Hello all, sorry for the short chapter this time around, I am just getting over having COVID last week (and on my birthday, too D: ) and still recovering from it.

This is more of a set-up chapter for the big payoff for the sports festival because, let's face it, no one likes writing this arc.

Review time:

EliteShadow: Thank you and hope you enjoy this small chapter :)

Monster King: Oh I'm continuing!

Smiley-Nami: Thank you, hope you enjoy it

TeraelinII: Doesn't look like it though.

Unless...

solbandgus:Thank you and hope you enjoy this chapter

[MHA and Asterix and Obelix all belong to their copyright owners, as I do not own any of them.]


Chapter 12

Vital Statistics


"Doctor…" The heavy and gravelly tone of All for One echoed through the small laboratory in the giant warehouse filled to the brim with various tubes containing bodies and other viscera. A rather portly older man raised his head from a microscope he had been looking into and turned his attention towards the screen with the shadowed figure on, "I trust our next batch is coming along?"

"Yes, sir… another week, and we should have another set of Nomus ready for the field." The doctor grinned with a malicious curl to his lips, "And the high-ends are progressing just as planned, and they should be ready within the next month or so."

"Ah, excellent news; I felt you'd solve that little issue with the high-ends." All for One leaned back into his chair, his breathing apparatus hissing with more air pumped into the man's body, "Have you had a chance to read the report from the USJ?"

"I have." The doctor exhaled a gruff breath, crossing his arms in displeasure. While it was handy to have a few moles in the police force to keep tabs on any potential new "recruits" for their Nomu program, the report on the failed attack at UA had really aggravated the mad scientist, "I find the fact that with all that hard work we did to make that Nomu the 'All Might killer' to only be taken out by that fool absolutely ludicrous."

"Indeed, and if that were true, I would have to commend the oaf." The eyeless man spoke with a serious tone, his hands coming up and resting against one another, "But, from what I have learned, the "Symbol of Peace" had arrived late to the USJ, and when he had, the fight was already over."

"W-What?!" The doctor shouted loudly, "H-How's that possible?! No one is that strong, u-unless one of the other teachers got a lucky shot!"

"Perhaps, but given the extensive damage to both the pro heroes Thirteen and Eraserhead and their combat skills and quirks, the Nomu wouldn't have any trouble with either of them." All for One grinned maliciously, despite how little in the public eye Eraserhead was, it helped when you were the 'bogeyman' of the underworld, where one can piece together tidbits of information together.

The doctor stood there for a moment, thinking to himself before he was suddenly struck with a horrible notion, one that his employer/master was smiling at, and even without eyes, he could feel the crime lord bore into his soul, "O-One of the students defeated my Nomu?"

"Precisely, and even I am at a loss as to how that was accomplished, but when my pupil and Kurogiri return, we can get their answers. Or perhaps, we keep our eyes open and look for clues ourselves."

"Sir?"

All for One continued to smile wickedly, chuckling as he leaned back into his chair, "I have a feeling that this year's Sports Festival will give us all the answers we need, good doctor."


"Hey Listener, you alright?" Present Mic turned towards his co-announcer, who looked less than thrilled to be there, while also tapping his pencil top against the closed notebook currently in front of him, staring out blankly towards the sea of civilians that were now sitting in the bleachers of the stadium, knocking the other person in the booth out of whatever he was thinking.

"Hmm? Oh... sorry, Uncle Zashi…." Izuku sighed softly as he leaned back against his chair, looking up at the ceiling, "Just trying to get into the 'zone,' as it were."

Now, Present Mic was a bit of a doofus, but he could tell something was up and reached over to the controls and flipped them off, muting any sounds within the booth they were in, "Alright, kiddo, I know for a fact that you're not doing that, and I can see it plain on your face."

The fact that the entire Sports Festival schedule had to be rearranged last minute with no rhyme or reason and switched the third year's tournament for the first year had set alarm bells off in his head, but also the fact that during both that and the second years, Izuku's mood had started to crumble and not being his enthusiastic self during their announcements, "No Microphones, no listeners, just you and me. What's wrong, Izuku?"

The fact that his uncle could switch off the persona on a dime always threw Izuku for a loop, especially in times like this. After a few moments of hesitation and looking over the new replacement bracers that Mei had given him a few days before the start of the festival, the larger-than-life green bean slowly moved, reaching into his pocket, and laid his cell phone on the top of his notebook.

