Minoru managed to drag himself into the stands and over to the section where Class 1-A was sitting just as Hatsume exited the arena, leaving a confused and irritated Ida behind her, still decked out in support items.

  “Good work out there, Mineta,” said Tsuyu as he collapsed into a seat near her. “I was worried about you in that matchup. Seemed like a bad one for you.”

  Mineta shrugged. “You and me, both. I’m still a little surprised that I won.”

  “Where’s Kaminari?” asked Sero, leaning forward from a row back.

  “They were fetching him a new gym uniform, last I heard,” said Minoru. “There wasn’t anyone around with a good Quirk for getting rid of my grapeshot without damaging his uniform.”

  Sero nodded and sat back.

  Tsuyu eyed the arena where Ashido and Aoyama were entering from opposite sides. “Who do you think will win this one, Mineta?”

  “Depends, but probably Ashido. If Aoyama lands a clean hit, he’ll win, but if she dodges long enough or gets close to him, then it’s her match without question.”

  Sure enough, with some impressive feats of acrobatics, Ashido steadily closed the distance until she was able to splash Aoyoama’s belt with her acid, causing him to freak out and allowing her to lay him out with an uppercut to the jaw.

  Minoru winced in sympathy. He was glad he hadn’t ended up in that bracket. Ashido was a terrible matchup for him; naturally athletic, and with a built-in counter to his grapeshot.

  The next contestants were Shoji versus Yaoyorozu. “You’ll have to tell me how this fight goes,” said Tsuyu to Minoru as she got up and exited the stands. “I need to go prepare for my match.”

  “Good luck!” Minoru called after her. Not that he thought she’d need it. Kirishima’s hardening was a fantastic Quirk, but extremely ill-suited for a tournament in which two of the loss conditions were being immobilized or removed from the arena.

  As Tsuyu disappeared down the stairs, the fight began and Shoji immediately charged at Yaoyorozu. She pivoted in place and shot out a thin beam of metal or something with her Quirk, causing her to launch partway across the arena and out of Shoji’s path.

  He planted several of his arms, allowing him to pivot reasonably quickly, but by the time he’d started to close with her again, she’d had time to prepare. Shoji’s feet went completely out from under him as he got within a few feet of her; she’d apparently scattered marbles or something across the floor without him noticing. As he slid closer, Yaoyorozu yanked open her gym uniform’s shirt and a net exploded into existence, flying onto Shoji as it unfolded.

  Shoji duplicated extra arms, allowing himself to simultaneously sweep the marbles away from around him and start trying to shove the net off of him, but it was tangled on some of his original arms. He stood upright, grabbed the net between multiple sets of hands, and started pulling at it with several and chewing on it with mouths he formed from others. It strained, then with a snap a strand broke, followed by another.

  Unfortunately for Shoji, the time this took him had given Yaoyorozu time to create what appeared to be a boat hook on a long pole as she circled around behind him. She snagged the net with the boathook, near Shoji’s shoulder, and with a sharp yank overbalanced him and started dragging him at speed towards the nearest edge of the arena.

  Shoji struggled mightily, multiple arms attempting to find leverage against the ground, but getting entangled in the net that he was still partially tangled in. By the time he’d forced it mostly apart, Yaoyorozu had successfully shoved him just across the boundary of the arena and the match was called in her favor.

  As Yaoyorozu helped Shoji untangle himself from her net, creating a knife to hasten its destruction, Kirishima and Tsuyu entered the arena and approached the stairs only to be halted briefly by Cementoss, who had them wait on the sidelines while he manipulated the concrete of the arena to cause the last of Yoayorozu’s marbles to roll off.

  That complete, the two competitors stepped up onto the arena, and after exchanging a few words, Present Mic yelled, “START!”

  Kirishima instantly hardened himself up and charged at Tsuyu but skidded to a halt as she leapt past him and to the side. As Kirishima started to turn to follow her, Tsuyu shot her tongue out, wrapped it around his waist, and launched him full-force out of the arena.

  Which was about what he’d expected. Tsuyu wasn’t a combative person, but against a simple physical hardening type like Kirishima she was basically unbeatable in this format.

  While Uraraka and Bakugo got set up for their match, Minoru decided to head for the prep room. If memory served, this and Midoriya’s match against Todoroki would last a bit longer than the last two matches, but he needed some time to think about how the heck he was going to put up a fight against Ida.

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  On his way, he ran across Yaoyorozu. “Congratulations on your win, Yaoyorozu!” he called as he drew abreast of her.

  “Thanks, Mineta. It was touch and go there for a bit.”

  “Yeah, Shoji is a tough matchup.”

  Yaoyorozu shook her head. “Everyone in our class is a tough match-up.”

  Minoru sighed. “Sure feels like that to me, yeah.”

  Yaoyorozu clapped him on the shoulder and continued down the hall. “You’ll do great, Mineta. You’re stronger than you seem to think.”

  Minoru stared after her, frozen in place. She’d touched him. She’d touched him! Outside of occasionally Tsuyu, he couldn’t remember the last time a girl in class just casually touched him.

  “Aw man, now I’m all fired up!” He jumped and punched the air before proceeding down the hall, leaving a confused staff person who’d happened to be passing watching him with perplexity.

