It was really bright in the stadium.
That's what Inko thought as she sat in the booth, watching over the festival grounds.
One of Izuku's teachers, Eraserhead, had gotten in touch with her and offered her a very good seat. Apparently, it was because Izuku was the student representative.
She was so proud of her boy. He had taken first place in an exam that wasn't suited to his Quirk, he had been voted into the position of class rep, and while she was still worried for him, she was proud of what he did at the USJ.
She had heard what happened from Itsuka and Momo when she had come and visited him in the infirmary. She had been so scared when UA had called her. He had never had a seizure after using his Quirk before, so she knew he did something big.
The police still wouldn't tell anyone what happened to the 'Nomu' that the league of villains had brought with them, but from the way the class had described it, Inko guessed Izuku did something really weird to it during his last attack.
But right now wasn't the time to be thinking about the USJ. It was time to support her son and all of his friends! She was lucky that the school had given her such good seats, she was almost right on top of where the action was going to be.
As she sat and waited, she could hear the faint noise of the intercom calling out the students. She apparently wasn't the only one, as people all around her started cheering and yelling.
[WELCOME, ALL YOU SPORTS FANS!]
Present Mic's voice boomed out over the stadium, and the cheering just got louder.
[I'M YOUR HOST, PRESENT MIC! AND GIVE IT UP FOR MY CO-HOST, ERASERHEAD!]
[Dear God, why did I agree to do this with you?]
[HAHA! IT'S TOO LATE TO BACK OUT NOW, AS WE INTRODUCE OUR CLASSES!]
Inko cheered as she saw 1-A start to come out of the gates, waving at the crowd. She could see Katsuki soaking it up, actually smiling for once.
Then she saw Izuku, and laughed, he was waving and smiling at the crowd as he spun slowly in a circle, bouncing up and down.
[PLEASE WELCOME THE 1ST YEARS THAT FOUGHT ACTUAL VILLAINS, THE MAGNIFICENT CLASS 1-A!]
The crowd went absolutely wild with this. Say what you will about Present Mic, but he was an excellent hype-man.
[AND AFTER THEM, HERO COURSE STUDENTS AS WELL, WELCOME CLASS 1-B!]
[Mic, your favouritism is showing, tone it down a bit, for Christ's sake]
No one could see Ibara's upset look towards the commentator's booth from their seats all the way up in the stands.
[AND NOW FOR THE OTHER CLASSES! WELCOME CLASSES 1-C THROUGH TO 1-K!]
Inko watched as all the classes came onto the field, looking a bit miffed that 1-A was the only one to get hyped up.
She smiled as she saw Izuku walk to the front of the crowd.
[PLEASE WELCOME THIS YEARS REFEREE, THE R-18 HERO, MIDNIGHT!]
Izuku watched as Midnight stepped up onto the stage, waving at the crowd and swaying her hips. Izuku could almost hear the men in the crowd getting nosebleeds from the field.
Midnight grabbed the microphone in front of her and cracked her whip. The stadium quieted down as she got everyone's attention.
Welcome everyone! Please give it up for the First Year student rep, Izuku Midoriya, who will be giving the student pledge!
Izuku gulped as he walked up the stairs with a brave face on, the crowd yelling and cheering for him. He raised his hands and waved in all directions, and the cheering just got louder.
Midnight passed him the microphone with a wink as he reached the top of the stairs. "Knock 'em dead kid"
Izuku nodded to her and shook himself slightly, before starting the speech he had prepared during hell week.
"Good morning everyone. I will keep this short, because I know you here to see us compete, not to hear me talk."
"Each and every one of us is here for a reason. Be it to prove someone wrong, to improve yourself, to help people, to learn as much as you can, to make a bunch of money, or to become super famous."
He waved at the crowd of students behind him. "Each and every one of us is here to be the best person we can be. To push ourselves and to show the world that we are where we belong."
Thrusting his hand up into the sky, he increased his volume slightly. "So let's push ourselves as far as we can go, and then go beyond that…"
"LETS GO PLUS ULTRA!"
Izuku smiled at Midnight and passed the microphone back to her as the stadium erupted into even more yelling and cheering. He was pretty sure he could hear his mum over all the noise.
