Having evaded the League of Villains yet again, Team Midoriya and the rest of the participants formed themselves a little convoy, with Team Midoriya's Mack CF taking the lead as they crossed into California.
"Let's see…"
Iida rifled through the tapes, not particularly sure of what to choose next. At random, he chose John Stewart's Bombs Away Dream Babies and popped it in the boombox. A few seconds after hitting "PLAY", the cab filled up with the sound of "Gold". Once the beat really got going, Tsu just couldn't help but air drum to the song. Similarly, Deku put a little extra pressure on the accelerator. Though they were many miles away from Kanan Road, the song didn't have any less spirit to them. Still trying to focus on the road ahead, Deku found himself increasingly drawn to the beauty of the Mojave Desert. With every mile he traveled, he felt increasingly happy that he made it this far in the famous Cannonball Run and increasingly confident about his ability to win the race and save UA. At this point, he didn't care too much if he didn't place first. As long as Team Bakugo, Team Todoroki or another team of his classmates placed first and used the money to fund UA, he would feel that all the time and money was well-invested.
On Route 60, Team Midoriya was smoking into Los Angeles to the sound of "L.A. Woman" by The Doors, with the rest of the Cannonballers in hot pursuit. If Deku thought Chicago was nice, he found LA to be a real treat, and he put down as much pedal as he possibly could while hitting the siren and airhorns while keeping the lights burning like Abbie as he took Route 10. This was it: after more than a day's worth of hard driving, he was getting that much closer to winning the Cannonball Run and consequently winning the money needed to save UA. He had an easier time of getting around the freeway than the other teams thanks to the Mack's warning equipment. By the time they reached Santa Monica, every team had their pedals to the proverbial metal, wanting the prize more badly than everybody else.
Finally, after exiting onto 4th Street and turning onto Colorado Ave, everybody came to the famous Santa Monica Pier. Though their rig wasn't the best at braking, Deku did his best to bring it to a stop, and after that, him and the rest of his team hit the ground running. Giving One For All as much power as he feasibly could, Deku ran for the card reader. Unfortunately for him, Todoroki took notice of this and froze him with his ice power.
"URARAKA…CATCH!"
Before he was immobilized, Deku managed to throw his card to Uraraka, who caught it and floated on to the card reader. Unfortunately for her, Kacchan blasted past her with his explosive power, ready to win it all. He reached the card reader first.
"All right!" said Kacchan. "Chew on this, losers!"
Kacchan swiped his card. Unfortunately for him, a red light came on and a buzzer sounded, indicating that there was an error reading his card.
"WHAT THE HELL!?"
Kacchan swiped his card again, and just like before, the red light came on and the buzzer sounded.
"GODDAMN SON OF A…!"
Kacchan made a third attempt to swipe his card. Again, there was an error.
"WORK, YOU PIECE OF…!"
Before Kacchan could get a fourth attempt at swiping his card, Uraraka pushed him out of the way and swiped the card that Deku had given to her. This time, a green light came on and a high-pitched beep sound came out, indicating success.
"YAY!" Uraraka threw her hands up. "We did it!"
Growling, Kacchan swiped his card a fourth time, and this time, it worked.
"OH, SO NOW IT WORKS!?" Kacchan chucked his card on the ground. "RIPOFF!"
Eventually, every team got to swipe their cards, and when the race was over and Deku was unfrozen, they reported to a stage that had been constructed on the pier for the victory celebrations. Here, Yock's friend Smeve Stith was serving as the Master of Ceremonies.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the latest Cannonball Run has come to its conclusion," said Smeve, "so without further ado, we bring you the top three finishers! In third place, driving a 1977 GMC van…it's Team Todoroki!"
Everyone cheered them on.
"In second place, driving a 1979 Pontiac Trans Am…it's Team Bakugo!"
This time, everyone but Kacchan – who had his arms crossed – cheered.
"And in first place, our champions, driving a 1975 Mack fire engine…it's Team Midoriya!"
