As soon as Yagi and Midoriya were gone, Shouta picked up his phone and called Nezu. It took him an embarrassingly long time to hit the buttons right. Maybe he should take those painkillers more often.
"I don't get paid enough for this," he said, as soon as Nezu picked up.
Nezu tittered. "The paperwork for your raise is already underway."
.
The reprieve Mr. Aizawa had bought them only lasted so long. No one gathered by their door the next day, but they could all feel eyes on them when they sat down for a subdued lunch.
Izuku could especially feel eyes on himself, because all of his classmates were also looking at him.
"W-What are you all looking at me for?" he asked, ending his sentence with a nervous giggle.
"Well," said Ashido, "you seem to notice when things are going to happen, so…"
That wasn't untrue.
"Yeah!" said Kaminari, excitedly, standing up and slamming his hand down on the table. "You're like a canary in a coal mine! Class 1-A's early warning system!"
The class took a moment to stare at Kaminari instead.
"Didn't those, like, die?" asked Hagakure. "From inhaling poisonous gasses or something?"
"Oh. Uh. Yeah. Sorry, Midoriya."
"It-It's okay!" said Izuku, waving his hands. He felt another blush creeping over his cheeks. "I mean, I'm not sure how accurate, or- or sensitive I am, though, so there's, you know, I don't know how much I'm actually noticing, I could be missing a lot, especially if-" He cut himself off. His heart felt like it had stopped.
"HEY, DEKU!"
Oh, so it was only the usual threat to his life. Izuku looked over his shoulder to where, yep, there was Kacchan, pointing at him from the other side of the cafeteria. He turned back around and buried his face in his hands.
.
"The usual threat to his life, he says," muttered En.
"He did not say it out loud, he only thought it."
"Thanks, Hikage."
"What's wrong with that boy?" asked Yoichi, frowning deeply.
"Anxiety."
"It's Super Anxiety."
"Thanks, Hikage, but I wasn't talking about Izuku."
.
"ARE YOU IGNORING ME, CANON FODDER?"
He sure was going to die today, huh.
"Who is he shouting at?" asked Uraraka around the spoon in her mouth.
"I am unsure!" said Iida. "It would appear he has mistaken us for someone he knows!"
Ashido made a face. "Someone he knows that he's calling 'Deku?' That doesn't sound very nice."
"Ha! This is why 1-A is the superior class! We would never have someone who behaved so uncouthly as to-"
Kirishima stood up. "HEY, MAN, NO ONE HERE IS CALLED THAT! I THINK YOU'VE GOT THE WRONG GUY?" He looked down. "Or do you think Deku might be a girl?"
"Sit down, you're embarrassing us," hissed Monoma.
This, of course, cued Kacchan to sprint across the cafeteria, vaulting the tables in between. He grabbed Izuku by the shoulder, dragged him out of his seat and spun him around. "What d'you think you're doing, Deku, goin' off and fighting villains like you think you're- Wah!"
Uraraka had slapped Kacchan across the face, and, because he had let go of Izuku in response, he was now floating in the vicinity of the light fixtures. Kacchan's shocked expression transmuted into one of pure rage. His glare at Izuku promised a world of hurt.
.
"No, seriously, what's his problem? Didn't Izuku save his life?"
"I don't know, but I do remember some tension at the school when we were still getting oriented in here," said Nana, propping her chin up with her fist. "Maybe it's related to that?"
"Maybe it's a tsundere thing," suggested Hikage.
"Seems sort of extreme for that," said En.
.
"I will get a teacher!" said Iida, before a giant hand appeared in his way.
"Don't bother," said a new voice, belonging to the giant hand and a sporty-looking girl with a ponytail. "Hey, Blasty, don't forget what Mr. Vlad said about not using your quirk!"
"Does it look like I'm using my quirk, you big-handed-"
"Ah," said Yaoyorozu, ignoring Kacchan's rather crude response with enviable ease, "Kendo. How are you?"
"Doing great," said Kendo. "Looking forward to seeing you guys pulling out all the stops to try and beat us."
