A blonde woman wiped the sweat from her forehead as she lead two men out of the rubble of a collapsed apartment. Holding each other in a warm embrace with tears in their eyes, they bowed their heads in gratitude. "Thank you so much! It all happened so fast, I couldn't even tell what was going on! Without you we-"

"Please don't dawdle, sweeties." Her voice was drenched in an accent akin to a 19th century noble woman. "As much as I ever enjoy being flattered, as a hero I unfortunately have a duty. Seeing as you two can walk on your own, I advise you first seek medical attention. I believe there is a darling angel who works at this precinct's police headquarters who can see to it."

"Oh! Right, let's go!" They took off to the left down an empty street littered with plastic cups and streamers. "Thank you again, pretty lady!"

"It's Venus, and you're quite welcome!" She shouted even though they probably couldn't hear her anymore. After a quick survey of the destroyed building, she grazed her hand against her formerly white ornate gown and held it up to her eyes. "Eww! So much dust and…eugh! I had this cleaned yesterday too! Honestly, would it kill to make these buildings out of less dirty materials?"

"Ma'am?" A man from inside a yellow bubble called out to her from behind. "My leg…it hurts so much, can we please hurry to a hospital?"

The woman quickly snatched a tiny mirror from inside her large dress and checked several areas of her face. "Oh, pooh. The foundation's been smudged a bit, but! Otherwise, I kept fairly clean! Shame my outfit didn't fare as well. Hah, the sacrifices I endure to help these simpletons. Oop, can't have dirty nails, can we?" She eyed his severed leg with barely a hint of urgency as she cleaned her fingernails out. "Regardless, it seems I've already evacuated all the inhabitants here. Suppose I could get you some medical help."

He sighed. "Thank you. Please hurry, i can't-"

"With that being said, do tell: is there something happening today for all these celebratory decorations?"

Somewhat bewildered at her lack of knowledge, he wondered if she was joking. "You…you can't be serious. Don't tell me you haven't heard about the school's festival?"

"...and she didn't even bother to tell me."

"Ma'am?"

"Quick detour! I've a more pressing engagement. Literally."

He stuttered for several seconds, exasperated at her claim. "More pressing?! My damn leg was chopped off!"

"Humdrum, darling. You'll live."

"I beg to differ!"

"Then beg."

Erina was seated inside the infirmary, the members of the police opposite her near the hospital bed. Sunako was tied up to a chair in the corner with Satori standing close by.

"Okay, I know what this is all about but I have a good explanation!" The panicked teacher started. "The crowd was simply too frenzied during the fight for me to tell them even telepathically to evacuate! And there was also the threat of a panic breaking out and causing unnecessary injuries during the hysteria, not to mention the students battling at the time never would have heard my telepathy anyway!"

Rinasa bit her lip and turned to Satori. Seeing her waiting for his call, he gave Erina another stern look before releasing a heavy sigh and shrugging.

"Accepted." Rinasa replied. "But you could have issued the order afterwards. Why did you not?"

She felt her heart skip in response and tried to calm herself. "Uh, you didn't radio me back afterwards so I figured you all had it handled and there was no need! And I couldn't call you while you were working, fighting to protect us!"

"Why else would we give you a cell if not to contact us!" Satori scolded. "And still, you should have assumed our order remained in effect. Unless told otherwise, you were to evacuate everyone out of the stadium at your first opportunity to do so!"

"And dare I mention," added Aki. "That you had contacted us multiple times whilst we were in battle prior."

"There was never a moment of peace after the 3rd battle! Many times, I had to help escort my students here for medical treatment, along with some spectators as well! Hanako, you can attest to that! Hijiri too, my alibi is completely solid!"

"Your words hold meaning but the truth is very panned." Hijiri pried. "And it is not hard to deduce the reason for this vocal sleight of hand."

With a huff, Erina stood up with a feint look of indignance. "Baseless assumptions aside, I have very little experience in these types of situations. Do not expect me to know the exact procedures in a time of crisis, especially one during such an event as this. Is there still a reason to shut down the festival or is this incident closed?"

"Watch your tone!" Hanako snapped. "We could have this shut down just because. Your little friend here," She tightened the rope around Sunako as tight as she could, making her squeal in pain. "Gives me incentive to just pull the plug on this whole thing just so I can blame it all on her!"

