"WELL, THAT WAS AN AMAZING SPEECH FROM KATSUKI BAKUGOU, EVERYONE! WHAT DO YOU THINK, HADOU?!"
"He has a way with words, that's for sure!"
"HE SURE DOES, DOESN'T HE? NOW, TIME TO BEGIN THE FIRST EVENT OF THE FESTIVAL, THE ONE TO SURELY THIN THE STUDENTS' NUMBERS TO ONLY THE BEST OF THE BEST!"
All Might sighed at the statement. He couldn't help but feel nostalgic about the situation: several years ago he had stood in that same field, with the pro heroes having their eyes glued to him, and now he was part of the pro heroes, whose eyes were glued to the generation as whole. Though something told me that, one way or another, those eyes would be glued to a certain Melissa sooner or later-
"Hello there, Toshinori."
All Might coughed up some blood as he turned to see the tiny guy sitting next to him. "Gran Torino?! What are you doing here?!"
"Melissa's going to participate, isn't she?" Gran Torino folded his arms. "I wanna see how she's managed herself until now, and see how far she gets."
"So, you don't think she'll win the festival?" All Might asked, wiping the blood off his cheek.
"Hmph, I trained you two the same manner, and you never won the festival either, did you?" Gran Torino turned back to the field. "Granted, Melissa is different from a numbskull like you, I'll give you that."
This also felt nostalgic, but for the wrong reason.
"But let's wait and see what tricks she pulls out of her sleeves first. She has quite the competition, after all."
Among the students getting prepared for the first event, the obstacle course, Class 1-B gathered together with Midoriya in the middle. "Alright, everybody know what we have to do?"
"Work together!" Hiryu shouted as he raised his fist. "Or at least, do it in a way to make some of us get to the next round."
"More specifically, me, Midoriya, Kendo, Shiozaki, and Tokage," Monoma spoke. "Anybody else reaching the next round is obviously beneficial, but those five are especially important if we want Class 1-B to win the sports festival."
"To show off Class 1-A, I assume?" Tokage scoffed.
"No, to show off that Class 1-B has just as much potential to be heroes as Class 1-A!" Kendo stated. "Besides, I'm sure we all know there's at least one Class 1-A student we definitely need to show a lesson."
The whole class turned to face Yaoyorozu, who was clasping her hands and taking deep breaths, psyching herself for the upcoming course.
"She made the mistake of messing with one of our classmates, and that very same classmate's going to teach her you don't mess with 1-B," Monoma turned to Midoriya and flashed a confident smile. "Isn't that right, Midoriya?"
"Let's do this!"
The boy nodded, and he shook hands with Midoriya, copying his Quirk in the process.
Meanwhile, with the support course, Hatsume finished placing the final piece of her Hatsu-Armor, as she called it, before she stole a glance at Midoriya talking some strategy with Kendo and Monoma. Somewhere nearby, she also spotted Mineta constantly writing the kanji for "courage" before swallowing it.
"Are you nervous?"
Hatsume turned around, and sporting her usual wide smile, Mina was right next to her.
"Mina..."
"This is the first time you're going to be exposed to the pro hero world, Hatsume," Mina smirked as she brushed Hatsume's hair. "I sure hope you're ready for whatever comes next."
Hatsume looked angry for a moment, then giggled. "What's so funny?"
"Oh, nothing," Hatsume slyly smiled. "I just find it so funny how scared you are of me."
Mina narrowed her eyes, abandoning any semblance of fake friendship. "What are you talking about?!"
"Haven't you heard? More often than not, intimidation is a tactic used by people who're afraid of the person they're to intimidate," Hatsume narrowed her eyes. "And you have to be quite afraid of me to do it so consistently."
Hatsume walked away, leaving a baffled Mina behind.
Finally, Melissa finished doing some stretching when she spotted Todoroki approaching Yaoyorozu. Once the two met, they began talking rather... calmly and amicably.
"Yaoyorozu."
"Todoroki."
"Do you have issues with your father, too?" Yaoyorozu winced. "I saw you flinch when Bakugou mentioned daddy issues earlier."
