A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next four chapters are up on my Patreon for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story!

The First Stage comes to a close~

-x-X-x-

Making it too close would be an insult to not just his own skill, but also Katsumi and Shouko as well. They needed to know that they weren’t nipping at his heels and that they needed to step up their game if they intended to win. Shouko especially. If she wanted to enter the life of a Pro Hero only ever using fifty percent of her power, then she needed to prove that fifty percent of her power was greater than one hundred percent of what anyone else could hope to bring to bear.

Of course, it wasn’t… she would eventually wind up in situations where just her ice wouldn’t be enough. Better that Izuku teach her that now in a controlled environment rather than have Shouko learn it later in a more dangerous situation against a villain that might just outright kill her for her stubbornness.

At the same time, he didn’t want to make it boring. That was why he wanted something that was decisive but not devastating. Something that made it crystal clear he was the best of the best but didn’t make it overwhelming.

To be fair, he could have just leapt across the entire Mine Field in a single bound, trivializing the entire obstacle just like he had the pit and its platforms connected with ropes. But that would be the exact sort of boring he wanted to avoid. Just because they’d made this way too easy for anyone with Quirks that allowed them to go airborne didn’t mean Izuku should take the easy way out.

Maybe that was even part of the evaluation, in fact. Oh sure, Izuku didn’t think that soaring over the obstacles would necessarily impact one’s performance in the Sports Festival itself at any point. The teachers weren’t going to penalize someone for using their Quirk to their fullest potential and if you could ‘cheese’ your way to victory in every single stage, they would almost certainly allow it.

However, winning the Sports Festival was not the be all, end all in and of itself. Rather, this was all about what came after. The Sports Festival was a spectacle that raised tons of money for U.A. every year, while the students went unpaid. However, the students DID gain one valuable thing… recognition and internships. At the end of the Sports Festival, current Pro Hero Agencies from all across Japan would throw internships at the students who caught their eye, sometimes in the hundreds of offers.

Izuku hadn’t fully decided how that factored into his own plans if he was being honest. It wasn’t like he’d already picked out a Pro Hero he wanted to catch the eye of and get an internship offer from either. But he did so love to play the field and that meant attracting as many offers as possible.

All of this was to say… Izuku COULD have leapt the Mine Field in a single bound. He doesn’t. Instead, as he slows back down his perception to merely inhuman levels and not time stop levels, Izuku races forward right among the mines themselves. He grins, imagining that he can hear the gasps and shouts of shock from the onlookers currently watching on large monitors back in the stadium.

But if they’re worried for him… they needn’t be. Izuku is in complete control of this situation and he goes about showing exactly that, dancing through the Mine Field rather than soaring over it. He doesn’t touch a single mine as he sprints forward, his movements probably making him look like some sort of insane ballerina or something as he spins this way and that without pause.

Behind him however, he hears the first explosions as Katsumi and Shouko catch up. The two young women likely saw him making his way without issue and tunneled on him, not even realizing what he was in the middle of. As he spins out of the way of another mine, doing a perfectly executed pirouette in the process, Izuku gets a good look at the both of their faces as they each hit a mine of their own at the same time. Their expressions are hilariously comical.

Though, a single mine doesn’t take either of them down for the count. Katsumi curses and blasts herself up into the air, lunging forward with propulsion provided by constant explosions coming from her hands. Shouko, meanwhile, flashes out her own hands in a wave in front of her, icing up the area and freezing the mines, locking them down in the process so she can proceed forward.

Izuku has way too much of a lead for Shouko to catch up at this point, but because he’s not using his full strength right now, Katsumi is actually able to gain on him… and gain on him… and- there!

Katsumi’s eyes widen when she sees the vicious smirk that spreads across Izuku’s face right as he stomps his foot down on a certain part of the field almost too fast for the naked eye to see. The ground explodes upwards, but not because of a landmine… rather, because of his strength. The landmine, as it so happens, hasn’t exploded yet… until the pressure plate on the top of it smacks right into Katsumi’s gut, the mine having been flung straight out of the ground by Izuku’s move.

