("Underlined text" is supposed to be read as Sign Language. "Italicized text" is used only for Misaki's Dad's quirk. "Bold Text" is used for messages Misaki types out.)
Chapter Nine
Just One Yesterday
Two weeks had come and gone faster than anyone knew it. It was bright and early that morning when all of the students of 1A were packed into a waiting room to sit and converse until the games would officially begin. There was a bit of tension in the air that could have been cut with a knife. Ever since the day that the other students declared open war on all of them, the entirety of the first-year students had been shooting each other looks between their studies and murmuring their fighting words.
Sure, everyone wanted to kick their asses but that didn't mean that they had to take it so seriously. There was a lot at stake but acting like it would make or break them was only giving into fear. Misaki just didn't want to get overwhelmed with it. She hadn't let it get to her as much as her other anxiety but it was still there. Misaki wouldn't deny there was a pit in her stomach but it didn't have to do with fearing whatever the other students were sending her way. It was more so the worry of what people would think when she was out there. She did her best to not think about it, as she usually did, but it was still there like a quiet hum.
As was the feeling of imminent action.
The fights that would be coming later in the day would be assuredly intense. The minute she had walked into the room, she had made eye contact with Bakugou and that told her enough about where his headspace was. That scowl that crossed his lips and the feathered eyebrows, it was just the expression that Bakugou Katsuki always had when he saw her. It hadn't really changed since the first time that they had met. She stuck her nose at him and ignored him, heading across the room to take a seat next to Mina.
As far as everyone else went, there wasn't a lot of issues with them.
However, there was still that elephant in the room.
Of course, the only student that couldn't read the room was Iida. He commanded order and quiet from everyone as the clock was ticking and Misaki could only shake her head in mirth. While Iida was trying to corral the students into getting ready for the day and it's coming events, all of the girls were texting each other from the group chat about this and that.
Ashido: Did you sleep last night?
Misaki: Huh? Oh. I got some but I had too much energy to get a lot of it.
Uraraka: Yeah. Those pre-game jitters had me on edge too. I kind of slept? Not the best.
Asui: Well, we're going to facing a lot of people today... I think it's expected to be a little nervous, ribbit.
Yaoyorozu: It's only natural to be a little nervous. It's pretty early to be counting ourselves out though.
Yaoyorozu: We've all prepared accordingly! It should go well.
Jirou: It would be nice if Iida could use his inside voice at this hour though.
Hagakure: I think that is his inside voice!
Ashido: You wonder if his family speaks like that too?
Hagakure: Oh, that's a good question. I don't think his brother does.
Misaki: For once I'm glad I can't empathize. He's so animated when he talks I can only imagine how loud it is!
Uraraka: Still not as loud as Bakugou...
Jirou: And he's fired up today, too. I'm surprised we haven't heard him yet.
Yaoyorozu: I hate to say it but he's a ticking time bomb sometimes. Perhaps today he'll be on his best behavior.
Misaki: I have my doubts about that.
Hagakure: Boys... am I right?
Asui: Exactly.
Jirou: We just need a better space to destress is all.
Uraraka: A cushy lounge would be nice.
Misaki: Yeah, but then I would wind up taking a nap.
All heads suddenly snapped to the front of the room as Todoroki stormed in with a heated pace towards Midoriya Izuku. Misaki noticed that everyone had shifted and when she followed their gaze she realized who it was. She wondered what the heck was up with him since he looked so rightly pissed off about something. His hands were in his pockets and his eyes were hardened onto the green-haired teen like ice. He didn't even have to say anything to express what he was feeling, it was obvious he was brewing with animosity. It was like something had ignited a fire in his gut.
"Todoroki...?" his lips parted with a nervous shiver. "What's up...?"
Misaki stared at them with a sense of fascination. Had those feelings that Todoroki had been shuffling through finally hit him hard enough to confront Midoriya about his theories? Just as he had stopped her to get her opinion on the teen. Whatever he had been thinking about Midoriya and All Might must have come to a head somehow. What did it mean though? And why was he so adamant about it? It was soon proven as she saw Todoroki started to speak.
Todoroki didn't budge. "I'm stronger than you. I'm more capable."
Midoriya continued to stare at him with wide, nervous eyes as he backed up one step and nodded his head in agreement. He babbled some sort of reply but Misaki couldn't tell what it was.
