The day following the USJ, school was canceled and Katsuki spent the day at home with his parents.

Masaru had apparently decided it was time to whip up a new culinary experiment, and this one came out okay surprisingly. Mitsuki on the other hand acted as a helicopter mom for the morning, until Katsuki finally got her to quit it.

The school was closed for the day so Katsuki couldn't use the UA gym, but he did a basic workout at his old gym. Though quite a few more patrons kept staring at him weirdly while he was using the gym equipment this time.

At the door, the owner of the gym stopped him as he was signing out.

"We're sorry to do this, but your exercise is just putting too much strain on the exercise equipment."

The manager waved his hands to forestall Katsuki's response.

"We've already had to replace one of our treadmills when it died mid-run while you were using it. And the bench press seems like it's starting to warp..."

Katsuki looked around to see several of the staff members listening in on the conversation while trying to seem nonchalant.

Turning back to the manager, Katsuki responded.

"I'm not gonna have to pay for that shit am I?"

The manager shook his head, letting out a relieved sigh.

"No no, we'll deal with that, but we just think it would be better if you didn't come back. We just aren't rated for…you."

"We'd be completely willing to suggest a different gyms in Musutafu, one more specialized for the kind of training you're doing. Have you heard about Ascend Athletics?"

Katsuki picked up his bag, a scowl on his face.

"Tried them before. I don't meet the 'service requirements'."

At that Katsuki turned and walked out of the gym, heading home for the day.

Looks like he would have to train at UA from now on.

The only remaining worry during the day off, was news that two of the villains had been broken out of custody mid-transit.

Did that mean they had more allies who hadn't been present for the attack?

The next school day started with everyone whispering in their class, wondering who their homeroom teacher would be while Aizawa was recovering.

Their question was promptly answered by a bandage covered Aizawa entering the room.

"Morning."

As the class clamored, Aizawa stepped up to the front of the class.

"Don't worry too much about me, after all… your trials aren't over just yet."

The class all panicked for a moment until Aizawa continued.

"The UA sports festival is less than 2 weeks away."

Everyone sighed in relief as some of the class questioned the announcement.

Earlobes spoke up first.

"Is it alright to have a sports festival so soon after a villain attack?"

Aizawa let out a sigh.

"Apparently it's UA's way of showing the world that our crisis management system is rock solid. Security will be strengthened considerably compared to previous years."

Aizawa's gaze intensified.

"Moreover, the Sports Festival is a massive opportunity for students. Not something we can afford to cancel based on a few villains."

Hairball spoke up at that.

"I mean if villains show up shouldn't we cancel? I mean, it's just a sports festival…"

Some of their other classmates turned to him in shock, Izuku turning to him.

"Have you never seen the sports festival Mineta? It's a super big deal!"

Aizawa cleared his throat to get attention back.

"The UA sports festival is one of the biggest events in Japan. While the olympics have gotten smaller as the relevance of standard sports have decreased, the UA sports festival has only gotten more popular as time has gone on!"

"Even if the majority of the attention is given to upper years of the festival, the festival is still an incredibly important event for first years like yourselves. It's where you get to make your first debut to the world.

You only receive a total of 3 chances, so to aspiring pros like yourselves, this is an event you cannot overlook."

After the class had settled down, the rest of the morning went on as usual for the most part. Until right before lunch.

"Bakugo. Please stay after class."

Turning, Katsuki saw Aizawa sitting at the front waiting for him.

Standing waiting at the front, Aizawa waited until all the other students had left the classroom before he began.

"Katsuki, first I would like to praise the majority of your performance at the USJ. However, choosing to remain after you could have left the facility was an incredible risk. One you took even further by rushing into the middle of an active engagement."

Katsuki opened his mouth to respond with a scowl when Aizawa raised a hand to forestall his response.

"What would you have done if I wasn't there to weaken the villain's quirk? Your plan was decent, and your timing was excellent, but even with all that, the villain was responding in time to your assault.

You are an incredibly talented student Katsuki. This school took a chance on you, and it has only been rewarded by your performance. However, even with all that, you are still only a first year student. It isn't supposed to be your job to rush into fights yet. It's our job as your faculty.

And as your teacher, I must apologize that you felt the need to rush into the middle of an active fight that should never have happened."

Katsuki grit his teeth, a frown on his face. This was the first time he had ever had a teacher apologize to him. It felt…weird.

"Isn't it the job of a hero to get into fights they don't have to?"

Aizawa answered, meeting Katsuki's gaze.

"That's for when you have a license kid, not before. Now, I think you have lunch?"

Katsuki left at the dismissal, heading towards the cafeteria and mulling over his teacher's words.

The rest of the day went fairly normal, up until the end of the last class of the day.

