My Hero School Adventure is All Wrong, As Expected

by storybookknight

Hikigaya Hachiman is the last person on earth who should ever apply to U.A. High School. Yet somehow, he gets in anyway. In a world of irrepressible optimism and idealism, these are the adventures of a young man who believes that idealism is a lie.

18. Surprisingly, I Reveled in the Darkness

A/N: We now return to your regularly scheduled crossover.

108*108*108*108*108*108*108*108*108*108*108*108*108*108*108*108

There is an ancient Chinese aphorism that states, "In this world, there is no medicine for regret." Of course, the original intention of this truism is to convey the obvious insight that 'using time travel to undo your past mistakes is impossible so get it right the first time, idiot,' but in my opinion it's true in a conventional sense as well. After losing at something most people have a natural inclination to seek out comfort, to console themselves for failure by sharing their misery and turning their friends into emotional sandbags, and to drown out their sorrows in distractions such as video games or self-indulgent power fantasy novels.

Naturally, I was an expert in the latter methods of treating the illness known as regret.

However, both the consolation of others and the distractions of media were effective treatments of regret in the same sense that cold medicine could be used to treat a cold; which is to say that once you were afflicted, no matter how many pills and home remedies you took you were still going to be feeling like crap for the next seven to ten days. The best that any medicine could do was to act as a distraction from your discomfort, and therefore the obvious best treatment strategy was to deny yourself of any and all such useless medicines in order to encourage your immune system to fight off similar illnesses faster in the future.

Therefore, my sudden desire to curl up into a ball of misery and lick my metaphorical wounds without talking to other human beings for at least a week was not only a healthy response to what had just transpired but in fact the healthiest of all possible responses. It was an impossible desire to fulfill, of course. I was stuck competing in the final event of the Sports Festival thanks to the misguided charity of Kawasaki Saki, and even had that not occurred there was no way that Komachi would leave me be. But all human beings desire things that they cannot have, and feel resentment when their hopes for such unreachable things are dashed against the bitter and unfeeling rocks of reality, regardless of whether those goals were reasonable in the first place. In short, my anger at being called out as soon as the bracket was announced was justified. Even if I had been in the mood to talk to people at that particular moment, I probably still wouldn't have wanted to talk to Todoroki Shoto.

"I need to talk to you," he demanded, "alone." All around us in the center of the athletic field, our classmates looked on, curious. His two-toned hair was still lightly rimed with frost that steamed in the warm spring sunlight, and as his mismatched eyes met mine I saw that they were full of an emotion that I couldn't define.

Not that I cared. "I'm shirtless, my shoulder is covered with acid burns, and I nearly wet myself on live television when you had Kaminari electrocute us," I said bluntly. I jerked one thumb over my shoulder to indicate the area where Recovery Girl was set up under a large tent at the side of the field, along with a few volunteers. "I'm going to the first aid station."

He nodded slowly, his face as impassive as ever despite my rejection. "There shouldn't be anyone in the entranceway to the stadium at the moment," he said, glancing over his shoulder in the passage's direction before returning his attention to me. "Come find me when you're done. I'll wait for you there." Before I could react he had turned away, already moving for the location in question.

Recovery Girl was efficient. Everyone who saw her got what they needed, whether that was a kiss, some gummies, a change of clothes, or all three. I was in and out of the first aid tent in under five minutes, leaving me plenty of time to go see Todoroki and still make it to lunch with enough time to eat.

As I left Recovery Girl's Recovery Tent, I saw that Yuigahama, Shoji, and Hagakure were standing in a loose cluster, dawdling around instead of leaving for the cafeteria. As I walked by I called out a friendly reminder. "You guys should hurry up if you want to be able to find somewhere to sit together for lunch."

"Don't you still have to talk to Todoroki, Hikigaya-san?" Shoji asked, his hand-mouth offering me a smile. "We'll wait for you."

"No need," I said with an ironic smirk. "I'm not going."

"Hikki!" Yuigahama yelped, scandalized.

Hagakure giggled. "You're bad, Hikigaya," she said in a tone of sly admiration.

One of Shoji's eyebrows lifted. "Really? What if he wants to apologize?"

I snorted. "If Todoroki wanted to apologize, he should have asked all four of us." Jamming my hands into my pockets, I started walking towards the cafeteria. "Also, I don't care."

"Hmm." Shoji made a noncommittal noise that sounded like it would have come from the back of his throat if he weren't speaking from his hand. I thought it sounded vaguely satisfied.

But while Hagakure and Shoji didn't seem too discomfited by my decision, the same couldn't be said of Yuigahama Yui. "Ne, Hikki… I can understand why you'd be mad at Todoshoto, I'm a little upset that he knocked us out of the tournament too… but at the same time I don't want to stay mad at him, or Denki-kun, or Yaomomo or Yukinon either. Isn't it better if everybody gets along?" She looked up at me with imploring dark brown eyes that peeked out from under orange bangs, and I could practically feel my resentment starting to crumble.

"I'll probably forgive him eventually," I said with an exasperated sigh, looking up at the clear blue sky in lieu of having to face her. "If I think about it rationally, there's not even really much to be mad about. I probably would have done the same thing in his shoes." No. If there was anybody that I should really be angry at it was myself. I was too caught up in my own schemes, too self-satisfied to notice or realize that when push came to shove people would stop playing along.

"Then -" Yuigahama started, but I cut her off.

"In the meantime," I continued, "I'm hungry, tired, and petty." As we neared the cafeteria and my nose began to pick up on the scent of food, my stomach growled as if to back up my point. "If Todoroki is hoping to apologize so that I'll absolve him of his sins it can wait until I'm not feeling dizzy from low blood sugar." It wasn't that severe of course. I had been feeling dizzy a moment ago, but the gummies that Recovery Girl gave me were already starting to kick in. I was just being childish. But a Sports Festival was fundamentally a celebration of youth in the first place, so what better time or place for a display of childishness? "Besides," I muttered, "he didn't even bother asking, he just told me to show up and assumed I would. It's not like I agreed."

Yuigahama's only response was a helpless sigh. Well, that was probably the correct response to someone who said they knew they were being petty and weren't going to change that.

UA's cafeteria was always a fairly noisy place. There are only so many ways you can cram two hundred people into a room with a large, open floorplan after all, and very few of them involve designing things so that all two hundred of the occupants can simultaneously have conversations at volumes below that of a full roar. With everyone hyped up on adrenaline from the previous competitions, the room was loud enough that I could feel a pulsing headache beginning to spread from my temples. I was simultaneously feeling nauseated and ravenously hungry, and the lie that I had told Yuigahama about feeling dizzy was, in an act of karmic backlash, starting to come true again.

Out of habit, I slapped my pockets to grab for a sports bar, only to realize that they were empty. "Shit." I muttered.

I hadn't expected anyone to hear me over the roar of the cafeteria, so either I had said it louder than I'd intended, it was obvious on my face, or Shoji Mezo's quirk was just that good. "What's wrong, Hikigaya-san?" One of his hand-mouths asked.

"I forgot we had to empty our pockets for the race," I mumbled. "I usually have some spare food on hand in case a quirk makes my blood sugar crash."

"You don't look so good, class prez," Hagakure said, her torso leaning forward so that I could see down the neck of the fresh shirt she had acquired from the recovery station. It was an interesting view, but unfortunately only in an academic sense. "Do you need to sit down? We can bring you something to eat."

I felt my face flush in embarrassment. I was hungry, damn it, not an invalid. "I'm not going to starve to death in the three minutes it takes to get through a lunch line," I said snappishly.

"Alright, if you're sure…" Hagakure said doubtfully. "Yui-chan, can you keep an eye on him? We'll meet you at the table."

"Mm, sure thing," Yuigahama replied, a tone of false cheerfulness in her voice. Confused, I was about to ask what was going on, only to watch as Hagakure and Shoji got into a separate lunch line from Yuigahama and I, one with individually prepared lunches rather than the typical big drop-ins of food that ordinary students were served ladlefuls from.

Right, I remembered that vaguely from my classes with Dr. Kobayakawa. A lot of heteromorph quirks gave the users unusual dietary requirements; UA was totally the type of place that would go Plus Ultra in making sure that students' needs were met. Huh. Maybe that was the sort of thing that I should look into?

"I'm sorry, Hikki," Yuigahama said quietly, interrupting my musings. "I shouldn't have been so pushy earlier. I didn't realize -"

"It's fine," I interrupted her, my voice coming out flatter and harsher than I'd intended. "Not like you could have known." I felt irrationally angry. Stop feeling guilty for thinking like a hero, already!

After what seemed like far too long, I finally made it to the lunch counter. Today's meal was teriyaki chicken stir-fry over rice, no doubt chosen because it was a light and flavorful entree that wouldn't sit heavily in students' stomachs and interfere with them being active later. I already knew it wasn't going to be enough for me. UA wasn't stingy on food by any measure, though, and there were more than enough supplemental snacks and other items for me to make up the difference. Milk, juice, an apple, an orange, a banana, some mixed nuts, a vegetable tray with hummus, I grabbed them all, piling them around the edges of my plate like a miniature diorama of Stonehenge.

