Izuku casually stretched his arms and legs, luxuriating in all the space at the back of the room while most other students jostled closer to the starting line. He eyed the opening, narrow, but more than high enough to slip through over everyone else. He saw Tsuyu and Ochako eyeing that opening as well.

For all that he appeared relaxed on the outside, Izuku felt wildly anxious within. He felt all too conscious of the hostile eyes staring him down with impassive disdain from the announcer's booths, the crowds of civilians and heroes in the stands silently judging him, and Midnight eyeing him with worry as she explained the rules of the race to the audience.

Taking a deep breath, Izuku reminded himself of his plan. Don't hurt anyone. Don't show off. Win. Simple. Gives the announcers as little to work with as possible without compromising his promise.

The moment Midnight called a start to the race, ice rushed across the floor, sticking most people in place. A few had leapt in time, and others were strong enough to pull themselves free.

Izuku had darted past the giant robots before the ice had left Todoroki's shoe.

Limiting himself to Geppo and Soru, Izuku ignored the narrow beams and stony platforms entirely in favor of hopping across the air. He could have done the same for the minefield, or simply blow up the mines with a shockwave, but instead, he sprinted through, nimbly dodging every faint electrical signal in the ground.

Before he reached the finish line, a loud crash made him look back. A zero-pointer, frozen over, tipped precariously over the race course. Izuku flickered into lightning and covered the distance in the blink of an eye. He materialized beneath the giant robot, hands outstretched. To his surprise, the robot felt a lot lighter than it looked.

"And Midoriya turned back around at the finish line!" the U.A. announcer called out. "Looks like he thinks so little of his fellow students that he feels the need to lap them to show off."

Izuku kicked himself for ruining his own plan, but it didn't stop him from lifting the robot higher.

"Hey, thanks for the save man!" Kirishima gently slapped him on the back. "Wasn't sure if my Quirk would hold up against that."

"You would've been fine. I think they made these lighter so nobody would get hurt."

"Huh. Makes sense."

Kirishima kept running, and others ran under the robot as well. Izuku kept holding it up, waiting for everyone to pass so he could set it down. One student, however, stayed under the robot.

"Aren't you going to race?" Izuku asked.

Monoma smiled. "Oh, but I am. The way I see it, 1-B stands no chance of victory so long as you remain in the competition." He spread his arms wide and said, "So long as you aren't able to finish the race, I win."

Izuku grinned back. "Guess I'll have to win while holding this robot then."

Monoma's jaw went slack as Izuku raised the rest of the robot off the ground and started running. He couldn't even Soru with that much weight, much less Geppo, and there was no way the beams would support the robot's weight, but the chasm offered a solution to Izuku's robot problem. He hurled the robot into the pit, collapsing a pillar in the process, and leapt across it to the other side.

Todoroki and Bakugo were neck and neck, plowing through the mines, just a handful of steps from victory, when a verdant streak of lightning darted between them.

"And despite fooling around as much as he did, Midoriya still won the race! One has to wonder what U.A. intends to do about his arrogant attitude."

The applause was lukewarm at best. Izuku decided it could have been worse.

Once they announced how many points he would have around his headband for the next round, Bakugo wasn't the only one glaring. He had a whole crowd fighting to be on his team, but he parted them simply by walking up to Mei.

"Think your babies can take on the whole school?"

Mei grinned. "You know they can."

Amidst the sea of pleading faces, Kirishima stood awkwardly towards the back. Izuku hopped over to him and said, "You want in? We'll be fighting everyone here."

Kirishima slammed his fists together. "Bring it on!"

Izuku hunted for a fourth member. He had half the hero students jockeying closer to him, with Mineta at the front. A part of him wanted to take Todoroki, but he already had a group of his own. Ojiro and Shoji also had teams, leaving him without any palatable options.

In the fringes of the crowd, he saw a scruffy-haired Gen-Ed student he vaguely recognized not eyeing him, but the people in the periphery of the crowd. Figuring it was better than nothing, Izuku Geppo'd by his side and said, "I need a fourth person. You want in?"

