Chapter 52: Chapter 51:
The 30-minute lunch break for the students turned out to be a 15-minute lunch break as they were busy traveling back to the stadium canteen for half of the allotted time.
Lunch Rush had never experienced such a rush of people surging towards the canteen in his life, the event evidently worsening the already present hunger the student populace had.
Team golden standard, a name forced upon the unknowing team, was in a much better condition than the other students. Seeing how little their respective conditions changed after such a spectacle only further enforced the image of them being the 'chosen ones' in their minds.
Obviously, a few were angry, and displayed rather apparent envy- or in the case of a certain ash-blonde satchel charge, unbridled fury- they saw it as unfair that they were allowed to team up.
They wanted to be in their team, they wanted that guaranteed spot in the finals, and it did anger them that their 'tickets to the final' were teaming up with one another when the time of the announcement of the event came.
Unfortunately for them, they knew better than to confront them on their lack of 'sportsmanship' or sense of 'fair play'. Whenever such thoughts came to them, a sudden inexplicable chill ran down their spines, a metaphorical knife was pointed at their throats.
Some of the smarter ones figured out the cause of it and were more than relieved that they didn't confront the frontrunners about it in hindsight. It was the Goddess/Empress of the school.
Most of them have no idea what her quirk is, and any time they questioned her servants- because they refuse to believe she sees them as actual equals, like good friends should- about it, they only replied that they should respect her privacy.
They could only conclude that it was too powerful for the sports festival, which would answer the question as to why she wasn't present on the battlefield. Some planned to send thank you letters to the principal for not letting her compete and giving them a 'chance'.
One person, however, didn't get the memo.
It was the loud explosion user in class 1-A.
People looked on in abject horror as he stormed towards the table with the chosen ones sitting on it, a clear scowl on his face.
His intentions were clear as day, yet nobody wanted to stop him. They preferred having their eardrums intact, and not burst, due to the ash-blonde not knowing what an inside voice is.
Not noticing the stares he was getting, the grenade kept walking towards the table. He wanted to show them their place, below him as stepping stones. He felt his instincts flare up as soon as the thought entered his mind, but decided to ignore it.
A decision which he will come to regret soon enough.
Meanwhile, the raven-haired team leader and her team were peacefully enjoying their meal. Well, as peaceful as one could get when Inasa is excited and within earshot. But, his excitement was endearing to her, and a trait he would be weird without having.
She looked upon her two male teammates who were conversing about their favorite topic vividly, Endeavor hate threads.
She's sure that if she had never met Sakuya, she would be utterly conflicted about hearing two hero course students bad-mouthing the number two 'hero'. It is still a bit surreal listening to them even now, but she can understand the hate he gets now to an extent.
As she was enjoying her cup of Darjeeling tea, which she didn't know Lunch Rush served, a sudden thump was heard at the end of the table catching everyone's attention. She decided to have the upper hand in the conversation, otherwise, it would turn into a shouting match with only him competing.
"Hello, Bakugo-san. Were you lonely? You can eat with us if you wan-"
"I'm not lonely!"
"Are you sure? Your personality is off-putting, and frankly, revolting to most. Alas, I am happy that you have found some friends in UA that can stomach your personality."
"Huh?! What's wrong with my personality?! You wanna figh-"
"That is what's wrong with your personality, Bakugo-san. You are far too standoff-ish and easy to anger. Have you considered anger management therapy? I'm sure that UA would be willing to foot the funding for the sessions."
"... I don't need no fucking freak to help me."
"Perhaps, perhaps not. You will only know if you try it, or are you too scared to be 'defeated' by said freak? To find out more about yourself, and how to improve going forward?"
"Tsk."
Seeing that she had thoroughly defused the ticking time bomb, known as her classmate, she decided to question him on why he was actually here. After taking one more sip of her tea, she set it down and got to the point,
"Bakugo-san, take a seat, please."
"Alright, but don't think I'm doing it because you told me to! It's because there are no other seats nearby and I wanna start eating."
'Tsundere?' was the thought that echoed around the minds of the spectators.
"Now that you are finally seated, would you mind telling me why you have come over here? As you have claimed, you have plenty of friends, so it can't be because you were lonely."
"It's about the cheap shit that you all pulled earlier. Teaming up like that? It ruins the whole fucking thing if you all are gonna get a guaranteed place anyway! It's fucking unfair."
"A reasonable conclusion to come to. However, you have some things wrong, we teamed up so other people had a chance, namely you.
I'm sure you aren't stupid enough to realize that any single one of my teammates could carry a team, and potentially beat the tower by themselves.
I could EMP spam the tower, Shoto could freeze the entire thing with ranged attacks, Melissa is too fast for the sensors to keep up with, and Inasa is a literal force of nature.
If we split up, and you weren't in one of our teams, and we chose decent players who wouldn't be reckless and get shot, all of our teams would have placed in the top four.
This way there would be space for three entire teams to compete it out and win, leaving one team that could stomp the competition instead of four. It leads to more competitive matches overall, and overall fairness increases."
She, of course, didn't believe this wholly, but it was good enough to appease her classmate and enforce the view of her being kind in the eyes of those watching on.
Keeping up appearances is something vital in both the business, and hero world, so it was drilled into her by the head butler, Sebastian, for hours on end. Fortunately, it seemed that Sakuya, her wife, would be taking over the business side of things, so she didn't need to worry as much.
The rest of the small lunch break was spent in relative peace, with only a few minor disruptions due to the ash-blonde being set off by the surrounding members of Class 1-A who teased him for being tamed.
The raven-haired woman wanted to see her family before the last events, but she also needed fuel, and sadly, there was a short window to eat food due to the travel time between the two sites cutting into it. So, she didn't, hoping that wherever they were, they would be cheering her on.
Soon enough, they were all called out onto the field for the matchup announcements. Midnight, in all her BDSM fetishist glory, rolled the wheel, only to have it land on the only option it would ever be, a 1 vs 1 tournament.
The entire section of the wheel was needless, due to everyone already knowing what it would be anyway. Nonetheless, they didn't complain about the pointless showing, knowing that it was just tradition to spin the wheel at this point anyway.
"A classic 1 vs 1 tournament! If you would all look at the screens around the stadium, you will see the matchups listed!" She announced.
[Shinso vs Melissa]
[Toga vs Kendo]
[Shoto vs Yui]
[Iida vs Ibara]
[Reiko vs Mina]
[Tokoyami vs Momo]
[Kirishima vs Inasa]
[Uraraka vs Bakugo]
A certain bird saw the matchup, and could only utter a few words in resignation,
"My chances of doing my brethren proud have, ironically, fallen into the abyss that I worship so much."
In other words, he was fucked.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Hyberions
Hyberions Creation is hard, cheer me up! Love the chapter? Review it!
Only a short 1.4k chappy this time, hope you all enjoyed it even if it was a bit bare-bones in terms of content. All this was meant to do was stall for time while I try and get my life together lol.
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