"I know you've got All Might's attention. I don't know how or why, and I won't ask but I want to make one thing abundantly clear. I will beat you." Everybody else in the room was shocked by his sudden admission. If they thought they were safe from the front from their own classmates then some of the students in 1A were now sorely mistaken. Both Kaminari and Kirishima reached out to Todoroki to both gasp, and ask why he had gone and done a thing like that. Why create more tension?
Todoroki merely shrugged and put it simply. "I don't care. I'm not pretending to be friends with anyone."
Misaki's shoulders tightened.
What?
Midoriya surprised everyone, even more, when he lifted his head up and began to speak. "Todoroki, I'm not sure why you felt the need to tell me that you'll beat me. As a matter of fact, you're clearly stronger and I can't measure up to most of the others here in skill. Objectively speaking even. That's just the truth. Everyone, even the kids from the other courses are aiming for the top now... and, I'm well, lemme just say this. I'm not gonna fall behind. No matter what that means. I'm going for it too. With everything that I've got!"
Suddenly invigorated, the students seemed to agree with his fighting words.
Satisfied or not, Todoroki left the room.
After that fallout, Misaki just couldn't help herself as she got up from her seat to follow after Todoroki. She opened the door and stepped out not noticing the few eyes that were on her back. He was standing outside of the waiting room with his back to her, eyes trained on something down the hallway that she couldn't see. The energy that was surrounding him was grim to put it lightly. She didn't like it, and she wanted to know why his attitude had suddenly shifted to something like this so fast.
Misaki reached out and brushed her hand against his shoulder.
He looked back at her for a moment, his expression didn't soften.
She pursed her lips, and typed out a message to him: Todoroki, what the heck was that about? Why are you trying to destroy Midoriya?
Todoroki spun around and gave her a look. He was a lot taller than she was so she had to look up at him to catch a glimpse of his good eye. He didn't look like he was in the mood to talk, either, but he decidedly answered her with a simple message: It's the truth. Everyone is here to become heroes, it's not about making friends and playing around.
Misaki's eyes widened. She had thought that in spite of his aloof nature, he had really started to become somewhat of a person she wanted to hang out with if she could. They would chat together every now and again and sit in solitude on the days when she wasn't helping Hatsume. It was easy to be around him because there was no expectation for anything. They could just hang out, with no worries about this or that. She had even been texting off and on during the weekends! He was kind of clueless about a lot of things and it surprised her. It was like he had sheltered upbringing or something, the guy didn't even know what the heck emojis were.
Todoroki lived a different kind of life then she did, but, she thought that they were really friends.
Now he was twisting what she thought up into pieces.
She shook her head, and began to reply: I know you want to beat Midoriya badly but you didn't have to call for all-out war, you know? You can always beat him without telling him you're going to do it. You've been kind of different for the last couple of days and I'm sincerely worried about you. What's wrong?
That's when Todoroki dropped his bombshell that cracked Misaki's heart.
He looked her dead in the eyes and replied: We aren't friends, Hisakawa.
Misaki stared back at him.
They weren't... friends? Had she assumed wrong this entire time?
No, it couldn't be!
To make matters worse, he tapped out one more message to drill the final nail in the coffin: Don't bother yourself with me as you have been. It's useless to try to keep playing like we're friends. I don't need friends. I have one goal and that's all I need.
She hurriedly typed out one more message to him: I don't know what happened, but if something is wrong you can tell me. What the heck happened to make you act this way, Todoroki? I know you want to win as much as anyone else but why the heck do you have to destroy everything to get there?
The bitterness in his eyes... the way his good eye hardened like a fire. Something in him had changed, and that change didn't seem to be something that was good for him. It was like someone had kicked him while he was down for the count, and instead of taking it and falling down, Todoroki channeled that feeling into anger and took it out on others. He wanted to fight. He wanted to do something and taking it to this level wasn't beyond him at this point and it didn't suit him. She hadn't quite seen this kind of look in someone's eyes before, but she never wanted to see it again.
"I will prove myself to spite that man."
That was all that he said before he left Misaki alone.
The students lined up and headed out onto the field in troves as they were announced one by one. The crowd that was watching the students of 1A as they took their spot amongst the other first years was much larger than it usually was. They had three separate buildings for each of the years, and they were built to make room for plenty of people but it felt as though they had packed the first year stadium even more so than usual. It might have been because of the villain attack, and everyone wanting to get their eyes onto students that had gone through such an unprecedented event.
