Scouting The Competition...

Chapter 25 - Scouting The Competition...

There were three things that Izuku had established to be potential problems for the upcoming Sports Festival. At least he liked to believe of them as real problems so that he could add some sort of difficulty into his life which had become just slightly boring. Not that he wasn't asking for trouble, just that it would be welcome just about now….

His first problem was that the first two challenges would be up to random chance for selection, completely to the mercy of chance which Izuku believed to be a slight bit problematic. He had a very specific criteria in which his quirk could be utilized with maximum efficiency and there would certainly be entertaining to try and figure out how to adapt his he supposed that he couldn't choose how situation would happen in the real world once he was a hero.

The second problem that Izuku thought would be present in the Festival was the wide array of quirks that were going to be displayed for all to see. For this reason Izuku had gone and tried to analyze several different students from all the departments to attempt to get a general idea of what he was going up against. It wasn't the most moral behavior but he needed every bit of an advantage if he was going to be able to have a sure spot on the podium at the end of the day. If he was going to go up against skilled people he at least wanted to get a general idea of what every competitor was capable of.

His third and final problem at the moment was the speech that he was required to give in front of every person at the stadium and his fellow classmates at the start of the competition. Normally this was awarded to the student who scored the highest in the entrance exam and Izuku had been that exact student, lucky him. He hadn't even been told till the previous day by Aizawa who had said it in the most casual tone that he was capable of.

Normally Izuku would have a deadly fear of public speaking, and he did. Then the more that he thought about it, he had been through many things since he had first given a terrible speech in the start of the year to be elected for class representative. He had lost, but over time he had gained quite a bit of confidence. Now he could probably do exactly what would have killed him not three months ago.

The fear wasn't the problem, the problem was that he still didn't have a single clue what he was going to say in front of everyone. Luckily this task hadn't gone to Bakugou who was second in the rankings and would probably say something to damper everyone else's spirits. Maybe the speech would even allow him a chance to gain more recognition from the heroes who he would be interning with.

Hello Izuku Midoriya this is you talking to yourself while completing your morning run at that beach that you were required to clean up by your homeroom teacher. Not really sure that was completely allowed but I'll just have to let it slide for right now. Right now I can't focus on past experiences so much as I need to focus on the present and see where that gets me. Okay warm up is over time for me to train….

The boy clapped with very little force and stopped altogether, smiling that his braking system was finally consistent enough to use whenever he felt like it. Sure it often caused a large amount of wind to go through his area, but the alternative would be to slow down gradually which would take time that he wouldn't have if he were to finally become a hero.

Izuku placed the bracelet that Aizawa had given him and groaned slightly as its effects took hold and Izuku felt his speed leave him for just a little bit. After his trip to Star Labs the bracelet had been improved and now he didn't have to speed up in order to appear to be at normal speed. Now he had the ability to train his body to improve at the base level without the crutch of his speed.

Dang, I really hate having to slow down, but it's what had to be done in order for me to raise my base abilities such as strength and basic speed without the enhancement that I have. The speed that I have doesn't really allow for the deconstruction of muscle so I'm quite glad for this bracelet.

The speedster dropped into a push-up position and began his starting set which he only begun to count when his arms began hurting. He could always deactivate the bracelet and his arms would heal quickly, but right now that's not what he wanted. The more he could cause his strength and mass to increase, the less speed that he would be required to accumulate before any one punch.

After finally collapsing from the strain on his arms, Izuku began running down the beach once more. This time it was without the assistance of his quirk which he now realized was way too much of a crutch. If a villain were to ever disable his quirk...he would have to rely on his miserable and frankly pretty weak skills. Though his self-defense had improved over the course of Eraserheads sessions, they were still a long way from being useful in a fight with a real threat, maybe against other students it would prove to be useful.

It wasn't till fifteen minutes before class started that Izuku decided to stop his training. He needed to get cleaned up and put on his uniform before heading to school, maybe even grab a quick bite for the energy that he had just used up. The boy deactivated the bracelet and slowly began to feel the energy return to him. Obviously he wasn't going to wait for it to come back fully as he began running home.

Within five minutes the young hero in training was home, bathed, clothed, and had made himself a pretty good breakfast which he was eating on the train currently. The policy was that you couldn't eat on the train, but Izuku snuck bites ever so often when no one was watching. He was only taking the train till he was fully recovered since at the moment he felt just a tiny bit drained.

Normally he would only ride the train if he had an hour of time to work with, but today he was making the exception. Today would be the last class that would be given of instruction before the weekend. After this weekend there was going to be the Sports Festival and Izuku was confident that he was ready for whatever was to be thrown at him in this competition.

