AN: Professor Donger: A bit shorter of a chapter for you guys to set up the Final Round of the Sports Festival, we hope you guys are as excited as we are.

Damian: Despite the smaller word count we hope this chapter is up to standard. Regardless, like all other chapters, it was fun to write.

Enjoy!

Melissa stared worriedly at her girlfriend, who was standing across from her and leaning back against the bar of the booth. They had commandeered one of the empty booths that were usually used by visiting heroes or more important guests, but most of them were in the crowd this year, wanting to get a closer look at the cream of the crop up-and-coming hero students.

Izumi's arms were crossed over her chest and she was tapping her flesh and blood fingers along her prosthetic arm, making a tapping noise that she knew drove Melissa up the wall.

That meant that Izumi was definitely more than a little peeved at her, though for the life of her, Melissa couldn't figure out why.

After a few more moments of incessant tapping, Izumi finally spoke up. "Are you going to apologize?"

"...For?"

"You know what you did, Mel!"

"I… really don't Izu. Was it because the Vader-bot messed up your students?"

"Wha– No that was sick! Fuck those kids! I mean, I love 'em, but fuck 'em." Izumi grinned for a moment before her pout returned full force "No you know what you did! Apologize."

"Remember when we started dating and we promised not to do this passive-aggressive 'you know what you did' bullshit with each other? I do, and I'm reminding you that I can revoke your armory access. Now tell me what the hell I did!"

Izumi groaned and stomped her foot like a petulant child. "You gave Vader all these cool toys! And you didn't even let me test them out! Or give me prototypes! Or upgrades! Or anything!"

"...Really?"

"Why does Disney get a cool Lightsaber-wielding murder robot and my suit gets squat!?"

"You can literally summon weapons to your hand at will, do you know how many laws of physics I had to work around or borderline break to get that to work!?"

"It's still not a Lightsaber!"

"Izumi, you aren't due for a suit upgrade for another year, that's literally part of your contract with me. I made your current suit for you nearly four years ago, I've been working on your new one –" Melissa clamped her mouth shut and Izumi squealed.

"You have?!" She had the smile of a child on Christmas as she got up in Melissa's face.

"I am not talking about this anymore."

"What, no! Don't tease me like that!" Izumi dramatically leaned against Melissa as she began to beg. "Tell me more, pleeeaaassseee!"

Now, people may think that Izumi, in fact, wore the pants in the relationship. She put on an air of confidence that most women, and even some men, would beg a higher power to be endowed with. She had charisma, bravery, and kindness in spades.

She was, ironically, the extrovert of the two and she handled social interactions better than Melissa ever could. This was honestly why most of the time, unless Melissa was being forced into it by Izumi, Melissa let her girlfriend handle said situations.

However, just because Izumi was essentially the head of their little family most of the time, that didn't mean that Melissa didn't have teeth.

After all, she had to put up with Izumi's eccentricities, and she was ultimately the one who had to shut down either Izumi or Himiko's more outlandish ideas.

So it really shouldn't have surprised Izumi when Melissa grabbed her by the ear and pulled her close, their foreheads touching. "Izumi Midoriya, you will get it when the contract expires, and not a moment sooner. If you bug me about it one more Goddamn time I'll refit it and give it to Miguel instead!"

Izumi's eyes widened comically and Melissa swore she could see a tear building up in her natural eye.

"You wouldn't."

Melissa just raised an eyebrow at her and Izumi wilted.

"Fiiine." She backed up and pouted once again, only for Melissa to walk up and kiss her on the cheek.

"After the tournament, we'll talk about adding a lightsaber to your arsenal, how about that?"

Izumi squealed and hugged Melissa, the two stayed like that for a moment before Izumi pulled back a bit and looked at her, a serious expression on her face.

"Honestly, I wasn't that mad about the whole thing, I was mainly messing with you." She flinched and laughed as Melissa smacked her on the arm. "Hey, you're too easy to mess with, and I love it. But what I really wanted to talk to you about was a bit more important." Her smile was quickly replaced by a frown.

Melissa frowned but nodded, waiting for Izumi to continue.

"I think you need to work on the Vader AI a bit more before you ship that thing to Disney World, hon."

"I mean, he was a little aggressive…" Melissa started only to be cut off by Izumi.

"You did see what happened with Ashido's team right?" Izumi asked. Once she got a nod she continued, "It was going to hurt them, badly. The moment the fight started it aimed to break Kirishima's arms, the only reason it couldn't was because of his quirk. I know for a fact this was before you upped the difficulty, Nezu was keeping me updated about what was happening."

Melissa frowned, not really understanding the problem but trusting her girlfriend's assessment, she was the Pro–Hero and combat expert after all.

"The only reason it stopped trying to literally maim the students was because Cat overwrote it and took control almost immediately. She was piloting the bot the entire match."

Melissa's eyes widened and her breath hitched, but Izumi quickly cut her off before she could start panicking about her supposed "failure."

"I don't know why Vader acted the way he did while the other bots didn't, but you're the smarterer of the two of us, you'll figure it out." She bumped Melissa's shoulder with her natural fist lightly and smiled at her. "Honestly though, we're lucky Cat adores you, or she'd have joined Nezu and taken over the world by now."

