Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

The arena’s a lot bigger in person than it is on tv.

Those are the first thoughts Izuku has as he gazes up at the building, rubbing the remnants of sleep from his eyes. The plain white circular building stands tall and bright against the clear late April sky, the banners of various companies and agencies fluttering through the wind from the rooftop’s edge. So much color and flash for a single piece of architecture that only gets use once a year for three days.

Meanwhile, all around them, the streets are quiet and empty, with barely even the sound of morning traffic to haunt the air. Even with the awareness that they’ve arrived pretty early in the morning, it’s a rather disorienting atmosphere to walk through.

Inside, however, is colorful and loud, with various assistants and staff running around with their thoughts a-glitter while checking to see if so-and-so made it to their designated seat yet and how stocked they are on arena food and what do you mean she’s going to be late her shift started an hour ago Fuck this isn’t fair/ Kivaver and Paradin need their security passes!/Is water station set up yet?/ Tropi-Gumis haven’t arrived /Still need to call-

A light tug on his arm nearly makes him stumble, but helps pull him out of the bright fog of worries he found himself lost in.

“Ah, sorry!” titters Fusei apologetically, then points to the retreating backs of their class through the corner he’s only now seeing “I just didn’t want you to almost missed the turn

“I-it’s fine, thanks!” he murmurs, and the two quickly catch up

(He thinks he sees Hyeon nod at her when she slips back to her side, but there’s too many people behind them for him to tell)

Eventually, they stop in front of two separate big blue door

“Alright kids, this is where we part ways.” Ectoplasm says as he steps aside for a pale blue man with pink spots on his cheeks and forehead “This is Mr.Hoshino – After you all finish getting changed into your gym clothes in the locker rooms, he’s going to take you to the waiting area, so make sure to stay with him and follow his instructions. You’ll stay there until it’s about time for the opening ceremony and the classes are called out to the field.”

“Wh-what about you, Ec-ectoplasm-Sensei?” asks Kagutsuchi

“I’m going to be part of the security team, so I’ll be going to get my security pass before joining the other heroes and assigned teachers in patrolling the arena.” then quickly adds when he sees a few nervous looks shared between the class “Not that there’s any danger mind you! But you can never be too careful, even for events like this, so me and some others have taken responsibility in keeping an eye on things while the festival’s going on.”

“Has it ever gotten dangerous?” Izuku finds himself asking, and the hero chuckles in turn

“Luckily no! The event itself tends to be surprisingly peaceful all throughout. Our biggest issues are mostly just ensuring the students behave and the pros visiting don’t, er, get too carried away with their ‘excitement’.”

Wonder if dent Marimax left still there?

Was quite a thing

Had to delay third round to deal with

With a polite nod to their teacher and a wave farewell, the class divided themselves by gender and entered the changing rooms. For the most part, it went by rather quickly with few comparing muscles and chattering about what they think is going to be the events they’ll be participating in for the second round.

As Izuku tugged down his gym jacket to put out wrinkles, he notices Hakumen’s back and the fact that there’s several pock-like scars running down along it, the largest arcing up to his right shoulder

Before he can think of a better way to word it, his mouth says for him “That must’ve hurt.”

He expects offense (especially when Hakumen’s head whips around as fast as it did and his heart jackhammers in kind), but instead, he stares at him for a short minute and barks out a laugh.

“Yeah.” the faceless boy says, finishing tugging down his undershirt before pushing an arm through the jacket sleeve “Looks better than it felt though.”

“I can imagine.” he hears said, and jolts a little when Asamaru leans against his shoulder, apparently choosing to join them alongside Azukoto and Oguchi, “Shit looks nasty – no offense.”

“None taken.” he replies, an air of nonchalance you wouldn’t expect someone to give toward that kind of comment about an old scar surrounding him.

His thoughts, despite themselves, also gave that same feeling with their neat, letterbox font

Did hurt a lot though

Like getting a thousand splinters

Thought I was going to die

After allowing the others to comment and hum, Izuku hesitantly asks “Um, how…did it happen?”

Hakumen hums thoughtfully for a moment, thoughts glimmering as he shifted through childhood memories “You know about Baito park right?” he questions, then continued when he gets blank looks in return “Well, it has this really huge jungle gym, and when me and my friends played there, we would use it to play ‘King of the Mountain’ sometimes. One time when I won, I got a little to happy about it and fell.”

“Now, normally that wouldn’t be a problem – I've fallen off before, but the bark-chips usually don’t hurt too bad when you land on them. But that day, there was a fight going on with some other kids nearby, and one of them had a quirk that could makes anything they touch super sharp, even after its left their hands.” Hakumen then patted his back “Well, things got heated and the other kid threw barkchips at where I was falling after activating their quirk. You can probably guess the rest.”

They do, and all present wince in unison.

“O-oh.”

“Indeed.” he answers tersely, though his tone surprisingly remains placid “Luckily, my father was still nearby and the hospital responded quickly to the call. The doctors said I was lucky.”

(“They’re right that you got lucky though–”) Izuku bites his lip “It, um, sounds like it….”

“What happened to the kid who did it though? I doubt that just ended with them getting a time out.” Sugiyama asks, and Hakumen shrugged.

“Not sure – outside of the apology letter, I never really saw or heard from them after that.”

After that, the conversations taper off again as everyone finished changing and meets back out into the hall again with the girls and Mr.Hoshino, and eventually were lead into a huge room with multiple benches and water coolers, as well as a large speaker attached to the upper left wall, while a few meters from that was a pair of double doors.

“Alright,” Hoshino says as he waits for them to settle, “You guys will stay here until it’s time for the students to take the field,” and then pointed at the speakers and double doors “When you hear your class's name called, head for the doors. The hallway will lead right outside to the field, where you’ll stand with the others. Until then, take the time to relax and hydrate. Me and the other staff members will be right outside the door if you need anything.”

Everyone nods and thanks him for his assistance, and with that, Mr.Hoshino finally leaves, allowing the class to scatter to the four winds to chatter and explore and worry about the impending call. It reminded him a bit of the entrance exam, how everyone was left to putter around with just their thoughts as they anxiously awaited news of what their trial to be allowed to enter the heroics department would be.

The thought alone makes his stomach twist as something nauseating slithering within it, so Izuku sat on one of the benches, letting all the anxiety and nerves that had taken a backseat to pay attention to the instructions part of them wedge themselves back in.

Even though he told himself worrying over it would do him no good, he still spent the night before in a sleepless heap, etching fantasies of his (inevitable) loss into his bedroom ceiling until his alarm went off and he realized he hadn’t even closed his eyes after slipping into the covers.

(He was honestly shocked he managed to get on the bus before collapsing in a heap in his assigned seat and snoozing most of the journey away).

Everyone else didn’t seem to be having that problem though – they were chock full of excitement and anticipation, every thought a firework display against the sky of dark-blue steel surrounding them. Everywhere he looked, Izuku found himself surrounded by This is gonna be fun and I hope I do well and Ugh, how much longer sparking and blinking and-

He forces his head down and takes a breath. He already has enough to deal with, and getting himself overwhelmed now was likely just adding to the burden. It’ll likely be worse when they’re outside on the field surrounded by other students and the crowds in the arena area – thousands upon thousands of bright, listlessly searing thoughts and worries and enthusiasms around him, unyielding and shining alongside the late spring sun, all for him to see as he does his best not to have a breakdown on national tv.

He’s buried so deep into that scenario that it’s only the quite squeak of wood that gets his attention enough to notice he isn’t alone anymore.

“So, this is it huh?” Kanjou hums, kicking back her feet lazily as she holds out a cup of water to him.

“Seems like it,” he mumbles back weakly, and he mentally kicks himself for letting any weariness slip through, choosing to just start quietly sipping after.

She seems to take no offense, and stretches instead, relishing the feeling of her back muscles popping.

Kagutsuchi wanders over and joins them, and then three just sit at the bench, quietly ruminating in the bustling energy swirling around them.

“It almost doesn’t feel real.” he mumbles, water cup suddenly feel heavier than it likely was

“I know right?” Kanjou laughs “I mean, to think we’re actually gonna be on tv? And in front of all those people.” she grips the edge of the bench and leans back “I still can’t get over it.”

Kagutsuchi nods “I-I hope they don’t reco-cord us doing an-anything embarrassing.”

“I think they cut and censor some stuff after they finish the live broadcast.” Izuku offers, and Kanjou jumps in with a joking challenge to see if they can make the funniest faces they can and try and find out if they got removed in-post or not. Eventually, he feels himself get swallowed into the small talk, and actually feels himself settle a little. Suddenly all his worries seemed…minuscule and far away

(He’s almost at the point of relaxation until the sight of familiar petal-strewned pink hair makes all his earlier anxiety bounce back up again.)

[“Class 1D!”] a voice sounding suspiciously like Present Mic announced (actually, it would make sense he’d be in charge of rollcall considering he’s been MC-ing for the event the past couple of years) [“It’s your turn now little listeners! Come on out and show the crowd a warm welcome!”]

“Well, time to face the music.” he hears Kanjou laugh as she stands, and Kagutsuchi does as well, with himself being the last to be on their feet..

Outside is both underwhelming and overwhelming - Besides the huge TV screens showing off the crowds at the coliseum area and a small-ish stage in the center, the area is basically empty. The first three classes are already lined up, thoughts shimmering in an impatient tizzy. The heroic students are standing bold and unwavering, but inside they feel scrutinized, panicked and worrying about how everyone is watching them and that the arena is bigger than they thought and why did Present Mic have to introduce us like that / everyone’s glaring / We don’t like the attention either-

He meets someone’s eye and quickly breaks contact before he can figure out who, ending up sandwiched between Harukaze and Sugiyama as they line themselves up behind the first gen-ed class, left with only the shimmering fonts around him for company.

They stand for what feels like ages, waiting as another class joins them outside, and then another, and then another. Eventually, the last of the students finally line up, and as if on cue, fanfare blares from somewhere as Midnight appears on stage amidst a puff of smoke

“Greetings my dear youthful students!” his teacher cheered, showing off a perfect painted smile for them “and welcome to your first ever sports festival! I bet you’re all so excited that you feel ready to let it burst out, aren’t ya?”

A few cheered in excitement while the rest awkwardly coughed “Buuuut~, before we even let you all get to popping your festival cherries, we have some warm and encouraging words from our wonderful Sports Festival representative – Ms.Uraraka Ochako of heroics class 1A! Lets give our dear girl a big hand!”

Scattered applause echoes around the arena walls as a small brunette girl slowly makes her way up the steps, facing the crowd as bright, bubbly font nervously flickers above her.

Calm down, Uraraka Ochako!

You’ll be fine!

Is for class and Aizawa-sensei!

Just remembe speech

And will all be okay

…I hope.

“I-I, um – thank you all for being here!” she begins, still tittering as she thumbs the microphone “It’s a real nice day isn’t it? So glad the weather ended up being so sunny…”

The crowd’s response was tepid silence, and it just made her nerves all the more fraught as she continued. “A-anyways, as the representative of UA’s hero class, I’m very proud to say that me and my classmates are…”

Her classmates were doing their best to urge her on, some of the more enthusiastic ones whooping with cheer as she mumbled out compliments and wishes for everyone to do their best. Meanwhile, everyone else is only paying her half attention, instead whispering to their friends or murmuring about when exactly they were going to get ready for the actually festival.

(Which he felt was a bit mean, but…even he could see she was just rambling, clearing trying to eat up the time in her speech quickly so she could finally depart from the stage.)

At some point, she started stumbling off, finally noticing that her words were going unheard. The awkwardness of it was enough that even Midnight looked at her pitifully, struck between interfering and forcing the students to listen or staying back and giving Uraraka the chance to salvage the situation herself.

Then suddenly, she stares out into the crowd and something must have caught her eyes because they gain an immediate sharpness that makes her hazel orbs clear as the sky above

“…I know,” she began, stutter vanishing into her stern frame. Her earlier cheerful continence hadn’t faded in the least bit though “That some of you are – no, that everyone here feels terrified about the events that have happened last week. Uncomfortable even…”

She paused and her eyes fan over them, shimmering like bright galaxy ready to swallow them whole - “So much so that you blame the hero class for what happened.”

