Author note:

I haven't uploaded in a few weeks because I have been grinding the hell out of Baldur's Gate 3 and I love it. I used up a week of my holiday leave just to play it more. I'm near finishing up the game I think, so next chapter will be out in 1d20 days. Enjoy!

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Izuku POV, a week later

Mhhhhhm. Kurogiri's pancakes are delicious.

The four of us are in the living room enjoying our morning meals. Hitoshi is enjoying some bacon and orange juice as is tradition. Aki has her laptop out and is having a protein shake along with her pancakes.

Eva is wrapped up in her dressing gown on the couch. I can hear the distinct noise of her tapping away on her phone. The sound of her skin against the quartz-glass screen is like iron on stone.

I stretch my arms overhead and turn to face the others in the room.

"So, who wants to go to the sports festival tomorrow?"

Hitoshi gives a shrug.

"Sure, might as well. I was going to watch it on livestream anyway."

Eva shifts from under her dressing gown and rolls herself upright. She raises her hands and pulls back the hood of the dressing gown in order to expose her eyes. The lighting in the room is bright enough to expose the faint blue veins that run beneath her pale skin. She blinks at me with her ivory eyes.

"I will be unable to participate. I will be busy for all of tomorrow. There are operations in Mongolia that require my attention."

Aki pulls back her hair and shakes it loose in an exaggerated manner.

"Sure, I'll always enjoy an opportunity to play dress up. I spend way too much time cooped up in here anyway. We haven't gone out on a mission since Sunday. I'm down for anything."

I can't help but snort.

"Very well. Just remember that you are Aiko Kojima, and Hitoshi is Haruto Kojima. Our backstory will be that we met a few weeks ago after the I-island expo, and this will be the second time that we have met in person. That should solve any logistical issues in our alibi."

My two companions give me acknowledgment and return to their tasks. With that sorted, now I just have to decide on what to wear.

I should ask Kurogiri for an opinion. He will know what would look good on me. He always does.

I activate a psychokinesis quirk and float my plates over to the sink. Then, I walk out from the living room in search of Kurogiri. A quick ping from Sonar reveals him nearby. I float over to him through the halls and softly land before him.

"Kurogiri, I will be going to the UA sports festival tomorrow under my Akatani Mikumo disguise. Do you have any suggestions for what I should wear? I was considering wearing a double-breasted suit. No one would expect Azazel to wear a double-breasted suit."

My mysterious ally flickers. He opens a portal and prompts me to step through. I'm greeted with the sight of my walk-in wardrobe once I exit the portal.

"I will be happy to help, young Lord. I would instead suggest a bespoke slim-fit suit, perhaps with peak lapels to help draw attention to the face. We could also try a deconstructed blazer, although I suspect you would not feel comfortable in it. A man of your importance requires a suit. Anything less is unbefitting of a supervillain's stature."

He pulls an example from the rack and hands it to me. I give him a nod and move over to the changing room. Trying on clothes with Kurogiri is fun.


Izuku POV, tomorrow morning

"Next!"

I press my ID card to the scanner. The machine beeps, before handing me a small card labeled "UA Entrance Pass". I activate X-ray Vision and take a look inside the entrance pass. There's a dual set of RFID chips paired with a magnetic strip, and what looks to be an NFC chipset in the middle.

Activating Technopathy shows that the card is not connected to any sort of network, and has no stored electrical current within it. The card would only become active once exposed to short-range electromagnetic energy. Nedzu has clearly repurposed the same technology used in contactless credit cards.

Confident that the entrance pass is safe, I place it in my breast pocket and walk alongside my two companions.

We walk out past the gates and are greeted with the sight of the sports festival in all its glory. The sheer scale of UA is staggering. The value of the land alone would be astronomical, let alone the cost of building several stadiums.

There's meant to be at least a hundred thousand people here, and I believe it. I can count easily a half dozen Heroes within my line of sight alone. I make a quick decision to keep Danger Sense active at all times. Having a five-second heads-up before combat could prove useful.

Next, I activate Prospect Threat and scan my surroundings. No one within my line of sight registers as having the potential to harm me. The problem with this quirk is that the definition of a "threat" to myself is very different from a threat to most people. Even if no one here could harm me, they could certainly harm my companions.

"Akatani, how about a quick snack?"

I activate Body Clock. We have just over thirty minutes before the first event.

"Of course, although we should be wary of the time."

The three of us explore the festival grounds. I quickly note that we are a little overdressed. The business suits and vibrant red dress seem to be catching eyes. This has become an unfortunately common problem these days.

