The arena collapsed inward.
Eight teams charged Team Fushiguro at once.
Riders reached across the shrinking distance. Several shouted at Megumi to surrender the headband. Others attacked from silence, hoping to avoid giving away their positions.
Tokoyami looked over his shoulder.
"An attack without delay."
"The fate of the pursued like you said," Megumi said.
Kirishima drove forward.
Megumi formed a hand sign.
"Rabbit Escape."
Dozens of pale rabbits burst from the shadow beneath the formation.
They flooded the field in every direction.
The attacking teams lost sight of Megumi almost immediately. Horses stumbled around the moving bodies. Riders twisted in their seats, searching for the ten-million-point headband among white fur and shifting shadows.
Present Mic shouted over the crowd.
"FUSHIGURO OPENS WITH A SWARM OF RABBITS! The first-place team has vanished inside the chaos!"
"He's adding to the chaos with even more chaos," Aizawa said.
"They also look adorable!"
"That isn't relevant."
A rider lunged through the rabbits from the left.
"There!"
Dark Shadow struck his hand aside.
A second team approached from the right.
Momo created a broad metal shield along her forearm and blocked the rider's reach.
"Forward!" she called.
Kirishima hardened his shoulders and forced their formation through the gap between two teams.
A third rider came directly at Megumi.
Shiro emerged from the shadow beside Kirishima.
It did not bite.
It crossed the opposing horses' path, forcing them to turn or collide with it.
They swerved.
Their rider shouted in frustration as Team Fushiguro escaped.
Present Mic's voice rose again.
"THE DOG IS HERDING THE OTHER TEAMS AWAY! Team Fushiguro is controlling the chaos with his quirk!"
Megumi looked back.
Bakugo blasted above the rabbits.
Unlike the others, he had ignored the confusion and flown directly toward the ten-million-point strip.
"I found you!"
Dark Shadow rose to meet him.
Bakugo fired.
The explosion struck Dark Shadow's crossed arms and drove it backward, but Tokoyami held the defense.
Sero's tape remained attached to Bakugo's waist.
"Pulling you back!"
"I'm not done!"
"You're leaving the horse!"
Midnight raised a white flag as Sero dragged Bakugo back onto Sato's shoulders.
"Legal! The rider never touched the ground!"
Bakugo landed and immediately pointed toward Megumi.
"Again."
Sato started forward.
Mina spread acid beneath their feet.
Their team accelerated.
Megumi watched them come.
"Left."
Kirishima turned.
Bakugo's team followed.
"Toad."
A long tongue shot from Megumi's shadow and wrapped around the rafters at the top of the arena.
It pulled Team Fushiguro sharply sideways.
Momo's bindings held the formation together as they swung away from Bakugo's path.
Bakugo passed beneath them.
Megumi looked down.
"You missed."
Bakugo's expression twisted.
"FUSHIGURO!"
Team Fushiguro landed and continued running.
Team Shinso moved along the outer edge.
The opening attack had left most of the field focused on Megumi.
Midoriya watched the central chaos.
"Fushiguro's rabbits are separating the teams. If we stay outside the swarm, we can target whoever gets pushed away."
Shinso looked down at him.
"That's why I chose you."
Midoriya glanced up.
"You chose me because I came second."
"That too."
Hatsume activated the engine attached to her back.
"Ready for the babies?"
Uraraka tightened her grip.
"How powerful is it?"
"Powerful enough."
"That doesn't answer the question."
A team broke away from the rabbit swarm and rushed toward them.
Their rider pointed at Shinso.
"He's from General studies! It's easy point!."
Shinso looked at him.
"You really believe that?"
"Obviously."
The rider's face went blank.
The horses beneath him continued running for two more steps before realizing he had stopped directing them.
Midoriya stared.
Shinso's eyes sharpened.
"Turn around."
The rider obeyed.
His team veered away from Team Shinso and collided with another formation.
Uraraka looked up.
"What did you do?"
Shinso said nothing.
Midoriya remembered the students carrying him during the obstacle race.
The blank faces.
The unquestioning obedience.
His eyes widened.
"You controlled him."
Shinso glanced down.
"That's close enough."
"What activates it?"
"Pay attention."
Another team approached.
Their rider shouted, "Move!"
Shinso leaned toward him.
"Make me."
"Shut up!"
His expression emptied.
Midoriya understood.
"A verbal response."
Shinso gave him a faint look.
"You figured it out."
Uraraka's eyes widened.
"So anyone who answers you can be brainwashed?"
Shinso looked toward her.
She froze.
Nothing happened.
He had not activated it.
"Only when I choose to."
Hatsume leaned around Midoriya.
"That's useful. Can your quirk make the cameras follow us?"
"No."
"Then we still need my babies."
She fired the engine.
The formation launched forward.
Midoriya nearly lost his grip.
"You could have warned us!"
The sudden acceleration carried them past a distracted team.
Shinso reached out and tore the headband from its rider before anyone understood what had happened.
He tied it around his neck.
"First points."
Midoriya looked back.
"We did it."
"That's the point."
"I know. I just didn't expect it to happen that quickly."
Uraraka smiled despite herself.
"We're doing good!"
Shinso looked toward the three teams in the center.
"Stay away from them and we'll keep doing good!"
Todoroki's team moved slowly through the opening minutes.
Jiro kept one earphone jack pressed against the arena floor.
"Three teams moving from behind. Two from the left."
Todoroki raised his right hand.
Ice spread in narrow walls around their formation.
The approaching teams were forced into separate lanes.
Iida accelerated through the opening before anyone could surround them.
Kaminari looked back.
"We aren't going after Fushiguro?"
"Not yet."
"He has ten million points."
"He also has Kirishima, Yaoyorozu, Tokoyami, and his quirk gives him extra bodies."
Jiro nodded.
"Everyone attacking him is getting in everyone else's way."
Todoroki watched Team Fushiguro evade another group.
"We'll wait until the end, let everybody get desperate enough that they start attacking each other."
Iida looked forward.
"And then?"
"We take the 10 million points."
Bakugo's team found another path toward Megumi.
Mina spread acid beneath Sato's feet, reducing friction while he maintained the structure through raw strength.
Bakugo flew from the rider position.
"You can't stop me twice!"
Tokoyami turned.
"He approaches from above."
"Yeah, I see him," Megumi said.
Bakugo raised one palm.
"Great Serpent."
The enormous construct erupted between the two teams.
Its body rose like a wall.
Bakugo blasted the serpent's head, forcing it aside.
That was the opening Megumi expected.
Toad used his tongue to pull on Bakugo's arm and deviate the angle of his next explosion.
Sero pulled him back before he fell too far from the formation.
Bakugo landed on Sato's shoulders.
Bakugo's teeth clenched.
Sato kept running.
"Should we withdraw?"
"No."
Mina looked toward the scoreboard.
"Other teams are collecting points while we keep chasing Fushiguro."
Bakugo's gaze snapped toward a nearby formation carrying three headbands.
"Then take theirs."
Their team changed direction so suddenly the opposing rider barely reacted.
Sero's tape caught the horse on the right.
Mina spread acid across the ground in front.
The team lost traction.
Bakugo surged forward and tore two headbands free.
Present Mic shouted over the exchange.
"TEAM BAKUGO CHANGES TARGETS AND TAKES TWO BANDS AT ONCE!"
Sero grinned.
"See? Strategy."
Bakugo tied the strips around his neck.
"We're still taking the ten million."
"Of course we are."
Seven minutes remained.
The scoreboard appeared above the arena.
Team Fushiguro remained first.
Team Bakugo had climbed to second.
Team Todoroki held third.
Team Shinso occupied fourth by a narrow margin.
Present Mic leaned toward the microphone.
"Half the time is gone! Team Fushiguro is still in first, while Bakugo, Todoroki, and the surprise team led by Shinso round out the top four!"
The cameras turned toward Shinso.
He felt them.
For the first time, the general-studies student allowed himself a small smile.
Midoriya noticed.
"You wanted this."
"I told you I did."
Agency scouts in the stands were discussing on what his quirk might be. How they seemed to be in fourth place without having made any flashy moves.
Shinso had entered the event unknown.
Now the entire stadium was curious.
Hatsume leaned over Midoriya's shoulder and waved toward a camera.
"Don't forget the babies!"
The camera followed her for half a second before returning to Shinso.
Her smile tightened.
"We need something bigger."
Uraraka looked worried.
"What does bigger mean?"
Hatsume adjusted the engine controls.
"More thrust."
"No."
"Yes."
"Definitely no."
She fired it anyway.
Team Shinso shot across the arena.
Team Fushiguro changed direction near the center.
Jiro pressed both earphone jacks against the ground.
"They're entering range."
Todoroki looked toward Megumi.
"Now."
Iida leaned forward.
Their formation accelerated.
Kaminari raised one hand.
"Are we doing the wide discharge?"
