Chapter 25
.:. Off to the Races .:.
The remaining weeks to the sports fest passed without major incident, and the class quickly fell into something of a routine. Classes ramped up a bit in difficulty as they finished the introductory material. A noticeable dent was beginning to form in the junk at the beach, but there were still months of work left to do.
And of course, excitement for the UA Sports Festival steadily built both in and out of campus.
Originally, the event had only taken place on one day, but with the advent of second Quirks, the school had chosen to distribute it over three days. It was in large part because there had been three separate incidents where students discovered a second Quirk due to the stress of the event. The most memorable had been the one when they had students from two different grades discover it, which had been when UA decided to give each year their own day, just in case.
Of course, the fact that multiple students had discovered a new Quirk over the years also made the Festival even more of a spectacle.
The biggest crowds wouldn't be drawn for another two days, when the third years competed, a pattern that held from when the event was still a single-day affair. Yet even with that, Izuku was still completely floored by the number of reporters, spectators, and concession stand workers gathered around their school. As the students arrived, they were instantly mobbed by the press, and Izuku was no exception.
Thankfully, he didn't even have time to properly make out the reporters' individual questions before Midnight-sensei pushed her way through the mob and directed him around to the separate student and faculty entrance that they had set up. Izuku made his way through the security, his student pass getting him waved through most of the checks, and then quickly got changed in the lockers before heading to the waiting room for his class.
A little under half the class had already arrived, and milling about, trying to calm their nerves before the festival, or holding quiet conversations. Izuku got dragged into a conversation between Kaminari and Awase about their favorite events from the past years, including a few the others hadn't heard of before since they hadn't watched the first years every year.
The conversation helped time pass quickly, and before he knew it the rest of his classmates had showed up. Uraraka seemed surprisingly at-ease compared to how pumped up she'd been over the past few weeks, but that might just be because they hadn't actually started the event yet. Tsuburaba looked about as nervous as Izuku felt, and Shinsou seemed more on edge than either of them. Iida, meanwhile, seemed very eager and intense in his own way as he waited for the event to begin.
Eventually, Asui entered the room and announced that it was time to begin heading out for their entrance and introduction. Izuku took his place in the throng that left the room, and soon they exited UA's hall system to bright sunlight and the cheers of thousands. The awe and excitement of it all stirred up Izuku's nerves even further, but it also helped take the edge off of it in a way. He'd watched the UA Sports Fest every year for as long as he could remember, and now he was out here, competing in it.
Present Mic announced each of the classes in turn as they made their entrance, starting with their class and working all the way down to class 1-K in the Business Department. They each took their places in a loose semicircle around the front of the arena's central stage, where Principal Nedzu waited patiently for them to assemble before raising a microphone to his face.
"Welcome, everyone, to the first day of festivities for this year's UA Sports Festival! Before we begin, please join me in welcoming Bakugou Katsuki of 1-A to the stage to present our player pledge."
Most of 1-A gawked to various degrees as Bakugou began working his way forward.
"He's our representative?" Shinsou snarked. "Well, this is going to be fan-tastic."
"Fuck you too, Eyebags," Bakugou fired back under his breath.
"Well, he did come in first in the entrance exam," Sero pointed out. Izuku conceded that point, though he still wondered if it wouldn't have been better to let one of the recommended students make the pledge.
Bakugou stamped up on stage and snatched the mic that the Principal held out to him. Surprisingly he turned to face not the crowd, but the assembled students. "Listen up, because I'm only gonna say this once!" he declared. "Today, it doesn't matter where you came from or what kind of crazy souped up Quirks you've got! All that matters is that you're ready to give this your all and claw your way to the top!"
Wait, really? That seems…
"Because if you're not, none of you have a snowball's chance in hell!" He spun around to face the crowd. "I pledge to win!"
Ah, there it is.
The audience's reaction was mixed. There was a lot of booing, but also plenty of laughter and cheers tossed in. The other students' reactions were far less divided, with 1-A reacting in mortified shock and the other classes jeering him for being cocky. The only outlier there seemed to be Yoarashi, who was roaring with laughter.
