Ch. 13: Kicking off the Festival

Allen did his best to ignore the calm, patient, but expectant stare of Aizawa as he occupied his desk. His foot was tapping restlessly and his arms were clamped across his chest like chains, balled fists firmly tucked into his armpits in a desperate attempt to lock away the dark emotions raging inside his heart. "I don't see why I have to be here." Allen finally said, the words spilled from his mouth like water from a dam swollen by rain. He tried his best to keep his face and tone neutral, but couldn't help the patina of anger and frustration at the perceived injustice of his situation from slipping through. "I did exactly what you said to do whenever I feel overwhelmed. I don't understand why I'm being punished for that."

Still as a statue, Aizawa's expression was indiscernible beneath the bandages obscuring his face. "Do you think that I'm using these sessions as a punishment?" He asked, "That I told you to meet with me today because I saw fault with how you handled what happened today?"

"I can't see any other reason why you'd make me come here for the second time this week." Allen growled through clenched teeth as he slouched in his seat. "Nobody else has to do this. Don't bother denying it, I've asked around…no matter how well you try to hide it, you, my friends…you all look at me like some kind of…some kind of rabid dog."

Aizawa shook his head. "Allen, if I thought you were truly a danger to your peers, we wouldn't be having this conversation. The only rational choice would be to have you removed from the program. The reason that you are sitting in that chair right now isn't because I'm punishing you, it's because I have faith that you can get past this. Putting me aside for a second though, I'm curious, why do you think that your peers see you as a rabid animal?"

Allen's voice was hollow, bitter. "I've seen the way they look at me. I scared Midoriya earlier today…he looked at me the same way that he used to look at Bakugo back before he…" Allen snapped his mouth shut when his brain caught up with what he was saying. He had come dangerously close to spilling Midoriya's secret.

"Before he what?" Aizawa asked.

"Nothing," Allen lied, "it isn't important…the point is that he…he's my friend. He should know that I've got his back…that I wouldn't ever…but I scared him. I scared Ts—Asui today too."

"Do you think that it's possible you're misinterpreting the situation?" Aizawa asked. "Have you tried asking them how they feel about it?"

"Look," Allen replied defensively, "I'm not the smartest guy ever…but Midoriya wears his emotions on his sleeve, and I know fear when I see it." Allen slammed a fist on the desk with a loud thump. "They see me as a ticking time bomb and the worst part is that they're right."

Aizawa leaned forward, "Tell me Allen, what was going through your head when Asui-san split open your scar?"

Allen tensed at the question, ducking his head and drawing his shoulders inward as he clenched up so tightly that his body began to tremble. As he spoke, the words tumbled out of his mouth, halting and hesitant as he struggled to piece together his clouded recollection of the event. "I…I wasn't thinking…not…not really. I've…been angry before…hell, I'm angry a lot…but this was…this was like I…" Allen swallowed hard, "I just wanted to hurt her. I felt like I needed to hurt her—I knew that if I didn't walk away from that fight right then, I wouldn't have stopped." He replied in a small, scared voice that sounded so unlike him that for a brief moment, Allen was convinced that somebody else had answered the question. Allen's eyes were glassy, his face a portrait of shame.

Aizawa nodded, "But you didn't hurt her, Allen. You walked away. Despite all of the anger, you managed to stop yourself. A 'ticking time bomb' couldn't have done that."

"I don't know how I stopped." Allen admitted, and it was that admission that frightened him more than anything else. "I…I wish I could say that I stopped because Tsu-chan is my friend…or that I remembered your anger management exercises...but…I can't; I don't know."

"Why do you think you were able to stop? I don't need a hard answer; just give me your best theory."

"I don't know." Allen loudly insisted, tears welling up in his eyes. "I would tell you if I could, but I can't! I don't know!"

"Would you like to hear my theory?"

Allen didn't trust his voice to remain steady, the floodgates were close to bursting and he did not want to cry—his loss of composure was humiliating enough without adding tears into the mix—so he merely nodded.

"I think that no matter how angry you were, you have a heroic instinct inside of you that was stronger. You didn't attack Asui-san in a blind rage because at your very core, you place the well-being of your friends and loved ones even higher than yourself."

At this, Allen snorted involuntarily, but he straightened up as some of the tension left his body. "My 'heroic instinct'? Really? That's the best you've got?" He shook his head, "Doesn't sound like you to believe in something so 'irrational', sensei."

"On the contrary," Aizawa replied, "dismissing the power of the heroic instinct is the very height of irrationality. I would think that the son of a soldier should understand this better than most. You've heard the stories of soldiers who would jump onto grenades, or who throw themselves in the line of fire in order to protect their comrades?"

Allen nodded, "Yeah, of course. My great-grandfather was one of them…he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in the war that broke out after quirks manifested." Allen delivered this information with a great deal of pride.