Shinso narrowed his eyes. "What, taking pity on the general course nobody?"

"If I wanted a pity case on my team, I'd take Mineta. You had a plan, and it didn't involve me. It caught my eye."

After a moment's thought, Shinso said, "If it gets me a shot at the hero course, I'll take it."

"Then welcome aboard!"

As the teams assembled, Bakugo and Todoroki eyed the million points hungrily, but the rest of the teams pointedly ignored him. Izuku shook his head. If they lacked the ambition to go for first prize, he'd have to give them more incentive.

Once the round began, Izuku blurred away. The other teams stopped short, their riders suddenly shouting out. As they turned and looked around, Izuku held every single headband aloft for everyone to see.

"You want a headband?" Izuku called out. His voice boomed across the stadium like a clap of thunder. He raised one foot high and slammed it into the ground, burying it ankle-deep in the stone. He did the same with his other foot and shouted, "Then come and get it!"

Kirishima did the same with his hardened feet. He didn't quite bury them, but the message came through clearly. Mei's backpack jammed metal poles into the ground, anchoring her as well.

As Izuku placed the bundle of headband atop Shinso's brow, the general-course student sighed. "Well, can't complain I won't get enough attention."

"And would you look at that!" the announcer shouted. "Midoriya isn't content with his million points, he wants all of them! But it seems like he bit off more than he could chew."

The crowd seemed hesitant, unsure whether to cheer or to boo. The stadium hung in silence, every group eyeing the mountain of headbands guarded by Midoriya, yet none willing to make the first move.

Bakugo's explosions broke the silence. He came charging through the air, screaming at the top of his lungs. Mei unsheathed her Iron Cloud sword, modified from their winnings in Skypiea. Gray vapor billowed at the end of the hilt and formed a long, flat club. Mei flicked her wrist, and the cloud batted Bakugo back at his teammates like a giant tennis racket.

Ice barreled towards Kirishima. Izuku lashed out with his lightning, and the two elements clashed on the ground. Ice shattered into a fine powder, and the electricity kept rushing forward. Kaminari blocked the attack with his own electricity, shorting himself out in the process.

Kirishima struggled as vines wrapped around his feet. "A little help here!" he shouted.

Mei threw him a Dial. Fire shot from the end, torching the vines while only leaving scorch marks on his hardened skin. Kirishima flicked the device forward, and a tongue of flame halted Tsuyu's own tongue in its tracks.

Two horns soared overhead, darting for the headbands. Izuku batted them aside with lightning, and Pony yelped when she felt the shock. Manga's kanji got blasted apart when Mei pulled out a miniature railgun, and Kirishima held his ground against a combined barrage of scales and blades.

Shinso ducked as fire and shadows leapt for him. "Can't exactly use my Quirk like this."

"And that is?"

Shinso hesitated, unwilling to reveal his secret. In his distraction, Dark Shadow grabbed a headband and snuck back to Tokoyami.

"I got it!" the phantom Quirk crowed. "Let's book it before they figure out I took the-" The sentient Quirk froze when it saw the number, with significantly fewer digits than it thought. "But I thought I-"

Izuku met the Quirk's eyes as he passed the million-point headband back to Shinso, and he winked.

The cavalry battle devolved into a sluggish melee as all the competing teams either chased after Tokoyami's group or hounded closer to Izuku's group, scenting blood in the water with that first loss of a headband. Tsuyu had better luck sneaking her tongue past Izuku a second time, but otherwise, between Mei's gadgets, Kirishima's stalwart defense, and Izuku's flickers of lightning, no one else came close.

As the last remaining seconds ticked by, a massive explosion rocked the stadium. Bakugo came screaming at Izuku's team like a choleric rocket, and blasted the other teams aside. Izuku flung a lightning whip at him, and Mei fired a net launcher. Bakugo angled his hands and made a corkscrew through the air, neatly dodging both projectiles. His hands closed around fabric and tugged with a single second left on the clock.

