Still haven't finished reading Oathbringer and the Mistborn Era 2 books before reading fatigue set in (cries).

Short chapter written up over a few hours, hope you like it. Might go back to work on this, or a new more angsty BNHA fic I started, we'll see.

Izuku Midoriya stirred.

"Izuku?" he heard a voice say. He turned toward it, wincing against the light. Why was it so bright?

"…mum?" he asked. He pushed himself to sit up, but was surprised by how much effort it took. His body ached.

"Izuku!" his mother called a second time, the word sounding clearer. He turned, his vision focusing. Idly, he attempted tapping on tin to enhance his sight –

"My tinmind!" he exclaimed, immediately alert. "It's –"

He was promptly assaulted by a tight hug, and he felt moisture against his shoulder. "Izuku…"

"M-mum?" Why was she crying? Come to think of it, what had happened? He practically slept with his metalminds at this point, and checking them one by one, he didn't have a single one of them on him. The last thing he remembered was –

Monoma.

"Where's Monoma?" he asked in a panic. "The villains –"

"They're gone, Izuku," she said, sniffing loudly, separating him from her embrace and looking at him with teary eyes. "You were so brave."

There were dark circles around her eyes, easily visible even without tapping on a sight tinmind. "What happened?"

"Perhaps I can explain."

Izuku turned to face the newcomer, before his eyes widened. "Sensei!" He hurried to move to stand, but Kan-sensei firmly placed his hand on Izuku's shoulder.

"Mrs Midoriya, would it be alright if I interrupt?" he asked kindly. She nodded, still suppressing sobs, with her hand resting on Izuku's own, gently rubbing circles on his skin. He felt guilty at the worry he had to have put her through.

"Midoriya, it has been ten days since the villain attack at USJ," he said seriously, and Izuku was caught off-guard. Ten days? "You have been seriously ill during this time, but Recovery Girl was able to keep you stabilised long enough for your energy to recover. It was only yesterday that she deemed it reasonable to use her quirk on you to speed up your recovery."

Ten days. That point still stuck with him. More importantly, though…

"Is Monoma safe?" he asked urgently. "Sensei, he was hit by the villain's quirk –"

"I can assure you, Midoriya, Monoma is completely fine. He awoke a day after the incident, and was discharged that same day." He sighed. "I would have given you a lecture on responsibility, given how you and your friends were caught up in the USJ attack, but I think that there is no need for that."

Midoriya winced under his gaze. "Yes, Sensei." He hesitated. "Everyone else… Kendou, Pony, Komori, Tokage – and the students from 1-A – Sensei, are they –"

"Yes, Midoriya. All of them are fine. Some suffered minor injuries, but all of them pale in comparison to yours." Again, Kan-sensei sighed very heavily. "Midoriya – I will spare you a lecture, for now, but I have been told of how you used your quirk to save Monoma's life. That is both highly commendable, and highly foolish of you."

"Sensei! I can't just stand by and watch Monoma die!" he immediately argued, aghast. "He's my – he's my friend!"

And he was surprised to use that word to describe him. Tokage had used it loosely, but he hadn't had a real friend since the day Kacchan decided he wasn't good enough for him.

"I know, Midoriya, and I agree. But tell me one thing: can you honestly say that you spared a regard for your own life before you decided on the course of action you took?" Kan-sensei stared at him sternly. Izuku's expression must have betrayed him, because he nodded, and continued to speak.

"I think not. Midoriya, I am not going to berate you any further for what you did. But please, spare a thought for yourself, too. The way that I understand how your quirk works, once you stopped the flow of your power, Monoma wouldn't have been able to draw on it. Both of you could have recovered on the same day, but instead you spent more than a week longer than him in the infirmary." His calm mask broke, and he sounded frustrated. "For God's sake, Midoriya – your flesh had necrosed by the end! If Kendou hadn't taken your bangle away from you, you would have continued on until you died!"

His mother tightened his grip on his hand. "Izuku…" she muttered.

"I'm sorry, mum," he whispered, eyes shut tight. "And you too, Kan-sensei. I… you're right. It's just… I couldn't lose Monoma, not when it was my fault that he entered USJ at all –"

"And that is the second matter that I need to talk to you about." Kan-sensei drew a chair, sitting down by his bedside. "Midoriya – I'll put this bluntly. You have an unhealthy tendency to assign blame to yourself."

