AN: Professor Donger: This chapter fucking sucked; we're sorry that it took so long for us to write. Writers Block hit both of us like a freight train, and a bunch of other stuff happened that distracted us from writing, such as a bunch of games coming out in quick succession. We never intended to write so much for the Sports Festival, if I'm honest. So I do want to warn you all that after the festival is over we will be compartmentalizing and focusing on who our main cast is supposed to be (namely Izumi.) but we hope you enjoy the chapter!

Damian: Multiple times throughout writing this we'd get stuck or distracted and I mentally screamed so loud it manifested outside my mind. A lot of the screaming was stuff like "DEMOCRACY!" and "FOR THE EMPEROR!"

Anyways, y'all waited almost 9 months for this, so here you go! Enjoy!


Shoto's fingers clenched, aching from the cold and numbness that had crept into his right side. His initial glacier attack was a miscalculation, underestimating Denki's power-up that turned a pebble into a lethal projectile. The frost that had accumulated on his body was a painful reminder of his overexertion. He realized glaciers were futile. He needed to strategize, conserve his energy, and avoid moves that Denki could easily counter or react to.

His left side twitched as he considered for a moment using his fire…

But he shook it off. He didn't want to use that against a comrade if he could help it.

He ignored that he had mentally called it his fire, not his father's, and focused on the fight before him.

The sound of the audience drowned out as he focused and watched Denki's every movement, waiting for his much faster opponent to make a move first.

It felt like minutes, maybe even hours, when it was only a split second in reality, but finally, Denki moved. Blinking out of Shoto's line of sight in a flash of lightning, Shoto was thankful that he could still somewhat track the yellow blur racing toward him.

He stomped on the ground, and a thin coat of ice covered the ring. It did nothing to deter Denki's charge, but that wasn't the point. Building up ice in his hand, Shoto slammed it onto the ground. Along the ice-covered ring, the ice began to build up in random areas until ice pillars erupted from the ground.

Denki tried to stop as one of these pillars blocked his path but slipped on the ice beneath his feet. He fell to the ground and slid on his stomach until he hit the pillar head-first.

"Ow, fuck!" He held his head and tried to shake off the pain. The sound of ice forming snapped him back into the moment, and in a flash, he was on his feet and jumping out of the way as the ice began creeping around where he was, trying to trap him.

He sighed in relief, but it didn't last long as he saw ice begin to build up on the pillars'... well, everywhere.

"Oh shit," was all he could say before the first ice projectile shot out of a pillar at him. He barely moved his head out of the way to avoid being hit by an "ice bullet." He doubted it would have killed him, but it still would have hurt like hell if the pain he felt in his head was any warning.

More ice bullets began to shoot out of the pillars, but he jumped into the air to avoid the barrage. He landed on the side of one of the pillars and immediately jumped off to avoid another barrage aimed at him. He jumped around the arena, pillar to pillar, a yellow blur that looked like a pinball, as he kept moving to avoid Shoto's attacks. Eventually, he noticed the volleys of projectiles slowing down. He saw Shoto, still in the same spot as before, and jumped towards a pillar closer to his opponent.

"That's cold, Todoroki, real cold! I thought we were friends!" Denki shouted mockingly as he landed on the pillar, jumping off again as Shoto fired more ice bullets.

"We are not friends." Shoto deadpanned, causing Denki to smile.

"Good, then I don't have to feel bad about this!" With that, he thrust his fist forward, opening his palm and sending lightning arcing toward its nearest target, the very wet and ice-covered field, as well as Shoto.

The sound of thunder roared throughout the stadium again as the blast made Landfall. Electricity arced into the ground, the heat flash-drying the arena and sending steam skyward.

Denki didn't have time to bask in how insanely cool he must look. Instead, he focused on safely landing and moving to finish off a most likely twitching and paralyzed Shoto.

The fog cleared the moment he landed, once again showing the lightning quirk user that the fight would be a lot more work than he thought it would be.

Denki felt his left side twitch.

Shoto had managed to create a glacier around him, and since Ice was an insulator, he was relatively unscathed. The dome had taken most of the damage.

"Goddamn," Denki whispered.

The ice dome began to steam and melted away, revealing Shoto standing there. His left side was alight with a weak flame, which he used to free himself. Subsequently, the ice that had formed across his body also melted away.

Denki twitched again. His whole body felt tingly. It didn't quite feel like his brain was beginning to short-circuit, but it was tough to ignore.

"It seems your new power has drawbacks as well." Shoto intoned; he raised his left hand, "Though not as easily countered as my own."

"Damn," Denki scratched the back of his head. "Not gonna lie, was kinda banking on you not using your fire."

Shoto narrowed his eyes. "I'm not," he said through gritted teeth.

