Chapter 24- The Obstacle Race

As soon as Midnight announced the start of the race, I sprinted as fast as I could towards the opened gate, adrenaline and determination pushing me forwards as quickly as I could manage. Shoji and Tokoyami ran beside me as well, and Tsu hopped as fast as we could sprint, so she had managed to keep pace as well. All around us, the other students from the disparate classes of UA all made their way towards the gate as well, Quirks propelling people ahead of the main crowd.

It was clear that the Hero Course was going to pull ahead from the outset, and sure enough the two classes that made up the heroics path had already put a gap between them and the other classes. The relentless physical training that we had been through had made us more prepared for an event like this, and class 1B had presumably been through a similar level of conditioning. It seemed that there was a gap in attitude as well, General Studies seemed unenthused for the most part, and the Business course weren't participating at all, instead opting to set up some kind of betting pool at one edge of the arena. The Support classes clearly intended to participate, but they were entering the Festival with the intent of demonstrating their equipment, so they often resorted to bombastic advertisements instead of taking the most direct path to victory.

The gate led into a large tunnel that guarded the path to the rest of the course, and it immediately became apparent that this gate was an obstacle in its own right. There were far too many students to fit through the passage at once, and so the open sprint into the obstacle course had quickly turned into a crush of bodies, every student trying to push through to enter the rest of the course. I was suddenly reminded of the chaos that had ensued when the alarm activated in response to the press' entry into UA a few weeks ago, and the crush of people was much more intimidating when I was stuck in the middle of it.

I was near the front of the group thanks to my initial sprint, but it was still difficult to get through, especially given the fact that everyone was pushing other people backwards as they moved forwards. After a few more seconds of struggling, Todoroki had clearly decided to sidestep the issue of the struggle by using a pillar of ice to push himself forwards, while at the same time freezing the ground to trap everyone else in place.

I had managed to see this coming, enormous swathes of ice were Todoroki's signature, and it seemed that his desire to win had committed him to a singular focus. It seemed inevitable that he would try something like this, so when the ice came towards me I leapt over the freezing ground. I still had to contend with slipping on the ice, but at the very least I wasn't frozen to the ground. Todoroki was clearly trying to make good on his earlier promise to win the Festival and prove his own strength to Midoriya and the rest of the class, and it was clear that he had the raw power to back his words up.

I at least had a good enough sense of balance to avoid falling over, so I tentatively started to move forwards, doing my best to keep my footing without losing too much ground to Todoroki. All around me, other students were finding their way out of the ice: Ashido melted through, Tokoyami summoned Dark Shadow and tore his way out of the sheet of ice, Shoji simply pulled his legs upwards in an impressive display of strength. Tsu had used her legs to break the ice, though she looked at little worse for wear already, though she had mentioned to me that cold temperatures would slow her down.

My avoidance of the ice had given me a few seconds of time to pull ahead of everyone else as they broke out of the ice, though the sight of Bakugo rocketing overhead reminded me of how tentative my advantage was, and Todoroki was still far ahead. Bakugo, Todoroki and Midoriya all seemed to be gunning for each other, and they pursued each other with a single-minded focus. With some luck, they would be distracted by each other enough to make them sloppy, and I might be able to sneak by and claim the win for myself.

Aizawa's words about laying low and avoiding the spotlight flashed through my mind, and I found myself receiving a fairly swift reality check as soon as I remembered where I was. This Festival was one of the most viewed events on television every year, millions of people would tune in and it was broadcast on every major station in Japan, as well as being broadcast internationally. If I drew too much attention here it could jeopardize everything I had done so far, and if knowledge of my Quirk was broadcast to the world, I might as well retire here and now.

But another part of me wanted to keep pushing forwards, to do everything that I could to win and prove everyone that had ever told me that I would have no chance of being a hero wrong. Besides, Aizawa had practically been ignoring me for a few weeks now, and he didn't even care to tell me what I had done to annoy him so much. So there was something within me that wanted to ignore everything he had taught me and push forwards to win the Festival.