"But Sensei –"

"Do you want to know the first thing that Monoma told me when I asked him to give me his side of the story?" he asked rhetorically. "He told me in no uncertain terms that it was he who decided to spy on class 1-A at USJ. He said that none of this was your fault, and that he would accept any punishment for it."

"Sensei, it wasn't his fault! You can't expel him!"

"I never mentioned expulsion. How did all of you get the same idea?" he asked, bewildered, before shaking his head. "No, you're all receiving an official warning, placed under observation, and commended for your heroic efforts, in that order."

"Kan-sensei?"

"Yes, Midoriya. I want to thank the six of you for what you've done." He looked at Izuku sincerely in the eye. "You, in particular. When you learned that USJ was under attack, you didn't hesitate. You formulated a plan and made an informed decision. You helped Iida escape to warn the teachers, and assisted several 1-A students at the same time."

The memories of those fights were returning to him all at once, now. Escaping from the ship, beating the grounded villains, and then engaging the villain who had –

"Eraserhead!" he gasped. How had he completely forgotten about him? "Is he alright?"

At that question, Kan-sensei sighed, far, far more tiredly than any of his previous ones. "Against my better judgment, I will say yes, Midoriya. He returned to teach his class two days after, wrapped in bandages."

Midoriya gaped. His body had been completely thrashed by that villain. Two days definitely didn't seem like enough time to return to normal, with or without Recovery Girl.

"Speaking of Eraserhead, someone else came by asking for you," he said, looking amused. "I believe you know Toshinori Yagi?"

"Old man Yagi?" Kan-sensei knew him? Was he his so-called contact in Yuuei?

"We're acquainted," Kan-sensei said, still amused, as though he was privy to some sort of inside-joke. "He sends you his well-wishes. He says that he hopes to talk to you again some time at the usual location."

Izuku nodded. There were a few things he wanted to ask Yagi, too, since he had apparently been a former Pro Hero with some kind of enhancement quirk. Some of his ineptitude had shown at USJ, and he wanted to see if the man had any tips on how to correct them. "I'll be sure to do so."

"Anyway, Midoriya. I trust that you will take my words to heart. Think about yourself: look at your mother, now – she's barely left your side for the past week." Izuku snapped to look at her, gripping tightly on her hand. "This, or worse, could happen again, if you don't spare a thought about your own well-being while carrying out hero work. I want you to think carefully about what you did, and write up a short reflection on what you could have done differently. The rest have already submitted theirs. Am I clear?"

"Yes, Kan-sensei!"

"Good. Well done, Midoriya." He stood up, and was about to exit from his nursing bay that had its screens drawn up, when he hesitated. "Oh, one more thing. The Sports Festival is in three days –"

His eyes shot wide open, his entire body flinching. "Three days?!"

That was bad. That was very, very bad. He had exhausted his entire supply of metalminds, and even though Recovery Girl's quirk could probably return him to fighting shape quickly enough, there was no way he could restore the charges in his metalminds in time for the event.

Worse, because it was a multi-stage Sports Festival, he needed to ration out his metalminds. Even if he spent the next three days furiously filling them –

"Breathe, Midoriya," Kan-sensei said, amused. Izuku grimaced. These new friends of his were bringing old bad habits back. "I would advise you to sit this one out, but I don't think you'll be taking no for an answer?"

He intoned it as a question. True, he wanted to participate, but before that…

"Mum…" he said, trailing off. "Is it okay if I –"

"Yes, Izuku," she said, smiling fondly, wiping away damp traces of tears from her face. "I already knew that you were going to ask that. You can participate – but only on one condition."

"Mum?"

"Izuku, you almost died," her voice cracked, and Izuku felt something stab at his heart. "I know you want to prove yourself. You've worked very hard with your quirk, and I cannot be more proud of you. But Izu, honey, please look out for yourself, okay? If you participate in the Sports Festival, can you promise me that you won't end up like you did – like you did a week ago?"

"Of course, mum," he said, ignoring propriety while his teacher was watching, wrapping her in a tight hug. Gods, he'd really been an idiot. "I promise."

"Then you can participate," she said, once they had finally separated once more. "And Izuku, promise me: do your best."

He smiled, his heart resolute. "I will."

Still, that didn't change the fact that he was out of feruchemical charge, and even if he could fill two metalminds at once, that would leave him with less than a handful metalminds to work with for the entire Festival.

That… doesn't sound very promising…

"Hey, Kan-sensei, can we come in now?"

He gasped. "Tokage?"