"Not yet," Todoroki said. "Fushiguro has the electric bird."
Jiro listened.
"Bakugo's team is approaching them from the opposite side."
Todoroki watched the field.
"Let Bakugo get the first attack off."
Bakugo attacked head-on.
Sato drove the formation through the crowd while Mina cleared the ground beneath them. Sero launched Bakugo upward with a strip of tape.
Bakugo came down toward Megumi with both palms open.
"DIEEE!"
The explosion struck Dark Shadow's defense.
Tokoyami staggered.
Kirishima held the formation together.
Momo reinforced the shoulder grips with another layer of metal.
Megumi's shadow widened beneath them.
Bakugo reached through the smoke.
His fingers brushed the edge of the ten-million-point headband.
Megumi leaned back.
Toad's tongue caught Bakugo around the waist and pulled him away.
Sero's tape snapped tight from the opposite direction.
Bakugo hung between the two forces for half a second.
"LET GO!"
"Toad," Megumi said.
The construct released him.
Sero's tape whipped Bakugo backward.
He slammed onto Sato's shoulders.
Mina winced.
"That looked painful."
Bakugo rose immediately.
"Again."
Before Sato could respond, ice spread beneath their formation.
Mina looked down.
"Todoroki!"
The ice did not trap them.
It divided Team Bakugo from Team Fushiguro.
Todoroki's cavalry emerged from behind the frozen wall.
Megumi turned.
"They waited for Bakugo to draw out our defense."
Momo created a shield.
"Todoroki will attack from the right."
Jiro pressed one jack into the ice.
"They've stopped."
Todoroki raised his hand.
Kaminari grinned nervously.
"Now?"
"Now."
Electricity exploded across the field.
"Indiscriminate Shock, 1.3 Million Volts!"
The discharge spread through every nearby team.
Students convulsed.
Hands locked around shoulders. Horses froze mid-step. Riders lost control of their arms.
Momo reacted first.
"Insulation sheet!"
She created a thick rubber sheet across Team Fushiguro's right side.
It blocked the worst of the electricity, but not all of it.
Tokoyami stiffened.
Dark Shadow recoiled beneath the bright discharge.
Kirishima gritted his teeth and remained upright.
Megumi formed a hand sign.
"Nue."
The winged construct emerged above them.
Lightning bent toward its body and crackled through its wings.
Nue absorbed enough of the remaining current for the formation to keep moving.
Present Mic shouted from the booth.
"FUSHIGURO'S BIRD IS DRAWING OFF THE ELECTRICITY!"
Aizawa watched Todoroki.
Ice exploded across the arena.
Todoroki froze the teams Kaminari had immobilized before they could recover. The ground around Team Fushiguro hardened beneath layers of ice.
Nue's shadow disappeared beneath the brightness.
Todoroki drove forward.
Iida's engines roared.
Jiro tracked Team Fushiguro through the ice.
"Three steps left. They're still moving."
Momo struck the frozen ground with a metal staff.
Cracks spread.
Kirishima hardened fully and forced one foot free.
Tokoyami sent Dark Shadow into the fracture.
The ice shattered beneath them.
Team Fushiguro escaped before Todoroki closed the distance.
Kaminari's hair rose in every direction.
"Whey."
Jiro looked at him.
"He's done."
Todoroki continued chasing without responding.
Megumi glanced back.
Kaminari had lost control.
Jiro could still track them.
Iida had not used his full speed.
Todoroki still hadn't used any big moves.
Team Shinso remained outside the electrical blast.
Midoriya watched Todoroki freeze the center of the arena.
"They planned the order. Kaminari stopped everyone first, then Todoroki froze them before they could evade."
Shinso looked toward the immobilized teams.
"And left their headbands exposed."
Todoroki collected two as he passed.
Kaminari's discharge had stunned more than just the teams caught directly between Todoroki and Team Fushiguro. A cluster of students further out had been hit too, and while Todoroki was busy freezing the ground around Megumi, Team Monoma had swept through the stunned formations behind him, stripping three headbands off riders too dazed to fight back.
Team Shinso hadn't lost any headbands.
They'd simply been passed.
The scoreboard shifted.
They fell to fifth.
Uraraka looked up.
"We're outside the top 4."
"Then we need more points," Shinso said.
Midoriya searched the field.
Most low-value teams had already lost their headbands. The remaining points were concentrated around the strongest riders.
Megumi carried ten million.
Todoroki had stayed in second.
Bakugo had collected enough stolen bands to stay in third.
A Class 1-B formation raced nearby, Tetsutetsu at the front, two headbands hanging around the rider's neck.
Midoriya pointed.
"There."
Hatsume's eyes lit up.
"Maximum thrust?"
"Controlled thrust."
"That's less fun."
"Controlled."
Hatsume fired the engine.
Team Shinso surged forward.
Tetsutetsu looked back.
"Hey! It's you! You teamed up with 1-A!"
Shinso looked at him, flat and humorless. "I'll take whatever gets me into the hero course. Teaming up included."
"That's kind of pathetic, ain't it?"
His face emptied.
"Hand me the headband."
The rider removed the higher-value strip and held it out.
Shinso took it.
Midoriya's jaw tightened, but he didn't ask anything this time. He'd already seen exactly what that face going blank meant, back when Shinso had turned another rider around without laying a hand on him.
Uraraka looked back at the dazed team anyway.
"Doesn't get any less weird to watch."
Shinso tied the band around his neck. "Everyone here uses the quirk they were born with. It's the only one I've got." Something harder crept into his voice, worn in from a lot of use. "I've had this quirk my whole life, and I've heard people call it 'villainous' more times than I can count, from people who never once watched me actually use it on anyone. Doesn't matter what I do with it. The shape of it alone is enough for most people to make up their minds." He shrugged, like the subject bored him more than it bothered him. "So I stopped caring what it looks like from the outside a long time ago. I just use it."
Midoriya didn't say anything for a moment. There wasn't an obvious response to that, and he didn't want to make it worse by trying to force one. Something about it sat closer to him than he expected, a feeling he recognized without wanting to examine too closely right now, a version of being judged for something about himself he'd never gotten to choose.
"That's a lot to carry," he said finally.
"It's not carrying anything. It's just true." Shinso's tone had already gone flat again, the moment closed as quickly as it had opened. "Doesn't mean I need anyone feeling sorry about it. I'd rather be useful."
"I get it," Midoriya said, quieter than he meant to. "More than you'd probably guess."
Shinso glanced at him, something briefly curious in it, but didn't push for more.
The scoreboard updated.
Team Shinso returned to fourth place.
Shinso looked toward the final minutes on the timer.
"We protect what we have."
Midoriya continued watching Team Fushiguro.
Something in his expression shifted.
"No."
Shinso looked down.
"No?"
"If we only defend, one stolen headband knocks us out."
Midoriya pointed toward Todoroki's growing collection.
"We need insurance."
Shinso followed his gaze.
"You want to attack one of them."
"I want to win."
For the first time, Shinso looked genuinely interested.
"Good."
...
Three minutes remained.
Team Fushiguro still held the ten million.
They had added two smaller headbands through counterattacks. One had been taken by Dark Shadow while protecting Megumi. The other had been created when Momo's staff knocked a loose strip into Kirishima's reach.
Enough to advance if they lost the ten million.
Barely.
Momo looked toward the scoreboard.
"We cannot rely on these points."
Tokoyami watched the other teams.
"The strongest predators are gathering."
Team Bakugo approached from the left.
Team Todoroki from the right.
Team Shinso remained farther behind them.
Megumi looked toward Iida.
Smoke leaked faintly from the engines in his calves.
"He's building up to something," Megumi said.
Todoroki's eyes narrowed, the reaction of someone who knew exactly what that smoke meant even if Megumi didn't.
Momo looked back.
"You expect a burst of acceleration?"
"I don't know what it is. I know it's not normal for him."
Kirishima planted his feet.
"How fast?"
"I don't know."
Jiro pressed both earphone jacks into the ground.
"He knows," she said, meaning Megumi.
Todoroki answered without looking at her.
"Then we make him defend another direction."
He raised his right arm.
Ice spread across the field, forcing Team Fushiguro toward Bakugo.
Bakugo grinned.
"Finally."
Sero's tape pulled their formation forward.
Mina spread acid beneath Sato's feet.
Team Bakugo accelerated into the narrowing lane.
Megumi summoned Kuro.
It rushed towards Bakugo's left side.
Bakugo blasted it away.
Dark Shadow came from the right.
Bakugo fired again.
Both defenses opened.
Iida's engines screamed.
"Everyone, hold on!"
Todoroki glanced down.
"Iida?"
"This is what I've been saving it for."
Blue fire burst from his calves.
"Torque Over."
Megumi's shadow spread beneath the formation.
Too late.
"Recipro Burst!"
Team Todoroki vanished.