The chattering stops immediately - Gossiping friends went pale (with guilt or discomfort, he couldn’t say, even with the clear flickering of the words above them), and students who had spent most of her speech quietly phasing her out found themselves unable to escape from her attention.

“I can’t blame you for that.” she says, a strained smile forming on her face as she shook her head “Villains came to a place that should be safe for us to be in – safe for us to exist and grow as we prepare ourselves for the futures we set out on, because they felt entitled to violate that sense of comfort the school provided us. I can imagine them having so many reasons for what they did – someone being cruel to them one too many times? That they got too use to being inhumane to others to stop? Somehow deciding that us just existing was too much for them to handle.”

Again, her eyes catch sight of something, and narrow in it’s direction “Or maybe, they thought we were somehow too full of ourselves just by choosing to be students of UA, and that was all the excuse required to decide we needed to be knock down a peg?

(Izuku’s eyes scan the crowd for familiar elongated font, and draws them away when the strain of shifting through streams of light becomes too much)

“But no matter their reasons, whatever brought them to the choice of wearing the title ‘villain’, they still came, they still attacked us…” Her hand goes to her chest “They still hurt my classmates, my teacher, and the sense of wellbeing of every student and hero here at UA.”

Everyone silently regards her, and she seems to swallow a lump in her throat that had formed midway before she continues “But despite all that, even with everything they did to hurt us, we’re all still here – We still came to this arena, we still all showed up, with our damaged pride and wounded feelings of safety, and are still standing here today, ready to face each other and the world. They tried to take this day from me and the rest of you, but we still managed to arrive to today. They tried to take it from my teachers, but they’re still here, teaching me how to become the hero I wish to be. They tried to take it from the classmates they hurt, but those people still made it here too, watching us all from where they’re healing, waiting for the day they can come back and stand with us.”

“I still don’t know what those villains hoped to get by doing what they did, and maybe I never will. But I know that us standing here means they didn’t get it, and continuing on to this sports festival and the trials ahead ensures they still won’t, because we’re not here for them – we’re here for us!” she declared, and taps her chest with a hearty thump “So lets celebrate us, and the future that’s still in our hands, as we make this the best sports festival we can, and show the world and the pros here what we’re made of!” before pumping her first into the air “PLUS ULTRA!”

Despite all the buzz and energy she filled her speech to the brim with, the crowd remained silent, refusing to meet her halfway out of stubbornness, as though responding gave credence to her declarations (and their guilt). No matter how touching it was, they seemed unwilling to show her she had had some sway over them.

And whether it was that, the slow building energy bubbling in her words, the bright sunny atmosphere lending its aid, or the fact that he had simply gotten use to the phrase so often that it became ingrained muscle memory, but Izuku found himself taking a step forward, hand already rising into the air –

“Plus Ultra!”

A thousand eyes land on him and Izuku is pinned. His hand is sweaty, his face is heating hum, and he can’t find any power to unduck his head as he glues his eyes to the floor, praying that the teachers will hurry up and move on so he can escape.

….And then –

“Plus Ultra!”

He couldn’t see who said it, but he recognized the voice. He was going to try and spot them, when another shout distracts him, followed by another, and another…

"Plus Ultra!"

"Plus Ultra!"

"Plus Ultra or whatever..."

"P-plus Ultra!"

"Hell yeah – Plus Ultra girl!"

And soon, every person present found their fists raised high as they chanted along with the crowd -

“Plus Ultra!”

(Shigaraki’s glass smashes against the wall above the TV, dripping red rum across the screen and over their brunette girl’s head as he glared vicious daggers at her.)

As he fears – it’s horrendously bright out.

All around him is bright. The stands, the sun, and the thousands of students surrounding him as they made their way to the “starting line” as it were, with nothing but blinding luminescence for miles and miles.

After things calmed down regarding Uraraka’s speech, Midnight announced the official start of the festival and informed them and the crowd of their first event – the obstacle race.

It was same as every other year; students would gather at the entrance, then run across extensive and well built track (courtesy of Cementoss and Powerloader) full of traps and obstructions all the way to the next venue, where the second round would be held. They were free to use their quirks however they wished, just so long as they didn’t leave the course route.

Everyone sets themselves up at the starting line, adjusting their shoes or their positions. He spots Kanjou and Kagutsuchi a bit of ways away, separated by the steadily growing sea of people, and the former waves at him enthusiastically before getting the latter to join with a little less energy, and Izuku manages to give an awkward wave in return before Midnight’s voice crackled through the air once more.

“Alright my lovelies – are we ready to get started?” she crooned, and everyone gave shouts of excitement as the crowds cheers washed over them in waves. “Then lets begin the countdown – 3!”

He faces the road ahead, feet digging into the ground while some in the crowd took running positions.

“2!”

Everyone’s thoughts flicker with impatient excitement, and he does his best to focus on the darkness of the tunnel-

“1!”

The buzzer rang, and Izuku shoots off into the starting gate – and immediately finds himself being crushed between several people as he and the front-runners found themselves squeezed in between themselves and the steel walls

“The starting gate’s too narrow!” Someone cried from the throng, and Izuku can only grit his teeth as he desperately tries to navigate out of the sea of limbs and squirming bodies, barely avoiding an elbow to the head and Izuku is continually swirled around them until he’s shoved up to the window, face squished against the-

“Here!”

A hand reaches out from the mass, grabbing his and tugging him through the writhing bodies. Eventually, Izuku reaches the exit and tumbles out into the open, and the next thing he knows, he’s on the ground, grasping for air desperately.

“You okay?” a feminine voice asks, and he looks up and sees a purple-skinned girl, also on the ground, pushing herself up by her elbows after obviously falling over helping him.

“Good thing I noticed you before I got out.” she huffed, and moved to lazily dust herself off while still on the ground “Man, you’d think they’d learn their lessons about putting everyone in enclosed spaces after what happened with the press.”

He just nods, still trying to get his lungs to get off from their unscheduled break. He needs to speak, to say thank you – but just as he finally settles himself, he’s immediately distracted by the sudden feeling of cold nipping at his legs and scattered shouting.

What?

They both turn in time to avoid a boy with red and white hair literally sliding out of the gate, a trail of ice forming behind him that freezes everything (and everyone) in place – themselves included.

“Oh for fucks sake!” the girl grumbled at her frozen arms as Izuku uselessly tugged at his legs as the boy skates away, his words streaking past like car lights (Filter being the only word he manages to catch). Izuku recognized him from the hero class group, but he can’t really recall which one.

Not that he’s focused all that much on it when he’s trying to figure out what kind of quirk just stuck him in place just now

“An elemental emitter quirk? Or maybe it’s related to temperature control like Kagutsuchi’s…?” he muttered, tapping at the frost. The ice wasn’t so thick that he’d be getting frostbite or worse, but it was clear he wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. The noise from behind (and a string of curses coming from a voice sounding suspiciously like Nagimasa) told him the same likely applied to his classmates and whoever else hadn’t escaped the bottleneck formed at the entry gate. While he should have been as upset as the rest of them, the distraction of a new unknown ability had managed to take precedent alongside getting free. It was one thing to flash freeze everyone in place, but the bicolored boy had done so with enough control to only trap limbs that had the misfortune of touching the ground when he had and ensured no one be able to pursue him while avoiding hurting anyone too badly. The fact he was able to do all that with so much range and control meant he either had that strong of a quirk that he could confidently make such a move or had been practicing with it long enough to use it that efficiently.

[“Wowie wow~ – Not only did 1A’s Todoroki just steal the lead, he also managed to stop the competition cold in their tracks!”] Present Mic laughed, cackling at his own joke while Eraserhead (who had apparently joined him as a co-MC) grumbled something about “tunnel vision”, [“As expected of the number two’s kid! Looks like someone’s been taking his teacher’s lessons seriously!”]

Izuku had blinked wildly at that. He had heard this year’s hero course had included two legacy children, but he hadn’t expected one of them to be the child of the highest ranking hero after All Might! No wonder his attack had been so brutal but controlled…

Meanwhile, the praise for the hero student just caused even more grumbling – and it worsened when the other hero students followed suit, leaping over prone runners as they dashed ahead to try and catch up their classmate. The moment the last of them filtered in, everyone began desperately trying to free their encased limbs, some resorting to their quirks to speed up the process, because it was either that or waiting however long it would take the ice to melt, and he highly doubt even the current summer weather would be enough to speed things along.

There should be a weak point right?  He thinks. If his quirk shares enough properties with natural forming ice, then it's just a matter of either applying enough pressure where it's thinnest to break, or waiting until it melted enough to start trying to pull himself free.

He is just about to ask the purple girl for help (only to remember both her hands and feet are trapped) when he hears the crunching frost and struggling grunts amongst all the shouting.

“This is hell, this is hell, this is heeeellll~!” Kanjou grumbled as Izuku looks behind himself, watching her cling to Kagutsuchi’s arm as they made their way over in careful, wobbly steps. It was honestly impressive to see them move consider their shoes were likely not design to wade through ice in the first place

“H-hi Midoriya,” Kagutsuchi stuttered, clearly trying not to misstep and go sliding off, “W-we noticed you we-were nearby and c-came over to free you.”

Izuku stared, feeling genuine shock. He hadn't expected his classmates to come to his aid (or at all even), and can only watch in stunned silence as Kagutsuchi finally crossed over, kneeing down as he placed his bare palms over his right foot.

“So-sorry if your shoes get w-wet.” the ash haired boy mumbled, and the underside of his palms glowed orange as wisps of steam start coming off from where they were placed.

(A sharp grin descends upon him as Katsuki tightened his grip and-)

It’s not the same, it’s not the same. He repeats, gnawing on his lower lip as his clenched hands shook. It took everything to keep himself still while Kagutsuchi worked, and when that stopped helping, he decided to pick apart the differences between (“Deku”) the quirks – Kagutsuchi’s quirk seems to be slow acting. He can see that the glow of his palms are steadily growing brighter as the ice takes its time to melt. It probably starts at lower 50s or 40s before slowly climbing up (does it go up by single degrees, or does the amount it rises by slowly double as time passes?). Kagutsuchi looks like he’s sweating a bit too – does it also effect his internal temperature? Or is it a combination of that and the already sweltering summer heat? Would he have an easier time in a cooler environment, or do better with a support item that could keep him cool when using it? Or maybe he’s just the type not to do well in high temp-

“O-okay, you can mo-move now!” Kagutsuchi announced as he rose and stepped back, snapping Izuku out of his reverly. He gives a test pull of his leg before moving forward, the remaining ice breaking away while his feet gave a wet squelch with each step.

“Do yo-your feet feel okay?"

“Yeah…” he nods, rubbing them a bit to get some warmth back “They’ll probably dry after I run a bit.”

Kagutsuchi nods back and he moves away, and Izuku then turns to Kanjou, who’s still knobby-kneed now that her support was gone “Was there anyone else in our class with you?”

“I think most of them are still stuck behind the ‘great wall’.” Kanjou answers, jerking her head towards the starting gate behind them. Even now, it’s still filled with squirming bodies trying to get free of each other. “The only people I didn’t see are Harukaze, Asamaru, and Hyeon, but I don’t know if they managed to keep up with the hero kids or not”

He hums thoughtfully at that. He imagines the former’s quirk would likely help her avoid the ice trap (though it likely forced the station to cut to commercial very quick once she reformed), though he can’t say the same about the other two and assumes they just got lucky and weren’t in the direct path of the attack or had someone like Kagutsuchi help them.

Speaking of, he then turns to see the ash haired boy then go to the purple-skinned girl’s side, melting the ice around her hands enough to let her wretch herself free. When he moves to do the same for her feet, she shakes her head and hold a hand up to stop him.

“Nah, I got it.” she says, and presses her still dripping hands against the edges where the ice had her left foot sealed.

With a single twitch of her digits, five holes appeared on both sides on the ice, cracks trailing upward and around where her fingers were pressed. She did it twice more before then wretching out her foot, the ice breaking away and freeing her trapped appendage.