Humans are creatures of habit. At the same time, they are also creatures of selfishness. Even though the most pleasant course of action for most people is simply to stick to the actions and locations that they are already familiar with, when opportunities for personal gain presented themselves most humans would leap for them without bothering to learn or care whose normal routines they were inconveniencing. In other words: thanks to our delay at the recovery tent, a bunch of extras from the general education classes had stolen my usual table, and I was irritated enough at the fact that I was referring to them with Bakugo's terminology.

Then Totsuka Saika waved a friendly hand to catch my attention, from a table nearby the usual spot. With him sat Yukinoshita, Yaoyorozu, and Bakugo. I suppose that's the thing about habits; even when we know better, even when following them would only bring heartache, sometimes we can't help but cling to them. For a second, I debated the merits of pretending that I hadn't seen them, but my stomach growled as if to remind me that I had better things to do than wandering around looking for a less socially awkward place to sit.

I regretted listening to my stomach's advice on the matter almost as soon as Yuigahama and I sat down. Laughter danced in Bakugo's red eyes as he greeted us. "Great job making it through on a technicality and getting kicked out, morons."

Thank you Bakugo, for your stunning level of tact and sensitivity. As I tore into a banana with indecent haste, my mouth was unfortunately too full to reply. It definitely wasn't because I had no comeback to that. Definitely not.

"Katsuki!" Totsuka scolded, his usually cheerful face taking on one of his rare hints of indignation. "Be nice!" Was it bad that it reminded me of a mother scolding their children? "Would you want him making fun of you if you were the one who got out?" Totsuka used Guilt-Trip! But, it wasn't very effective...

"Hah!" Bakugo said with a smirk. "Wouldn't have been me."

Yukinoshita stared at Bakugo the way that someone else might stare at a particularly noxious beetle. "Don't bother telling Bakugo to act nice, Saika-kun. I'm not sure that he actually knows how." Yukinoshita used Taunt! Predictably, Bakugo falls for it like an idiot!

Bakugo snorted dismissively. "Eat shit and die, Ice Queen." After a pause in which he noticed that everyone was staring at him in clear agreement with Yukinoshita, he rolled his eyes. "Okay, fine. You want me to be nice?"

Despite myself, I picked up my head from shoveling food into my face as fast as I could go. This, I had to hear.

"You did your best to take a shot at the League of Villains," he said, jabbing his chopsticks at me rudely. "Yeah, you fucked up at the end. Doesn't change the fact that none of the rest of the fucking extras around here have the balls to even try."

Wow. I was impressed. If that had actually been my motivation, as opposed to a lie that I had cooked up to manipulate my class, I might actually have been cheered up by something Bakugo of all people had said.

He continued on to point at Yuigahama. "You should have stayed on my team when you had the chance. Half the losers in the tournament are scrubs, you'd probably have made the second round."

Yuigahama's face twitched as she pasted on a smile. "W-wow, Bakugo, that was… almost comforting," she said, accurately summarizing how I felt. "Actually, speaking of your team, where are they? I would have thought you'd be, um, like celebrating with them or something." Translation: go somewhere else if you can't figure out how to read a room, idiot!

"Huh?" Bakugo said, scowling at Yuigahama. "This is where I eat. If they wanted to sit with me, they would've."

I looked at Bakugo in disbelief. Yaoyorozu, on the other hand, looked intrigued. "Hmmm… that's odd. I would have expected them to invite you. Perhaps they made a nonverbal offer? Or would that fall under implied social contracts?" Oi, Yaoyorozu. Stop treating talking to people like it's an academic subject. I don't want to add a third subject to the list of classes I'm failing at.

"Tche. Whatever," Bakugo said. "What about your team, Airhead? They ditch you and Hikigaya for some reason?"

In yet another display of superior situational awareness, Shoji Mezo stepped into the conversation like he had been standing there all along. "Not at all," he said, sitting down in the empty space on Bakugo's right. "It's just that heteromorph-specific meals take a little longer for Lunch Rush to prepare."

"Hmmm…" Tohru hummed, looking at the crowded table. Although it was just Shoji, Totsuka, and Bakugo on the other side of the table from me, while the three girls at the table were on my side, due to Shoji's mass it would be hard for her to find a seat. After a moment, she made up her mind. "Mind scooting in a little bit, Class Prez? I can probably manage with just the corner of the bench."

I swallowed, forcing half-chewed apple down my throat to clear it. "Oh, uh, sure." I budged over carefully, but despite my best efforts I still found myself brushing shoulders with Yuigahama, who likewise was forced into close contact with Yukinoshita. Neither protested, though Yuigahama seemed a little bit embarrassed. Tohru then promptly sat down on the other end, carelessly leaning up against me as well. Then again, considering what we'd already done… I felt heat rushing to my face as I recalled just why Tohru might be unconcerned about a little bit of close contact, and hastily grabbed for the bottle of orange juice to hide my flusteredness.

Meanwhile, Totsuka's curiosity was piqued. "Eh? Heteromorph-specific meals? Ah, now that you mention it, I remember Ooka-kun saying something about being lucky that he didn't need those. What are they like?"

"It varies by the individual," Shoji explained. "My diet requires a lot of seaweed, fatty fish, and other foods high in collagen to enhance my shapeshifting." He gestured down at his plate, and the enormous sushi roll that he was feeding to a hand-mouth one bite at a time.

"And I need a lot of Vitamin D," Hagakure explained, pointing down at a mushroom-heavy omelet. "Apparently my body has trouble getting it from sunlight." She paused for a second, then I felt her shiver through her contact with my shoulder. "Uh… but I don't think eating something different for one day will hurt me any. Anybody want to trade?"

I stared down at the mushrooms as well, and then looked at my own meal - already half-eaten, but there were a few side items I hadn't touched yet. "You can have my veggie sticks and my orange," I offered. "I'm not sure I'm going to eat everything." It was a lie. I would be hungry later. On the other hand, I wasn't so hungry that I offered to trade her for her omelet. After seeing mushrooms growing out of my skin, there were limits.

Hagakure leaned across me slightly, squishing into the side of my arm as she took the offered items and moved them to her plate. "Thanks, Hachiman," she said earnestly.

Calm down, calm down. Deep breaths. Take a bite of food. Attune to Willpower. You're just being hyperconscious of her because she was just - because of the cavalry battle. She's a nice girl, being friendly, that's all. Pretend it's someone else calling you by name, like Totsuka. Why does that help less than it should?

"Hey Hikki!" Yuigahama said brightly, squishing into me from the other side. "You're on a special diet too, right?"

My brain went blank for a second. I coughed as a bite of rice went down the wrong tube, and quickly reached out and grabbed my carton of milk to wash it back down. Luckily, a lifetime of social awkwardness had prepared me for just such an event! Reacting to an innocuous but ambiguous action taken by a pretty girl as though it was something special would be embarrassing, so when in doubt? Pretend nothing out of the ordinary happened!

"Nothing special," I mumbled around the mouth of the carton before I took another sip. "I was on this... high protein athletic diet for a while?" I can't just say that I was on a 'bodybuilding' diet! It's too embarrassing! "But then I picked up a muscle building quirk and wound up needing a lot more calories," I hurriedly continued. "I still eat all the extra protein and stuff, but now I eat a lot of other stuff too, so I don't know if it even qualifies as a special diet anymore."

"A high-calorie diet certainly qualifies!" Yaoyorozu said, looking at me with sparkling, energetic eyes. "I'm on one myself due to the fact that my quirk requires lipids as a base material to create objects from." If this were an anime, Yaoyorozu's ponytail would have been wagging back and forth like a cat's tail to show her excitement at having found a 'high calorie food buddy'. "We should get together and compare recipes sometime! I know that I certainly find it inconvenient to just be constantly eating sweets and pastries…"

"Wow. That does sound inconvenient," Hagakure said in quite possibly the flattest, most lifeless voice I had ever heard come out of the mouth of a human being other than myself. There was an awkward silence as Yukinoshita gave Yaoyorozu the stink-eye out of the corner of her eye, and Yuigahama self-consciously squeezed a bit of flesh at her waist.

Luckily for Yaoyorozu's sake, despite the fact that he had a maiden's face, Totsuka Saika proved that he lacked a maiden's heart with a complete lack of jealousy and a rapid move to change the subject on her behalf. "That's pretty interesting! What about you, Katsuki-kun, Yui-chan, Yukino-chan; is there anything special that you guys eat to help your quirks?"

Bakugo looked around for a second suspiciously, then shrugged. "... Nothing special, really. Just lots of protein for muscle and a little extra calcium to make sure my bones don't crack from explosions." However as he said it, he picked up a bottle of extra-strong hot sauce from his tray and pivoted it so that we could read the label.

So you eat spicy stuff to make yourself sweat. Is that really something that needs to be kept a secret? Well, not everybody knows that it's actually his sweat that explodes… Sometimes I forget that most people can't just poke people to get all the details on other peoples' quirks.

"Nope, not really," Yui chimed in. Unlike Bakugo, she appeared to be honest as she said it. Surprising. Given her quirk I would have expected she'd eat a high fiber diet.

Surprisingly Yukinoshita looked slightly uncomfortable as we all turned to her. "I'm supposed to eat a lot of ice and other chilled foods to help stay cool when I use my quirk, but I don't like doing it," she said hesitantly. "My mouth is really sensitive to cold things."