Bakugo crash-landed once the siren went off. "Yes!" He shouted. "Suck it, Deku! I got the million points!"

The students around him snickered, and Sero facepalmed. "Dude, get your eyes checked."

Bakugo, confused by everyone's reaction, examined his headband. The grinding of his teeth was audible from the stands.

As the crowd exploded with applause, the announcers seemed completely at a loss for words. Clearing his throat, the announcer awkwardly said, "In fourth place, with 135 points, Team Bakugo!"

Bakugo's sweat turned the headband to ash between his fingers. Third and second place teams got their scores tallied, then the announcer said, "And taking the opportunity to curb-stomp all his fellow students, Midoriya steals first place with over a million points."

The general audience seemed split between bad-mouthing Izuku and cheering for his wild success despite the critical commentary, but the heroes perched high above in the stands? The ones that weren't glaring at the commentators' booths were giving Izuku considering, or even awestruck looks.

"We will now take a thirty-minute break to get the final event sorted. In the meantime, please feel free to stretch your legs, grab a snack from the concession stands, and enjoy a word from our sponsors."

As advertisements came over the loudspeakers, Izuku followed the other remaining students into the break room. He snagged a whole pile of snacks and devoured them with gusto, Mei tightened the screws on her boots, and Shinso plopped into a purple puddle on the nearest bleacher.

"I'm never teaming up with you again," Shinso said as he flopped face-first onto the table and closed his eyes.

"Hah! If you think that was bad, you should've seen that fight on Drum Island against the Whitebeards. Felt like pirate Normandy."

"One of these days, we're going to get an actual backstory out of you," Kirishima said amiably. "What is it with you and pirates?"

"We fell on their ship, and the rest was history."

"Not telling, gotcha. So, who do you think is coming in second place?"

Izuku raised an eyebrow. "Not going to say you'll beat me?"

Kirishima laughed. "I've seen your workout routine. You've got this in the bag. So, second place?"

"Depends on the bracket, and how much effort Mei's putting into the tournament."

Mei patted her backpack. It clanged with a thick metal sound. "I have babies I want to test out on you."

"Then Mei, as long as she's not in my bracket."

Kirishima raised a finger, poised to speak, then he remembered all the gadgets tossed his way and how effectively she dealt with the horde of point-hungry students, and slowly lowered it.

"And for our first match of the final round, Izuku Midoriya versus Mei Hatsume!"

"Huh. Kinda wish they would've put us later."

Mei smirked. "Guess the HPSC wants to kick off the final event by bad-mouthing you for beating up a support student."

"Isn't the sorting random?" Shinso asked.

"I'd hope so, but there's reason to believe they're not."

Shinso snorted. "That full of yourself, huh?"

"Thinking the government's out to get you comes with being a pirate."

While Shinso digested that unusual answer, the announcers called out, "If Midoriya does not make his way onto the field in the next thirty seconds, he will be-"

Izuku flashed onto the stage. The announcer trailed off, then said, "Alright, folks, looks like we're about to witness a one-sided beatdown. The only support course student, up against the Tyrant of 1-A, Izuku Midoriya."

"Lame. The Marines gave me a better epithet."

"At least they bothered giving you one. I'm just that one support course chick."

Izuku rolled his neck and cracked his knuckles. "Well Mei. You know what I had in mind for the Sports Festival. I want to win, but I can't go all out. So, I'm finishing this before you get the chance to try anything."

"Which is a load of shit. Luffy would knock you senseless by running away from a good fight."

While Izuku was stunned by Mei's words, her backpack opened with a pneumatic hiss. Metal plates unfolded from its interior, forming a bulky chassis around Mei. The pants on her legs changed color and expanded, forming tubular metal legs, and the gauntlets around her arms expanded to match.

The crowd gasped as the mecha forming around Mei lumbered to a towering thirty feet. One metallic hand opened an Iron Cloud Dial, unfurling a massive smoky sword, while the barrel embedded in the other arm whirred ominously.

