It's Not a Muskateers Reference!

Glorified Hide-And-Seek

"Alright, kids!!! You're good to go!!" Midnight called out, and everyone scrambled to get into Ground Omega. Izuku and Hatsume walked in after everyone else was inside, Izuku wearing her jetpack while she wore the hover boots. Their plan was relatively simple, they just had to avoid getting tagged by flying upwards so that no one could reach them. Izuku had wanted to hide in the trees, but Hatsume wanted to get the spotlight, meaning that hiding in the trees wouldn't really work for her.

Even if Izuku wasn't too sure about being in the spotlight with it being something like this, and in general his dislike for attention, this plan would work just fine as long as they did it right, and Izuku trusted that Hatsume was telling the truth when she said that her inventions would be enough to make the plan succeed.

They took off using her inventions, and from up so high, they could see everything that was happening in the forest below them. Well, not exactly everything, with all of the tree tops in the way, but they could see a lot. Hatsume waved to all of the cameras, and started talking about her inventions, and he was sure that she'd be able to keep the attention on her, even without him.

Then again, though, there were multiple cameras, so maybe not. Still though, he probably wasn't very helpful in keeping positive attention.

Things were going pretty well, really. No one was going to try to get them from up here, too busy on protecting their own targets or going after the easy targets.

Things were going too well, because the universe couldn't allow Izuku good things for very long. Not that he thought he deserved good things. Why would he?

Just as Izuku thought that they were acutally going to get to the third round, a rocket came hurtling towards him, and it only took him two seconds to realize that the rocket was actually Bakugou.

Oh shit.

He couldn't deal with Bakugou, not now, not with so many people watching. Then they'd all judge him and-

He freaked out, and launched even farther into the sky in order to get away. Except then the jetpack reached its limit on how high it would go, and Bakugou was getting closer, "I'm gonna kill you, you fucking nerd!!"

Nope nope nope nope nope no-

On a whim, he turned off the jetpack, rocketing downwards faster than Bakugou could catch.

And then he realized.

He was falling. Very fast.

Fucksickles.

He had two options, either he could turn the jetpack back on, or he could use One for All to make enough pressure to push himself up.

He didn't trust himself to use One for All without hurting someone, so he pushed down on the button to propell himself, and ended up crashing into a tree.

Well.

At least he didn't die from falling. Though maybe his death wouldn't be too bad- No, if he died in the Sports Festival, UA might get in trouble.

Now he was stuck in a tree. At least he wasn't near Bakugou any mo-

He was rocketing right towards him, too fast for Izuku to be able to escape his wrath. He wriggled his was out of the branches, and couched on the tree branch just as Bakugou got too him, explosions popping in his hands.

Bakugou grabbed his wrist with an explosion in his palm, and Izuku braced himself for the heat, but none came.

He had taken Bakugou's quirk.

Again.

Bakugou stared at him in shock, as if he didn't expect it despite the fact that it had happened before. Izuku stared back, and idly noticed that both of Bakugou's targets were on his shoulders.

He could easily touch them.

He didn't want to ruin Bakugou's chances of becoming a hero by eliminating him, but at the same time, Izuku wanted to pass. Izuku also didn't want to fight Bakugou in the third round, especially not after he had stolen Bakugou's quirk.

Besides, Bakugou didn't need to get to the third round to become a hero..

He.

Touched.

The targets.

Bakugou growled at him, enraged.

Izuku wanted to push the quirk back to Bakugou, give him his quirk back, but in a panic, he instead used it to fly away from Bakugou, leaving him on the tree branch.

Through the adreniline, he couldn't think much on what he'd just done, but he knew that when it was all over, he'd be a wreck.

He flew back to where Hatsume was waiting for him, and she grinned, "That was awsome, Mister First Place!!"

He didn't bother denying it, instead watching as Bakugou angerly stomped out of the area.

He hadn't wanted to take Bakugou's quirk, nor had he wanted to eliminate him, but it had happened anyways.

He could only hope that Bakugou wasn't too mad about it, but he knew that it would be in vein.

The rest of the second round went well, and Mic eventually called a stop to the event. Both Hatsume and Izuku went back down to the ground, and they exited with the rest of the remaining contestants.

He was one of the last 16 remaining.

It was... It was weird. He never would've thought he'd get this far, and yet... he had.

But the way he had done it wasn't something he would've ever wanted. After all, since Bakugou hadn't passed the second round, there was a good chance he wouldn't get many internship offers, meaning that even if Bakugou was able to be a hero still, it might be harder and-

No, he wasn't good enough for him to have possibly messed up Bakugou.

Still, he had taken Bakugou's quirk, and that meant that until he returned it, Bakugou would be quirkless.

That meant that he was a villain, like they all said, but he already knew that.

He didn't want to be a villain, though.

He wanted to be a hero.

He closed the door to the empty waiting room behind him as he slumped into the seat.

The pairings for the tournament round would be announced in half an hour, and until then, those who had been eliminated could play in minigames in the areana.

Until then, Izuku needed some alone time to think about what had happened.