This chapter was down for some time due to some bizarre glitch with replacing it with chapter 4. I'm adding this note as a test to see when the chapter comes back.
IF YOU SAW THIS CHAPTER AS CHAPTER 27 it's because I'm desperately trying to fix the error. I have no clue what is going on with or why it would do this to me but the error seems to only show up on pc instead of mobile.
EDIT SOMEHOW THIS CHAPTER DRAGGED CHAPTER 17 into it's error too...On mobile now at least. This is very frustrating
A week passed in the blink of an eye. For Toru it had been two weeks of essentially busy work, pretending to be weak and training as much as possible to be a dutiful student, pretending to be loud and training with Shoji.
Aizawa was still carrying the visible damage of the USJ attack, wrapped entirely in bandages. After the hide and seek game in USJ, the USJ attack hadn't been mentioned any further.
The day of the sports festival began with no mention that villains could be watching, and the only countermeasure being taken was heavier security so the teenagers could beat each other up in a safe bubble.
Because there was so much heavier security it was a bit harder for the students to get into UA, and they had to wait outside the gate for Pro-Heroes to come out to personally escort them to the first-year waiting area.
It was packed with people who were fans and spectators along with many people from the news.
I've always seen the sports festival on TV but it's so much more of a hassle to be in it. Toru sighed and waited for a Pro-Hero to escort her in. It seemed that they had some mechanism to figure out when their students arrived near the grounds because one of the Ectoplasm's came relatively quickly to hurry Toru away from anyone who might badger her for interviews.
Not that anyone even tried to approach Toru to get an interview from her. It wasn't like she was the famous Todoroki.
"I hope Endeavor's son gets here soon…Maybe I can nab a picture of him before the heroes take him away!" One of the people with a camera complained.
It seemed like a lot of the crowd had gathered specifically for Todoroki.
"Follow me, Hagakure." Ectoplasm gestured and retrieved Toru from the gate. They passed many stalls filled with Hero Merchandise, Toru noticed that Endeavor and Ingenium were two heroes that were highlighted a lot more than previous years in merchandising. There was also the hero Bolt, that had a lot of merchandise. She was a lightning super hero who was probably related to Kaminari based on the masks.
UA must be making a lot of money from this…They must be happier than ever to have Todoroki in their ranks. Toru thought to herself.
Did big Pro Hero families always bring about this much of a crowd? She recalled the news being just as excited when Iida's brother, Tensei, had attended UA. Articles about the famous family ran for a week. And there had been quite a crowd when Fuyumi Todoroki had attended UA. Less of a crowd then now, likely due to the fact that she wasn't part of the hero course and thus not much was expected of her.
Toru recalled Fuyumi being part of the business course. There had been a lot of excitement that year as she slid into first place in the first event of the sports festival. She had then given up and hadn't done the second event saying she wasn't actually trying to win and the win had been accidental. It ticked a lot of people off but nobody had succeeded in transferring her to the hero course. In three years her brother Natsuo had attended the sports festival, and the media had forgotten being spurned by Fuyumi and threw all their advertising towards him. He had been a general course student and unlike Fuyumi had failed to get past the first event.
It's the first time they have a Todoroki child in the hero department. A child of the second strongest hero is a big deal. They must be all riled up about it. Toru realized why the crowd must be so big.
The media seemed to pretend that the previous two Todorokis hadn't attended UA at all and seemed to shove them out of their memory. Toru heard the words "the first time a child of Endeavor has ever competed!" in loud voices a few times as she passed by.
I don't understand how they can worship the Todorokis so much. Endeavor seemed fishy to her. He was the pro hero who had turned the most people to villainy. How could that be normal? He was violent, and it felt the media worshipping him perpetuated the harm he did.
She finally made it past all the booths and Ectoplasm dropped her off at the waiting rooms. He turned around and walked away to retrieve the next student. Toru walked towards Class 1-A's waiting room, she paused briefly as she passed a sign that said "Support Course Waiting Room".
I wonder how Mei's doing? Toru thought to herself. Does she intend to try to make it far in the sports festival? Or does she see it as a waste of time since she's not interested in being a hero?
As if Mei herself had telepathy she poked her head out the waiting room door.
"I thought I saw something through the cracks in the door!" She grinned. Her eyes had clearly zoomed onto whatever small and interesting thing she had seen. "I'm surprised you didn't immediately run to your class waiting room to calm your nerves, Toru!"
Should I have immediately gone to my waiting room? Toru wondered. She wasn't nervous in the least bit about this sports festival. It seemed like child's play to pass whatever obstacle course or race UA threw at her. It was nothing compared to what she had experienced in her life and she really only needed to pass the first round.
She realized her mistake quickly though. Most first years would be super nervous about their first public event. She should have immediately run to her waiting room to try to pretend calm down her nerves.
"I'm uhh pacing! It's hard to keep still when something so huge is about to happen!" Toru said, tapping her hand lightly as if remembering what she was doing. "And I stopped briefly because the support course banner reminded me of you…"
"You can just say you missed me, Toru, or wanted to check up on me." Mei teased. "I appreciate it!" She gave a big thumbs up finding it not suspicious at all. She walked outside to the hallway closing the door behind her to talk to her friend briefly. "It's been a while, huh?" Mei kicked the floor a bit.
"Yeah! I haven't seen you around campus at all in the last two weeks." Toru admitted. "I almost thought you had quit UA or something, since I usually see you in the hallways."
Mei shook her head. "I was working on support gear for the sports festival! After all this huge event is one of the best places to show off my babies! Most of the country is watching especially since Endeavor's son is competing this year."
