Disclaimer: I do not own My Hero Academia or Fate/Stay Night

...

Jiro swallowed nervously as she approached the trio in front of her, her invisible classmate having already approached the top two of the obstacle course, unphased by the fact that would result in her being on the most targeted team. Recalling how Hagakure had acted when she had been partnered with Shirou for their first Battle training assignment and how starstruck she was at that moment, the possibility of working alongside both him and Rin likely overpowered anything else.

As for her, she had to consider the best options for getting through to the third round. With forty two students having made it through this far, she knew those of her peers in 1-A would stay clear from Shirou. Day after day of being tossed around had likely ingrained into their brains to stay well clear from him if they wanted to make it through. Likely with the exception of the two that had chosen to not join them day after day but they would have to convince their team members to throw their chances of proceeding down the drain.

As for her, she had to consider what she could offer the two who were going to be targeted by all those from the other classes who had no idea of what facing Shirou was like. While the jacks hanging from her ears could be utilized as a ranged weapon, there was no way that she could use them to grab the points off of other teams.

She shook her head from side to side before lightly slapping at her cheeks. She knew she could help, somehow when the moment arrived she would know what to do. She didn't spend time after time just getting knocked to the ground to learn nothing from it. If she had figured anything out during those difficult times it was that you had to act the moment an opportunity came.

Jiro figured that if Hagakure was going to be able to convince her to join them then she should have no issue.

...

Todoroki looked at those who stood by his side. His team was well built, with both offensive and defensive capabilities to help ensure that they made it through to the next round. As he tied the headband that contained their collective points atop his brow, backwards so that the point totals weren't visible, he scanned the competition.

Safe to say that he hadn't done much in the way of making connections in his class. He was a cold character, no pun intended, and as such didn't make much of an effort in engaging with his peers outside of lessons. He was more than aware though that those who would serve as his chariot would likely not wish to engage with the team which contained Shirou.

Yaoyorozu, Kaminari and Iida all engaged with the weapons crafter regularly after class and as such would be more than hesitant to combat against him in the upcoming battle. He could understand that and as such would not be spurring his team in that direction, as tempting as the million plus points were. His team would appreciate that but also he himself had a reason to do so.

Emiya Shirou was by far the biggest name in the competition, the person who everyone in the audience would be paying attention to. Including his father. As such, were he able to take him down using only the power of his cold side, it would be a successful attack against his old man. Hence, he wouldn't be challenging Shirou just yet.

After all, the finale was yet to come.

...

Shirou adjusted his grip ever so slightly at the front of the trio supporting Rin. Hagakure he was pretty sure just wanted to join them because she semi idol worshipped him and adding Rin to the mix had nearly blown her mind into overload. Watching Rin's reaction to the rabid fangirl had been enough to cause him to chuckle lightly.

Two others had approached them shortly afterwards, one whose real objective had been plain and obvious to see. He hadn't minded the go getting attitude Hatsume had, the sole member of the support class to make it through to this point in the competition, but it was clear that she wanted to simply use the attention that would be centred on them for her own benefit.

Taking Jiro over her had been an easy option.

The countdown began and Shirou lazily rolled his neck to the side, several vertebrae popping as a result. "That's disgusting," commented Rin from above him.

Shirou paid it little attention as Midnight bellowed out for the competition to begin. His sharp eyes scanned the nearest threats, essentially those who didn't know what he was capable of first hand. As the first group approached, Shirou watched warily as the ground surrounding them begin to shift in density, causing the three of them supporting Rin to slowly sink.

"Don't struggle," he ordered, knowing that with most traps like this the more you panicked the more likely you were to make a mistake. Their mistake was charging head forward at an enemy who was more than happy to pick them off from a range when they were charging straight forward.

