It was fun taking the week off, but I'm happy to be back in action! The Sports Festival is right around the corner, so place your bets on the what the contests will be and who's gonna win!
Tsukauchi stood in front of the gate to UA, holding onto his notebook. Tamakawa had just dropped him off and was going to park the car at the visitor's garage for UA. The detective wanted to get this investigation started as soon as possible, so he went in alone. Even though his police badge gave him admittance through the outer walls of UA, he always felt unsure of the UA barrier coming up and blocking his path. He had seen it spring up on reporters and the like in the past. It was quite startling.
Nonetheless, the detective made his way up the path to the main UA building. All of the students were in class at the moment, and Tsukauchi waved as he saw the small principal waiting for him outside of the building.
"Tsukauchi-kun, you're ahead of schedule!" The small principal exclaimed, smiling at the detective.
"And you were clearly expecting me to be." The detective gestured at the door. "I would like to get this done as soon as possible."
"As would I," Nezu replied, opening the front door. "Are you here alone? I was surprised to see it was just you."
Tsukauchi shook his head. "My partner, Tamakawa, is here as well. He's just finding a parking spot." The two men's footsteps echoed throughout the halls. "So, on business, I would like to see a list of your student body, with pictures please."
Nezu nodded. "Just headshots, or full body as well?"
"Full body would be preferable, we would need to check for a specific height." Tsukauchi looked down at the furry principal. "I'm surprised you have full body photos of the students."
Nezu smiled. "They're from the first day of school, class photos and such." He looked up at the detective. "Please do keep this quick, I don't want to have to think about the students being possible suspects any more than I have to."
Tsukauchi nodded. "Of course, Nezu-san. I don't want to think about that either."
At this point they reached a door to a small room off of the hallway. The principal led the detective inside, and the room contained a table and chairs, but not much else. The purpose of the room was to have private conversations between a student and teacher. There were security cameras inside the room, but other than that they were sound-proof and private. Tsukauchi sat down at a table as Nezu left for a bit, before returning with several binders in hand. He handed them to Tsukauchi.
"Give me a call when you're done." Nezu nodded, leaving the room. The detective stared at the notebooks in front of him, opening the first one on the pile. It read 'Class 1-E.' Tsukauchi began scanning the book, looking for hair color and heights of people. Trying to find someone, anyone, who fit the description of The Grandmaster.
Around ten minutes into the search, Tamakawa walked into the room. He sat down at the table and Tsukauchi passed him a book. Without a single word, the cat-man opened in and began the search as well. It took around three or so minutes for them to scan each book. With there being eleven classes per year, with three years, it would take around forty-five minutes for them both to scan through all of the books. They worked silently, the only sounds being the turning of pages and the gentle scratching of pencil against paper as they wrote down names of possible matches.
After around forty minutes the search had finally come to a conclusion. They both had closed their last book and had a small list of names. After spending another ten or so minutes to review each other's choices they both headed to Nezu's office to ask him about the students in question.
...
Class 1-A entered a gym. Since there was already around a week left before the sports festival, every other hero course class involved training and practice for the event. Several of the students had broken off to training by themselves. This group included Koji, Fumikage, Kirei, Kaminari, and Shoto. As long as they put the effort in, which they were, Aizawa didn't mind too much how they practiced. To the others he gave exercises and stretches to start with; the sports festival was a hard event, especially for first years. The event allowed pro-heroes to scout out the students for internships and taking an internship was a requirement for UA students.
Aizawa motioned to Ikioi, drawing his attention. The boy wheeled himself over to the teacher. "The support course told me to let you know that your new wheelchair has been completed. It's waiting for you in the support item testing room. I feel that this training session would be better spent trying it out, getting used to it. Power Loader would be more than happy to teach you its features. You have my number, call me if anything happens."
With that Ikioi left the gym, working his way through the labyrinth hallways of the UA main building to the support class room. He knocked on the door, and it opened to a smiling Power Loader.
"Great! You made it! I had hoped that Aizawa would let you come down to get accustomed to your new gear." Power Loader said happily. He led Ikioi to a room off of the side of the main support course classroom. It was a wide open room with reinforced walls. "This is where we test out some new items, so why don't you try yours out?" Power Loader left before coming back with a new wheelchair.