Misaki took note of the crowd and then turned her attention back onto the field. They would have all of Japan watching them, not just these people. It was better to focus on the task at hand instead of worrying about how many eyes were on their backs. It was obvious that a few of her classmates were a little off-put by the eyes.
If you wanted to be a hero then you had to be ready for eyes on you at all times.
As soon as everyone was gathered together in the middle of the stadium grounds, that was when Midnight called on the grade representative to say a little something before the games began. It turns out that Bakugou was the one that got the highest marks on the entrance exam which meant that he was the one in charge. That didn't seem to mean much to him as he sauntered up to the stage and stared at the crowd of students with a look of disdain on his face as he opened his mouth—
"The Athlete's oath... make no mistake about it. I'm gonna take first place!"
That didn't make the other students happy in the slightest. Every other class in their year was now glaring daggers at both Bakugou and the rest of 1A for his cocky attitude. However, this is about what she expected. Once he stepped back down and acted as though he hadn't just made things harder for everyone, Midnight took her spot on stage and announced the first event that they would be competing in. It was going to be a long run obstacle course race that they were going to have to run through.
A race would mean that some people were at an advantage. To get to the front or to have a standout moment, all students would have to be on their toes at all times. She breathed in and mentally prepared herself for whatever was to come. The students lined up, and once the countdown light changed from red to yellow to green, everyone took off like a bat out of hell. The doorway became crowded as people stumbled and pushed and fought to get to the outside of the gate, Misaki used her size to her advantage and shuffled through and under the crowd and managed to make her way out without wasting her quirk on a head start.
Once she was free from the crowd, she broke out into a run and caught up with the rest of her class that had been stopped in their tracks by some of the leftover robots from the examination. She noted that Todoroki surged past the robots by freezing their legs and moving beyond them without breaking a sweat. Bakugou roared past her as he used his quirk to surge over the robots by taking the high road. Even Tokoyami and Sero were able to get their feet off the ground and past the robots without much work.
It was a good time to use her quirk, now.
These robots were a pest and she needed to not waste a minute.
She lifted her hand and activated her quirk long enough to sprint ahead and get damn near Bakugou when she released time. He spared a look over his shoulder when he probably heard the sounds of her footsteps behind him, and all she could do was offer a mischievous grin before turning her focus back on the race. He was likely cursing up a storm because he took off from her spot not even a second later, getting ahead of her again.
The next obstacle wasn't something that she could easily cross and keep her lead with. Because it was a huge pitfall trap that was only pieced together by yards of rope and pulleys. It was far too easy for someone like Bakugou who could fling himself over the field without even worrying about falling down; She rubbed her hands together and took off, crawling forwards on the ropes and trying to get across to the next space.
By the time she reached the second rock face, she was nearly knocked off when Mei landed next to her, the shit-eating grin on her face was absolutely wild and almost unexpected this time. Mei grabbed her hand before she knocked herself off into the nets below, and Misaki hobbled back onto the steady ground, staring at her friend with one of those looks.
"Where did you come from?!" She asked.
Mei gestured at the gadget that was attached to her body and that answered that question. Of course, her friend was going to use the sports festival to show off what she had been working on for months.
"Hate to leave you behind. But, this is a race." Mei said, and then immediately took off to the next obstacle, leaving her standing there, blinking.
Misaki should have expected that. But, at the very least she thought that Mei would give her a ride. It wasn't like it was against the rules to have an alliance at this point in the games. It was kind of expected as long as the kids weren't at each other's throats. She let out a sigh and shook her head. When you were dealing with Hatsume Mei, you had to expect the least expectable thing possible.
Misaki turned her focus back to the task at hand and managed to traverse the rest of the rock field with minimal damage. It killed a lot of her time to have to do this without her quirk, but it would have been a waste when she had to walk a tight rope like that. Once she was back on solid ground that didn't have pitfalls, she could see the next terrain up ahead. It looked unopposing and normal, but that was soon proven wrong when she saw explosions from the ground set off.
It was a minefield.
A real game of cat and mouse if you didn't look where you were running.
