Izuku didn't know if it was all just a coincidence or if Principal Nezu was compensating for something but what was up with all of UA's main facilities being so imposing? First it was the four towers of the main building, then it was the dome of the USJ and now, after gathering early at their classroom, they were approaching the most intimidating cylinder Izuku had ever seen. The UA Stadium was only really used once a year, for the Sports Festival specifically, but it was built like it would be housing all sorts of games all year round. It was absolutely enormous and it even had several large boulevards reaching up to it, each one packed with all kinds of stalls.

Now that he thought about it, it was kind of like those stadiums countries used to build when they were going to host the Olympics. He was kinda glad that the importance of the Olympics had died down ever since quirks first arrived, there were quite a few horror stories from the locals where prior Olympics were being held. Ever since quirks came around though the UA Sports Festival has taken over. It was definitely nerve wracking for Izuku, having to perform in front of a live audience, as well as being broadcasted worldwide. And that wasn't even including the fact that he had to do the opening speech! Oh well, he did want to get himself out there right? So he shouldn't really be complaining about this guaranteed opportunity to show himself to the world.

The campus bus stopped near one of the side entrances and everyone was corralled off and into the locker rooms where they got into their P.E. uniforms. Izuku was a bit miffed that the Hero course wasn't allowed to show off their costumes but he smiled as he looked at his footwear. He and Mei-chan had discovered a little loophole: normally the Hero course was only allowed to bring a support item if it was necessary to have for their quirk, but as compensation they were allowed to bring their hero costume's footwear with them. Nowhere in the rules did it say that support items or features that were fully localised around the footwear weren't allowed to be brought with them, mainly since forbidding that would stop some people from being able to use their shoes at all. That reasoning is why Izuku clasped on the iron soles with a cheeky grin. He was really looking forward to shooting all over the place with his Solar Winds. If their year's umpire had a problem with it then they would tell him beforehand but they couldn't reprimand him since their rules technically allowed for it.

Coming into the main waiting room with plenty of time to spare Izuku decided to see if there was anyone he could talk to. He noticed Katsuki coming out of the changing room as well as they had a quick staring contest before Katsuki tsked and turned away. He didn't have as much luck with the support items as Izuku did, since the sweat transportation system for his foot explosions weren't fully part of his boots. Speaking of his boots though, Izuku remembered seeing the blueprints while in Akatani's room and they had some storage compartments for the sweat. He made a mental note to be wary of any surprise foot explosions if Katsuki had filled those compartments up beforehand.

Speaking of Akatani though, Izuku walked around a bit and eventually found both him and Gendeki sitting on a bench, probably talking about the upcoming day. Izuku walked up to greet them but Gendeki noticed his approach first. "Hello hello Midoriya, you know I didn't actually expect you to talk with that Pomeranian but since he seems really out of it I can only imagine what went down."

Akatani kept looking at the ground. "I-I'm sorry for r-ruining your f-friendship M-Midoriya-san."

Izuku eyed Gendeki before looking at him. "Don't worry about it Akatani-san, I'm kinda beating myself up for not noticing his behaviour sooner, at least now something can actually be done about it. Hopefully things can be resolved between us sometime soon, but right now it's time for the Sports Festival."

Gendeki butted in after that. "Okay but seriously, you definitely did something to him. Mikumo mentioned that Bakugō was going to request a partner change on Tuesday but Mikumo hasn't heard anything of that yet. Especially weird since he has those private lessons with Nezu so you'd think he'd have heard anything official by now."

Izuku perked up and looked over his shoulder to where Katsuki was sitting. "Eh? Yesterday afternoon he was going to Nezu to hand in the request forms." 'Is Principal Nezu just holding off on finalising the request or is there something going on at Katsuki's side?'

He looked back at Akatani and Gendeki. "Anyway, I'm sure that worrying about those things isn't going to help with the Sports Festival. Speaking of, what are you two planning on doing? I know that all the Management students are just gonna drop out as fast as possible so they can focus on marketing some of the Gen Ed students through social media but I'm not sure what you guys at Support are gonna do."

Gendeki shrugged. "Eh, well it's not really necessary for us to get through the Sports Festival, especially since we got some Gen Ed students that are gonna try and show off some of our gear cause of one swell guy's plan-" She moved closer and bumped him in the chest. "-but I think this might be pretty fun. I dunno what Mikumo's gonna do but if I somehow manage to get through to the tournament stage I'm probably just gonna drop out before that starts."

Surprisingly it was Akatani that spoke up next. "Uhm, p-principal Nezu told me th-that I should try to make it to the th-third round for extra c-credit."

Izuku processed that statement and flashed a smile in response. "Well I'm sure you'll be able to do it. If you want extra help though you can count on me of course!"

Akatani's head was still facing down but Izuku could see the corners of his mouth turn up from beneath the curls. "Th-Thank you Midoriya-sa-k-kun."

"It's no problem Akatani-kun!"

The intercom in the room suddenly turned on as a loud voice came through. "ALRIGHT LISTENERS, OR SHOULD I SAY WATCHERS?! IT'S THAT TIME OF THE YEAR YOU'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR. FINISH WHATEVER YOU NEED TO FINISH BECAUSE THIS YEAR'S SPORTS FESTIVAL IS ABOUT TO BEGIN YEAAAAHHHH!!!"

Izuku cringed for Jirō's ears but waved goodbye to Akatani-kun and Gendeki and made his way to where the rest of 1-A was sitting. He spoke up after a quick flash of his aura. "Alright everyone, we're about to be called out to the field. Is everyone here or are there stragglers?"

He looked over at Iida, who seemed to have some sort of 6th sense of knowing if everyone was present, for an answer. "Ah yes Midoriya-san, every member of our class is present and accounted for!"

