Chapter Text
Between Creation and Calculation
Chapter 1 - Defeat
Takoba National Arena, City Area, 11:58 am
The heat was building up in the middle of the exam; every area was a battlefield, every student reaching for their shot to become heroes.
But in the city area of the arena, in a tall, barricaded building.....
Saiko Intelli, a girl with much potential, was restrained in defeat. Her quirk allowed her to enhance her intellect. She went through all the details in her head, constantly checking for a single mistake, any opening she missed. But to her, there was nothing. That insecurity about checking twice led her to convince herself she would win; desperate, she let her ego grow.
But that ego she had - it wasn’t natural;
It was a mask she was forced to wear to survive, to become perfect.
But nothing’s perfect in this world.
Saiko screamed in her head.
“No, No, NO! It was flawless, I’ve meticulously planned it out! I saw every possible retaliation and made sure it can't happen, so why didn’t I see this one?!”
As her rival, Momo Yaoyorozu, pressed the elimination balls on her targets on her costume, Saiko desperately tried to come up with a last-minute plan, no matter how stupid or rushed it might be. But she snapped back to reality; she was restrained from all sides, and even if she escaped from their grasp, she would easily be restrained once again, as she would try to find some emergency exit.
She panics in her head.
“Think”
“THINK!”
“USE YOUR STUPID BRAIN!”
“I CAN'T LOSE –“
“I CAN’T!!!!”
As she swallowed herself in desperation, Shoji noticed something.
Her arm was slightly slipping loose out of the cuffs, but that was impossible; the handcuffs were specifically created so that she wouldn’t get out of them, and even if she did, she would leave with an injured arm and a crushed hand.
However, just as her hand came closer to the cuff, Shoji grabbed her arm and held it tight.
She realized the sudden lack of tightness, but it was already too late.
1
2
3
All 3 targets turned red, each one after the other one turned into that harsh glow of failure.
She lost. And her body began to decompose into digital red squares. The only thing Saiko could do was swallow herself in defeat.
Just before she was gone, Momo said a few words.
“You did well,” she said with a wholesome smile.
As Saiko heard those words, her face went from an expression of defeat to one of anger,
Anger you would see in Endeavor. Nothing in those eyes was symbolized except pure rage; it even startled Yaoyorozu.
And then she was gone.
“Momo Yaoyorozu, Kyoka Jiro, Tsuyu Asui, and Mezo Shoji. You have successfully passed Stage 1 of the exam. You will be teleported back to the Spectating Room.” A voice proclaimed, speaking from their targets
“We did it,” Kyoka said proudly
“Good job, everyone,” Asui says
“You guys did great out there, especially you, Jiro,” Shoji points out
“WHu-“ Jiro says, flustering, “Me?!”
Asui justifies her praise to Jiro, “Yeah, it was because of you that we managed to take out those Seiai students. You created a high enough pitch to knock 'em out. The fact that you can make such a high pitch is impressive.”
“UH, WAIT, HOLD ON! Give some credit to Momo at least!” Jiro hasn’t gotten used to praise from her students, as it makes her believe for a second that she’s a hero already, and it was quite a lot, but in a funny way
“If it wasn’t for Momo, I wouldn’t have knocked 'em out in the first place, yeah! Why don’t u give some credit to Momo? She was the one responsible for our passing. She was the O Speaker in the first place. I mean, she…”
As the 3 argued about who was responsible for their victory, Momo just stood there, looking at that spot where Saiko had just been, thinking about that look in her eyes as her ears rang, thus drowning the noise.
RRRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNGGGGGG
In those long seconds, it almost felt like eternity, she felt like her body wasn’t her own, like a demon from hell possessed her, and this is what happened to her mind and soul, still there, unable to control herself, and can only do nothing as she watches, just standing there, after staring at the spot for quite some time, the memory turned into something else as now she pictured Saiko staring back at her in the dark halls of the barricaded building, with that anger in her eyes still present, as almost she wants to come close to her and drag her to hell.
Asui tries to snap her out of it, “Momo? Momo?! Momo!! Momo!!!”
Momo snaps back to reality
*GASP*
“Momo” Asui says one more time
“What is it?” Momo says
Asui explains, “We’re about to be sent back into the spectating room.”
Momo responds in a sort of flat tone. “Oh, I see.”
Asui is a little concerned. “Something wrong?”
Momo responds, attempting to debunk Asui’s concerns, “No, no, everything’s fine, I- I swear. Really”
Asui’s concerns don’t go away; instead, they increase, “You sure?, Then how come you keep staring at that spot?”
“It’s just that, when Saiko vanished, she looked at me with anger in my eyes, anger I’ve never seen in anyone’s eyes before. It’s terrifying.”
“You know, you can talk to me, right? Remember, im your friend, im always happy to help,” Asui says, trying to comfort her friend.
Momo gives off a small smile. “Thanks, that means a lot.”
