Ranika was jumped by Suiiki the seconds she reentered the stands, who hadn't stopped yelling his head off since her victory.

"AHHHH! That was awesome! You were basically flying out there! And you went crazy with the wind blasts and destroying those cards! It was just- oh my gosh, that was so cool! Now I'm getting kinda jealous!" Suiiki turned towards Genso. "Hey! Gen, when am I gonna get some tips?"

Their friend scoffed loudly. "What incredulity! The amount of times I, Ranika, or Daisuke tried to get you out of that arcade to practice are innumerable! And now you have the nerve to ask for assistance?"

He pursed his lips at the accurate description as Ranika slowly picked him up and lightly tossed him into the seat beside her. "Yeah, Aqua-boy! Where the hell was all this vigor a couple weeks ago?"

"Oof! Y…You know th-…one thing I sh…Daisuke! Some backup here!"

Used to this type of blame deflection, Daisuke sighed deeply. "Suiiki, who are you trying to fool? Me and Ranika were at the lake every day last week and we texted you every time we went. W-we even invited you every day but you wouldn't pull your attention away from your…little game!"

"That little game is the hottest selling title of the year, buddy!" He cried while he crawled out of the hole in the back of the seat he'd been thrown into. "Which I won a tournament for, by the way! How many tourneys have you won?"

With the finger pointed back at him, he meekly retreated behind his box of popcorn. "T-that…it isn't-"

"Exactly!"

Ranika settled into the seat in front of them mostly ignoring his boasting. "Someone's really cruisin' for a bruisin'. I'm going to have to give you a reality check in the ring."

"Preferably," Genso quickly cut in. "Without using your quirk again, like against Watsuji."

"I was stuck, so I did what I had to! Bastard actually got me pretty good in the end. If it wasn't for his cockiness I would've been cooked," Ranika shuddered when she recalled the moment. "And personally, I was a little intimidated by his villain act, as weird as it was."

Across the aisle left from them, Tsubame sullenly watched Mako and Hayashi – a fellow lower-class student – entering the ring. She occasionally stole a glance at the group but never engaged with any of their discussions. Kisho, sitting to her left, saw her melancholic attitude and began pondering how best to use it.

"Whatever is the matter? Aren't you enjoying this festival that you helped to create? None of this would have been possible without your involvement, you should feel proud." He quietly whispered.

Slightly unnerved but more familiar with his ways, she turned to him and kept her own voice low. "I just want to be able to talk to her again."

"How selfless of you." He grinned while he spoke. "But what else should I expect from someone like yourself."

She turned away from the giggling group to her right and looked straight ahead with bewilderment. "Selfless? What are you talking about?"

"Oh, I was just thinking how noble it was of you to try and correct behavior of those who don't appreciate it, and then still desire to have a friendly rapport with them. Most therapists don't wish to be around their clients."

"They're not my clients and I'm not a therapist. We're all teenagers."

"Well, I must admit you have a point. I suppose you just have better judgement than most."

"…maybe, maybe not. Who's to say? You don't know…and neither do you, so just shut up." She raised her hand to her forehead and forcefully rubbed it. "I'm not thinking about it anymore."

"Huh?" Hinote spun around from her position at the barrier gate. "No one else said anything."

Tsubame's eyes widened. "U-uh! I-i-I didn't say anything! I meant- just kind of talking!" She shakily said.

Kisho chuckled lightly. "Well, I sure didn't hear anyone else. Unless Erina was saying something telepathically, although she's way over there…" He pointed to the teacher sitting on the opposite side of the stadium.

Hinote checked over Tsubame and began to bite her lip while humming to herself. Tsubame's hand was quivering, her eyes looked panicked and her legs bounced incessantly to a silent drum. "Eh, it isn't important! Probably quoting that movie that came out a week ago! It had a similar line!" Hinote lied to change the topic.

Kisho rolled his eyes. "I don't watch that junk, and I doubt my VP would subject herself to such an eyesore."

"I think Hinote's right!" Tsubame quickly said through slightly shallow breaths. "I just didn't remember what I was referencing."

