The day before the Sports Festival I met with the Principal. The small man-like mouse sat behind his desk with a steaming cup of tea next to him, smiling.
“Good morning, Bowser-kun. I’m glad you could meet with me. How are you?”
“Sore, mostly,” I said with a small flash of a smile. “I’ve been trying to increase my mobility and flexibility. It’s been tough.”
“I can imagine,” he chuckled. “That’s actually why I wished to speak to you. How are the UA Sentai students doing?”
“Fantastic!” I couldn’t help the pride in my voice, though a thought struck me. “Although, shouldn’t you ask Kendo and Ida about that? They are in charge.”
“I’d rather speak to you for now,” he said gently. “Kendo and Ida have spoken to me at length already, and I like to get different perspectives. So, how are they doing? What sort of training are they up to?”
“Ah… well, all sorts of stuff,” I began to describe every training method each kid was doing.
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Shoto sat in the center of a pool of ice, clutching himself tightly as he shivered. Every once in a while his shivering would calm, then it would start up again. Frozen right to the edge, then warming right back up again. Over and over, building his tolerance to his own cold.
As he continued to freeze himself, Ida went speeding by, his engines blasting. A pair of eyes sat in his shadow, a set of white teeth underneath them as they followed the speedster desperately within it. Ida, increasing the power of his engines, while Shihai Kuroiro used his quirk, Black.
Shihai’s quirk gave him the ability to sink into any sort of darkness, whether things that were painted black, covered in shadow, or all of the above. So his training was simple, follow Ida. Desperately follow a super speedster’s shadow shifting constantly in his wake.
As Ida and his passenger sped past, they passed Momo and Sato. Both kids had a table in front of them full of food, devouring the bounty in front of them at sickening speeds. Then someone slapped the ground before them with a hand the size of the table.
“Quick!” Kendo shouted. “A kid is holding a bomb in front of you, and any jostling will set it off!”
Sato panicked, his mind dulled by the effects of his quirk. Momo, on the other hand, began to eject a small box from her arm, presumably full of things useful for defusing a bomb.
“The child turns into a monster!” Kendo barked.
Momo stalled briefly, the box stopping midway out of her body. Sato mimed a punch. Momo tried to eject a simple shield.
“Time's up! Go back to it!” Kendo watched them disheartedly go back to eating, then went back to her own task, punching into a box of sand. Well, more of a giant tank of it. Her massive fists smashed down into it over and over, hardening her skin in a more oversized version of ancient Kung Fu techniques dedicated to strengthening hands. In her pocket her phone rested, ready to notify her when it was time to test Momo and Sato again.
Ida continued his circling, passing a section of the false city he was running through that was by far the loudest, the sounds of metal and stone clashing over and over within it. Cementoss-Sensei was watching from a nearby rooftop as Kirishima and Tetsutetsu traded blows with Izuku and Shinso. The two pairs of very similar young men were dueling fiercely, trading partners at random.
Izuku suddenly shouted. “Um! Tetsutetsu-san! Y-You aren’t very smart!”
The steel boy rolled his eyes. “You need to try harder than that.”
“He needs to do more than tell the truth, metalhead?”
“Why you-!?” Tetsutetsu slackened in place, going still.
Kirishima stopped just before he would have punched Izuku, the greenette and redhead looking over at Tetsutetsu’s now insensate form. Kirishima groaned, straightening and rubbing his face. “Damnit metalhead! Really?”
Shinso released his control, leaving Tetsutetsu to shake off the effects of his quirk and groan almost exactly the way Kirishima did. “Agh, sorry.”
“You aren’t any better, rockhead.”
Kirishima opened his mouth to respond, only to glare at Shinso, who smiled sheepishly. The purple haired boy shrugged. “I had to try, right? Besides, you and Tetsu have to spar now.”
“Already?” Kirishima pulled out his phone and glanced at the time, then nodded. “All right. Let’s do this!”
“Yeah, come on!” Tetsutetsu smashed his metal fists together.
The two durable teens faced off and smashed into each other with a clanging sound like a truck smashing into a boulder. They wrestled against each other, the sound of metal grating on stone filling the air, grabbing and pulling while trying to gain advantage. If one had looked closely, they would have seen elements of jiu jitsu, judo, and other grappling forms in their movements.