Upon hearing this announcement, everyone but Kacchan cheered more loudly than they'd done before. Deku and Uraraka hugged each other, as did Iida and Tsu. When they were done laying their affections on each other, the members of Team Midoriya came forward to pose with the obligatory giant check, still dressed in their turnout gear and leatherheads. The resulting picture would forever go down in Cannonball history, and Deku was really proud of himself.
"DEKU…!"
Upon noticing an angry Kacchan parting the crowd like the Red Sea, Deku scrambled to get away. Unfortunately for him, Kacchan was on him rather quickly, spun him around by the shoulder, grabbed him by the collar and raised his right fist at him.
"I AM GOING TO PUNCH YOU IN THE MOUTH!" yelled Kacchan.
Deku gritted his teeth and trembled as he anticipated such a thing.
"With my own mouth…" Kacchan relaxed his stance and pointed at his mouth.
"Huh?" Deku raised an eyebrow.
"…Softly…"
"Kacchan?"
"…'Cause I like you." Kacchan smiled.
Deku smiled, and his eyes shone brightly at the possibility that his number-one rival really did like him after all.
"WOW!" said Deku. "Really?"
"Nope!" Still smiling, Kacchan drew his fist back. "I'M JUST SCREWIN' WITH YA, YOU SILLY-HAIRED BITCH!"
Deku gulped and squinched his eyes as he tried to brace himself for the inevitable.
"BAKUGO!"
"Huh!?"
Kacchan kept his fist up, but nevertheless turned around to see who'd addressed him: it was All Might.
"That is inexcusable behavior!" said All Might.
"So!?" said Kacchan. "That guy cheated! He deserves it!"
"This 'silly-haired bitch' – as you so beautifully termed him – worked hard to ensure that future heroes such as yourself can go on to get a great education and become one of the world's great protectors!"
"THAT STILL DOESN'T EXCUSE THE FACT THAT HE CHEATED!"
"Now now, young Midoriya played just as fair as the rest of the contestants in this race! Now go on, kiss him like the good little gay boy you are!"
Kacchan growled and lowered his fist. "Fine…"
Without question, Kacchan kissed Deku. Though initially shocked, Deku grew to enjoy the gesture and wrapped his arms tightly around Kacchan. Never in a million years did he imagine that he'd ever get such an affectionate gesture from his rival, even if the latter was goaded into it. Even so, he felt like the most deserving person in the world for all the hard work he'd put in. However, Uraraka didn't see it that way, and she crossed her arms and had an angry look on her face from seeing what those two were doing. Todoroki reacted similarly. On the other hand, All Might kept smiling, proud of how far they'd come in their quest to become heroes.
"A little smokage!" said Quakeman. "OWWWWWWWW!"
"Huh…?" said All Might. "Wha…!?" Still smiling, he looked around and noticed that he was indeed giving off smoke. "I…just remembered I left the oven on at home!"
All Might ran away before anyone could see him change back into regular old Toshinori Yagi. Meanwhile, Lori and Judy ganged up on Chumpo, as did a few other reporters.
"Superintendent Chumpo, what do you have to say about police involvement in the Cannonball Run?" asked Lori.
"Did you deliberately send a special task force to arrest the participants of the race?" asked Judy.
Joe raised his hands to keep the reporters at bay. "I can neither confirm nor deny that measures weren't not taken against the participants of the Cannonball Run."
"But surely, someone has to be accountable for police actions against the racers?" said Gottfried Phelps of ABC7 Los Angeles.
"Were police authorized to use deadly force to apprehend those that they suspected of being involved?" asked Nadir Travis of KTLA 5.
"One question at a time, please!" said Chumpo.
While the racers were celebrating and reporters were covering, Deku was feeling fine. Even if not all the methods he'd used were entirely above board, the fact that he'd succeeded in saving something that not only mattered to him, but to others was something that he could be proud of.
A/N: Special thanks to DeviantArt user Kozekito for inspiring the exchange between Deku and Kacchan!
Criticism is gold. Negativity and nitpicking are pyrite.