The Gandr shot that Rin unleashed, struck the lead member of the B team's cavaly squad square in the chest. Shirou had had more than enough experience with being struck with said attacks over the years to know that the result effectively meant that that team member would no longer be able to play a part in the rest of the event. This also meant that his quirk deactivated, the soft ground that they had been sinking into becoming solid once more, with their feet firmly planted beneath the surface.

"If you would be so kind Jiro," said Shirou, not bothering to look back as he kept his eyes forward.

"Right," said Jiro as her earjacks drove into the ground beneath her before she sent out her heartbeat vibrations. Three times it was necessary before the ground beneath them began to respond, cracking ever so slightly at the intense jarring. With the first cracks being developed, Shirou ripped his feet out of the ground one by one, the consequential damage allowing Hagakure and Jiro to step out of the floor as well.

"Have you got any targets in mind? Or do you want to stay on the defence?" Shirou asked of his team.

"The other kid from my class, Shinso, leave him be," stated Rin boldly. "He has a statement to make in this tournament that has my approval."

"Any chance that he and his team will approach us?" asked Hagakure.

"No, he already knows not to mess with me," said Rin recalling how the general studies student had already tried to get her to talk in the past. While his quirk was impressive, she had encountered far worse in the past and had crafted defences for such tactics, tactics which had rendered Shinso's quirk effective for only a handful of moments.

"So defence then?" said Jiro.

"Defence," confirmed Shiro.

...

Uraraka watched from the stands, shouting out her support for her fellow class members. Beside her was Midoriya but he had entered his zone, pencil and pad in front of him as he jotted down points on nearly everybody who was competing at this moment in time. It would be almost adorable however the never ending incoherent jumble of words the leaked out of his mouth was downright terrifying.

Still though, she was saddened by the fact that she had been the one to ultimately cause him to fail. She had found herself rushing to make her way through the obstacle course, so much so that she had lost her footing resulting in her sitting here compared to competing out there. The strange thing was though, that she wasn't sure why she had found herself competing almost against herself, as if she had something to prove. She knew that she had had to come at least within the top ten, just making it in just wouldn't have been enough.

The real question at the end of the day was that she didn't know where this determination to prove herself had come from. Her quirk was ill suited for a race of that nature unless she had been determined to make herself completely sick and incapable of competing in the following events. Even when going with her classmates to compete against the juggernaut that was Shirou, her hand to hand abilities were miserable. Most enemies all she would need to do was to touch them and let her quirk make them float to a position where they were no longer capable of fighting. Since Shirou could simply summon a bow to his side, that tactic was completely invalid.

Not that she had ever gotten remotely close to being able to utilize her quirk against him.

Was that why she was pushing herself harder? To show that she wasn't simply a background character?

Shaking her head from side to side, Uraraka focused on the contest happening beneath her. She would contemplate her own shortcomings later on. For now she wished to give her all in supporting her friends.

...

Ryoku watched the cavalry battle with the interest she assumed many of the professional heroes had, though she herself was watching from the comfort of her living room as opposed to being with her peers. A lot of people would have assumed that she would have been paying rapt attention to the third year students in order to support her intern. Her choice of viewing however was centred around the first year students and how they were progressing through the cavalry battle they had found themselves in.

The idea that they had to make up a team on the fly, trying to negotiate quirks combinations that would compliment one another was something she wasn't surprised to see. UA always seemed to have a way of trying different things while following something of a formula. The first test was also to weed out the majority and then the second forced those who often found themselves without close friends and allies trying to make something out of those around them.

She had found little surprise that instead of staying away from those who would likely be targeted, the two students whom had her interest had found no issue with people approaching them. They had even had enough students approach so that they could turn some away, which was saying something about their level of charisma along with their reputation and strength.

What she couldn't understand about the team layout however was why Emiya Shirou had opted to take the frontal position as opposed to sitting on top. He was a weapons crafter and being unable to utilize his hands by having to carry the woman atop reduced his combat ability severely.