I smirked. "Cat's tongue, huh?" Maybe it was the fact that the food in my belly was finally starting to digest, maybe it was out of a continued desire for petty revenge, but somehow the thought of teasing Yukinoshita Yukino made me feel unaccountably cheerful. "I know you like cats, Yukinoshita, but there are limits to that sort of thing."

"Better a cat's tongue than a viper's, Hikireptile-kun." Yukinoshita fired back.

"Oh boy," Yuigahama muttered, scooting back in her seat so as to clear Yukinoshita's line of fire. I'm sorry that you have to put up with a friend as shrewish as Yukinoshita, Yuigahama! Your noble sacrifices will not go unrecognized!

"I'll have you know that a snake's tongue is exceptionally sensitive to temperature and vibrations, Yukinoshita-san," I said fatuously, placing one mock-offended hand to my chest. "As such, any resemblances my own tongue has to that of a snake are purely survival strategies developed after being in your presence."

"I see," Yukinoshita said, nodding solemnly. "In that case, I humbly apologize to all animals of the Family Viperidae for associating them with you, Slug-tongue-aya-kun."

What was I, a Lord Of The Rings villain? "The 'Family Viperidae' might accept your apologies, Yukipedia-chan," I said, making air quotes to emphasize her needlessly scientific description, "but if mere apologies were enough to settle slander cases there would be no need for courts. I hereby demand a full retraction of your insults towards me, a formal apology, and ten million yen in compensation plus punitive damages."

"Um…" Hagakure whispered next to me. "Are they okay? Should we stop them?"

"I'm afraid, Hikigaya-san, that your lawsuit will be pointless." Yukinoshita smiled like a shark. "Slander only comes into play when accusations are detrimental to one's reputation, and I'm certain that any reasonable judge would determine that a comparison of you to any vertebrate could only be construed as a compliment."

"Eh heh heh.." Yuigahama laughed awkwardly, whispering back to Hagakure. "They do this all the time, it's fine." On the other side of Yukinoshita, I could see Momo closing her eyes with a pained expression and nodding in agreement.

Invertebrate, was I? Well, I suppose that Shrews were an animal that was the ultimate predator of insects. "Did you forget about the jury of your peers, Yukinoshita-san? I mean, they won't be able to hold the trial until January rolls around and they can find enough icicles to fill a jury box, but at least it'll give you plenty of time to prepare a defense."

"Are you sure?" Shoji asked dubiously. "This seems sort of harsh."

"How fortunate for you," Yukinoshita replied in a, heh, frosty voice. "Burnable trash is collected weekly."

As I was frantically wracking my brains for a comeback, Bakugo completely shattered my train of thought. "Nah, this is just how they flirt," he drawled.

"Eh?" Tohru shouted in unhappy surprise.

Suddenly, a balled-up paper napkin bounced off my face, and I blinked as my brain caught up to the completely ludicrous and false statement that my ears had just heard. "Get a room, nerds!" Bakugo shouted.

My face burning hot, I whipped my head around to face him. "I'm/We're not flirting!" I shouted, my voice overlapping with Yukinoshita's simultaneous denial.

"Bakugo-san." Yukinoshita said with forced calm. "Nothing that you are implying is going on in the slightest. In fact, the only person here I have less interest in flirting with than Hikigaya-san is you."

In response to that unflattering comparison to Bakugo I cleared my throat ostentatiously. "Yaoyorozu-san. Yuigahama-san. Hagakure-san. If Yukinoshita makes any inappropriate advances towards you, or makes you uncomfortable in any way, let me know. I'll believe you."

"Ha ha ha okay okay let's change the subject now shall we?" Yuigahama said, interposing herself back between Yukinoshita and I to break our line of sight to each other.

"Yes," Yaoyorozu chimed in, "I agree." Despite saying so, however, she was grinning in amusement at my weeks-belated comeback. "Now, let's see… Oh, I know! If it was a private topic, feel free not to answer in specific details, but did your conversation with Todoroki-san go well, Hikigaya?" She looked hopeful, as if waiting to be reassured that her own participation in the act of betraying me had been totally forgiven.

Comfortable. Familiar. My exchange of insults with Yukinoshita had been a way of apologizing without apologizing, accepting without accepting. An unspoken agreement to ignore our emotional problems and difficulties with each other until they went away so that we could continue in our normal, everyday patterns, conveniently distracting me from the fact that I had just left Todoroki Shoto twisting in the wind. I looked down at my plate. Somehow, it was already mostly empty, with all of the packaging and peels of the extra food staring back at me as though mocking me.

I stood up. "I should probably go talk to him, huh," I said. Now that I had some actual food in my belly, my decision to just ignore Todoroki and let him sit out there seemed far less vindictively satisfying, and far more meanspirited. The shame of it burned at the back of my neck, and I abruptly turned away from everyone at the table, not wanting to see what their faces would look like once they realized what I had done.

I started heading back out towards the athletic field, just in case he was still there, but on my way out I saw Todoroki coming in. He shot me a vicious glare. For a long second, the two of us just stared at each other, his mismatched eyebrows narrowed, my own expression apologetic, before he turned and walked away to go get something to eat. In retrospect maybe I should have followed him. Instead my feet just kept moving, carrying me out of the cafeteria and in search of a quiet corner to sit and meditate. Yuigahama would probably wind up making my excuses for me, or if I really needed to I could talk to Todoroki after he'd cooled off. Was it really cowardice if I avoided an awkward conversation in favor of stockpiling quirks I would need for the finals?

Undoubtedly, the answer was yes.

108*108*108*108*108*108*108*108*108*108*108*108*108*108*108*108

Shouts and laughter filled the stadium as the students who didn't make the final round scurried around like ants, hoping against hope that their performance in a scavenger hunt or a three-legged race would do something, anything to impress a pro hero. The smells of butter-covered popcorn, of sizzling hot dogs and fried takoyaki, mingled and gave off a carnival atmosphere. Rubbernecking civilians and greedy journalists added to the air of excitement, murmuring and pointing whenever a student did something flashy or a pro hero stood apart from the crowd and made themselves visible.

Returning to UA's sports festival after graduation was somehow nostalgic.

Also, boring.

I didn't become a hero just because my parents thought it would make the family business look good. I'm sure they thought it was their idea, of course, and I made sure that I toed the line and acted every inch the dutiful daughter doing her utmost to support her parents, but I had known since a very young age that I was going to be a hero. Anything else would have been too easy.

My adorable little sister, unfortunately, had fallen victim to the same rhetorical traps and innocuous suggestions that I had laid out to convince my parents to allow it. Where I had wanted to be a hero - no, needed to be one, because it was the only chance of finding something to do with my life that would be an actual challenge, Yukino wanted to be a hero for the sake of being a hero. So she was boringly trying to follow in my footsteps, boringly rebelling against my parents when they tried to force her into the family business, and boringly doing her best in a boring high school competition in order to win the same boring first place prize that I had won for three boring years running.

But what kind of big sister would I be if I didn't show up to support her?

Ah, well. Boredom was an old, familiar enemy - and I knew just how to deal with it.

Obviously, I just had to make my own fun. "Yahello, Uncle Enji!" I shouted and waved.

Standing intimidatingly with his arms crossed and his mask blazing with tongues of flame was the Number 2 Pro Hero, the second most famed and revered hero in all of Japan. My family's association with him was one of the biggest factors in my own meteoric rise to fame, and I knew for a fact that being seen with me boosted his ratings.

My cute little flower crown was popular with older folks, the traditional crowd loved my Ancient Roman-themed lorica and white tunic skirt, every male between the ages of fourteen and forty-four with a pulse loved how much skin the ensemble showed off, and our uncle-niece dynamic played well with middle-aged housewives and other family-conscious hero fans. Since Endeavor's fanbase hit a lot of those same target markets, the two of us being associated with each other was a win-win.

And if it wasn't, I doubt he would have given me the time of day. "Campestris," Enji said with a nod and a complete lack of a smile. His eyes glanced over me once, then returned to his 'vigilant' stare at the arena. "Here to cheer on your sister?"

"So stuffy, Enji-oji-san! You don't have to be all formal just because I'm here in costume! It's Haruno, Ha. Ru. No!" There was something exquisitely satisfying about acting charming and friendly with someone that I completely distasted. He knew that I couldn't stand him, of course, but we both had to pretend to play nice for the sake of the media. "And it's not just Yuki-chan! I'm rooting for Shoto-kun too!"

Enji nodded. "Of course. I'm sure he will be happy to see you." Happier than he will be to see you, old man.

Speaking of people who would be happy to see me… A sudden thought crossed my mind and I adopted my best disappointed face. "I had intended to cheer for Hayato-kun too, of course, but he got unlucky." Really, how boring of Hayato. And I'd been so hoping he'd go up against Yuki-chan in the tournament so I could watch him squirm, too. "He's a big fan of yours, you know!" I said charmingly. "If you see him you should cheer him up!"

Enji's face changed microscopically from impassive indifference to a complete lack of recognition. "I see. Which one was he?"