"For most people, their survival instinct trumps everything else during highly stressful scenarios. During my time as a hero, I've seen men trample old women and children in a panic to escape burning buildings. I've seen people pushed down by their closest friends to improve their chances of escaping an attacking villain. At times like these, it's easy to think that we humans are no better than animals. However, a certain portion of the population possesses an instinct to protect those around them so strong that it supersedes their desire for self-preservation."

"People like Midoriya, you mean." Allen murmured.

Aizawa nodded, "Midoriya is an extreme example of this. His heroic instinct is one of the strongest I've ever seen—to the point where it's frankly self-destructive."

Allen let out a humorless chuckle, "Yeah," he agreed, "he does tend to go a little overboard. I almost had a heart attack when I saw him on the news during the sludge incident a year ago…when I asked him about it, he said that he wanted to run away, but his legs moved before he had a chance to think…you think something similar happened to me too, huh?"

"I do."

At these two simple words, Allen leaned back in his chair looking like the world had been lifted off of his shoulders. "Thanks sensei." He said, "I…uh, I needed to hear that, I guess."

"Glad to help," Aizawa replied, pulling a stack of papers out of his desk and beginning to work on grading them, "you can go now."

Allen looked at his watch, "It's only been 15 minutes…you sure?"

Aizawa looked up from his paperwork, "Do you have anything else you want to talk about?"

"No, not really." Allen replied, shaking his head.

"Then don't let me keep you." Aizawa said, and indicated towards the door with a tilt of his head, "I'm sure that you've got training to do for the festival. It's an important opportunity for you."

"Okay, thanks." Allen stood up and walked out of the door, feeling much lighter. He suspected that his problem would rear its ugly head again before long, but for now he was going to simply enjoy his lifted spirits while they lasted.

SEMPER FAST

The rest of the week was relatively uneventful. As promised, Allen invited Kirishima over to his place and showed him some of the ropes of martial arts, and when his father got off work, he would chime in every so often as well—with Allen playing translator of course. Kirishima was a quick study and absorbed everything they taught him with boundless enthusiasm, making leaps and bounds in only a few practice sessions. Even with a language barrier, Kirishima's friendly, personable nature and general passion shined through and both of Allen's parents took an immediate liking to him—at one point, Chris even expressed that Kirishima was his favorite of the friends Allen had brought over, including Midoriya—saying that while he did hold in him in incredibly high regard, he found the formerly quirkless boy's high strung and hesitant nature slightly irritating. Plus, Chris really enjoyed the novelty of being able to teach someone who he didn't have to hold back against at all, and repeatedly nailed Kirishima with full strength hits that would do serious damage to anyone else when they sparred.

As for the situation with Asui…well, Allen preferred not to think about it, so he didn't, focusing on the task at hand instead. By mutual unspoken agreement, the two of them hadn't spoken to each other since their spar. On his part, Allen was unable to bring himself to face her after how he had upset her—but mostly it was because of what he had nearly done, how close he had come to losing control. How could he trust himself when all it took to make him want to nearly pound his friend into paste was a simple cut on the cheek during a spar? He had to distance himself from her—no matter what Aizawa-sensei said, until he got his temper problem under control, it simply wasn't safe to be around her—it was for the best, really.

At the same time, Asui couldn't face him because she was too busy wallowing in a sea of guilt and self-pity. She had lost her temper and hurt somebody that she cared about in a way that went way beyond a simple cut on the cheek. She had opened up his scars—both literally and figuratively—and for what? Sure, she had been annoyed with Allen's hesitance to fight her, to take her seriously as a hero, but that wasn't what she had really been upset about. She had let herself get her hopes up, so she lashed out after getting hurt, because she had—like always—been overlooked for someone prettier than her, more expressive, shapelier, just like she knew she would from the very beginning. She had to distance herself from him—no matter what Ashido or Uraraka said, if she couldn't get a handle on her unreciprocated feelings, then she was going to be nothing but a burden to him—it was for the best, really.

SEMPER FAST

"FUCK! Fucking sit still you hyperactive retard! I'll kill you!"

"How about you shut the fuck up and let me prepare the way I want to prepare instead?" Allen replied with a wide grin, lightly hopping from foot to foot on the tips of his toes and doing various dynamic stretches to limber up. Despite the tense and heavy atmosphere in the 1-A waiting room before the festival started, Allen was feeling great. Sports days were always his favorite part of regular school—thanks to his ridiculous athleticism, he had been named as the MVP every year during middle school—much to Bakugo's annoyance—and he planned on continuing that victorious tradition today as well. Sure, the allowance of quirks evened the playing field quite a bit, but Allen's quirk was so generally useful that he wasn't worried in the least. Also, unlike most of his classmates—who trained up to the very last second—he had greatly tapered off the intensity of his workouts in the final week before the festival and made sure to load up on carbs for breakfast, so his body felt like it was filled to the brim with energy. He had tried to convince Midoriya to do the same, but to no avail.

"Language, Allen-kun!" Iida chastised him. "Is everyone's preparations complete? We are going to start in a matter of minutes!"

