1-A Competitors Box, Sports Festival Stadium.

Friday, 7th 2149.

The man in the grey uniform directed us past the elevator and through the door of the 1-A competitor box before making taking his leave. I could see our faces broadcast on the monitor above the stage, or in Toru's case, the upper portion of her tracksuit as we stepped through the door.

"It's nice to finally watch something," Izuku said, smiling. "Even if it is our own tournament."

"I do believe Aizawa told us that we would get the chance to watch, Midoriya," Tenya said, posture so straight that my own back almost started to ache in sympathy. "While we have been under surveillance for the vast majority of our time here, this is the first time we are in direct view of the audience—please continue to avail yourselves in a way that is befitting of U.A"

"You got it, Class Pres," Ochaco said, firing off a salute. "We'll be on our best behaviour."

"This definitely beats staring at the same four walls and waiting for our names to be called out," Toru said, coming to stand beside the two. "So many people."

Tenya's beaming smile dominated the monitor as a small drone camera panned over our position. Shoto turned and looked directly into the camera as it focused on him before turning to look back out at the crowd—the single motion enough to draw a wave of cheers from the crowd. The monitor switched feeds, showing Ibara Shiozaki and Jurota Shishida waving up at their own camera. A moment later, it changed again, showing Hitoshi Shinso sitting all alone in the middle of the 1-C competitor's box, his mouth a flat line across his face—the boy looked tired, the dark circles under his eyes showing up far too well under the strength of the lens.

Kashiko Sekigai and Habuko Mongoose were shown next, huddled together and talking to each other, apparently unaware they were currently being broadcast across the entire arena. It changed one more time, showing Inasa Yoarashi standing tall before the railing, laughing like a lunatic as he spotted his own face on the monitor. The tall boy began waving at the crowd, a full motion that sent his entire body rocking from the effort and, in turn, he received what might have been the largest crowd response out of everyone present.

"Yoarashi seems very happy, doesn't he?" Momo said, covering her smile with her hand.

"He's almost like Ida, only without the private school packaging," Toru said, amused. "He's not one of your brothers, is he?"

"There is nothing wrong with receiving a private education," Ida said, letting the teasing wash over him. "Besides, Yoarashi is clearly a strong competitor, with or without one."

"He appears to be the crowd favourite today," Tsuyu said, croaking.

"He has a very powerful and flashy quirk," Izuku said, eyes bright as he watched the crowd. "The audience has likely been able to keep track of him well throughout the events because of it, although the same could be said for Tokoyami, Todoroki and Hisoka."

I glanced over at my inclusion—It had been difficult to determine the crowd's response during the Obstacle Course because Inasa had been the centre of attention. In the Calvary Battle, my attention had been focused entirely on our competitors. If Izuku had noticed an elevated audience response to my placements, then perhaps I was more on track towards my goal than I'd previously thought.

"Ouch," Toru said, slumping down into a chair beside the boy. "I guess the rest of us are just destined to fade away into obscurity then, Midoriya?"

"No, Hagakure, I didn't mean it like that," Izuku said, waving his hands around in alarm. "I just—it's easier for them because they're so visible, you know—"

Izuku cut himself off, almost choking on his own choice of words.

"Visible?" Toru said, twisting around to look at him. "Are you teasing me right now?"

"No, of course not—that's not what I meant either," Izuku said, apparently in the midst of a meltdown. "I think—I know that all of us have made it this far—so—so no matter what Quirk we have, each of us will have made a good impression?"

Izuku kind of trailed off at the end before looking around at the rest of us in search of some kind of support.

"Nice save, Deku," Ochaco cheered, giving him the thumbs up. "As expected as the boy who collected the most Rescue Points in our entrance exam."

Toru remained as inscrutable as ever, her uniform twisting as she leaned forward a bit. Izuku flushed before lifting his hands up as a shield between them, covering his face as best he could—clearly, he was giving up on trying to talk his way out of it and had moved on to attempting some form of proto-stealth.

"Please stop picking on Midoriya—we're supposed to be conducting ourselves with decorum here," Tenya said, clearing his throat. "Besides, it looks like the final event is about to start."