Asui responds with a wholesome smile with her eyes closed. “No problem” 😊
Asui’s words of encouragement weren’t enough to shake off Momo’s concerns about Saiko; she just played along with Asui’s positivity to shake her off.
The voice from their targets proclaimed for the final time, while the voice says what will happen, their targets start to beep.
“You will be teleported back into the spectating area, in 3….”
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP
“2”
BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP
“1”
BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEPPPPPPPP
As the target screeches out a long beep like a flatline echoing in the halls of a hospital, Momo becomes more nervous by the second and then…
FWASSSSSHHHHHHH
The 4 decomposed into blue 3D pixels, and in seconds, they were right where they started. However, there were fewer people, as around 100-ish people (including them) were there. It was obvious who passed and who failed, as the ones who passed were celebrating with their friends as the also passed or bragged about it or talked about their intense experiences in stage 1, whilst the ones who failed were just proceeding their defeat, swallowing themselves up asking the same question: “What did I do wrong?”, One person was even crying in a corner as if he lost his family in a fire last night, which is a little overdramatic.
It wasn’t long before the 4 met Todoroki and were glad that he passed
“Todoroki, you passed!” Momo explained gladly, trying to bottle up her concerns.
“Didn’t expect any less,” Asui says proudly, praising him
“Say, where are the others?” Shoto wonders
Shoji answers, “Don’t know.”
As Shoto talks about where the others could be, Momo uses this as a chance to find Saiko in the crowd. She wanted to talk to her desperately.
She scanned the room, looking for that white double-breasted blazer with that oversized pink bow; it wasn’t
long before she quickly found her in the crowd. However, whilst looking, she couldn’t find any of her friends to use as an excuse, so she made one up.
“Oh, I think I see Kendo over there! Hey, Kendo!!” Momo says whilst running away from the group
However, Kendo wasn’t there; instead, she was sitting at one of the spectator seats outside watching 1A fight, and studying their moves. But Monoma made it very hard for her to do that.
Momo quickly ran to Saiko and her allies, as she slowly walked towards the door leading to wherever it goes.
“Saiko, Wait!” Momo says
Saiko ignores her
“Saiko!!, I wanna talk to you for a minute, I know you were angry at me and im sorry, even though I don’t know why I made you angry in the first place. I just wanna talk to you for a second so we can make things even. I never wish to rub my rivals’ defeat the wrong way or rub it in their faces; I’m not like that!” Momo exclaims honestly
However, just as she can reach Saiko, a girl with bright pink hair styled into 2 large, fluffy pigtails, a calm, neutral expression on her face, her eyes closed as if her eyelids were glued shut, stands in Momo’s way. Her name is Mizue Kagami.
“I’m sorry,” she said, “But Ms. Sai doesn’t wish to talk.”
Momo reacts with shock, desperately wishing to resolve things before it floods her mind.
The pink-haired girl continued, “She’ll be outdoors sitting in one of the audience seats outside, give her time to cool off, and then you may talk to her. I highly suggest you do it after round one is officially over for everyone.”
Momo breathes a sigh of relief as she’s given the chance to talk; it still doesn’t take away that heavy feeling in her chest as she now worries about how Saiko will respond and react to her, but with hope in her heart, she walks back to her friends, as they prepare for round 2.
But that hope in her heart was a lie; it was fabricated, used to shake off Momo from Saiko, as Mizue clearly knew how angry Saiko was, and she didn’t want to make things worse for her.
Saiko continues to walk in silence down a metallic, cold, grey hallway. It looked more like the clean inside of a vent and Saiko was just gently walking down it like she was an ant.
Mizue nervously walks closer to Saiko as she utters to speak
“Um, M-Ms Sai” Mizue nervously says
“What?” Saiko says in response in a cold, harsh voice
“Well, uh. I-I m-managed to sh-sh-shake off M- M- Momo for yo-“
Saiko slams her fist onto the wall in anger
SLAM!!
It echoed through the halls, though no one was in range to hear it
“SPEAK GODDAMN IT!!! EVEN YOUR OWN VOICE IS TOO PATHETIC TO COME OUT STRAIGHT!” Saiko said furiously.
Mizue jumps upon hearing Saiko’s harsh voice, as the one thing she wishes to prevent is happening.
Out of desperation, Mizue says everything out in one go.”
“ImanagedtoshakeoffMomoforyoubylyingtohershesnolongeraproblemforyoumssai!!!!!!!”
After saying that, everything went quiet. Saiko stared at Mizue with boiling blood in her veins before responding
“Good, now fuck off” Saiko says furiously
Mizue runs off in fear
After Mizue is out of her sight, she looks at the dent and the tightly gripped fist she made, and notices something, from afar, nothing unusual was there, but upon further inspection, one thing was slightly off
Her fist.
Somehow it was slightly bigger, but in a second, it was back to its normal size.
Somehow.
This makes her a little more frustrated as she releases her fist from the cold metal and walks off as if nothing happened.