"Are we ready?"

Ochako gave Ford a thumbs up. "All ready on this end. You're good to come over!"

"Excellent!" With that, Ford walked up to the newly made portal, and stepped through it, followed shortly by Stan, with Wendy and Soos coming through after them.

Izuku could hardly believe it. Even though this was what they'd been working for, it was still so strange to see everyone in his house, and not the other way around.

Mina let out a happy shout and ran towards them. Izuku laughed and followed, and a moment later they were all wrapped in a large group hug.

"It's really good to see you guys again," Shouto murmured.

Soos hugged him tighter. "Agreed! We missed you!"

"Come on guys. It's only been, what, three weeks?" Wendy laughed as they all disentangled from each other. "Candy, Grenda, and Pacifica say hi, by the way. They would've come as well, but they've got school."

"And you don't?" Ochako wondered.

Wendy grinned. "That's the fun part about college. School doesn't actually start for another couple of weeks."

"It's nice to finally meet you all," Mom said warmly. "I've heard such nice stories about all of you." She turned to Stan. "And I wanted to thank you especially, for looking after my son while he was in your world."

Fuyumi nodded alongside her. "Likewise. Thanks for looking after Shouto."

Stan waved her off, but he was smiling. "Eh, it was nothing. They're all pretty good kids." He reached out and ruffled Izuku's hair. "Can't wait to see them kick ass tomorrow in this sports festival thing."

"Agreed. Of course, unfortunately, we're not just here for that." Ford turned to Shouto. "Has it gotten worse, since we last spoke?"

Shouto shrugged, looking somewhat uncomfortable. "Not exactly? It's been pretty consistent, but that still means dealing with at least one bit of weirdness knowledge or Cipher thought or memory a day. Last night…" He trailed off, staring into the middle distance before shaking his head and refocusing on the present. "Cipher… whatever he did to his home dimension, it was bad."

Ford nodded gravely. "Unsurprising. According to him, he destroyed it."

Fuyumi turned to her brother, concerned. "You didn't mention this before."

"I… didn't really want to think about it," Shouto admitted. "Like I said, it was bad." He turned back to Ford. "Is the charm ready?"

"Almost," Ford confirmed. "It's done enough that I can bring everything over and work on it over here. It should be finished by tomorrow afternoon, at the latest, which means I'll probably be missing most of the sports festival. Apologies."

"It's okay. I'd rather have it done sooner. I'm so sick of this."

Mina nudged Shouto gently. "Still, that's good news, right? Just one more day! And then we'll contact this Axolotl guy, and never deal with Cipher again."

Izuku really hoped so. He was more than sick of Cipher screwing with their lives, and he knew that everyone else felt the same.

"And in the meantime, we've got the sports festival!" Ochako chimed in. "I'm so excited for it!"

"How do these sports festival things usually go?" Soos wondered.

"Well the first two events are random, so we don't exactly know what will happen," Izuku explained. "But by the end of the second event, there are always sixteen students left, and then we go into a tournament bracket. The last person standing wins the festival."

Mina turned to Oboro. "What about your sports festivals? How did they go?"

Oboro smiled, reminiscing. "Well, when I was a first year, we had a massive escape-room type event first, and the first thirty-two to escape moved on. Then we were split up in two teams for capture the flag, and whichever team won moved on to the tournament. Shouta actually won the whole thing that year! That's when he got transferred into the hero course from gen-ed."

Izuku blinked. "I mean, with a quirk that erases quirks, I can see why he won, especially if the hero course students didn't know much about quirkless combat at the time. But I didn't know Aizawa was originally a gen-ed student. "

"Yeah! I think that was why he was kind of standoff-ish originally. He felt like he had a lot to prove. It took a while for Hizashi and I to get him to realize that we really did want to be friends."

"Aww, that's so sweet!" Mina coo-ed.

"Did they really not teach kids who were training to be literal heroes how to fight without their quirks?" Wendy asked Oboro, sounding somewhat incredulous.

"Oh, we learned eventually," Oboro assured her. "Just not in time for the sports festival."

"We've been working on it a bit in class," Shouto added. "But we also have Aizawa as our homeroom teacher, so maybe he realized it would be better to start early. Plus, a few of us have been sparring on weekends in our own time."