The monitor above flickered on, revealing a long table, seated at which was Aizawa, Present Mic, Nyoko Nori—the woman Sajin had introduced me to at his birthday party—and a woman with pink curly hair.

"Welcome back again for another battle-fueled, adrenaline-pumping event—you've seen both the third year and second years beat each other up for our amusement; now it's time for the first years to take their lumps," Present Mic said, getting progressively louder as he spoke. "You've heard it all before, but I'm saying it again for good measure—sixteen competitors, each duking it out in a one-on-one elimination-styled fighting tournament, and I promise you now that you aren't going to want to miss these epic matchups."

"This is where we finally find out who we're competing against," Fumikage asked, stepping up to the railing. "I must admit, I've been overtaken by a burning curiosity."

"So have I," Mezo said, fingers resting against his mask.

"As you can see, I've got several co-hosts with me now; the three of them will be handling the commentating during the events while I get to kick back and relax for a bit," Present Mic said, cheering. "Let me introduce you to U.A's first-year commentator, Eraserhead. Shiketsu's first-year commentator, Nyoko Nori. Isamu's first-year commentator, Sanda Sango—give them a round of applause for being here."

The crowd complied with the hero's demands, and then he rolled on through.

"Now we've already had each of the contestants roll for a number, and now we're revealing the first round fights—are you all ready for this?" Present Mic called before waiting for the crowd's response to die down again. "Match one; Shiketsu High, Inasa Yoarashi vs U.A, Izuku Midoriya. Match two; U.A, Shoto Todoroki vs U.A, Fumikage Tokoyami."

Izuku sat up straight at the sound of his name, fist clenched at his hip.

"Match three; U.A, Ochaco Uraraka vs Isamu Academy, Kashiko Sekigai. Match four; U.A, Toru Hagakure vs U.A, Hitoshi Shinso," Present Mic said, rattling them off. "Match five; U.A, Tsuyu Asui vs Isamu, Habuko Mongoose. Match six; U.A, Jurota Shishida vs U.A, Mezo Shoji."

Toru was the one who had to deal with Hitoshi—unlucky, considering she had no range attacks, and I still wasn't sure how his Quirk actually worked. Tsuyu, on the other hand, looked as if she'd just been slapped across the face.

"Oh no," Tsuyu managed.

"Match seven; U.A, Momo Yaoyorozu vs U.A, Tenya Ida, and Match eight; U.A, Ibara Shiozaki vs Hisoka Higawara." Present Mic said, finishing the list. "That's all of our the first round bouts, and they're about to start—as soon as our match one contestants get their butts down to the arena, move it, kiddies."

Izuku rose up from his seat, the embarrassment he'd been wearing vanishing along the way, unable to survive beneath the unseen pressure that had suddenly pressed down on him. He vanished back through the doorway, disappearing into the building in search of the stairs, a series of well-wishes trailing after him as he went.

"This is going to be interesting," Mezo said, "I think we all remember the damage Midoriya is capable of creating when he gets serious."

"The question is whether or not he's as serious now as he was at that time," Momo said, frowning. "I believe he has a personal history with Bakugo that made that circumstance rather unique, and there doesn't appear to be anything of the sort here."

"Midoriya is going to lose," Shoto murmured, moving to stand at the railing. "That guy is simply outside of his ability to defeat."

"Honestly, he's outside of most of our ability to defeat under these conditions," Tsuyu said, croaking. "A wide open stage with no cover and no ability to come at him from a place of advantage."

"Deku is really strong," Ochaco said, "If anyone can do it, it's him."

Shoto just shook his head at the words. I watched as Inasa's face appeared on the monitor as he stepped out of the tunnel, heading towards the stage with a massive smile on his face. Izuku watched him approach, expression tight.

"Izuku is strong, but he's at a severe disadvantage here," I said, speaking up. "Anything short of his full force won't reach Inasa, and even then, the attack we witnessed him use during the combat training worked by harnessing the wind-force generated by his punch—something his opponent can manipulate with his Quirk."

"It's the worst opponent possible for Midoriya," Fumikage said, "How unfortunate."

"That guy only controls the wind, right? So Deku just needs to get close enough to hit him normally," Ochaco said, leaning forward over the railing. "Try manipulating these hands, Yoarashi—pow, hi-yah."

