"Firing."
Akiko rolled away from the concussive rocket the three-pointer sent her way, and the ordinance exploded harmlessly behind her in a burst of pink smoke. The explosion was followed by a gust of wind that whipped her hair around her face, and the three-pointer paused, calculating its next move. Akiko thought fast and started running straight towards it.
She may have not been able to use her Quirk as frivolously as other people could, but that didn't mean she could afford to think too hard about using it now, not when one direct hit from the faux villain before her could destroy the small lead she'd managed to create for herself. There was no room to delay.
But there was room to take advantage of the intervals between its rocket fire.
She twisted and dodged another rocket sailing towards her, and continued her sprint forward. Another rocket peeked out of its chamber with a familiar clink, and she rapidly closed the distance between her and the three-pointer, another split-second plan forming in her mind.
'Okay, Akiko, don't hesitate! Just do it!'
Flame erupted from her feet courtesy of her Quirk's chosen mode, flinging Akiko overtop the three-pointer's bulky frame and out of its line of sight. It proved only a momentary diversion. The machine shifted on its four legs, rotating to aim its next rocket straight at Akiko. Akiko felt the bot tracking her sudden burst of vertical mobility and as the rocket was launched, she twisted midair and countered with a strong jab of flame.
The ensuing explosion sent her skyward, but this was all still going according to plan. If she could get high enough above the three-pointer that its rocket pods couldn't angle themselves high enough to hit her, then it'd be forced to change strategy, or at least its footing.
Another rocket clinked into a ready-to-fire position, Akiko began falling towards the ground, and the three-pointer rose awkwardly onto two feet, the pod on its back pointed at its mark.
Unfortunately for the machine, this also meant its quarry had a clean shot at the exposed rocket.
Akiko sent one more fistful of fire forward, and the faux villain's multiple cameras seemed to glow brighter. At the same time, Akiko angled herself parallel to the ground and sent one more conservative jet of flame out from her feet, launching her back into the same sprint she'd started her engagement in right when she landed. Her attack then met its mark, and the rocket destined for her exploded in its chamber, but Akiko kept her focus on the track ahead, the plume of flame at her back.
She didn't spare a glance backward to admire her handiwork, but she heard the chain reaction within the robot's rocket pods as it turned into scrap metal loud and clear.
"I knew I wouldn't let you stop me…" she whispered.
"And that right there is none other than Takara Akiko, folks! With a multi-faceted elemental Quirk that lets her sling so many sweet attacks at her foes, you can bet your top-dollar that she's got a move for every situation!" Present Mic announced. "It's like she's an elemental expert, and you've only seen one of her elemental modes!"
Akiko shook her head and kept running forward. Present Mic was just doing his job, and he'd be announcing the names and a little detail about everyone who made any kind of waves in terms of flashy stunts as long as the obstacle race was going. Even if this meant eyes were on her, she did her best to ignore the announcement and the attention therein. She had bigger things to worry about.
More importantly, she couldn't afford to worry about people watching her right now. It'd be another story entirely if it was just her and one other person on screen, but there were hundreds of other people for the entirety of Japan to pay attention to. If the time came that she had to deal with the spotlight, she'd cross that bridge when she came to it. Right now she had an obstacle course to complete.
It was as she grew ever closer to where the field narrowed back down into the track ahead that she noticed the movement of familiar neon blues and purples nearby. Jomei dodged the pincer of the two-pointer he'd engaged with thanks to Light Speed, before dropping out of the technique to spin through the air and blast the machine's head clean off with a follow-up Phosphor Beam. As he hit the ground and the machine fell with the sound of crunching metal, another announcement hit their ears.
"Say hello to Nishimura Jomei, everyone! That stunning stunt right there was brought to you by none other than the flashy flare and pulse-pounding power behind his Quirk, Noble Gases. But don't think they're only good for party balloons, folks, because he can charge 'em up and dish 'em out so hard that he'll turn unwary foes into swiss cheese…!"
"Hey, Akiko! I saw you with the three-pointer – great job!" Jomei shouted from afar, and his gases began to coat him again. "I'll see you at the finish line, alright?"
Before she could respond, a ball of unbridled fury flew between them, high enough to avoid zero-pointers and every other kind of faux villain alike. The boy in question was screaming bloody murder as he careened past the rest of the robots in pursuit of first place.
"Oh, and Class 1-A's Bakugo Katsuki is rocketing over the obstacles! With palms that secrete an exploding substance in his sweat, can you blame him? He's like a walking talking weapon of mass destruction, and it looks like he's hellbent on taking the lead!"
"Not if I have anything to say about it!" Jomei shouted. "Good luck, Akiko!"
Just as soon as Jomei ran off with his Quirk to quickly carry him, Sero and Tokoyami joined the fray too. Sero flung himself over the top of a zero-pointer with the tape from his elbows, and Tokokyami's Dark Shadow hefted its owner up over the same obstacle with barely any effort before throwing itself and Tokoyami both into a swift descent. Both of them were on a rapid route leading straight towards the end of the robo inferno.
Sero smiled. "Glad to see 1-A's kicking butt, but I'm still in this too!"
"As am I. Dark Shadow makes any quarry thrown at me foolhardy," Tokoyami countered.
"You bet your ass I do!"