"Alright then, let's get moving to our entrance and wait for the call!"

Looking everyone over one more time it was obvious that they were all pumped, though some were visibly nervous. There was no time to help calm their nerves though as they walked towards their assigned entrance.

"PRO HEROES, MEMBERS OF THE MEDIA AND ANYONE ELSE WHO DECIDED TO TUNE IN AND WATCH OUR BELOVED FRESHMEN, THE WAIT IS OVER! IT'S TIME FOR OUR YEARLY SPORTS FESTIVAL!!!"

A small blinking light near their entrance was all the warning Izuku was given and he strolled onto the field, the others following right behind him.

"FIRST UP IT'S CLASSES 1-A AND 1-B FROM THE HERO COURSE! THESE ARE THE ONES TO WATCH OUT FOR MY FELLOW PROS!!!"

Izuku looked around to see his sister-class strolling onto the field as well. Monoma looking like he wanted to preach about 1-B superiority but was keeping it to a condescending smirk because Kendō was walking right next to him.

"BUT LET'S NOT FORGET ABOUT THE OTHER DEPARTMENTS! NEXT UP WE'VE GOT CLASSES 1-C, 1-D AND 1-E FROM GENERAL EDUCATION, MIGHT WE SEE A DARK HORSE COMING FROM ONE OF THESE CLASSES THIS YEAR?!"

As the next few classes walked on the field Izuku could already spot the wild purple hair of Shinsō as well as Rukangaku, who seemed as apathetic as ever.

"AND THERE'S NO WAY WE COULD FORGET ABOUT OUR ECCENTRIC SUPPORT DEPARTMENT! CLASSES 1-F, 1-G AND 1-H ARE HERE TO SHOW OFF THEIR INVENTIONS AND KICK ASS!!!"

Izuku smiled when he saw Gendeki pushing Akatani-kun onto the field and the smile turned into a grin when he saw Mei-chan fully decked out with her babies waltzing onto the field, goggles already on to record everything in 1st person.

"AND LASTLY THERE ARE THE CLASSES 1-I, 1-J AND 1-K FROM THE MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT, THOUGH YOU'LL BE SEEING A LOT MORE OF THEM IN THE STANDS THAN ON THE FIELD IF THE PREVIOUS YEARS ARE ANY INDICATION!!!"

Outside of the two student council meetings Izuku hadn't spoken with anyone from the Management department so he didn't really recognise any of them.

"AND THERE WE GO FOLKS, TO ROUND OUT TODAY'S ROSTER, I'M YOUR HOST PRESENT MIC, AND THIS YEAR I GOT A CO-HOST!!! ERASERHEAD, SAY HI!"

"I don't know how you talked me into doing this."

"YOU'RE AS LIVELY AS EVER ERASERHEAD! AND LET'S NOT FORGET THE FIRST YEAR 'S UMPIRE! NORMALLY THIS WOULD BE OUR LOVELY MIDNIGHT BUT THIS YEAR WE GOT A LITTLE SURPRISE. YOU ALL KNOW HIM, YOU ALL LOVE HIM, IT'S OUR SYMBOL OF PEACE: ALL MIGHT!!!"

Izuku looked up excitedly when part of the sun got blocked from view. "HAHAHA, I AM HERE…AS YOUR UMPIRE!"

All Might landed and steadied himself as he walked up on to the podium. "BUT TODAY'S ALL ABOUT THESE YOUNGSTERS IN FRONT OF ME! SPEAKING OF, I'D LIKE TO CALL THE FIRST YEAR REPRESENTATIVE, IZUKU MIDORIYA, UP TO THE STAGE FOR THE OPENING SPEECH!"

He gulped at being addressed and hoped that the stuff he'd thought up during last night would be enough to not embarrass himself in front of everyone. After several tense seconds he reached the podium. All Might gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder and walked away from the microphone.

For one last time he steeled his nerves as he walked up to the microphone and spoke through it. "Uhm, hello everyone who decided to follow the 1st years this Festival. As the 1st year representative I'm here to give a speech, but honestly I think that's pretty unfair. I am standing here right now because I am the highest scorer on this year's Hero course entrance exam, I do hope there are no hard feelings from the staff for the dent I put in the budget."

Snickering was heard over the speakers. "Mic, your mic is on." "Wha? Oh whoo-"

"But that system ignores those who are skilled enough to have entered the Hero course through recommendation, not to mention those who successfully got into any of the other departments, which is no easy feat either. UA already encourages teamwork between the Hero and Support departments but we all collectively decided to go further than that, which is why all the departments came together for this year's Festival. I'm sure that all of the departments are as excited to show off what they've got as I am."

Izuku turned around to see all of his fellow 1st years. Despite everything, his eyes couldn't help but fall on Katsuki, who was giving him an expecting look. Izuku turned around again to face the Festival goers. "But I intend to leave my mark here during this Sports Festival, which is why I promise to win!"

He turned back to his class again when he heard a few jeers 'Do I even have to look and confirm that it's Rukangaku and co?' but he also noticed Katsuki's slight smirk. "And all of you should promise the same! For those of you who intend to let this Festival coast on by, you should know that not giving it your all here is an insult to those who've put their hard work and dedication into this."

When the few jeers had died down he looked back to the audience. "Today we're here to show the world what our generation's got! And I promise that we'll all go beyond!"

"PLUS ULTRA!!!"

As Izuku stepped back down from the podium the speakers turned back on. "ALRIGHT LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WASN'T THAT JUST A WONDERFUL SPEECH?! HONESTLY THOUGH, I WOULD'VE DEDUCTED SOME POINTS IF HE HADN'T CLOSED OFF WITH OUR MOTTO. GOTTA STAY ON-BRAND YA DIG?!"