She smiled and cracked her whip again, and the crowd fell silent after a few seconds.
Thank you Mr. Midoriya! Now for what you all have been waiting for! Let's spin the wheel and find out what the first event for this year's sports festival will be!
A screen appeared in the air, and a digital wheel started to spin. It eventually slowed down and landed on a bright blue bit, with the words OBSTACLE COURSE written on it.
There you go! Today's first event will be an obstacle course! Allow me to explain the rules…
An obstacle course…
Izuku pondered the event for a second as the crowd made their way to the entry. A fairly basic 4km sprint, with 3 unidentified obstacles.
He made sure to push his way through to the front part of the crowd. He knew that being at the front initially would give him the best chance of winning.
Although, he wasn't really worried.
He was probably the fastest non-speed quirk person at UA, or at least the 1st years. Who knew if Aizawa had a disciple in the 2nd or 3rd years? He had taken to calling both Hitoshi and himself disciples, especially after finding out how much Aizawa hated it.
That, on top of the fact that as soon as the starting gun was blown, no one would have a Quirk, was another thing giving him confidence.
He looked back at the stage that Midnight was standing on. She was holding the starting pistol, it's gleaming barrel raised in the air, and bringing the microphone to her mouth.
On your marks…
Izuku crouched down a bit, getting ready to spring forward, as well as preparing his Quirk. He heard the chattering around him lessen, the cheers from the crowd becoming the only sound he could hear.
Get set…
Izuku smiled as even the crowd quieted down. It was time to show what he was made of.
AND… GO!
The gunshot went off, and Izuku pushed his Quirk as he started running. All around him, people who's Quirks changed their body to a large degree started visibly changing, becoming more uniform in their appearances.
They had the most trouble adapting to their current Quirklessness. Others, like most of 1-A, who had sparred Quirkless with Izuku before, and a bunch of the students without mutations handled the change fairly well.
As Izuku sped off and looked behind him, those in the crowd of contestants that had recovered were chasing after him, and he started laughing as he saw Todoroki looking pissed off as he stomped his right foot onto the ground.
Izuku had plans for Todoroki, but right now, he was going to show off his stuff.
[AT THE FRONT OF THE PACK IS IZUKU MIDORIYA! LOOK AT HIM GO! FOR ALL YOU AT HOME, HE'S WHY EVERYONE ELSE IS STRUGGLING RIGHT NOW! I'LL LEAVE IT UP TO YOU THEORISTS AT HOME TO FIGURE OUT WHY!]
He kept running, thanking Aizawa mentally for the intense training, and cursing Present Mic for placing a target on his back. He started to round the bend when he reached them.
[LOOK OUT FOR THE FIRST OBSTACLE CONTESTANTS!]
Izuku dodged out of the way of one of the robot's arms and smacked the off button on its back. Then he saw the shadows.
[I LIKE TO CALL IT… THE ROBO INFERNO!]
[God Damnit Mic! You're way too loud! You have a microphone you don't need to scream everything!]
Izuku was shocked as he saw the seven Zero-pointers lined up, ready to block the contestants. He could hear people murmuring about them.
"This is what the hero course had to fight?"
"Hey, do you think it's that Midoriya dude's fault that our Quirks are acting up?"
"How the hell does UA get the funding for these things?"
Izuku kept dodging robots and turning them off, but he knew that people were starting to catch up to him. He searched around for a few of his classmates and turned on their Quirks.
"Momo! Todoroki! Give the 0-pointers everything you've got!"
Todoroki looked like he was going to say something, but was quickly distracted by the freaking anti-tank cannon Momo had pulled from her stomach and fired at the Zero-pointers.
Todoroki looked at Izuku with a similar expression to Bakugou, before promptly freezing an entire Zero-pointer by himself. Izuku smiled at them and nodded, before shutting their Quirks down again and running off again after making sure that the Zero-pointers were done for.
[THOSE ZERO-POINTERS DIDN'T LAST AS LONG AS I THOUGHT THEY WOULD! GIVE IT UP FOR MOMO YAOYOROZU AND SHOTO TODOROKI FOR THEIR BRUTAL EFFICIENCY!]