Izuku and Shinso watched for a moment before Shinso turned away. “I’m going back to my ‘research’,” the usually gloomy boy said with a wave.
“Oh, what are you watching today?” Izuku asked curiously.
“George Carlin apparently,” Shinso said with a shrug. “Should be fun. How about you?”
“I did my research already,” studying human anatomy and trying to apply his power to specific muscles rather than doing so on entire limbs. “I’ll go for a run instead. Later!”
“Later,” Shinso turned to watch as Izuku leaped upwards into a maze of pipes, chuckling to himself at the sight of him swinging on a pipe.
Izuku rushed through the false city, hopping over and around pipes, buildings, and structures, pushing himself. He didn’t use his powers, as that tended to end in torn muscles and broken bones even when he focused it, but he still felt faster and stronger than he had when he first began the exercises.
He didn’t notice the small brush that went against his sweatpants as he ran. The brush, held by an invisible hand, giggled at the sight of green paint against his leg. Toru moved on with her mischief making, holding back the urge to make noise.
Later, she’d crow and show off how many of her fellow students she’d marked. For now, she was enjoying the fun of sneaking up on them.
Much like Izuku, she went running through the pipes, though she had more trouble. She needed to go slower after all. Run quietly as possible, avoid kicking up dust or leaving footprints. Soon she found her next target. She hesitated, watching him. This one was… vindictive. And came at the worst time.
She had three tasks to do in order when she encountered a target. So once she did one task, her next target would get a different task. The first was to steal a small token off of her targets. Easiest on a stationary target, but sucked when she had to do it to Ida. Then she had to mark a target, which was worse in some ways. The last was the worst. She had to hit someone, then not get hit back.
Toru slowly sneaked around, looking at all the exits around her, just like Hitman. Make sure you had an easy way to get out after you did your attack. She just needed to stay calm.
Her target was Mineta. He was pulling those balls off his head and tossing them at targets across from him. His scalp was bleeding, but he bit his lip and continued, making large structures out of his grape balls.
Toru raised a small blue foam ball and aimed carefully. She waited patiently for the right moment. Mineta raised his arm to throw. After he threw would be best, so she could escape before he could wind up again. He launched. And so did she.
She heard the ball smack into the side of his head as she spun around.
“Wha-TORU!” the tiny purple pervert screamed. She ignored him. As long as she made it to the maze again, she was home free-
“Raaaaaagh!” Mineta went off, ripping balls off his head and tossing them with abandon in all directions. Toru kept herself from yelping, ducking one of them. Then one hit her in the leg. Mineta’s eyes lit up and he focused on that single ball hanging on moving air, unleashing hell. Toru slid around a pole, went under a large pipe, and disappeared, leaving a trail of purple behind her with a sigh of disappointment.
Well, better than last time. She’d been covered that time. He really was a vindictive shorty…
Toru moved on, heading to her next target. Bowser-san and Tokage-san.
The two were in the center of what the kids had ended up calling the ‘arena’. It was a wide-open space about fifty feet wide all around, with a building on each side and a series of pipes along the top, leaving the place in shadow except for some rays of sunlight that pierced through. That was the spot that Bowser and Tokage had chosen for their latest battle.
Toru took a moment to watch them fight.
Bowser was in the center of the area, his claws out, a savage grin on his face. Tokage’s head and torso floated across from him, the exact same fanged grin on her own face.
The rest of her body was all over the arena. The pieces of herself floated and sped about, rushing at Bowser with all the speed they could. He would snap out his claws, smashing aside the small sections of the girl.
Lizard Tail Splitter. A quirk that let her split her body into dozens of smaller pieces of herself, turning her body into floating weapons if she wanted to.
Those same pieces flew at Bowser from all sides. A section of thumb and finger, a little bit of thigh, a small piece of her ankle. All rushing at the massive target in the center and trying to hit him over and over.
Bowser had been well suited for training with Tokage. He had experience with similar exercises thanks to Pony. His claws moved at high speed, smashing, ripping, and catching each piece. He missed a few, getting hit on his head, shell, and thighs, but it certainly wasn’t easy.
Then, for a moment, Bowser caught a section of Tokage’s left breast as it went to smash into his eye. His other hand was forced to catch her hip when it aimed for his chest.
“Gotcha!” Tokage suddenly crowed.