"This dude's great! I'm feeling all fired up now!" He pumped a fist in the air. "Plus Ultra!"
A few of his classmates took up his chant with various degrees of enthusiasm, but the loudest voice turned out to come from 1-A. As Iida and Yoarashi exchanged glances and nodded at each other, Izuku glanced at Uraraka and Shinsou to confirm that their concerns matched his own. They'd feared this might happen. If those two began interacting, then the resulting school spirit positive feedback loop would wreak absolute havoc.
Thankfully, the Principal saved them from potential disaster. "Thank you, Bakugou-kun," he said, ever calm and cheery despite the essential war declaration. He turned to the students as he continued, "Now, without further ado, let us begin the first event!" The large screens all around the arena began spinning through event titles like a slot machine before finally settling on one.
"For our first event, we have The Crawl!" Present Mic's voice boomed over the loudspeakers as the students took in their doom. The screens changed to display an aerial view of a moderately-sized obstacle course, the entirety of which was walled in on both sides by some sort of transparent material and covered with netting.
"Students will have to navigate their way through an obstacle course, but with a catch! The bottom of the course is covered in thick mud, and the more students who cross the finish line, the higher it will rise! Be quick, or else you'll find yourself getting bogged down!
"And of course in the name of fairness, we do have some rules!" he added. "You're allowed to use whatever you've got, whether it's a kooky gadget or nifty Quirk like flying, but no going above the nets!" Oddly specific, Izuku noted. "And of course, cooperation is always encouraged! But we're not discouraging you totally ignore the competition, either! Non-debilitating attacks are free game! So if you can get someone stuck or knock them down, go for it! Just don't break any bones or do anything that'd piss off Recovery Girl too much!"
And there it was: they could attack other competitors. Izuku could see some of the kids get more excited at that from all classes. Looked like this would be pretty chaotic.
"With that, students, get in position and get ready!" Nedzu called. Everyone took their places at the start line, and soon enough the screens changed to a countdown starting at 10, the air filled with anticipation. Izuku hung towards the back, watching the numbers tick steadily closer to one and waiting for the buzzer to sound.
As soon as it did nearly everyone took off running, but not Izuku. "Uraraka!" he shouted before she could follow their classmates. "Shooting star maneuver!" Understanding dawned clearly on her face and she raced to his side.
The beach cleaning had been a good workout for all of them, but as Iida had pointed out, they would need more than their strength to perform well in the sports fest, so each of them had also been setting aside extra time to practice their Quirks. For the most part, they had done this on their own, but a few times they had dragged everyone together for Izuku to run some Quirk analysis and offer suggestions.
Those sessions had turned out to be quite fruitful, and ended with more than a few ideas for combo-strategies.
Izuku crouched so Uraraka could hop onto his back for a piggyback, making sure to brush her own wrist as she wrapped her arms around his chest to activate her Quirk. He felt her fingers then briefly spread against hist chest to activate her Quirk on him as she called, "Ready!"
Izuku nodded, hoping he wasn't blushing too furiously, and took off. They'd learned the hard way during practice that even if it was short-lived, the acceleration from Crash was incredible when combined with Zero Gravity. He had to be careful to only use low-level bursts of it at a time to avoid throwing Uraraka off.
It was a bumpy ride. Izuku was still getting used to steering with Crash in mid-air, and the need to carefully gauge how much power he was using just made things even harder. But with Uraraka's Quirk making it so that he didn't have to do all that and fight gravity, it just barely worked. Together, the two of them hobbled up and over the commotion of the students trying to shove through the bottleneck below, getting a few surprised stares, and steadily gained speed.
The first obstacle was a series of three steep slopes, each one taller than the last. Climbing it was further impeded by having some sort of system rigged up to let the mud continuously slide down them, pushing students back.
But only if they were on the ground.
Luckily for them, being airborne meant that Izuku and Uraraka didn't have to deal with the muck at all (which, given its eerily familiar greenish-purple tint, made Izuku very glad indeed). They weren't the only ones with that advantage though. Just ahead of them Yoarashi's wind Quirk launched him up and off the peaks of the inclines like ramps, skating right above the surface. To their back, Tokoyami wasn't far behind, scooting along using Dark Shadow as a kind of boat or sled. There was also a girl from 1-B who was using her vine-like hair to climb the inclines like a giant spider.
