27.03.2023

It is I, the Absolute Madman and I'm back with your weekly dose of taking back the Holy Land: Japanese Edition! But first, a comment!:

SonicMax - What about it? It's not foreshadowing or anything now is it?

And now, the chapter!:

When Izuku agreed to try to harness the power of his daemon, he had absolutely no idea how to go about doing just that. Now that he's had some Nezu-funded alone time to devote to this however… he still had no idea how to do that.

By the time the classes were back in session, Izuku wanted to take at least a single step towards harnessing the daemon's power, but no matter how hard he tried his efforts failed to bear any fruit. It almost seemed as if he was moving backwards on the matter despite having just started! Although there were some developments that Izuku hadn't expected.

First was the change in the daemon's behavior. Prior to the start of Izuku's special training, the daemon was very talkative and loved spouting nonsense inside of his mind throughout the day. Now though it was surprisingly tame and avoided as many interactions as it could. It seems Izuku trying to reach out first had rubbed the daemon in the wrong way. Whilst this would definitely stifle any and all progress that Izuku may have hoped to make, this was also a great opportunity to enjoy some time without the constant whispers.

The second unexpected development involved the mysterious businessman - Martin Kravchenko.

Izuku knew right from the start that there was something strange about him, but pushed those suspicions aside since the man had Nezu's trust of all people. But even during their first meeting the aforementioned suspicions had been firmly ingrained into Izuku's psyche.

Martin wanted to question him about the daemon stuff so that he could invent something that could stop the eventual rampage, but the things he asked about seemed weirdly… precise.

'What does the daemon usually tempt you with?' 'How does it feel to have your body taken over?' 'Can you actively wrestle for control?' 'Did the daemon ever speak of strange events that have never happened?'

Those wouldn't probably be too suspicious if it weren't for the fact that Martin actually started the conversation with them. It meant that he understood how the daemon operated at least to some degree, unless Nezu explained the situation to him beforehand. But if that were the case then he wouldn't be asking Izuku those questions. Was he trying to confirm what Nezu had told him? He didn't look like the paranoid type, but you never know. Making deals with Nezu could make even the most stoic of men paranoid.

For now Izuku chose to trust the man, but made sure to keep a close watch on him until he confirms his true intentions.

Even though he didn't seem like a threat, the way his enchanting purple eyes - which were glowing ever so faintly behind his sunglasses - were watching his every move made Izuku weary of him. At least they wouldn't see each other for quite some time probably, so that was something. Or so Izuku thought.

Martin Kravchenko turned out to be an even bigger mystery than Izuku first thought as the businessman made sure to attend each and every one of Izuku's special training sessions to gauge his progress. For someone of his caliber, Martin seemed to have free time with how he traveled half the world just to watch Izuku flail and fail at grasping the daemon's power every now and then.

Still, Izuku couldn't exactly push the man away after receiving help from him as that'd be very rude on his part. And he also didn't do anything specific to warrant such treatment. He was odd for sure, but maybe he was simply fascinated by the idea of daemons existing?

Yeah, he'd go with that just to not have to worry about him.

Once the classes were back in session, it was time to get back to learning! Understandably some were less passionate about it than others, but that was quickly equalized by a sudden, day one announcement.

Aizawa had been hospitalized following the USJ incident, but managed to make a full recovery before the school activities resumed, which meant that things would progress as usual.

Class A gathered for their homeroom and patiently waited for their teacher, determination clear on many faces and the memories of USJ still fresh on their minds. The brief encounter with death was enough of a wake up call for some of the less serious students that time for playing around was over and they should get their heads in the game before they lose them.

Aizawa strolled into the classroom, the front row students noting a slight limp in his step and his unwillingness to put pressure on his right leg which, although healed, was probably not up to par just yet. It didn't stop Aizawa from teaching however, so the students didn't worry about his state anymore.

"Alright, listen up." Aizawa began once he sat down at his desk. "I'd first like to apologize to you for putting you through all of this during your first year. Nezu assured us that he'll look into tightening our security so that nothing like this can happen in the future. Next I'd like to compliment your ability to remain calm which no doubt helped you survive. You've all come out of this more or less unscathed and even though you may not realize just yet, you've grown stronger already." His words kept the entire class quiet as they all knew already that Aizawa was not prone to giving away praise easily. "The USJ Incident had damaged U.A.'s opinion somewhat, so Nezu wants to make a statement. As such we'll be holding the Sports Festival two weeks earlier than usual. This might be sudden, but those of you who can make a name for themselves after all that's happened will surely get a headstart on your path to becoming fully-fledged heroes."