"Wha—how come I'm the one getting bitched at for language?" Allen pointed at Bakugo, "He cursed too! This is such horseshit!"

Uraraka walked over and gave Allen a conciliatory pat on the shoulder. "He's pretty much given up on gettin' Bakugo-kun ta act right." She explained, "He still thinks that he'll get ya to come round 'ventually."

"Yeah, well good luck with that," Allen replied with a scoff, "cause my filthy fucking mouth is here to stay."

Uraraka merely laughed before her eyes widened and she pointed over to another part of the room. "Woah, what's goin' on over there?"

"Hmm?" Allen looked over where she was pointing and saw Midoriya getting stared down by none other than the top dog of the class—not that Allen would ever admit it—Todoroki Shoto. Curious, Allen walked closer to hear what was being said.

"—stronger than you."

"Eh? W-what?" Midoriya replied, looking around as if to confirm that he really was the one being singled out.

"You've managed to get All Might's attention on you, right?" Midoriya's face paled for a split second. Todoroki shook his head, "I have no need to pry into that, but…" his gaze hardened. "I'm going to beat you." Everyone went silent at this declaration. Todoroki had never shown any interest in anyone in the class until now, so his decision to call out Midoriya of all people was surprising to say the least.

"Whoa there!" Kaminari said with a shocked expression plastered on his face, "Is that a declaration of war from the strongest kid in the class?"

"Who's the strongest?" Allen and Bakugo simultaneously asked Kaminari with identical scowls on their faces before looking at each other in annoyance and getting in each other's faces. "What?" They said in perfect stereo, slamming their palms onto the table at the same time. "You're not/you aren't stronger than me, you asshole/retard!"

An amused Jirou leaned in and to whispered to Ojiro, "Those two should get it over with and just bang already." Ojiro snorted and had to wrap his tail around his mouth to muffle his laughter.

"Shh!" Uraraka hissed at the two quarrelling boys, "Pipe down will ya? I'm tryin' to hear what they're sayin'!"

"The fuck you just say to me, you bitch?" Bakugo glared at Uraraka. "Don't tell me what to do. Ever." Allen and Uraraka briefly shared a look before mutually deciding to ignore Bakugo—they recognized that there really was no point in engaging with him, so they returned their focus to the drama unfolding in front of them.

Todoroki shook off Kirishima's attempt at peacemaking. "I'm not here to play nice or make friends."

Midoriya stared a hole into the ground, not quite able to meet the half-and-half hero's eyes. "I don't know what you want from me by saying all of that…" he said, "you're definitely stronger than me, looking at it objectively."

"Jesus dude," Allen said, "have a little backbone, why don't you?"

Kirishima agreed. "Yeah, c'mon Midoriya, no need to be so negative."

"Even so!" Midoriya cut in, his eyes were still on the ground but his fists were tightly clenched. "Everyone…even kids from other departments are aiming for the top with everything they've got…I can't just let myself fall behind!" He looked up and met Todoroki's cool gaze with a glare of his own. "I'm going to go for it with all of my might too!" Reactions to this exchange were varied. Most people were more focused on their own preparations, others watched with detached interest, Bakugo looked irritated—well, more irritated than usual anyways—and Todoroki showed a hint of interest at Midoriya's refusal to back down.

It was a heavy moment, which Allen promptly shattered it by walking up and wrapping an arm around Midoriya's neck, pulling him into a half-hearted headlock. "That's the spirit, man!" Allen playfully jostled his embarrassed and protesting friend, gently grinding his knuckles into Midoriya's scalp. "Champions always gotta go for the win! But don't forget that you have other competition too! I'm currently 3-0 for Sports Festivals and I'm looking to continue the streak!"

"Hey, get off me!" Midoriya grunted, before worming his way out of the headlock. He let out an annoyed huff and smoothed out his PE uniform. "You know I hate it when you do that!" He grumbled.

"Sorry, I forgot." Allen lied with a shit-eating grin that made it clear that he wasn't sorry in the least.

"Sure you did." Midoriya replied flatly.

"It's time!" Iida called out. "Let's do our best everyone!"

SEMPER FAST

The unmistakable voice of Present Mic rang out over the loudspeakers as he commented on the public's excitement to see the class of first years that faced down an invasion of villains and lived to tell the tale. A feral grin stretched across Allen's face as he heard the roar of the crowd just outside the bright exit of the stadium, this was the moment he'd been waiting for—it was show time at last. As the students stepped across the threshold and into view, the cheers went from loud to nearly deafening in volume.

Allen had never had been one to suffer from stage fright—he was one of those rare people who had absolutely no qualms about public speaking. In fact, he couldn't even understand why people even made a big deal about it—it wasn't like talking to a group of people was fundamentally any different than talking to just one person. That being said, even he was overwhelmed by the sheer size of the crowd—there had to be 100,000 people watching them at the very least, and that wasn't even counting the people watching on TV.