"Try?" exclaimed Monoma. "More like succeed! We have real experience now, after all!"
"Shut up, combover!" shouted Kacchan. "You're all gonna lose! I'm aiming for the top and I don't care about your crappy delusions!"
"Combover!" squawked Monomoa, hands coming up to cover his hair. "You take that back!"
"Oh, you have an aggressive blond, too."
Yaoyorozu sighed. "I suppose we do."
The awe Izuku felt at the situation (Bakugo, stuck floating) was sadly eclipsed by the crowd of people they'd gathered.
"Erm," said Kaminari, "is it just me, or are they all looking at us?"
"Of course they're looking at you, moron!" yelled Kacchan from his place near the ceiling. "They're wondering how someone so idiotic could survive a villain attack!"
"I mean," said a voice from the crowd, "that's true."
A tall boy with purple hair shouldered his way to the front and tilted his head back to look at Kacchan.
"We're here to take a look at the competition. But I've got to say, I'm disappointed if this is what kids in the hero course are like." He lowered his gaze to sweep across the 1-A table. "Those of us who didn't make it to the Hero course are stuck in General Studies and other tracks. There's quite a few of us, did you know that? Depending on the results of the sports festival, they might consider transferring us into the Hero course. I understand the reverse is also possible. For a General Studies kid like me, this is the perfect chance to-"
"Oh!" interrupted Kaminari. "That's great, man! We have an open seat. You'll be perfect. You're even purple. You can replace the rancid purple guy we got rid of."
"A much better purple than the last purple," said Sero.
"A MANLY purple," added Kirishima.
"A superior purple," sparkled Aoyama
"Assuming he isn't secretly a perv," said Jirou.
"He's already had a longer clean conversation with us than the grape kid did," Mina pointed out.
"What?" said the purple boy, wisely backing away.
"What a mad banquet of darkness," mumbled Tokoyami.
Iida strode to the purple boy in an alarming, robotic sort of way. "As vice-president of class 1-A, I would like to welcome you to the hero course!" He punctuated his greeting with hand chops.
.
"That's kind of premature," said Nana, "isn't it? It sounds like he has to do well in the competition, first."
"Ha!" said Banjo. "I think he'll do just fine. He's clearly primarily motivated by spite."
"So, all he needs to make a win possible is friendship and anxiety," said Yoichi, nodding gravely. "He will surely be the greatest obstacle to Izuku's nonetheless inevitable victory in the sports festival. Later, he will become an invaluable ally."
"Are you basing this off some manga you read, or…?"
"Off my observations of our lives."
"Ah. Continue, then."
"Gladly!"
.
"Uh, guys?" said Uraraka. When Izuku turned to look at her, her face was slightly green. "I'm not sure how much longer I can keep him up there…"
This was when Kacchan reached the light fixture, put his feet against it, and shoved off, rocketing straight for Izuku. Izuku bolted. This was, apparently, the correct decision, because Kacchan bolted right after him.
Sadly, Izuku's daily runs focused more on endurance than speed and agility, and Kacchan was fast. Although maybe that was just the lack of gravity to slow him down. Either way, Izuku didn't make the first corner, Kacchan slamming into him and pinning him against the opposite wall.
"Alright, you quirkless twerp," growled Kacchan, "I don't know who you bribed to get in here, but let's get one thing straight, I'm better than you."
.
"Okay, you know what I said about bribery? I take it back. I don't want to have the same opinion as this kid."
"HA!" crowed Yoichi, pointing at Banjo. "That's right, Izuku got in on his own merits."
.
"You keep going like this, you dare keep standing in the same place I am, after I warned you to go someplace else, then at the sports festival…" Kacchan straightened and leered down at Izuku. "I'll crush you. I'll mess you up so bad that no one will ever mistake you for a hero. So, why don't you run away, you crybaby freak?"
.
"Holy crap," said Banjo.
"Seconded," said En.
"What?" called Second, from where he and Third were still sulking.
"No one's talking to you!" Yoichi shouted back, throwing an imaginary brick at them. It unraveled before it got halfway to them.
