Izuku was very worried, but he did not let his emotions show on his face. He thought back to the past few weeks, realising that he had never once interacted with his classmates. However, even if he was given the chance to remedy this situation, he would not take it. He knew that the main reason he was like this was because of his experience in middle school.

Due to being targeted by Bakugo, everyone in their school unanimously decided to ignore him. No matter how hard he tried, he was unable to make friends. This experience had caused a wound in his heart, a wound that never healed.

Regardless, he still had to team up to join the next competition as it would be embarrassing to be disqualified because he was unable to find teammates. With that in mind, he prepared to find someone to team up with. But before he could, someone had already approached him.

He looked up to see a boy with white and red hair, along with a pair of blue and red eyes. The moment Izuku laid eyes on him, he already knew who he was. Surprisingly, it was Todoroki who decided to make a team with him.

Izuku stared at Todoroki, waiting for what he was going to say. Todoroki did not disappoint, as he extended an invitation to Izuku. Izuku, pleased that he no longer needed to find someone, gladly accepted the offer. He then made no attempts to find someone else, as they already had the minimum number of people required to participate.

Todoroki, having partnered with Izuku once before, also did not attempt to find someone else. He was confident in this teammate of his. Not only was he smart, but he had a monstrous quirk to boot.

So, they both stood in the middle of the field, waiting for the other teams to choose among themselves.

Finally, after fifteen minutes, all teams had assembled. The teams were shown on the screen behind Midnight.

Team A:
Todoroki
Izuku

Team B:
Bakugo
Ochaco(Gravity)
Tokoyami(Bird boy with Dark Shadow)
Mei(The only person from the support course)

Team C:
Mineta(Purple Balls)
Tsuyu(Frog)
Sero(Tape)
Shoji(The one with Dupli-arms)

Team D:
Kirishima(Harden)
Ilda(Sonic.)
Momo(Make items from fats)
Denki(Pikachu)

Team E:
Toru(Invisible girl)
Jiro(Earphone Jack)
Rikido(Boy with Sugar Rush)
Koji(Boy with Anivoice)

Team F:
Shinso(Mind Control)
Aoyama(Naval Laser)
Ojiro(Tail)
Shoda(Boy with Twin Impact)

Team G
Monoma(The annoying one with Copy)
Tsuburaba(With the quirk Solid Air)
Kaibara(With the quirk Gyrate)
Kuroiro(With the quirk Black)

Team H
Kendo(1-B's mother and the quirk Big Fist)
Setsuna(With the quirk Lizard Tail)
Yanagi(With the quirk Poltergeist)
Kinoko(With the quirk Splitter Mushroom)

Team I,
Yui(With the quirk Size)
Kojiro(With the quirk Cemedine)
Manga(With the quirk Comic)

Team J:
Rin(With the quirk Scales)
Shishida(With the quirk Beast)

Team K:
Pony(With the quirk Horn Cannon)
Kamakiri(With the quirk Razor Sharp)

With all teams assembled, everyone was led up to the stage. They got into their teams before being split up.

When there was enough space between each team, the person who needed to stay on top went up on the others. On Izuku's side, Todoroki was the one who would be staying on top.

When everyone finally finished their preparations, Midnight slowly counted down. Upon reaching zero, all teams, as if having made a deal beforehand, all targeted Team A.

Izuku and Todoroki were both unfazed. Izuku wrapped himself in his quirk, to disable those quirks targeting him, before saying, "Hold tight."

Todoroki took the suggestion seriously, making sure he was secured on the top of Izuku's head.

Izuku crouched down for a bit, before jumping up into the sky. The audience was shocked when they saw how high he jumped, as he had reached the height of a four-story building. Todoroki, being used to speeds like this, was not affected whatsoever. Instead, he made an ice platform from the stage to the sky, ensuring they both had a place to land.

After reaching a height of five stories, Izuku finally used up all the momentum, falling onto the ice platform. He proceeded to land on both feet, making a crater three metres deep.

The other teams, having lost their target, had no choice but to steal the headbands from each other. Izuku and Todoroki spent a few minutes standing on the ice platform.