Hitoshi points out to a stand.

"How do you two feel about about Katsudon?"

He knows me too well.

"Of course! Lead the way."

Aki gives her approval and the three of us order our meals. The food is good. The pork is juicy, the rice is superb and the seasoning is just right. Absolute perfection. Mhhhhm. Fantastic.

Once we are done with our meals, we make our way to the stadium. We travel to the VIP section and press our cards to the scanners. A pair of guards direct us up a staircase to one of the private viewing boxes. I immediately take note of the bottle of red wine resting on the table.

Oh my, a vintage Château Cheval Blanc? Clearly, Nedzu has an exquisite taste. I must find a way to show my appreciation. Perhaps I should send him a gift? Kurogiri must have something exotic stashed away.

"Haruto, remind me to mail Nedzu a nice gift after this."

The boy hums as he mulls the idea over.

"Well, Nedzu is rather famous for his taste in tea. We should get him something special. If I recall correctly, we have some Peruvian gold-leaf somewhere in the basement. I believe that the particular plant in question went extinct more than a century ago."

Perfect. No one within The Elite is particularly interested in tea, anyway, so it would have gone to waste otherwise. Hitoshi prefers coffee, while Kurogiri and Aki are very much wine connoisseurs. I, of course, will always take delight in a nice spirit. Three fingers of Scottish whiskey is the perfect way to finish off a long day of mercilessly killing people.

The odd one out within the group is, as usual, Eva. Her taste in beverages can be best described as "protein powder and creatine". Her palate can barely distinguish between chicken and beef on a good day, let alone the complex high notes of a Pinot Noir. An eternal shame.

I recline myself into one of the chairs and give Hitoshi a nod.

"Excellent. I will find a way to get it to him. I shall have to plan it out after, the festival will start in a few minutes."

The three of us enjoy our drinks while we wait for the event to begin. Midnight walks out onto the stage shortly after.

"Hello everyone, and welcome to the UA sports festival! We are delighted to have so many people here today. As always, let us welcome our contestants to the field!"

The six classes of the UA hero course walk out onto the field. The crowd cheers as the students march to the centre of the pitch. Midnight resumes her speech once the students are neatly filed and ready for her to continue.

"As always, the first years will start the sports festival! Katsuki Bakugo representing class 1A will now give the student pledge."

The audience hushes as a blond boy walks up on stage. I immediately recognise him as the troublemaker that Momo has been complaining about. The stadium cameras focus in on his face, providing an excellent close-up of his rather irate scowl.

He grabs the mic and loudly clears his throat.

"None of you extras matter. I'm gonna win, and don't even bother trying to get in my way. You're all talentless morons and a bunch of fucking-"

The mic cuts. I immediately activate Lip Reading in order to catch the rest of his bizarre rant.

"-NPCs that should give up now! I'm gonna make the whole world watch as I crush you and grind you into paste! Especially Icyhot, I'm gonna rip your balls off and make your father watch while I shove them down your throat!"

He shoves the microphone back into Midnight's hands before aggressively stomping off stage. Midnight has an expression somewhere between concern and shock on her face. She rubs her eyes for a second before turning back to the crowd.

"As you can see, the students are all fired up! Now, let's ignore that little fiasco please and focus on this cool animated graphic!"

The large display behind her shifts to show a cartoony animation. The screen vibrates and plays an obnoxiously loud sound before finally displaying the result.

"A five-kilometre long obstacle course!"

She goes into detail and explains how the race will work. There will be obstacles and challenges, and students are meant to get to the other side in any way they can. They are free to use their quirks in any way they wish; so long as they do not directly attack other students.

Depending on the type of obstacles in place, this could either go very well for Momo, or very bad. Momo will excel with any obstacle that has a direct or obvious solution, but anything that requires Creating complex machinery on the fly is both very difficult and very risky.

As with all engineering there is no guarantee that an untested design will work at all. Having to use an incredibly complex and difficult quirk to create intricate pieces of machinery while in the middle of a battle is beyond challenging. The only reason Momo can pull it off at all is because she is simply a genius.

"Now, who is excited for the first event!"

The crowd roars.

"Students, get to your starting positions!"

This will be fun.


Ten minutes later

More than a hundred students stand shoulder to shoulder inside the tunnel. The students are tense, ready to pounce on their opportunity for fame. To prove themselves to the world. The anticipation is palpable as the crowd cheers.

