them that displayed the names of the four fighters, and quickly scribbled down two of the names up there.

"Hadou …" She repeated the name up on the board, smiling and nodding slightly in approval as she put the pen and paper away. She would've asked Miruko beside her if she had any thoughts about the match they had just seen - but from the wide, vicious grin on the rabbit woman's face, watching Itsuka while thumping her foot, she had a feeling that Miruko had someone on her mind for internships.

---

There was a good, long silence in the bar. And then Chimera, sticking his cigar back in his mouth, huffed, "This is boring as fuck."

Slice was unable to stop herself from letting out a small snort at that, sipping on her drink as she leaned back. Truth be told, Chimera was … mostly telling the truth as the four, now five, members of the Villain Consortium sat back in the bar sipping on drinks and watching the small TV in the corner showing off the sports festival.

At the moment, Mummy was sipping on his own drink while Camie continued to pop bubbles that she was making with her quirk, not interested in the screen at all except to call out 'hot guys' (something that was making the other four roll their eyes each time), Chimera was on his fifth cigar of the day, and Nine was still staring at the screen with a cross expression, his fingernails tapping on the table he was sharing with Slice as she leaned against his shoulder.

The last hour or so of fights had been … quite lacking, to be honest. There were highlights, of course - the battle with that explosion brat that had knocked Kurogiri around back at the USJ was interesting, if for the use of his quirk, and the one boy who froze the arena immediately after the match was called to begin prompted Nine to look intrigued by the display of power, but the others had been … boring, as Chimera put it. Nine himself was staring dully at the screen as he continued tapping his fingers against the table, a scowl on his face as he allowed Slice to brush back his long, white hair.

"So the kid was full of it," Chimera shook his head as he scooped back up his scotch, rolling the glass a bit as he stared back up at the screen showing the green-haired boy from the first match beside his friend, some needless commentary going on and on about what they thought he was going to do, "talkin' shit about us being weak, and here he is not using his quirk at all."

"Pfft," Mummy glared at the boy on the screen, tapping his drink against the table and knowing Kurogiri was coming to refill it, "I knew that he was nothing. He got lucky at the USJ - against our beast, he was nothing."

"Don't worry about it," Slice shook her head as she looked back over at the man in red bandages, "I imagine that -"

"He's holding back."

The three blinked as their leader spoke for the first time in a few minutes, and looked around as Nine leaned forward. He had a cross look on his face, glaring at the screen where Izuku Midoriya's face was displayed, and he was looking a strange mixture of insulted, unimpressed and disappointed as he raised a hand to cup his chin.

"He's been holding back since the final rounds began," He noted quietly to himself, "ever since he had to go up against someone else. He used his quirk freely during the first two rounds, and at least knew his way around when he was fighting those four on that frozen pond. But once he started fighting in the first round … his quirk was a no show."

"Huh," Chimera sipped on his scotch, "and what does that mean?"

"He's afraid of using his quirk against other people," Nine frowned, "he used it against Hood when the beast was going to kill his friend, and against me when I tried to kill All Might - but he's refused to use it against anyone else. He hasn't attacked anyone directly ever since the festival began."

"And … why do we care?" Mummy scowled. "I'd rather just have him killed than try to understand why he's not sailing through the festival."

"That quirk is eventually going to be my quirk," Their leader answered simply, "I want to make sure it's not some kind of feedback or side effect that's making him hold back that will hinder me."

With that, Nine let out a sigh as he leaned back in his seat, letting Slice's fingers slide against his cheek, as he scooped up his own drink and raised it to his lips to take a sip -

- only for a shot of pain to suddenly streak through him, causing him to spit out whatever alcohol he had managed to get into his mouth as purple glowing veins suddenly began spreading across his body.

"Nine!" Slice quickly gasped as Nine doubled over, choking and grabbing his throat as his eyes went wide, and a ripple passed along his skin as the glowing veins flared menacingly. Mummy quickly looked around as Chimera likewise stood up, and even Camie was temporarily distracted from her playing with her quirk to look over as Nine staggered to his feet, planting one hand on the table to stabilize himself while the other clutched his face, feeling it warp under his hand.