"UA has really declined if they're letting people like this in," said Nana. "I'm glad Toshinori is here to clean it up."
"Look, I love Eighth, too," started Yoichi.
"What?" called Second, again.
"Since when have we called you Two? Go away! As I was saying, I also love Eighth with all my heart-"
"Do we have hearts?" asked Hikage.
"It's a metaphor. Eighth is great for cleaning up corruption on the streets - even in the government and police force, sometimes! - but he's… let's say, under-equipped for the educational world."
"I don't want to hear that from someone who'd never seen a teacher before."
"I've seen teachers before!"
.
Izuku gritted his teeth even as his lips wobbled… and tears started running down his face… and some snot, too… Okay, he was a mess. Still, he twisted so he could grab Bakugo's wrist and squeezed.
According to the grip strength test in the quirk assessment, his grip strength was above average.
"S-someone," he said, "someone told me I could be a hero, and that's w-why, that's why I'm not going to run away just because you said so! I'm going to be here, no matter what, Kacchan!"
Kacchan's face darkened. "You-"
Kacchan was pulled back. Izuku's friends had caught up with them.
"Chasing someone down in the hall? This is just the kind of rude, uncivilized behavior I'd expect from someone in class B!"
"Not to agree with Monoma," said Hagakure, "but, yeah! Apologize to Midoriya!"
"What are you? An invisible gorilla? Get off before I-"
"And that's enough of that," said Mr. Aizawa, coming into view, his hair floating. Iida was behind him, chopping at the air with both hands. "Bakugo. Monoma. Hagakure. Midoriya. Let go of each other."
Hagakure, Monoma, and Izuku all let go of Kacchan at the same time. Unfortunately, Kacchan was unbalanced enough that their hold on him and his grip on Izuku were the only things keeping him up. He fell down. He had not let go of Izuku. Hagakure, Monoma, and the other 1-A members who had made it to the hall, rushed to support Izuku, and then…
Well, it was a bit of a scramble.
.
"This is just painful to watch," said Nana.
"Funny, though," said En. "I hope someone steps on the blond kid again."
.
When they finally managed to straighten themselves out, Mr. Aizawa looked much like he had immediately following Izuku and Mr. Yagi's explanation about One for All. That is, he looked like he was seriously questioning his life choices.
"Yaoyorozu, Kendo," said Mr. Aizawa. "Explain to me what happened here."
Izuku braced himself for detention. He'd thought he was doing so well, too!
.
Izuku did not get detention. Huh.
.
Shouta stepped into his empty classroom and picked the nearest security camera. "Forget the raise, I want an investigation into Aldera Middle School." He'd meant to look into it before now, but he also hadn't meant to get beaten to a pulp by a bunch of crazy villains, one of which may have had his dead best friend's quirk.
"You are allowed to have both, you realize," said Nezu over the intercom.
But did he deserve both, that was the question.
"I know what you're thinking," said Nezu. "If it helps, think of it as less of a raise, and more of a stipend for the therapy you will need!"
"Why would that help?"
.
They filed onto the field for heroics several minutes before the class was due to start. Izuku hoped that those minutes would be enough for him to calm down. His heart was still going rabbit-fast.
"Are you sure you do not need to go to Recovery Girl?" asked Iida.
"Yeah, that was pretty…" Uraraka trailed off. "It was scary. I didn't think there'd be anyone here like that."
"You mean anyone with a steamed turd masquerading as a personality?" asked Kaminari. "There's hot-headed, and then there's villainous, and I know what side of the line that guy was on."
"K-Kacchan's not a villain! He- He'll be a great hero," said Izuku, shoulders slumping. "Someday."
The silence was oppressive. And possibly judgemental.
"So, you all agree with me, then, that we need to absolutely crush 1-B in the sports festival?" asked Monoma, flicking imaginary dust off his suit.
"Well, sure," said Hagakure. "But there's only one winner. We're going to be competing against each other."
"Oh, contrary, my friend-"
"It's au contraire," said Aoyama.