A pressure quirk? He wonders as she repeats the act on her other foot, finally standing tall. It was certainly impressive, and quick acting too. He wonders if it requires full touch or just needing one of her fingers to be touching the surface of something to work...

"Much better." she smiles, and taps both feet a few times against the ground. Once she's satisfied, she gives Izuku a lazy salute and curt “Thanks” towards Kagutsuchi before running ahead, weaving around the students still stuck in the ice.

(It's only after she disappears that he realizes he never asked her what department she was in)

Eventually, the rest of the trapped crowd starts to free themselves too while those still stuck behind the entry gate have finally exited, and that signals to the trio that they should be getting a move on. The ice slowly fades to give way to dirt and grass as they run, the roar of the crowd deafening them from the speakers.

“I think we’re catching up!” He hears Kanjou shout, and true to her word, he sees the backs of the hero course students alongside some others he doesn’t recognize (likely those who avoided getting stuck in the ice trap) appear on the horizon.

He also sees an army of robots standing ahead of them, preparing to smash down on the group. They’re the same ones as from the entrance exams – the small one pointers armed with their shovel-like arms, the versatile and agile two-pointers with their wheels kicking up dust, and the bulky three-pointers, who’s guiding lasers had already targeted a few runners.

(The ground begins to rumble, nearly knocking him off his feet and startling everyone else around him into halting-)

And towering above them all was a thick wall of four zero-pointers, standing side by side as they blocked out the sun.

[“And here we have the first obstacle – ‘The Robo-Inferno’!”] Mic’s voice rumbles from above as they slowly join the group [“Some of you little listeners from the hero course might recognize your opponents from the entrance exam! As you can see, we’ve decided to repurpose some of them for the first leg of the race! Now lets see how all y’all handle this!”]

The students in front of them hesitate to move forward, clearly unsure what to do. While the other bots would be easy to deal with for the ones that had more combat inclined quirks, the zero-pointers were near impossible to fight due to how bulky and stalwart they were, and unlike the entrance exam, they had no option of simply avoiding them and seek out easier opponents.

In the end though, no one had to do anything, because it’s over quickly in the blink of an eye –

At least make it easy He sees shimmer brightly in a thin, pointed font as the boy who had froze his legs – Todoroki, takes a step forward and stomps a foot down, trails of ice spreading across the ground as they make their way up and around the metal limbs of the robots like encroaching ivy as they’re all slowly frozen mid-swing.

The crowd goes wild with applause as he speeds off ahead, and several students try their best to keep up, Izuku and his group also spurred on to follow.

He passes under two of the bots that first froze, and blinks as the dual-haired boy looked back lazily at him and the rest.

Wouldn’t do that

Froze them when moving

And none of you

Are that fast

Izuku doesn’t realize what those words mean until he hears the damning sound of creaking metal from above…

[“And Todoroki forges ahead while cutting off the rest of the herd in one fell swoop – talk about harsh! Just what’re ya teaching those kids Shouta?”]

Katsuki glared as he watched the small red and white blur that had been his classmate rush forward, freezing more bots in his path while skating through the gaps in the wall of robots in his way. Frustrating as it was to admit, it was actually pretty clever of him to use the bots as a blockade like that – not only does it shows off his strength and strategizing skills to the other heroes watching, it also slows down anyone who got left behind at the start who might want to try challenging him.

(Katsuki wouldn’t have been affected though – that plan really only works on dumbasses with non-combative quirks or mutations not suited for long events like the race and weaklings. All he’d have to do is use his explosions to get over the artificial hump the bastard made along with the rest of the bots and he’d overtake Half’n’half in a second).

“I hope those other kids are okay,” he hears Nurse Watermelon mutter as she finished up checking his vitals. The doctor assigned her to keep an eye on him after he had been forced to beg request that he be allowed to watch the Sports Festival, hearing some bullshit about them not wanting him “getting overstimulated” when he’s still on bedrest.

“It’s fine,” he snorts, watching as the next bot falls and dustclouds obscured the screen for a moment “Those idiots in class might be no good extras, but they aren’t that wimpy. If they can handle fuckhands and his band of losers, then whatever half’n’half throws at them won’t matter!”

She frowns at him (which totally doesn’t make him squirm uncomfortably) “…I was actually talking about the kids in the other departments,” she clarifies, turning to the screen again “None of them have the training you kids do. Hopefully no one gets hurt again this year.”

He snorts again, though more derisively, and gets even more annoyed when she lightly scolds him for it. If those idiots were scared of being hurt, then they shouldn’t have participate – The entire point of the Sports Festival is to help the hero students to show off their skills to the pros so they could entice them to bring them to their agencies for further training. This was battleground meant to help kickstart their stories, to prove why they’re better than the other scrubs in the crowd, to be on the next step in their journey of toppling the current heroes and taking their places as the new number ones. This is where he was suppose to take the stage and show the world who their new number one would be!

So why aren’t you there then?

Katsuki bristles, and pointedly refuses to answer the questioning look Watermelon sends him when he does. It didn’t matter if he missed the festival. After what the news said about his classmates not him all he got was a soundbite about being hospitalized survival against the villains who attacked USJ, the pros at the arena were likely already impressed with him and just satisfying themselves with the weaklings until it was time to send in their requests. He has nothing to worry about.

(And he continues not to as he seeks out the spot of green he had saw on the screen only moments before grey had swallowed everything)

Kanjou’s scream reverbs in his ears as the first one crashes, cutting him off from her and Kagatsuchi. The next one falls into the wall and sends frozen shrapnel everywhere, and soon it becomes a domino effect as robots fall and crash around him, blocking off the students behind him as the ones in front scramble to try and avoid the falling debris.

(-dust and darkness falling over them both as they went tumbling across the ground and the giant treads smashed through the front half )

Izuku is frozen, he cannot move, trapped in an unrelenting memory as frost covered steel crashes down, deafened by the panicked screams around him as he tries to find a safe zone to escape in with the rest.

Then he sees someone else just as trapped as he was, watching in paralyzed terror as one of the icy metal chunks comes hurtling towards her.

The teachers will do something.

That boy’s quirk might not have made the metal that dangerous.

Someone else might save her.

(His feet are moving before his brain can.)

He and the girl go tumbling across the dirt, the sound of frozen metal and shattering ice piercing his eardrum as cold seeps into every pore. His eyes burn from the grit embedding in them before he squeezes them shut, forcing both their heads down.

In out in out in out in out down down down blue pink yellow green blue pink yellow green blue pink yellow green-

The noise feels forever and he’s frozen, drowning in static as dirt and frost fill his lungs. The rumbling ground turns into plaster and concrete as his ears fill with the imagined deadly grind of treads against flesh and he feels himself dry heave trying to regulate his breathing.

But eventually, he tries to force himself up because it’s only the first half and he can’t stop now.

(and because he’s not the only one here and panicking)

That was scary! The girl’s thoughts flared, a squiggly anxious font warbling above as she curled out of the ball she made. Thought I was gonna die!

“A-are you okay?” he asked, and the girl flinches a bit before shakily nodding, golden eyes darting between him and the toppled robot as her tail shivered. He offers her a hand as he unsteadily gets to his feet, but she shakes her head.

“M’gloves are torn.” she muttered as she stood too, showing off pitch black pads underneath the torn pastel purple leather of her right handed glove’s two missing fingers. It probably happened earlier or when they had gone rolling across the ground.

However, Izuku’s focus are more on her hands, and the fact that the tips of her finger bottoms seem more thicker than one would expect of a person’s.

A reptilian mutation? He wonders, realizing the spots on her face, tail, and neck were the same color as her pads. That would explain the tail...Wonder if it’s related to her quirk?

Before he can ask though, there’s more sounds of tearing metal, and both whip their heads back to see someone emerge from the collapsed bots, startling the people who were either trying to either climb over or standing stunned around it. He can only assume they hadn’t been hurt because their quirks had protected them from being crushed under the full weight of the zero-pointer when it fell on them.

“The hell – I almost died!” the person complained, and he immediately recognized it as Kirishima - His skin had become rough and scraggly to the point that he had several tears in his gym uniform, while his hair and teeth had taken a sharper edge, though both had begun to soften as he pulls himself out of the wreckage. He must have some sort of transformation mutation that changed the state of his body, and had used it to protect himself from the sudden tons of metal that had come crashing down suddenly.

(His stomach churns at the thought of what would of happened if that wasn’t the case and that he hadn’t even noticed.)

[“Oh man! Looks like 1C’s Kirishima almost got crushed!”] Yelped Mic [“Good thing his quirk kept him from becoming a pancake thanks to Todoroki’s domino strat!”]

[“One of the most important things in battle is all about being able to react at any moments notice.”] drolls out Eraserhead in response [“Just shows he has good instincts.”]

“Damn straight! Seriously, talk about an unmanly trick!” the brunette continued to grumble as he pulled himself out of the hole he created, jagged font rumbling bright “Those guy’s really need to be more careful! What if it hadn’t been me under there!”

Must have timed it to topple at the right moment

Lucky I activated quirk in time

Everyone heard warning too

Would have been dangerous

Izuku feels anxious nausea settle in and attempts to distract from it by wondering how dense Kirishima’s quirk made his skin to have survived that much weight and if it effected his musculature too, only to be interrupted by the sound of more tearing metal as another stranger emerged, skin gleaming metallic against the late April sun as he emerged from his would-be tomb.

[“Whoa, looks like 1B’s Tetsutetsu got caught in Todoroki’s trap too! Seems we have two lucky thick-skins in our racing bracket this year!”]

“Goddamn 1A Bastards! You need to be more careful!” he growled as he dug himself out of the frozen steel with his shining limbs with something in his hands while his blocky font blinked in irritation. Izuku could only conclude he must have a quirk that worked similarly to Kirishima’s “That was dangerous! If I wasn’t me, I would have definitely bit it!”

Obnoxious brat

Didn’t even care about being careful

Someone could’ve died!

Kirishima makes a strange face and his thoughts shimmer to something about…copy-pasting? Whatever the reason, he scrambles away and off the bot to run ahead with comical tears in his eyes, briefly giving Izuku some acknowledgement as he passed by.

The silver-skin boy had followed soon after, skin turning into a healthy tan and hair revealing itself as a bright sterling grey as he hopped down and approached the two, slowing down when he spots the girl next to Izuku.

“Oi, Tennou!” he calls out, and the girl flinches in surprise (Izuku had assumed nerves from almost being crushed the first time, but now he thinks it's just a habit of hers) “You doing okay? I saw you were in the middle of that mess earlier, but the bot collapsed on me before I could get to you”

The girl called Tennou nods, then gestured to Izuku. “I-I’m fine! This guy helped me out!”

He looks at him, eyes narrowed, and Izuku feels himself brace for (a fight? An insult? An accusation?) whatever he thought was coming next when his eyes widened and suddenly grabbed both his shoulders, showing off his sharpened teeth with a wide grin

“Oh – you’re the kid who was in my entrance exam group!” he beamed, thoughts bursting with joy over the reunion as if Izuku was one of his old classmates “Was wondering what happened to you. Nice to see you’re doing okay!”

Izuku blinks as Tennou looks between the two in equal confusion, trying to search his memory. He doesn’t really remember much about the people in his exam group, too focused on getting points, and afterwards he just...plain wanted to stop thinking about it for a while.

“Um, thank you?” he says uncertainly, still distracted by his jumbled head “Um, so you got into the hero course. Congratulations.”

Tetsutetsu just beamed wider and let out a barking laugh “Thanks! Honestly, I almost thought I didn’t make it in because they delayed my results. What about yourself?”

Izuku’s throat seemed to close up at the question, and it’s then that he finally recalls seeing this same bright face as its owner destroyed a bot he had failed to even damage – and the overwhelming shame and self-aimed rage that came from himself afterwards. The silver boy had, for whatever reason, deemed Izuku remarkable enough to remember at that time, and had been so overjoyed at seeing him again. How quickly would his happiness-bright thoughts dim should he learn that the same boy he was eager to meet had not only failed to reach the same plateau, but was now desperately trying to grasp at the thin thread being dangled in the event in the vain hope of being allowed another shot?