Its frame looked sturdy, reinforced with heavy metal bars. It was of a similar base design to his current chair, but the new one also had several mechanical devices underneath it. There was something that looked like a battery, along with a device that Ikioi didn't recognize. It was spherical with small strange holes all over it. Each hole was less than a few centimeters in depth, exposing a greenish substance below it. Ikioi pushed himself off of his chair and shifted over to the new one. It came with a seat belt-like strap to hold him in place. Ikioi experimentally moved himself around, manually turning the wheels with his hands. It required a bit more force then his current chair, but nothing that he couldn't get accustomed to with practice.
"There's a switch located below the seat that switches it to automatic mode." Power Loader was pointing at a small red switch. Ikioi nodded and flicked it, causing a joystick to pop-up on the other side of the seat. There were also the sounds of mechanical movement from below. "That's the motor grabbing the axles; you'll get used to the noises this thing makes while switching modes. The motor itself is nice and quiet though."
Ikioi began moving the chair with the joystick, steering it around the room. It was somewhat slow, moving faster than a normal motorized wheelchair but slower then he would like. "Is this the fastest that it goes? If I wanted to I could reach the same speed manually." Ikioi tried to not sound disappointed, but wanted his concern known.
Power Loader simply chuckled. "No way that Hatsume would give you something that under-powered. The switch has three settings: off, normal, and… I think she called it 'hero mode.'"
Ikioi flipped the switch to its final setting; there was another sound of movement as the wheels locked up. When he tried to move them they didn't budge, but the second he touched the joystick the chair rocketed off. If he wasn't belted down to it he might have fallen off of it. He wasn't even pushing the joystick all the way yet. Ikioi laughed quietly. This was exactly like what he wanted, but there was still the question of the strange sphere below the chair. He turned it back to normal mode, and returned to face Power Loader again.
"So, what else can it do?" Ikioi asked, eager to see what else there was.
"Well, the last thing is the Kinetic Gyro. It's a device created by one of the third years, actually. It allows you to—well, I think you should just try it out." Power Loader just smirked at Ikioi. "Given your fighting style, I think you'll love it."
...
"Are you sure you've taken the proper precautions?" Thirteen asked. She was sitting across from Nezu's desk. Some parts of her suit were still bandaged from the USJ attack.
Nezu shook his head, looking down at the stack of papers on his desk. They were all notices from the hero commission. Various heroes had requested an increase of security in order to make sure that the sports fest would go off without a hitch. "I think we're as good as we can get, Thirteen-chan," The principal replied, leaning back in his chair. "They have a warper, which is already a rare-enough quirk as is. I'm not sure if we'll have a way to counteract it if they decide to show up." Nezu sighed, taking a sip from his cup of tea. "The most we can do is bolster defenses enough so that any threat can be dealt with swiftly."
Thirteen nodded. She understood the position that the principal was in. It wasn't easy dealing with someone with the capability to warp around as they pleased. "Well, I can try to research countermeasures, sir. All quirks have a weakness, no matter how powerful they seem on the surface." Thirteen checked the display on her wrist. She typed some things out on it. "Thankfully we got all of the data from the USJ's sensors, so I can see if I can't devise a profile to block the warper."
"Thank you, Thirteen-chan. I hope there is an easy way to keep them out. I don't want to have to sit in worry about them anymore." Just after Nezu finished there was a knock on the door. "Come in!" Nezu called. The door opened and Tsukauchi and Tamakawa walked through. "Are you done with your investigation?" The principal asked the men. Thirteen just turned to look in their direction, nodding to the officers.
"We have a short list of students that we would like to speak with. I personally don't think that any of them are a good match, but I do want to have all of my bases covered." Tsukauchi spoke, walking over to the principal's desk. He put the list of names down. "Just these eight."
Nezu read the list quickly. "Alright, Tsukauchi-kun. I can have the teachers quickly pull these students aside."
The detective bowed. "Thank you, Nezu-san."
...
It was just before lunch by the time Tsukauchi had finished questioning all eight students. As he expected, all of them were duds. Half of them didn't even know who The Grandmaster was. Tsukauchi walked down the path of UA, heading towards the UA gate. The rest of the student body was entering the cafeteria. Hearing footsteps, Tsukauchi turned to see a blond-haired kid walk out of the building at UA.
