Weeks passed in a flash. Between your late hours of sleep from doing your art project, the weekends spent at the skating rink, and the early hours you would get up and go on your runs in the neighborhood, before you knew it, the Sports Festival was upon you.

Today.

All the days of training, all the busy work, all led up to now. All in between the dance lessons, the projects, and the fittings for your dress for the gala...you had just a few days until then. Dance lessons were canceled for you and Todoroki today and tomorrow. Then the week following next… that Friday...was the real thing. The gala.

But today was the Sports Festival. And you felt prepared, at least a little bit.

You didn't bother taking your quirk suppressants, knowing what came for you today, depending on how it would go.

You put your hair up onto a bun after your shower, deciding to skip the run this morning to try and get some extra sleep.

You dressed in your uniform, Kenta waiting outside your room for you. Father decided to take your brother with him for him to see what he would be doing when he was old enough to take over the business.

You skipped the makeup, and took a deep breath in, and out.

Today was the day you would defy everything you ever knew.

And tomorrow would be the day you would regret it.

You stepped out of your room and walked with Kenta, in his grey and navy blue suit and shined shoes, walking into the limousine where Father and Lee were waiting to drive you there.

Today was the day where you would take a stand for what you really believed. And your prayer to the gods for your safety, and your victory-as was your legacy-was one of desperation, of pleading.

And you determined that if they wouldn't help you, then you would help yourself.

.o0o.

The moment you walked into your classroom, you were ushered into the changing rooms with your gym uniform. You quickly grabbed your Hawks Brand shoes, the ones you tampered with throughout the weeks and spent hours upon hours testing them out, ensuring that they would not fail you the day you needed them most, and walked out without them on your feet. You knew what you were doing. Just no one else did.

And that's how you wanted it.

You had cleared your shoes with the school, lying your way up the chain that you would function better with this style. You felt guilty, but the higher up you went, the more you realized they didn't care if you were lying or not. As long as it wasn't cheating and permission was had, you could do whatever you wanted.

If your theory proved correct, you would not regret your decision to lie.

You avoided the hero courses and stayed to the sidelines, Cataka-San sticking to your side like glue. For now.

You were glazing over the crowd of students, as well as over the crowd, spotting your brother standing underneath the stands where Father would be observing.

Observing you.

Do not embarrass our family name.

You shook your head. You would not.

And even if you did, you would make it known that you had no intention of going down in history as a failure.

No matter what your father would tell you.

You caught the eyes of a red-and-white-haired man, and you quickly looked away. You didn't want him suspecting anything, despite everything you've gone through. You were the only one who knew about this, the only one who could execute this properly.

If it went the way you planned.

The crowd and the speakers, the special effects as well and the enthusiasm all surprised you. You had seen it on the television whenever Father wasn't home for it, but you had forgotten what it was like-You had no idea what it was like to be immersed in it, to be the focal point of it.

It was surreal. And nerve wracking.

One of your instructors, Midnight, appeared onstage. You then fully realized how...showy her outfit was, and cringed for your younger brother, and no doubt other family members watching.

"And now," she announced, "A word from the highest scoring student in the entrance exam-Bakugo Katsuki!"

"Katsuki?" you said aloud, surprised.

Cataka looked at you. "Hm?"

You looked at her quickly. "Oh, uh," you trailed off, looking away and at the stage, where a blonde was walking up to the microphone.

"Oh! Did you say that because that's the name of Japanese Yuri? From Yuri on Ice?"

Oh yeah, you forgot about that detail. But you lied through your teeth, again. "Yes, it caught me by surprise."

"I just wanna say," you heard a gruff voice over the speakers. "Is I'm going to win. You're just stepping stones."

Ah, so the aggressive type. Much like another Katsuki you knew, you thought, looking to where your father sat.

The students rose in an uproar, shouts and insults careening over the heads of all the students.

"You can't say that!"

"That's so stupid!"

"So much for the hero course!"

"You're making us look bad!"

You didn't know how you thought of him right now, and remained quiet with Cataka, but thought he looked terribly familiar. You probably met him in the halls, and recognized him from passing. The swagger was hard to miss.

You paid clear attention to your teacher, the rules of the game, and the obstacle course.

Around the grounds. Stay on the track.

And when you saw your fiancé start walking to the front of the line before instructions were over, you realized your theory would prove to be correct.

You followed him, keeping your distance, but keeping up with him.

"On your mark!"

You clipped the metal blades onto your shoes.

"Get set!"

You bounced on them, gaining your balance.

"GO!"

You took off.

.o0o.

Unfortunately, the tunnel was too small for everyone to fit into.

You felt anxiety crawling up your chest. How are you going to make it through?

Then it happened. What you thought would happen. What you were betting your success on-it happened.

The ground froze.

Todoroki used his quirk to his advantage. Just like you bet on. Which was why your favorite shoes turned into ice skates.

You jumped onto the ice, skating and weaving through the people frozen to the ground in panic.

You skated, faster and faster-leapt over the people on the ground, struggling to free their feet.

You didn't have that issue.

You heard the crowd from behind you, screaming and cheering. You blotted it out.

You skidded to a halt at seeing the meta robots towering over you-encased in ice.

Todoroki was definitely here.

The metal was creaking and groaning, the shadows of them towering over you shifting closer, closer, closer-

You wasted no time, gaining speed as you skated and weaved through the legs of the robots.