Present Mic shot out of his chair.
"What happened?!"
The pressure struck from Megumi's blind side.
Iida crossed the distance before Dark Shadow could turn.
Jiro had guided the angle through vibrations in the ground.
Todoroki reached across the gap.
His hand closed around the ten-million-point band.
Megumi caught his wrist.
For one second, neither released.
Iida's acceleration dragged both formations forward.
The cloth tightened against Megumi's forehead.
Then it tore free.
Todoroki carried the headband away.
Team Todoroki skidded across the arena.
Smoke poured from Iida's engines.
His legs locked.
The scoreboard changed.
1ST: TEAM TODOROKI
The stadium erupted.
Present Mic nearly lost his voice.
"TODOROKI STOLE THE TEN MILLION!"
Megumi watched him tie the band around his neck.
Kirishima stared.
"That speed was insane."
"Iida can't move properly now," Megumi said.
Momo looked toward the remaining time.
1:42
"We still have enough points to qualify."
"For now," Tokoyami said.
Bakugo changed direction immediately.
His eyes fixed on Todoroki.
"GET BACK HERE, HALF-AND-HALF!"
Sato drove after Team Todoroki.
Team Shinso began moving too.
Megumi looked toward the scoreboard.
Team Fushiguro had fallen to fourth.
Team Shinso sat third, separated by one headband.
If either team lost anything, the rankings would change.
Megumi lowered one hand.
"We take more points."
Kirishima looked back.
"From Todoroki?"
"We're getting the ten million."
...
Bakugo reached Todoroki first.
Iida's engines coughed beneath the formation.
Jiro listened to the approaching blasts.
"Above us!"
Todoroki raised an ice wall.
Bakugo blasted through it.
Sero's tape anchored their team to the ground while Sato absorbed the impact.
Mina melted the ice spreading toward their feet.
Bakugo reached for the headbands around Todoroki's neck.
Todoroki leaned away.
Ice climbed Bakugo's arm.
Bakugo detonated it before it could spread.
"Half-and-half bastard!"
Jiro's earphone jack struck toward Bakugo's wrist.
Sero intercepted it with tape.
The two lines tangled.
Mina pulled.
Jiro nearly lost her position.
Kaminari raised one hand.
Only a weak spark appeared.
"Whey."
Todoroki clicked his tongue.
Team Shinso approached through the opening created by the clash.
Midoriya saw the headbands hidden beneath one another around Todoroki's neck.
"They took them in order and never had time to sort them."
Shinso studied the order.
"The ten million went on last."
"It should be on top."
Uraraka reduced their weight further.
Hatsume adjusted the engine.
"Maximum thrust."
"Controlled thrust," Midoriya said.
"We're past controlled."
The engine fired.
Team Shinso launched toward Todoroki.
Jiro heard them.
"Behind!"
Todoroki turned.
Midoriya raised one arm.
Green energy flickered through it.
Todoroki's eyes widened.
For one instant, fire threatened to ignite along his left side.
He stopped it.
That hesitation was enough.
Midoriya swept his arm past Todoroki without striking.
His fingers caught one of the upper headbands.
He tore it free.
"I got it!"
Hatsume looked at the strip.
"Two hundred and five points."
Midoriya stared.
"That's not the ten million."
Jiro had shifted the bands when Todoroki stole them.
Shinso looked toward her.
"Good thinking."
Jiro glared at him.
"Don't talk to me."
Her expression emptied.
Todoroki saw the change.
"Jiro?"
Shinso pointed away from Team Fushiguro's approaching formation.
"Turn right."
Jiro obeyed.
Her movement pulled Team Todoroki off balance.
Iida could not correct fast enough with his stalled engines.
Megumi saw the opening.
"Toad."
A tongue shot from his shadow and caught the two-hundred-and-five-point strip in Midoriya's hand.
Midoriya tightened his grip.
Megumi pulled.
The headband snapped between them, but the Velcro held.
Team Fushiguro closed from the left.
Dark Shadow struck past Midoriya and tore a smaller band from Todoroki's neck.
Tokoyami caught it.
The scoreboard changed.
Team Fushiguro climbed to third.
Team Shinso fell to fourth.
Midoriya looked toward the points in his hand.
"We still need more."
Shinso released Jiro.
She blinked and nearly lost her grip on Iida's shoulder.
"What happened?"
"He controls anyone who answers him," Todoroki said.
Jiro's eyes sharpened.
"So that's his quirk."
The secret was gone.
Now every nearby team knew.
Shinso looked unimpressed.
"Took them long enough."
...
Forty seconds remained.
Bakugo tore two lower-value headbands from Todoroki during the confusion.
Team Todoroki still held first through the ten million. Team Bakugo hadn't moved out of second all match. Neither of them was going anywhere with less than a minute left.
Team Fushiguro held third.
Team Shinso sat fourth after Midoriya's two-hundred-and-five-point capture.
The rest of the field hadn't been eliminated, technically. Realistically, none of them had enough points left on the clock to close the gap. Whatever the other formations were still doing out on the fringes, everyone on the field seemed to understand it at the same moment. The real fight had narrowed down to four teams, circling each other, with nobody else close enough to make a difference.
The order among those four was still wide open. Third and fourth were close enough to flip with a single headband.
Present Mic shouted over the final scramble.
"IT'S PRACTICALLY DOWN TO FOUR TEAMS NOW, LISTENERS! EVERYONE ELSE WOULD NEED A MIRACLE TO CATCH UP, AND THE ORDER AT THE TOP IS STILL ANYONE'S GAME!"
Bakugo looked toward Todoroki's ten-million-point band anyway.
"We're not done."
Sero stared at the timer.
"We already have second!"
"I said we're not done."
Sato leaned forward.
"Then move."
Mina spread acid.
Team Bakugo launched again.
Megumi watched them.
"Let Bakugo draw the ice."
Momo created a hooked staff.
Tokoyami spread Dark Shadow wide.
Kirishima hardened fully.
Bakugo attacked from above.
Todoroki raised ice.
The explosion shattered it into a cloud of frozen fragments.
Megumi sent Nue through the debris.
Its wings scattered the ice and opened the route.
Team Fushiguro charged.
Jiro heard them.
"Front!"
Todoroki turned.
Great Serpent erupted from the shadow beneath his ice.
Its body rose between the formations and forced Team Todoroki sideways.
Iida's engines sputtered.
They could not escape.
Megumi reached for the ten-million-point band.
Todoroki froze the air between them.
Momo's staff hooked one of the smaller bands instead.
She tore it free.
"Enough to secure third!"
Megumi saw Team Shinso approaching behind them.
Midoriya's eyes were fixed on the same cluster of headbands.
He was not aiming for the ten million anymore.
He was calculating what they needed.
"Tokoyami," Megumi said.
Dark Shadow shifted to defend the right.
Midoriya changed course.
He used the opening between Bakugo and Todoroki to reach Team Fushiguro instead.
Uraraka reduced their weight to almost nothing.
Hatsume's engine fired.
Team Shinso rose from the ground in a short leap.
Shinso leaned from the rider position.
"Fushiguro."
Megumi looked up.
Shinso smiled faintly.
"You're going to lose."
Megumi did not answer.
"Tch!" Shinso said.
Midoriya reached beneath Dark Shadow's guard.
His hand closed around the lowest-value band around Megumi's neck.
Kirishima turned.
The formation shifted.
Midoriya tore the headband free before Dark Shadow could catch him.
The scoreboard updated.
Team Shinso moved into third.
Team Fushiguro dropped to fourth.
Ten seconds remained.
Present Mic began counting.
"Ten!"
Bakugo blasted toward Todoroki.
"Nine!"
Jiro detected him and warned the team.
"Eight!"
Todoroki raised another ice wall, attention split between Bakugo bearing down from one side and Great Serpent still coiled between the frozen wreckage on the other.
"Seven!"
Great Serpent shattered through the wall from behind, and in the half second Todoroki spent flinching away from Bakugo's charge, he didn't see Kuro coming in low along the ground at all.
"Six!"
Kuro's jaws closed around the ten-million-point strip and yanked.
"Five!"
Todoroki felt it give and grabbed for it on instinct, catching the edge before it tore free entirely.
"Four!"
Megumi reached through the gap Great Serpent had opened, closing his hand over Todoroki's wrist the same way Todoroki had closed over his minutes earlier.
"Three!"
For one second, neither of them let go.
Heat flickered along Todoroki's left side, there and gone before it could take shape, a reflex he crushed the instant he felt it building.
"Two!"
Bakugo's explosion caught the ice wall from the other side, and the shockwave was enough to break Todoroki's grip half a heartbeat before Megumi's.
"One!"
The headband came free.
The horn sounded before Megumi had even finished pulling it back.
Every team stopped.
Bakugo hung above Todoroki for half a second before Sero's tape pulled him back.
Momo's staff remained inches from Kaminari's headband.
