Alright, so, first of all, my apologies this is coming out so late in the day for us Americans. Last two weeks I was trying to set myself into a 9am Pacific standard scheduling for my uploads, and I nearly had it for this chapter, but then I had a few physical health and time constraint problems nearing the end of the week and rewriting/adding a portion of this chapter almost last minute because I felt I was missing something. I got it done, luckily, and it's twelve hours later than I would have liked but it's still Sunday for me so suck it.
Including chapter 20, which was originally planned for New Years Day before I released it early on Thanksgiving, I've published 55-thousand words more for this story. We'll hit maybe closer to 70 for next week. That output in a timeframe makes me happy. I said earlier that I worked on these chapters in advance, and I did, but some of these middle chapters to the festival aren't even close to done. This one I wrote in its entirety this past week and a half thanks to having 22 done early. 24 has already gotten a few thousand words in and a couple of changes to its layout of perspectives before I delve into it further, but I'm hitting my 10k weekly quota for my standards. I didn't think I'd be able to. I was worried I'd fuck this up almost immediately. But I'm not feeling the burn out. I'm feeling the drive. I'm going to shoot my shot and pump out word after word so I can hit 100k, and then 200k, and then 500k, and by god I will reach those one million words in a year before we get close to ending it.
Side note, I just saw Blonde on Netflix and that film was amazing. It might be three damn hours but it is a beautifully haunting and enticingly horrific film about Marylin Monroe. Ana De Armas deserves the praise her performance has received thus far and the music cannot be understated as transcendent. It's the supporting character to the starring role like the music in Joker was to Phoenix's acting. That is entertainment media done right, even for the darker mature genres.
I just really wanted to gush about that film. My best friend was close to being shot that same night, so it's probably going to be ingrained in my head even longer thanks to what it's tied to.
Thank you all for holding out for me and being patient with my bullshit. I don't want to disappoint you. I do hope you enjoy.
Izuku stood, basking in the cheers and hollers of the people — the heroes — around him. Present Mic continued to announce names of everyone else who made it to the end after him, but it was a drowning noise amidst the roaring waves of the audience. His muscles ached from rolling in the dirt and pushing himself to sprint the last section of the track, but to know he passed — in first place, at that — made the pain well worth it. He gazed over his arms, relieved to find no scrapes, cuts or blood coating him from his outrageous last-minute plan, and did the same with his legs, scoffing only at the holes and tears in the fabric below his knees. He was lucky his scar didn't get cut up from the rough dirt and close blasts, and at least most of his clothing made it through the finish line.
"Midoriya!" Izuku heard Ojiro shout from behind, followed by Present Mic declaring his placement in the race at sixteenth. He let out a sigh of relief as he turned to his friend who had qualified for the second round with him.
Only to be met with a dropkick to his bicep.
Izuku tumbled over dirt once more, ending up on his back to stare at the clouds above, before shooting his body up to sit and glare at his tailed assailant. "What the hell, Mashi?!"
"What the hell, me?" Ojiro shouted back as he stomped his way over to the green-haired teen. "What the hell, you! What were you doing?! You weren't beside us at the start of the race, and the next time I see you, you're flying through the air on the backs of mushroom clouds! You can't just throw yourself on top of landmines!"
"I didn't jump on the mines!" Izuku defended himself. "I threw a mine on top of another mine. Everything after that was out of my control!"
"Then why did you dig one up, Izuku?! You knew that was still gonna hurt!" Ojiro stared Izuku down, and he squinted back up at the blond teen. A response to follow up his friend's question was on the tip of his tongue, but he swallowed it down and threw his fists into the air.
"We made it to the second round!" Izuku cheered, throwing himself back on the ground and lying under the sun. Ojiro only sighed, kicked the greenette's foot lightly and collapsed beside the other teen; his tail curled beneath his back like a makeshift cushion.
"Yeah we did, didn't we?" the blond boy sighed, gazing up at the clouds with him. "Pretty sure you don't have to worry about standing out anymore after that stunt you pulled. Everyone's probably looking at you now."
Izuku choked suddenly, reminded of the scouts in the audience judging his performance for a possible work study. "I don't think most people are gonna accept someone who throws themselves down on bombs."
"So you admit to jumping on them?"
"Still didn't. Besides, they're probably looking at you now for kicking me in the arm."
Ojiro blinked, slowly, before sighing and rolling his head back into the dirt. "I better not get in trouble for you being an idiot."
"No, you're getting in trouble for battery—"
"I'm half-inclined to pardon him on all charges." Both boys turned their head to the side to find Iida approaching, the blue-haired boy towering over their prone forms with a deep frown. His own clothes were askew, spotted with dirt, and even a speck had dirtied the left side of his glasses. "I assume this is a comeuppance for nearly giving you a heart attack before the entrance exam."
Izuku darted his eyes a moment to recall that event before shaking his head at the standing boy. "I'm pretty sure I've done enough since then that you get a few turns giving me some until we're equal again. You can get a free kick in if you want to trade in for one scare."
Iida's head dropped with a sigh, his glasses nearly slipping off his nose. "If I lie down with you, may we call it even?"
Izuku shrugged. "I mean your loss but okay." The taller boy forfeited the offer of violence as he dropped onto the dirt beside the green-haired teen, his legs bent for his exhaust pipes to avoid scraping sand into them. That was how they stayed as the rest of their classmates poured into the arena, with Yaoyorozu, Uraraka and Kaminari trudging by to join them, heads pointed to each other in a circle. They had all made the threshold to pass to the next round.
How was he going to continue, Izuku wondered. Making it through the first event was lucky — he would admit that. He got lucky to not be stuck by Todoroki's ice; behind the fallen Zero Pointers; hanging over the small canyon; launched behind everyone by the minefield he rigorously activated; any one of his plans could have gone wrong and he would have ended up a fool compared to the rest of his class making it past. A lot of them had probably used their quirks as minimally as possible to make it to the finish line, no different from him without power at all. No doubt the next events were going to demand much more from them to stand out and move on to the final round. Just being lucky wasn't going to cut it. He needed to reign in his power.
Though maybe he already was, Izuku assumed, rubbing his back on the ground. He should have been riddled in cuts and scrapes and blood from the minefield alone, hitting the ground as hard as he did and bracing so many explosions with nothing but the clothes on his back. But he didn't; he was fine. The same power that had tanked Bakugou's explosions head on, that helped him survive from taking a blow to the head from the strong villain — twice — and had probably stopped the bullet in his shoulder from tearing through all those months ago was still passively defending him. He hadn't tried anything so risky in his spars with Hunter to garner the same results on his body, but now he could say it was present with certainty. So why was it active and his physical strength uncontrollable? What was he missing?