"Or maybe you're hearing voices now! Hah! Now that wouldn't surprise me considering Suiiki's record of-"

"I am not crazy! I am not!" The proclamation alerted a few students around them, most especially her former friends. Tsubame gritted her teeth while tightly gripping her hair.

"Me neither!" Hinote abruptly shouted as she jumped across the row in front of her and landed in the empty seat beside Tsubame, the only buffer zone between her and the opposing cluster of students. "I'm not real crazy about watching this match since you know, Mako's obviously at such a big disadvantage!"

"You are most certainly crazy if you think Mako is going to struggle in the slightest!" Suiiki yelled not so consciously in Daisuke's ears while stuffing his face with his popcorn. "This is about to be a washout!"

Kisho, usually disdainful at any outburst from his nemesis, nodded with certainty. "For once, me and this nimrod agree on something. Do you even remember what Mako's quirk is? How is a worthless power such as Cactus going to even scratch someone who can reflect whatever they want?"

Grimacing at the way it was stated, Daisuke pulled the box away from his greedy friend. "He might have a chance; he just has to be really lucky…and smart. Cactus isn't a bad quirk by any means."

Suiiki flattened his mouth and stared at him. "Against Mako?"

"…okay yeah, compared to Ricochet it is."

Hinote blew a raspberry at them. "You two just can't see the sheer potency of his quirk. He'll blow through Mako in 20 seconds flat!"

"Uh-Huh." Suiiki snatched another handful out of the box from behind Daisuke's shoulder. "In his dreams, maybe."

Out of the spotlight, Tsubame's breath returned to normal along with her hands and legs ceasing their rapid movements. Grateful, she lightly tapped the red-haired girl's thigh and mouthed a "thank you" to her. Hinote smiled at her with a split-second of a worry crossing her face, then resuming her banter with the others who had forgotten about her earlier flare-up.

"Hinote, you foolish girl, just watch and observe your presumed victor fall within seconds. I guarantee it." Kisho leaned back in his chair and checked his watch. "Fifteen seconds, and no longer."

With the sound of the buzzer, the match began. Hayashi rushed in to attack Mako, who'd barely acknowledged the round had started. He had been basking in the crowd's cheers for him and only moved around to avoid getting touched by his opponent. Hayashi chased him across the ring with all he had as Mako continued to raise the audience's hype by letting him get close only to weave at the last second in grandiose fashion.

Tired of his playing, Hayashi grew spines out of his body and slowly encroached on the brunette who had finally been backed near the corner of the fighting area. He leapt at him with both arms outstretched.

"Seems he understands his opponent and is only going for grabs." Kisho thought out loud. "Can't blame him. It would be a death wish to use blunt force. Though Mako is a fool himself."

"He is." Ranika had barely been paying any mind to the fight, or their conversation for that matter. "A really strong one though. I give it three more seconds."

Mako lazily turned towards Hayashi – midflight and rapidly closing the distance – and clapped his hands together. The shockwave reverberated far outside the stadium walls and blew back the hair of many in the front row. Hayashi soared backwards past the arena floor onto the grass.

"And we have our winner of the second match! Mako Ishiwatari! That quirk of his is nearly invincible! Let's give a hand to his opponent for putting up a good fight!"

With much disdain for the formality, Hayashi grunted as he rose off the soft grass. "Just feels like a participation award. I wasn't even close."

While everyone praised Mako's quick victory, Genso took notes on the victor's movement in the arena. Or rather, how he hadn't.

"What, saw something interesting?" Ranika asked, leaning over to read his notes.

"I believe so, and I'm not the only one who noticed." He turned to Hinote, who had still been staring at Mako while he strode and paraded about the ring. "Seems there's something to gain even from these washouts."

"Whatever it is, I doubt Ranika will get any use of it. Apes tend to just smash regardless of their target's ability." Kisho said snidely.

"Don't you have a match to get to? Why don't you shut up and get there?" Suiiki fired back in defense of his friend.

"Suiiki," Daisuke meekly tugged on his shoulder. "C-come on, let's stay calm here."

