I felt bad being the one to stand on the third place podium along with Tokoyami. I had just been sleeping a few moments ago. Seems I had taken Recovery Girl's advice a little too literally. I had been sleeping like it was a Sunday morning, not having to wake up at my usual six in the morning in order to get ready for school.
Ashido, Hana, and Midoriya had all come down looking for me. Unknown to me, Tokoyami, Iida, and I were all supposed to fight against one another one at a time in order to fill out the remaining third, fourth, and fifth places.
The guilt was even worse with the news I was told. Iida had gotten a call and needed to leave for a family emergency. Midoriya hadn't said much, but his blue eyes seemed to be worried. No doubt it wasn't anywhere near good, but I knew it was better to not ask questions about it.
In the end, it was me, Tokoyami, and Iida in third place in a sort of three-way tie. Another downside of sleeping in had been missing out on Bakugo and Todoroki's fight. It had to be a wild one with the number of restraints on Bakugo.
Handcuffs keeping his hands completely covered in metal, chained to the pillar he was standing on. He was even wearing a muzzle covering up to his eyes. It didn't stop him from thrashing about shouting "die" and "I'll kill you icy-hot bastard!". The usual things you'd expect from the ashy blond.
It didn't take much to figure out who won. Bakugo was blatantly restrained at the tallest pillar, first place. To his right was Todoroki's who was slightly taller than my third place one. Tokoyami stood at the side, sharing third with me.
I don't want to lie, but I was a little bit afraid of how violently Bakugo thrashed. If he had won first place, why was he so angry then?! If anything I thought he'd be happy! He had said he wanted to win the Sports Festival after all. Still, compared to him Todoroki was the complete opposite with his calm posture, not even showing anything resembling a hate for only coming in second place.
I shook myself, focusing on looking in front of me as the pillars began to vibrate as they surfaced from the underground of the arena. "The First-Year students have completed all the events of the U.A. Sports Festival! Now it's time to relax and enjoy the awards ceremony!" Midnight announced
Immediately the screen changed to say "Awards Ceremony", trumpets playing to add to the mood. Fireworks of all colors shot up into the sky. It amazed me with sure I had gotten to the "top", but I still had a way to go.
Until then, I felt I was supposed to enjoy this moment.
Jets of sparks went up into the air as we raised from the ground. Midnight stood in front, her right hand showing us off. Us, and Bakugo, who's thrashing had increased by a hundred percent it seemed.
The rest of the class was standing there, along with the press who's cameras had almost as much flash as the fireworks.
"He's acting like a feral animal," Tokoyami remarked next to me.
"Yeah, you can say that again..." I agreed. "Is it safe to stand next to him?" I brought up, extremely concerned.
"Tenya Iida actually shares the third place award with Tokoyami and Mason, but unfortunately he had to leave for family reasons." Midnight explained to the press. "Gotta love those familial bonds." She added, putting her finger to her lips.
"A media darling?!" Tokoyami said surprised.
"Now let's break out the hardware!" Midnight shouted as she stretched her hand above us. "And there's only one person worthy of distributing the awards!"
With that, a booming laugh sounded through the entire stadium. There was only one person who it could belong to with that deep yet comforting voice that a hero would have. "AH, HA HA HA HA! Citizens, I am here with medals!" All Might declared as he jumped into the air and landed with a solid thump.
At the same time, Midnight spoke. "All Might, the Number One Hero!" It was actually funny to see Midnight apologize as All Might gave her a confused look. She went over and grabbed a platter the three medals were all sitting. "Now that you're here All Might how about you start the presentation." She suggested, looking to be a bit nervous.
All Might took the third-place medal and walked over to me and Tokoyami. As he walked forward in his red, yellow, white, and blue costume, I nudged Tokoyami forward. "Take it, man."
"But Mason you-"
"You deserve it," I said to the bird-headed boy with a slight smile on face. "If I'm going to take a medal, it'll be if I actually deserve it. This your win, and it's some spotlight I think Dark Shadow would like for a change too."