Erina's anguish for her torturing Sunako tore her between standing up for her and acquiescing to them to continue her festival she'd been working so hard to have greenlit.

"No, we won't." Rinasa cocked her head to summon Satori to her side. "Though we will need a replacement for her position to allow the festival to continue. Once Satori finds a suitable hero to hold her spot, I would say you may restart the tournament?" Her pause was answered by Satori scribbling out Sunako's name and nodding.

Relaxing slightly, Erina sympathetically whined when she saw Sunako's discomfort. "M-may I ask why she is being replaced to begin with?"

"Oh-ho, absolutely-"

"You may not." Rinasa said quicker than Hanako finish. "You're dismissed."

Concerned but prioritizing her event, she bowed. "Thank you, I'll wait for your signal to resume the matches."

Rinasa made a noise that Erina took as a farewell. With a nod to the others, barring Hijiri who still eyed her in suspicion, she closed the door behind her and took off in a hurry down the halls.

"Ugh. Not Coriette, by the way." Hanako spat at Satori, who groaned and erased several lines from his notebook. "What a complete waste of a human, she can't even follow basic instructions!? And we're going to let her keep walking away like this? She should've gotten her face mauled off for that!"

Another noise from Rinasa. "…no one died."

Hanako's side-eye alone was almost enough to make even Satori flinch a bit.

"…besides the villain Sunako murdered, for which there will be consequences." Rinasa briskly put her pink jacket back on and headed for the door. "I'll be back, I need to collect my own suspect. Everyone but Satori, back to your stations."

"Why didn't you tell Kanshi?" Barely audible, Sunako's words did not go unnoticed. "About what I did…"

"Erina had no use for that information."

"…thanks, Rinasa. For still looking out for me."

To anyone else, they would've suspected she hadn't even heard the praise from the lack of reaction. "Do not thank me, I performed my duty."

"Well, I'll gladly indulge in her gratitude if she must play the modesty card!" The door opened so fast that it almost smashed directly into Rinasa's head, just barely missing contact. The blonde woman wearing a wedding dress stood with their final target close behind inside a yellow bubble, whose leg was still severed from Rinasa's battle with him. "Although I would appreciate added bouquets and maybe some fanfares?"

"W-! Latelia?!" Satori shouted. "Woah, wait wait wait…you were supposed to be in France for another 8 months!"

"I cut the visit short, those types are hardly worth my rather valuable time. But before we get down to the business of you all holding an entire festival without nary a word to yours truly, Hanako's services are called upon. This dear is one of yours, I assume?" She patted the man besides her, bobbing the bubble up and down lightly. "I could tell from the burn marks he wasn't hurt from just rubble."

The healer shot a growth that curled around his body and snatched him over to her. While she tended to his wound, Satori moved in to wrap him back-to-back against his accomplice.

"Good god…as frustrating as you can be," Hanako began. "Having you back simplifies a lot."

"T-thank you, Lia." Rinasa held her hands together and avoided eye contact.

"Oh, darling!" Latelia jumped into Rinasa's arms, and with the gown she was donning, it looked almost like a groom carrying their bride. "Please believe me! I'll never make it alone!" She said almost singing the words.

"I am busy right now, Lia!" The chief's normally blank face was eroded away as exasperation took hold. "We've had a major breach of security, and this event was supposed to be shut-down."

"Business before our pleasure, as per usual. So be it, then. I graciously offer my services to upon you dreary souls!"

"No." Rinasa curtly cut her off. "Satori is already working on filling our gap, so you'll have to be satisfied being an attendant." As she spoke the last words, she carefully lowered Latelia so she could safely stand up on her own again.

"Oh, pooh."

"And heroes aren't supposed to be in our district anyway, Venus." Hanako added.

"You still have that fatuous law in place?" After realizing Hijiri was inside the room as well keeping to himself, a flash of yellow appeared in her hand when he turned her way, however it dissipated as quickly as it came.

"Have no fear, I am of no threat to you now." Hijiri sneered. "I assume your side of the tracks gets ever more pleasant?"

"Oh, does it ever?" She tauntingly ran her hands through her golden hair and blew a kiss his way. "Getting better all the time."

