Author Note:

To those of you that favorited, reviewed and/or followed: Thank you very much!

I have been informed that Midnight's whip thing is a cat o' nine tails, which according to the wiki definition is a variation of whip. I'll be leaving at whip with the excuse of, Himiko doesn't know better and it's the closest thing she can compare it to. But thank you all for informing me!

Also, a quick apology that this update took a bit longer than intended, I originally was going to finish it for Christmas but my schedule ended up jam packed and then I ended up being sick since probably about halfway through Christmas day (Still am a bit sick actually...). Annnnnyways, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and all that fun stuff!

On to the reviews~!

Medicus Aestus: I could say the same but I haven't really read any other BNHA stories... Ehehe. It just felt right to be honest.

PikaMew1288: All true statements~ Ehehe. | I... uhhhhhhh. I'm going to assume Hagakure's Quirk is one of those that is always active, a part of her, so Aizawa's Quirk doesn't affect her. Otherwise there would be a very awkward case of public indecency... | I know right? They just let Bakugo go up there and say what he wanted, because I'm sure they wouldn't have allowed him to do that if they did care. Thus, no one even tells Himiko. xD

Abciluvpie: I'm not sure what doesn't make sense with the points... All I did was push everyone down a place so everyone lost 5 points each, and Izuku got the 2nd place points. There were also two teams which lost a person resulting in loss of points. But I don't think I went over every single teams points so I'm not sure what's so confusing about them? Feel free to PM me with what exactly is confusing so I can try and explain to you.

Soda-fiedPsycho: Thank you~. Gravity manipulation will be taken under consideration~ (If I'm being honest, I don't remember mentioning more OCs but there will be, even if I have yet to create them. Although that won't be for a long while and they won't play much of a part.)

TheKursed: Ehehe~ Thank you!

Iluvfairytale: Oh, it'll happen. Eventually. *Waggles eyebrows* If you mean for romantic interest then no, this story has always been a strictly OCxIzuku story, although it isn't really the main focus, so I took that out of the description.

AnhimeA55Kicker: Thanks!

Redstonepowder: A riding crop is more of a short whip for a horse, I've been informed it's a cat-o-nine tails, and googling it confirmed that xD Thank you though~.

BLINIX: Love route unlocked! Izu-chan is best grill! Lol, I read that in the bible too! Her strength is... normal, technically. Obviously not by our standards but eh, anime physics. Also, yes she does have shapeshifting~.

Xbox432: When I think riding crop, I think Glynda Goodwitch from RWBY. One sec googling just in case since that's the second riding crop response. It is confirmed, Midnight uses a cat-o-nine tails for sure! Although riding crops can be just as kinky... *blushes*

DarkDrawerJ: Thank you~. Next update is here desu~.

Reaperjamm: I'm not stopping, just, life happens sometimes, y'know? | Merry Christmas!

Guest: Thank you! And, uh, what do you mean...?

Guest (1): You got it~ Thanks~

Reader: It is! I haven't actually taken a good look at what there is, but I'm pretty sure there was a lack of Izuku x Himiko when I started this story, which made me go, "Hey! Why don't I write an OC as Himiko x Izuku story?" And then posted the first chapter the next day. Ehehe. xD

This is my first time writing a story so any constructive criticism would be nice! I hope you enjoy the story! Follow, favorite, review and all that stuff.

Disclaimer: I only own OC/Himiko's thoughts, actions and the plot of this story.

Warning: Do I even need a warning for anything in here...?

Thoughts

Techniques

"Speech"

"Whisper"

Chapter 19: Rival

Ri·val (ˈrīvəl): a person or thing competing with another for the same objective or for superiority in the same field of activity.

From the other side of the field I could spot Izuku and his team recovering after a few moments of hesitation and surprise, quickly bolting away from all the students rushing them. As for myself and Toru, with her invisibility Quirk and my own stealth technique we were able to calmly watch and wait for our chance to collect more points. We spent the first few minutes watching, myself taking a breath every minute while it was still relatively safe, and adjusting our position so we could jump in as soon as we saw our chance.