Izuku didn't pay much attention beyond that, quickly focusing on the second obstacle: a massive thicket of four-sided pillars that criss-crossed each other at all sorts of haphazard angles. They were thin enough that on his own, Izuku probably could have smashed a path straight through them using Crash with only a little difficulty. However, right now he also had Uraraka with him, and her body didn't have the reinforcements from Crash like his did.
As a result, he settled for picking a path through the irregular maze, pushing off a pillar here and there to straighten out his flight path and give himself more speed. The caution cost them time though, and Uraraka hit the limit of her Quirk part way through, forcing Izuku to land so the two of them could squeeze through the last of the thicket on foot. By the time they got to the last obstacle, Yoarashi had gained even more distance.
Izuku was a little wary of the dark cylinders with inward-facing openings embedded in the walls, but since they weren't doing anything yet, the best the two of them could do was stick towards the middle of the obstacle course and slog through the mud. At least until Uraraka's stomach calmed back down.
And then the cannons started firing.
Izuku didn't have much more warning than a dull pneumatic 'whump' before something heavy collided with his arm and knocked him slightly off-balance. He looked down to find that a shiny, black ball of some sort had adhered itself to his uniform shirt. And was expanding.
I swear, if they built this from some sort of Support Department capture prototype—
That thought was cut off by another adhesive ball colliding with Uraraka right behind him, and then another just narrowly missing getting stuck in his hair. After that, he put all his mental efforts into dodging any more cannon shots in their direction. There didn't seem to be any pattern to them at first, but now that he was paying close attention, he saw that the cannon barrels lit up for a split second before firing.
He was starting to get the pattern down, but soon realized they had another problem: the other racers were starting to pass them. The girl with vines for hair had already stilt-walked over them, and a few people from his class were only still behind them because they'd been scuffling with each other.
They were finally to the point where they could see the finish line, but at this rate Izuku wasn't sure how they'd place. Or even if they'd place at all for sure, given how much harder the capture spheres made it to move. The longer they stayed in this obstacle, the higher the chances they'd get hit with more of them. They had to go.
"Uraraka! Grab on again!"
"My Quirk's still out!" she protested.
"That's fine! Just grab on tight and keep your head and limbs tucked in tight!"
She nodded and then latched on his back again, the capture sphere clinging to her holding them together. Izuku gave her a second to secure herself, then readied a strong pulse of Crash. He dived forward and, just before they hit the mud, he activated his Quirk, launching them straight forward.
He could hear Present Mic's voice in the background as he moved, but didn't pay attention to what was said as everything blurred around them. The sudden burst of motion sent them skipping across the surface of the mud like a rock. Izuku got several facefulls of it, then several more of regular dirt as he skidded to a halt on the other side of the finish line.
The good news was that the force field from Crash had gotten stronger from training, so he didn't have to worry about biting the dust. The bad news was that his force field did nothing to stop him from literally biting the dust. Also, dust tasted very bad.
Someone hoisted him up by his collar, and he took a moment to sputter and blink. "Man, that was amazing!" Yoarashi complimented them with a laugh as he almost-effortlessly pried Izuku and Uraraka apart in spite of the support devils' spheres of darkness. Given that the things had managed to keep the two of them stuck together even while Izuku was using Crash, he briefly had to wonder what on Earth Yoarashi ate for breakfast.
As he set them down, Izuku took a moment to note that the other boy seemed completely untouched by the obstacles. Not so much as a speck of mud on him, apart from where he'd picked them up. He must've used wind blasts to protect himself. Man, that was an amazing Quirk. His better judgement aside, Izuku really wondered what it looked like under the lens of Graft.
"Did we win?" Uraraka asked from her curled-up position down on the ground, and oh right, Izuku almost forgot about that for a second.
"No idea!" Yoarashi replied with a giant grin. "I heard Yamada-sensei say that it was too close to call, and they were gonna have to look at a replay."