"Yeah?" Denki scoffed, ignoring as his entire body twitched this time. "And I'm not a living lightning rod. Dude, you're literally on fire. How is that not using your flames?!"

Shoto didn't answer; instead, the fire on his left side immediately extinguished itself, and his glare at Denki intensified.

Denki groaned. "Whatever, man. Call it what you want, but if you ask me if you're gonna use it at all, might as well use it in its entirety or something. I mean, what difference does it make besides how much you're holding back?" He sighed but smiled as he felt the electricity inside his body intensify. "But that's none of my business. I'm here to win, so if you're gonna make this easier for me, I won't complain. This fight was already pretty damn epic."

He closed his eyes, and electricity exploded from his form, arcing around him and even back into him as his veins began to flow with lightning.

He opened his eyes to show they were glowing with energy. A manic grin split his face as he yelled. "LET'S FINISH THIS!"

"DID DENKI JUST TURN SUPER SAIYAN!?" Izumi announced, chiming in for the first time since the match started.

"Did you teach them that?!" Yu asked.

"Bitch, I'm quirkless! I can't do this shit, let alone teach them how to!" Izumi gushed,

It seemed the two had gotten over the quiet shock the whole match had caused the crowd, and with them, the crowd began to go absolutely bananas.

Shoto gritted his teeth and stomped on the floor. A thick wave of ice arched from the ground and rushed towards Denki like a tidal wave.

"Oh shit, actually, do you think we should stop this?" Yu asked, concerned, the wall of ice Shoto had launched was really freaking big.

"Hold up, let 'em cook!"

"But Izu-"

"LET! THEM! COOK!"

Before, Denki would have probably shit himself if he saw an attack like this looming over him, ice so thick that even the Sun's light wasn't shining through it. But now? Now, he didn't care, he felt the power in his veins.

With a crack of lightning, Denki was in the air, electricity arcing off his body as he drew back his hand. It shook momentarily, and for a second, it sounded like a subwoofer had manifested within the stadium around Denki's hand.

And then he thrust his hand forward, releasing the energy and dropping the bass. A beam of concentrated lightning raced toward Shoto's glacier, each pulse emanating a deep bass that couldn't really be described as thunder, just pure sound, as the air around him was disturbed by the energy he was outputting.

Ice and lightning collided, and the former was blasted apart as it came into contact with the beam of pure energy. Slowly, Denki's beam ate away at the glacier as Shoto tried to brute force his way through his opponent's attack, even placing his hand on the ground and pouring more ice into the glacier.

It was a test of strength, and Shoto found himself losing. He let out a yell of exertion as the beam of lighting grew closer and closer until the last of his glaciers exploded, sending him flying back. He skipped across the ground painfully but managed to throw out an ice wall to catch him and save himself from being sent out of bounds.

Though his back didn't appreciate it as he started coughing, the wind thoroughly knocked out of him.

He looked up at Denki's form in the air and saw the electricity die down. His opponent dropped to the ground, landing on his feet with his head down.

Shoto struggled to his feet and weakly took his stance, barely able to conjure any more ice. The glacier had taken so much out of him, and he momentarily thought about heating himself up before stomping out the idea. He would finish this without using his father's flames for anything.

Not to mention…

He blinked at his arm; it was red with frostbite…

Heating it would make it worse. So, instead, he kept his eyes focused on Denki, who didn't move. It felt as if they were back at the start of their fight, both combatants waiting on the other.

And then Denki raised his head… with a dumb smile before giving Shoto a big thumbs up. "WHEY!" with that, he fell onto his back, giggling and twitching.

Shoto blinked.

The crowd was silent before Midnight's voice rang out across the stadium. "Uhm… Denki Kaminari is unable to continue! Shoto Todoroki wins the match!"

"That was so anticlimactic… AND YET SO COOL!" Izumi cheered.

"Izumi, your students could have killed themselves!" Yu shouted.

"Yeah, but they didn't!"

"And if they did?!"

"Not possible! We had safety drones on standby to save either of them if they couldn't keep up."

"Oh… Well, that would have been good to know before I started to lose a few years over here."

"Please, you were loving it as much as I was."

"You have no evidence of that."

The crowd took that as their queue to absolutely lose their minds.

The cheers would have been deafening if his ears weren't already ringing from the thunder and other loud noises he had to deal with today. He was about to walk out of the ring and over to Recovery Girl's infirmary to get checked out and healed before he turned to Denki.

He moved over to his fallen classmate and helped him up, putting one of Denki's arms over his shoulder as he helped him out of the Stadium.

It was the least he could do for an opponent that pushed him so far.


Meanwhile, in the 1-A booth, everyone was silent. Everyone was simply trying to process what they had just witnessed, with varying reactions.

"You would have died…" Minoru muttered from his place next to Tsuyu.

"..." Tsuyu blinked at the stage before nodding. "I'm glad I surrendered when I did, kero."

