The next few minutes after the end of the final match were a blur. Izuku remembered being escorted out of the arena by Midnight, who'd told him that he should probably go and see Recovery Girl due to him apparently shaking a worrying amount. He didn't feel cold anymore, so he didn't know why he could be shaking, but he followed the order happily. He did need to sit down, and felt lightheaded whenever he moved at more than his regular walking pace, so it was probably good to go somewhere private to pass out for a bit. He and Todoroki were put into twin beds, and Izuku heard something about both of them having similar ailments, though Todoroki was worse due to the extreme temperatures coming from inside his own body, rather than Izuku being put through it externally. Nonetheless, it made sense that he'd suffer from something similar, since he'd been frozen in ice a couple of times and then been right next to blazing flames for the last part of the match. He didn't hear much more before his head hit the crappy, stiff hospital pillow, and it was still soft enough that he fell asleep that second.

He woke up after some time had passed, and looked around to see that his friends had found their way to his side. Ochako was there, holding the hand she'd put a glove on while he slept, as well as Kirishima and Ashido, who were in the middle of a hushed conversation about how cool the fight had been, and Izuku could spot Asui and Iida having a much more subdued conversation about something Izuku couldn't make out under the former pair. He tried to sit up, but every muscle in his body ached, and that seemingly alerted everyone to his being awake. Everyone got out of the way as Recovery Girl appeared at his side, putting a hand to his forehead and inspecting his face.

"Well, you're not dying. That's good," she said.

"That's the kind of news someone wants to hear right as they wake up," Izuku laughed, which caused all the muscles in his torso to ache.

"Oh, shush. You're better off than that Todoroki boy," Recovery Girl said, looking over at the bed across the room. "You get to accept your medal. He's going to have to stay overnight. It was bad enough that he was keeping his body as cold as it was, but at least that was stable. That fire at the end inverted his body temperature so fast it would've immediately killed anyone else. He's lucky he remained conscious as long as he did, even with his Quirk—not that you did him any favours."

Izuku sighed, and frowned. He regretted having to hurt Todoroki, but that was just the way the festival worked. He had done it, though, and accomplished his goal twice over. He had won the festival, and he had gotten Todoroki to use his fire. Izuku smiled at that, but remembered something vital.

"I haven't missed getting my medal?" Izuku asked, looking around at everyone else.

"Nah, dude. It's in, like, fifteen minutes," Ashido said with a grin.

"Then I have to—" Izuku tried to say. He swung his legs off the bed, even though it hurt like hell.

"Wait a second, boy. You're still not able to leave, yet. You still should wait here for another ten minutes, and then take some painkillers so you're not limping onto the podium. And then, you have to come back here. There and back, no detours. Got it?" Recovery Girl said.

"Sure," Izuku said, sighing heavily.

Izuku painfully swung his legs back onto the bed. He wasn't pleased to have to stay in bed, but he'd put up with it if it meant he didn't get on Recovery Girl's bad side, and if it meant he could hang out with his friends more before having to go and get his medal. That wasn't to say he wasn't exciting, just that it sounded like an already overwhelming experience on top of all the other overwhelming experiences of the day. Getting the gold medal at the sports festival in his first year? It was literally his dream come true. He looked over to Ochako and smiled even wider, still struck with disbelief that he'd gotten lucky enough to have her support. He squeezed her hand gently, and she looked over at him from a short reply to Ashido, and smiled back just as brightly. It was then that he noticed which hand she was holding, and what state it was in. It was his right, his mangled hand, and his prosthetic had been destroyed in the fight, so she had to be aware of how wrong it felt to hold.

Acting on instinct alone, he untangled his remaining fingers from hers and lifted it up to see what it looked like. The glove had been carefully pulled over bandages, and he used his good hand to remove it and see what the damage was. The good news was that there weren't any more chunks of him missing. The bad news is that everyone could see the gap in his fingers where one should have been but wasn't. Izuku couldn't keep the smile on his face, and as he grimaced he laid the hand on his chest, carefully placed so as to not use his Quirk on his clothes. He looked over at Recovery Girl.

"I'm sorry about wrecking the fake finger. I didn't mean to," Izuku said.

"That's fine. The lifestyle you lead doomed it from the start. I can give you another one, maybe made out of slightly more durable material this time," Recovery Girl said, nodding.

"Right. Thanks," Izuku muttered.