"Holy shit!" he breathed, "I knew that the Yuuei Sports Day was a big deal, but this is…"

"Ehhhhehehe." Midoriya laughed nervously, forcing a smile on his face. He had broken out into a cold sweat and was shaking in his boots. "Th-th-there a-are so many people."

"Yes." Iida commented, "I believe that this too is a part of the Yuuei learning experience—can you draw out your best performance with the eyes of so many upon you?"

Allen shook off his momentary shock and cracked his knuckles dramatically. "You're goddam right we can!" He exclaimed. He slapped Midoriya on the back hard enough to make him stumble forward a little bit with a surprised yelp. "It's time to tell the world that we're here! Right, Midoriya?"

Midoriya glared at Allen for a second before he realized what Allen had said—he had told his friend about All Might's directive to announce his presence to the world. At the reminder of his mentor's words, Midoriya's limbs stopped shaking and the fake smile on his face was replaced by a confident grin. He nodded. "Yeah!"

The sound of a cracking whip rang out, drawing the attention of the students to a dark-haired woman with a voluptuous figure and a provocative costume. "Oh!" Mineta cried out. He was making groping gestures with his hands and he had tears of joy in his eyes, "It's Midnight-sensei! She's gonna be our referee!"

Allen scratched his head. "Why's he getting so excited?" He asked out loud to no one in particular. "Don't get me wrong, I like seeing her in costume as much as any guy, but it's not like we don't see her a couple of times a week already."

"I prefer not to think about what goes through his head." Yaoyorozu answered him with a look of distaste on her face. "Just ignore him. That's what we do—that being said, I'm not sure how such a…person became an educator in the first place."

Midnight overheard them and loudly cracked her whip, a vein pulsing angrily on her forehead. "Silence!" She barked, "My tenure here is perfectly legitimate! Now, Player Rep! Midoriya Izuku!"

"What!" The entire class exclaimed in surprise, their eyes seeking out and finding a nervously sweating Midoriya, who looked overwhelmed by his sudden role as the center of attention.

"Midoriya is the representative?" Someone asked, "But he doesn't stand out, like, at all."

"Apparently he managed to get the top score on the entrance exam with the extra points he got when he blew away that zero-pointer."

"Still though…he's a bit…"

"Yeah, he doesn't really leave a memorable impression."

"Look at him muttering over there, he's kinda creepy…"

Bakugo scowled and buried his hands in his pockets, while Allen grit his teeth at the low-key insults being thrown at his friend as Midoriya hesitantly made his way up to the podium, all the while looking like he'd rather be anywhere else.

"Umm, h-h-hello everyone." Midoriya said; his eyes darted around manically as if he were searching for an escape route.

Allen dropped his head into his hands—this was going to be painful. Midoriya was absolute garbage at public speaking. The few times that they had done group projects in middle school that required a presentation, Allen had been the one who had to do all of the talking—even when his command over the Japanese language was still shaky, he was still more coherent and confident in his delivery than Midoriya, who turned into a stuttering mess every time.

"I-I…umm…that is…" Allen winced, but then something happened that he didn't expect. While he was floundering, Midoriya looked into the crowd and saw something or someone that made his eyes widen in surprised recognition; he paused and took a deep breath before slapping a lopsided smile on his face. "A-as long as I can remember…all I ever wanted was to be a hero…the greatest hero." He said, voice echoing out clearly across the silent area; haltingly at first, but gradually growing more self-assured as he continued on. "No matter how improbable it was, or how difficult the road there would be getting there, I wanted to save everyone with a fearless smile on my face, j-just like All Might. It was…is my dream." He paused, his eyes passed over the crowd of students before him, sometimes stopping to linger on certain people. "While everyone has their own motivations for being here today, we all share the same dream—more than anything, we long to be heroes. I am truly grateful for this opportunity. Everybody…let's do our best!" Midoriya bowed deeply to the spectators and stepped off of the podium.

There was a brief moment of silence before applause began raining down like thunder, making Midoriya flush a deep red.

"Well said, kid!" A spectator shouted out, "I like your attitude! I'm gonna be rooting for you!"

Iida clapped a hand on Midoriya's shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "That was very well done, Midoriya-kun! I was worried for a moment, but you represented us and yourself very well!"

Allen nodded in agreement, "Definitely! You always froze up before, but you handled it like a champ! What made the difference?"

Midoriya averted his eyes, "I guess I just realized that after putting my life on the line, something like this isn't anything to be scared of." He smiled and gave them all a thumbs up.

"That's a good point there Deku-kun," Uraraka agreed with a smile of her own before pointing down, "but yer legs are still shakin'."

They all looked down at Midoriya's legs, which were indeed quivering uncontrollably from the nerves. "A-ah," Midoriya stammered, "s-so they are." There was a brief pause, and then the group of friends laughed.