Which from listening to Nejire, Shirou's combat skills had been enough to even push her intangible teammate into something of a stalemate. Luring him into traps, striking his vulnerable points and even destroying the landscape they were standing on during the bout were more than impressive feats and all strategically sound. Sadly it also sounded as if Shirou was deliberately going out of his way to show Nejire's close friend his weaknesses as opposed to trying to end the fight.

This kid had the potential to go all the way.

So why was she so wary of him?

She still recalled sitting in the penthouse that Rin and Shirou had shared, one which Midnight of all people had invited her to. The verbal sparring between Rin and the R rated Hero was still something that caused her to chuckle from time to time but the read stand out point of the evening was when Shirou had returned from having been abducted by the League of Villains. The very same group which had recently launched an assault of UA itself.

Understandably when he had arrived and said those words there had been a moment of shock and horror that resonated throughout the room. At least the panic had been shared by the three heroes who had taken the situation in a professional manner. Rin had been so nonchalant about the whole thing. Then Shirou himself, describing to them and the officials how he had been kidnapped and subsequently got away unscathed, his lack of emotion at first had been seen as him being in a sense of shock.

Now she knew it was something different.

He had been bored.

He had rolled out the details of his kidnapping as if they were dot points in a business meeting, as if they were simply facts that had no outcome to his health and wellbeing. Rin as well, as carefree as she had been when chatting with the three professional heroes, had shown no sympathy for what should have been a terrifying ordeal. It wasn't as if they could have expected such a circumstance to happen and something of that nature should have scared them to some manner of degree.

It had meant nothing.

She didn't know what it was but these two teenagers were not governed by any rational thought process that could be remotely seen as normal. In this competition, they had breezed through the first round as if it was nothing, which while it wasn't surprising, they had shown no joy in their accomplishment. No happiness in their success of being at the top of their grade. Even now, with only a handful of minutes left and a number of groups out of commission thanks to the orbs that Rin shot from her fingers, they simply looked content with their position.

They just didn't care and the main issue she feared for, was what if they did find something to care for. Someone of a villainous nature offered them something that actually gave them some manner of excitement or joy. To potentially give them a desire to actually push themselves, take something seriously as opposed to simply remaining forever neutral in their reactions. Heroes in the past had fallen to corruption though the government did their best to announce such happenings as 'extreme circumstances' to not put fear into the general public. If professional heroes could fall into villany for whatever reason, it was very possible to think that a couple of teenagers could be persuaded to fall down that dark line of thinking.

She didn't know what could persuade those two to fall into such a life, but if they were she didn't know who would be able to stop them if they found something worth getting serious over.

...

"They seemed to have learnt their lesson, haven't they," said Jiro in a bored tone, her feet still remaining incredibly close to where they had started the game. Four groups had attempted to take their points and all four groups were currently incpacitated, those who hadn't been struck by Rin's attacks doing their best to try and spur their friends on for the final couple of minutes. The only time they had moved was to collect the headbands of the fallen groups before returning to their starting spot to await the next group.

"I thought teaming with you two would have been waaaaay more exciting," declared Hagakure.

"Efficiency does not necessarily equal entertaining," said Shirou from the front of the trio holding up Rin. "You could be using this time to analyze the people who you're going to fight in the next round."

"Wait, the next round is going to be students fighting against each other?" asked Hagakure, shocked at how Shirou could possibly know such a thing.

"It's common sense really," said Rin, her chin resting in her palm as she waited to see if anybody else was stupid enough to come near them. "You don't go through this entire thing of weeding out the competition and not have some tournament or battle royale to work out who the number one is at the end of the day."

"Number one," repeated Jiro as she looked up at the form she was carrying to the male body standing only a couple feet in front of her. Her whole class knew just who the number one was amongst them, they had felt his power on more occasions than many would assume necessary. At no time however had he ever fought them with all the strength that he had at his disposal. Not once had he used the same strength to crush the gymnasium floor or moved so fast that their eyes struggled to keep up with him.