He looked at me, but then bowed down his head as All Might put the medal around his neck. "Congratulations young Tokoyami, you showed great strength out there. Both you, and Mason." He said sincerely.
"Thank you, sir," I said to him, bowing slightly.
"Your words humble me," Tokoyami said.
"However," All Might placed a hand on each of our shoulders, looking us both in the eye. "You have more training to do if you're going to learn how to fight other types of villains. You're not going to be able to rely on your Quirk in every battle you face."
"Yes, sir." We both said.
For some reason, I felt that even though the message was to the both of us, it was still personal in a way. After all, we had both been using our Quirks for pretty much all of our matches. Not once did we not use it.
All Might next walked over to Todoroki, placing the second-place medal around his neck. "Young Todoroki, congratulations. I'm assuming there's a reason you didn't use your left side, though it cost you the final."
"Midoriya opened my eyes during our match." He explained, his voice sounding sad and defeated, a tone I didn't think I'd hear from him. "But then I started to doubt myself. I think I now understand why you're interested in him. I want to be the kind of Hero you are, but my path... Isn't as clear as I thought it was." He admitted. "I have a lot to think about, and still need to settle things with someone, very soon."
All Might nodded. "I've never seen this sort of look on your face before." He then brought him into a hug. "I won't ask for details, but trust yourself. I'm sure you'll work things out."
After that, he went over to Bakugo. "And now Young Bakugo. Well..." The giant man stared at just how much they had restrained him so he wouldn't go after Todoroki. "This is a little much!" He remarked as he unhooked the muzzle on Bakugo's mouth. "You did what you set out to do during the pledge. You're true to your word!"
"All Might..." The ashy blonde growled with a look of pure rage on his face. "Winning First place this way doesn't prove I'm the best one here! Even if the world considers me the winner I REFUSE TO ACCEPT IT LIKE THIS!" He shouted, letting out all of his anger, with no doubt more fuel to go.
All Might then put his hand in a Hamlet-like position, his head facing to the left. "In a world where we are constantly being compared to one another, there are very few who can keep their eyes on the top spot. You are one of them."
Bakugo face seemed to defy logic as his face became even more terrifying. How was that even possible?!
All Might raised up the first-place medal, a perfect gold. "Please accept this medal, even if you have to think of it as a scar! Something you'll never forget!"
"I don't want that piece of garbage!" Bakugo shouted.
"Come on now." All Might said, proceeding to try and put the medal around his neck.
"Get that trash away from me you idiot!"
With some force, All Might hung it between Bakugo's teeth and turned around to face the crowd. "Here they are, the winners of this year's Sport's Festival! But listen closely, any of you First-Years could have stood at these podiums! Think about what you've done today. You've challenged each other! Learned! And climbed even closer towards your goal of being Pros! I think our next generation of heroes is proving to be our most promising one yet!" He pointed his finger towards the sky. "So I have one more thing to say! I want to hear everyone yell it together with me! You know what it is!"
"PLUS ULTRA!" Everyone shouted, except All Might who said something completely different.
"Thank you, everyone, for your hard work!"
"... What..." I said, blown away by how All Might had the opportunity to say our school's catch-phrase, but completely missed it.
He was met with shouting from the crowd as they realized this as well. Each and every one of us complaining about how he could have said "Plus Ultra" instead of what he originally said.
"Nice work, you have the next two days off from school in order to recuperate," Aizawa said, which was a relief to me. My muscles felt like they had been burned, cooled down, and then burned again. "The Pros who watched the Festival will want to recruit some of you. We'll look at the draft forms and update you when you return. Get some rest, you still have some training to do."
"Yes, sir." We all said before getting our bags and getting up to leave the classroom.
On my way out, Hana and Ashido both ran up to me from behind. "Mason! I can't believe you got that far! I mean I knew you would but, that was amazing! that fight with that girl, and then the Chikara guy... It was awesome!" Ashido shouted excitedly.
