Howdy folks, how's it going?

I had big ass writer's block working on this chapter, so I kinda got all of it done today, and I somehow ended up making it bigger than expected when I was actually worried it was gonna be too short. Funny how that works.

Some more stuff to be said at the bottom.

As always, huge shout out to Chaos Productions for his input and assistance.

And as usual, I own neither BNHA nor WH40K.

Now, without further ado, enjoy.

/

A little while later, it was a rather dejected Momo that was making her way through the halls back towards the stands.

The tournament had been proceeding apace. After Midoriya's round, that Hatsume girl from support had defeated Shishida by letting him charge her in his wild form and hit him with the staff she had used as a lightning rod against Kaminari. Turns out, the thing had been storing his electricity all this time and had unleashed it to great effect. Kaminari was understandably rather displeased at that, grumbling something under his breath about copyrights, but frankly Momo had been paying more attention to how the girl had become a lot more vocal after the match had been called in her favor, saying loudly to the crowd that this was just a little taste of things to come, while looking towards their class' stand, as if singling out someone in particular with that statement. Odd.

The next match, which the pony-tailed girl had watched by herself from her prep room for her own bout immediately after, didn't really have much that could be considered remarkable about it, except perhaps by how swiftly it had ended. Having been part of his team in the previous event, Tokage had been clearly aware of how the general course boy's quirk worked, all but confirming Momo's own suspicions on the matter when the usually quite chatty girl had not said a single word, despite Hitoshi's best efforts to goad her into it throughout the 10 or so seconds it had taken her to pin him down with a hold he clearly had no combat training nor physical conditioning to break out of. The class president couldn't help but imagine that Midoriya would probably be grumbling something about not being allowed to get even with the guy right about now, which was probably a bullet Hitoshi didn't quite realize he had dodged for the time being…

Then, it had been her turn. Her first actual fight in the tournament, after Iida's forfeit. Momo had steeled herself as best as she could, had ran through so many different possibilities in her mind for how to stand up to Todoroki's ice. Flashbangs to throw him off, ice picks and snowshoes or ice-skates for mobility, which specific chemical compounds would be optimal to break free should he manage to trap her like he had with Tokoyami. While she had been understandably quite nervous at that possibility, Momo had felt going in that she was as prepared as she would ever be…

…And in the end all her plans and possible counters had not mattered one bit, because her bout had ended even faster than the previous one. Mercifully, Todoroki hadn't dropped an iceberg on her (unknown to her, because the teachers had explicitly forbidden him from doing so in between rounds), but him using a smaller, surging ice wall as a battering ram to knock her off the arena before she could mount any sort of significant defense didn't make her feel any better about it.

Momo couldn't help but sigh, trying hard to keep tears at bay. How could she have been so slow? How was it possible that in the moment, with all the ice coming at her, all her plans and counters just seemed to leave her mind until it was far too late?

Surely, she was better than this underwhelming performance. Right…?

As she got back to the others, their kind words of support seemed to indicate that her friends believed so, but for some reason, Momo didn't really feel better for it.

/

"Alright, ladies and gentlemen, with a far faster ice clean up this time around, let's get the next round started with a ba-"

Present Mic's bombastic announcing was suddenly cut off by a loud noise that sounded suspiciously like a door slamming open, everyone in the stadium looking towards the announcer's booth as the sound system intermittently gave the idea that there was some sort of argument going one, with little tidbits such as 'no, we can't just cancel' and 'do you not understand the calamity' faintly carrying over before there seemed to be sounds of a brief scuffle, and then the teacher's voice was back with a slight cough.

"Right, uh, sorry for the interruption, folks. I was just… politely reminded by a concerned member of our staff to avoid certain terminologies in order not to encourage some of our contestants to act on them."