[Their lucky they were able to use their Quirks at all]
Todoroki huffed again as his hair became pure white again, his Quirk being blocked, before sprinting after Izuku.
Momo just accepted her Quirklessness, as she knew it was just Izuku giving him the best chance possible, and started sprinting after them as well, the rest of the first years on her tail.
One of the general study students, as midget with short, curly purple hair, tried to grab onto her jacket, but she spun and punched him away, before continuing to run.
Izuku smiled as he ran. He felt so free when he was running at his top speed. He could feel the people at the back of the crowd start to exit his area of effect, which usually meant their Quirks were about to be force-activated.
He closed his eyes and prayed for a moment that nobody hurt themselves (and somewhere in the crowd, Ibara felt pride for some reason).
[LOOKS LIKE OUR FIRST PLACE CONTESTANT, IZUKU MIDORIYA, HAS ARRIVED AT THE 2ND OBSTACLE!]
[Mic please, it's either dry eyes or bleeding ears, please stop yelling.]
[LOOK OUT… FOR THE PIT!]
[Mic, please!]
When he opened his eyes, he had to stop himself quickly. In front of him, was a giant pit, filled with pillars, connected together by ropes. From behind him, he could hear whirring.
'Better get going I guess!'
Mei was having the time of her life.
She knew that Izuku had shut down everyone's Quirks, and to be honest, she thanked him for it. Without everyone's Quirks to steal the camera's attention, the spotlight would stay permanently on her amazing babies.
Still, the giant crowd in front of her was a little annoying. She wanted to turn her hover boots on and grapple hook ahead of the competition, but in her time with Izuku and his friends, they had hammered in the concept of 'not intentionally hurting people' into her.
And while she resented the fact that they thought she would intentionally hurt someone, she had definitely become a bit more careful with her babies around other people.
So, instead of just barrelling forward and knocking people out of her way, she left her babies off for now and weaved her way to the front of the crowd, where there were fewer people.
She eventually made to the front, just in time to see her second favourite person in the world produce a cannon and shoot a bunch of the Zero-pointers from the hero course test.
She saw Izuku running away from them all, and cackled. He had obviously let Momo and the ice boy use their Quirks for a moment and then taken them away again.
She found something sadistically satisfying in how much control Izuku's quirk let him have over a fight.
She shook her head and started up her hover boots' engine. She knew how fast Izuku was and she knew she wouldn't catch up to him on foot, especially with all the gear she was wearing.
The boots whirred to life, and she shot forward after him. She was getting closer and closer to him until Izuku stopped for some reason. Mei reacted a second slower than she would have liked, and had to stop incredibly quickly to avoid smacking into Izuku.
She then saw why he stopped. The giant pit filled with pillars. Izuku might be awesome, but even he could break from a fall like that.
"Hey, Izuku! Nice to see you winning and all that, but it's my time in the spotlight now!"
She shot out her wire arrow, which stuck into one of the further pillars. With a cheer, she pushed the hover boots to 100% and jumped off the edge of the pit.
"NOW! All you support companies better be watching! Watch as the magnificent Mei Hatsume shows off her fantastic BABIES!"
She reeled in the cord for the wire arrow, which dragged her closer to the pillar it was stabbed into. She checked to make sure her hover boots were still on 100% and spread her arms out, winking at the camera drone above the pit.
She reached the pillar and was pushed off of it by her boots. She flew up the side of it, and landed, taking a few more jumps to get across to the other side.
[LOOK AT HER GO! MEI HATSUME FROM CLASS 1-F TAKES THE LEAD!]
She laughed. Present Mic was an excellent hype-man, and flying was really awesome!
'OOH, I just got another idea for a baby!'
Izuku watched in awe as his friend basically flew over the pit.
He was currently hanging upside down from one of the ropes, climbing across it. He was making good time, but other people were starting to arrive and copy him.
He eventually made it to the other side, just in time to see the pink, red and gold blur that was Mei Hatsume disappear around the bend of the track.