"First of all, the word is smarter… not smarterer." Melissa mumbled but she was smiling. She quickly rubbed her chin in thought. "Secondly, I have fail-safes in place in case that happens, I learned my lesson after the Robot Uprising last time."

"That was a fun time."

"And also, Cat wouldn't want to rule the world in the first place. Managing it would be too much work." Melissashrugged. "I mean, why do you think I haven't taken it over by now?"

"True." Izumi shrugged before kissing Melissa softly on the lips, the older woman humming at the contact.

Melissa gasped in surprise as Izumi spun them around so her back was to the bar, and soon Izumi had her pinned against it as she continued to kiss her. It took a moment for their lips to separate so Melissa could even talk.

"What are you doing?" She breathlessly asked.

Izumi hummed as she lifted one of her hands from the bar to move some of Melissa's hair out of her face. "Well, I'm sure it took a lot of hard work to design and build those robots, their AI, and their weapons. I figured the beautiful, gorgeous genius responsible deserves some…" Izumi leaned close to Melissa's ear and whispered, "Appreciation."

Melissa felt a tingle run down her spine. "And this is your appreciation?"

Izumi leaned back and smiled at her. "Yeah, pretty much."

"You sure this isn't just an excuse to kiss me?"

Izumi scoffed. "As if I need an excuse for that. Speaking of which." She leaned back in and resumed kissing Melissa, the inventor lifting her hands to run them through Izumi's hair.

It was when they separated for air that Melissa took her chance to speak again. "As much as I'm sure I'd enjoy whatever you have planned, I gotta remind you that one: We can't be gone forever. And two: I don't have a spare change of clothes if these ones get messy."

Izumi groaned as she rested her head on Melissa's shoulder to think. "Hmm, fine, I'll reign it in."

Melissa hummed as she combed her fingers through green hair. "And also be quick, alright? Five minutes."

Izumi lifted her head and looked at Melissa in disbelief. "What?!"

"We gotta get back soon, babe. Five minutes."

Izumi pouted. "Ten."

Melissa narrowed her eyes. "Five."

"Ten!" Izumi said like a child demanding candy.

Melissa would have none of it, she closed one of her hands in Izumi's hair into a fist and gave a small but firm tug. Izumi's pout quickly fell to shock as she gasped and was forced to listen as Melissa said, "I'm about to lower it to three."

"...Six and a half?" Izumi asked hopefully.

Melissa raised an eyebrow and pretended to think about it before saying, "Fine."

Izumi let out a quiet "yes" in victory, though obviously Melissa heard it with how close they were.

"By the way," Melissa started with a smug grin, "your time started already. A minute is gone."

Izumi blinked at her. "...Since when did you get so mean?"

Melissa giggled but said nothing else as Izumi returned to showing her "appreciation".

Consciousness came to Momo slowly, light and noise being noticed by her slowly awakening brain with every passing second.

Where was she?

Why was her body tingling?

Why was Mina so damn loud?!

With a groan, she started focusing on the words of the conversation around her as she tried to sit up. A task easier said than done when her whole body felt numb. It felt like her entire body had been asleep, with pins and needles shooting up her back as she moved.

"You know," Momo heard a voice that sounded like Kyouka saying, "I don't think I've ever met a sane person who was happy to get fucked up the way your team did. Well, except Katsuki, but he's a different kind of sane I guess."

"Oi!"

Momo could hear the pout in Mina's voice as she said, "Oh that part sucked! But, like, c'mon! It was just like a horror movie! A mysterious monster in the dark, the potential victim suddenly dragged away screaming, the unstoppable beast roaming the hallways with no escape, it was awesome!" Mina sighed happily.

Momo finally cracked open her eyes to survey her surroundings, hissing in pain as the light reached her retinas. She tried to angle her head to look over in the direction where Mina and Kyouka were talking, only to squeak as she came nose to nose with a glass of water.

She pulled away from the glass and looked up at the person holding it, locking eyes with a trying to look indifferent Katsuki Bakugou. "Drink."

With shaky hands, she took the water and sipped it, sighing happily as the cold water soothed her dry throat. After a few more sips she asked the question that was bugging her. "What happened?"

"You died, that's what." Katsuki bluntly said.

Momo nearly choked on her next sip of water. "W-what?"

From her other side, a jack came flying towards Katsuki's face, but he just managed to avoid being stabbed in the eye. "Asshole, she just woke up!"

"And?"

Kyouka groaned before looking at Momo. "Vader got you."

Momo blinked as she tried to remember all that happened before she was eliminated, the memories quickly coming back to her, including her little hallucination. "Oh…"

"Hey, I wouldn't blame yourself for that," Kyouka assured her, "Vader was a tough bastard, took nearly four whole teams to beat him, and even then just barely."

"Oh yeah, that!" Mina butted into the conversation from her bed nearby. "That was also epic! Oh man, Denki's super move at the end, just," she gave a chef's kiss.

Momo looked over and noticed the bandages on Mina's head. "What happened to you?"

"Oh, this?" Mina pointed at her head. "It's nothing now, but back when the event started Vader kind of got a little too rough with us and my whole team ended up in here for some pretty serious injuries." She pointed at Ejirou in the bed next to her, who was removing the last bit of bandages from his arms. "It's all good now though, just waiting for good ol' Recovery Girl to give us the all clear… though I don't know where the hell she is, I haven't seen her all day, just this other nurse who I guess works for her or something."