"It's a bad one," Slice muttered in alarm, panicked as she reached for anything to help out her friend, but alas, it was a bit too late as Nine gagged, and bent over as black fluid suddenly flowed from his open mouth, causing him to choke briefly on the vomit as Slice quickly jumped back, wincing as the black liquid splashed on the table and on the floor. From behind the counter, Kurogiri let out a long, suffering sigh as the Consortium watched Nine convulse briefly, panting raggedly as the bones in his back cracked ominously.

"Calm down, calm down," Nine growled to himself, clutching his face tightly as the purple veins flared again, and then, finally, they began to simmer down.

The Consortium watched as their leader continued to try and catch his breath, Slice hesitantly reaching out to his back to rub up and down to comfort him - and then she jumped as Nine suddenly let out a growl and flipped the table out of his way, the glasses shattering on the ground and the black sludge splashing against the wall as he stomped over to the bar.

Kurogiri watched as Nine slumped against the counter, rubbing his forehead as the purple veins continued to disappear - and then he asked, in a dry voice, "May I offer you a mint?"

"Shut up." Nine growled, spitting some leftover black fluid out of his mouth and onto the floor.

"It's getting worse," Slice gave their leader a worried look, approaching him carefully and raising a hand to touch his shoulder, "ever since you ingested the Trigger, it hasn't been mixing well with … with whatever fluids you have in you."

"It's always been this way," Nine growled, "just … getting worse ever since …"

There was a long pause in the bar as the three members tried not to stare at the black sick on the wall - and then they suddenly became aware of the sound of a lighter flicking off to the side.

"Well," A low, amused voice sounded out, "that was dramatic. And a bit disgusting."

The five of them blinked at the sound of a new, yet familiar voice, and quickly looked around to the entrance of the bar. Leaning against the door, using a lighter shaped as a revolver to light the cigarette in his mouth, was a man in an unkept bluish-purple suit, adjusting his circular glasses to the bridge of his nose as he grinned into the bar. Kurogiri acted at once, using his quirk to bring out another glass and scotch from the bar and put it on the table near Chimera, who narrowed his dark eyes as the man strolled in.

"Ah, thank you, Kurogiri," Giran smiled as he began pouring himself a drink, taking the cigarette out of his mouth and tapping it against the ashtray, "can always rely on you for a quick drink."

Raising the glass to take a sip, he turned to glance at Nine over the edge of his glasses, seeing the white-haired man staring at him from under his fingers.

"Seems like you're sick," Giran noted helpfully, glancing over at the black fluid sliding down the wall with a raised eyebrow, while Camie went back to playing with her quirk and Mummy shot a glare at the broker, "unless that's normal?"

"I'm handling it," Nine shook his head, turning to spit out a bit more of the mysterious fluid before reluctantly accepting the bowl of pretzels and mints from Kurogiri, "mind your own business. I'm fine."

"I don't know," Giran chuckled, "puking black stuff doesn't seem normal. You should see a doctor for that."

"Trust me," Nine grumbled darkly, "you don't want to meet my doctor. That doesn't matter - I assume you're here because you have something?"

"Oh? And what if I just wanted to come and say a friendly hello?"

"You're smart, Giran - you know better than to interact with me more than you need to. You wouldn't be here unless you found recruits."

Giran glanced around for a moment, seeing Slice tapping her foot against the floor and glaring at him while the edges of her hair sharpened - and then he let out a small sigh, nodding slowly, and raised one hand to snap his fingers. At the sharp snap, the door to the bar opened again, and the Consortium looked around as the new recruits began to walk in.

Coming in first, the first recruit was obviously young, keeping his hands in the pockets of his white coat as he strolled in, looking around the bar with only one exposed eye, the other half of his face covered in half a diving helmet. He wore a black suit underneath the coat, some jewelry on his arms, and he was clearly uninterested in his surroundings as his mask made a weird breathing noise. Coming in behind him was a young woman with white hair reaching her shoulders, wearing a black and red buttoned outfit with white gloves and black boots, and after her came a heteromorph, his bear like features giving him an intimidating appearance as he glared around at the bar, his gaze eventually falling on Chimera as the blue wolf-hybrid gave him an interested look as he puffed on his cigar.

As the three of them shuffled off to the side, there was a grunt as the larger man behind them came in, his crazed gaze flickering around. He was taller, with a muscular physic, and orange, flame-shaped hair, while wearing a baggy blue bodysuit with bulky, rock like boots, gauntlets and shoulder pads. Behind him came another heteromorph, his elongated face causing his mouth to protrude forward like a bill. And then, coming in last, was another woman with white hair, although hers was long and wavy, and she was wearing a far more revealing outfit as she shot her gaze around the bar, smirking a bit.