  The prep room was empty when he arrived, and Minoru went to sit in the corner. His excitement from his brush with Yaoyorozu was fading, leaving him alone with his nerves. Although he’d tried to come up with ideas for how to handle Ida, the simple fact was that the boy was so fast Minoru wasn’t sure he’d even be able to get a grapeshot off his head before Ida closed with him. He’d probably just need to try his best to dodge the first strike and then improvise from there.

  Now if only he could calm himself down. The crowd roared up above, and he figured Uraraka’s match against Bakugo must have concluded. That meant it was just Todoroki against Midoriya, and then it would be his turn again.

  Minoru leaned over and rested his head against his knees. He should have studied some Buddhist breathing exercises or something. This was torture.

  Several massive explosions later, the crowd kicked up a fuss again, and Minoru headed for the arena. He emerged to find Cementoss doing his best to clear up the massive damage inflicted by Todoroki’s ice and Midoriya’s smashes. Midoriya was being carted off by the medical robots, and Todoroki was taking his half-clothed self off through the opposite exit.

  Minoru bounced in place and wished he could be with the many classmates he could even now see exiting the stands to check up on Midoriya instead of here trying to prove himself.

  At last the arena was cleaned up, and Minoru and Ida took their places. “START!” yelled Present Mic and rather than go for any grapeshot, Minoru desperately dove to the side.

  He almost made it. Ida went roaring past him, clipping the side of his body and sending him spinning for the edge of the arena. He was just barely able to tear off a grapeshot and stabilize himself before he spun out of the arena completely.

  “Owwwww,” complained Minoru, leveraging himself to his feet and grabbing a pair of grapeshot off his head. To his side, Ida was spinning in a tight circle to avoid throwing himself out of bounds.

  As the class president came to a brief halt facing Minoru, he nodded. “Impressive, Mineta. I had hoped to toss you from the ring on a single pass, but now you are a little too close to the edge for me to come at you full throttle. I do apologize, but before you stick me with those hairballs, I’m afraid I must put you down.”

  Minoru’s eyes widened. Shit! He once more dove to the side, and once more failed to move fast enough. Speedier than his eyes could track, Ida hurtled into the air in a spin, his foot coming down and clipping Minoru once again, sending him slamming down onto the concrete floor with bruising force.

  Minoru felt Ida grab the back of his uniform and desperately slapped the grapeshot that he’d somehow managed to keep a hold of straight onto Ida’s exhaust pipes.

  Ida leg engine stuttered and died. “What?!” cried the boy. “When did you…?!”

  Minoru gasped, trying to regain his breath, but while he was at it slapped several more grapeshot onto Ida’s engine and foot before tearing himself out of his grasp and rolling away.

  “Damn, that hurt!” gasped Minoru, forcing himself to his feet. “I nailed you right after that insane kick. That speed is seriously unreal.”

  Ida appeared to have panicked, as he reached for the grapeshot blocking his engine.

  “Ida, I wouldn’t-“ Minoru started, but Ida had already grabbed the grapeshot and was now hunched over in contortions, his hand firmly affixed to his own calf. Minoru sighed. “Too late.”

  He lurched over to Ida, doing his best to ignore how much he hurt, and shoved the boy back onto another of his grapeshot that he’d left nearby during their altercation.

  “Ida is unable to continue!” shouted Present Mic over the loudspeakers. “Mineta advances to the third round!”

  Minoru noticed Ashido entering the arena behind Cementoss and waved her over. “Ashido! Do you think you can dissolve my grapeshot without hurting Ida? I really don’t think he’s going to be comfortable stuck like this for an hour.”

  “Sure! Let me see what I can do!” She bounced over, and after experimenting with a grapeshot that wasn’t attached to Ida, successfully freed his engines and hands from where he’d been stuck.

  “Thank you, Ashido!” said Ida stiffly. “Well fought, Mineta.”

  “You hit like a truck, Ida,” Minoru said truthfully. “If I hadn’t lucked out on my initial dodge, I don’t think there’s any way I could have won.” He turned to the pink girl next to them. “Good luck, Ashido.”

  Yaoyorozu entered from the far side of the arena, and Ida and Minoru exited the arena to rejoin their classmates up above.

  By the time they reached their seats, the bout between Yaoyorozu and Ashido was well underway, and the two girls were trading blows near the center of the arena. Ashido had clearly tried to use her acid to maneuver, but Yaoyorozu kept expelling what appeared to be some sort of powder, which was inhibiting the acid from doing much other than make everything kind of sticky.

  Minoru knew he probably should be freaking out about his upcoming match with Todoroki, but he couldn’t tear his eyes away. This was possibly the hottest thing he could remember happening in Class 1-A ever, in either life.

  The girls continued to grapple for several minutes, until Yaoyorozu lined up Ashido with one of her early acid-slicks and suddenly launched her by shooting a beam from her own chest into Ashido’s. Ashido went sliding down the slickened concrete with Yaoyorozu in hot pursuit, and she wasn’t quite able to regain her feet before Yaoyorozu forced her out of the arena.

  Kaminari leaned over from where he was seated behind Minoru. “Mineta…that was epic.”

  “Truly,” replied Minoru fervently. “What a wonderful time to be alive.”

  Kaminari clapped him on the shoulder. “Guess that means it’s almost time for your matchup with Todoroki. Good luck!”

  Shit. Reality came crashing back down as Minoru shot Kaminari a pained smile and trudged his way out of the stands.

  How the heck was he going to beat the ice king?