"Speaking of," Izuku remembered. "If you guys are gonna stick around for a couple days, there are a few of our classmates who really wanted to meet you, Wendy! Since we mentioned that we all learned how to fight from the same person, they wanted to know if they could get some tips as well."

"Sure, why not? Sounds cool."

"What is the plan for watching the sports festival?" Mom wondered. "We could all watch it here, although I suppose the living room might get a little crowded."

"Actually," Fuyumi said, "Father bought a skybox, but then got called in to help work internal security for the event. And even when he's off the clock, he has no plans to actually use it. He'd… rather be closer to the action, I guess." She winced, and Shouto sighed. "But the point is, since he has no plans for using it, we could use it instead."

"Fine by me!" Soos agreed immediately. "A skybox seat sounds awesome."

"Indeed. I'll most likely catch what I can from here while I'm working on the charm, but the rest of you should go enjoy."

"I'll stay here too," Oboro said. "Probably better for me not to show up at the actual festival. Unless Ford gets done with the charm early - then I could bring him over."

"Maybe portal outside the stadium if that happens?" Izuku suggested. "I wouldn't be surprised if there's something in place to prevent warp quirks, after… after the USJ." He winced, but Oboro just smiled back.

"Yeah, that would make sense. I'll do that then."

"Sounds like a plan!" Mom clapped her hands together happily. "Now, who wants katsudon? We should have a big dinner before the kid's big day."

Izuku immediately perked up. "Yes please!"

"I've never had it," Wendy admitted, as they followed Mom into the kitchen. "Is it good?"

"It's great," Izuku assured her. "You'll love it, I promise."

"Says the guy who readily admitted that it's his favorite food," Mina snickered.

"Exactly. I know that it's great!"

"Oh, maybe we could have mochi for dessert!" Ochako added.

"I've certainly got the ingredients to make some," Mom agreed, putting on her apron.

Fuyumi grabbed another apron right after her. "I'll help. I love cooking."

Izuku smiled, before turning to Shouto, who was still looking off into the distance. "Are you excited? For the sports festival?"

Shouto shrugged. "I guess. I think I'm more excited for everything to be over, though."

That made sense. Izuku certainly couldn't blame him. If it were him, he'd be a lot more focused on getting that charm as well. But Ford was almost finished, so everything would hopefully work out fine. They'd all do well at the festival, and then they'd come home, and Shouto would get the charm, and they could finally start moving on from Cipher.

He had a good feeling about tomorrow.

The next morning, Stan made pancakes for everyone, and afterwards, there was a last minute scramble as they grabbed their things.

"You're bringing the size-changing light?" Ochako wondered, as Izuku packed said light. "Aren't we not allowed accessories and support items as hero course students?"

"You're not?" Wendy wondered. "Are the other courses? That seems kind of unfair."

"Apparently it's because of our "extra training". Which, for hero students that aren't the four of us, is an entire month. Clearly we're way too ahead of everyone." Mina rolled her eyes, before taking a leaf out of Izuku's book and packing her grappling hook.

"We do actually have training in how to use our quirks, even if it's only a month of training," Izuku pointed out sensibly. "The other courses don't even get that. I'm packing the light just in case - I mean, I don't think I'll get the chance to use it, but it's better safe than sorry, right?"

"Definitely!"

"I'll record everything in high definition," Inko promised, as they headed out the door, along with everyone who was going to the skybox. "We're rooting for you!"

"Kick some butt!" Oboro agreed.

Mina gave them a thumbs up. "You got it! We'll give you guys a great show."

Even though they left early, the train was still packed, and the area around and inside the UA stadium was already starting to fill up. Thankfully, as students (and family of students), they were allowed to bypass the crowds and head through a side entrance.

As soon as they stepped into the area designated for the festival, Shouto winced. "Is it just me, or does something feel weird?"

The rest of them turned to look at him. "Just you," Stan said.

"What kind of weird?" Mina asked.

Shouto tapped the side of his head, as if trying to dislodge some water in his ear. "I… don't know. It just feels off." Fuyumi gripped her brother's shoulder tightly.

"We'll keep an eye on it," Wendy promised.

Stan whistled as the smell of freshly made food wafted over to them. "Oh they've gotta have some great stalls here. We should check them out before heading up to our seats."