"Sure," said Monoma. "There's only one winner for the final event. The other two? Not so much. I say we use that to our advantage! Show 1-B - and especially that cretin Bakugo - our unity and conviction! Prove to them that we are the superior hero students! We will reign supreme over the first two events of the sports festival."
"That's a freakishly hypercompetitive way to put it," said Kaminari, "but he's got a point."
"Of course I do! We just need to make a plan and victory will be ours!"
"How are we supposed to do that?" asked Sero, crossing his arms and tugging slightly at his elbows. "The events are secret until the day of. If we don't know what we're going to be doing, we don't even know if we can cooperate. The events are random every year!"
"We might not know what the events are exactly, but there's- there's a pattern," said Izuku. He'd never really thought about the kinds of events too deeply, but he'd watched and analyzed the UA sports festival for years and years. "The first event is always kind of a free-for-all, with everyone from our year. It's supposed to eliminate most of the competition, usually only the hero course and a few others get in. Then, the second event is usually something team based, like a relay or a game. The final event is the only one where individuals go head-to-head, because that's when you need a clear winner and runners-up."
"Exactly, Midoriya, exactly! Who's with me?"
"I'm in," said Kaminari. There was a smattering of other agreements.
Izuku wanted to say yes, but… He glanced over at Uraraka and Iida. He wasn't the only one. Uraraka caught his eye and elbowed Iida. His armor made a hollow clanging noise and Uraraka hissed and held her elbow.
"Uraraka, are you-?" She jerked her head at him. "What?"
"You're kind of the rules guru, man," said Kaminari. "I think most of them are waiting to hear what you have to say."
"Oh! Yes! Teamwork is an important part of heroism! I cannot imagine that they would ban us from cooperating to attain success!"
"I agree," said Yaoyorozu.
"Y-yes!" said Izuku. "Me, too!"
From there, everyone else agreed. Except for one student. Todoroki stood apart from the group, facing away from them.
"Todoroki!" called Monoma. "Will you join us?"
Todoroki looked back at them, coldly. "I'm going to win myself, without anyone else's power." He turned away again, the wind picking up a few stray leaves and blowing them across the space in between them.
"Wow," said Kirirshima, "manly."
.
"I don't understand how that kid thinks."
"I don't think you understand how anyone thinks."
Yoichi frowned. "That's just unnecessary."
"Isn't he just gay?" asked En.
"That does seem to be the easiest explanation," agreed Hikage.
"That can't be it," said Yoichi, "I'm gay."
"I thought you were bisexual," said Nana.
"I thought he was ace," said Banjo.
"...I contain multitudes."
.
Izuku hung back after school for extra training with Mr. Yagi. Working with Gran Torino had helped a lot, but Float was still difficult for him to turn on and off at will. He could do it, but he was slow.
He did like the grappling hook, though.
He liked it a lot.
(He really needed to go talk to Hatsume and thank her for the literally life-saving piece of equipment. Especially with the sports festival coming up… he had some ideas…)
The gym they were in was designed with base three-dimensional mobility quirk training in mind. High ceiling, lots of things to grab onto, various optional obstacles, but everything was padded. Quirks that needed a lot of space to reach their full potential rarely got a lot of practice. 'Private property' was usually a confined space. Especially in a city.
Even so, Izuku was feeling… Inadequate.
"You're making wonderful progress, young Midoriya. You've had this quirk for less than a month. Give yourself time."
"But I've seen videos of your teacher!" said Izuku, trying to propel himself towards the wall. "She could fly." He managed to flip himself upside down, but did not move horizontally. "Fast."
.
"Wasn't that just-"
"The stockpiled power? Haha. Yeah," said Nana. "I did love how it improved my quirk."
"Wait a second," said En, rolling off the throne he'd constructed for himself. "If Nine doesn't have access to the enhanced versions of your quirks now, what's going to happen when he does get the stockpile? Will his head just explode from the anxiety?"
"Super anxiety."
"Hikage, if you don't have something productive to say," started Banjo, half jokingly, half threateningly.