"Speaking of which," Kyoka turned to the barrier separating their class' booth from 1-B's and called out, "Yo, Kendo! How's Shiozaki holding up?"

Itsuka pulled herself up to look over the barrier and answered, "She's currently deep in prayer." She looked back at her class before turning again to 1-A. "It's getting more intense by the second."

Kyoka nodded in acknowledgment, and Itsuka disappeared. She leaned back in her seat with her arms crossed. "...How does praying get more intense?"

"Easy," Katsuki said.

"...You gonna tell us?"

"Nope."

"Figured," Kyoka sighed. "You know, I'm surprised you aren't foaming at the mouth right now from that fight. I thought you of all people would be looking forward to fighting one of them."

"Oh, I'm excited," Katsuki calmly said. "I'm so excited that it looped back around to calm."

"I… guess that makes sense," Momo said, uncertain. "Anyways, we're going into the next round of matches. You're first against Tokoyami, right?"

"Oh yeah," Kyoka snapped her fingers. "That's technically a two-on-one fight, isn't it?"

Katsuki scoffed as he got up and headed for the exit. "Then it is an even fight."


Shoto blinked and groaned as his father came into view inside the tunnel leading to Recovery Girl's infirmary.

His father raised an eyebrow, and Shoto raised one back, ignoring that he obviously must have verbally groaned instead of mentally like he thought he had.

He was too tired and sore for this shit.

He adjusted Denki and continued walking, passing his father, only to stop when the old man opened his mouth.

"Exemplary performance," Enji complimented, "Your skill with your ice is top-notch, as always." His father turned to look at him, and Shoto merely turned his head to glance at him with a scoff.

"Really? Compliments from you?" He growled. He must have been more tired than he thought; his emotional control was shot.

"If you want me to criticize your performance, I can, but I will openly admit that you handled yourself adequately; I've noticed that you even started to use your fire more often in combat, which is good."

Hearing Endeavor call it his fire almost caused Shoto to lash out at his father. Instead, he spat, "And what? You expected me to use it against him?" He gestured with his head at Denki, who was busy dozing off.

"Of course not," Enji crossed his arms over his chest, "Your fire is powerful but untrained. Using it against an opponent without the proper training can lead to life-threatening injuries, but I am glad that you are no longer refusing to use it at all. Hesitation can lead to death in our line of work, Shoto. Handicapping yourself out of spite is the best way to get yourself and others killed, and it seems you're finally realizing that." He gestured to Denki, "Your classmate was powerful and using an untested skill for the first time, but that doesn't take away from the skill both of you showed, so you deserve praise for it."

Shoto blinked at him in surprise and frowned, "What's happening right now?"

"An evaluation," Enji answered.

"Oh, there it is," Shoto sighed.

"As I said, I'm glad you're growing out of this childish phase. It's been going on for far too long. Perhaps the incident at the USJ finally made you realize how much you still need to grow. I read the reports."

"Of course you did." Shoto tensed when his father moved to stand next to him, his form towering over the young Todoroki's.

"As I've said, your skill with your ice is exemplary, which is why you lasted so long in the arena. But do not forget, you only won because your opponent did not heed his natural limits. You are both strong, yes, but your limits right now can be so much higher, and you even have a way to counter your quirk's drawbacks, yet you choose to harm yourself by not using an entire half of your gift!" Enji huffed. "Improvement is Improvement, but you have fallen so far behind Shoto. Your starting line was years ago, yet your classmates have already caught up to you within a month. You have stagnated."

Shtoto simply stood there silently, waiting for his father to finish his lecture/rant. It was nothing new, nothing he hadn't heard before.

When Enji said nothing further, he turned and leveled his father with an icy look. "Is that all… sir?"

Enji narrowed his eyes before turning away. "Go have Recovery Girl fix your arm."

Shoto wasted no time, not even a second glance, as he continued towards the recovery room.

"Damn, and you were doing so well at the start."

Both Todorokis turned and noticed Izumi walking down the hall from the infirmary with a frown on her face. She smiled at Shoto and Denki and hiked a thumb over her shoulder. "Head down to Recovery Girl; she's waiting for you, and boy, is she not happy. Word of advice: watch the cane and protect your knees. She ain't old anymore, but she'll still swing for them."

"Yes, Sensei," Shoto nodded and moved past her, disappearing down the hall and leaving the two Pro Heroes alone.

The air was filled with a slightly awkward silence until Izumi decided to break it. "So… I've only recently become a mother, but do you want pointers on talking to your kid empathetically, or…?"

Enji blinked at her and hummed. "You must be Flintlock, Shoto's heroics teacher."

Izumi shrugged, "Well, really, the Co'Heroics teacher for all of UA, but you're not necessarily wrong. All Might's also teaching whenever he's free. He's as busy as he is built like a tank, like you, actually. Speaking of which, what workout routine do you use to get that physique, holy shit."