Wasting no time, Midnight announced the first event—a no-holds barred obstacle course race. At this news, Allen began to cackle evilly, drawing concerned looks from the students around him. They made their way over to the starting line. "Hahaha, there couldn't be a more perfect event for me if I picked it myself!" He bragged, "This is going to be a cinch!"

Midoriya shook his head. "You should know better than to underestimate UA, Allen." He scolded him before his eyes went wide and he began to look nervous. "I'm sure that they've managed to cook up all kinds of awful crap for us to get past!"

Allen blew a raspberry. "Whatever," He replied dismissively. "It's a race. The only person here who even stands a chance of beating me in a straight up race is Iida, and in case you don't remember, I'm faster than him! Now, hurry up and follow me!" Allen began to forcefully shove his way through the tightly packed corridor that served as the starting point for the race, upsetting many people in the process. "It doesn't matter how fast I am if I get screwed by one of these asshole's quirks because I'm trapped in a goddamn tunnel!"

"You shouldn't call our peers assholes." Midoriya protested as he followed closely behind his friend, apologizing on Allen's behalf to the people who he bulldozed through on his way to the front. "I swear, you're almost as bad as Bakugo whenever you get all worked up and ultra-competitive like this."

"Is that supposed to make me feel guilty or something?" Allen asked, "Just about the only admirable thing about that asshole is that he always goes for the win. I'll tell you what though: I'll make sure to be extra gracious after I'm done making them eat my dust." Allen's relentless advance to the front of the pack was halted when another blond kid with a weird look in his eyes purposely stepped in front of him to impede his progress. "Who the fuck are you?" Allen asked with a dangerous lilt to his voice—standing between him and his goal right now was a really bad idea.

"Typical of Class 1-A," the kid replied haughtily, "pushing their peers around and you don't even know their names! I'll have you know that Class B will—"

"Don't care. Move." Allen replied, cutting the boy off mid-rant by with a hard shove that sent him stumbling face first into the cleavage of a girl with horns and hooves, who then proceeded to send him flying with a donkey kick. Midoriya watched this with an expression that looked like it was carved out of stone as Allen continued on without a backward glance. After another minute or so of shoving their way through the crowd, the two friends finally made it to the front of the line.

"Nice to see you taking this seriously." A calm, even voice spoke up from next to them. They turned to see none other than Todoroki standing at the very head of the pack, looking at Midoriya with the same casually indifferent expression as always. "I would hate to have called you out only for you to fail at the first hurdle. Regardless, I'm still going to beat you." He didn't even spare Allen a second glance before returning his attention to the road ahead.

For some reason, Allen felt incredibly irked by this. "Hey," he complained—Todoroki still didn't look at him, so Allen gave him a light shove, drawing Todoroki's mismatched eyes his way, "I'm talking to you, asshole!"

"Don't touch me." Todoroki replied in a low, irritated voice, glaring at Allen. His breath came out in a cold mist as the air surrounding them dropped several degrees in temperature.

Allen felt a chill run down his spine at this and he didn't know how he managed to avoid taking a step back. Despite all of Bakugo's power and skill, he had never once intimidated Allen with his explosive bursts of temper—a coldly enraged Todoroki though? Scary as fuck. Still, Allen didn't back down. "I don't like being ignored or written off." Allen said matching Todoroki's glare, "And you had better watch yourself because I'm going to be the one who wins this thing!"

"AS IF YOU RETARD!" A voice shouted out from a few meters behind them, "I'M GETTING A TOTAL VICTORY HERE TODAY!"

A vein throbbed in Allen's head. "Fucking Bakugo…" he muttered, "I WASN'T TALKING TO YOU, YOU ASSCLOWN!" He shouted back, "SAVE YOUR POSTURING FOR SOMEONE WHO CARES, DAMMIT!"

The tension of the previous moment thoroughly broken, Todoroki shot Midoriya a deadpan look, as if to ask 'Is he serious?' Midoriya merely chuckled weakly and shrugged. Todoroki shook his head. "How about you follow your own advice?" He said, "Because I couldn't care less about your posturing either."

"What was that?" Allen asked, snapping his head back towards Todoroki and narrowing his eyes. Todoroki didn't answer, and merely looked away, non-verbally letting Allen know that he was washing his hands of the whole thing. "Hey! I thought I told you not to ignore me you—"

"READY? SET! STAAAAAART!" Present Mic yelled, cutting Allen off. As soon as the start was announced, Todoroki simultaneously took off running and summoned a flow of ice that went into the tunnel behind them, trapping most of the participants—with the exception of Class A, who predicted this tactic thanks to Todoroki's performance in the Mock Villain battle and were able to avoid it. Everyone—that is, except for Allen, who found his feet already stuck fast to the ground when he tried to move to avoid the attack.

"Eh?" Allen said, looking down at his shoes frozen securely to the ground as people jostled him roughly in an attempt to claw their way past him. "When the hell did he..?" Angry realization dawned on his face. "Earlier…when I pushed him…it got cold." Allen's face went red and he let out a shout of frustration. "AAAAARGH! That sneaky son of a bitch! He got me before the race even started!" Without hesitation, Allen quickly pulled his feet out of his shoes—there was no time to try and break them out, he had to leave them behind.