Make it, make it, make it, make it-

The crash behind you shook the ground, but you didn't let it shake you as ice turned into solid ground.

You ran, on the skates you made.

Right at the moment, your system was going purely on adrenaline. That, and the breakfast bar your sister stole from your father's stash. You were so...proud that you had made it even this far, the only person ahead of you in plain sight…

Your forte was figure skating. Not speed. Those times you spent at the skating rink on the weekends were working to change that. Because you had nothing to enable you to win. No real strength, no skill, no experience, nothing. Just your endurance.

And you built on it. And built on it. And increasd your speed. And you balance. And your stamina. Why else did father think that you were going to run outside every day at 5:00 A.M.?

Why did he think you were using the workout bench that he had bought for Kenta? Just enough for you to hold yourself up for a decent amount of time. You knew about the tightrope, you figured that the best course of action would be to arm-over-arm carry yourself to the other side. You were balanced, but not that balanced. You would need some upper body strength to pull that off.

Your plan was working. It went exactly how you thought it would. Todoroki, being so powerful with his quirk, would take the lead. How he did it, you didn't know, but he would use his ice to his advantage to get ahead, and prevent others from running ahead of him.

But you knew how to skate. So you would use him to your advantage, as evil as it sounded.

You were going to cross the finish line, at the very least.

Why?

To defy everything you knew?

The thought broke your concentration, and your ankle twisted. You fell and rolled, and skidded on the dirt.

You crawled your way back up, kicking off the ice skates from your shoes.

You could balance in ice without skates just as easily as with them. You started booking it, now third place behind the blonde-Katsuki-and Todoroki.

You breathed in and out. In...and out…

You felt the speed in your feet, the closeness of the other contestants as you passed them both in turn.

"Oi!" you heard a shout above you. You kept running.

You stopped at the edge of the canyon with pillars and ropes connecting, like some sick spiders web, and glanced down at the distance. About how it would feel to slip and fall, most likely to your death.

Then your mind wandered: what was the death toll for participants of the Sports Festival?

Damnit, Hanae! Why are you thinking about that?!

You looked at the participants behind you, more and more rushing towards you, one zooming past you, you almost fell in.

Then, you did something purely on impulse.

You took off your gym shirt, leaving yourself in your black tank-top. You held it tightly in your hands, lowering yourself to the tightrope, and looping the short over it before jumping-

Oh God, you held yourself up.

You held yourself up.

You held yourself up.

Don't mess it up now, Hanae. Get to the other side.

You swung your body, and your arms, lifting and scooting yourself like a stuck zipline across the tightrope.

"She's first!" you heard the muffled screams from the arena fill the ravine. "She's first!"

Suddenly, you were stopped. Cold surrounded you, but you could move your body. Just not across the line.

You were losing your grip-

The ice coated your gym shirt, your movement stopped.

Ice. Todoroki-

You could do this.

You activated your quirk in your hands, melting some of the ice to make a spot for your hand to go.

You were stuck.

Your hand grappled at the spots you made in the ice.

You tried to lift yourself... up and across…

You dangled down again, your grip on the ice sliding.

You were going to fall.

"Here."

You looked up at the voice that just called to you.

He had purple hair, and a face that looked like it needed more sleep than the moon. His hand was stretched out to you.

You hesitated when grabbing it, since your quirk was activated and hot.

"I can't," you strained.

"What? Just give me your hand!"

"My quirk-ah!" you slipped again.

"God-" he bent down on the ice and grabbed you by your shoulders, and arm, dragging you up from the ice. When your legs got a step to stand on, you kicked up to help him out.

You landed on top of him, and backed away as quickly as you could.

"My sincerest apologies," you said quickly, noticing how the fabric of his gym uniform was singed where you grabbed it. "Th-Thank you, Thank you very much!"

And you booked it.

Your guilt was rising for just leaving him, but you knew that you had to move fast, or you weren't going to make it.

You looked at the pillar, standing, looking for Todoroki's pathway with the ice.

You found it, and jumped into it. At least the ropes were not as unstable as they had been previously.

A large explosion sounded, with bright flashing lights ahead.

This was it.

Your heart was pounding, your body was overheating, your hands must have been glowing by now, from the way you heard people behind you gasp in shock or awe.

You felt so faint, so lightheaded.

No. You had to make it. Push your limits, Hanae. You can do it.

With a renewed speed and will you ran through the minefield, knowing from the phone conversation your father had that they were neither dangerous or damaging, but they were loud and powerful.

You ran across the field, not minding the mines you stepped on. You were going fast enough to run past them.

If you could only...keep up…

Push, push a little farther.

A little...

Your quirk was overtaking your body. Even the sun beating down on you felt like the scorch of a hot iron on your skin.

A little farther...A little farther!

Your head felt light, your eyes heavy-

No. You will finish this. You would make it across the finish line.

Pushing yourself, you moved up in your places.

You passed...one, two, three, five, six, nine people.

You made it back to the Sports festival arena.

"Nazumi Hanae is in Fifth Place! Fifth Place! Never have I ever seen a run like that!"

You slowed your steps, your breathing.

You caught sight of red and white-

Then felt yourself falling to the ground. It all went black.

.o0o.

A/N: Triple Update...sorry for the wait, you guys :)