I should have known she would use this event to commercialize her wares. Toru smiled a bit. Might as well make the best of the sports festival. "I wasn't aware many people watched the support class during these things." Maybe that was just her though. She had watched the hero course so carefully during past events she hadn't noticed the support course at all.
Mei smiled, not taking the facts at heart at all. "They just haven't seen the support course much since they very rarely pass the first event. But there's a lot of backers and businessmen who watch these things who might want to sponsor a support student or project."
"Do you think you'll pass the first event, Mei?" Toru asked, "If you need help I can-" she was about to offer her help, but Mei put her hand up.
"No need. I did the math. Every year there are 42 spots to move up to the second event. This allows all the heroes from courses A and B to pass along with 2 people from other courses. I'm aiming for one of those spots and I'm pretty confident I can make it there with my babies." Mei grinned confidently. "Why else would I pull all-nighters at UA? My future is on the line here!"
"2 spots to compete against all the support courses, general courses, and business courses is huge though." Toru pointed out. "I can…I can sabotage a hero if you need me to!" She offered. Mineta doesn't need his spot.
Mei frowned for once and at first Toru thought it was because it wasn't hero-y to offer to sabotage someone. But then she just shook her head. "Although it's kind of you to offer sabotage and I'm not fully against it, I really want to make it through the sports festival on my own efforts. After all if I don't show off my babies what's the point?" She pointed out.
Her eyes zoomed forward a little bit and she moved her face forward. "Honestly I'd be more worried about you than anything! The support course is allowed to use support items to make things fair but the hero course I don't think is. And an invisible quirk…It doesn't really help you during a race, does it?"
"Don't worry about me! I'm fast and agile!" Toru assured her.
"You sure you don't want me sabotaging any heroes for you instead? I'm sure that would get the crowds attention on me!" Mei laughed.
Toru smiled at her cheerful personality. "Thank you for the offer but I'm really good. And I'm glad to see you're in high spirits too, Mei." She waved. "Good luck! I believe in you! I know you'll make it through!"
Mei smiled a little flustered. Perhaps it was the first time someone had told her such strong words.
Toru turned around to head for her own waiting room but before she could go Mei grabbed her hand.
"Wait, before you go…I know I've been a little tuned out to the news in sports festival preparation but did your class really get attacked by villains? There's been all sorts of rumors going around and I didn't know if any of it was true." She stopped her before Toru could leave.
Toru froze. "Yes. It's true." She said trying to be calm. Had Mei discovered something about her connection to the attack? She was the only one to see her outside when UA had been infiltrated.
Mei frowned. "Are you okay?" She asked. "I mean that's a big thing…"
"I'm fine." Toru said calmly. "I mostly hid the whole time." She lied.
Mei looked a bit relieved at that. "Good. I was just worried you were like traumatized or something. You know the real thing to blame is UA's security. If they had gotten a more competent person from support to design UA I'm sure this wouldn't happen!" She ranted, "But I bet they only got one designer and called it good forgetting the support class even exists."
That sounded very much like UA. Still, something about Mei's voice, the edge of concern and frustration made it sound like she was taking things a little personally. Has she experienced a villain attack before? Is something causing her concern?
Toru wanted to ask, she wanted to be the sort of curious person she was pretending to be, but she realized that if Mei had experienced any past with villains, she'd have no words of solace for her. She'd be at a loss as to what to say, especially if the villainy was linked somehow to the league of villains. So instead, she squeezed Mei's hand and didn't ask anything.
"I'm sure when you graduate, you'll fix up lots of things." Toru encouraged. "I've gotta go now, but I'll keep an eye out for you at the sports festival."
Mei beamed. "I'll be rooting for you too since you're my first client!" She snapped her fingers, "Wait, before you go and before I forget can I have a lock of your hair?"
Toru moved her foot backwards a bit, startled. She touched her own hair which was always down and loose since putting in things like hairbands or clips would give away more of her location. "…My hair?" She had heard it was a sort of tradition for some people to give a lock of their hair to someone they liked but that seemed so medieval….
Is…Is it a good luck charm? But that implies she likes me or something…Toru put her hands to her cheeks, feeling them warm up considerably.
Mei must have realized she was embarrassed by the way she was moving but didn't say anything and just stuck her hand out expectantly.
"Do you have any scissors?" Toru asked.
Mei grinned and her other hand shot to her belt where she instantly pulled out scissors. It seemed she had any tool she needed there. "Here you go."
Toru cut off a piece of her hair. She held it in her hand, noting that Mei would never see the bright white color of it which seemed to look almost crystal in the light. Nobody except her could see it.
She handed it to Mei delicately.
"Interesting. I thought I might be able to see it when it left your body…Even though it's not a limb it remains invisible after removal?" Mei was confused but super excited.
Toru nodded. "Anything that comes from my body becomes invisible. Doctors can never take blood from me for that very reason because the parts of it are even invisible under a microscopic lens."
Mei frowned. "This will be harder than I thought then…" She sighed and put the hair in a little bag. "Thanks! I'll put this to good use!"
Should have guessed she wanted it for some science experiment. That was fine. The usual and more predictable routine with Mei was fun. She waved her goodbyes and headed to her waiting room.
Toru sat in a folded chair as she listened to Mina buzz about the festival. She heard several students complain that they couldn't use their hero costumes but that just made things easier for her. I don't have to worry about being naked! I can just worry about getting an average score.
"Did you sleep in, Toru? You're a bit later than the other students." Mina pointed out, finally stopping ranting about how she was so bummed out about not wearing her cool costume, with Ojiro agreeing to try to calm her down.
