With the days leading up to the sports festival coming and going quickly, Aizawa's words still echo in Izuku's mind. The fact that the league was specifically targeting his class as well as the strongest members of that class is a clear indicator that the league of villains knows that the successor is in UA. This being said, Izuku trains himself nearly to the bone in order to prepare himself for the sports festival. For the two full weeks that lead up to it his routine is the same, get up half past four in the morning, eat a protein and carb heavy breakfast, head on a 10km run, then hit the gym around 6am. Anything and everything not bolted down to the floor is lifted up and moved, either being curled, pressed, lifted or attached to him as he went for a run on the treadmill and stair climbers. In his mind, the two weeks of intense training should pay off for the festival, and normally he'd spend every waking second training as hard as he can, All Might had suggested that he take the last four days of the two weeks to rest his muscles and stretch in order to rid his body of any lactic acid build up and to stretch continuously in order to avoid anything tearing.

Little to his knowledge the other members of his class have been scheming since their agreement after the battle training. While Kirishima and Shoji had joined him almost every day at the gym, the other members that formed the class pact have been scheming on what to do during the sports festival. "First things first, we don't know what the first two events are going to be during the sports festival. They've been randomized every single year, however there is always a one versus one tournament for the top 16 that have gotten through the first two rounds." Momo begins, the 'Deku Force' as coined by Mina and Toru, have claimed the mostly empty rooftop of the dorms for this meeting. Around a table, created by Momo, sit Momo herself, Todoroki, Iida, Kaminari, Sero, Ochako, Mina, Tsuyu, Toru and Ojiro while the others mill about their usual Saturday afternoon activities to not raise suspicions.

"So what's the plan then? Take the fall so that he can get the spotlight? *kero*" Tsuyu asks, tilting her head slightly to the side and pressing her index finger to her chin. "That isn't exactly a good idea since, it'd be a little obvious."

"Of course not, he wouldn't grow as a hero and neither would we for that matter. If we have to face off against him in the tournament, we go all out. We owe it to ourselves and to him to try as best as possible." Iida states, his hand chopping causing the table to rattle slightly disturbing the random assortment of cups, soda cans and Momo's porcelain tea cup.

"Whoever that league of villains is probably knows that Midoriya is probably All Might's successor. They targeted myself, Bakugou, Yaoyorozu, Tokoyami and him, and of the five of us they threw that Nomu thing at Midoriya specifically. I didn't catch what their leader said, but Tsu mentioned hearing that their leader said it was meant to defeat All Might." Todoroki says recalling the events of the USJ attack. "If that thing was meant for All Might, why else would they sick it on Midoriya unless they think he is the successor."

"What's this have to do with the Sports Festival?" Mina asks.

"My point is that the villains know that he is All Might's successor and threw that monster at him to capture Deku. Us going all out, isn't gonna mean jack shit against him since until we stepped in and created an opening for him to use Yaomomo's thermite grenade he had that thing fought to a standstill." Todoroki says.

"This mean you're going to use your fire against him?" Kaminari asks.

"As much as it pains me to say this, I probably have no choice." Todoroki responds, "That quirk has brought nothing but pain to me because my father is obsessed with it. Since I might have to fight against the One for All quirk itself, I have to use my bastard father's quirk to even stand a chance against it."

"Unless I want to commit a war crime, I don't think I'm gonna be using my quirk on him if we end up fighting." Mina says rather sheepishly.

"I don't think that would be the best of ideas Mina, I don't think a televised violation of the Geneva convention would go well for your hero career." Momo says with a slight wince.

"Welp looks like I'm stuck with plain old fisticuffs. I'm so screwed, and not in the way Ochako wants to be." Mina teases, prompting the brunette to blush then shout out her name.

"Mina! You pervert! All we had was an accidental kiss during the battle with Bakugou! It meant nothing!" Ochako protests, her words accentuated by a flurry of sporadic arm waving and sputtering.

"Might not have meant anything when it happened but it has gotten to you." Momo responds, furthering the embarrassment present on Ochako's face. "Well, it seems like we have a plan. If we face him, go all out since he is going to do the same."

"Agreed."

