The rest of the battles in the first round were over fairly fast, just like Izuku's. Before the fights started, he returned with Uraraka to their class's seating area. He sat down next to Iida and put a hand on his shoulder in greeting, startling Iida yet still not getting the reaction Izuku had been hoping for. It looked like the static electricity clinging to him after his match had dissipated before he'd gotten to see how Iida would react. Izuku frowned at a confused Iida as Uraraka sat down on the opposite side of him, grinning at his botched prank. That was unfortunate, but Izuku didn't truly care about all that, and refocused his attention down to the arena below, where the next two fighters were emerging onto the field from opposite sides.

Izuku tuned the commentary out as he honed in on the fighters. Ojiro was up against a boy with wild, purple hair that looked bone-tired, and Ojiro looked angry. The boy's face was twisted in a scowl and his fists were shaking as he clenched them. It looked as though Ojiro was struggling in some way, but Izuku couldn't figure out how. The other boy, introduced as Hitoshi Shinso, was saying things to Ojiro with a wicked grin on his face. Shinso threw a few words at him, and Ojiro seemed to react in anger, leaning forward and tensing his tail. He then ran at Shinso, throwing his leg out in a kick that swiped the other boy off his feet. Shinso got to his feet and began stumbling back, throwing out words that Izuku couldn't make out over the distance. After one of the phrases that Shinso spat with frustration on his face, Ojiro finally spoke, yelling a few words so that Izuku could barely hear his voice, though he couldn't make out any words. Just then, after the second or third word, Ojiro stopped and became silent, relaxing his whole body to stillness as he seemed to simply cease functioning. Shinso looked at Ojiro in glee, with a kind of smug joy dancing in his eyes, and said something again. Ojiro then, to Izuku's horror, turned to the left and walked until he stepped out of bounds. Midnight called the match there, Shinso being the victor.

Izuku watched as Ojiro had to bow to Shinso when he was so clearly angry beyond words. He stood there, bent over and shaking in evident rage as he was forced to accept defeat. Ojiro left the arena and disappeared out of view, strangely at a run instead of simply walking. It took a few moments for Izuku to recover from the shock at how the match ended, but when he did, he scanned the reactions of his classmates. Everyone was shocked, and couldn't comment on what had happened. Izuku felt bad about the disappointment he felt in his classmate, who surely should have come out on top against a boy from general studies, but squashed that down and waited for Ojiro to come back so he could ask him what had happened. Eventually, he got too tired of waiting, and turned back to his friends.

"What was that?" Izuku asked, aghast.

"It's like he was being mind controlled!" Uraraka cried beside him.

"Maybe he was," Iida said with a grave tone.

"That Shinso kid is gonna have to fight you next, Midoriya! How do you think you'll beat that?" Kirishima asked.

"I have no idea. I don't know if I'm missing something and there was a specific trigger that made Ojiro just walk out of the ring like that, but it seemed pretty unavoidable!" Izuku said.

"It isn't!" a voice rang out from behind Izuku. He turned to see Ojiro, sweating and out of breath, emerging from the hall behind the seating arrangement. "I'm just an idiot!"

"I'm sure that's not right! That guy was just lucky!" someone said, probably Hagakure since she was friendly with Ojiro.

"No, I was stupid and let him win. Midoriya!" he said. Izuku looked at him in shock, wondering what he had to do with this. "Beat this guy next round! For me!"

"Uh, yeah. Sure! If I can beat mind control," Izuku said, forcing himself to laugh at his chances of dodging a mental attack.

"You can. I know how, I just … he got me with his tricks. You can't say a single thing to him," Ojiro said, moving through the rows of seats to take on behind Izuku so they could sit down and talk.

"Is it triggered by speech or something?" Izuku asked.

"Exactly. I think the way it works is that he says something to you, and if you respond, he's got you and can instruct you how he wishes," Ojiro said with venom in his voice.

"That's insane. So if I just don't talk to him, he can't control me?" Izuku said, amazed.

"Yes. You can beat that insufferable jerk if you just keep your mouth shut!" Ojiro said, staring daggers at the arena below them.

"Hey, are you okay?" Uraraka asked.

"I'm fine, I'm just … disappointed in myself. I knew how his Quirk worked, but he got me anyway. He called me a monkey," Ojiro said as he balled his hands up into fists.

"Oh, this guy sucks," Ashido grumbled.

"Yeah. He also tricked me into being his puppet during the cavalry battle. I thought our match was my chance to get back at him and prove I deserved to be where I was, but I thought wrong. I didn't deserve to be there. I lost without ever getting to prove myself," Ojiro ranted. "That's why you've gotta beat him when you face off," he told Izuku.

"I'll try. I'm not much better at blocking out trash talk—if anything, I'm worse—but I'll try. If not, how am I gonna win this whole thing?" Izuku said, sending Ojiro a wide grin.

"I'll hold you to that," Ojiro said, smiling for the first time since the cavalry battle.