Dark Shadow hovered over Team Shinso.
Great Serpent froze in the middle of the shattered ice.
Then Megumi dismissed it.
The enormous construct dissolved into shadow, and the ten-million-point band stayed exactly where it was, tied around his own forehead once more.
The stadium screens flashed.
TIME
Present Mic's voice rolled across the arena.
"THE CAVALRY BATTLE IS OVER!"
The final rankings appeared.
...
1st Place: Team Fushiguro
Megumi Fushiguro
Eijiro Kirishima
Momo Yaoyorozu
Fumikage Tokoyami
...
Megumi looked at the ten-million-point headband, still tied around his own forehead.
He had taken first place back with less than a second on the clock.
Kirishima let out a breath that turned into a laugh halfway through.
"We actually got it back."
"Barely," Momo said, sitting down without much ceremony, the shield generation having clearly taken more out of her than she wanted to admit.
Tokoyami settled beside her, Dark Shadow curling small and quiet against his shoulder, spent.
"For a moment I was certain we had lost it for good."
"So was I," Megumi admitted.
Kirishima grinned. "You didn't look like it."
"I wasn't going to look like it in front of the entire stadium."
...
2nd Place: Team Todoroki
Shoto Todoroki
Tenya Iida
Kyoka Jiro
Denki Kaminari
...
Todoroki stared at his own empty neck where the headband had been a second earlier.
He had held first place for almost the entire final stretch.
It hadn't been enough.
Jiro exhaled. "We almost kept it."
Iida lowered his head. "My engines became useless after Recipro Burst. I apologize for the burden."
Kaminari raised both thumbs.
"Whey."
Jiro stared at him.
"He's still gone."
Todoroki looked across the field toward Megumi, something unreadable behind his eyes.
...
3rd Place: Team Bakugo
Katsuki Bakugo
Rikido Sato
Hanta Sero
Mina Ashido
...
Mina let her arms drop. "Third."
Sero sagged with relief anyway. "We advanced. That's what matters."
Sato slowly lowered their formation. Bakugo remained on his shoulders, face gone frighteningly still.
"I had it," Bakugo said. "I had my hands on him."
"You had your hands on Todoroki," Mina said. "Not Fushiguro."
"Same thing."
"It is really not the same thing."
Bakugo's palms began smoking.
"Third."
Sato didn't look up. "We advanced."
"I said I'd take first."
No one answered.
...
4th Place: Team Shinso
Hitoshi Shinso
Izuku Midoriya
Ochaco Uraraka
Mei Hatsume
...
Midoriya stared at the result.
"We made it."
Uraraka's knees weakened as she released Zero Gravity.
Hatsume threw both hands toward the cameras.
"And every support company saw my babies!"
Shinso remained seated for several seconds.
His name filled one of the stadium screens.
Professional heroes discussed him in the stands. Some looked impressed. Others appeared uneasy.
Everyone knew his quirk now.
They also knew what he had done with it.
Midoriya looked up at him.
"You planned to join our team from the start."
"Once I saw the obstacle-race results."
"Because I came second."
"Because the other three didn't need me."
Shinso looked toward Megumi, Todoroki, and Bakugo.
"People already believed their strength would carry them through. Your team had enough room for me to show off."
Shinso looked away.
...
Midnight returned to the platform.
"Congratulations to the sixteen students advancing to the final round!"
The crowd cheered as the names remained displayed above the field.
...
Fushiguro.
Kirishima.
Yaoyorozu.
Tokoyami.
Todoroki.
Iida.
Jiro.
Kaminari.
Bakugo.
Sato.
Sero.
Mina.
Shinso.
Midoriya.
Uraraka.
Hatsume.
...
Sixteen competitors.
Only one champion.
Present Mic leaned toward his microphone.
"We'll take a one-hour lunch break before the afternoon festivities!"
Aizawa stood from his chair.
"Wake me when it starts."
"You're already awake."
"Unfortunately."
Students began leaving the field.
Hatsume chased a camera operator toward the tunnel while explaining the engine's maximum output.
Uraraka hurried after her.
"Your equipment almost threw us into another team!"
"That means the steering needs improvement!"
"That's what you learned?"
Iida walked stiffly while his engines recovered.
Jiro supported one side of him.
Kaminari shuffled behind them with both thumbs raised.
"Whey."
Bakugo passed Megumi near the arena exit.
He stopped for half a second.
"You got lucky."
"Maybe."
"Won't matter next round. No team for you to hide behind." Bakugo's palms crackled faintly, just from the memory of the fight. "Just you and me. I'm not holding anything back."
"I wasn't expecting you to."
Todoroki approached from the opposite side, empty-handed now, the ten-million-point headband long gone from him.
"You held onto it by half a second."
"I know how close it was."
"I won't be holding anything back next time." Todoroki's gaze sharpened. "Whatever's left of you after Bakugo's finished, I intend to take apart myself."
"Assuming I make it past him."
"You will," Todoroki said, like the alternative wasn't worth considering.
Bakugo stepped between them.
"Don't talk about me like I'm a speed bump." His glare swung over to Todoroki. "And if I end up facing you instead, half-and-half, I'll blow you straight to hell. Don't even think about beating me with those half-assed attempts you keep pulling. Go all out or don't bother showing up."
Todoroki walked away without even bothering to respond.
...
Shinso looked from the three students blocking the entrance to the scoreboard above them.
Megumi.
Todoroki.
Bakugo.
"This year's big three," Shinso said, mostly to himself, though loud enough to carry. "Same as the third-years have theirs. Guess U.A.'s never short on that particular problem."
Every student in the stadium understood the label now, even if no one had said it aloud until just now.
Shinso slipped his hands into his pockets.
The tournament would give him the chance to break it.
The private box the Zen'in Agency kept at the U.A. Sports Festival sat high enough above the arena that the noise from the stands arrived a half second late, softened into something almost bearable. Three generations of the family occupied it now, spread across a row of seats that had cost more than most hero agencies made in a month, none of them sitting particularly close to each other.
Naobito had the middle seat, gourd resting against one knee, eyes on the screen more than the field itself. The broadcast had cut to a replay of the cavalry battle's final seconds, looping the same handful of frames while the commentary team filled the gap before the lunch break wrapped up.
Jinya sat one seat over, arms folded, eyes fixed on the screen.
"He can do what I can do," Jinya said, and there was nothing reluctant in it, something almost pleased in how readily it came out. "Sink into a shadow. Hide inside one. Store things in it that have no business fitting inside something that size. And there's more past that. More than even he knows yet."
Naobito's eyes flicked toward him. Jinya rarely showed this much interest in anything, let alone anyone. "You're paying closer attention than usual."
"Why wouldn't I? It's worth being proud of." Jinya's chin lifted slightly. "A quirk like that isn't luck. It's the difference between someone who's actually worth something to this family and someone who isn't."
Jin'ichi's expression went hard. "Careful."
"I'm not saying anything I haven't always said."
Jin'ichi's jaw tightened. "You said it to Toji's face for seventeen years. Called him worthless for it more times than I can count."
"And you agreed with me. Every time." Jinya didn't even look at him when he said it, which landed worse than if he had.
"And you had every advantage he didn't. A quirk. A father willing to actually train you instead of write you off." Jinya's gaze stayed on the screen, indifferent in a way that was its own kind of insult. "You still never got anywhere near strong enough to hold this family together on your own. So spare me the lecture."
Jin'ichi didn't answer that for a long moment. Whatever he wanted to say, he swallowed it instead, jaw working, eyes fixed somewhere past the screen entirely.
"I hate the way you're talking about him," he said finally, quiet. "I wanted that on record before we do whatever it is you're already planning to do about him."
"Noted," Jinya said, entirely unmoved, already looking back at the screen like the conversation had cost him nothing at all.
Naobito didn't step into it either direction, watching the exchange the way he watched most things, weighing what was useful in it rather than what was right.
"Twenty years," Jin'ichi said, mostly to himself, eyes on the boy's face on the screen rather than on either of them. "I haven't laid eyes on him in twenty years, and here's his son wearing half his expressions like he inherited them on purpose."
"You could go down there," Naobito said. "Introduce yourself."
"I could."
"You won't."
Jin'ichi didn't answer that, which was its own answer.
"I can't look at him for more than a few seconds at a time," he admitted finally, low enough that it barely carried across the box. "Not because of what he is. Because of who he looks like doing it."
Naobito let that sit without commenting on it.
Jinya, meanwhile, hadn't looked away from the screen once. Team Fushiguro's formation weathered another hit that should have broken it and didn't, and something in his expression sharpened rather than softened.
"That boy has more control at his age than anyone this family's produced in a generation," Jinya said, "and he did it without a single day of proper Zen'in training. Imagine what he could do given time."
"You're already imagining it," Naobito said. It wasn't an accusation. It was closer to approval.