"Sound effects, Uraraka?" Momo said, giggling.

"The rules are simple; immobilise your opponent, or force them out of the ring to win. You can also win by getting the other person to cry 'uncle.'" Present Mic said, giving a tortured cry. "Don't worry about causing injuries because we have an entire wing filled with doctors, nurses and heroes with healing Quirks ready to attend to you."

That alone was probably enough for Izuku to pull out his best here, although breaking your own limbs in an attempt to win probably wasn't what Present Mic had been talking about.

"Put your morals aside, and don't be afraid to play dirty—nothing outright lethal, of course, but anything short of that is a-okay." Present Mic caveated, lowering his voice a bit. "You can see we've already got Cementoss down by the stage, ready to intervene if anything goes too far—and if you thought Midnight was a tough customer, you haven't met this guy."

Cementoss, already sitting on a concrete throne he'd built beside the stage, gave a friendly wave to the stadium, a smile on his face telling a completely different story to the dire picture being painted of him. Inasa came to a rest across from Izuku, hands planted on his hip and a bright smile on his face.

"Everyone is in position, and I'm going to hand things over to our commentators from here on out," Present Mic called, "Ready—set—go."

Inasa gave a battle cry, fists up at his sides as the wind began to warp the air around him, sending dust scattering around the stage. Izuku's hand came up to his face, bracing against the wind that was only growing stronger by the second. In seconds, there was a white-tinged gale of dust and grass encircling the entirety of the stage, and Izuku's right hand came forward, finger poised ahead of him, while his left wrapped itself around his wrist as a brace.

"This is crazy," Ochaco said in alarm. "It's affecting the crowd—"

The wind pressure reached the competitor box, washing over them and pulling at their uniforms in an attempt to pull them into the still-building mess that was tearing up the stage. The concentrated air blasts, the defensive wreath of air—this was far beyond everything else he'd shown during the previous events by an entire order of magnitude.

Izuku called something out that was entirely lost to the wind, and then a massive force rocketed outward from his finger. It crashed into the now floating Inasa and sent him flipping over backwards twice before he caught himself in midair. A second pulse burst upwards from Izuku's hand, but this time it was met with one of Inasa's own directed blasts, and the two attacks crashed into one another before exploding outwards with enough force to disrupt what was beginning to look tightly-contained hurricane.

"Look at the monitor," Mezo called, raising his voice to be heard over the wind. "Midoriya is destroying his fingers with each attack."

"To inflict so much pain on himself in search of victory," Momo managed, her hair tie vanishing in the wind, leaving her hair to wash outwards. "I was clearly underestimating just how serious Midoriya is taking this."

As serious as he was, Izuku was burning through his fingers in an attempt to keep up with his opponent, and Inasa clearly had no intention of coming back down into melee range. Izuku ran out of fingers trying to counter the air blasts that were now crashing down around him, and rather than fold under the assault, he pushed harder.

Izuku started firing off more attacks from his already broken fingers, destroying them all over again in the process—his feet left the ground as the hurricane winds dragged him up into the air. Unable to maneuver, he drew his arm back over his shoulder, waited until he'd spun to face the ground and then threw his punch.

A massive pulse of wind force cut down through the hurricane like the hand of god, smashing into the centre of the stage and shattering it beneath the force. With nowhere else to go, the force began spreading outwards in a sudden visible wave, disrupting the hurricane entirely. For a single moment, he was left tumbling through the air in the aftermath, completely out of control, and then he crashed down on the grass outside of the arena.

"Winner; Inasa Yoarashi," Nyoko said, her faint voice finally able to break through the sound of the fading wind. "This might just be the biggest spectacle of the day—and from the first years no less, how surprising."

I couldn't help but note that she didn't sound remotely surprised by what had just occurred. Uncle Sajin hadn't mentioned her job, and neither had Kiyoshi, but considering Shota was up there with her, she must have been part of the Shiketsu faculty—she'd clearly known what Inasa was capable of before today.

"He lost," Ochaco managed.

"I can't believe he managed to wipe out the hurricane with a single attack," Momo said, stumped. "That kind of strength is—incredible."