I knew that I couldn't let whatever anger I was feeling right now to jeopardize my future career, so using Brainwashing wasn't an option, at least not too overtly. I might have been annoyed with Aizawa and myself, but that wasn't an excuse to throw away everything I had worked so hard to achieve. But I wasn't going to stop trying in the Festival either, performing well here could lead to a high-level internship, which was the first major step on the road to being a successful Pro.

With that little moral decision out of the way, I continued moving forward, hoping that my moment of hesitation hadn't cost me too much progress against my opponents. The ice that Todoroki had spread across the arena had turned the first stretch of pathway beyond the gate into an ice rink, with frozen ground covering all of the path that I could see ahead of me.

Aizawa had given me a few pointers on navigating terrain like this, and I managed to get along by keeping my centre of gravity low and making motions that were somewhere between walking and sliding. It was awkward and undignified, but it got me through the field of ice at a respectable rate, and I managed to avoid any falls. I had gotten close a few times, but I managed to keep going.

Present Mic was providing commentary for the event, and although the speakers were placed inside the stadium, they were loud enough that his comments were still clearly audible. I had mentally tuned out the commentary until I heard a second voice coming from the speakers, and I realised the voice was Aizawa's, who had somehow been roped into providing supporting commentary. I had no idea how Aizawa had been convinced to do this, but it was fairly amusing, and something I could use to irritate him somewhen.

As I turned the corner onto the next part of the course, the ice finally ran out, and I was back on firm footing again. I was ready to get back to making quicker progress on the race when I noticed a shadow passing over me, and a look upwards stopped any notion of progress in my mind.

Several enormous robots stood in front of me, placed around a large clearing in the path in such a way that they would intercept any student that attempted to pass them by.

"The zero-pointers from the exam?"

"You're joking!"

"There are so many!"

The Hero Course exam had these things as opponents?

I was suddenly very grateful for the fact that I had managed to avoid the exam, but this also meant that I had no idea how these machines acted or what was the best way to take them on. Todoroki had already charged forwards with a wave of ice, and Yaoyorozu and Kaminari were also preparing their own attacks to damage or disable the robots. Unless I could punch the robots to death without breaking my arms, I had very little chance of dealing meaningful damage to them.

Oh well, I guess I had to play to my own strengths.

There weren't any openings between the robots, they stood in a line and an attempt by Mineta to get between them resulted in him getting rather violently launched backwards by the robots hands. A few more seconds of observations made my path clear, and with only a moment of questioning my own sanity, I moved forwards.

The robots lower halves were reminiscent of tank treads, and as I sprinted towards the robot, I could see that the treads were spaced apart in a similar manner to a ladder. Once I was close enough, I leapt forwards and gripped onto the metal treads, thankful that the gaps between the treads were wide enough to fit my hand between. As soon as I was confident in my grip, I scrambled up the rest of the treads as quickly as I could manage, scrambling upwards before the robot could move and shake me off.

Once I reached the top, I gripped onto the green metal casing above the treads and pulled myself upwards, landing on the robots lower half with little ceremony. The armoured shell was sloped enough that I could walk up it, and I moved as quickly as I could without risking falling from the machine. The robot seemed to have noticed my presence, and it swung its armoured limbs downwards in an attempt to dislodge me from its chassis.

I rolled away from the swinging limbs and started running, knowing that I would likely be removed if I spent any more time on the robot. Fortunately, the machine was rather slow and cumbersome, so I was able to get around any more swinging limbs and make my way to the other side of the robots chassis. I swung down from the armoured treads and landed on the hard ground, only slightly winded by my impromptu robot climbing session.

A look over my shoulder confirmed that the robot wasn't interested in pursuing me further, presumably its programming only compelled it to disrupt students that tried to pass it by, and it would let people go once they had passed. As interesting as that was, it didn't really matter right now, all that was important was that I had gotten through the first obstacle.

A few students were still ahead of me, but the majority were still contesting the robots, so I still had an advantage over my competitors. With that thought in mind, I started to run forwards again, wondering what exactly UA had planned for us after the next stretch of pathway.

Admittedly, I hadn't seen this one coming.

I knew that UA was fairly well off when it came to funding, and they clearly had a great deal of talented staff and an abundance of resources, but I was still surprised by what they had managed to pull off here.