"I've earned the right to." Something proprietary crept into Jinya's voice, a kind of ownership that hadn't been there a minute ago. "He's mine to claim an interest in. This family made him possible whether he knows it or not."
Naobito set his gourd down on the armrest, folding both hands over the head of it. "Which brings us to the only question that actually matters here. Whether he joins the agency."
"You've already decided that," Jin'ichi said.
"I've decided it's worth deciding. That's different." Naobito's gaze didn't leave the screen either. "Two figureheads for the next generation, one raised inside the clan and one built entirely outside it, standing at the front of the agency together. That's the best insurance this family's had in decades."
"You mean Naoya," Jinya said.
"I mean both of them." Naobito's tone stayed level, businesslike, the same register he used for everything that actually mattered to him. "Naoya's talented. He's also never had to work for a single thing he's been handed, and it shows more than he thinks it does. A little real competition for the seat he assumes is already his would be good for him. Might be the only thing that actually is."
Below, the replay reset to the beginning once more, the boy's shadow stretching thin and dark across the arena floor as the timer ran out again, and all three of them sat with it a moment longer, each of them arriving at the same number from a completely different direction.
...
The cafeteria reserved for the first-year contestants was already crowded when the finalists arrived.
Students who'd failed to qualify occupied the far side of the room. Some replayed their mistakes with classmates. Others had moved on to eating as though the morning had been an inconvenience rather than the largest public competition of their lives.
Class 1-A got a section near the windows.
Kaminari recovered the moment he saw the food.
"Lunch."
Jiro stopped. "That fixed you?"
"I'm hungry."
"You were barely conscious five seconds ago."
"Food heals the mind."
"That is not medically accurate," Iida said.
"It feels accurate."
Bakugo took a tray and chose an empty table. Kirishima watched him from the serving line.
"Should we sit with him?"
Sero shook his head. "I value my life."
"He'll calm down."
Ashido looked toward Bakugo. "When?"
Kirishima considered the question. "Eventually."
"That isn't a time."
Megumi collected rice, grilled fish, vegetables, and tea before choosing a table near the window. Tokoyami sat across from him, Yaoyorozu beside Tokoyami. Kirishima arrived last with a tray piled higher than everyone else's combined.
Yaoyorozu looked at it. "You intend to eat all of that?"
"Hardening burns through energy."
Dark Shadow stretched toward the tray. "So do I."
Tokoyami pulled it away. "You do not possess a digestive system."
"You don't know everything about me."
"I know that."
Megumi began eating, eyes moving across the cafeteria. Team Todoroki sat two tables away, Iida and Jiro discussing Recipro Burst while Kaminari stared blankly at his rice. Todoroki hadn't touched his food. His right hand held his chopsticks. His left rested beneath the table.
Megumi remembered the final rush. His own hand closing over Todoroki's wrist, both of them refusing to let go, and the half second where something had flickered along Todoroki's left side before he crushed it back down. He hadn't said anything about it in the moment. There hadn't been time.
Megumi noticed Todoroki watching him back.
Then Todoroki stood.
"Fushiguro."
Nearby conversations quieted. Megumi looked up.
"Yes?"
"I need to speak with you."
Kirishima glanced between them. "Right now?"
"In private."
Todoroki turned toward the cafeteria exit without waiting for an answer. Megumi hesitated before standing.
"All right."
He followed Todoroki through the side door.
...
Megumi followed Todoroki through the stadium corridor. The noise of the cafeteria disappeared behind the closing door. The hallway ahead was empty, lit by fluorescent lights humming above the concrete floor.
Todoroki didn't speak until they reached a quiet section near the faculty and student entrance.
"So. What did you want to talk about?"
Todoroki turned. "I was overpowered."
"In the cavalry battle?"
"At the end." Todoroki looked down at his left hand. "I broke my pledge."
Megumi remembered the wrist grab, the half second neither of them had let go. "I felt it."
"I thought you might have." Todoroki raised his eyes. "Iida, Jiro, Kaminari. None of them felt anything like it. I was the only one."
"Felt what, exactly."
"The urge to use my left side. All the way, not the small slip that almost happened." Todoroki's jaw tightened. "I haven't come that close to breaking my own rule since I made it."
Megumi didn't have an obvious response to that, so he didn't force one.
"You don't know what that rule is," Todoroki said. "I'll tell you, since you're the reason it almost didn't hold."
He turned slightly, giving Megumi a clear view of the scar around his left eye.
"Endeavor is my father."
Megumi already knew. Almost everyone did. The resemblance, the quirk, Endeavor's presence in the stands all made the connection impossible to miss.
"He has been trapped beneath All Might for his entire career." There was no pride in Todoroki's voice, only contempt. "My old man has a strong desire to rise in the world. As a hero, he won a name for himself with crushing force. Because of that, the living legend, All Might, is a great eyesore to him." He looked toward his left hand. "Since he couldn't surpass All Might, he moved onto his next plan."
"What does that mean."
"You've heard of Quirk marriages, right?"
Megumi's expression didn't change, but something in his chest went still. The practice belonged to an uglier period of quirk history, families arranging marriages based entirely on inherited abilities, trying to breed stronger combinations into their children. Condemned now, at least officially. That didn't mean it had disappeared.
"He is a man with both accomplishments and money," Todoroki said. "He won over my mother's relatives and got a hold of my mother's Quirk." His right hand curled into a fist. "My siblings weren't what he wanted."
Megumi held still.
"Then I was born." Ice crept across the floor near Todoroki's shoe before he stopped it. "He is trying to fulfill his own desire by raising me to be a hero to surpass All Might. It's so annoying... I won't become the tool of scum like that."
Megumi didn't say anything right away. Something about it landed closer than he expected, a shape he half recognized from a conversation of his own, a hospital room, an old man with a red gourd explaining exactly how much interest a bloodline could generate once someone decided it was worth the investment. Not the same story. Close enough to the same bones that he didn't reach for anything comforting to say.
"My father trained me separately from the others. My mother tried to protect me from him." Todoroki's hand moved toward the scar. "In my memories, she was always crying." His voice stayed controlled. "She looked at my left side and saw him." A pause. "That is why she poured boiling water over it."
The corridor went quiet. Megumi looked at the scar again, understanding, distantly, why Todoroki had never explained it to anyone before now.
"My father put her in a hospital afterward. He continued training me."
"Todoroki-"
"I entered U.A. to reject him." His eyes hardened. "I'll become number one without using his fire. I'll prove that everything he did was worthless."
Megumi studied him for a moment. "That's a mistake."
Todoroki's eyes narrowed slightly. "Excuse me?"
"You heard me." Megumi held his gaze, no softness in it. "You want to beat me, fine. Earn it. But you don't get to fight me with one hand behind your back and call it a statement. I'm not going to hold anything back because you've decided your real fight is with your father instead of whoever's actually standing across from you. Go all out, or you don't stand a chance. It's that simple."
"That's not what this is about."
"It's exactly what this is about." Megumi didn't raise his voice. He didn't need to. "Out there, you're fighting me. Not him. Half of everything you've got wasn't enough today either. I still walked out beating you." He let that sit a second. "You keep doing this, and you're not going to prove anything to your father. You're just going to lose to me and call it a victory because you lost on your own terms. That's not rejecting him. That's still organizing your whole life around what he thinks matters."
Todoroki's jaw tightened. For a moment he didn't have an answer for that, which told Megumi more than any argument would have.
"You don't get to tell me what this is." Todoroki's voice came out sharper than anything Megumi had heard from him all day, the flat control cracking clean through. "You don't know what he did to me. You weren't there for any of it. Don't stand there and act like you understand what it costs to say that much out loud."
"I don't need the specifics." Megumi didn't raise his voice to match. He didn't need to. "I can see what you're doing to yourself well enough without them. You're not hurting him by losing to me on purpose. You're just losing to yourself."
Something raw broke through Todoroki's expression for half a second, gone almost as fast as it came. His hand curled at his side. "That's not-" He stopped, jaw working, visibly hauling himself back under control. When he spoke again his voice had leveled out, but it cost him something to get there. "You don't get to decide what counts as fighting him."
"Fine. Then decide it yourself before you walk into that arena." Megumi held his ground. "Fight your father. Fight me. Pick one. You don't get both at the same time and call it a plan."
Silence stretched between them, tighter than before.
"Everyone in this school has their own story," Megumi said, quieter now. "I'm not going to treat yours like it buys you a handicap in that arena."
Todoroki stared at him for a long moment, something in his eyes that could have been fury or could have been the closest thing to respect he was willing to hand anyone.
Then he turned and walked back into the cafeteria without another word.
Megumi stayed behind, looking at his own right hand.
...
When the lunch break ended, Present Mic called the first-year students back onto the field. The stadium had changed. The remnants of the cavalry battle were gone. Cementoss and the support staff had cleared the arena, leaving a broad open stretch of ground around the center of the stadium, waiting for whatever would fill it next.