The other matches were efficient. Yaoyorozu fought Shoji next. The fight started with Shoji rushing Yaoyorozu, not giving her any time to make something to defend herself, and using his numerous arms to grapple her and run toward the edge of the arena. Izuku thought that was smart, since Yaoyorozu had let it slip that she needed to actually focus and take the time to create things with her Quirk, and that was a major weakness in a head to head fight. However, Shoji spasmed and fell limp on the ground, Yaoyorozu climbing out from his trembling arms. She gave him another shock from a handheld taser she'd made and began dragging him toward the edge of the arena herself, while he spasmed beneath her. Every few steps, she'd give him another painful looking shock, as his many arms convulsed, until she reached the edge of the arena, giving a large effort to roll him over and push him out of bounds. Yaoyorozu won despite being physically overpowered, but had turned her own opponent's plan into her own and came out on top.

He hadn't exactly had a low opinion of Yaoyorozu before, in fact quite the opposite—Izuku had seen her make incredibly intelligent observations and make wise decisions when everyone else had been panicking, not to mention that her Quirk was obviously one of the most useful in class and she used it well. This battle had served to give her Izuku's respect on a battlefield as well, though. Izuku immediately put his faith in Yaoyorozu to be unforgiving when it was called for, something he'd been on the fence about. It had also taken great physical strength to actually drag Shoji, the largest of their classmates, across half of the arena—while he was fighting being tased—so he had to give her credit there as well.

Izuku didn't even see Iida and Ashido leave to prepare for their match against each other. In hindsight, he should've noticed, because there was less idle chatter around without Ashido and Iida's big, bulky frame was hard to miss moving around, but apparently Izuku had done just two of them emerged into the arena and faced off, but this, too was a quick battle.

When Midnight signalled for them to start, Iida immediately charged forward. He dodged to the side to avoid a sheet of acid that Ashido slung at him, and came at her from the side. He took her legs out from under her with a sweeping, superhumanly fast kick, and then just as fast caught her in a bridal carry. He then ran her over to the edge of the arena and dumped her onto the grass, Ashido tumbling for a moment before landing squarely on her back. She sat up and started spinning, clearly dizzy from Iida's dazzling speed. Iida was declared the winner immediately, and helped Ashido up and walked her back out of sight from the audience. Izuku felt kind of bad that all the matches so far were over in one or two moves. The one that was defeated quickly never got to show off why they were in the hero course, just getting to be a ragdoll model for the winner. Matches would probably get more difficult the longer the closer they got to the finals, since the easy winners would be facing off against each other. It made Izuku think about who he'd be facing next—Shinso. Would he be able to keep his mouth shut? He didn't know, but he was going to try his best.

It was hard to concentrate with so many possibilities for big matchups in the near future. Izuku missed the whole next match between Mineta and Kirishima. He'd later be told it was a foregone conclusion that Kirishima could hit Mineta once and break half the bones in his body. He couldn't stop thinking, though, about Shinso, and Todoroki more specifically. He needed a plan of attack. He needed a plan to counteract their Quirks so that he could beat them. He didn't know if the fraction of an idea he had for Todoroki would even work, much less be an effective way of combating his overwhelming strength. It might simply work once and then Todoroki could immediately find a way around it. It may not work at all. And it wasn't even factoring in the chance that Todoroki would actually take his advice and use his fire. Izuku was screwed in that case. He didn't think Todoroki would, but he wouldn't disregard it completely as an outlier that still needed to be planned for. Izuku couldn't Decimate fire. Fire wasn't a physical thing, it was a reaction to heat. It was the result of a process. He couldn't touch that. At least Izuku could touch ice.

He only paid the slightest bit of attention to the next match. It was Asui against Tokoyami, and even though he did think that Asui was plenty powerful, she was probably outmatched by Tokoyami by a wide margin. Her strengths were agility and capture techniques, while Tokoyami could simply throw her out of bounds with his seemingly invincible Quirk. That's how it went, with Asui bouncing around and dodging Tokoyami's Dark Shadow well, until she made a single mistake in trajectory that allowed Dark Shadow to barrel into her and fling her up into the air where she couldn't correct herself, and which forced her to watch as she fell to the grass, out of bounds.

Izuku thought this detachment might've been panic, or some kind of slow-onset dissociation from the stress of the festival. He didn't feel very panicked, but then again, he didn't feel much of anything at the moment, just a kind of numb serenity that felt ominously like the calm before the storm. Things were simple now, with one or two minute rounds, but when things got crazy in the last few matches of the festival, would he be able to keep up? It felt strange to consider where he fit in the grand scheme of his class. He wasn't bottom of the barrel, but would he be able to keep up with Todoroki? Yaoyorozu? Tokoyami? Izuku was no powerhouse, his strengths, if he could say so, were his wit and cleverness, his skill and technique. He wasn't able to outgun these people, so would he even stand a chance when they could just blow him away? Would they simply beat him like Iida had simply beat Ashido, or Yaoyorozu had simply beat Shoji. He'd passed through the first of his final trials, and it was easy enough if a little nerve wracking to do that, but what if he failed? Izuku hadn't truly considered what he'd do if he didn't win the festival, because he needed to win the festival, but what if he didn't? How would that make him feel? Bad? This was probably panic.

