Chapter Text
Before Izuku knows it, it’s already a week later, the beginning of a brand new week. Finally he feels like he’s caught up on the days that he missed- at least everyone else was more than happy to help him with getting back on track, or it might’ve taken longer.
Yes, indeed, everything finally seems to be settling down and returning to normal.
Except, this is UA, and there is no such thing as “normal” or even “chill”.
When Aizawa enters the room that morning, he greets them with, “All right class, today we need to work together and make a decision.”
Oh boy, that’s vague enough to sound ominous, Izuku thinks, a little anxious.
After a pause, Aizawa continues, “Are we going to go ahead with the Sports Festival?”
A ripple of surprise passes through the room. Eventually, Kirishima raises his hand; “I mean… why wouldn’t we?”
“Because of the attack at the USJ, we know now that this ‘League of Villains’ group is targeting you. Since you’re the ones that are affected by this the most, it’s better to have your input on the situation. If you really would rather not do the Sports Festival after what’s happened, then we won’t go through with it. On the other hand, if you do want the Sports Festival, then we’ll consider it, and we’ll do everything we can to make sure that it’s safe.”
What Aizawa is saying makes a lot of sense. There’s no way it’s an easy decision to make.
“You can talk about it amongst yourselves to come to a conclusion. That’s all I can tell you; if I give you my input on the situation, then it’s not really your choice, is it?”
“Is it really smart to leave the entire decision to us?” Iida raises his hand and asks. “We are just students.”
“It’s not entirely up to you,” Aizawa answers. “As I said, this is just getting your input on the situation. The only thing you can decide for certain is if you don’t want the Sports Festival; obviously we can’t force you into it if you really don’t want to.”
No one else questions him, and so Aizawa settles down to take a nap in his sleeping bag.
“So…” Sero begins the conversation slowly, “We’re having the Sports Festival, right?”
“Hold on,” Ojirou frowns, “We can’t just skip right over having an actual discussion.”
“What’s there to discuss?” Kaminari asks.
“We have to consider our own safety,” Yaoyorozu points out. “Those villains were able to target us when we were at a secluded training facility. If they were able to target us then even though the information was a lot more hidden, wouldn’t it be even easier to target us at a widely known public event?”
Izuku thinks of something and opens his mouth to add in, but at the last second he finds himself getting nervous about speaking up. Even though he’s still technically the class representative, he doesn’t feel confident with that yet, and-
“Midoriya, did you have something that you wanted to add?” Tokoyami asks.
“Huh?”
“You looked like you had something you wanted to say,” Dark Shadow points out.
…Well, now that the spotlight’s on him, he can’t really back down. “It’s just… maybe the villains were able to attack us at the USJ because it was a secluded training facility. They must have known the Sports Festival would be coming up; it happens every year. If they had waited until then, they would have still had the element of surprise on their hands. But they didn’t. And so… maybe it’s because they couldn’t. Yes it would be easier to get in during the Sports Festival, but heroes are also going to be there, everywhere. They’d get caught, easily, before they could accomplish anything.”
Everyone listens to what he’s saying. A few people nod along, like what he’s saying makes sense.
After a moment where no one else adds anything, Izuku quickly backtracks, “I mean. A lot of them did get caught already, so maybe they don’t really care about getting caught. I’m not saying it’s impossible that they’d attack again, just…”
“You’re not wrong though,” Iida hums. “There were only two of them who escaped, and it’s doubtful that they would be able to compile the amount of force they attacked us with before… it would be downright foolish to try to attack at the Sports Festival.”
Yaoyorozu nods. “I see your point. And… well, with the warp gate on their side, accessibility isn’t a problem that they have to be concerned with, so maybe the Sports Festival being easier to get in to doesn’t matter to them.”
“That’s a comforting thought,” Kaminari mumbles in a tone that makes it clear he finds it not comforting at all.
“And hey, besides that!” Kirishima jumps in, “We gotta prove to the villains that heroes don’t give up! Going through with the Sports Festival shows that we’re just as strong as before, and that their attack didn’t bring us down!”
“HELL YEAH!” Ashido cheers enthusiastically in agreement.
“Does anyone else have any objections?” Ojirou asks. “Or are we all okay with going forward with this?”
No one says anything for a moment, looking around at each other.
Then, quietly, Hagakure says, “You know I… I still feel nervous about this whole thing, but… I mean, Aizawa-sensei promised that they’d do everything they could to make sure that it’s safe, and that if they can’t make it safe then we won’t have it anyway. So… I think we should have confidence in them.”
There aren’t any other objections offered up.
The class finally holds a vote over whether or not they should go through with the Sports Festival. The result is… a unanimous “yes”.
“So, why did you guys vote for me to be the Class Representative again?” Izuku asks at lunch.
