Soon enough, Gray made it back to the stadium. To avoid drawing another wave of attention, he landed casually outside the facility and walked back in. A few pro heroes stationed near the gates gave him weird looks, especially the ones who didn't really know him, but he ignored them. He navigated the corridors, made it back into the stands, and reclaimed his seat right next to Mirko.
"Sorry about that," he said.
"No worries," Mirko replied.
And soon enough, the timer on the big screen buzzed loudly, marking the official end of the second event. The massive screen lit up across the arena, calculating the final scores for all the cavalry teams. Only the top four teams, the sixteen students who passed, truly mattered.
The screen displayed the final qualifying list of the four teams moving on to the tournament brackets:
Team Midoriya: Izuku Midoriya, Ochaco Uraraka, Mei Hatsume, Tenya Iida
Team Todoroki: Shoto Todoroki, Momo Yaoyorozu, Denki Kaminari, Neito Monoma
Team Bakugo: Katsuki Bakugo, Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu, Eijiro Kirishima, Itsuka Kendo
Team Shinso: Hitoshi Shinso, Minoru Mineta, Ibara Shiozaki, Fumikage Tokoyami
Scanning the board, Gray smirked the second he saw Izuku's team had managed to stick with their own 10-million-point headband. What was even better was seeing that Bakugo's team had barely managed to pass as well.
Looking over to his side, Gray smiled. "Please tell me you recorded everything," he asked Mirko.
Mirko's smile widened. "Of course I did," she said, shaking the video camera she held to the side.
"Perfect."
Now that the Cavalry Battle had ended, the students who passed were given an hour to rest and get ready for their upcoming 1v1 battles. Gray used the time to grab something to eat and check on the students for a while. Putting Eri on his shoulders, he turned and made his way inside.
Soon enough, Gray made it into the crowded cafeteria. Since the school set aside a private dining area for the hero kids and staff, the place was pretty quiet. A few pro heroes and teachers were sitting around talking, and Gray gave them a casual wave as he walked by.
Mirko came along with him. She had no interest in sitting by herself in the empty stands for a whole hour, so she figured she'd tag along where the food was.
They kept walking through the room until Gray finally spotted the finalists. Izuku, Ochaco, and Iida sat at a large table, along with a few other students who had missed the cut and decided to skip the optional recreational games.
Gray put Eri down so she could check out the menu and pick what she wanted. Mirko also took the chance to order food, so while they waited at a separate table, Gray walked over to catch up with the kids.
"Pretty exciting, huh?" Gray said, leaning against the edge of the booth with a relaxed grin. He turned his gaze directly toward the class representative. "Hey, Iida. Did you hear the news yet?"
Iida blinked, pushing up his glasses with his usual rigid, calculated precision. "Huh? What news, Gray-sensei?"
"Oh, you haven't heard?" Gray waved his hand dismissively, realizing instantly that Ingenium or the Hero Public Safety Commission hadn't officially notified the family yet about the alleyway ambush in Hosu City. "Never mind then. This is probably something you shouldn't hear from me. Forget I mentioned it."
"Uh... understood!" Iida nodded, though a faint look of confusion lingered on his face.
"Well," Gray said, standing up straight. "I'll leave you kiddos to it. I'm starving!"
He walked back over to Mirko and Eri's table and sat down. Grabbing the menu, Gray ordered enough food for ten people. Thanks to all the gold he had funneled to Principal Nezu, he had plenty of normal pocket change to buy whatever he wanted without ever touching his system balance. It was much better to just let his gold stack up over time so he could focus on buying the major system upgrades.
After they finished eating, Mirko looked ready to head back to the arena. Gray turned to the little girl next to him. "Eri, go ahead and go back to our seats with Mirko. I still have something I need to do real quick."
Eri happily took Mirko's hand, and the two headed back toward the stands.
Left alone, Gray started looking around the hallways until he finally spotted the kid he was looking for: Todoroki.
But before he could even call out, a massive man covered in fire stepped right in his path. It was Endeavor. Gray's good mood instantly vanished.
"Tch," Gray said, making sure the flaming hero heard him.
"Where do you think you're going?" Endeavor asked, moving his massive body to block Gray from even seeing the kid.
"Can you move?" Gray asked. "I'm trying to speak to Shoto before the matches start."
"Hmph," Endeavor crossed his arms over his chest and puffed out some smoke. "And what is so important that you have to speak to my son?"
"Listen, asshole," Gray said, getting more irritated by the second after the whole Stain situation. "I'm not in the mood for your bullshit today, so either you move, or I will do it for you."
A vein popped on Endeavor's head. "Who do you think yo-"
He never got to finish his sentence. Gray drove a hard punch straight into his stomach, making the hero's eyes roll back instantly. But before Endeavor could hit the floor and cause a scene, Gray caught him by the shoulder.
He dragged the unconscious man into a public restroom a few feet away, sat him down on a toilet inside one of the stalls, and locked the door. Gray washed his hands at the sink, walked back out into the quiet hallway, and finally went to speak with Shoto.
Gray found the kid sitting alone in a quiet corner, eating a sandwich and looking at his phone. Gray noticed Shoto was watching videos of the other contestants using their quirks, trying to make a game plan for the matches. Gray smiled and tapped him on the shoulder.
Shoto took out an earphone and looked up. Seeing Gray standing there, he took the other one out too. "What's wrong?" he asked.
"Oh, nothing much," Gray said as he sat down opposite him. "You making plans for the matches?"
"Mm," Shoto said, looking back down at his screen. "I thought I could keep my fire side put away since I didn't want Endeavor to see me using it, but..." He hesitated, staring at his palms.