"Mic, you're already talking through the speakers, for god's sake turn off your quir-"

All Might interrupted the slight bickering. "NOW THEN YOU NEWBIES, IT'S TIME WE PICK THE FIRST PRELIMINARY ROUND FOR TODAY!"

On the large screen in front of them a fake slot machine popped up that scrolled through several game names but it eventually settled down on 'HIDE & SEEK'. If it hadn't been for Izuku's close proximity and his prior time spent talking with the symbol of peace up close he would've easily missed the brief moment of surprise that crossed All Might's eyes, but it had already disappeared and he brushed some of the hair near his ear as he spoke up. 'Wait, does he have an earpiece in?'

"WELL THERE WE HAVE IT, HIDE & SEEK. DON'T LET THE NAME FOOL YOU THOUGH, NONE OF YOU WILL BE DOING THE SEEKING TODAY!"

The screen flashed to an aerial shot of one of UA's training grounds. "FOR THIS LITTLE GAME WE HAVE A SPECIAL ARENA SET UP IN TRAINING GROUND β!"

"TRAINING GROUND β IS DESIGNED FOR OUR HEROES IN TRAINING TO EXPERIENCE HERO WORK IN URBAN AREAS, AND HOW COULD WE LEAVE OUT A LARGE UNDERGROUND MALL FOR THAT?!"

The shot was then replaced by a sideways diagram of what looked like a large underground complex. 'Holy wow, UA really does go beyond with their stuff, that diagram shows that it's six floors deep!'

"ROAMING THIS ABANDONED MALL WILL BE SEVERAL SEEKERS, THOSE WHO TRIED OUT THE PRACTICAL EXAM WILL ALREADY BE FAMILIAR WITH THEM: IT'S THE ENTRANCE EXAM ROBOTS! THESE PESKY THINGS WILL TRY TO HUNT DOWN AS MANY CONTESTANTS AS POSSIBLE! IF YOU STAY IN THEIR VISORS FOR TOO LONG YOU'RE OUT! THIS ROUND WILL CONTINUE UNTIL WE'VE ELIMINATED ENOUGH PEOPLE TO PROCEED TO ROUND TWO!"

'That seems like a pretty interesting premise, wonder how long this will take though since there's no time limit.'

Almost as if All Might was reading his mind one more caveat came up. "ONE LAST THING THOUGH FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO WILL TRY TO PLAY IT SAFE AND DRAG OUT THE ROUND! IN THIS SCENARIO THE ROBOTS HAVE A COMMANDER THAT SITS AT THE SURFACE, IT CAN DETECT ANYONE FROM ANY DISTANCE BUT THAT TAKES A WHILE AND THE DISTANCE CAN MAKE IT TAKE EVEN LONGER."

All Might tapped his temple. "EVERYONE WILL SLOWLY GET DETECTED AND EVENTUALLY ELIMINATED, BUT THE DEEPER YOU GO THE LONGER IT WILL TAKE! WATCH OUT THOUGH, THE LOWER FLOORS HAVE WAY MORE AGGRESSIVE SEEKERS!"

'Oh that's how, seems like a decent balance.'

Having finished his explanation, All Might walked away as Present Mic's voice filled the arena. "AND THERE YOU HAVE IT FOLKS, THIS WILL PROVE TO BE A THRILLING GAME, WHICH WILL BE VIEWED THROUGH OUR EXTENSIVE CAMERA NETWORK! DON'T WORRY ABOUT TRANSPORTATION, WE'VE GOT A FEW BUSES RARING TO GO! ONE LAST RULE BEFORE YOU LEAVE THOUGH, DIRECTLY HARMING YOUR OPPONENT IS A BIG NO-NO. BESIDES THAT, GO AND HAVE SOME FUN YEAAAAHHH!!!"

And with that all the classes went through the main exit and onto one of eight buses, the Management students already having opted out to head for the stands instead.

The bus drive was actually really short, Training Ground β was about a five minute ride away from the Stadium, and all the remaining students now found themselves in front of an innocuous looking, relatively small building. Though if the introduction was correct then this was the entrance to a gigantic underground mall.

BZZZZZZTTTT

Izuku saw that everyone had gotten caught off-guard by that but before anyone could react the speakers around ground β went on. "AND THAT'S THE START OF THE GAME! DON'T WANT TO STAY OUTSIDE FOR TOO LONG BOYS AND GIRLS, YOU'RE STARTING TO GET DETECTED ALREADY!"

Those from class 1-A, who had gotten used to spontaneous starts, darted off and down the stairs. Lucky for them too as Izuku could already tell that the entrance, despite its large size, was already getting blocked. On his left he saw Todoroki-kun also running down the stairs, talking to himself. "They never mentioned that indirectly inconveniencing your opponents was against the rules so I'm sure they'll be happy if I speed this round up a bit."

Suddenly the entire entrance behind them had its floor completely iced up, bringing down the ambient temperature by a few degrees. "I SEE THAT TODOROKI DECIDED TO KICK THINGS OFF WITH A BANG! OR…WHAT SOUND WOULD ICE MAKE ERASERHEAD?"

"Don't ask illogical questions Mic. What Todoroki here has done is quite a strategic move. Immobilising this many opponents at the entrance will ensure that a large chunk of them will quickly be eliminated from the game. While I question his lack of reluctance it is not strictly against the rules."

