CHAPTER VIII
Three days had gone by and U.A. had opened again after the U.S.J. incident to a common sight within Class 1-A's homeroom. Almost everyone had taken the time to rationalize exactly what had happened and how Percy had resolved the issue in particular and they were chatting about the news coverage of the attack.
Most of them were excited and surprised that they were on T.V. as if they were celebrities, and all of them except Percy discussed how their parents had reacted to the news that their children had been involved in a villain attack. Luckily, it was a freak occurrence, so none of the parents were hard pressed to pull their children from the hero course and allowed them to continue their pursuit of their dreams.
Of course, Percy nor his guardian were worried in the slightest, so the demigod was lounging comfortably in his hammock while the others waited for Aizawa to start the class. Soon enough, the man in question closed in on the classroom through Percy's radar and he put away his hammock and sat down at his desk. The others noticed the action and similarly quieted down in their seats just as the door opened.
Aizawa shuffled in with his arm still in a sling for one final day, but the cast had been removed. "Good. You're learning," Aizawa said before Tsu spoke up.
"It's good to see you in better health Aizawa-sensei," she said and Aizawa grunted noncommittally in reply.
"Recovery Girl went overboard on the days off. I probably don't need the sling, but I'd rather not get hit by her cane again," he answered before a serious expression took over his features.
"Your fight isn't over," he intoned and the class (save Percy) panicked. They had just gotten through a villain attack relatively unscathed, but they were by no means ready for anything remotely similar. Naturally, Percy snorted in amusement at his adoptive fathers penchant for theatrics, but the others didn't hear him over their panic.
"The Sports Festival is in two weeks."
Immediately, the tension evaporated and the excited chattering the class was prone to returned in an increased fervor. Aizawa activated his quirk after it got out of hand, but Iida still had concerns.
"Sensei, is it a good idea to have the festival so quickly after the attack?" he asked with his arm chopping motions.
"W-What if villains a-attack again?!" Mineta screeched in panic, making most of the others uneasy.
"The staff discussed it and we've decided to continue as scheduled to show the villains and the public that we haven't been dissuaded in the slightest. On top of that, security will be increased for the event and it's unlikely any villains would stage a direct attack with so many pros gathered in one place," Aizawa told them and the panic subsided as everyone saw the logic behind their teacher's words.
With no further questions, Aizawa gave them the green light to do whatever they wished for the remainder of homeroom before he crawled into his sleeping bag. Percy followed suit into his hammock shortly after.
LINEBREAK
Classes were just as boring as they had been before the villain attack if perhaps a little harder to focus on than normal, and lunch had come around quickly. Most of the class shuffled out toward the cafeteria as Percy yawned and slided up next to Midoriya to join him, Uraraka, Iida, and Tsu, but when the door opened, they saw All Might laying on the ground in a weird pose.
"I AM HERE IN A WEIRD POSE!" All Might stated the obvious and got a snort of amusement from Percy having already sensed the buffoon.
"YOUNG MIDORIYA! WOULD YOU," All Might started to say as he sprang to his feet and pulled a bento out from behind his back. "JOIN ME FOR LUNCH?"
Uraraka couldn't contain her laughter at the ridiculousness of the Symbol of Peace acting like a schoolgirl and Percy shook his head in amusement as he patted the shrub head on the shoulder on his way to the cafeteria. The others split up from there, but All Might's attention in the greenette didn't go unnoticed by a particularly icy hot angsty boy.
Once the two OFA users were alone in All Might's office, he debuffed and exhaled heavily.
"Sorry to pull you away from your friends Young Midoriya, but I wanted to talk with you about the incident since we hadn't gotten a chance yet," Yagi told Midoriya who nodded in understanding as they both pulled out their food.
"It was… terrifying. It started off normal and even when we were separated, there was fear, but the adrenaline allowed me to make a snap decision on how to get out of the Shipwreck Zone," Midoriya told his mentor between bites. Yagi just nodded and let his successor work his way through his account of the ordeal.
"When we got to the plaza and saw both Aizawa and Nomu… it was like it became very real at that moment. The danger was always there, but seeing Aizawa hurt and that- that monster," Midoriya continued, but trailed off.
"There was a moment right after Percy killed Nomu… Shigaraki released so much bloodlust and hate. I couldn't move. I thought that we were going to die, and it wasn't even directed at me," Midoriya finished with a shiver.