The obstacle that was in front of me could best be described as a ravine, with pillars of stone scattered throughout the abyss, and steel cables connecting the pillars together in a web of pathways. The best way to navigate the obstacle would be balancing across the cables, though Bakugo and Todoroki both flew overhead, propelled over the obstacle by their respective Quirks.

I was relatively confident in my own sense of balance, and the sight of a crowd of students behind me spurred me forwards, as if I waited any longer I would lose the advantage I had managed to gain in the previous obstacle. I leapt onto the first cable and walked forwards as quickly as I could manage, keeping both of my arms outstretched to maintain my balance as best as I could manage.

My progress was slower than I would like, but it was at least consistent, and the constant breaks given to me by the various stone pillars meant that I didn't have to spend all of my time struggling to keep my balance. I was about halfway through the obstacle when I felt the cable shift underneath me, and I stopped in my tracks to keep my balance. I felt the shift underneath my feet several more times, though looking behind me revealed that there wasn't anybody else trying to cross the cable at the same time as me.

I was about to continue moving when I felt the shifting get even stronger, and I reflexively looked down to keep my balance when I saw the source of the strange shifting right beneath me. Tsu's blank face was staring straight up at me from underneath the cable, and it took all of my willpower to jump backwards in shock. Everything made sense all of a sudden, Tsu was using her natural mobility to hang underneath the cables and navigate across them quickly, and she was making progress by crossing underneath cables that other students were using, saving time in the long run.

"Hi Shinso." Tsu deadpanned with her usual tone, clearly not thinking that the situation was strange in the slightest

"Hi Tsu." I murmured back, still a little shocked by her sudden appearance and unsure what to say, "How's the course going?"

"Oh, you know." Tsu replied, and there was a glint of mischief in her eyes before she continued "Hanging in there."

"Did you just…" I was almost at a loss for words, how did she deliver such a bad pun with a totally straight face?

I was about to question my own sanity again when I realised that I was still standing on the cable, and I moved towards the pillar as quickly as I could manage without losing balance, careful to avoid stepping on Tsu's hands as I moved forwards. Once I was back on relatively solid ground, I took a few seconds to regain my sense of balance, noting when Tsu landed beside me without a single shift in expression.

"This course is pretty intense." Tsu spoke up, drawing my attention "I guess we should be used to that by now though."

I hummed in agreement, looking behind me to see how the rest of the students were doing, though I knew that Bakugo and Todoroki at least were already ahead. I could see Shoji and Tokoyami were making good progress from the other side of the ravine, and they would likely finish this obstacle about level with me at their current pace. The other main standout was one of the Support Class students, who was using rocket-powered boots to leap across the pillars of rock. The rest of the students were tentatively making progress across the first few sets of cables, but I knew that they would get used to the ordeal and start speeding up soon enough.

"We should go." I said to Tsu, who was still standing beside me "The rest of the group will catch up soon."

I heard a 'ribbit' from Tsu in response, which I took to be an answer in the affirmative, and the two of us moved forwards separately, careful to avoid any unwanted collisions. The rest of the obstacle was fairly easy to deal with, I had already gotten used to dealing with the obstacle earlier, and fortunately enough UA hadn't placed any last minute surprises on this section of the course.

Once I made it to the other side of the ravine, I almost felt like kissing the ground in relief, but a desire to retain some of my dignity stopped me from stooping quite that low. Tsu finished the obstacle a few seconds later, and we met up with Shoji and Tokoyami after, the pair having crossed the course on the other end of the ravine. They both seemed a little tired by the ordeal so far, but it was clear that neither of them were willing to give in yet.

It seemed that our truce still held, and after a moment of recovery the four of us set out together, moving forwards once again. Present Mic's commentary told me that there was only one obstacle left until the course was over, I could only hope that it was something manageable.

Sometimes I wonder why I let myself foolishly believe that UA won't keep throwing surprises at me.

In retrospect, a minefield seemed obvious, though in the head of the moment I was shocked by what lay in front of me.

Bakugo and Todoroki were still fighting up ahead, and although they were making good progress their mutual sparring had slowed them down somewhat. I reminded myself that I wasn't trying to get to first place in this race, though it was infuriating to see such an opportunity in front of me with no way to take advantage of it. I just needed to focus on the obstacle in front of me, though Aizawa's training hadn't included how to avoid a minefield, which was knowledge that I never thought I would need to possess.