Izuku stood still and tried to see if any of his friends had gotten caught in Todoroki-kun's attack. All of class 1-A and most of 1-B had completely dodged the attack, but a quick glance told him that Mei-chan, Akatani-kun and Gendeki weren't so lucky, their shoes being stuck in the ice. In a split-second decision Izuku ran back to the entrance and turned up his aura, enough to melt the ice that had been encasing his friends and some of the other contestants who were standing nearby. Luckily they had gotten stuck near the front.

Mei-chan was the first to run off. "Thanks a lot 0-pointer-kun, my babies don't like the cold very much, they're designed with explosions in mind!"

The next to move was Gendeki, who also started dragging Akatani-kun with her. "Thank you very much Midoriya, or can I call you Midoriya-kun now? Oh well, no time for small-talk. Come on Mikumo, we have a round to win!"

Izuku saw the already anxious look on Akatani-kun's face and made up his mind as he thought back to several days ago. "I hope you don't mind if I tag along with you two Gendeki-chan."

Her face lit up. "Midoriya-kun it is then! Now come on you two, we need to get deeper asap!"

The three of them quickly ran to the bottom of the stairs, which opened up into a large central area with several 1-pointers already roaming the grounds, large green lights illuminating the ground in front of them.

Izuku was the first to speak up. "Holy wow, that really is a lot of them, and this is only B1!"

They were suddenly interrupted again by some nearby speakers.

"OH WOW FOLKS, THAT MOVE FROM TODOROKI REALLY DID SPEED THINGS UP, WE'RE DOWN TO 120 CONTESTANTS ALREADY!"

Present Mic didn't seem to have anything else to say as the speakers turned off again. Izuku quickly devolved into mumbling after that. "If we wanted to just make it through then we could probably stay somewhere in the middle floors, since that's probably the best risk versus reward. But I don't want to survive, I want to win! There's no way all three of us can stay together without getting detected if we go to B6 though."

He got suddenly tapped on his shoulder by Gendeki-chan. "Yo mister 1st year representative, you're in luck. I think Mikumo here has a little trick up his sleeve. C'mon tell him."

She playfully shoved his shoulder and he cautiously looked Izuku in the eye. "I uhm…I-I've only had a few lessons with N-Nezu so far. B-but we talked about UA's r-robots a bit during one. A-Apparently they're designed to stay away f-from any active power systems unless th-they have to go there for s-safety purposes. If I remember c-correctly then the power s-system of this entire mall is located somewhere i-in B6."

'Dang I got lucky.' "Oh wow Akatani-kun, that's such useful information! The biggest obstacle would be getting down there and navigating through B6 but once we get there we'll be golden."

Izuku started looking around for any floorplans. "We don't want to be seen by other students though, in case they'll follow us. Wait, if we can find the elevator shaft I think I can get the three of us all the way down to B6 in a really short amount of time. If what I'm thinking is true then nobody else will be there."

His current teammates nodded and they started their journey to the elevator shaft. Both Akatani-kun and Gendeki-chan had several close calls with a few of the 1-pointers on their way there. At least the green lights coming from the robots slowly turning red was a pretty good indicator for how close you were to getting caught. As they slowly got closer to the elevator shaft more buzzers went off, people were getting caught quite quickly.

"DAMN ERASERHEAD, YOU'D THINK THESE KIDS WOULD KNOW MORE ABOUT HIDE AND SEEK! WE'RE DOWN TO 90 CONTESTANTS ALREADY, KIDS THESE DAYS JUST AREN'T HOW THEY USED TO BE!"

"Don't be stupid Mic, it's just logical since there are so many students at the start, things will start slowing down when we're down to the last few people."

As Aizawa-sensei was playing the perfect foil to Present Mic 'Maybe the 'how'd I get roped into this' was also a logical ruse?' the trio finally made it to the place the floorplans had shown the elevator shafts would be. To Izuku's delight the area had been completely locked up with shutters. "Alright this is perfect you guys, just hide somewhere close while I get us through these things."

Izuku concentrated and pumped up his aura around his fingers, a coat of plasma forming around them.

~"With temperatures like these you could totally be a plasma-cutter if you shape your plasma like a knife!"~ Izuku mentally thanked Mei-chan for her insights again as he carefully carved his way through the metal shutters. A quick clanking sound telling him that he'd succeeded.

He turned around at the pair of Support students hiding in some artificial bushes. "Alright you guys, the way is clear."

Gendeki-chan followed after him as he pulled apart the elevator doors and peered through the gap. "Uhm not to nit-pick Midoriya-kun but how exactly were you thinking of safely getting us all the way down without any working elevators?"

Izuku flashed a reassuring grin. "Don't you worry about that you two. As long as you hold on to my back then we'll be alright."

He carefully looked around the shaft and sighed. 'Thank god, there are exposed metal beams here.' "Alright you guys, hold onto me."

Both of them held on to one of his shoulders with one arm and each other with the other arm as Izuku positioned himself to the closest beam and attached his hands and feet with his magnetic field. 'Alright then, now slowly turn down the magnetic field until I start sliding down like those old magnets on a fridge. Hopefully these beams are flat all the way down.'

After a few tense minutes of carefully adjusting his magnetic field and sliding down Izuku's feet finally hit the bottom of the shaft. "There we go you guys, you can hop off now."

He looked back to see that Akatani-kun had gone beet-red and even Gendeki-chan looked a little flushed. "Ah d-don't worry about us Midoriya-kun, I think we should be more worried about whatever robots are down here."

The place they were currently in seemed pretty empty, it was a rather large open space with an All Might statue standing proudly in the middle.

They all startled when a large explosion sound came from one or two floors above them, followed by another bit of commentary by Present Mic.