He knew Ochako was looking at him, but he didn't want to see the look on her face. He simply stayed silent, trying to ignore the tragic murder of his good mood and putting on a smile as he talked with his friends. Soon, though, the time was near, and Recovery Girl said he was good to go. Izuku stood up with some effort, though it made him a little bit lightheaded still, but the painkillers he took before leaving helped him walk without swaying or limping. He didn't know how much he wanted the cameras to see his right hand, so he put his gloves on over the bandages and stuck the right one to create the illusion that the empty middle finger was indeed full, at least without a close-up shot. As he and his friends approached the arena entrance, where Recovery Girl told him to go, they had to leave him. He said his goodbyes, got a crushing hug from Ochako, and he was left to approach the other victors, Yaoyorozu and Tokoyami.

"Hey!" Izuku said, leaning against the wall to maintain his balance.

"Hello, Midoriya. Congratulations on winning. You fought well," Yaoyorozu said, bowing her head to him.

"Oh, same to you," Izuku said, bowing in return. He was already having trouble seeing the ruthless girl he'd fought being this polite to him. "I really liked your strategy against me, by the way. How much of it did you plan?"

"Oh," Yaoyorozu said, as if she were shocked by his question. She smiled, and said, "Well, I knew that you are a close range fighter, so I needed to keep you at long range. The nets were simply to see how you reacted to ranged attacks, and the gas was my primary strategy. Once I could see that you preferred to catch projectiles and destroy them with your Quirk, I thought to deliver the sleeping gas in a form that would work faster if you were to counter it in the usual way. If you were to catch the gas grenade, you would have been knocked unconscious immediately."

"That's awesome. What about the electric staff? That was a big shock! No pun intended, of course," Izuku said, mumbling the last part as he realised his wording.

"That was an improvised addition to the plan. I wanted something that could keep up with you in close quarters combat, which would be a detriment if you were to use your usual fighting style of physically handling your opponents' weaponry, so I made a weapon that would harm you on touch," she replied. Her face lit up as she spoke about her thought processes during their match, and Izuku felt a chill run up his spine as he really struggled to reconcile that she'd tried to gas him an hour ago.

"Nice. It's kind of embarrassing, but even after you helped me out at the USJ, I underestimated you a little bit. Sure, I knew you were smart, but I didn't know just what you could do in combat. You really had me on the defensive for that match, maybe more than Todoroki did. I only got an actual counter to you figured out the second I used it. I think you were really great," Izuku said, giving her a thumbs up.

"Thank you. Your match with Todoroki was a great spectacle. Though I am confused about what exactly you were trying to achieve," Yaoyorozu said.

"Yes, I thought the same thing. It wasn't much of a fight except at the start and at the end," Tokoyami spoke up, possibly the first time he'd addressed Izuku directly.

"Right. He just told me some stuff going on with his life right now that I wanted to help him with, but he kept pushing me away. How much of our conversation did everyone hear?" Izuku asked.

"We heard you demanding he use his fire," Yaoyorozu replied.

"Not a lot, other than that. Why did you want him to use the fire side of his Quirk so badly?" Tokoyami asked.

"That's not something I should just go around talking about. It's private stuff," Izuku said, feeling his nerves start up again now that the intense eyes of Yaoyorozu and Tokoyami were on him. "But anyway, the awards ceremony should be starting any minute now!"

And that it did. Soon after their conversation petered out, Present Mic's voice nearly blew out the speakers again. He introduced the bronze medalists, Yaoyorozu and Tokoyami, and they walked out onto the stage and took their places on the third place podiums. Then, he admitted that Todoroki wasn't in good enough shape to receive his medal in person, so they were going to skip him for now. Then, it was time, and Izuku heard his name called and stepped out into the sunlight streaking down onto the stage.

It took a second for his eyes to adjust, but he quickly acclimated and saw the majority of the crowd giving him a standing ovation, screaming his name and clapping so loudly that it felt like his eardrums would explode. He looked around once he was up on the highest platform of the podium, and felt the tightness in his chest that told him he was about to cry. He tried his best to keep it in, but he couldn't, and let a few tears fall as he waved and smiled at the audience. This lasted for the next minute or so, and Izuku laughed when Midnight had to tell the spectators to wrap it up, because they only had so much time in the day. Once the applause ended, Midnight spoke once more.

"Well, after a long day of hard fought battles, we have this year's winners of the first years' stage of the UA sports festival! And now, to award the victors their prizes, is a very special guest!" Midnight said.