"Hey, officer!" The kid shouted. His voice was gruff and aggressive. "I heard you talking to a classmate of mine about some vigilante."
Tsukauchi turned around and raised an eyebrow. "That's a bit nosy of you to overhear, but what about it?" The detective had crossed his arms; this kid's direct nature was putting him on edge.
"I only got a glance of the photo you showed. Can I see it again?" The kid's eyes burned with a curiosity, and a slight anger.
"You must be quite attentive to have noticed it; you weren't that close by. But why do you want to see it again?" Tsukauchi was curious at this point. His eyebrow would be higher if he could do it.
"I want to make sure that I saw it correctly!" The kid snapped. Tsukauchi shook his head, easing his stance as he took the photo out of his pocket. He held it up for the blond to see. The blond got close enough to get a good look at the photo. "Fuck," he swore under his breath.
"What's got you riled up?" Tsukauchi felt something shift in his gut. A twinge of… a way forward?
"I might know who this is." The kid's words spat out from his mouth. "I can't believe they would do that, but I might have an idea."
Truth. Tsukauchi slowly nodded his head. "What's your name, kid?" Tsuakuchi took out his notebook. "I have places I need to get to, but I will definitely want to hear more."
The kid put his hands in his pockets and nodded at the detective. "I'm Bakugou Katsuki." Bakugou then gave his contact information to the detective. "I just wanna tell you to not get your hopes up. I don't know for sure if it's him or not. In fact, I still don't believe he's capable of something like this. Tsk." Bakugou shifted his head, looking away from the detective.
"Well, I'll call you sometime tomorrow most likely." Tsukauchi bowed to the boy before walking off to meet Tamakawa at the car. Bakugou watched him until he was a speck in the distance, before turning to wander back inside and have lunch.
On his way back inside he saw a figure sitting on a bench outside, eating from a bento box. He recognized the person almost instantly. The bi-colored hair was a dead giveaway. Bakugou just scowled as he strode inside the building. Shoto meanwhile didn't feel like eating at all. His sister had made him a nice lunch, even though he assured her it wasn't necessary, and he didn't feel like eating any of it. The events of the previous day still sat in his mind. He checked the time on his phone.
It should be lunchtime in Midoriya's school… He thought to himself. He didn't want to bother Izuku, nor did he want to seem like he needed support or help. However, Shoto was beginning to panic. The thoughts that plagued him were relentlessly assaulting his mind. So, he tapped Izuku's name in his contacts, and put the phone to his ear.
...
Izuku was sitting down in the Mirai cafeteria, a plate of food in front of him along with his notebook. This is what he did most lunches: work on homework or study. The notes he took in class were sloppy and hastily written, so he spent some of his downtime working on recompiling them, making them easier for him to digest. It was a tedious process, but one that didn't take too much mental stamina to do. Most of the time he would lull himself into some form of meditation while rewriting, and Izuku appreciated the zen moments that the process allowed.
His peace was interrupted by his phone vibrating in his pocket. It wasn't the gentle single buzz of a notification. He would usually ignore those until after lunch. No, it was the long drawn-out sensation that someone was calling him. Most of the time the individual was his mother. He didn't really have anyone else who would call him on such short notice. So Izuku reached into his pocket, pulling out his phone, before a sudden 'what?' left his mouth. He didn't expect Shoto of all people to be calling him.
He quickly got up from his seat and walked outside the room, leaving the noise and hustle of the place behind him. Once outside he dragged his finger across the screen to answer, putting the phone to his cheek.
"H-hello, Todoroki?" Izuku hesitantly asked, unsure of what was going on. There was just silence on the other end. "T-Todoroki?"
Shoto let out a small sigh. "Is this a bad time, Midoriya?"
Izuku shook his head even though the other boy couldn't see him. "No! Not at all! I said I would be here for you, it's just lunch right now, but I suppose that it's lunch at UA as well! So that's why you're calling me!"
"You can calm down, Midoriya. No need to be so tense." Shoto stated. His voice was calm and steady, but it lacked its usual edge. Izuku could hear a change in his tone, like something was different.
"I'm sorry." Izuku said more slowly. He took in a deep breath before continuing. "I was just wondering why you called me right now? It seems like a strange time to want to talk to me. Did something happen?"