"I suggest you listen to your friend, lest you get disqualified before you even fight."

Tsubame lightly pushed Kisho with both her arms to get him moving away from them. "And I'd suggest you hurry along before you get disqualified for not showing up. No point in making a scene here of all places."

He was caught off guard by her terse tone. "Ah…very well, I'll see you in the second round, Suiiki."

"Uh-huh, whatever." He scowled at him until he was gone, then awkwardly glanced at Tsubame. "…thanks for that."

"He was being antagonistic. Like me." Tsubame saw Ranika watching her expectantly and hesitated for a moment. "…I still have feelings about it, but you're all more important to me than some dumb disagreement, so I'm trying to put it behind me."

"Heh…I wonder if they're playing Christmas music in Hell right now?" Ranika patted the vacant seat next to her. "Wanna join us over here?"

A certain brown-haired boy grinned widely. "Yeah, if you don't want to be pouty pants anymore, we'll let you come over!"

Daisuke elbowed him and smiled a bit too widely in compensation. "You're always w-welcome to sit with us. If you want to, that is."

She nervously twiddled her fingers with her eyes darting around to each of them. A gentle push from behind moved her forward.

"Don't worry about me!" Hinote splayed out across the empty chairs. "Now that you're outta here, I got all o' this to myself!"

Tsubame held back the desire to hug Hinote and put the energy into walking towards her friends again. Before she sat down, Ranika grabbed her waist and pulled her down for a kiss, and she only let go after an eternity of five seconds had passed, with a mad blush streaking across both of their faces.

"Ewww!" Suiiki childishly said in disgust with an accompanying box of popcorn being hurled into his face.

"Oh, grow up!"

Asai stepped onto the stage with all the confidence of a cat in front of a speeding semi-truck. Kisho, who was much more comfortable in the spotlight, relished in the colosseum-like shouts and hollers of the onlookers.

"Okay, you two! Let's have a nice, clean match…hopefully a little longer than the previous one. You may begin!"

Despite her buckling knees, she took forceful breaths and began slowly advancing on her opponent. While he stood waiting for her first move, she held an arm to the sky and launched a hundred tiny light rays upwards into the air. Not unlike missiles, they began to curve back downwards from the skies, slowly honing in on Kisho.

He chuckled as he backed away from the projectiles and saw them quickly dissipate back into light after moving no farther than half the area. Asai was already sweating from some combination of strain and nervousness but through a miracle of willpower, forced herself to move closer to him to make up for her quirk's short range, even while her legs felt heavier with every step.

"This is almost sad…"He thought to himself. The observers were starting to quiet down expectant of something to happen, their initial excitement of seeing her quirk giving way to slight confusion to its apparent lack of effectiveness. Asai's onslaught ended once her anxiety got the better of her and she tore her face away from her target and towards the ground. Seeing the leftover sprites still flying in the air, Kisho stopped the retreating and let a couple of them touch his skin. It clung to his body for a moment before softly popping with the force of thumb flick. They hurt no more than a mosquito bite, without any of the danger of one while only leaving a slight sensation of heat on him afterwards.

"You're kidding me." He covered his mouth to stifle his laughter. "After the lightshow you showed us, that's the extent of it? Surely, there's more to this, Asai?"

The diminutive girl raised her head frightfully fast at his provocation. "…" She opened her mouth but only silence was heard.

"Oh, you can't be serious. At least give them something to look at?" He accusingly raised an arm at the crowd as he waited for her response.

Her eyes began to water but she kept the floodgates from opening. She doubled down and launched another volley of light sparks. A repeat of the first time, Kisho merely backed away until they fizzled out as before.

"…so that really is all you've got. And I placed you in here thinking you'd make for a great contestant. I must say this is quite disappointing, but I guess I have no one except myself to blame for hastily choosing you to be here, so that's on me."

Her face twisted in shame, the tears began flowing uncontrollably, her hearing amplified the sound – or lack thereof – from the audience. Even though the crowd couldn't hear what Kisho was saying, nor had they yet to show any discontent with her, she suddenly stopped shooting her missiles and clutched her chest, try desperately to control her breathing. The remainder of her rays didn't even make it past her shadow before vanishing into the bright light of the sun.