"No, I love him!" Yaoyorozu twiddled her fingers. "I have issues with what he thinks about my mutation!"
And as the duo kept talking, Melissa couldn't help but think about to her own father, David Shield. She lowered her head and took a deep breath.
Dad, if you're watching me right now...
She raised it with a determined expression.
Cheer me on!
"AND IT'S TIME TO BEGIN! THE FIRST OBSTACLE OF THE OBSTACLE COURSE WILL BE A LONG TREK TOWARDS INCOMING DANGER-!"
"Are you sure that's the first obstacle?"
"WHATEVER DO YOU MEAN?!"
Hadou pointed at the entrance to the course, and it was rather evidently clogged by the large mass of students trying to get through. They tried pushing and shoving each other, but this didn't help them at all.
After a few seconds, both Midoriya and Monoma flew high above the mass, carrying Tokage, Shiozaki, Kendo, and Tsunotori, the last one manipulating her flying horns so they'd carry Tetsutetsu, Komori, Tsuburaba, and Honenuki.
"IZUKU MIDORIYA AND NEITO MONOMA FROM CLASS 1-B HAVE PASSED THE MASS OF STUDENTS! WATCH THEIR MAJESTIC WINGS FLAP VICTORIOUSLY TO THE FIRST OBSTACLE!"
Soon after, Hatsume and Yaoyorozu flew as well, the latter carrying Todoroki, followed by a giggling Mina jumping on top of the students until she reached the other side.
"AND RIGHT BEHIND THEM IS MEI HATSUME WITH WHAT LOOKS LIKE AN ARMOR, MOMO YAOYOROZU WITH HER WINGS AND SHOTO TODOROKI IN TOW, AND MINA ASHIDO USING THE STUDENTS AS PLATFORMS!"
Finally, a yellow light flashed before Melissa burst through the mass, sending several students flying away as she braked, yellow electricity crackling through her body.
"AND FOR THE GRAND FINALE WE HAVE CLASS 1-A'S BOWLING BALL, MELISSA SHIELD!"
Melissa flashed a pouty face at the announcer before lowering her power, and running after the other students. The rest of her classmates came running as well, just in time for the first obstacle to make its presence known.
"AND NOW, FOR THE FIRST OBSTACLE FOR REAL, WE HAVE A CERTAIN OLD FRIEND READY TO GIVE THE HERO COURSE A ROBOTIC FIST BUMP! THAT'S RIGHT, IT'S THE ZERO-POINTERS!"
"How did we not see them sooner?!" Shiozaki exclaimed.
"Doesn't matter!" Midoriya said as he dropped Tokage. "Kendo, think we can try that thing we did again?"
Kendo looked at her burnt arm, and rubbed it, wincing at the resulting pain. "I don't think so!"
Just then, the Zero-Pointer headed straight for Midoriya, who braced for impact before the giant robot was halfway frozen into an iceberg. He looked down, and saw the source was none other than Todoroki, who breathed as he ran past the frozen robots.
"AND SHOTO TODOROKI HAS SURPASSED THE FIRST OBSTACLE ON HIS OWN! I'VE HEARD ABOUT GIVING SOMEONE THE COLD SHOULDER, BUT THIS IS RIDICULOUS! GOT ANY COMMENTS, HADOU?!"
"How did he do that? When did he do that? How cold must it be down there? Oh, how I wish I had him for a classmate, theres so many things I wanna ask him!"
"YOU AND ME BOTH, SWEETIE! NOW LET'S SEE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT!"
The giant robot began tumbling down towards the students, but before it could fall on top of any of them, it disintegrated to dust, which flew off into the sky as Melissa's voice called:
"Thanks, Shimura!"
Midoriya and Monoma turned to the ground, and saw a guy with black hair and silver tips turn to Melissa, and flash both a confident grin and a thumbs up.
"UNBELIEVABLE! TENKO SHIMURA OF CLASS 1-A HAS DESINTEGRATED THE ROBOTS FROZEN BY SHOTO TODOROKI! WAS THIS CLASS 1-A'S PLAN?! COULD THIS HAVE BEEN A COMBINATION ATTACK ALL ALONG?!"