As they hurtled back towards the ground, and Present Mic spent time announcing their Quirks in turn, Akiko had already returned to running herself. Tokoyami and Sero were just the beginning of the tide of competitors that'd finally steeled themselves to brave the robo inferno, and she wasn't going to waste her time gawking – not when she'd lost some of her lead to the likes of Jomei and Bakugo already. Her classmates may have been hot on her heels, and may eventually threaten to overtake her entirely, but her determination remained as hot as the fires she'd flung forth mere moments ago.
She wasn't going to lose this race.
As the preliminary event of the Sports Festival raged on, so too did the screams and cheers of the thousands of spectators in the stadium. To some, the thunderous display was painfully audible even through the thin wall of protective glass that separated the announcer's booth from the stadium at large. To others, the cheers and general excitement that bled through the only barrier between them and the adoring public was nothing short of electrifying.
Present Mic was one of the latter parties. Eraserhead was one of the former.
But Present Mic wasn't about to let his stick-in-the-mud friend ruin his day. Not by a long shot. He was going to eat up his position as the announcer of the biggest annual event in Japan and rub Haruto's face in it if they ever found themselves together again. For now, though, he'd content himself with basking in the audience's hype – even if he could only do so from within the announcer's booth.
He sighed contentedly. "Man Eraserhead, sure is nice to break up the daily rep of grading papers, huh? Really makes you appreciate the spotlight."
Eraserhead opened his eyes from their half-closed dozing. "Yeah, sure, whatever you say Hizashi."
"Hey! It's Present Mic when we're in costume!"
"And I'll start calling you that when you stop interrupting my naps…"
Present Mic smiled. "Oh, I see… you're just cranky! Well wakey-wakey sleepyhead, because we've got a job to do! And it's totally illogical to doze when you're on the clock, am I right…?"
"...what do you want me to do? Looks like you have a handle on things, Mic."
"Well, staying up would be a good start, but…" Present Mic pointed at the distant, massive screens that provided those within the stadium with a live feed of the race. "How about some of those keen observation skills you're known for? Looks like all the pack leaders are from Class 1-A, at least right now, anyway. Think that's because we're just the top-tier when it comes to teaching?"
"Don't inflate your ego, Mic." Eraserhead sat up a little straighter and his eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "But… don't think that Class 1-B or any of the others are doing poorly, by any means. Their Quirks are just as varied as 1-A's, and the other courses can't be counted out by default, either."
"So why do ya think 1-A's rockin' and rollin' so far?" Present Mic asked, a bit of his typical flare fading from his tone.
"It's that…" He paused and looked closely at the room's myriad of camera angles focused on dozens of students at once. "Class 1-A's learned not to hesitate."
Present Mic followed his friend's line of sight to the booth's many screens. Eraserhead's words couldn't have been more true. Class 1-A wasn't wasting a single second, and it showed.
Iida kicked a one-pointer into a dozen pieces and flipped through the air as if the obstacle wasn't there to begin with.
Jiro ran through two of the same faux villains and jabbed her earphone jacks into her opponents. She let loose a pulse-pounding attack directly into the machines' cores that destroyed them from within and let her continue forward uncontested.
Kaminari leaped on top of one of the machines' hands as it missed an attack and electrocuted it without missing a beat.
"They've seen what the real world is like…"
Kirishima bowled through a faux villain with his Quirk, neck-and-neck with Tetsutetsu, who did the same as his Quirk turned him into solid steel.
"They've felt the fear of facing real villains."
Uraraka released several of the machines with a quiet touch of her fingers and the barely-audible utterance of 'release,' and they crumpled into scrap metal as they crashed back down to earth.
"Yet they fight on, trying to overcome that fear."
Ojiro spun several times through the air before his tail smashed down and totaled a two-pointer.
"They've grown, all of them," Eraserhead continued. "And they know that they need to act quickly and without hesitation if they want to survive."
On-screen, Midoriya grabbed a piece of a fallen zero-pointer and used it to chop a one-pointer's head clean off before running with the thing strapped with wire to his back.
"Of course, they also know that a good strategy can be just as effective as their instincts' telling them to survive. They were put through the wringer barely two weeks into their time here at U.A… and no one can deny that they came out stronger from the experience."
"Man, Eraserhead…" Present Mic began teasingly. "Finally getting soft on me I see!"
"What?"
He laughed. "Oh, nothing, nothing! Just comparing you now to when you first got dragged into the whole teaching gig a while back. How things change, am I right?"
"Just- do your job, Mic," Eraserhead huffed.
Present Mic cracked his knuckles. "You got it, pal!"
Another look down at the controls, and he switched the screen straight onto a view dedicated to Yaoyorozu. Her sports uniform's jacket was unzipped and exposed the sports bra beneath, and the pink glow of her abdomen made it clear she had a plan in mind to overcome the zero-pointers still blocking her way.
That, and the big-ass cannon she'd created for the occasion.
Two shots each at two of the titanic faux villains later, and they all started to fall like dominos, rendering the largest threat of the robo inferno little more than a lifeless mass of metal.
"And the floodgates have been opened, folks!" Present Mic announced. "I know it might seem like fanservice coming from Yaoyorozu Momo, but don't sell her short just because she's some buxom brunette! She's got a mind like a steel trap and a Quirk that can create just about anything she wants – no wonder she got in based off recommendations!"