"This is a campus for heroes in training," Ochako reminded him, amused. "Try not to steal anything. Or at least try not to get caught."

Stan put a hand to his chest, mock-offended. "Who, me? Never! I'm far too good to get caught." They all shared a bit of a chuckle. "Seriously though, you kids should go get prepared, or whatever it is you need to do. I want to see you wipe the floor with those other brats, you hear?"

"That's not exactly what the sports festival is for," Fuyumi protested, but she was smiling.

Shouto looked up at his sister. "I mean, that kind of is what the sports festival is for."

"We're gonna kick ass and take names," Mina promised, smiling.

Stan ruffled her hair, and Fuyumi gave Shouto one last hug. "That's the spirit."

"Good luck dudes!"

"Yeah, we're rooting for you. You got this."

"You know," Izuku mused happily, as they made their way towards the waiting room for class A, "I never imagined that we'd actually have the rest of the Mystery Shack here to cheer us on during the sports festival. I know things aren't completely ideal, but… part of it still feels like the best of both worlds, you know?"

"It's gonna be a lot more fun," Shouto agreed.

They split up at the locker rooms, and Mina changed into her gym uniform. A part of her was bummed that she couldn't wear her costume, but considering the fact that she had a few possible changes and additions in mind, maybe it wasn't the worst thing in the world.

When she and Ochako entered the main room, the boys were already there, as well as a few others - Iida, Ojiro, Tokoyami, and Sato, as well as Jiro and Hagakure. Slowly, the rest of the class filed in, the room filling with nervous energy.

"I wonder what the first round's gonna be," Sato mused, clenching his shaking fists together. "I mean, I know it's random, but…"

"Is it actually random?" Izuku wondered. "I mean, they already have everything for the events prepared, so even if they do that wheel spin they always do, I don't think it's actually randomized."

"I guess that's fair."

"No matter what comes, we have no choice but to deal with it," Tokoyami mused.

Yaoyorozu was the last to enter, and Mina grinned and waved at her. "You ready for this?"

Yaoyorozu gave her a nervous smile. "I suppose so. At this point, we've prepared all that we can, haven't we? We'll just have to make sure it all pays off."

"That's a good way to look at it," Ojiro agreed, although he seemed just as nervous. Frankly, besides Bakugou, who never really looked scared about anything, it seemed to be just the Mystery Crew who weren't dealing with nerves.

It did make sense. They'd faced plenty of life-or-death scenarios, stopped the apocalypse, and, most recently, broken someone out of Tartarus. After all of that, Mina just couldn't bring herself to feel nervous about a school tournament. Even if it was a bummer that she couldn't bring her grappling hook into the events proper, she was still confident enough in her skills that she knew she was going to succeed.

Besides, Stan, Soos, Wendy, and Fuyumi were watching from one of the skyboxes. Ford, Oboro, and Inko were watching at Izuku's house. Mina's parents were probably watching back at home, although they hadn't really mentioned it. Mina certainly wasn't going to let any of them down.

Iida, who had left a few minutes ago, slammed the door open. "Everyone! Are you ready? We'll be entering soon."

Mina shared a smile with Ochako and Izuku, and a nod with Shouto. They were definitely ready.

"Hey! Pay attention, audience! Swarm, mass media! This year's high school rodeo of adolescence that you all love, the UA sports festival, is about to begin! Everybody, are you ready? It's time for the first-year students to enter the stage!"

Ochako took a deep breath, then let it out.

"The miraculous new stars who overcame enemy attacks with their hearts of steel! Hero course, class 1-A!"

At Present Mic's cue, they headed out of their entrance and into the stadium. There was a brief flash of nerves - there were a lot of people, all screaming at the top of their lungs, as fireworks exploded above them. Ochako reminded herself that she'd already been through something like this, in Globnar, and unlike Globnar, the people running the tournament actually cared whether they lived or died, and so weren't going to make any challenges that were actually deadly.

"There's a lot of people looking at us, isn't there?" Kaminari noted next to her, grinning awkwardly.

"Will we be able to give our best performance while being watched by so many people?" Iida wondered. "Although perhaps this is also part of the training required to become a hero."