In the meantime, Izuku and his team had continued their evasions of the other contestants chasing after them like rabid dogs. They used a number of ways for their evasion, mostly the same as what I could remember, ranging from a jetpack to hover boots to Dark Shadow intercepting any attempts from behind them. There were also a couple of teams that had broken off from the chase and were going after other students while they were distracted by the target of ten million points.

Soon enough, most of the Class A teams had lost their headbands to the Class B team led by the annoyingly smug blonde guy, ending in a confrontation with Bakugo. With another glance around I spotted the brainwashing guy idling around the edges of the field, along with a glimpse of Yuga who was carrying him. Pain from the wound in my right shoulder began pulsing once more as I remembered our encounter and I quickly looked away with a small shiver travelling up my spine. I turned my gaze back towards my previous target, only to be distracted by the giant wall of ice that suddenly appeared on the side of the field that Izuku was currently at. Seeing all the other teams stuck in Todorki's ice without their headbands brought me to the quick conclusion that he had cornered him just as he had originally.

My line of sight blocked off, I went back to watching the confrontation between Bakugo and the annoying blonde, who were fighting each other... with the same Quirk? Ah, right, he had the Quirk to copy others, didn't he? I continued to watch their fight as our time kept dwindling down until I heard exactly how much time was left from Present Mic's commentating, "With less than a minute left, Todoroki currently has four headbands! He's wrestled away the top spot from Midoriya, who was running away like crazy!"

And that would be our cue to get moving, a single headband wasn't going to keep us in the top placements after all. I let out my breath, getting ready to hold it once again, tensing my legs up in preparation for my sprint.

"Ready to go get some points, Toru-chan?" I asked and she responded with a quick 'Un!', gripping my left shoulder a little more tightly. And with that, I moved. Launching myself from where we stood, I slipped beneath the clashing Bakugo and blondie, Toru grabbing the last headband from blondie's neck as we sped past them. I kept my pace, running straight towards the ice and, with a cursory glance behind me, I spotted the teams we had interrupted chasing after us. I smirked at them, sticking my tongue out, before turning my head back to face forwards as I continued my mad sprint towards the wall of ice the blocked Izuku and Todoroki from the rest of us.

I quickly reached it, making quick jumps up the side of it off of any edges I could use as a foothold, launching us over the side as we landed to the side of the two teams. Without stopping my momentum, I continued sprinting towards the two teams who were about to clash, Todoroki's arm on fire and, from the looks of it, Izuku winding up One For All. I reached them just as Izuku lashed out, a small burst of hot wind being flung directly at Toru and I, but I pushed through, launching myself towards Todoroki with one last jump.

I landed a few feet away from them and spun on the ball of my foot to face the two teams once again before rushing towards Izuku, with the intent of ensuring his placement rather than him barely making it like he originally had. We reached him just as Bakugo burst through the ice wall with blondie hot on his heels both charging towards us before deviating in Todoroki's direction, seeing him with the ten-million-point headband. Running alongside Izuku, who was rushing at Todoroki for another headband, Toru went through with my request before the match and slapped our most recently collected headband against Izuku's chest with a laugh, just as we ran out of time.

"Time's up!" Present Mic shouted, causing everyone to stop dead in their tracks, along with a flying Bakugo to faceplant into the ground a few feet away from us. "That's the end of the second round, the cavalry battle!" The crowd cheered wildly upon his enthusiastic announcements, while the rest of the contestants, along with myself and Toru, got ourselves properly on our feet. Well, mostly the riders, but I didn't have to keep my stance tensed and ready to burst in any direction anymore. I turned around with a grin on my face and brought my hand up, which Toru quickly slapped her own against as we both laughed.