"I was talking to a friend." Toru smiled, having an easy enough time admitted it.
"Ooh! I didn't know you had friends in the other courses! I should try talking more to the other courses too." Mina stretched. "Was it a friend from your middle school?"
Toru shook her head. "Nobody from my middle school even tried to get into UA." For good reason too. Anyone from her middle school might let it slip that she had transferred in, and if anyone poked into Toru's past, they might discover she had never attended school at all prior to that. Any classmate who had talked about possibly attending UA, Toru had made sure to sneak into the postal services and conveniently 'lose' their application for them. Or alter it to be for a different hero school entirely.
"Oh wow, so you just made all new friends." Mina admired.
Tsuyu poked her head towards them. "Nobody from my middle school tried to make it into UA either, so I understand your pain, Toru." She then returned to her seat.
"What do you think the first event will be?" Mina asked. "I'm aiming for top 10 in the first event. That's the only way I'll get the attention of the pros."
"You're ambitious." Ojiro commented.
"Based on the pattern of events that they've had before we're likely to have an obstacle course or race this year." Toru pointed out. UA really liked races. It was just the easiest way to whittle a large number of people down.
Mina's eyes widened. She then threw herself on Toru to hug her. "You're a genius! Did you do research on the previous years? That's smart! Man, I have a genius friend!"
Toru struggled her way free, is it not normal to analyze the previous years? Mei definitely did it. Isn't that just common sense? "…Yeah?" She answered hesitantly.
"Wow. Hagakure I never knew you could be a little like Midoriya." Ojiro looked stunned. "He analyzed the previous years too. I think he watches these festivals in detail every year." His tail pointed in Midoriya's direction.
I'll have to keep an eye out for him. Every time he does something surprising to show his intellect, I remember I underestimate him. Toru thought to herself. Too bad that even if he was smart there was only so much, he could do in the sports festival with his bones exploding.
Before she could further comment Iida swung the door open.
"Are you all ready? It's almost time to begin!" He said dutifully.
Mina looked excited. Toru pretended to flap her arms excitedly. "I am so ready-!" She stopped, seeing that Mina had frozen, her head turned towards Todoroki, the man of the hour. He looked like he was having a deep heated conversation with Midoriya.
"Midoriya, looking at this objectively I think I'm stronger than you." Todoroki proclaimed.
Midoriya looked startled that Todoroki had even decided to tell him that. It was obvious after all. "Y-yeah."
Then Todoroki said something that Toru hadn't been expecting to hear at all. "But All Might has his eye on you, doesn't he?"
He…He does? Was Midoriya a bigger deal than Toru thought? Had she not been observing All Might carefully enough? What was his connection to Midoriya? She hadn't noticed anything at all besides the fact that Midoriya was a huge All Might fanboy.
Midoriya did not confirm or deny this and just looked shocked.
"I'm not going to pry or anything." Todoroki said politely. "But I'm going to beat you." He proclaimed.
Maybe he's just reading too far into it? Toru thought. She hadn't seen anything like that, after all.
"I'm surprised the best in class is choosing Midoriya as his rival." Mina whispered to Toru.
"Y-yeah…Me too…I mean, I would have expected him to declare Iida as his rival but not Midoriya." Toru admitted.
Mina turned her head and raised an eyebrow. "Really? Iida? He's way too stern and diligent to be someone's rival. He'd rather be friends, I think. Bakugo would have been a better rival."
"But they're both heroes that hold a pro-hero legacy. Declaring Iida as his rival would have made more sense!" Toru pointed out. After all, Ingenium was being merchandised too, same as Endeavor. Although Ingenium didn't have nearly the same competition with Endeavor as All Might did.
Mina nodded, living for the drama. "I see your point, I see…"
Distracted momentarily by Mina, Toru heard the tail end of the conversation as Todoroki stormed off. "We're not here to play at being friends, so what does it matter?" She heard him say.
"Todoroki…I don't know why you said you'd beat me. But, of course you're better than me. You're better than most people." Midoriya finally responded with a very honest answer as Todoroki walked away, "Looking at it objectively…"
"Midoriya, you probably shouldn't be so negative—" Kirishima tried to be a good pal and cheer him up.
Midoriya continued "But all the students from the other courses are aiming for the top with everything they've got! I can't afford to fall behind…" Midoriya looked sad.
Most people with strong quirks wouldn't really see the general studies and support students as competition…I wonder what created this attitude? Midoriya did have a strong quirk even if he could only use it once. But it seemed he had taken the general studies students as an actual threat. Could it be like Toru he was planning to run the race without the use of his quirk?
"I'll be going for it with everything I have too." Midoriya declared, determined.
Todoroki gave him a nod, and with that Iida gestured for them all to exit the waiting room and actually start the sports festival.
Fireworks lit up the sky as all the first-year students exited their waiting rooms. Present Mic's voice could be heard over a large speaker, and it seemed like he was going to be the commentor describing the sports festival. On the screen Toru could spot Aizawa too by his side, still dressed up in bandages like a mummy.
Cheers were heard all over.
"Hero Class 1-A!" Present Mic announced and cheers were heard all over the stadium. On monitors encircling everywhere the eye could see each student, their quirk, and a picture of them was advertised on screen as if to let the people in the stadiums know who to root for and who to guess would do well. Very little information was present on screen besides their quirk though.
Present Mic introduced the other courses as well "Hero course 1-B! General studies; C, D and E. Support Course Class F, G and H are here too! And business courses I, J, and K too! All of UA's first years are here now."
