"Uraraka, please. I know you well enough to know that something's not right. Please tell me what's going on, then I'll run somewhere else," Ashido said.

"Mineta has been eliminated. 18 students remain," Aizawa announced over the intercom.

Although she had many questions swirling in her head at that point, Uraraka's main concern pertained to how Ashido of all people knew that something was up. Did Ashido know something that she did not? Was Ashido actually a mind reader, after all?

"Go away," Uraraka finally huffed.

Ashido pouted. She was tempted to try to steal Uraraka's flag, but she knew that was not the move to make in that moment. After turning around and taking a few steps, however, she stopped upon hearing a noise. To her surprise, Uraraka had called out her name.

Tears were crawling down Uraraka's cheeks.

Without a second of hesitation, Ashido skidded back over to Uraraka and sat next to her.

"Asui has been eliminated. 17 students remain."

Even if she was not a mind reader, Ashido had a fairly good guess as to what was up with Uraraka. But she also knew that now was not the time to talk. It was time to console and listen, for whatever was going on.

"I... I found out that Deku - Deku likes... her," Uraraka barely managed to say.

"Um... I, um..." Ashido did not know what to say to that.

"Jirou."

"...Oh."

Uraraka managed to recompose herself after a few more minutes passed. There were a few more eliminations in the meantime, although the two of them had zoned out from Aizawa's monotone announcements.

"I'm not mad about Deku liking her," Uraraka finally admitted.

"You're not?" Ashido included a surprised tone in her voice.

"I'm obviously disappointed. It's obviously not what I wanted. But... it's what Deku wants, and I have to support that."

The response stumped Ashido. "Well, you're a better person than me... but you have always considered other people's feelings first, so I guess I'm not too surprised."

"It wouldn't be fair to him. He's allowed to like who he wants. And there's more to life than worrying about stuff like that, anyways, like school and training... becoming the best hero I can possibly be is what's most important. There's a problem though..." Uraraka trailed off.

Ashido nodded. She wanted to try her best to not seem too nosy or enthusiastic about the situation. This was Uraraka's time to vent, not her time to lash out over romance.

"I still want to be friends with Deku. I had a conversation with him about it. And it went well, and I thought I would be okay, and then... I saw Jirou and him during homeroom and lunch... and I... just can't get over it," Uraraka's tone went from confidence to defeated. "Seeing them together just makes me feel jealous. I just wish it was me."

After she finished talking, Uraraka looked towards the ground. Ashido could tell that Uraraka was clearly lost. She knew that she needed to hear the best advice possible in that moment.

"Cut yourself a break, girl," Ashido finally said.

Uraraka looked over at her with a surprised yet subdued look.

"Think about it like this. The guy you really like just said they like someone else. You're allowed to be sad about it, y'know? I know you want to be positive, and I know you care about keeping a friendship and all, but maybe you need some time to heal first."

Now it was Uraraka who nodded. "You're right. The last thing I want to do is to take this out on you, Deku, Jirou or anyone else. I respect you all too much... I hope everything can be back to normal soon, even if they do become a cou-couple... We need to focus on school first, anyways."

"Yeah, it's not like they're a couple yet, right? Everything will be okay. And even if they do get together, you know Midoriya still wants you to be his friend and all. There's something really mature and healthy about the way you two operate. I wish I could learn to be like that... but for now, just give yourself a break and allow yourself time to heal over it. It's okay, Uraraka."

"Koda has been eliminated. 9 students remain."

The two of them then stood up. They were surprised that over half of the students were out already. Ashido then left, leaving Uraraka to herself on top of the roof.

Uraraka then heard an explosion.

"Gotcha, ha ha!" Bakugou yelled, using his Explosion quirk to launch himself up to the roof. Since he was able to land behind Uraraka, he then swiped the flag from her, and ran off to the next building.

"Uraraka has been eliminated. 8 students remain."

Despite wanting to protest, Uraraka got up and walked towards the entrance to the city. She berated herself for not considering the fact that people could use their quirk to get up to the roof, rather than the staircase alone.

"I need to get over Deku and Jirou. I need to focus on hero training. I can't fall behind. I can do this," Uraraka said to herself, clenching her fists.

"That's a shame about Uraraka. I better be careful now," Midoriya said.

Although he had tried to keep track of who was eliminated and who was still in the battle, he had lost track at some point due to a close call with Tokoyami. Off the top of his head, he knew that in addition to himself, those still in the exercise included Bakugou, Kaminari, Ojiro, Yaoyorozu, and Jirou. There were two others that he had lost track of.