"They'd be better off dodging those zero-pointers most of the time," Aizawa mused as Present Mic lifted his finger from his announcement key. "But Yaoyorozu recognized they're just slow hunks of metal with rudimentary programming that're far too easy to hit and take down so long as you pick your target wisely. A logical decision for a student of her caliber."
"Uh… Eraserhead? You forgot to hit your key to make an announcement."
"I wasn't intending on playing around like you, Mic. I was just thinking…"
"Uh, Shota?"
Eraserhead blinked in response to his name. "What is it?"
"You kinda trailed off there, somethin' happen?" Present Mic asked.
"No, I just… noticed someone."
The radio show host followed his friend's line of sight to another one of their displays. "Oh. That kid? Haven't noticed much about him – hell, I don't know if I even remember what his Quirk was after all the papers we read!"
"That's just it though…" Eraserhead's eyes narrowed again. "Even without knowing what his Quirk is off the top of my head either… I think he's someone I'm going to keep an eye on. You can keep screaming your heart out, or whatever it is you're doing."
Present Mic took one last look at the oddly tired-looking, indigo-haired competitor and shrugged. Whatever Eraserhead saw in him he didn't know, and honestly, he didn't entirely find it necessary to know. He had a job to do and he'd be damned if he wasn't going to continue to be the best announcer the Sports Festival had ever had. Even if that meant dragging Eraserhead back into the fray from time to time in the process.
His finger raced towards the controls once more, and he got back to work.
Jomei rounded a corner with Light Speed and continued to surge forth as fast as his legs could carry him. He may have been ahead of a lot of the competition thanks to how much faster his Quirk let him run, but he wasn't going to be banking on that to assure he'd stay in the lead; and, more to the point, he couldn't. He was up against dozens of unknown competitors with just as enigmatic Quirks – even ignoring Iida, who was practically built for a long-distance race with his engines, even a moment of arrogance could bring what lead he'd built up crashing down in a hurry. With his parents watching and so much potential in his hero career riding on how he did in the Sports Festival, he wouldn't dare make that mistake.
His gases thrummed ever so slightly brighter as Bakugo and Todoroki came back into his line of sight. Both were obscenely fast in their own rights, with Bakugo's explosive propulsion and Todoroki's pre-existing lead and steady pace putting them both snugly in the second and first places of the competition, respectively.
Still, slowly but surely, Light Speed allowed Jomei to creep up on them. In fact, the thought crossed Jomei's mind that he'd end up neck-and-neck with the leading duo, leaving the likes of even the rest of Class 1-A in the dust as he fought for first.
At least, that was what he thought until he saw a helpful, rickety-looking sign with two deep red words painted forebodingly onto it, spelling;
THE FALL
He considered himself lucky to skid to a stop when he did. As his gaseous shroud flickered and flowed away from him, he took in his newfound surroundings and recognized two things.
One, Bakugo and Todoroki were pulling even further ahead of him and the slight incline he'd been racing along obscured the fact they'd already been fully engaged in the next obstacle long before he'd arrived.
And two, if what laid before him was any indicator, then this obstacle was very aptly-named.
Where he'd finally been able to stop skidding forward, the ground simply ceased to exist. Instead, for what looked to be a few hundred meters in front of him, a pit so deep that light failed to reach the bottom took its place. Stone columns of varying sizes stood tall at increasingly long distances from one another as the man-made chasm went on, and the only things connecting those various footholds were just as many strong-looking ropes. Each were secured sternly to their respective islands amidst the abyss, but they were without a doubt meant to be little more than meager bridges for competitors to traverse in any way they saw fit.
Jomei hoped that there was something at the bottom of the obstacle to break peoples' falls if they actually, you know, failed the obstacle. He knew he wasn't going to be one of those unlucky few, but he certainly hoped U.A. wasn't entirely out of its mind when it came up with this obstacle. It wasn't like everyone had mobility or agility on their side when it came to their Quirks, especially in the non-hero courses.
He started backing up, widening the gap between him and the sheer drop. 'When did they even have the time to build this…? Whatever, you've got two pack leaders to catch up to Jomei, now make it happen.'
His Quirk flared back to life when he kicked into his sprint, and he fell back on his go-to technique. Light Speed may not have put him too close to Iida's level when his engines had kicked into their highest gears, but it was still more than enough for the plan he'd concocted to overcome The Fall. It was a good thing he wasn't scared of heights.
As he reached the edge of the cliff, Jomei slammed his foot into the ground and jumped.
He sailed through the air and landed on the first pillar, and immediately ran forward to rebuild his momentum to jump again. Each time he crossed over the columns without issue. However, with Bakugo flying overhead and Todoroki swiftly sliding along the ropes with his ice, it was all but guaranteed that they'd remain in the lead. Still, Jomei continued forward as fast as he could, rebuilding momentum just as quickly as he lost it every time he landed.
'Ok, good start. Now for the bigger problem…'
Eventually, Jomei landed on a particularly large column in the center of the vast chasm, and it became clear that he wouldn't be able to leap over the gaps between the rocky islands any longer. He didn't stop moving though. He had accounted for the long distance between columns in the latter half of The Fall the moment he'd jumped into the fray to begin with. Upon hitting the rope segment of the obstacle, while he didn't drop the Quirk-crafted cloak that surrounded him, he did slow down.