"Learning how to work well under pressure is a must," Yaoyorozu agreed.

"He's really going overboard with the praise," Kirishima said. "I mean, I know we fought villains and all, but still, it's kind of making me more nervous."

Mina punched his arm. "Hey, if you can fight villains, then you can deal with being praised by our teacher!"

Kirishima laughed, looking slightly less tense than before. "That's true! I guess I should only really be nervous if Aizawa's the one praising us. That would just be weird."

Ochako really wanted to mention the story Oboro told them about how Aizawa had seemed so intimidating when he first joined their class after being transferred over, and then almost immediately tripped on his scarf during fundamental heroics, but of course couldn't, and so she held her tongue.

As they walked, Present Mic called out class B, as well as the business, support, and general studies departments, all of which received considerably less praise than their class did, even 1-B. Ochako supposed it was because their class was already well known, but she did feel a bit bad for them.

Finally, all of them made it to the center, where Midnight stood on a podium. "Time for the player pledge! Representing the students is Bakugou Katsuki from 1-A!"

Ochako took this in, then immediately sighed. Next to her, Izuku winced.

"He's gonna say something dumb," her boyfriend muttered. "Get everyone all riled up and put more pressure on himself."

Shouto shrugged. "Let him. Makes it easier for us, doesn't it?"

Sure enough: "I pledge that I'll be number one."

Immediately, the rest of the classes rang out with boos, including shouts directed towards all of class A, calling them all full of themselves. Izuku let out a long sigh, and Ochako patted his shoulder commiseratingly.

"I'd say that he should've at least not gotten the rest of us caught up in it, but that really is just like him," Mina noted cheerfully. "Stan probably likes him now, though."

"Hell yeah! You tell them, kid! This is gonna be hilarious!"

Soos squinted. "Hey, isn't that the dude Izuku was talking about when he mentioned someone tried to explode him on their second day of class? And like, basically almost murdered him?"

Stan paused. Then continued his yelling. "Screw you, kid! Izuku's gonna kick your ass! That'll be hilarious!"

"Now, let's get started right away!" Midnight announced. She raised her hand, and a holographic projection of the usual sports festival wheel sprung up, spinning around like a slot machine. "This year, the first event is… an obstacle race! All eleven classes will participate in this race. The course will be the outer circumference of this stadium - about four kilometers." She smirked at them. "Our school's selling point is freedom. As long as you stay on the course, it doesn't matter what you do. Now, take your places, everyone!"

An obstacle course, huh? Ochako could get behind that. It wasn't perfect for her - her quirk might make her a little faster, and her power might help with obstacles, but neither would help much for running a long distance like this. Still, she felt confident.

She turned to Izuku with a smile. "This is perfect for you! You can show off full cowling!"

Izuku grinned back. "Right! I've never held it for an entire four kilometers though, so this should also be a good way to test how long I can maintain it."

They lined up at the entrance to the obstacle race. The lights above them counted down.

"3…2…1…Go!"

Ochako dashed forwards but found herself immediately bottlenecked by everyone else, smushed between dozens of people trying to push themselves forward at the same time as her.

She almost laughed out loud - hadn't she just been thinking that a race wasn't a good showcasing of her skills? Apparently she was already wrong. Concentrating, she lifted herself and the rest of the Mystery Crew above the crowd, ignoring the surprised shouts around her, and floated them over the other students and out the other side of the tunnel.

Mina flashed her a smile, jumping onto her acid and zooming forwards. "Thanks for the lift!"

"No problem!"

They weren't the only ones who had that idea. Behind them, Ochako could hear Yaoyorozu, Bakugou, Ojiro, Aoyama, Iida, Tokoyami, and Mineta, all having cleared the tunnel as well.

From in front of them, Ochako could hear a rumbling sound, and the faux robots from the entrance exam came into view. Plenty of them were the one, two, and three point villains, but behind all of those, the zero-pointers loomed.

"So this is what they used in the entrance exam?" Shouto wondered. Then he let out a small huff, that coming from Shouto, was the equivalent of a laugh. "Well, we are supposed to show off, right?"

"Oh, that looks painful," Fuyumi winced at the mass of students all bunched together in the tunnel.

"No kidding," Soos agreed. "Wouldn't want to be them. Oh hey look, it's our dudes!"