"I suppose so," Kan-sensei said reluctantly. "I should have guessed all of you would be here at this time. I've said enough. Izuku – have a speedy recovery, and I'll see you on Monday for the Festival."

With that, Kan-sensei exited, and five very familiar faces entered.

"Yo, Izuku!" Tokage grinned, although it looked slightly strained to him. "Hey again, Mrs Midoriya!"

"Tokage, dear," she said, returning the greeting. "And Monoma, Kendou, Pony, and Komori. Thank you all very much for visiting my son again."

Izuku's mouth fell open. Sure, he should have expected that, but even then…

"Oh, don't look so stunned, Midoriya," Monoma scoffed, dragging a chair over. "You've been here for more than a week. Of course we've met Mrs Midoriya!"

"Monoma…"

"In the flesh," he said easily, but something was off about him. "Midoriya… about USJ…"

It clicked. Looking over at Pony, Komori, and Kendou, they seemed to be just as guilty as the other two.

"There's no need to talk about USJ anymore, Monoma," he said, addressing the others as well. "Let's put it all behind us. We're all alive, and you've still got an arm. Besides, I'm guessing that Kan-sensei lectured all of you already."

They winced at that. "Yeah," Kendou said. "But Midoriya…"

"It's alright, Kendou." He sat up, and gestured for them to sit more comfortably by the bedside. "We're all friends, right?"

"Yeah," she said, smiling. "You're right."

"Hey!" Tokage exclaimed. "I just realised! You never called us friends before!"

"Well, willingly entering the giant death-trap of villains and doom called USJ together does tend to change one's perspective on things," he said dryly.

"Snark, too! That's something new!"

"Hey, I can do animal impressions, too. Would you like to hear them?"

"Sarcasm! Will surprises never cease?"

"Bark, bark. Moo, moo. Neigh, neigh."

"Hey, that's rude!" Pony exclaimed indignantly, gesturing at her horns, and Izuku stiffened in a panic.

"No, Pony, I didn't mean –"

Then, he caught sight of her barely able to control her laughter, before he sighed. "You too?"

Beside him, his mum began laughing. "Izuku!" she scolded. "They're your guests visiting you! Don't be rude!"

He looked at her guiltily. "Sorry, mum," he said. Then, something nagged at him, before he realised just what it was. "Mum! I forgot, let me properly introduce my friends –"

"It's alright, dear," she said mirthfully. He hadn't seen that for a long time. "Izuku – I'm really glad to know that you've made such great friends in school." She turned to face them all. "Really. Thank you all for looking after him."

"Pretty sure he looks after us at this point," Komori snorted. "You should have seen what happened back when we were isolated on the ship in USJ."

Izuku blinked. Since when had Komori spoken that candidly?

"Oh yeah! Your mum told us loads of embarrassing stories about you, too!" Tokage said. "Is it true that you –"

"Mum!"

"I didn't say anything yet," Tokage said, a mischievous grin on her face, more in line with how she usually was. "Hmm… but the fact that you replied… could it be that you do have embarrassing secrets?"

"You tricked me?"

"Trick is a harsh word," she tapped at her lip. "I prefer selective baiting."

"How is that any better?"

"Alright, Setsuna, lay off on him a little," Monoma said. "He's a recovering man."

He could have thanked Monoma, the unassuming source of normalcy in his tiny kingdom in the infirmary. Then, his chosen term of address clicked with him.

"Setsuna?" he repeated. "Okay, what on Earth happened while I was gone?"

"You said it yourself, life and death does kind of change your perspective on things." Monoma shrugged. "We all unanimously agreed to call each other by our first names."

That was an interesting development. Monoma was right, though. After USJ, talking to them now felt so natural. In some ways, he felt even closer to them than he once did with Bakugou.

His mum nudged against him, and he looked at her quizzically. She cleared her throat loudly, not-so-subtly tilting her head towards the other five students by his bedside.

"Oh!" he yelped. "You can call me Izuku, too!"

"Great! Then the same goes for us, too!" Tokage – no, Setsuna said. "Izuku – hey, that name kind of sounds rather familiar –"

He sighed. "You've been calling me that since day one."

"Have I? It's hard to remember, since you've been stuck in here for more days than we've had classes." Setsuna glared at him.

"How is it my fault?"

"You did kind of force a lot more health down me than was really necessary, you know," Neito said, exchanging nods with Setsuna. "In a way, that kind of is your fault, isn't it?"

