Minoru flinched as the chains to his left rattled and jerked, Bakugo desperately fighting to free himself from his perch on the overall winner’s podium. On the other side of the rampaging teen, Minoru could see Todoroki and Yaoyorozu sharing the third place podium. Todoroki was paying Bakugo no mind, but Yaoyorozu looked as uncomfortable as Minoru felt. He remembered Bakugo losing his cool over the nature of his win in his past life, but being right up next to him was another thing entirely. Especially when he was the reason Bakugo was going apeshit.

  “Now, let’s move on to the awards ceremony!” called Midnight, striding forth near the podiums. Minoru wasn’t sure why she felt the need to comment, given that they’d spent the last few minutes gathering all the first year students in front of the podiums for the first, second, and third place winners.

  “In third place, we have Todoroki and Yaoyorozu. In second, Mineta! And your first place winner for the first years is Bakugo!”

  Bakugo screamed into his muzzle, jerking even more violently and causing Minoru to flinch once again.

  “Now for the medals! Presenting them this year is…you know who!”

  All Might plummeted into the arena with a loud cry of: “I am here, with the medals!”

  “…he’s everyone’s hero…All Might!” finished Midnight, then bowed to All Might with an apologetic look on her face.

  The larger-than-life hero climbed up to the third place podium and placed a medal around Yaoyorozu’s neck. “Contratulations, young Yaoyorozu! Your excellent performance highlighted just how flexible your Quirk can be! Next you must learn to act quickly and decisively under pressure, for not every opponent will give you the time you need!”

  Yaoyorozu nodded seriously.

  All Might turned to Todoroki. “Todoroki, kid. Congratulations. You held back. You didn’t use your left side in the final match. Was there a reason for that?”

  Todoroki’s gaze stayed downward. “It was my match against Midoriya…I think I’ve lost my way. I know you’ve taken an interest in him, and I’m starting to see why. I’ve always wanted to become a hero like you, but it’s not like I can just forget and get over things. That’s not enough. There’s still something I have to settle first.”

  All Might embraced the disappointed teen. “That’s a new look I’m seeing on your face. Say no more. Whatever you must settle, I’m sure you can do it.”

  He advanced to the podium in front of Minoru. “Minoru, kid! That you made it so far is a true testament to your drive and ability! I, for one, was astonished at how well you met and overcame the challenges before you! But you must realize that the best heroes never give up, no matter how the odds seem stacked against them. I hope you will reflect on your actions in the finals and fight until the end next year.”

  He hung the medal around Minoru’s neck and turned to Bakugo. “And finally, Bakugo! Well, um, this is…you lived up to your promise. Wonderful!”

  He removed Bakugo’s muzzle, and the boy verbally exploded. “All Might. This win doesn’t mean squat! Doesn’t matter what anyone says. If I don’t recognize it, then that medal’s just garbage!”

  All Might stood for a moment before rallying. “In a world that’s constantly graded on a curve, there aren’t many who can continuously be on top. So accept this! As a wound even! So you don’t forget!”

  “I don’t need that junk!” shrieked Bakugo, and after an awkard attempt to hang the medal around the straining teen’s neck, All Might settled for placing the ribbon within his mouth.

  He turned to face the stands. “Well! These are your winners! But hold on, everyone! As you all witnessed, everyone here today has the potential to be standing up here! In that spirit, let’s have one final cheer! Everyone say it with me! One, two, and…”

  As the crowd yelled, “Plus Ultra!” All Might’s cry of “Thanks for the hard work!” drowned them all out.

  Minoru shook his head and climbed down from the podium as fast as he could. Time to make himself scarce before Bakugo was freed. He really didn’t want to find out if the explosive teenager would attack him on sight or not.

  After two days off to rest, Minoru was back with the rest of his classmates in the 1-A classroom waiting for school to start.

  "I had all these people talking to me on the way here!" cried Ashido.

  "Same here!" exclaimed the invisible Hagakure. She and Tsuyu were hanging out near Ashido and had been chatting. "So many stares…it was embarrassing!"