After such an unexpected reveal even Aizawa's presence was not enough to stop the murmurs from resonating within the classroom. Everyone knew of the significance of the Sports Festival and the fact that they were given less time to prepare than normally was adding fuel to the fire as the students made silent vows to do their best during. Once the noise died down, Aizawa continued.

"To compensate for the short preparation period you won't be given any homework till the Sports Festival and some of your classes will be shorter to give you ample time to hone your skills. You can train however you like or you can approach any members of the faculty for help if you feel like you need it. Keep in mind though that not all of them might have the time between their own hero work and teaching, but know that they'll do all they can to help you." Aizawa ended with a heavy sigh and pulled a yellow sleeping bag from one of the drawers. "That's it for announcements. Now let me sleep." And with that he crawled into the sleeping bag and fell asleep on the spot.

The entire classroom was immediately filled with relatively quiet excited murmurs all focused around the very same topic - preparing for the Sports Festival. Some were mostly excited by the fact that they wouldn't have to do homework for the next two weeks, whilst others were already thinking up training regimes to maximize their gainz.

Izuku himself was of course planning to use this time to try and make some progress in controlling the daemon. Though even if he made a major breakthrough over the course of the next two weeks he still wouldn't feel comfortable bringing out the Blade of Antwyr against his fellow students. He doubted if he'll ever feel comfortable utilizing that power, but there might come a time where he'll once again have no other choice but to do it.

Izuku shook his head to banish those thoughts out of his head. Worrying about the future won't mend the past so he should focus on the present instead.

Izuku's quirk worked off of good deeds and grew stronger when he selflessly helped others out, so there wasn't much he could do to improve it except looking out for his fellow classmates. Since he couldn't improve his quirk he decided to train his body as much as he could. He wasn't out of shape by any means, but additional training never hurt anyone.

Short bursts of explosive power were Izuku's strong suit so in order to cover for his weakness he wanted to improve his stamina. He might be a giant of a man, but swinging around a sword that was nearly his size would tire out everyone besides the most experienced swordmasters.

His new, stamina-oriented training regime would begin with a morning jog before school to get his blood pumping and get a good wake up call to raise his overall awareness throughout the day. He expected to be the only one up so early in the morning but was surprised to find that this was not the case!

"Ashido, what a surprise to see you. Pardon my observation but I didn't take you for a morning person." Izuku said politely when he spotted the pink girl standing by the entrance to their dorm.

"That's because I'm not." Ashido responded simply with a gargantuan yawn which further emphasized her point.

"Why are you up so early in the morning then?" Izuku asked as he put on his shoes and began tying them in preparation for his jog.

"Eiji got super excited about the Sports Festival thingy and he roped me into his training regime for the next two weeks whilst constantly shouting about manliness like he always does." The girl whined though there was a hint of a fond smile on her lips.

"I doubt this is the first time something like this has happened." Izuku said with a smirk.

"And you'd be right. We're constantly dragging each other into our own stuff. I work out with him and in return he has to sing at karaoke!" Ashido replied, her usual levels of energy starting to show.

"You two seem to be practically made for each other!" Izuku said with a chuckle and Ashido had to turn away from him to hide the slight blush that crept onto her cheeks. "I'll be going now. Take care." Izuku was about to head out for his morning jog but Ashido stopped him before he was able to take even a single step.

"Hey, maybe you'd like to join us?!" She exclaimed in excitement. "The more the merrier, right?"

Izuku weighed the offer for a few moments before eventually agreeing with a smile. And so they waited for Kirishima to come back since, as Ashido had explained to Izuku - he went back to his room to change because his shirt wasn't manly enough. They didn't have to wait long as the sound of hurried footsteps soon reached their ears. The duo turned around to greet Kirishima but were surprised to find that the footsteps didn't belong to their missing comrade.

"Iida? What are you doing here?" Ashido questioned in confusion.

"Oh, I'm about to go on my morning jog. My quirk is all about speed and stamina so it's crucial for me to keep my lower body in tip-top shape!" Iida replied simply. "I assume you two were about to do something similar?"

"That's right! We're going for a run too, but we're still waiting for Eiji." Ashido confirmed with a grin.

"You can join us if you want to." Izuku offered right away.

Iida, just as Izuku, had weighed the proposal for a few moments before eventually agreeing as well. Now the three of them had to wait for Kirishima to get back.

"How can a shirt be 'manly'?" Iida wondered out loud once Ashido clued him in on the situation.

"Beats me." Ashido replied with an exasperated sigh and a bright smile.

A few moments of silence passed before they heard another set of hurried footsteps heading in their direction. The trio turned around to greet Kirishima but were once again surprised by yet another unexpected arrival.

"I see that we're not late to this mad banquet of darkness." Tokoyami said in his typical cryptic/edgy way as he turned the corner with Dark Shadow swinging behind him.

