Chapter Eleven: Time to Begin


One unread message from BAEREN:

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BAEREN: omg the yuuei sports festival is tomorrow right? i'll be watching from home, okay?

BAEREN: do your best!

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Ren's message made her stomach lurch a little at the reminder that the Sports Festival-slash-competition was currently less than twenty four hours away.

Morie stared at the artwork which had been sitting at her desk for more than two weeks now, before she slumped backwards in her chair with a sigh. She had contemplated the idea of working on the commission some more as an outlet for her to relax, but that was the thing- she couldn't get herself to relax at all. The reality that the Sports Festival was just a nap away had just sank in, and boy, did it hit her hard.

A piece of measuring tape was put up on the wall of her room as Morie reached out a hand, imagining that she was grabbing at air as far away as possible. Then she visualised the pressure of the air at the end of the room increasing and she smiled at the resulting breeze that rushed over her subsequently, eyeing the measuring tape as she did so.

If she was estimating correctly, she had managed to increase her range from about five metres to five-point-six, which did not seem like much but was progress in itself. She had been using so much of her quirk lately that she was able to use it longer, and she had discovered a little trick to help her get over her migraines- if she massaged the pressure points on her head and gave it a few minutes, her blood flow would mostly return back to normal.

(Keyword: mostly. Sometimes it failed to work.)

Fiddling with some of the marbles on her table, she spun them around her fingers, repeating the process for each hand. Then she tried spinning the marbles around her body in general. She had been intently working on training herself for the past few weeks- but the question was: was it enough?

I wonder if my shitty cousin is going to be watching, she thought suddenly and out of habit, grumbling at the thought as she thought of what he would say. There was no doubt that he would say something like 'have some enthusiasm, cousin!' while casually crippling her by punching her back.

Deciding that she couldn't keep still any longer, Morie pushed out of her chair and changed her clothes, stuffing her phone and her earphones in her pocket as she shuffled downstairs. 'Mom's busy,' came the glum thought as she noticed the absence of the said woman, before a familiar feeling of worry seeped into her veins.

Her mother usually made it a point to not let her work intrude upon her family time, but from past experience she knew that it was pointless to worry about Minamoto Fū when it was so much more easy to just work away her worries.

"Dad," she called out. Her father was currently in the kitchen, and she dared not step into the cramped space due to the sheer number of utterly hazardous objects floating around like a floating minefield; cooking and telekinesis hardly mixed well together and the only good outcome was her dad's food. "I'm going for a run."

"Be back for dinner," he responded. "And don't push yourself too much- the festival's tomorrow."

"Yes, dad," she replied, with the placating tone all teenagers used to reassure their over-protective parents. Then Chika peered out of the kitchen and sent her a frown- and then came the ever-familiar sensation of him probing into her mind.

"Shields up!" He mock-scolded when he was met with no resistance. Obliging, she allowed her mental shields to form, feeling a sense of detachment settle over and within her as she did so. "Remember, you can never be too careful, Mori."

Flashing him a thumbs-up, Morie slipped on her sports shoes, shutting her house gate before she stepped out of the house. She did her warm-ups and hastily stuffed an earbud into her ear, before taking in a deep, relaxing breath.

Five rounds around the neighbourhood, then. Let's go.

Just as she was about to set off, she heard the neighboring gate slam close and inwardly she thought, 'Must be Masaru-san, feeding a stray... Was he always one to slam the door?'

(That was until she turned around, of course.)

When her eyes took in the sight of someone who was none other than the great Bakugou Katsuki, her eyes widened by a fraction.

The boy with ash blonde hair had taken to joining them for lunch on some days, though he was still alone for the most part. They never did bring up what happened the day Morie crashed into the clearing (and the fact that he actually brought her to the infirmary like a decent person- she still hadn't thanked him for that like a normal person.) Once she got over her initial doubts and did some reflecting on the situation, she did feel somewhat more at ease around him ever since then- it was as if she was subconsciously assured by the fact that there was more to Bakugou than his explosive temper. He was intimidating but interesting, and she was no closer to figuring him out than she had been at day one.

"... Hey." She said, raising her hand as she met his red-eyed gaze, feeling awkward beyond words. He squinted at her for a few moments, red eyes boring into her own dark ones before he made to shove past her, hands stuck in his pockets as he did so.

"Out of the way."

... the rude little shit.

