Hello, everyone. So. I haven't been updating my fics on here because of reasons (they're lame reasons, don't worry about it) for the past six months, but I'm going to try and catch up with everything. I won't be able to do it all at once, but I'll be doing my best. To see all the chapters I've added to multichapter fics, just keep going until you don't see this message at the top of the chapter anymore. Sorry about this!
.
Izuku could try to get the star back, but even without his quirk, Mr. Yamada was good at close combat. He had to be, to break up the Bandomeer trafficking ring without any harm to the victims, who were being used as hostages!
"Come on, listener, the middle of a battle is no place for woolgathering!"
Izuku felt himself blush. He hadn't been woolgathering, he'd been assessing the situation.
.
"You've got to learn to do that on the move, I'm afraid, Ninth," said Nana.
"He was doing just fine with that until he saw who it was attacking him this time," said Banjo. "Is it because he's a teacher?"
"I'm afraid it's because Izuku is a nerd," said Yoichi, with mock grimness.
"I bet you're just saying that because you've never had a teacher."
"No, no," said En, "he's got a point with this one."
.
Izuku took a deep breath, then yelled as loud as he could. "HEY, EVERYONE, THERE'S A STAR OVER HERE, PRESENT MIC'S GOT A STAR, EVERYONE COME AND GET IT!"
"Oh, man, listener, that's just cruel."
.
"You can't tell me that isn't at least a little devious," said Third.
"I don't want to hear that from a guy who lied to everyone about my entire life."
.
"An interesting strategy there."
"And a valid one. Students who already have a star, or who are already engaged in a battle for one, won't risk a fight with a teacher, unlike those who don't. Wonder can tell who has a star by seeing who is moving within earshot."
"Indeed he can. But let's not miss out on the rest of the battles taking place. Froppy and Earphone Jack are having quite the showdown with Jack Mantis and Dragon Shroud–"
Izuku scanned his surroundings as he jogged away. There were knots of battle, mainly class B fighting either each other or Izuku's classmates, or hero students keeping packs of gen ed and support kids at bay, with varying levels of success.
But there was the strange silver Kirishima, all by himself, and with a star in his hand. Izuku was pretty sure he could take him. Or at least steal the star from him. They were almost halfway through the event, and at least Hatsume and Izuku still needed stars.
The explosions Izuku had been hearing in the distance abruptly grew closer, and Izuku didn't even need Danger Sense to know he had to dodge.
"DEKUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!"
The explosions cut off as Kacchan pulled back his right fist and barred his teeth in a kind of snarl.
.
"Now that's what I'd call telegraphing," said Banjo.
"Hm," said En. "If he's really as smart as Ninth thinks, it might not be telegraphing."
"Even smart people make stupid mistakes," said Yoichi. "We wouldn't be here if they didn't."
"I object to your characterization of your brother," said Hikage.
.
Right hook, as always– Or was it? He'd been getting the same lessons as Izuku. At this point, shouldn't he know not to–
Danger Sense decided for Izuku, the spike of real pain driving him to dodge the blow. His next move was just as automatic, but driven by practice. He grabbed Kacchan's arm and used it to flip Kacchan over his head. It worked, sort of, but Kacchan reacted fast enough to negate the flip with a blast of his quirk, and transformed the motion into a straight-down punch at the top of the arc. Izuku ducked out of the way and rolled.
He bounced back up, tapping Float just a little, to put a little extra spring in his step. If Kacchan still didn't know Izuku could Float, then he could use that to surprise him, if Kacchan got close again.
He still needed a star.
He licked his lips and looked over his shoulder. Kacchan was just running, now, not using explosion to propel him. As Izuku had half expected, he was reaching Explosion's short-term limit.
Then, he skidded to a stop, the ground in front of him abruptly more threatening than Kacchan behind him. Was it one of the traps?
No. No, it wasn't, but what it was wasn't much better. Class B's first recommendation student, Honenuki, who had made the area into a kind of swamp. It seemed to be defensive in nature rather than offensive, but that didn't make it less of an impediment.
He turned around.
"No one's around to save you, Deku." Kacchan stepped forward menacingly. "Whatever dirty tricks you used to get here, it's over."
Izuku swallowed and sidled sideways, trying to get into a better position.
"You ignoring me?"
.
"He's not ignoring you," said Yoichi, clearly tense but trying not to show it.
"Yeah!" said En. "It's just that he doesn't think that what you're saying is all that important."