"Let me guess, you're going for a morning jog as well?" Ashido asked though she already knew the answer. Tokoyami confirmed her guess with a nod and Ashido wasted no time, immediately letting him tag along.

Tokoyami quickly made up his mind and joined the trio, turning it into a quartet, and so they continued waiting for the last piece of their puzzle.

Soon enough another set of hurried footsteps sounded from the inside of their dorms. The quartet turned around to greet Kirishima, already expecting someone completely different, but were once again surprised, this time by Kirishima himself who's finally changed and was ready to work up a sweat.

"Hey guys, what are you doing here?" He asked with a toothy grin once he spotted all the new people who weren't there when he sprinted upstairs.

"We're going for a jog, you wanna join us?" Izuku asked with a smile.

"Hell yeah! Let's do it!" Kirishima exclaimed and basically booked it outside with the rest of the group following closely behind him.

"Please refrain from shouting so loudly! Some of our classmates are still sleeping after all!" Iida chastised as they exited the building, missing the fact that he shouted even louder than Kirishima.

Izuku had nothing against working out alone, but he had to admit that jogging was way more fun with his friends than without them.

Daily jogs with Tokoyami, Iida, Kirishima and Ashido were but a part of Izuku's training leading up to the Sports Festival. He and Kirishima also hit one of the gyms on a regular basis to lift some weights and work out with proper equipment. Kirishima even mentioned something about sparring, but Izuku didn't feel up to it just yet, so they settled on shadow boxing where they tried to mimic each other's movements. It probably wasn't as good of a learning experience as regular sparring would be, but it was definitely fun.

Izuku didn't limit himself to training with just his classmates however. Whilst some of them were definitely buying into the rivalry between the two hero course classes, Izuku was not nearly competitive enough to follow in their footsteps. As such he made sure to hang out with Shiozaki every now and again even for something as simple as lunch in between classes.

Apparently class B also had certain instigators which were dead set on proving that they were superior to class A. Some even went as far as to say that due to their encounter with villains, Izuku and his classmates would surely be overconfident and it was only a matter of time before someone knocks them off of their high horse. The sheer insensitivity of that statement was enough to freeze Izuku in his step for a brief moment. To think that someone would try to use that traumatic experience to insult them.

Thankfully Shiozaki was there to assure him that most of her classmates were actually much more sympathetic towards the Incident and all of the baggage that came with it. Kendo, their class rep, made sure to shut down any attempts at glorifying anything that's happened at the USJ which Izuku was very thankful for and made a mental note to thank the amber-haired girl whenever he got a chance.

Between training with his classmates, hanging out with Shiozaki, trying to tame his daemon and convincing himself that Martin Kravchenko had no ulterior motives, two weeks basically flew by in an instant and the three day event that was the Sports Festival had begun.

U.A.'s Sports Festival always followed the same schedule. First years would compete during the first day of the event, their seniors in second year would compete the day after and the third years would usually be the main part of the event, ensuring that the Sports Festival ends on a high note. This year however, the situation wasn't as clear as usual.

The USJ Incident had brought a lot of attention - some of it desired, some of it unwanted - towards the class that had a close encounter with death under their belt - class A. The first day of the Sports Festival was usually the least watched part of the entire event as there was little that first year students could have to show off and was mostly watched by heroes who were interested in extending an internship offer to the participating students.

This year however it seemed as if the first day would rival the third day in terms of popularity. It didn't exactly sit right with Izuku, but both fame and infamy are things that a future hero would certainly have to deal with at some point in their career. Still, he wished that people showed at least some level of decency.

"Look at them." The daemon spoke up as Izuku's eyes lazily scanned the stands packed to the brim with excited spectators, eager to watch the students compete against each other. "Have you ever thought that you're basically like gladiators of old? Pitted against overwhelming odds and each other just to entertain a crowd? Don't you think that's weirdly fucked up?"

Izuku would've probably responded with no small amount of venom if it weren't for the fact that the daemon had mostly kept to himself the past couple of days.

"And here I thought I was finally free." Izuku simply thought, though some strangely attached part of him was glad to hear that second voice in his head once again.

"Dream on, kid."

And with that the link went silent once again. Izuku didn't pay much attention to it however as there were other, much more important things to focus on. The Sports Festival was about to begin.

So yeah, not a lot of action this chapter, but we're getting there! Sports Festival baby!

I'll most likely reuse the first event from the canon, but I was thinking about switching it up for the second round even though it too could work out quite nicely with the setup I have in mind. I'll probably flip a coin on Sunday to decide what to do!

Also, Kirishima, Ashido and Tokoyami are most likely going to become the main members of the Deku Squad for this story with some future additions in mind and a few occasional members.

Alas that's all for today so have a great day and I'll catch y'all in the next update!