"I quit."

Kisho pretended not to hear her. "Sorry, what's that?"

"I quit!" She covered her eyes to shield them from the jeering faces that didn't exist. "I'm sorry! I don't want to waste your time anymore! I'm so sorry!" As fast as her legs would move, she ran down the steps of the concrete ring and tripped momentarily. Hastily, she pulled herself off the ground like a wounded animal escaping a predator and fled into the darkness of the ground entrance.

Suiiki, waiting in the hall for his upcoming battle, vainly called out to her. "Asai! Don't run away, this dude's a pushover!"

"No! No, no, no!" The walls reverberated her wails as her footsteps grew more and more faint, the deathly quiet stadium making them sound even louder than they were.

"Uhm…" The principal started. "It appears Kisho is the winner by withdrawal from his opponent. Truly a shame because what a powerhouse that girl's quirk is! Don't let those tiny beams fool you! They seek out your heat, and if enough are piled into one space, they'll immediately combust with the force of a grenade! A shame we weren't able to witness it!"

"They can what?!" Kisho's eyes widened in horror as he checked the areas where they had nipped earlier. Flashing a quick smile to the crowd as they reluctantly cheered for him, he quickly wiped down his arms with force.

"Hey, you dick!" Suiiki slipped past Ikasaki and stormed over to the arena where Kisho was bowing. "There's no way you actually beat her legitimately, you said something! You didn't even touch her once!"

"What are you talking about, you buffoon? Must you start something even here?"

Erina ran to the front of the seats and tried to get Ikasaki's attention, although the large mirror he was using to comb his hair completely obscured his vision of her.

"You took advantage of how shy she was to beat her! That's why you placed her in the tournament! So you would get to be a big jerk to her and make her feel bad!"

"How completely delusional! You're just angry that I was able to overcome her and you thought I couldn't."

Suiiki pushed him. "Liar! I want a do-over! Rematch! This is null and void!"

The stadium began to grow in excitement at the squabble between the two, to their teacher's chagrin.

"Don't touch me, your stupidity might be contagious!" He said, pushing him back.

"Suiiki! Kisho!" Erina shouted at them telepathically. "Both of you, go back to the entrance and stop embarrassing yourselves!"

"Erina, there's no way you didn't see-"

"Don't make me say it again."

Flinching from her cold glare, he begrudgingly did as he was told. "Ah, fine. I'll get you back for her. Mark my words!"

Kisho laughed while shrugging his shoulders. "My, oh my. He tends to just drag problems with him wherever, yes?"

"Kisho." Her icy gaze was unchanged. "Back into your seat, now. A President should act with far more grace than this."

"…yes, ma'am."

"Looks like we've got ourselves a bit of a rivalry forming here! I can't wait to see the battle between those two! But before that, we still have many more fights to get through, including the one many of you undoubtedly came for!"

As Kisho ambled back to the other entrance, he noticed an orange-haired girl inside the hall breathing slow and deeply.

"Hinote? Whatever are you doing?" He placed his hand on her shoulder. "Is this some sort of mantra?"

"I was trying to focus on my upcoming match."

"I see, clearing your head. A stark contrast to the bonehead you'll be going up against."

"Ha." She dryly replied.

"Oh, that's interesting. They gave you long-sleeves on your uniform. Did you request that? I wasn't aware of that option, you see, I left Tsubame in charge of the costumes and such."

"…"

"Right! You did have to wait longer than anyone else during the fitting, because you needed the flame-resistant clothes! Appears you were able to sneak in some extra preferences thanks to-"

"I would really prefer if you would be quiet."

"Oh." Like a puppy who'd just been sprayed, he took his hand off of her and backed away. She rolled her eyes and went back to her meditative state without another word. He held his head tall even while his cheeks tinted pink around his strained smirk.

"In any case, that went exactly as good as I could have hoped. I deserve a reward for my flawless scheduling. Hmm…guess I'll indulge myself in one of those funnel cakes."