"Tenko Shimura," Gran Torino repeated. "Hey, Toshinori, isn't that the brat you rescued all those years ago."
All Might formed a little smile. "Yeah, that's him alright."
Midoriya grabbed Tokage again and he and Monoma flew forward across the frozen landscape, their classmates following close behind. It didn't take them long to reach the next obstacle.
"THE FIRST OBSTACLE WAS BRUTE FORCED, BUT SUCH A TACTIC WON'T WORK THIS TIME! WELCOME Y'ALL TO, THE FALL!"
"Ha! Bet they didn't expect some of us could fly!" Monoma proudly boasted as he flew ahead of Midoriya. "Come on, Midoriya, let's clear this one!"
"Monoma, look out!"
The copy boy barely managed to see what was ahead of him before he bumped into someone. He bumped so hard, he not only dropped to the ground, dissipating the wings in the process, but also sent whoever he had crashed into towards the abyss.
Taking a look at the edge revealed the person to be Mina, who had a bored look as she fell.
"OH NO! SOMEONE HAS FALLEN INTO THE FALL! BUT DON'T WORRY, INSTANT DEATH DOESN'T AWAIT THEM AT THE END OF IT!"
"It doesn't?" the pink girl sighed and folded her arms. "Well, consider me disappointed."
Suddenly, a pink flash of light snatched Mina and brought her to the other end of the fall, just in time for her to witness Yaoyorozu, Midoriya, and several more students cross the line into the third obstacle already.
She, however, was too stunned at seeing who had saved her: it was Hatsume, who extended a hand towards her with a stern expression.
"Why," Mina hissed and grabbed the hand. "Why did you save me?!"
"We have a beef to finish, Mina," Hatsume stated sternly as she helped the pink girl stand up. "The only one who's going to get you out of the festival will be me, you got it?!"
Mina smirked. "Who's afraid of who, now?"
Rolling her eyes, Hatsume flew off, and Mina followed soon after.
"AND NOW COMES THE THIRD AND FINAL OBSTACLE OF THE OBSTACLE COURSE! THIS ONE IS GOING TO BLOW YOUR MIND, THAT'S FOR SURE! WELCOME TO THE LANDMINES!"
Yet another obstacle that Midoriya could easily fly past. It was becoming more and more clear that the school hadn't taken into account that some students could fly, namely he and Yaoyorozu, the latter flying past him shortly after.
Before he flew as well, though, something at the ground caught his interest: not only was Mina dancing across the battlefield while somehow dodging all the mines, but Melissa was doing something similar: powering both her arms and her legs, she put one on the ground, leapt high, landed on one foot, jumped again, rinse and repeat.
She also seemed to have something on her back, but what it was, Midoriya had no idea.
"Midoriya!" Yaoyorozu called, breaking the boy out of his trance. "I know I shouldn't butt in the rival class's business, but get a move on!"
"Aw, what's wrong, Yaoyorozu?" Tokage cooed, reminding Midoriya that he still had both her and Shiozaki as passengers. "Jealous that your not-mate's looking at another girl?"
Yaoyorozu's cheeks glowed a bright red, and she flew off in a huff, leaving a satisfied Tokage behind. "Knew it!"
"I think you just got on her hit list," Shiozaki pointed out.
"Totally worth it! Now come on, let's go!"
Midoriya nodded, and he began to speed towards the stadium, which was looking closer than ever.
"Hi Midoriya!"
The boy turned around, and saw Hatsume flying by his side, an amused smile on her face. "So, who are the pretty ladies you got there?"
Midoriya blushed. "T-They're just c-classmates! T-They need to reach the next round, so I'm carrying them!"
"Are you jealous?" Tokage smirked.
"No, at least not that much," Hatsume rolled her eyes. "After all, I've been closer to Midoriya for a long while than either of you."
"Hatsume!"
"We've even taken baths together."
"You're gonna make me lose my wings!"
"In more ways than one," Shiozaki said, her tone clearly conveying disapproval as Tokage burst laughing.