Though not by much. Jomei balanced along the length of rope and his haste repeatedly caused him to make mistakes that threatened his stability completely, but his plan continued to mitigate the issue before it could undo him. With his arms outstretched to either side, small bursts of gas righted him whenever his balance was threatened too much to run the risk of trying to correct it normally. This process wasn't as fast as Todoroki nor Bakugo, and it was an ever-so-slight waste of his Quirk, but it was far faster than what others could manage.
More importantly, it kept his lead intact, even as many of the other competitors poured onto the scene of the second obstacle of the race.
"For those of you that thought the first obstacle was easy…" Present Mic began. "Let's see how you feel about the second one! One wrong move and it's right into the drink! If you want to pass this test you're going to have to get creative! It's… The Fall!"
'Oh, so he was just waiting for everyone else to get here to announce this… right.'
Jomei looked behind him as he reached another sanctuary amidst the chasm, and was surprised at how varied the competition's methods of traversing it were. Even compared to his strategy, Shoji outstretching his six arms and literally gliding along the gaps between solid ground in the first half was creative. Tsu's strategy was far simpler, but just as effective, with her froglike Quirk enabling her to simply jump across any gaps with almost startling speed. Akiko alternated between using her peridot mode to blow herself forward and simply walking along the ropes, balancing both her usage of both her Quirk and her body in the process.
While it seemed that 1-A and 1-B were by and far leading the charge, the non-hero course students still managed to keep up with them in their own quirky ways. One support course student with pink dreadlocks wound up using some kind of mechanism with wire arrows and hover-boots to speed up her progress, while other inventors among her tested their gear at the same time – to varying degrees of success. Most other competitors just raced onto the obstacle headfirst, as determined as ever to try and make some kind of lead.
A lead that Jomei, having returned to his swift balancing act, wasn't going to let them have. Not if he had anything to say about it.
"Oh, and by the way, folks! If you're wondering what the deal is with the hot new trends the support course is tinkering up here on the track, don't you worry! So long as they invented it themselves, it's fair game for them to bring onto the battlefield!"
"Well, that explains that…" Jomei thought.
Then he heard the roar of engines and bursts of compressed air coming closer. Jomei dared to look behind him to see for himself if his suspicions were true, and he found his pace hastening just a little bit further when they were confirmed.
Iida was indeed skidding along a length of rope parallel to his own, and he was going to catch up sooner or later, even if he couldn't kick his engines into high gear without potentially throwing himself off a cliff. He may have looked foolish with his overly-focused expression and the way his legs twitched awkwardly as he maintained his balance, but the fact remained his Quirk was faster than Jomei's Light Speed technique by default.
'Ok, scratch catching up to Todoroki and Bakugo right now. New priority – make sure you stay ahead of Iida.'
Jomei looked one last time in Iida's direction, and their eyes met for the briefest of moments. Jerking his head forward again, he noticed the end of The Fall rapidly approaching.
Todoroki and Bakugo were still a few steps ahead of them.
"Looks like Todoroki's still skating by easily!" Present Mic announced as Todoroki hopped off his final length of rope back onto the main track. "He's putting distance between him and the other competitors stuck at The Fall! It hasn't been enough to count any of the other runners out of the next round though, so there's no time to relax!"
"Yeah, Present Mic, I get it…" Jomei muttered, and a few moments later, he raced past the end of the second obstacle. He didn't waste a moment as he jumped off his rope, and he quickly returned to the fastest speed his Quirk could carry him.
It wouldn't be enough to outrun Iida.
The class representative caught up to Jomei and his calves' engines roared. "Nishimura! I applaud you for your performance thus far, but I must apologize for what I have to do moving forward. My brother Ingenium might very well be watching, and as such, I cannot afford to give anything short of my absolute best!"
Jomei's gases thrummed a little brighter and his determination grew. "Right back at you! I made some promises to people that are important to me too!"
"Then let us both go beyond! May the most worthy of us prevail!" Iida shouted in response.
"Couldn't have said it better myself!" Jomei agreed.
Both competitors focused forward then and continued to gain on the twin pack leaders. The wind whipped past Jomei's ears even over the sounds of his Quirk, and it didn't escape his notice that Iida was gaining a lead on him. At first, it wasn't too insurmountable a distance, but Iida's engines kicked into higher gears that Jomei simply couldn't match and that gap only widened. Even so, Jomei continued to push his legs to their limits just as he had during his training for the Sports Festival.
Midnight's words echoed in the back of his mind.
"I don't want to restrain anyone, at least not in this game! So as long as you don't leave the course, you're free to do whatever your heart desires!"
He knew he had an ace up his sleeve. If he wanted to knock Iida out of the running for a spot among the top three of the obstacle race, it'd be as simple as using his Flashbang and catching Iida off-guard. He hadn't mentioned the move to anyone other than Akiko and Tokoyami, so Iida would have no chance to realize what the attack was until it had long since stunned him.
It would give him third place, but... It felt dirty. Iida had pushed himself to his limits to find help during the USJ incident, so using Flashbang on him would just feel wrong. Not only that, but the moment he used it on Iida, the fact that it existed would become known. Given the unknown number of events ahead of him, Jomei concluded that pulling out his trump card now was too much of a risk.
Still, he found himself tempted to reconsider his stance with every second that Iida pulled ahead.
