Izuku was sitting with his eyes closed, One for All humming under his skin at 35 percent. Improving One for All had been.. slow going. He'd only gotten 3 percent further in the last month, though most of that was letting his body adapt to perfectly contain 32 percent.

  "Midoriya."

  The greenette's eyes snapped open, focusing on Todoroki, who was standing infront of him.

  "Objectively, you're stronger than I am." He began. "Despite that, I will beat you."

  Izuku sighed.

  "I'll just say this. Ice is easy to punch."

  Todoroki stopped, and turned back to Izuku.

  "Fire isn't." Izuku finished.

  A brief look of fury flashed across the emotionless boy's face before he turned away and kept walking.

  Izuku stood as Iida began chopping his hands and urging everyone to be ready, giving Ochako a thumbs up before the class departed for the stadium.

  Katsuki watched the greenette the entire time, an unreadable look on his face.

________

  The cheering was deafening as the first years walked out onto the field. Present Mic was a bit biased with his introductions, giving 1A a hyped up welcome and the business courses an off hand mention.

  Midnight stepped onto the stage, whip in hand as the audience screamed their approval.

  "Alright, it's time for the first year representative's speech! Would Izuku Midoriya step up here!" She exclaimed, standing with one hand on her hip in a jaunty pose.

  Izuku stepped forwards, walking around the raised platform and to the stairs where he walked over to stand beside Midnight, the mic stand adjusted perfectly to his height.

  "I'm not one for speeches, so I'll just say this." His voice rang loudly throughout the stadium. "Don't just watch the Hero course. We may have had more physical training, but the creativity and determination of the other courses are equal to, if not greater than, our own. And to my fellow first years, make sure to Go Beyond..."

  "PLUS ULTRA!" The audience and students exclaimed together. Most of the animosity the other courses felt towards the Hero course had evaporated in an instant, instead replaced with determined smiles and challenging declarations thrown back and forth.

  "Thank you Midoriya, for that excellent declaration!" Midnight exclaimed.. squirming.. for some reason. "Now, onto the first game!"

  Accompanied by a whip crack, a screen rose upwards from beneath the stage, the image of a wheel separated into several segments on it. The wheel started spinning, the words blurring out of view as it span faster and faster...

  When it stopped, Izuku blinked in surprise.

  "The first event will be an underground obstacle course!" Midnight announced. "The goal is simple. Start by entering the tunnel over there and heading down beneath the stadium! From there, navigate your way through the corridors beneath the ground to come up and out over there!"

  Midnight spun around and pointed to the tunnel opposite to the one behind the students.

  "But, be careful! It's a bit of a maze down there, and there are traps and obstacles aplenty! Try not to cause too much structural damage, but in the event of an accident, our lovely Cementoss has got your safety in mind~!"

  Izuku frowned. It was similar enough to the original First Event to be noticeable, but different enough that Izuku wouldn't be able to blitz it. His eyes briefly moved over to the teacher's seating area.

  There was Master, Thirteen, Hound Dog, Ectoplasm and...

  Teacher and Student locked eyes, inhuman black beads meeting bright green emeralds.

  Ah, of course.

  Izuku inclined his head in acknowledgement, turning back to Midnight to catch the tail end of the explanation, a grin tugging at his lips.

  Collectively, the staff shifted several seats over to distance themselves from (quiet) maniacal cackling.

  "Ready..?" Midnight asked. "Begin!!"

  With the blare of a horn, the collective first year mob raced into the tunnel and down the inline. Just like last time, Todoroki froze several people in place before racing ahead, turning at the bottom of the ramp and heading directly towards where the exit should be.

  Several students followed suit, following Todoroki into the passageways heading towards the exit, the others entering the more branching pathways looking for a roundabout path through the maze filled with less traps.

  Izuku met Nezu's eyes once more, seeing the challenge there. He hummed in thought.

  There was something more to this race. Some trick or method only he would find.

  Turning back to the tunnel, Izuku walked leisurely inside. Using the ice left behind to slide down the ramp, Izuku arrived at the abandoned room and stopped. There was some trick, some kind of Ariadne's thread that would lead him through the maze. It wouldn't be a maze designed by his old Teacher if it didn't have some secrets.