With a quizzical raise of an eyebrow, Mic leaned over to see the screen of the device and whistled gently from the dozens of texts from his classmates, and while many of notifications seemed to be coming from a group chat app, the older blonde man couldn't help to see two private chats were also on display, one that seemed to have a few frog emoji within the sentences, while the other curiously had a heart and alien emoji by the person's name, and while the Pro Hero would have to notify his fellow coworkers about the last two, Present Mic knew that right now wouldn't be the best time to tease his pseudo-nephew, "I'm guessing you never told your friends about the restrictions for you, huh?"

"Oh, I'm sure that would have gone well…" Izuku snipped at his uncle, "Hey guys! I can't join the sports festival because one of All Might's most dangerous villains is out there and was the guy puppeting that man-child that attacked us at the USJ and could now possibly be targeting me because of my power."

The room fell silent after that, Mic's glasses sliding down his nose slightly in shock from how Izuku had spoken to him. Even the big green-haired teenager had frozen up at how he was acting, shrinking a little as his right hand rubbed his left bracer, "S-sorry Uncle Zashi… I didn't mean to do that."

"I gotcha, big guy…." Mic sighed as he pushed his glasses up. He had noticed Izuku's mood slowly sour as the festival had been going on, and while the first day wasn't as bad, and the way Izuku had done the job he usually loved doing during the festivals in the past, by the end of the second year's festival, he could tell that the boy's mood had plummeted immensely, "Look, Izuku… I totally get that you're upset, and I would be too in your shoes…."

"And I know you think this may hamper you from becoming a pro hero," Mic had said, which caused Izuku to flinch but not look away, "And I also know that Shouta also drilled into your skull that our profession isn't a game, lives are at stake for any decisions we make, good or bad. But right now, you shouldn't need to make those decisions while still a student here. Also, it's our job as both your teachers and family to ensure you are safe while you're here! Hell, we thought we were until the USJ!" Mic turned to look over the crowds of people sitting down and awaiting the start of the first year's festival before looking back to his nephew, "And while I want nothing more to cheer you on and whip these punks a new one on live TV…."

Izuku blushed slightly at that, some of his mood lifted by Mic's talk, "H-hey now… a lot of them could give me a run for my money!"

"Oh, I'm sure they could if you go by the interactions between you and two certain young ladies I keep seeing you hang around with." Mic gave Izuku a shit-eating grin that caused the larger man to blush more.

"UNCLE ZASHI!"

"Hahaha! Look, kiddo, I'm making the point that sometimes things happen, and you need to roll with the punches. And as much as I would love to continue this talk, we got a show to do." The pro hero leaned back into his chair, shaking his head and smacking his cheeks to get himself pumped up and back into 'character', "You ready, "Statistix"?"

Izuku sighed gently, reaching for a device on the wall beside him, placing it over his mouth and nose, and flicking the switch on its side. When he spoke next, it was in a deep and much older voice than usual, "As ready as I can be… and Uncle, thanks for the pep talk."

"No problem, kiddo, now let's get ready to WOW them!"

As the soundboard in front of them started to light up back to life, Izuku noticed that his phone vibrated to notify him another message had been sent from Mina, and while his heart ached for what he did next. His uncle was right; he had a show to put on and turned off his phone so he, too, could fulfill his 'role'.

Hopefully, for the last sports festival, he'd ever miss.


"Anything, kero?" Tsu asked as she stood beside Mina, who sighed heavily after looking at her screen with a grumpy look, which seemed very foreign on the usually peppy pink woman.

"No, and I don't think he even looked at that last one." She huffed, placed her phone back into her locker, and loudly shut it, but not quite slamming it, considering Kyoka was still changing.

Tsuyu croaked softly, sighing gently, "Well, we can't change what's been done. We should head out, kero."

As Tsuyu began to head towards the waiting area with the rest of her class, who had already gotten themselves ready, Mina quickly followed, shocked, "Why aren't you upset about this?"

The frog woman stopped in her tracks, looking at Mina dead set in her eyes with her own pair of emotionless ones, croaking loudly, "I am actually livid at the moment, kero, because we had a feeling this would happen, and I didn't want to be right."

And even though Tsu's face was as expressionless as ever, Mina could 'feel' the frog woman's anger radiate off her.

"O.k. then… what's the plan?"

"Kero. We will go out there and show everyone how awesome we are. Kero, Kero. And then, after this stupid event, you and I will track down Midoriya, confess to him, and then go out for an ice cream date afterward because I would really like that, Kero!"

Tsu was breathing deeply, with tiny croaks escaping past her lips as Mina was just staring at her, flabbergasted at how emotional the often level-headed woman was. But she, too, got caught up in the moment and thrust her fist up, "Yea! And to make it up to us, Izuku's buying!"