He felt conflicted over Jirou still being in contention. On the one hand, he was of course rooting for his girlfriend to do well. On the other hand... the prospect of having to face off against her was not exactly something he was eager to experience. And not just because of them being a couple, either - her Earphone Jack quirk would be tough to go up against without noise cancelling headphones.

Although he was tempted to keep running, looking for more students still in the game, he stood in an alley for now. He wanted to craft a game plan before moving forward so that he would not panic in the midst of a duel.

"Kaminari has been eliminated. 7 students remain."

"Well, at least I won't have to deal with being shocked now," Midoriya said under his breath.

"Bakugou has been eliminated. 6 students remain."

"YOU HALF-AND-HALF BASTARD! You really had to use a sneak attack, coward!" Bakugou's yelling echoed in the distance.

"So Todoroki is still in and is probably somewhere close by," Midoriya muttered. "Better be careful to not be frozen by him."

"Oh, hello."

Midoriya looked up to see who had joined him at the entrance of the alley.

"Creati," Midoriya muttered.

Of all the people Midoriya had to face in this exercise, Yaoyorozu neared the top of his list of the toughest to face. Between her intelligence and Creation quirk, she was bound to be very unpredictable in a duel.

Before Yaoyorozu moved, however, Midoriya was able to make a quick scan of her arsenal. She held a piece of metal with a hook in her right hand - presumably to grab a flag from a distance. More surprising to Midoriya, however, was the second item Yaoyorozu held. He was unsure of what it exactly was at a first glance.

His curiosity would be answered with her next move. She placed the rather compact item on the ground, jumped onto it, and bounced into the air.

"A trampoline!" Midoriya cried - partially out of awe given it was the first time he had seen her use the item, but also out of concern as Yaoyorozu was now in the air above him.

Even if the trampoline was not something he predicted, however, he was more than prepared to deal with an aerial attack. Just before Yaoyorozu was close enough to reach his flag, Midoriya activated One For All to skid to the right. Then, he used his quirk to jump up on the wall, and bounced off the wall to now be the one above Yaoyorozu.

As Midoriya crashed to the ground, reaching for her flag, she used the hook and smacked him the other way, striking him right in the abdominal area.

"I figured you would try that. Jirou told me about that move," Yaoyorozu remarked.

Now laying on the ground, Midoriya tried to catch his breath. While the strike had not inflicted much pain, it did knock the wind out of him. He needed to think of a new plan. Fast.

"Nice try, but Jirou's never seen me wall jump," Midoriya said, causing Yaoyorozu to snap her fingers, realizing he would not be fooled that easily.

"Todoroki and Ojiro have been eliminated. Four students remain."

Yaoyorozu then jumped on the trampoline once more, soaring even higher in the air than before, but Midoriya was already on his feet again and ready to move. As Yaoyorozu fell down, this time with her hook aimed towards him, he rolled to the ground, and prepared to flick his left ring finger.

"Delaware Smash!" Midoriya yelled, flicking his finger to create a wind pressure wave.

The attack hit Yaoyorozu, causing her to fly backwards, resulting in her smacking the ground. The force of the impact caused her hook to be knocked out of her hand. Midoriya then ran to the trampoline, bounced into the air, and swiped Yaoyorozu's flag, right as she was getting up from the attack.

"Yaoyorozu has been eliminated. Three students remain."

With no one in sight, Midoriya helped Yaoyorozu up from the ground.

"I was worried about you using that move, but that was the risk I was willing to take," Yaoyorozu said.

"Using a trampoline was a great idea! Although I'm not sure why you tried to catch me off guard by saying Kyouka's name," Midoriya said.

Yaoyorozu gave no response to that. She left the area, holding the trampoline and hook in opposite hands as she headed towards the entrance.

Now with only three students left, Midoriya began moving to another area. He wanted to be on the attack, rather than the defense, now that there were so few students left in the exercise.

"Wait, who's even left?" Midoriya muttered. "I heard Aizawa-sensei mention eliminations during that duel with Yaoyorozu, but... ah, I don't know which names he said!"

There was no game plan now. He just had to move into a full court press and hope he had an advantage over the remaining opponents.

Another five minutes passed. No one was still in sight. Aizawa had said nothing over the intercom.

Midoriya then heard something. He could not make out exactly what the noise was, however, but he ran towards it anyways.

The noise got louder. And louder. And louder.

"Oh shit."