She flinched as a cane hit her bed hard enough to vibrate it, everyone in the infirmary turned to look at the young lady who could only be the nurse Mina had been talking about glaring at her.

"You know, being complimented for looking younger should be flattering, but right now it's irritating." The woman spoke in a firm voice that had everyone flinching in recognition. "I am Recovery Girl."

Everyone stared at her in silence, until it was broken by Katsuki shouting out, "No the fuck you aren't!"

"Yes, Mister Bakugo, the fuck I am." She said as she removed Mina's bandages. "I look like this because of an accident with another patient's quirk. No, I won't be telling you what happened, yes, you can all get the hell out of my infirmary and go get lunch." The last thing they heard her mumble as she walked away was, "damn place is crowded enough as it is."

Momo raised her hand to ask if that included her and jumped as Recovery Girl took notice of her. "Yes, Miss Yaoyorozu, that includes you, that walking abomination's sword should have numbed you and given you a pretty bad shock, but not damaged you. And even if it had my quirk or those Nanobots Miss Shield provided UA would have fixed you up, so as long as you can stand, you may go."

"Oh, uhm, thank you, Ma'am." Momo grunted as she moved to sit on the side of the bed, preparing herself to stand. After a few moments, she attempted it, stumbling slightly as she got up, only for Kyouka to catch her.

"You sure you're good?" Kyouka asked, receiving a nod in return.

"Yeah, yes, of course." Momo smiled up at her as she struggled to stand fully. "Just have to get the blood pumping again, everything is just so numb." She tried to take a step forward, only to hiss at the feeling of pins and needles. "This… May be harder than I thought."

Katsuki hummed (which sounded more like a growl coming from him), and sighed. "...Twice is serving food in the cafeteria. All you can eat for students too."

Momo immediately found the strength to stand on her own. "Why didn't you say so!? What the hell are we still doing here?!"

She immediately began to rush off to the cafeteria, Kyouka glanced at Katsuki and barely kept herself from laughing at how pissed he looked before running off to catch up. Ejirou just chuckled while Mina from her own bed didn't even try to hide her laughter.

"Of all things to get her out of this shithole and it's fuckin' Jango's food."

"Don't be too jealous, Bakugou," Mina teased.

"Fuck you Racoon Eyes, I ain't jealous." Katsuki roughly put his hands in his pockets and started walking away. "You guys coming or what?"

Mina grinned and sprung from her bed. "Hell yeah! Twice makes the best Okra Natto!" She paused and glanced over at Ejirou who had gotten out of his own bed and was walking with her. "Don't tell my mom I said that."

He deliberately made the motion of zipping his mouth shut, locking it, and throwing away the key before the two of them left the infirmary.

"'I'll reign it in' my ass," Melissa grumbled as she made sure her shirt covered the new mark near her collarbone.

"Hey, I didn't hear you complaining," Izumi said as the two neared the door to the Midoriya booth. "In fact, I heard a few other choice words coming out of your mouth."

Melissa turned beat red before shoving Izumi, causing the gunslinger to burst out laughing. "Shut up!"

Izumi walked up to the door and grabbed the handle, choosing not to open it just yet. "You'd like to make me, wouldn't you?"

"Keep acting up and I just might be forced to." Melissa purred, causing Izumi to shudder.

"Later, the door's opening," Izumi warned Melissa before opening the door and allowing her girlfriend to head in first.

The two stepped in to see Nezu chatting with a newly returned Aizawa and the now-present Vlad King. Eri was getting her hair braided by Inko. Himiko, Toshinori, and Hisashi were nowhere to be seen. Jin was busy behind the counter cooking up a storm and Yu was busy chatting with Present Mic about his show.

Nezu was the first to notice them and wave them in. "Ah, come in! Come in you two! I was just talking to Aizawa and Vlad about their… concerns regarding each of their students' performances."

"My class got absolutely demolished and I want to make sure they get puni –" Vlad flinched at Nezu's look before correcting himself, "trained properly. They were fooling around, and I hope they learned their damn lesson because right now only Shinso, Shiozaki, and Monoma are free from my disappointment."

Aizawa gave a gruff huff before saying, "My class did slightly better, but their teamwork was awful most of the time, and the four jokers who tried to fight Vader at the end deserve to be put through so much personal training that they puke."

Izumi nodded in agreement while Melissa shuddered.

She hung out with a lot of heroes thanks to Izumi, but she would never get over how… intense they could be. Still, she had to speak up in the defense of the students, it wasn't their fault they were wholly inadequate for her glorious creations.

"It's not their fault, I designed Vader to fight Uncle Might, the fact that they even beat him in the first place was incredible."

Vlad looked at her like she was insane, while Aizawa just scoffed. "They may not have been expected to take the bastard down but they have been trained for weeks, months even, on how to at least work as teams. Yes, they are green, yes they aren't up to pro-hero standards but that," He pointed to the screen showing replays of the different team perspectives, both glorious moments as well as embarrassments being replayed for the world to see. "That is inexcusable, most of them didn't even work as units to get the job done, instead focusing on individual tactics or their own combat power."

"It was only up until the end that the remaining teams showed any proper synergy to take the Boss down," Vlad commented. "The only team from my class with consistent synergy was the duo of Yanagi and Kodai, but they ended up getting overrun by those Hunters."