The conversation of the Deku Force will remain unknown to Deku himself with the days leading up to the sports festival coming and going. The anticipation for the event almost feels like the days leading to Christmas, the hope and slight anxiety that excitement brings in everyone. Luckily, the class is able to get a decent night's rest before the big day. Izuku's rest days are enough for his body to adjust and heal the strain he put on his muscles while training. Now, on the morning of the sports festival, the entire class 1-A meets up in their homeroom so that Aizawa can take roll call. Once that's out of the way, he dismisses the students to head to the lockers to change into their sports uniforms before making their way to the UA stadium. The anticipation of the event grows with each passing second as they board the school buses to take them to the far side of the UA school grounds.

Getting off the bus, each of the classes is immediately showered with excited festival attendants, with reporters and bloggers mixed into the group all snapping pictures of the new first years on campus. A short trek to the field entrance later, and each individual class is put into their groups preparing to make their way onto the field. Classes A through J of the first years are in five by four blocks waiting for the announcement for them to make their way onto the field. "Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen! Boys and Girls! And to our international viewers, welcome to the UA sports festival! My name is Present Mic and I'm here with my co-host Eraserhead and we're your eyes in the sky. This year we have a feisty set of first year students hungry to make their debut on the world stage!" Present Mic's announcement causes the crowd to go silent waiting for the students to arrive on the field.

"And announcing from field level, the beautiful, illustrious, r rated hero Midnight." Aizawa says with all the enthusiasm of a week-old corpse. "You can take it from here Midnight." He says, as monotone as ever.

"Thank you Eraserhead." Midnight responds sarcastically. "Where did that spry excitable young man go that you used to be?"

"Dead. Along with my will to live." Aizawa responds.

"Well, that was dark. Anyways, it is my Pleasure to introduce the new faces of UA's first year course!" Midnight exclaims, gesturing a hand up to the massive jumbotron. As she does so, the large doors at ground level for the stadium field open up revealing the ten sets of classes. "And here they are coming to the field!"

With a deep breath, Izuku begins walking towards the stadium field, his excitement for today barely contained beneath a smile on his face. Confidently he marches, along with the rest of his class, to the base of the raised podium that Midnight is standing on. The roar of the cheering audience, the jumbotron focused on his class, this is a moment that he dreamed of happening his entire life but never would have guessed would actually one day come. Coming to a stop the classes patiently wait for each other to get to their spots and luckily for them they don't need to wait very long. "Each class here is competing to prove that they're the best, and maybe the chance to get into the hero course if one of those forty lucky students don't succeed in the games today. Now, representing the first year classes, Katsuki Bakugou of class 1-A" A cold shiver runs down Izuku's spine when his former friend is announced as the representative.

"Why did Bakubro get it?" Kirishima asks, nudging Izuku on the shoulder to get his attention.

"Probably because he had the most villain points in the entrance exams." Sero answers, taking the words right from Izuku's mouth.

"Ugh, of course it's a hero course student." A light brown haired girl from class 1-D scoffs as Katsuki makes his slow walk up towards the podium.

Each step up the platform echoes through the stand mic that Midnight had raised to Bakugou's rough height. The ash blonde teen walks slightly hunched over with his hands in his pockets, and while the posture doesn't scream confidence it's easy to tell that he is in no way shape or form, nervous. Coming to a stop right before the mic he clears his throat then leans in taking a short breath so he can speak. "I pledge... That I'll be number one." Of course he'd say that, the collective minds of his class think simultaneously though outwardly their faces can best be described as shocked and disappointed that even for a moment he could have shown humility. It doesn't help the hate that the hero course is getting from the other classes very much, in fact it probably makes it worse. In typical Bakugou fashion, Katsuki turns without saying a word and walks off the stage leaving the audience silent and the other students to fill that silence with a chorus of Boos and hisses.

"W-well... um... t-there's our speech. H-hopefully you can get some inspiration from that brief sentence that Bakugou had said." Midnight stammers, barely able to string the words together. Meanwhile as Bakugou passes Deku, he intentionally leans his shoulder into Deku but instead of easily pushing through him causing Izuku to bend so the blonde can pass, Katsuki is the one whose body bends so that it can pass the sturdy form of Izuku. Izuku himself had barely noticed that Katsuki had tried to shoulder check him but Katsuki seethes in anger. "Without further adieu let's get on to the first event!!!" Midnight declares, grabbing the mic again.