  His gaze landed on the bare wall visible to everyone when they came down the ramp. There were no passageways there, just a smooth concrete wall standing out within a room filled with tunnels and passageways of all shapes and sizes, going in all directions except...

  The original route of the First Event, leading out and around the stadium.

  Laying his palm flat on the wall, Izuku raised his thumb, charged his quirks into it and tapped. There was a dull thunk, like he'd knocked on a hollow piece of wood.

  Smirking in victory, Izuku pulled his fist back and shattered the thin concrete barrier, revealing a dark corridor stretching into the distance.

  He was off in a blur of green, only the barest hint of emerald lightning intentionally escaping him to light his way.

__________

  "Yo!" Present Mic exclaimed. "When did that secret passage get there?? How the heck did the kid find it?"

  Aizawa grunted noncommittally, his eyes narrowed as they focused on the screen displaying Izuku Midoriya racing through the hidden passageway that led outside of the maze beneath the stadium itself.

  It wasn't impossible for a student to find some secret method or loophole in any of Nezu's events, but the fact that it was Midoriya once again just made him sigh.

  First the entrance exam, then the quirk apprehension test, the battle trials and the USJ, now the sports festival.

  He hated to admit it, but Midoriya was already better than at least half the pros out there. If he were to get his licence this year, he'd be in the top 50 by the next ranking, guaranteed.

  But he'd only had his quirk for a year now, which was either ridiculously impressive or extremely suspicious, and Aizawa was leaning towards the latter.

  Todoroki and Iida were Legacy children, each to some pretty powerful and well known pros. They both had years of training with their quirks and general skills, but neither of them even came close to matching the green haired prodigy.

  His tired eyes moved over to the staff's seats, where the principal was the happiest anyone had ever seen him.

  He knows something, and I'm going to find out what.

___________

  Izuku hopped off of the final tightrope, leaving the Fall behind for the second time. So far he'd faced an army of robots and a bottomless pit, just like the first time round. It stood to reason that he'd be going through a minefield next.

  HA! As if! That's what Nezu wanted him to think.

  "I'm onto you, you damn rat." He muttered to himself, sprinting at top speed down the concrete passageway towards the second to last obstacle, because knowing Nezu he'd put in just one more to try and catch Izuku off guard.

  As the final corner appeared in the distance, light shining from the side, the walls on either side of Izuku opened up, letting metal cylinders poke through.

  They weren't small enough to use actual bullets, but they were almost certainly guns of some sort.

  A small grey ball fired from one, landing just before Izuku's path and sticking to the ground.

  That was all the warning he got before the adhesive balls began firing on him en masse, sticking to the ceiling and floor, eachother and occasionally the wall above or below the cannons.

  Hopping over and around the projectiles, Izuku used Gear Shift to speed himself up as much as physically possible, blurring from one patch of clear concrete to another, flipping over and ducking beneath the balls obviously modelled after Mineta's quirk. They probably weren't as unremovable as the diminutive boy's quirk, but Izuku wasn't willing to take that chance.

  He wasn't fast enough to dodge them all, recieving a ball to the shoulder blade and right thigh, but eventually made it to the final turn and bounced off of the corner, speeding down the final stretch towards the light.

  The very bright light.

  Danger Sense was the only thing that saved him from the freaking lazer beam fired down the corridor, the green curls on the left side of his head singed at the tips from where he'd leaned to the right.

  Another fast as light beam barely singed his sleeve, Danger Sense once again warning him to dodge away from the attack he couldn't see.

  Ducking and weaving between deadly bolts of light, Izuku slowly made his way to the exit of the secret passageway, his window of time in which to dodge almost undodgeable attacks getting smaller.

  After one final, particularly close call with a laser beam arcing under his left arm and barely missing his torso, Izuku finally swung a solid kick into the lone turret that had been shooting at him.

  Turning away with a huff of satisfaction, Izuku Midoriya launched himself forwards, out of the passageway's exit and up the ramp directly outside of it, emerging into the stadium once more.

  "AND IZUKU MIDORIYA IS OUR FIRST PLACE CONTENDER!!! Present Mic howled over the speaker system.