Aizawa nodded. "Team Tsunotori and maybe Team Bakugou on my end were the only two that really showed any synergy but it's a hard maybe with regard to Bakugou's team. Yaoyorozu held them together and when they fought the boss after she was eliminated they were partially directionless."

"We'll work on that," Izumi affirmed. Working together was an essential part of being a hero which was constantly swept under the rug, regardless of country. The number of times she'd been working with other heroes, either one of her apprentices or those lower ranked than her, and had overshadowed them in the news because of her status as "Texas' Golden Girl" and "The Number Two Hero in the state" were too many instances to count.

That public perception bled into the mentality of hero hopefuls, which was then metaphorically and literally beaten out of them by their prospective schools.

It was something Izumi personally enjoyed doing with those who joined her agency back in the States. She would have cocky kids come in and think it would be easy to become popular by overshadowing the quirkless hero who was ranked 10th in the country, only for them to get their asses handed to them. Some would leave after realizing there was no "easy glory", but she would teach those that stayed the importance of working as a unit.

Izumi clapped her hands together before saying, "Alright, on that note I'm gonna head out."

"Where are you going? We literally just got back" Melissa asked as she gratefully accepted a plate from Jin.

"I'm going to harass my kids," Izumi told them as she turned to head for the door.

"You have more than one!?" Yu shouted in surprise, causing Eri to look at Izumi in confusion, jostling her hair enough to annoy Inko, who glared at her daughter, daring her to ruin this precious Grandma moment she was having.

"I meant my students, Yu!"

"...Oh, yeah that makes more sense." Yu nodded before grinning. "Well, I'm coming with ya!"

"...Why?"

"Ima poach some of your kids before the others do!"

"I'm pretty sure that's not allowed Yu…" Izumi glanced at Nezu who shrugged. "But what the hell?! Come on!" Izumi began making her way out of the room before turning to Jin. "Oh, JinJin, one of your clones is cooking for the brats right?"

Jin gave her a thumbs up as he expertly flipped some rice on his stove and Izumi grinned.

"Great! That means I can steal some of their food!" Izumi's evil laughter trailed after her as she started sprinting down the hall toward where the students were eating lunch.

"But why!?" Yu asked as she ran to catch her friend.

"Because why not?! They wanna keep their food, they gotta keep me away!"

"I wasn't able to stop you in junior high, what makes you think they'll be able to?!"

"EXACTLY!"

The two Pro Heroes managed to get to the student food court pretty quickly, it was a pretty impressive little thing, with tables all around with different stalls along the walls, all manned by a Jin clone who specialized in one type of food or another. There were similar stands all throughout the different food courts for the Festival.

Her baby brother was making bank.

Izumi was so proud.

She closed her biological eye and let her fancy new prosthetic one do its thing, instantly locking onto the one student whose biometric profile had been in her eyes software since the day she got the damn thing.

Kacchan.

He was surrounded by his team from the last event, calmly listening to them talk as he dug into his curry, and luckily for Izumi, his back was to her.

Her fond smile at seeing her very pissy, antisocial, pomeranian of a brother surrounded by friends immediately turned into a positively evil grin.

Yu leaned forward to try and follow where Izumi was looking, and a matching evil grin adorned her face as she saw their target.

"We're about to embarrass him, aren't we?" She asked.

"The universe wouldn't be right if we didn't." Izumi nodded sagely.

Yu grinned "Tag team hug attack?"

"The oldest team attack in Mount Lady and Flintlock's arsenal." Izumi rolled her shoulders with a smile. "Let's get closer."

As the two discreetly made their way over to the table, they began to overhear the conversation between the students.

"No way, I had the best moment! Did you see me chuck that spear?" Denki bragged. "Like sure I fried myself but those Nanomachines did wonders!"

They heard Kyouka snort. "Yeah, but for those five minutes they were working their magic you were dumb as a rock." She twisted her face into her best impression of Denki with his brain fried. "Whey!"

"Yeah, yeah, laugh all you want, but it was my plan that killed him." Denki defended himself.

Ochako chimed in from her seat across from them. "Hey! I was the one who smashed 'em with the hammer! So it was my kill!"

"Actually, it was Hagakure who dealt the final blow, I looked over the footage." Momo corrected.

"Oh yeah, she was so done with everything!" Kyouka started another laughing fit.

"Still bullshit that they got the points from that," Katsuki growled as dipped his spoon into his curry.

"Oh, don't be so grumpy, Kacchan." Someone said behind him to his right.

Katsuki's face paled immediately as he recognized the new voice that had entered the conversation. "...God, I know we haven't seen each other in forever, but please have mercy."

He paled even further, if that was even possible, when Izumi's voice reached his left ear. "Silly little brother, there is no mercy."

It was then that the two sneaking heroes struck, hugging him between themselves as they pushed Kyouka and Momo further down the table and took their spots on the bench.

Then they did something that made Katsuki want to cry amd die.

They broke out the annoying big sister voices.

"Kacchan!" Izumi mock cried as she rubbed her cheek against his.

"It's been forever!" Yu groaned as she did the same thing.

Izumi perked up and yoinked his spoon out of his hand "Ohh is this curry!?" She asked as she immediately took a bite of it.