But at this moment, Izuku recalled what this sports festival's other purpose was. He could not help but ask, "do you want to go down there to show your worth? This will determine your hero agency, you know?"

Todoroki pondered for a moment, before replying, "no need. I'll just wait for the next event to show off."

Hearing this reply, Izuku no longer asked questions, instead, he observed the other teams. More specifically, he was observing the teams that consisted of those in 1-B. This observation let him understand the quirks of those in the second class, which was much more comprehensive compared to the way they used their quirks during the first part of the competition.

After having a good look, he slowly analysed their quirks one by one, finding areas that they can improve in and more diverse ways to use their quirks.

He had been focusing on his quirk analysis as he realised that there were too many quirks that he was unable to identify. Some examples included the receptionist, the mentor he rejected and the horse man. He understood that information was key to any operation and decided to broaden his horizons by increasing his exposure to quirks. Then, through inference and past experiences, he planned to identify the use of unknown quirks and develop countermeasures.

He continued mumbling, not knowing that below him, a team was making their way to confront them.

Team B, after having stolen an adequate amount of points, decided to use Mei's jet pack, which she kindly provided, to escape. Using the advantage of being able to fly, they made their way up the ice platform.

They wanted to be out of the fight, while also wanting to figure out if they could defeat the mysterious classmate in their class. They slowly made their way up, hoping that the team they wanted to face would not notice them.

While flying, they did not forget to look down to see what was happening. They noticed that teams G, H, I, J, K had all decided to target the teams C, D, E, and F.

It was a full-on battle down there, with everyone stealing each other's points. While doing so, some deployed underhanded means to try and steal other's headbands. Some examples included Team C, who employed an ambush tactic, and team F, where Shinso revealed his quirk to control other people, making them willingly give their headbands and making them his subordinates.

Upon seeing this scene, the audience cheered, enjoying the hot-blooded fights between these youths.

When Team B managed to reach the platform, Izuku finally noticed them.

Upon seeing Bakugo with his team, a trace of jealousy flashed through Izuku's eyes. Hidden underneath was a tiny feeling of hatred and loneliness, which he kept hidden. He just could not understand how his bully, and the source of his bullying, had changed so much. Why did he have so many friends, while he was all alone?

Before his train of thought could continue, it was broken by Midnight shouting, "Time's up!"

At this Team A heaved a sigh of relief. Honestly, they had were scared to fight with this classmate of theirs, as he was much too difficult to deal with.

With the end of this competition, only teams A, B, F and G managed to move on, while the rest had no chance to participate. With this, Todoroki destroyed his ice platform to clear the stage for the next round.

After declaring those who won, they were all given a break before the recreational games and the final event started.

Hearing all this, Izuku slowly walked backstage, intending to go to the canteen to eat some of Lunch Rush's food.

However, he never managed to do so as he heard his teammate calling for him.

He looked behind to see Todoroki trying to catch up with him while taking in short breaths of air. Even if Izuku was only walking, his speed was dozens of times faster than Todoroki's average walking speed.

He waited for Todoroki to slowly catch his breath, before asking,

"Why do you have to say?"

Todoroki, not knowing why he wanted to do so, slowly spoke about his family situation.

"I am the child of Endeavour. I was the result of a quirk marriage, hence I am nothing more than a project for him. This scar of mine was caused by my mother, who hated the marriage. Which was why she hated me as well."

Todoroki did not know why he said these things. The boy in front of him was nothing more than a classmate who teamed up with him twice. He knew almost nothing about the latter, yet here he was, revealing his family situation that he kept secret.

When he finally vented it all out, he felt a sense of relief, as if a burden was taken off his chest. He looked up to see his classmate gazing at him. Though what was in Izuku's eyes was not the pity that he hated, it was admiration.

Izuku only looked at him, before turning around and leaving, not a single word was used to reply. But those eyes contained all the answers Todoroki needed.

Todoroki gave off a smile so beautiful, that imaginary flowers could be seen behind him. He thought to himself,' so this is what it feels like to be acknowledged...'

After a while, he slowly walked in the direction of Izuku, a small smile on his face.

To live up to the expectations of his classmate, he strove to be the best hero, surpassing even the likes of All Might.

