Disclaimer: I do not own My Hero Academia/Boku No Hero Academia, Overlord, or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.
The Sorcerer Hero: Deku
Chapter nine: Work and prep after the attack
The school day following the attack on the USJ, Ainz and his peers in Class 1-A were surprised to find that a number of students from other classes were gathered outside of their classroom, all of them wanting to see the class that fought off a real villain attack while barely having more than a week's worth of education at U.A. under their belts. It would appear getting to do combat against real live villains garnered some degree of fame for Class 1-A.
"You glory hounds don't look so tough," said one blonde haired boy, "I bet you got out of there mostly by luck, or the teachers did most of the work!"
"The hell is your problem you stuck up asshole?!" Bakugo snarled at the blonde boy. Ainz felt that Bakugo may be going a bit far, but the opposing blonde boy was giving off a jealous, petty air. Ainz was going to look into this boy later, see what his problem was.
A boy with purple hair standing up, also he had a tired look that reminded Ainz of Aizawa, stepped up. "You guys got famous due to surviving a real villain attack," the purple haired boy said, "And the U.A. Sports Festival is coming up. If any of you compete, the other students will be gunning for you, so consider this a declaration of war from those other students."
"U.A. Sports Festival, you say?" Ainz spoke up, stepping forward.
The purple haired boy gave Ainz a curious look. "...You seriously don't know."
"Hey, Deku here probably didn't watch past U.A. Sports Festivals that were broadcast on TV," Bakugo said, "He was obviously busy being too much of a nerd to watch."
Ainz, due to inheriting Izuku's memories, did have some vague idea about the U.A. Sports Festival, but he needed more details. "I was caught up in studies," Ainz said, "So my knowledge on the U.A. Sports Festival is limited."
Giving Ainz a wry look, the purple haired boy said, "It's a Sports Festival that U.A. hosts once a year to show off what its students can do. In addition to being a big televised event that draws in a lot of viewers and income, it also advertises the students competing in it to pro heroes who may have an interest in taking on a competing student as an intern. It's also a chance for students not in the hero course to work their way into the hero course, but the reverse is also true. A hero course student who does poorly can be booted from the hero course."
Ainz was very intrigued by what all the purple haired boy was telling him. This U.A. Sports Festival is a golden opportunity for Ainz to raise the glory and renown attached to the name of Izuku Midoriya. And getting pro hero attention could help put the Sorcerer King in perfect range of pro heroes with quirks he'd like to get copies of via Duplicate Quirk. He already had a few pro heroes in mind who he wants to get copies of their quirks of.
Ainz decided that he would compete in this U.A. Sports Festival; in addition to being a useful tool to help him with his goals in the second New World, the U.A. Sports Festival appealed to Ainz as it had the hallmarks of regular school sporting events from his original world. Ainz never got to compete in those events as he only got limited schooling, so he was looking forward to getting to compete in the U.A. Sports Festival for its own merits.
The next few weeks before the U.A. Sports Festival were going to be fun for Ainz Ooal Gown.
Ainz couldn't train to get stronger due to already being at max level, but he did carefully review all of his spells, spell buffs, and various buffing spells to see which ones would be of use to him. He also got in some practice with his spells to figure out which combinations are good for his purposes. Ainz was intending to make Izuku Midoriya a name any pro hero worth their salt would clamor to offer an internship at their hero agency.
Ainz didn't just practice with his spells during the weeks leading up to the U.A. Sports Festival. He also did some recon on the other students expecting to compete. First was Class 1-B, the other class of first year hero course students, and the rival class to Class 1-A. The blonde boy who was giving off a petty air, a boy named Neito Monoma, is a member of Class 1-B. His quirk, Copy, lets him temporarily copy another person's quirk on contact; the copy lasts about five minutes.
Although Ainz wasn't all that fond of Monoma as a person, he will admit that the potential of that Copy quirk is intriguing. The Sorcerer King made a separate notebook to detail the quirks of Monoma and all of the Class 1-B students, in case any of them warranted further research and study later. Ainz also used the Class 1-B notebook to jot down notes on other U.A. students whose quirks caught his attention.