I bit my tongue to keep from sighing publicly. Really, Uncle Enji? You've met him multiple times! This is why you're not popular even though you're the number two hero, you know. "The blond one," I said. When he still didn't get it, I took a deep breath for patience. "The one who was flying all around earlier? Got buried in vines at the end?"

"Ah, him." Enji said. Beneath the flames of his mask, his eyes narrowed. "He has a strong quirk, but a tendency to rely too much on his own abilities, even when doing so would be detrimental to him. Not uncommon, in children his age. I hope he learns from the experience."

A little shiver of glee went up the back of my spine.. I was going to have to repeat to Hayato ex-act-ly what his idol just said, frowny-face and all. I wonder if I could do the voice, too? "I'm sure he will," I said, a fresh and sunny smile on my face. After all, I would make sure of it.

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! MUCHACHOS Y MUJERES! ARE. YOU. READYYYYY?! THE THRILLING TOURNAMENT FINALE IS FINALLY ABOUT TO BEGIN!"

So dramatic, Mic-sensei. "Are there any matches that you're interested in this year, other than Shoto-kun's?" I asked Uncle Enji while feigning nonchalance.

"Not particularly," he said, still impassively watching with folded arms. "There's generally not much significance to a competition of this level."

Heh heh heh. I know something you don't know! "Really?" I asked, my voice dripping with false innocence. "That's surprising! I'd have thought you would have been interested in the first match! I've been hearing a lot about Midoriya-kun from Shoto-kun and Yuki-chan, you know?"

For the first time since I had approached him, Uncle Enji turned slightly to look at me directly. "I wasn't aware that you and Shoto were keeping in contact," he said, a fraction of interest entering his tone of voice. "And I had heard from your parents that Yukino had been in a rebellious phase lately as well. Do you speak to them often?"

So predictable, Uncle Enji! "Of course I do!" I lied, "I'm their favorite oldest cousin and big sister, after all!" Actually, Yuki-chan was almost as cold towards me as she was towards our parents, and Shoto-kun was a frigid stick in the mud, but then again it's not like he knew either of them well enough to disprove what I was saying. "Why wouldn't we stay in touch?" I asked, twisting the knife. "We're family!"

The crowd cheered as the contestants entered the arena together. As the camera zoomed in on their faces, you'd think that Midoriya was the one walking into a doomed match - he had a shaky smile pasted on his face, while Shinso looked cool and determined. For all the good it would do him. "So?" Enji asked, once more returning his attention to the field. "Is there a reason that I should be interested in this Midoriya child?"

"Hmm, well, maybe not," I said girlishly. "So much of what I hear from Yuki-chan and Shoto-kun is just rumors, after all." Actually, most of what I knew about the first years this year came from my adorable kouhai Meguri-chan. Her Detective quirk was useful that way, after all. But I couldn't help the slight deception, not when the faces Uncle Enji tried to hide were just so interesting. "I'm sure Midoriya isn't really All Might's protege," I lied.

Below us on the field, Midoriya Izuku burst into green lightning, charging Shinso in a blur of motion and handily tossing him out of the ring almost before the buzzer had finished echoing through the stadium. "Kind of impressive," I said idly in the gaps between Present Mic's screamed attempts at making a completely one-sided beatdown seem interesting, "especially because he's some kind of late bloomer. Shoto-kun said Midoriya can only handle five percent of his total power without hurting himself, can you imagine?"

Ah, the power of garbled high school gossip, as collected by Meguri-chan and weaponized by me. Enji's eyes looked like they were going to burn holes in Midoriya Izuku's back as the nervous-looking boy walked back out of the arena the way that he came. "Five percent… is it," he muttered. Suddenly, Enji turned on his heel and started walking back into the passageways of the stadium.

"Where are you going?" I asked cheerfully, following my uncle closely. "You'll miss the next fight! Those girls will be sad not to see the Number Two Pro Hero watching, you know!"

"If the rest of the fights for the first round are as quick as this one was," Enji said without slowing down even a little, "it won't be long before Shoto's match. I'd like to motivate him properly before then."

"I'll come with you!" I chirped, inwardly rolling my eyes at Enji's melodrama. Shoto obviously wouldn't hate using fire so much if you weren't such an asshole about it, idiot. It's like you've never even met a teenager before! "You're going to cheer on Yuki-chan after you talk to Shoto, right? We can go together!"

He paused mid-step for a second, as if the thought that he might want to support his niece had only just crossed his mind. I suppressed the urge to kick him down a flight of stairs. "Of course," he replied smoothly.

For a few seconds we just walked, the ever-present narration of Present Mic echoing through the hallway. "Matter! Versus! Gravity! In one corner, we have the recommended student, Yaoyorozu Momo! Versus her classmate from 1-A, Uraraka Ochako! Which of these two fundamental forces of nature will come out on top? Second match… Start!"

"Whoa! And Uraraka starts with a swift attack, while Yaoyorozu conjures a long weapon to keep Uraraka's devastating fingers at range! But even so, Uraraka is pressing forward, doing her best to get in close!"

"It's too bad you didn't think of visiting Shoto-kun earlier, Uncle." I said with a fake pout. "It sounds like we're missing something fun." More fun than boring hallways, anyways.

He glanced over his shoulder at me. "You're welcome to return to the stadium if you like."

"Endeavor!" Suddenly, a familiar-sounding voice boomed through the corridor. "I thought I heard a familiar voice. It's been a long time!" There he was, larger than life, in a pinstripe suit that just barely managed to contain his muscular form, his trademark twin forelocks standing mighty and proud above his skull. All Might, in the flesh. The corners of my mouth curled up in a genuine smile. The Number One Pro Hero. How interesting. "Oh? And who is this lovely young lady?"

"Yukinoshita Haruno, Hero Name: Campestris," I said smoothly before Uncle Enji could intervene, "pleased to meet you." I bowed respectfully, but inside my mind was going at a thousand miles an hour. Did All Might not know that my uncle hated him? Or was he another person like me, capable of putting on a mask that only a few could see through? Every word and gesture he offered towards my uncle oozed with sincerity. And did he really not recognize me? I was polling in the mid-sixties on the Hero Billboard, so that was unlikely - but why pretend not to know me?

"It's been about ten years since the last time we got a chance to talk, hasn't it Enji?" All Might said innocently, as though the top two heroes in the country could possibly have avoided each other for an entire decade by coincidence. "I've been meaning to find you, we should sit down and have tea some time."

"Hmph." Uncle Enji snorted. "I'm a busy man, Toshinori." Toshinori? It must be All Might's family name - Uncle Enji wouldn't call someone he hated by their personal name. "I don't have time to sit down and have tea. Or to stand here and chat. My son's match will be coming up soon."

"Oh! By cancelling her weight reduction on Yaoyorozu's staff, Uraraka caused the change in weight to pull Yaoyorozu's defenses out of position! She's nullified her gravity! Is it all over? Will Yaoyorozu be able to make a comeback before she floats out of the ring? Yes! Yaoyorozu creates an object in mid air, and by throwing it manages to reverse her momentum! Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, folks! What's more, it looks like she's noticed that the objects she creates aren't affected by Uraraka's gravity negation, because she's created an anchor to keep herself from floating away!"

I smiled sweetly and pulled out a notepad and pen from my cleavage. "It sounds like we have at least a little bit more time, doesn't it? All Might, do you think I could get an autograph?"

"Of course, young lady!" All Might boomed, "Anything for a fan!"

Hmm. What if he didn't approach the two of us because of Endeavor? It wouldn't be the first time that an older hero had awkwardly tried to pick me up, after all. Well, there was an easy way to check. "Ne, All Might," I said in a cutesy voice, "I've been hoping to thank you for looking after my younger sister. Yukino-chan is very lucky to have you teaching her, I'm so jealous!" I leaned in to 'watch him sign my notebook', squeezing my shoulders together slightly as I did so to emphasize my cleavage and watching him for any signs of interest.

"Ha ha ha ha!" All Might laughed jovially, still every inch the professional. "I'm lucky to have her as a student! And, of course, young Shoto-shonen as well!" He added with a nod towards Endeavor. He offered me back my notebook with the smile that made him the number 1 hero in Japan.

Still inconclusive, huh? Fine, time to break out the big guns. I let myself blush prettily, bashfully reaching to take my notebook back. "Well, I guess being able to call you senpai is almost as good, since we're both alumni." Just as my hand was about to touch the paper I leaned forward and grasped All Might's hand with both of mine, batting my lashes as I looked up and implored him, "Ne, which one do you prefer? All Might-sensei, or All Might-senpai?"

It was good that I had planned out my attack in advance, because as soon as my skin touched his my thoughts were thrown into chaos. After years of practice with my Quirk, Life Drain, I had a more or less instinctive feel for how much health and vitality anyone I touched had. Without that sense for others' well-being, it would have been easy for me to accidentally take more energy than someone could safely afford. I had expected All Might to be a volcano of energy, a rampant stallion, or at the very least an aging but still mighty bear. Instead, his life force felt like a bird with a broken wing, struggling to escape from my palm.

All Might gently extracted his hand from mine, coughing slightly in implied embarrassment. "I'm flattered, Yukinoshita-san, but there's no need to call me by any special titles. Just All Might is fine."