The pressure doubles the explosive blonde over… and then she vanishes in an explosion not caused by her Quirk for once. It’s not going to kill her, of course. None of the landmines in this mine field are strong enough to truly do any more than blow them all up a little and inconvenience them for a second. But Katsumi is inconvenienced for more than just a second seeing as the explosion from the landmine propels her backwards… and downwards, sending her plowing into the ground. More specifically, sending her plowing into a Mine Field.

Izuku has timed his attack perfectly. Like a smooth round rock skipping across the surface of the lake, Katsumi Bakugou goes skipping backwards across the field. However, rather than being propelled by surface tension, she’s propelled by exploding mines as she hits each one at the perfect angle to send her even further back.

Izuku counts the skips, even as he continues on his way. Only six, which is such a shame… but it’s not entirely his fault. It’s only six skips because Katsumi finally manages to right herself on the sixth, getting herself back into the air and under control. By that point, Shouko has passed her and the rest of the pack has fallen behind. She’s dangerously close to not just coming in third, but even fourth or fifth if any of the other students have a way to trivialize the Mine Field like Izuku did.

But that’s not his problem. He finishes his mad dance across the field and slips into the tunnel back into the stadium with ease, moving fast still but now with a confidence in knowing he’s won. Shouko and Katsumi will be right behind him of course, but not nipping on his heels. The perfect decisive victory.

Coming to a stop in the middle of the stadium itself, Izuku grins as Midnight announces his victory and the crowd of onlookers go wild. Curling his hand into a fist, he pumps it above his head, making them go even wilder in their excitement. Everyone loves a winner, he supposes.

Shouko finishes second, but Katsumi does at least manage third. And then the rest begin making their way into the stadium. There’s a big group of Class 1-A and Class 1-B all packed together, and then the best from the Gen Ed and Support Courses right behind them. And then everyone else trickles in one or two at a time, looking defeated and downtrodden. And for good reason too.

“I’m sorry to say that only the first forty-two students to make it back first will be advancing to the second stage of the festival! Everyone else has been disqualified!”

There are slumped shoulders from the latecomers at that, with Izuku eyeing who had and hadn’t made it. Most of Class 1-A and Class 1-B had all made it into the top forty-two to be fair… everyone important from those two classes, anyways. But there were also a few Support and Gen Ed that Izuku decided he’d have to keep his eye on.

As everyone who’d been disqualified leaves the stadium, Midnight continues on with a broad grin on her face and hands planted on her hips.

“The next event will be The Cavalry Battle! All of you should find a teammate… or three teammates, because for this next event you MUST be in a group of two or four! You’ll earn points by grabbing headbands from the other teams, so there’s advantages to both amounts of teammates! The number of points each student’s headband will award will depend on where they placed in the Obstacle Race!”

And then Midnight looks directly at Izuku.

“… With one exception! The winner of the first event, Izuku Midoriya… will have a headband worth ten MILLION points!”

Silence falls among the forty-two remaining students, while the stadium crowds go wild at this news. Izuku just meets Midnight’s gaze unflinchingly, giving her a wide grin that just screams ‘bring it on’. She matches his energy with a toothy grin of her own and a wink before looking at everyone else.

“Well? Get to making your teams! Anyone left without one will be paired up by me personally!”

Meaning that anyone left without a team would be paired with Izuku. Or at least, that was the implication seeing as you’d have to be absolutely insane to team up with Izuku instead of gunning for him and his ten million points. Insane… or his girlfriend.

As everyone rushes around, trying to form their teams, Izuku watches as Momo walks over to him with Itsuka Kendo by her side. The Class 1-B Representative is blushing a fair bit, but Momo is all smiles as she nods to Izuku decisively.

“Itsuka and I will be joining your team.”

Heh, of course. Izuku nods right back before glancing around them at their prospects. It was only possible to have Itsuka join their team if they could find a fourth member. Otherwise it would just have to be Momo and Izuku. Unfortunately, Izuku can already see that most of the girls he had a connection to had found teams of their own. Katsumi and Shouko were never going to join his team in the first place for obvious reasons. But there was also Mina Ashido, Kyoka Jiro, and Ochaco Uraraka, all of whom he’d had… ‘dealings’ with in the past.

