"You said you wanted to ask me something?" Kai yanked on the wire to her earbuds, letting them fall into her lap. 
"Oh! Right," Midoriya scratched the back of his head, projecting a generous smile. "I was wondering if you could tell me more about your Quirk—!" He grabbed the book and tilted it towards Kai as if she hadn't been inspecting it the entire time. 
Kai narrowed her eyes, her mouth forming into a straight line. "What's it to you?" 
Kai's change of tone seemed to set Midoriya back as his eyes fell to the ground as if the words he was searching for were hidden on the floor somewhere. 
The silence between them lingered for a few seconds longer before Midoriya's eyes shot up again, "I thought your Quirk worked like Vlad King's," he flipped through the pages in his book, coming to the near end of it where the pages shifted from people to categories; the page he landed on was tilted "Blood Manipulation" and had various paragraphs about how it operated. Midoriya even included some of the various users of this power. "But after training at Ground Beta, I noticed that wasn't the case." 
Kai narrowed her eyes, her skin began to tickle with interest. She knew that for some unknown reason, Midoriya was fascinated by Quirks. She believed that this particular fascination belonged to someone who enjoyed engineering or science—someone who was Quirkless, perhaps. But he wasn't any of those things. So, the moment he asked, she realized that something was off. 
"Are you trying to get an edge in the competition?" Kai raised her voice, questioning him in a manner that brought the loud chatter in the back to whispers and turning heads. She glared at Midoriya, feeling her chest tighten with anger, knowing he was trying to manipulate her into filling him in on her power. It was not to be meddled with—not in the mind of her opponent, anyway. 
Midoriya's cheeks went bright red and his hands clapped the book shut. "No! Of course not!" 
The skin on Kai's nose crunched, her eyebrows folding over her eyes as she glared harder at him. "What kind of hero would you be if you asked your enemy how their Quirk worked in the middle of a fight?" 
He didn't say anything, letting his eyes slip onto his lap. 
Kai scoffed, bringing her earbuds back up to her ear. "Right, you wouldn't be one." 
————
Class 1-A was left in a large waiting room, nothing filling the bare room besides a few large tables and lockers. Everyone took turns leaving the room to change into their gym uniforms, then returning to sit with their friends. 
Kai was the first to leave and return in her uniform. Her lips were screwed around to reveal her teeth as her hand gripped the collar of her uniform. She continued to pull against the tight areas, aggravated by the clothing itself as she walked through the door to the waiting room. 
"I was hoping we'd get to wear our costumes," Mina complained, taking her gym uniform out of her locker.
"Maybe our hero costumes give us too much of an edge." Uraraka shrugged, following her out of the room. 
"Like a cheat?" Mina's question drowned out as she grew to be too far away to hear. 
Kai headed for the back tables, settling at the one no one was seated at. She could feel eyes piercing her back, but she didn't turn to see who it was. 
"You have three more chances." 
Her father's words rang in her ears again, again, and again as she created various scenarios for the festival. None of the students knew what events they'd be participating in, but Kai knew that she needed more than one plan. But the pressure was building. Her mind kept drawing a blank and she couldn't plot anything successful. She pushed her hands to her temples, closing her eyes in frustration.