"I believe he does have the enhanced version of my quirk," said Hikage. "As for Float…" He shrugged.
"You'd better not be implying anything about my quirk," said Nana. She sighed. "It has only been about a week since he got it. Getting to the point where I could really move with it took a long time."
"You can do it, Izuku!" cheered Yoichi. "I believe in you! Blow Nana's time out of the water!"
.
"And she had her quirk for a lifetime," said Mr. Yagi. "Try to get upright again, and then see if you can drop and catch yourself. Ah, I remember the first time I saw my teacher use something like that as a finishing move. An ax kick from a couple of stories up." He shook his head. "It was quite remarkable. Ahem. Not that you should try that without more training… Or on your classmates at the festival… We don't need any maiming."
.
"That guy had it coming," said Nana.
.
"Mhm," said Izuku. He turned Float off, and tried to switch it back on before he hit the ground. He wasn't quite able to reactivate it in time. He sighed and picked himself up. "At least this is good practice for falling."
"So it is," said Mr. Yagi. He checked his clipboard, which contained a legal pad and a singular sheet of loose leaf covered in Gran Torino's distinctive handwriting. "Perhaps we should try some timed trials here on ground levels before we try that again. Just Float on and off as quickly as possible."
Izuku made a face. He wanted to go faster, get better. But he nodded easily enough and caught the timer Mr. Yagi threw at him.
"Whenever you turn float off or on, hit the 'lap' button. That should make it so all your times are recorded."
"Okay," he said, turning on both Float and the timer. "Um. Mr. Yagi?"
"Yes, my boy?"
"I was wondering, do you remember your first sports festival?"
Mr. Yagi frowned. "You aren't still worried about, erm…" He rubbed the back of his neck. "Living up to my overinflated reputation, are you?"
Izuku gasped. "Your reputation isn't overinflated!"
"Alas, everything about All Might is puffed up and full of smoke!"
Izuku forced back a giggle. "It really isn't about that," he said, once he was more in control of himself. "It's… We were thinking, there's not a rule about helping each other in the first two events, right?"
"UA wouldn't be terribly heroic to ban something like that. I may seem to stand alone, but without my agency, I wouldn't be able to do much hero work at all!"
Izuku nodded and started a new lap on the timer. He had maybe five, so far.
"Some of my classmates and I were thinking about working together," said Izuku.
"That sounds wonderful."
"It is! It's just… I don't want to disappoint them."
Especially not after Kacchan had reminded him of what he used to be. Quirkless, useless, cowardly Deku who ran from fights.
He didn't want to be that person anymore.
"Hm," said Mr. Yagi. He sat down on a bench-shaped protrusion. "When I was a student, they only broadcast the third years' competition."
Izuku nodded. He knew that. He'd spent long, fruitless hours trying to find videos of All Might's time at UA. He hadn't been in the third year sports festival at all… probably because of his mentor dying, if Izuku thought about it.
"I didn't do very well in the first two competitions."
"Wh-what? No way!" He fumbled the timer. "Oops."
"Don't worry about it, just keep going. It's good practice. But, no. I didn't do well. I adapted to the strength of One for All quickly, but I still hadn't adjusted to having it." He waved a hand. "And All for One…" He clasped his hands in his lap. "I made a mistake in the second event that almost got my team disqualified."
"What happened?"
"Didn't occur to me to use my quirk when I should have."
.
Banjo laughed. "I remember that. The one kid couldn't believe he'd gotten a hit in. He was so shocked."
"Yeah," said En. "That's the only reason he could make up the points."
In the corner, Eighth's ghostly shadow pouted.
.
"How did they… your teammates, I mean, were they… upset?"
"They were," said Mr. Yagi, "some of them were even a little upset at me, for that matter, but, hm. How should I put this?"
.
"Toshinori," said Nana, mournfully, "you're making it worse. How are you making it worse?"
"Someone stop that man," said Hikage, completely deadpan.
"Someone needs to stop you."
.
"All of us tried our hardest," said Mr. Yagi, finally. "There was no resentment. We still got along just fine, afterward."