"I –" He looked at the other three of his friends. "Say something!"

Again, his mum laughed, and they all looked at her. "I'm sorry," she said. "Izu – you really do have good friends here in Yuuei. Now that I know you're alright, I'll let you all have some moment to talk in private without me around. You all have fun, and I'll have a word with Recovery Girl, okay?"

Izuku nodded, smiling reassuringly. She stood up, walking toward the bay curtain. She paused there, however, turning her head to look at him. There was a teasing look in her eye, the only warning sign he had before she delivered her own ribbing toward him.

"Still, though, Izuku," she said, giving a mock sigh. "A mother could only hope that the day her son introduces her to four pretty girls wouldn't be one where he's lying in a hospital bed."

With that, she exited, the interior of the bay deathly silent.

Izuku could practically feel his face heating up. Had his mother just teased him? About girls?

"Dude, Izuku," Neito said, still looking at the closed curtain. "Your mum is savage."

-o-o-o-

Time flew by quickly as they chatted about all manner of inane things. Before he knew it, the bell rang. "Gah!" Setsuna's head detached from her body, hopping for an instant on her neck. "That scared me! Oh, crap – lunch break's over!"

Izuku was aghast. "You skipped lunch to come here?"

"Eh, no biggie. We'll just sneak a snack in class or something."

"We could just stay here –"

"And get chewed off by Kan-sensei again? No thanks, Neito," she said. "Yo, Izuku! We'll see you around, 'kay?"

He nodded, still thankful for his new friends. "Sure. The Festival on Monday, right?"

Then, he gasped, finally remembering just what his latest concern was. "The Sports Festival! I don't have any metalminds! Guys, do you know where the ones with my costume went?"

Strangely, the girls glanced at Neito. He sighed. "I figured this would happen," he muttered, digging around in his pocket. "Here."

He handed over a few bangles – iron, steel, and pewter, Izuku thought he recognised. He reached out toward them gratefully. "Neito, you're the best!"

The moment he made contact with it, however, his eyes widened. "What in the –"

"While you were out gallivanting in gremlin-land dreaming about your hoard of gold, I've been tapping on your quirk," Neito said, smirking. "Weight in iron, speed in steel, strength in pewter, right?"

Izuku's mouth fell wide open. For a few long moments, he didn't speak.

"Uh, Neito?" Pony said hesitantly. "I think you broke him."

"But –" he said, once he finally regained his bearings. "This amount of charge – they're all more than half-full! It had to have taken at least a few hours per attribute!"

"Yeah, well, you were kind of out for more than a week," he said pointedly. "Trust me, having to refresh my quirk every five minutes filling these damned things was a massive pain. Iron was fun, but pewter made me feel like the wind could snap me in half."

"Neito…"

"And steel? Don't even get me started on steel," he continued, unabated. "How the hell do you even stand filling up that one? I felt sick within the first cycle of using my quirk!"

"Neito…" he repeated numbly. "This… you…"

"Consider it repayment for saving my life," Neito said firmly. "I gave up trying to fill zinc, but hopefully this will be enough to let you have a chance in the Sports Festival. Your costume and all the other metals are with Recovery Girl."

"You're the best, Neito!"

"You already said that."

"No, you're the best best!" Izuku could have hugged him. Holy crap! That shaved off at least three or four days of work. If he worked on zinc over the weekend, and topped them up with a mix of a few tinminds, and a couple more iron, pewter, and steel metalminds… perhaps an aluminium bangle just in case… "You're like – if steel and zinc went and had a baby!"

"Yeah, he's definitely broken," Setsuna commented. "Anyway, guys! We really need to get moving!"

"We'll see you on Monday, Izuku," Itsuka said, having already went and placed their chairs back where they had gotten them, responsible as she was. "Don't strain yourself, okay?"

"Oh, yeah! Before we forget, we brought something for you!" Kinoko quickly handed something over to him, hidden somewhere in her uniform. "Mushrooms!"

He blinked, looking at the rest for some explanation. Neito sighed. "We tried convincing her that people usually brought flowers or fruits, but she just wouldn't listen."

"Mushrooms are the best!" she argued hotly.

"I thought you were against anyone eating your mushrooms?"

"Well, these aren't my mushrooms, are they?" She shook her head. "Really, Izuku, you're so silly."

What did he ever do to get stuck with this group of oddballs as his first friends in Yuuei?