Morie waited for a few moments for his figure to disappear from sight before she broke off into a jog. Sometimes, it was hard to comprehend how such coincidences just happened, though granted, they were neighbours, perhaps the close proximity made it more possible for them to have bumped into each other before.

Heck, now that she thought of it, she probably had already met him once or twice on the streets somewhere before, but she only started to notice him after that incident with the notebook. If anything, the only connection they had as neighbours was possibly Masaru-san from next door (cough, more than likely Bakugou's father) and the fact that she could recognise his explosion noises anywhere from how often they kept her up at night.

It was a fairly strange notion, though she was fairly certain that such coincidences wouldn't be happening again soon- she certainly hoped not, at least. The two of them were certainly not friends, but they weren't enemies, per say, and personally Morie didn't hate him. (Then again, did she even hate anybody?) But that meant that as a result, meetings between them were often painfully awkward.

Tomorrow's the festival, her mind piped up. Shouldn't you be focusing on that?

At that reminder, she shook the thoughts of the spiky-haired boy away from her mind. Brushing one of her bangs away from her eyes, she settled into a steady pace.

It was safe to say that she had forgotten about the awkward and accidental meeting with Bakugou Katsuki.

(That is, until she bumped into him once again when she had run to get on the train the very next day, and it turned out that they had gotten on the same carriage. The ride was painfully uncomfortable, or at least for Morie, as she spent most of the time avoiding eye contact with him by using her phone and internally cursing the world.)

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Currently, she was wincing at the loud cheers.

At the sight of infamous Class A making their appearance at the stadium, the crowd went positively wild. The hype was due to the fact that they had been the victims of the Villain attack and they had garnered a considerable amount of supporters after it turned out that all of them made it through alive and mostly uninjured.

Unconsciously, she reached up and brushed against the back of her short brown hair at that reminder. All the noise was making her head explode, and the attention was nearly embarrassing.

Kirishima, on the other hand was basking in the attention appreciatively, staring up at the crowds with a look of awe on his face, and he turned towards her with a grin. "Rie-san! Aren't you feeling pumped up?"

Morie scrunched up her face at that, not exactly sure of how she was feeling at the moment. Pumped up? Sure- if that was synonymous with getting a strong urge to puke.

"I guess so," she ended up replying. Her eyes began wander about the stadium, and her mouth fell open as she gaped, eyes taking in the proctor for this year's Sports Festival.

"HolyshitisthatMidnight- " Morie's eyes widened as pink dusted over her cheeks. "It's her! I can't believe it- "

'You would think that you would have gotten used to seeing heroes by now,' her mind remarked dryly, and in response she told herself to shut up.

Kirishima was about to reach over to pat her on the shoulder in an attempt to calm her down, until he caught sight of the Hero himself. Instantaneously, his entire face flushed red as he gawked at Midnight, who was currently donned in her revealing Hero costume (and that in itself was an understatement).

"H-h-her hero costume!" The boy sputtered, now literally glowing red as his eyes widened outrageously. Morie, who had now gotten over her moment of fangirling, eyed him with a bemused expression.

"Like what you see, Kiri?" She whispered into his ear, cackling as he practically jerked backwards in shock, arms flailing in denial.

It was an adorable sight that he was so embarrassed by Midnight's costume (which didn't leave much room for imagination) rather than say, nosebleed (she glanced pointedly at Kaminari and Mineta).

"Rie-san!" He protested after getting over his initial shock. Morie only grinned and sent him a teasing wink, which made him even more embarrassed.

(Boy, was his innocence was refreshing.)

The mood quickly sobered up, however, as Midnight revealed what the first task would be some time later.

"The first item will be a obstacle race around the stadium! Competitors, get ready!"

With a loud yell into microphone, Present Mic's voice blaring all across the stadium, there was a small wave of confusion which spread through the competitors. Her eyes widened as she realised what they were supposed to do.

Grabbing Kirishima, she ran towards the nearest exit, where crowds of competitors were already beginning to gather. Unashamedly, she darted forward, her small size coming in useful in slipping through cracks of people. Then she was running, a small, unrecognisable feeling burning within her just as she caught sight of a familiar boy with red and white hair way ahead of them.

'He wouldn't-' she gaped in comprehension, watching as he was about to bring his leg down on the floor, and as if in slow-motion, frost began to spread from the point of contact at an alarming rate.

'Oh, of course he would.'

Her mind sighed in exasperation and the dark-haired girl resisted the urge to throw up her arms and comment snidely that she 'called it!'. Todoroki had grown predictable in his lack of hesitance to use his (possibly overpowered) quirk, and with that thought Morie tore her gaze from him and focused on getting free.