"…if we weren't so loathe to see each other, I'd offer a friendly sparring session. It has been months since I've last tested myself and my captors haven't sought to use me beyond simple security such as this."

"My little sunspot, if we went at it, you would barely last three minutes. Don't take it personally though, darling! Rinasa's the first to make it past five, so it's a compliment!"

Hijiri reddened. "…what are you referring to?"

"Actually," Satori interrupted. "Latelia fills the gap we have perfectly. In fact, she'd more than make up the difference if both Sunako and me were taken out of the entrance.""

Shocked by his eagerness to accept her, Rinasa quickly peered over his shoulder. "But she just got back, we can't-"

"Fine by me!" Latelia sung while laying most of her head-weight on top of Hanako's head, adding on to the rage she had worked up earlier.

"No! Just stop harassing us!" Rinasa abruptly snapped. "We have work to do and you're getting in the way! If you don't have anything important to offer than being a nuisance to us, then just leave!"

"Tut tut, no need to get all hysterical now." Latelia cheekily beamed, then turned to Aki who'd kept out of the conversation for the most part by ensuring the ropes around the other two were still taut. "Hey, women huh?" He ignored her completely.

"Satori, get Sunako to the station and put her in Cell 3. Alone. Aki, go with Satori and return to the station. Stand guard there until we all return." Satori quickly nodded and with Sunako tied up close behind, exited the room.

Aki quietly stood the criminals up and, in a very gentle manner, checked over the leg Hanako had healed. Lifting up the pants, he saw hair wrapped tightly around the bulging mass of skin. "I presume it will form correctly in due time." He reassured the man. "Have no worries, you are in the care of the most esteemed nurse I've ever beheld. Just mind the bark, heheh. It's worse than her bite." He chuckled, then his face fell looking at said woman fuming in her chair. "Or was it the other way around?"

"Hanako," She barely acknowledged the pink-clad woman's call. "I'd like for you to hold the entrance with Satori from now on. If we have any major injuries then we'll call you, but we need that area secured at all times."

The woman peeked from behind her hair with a look of extreme contempt. "So now I have to cover her spot because she can't help but go through villains like they're video game assets."

"just do it, okay? It's a simple job for you, wouldn't you prefer this than sitting in here?"

"Not really. Especially now that that ignorant little pile of sludge has shown up out of nowhere, I'm not feeling up to doing anything now." The visible frustration on Rinasa had no effect on Hanako's attitude.

Hijiri poked his head out of the curtains to his corner office. "If I may-"

"If you may shut up? That'd be great!"

He pulled the curtain back and resumed typing on the computer inside.

Feeling the tension, Latelia feeling guilty tried to lighten their moods.

"Hanako, my sweet little lovebug,"

The woman in question almost wretched at the moniker.

"I don't quite know what happened here, but from the looks of it, our little gum-slinger managed to get quite a ruffle under all of your feathers, to the point Rin saw fit to cast her out. So wouldn't it make sense that someone need to take her spot? Knowing your feelings, I'd believe this would be a heavenly situation for you. Maybe get some of that unsightly anger off that otherwise splendid face?"

With her long hair obscuring most her body, she exhaled sharply without a word to the garishly dressed woman.

"Yo!" Satori peeped his head back in. "Who's watching the entrance until I get back? Hmm, perhaps we'll still need Coriette here anyway."

Hanako nearly jumped out of her chair. "Nuh-uh, I'm already on that. She's not coming anywhere near-" Seeing him struggle to hold back a smile, she groaned. "Oh, I haaaaate you!"

"Read like a book." He said. "Come on, let's go."

When they were both out of earshot, Rinasa pointed to the door with a scowl. "You too, Lia. Out."

Latelia grabbed Rinasa and covered her mouth with her own. Rinasa tried to separate them but found the more she attempted escape, the harder the grip became. Giving up, she finally leaned back into it, if somewhat half-heartedly.

"Mwah! There we go! Merciful heavens, is even a simple kiss too much to expect these days?" She fiddled with a ring on her finger. "When I accepted this from you, I assumed you understood the unspoken rules and commitments of such. Woe is our society's current youth."

"I'm older than you." Pushing her away, Rinasa wiped her mouth. "Lia, we're trying to straighten everything out right now, can you just entertain yourself?"