With his muscles straining and his mind hesitating on its next decision, a large sign depicting an explosion covered with a pink skull and crossbones came into view. His brain registered the bold text of 'Danger! Mines!' written on it just as Present Mic's enthusiastic announcing made their triumphant return overhead.
"And now we're finally approaching the final obstacle. Everyone better tread carefully… you're entering a minefield! If you look carefully, you can see where those little bombs are buried, so keep your eyes on the ground, folks! Oh, and by the way, those land mines were designed for the games, so they might be loud and flashy, but they're not all that powerful. Just enough to make you wet your pants!"
"Get ahold of yourself…" Aizawa muttered.
Jomei started to form a plan at the same time he took in his surroundings. Iida was still in front of him by a decent margin, but it looked like even though Todoroki and Bakugo were fighting for first place, they were slowing each other down. Behind him, Jomei noted that a few other competitors were coming into view, meaning that there wasn't time to think too hard about what he did next.
Luckily for him, though, he didn't need much time to decide on his plan of action.
Before he even hit the massive minefield, Jomei peppered a salvo of Neon Beams forward. Each one was aimed towards the slightly disturbed ground that marked the locations of buried mines, and each served their purpose perfectly – turning the weaker attack into the perfect makeshift minesweeper needed to get through the final obstacle. So long as he didn't get cocky, it'd even give him a chance to keep up with Iida, who was currently racing through the minefield and just barely outrunning the detonations triggered by his haphazard advance.
For a while, it seemed like that would be the case. Nearby, Iida was repeatedly staggered by the sound and force explosions behind him while Jomei merely needed to slow down a hair to let his Neon Beams outpace him and trigger the mines early. Bakugo and Todoroki continued to duke it out up ahead, which lessened their lead and gave Iida, Jomei, and many of the other participants the chance to catch up. All Jomei had to do was focus and he'd come out on top.
But even his superb strategy wasn't enough to account for other peoples' mistakes.
One hasty misstep on Iida's part and a chain reaction of explosions was set off faster than either of them could react. A pink cloud and a cacophony of concussive sound consumed Iida as he was tossed into the air, and Jomei barely registered what had happened to his competitor before he was sent flying sideways.
'Damnit…'
"And what an upset! With first and second fighting, everyone's catching up too! Can our two leaders stay in front of the competition? Or will the minefield make their petty squabbles moot as competitors get blocked by the blasts?"
Jomei staggered to his feet and noticed Iida doing the same as the pink cloud around them dissipated. Bakugo and Todoroki had once again firmly claimed their positions far ahead of the pack despite their mutual exchange.
He was about to jump right back into the swing of things when he realized he had no time to look behind him and see how close anyone else was to his position.
Suddenly, an explosion several times stronger than anything he'd previously witnessed was set off far behind him. Midoriya careened by, holding fast to an armor plate from a faux villain at such ludicrous speeds that it made Iida's engines at their maximum output seem lazy by comparison.
"What's this!? Midoriya's riding the explosions! I can't believe my eyes! Suddenly, Class 1-A's Midoriya Izuku is right in the running for first place!" Present Mic howled.
Midoriya spun in the air with his scrap metal surfboard as he encroached upon Bakugo and Todoroki's lead, and slammed the thing right back into the minefield the moment he could. In one fell swoop, he renewed his speed with another blast, stunned his opponents, and earned himself a spot in first – all without even a second of hesitation.
"Midoriya!?" Iida gasped.
Jomei's Quirk flared back to life. "Yeah no, not going to question where he got that idea from, but I'm not out of this yet!"
Todoroki hastily formed an icy path as a shortcut to pursue the new pack leader. Bakugo almost completely ignored his former adversary as he launched himself forward to do the same. Iida's engines roared back to life at the same time Jomei entered Light Speed again, and the pair kicked off the ground at almost the same time.
Even left behind, the battle amongst the top five was sure to be anything other than predictable.
Through sheer speed alone, Iida and Jomei circumvented the rest of the minefield as they crossed over the now-crumbling sheet of ice Todoroki had left behind. Again, Iida and Jomei were neck-and-neck as Iida only just started to rebuild his speed from scratch, and again, they both inevitably began to threaten the race leaders' positions as their speed slowly narrowed the gap.
"Would you look at what we have here?! With the top two tenacious speedsters closing the gap, and the former leading duo in hot pursuit of first place, the battle for top five is far from over, folks! Anything can happen now!" Present Mic hollered.
Jomei's legs screamed, but he could only think to press them harder. "Come on, come on, come on…"
"As the scion of the Iida family… I cannot afford mediocrity!" Iida shouted to himself, sweat gleaming from his brow.
"Come on back here, Deku!" Bakugo roared.
"A clever trick, but will the gamble work…" Todoroki murmured.
"Eraserhead! Your students have such wit, such tenacity, they aren't even letting up for a second! Just what have you been teaching them!?"
"This has nothing to do with me," Aizawa started, yet the words sounded muffled in Jomei's ears. "Each of them is driven solely by their desire to succeed. What you're seeing right now is their will to win turned into reality. When everything's on the line, what they find themselves able to do can surprise even themselves."
"So there you have it, folks! Eraserhead's just a terrible teacher!"
"I'm what?"
"Who could've imagined that the finale of this race would be a nonstop megamix of surprises!"