"To think they could do something like this," Tenya said, hands clenched in a white-knuckled grip around the railing, "They destroyed the stage, it's so incredibly irresponsible—and that boy even got the audience involved in the battle—"

"Class Pres," Toru said, laughing. "Don't lose your composure; people are still watching us, remember?"

Tenya made a strangled noise in the back of his throat before he straightened up in an attempt to cool down. Izuku was whisked away on a stretcher, vanishing down the nearest tunnel and out of sight, while Inasa left the arena on his own two feet, looking completely unruffled. Throughout the entirety of the battle, his uniform hadn't so much as shifted from the wind—I was starting to get a better understanding of just how his defensive wind field worked.

"Cementoss is already fixing the stage anyway," Tsuyu said, croaking. "I'm not sure what they're going to do about all the rubbish down there, though."

#

The answer to that was a bunch of different staff members rushing around and collecting it all with a variety of different Quirks. By the time they had finished, both Shoto and Fumikage were already approaching the stage, walking side by side in apparent silence.

"These are both students of U.A, but you should already know that by now if you were paying even the minimum amount of attention," Shota said, voice held in a bored monotone. "Shoto Todoroki and Fumikage Tokoyami of class 1-A."

"Aizawa sounds like exactly like he does in class," Tsuyu said, croaking. "I don't know why I'm surprised."

"He clearly intends on roasting the audience until they allow him to go take a nap," Toru said in agreement. "As expected of our esteemed teacher."

"You should hope he doesn't pay any attention to the recordings of us talking about him," Mezo said, voice dry. "I can already feel my legs burning; running is torture."

"There's nothing wrong with running, Shoji," Tenya said, adjusting his glasses. "It's an entirely healthy hobby."

"You consider running as a hobby?" Ochaco said, patting him on the back. "That's so sad, Ida."

"What?" Tenya said, looking flustered. "Of course it's—"

"Fighters are in place," Shota said without fanfare. "Ready, set, go."

I turned to look upwards as the torrent of ice appeared, rising above the stands and piercing through the open top of the arena. A sprinkling of frost rained down from the titanic mass, sparkling in the light as it fell down onto the crowd. A clear show of force beyond that of Inasa's hurricane and designed to show that he wasn't the only one on that level—but one that left Shoto's entire right side covered in frost, a clear sigh of backlash from overexerting himself.

Fumikage's face appeared on the monitor, embedded in the bottom of the mass of ice, with only his eyes and beak exposed. Even if he could have shattered the ice with Dark Shadow, it would have destroyed most of his skin in the process. As it was, being in contact with that much ice would have been beyond painful—if it hadn't robbed him of the ability to feel anything at all within seconds of making contact. Prolonged exposure would leave him unconscious or worse.

I doubted there was a single person in the stadium that had expected Shoto to unleash such an overwhelming attack as an opening move. Even then, the mass of ice towering above the crowd was running the risk of collapsing under its own weight and falling on the spectators. It was clearly an ill-proportioned and inappropriate use of force to contain a single person, no matter how strong Shoto presumed Fumikage to be.

"That—" Momo managed, tilting her head back. "That is absurd."

"Winner; Shoto Todoroki," Shota said, an edge to his voice. "You better deal with that before it falls over, Todoroki."

Shoto, standing down in the middle of the arena, suddenly looked like he'd rather be anywhere else but where he was. I watched as he placed his hand against the ice, directly over Fumikage's chest—immediately, the ice began to rapidly melt away on contact with his hand, but Shoto seemed entirely unwilling to meet the other boy's eyes throughout the process. The tip of the mass, high above the stadium, began to shrink, some combination of his ice manipulation and the heat from his fire manipulation working to erode the ice in a controlled manner.

"I'm starting to worry about the rest of you now," Mezo admitted, "Uraraka, are you going to make the entire stadium float during your match?"

"Only a couple of inches—enough to show Todoroki that I'm not messing around," Ochaco said before turning and waving her hands at the sudden overwhelming attention the comment brought her. "I was joking—"

#

Shoto's return to the competitor's booth was somber, and he made no attempt to acknowledge the congratulations levied his way. It was obvious that he had been adversely affected by his own actions against Fumikage, although the exact reason for his sudden change eluded me. My mental model of Shoto wouldn't allow me to consider the possibility that he'd used that much force by accident; he was simply too controlled and too competent for that to be the case.