"Alright my shining spectrum!" Midnight's voice boomed through the air once more. "Now that we have our 42 contestants moving on to the second round, it's time to find out your next challenge!" While she continued announcing other events the rest of their schoolmates would participate in to keep them active while the rest of them partook in the real challenges, Izuku picked himself off the ground with the rest of his friends. That quick rest felt like no time at all. At least the blood was still pumping through his heart; he'd be able to keep his pace, and hopefully long enough to make a good showing of it.
"There's a lot less of us left than I thought there would be," Uraraka commented. "Everyone from our class made it in, but that makes half of us now."
"I believe most everyone else is from Class B," Yaoyorozu noted, looking over the heads of everyone else coming up to the podium as they did. "Almost no one from the other courses qualified."
"I guess that's why we're in the hero course, then," Kaminari quipped. "The first obstacle was the robots from the entrance exam we all passed and our own classmate trying to sabotage us. That put us in the lead almost immediately."
Izuku did a once-over of everyone else who passed, noting all eighteen of his classmates were standing alongside him. The blond- and silver-haired boys from Class B were present as well, the only two he recognized from weeks ago, and the purple-haired boy who introduced himself from General Studies who had spoken on everyone's behalf in declaring war against their class. A shame, then, that he was maybe the only one from his class to make it past the first round if Yaoyorozu was right about their sister class's entire body making it through.
Aside from Bakugou, technically. He was painfully noticeable in the crowd of other heads, glaring directly at Izuku, for reasons that did not escape him. That he'd beaten Bakugou in the race had barely registered in his mind, with everyone else that included falling behind him. Maybe he shouldn't have been so stressed out to make qualification, if it meant he didn't have to feel a hole burning in the side of his head. He'd been honest with Hatsume that he thought very little of Bakugou since he was removed from the class; for once, the world around him wasn't centered on the blond, and the sadly more violent villains that replaced him and the mysteries of his power that bothered him had filled the empty space left behind. Not thinking about the blond so often anymore didn't mean he wanted him back so soon.
The only other person Izuku did recognize was Hastume, who was shaking dirt and dust out of her pink locks hastily. She probably got caught in the mess of mines like he and Iida did, the green-haired teen assumed. He only spent a few seconds gazing at her before she finally noticed, pausing her cleaning to wave back at him. He tried to usher her over — invite her over to their friend group — but she turned away without ever stepping a foot closer. A lunch hour before the final event was scheduled; he'd use that to seek her out and finally reconnect with her in person. Make it to the next event or fail here, he had to talk with her, dispel whatever worries she still had between them.
"Our next event is a team-oriented challenge!" Midnight began detailing, as the screen behind her shuffled through various boxes of blurred text. "Prepare your teamwork and communication skills, kiddies, because you will all be partaking in…" She cracked her crop at the screen, and the digital presentation halted its shuffling, ending on a cream-colored box labeled, "Cavalry Battle."
"The Cavalry Battle is a simple team-attack battle event," she continued, and Izuku thanked her for verbally summarizing the wall of text that suddenly appeared behind her. He wouldn't be surprised if Nedzu himself wrote it all, and in size-twelve font no less. "You will all be forming teams of two to four contestants, with one person on your team being a designated rider. Be careful not to drop them, because if they touch the ground, your team will be disqualified before the time runs out. Your primary objective will be to collect these" — from somewhere behind her, Midnight drew out a headband with the number 5 in bold, red lettering — "from other teams. Steal others or save your own points before the time runs out, and sixteen of you will qualify for the final round. As you can see, you will all be assigned points based on your placement from the previous obstacle course — each separated in segments of five — with this being for the lowest placement."
Izuku hummed, working out the math in his brain to determine his own points. A shame the team size had a limit, with all but one of his closest friends beside him. He should roughly have 210 points to his own name, in first place, which wasn't much when so many others would have in the first hundreds. It'd be a free-for-all of skirmishes beside skirmishes competing to steal points and secure their ascension into the final round. At least with his friends by his side, he was confident their companionship could keep them safe—
"But with a single catch!" Midnight interrupted Izuku's thoughts, pointing to the screen behind her as the text was swapped out with the number 5 before continuing to climb; and climb well past 210, to Izuku's growing dismay, until it finally did stop. On an eight-digit number. "First place receives ten million points!"
The effect those words had were felt immediately, as Izuku pinched his lips together as dozens of eyes turned on him. In the threatening silence, knowing the target he had painted on himself, he merely sighed and looked to the clouds above.
"So how are we gonna play this out?"
Shouto didn't understand how, of all people, Midoriya's friends chose and agreed to partner with him as a cavalry team. With Kaminari helming the base of their team, and Yaoyorozu and a pink-haired girl from the Support Course — Hatsume, the tall girl had introduced Shouto to her — he was surrounded by those he would have rather considered as enemies on these competing grounds. But he admitted their utility was advantageous to his goals and turning down the obvious choices to make a well-rounded team for the event would have been foolish.
The pair from his class had approached him first — though second of their choices as he could spot Midoriya directly behind them at a distance — after noticing he had yet to accept any of the people he did not recognize asking to partner with him yet failing to present suitable quirks. Yayorozu's multifaceted Creation and Kaminari's powerful Electrification were some of the most powerful quirks in their class alongside his ice and Midoriya's strength, and if he had the chance he would have taken Iida's Engine for a challenge such as this, but the blue-haired boy had paired with his rival and the mildly average tailed boy to make a three-man team.
He was not confident in the support girl holding up his left side, however, given the pair's hesitance to let her come near him. She was a much more eccentric speaker referring to her designs and gear as 'babies' and harassing him for information of his quirk, but they could prove useful for the mobility they lacked. And it would be beneficial to make a connection with a support studio or student who could design for him a heated costume he could control to manage his mother's ice without the need of his father's fire. Encasing himself in such thick ice was defensively sound, but without a better means of balancing his body temperature he wouldn't last in a real battle for long. The USJ proved that.
"So what's the plan, team lead?" Kaminari asked from the front of their horse formation, peering back over his shoulder to the dual-haired teen.
Shouto leered to the side, where Midoriya stood with Iida behind him and Ojiro sitting atop them. "We need the ten-million points," he declared. "Kaminari's electricity can take down the other teams who get too close. Yaoyorozu, Hatsume; your gear to move and tools to make sure our attacks don't immobilize us too will be needed. I won't be able to use my ice until we get close enough to Iida so he doesn't outrun us. I can't have any of you stuck to the ground or slow my own reaction time too late into the match."