Enji ignored her question. His workout routine was for him to know… he didn't want anyone stealing it. He was about to say so when Izumi once again shrugged.

"Eh, it doesn't really matter. I'll just bug All Might about it, though I probably don't want to get as big as you two. My girl would kill me…" She trailed off, a faraway look in her eyes as she shuddered.

"Flintlock, is there a reason you're here?" Enji deadpanned, causing Izumi to blink and focus back on him.

"Oh! Yeah, right, two things!" She quickly pulled out a notebook, "Can I have your autograph!?"

Enji blinked, but he grabbed the notebook and opened it to the page bookmarked by the pen inside. He saw what seemed to be a very detailed profile of himself. He took a moment to look it over before raising an eyebrow at her. "This is excellent work, better than the quirk councilor I have hired for my agency, and I hire the best."

Izumi rubbed her head with a nervous chuckle, "I kind of had to become a quirk councilor for my sibling's sake, and I've always found them fascinating, so I tend to go above and beyond…" She laughed, "My sister and I like to analyze quirks; she's gonna take over for our Pa as a support specialist, so she needs to be good at working with all sorts of quirks…"

"Right," Enji said as he handed back the notebook. "Anyways, you had something else to say?"

"Oh, right! I wanted to ask," her tone suddenly became serious as she stared Enji down. "The fuck did you do to Shoto?"

"...Excuse me?" Enji asked in an equally serious tone to match hers.

"That boy is fucking traumatized," Izumi crossed her arms, "My brother and sister hated their quirks for the longest time, and my sister still does, because of abuse they experienced from family, society, and people they should have been able to trust, I had to pick up the pieces slowly, and I'm still putting them back together. I know trauma when I see it." Izumi scowled. "Something obviously happened to that young man to make him abhor half of his quirk, something so bad that life-threatening incidents aren't enough to make him budge, so why is he like that? I doubt the fact that he specifically hates his fire and calls it yours is a coincidence."

Enji crossed his arms and stared Izumi down as she did the same. The tension in the hallway could have been cut with a knife as the two Pro Heroes stood their ground.

Eventually, Enji narrowed his eyes and hummed. "I see you are suspicious of my treatment towards Shoto. I suppose the scar on his face does not help my case." He paused before continuing. "It is a family matter, one I would not share in great detail, but know this: Yes, I have trained Shoto to use his abilities from a very young age, but never have I scarred him. Have I pushed him? Yes, but I have never burned him. I have only ever tried to see to it that he had the greatest advantage going into hero work and the best control over his quirk. If I had it my way, he would have mastered both ice and fire by now, but his stubbornness to neglect the latter… well, evidently, I don't need to tell you how that has been going."

Izumi hummed. "That explains the exemplary skills, but what about the burn mark?"

"An accident, unrelated to training," Enji said. "The matter has been dealt with a long time ago, but he holds resentment and has fabricated reasons that led to him refusing to use his fire out of spite."

"I see. Maybe if I knew what happened, I could help?" Izumi shrugged. "Just a suggestion."

Enji's eyes narrowed once more before he walked past Izumi. "Your suggestion has been noted. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to return to my patrol. I simply came to speak with my son."

Izumi didn't bother turning to watch him walk away, instead letting out a tired sigh.

Then she heard him speak again.

"I do not claim to be the greatest father, but what I do, I do for my family. If Shoto wishes to be a hero then it is my duty to make him the best he can be. Surely you as an educator can understand that."

Izumi was silent for a moment before nodding, still not turning around. "Yeah, I do."

"He will surpass me," he said. "And if he doesn't… then I have failed."

With that, Endeavor marched off, leaving Izumi alone in the hallway.

"You and me both," she said to herself before making her way back to the commentator box.


Katsuki felt his face twitch, as he resisted the urge to let an excited grin grace his lips at the idea of the fight ahead of him. Sure, Fumikage hadn't been on his radar before, but after Dark Shadow's display in their match against that 1-B guy whose name Katsuki completely forgot about, he was impressed. Needless to say, the dark duo's ranking on Katsuki's mental tier list of his classmates had gone up significantly.

Birdbrain was officially moved up from C Tier to High B Tier.

B Tier officially was where obstacles were, in Katsuki's mind, and as the old adage goes, obstacles are for killing.

He let the grin he was holding back finally appear on his face, and he chuckled. Hopefully, this fight would be as fun as his one with Kyoka. He would find out soon enough as the stadium speakers came to life and Deku's voice came through loud and clear.

"Well, folks, in any other situation, I'd say no one would be able to follow up to the last match, but considering who our next combatants are, I'd say they've both got a good shot at giving us a hell of a performance."