Toru gave Mei a little wave, but Mei didn't seem to notice. She just walked forward, fists tight clearly determined and a tiny bit nervous. The air of confidence she usually had for once was just for show.
Midnight stood on a podium with a little feather duster like thing. "Time for the player pledge. Representing the students is Katsuki Bakugo from Class 1-A!" She announced.
What…Why? Why did UA choose the most violent student to represent the heroes? Toru wondered. This seemed like a bad idea all around. Bakugo wasn't even the strongest, wouldn't that be Todoroki? And if they wanted a good inspiring pledge, shouldn't they have elected Iida?
Did UA really pride itself on turning the most violent people into heroes? Did they see nothing wrong with this?
The school that created All Might…They like to say. But they also created Endeavor and don't see anything wrong with that, along with many other heroes who have been criticized for being overly violent at best and some crimes even worse than that. Toru felt herself steaming at the thought of the many criminals UA had created even though they weren't seen as criminals by society.
She was not excited for Bakugo's speech. He did not disappoint any of her expectations.
"I pledge…I'll be number one." Bakugo said boredly into the mic.
Many people booed him. The loudest boos came from class 1-B and the general studies.
"Why are you doing something so disgraceful?" Iida said stepping in front of the crowd and leading them in the chorus of boos.
"At least become a nice bouncy step for me to jump off of." Bakugo said and gave them all a thumbs down.
He clearly only cares about status and himself. Why were heroes created so competitively? Shouldn't heroes be rewarded for thinking of others instead of themselves? UA didn't seem to think so.
Bakugo got off the stage as Iida continued to yell at him, Midnight just smiled as if 'boy isn't that cute?' when it was not.
"Now let's get started right away. The first game is what you'd call a qualifier. Every year many drink their tears away here. Now, here is the fateful first game!" Midnight pointed up to a screen.
The screen scrolled through many race related options, but it stopped on obstacle race.
"This year it's this!" Midnight announced. "All 11 classes will participate at once in this race. The course will be the outer circumference of this stadium which is about 4 kilometers. Our school's selling point is freedom! As long as you stay on course it doesn't matter what you do." Midnight had an evil grin on her face.
Was a hero school encouraging sabotage? I don't know what she means as anything goes but what I'm hearing is if Mei needs me to throw Mineta out of the course, I can do that. It might draw a lot of attention to her but it was a last minute option.
The walls seem high, but Mineta's pretty small…I could probably toss him over. Toru looked at the top of the walls. She glanced at Mineta who seemed oblivious that she was even looking at him, instead drooling over Midnight's R rated hero status and chatting with Kaminari.
"Now take your places everyone!" Midnight announced.
All the students grouped up outside a red gate. The tougher hero students like Bakugo stood in front of the pack pushing forward to the front of the start line. It didn't seem fair that the toughest students got to be in the front while the weaker students like the general studies and the business courses who didn't even want to compete had to be in the back.
Toru noticed the gate had three green lights that would count down to let the students start.
Wouldn't it be amusing if they gave Bakugo a false start and he got disqualified? …That would be a riot. Toru thought to herself knowing she probably shouldn't use her light bending powers to mess with the lights just to humiliate Bakugo. That would make way too many people suspicious.
The lights finally dimmed, and they were ready to race. Immediately all the students rushed forward in a free for all. The first segment of the race was through a dark tunnel and many of the students were jammed together.
Toru was an expert at gathering information quickly and observing. I should aim for…38th place let's say. That's not very high at all and makes sense for my quirk. I should remain close to 38th place at all times. To get past the initial crowd of students, Toru dropped to the ground and crawled ignoring people stepping on her and making sure to move fast since the cameras could no longer see her.
She noticed a hero course student seem to take the same path, half of her body jumped into the air and the other half split into pieces to weave through the bottom area of the crowd like Toru had.
One of the students from Class B. I think I recognize that quirk from my records of the recommendation students. Setsuna Tokage. The pieces of the person's body were fast, but not faster than Toru could catch. She quickly grabbed a toe after the foot had split up into pieces to dart through the holes easier and shoved the toe into her pocket despite it's struggle.
While the cameras are off of me I might as well sabotage to give Mei a better chance. And I think your whole body needs to pass the finish line to qualify. She continued to crawl. Those rules must have been placed for people like Shoji who could just grow more limbs.
Todoroki froze the entire chamber and ran forward choosing not to be stepped on. As the air grew icier Toru jumped up so she wouldn't be frozen in place having more experience with Todoroki's ice than the average person.
Others like Bakugo, Kirishima, Momo and Aoyama had also observed enough to jump and charged forward.
Toru was not frozen in place but made sure to wait a second for others to move ahead of her. After all being one of the students who had jumped in the tunnel would throw too much attention to her and she wanted to be exactly 38th place, always.
She saw Mei easily get out of the ice trap by pulling out a flamethrower like device and melt it.
Good for her. Toru thought.
The class 1-B student had some parts of her that had been frozen in place, but other parts of her were free and hadn't seemed to realize yet that her toe was missing, so Toru carefully side-stepped away from that mess.
She noticed Mina zoom ahead on her acid, as if ice skating on all the ice. A kid with purple hair not from the hero course also had a unique method of passing through the ice of having a throne made from people carrying him away.
Toru kept running, nowhere near where the first place Todoroki was. She eventually came upon a slew of balls on the ground.
Mineta must have passed the ice. Toru observed. She knew she could still catch up to him if she really wanted to but had already put aside that fantasy of throwing him over the stadium wall.
Eventually Toru made it to a group of students who had stopped in their tracks, she stopped as well to see what the cluster of students were looking at.