Before he could descend into hyperventilation, he looked over to where Uraraka should've been, but she wasn't there. He'd spaced out and missed someone leaving again. Okay, that was fine. He could deal with this himself. Izuku was kind of glad that Uraraka wasn't there to calm him down, because he felt like he'd been relying on her too much for his own peace of mind. He was sure she didn't feel that way, since she was all too eager to help anyone, but Izuku didn't like that he could simply lean on her and didn't often do anything for her in return. He made a note to himself that he'd be of more help to her in the ways he could. He leaned back into his seat and took deep breaths, trying to fill his lungs with air when they wouldn't fill themselves.

Izuku watched as the next two combatants emerged onto the battlefield, feeling his nerves only fray more when he saw that Uraraka was one of them. She stood opposite a boy that Izuku didn't know, a kid that he'd seen on Ojiro and Shinso's team in the cavalry battle. Izuku barely caught the introduction from Present Mic naming the kid Nirengeki Shoda from the other hero course class. He didn't look like he subscribed to Monoma's superiority complex, he actually looked a little nervous, so at least Uraraka was safe from an ego the size of China. Izuku sighed as he forced himself not to worry about her like that. She wasn't safe, because she was in active combat, and Izuku had to make himself let that conceit go. Uraraka wasn't some civilian in harm's way. She was just as much a fighter as he was, and she'd been training hard for this, harder than most in their class. Uraraka was a big girl, and she could handle herself. Izuku had to tell himself that a few times to get his hands to stop clenching. It didn't stop him from holding his breath when Midnight started the fight.

Like most of the other fights, this one was also over with only one attack from either side. Uraraka and Shoda ran at each other, hands ready to strike, and it made Izuku think that Shoda had some kind of touch-based Quirk, too. They clashed at the centre of the arena, Uraraka slapping Shoda across the face and grabbing onto his shirt with her other hand, and Shoda sending a solid blow to her stomach that she couldn't block or dodge, taking it with a low groan of pain. Both of their Quirks seemed to take effect at the same time, Shoda floating up into the air and only being held in place by Uraraka's grip, and Uraraka being flung back by an invisible blow that made her crumple inward around herself, the two of them being pushed back toward one side of the arena.

It looked like Uraraka was kneeling from the pain, but she suddenly used the momentum of the launch to spin around and throw Shoda into the air, light as a cloud as he flew. She then negated her Quirk and he fell to the ground out of bounds, just like every other fighter that had lost that round. It was strange that the win condition was either forcing one's opponent out of bounds or incapacitating them, but nobody had opted for incapacitation. Maybe it was because forcing your opponent to submit rather than simply pushing them out was a tad brutal for teenagers to pull off comfortably. Izuku certainly preferred forcing his opponent out of bounds rather than beating on them until they gave up.

Izuku stood in a flash of movement and cheered for Uraraka as the whole audience did the same. He felt his heart race as he watched her stand back up and help her opponent off the ground, before bowing and smiling brilliantly, basking in her victory. Izuku had been worried for nothing anyway, she hadn't even needed his help, even if he would've liked to give it. She was alright on her own. Izuku took a moment to get that through his thick skull. Uraraka's resolve and training had paid off, and she was stronger than when they'd met and he'd had to save her. It was stunning to see. The two combatants quickly vacated the arena for the next battle to take place, and Izuku wondered if he should go and find Uraraka to congratulate her on her victory. He decided that he shouldn't, just because she'd been talking about how she wanted to call her parents sometime during the festival, and he thought he should give her privacy and let her come to him when she was ready. He certainly wasn't in a state to give thanks, though seeing Uraraka kick ass helped Izuku feel better than he had before.

It took a moment for Izuku to realise that the next match would be the final one of the first round. That meant that the fighters would be the only two who'd made it but not fought yet—Todoroki and Aoyama. Izuku felt bad for the sparkly boy, but everybody could tell from one look at the matchup that he wasn't moving on. Todoroki was just on another level than Aoyama, and it showed when Midnight called for the match to start and he was immediately encased in a glacier that reached the roof of the stadium, sending an instant chill over the whole crowd. Aoyama was immediately incapacitated by the raw power of the move. It was over in a second, and Izuku thought that some people may have missed it by blinking at the wrong time. He didn't know how he was going to fight that. He didn't know if he could. But he would. He had to, for his dream. All he needed to do was think, and he could come up with a way to win.

Oddly, Izuku's gaze was drawn to Todoroki. He peered down at the arena and honed in on the boy, and realised that he was staring right back at Izuku with a sharp glare. Izuku saw Todoroki shiver, frost collecting on the arm he used for ice, and realised something. He had a chance. He stood and met Todoroki's gaze across that massive distance, though it didn't feel all too long when they were staring into each other's eyes, angrily connecting over that length.

Then, he smiled, and without a word, Izuku left to go and prepare for his next battle.