Yu chimed in at that point cheerfully, "That's right! So, without any further adieu, we have our combatants! From the east gate, he's dark, he's mysterious! He scared the pants off his opponent! Fumikage Tokoyami!"

Katsuki ignored the cheers as he waited for them to call his name. In the minute he had, he started to strategize.

He could try and take the two out in one shot, but that wasn't challenging enough for him, and wouldn't be something worth doing against a B-tier opponent. C-tier and below? Fuck them, they deserved it for being weak and wasting his time. But Anyone above that? They earned the respect of a full ass-kicking.

Maybe he could goad Birdbrain's quirk into possessing him again? That would definitely move him up a notch and make the fight harder…

Katsuki paused his thoughts with a frown as he felt his arm twitch. He knew what that meant. He wasn't tired; it took a lot to tire the blond bomber out, but his quirk was… strained, for lack of a better term. He hadn't gone past his physical limit yet, but the shakes were a warning from his body not to overdo it.

That Vader bot really was an S-Tier opponent if it got his body to this point already…

That meant he couldn't enjoy this fight like he wanted to if he really wanted to stick it to IcyHot. The jerk may have been hiding his full power, but he was still Endeavor's kid, personally trained by the Number Two Hero. He was still high enough on Katsuki's arbitrary tier list to cause him to reconsider his battle strategy.

The crowd started cheering again as his name was called, and Katsuki's frown morphed back into a grin. His battle strategy was set.

'Sorry, Birdbrain, but I gotta do it to you.' He thought as he started walking towards the arena.


Izumi was at the edge of her seat, ready to watch her little brother pull another win out, silently apologizing to Fumikage for her thoughts.

She loved all her cute little students, but she loved Katsuki more than most, though Momo, Ochako, Pony, and Minoru were quickly racing up in her heart's standings…

She frowned and was about to start commentating as the match began when she felt her phone vibrate and her eye's HUD flashed the caller ID in her peripheral vision.

Team Idaten? Blinking, she picked her phone up and motioned to Yu with it, mouthing a quick 'I've gotta take this' before stepping away from her microphone and a bit further down the booth so Yu's microphone wouldn't pick up her conversation.

Yu quickly gave her a thumbs up and immediately flinched as Katsuki slammed Dark Shadow with an explosive palm.

Izumi frowned as she looked at her phone for a quick second, 'Why is Ingenium calling me?'

She was familiar with Team Idaten. It was a hero agency that was currently run by the hero Ingenium, a family legacy held by Tenya Iida's family. The current holder of that title and legacy was Tensei Iida, Tenya's older brother.

She knew that there was no way Tensei had gotten her number from his younger brother. After all, Tenya was a stickler for the rules and wouldn't have handed it out. Hell, she had only given it to the students in case of emergencies.

So, how had Tensei gotten it? She quickly answered before he could be sent to voicemail, deciding to work under the assumption that this was a business call, and not one made by a curious older brother checking in on his sibling through one of said sibling's teachers.

"Hello?" she answered with a professionally polite tone.

"Hi, yes, is this the American hero, Flintlock?" She heard a man's voice, one who didn't sound that much older than her on the other end.

"This is her. Who's asking?" She already knew who, but she was prompting Tensei to give his reason for calling, she could admit she was a little impatient that she was missing Katsuki's fight!

"This is Ingenium. Thank you for answering. I know you're probably busy with the sports festival, but this couldn't wait, and I can't send my request over text."

She gave an affirmative hum and nodded to herself. It made sense, she is allowed to do hero work in Japan, due to the alliance with NATO, but the HPSC still doesn't like foreign heroes poking their heads in Japanese business, so she's not able to be reached through them for official business. The best way to do that would be to contact her directly. It didn't explain how Ingenium had her number, but oh well.

"Well, what's your request?" she asked, getting straight to the point, walking over to the window to watch the fight while she talked, blinking as Katsuki sent what looked like a flashbang-enhanced palm straight into Fumikage's face. "Oof."

"Everything alright?"

"Yeah, just watching my kids kick each other's teeth in."

"Oh yeah, Tenya told me you were one of the new heroics teachers…" Tensei trailed off.

"Speaking of which, was he the one who gave you my number?" She asked, seeing the opportunity to express her curiosity. "He won't be in trouble if he was, but I will need to talk to him about it."

"Oh! No, that was Mount Lady. I know you two are commentating on the festival together, so I texted her during the break and asked. I needed to contact you quickly and couldn't find your agency number here in Japan."

"Oh yeah, I don't have all that set up yet," Izumi sheepishly told him as she glanced at Yu. She covered her phone with her hand and whispered to her friend, "Giving my number to random people who ask, huh?"

Yu stiffened in her seat and gave a nervous chuckle. "He's, uh… not exactly a stranger?"