"Well Izuku?" Mei's voice boomed out over the mech's intercom. "What do you think?"

"I think I liked it better when I was the one using your babies."

"Keep this in one piece and I'll let you take it for a spin later."

The gatling gun spat out a volley of rounds. Izuku held his ground, only to get blasted across the arena. His feet stamped into the arena's edge, and he barely stopped himself from hitting the far wall.

Izuku threw a lightning spear. The electricity flowed harmlessly across the metal shell and dispersed into the ground.

"Nice try," Mei said, "But the mech's perfectly insulated. And the whole thing runs on pneumatics."

The sword slammed down at Izuku's feet. Izuku flickered forward, cutting underneath the sword, and threw a Haki-coated punch at Mei's torso. The metal barely dented, and Izuku had to sprint away as Mei's gatling gun fired bullets in his wake.

"You know what's nice about rubber rounds?" Mei asked. "They bounce."

Izuku was confused for a moment as Mei aimed off to the side. Confusion turned to panic as the bullets ricocheted off the walls in a million different directions. With the arena walls perfectly straight, the bouncing bullets stayed level with the arena until they hit each other, Mei's mech, or Izuku. The mech weathered the storm of bullets without a scratch, but even with the bullets bleeding energy through the air and walls, they still had enough punch to leave bruises on Izuku's arms and chest.

Izuku dropped, avoiding the worst of the bullet spread, but Mei simply swept her cloud sword along the ground. Izuku went flying into the air and dodged aside as Mei kept firing at him.

"You're bound to run out of bullets sooner or later."

"Yeah, but that's the beauty of rubber rounds. They're very easy to reuse."

The iron cloud swept along the ground again, this time scooping up discarded rubber bullets and dumping them into a hatch on the back of her mech. As the gun whirred up again, Izuku shouted, "That's completely unfair!"

"So is that Quirk of yours. Do you have any idea how hard it is to make a collapsible, self-assembling mech that runs completely without electricity? I have to move and aim everything by hand!"

"I don't even want to use my Quirk for this! I'm trying not to make everything worse!"

"Screw that! What are they going to do, not let you be a hero? Just spit in their eye and do it anyways!"

Seeing the cloud sweep along the ground, Izuku decided to make reloading harder. Plunging like a meteor, Izuku punched straight into the arena. The stone buckled and cracked, making the terrain even and leaving plenty of places for rubber bullets to get stuck.

"A good idea. Too bad I already thought about that."

The cloud swept through, but this time, it moved more fluidly. Seeping into the cracks, it washed up the rubber rounds. As it dumped back in, Izuku noticed a few stones getting swept along for the ride. They still shot out with the rubber rounds, but those shattered on impact.

Wondering what would happen if a larger rock got in the hatch, Izuku raced along the ground, grabbed a fist-sized stone, and Soru'd behind Mei. Hatches popped along the back, and rubber nets leapt with a pneumatic hiss, but Izuku wove the stone past her defenses and into the hatch a second before it closed.

Mei fired another burst of rounds, but the barrel made a clunking sound as the stone got caught. Izuku victoriously pumped a fist, but Mei simply pulled a lever.

"Trying to jam up the gatling gun?" Mei asked. "Guess I'll use the artillery then."

The barrel widened. Caught with his pants down, Izuku braced his legs into the ground and channeled Haki into his chest. A deafening boom rocked the stadium as a large rubber ball broke the sound barrier and slammed into Izuku. The arena split in half from the force, pushing one cracked slab off the raised platform, and a cloud of dust rose where Izuku had stood.

Mei searched the arena. She looked high and checked below, hunting for any stray spark.

"Don't tell me you'd rather throw in the towel than show off a little? You're not that little Deku anymore, Izuku! You didn't let the World Government bully you around, so why let some stupid little hero management paper-pushers make you hide? I promised you the finest support gear, and you promised to be the number one hero. Don't you chicken out now that we made it back!"