She flicked her hair in slight annoyance. "Typical. I had hoped that we'd catch up inside the stadium, Paris was just divine. Furthermore, your sibling is partaking in today's barbarisms, correct?"

"Yes…how did you-"

"Find out? Not from you, that much is certain. I gave you my number for a reason, you could spare a chance to call more than once a week. I'd so much to gush about too, the malls they had in Paris were simply magnifico! Mwah, so full of colour, life, smells, culture!" She danced as she reminisced about her visit. "Oh, and the cuisine? Oh, the cuisine!"

"Lia." Rinasa gripped both her arms. "Later. Let me deal with these two criminals first, then I'll…do something with you. Okay?"

"Mmm, fine. A frantic midnight tryst in the midst of an epic battle will suffice."

"Huh?"

"Nothing." She gleefully nuzzled her nose against the other woman, who's hair was for once, not the pinkest thing on her. "I love you!"

"Ugh...I love you too."

Runoso had been on the backfoot throughout his entire match. Daisuke's metal form absorbed every lightning bolt he could throw, and each discharge of electricity put Runoso at a disadvantage as he had to scrape together another shot of static electricity. As he furiously rubbed his shirt sleeves together, Daisuke took the chance to charge at him with his arms outstretched.

"Time to change strategies." Runoso ducked under the lariat and hooked his leg around the other boy's foot. Daisuke morphed his legs into water, leaving Runoso without a grip and stumbling backward. A chop to his back knocked him to the floor.

"Ahh!" Runoso quickly rubbed his suit across the ground to generate static electricity for himself. Within a second, he'd gained the energy he needed and facing his palms backwards, he used the lightning to propel himself away from Daisuke as fast as possible.

"OHHH MYYY! What a daring escape, but what has he gained? Is there any way this lightning leaper can break past his ironclad foe?!"

Up in the stands, Ranika stood on the edge of the bleachers biting her nails. "This is nuts. This is just balls to the wall fuckery. I knew the guy was strong, but daaaaaaaamn! He's making shocker sweat! And he hasn't gotten hit once either!"

With a smile, Suiiki leaned in his chair and put his feet on the seat in front of him. "Yeah, he's pretty good, alright. Probably doesn't even need his sand form for this one."

Hinote stood uncharacteristically still against the gate barrier, watching with extreme focus. "Morphing is hard to counter. Raw strength, electricity, speed, even sound seems inadequate. Even when Runoso grabbed him, the sand seemed to nullify any contact-based ability. Deceptively simple."

Runoso gathered up a large amount of lightning and coated his body in it. He clenched his teeth as it whirled around his body in an aura of crackling sparks. The ground around him became ridden with shock marks while he placed one hand on the ground in front of him, the other covering his face in anger.

"I'm done playing games! I'm going to wipe the floor with you!" He shot a huge torrent all across the stage. "I hope for your sake you can stay like that cause I can do this all day! Besides, even if you do…" He smirked arrogantly. "I know you can't move right now anyway."

Daisuke's eyes widened.

"That's right, thought I didn't notice? You can't move in that form like you can the others, I've seen you turn your feet back to normal. Cleverly hidden by your shoes, and I won't say it out loud for the others to hear, but it won't matter much regardless. You're finished."

The lightning ran up and down his metal body, just the current was enough to send vibrations through him. Daisuke tried to turn his arm into water but – after seeing parts of it start to boil – thought better of it and turned it back.

"So, what's it gonna be? Is the top pick of the class going down in round 1?"

Daisuke turned his legs into sand. The electricity heated it up so quickly that in only a few seconds, it had already melted into glass. The electricity stopped running up his body, leaving him free to move without risk. He lunged towards Runoso, who did nothing but nod in realization.

"Oh. Glass is not conductive. That was smart."

Daisuke's fist sent him just near the edge of the stage, but still inside the boundary.

"WOAH! Almost a ring-out, but it looks like he's still in this yet!"

"No, sir." He flopped his body across the line to make sure the point was understood.

"Can't blame you, kid." The principal quickly murmured. "And that's the end of our penultimate match-up of the first round! These two gave us a battle full of all the heart and fury we've come to expect from these kids! What has our final fight got in store for us! Will it sate our lust for carnage like our Water and Fire spectacle? Or will it rather be a mind game similar to the Student Council President's battle? Speaking of whom, welcome to the arena, the Student Council Vice President, Tsubame Nonoka!"