"I may have a few ideas for your quirks already," the tall girl holding him up from the right informed them. "And as long as you use your fire to keep yourself warm or draw blockades so no one can get close, cooling yourself too much shouldn't be a problem. This event probably won't last too long for your ice side to affect you badly. You did well in controlling yourself in the obstacle course, Todoroki; we should be able to outrun the clock."
Her compliments fell on deaf ears, as Shouto scoffed and harshened his glare at Midoriya while Yaoyorozu said something similar to Kaminari. The green-haired boy and the raven-haired girl were close friends, to nobody's surprise; it was quite possible he had gone and told her what Shouto had argued with him at the USJ. Midoriya was enough of a knucklehead already, the obstacle course proving such once more, so Shouto wouldn't put it past him to have complained about the dual-haired boy to his friends. Why the hell any of them continued to bother him about his fire, he didn't appreciate it.
"I won't need my father's fire," he stated back in argument. "We'll win this without him."
"I'd rather you not toast my babies, please!" Hatsume agreed from his left side of the horse. She heaved her left foot dressed in a giant, metal boot to examine it, and peered past Shouto's legs to its right pair on Yaoyorozu's foot. "I haven't tested them against extreme weather conditions yet, so intense heat could melt the internal circuitry and blow up our toes!" Ignoring the taller girl's startled and terrified reaction, she continued, "But the propulsion fans should be able to maintain functionality under moderately cool temperatures so just don't wrap us in coats of ice and we'll be clear as rain!"
"Your fifteen minutes are up!" Midnight's voice announced from the stage.
Ignoring his classmates as they argued with their partner over her misspoken metaphor, Shouto nodded with a huff. Their team would have to make do. All he really needed to win this event was his ice, but with the rules and the points holding him back from simply coating everyone to the floor and stealing it instantly, he'd rely on the powers of others just this once to secure his victory. Then he'd need only her ice in the final round.
"Only sixteen of you are making it to the next round, so race to keep those points on lock!" Midnight continued, the crack of her crop echoing through the stadium's speakers. "Remember; your team is disqualified if your rider touches the ground. The points you take down with you are gone as well, so be careful everyone!"
"Are we heading straight for Midoriya?" Kaminari asked out loud. "Won't everyone else just do the same?"
"Then it means we have more points to grab and more teams to take out," Shouto reasoned, steadying his gaze on the green-haired boy's team, and the ten-million-plus headband worn on their tailed rider. It didn't matter if Midoriya refused to take center stage and the face of their team to stand out; Shouto would not lose to him or those lesser than him who he carried to the top.
"Get ready!"
"Don't overdo it, you two," Yaoyorozu warned, peering up at the boy they were holding. "If we try to take all the points from the start, it means everyone else will be targeting us, and if you two burn out your quirks then we won't hold our own."
"Get set!"
"And we aren't getting any airtime without a proper set of wings," Hatsume added, though her cheerful tone confused Shouto of her emotions. "We can hover over the ground a bit but not where we can avoid confrontation. I need my babies to impress, too, so let's stay in line!"
Shouto huffed his frustration at them, wordlessly glaring down briefly.
Being targeted by everyone would have been fine anyways; of the quirks he'd seen everyone present use were, everything was to scoff at. No one was a real threat to his ice and many would probably fall over into elimination from Kaminari's Electrification. Even Bakugou, for all his rage and tenacity, was nowhere near being a threat in his eyes. Midoriya was the only one that mattered, and their goal was to head straight for him.
"Start!"
Had a beam of light not immediately cut in front of their path.
Shouto's 'horses' stumbled back to collect themselves, and the dual-haired boy turned his glare to the team composed of multiple classes with a purple-haired boy he did not recognize atop their shoulders. Aoyama, the front of their team's pack, stared dead straight at their team, his laser belt glistening from the use of his quirk.
"Hey, Aoyo," the blond boy beneath Shouto's legs greeted their classmate, "you feelin' okay? You're looking pretty out of it." The belt-wearing teenager did not respond, nor did Sato or the sickly-yellow-skinned boy with the basket-looking head from their sister class move to comment in his place.
"Sorry 'bout this, boys and girls," the purple-haired boy atop the team greeted, his voice flat while his lips curled at the tips, "but I'll be taking those points from you."
"You think I'd just hand them over?" Shouto asked him back mockingly, ice trickling up his right arm ready to stop the boy who challenged them. But then he couldn't feel his arm, and then before he could look at it to see why, he couldn't feel anything else either.
The grin on the other boy's face only grew, his eyes darkening to match his sinister smile. "Yes, you will be handing me your points."
What was happening to him, Shouto thought in a wave of dread, watching on without control as his arms moved on their own to his head and untied his headband. He could hear Kaminari and Hatsume shout at him and their sudden opponent, but after he had answered them, their following responses died halfway through.
Stop moving, he pleaded with his body, watching the headband as it fell over his eyes and was pulled away by his own hands. They stretched forwards, as his team began to move the same way when the teen atop the other team had asked them too. His arm stretched out to meet Shouto's halfway, thankful to accept their team's points.
It took Yaoyorozu to hit him out of his stupor, literally.
His leg unintentionally kicked when the tall girl smacked her fist into it, but that action alone set off a chain reaction of Shouto regaining control of his body, and just in time to yank his headband away before the other boy could take it. Jerking his own body back seemed to do the trick for his other teammates who stumbled back to reality and shuffled away from the other boy's team in regaining their balance.
Shouto flexed his fingers a moment before retying his headband and looking down to the tall girl. "Thank you, Yaoyorozu."
"Sorry I didn't do anything sooner," she apologized in a hushed voice. "I wasn't sure about his quirk until he somehow affected all of you. Be careful talking: his voice seems to be the center of his quirk's abilities."
A vocal, controlling quirk. Shouto had heard of little existing, such as Ms. Joke and her quirk to make people smile and laugh. But that only targeted a specific part of the body. To take control of an entire person's body — well, the closest he knew could manage that was Best Jeanist but that was nowhere near the same. Whoever this kid was, their quirk was far beyond that, and far more dangerous to face.
The purple-haired boy scoffed, looking down at the tall girl with disdain. "Knew I should have waited until I got you all. Real perceptive, you lot." He looked down to the tall Class-1B boy holding him up. "Bondo, glue them to the—" Whatever order he was about to give was silenced by the claw hand that shot to his forehead, latching onto his headband and pulling away. The purple-haired boy caught it before it escaped, following the wire down to the pink-haired girl's backpack that it originated from. "Think you can outsmart me?" he taunted her with a grunt.