Sure enough, Wendy could see Ochako floating herself and the others above the crowd, landing neatly on the other side. Immediately afterwards, The acid Mina had talked about having but Wendy had never seen appeared under her feet and she glided forwards, while Izuku lit up with green lightning and raced forwards even faster.

"Well," Soos added, "I guess we know why he was "sparks" now."

Wendy nodded along, her eyes widening as the massive robots came into view. "Oh shit, look at those things! They're so cool!"

"They've reached the first obstacle!" The banana-haired hero doing the announcements declared. "Robo inferno!"

Next to her, Stan winced. "Those things are crazy. And they're not allowed any gear? Are we sure this school cares about their well being?"

"They'll be fine," Fuyumi assured him. "If nothing else, Shouto can handle this."

Wendy turned to her curiously. "Really?"

Fuyumi blinked. "Oh, right, I forgot for a moment that he didn't have his quirk while in your world. You know he can control fire and ice, right?"

"He mentioned it once, but never really went into detail," Wendy admitted.

Stan leaned back in his seat, munching on some takoyaki. "I know he was really moping around for a while when he first arrived because he was upset about losing it. Guess now we'll see what all the fuss was about."

On the screen, Shouto moved in front of the other three. He lowered his hand, and around him, the ground froze in a perfect circle.

Then he swung his hand upwards, and suddenly, all of the giant robots were completely frozen.

The takoyaki dropped out of Stan's mouth. "Holy shit."

"Dude did not tell us he could do that," Soos agreed.

Wendy turned to Fuyumi. "Can you…?"

Shouto's sister laughed nervously. "Well, I never really got much training, not like Shouto did, but I suppose? I used to freeze the entire garden by accident when I first got my quirk. I couldn't unfreeze it though, since I don't have a fire quirk like he does."

The Mystery Crew ran between the frozen robot's legs, and immediately after, it toppled over.

Stan leaned forward, delighted. "Oh, he froze it while it was on an angle so no one else could get through! Nice going, kid!"

"And that's Todoroki from class 1-A! He attacked and defended in one hit, with only three others getting through! How elegant! It's, you know, practically unfair!"

Mina rolled her eyes. "Geez. Biased much, Mic-sensei? What are you calling him unfair for?" She slid ahead of the person in question, making sure to cross in front of him. "Keep up, Shou!"

She could practically hear Shouto's eye-roll, as the ground under him froze once more, using his ice to propel him forwards so that he could keep up with her.

And ahead of them both, Izuku bounded forwards, full cowling on full display. Mina could hear him laughing with joy as each step covered more and more ground.

"I should've left you guys in the tunnel!" Ochako groaned from behind them, but Mina could see that she was smiling too.

Before she knew it, they were at the next obstacle. A massive fall, with pillars of cement, probably molded by Cementoss, reaching up to their height, wires connecting each pillar, from one side to the other.

Ochako ran forward, grinning at them. "Use your own skills this time!" With that, she floated herself up and over the obstacle, avoiding it completely.

"No problem!" Really, fighting Blendin on a unicycle that was on top of a tightrope during one of those Globnar challenges was much harder. Mina kept running, moving her acid and making sure it was at a low enough solubility that it wouldn't burn through the wires, and kept moving. On another wire, Shouto did the same with his ice. Meanwhile, Izuku jumped on one of the wires and used it to springboard onto another, forwards and forwards, keeping up with Ochako as best he could.

"Look at them go!" Soos cheered. "Some of the other students are still just leaving the robo inferno obstacle! Although now I'm kind of rooting for that girl who pulled a cannon out of her stomach."

"I know, right?" Wendy agreed. "That was awesome!"

They watched as their kids cleared the fall and moved onwards, while others approached.

"Looks like the girl with the frog quirk is going to do really well on this one," Fuyumi noticed.

"Dude. That girl's got hover boots to go with her grappling gear! She's so cool and steampunk!"

"No kidding. Bet Mina's gonna want to talk to her after this."

"Did you see that support course student's hover boots? I've gotta talk to her after this!"

Ochako nodded emphatically. "Agreed."

If the massive signs with the skulls on them weren't enough, it was pretty obvious by the ground that the last obstacle course was a minefield.