For example, the purple haired boy with tired looking eyes. Ainz got it the boy's name is Hitoshi Shinso, and his quirk, Brainwashing, let him brainwash persons who respond to him verbally. Ainz hadn't yet tested if the immunity the undead have to being mind controlled works in the second New World, and until he does Ainz didn't want to take any chances with Shinso, especially given the one incident in the first New World with Shalltear.
Regardless, Shinso's quirk appealed to Ainz, so he made a note of it. Ainz also took time to set up various defenses for his interests in the second New World. In addition to U.A., Ainz also set up a few protections for the Shie Hassaikai, the Midoriya apartment, and his various businesses. Speaking of, some of Ainz's classmates in Class 1-A have taken vested interests in some of the businesses that Ainz had set up.
The music store across the street from U.A. drew in some of the classmates in general as well as a few Class 1-B students, but Kyoka Jiro in Class 1-A was the most interested. As for one of the places to eat at, Ainz's classmate Momo Yaoyorozu went there a lot, especially when Ainz began to stock that place with food items from the Nazarick Commissary, particularly the high calorie shake that's favored by one of the battle maids.
The frequency that Ainz's peers in Class 1-A, as well as Class 1-B students and a few others, went to those stores helped to raise Izuku's popularity when it was found out the person who owns all of those businesses, Mr. Suzuki, is the man sponsoring Izuku. Ainz, getting an idea, said that he was asked by Mr. Suzuki to let his classmates know that any U.A. student who competes in the U.A. Sports Festival and can prove it will get a one time discount at one store under his ownership. The discounts will be offered starting the day after the U.A. Sports Festival.
This got Class 1-A, as well as Class 1-B and other U.A. students when word spread, excited and more interested to compete. Momo especially as she really likes the high calorie shakes offered at the one eatery as they help with her quirk, although she often doesn't get more than one a day as they're offered in limited numbers a day, usually only five a day. Hearing that Momo likes the high calorie shakes because they help with her quirk piqued Ainz's interest, he made a mental note to learn more about Momo's quirk later.
Ainz, by spreading word about the discounts offered at the Mr. Suzuki businesses to U.A. students who compete in the U.A. Sports Festival, not only garnered more interest from students in those stores thus more revenue, but it also helped to raise Izuku's fame. It also meant that there'd be more students for Ainz to compete against in the U.A. Sports Festival, more for him to win against as he makes his way to the first place podium.
The Sorcerer King never did anything without a reason.
Within short order, the day of the U.A. Sports Festival arrived. Ainz saw that literally every hero course student, regardless of class or year, had entered. Various students from outside of the hero course had also entered. Ainz suspected that most entered just for the promised discount at any one Mr. Suzuki business. That's fine, the more opposition Ainz had to compete against the better, as winning against more will better spread the name of Izuku Midoriya.
All competing students had to wear U.A. P.E. uniforms and weren't allowed to bring any items except in certain circumstances. Ainz noted that a support course girl named Mei Hatsume was permitted some support gear she herself made. As for Ainz, he wasn't allowed to bring his staff as it's a clear weapon, even though he never struck anyone with it and he used it mainly as a focus for his spell casting. Oh well, he can still spell cast without it.
The first event was some manner of obstacle course to reach the arena where the actual festival will be held. The students were allowed to go as soon as they got the signal. Ainz simply used magic to fly to avoid everything, although when he spotted villain robots in the distance, he took a few out with Fireballs and one with Dragon Lightning. After that Ainz came across a deep pit with ropes spanning across it, the objective being to get over the pit with out falling in.
Any method that would allow a student to get over the pit without falling in was allowed, so Ainz simply flew over it. He wasn't the only student who was able to simply go over the pit entirely, so he wasn't all that stand out in choice of method. But Ainz did have a notable lead, enough so that after getting over the pit, he landed and ran the rest of the way into the arena, being the first among the competing first year students to reach the arena.