Izuku set his feet back on the ground. "Are you still friends with any of them?"
"Well… no. But not because of the sports festival!"
Unsurprisingly, this conversation had failed to reassure Izuku.
"Regardless, you've already shown your classmates what you're made of! They won't turn away from you over a hiccup!"
Also not really what he'd been worried about, but… Now he was! So, that was fun.
"There's only ever one victor, in any case, and only sixteen students ever advance to the final event… There's always disappointment, I'm afraid. It would be ridiculous to blame that on you."
"Right," said Izuku. "Right." He chewed on his lips, trying not to mumble, even though Mr. Yagi was certainly used to it by now. "What, um, what were the events your first year?"
"Well," said Mr. Yagi, "it started off with a race…"
.
Izuku curled up in the rolling chair at his desk, a bag of ice balanced on one knee and a hand gripper in his off hand. His dominant hand was occupied with scrolling through his old digital notes on past sports festivals.
Some of them were sort of… embarrassingly bad. Maybe he shouldn't judge a ten-year-old (even if the ten-year-old was himself) so harshly, but still!
Well, regardless, past him had gotten the event information down for the more recent sports festivals. It was too bad he couldn't rewatch some of these, but that would take too long. The sports festival was coming up fast. He barely had time to look up older festivals, from before he started analyzing them.
Luckily, he had help.
His computer chirped, and his eyes flicked to the chat window.
Earlier, more of the class had been on, but they'd slowly logged off as it got later or research got out of their comfort zone. Kaminari was the one who got the chat and the shared file set up through their UA accounts. Ashido and Hagakure had spent a lot of time going through UA's social media announcements about the festival.
But now it was just Izuku, Monoma, Uraraka, Iida, and Yaoyorozu.
Izuku and Monoma were collating information about what events UA had done before and trying to find patterns in that. Uraraka was watching through the last few events and marking down the different examples of cooperation between students. Iida was going over all the rules and rulings made for past festivals, to make sure what they planned to do was allowed. Yaoyorozu had started with helping Izuku and Monoma, but had branched out to follow other leads, like event popularity.
Izuku thought it was a good division of labor.
Uraraka: Ive got the last festival done sending now
Uraraka: no idea the 2 years were so funny got to watch more
Monoma: You found the part with Togata Mirio I see
Monoma: His quirk is interesting but. No.
Uraraka: That too!
Midoriya: OK so.
Midoriya: From what I can see, the first event cuts the numbers down to around forty or fifty students.
Uraraka: 42's low and 50's high
Midoriya: Might be a good idea to use that and get some allies from support or gen.
Like Hatsume. The Support Course and Gen Ed Course could bring support gear into the events, according to Iida's summary of the rules, as long as it was approved by the school beforehand. Depending on what the events were, support gear could help a lot.
Also, it seemed like something Hatsume would like, considering what she'd said about her 'babies.'
Uraraka: Thats allowed?
Iida: Yes, it seems so.
Izuku switched tabs and scanned through the spreadsheet for the first event. Obstacle course, maze, scavenger hunt, rising waters, platformer, find the flag, dodgeball, rescue race, teacher tag, villain hunt, flag tag, the gauntlet…
Midoriya: Monoma, what's the gauntlet?
Monoma: Basically dodgeball, but you're between two fields of throwers
Monoma: It was audience participation
Monoma: Kinda old
Midoriya: Don't think we need to worry about that one then.
Iida: That's quite a few events. Could we perhaps group them in some way?
Midoriya: Maybe? There's races, finding things, musical chairs type things, battle royales between students, and going against teachers.
Uraraka: I dnt know
Uraraka: the maze ones and the obstacle course are kinda similar in terms of being a race to finish but theyre also pretty different in what you need to be good at to win
That was a good point.
Yaoyorozu: I think we can eliminate some events, based on what happened at the USJ. UA has greatly emphasized increased security since the media break-in and the USJ incident. I believe that limits the types of events they will consider for this year to ones where they can have clean lines of sight and quick access to competitors.
