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The hallway is loud as the boys head for the training grounds. Izuku's costume is tight - sleek black with dim green highlights, but otherwise just like the one he'd had before - as he stretches his arms out.
"Izuku," Shouto nudges his side, and the green-haired boy looks up from where he's staring at the ground.
"Hm?"
Shouto gives him an amused look, a small smile on his lips. "You're mumbling again."
"Oh! So so so sorry!" He cries, bowing to everyone near him.
He doesn't catch Jirou and Shouji giving him weird looks, but Aizawa does, and the man only sighs.
The exercises go slowly. Jump to each platform safely (Izuku only falls once! Yay!), time your five lap run (1:39), and then...
"Listen up," Aizawa calls, voice gruff as he lifts the remote in his hand to point at the screen above them.
FREE FOR ALL: STEALTH MODE
"There are no limits to quirk usage," the man sighs, and voices overlap as several members of the class cheer. "Quiet."
With a flash of a red, quirked glare, silence falls back over them.
"You're going to have only two rules."
The screen flashes to the next slide, showing a crudely drawn diagram of someone that looks vaguely like Izuku being pushed off a building. The boy in question tries to hold back a snort; he knows he tends to get himself injured, but surely this is an over-exaggeration...?
"No fatal injuries," the teacher instructs, and then Izuku gets it.
Despite that, he can't help but mumble under his breath. "It wouldn't be fatal for me, though."
Two heads turn to him, but they shake it off. Izuku is just like that.
"And you can't get captured," Aizawa finished, looking more tired than when he began. "Which means that, with the tags given to all of you, you cannot be flagged by more than three people."
Izuku taps his chin, tilting his head slightly before he perks up and shoots his hand into the air. "Do quirk products count as your body?" He chirps, and several members of the class cringe.
"Not unless they're directly in contact with the body," Eraserhead drawls, and his tone suggests no other questions be asked. "You'll have two minutes to settle yourself in the cityside. If you are tagged by three people, your name will be called over the intercom, and you will be eliminated. By the time five students or less remain, the game will end and you will receive your classwork scores for today."
Izuku winces; several people here weren't good at stealth, and the ones who weren't usually needed the grade boost that came with successfully completing an exercise.
Denki flops to the floor, comically large tears flowing from his face. "Aw, man!"
Aizawa doesn't care, though, as it's then that he blows his whistle and sends the children scattering.
-
Where, Izuku thinks to himself, would be an ideal place to hide?
His strategy for now is to hide until all the bigger targets picked off so he can safely use the remaining number to identify his threats. He knows his partners will be on the upside of the tier list - even Tenya, with his huge armor, could slide himself into the shadows with ease ("It's part of being Ingenium," the boy had declared, but Izuku had seen Tensei on TV, and he knew full well that it was not.), but the others were wild cards.
He could count on Jirou and Shouji to survive into the later sections of the game. Their advanced hearing left them with several options of escape, but may also hinder them if there's a distraction played out. He knew Kacchan would also be a problem; for what the boy lacked in stealth (though he was still okay at it when he pushed himself to be), he made up for in terms of sheer power.
Something in the dark flashes at him, and he raises his tantos without a second thought, before the eyes blink at him. "Tsu," he breathes, lowering his weapons. "You scared me."
"Sorry, ribbit," she smiles. "Team up?"
Izuku takes a moment to think about it. It would be advantageous for both of them. Blackwhip and her tongue acted similarly, so they could strike in tandem from opposing directions, and with Tsu's camouflage and his danger sense, it would be insanely easy to slip away from potential attackers.
He nods, and she offers him a gloved hand. He takes it.
"TIME!"
The two leap (literally) into action. The alley is long, so it gives him unfettered distance to cross. He knows she won't attack him; she can't do so without him immediately turning on her.
Their first target? Easy. They come across Shouto, and the three grin at each other before Izuku bounces towards the wall and then off of it, Shouto immediately putting up a thick shield of ice that Tsu's tongue shatters with a flick, allowing Izuku to wrap his arms around the dual-user's neck, pinning him down and slapping one of his many tags on the boy's forehead.
"Really?" Shouto sighs, glancing up at Izuku with a fond yet exasperated smile. "Of all places?"
"You know I love you," Izuku coos in response, and Tsuyu stoops to gently smack her own tag directly on top of Izuku's.
With that, the pair let Shouto go.
Explosions ring in the air as the first eliminated is announced over the intercomms, Aizawa's voice a low, disappointed drawl. The tone itself makes Izuku cringe, and he knows that whoevers' name is about to be called is going to feel even worse.
"Ashido Mina has been eliminated, Kaminari Denki has been eliminated, Sero Hanta has been eliminated," the man sighs.
Ah. That makes sense. He wouldn't be surprised if the three had tried to team up only to accidentally turn on each other, with another attacker swooping in and swiftly attacking.