"Maybe we shouldn't have pushed it so hard, Uraraka," Izuku said, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head. "Second or third isn't so bad."
"Worth it," she replied in a tone that very much did not make it seem worth it. "It's like Aizawa-sensei said, standing out here is super important. Plus Ultruuuuuuuh—" She trailed off while clutching her stomach, face even queasier than before.
Izuku leaned down and rubbed her back like he'd seen the others do when she got super nauseous, counting the other students as they crossed the finish line. Most of the students he recognized from one of the two hero classes. Somewhere in the mid-thirties, he saw two guys he didn't know helping each other across the finish line. And then just a bit behind them...
"Oh no. Nonononono."
"What is it?" Shinsou asked, trotting over along with Tsuburaba. The two of them had been in the middle of the pack and as such had only had to deal with moderately deep mud, but both had still managed to get completely covered with it and the capture balls.
In response, Izuku wordlessly pointed to the pink-haired girl fully decked out in mud-splattered support items who had just crossed the finish line.
"Gen ed student? No wait, lots of support gear, so she must be in that department."
Izuku nodded mutely, still staring.
"What about her?" Uraraka asked.
"You guys remember when Bakugou and I were suspended?"
"Yeah...?"
"Our punishment was helping her test out her inventions."
The three of them looked at him in confusion for a moment, but then turned to Hatsume with looks of dawning horror as they remembered Izuku's reaction upon his return. Well, Uraraka and Shinsou, anyway. Tsuburaba seemed confused at first since hadn't been there, but upon seeing their reaction joined in the staring.
"That bad, huh?" he said faintly.
"If she made it to the second round, we're doomed," Izuku whispered.
"Now hold on a second," Shinsou said, though his voice was slightly shaky. "There's gotta be some way you could turn that to your advantage, right? Like, you already know what support gear she's bringing to the table, right?"
Izuku shook his head. "That was weeks ago. At the rate she apparently churns out inventions, she's probably got another half-dozen working models by now, plus who knows what modifications to her existing stuff. And we didn't even test all the stuff she had back then."
They all took a moment to process that before Shinsou tapped a fist against his palm. "Well then, sounds like there's only one thing you can do."
Izuku looked at him expectantly, searching for a shred of hope in his growing despair.
"Make sure she's pointed at everyone else."
"And with that, our first event comes to a close!" Nedzu announced, grabbing their attention. He'd appeared on a stage near the finish line, the screens now showing his face. "A big thank you to all our competitors! We'll have volunteers going around the field in a few minutes to help hose you off. While you all performed admirably, this is still a competition, and only those of you at the top of your game will be advancing to the next round. Please turn your attention to the scoreboards to see the placements for the next round."
Izuku glanced up to the large screens as names and numbers flickered into existence.
Midoriya Izuku - 1st Place
Uraraka Ochako - 2nd Place
Yoarashi Inasa - 3rd Place
Todoroki Shouto - 4th place
Bakugou Katsuki - 5th Place
Shiozaki Ibara - 6th Place
Tokoyami Fumikage - 7th Place
…
Aoyama Yuuga - 44th place
Izuku blinked in disbelief, then rubbed his eyes to make sure he was seeing right. Yep. His name was still at the top.
"Only the top forty four competitors will advance to the next round, but don't worry if you placed lower! We've already prepared other opportunities for you to shine later today. Now, without further ado, let's announce the next game."
Another slot-machine animation flickered across the screens, eventually settling on the title "King of the Hill."
"That's right folks, King of the Hill!" Mic's voice boomed over the intercoms once more. Even as he spoke four pillars emerged in four corners of the arena, looming tall and almost ominous. "As you can see, there are now four flagpoles on the field! That means we're gonna have eleven teams of four, all fighting for control over the flagpoles!"
"More specifically, the teams will be vying to acquire points by touching the flagpoles," Nedzu chirped. The screens started flashing with diagrams and illustrations showing the field as he continued, "The teams will start in the center of the pitch, and grab a pole. For each second that a competitor touches a flagpole with at least one hand or equivalent appendage, their team will earn one point!"