The constant usage of his 'phasing' ability allowed him to simply walk through objects now at whatever speed. The only drawback was that he needed to keep part of himself solid so that he wouldn't go through the ground and cause more issues. The sonic clap was an ability that was constantly gaining strength and was one of Izuku's more destructive tools. His speed had also increased by just a small amount as the week had gone by, not so much that it altered anything drastically, but it still had its changes. It seemed that he was getting more control of his quirk day by day, making leaps that would soon put him far ahead of his classmates. All of his abilities were improving, and they were exactly where he needed them to be for the coming week.

Feeling up to the challenge, Izuku got off at the station and made his way to the exit, he needed to get to class right at that moment. Putting on his goggles once more, the boy ran through the crowd of people and into the open space before really pushing himself. There was a small gust of wind and the boy was covering distance quickly just like he needed to.

Ok…. last school day before competition, not really sure what to expect from this day. The teachers told us that we weren't to expect any homework this week and that we should be putting maximum effort to the Festival. Can't wait till I go up against some of these kids in 1-B they really have some potential to be big competition.

He made his way through the gate and slowed down right before he went through the doors of the building he was going in. To people in the building it just looked like a kid running at full speed, but to Izuku this felt more like a simple walk which would get him to places quickly.

"There is no running permitted inside building! Please slow your pace to a walk!" The familiar yell of Iida could be heard from down the hall as Izuku slowed his pace even further to comply with his friend's wish. "You should be more of an example for the other students Midoriya. You are the Vice-President for our class and should act as such by complying to the school rules just like the rest are expected to…"

"Yeah I get it Iida, thanks for the reminder…" The speedster walked into the class and pulled off his goggles before stuffing them into his school bag. "I'm not late am I?" He looked to the bracelet in his hand which so happened to have the time. "Nevermind, so what's new since yesterday?"

Obviously Izuku's mind was racing and he was going to have to change that pretty soon. Since the bracelet slowed down all of his functions, Aizawa had truly enforced him wanting Izuku to use it during class in order to not have him rely too much on his quirk. This made Izuku feel really odd when he was without his speed, almost as if he was back to being quirkless.

It was only a thing for a few hours at a time, but it sometimes got to him that with technology such as this he could truly go back to being quirkless permanently again. The thought scared him deeply, just how realistic it was made him fearful. The thing was that he wouldn't and couldn't let that fear get to him this close to a life changing event.

I know that things can scare you Izuku, you aren't invincible after all. You have limits and you have to recognize that those limits exist, but you also can't sell yourself too short. You can go from zero to the speed of sound in a handful of seconds, you can run through wall and can even clap hard enough to destroy a wall if you have to. You've survived a lightning bolt strike and got superspeed from it. You have things in your favor, don't try to sell yourself short just yet speedster, you have so much more to do….

He took his seat as class began and turned on his bracelet, again the feeling of excess energy left him and he was back to being a normal boy. He tried to phase his hand through the desk but it simply bounced off without any results that he wanted. Yep, he was definitely back to being the quirkless boy from before, at least for this class that was.

The one good thing about not having his speed was that it allowed for him to not get bored as easily as he usually did when his bracelet wasn't on. The downside was obvious, it also made it so that he couldn't quite pay any attention to his classmates as well which he tended to do in the case that he was bored. This usually allowed him to see who understood what was being taught so that he could help those that didn't have a clue.

Well looks like Shinsou just walked in and...has he been getting paler and thinner. I haven't put much attention to this. Oh Momo also just walked in, at least she looks to be in a better mood than yesterday, which was better than the day before that, and its probably better than the weekend. And then there's the least expressive person in the world, I should really talk to Todoroki and see how he's doing, it would give me some sense of what I'm up against.

The class made their way to their designated seats and class began with a speech given by their homeroom teacher. It was to be expected and it was something that had become his signature move so the students weren't too surprised. In fact, some of the more comedic students enjoyed this part so that they could dramatize what he had said during lunch or behind his back.

"I know what all of you are thinking…" His speech had begun with the consumption of one of his famous juices and with the slight muffling of his voice due to the bandages around his face. "...and I can assure you that you are probably correct. The speech that I am going to give you is about how this won't be a walk in the park. The possibility that one of you wins is quite high, but I don't want you to place the rest of the departments in the back of your minds. The kids in General education see this as a chance to advance into the heroics department and will stop at nothing to get here. The kids in Business see this as a chance to take a break from their studies for the most part, the ones in Support mostly take this as a chance to advertise themselves to the big companies and then there's the second heroics class…."

He stopped for a second as if he were thinking what to say next. In truth the teacher didn't know just how to describe the kids from 2-A. They had everything that 1-A did except that they hadn't suffered from the attack at the USJ and were thus seen as the lesser class. He wanted to express this clearly to them, to not underestimate them.