"Indeed. This was something none of you should have dealt with and I'm remarkably thankful for Young Percy's presence and actions. Had he not been there…," Yagi trailed off and quickly shook the thought from his head.
"Let's not think about that. We watched the security tapes and I'm very impressed with you, my boy. You handled yourself well and I'm proud of you," Yagi told his successor and a slight gathering of tears appeared in Midoriya's eyes at the praise from his idol, but they were gone just as quickly.
"It is thanks to you all and Young Percy that no one was seriously injured and my time limit didn't reduce in the slightest. Now," Yagi said before he switched gears and Midoriya adopted a serious look.
"The Sports Festival is fast approaching and it is a great opportunity. I want you to seize it. Take the opportunity to show the world that YOU ARE HERE!" Yagi told him before he buffed up into All Might at the end of his statement.
Midoriya, thanks to his confidence increasing from his time and training with Percy, gave his predecessor and idol an excited and confident smirk.
"Yes sir."
LINEBREAK
The rest of the day passed by without incident and the final bell rang to dismiss the students for their two week long self training period for the festival. Unfortunately, it appeared that the other students had waited until the end of the day to cause a ruckus.
"W-What the-," Uraraka exclaimed as he opened the door and revealed their classroom surrounded by a mass of students. The smarter ones immediately knew what they were gathered for, but apparently the others were too caught off guard to think properly.
"What is your business with our class?" Iida tried to ask respectfully, making Percy snort before Bakugo stepped forward.
"Isn't it obvious? They came to see what real heroes look like. They're scouting out the competition," he growled before his trademarked shouting came back in full force. "OUTTA MY WAY EXTRAS! I DON'T HAVE TIME TO DEAL WITH SHITTY CANNON FODDER!"
As the gathered students complained about Bakugo and Iida attempted to reprimand him, Bakugo had walked off with Kirishima close behind at the same time that Percy and a indigo-haired scarecrow stepped forward. Percy yawned though the other boy looked like he should've been the one doing so.
"So this is the Hero Course Class 1-A. If you're all as arrogant as that ash-blonde kid, then I'm pretty disillusioned," the indigo-haired kid drawled, making Percy blink sleepily and look at him. Percy recognized him immediately as Shinso Hitoshi. The kid with a Brainwashing quirk that was wasting his potential.
"Okay," Percy said with clear disinterest.
"You see in General Studies; it's full of students who couldn't quite make it into the Hero Course. We weren't blessed with 'flashy heroic' quirks like you all," Shinso continued his posturing.
Percy offered a "Mhm".
"But if we do well enough in the Sports Festival, then we can petition for a spot in the Hero Course. So consider this a declaration of war; if you're not careful, we'll sweep the rug right out from underneath you," Shinso finished to see Percy picking at his ear with his pinky.
"Okay."
Percy noticed real emotion on Shinso's face for the first time at the blatant disrespect and was pleased. It showed Percy that the insomniac was serious about fighting his way into the Hero Course.
"Are you even taking me seriously?!" Shinso snapped and Percy blinked at him lazily.
"Of course not," the demigod replied with zero interest, making the boy balk for a moment.
"You're over here complaining about how life isn't fair because of the quirk you were given and I can tell just by looking at you that you didn't even try to overcome your weaknesses," Percy began to lecture and the others gathered quieted down to hear him.
"You sat back with your thumb up your ass, bitching and moaning over a quirk that, given your appearance, I would believe to be some kind of mental quirk that's completely ineffective against robots instead of training your body to overcome that weakness. Why would I take your threat seriously when it's clear that you didn't take your training for trying to be a hero seriously?" Percy finished as he walked up to the kid and patted his shoulder. His next words were spoken in a whisper so only Shinso would hear them.
"I know who you are and what your quirk is. You have potential - more than at least a few of my classmates, but you're wasting it by complaining. You have two weeks to even remotely develop some sort of fighting style and body strength; I suggest you take that seriously," Percy whispered and walked off to find Aizawa so they could head home.
As much as Shinso wanted to argue against Percy's words, he couldn't. He knew that life was unfair given by how he was treated as a villain for his quirk since it developed. Shinso thought briefly to his idol, Eraserhead, and how his quirk would have been ineffective against the robots from the Entrance Exam as well. Eraserhead wouldn't have complained. He would've trained even harder and overcome his limitations.
Shinso was so caught up in his thoughts on those words that he didn't even hear the student from Class 1-B make his declaration of war as well. He had work to do after all.
