Our team stays in place for a bit as I watch the team formations.

I slowly start to add groups, but those of low points and are in other classes, as to not be noticed right away. Hopefully If Present Mic doesn't announce it right away then—

"Whoa look at that! At first there were twelve teams and now there's sixteen! What's going on here?!"

"Are you fucking serious?" I mutter.

Shinsou chuckles in response and I blush.

Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck he laughed holy shit. I'm fucking funny hell yeah.

"Let's start walking, that way I can lay down labyrinths early on."

"Alright, that's cool."

Damn this guy is so fucking hot.

A few times I tap the ground three times with my foot—there being a total of four labyrinths set.

Just after I set them, one of them was activated. I look around to see who's missing. It was the big guy with the weird yellow thing on or is his head with the holes, and the guy with a comic page for a head. I create an illusion of them so no one notices their absences.

We focus on lurking in the shadows while others attack each other. We steal points when no one's looking and replace them with illusions before they even knew what happened. I opened a couple immediate labyrinths but quickly replaced them with illusions.

"Woweee! There are more than one of every team! Who could it be that's causing this?"

"Present Mic is sure up and at em with the play-by-play." I say this, hoping to get Shinsou to laugh again. Luckily, he does.

"Real jokester are ya?"

"Oh, um, I just get pissed off sometimes ya know? Hard to keep it in sometimes, it just slips out. And by sometimes I mean often." That was a lie. Sure I was pissed off, but I thought about my sentence a whole lot before saying it. It didn't just slip out, I was trying to make him laugh.

We're approached by a team with a boy with completely black skin (I swear I'm not trying to be racist that's just part of his quirk) and white hair, and three plain looking boys. The one on top seems condescending. And I though I saw him harden his arm earlier—one of my classmates' quirk.

He must have a sort of copying quirk. If he copies mine then he'll be able to tell what's real and fake.

"Hey Shinsou, I think that guy of there with the blonde hair has a copying quirk. If he copies mine then he would be able to tell which groups are illusions."

"Then put him in a labyrinth."

"If I did, and his quirk is touch activated, then if he touches anything then he'll have access to my quirk, and he can release the labyrinth, and potentially all of the others. But there's something else I neglected to mention about my quirk. There are two ways of getting rid of labyrinths. I only mentioned releasing them, but you can also close them. This is where you completely seal off a labyrinth, and anyone trapped inside is stuck there forever. And since no body is found, they remain a missing person forever. If this guy copies my quirk and doesn't have immediate control over it, he could accidentally close a labyrinth. Not even I can open a closed labyrinth." I say with fear evident in my voice.

Shinsou's eyes widen, "Wait, then what the hell do we do?"

"There's one thing I could try, but it's risky."

"What is it then?"

"I could try opening a blank labyrinth. Nothing to touch or to see. They'd all be confused but have nothing to do."

"Okay, but why is it risky?"

"If they attack at all, the labyrinth will release. That's the weakness of this one, but if they don't think to attack then we would be safe. With this thing there isn't a risk of him copying my quirk."

"That's gonna be our best option, do it."

"If you say so."

I open the labyrinth by tapping my foot twice, entrapping them in white nothingness. 

"What's going on? The boy with blonde hair asks.

"I'm not sure." The one with brown hair asks.

"Monoma! Want me to drill us through?"

"What is there to drill, this is all nothing!" The boy grits his teeth.

"It's all white. I have nothing to merge with."

"Damnit."

"Seems like it worked—they aren't appearing anywhere." I say.

"Nice thinking, that could've been bad."

I turn red. "Oh, uh, t-thanks, y-yeah."

Why is she so damn nervous? I must be creepy to her or something. Shinsou thinks. 

I release a few unnecessary illusions—my head hurts like hell.

I raise ya hand to my head to start massaging my temple.

"D-damnit. This hurts like a bitch, fuck."

Shinsou stays quiet, not wanting to interrupt my complaining.

I start watching what's going on with the main people from my class to try and get my mind off this migraine.

Things are heating up between those teams and I start to notice some peoples' quirks.

So Bakugou can create explosions, that's actually pretty useful and strong. Todoroki can create ice, cool as fuck. 

Present Mic starts yelling about the team rankings, them of course being off because of my illusions. 

It doesn't look like our team has any points so one one will go after us, in actuality we're in third place when it only looks like eleventh.

Bakugou looks like he's raging over the illusion that took a fake headband from him. The guy looked cocky so I made him say something that was sure to piss him off.

