Izuku patted his pocket, checking for the tenth time that his cigarettes were there.

  The crowd in the stadium above roared.

  "IS EVERYBODY READYYYY???" Present Mic's voice screamed.

  The audience yelled back a giant "YES!".

  Izuku stood up and left the waiting room, checking again that his lighter was with his cigarettes.

  "THEN LET'S GET STARTED!! First, we have the sole student of the hero course, the survivor of the class 1A Purge, Izuku Midoriya!!"

  Izuku walked out into the stadium alone, looking around at the large circular arena. The audience seemed a little confused as to why there was only one hero course student, but they cheered nonetheless.

  "NEXT! We have the general studies classes 1C, 1D and 1E!! Keep your eyes on them people, they're gunning for the hero course!!"

  Once again, the crowd roared.

  "After them we have the support course classes 1F and 1H!! Investors, these are your future moneymakers! Heroes, your best friends!"

  It was mainly the heroes that cheered, alongside a few of the bigger support companies representatives.

  "Classes 1I and 1J won't be participating! They are of course the business classes! They have decided to remain in the stands to observe and market the heroes of our future! Now, Cementoss, take the stage!!" Present Mic exclaimed.

  The cuboid literature teacher walked up to the concrete stage in the middle of the arena. He was a very soft-spoken man, so Izuku found it surprising that he was hosting the first year's festival this year.

  "Good morning everybody. Would Izuku Midoriya please come up and give the first year representative speech." He said softly into the microphone.

  Izuku stepped up to the stage and stopped behind the microphone.

  "I'd like to wish my fellow first years the best of luck. My classmates were expelled because they did not act in a way befitting of a hero. I hope the general education students aiming for the hero course can do better. Plus Ultra!" He said.

  Cementoss spoke once again as Izuku returned to his place.

  "Thank you Midoriya. Now, let us see what the first event will be."

  A large wheel appeared on the screen above the announcer's booth where Present Mic was sitting. It began spinning around and around, until it slowed and stopped on..

  "It seems the first event will be a game of hide and seek tag. Here are the rules. One of our esteemed staff members will be 'IT'. They will not use their quirk, but can use any support equipment to aid them in following after the students. The students meanwhile, must run and hide within the building. They cannot leave the building and hide on the grounds around the arena, but all areas are fair game to hide in. The final 42 to be caught will move on to the next round. If any students are able to evade our staff member for longer than half an hour, then whoever is still in hiding will move on to the next round. The staff member hunting the students will have a bodycam in the interest of fairness. It will be displayed on the screen above. Now, if our member of staff would step forward?"

  Izuku watched as Mr Aizawa walked out of the tunnel on the other side of the arena and climbed up onstage. They locked eyes, and Aizawa smiled.

  "Oh we are so fucked." Izuku whispered.

  __

  The moment the buzzer rang Izuku turned and ran back into the tunnel he'd walked out of moments earlier. The students had a 30 second headstart, which Izuku planned to use. He sprinted down corridors and up staircases, furiously smoking the whole way. Izuku ducked through a doorway, inhaling the smoke haloed around him and condensing it in his lungs. He tossed the cigarette butt into a nearby bin, and entered the stands huffing and puffing.

  The audience members in the section he was in glanced at him for a moment before turning back to Aizawa and Cementoss below.

  The second buzzer went, and Aizawa ran across the arena and into the tunnel most of the first years had ran through.

  Izuku walked calmly to the railing at the front of the stands, leaning there for a second and watching the tunnel.

  When Aizawa didn't suddenly reappear, Izuku breathed out a torrent of smoke, creating a solid platform on the other side of the railing. He jumped the metal bars and landed on his flat construction, which rose up to the top of the stadium and let him step onto the roof of the arena. He sat down cross legged and watched as Aizawa prowled the stadium, looking through bathrooms and waiting rooms, the audience's stands and the student ones. One Gen Ed kid got caught in Present Mic's booth behind the door. He used his capture weapon to ensnare students and propel himself around the building.

  "There's only one student left now folks, and three minutes left on the clock! Wherever could our first year hero student be hiding??" Present Mic asked as Aizawa caught a support girl sitting amongst the crowd wearing a poncho.

  Izuku had relaxed slightly, until Aizawa used his capture weapon to pull himself onto the stadium roof.

  "Problem Child."

  "Mr Aizawa. Took you a while to get here." Izuku said, grinning at his homeroom teacher. The man just smiled, his capture weapon already sailing towards his only student.

  Izuku breathed out a sizeable amount of smoke, not bothering to alter it's shape and hardening it instantly, blocking the capture scarf.

  Undeterred, the hero reeled in his scarf and ran towards his student. Izuku let out all of the smoke in his lungs, forming a wall several meters tall and the width of the roof across. He left a thin opening at eye level so he could keep an eye on Aizawa.

  The man kicked the wall with all his might, but it remained unwieldy.

  "You've really improved the last month kid. Nothing short of All Might himself could get through this wall. Good job."

  "I accept your surrender!" Izuku called through the small gap.