The dozens of pieces of Tokage surrounded him while he was still off balance from catching those pieces. They moved in, ready to pummel him.
He pulled into his shell and spun at high-speed, forcing the pieces back. Tokage’s smile widened rather than fell. Her pieces moved with his spin, smashing into him over and over. Then the flames erupted forth.
Bowser became a tornado of flame, forcing Tokage to back away. Still, she was grinning.
The dragon-turtle stopped spinning, rising to his feet and letting go of her breast and hip with a sigh. Tokage pulled her body parts back to herself, landing on the ground.
“Damn. Thought I’d get more hits this time,” the girl said with a sigh.
“You still forced me to shell up, so I’ll call that your win,” Bowser returned. He stretched, wincing. “Goddamn. I feel like I’m faster, but it’s still hard as hell to stop you from getting hits in.”
“You do better than Sato does,” Tokage said. “Besides, it’s not like it hurts you.”
“Actually it’s starting to,” Bowser grumbled. “You’re starting to hit hard.”
“What, you complaining?” Tokage then chuckled. “At least you don’t freak out when you catch pieces of me. I swear, Ida almost had a heart attack when he first caught my tit.”
“Well, the way I always figured it, if I was gonna worry about that in training I’d worry about it in a fight to the death. Better to just focus on the fight. Long as you don’t take it personally or call me a perv.”
“Just keep it to training, big guy,” Tokage slapped his arm with a chuckle. Then her eyes lit up. “Oh… she’s here.”
Toru blinked in surprise. Then she realized Tokage’s right eye still hadn’t returned to her body.
She spun around to see that eye winking behind her.
Then Bowser and Tokage were rushing in her direction, Toru squealing in terror as she ran for it.
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Bowser Koopa
“Our training is intense, Nezu-sensei,” I explained to the chuckling mouse-man. “I thought it was pretty tough when it was just Pony, Tauren, and I. But having a whole two classes and change of kids made it even more insane.”
“I can tell,” Nezu said with a smile. “What about the others?”
“Well, the General Studies students are mostly focusing on getting up to speed physically,” I thought of the image of Chikuchi and Tsutsutaka panting while doing push ups. Turns out that despite appearances, the big pompadour kid was only more fit than Mineta and Nirengeki, and barely at that. “We figured getting them able to run and fight off the bat would be more helpful than just pure quirk work. Not that we’re ignoring that of course!”
Usagi Takeuchi and Chikuchi used their cat paw and paper control quirks with Tokage, Pony, and Reiko supervising them, while Tsutsutaka was practicing grappling with Kirishima, Tetsutestu, Sato, and I.
“And some of us, like Koda, mostly focused on the intellectual and psychological aspects of our training. He’s got a fear of insects, so he’s been working with silk moths.”
“Oh, is it the antheraea yamamai?” Nezu asked curiously.
“...I think so?” I said hesitantly. “I just know they’re cute. He’s been trying to spend time with them but, uh…”
The animal-talking kid seemed to spend those moments with a few dozen silk moths fluttering around him like he was having a Vietnam War flashback. Just sat there, sweating and screaming silently, eyes wide as he shivered. We kinda took turns going over to comfort him.
“It’s a work in progress. He does better with the workouts and research on different animals in regions he might end up working in.”
“I’m proud of the young man for attempting to overcome his fear,” Nezu said kindly. “I did want to ask… I’ve been told much of your ‘research’ has been students watching movies and playing video games? Reading comic books at times?”
“Older stuff a lot of the time.”
He quirked an eyebrow. “Some of the parents worry their children are simply using the UA Sentai club as a hangout, rather than serious training.”
“If you want, you can invite them over to watch us,” I shrugged. “We only spend brief bits of time on that. Mostly to rest between our workouts. Besides, it helps. Tokage watches One Piece clips of Buggy the Pirate because his powers are similar to hers. I watch Gamera for the same reasons. Quirks are awesome, but the human imagination has been coming up with things similar to it for decades. If we want to stay on top of our game, looking at what’s been done before is a good way to not only to mimic the best, but make our own dope shit.”
He quirked an eyebrow again.
“Uh… sorry for cursing, sir.”
Nezu hummed. “I’ll consider inviting the parents to watch your sessions. I’m very glad to see that you children have been working so hard. It brightens my soul to see the heroes of the future be so dutiful!”