The noise then stopped as someone ran out of the building next to him.

She gave a smirk upon making eye contact.

"I'm not going easy on you, Izuku," Kyouka Jirou said to him in her signature bold tone.

Midoriya gulped. He had never directly fought against Jirou before. It was something he was well aware of prior to today, but still, he was in disbelief that they somehow found themselves in this situation now of all times.

"Me neither, Kyouka," Midoriya responded.

Before Midoriya could make his first move, Jirou plugged her earphone jacks into her boots, and unleashed more soundwaves towards him. To Jirou's surprise, however, Midoriya used One For All to get a speed boost to avoid the range of her waves, as he shifted to the left of her attack.

Placing his left middle finger on his left thumb, Midoriya then flicked an air wave towards Jirou.

"Delaware Smash!" Midoriya yelled.

Jirou, however, did not even flinch at the attack. She reactivated her soundwave attack and launched it towards the Delaware Smash. It easily destroyed the air wave, although Midoriya himself avoided the soundwave with another speed boost to the right of it's range.

"That's Counter-Balance, although I'm sure you already knew that," Jirou quipped.

"I sure do know it," Midoriya smirked.

Jirou then unleashed another Counter-Balance attack. Midoriya used One For All to avoid it, but this time, he ran all the way behind Jirou. He then lined up his left index finger on his left thumb. As Jirou turned around, just in time to see the Delaware Smash attack released, she used another Counter-Balance attack. It cancelled out Midoriya's attack. And, once more, Midoriya used One For All to avoid Jirou's attack.

By that point, Jirou's smirk only grew. Midoriya looked at his left hand - three of his fingers were already out of commission from his Delaware Smash attacks.

"Wait a minute," Midoriya said.

"Let's talk later," Jirou said.

"No. I know what you're doing, Kyouka. You're trying to make me use up all of my fingers so I can't use Delaware Smash anymore."

"I'm surprised it took you that long to figure it out. Pretty smart, huh?"

Midoriya nodded - not out of praise for his girlfriend, but rather because he genuinely agreed. He needed another strategy.

And that new strategy was forged just in time.

Using One For All, Midoriya started shifting in all different directions with his speed bursts, trying to see if Jirou would lose track of him. After a few more shifts, Midoriya ran to the building beside them, and wall jumped off the top of the doorway.

With Midoriya now high up in the air, Jirou looked upwards. Green sparks surrounded Midoriya as he fell towards Jirou. This was completely outside of her game plan for a possible duel with Midoriya.

"Try this!" Midoriya screamed, as his body began to glow red. "Full Cowl! Delaware Smash Air Force!"

Lining up all four of his right fingers on his right thumb, Midoriya blasted an even stronger air wave towards Jirou. It was so much more powerful, in fact, that a white blur in the air was visible from the attack, as it headed straight for Jirou.

"You try this!" Jirou yelled back. "Heartbeat Distortion!"

Jirou put her earphone jacks in her amplifiers on her hands. To Midoriya's surprise, however, Jirou slammed her hands onto the ground. The huge soundwave thundered towards Midoriya as he fell to the ground.

"Shit!" Both of them yelled simultaneously.

Midoriya was unable to shift his direction mid-air. He fell right into the range of Jirou's attack, stunning him and slamming him into the ground.

Jirou's attack did not go high enough to reach the Delaware Smash Air Force attack. The attack crashed into Jirou, causing her to go flying into the building behind her.

Both of them laid on the ground. Neither of them moved.

"Are Deku and Jirou okay, sensei? Uraraka asked.

Joining Uraraka next to Recovery Girl's office was Aizawa, All Might, Ilda and Yaoyorozu.

"They're gonna be fine. They took some huge impacts, though. We just wanted them to be under Recovery Girl's care for precautionary reasons," Aizawa answered.

"Whew. That was a crazy fight between Young Midoriya and Young Jirou!" All Might said. "That was interesting to see air waves go up against sound waves."

Meanwhile, in Recovery Girl's office, Midoriya and Jirou laid in different beds that were next to each other, as they both received treatment from Recovery Girl. Jirou was the first to be healed, as Recovery Girl gave a kiss to restore Jirou's health.

Jirou then watched Recovery Girl go over to Midoriya. She kissed him, and although Jirou was relieved that it would allow both of them to be healed nearly instantly, she felt a twinge of jealousy seeing someone else kiss her boyfriend - even if there was absolutely nothing romantic about it.

"How are you two whippersnappers feeling?" Recovery Girl asked.