"Three, two, one-"

The lights flash as the buzzer counts down.

"Start!"

Fire, ice, and all manner of quirks fly out. Absolute chaos fills the air as teenagers throw their quirks around with zero thought whatsoever. A wave of ice freezes dozens instantly. Lucky students manage to duck under most of it, while smart ones manage to vault over.

Present Mic's voice booms out over the loudspeakers as he begins his commentary.

"And Shoto Todoroki freezes everything! What an amazing show of power! Will anyone be able to escape?"

Three figures race out from the mouth of the tunnel.

"And look at that, we already have our front runners! Shoto Todoroki, Katsuki Bakugou, and Momo Yaoyorozu are clear ahead! Will the others be able to catch up?"

Momo crouches to the ground and forms the Momo-cycle. It's essentially just a standard E-scooter but with larger motors, higher ground clearance, and all safety limiters removed. It's also painted red in order to make it go faster.

Her scooter zooms along as she begins chasing after the two boys ahead. Her scooter isn't as fast as Bakugo's explosions, but it's close. She passes Todoroki before coming up alongside Bakugo. The race is now neck and neck.

"And here comes Tenya Iida!"

A figure with exhaust pipes in his legs zooms past everyone.

"And there he goes!"

The Iida boy maintains his lead until he reaches the first obstacle. He pauses in shock, allowing the rest of the students to catch up.

"Woah, it's the robo-inferno! Be careful, the robots will tear you to bits!"

It's a pile of robots. If I were to guess, they are being reused from UA's entrance exam. Nedzu is lazy like that.

"What will the students do? Will they prevail, or will they-"

Endeavour's son freezes them all with a wave of his hand. Bakugo spirals through the air and blows through the massive machines as if they were made of paper mâché. The two continue on without being slowed for even a single second.

Momo makes use of the distraction by driving between the legs of the now-frozen robots. She zooms ahead and chases after the two front runners. The rest of the students realise the opportunity and begin running after her.

"O-oh, and the students are unfazed! But what will they do once they reach the next obstacle!"

The next obstacle is a giant chasm with some tight ropes. Momo creates a motorised zipline hook and zooms over, while Bakugo and Todoroki fly and glide over respectively. The rest of the students flail about and slow to a literal crawl as they struggle their way over the tightropes.

The poor Iida boy has now lost his lead entirely. His heavy legs seem to offer him poor balance. His position drops from first place to tenth in the span of less than a minute.

Once on the other side, Momo reforms her Momo-cycle and continues onward. Bakugo and Todoroki have managed to get ahead of her, but she is catching up. She makes pace with them thirty seconds later, just before reaching the final obstacle.

"And here we have the minefield! The mines aren't deadly, but they will give you a scare!"

Bakugo simply flies over. Todoroki continues freezing his path. The two rocket ahead towards the end of the race.

Momo pauses for a second as she regards the situation. She drops the Momo-cycle to her side and pulls her shoes off. She replaces them with some cleated ice-boots and starts running along Todoroki's frozen glacier.

The race finishes with Bakugo in first, followed by Todoroki, Momo, and then Iida.

It was a good showing for class 1A. Momo displayed incredible adaptability, while the two front runners showed extraordinary power and control. Iida did okay, but his lack of adaptability seriously crippled his performance. He needs to learn how to use his quirk more creatively.

Midnight takes over now that the first event has finished.

"And with that, the first-year students have finished the race! But, don't get ready to rest quite yet, we are now moving on to the second event. Endurance is key to becoming a Hero!"

The animated graphic pops up on the screen once again.

"And the second event is-"

The display shifts.

"Cavalry battles!"

She goes into depth and explains how the game will work. Contestants will form into groups of up to four, and then compete in a team battle. Teams will have to choose their captain and will then have to carry them overhead.

If the captain's feet touch the ground, then the team will have to hand off all their points to the nearest team. The goal is to capture special headbands that each contestant will have, whilst also protecting your own.

"The point values for the headbands will be determined based on the standing in the previous event. Here are the results!"

A leaderboard displays on the screen, listing fourty-two students by name.

"As you can see, these are the names of the students who passed! In first place, we have Katsuki Bakugo, with ten million points!"

The boy doesn't look even remotely surprised by this revelation. If anything, he looks upset that the number isn't bigger.

"Alright contestants, you now have ten minutes to form your team! Good luck!"

I stand up from my chair. The wine has gone straight through my system.

"I need to use the bathroom, tell me if the blond boy kills anyone while I'm gone."