How interesting. All Might's public persona was flawless. There was not a single hint that he was interested in me on any level other than the personal, barely even a sign that he had noted me making a pass at him, and absolutely no crack in the facade concealing the fact that - judging by his lack of vitality - he was either completely exhausted or slowly dying. He wasn't out of breath, nor mussed, and he didn't smell of sweat or sex. Was it cancer? An old injury? Simple wear and tear from the use of his quirk? No matter which, it explained why he would be looking for my uncle - someone would have to take over as Number One after he retired, after all. The sudden transition to becoming a teacher and the adoption of a protege fit the theory as well. It could be something else, something innocuous, but if it wasn't… then it spoke of a long-running, exceptionally successful deception of not only the Japanese public but the majority of heroes as well.

And where there was one deception of that scale, odds were that there would be another. How delicious would it be if the Symbol of Peace, the earnest, jovial, noble icon of Japanese Heroism… was in fact a calculating, vicious, manipulative schemer just like myself? Despite myself, I felt my false smile turn real, and I hugged All Might's autograph close to my chest. "Mou, that's not fair, All Might! You're one of Uncle Enji's friends, so if you're going to call me Yukinoshita-san, I'm going to call you Toshinori-san!"

"Ah ha ha ha ha. I suppose you have me there," All Might said, adopting an air of tolerant amusement toward a misbehaving junior despite the fact that his name was usually something he kept secret. "As long as it's not in front of the media, I suppose that's fine."

"Wow! Yaoyorozu, saving herself from a hard fall to the stadium floor by making a last second airbag!" Present Mic's voice shrieked, cutting through the sudden awkward silence. "But it looks like that knocked the wind out of her, because Uraraka was able to tag her and send her floating up again! This is starting to look like the end for Yaoyorozu, folks!"

"Come," Endeavor said gruffly. "We're running out of time. Goodbye, Toshinori." He started walking away, not caring to wait to see if I was following.

"A-ah, sure," All Might said, a hint of regret in his voice as though he was sorry to see Uncle Enji go. I wondered if he hated my uncle as much as my uncle hated him? "We'll have to catch up another time."

A sudden wicked impulse seized my mind, and I took a few steps after my uncle, only to stop and turn back to look over my shoulder. I gave All Might a shy, tremulous smile. "Toshinori-san… you aren't the type to play favorites, right? If you neglect Shoto-kun or my Yuki-chan… I'll be mad, you know?"

He shook his head calmly. "Of course not, Yukinoshita-san. I swear to you that I will treat all of my students equally and fairly."

I faked a smile of relief. "That's great! But… you should probably get back to the arena before Yaoyorozu-chan and Uraraka-chan find out you weren't watching them, don't you think?"

The facade cracked, revealing a look of surprised guilt, and the nearly certain knowledge that it was just a deception layered within another deception sent little chills of pleasure running down my spine. "Bye-bye, Toshinori-san," I said sweetly, and ran to catch up to Uncle Enji, smiling all the way.

I wonder if this is what it feels like to be a maiden in love?

Sadly, my good mood was not to last. As the second match concluded with Uraraka's victory and Present Mic moved on to narrating a rather boring-sounding match between Tensei-kun's younger brother and some kid with an electric quirk, I was forced to watch as Uncle Enji berated my cute little cousin, scolding him for his fourth place spot in the cavalry battle and his near failure at the hands of "his very own flame."

So boring, Uncle Enji. So dull. You don't even realize it, but all of this torment you're inflicting on poor Shoto is going to be useless soon. It's all so banal and predictable that not even the faces you'll make when you find out the truth will be entertaining.

Hmmmm. Should I spice things up a bit?

108*108*108*108*108*108*108*108*108*108*108*108*108*108*108*108

"An absolutely stunning display of speed from Iida Tenya! After trying to tease out Kaminari's electricity with feint after feint, wearing his opponent's focus and attention down, Iida-kun uses a burst of speed surpassing anything he's shown in the tournament just far to decide everything in an instant! That's right folks, Iida Tenya just proved he was faster. Than. Lightning!"

"Haah." I let out a sigh of irritation as I opened my eyes. Damn it, how the hell was I supposed to focus on stockpiling quirks when Present Mic kept using obnoxiously inane cliches? Well, if I was being honest with myself, my mind hadn't been focusing well to begin with. After my encounter with Todoroki I had found a quiet grove of trees within earshot of the stadium, and had intended to sit and stockpile there. But the breeze was pleasant, the shade was cool, and I wound up spending more time than I'd meant to spend just sitting, appreciating nature, and trying to decide what quirk to try and implement a last second recharge on.

My first match was against Monoma Neito. Without anybody's quirk but mine to copy during the match he would be pretty easy pickings. I should be able to show off at least a little bit there, so there was no need to stockpile a specific quirk with him in mind. Unfortunately, after him I would have to fight Bakugo. That fight would be… less easy. I had a lot of quirks that I could use against Bakugo, but frankly none of them felt like they were hard counters to his abilities. I didn't have very much experience watching people fight and trying to break down how to beat them, but even a little bit of extra insight into how Bakugo might fight was better than nothing. I would have to watch him fight for inspiration, though, which again precluded trying to prepare a quirk for him specifically.

And so, I wound up settling on recharging Hot Skin. Frankly speaking, the bit of psychological comfort I got for having a tool on hand to deal with Todoroki Shoto would more useful against Bakugo than any quirk I could have stockpiled. As to whether either Todoroki or I would reach the finals… well, we'd see.

By the time I made it back to the area where our class was seated, Present Mic was already announcing the next match. "Now, for our fourth match! The Amphibian Assassin, Tsuyu Asui! Versus! The Ice-Cold contestant with a hidden hot side, Todoroki Shoto! Start! Tsuyu-chan, right out of the gate, trying for an immediate blitz! She's - "

Just as I was nearing the top of the stairs and preparing to head for a seat, in a split second everything changed. I went from being able to see the bleachers across the stadium to my view being dominated by an enormous wall of ice. I sprinted up the last few steps, running to the railing. The competition field looked like a winter wasteland, with Tsuyu having been pushed so far up and back by the rising crystals of cold that she was suspended mid-air above the concrete. As the cameras zoomed in on her, I saw her eyes slowly close, looking hazy and vulnerable as though she wasn't entirely aware of her surroundings.

The stadium was stunned into silence. Even Present Mic's usual reactions were absent. It was a flashy, overwhelming display of power that almost nobody wanted to cheer.

"Jeez!" I heard Kaminari say from the stands. "Todoroki's bringing out the big guns! Wonder who pissed him off?"

"...Sorry, Tsuyu." I muttered under my breath. Seriously, Todoroki? If you're pissed off that I avoided you, take it out on me, not on Tsuyu! "I'll make it up to you." Somehow.

On the field, Todoroki melted the ice around Tsuyu. As she fell forward out of the ice, he caught her in his arms, the camera zooming in to his face to show an expression of regret. Well, I suppose if he was going to overreact and throw a tantrum in the middle of the athletic field, at least it was with the ice half of his quirk and not the fire half. Recovery Girl was good, but I bet even she couldn't fix "extra-crispy."

Seeing the massive display of ice made my palms itch. I wanted to copy his quirk, damn it. For weeks I'd been good, trying to respect Todoroki's personal wishes, not wanting to cause waves in the classroom, but if this was how he acted when he got a little upset then maybe he didn't deserve to have those wishes respected - or maybe that was just my greed and envy talking. If I focused really hard on how having a copy of his quirk would keep me from getting frozen, did that justify me taking it despite his explicit lack of permission? I'd already stolen a copy of All Might's quirk, but that had been in the heat of the moment; somehow, the idea of choosing to break someone's trust as a premeditated act felt like it would be worse. Well, if we wound up facing each other in a head to head battle, all bets would be off. I was nice, but I wasn't so nice that I'd give myself frostbite for Todoroki's sake.

Out of the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of movement. I turned to the left and saw Class 1-B, standing up and filing out of the stands en masse, leaving just the girl in glasses with the Mushroom quirk and the frizzy-haired Orimoto Kaori behind. A lot of them shot me nasty glares as they passed, too, and the final person to leave was Monoma Neito, who gave me a vicious smirk as he passed by.

A cold pit of dread formed in the bottom of my stomach. "Hey, Orimoto," I called out over the divider between the two classes to where she sat at the far end of the 1-B section. "Are they…"

"All going to support Monoma and letting him copy their quirks?" Orimoto called back with a grin. "What, you didn't see that coming? Hahahaha! Hilarious, Hikigaya!"

"Heh heh," I laughed awkwardly. "Right, that makes sense… you decided not to go with them?" I asked. It was a little strange, actually. From the way she acted in middle school, I would have expected her to leap at the chance to take me down a peg.

"What would be the point?" Orimoto asked rhetorically. "I'm still in the competition. If they let Monoma use their quirks, there's a chance a pro might see it and get interested in them. If I let him use my quirk, and he somehow does something more impressive with it than I do, that just makes me look bad." Then she smiled at me, the same friendly, open smile that made my heart beat faster not very long ago. "Besides, what would the people from Jakku Middle think if I helped Monoma out against you?"

"Depends on whether they remembered who I was or not," I said self-deprecatingly.