"Now, let's take a look at the top four teams right away!" Present Mic began, and I took the chance to glance at one of the giant monitors to hopefully see the scores alongside the placements. "In first place, Team Todoroki!" The crowd cheered and the monitor changed from a default pattern to a single bar across the top with a large one on it and a crown atop the number. Their score was... [10000020]? Damn, they kept the ten million. Regardless I knew Izuku had to be in the top four since he had gotten the rest of Todoroki's headbands. At least he had better be. Otherwise my effort in sharing was pointless. "In second place, Team Hagakure!" Ah, that's us! The monitor quickly showed we had made it in with a score of [1160], another bar with the number two taking place below the first. A glance behind me showed Toru, jumping for joy, well, her legs anyways. "In third place, Tetsute—Huh? What, it's Team Shinso?! When did you come from behind?!" Brainwash guy had made it through with a score of [1090], the monitor showed with its third bar, and I kept my eyes glued to it, not really wanting to catch Yuga's gaze if he was still over there. "In fourth place, Team Midoriya!" A fourth bar on the monitor, followed by the rest of the scores quickly filling out, showed me that my efforts hadn't been wasted, Izuku making it into the top four with a couple hundred points to spare at [805].

"These four teams..." Present Mic continued, "will advance... to the final round!" Assuming the announcement was over with that declaration I bounced over to Izuku and his team before glomping onto him like a giant koala.

"We did it, Izuku-chan!" I cheered, grabbing his left arm with my own and pumping it into the air dramatically. Apparently, Toru had followed me over because I could hear her laughter from just a couple steps behind Izuku and myself. "You two are really close, huh?" She asked rhetorically. I decided to respond anyways, turning my head towards her with a grin as I dropped Izuku's arm to shoot her a thumbs up with short, "Yup!"

"Now, we'll take an hour's break for lunch before we start the afternoon festivities! See ya!" Present Mic announced, just as I had responded to Toru, making me suddenly aware of the grumbling in my stomach, and once more of the pain emanating from my shoulder as my adrenaline left my body. Maybe I should drop by Chiyo's office and have her take a look at it. With all that I've been straining it already today I hope I haven't made it worse... I cringed internally at the thought of having to go through the tournament if I had made my injury any worse. A little pain I can deal with but if I had dealt some kind of permanent damage by straining it too much? I shivered at the thought. Maybe I have been a little too careless today... "Hey, Eraser Head, let's go grab food." Present Mic interrupted my thoughts, likely having forgotten to turn off his microphone. "I'm going to sleep." Aizawa responded. It was more likely he was just too lazy to turn his off than anything else.

I giggled slightly at their antics as I lowered my feet back to the ground from Izuku's waist, finally freeing him from my grip. Why am I being so clingy anyways? I shrugged to myself, not having an answer before I stretched my arms above myself, ignoring the small twinge of pain in favor of my stretching. Idly I followed after Izuku, not really paying attention to where we were going and assuming he was following the rest of the students out of the arena and to the cafeteria. It turned out to be a mistake, as I found myself walking into him which, with a glance over his shoulder, made me realize we had been following Todoroki. I glanced around us to find we were in a small hallway, and the two of them were taking positions against opposite walls of it, leaving me to stand between them as a bundle of awkwardness.

They stared at each other in silence for nearly a minute straight with both of them shooting me a quick glance until Izuku spoke, "What did you want to talk about?" He was met with silence, Todoroki continually staring at him until he nervously spoke again, "If we don't hurry, the cafeteria will probably be really crowded..." Another beat of silence was the only response Todoroki gave, "Um..." Izuku gulped nervously, shooting me a glance to which I could only shrug.

"I was overpowered." Todoroki finally responded after another few moments of silence, receiving a small exhalation of surprise from Izuku. "So much so that I broke my pledge." Another beat of silence, Todoroki pulling his left arm out of his pocket and looking down at it intently before he continued, "Iida, Kaminari, Yaoyorozu, Tokoyami, Uraraka... None of them felt it. At that last instant, I was the only one who was overpowered. Only me, who had experienced All Might's full power up close."