Hatsume, however, didn't respond to him, but instead looked up to Shouto with a massive smile. "My boot babies may be easy to harm, but this baby here is a perfect conduit with no kickback to speak of! Let loose to your heart's content, Electivire!"
Shouto caught on to what she was saying, and from the way the purple-haired boy's eyes widened he did too, but the first of them to act was Kaminari himself. "I like the nickname!" he applauded loudly, gripping the wire in his hand. "Thanks a gigaton!" That same hand, and only that hand out of his entire body, bloomed into a flash of electricity that soared across the wire and enveloped the other boy's team in a heartbeat.
Electricity cocooned the other team for about three seconds total before it vanished into smoke in the air. Like Hatsume promised, none of it had crawled back on the wire to shock them through the backpack. However all the boys on the other team were shaking from the shockwaves in their bodies, and only moments later did their horses fall, and their rider with them onto the ground below.
Shouto took the headband that remained in the claw's grip as Hatsume drew it back. The school really did plan for their quirks' worst for something as simple as a band with numbers not to fry apart from such high voltage. At least it meant they had more points to earn their place into the next round.
"Thank you, Kaminari, Hatsume," Shouto congratulated them flatly over the booming voice of Present Mic announcing the other team's disqualification. "I didn't think you had that control over your Electrification to do something like that."
"It's easier to push it out from one body part if I have something to directly channel it through," Kaminari explained, though his smile soured as he looked at his lazy arm. "Can't say the same for the output, still. It's all pins and needles now. If you're gonna fall, do it to my right side, please."
Shouto looked ahead, finding teams of other students still in the running turning to face him and his team. "Push through it," he all but ordered his blond partner. "We still have ten million points to take. We need a new plan."
A Midoriya-crafted plan wouldn't be a Midoriya-crafted plan if it wasn't batshit insane, Mashirao concluded, gripping said boy's left sleeve to hold himself up while his tail swung through a plate of solid-air-made glass. Holding onto his friend's sleeve so tightly was also beneficial in keeping himself on as Iida's legs fumed and darted their group across the field, away from the Class 1-B group that had approached them.
"Don't put in too much speed!" Midoriya yelled back past Mashirao's legs. "We don't want to find ourselves trapped by their quirks too quickly!"
"I'll only be using these short bursts until it's necessary!" Iida shouted back as they came to a slower pace and Midoriya could use his feet to run again. "I will not allow myself to become a burden to this team!"
"I'd also like to not fall off when you do it!" Mashirao loudly informed them as he looked beneath his arm to the tall boy making the rear-end of their horse. "Give us a warning when you're using your quirk! Don't want to knock ourselves out of the competition!"
"Okay!"
Mashirao caught his breath and his balance, and looked at the field around them. A three-man team for an event that allowed four max was an odd choice — and of course it was Midoriya's idea to do so — but they didn't have much of an option otherwise. Yaoyorozu declared her desire to compete against the green-haired teen directly; Kaminari wanted to team with Todoroki to attempt befriending him into their close group because of his aggressive request to challenge Midoriya earlier; Mei chased down the taller girl without so much as passing them by; Uraraka had already made agreements with other girls in their class to help each other pass; and the rest of their classmates had gone and done the same as the brunette before the three of them had even banded together. No one wanted to be on the team with ten million points and face almost forty other faces hunting them down.
No one except him and Iida, apparently.
Mashirao's reasoning was simple, because what else was he going to do? His best friend was already bumping shoulders with him as the event was announced; he didn't need to see everyone else veer away to consider giving Midoriya a friend to rely on. Iida's was about the same, though his explanation was less jovial than the tailed boy's.
"I feel I have been nothing more than an incompetent fool instead of the friend I promised to be for you since we entered Yuei," Iida had explained, his body bent at the waist to bow to the surprised green-haired teen. "I've let you handle too much on your own; problems I should have been there to help with or listen about. I will be passive no more. From here on, know that I will always be there to aid you."
Midoriya blinked wildly, before snorting and bumping a fist into the tall boy's shoulder. "Don't need to go all knight on us for a sports game, Tenya. I could probably sign you in or whatever the hell that's called if I had my bat, if it'd convince you any, but thanks. I'll keep it in mind." He leered at Mashirao beside him. "Nothing sappy to say, yourself?"
"As if I'm leaving you behind to get your ass handed to you all the time," the tailed boy supplied with a cheeky grin, earning himself on the receiving end of one from Midoriya. "You've gotten away with too much already. Until this strength of yours is your own, I'm keeping an eye on you. We can kick butt together."
"At least Bakugou isn't coming after us," Mashirao commented, peeking past the heads of a few boys not in their class to the explosive blond trying to slam his way through the same glass air that had tried to stop them. "You would have thought he would aim for your points right away." My points, he corrected dryly, scratching the headband that sat below his blond tuffs. Of course he had to be the rider and the center of attention. Maybe he shouldn't have drop-kicked his friend.
"It's a wonder that the school allows him to compete at all," Iida continued, his legs sprouting to life once more and only warning the tailed boy with a, "Hold," before they dodged the crack of a vine whip aiming for his forehead. "Do the principal and sensei trust him after all he's done to you?"
The green-haired teen in question didn't even turn to look at the blond-haired boy shouting from across the field, and even twisted his attention away when they turned to face him. "Until he's targeting us, don't worry about him," he waved away his friends' questions. "He's other people's problem now."
Mashirao regarded the scarred boy holding up his legs with a frown. Bakugou being expelled from their class has been a blessing that the tailed boy didn't apologize for celebrating in relief, even more so after Midoriya stopped talking about him or looking towards the now empty seat in their class. There was still very little about the other blond boy Mashirao knew from his friend's past, but he knew there was plenty Midoriya should have shared with them sooner. The violence in the battle trial was nothing but a tip of the iceberg in the tailed boy's mind, and he could not find an answer suitable enough to explain why the school still gave him a chance.
Todoroki was starting to give him the same thoughts, Mashirao grumbled with a peer over his other shoulder to the ice-wielding boy and his team facing off against two three-person teams attempting to steal their points. He was far less aggressive in his actions, but his words were biting to listen to. His demeanor was just as self-absorbed as Bakugou's, in his eyes. Degrading the rest of their class, dismissing them as strong enough to be considered competition or even allies time and time again, and focusing so directly on Midoriya; for what? Did his mysterious strength make the dual-haired boy feel inadequate by comparison with his ice quirk and drive him to prove himself better? Mashirao was happy Midoriya refused the call to action before the opening ceremony; he probably would have interjected with all the complaints still on his chest had his friend thought the dual-haired boy was a worthy rival.