(That the boy he saved had been nothing but ungrateful for the act, had been so angry and envious at his strength and how much he was lacking in comparison that he couldn’t even appreciate that he had chosen to come to his aid, when all others would have likely just left Izuku to fend for himself.)

(Did it even matter at this point)

Luckily, he’s spared the agony of considering a moment longer, as a thundering boom echoes behind them and they all turn in unison to find the source is one of the hero students – whose open gym top fluttered in the wind as she stood next to a canon of some kind, front end smoking as one of the zero pointers teetered. After a minute passed, two of her classmates flung themselves forward into its shoulders to ensure it fell backwards instead on top of her.

It seemed while they were talking, a majority the other students had already gotten over Todoroki’s makeshift barricade and begun engaging with their mechanical opponents, earlier hesitance forgotten as robot limbs went flying and oil was spilled across their “battlefield” under the assault of quirks and tools (that he assumes belong to the support students since they’re the only ones allowed to bring non quirk-essential equipment) while Mic commented on their brutality. Meanwhile, those with more “aerodynamic” quirks or stranger looking equipment swiftly and quickly soared overhead or under strikes from the bots, choosing to simply vault over the obstacles rather than face them head on like the others had

Just as they look away from the chaos, a one and two pointer come barreling out of the fray to charge towards them, eyes gleaming crimson as they made their way over to their targets.

Tetsutetsu wastes no time as he turns himself back into his gleaming metal form (Izuku struggles to identify what type before the sheen makes him realize it’s simply regular old steel) and digs into the guts of the two pointer right as it’s reaches him, pulling out something deep from its chest cavity before tearing it apart with savage laughter. Meanwhile, Tennou hooks an arm around the one-pointer and smoothly wraps herself around it like a koala, teeth gritted as she grasps its head and twists until it pops off from its neck in a shower of wires and sparks. She then tears off her torn glove with her teeth and grabs at the exposed wiring, shuddering as her eyes glow and a dark aura permeates around her while the sparks still spilling out just slowly die down. Once the last of them is snuffed out, she hops off, breathing heavily as her arms twitch.

And Izuku can do nothing but stare, transfixed at the sight of the slaughter, overwhelmed by the power and skill being displayed. Even if he had one hundred years to work with, he doubts he could ever reach that kind of level of savagery, even if Mind-Reader was that type of quirk.

Tetsutetsu calls out to his classmate as he examines his prize taken from the two-pointer’s guts – a battery of some sort, and then lightly tosses the object to her

“Here, you can hold on to this to juice yourself up later!" He says "It’s gonna be a long race if those 1A jerks are planning any more nasty tricks like before!”

The girl fumbles a bit, but manages to catch the battery and nods. Satisfied, Tetsutetsu then turns to him and gives a strong wave “Thanks again for saving Tennou! Good luck out there!” and runs off, tearing into another two pointer that makes the mistake of trying to intercept him.

She sighed and carefully put her glove back on before turning to him and giving a slight bow, font wavering as she does so. Izuku realizes as she lifts her head that her sclera has become a few shade darker and turned a cloudy grey.

“T-thank you again for helping me!” she squeaked out (though her voice sounded a bit more steady now), and followed after her classmate, disppearing behind a dustcloud created from the destruction of another robot.

Izuku is simply left standing there as he watches there retreating backs, then shifts to look back at the fighting going on as Mic continues his energized commentary alongside Eraserhead’s dull but biting observations, before finally letting his eyes fall on the bots Tetsutetsu and Tennou had destroyed.

So those are hero students. He thinks, staring at the weaken sparks from the beheaded one pointer while the torn and bent remains of the two pointer gathered grit and dirt from the light breeze that blew. Those are the kids he has to face, the wall he had to overcome if he wanted even a slightest chance of having his dream reignited.

This was the battle he had to fight in order to keep his hope.

(“Can I be like that too?”)

As he tries to stifle his tears that stung the corners of his eyes, something cloying and burning slowly crystalizing in his gut as another feeling he couldn’t quite identify slowly welled up threatening to overtake him as he gasps for air like he’s breathing for the first time in forever. It hadn’t be envy, like at the entrance exam, or the heavy anxiety from that day the attack on USJ was reported, but something completely new, yet also something he hasn’t felt in ages.

(This was-)

“Mi-midoriya-san!”

He blinks and comes back to himself, as Kagatsuchi comes over to see if he’s okay and points out a safety zone ahead of the wall they were near that would allow them to traverse between the bursts of robot bits falling fro the skies, explaining how he and Kanjou were separated in the chaos caused by Todoroki’s attack and was looking for her when he spotted him as they make their way through the chaos.

As they run, Izuku sees a piece of detached paneling of a destroyed two pointer, and after a moment of hesitation, grabbed it to drag along with him.

(His muscles burn and stretch under the weight, yet he can’t make himself let go)

The heroes in the stands excitedly chattered to themselves as Keigo watched the races run. It was only the start of the first half, and already they were impressed with what they've seen. Naturally, most eyes had been on Endevor's son, who had made a very good opening move with such a bold show of his quirk and its power, and was sure to become a great asset with some training (should the flaming hero approve), but the current number 3 hero had seen things a bit different...

He's favoring his left too much. He thinks numbly, leaning against his arm. It was clear after a few minutes of observing that Todoroki's progeny was holding back a little, especially with the way he would briefly give feather light touches to this left side when he thought the cameras weren't watching. Seems like whatever his actual quirk was, was only being half used for some reason, and while some might think of that as "good strategy", it was a dangerous gamble to play in a field where you needed to have every weapon in your arsenal ready if you didn't want to hit a wall you couldn't climb with half-assing as usual. Frankly, he'd likely avoid having him intern until whatever was going on passed, because as he is now at the moment, Shouto Todoroki would be nothing but a burden to whoever brought him on.

Instead, his attention had been on some of the others - that Uraraka girl had managed to manuever over his blockade and avoid his attempts to freeze her in place, and the bird mutant Tokoyami's quirk had been absolutely facinating to observe as he tore through ice and metal to try and catch up with them. The two of them were a bit unrefined at the moment, yes, but with some proper training, they would make fine heroes and could probably be shown ways to use their quirks beyond the standard. Same with that Harukaze girl with the transformation wind quirk, considering how adaptable she seemed with it (though she needed to work on her reforming a bit). Overall, this year's batch of first years was looking to be a good bunch.

(The only one he was hesitating on giving a assesment of was the plain looking kid who saved that girl from the falling robot debris - it had happend too fast and amongst all the chaos happening for the commentors to notice sadly, but the fact that he had spotted her and acting so quickly spoke well on his reflexes, but he had reacted rather slowly during the initial incident. He'd have to wait and see what else the kid could do before giving his full judgement.)

"Well ain't this something," a voice behind him huffed, and Keigo glances beside himself lazily as a familiar youthfull looking pale blonde woman suddenly occupied the seat next to him, muching on colorful popcorn "I thought you weren't interested enough in the festival to come watch?"

The feathered hero shrugged, watching her face scrunch up as he grabbed a handful for himself. "I'm still not - handler made me go. Something about taking on a student being 'good PR' or whatever. Didn't really listen." and shoved it into his mouth, relishing the sudden kick of fruity tropical flavoring "Yurselft?"

"Same deal," she answers in clear disgust, holding the bag away when he tried to reach for more. "Suzuho's fuckup last month caused a bigger shitstorm than expected, so now I have to do clean up again by taking on some shitty brat to parade around the agency during gigs till things blow over."

A harsh laugh puffed out of him with that, and the woman just grumbled harder as she chomped angrily on her food. That would explain why he heard about the bell-themed hero's "vacation" suddenly getting extended last week. The commision sure loves doing its work fast when there's a scandel to bury.

"Well, I'm sure whoever you pick will be more than happy with the deal," he says in a teasing manner, reaching around to steal more popcorn "Not every day the famous heroine Babydoll picks up an intern."

Immediately, her comedic irritablility morphes into aggravated sullenness as she practically shoved her hand into her popcorn bag, spilling some of the contents.

"Yeah, it's gonna be soooooo much fun listening to some pissy snotnosed brat bitch at me about how we're not doing cool stuff like patrols and crimering raids while I have to pose in ugly frilled shit for some old perv behind a camera." she groused, continuing her whining even with her mouth full "Camn't imaujin anythinft buter."

He lets his brows rise a slight milimeter at the sight, and she simply responds with shoving more food down her gullet.

"You know Mika, if your fans saw you like this, they'd be real disillusioned." he says, and his fellow blonde just fumes harder as she leaned back in her seat.

"Let'em." She grumbled, "I have to be the 'Pretty and Pure Forever Fourteen' hero 24/7 on and off patrol, and this is the one time I'm not being hovered over by that asshat Oki - I should be allowed to be a gross shitty adult for a minute at least."

The moment the words left her mouth, some female students (likely from the business course. He heard their department didn't usually participate in the events) exited from the stairway carrying coolers, and faster than he could blink, Mika straightened herself up and cleaned all the popcorn bits from her clothes and face as they turned to spot her, giving a playful peace sign and a wink while he gave the most handsome lazy grin he could and waved.

The group blushed and giggled as they waved back, and quickly scurried along as they loudly whispered to themselves

"Did you see that - that was Babydoll wasn't it!"

"Aww, I wish I remembered to bring my phone with me."

"Wasn't she sitting with Hawks? Do you think she's his secret girlfriend from the magazine rumors...?"

The last one got her eyes twitching, and he snorts loudly as she turned back to glare at him, grinning down at her smoldering lavander orbs squinting back at him with visable annoyance.

"You were saying?"

"Oh bite me birdbrain."

After finally escaping the robots, Izuku and Kagatsuchi continue their desperate run across the winding track, pausing occasionally to catch their breath. Occasionally, other students would pass them or be passed, but they persisted regardless. Eventually, an incline with multiple stairways appears in the horizon with students already climbing it, and he can already tell that there’s another surprise waiting for them over the hump.

He looks at the other boy, face red and sweaty from the running they’ve been doing, and he look back at the road ahead of them, daunting and foreboding even from so far away.

(Plus Ultra)

They climb the centermost one with Izuku taking lead, and Mic’s voice cheerfully washes over them as they get higher

[“I commend ya little listeners for getting past the first hurdle!”] Present Mic chuckles in a prideful yet excited timbre [“But let’s see how you handle the next one-”]

The last step is crossed and they reach the summit, and the view uptop reveals to them a huge chasm in the middle of the route, filled with stone pillar platforms of varying sizes connected only by a series of thin ropes.

[“Go over and you’re out! But you might win if your crawl! Iiiiiin-troducing – ‘THE FAAAAAALLLLLLLLL~’”]

Izuku and Kagatsuchi carefully make their way over and the former leans over the edge to stare. While he doubts it’s bottomless (or at least, he hopes it isn’t), the fact that the bottom is near impossible to discern in rather foreboding – and the way the ropeways swung so wildly in the slight breeze that followed didn’t give off an encouraging feeling either. If he took Mic at his word, falling down meant you were out of the race, which meant there were likely a lot of traps and tricks around to ensure making it to the other side as difficult as possible.

And he’s right to assumme so, as one of the students (he doesn’t recognize him from class, so he assumes he must be from 1C or one of the other two departments) tries tightrope walking across one of the ropes – only for the harness holding it on the otherside to release as he plummets into the darkness with a terrified scream.

(The fact he didn't hear the sickening thud of flesh against a harsh, hardened surface should have reasured him, but it just fills him with more dread than before)

But sadly, there was no way but forward from here on, and the sentiment seemed universal as students slowly made their way to unoccupied rope ends and started crawling after testing their stability.

He looks to the other platforms the other staircases likely had led to, and sees Todoroki, who’s already ahead. He reaches the end of the rope he’s on and turns to look back when he leaps onto the platform and kicks off, a trail of ice growing from where he ran that covers the holding harness as his thoughts glistened like ice.

Should keep people off me

Can’t afford

To let guard down

He lets his gaze fall away to observe the others, who are also finding ways to climb over the ropes or trying to come up with solutions to “cut down” the competition while getting ahead.