Which meant the level of force had been rationalised in advance—likely to facilitate increased attention from Hero Agencies, which was the universal goal of every competitor here—but his immediate wilting in the aftermath had shown that something had changed.

If his goal had been to market himself to the world as an overwhelmingly powerful hero-in-training, then he'd succeeded far beyond what was required—so why then were his hands shaking, his posture tense, and his eyes locked on the floor?

Either he hadn't considered the outcome entirely, Fumikage's frozen state had triggered something in him, or Shota's reaction from the announcer's box had caused him to reevaluate the validity of his strategy.

"Kashiko Sekigai is one of our precious first years at Isamu Academy and one with a bright future ahead of her," Sanda said, sniffing a bit. "She was elected as the class representative because of her unwavering commitment to—"

Kashiko stood in the centre of the stage, red-faced and fanning herself with her hand as what could only be her teacher continued to sing her praises. Shota, sitting beside the woman, stared at her like he was watching a train crash but appeared unable to bring himself to interject.

"—of course, you've already seen some of her leadership qualities during the first event," Sanda said, apparently developing a hiccup that interposed itself through her words. "In a display of solidarity, she formed a team with her classmates, attempting to ensure that many of them managed to make it through the first obstacle—"

"Momo," Tsuyu said, croaking. "Are you crying?"

"I can't help it," Momo said, wiping at her eyes. "She's just so sweet."

"I wonder if Aizawa will cry when he gets a turn to talk about Uraraka?" Mezo wondered.

Toru cleared her throat, drawing everyone's attention to her.

"I simply used my support item—eyedrops—to make it appear as if I was crying," Toru said, affecting a monotone voice. "A logical ruse, designed to elicit sympathy from the audience and help build a stronger connection with them on your behalf. Everyone who didn't realise it immediately will be summarily expelled—because I totally wasn't crying."

"Hagakure," Tenya said with a sigh. "Though I suppose imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."

"Thank you, Sanda," Shota managed, leaning down to his microphone for a moment. "Ochaco Uraraka usually turns her homework in on time—you can fight now."

"That's all?" Toru said, amused.

"Maybe they don't allow support items in the announcer's box," I offered.

Ochaco took off in the direction of her opponent, keeping low to the ground, but Kashiko matched her, rushing to meet her. Ochaco dove forward, reaching out with an outstretched palm, but Kashiko twisted to the side, avoiding the lunge and sending a kick towards her back. It connected, but the angle was off, and Ochaco's forward momentum meant that it kind of bounced off her upper back.

Kashiko didn't back off, attempting a second kick, and this time it was far more accurate, crashing into Ochaco's arm as she brought it up to cover her face—then Kashiko was suddenly floating, the hand wrapped around her shin more than enough contact for Ochaco's Quirk to activate.

Kashiko twisted forward in the air, managing to snag Ochaco's hair before the other girl could throw her away. Then the two of them were hitting one another, with Ochaco trying and failing to disentangle herself from the other girl. Kashiko clearly realised that the moment she lost contact with her opponent, it would all be over, and it seemed to give her the strength to wrap her legs around the other girl's torso, holding on throughout the onslaught of attacks.

"How unseemly," Tenya said, pushing his glasses up his nose. "It's like watching a bag filled with cats."

"It's very suspicious that you know what that looks like, Ida," Tsuyu wondered, "Should we be worried?"

"I don't—it's an expression," Tenya said, alarmed. "I would never stand by and allow such a thing to continue."

"Ouch, that one looked like it hurt," Toru said, raising her voice slightly. "It looks like she's trying to get Uraraka into a rear-naked choke."

That Toru knew the correct term for what Kashiko was overtly attempting meant that the invisible girl likely had some hand-to-hand combat skills of her own or at least the familiarity with identifying it on sight. Something which she hadn't shown at any previous point in our combat training exercises.