I start laughing and Shinsou asks me what about.

"I-it's Bakugou, haha. He's haha, boiling over at an illusion that stole a fake headband Hahahahaha!" I start to die of laughter while Shinsou starts laughing too. I blush but Shinsou brushes it off as apart of my laughing fit—something Present Mic begins to talk about.

"What's got her full of laughter, her team's got no points yet she looks like she just heard the world's funniest joke! Eraser head, any thoughts?"

"It's probably Bakugou that she finds so funny."

Thank god Bakugou was too caught up in being pissed and didn't hear this, or he'd kill me.

"Hehe. I don't want to die yet."

Soon, everyone begins charging after Midoriya. We stay put, since so many groups are going after it. The boy with blonde hair and black strike plans to release a shock wave—I can tell since Yaoyorozu is making a blanket that will likely be used to protect their group from the shock.

As the groups charge forward and that boy releases that electricity, I make it look like my illusions are affected too, even if they aren't. Then Todoroki creates a floor of ice that traps everyone behind him. We're far enough back not to get caught, but we don't move regardless. 

Todoroki creates a wall of ice, so we can't see what's going on, but it doesn't matter, we don't need to see to know we passed. 

"Time's just about up! Start the countdown!"

Once it gets three seconds before the end, I release all of my illusions and my headache increases tenfold and hallucinations begin to appear.

"Time's up!"

My knees buckle as I bring both arms to my head, screaming at the pain of my headache and clamping my eyes shut—which led to me dropping Shinsou

"Ahhhhhhhhh!" I fall down and drop to my knees—shaking.

I feel a hand on my shoulder as I open my eyes. I look around and see multiples of everyone and some animals here and there. I thought I released all my illusions. Are these just hallucinations?

"Y-you good?" I hear.

That's Shinsou's voice!

"Uhm, y-yeah. I guess. It's just......my head. It's killing me, and I'm starting to see things that aren't there."

"Let's see if you can get some painkillers or something."

"No, I asked beforehand. It's not allowed unless I'm dropping out."

"Well shit. Sorry, I don't know what to do then."

"I'll just have to fucking deal with it. The initial hit is worse than the pain that follows, so it isn't as bad as it was a moment ago."

"Alright, well, he's announcing the team placements. Thanks to you we went mostly undetected."

"Hehe, I'm glad I could be of use." I smile through my pain—the feeling of worth overtakes any feeling of pain.

"Now let's look at the top four teams! In first place, Team Todoroki! In second place, Team Bakugou! In third place, Team Tetsute—Huh? What? It's team Shinsou?! When did you come from behind?!"

Tail boy looks around while the boy from 1-B just looks completely lost. 

"Hehe, we were always up here." I say quietly.

"Thanks for your hard work." Shinsou grins and walks away.

"And in fourth place, is Team Midoriya! These four teams will advance to the final round! 

I go grab some water from the vending machine to help with my headache. After years of dealing with this pain, I've gotten pretty used to them, I just have to give myself time to adjust.

I also make sure to go buy some food and hang out in the waiting room until time. I made it clear that I didn't want to talk while my head hurt, so no one bothered me. 

On my way out I was stopped by Tsu.

"L/n ribbit. We were told that we have to put on these cheer uniforms because there's gonna be a cheer battle in the afternoon rabbit."

"Huh? Oh. I don't really want to though." I say quietly.

"Ribbit, neither do I but Mr. Aizawa said so, and I don't want to get in trouble."

I sigh. "Oh, ok. So where do I get my uniform?"

"Yaoyorozu is making them, ribbit."

"I'll follow you then."

"What's the matter, Class A? What kind of fan service is that?!"

Yaoyorozu falls in defeat. "I even used Creation to make these outfits..."

"Those guys are so dumb!" Jirou yells as she throws her pom-poms on the ground.

"Hahahaahhaahahaha!" I burst out laughing.

"Whoever did this, gotta admit was pretty clever, hehe. Got us good."

"How is this so funny to you? Don't you feel embarrassed?"

"Oh definitely, but I'm laughing to calm myself down, plus I think it's kind of funny anyways."

The invisible girl pushes up by me.

"Or, is there someone you like? Someone you'd want to see you like this? Hmmmm?"

I blush. "N-no. At least I don't think so. I don't really know anyone well enough to like them like that."

"Yeah but someone has to have caught you're eye. Someone who's at least attractive."

"Uh-uhm. I-I." My face is a literal tomato by now.