Past about 37 heads were many robots.
The villains from the entrance exam. I see that they wanted to reuse them.
"They've encountered the first barrier…Robot Inferno!" Present Mic's voice loudly addressed.
Toru saw three of the larger robots in the distance turn into a huge ice sculpture, likely from Todoroki's handiwork. She saw other students rush forward to try to take the opportunity to move past the robots.
I should wait. Todoroki's likely going to dismiss the ice soon and it'll all come crashing down. Toru just paused to spectate.
As predicted, the ice didn't stay long and the absolute giant behemoth came crashing down. Someone closer to the front of the pack started screaming.
"SOMEONE WAS UNDER THERE? OH MY GOD CAN PEOPLE DIE IN THE SPORTS FESTIVAL?" Someone from the general studies course must have been horrified.
Toru paid little mind to the student who had been crushed. If UA kills their students in a violent sports festival that's not on me. I wonder if they'll finally face criticism though.
"LIKE I'D DIE!" Kirishima burst out of the wreckage of the robots.
"Kirishima from class 1-A got crushed by robots!" Present Mic's voice boomed over a loudspeaker excitedly.
"I swear to god, Todoroki, you timed it to topple at just the right moment too! If it had been anyone but me, they would have died!" Kirishima shouted horrified.
Suddenly another student burst out of a robot, a metal one.
"Class A is a bunch of obnoxious brats. If it had been anyone but me they seriously would have died!" The metal student gasped.
"Class 1-B Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu also got crushed!" Mic announced.
Kirishima started crying. "Our quirks are pretty much the same! It's hard enough to stand out."
"Let's temporarily combine our efforts to open the way." A Chinese student from Class 1-B suggested.
Bakugo blasted away having none of that. Tokoyami, and Sero also followed after him using their mobility to their advantage.
Toru watched Mei launch a jetpack and also chose to go over the obstacles instead of facing all the little robots on the bottom.
Yaoyorozu, Sato, Ojiro, Iida, Jiro, Kaminari and Uraraka all ignored the Class B students' pleas for cooperation and moved on ahead as well.
"As expected of those who have run past! A lot of them are from Class 1-A!" Mic announced from the loudspeaker excitedly.
"That's to be expected. A lot of them faced villains head on. They aren't frozen in the face of indecision; they move past their fears." Aizawa explained.
That was true. A lot of Class 1-A had already moved ahead. Some of 1-B had also moved forward, but others were actively trying to help general studies students not get into dangerous situations, like heroes should be.
I could probably dodge the robots and continue at my current pace, but it might be better for my reputation if I cooperate with others. Toru decided. It wasn't like she had a quirk that made her stronger or faster after all. It might be too suspicious to easily dodge the robots.
"I can help! What do you want me to do?" Toru asked the student in 1-B with scales on his arms who was actively asking people for cooperation. He looked relieved that anyone from 1-A had agreed to help.
"Our goal is to clear a path so that any student can get past this without being crushed. I'd hate for a general studies student to go through what Tetsutetsu faced. So, if you see any wreckage pick it up and move it to the side. I can use my scales to hit the tinier robots and damage them." The class B student explained.
"I'll also destroy some robots for you!" A girl with a ponytail and large hands from class B offered.
Class B in general seemed slightly more cooperative than Class A. It didn't take too long for them to work together to clear the wreckage and move forward.
I'll have to speed up a bit to get in 38th place again…Some people had managed to squeak past Toru while she was helping clear the area. It didn't seem too hard to get back to her place in the race. She had counted how many people had passed her.
"Thanks. Monoma was saying all of Class 1-A only thinks about themselves. I'm glad someone in class A is still a hero." The class B boy thanked Toru before she left.
Class 1-A was probably more focused on the competition part of the race than the actual dangers general studies and business students are facing unwillingly. They probably laughed it off that Kirishima got crushed by robots but it looks like class B has their minds a little bit more rooted in reality. She'd have to watch out for them in the future, especially since she was still actively sabotaging one of them, who she had seen already move forward.
She waved back and continued running forward. She was able to slip back into 38th place pretty easily and she saw many of the Class B students who had helped clear the robots run past her, which she allowed, picking up her pace to pass another general studies student or so.
I'm lucky that nobody pays attention to anything past 25th place. The announcers, Present Mic and Aizawa were mostly focusing on the top 20. Nobody was analyzing or putting their cameras on the lower ranks and nobody was noticing how precise she was being.
She wasn't even breaking a sweat. Not that anyone would notice her sweat because it was invisible.
I don't have to worry as much about putting on a performance to look like I'm struggling because the principal isn't watching. Toru remembered just continuing her easy run.
Principal Nezu always ran the third-year events and watched that. All for One had warned her that his intelligence quirk might make him suspicious of her, but he wasn't even watching the first years so it was a lucky day for Toru.
"Hey hey, the first barrier's a piece of cake!" Present Mic's loud voice commented as Toru ran. "Then what about the second? If you fall, you're out! If you don't want to fall, you're out, then crawl. THE FALL!"
Toru hadn't come to the second yet. Although she assumed Mei had long since arrived there based on how easy she had taken the first barrier.
She eventually made it to the back of the students who had clustered up to oversee the second barrier. It seemed like a huge pit area with tightropes connecting from pillar to pillar.
Ah so people can fall out in this one. There was a place to disqualify people now. Toru smiled to herself and tried to find Mineta. Would anyone see if her invisible hands 'happened' to push him?
From what it looked like a lot of people were already in the middle of the tight-rope course. Tsuyu looked to be climbing the ropes like it was as easy as climbing a tree branch. Her jumping ensured her victory.