Uraraka: so no maze
Yaoyorozu: Probably not.
Midoriya: I think we can throw out anything that's audience participation too.
Midoriya: Also the finding hidden stuff ones and the rescue-based ones.
Iida: Why those?
Izuku cringed and started typing. Yaoyorozu probably already realized this, from what she had written before, but she hadn't mentioned it earlier. Although maybe she just hadn't gotten to saying it yet.
Midoriya: Well… Hate to say it but we never really made up the USJ rescue training.
Midoriya: If UA is trying to seem stronger they won't show our weak points. Does that make sense? Not that I think they should do that but…
Izuku pushed back from his desk slightly and chewed on his thumbnail. It did make sense, didn't it? Maybe he shouldn't have said that…
Yaoyorozu: I agree. I believe that we are more likely to have something like the obstacle course, one of the limited spaces games like rising waters, or one of the ones with teacher participation.
Midoriya: I think rising waters is out because Aquarius isn't part of the staff anymore although I guess she could come back for the event? Or have some kind of substitute?
Rising waters was a 'musical chairs' event UA had been an average of once every four years since Aquarius joined the staff. The stage would be a bunch of pillars, with the top of each one just wide enough for a person to easily stand on. At the beginning, students would start at the lowest level and there would be more than enough room for everyone, but then Aquarius would slowly start to draw water up onto the stage, until only the highest pillars were clear.
Of course, if you touched the water you were out.
Since they started doing rising waters, they hadn't done any of the other 'musical chairs' games, instead swapping it out with obstacle courses, scavenger hunts, tag and dodgeball.
Yaoyorozu: That would be a reasonable conclusion.
Monoma: Makes sense. What's your guess for what will happen though?
.
Most years, lunch time was good for naps and paperwork. All the students were out of the classroom, it was quiet, and Shouta could work on whatever he wanted.
Alas. This year was proving to be an exception.
First the break in (probably caused by the League of Villains), then the nosy other classes, then Bakugo actually assaulting Midoriya (Kan either needed to get that kid to grow up or expel him), and now this. All of 1-A, with the exception of Todoroki, had decided to eat in the classroom.
(Not that he could blame them.)
He shuffled some of the papers in his sleeping bag around, mostly old school records for Midoriya and Bakugo that he'd been meaning to go over, but would probably have to wait for later. If the kids were going to be in the classroom, he'd better keep an eye on them. Or an ear.
Yeah, they were just getting an ear.
"Alright," said Yaoyorozu. "Everyone give your orders and money to Iida, Shoji, Uraraka, and Hagakure."
"I- I can carry things, too," volunteered Midoriya.
Shouta had no doubt that Midoriya could carry plenty of lunches. But he'd also been a target. Keeping him out of the way was smart.
"Yes, but you need time to set up your presentation."
"Oh, right! Um." Footsteps approached. "Mr. Aizawa, is it alright if I use the projector?"
Shouta almost said 'knock yourself out,' but he luckily remembered who he was talking to. "Go for it," he groaned.
"Wow," said Ashido, "he even sounds like a mummy today."
Teenagers. Which reminded him: "No inappropriate pictures, right?"
"T-they're all from the official sports festival releases, so…"
Sports festival? Shouta resisted the urge to laugh. So, his students were turning one of Kan's favorite sports festival strategies against him and working together as a class? The rivalry was largely in Kan's head, but… Sometimes it was nice to gloat. Tastefully, of course. While reminding him that Shouta hadn't suggested it at all.
But he'd wait until the sports festival itself to actually do that. No need to tip the man off.
Back to Midoriya's question.
With effort, Shouta pried his eyes open. "Don't tell me you found the instant nudist."
"I- um. Well, it's… yes?"
"Is everything pixelated?"
"Yeah. Um, I mean, yes. Yes, sir. It's in- It's not in mine, it's in Uraraka's, and it's only to illustrate a point about cooperation-"
.
"Did he just try to throw his friend under the bus?"
"No," said Yoichi, "of course not!"
"Sounded a lot like it."