"But there's no sharing on this field!" Mic cackled. "You're still fighting for the top place! If someone from another team grabs on, or you let go, YOU must return to the center of the field! And don't think about trying to go right off to another pole or messing with the competition on your way! You gotta start over! So the rest of you better guard that pole with your life!
"The good news is that only the person touching the pole has to go back to start though! And on that note, every team only gets one point per pole no matter how many people are touching it! So don't bother all holding on to try to rack up extra points. Focus your energy on defense, guys!"
"Seems simple enough," Sero said, before getting quietly admonished by Iida for talking while the principal was still explaining things. Izuku decided not to point out that Iida was also talking.
"We also have a special surprise for the top scorers from the first round!" Mic added, which had Izuku snapping to attention. "Tell the lucky listeners what they won, Mr. Principal!"
"Each of the top scorers will start already in possession of their own flagpole!" Nedzu announced. "If a team has multiple members from the top four, then the next person on the scoreboard shall get their own flagpole, and so on! The first to cross the finish line will choose their flagpole first, then the second, then third, and the fourth will take control of the remaining one."
Uraraka leaned over to whisper to Izuku, eyes wide. "So we get a head start on points? Sweet!"
Izuku shook his head and answered back in a low voice. "It'll give us a points advantage for a few seconds, but neither you or I have quirks especially suited to point defense. It just means we have to make it back to the center of the field before we can really do anything."
Uraraka's face fell a bit as Nedzu continued, "That finishes the main rules! We will now give contestants a ten minute period to sort yourselves into teams and get into position!" With that, the screens flashed with a ten-minute timer until the next round, and the students jumped into action to sort teams.
Izuku's brain kicked into overdrive, turning over the information as he turned to his friends. First order of business: get a team. "Okay, since it's teams of four all five of us won't be able to cooperate," he said, "but do any of you want to team up?"
"Actually," Tsuburaba interjected hesitantly, and when he paused Izuku nodded for him to continue. "Actually, I think we should split up. Not putting all our eggs in one basket and all that. You mentioned before that they usually whittle it down to sixteen people for the final event, right? So if all five of us want to get in, we can't all be on different teams, either. So maybe... two and three, plus a peace treaty?"
"Peace treaty?" Uraraka repeated, confused.
"Sure. Like, 'I know we aren't really on the same team, but I won't attack a flag you guys control and you don't attack my team's.' Truce might be a better word," he mused to himself.
"Intriguing," Iida muttered, rubbing his chin. "It's not against the stated rules, and even if we are rivals today, there's value in strategies that take a wide view of the situation. I'm impressed, Tsuburuaba!"
Tsuburaba grinned at the praise. "Heh, thanks. I think. Still, that leaves the question of who's on what team."
There was silence for a few moments as the five of them thought it over.
"Well," Uraraka spoke up, "Deku already offered to team up, and I think we did pretty well in the first round, so I'll take him up on it." Izuku felt a brief surge of relief. With them on the same team, that meant the fifth place person would get their own pole—specifically, Bakugou. That was great: they wouldn't have to worry about him gunning straight for Izuku's team from the start and have some time to breathe!
As Izuku silently celebrated this stroke of luck, Shinsou looked over to him. "I admit, I am having a hard time coming up with a strategy for this round," he said with a shrug. "If you've got a plan, I'm in."
"That makes three members then!" Izuku said with a nod, and turned to Iida and Tsuburaba as he added, "I mean, if that's okay with you guys." He'd rather not turn them away just because they hadn't asked first.
Fortunately, neither of them seemed to mind the arrangement. "After seeing your performance in the first round, Midoriya and Uraraka, I admit that I feel joining your team wouldn't give me a proper opportunity to prove myself," Iida declared. "You two already have strong teamwork that will give you an advantage, so I'll gladly ally with Tsuburaba."
"And I already know I work well with you guys, so it'll be good to work with someone else for a while," Tsuburaba agreed with a nod. "I guess that settles it. Alright, we've only got a few minutes to round out our teams, so we'll catch you guys later!" He waved goodbye as he and Iida headed off to find more members.
"...Well, any ideas for a fourth crewmate?" Izuku asked after a moment. He couldn't come up with a full strategy until they had one.