"Yeah," Hana agreed. "I never thought I'd see you so close to going all out."
I nervously scratched my blonde-hair covered head. "Come on, you're making me blush guys." My hand dropped down. "I just went through it is all. I still have a long way to go, trust me. Until then." I turned around, hands behind my head as I walked backward. "Just because I'm giving it everything doesn't mean you guys can't too!"
"Hey, I beat Aoyama at least! That's something!" Ashido said, defending herself.
"And I put up a good fight!" Hana added.
"You did Hana. Though I did get some payback for you in my fight for Chikara." I said with a wink.
While Hana began to redden, Ashido laughed. "You guys really are cute, you know that? Part of me knew something was going on between you two. Ever since the entrance exams, I knew you two liked each other!"
Thinking back on it, she was right. Ashido's first impression had been me and Hana had known each other for a long time, which was a little bit true, but mostly confusing. Still, a thought occurred to me then.
Should we just tell Ashido now? No one else was there, and it'd also clear things up before we'd get back from our two-day break from school. No doubt it'd easily get around that I and Hana were just faking being a couple, and we wouldn't have to worry about explaining it to everyone on the day we were supposed to sign up for internships.
"Yeah about that A-Ashido..." Hana began to say.
Wait, did she just have the same idea I did?! What are the chances!?
"Yeah, Hana?" Ashido said.
Hana began to touch the tips of her index fingers together. "You see... the th-thing is... W-well we've kinda been-"
A car horn sounded, cutting Hana off. "MASON! We're over here!" I heard my dad shout. "You can talk with your girlfriend later! Seafood tonight!"
"Well, looks like I gotta go guys." I did a mock salute with my index and middle fingers. "See you tomorrow Ashido, and see ya later Hana!"
"See ya!" They both said as I got into the car.
My mom was in the driver's seat, and my dad in the passenger. It wasn't hard to get the seatbelt on, despite how long it had been since I'd actually been in our car. Usually, I'd just walk home or to school. It had become the norm for me.
"Phew, good thing I saw ya. Was that a good save? You looked to be in some trouble." My dad asked me.
I nodded. "You could not have said that at a better time dad. So we're eating out tonight?"
"Yes, we are. Since your father is now a free man, albeit with some strings, time for this family to have dinner as a family for once!" My mom cheered, driving away.
I smiled as I came to the realization. We were finally a family again. After five years of hardship, of everything we had to go through, we were together like t had never happened. Even with how happy I felt, there was a part of me though, the felt differently. With everything that had happened, would it be the same again?
Two hours of eating at a seafood restaurant and a change of clothes later, and I flopped onto my bed with my eyes heavier than I thought possible for someone my age. It seemed the Sports Festival's excitement had finally decided to slam into me like one of Chikara's blast as the day ended.
In my room, I was finally alone, and able to fully relax. I was going to abuse these next two days to get some much-needed rest. It wasn't easy having to adjust your schedule for two weeks so you get some training in, along with sleep.
I moved around to get on my back. I closed my eyes as I put my hands on my chest as I always did, and began to let myself drift off. Never before had my pillow felt so good on my neck after a long day of school. After five minutes, or what felt like five minutes, I finally began to feel myself enter sleep.
Until my phone decided to go off.
"Oh come on!" I shouted. A little bit irritated my sleep had been interrupted. Was it just a notification to show a streamer was live? Or maybe just an email in case Aizawa hadn't told us about not having school for two days?
It ended up being neither. On the screen was a small box with Ashido's full name on it. Under that was a message she had sent me. Seeing the "..." at the end, I knew it was definitely a long one.
Knowing I had to own up to it, I unlocked my phone and looked to see what the message was. Right there was the message I expected to see. Hana had told Ashido about our secret after all.
"Why didn't you tell me you two weren't really dating!? I mean Hana did tell me about that Chikara guy, but why did you leave me out of it?!" The message read.