"Did she do it?" the announcer asked, incredulous. "I don't see him!"

A blow rocked her mech. Mei turned. Her right leg buckled from a blow to the joint, and another punch sent her mech kneeling.

"What's going on? Can he turn invisible too?"

Over in the stands, Hagakure shouted, "He better not!"

Mei grinned as she saw a stray green spark dance across her metallic arm. "That's more like it." Firing up the one electronic device she had, Mei sent out an EMP. It fried a few cellphones in the audience, but it also forced Izuku out of her mech.

Scrambling to his feet, Izuku leapt away as the ground around him was peppered with rubber munitions. The sword swept down in his path, carving a huge gash into the arena floor. Izuku darted under its edge like a batter stealing home base, then turned and punched the mech's wrist. The mechanical arm buckled under the first blow, the metal warping and cracking along its joints. The other arm, still tracking Izuku's position, fired an artillery round right into the arm's joint. The arm blew off in a shower of metal shrapnel and torn rubber.

Using the shrapnel for cover, Izuku leapt through the air. He raised one foot high into the air, and he kicked down with the other propelling himself beyond terminal velocity.

"Thanks Mei. I think you're right about not hiding, but even this can't make me go all out. Bolt Kick!"

With a clap of thunder, Izuku's Haki-coated leg slammed into the mech's left shoulder. The arm remained intact, but the rhythmic purring of the gun's barrel guttered to a stop as the pinched tubing jammed its internal components.

Bereft of both arms, Mei lashed out with a leg as Izuku righted himself. Its rubber-tipped toes caved in Izuku's chest and sent him careening across the arena.

As he bounced across the broken stone, Izuku dug his fingers into a crevice. His body stretched out like taffy, until he snapped back together with a static crackle.

The eyes on Mei's mech lit up. Izuku yelped as a laser beam turned the stone to slag.

"You put laser eyes on it!" Izuku shouted.

"Of course I did! What kind of mech doesn't have laser eyes!"

Dodging the criss-crossing beams of death and getting Vietnam-style flashbacks of Kizaru in the process, Izuku slingshotting himself forward. He threw a punch straight through the Mech's glass viewing port and grabbed Mei by her shirt. Taking care to avoid the jagged shards of glass, Izuku dragged her out and held her out over the side of the arena.

"Do you yield?" Izuku asked.

Mei crossed her arms. "I thought I asked you not to break my baby."

"You used rubber artillery rounds on me. My bruises have bruises, I think I got a bullet up my nose, and you have laser eyes. You're lucky I didn't whip out Gear Second."

Mei huffed. "Fine, you win. But you better help me make the next one."

Mei dusted herself off, turned her mech to slag with a quick flash of fire from a Flame Dial, and walked off before Midnight or the U.A. announcers could say a word.

Midnight shook soot off her costume, combed a rubber bullet out of her hair, and shouted, "Izuku Midoriya wins the first match!"

Shocked out of their stupor, the announcers said, "Okay, I have to be honest, that was awesome. Let's hope the rest of the tournament can match that."

The next round proved a disappointment for all involved. Shinso heckled Ojiro, saying he only got in because Izuku took pity on him, and when Ojiro shouted the same went for him, Shinso ordered him out. The crowd gasped at Todoroki's sudden iceberg, but even that spectacle paled before the giant robot fight. The other fights would've drawn attention on any other year, but a giant mech and an iceberg proved tough acts to follow.

The crowd got another splash of excitement when Todoroki entombed Izuku in an even bigger iceberg. The announcers had a glimmer of hope proclaiming the tyrants fall before the iceberg cracked in half. He made the ice quake with swings of his fist that would've made Whitebeard proud. By the time Izuku smashed his way across the reforged arena, Todoroki was shivering, blue-lipped, and ready to pass out.

Iida got clotheslined before his engines fired up.

Bakugo, ready for a glorious battle for first place, got off a single explosion before he had his legs swept out from under him, his hands twisted so his palms pressed against his own back, and Izuku's knee pinning him to the arena floor.