Misaki took a look at the ground and pursed her lips. What would be the best option? Her eyes settled on the ice path that Todoroki had left behind, and noted the thick layer had blocked off some of the bombs. She nodded her head and activated her quirk, following in his footsteps over the slippery ground and trying to take her time to get ahead and at the same time, trying not to fall flat on her face because her shoes weren't built to fight off the frigid cold.
If she could learn how to rapid-fire activate and deactivate her quirk, this would be so much easier. She thought.
After she crossed the field, she released her quirk, feeling a little dizzy and like alarm bells were going off but she didn't stop for a second and kept up her run. Both Bakugou and Todoroki were just up ahead of her, which meant that she was effectively in third place at that moment. It wasn't bad, that was for sure, she just had to keep fighting her body's reaction. It was a good thing that she hadn't overdone it. However, her body was going to feel this in the morning.
The boys knew that she was on their heels. From the way that Bakugou looked at her, she just knew that he was saying something unruly. Todoroki wasn't pleased either, but, that was life. Suddenly, the Earth began to rumble underneath their feet and from the corner of Misaki's vision, she could see a cloud of dirt and dust overtake the back of the minefield.
Midoriya Izuku whirled overhead, past her, then past both Todoroki and Bakugou.
Well, that's definitely one way to get ahead of everyone. She thought.
The three boys were neck and neck but she didn't see who crossed the finish line first, she had closed her eyes and pushed her body through the gate before her knees felt like they were going to buckle. When she finally got a look at her surroundings, she knew that she had made it clear; By sheer luck, she and Shizozaki Ibara had crossed the finish line at around the same time. She had gotten a solid spot in the top ten.
However, the second event was set up strategically in a way that the balance would work out for both parties. It was a point system, however you placed in the race gave you a set number of points, and you had to take down other students to get their points. They would be wearing headbands that had to be somewhere on their upper body as not to allow for hidden items. If you lost your points or if your group fell flat on their faces, you were down for the count and done for.
Whoever managed to score the most points with their team would be moving onto the final round. It was very simple in concept but when Midnight revealed how many points aligned with each student, every student in the stadium looked in the direction of Midoriya Izuku who had a one million bounty on his head.
That boy was screwed.
Misaki pressed a hand to her lips to stifle whatever laugh dared to come out of her lips. She felt bad for him, she really did, but it was just hilarious to think that a kid like that would have to do a dance to avoid everyone. The students were allowed fifteen minutes to piece together their teams and formulate some kind of a plan. Everyone scrambled and started looking for people to team up with; Even Hatsume ran past her with stars in her eyes, the pink-haired girl headed straight for Midoriya.
Misaki didn't even need to ask. Hatsume was absolutely going to use that boy for her own gain. It was everyone for themselves, after all. She would give her friend props for being so proactive later after they both secured a spot in the finals. She glanced around and thought about who might be the best people to align herself.
Unbenounced to Misaki, there were eyes on her back the entire time. Mari and Shinso had both made their way into this round without too much fail, but to be able to get to the finals, they would have to play a little dirty. Mari wasn't a fan of the idea, however, she was open to Shinso's perspective on the matter as they both knew they had to quietly survive to prove themselves one-on-one. Her fingers twitched at her side as she silently nodded at Shinso, agreeing with the plan.
"You think she'll say something?"
"Yeah. You just need to approach her fast. Your quirk only needs a response from someone, after all. She doesn't have to hear it to be affected by it... kind of like the opposite of how your cousin's quirk works."
"What's her quirk, again?"
"Time disruption. She can give us an edge on the others."
"I have my eye on a few others, as well, that I noticed during the obstacle course. Let's see which of those that I can use my quirk on and work with it from there."
"Let's get this over with, then."
Shinso and Mari approached Misaki from behind. He reached out and rested his hand against her shoulder, prompting the purple-haired girl to turn around and look at him curiously. She raised an eyebrow at him, not having noticed that Mari was standing a few feet away quite yet as her focus was on this boy that she didn't recognize. Shinso met her gaze and opened his mouth to ask, "Hisakawa Misaki, right?"
"...Yes?" her lips parted and the word came out.
It was fast how quickly his quirk could affect someone but as it overtook the girl that was when she realized that Mari was standing with him and that they were working together. She looked at her best friend with a range of emotions crossing her face before it went utterly blank and slack under the control of Shinso's quirk.
Mari turned her head away, feeling guilty.