Present Mic leaned over his microphone.
"NOW THAT LUNCH IS OVER, IT'S TIME TO REVEAL THE FINAL EVENT!"
The crowd answered with another wave of cheers.
"But first, good news for everyone who didn't reach the finals! This is still a Sports Festival, so we've got recreational events planned for the rest of the first years! Scavenger hunts, races, games, and more! Nobody gets to sit around feeling sorry for themselves!"
A group of Class 1-A girls entered the field wearing matching cheerleading uniforms.
Jiro's expression promised violence. Yaoyorozu hid part of her face behind one pom-pom. Ashido looked far less embarrassed than the others.
Present Mic stopped. "What is Class 1-A doing?"
Aizawa's voice, flat and unimpressed, carried over the broadcast. "I was about to ask the same thing."
Jiro pointed toward Kaminari and Mineta. "You lied to us!"
Kaminari took one careful step backward. "I don't remember anything."
"You were back to normal at lunch!"
"Whey?"
"You aren't fooling anyone!"
Earlier, while the finalists were entering the cafeteria, Kaminari and Mineta had intercepted Yaoyorozu and Jiro near the Class 1-A waiting room.
"Yaoyorozu," Kaminari had said. "Jiro."
Yaoyorozu stopped. "Did you need something?"
Mineta nodded with false seriousness. "I'm sure you already heard, since you're one of the top students, but Aizawa said Class 1-A has to wear cheer uniforms for an afternoon spirit competition."
Jiro stared at him. "I didn't hear anything about that."
"You don't have to believe us. We were only making sure you didn't forget."
Yaoyorozu frowned. "If this is an official class requirement, we should cooperate."
Jiro looked at her. "You believe them?"
"I see no reason they would fabricate something so easily disproven."
Mineta and Kaminari exchanged a glance. Yaoyorozu had already used Creation to produce enough uniforms for the girls before anyone checked the schedule.
Back on the field, Yaoyorozu lowered her pom-poms. "Why am I always deceived by Mineta's schemes?"
Jiro pointed at Kaminari. "You're responsible too."
Hagakure waved both pom-poms enthusiastically. "We already have the outfits. We might as well use them!"
Tsuyu looked toward the apparently empty uniform moving beside her. "You seem to be enjoying this, Toru."
"It's fun!"
Ashido began leading a cheer before Jiro could object again. Kaminari quietly moved behind Sero for protection.
Present Mic recovered. "ALL RIGHT! Class 1-A has apparently volunteered to provide entertainment!"
"They did not volunteer," Aizawa said.
"Details!"
The recreational events began. Most of the finalists chose to observe rather than participate. Kirishima watched a scavenger hunt from beside Megumi. Sato ran past them carrying a cardboard sign.
"Does anyone have a cat?"
Kaminari followed several seconds later. "I need a textbook!"
Sero held up a card of his own. "Can somebody lend me a bag?"
At the opposite side of the field, Monoma stared at his card. Kendo grabbed his wrist.
"Come with me."
"Why?"
She turned the card toward him.
AN ANNOYING PERSON
Monoma's expression flattened. "Kendo, I think you've misunderstood the assignment."
"It fits perfectly."
She dragged him across the finish line.
...
Once the recreational events ended, the sixteen finalists were called toward the central platform. Midnight waited beside a large electronic board.
"The final event is a one-on-one tournament!"
The stadium exploded with excitement.
Kirishima struck one fist into his palm. "I've watched this part every year."
Ashido, still in the cheer uniform. "Was it a normal tournament last year?"
Sero shook his head. "It's different every year, but there's a one-on-one competition every year. Last year, it was a sports chanbara match."
Midnight raised her whip. "You will draw lots to determine the bracket. Once your match begins, you may win by forcing your opponent out of bounds, rendering them unable to continue, or making them surrender."
Cementoss stood near the future arena site with his arms folded. "Teachers will intervene if an attack becomes life-threatening."
Recovery Girl waited near the medical entrance.
Midnight smiled. "Injuries are expected. Fatalities are not."
The finalists approached the drawing box in the order their teams had placed.
Team Fushiguro went first.
Megumi drew the number five. Kirishima drew eleven. Yaoyorozu drew eight. Tokoyami drew seven.
Next came Team Todoroki.
Todoroki drew three. Iida drew thirteen. Jiro drew six. Kaminari drew fifteen.
Bakugo's team followed.
Bakugo drew nine. Sato drew twelve. Sero drew four. Ashido drew sixteen.
Team Shinso drew last.
Shinso reached into the box and pulled out number one. Midoriya drew two. Uraraka drew ten. Hatsume drew fourteen.
The complete bracket appeared on the stadium screen.
The screen went dark for a beat before the first two names slammed into place, white text flashing hard enough that a few students actually flinched.
HITOSHI SHINSO VS. IZUKU MIDORIYA
The stadium roared. Somewhere in the crowd, someone was already shouting odds.
Midoriya stared up at his own name like it might rearrange itself if he looked hard enough.
Across the field, Shinso didn't look surprised at all, only faintly amused at the pairing, like it confirmed something he'd already worked out for himself. Midoriya's stomach dropped a little watching that expression settle into place, the specific dread of realizing an opponent had already been thinking three steps past you.
The screen flickered again, and the second pairing burned into place.
SHOTO TODOROKI VS. HANTA SERO
Sero's shoulders dropped the second he read it, the specific resignation of a man who already knew exactly how this was going to go. Todoroki didn't react at all, which somehow made it worse for him.
A third flash lit the board, and this time the crowd's noise dropped into something quieter, more attentive, like they could feel the shape of what was building.
MEGUMI FUSHIGURO VS. KYOKA JIRO
Jiro's gaze found him across the field, and whatever composure she'd been holding onto through the rest of the reveal slipped for just a second. Of everyone left in the bracket, she'd drawn the one name most of the stadium had already stopped betting against. Her jaw set, the kind of forced calm that came from deciding to be afraid later instead of right now.
Megumi barely registered it. His attention had already jumped past her, tracing the shape of the bracket itself, the way her name sat two slots up from his own, the way Todoroki's sat further down the same column. Whatever happened with Jiro, win or lose for her, this side of the tree eventually funneled down to the two of them. That was the fight that actually mattered today, and everything before it was just the walk there.
The board lit again, and the crowd's noise climbed back up with it.
MOMO YAOYOROZU VS. FUMIKAGE TOKOYAMI
Dark Shadow rose off Tokoyami's shoulder, wings spreading wide, and there was nothing uncertain in the way it held itself. A real opponent, someone who'd spent the whole cavalry battle standing close enough to know exactly what they were capable of, and neither of them looked like that bothered them in the slightest. If anything, Tokoyami's posture had gone straighter.
Across the field, Yaoyorozu was already turning something over behind her eyes, less startled than calculating. She'd watched Dark Shadow work all through the cavalry battle from a few feet away, close enough to have opinions now about how to counter it instead of just admire it. This was the first match all day that was entirely hers to win or lose on her own, and something in the set of her shoulders said she intended to make it count.
KATSUKI BAKUGO VS. OCHACO URARAKA
"Huh? Uraraka?" Bakugo said it out loud, not even bothering to lower his voice, more confused than anything else.
Uraraka's face fell.
EIJIRO KIRISHIMA VS. RIKIDO SATO
Kirishima's grin split wide open, already cracking his knuckles like the match had started the second his name appeared. Sato's own grin answered it a second later, just as eager, both of them clearly picturing the exact same thing: a straight, honest, no-tricks brawl, two guys just seeing who could take more of a hit.
TENYA IIDA VS. MEI HATSUME
"Are you Iida?" Hatsume asked, already crossing the field toward him.
"Hm? Indeed, I am Iida."
"Oh good! Actually..."
The final two names slammed into the last empty slot, and the whole board lit up at once, all eight matches burning bright across the stadium screen simultaneously.
DENKI KAMINARI VS. MINA ASHIDO
Kaminari looked up at the board and actually relaxed a little. "Hey, could be worse. At least it's not Fushiguro, or Bakugo, or Todoroki."
Ashido raised an eyebrow, grinning. "Wow. Thanks for the confidence boost."
"I meant it as a compliment to me, not an insult to you."
"Sure you did." She cracked her knuckles, still grinning. "Enjoy that confidence while it lasts."
...
The bracket remained on the screen.
Megumi studied the path ahead. If he got past Jiro, his quarterfinal opponent would be whoever came out of the match between Tokoyami and Yaoyorozu. Beyond that, the semifinal on his side of the bracket would come down to whoever survived Midoriya against Shinso, then Todoroki against Sero.
The other half of the bracket ran through Bakugo, Uraraka, Kirishima, Sato, Iida, and Hatsume, funneling down toward a single name at the bottom of that column. If the two halves collapsed the way the seeding suggested they would, the final wouldn't be a mystery to anyone watching.