With any luck, he won't decapitate someone on live TV. It would be a bit of a press disaster if he did. Hrrrm. A thought for another time.


Ten minutes later

The crowd cheers. Present Mic is doing his usual pre-game hype and it's working perfectly. The man is an expert in controlling an audience.

I immediately take note of Momo's team composition. Her only teammates are Ochaco Uraraka and Fumikage Tokoyami. They're all standing as far away from the centre as possible, clearly with some sort of plan in mind.

"Okay, everybody! Are you all ready for this?"

The crowd roars in approval. The teams tense as they prepare for battle.

"Start!"

There's instant chaos. Half of the teams charge at Bakugo, while the other half lurk around the edges of the field. There's an immediate maelstrom as Bakugo blasts back dozens of people.

"Wow, that Bakugo kid sure is amazing! Eraserhead, what have you been teaching these kids?"

Wait, Eraserhead is commentating? Shouldn't that have been mentioned earlier? I turn my head and look at the screen displaying the commentators. Sure enough, a figure clambers up from under the table and pulls himself into view. He looks as if he were just sleeping.

"I haven't taught him anything work mentioning. The other students just need to stop missing."

He promptly lets go of the microphone and drops back under the table. Present Mic doesn't so much as blink.

"What he means is, the other students just need to up the tenacity! Bakugo has moves like something you would see out of a pro!"

Admittedly, the boy is impressive. He manages to weave and dodge out of the way of countless hands, all the while blasting people back. Impressively, he seems to somehow not be injuring anyone, even though his quirk is about as deadly as one could have.

Even a small explosion should still burn flesh and cause deadly concussions. Either he has extremely impressive control of his quirk, or his quirk has some secondary aspect that allows him to control traits such as temperature or exerted air pressure.

A blast capable of blowing someone back a dozen metres should be more than enough to bounce their brain around inside their skull enough to kill them. For some reason, quirks that should be deadly almost never are.

Ordinary people survive being slammed into walls, while Heroes and villains survive lasers and acid quirks that should kill instantly. There must be some magic at play. Maybe the God of this universe simply doesn't want their characters to go around killing people by accident?

"Uh oh, and now teams are on the hunt! Watch out, everyone!"

A nearby team begins to lunge toward Momo's group. She retaliates by-

Flying into the air?

"And would you look at that, Momo Yaoyorozu's team has taken flight! Will anyone be able to stop them?"

The synergy between Zero Gravity and Dark Shadow is magnificent. Dark Shadow lazily flaps its wings and comfortably maneuvres the team in the air. They come to a stop several hundred metres overhead and float in place. No other team can possibly reach them.

I lean back and focus on the rest of the event. Momo has already secured her spot.


The next fifteen minutes of the cavalry battle play out as expected. The teams trade points, but ultimately none of them are able to catch Bakugo's headbands. The blond boy and his team finish in a comfortable first place.

Momo's team finishes in an easy third place. Her third-place banner from the first event was enough to let them pass alone.

The rest of the teams did varying levels of mediocre. The only person of note was the girl in class 1B with the vine quirk, she seemed to do rather well. She was able to strip countless headbands from people's heads, often without them even noticing.

"Alright everyone, we will now be taking a fourty-five minute break for lunch! Please be back before then, you will not want to miss the tournament!"

Hitoshi climbs to his feet and stretches his legs out.

"Fuck, I'm hungry. Let's grab a burger or something."

The three of us go out to grab lunch.


I severely underestimated how many food stalls there are. The stands span as far as the eye can see and never seem to end. I push myself up to my tippy toes to try to get a view over the crowd.

I feel a finger poke my shoulder.

"Akatani, I was not aware that you were at the festival."

I whirl around. Momo has an eyebrow raised and a bemused expression on her face. I can't help but blush in embarrassment.

"Ah. I was going to make it a surprise. I was intending to say hello after the event."

She snorts.

"Admittedly, that would have been a pleasant surprise. It is always nice to see my friend. Speaking of-"

She makes a gesture to Hitoshi and Aki.

"Are these also your friends?"

Hitoshi steps into the conversation with absolute ease.

"Ah, I am Haruto Kojima, and this is my older sister, Aiko Kojima. The two of us met Akatani a few weeks back. We invited Akatani to join us for the UA sports festival."

Momo immediately senses his charismatic energy and steps forward to match it. Her chin tilts upward and her shoulders square as she easily slips into the persona of the Yaoyorozu heiress.