.
"No, I just don't think that what you're saying is very important," said Izuku, before feeling all the blood drain out of his face.
Where had that come from?
.
"OOOOHHHHHHHHH!" said the ghosts.
"Did you hear that?" said Yoichi, clutching En.
"Did you hear that?" asked Nana, not speaking to the others, but Izuku. "Did you hear us?"
.
Well, wherever it had come from, it certainly had the effect of making Kacchan madder than mad, which was, well, it was kind of the point.
"YOUUUUU!" screamed Kacchan. "DON'T YOU MOCK ME, DEKUUUUUUUUUU!"
"I'M NOT MOCKING YOU, I WANT TO BEAT YOU!" Izuku screamed back, which was really the wrong thing to say, but what was he going to do? What was he going to say?
Kacchan came at him again. Right hook? Izuku could flip him over into Honenuki's swamp– No. This one was a feint, and without Danger Sense, he never would have seen it coming. There was– Kacchan was just really great at this kind of thing. He had fighting instinct that Izuku couldn't match.
.
"That's because you didn't spend all of middle school getting into fights," said Yoichi.
"I think he did, though," said En. "Just… all with this kid."
"Getting beaten up by this kid is what it sounds like," said Banjo.
"Okay, okay, whatever, help me think up a cool thing for Izuku to say to this jerk. He might hear us again!"
.
Izuku danced along the edge of Honenuki's swamp, barely staying out of reach of Kacchan's blasts. It was a matter of centimeters, in some cases, and the familiar scent of singed hair and clothing was getting pretty strong.
And then, when he was considering floating away, even if he couldn't use Kacchan's surprise effectively in this situation, he tripped backwards over a bush. On the plus side, Kacchan hadn't been expecting the bush, either, and when Izuku rolled away, he spotted the tell-tale flare of Aoyama and Hagakure seriously messing someone up. He bounced to his feet and ran towards them.
And then, the ground opened up.
"AND THE HALFWAY MARK ON THE CLOCK KICKS OFF OUR ROBO INFERNO!" said Ms. Kayama, to raucous cheering.
.
"Wow, modern people sure like their blood sports," said Yoichi.
"I remember super snuff ball was popular in the underground," said Third. "This is really nothing to write home about."
"Yeah, but that was in the underground."
Nana sighed. "I hesitate to ask, but… super snuff ball? Are you guys making things up?"
"When have I ever lied to you guys?" asked Yoichi.
"I would have said never, but then there's the whole thing with Ninth's… father. And Third is just downright untrustworthy at this point."
"Hey!"
"I think you have to take the L on this one, actually," said En.
Yoichi sighed. "You have a point there, but Hikage will back me up. Won't you, Hikage?"
"Super snuff ball was the bane of all building inspectors in Japan. Those poor basement supports…"
.
Izuku caught the yellow gleam of a star affixed to the head of one of the larger robots, and a grin - incredulous and wobbly, but still a grin - spread over his face. All that time he'd spent obsessing over what he could have done differently in the entrance exam had been worthwhile after all!
He could do this!
.
"Okay, I'm still– I don't understand how the whole thing was supposed to work."
"It wasn't," said Yoichi. "It was just a bunch of people even more delusional than my brother acting out their death game fantasies while society broke down around them."
"And destroying load-bearing walls," said Hikage.
"That, too."
.
The first thing Izuku did was jump down into the hole the robots had been hiding in. Being down there was such a disadvantage in terms of maneuverability and elevation that Kacchan would be taken aback by the choice.
"DO YOU THINK YOU CAN BE A HERO WHILE HIDING LIKE A MOUSE, YOU FREAK?"
Or not. Kacchan really had dropped down right after Izuku.
Izuku dodged away, between the legs and treads of the emerging robot horde.
.
"So, it wasn't actually called super snuff ball by the people doing it?"
"You can't even get a bunch of normal people to agree on terminology, you think a bunch of bloodthirsty murderers is going to be any better?"
.
A glance up at sounds of battle and falling metal debris showed a group of 1-B students - almost the same group as the one that had been knocked out of the air, earlier - attacking one of the star-wearing robots.
"As we go on, we're starting to see more alliances between students!"
"Hm."
As Izuku watched for larger falling scrap, he saw Hatsume swoop down and pluck the star from the other student's grasp with an extendable claw.
Well, good. That was one less thing to worry about, going forward.
