Friday, May 8th

If it existed an event Izuku Midoriya expected anxiously every year, that was the UA Sports Festival, so the moment he won in a giveaway two tickets for the first-years' event he was positively thrilled, inviting his mother to accompany him.

So many Quirks reunited in just one place for him to pick and analyze them one by one, bit by bit...

He could only laugh in almost mad glee.

And yet, even with powerhouses like Katsuki and Todoroki around, along with the rest of the people from both classes of the Hero Course, Izuku's attention end up focusing on a certain girl from the General Department.

Saying she was tall would be a euphemism, she was absolutely statuesque. That and her indigo hair making her very easy to spot, not counting on the fact she was being carried by four students through all the obstacle race.

Were they collaborating to make it to the next round...? That seemed an interesting plan, but it was unlikely and weird considering how the girl wasn't making any effort at all.

Izuku even looked for signs of something like a support Quirk being used, but he found nothing.

The girl truly wasn't doing anything to contribute to her team except for giving orders... And now that Izuku was watching attentively, for some reason the rest of them weren't using their Quirks either. They just moved at a slow but constant pace until they made it to the goal, managing to get to the next round despite their sluggish performance.

"It can't be." He murmured. The start of a theory forming in his mind.

For the second round, the girl switched some of her helpers, but the rest was the same. The members of her cavalry did all the hard (physical) work for her while she just remained in command like a general controlling her troops.

Yes, control was the word he was looking for.

"Mind-control," he muttered, feeling exhilarated.

Most people were just amazed by powerful or flashy abilities like Katsuki's, but Izuku preferred to look beyond that to more complex or utilitarian Quirks.

So he understood that something like a mind-control Quirk could be a real blessing in the hands of a hero. Such potential for winning against any kind of villain, no matter how powerful they were, without having to make use of violence at all.

It helped that, apparent laziness aside, the girl had a good head on her shoulders. Instead of going after Todoroki's team and his ten million points, she took advantage of other teams' distractedness to sneakily steal their headbands. So at the end of the round, her team got second place thanks to their use of stealth and a good plan, leaving Katsuki's team behind in third place by a wide margin, for Izuku's guilty amusement.

To say that he was impressed was an understatement. Izuku couldn't believe that he was in the same department that this girl and didn't know her until now. So many ideas about the stuff she would be able to do with her Quirk with the proper training and advice...!

"Deary, you are drooling," said his mother, Inko, from the seat next to him.

Even after explaining himself, he still felt her mother judging stares for a long while.

After a little break, the third round finally started.

"Hitomi Shinso," he whispered the girl's name after Present Mic mentioned it. It was a cute name... Ominous, but cute.

In any case, in her first fight, Shinso was pitted against Aoyama Yuga, who, despite his weird flamboyant personality, had a strong Quirk.

"I know it's going to sound weird to say this in such a situation, but I would like to request your help to find clothes to combine with my hair color," said the girl, ignoring Present Mic's scandalous voice while presenting them.

"Oh, it's going to be a pleasure! " Answered the boy happy.

"START!" yelled the Pro-Hero.

"Do you think light pink would suit me?" Asked the girl, not reacting at all at the fact the battle had already started... She seemed unnaturally unconcerned.

Sadly for Aoyama, he didn't notice the girl's weird behavior.

"Fu, fu, we have a lot to talk about after this, ma chère-." Suddenly the boy paralyzed and turned expressionless.

"That sounds nice, but for now... Walk out of the platform." Shinso ordered, and he did.

She had won in only four seconds, and now Izuku's theory was confirmed.

Sunday, May 10th

The rest of the tournament passed pretty fast after Shinso lost against Todoroki.

It had been unfortunate because he would have liked to see more of her. He just wished the girl had managed to learn something out of the Sports Festival... If she didn't let this defeat discourage her and worked harder, Izuku was sure she would be a great hero in the future.

About the fight of Katsuki versus Todoroki, it was objectively amazing and a perfect closing for the Sports Festival, but the fact that Todoroki had refused to use his fire-side at the end had ruined it for Izuku... And apparently for Katsuki too, considering his perfect imitation of a rabid dog during the awards ceremony, even though he had won the first place.

In any case, Izuku took the rest of that day and the next two to collect, review and archive video-recordings of the whole Sports Festival. Getting at least one video of each event, besides looking for different videos on the participants that called more of his attention.

Eventually, Izuku ended up looking for mainly videos about Shinso, even though he actually didn't notice it.

Then someone knocked at his door.

"Excuse me, deary, can I enter? Your washed clothes are already dry."

"Um, yeah. Of course." He mumbled most of his attention on the screen of his PC that displayed the fight of Shinso vs Todoroki.

He felt kind of bad looking at the girl's defeat, but at least the video provided him with some info about how her Quirk worked.

Unfortunately, there were not many recordings about Shinso in general, having gone somewhat unnoticed when compared to the students from the Hero Course. It was infuriating, but expected.

"Hmm, I see..." Izuku turned to catch her mother looking at him knowingly.

"Um, what?" He asked, a bit disconcerted. He didn't like it when her mother put that kind of expression.

"You are making me remember when I met your father." She sighed happily, leaving Izuku completely out of the loop. "He was so handsome and kind. And he was so tall, too, that I couldn't stop but thinking all the time about him and me cuddling and how amazing that would be!"

At that moment, Izuku somehow felt even more awkward and uncomfortable than the time his father talked with him about sex and relationships stuff through video-call.

"M-Mom, what-?"

"It's fine, Izuku!" She grabbed him by the shoulders, her face red. Wasn't he the one supposed to be embarrassed at this...? "There's nothing wrong about liking a girl taller than you. In fact, having a taller partner can be wonderful."

What followed were his useless attempts at trying to convince his mother that he didn't like Hitomi Shinso.

Because he, of course, didn't like her...

Though after dreaming that night about the girl surrounding him in a warm and comforting hug, he was going to need a bit of help to convince himself of that...