It took me a few seconds to type a response. I had almost been asleep before Ashido sent me the message. "She was afraid that some of the other guys might have made it their mission to 'teach him' something." I sent. "And also some of the girls as well."
Her icon popped as another message was sent. "Yeah, we probably would have done that..."
"Would have?" I sent, trying to prod her a bit as I smiled.
"Okay, we definitely would have done something. Nodoby messes with our classmates! Thanks for helping her though." She sent back. "So, you two aren't dating, right? Just faking to get him off her back?"
"Yes."
"Okay. Thanks for doing that." Ashido messaged me. This time with a smiley face emoji at the end of the sentence. "By the way, I wanted to ask you something."
I arched my eyebrows. "What is it?" I sent.
"Would you mind hanging out tomorrow? I want to see what agencies are around here for when we go back to sign up for one." She asked.
"Sure!"
"Nice! See you at the station at one! Night!"
"Night!" I replied before turning my phone off.
With something to look forward to tomorrow, I find a new motivation to get myself sleeping. to be honest, it was two wins for the price of one. I'd be able to check out some hero agencies and hang out with Ashido.
It was then my mind wandered back to what Chikara had said. No way in hell had I let his comment about Ashido stand. Today had just been a mess for my emotions.
First with finding out my dad was now out of jail. Second, the fact the bank robbery my dad had done had caused Hana's mom to be killed by a stray piece of building that slammed into their car. And then... There was Ashido. I liked her, don't get me wrong.
But at the time, there were so many things going on. I wanted to show that being my dad's son didn't mean anything. That I could save people, that I could be a Hero.
At the same time, I knew that I had a crush on Ashido.
She was perfect. The way she was always happy and cheerful. Outgoing, even going out of her way to hang out with me, who almost everyone deemed as the most insulting thing on the planet or didn't bother with. There wasn't just one thing I liked about her once I thought about it. I liked her because she was just her. Asking me to pick one thing was like asking me what my all-time favorite food was.
Just like Recovery Girl said though, I couldn't rush things. I couldn't rush, and I couldn't wait too long either. All I could do was either wait to see if she felt the same, or bet on whether or not she'd accept those feelings.
For now, though, I was content with being her friend. Even if she didn't feel the same, I'd still be friends with her.
With a sigh, I turned on my side to turn off the lamp on my desk and finally went to sleep. Except for one difference being, I was looking forward to waking up tomorrow to hang out with Ashido. Maybe I'd be able to build up some confidence to ask her out for all I knew.
A/N: You know if there's one thing I like that Horikoshi has done, it's the relationships with characters. Especially between Uraraka and Izuku. It isn't a flat out "I like her". Sure Izuku finds her cute, but what's even better is Uraraka grows to see she has feelings for him. Something I try to play with here, because sure they're teenagers, but they're also trying to become Heroes for their own quirky reasons (heh, pun). They do like each other, it's just getting to that point of "Fuck it, will you date me!?" we all got through when we ask out a crush. Now that Ashido knows Hana and Mason aren't actually dating, it opens up that metaphorical floodgate of "All I need to do is ask him". Now with that, to the reviews!
GreenD109: H's in fourth place, simply for the comedy aspect of "I got fourth the whole way." The fight with Bakugo will also be another thing that will later change how Mason acts in alter fights.
pokemonking0924: Thanks for the happy holiday's man, they were good. As for the Bakugo and Todoroki fight, Mason was way too exhausted to get to see it if we look at it logically. Hoping to play around with Mina and Mason's feelings now. Time to get some relationship building!
SuperedX: Thank you, man.
61394: No better way to say it. That is exactly what Bakugo is.
21Orphans: Don't worry about it. Some people like that fight, some didn't. I just write what I write. And if someone likes it, even better. Everyone is allowed to have their opinion.
Preview time!
"You need code names."
"Terra Firma Hero, Stone Fox!"
"Hey, Mason... Did you mean it?"
TIME. FOR. HERO NAAAAAAAAAMES!