Having actually witnessed the specifics of the altercation via their video surveillance, and how Power Loader had to be dragged off from the booth by nurse bots in a rather neurotic state, Nezu made a mental note to send the man to see Hound Dog and then give him some vacation time once the festival was over. He had really underestimated how much the stress had been getting to the Support teacher…

"Anyway, let's bring in the contestants! From class 1-A, the absolute menace that has been relishing everything that's been thrown at him so far, ya'll know him by now, it's Izuku Midoriya!"

Izuku couldn't help but grin widely, positively preening at the announcement. It was always good to feel acknowledged.

"And in the other corner, the last girl standing from Class 1-H and the support course in general, can Mei Hatsume keep surpassing the odds as she's done so far? Well, I for one can't wait to find out!"

Izuku gave his opponent a considering stare. He remembered this girl's sneaky sneak move at the end of the last event, nearly snatching his victory away from him if not for army boy's sharp senses and quick reactions. Now able to see her up close, it wasn't really hard to miss all the extra hardware she had on her, from the really big white boots, to the many pouches around her belt, to the weird backpack thingie, all the way to the goggles with the pipe-like horn thingies. The girl clearly knew a thing or two about gizmo building, and that had certainly caught his attention.

"Hey, you!"

Izuku blinked, as his opponent loudly called out to him, yellow eyes with weirdly scope like markings giving him a piercing stare.

"Me?" He replied, causing her to grin widely in return.

"Yeah, you! Mr. King of the Hill. The one that made me change my plans!" She proclaimed loudly, and Izuku couldn't really react to that with another, owlish blink.

"Wot?"

"This Festival is as big if not even bigger of a deal for us Support students, you know! It's our chance to show the world what our babies can do, and the first opportunity to catch the eye of sponsors." The girl continued, apparently without a care about his question.

"Wot?"

"I've been waiting for years for the opportunity to be here, to show the world what my inventions, my precious babies, can do! And I'd be quite happy to dip out once I was done and let you hero students go at it like you always do!" She continued, once again completely ignoring him, her wide grin and bombastic demeanour not changing for a second. "But then I found out about you!"

"…Wot?"

"When I found out one of you hero students didn't file for any kind of costume or support gear, I couldn't believe it. Who could possibly think they could do without? And then I looked into it, found out about you and what you could do. The things you could create with the crutch your quirk provided. I spent many a sleepless night trying to figure it out, and I just couldn't figure it out. And that's when I decided!" She kept going still, her grin widening as she kept looking at an increasingly more nonplussed boy. "I had to stay in this tournament until I could face you. Now I will get the best publicity, showing the world that your shoddy stuff is not match for my babies!"

Silence fell in the stadium after the girl's proclamation. It was so quiet, in fact, that if one strained their ears, they might have almost heard the sound of cracking glass as the boy froze.

…

…

…

"…What did you just say?" Izuku asked, his expression no longer confused, but rather oddly blank, his voice calm, measured, but with a very clear edge to it.

"I said your stuff makes no sense and looks so ramshackle it should be physically impossible for it to not break apart!" The girl replied with the same wide grin and eager demeanour. "And me beating you in this round will prove how you'd be much better off relying on properly build support gear, like my babies!"

Now, credit to Hatsume, she didn't really mean any of this spiel in any sort of malicious way. Quite the contrary, besides the desire for recognition for her own work, the pink-haired girl was moved by a genuine desire to ensure that all future heroes, especially any prospective future clients of hers, had the best possible support gear available so could do their jobs to the best of their abilities and with the least amount of risks involved. She honestly just wanted to help.

It was just kind of unfortunate that her complete lack of tact sent the wrong message.

"…I see." Izuku replied simply, with an understanding nod, before pulling his goggles down over his eyes and then slowly reaching for his pocket. "Guess I'll be committing some infanticide, then."

While the grin never left her face, the girl blinked once at the oh so casually spoken dark statement, not quite realizing where that had come from, before she too pulled her goggles down. Midnight on the other hand, was significantly more concerned, but not quite in any position to do anything about it just yet.