On the far side of the stage she's standing on is a large slot machine lever connected to the stage itself. The illustrious woman walks with a wide sway in her hips towards the lever before suggestively dragging her fingers along the shaft of the slot lever. Coyly she wraps each finger of both hands as slowly as possible around the ball at the top of the lever and the shaft itself before pulling it. The jumbotron behind them switches to display what looks like the world's largest slot machine, rotating so quickly that the red words on the screen are just a blur. The added sound effects of the slot machine tumblers moving adds to the slight suspense as the words begin to slow down and become legible. Each chime of the fake rotor sound effect gets slower and slower until finally the words of the first event sit firmly in the center of the giant screen. "And the first event is the Obstacle course! The first 42 to pass this event will go on to the second round. The course consists of a 5k race around the circumference of the stadium! With obstacles all along the way, you all will have to face the robot inferno! The bottomless pit called The Fall and finally a minefield where even the slightest touch will cause them to go Boom!" Midnight accents the word boom, wrapping her arms under her breasts then hiking them up slightly so the J-cup jubblies to jiggle in her jumpsuit.

"Everyone! Line up at the north gate of the stadium field and prepare for the signal!" Present Mic shouts, once again using his quirk into the microphone that's already loud enough to echo in a sold out stadium of one million. With these words, anxiety begins to well up in Izuku's body both coming from excitement and the possibility of failure. He is one of the first to get set, crouching slightly into a sprinter's stance similar to Iida as he waits for the count down. "On your marks!" Izuku begins charging One for All as high as he can go, now pushing nearly 30%. His body begins to glow with the energy of the gifted quirk, veins arcing with power become visible across his skin as green bolts of static electricity start to lick at the air around him. Get set-" *Bang!* Present Mic gets interrupted by Aizawa firing the starting pistol in the air causing the leather wearing human parakeet to nearly jump out of his chair ."SHOTA What the Bleep?!" Mic yells before being censored by UA's automatic censor bleep system.

As the starting gunshot echoes through the stadium, Izuku digs his feet into the grass before lunging forwards creating a discharge of air pressure, like a wall of wind, to be sent out behind him as he makes his move. The movement is so fast, the shutter speed of the cameras watching the students can barely keep up with him, as he is only visible for 3 frames before becoming a green colored blur across the screen. Katsuki had only blinked when the starting pistol was fired before Izuku practically teleported from the starting position. The quirkless nerd showing him up is not something Katsuki's gonna let stand. With no regard for anyone around him, the blonde teen flexes his hands, curling his fingers he causes a massive explosion underneath himself propelling him forwards. The shockwave sends a couple dozen of the other students around him to be thrown from their feet and flung backwards away from him. Those on foot watch as Katsuki blasts himself over the hoard of students all cramming into the hallway leading out from the field.

With a significant lead on any of the other students, Izuku skirts to a stop at the mouth of the tunnel. Before him is the first obstacle, Robot Inferno. Nearly a dozen zero point robot titans stand tall and blocking his path, with the lesser ones, twos and three point robots in front of the mechanical monstrosities. He isn't given long to process the obstacle in front of him as a loud explosion and rush of cold air are the tell tale signs that Bakugou and Todoroki are hot on his tail. Luckily for him, the robots are far too slow to stand any sort of challenge to All Might's successor. He shoves off on his back foot, disappearing in another magnificent burst of speed and energy before punching the metallic head of a close by three point robot clean from it's shoulders. The robot teeters over missing it's head, and the torn wires within it cross and make connections they weren't supposed to causing it to short out and unload its armaments. All around the first obstacle concussive rockets, rubber bullets and sandbags are launched from the decapitated robots guns and missile silos striking randomly around the field. Izuku manages to skate underneath the underbelly of one of the massive robots before rolling and continuing his One for All infused sprint on the other side. The chaos created by the malfunctioning robot causes a significant traffic jam in the mass of students, but the hero course members easily clear through them and into the chaos. Katsuki growls through gritted teeth as he detonates the faceplate of a scorpion shaped two point robot before bouncing on to another then another, using the exploding bots as added momentum.