They weren't even on the same level of character, much less power.
"Besides," Midoriya continued, dragging their team to a stop, "we've got our own company to worry about."
"There you are, Class A!" Mashirao turned his attention ahead once more, facing down the four-man team composed of their sister class's students. He barely recognized any of them from the obstacle course, but it was easy to spot the mantis-faced boy riding his classmates' shoulders; most obviously because of the matching hairstyle he had to Midoriya. "Run all you want, but there is no escaping a fight! Those ten million points are ours!"
"Hold on," Iida muttered to his teammates, puffs of heat popping from his engines.
"Save your speed, Tenya," Midoriya stopped him with a shake of his hand. "We'll probably need it later. Might as well try taking out some competition, right?"
Mashirao agreed, as the more points they could steal, the better chance they had of staying in the game if they suddenly lost their massive lead. But the boy coated in brown fur, another with pitch-black skin and snow-white hair, and another big rock-headed boy holding up the mantis teen with blades slowly protruding from his arms weren't exactly promising an easy victory.
Midoriya's head shifted upwards, staring at the other team's rider in a long pause before he pointed at the teenager. "Is that what I look like to you guys?"
Mashirao took another glance at the green-haired, arm-blades teen — with the other boys in Class B's group glancing up with him — before knocking on his friend's skull. "More or less."
His green-haired friend brought his finger back to clench a fist towards the other group. "We look badass!"
The other teen with the green-haired mohawk threw his arms to the side, hunching over and shouting through his reddening cheeks. "Flattery will get you nowhere!"
Mashirao sighed as the team charged them, uncurling his tail from Iida's shoulder and springing his feet onto Midoriya's shoulders.
Maybe he was lucky, Izuku thought to himself, carried by Iida as they dashed around the team of Class B students supporting two riders on their shoulders; their own green-mohawk enjoyer tussling with the tailed boy who jumped onto them. Midnight's rule to keep the riders off the ground had a fun loophole proved by watching Bakugou abuse it in the distance on another team; so long as they didn't touch the ground, no rules demanded they always had to be riding their 'horses.' It was part of his idea to keep his tailed friend as the rider of their team, thanks to his incredible jumping skills alongside the reach of his tail. Hijacking other teams wasn't being punished, either, so allowing his blond friend to jump on other teams' shoulders and steal their bands through light CQC was a wonderful opportunity. He thanked whoever it was that detailed the thick block of text their art history teacher summarized.
"Got theirs!" Ojiro cheered as he jumped back onto Izuku's shoulders, and Iida shouted his warning for them to brace before they shot across the field, leaving their opponents in the dust. "Those blades of his really are sharp. Good thing he was so hesitant to use them. A shame their points are pretty low, though."
"At least we're securing a fallback plan in case we lose our ten million, so good job," Iida congratulated their friend.
"Someone stealing from us?" Izuku gloated with a grin directed back to his friends. "Not on our watch!"
Ignoring as the taller boy tried to tell off his hubris and the tailed boy chided him for jinxing the game, Izuku gazed over the messy field of teams still chasing each other down. Eleven minutes had passed, according to Mic's voice overhead, and their three-man team had done well to hold its own amidst the thirty-nine competitors they faced. Despite the desired millions of points they touted on Ojiro's head, very little had chased them down to steal it. They had just escaped the third team to approach them between Iida's resting periods, but even now no one was looking to approach them. Everyone who was still left — seeing as two teams had been disqualified within the event already — were locked in bouts against each other.
Even if he wished all his friends could have been on his team, he respected the choices of those who chose not to be with him. Kaminari and Uraraka looking to better befriend more of their classmates was an idea he should have been more open to, but couldn't convince himself to commit with the expectations of his 'quirk' still set in everyone else's minds; this wasn't the right time for that. Especially when it came to Todoroki, in the electric blond's case; whatever feud he hoped to have with Izuku was pointless and he wanted none of it. If any of his friends could bridge that gap between them, he'd take that chance in a heartbeat. He didn't trust himself to work that out in a clean manner.
Yaoyorozu's own declaration of a challenge directly against him, of all people, was a harder one to wrap his head around, but he accepted the small rivalry between them. The worst he had ever seen her do was accidentally assuming he had a quirk, and it was nothing compared to him running with that and using her to perpetuate that lie. Beyond that, Izuku thought she was perfect. She got into the recommendations exam off of actual work she put in, whereas he only got offered the chance because of a 'right place, right time' coincidence. The effort she had to put in for her own quirk was leagues above not only the believability he put into the lie of his, but was far ahead of the progress he'd made in understanding his real power. And she was miles above him in terms of trustworthiness and knowledge; why she refused to take the position of class president when he offered it was beyond him. She already was everything he wanted — and needed — to be. Who better to truly call a rival than that who had what he desired?
And why Hatsume chose to be on Todoroki's team, Izuku would figure out later. Maybe it was to be with the taller girl who challenged him; how enamored the support student was when she heard about Yaoyorozu's quirk was impossible to miss, and was probably someone Hatsume was more excited to be around than with him. Not that would take it to heart, of course, but he'd rather know the answer than misassume how his troubled friend really felt and thought about him.
What truly surprised him was how none of the people he thought would target him straight away did so, nor moved to do so after so long. Most notable was Bakugou, of all people, not coming anywhere close to him. All he had ever known Bakugou to do was aim for the top — aim to be seen as the first in anything — and for him to not aim for the points to guarantee that was off putting. Why he chose to avidly avoid Izuku, instead, was something the green teen had to assume was more an order than a self-made choice. His inclusion in the Festival at all most certainly came with exceptions and rules that clearly did not apply to anyone else. Izuku doubted the staff had included the rule that Bakugou couldn't touch him, which meant his avoidance was intentional. He didn't have the time to unravel why the blond chose to distance himself at all.
Aside from that, Izuku was surprised how busy Todoroki was with other teams than theirs. The green-haired teen was ready for ice to engulf the field and watch the dual-haired boy rush his team, yet all that came in its place was some team of girls from their sister class immediately attempting to steal their headband. How Izuku had only gone on to challenge two more teams through two-thirds of the event's time, he had no idea. But he was prepared for all that to change soon; or at least knew not to let his guard falter before whatever challenge approached them.
"Two minutes remain!" Present Mic's voice boomed once more.
Iida grunted and shifted their team to face the field in front of them. "Can either of you tell if anyone is preparing to advance on us?"