"Did you see the news about my father?" Shoto asked.
"Kinda? I didn't have a lot of time to watch the news this morning, so I'm not up to speed on what happened. I know there was a villain attack though." Izuku truly didn't watch the news that morning; he overslept his alarm and was almost late to class. Most of his knowledge of the event was from him being there.
"Well, my father was injured in the fight." With each word Shoto sounded as if he was growing more distant. His tone started to become more monotonous and emotionless. "He lost an arm," Shoto stated with no hesitation.
"What?! How is he? He's definitely still alive given the way you're talking, but I can't believe that that happened!" Izuku couldn't hold himself back from interjecting.
Izuku heard another sigh from Shoto. "I saw him this morning. He was already back to working on something. I think he might have been reviewing—"
Izuku couldn't believe that anyone was able to have the mental fortitude to do such a feat. "Your dad lost an arm, and the next day is awake and active?!"
"Don't interrupt me!" Shoto snapped. Izuku stopped moving from the sudden increase in volume. It wasn't like Shoto to suddenly burst like that. Izuku found a place to sit and wait. "I'm sorry for shouting." Shoto put his hand on the elbow of the other arm. "Please just let me speak." After a few moments of silence and an understanding hum, Shoto continued. "My father is the type of person to never give up, no matter what. When he fights and gives his all, he fights to win. So I bet he woke up and demanded to return to work. Not to mention the hospital likely gave him some form of painkiller to help with any residual pain. So my father sat in bed and worked with one hand." Shoto stopped talking for a moment, taking in a few breaths, before fully regaining his composure. "Midoriya, I have a question for you."
"Mm-hmm, go ahead." Izuku said softly.
"Have you ever been conflicted about your own thoughts?" Shoto's question had a lot to unpack in it. Now, if it was just written on a piece of paper there wouldn't be much to talk about or discuss, but the issue was that it wasn't just words. They were said with a tone of uncertainty, fear, and desperation. Izuku couldn't, or rather he didn't, want to give an immediate answer. He sat there, phone pressed against his face. His mind was working, processing the question and its implication. Due to Izuku having a… less than ideal life before now, he was quite good at reading emotions and intentions, and the fact that Shoto had called him out of the blue to ask this question—well, it concerned him.
After a minute or so, Izuku finally spoke. "Yeah, I have." He spoke slowly and carefully, treading with his voice the same way one would walk through a minefield. "It's something that happens to everyone, at some point. You can't always walk on a straight or easy path. Twists and turns and second-guessing yourself are all a part of life."
"But to what extent though? To what degree is normal? Is acceptable?" Shoto's questions caused Izuku to bite his lip.
"I'm not entirely sure what you mean, Todoroki…" Izuku closed his eyes, focusing on just the conversation at hand. "It's impossible to compare people's experience like this directly to another. What is 'normal' when it comes to thoughts doesn't exist. The world you perceive and the world I perceive are different. That's how it is."
"I… I just want to know…" Shoto's voice died into a quiet murmur, too low for the microphone on his phone to detect.
"Listen, Todoroki," Izuku started, putting thought and dedication into each word he said. "I think we should talk in person. You sound like some bad stuff has happened to you, and that you're going through some hard times. I'd be happy to plan a time to talk to you. I know you're likely busy because of sports fest, but please, I want to help you."
Shoto sighed. It was long and drawn-out, his voice wavering throughout it. "I… I'd prefer that honestly."
Izuku smiled. "Good. I'm at Mirai High. It's not too far away from UA. Message me anytime to schedule something. I want to help you; no one deserves to be in pain."
A few moments of silence passed before Shoto spoke up. "Are you coming to Sports Fest? I want to talk to you before I need to go out and fight. I have a spare ticket if you need it."
"Thank you for the offer, Todoroki, but I don't need it. I'll be there. Just send me the details and where you wanna meet." Izuku felt a warmth flow through him. Shoto's tense tone had softened a bit.
"Alright…" Shoto stood up from the bench he was sitting on. "I need to get to class."
Izuku checked the time, bolting up from where he was sitting. "Y-yeah, I do too." He was about to hang up when Shoto spoke one final time.