"Ahhh!" He yelped as he placed his foot onto the frigid ground, the only thing between him and the sub-zero temperature ice was a thin cotton sock, and the moisture from Allen's sweat was freezing and sticking to it, gradually removing even that level of protection. "FUCK! OW! That's so goddamn cold! I'm gonna make that fucker eat my goddamn shoes for this later! OW!" Allen began hopping up and down while alternating feet. "Shit! There's no way I'm gonna be able to do this whole thing barefoot! I've gotta figure something out." Allen searched around desperately until he saw two male students a couple meters behind him fighting to free their feet from the ice as well. Allen grinned. "That'll have to do!" Activating his 4X boost, Allen ran over to the two students and grabbed them by their t-shirt, pulling them to their feet.

"What are you—"

"Sorry, I'm borrowing these!" Allen said in a high pitched blur of words as he pulled off their shirts with one motion and tore them into strips before fashioning them into improvised shoes as quickly as he could. "Thanks! I'll pay you back later!" He yelled as he ran off.

"H-Hey!" They cried.

'Fuck,' he thought as he ran, 'I'm really behind—that cost me nearly two minutes!" Still, Allen had to remind himself to keep calm and watch his pace. Four kilometers was a decent distance—even without taking the obstacles into consideration—and at a 4X boost, he was essentially doing four times the physical work of everybody else. Still, the usefulness of his quirk for the event was proven when he caught up the rest of the pack in a little under a minute, though he was still quite a bit behind the front runners.

Ahead of him, was a cluster of students being held at bay by what looked like the villains from the entrance exam, including the zero pointers. While a couple of them were collapsed and frozen, there were still enough remaining that it was giving several of the students a hard time as they fought to take them down. 'Yeah, fuck that.' Allen thought, and decided to simply run around them—it wasn't like they could touch him at the speed he was moving. As he ran past, he saw Kirishima burst out from under the collapsed robot in slow motion, nearly making him stop in his tracks from shock. 'He can shrug off that monster falling on him?' Allen mouthed to himself in shock, suddenly feeling like his decision to teach Kirishima the finer points of fighting was going to come back to bite him in ass.

Still, Allen had no time for regrets as he caught a glimpse of the rest of Class A—especially Bakugo—blowing past the robots like they were nothing. So, he continued on along the path until he came to a gigantic gorge about 150-meters wide filled with tower-like formations connected by ropes. Allen's mouth dropped open. "Seriously?" He said weakly, peering over the side, "These people have no concept of restraint, do they? I can't even see the bottom." He caught a glimpse of Todoroki powering through this obstacle like all of the rest, simply grinding over the rope by creating a bridge of ice that fell apart as he moved along. Meanwhile, Bakugo was using his explosions to propel himself across the gaps, quickly gaining on Todoroki. "Still," Allen said, "there's no time to waste." He dropped out of his boosted state and took a deep breath.

Allen was a ridiculously fit guy, but he knew that trying to do a task like this with his quirk active would definitely exhaust him—he probably wouldn't even be able to make it across. He sat down at the edge of the canyon, grabbed onto the rope and pushed himself off, letting himself hang before walking hand over hand across the gap, swinging like a monkey and gritting his teeth as he watched people with more suitable quirks blaze past him. "Don't lose your cool!" He repeated in his head again and again, fighting the temptation to activate his quirk to pick up the pace. "You'll make it up in the final stretch! Don't make the same mistake you made in the entrance exam!"

After what seemed like an eternity, he finally made it across the gorge and stopped for a moment to shake out his burning arms before reactivating Fast Forward and continuing onward once again. After about a kilometer, he saw a small crowd slowly and carefully stepping across a several hundred meter long stretch of path. 'What are they doing?' Allen wondered, 'It's like they're going through a minefield or something." As if on cue, an explosion went off and sent one of the competitors flying. "Oh," Allen said in a distant voice, "it is a minefield." He paused. "The FUCK!?" He exclaimed, "Why the fuck would they make a minefield? That seems like a really bad idea! Still," he grinned, "this is the best possible set-up for me!"

Realizing that with this particular obstacle in place, he had absolutely no need to worry about his stamina, Allen jumped all the way up to his 8X boost and began carefully stepping his way through the dangerous terrain. Though he was moving at a brisk walking pace by his perspective, to everyone else, he might as well have been sprinting. He blew past everyone, quickly catching up to Todoroki and Bakugo, who were quite literally fighting for the lead, and then overtaking them. "See ya, bitches!" Allen yelled in a high pitch voice that was almost certainly unintelligible. When the two saw Allen take the lead, they stopped fighting each other and ran forward recklessly, entirely focused on the person in front of them—but unfortunately for them, there was little chance of that happening.

"BOOOOOOM!"