"I think they're too busy trying not to lose to each other first," Ojiro noted, turning his head the opposite direction Izuku did. "They probably know it isn't worth trying to catch us with such little time left."
Izuku could agree with that theory, rolling his shoulders under the tailed-boy's legs. Despite holding him up the most for so long, he wasn't all too tired or stiff enough for anyone to take them on. True to his friend's word, everyone else — even Bakugou — was still too busy fighting with other teams for the points to progress onwards. Not a single team was heading for them, Izuku noted, until his eyes came to meet the stare of two differently colored eyes focusing on him. Instead of returning the attentive gaze, Izuku's eyes dropped to the steel bar in the same teen's hand, and the ice that slithered down it like snakes.
One team was heading for them.
Izuku barely managed to warn Iida to move aside with him as ice shot forward from the earth, a wall piercing higher than their team on the right side as the ground to their left was coated in a thin sheet. "Shit!" he cursed loudly, shaking his body from the sudden chill in the air. "Iida, we need to mo—"
His order did not leave his mouth in time, watching Todoroki's team suddenly rocket across the ice in their direction. And Ojiro, with their team still stumbling to regain their balance, found himself unable to lean away in time before the dual-haired boy was swiping the ten million points from his forehead.
"Where the hell did all that come from?" Ojiro shouted in shock, brushing a hand through his hair where the band was moments ago.
Instead of attempting to answer that question, Iida posed one of his own. "Do we still have enough points to pass?"
The tailed boy assessed the bands hanging from his neck and scoffed loudly. "Only if we're lucky that everyone else drops out first."
Izuku kept his eyes on Todoroki's team, his friends and the dual-haired boy now situated behind them slowly turning around on the ice to face them. Hatsume's replicas of Rocketeer's propulsion boots decorated the opposite legs between her and Yaoyorozu, though the pink-haired girl looked at the one she wore with fright and a panic he could barely make out in her voice from across the field. The blond at the helm of their team looked worse for wear, his eyes flickering to stay open and arms shaking from what was probably an overuse of his quirk through all the other teams that faced them down. Yaoyorozu and Todoroki both gazed back at him with fire in their eyes, though he could note the softer tones of the tall girl's expression compared to the teen riding on her shoulders. And he could also note the four other headbands already wrapped around Todoroki before he added their team's band to the pile.
"One minute remaining!"
"We need those ten million points back," he declared.
"How can we do that, if he can block us off with more of his ice?" Ojiro asked cynically.
Izuku could feel Iida's stare at the back of his head before he even spoke. "You already have an idea?"
"Yep," he answered in a snap.
"Is it riskier than it needs to be?" the teen on his shoulders asked hesitantly.
Pivoting on one foot, Izuku slammed the other down on the icy path. "When aren't they?"
"Good work," Shouto congratulated his teammates through his flat tone, fastening the ten-million-point headband around his neck. "That should secure our first place."
Hatsume rambled like a madwoman, fussing over her boots as they succumbed to the sudden drop in the temperature and were rendered nothing more than massive shoes. Her warning that they couldn't take to the skies was heeded, but thanks to some brainstorming between the four of them, the concept of using them for forward propulsion was a handy trick to organize right on time. A shame, then, that they couldn't take advantage of such a technique a second time. They'd have to simply force their distance from everyone to keep their new lead above the competition.
"Sorry, Midoriya," the raven-haired girl muttered her apology, though Shouto doubted the boy mentioned would be able to hear her. "We can't afford to lose now. Kaminari, are you still able to move?"
"Is the Earth violently shaking for everyone else?" the blond boy asked back in a slurred tone.
"No."
"Then wheybe."
Shouto bit back a scoff. They had relied on Kaminari's quirk to immobilize other teams trying to steal their points, far more often than he would have liked. He wasn't sure why so many people chose to target him instead of all focusing on Midoriya and making their plan easier, nor was it a welcomed challenge. He'd withheld his ice as often as he could, only having used it once to trap the front runner of another team to the ground so they could run away, though another team not too long after. But now that they had the ten million points in their grasp, all he had to do was block out anyone who approached until the time ran out.
"I need another staff, Yaoyorozu," he barked at the taller girl.
"Right!" she understood, grasping her forearm as her quirk began to craft another tool. With no need to focus her full attention on her quirk, she instead stared ahead of them with eyes growing wide. "Incoming!"
Shouto's eyes snapped to the sight across the ice path he had created, where not too far away was Midoriya's team standing atop it, poised to charge at them. He locked eyes with the emerald orbs that stared him down from below waving green locks, and could see Midoriya's mouth move as he instructed his partners on their plan.
"Hurry!" he demanded from the raven-haired girl, and all she could reply with was a huff of an apology as she tried to hasten her quirk. If he could just reach the ground, Shouto could seal everyone off with a cocoon of ice for the last few seconds. Doing so by traveling the ice down his teammates body would only immobilize them and quite possibly weaken their formation, and the last thing Shouto needed to do was fall on the ground and disqualify their team. He wasn't losing to Midoriya; not twice in a row. Not when he wasn't even trying.
He didn't understand the point behind Midoriya's athlete oath. What was the point in him promising to use his all to win if he wasn't going to do that at all? He has the strength to knock over the Zero Pointers but he chose to ignore them. He threw himself like a fool on the minefield only to win by sheer luck. And when he was bestowed the highest amount of points and the attention of everyone who wanted to make it to the final event, he chose to be nothing but a horse and attempt to disappear in the mess of battle. Where had the prodigy of All-Might who twisted Shouto's declaration of war gone?
"Now!" Yaoyorozu's voice snapped into his ears, and the dual-haired boy grasped at the pole that jutted up beside him, ready to shoot his ice down and block Midoriya's team from theirs.
But it was too late.
At the same time the tall girl shouted, the other team moved, smoke blooming behind Iida before they shot across the ice. What had distracted Shouto from stabbing the staff on the ground and following through with his plan, however, was how their rider Ojiro shot up to the air in the process. The dual-haired boy had spent a second too long following the tailed boy's path through the sky before he felt his team stutter and stumble back, Midoriya and Iida now directly in front of them as the former grasped Shouto's lead rider by the shoulders.
Emerald orbs rose to challenge Shouto's burning gaze, and marble-shining teeth baring a smile to his gasping frown. "Sorry, guys," Midoriya greeted them, "but we need those points."
Shouto could hear the cackling and the cracking of both his sides like steam blowing out his ears, and he reached his right hand out to freeze Midoriya's team where they stood. The green teen tensed his grip on the blond boy's shoulder as though preparing his body for the ice, but the wicked smile that plastered his face betrayed that idea.