Izumi blinked in confusion, staring at Yu momentarily before noticing her quickly growing blush. A grin befitting the Devil himself grew on Izumi's face, and she filed that nugget of Intel away for later as she went back to her phone call.

"Anyways, yeah, I'm still available for official business. So what do you need?"

"I hope you don't mind, but I looked into you out of curiosity. Along with the usual peacekeeping and villain capture-hero work, it says on your profile that you're also skilled in tracking and investigative work. I was wondering if you'd be able to help me out."

"Well, I could. I'm Gonna need more details, though."

"Of course, We're looking for a serial killer that's been targeting heroes. Goes by the name of Stain."

The moment the name reached her ear, her eye immediately pulled up any information the HPSC had on him, as well as any international information it could find, which wasn't much. However, she blinked in surprise when she noticed that the CIA put together some of the available info.

Huh, even the spooks at home were looking into him?

The main information that popped up was how recently multiple lower-ranking heroes had been found either dead or maimed in alleys all over the country, along with possible descriptions of the perp.

"Damn, I've been so distracted that I haven't been watching the news lately. Guess I've been busy," she thought aloud.

"Stain has only ever attacked lower-ranking heroes when they're alone, usually luring them away and isolating them before striking. Those that survive say all he rambled about was 'purging the weak and the fakes,' whatever that means."

"Sounds like some kind of cultist," Izumi muttered as she tapped her prosthetic fingers against her thigh, grinning a little as Katsuki finally pinned Fumikage while keeping Dark Shadow at bay with a bunch of mini-flashbangs going off in his palm, winning the match via forfeit. "I've dealt with a few of them back in the States, they're never fun, and they never shut up about their weird ideals."

"I have all hands on deck over here trying to track Stain down, but it's like he's always just out of reach. If we could just find some pattern or figure out his motive… point being, I need more help, and figured maybe her visiting Number 10 would be interested."

Izumi nodded her head as she thought for a second, before sighing. "Right, hold off on any searches until after the Sports Festival. Internships are coming up, so I'll have more free time to help out. For now, have your sidekicks travel in groups of no less than three while on patrol. I'll stop by your agency, and we can try to find a pattern before heading out and finding the bastard."

Tensei was quiet momentarily before sighing, "I don't like leaving him to hurt more people like this, but you have more experience with this kind of work than I do, so I'll defer to your judgment." He paused before saying, "Yu did mention how determined you are when you set your mind to something, so I'd like a bit of that determination on my team."

Izumi immediately turned to Yu and pointed at her, "SO YOU TWO ARE FUCKING!"

Yu blinked at her, her face red as she quickly pointed to the microphone, which was currently turned on from her giving closing commentary to the match.

They both heard Nezu's cackling laugh in the background, and Izumi felt her soul turn to ice when she realized that Eri had heard that.

"...I'm a terrible mother."

"Uh, hello?" Tensei asked over the phone, "Are you still there?"

"Yeah, Ingenium. I am. I'll get in contact with you after the festival, okay? Have a little patience, and we'll have your cultist killer in chains faster than you can run. Now excuse me as I go and contemplate throwing myself off the top of the stadium."

"Wait, what?"

"Okay, bye."

"Wait, hold o-"

She didn't bother to hear his response, instead hanging up and walking over to her seat. She put her head down and groaned in despair.

"Mel is gonna kill me…"

Yu patted her on the back. "If your mom doesn't kill you first."

"If the embarrassment doesn't kill me first."

"Inko will resurrect you so she can do it herself."

"And then Kacchan will resurrect me to kill me for dying."

"Yeah… What a weird death loop."

They sat silently for a moment before Izumi groaned and looked at the bracket, "Who's next?"

As she looked at the next match-up, a smile found its way to her face.

"Well, at least this match'll be good."


Pony and Ochako had gone their separate ways a while ago, going to their respective locker rooms to watch the upcoming fight.

This was fine, Pony thought, as she stood at her exit, tapping her right hoof against the ground nervously.

Everything was fine, she just had to fight her best friend and the girl she had a massive crush on.

No pressure.

Oh, and of course, she was being watched by not only all of Japan but also her idol and mentor.

Okay, maybe there was a little pressure.

Where was the authority or mentor figure with a motivational speech when you needed one?!

She looked over her shoulder and waited for someone to come around the corner.

And she waited…

No one.

Oh well, she'll just have to-

"I am here! And also nowhere!"

"Fucking space balls!" Pony yelled in panic as she whirled towards the end of the tunnel that exited into the field and saw Twice flexing there like he was All Might. "Twice? Where you come from?!"

"My Mama! The Abyss!" Jin gave her a thumbs-up.

"Okay…" She mumbled, confused but secretly pleased to see him. She liked Twice; he was funny and gave her Sweet Business! She flinched thinking about her faithful gun, killed before it could shine in her hands…

She shook her head and looked at Twice with suddenly shining eyes. "Are you here to give me a new gun?!"