The boy with the comic speech bubble head made a loud noise, and his head turned into an enormous censor bar that unbalanced and broke not only the platform he and his classmates were standing on, but several nearby robots as well.
As the robots tumbled into one another, they knocked loose metal paneling that rained down on Izuku and Kacchan. Of course, the robots Kacchan didn't blast away restabilized themselves quickly and went back to shooting lasers and grabbing hapless students to carry them out of the stage.
.
"That's it! No more questions about super snuff ball! Learn to enjoy the crazy blood sports you have in the here and now!"
.
Izuku grabbed a broad, shield-like piece of scrap and twisted, catching Kacchan's explosion with the metal. He let it lift him, using just enough of Float to get him up above the robots' heads before dropping again.
"WHAT THE HELL!" shouted Kacchan from below. "WHAT THE HELL?"
Kacchan had amazing lung capacity.
Meanwhile, Izuku skidded across a robot's shoulder then jumped to another that was moving to the side of the hole. He rode along with it for a bit, avoiding its cameras until it started to take aim at Shinsou and Kaminari, at which point Izuku distracted it and slammed his piece of scrap metal into a vital joint and–
Shinsou and Kaminari!
Izuku hopped off the disoriented robot onto grassy ground and ran to meet them. He had to fight a couple more robots to get to them, but Kaminari was zapping any robots that got too close to him or Shinsou.
As Izuku got closer, Shinsou faltered, doubling over to rest his hands on his knees. "That guy," he said, between sharp breaths, "just keeps going."
"So did you, if you got this far."
"Should we jump in?" asked Kaminari, gesturing vaguely towards the scrum of robots with the star he was holding In his left hand.
"No, let Kacchan take care of it."
Shinsou raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure he's gonna be–?"
A larger than usual explosion cut him off, and Kacchan marched out of the flaming remnants. "Again?" he snarled, sounding distinctly out of breath. "When will you extras get a clue and realize this Deku's just gonna drag you down?"
Shinsou sneered. "Why don't you get a clue and mind your own business, Kacchan?"
"You f–"
Kacchan's face went disturbingly blank and slack.
"Give me your star and walk out of this arena," ordered Shinsou.
Kacchan, moving like a sleepwalker, did just that. Izuku watched in amazement. "Is he really going to just… do that?"
"Probably not," admitted Shinsou, wiping sweat from his face. "Maybe- Maybe if we were closer to the edge, but he'll probably snap out of it before then."
"Hey, do you need any help finding a star?" asked Kaminari. "There's not much time."
Izuku shook his head, already floating up. "I'll get one from the robots. You guys should find somewhere to hide. Probably no one will look under the robots."
"Ooh, good idea!"
"What the hell, they're still on fire!"
"Not all of them!"
Izuku looked around. Hatsume had snatched the nearest star, but he'd seen others - there were too many people directly fighting robots, anyway, for that to be the only one.
There. He let himself down again, and started running over, acquiring a few pieces of metal pipe and sheeting on the way. He needed some way to fight.
He reached the robots and went up, bobbing a few times to avoid being hit by the robot's lasers. He landed, and narrowly avoided a fight between Ectoplasm (who was also in the PE uniform! Wow!) and a class B student who was doing a credible job of hiding in Ectoplasm's shadow, but a less good job of retrieving the star Ectoplasm was keeping from him, even as the robot tried to flick them off its back.
Izuku gritted his teeth, dropped to the robot's treads, and slammed his pipe into the most delicate-looking bit of machinery he could. The robot didn't stop, but it stuttered, and Izuku shot back up in time to yank the star from Ectoplasm's hand and then kept going, out of Ectoplasm's reach.
Only a minute left. He couldn't relax. Not yet. He flicked his eyes over the ground. It looked like most people in the hero course had stars at this point, and they were all separating out, moving away from one another of their own accord in favor of keeping away the remaining students from other classes or avoiding teachers and robots.
It seemed oddly peaceful up here. Other than a bunch of gen ed students trying to snipe him again. Speaking of Snipe, there he was with some kind of… improvised lasso? Was it made out of Shiozaki's vines? It was hard to see from up here.
He spotted the shadow kid again, this time teaming up with one of classmates, the girl with the mushrooms, to attack Tokoyami and Dark Shadow.
It was not a good combination.
"Hatsume! Do you have a spotlight?" He was really just hoping for a really big flashlight, but anything would do.