“We should avoid the ropes that Todoroki was using…” Izuku starts to warn, trailing off when he spots Harukaze at the far right corner, at an edge without a ropeway. Before he could wonder what’s going on, she leaps off, activating her quirk in a burst of petals and she vanishes into a pink-tinted breeze and flies over the valley, gym clothes following along. He had expected them to just drop down below into the endless darkness after she transformed, but his classmate is managing to keep them in the air and along with her for the “ride”.

She must have been practicing. He thinks numbly, and looks around to see how the other students are fairing –

And is caught by clear blue eyes staring right at him.

“Mi-midoriya-san?” He hears Kagatsuchi call, but he isn’t paying any attention because all he can see is the girl (Shield, she said her name was Melissa Shield), in the middle of crawling across one of the rope bridges. She has a strange fannypack and weird looking armbraces on, yet they don’t seem to be weighing her down, and has pulled her hair into a ponytail to keep it out of the way.

Izuku wants to know what she’s thinking, why she’s staring, but she’s too far away so all he can see is flickers of bright flashes as she hung and haze eats at the corner of his vision as his his chest grows heavy and his lungs burn and static is swallowing him as he falls to his knees –

(Slime is filling his mouth his stomach his throat he can’t breath someone help me anyone)

A sudden rush of wild laughter breaks the spell, and he looks over in time to see some pink haired girl jumping and swinging from pillar to pillar with some sort of grappling device attached to her waist and a strange pair of boots, laughing madly like she was having the time of her life preforming such death-defying stunts while her thoughts constantly shimmered and flicker, focusing on nothing and everything at once.

“That’s right world – take a good long look at my dear babies!” she cackled, and hooked her grapple into the next pillar ahead as she disappeared behind it, laughter echoing throughout the canyon.

The two silently stare at the spot where the other girl disappeared behind for what seems like forever, both too stunned to be focusing on the overwhelming surging forth when they turn to each other again (or maybe it's just Izuku).

Then as another moment passes, Shield starts to laugh, covering her mouth as she fails to stifle the mirthful giggles that are escaping.

She looks back at Izuku as she adjusts her hold, and mouths something that’s swallowed by the whispering air and his roaring heart before continuing on her way, vanishing from his sight as well.

But even then, Izuku can not move. He is frozen, he is stuck ,he is being swallowed by the world and every little noise escaping around him as the winds's howls turn into violent screaming.

(Kill you)

Izuku collapses slightly as he dry heaves, and stares into the spiraling darkness below. He’s scared. He’s terrified. He wants to vomit. He hates how he’s only at the halfway point and already he wants to quit because-

(“You should just give up.”)

A hand takes the panel from him, and he sees it’s Kagatsuchi, who arms warble as he holds it in front of him at his right to block him from the sight of anyone looking their way.

He looks sick

Did a lot of running

Should we rest?

But everyone’s getting ahead

But I can’t force him if he feels bad

Wish Kanjou were here.

She’d figure something out

What do I do?

How do I help?

I…

He stares at the wild flickering of the ash-haired boy’s thoughts, as he strains between trying to find something comforting to say and trying to keep the panel from slipping from his grasp. He almost gets ready to tell him to stop and that he’s fine (that he should just go on with out him) when a new thought stops him cold with it’s brightness –

What should I do?

Want to help friend

“We’re friends?”

The question startles Kagatsuchi enough that he almost drops the metal he’s holding on to in a panic, but reaffirms his grip as looks away, surprisingly resisting the urge to tug on his fringe like he always does when Izuku disturbs him by reading his thoughts aloud.

“…A-aren’t we?” he asks timidly, pinky tapping against one of the metal bits. “I mean, we ex-exchanged numbe-bers. My sister says y-you only do that when you be-become good fr-friends with someone.” then paused “W-was I wrong?”

He blinks slowly.

Izuku thinks about the entrance exam, he think about the first day of class, he thinks about Kagatsuchi sitting to eat with him, he thinks about him joining his and Kanjou’s study circle, he thinks about his asking to exchange contact info, and how happy he had been to have achieved such a thing.

(He thinks about how he had gone over to sit with him in the waiting area without either him or Kanjou prompting him)

Slowly, Izuku stands, breath hitching – and then slaps his cheeks as hard as he can as he startles the other before hitting them again, and again, and again, and again until the burning tingling over taking his face overtakes the despairing nausea that tried to consume him earlier.

(“Good luck – and Plus Ultra!”)

“…As I was saying, we need to avoid the routes Todoroki’s taking. he explains, and Kagatsuchi eyes widen fro behind his mop of hair at the next part “He plans on freezing the ends so the structures will be weaken and anyone following him will fall. He seems to be focusing on the north side of the chasm, so we should keep to the right.”

The other boy nods, and Izuku takes the paneling back, taking it forward before freezing in his tracks

“Ah, also,” he begins shyly, holding it object up as his face flushed “C-could you help me with this...”

Kagatsuchi stares at the object for a bit, the nods, a small smile forming.

“Of course!”

{“How’s he doing?”}

“He and his friends just got to the other side.” she explains on the phone as she watches as the grey haired boy who had gone first grabbed one of Izuku’s arms and helped pull him over onto the ground and to his feet with that weird rectangular object he’s carrying, then frowns “Honestly, why would they even put that in? It’s seems so unnecessary – not to mention dangerous…”

{“Can’t be helped. Izuku did say this was mostly for helping show off the students quirks, and you can’t do that without making things a little dangerous.”} her husband says as she sighs {“Besides, you know how folks at hero schools are – always gotta be living on the edge and everything! This is just par the course.”}

Her frown just deepens at that. She knew things might get a little unsafe when Izuku mentioned needing to sign a waiver form for him to participate, and it’s not like she was unaware of how wild UA Sports Festivals can get, especially for the opening race (she still remembers the year they made an actual artificial lava walk as the final obstacle. Her heart hadn't stopped pounding even days after). But that didn’t mean she had to like it!

(And she especially didn’t have to when her son was in the middle of it all)

“Well I wish they’d leave that edge out of this event. Those kids have had enough ‘excitement’ as it with what’s been happening...”

Hisashi just gave an accepting hum in response, and she focuses back on the TV as they reach the final leg and Izuku shows up on screen again, free hand digging into the couch leather

Please be safe Izuku…

[“And here we have the final barrier, the last but not least, the true ultimate barrier between y'all and sweet sweet victory – ‘The Minefield’!] Mic explained as they see an open dirt field ahead, perfectly flat save a few slight bumps and patches [“I’m certain I don’t need to be explaining what the gimmick here is...”]

Izuku watches as a runner tries to go through – and is immediately swallowed but a column of pink light and similarly colored smoke.

[“Don’t worry, the mines are nonlethal. ”] the vocal hero continued before chuckling as the boy collapsed face down into the dirt [“But the bang they give your buck is big and bright enough to knock a screw or two loose – so do tread carefully little listeners...”]

Izuku swallowed deeply as they draw closer, watching students either begin patting the ground or throwing caution to the wind as they just charge forward. As expected, Todoroki was in the lead with some of his classmates edging on him, barely being slowed down by the students and explosions going flying around him and only stopping to freeze people attacking from behind in place.

Speaking of, it seemed people were getting desperate due to this being the last leg and Todoroki’s large lead, as those who had manged to get far enough into the field without setting off the mines had now started attacking people who were pulling ahead of them, unwilling to let any of the others potentially overtake them and their chance of pulling down the dual haired boy

“W-what do we do now…?” Kagatsuchi asks while Izuku stared at the ground, watching the other as he tried to plan some way around this new obstacle while his gaze traveled around the field and runners.

“The blastcaps are clearly pressure based, so the mines have obviously been designed to go off the minute they’re stepped on,” he muttered to himself, eyes moving back and forth “The knockback is small, but the blast radius is big enough to cause chain reactions that slow down runners if they’re close enough, so you lose out on a lot time. Add in the damage taken from taking the explosion head on, and you end up being better off in just trying to avoid them all…ahh, but even then you’d be slowed down, not to mention the interference from other racers trying to obstruct you so they can take the lead...”

He can feel Kagatsuchi staring at him as he analysized their situation, clearly expecting another miracle, and he’s trying to think of something but can he? Does it even matter when Todoroki’s already so far ahead, the hero kids are leading, and everyone else is too busy cannibalizing themselves to care? And even if they do manage to get through the chaos what then? Can they still win, can he even-

Harukaze stops right in front of him.

He was certain she was ahead of him, had managed to get past the groups and keeping up with the hero kids. At the very least, he expected her to pay him no mind and continue on her merry way to her hard earned victory as she raced against the students who had at one point been destined to be her classmates.

Instead of that though, she’s here, staring at him while a single thought shimmering brightly overhead.

You’re thinking too hard.

He blinks, and she’s gone, a trail of cherry blossom petals in her wake, and as his brain tries to come up with explanations of how she’s taking advantage of the current windspeeds to ensure her clothes fly with her, he hears a voice behind them-

“Ah – there you two are!”

The two turn to see Kanjou and…

“Hyeon?”

The grey haired girl meets his eye for a moment before immediately trying to keep behind Kanjou as if to hide (which would be difficult considering she was a good two heads taller than her) as they approached.

“A-are you okay?” Kagatsuchi asked, twittering his hands a bit “I tried fi-finding you after the robots col-collapsed, but…”

Kanjou cuts him off with a dismissive wave of his hand “I don’t blame you – things got super crazy once people realize they could just run away while the hero kids blew them up.” then gestures to the other girl behind her “I got super lucky running into Chae-won after I escaped…”

Kanjou then began to regale them with her brief but passionate tale of how she managed to escape “Robo-Inferno” before she ran into Hyeon, the two agreeing to join forces to help navigate the rest of the course and hopefully reunite her with himself and Kagatsuchi. After an arduous journey over “The fall” (which she complained rather thoroughly about because seriously, WHO'S BRIGHT IDEA WAS IT TO MAKE A GIANT PIT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE RACE TRACK?!), they had spotted them and came over.

“So what’s the game plan here?” she asks as she casually placed her arms behind her head, flinching at a nearby explosion. “Aside from not getting blown up that is.”

Good question. He asks himself as his gaze trails back over to the minefield, the occasional flashes of light making it hard to really come up with anything. His brain was too busy, too full, too –

(You’re thinking too hard.)

He sinks to the ground, hands threaded in his hair as he takes deep, shallow breaths. In that brief moment he had seen Harukaze, he realizes that his mind had been clear of everything bogging it down. Nothing had managed to permeate his conciousness as he found himself focusing on her lone figure.

So he tries to recall that feeling of tranquil nothing that swallowed everything to grab at it and drag it into himself.

Stop thinking, he tells himself, breathing picking up speed as every distracting thought that pierced at him slowly tumbled out of his ears like water. Stop thinking about the race, Todoroki, Shield the other runners, everything – focus on what you need to do right now.

He repeats it to himself, over and over, and trying to make his head blissfully clear but instead he's just thinking about how loud the explosions are and that everyone's staring at him, waiting for an answer, expecting to come up with something instead he's just tumbling further into his head and –

(The pinkhaired girl cackled as she swung around, her bold and clunky font constantly flickering as thought after thought shined away – an endless stream of conciousness that plowed through everything, taking in all while leaving everything behind)

Izuku blinked, and slowly stood. It was clear Harukaze's advice(?) wasn't going to work on him. He's too wound up by everything to stop "thinking too hard".

“We need to get across…” Izuku mutters to himself stares at the field, and focuses on the starting point – specifically, the places people are avoiding. It’s likely where the majority of the mines are placed to help keep the students on their toes.

(So clearly – the solution was to just overthink until it overtook everything else)

“And fast.”

Noriko wheezed as she leaned against the wall, steady but distant explosions rattling her as she took a step.