"Depends - hahahaha! You're too funny, Hikigaya!" Orimoto Kaori said, as though I had been joking. Then again, that was who Orimoto Kaori was. The sort of person who assumed that everyone was friends with her, just because that was how she wanted them to be. I had admired that about her, once, and then resented it. Now, I wasn't sure.

Curiously, I turned to the other girl remaining in the 1-B stands, sitting significantly closer to us than Orimoto, and in the front row whereas Orimoto was in the middle. It didn't look like she was there just to keep Orimoto company. "What about you… uh, your name was Ebina-san, right?" I asked her. "Why didn't you go down to let him copy your quirk?"

She towards me with a sad smile, one hand absentmindedly running along the frame of her glasses to guide a stray lock of brown hair behind her ear. "My quirk… isn't very nice," she replied, a note of melancholy in her voice. "If he copied it without knowing how to use it and someone got hurt, I wouldn't like that."

"Ah," I replied. Damn. Were you holding back during the cavalry battle? That was both terrifying and a little cool. You're kind of a sweet girl, aren't you Ebina-chan?

Then, a gleam entered her eye, and she adjusted her glasses as a perverted smile crossed her face. "Plus, there's no way I'm missing this match! It's a natural top and a switchy bottom! Bakugo's exploding passion, slowly wearing down Kirishima's rigid resistance! Uhuhu, uhuhu!"

Although, now that I think about it, rotting food sometimes smells sickly sweet too.

As I stepped away from the 1B stands and turned towards my class, I saw that all of them were looking at me. Crap. Why couldn't there have been a fight for them all to watch? Unfortunately the giant iceberg that Todoroki had made was still melting, so there was no way to use the excuse that I needed to get ready for my match without it looking really suspicious and awkward.

What else could I do? I took a seat.

The first one to speak was Yaoyorozu, her ponytail disheveled from her fight with Uraraka, who despite the telltale fatigue of having been healed by Recovery Girl came up to me with anxiety-driven speed. "Hikigaya, you're alright! When nobody said they had seen you since lunch, I was worried you might -"

"Sorry," I mumbled. "I didn't mean to cause you trouble."

She shook her head, some of the tension leaving her shoulders. "N-no, you didn't - I mean, maybe a little, but it's - it was understandable."

All these Hero Students were too damn nice for their own good. I'd up and vanished on Yaoyorozu when she should have been focusing on preparing for her match, and not only did she not blame me, she sounded like she'd already forgiven me and was maybe even blaming herself for having 'caused' the issue in the first place. "I, uh, I'm sorry I didn't watch your match," I said quietly, not able to look her in the eye. "I listened, though. It, uh, sounded like it was a pretty close fight."

Yaoyorozu sighed and closed her eyes. "Not as close as I would have liked," she admitted wistfully. "Uraraka-san had me on the back foot from the beginning."

"Ehe, don't say that Momo-chan!" Uraraka said. She was sitting in the front row next to Midoriya, smiling sheepishly as she put one hand behind her head, her long brown bangs framing her round face. "You gave me a really hard time, you know? The whole time I was feeling like if I made one mistake then you'd get me."

As usual, Yaoyorozu was uncomfortable with direct praise, and she looked to the side, hugging herself slightly. "Thanks, Ochako-chan."

"Truly, the Sports Festival is a Carnival of Darkness," Tokoyami Fumikage proclaimed, "pitting friend against friend, classmate against classmate."

"I disagree, Tokoyami-kun!" Iida Tenya said, karate-chopping at the air as he stood up from his seat next to Midoriya. "Everyone here is an aspiring hero, after all! I'm sure that everyone understands that we are all engaging in fair competition, and that no hard feelings will persist for long."

I looked over my shoulder at the almost empty 1-B stands. "Uh huh," I muttered sarcastically. "No hard feelings. Right."

"You misunderstand, Iida. I agree, it is a dim darkness," Tokoyami uttered solemnly, "but only by submerging ourselves in its depths will we acquire the fortitude to plunge into even deeper and more perilous pits."

"I'm gonna be honest with ya Tokoyami, I have no idea what you just said," Kaminari butted in with a grin, "but that stuff you were talkin' about with Iida just now reminded me. Hey, Class Prez!" He called out.

My attention turned to him. "Yeah?"

"No hard feelings on zapping you earlier, right? We're cool?" He asked.

I stared at the idiot blonde's distinctive zigzag hair in disbelief. Was it possible that the bursts of idiocy his quirk caused when it shorted his brain out weren't temporary? Even at 1/108 potency, was it safe for me to use? How was it even possible for him to come up with such an insincere apology and think it was okay? And how lucky did he have to be that he was asking it in a social environment where it would be impolite for me to refuse?

Oh, well. Given the stress his quirk put him through when he uses it as heavily as he was using it during the cavalry battle, it was probable that he was just running on instinct and following orders from Todoroki when he did it, anyways. "Uh, yeah. Sure," I managed.

Out of curiosity, I snuck a glance at Yukinoshita and Yaoyorozu. Yaoyorozu looked slightly cheered as I replied to Kaminari, but Yukinoshita was staring straight ahead, gazing at the athletic field from her seat at the far end of Class 1-A's seating section like she wasn't even paying attention.

From his seat next to Kaminari, Tobe elbowed him in the ribs. "Man, you're lucky the Class Prez is nice, Denki! He let you off way lighter than I would have!" Don't misunderstand, Tobe. I only let him off because I hadn't been expecting much in the first place. "Hey, hey, how much you wanna bet that Todoroki's gonna be doing dogezas to Tsuyu-chan later?"

"Hmm, he does seem like the type," Ashido said, putting one vivid pink finger up to her equally fluorescent lips in thought. "Do you think it'll be just that though? I mean, the way he picked up Asui-chan after he melted her out of the ice was kind of sweet and romantic, don't you think?"

Jiro groaned in disgust. One of her metal-tipped earlobes stretched out, detouring past Tobe's dreadlocks to poke Ashido in the forehead. "Give it a rest already, Mina! Jeez, are you pink between the ears, too?"

Ashido grinned cheerfully. "Brains are already pink, so yup!"

There was a short, despairing silence. Finally Jiro sighed, hanging her head. "Mina. There's a reason they call it grey matter, you know."

"Oh! Right! I remember now, hehe." Ashido bonked herself in the head with a fist, then smiled sheepishly for a few seconds before her black-scleraed eyes opened wide in confusion. "Wait," she asked, "since brains are grey, why are they usually pink in diagrams and toys and pictures and stuff?"

"Healthy living brains actually often take on a pinkish tone due to the blood flowing through them," Yaoyorozu volunteered, "but I imagine that the full pink tone in images is probably due to marketing concerns."

Ashido stuck her tongue out at Jiro. "See, Kyoka-chan? My brain's just extra-healthy!"

Whatever comeback Jiro would have offered was interrupted by Present Mic. "All right folks, sorry about the delay, but the ice has been melted so we are back in business! Our next match features the number one performer on the UA Entrance Exam! His temper is as explosive as his quirk! Bakugo Katsuki! Versus! The manly and passionate Kirishima Eijirou! He's got rocky skin and an iron will!"

"Hikigaya-san." Iida said strictly. "You should make your way to the contestant waiting area. It would be unbecoming of 1-A's president to inconvenience the faculty by being late to your match."

I nodded, standing up and putting one hand on the railing. "I'll go in a minute," I replied, looking down on the field proper. Bakugo and Kirishima were walking towards the battlefield, both cracking knuckles, necks, shoulders, and other body joints in a last-second display of bravado and intimidation. "Kirishima won't get knocked out right away. If I'm going to be fighting Bakugo next round I'd like to get a look at how he fights, first."

"Hey, you never know! Eijiro-kun might be able to pull something off," Ashido said in irritation. After a second, she noticed that everyone was looking at her, and blushed a slightly darker shade of pink. "What?"

"Eijiro, huh?" Miura asked, turning around in her seat to look back at Ashido. "You seem to be on pretty good terms with Kirishima, huh?"

"No, no, no," Ashido said, putting her hands up defensively. "It's not like that, we were just classmates in middle school, plus he's in my HEART group."

Jiro smirked. "He's in your heart something, anyway," she teased.

"I told you, it's not like that!" Ashido said, embarrassed. "Your - your brain is pink!"

"Shoe fits a little differently when it's on the other foot, doesn't it?" Jiro said, leaning back in smug satisfaction.

"He's in our HEART group," Iida interjected, "and I have to say that I agree with Ashido. While Bakugo's quirk is powerful, Midoriya was able to defeat him in hand-to-hand combat during our first combat training session, mostly without the aid of his own quirk. Given Kirishima's resilience and combat skill, him beating Bakugo isn't out of the question."

"I'm sorry, Iida-kun, but you're wrong." Midoriya said, his attention laser-focused on the battlefield. "In a real fight… Bakugo… his combat ability is the real deal."

"Are you ready?" Present Mic called. On the jumbotrons, we could see Kirishima and Bakugo adopt identical grins of challenge. "Staaart!"

The two of them took one step towards each other. Then another, faster, then another. Just as they were about to collide, there was an enormous THOOOOOM. A percussive burst of noise erupted as Bakugo's heavy haymaker erupted into a cloud of fire and smoke.