  "I didn't say I was giving up!" Eraserhead called, jumping off of the roof and swinging below, coming back up on the other side of the wall.

  Izuku jumped back, dodging the hero's capture weapon again, and ensnaring it in formless smoke, solidifying it around the tool. Aizawa just drew his knife and cut away the length of capture weapon ensnared in smoke.

  By the time he turned to where Izuku had ran, there was a large black cloud swirling on the roof, obscuring his vision.

  The final buzzer went off, signifying the end of the event. The audience cheered.

  "And that folks is the end of the first event! Izuku Midoriya is once again the sole survivor of Eraserhead's purge, and will be moving on to the next event! Meanwhile..." Present Mic screeched.

  Aizawa walked to where the vortex of black was vanishing, and came upon Izuku, inhaling the smoke back into his body.

  "Good job kid. Looks like I'll have to increase the intensity of your training again."

  The greenette sagged mockingly, walking over to meet the hero.

  "Sorry about your capture weapon. I didn't think you'd actually cut it. So that's what that massive knife is for.."

  Aizawa snorted.

  "It's fine Problem Child, I've got spares. Besides, it's made to be chopped up like that. The pieces can be repaired good as new in a matter of hours."

  They reached the edge of the rooftop.

  "I.. don't have a way down." His homeroom teacher admitted.

  Izuku let out a snort of smoke, making a wide platform from it.

  "Big bad Eraserhead, defeated by a small drop."

  Aizawa nudged the teen playfully, making him lean towards the edge.

  "I'll show you a short drop."

________

  After a short break, the 42 students who passed were assembled back in the middle of the arena, waiting for Cementoss to announce the second event.

  "The second event will be... Team Dodgeball! The students will be split into two teams. Which team you're on has already been chosen, and will be announced in a minute. Every student has been assigned a point value, determined by the order in which you were caught by Eraserhead in the last round. If you hit the person in 42nd place with a ball, you earn 5 points. If the person in 42nd place catches a ball, they deduct 5 points from the opponent's score. Everyone's score goes up in increments of 5 until first place, who is worth..10,000 points."

  Everyone's gaze immediately locked on to Izuku.

  "The teams are as follows.."

_____

  Inko was having a good day. So far she'd only cried twice because of her baby being on the TV, and he hadn't gotten hurt yet.

  She was just so proud of Izuku. The other children had always made fun of him for his weak quirk, and the doctor had said his quirk probably wouldn't get much stronger than it had been.

  But just look at him! He was flying around the stadium, making solid walls out of smoke, and fighting a pro hero confidently!

  Inko looked down at her phone as it buzzed.

  Inkhoe: we should really change these names..

  Bitchsuki: where's the fun in that??

____

  Bitchsuki: your boy's doing well Inko!! The brat could learn a thing or two from him I'll bet!

  Inkhoe: Izuku's doing so well, I'm so proud!

  Bitchsuki: he sure showed those little brats didn't he!

  Bitchsuki: but just look at that control! He's turning smoke into solid objects! How good do you have to be to even think of doing that??

  Inkhoe: I think Mr Eraserhead is his homeroom teacher. He's been tutoring Izuku one on one to improve his quirk and do fitness exercises.

  Bitchsuki: I thought they were familiar with eachother when they fought on the roof!

___

  Inkhoe: the second event is starting!!

  Bitchsuki: man, they're all gonna be gunning for him now huh?

  Inkhoe: Izukuuuuu!!!!

  Bitchsuki: holy shit, you go kid!

______

  Izuku stood with a ball in hand, his gaze focused on the opposite team. Most of them were glaring at him, hefting their dodgeballs threateningly.

  Every student had one dodgeball each, which meant there were 42 balls total in play. Izuku hadn't tried separating and controling that many pieces of smoke at once, but he'd manage.

  The buzzer rang out, signaling the start of the game.

  Smoke billowed across the arena, filling up the dodgeballs through the hole air is normally pumped through.

  With a single thought, Izuku sent every ball in the arena towards the opposing team, the bright red balls bouncing off of the teenagers and straight back into the hands of his teammates. The spares remained floating in the air as Izuku grimaced, struggling to keep control of 42 objects at once.

  "And Midoriya comes in with an instant attack, awarding his team 234 points in one move!" Present Mic exclaimed.

  As his teammates threw more and more volleys at the opposing team, Izuku eventually had to let go of the smoke within the balls, as the sheer number of objects tired him out tremendously.

  The opposing team started returning fire, concentrating mainly on Izuku, who just gathered the smoke left around him and put up a wall. The balls just bounced harmlessly off.

  The second event went on for fifteen minutes. The red team put up a good fight, but thanks to Izuku's initial attack the green team came out on top.

  ________

  The final round of the Sports Festival was always a tournament. Miro hadn't done so well in the tournament last year, but he was confident that this time he wouldn't end up naked on live TV.

  Tamaki didn't even make it last year because he wasn't aggressive enough to make it through the second event.

  Nejire beat her first opponent, but lost to her second one. She'd improved the second best of the three of them, next to Miro's control problem.