Alas, he clearly hadn’t cultivated those relationships quite enough because they’d all already been snapped up or made their own teams by the time he’s looking for them.

For a moment, it really does look like they’ll maybe have to cut Itsuka loose and let her team up with some of her fellow Class 1-B classmates when suddenly…

“Hi there!”

Suddenly in front of them is a short girl with pink hair done up in dreadlocks and a curvy body that definitely makes her something of a short stack in Izuku’s eyes. She’s wearing the normal U.A. gym uniform, but also has some gadgets on, with goggles atop her brow, a utility belt around her waist, massive boots on her feet and a jetpack on her back.

Grinning happily, she thrusts out a gloved hand while looking at him with a wild, intense gaze in her eyes. The sort of intensity that he’d only met once before… with Himiko Toga. That said, the pink-haired girl isn’t THAT bad he doesn’t think. She’s definitely got this hungry look in her eye as she stares him down, but she wouldn’t be allowed in U.A. if she were dangerous. Well… at least not if she were truly dangerous. And Izuku had handled Himiko well enough, right?

“I’m Mei Hatsume! Please have my babies!”

Izuku chuckles and reaches out to shake Mei’s hand in greeting… only to freeze up when he realizes what she just said.

His mind had automatically corrected the phrase to a request for her to have HIS babies, but that wasn’t what the Support Course Student had actually asked at all, now was it? No, rather… she’d asked him to have HER babies?

Suddenly Izuku doesn’t feel quite so comfortable being the focus of this girl’s attention. Everyone knew that Support Heroes could pull out all sorts of crazy shit from their asses. He wouldn’t put it past this girl that he didn’t know to somehow have a way to… to do that to a man.

Hoping he’s misheard, Izuku’s smile becomes rather plastic.

“Uh… excuse me?”

Pumping his hand in her own enthusiastically, Mei’s eyes shimmer… as she pulls out a gadget from her belt with the other.

“My babies! Please let me equip you with them so that you can go from being absolutely amazing to EVEN BETTER!”

… Oh. Oh thank god. Her ‘babies’ were her creations. She wasn’t asking him to let her knock him up, she was asking him to use her equipment in battle.

“And if you go out there and kick total ass while using MY babies, then everyone will wonder where you got them and realize I’m just as amazing too! It’s a match made in heaven! So please have my babies!”

As horrifying, disgusting mental images of mpreg rapidly fade from Izuku’s mind, he relaxes and shakes Mei’s hand, chuckling once more.

“Well now… that’s quite the offer.”

“I’d also like to join your team, please! If you’ll have me, t-that is!”

Mei suddenly sounds sheepish and a little uncertain. It takes Izuku a second to realize why. Both Momo and Itsuka are looking at the girl with stone-like faces, assessing her in a way that has Mei laughing nervously and even developing a bead of sweat on her forehead. Her opening lines had caught them off-guard too, but now they were properly scrutinizing every bit of her and she was feeling the heat.

Letting go of her hand at long last, Izuku takes a step back and hums, crossing his arms over his chest in thought. He glances at Momo and Itsuka but they all know that this is his decision at the end of the day. That said, if they don’t pick up Mei here and now, they’re going to have to cut Itsuka loose. In fact, a quick glance around shows that pretty much everyone else has already paired off. So if Izuku says no to Mei, then she and Itsuka will wind up as a duo and he and Momo will also be a duo.

But would that be a bad thing? Him and Momo taking on everyone and still coming out on top… that would be truly legendary. Legendary enough that he’s tempted to go for it. He knows they could easily still win, even without a four man team and despite the fact that he’ll have a ten million point headband. Not to mention he'd probably be doing Itsuka and Mei a favor if they didn't have to share the target currently painted on his back.

… At the same time though, this IS an opportunity to make inroads with a Support Hero. And Mei’s stuff doesn’t look janky or broken down at least…

[ ] Cut both her and Itsuka loose, its for their own good - 3%