As it slowly cleared, I saw that Kirishima looked a little different than he had when we had our Battle Training together. At the time, his skin had looked almost lumpy under the effect of his quirk, as though there had been a layer of rough stone beneath his skin. Five weeks later, it still looked blocky, but now there were clear lines and angles connecting the armor plates, almost like a character from a low-polygon fighting game. Most importantly, other than some scorch marks on his clothes, he looked undamaged. The camera zoomed in on his face, and we could see his mouth move.

"Hey, Kyoka-chan," Miura asked, "can you make out what Kirishima's saying?"

"All the way from here? Over the crowd?" Jiro asked, before shrugging and stretching both her earlobes out to make contact with the ground. "I can try…" She paused for a second, before starting to echo Kirishima's words in a lower-pitched tone of voice than she usually spoke. "... to disappoint you, but that barely trickled - no, tickled, ever since I started training ike Hikigaya suggested my armor's been getting crazy strong."

Her voice shifted up a pitch even as the camera switched to Bakugo. "Eh? Is that so? Then I'll just have to keep pounding you until you give in."

"Pound me all you like, no matter what, I can take it!" She said, once again mimicking Kirishima's lower tones.

"Gehbo!" A strangled noise erupted from the 1-B stands as the girl named Ebina spit out her cola. She put the soda cup down to try to wipe herself off, only to set only half of it on the ledge, which set the cup to tipping even further.

Just as it was about to completely fall over and spill all over her shoes, a voice rang out. "Don't spill! Turn upright slowly! Move back four centimeters onto the ledge!" Tobe Kakeru, having stood up to see what the commotion was, had saved the cup just in time.

Almost simultaneously, Iida Tenya zipped towards the barrier between the two seating sections, one hand holding out a handkerchief. "Here!" He said cheerfully. "Use this!"

"Float over to her!" Tobe shouted, and the handkerchief escaped from Iida's fingers and fluttered through the air, pausing in front of Ebina's face.

Ebina's eyes widened behind her half-rimmed glasses, and she looked from Iida to Tobe with eyes that probably appeared to be full of gratitude as she accepted the handkerchief. "Thanks. You guys helped me out together, huh? You must be pretty good friends, right? I think that's pretty cool."

"Oh yeah, totally!" Tobe said, placing one hand behind his dreadlocked head in embarrassment.

Really Tobe? You've barely even talked to Iida as far as I can tell, but you're going to act like you guys are best friends to impress the fujoshi girl? Wait, did you not notice that she was a sex maniac?

"Iida-kun might act super serious all the time, but he's like, a really good guy!" Tobe continued. "When we were fighting the villains at the USJ, he pulled me out of the way of this really scary mist villain, you know? And he was like, super loyal and refused to just run away even though he could!"

"Tobe-san, no, Tobe-kun, I had no idea you felt that way!" Iida said, looking slightly embarrassed. "I admit that I initially thought you were frivolous, but after a while I started envying your friendliness and your ability to get along with others! I - I'd like it if we could be friends, Tobe-kun!"

"Whoa, Iida-kun, like, me too!"

Ebina's look at the two of them was like the face Komachi got in front of a bowl of really good curry. A wide open smile… eyes shimmering with excitement… just a hint of drool… shivering in disgust, I turned back to the fight going on below.

Watching Bakugo fight Kirishima was like watching an attack helicopter fight an armored freight train. Kirishima could take Bakugo's blows, though they were slowly wearing him down, but every time that he tried to counterattack Bakugo just used his superior maneuverability to dance out of the way.

Maybe, if you were someone like Midoriya or Yukinoshita, fighting Bakugo in hand-to-hand combat was possible. However, as Yukinoshita had pointed out not very long ago, I had zero experience with that sort of thing. That meant I was going to have to rely on quirks. I should be able to mimic Kirishima's resilience at least a few times, so fighting a little bit like him wouldn't be the worst idea, but where he was limited at trying to catch up to within arms' reach of Bakugo, unlike Kirishima I had a few ranged quirks that I could take advantage of.

Fewer than I'd like.

If I was going to have any chance of beating Bakugo, that meant that I was going to have to take out Monoma in hand-to-hand.

Iida had been right - if I hung around up here for much longer, I'd just wind up inconveniencing everyone. I turned to leave, but as I did the profile of Yukinoshita's face caught the corner of my eye. Even now, she still hadn't said a word to me, or so much as acknowledged my presence. It was only natural for her to side with her cousin, of course, but the rejection still stung. For a second, I contemplated waving goodbye, maybe even wishing Yukinoshita and Ashido good luck in their match.

Instead, I wound up just turning and walking by myself down the tunnel toward the contestant waiting rooms.

The last sound I heard from the stands was the heavy sigh of Hayama Hayato as I passed him by.

108*108*108*108*108*108*108*108*108*108*108*108*108*108*108*108

I didn't know if I should have come to the waiting room earlier, or just skipped it entirely. Maybe if I had had time to sit and focus, I would have eventually been able to calm down and center myself. And if I had waited until the end of Kirishima and Bakugo's fight, I would have been in too much of a hurry to fret. Sitting and listening to the irregular drumbeat of Bakugo's explosions, it felt like I was in an unpleasant swampy valley between the two extremes. D

It was hard to sit still. There was nothing to do but sit and listen to the broadcast of the fight, or to pace back and forth anxiously. If I'd had someone with me, maybe I could have distracted myself with conversation, but as usual, I was alone. On the other hand, I couldn't think of anyone who I would have wanted with me at a moment like this. Komachi, maybe? On the other hand, it would be hard to keep her from charging out and exacting vengeance on anyone who tried to hurt me, so maybe that would be more trouble than it was worth?

With nothing better to do, I eventually started stretching. It'd be embarrassing as hell if I finally got out in front of the crowds and lost the fight because I pulled a muscle. When Present Mic finally ended the wait by announcing Bakugo's victory, I couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. With one last stretch, I left the room. The corridor leading to the field wasn't long, and it was so tall and wide that I could think of very few people whose quirks would make it difficult for them to make their way down the hallway, but something about the echoing emptiness almost felt claustrophobic. As I approached the wide open gate, my hands reflexively balled into fists.

"Alright, ladies and gentlemen, this is going to be a special fight, a rarely-seen battle of the power copiers!" Mic shouted. "On the right side of the field, it's class 1-A's president, Hikigaya Hachiman! In terms of sheer versatility, he's already shown that he's hard to beat!" I stepped out into the sunlight, into the view of literally thousands of cheering people - no, Hachiman, don't think about that, just think about the fight - and tried to fake a confident smile. I just had to remember that Cyberpunch was waiting for me to do something impressive, so no matter how uncomfortable I was staring down thousands of pro heroes and other fans, I couldn't let it show.

As I got closer to the concrete square that represented the actual field, Present Mic spoke up again. "And coming from the left, we have Monoma Neito! Unlike Hikigaya, the copies of his quirks are at full power, but in exchange they're on a time limit, so I promise to finish my introductions fast!" Almost reflexively, I stopped staring up at the crowds and looked across the stadium to the opposite entrance. Even though I'd been expecting it, what I saw there still made the butterflies in my stomach seem to mutate into venomous wasps. The majority of 1-B was there, half lining either side of the hallway, and as Present Mic announced him Monoma came running down the gap between them, his arms out to either side to touch each one in turn.

"Oh, what's this?" Present Mic asked, "It seems like almost everyone in class 1-B has lined up at the entrance to the stadium to offer their classmate a chance to give them a high-five! And, of course, a chance to copy their quirks! What do you think, Eraserhead? Is there any way that Hikigaya can stand against an entire classroom's worth of quirks all at once?"

"If anyone stands a chance it's Hikigaya," Eraserhead half-mumbled into his mic. "Not only did he use his power copy quirk to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of everybody in 1-B before the school festival, he also wrote those capabilities up and shared them with his classmates."

I did my best not to flinch. What the hell! I couldn't tell if the teachers were trying to advertise me to potential pros, or trying to humiliate me in front of them. I could literally hear the murmurs going through the audience as they discussed the revelation. Either way, the news' effect on Monoma was discouraging. He'd been smiling artificially at the audience, waving as he tried to get their attention, but on hearing the news that I'd investigated him his smile shifted into a vicious smirk. In a smooth motion, his feet slid a little bit further apart into a ready stance, and his hands dropped into position by his hips, his elbows bent as though he was preparing to throw a punch. It looked professional, like he had actually studied how to fight.

What should I do? How should I start the fight? I knew from copying his quirk that Monoma couldn't hold onto all seventeen of those quirks at once, but his act of pretending to copy them all meant I would have no idea which ones he was using. He did have a timer; should I try to run it out? Wait for his powers to disappear, then finish him off? It was tempting, but my goal here wasn't really to win. It was to impress. Winning would help, but as long as I didn't embarrass myself even a close fight against Monoma would probably still look pretty good. Running away meant risking never getting a chance to show off anything at all.

I had to fight.

I brought my own hands up as well, just to avoid standing there looking like I had no idea what I was doing. But while my physical preparations might have been haphazard, I already had Ooze and Mime fused inside the constellation in my head, with a tendril already reaching out to Homomorphism for stability. "Alright then ladies and gentlemen, are you ready?"