"Alright kids, you've had your time to trash talk, we really need to get this moving along. I will however, remind you both that this I expect a clean fight, and that any attempts at grievous injury will result in an immediate disqualification and severe consequences besides. Looking at you, Midoriya." She said, emphasizing with a serious stare towards the boy. "Anyway, if both contestants are ready," neither of them said anything to the contrary. "Then begin!"

With the call given, Mei proved to be quicker on the draw. Quite literally, as she pulled out a flintlock looking pistol with a wide, funnel like barrel, completely missing how the boy's eyes seemed to narrow in aggravation at the thing, before she fired it, launching a projectile that broke apart into a massive, red net that wrapped around Izuku, who despite that managed to brace himself and remain standing.

"Hatsume brand capture pistol!" The girl declared loudly. "With up to 5 shots before it needs reloading, it is ideal for capturing villains!"

Izuku grunted in annoyance at the sale's pitch, before pulling out his power klaw and slashing himself free, leveling an unimpressed glare at the girl as the net fell to ribbons around him.

"Ah, I see you brought that thing out. Seriously, how are you even lifting it? With the amount of metal around it, your right arm should be a lot more muscled than your left by now." She inquired in genuine curiosity, earning her only an aggravated growl in return. "Oooooh, a feisty one, aren't you? Probably wanna rush at me like you did with your previous fights. Well, that's too bad, because with the Hatsume brand hover soles and jet-pack combo, good luck catching up to me!"

And just before Izuku could indeed charge at her, Hatsume's boots and backpack roared, launching the girl up into the air, where she stayed floating in place, safely out of power klawing range. An aggravated growl escaped from the boy's lips, made all the worse by the knowledge that the git was looking mighty shootable right now, but Mah, All Might, and Eraserhead has all vetoed his shootas against other students. Concerns were raised, especially by the latter, that using those particular weapons, even the ones with rubber rounds, in a crowded stadium was "illogical and an accident waiting to happen", which was zoggin' bogus.

If only he could bring the Grapey Boy down with here with him for the grapply hook to work, but that had also another thing his teacher had vetoed. Zogging bogus too, that was.

So, he couldn't reach her, he couldn't shoot her, what else was there…?

As he mused about his option while glaring up at Hatsume, however, the girl did not remain idle, pulling some sort of tube from a slot in her backpack.

"And now safely out of range from danger, it is a simple thing to use another Hatsume brand capture method for an easy capture!" She proclaimed, aiming the tube down at him, which just angered him all the more. What sort of zogged up double standard was this?!

Hatsume pressed the trigger, and with a distinctly and insultingly un-shoota-like 'whoomph', the tube shot a big blue ball down at him, so pathetically slowly that he easily dodged out of the way. When the thing hit the ground however, it shattered with a crack, and with a hiss of rushing air, and equally blue foam began spreading and growing.

"Hatsume brand capture foam, for when nets simply aren't enough! Once it touches you, there is no escaping until it naturally decomposes in two hours' time. Better move fast!"

And with that she unleashed a barrage of the bloody things, forcing Izuku to run and weave around the arena to avoid the growing blue sludge, growing increasingly more annoyed by the whole thing as it went.

"At the rate this is going, you're going to run out of running space way before I run out of ammo, Mr. King of the Hill. But don't feel bad. When you lose, I'll look forward to your patronage!"

Oh, that was zoggin it!

Time to test out that thingie that he hadn't been able to finish in time for the entry exam!

As he kept running, Izuku placed his power klaw back in his pocket, stumping those who say it happening as to how it managed to fit, before rummaging around in his pocket, grumbling in incoherent aggravation as he went.

"Oh, think you got something in that magic pocket of yours that can match my babies, do you? It'd love to see you try! If you can do it before I catch you that is!" The girl once again declared, and really her continuously loud and cheery demeanour was starting to get on his nerves.