"Haha," Gray laughed, leaning back. "I wouldn't worry about your dad too much." Gray reached over and clapped a hand on Shoto's shoulder. "How many times has Uncle Iroh had that talk with you? It's your own power, not your dad's. Use it how you see fit."
Thinking back on his quiet tea sessions with Uncle Iroh, Shoto finally seemed to make up his mind. "Mm," he said, nodding firmly. "You're right."
"Of course I am," Gray said. He stood up and patted Shoto's shoulder a few more times. "Besides, I actually came here to tell you that if you hold back in the fights today, I'm doubling your training next weekend... so good luck."
Hearing that, Shoto's forehead instantly broke out in sweat. "That's a joke, right?" he asked, the color draining from his face.
"Well... hold back and find out," Gray said with a grin.
Gray didn't just stop with Shoto, though. Before heading back to his seat, he made a quick detour around the waiting rooms, tracking down every single finalist one by one. He gave each kid the exact same friendly smile, followed by the exact same terrifying threat: hold back during your match, and next weekend's training gets doubled. By the time he was done, half of the first-year contestants were sweating bullets and questioning their life choices.
Finally satisfied with his handiwork, Gray walked back up to the VIP section. The second he sat down, Mirko narrowed her eyes at him. He was practically bouncing in his seat, looking incredibly happy with himself.
"What did you do?" she asked, leaning in.
"Me?" Gray said, feigning innocence. "Nothing."
"Don't lie to me," she said, tapping her foot. "I know you. You did something."
"Well, I mean, not much," Gray said, looking away to avoid meeting her eyes. "Just told the kids not to hold back, that's all."
"And how exactly did you achieve that?" she asked, crossing her arms.
"Oh, you know, nothing major," Gray said, finally looking back at her with a grin. "I just told them I'd double their training if they held back."
Mirko let out a heavy sigh and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Are you sure that's a good idea? Some of them might actually destroy the stadium if they aren't careful."
"It'll be fineeee," Gray said, leaning back comfortably. "Besides, I'm right here. If someone goes out of control, I can stop it. And if things really get out of hand, Aizawa can just use his quirk. It's totally fine... maybe." He whispered the last part under his breath.
Mirko couldn't help but smile as she shook her head. "You're impossible."
"Yeah, well, it would've been boring if the kids held back," Gray said, his expression turning a bit more eager as he looked down at the arena. "I want to see the results of their training."
Down below, the stadium speakers roared back to life as Midnight finally took the podium once more to announce the start of the tournament.
Midnight raised her microphone, her voice booming over the speakers to quiet down the roaring stadium.
"Everyone, quiet down~! It's the moment you've all been waiting for!" she called out, cracking her riding crop through the air with a dramatic flourish. "Before the real action begins, let's bring out our sixteen glorious finalists!"
On her cue, the teenagers marched out onto the field. Cementoss had already stepped up to the center, using his quirk to smoothly materialize a massive, thick concrete fighting platform. Once all sixteen kids fell into formation on top of the stage, Midnight gestured grandly to the massive electronic display behind her.
"Look up at the big screen, listeners! It's time to see who will be clashing in our fateful first round!" she declared, licking her lips with a theatrical smile. "Let the brackets... begin!"
The display immediately lit up, the names shuffling around at a blinding speed as the crowd held its breath. After a few tense seconds, the electronic board clicked into place, locking in the tournament matchups:
Izuku vs. Shinso
Shoto vs. Monoma
Momo vs. Mei
Tetsutetsu vs. Kirishima
Kendo vs. Mineta
Iida vs. Ibara
Bakugo vs. Ochaco
Tokoyami vs. Kaminari
"There you have it!" Midnight yelled, her eyes flashing with excitement as she looked over the crowd. "Eight explosive matches to test your limits! Clear the stage, contestants, and let the first battle commence!"
Looking up at the board, it was clear the brackets were mostly set up as Class 1-A versus the rest of the school. They would only have to fight their own classmates if they survived to the later rounds. On paper, some of these matchups looked pretty one-sided. But considering how hard these kids had been grinding inside the training dimension over the past month, nobody was counting anyone out just yet. Hopefully, they would finally show the rest of the world exactly what they were capable of.
While the other contestants made their way off the field to their designated waiting areas, Izuku and Shinso remained on the concrete platform.
Before the Sports Festival had even started, Gray had approached Principal Nezu to suggest a few changes to the tournament grounds. From what he remembered of the original sports festival, the stage was just a flat slab of cement with some boundary lines painted on it; if a student stepped a single inch outside the lines, they were instantly disqualified. Gray found that design a bit boring for a proper battle showcase.
Instead, he had proposed a completely different layout. Thanks to Cementoss's quirk control, the stage was raised about two feet off the ground and built from heavy, interconnected stone blocks, looking exactly like a classic Dragon Ball Z World Martial Arts Tournament arena. With this new setup, simply pushing someone past a painted line wouldn't grant an easy victory. To secure a ring-out elimination, a contestant had to physically push their opponent off the platform until their feet touched the grass below.
Standing on opposite sides of the massive stone square, the two boys locked eyes. Izuku took a deep breath, dropping into a light, fluid combat stance as his mind ran through his classmates' warnings about the general studies student. Shinso stood perfectly relaxed, a faint, confident smirk playing on his lips as he prepared his strategy.
Up in her podium, Midnight raised her hand high, soaking in the stadium's ambient tension. With a dramatic flourish, she cracked her riding crop sharply through the air.
"First match! BEGIN!"