The U.A. Sports Festival—within this hero-centric society, it's arguably the most influential event around. Sure, the official reason U.A. High still held it as planned was to show confidence and resolve in the face of villainy… but Konata couldn't help thinking the whole thing felt kinda sketchy.
Students who performed well at the festival would receive invites from pro hero agencies—some might even land internships at the top hero firms. So naturally, students from the Hero Course, General Studies, and even Support Course were all fired up for it.
Konata, however, was not. A brighter future? What for? Her life goal was to coast along and freeload. But of course, life wasn't gonna let her stay chill. Thanks to a string of weird events, that illogical attack, and her "standout" performance during the USJ incident, her name had already made it to the desks of the top heroes—though she didn't know it yet.
"Midoriya, do you even know how to fight?"
Dagobah Municipal Beach Park—now a perfect hangout spot, thanks to Midoriya's earlier cleanup efforts. Wearing a blue long coat and hands in her pockets, Konata stared down at Izuku Midoriya from higher ground.
Since waking up, she'd recovered unnaturally fast. Within just one day, the wound on her knee had mostly healed, and she was back to walking like nothing happened.
She had originally planned to move her stuff over to Midnight-sensei's place but found out that had already been handled while she was still stuck in bed. Since it happened to be the weekend, she dragged Midoriya out here for some training.
"Fight? I've never really tried, but... I guess I can?" Midoriya replied cautiously after a brief pause.
"You actually think your turtle punches count as fighting?"
Rolling her eyes, Konata hopped down from the ledge and slowly walked up to him, hands still in her coat pockets.
"Alright, come on—let's spar. I'll give you one hand, show you what real fighting looks like. One-on-five used to be my specialty…"
She thought about it for a second and added:
"…Well, it was back in the day."
Midoriya went completely silent as he stared at the tiny girl standing in front of him—shorter by a whole head, barely up to his chest.
Maybe she had her blue hair tied back with a red ribbon for this "special training" session, giving her a spunky, determined vibe… but that didn't change the fact she looked like a literal kid. A battle-ready loli.
Wasn't this supposed to go differently?
Wasn't she supposed to sit to the side quietly sipping a drink, offering the occasional piece of advice, maybe toss him a towel when he was drenched in sweat?
Instead, she just jumped off a ledge right after healing, marched up to him, and declared she could take on five guys and wanted to throw hands immediately.
Something about this felt so wrong.
He'd done his homework for this. Bought magazines, browsed online forums—anything to avoid awkward silence with a girl. And now? All that prep work flew out the window. Her brain worked on another frequency entirely.
"What? You scared to even throw a punch?"
After waiting and still getting no response, Konata narrowed her eyes.
"If you don't even have the courage to start, how do you plan to ever control your quirk?"
"…My bad, then."
Taking a deep breath, Midoriya responded with all seriousness.
"Don't worry, I'll go easy. Said I'd use one hand, and I meant it."
She pulled her left hand from her pocket and wagged a finger at him in mock warning.
"And I promise—I won't use my quirk."
"Don't underestimate me!"
Konata's cocky attitude must've gotten to him because Midoriya finally rushed forward, fists raised. He was generally mild-mannered, but even he had a limit. If it were Bakugo, an Explosion would've already been in the air.
Yeah, Konata was strong—but no quirk? One hand? There's gotta be a limit to underestimating someone!
Just from her petite frame alone, she didn't look remotely threatening.
Fine—I'll just stop short before hitting her…
Midoriya was still running through the plan in his head when Konata moved.
Lightly, her right foot kicked into the inside of his knee. It wasn't hard, but his leg went momentarily numb. Before he could react, a small hand grabbed his left wrist, twisted, and—
Thud.
He was on the ground, left arm pinned behind his back.
"Sure, in a world where almost everyone's got a quirk, a powerful ability's definitely key to becoming a hero," Konata said as she let him go. "But quirks aren't everything. Even someone without one can still be a hero."
She gave him a solemn look.
"Feel the sincerity behind my lesson?"
"..I.."
Sitting stunned on the sand, Midoriya's mind was blank. He had no idea how she pulled that off. Her strength wasn't overwhelming, but somehow, he'd been completely outmaneuvered.
"I did say I used to take on five guys at once…"
She sighed dramatically, gazing up at the sky.
"It's a military… I mean, combat technique. Let's call it joint-locking. It's especially effective against brute-force types who don't know how to fight properly. Of course, if someone's strong enough, this stuff won't work at all."
She shrugged and continued.
"You've got a pretty serious issue. I need to pinpoint it before we can fix it. So, mind if I ask you a few questions?"
Seeing that he still hadn't recovered mentally, she sat down cross-legged beside him in the sand.
"Your quirk—it's just raw power, right? You can channel it into any part of your body, which gives you huge strength and speed. But you can't control it. Every time you use it, that body part just… breaks. So, let me ask: If your full strength is 100%, what's the highest percent you can use without hurting yourself?"