Deer

Chapter 14

It happened ten minutes before her match started. Somehow, Power Loader-sensei caught onto Mei's hidden ploy just by watching her interaction with Iida, where she offered him to equip one of her babies so they'd have a fair match. The older man didn't confiscate her support equipment as she's a student from the Support Department, after all. Their items are their weapon, but he did snatch her mic away. That won't do. That piece of equipment was the bone of her work. If she didn't have that, how could she show off her beautiful children to the members of the support companies out there? The viewers' screaming will bury her words like a forgotten laundry she left back home! She couldn't create a new one either. Her teacher had banned her from visiting the workshop in the middle of the festival and had asked Midnight to officially disqualify her if she ignored his warning. She had to find another way to present her creation without breaking Power Loader's rule.

Mei perked up and an imaginary bulb lighted up on the top of her head.

There is an available microphone here, wasn't there?

And Power Loader only prohibited her from visiting the usual lab, right? Not any other room?

Ha! Loophole found!

So, with a manic grin and an evil laugh, she opened the room to the commentator booth as silently as possible. Her eyes zoomed in on the target, which was a spare wireless microphone on the box in the corner where it was left forgotten. The hosts were busy with their own thing. Present Mic was enthusiastically hyping up the audience, Eraserhead sipped on a hot coffee, while Midoriya Izuku kept on snoring. Mei thought of a plan. A good way of how to go there unnoticed, grab the mic, and get back to her own program. It took her a while.

Then she decided to run inside like a raging bulldoze anyway. Startling the teachers away as she disappeared from their sight, cackling madly all the way.

Now, she was having the time of her life, showing the audience, the support companies especially, her beautiful babies without hesitation, capturing the right attention of the right spectator. Mei was in the middle of explaining the wonder of her Capture Gun when another voice suddenly echoed.

"But what if the villain managed to cut the nets with a sharp object and escape?"

Her head snapped to the origin of the sound in an instant. There, on the commentator booth and across the transparent glass, Izuku finally woke up. Watching the match with a small smirk and half-lidded eyes. The fact that their third commentator finally deigned himself worthy to, well, commentate caught everyone off guard. Before his question registered in Mei's mind, a wider grin blossomed on her white, rosy cheeks.

Challenger? Is he a challenger?

"They won't. As you can see, the net will shrink and wrap around their bodies, giving them minimal space to struggle."

"Hm. But Iida is not completely incapacitated there, I can still see him moving around. A space is a space, no matter how small it is. If he's the type of person who hides weapons in every inch of his body, he can easily reach for one and use it to cut the web still. And what about someone like Ashido Mina? She has an acid Quirk. It'll be a piece of cake for her to melt the net."

Oh my God, he is a challenger!

And that was how the rest of the match went, to everyone's complete confusion. Where Hatsume Mei displayed her babies for the world to see, Midoriya Izuku poked holes at her design and traded ideas to make them better, while Iida was suffering on the side.

This was definitely the best day of her life!