"Actually, no. Yes. No, I'm here to talk to you about that thing you asked me about," Twice said with his mask, somehow noticeably winking.

"Thing?" Pony questioned with a tilt of her head.

"Yes, the thing. You know, what you texted me about?" He held up his phone and shook it, trying to jog Pony's memory.

"...OH!" Pony'she eyes went wide in realization. She had been so distracted with the upcoming match that she had forgotten she had sent Twice a text asking if the match could have… certain conditions. "That thing!"

"Yes! I talked with Ochako- and died afterwards- and she said it was okay with her. She says it will be fun! It will be horrible! I ran it by Nezu, and he also approves!"

"Oh, Twice!" Pony clapped. "Thank you! You are best man!"

"Thank you! I know!" He bowed before standing up. His mask's happy expression suddenly turned into a vaguely sad one. "Now, I must leave this mortal plane." He then started to melt before Pony's eyes.

"Thank you, Twice Clone," she said dramatically.

The clone gave her a thumbs-up as he melted. "Tell my stor-" his words became garbled as his mouth melted, and so did the thumbs up.

"...Well, that would have been mentally scarring if I wasn't aware the real Twice is okay." She took a deep breath, staring out at the arena. She tried to take her mind off of who she was fighting, instead letting the thought of her request being approved fill her with joy.

She heard the loudspeakers come to life to announce the match and made her way out onto the arena.

"For our next match, we have the Dynamic Duo of class 1-A!" Flintlock began.

"The girls who have been stealing the show so far with their teamwork, wins, and dramatic betrayals!" Mount Lady continued.

"One brings the horsepower, and the other brings celestial might!"

"The Cowgirl versus the Space Ranger!"

"It's Pony Tsunitori…"

"And Ochako Uraraka!"

The crowd went ballistic as the two girls took their spots in the ring. Across from her, Pony could see Ochako blushing quite a bit from the attention. Pony could only imagine what her own face must feel like with how warm it felt.

Ochako looked over towards her and said, "They're really hyping us up to the audience, huh?" Pony could only nod in agreement.

"Alright, folks," Flintlock began. "We know you're eager to get to the match, but first we'd like to explain that this match has been given a special… modifier."

Mount Lady then picked up where she left off, "At the request and agreement of both combatants, the arena will be changed. Say goodbye to the bland old flat square! Cementoss, if you would."

Off to the side of the arena, Cementoss rubbed his large, blocky hands together before crouching down and placing them upon the arena. The cement of the whole platform began to remold itself until the arena became littered with tall pillars of cement.

From what Ochako or Pony could tell, the pillars themselves weren't very sturdy. They weren't rooted in the ground or the arena itself; they just stood freely. Though they were thick enough to remain standing on their own, they were not at risk of falling over unless a powerful force was applied.

Both contestants felt a smile reach their faces in anticipation.

"Thank you Cementoss!" Flintlock continued, sounding giddy. "Let's turn it over to Midnight and get this show on the road!"

Midnight made her way to the center of the arena and gestured to the two. "Alright, you two, I don't want to see anything naughty between you." She winked at them, "Save it for the bedroom, okay?"

Pony blinked, barely understanding what the pro-hero implied, while Ochako looked flustered. After taking a moment to interpret what she heard, Pony's face turned a brilliant red, and she yelled out, "Midnight!"

With a shit-eating grin, Midnight cracked her whip loud enough to ensure both girls could hear it as she announced, "Let the match begin!"

Pony immediately fired off her horns, jumping on them before riding them into the air as she entered the mess of pillars. Being on the ground was a bad idea, since Ochako could hide behind any corner and easily grapple her. At least in the air, she had some superiority.

However, Pony failed to consider how much more aggressive and downright feral Ochako had been getting throughout the festival. She had expected Ochako to wait for Pony to come to her, to make the first move.

That isn't what her, frankly batshit insane, best friend had done. Instead, the girl used her quirk to jump to the top of the pillars and waited for Pony to pass by. Then, she jumped off with a war cry, aiming for Pony.

Pony yelled in surprise at the sudden impact and weight, swerving through the air and barely dodging flying face-first into a pillar. Ochako negated Pony's gravity, and she felt herself floating off her horns, her hooves kicking uselessly in the air.

"Sorry, Pony, but I have to win this!" Ochako said as she wrapped her arms and legs around Pony, putting her in a sleeper hold and beginning to choke the other girl out. She didn't want to hurt her friend, but this match would end one way or another, and Ochako intended to be the victor.

Pony tried her best to pry herself free, but struggled as she was being deprived of oxygen. She gritted her teeth and guided the horns that were still in the air back towards them. She grabbed them with her hands and held on to them, and she used them to propel her and Ochako backward, right into a pillar at full speed. Ochako took the brunt of the impact, and let go with a yell of pain.