"WELL WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT? IT SEEMS OUR CONTESTANTS ARE STARTING TO FIGURE OUT THAT THE ROBOTS ARE COMMUNICATING! IF YOU'RE CAUGHT IN ONE OF THEIR SIGHTS BUT GET OUT QUICKLY ENOUGH OR IF YOU END UP DAMAGING THEM THEY'LL SEND OUT A DISTRESS SIGNAL FOR ALL NEARBY ROBOTS TO CHECK OUT! THESE ROBO-BUDDIES AREN'T LETTING EACH OTHER DOWN!"

Izuku took a few seconds to clutch his chest and calm down. 'Dangit Katsuki, you're gonna bring this whole place down like that.' "Alright Akatani-kun, do you know where the power station might be?"

Before he could get an answer though several 3-pointers suddenly came around a corner and headed towards the elevator shaft. 'Crap, these robots can actually hear us from that far away?!'

Izuku motioned for the others to hide behind the counter of one of the empty stores and started whispering. "I think it's obvious that these robots can detect us way easier than those 1-pointers."

They nodded and Akatani-kun tugged on Izuku's sleeve. "I th-think the power station is somewhere d-down that hallway."

He gave a thumbs-up and they quietly made their way across the large room. Izuku mentally cursed the harsher sounds of his iron soles on the floor's tiling forcing him to move way slower.

As they turned a corner Izuku noticed one seemingly innocuous door that was being guarded by way more 3-pointers than were needed and they quickly backed up behind the corner again. Gendeki-chan was the first to say something about it. "Mikumo, you think that Nezu foresaw you trying this? There's no way we can get through those without getting caught and staying here in the open is really risky."

"H-He must have. Oh g-gosh I'm so s-sorry for telling you g-guys to go down here. Now we'll all g-get caught."

Gendeki-chan patted him on the back as Izuku peeked behind the corner and went into thinking mode. 'Dangit, if only I had a way to take all of them out without giving them the chance to alert nearby robots…ah, got it!'

He moved back behind the corner to address his teammates. "I think I have a way to get us through but I don't want to use it with the robots this close to the power system. One of us will have to draw the robots to another dead-end."

Akatani-kun looked like he'd pass out if he had to do it so Gendeki-chan pointed at herself instead. "You got it Midoriya-kun."

She suddenly darted past the corner and into a dead-end a bit further down the hallway, directly in view of the 3-pointers, which were drawn by the sound of her running.

As the 3-pointers passed him and Akatani-kun Izuku started charging up a Solar Flare in his right hand.

"Uh…Midoriya-kun, this isn't like a last-minute backstab is it?"

'C-class. Dangit, this is taking longer than I remember.'

Akatani-kun started shaking Izuku's left arm. "W-What are you doing Midoriya-kun!"

"J-Just a little longer." 'Come on…M-class.'

Gendeki-chan was backed up against the dead-end and the green lights of the robots were starting to get redder as the plasma in his hand finally got big enough. 'Fricking finally, now I just need to hit one of the robots.'

He carefully pointed his charged up hand at the 3-pointer in the middle of the pack and steadied his posture. 'Solar Flare, X-class!' Izuku shot out the ball of plasma with his magnetic field and unlike his prior Solar Flares (C-classes) the plasma was still fully present when it hit the middle 3-pointer head-on. Upon impact the robot's chassis melted completely and a slight shockwave of air flew out and through the hallway as the plasma ball imploded. A split second after that the other robots as well as the nearby lights all shut down.

Gendeki-chan carefully stepped past the small blockade of robot bodies and ran up to Izuku with a pout. "Screw you for scaring me like that Midoriya-kun."

"I-I'm sorry Gendeki-chan, that move took longer to charge up than I remembered. We should be good now though, on impact that plasma should've sent out a localised EMP, which means that all the robots were deactivated and unable to send out any signals to other robots."

As if to confirm his explanation, the sound of Present Mic from a far away speaker came up.

"OH WHOOPS, IT SEEMS THAT WE GOT SOME TECHNICAL PROBLEMS WITH SOME OF THE CAMERAS DOWN AT B6. HOPE YOU DIDN'T WANT TO SEE WHAT'S HAPPENING DOWN THERE FOLKS!"

Which was quickly followed up by grunt of pain. "Dammit Mic, don't give away someone's position."

"AW COME ON ERASER, IT'S NO FUN TO COMMENTATE WHEN I CAN'T SAY PART OF WHAT'S HAPPENING! BUT I'M LOVING THE MOVES THOSE STUDENTS WERE ROCKING YEAAHHH!"

Izuku sighed from the implications. "Dangit, I hope not too many of them will come here, if too many people start surviving then we'll have to start fighting and hope that some of them get caught."

Not wasting any more time though they quickly made their way to the power station room and hunkered down with the door closed behind them.

Gendeki-chan plopped down on the floor and Akatani-kun cautiously sat down next to her. "Oh man that was really nerve-wracking Midoriya-kun. At least now we'll have a guaranteed win, and it's all thanks to Mikumo!"

To emphasise that fact she twisted her body and wrapped Akatani-kun in a hug, who quickly went beet-red again. "Ah uh, I-I was- It was j-just pure luck th-that I knew that W-Warushi-chan."

Gendeki-chan pulled back and wagged her finger. "Nuh-uh, you did great and now we're on to the second round because of you!"

"AND WE ONLY HAVE 50 CONTESTANTS REMAINING! FOR THOSE STILL OUT THERE, I'D ADVICE YOU TO GO FURTHER DOWN IF YOU DON'T WANNA BE ELMINATED RIGHT BEFORE THE FINISH YA DIG?! GET IT ERASERHEAD, GOING FURTHER DOW-"

"If I hear you saying another pun I'm hitting you."