A massive explosion suddenly rang out from behind them, and all three lead runners turned to see what had caused it. Their mouth's simultaneously dropped in shock when they saw none other than Midoriya flying at them at high speed, riding some kind of metal panel. Luckily for Allen, with his quirk active, he was able to recover from the shock in a fraction of a second in real-time and resume running. 'That crazy motherfucker!' Allen thought with a wide grin and a shake of the head as he cleared the minefield and dropped back down to his 4X boost before breaking into a run for the final stretch. 'Pulling a surprise gambit out like always, huh? That's so…you."

"BOOOM!" Another explosion rang out from behind him—though significantly less powerful than before—however, this time, Allen didn't look back, and continued relentlessly onward towards the goal. Before he knew it, he crossed through the tunnel that was the entrance to the stadium once more and slid to a stop, deactivating his quirk and hunched over, panting heavily as the effects of his extreme exertion caught up with him.

"AND THE WINNER IIIIIIIIIS: ALLEN MAAAAAARTINNNN!" Present Mic's magnified voice rang out over the loudspeaker.

Allen grinned. "God damn right it is!" He thought victoriously, standing up straight and raising an arm in triumph as he drank in the deafening cheers of the crowd.

"AND WHAT'S THIS?" Present Mic said, "IT LOOKS LIKE THE NEXT RACER TO FINISH IS NONE OTHER THAN MIDORIYAAAAAA IZUKUUUUU!"

"Holy shit, really?" Allen said excitedly and jogged over to where Midoriya was standing at the entrance of the stadium, hunch over and panting just like Allen had been moments before. He clapped Midoriya on the back, "Holy fuck dude! Great job! I saw that move you pulled at the minefield! You're fucking crazy, you know that!" Allen smirked smugly at Todoroki and Bakugo respectively as the passed the finish line. "Oh man!" Allen taunted, "3rd and 4th place, huh? That sure has to sting after talking all of that mad shit earlier, huh?" At the provocation, Bakugo looked like he wanted to murder someone—more than usual anyways—while Todoroki merely scoffed and walked away, though he was equally upset in his own way.

"Allen." Midoriya said in that tone of voice that made it clear that what he was really saying was 'shut up'. Instead of being happy at his amazing placing, he looked visibly frustrated that he didn't get first himself—and his lack of congratulations for Allen's victory were notable. After a brief flash of resentment, Allen put himself in his friend's shoes and pushed the ugly feeling out of his mind—Midoriya had desperately wanted to prove himself worthy of All Might's expectations, and he saw anything less than being number one as a failure to do so. Of course he was frustrated.

"Hey man," Allen said, "cheer up. You just beat two of the top people in the school while barely using your quirk—if you even used it at all—that's pretty fucking impressive."

Midoriya shook his head. "I didn't. It's still really risky to use it…I feel like I'm missing something really simple but I just can't put my finger on it, still…I really wanted to win, you know?"

"I get you dude," Allen replied, "but really, how likely was it that anyone was going to beat me in a race? You still blew everybody's expectations out of the water—if it weren't for me, you would have won!"
"I guess…" Midoriya replied still sounding despondent. "Still…I—"

"Deku-kun! Allen-kun!" Uraraka's voice cut him off as she ran up to the pair. She was sweaty and out of breath. "Congrats you two! First an' second place ain't bad at all! But—" She grabbed Midoriya's hands and squeezed them, turning him beet-red as she glared at him. "I got so worried when I saw that stunt ya pulled with th' mines! Don't pull another reckless stunt like that again!" Her face softened, "It was really cool though…" Her glare returned, "No, yer just lucky that ya didn't get hurt! But you were amazing! But don' do it again!"

"Uraraka-san, you're contradicting yourself." Midoriya muttered, unable to make eye contact, "Are you angry with me or not?"

"I'd get used to that." Allen advised, laying a supportive hand on Midoriya's shoulder. "You're never going to understand the way women's minds work, so I wouldn't bother trying."

Uraraka dropped Midoriya's hands and rounded on Allen with a glare, "Maybe you can't, but don' go thinkin' that everyone is as dense as you!" After Allen's spar with Asui, Ashido and Uraraka had taken it upon themselves to try and cheer up their frog-like friend, and while she knew it was a little hypocritical, she was more than a little frustrated with their unwillingness to just go ahead and make up already. Also, she had been hoping to place higher and was still a bit salty about it.

Allen laughed nervously, "Oh look," he said, backing away from the emotional girl, "Yaoyorozu just finished! I'm gonna go say hi!" 'What the hell was that about?' When Allen approached his brief crush, he was angry—and a little jealous—to see Mineta clinging to her back like a leech.

"Two birds with one stone!" The diminutive pervert crowed with a gleeful expression, ignoring the bruise on his face where Yaoyorozu had hit him. "I'm a genius!"

"You…" Yaoyorozu huffed, "You're the worst!" She looked like she was on the verge of tears when a lecherously grinning Mineta gave her well-toned rear end a pat.

