Rule #26: True competition breeds character. Don't suppress it.

The UA sports festival is in two weeks; the whole thing will be streaming live on TV. There's no doubt that whomever impresses the audience will have a much better chance at becoming a Pro Hero one day.

The subsequent days leading up to the sports festival were filled with training. It almost seemed like all they would do was train: before school, during lessons and after school. Countless hours were filled with laps and katas and spars.

We won't know what the games will be until the first day, they could throw basically anything at us and so we have to prepare for all possibilities.

It seemed like the entire school was abuzz the two weeks before the festival. Each and every student seemed to push themselves harder and harder, to push their Quirks further and further to the edge. To be the very best that they could.

For Toru, she spent most of her days working on increasing her oxygen intake as she moved; something that she had always been wary about but never really approached. Sure, there had been a couple of incidents when she was younger where she had burnt through her reserves and needed to be supplied with oxygen, but nothing too drastic. Something she hoped would stay that way. But nothing ever came to those who took it easy…

Days passed, all the training made the time pass by quickly and before we knew it, it was the morning of the festival.

"Dearie please babe careful and try not to get hurt" Grammy worried as Toru double checked her bag, making sure that she had everything she'd need for the day ahead.

"I will" Toru replied absentmindedly. Sports gear, check. Lunch, check. Inhaler, check. Snacks, check. Water, check.

"Don't forget we'll be watching the whole thing!" Grammy smiled. "Do your best dearie!"

"Thanks, Grammy" Toru smiled.

"And kick their asses!" Gramps cheered punching the air.

"Language!" Grammy scolded.

"Thanks Gramps!"


"Aw man!" Ashido whined, "I was totally hoping I could wear my costume!"

"At least everyone will be in uniforms; that'll keep things fair, right?" Ojiro replied.

"I wonder what they'll have in store for us in the first round" Sato worried as he sat at one of the tables in the waiting room.

"No matter what they've prepared, we must persevere" Tokoyami replied.

"Right" Agreed Shoji.

"Do you think we'll be sparring? Or maybe there'll be like a race! Or maybe…" Tamaki jumped up and down in her excitement.

"You seem excited" Shiro smiled.

"I love this kinda thing!" The blonde replied, practically buzzing.

SLAM!

The door hit the back wall as Iida returned, "EVERYONE! GET YOUR GAME FACES ON! WE'RE ENTERING THE ARENA SOON!"

"Eek!" Tamaki squealed, doing an odd little dance that amused Toru greatly. She looked like a spider on a hotplate.

"Midoriya" Todoroki stepped forth.

"Hey Todoroki, what's up?" Midoriya turned to face the taller teen. Along with the rest of the class, mind you.

"From an objective stand point, I think it's fairly clear that I'm stronger than you"

"Uh…ah yeah…"

"However, you've got All Might in your corner helping you out"

"Huh?"

"I'm not here to pry about that, but know that I will beat you"

"Ugh, what's with all these declarations of war lately?" Kaminari questioned.

"Yeah, what's the big deal? Why're you picking a fight all of a sudden?" Kirishima approached the two, "And right before we get started?"

"We're not here to be each other's friends. Don't forget, this isn't a team effort" Todoroki stalked towards the door.

"Wait a sec, Todoroki. I don't know what's going through your head or why you need to tell me you need to beat me and yeah, of course you're better than me, in fact you probably have more potential than anyone in the Hero course. That's why you got in so easily,…"

"Midoriya maybe you're being a little hard on yourself and us" Kirishima placated.

"No, he's right you guys. All the other courses are coming at us with everything we've got. We're all gonna have to fight to stand out…and I'll be aiming for the top too"

"Fine"

"Now that you two are done comparing dicks, can we go?" Toru popped between the two, efficiently cutting through the heavy tension suffocating the room.

"H-Hagakure!" Midoriya redden, jumping back in shock whilst Todoroki's eyes widened at her sudden appearance with red cheeks. A multitude of choked noises spread throughout the room at the albino's comment and a couple of snickers could be heard as well.

"I was being serious!" Midoriya huffed.

"I know, but c'mon MIdoriya! Did you really think the rest of us were going to half-ass it?" She grinned before spinning on her heel and skipped out the door. "C'me on slow pokes! Let's go!"


Out in the arena, Present Mic happily pumped up the crowds. "HEY! MAKE SOME NOISE ALL YOU RABID SPORTS FANS! GET THOSE CAMERAS PREPPED MEDIA HORDES! THIS YEAR WE'RE BRINGING YOU SOME OF THE HOTTEST PERFORMANCES IN SPORTS FESTIVAL HISTORY GUARANTEED! I'VE ONLY GOT ONE QUESTION BEFORE WE START THIS SHOW: ARE YOU READY?!"

"Geez, he's really going for it isn't he?" Shiro muttered as the class made their way towards the centre of the arena.

"Well, he's not known for being quiet" Tamaki replied.