It was then that the crowd really lost it. All Might landed on the ground in front of the podium, shaking Izuku to his core with the shockwave, and the applause for the number one hero's appearance was staggering. He waved to the crowd for a moment, but practically ignored them as he approached Tokoyami. He took one of the two bronze medals from Midnight and draped it over Tokoyami's neck, giving the much smaller boy an awkward looking hug and whispering something in his ear. He did the same for Yaoyorozu, gifting her the second bronze medal as she and Tokoyami shared third place. It looked no less natural for even someone of Yaoyorozu's height to be embraced by All Might's hulking figure. Finally, it was Izuku's turn, and the gold medal was placed around his neck with a satisfying tug of heavy metal. All Might pulled him in, and Izuku robotically accepted the forced hug.

"You were incredible. I'm beginning to think you made the wise call refusing my offer. You never needed it," All Might said, surprisingly soft. "We should talk when school's back in session."

"Got it. And thank you," Izuku said. He tried not to tear up again at All Might's compliments.

All Might posed for a few pictures after that, getting all the medalists to put up peace signs. He had to go soon after that, though, and Izuku got the feeling that the brief look shared between Midnight and Cementoss when he announced this told him why. His time as All Might was getting shorter and shorter. He was going to have to pass on his Quirk and retire officially soon. But today clearly was not that day, and he disappeared in a blur of speed, leaving the camera operators for news channels and online blogs disappointed and bitter.

The medalists were escorted back to their classes, which all happened to be the same class, and were welcomed back with raucous celebration from all their classmates in 1-A. Izuku honestly mostly tuned out at this point, just letting the flow take him and falling into autopilot as the rest of the day played out. After a while, 1-A were put back on the bus back to UA's campus, where they'd be free to do as they wished. Izuku was mostly silent as 1-A celebrated getting all four medals around him on the bus, only engaging in short, quiet conversations with Ochako as she asked questions about what he and Todoroki had talked about. He told her all about what they'd said to each other, how hard he'd tried to get Todoroki to see reason, and how eventually he'd come around. When he finished telling his tale, Ochako practically squealed as she heard all about how he'd stuck to his word and taken her words to heart, which earned him a kiss on the cheek, which sent him into a catatonic state for the rest of the day, his face cherry red and his voice squeaky and high.

When they got back to UA, most of the class dispersed, but not before giving all the medalists another round of congratulations. Izuku let his feet carry him alongside Ochako as they both walked to the front gate, where they'd have to separate as they lived in two different directions. Izuku had to keep walking down the main road the gate led them to, as the train was in that direction, but Ochako had to turn left at the gate, as her apartment was in that direction. They said goodbye for the night with another hug that made Izuku not want to part with her, but went their separate ways easily enough.

Izuku got home at around dinnertime. He opened the door and entered their small apartment, taking his shoes off at the door and sluggishly walking down the hall, towards the smell of pork cooking. He hoped it was katsudon. He peered into the kitchen to see his mother working away on dinner, ready with all the ingredients of his favourite food in the world. She turned to look at him when he entered, and he could tell she'd been crying. She immediately abandoned her meal preparation and swept him up in a hug that had him gasping for air, while Izuku cursed the fact that she could still do that to him when he was so much bigger than her now. She immediately burst into tears again, prompting Izuku to do the same as she examined his face.

"Are you okay, baby? You weren't hurt too badly, were you?" she asked quickly, taking his face in her hands firmly but gently.

"I was the winner, y'know," he teased, his voice breaking from the pure elation of this moment finally becoming reality. Saying that just made his mother hug him harder, which he gladly reciprocated.

"Oh, Izuku, I know! I'm so proud of you! I knew you could do it—ever since you were born I knew you would do whatever your heart wanted!" Inko all but screamed.

Izuku couldn't reply, he was choked by the emotions overwhelming him. He just let his mother rave about how proud she was of her little boy, who wasn't her little boy anymore, growing up to be so strong and so kind as to go out of his way and talk his opponent through something that had clearly been bothering. He laughed as he realised that of course his mother saw what he did with Todoroki, and of course she could read that he was struggling. A mother always knows. The family of two talked late into the night about the festival, and Izuku's climb to the top. Izuku got so many hugs and kisses that night that he was totally fine if he didn't get any more for a long while. Not that kiss from Ochako, though, he could stand to get a few more of those.

Overall, though, after eating his favourite dish in the history of food, Izuku was tired, aching and drained, and wanted nothing more to sleep, so his mother let him sleep. His dreams that night were pleasant, filled with scenes where he could fly and lift anything. He had dreams of fighting massive villains and beating them with one punch. He realised in the morning that he dreamed about what it would be like to have All Might's power after all, but the man himself was right. Izuku didn't need it.

He was fine as he was.