"Are these your friends?!" Yu gushed as she looked at Denki, Kyouka, and Momo as well as the other members of 1-A and B that were seated at the surprisingly big table.

"You didn't tell us you had other friends besides us!" Izumi cried as she took another bite of curry. Momo couldn't help but giggle at her teacher's antics and judging by the snickers going around the table, neither could anyone else.

"I'm gonna murder every single fucking person at this table," Katsuki growled dangerously.

Denki leaned back, away from the walking bomb. "What did we do?!"

"You're witnesses."

"He's growing up so fast!" Yu nodded as she took a spoon from one of the other students and also began eating his curry.

"I know! He was so small and cute back then! Remember that time when he –"

"Nope! Not doing this shit again!" Katsuki growled as he stood up, pushing the two away from him and grabbing his bowl.

"Awww but Kacchan! Where are you going?!" Izumi called after him.

"To get more curry because you two fuckers can't stop eating my shit!"

The two pro heroes watched him leave before Yu said, "Oh, he's getting more curry for us!" She looked at Izumi. "What a gentleman."

Katsuki turned back and glared at her. "Fuck you, Inches!"

Izumi's grin turned frigid and the entire table felt the joy being sucked out of the room when she spoke next. "And when you get back, we can talk about that mouth of yours."

Katsuki tried to maintain his glare but he couldn't and immediately started marching toward Jin's curry stall.

"You know how I like my curry!" Yu shouted as she waved for him.

"Mine too!" Izumi mimicked Yu, her smile was now more friendly.

The students all released their held breaths at once.

"How does she do that?" Ochako whispered.

"I don't know," Pony whispered back, captivated by what had just happened.

"I must learn how…" Ochako whispered to no one in particular, her eyes wide in admiration.

"So!" Izumi turned back to the class with a clap of her hands. Before speaking she expertly, like the food goblin she was, snatched a kebob off Momo's plate before she could react. "How are you guys likin' this year's sports festival so far?"

"Honestly, Sensei?" Kyouka spoke up. "I'm just gonna say it, Vader was bullshit."

"He just wouldn't fuckin' die!" Ochako yelled as she bit into her rice and only rice.

She literally had nothing else on her plate and it caused Izumi to raise an eyebrow.

"Why are you only eating rice?"

"...Everything else is too expensive?" Ochako nervously answered.

"Students eat free." Izumi deadpanned looking around at the students who looked surprised at this revelation. "Did… did none of you notice you didn't pay for any of your food?"

Momo raised her hand. "I mean, I did, but only because Katsuki told me."

"...I'll be right back!" Ochako was about to rush off, but Izumi quickly raised her hand to stop her.

She brought her fingers to her mouth but stopped, she quickly turned to Kyouka and gestured for her to plug her ears. Once she was satisfied that she wouldn't deafen her student she whistled.

And like the good brother he was, Jin rushed to his sister's call. Well a clone of him, but still.

Specifically by popping out from under the table.

"I have been summoned! Waddya want?! I'm busy!"

"Did you forget to tell the students they didn't have to pay you for food?" Izumi asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I thought their homeroom teachers told them that? Those 1-B punks knew not to pay."

"Well, Aizawa was knocked out, so that explains that." Izumi nodded.

"No no, sis, like they were supposed to know before coming to the stadium."

Izumi broke the spoon in her hand with a snap.

The students stared in slight fear and confusion. "How the fuck…?

Izumi didn't say anything, instead, she brought a finger to her ear and hissed into it.

"Aizawa you scraggly fuck I know you're listening through the cameras. Explain."

"In his defense, we're all listening in through the cameras. Vlad wanted to see if you punished his class for their failure. I am glad to see that you haven't." Nezu chimed in.

Aizawa chose that moment to speak up. "In my defense, it honestly slipped my mind, I was busy giving them last-minute advice and making sure they knew not to do anything stupid on live television."

Izumi closed her eyes and counted to ten, and then twenty, and then thirty before sighing and grumbling "Fine, but you're making your own teacher's lounge coffee for a week."

"You bit – horrible person." Aizawa hastily corrected himself. Izumi chuckled, having heard both Inko and Melissa clear their throats in the background warning him about his language.

"Okay well, now that that's settled." She turned to Jin. "Get these kids like one of everything from the stands Jin, they earned it with the ass-kicking they both gave and received." She then pointed at Ochako. "And especially make sure she eats."

The aforementioned student flinched. "Why am I getting singled out?!"

"Well, you threw up within the last hour… twice," Izumi looked at her with concern.

"I had to clean up that mess in the hallway," Jin added.

Ochako winced. "Sorry."

"Meh don't worry about it, I've had to deal with worse." Jin shrugged as he wandered off to follow his sister's orders.

Izumi waved the clone off before turning back to her students. "But yeah, you guys have the final event coming up, can't have you running on empty."

She was about to continue when Itsuka Kendo walked up and interrupted the conversation, not rudely but in an urgent way that gave Izumi pause.

"Excuse me, Flintlock-Sensei?" Itsuka wrung her hands nervously. "Can I talk to you? Privately?"

Izumi looked concerned but nodded, standing up and following the other girl away from prying ears. She snorted as Yu picked up the conversation.

"So! How was your first time getting thrown like a ragdoll? I remember my first time…"

The two made it to their destination and Izumi leaned against the wall, her eye making sure the other teachers, especially Vlad, were listening just in case they were needed more than Izumi was. "What's up, kid?"