As Katsuki was getting ready to head to the gym, Uraraka approached him, a determined expression on her face.

"Help me train."

Katsuki paused at the request, mulling it over, before answering with a question.

"Why me?"

She answered without delay.

"You're in the best shape out of anyone in the class. And I want to do my absolute best in the festival."

After a second, Katsuki nodded his head.

"Only as long as it doesn't interrupt my own training too much."

After getting changed, Katsuki led Ochaco to the gym. Where he was instantly set upon by a manic Nejire.

"Are you okay? I heard your class got attacked. Did you beat a bunch of villains? Are you hurt anywhere? I didn't have your phone number so I couldn't message you-"

Katsuki held up a hand.

"I'm fine, and my class is okay."

Instantly Nejire switched targets.

"Who are you? Are you another Kohai of mine? It's great to meet you! I'm your senpai Nejire Hado!"

Ochaco seemed overwhelmed by the onslaught of questions, struggling to answer.

Katsuki threw her a rope.

"This is my classmate, Ochaco Uraraka. She wanted some help training for the sports festival."

Nejire floated into the air in excitement.

"Oh! You wanted some training help? I'm great at training, I'm sure I can help you out a bunch! Let me show you around!"

Katsuki started his treadmill run while Nejire was showing Ochaco around.

Katsuki was just finishing up his run, wanting to get some other exercises in when Nejire brought Ochaco back near the entrance.

"Oh! You can fly too? I use my quirk to fly, it's called Wave Motion~! It lets me fly around, but if I use it too much I get super tired out. I could show you some tips sometime if you're free!"

Ochaco shot to attention.

"That would be great Nejire-senpai! But if I float too much I get sick. Not to mention I can't control it super well."

"I'm sure the support course could come up with something! Flying is super cool!"

Stepping off his treadmill and toweling off, Katsuki walked over to the duo.

"So, Ochaco, I've been thinking about it, and what exactly do you want to train most for the festival? Weight training is only going to have minimal returns in this short a period."

Ochaco looked Katsuki in the eyes, her cheeks seeming a little rosier than usual.

"I just…I want to do well in the festival. The best I can."

Katsuki met Ochaco's gaze, only for the moment to be interupted by squee-ing from the side. Nejire rushed in and snatched Ochaco into a hug.

"My adorable kohai is being soo~ cute! That determined expression is just so cool! Don't worry, your awesome senpai is gonna help you get ready!"

After Nejire let go, Ochaco turned to face her, even more fired up.

"I'll be in your care senpai!"

Katsuki grunted.

"Great. Because she's probably way better at quirk stuff then I am. So, new plan. We do a fairly standard workout at the gym, then we go to one of the training rooms and work on your quirk."

Nejire chimed in.

"I can also do some sparring with both of you to teach you some stuff!"

Katsuki considered the offer before nodding.

Sparing with an upper year student would give Katsuki more combat experience. Especially since he wasn't going to be able to use his bat for the festival due to the rules of the festival itself.

'No performance enhancing support equipment beyond those medically recommended.'

Katsuki was still pretty sure he could get wraps past the requirements however. He figured the school wouldn't want him punching his knuckles bloody on national TV with no fist protection. And he had another idea he planned to try as well.

After some fairly standard exercises in the gym to get Ochaco used to the equipment, Nejire had guided Katsuki and Ochaco to a training room in the main building.

Soon after stepping inside, Nejire turned to face the duo.

"This is the main building training ground! It's what we're supposed to use for sparring. So, who should I spar with first?"

Katsuki stepped forwards, getting into a ready position.

"Okay then! Count us in Ochaco!"

The moment Ochaco shouted Begin, Katsuki dove to the side, dodging a rush of energy from Nejire.

Observing the attack, Katsuki noted that for all the power it clearly had, it wasn't as fast as he'd feared. Rising to his feet, Katsuki tried to move in before Nejire could unleash another energy blast.

Nejire herself continued to smile as she simply turned and unleashed another blast of energy that Katsuki had to dodge.

The fight quickly turned into a game of cat and mouse, as Katsuki simply didn't have enough speed to get in close before Nejire fired a wave he had to dodge.

Katsuki gritted his teeth as he kept dodging. There had to be some way for him to close in.

Taking a closer look, Katsuki noted that for as large as the blasts were, they all emanated from her hands, and that left a slight gap where Katsuki could duck underneath them.

Getting ready, Katsuki rushed Nejire after her latest blast, her face showing some surprise at his choice. But right as she fired, Katsuki dove in an attempt to go under the beam.

For a moment, Katsuki managed to duck the beam, but as he finally rose to his feet, Katsuki noted that Nejire just wasn't there anymore. Suddenly Katsuki got blasted across the gym from behind. Climbing to his feet, Katsuki heard Nejire's voice from above.