"Yeah, I guess…"

"LET ME HEAR YA SCREAM AS OUR STUDENTS MAKE THIER WAY TO THE MAIN STAGE! THIS FIRST GROUP ARE NO STRANGERS TO THE SPOTLIGHT, YOU'LL KNOW THEM FROM WITHSTANDING A VILLAIN ATTACK! THESE DAZZLING STUDENTS WILL LIGHT UP YOUR TVS WITH SOLID GOLD SKILLS: THE HERO COURSE STUDENTS OF 1-A!"

Toru blinked rapidly against the sudden change in lightning, before she found her eyes blowing wide at the amount of people crammed into the stands around them. Holy shit! That's more people than I've ever even seen!

From the sounds of the mutters from her classmates, she wasn't alone.

"Um…I didn't know there'd be so many people" Midoriya worried.

"I hope we're still able to give our best performances even with all these eyes on us. I suppose it's just another aspect to being a hero that we all have to accept" Iida commented.

"Present Mic sure did talk us up a lot, kinda makes me nervous. How're you feeling man?" Kirishima asked the blonde.

"I'm not worried, makes me wanna win this thing even more" Bakugou replied.

It wasn't long until 1-A was soon joined by the other classes. "…WITH NOT NEARLY AS MUCH SCREEN TIME, BUT THIS NEXT GROUP IS STILL CHOCK-FULL WITH TALENT! HERO COURSE 1-B! NEXT UP GENERAL CLASSES C, D & E! SUPPORT CLASSES F, G & H! AND FINALLY BUSINESS CLASSES I, J & K! GIVE IT UP FOR ALL UA'S FIRST YEAR CONTESTANTS!"

Once everyone had gathered together in a rather large clump in front of the small stage set up to the side of the field, Midnight took to the stage. "NOW THE INTRODUCTORY SPEECH!"

"Uh, someone should talk to Midnight-Sensei about what she's wearing" Kirishima muttered.

"Thanks for volunteering, Kirishima!" Toru teased.

"I didn't mean me!"

"SILENCE EVERYONE! AND FOR THE STUDENT PLEDGE, WE HAVE: KATSUKI BAKUGO!"

"Huh? He's the first year rep?" Midoriya worried as Bakugou made his way on stage.

"Guess that hot head did finish first in the entrance exam" Sero agreed.

"Ha, only for the Hero course exams" Sighed a general studies student.

"Oh right" Midoriya muttered.

"That girl obviously hates us" Sero whispered.

"Yeah, and we've got Bakugou to thank for not liking our class" Karminari muttered.

Toru and the rest of 1-A could only watch on with worry as Bakugo shuffled over to the microphone with hands in his pockets and spoke boredly into it. "Hey, I just wanna say, I'm gonna win"

Da-da-da-da-da-da, we're dead! Thanks alot Bakugou! Toru huffed as everyone around went up-in-arms at his…'speech'

"WITHOUT FURTHER ADO IT'S TIME FOR US TO GET STARTED!" Midnight decreed, "THIS IS WHERE YOU BEGIN FEELING THE PAIN! THE FIRST FATEFUL GAME OF THE FESTIVAL…" On the large screen behind her, the options for the different games spun around and around until it landed on one. "…WHAT COULD IT BE? TA-DA!"

"An obstacle race?" Toru read out with bright eyes. Yes! This is gonna be fun!

"ALL 11 CLASSES WILL PARTICIPATE IN THIS TREACHEROUS CONTEST. THE TRACK IS 4KM AROUND THE OUTSIDE OF THE STADIUM. I DON'T WANNA RESTRAIN ANYONE…AT LEAST IN THIS GAME, AS LONG AS YOU DON'T LEAVE THE COURSE, YOU'RE FREE TO DO WHATEVER YOU PLEASE!"

The crowd roared their approval.

"NOW THEN, TAKE YOUR PLACES CONTESTANTS!"

Over to the side, a large red archway bordered one of the corridors leading out of the arena. Several people were pushing and shoving to get to the front of the pack so as to be one of the first off the mark. Toru, found herself squished up against a couple of support students to the left-hand side of the pack and as the countdown began she knew it would only get worse from here.

3, 2, 1…START!

At Midnight's shout everyone rushed forth, trying to cram themselves through any available hole. Unfortunately just as Toru had predicted, the tight space between the squirming bodies only got tighter as the corridor narrowed as it went on, clearly meant to thin the herds.

Oh fuck this! Toru huffed when she received yet another elbow to the face. Heaving herself up the body of the closest person next to her; she, despite their protests, used them like a ladder to position herself above the crowd. Once seated upon the boy's shoulder's, she bounded forward using shoulders and heads like stepping stones as she made her way out of the corridor.

"Ow!"

"What the…!"

"Hey!"

"Oi!"

Easily moving up the pack, Toru dodged outstretched limbs as she made her forward, at least until a blast of ice quickly spread out across the landscape as Todoroki made his first move. Most were caught unawares and subsequently frozen in place. Glad I'm not them! Toru shivered, remembering the feeling of being stuck in his ice. So cold!