“Hmm?” Uraraka asks, “What do you mean?”
“I’m terrible at speaking up in front of people,” Izuku mumbles.
Jirou blinks at him with a disbelieving, deadpan, stare. “You’re pretty much the one who got everyone on board with doing the Sports Festival.”
“I guess, but if Tokoyami-kun hadn’t called me out, I wouldn’t have spoken up at all,” Izuku points out. “That’s not really the most take-charge character.”
“You’ll get the hang of it though!” Hagakure says. “You just need more confidence is all!”
“I suppose…”
Iida adds, “And at least for the Sports Festival the opening speech is given by the Class B representative along with the Class A representative!”
Ah. Hmm. Izuku had forgotten that part. Hmm.
And then without warning, Izuku’s ghost slips out of his body.
Oh, not again.
Everyone at the table jumps in surprise, and Izuku quickly mumbles out “Sorry,” before trying to fix the situation. It’s not the first time this has happened in front of them, but naturally it’s still a startling thing to see.
“Are you all right Midoriya?” Tokoyami asks.
“Yeah,” Izuku mumbles, ghost now in his body. He apologizes again, “Sorry, I need to get more control on that…”
“How does it even happen anyway?” Hagakure asks. “You didn’t have this problem before.”
“I’m… not sure exactly,” Izuku murmurs. “But… it probably has something to do with what happened at the USJ. I don’t think it’s supposed to be a part of my quirk, but it happened because of my quirk, if that makes sense?”
“…Nope, not really, no,” Dark Shadow says.
“Fair.”
There’s a bit of silence.
“…Is it too late for me to go back and vote ‘no’ on the Sports Festival because I don’t want to have to give a speech.”
“Yes.”
“Darn.”
It’s not until almost another week later that the Sports Festival is officially confirmed by the staff.
…Which, leaves them with a week to prepare themselves for it.
And of course, Heroing 101 class is still Heroing 101, and not “Sports Festival-ing 101”, but that doesn’t stop the class from doing training exercises that are a lot like the types of games that could possibly get randomly chosen during the Sports Festival.
“All right!” All Might announces, “Today’s training is an obstacle course! While working as a hero, there will inevitably come a time in which a villain’s quirk will make the battlefield hard to traverse! Therefore, it is important to train and prepare so that you can get through any external obstacle, undaunted!”
The reasoning does make sense, at least, but it’s still pretty clear why they’re doing it now, when the Sports Festival always has an obstacle course with randomized obstacles first.
“And while this is a race and is meant to be a competitive activity, for now try not to prioritize fighting each other! Don’t go out of your way to do something if it’s only purpose is intentionally slowing others down!”
With the explanation out of the way, the class is set up.
The obstacle course that they’re using isn’t very wide, and so they’re split into groups of five; Izuku finds himself going up against Sero, Shoji, Ashido, and… Todoroki. Izuku can’t help but remember the last time they were in the same training exercise, the Heroes versus Villains battle…
Izuku is definitely sure that at least one of Todoroki’s ghosts really doesn’t like him, and Todoroki himself isn’t very approachable either.
Speaking of ghosts, unfortunately they probably can’t help Izuku out much in this situation. Despite that, Takara, Hibiki, and Nana still float around him (probably to give encouragement or support).
Most of his “wins” so far have been because of them, so… he can’t help but be a little nervous. What if he can’t do it by himself?
“Don’t worry about it too much, kiddo,” Nana says, like she’s reading his thoughts. “Even if we can’t help out, you still have One for All!”
“You got this!” Hibiki cheers.
Takara just gives Izuku a thumbs up.
As for Izuku’s competitors this round, Sero is doing some stretches, Ashido is bouncing around from side to side, and Shouji and Todoroki are off to the side just waiting for the start.
“Aaaand… GO!”
The five of them immediately spring into action; Izuku activating One for All and sprinting forward, Ashido sliding through using her acid, and Todoroki using his ice to propel him forward; Shouji and Sero aren’t using their quirks yet, but Izuku doesn’t count them out of the fight yet.
They continue on for a while, only able to trade competitive glances thanks to the no fighting rule, and then… they reach the first obstacle.
Ashido is the one in the lead when they reach it, and as soon as she slides onto the new section, the path behind her falls away. It startles her at first, but she keeps moving and it doesn’t catch up to her; on the other hand, at the sight of the first obstacle, both Izuku and Todoroki come to a quick stop (Sero and Shouji are still a bit lagged behind, but at this rate, they’re going to catch up).
A collapsable floor…! Izuku observes, nervously.
Todoroki moves first, making a bridge that won’t collapse and running up that (the ghost Touya looks back at Izuku and blows a raspberry, which is met by Hibiki blowing a raspberry back).
Deciding to go for Ashido’s method of “don’t think about it just keep going”, Izuku runs over the ground, trying not to think about it collapsing behind him.