"Incredible, folks!" Hizashi who was doing announcements called out over the intercom of the arena, "The kid with the seemingly magical quirk is the first of the first years to reach the arena! Let's hear a cheer for Izuku Midoriya!" The crowds all cheered, chanting Izuku's name. This pleased Ainz as, in addition to helping build up fame and renown, it was giving greater glory to the boy that the Sorcerer King owed a great deal towards.
...
Enough students had to be allowed to come in before the cutoff was put in. Ainz noted that most of his peers in Class 1-A made it, along with a few Class 1-B students and various students from outside of the hero course. One non-hero course student who got in was Hitoshi Shinso, whose Brainwashing quirk Ainz in the weeks leading up to the U.A. Sports Festival had been able to confirm has no effect on him or other undead, telling Ainz that the immunity to mind control that undead have is still in effect in the second New World.
Ainz was still interested in Shinso's quirk though, as well as Shinso himself. Ainz got it that Shinso had faced discrimination due to his quirk, as a power like Brainwashing is usually the exclusive hat of villainous persons. Shinso wanted to be a hero so he could prove that his power in and of itself isn't villainous, but failed to make it into the hero course initially as his quirk doesn't work on robots like what's used in the practicals of the entrance exam.
This intrigued Ainz, as Shinso has power unlike what Izuku had, but was still discriminated against as he was stereotyped as nothing more than a villain in the making due to what exactly his quirk is. Ainz was considering doing something to help Shinso, if only to get him onto Izuku's side to help raise Izuku's name. Ainz also got vibes that Shinso would get along well with Aizawa. Perhaps if Mineta didn't clean his act up enough and or in time, Ainz may seek to arrange for Mineta to get the boot from Class 1-A in favor of Shinso.
But Ainz still wanted to give Mineta a chance, like how Bakugo was being given a chance since the explosive teen WAS showing signs of improvement. Ainz still wanted to help Shinso though, so he made a mental note to bring him up to the teachers as someone he felt ought to be considered for transferring to the hero course. The fact Shinso made it past the first part of the festival despite not having any hero course training is a sign he ought to be considered.
The second part of the festival was some manner of Calvary Battle, where students team up in groups of four to compete. Three students formed a 'horse team' to support one student who's a 'rider'. The rider also wore all headbands that their team earned based on how well they did in the obstacle course event. For example, Ainz due to getting first got a ten million point headband; on its own it was worth exceedingly more than all other headbands combined.
Ainz ended up getting a team of Ochaco, Tokoyami, and that Hatsume girl as his horses while he was the rider. Ainz tried to recruit Tenya but he declined, saying he wanted to test himself against a student as accomplished as Midoriya. Ainz, amused that Tenya held Izuku in such high regard that he wanted to test himself against Izuku, allowed this. Ainz also tried recruiting Shinso, but the boy with a curious look on his face declined.
Ainz could tell that the look on Shinso's face stemmed from his Brainwashing quirk not working on Ainz for a reason only Ainz himself knew. Eventually, the teams for the Calvary Battle were all formed, and the competition began. The goal here was to steal headbands from other teams to raise their own score, and the teams with the most points when time was called would be able to move onto the next round.
Ainz, as he and his team had the ten million point headband, was guaranteed to all pass to the next round if they held onto it. So they focused on evasion, with Ainz subtly casting spells to ensure that not only would his team be evasive but that his team's headbands can't be touched. Any attempt to reach for the headbands Ainz had either fell short or missed, with those who tried led to believe they were just unlucky.
The other teams tried for one another, and over time those other teams lost or gained headbands. Even teams with no headbands were allowed to continue, as they weren't eliminated until time was called. But when time was called, it was clear that Ainz's team all passed. Teams with some choice students (in Ainz's opinion) had also passed, including Todoroki, Bakugo, Yaoyorozu, and Shinso.
A few students dropped out due to not remembering how they got there, so other students were able to take their place. Ainz attributed that to Shinso's Brainwashing, as the ones who dropped out were on the team Shinso led. A brief intermission was granted to give the arena time to prep for the next event. In that time, students who didn't make it to the next event were given a chance to show off anyway in a few minor exercises.
But Ainz's place in the next event was secured. There was no way the Sorcerer King was going to fail.