Mei was also doing decently well; she was somewhere in the middle.
Bakugo was out of sight. Toru could only see some explosions in the sky indicating he had blasted above the entire course. Todoroki was likely up at the front too.
"Support course students can bring support items to help them as long as they developed them themselves." Aizawa explained over a loudspeaker.
Ah, they're explaining why Mei is so good. Toru realized.
She didn't see a lot of her classmates on the tight ropes. Sero looked like he was far in the distance using his tape to just swing from pillar to pillar. Based on the smoke Iida was likely doing pretty well too.
Some of the ropes seemed slightly burned from Mina's acid meaning she had slid across them. Luckily there were enough ropes that people could easily avoid the damaged ones.
Toru spotted Midoriya crawling and hanging backwards on the ropes as he carried a piece of robot as a shield. He looked like he was struggling but Toru paid him no mind.
She stretched. I suppose the question I should face is do I walk across this or crawl pathetically like Midoriya? She was confident she could tight rope run pretty quickly. For her intel gathering she had walked across several power lines to get to where she needed to be. She could do cartwheels, backflips, anything she needed to do to avoid projectiles and flee the scene faster.
That won't look boring enough to pro heroes though…So maybe I should crawl and fall to 40th place and then make it up between the next two obstacles? That was a good option. She could take note of how Midoriya was climbing and mimic his movements.
She bounced a bit and got ready to leap into the air to grab a rope and hang upside down climbing.
"Hey, hey. Are you trying to figure out how to get across too?" Before she could make her leap a spiky purple haired student approached her.
Ugh. I wasted enough time playing friendly with class B. She didn't know why this student was trying to talk to her, but she was an expert at playing invisible and pretending she hadn't heard something.
She walked forward to the ropes deciding that, now that she was being watched, to just crouch down and start crawling.
The purple haired student, who was likely from the general or business course, didn't leave her alone though. His cocky grin fell. "Are you ignoring me?" He asked.
Wait, isn't this the guy who used a throne of people to get through the ice? Toru recalled. About five students in fact were following him.
Non-hero students didn't interest her in the least bit, so there was no reason to make contact with him. Still the number of fans he has is a problem. I better put distance between me and him, so I don't fall too far behind everyone. She didn't need 6 general studies students to be in front of her.
She started crawling on the rope and abandoned the purple haired student, never answering him, and instead focusing further on the race.
"Darn. Did she somehow figure it out?" The purple haired student muttered, mostly to himself.
I don't know what he's talking about and I don't care. Toru thought, just straight up ignoring him.
She managed to pick up her pace while climbing to ensure she wasn't too far behind. She spotted in the distance Mineta, crawling easily across the tight ropes thanks to his rubber balls.
Mei's probably a considerable distance ahead. But a little sabotage didn't hurt anyone. Toru thought to herself, wondering just how much she could get away with on camera with her invisible hands.
She picked up her pace so she would arrive at one of the middle pillars at the same time Mineta did.
"I can do this! I can do this! Time to work even harder!" She said to herself as she crawled quicker, putting energy and optimism in her voice so nobody would find anything weird about it.
The cameras seemed a lot more focused on Aoyama's and Ojiro's jumps currently and Present Mic paid special attention to how Yaoyorozu was pole vaulting over to each pillar, talking about the history of her families creation quirk. They were apparently pros.
She arrived at the pillar a little after Mineta had. For once Mineta wasn't paying attention to every pretty girl that passed by and was totally focused on climbing.
Toru rushed past him, putting enough distance between them that it looked like she wouldn't bump him. Her gym clothes were short sleeved so she was free to angle her elbow however she pleased to bump him. While he was close to the edge, she crouched down so she could climb the tight rope and be at his height level. She gave him a not visible push.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Mineta screamed as he fell off the edge.
Toru quickly climbed away, pretending not to notice and putting some distance between her and the disaster. Since Mineta had just been about to get on a tight rope hopefully it would look like he just tripped and fell. It took a second for the cameras to get to his screams.
"It looks like one of Class A has fallen into the ravine! Will poor Mineta fail the course?" Present Mic yelled.
"Slipping and falling on the job can be greatly detrimental." Aizawa explained. "If a pro slips and falls off a building it could cause that pro to let a villain get away, and bodily damage. Hopefully he learns from this mistake."
Putting distance between her and Mineta was the right choice. The cameras were now all on him. I hope he gets disqualified and remains in the hole. I hope that helped ensure Mei qualifies for the next round.
Toru pretended to be tired at the next pillar and started wheezing and breathing heavily, her hands on her knees. She hoped that looked like she had pushed herself to run forward and ran out of endurance. She carefully waited for others to pass her so she could make it back to 38th place.
"DON'T COUNT ME OUT JUST YET!" Mineta's voice yelled from the distance.
Toru didn't let herself look backwards.
"WHOA! Mineta's climbing up the wall of the pillar! I guess he managed to recover from the fall by grabbing the wall with one of his balls!" Mic announced.
"Smart. Mineta from Class 1-A is probably one of the better climbers in his class. Recovering from a mistake is very important to a pro-hero." Aizawa explained.
Darn. Well, it was a good test. I've gathered some good data. For one Mineta was a very good climber, and she should remember that. For another, it seemed like people wouldn't suspect her of pushing if they couldn't see her hands.
She hoped Mineta lost some valuable time because of her sabotage, but the results she had gathered were sure to be useful later.
Toru wasn't anywhere near the final barrier when Mic's voice started announcing again.