Itsuka crossed her arms, almost hugging herself as she looked at the floor. "Okay, uhm… wow, I thought this would be easier."

Izumi frowned in concern. "Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, totally, everything's fine!" Itsuka quickly said. "It's just…" She took a fortifying breath before saying, "I want to withdraw from the next event."

Izumi blinked. "...I'm sorry, say that again."

"I… I want to withdraw." Itsuka said again.

Izumi crossed her arms as she raised an eyebrow. "Like, your whole team, or…"

Itsuka's eyes widened as she waved her hands frantically. "No no no! Not my whole team! They deserve to move on. It's… just me who doesn't."

"Uh-huh…" Izumi slowly nodded. "Elaborate."

"Well, during that last event, I got knocked out pretty much instantly and left my team to do the rest of it themselves. I fucked up. Sorry for the language."

"Hey, I don't give a shit about your language, just don't direct it at me or use it within hearing distance of my kid."

Itsuka snorted. "Right, anyways, they worked hard while I did pretty much nothing. They even helped with the final attack that killed the Boss. They deserve to move on." Itsuka looked like she was on the verge of crying. "I don't."

"Well, I'm sorry you feel that way Kendo." Izumi softly said as she stepped forward and placed her hand on Itsuka's shoulder. "It takes a lot of courage to admit when you've fucked up, it takes even more courage to take initiative and step down from a position you feel you didn't earn. For what it's worth, coming from me, I'm proud of you."

Itsuka tried, but she couldn't help it when her breath hitched. "Thank you, Sensei."

Izumi hummed. "I'll let the teachers know you stepped down and to find someone to replace you in the tournament, but chin up, kid, you're a hero in my book, tournament winner or not."

Itsuka sniffed and gave a bitter laugh as she wiped away a stray tear. "Sorry, I'm really trying here…"

"Pff, you think I'm gonna judge you for a few tears?" Izumi pointed at her good eye. "You should see me when I get emotional, can damn near flood a house, and I only have one tear duct!" Itsuka let out a more joyful laugh at that, making Izumi smile just a little wider.

Itsuka sighed, "It's just… I wish I was able to do more before getting eliminated."

"Hey, I wouldn't worry too much about losing to Vader. I'll let you in on a little design secret." Izumi gestured to Itsuka to come closer, waiting for her to do so before she whispered, "Vader was able to take a maxed-out punch from All Might. Miss Shield went a little overboard when designing it."

Itsuka had a look of horror on her face as she leaned back. "...AND WE WERE SUPPOSED TO FIGHT THAT?!"

Izumi snorted before breaking out into full-blown laughter. "Kid, I don't think anyone was supposed to beat him!"

"That event was bullshit!"

"So I've heard," Izumi wiped a stray tear away as she calmed herself. "Yeah, that's one of the reasons students are being given free lunch, a sort of 'we're sorry for sending you to your deaths' type thing."

Itsuka shook her head in disbelief. "Unbelievable. Alright, well, I'm gonna accept that apology then."

"You do that, you've got about thirty minutes." Izumi nudged her to start heading off.

Itsuka made it only a few steps before turning back to Izumi, a grateful smile on her face. "Thanks again, Sensei."

Izumi gave her a smile that lit up the room. "Anytime, kiddo!"

Izumi watched her student walk away for a few more moments before putting a hand to her ear. "You guys got all that?"

"Yes, and I do believe we already have our contestant, we just need to talk to them about it. Midoriya, if you'd be so kind as to approach Team Yanagi? We can't promote both, but we can at least ask and see which one would be amicable to move forward." Nezu urged.

Izumi nodded, quickly making her way back to the main cafeteria and over to the 1-B's table. She poked the only two members of Team Yanagi. "Excuse me, girls?" Once she got their attention she continued. "Would you mind if we talked for a minute? I won't take up too much of your time." She pointed to a spot a bit away from the table and waited.

The two looked at each other before standing up and following their heroics teacher.

"Alright," Izumi said once they joined her. "So, right to the point, Kendo dropped out of the Festival, she won't be participating in the final event."

"Is she alright?" Reiko asked.

"She's fine, she just didn't feel able to continue, and that's all I'll say," Izumi explained. "That being said, someone needs to take her spot, and that would have to be someone from the runner-up team, which is you two."

"Hm?" Yui hummed with a tilt of her head.

"Yes, Kodai, it's because the two of you ripped and tore through a bunch of Stormtroopers like you were in a game of Doom."

"Hm."

"Sure, I'll look into maybe having one of the heroics classes be nothing but destroying robots if your class does well."

Reiko looked between Izumi and Yui a few times before saying, "How is it you are able to understand her so well when she hardly speaks any actual words?"

Izumi shrugged, "My mentor was a mute, I've had to get pretty good at knowing to understand different forms of nonverbal communication. Anyway, I'm gonna need to know which of you are moving on in Kendo's place, so decide amongst yourselves."

The two students shared a look before Reiko leaned in and whispered something to Yui, who hummed every now and then in response to what she was hearing. After a bit, Reiko leaned away and they both nodded at each other and then looked back at Izumi.

"Hm."

Izumi raised an eyebrow. "You're sure that's what you want?"