Izuku snickered at the banter 'Seriously, Aizawa-sensei definitely went up there to keep Present Mic from doing anything embarrassing on a live broadcast.' but quickly payed attention again when he heard odd noises coming from above. 'Crap, did someone else find us?'

He carefully eyed the duct that was sitting innocently on the ceiling above Akatani-kun before it fell on the floor and a pink blur landed directly on top of him. "Whoopsie, too much force on that!"

The pink blur, who Izuku quickly identified as a dust-covered Mei-chan looked up and around. "Hey 0-pointer-kun! It looks like the smartest minds all decided on the same thing!"

She then looked down again to a bright-red Akatani-kun. "Oh, didn't see you there! I don't remember testing any cloning babies on 0-pointer-kun?"

Gendeki-chan addressed Mei-chan 'Gendeki-chan has a weird look in her eye, like she's about to kick Mei-chan off of Akatani-kun.' "You're the pink devil from 1-H aren't you! Get off of Mikumo!"

Izuku eyed the somewhat horn shaped ever-present goggles covering Mei-chan's eyes. 'Yeah, I can see how that nickname came about.'

Mei-chan casually got off of Akatani-kun and waltzed over to Izuku. "I see you brought the soles with you 0-pointer-kun, good choice as always!"

She sat down, pulled out a screwdriver and started tinkering with one of the many support items she was wearing. "You know, crawling through all those vents wasn't very fun. At least I get to adjust some stuff for now. How long do you think until we're done?"

Apparently not very long as the sound of some muffled speakers came through. "OH WOW, KATSUKI BAKUGŌ AND CO. FROM 1-A COMPLETELY RUINED 1-B'S FORMATION BY LEADING A BUNCH OF ROBOTS STRAIGHT TO THEM."

"It was a very strategic choice from Bakugō, as the only other hero class in this Festival they were his main competition. This round was his best shot at removing most of them before they would be able to directly fight back in the later rounds. Their plan of huddling together at B5 and destroying all the robots from long-range would've worked perfectly if Bakugō hadn't taken advantage of that. Even the combined power of class 1-B couldn't hold back the hordes of robots his team amassed over this whole round."

"WHAT A LOVELY ANALYSIS FROM MY CO-HOST, YOU SHOULD TALK MORE YA KNOW?! ANYWAYS WITH THAT POWERPLAY WE'VE REACHED THE 42 REMAINING CONTESTANTS WE NEED TO MOVE ON! ALL REMAINING CONTESTANTS PLEASE FIND YOUR WAY BACK TO THE MALL'S ENTRANCE SO WE CAN GET GOING!"

The way back definitely took a lot longer than the way down, since Izuku couldn't really bring multiple people up through the elevator shaft and instead had to use the defunct escalators. Eventually the four of them were basked in the sunlight when they reached the surface again.

A billboard on one of the nearby buildings suddenly flashed on and a slight dimming of the sun was all the warning they got for the rapidly approaching symbol of peace, who landed on the roof of the same building. "HAHAHA, I AM HERE, TO EXPLAIN THE SECOND ROUND SO WE DON'T HAVE TO GO BACK TO THE STADIUM!"

Behind him the screen showed the slot machine again. After a few seconds of it being 'turned' it stopped on 'PAINTBALL. 'There it is again, that surprised look! Was All Might not made aware of the rounds beforehand? There's no way these rounds are actually picked at random right?'

"AHAHA, WELL THEN, IT APPEARS OUR SECOND ROUND WILL BE A PAINTBALL GAME!"

All Might paused and brushed the hair around his ear again. 'Must be getting the rules from someone probably.' "FOR THE BEST EXPERIENCE WE'LL BE DOING THIS ROUND AT ANOTHER SPECIAL LOCATION! DON'T FRET THOUGH, THE THIRD ROUND WILL BE THE CLASSIC TOURNAMENT BACK IN THE STADIUM! WE'LL BE HAVING A SLIGHT CHANGE OF SCHEDULE BECAUSE OF THIS THOUGH, SO INSTEAD WE'LL BE BRINGING ALL THE STUDENTS BACK TO THE STADIUM FOR A SHORT BREAK!"

"AND THERE YOU HAVE IT FOLKS, NOW'S THE TIME TO TAKE CARE OF ANY UNFINISHED BUSINESS, WE'LL BE BACK IN ABOUT 30 MINUTES!"

"I'm going to take care of that nap I missed because of you earlier."

As everyone started getting on the bus again Izuku saw Katsuki as well as Kirishima, Kaminari-kun and Ashido approaching the bus as a group. A week ago he'd have come up to him and gush about the move he pulled but a quick look at Akatani-kun, who was subconsciously clutching his right arm, pulled him right out of it.

Instead he was the one who got approached, and by Todoroki-kun of all people. "Midoriya, I've been wanting to speak with you since the start of this week, would you mind if we talked during the break?"

Izuku really hadn't expected Todoroki-kun of all people to approach him, and with such a serious look as well, but he quickly made up his mind. "Y-Yeah sure Todoroki-kun. Let me drink some water first though."

A nod was all the confirmation Izuku got before Todoroki-kun walked off again. 'What was that all about?'

Shōto Todoroki didn't know what to make of the sunshine enigma that was Izuku Midoriya. From first glance he seemed like your typical optimistic teen that wanted to show themselves to the world. But Shōto could tell there was something deeper hidden behind the smiles, he hadn't immersed himself in the world of conspiracy theories to not notice weird discrepancies like that for nothing.

That was why he was now holding a staring contest with the greenette in one of the Stadium's hallways…maybe he should've thought of what he was going to say beforehand though. Midoriya was the one to eventually break the silence. "Uh Todoroki-kun, was there a reason you wanted to talk with me here? Because I do want to get back to my frien-"

"You're peculiar Midoriya."