Although, because of his initial lag, Izuku finds Sero swinging right on past him, going over the ground itself no problem. Izuku grits his teeth and tries to run harder (while simultaneously trying to keep One for All at five percent so that he doesn’t overexert himself just yet).
The two of them catch up just in time to see Todoroki pass Ashido as Ashido falls at the last second, dropping into a pool of water below the collapsing floor.
At this point in the race, now that the first obstacle is passed, they’re all just barely starting to slow down. Todoroki is still in the lead and going at a fair pace but he’s stopped using ice to keep himself going forward, Izuku has passed Sero and made it to second and he’s let himself drop to just one percent of One for All, Sero is still hot on his tail, Shouji is not far behind, and Ashido is in last place, drenched by the water, but doing her best to catch up with everyone.
And after a stretch of this is perfect time for the second obstacle to get thrown at them.
This time, they can see it coming up; it’s a maze of sorts (the top spiked so as to discourage anyone who thinks of going over), with five openings in front of them (one for each contestant, assumedly). Izuku feels a little sorry for Shouji, because the maze looks like it’s going to be pretty cramped, and so his quirk might give him some trouble…
Izuku passes through the opening in front of him, and he’s cut off from the other four runners in the race. Obviously, he has no real way to know the maze ahead of time, so he decides to stick to following the left wall. He meets a dead end once or twice, but none of the ghosts pop up to tell him which way he should go, so he can’t be doing too horribly-
He steps on a floor panel and it sinks by an inch, like what you’d expect from a trapped floor in some cheesy movie.
A… trapped floor?
The walls on either side of him start moving in closer and closer.
With no other course of action, Izuku runs forward, hoping to get to the end of the hallway before the walls completely move in on him (he doubts that they’d do any real damage if they did catch him, but it would definitely slow him down and he doesn’t want that).
At the end, Izuku slips out just as the walls close behind him.
The only other person out of the maze at this point is Todoroki, just a few meters ahead; Izuku doesn’t know how far anyone else is through it, but he can’t worry about it now.
Approaching the third and final obstacle, Todoroki and Izuku ramp their energy back up to high.
Obstacle number three is visible from a distance too; a large vertical wall with platforms coming off of it at different levels.
When Todoroki reaches it, his first instinct is to merely change the direction of his ice, making it propel him up the side of the wall rather than go horizontal. Izuku, not too far behind, decides not to waste any time gawking at that; he activates One for All (pushing himself juuust barely up to seven percent) and springs from platform to platform.
Izuku does eventually reach Todoroki, and then bounce higher than him; the other glares over at him for moment, and then wordlessly creates more ice, trying to propel himself faster, making it a real race for the top.
Within no time both are at the top and it’s the final home stretch, the finish line just ahead. Izuku can hear the other three making their way up the wall, but other than that, his full attention is on Todoroki; or more precisely, trying to beat Todoroki.
Todoroki seems to be making ice to propel himself forward with everything he’s got, and Izuku finds himself going from seven percent to eight percent, to nine-
Izuku’s foot touches the ground and a flash of pain goes through it. He stumbles and hits the ground rolling, just barely keeping the momentum, and-
“First place is Todoroki Shouto, followed by Midoriya Izuku as a close second!”
Ah… so… I still got second, huh…?
It was stupid- he shouldn’t have pushed up his usage of One for All so much. His leg doesn’t seem to be broken or sprained, but it does ache a little. He still feels a bit buzzy from using so much One for All, and… and…
And why does he feel like someone is watching him?
Izuku glances around, first looking at Todoroki. The other is just staring at the ground, and both of his ghosts seem to be focused on him, not Izuku. It’s not any of the other competitors either; Ashido is excitedly saying something to Shouji, and Sero is trying to untangle some tape that apparently got stuck together.
He looks around the perimeter, and then…
In the distance, standing on a roof, Izuku sees a ghost staring. The same ghost that was at the press break in before the USJ- it’s been a while, but he’s sure of it.
Why are they here again? Why do they keep coming back? Have there been other times where they were watching and he just hadn’t seen them? Who-?
“Midori! Hey! Earth to Midori!”
Izuku blinks in surprise, and turns to see Ashido waving a hand in front of his face.
“Oh, hi Ashido-san, did you want something?” Izuku asks, a bit embarrassed at being caught so off guard.
“I just wanted to say good job!” Ashido smiles, “I’m going around and telling everyone they did great, ‘cause that was really fun and you guys did awesome!”
“Oh, thanks!” Izuku accepts the praise trying to not seem awkward about it. “Uh, you did a good job too!”
“Thanks!” Ashido beams, before running off to Sero.
Izuku watches her for a second, and then he looks back to the spot on the roof that he had been staring at before.
The ghost is gone.