Maybe Kirishima and Kacchan teamed up, he murmurs to himself, then shares the thought with Tsu. She gives a quiet, thoughtful hum and a ribbit.
"I don't know," she responds, blinking slowly. "Bakugou seems a bit too stern for that, but Kirishima is very stubborn. Maybe they have some way to communicate through sky and ground? Bakugou can fly, right?"
"That would make sense," Izuku nods, mulling it over. "But that would imply..."
An explosion rings closer than before, cutting Izuku off as Danger Sense thrums in his chest. He grabs Tsuyu and leaps into the air, cursing under his breath as he sees who it is.
Momo. Of course. The girl could easily produce nitroglycerin of her own, it was just a matter of protecting her skin and igniting it.
Tsuyu wraps her tongue around the girl's waist, but Momo quickly opens the Velcro of her shirt and covers her stomach in some sort of liquid that makes Tsuyu gag, retreating into herself as she huddles in the corner, stomach heaving.
"Yowch," Izuku says sympathetically, glancing back at Momo, who's setting off his senses with every step. Her walk is silent, but confident. He can tell she's underestimating them, and Izuku doesn't blame her - they've never really interacted.
It's because of this that he can take her off guard.
So Izuku shoves his hands behind his back, undoes his tantos, and then sighs. Goggles sit on Momo's face as smoke billows from her outstretched hands. He glances back to Tsuyu while he still can, and then crouches.
Panic swells in his chest and he knows his breathing is picking up. He wants to cry, but he stomps the urge down, firming his features into a wide grin.
It's fine. Izuku can handle this. Gran Torino trained him for this.
Inconvenient, but it's fine.
It's when he glances up that he realizes the absolute madwoman has flooded the entire arena. "Kami," he breathes, a wicked grin spreading over his lips as he wields his tantos in front of him, Momo looking satisfied with herself. "Do you know what you've done?"
Momo fumbles for a moment, visibly confused. Izuku takes the moment to leap forward and parry the sword she's got halfway formed from her stomach, knocking the unfinished metal away. His tag is swiftly placed on her forehead, and Tsuyu places hers right beside it without so much of a shift of the smoke.
"You've handed us the win."
"Momo Yaoyorozu is eliminated," Aizawa sighs over the announcement system, but Izuku can tell he's impressed.
Despite the pitch black now covering the area, the gleam of Momo's eyes catches his as she hugs him, voice soft in his ear. "Thanks," she says gently. "For taking me out easily instead of toying with me."
And then she's gone.
Izuku reaches his hand behind him and Tsuyu takes it, her webbed fingers clasping his.
-
From then, it's easy pickings.
Izuku bounces from alley to alley, using the thick smoke to try and locate people by stretching tendrils of blackwhip out, attempting to use shifts in the fog. It would work if they could actually find anyone; Tsu reassures him that he did what he could.
They never once again see Tenya, Shouto, or Ochako, but they know they're still in the game. Bakugou had gotten out halfway through, being unused to the smoke. The force of his explosions made him more visible as he blew the darkness away.
No, the darkness here was an advantage. Very much so.
Sure enough, it comes down to the final five, and Izuku expects Eraserhead to call it quits over the intercom. In fact, he swears he hears it crackle.
Nothing.
"Crap," the frog girl sighs, and he can hear her nervously ruffle her hair. "We're gonna have to fight the others."
He meets Tsuyu's barely visible eyes and nods. "To the end?" he offers.
"To the end, kero."
Shouto is the first to go. They don't know who did it, but all he needed was one more tag, anyways.
The slow creak of metal and the flare in his chest is the only warning he gets before a tag is smacked onto his upper arm. Thankfully, Tenya didn't get Tsuyu, who swings her tongue and snags the engine of the boy who'd literally tried to hit and run. He squirms in her grip, but Izuku reaches out with blackwhip and reinforces her grasp. Two tags (and kisses - they knew the cameras couldn't see everything) smacked on the speedster's face later, his name was called.
"Surprisingly easy," Tenya jokes, and all three of them laugh before the armored boy leaves.
Just him, Tsuyu, and Ochako.
"Game end," Aizawa's voice drawls, and everyone in the arena relaxes. "All remaining players, head to the entry point to be assisted."
Ochako is dirtied when they eventually find her, but she gives them a tired grin and a thumbs up. "I took down Bakugo," she says simply, and the other two gape at her.
"Chako!" Izuku laughs, wrapping her in a victory hug. "That's amazing."
"Congrats," Tsu agrees, ribbiting under her breath. "That's a big opponent."
Ochako braces a hand on her bicep as she flexes, and all three grin wider.
Recovery Girl awaits them, but thankfully Izuku doesn't need her this time. The woman gives Tsu some water for whatever substance Momo had covered her tongue with (later, Tsuyu would tell them it was vinegar.), and Ochako some energy gummies.
They're met with cheers, and Izuku finds himself comfortable between his friends and partners.