She broke through the frost which covered her shoes with by increasing the pressure around her feet, before she took a step forward and stumbled on the slippery ground.

"Damn you, Todoroki," she grumbled, before wondering how she could conserve the use of her quirk as she stared at the frozen path in front of her. Then she decreased the pressure on one foot, before balancing on her other, kicking off so that she was sliding across the ice like a wannabe iceskater.

(She stumbled as she hit solid land- so much for doing this with style.)

Then, as she eyed Todoroki, an idea came to her- as long as she kept tagging along behind him, his quirk could be prove to her advantage. After all, the air around his ice would be tantalisingly high in pressure, which would make things easier for her in the get-go. At most it would irritate him, but it seemed like he hardly gave a damn about her, anyway.

... Not to mention, hell if she was letting him of all people get ahead of her so easily. As someone who generally preferred to spend their time being as collected and rational as much as possible, she herself was surprised that Todoroki was able to rile her up like this. It was probably genetics- her mother couldn't stand Endeavour himself.

Then there was a loud rumbling noise, and an immense sense of déjà vu hit her sharply as she found herself slowing down at the next clearing- and instinctively she made a face.

Robots. Not just any robots, but the robots from the entrance exam- and that was with the inclusion of the Arena Trap zero-pointer. She vaguely remembered being pursued and terrorised by these ugly and deadly hunks of metal.

Todoroki dealt with them easily, and for a moment she was at a lost as to what do as he seemingly froze the robots into place. One look told her that the ice wouldn't hold for very long and that it would crush whoever ran forward at that point- she bit her lip and forced herself to hold still, watching as Todoroki got further and further away. But as she turned around, she realised that Kirishima was nowhere to be seen.

That's right, a revelation crossed her mind suddenly. This is a competition now, and we have to go through on our own merit. Kirishima will find a way through on his own.

Eyes looking around, Morie gripped her fists in concentration as she seeked out the area that was the most frozen, sensing the high pressure around the ice. Visualising high pressure on her legs and the soles of her feet, she sprung upwards and wind swirled around her as she landed on the top of the nearest robot.

"OUTTA MY WAY!" She nearly screamed as something nearly slammed into her.

Bakugou had jumped up at that exact instant, his hands sparking with explosions as he roared, furiously advancing forward. She ducked sideways, stumbling, before darting forwards away from the robot.

Present Mic's voice was booming over the loudspeaker. "If you can't go through, go over! A clever demonstration by Bakugou and Minamoto from Class A!"

The spiky-haired boy scowled from not getting all the glory, and with that she was much more highly motivated to run away as she darted away from him, jumping off the robot somewhat hesitantly as she navigated her way off the robot, before continuing to dash forward.

Momentarily, Morie considered speeding up herself with her quirk, but decided against it. She shouldn't use her quirk unless absolutely necessary, she reasoned- though that wasn't much of a plan, considering that she was pretty much useless without her quirk.

The path was scarce of competitors now, but she dared not grow complacent less others overtook her current position. She had arrived at an area full of pits and chasms, with only flimsy ropes allowing them to pass through.

She held her breath.

Morie regarded the setup. She could plainly just go through this the normal way by crawling over to the other side, but who was to say that no one would try to sabotage her? The moment she slipped up, she would be eliminated from the race for certain.

She had an idea- a risky one (when were her ideas safe, honestly?), but still her best bet.

Walking forward, she imagined doing what she did back in the battle trial- creating a 'wall' of pressure around an object to prevent contact. She did that on the rope, making use of the strong pressure from the height she was at, so that the air below the rope was pushing up against her feet.

I can't hold this high pressure for very long, she noted, before breaking off in a run towards the other side. Better hurry.

"What is going on? Is young Minamoto even walking on the rope?" Present Mic near-shouted in the microphone. His voice cracked as he screamed, and she resisted the urge to giggle.

Stop announcing what I'm doing to the world, the girl silently grumbled afterwards, though she supposed that not many people would be able to tell that she was simply controlling the pressure around her. The way the man was talking, he made it seem like she was walking on air when she was just giving herself extra support from the rope so she could run as usual.

Getting back on steady ground came as a relief, and as she ran to the next obstacle, she suddenly froze.

Staring at the minefield before her, Morie wondered what she should do. She certainly did not trust her motor balance skills to be able to tiptoe through that whole field while dodging the mines, after all. Neither did she trust her eyes.