Todoroki continued to freeze the ground underfoot when the top five entered the tunnel leading back into the Sports Festival Stadium, only accelerating the rate in which he gained on Midoriya. Bakugo continued to send himself flying in bursts of unrelenting force. Iida and Jomei were less than a meter away from being able to nip at the heels of the three top competitors.
The sound of their actions and the light from Bakugo's and Jomei's Quirks were muffled in the darkness of the tunnel. Jomei raced toward the blinding daylight at the tunnel's end, and in the last few seconds before crossing the threshold, no one knew who'd end up on top.
A second later, they burst forth into the stadium, light and sound crashing around them, born of deafening cheers and the sun's spotlight on the first event's victors.
"And it's too close to call! We're going to have to rely on a freeze-frame to see how this event's turned out! Going back on the track… zooming and enhancing…!" Present Mic paused, and the eyes of the top five turned towards the announcer's booth as mere seconds stretched on into eternity. "First place is Midoriya Izuku! Second is Todoroki Shoto! Coming up in third… Bakugo Katsuki! Fourth! Fifth! Iida Tenya and Nishimura Jomei! What a close climax, and more are still flooding through the gates back into the stadium! A full run-down of the results coming to a Sports Festival Stadium near you!"
Jomei's and Iida's Quirks both shut down suddenly as the results of their efforts reached them. Jomei fell to the ground, hunched over on one knee as his chest heaved to recover the breath he'd spent pushing his body to its limits.
"All that… and I wind up in fifth place…" he sighed breathlessly.
Iida fell flat on his back beside him. "Nevertheless, Nishimura… I daresay that you and I were giving it our utmost and more, back there. I even thought that I was going to have to use a move I'd planned on only unveiling later in the festival…"
Both of them shifted into sitting positions as they continued to recover. "Yeah… same here."
"Truly?"
"Yeah. I'd ask what yours was, but then I'd have to tell you mine," Jomei smiled slightly. "Give it a little while. I'm sure we'll have plenty of time to bust out our best moves later."
"Indeed," Iida agreed. "Though I can say with certainty that we should bear no shame in where we're at now. We might not be in the top three… but we still stand as two of the peak performers among our peers."
Jomei just gave him a thumbs up in response.
Now that his rush of adrenaline was calming, Akiko flashed in his mind. He knew fully well that she could handle the course fine, but he wished Present Mic would announce an update already.
Jomei looked around at the other leaders. Fifth place wasn't the best, but by far it wasn't the worst either. Given how Present Mic had presented the final stretch of the race, Jomei would be more surprised if he wasn't noticed by at least a few Pro Heroes watching the Sports Festival right now. That knowledge was just enough to console him through the fact that Bakugo had still ended ahead of him.
Of course, looking at his explosive-tempered classmate now, the sheer, unbridled rage that was being expressed on his face helped too. Todoroki handled his loss marginally better, merely glaring at Midoriya with an analytical gaze before finally heading off in another direction. Midoriya, meanwhile… well, he was barely holding back a storm of tears as his success sank in, which Jomei was torn between marking as something endearing or infuriating.
'Mom, Dad… I'm not done yet. Just you guys wait…'
He turned his attention towards the finish line. Students trickled in every few seconds, some faces more familiar than others, but the rate of their arrival was slow and steady – a stark contrast against the speeds at which they streaked back into the stadium. Surprisingly, Yaoyorozu arrived among one of the later waves of competitors. The reason became abundantly clear before Jomei's brow could furrow too deeply.
"H… how could this happen…?" Yaoyorozu huffed heavily.
Mineta laughed giddily from his perch – two sticky balls fixed firmly onto the back of Yaoyorozu's unzipped sports uniform's jacket. His nose was bloody from having obviously been elbowed by his makeshift ride one too many times, but his grin was as plain to see as it was self-congratulating. "Two birds with one stone… I'm a genius…!"
Yaoyorozu took off her jacket and prepared to throw it at the ground.
"Uh-oh- gah!"
"You… are the worst!" She reprimanded, and a pink glow spread across her stomach as she created a replacement.
Jomei sighed frustratedly. "She isn't wrong…"
He was trying to keep count of the competitors exiting the tunnel, his eyes searching for Akiko when he picked up on someone saying his name far to his left. His head followed the noise soon after. The source? Three business course students, gaudy-as-hell hairstyles and all as they made conversation of their own.
"What of the one in fifth place? Nishimura? Certainly, he has more marketability than Midoriya and even some of the other runner-ups. As we've established, Midoriya may have won first place but his Quirk has yet to be exhibited in the festivities, and his approach to dangerous situations is far less than reliably predicted just yet. Bakugo and Todoroki both express marketable Quirks, but have shown less-than-stellar personality traits from what we've been able to glean from their squabbles."
"Ah, but you're forgetting that such infighting simulates the dog-eat-dog mentality heroes must have in the field in order to gain popularity," another one observed. "In fact, I'd openly argue that Iida has the best hero potential in his hero origin story out of all the first five to finish the race – as we're all no doubt aware, his older brother is Ingenium of Team Itaden, a very successful hero agency."
"It's for that very reason that I agree that Nishimura is the easiest to market out of the top five competitors," a third student intruded. "Team Itaden does indeed have a longstanding legacy and dozens of sidekicks, but it's for this very reason that Iida would suffer, as he'd be forced to compete even harder than anyone to ever distinguish himself as anything other than another hero of his family's line. Nishimura, on the other hand, doesn't appear to be in anyone's shadow, didn't appear too aggressive in regards to his strategic mindset, and he has an extremely marketable Quirk."