Present Mic's commentary provided the comforting knowledge that the mines were simply a type of concussive explosive, releasing a wave of force when triggered, but nothing truly harmful. Aizawa's own commentary also mentioned that the last test was one of mobility rather than strength or resilience, though his droning comments didn't make the situation any less concerning.

Once I had taken a minute to observe the layout of the minefield, it was a less daunting obstacle than it appeared at first. The mines had been manually buried, and the piles of dirt that had been placed over the devices were visible if you spent enough time looking for them. I mentally plotted out a route as far as I could see before taking a breath of air and questioning my own decision making again.

Charging into a minefield ranked pretty high on my league table of stupid decisions, but I was committed now, and I had already moved into the danger zone anyway. I kept my steps as light as possible and didn't linger in one place any longer than it took to figure out where I would place my next step, so I ended up lightly leaping from place to place, my teeth gritted in focus and nervousness. A student a few metres away that had charged straight forwards fell victim to a mine, and I saw the wave of energy send them up into the air and crashing back towards the ground. I had noticed a small click coming from the mine about a second before it had blown up, so I did my best to keep my ears focused on that sound, which would hopefully give me time to escape if I noticed that noise nearby.

Thanks to all of the training I had undergone before and during my time at UA, agility wasn't an issue for me, and I might even say that it was one of my strongest attributes. I managed to leap through the minefield without many problems, though the occasional explosion behind me would shock me and almost throw me off the rhythm I had settled into.

Tsu was a little behind me, but her own jumps were sending her through the minefield at a decent rate, and each jump sent her over a series of mines. Shoji was to my left, and he was using his dupli-arms to detect the mines with enhanced eyesight, and he strode confidently through the area, his long stride keeping him moving forwards at a steady pace. Tokoyami was taking a more direct approach, using Dark Shadow to pull the mines out of the ground and clear his own path forwards. The four of us moved towards the end of the minefield with a single-minded determination, pushing past several other students who were taking a more cautious approach to getting through the explosives.

Only the sound of an enormous explosion and the sight of something flying overhead drew my attention from my own progress through the minefield, and a closer inspection revealed the flying object to be Midoriya hanging onto a piece of scrap metal. I would have been surprised if it had been anybody else, but Midoriya had shown a level of insane drive that bordered on totally ridiculous. I respected him for that in a way, but that didn't mean what he did was a good idea.

When Midoriya landed between Bakugo and Todoroki, he slammed the piece of metal onto the ground, causing an enormous explosion to engulf the three of them in a wave of concussive force. When the smoke from the explosion cleared, Midoriya was ahead, but Bakugo and Todoroki were hot on his tail, and the three of them rounded a corner and vanished from my sight. Midoriya's manoeuvre had cleared out an entire section of the minefield, and I leapt into the small crater he had created, knowing that it was totally safe.

The end of the minefield felt like an enormous relief, and not having to check my footsteps constantly let me start moving forwards at a normal pace again. I knew that this was the final obstacle, so I broke into the fastest sprint I could manage, pulling together every scrap of energy to get towards the finish line as quickly as I could manage.

There was only a short distance from the exit now, and there weren't any obstacles except for the other students, and even most of them seemed more focused on moving forwards rather than attacking their adversaries, afraid of losing progress. Tsu, Shoji and Tokoyami were only a few metres behind me, and although we had pledged not to attack each other, we were still in a race, so it was a desperate sprint to the finish for all four of us.

I rounded the corner ahead of me, and the gate that marked the finish line stood imposingly a few hundred metres ahead of me, the sight of the stadium through the gate was enough to give me a second burst of energy, and I charged forwards, any semblance of technique or energy conservation totally absent in my desperate sprint to the finish line.

The gate was getting closer and closer, and even the burning in my lungs wasn't enough to slow me down in the slightest. I couldn't help but think of everyone that had helped me get to this point so far: my mother, my siblings, Aizawa and the friends I had made at UA, they had all pushed me forwards to this point, and the idea of letting them down by giving up now was the worst thing in the world to me.