  The three second years were watching the first year tournament. They'd been surprised to find that there was only a single kid in the first year hero course. They'd been surprised again when he'd managed to fend off Mr Aizawa with almost casual ease. Admittedly the man couldn't use his quirk, but just by changing up his strategy a little, the first year could easily take down the experienced pro with little effort.

  "His quirk isn't a strong one either." Miro said. "It's like mine. He's made it strong. I mean just look at what he's doing! He's making solid objects out of smoke! The amount of training he's gone through to get to that point.."

  Tamaki remained silent, but stared at the two first years fighting below with interest. Midoriya was using smoke to blind his opponent to get behind him. Eventually, the green haired boy tossed the general education boy out of bounds.

  "It's.. unrefined. He's not using it to just push his opponents out of bounds, it's too unstable to attempt that. Or maybe he's too tired at this point. He can't concentrate enough to do it." The boy said quietly.

  "He's not producing the smoke either. Where do you think he's getting it from? Does he smoke? What kind of shapes do you think he can make?"

  "How can you tell he's not producing it?" Miro asked, his gaze focused on the boy in the stands below them.

  "After every event he's breathed the smoke back in! He never lets it drift away if he can help it!"

  "So he can't produce it himself, or it takes a lot of effort to.. and he can breathe it in like normal air." Miro mused. "I wonder if he'd be down to spar sometime!"

____

  The tournament was going well so far. Izuku had exhausted more than half of the smoke in his lungs, but there were only two matches left. Both against Gen Ed students trying for the hero course. One had some kind of hot hands quirk, while the other two he didn't know. He was fighting hot hands first.

  His match was on next, so he left the empty class 1A seating area and walked into the waiting room, where he lit his second cigarette of the day and took a long pull, blowing all of the smoke he had out to cover the room in a thin haze.

  He'd been holding it in his lungs most of the day. Even though he could breathe the stuff just fine it was nice to let it out for however short a time he had.

  When he heard the summons to the arena he inhaled all of the smoke and put out his cigarette, tossing it into the bin beside the door.

  Izuku walked into the arena and up onto the concrete platform that served as a fighting ring.

  "On one side we have Tetsuwata Shota of class 1D! On the other we have Midoriya Izuku of class 1A! Will the firey fist defeat the smokey smsrtmouth? It could go either way!!!"

  Izuku bowed to his opponent, who seemed nervous. They'd both made it this far, but Izuku was the sole member of the hero course. He wasn't expected to lose.

  "Begin." Cementoss said quietly.

  Izuku sprang into action, sprinting at his opponent as he blew out a small stream of smoke, the dark cloud surrounding Izuku like the rings of Saturn.

  Tetsuwata raised his arms in a defensive stance, his feet sliding into a steady base. He knew some martial arts then. Or at least knew how to fight properly.

  Izuku sent a ball of smoke at the boy, expecting him to move away. He actually ducked, which was better for Izuku as it didn't change the distance between them.

  Izuku's fist met Tetsuwata's forearm. The other boy tried to get a hold of Izuku, but the greenette twisted away, blowing a gust of smoke into the other boy's face. He closed his eyes and coughed, putting his hands over his face. Izuku grabbed the other boy by the arm and kicked his feet out from under him, tossing him to the ground and straddling his back, pinning the boy's arms to his sides.

  "Tetsuwata is unable to move! Midoriya moves on to the finals!"

_____

  Izuku stepped up to the concrete ring for the final match.

  "This is it folks! The moment we've all been waiting for! Midoriya Izuku versus Akane Mitsuha!!! Are! You! Reeadyyy???"

  Akane gave Izuku a curt nod, which he returned.

  "STARRRT!!!"

  Izuku let out a long puff of smoke. Akane hadn't actually used her quirk yet, or at least hadn't used it in a way that Izuku could see.

  The girl pulled her arm back as though she was going to punch. Some kind of strength based quirk? Was she going to kick up a strong wind like All Might?

  Her fist came flying towards him at high speed. Izuku dodged.

  Okay, spring loaded fists and stretchy arms. So she hadn't used a reflex quirk or something during her other fights, she was just that good.

  Izuku tried to ward her off with smoke walls, but her fists were too fast and got through the smoke before he hardened it. The wrists would then stretch from where she was stuck to the wall and punch him.

  After a few minutes Izuku decided that close range was his only option. He couldn't mess with her arms, as he hadn't found the limit to what they could stretch, so it was risky. Remaining at range just gave her the advantage.

  In the end it would come down to who was better with hand to hand, and how sneaky Izuku was with his quirk.

  It was over in a matter of seconds. The arena was cloaked in dark smoke, obscuring everybody's vision. Akane swung wildly, expecting a sneak attack. A figure emerged from the dark was, only to dissipate when in contact with her fists.

  The smoke solidified around her arms, crawling up to her shoulders and halting there.

  Akane sighed as the smoke swirled around her.

  "I give." She said. "I can't move my arms."

  "AKANE MITSUHA SURRENDERS!! IZUKU MIDORIYA WINS THE SPORTS FESTIVAL!!!" Present Mic screams.