I kept my silence not sure why I was here, or whether I should interrupt in some way. Not that I would know what to say anyways. "What... does... that mean...?" Izuku spoke quietly, a slightly worried tone in his voice. "It means I felt something similar coming from you." Todoroki revealed, still staring intently at his left hand, eliciting a surprised gasp from Izuku, who paled at his words. "Midoriya, are you... All Might's secret love child or something?" Todoroki jumped to the wrong conclusion as he lowered his hand to turn that intense stare upon Izuku. I barked out a laugh, surprised even though I should have seen it coming, not remembering that he had said something that sounded so ridiculous to me.

Both their gazes turned to me and I could only smile awkwardly for interrupting the serious moment. "Izuku-chan isn't Shishou-chan's kid or anything, so don't worry about that~" I said as I brought up my uninjured arm to wave him off. Izuku was wearing a stupid expression on his face and I almost burst out in giggles, only to be caught off guard by Todoroki's mutter, "Shishou-chan...?" He brought up a hand to his chin, continuing with a more confident tone of voice as I realized my slip of tongue, "I see, I thought you might have some special relationship with him too, since you stick to Midoriya so much, as well as All Might whenever he is around."

A quick glance at Izuku had him belatedly freaking out with a, "Th-that's not it! I mean even if I was, I would say I wasn't, so I don't think you'd believe me, but anyway, that's not how it is..." Izuku wildly made gesture as he tried to explain the misunderstanding, Todoroki still looking thoughtfully between the two of us. "In the first place let me ask you something... Why do you think that about me...?" Todoroki dropped his hand to his side once more before dragging his gaze to solely rest on Izuku. "Since you said, 'that's not how it is,' that means there's a connection between you that you can't talk about right? Yagi already confirmed her own connection, so it will be useless for her to try and deny it as well."

"Oi! I wasn't going to deny it." I gave him an irritated glance and jut out my lower lip to pout at him. He ignored me, continuing to stare at Izuku's conflicted expression. "Endeavor's my old man. I'm sure you know that he's been stuck as the number two hero for forever. If you have something from the number one hero, then I... have even more reason to beat you." Todoroki explained, gaze still drilling into Izuku. "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. Since he couldn't surpass All Might, he moved onto his next plan."

"Ah." I let out in almost a whisper, remembering that Todoroki's father saw him as a tool to surpass All Might, rather than his own flesh and blood son. The realization had me adopting a deep frown, Todoroki shooting a glance at me after hearing my quiet outburst. "What are you talking about, Todoroki-kun...? What are you trying to tell me?" I pressed my lips together in a thin line as Izuku questioned him, not wanting to vocalize my realization.

"You've heard of Quirk marriages, right? That thing that became a problem for the second and third generation after superpowers appeared. Choosing a spouse based only on strengthening your own Quirk and passing it onto your children, forcing people into marriage. The old-fashioned way of thinking brought about by a lack of ethics. He is a man with both accomplishments and money. He won over my mother's relatives and got a hold of my mother's Quirk. He is trying to fulfill his own desire by raising me to be a hero to surpass All Might." Izuku let out a gasp as I scoffed silently. What a terrible father. Todoroki lowered his gaze to the ground and grit his teeth before continuing, "It's so annoying... I won't become the tool of scum like that. In my memories, my mother is always crying. 'Your left side is unsightly' my mother said as she poured boiling water on me." I could hear Izuku suck in a shuddering breath, my own gaze stuck on Todoroki who had buried his face into his left palm, my frown stuck in place.

"Basically, I picked a fight with you to show him what I can do, without using my damn old man's Quirk... No... I'll reject him completely by winning first place without using it." Todoroki said, voice full of contempt and determination. He turned and walked out of the hallway, out of the arena, gaze still stuck on Izuku for a few moments more before fully turning his back to us. "I don't care if you can't tell me how you're connected to All Might. No matter what you are to All Might, I will rise above you with just my right side. Sorry for wasting your time."