I passed under the archway with a final burst of speed, the sound of Present Mic's announcement filling my ears as I crossed the finish line and returned to the stadium.

"And in seventh place, its Class 1A's Hitoshi Shinso!"

Back in the Shinso household, the three spectators cheered loud enough to draw the attention of the entire street. Tears of pride rolled down Jōnetsu Shinso's face as she saw her son standing in the stadium, and her other two children ran around the room shouting to the rooftops.

Across Japan, jaws hit the floor as Shinso's former classmates watched the festival. There was a moment of disbelief shared between them all, was this really the same Shinso that they had known? He seemed so different from the withdrawn student they had known.

Within the spectator's box, Aizawa watched with keen eyes as he saw Shinso cross the finish line. Acting like a reluctant commentator was the perfect cover to get a full view of how his protégé performed at the festival, and what he had seen so far had impressed him.

There was still doubt in Aizawa's mind, did this mean that Shinso was truly ready for what was coming after the Festival?

He still wasn't certain, but nonetheless Aizawa kept his eye on Shinso the whole time, never missing a single detail of his young student's movements.

The noise of the cheering crowd was deafening, and only the frantic beat of my own heart drowned it out. Standing under the eyes of thousands of spectators should have been nerve-wracking, but it had the opposite effect. It was utterly intoxicating, and a part of me wanted to bask in the spotlight for as long as I could, but common sense prevailed in the end, and I moved aside before any of the lurking cameras could properly focus on me.

I heard Present Mic call Tokoyami, Shoji and Tsu directly after me, they had been hot on my heels for the final stretch, and yet I was happy to see that nobody else had managed to overtake them. The four of us shared a moment of jubilation at our performance, exhaustion was clearly hitting us all, but mutual pride kept any of us from falling to the ground right there.

Thankfully, UA had been thoughtful enough to put benches all around the perimeter of the arena, so we all retired to one of these sitting areas to watch the rest of the students make their way to the finish line. Several students came very soon after us: Kirishima and Sero came in barely thirty seconds behind us, and after that there was a steady stream of students from both Class 1A and 1B. According to the results table Midoriya had managed to come first, with Todoroki and Bakugo coming in second and third respectively. Ibara Shiozaki and Juzo Honenuki from 1B were after that, and although I didn't have much of a chance to see either of them in action, their results meant they must be pretty strong. Iida was the last one to come in before me, and although sixth place was an impressive ranking, he seemed to be beating himself up about it, presumably due to his Quirk's suitability for this kind of task.

The results kept coming in steadily for a while after, and expectedly every student was from the Hero Course, and 1B was seemingly lagging behind 1A by quite a bit. I had been pondering my earlier observations on 1B when around a dozen of them all finished the course at the same time, towards the end of the forty students that Midnight announced would be passing onto the next level. She was being rather evasive about what the next level was, though whether this was a deliberate move by UA or just Midnight expressing her usual… personality was unclear.

It seemed what I had noticed earlier was true, Class B were deliberately hanging back, and the way that this group all passed at the same time confirmed this theory. I wasn't sure what their plan was, but if I had to guess they were letting 1A pull ahead so they could observe our Quirks, which would give them an edge in the following rounds. It was a smart strategy in retrospect, and I was a little irritated that I hadn't come up with it myself.

The group that passed together all seemed to be receiving a lecture from a blond-haired student that alternated expressions between smug confidence and fits of maniacal laughter, which clearly freaked out everyone around him, given that they all dispersed away from him after a minute. I wondered idly if this was the Monoma character that Yanagi had warned me of a few days ago, speaking of which, I saw Yanagi in the middle of the crowd of students that had finished. She seemed to have noticed me as well, sending a small wave my way before turning and leaving before I had the chance to respond in kind.

Midnight's voice cut through the stadium, announcing that the latest student that crossed the line would be the last one to pass onto the next round, with forty students making it to round 2. I expected that the last student would be Aoyama, as it seemed likely that the Hero Course would take up all of the slots, and he was the only person from 1A that I hadn't seen yet. It was fairly surprising to see that the last student was from the Support Course, and Present Mic's announcement identified her as Mei Hatsume.