As Izuku stood atop the podium and accepted the gold medal from All Might, the cheap, flimsy award felt hollow in his hands. Aside from his fight with Mei, he never broke a sweat, and he crushed everyone else that came against him. None of his classmates ever stood a chance.

So, waving with a smile plastered on his face to the bored and half-hearted applause of the audience, Izuku turned his attention higher, to the heroes perched in the upper seats. He got nods of respect from Best Jeanist and Edgeshot, speculative gazes from Ryukyu, Gang Orca and Endeavor. One hero, however, drew his gaze the longest.

Miruku grinned down at him with a wild gaze in her eyes. As Izuku looked back, he thought she would've fit right in on the Oro Jackson.

A/N: hooray, I'm finally back on track with my upload schedule! Given the next few chapters promise to be spicier, I don't foresee any problems with my biweekly uploads. I've also got a different story slowly simmering on the backburner I hope to post soon-ish, and more ideas I literally came up with today because I like torturing myself by adding even more to my ideas list. One of those I really want to write, but we'll have to see what my muse says.

Anyways, I recently played my first session of D&D, so here's my shot at one of those dnd greentext thingies. *ahem*

Be me, Gord, half-orc ranger who's not particularly bright, refers to himself in the third person. Some additional details about Gord:

- Eats everything and writes about it in his book (which is completely illegible)

- Dreams of publishing book, then using royalties to open a restaurant and serve all the tastiest things he ate

- Was named after the first thing he ever ate (Gord not good at spelling)

- Learned everything he knew about rangering from some guy in the woods eating mushrooms

- Dual-wields shortswords because they were the biggest knives Gord could find

- Throws his boomerang only at anything comically out of range

Be not me, dwarven paladin, rock-gnome wizard, and tiefling barbarian.

Party starts out in a tavern. Gord asks if the barstool comes with his meal, and the confused waitress says yes. Gord gnaws on the barstool. Rolls high enough on constitution not to break his teeth.

Ship falls out of the sky and crushes the tavern. Alien invasion homebrew monsters attack.

Rock-gnome catapults rock through skull of largest one. Dwarf swings halberd and wounds four smaller ones, then impales one on a wall.

Tiefling is also there.

Gord tries eating one. They have acid blood. Gord swings both swords, misses, but headbutts with bonus action and knocks one unconscious. Throws both swords at second alien, killing it, then pulps head of last alien with the barstool.

Mothership shows up on horizon. Party hijacks fallen alien ship, rock-gnome flies ship with no major mishaps, casts disguise, ties rest of party up, and bluffs his way past the mothership guards.

Party encounters engine room. Tons of aliens stand guard around an ominously glowing crystal.

Gord rolls nat 20 on stealth, sneaks his way past everyone to the control panel. Having already tried eating a panel, this time, Gord smashes it. Crystal falls out and shatters, power dies, lights go out, and ship starts falling. Apparently, aliens don't believe in redundancy.

Whole party, with darkvision, leaves ship without incident and complete circumvents battle with BBEG on the ship.

Played Smash Bros later since DM ran out of ideas. Also made pizza and stuffed baby bellas. In short, it was a blast. 10 out of 10, will eat a barstool and throw boomerangs at distant alien ships again.

Mernom: "I wonder how will Mei compare physically to the hero students? She's probably getting top 10 in the first event as is."

Bardothren: I mean, she made it to the top 16 without two years of piracy and Dials at her disposal, so…

Pater P0n: "Man! I just want to see Kirishima get the respect he deserves and to see him become OP."

Bardothren: I think I recall seeing a Kirishima OfA fanfic somewhere, but it wasn't like he was the main focus of that. Sorry to disappoint, but the subplot of Izuku suffering for his Saitama-level strength doesn't really work if he has an equal.

Hope you enjoyed the mech fight, and I'll see you next time on 'oh boy, I wonder which hero Izuku will be interning with?'