"Class 1-B is the heroics class besides us as many of you know, or maybe you don't know. Time after time the two heroics classes have isolated themselves and only come into contact during the Sports Festival which makes both of them unprepared for what is to come. Only a handful of you have any information about the other departments, for the rest of you...don't believe yourself to be greater than them…" He quickly flashed a look in Bakugou's direction and continued. "At this competition you will only be able to display what you and your quirks can do, not your costumes. Don't take this lightly, I will know if you do…"

He finished and left the class silent, it was certainly not what many of the students expected now that they thought about it. He had been quite intense in his delivery, something that was expected, but the actual message behind the words. That was something else entirely, something that brought a chill down their spines.

"Now if all of you are done looking shocked, I'll allow you the period to do as you wish, simply stay in this room and don't bother me." He went into his sleeping bag and was out before any questions could be asked.

Oh...this carries more weight than I originally thought it did. Looks like I can start reviewing my notes for everyone in the school who is a first year and see if they are a threat, best way I can spend my time at the moment.

The period was quickly over and the students were just about to head for lunch when they came across several students from the other classes who must've been released early if they were already there.

Gathering his things, Izuku was able to identify a few of the students from their distinctive features such as purple hair, silver eyebrows or a particularly smug look on the face of Momona. He was aware of what they could do, but he seriously didn't want to go up against some of them as his quirk might prove to be ineffective against theirs.

They looked in curiosity into the classroom, trying to size up their biggest competition in anyway that they could. That way right now was simply through observation and whispering to their neighbors. The entire process was making the majority of the 1-A students a bit uncomfortable.

Among those students there was Hitoshi Shinsou who had previously been in General Studies himself. He felt a bit out of place between both classes, the heroics class always wondering why he had been brought in the first place. The kids from General Studies had often sneered at him in the halls for getting into the heroics department on the first day while they had to wait till the Sports Festival in order to prove that they were worthy.

"Oh look, the kids from 1-A…" Momona was starting to make a big scene and Izuku knew that it was wise to put an end to it before anyone got riled up, mostly Bakugou. "If this is what we're up against than I think that we are in a good place. Do you really think any of them could really go up against a villain...as if."

With glares from the 1-A kids directing themselves at the kids on the outside Izuku decided to step forward and sort this out before it was too late. He displayed his famous smile and put his hands in front of him to show that he was coming in peace. Quickly he also turned off his bracelet and tucked it in his bag in case the situation got out of hand.

"Hello fellow students of UA, is there any way that I can help all of you...we kind of want to go out to lunch right now…" He made sure that his voice had cheer so that at least these students would have a good opinion of him before the games begin.

"May I ask who took my place in this class?" One of the kids closer to the front spoke up with a bit of a frown on his face. Izuku quickly recognized him as the kid who Shinsou had replaced after doing poorly in the quirk assessment test. He couldn't quite place his name at the moment, but he was sure that that was who he was….

"That would be me, Hitoshi Shinsou pleased to make your acquaintance…" Before Izuku could stop him, the cold boy stepped forward answered and had his voice full of sarcasm. Something had happened to his friend which Izuku couldn't quite place just yet, it was something that was high on his priority list now. "And I believe the correct term is won instead of took. You simply weren't good enough to keep it, so I came in and won it rightfully."

The short boy became red in the face and looked up at Shinsou furiously. The brainwash-quirk user new that he had struck a chord and could use his quirk here at any moment if he so needed to. Just looking at this boy he wasn't sure how he had originally gotten into the heroics program.

"How did you even get into the heroics program in the first place, you look like you could barely take on a toddler if you caught them on an off day…" At this point he was being a bit mocking and probably should stop….but there was a voice in his head telling him to keep going, to push him further. "I'm not even sure what type of hero you would be...you just look like an oversized grape…."

This only increased the red tone of the other boy's face, making it dangerously so. The short boy known as Mineta reached to the top of his head and pulled off a single ball, he tossed it gently in his hand and then threw it at the boy who had been mocking him. If his aim had been true then it would have stopped the boy from talking by blocking his mouth.

However, Izuku was still present and besides the other boy. This allowed him to pull out a napkin and catch the purple ball in it. He knew that the ball was extremely sticky and would have a possibility of suffocating his friend, thus it was a good option to avoid the situation. Now that this situation was over he needed to deflate it a bit so that it would….

"You should sit down and respect other students, throwing balls at people isn't very heroic…." Something in Shinsou's voice indicated to Izuku that his quirk had been activated on the kid from General Studies. The behavior of the boy showed this exactly as the kid simply took a seat in the middle of the hallway and looked blankly ahead. "Think of what you did and why it isn't what a hero would do, then you could tell me after you've had some time to reflect upon it."

At this point Izuku had lost control of the situation and it just looked like some of the kids in 2-A were about to join in. That would have been very destructive in a hallway as small as this so he desperately needed to….