LINEBREAK
"What do you mean I can't train with you?!" Midoriya nearly screeched at the gate after they had moved past the mob of students that were scouting the competition. The two brothers got some weird looks from the people passing by, but Percy just chuckled fondly.
"I mean that you can't train with me. This is a competition, Shrub-Head; you're on your own," Percy told him and patted him on the shoulder a few times before he headed off to find Aizawa.
"Yo, Hobo-Man," Percy greeted casually once he found the man in question. The man simply grunted in response without looking up from the last few papers he was reviewing.
"What is it, Problem Child?" he asked bluntly as he finally looked up.
"I'm going to be scarce around these parts until the Sports Festival. I'm gonna train at the bottom of the ocean to increase my base strength," Percy told Aizawa and the man just blinked in response.
"Not sure that's even necessary, but alright," he finally said with a snort and waved his adoptive kid off.
That was precisely how Percy spent the majority of his two-week training period. Normally, his lineage left him immune to the effects of the pressure at the depths of his father's domain, but Percy easily willed the pressure to be felt to achieve a continuous strain on his body and build his strength further.
When he wasn't training at the bottom of the sea, Percy was constantly in his "Overdrive" state to push its boundaries even further. Logically, he knew that he had absolutely no need for that level of speed and power during the Sports Festival, he knew that the higher the percentage of OFA that Midoriya mastered, the more it would be necessary to keep up with his little brother.
Midoriya's training consisted of much more mundane affairs with him continuing the same training he and Percy had been doing already, but at a higher intensity. He was already approaching the 20% mark with no strain on his body for a limited time, but Midoriya's training pushed him even closer. Besides that, Midoriya typically shadow boxed to train his fighting style, but got a few spars in with his mentor as well.
The brief training period for the students came and went quickly and the two protagonists and their classmates were in the prep room waiting for the opening ceremony of the festival to begin. As he always was, Percy was relaxing in his hammock as he pondered on exactly how much effort he was going to put into the festival. He knew full well that he could blow the competition out of the water, but he didn't think it was fair to the others since they were on entirely different levels.
On the other hand, the world was the furthest thing from fair and he knew he couldn't baby them. At least not forever. He was also feeling lazy and the idea of broadcasting everyone's abilities to the public seemed entirely counterproductive to future hero work. Yet, part of his mind was warring against that because he truly was competitive by nature.
As all those thoughts were clashing in the demigod's head, he subconsciously listened in on his classmates and their complaints about their lack of costumes, their nerves, and how the events would play out. It wasn't until he noticed Todoroki approaching him that he snapped out of his thoughts when everyone quieted down to watch the exchange.
"Aizawa," Todoroki said and Percy cracked a single eye open and hummed to acknowledge him.
"I think it's safe to say that you are easily the strongest here," Todoroki started and Percy internally snorted at the blunt delivery.
"Even so, I will defeat you," Todoroki finished and Percy couldn't suppress his snort anymore.
Lazily closing his eye to bask in the comfort of his hammock once more, Percy leveled with the kid.
"You are the least threatening person to me in this entire festival the way you are now. Everyone else has a better chance of beating me than the current you, Candy Cane-kun."
Todoroki's eyes flashed in anger and some of his other classmates sucked in a breath at the blunt dismissal, but none of them refuted it. It was hard to disagree with Percy after he handley trumped all of Todoroki's ice effortlessly in the battle training.
Before Kirishima could step up and in between the two, Percy yawned and rose from his hammock, packed it away in his tracksuit, and cracked his neck.
"If you want me to take you seriously, then you know what you have to do," Percy told him and ignored the boy's glare. "Otherwise, if you keep looking at the top, you'll miss the ones you claim to be behind you nipping at your ankles."
"Whoa! Easy bros! You can worry about all that during the festival," Kirishima said, only for Todoroki to ignore him and walk away, so he patted Percy on the shoulder instead.
"Geez, Perce! Your muscles are even denser than before the U.S.J.! What kind of training did you do during those two weeks?" Kirishima asked with a big toothy grin, but his question about training and the previous minor confrontation with Todoroki had everyone's attention still on Percy.
"Same stuff I always do just at the bottom of the ocean," Percy shrugged lightly in reply, but everyone had gone silent. Percy blinked and looked at everyone's utterly bewildered faces.
"What?" he asked in confusion.
"You did our normal workout routine. At the bottom of the ocean," Midoroya stated slowly in disbelief.