"And now we've arrived at the final barrier! The reality here is that it's a mine field!" Present Mic's voice was brimming with excitement.
Toru continued her pace. Others started speeding up once Mic had said it was the final barrier. They knew that this meant Todoroki or Bakugo was already at the last part of the course.
General studies students were getting tired and Toru passed them. Hero course students who were behind her passed her though so she could keep in 38th place. She saw Mineta pass her as well, the adrenaline from falling so high perhaps giving him a boost.
The toe in Toru's pocket was struggling to get out. She held onto it tightly. The student she had stolen it from likely had figured out she was missing a toe.
I bet she's afraid she won't be able to complete the course without her full body. Toru thought to herself. That or having the toe so far away from her was seriously zapping her energy.
Toru eventually slid to a stop as she made it closer to the mine field. She hadn't yet reached it but she could see some of the sea of students in front of her struggling terribly. Mei included.
"My babies…No I can't risk them blowing up…" Mei was perplexed trying to figure out a way safely past the mine field.
The sounds of explosions were in the air. Tons of students were blowing up and triggering the mines.
"Careful now, these mines detonate when tread upon! They've only got enough power to knock you back a little, but if they throw you off and trip a bunch of chain reactions that time quickly adds up!" Mic explained.
"Plus, if you think of the constant damage, it would be better to avoid them even if it does kill your speed." Aizawa added.
"Those among you who are jumpers might want to think twice before vaulting ahead carelessly. There's still a bunch of mines that have still not detonated. But being careful isn't exactly speedy either?" Mic said.
There was a very loud explosion and suddenly Mic's commenting got more excited.
"Bakugo and Todoroki are neck and neck about to pass the final gate. Who's in the lead—Oh Wow, Class 1-A's Midoriya takes his chance and comes soaring in!" Present Mic hurriedly announced.
Toru couldn't see Midoriya, but it sounded like things were almost at the end. She was finally at the beginning of the mine field. There was a chill in the air and a bunch of dirt had been dug up at the very beginning.
So Midoriya likely blasted to the front by using the explosives. Very smart. She had seen him carrying a piece of a robot almost as if it was a shield. She wasn't quite sure why.
She started ignoring Mic and focusing on how she could remain in 38th place and look like she was struggling to do so. She was pretty good at spotting traps and explosives so it wouldn't be too hard to avoid the mine field. If a spy triggered a trap loudly, they would give away their position. Toru was a master of being quiet thanks to All for One.
She recalled having triggered many explosives more painful than these in her training.
"Children react better to pain as a source of failure verses just the idea of failure. I want you to learn to observe quickly as well as to learn to be careful where you step." All for One had told her.
She was thankful for his wise words. Because of this she was confident she could avoid these mines.
She was about to start her careful trek with moments of a burst of speed, but she spotted Mei still struggling to even begin the mine field. She was sweating and clearly stressed about risking damage to the creations she had poured her life into.
"Mei! Use your eyes!" Toru yelled.
"That's what I'm doing!" Mei nodded. "But it's hard to avoid the other student's blasts!"
"No, I mean, the explosives have a little bit of new dirt on top of them. The dirt looks pat down a little bit more in areas with mines. If you use your zoom quirk to figure out a path and notice the mines you should be able to avoid any explosions!" Toru advised.
Mei had looked like she was just looking at people instead of the dirt herself. With her quirk she should be able to avoid the mines easily.
Mei's face lit up. "I've got bigger feet than most because of my hover soles. I was having a bit of trouble, but I think I've found one now!" She cheered and started heading forward. It was likely she was relying too heavily on her support gear instead of using her quirk.
A class B boy with neat blonde hair turned his head back to Toru and focused his attention on her. He was a bit farther ahead than her but somehow, he had focused all his attention on her.
Is he finding me suspicious because I know how to find the mines? Toru wondered.
"Is Class 1-A really confident enough that they can pass this exam while giving advice to other students?" He mocked. He stopped running to mock her and a few students passed him. "And people call class B stupid! I didn't realize the sports festival was so easy for Class A!"
He's focusing more on me than the actual sports festival. I'd call that the height of stupidity. Toru started creeping forward.
"It's okay. It's just a race. I wanted to help a friend!" Toru responded, making sure to be chipper.
The 1-B boy looked horrified. "Just a race! It's UA's sports festival! The people who do well in this will do well in their future career as a hero! Can Class 1-A really act so superior?" He yelled back.
Toru started ignoring the 1-B boy. "Good luck!" She told Mei again before doing a quick zig zag around some mines.
The 1-B boy stared at her and glared but started moving again when he realized she was ignoring him.
It sounded like people had already started to finish the race. Mei was now moving, but at a bit of a slower pace than Toru. Luckily there was a class A student doing almost as poorly as Mei with these mines, Aoyama.
It looked like Aoyama was having a mixture of a lot of pain because he was clutching his stomach, and he also had a lot of bad luck. He kept jumping and triggering almost every mine possible.
If Mei starts shadowing him, he should take all the explosions. If she runs faster than him at the very end, she should probably beat him. Toru guessed.
The fight for the final place seemed almost more important than the fight for first.
Toru noticed she was going a little too quickly because she passed the class 1-B boy who had mocked her. She stopped, pretending that she was looking for a place to step again.
The blonde boy passed her again, this time running and laughing wildly. "TAKE THAT 1-A! How does it feel for a class B student to pass you? For me, Monoma, to pass you?" His head seemed to be craned backwards to mock and because of this he triggered a mine and exploded.
Toru covered her face and sighed.
Nobody else has passed me because they're all being super careful or unlucky…So I have to wait for him to recover to continue. This race was really a test of patience.