The reason for that smile fell from the sky, as another boy's body fell atop their shoulders and, before Shouto could recover from how it shook his body, grabbed at the bands around his neck and ripped away.
"Time's up!"
They all fell to the ground, their weight and the stress caving them in until both teams hit the dirt. The air boomed around them announcing the end of the event and the placement of teams, and listing the names of those who had qualified to pass. But Shouto's name wasn't first; nor was it second, or third.
Even as they moved around him, Shouto could not tear away his gaze from the ten-million-point headband in Ojiro's hands. Their team had done almost nothing at all. And they had won.
And again, he lost.
"I'm sorry we nearly disqualified you guys," Izuku apologized to his three friends, all of whom dropped on the ground in exhaustion, with a bow. "Is everyone still alive?"
"You only are because I'm not letting you escape punishment," Ojiro responded instead, jabbing a finger into Izuku's cheek while he waved the ten-million-point headband in his other hand. "If I was thrown any farther then we would have been disqualified. Can you think of plans that don't involve high risks?"
"Only when they stop reaping high rewards."
Kaminari's high-pitched cry broke into the air, followed by his sobbing laughs. "I thought my soul was knocked out of my body. I died and went to heaven all in a few seconds. You guys came in way too quick."
"And right after we had done the same to you," Yaoyorozu continued for their electric friend, her own voice more raspy and weak. "We managed to finally take the lead only to lose it seconds later. I thought for sure our plan would work…"
Izuku was quick to step around Kaminari and stand in front of the tall girl down on her knees. "It nearly did. If we had all just run at you directly, Todoroki probably would have trapped us with more ice." He looked past her briefly to the dual-haired boy, the only one of his team to pick himself off the ground and had already stomped away with a quick glare over his shoulder. So much for trying to befriend him, he thought sourly. "Throwing your attention off was the only plan I could think of. Lucky us that Mashi jumps like a kangaroo."
"I hate you," came Ojiro's quick comment.
Izuku pointed to his mohawk. "I don't want to hear it. Beside the point" — he shot his hand down to the girl's face, presenting his palm to her — "you guys still passed. Did better than us at taking on everyone else and managing to steal enough points. We would have been nothing without the ten million. But we passed, and we all made it to the finals. We can't stop now when we've got a few more impressions to make for everyone, can we?"
Yaoyorozu stared at his hand silently, gazing up at his face for only a few seconds afterwards, before breaking out a small smile. "Thank you, Midoriya," she accepted his hand in hers, using his leverage to rise on her feet and tower over him once more. "Your quick thinking earns you first place once more. I'm impressed you managed to come up with them in the moment."
The green-haired teen returned her smile, shaking her hand lightly. "If only they weren't so rough, being as sudden as they are. I've no doubt you'd have thought of better plans than mine had you been backed into the same corner. It took you guys out of everyone who tried to take it from us to succeed in putting us on the backfoot. I expect the same for whatever the last event is."
The raven-haired girl's smile widened more, and she looked as if to say something more, but the two found themselves interrupted by Iida's sudden coughing. Izuku's head snapped to look at the blue-haired boy. "Everything alright?"
Iida hastily nodded, clearing his throat once more and bowing his head as he stepped back. "Apologies. It's…never mind. Not my place. Allow me to help you to Recovery Girl, Kaminari."
Izuku let his taller friend's hand go as Yaoyorozu moved to aid Iida in helping the electric boy on his feet, though he insisted he could stay longer, until the final event had been explained. As the three of them took off with Ojiro in tow, aiming to meet Uraraka and her third place team halfway, the quirkless boy turned his attention to his remaining friend still seated in the dirt. Hatsume had recovered from the shake of their near loss to tinker on the propulsion boot she had worn, already peering at its internal wiring and tampering away that Izuku would only understand in general terms. To hell with waiting for lunch, he decided as he finally closed the gap between them.
"You really did recreate his gear," he opened with a comment of awe, gazing down at the creation in her lap. "I thought you were pulling my leg when you mentioned it over the phone. How the hell did you even find the parts for it?"
Without looking up at him to explain, she rambled, "Found a few broken computers and toy cars on the beach. I think two old gaming consoles as well. The wiring I had to pull from some older gear that broke down. I had to pull apart the Launcher to format the radio wave connection to my controllers; the bluetooth I installed first wasn't properly connecting everything."
Izuku let loose a small laugh. "There goes our back up plan of opening up a batting range. That must have been a pain to reformat."
"Only partially."
Her quick answer only left him nodding his head in response, falling back into his awkward silence as she continued to work. Despite the speed at which her hands moved, it looked like truly little progress or change had been made to her work. Was she actually trying to fix her designs or was she just stalling, waiting for him to walk away?
"Are you alright, Mei?" he finally asked her; a question that seemed to do the trick as her erratic hands paused instantaneously and her head finally twisted to look up at him. Though her goggles covered her eyes, the small frown of her lips was enough for him to know the answer before she gave any. "I'm sorry I haven't hunted you down at school sooner. I keep failing to find you when I need to talk to you."
"You don't need to talk to me," she stressed in dismissal, but he scoffed the excuse away.
"I'm letting one of my closest friendships slip away from me, right under my nose. If I'm not talking to you then I'm letting my life go to shit, and everyone's already convinced I have thanks to this piece on my head."
Hatsume's head twitched slightly, as if gazing at his mohawk for a split second. "The punk look works with your costume style. It looks weirder in normal clothing."
Izuku pulled a deep breath of air in through his nose. "That's the best compliment I've gotten about it so far. Thank you. Despite cobbling that costume together at the last minute, I thought it'd fit. Though we haven't worn our costumes again in a while so I haven't been able to confirm that in a mirror yet. I'll make sure to. Off topic. Mei" — Izuku dropped down to crouch beside her, and the girl quickly turned her head to look away — "I don't want to lose our friendship. You're one of my first real friends. I don't want to lose you over some stupid reason."
"It's not a stupid reason," she argued.
"It is, because nothing you did was your fault," he retaliated. "You've been nothing but supportive of me trying to become a hero. Why would I hate you?"
"Because I've done nothing to support you." Her tools fell from her hands, sinking into the wiring of her open boot. "I haven't made any babies to help protect you. I haven't given you anything to fight with alongside your bat. I haven't upgraded your costume to your needs and specifications so it can handle the danger you get in. I—" She had turned again to look him in the eye, but caught her voice in her throat as she stared at his face too long. "It looks worse than it was in the photo."