"Who won?!" Midoriya and Jirou simultaneously said. Both of them laughed as they realized they had the same thing at the same time. "We're fine."

"I'm not sure, sweeties. You can ask your sensei later. For now, wait and rest for a few minutes, and then you can return to the dormitory. I'll be leaving for now," Recovery Girl replied.

Once Recovery Girl left, both Jirou and Midoriya looked at each other dumbfounded. From a Deep Dope concert a few days ago, to becoming a couple, to knocking each other out during a training session. It was quite the whiplash, physically and emotionally, for both of them.

"Are you okay?" Midoriya asked.

"Yeah, are you?" Jirou followed up.

"I'm alright. I'm used to Recovery Girl healing me by now."

"Oh, are you?" Jirou sarcastically said.

"I mean... I need to be healed a lot because of my quirk, y'know? I wish I could control my power better."

Jirou nodded as Midoriya mentioned his quirk. Pieces of the battle they shared began to come back to her mind. She realized that he had only used wind-related attacks rather than any punches or kicks.

"I'm surprised you use so many wind-based attacks, considering your quirk is called Super Strength," Jirou then said.

"Oh-Oh, um, All Might used a lot of wind-based moves, so I just tried copying him and well, I finally figured it out!" Midoriya stuttered to her.

"Hmm, that makes sense I guess... speaking of which, since you've needed to recover a lot... you've been kissed by Recovery Girl many times, huh?"

Upon realizing what Jirou was insinuating, Midoriya began to blush. Even after all of his recovery trips, he never really thought of it in that regard.

Jirou, on the other hand, snickered at her boyfriends embarrassment. Her sarcastic jabs had certainly not been compromised by the knock out.

"Izuku, have you ever kissed someone for real?" Jirou then asked with a much more sincere tone.

Midoriya blushed even harder. He could not believe where this conversation was going.

"N-No, I've never had a girlfriend before you, remember?... Have you?" Midoriya said.

"Nope. Wanna change that?" Jirou asked.

Now both of them began to blush to the point that they saw how red each other's faces were. Their hearts began to race. The wildest imaginations of what kissing each other would be like began to consume their minds.

Midoriya got up from his bed. Jirou could hear her heart beat faster and faster. He began to lean in.

"YOUNG MIDORIYA!" The door to the room slammed open.

Midoriya and Jirou screamed. Midoriya fell onto Jirou's bed, with both of them too horrified to even care at that point.

"And Young Jirou! I AM HERE!" All Might said, barging into the room and coughing up blood. "Are you two okay? The hits you took were wicked!"

Neither of them could even muster up an answer at that point.

"All - All Might, please knock next time..." Midoriya said, both angry and spooked. He stood up and walked away from Jirou's bed.

"I'm sorry, kiddo, I just couldn't stand waiting any longer! I was worried that one of you hit your head - Recovery Girl said her healing doesn't always help with concussions," All Might said.

"All Might, close the door," Jirou said.

The former No. 1 Hero did as commanded. "A couple of your chums from Class 1A are outside."

"That - ugh, that can wait. Who won the stupid game, anyways?" Jirou said.

"Oh, that. So Young Ashido came over after you two were knocked out and took your flags. So she won! Talk about being in the stealing seat," All Might answered.

Jirou somehow felt her blood boil even more upon hearing Ashido of all people had won.

"What a joke. And yes, my boyfriend and I are just fine. Can you give us a moment alone? We'll be out in just a second," Jirou said.

All Might gave a nod and exited the room. Jirou and Midoriya were now alone again.

"So..." Midoriya started.

"You know what, I actually don't want our first kiss to be in Recovery Girl's office. And I also want All Might to be far, far away, too," Jirou said.

"Fair enough. Let's go see the others now," Midoriya said.

A/N: Ugh... so close! :D

I had a blast writing this chapter, there was definitely some more action this time even if it was just training. It was fun having Midoriya and Jirou go against each other.

It's hard to believe that Chapter 30 is up next! This story started almost three years ago, and even if there's been some bumps in the road, I've really enjoyed writing this story overall. And we still have several chapters left to go!

Thank you to everyone for reading. Please leave a comment, favorite or follow if you'd like - your feedback and support is greatly appreciated and heard!

I'm also on AO3 (CuriousPug5), although I've only posted one-shots on there, but feel free to check it out!

Also, follow me on Twitter/X (CuriousPug5), I'd love to connect with some people on there and talk about MHA and other anime/manga stuff.