Daisuke and Tsubame exchanged a quick word at the entrance while she took his spot on the arena. Ikasaki covered the arena in moss and used his massive vines to wipe it away, erasing the scorch marks from the previous bout.

"Told ya Daisuke was invincible, although…that was kinda scary."

"That's Tsubame! Look, she's next! Oh my god, she's going to kick ass!" Upon seeing her significant other enter, Ranika was almost jumping up and down in excitement. She cupped her hands around her mouth and directed her voice at her girlfriend. "KNOCK 'ER DEAD, TSUBAME! WOOOOOOOOHH!"

The stadium went quiet while her scream continuously echoed off the walls. Awoken from his slumber, Genso snorted and hastily looked around for a moment. "Ah! Y-yes, a-hem. Go, Tsubame, Go…as they say."

The cheers resumed in tandem with his monotone chant, his low voice somehow covering most of the stadium enough to rile everyone back up from their previous shock.

Sheepishly, Ranika sat back down in her chair, pushing Suiiki's feet off of it. "Maybe that was a bit much."

"Thanks, Ranika. Totally not embarrassing." Tsubame mumbled, although even if she had said it aloud, the sounds of the crowd would have drowned it out regardless. "Okay, Leilani! Let's try to keep it a little more under control than the others! Not trying to create a crater like everyone else was, right?"

Her opponent's face scrunched, perplexed at the ask. "I'm sorry? You know what my quirk is?" Leilani tapped the ground with her foot and a tiny ripple moved across the ground towards Tsubame. Once it reached her, it popped up as a tiny little blip in the arena with a rock flying up to her eye level. "Very hard! Crater comes from blast! My quirk makes very big blasts!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAND BEGIN!"

Both of them bent towards the ground and placed their hands on it. Tsubame saw the ripple moving towards her, much bigger than the one she'd shown before. She shifted the ground beneath her and rode away from the area seconds before the ripple reached her and erupted into a geyser of grass and concrete.

"Shifting Impact, a contact-based quirk. No biggie, it's easy enough to watch for the ripples. Ripples?" She hastily flew backwards across the ground as three geysers erupted in her previous position at once.

"Okay, more than one at a time. That's…not good. I'm still on defense and as far as I know, she can create an endless amount of them, meaning…"

While the match continued, Suiiki leaned over and flicked Genso's glasses up, startling him out of his focus on the match. "Glad to see you're paying attention this time around."

"Haven't I implored you adequately to refrain from that action?" He took his glasses off and blew on them with a disgruntled look, which Suiiki paid little mind to.

"Does she always talk to herself this much?" Suiiki defensively pulled away from Ranika, staring at him intensely from his peripheral. "Not like it's bad or that type of thing! Just curious!"

She softened. "Erm, I think as much…maybe?" Now the both of them flung their gazes towards Genso instead. "Egghead, got any idea?"

"I'm not sure."

Their eyes nearly jumped out of their faces. "Not sure!? Since when do you say that? Aren't you brainiac supreme? How do you not know?"

"Haven't you two known each other like, fucking forever? You should know damn near everything about her!"

A loud boom from the ring snapped them from their conversation for just a second. Tsubame seemed to have taken the offensive, moving the ground towards Leilani and attempting to trap her in a hole. This trick worked but was made useless when Leilani simply blew up the surrounding concrete enveloping her.

Genso cleared his throat, drawing their attention back. "Technically, I have not known her forever as that is literally impossible, as is knowing everything about someone, since even people who think they know themselves-"

"We get it! I don't need an essay about unrelated garbage!" Ranika blurted.

"Typical egghead behavior. Top ten Genso moments." Suiiki joked. "So when has she done this whole battle talk thing?"

Taking the slight in stride, he pondered momentarily. "I have known Tsubame for many years, but it has been only on rare occasions I see her in a legitimate battle of some sort. Usually it was to defend me while I retreated from…o-or rather…I haven't seen her fight before so I wouldn't have any knowledge of her speaking habits during one."

His hesitation to elaborate wasn't picked up on and they quickly glossed over it to his relief. "Well, Suiiki and Hinote were talking to each other like lovebirds during their match, same with me and Watsuji. Maybe it's this festival, got everyone in a different mood."