There was a pause as the two large groups eyed each other up, Nine's gaze flickering between each of them - and then his gaze fell to Giran as the broker took another inhale of his cigar, exhaling and sending a puff of smoke into the air.

"A very interesting crowd you've found me, Giran," He said dryly, "when comes the part where you reveal that you wasted my time?"

"Don't shoot the messenger," Giran chuckled as the six villains turned their gaze to Nine leaning against the counter, "I went scouting, and they were the ones who found me. It was a bit tough, you know - you kind of wasted all of the villains that I supplied you for the USJ, there weren't many people to go around and ask if they were interested in the Consortium."

Nine, for his part, merely huffed.

"So," Chimera grunted, standing up and facing the man with the bear appearance, both of them squaring each other up, "heteromorph, right?"

"Yeah," He growled, nodding, "name's Bearhead."

"Bearhead, huh?" Chimera chuckled, raising a hand and taking his paw as he gave it a shake. "Chimera. What about you two?" He turned to stare at the masked man and the woman stoically staring ahead and staring ahead. "Got any mutations I should know about?"

"Just a deformity," The young man answered, tapping on his mask as his voice came out muffled, "my quirk's a transformation, but … well, it's gotten me a few scars for its insidiousness."

"You kiddin'?" The taller man growled behind his mask, crossing his arms against his chest and glaring around. "This is the famous Villain Consortium? I thought you'd all have some kind of secret base or somethin', not hangin' around in some bar - where's the Trigger?"

"Ah," Mummy scoffed, "there it is."

"Trust me," Giran chuckled, "it's not just the Trigger they're interested in -"

"Oh, please," The woman with wavy hair giggled, "that's what got my attention in the first place."

"- they want to know more about what you guys are selling."

"Indeed," The young man nodded, turning back to look at Nine as the leader of the Consortium leaned against the bar, "we heard tales of what you and your organization are capable of - and what you desire. A world where the strong rule over the weak. Well, I'll say for the Wild Villains, we are very interested in what kind of world that would be, and we would like to be on the winning side of that equation."

"Well, that depends," Slice raised an eyebrow, "is your quirk strong?"

"I'd like to believe it is."

"Well," The taller man with the volcano motif huffed, "I still got my reservations - but if the Consortium can get us the means to get stronger, then fuck it, we'll join up."

"It isn't that simple," Nine raised an eyebrow, "we do have a recruitment phase. Which … well, I believe you all will have some fun with."

"That right?"

"That is right. The public eye has been off of us for a while now - as of right now, the Villain Consortium, in the eyes of the public, are old news." Nine sighed as he stood up, still a bit shaky from his outburst from before. "Which means that we have the time and effort to start making new alliances and starting our new plans. The Villain Consortium isn't some random gang you can join up with with no strings attached - we have a backer who is very interested in our success, who wants us to unify the villain population under a single banner. Work with us, and you will all receive positions of importance in our new world. Of course, we don't just let anyone join us - there's a test that you will have to pass."

The six villains glanced between each other - or at least, the five did, as the woman with short white hair continued to stare blankly ahead - and then, finally, they all nodded in agreement as they turned back towards the leader of the Consortium as he nodded, and then gestured to Kurogiri.

"We'll have you brought to our base of operations," He confirmed as Kurogiri opened the warp gate on the other side of the bar, "so that you can all inspect the Trigger, if that's one of the reasons you're here for. Chimera will be the one to oversee your applications - follow his orders, and succeed, and you'll find yourselves in a comfortable position in the Consortium."

Nodding again, the six villains turned to enter the portal, hesitating only for a moment before stepping through. Chimera let out a grunt as he put out his cigar and followed them, patting Mummy's arm and nodding to Nine as he went through the warp gate last, and finally, Kurogiri closed it, leaving Nine, Slice, Mummy, Camie, Giran and the warp gate in the bar.

With a sigh, Nine turned to sit back down at the bar, Slice sliding up against him and leaning against his arm, and he let out a small sigh as he tapped his finger against the counter as he stared up at the ceiling.

"So," Slice smirked, "do you think they'll be able to pass the test?"