There was another silence before both girls started to giggle while they were still in the hallway to the waiting room, not noticing another group approaching them, "Hey!"

Mina and Tsu glanced at the small gathering, seeing Kirishima, Iida, Ochako, Momo, Shoji, and Kaminari rush toward them. Taking a deep breath from running around the place, Kirishima panted as he spoke, "Did… you hear from Midori-bro?"

"We have all looked around where we could, but we haven't seen or heard him." Shoji said after one of his limbs formed a mouth.

Both women shook their heads, "I kept trying to reach him via messages and no luck, heck; I think he stopped reading them just a few minutes ago." Mina said with a heavy sigh, which soon was mimicked by everyone else.

And while he was upset about how late Midoriya was for one of the most significant events for the start of their education into being Pro Heroes, the youngest member of the Iida family pushed up his glasses, "While it's sad we couldn't locate him, we need to get ready with the rest of our peers, or we will be late as well."

"But we can't go out there without him!" Kirishima protested, looking at Iida first before everyone else, "I get him not being in the festival would make it easier for the rest of us, but I didn't train as hard as I did for the last month not to face him. It's totally unmanly!"

Everyone grew quiet at that, and while Kirishima did make a point that because of Izuku's monstrous strength and near invincibility, it would have been hard for anyone to stand up to the teenager outside of someone with All Might-like power and experience. Still, many, if not all, of his classmates had considered that they would have to face their fellow classmate, and trained even harder to push themselves and their quirks to shorten the gap between themselves and the 'green bean'.

An announcement over the PA about the impending start of the festival snapped everyone out of their thoughts, forcing them to head towards the designated waiting area for their class. As they did so, watching and listening from one of the many cameras strewn about the stadium they were in, Nezu was smiling to himself while sipping his tea.

He couldn't wait to see their faces when the surprise he had planned came for them all.


"LAAADIES and Gentlemen! Welcome to the last UA sports festival of the year!" Present Mic shouted into the microphone to the roaring applause of the crowds in the stadium, "It's me, ya boi, Present MIC! Along with everyone's favorite co-anchor, for his seventh year in a row, It's VITAL STATISTIXS!"

The crowds roared even louder at the mention of his 'persona' name, a cover to hide his true one from the masses, but still caused Izuku to blush under the mask considering all the positive things they would say about him after every festival previously online. Izuku gently cleared his throat, "Hello, everyone! It's a pleasure to be back for another sports festival."

Mic grinned as he took hold of his microphone, "And for today's referees, we have the ever stoic and stoney CEMENTOSS!" He bellowed into the device as the cheer roared again. Cementoss gently waved to everyone around him, "And can't forget the ever lovely and forever rated eighteen heroine, MIDNIGHT!"

Said heroine blew kisses to the crowds, standing somewhat provocatively as the many flashes of camera lights littered the stadium with whistles and shouts from some of the more boisterous crowd members. Izuku merely sighed, having been used to his 'big sis' and her antics and seeing her without the risque persona through most of his short life.

That didn't mean she still couldn't fluster him at times.

Mic was now starting to call in the different first-year classes, with his own being the first to take to the field. He smiled under his mask as he watched a few of his classmates wave to the crowds, all with big smiles on their faces, but Izuku could tell a few of them were searching the masses as well, and he had a feeling as to who they were looking for. Class 1-B followed after them, and soon the general, support, and business classes as well. When Midnight had gotten the student's attention to explain the rules of the first event, Mic's voice broke his deep thoughts and caught his attention, "So, Statistix, with the first event being an obstacle race, who do you think will come out on top?"

Leaning back in his chair, Izuku sighed gently as he spoke through the mask, "Truthfully, it could be anyone's win here, and while the hero students have more experience with using their quirks, given the training they go through, not all of them are suited for long-distance races like this. So, while they may be familiar with their classmates, they don't know the quirks of the other students."

Crossing his arms over his chest, "When it comes down to it, it's going to come down to thinking on the fly and coming up with new ways to overcome the challenges they will face."

A ding to his right had Izuku look over to Mic, who was currently on his phone and typing away with the biggest grin. Sighing heavily, Izuku flicked off his microphone and stared at his uncle with a deadpan, "Uncle, are you seriously starting the betting pool now?"

"Oh, why not? Besides, it's not like you haven't bet with us in the past."

Izuku grimaced while Mic smiled smugly at him, knowing that the green-haired man couldn't argue with that, "So, you want in on this?"

Izuku was quiet for a moment, staring out from the one-sided window at the large field where everyone was waiting to start the obstacle race; his eyes squinted before widening, looking at Mic with a determined look, "Fine, here's my bet…."