"Anyways, there's at least still time before the finals, and it'd be a pain if things got tense. It's fine! Let's do it!" The invisible girl exclaims.

"Eh?!" Jirou and I yell.

"What the hell, some kind of exhibitionist or something?! Huh?!" I yell. I guess I'm starting to get comfortable with them. 

"Alright everyone, let's have fun in the recreational games! When that's over, the sixteen from the four teams that made it into the final round will duke it out tournament style, one-one-one!"

This is exactly what I was afraid of.

"Now, lets choose lots to determine the bracket. Once the bracket is determined, we'll have the recreational games and then start! The sixteen finalists can choose whether or not they want to participate in the recreation. I'm sure some of you want to rest and/or save your strength. Now, from first place—"

"Umm...! Excuse me." Tail boy raises his hand. "I'm withdrawing."

Everyone gasps at this. Then I hear an "Ojirou, why?" "This is a rare chance for pros to see you!"

"I don't remember anything from the cavalry battle until the end. I think it was that guy's quirk. I know that this is a great chance, and that it's foolish to waste it... but, everyone here competed by giving their all! I can't... I can't be up there with everyone without knowing what really happened."

"You're worrying too much about it! You should just make sure you produce results in the finals!"

"If you're gonna say that, I didn't do anything either."

"That's not it... I'm talking about my pride here... I can't... Also, why are you guys wearing cheer outfits?"

"We were tricked into it." I tell Ojirou.

"I'm Nirengeki Shoda from Class B. I also want to withdrawal for the same reason. Regardless of ability, don't you think this goes against the goal of this sports festival for those who didn't do anything to move onto the final round?"

"Youthful talk like that is something......I like! Shoda! Ojirou! I accept your withdrawal! In that case, we'll have to move up two people from fifth place in the cavalry battle team..."

It ended up being decided that two people from "Tetsutetsu's Team" would fill in those remaining spots.

"This is the bracket based on the results of the drawing!"

I look up there and see that I'm against an "Ashido Mina."

Better figure out who that is, hope she's not an emitter.

A girl with pink skin and hair comes up to me.

"Hey, I'm Ashido Mina. We're opponenst in the first round."

"Nice to meet you, I guess you already know my name hehe." 

"Just wanna say, good luck. You're newer than anyone else, so you haven't had as much time as us to train huh?"

"Yeah, I guess. But good luck to you too." I put my hand out and she shakes it.

"Hm." And we nod our heads.

I go and quickly change out of this before I start to do anything else, I don't want to be on camera any more in this outfit.

I go look for Shinsou, or anyone I might know. Just so that I have someone to be with. I noticed that Shinsou's gonna be against Midoriya. I wonder who I should root for?

I walk down the hall, humming a song while I space out—I stopped paying attention to where I'm going.

(I'm stealing lyrics from somewhere, if you can guess it then good job.)

"...Here in the garden,

let's play a game.

I'll show you how it's done.

Here in the garden,

stand very still.

This'll be so much fun.

And then she smiled,

that's what I'm after:

a smile in her eye,

the sound of her laughter.

Happy to listen,

happy to play, 

happily watching her dri~ft away.

Happily waiting 

all on my own,

under the endless sky.

Counting the seconds,

standing alone,

as hours and hours go by.

Happily wondering,

time after time,

"is this how it works?"

"Am I doing it right?"

Happy to listen, 

happy to stay,

happily watching her dri~~ft away.

You keep on turning pages

of people who don't care,

people who don't care about you.

And still it takes you ages,

to see that no one's there,

see that no one's there,

see that no one's there,

everyone's gone on, 

without,

you.

Finally something—

finally news—

about how the story ends.

She's long since dead now.

Survived by her son,

and all of her brand new friends.

Isn't that lovely?

Isn't that cool?

And isn't that cruel?

And aren't I a fool to have

happily listened,

happily stayed,

happily watched her dri~~~~~~ft

dri~~~~~~~ft

dri~~~~~~~~~~~~~ft

away?"

(The song is called "Drift Away" if you want to look it up)

I zone back in and realize a few people staring at me. I blush and run to the nearest bathroom. 

So that happened.

I come out a couple minutes later and walk around some more—without singing.

A bit later and someone comes up behind me.

"Oi. I heard your fucking song."

"EEP!"

I was not expecting him to show up like that.

"The fuck was it about?"

(So don't kill me, I'm just adding some unoriginal sad shit in here)

"Oh, uh. It was when I was, abandoned." I said that last word pretty quietly.

"Tch." He walks away.

"Huh?" What just happened?

.