"Wow, you're pretty fast kohai! Almost nobody has ever dodged my blasts like that!"

Looking up, Katsuki saw, Nejire lowering herself to the ground using waves from her feet.

Rolling his shoulders Katsuki squared up again, raising his arms and moving in for another attack.

Surprisingly, Nejire let him get in close this time, ducking around Katsuki's strike without letting him hit her.

After a couple swings, Nejire ducked down and put a hand on Katsuki's chest, a smile still on her face.

"Boom."

Instantly Katsuki got hit at least twice as hard as before, sent spiraling across the gym by another energy blast.

Katsuki was saved from the bad fall by the sensation of hands on his back and a sudden feeling of weightlessness.

Looking around, Katsuki could feel Ochaco reorient his body and lower him to the ground.

Nejire pranced over.

"You okay Kohai? I gave that last blast a bit more power, so it probably hurt more. Can you still breathe? Did I break something again? Mirio and Tamaki would never let me live it down-"

Katsuki coughed for a second as he caught his breath, raising a thumbs up.

Satisfied, Nejire turned to Ochaco.

"Other kohai! Was that your quirk? It was so cool! Did you know it could negate momentum? That's super useful in combat. Even just in touch range!"

Nejire finally stopped her barrage of comments, stepping back.

"So kohai, you ready for your spar? I'll hold back more this time and stick to close combat so you can train your quirk."

Ochaco gulped momentarily before stepping forwards as Katsuki finished catching his breath and got ready to watch.

The rest of the training session had gone about as you would expect, Katsuki and Ochaco getting their asses handed to them for the remaining time.

At a certain point however, Nejire had eased off on her quirk and started running Ochaco through hand-to-hand drills that would assist her in getting in close and getting the chance to use her quirk.

Katsuki on the other hand had kept challenging Nejire to spars for the rest of the period, her blasting him across the room becoming a common occurrence as time went on.

Walking home, Katsuki was still rubbing the bruises her energy blasts had left.

Still, he only had two weeks until the festival. And Katsuki wanted to be sure he was ready.

The next week was mostly more of the same. Standard classes and exercises, with more workouts in the afternoons and training spars with Nejire.

The only exception was on wednesday when he'd told Ochaco and Nejire he had to go home early the day after.

"But why though? Your parents want to do something? You need to take a day off? Rest day?"

Katsuki waved off Nejire's questions again.

"It's just my birthday."

""Your birthday is tomorrow?!""

Katsuki gave both of them a quizzical look.

"Yeah, I mean, just gonna have dinner with my parents, they'll give me a present or two. Not that big of a deal."

Nejire and Ochaco both looked each other in the eye, seeming to have a silent conversation, then nodded at the same time.

Turning back to Katsuki, the two girls linked arms, smiling at him. Ochaco spoke up first.

"That's fine with me if it's a short workout. It's just one day."

Nejire nodded along with everything Ochaco said, following her lead.

Katsuki shrugged off their weird reactions and the rest of the workout and sparring was pretty normal.

Though Ochaco had spent part of the sparring messaging on her phone.

The next day was began fairly normally. Classes were fairly standard, but a few of his classmates seemed like they were whispering to each other.

Katsuki was just getting ready to head to the gym when Ochaco asked if he could answer a few questions.

"Couldn't we do this on the way?"

"Sure! But I figured that it would be better to just get them out of the way now."

Katsuki thought about it, then put his backpack down.

"What were you curious about?"

"Well, I was wondering if you feel like I've been improving?"

Katsuki thought it over for a second.

"You've gotten better. It's gonna take longer for the weight and quirk training to show, but you are definitely getting better at sparring sessions with Nejire. Those are gonna be your leg up going into the festival."

Ochaco let out a noticeable sigh of relief, relaxing.

"I was worried since I don't feel like I'm getting that much better."

Katsuki scoffed at the thought.

"That's because our senpai is a monster."

Ochaco giggled.

"I guess she is…"

Ochaco peeked at her watch. That reminded Katsuki he was in a rush today.

"Alright, we don't have much time today, so we've gotta hurry."

Before Ochaco could react, Katsuki was out the door, bag over his shoulder.

Ochaco scrambled to catch up.

"I mean, are we in that much of a hurry? We could take our time too!"

"No way, I'm cutting it short today already."

Ochaco yanked out her phone and started frantically texting.

Stepping into the gym, Katsuki was met with party poppers and kazoos. Looking around, Katsuki spotted Kirishima, Sato, Tsuyu, Nejire and Momo surrounding a plate of cookies with candles.

Above them was a small banner with the words 'Happy Birthday Bakugo!'

Katsuki froze for a moment at the sight, processing what he was looking at.