That interruption just made things more awkward as Midoriya fell silent again. 'Maybe Fuyumi-nē was right when she said I should socialise more.' "A lot of people have already pointed out that your quirk makes you a more powerful Endeavor, even if you say that it's based on something completely different. More importantly though, my Father has been acting weird for the past week ever since I mentioned your name, he even went to the R department when you were there instead of leaving for patrol like normally."

'Midoriya's starting to look nervous, I must be onto something. Time to strike.'

"Midoriya, are you my Father's secret lovechild or something?"

Midoriya's eyes went wide at the question. "E-Eh?! What are you talking about Todoroki-kun!?"

'He's deflecting, I have to keep pushing.' "You've never even mentioned a father for as long as we've been here at UA, even though you talk about your mother quite often. The way you've described your quirk makes sense for it to be a mutation of your mother's but surely your father's quirk must've had an influence as well?"

Midoriya still looked like he was rebooting as his eyes were flitting all over the place and his face was going through several expressions so Shōto gave him the time to recuperate, luckily that didn't take too long. "N-No, you got it all w-wrong Todoroki-kun. My mom wouldn't have cheated on my dad. I just never mentioned him because he…because I don't…errr it's because he's been uh…working! Y-Yeah, he's been working abroad in uh…America for a really long time for a…support company!" Midoriya snapped his fingers at that. "Yeah that was it, now I remember. Sorry for that." Midoriya gave a sheepish smile.

'Does he think I'm stupid? If that was him telling the truth then I don't want to know what he's like when he's trying to lie.' "…Alright then, keep your secrets Midoriya. Nevertheless, Father's behaviour when it comes to you tells me there's some connection there. I wouldn't be surprised if your mother just told you that because she didn't want you to know that that bastard was your father. I wouldn't have put it past him to go around being a sperm donor if it meant getting further ahead in his career. "

"T-Todoroki-kun, what are you talking about?!" 'Oh, I was brooding again wasn't I?'

"It's alright Midoriya, my Father has been very discreet about his family's history. Surely you know that he's been stuck behind All Might in the rankings for almost 25 years now right?"

Midoriya gave a hesitant nod.

"His dream has always been becoming the number 1. Being in second place for decades must make a man desperate."

"Todoroki-kun, where are you going with this?"

'Nobody's eavesdropping, time to spill the beans. If I want his help I'll have to say this.' "Midoriya, you've already gotten quite the reputation for being a quirk nerd so surely you must know about quirk marriages."

Another hesitant nod from Midoriya. "Y-Yeah, it's not quite an outlawed practice but still a very taboo one where two people get together for the sole purpose of creating offspring with more powerful quirks."

"Then surely you can guess that my ability of generating fire and ice didn't just come about as a happy little accident."

"O-Oh."

"Yeah 'Oh'. My Father practically bought my mom from her family. He might say that it wasn't like that but the Himura family is one that has fallen from grace so there's no way she wasn't pushed by her parents to enter the marriage."

Shōto paused for a moment to let the information sink in for Midoriya. "It took four tries before he succeeded in creating a quirk that counteracts the one drawback that he believed stopped him from becoming number 1. He deemed the first try a somewhat favourable outcome but the second and third tries weren't and were promptly neglected."

Midoriya's gaze was starting to make Shōto uncomfortable so he looked down at his hand. "I don't know what Father was like before I was born but Natsuo-nii told me that the bastard suddenly seemed to grow a conscience sometime after I was born. I personally think he was just trying to play it safe when he finally got his 'Masterpiece' but there's no way to be sure. Despite that he still wasn't present often, relegating all the parental duties to my poor mom. The only time any of us saw him was during dinner or when he was training me and my oldest sibling…"

~Bright blue flames and screams of pain were all that filled the courtyard on that winter day.

"SHŌTO, GET YOUR MOTHER OVER HERE RIGHT NOW, HURRY!!!"

"Dad it hurts so much, it won't stop!"~

"-doroki-kun are you alright? You fell silent for a bit."

Shōto was shocked out of his memories by Midoriya. 'Dammit, it happened again. I should finish this up.' "Sorry for that Midoriya, what I was going to say was that everything seemed like it was going fine until an…accident happened with my eldest sibling: Tōya."

Shōto sighed as he recollected the next bits. "In the end his quirk turned out to be too much for my poor Father to put up with, it was only a month or so after that accident that he gave up on him and practically threw him away for someone else to deal with. I haven't seen him since. Mom went with him too so I guess Father decided her use was up as well."

He looked back up at Midoriya, who still seemed to be processing. "O-Oh god, I'm so sorry Todoroki-kun. Is this why you asked to speak with me?"

Shōto nodded. "Yes it's related, after the accident Father went even more absent, leaving all the homely duties to mom while Tōya recovered. It wasn't until Tōya came back home that he did a 180 and tried getting close to us. He's still keeping it up to this day, even after mom and Tōya left. It's honestly just condescending after all the shit he's done to my family, acting like none of it happened."

He huffed but was inwardly relieved that he got through everything. "To get to the point, you asked me for a favour, which implies that I'm allowed to cash back in. I'm doing that right now. If my memory serves me right then Tōya should be 23 at this point, but I still haven't seen or heard of him or my mom from anywhere. Father and my siblings seem to act like he's gone but I'm not buying it. I'm hoping that you'll help me find out what happened to him and try to find him."

Midoriya stayed silent for a little while as he seemed to mull it over. "Y-Yeah alright Todoroki-kun, I'm not sure how I can help but I'll see what I can do. Let's try and have some fun at the Sports Festival first though right?"

"Yes of course Midoriya, I'm sorry for taking up your free time with this."

