As he absently followed his classmates to the cafeteria, Minoru found himself unable to concentrate on their conversations.

  He'd only made it through the first event because Yaoyorozu was willing to literally drag him across the finish line. While he had admittedly led his team to victory in the second event, the reason they'd succeeded at his strategy was purely thanks to Shoji's defense coupled with Tsuyu's offense. His grapeshot had helped a little, but he'd mostly just been a spotter.

  But the third event was going to be one-on-one battles in a single elimination tournament on a flat stage. He would have nothing to rely on but himself and his Quirk.

  And the fact that he was utterly screwed was really starting to sink in. Although he was somewhat confident that he could secure a win against a few of them, he was severely disadvantaged against at least half the field. A 50/50 chance of getting a basically unwinnable match in the first round wasn't great odds, and now that he'd gotten this far he was surprised to find that he really wanted to push a little further. He didn't have any illusions about winning the whole thing, of course, though just think of the girls he could get if he did…

  Minoru briefly descended into a fantasy about showing everyone up as the dark horse of the event before he found himself shaken out of it by Kaminari's hand on his shoulder. "Mineta, check it out! Cheerleaders! And I think they're American!"

  Minoru gave the cheerleaders a long look and then beamed up at Kaminari. "Awesome!"

  "Man, I wish I could see the girls in our class in those outfits!" sighed Kaminari.

  Minoru patted him on the arm. "You are a man of culture, Kaminari. But I don't want to die before I even make it to the final event, so if you want to suggest that to them, you're on your own."

  Kaminari staggered back with an affected look of despair on his face. "Betrayed! And here I thought you were my comrade-in-arms!"

  Minoru laughed and headed for an open seat with his lunch. Maybe he should just accept the break as a break rather than stressing too much over things he couldn't change. Come to think of it, he didn't see Midoriya, Todoroki, or Bakugo anywhere in the dining hall. He'd just bet they were off somewhere stressing enough for six of him.

  As the students returned to the field after their lunch break, Present Mic announced the final event: a series of one-on-one battles, just as Minoru recalled from his first life.

  Midnight got up on a stage in front of them and cracked her whip to get their attention. "The matchups for the final event will be decided by drawing lots, but before we do that we need to round out our final sixteenth competitor! Members of Team Midoriya, which one of you will join the top four—"

  "Um, excuse me!" called Ojiro, raising his hand, his tail arcing behind him. "I'd…like to drop out."

  The students broke out in surprised chatter, but Ojiro paid them no mind. "The calvary battle…I have no memories of anything that happened until the tail end."

  Heh, tail end, eh? Minoru turned to share the joke but quickly schooled his expression. Right, this was very shocking to his "must-be-first" obsessed classmates, wasn't it?

  Ojiro continued. "I know this is a great opportunity. And I know how stupid it must seem to throw it away, but this final tournament…everyone else made it here on their own strength. Yet I'm standing here and I don't even know how or why. I just can't take it."

  A shorter student from Class 1-B spoke up, as well. "I can't remember anything, either. I wanna withdraw, too!"

  Midnight glared down at the pair. "How na?ve and green…I like it!" She cracked her whip, a broad smile breaking across her face. "Shoda and Ojiro have officially withdrawn! Replacing them will be two more members of Team Midoriya! Who will it be?!"

  Midoriya, Uraraka, the support item producer Hatsume, and Tokoyami had their heads together in a desperate and surprisingly-heated looking discussion. As far as Mineta could tell, it seemed like both Midoriya and Tokoyami were trying to bow out while the girls were aggressively asserting their need to participate. However, eventually Midoriya, Uraraka, and Hatsume approached the stage while Tokoyami faded back into the group of other Class 1-A students.

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  "Wonderful!" said Midnight. "Without further ado, let's draw those lots and get our first round matchups sorted out so we can get to the fun and games!"

  Mineta stood to the side of the arena and watched as Midoriya responded to Shinso, falling under his control immediately after their match started. The matchups had shaken out about like he remembered from his first time around, with the differences being that Yaoyorozu was facing Shoji, Kirishima was facing Tsuyu, and Minoru himself was facing Kaminari.

  Kaminari! Damn, but he had horrible luck. He'd much rather have fought Kirishima; a hardening body wouldn't do much against his grapeshot, and he was confident he'd be able to get a win through immobilization quickly.