To Ainz's surprise, the next event was a fighting tournament where the sixteen students who made it past the first two events would fight one another in a one on one style fights. Nemuri Kayama, a female pro hero known as Midnight, would serve as a referee. Also Kayama-sensei was a teacher at U.A., although Ainz bet that if any of the female guardians or the battle maids saw how Kayama acted around Ainz here in the second New World, they'd kill her on sight.
Ainz made a mental note to keep Shalltear and ESPECIALLY Albedo very far away from Kayama.
The sixteen students who made it were Ainz, Todoroki, Sero, Kaminari, Tenya, Ashido, Aoyama, Tokoyami, Yaoyorozu, Kirishima, Bakugo, and Ochaco from Class 1-A, Shiozaki and Tetsutetsu from Class 1-B, and Shinso and Hatsume from non-hero course classes. Due to lottery, the round one match ups for the fighting tournament were Ainz versus Shinso, Todoroki versus Sero, Shiozaki versus Kaminari, Tenya versus Hatsume, Ashido versus Aoyama, Tokoyami versus Yaoyorozu, Kirishima versus Tetsutetsu, and Bakugo versus Ochaco.
When the tournament's first round began and Kayama gave the students the go to proceed, a mildly unsure Shinso asked Ainz, "Can I ask you something, Midoriya?"
"Hmm?" Ainz hummed as he began walking right up to Shinso in a straight line, "What is it?" Ainz could tell that Shinso tried casting his Brainwashing quirk again, but Ainz's immunity to mind control due to him being undead protected him. Shinso, his eyes widening out of alarm when he could tell his Brainwashing failed yet again, decided to change tactics and run up to the Sorcerer King. He threw a slugging punch right into Ainz's left eye.
...Which did absolutely nothing to Ainz as he raised a fist back to punch Shinso back. Given the level difference, Ainz held back considerably despite not being a melee slash frontline fighter build. Additionally, the act of punching Shinso allowed Ainz to cast a harmless enough spell to knock out the brainwasher boy. After Shinso hit the ground, Kayama cracked her whip.
"Izuku Midoriya wins and advances to the second round of the tournament!" Kayama declared, drawing cheers from the audience. Ainz allowed himself a moment to bask in the glory of winning in the tournament. It reminded him of when he went to the Baharuth Empire and defeated the Martial Lord in a fight, which somehow led to Baharuth pledging itself to the Sorcerer Kingdom as a vassal state. Ainz wasn't sure how that happened.
He also still wasn't sure what the hell a vassal state is.
...
The rest of the round one matches flew by. Todoroki beat Sero with sheer power but only used the ice half of his ice and fire quirk. Shiozaki beat Kaminari as her plant hair helped fend off Kaminari's electricity. Hatsume actually yielded to Tenya after basically using him to advertise her support gear she invented. Ashido beat Aoyama by compromising his belt which helped him then knocking him out. Tokoyami defeated Yaoyorozu by pushing her out of bounds.
Kirishima and Tetsutetsu actually tied so they had an arm wrestling match as a tie breaker which Kirishima won. And finally Bakugo defeated Ochaco but it was a very close match that Ainz was able to tell made Bakugo realize he came close and managed to win partly by luck. This left the round two matches as Ainz versus Todoroki, Shiozaki versus Tenya, Ashido versus Tokoyami, and lastly Kirishima versus Bakugo.
Ainz was intrigued by the outcomes of the other round one matches, particularly the Bakugo versus Ochaco fight. Ainz expected Bakugo to win and he did, but Ochaco's creativity and sheer drive had pushed the explosive teen to the edge. Ainz felt all the more sure that a person with potential like what Ochaco had shown will be a good friend to Izuku, thus an invaluable tool to help Ainz with his plans for the second New World.
Ainz was a bit annoyed with the reaction of the audience, who obviously didn't like how a boy like Bakugo was beating down on Ochaco who is a girl and much weaker. That being said, Aizawa going off on those naysayers over the intercom system, saying that their words are disrespectful to both Bakugo and Ochaco, made Ainz mentally assign Aizawa another point in his favor. The Sorcerer King was starting to like Aizawa as a person, although he still had a rough edge here and there.