"It is nice to meet you, Kojima-san. I am Momo Yaoyrozu. I presume that you and your sister perform work in the Hero Support industry?"

He gives a nod.

"We both work within Japan, although I can't tell you much about our company. We develop experimental support equipment. I must admit, Yaoyorozu Industries inspires a lot of our work."

She hums softly at that.

"I am pleased to hear that. But, that is a conversation for another time. I presume that the three of you are looking for food?"

My stomach growls loudly. I can't help but blush.

"We were intending to get some burgers. Have you seen any such places, perchance?"

She leads us over to a nearby burger stand and we order our meals. Once the food is ready, the four of us sit together at a table. The burger is perfect. The cheese is warm and the patty is juicy. Mhhhm.

I wipe my lips with a paper towel before turning to Momo.

"So, do you have any strategies in mind for facing Katsuki Bakugo?"

She gives me a nod.

"I intend to create a flashbang to blind him early, and then l roll a sleeping gas grenade-"

Hitoshi shakes his head.

"Nope, won't work. If his quirk hasn't blinded him, then a flashbang won't either. The sleeping gas will also be a disaster once he blows it in your direction. You would end up harming yourself more"

Momo's eyes widen with surprise. Her eyebrows furrow as she taps her fingers against the table.

"In that case… my only other option is a taser or some sort of sleeping dart. I found a formula online that will knock someone out within ten seconds as long as it is injected past the epidermal layer. The only problem will be firing the dart without blatantly telegraphing the attack. Bakugo is very perceptive and has an excellent reaction time."

Melee, obviously, is not going to work. Bakugo's Explosion is a perfect keep-away for melee fighters, whilst also providing a powerful ranged attack. Momo's only option here is an attack that can take him out from beyond his effective fighting range.

The main weakness of any explosion is that the blast divides its energy by distance, as dictated by the inverse-square law. The energy will be most concentrated directly at the point of his palm but will rapidly lose concentration as it travels further out.

Getting too close is a death sentence, but staying too far away is an invitation for him to simply brute force his explosion size. Either way, you're playing chicken against someone who seems to be more than willing to leave injuries. Tempting fate is not always a good idea.

I can't see a realistic way for her to win this.

"Momo, I believe that your best bet is the sleeping dart. You will have to get him while he has his guard down or between attacks. Otherwise, he will simply blow away anything you can throw at him."

She bounces her knee up and down, clearly deep in thought. After a moment, she lets out a sigh.

"Thank you, Akatani. I will try my best should I end up facing him. Speaking of my other potential opponents, however, do you have any ideas for how I can defeat Kirishima? I doubt that a taser will do anything against his durability quirk, he seems to be immune to almost everything."

An easy question.

"Simple. His quirk makes him extremely durable but does not protect him from being restrained. Fire a net at him and then wrap him up with dozens of strong cables while he is off balance. Then, create a bucket of polymer glue and pour it over him. He will be wrapped up and unable to move effectively, all the while the glue begins to set. He will surely forfeit within a minute or two."

She gives me a soft hum.

"What thickness should the steel cable be? Would four milimetres be adequate to contain him? Normally I would do proper testing prior to the fight, but I don't want to tire myself out."

Aki takes this opportunity to pipe up.

"I read an article a while back from a support company that designed capture nets. They recommended a nylon net for ordinary thugs but suggested that a half-centimetre thick steel cable would be necessary for lower-end strength quirks. If I were you, I would simply throw a big net on him and be done with it."

Momo produces a thin piece of steel and rolls it around between her fingers. She pauses for a moment before suddenly gasping. She jumps up with an excited look on her face.

"I should also be able to incorporate some of the carbon nanotube wire I have been working on! Getting the correct weave pattern with my quirk has been difficult, but I think I have a scalable model now! Look, let me show you!"

She produces a thin black wire and places it against the table. She then creates a knife and attempts to sever it. There's a screeching sound, but ultimately the wire is unharmed. A material harder than diamond, but flexible and with a far higher tensile strength. A scientist's wet dream. She beams at me with obvious pride.

"So? What do you think?"

I can't help but snort. Carbon nanotubes have been in the pipeworks for centuries, and here she is producing them from the palm of her hand.

"I am very impressed, Momo. You could also use it as a blade. A wire that thin would be able to cut through most materials with little effort. You could use it to cut through the vines from the girl in 1B if she becomes an issue."

She gives me a grin and reaches under her shirt.

"You see, I have a better idea."

She places a bottle of industrial pesticide on the table.