  At least he wasn't facing Yaoyorozu. As of their trip through the minefield, she was well aware that she could simply create something beneath his grapeshot and pop them off almost as easily as Minoru popped them off his head. If he'd ended up against her, he doubted he'd make it through the first round.

  Kaminari, though; Kaminari was a problem. Handling wide area attacks was not Minoru's strong suit. Maybe he could trade with Ida. Having the buxom Hatsume use him to advertise her support items actually sounded like a lot of fun. And an easy win.

  In the ring below there was a crack and dust billowed away from Midoriya as he broke his own finger and knocked himself out of Shinso's brainwashing. Minoru winced. He hated seeing such a fundamentally great guy suffer so much from his own Quirk. Fortunately, the match was quickly over after that, as Midoriya chased down Shinso and forced him out of the ring with a shoulder toss.

  Following up the somewhat lackluster fight of Midoriya vs. Shinso, Todoroki and Sero entered the ring. That fight was over ever faster; although Sero initially wrapped his tape around Todoroki, Todoroki unleashed a massive wall of ice and completely immobilized Sero.

  Minoru looked up at the ice looming over him and shuddered. If he somehow managed to beat Kaminari and Ida, he'd have to face Todoroki and that kid was even more difficult to deal with than Kaminari. At least at this point, he was still reticent to use the fire side of his Quirk. If he were fully using both fire and ice, Minoru would have zero chance. It didn't smell too good, but hair burned just fine, and his grapeshot was ultimately a type of hair.

  Well, no use worrying about that now. He and Kaminari were up.

  As Minoru climbed up to the main portion of the arena, Present Mic's voice echoed over the loudspeakers. "With the arena all thawed out, it's time for the next match! It's Class 1-A's pint-sized boy wonder Minoru Mineta versus the sparkling, killing boy! Denki Kaminari!"

  "Hey there, buddy!" called Kaminari, giving Minoru a friendly wave.

  "START!" cried Present Mic.

  Minoru grabbed a couple of grapeshot from his head and started running towards Kaminari.

  "I'll be happy to console you later!" called Kaminari, as electricity began to spark around him. Minoru tossed both his grapeshot on the ground in front of him, already reaching for more. Not yet, not yet… "Because this match will probably be over in an instant!"

  As Kaminari finished speaking, Minoru jumped as hard as he could with both feet planted on the grapeshot he'd thrown and started madly tossing more in between him and Kaminari.

  He bounced into the air, and everything seemed to slow as electricity exploded outward from Kaminari. Minoru grit his teeth even as he desperately tried to throw more grapeshot into the air between him and Kaminari. They wouldn't block the electrical storm that was fast approaching, of course.

  But hair was an insulator, and he was as close to "not grounded" as he could reasonably get, given the circumstances.

  The electricity hit him, passed through him, and moments later Minoru landed, stumbled, and fell to his knees. Damn it all, that hurt.

  "And it's already over!" shouted Present Mic.

  Minoru grit his teeth and forced himself to his feet, grabbing a grapeshot off his head and staggering toward Kaminari.

  "Or not!" yelled Present Mic. "The purple boy is still on his feet, and Kaminari appears to have blown his own fuse!"

  "Look, Kaminari," growled Minoru, pointing beyond the yellow-haired boy with a shaking finger. "Girls in cheerleader outfits!"

  "Yay!" said Kaminari and blithely turned his back on Minoru to look for scantily clad women.

  Minoru lurched up to him, slapped a pair of grapeshot on Kaminari's thighs, and kicked him in the back of the knee. The electric user fell forward a step, Minoru stepping to follow him pushing him in the back and then snagging his ankles to force his calves up against the grapeshot. Kaminari found himself on the ground, legs immobilized, and before the idea to channel any more electricity made it through his denser-than-usual brain, Minoru had secured his upper body to the ground, as well, and quickly staggered back out of range.

  "Looks like Kaminari has lost his spark!" howled Present Mic. "Mineta advances to the second round!"

  Minoru made it to the edge of the arena and then found himself sitting down. Eh, Ida and Hatsume wouldn't mind waiting a bit, would they? He was sure it would be fine. If they really needed him off the stage, someone would come along and move him.

  He never should have taken Principal Nezu's challenge. Fighting seriously sucked.