Ainz was going to be encountering another person with rough edges soon enough, though.
As Ainz was making his way up to a stairwell, thinking about how he'd defeat Todoroki in the second round, he stopped short when a tall and imposing man covered in flames stepped out from the stairwell and turned. The man stopped short upon seeing Ainz, but relaxed upon recognizing him. "Ah, you're the boy who's going to face Shoto in round two of the tournament," said the man, "Good, I wanna have a word with you."
The Sorcerer King was able to identify the man before him as Enji Todoroki, the father of the boy that Ainz was going to face in round two. Ainz got it that Enji is a pro hero known by Endeavor, and for ages he's been the number two pro hero in Japan, always coming short of dethroning All Might from the number one spot. Enji has a powerful fire quirk called Hellflame, and Ainz wouldn't mind getting a copy via Duplicate Quirk.
In fact, before Enji could say what he wanted, Ainz cast Stop Time, used Harvest Quirk on Enji, got the Quirk Jewel containing Hellflame, duplicated it via Duplicate Quirk while sacrificing Decay, gave one of the Hellflame Quirk Jewels to Enji (there's literally no telling the two apart, they're perfectly the same as each other regardless of the quality of Quirk Jewel sacrificed for duplication), kept the extra Hellflame Quirk Jewel, then dropped the Time Stop.
There wasn't even any shift in the flames Enji had coating him due to what Ainz did, so there was no way the Flame Hero suspected what Ainz did. "When you face Shoto in round two, get him to use his fire," Enji said, "He's been using only his ice in some crazy bid to rebel against me. His little rebel phase has to end, especially if he's to grow to surpass All Might."
"Surpass All Might you say," Ainz remarked, curious as to where that came from. Ainz knew about Todoroki's fire, he found out via Detect Quirk that Todoroki's quirk, Half-Hot Half-Cold, lets him use both ice AND fire. And Ainz knows that Enji has a point, Todoroki has only ever been seen using ice. If that continued during the fight Ainz was going to have, he would have nothing to fear as he's got a very high resistance to ice attacks due to his undead nature.
Fire was far more effective, something undead like Ainz was actually vulnerable to. Granted, the sheer difference in level between Ainz and Todoroki still meant it'd do nothing to Ainz, but he was curious as to why Todoroki wasn't using his fire. Enji claims it's rebellion against him, but if that's true then what brought on the rebellion? This was something that Ainz was going to want to bring up to Todoroki as soon as he had the freedom to.
For now, there was only the tournament.
Ainz and his male peers in Class 1-A were surprised to see the girls in their class all wearing cheerleader outfits. They were orange and green, with the tops going down and reaching the waists, and the skirts long enough to ensure there's very little (if any at all) chance that any fanny would be seen. Standing off to the side was an amused Mineta with a hint of smugness to his expression and an embarrassed and mildly apologetic Kaminari.
Gesturing to the Class 1-A girls, Ainz said in a dry tone to Mineta and Kaminari, "I believe you boys owe the rest of us an explanation."
"We figured having a cheerleader squad to cheer for those still in the tournament would be good for morale," Mineta said, "Although Kaminari called for the uniforms to be altered to their current forms when he pointed out the girls may not be entirely willing to use the originals. I agreed as either way we get cute cheerleader girls."
Looking at the cheerleader outfits the girls were wearing, Ainz wasn't entirely sure he wanted to see how the original forms of the cheerleader outfits looked. Either way, Mineta showed his perversion again, but at the same time he reeled it in at the advise of another and was willing to compromise. It told Ainz that Mineta still needed to improve himself, but the fact that he showed compromise told him that Mineta did indeed have the potential to become better.
Ainz then regarded Kaminari. Like Mineta, Kaminari had lewd interests. But he's far more capable of keeping a lid on it when need be, he knows where and when to draw the line. In a way, Kaminari was reminding Ainz of his old Nazarick guild mate Peroronchino. Speaking to Kaminari and Mineta, Ainz said dryly, "Just remember that Ashido there is still in the tournament, so let her be excused from what all cheerleading duties she has when her fight comes up."