Hatsume let out a little giggle as well, and before he knew it, Midoriya was laughing as well. They began speeding up to the end of the landmine-filled terrain, and they stopped laughing, getting ready to race each other to the stadium.
And then Hatsume's armor got struck by something, causing it to malfunction.
"Hatsume?!"
The gadgeteer screamed as she fell down, and landed face-first on one of the mines, causing it to blow up and send her back into another mine, which blew up, and so on and so forth. Eventually, she landed on an empty hole from an already set-off explosion, and she twitched in pain as a certain acidic girl ran past her.
Midoriya noticed Mina's malicious smirk, and he quickly put two and two together. And just in time, too, since he reached the end of the landmine right then and there.
"Midoriya?" Shiozaki asked as she jumped off his back. "Are you okay?"
Midoriya dropped Tokage on to the ground, and just as Shiozaki ran to her side, Midoriya's eyes flashed orange before he flew right back into the minefield.
"He's going back in there?!" Shiozaki exclaimed, wrapping one of Tokage's arm on her shoulder. "What does he think he's doing?!"
"Don't you get it, Shiozaki?" Tokage chuckled. "He's going to his mate's help."
"UH OH! IT LOOKS LIKE MIDORIYA HAS DECIDED TO HEAD BACK TO THE DANGER ZONE!"
"Why would he do that?! He was already out of it!"
"LOOKS LIKE WE'LL HAVE TO WATCH AND SEE!"
Midoriya's eyes slowly became completely orange, and his hair and skin became chalk white as he unleashed a thunderous roar, flying right past Mina as the pink girl recognized the form. Though thankfully, the transformed winged humanoid didn't seem to notice her...
And then he snapped a glare at her, freezing her in place for a second. Mina continued dancing around the minefield after, but a certain sense of dread now coated her movements.
Back with Midoriya, the winged boy stopped in front of the downed Hatsume, his form shield her from the sunlight as she opened her eyes and turned to the shadowed boy.
"Izu...ku...?"
He slowly leaned towards her, grabbed her, and lifted her in a bridal carry before flying off, leaving the broken armor behind.
"I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS FOLKS! IZUKU MIDORIYA OF CLASS 1-B HAS TAKEN THE TIME TO GRAB THE DOWNED MEI HATSUME FROM THE SUPPORT COURSE!"
"How romantic!"
"INDEED, BUT THAT WILL HAVE TO BE FOCUSED ON ANOTHER TIME, BECAUSE WE'RE ABOUT TO HAVE OUR FIRST PLACE PRETTY SOON, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! THE FIRST STUDENT BACK ON THE STADIUM IS..."
A blur of yellow lighting went through the shadowed hallway and stopped to catch her breath, as her form was revealed, with Present Mic's thunderous voice:
"MELISSA SHIELD FROM CLASS 1-A!"
The stadium roared with cheers as Melissa caught her breath, and, with the slow realization that she was the first student back, a smile formed on her face.
"AND LITERALLY RIGHT BEHIND HER, ON SECOND PLACE, IS MINORU MINETA FROM THE SUPPORT COURSE!"
Melissa winced and turned to her back, spotting the grape-headed boy laughing victoriously to himself.
"I can't believe that worked!" Mineta jumped off and flashed a pair of peace signs. "I honestly thought it would fail, but I'm so glad it didn't!"
Then he turned around, and saw a baffled Melissa looking down at him. "Oh, uh, sorry for using you like that, but I didn't have any chance of going to the next round otherwise."
"No, yeah, that I can guess, but..." Melissa raised an eyebrow. "When did you latch on to me?"
"I latched to your back moments before you bowling ball'd the mass of students at the start."
"That early?!"
"AND ON THIRD PLACE WE HAVE MOMO YAOYOROZU, CARRYING WITH HER THE FOURTH PLACE, OCHAKO URARAKA!"
Yaoyorozu flew down and released Uraraka, sighing as she turned to the entrance, where several other students were flowing in. "Good, at least I reached third place."
"I'm happy for you, Momo!" Uraraka chirped, putting a hand on her shoulder. "But things are only going to get more dangerous from here on out. Are you sure you're ready for that?"