Hatsume didn't waste time responding. Instead, she pulled a lever and a spotlight - a full-sized stage spotlight - popped out of her backpack. Just in time, too. Dark Shadow dissolved with a startled cry that Izuku would definitely feel guilty about later, but the class B boy fell out of the vanishing shadows, too, letting Tokoyami shield his star.
A horn sounded over the stadium. The robots abruptly shut down, and all the fighting petered off.
"Now, that was a wonderful display of talent!"
"Training is more important."
"And what about passion?" Ms. Kayama interjected to the laughter of the crowd. "Everyone with a star, please come up to the front stage. Everyone else, please head to the medical area to be checked out! If you're stuck, one of the teachers will be with you shortly."
Izuku and Hatsume descended together. "What d'you think the next event will be, Grappling Hook?"
"No idea," said Izuku. "It could also be something completely new. Some kind of race? Not capture the flag or anything based on resource gathering after this one… It's usually at least based on an actual sport of some kind… Hope they'llat least let us pick our own teams…"
"You think they won't?"
"Oh!" said Izuku, startled from his muttering. "I mean, I hope they will? They have in the past. But there's no real guarrantee…"
They reached the stage, and Izuku was glad to see that everyone in 1-A had made it, along with Shinsou. Well, Todoroki wasn't there yet, but that seemed to be more because escaping from his ice castle took time, rather than because he hadn't passed.
The rest of the students present seemed to be from class B. The shadow boy hadn't made it.
Kacchan had.
Izuku swallowed, and tried to keep as many people between himself and Kacchan as he could while navigating towards Tokoyami and Dark Shadow. On the way there, he was greated with so many congratulations that people started calling him 'Strawberry' again.
"Sorry for the light," he said, bowing.
"Sometime light is the only available method of controling the darkness which besets us," said Tokoyami, gravely.
"Yeah! Otherwise that guy would have crawled all over me! It was gross."
"Still," said Izuku, "I wish I could have done more. And now, whatever group I'm on is going to have to deal with Kacchan in the next event! Things didn't go according to plan at all… And I wasn't really able to help anyone…"
"Perhaps," said Tokoyami, "but without your efforts, there would have been no plan at all."
"He's right, Midoriya!" said Iida, energetically. "Without your insights, our cooperation would have been lacking."
"But everyone worked on the plan. And Monoma is the one who came up with the idea of cooperating in the first place."
Monoma slung an arm around Izuku's shoulders, nearly making him jump out of his skin. "While I am pleased to accept your acknowledgement of my contributions, you were called up to the principal's office, too. We must all share the blame."
"What blame?" asked Uraraka. "That was really fun, wasn't it?"
Todoroki finally climbed the stage, to scattered applause, and Ms. Kayama called them to order.
"First, I'd like to say congratulations to all forty of you on making it this far!" She paused, letting the audience cheer. "But there are two more to go before we find the real winner! Take a look at the stars you fought so hard for."
The star in Izuku's hands made a small clicking noise. He looked down to see that the seam around the outside edge had widened.
"That's right, open them up and find your prize inside!"
Carefully, Izuku pried the two halves of the star apart. Inside was a lot of shaped packing foam, a two thousand yen gift card to a local café, and… a badge? He tucked the other half of the star under his elbow and pulled out the badge to inspect it more closely. It was star-shaped, with a metallic edge and back, and a purple enamel front.
There were words on it: UA SF 2XXX FIVE-LEGGED RACE TEAM 7.
"Sweet!" said Dark Shadow, yanking an identical pin out of Tokoyami's hand. "We're on the same team, Strawberry!"
"His hero name is Wonder, Dark Shadow," said Tokoyami, swiping the badge back. "But yes, it does appear as if we are to be compatriots in darkness. What team are you on, Uraraka?"
"Team? Oh!" said Uraraka, tearing her eyes away from the gift card. "Right. I'm on Team Nine. Black."
"So am I," said Monoma with a sort of evil grin.
"Go ahead and put on your badges," said Ms. Kayama. "And no swapping! Our next event is a Five-Legged Race. It's just like a three-legged race, but with four people! We're going to have a one hour break for everyone to get patched up and make plans with their groups, and to prepare the arena for the event. Make sure you take advantage of it! Only the first four groups to get their whole team across the finish line will move on." Ms. Kayama put down the microphone. "Seriously, go get checked out in the medical tent. There's always someone who has a worse injury than they think. Come on."
"-should I say? Whoops. Ahem. Please enjoy viewing our recreational games, and select clips from the first event."