"Lemme at Tokoyami I'll eff him up real good!" Mina declared.
"Well what about you, Midoriya?" Ochaco asked, "You're about to go up against Todoroki. He's got to be at least as strong as Bakugo."
Ainz, due to checking when he cast Detect Quirk (he had Time Stop active while scouting info like that), knew that, going into the U.A. Sports Festival, Todoroki and Bakugo were both at level eighteen, tying for second highest level among the Class 1-A students. Ainz himself at level one-hundred was easily the strongest. But still, the growth they did while training for the U.A. Sports Festival must have been effective.
Regardless, Ainz was simply far to strong to lose a straight up fight to Todoroki. "I'm certain that I'll be fine, Uraraka-san," Ainz replied, "The cold never bothered me anyway." Ainz's peers in Class 1-A were all amazed that Ainz was so non-pulsed about having to fight Todoroki, one of their strongest classmates and one with a serious pedigree. They were so surprised that they didn't stop him from taking his leave.
Mina and Jiro did say something about how Bakugo once said that Izuku had once outdid All Might five times over in one go. The others were all curious about that, especially as it was BAKUGO who had said Izuku outdid All Might. They decided to seek Bakugo out for answers, hoping that they'd be able to get an explanation out of him that would help to explain why Ainz was so confident about his odds against Todoroki.
...
"Half-n-half is going down, Round Face," Bakugo said to Ochaco when she led the others in asking him about Ainz's confidence, "Mark my words. Deku is going to make him eat dirt."
"You said something about Midoriya having once outdid All Might five times over in one go," Jiro said, "Can you elaborate?"
Scowling a bit, Bakugo said, "As you ought to know Earplugs, given I had mentioned this to you and some of the others before, Deku and I both went to the same junior high school together. I had always thought that he was a quirkless loser as he never showed any sort of power." A hint of mild trouble entered Bakugo's eyes. "...Until one day..."
"What happened?" Yaoyorozu asked.
Looking to the others, Bakugo said, "Believe it or not, but one day at me and Deku's junior high school, six of these big ass black skeleton warrior monsters invaded the school grounds. Me, Deku, and our classmates even saw one kill a teacher by chopping them in half from head to toe." The girls as well as Kaminari and Mineta all looked horrified. "Deku then opened one of the windows in our classroom and jumped out of it," Bakugo said, "And we were on the top floor."
"Midoriya jumped out a window?!" Hagakure exclaimed.
Nodding once, Bakugo said, "Yeah, but his fall stopped halfway to the ground, then he flew over to where those monsters were at and killed one with a sphere of fire." Bakugo then went on to describe how Ainz killed four more Death Knights (Bakugo and the others had no idea that they were called Death Knights), before All Might showed up and killed the last one.
"I'd be willing to bet good money that Deku would have killed the last one if All Might didn't show up and steal the chance from him," Bakugo went on, "So yeah. If Deku can no problem kill five of a monster that only All Might can kill only one of, then Half-n-half is fucked." The girls as well as both Mineta and Kaminari were surprised that their green haired classmate was so strong.
They just didn't know HOW strong, nor did they know who he REALLY was.
END, CHAPTER NINE
Author's notes;
This chapter covers the beginning of the U.A. Sports Festival shenanigans, with a fair chunk of stuff skimmed over because ultimately nothing at this point changes outcomes from canon, aside from Izuku having an easier time due to really being Ainz, and the cheerleader outfits the Class 1-A girls all wear being more modest. But outcomes will start to alter soon.
Ainz also takes interest in certain other persons for various reasons, as well as set up security measures for his interests and assets in the second New World. He also manages to get an extra Hellflame Quirk Jewel due to a chance encounter with Endeavor, as that will be coming up later in the story. For now, the next round of the tournament in the U.A. Sports Festival for Ainz's year at U.A. is about to get underway.
How will the Sorcerer King do against someone a shade shy of being one-fifth his level? Stay tuned to see how it goes.