They both nodded.

"Alrighty then, I'll let the powers that be know." Izumi gave them a smile. "Thanks, girls. You can go back to eating now, gotta fuel up before the next event!"

The two girls nodded and moved back to their table while Izumi quickly moved to inform Nezu of the roster change while she moved back toward 1-A's table.

Her smile grew into a devilish grin when she noticed that Katsuki was back and being heckled by Yu.

"I fuckin' told you! Stop trying to embarrass me!" He growled.

Yu just giggled as she spooned another bite of curry into her mouth. "Yer jus sho easy to rile up!" She spoke with her mouth full, like the unrefined hellion she was.

"Listen here you little shit-" Katsuki looked like he was ready to explode, so Izumi quickly intervened by plopping down next to him and pulling her plate of curry closer to her.

"What did I say about your language, Kacchan?"

"Fuck you, she's asking for it and you ain't the Hag."

Izumi raised an eyebrow. "Yes, but I have big sister privileges, Auntie Mitsuki said so."

"Bullshit!"

"Bakugou," the voice of Tsuyu drew Katsuki's and Izumi's attention to her as she walked up to the table, fresh tray of food in hand. She stood there as she stared at him with her neutral expression. "You know normally I don't care about your cursing, but for right now could you not?"

Katsuki scoffed as he turned, the other students at the table continuing their conversations and talking with Yu. Izumi meanwhile watched the interaction with interest as Katsuki said, "And why should I, Frogger?"

"Because my little sister is standing right behind me and can hear every word you say." Upon saying this, a little girl around the age of six poked her head out from behind Tsuyu.

"...Fine," Katsuki answered before turning back around.

"Kero. Thanks," Tsuyu said with a croak of appreciation.

Izumi's attention stayed on the two Asuis though. "Oh! Asui, I didn't know you had a little sister!"

"Oh, right. Sensei, this is Satsuki," Tsuyu motioned with her head for Satsuki to step forward. "Satsuki, this is my heroics teacher, Flintlock. Say hello, Kero."

Satsuki hopped forward and smiled up at Izumi. "Hello! Nice to meet you!"

'Oh my god, she's so precious!' Izumi thought before getting off her seat and crouching down to be more on level with the small child. "Hello there, it's nice to meet you too. You're adorable!" She held out her hand for Satsuki to shake and smiled when the girl did so without hesitation.

Everyone, save Katsuki and Yu, looked at her in surprise, forgetting that their slave driver and relatively terrifying teacher had a kid, loved kids, and was really good with them.

Tsuyu ribbited at Izumi's compliment to her little sister. "I'm glad you two get along, kero. I also have a little brother, he's around here," Tsuyu glanced around, "...somewhere."

Izumi looked up at Tsuyu. "Oh, that's right, Samidare! I hope I can see him before I have to go back to announcing, I forgot that I needed to thank him for helping with Himiko a few weeks ago."

Tsuyu blinked at her, her mind trying to figure out when her little brother would have met her teacher. She was about to ask when a green-haired man came rushing up to the table.

"Izu, oh thank God, have you seen your sister!?" The man started shaking Izumi's shoulders frantically.

"Whoa! Whoa! P-Pa! Stop! Ah'm gonna puke!" Izumi pulled his hands off her and held them. "What happened?"

"She's doing the thing again, the thing where she just disappears!"

Just then, a boy with features similar to Tsuyu walked up with his own tray filled with food. "Sorry, Big Sis, the lines were long. Anyway, what did I miss?"

Izumi lit up with recognition and was about to open her mouth to greet the boy when her cybernetic eye caught something moving toward them.

"Here," she said as she grabbed Samidare's tray. "You're gonna want me to hold that."

Samidare gave an expressionless blink. "Uhm… thanks? But why would I-"

"SAMI-CHAN!" A green missile appeared out of nowhere and tackled Samidare to the ground from behind.

"That's why," Izumi said without even blinking at the sudden arrival of her sister.

"Kero?" Poor Tsuyu looked confused (which was saying a lot when it came to her), while Satsuki giggled at her older brother's suffering.

"Ouch… hi, Himiko," Samidare said from his spot on the floor under the beaming girl, "Your hair's green now, kero." He deadpanned.

"I know! It's great! We match!"

Izumi pouted. "I thought you did it so we'd match. And plus, his hair isn't even the same shade!"

Hisashi however chose that moment to interrupt. "There you are! Where were you!? You need to stop just disappearing on me!"

"Sorry Pa, I was trying to find Mei, she keeps blowing up my phone about all the support companies here and the robots from the last event. I wanted to introduce her to Mel but I can't find her." Himiko shrugged as she helped Samidare up, only to then hug his arm to her chest, causing him to blush.

Satsuki seeing this, decided to join in on the action and hugged her brother's other free arm. She looked up at Himiko with her eyes wide. "Hi! I'm Satsuki!"

Himiko almost immediately let go of Samidare. "Oh my gosh, you're so cute!" She yoinked Satsuki off the ground and picked her up. "You're my friend now, let's go get JinJin to make us soft tacos!"

"Yay!" Satsuki raised her hands into the air as she was carried off.

"What just happened?" Tsuyu asked with a tilt of her head.

"Don't ask." Izumi, Katsuki, Hisashi, and Samidare all deadpanned, used to Himiko's antics, or in Samidare's case used to girls like Himiko.