She didn't know why, but she wanted him to go all out, show them everything that he had to offer. To take off the kiddie gloves and prove just how strong he was. There were only a handful of people that she could think of that could potentially cause him to take a fight seriously, one of which currently sat above them. Jiro knew the two of them had fought side by side before. The two of them combatting one another on an open playing field?

That was something she knew everyone would want to see.

"Now, pay attention to what is happening around you," declared Shirou, snapping Shirou and Hagakure into attention. "Analyze, learn and understand those who you may come against."

It was a simple enough instruction but one that Jiro could see that it was things like that which she could have been doing instead of standing there only bracing to defend from an assault. She took this as an opportunity to see a bit of the insight as to what Shirou was seeing. Not only had he been prepared to defend against any oncoming assault, but he was scouting all threats. True he had seen what most of their class was capable of, but they made up less than half of those still competing. He was working out what everyone was capable of, how to counter any unexpected threats. Not once since this competition started had he taken a single moment easy, choosing to spend his entire time mentally crafting ways to take down everybody that came at him with the highest chance of taking no damage.

Was this what it was like to be on the level of the professionals? Was she overthinking things, or worse, underthinking? Even looking beyond those who had assaulted them and still immobile, half the surface was frozen with a number of teams being rendered immobile by Todoroki utilizing his ice. Bakugou was currently leaping through the air at a team from Class 1-B only to collide with an invisible platform.

All these things happening right in front of her that she had paid minimal attention to because it didn't affect her directly. This all was a lesson going on right now and she had only taken in enough to get a passing grade, if that. She needed to learn from this, all of this and take it with her from here on out.

...

"Time's Up!" bellowed Present Mic, his voice carrying over the stadium. "Now to see who our top four teams are. Sitting in first place is Team Tohsaka who seemed to have gotten through way too easily if you ask me. Second place is Team Todoroki, followed by Team Bakugou. Rounding off the top four is...Team Shinsou? When did they get up so high? Anyways, those four teams are those moving through to the final round! The event will take place after an hour's lunch break."

"So Shinsou huh, he's the one you wanted to get through?" Shirou asked of Rin as many of those around them questioned how they had failed to make it through to the final room. For some they were finally able to get medical assistance from having been able to nothing but clutch at their stomach and struggle to crawl out of harm's way.

"It will be much more beneficial for him if the next round is a collection of one on one battles," said Rin as she threw her hair behind her shoulder. "I'm going to assume you've picked up the confused looks of those he worked with."

"Yeah, he controlled them somehow didn't they, they probably weren't even aware that they'd gotten through until it was over," said Shirou as he stretched his hands over his head. "Still, they made it through and if they felt like they didn't get a chance to show off before they get the chance now."

"Yo, Shirou, you coming to get some grub?" asked Kirishima from nearby who was standing nearby with some of the other members of their class.

"Look at you getting all chummy," said Rin, gently nudging Shirou's shoulder playfully.

"Yeah, yeah," said Shirou as he took a step forward only to find one of the other members of Class 1-A had stepped towards him. "Can I help you Ojiro?"

"Can we have a word, in private?" asked the teenager who brandished the overly large tail. Seeing no reason against it, Shirou gestured for Ojiro to follow him, the two of them moving away from the main group in order to get a bit of privacy. Rin chose to simply follow Shirou's classmates not so much for the lunch, but to see if they had anything to say about him.

...

"From four teams, sixteen individuals have made it through to the final round for the tournament!" shouted Present Mic, pausing momentarily to let the applause slow down just the barest of margins before continuing. "We're pitting them against one another in one on one combat! The bracket has been selected at random and we will have the recreational events occur first to allow our combatants time to prepare for their first bout!"

Shiro couldn't help but let out a small chuckle, not believing those words for a second. Out of everyone he could have been put up against, he was scheduled to fight Rin in the opening bout.

"Random my ass."

...

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