He let himself rest for a moment. Climbing on the ropes had hurt his hands a little bit, and it was more difficult than he thought. Maybe he should add something like it to his workout?
'Not the time for planning a workout''. He shook himself off, willed away the pain in his hands, and sprinted off after Mei. Realistically, she was his biggest competition in this race. Her babies would be unaffected by his Quirk.
He continued running after her, but the people behind him were closer than he would have liked. In the front of the pack chasing after him was Bakugou and Todoroki, each glaring at him.
"Oi! Deku! Get the fuck back here so I can pummel you into the dirt!" Izuku didn't respond to him, instead just holding his hand out behind him and flipping him off, which just seemed to enrage Bakugou further.
Izuku then turned away from them and focused on running, pulling ahead of them a little bit. He definitely wasn't tired yet, his intense training with Aizawa at least giving him that, but he was starting to feel his body strain against his movements.
He noticed that Mei had slowed right down, and was curious. He rounded the bend and was greeted by 2 massive signs. Signs that made him slow down as well, for very good reason.
Written in super big writing, with a skull superimposed in the middle, were the words: WARNING - MINES.
As he reached it, Present Mic must have thought that enough people were close to the minefield to announce it.
[LOOK HERE, EVERYONE! THE THIRD AND FINAL OBSTACLE FOR THE RACE! THE MINEFIE- UHG!]
[Due to an 'unfortunate incident' Present Mic has been removed from the commentator's booth for the duration I'm required to be in here, I am not sorry for any inconveniences this causes.]
Izuku nearly burst out laughing right there at the entrance to the minefield, but he spotted Mei get to a point where there were fewer markings on the ground. She seemed to have noticed this as well, as she was taking hover-boots assisted jumps to speed up.
"MEI!" He yelled out after he and she spun around and smirked at him. Giving a friendly wave, she reached the end of the Minefield and started hovering towards the end gate. Izuku could almost feel the smug energy she was emitting.
Izuku started to make his way through the minefield. He was determined to catch up to Mei (even though he knew it was a long shot at this point). He had made it about 3 quarters through the minefield when he heard a buzzer go off.
[Mei Hatsume of Class 1-H has won the Obstacle course, congratula- CRASH]
[YOU REALLY GONNA DO A BORING THING LIKE THAT FOR OUR CHAMPION?]
[How did you get in here! I locked the door!]
[AND I KNOCKED IT DOWN WITH MY QUIRK!]
[Gah! Get off me! Wait no! ARRRGH]
[GIVE IT UP FOLKS, FOR OUR CHAMPION OF THE FIRST EVENT, THE PINK GADGET QUEEN OF UA, MEI HATSUME OF CLASS 1-H! LOOK AT HER AMAZING GEAR!]
Izuku had just reached the end of the course. The only thing left was the tunnel back into the stadium, and as he jogged over the line, he was greeted with cheers and applause, as well as Mei crashing into him and hugging him.
"Great job, Izuku! You cancelling everyone's Quirks made my babies shine even brighter! Oh, also, I won!" She was laughing, so Izuku hugged her back before letting her go, and waving at the crowd.
He released his hold on the other contestant's Quirks, and over the next few minutes, it was a mad, chaotic dash to the finish line from everyone. Quirks going off left right and centre.
Todoroki came in 3rd, with Bakugou coming 4th, being unable to build up enough speed in the short distance to the gate to overtake him, something he was screaming about off to the side.
After everyone was gathered, it was time for the next event. The top 32 people had gotten into the next round, and the 2nd round was meant to cut that number in half. Midnight cracked her whip and gathered everyone's attention.
"Great job to all of our contestants! I know some of you had some… performance issues, but don't be alarmed that was just a Quirk in action!" Izuku was grateful that she didn't say who's Quirk it was that did it.
"But now! It is time to have a short break before we move on to our next event…" The wheel appeared behind her again, and for a second it looked like it was going to land on the Cavalry Battle panel.
But with a sound that sounded eerily like Nezu's laughter, it flicked over to the panel above it. Emblazoned with a crowned skull and swords, the name flashed up on the screen.
Midnight squealed, obviously liking the outcome. "Get ready everyone…"
"You're going on a MANHUNT!"