"Submission is probably the only way victory is possible for Kashiko at this point," I said, eyeing the fight. "Ochaco doesn't seem to have a good grasp of striking yet; she would benefit from some focused hand-to-hand training."

"The other girl is taller, has more reach, and appears to have better reflexes," Mezo said, tilting his head. "But the fact that she's floating seems to be greatly hindering her."

"No weight and no contact with the ground means she can't generate any significant force with her strikes," I said, nodding. "The two kicks she used at the start are enough to see that she possesses some degree of formal training."

"Oh no," Tsuyu said, wincing. "Is Ochaco going to lose?"

Ochaco attempted to bite down on the other girl's hand as she slipped it around her neck and pulled tight. When it failed, she placed her hands together in front of her and then threw her weight backwards, aiming to drop the girl who was now clinging to her back down onto the cement. It looked painful, but it wasn't nearly enough to dislodge her, and that was the end of it.

"Winner; Kashiko Sekigai," Sanda said, practically bawling her eyes out. "I'm so proud of you—"

"Looks like it's time to avenge the others," Toru said, rising to her feet. "Wish me luck, guys."

"Good luck," Momo said, smiling.

"Bakugo is going to lose his mind if you avenge him before he has a chance to fight Shinso again," Tsuyu said, croaking. "But good luck, Toru."

I glanced down at where Toru had left her shoes, neatly placed beside one another beneath her chair.

#

Toru came to a stop opposite the purple-haired boy, her uniform tracksuit looking oddly distorted and limp as it hung in the air. Hitoshi's face appeared on the monitor a moment later, his mouth moving as he stared at the invisible girl, but the words weren't audible as the announcer's voices washed over the stadium.

"Mezo," I asked, "Can you hear what he's saying?"

"Shinso is taunting her, listing off all of the people in our class that have already been eliminated by him," Mezo said before tilting his head. "Bakugo, Kirishima, Ashido, Sero, Ojiro, Jiro—Hatsume? I don't know who that is."

"The girl from 1-H with all of the support items, she was on the same team as Ojiro," Momo said, leaning forward. "Is Hagakure already under his control?"

"I don't know because she isn't saying anything at all," Mezo admitted. "I'm starting to get the feeling he needs her to respond to him because every single sentence he speaks ends with a question."

"Hitoshi Shinso is a general studies student in class 1-C, while Toru Hagakure is a Hero Studies student from 1-A," Shota said, fixing up the bandages around his mouth as he spoke. "Neither of them have a single tardy on record. Begin."

The uniform dropped to the floor of the stage, and it became obvious that she'd been holding it up in front of herself instead of actually wearing it. Hitoshi, the only person visible on the stage, became the focal point for the monitor to follow, and his mouth continued to move soundlessly as he searched the area. The sense of control he'd worn at the beginning of the match was eroding, replaced by restlessness—he started moving forward into the centre of the arena, hands up to cover his head.

"Sticking to the middle of the stage to avoid getting knocked out of bounds—a decent strategy," Tenya said, "If the mind-control is his only form of attack, and it's not currently working, then this has just become a melee battle."

"A melee battle against a person who is completely invisible," Tsuyu said, "Shinso is quite large, though, while Toru is only about five-foot-tall—"

Hitoshi went down to his knees, hand buried between his legs as he collapsed, his face a rictus of pain. His cheek deformed slightly before his head snapped to the side, and then he was rolling across the ground. He managed to scramble back up to his knees, but his hand remained down, guarding himself against a second groin attack—he looked like he was struggling to get all the way upright.

"Hagakure just—" Tenya said, reeling back from the railing in shock. "How dishonourable."

"Present Mic did say for us to fight dirty," Momo managed, "I just didn't expect to see something so blatant."

"As far as morality is concerned, taking control of someone's mind ranks higher than kicking someone in the groin," I said, speaking up. "It's an effective tactic against a larger opponent, and Toru can't risk being drawn into a grappling match against someone who is physically much stronger than she is."

Hitoshi looked beyond panicked now and seemed to be trying to keep himself moving to avoid letting her take any more precise attacks at him while he was standing still. He stumbled forward, spun and then dove forward in an attempt to catch his opponent—two steps in, his leg caught on something, and he crashed back down onto his knees. He scrambled backwards, on his hands and knees, in an attempt to gain some distance before his head snapped backwards, blood erupting from his nose as something impacted it.