"Not sure," Nine shook his head, "some of them seem strong. Others … not so much." He turned to aim a look at Giran. "Truly scraping at the bottom of the barrel, eh, Giran?"

"Well," Giran chuckled, "not necessarily. Some of 'em might be able to pass, but … well, there was something else I thought you'd be interested in."

Reaching into his coat pocket, he pulled out a business card, sliding it down the bar towards Nine as he scooped it up, reading the number on the card with narrowed eyes.

"Got that from a pro hero," He smirked, "who's got some connections in the underworld. Apparently, you're pretty popular, Mr. Consortium Leader - you've got villains in high places asking for meetings. Just thought I wouldn't bring it up in front of the new recruits, didn't want to make them feel inadequate."

Nine read the message a few times over, his face falling slightly as Slice leaned over his shoulder to read what it said - and then he let out a small sigh, nodding slightly as he reached into his coat pocket, and pulled out the tight wad of yen he had secured there, sliding it across the bar to Giran, who nodded in satisfaction and scooped it up to begin counting.

"You've done good work, Giran," Nine acknowledged, "keep at it, and you may find yourself with a secure position in the new world we plan to make."

"How kind of you."

"Now then - it seems like we'll be getting to work sooner than I expected. If this number is legitimate, an alliance between them and us would benefit us greatly - but we'll have to proceed with caution. Slice," He turned to her as she straightened up, "you'll be working with Giran to find any villain that may be lurking under the radar. Promise them wealth, power, Trigger, yourself if you have to - anything that might lure them to our side. As for who we discussed …"

"… I'll find him," Slice muttered, frowning, "I'm looking."

"Good. Mummy," He looked over at the man as he leaned against the table, "you'll be taking over holding down the Trigger barrels for Chimera - he'll be busy recruiting the new villains."

"Oh! What about me?" Camie raised her hand interestingly. "You got something for me?"

"Perhaps," Nine tilted his head, glancing back towards the screen with the sports festival still ongoing, "I just need to wait to see how this resolves."

He then turned to Kurogiri, who was watching Nine carefully behind the bar as he rinsed out a glass.

"You," Nine smirked, "return to your master, and the doctor. Tell them that I'm ready for another session. I'd like two additional slots, this time."

"Very well, Nine." Kurogiri bowed his head. "All For One will be pleased."

With that, he turned away from the bar to head into the backroom, while Slice kissed Nine's cheek and walked over to begin speaking with Giran, and Camie went back to playing with her quirk. Nine let out a small sigh as he leaned back against the counter, and flipped back over the card to read over the message again.

To the Villain Consortium,

I've heard rumors of your mission, and your plan for a world where the strong are ruled by the weak. While our interests may not entirely align, I believe that there's enough common ground between us to potentially consider an alliance. Call the number on the back of this card to schedule a meeting, and the leaders of our organization can meet yours to discuss this new world order you'd like to create.

Regards,

Re-Destro, Grand Commander of the Meta Liberation Army

---

"You, return to your master, and the doctor. Tell them that I'm ready for another session. I'd like two additional slots, this time."

"Very well, Nine. All For One will be pleased."

Standing right outside the bar, the woman leaning against the wall with the support item pressed into her ear let out a worried hum, biting her lip gently before she finally shook her head and moved her face away from the brick wall. Stealing a fearful glance down both ways of the alley, she quickly began walking - she didn't see anyone, of course, but she knew that if she got caught listening in by anyone coming to and from this bar, it'd be bad for multiple reasons, but because of her … unique appearance due to her quirk, it'd be particularly bad if she got seen.

And … she needed to reach out to the leader. This was bad. This was very … very … bad.

Exiting the alleyway and hurrying down the street, careful to mind anyone that might be beneath her, she quickly stuffed the listening device the leader had given her back into her pocket and pulled out her phone, her eyes flickering around nervously as she began texting.

YOU

got what we need

it's bad

heading to rendevous

GV

Excellent, my dear!

I'll be waiting for you there

Nodding quickly, she put her phone back into her pocket and quickly hurried her pace, hoping she didn't look like she was fleeing or that she was standing out as she let out a small "Please, excuse me!" as she moved around a few of the people walking down the street. She, of course, tried to ignore some of the men and women she passed sending dirty looks her way, one person muttering, "Fucking muttie," as she hurried past, but she tried to push past it - she knew that this was a rough neighborhood, so hearing dirty growling about her size or how she looked was something HQ had let her know before she had gotten there.