"Oh, I'm more than ready," and then a familiar figure entered. "But I don't know if he is."
Midoriya landed on the ground, and both his transformed state and wings vanished, leaving Hatsume to look at him in his base form. "Are you okay, Hatsume?"
"Yeah, the mines weren't strong enough to cause bodily damage," Hatsume promptly pouted. "But my Hatsu-Armor got utterly trashed! Now I'm gonna have to build it from scratch!"
Then she thought about it, and smiled. "Wait, I'm gonna have to build it from scratch! Yay!"
Midoriya chuckled until he heard a familiar voice call his name, and he promptly saw his fellow Class 1-B classmates, mostly Monoma and Kendo, approaching him.
And Monoma didn't look very pleased. "Why did you nearly risk your placement there, Midoriya?! You were this close to reaching the top three!"
"Don't be like that, Monoma," Kendo said, holding back the desire to chop him in the neck. "He managed to get Shiozaki and Tokage into the next round, and you did the same with me and Pony. Sure, some of her passengers didn't get in, but we still got some numbers to our advantage!"
"Yeah, and what's better's that the plan worked!" Tetsutetsu chimed in. "Now we just need a new plan for the next round, and the tournament, and we'll be set!"
"Before we do that, though, here's a question, Midoriya," Kendo raised an eyebrow. "How much longer are you planning to hold that girl?"
Midoriya looked back at the Hatsume in his arms, and as he put her down, he got an idea. "Everyone, this is Mei Hatsume. She's the girl I took under my protection."
"So that explains the feather on her head," Monoma remarked, reaching for said feather.
The feather glowed white and sent a spark right at his finger. "Ow! Did that thing just shock my finger!?"
"Well, if we wanna be honest, everybody wants to shock you at some point," Komori quipped.
Class 1-B laughed, and as they did, Hatsume decided to separate from them and head back to see how many people from her own course had managed to get in. So far, she managed to spot Mineta, and prayed he didn't get in trouble with Melissa-
"Are you Midoriya's protectorate?"
Hatsume stopped on her tracks and turned to see Yaoyorozu standing nearby, arms folded behind her back and her wings slightly spread. Hatsume looked behind her, then turned back to winged girl and pointed at herself, raising a confused eyebrow.
"Yes, you, are you his protectorate? Did he put you under his protection?"
Hatsume reached for her feather and showed it. "Well, he gave me this feather, which lets us know if the other's in danger. Does that count?"
Yaoyorozu giggled. "So you are his protectorate. I've heard a decent deal about you."
She walked towards Hatsume, making the difference in their heights that more evident, and she added:
"Now, let me make one thing clear, protectorate: being under his protection, isn't the same as being under his-" the girl paused and blushed, shaking her head as she quickly cut to the chase. "A-Anyway! What I'm trying to say is, a mate and a protectorate can be completely different! You may be his protectorate, but you won't be his mate, that'll be me, got it?"
"Uh... sure, I guess?"
"Good. Now, if you don't want to get in trouble, just keep the relationship between you two and protector and protectorate, alright? It's better for everyone that way."
Yaoyorozu turned around, and walked back to her classroom. Left behind, however, was not a Hatsume that recognized this as a battle of affection, but a Hatsume who was having a hard time processing what had just happened.
What the hell was that all about?
And then she spotted a certain mess of purple hair, and decided to focus on that.
"Well, the first event's over and it looks like Young Melissa's still in the game, huh?" All Might asked proudly as he watched Melissa help a breathing Tenko stay balanced.
"Getting a little cocky now, aren't we, Toshinori?" Gran Torino laughed heartedly. "This was just a mere taste of what's to come. If she manages to pass the next event, then you can feel confident!"
Then, the miniature hero scratched his chin. "By the way, has the festival finally fixed a second event, or is it still randomly selected?"
"Randomly selected," All Might sighed. "But, no matter what event's picked."
All Might smiled as Melissa went to help Mina stand up, the pink girl still shaken by the glare Midoriya shot at her earlier.
"I'm confident she'll pass it."