"Come to think of it, I agree," the second conceded. "There's a lot of brand deal potential with him, and not just in the techno music market."
The three continued babbling, and Jomei found himself at a loss. He knew his Quirk was marketable and that he was practically born with the perfect set of skills to make the most of that gift, but the way the business department spoke about him and Iida just made them sound like opportunistic vultures; which, for all intents and purposes, they were. It was far from what Jomei expected from the business department's students, but then again, it wasn't like he himself was all that well-versed in how hero agencies went about their business operations. Just more things that differed in the intricacies of his and his father's career paths, he supposed.
'Wait… they didn't beat any of us back to the stadium, so… did they not even try? Why're they even here if they aren't going to participate?'
Present Mic intruded on his thoughts. "Oh, and by the way, if any of you ravenous sports fans need refreshments, the business department's going to have you covered! Sweet and savory treats brought to you by none other than U.A.'s finest aspiring agents!"
"Well, that explains that…" Jomei sighed.
A familiar body plopped down on the grass next to him. "What explains what?"
"Akiko!" Jomei jolted. "When did you get back? I didn't see you come into the arena."
It took her a moment to respond as her breaths came under control, a clear indicator of her exertion. "Just a minute ago, actually. But what were you talking to yourself about?"
"Oh, just… the business department. Seeing them in person and how they're just using the Sports Festival as one big opportunity to analyze everything for market value, it's… weird," he answered. "Present Mic just announced they're making themselves useful selling food, or… whatever it is they want to do."
Akiko took a moment to look at the trio of business course students, who were currently on a tangent about Yaoyorozu and the value of sex appeal in hero marketing, before she returned her focus to Jomei. She even shimmied a little closer to his side to obscure herself, which Jomei had to admit was more than a little adorable. Newly determined though she may have been to become self-reliant, some habits still seemed to die hard – or so Jomei assumed since her reaction could've just been chalked up to her recognizing that she was staring at them the same time they noticed her.
Not that it made it any less endearing.
"Yeah… I suppose I could see that. Speaking of Present Mic, though, I heard that you made it into the top five! I'm happy for you!" She smiled.
"Thanks. That means a lot," he returned warmly. "But what about you? How do you think you did?"
"I… think I did pretty good. I know I'm probably not in the top ten, but I'm still happy with how I did. With how I had to juggle my Quirk and staying in front of everyone else, I think the fact that I'm still probably in the top half of the standings is a good sign, especially considering how many unknowns there still are when it comes to everyone else that finished the race, too."
"Right. I guess we'll just see where exactly you ended up when the results come in, then."
Just after that, he let himself fall onto his back on the ground so that he could relax. There'd be more events ahead of him to try and make the most out of his talents, so for now, he could easily content himself with just basking in the presence of Akiko and the sun.
Judging by the muffled crush of the patch of grass beside him, Akiko was of the exact same mindset right now.
A few minutes had passed since Jomei and Akiko had reunited in the Sports Festival Stadium, and that much time was all it took for the remaining competitors to find their way back to the field. Jomei was somewhat unsurprised when Denki and Kyoka both arrived soon after he and Akiko had let themselves fall onto the grass, but it was nonetheless comforting to hear that they'd made it through the obstacle race among the upper echelons of the dozens of students involved in the event.
Or rather, it was comforting up until Kyoka felt the need to poke them in the temples with her earphone jacks just to 'wake them up,' as she put it.
Nevertheless, the quartet was reunited once again, and it became time for everyone to be rounded back up before Midnight's platform. It seemed that the complete list of competitors that had made it through the first stage of the festival had finally been put together.
"The first game for the first years is finally over, and what a game it was! It certainly had me on the edge of my seat!" Midnight announced with a twist of her hair. "Now let's take a quick look at the standings, shall we?"
A holographic screen flared back into existence, and both the standings and the faces of the people corresponding to them when they got back into the arena were put on display.
1st: Midoriya Izuku
2nd: Todoroki Shoto
3rd: Bakugo Katsuki
4th: Iida Tenya
5th: Nishimura Jomei
The list went on, accompanied by flashy music and graphics, but Jomei focused himself solely on looking for where Akiko and his friends had ended up.
'There!'
In a blink-and-you'd miss it frame, there she was. Akiko had ended up in 12th place, behind only the physical powerhouses of Class 1-A's that were the likes of Kirishima and Ojiro – and that still put her ahead of the majority of Class 1-B's students. Denki and Kyoka popped up shortly after Yaoyorozu, who'd wound up in 17th, with the former pair placing firmly in the middle of the pack at 24th and 21st out of the top 42, respectively.
It was as the list turned from freeze-frames of the victors as they made their returns back into a bog-standard list of people and faces that it occurred to Jomei that the majority of those that had passed through the first event were all hero course students. Even if Class 1-A did better than most, the majority of the competition who had passed were from Class 1-B – though the only faces he recognized were the likes of Thad, Jean, and Tetsutetsu. The lattermost of the three had ended in 10th, with Thad only three places behind him, and Jean, peculiarly enough, wound up way back in 32nd. The only person outside the hero course that Jomei recognized was the pink-haired support course student he'd seen back at The Fall – Hatsume Mei, as the results revealed her name to be, who was in 41st.