Pony then put some distance between them, and Ochako immediately used her quirk on herself to avoid falling to the arena floor. She watched as Pony tried to recover, getting used to being in zero gravity while flying with her horns.

She narrowed her eyes and kicked off the pillar to the ground. She released her quirk once she was at a safe height from the floor. She heard Pony's surprised yell as gravity suddenly returned to her, but she ignored it as she ran up to a pillar and grabbed it with both hands.

At first, she felt her quirk resisting, as it tended to do when she pushed its size and weight limit a bit too much. She sucked in a deep breath and forced her quirk to work, to enforce itself on the pillar and cancel its gravity.

"Uhm, Izumi, what is she- WHAT THE HELL?!" Mount Lady yelled as Ochako grabbed the giant pillar with her bare hands. "Doesn't her quirk have a limit?!"

"Uh… Plus Ultra?" Even Flintlock sounded unsure of herself.

"That is a terrible reason for your student to suddenly ignore her limits like that!"

"To hell with limits!" Ochako yelled as she swung the pillar in Pony's general direction, hitting a bunch of other pillars in the process, almost like a scythe cutting through a field. "LIMITS ARE FOR PUSSIES!"

"Oh shit!" Pony slipped into English and her eyes widened as she tried to dodge as much of the incoming debris as possible. She raised her arms to block what she couldn't dodge, but honestly, it was futile. Luckily, she had the foresight to take herself closer to the ground, so when a huge piece of pillar hit her, she didn't get as hurt from the fall, though her body was very much in pain from how much it was pelted by bits of concrete.

She groaned as she tried to stand, but before she could get even one hoof under herself, she was immediately tackled by a just as tired Ochako. Both girls tumbled to the floor, and Ochako tried to pin Pony to the ground, and despite overworking her quirk, tried to cancel Pony's gravity so she couldn't push Ochako off.

Pony, however, grabbed Ochako's hands by the wrists and kept her from using the five fingers needed for her quirk. She then reversed the situation on Ochako, straddling her and pinning her to the arena floor. Sweat and dust covered their faces as they looked at each other, and Pony could see just how much of a toll Ochako's stunt had taken on her. Her face was pale, and it looked like she was struggling to stay conscious, and yet she continued to struggle, to try and push Pony off of her and win.

"Jesus Christ, woman! It's just a medal!" Pony yelled, tired and shocked by how far Ochako was willing to push herself.

"Pony," Ochako tiredly said, "I don't fucking understand English!"

Pony huffed. "It is just medal! What gives?!"

"...It's not."

Pony's eyes widened when she thought she saw what looked like tears begin to form in Ochako's eyes.

"It's not just a medal," Ochako said, her voice cracking. "You don't understand. I need this. I need to win. I have to win." She tried again to push Pony off, but Pony didn't have to try to resist at that point. Ochako was too tired to push her weight off. "So I have to beat you!"

Pony was at a loss for what to say. For one, she had never seen Ochako even come close to crying before. This had to be some sign of the apocalypse or something as far as she was concerned.

There had to be more to all this than just winning, Pony knew that. Ochako would never have gotten this upset over simply losing.

The sounds of the stadium and the world around them faded, and all Pony could focus on was her best friend.

She wanted to win, too… but she didn't need it as badly as Ochako.

She looked up and saw that they were practically right next to the boundary line. The white line was just a couple of feet away. With a deep breath, Pony made her choice.

"Okay," she said as she loosened her grip on one of Ochako's wrists.

Ochako widened her eyes in surprise but immediately pulled her hand free and grabbed Pony's wrist with all five fingers. She felt her stomach nearly evacuate then and there but held on for just a while longer as victory was literally within her grasp.

But before she did anything, she paused. She looked up at Pony, who was looking down at her with her kind smile. She wanted to ask why. Why would Pony give up her win?

"Just," Pony interrupted her thoughts, "win this for us. Okay?"

Ochako felt a few tears slip down her face, carving a path through the dust. "Okay."

With not-so-insignificant effort, she pushed Pony off and behind her. When she was sure she would land somewhat out of bounds, she brought her hands together and muttered a tired, "Release."

Pony's back hit the ground with a small off, and her hooves just hung past the boundary line. Ochako let her arms fall to the side, next to her head, as her strength left her.

The footsteps of Midnight walking through the smoke barely registered to them as she stopped next to the pair. After a moment, they heard her announce, "Pony Tsunitori is out of bounds. Ochako Uraraka advances to the next round!"

Ochako released a breath she didn't know she was holding. She was still in the competition. She could still win.

She felt something warm touch her right hand, and mustering the last of her strength, she looked up to see Pony's hand trying to hold hers. She smiled and met her halfway, Pony's hand resting atop hers as her grip on her consciousness finally slipped, and she passed out.