And that was the moment when his hand clasped around what he was looking for, and a wide, feral grin spread across his face.

"Oh, we'z gun see about that." He growled as he pulled out his gizmo for all the world to see. And none to understand what it was.

At first glance, it seemed like a contraption not too different from the previous one, one that completely covered his hand in yellow painted metal. But where the previous contraption had wickedly sharp claws in a human-like configuration, this one had four blunt, thick, curving metal arcs spread in a cross pattern, each ending in a metallic orb, while at the center a thick metal tube jutted out, decorated by four spikes and a larger orb at the tip.

"And now that I have a lull in the gear exposition, it seems like Midoriya's pulled out another trick. Is it some sort of canon? A laser gun?! Will this be the trump card that'll let him stop Hatsume?!"

"Oh, ya can bet on dat." Izuku grunted with a downright evil grin, as he brought the contraption up towards the girl, and pulled the trigger. A low thrum of power filled the arena, as the five orbs of the contraption suddenly lit up in a bright blue light, electricity sparking and arcing between them.

Having enough experience with machinery to realize that there was some sort of energy build up happening that was likely about to be discharged, Hatsume immediately made to change her position and dodge the incoming attack… only to realize with a blink that she couldn't. Try as she might to get her jet pack to change course, or whichever way she tried to throw her legs to move out of the way, she suddenly found herself stuck in place. Heck, if anything, she was… losing altitude?

"Hey, what gives?!" She called out, and Izuku simply kept grinning.

"Midoriya brand Trakta Blasta!" The boy bellowed out in sarcastic mockery. "Real handy tah catch me all sortz'a annoyin', slippery gitz. LIKE SO!"

Then he cranked the power all the way up. And Hatsume could only yell in surprise as the gravitic forces in play suddenly shot her towards Izuku at top speeds, completely unable to do anything to fight the pull.

Izuku waited until the very last second before shutting down the weapon, and far too late for the girl to be able to pull any other tricks to avoid, he swung his head forward.

A loud SMACK echoed throughout the stadium as the two opponents' heads collided in a devastating headbutt. After a few more seconds, Hatsume hit the ground, bleeding heavily from a crooked nose, and quite clearly knocked out.

"Hatsume is unconscious! Midoriya wins!" Midnight immediately called out, and immediately the nurse-bots rolled into the arena to take the quite likely concussed girl away (giving Izuku a wide berth for some reason).

"…Well, with that quite literal interpretation of "using your head", Midoriya takes the lead. And now we're gonna need Cementoss to clean up the arena again cause we can't wait too hours for this foam to clear. Been a while since we needed him so much in a tournament."

/

I did say that we were gonna be speeding things up.

And fortunately, Recovery Girl had Power Loader sedated throughout the match, so the man did not have a complete breakdown.

Now to address something. A fair few readers were expressing an interest in an Izuku/Momo/Mei ship, which I have already previously mentioned was not gonna happen. Still, people have expressed an interest in him and Mei being best buddies spreading insanity and chaos together, but as you can see from this chapter, that too isn't really in the cards. Now, don't get me wrong, I really love Mei as a character, but in the context of this fic, two things should be considered. First, the fact that Izuku himself is already a gadgeteer makes her somewhat redundant, and secondly, while Hatsume's babies are pretty crazy, they, and her understanding of them, are still bound by the laws of physics, or at least a lot more so than Izuku's gizmos. So yeah, girl meant well, all things considered, but she's not actually gonna be all that relevant to this story.

But if you are one of the folks that were hoping for the Izuku/Momo/Mei and were disappointed, I can only recommend that you check out the fic "Love, Doubt, and Super Cute Babies!" by HackWriter over on AO3. It's a lovely story that'll surely scratch that OT3 hitch.

With all that said, next time, after some interactions, we move to the end game of this arc.

But before that, in two weeks we got the next update to "Through the Eternities", so look forward to that.

Cya all on the next one, stay safe and take care.