It was a bit frustrating how long it took her to get to the final leg. After that jerk from the hero course sent a bunch of robots toppling on everyone, she ended up losing track of Engei, and right as she was in the middle of searching for him, someone had tapped her shoulder asking for help and –

("҉C҉a҉r҉r҉y҉ ҉m҉e҉ ҉o҉v҉e҉r҉ ҉t҉h҉e҉ ҉r҉o҉b҉o҉t҉ ҉p҉a҉r҉t҉s҉.҉"҉)

...By the time she regained her senses, she was somehow on the other side of the mess and everyone in the area had left her behind save two other kids (who also couldn’t remember how they ended up there). The only reason she didn’t join them in giving up and being driven to the arena by the bots sent by the staff was because she was determined to make a good showing of herself here, even if her legs felt like overheated jelly at the moment.

The feeling was sadly not helped with the giant minefield that kept exploding kids every ten seconds and blowing dirt on her glasses.

“Just gotta keep going.” she muttered to herself, slowly inching her way forward. While her quirk made it a bit easier to avoid the mines than the rest, that really only worked if she could tell where there were, and a good chunk of her guesses ended up with her upturning dirt instead of metal and bits.

(It also made it slow work – she was only partway through a third of half the field, and Mic had already announced the first place runner and a few others. At this rate, she’d likely still be here by the time the second years took the field tomorrow)

She gives an exhausted sigh, preparing upturning her umpteenth mine when a rather loud and earsplitting explosion goes off far behind her, knocking her to the ground as it vibrates throughout the field. She’d be surprised if it hadn’t set off some of the mines farther ahead.

The hell was that?! She think as she futilely tries to wipe her glasses clean, and makes to turn to find the source when a shadow suddenly appears over her.

“Look out look out lOOK OUUUTTT!”

Noriko wastes no time and tucks and rolls into the wall as something crashes inches away from where she was standing, kicking up dirt as it slid past her and left a trail of dust and screaming in its wake

“This was stupid ideaaaaaaaaaaaaa~!” The voice that warned her cried out, and she realizes it’s –

“Kanjou-san?” she gaped before squinting, eyes going wide in shock as she sees the girl in question screaming in terror pressed against Hyeon’s back, who whooping in excitement as she clings to Midoriya’s back while Atsushi cries into Kanjou’s. They’re all on top of some sort of metal sled of some kind, sliding past everyone at breakneck speeds as they sped through the minefield.

But the thing that caught her attention the most was Izuku, because his eyes had been wide with fright but…

He’s smiling.

Even though everyone was screaming, even though things had been exploding, even though the ground was still muddy and red to her, Izuku had been smiling through it all, eyes focused on nothing but the road ahead, as if he could see something none of them could…It was an expression she never expected to see on anyone in that kind of situation, let alone Midoriya.

“Hey, you okay?”

She looks up and sees Asamaru, who’s gym clothes are singed and covered in dirt while he himself seemed perfectly fine and dandy.

"P-peachy" She laughes stiffly, and he nods as he looks back at the direction the quartet had sped off into, giving a long whistle

“Midoriya surprised you too huh? Didn’t think he could come up with something like that…” he says with a lazy hum, and she can’t help but nod in agreement. Honestly, she still can’t wrap her head around what she just saw. It felt like she was dreaming despite being fully awake.

Another explosion goes off in the distance, and Asamaru glance briefly in the direction it came from before turning away from her with a quick lazy wave “Welp, good luck out there. Plus Ultra and all that.”

Madoka watches at her classmate walks off with a casual and lazy stride, barely watching his step as a mine goes off in his face immediately – and walked out on the other side completely unharmed save the soot on his clothes.

Of course, she thinks with a shake of her head as she stood. Asamaru never really explained his quirk in detail, but he implied it’d make most of the traps “less of a hassle” for him to deal with when they were all talking about the race on the ride over. Some people really do get all the luck.

…She paused to frown at herself. Ugh, she sounded like such a downer just then. That’s no attitude to have in a place like this! This isn’t about luck or quirks, this is about showing the world what she and her class can do, and she can’t do that while she’s sitting here and bellyaching!

Once she’s perked herself up and was certain no more hazards were incoming, she dusts herself off and starts making her way through the field again. The finish-line was still ways ahead, and if she wanted to place, she had to move fast.

Come on Noriko – let’s show everyone what General Education is made of!

She spots another mine in her way and stops to upturn it with her quirk when someone tapped her shoulder.

“Hey, can I ask you something?”

She turns to face them with a helpful smile “Oh, sur-”

And the world went dark once again.

.

.

.

"҉H҉e҉l҉p҉ ҉m҉e҉ ҉c҉r҉o҉s҉s҉ ҉t҉h҉e҉ ҉m҉i҉n҉e҉f҉i҉e҉l҉d҉.҉"҉

“See, I told you – the kid’s crazy!”

Tamao paused from putting away her guitar to see exactly what her employees we’re so excited about to let her hear them all the way from the breakroom (and stop helping with clean up). She doesn’t mind that they’re all thrilled for the sports festival going on, but that doesn’t mean that they should’t be doing their jobs, especially when the shop was “technically” still running even with most of the other around closed for the event.

Imagine her surprise when she peaks in on the noise to see Yasumi’s little tagalong on screen in some scrap-metal sled, speeding through some minefield straight out of those cheesy American action movies Kokichi sent them last year with the most pumped up expression she’s ever seen.

“Holy shit, I thought you were joking – but he really went and made his own bobsled.” mutters Kirie, frowning as an excited Hisanaga shook her, grinning ear to ear in spite of her annoyance

"I know right? Can’t believe he came up with that on the fly!” he laughed, slapping his knee “Wonder if I could use that mine trick for a future mission.”

“Probably shouldn’t – people will figure out real quick how you got the idea and that kid’ll get swarmed.”

Even Namiki, who had clearly gone over to scold the two for stopping to watch TV when they had cleanup to do, had been transfix by the event, eyes narrowed in clear interest while the two argued logistics and what not. The fact that he could even get those three to ditch work to argue like this spoke highly of the kid’s potential.

But that can be handled after their work is done. There’s no rest for the wicked after all, even on the day of the UA Sports Festival.

“If you have time to watch, you have time to work.” she warns, and the three jump in surprise before turn to see their boss staring at them from the doorway. Namiki immediately straightened up the moment their eyes met and she jerk her head back, causing him to quickly grab the two by the shoulder and give a quick apology as he pushed them out the door in midst of their complaints over wanting to see how the kid’s impromptu bobsled adventure ends.

She goes over to turn off the tv, gaze lingering on the excited grin still plastered on his face as the wind swept around him.

(Anxious eyes and a hunched figure follow Yasumi into the break room, and she promptly returns to her work, as if not seeing him)

Kid really is crazy…

Her hand moves away from the power button

He gives everyone quick but clear instructions – Hyeon will make metal shaving for them by using her quirk on the panel and then repeating the process on the resultant bits, which Kagatsuchi will fuse to the panel with his quirk. Meanwhile, Kanjou and him will dig a shallow pit where the minefield begins – just deep enough to place something, using the less unusable shards Hyeon makes.

“S-So this is gonna he-help us beat Todoro-roki and get first place?” Kagatsuchi asked as Izuku gathered the last of the mines they dug out into the makeshift ditch he had made, going over his calculations one last time to make sure he hadn’t forgotten anything or missed a number.

“No, there’s no way we’re gonna overtake him at this rate.” he admits as he grabs their new “sled” – extended and now with sides to help contain its occupants (thanks to Kagatsuchi’s “Hothands” and the metal sheddings from Hyeon using her quirk), tugging at the stray wires to make sure they’re still tightly attached. “And even if we did, none of our quirks are a match for his. We’d just be asking to get crushed if we tried fighting him for first – to not even talk about the other hero students who’re going after him too.”

Kagatsuchi nodded anxiously as Hyeon regains his attention to give another metal piece for him to weld.

“So it’s not for beating people?”

Izuku shook his head at that while Kanjou raised an eyebrow as she tried (and failed) to smack the dirt off her hands.

“Then what is plan then?” She wondered as Izuku took a few steps back, thumbs and pointer fingers held up at an angle as he began to try and measure the distance needed by line of sight “How do we win?”

“Simple” he says, moving back and adjusting his hands until he was certain they were aligned perfectly with the pit, smiling to himself

“We go fast.”

And with that settled, they continued their work. By the time they finished and made their preparations, Mic had already announced Todoroki snatching first place long ago, along with congratulations to several other runners for crossing the finish line.

“That should do it.” he says as he adjusts his hold on the “sled”, and turns to the other three “Is everyone ready?”

They all nod, and he tells them to hold each other as they run.

It was simple math – gain enough momentum from the blast to launch them forward, and use the force generated to speed past everyone. The panel had enough space for all four of them, and velocity generated from the mines exploding would be enough to negate their combined weight. They wouldn’t be getting first, but they’d at least get ahead of all the people trying to snipe each other and plan out how to finish the race from there. Everything had been calculated perfectly.

[“Holy shit! Aizawa, are you seeing this!”] Mic hooted as they slid past another pair of fighting racers [“Now that’s what I call thinking outside the box! Looks like Thirteen’s been holding out on us with their class if 1D’s got madman like Midoriya in their ranks!”]

[“Certainly an unconventional means of getting ahead of the competition… ”] Eraserhead mumbled, tone still dull, but seeming at least vaguely impressed [“Surprised Powerloader didn’t try to get a hold of him…”]

Izuku couldn’t help but hoot too, as the field and other students melted into smears of colors as they picked up speed, narrowing avoiding explosions and quirks alike. Every time it looked like they were about to hit or crash into something, Izuku would tug on the wire to change direction, or Kagatsuchi would scream for them to leap out of the way, and if they needed to get ahead, Izuku could just steer them into one of the nearby mines clusters to increase their speed.

This…this was fun!

A laugh bubbles out, and he can’t help but relish it. He felt absolutely weightless, unbothered and unteethered from the whole world as the wind screamed around him, yet still weighed down by gravity and his own flesh. He could feel his hands ached as they clenched, but he felt no pain. No worries and all worries, no thinking and thinking every little thing, complete nothing and endless everything – all wrapping and unrapping themselves around him as the road that lied ahead stretched out before him.

(This is what it meant to be Plus Ultra!)

Eventually, they start to slowly run out of land to ride as the end of the field comes into view. A few of the students who were ahead of them already gone through the entry way to the arena where the arena lay along with a few others. If they kept this pace, they’d catch up in no time.

Yes, everything was going according to plan-

“Mi-midoriya-san?” he hears behind him, and he tilts his head back a little to hear him better

“Yes Kagatsuchi!” he laughed, dodging another runner

“The plan wa-was to go fast, ri-right?”

“Yes!”

“And w-we’ve gone fast!”

“Yes!”

“And no-now we’re get-getting to the end of th-the race!”

“Uhuh!”

It was then than Hyeon choose to speak up

“So should we not be stopping now?”

He thinks for a moment…

….Ah.

He…actually hadn’t planned that part out . He had been mostly focused on the “go fast” portion of his hastily made plan. Stopping had not factored in at all throughout the entire process. He's honestly more shocked it had go unconcidered or unmentioned until this point.

(…Maybe overthinking to the point of not thinking wasn't actually a good strategy to follow)

Izuku tugs on the longest cord in the hopes of slowing their momentum down – and it works for a good solid two seconds before it snaps, already having been weakened from all the pulling he had been doing to it to help direct them.

“Oh no.”

“What does ‘oh no’ mean!?” Kanjou cried, and they go over the little lip separating the field from the entrance tunnel as metal hit concrete and sent sparks flying.

“Hold on!” He shouts, though there’s little they can do as Hyeon’s grip around his waist becomes a vice and he grabs onto the cords that haven’t broken yet. They didn’t have enough length to help slow down their current velocity, but at the very least keep them from listing into a wall.

They go through the archway, darkness greeting them as they sped ahead and their smooth ride had turned bumpy.

“Mi-midoriya, are we going to crash?!” Kagatsuchi screamed, question reverbing against the stone tunnel. He almost tells him that’s there’s a good high chance of that definitely happening if they keep up their current speed, but loses the chance as they exit into the arena and hit something, sending them and their “sled” flying.

Surprisingly, there’s no sense of dread or anxious fear that comes like all the other times he feels the incoming threat of death for himself – just…a sense of floating weightlessness. As if he was flying.

(It’s almost peaceful…)

He returns to reality as Hyeon gasps and something pops up in front of them – a huge toxic blue pillow with a rather weirdly draw face.