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He chuckled, reaching out to take a hold of a cup of tea on his desk. After a sip, he sighed. “Now… Bowser-kun. I wish I could say I only invited you here to ask you about the training you children have been doing. However, there have been questions I had about you. About the way you acted during the attack on the USJ.”
“...”
“I see you have some idea of those questions,” he leaned forward. “Do not worry. I haven’t reached out to anyone about my suspicions. I simply want to ask-”
“I’m not a villain.”
“Many do not believe they are.”
“It goes beyond that. I don’t see any logical or pragmatic reason to become someone like those idiots. I see it online all the time.”
“On websites a young man shouldn’t be frequenting?”
“I can neither confirm or deny,” I leaned forward, resting my elbows on my knees. “Nezu-sensei, I want to be a hero. Like All Might. Better than him in some ways if I can.”
“A lofty ideal,” his scar danced briefly as he smiled. “I have no doubt of your good intentions. But from now on, if you wish to reach out about knowledge you have obtained, whatever the source, come directly to me. We were lucky no one was killed,” he gave me a sad look. “I can understand your fear, but this school is meant to aid students.”
I stared at him for a moment. “...I’m sure I have no idea what you’re talking about?”
He smiled. “That’s a fair response. After all, I only suspected you due to the lack of knowledge we had on your origins, as well as the fact your lack of a true guardian affords more freedom to do the sort of actions that must have taken place to set up such things.”
“Again. What things?”
“Ah. Well then. I suppose the camera footage I compiled of you frequenting certain areas of the city where a burner phone was discovered was a coincidence. And your appearance near the section of the beach where All Might and young Izuku trained together was similar. The same for the sighting of a large dragon-turtle buying things in a convenience store that may have included products such as burner phones.”
He chuckled. “You do have rather distinct features, but I suppose I may have been mistaken. I did need to look at every student and teacher that may have been able to send the messages that led to our quick response. Even young Aoyoma was suspected of being the one behind it. We will do better in the future either way. For one, there was the interesting forum activity we really should have been monitoring more closely. Did you know that while you try to hide it, you have a rather distinct style of speech in your typing?”
He knew I was the one behind the text messages and the emails, including the one about All Might’s secret. Nezu didn’t react to my denial beyond continuing to meet my eyes.
“Very well, Bowser-kun. Know that I am here if you ever want to talk. And if need be, I’m sure you know my phone number or email address.”
Well. There it was. He suspected that I knew more than I should. But he was willing to give me the benefit of the doubt. Nezu would keep an eye on me, I was sure. The USJ attack I could have known from the sites he guessed that I frequented.
The All Might thing though was impossible for me to know. I had to guess that Nezu had a hypothesis or two on how I knew that. I’d need to be more careful in the future about using that tidbit to force a response.
“And I would also like to suggest something,” Nezu continued. “As a fellow non-human, I can understand the fight to control our instincts. You must keep that in mind. Fighting as you did in USJ, separating the Nomu for a personal battle-”
“I didn’t lose myself to my instincts,” I said, blinking. “That was on purpose.”
“Then it was foolish,” Nezu sighed. “I understand you wanting to get the creature away from everyone else, but All Might had to try and find you when he arrived. Even with the flames and noise you created, it still took him time. It would have been better to simply contain him in the open near the entrance so the teachers could aid you immediately.”
I decided to leave it at that. Nezu didn’t know how the fight went in the other version. If I hadn’t taken away the Nomu, Aizawa would have been even more injured. The guy was still hurt, but at least his bandages were slowly coming off. He’d likely be somewhat okay by the day of the festival. If I hadn’t ripped into the thing as much as I had, All Might likely would have been injured during the fight with him.
Nezu was smarter than me, but in this case he was wrong. Best not to tell him though. Let it go.
“Consider my words, Bowser-kun,” Nezu said. “In the meantime, I suppose we’ll call it here. Best of luck in the Sports Festival young man!”
“Thank you, sir,” I rose up and headed out the door with just a bit more haste than necessary. From the chuckle I heard behind me, he noticed.
Well, I would have eyes on me. Guess it was a good thing I’d only watched season 1 of the show. All knowledge I’d gain from here on out would be based on pure detective work.
I headed off to the club. Better keep training…
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Later on, Izuku and I were sitting together on a fancy leather couch, watching TV in the large room set aside for the Sentai Club for the current activity. We were watching footage from one of the old Sports Festivals, focusing on footage of a very specific hero.