"Ehhhh, I wouldn't be so sure about that, Todoroki." I said in a playful tone as I stepped closer to the entrance, although my expression was anything but, with my brows furrowed and a frown still stuck on my face. He glanced over his shoulder, eyes widening at seeing me without a smile plastered on my face for likely the first time. I saw Izuku out of the corner of my eye as he rushed towards Todoroki, coming fully into my vision as he stopped a few steps away from the bi-colored boy. "I...! I have always been supported by others. That was the case earlier, too. I am here because of the people who have supported me." I took a couple steps toward Izuku as I felt a small smile upon my lips, hearing him announce his own determination, watching him clutch his fist in front of himself.

"Saving people with a fearless smile, the greatest hero—All Might." Izuku continued, voice so quiet it was nearly a whisper, only loud enough for myself and Todoroki to hear due to the close proximity. "In order to do that, I have to be strong enough to become number one. My motivation might seem trivial compared to yours, but I can't lose, either. I have to live up to the hopes of those who supported me. That declaration of war you gave earlier—I'll return that. I will beat you, too!" I took the last couple steps to reach Izuku before slinging my uninjured left arm over his shoulders, closing my eyes, still wearing my small smile. "I'll return it too, Todoroki. We won't lose, right, Izuku-chan?" I could feel him nodding determinedly through my arm across his shoulders, while Todoroki stared at us for another moment before finally turning to continue walking away from us. We stood there, watching his back as he faded into the crowd of people taking advantage of the hour-long break.

After what couldn't have been more than a minute, I coughed awkwardly as the two of us still stood looking towards where Todoroki had gone off to. I turned my head to Izuku and shot him a small smile as I asked, "So, want to go get some lunch now, Izuku-chan?", which seemed to snap him out of his reverie. His attention now focused on me, he gave me a smile and a nod as he relaxed, eyes locking onto my own. I began walking forward, my arm still laced around his shoulders, urging him to walk alongside me as I directed us to the school cafeteria.

We arrived shortly, both of us having relaxed back into easy conversation on our walk over, and grabbing some food for ourselves before finding an empty pair of seats. We ate in relative silence until the throbbing of my shoulder reminded me that I needed to drop by the nurse's office. A glance at the time showed we still had about half of our break left which would be plenty of time for me to head over and talk to Chiyo. I stood and told Izuku I was going to go say hi to her, waving him off and telling him to go on ahead when he offered to come along with me.

I rushed off before he could try and convince me to bring him along again, quickly exiting the cafeteria and walking hastily towards the nurse's office. I arrived to see Chiyo diligently working on some paperwork, a monitor with a live view of the arena turned on at the edge of her desk.

"Hiya, baa-chan!" I greeted, sliding the door closed behind me as I lazily walked in, waving with my left hand. She turned towards me slowly, looking me over as I approached before picking up the syringe she often used as a cane and swinging it at me. Taken completely by surprise it slammed into my right shoulder, causing me to flinch and suck in a small gasp of pain.

"W-was that really necessary, baa-chan?" I questioned as I dug my fingernails into my palms, trying to distract myself from the throbbing pain she had brought to the forefront of my mind.

"It wouldn't have been if someone hadn't thought it would be a good idea to participate in the sports festival while injured. Remind you of anyone, Himiko-tan?" She asked pointedly while glaring at me, causing me to give a small awkward laugh as my left hand reflexively reached to rub the back of my head.

"Well, that's what I was here about, baa-chan." I started, doing my best to ignore the death glare being aimed in my direction. "I was wondering if you could heal it a bit before the tournament starts, ah, but not enough to drain me too much to fight. That or some painkillers. Or, well anything, really. Just as long as it isn't in the way and I can still participate and—I'm rambling, aren't I?" I grimaced as my shoulder throbbed painfully once more, before turning my hopeful gaze towards her.

She sighed heavily and slumped slightly, motioning for me to sit on the side of the closest bed. "Alright, fine, let's get that uniform out of the way and I can see what we're dealing with." Following her instructions, I unzipped my shirt before sliding it off my shoulder, taking extra care when it came to my right arm. I dropped my hands to my lap while still holding my shirt as she began inspecting my shoulder. She let out a small huff of annoyance and I glanced over to see that I had started bleeding at some point during the day, a small blotch of red centered around my stab wound having leaked through. She nudged my arm, motioning for me to lift it, causing me to cringe slightly in pain as I did so, letting her have the freedom to begin unwrapping it. When she finally saw my injury, the bandages having been completely removed, she glanced in my direction as she took on a disgruntled expression.