Experimentally, she tried to apply the same technique she used as just now to a mine near the starting point and winced- it seemed that the mines were a lot more sensitive than she thought- even the slightest pressure had caused a huge explosion. What was the best option for now?

Sighing in resignment, she hastened her pace as she walked forward, straining her eyes to make out the location of the mines as she moved onward step by step, hesitantly placing down each foot and each time expecting it to explode.

The arduous process was so slow, that much to her dismay, many competitors were beginning to catch up.

Hell no, I'm not losing to them, she scowled, feeling the competitive side of her roar out loud- after all, she made it this far on her own, right?

Suddenly, a burst of green shot past her as she recognised a figure with curly hair surfing over her while riding what looked to be a part of the robots that were destroyed earlier.

Was that Midoriya? The last she checked, he hadn't been able to control his quirk, much less fly!

In disbelief, she pondered how it was possible how the timid-looking boy had soared over without using his quirk- after all, his limbs looked to be very much unbroken and intact. Then the answer hit her in the face, making her feel incredibly stupid.

She slapped herself mentally.

I'll be such a laughing stock if this doesn't go well- A voice protested within her and she shushed the voice immediately. If this went well, she would have no complaints, though she honestly didn't want to do this.

'Good luck, mate.' She lamented sardonically to herself as she increased the pressure around her feet and stomped down onto a mine in front of her. If all went well, she would be propelled into the air- if it didn't work, she hoped that what Present Mic said about the mines being more more flashy than likely-to-blow-off-your-limbs held true.

In a flash of scorching hot light, Morie was launched into the air, and she had to bite her mouth to keep from screaming. A memory of Bakugou flying by emitting explosions from his hands came into her mind as she shoved her hands backwards and forced the pressure around her hands to increase. The sudden difference in pressure created sent her surging forwards in the air, and she wondered how in the world the red-eyed boy managed to pull off the whole flying-with-his-hands thing so effortlessly.

He has the natural reflexes. You were raised to think through everything you do. Of course there's a difference.

As reckless as the idea was, it did admittedly help her cover distance fairly quickly. In the distance, she could make out Midoriya charging through the stadium doors, surrounded by Todoroki, and Bakugou respectively...

Rolling on the ground a little as she landed back on the ground, now thankfully clear of the mine field, she sprinted forward towards the exit, only to see a girl with long, thorn-like hair making her way through as well. Increasing her pace, she sprinted into the stadium- though at the same time as the girl with green, thorny hair.

"Ooo, looks like we have ourselves a draw! In fourth place, we have Minamoto Morie and Shiozaki Ibara from the Hero course!" Present Mic's commentary made her whip around to look at the green-haired girl, eyes widening at the familiarity of the name.

So this was the person I was tied with in the entrance exams? Morie thought, as a wave of astonishment shot through her. The girl, Shiozaki, evidently recognised her name as well- she turned around to meet her own gaze with dark eyes and a curious expression.

Startled, Morie turned away hastily, deep in thought as she hurried away towards the rest of the Class A students. Absent-mindedly she hummed, and wondered: what would a fight between them turn out like, she wondered?

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Why did I turn down Kirishima's offer again?

It was time for the second task, and she was stuck without a team.

Morie looked around, feeling slightly intimidated by the amount of groups that were already being formed. Kirishima had suggested that she ask Bakugou if she could join the group, and the exchange went something like this:

"Rie-san!" The red-haired boy had called out from across the field, waving her over. "We still need another person, want to join our team? With you, Sero and Bakugou, we'll be the manliest bunch ever!"

Upon glancing over and meeting the eyes of Bakugou himself and noting the way his eyes narrowed, she had denied the offer on impulse- thinking something along the lines of how Bakugou would be trying to kill Midoriya the whole time, especially since the curly-haired boy had clinched first place in the obstacle race.

Morie had darted away, feeling extremely guilty for denying Kirishima's offer, though she brightened up considerably as she caught sight of a familiar figure.

"Hey, Mashirao!" She called out, running towards him almost frantically in fear that he would be somehow swamped by other competitors in the few seconds before she reached him. "Would you like to form a team with me?"

"Ah, Minamoto-san. I don't mind," the tailed boy replied, his mild expression turning a tad bit surprised at the sudden invitation. Morie's smile widened at his reply and inwardly exhaled a sigh of relief.