Bakugo had reached the same conclusion. His grin returned.
"Don't lose before you reach me."
Megumi stepped between their lines of sight. "Don't get it twisted. You're the challenger here."
Bakugo's grin sharpened. "Damn bastard!"
Midnight cracked her whip. "The first match will begin once Cementoss finishes constructing the arena!"
The sixteen finalists separated. Some headed for the waiting rooms to rest before their matches. Others climbed toward the stands to watch the upcoming fights alongside everyone else.
Concrete surged from the ground as the teacher raised both arms. A large, elevated square platform rose directly in the center of the stadium ground, stone walls forming around its base before lowering into a broad boundary line. White lines went down across the concrete surface next, marking out the active combat zone within the stage itself.
...
In another waiting corridor, Midoriya stood alone, holding his right hand in front of his face.
The sensation of One For All remained unstable. He could picture the power spreading through his body, but maintaining it without focusing still felt like holding together a machine with loose pieces.
Footsteps approached. All Might entered the corridor in his thin form.
"Hey! Sorry I'm late, but... You figured out One For All, right?"
"All Might... " Midoriya lowered his hand. "No, I'm still worried... I can see it in my head by imagining the microwave, but it still feels unsteady if I don't focus, like it'll fall apart... Besides, as you saw, with my current body, even if I succeed, I just end up with a little more power..."
All Might nodded. "Yes, if we talk in terms of the zero or 100% from before, what your body can release right now is about a five."
Midoriya stared. "Five percent of my power?! Hearing that, I really feel like I've been blessed with friends and luck."
All Might's expression tightened. "You should just say, "I'll do my best, damn it," you prince of nonsense! Is the image of the hero you're trying to be that flimsy?"
Then he transformed into his muscular form, and the corridor suddenly felt much smaller.
"Listen, it's the times when you're scared or worried that you should deal with smiling!"
Midoriya jumped. "Wh-What?"
"You've made it this far. It's fine if it's a bluff. Stand proud!"All Might placed both hands on his hips.
"Don't forget that I've got high hopes for you!"
Midoriya closed his hand into a fist. "Yes."
...
The stadium lights dimmed. Cementoss stepped away from the completed platform.
"It is ready."
Present Mic rose from his seat.
"AUDIENCE! THE FINALS YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR ARE ABOUT TO BEGIN!"
The crowd answered with a deafening roar.
"The teams are gone! The headbands are gone! From this point onward, every contestant stands alone!"
The screen changed. Two names appeared.
HITOSHI SHINSO
IZUKU MIDORIYA
Shinso waited inside the western tunnel with his hands in his pockets. Midoriya stood in the eastern entrance, flexing his fingers once before letting his arms fall to his sides.
Present Mic's voice rolled through both corridors.
"Our first match brings together the mysterious general-studies contender and the second-place finisher from the obstacle race! These two were teammates just this morning, carrying each other all the way to fourth place in the cavalry battle. Now they're enemies!"
Midoriya stepped toward the light.
The final round had begun.
The stadium felt different with only two people left on the field.
During the obstacle race, there had always been someone else to watch. Megumi disappearing into shadow. Bakugo tearing through the air on his own explosions. Todoroki swallowing entire sections of the course beneath ice. During the cavalry battle, the field had been even worse than that, teams colliding from every direction, headbands changing hands, quirks overlapping until one mistake simply disappeared beneath ten others.
Now there was nowhere left to look except forward.
Midoriya stepped onto the arena. Across from him, Shinso did the same.
The crowd rose around them in layers, tens of thousands of voices bleeding together until individual words became impossible to pick out. Midoriya barely heard any of it. His eyes moved past Shinso for half a second, toward the contestant stands.
Bakugo was there, arms crossed, scowling. Todoroki stood farther down, expression unreadable. Megumi leaned against the railing beside Kirishima.
Three students. Three problems Midoriya still had no answer for.
The obstacle race had proven that more clearly than anything else had. He'd finished second. That should have felt incredible. Instead, every time he replayed the race in his head, he remembered how he'd actually gotten there, the terrain, the robots, the mines, other people's movements, anything he could scavenge use out of. It had worked. But Megumi had won while controlling the race around him. Bakugo had flown through obstacles that slowed everyone else down. Todoroki had frozen entire sections of the course without ever breaking stride.
They had made their own paths. Midoriya had needed everything to go right.
Then came the cavalry battle, and again he'd survived by thinking his way through it, Uraraka, Hatsume, Shinso, a team built around compensating for what each of them lacked on their own. It had been a good strategy. He was proud of it. He was also painfully aware of the difference underneath it. Megumi could create openings by himself. Bakugo could force them open. Todoroki could erase the battlefield until the only route left standing was the one he wanted.
Midoriya had to find openings that already existed. For now, at least.
His fingers curled at his sides. He'd come a long way.
But it was nowhere near far enough.
Present Mic's voice exploded through the stadium.
"THE FINALS ARE FINALLY HERE! MATCH NUMBER ONE!"
The screens above the arena changed.
SHINSO HITOSHI
VS
MIDORIYA IZUKU
"From the hero course, Midoriya Izuku! And from general studies, Shinso Hitoshi!"
The crowd answered in a wall of noise. Shinso stopped several meters away, hands in his pockets, shoulders relaxed, his eyes tired in a way the rest of him didn't quite match. Midoriya knew his quirk unlike before the start of the calvary battle. Everyone who'd been close enough to the final scramble of the cavalry battle did.
Answer him. Lose control. That was the condition. Simple enough.
Which meant Midoriya only had one rule of his own.
Don't answer.
Shinso studied him. Midoriya stared back.
Midnight raised one arm. "Force your opponent out of bounds, immobilize them, or make them surrender. Those are your victory conditions."
Shinso glanced toward the white boundary, then back to Midoriya. "'I give up,' huh?"
Midoriya said nothing.
Something moved at the corner of Shinso's mouth. "This is a fight to test the strength of your spirit. If you know what you want for your future, then you can't worry about appearances."
Midoriya's eyes narrowed.
Midnight raised her hand higher. "Ready?"
Shinso looked straight at him. Midoriya lowered his stance.
"Start!"
...
Midoriya moved. Shinso didn't.
He crossed the distance immediately, closing it before Shinso could control the pace of the match, and reached for him. Shinso slipped backward, unhurried.
"You're being careful."
Midoriya kept his mouth shut and took another step. Shinso moved again, matching him without any real strain.
"You should be."
Midoriya cut toward his left. Shinso changed direction, and he'd expected him to retreat toward the boundary the way most people would. He didn't. Shinso kept himself near the center, close enough to make forcing him out difficult, far enough to stay out of reach.
Smart. He knew Midoriya's easiest path to victory was simply throwing him out of the ring.
Don't chase, Midoriya told himself. Corner him. Limit where he can go.
Shinso watched his feet the whole time. "You really think this'll be that easy?"
No response. Midoriya shifted right. Shinso mirrored him.
"You know my quirk."
Midoriya accelerated. Shinso barely avoided his hand, close enough that the crowd gasped.
"So now you think you've already won."
Midoriya stopped the frustration before it reached his face. Shinso noticed anyway, a faint smile creeping across his mouth that Midoriya hated on sight.
...
Megumi watched from the railing, Kirishima leaning beside him.
"They've barely done anything."
"Midoriya's trying to push him toward the edge."
Kirishima looked more carefully. Shinso took two steps sideways, and Midoriya adjusted immediately to match. "Oh."
"He can't answer him."
"Yeah, I figured that part out."
Megumi's eyes stayed on the arena. "Then Shinso doesn't need to beat him physically."
Kirishima frowned. "He just needs Midoriya to screw up once."
"Yeah."
Below them, Shinso kept talking, the crowd swallowing most of it from this distance. Megumi could only read the rhythm of it. Shinso spoke. Midoriya refused to answer. Shinso moved. Midoriya followed. Again. Again. A fight where only one person was allowed to talk.
Bakugo stood several meters away, arms still crossed. "What a stupid matchup."
Kirishima looked toward him. "Because Shinso's quirk is weird?"
"Because Deku never shuts up."
...
Midoriya stepped forward. Shinso stepped back.
"You've had a pretty good day."
Silence.
"Second place in the obstacle race." Midoriya kept advancing. "Fourth in the cavalry battle." He shifted left, and Shinso noticed. "You keep getting through."
Midoriya reached for him. Shinso avoided the grab, barely, and Midoriya corrected his stance immediately. He was faster than Shinso. Stronger too. He could feel that much already, and if the quirk stopped mattering entirely, this match favored him.
That should have made him confident. Instead, his eyes betrayed him again, flicking toward the stands. Bakugo. Todoroki. Megumi.
Shinso caught the glance. His expression sharpened.
There.
Midoriya realized it a full second too late. Shinso hadn't been testing his reflexes. He'd been testing his attention.