At least she wasn't Aoyama, though. He was dead last.
"Well, I guess that's that. It looks like most of the competition's going to be people from the hero courses. Not sure if I should be surprised, but-"
"Shinso made it through!" Akiko blurted out.
Jomei did a double-take. "What?!"
"There! Look!" Akiko pointed.
He looked, and she was right. In 27th place was none other than Shinso Hitoshi, whose picture made him seem almost scarily innocuous given how little anyone seemed to know about him. Akiko was closer to Shinso than anyone Jomei had ever seen him with, and even she looked a little surprised to see where he'd placed in the standings. Sure, Shinso had been confident in his declaration of war against Class 1-A, but that didn't explain how he placed so far ahead of people like Jean, who by default must've had more going for them than someone who hadn't made it into the hero course…
Right?
"How the hell did he make it there…?" Jomei wondered.
"I don't know, but I don't see him, so I can't even ask him what happened," Akiko said. "I didn't even see him the entire time during the race!"
"Same here."
"I guess we'll just have to wait and see if we can find him later…" Akiko said.
Jomei nodded. Even if it still didn't sit right with him that he knew absolutely nothing about the sole general studies student to make it through the first event, he couldn't concern himself too deeply about what Shinso was up to right now. He'd think about Shinso if and when the time came that he had to.
For now, he had a festival to focus on.
"As you might be able to tell, only the top forty-two will advance to the next round, but don't be too let down if you didn't make the cut… we've prepared plenty of other opportunities for you to shine…" Midnight hummed, a sultry look in her eyes as she licked her lips. "Now the real fight is about to begin! The chance to fully move yourselves into the limelight! Give it your best!"
Jomei subtly shot Akiko a thumbs up, to which she returned the gesture, albeit in an even more subdued manner. Stage one of the Sports Festival had finally come to a close and all three of Jomei's companions had made it through. He counted that as more than lucky considering the stakes of the event they were all in right now. Looking over at Kyoka and Denki, Jomei noticed the pair appeared to be as determined to succeed as they were before the event even started.
It lit a fire in his stomach all over again.
Midnight cracked her whip, and a new hologram not unlike the one that decided the first event of the festival started to spin all over again. "Now, let's see what we have in store for you next? Will it be your wildest fantasies come to life? The waiting is torture, but prepare yourselves… for this!"
Denki grumbled as the new event was revealed. "A cavalry battle…? I'm terrible at those…"
"Oh, yes!" Mineta fawned.
"This isn't an individual event, I wonder how they'll split us up?" Tsu wondered as her finger wandered to her lower lip.
"Hopefully not randomly…" Akiko murmured.
"Allow me to explain.," Midnight said. She turned towards the hologram and the image shifted to now display four Pro Heroes – Thirteen, Present Mic, and someone else who was obscured by All Might's massive frame as they all held up the number one hero by his legs between them. "The participants will form teams of two to four people as they see fit. In theory, it's basically the same as a normal playground game, but there is one difference… each player has been assigned a point value based on the results from the obstacle course."
"Oh, I get it, it's another point-based system like the entrance exams… that seems pretty simple," Sato observed.
Uraraka hummed. "So that also means that every team's going to have a different point value based on which people are on it."
Akiko blinked in realization. "But it's also pretty likely that you get to choose who exactly is going to be on your team…"
"Uhuh!" Ashido chirped.
"Wait, wasn't that obvious?" Kyoka asked.
"Maybe you should shut up and let me explain things to you!" Midnight interrupted before regaining her composure. "Now then, the point assignments go up by increments of five, starting from the bottom. For example, forty-second place is worth five points, and forty-first is worth ten. And the point value assigned to the contestant in first place is… ten million!"
For a moment, one could have heard a pin drop.
"T.. t-ten million…?" Midoriya paled.
And then the eyes of everyone in the field landed solely on the winner of the first stage. In one fell swoop, Midoriya had gone from triumphant victor to a terrified target as the dual meaning behind his point value began to hit everyone. Keeping him safe would mean that those on his team would have an easy ride to victory, and the next stage, but it also meant that his partners had their work cut out for them.
He was both the biggest asset and liability anyone could even think to ally with all bundled into one neat package.
"That's right… its survival of the fittest with a chance for those at the bottom to overthrow those at the top!" Midnight cheered.
'Oh… this should be good.'
Authors Note: Huh boy… this chapter was both a blessing and a curse at the same time. The start of this chapter was an absolute blast to write since it gave me another chance to have Akiko actually make good on her potential yet still remain in-character with her via her newfound pledge to become stronger. That said… translating the chaos and smooth timings of the rest of the obstacle race was just one big oof. Not an impossible challenge to overcome, but one that was certainly more tricky than either the beginning or end of this chapter.
Speaking of, god damn do I love me some exposition departme- I mean business department students. Gives me a good segue into exploring just a tiny bit of the grander world of MHA's hero society, and a cool interaction or two along the way to boot – namely, my stumbling into Akiko being just a little accidentally shy again. As for the results themselves? Don't ya worry! I have the maths planned out, and honestly, I really did feel that where I placed the pair of OCs makes sense, in the end. I'd explain more, but I don't wanna keep you all reading my already long-winded authors note any longer than I have to. So instead…
Stay awesome! See you guys next chapter!