  From her seat behind Minoru, Yaoyorozu spoke up. "I have to admit, I was also embarrassed by the attention. I knew the sports festival was a big deal, but I had not anticipated quite how many people would know me on sight afterward. It must have been even worse for you, Minoru."

  Minoru shifted in his seat so he was sideways and able to look at Yaoyorozu. "Not really. A few kids commented, and I definitely felt like a lot of people were watching me, but no one said anything."

  "What?!" Yaoyorozu looked honestly shocked. "But you placed second in our year and you're one of the most easily identified on sight in our class! How can that be?"

  Minoru shrugged. "You must not have looked up the speculation about our performance online, huh? The most popular theory is that my placement was mostly due to luck and my opponents not really trying, not due to any skill on my part."

  Yaoyorozu stared at him looking perplexed. "But that's total nonsense."

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  "Well…" started Minoru, but was interrupted by the door sliding open.

  Aizawa sensei entered with a laconic, "Morning."

  "Good morning!" chorused the class.

  "Good to see your bandages off, Aizawa sensei," said Tsuyu, voicing what was clearly the relieved opinion of many in the class. Even in the short session they'd seen him immediately after the sports tournament when he'd told them that they would have two days off to recuperate, Aizawa had been visibly injured from his fight with the nomu.

  "The old lady's treatment was excessive," their instructor muttered. "But never mind that. Today we've got Hero Informatics class, and a special one at that. You'll be coming up with your hero aliases."

  The class erupted into cheers, many students pumping their fists or in Ashido's case going so far as to jump out of her seat.

  "But first," continued Aizawa, "concerning the pro draft picks I mentioned the other day. It's based on who the pros think will be ready to join the hero workforce after another two or three years of experience, so you could say that it's a way for them to show interest in your futures. But there's ample time for their interest to wane before you graduate, and any and all offers can be arbitrarily revoked. It happens quite often."

  Minoru found himself clenching his fists and quivering in a combination of excitement and fear. He hadn't has a chance to speak to Principal Nezu, so he still didn't know if he'd passed the principal's test, much less whether he was going to receive any offers. He'd tried not to let the public speculation about his performance he'd read online affect him, but he couldn't deny he was worried about whether bowing out in the finals like that had scuppered his chances.

  "Here are the complete draft pick numbers," Aizawa said, gesturing to a screen that was populating behind him. "There's typically more of a spread, but two of the top three stole most of the spotlight."

  The graph was indeed ridiculously skewed. Despite placing third, Todoroki had over 4,000, with Bakugo just barely trailing him with almost 3,500. Next up was Yaoyorozu with 360, Ida with just over 300, Kaminari with about 270, and Minoru with just over 100. Several of the rest of the class received low double digits.

  Minoru collapsed onto his desk in relief. Compared to his memories, when he'd had no offers at all, this was an astonishing amount of interest.

  "Well done as always, Todoroki," Yaoyorozu remarked wryly behind him.

  "It's mostly just my father's influence," Todoroki muttered back.

  When Todoroki didn't continue, Yaoyorozu addressed Minoru. "I admit, I was skeptical, Mineta, but it appears you were correct about how people viewed your performance. Even the pros…" She looked troubled.

  Minoru gave her a wry grin. "Eh, it's still better than I expected! And hey, you did great! First in the list, if we ignore those two crazy outliers."

  Yoayorozu smiled slightly. "That's kind of you to say."

  Aizawa continued. “With that settled, whether you were picked or not, you will all have a chance to work alongside the pros. It’s true that you all have already experienced more than most, but seeing the pros in action and taking part yourselves will still be worthwhile training.”

  “That’s where our hero names come in!” cried Sato.

  “This is really getting fun!” chimed in Uraraka.

  Aizawa ignored the interplay. “They’re only tentative, but you still want to pick something appropriate..”

  “Or else you’ll know true hell!” Midnight strode into the classroom in full costume and boisterous as ever. “The name you pick now may be what the world ends up calling you. That’s happened to plenty of pros out there!”