"Where in the world did you get stabbed Himiko-tan?" She asked, eyes still concentrated on my face as I averted my own gaze for another awkward laugh.

"Uhhh, I fell down some stairs? And there just happened to be a knife waiting at the bottom for me?" She gave me a complete deadpan expression at my horrible attempt at a lie, myself still unsure of how to explain the previous night's events. "Ehehe. I mean, someone tried to mug me last night. I fought them off and took them to the proper authorities though." All Might counts as a proper authority, right?

She kept her gaze on me, adopting a skeptical look instead of her previous deadpan, before finally giving a shrug. "Well, I can heal it partially and give you some painkillers, but are you sure you want to fight with an injury like this, Himiko-tan?" I nodded vigorously giving her a smile and a thumbs up with my left hand. "It looks worse than it is, baa-chan. I'll make it through, the painkillers would just be a bonus!"

She sighed before mumbling something about 'reckless kids and their reckless parents' before stretching her lips out to kiss my shoulder, lingering for only a few moments before she drew away. I watched as the skin around the wound began to close, knitting itself back together, stopping after it had closed slightly. I poked it lightly, feeling the telltale burn and throb of pain from the action, letting me know that it had only healed slightly, the more internal damage hidden behind the now partially-closed stab wound. Chiyo followed by handing me some painkillers and a cup of water, which I quickly swallowed, coughing in surprise and snapping my head towards my shoulder when she began stitching the rest of the wound closed. I gave her a small glare as she sewed through my skin, trying to ignore the pain of her actions. Couldn't she have waited for the painkillers to kick in?

She snipped the end of her thread after finishing, before beginning to wrap bandages around my wound once more. She let out another huff as she finished with my bandages, moving on to clean up her supplies and I took the chance to slip my shirt back on. I felt the painkillers begin to take effect as the pain in my shoulder began to dull and, at the same time, I felt the drain on my energy from her healing, leaving my slightly winded, but not exhausted. Glancing at the time I saw that our break time was almost over and stood abruptly. Shouting a quick, "Thanks baa-chan!" I rushed out the door, forgetting to close it behind me.

"Be careful, Himiko-tan!" I heard her shout after me not a moment later, as I continued to sprint through the hallways, intent on making it out of the building and back to the arena before our break had ended. Just as I stepped past the threshold of one of the arena's side entrances, continuing my sprint into the building, I could hear Present Mic through the intercom shouting, "Now that lunch is over, it's finally time to reveal the last game!"

I cursed under my breath and picked up my pace as I rushed through the large hallways to reach the field once more.

"But before that, there's good news for all of you who didn't make it to the finals!" Present Mic continued, just as I saw the sunlight leaking through at the end of the hall. "This is just a sports festival! So we've prepared recreational games that everyone can participate in, too! We've even brought real cheerleaders from America to liven things up!" I burst back out onto the field just as he said that, panting and leaning my left hand on my knee to catch my breath, then thinking back over something odd he had said. Rec... reational games? I didn't remember this at all. Did this happen before too? I guess I didn't have to rush back as much as I thought after all. I slapped my right palm to my face as I let out a small groan of annoyance while I continued to catch my breath.

I dragged my palm down my face at the same time I heard both Aizawa and Present Mic let out noises of confusion into their microphones, letting the sight before me soak in. I had arrived out of a tunnel just behind a bunch of students from Class B, who had all seen what I was seeing now, some covering their faces in embarrassment while others stared at my classmates strangely. I couldn't blame them, since I was probably giving them a rather odd look myself, having not expected to see my female classmates dressed in cheerleader outfits standing stock still, all with looks of dread on their faces.