"Yeah. I figured I'd work under the increased pressure the same way we strap weights to ourselves," Percy replied again, not fully grasping what was so outrageous about it.
"Percy… h-how deep did you go?" Midoriya asked, seemingly for everyone else's benefit.
"Ehh, 1000 meters give or take," Percy answered with another shrug. Everyone gaped and blinked at him again.
"How though?" Momo asked and Percy finally caught on to what they meant.
"Oh. I can breathe underwater. Didn't I tell you all that?" Percy replied with a tilt of his head.
They all collapsed in a typical anime sweatdrop.
LINEBREAK
"WHAT'S UP YOU MOVERS AND SHAKERS OUT THERE?! I'M HERE TO SERVE AS YOUR MAIN DJ AND COMMENTATOR TODAY! SAY 'HEYYYY!'," Present Mic's rather obnoxious voice cried out through the stadium as the Sports Festival opening ceremony began.
Aizawa really had no desire to be next to the man in the commentators' booth, but he got roped into it anyway. Truthfully, he wanted to sleep his entire day away, but Rat Satan wouldn't let him and Mic eventually dragged him along for the ride.
"ALONGSIDE ME TODAY IS UNDERGROUND PRO HERO, ERASERHEAD!" Mic screamed to the sound of more cheers from the crowd, making Aizawa groan.
"Please stop screaming Mic. Why am I even here again?" Aizawa muttered into the microphone in front of him, but Mic just ignored him.
"LET'S GET STARTED! HERE THEY COME, THEY SURVIVED A VILLAIN ATTACK AND HAVE BEEN THE TALK OF THE TOWN: HERO CLASS 1-A!" Mic shouted as Aizawa's class emerged from the tunnel. Aizawa rolled his eyes at the awed looks on some of his students' faces at the sheer sight of so many people gathered to watch them. It was why he was an underground hero. He then turned to his own problem child and audibly snorted. The kid had already set up his hammock on two pillars of ice and was lounging.
That sight told him all he needed to know about how the festival would go. The two of them were close, so seeing the man so laid back practically screamed to Aizawa that Percy was going to do enough to make it to the next round. As much as he wanted to reprimand Percy for being lazy, Aizawa knew that Problem Child's full ability would be absolutely overkill, save for a few circumstances. He knew that Percy was competitive though, so the demigod would respond to his opponents in kind when he needed to.
"THEY HAVEN'T GOT NEARLY AS MUCH SCREEN TIME, BUT STILL VERY CAPABLE: HERO CLASS 1-B!" Mic continued to introduce the classes and Percy's eyes cracked open immediately at a familiar presence.
'Who the hell?' he thought before he immediately sighted a girl from the other hero course class. She was a cute girl, Percy supposed, with long blonde hair and big doe eyes, but he knew why she felt familiar. The two large horns attached to her head and the hooves were a dead giveaway.
'A horse quirk? Interesting. I wonder if I can communicate telepathically like I used to,' Percy thought before closing his eyes and relaxing again. She had started to look around her classmates questioningly, confirming to Percy that she could indeed hear him and he didn't want to look suspicious. His other abilities (save shattering the air like Whitebeard [AN: Obviously this is for effect, but it's a bitchin effect so it's included.]) could easily be disguised as a high degree of control over water molecules, but communicating with horses would raise quite a few red flags.
"PLEASE WELCOME OUR CHIEF UMPIRE FOR THIS YEAR'S FIRST YEAR SPORTS FESTIVAL, THE R-RATED HEROINE: MIDNIGHT!" Mic called out as the applause (specifically the men) thundered for the dominatrix heroine. All of this was promptly ignored by Percy as he still lounged away in his hammock, completely uncaring of the looks and comments he was receiving. He did, however, materialize a tendril of water to smack Mineta and Kaminari for their comments about the woman.
"Thank you all! Before we get started with revealing the first event, we have the player's pledge. Please welcome the first student recommended by Principal Nezu himself, Aizawa Perseus!" Midnight announced with a sultry smirk directed to the demigod whose eyes snapped open at the comment and sat upright. He looked directly at Midnight to see her absolute amusement before giving her the dryest look she'd ever seen.
Percy knew exactly why he was asked to do the pledge. He hung out with Rat Satan a lot after his situation was settled in and he told the chimera his story. They would have tea and discuss the differences of their worlds, their experiences with humans (mortals in Percy's case), and hero philosophy. Actually, they shared very similar views on the last topic and Nezu's desire for change despite the Board of Directors for U.A. and the Hero Association's firm pushback.