"We have a direct link to his subconscious, we know that isn't what he meant to do."
.
"Great," said Shouta, closing his eyes and rolling over.
"Thank you!"
There was some shuffling and arguing about what wire went where, but by the time the four who went out to get lunch were back, Midoriya's presentation was up and running, the projector whirring in the background.
"O-Okay!" said Midoriya. "The sports festival! I'm, um, I'm. I'm going first. To present our predictions. Monoma and Yaoyorozu really helped a lot with this, and- and then Uraraka will talk about past cooperation in sports festivals, and Iida will talk about rules. Which… You already knew that would happen even without a presentation."
It was a good thing there was a public relations class at UA, but Shouta could admit the joke was funny despite Midoriya's obvious nerves.
"Based on our analysis of past sports festival events, we believe that for the first event, the most likely activities are either an obstacle course race or one of two versions of teacher tag. The obstacle course is the more straightforward option and it was last done two years ago. It usually involves physical obstacles like climbing walls made by Cementoss, or robots or other things made by the support teachers. With teacher tag, on the other hand, we need to either tag or avoid being tagged by teachers. Which, um…"
Shouta got the impression everyone in the class was looking at him. The gremlins were afraid of him. Good.
But Midoriya had to work on his volume. The stuttering had eased up, but the presentation was turning into a muttering session near the end there.
"Is an obvious challenge. Both emphasize speed and combat."
"Combat?" echoed Kaminari. "The tag I get. Well, if dodging is combat. But the race?"
"In most race events you're allowed to use your quirk against your opponents," said Midoriya. "The tag events are usually flag tag."
"Oh," said Kaminari. "Makes sense."
"The second event is harder to pin down. Past examples are cavalry battles, dance battles, tug-of-war, capture the flag, king of the hill, and relays."
"Dance battles? Sign me up for that one!"
Midoriya laughed nervously. "Yeah. However, if we have the obstacle race or the tag version where we're avoiding the teachers, we probably won't run into relays, but have something more obviously combative, like the cavalry battle. On the other hand, the version of tag where we're chasing the teachers usually leads to a rescue or captive-delivery relay or race, with the teacher playing the dummy."
Ah, yes. Shouta had done one of those his first year teaching. He was very glad Nezu had decided they weren't doing it this year so the teachers could focus more on security. It was difficult enough to deal with when the students did have rescue training. With this batch…
No.
Next year, maybe.
Probably not.
Although, come to think of it, Shouta's current injuries would have precluded him from participating regardless. He spared a moment of sadness for the loss of a perfectly good excuse.
"Either way, we're all pretty sure that the last event will be one-on-one direct combat. Probably a single-elimination tournament."
"You don't sound too happy about that," said Hagakure.
"That's because we aren't," said Yaoyorozu. "But we have talked it over, and we think that it is the most likely scenario. As for why…"
"It boils down to UA needing to save face and single combat is the most popular event, even though it's kind of…" Midoriya trailed off.
"Ooh," said Ashido. "I hear some salt behind that. Spill it!"
"It's- It's dangerous," said Midoriya, finally. "More people get seriously hurt during that event than any of the others. And- and we made our guesses for the events based on patterns from the past, what's best for security, what we've actually been trained for, and what'll serve UA's PR, but that leaves, um. It's combat and speed heavy. Spotlight stuff."
"Fighting is what heroes do," said Sato.
"I know! But there's also underground heroes like- like Mr. Aizawa, or heroes that focus on investigation, like Sir Nighteye, or rescue heroes like the Wild Wild Pussycats. Usually, there's at least a nod to the other types of heroics in the sports festival, so those agencies can assess interns, too."
"Which is why Monoma and I believe the second type of teacher tag is the most likely first event," said Yaoyorozu. "The rescue relay does represent some aspects of rescue heroics."
"Yes," said Midoriya, with the air of someone who had argued about the subject extensively, "but-"
The intercom crackled to life. "Midoriya, Yaoyorozu, Monoma, Iida, and Uraraka, please report to the principal's office."