This was the catalyst that made the seed of heroism bloom in Todoroki. This signified that he was now no longer burdened by his past, his mentality no longer the same as he once was.

But before he could continue, he was stopped by a certain explosive boy.

On Izuku's side, after hearing Todoroki's situation, he walked towards the canteen for his lunch.

When he received h, he walked into a corner to eat, unwilling to be the centre of attention.

He slowly thought back on Todoroki's family situation.

'According to Todoroki, Endeavour is a massive d*ck. But what about all those memories? Although Endeavour looked angry, his eyes were filled with love for his child. What happened to him?'

Izuku could not understand. Were those memories he saw fake? But they felt so real as if he had indeed experienced it before...

He stopped thinking about it, knowing full well that he still did not have enough information. He quickly ate his food, gave his thanks, and walked to the field where Midnight was.

After two minutes, everyone had arrived. Which was when Izuku noticed something.

Todoroki and Bakugo were standing together side by side as if they were friends.

He looked in their direction, before turning away. Though he looked cold on the surface, his eyes betrayed him. They were full of hate, betrayal and anger.

He could not comprehend why he felt this way. But he did what he knew best. He kept those emotions behind a dam, the same dam that kept all his feelings for ten whole years.

That was when Midnight started speaking. She informed everyone that the next event will be the One On One event, which Izuku already predicted.

However, when the rules were disclosed, he realised that something had changed.

Unlike previous years, the rules this time included a rule that had never been heard of before. The person who achieved the headband with the highest points during the Death Run and kept it after the Cavalry Battle will be exempted from all battles up till the finals.

Though this rule was oddly specific, he agreed that it would be a waste of time if he were to fight everyone as it would not give them the chance to shine.

Not to mention, he knew full well who was the one who made this rule. The rat of U.A indeed lived up to his reputation.

So, he went to the spectator seats, where he leaned on a wall in the corner to watch, unwilling to interact with his classmates.

However, before the first match even began, he felt a tug on his mind. At first, he thought someone was ambushing him, using a quirk to separate his consciousness from his body.

But he quickly noticed that this tug was coming from none other than himself. Instinctively, he knew where exactly the tug originated from.

Curious to know exactly what was happening in that prison of his, he allowed his conscious to sink into the prison, not resisting the tug on his conscious.

When he opened his eyes, what he saw was not the stage, but a towering building he estimated to be eighty metres high that shone with a blue light.

In front of him was a gate, which beckoned for him to enter.

After a brief moment of hesitation, he walked into this mysterious prison. It was then a blue ball slowly condensed beside him, it moved around him, before moving in front as if asking Izuku to follow it.

Izuku remembered seeing this ball once before when he used it on that quirkless doctor.

He thought, 'if this was a prison, then this ball should be the warden.'

Following the ball, he looked around to see villains in many different cells. All of them were strapped on tables, while their bodies were being analysed by mysterious devices.

These devices had penetrated their orifices, while some were directly attached to their brains. In fact, their whole illusory body was covered in devices, extracting something from them. Judging by how they kept screaming, they were not given anything to numb the pain.

Though he disliked such scenes of cruelty, knowing that they had assisted in the attack on his papa, he felt no remorse at all.

That was when the ball stopped in front of a certain cell, spinning around as if indicating for Izuku to look inside.

Izuku looked inside to see that quirkless doctor strapped on a table. Unlike the others in this prison, his body was not illusory.

Moreover, while others had devices inserted everywhere throughout their body, the devices here were concentrated on his brain. Every single wrinkle on his brain was attached to a device, where a weird, pink liquid was slowly being extracted.

The quirkless doctor, though he seemed alive and well, his eyes were lifeless, like he had lost his will to live.

Izuku felt no remorse, as what the doctor had done far exceeded the torture he was experiencing.

It was then where the ball slowly moved towards the top, where the devices seemed to be connected to a jar.

It manipulated the pink liquid in the jar, before returning to Izuku.

Before Izuku could react, the ball threw the pink liquid at Izuku, drenching him.

At first, he was disgusted by the liquid, but after a while, he felt a change in his body. Specifically, he felt that his mind had improved.