Leaping from the furthest person now frozen in place, Toru landed somewhat heavily on the frozen ground, only sliding a little as she made her way over to the white picket fence lining the pathway. Once there, she easily scaled the fence and began to ran along the top of it; easily avoiding the frozen ground to her left. As long as I don't fall off, I'm still technically in bounds! She grinned, running after the leaders.

"So they are good at using their powers, huh?" Shinso drawled from atop his human-made cart, "Oi! Toru that's outta bounds!" He called catching sight of the floating uniform running along the fence.

"Says who?!" Toru called back with a laugh before racing ahead.

However her joy was short lived as not only did she run out of fence, but the next obstacle had presented itself, knocking Mineta clean from the sky. "It's those robots from the entrance exam…!" Midoriya muttered from her right as almost everyone ground to a halt in front of the obstacle.

"ARE THOSE THE ZERO-POINT ROBOTS FROM THE PRACTICAL TEST?!"

"Seriously?!"

"Are they insane?!"

"Where does the school even get the funding for these things?!"

As the others exclaimed their shock at the unfairness of the obstacle course, both Todoroki and one of the zero-pointers moved as one. Swiping an arm along the ground and up into the air, a glacier of ice emerged from beneath Todoroki's palm, freezing the robot in place.

"Dude! He stopped the robot!" Someone cheered as Todoroki skated off.

"Between its legs! We can get through!" Came someone else.

Toru analysed the scene before her, trying to decide on how she'd make her next move. No, wait! It's off balance! If you go near that it'll…

BOOM!

The once frozen robot creaked and groaned before slamming to the ground mere metres away from them, sending up one of the largest clouds of dust that Toru had ever seen.

"I'M ALIVE!" Kirishima burst out of the icy robot that had fallen on top of him as the other robots crowded in around them.

"I'LL SMASH THAT ICE GUY WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON HIM!" Tetsutetsu declared, also bursting from the frozen robot with his Quirk activated.

"Man! How lucky are they? They don't have to worry about being crushed!" Karminiari complained as Kirishima and Tetsutetsu passed.

"We're racing each other, but we can team up for now and carve a path!" Rin activated part of his Quirk just as Bakugou flew overtop, using his explosions to propel himself upwards.

"Bakugou?!"

Sero and Tokoyami were not far behind him; all three easily passing over the robot in front.

A grin spread across Toru's face as the remaining robots crowded around. Well only one thing left to do…

"W-What are you doing?" Shiro stammered when he saw Toru's sports uniform fall to the ground.

"It's time to disappear!" Toru grinned before she took off, racing straight for the spaces between the robots' legs.

"TORU!" Shiro panicked, hand out-stretched. All around him, muttered comments arose int he crowd as they watched her trail of footprints disappear,

"Oh my God!"

"Is she…naked?"

"Oh yeah, baby!"

Toru's giddy laugh bounced back at them.


When coming up on the third obstacle, Toru noticed that the path had been set up like large stepping stones, only the spaces between each platform were far too far to jump on your own. Though each section of earth was connected by a sectioned of rope, still creating some sort of path between them.

Once again she came to a stop just before the obstacle, allowing a few others to take the lead ahead of her. As she was trying to figure out the quickest way across, she heard someone call out. "Hey! Naked girl!"

Turning to face the person, Toru found her vision suddenly blocked by a heap of cloth now sitting on her head.

"Ack!"

"Did you forget something?" Shiro sassed, pulling up beside her with the rest of her uniform in hand.

"Thanks, Shiro" Toru pulled the offending shirt off of her head.

"Just get dressed" He moved on with red cheeks as Toru did as she was told.

Without much option left and no quick trick to get her ahead of her peers, Toru just went with carefully walking the ropes like a tightrope between each other platforms. On some of the smaller gaps, she found that she could jump them with a bit of a running start, but eventually she made her way to the other side and quickly set about moving up the pack so as to claim a spot in the top 42.

Eventually Toru made it to the final obstacle, by which point most of the contestants were now picking their way across the minefield, occasionally setting one off. Right, make it through the minefield & don't set any off! I can do this! Let's dance!

And dance she did, moving with the grace of a gymnast, Toru easily wove in and out of the small pathways created between the mines. She'd spin on her heel here or bend over backwards there; it almost felt like she was dancing with someone, like one of those fairy tale stories where the peasant girl danced with the prince at the ball. I can almost hear the music!

It was an odd contrast really, her gracefully dancing, shaking her hips along to an imaginary waltz in the middle of a mine field. A benign minefield, sure, but still…A grin split her face as she danced, lost in her own little world.

Hey look! A shooting star! Toru grinned lazily staring up at the sky as she spun, still lost in her own little world.

"What the hell?!"

"Midoriya?"

"Ha?!"

Wait! That's not a shooting star! That's a real person! Toru snapped out of her daydreams to see Midoriya waving a cloud of pink as he soared above everyone else including Todoroki & Bakugou, easily taking the lead from them. What. The. Hell.

Further up the field, a second explosion lit up the end of the minefield as Midoriya seemingly struck again, easily taking the first place. That explosive finish seemed to kick everyone else into gear as they stormed forward, intent on making it through to the next phase.