“Wow, Endeavor was a powerhouse even back then,” Izuku mumbled as we watched a teenage version of Todoroki’s dad wreak havoc.
“And a goddamn terror,” I mumbled. “Are we sure he’s not Bakugo’s dad instead?”
“I wish,” Todoroki walked up behind Izuku, glaring at the screen. “Can you change the video, please?”
“Not yet, we’re studying the fight,” I said. In my defense, the footage switched to a different teen after a moment, some girl with snakes for hair. The event was a variation on Rugby, but with a bunch of teams. It was interesting seeing how each kid adjusted, with the bigger tanks acting as walls only to get slid around by kids with mobility quirks or ways to trip up/distract opponents.
Todoroki scoffed but sat down. Despite his words, he seemed to nail his eyes onto his dad’s form. “Why are you watching this?”
“We want to get an idea of what sort of events we may need to do, as well as what current Pro Heroes may have done to get different agencies’ attention,” Izuku had a notebook open on his lap as he furiously took notes. I think it was the ninth one at this point? He was filling them up quickly and the rest of us kept borrowing them. He took good notes.
“You should really start digitizing those,” I said to him, nodding towards the book.
“I like writing better,” he said with a chuckle.
Fair. Good way to memorize things too. “Anything to note for now?”
“Nothing yet. But if I find out anything that will get people’s attention, I’ll let you know!”
I blinked. Then I shrugged. “I’m not too worried about that personally.”
“...What do you mean?” Izuku asked me, looking just a bit more interested than I expected.
“I mean… I really just want to do what I can, you know? Hopefully, I get some attention and some hero decides to take my gigantic ass on, but I think I’ll be fine even if it doesn’t go down that way.”
Todoroki let out a small humming noise. I glanced at him. He looked over at me. “That’s naive of you.”
“Oh?” I didn’t say anything else. I just waited for him to elaborate.
“Being a pro hero… you shouldn’t depend on maybes. On ‘thinking things will be fine’,” he crossed his arms. “Do you want to settle for mediocrity, Bowser?”
My claws scratched at my chin, the sound of it like metal grating. Then I looked at Izuku. He nodded slowly, thoughtful. “I had the same thought, Bowser-kun. But… even if things will be fine, that’s no reason for us to stop trying our best. Heroes aren’t just people who settle.”
He clenched his fist in front of him, looking down at it. “Ida-kun. Ochaco-chan. Shinso-kun. Even Kaa-chan. They’re all going to try their best. To become the top heroes. We need to put in our all to stand out. All Might told me something the other day...”
Todoroki snapped his eyes to stare at Izuku. The kid didn’t notice, still staring at his fist. Sparks of green flashed across his arm. “‘The slight difference between those who always aim for the top and those who don’t comes to matter in a big way when you emerge in society.’”
“...Think he meant anything in particular there?” I said, thinking on those words. Seemed obvious, but still…
“Yeah. I think he was saying that if we don’t work hard now, if we don’t push ourselves to be the very best, why will we want to when we become real heroes? I want to start on that path now. I want to do everything I can to show the people who believe in me that I’m worth believing in. To put in as much effort as everyone else!”
I thought about Pony. Tauren. Ranma. The people who in one way or another had had my back from the very beginning. If they found out that I hadn’t put in my full effort because I decided to just settle for less… I think they would have been okay with it. Just, they would have been disappointed.
And honestly. So would I. I’d been doing all this training, all this work. The sports festival wasn’t just a pageantry. It was a way to show the world just what I could do.
“...I bet he said it was a way of going ‘I am here!’ at some point, right?” I asked Izuku with a smile.
He nodded bashfully. “You know All Might.”
“That I do… all righty. Just don’t cry about it when I send you flying to the moon.”
The greenette grinned with just a bit more confidence than he used to show. “You have to catch me first, Bowser-kun.”
“Ohhhh, getting cheeky, Deku?”
He only chuckled.
Then I noticed Todoroki was quiet. I nudged his shoulder. “Hey, Captain Cold, you good?”
“...Just thinking about something,” the screen changed over to the image of his dad flying through the air on jets of fire. “On the meaning of doing our best.”
He didn’t explain what he meant by that.