“Tuck in your heads!”

They do as the voice instructs and crash into it, impact softened by the cottony material, while their “sled” flies overhead and smashes into pieces against the wall on the far end.

[“WOWIE WOW – What a save! ”] Mic cheered [“ Let’s give it up for our dear Kubomi Anabuki from 1F! Powerloader should definitely be giving this girl extra credit after this!”]

“You guys okay?” a familiar voice calls out from the fluff, and Izuku hears Kanjou simply groan as he feels the object slowly deflate. Once they’re close enough to the ground, they all get off and come face to face with the purple girl from the start of the race.

“Th-thank you.” Kagatsuchi stuttered and pokes at the pillow “This i-is really ni-nice."

Izuku can’t help but nod in agreement, quietly examining it. It was quick expanding and easy to carry, very useful for heroes on the go. He can definitely see it being used in rescues if it got manufactured.

“I made it for a classmate.” she answers, and presses something that makes it gather up into a tightly wound ball that she picks up from the ground, tossing it in the air lightly a few times “She likes explosions too. I think you'd all get along.”

Didn’t think

Would have to use this

Well no I did

Just didn’t expect

Be someone who wasn’t Hatsume

His face scrunches up at the (near) unfamiliar name and almost tries to ask about that – when he feels his shoulders grabbed and is pulled away to come face to face with a wind-ruffled Kanjou, thoughts still sparkling with shock and panic from their earlier unplanned flight.

“Midoriya.”

He gulped, stiffening as her grip tightened (and blazing phantom heat permeated his skin) “Y-yes Kanjou-san.”

“Midoriya,” she repeats, and starts to shake him “Midoriya, we almost died.”

He does his best nod despite being in motion “Yes, Kanjou-san.”

“We almost died on live TV, Midoriya.” she emphasize, shaking him harder “Thousands of tiny children would have their memories of their first sports festival be of me splatting against the arena walls. They would have had to censor it Midoriya. People would make poor-in-taste memes out of this. We would end up being the subject of those “Real Life Horror Stories” Herotube video channels – do you not understand what that means?!”

He tries to say yes, but by that point she’s shaking him so hard he feels like his teeth are going to fall out and he’s too busy trying to prevent that to really comment.

“K-kanjou-san, please calm down!” Kagatsuchi stammered while the crowd of runners looked between the two, unsure who they should be helping. Even their savior looked a bit uncomfortable watching the scene.

Izuku was certain he was going to be shaken into tiny bits until Hyeon grabbed Kanjou’s arm to get her to finally stop and it was then that Izuku noticed that her hands, despite how tightly they were gripping his gym clothes, were shaking.

Then he looks more and realizes everything about Kanjou was shaking – her hands, her shoulders, and even her font, are wobbling too and fro unstably, like she’s about to collapse into a tiny puddle.

(He then remembers that Kanjou had spent the whole thing screaming)

“I’m…sorry.” he muttered, gaze lowering. There’s so much he should tell her to apologize for his recklessness, but it’s the only thing he can think to say “I should have thought more about how fast we would end up going. I ended up putting you and others in danger.”

Kanjou stares does not falter, gaze still piercing while her hands still shook and her thoughts flickered back and forth between extremes –

Almost died!

But said he was sorry.

Plus was super cool!

We flew!

Still almost died!

But we went so fast!

Was Awesome!

And eventually, her mind settles and she lets him go, a deep sigh escaping her

“Just…try and make an exit plan next time you wanna come up with a way for ‘going fast’.” she says, brushing her hair out of her face befor letting her fringe fall back down again. “We already signed the waivers, so none of our folks are getting anything if we die here.”

He nods, and “Of course – I’ll try to remember that.” then scratched his cheek. UA likely didn’t have an “Accidentally killed my new friends trying to win our first sports festival” clause in their liability forms, and there was no need to test such a theory in the future either. He’ll have to be more careful in the future-

Both her and Kagatsuchi stare at him, thoughts flickering wildly, and Izuku feels himself stiffen as he slowly realizes he likely said that last part out loud.

“U-uh,” He sputtered, suddenly feeling his face warm up, though he’s more than willing to blame it on the summer heat “Kagatsuchi said since we exchanged numbers, it means we’re friends now.” he explained, hands warbling as he forces them around himself to keep occupied “A-and I guess I didn’t realize it until now, so, um, sorry.”

Silence reigned, making him awkwardly add “I can take it back if you’re not comfortable! I mean, I get if you are, but…”

The two just continue their silent staring contest with him, so he simply deigns to not look at either of them or their words, panicking over what the overwhelming silence might mean – Are they still upset? Did they think he was being mocking (Kagatsuchi likely did, seeing as how he questioned him on their relationship back at “The Fall”). Or maybe he’d-

And just like magic, the silence ends as Kanjou suddenly doubles over laughing, bright and sparkling, and Kagatsuchi’s eyes light up at him as he stares like he was just told he was going to have his birthday celebrated forever. The only one whom he couldn’t read was Hyeon, who immediately turned away from him as her font shivered and dimmed…

Kanjou stayed that way for a while until she finally stopped and stood upright, practically beaming, and wipes her eyes.

“Right, of course!” she giggled before lightly hitting his shoulder. It wasn’t painful or due to lack of effort, she genuinely just...hit him lightly out of affection. It was like all that upset and unease from before had just simply vanished into the air with one word shared between the two –

Said we’re friends!

(Will he have to get used to that?)

“Well, now that that’s settled,” Kanjou says, clapping her hands together “We’ve got one more thing to do!”

Izuku is about to ask what when she suddenly grabs both him and Kagatsuchi by the elbows and drags them towards the nearest wall of the arena, font shivering with every step.

Dear god, she thinks as her face slowly turning a rather concerning shade of apple green. Held in too long

And so, as promised, Izuku and Kagatsuchi carefully shielded Kanjou from the prying eyes of the current occupants and cameras as she vomited out her breakfast, staining the wall with her sick.

[“Oh boy – looks like that’s our cue to cut to commercial!”]

.

.

.

(Inko Midoriya collapses out of her couch, tears of relief in her eyes as her husband babbles on the other end of the phone asking what happened)

“Water for you sir.”

Toshinori smiled and quickly paid the boy before taking his drink “Thank you so much young man! And please, keep the change.”

The student beamed and gave his thanks before moving on to his next customer, while Toshinori turned back to watch the monitor as more students ran through the gate, focusing on the brief camera pan showing off entrant after entrant.

Eventually, a familiar blonde head appears, and Toshinori feels himself beaming as Melissa crossed over to join the others before stopping to catch her breath.

She made it! He inwardly cheered, pride filling him to the brim. He’s certain she’s likely a little disappointed at not getting into the top 10, but the fact that she managed to finish and snagged a lot of comments from Mic and Aizawa during certainly helped her stand out among the other students from support. Despite his fears, her grand debut in the festival had gone off spectacularly!

She had truly shown the world that she was here!

Still, the girl had cut it a bit close there near the end. He still remembers the way his heart stopped when she accidentally set off one of the mines near the entrance when she was getting close. Poor David had likely melted into a puddle back home when he saw that!

Of course, there was also other things to pay attention to aside from Melissa’s grand victory…

“So what do you think?”

Toshinori made to stretch as he leaned back to carefully listened in on the conversation going on behind him, casually enjoying his water as he glanced back. All around him, heroes and journalists were gabbing away at what students had stood out most to them during the race, but his interest was more on the group of students gathered around nearby…

“That Midoriya kid from General Education’s got spunk, and he made a good showing at the last part of the race, so his stock’s definitely set to go up” one girl hummed, whiskers twitching “But we haven’t seen his quirk yet, and he’s a bit hard to read right now, so there’s a chance there might be issues trying to invest. We’ll have to wait and see with him.”

“I’m personally more interested in Uraraka from Heroics,” the boy next to her said, tapping his swirl-patterned cheeks “She managed to keep up with Endeavor's son, and that speech of her’s really resonated with people! Plus that upbeat attitude of her mixed with her charming folksiness means she’s agreeable and quick to make friends – would make PR promotion with her a breeze.”

“Speaking of breezes, did you see how Harukaze from Gen-Ed was dominating?” stated another student with bright blue skin, “I heard rumors she was a recommendation student too. Being so experienced will definitely help her out in the future is she decides to try for heroics again.”

“That Kirishima guy and Tetsutetsu would make a super marketable duo since their quirks are so similar, but those frank attitudes of theirs might not mix well with public press conferences.”

“Yeah, plus Kirishima’s in general education too, so there’s little hope of crossover unless he gets transferred. I’m honestly shocked he didn’t even try for heroics with a quirk like his…”

The group continued to mutter and mumble amongst themselves, spouting out theories and statistics while Toshinori continued sipping on his drink. Most wouldn’t be paying the business course any mind since they rarely ever participate in the festival (At best, they’ll run a few miles in the first event before throwing in the towel and letting themselves be taken to the arena), choosing instead to either volunteer with concessions or going over stats and business analytics with their classmates – but the number one hero always considered their opinions valuable, even back when he was a student. After all, they tended to be pretty unbiased with their opinions since they basically treated events like this as mini-simulations for classes. Every student on the field was a potential future client, so it paid to consider all angles and keep biases at a minimum if they could.

“-Shield from Support and her gadgets are where my focus is though,” a boy with a beehive hairstyle hummed as he segwayed from his discussion about a 1B student, and Toshinori perked up “Some of the items she used during the race were way beyond what the Support course tends to show off as samples. The company reps here are likely going to be falling over themselves trying to get an early contract out of her.”

A brunette with slicked back nodded in agreement “As one would expect from the daughter of the famous David Shield. She’s got major solo brand potential if she choses to branch out on her own…”

A small chuckles escapes him as Toshinori focuses back on the screen, seeing Melissa being tackled by the second to last runner to enter in a huge bear hug.

“Good job Melissa,” He smiled, eyes burning with anticipation as the end of the race was announced. Now, let’s see if you can keep it up…

After Kanjou was escorted off the field (though not before wishing all of them the best of luck) and the vomit was cleaned up, the remaining runners were ushered to the center of the arena as the gate shut close, signaling the end of the race. The headcount was a total of 46 students – a majority of them from the hero class naturally. Even with their missing numbers and recent tragedy, Class 1A had dominated and made up most of the higher ranks, with Todoroki holding first place, followed by the festival representative Uraraka in second place, and a Heroics 1B student by the name of Honenuki Juuzou taking third. Meanwhile, the only students from the General Education block were Izuku, Kagatsuchi, Asamaru, Hyeon, Harukaze, and Kirishima of 1C along with the boy the last one had been arguing with at the staircases when they met, and the three girls from Support, all making up the lower ranks alongside some of 1B.

As the stands begin to fill with those who had lost the race or returning from snack runs, Midnight makes her way to the podium, facing the small crowd of children with a ferocious yet eager grin.

“My oh my, now that’s what I call working up a good sweat!” She chirped excitedly, earning exasperated and exhausted groans from some of the students. “Congratulations to all of you who made it to the end of the race! You guys really showed your stuff out there!” and winked at the camera “And to those of you who failed, don’t get too hung up – While you won’t have a chance at the finals, you can still play a part in the festival’s showstoppers that are being prepared for after the preliminaries!”

Scattered but enthusiastic applause rung out around them, and with that, the adult heroine gestured to the giant screen behind her. “But without further ado – let’s go ahead and see what’s in store for our next heart-pounding event! Aah~♥ , I’m already tingling with excitement!”

Eraserhead makes a comment from the PA on Midnight needing to keep her comments “age-appropriate” for the censors, but Izuku pays it no heed as he keeps his eyes locked on the screen, watching the electronic roulette spin through game after game with anxiety. He hadn’t gotten a single opportunity to show off MindReader during the race, and despite accepting that he wasn’t going to rank high, being in the lower 30s likely hadn’t appealed him to the heroes (or the heroics course faculty). He had to make sure to give a better showing here if he wants to stay in the ring as it were.