Another Class B student went backwards to help him up, she was an American with blonde hair and horns. Monoma thanked her and then started running wildly again passing the horn girl, but because he was moving again Toru was able to move again.
As she got a little closer to the finish line, she looked behind her and saw Setsuna, the girl she had stolen a toe of searching the mine field desperately for something, likely her other body parts.
Ah, yeah. I still have that, don't I? Toru's hand was over her pocket, keeping the toe hostage so the poor class B girl could not complete the course. Well, I'll release it when I'm about to finish the course.
It looked like Setsuna was having an easy enough time maneuvering throughout the minefield. It didn't pose a problem for her because she could just send her body parts flying. However, one of the mines a different student had triggered had sent one of her legs flying forward in front of Toru, so she was just hopping along on one leg desperately looking for what body parts were no longer part of her.
Toru was close to the finish line. The American class B student was about to trigger a mine. Toru rushed forward so her body would be covered in smoke during the explosion.
KA-POW!
The explosion triggered and Toru took the toe out of her pocket and threw it as far behind her as possible to give herself a little time to get to the finish line before Setsuna recovered her toe and made it.
Monoma ran forward out of the finish line and placed 36th. The girl with horns ran out next placing 37th. Toru ran forward and got her ideal time of 38th. Setsuna, recovering the rest of her body parts, flew very quickly and just barely finished 39th.
The class B students seemed to be waiting for her.
"I'm surprised you didn't do too well, Setsuna." The horn girl expressed her sympathies.
"I had asked Vlad King beforehand if you needed all your body parts to finish. And…It seems I lost my toe. I don't know where it had gone before the mine field! I'm usually really good at controlling my body and it has a lot of speed…" Setsuna looked miserable.
"Maybe 1-A sabotaged you? They are evil after all." Monoma pointed out.
Setsuna shook her head as another one B student passed the finish line, this guy had a word balloon for a head. "My body travels extremely fast. It would be near miraculous to catch it. I'm confident I'm even faster than Bakugo or that engine legged student."
"That's why I'm so surprised that Class B's prized recommendation student did so poorly!" The horned girl insisted again.
Mei finally passed the finish line just in front of Aoyama at the very end. She looked bummed out but none of her babies were injured.
Aoyama was clutching his stomach, extremely in pain.
That's all 42. Toru smiled to herself. Mei had made it!
"Then…How did you lose it?" Monoma asked.
Although Toru wanted to talk to Mei, she felt she had to listen into this class 1-B conversation.
"I don't know…Someone…well, someone would have to move as fast as the speed of light to catch me!" Setsuna made a very clear brag. Her body had been moving nowhere near that fast.
She was about as fast as a very quick bird. It wasn't that hard to catch her. Toru rolled her eyes. Class 1-B had lost horribly.
The students grouped together to look at the rankings. Most of them looked bummed out, aside from the top five.
As predicted the first 42 past, with all the heroes making it in plus two other students. A lot of general studies students were crying. The business course students were talking about how they would market the top. A good number of them looked like they had been waiting in the arena for the other students, meaning they had given up in the very first tunnel.
"I got 19th…" Mina complained. "I was aiming for top 10, but those class B guys gave me a run for my money!"
"I'm sorry, Mina…" Tsuyu pat her back having placed, 13th.
"One of them had this quirk that just melded you in place! It was awful." Mina complained, "But hey, I'm happy most of our class did well. I'm surprised Kirishima got 9th. He's truly changed a lot since middle school."
Toru was mostly surprised Mineta had climbed up in the ranks and gotten 18th. How had he managed to beat Mina's speed? "I'm surprised Midoriya got first! Wasn't expecting that at all!" She decided to just go for the usual chatter, of talking about first place.
"I'm happy for him. He deserves it. He must have been quite smart to beat Todoroki, Bakugo, Yaoyorozu and Iida." Tsuyu complimented.
"Yeah, I'm surprised our second recommendation student only placed 17th!" Mina agreed.
They all glanced at Yaoyorozu, who was looking annoyed, disappointed and very uncomfortable for some reason.
I wonder if this is the start of her experiencing losing for the first time? Toru wondered. She wasn't sure why losing would generate such an uncomfortable look on her face though, nor would her shoulders bunch up so tightly.
What happened in the higher ranks? Toru wondered. She had been too far behind to see any of it, and it was probably super rude to go up to her and ask 'hey Momo, how and why did you lose so badly?'
"It's too bad you were so far behind, Hagakure." Jiro said, a little blunter. "Midoriya getting to the front was super cool and it's too bad you missed it!"
"Oh yeah?" Mina asked.
"Yeah, I saw him, he dug up a bunch of mines and put them together-" Jiro started explaining, giving the play by play.
Toru continued looking at the scoring board.
I did it. The first event has finished. That means all I have to do is work on failing in the second event. Easy enough. The sports festival, for Toru at least, seemed almost over.
I would love to know in canon how one of the recommendation students in Class B got 39th place. Was she just having a bad day? Had the class B recommendation students not been decided yet? I feel like if you can fly and split your body into 50 pieces a lot of the obstacles shouldn't pose too much of a problem to you.
Monoma I assume placed low because he was too busy mocking other people.
Oh for fanfic purposes, I am headcanoning the pro-hero that looks like Kaminari from the second movie as his mom. I have named her Bolt because it was the only name I could come up with on the fly. If you take huge offense to this because you have a better lightning based name, please suggest me her name and I can easily edit and retcon her name. I'd love name suggestions tbh.
Hope you enjoy!