The U.A. Sports Festival arrived like a thunderclap.
Rei watched the opening ceremony from the competitor's tunnel, feeling the roar of the crowd as kinetic pressure against her skin. Thousands of hearts beating. Thousands of bodies shifting. It was overwhelming.
Midoriya appeared beside her, already in his hero costume—green and black, practical, with that ridiculous mask. "Nervous?"
"Always." She adjusted her own costume: form-fitting white with vector-pattern circuitry that helped her calculate angles. Her father's design. She'd modified it to allow more range of motion. "You?"
"Terrified." He grinned. "Let's do it anyway."
The first event was announced: an obstacle race. Four kilometers across an artificially constructed hellscape.
Rei felt her competitive instincts rise. At Shiketsu, she'd been Rank 2. She knew how to win. But as she looked at Midoriya—at the way his eyes tracked the course, already calculating, already planning—she felt something else.
She wanted him to win more than she wanted to win herself.
The starting gun fired.
Rei ran, her Quirk lightening her steps, nullifying air resistance. She moved like a ghost, passing competitors who strained against physics while she simply... ignored them. Todoroki passed her on a wave of ice, cold and beautiful. Bakugo flew overhead, explosions propelling him like a rocket.
And Midoriya—
Midoriya was behind. Trapped in a minefield of villain bots, using his broken fingers to smash through, sacrificing his body for progress.
Rei slowed. She shouldn't. Winning meant everything, her father had said, winning proved worth—
Screw that.
She reached back, her Quirk extending, and pulled . Nullified the kinetic energy of the bots around Midoriya, freezing them in place.
"Go!" she shouted.
He looked up, surprised, then understanding dawned. "Rei—"
"Win this," she said. "I'll catch up."
He ran. She watched him go, feeling something warm in her chest despite the cold logic of sacrifice.
She finished eighth. Midoriya finished first.
In the waiting area, he found her, still breathing hard, costume torn from a fall she'd taken after helping him. "You slowed down," he accused.
"I optimized," she lied.
"Rei." He grabbed her shoulders. "You could have won. You were ahead of everyone except Todoroki and Bakugo, and you stopped ."
"I stopped some robots," she corrected. "Briefly."
"For me."
She looked away. "Partners, remember? Your win is my win."
"That's not—" He stopped. Took a breath. "Thank you. But next time, don't sacrifice your placement for me. I want to win against you at your best. Not your... your selfless version."
Rei felt her heart stutter. "You want to compete against me?"
"I want to earn my victories," he said seriously. "And I want you to earn yours. Even if that means you beat me."
The cavalry battle was announced. Teams of four.
Midoriya looked at her. "Partners?"
"Partners," she agreed.
They recruited Iida and Uraraka—speed and anti-gravity, perfect complements to their kinetic control. The team was unstoppable.
Until Todoroki froze the entire arena.
Rei felt the cold as a lack of kinetic energy, molecules slowing, motion dying. She countered instinctively, redirecting heat from the stadium lights, from the friction of movement, from the very air itself.
The ice melted. Steam exploded. And in the chaos, Midoriya's team won.
"That was incredible!" Midoriya grabbed her hands, spinning her in celebration. "The way you redirected thermal energy—I didn't know you could do that!"
"Kinetic energy includes molecular motion," Rei explained, breathless from more than the battle. "Heat is just... excited particles. I can... calm them. Or excite them."
"You're amazing," he said, and he was looking at her like she'd hung the stars.
Rei felt her Quirk spike. Overflow warning: 40% and rising.
"Midoriya," she managed. "I need to discharge. Soon."
His expression shifted immediately to concern. "Now? Here?"
"Not yet. But after the finals..." She looked at the bracket. She'd made it. Top sixteen. Her first match was against... "Tokoyami. Dark Shadow. A kinetic nightmare."
"I'll help you train," Midoriya said immediately. "Dark Shadow is weak to light, but strong against physical attacks. Your Quirk might—"
"Midoriya." She squeezed his hands. "Thank you. For everything."
He blushed. Actually blushed, red spreading across his freckled cheeks. "I should be thanking you. You saved me in the race. You won the cavalry battle. You're... you're incredible, Rei."
She wanted to kiss him. The impulse was so strong she stepped back, breaking contact, terrified of what her Quirk might do if she lost control.
"After the festival," she said, not knowing what she was promising. "We'll talk. After."
He nodded, still flushed. "After."