"What are they doing?" I heard Aizawa comment, followed by Present Mic shouting, "What's the matter, Class A? What kind of fan service is that?"

I quickly slapped my hand back to my face with another groan as Momo began shouting from her place in line with the other girls, complaining and scolding towards Mineta and Kaminari, who had apparently tricked them. I have no idea why they would ever trust the two perverts on something like that in the first place and honestly, I'm just glad they didn't find a way to drag me into it.

"All right, everyone! Let's have fun competing in the recreational games!" Present Mic announced, moving on from the quick distraction my classmates had made. "When that's over, the sixteen from the four teams, plus two from the fifth, that made it to the final round will duke it out tournament style, one-on-one!"

After his announcement finished, everyone was directed to gather at the center of the field once again, Midnight standing on the small stage ready to give her own announcement.

"Now, let's draw lots to determine the bracket." She began, holding a yellow box with 'lots' written on it in her arms with a hole at the top. "Once the bracket is determined, we'll have the recreational games and then start! The sixteen finalists can choose whether or not they want to participate in the recreation. I'm sure some of you want to rest or save your strength. Now, from the first-place team—"

"Um..!" A student somewhere to the side of me interrupted. "Excuse me. I'm withdrawing."

Students around me gasped out in shock and I heard Izuku call out, "Ojiro-kun, why?" which gave me his position and a chance to sneak up to him. I stood right behind him as I watched the situation unfold, although only half my attention was on what was happening, the rest focused on Izuku.

Tenya asked why in more detail to which Ojiro explained that he lacked his memory from the cavalry battle and how he suspected it was his leaders Quirk. Ah, yeah, he was on the brainwash guys team wasn't he. I glanced around trying to spot him as I tuned out Ojiro's voice as he continued speaking to Izuku and my other classmates. Wasn't there one mo—Just as I thought it, there was another student from class B that asked to withdraw for the same reason.

"This is an unusual turn of events..." I heard Present Mic speak at a normal volume through the speakers littered around the arena, followed by Aizawa's, "We'll have to see what the chief umpire, Midnight, has to say about this..."

"Youthful talk like that is something... I like!" She finished in a shout and a small crack of her multi-tailed whip. "Shoda! Ojiro! I accept your withdrawals!" She paused for a moment bringing her free hand to cup her chin. "In that case, we'll have to move up the last two people from the fifth-place cavalry battle team. And so, the entirety of Team Bakugo will be going into the top sixteen!"

She quickly moved on after that decision having each of the top sixteen students come up to pick out a lot. She rushed through the process, finishing just as quickly as she had started, so that she could announce the brackets.

"This is the bracket based on the results of the drawing!" She announced flourishing her whip once again. The monitor above her with the bracket shortly filled out our names, giving our opponents and who we'd be facing next depending on who won.

[Midoriya Izuku Vs. Hagakure Toru]

[Shinso Hitoshi Vs. Bakugo Katsuki]

[Kaminari Denki Vs. Uraraka Ochaco]

[Todoroki Shoto Vs. Kirishima Eijiro]

[Tokoyami Fumikage Vs. Yagi Himiko]

[Yaoyorozu Momo Vs. Iida Tenya]

[Hatsume Mei Vs. Ashido Mina]

[Sero Hanta Vs. Aoyama Yuga]

That's... quite different from what I remember. Eh, who cares, I need a nap, screw these 'recreational games'.

Authors Note:

I've been doing a little thing while writing Mute where I find songs for opening/ending themes as well as character songs and was thinking of looking for some for this fic. Actually, I have been looking but haven't found much yet (one maybe two songs) but I was wondering if I should bother sharing them or just keep it as a fun little game to myself. Ehehe.

I had to do so much math for this chapter, keeping track of who had which headbands, where I wanted them to go, how they ended up in canon, how many points they were worth now and just ugh. Never again. Hopefully.

P.S. I used a randomizer for the tournament bracket, so this should be interesting. (Not completely sure when I'll have the next chapter ready by, as I have to plan out each of the tournament matches)

5/8/2018