"So wait, are we just gonna ignore the fact that Hisashi Midoriya is sitting with us casually stealing Katsuki's curry?" Momo began with a confused lit in her voice.

"What the-" Katsuki turned to his food just in time to see Hisashi stealing a spoonful of it. "Oi!"

"You're the only one of my kids that likes it as spicy as I do!"

"I ain't your fuckin kid! Uncle Sashi! Stop stealing my shit!"

"Never!"

"Wait," Yu said, "I thought he wasn't allowed to curse."

Izumi shrugged at Katsuki's cursing, "Well, the kid is gone, so I guess it's fine."

"Speaking of which," Tsuyu turned to Samidare, "go make sure your sister is okay."

"She's with Himiko though," Samidare stated, confused.

"Exactly why you should be there. She's with Himiko," Izumi told him.

"...Fair point." With that, Samidare went after them.

"So wait, Sensei," Momo asked from her seat, "you also have a little sister?"

"Adopted, but yes, she may as well be my blood relative," Izumi said.

"Damn Deku can't keep it in her pants," Katsuki said after swallowing his food.

"That is not how it fucking works and you know it!" Izumi pointed at him with her spoon.

"That's just what you want me to think, I see through the lies of the Jedi."

"You are misusing that quote!"

"I don't fucking care, the point is you can't stop adopting people!"

Pony from her seat gasped. "You're adopting people?! Adopt me!"

"Pony, your parents are still alive!"

"So are mine, that didn't stop you." Katsuki deadpanned in English.

"You stay the fuck out of this you little shit!"

"Accidents can happen," Pony said, her face way too innocent for what that sentence implied.

"We aren't murdering your parents!"

"Wait, Katsuki, you know English?" Kyouka asked, confused.

It continued like that for the rest of the break, the group enjoying each other's company and 1-A learning more about their teacher and Mount Lady over the course of their time together. They even learned a bit about Hisashi and Himiko once she returned.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and the fifteen-minute warning for the final round rang out, causing Izumi and Yu to rush back to the booth to do their jobs and the students to start heading down to the arena.

But not before Izumi shouted out a quick "Good luck kids! Break each other's legs!" to the kids.

"...You know, that's exactly something I should expect her to say by now, and yet it still catches me off guard," Ochako shook her head as she followed her classmates.

"Welcome back sports fans! I hope you enjoyed your brief break, because the final event is about to be underway, and you guys aren't going to want to miss it for anything!" Izumi's voice rang out through the stadium as cheers erupted from the crowd.

Yu's voice followed suit, "Midnight is going to come onstage to brief everyone on the rules of the event, but as for what the event is, it's the tried and true one-on-one Tournament that UA's Sports Festival is known for!" Yu paused to let the crowd cheer once more before continuing. "The Bracket will be announced by Midnight here in a moment, but know that it is Single Elimination, the winner moves on, and the loser is eliminated from the tournament."

"Let's turn it over to Midnight for the reveal of the bracket and explanation of the rules!" Izumi chimed in, receiving a wave from Midnight who cracked her whip down on the newly constructed tournament floor.

"I won't waste your time on the boring details, I know everyone is dying to get to the fun part. It's a standard tournament, no lethal blows, no intent to kill, victory is determined by one of three ways: surrender, knock out or ring out. I can and will call the round if I feel things are getting out of hand." Midnight winked at the lined-up students who had qualified for the final round "So don't get too overzealous with each other, remember we're on live television."

"Yeah, well maybe you should remember that too, Fossil," Yu's voice grumbled through the speakers.

"And maybe you should learn to stop being such a –"

"Ladies, please!" Izumi interjected, "There are children present!" She growled while Eri waved at Midnight from the booth.

"Everyone is so tiny from up here!" Eri's voice rang out through the stadium, causing the crowd to coo at how adorable she was.

Midnight inhaled through her nose to calm herself down before nodding "Right, let's look at the bracket and get this show on the road!" She quickly gestured to the Jumbotron, which immediately swapped from the stage view it had been showing to an empty bracket. "Now before we really get started, I have a quick announcement. Over the break, Itsuka Kendo chose to remove herself from the tournament for private reasons."

A murmur broke out amongst the crowd, and Itsuka's team from the previous event all looked a bit upset at the news themselves, despite having already been told beforehand.

"That being said, someone else needed to take her place, so a member of the 5th place team from the last event was chosen. Ladies and gentlemen, and new challenger appears! Please give a warm welcome to… Yui Kodai!"

The silent girl stepped out from the entryway and did a quick bow before joining the other competitors on the field, waiting for the bracket announcement.

"With that out of the way, here's your bracket, and remember kiddos, give it your all and then some. Go beyond, Plus Ultra!" The crowd cheered the Plus Ultra with her as the bracket started to fill in.

It was time for the event everyone had been waiting for.

Bracket:

Katsuki Bakugou VS Kyouka Jiro

Fumikage Tokoyami VS Hitoshi Shinso

Yui Kodai VS Pony Tsunotori

Tenya Iida VS Ochako Uraraka

Momo Yaoyorozu VS Toru Hagakure

Neito Monoma VS Minoru Mineta

Tsuyu Asui VS Ibara Shiozaki

Shouto Todoroki VS Denki Kaminari