Hurrying through the streets as fast as she could, she finally found the alleyway she had been looking for - glancing down it, she let out a small sigh of relief when she saw what looked to be a crudely drawn teacup on the wall, as though whoever had done it had been in a hurry.

Checking both ways before she moved in - and wincing when she saw two police officers standing close by, obviously glancing at how shifty she was being - she didn't hesitate to quickly walk into the alleyway, clutching her hands together and looking around for what she was looking for. Slowing her pace, she began hesitantly kicking around, not seeing anything at first as she let out a small shiver of nervousness - and then, just as she approached the alley wall, her foot felt it.

Eyes widening, she quickly looked down, seeing nothing at first, before she hesitantly stepped back down again, and, to her relief, saw the concrete ground … sink in. As though …

Letting out a deep breath, she closed her eyes - and then, before she had a chance to think, quickly hopped up and down onto the wobbly ground. At once, almost as though it were a trampoline, the ground sank to take in her weight, and then bounced her right up - far higher than she had expected, the large woman letting out a small yelp and waving her arms frantically as she flew up past the building. She then felt another invisible force suddenly hit her butt, making her squeak as she was bounced on an angle right up onto the roof of the building, where her … partner, as he had called himself, was waiting.

And … not paying attention at all.

"… and then," The man laughed as he leaned against the air ventilator on the roof, his finger on the earpiece as he smiled happily, one hand smoothing out his moustache, "when the young man and I had gotten over to the edge of the port, we had been interrupted by the police officers there! Of course, I managed to easily give them the slip, but it was a bit hairy there!"

There was the muffled sound of squealing that she could hear even over on the edge of the roof, dusting herself off and shaking slightly from the panic of being so far up in the air.

"Oh, my lovely La Brava, I imagined we could have had so many views had you recorded it! Alas …"

"U-um -" She managed to finally get out, moving her clawed hands to her knees and panting raggedly as she tried to calm down from her small panic attack. Thankfully, he finally noticed her standing there, his eyes with the black makeup there widening in delight.

"Ah! If you'll excuse me, my dear, my temporary partner is finally here! I should go and make sure we got the information we needed."

"…"

"H-huh?" His fake British accent slipped for a moment, his eyes widening a bit in panic. "Oh, of - of course you are my main partner, La Brava. Of course, silly girl! Don't think for an instant that I would trade you for anyone in the world!"

"…"

"Er - yes. Yes. I understand. Yes."

"…"

He paused for a moment, glancing at the girl with him as his cheeks went a bit red - and then he quickly turned, putting his hand up to his mouth to mutter, "Yes, I love you too, dear."

With that, he finally moved his hand away from his ear to throw out his arms, whirling around and smiling brightly at the young woman who was awkwardly moving away from the edge of the room after she had stolen a small glance down, squeaked in fear again, and wanted to get as far away from it as possible.

"My apologies!" Gentle cheerfully said to her as he took a step forward, his black coat blowing in the wind. "La Brava distracted me with a few photos of our previous adventures before we joined up with the resistance. Still, I assume your mission was successful, my dear Ippan?"

"K-kinda," She shook her head, looking down at the shorter man who only came up to her waist, showing him the worry in her eyes, "it's bad. It's really, really bad. We need to get back to leader so he can know what's going on - the Villain Consortium is moving way faster than he anticipated."

"Very well!" Gentle bowed a bit, looking around. "He's been busy getting ready for the convoy tonight - from what La Brava was telling me, Knuckle and Kugisaki's plane from China will be arriving tonight, and they'll be waiting to pick them up. That, and Miss Haneyama's concert will only keep the crowd's attention on her for so long - we'll need to be ready. Come along, my dear - the Gentle Vigilante will get you home quickly and safely!"

Nodding timidly, she stepped beside him and allowed him to take her large hand, squeezing her eyes shut tightly in fear as they both jumped together at the same time, Gentle using his quirk underneath them to begin bouncing them through the air towards their headquarters. Still, she had to swallow her fear so that she could get back and tell them what was happening - within the span of an afternoon, their fears were not only confirmed, they were about to be amplified by a thousand.

Nine was going to get more quirks. All For One was going to help them. And the Villain Consortium … they were moving forward with plans far earlier than their leader had theorized they would.

Which meant … they needed to hurry. Before it was too late.