Suiiki nodded rapidly. "That's true, that's true! I was having a lot of fun out there," He sighed. "Before I lost." Ranika managed to contain her laughter although the act of covering her mouth with her hands gave it away. He rolled his eyes and huffed. "Okay, yeah yeah! I lost! Not the best feeling to be laughed at about it either!"

"I'm not laughing…but…AHAHAHAHA!"

"Jerk."

"Oh, come on! You can't be that down in the dumps about it still! I mean, you even came back here with the girl who beat you all smiling and giggling and shit! So she definitely said something to get you back up and going, yeah? Or maybe did something, wink wink?" She nudged her elbow on Hinote's shoulder. Much like the previous match, she was still frozen up against the fence. "Uhhh, Hinote?"

A quick glance preceded her course reply. "I'm trying to focus on the match, Ranika."

"Whoa! Someone's getting all serious, better watch out!" She mockingly shrunk back into her seat making silly faces. When her act garnered no response from the girl, she sat back up, puzzled. "Wow, you are really into this. Is it that good? I just assumed Tsubame would win from the start."

Staring back at the stage, she noticed the ground was almost in ruins. To call it an arena would be generous; it more resembled a wartime battlefield. Concrete had been blown everywhere, holes littered the floor, and its once square shape had become less obvious and smaller.

"Wow, I missed a lot."

Down inside the arena, Tsubame was breathing heavily and holding her leg. A piece of her uniform had been blown off and her thigh was bleeding heavily. Still speaking to herself, she placed her hand on the ground while keeping her attention on Leilani, who did the same.

"She uses her explosion to make a smokescreen when I try to attack her, yet it seems she can still evade me relatively well even without vision. Is she watching me from some other angle perhaps? No! Her quirk must have a relay system of some sort too, telling her where I am as they travel." She used her quirk to generate a stalagmite towards Leilani. An explosion obscured her vision again, but suddenly Tsubame changed the course of her attack. She crashed the extrusion back into the ground and began drilling across the arena, occasionally spiking it into the air at random. "Breaking the ground apart before I could use it to trap her again was a smart move. She's modifying the structure of the arena to play into my weakness. So I just have to adapt to her conditions."

A sharp cry of pain was heard among the smoke. Having made contact, the rock wrapped tightly wrapped around Leilani's leg and lifted her high into the air.

"Let me down! Completely crazy!" Looking at her predicament, Leilani quickly changed her wording. "On second thought, no down!" She flailed her hands trying to reach the tall spike to no avail.

Blowing her dust-covered hair out of her vision, Tsubame relaxed. "Seems you understand your situation properly then. You forfeit?"

Leilani continued to beg and plead with her, seemingly not hearing her question. Facepalming, she slowly lowered her back towards the ground, still keeping her a little more than 5 feet away from solid land. "Hello there! I was asking do you-"

A ripple slid down the coiled rock she was caught by and straight to Tsubame's location. Off her guard, the explosion knocked her on her back. Another ripple ran underneath her but she was too stunned to even react. The explosion blew her even further backwards, bouncing limply like a pebble in the water.

"Tsubame!" Ranika shouted out, face against the gate.

"No way, she's finished!"

"A stellar fake-out from Leilani blows Tsubame clear out of the stage, away from her perfect victory! What a clever tactic from this laudable student!"

Tsubame's left hand barely grazed a tiny mound of concrete inside the arena, touching it just long enough for her quirk to activate. "I…don't know where she is…but I know where I am…but what can I do? Unless!"

The ring completely disintegrated. Millions of concrete pieces exploded and then rejoined again in milliseconds. They all zoomed around and combined once more underneath Tsubame's falling form, the entirety of the venue being rebuilt faster than a blink could occur. Within a moment, Tsubame had gone from a certain ring-out to landing squarely inside the middle of the stage, while Leilani found herself with a sore bottom on the grass.

Suiiki stood up from his seat, smiling emptily. He wiped his eyes and observed the scene again. He rubbed them even more vigorously with his shirt and then, once he confirmed he was not going insane, sat back down in his seat calmly. With a slow nod, he uttered one sentence.

"The plot armor is crazy."