He wanted Percy to make a statement.
Percy couldn't really blame the rat for essentially throwing him under the bus like he did. It was a platform that could and should be used given the opportunity, but he still didn't like it. Percy also believed it was revenge for the harmless prank he played on the rat a week ago.
Percy grabbed the microphone from Midnight, completely ignoring the woman's antics, and muttered under his breath so the microphone could just barely pick it up.
"You swap Rat Satan's sugar with salt one time, and this is the shit he makes you do."
Students and audience members openly gaped at the nickname and the fact that he had the balls to prank the principal. Ignoring the groan from Aizawa in the booth, Percy heaved a heavy sigh before he began.
"Thank you all for gathering today or tuning in at home to witness this opportunity," he began and looked amongst the crowd and all the heroes gathered as they gave him polite applause.
"That being said, all of you current pro heroes need to pull your heads out of your asses," Percy stated bluntly.
Present Mic choked on his spit in the booth and Percy was sure he could hear Nezu's maniacal laughter from where he was watching the third years compete. The students in front of him gasped in disbelief, as did some of the crowd, but Percy waited for them to register his words.
Immediately, the outrage started and the audience began to boo. Some of the heroes started spewing insults at him, but Percy didn't care. He used his pinky to pick at his ear and let them get it out of their system a little before he put his hand up for silence that came a few moments later.
"All Might is undoubtedly a great hero, if a bit thick-headed," Percy said and still ignored the reactions he got. Some of the smarter heroes were starting to get curious as to why he was saying what he was though.
"But he is still a mortal man. He is human; he has limits and barriers that he cannot surpass," Percy told them and the protests had finally died down as they all began to listen intently.
"He will not be around forever, and yet society is still relying on a single pillar; a single man that is subject to age like the rest of us," he looked at all of the heroes in the crowd again.
"So you pro heroes need to step it up. This is a call to action; become a pillar yourselves to support society so that when one of you falls, society doesn't fall with you."
The heroes in the crowd finally understood what Percy was going for and they agreed. Subconsciously, they all knew that All Might wouldn't be around forever; it was terrifying to think about. But Percy's words struck a chord with them and they felt the need to be better, to train harder so they could uphold the ideals in a similar manner to the Symbol of Peace.
"To all the students in hero courses around the country and those of you that wish to transfer in: train even harder. Become faster; become stronger so that when it's our turn to replace our predecessors, the pillars that uphold society are even stronger," Percy continued as he looked at a few of the cameras around the stadium and his fellow competitors with seriousness yet sincerity. He received surprised looks from the general education and support departments and determined looks from the hero course classes.
"And to those hero hopefuls out there waiting for your turn, train even harder than us. Flashy quirk, weak quirk, 'villainous' quirk, or no quirk at all - that bullshit doesn't matter. Train to become even faster, even stronger; train to become even better," Percy said before looking directly into a camera with a smirk, offering a hand.
"And I'll be saving a spot for you at the top."
There was a brief pause of silence as Percy tossed the microphone to Midnight and walked off the stage before the crowd erupted into cheers and applause. Percy gave a small smile to the comments and pats on the back from his peers, but otherwise didn't comment. He was thankful that he was waterproof for Kirishima's particularly wet hug of "manliness".
Yet, he had no idea how much he had just inspired the population. Children across the country, and even some overseas that tuned into the festival, had just had a passionate fire ignited within their souls. Their heroic drives seemingly entirely renewed. And quirkless children, no matter how few there were in that day and age, felt hope for the first time in a very long time. Percy had inadvertently become a champion of the people without even knowing it, even if he couldn't care less about what they thought.
"Such a youthful and passionate speech TURNS. ME. ON!" Midnight shouted and rubbed her thighs together, much to Percy's dismay, before she spun the wheel of events and announced the first to be an obstacle race.
As the participants gathered in the tunnel, three of them were able to understand the last words Percy spoke.
"I'll be saving a spot for you at the top."
Bakugo, Midoriya, and Todoroki all caught onto the hidden meaning and shared a collective thought.
'He's already claiming himself to be at the top spot, but I'm coming for it anyway!'
Chapter VIII End
AN: Sorry for the short chapter and the update that took forever. Work has been nuts. I'll get to these asap with probable a chapter for the race and cavalry battle, and then multiple for the 1v1.