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The Day Before the Sports Festival
“Okay everyone, gather around!” Kendo shouted to the group of students before her. She clapped her hands to get their attention, though she kept them to normal size to keep from doing those Hulk thunderclaps she’d been practicing. She had a grin on her face as she stood next to Ida in front of a long table with a tarp over it.
We were all in the center of Ground Gamma. Both Class 1-A and B, the quintet of General Studies Students in the form of Chikuchi, Tsutsutaka, Usagi, and Shinso, the single lunatic Support girl I had yet to really talk to (Mei Hatsume scared the fuck out of me since I was certain if she wasn’t going to UA she’d be a mad scientist), and the single Management kid I had yet to catch the name of, an overweight kid with beehive styled hair.
I was standing with Chikuchi, Pony, and Sato, with Mineta on my shoulder. For some reason, he’d gotten used to sitting there. I didn’t mind to be honest. Kendo waited until we were gathered to her satisfaction, then clapped again.
“Alrighty everyone! We know you all worked super hard for the festival tomorrow! So to reward you, we gathered money and got a restaurant to cater for us!” Ida dramatically pulled the tarp off the table, revealing a bevy of snacks and foods across the spectrum of world cultures. Ramen, pizza, fried chicken, ice cream in packages, and more.
“Eat up, and good luck to all of us tomorrow!”
“All right!” Kamanari, Tetsutetsu, and Kirishima all shouted in unison, joined by a few of the others with a bit less volume, all the kids rushing forward.
“Is it really okay to just eat and relax today?” Chikuchi asked me nervously. She had a piece of paper in her right palm that she kept folding into different origami patterns. “The festival is tomorrow, we should-”
“Relax our minds and bodies,” I told her.
“Agreed,” Momo said with a gentle smile. “It does none of us any good being tired and stressed today. We need to be well-rested and energized for the trials ahead.”
“That said, don’t overeat,” I said as gently as I could. We all grabbed plates and got some food. When I started stacking food high, Pony giggled while Chikuchi stared.
“I thought you said not to overeat?”
“Yep. This is just a light snack,” I said as I grabbed a fifth slice of pizza.
“Yeah, my family is no doubt gonna be serving an actual feast later tonight,” Sato idly said as he also grabbed a huge stack of food.
Chikuchi rolled her eyes. “Boys. Right, Momo…chan?”
Momo blinked at her, with nearly as much food on her plate as me and Sato. “I’m sorry, what were you saying Chiku-chan?”
“Um… nothing,” she eyed Momo’s form for a moment, then sighed.
I rolled my eyes. “Chikuchi, all of us have bodies that depend on more food than usual. Eat enough to make you happy, don’t worry about how much we eat. Have FUN.”
“I know!” she said it in an annoyed tone, but still seemed more relaxed after seeing Ochaco and Izuku grab more reasonably sized meals.
“You got a big speech ready for tomorrow?” Mineta asked me as he scarfed down on a dumpling.
“No point. We’ve trained our asses off. Tomorrow, we’ll kick ass,” I said grinning at everyone. “If we end up fighting, I’m fully confident I’m gonna get beat to hell, whether I win or lose.”
“Why do you look excited about it?” Pony asked me, pinching my cheek. “You better not get beat up tomorrow for fun!”
“What is that implying anyways?” Mineta asked no one.
“That I’m a battle maniac honestly.”
I accepted that. There was just something about a damn good fight. Even the Nomu had been fun, with the benefit of time and distance. Scary as hell, but fun.
“Still, I’m excited, I’m with my friends, and I’ve got good food. Tomorrow is gonna be fun boys and girls.”
I wish I could say things got exciting somehow. But honestly, it was just a bunch of fun with the kids. We hung out, ate, joked, reassured each other, built up each others confidence, and had some fun.
Todoroki left early without saying anything, but I think we all expected that. Mineta, Mina, Momo, Ibara, Pony, and Reiko had a quick game of target practice. I arm wrestled the other guys, only losing to Sato after he popped a big candy bar. Ochaco sent a few of us flying and I had fun going Gamera in mid-air, zooming around with Sero taping people to me.
In the end, we all left early. We headed to our separate homes. Even me. I kinda wanted the night to myself, and Pony got it. Tomorrow, we’d be in front of a crowd of people, ready to compete against each other and our classmates. Until then, it was time to sleep.