"Okay no." Allen growled, clearing the last few steps up to her with a stormy expression. Sure, she had rebuffed his romantic overtures, but he still considered her a friend. She had never been anything less than pleasant—always helping him with any questions he had regarding classwork with a smile, genuinely happy to be helpful. "Hold still for a moment." He told her, grabbing her by the shoulder and Mineta by the collar and ripping him off of her back like a Band-Aid and holding him up in the air by the scruff of the neck.

"Hey!" Mineta protested, squirming uncomfortably in Allen's grip. "Not cool man! What happened to the Bro code!"
"Shut the fuck up!" Allen barked in Mineta's face, channeling his father when he was in full 'drill sergeant mode'. Needless to say, Mineta did as he was told, his face went white and his protests died in the face of a furious Allen. "Don't even try to justify this shit to me! Consider yourself lucky that we're in the middle of the festival right now, because I'm just going to give you a warning: if you ever touch a girl like that without her consent again, I. Will. Fucking. Bury. You. In the fucking ground. Understand?" Mineta nodded. "I wanna hear you say the words, Mineta!" Allen yelled.

"U-U-U-Understood!" Mineta stammered, "You, me, the ground! C-C-Crystal clear!"

Allen dropped Mineta. "Good." He spat. "Now get out of my sight before I change my mind."

"Thank you Martin-san." Yaoyorozu said, looking more composed, "but I could have handled it myself, you know."

"I know you can." Allen replied, still angry. "But that pissed me off and I wanted to do something about it. Consider it selfishness on my part."

Yaoyorozu looked uncomfortable, "It might seem ungrateful to bring this up now but…" she lowered her voice, "I'm sorry, but I still do not…um…I mean, I'm still not interested in—"

"I know." Allen interrupted, taking mercy on her. "I told you when you turned me down that there were no hard feelings and I meant it. You're still my friend, and that means I'm going look out for you whether you like me like that or not—you'd do the same for me, right?"

Yaoyorozu smiled. "Of course."

"Then don't worry about it." The two chatted for a bit while the rest of the runners poured in one after another. Neither noticed a pair of dark eyes following them from within the crowd.

"It's all over!" Midnight announced, "Here are the results!" On the electronic board the listing of the places popped up, and Allen was pleased to see that everybody in Class A had managed to not only qualify, but generally dominate the rankings—although he supposed that it was only natural that the Hero course kids would do well. Midnight cracked her cat-of-nine tails to silence the chatter of the students and get their attention. "Now, it's time to move on to today's heart pounding second event!" She cradled the kinky object between her breasts and fidgeted, "Aaahn," she moaned erotically as a blush appeared on her face, "I already know what it will be, but the suspense is killing me…"

"Hehehehe…" Allen, Mineta, Kaminari, and approximately 90% of the male—and a surprisingly large amount of the female—audience giggled perversely with perverse looks on their face at this display.

"Is that really necessary?" Jirou asked with an expression like she had bit into a lemon.

"Seriously…" Yaoyorozu murmured, looking embarrassed, "it's bad enough that I have to basically strip in order to use my powers—it's because of stuff like this that a lot of female heroes get less respect."

"Behold!" Midnight said, gesturing to the electronic display, "It's the human cavalry battle!" She went on to explain the rules. Allen mostly tuned out, as he had done this in middle school—as the horse, obviously—but began paying attention again when she explained the scoring system. It was fairly standard, with the point values increasing by 5 for each person's placing in the race. Losing your headband didn't eliminate you, and the top four teams would go on to the finals.

'Interesting twist,' Allen thought, 'but nothing too weird. I actually kind of expected some crazy rule from left field…I'm sort of disappointed.'

"...with the exception of the first place finisher, whose headband will be worth ten million points."

"What?" Allen said flatly. The students turned to look at him with hungry expressions on their faces. "Ten million? Seriously? I heard that right, right Mido…ri…ya?" Allen took a step back when he saw Midoriya looking at him with the same predatory expression as everyone else. "Midoriya?"

"If I were you, I'd aim for the guy who placed first." Midnight advised them, "This is the chance for the low to supplant the high! Welcome to our survival game!"

Allen looked left, then right, then behind him, and saw nothing but enemies surrounding him. "Well…fuck." He said, looking down at the torn dirty rags on his feet. "I still don't have my shoes."

AN: Well, here we are folks! The sports festival is finally here! As I wrote this, I tried to think of a scenario in which Allen could lose the race, but with his quirk, he just had too much of an advantage on the final stretch. If Midoriya was able to keep up enough to pull off a win despite of how far ahead everyone else got at the first obstacles, there was no way that Allen couldn't overtake them when people were basically moving at a swift walking pace at best on the minefield. As always, any reviews would be appreciated.

Happy New Year!

PS: What do you all think of the new story image? I drew it over about 2 hours this weekend as my best attempt of what Allen would look like in costume. Any artists who are interested in doing a better job, let me know!