However, what came after were memories that did not belong to him. The memories were all about the experiments the doctor had done.

Izuku wanted to stop, as he did not want to see these memories, yet he was unable to leave the memory.

For the next few hours, he was forced to see the doctor performing his 'experiments', which included the dissection of animals, adults, and children.

What made it worse was that this knowledge was directly imprinted into Izuku's mind, as if the knowledge completely belonged to him.

That was when he stumbled onto a research paper written by the doctor. It showed the results of experimenting with the quirkless.

After being forced to look through this paper, he finally understood why the doctor was fixated on the quirkless.

'Due to their quirkless nature, their bodies are completely unmodified. This makes them the perfect test subject as their bodies are the foundation of the humans with quirks. To help advance the medical field of science, testing on the quirkless will be not only more effective but also cheaper. After all, capturing them is easier than heroes.'

With this finding, the doctor had also made an astonishing discovery, which Izuku was also surprised about.

The doctor had managed to discover that the soul, which has only been theorised, was real. In fact, he discovered that some quirks only manifested on the soul. Hence, the number of people who were truly quirkless was much lower than the world thought.

He was planning to publish these findings online, however, Izuku killed him before he could do so.

After this segment of memories ended, Izuku felt as if he had been kicked out of the memory. He opened his eyes to see the cell in front of him, however, the doctor was no longer there.

He knew what had happened to the doctor and was relieved that he had died. Those memories he relieved had shown him that what the doctor had done was much worse than he had previously imagined.

Moreover, although he did not like the source, the knowledge he received had given him first-hand experience on human and animal bodies. Right now, he had the experience to be a surgeon, which meant that he would be able to administer emergency aid on the injured when he saved them.

After thinking about this, he looked around to find the ball that had been guiding him, only to see that the ball was in front of a large glass wall.

He followed the ball and looked out, only to see an eight-kilometre wall in front of him. He noticed that this wall was full of cracks, with some liquid slowly pouring out of it.

This was the last scene he saw before he was kicked out of the prison.

When he finally returned to his body, he had to get used to the light, as the prison was as dark as a cave.

After getting accustomed to the new light pouring in, he noticed that his classmates were all staring at him.

Unfazed by the stares, he asked, "what?"

Hearing his question, everyone quickly looked away. Additionally, he noticed that many of the girls were blushing while 'secretly' glancing in his direction.

He could not understand what was wrong with the girls, so he decided to look at the stage.

Apparently, he had been in the prison for so long, that it was now the semi-finals. The two who managed to reach this stage was his teammate, Todoroki and his tormentor, Bakugo.

Though he was not happy to see Bakugo, he wanted to watch this match knowing that Bakugo would lose.

He estimated that Todoroki using his quirk to its fullest potential would undoubtedly wipe the floor with Bakugo.

When the contestants entered the stage, however, Izuku's prediction was shattered as Todoroki admitted defeat.

Obviously, the audience and the commentator, Present Mic, was not expecting this. It took a few seconds for everyone to register it before chaos ensued.

The audience was enraged as they had been hoping for a big battle. However, their voices were suppressed by Present Mic who started throwing speculations at the top of his voice, which shattered a couple of eardrums.

In the end, it was decided that Bakugo won, which meant that Izuku will have to face his former friend and bully.

With no time to think, he was forced to go on stage, to confront this a*sh*le.

No words were exchanged as Izuku's eyes conveyed that he utterly despised the person in front of him. While Bakugo was thinking about how to apologise to his friend.
............
Here's a chapter after two weeks. I completely did not expect to receive so much homework last week. Furthermore, my school just decided to make me stay back every day. :(

In the end, I managed to finish this chapter. So I hope you enjoy it!

The next chapter will be a fight. But since I have no experience regarding writing fight scenes, it may be a bit underwhelming.

It will likely take a couple of days for me to finish the next chapter as it is hard for me to link my ideas together. However, I hope you will enjoy the next chapter!

If you spot any mistakes or any areas for improvement, feel free to comment below! Thanks in advance!

P.s I posted this story on Archive Of Our Own as well.

P.P.s Another reason I took so long was that I was exploring the three new islands in Inazuma lol. (I 100% explored all of them too :D)