"You keep looking at them."
Midoriya stopped moving.
Shinso's eyes drifted toward the contestant stands. "Fushiguro." Silence. "Bakugo." More silence. "Todoroki."
Midoriya's jaw tightened. Shinso looked back at him.
"That's who you're chasing, right?"
Midoriya advanced, faster this time. Shinso retreated. "You finished ahead of two of them in the obstacle race." Midoriya cut off his left. "Still doesn't look like you believe you're stronger."
Midoriya's hand twitched. Shinso smiled, faint and satisfied.
Got you.
Midoriya saw it happen and hated that Shinso was right.
...
Second place. He should have been proud of it. He was proud of it. But there was a difference between finishing ahead of someone and actually believing you could beat them.
Bakugo had years of experience behind his quirk. His body moved with his explosions like they were another set of muscles he'd simply grown into, no thought required before every blast. He just acted. Todoroki controlled more raw power than anyone Midoriya had ever met their age, could freeze an entire field in seconds, and that was only half of what he was capable of. Megumi was worse in a different way entirely. There was no single problem to solve with him. Dogs. Birds. Serpents. Frogs. Rabbits. Elephants. The shadows itself, moving him from one place to another like distance didn't apply the same way to him it did to everyone else. Every time Midoriya thought he'd finally mapped the shape of that quirk, another piece of it appeared that he hadn't accounted for. And underneath all of it was Megumi himself, calm, fast, always watching, always adapting before anyone else had finished reacting.
Midoriya had spent his whole life studying heroes. He knew what a gap looked like.
This was one. A large one. He believed he could close it. He had to believe that. But pretending it wasn't there in the first place would have been stupid, and Shinso watched the conflict move across his face like he could read every line of it.
"You know what's funny?"
Midoriya forced himself forward.
"You're in the hero course." Silence. "I'm not." Midoriya kept moving. "But you're still looking at those three like you're standing outside the same door I am."
Midoriya's eyes sharpened. Shinso saw it.
"You don't think you belong beside them yet."
Midoriya's fingers curled. Don't answer.
Shinso stepped backward. "Maybe you don't."
Midoriya rushed him. Shinso pivoted away, and Midoriya's hand closed on empty air to a reaction from the crowd. Shinso was breathing harder now, and both of them knew he couldn't keep dodging forever.
So Shinso changed targets.
"You know what I figured about you?" Midoriya came at him again. "You probably had people telling you how amazing your quirk was your whole life."
Midoriya stopped, only for a fraction of a second. It was enough.
"Strong quirk." Midoriya stared at him. "Hero course." Another step back. "Teachers paying attention to you."
Something twisted in Midoriya's stomach. Shinso had no idea.
"You probably grew up hearing that you could become whatever you wanted."
Midoriya's teeth pressed together. His mother's face flashed through his mind, four years old, tears, an apology. I'm sorry, Izuku.
Shinso saw anger and misread exactly where it came from. Of course he did.
"You know what people said about mine?"
Midoriya said nothing.
"Villain." His voice stayed level. "Criminal." Another step. "Creepy."
Midoriya's expression shifted. He remembered the cavalry battle, Shinso dismissing what people thought of the quirk, saying he'd heard it enough times that he'd stopped caring what it looked like from the outside.
Maybe he hadn't stopped caring. Maybe he'd just gotten better at carrying it.
Shinso kept going. "You were born with something everyone looks at and says hero." Midoriya's breathing changed. "You know what they look at when they see mine."
Midoriya did know. He'd heard the crowd. He'd seen people's faces when Shinso controlled Jiro during the cavalry battle. Interest. Unease. Fear.
Shinso stepped closer. "We both took the same entrance exam." Midoriya stayed silent. "Except mine was built around destroying robots." His voice hardened. "My quirk doesn't work on robots."
Midoriya's eyes lowered for half a second. That part was unfair. He couldn't deny it. Shinso had a quirk that could stop a human opponent without throwing a single punch, and against the entrance exam's faux villains, it had given him nothing at all.
...
Up in the commentary booth, Aizawa leaned toward the microphone. "That's why I said the entrance exam wasn't rational."
Present Mic looked over. "Huh? What?"
Aizawa glanced down at the data in front of him. "Here's some basic information on the two of them. Since it's individual matches from here on out, I had someone compile it for me." The screen displayed Shinso's file. "Shinso failed the practical exam for the hero course. Since he also applied for general studies, he probably knew that would happen. His quirk is very powerful, but the practical exam consisted of fighting faux villains, which gave the advantage to anyone with a physical attack quirk. Shinso wouldn't have been able to rack up any points with his."
Present Mic went quiet for once. Professional heroes throughout the stadium started looking at Shinso a little differently.
...
Down on the arena floor, neither student heard any of it. Shinso's attention stayed locked on Midoriya.
"So I had to start from the bottom. Unlike You."
Midoriya's hands tightened. I did. The word arrived instantly, unspoken. Shinso didn't know. He couldn't know. Midoriya had started farther behind than almost anyone in that stadium. No quirk. No chance. No realistic path into the hero course at all. He remembered staring at the U.A. website anyway, hero videos, analysis notebooks, years spent chasing something everyone around him had already quietly accepted he could never reach.
Shinso mistook his silence for discomfort and pushed harder.
"You got lucky." Midoriya's heart beat faster. "People like you always do." Wrong. "Good quirk." Wrong. "Hero course." Midoriya's shoulders tightened. "You probably never had to wonder whether the thing you were born with meant you'd never get your chance."
Midoriya stared at him. That sentence landed harder than the others, because Shinso genuinely believed it. There was no performance left in his eyes, no calculated smirk. He actually thought Midoriya could never understand him, that Midoriya had been standing on the easy side of that line his entire life.
Midoriya wanted to tell him. He wanted to tell Shinso exactly how wrong he was, about the doctor, about his mother, about Bakugo, about the years of being quirkless, about standing in front of All Might and asking the question he'd carried since childhood. Can someone without a quirk become a hero?
He couldn't. Not only because answering meant losing. Because the truth wasn't only his to give away anymore.
Shinso stepped closer. "You're lucky that you've been blessed, Izuku Midoriya."
Midoriya's breath caught. Lucky. Blessed. He thought of All Might, and decided, distantly, that maybe Shinso was right about that part after all. He had been blessed. With a chance. With people who believed in him. With power that had belonged to someone greater before it ever belonged to him.
That made the distance between him and the others feel heavier, not lighter. All Might had trusted him with something extraordinary, and Midoriya still couldn't stand beside Megumi, Bakugo, and Todoroki without feeling exactly how far that trust still had to travel before it caught up to them.
He had so far to go. So much left to learn. So much strength he still couldn't reach.
But he would. He had to.
Shinso's voice cut through the thought. "Someone like you wouldn't understand what it feels like to start with the wrong quirk."
Midoriya's frustration surged, not at Shinso. At himself. At the secret sitting between what Shinso believed and what Midoriya was allowed to say out loud.
Shinso saw the reaction and leaned into it. "You got everything you needed from the start."
Midoriya's mouth opened. He stopped himself, barely.
Shinso's eyes narrowed. "What's wrong?" Silence. "Want to tell me I'm wrong?"
Midoriya's fist trembled. Don't.
Shinso took one more step. "Go ahead. Tell me how easy you had it."
The words escaped before he could stop them. "You don't know anything about me."
Midoriya's expression went blank the instant it left his mouth. His whole body went still.
Shinso exhaled. "I know enough."
...
Kirishima's hands tightened around the railing. "Midoriya?"
Megumi straightened. Something had changed instantly, no stagger, no visible attack. Midoriya had simply stopped. His posture emptied. His hands fell loose at his sides. His eyes lost focus entirely.
Bakugo's face twisted. "That idiot."
Kirishima looked toward Megumi. "He answered him."
"Yeah."
Present Mic's voice rose. "HEY, HEY! WHAT'S GOING ON?! MIDORIYA JUST STOPPED!"
The giant screen changed.
HITOSHI SHINSO
QUIRK: BRAINWASHING
Aizawa kept watching the field while Present Mic read the rest of it aloud. "Hitoshi Shinso. Quirk: Brainwashing! Answering his question turns on a brainwashing switch in his opponent's brain, forcing them to do what he says! If he doesn't want the switch to turn on, it won't!"
Aizawa's eyes stayed on Midoriya. "In the fitness test on the first day of school, Midoriya scored pretty low for the hero course, but even in the events where he didn't use his quirk, he still did better than Shinso. So if they fought normally, Midoriya would win. If he can just overcome the brainwashing, this ends quickly either way."
Megumi heard that clearly enough. So Shinso's whole plan had been exactly what it looked like from the start. Avoid the physical fight. Get one answer. End it there.
Shinso pointed toward the boundary. "Turn around and walk out of bounds."
Midoriya obeyed.