  “Midnight!” called the class in excitement.

  “Yes, true enough,” said Aizawa. “And Midnight here will be assessing the sensibility of the names you pick. I’m no good at that. What future do you see for yourself? The name you choose will bring you ever closer to cementing a certain image, because names are capable of reflecting one’s true character.”

  One’s true character, huh? Minoru remembered being incredibly excited for this in the past, but this time around he was much more ambivalent. His first time around, he’d gone full steam ahead with the grape theme, calling himself Grape Juice, but he was a good twenty years away from feeling particularly fresh.

  He’d already started leaning into the grape theme, of course, by calling his hair balls grapeshot. As classmate after classmate eagerly headed to the front of the class to present their name choices—and in many cases get shot down instantly by Midnight—Minoru sat and stared at the blank white board in front of him.

  Todoroki caused an outcry by simply calling himself by his first name, but although Minoru briefly fantasized about women calling him by his given name when in costume...nah, that wasn’t for him.

  Come to think, he’d briefly flirted with drinking wine in his past life, hadn’t he? Hm, what were the steps to making it again?

  When at last the eager students had petered out, Bakugo stomping back to his seat after his most recent murder-oriented revision was rejected yet again, Minoru approached the front of the class and presented his whiteboard: “The Well-Pressed Hero: Pomace”.

  “Pomace, pomace, why do I know that term?” muttered Midnight as the class looked on in mild confusion.

  “It’s the pulp left over after pressing grapes for wine,” offered Minoru.

  Midnight threw her head back. “So cultured! I love it!”

  Minoru headed back to his seat as Midnight started calling up the students who hadn’t picked a name yet.

  Once all of the name-choosing excitement was complete, Aizawa once more took the stand. “Your internships start in a week. For this all-important decision, I’ll be handing out personalized lists to those who were drafted. You may choose from among those who scouted you. For those who were not drafted, the list I just passed out contains forty agencies from all over the country willing to accept interns. You will choose one from that list.

  “Each has a different specialty and region. Give your choice some real thought. Submit your choices by this coming weekend.”

  The class broke out in chatter as students perused the lists of drafts or general agencies. Minoru looked over his own list.

  “This is a lot more than I expected,” said Yaoyorozu behind him, sounding overwhelmed.

  Minoru glanced back and saw her perusing her own list, which was three times as many pages as his own. “Right? They didn’t seem that impressive next to Todoroki and Bakugo, but a few hundred draft options is a lot when you think about it.”

  Yaoyorozu looked over his shoulder at his list. “Do you have any ideas who you’re going to intern with?”

  “No, not yet. I don’t have anyone specific I want to learn from, and these lists don’t offer much more than the name of the agency. I’ll need to do a little research online before I can really narrow it down.” And maybe talk to Principal Nezu.

  “That’s a good idea. I wouldn’t want to make this choice lightly.” Yaoyorozu nodded seriously, and Minoru tried to squash a smile. It was kind of cute how she took everything so seriously.

  “You probably don’t need to look into every agency on that list, though. A lot of them are probably just interested in leveraging your current fame, honestly. Oh, like this one.” He pointed to Snake Hero Uwabami. “I remember seeing her in a lot of commercials; I’ll bet she just wants to leverage you for your looks rather than any actual hero work.”

  “Thanks, Mineta, that’s very good to know.” Yaoyorozu returned to perusing her lists, though Minoru noted she carefully drew a line through Uwabami’s agency.

  He left her to it, and started digging through his list looking for agencies stationed in Hosu City. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to get personally involved in Stain’s capture or the next public attack from the League of Villains, but he was pretty sure Principal Nezu was going to push him that direction, so he might as well get ahead of the curve.

  Reminder: now that we’ve made it through the tournament arc, I’m planning to back my output down to a single chapter per week (aiming for Wednesday releases, normally) to allow myself to sustainably finish the story. If I can get more than one chapter written, though, I’ll post extras as I produce them!