Izuku brushed a thumb against the vertical scar over his face, tilting his eyes as though he would be able to look at it too. "It doesn't hurt, you know. Recovery Girl did the best she could. And this had nothing to do with you. This happened because of other people, and other mistakes, on another day." His eyes drifted away, just a moment, to the back of the dual-haired teen's head. "I don't trust you any less than before because you couldn't have predicted it would happen."
"I should have," she chided herself, plucking her goggles off her face and revealing to him her glossy, cross-hair eyes. "What good is a support crew if they aren't there to support you when you're down?"
"Then share that with the company that made my costume. It's their job first. Neither of us are supposed to be playing hero and support company for real yet, anyways. I can't expect you as we are now to make a set of protective gear to stop me from burning my own breakfast."
Hatsume blew a raspberry into the air. "I could have something like that done by tomorrow."
"And I'd accept it in a heartbeat," he admitted genuinely. "We've just begun our time here, Mei. We have plenty more to spend working this out and preparing ourselves to do it all again officially. Don't stress about it now, okay?"
The pink-haired girl sighed heavily, glancing once more at Izuku's scar directly before looking back down at her work. "I'll make something for you to protect you," she promised. "Before you go on your work studies; I'll have something made for you then. To take with you."
He broadened his smile, lifting a hand to bump into her knuckles weakly. "I'll be looking forward to it, Future Miss Industries." He tilted his head to the side, pointed in the direction where all their schoolmates were gathering in front of Midnight. "Shall we join the others?"
It took a few seconds of patience before Mei nodded, stuffing her tools into her bag and lugging the metal boot to cradle in her arms, and the two reunited with the rest of their friends at the podium. Yaoyorozu and Iida immediately tended to her, the former returning the other boot she had worn and the latter muttering as he helped to fix her messy hair from the dirt and ice it had collected.
"Now that we've determined the top five teams of the second event, and last place has sorted out who they will send into the final course, it's time to announce what exactly that challenge is! Behold!" The screen behind her, previously displaying the names of the teams from the cavalry battles and their end placements, glitched until its imagery was replaced with a tournament-like bracket format. "The final event of the day will be a King-Of-The-Hill Battle Tournament!"
Izuku frowned, reading the tournament bracket as their names displayed one by one. There went all of his theories about the school's intentions with Bakugou, if they were still using a battle arena event where he and the blond had the chance to fight each other. Why would they permit that chance if they had already gone to the lengths to separate them by classes only a little while ago? But he was getting ahead of himself, thinking so confidently that he would make it to the final round with him and Bakugou sectioned in either half of the bracket's fights. If such a fight was to happen at all, he had three other matches he needed to win; the first of which being a name he only barely recognized:
Round 4: Midoriya Izuku vs Monoma Neito
Izuku looked off to the side, quickly spotting the blond boy from Class B staring back at him with an oddly analytical look. The uneven smile he remembered the first time they'd met was gone entirely, so much so that he looked like a completely different person than Izuku had retained of him. It was also a quirk he didn't not have an inkling of in the slightest. He hadn't crossed paths or faced off against the other teen in either of the prior rounds, so it would be a blind fight unless he could find a classmate of his who knew what he was up against.
And Todoroki was in the first half bracket with him. Great. The only friend of his not in the second half of the brackets was Uraraka, and she would have to face the dual-haired boy in the second round before he'd ever have a chance at facing him in the semifinals. He would have rather spent the matches against his friends, if only because he trusted them more than he was a lot of their other competition.
"Shit."
The green-haired teen snapped his head back around, gazing an unspoken question at his tailed friend. Returning the look with a sour, angry frown, Ojiro jabbed a thumb to the other end of the screen, and Izuku followed the path to its disappointing destination. Speaking of their competition…
Round 8: Ojiro Mashirao vs Bakugou Katsuki
"The first round," Izuku noted dryly, fanning the fuming heat emanating from his friend away before it engulfed him too. Their heads turned down in unison, picking out the blood-red eyes glaring their way. For as shit with names as Izuku remembered him being, he was quick to find his own opponent in the crowd, and he could not have looked more angry and disappointed at the same time. Without so much as a word, he turned heel and stomped away, shoving past everyone around him to disappear under the stadium halls. Izuku wasn't sure when the last time he heard Bakugou's voice was; its absence was almost haunting.
"We'll be taking a break for lunch now, everyone!" Midnight began announcing, turning her attention from them to the audience in the stadium around them. "When we reconvene in one hour, the final event of the Sports Festival will officially be underway! Please stay tuned!"
"I'm sorry but I'm kicking his ass," Ojiro declared gruffly, ignoring their teacher addressing the audience, and keeping his eyes trained where Bakugou had disappeared; Izuku was doing the same. "I'm not going easy on him. I don't know why they're letting him compete at all."
"He'd probably be angrier if you did," Izuku mentioned humorlessly. The rest of their friends had begun to huddle together and head off for lunch at Midnight's request. "And I don't either, anymore. Can't tell whether I'm being lied to or there's just more I'm not aware of."
The tailed boy huffed a deep laugh. "It feels like everything these days is either one or the other. I can't wait for the day common sense returns." To that, Izuku would drink if he was legal.
They followed the rest of their friends away from the stadiums, passing through empty corridors of labeled rooms for classes and final contestants, pulled by the scent of Lunch Rush's cooking perfuming the air. Even with a meal around the corner, Izuku's mind was focused on the event ahead; the last challenge he had to face for the day. He had blitzed his way through the obstacle course into first place, and maneuvered a free-for-all team battlefield to maintain and regain their points to end up in first place a second time that day. Even though he had yet to find and use his outrageous strength, no doubt his actions and victories thus far caught the eyes of the hero scouts he was hoping to please. All he had to do now, to keep those gazes on him and the promise of work study requests to come his way, was figure out how to stop himself from looking like a fool fighting people with quirks. To assure their eyes were on him—
"Midoriya Izuku."
His shoes stomped roughly on the paved floor, the blood pumping through his veins chilling to stop despite the heat that emanated behind him. His head turned, wide eyes slowly gazing at the stairwell he had just passed. The man he found standing there, decorated in flames as they erupted from his blue costume, was such a loud presence in looks alone that he could barely hear the surprised squeak leave his friend's throat. Amidst a fiery mask did two turquoise orbs bore down on the green-haired teen, and he could do nothing but stare in silent shock at the father of Todoroki Shouto standing before him.
"I am here," Endeavor greeted Izuku, "to request a moment of your time."
On the next episode of Midoriya is in over his head,
that mantra is drilled into his mind even more.