No, but here goes anyway.

"Start!"

I almost lost in the first five seconds of the match. I was so focused on Monoma's upper body, so ready for him to throw a punch or shoot me with a sudden pair of horns that I missed it when he turned the cement underneath me to mud. By the time I tried to jump away with Stockpile-enhanced strength, my feet already had nothing to push off of, and reluctantly I blew my second charge of Power Triangle to fly out of the mud just in time to avoid Monoma resolidifying the ground.

Over the newly solidified ground he charged, and I landed to meet him. Present Mic's comments and the sound of the crowd faded into a dull roar in the background as I sprinted directly at Monoma, arm raised for a punch. Monoma had a limit on how many quirks he could copy, so there was a chance that he didn't have any that boosted his strength. A small one, admittedly, but at least by clashing head-to-head against him I could force him to show his hand.

Literally, as it turned out, as Monoma's swinging fist suddenly ballooned to startling size. When I punched his fist, it was like punching a steel wall, or maybe a speeding car. I went skidding backwards in a way that felt familiar, almost like it was the day of the entrance exam all over again. I didn't think I had broken a bone this time, though there was too much adrenaline for me to tell right away.

I picked myself up from the ungainly heap that the blow left me lying in only to see Monoma charging forward again, aiming to just slap me all the way out of the ring. My eyes widened in panic. There was no way for me to dodge in time. Instead I switched quirks yet again, blowing my stored charges of Orimoto Kaori's Mist. Monoma's slap passed right through my upper torso as I turned cloudy from the waist up, carrying my shirt and jacket along with it. As my body reformed I pushed forward to get past his swinging hands while he was off balance, getting myself away from the edge of the stage. I snuck in a quick rabbit punch to his floating ribs on general principles despite the fact that I couldn't put any weight behind it, on the premise that Stockpile's assistance would turn the hit into an actually painful blow.

It seemed to work, because his face was twisted in pain as he turned to face me. "You sure do like taking cheap shots, huh Hikigaya?" He gasped, his giant hands forming a defensive wall between the two of us. "Well I hope you enjoyed that one, because it's the last one you're going to get!"

All of a sudden the hair on his head turned bright green and bunched itself up into vines, then surged towards me in a mass more reminiscent of a waterfall than of living plant life. Damn, his quirk lets him copy heteromorphs? Why doesn't my copy of it do that? Enviously, I pulled both my hands back to my sides, bracing myself with one leg back. It was time to break out the big guns. I left one tendril of Ooze-Mime connected to Stockpile, but the other two I coordinated until they were ready to reach out and touch two different quirks simultaneously.

I had two 30% stockpiles saved up of Bakugo's Explosion, and another two 30% charges saved up of the girl from 1-B's Big Hands quirk. Maybe it was cheesy, calling it out like this, but as I ignited twelve hours of painstaking effort in a single split second and channeled all the power I could muster to my hands, I couldn't help but shout out loud. "Combo move! 120% Big Hand Cannon!"

A Bakugo-worthy explosion erupted from the enlarged sweat glands of my enlarged palms, whose enhanced hardness and strength made sure that every ounce of explosive energy was channeled forwards towards Monoma instead of sending me or my hands flying backwards. Monoma was blown off his feet, only the incredible quirk-enhanced toughness of the vines protecting him from the full power of the blast. The tendrils dug themselves into the concrete of the stage to stop him from going flying out of bounds, and for a second I got excited.

This was it! I could do this! I lunged forwards for one of the trailing vines, placed a hand on it, and blew my two 10% charges of Kaminari's Electrification. Frankly, I was nervous about charging it any higher - I had no idea what voltage would be safe for my brain given that I lacked any of the physical adaptations that Kaminari doubtlessly possessed, and similarly had no idea what would be safe for anyone I hit with it. Even the small amount I used was enough - Monoma made a strangled cry of pain as sparks coursed down the vines attached to his skull.

I raced towards Monoma with all the speed that a double attunement of Stockpile could provide, dodging around vines and hoping to get in a knockout blow before he recovered. However, what awaited me on the other side of the tangle of vines between us was a Monoma whose entire skin was covered in steel - from the tips of his toes all the way up to the crown of his now completely bald head. Either Monoma had detached himself from his hair when the electricity hit to protect himself, or the quick transition from Vine to Metal had shaven his head down to baldness. He rose from a crouch in an uppercut that I only barely managed to block, the heavy weight of his metallic form almost enough to push past even my super-strength reinforced arms. Clumsily, almost as an instinct, I hit back.

My punch skidded off of his chrome cheek completely uselessly, and Monoma took advantage of my outstretched arm by grabbing it and throwing me over his shoulder. The world spun around me for a disorienting second before I landed painfully on my spine, the shock of the impact forcing all of the air out of my lungs with a "Guh!"

Looking up at him on my back, I had a great view of Monoma's steely face as it shifted back to a fleshy color even as he smirked at me. Just as I was about to try to pull myself forward, the ground below me turned to quicksand. With one final downward push on my still outstretched arm, Monoma plunged me into the liquefied concrete.

Thick, gloopy mud filled my ears, and nose, and I clenched my jaw tight to keep it from getting into my mouth despite the fact that my empty lungs burned for oxygen. I'd had nightmares about this, ever since the Ooze Villain incident, and for a brief second panic overtook me. Helpless. Immobilized. I thrashed frantically, trying to escape, but there was nothing to grab hold of to push my way out. Slowly, the concrete around me started stiffening. Despite the fact that it was just a high school competition, that there was no way in hell an aspiring hero would murder me on live television, a surge of adrenaline flooded my body as my hindbrain convinced itself that I was going to die.

Then a surge of clearheadedness swept through my body. Damn it, that was two Kawasakis I owed now. In the brief span of focus that the little cockroach's Willpower quirk gave me, I came up with a plan. I needed a quirk to get me out of this situation, and fast, before the teachers called the match. Falcon Flight wouldn't work, I didn't have anything to jump off of to get up to speed. Softening would help loosen the fluid around me temporarily, but Monoma would just firm it back up with his stronger quirk. Gigantify might let me grow out of the muck, but I had no idea how deep he'd made it, and my legs weren't under me.

I opened my eyes, saw that it was pitch black under the mud, and grinned.

A surge of force erupted from my belly button. Mud splattered everywhere. The incredible power of a double-stockpiled Dark Shadow in zero-light conditions surged out of the restraining quicksand as though it was little more than wet tissue paper. And, because I had merged into the Dark Shadow by using a 1-B kid's Black quirk, that meant that I was out of the muck too. I could clearly see Midnight's raised hand from where she had been about to call the match, the look of shock on her face, and the furious look that the bald Monoma made as he switched to Big Hands and slapped the sunlight-weakened Dark Shadow out of the sky.

The blow knocked me free of my shadow, sending my physical body sailing into a hard landing on the concrete. I got to my hands and knees, shaking my head to clear it, only to be slapped down to the ground face first by another giant hand. "Why won't you stay down!" Monoma shouted in frustration.

"Because," I grunted out, "I'm", my body swelled, "not," my skin sprouted fur, my mouth filled with fangs, "DONE YET!" Giant, Beast, and Stockpile combined into a single drastic spurt of growth that made Monoma's giant hands look ordinary in respect to my body. I pushed myself up just enough to swat him away with one taloned paw. He skidded backwards, plunging his invulnerable fingers deep into the concrete to keep from being thrown out of the ring, leaving behind long furrows in the solid rock.

With my temporarily enhanced senses from the Beast form, I could hear just how loud the cheering was. The crowd was going wild, stamping their feet and hollering, and Present Mic's voice was almost loud enough for me to make out what he was saying over the ringing in my ears. Pushing two powerful transformation quirks that hard had cost me, as usual. My gut was roiling, and I stumbled as I got to my feet and shrank back to a normal size.

Monoma smirked as his hands shrunk and his skin once again became metallic and shiny. "What's the matter, Hikigaya?" He taunted. "Getting tired? Hey, you aren't hoping to wait until my copied quirks run out, right?"

Breathing heavily, trying to regain my equilibrium, I narrowed my eyes at him. "And if I was?"

"It turns out," Monoma said smugly, "that when I copy your quirk, it stops all of my other quirks' timers from going down. Which means that I can do this all day."

"Oh yeah?" I shouted back. "Well, know what my copy of your quirk does, baldy?"

"Baldy?! I-" Suddenly he staggered. I charged forward in a flash, grabbed him by his jacket and his waistband, and then with a combination of Gyrate and Death arms spun him in a three hundred and sixty degree circle before tossing him as hard as I could out of the ring. He hit the far wall with a metallic CLANG, and I bent over double in exhaustion, dropping all of my quirks except for Komachi's Homomorphism and trying desperately not to throw up.

"Way less than my copy of Shinso's quirk does, moron," I muttered under my breath.

"Monoma is out of bounds!" I heard Midnight shout. "Winner! Hikigaya Hachiman!"

With an effort of will I stood up straight, raising one tired fist into the air. Originally, I had been saving Shinso's quirk as a cheap shot to take down Bakugo. But now? Hearing the cheers of tens of thousands of people echoing around the stadium?

Spending it was a decision that I somehow couldn't bring myself to regret.