Aoyama crossed the finish line a few moments later, looking totally exhausted and clutching his stomach in pain that must have been brought on from overuse of his Quirk. I felt a twinge of sympathy for his predicament, but I knew that there would likely be many more students eliminated in the next round, and I had to keep myself focused on my own victory, everything else was secondary.

Speaking of which, Midnight called on the students that had passed the first round to gather around the stage, where she would then announce the next part of the festival. I stood from my seat and walked towards the stage, wondering what I would be faced with next. The forty students that had passed the first round gathered around the stage with a mixture of enthusiasm and trepidation, wondering what would be coming next.

UA had already put us through a fairly intense first round, and I was certain that whatever was coming up next would be even more trying.

Author's Note

The obstacle race was somewhat strange to write, as although it's a nice spectacle, it isn't very important to the Festival when compared to the Cavalry Battle and the fights. As well as that, Shinso's non-physical Quirk means that he can't do a huge amount of impressive things during the race. And yes, I'm aware that there are usually 42 places available for the Cavalry Battle, but I cut it down to 40 since I had no intention of bringing Sato back and 41 is an awkward number for teams, so unfortunately that meant that Aoyama didn't quite make the cut.

Still, I did what I could to show Shinso's progress and technique during the race, and I hope that I gave him a good showing and demonstrated how he improved. I also enjoyed having the opportunity to show how Shinso's friend group worked well together, and we'll be seeing more of this during the Cavalry Battle.

The Cavalry Battle will be two Chapters long, as it's a fairly long sequence and I want to do it justice. I've finished planning out the fight bracket for the final round of the Festival, and I'm looking forwards to writing these fights out.

I guess it's a good time to address the elephant in the room, the outbreak that's flaring up around the world is cause for concern for lots of people, and the closure of many universities, schools and workplaces around the world had most likely affected everyone reading this to some extent. As I'm a key worker and have exams and projects due soon, I've struggled a little for time recently as well. I hope that reading these stories has been a reprieve from everything going on around you, and I'll do my best to keep regular updates going in order to keep you all entertained during lockdowns. For this story, there will be updates on Wednesday and Sunday.

On the subject of staying indoors, I appreciate that this is going to be a difficult time in a lot of your lives, and the reality of being stuck indoors for weeks on end will be stressful for a lot of you. To try and help somewhat, I've created a Discord server where you can come and hangout, and hopefully forget about the stress of the world for a bit. I'll try to be online as often as I can manage, and will be happy to discuss anything related to these stories or any other topic. Come and join if you'd like, the link is in my bio.

That's about all for now, I hope you enjoyed this Chapter, and I'll see you later.

And to answer some reviews:

PasiveNox: Thanks for the review, I hope you enjoyed this Chapter as well.

Evergone the Great: Good catch, I had meant to put that the board was just for Class A, but somehow missed that out. Thanks for the correction, I hope you still enjoyed the Chapter.

Donovan2771: I've never seen Attack On Titan, but I looked up the fight and you're right that there are some good techniques in there. The Internship Arc will have Shinso learn some new techniques though, so I'll keep your suggestion in mind.

Blat23: I'm pretty sure that I'll have Monoma and Shinso clash later on in this arc, the potential for personality clash is too high. Thanks for reviewing, I hope you enjoyed this Chapter.

Attackin: Mei will have the same role as in canon, but I'm still a little unsure on Sato. I removed Sato as I found him to be totally uninteresting, and so I'm not sure if he'll make an appearance at all. I'll keep him in mind though if something comes up.

Raven Mordrake: Absolutely, the Internship Arc will be a big step up for Shinso in terms of gear and abilities, and stealth skills will be one of the focuses of his new skillset.

Betacode79: I imagined that he would be fairly nervous in canon as well, it's just move obvious here since we have Shinso's inner monologue. This stories Shinso is also a little more emotionally developed than his canon counterpart, as canon Shinso shows a fair bit of resentment towards the Hero Course.

Rex559: I'm afraid that that scene was Shinso hitting All Might in his injury, he'd have done precisely nothing against anywhere else, and I meant to depict it as a lucky shot. I hope this doesn't lower your enjoyment of the scene though.