.
"So, what do you think of the teams?" asked En, reading off the screen Izuku was looking at while waiting for his turn getting checked up.
The list looked like this:
TEAM 1: RED - PLAMO, TWINKLE, DRAGON SHROUD, SHEMAGE
TEAM 2: ORANGE - B17, FROPPY, CELERITY, TENTACOLE
TEAM 3: YELLOW - TAILMAN, RED RIOT, MINES, RULE
TEAM 4: GREEN - A15, BATTLE FIST, MOCK, GEVAUDAN
TEAM 5: CYAN - ROCKETTI, CHARGEBOLT, ANIMA, MUDMAN
TEAM 6: BLUE - INVISIBLE GORILLA, SUGARMAN, CELLOPHANE, EMILY
TEAM 7: PURPLE - LIZARDY, B12, WONDER, TSUKUYOMI
TEAM 8: MAGENTA - SPIRAL, WELDER, RIPLEY, COMICMAN
TEAM 9: BLACK - URAVITY, MR. MIRROR, BRIGID, EARPHONE JACK
TEAM 10: WHITE - CREATI, JACK MANTIS, VINE, REAL STEEL
"Team Nine is going to blow everyone else out of the water," said Banjo. "They won't even have to run. They'll just do the rocket thing, and boom, that's it."
"For being random, the other groups aren't bad, either," said Nana. "I can see that some groups will have more trouble being fast than others, but that's not the only aspect of this race. You have to be able to work with others. Ability to attack or impede other groups also matters." She paused for a long moment. "Of course, Team Nine will still win–"
.
Izuku adjusted the spare PE uniform he'd been given. He hadn't really needed it, his original hadn't been that singed, but the upperclassman assisting Recovery Girl had given him a look and said, "No costume malfunctions this year." Which Izuku really couldn't argue about. So.
"You Midoriya?" asked a tall, thin girl with green hair.
"Uh, yes, yes, that's me. You're Tokage?" Tokage, if Izuku remembered correctly, was class B's other recommendation student, and probably the owner of the half a head he'd seen at the beginning of the first event.
"Got it in one. Betcha you're wishing you were on the green team too?" she asked, tugging her own hair.
"Um, not really?" If anything, he would rather be on Team Nine.
She laughed. "Come on, I already met your spooky friend, but Tsuburaba fell out of the sky so many times they're checking him out real carefully." She half turned, motioning him to follow.
"R-right! He's the one who can make invisible platforms?"
"More than platforms," said Tokage, "but he can explain better than I can."
"Ah! Midoriya!" called Iida, power walking towards them. Tsuyu and Shouji were caught in his wake. "Wait a moment, please!" He stopped a few feet away, and bowed deeply to Tokage. "I apologize for my rudeness, this will only take a minute. Midoriya, I– That is to say, we–"
"We're not going to stand down just because we're grouped with Bakugou, kero," said Tsuyu.
"But we apologize in advance for anything–"
"No, no," said Izuku. "S-sorry! But he's always been that way, I wouldn't hold it against you, no matter how he acts."
"That's why we must apologize!" said Iida.
"Oh. Um. I accept your apology?"
.
"Is it bad of me that I was hoping they'd say they were going to throw the match?" asked Yoichi.
"Yes," said Hikage.
.
Tokage led Izuku a few more steps away, to where Tokoyami was sitting on a bench, feeding apple slices to Dark Shadow.
"Can she eat those?" Izuku asked, fascinated.
"Not really, but she likes the texture," said Tokoyami, wiping his hands off on his legs. "I see you have found our present compatriot."
"Yes!" said Izuku.
"So," said Tokage, "I was thinking this'd be a good time to share our quirks and make a plan."
Izuku nodded and pulled out his notebook. "Great! I have a few questions I wanted to ask you about how you levitate your pieces and whether one piece is considered the 'main' piece and how much force you can apply and–"
.
"When did he even get the chance to pick up that notebook?" asked Nana.
"I think it was in the waiting room, when he passed through to go to the bathroom," said En. "But since we're between events, I have just one more question about super snuff ball."
"Ugh," said Yoichi. "Fine."
"What happened to it? Like, there are still underground fighting rings or whatever, but not actual murder games."
"Well, it turns out that if you steal all of the money from the guys making book for those places, the whole setup sort of falls apart."
En blinked, then turned to Third. "Why didn't you tell that story instead of the Dumas ones?"