"Midoriya, thank you for listening." There was a click as the call disconnected. Izuku moved the phone away from his head. At the moment his mind caught up with the fact that Shoto called him out of desperation, and that he would likely really need to provide mental assistance to the boy on the day of the sports fest. Izuku stretched before returning to the cafeteria to grab his stuff and wolf down what food was left. He left a mental note for himself to look into therapy-related things he could say or do for Shoto. He wasn't experienced in it, but he did pick up on things quickly. He only had a few more days left. Izuku let out a sigh. What did I get myself into?
...
The sun shone from overhead, casting its rays of heat down onto the city below. Only a few clouds drifted through the sky. Today was the day of the UA sports festival. The event itself was held in a building on the opposite edge of campus. The UA colosseum, as it was called, was outside of the perimeter of the UA wall. This was because it was only really used several times a year, but the main attraction it held was the sports fest.
The front gates opened at around eight am, and the entire stadium was filled with people before eight-fifteen. No one wanted to be late to an event like this, especially because it sold out within the hour that tickets became available. The colosseum had the internal 'game space' of two football fields, with plenty of extra room around the edges. Due to the dangerous nature of some of the students' quirks, the entire ground level was made of cement, so Cementoss could modify it on a whim or repair damage. The playspace was covered in a nice layer of padding, so any falls or hits would be protected.
The events themselves were kept a tightly guarded secret. The only ones who knew of the events ahead of time were the faculty who were in charge of managing the event. Not even the main announcer, Present Mic, knew what the events were ahead of time. After an event was announced, he would be given a list of rules to say to everyone. This level of dedication and secrecy allowed the school to spring surprise challenges on the students, truly testing their abilities.
Now when it came to the students themselves, participation was optional. However, for hero course students that would be a major detriment against them if they opted to not partake, as the sports fest was where they showed their talents and skills to the hero community. This was also partially true for the general studies students. Performing well in the sports fest was a good way to transfer to the hero course. So, with very few exceptions, all of the hero course students and the general studies students were in the sports fest.
This year, all of class 1-A, B, C, D, and E chose to partake in the sports fest. This was the entire hero course and general studies. When it came to the management classes, there were a record two participants this year, and from the support course there were seven students.
While the specifics of each event were a mystery, the general rules were known beforehand. Firstly, quirk usage was allowed, however, students were not allowed to damage anything that wasn't the play area, and hurting someone who wasn't their current opponent wasn't allowed. Second, students were not allowed to wear any costume or bring any gear, unless they requested it formally and it was approved. For instance, Ikioi got to keep his wheelchair and small bits of metal on him, and Mei got to bring along all kinds of devices. Finally, this was a competition between people who wanted to be heroes, so while honor was something that was important, the judges would allow the exploitation of loopholes in the rules. This was allowed for two reasons: the first was that villains hardly played by the rules, and the second was that it usually made for a good show.
With that in mind, all first year participants found themselves standing just outside of UA's main building.
"This is odd, Iida." Ochaco began, shuffling her feet nervously. "Shouldn't we be at the arena by now?" Her gaze turned towards the distance. Even though it was quite far away, they could just barely hear the roar of the crowd.
"I concur." Tenya adjusted his glasses, before chopping the air with his hand. "This is nonsensical for them to keep us so far away from the colosseum when it's only about ten minutes before the starting speech!"
"Pipe down then, young'uns." Snipe walked in from the side and faced the crowd of people. He took something out of his pocket and showed it to the crowd. "I do apologize for the deception that we needed to push y'all through, but I assure you that it was for the best."
"Deception?!" A student from general studies spoke up. "What are you talking—"
"Quiet! Otherwise y'all miss the good part." Snipe pressed the button on the device he was holding, and a hologram of Nezu appeared. Everyone in the crowd pushed and shoved each other out of the way to see it. Snipe shook his head. "Stop that! Seeing ain't quite as important as hearing it!"
With that all of the students stopped moving, and they could hear the voice of the principal echo through the open area. "—proud to announce the first event! A race! The first forty-two students to reach the colosseum get to move on to the second phase! The race starts—now!"
The crowd of people all look around. Some of them looked at Snipe, who just shook his head. "That means y'all should get moving." The pro hero smirked under the mask. "Don't wanna be disqualified already, do ya?"