Izuku manages to clear the kilometer long straightaway of track to the next obstacle in a matter of seconds. Each of his empowered footprints leaves a deep shoe shaped crater in the clay. The next obstacle is a series of raised platforms connected by thin tightropes between them, covering almost as much distance as the straightaway. The pit that the rocky platforms extend upwards from is so deep that the bottom isn't visible, appearing just as a black pit. Thankfully, the only thing Izuku is afraid of is Katsuki, so the height isn't a problem for him. The distant explosions and creaking of metal give him a mental note that he can spare a bit of time to clear this obstacle safely. He backtracks a couple paces away from the edge before kicking up to a full sprint, just as he gets to the edge of the artificial abyss, he crouches down and jumps as high as possible. With a fist pointed towards the air, Izuku does a slight impression of All Might as he jumps from the ledge towards the rocky platforms. The first jump he clears a third of the entire obstacle, landing on his feet then rolling forwards to absorb the shock of hitting the ground, Izuku pushes off from the roll and jumps from this platform to the next repeating the process. The final jump is by far the longest, so rather than risking it and having to climb back up, he takes to the tightrope. With a quick pace, he nimbly maneuvers his way across the thin wire on the platforms of his feet.

Katsuki, Todoroki and the rest of class 1-A are so far behind Izuku, that they can just barely see the trail of kicked up dust in the distance of where he once was. This fact infuriates Katsuki, the worthless nerd somehow convinced All Might to give him One for All, and now Deku has the gall to not only use a quirk that should belong to Katsuki, but also show him up with it. This isn't something that should have ever happened, not in a million years and yet it's as real as each day. Katsuki has to mentally stop himself from pinching his own side in an attempt to wake him from this nightmare, but it's all too real. As that fact festers in nitroglycerin soaked anger, his fury continues to simmer and boil getting ready to blow the proverbial lid off. Then the lid does come off, the permanent scowl on his face and furrowed brow tightens to an expression of sheer hatred and fury towards Izuku. His scowl so intense it causes blood vessels to rupture in his eyes turning the white sclera as red as his iris with two itty bitty black dots in the center of the bleeding eyes. Almost two kilometers ahead of Katsuki, Izuku dashes as fast as he can through the second to last straight away towards the final obstacle. From behind him a pressure wave of air collides with his back as he stops, then a moment later, an explosion louder than that of the battle training shakes the ground he's standing on. Turning for a split second, he sees a massive mushroom cloud in the distance behind him and a flashing orangish yellow light he's all too familiar with.

Stuck between a rock and a hard place, Izuku makes the only choice he has in this scenario. He crouches down, digs his feet into the clay and lunges as hard as he can, pushing One for all past the 27% threshold that he had been using, all the way to 32%. The slight cramping in his thighs and calf muscles tell him that this is the bulk of what they can take before something bad happens. With as small as a five percent increase in his power output, Izuku vanishes again this time the cameras aren't able to pick him up, as in a single frame he's completely gone. His performance in the first event has completely captivated the crowd, and even the teachers are shocked with the progress Izuku has made with One for All. The single burst of speed is more than enough to clear the majority of the minefield. Feeling himself begin to slow down, Izuku decides to take a page from Bakugou's book. He flips forwards, tucking his index finger behind his thumb, decreasing the power output from his quirk, in order to not break said finger, before flicking it towards the ground. From the tip of his finger a small condensed projectile of compressed air is released, slamming into the ground with the force of a Kia Soul. The impact immediately sets off the landmines hidden beneath the soil causing them to explode in plumes of pinkish smoke. The successor of All Might rides the pressure wave created by the blast through the rest of the minefield, tucking his shoulder and rolling across the ground once he gets to the other side. He quickly pops up to his feet before resuming his sprint to the finish line.

"And the first person to make a big splash is..." Present Mic shouts over the intercom, pausing for a brief moment to allow Izuku to cross the finish line. "Midoriya Izuku!!!" Mic yells at the top of his lungs, the crowd cheers as loud as Mic's yelling, filling Izuku with a sense of accomplishment and pride. The limelight could be something he'd get used to, but not something to let go to his head. Now, all over the world, every hero, civilian and villain alike will have their eyes on him.