(He had to try, if he wanted to still believe there a chance at his once dead dream)

But that could only happen if the next event was something he could show his quirk off in, and there was no guarantee he’ll be given such an opportunity when it could be anything – another race, a lottery, a quiz show, figure skating, rock climbing, swimming relay, playing “the floor is lava”! There were so many things that this could go wrong or right for him depending on how generous the gods of chance were feeling at the moment.

Eventually, the spinning slowed, and his heart fell into a heavy thrum as their next challenge was revealed…

“Cavalry race?” someone questions, and Midnight grins.

“Yep!” she says, and the screen changed into a picture showing All Might being carried by Present Mic and Thirteen (Izuku wondered if they had to take it before everything that happened in preparation for the festival) as she starts her explanation “It’s basically no different than how you played the game back in middle school – form teams of two to four people to be the horse and rider and don’t let the latter get taken out!” she says, tapping it lightly with the blunt end of her whip “There is a slight twist though – All of you will be assigned points based on how you did in the race just now! Your team’s total point value and placing will be calculated based on who you have. Once your teams are given your headbands and have your riders chosen, you’ll all be let loose to battle it out with everyone else for theirs as you try and rack up points and move up in the ranks! Anything outside of direct attacks or knocking over your opponents is valid, so do your best to swipe as many headbands as you can!

“Or to put it more simply – this is basically a survival game, where the low attempt to supplant the mighty while the mighty try to defend their spots! Once the signal goes off, the top 5 teams with the most points will be ranked and move on to the next event!”

The students all chatter to themselves while Izuku hummed thoughtfully and digested the information. So in short, the lower ranked students had a chance to move up depending on who they teamed up with, but whoever was left over from that grouping will likely be in last place – meaning they would have no choice but to fight the others or aim for the stronger teams if they want to make it to the final event, especially when it there’s a good chance that everyone would likely stick with their own classmates, the hero students in particular

Izuku’s eyes glance over to the others, them thinking the same as him –

In short

It’ll be us

Verses the hero kids

Once the rest of the instructions are given, a few questions go out and Midnight answers promptly – yes, losing all the headbands you gathered doesn’t automatically means your team is out so long as you still have your own or at least one. In fact, even if you have zero points, you're team is still in the game so long as they remain intact. Yes, your rider must remain with the “horse” and if they separates from them willingly at any point, you lose regardless of the amount of points you have – and yes that includes quirks that let you float individually or turn intangible (Harukaze was going to have a hard time then). Headbands must remain visible and above the neck, so no hiding them in pockets or tying them to your arms. The forbidding of “direct” attacks means that if you use your quirk to force the rider off their horse (example being you had a wind quirk and blew them off) or knocking the entire team over with it, your team is out and the one you attacked gets your headbands, but other than that, anything goes as stated…

Eventually, the questions dwindled, and with all that settled, it was time to announce race placement. The screen changed to show off flipping panels that formed a list with their names, each one next to a number with a blank box at the end. As expected, himself, Kagatsuchi, and Hyeon were near the far bottom, holding 33th, 34th, and 35th place respectively. Meanwhile, Asamaru held 38th place, and Harukaze was slotted nicely at 15th.

“Asamaru seems agreeable, so it might help if I talk to him…” Izuku muttered to himself, trying to plan ahead. Only four kids from his class had made it to the arena, and out of them, only Kagatsuchi and Hyeon had shown willingness to cooperate with him. Harukaze was flexible and that sharp insightfulness could be helpful if used properly, but she had made it clear in gym class that she would consider him an enemy if need be, and had also managed to rank rather high in the race, so there’s a good chance she’ll either reject his offer or get poached by another team before he can make it. Meanwhile, Kirishima and him have only had three encounters so far (All of which he handled poorly), and he had already made a bad impression on his purple haired friend, so they were likely not going to team up with him either. And as optimistic as he wanted to be, he doubted he’d see any success if he tried to negotiate with the hero students when he was both lower ranking and no even in the same department (and especially since whatever Kirishima’s friend did the week before had likely poisoned the well for the rest of Gen-Ed. He’d seen enough upset comments on the incident the following day to know they’d take the reveal what department he was in poorly), and even if that wasn’t a dealbreaker, the reveal of his quirk would likely lessen his value for them – after all, what use would reading others thoughts be in a calvary battle? Especially for students who have already had two weeks of training for using their quirks in combat and were already making plans on trying to get around Todoroki, who had proven himself as both an indomitable enemy and deadly obstacle in the race, and would likely have the highest point value.

(The minute he tries to consider Shield, his stomach and heart squeeze in unison)

In short, they all had few allies and fewer options. If he wanted to have even the slightest chance of making it to the third event, then his only option was to gather his classmates and try and form a united front against the other teams, and Asamaru seemed to be the only other option avalible. From their brief interactions in class, he was a seemingly easygoing and agreeable fellow, and could be quick-witted when he wanted to be, so he’d likely be able to convince him of his plan and get him to form a team with Izuku and the rest – and if not, he at least hoped to be able to get him to promise no to attack them.

After that, it was just a matter of figuring out how to gather points safely while avoiding getting targeted by the rest. They wouldn’t place high, but they’d at least survive long enough to either move on with the other winners or show that they tried (or hopefully grab a hero’s attention with their efforts in such a hopeless situation). Otherwise-

“And now to give points” Midnight says, interrupting his thoughts as her voice suddenly lowered into a mischievous tone “Oh, and by the by, for an extra bit of fun, we decided to add a little twist here. Now you probably think this is like with the entrance exam, where the bottoms get the scraps while the tops get to sit nice and pretty as they live high on the hog…”

The students and crowd burst into a chorus of confusion as Midnight gave a slight smirk and let them stew in it for a bit, and Izuku couldn’t fully understand why until he sees a panel at the end of Todoroki’s name blink into existence to reveal the amount of points he received –

Izuku squinted, then blinked, then rubbed his eyes, then blinked again, then blinked a third time, then rubbed his eyes and squinted because what he was seeing could not be possible…

[1^st place: Todoroki Shouto – (5pt)]

Stunned silence swallowed the arena whole for only a moment before spitting it back out with a near head-splitting bellow –

“FIVE POINTS!?”

The adult-themed heroine grinned wickedly at their shock as the boy in question narrowed his eyes passively at the information, thoughts flickering in confusion over the amount.

“That’s right my little darlings, we’ve decided to make the point assignment ascendant this time around!” She laughed, sounding almost mocking “Meaning that all of you who finished first will be receiving the minimum amount of points, with the value increasing for the lower ranks instead!”

The noise becomes unbearable as offense and dismay settled in along with the news, and Izuku’s heart seemed adamant in carving itself out of him. If points are being assigned by ascending order, then that meant….

“Oh god.” He hears Kagatsuchi whimper beside him, while someone else further back gives a humorless laugh. Even Hyeon, attempting to look calm, is clenching her hands tightly at her sides.

He stares at the ground as he tries to think, to come up with solutions, but his brain is distracted with trying to desperately get back the oxygen he was rapidly losing in his panic. It was one thing having to worry about whether or not to face the hero students in hope of getting enough points to place – but now they had no choice. They, the gen-ed and support students who finished last along with some of the hero ones, who’s only form of “training” was team sports and running track during gym, had the higher point values now, effectively making them targets. It was either fight and protect their headbands along wit their current placing, or getting bowled over by the groups who were going to be desperately gunning for them to get them into the higher ranks…

("You really thought you were good enough to challenge the best of the best?" a too familiar voice hisses in his ear "Fucking pathetic.")

He clenched his chest, gasping feverishly, and screwed his eyes shut.

(In. Out. In. Out. In. Out. In. Out. In. Out. In. Out. In. Out. In. Out. Down Down Down Down push it down panicking won’t help you Down Down Down Down Down Down Down Down blue yellow pink green blue pink Yellow Green Blue Yellow Pink Green Blue Yellow Calm down down down stop think think everything Blue Yellow Pink Green Blue Yellow Pink Green Blue Yellow Pink Green Blue Yellow Pink Green YELLOW PINK BLUE GREEN-)

“Now listen carefully and pay close attention, because I won’t be repeating myself!” Midnight continued, seemingly oblivious to the growing tensions forming below her “The point assignment is as follows – 5 points for 1st place, 10 for 2nd, 15 for 3rd...”

Engei's gaze hardened as he stares at the screen showing off the points being given to the runners. After Midnight had announced how point assigning was going to be handled, he and everyone else in their class who had failed to finish the race had near fallen over themselved, faces etched in clear worry for their classmates in the upcoming event as the screen slowly revealed the assigned point values...

Not that he could really blame them. Everyone had been stunned by the “surprise twist” Midnight gave, himself included. He had figure they’d be making changes to "up the excitement" since 1A missing some of it’s class body meant the Heroic’s department would have less people to work with (and by extension, less ways to appeal to other heroes and sponsors), but he hadn’t expected them to do it in a way that so blatantly threw the few Gen-Ed students who managed to win the first half under the bus. Even if you want to excuse it with “promoting equality amongst the departments” or “trying to make the second event more challenging”, it was very clear the only ones who benefited from the decision were the kids who weren’t in his department. The Hero kids were basically being given easy targets for slaughter while leaving the rest as sitting ducks.

(They might as well of just cut out the middle man and said "Just say 'I give' when we ring the bell and we won't bother" to their faces.)

“Well fuck, that’s not good for them, is it?” he hears Kamida mumble, and his gaze slowly drifted to the spot where Midoriya, Hyeon and Kagutsuchi stood. Even from so far away, it was easy to tell that they had not taken the news well.

“I feel ‘not good’ is a bit of an understatement there.” he mutters as he leaned against the railing, watching the blur of Midoriya's hands shake as they dug into his sides…

The hearts of Izuku and the rest sank as the panels at the ends of their names flashed and revealed their point values. As stated, everyone who finished the race from first to twelfth place received single to double digit points, the values going up as they moved on to everyone past that in the twenties and thirties as they were gifted points ranging from the 1000s to 100,000s.

Needless to say, Izuku didn’t feel any sort of pride or joy seeing such a huge number value next to his name, especially when he knew what it meant for him.

“W-we’re going to be o-okay, right?” Kagatsuchi asks, but Izuku can’t find an answer to give that sound even remotely genuine, to even say hopeful.

“We can try.” is all he can offer as the last remaining students and their point values were revealed…

“And last but not least, we have our dear 46th place holder” Midnight announced as they finally reached the last name at the bottom of the list “Who, as an exception, will be gifted a whopping 10-million points!”

Izuku near choked on the gasp he made while the rest shouted in surprise – T-ten million!? That basically put whoever had that amount in first place, as well as making them the prime target for every other student (specifically the ones who received the least amount of points). Everyone would be aiming for them if they wanted even the slighest chance of gaining the upper hand over everyone else.

And it seem everyone present had resolved themselves to that, as he sees the hero course student's gazes harden as their thoughts burn bright and searing with the blooming determination to see their ambitions met.

Talk about unlucky

Have to do best

Feel sorry but

It's us or them

Izuku turned back to the screen again, looking at his own point value before deciding to see who the poor unlucky person to be saddled with the 100-million point burden had been. Even if he didn't have plans to team up with them, he should at least put a face to the name.

"I think the person who came in last was…." He hears someone trail off as his gaze falls to the bottem of the list, staring at a name that brought a shock to him as he finally remembered where he had heard of it before…

Melissa stares up at the board with dread as she read out the display shown below the name that came before hers –

[46^th place: Hatsume Mei – (100,000,000pt)]

"Best of luck out there dear, cause you're definetely going to need it!"

She slowly turned to her friend, who was staring up with her ever present smile, the only show of distress over the news she gave being the small sweat drop that ran down her face as every student on the field turned their hungry gazes on her like lions coming across a lone lamb seperated from the herd.

“Oh dear!” she laughs, as if she was being faced with another one of Powerloader’s lectures and not the threat of around forty-five students gunning for her “Seems like I’m in a bit of trouble here!”

(Be someone who wasn’t Hatsume/Mei’s using the press again)

Izuku's eyes fall over to the pinkhaired girl in strange equipment whom he saw at "The Fall", standing in the center of a circle of hostily seemingly oblivously while Shield looked on in worry.

Oh no.