Shouto debated using his flames to hover himself over it, like what Ochako was doing, but decided against it. Despite them working with Oboro, there was still the chance they could backfire, and something that he could easily use his quirk to get across wasn't worth risking it for. An ice path would do just fine.

They were about halfway across the minefield when Shouto heard the telltale explosions of their classmate. He looked behind him to see Bakugou propelling himself forwards by his explosions, aiming not above them, but right towards Shouto specifically.

"I'm coming for you, half-and-half bastard!"

"Someone's got issues," Mina muttered next to him.

Shouto watched Bakugou get closer. A thought struck him, and he smiled, putting his hands out to intercept Bakugou. "Hey, Bakugou. What happens when a sudden temperature difference displaces the air?"

"What the hell are you-?" Before he could finish, Shouto's quirk finished its job, and Bakugou was knocked backwards and out of the air by a strong gust of wind, landing on one of the mines and exploding even further back. Shouto took the chance to keep skating forwards.

Mina whistled. "When did you figure that out?"

Shouto blinked, and considered. "Literally right this second." He supposed it wasn't the worst weirdness knowledge he could've gotten. Aside from learning about Oboro, most of the time knowledge popped into his head it was either horrifying or useless. At least this actually helped him better use his quirk. He'd have to work on it more later.

Ochako spoke up. "Hey, have either of you guys seen Deku at all during this minefield?"

There was a massive explosion in the back, and suddenly a streak of green was propelled forwards. For a moment, Izuku hovered above them, hanging upside-down, and he flashed a peace sign, before landing in a roll and exploding himself even further, clearing the entire minefield in seconds.

Shouto let out an incredulous laugh and followed.

Stan stuffed another takoyaki in his mouth. This was the first time he'd ever had the food, and clearly he'd been missing out. "Oh man, this obstacle is the best! Look at how they're all popping up in the air like that!"

Wendy squinted at the screen. "What's Izuku doing? It looks like he's just digging up mines and stacking them together at the beginning of the field."

"Is that Katsuki guy going right for Shouto?" Soos wondered. "Oh, he is! …Oh wow! I thought Shouto's quirk was just ice and fire?"

Fuyumi looked just as confused. "It is. I don't… oh! A displacement of temperature in the air can create wind! I didn't even think about that. Great job, Shouto!"

"Guys, holy shit he's jumping on all of the mines," Wendy interrupted, grinning widely.

Stan whooped as Izuku flew over the entire minefield and into first place. "You're crazy, kid! I love it!"

"And Midoriya has taken the lead once again! Eraserhead, your class is amazing! What're you teaching them!?"

Full cowling was amazing.

Izuku bounded forwards, pushing himself as hard as he could without going over his current limit with One for All. Almost there!

He could hear Ochako, Shouto, and Mina right behind him, and he grinned, despite himself. He definitely wanted to win, but all four of them coming in first through fourth felt right.

He was in the tunnel now. Just a little further! And then…

…Back into the sunlight.

"And the winner is Midoriya Izuku, from class 1-A! Followed by Todoroki, Ashido, and Uraraka, all also from class 1-A!"

Izuku stopped to catch his breath, and was immediately tackle-hugged by Ochako. He laughed as they both landed on the ground, delighted.

After a moment, Shouto helped him to his feet, smiling. "Way to show off full cowling to the pros."

Izuku laughed awkwardly. "Yeah, probably better than introducing myself to the world of heroes by breaking my fingers, right?"

Mina bounced on the tips of her toes, beaming. "That's the first event cleared! Only two more to go!" Behind them, Bakugou charged into the stadium, followed by Shiozaki and Honenuki from 1-B, Iida, Yaoyorozu, Tokoyami, and the others.

Mina was right. They'd cleared the first event, and they'd done it spectacularly.

Now, onto the next one.

Yes, the first event at the sports festival is supposed to foster competitiveness and be every student for themself. The Mystery Crew just straight up doesn't care about that, or even consider not helping each other.

Momo finished earlier than she did in canon, because with the extra training in combat she now has, she was able to avoid getting stuck to by Mineta. Mineta ended up latching onto Jurota instead. Neither was happy about this.

As always, I hope you enjoyed, and please don't forget to review, let me know what you think!