SLAP! A tongue belonging to Tsuyu Asui made its way across Shinsou's face with a force that broke his concentration and freed the student from General Studies. Although she never expressed much of anything, it was evident here that she was upset by Shinsou's display of power. At this the students of 1-A were at a loss for words, Izuku wasn't even sure that he could regain control of the situation anymore.

"By your own logic using your quirk against other students for a cause less than noble is not very heroic. Thus your usage of your Brainwash quirk on this student from General Studies isn't heroic and makes you a hypocrite." The frog-form quirk girl said simply before exiting the classroom.

The kids in the hallway split as the girl made her way into the hallway and to the lunchroom. There was a long silence that was followed by Aizawa making his way to the door and stating a few simple things.

"Don't all of you know that blocking an exit like that is a fire hazard. I thought you UA students knew better than to try to cause something like this. Now why don't all of you go and let me continue sleeping…." He gave all the students a look to get out of the room and they all had to comply since there was a good chance that refusing his demand would result in expulsion.

Whatever had just occurred appeared to have gone in the direction that Izuku couldn't have expected. He'd thought that Bakugou would be the one that would make things hard for class 1-A, not Shinsou who was becoming notably worse. Worse in terms of his health and attitude which Izuku now saw as a real problem.

Additionally, the behavior displayed by Tsuyu made Izuku think that the tension between his two classmates was more due to Shinsou's misuse of his quirk. That was the path that was most clear for the time being. As the class vice-president he would have to go and talk to all the parties involved and attempt to clear it up as best as he could.

As Izuku ran home that day, he felt a bit exhausted mentally. He had gone ahead and had spoken to every person involved in the incident the had occurred just before lunch. It was a long process which Izuku would rather think about later when he had time to sort everything out in his mind.

Why does everything have to be so complicated with me, all I asked was for me to have a good day. Looks like I get to have a good weekend to train myself to the limit and then I get to show everyone in the country just what I can do. I'm actually looking forward to this, just thinking about the….

He would have continued with his thought process but there was something more imminent at the moment. In the middle of his stride a force hit him in the side of the skull and sent him off course and into the side of a building. Had he not clapped, the injuries he would have accumulated would have been much worse at the speed he had been going. Still the injuries that he got from that contact hurt pretty bad.

His shoulder definitely had something wrong with it and he had clapped a bit too hard so his hands were seriously cramping at the moment. Luckily his lower body was intact so he would be able continue running home and hopefully rest for a while.

He placed his right hand on the side of the wall and began picking himself up with the wall as a support. The pain was bearable, but it was also constant which was to say, annoying. Gritting his teeth the teen got into position to begin running once more when he was hit from the side once more. The force launched him into the wall and his chest area exploded with pain.

Whatever was attacking him was fast, faster than even he could pick up at the moment in his current condition. Then there was the point to make that this seemed more like a game then anything else. If whoever was doing this to him had done this much damage with only two hits, what was stopping them from more damage.

When the third punch hit him in the stomach Izuku's knees buckled as the air escaped his lungs. The fourth punch was another one to the face and coming from his bottom left. It hit him squarely in the jaw and drew blood, also a handful of tears that had begun to make his vision blurry. The last and fifth punch came from a higher angle which effectively knocked the poor boy into the ground, coughing and having trouble breathing.

He lifted his head slightly, and looked around, nothing was there, only him. This was either really bad or really good depending on one's point of view, to Izuku right then it seemed to be a good thing. It would allow him to heal just a tiny bit before attempting to go home.

Leaning against the wall where he'd been attacked, Izuku took several deep breaths. It was painful, very painful and unnecessarily so. His body hurt all over and just his face seemed to be in an immense amount of pain. He closed his eyes for a second, or at least it seemed like a second, he couldn't really be sure with time right now.

When he opened his eyes again there was a note stuck to the floor in front of him. The handwriting looked like it was his, the same messy scribble which he used every single time. He adjusted his posture and picked up the note, his hands shaking as he did.

Hello Izuku Midoriya,

As you can see, the League of Villains hasn't forgotten about you just yet. This is just a show of force, a warning that you should take with the utmost seriousness. Things aren't going to be as easy as you thought they would be, and this is proof that you can't even defend yourself. If you decided to go to the authorities just know that we know where you live and that your mother likes to cry while watching movies. Don't think that you can tempt our hand, we will not hesitate to retaliate if you do. We'll be watching you closely over the next few days to see how you act. Now good luck in the Sports Festival, we will be rooting for you from our hideout.

Best wishes,

The League of Villains

The injured speedster closed his eyes as he leaned his head on the wall trying to push the thoughts of angst and fear down. His problems from the past had risen once again and he had to deal with them now. Life was just about to get much more difficult for him in the coming weeks, and this time he knew it….