In the corner, Aizawa was lying in his yellow sleeping bag, just staring out at the group.

Momo was the first to speak up from the students present.

"After Ochaco informed us that your birthday was today, a few of us in the class decided to organize something small for you.

As class president, I was able to ask for supervision to be present and allow this to happen. Mr.Aizawa agreed. Sato was the that made the cookies."

The taller boy bashfully put a hand on the back of his head as Momo beamed.

At that the yellow caterpillar of a man spoke up.

"I'm not cleaning up any of this. if you lot make a mess, you're cleaning it up."

The next few minutes involved everyone present wishing Katsuki a happy birthday and giving him small presents.

Kirishima was the first to give Katsuki a present.

"Got you a set of training weights for you to use at home! They might be a bit light, but every bit helps!"

Next up was Sato, who offered Katsuki some more baked goods.

Tsuyu on the other hand, gave Katsuki some socks.

"Everyone needs socks."

Nejire had gotten him a new tank top for exercise since his current one was getting kind of small and was starting to tear during their sparring.

Momo gave Katsuki some professional grade training nutrient mix. Stuff that tasted way better then the chalky stuff he'd been drinking previously.

Finally Ochaco got him one of those motivational mugs. It said 'Undefeated' on the side.

Katsuki accepted all of the gifts with some level of surprise, just putting them away and eating the birthday cookies.

They tasted good.

Katsuki spent the next while just chatting with the others and hanging out.

Finally Katsuki got a call from his mom wondering why he was late.

Checking the time, Katsuki realized tat he'd stayed way long then he'd intended.

Looking up Katsuki saw the others waving him off. Momo speaking up.

"It's fine, we'll clean this up. You head home! See you in class tomorrow."

Katsuki awkwardly raised a hand and waved goodbye, carrying his bag of presents.

"See you."

When he finally got home, Mitsuki asked him what had kept him so long at school.

After a second, Katsuki answered.

"Some of my classmates threw me a surprise party."

Mitsuki froze for a second what she was doing in the kitchen. Then resumed after wiping her eyes, still facing away.

"That's nice. Glad you had a good day."

If her voice was a little choked up, Katsuki didn't say anything.

The only other event of note occurred two days before the festival itself.

As Katsuki was getting ready to head to the gym for training, he opened he door to find the hallway filled with other students.

Several of them were staring into the classroom, and at him, with undisguised hostility. Katsuki promptly started glaring back. No way did they get to just come to his classroom and start glaring him down if they didn't expect the same in return.

Some of the students Katsuki locked gaze with promptly looked away.

The ones that didn't were the one Katsuki knew were gonna be the real threats going forward.

Finishing his observations, Katsuki spoke up in a level tone.

"Move. You're blocking the hallway."

Suddenly a voice came from the back of the crowd.

"I came here to scope out you heroics kids, but I didn't expect for you to as arrogant as to dismiss us without a word. I've gotta say, I'm a bit disillusioned."

Some purple haired kid with massive eyebags walked to the front to face Katsuki head on. For some reason Katsuki thought he looked familiar.

Katsuki just kept staring, keeping his face carefully neutral as he let the kid keep digging his grave.

"Did you know that there are a bunch of us general ed students that are only there because we failed the heroics exam? And depending on our performance during the sports festival, we may come under evaluation to be moved to the hero course."

The kid tilted his head with a small smirk on his face.

"And the reverse is also possible…"

"So, if nothing else, a general ed kid like me is just thinking, why don't I pull the rug out from under all these heroics students while they're on their high horse. Consider it a declaration of war."

Katsuki gave the dude a very obvious once over. The dude didn't look like he could fight his way out of a paper bag. His arms were practically twiglike.

"…Okay. You gonna move now? I'm going to the gym and don't want to waste my time."

Suddenly another voice echoed out from the back of the crowd.

"Hey, I'm from 1B. I heard you guys fought some villains so I came to hear about it from you guys! But I'm not interested in talking to some stuck up jerk! You lot better not embarrass us in the sports festival, you hear!"

Katsuki put a hand to his face and let out a sigh that was almost a growl.

Deciding that clearly none of these extras were gonna move Katsuki just started pushing his way through the crowd.

If they wanted to tell him something, then they could tell it to him by themself without hiding in a crowd.

Ignoring the rest of the crowd, Katsuki started walking towards the gym.

The sports festival would be his response to these people. Just like it would be for everyone else.

Finally, it was the night before the festival.

Lying back in his bed, Katsuki took a deep breath.

This was it. The sports festival. Basically the most famous national hero competition in Japan. And tomorrow, it would be Katsuki up there on that stage.

Raising a hand, Katsuki curled it into a fist, a grin on this face.

He couldn't wait.