"Alright, enough dallying. Izuku Squad, move out!" Setsuna ordered, separating out her limbs, dragging each of the other four out of the bay. He didn't know when or why she had learnt to use her feet to grab at the collar of Neito's and Pony's uniform, but he suspected it was better that he didn't question that.

"Bye!" Pony waved cheerfully, the last to exit the bay. Moments later, his mother and Recovery Girl entered once more.

"They're a lively bunch," Recovery Girl commented, but then fixed him with a deadly glare. "You! No more of this nearly getting yourself killed nonsense, you hear me?"

He stiffened. "Y-yes ma'am!"

"Good." She stepped up to him, poking and prodding him with a few devices. "Well, you look like you've mostly recovered. Still a little dehydrated and malnourished from my quirk, but I'll prescribe some medication for that. Make sure you eat enough and drink plenty of fluids."

She turned to his mother. "Well, Mrs Midoriya, your son is fit enough to be discharged, now."

She bowed deeply. "Thank you very much for your help, Recovery Girl."

"Think nothing of it, Mrs Midoriya. It is our fault that your son got into this mess," she said kindly, before once more turning on him. "And you! I don't want to see you get your mother worried like this ever again, you hear me?"

"Y-yes!"

She continued staring at him, before finally nodding. "Very well, then. You're dismissed. Your costume and equipment are by the counter. Your friends have put all your missed homework next to them. Take them on your way out."

With a final nod to his mother, she drew the screens back, walking off to another one of the medical bays. "Come, Izuku," his mother said, as he slowly stood up. "Let's go home."

-o-o-o-

Izuku performed the final checks on the metalminds he had in his possession as he stood outside the prep-room assigned to his class for the Sports Festival. Of those that were fully filled, he had two bracelets for pewter, one for iron, one for steel, an assortment of rings for the different tin senses, and the painstakingly obtained zincmind. Some were hastier last-minute additions – an aluminiummind with a trickle of charge, and a small amount of speed stored in another steel bangle.

He didn't have any time to play around with bronze, gold, or brass, but he wore the empty metalminds anyway, just in case he could serendipitously find some time to store a charge. In the worst case, they could prove a useful distraction, some kind of red herring to throw off other competitors if they wanted to disable him of his quirk. Come to think of it, perhaps he should incorporate some other metallic alloys that were completely useless for his quirk, to trick future villains he came into contact with.

They would have to be enough for the Festival. He knew the format well – up first was a more generic event serving to weed out the majority of the students, followed by a team-based activity that would decide the finalists advancing to the tournament stage. He could only hope the metalminds he scrounged together would be enough.

Well, even if it wasn't, there wasn't much else he could do. All he could do was give his best.

With that thought in mind, he opened the door, stepping inside the prep-room –

"SURPRISE!"

He jumped, drawing on pewter, muscles enlarging to twice their size, falling into a defensive stance.

"Uhh – so that really wasn't the kind of reaction we were aiming for…" Setsuna said, scratching her head with a separated arm. "But oh well! Welcome back, Izuku!"

He gaped, shrinking back down, as he stared incomprehensibly at nineteen other students already present in the room, a banner hung up on the far end of the wall, with a miniature series of fireworks generated in the vicinity of Manga Fukidashi. "What is all this?"

"Yo, welcome back, Midoriya!" Tsuburaba said, sitting at the table closest to the door. "Heard you beat up some villains good, and saved Monoma's ass!"

Tetsutetsu laughed boisterously at that. "Damn right! Couldn't have invited us along, could you, Midoriya?"

"Tsuburaba, Tetsutetsu! I thought we agreed never to bring that up again?" Monoma said indignantly.

"Well, Midoriya doesn't know that, does he?"

"What is all this?" Izuku repeated, looking around. "There's still another twenty minutes until we're supposed to start! Why's everyone here?"

"Kendou thought it would be a good bonding experience for us to welcome you back to school, and we all unanimously agreed," Shishida said calmly. "We know you arrive to class at least twenty minutes beforehand, which meant we had to be here an hour earlier to make sure we arrived earlier than you."

"An hour?"

"Yeah, thanks for that, Izuku," Neito said, eyes narrowed. "Could have spent an extra hour in bed, but no, you just had to be early for everything."

"I'm… sorry?"

"You should be," he said, scoffing. "Anyway! Now that he's here, let's start our strategy meeting!"

"What?"