"Shouldn't he be able to hear her moving?" Tsuyu asked.

"She's not wearing shoes or clothing, and the concrete doesn't make any noise when she steps on it. Considering her Quirk, she's likely spent a significant amount of time practising stealth," I said, "Hitoshi doesn't appear to possess any additional method to detect her presence."

Hitoshi fell over again, twisting to the side in an attempt to catch his opponent as he fell, but missed again as she retreated. His face was a mess at this point, mouth covered in blood, skin pale and visibly sweating. The monitor showed him place his hand down on the concrete in an attempt to push himself back to his feet before he snatched his hand back with a soundless shout, two of his fingers oddly bent.

"I heard that," Mezo said, wincing. "Hagakure just stomped on his hand."

The entirely one-sided fight continued for several minutes, with Hitoshi getting progressively more damaged every time he stood back up until a second groin kick brought him down again, and at that point, he was struggling to get back up.

"Winner; Toru Hagakure," Shota said, sounding completely unbothered by what everyone had just witnessed. "Now we'll be moving onto the fifth match—"

"Toru is scary," Tsuyu said, croaking.

#

"Hagakure," Tenya said when she returned to the competitor's box. "When you said you were going to avenge our classmates, I didn't think you meant like that."

"If they wanted us to handle it differently, then they should have given us capture tape," Toru said before sighing. "God, my feet hurt."

The leggings of her tracksuit kicked up, and I could almost imagine her left heel resting on top of her knee as she rubbed at her invisible foot.

"I suppose repeatedly kicking someone will do that," Momo said, laughing awkwardly. "I'm surprised he remained so determined throughout the match; technically, he didn't give up, even at the end—they kind of just assumed he wasn't going to recover."

"Habuko Mongoose is one of the hardest working students at Isamu Academy, and she's always looking out for everyone in her class," Sanda said, taking the handkerchief that Shota was holding up for her. "She likes to volunteer at the nearby animal shelters on her weekends, so you can be sure that—"

I watched as Tsuyu appeared on the monitor, moving towards the stage; the other girl from Isamu Academy stood in the middle already, hands nervously wringing her wrists. Tsuyu had pointed out several times already that this girl was a friend of hers—presumably from middle school, although I had no real confirmation about that.

"That was the girl on Yoarashi's team," Tenya said, glancing over at Shoto. "The one that kept stopping us from catching the headband during the Cavalry Battle."

"Yoarashi was very dangerous on his own," Momo admitted, "But her paralysis made the situation completely unworkable."

"It doesn't matter because we already know the weakness of her Quirk," Shoto said, speaking up for the first time since he returned. "So long as we stop her from looking at our eyes, she isn't anywhere near as much of a threat."

"Perhaps," Tenya agreed.

"Thank you, Sanda," Shota said, managing to interject. "Tsuyu Asui is a member of the Hero Studies course and a member of class 1-A. She has developed a reputation amongst her peers for performing very well under pressure—fight."

The two girls had a quiet exchange of words lost under the noise of the crowd, and Mezo sighed when everyone turned to look at him. He engaged his Quirk again, aiming his limbs in their general direction before tilting his head.

"Mongoose is crying? She really doesn't want to fight her," Mezo said, hesitant. "Asui appears to be trying to convince her that they'll still be friends no matter who is victorious—it seems to be working? Mongoose has agreed to try her best."

"That's so sweet," Momo said.

"If the two competitors would please fight now," Shota said, sighing. "We've still got many matches ahead—"

That seemed to get the two moving, with Mongoose rushing forward across the stage in a sprint. Tsuyu crouched down low to the ground, and then her tongue lashed out, crossing the distance in an instant. It caught the taller girl around the ankle. Tsuyu twisted, dragging her opponent up off the ground and into a wide circle that left Mongoose on a course for the edge of the stage—Tsuyu suddenly collapsed forward onto the ground, her tongue going limp, but Mongoose was already in the air and couldn't slow herself down.

"—of us. Thanks," Shota said, voice dry. "Winner; Tsuyu Asui."

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