"You mentioned Scary Girl had lots of support gear, right?" Shinsou said. "That could help close the gap in our ability to defend things."
"Oh yeah!" Uraraka said. "I don't think there's any rules against Support Department students lending out gear to teammates, either, so that could help too!"
Izuku physically shuddered at the thought of essentially volunteering to test-run more gear for Hatsume, but Shinsou had a point. It wasn't like Power Loader would sign off for her to use gear in the sports fest that was as buggy as what they'd tested out before, right? Right?
(...Izuku strongly suspected that he would have to use something as an improvised grenade at some point today.)
Resigning himself to his fate, he turned to search the crowd for the girl. Fortunately Hatsume's distinctive hair and goggles let him quickly spot her even among the crowd of students, and he began making his way over to her. He excused himself and pushed past a small knot of people between them, muttering apologies all the while, only to freeze in horror just before he reached her.
One of the students moved to let him see Hatsume was talking to Bakugou.
And not only talking, but pulling out a series of support items to show him. Bakugou's body language was tense and wary, as to be expected, but he was clearly paying attention to what she showed him.
The sight was enough to leave Izuku almost speechless. Almost.
"Wha—but you, wha... HUH?!"
Bakugou caught his stammering over the din of voices around them, and looked over at him and shrugged. "Eye of the storm," he said gruffly. "Don't act like you didn't have the same damn idea."
Izuku did have the same idea, but in his defense, he'd needed to be prompted to face the horror that was Hatsume Mei. Well, this was a nightmare waiting to happen. He could only watch as Bakugou turned back and the duo shook hands, sealing his imminent fate.
Since he was here anyway, Izuku decided to quickly check out the rest of Bakugou's team, assuming the two standing next to him were part of it. First impression: thank goodness Tsuyu was on their team. Tsuyu, he could trust to be a level-headed voice of reason to balance out Bakugou and Hatsume's insanity. She wouldn't be too much of a problem on her own, either.
Then he looked at the fourth and final member, and his anxiety soothed further upon seeing Yaoyorozu, who was also level-headed and responsible—
Wait. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Oh no, nononono.
Yaoyorozu's Quirk was Creation. She could generate basically anything from her body.
And she was on the same team as Hatsume.
The mad scientist and the human 3D printer were on the same team.
Red alert! DEFCON 1! Abort mission! Izuku practically fled back to Uraraka and Shinsou, mind racing with all the worst-case scenarios from that combination. Could Hatsume possibly build something mid-event from components Yaoyorozu produced—actually, why was he even asking? This was Hatsume they were talking about! She'd done multiple modifications on the spot during that horrifying day he'd been forced to work with her.
How were they even supposed to counter that? How could anyone counter that?
Izuku came to a sudden stop halfway to the others, sudden clarity washing over him. He was going up against a recommendation student and a handful of natural geniuses. He needed someone on their level.
One person came to mind.
His eyes roved the crowd once more, and quickly latched onto the target. Luckily, that person was not just close but also alone, and Izuku changed course to jog over. Mismatched eyes turned to as Izuku approached with a natural smile that looked calmer than he should be able to feel in such a high-stakes situation.
"Hey, Todoroki. Do you need a team?"
So sorry for the delay everyone! We're still hoping and aiming for weekly updates, but this is a pretty action-heavy part of canon that's sometimes hard to get right as text, and life is also getting in the way. We know what we want from this arc, so we want to make sure we get it just right! Updates might be slow for a bit, so we appreciate everybody's patience in the meantime! (Also, I SWEAR I'll start posting the drabble Quirk profiles soon. Just need to actually write some more besides Fuyumi and All Might.)
Also, a message from Cocoa, who Apple shoved 99% of writing responsibility onto for this arc because she refuses to write the Sports Festival arc:
"Apple is a writing monster. I don't know how she does it. If any of y'all are doing weekly updates too I tip my hats to you. -Cocoa"
Question: what characters do you want to see featured first in the Quirk profile collection? (And keep it only to characters who've appeared so far, and have actually SHOWN their second Quirk! We're waiting to reveal some of them in the main story before posting the profile on them.)