"The Festival has three events. We'll try and get as many of us through to the second round as possible. Some of us will work independently to secure a good spot in the first event, but the rest of us have decided to cooperate if it isn't favourable for our quirks," Itsuka said, speaking for his benefit. "Once we know the details of the first event, we'll decide what to do."

Cooperate… that made a lot of sense. From what he had seen of the Festival watching on television, the first event served mainly to weed out the competition. Sure, there were some benefits to finishing in the top few spots, but there was a very good chance of making a comeback in the second event to go through to the tournament.

With his quirk, he had to conserve what energy he had, using it only when necessarily. There was no point exhausting all his charge to finish at the top place of the first event, only to completely fall flat in the second.

A time and place for everything. The basis of feruchemy.

Izuku nodded. "That makes sense."

"Okay, then! We'll continue discussing about the plan later in the stadium. Make sure that everyone sticks with the class when they announce the details."

With that, the impromptu announcement was ended, and his classmates returned to whatever they had been doing. A couple of them spoke with him briefly, and he got the impression that something had changed in the class atmosphere during the two weeks he had been gone.

"Hey, Midoriya!" Tetsutetsu came up to him, thumping him on the shoulder. "Don't expect me to go easy on you just because you've been out of class! We've got to show everyone that we've got what it takes to face villains, too!"

He smiled warmly at that challenge. "I look forward to it," he said, appreciating Tetsutetsu's candour. His classmate laughed, walking off to join Awase.

"Things have changed a lot while I was gone, huh?" he asked Neito as he approached. "It's a lot more… lively, than I remember."

"I'm sure it has nothing to do with you nearly dying," Setsuna said nonchalantly. "Nothing at all. Zero. Zilch."

"Kan-sensei had some team activities for us, too," Pony informed him. "Then we had a hero class with All Might as well."

He gasped. "I missed All Might's lesson?" He wasn't as big a fanboy as he once was, but it was still All Might.

"It wasn't as interesting as we hoped. Apparently, he had to tone down his classes after 1-A blew up some buildings," Pony said, shrugging. "Besides, now Neito knows better than to talk smack about 1-A, doesn't he?"

She fixed him with an icy glare, nostrils flaring, and Neito gulped, his face turning green. "Y-yes, Pony! No more 1-A talk from me, I swear!"

Izuku smiled. Neito was good, but his bias toward 1-A had stuck out like a sore thumb. It was good to know that whatever happened with him back at USJ now made him reconsider his opinions toward them.

And who knew that Pony could be so scary?

"Are you sure you're healthy enough to take part, Izuku?" Kinoko asked, worried. "You did eat my mushrooms like I asked, right?"

He made a face. He'd had mushrooms for every meal for the last few days, since she had apparently brought mushrooms each time that they came to visit him. "I'm all better now. Mum made special care to cook them. I'm still a little short on charge, but hopefully I can make it through the day," he reassured her. "What about you guys?"

"We're pumped!" Setsuna gave a whoop of excitement. "A Sports Festival with my new best friends? Heck yeah!"

"Best friends? A little presumptuous, aren't we?"

"Says the Phantom Thief," she snorted. "Seriously, you're almost sixteen! Haven't you outgrown that chunibyou phase of yours?"

"I – what?"

"And victory goes to Setsuna Tokage once again," she said, grinning. "Keep up, Neito!"

"Things really have changed, haven't they?" Izuku spoke softly, watching in bewilderment as the pair fell into an impromptu verbal spar of thinly-veiled insults and barbs.

"Mmhmm," Itsuka agreed. "It's like they're an old married couple."

He laughed. Setsuna and Neito? "Pretty sure they'd kill each other long before that happens."

"You never know," she said, still watching them. "They did make quite a pair in Kan-sensei's class."

"What happened?"

"He copied her quirk, and they both started setting up jump-scares in the building they were supposed to defend. I think poor Bondo almost fainted," she said, shaking her head. "They got stuck after Awase welded their heads together, though."

That would have been amusing. "Wish I could have seen that."

"I think Pony and Kinoko took videos. You can ask them," she said. "For now, though –"

She was interrupted a chime that played over the intercom system, before he heard what he recognised as Midnight's voice. "All students, please report to the stadium field."

"Right on cue," she said, before raising her voice. "Alright! Class 1-B, let's get moving!"

"Aye aye, class chairman! To war!" Setsuna cried out.

And, to both his infuriation and complete bewilderment, his classmates joined in with her battle-cry. Instants later, he did likewise, as they stepped out of the prep-room and toward the first event.