Ch 23: Meeting 1B

Everyone spent the last few weeks preparing for the Sports Fetival, as it was a chance for anyone to show themselves to the bigger world. One day before that, though, both Heroics classes were summoned to the outdoor area. Their teachers explained that since they would be broadcasted live, their behavior had to be appropriate. For this reason, they would be conducting a fake final round to access how students would act. Rules were simple: one person from each class would clash in a 1v1 fight using their quirks. The goal was to force surrender, incapacitate or move opponent out of bounds. Winning or losing hardly mattered here, it was more about avoiding excessive force, treating your opponent with respect and impressing the crowd.

First round was Momo Yaoyorozu vs Minoru Mineta.

"Is this the guy Kendou-san complained about?" Izuku thought.

"Hey, baby." The little one spoke. "How about I treat you to a dinner after this?"

"I'd rather eat dirt."

"Well, that works too." He shrugged.

The battle began. Mineta started throwing balls from his head at Momo. She quickly dodged them while making a staff to strike him from range. The grape boy baited an overhead slam, only to stick the pole's end to the ground with his quirk. Finally, he used momentum from bouncing off a ball's side to lunge towards his opponent. Momo saw that he'd crash into her abdomen, so she thought of a counter attack. Taking a page from Midoriya's book, she raised her shirt to launch a bullet from her body. Mineta swiftly covered the exposed skin with a ball and kicked against it midair, flying backwards and throwing Yaoyorozu off balance. Midoriya had to use KQ to completely destroy the thing and let the girl free. Mineta was declared the winner.

"It appears I have underestimated you, Mineta-kun." Genius talked to bouncy boy.

"You weren't the first, you won't be the last. He he."

It was time for the second round: Izuku Midoriya vs Neito Monoma

Even though Izuku asked the VP of class 1B about his quirk many times, he never got an answer. So this encounter would be educational at least. As soon as fight started, green head's legs were sinking into the ground, and Monoma was laughing at the distance. Killer Queen started to blow up the liquidized cement, hoping that only a thin a layer of it was affected by Monoma's quirk. There was a limit to how much matter the kitty cat could destroy at once. It was too high to worry about when fighting enemies, but it did matter when doing deconstruction like this. After brute forcing his way towards Monoma, Izuku ordered Killer Queen to grab him by the arm and throw him out of bounds. As soon as KQ made contact, another KQ emerged from blonde's body. Midoriya quickly pulled out his quirk and made a detonator gesture, claiming he could explode his opponent. He became the winner.

Neito could not escape a barrage of questions coming his way from Izuku. Turns out, his copy quirk allowed him to copy a quirk of someone else for up to 10 minutes. As far as Midoriya could tell, imaginary friends weren't copied; otherwise he'd get questions about voices in the head.

Round three involved Izuku's "lovers": Itsuka Kendou and Ochako Uraraka. They awkwardly stared at each other and at the boy. His reputation as the lady killer was only getting stronger. Mina would be tease him about for a while. Kendou's experience in martial arts allowed her to outmaneuver her opponent and win with a few clean strikes.

Fourth round clashed Ibara Shiozaki and Katsuki Bakugo, two powerhouses of their classes. Despite vine girl's attempts to restrain the explosive boy, he managed to rush her, blast past the vines and knock her out cold in within 15 seconds. Some guys from 1B scolded him for being too rough.

Todoroki against Honenuki: battle between two recommended students. It was the first tie of today, as was both of them got trapped in each other's quirks moments after the fight has started.

Iida was fast, but he wasn't fast enough to push Kaminari out of the arena before getting zapped by a wave of electricity.

Tokoyami was confident in Dark Shadow's power, but they barely managed to push Kirishima outside the field. This was probably the closest fight so far, despite the difference in range.

Tetsutetsu (Kirishima's brother?) was tough, but he wasn't agile. Asui made sure to exploit this face by dodging around him at striking with all of her strength. She won the battle of attrition in the end.

Jirou vs Yanagi was an almost a quirkless fight, as neither had much offensive power without support equipment. Kyoka managed to jab Reiko in her eye to win.

Shishida vs Shouji was an old fashioned brawl between two strong mutants. Giant from 1B ended up winning, much to Mezou's (and Momo's) dismay.

Mina tried to hold her own, but Setsuna's control over her individual body parts allowed her to easily dodge the acid and overwhelm the alien with attacks from all directions.

Pony had the easiest fight in her life, as she pinned Tooru to the ground immediately after getting attacked once.

Monoma taunted 1A about how his class had more wins, which forced Kendou to smack him on the back of his head and apologize on the class's behalf.

Izuku was in the boy's changing room when putting his sport uniform into the bag, he saw something disturbing. A severed hand! How? When? Did Kira find a way to remotely control Killer Queen?

"No."

"Alright. May be someone wants to frame me? Tsuyu did mention how I chopped off a hand before. Right now I need to go the principal and tell him about this catastrophe."

He hid the arm beneath the suit and quietly marched towards Nezu's office. He was stopped in the middle of a crowded corridor by Kaminari.

"Dude, we need to talk. Right now!"

"Crap! Crap! Crap! Crap! Crap!"

They both went into an empty room. Midoriya assessed if killing him right now would be wise. No! He's not a fucking murderer! Besides, Denki might be a victim just like him.

"Dude, I need you to tell me the truth, about the hand."

"It's not my fault, okay?! Someone is trying to frame me!"

"I believe you. That someone is trying to frame me too. "

"What do we do then?"

"The culprit wants to meet us in 1A classroom in..." He looked at his phone. "5 minutes?"

In said room there was another bag with a note saying "Put your hand inside, Midoriya. Don't use your quirk."

"It's a trap."

"Obviously."

"I wish I could use King Crimson to see what kind of surprise is waiting for me."

Izuku asked Denki to get away from the bag and put his hand in. His fingers got grabbed by something. He closed his mouth with KQ to not scream from pain and pulled his hand back. It was mousetrap.

Suddenly, Setsuna Tokage barged in laughing. She was promptly joined by Denki.

"Ha! You should have seen your face!" She was looking at her phone.

"What? What's the meaning of this?"

Green head was a victim of a prank. Setsuna separated her hand and had Denki put it in Izuku's bag discretely. All of this just to make him put his hand is a mouse trap.

"Phew. I guess they didn't know about his and/or my hand obsession."

"Tokage-san, what if I destroyed the hand in an attempt to cover my tracks?"

"I'd have to spend a few hours growing a new one."

"So not only her quirk lets her detach her limbs, but also regenerate them?"

"Damn it. Why are all the girls with good quirks in the other class?" Kira complained.

"Say, can I keep this hand? You know, as memento?"

"You're the first person to ask something like that, but sure." The hand flew out of the bag to tickle green head. "Just wait for a bit before doing something weird with it. I can still feel it until a new one grows."

Izuku went to Nezu to clarify what can and cannot be used during the Festival. All the non classified stuff plus time stop and mind control were allowed. Time skip was allowed only from 15:00 to 15:30 and Midoriya shouldn't be too obvious that he is the user.. Other abilities and the hero costume were off the table. He'd have to rely on his new cloak, which worked but wasn't as convenient or stylish to wear.

Author's note: I wanted to subvert expectation of Mineta being expelled, as that tends to happen fairly often in fics.