"Awesome," she stated, before frowning as she picked out other potential group-mates from the crowd. "Now, is there anyone you would like to group wi- "

"Mashirao Ojiro and Minamoto Morie." Morie was broken off by a new voice which rang out from behind them- that voice was disturbingly familiar...

Turning around, she raised an eyebrow as she took in the sight of a familiar blue-haired boy standing metres behind them, eyeing them with his shadowed eyes.

Mashirao frowned at the sight of him. "Hey, aren't you the one who challenged us from Class E?"

"Yeah, he is. What's up, Shinsou?" Morie responded absently, eyes watching as Mashirao's expression suddenly grew blank before she was abruptly made aware of ... something in her mind. It came in the form of a whisper which rushed through her brain, forcefully urging her mind to shut down- not to mention that it made her feel slightly foggy, in the least. But it simply stayed there, prodding at her mental shields before eventually dissipating into nothing a few seconds later.

"So that's your quirk," she spoke evenly, taking in the new confusion that flitted about his features. "Could you release Mashirao? Let's work out an agreement here."

A surge of gratitude surged through her for her prying father- for being a master of mental manipulation, for the mental training he put her through, and for reminding her to put up her mental defenses just that very morning. Who knew how this could have turned out otherwise?

Shinsou stared at her unblinkingly for a few moments, before a grin, dark and crooked came into sight. Then he looked up and she saw his eyes and took in how tired he looked. Maybe that was what drove her to say what she said then, as she shoved a hand towards him and shot him a grin.

("... hey, Shinsou. Why don't you join us?")

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At last, the agreement held true after all.

Team Shinsou, which consisted of herself, Mashirao, Aoyama, and Shinsou himself clinched third place in the Human Cavalry Battle, securing themselves a spot in the finals. All of them relatively unbrainwashed, that is.

Now that she thought of it, it was a miracle that they pulled through at all, what with Mashirao's and Shinsou's obvious distaste for each other- she couldn't count the number of times she had to coax them to be more in sync with each other. On the other hand, Aoyama was surprisingly easy to get along with- his navel laser proved to be useful in getting the opponents to maintain their distance.

However troublesome, Pressure proved to have been useful. If she increased the air pressure at certain points, she got them to run away faster, and by increasing the pressure around them as a whole it could act as a momentary form of defense. She didn't hold the high pressure for long, however- her teammates were much more unused to environments with high pressure; it would have been terrible if she gave them all migraines because of her quirk.

What was probably the most prominent factor to their success was Shinsou, himself, whose crooked demeanour hid a brilliant mind and an almost natural ability to lead and strategise.

The said team leader left them without further acknowledgement, and Morie watched on as his retreating back disappeared into the crowd in a matter of seconds. She was beginning to piece together his strange behaviour, and the rumours that she had heard about quirks unsuitable for heroics- though honestly all she felt for him was a brimming admiration.

With that said, she would really rather not shrug off his act of brainwashing herself and Mashirao as an act of desperation- but rather, the proof of his determination to get through to his finals. He had used them for his own gains, that was for sure, but Morie had let him.

... that was something she could live with.

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A/N:

[EDIT]: for anyone who's interested, I updated Kerosene Hearts (though it's short) and I also posted a new fic called Katsuki in Wonderland (which will probably turn out to be a KiriBaku fic.) Feel free to check it out!

On another note, I updated five stories today including Selling Daylight. It'll probably be the last time I update in a while, but I'll be back, so don't worry. Thank you for being so patient with me!

Moving on the original author's note:

Here we have awkward interactions with Bakugou and more Shinsou. The Cavalry Battle is glossed over- it's up to your imagination how things went for Team Shinsou. I do want to reveal that Rie took down her mental shields during the Cavalry Battle, so that should tell you how it might have went.

Sorry that this chapter was practically just Rie stumbling through the Festival (aka bullshitting). I try to limit canon scenes as much as possible so it doesn't bore you. I don't want to make it seem like she's powerful or anything, just because she does pretty well in the race- as I was writing this I realised that her quirk was well-suited for the events, and it would be out of character for her to not make full use of it. l also wanted to show her (tiny) improvement, not to mention it would be weird if I glossed over the whole Festival, so I hope you're cool with that.

The part of her resisting Shinsou's quirk is actually sort of a theory about how mind-centred quirks work. No, she isn't immune to his quirk, but she does have Chika for a dad ;) I might cover my theory in later chapters on in Kerosene Hearts.

Thoughts?