"Ah it was no problem Todoroki-kun, I'll talk to you later then I guess."

Midoriya gave a reassuring smile and then walked out of the hallway, leaving Shōto behind to fall back in another memory.

~"Hey pipsqueak, what's got you making such a long face?"

"Tōya-nii, why do you and mom have to leave?"

A slightly scarred hand ruffled his hair. "I'm sorry for hogging mom all to myself but dad says that this will be for the best."

A short silence fell in the front yard. "Hey, I noticed that you haven't been using your fire at all during training the past few days."

"I don't wanna use his flames, he's being a bully for making you go away."

"Heh, it seems that you got your pettiness from me. But that doesn't sound like a very good idea."

Tōya-nii grinned at him as the wind blew petals off of the cherry blossoms. "How about this squirt: Instead of thinking of it as using dad's fire, how about you think of it as ours instead? My flames are way cooler than his after all!"

"Tōya, don't keep the driver waiting too long!" Mom suddenly shouted from down the road, pushing a suitcase in a nondescript black car with a suited man sitting in the driver's seat.

"Right mom!" He turned back to Shōto. "So how about it, you gonna keep training with your fire? I won't be gone forever, once I make it big out there as a pro I'm gonna visit you and I better be blown away by how well you can use that fire of ours. You don't wanna hurt your big bro's feelings right?"

Shōto could feel the corners of his mouth turning upwards. "A-Alright Tōya-nii. I'm not gonna show dad though, I don't want him getting any of the credit."

Tōya-nii smiled and ruffled his hair again. "There's the pettiness again, you make your big bro so proud! I really don't understand how you keep those two halves of your hair separate though."

"TŌYA!"

"Ah, I'll see you in the future squirt. I better be blown away." He winked and then turned around as he started walking off. "Yeah mom I'm coming, geez!"~

Shōto stared in silence as he spawned a few tiny flames dancing around his palm but eventually set out for the lunch room as well. 'I'll find you Tōya-nii, so I can finally show you what I've done with our fire.'

Izuku wasn't showing it but inwardly he was still reeling from the conversation he just had with Todoroki-kun. 'How am I even supposed to respond to that? Quirk marriages, a missing son, whatever's got Endeavor interested in me of all people?!'

His mind quickly went to a more important matter. 'What the heck, I can't believe I almost completely forgot about dad! I barely remember anything though…how long has he been in America? I should ask mom when I get home, now's the time I follow my own advice and enjoy this Sports Festival though.'

He cleared his mind and paid attention to his surroundings. Just in time too as Present Mic's voice filled the Stadium again. "ALRIGHT FESTIVAL GOERS, IT'S TIME FOR THE SECOND ROUND. TAKE IT AWAY BIG GUY!"

Izuku and all the other students turned their heads to the empty podium, which now had All Might standing on it in all his glory again. 'Eh, how'd he do that?'" "HAHAHA, SURE WILL! NOW THEN."

The words 'PAINTBALL' appeared again on the screen behind him. "THERE WE GO, THIS NEXT ROUND WILL BE A PAINTBALL GAME BETWEEN SIX TEAMS!!!"

All Might turned back to the contestants. "BEFORE YOU CREATE YOUR TEAMS HOWEVER YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT ALL OF YOU HAVE BEEN ASSIGNED A POINT VALUE BASED ON HOW WELL YOU DID DURING THE FIRST ROUND!"

Another diagram appeared on screen with some animations of stickfigures on different floors of the mall with a big robot at the top floor, as well as some stickfigures going in and out of a robot's detector.

"THE RANKING OF HOW WELL EACH ONE OF YOU DID WAS BASED ON HOW LONG IT WOULD'VE TAKEN BEFORE YOU WOULD'VE BEEN DETECTED BY THE BIG GUY AT THE TOP AS WELL AS HOW MANY TIMES YOU NEARLY GOT CAUGHT BY THE SMALLER GUYS! THE LOWEST RANKER OF THE 42 HAS 5 POINTS, WITH EACH HIGHER RANKING GAINING AN ADDITIONAL 5 POINTS!"

'Wait, so if the ranking depends on how long you were at the lower floors and I went to B6 near the start and spent the rest of the round there without getting in any visors then…'

"-WITH FIRST PLACE INSTEAD HAVING 10 MILLION POINTS, GOING TO IZUKU MIDORIYA FROM 1-A!!! HE SAID HE WANTED TO MAKE AN IMPACT SO LET'S SEE HIM TRY!"

'Well…crap.' He thought as everyone's attention went on him again.

""BUT THAT'S NOT ALL! BEFORE I GET ON WITH THE RULES OF THE GAME LET'S TALK ABOUT THE ARENA THAT THIS ROUND WILL TAKE PLACE IN! EACH OF THE SIX HIGHEST SCORERS WILL BE THEIR OWN TEAM CAPTAIN WITH A FULLY UNIQUE AREA ASSIGNED TO THEM."

All Might then motioned towards the other referee, Cementos, who had been silently standing on the side.

"DESPITE OUR ESTEEMED FACULTY THIS STADIUM IS A BIT CRAMPED FOR THAT, WHICH IS WHY…"

The big screen suddenly flickered to the inside view of a place Izuku hadn't thought he would've gone back to for another few weeks at least.

"…WE'LL BE USING THE DIFFERENT DISASTER ZONES OF UA'S VERY OWN USJ! WE'RE REALLY GOING ON A TOUR OF THE CAMPUS THIS YEAR!!!"

As All Might started explaining the rules of the upcoming paintball game Izuku instead found himself getting lost in his thoughts again. 'Oh, that weird feeling from two weeks ago just came back…double crap!'