Chapter 5 - Roaring Sports Festival

Emiko felt the crowd before she heard it. Her Quirk was working overtime as the cauldron of emotions overhead throbbed like a sonorous heartbeat. Or pounded like a drum. Right now she couldn't make out the difference. With her classmates in their gym uniforms around her, she was squatted down in the corner of the room, her palms desperately shoving in at her aching temples like an improvised vise grip trying to stave off the building migraine, tears starting to build in her eyes as the assault on her senses was relentless.

Each of her temples was being punctured with a red hot blade, a searing pain burning behind her eyes and at the base of her neck. Each breath was tortuous agony, the bright lights overhead causing her already sensitive eyes to sting. She felt as though someone had kicked her in the head, with the way it thudded and thumped. She could barely focus on the room around her with the way her eyes darted around the room, wildy, like she was a wild animal caught and caged.

Her stomach danced wildly, tossing and turning with each breath. She wanted to move, to run and hide from the onslaught of emotion surrounding her, but her legs wouldn't move. She was held in place by fear and panic, concrete blocks replacing her feet.

Can't handle this, Emiko?

You really are so pathetic.

No, Miko. You're doing great. I'm so proud of you.

I'm so proud of you, Miko.

Get out of my fucking head.

She snarled under her breath and tucked her head tightly against her chest, tightened her hands against her skull. She worried her lower lip between her teeth, picking at any loose skin that sat there. It was all she could do to hold still and focus,

Lost in the haze created by her quirk, she barely felt the feather-gentle touch on her shoulder and craned her head up at the tall onyx-haired Momo Yaoyorozu. Her friend smiled sympathetically down at her before she reached to her exposed forearm, which glowed pink with the activation of her Quirk, and pulled a flexible white headband out. It looked far too small for her head, and that's when Emiko clued in, far later than she'd have liked to admit, what it was meant for. She sent a watery smile at Momo as she gingerly released one hand from her head and then the other, screwing her eyes at the onslaught that hit her once her coping mechanism had lessened, and affixed the headband in record time, sighing in relief at the uniform and blissful pressure it created.

"You're a lifesaver, YaoMomo," she groaned loudly as she hauled herself to her feet, pulling the other girl into a quick hug, her soft lavender scent dancing in Emiko's nose. She opened her bag and rummaged through before pulling out a box of Pocky sticks. "I owe you so much more than this, but I hope this makes up for the lipids you had to burn for that."

"It's no trouble, Emiko. You know it hurts me to see your Quirk stress you out like this. When's the last time you were in this big of a crowd?" she asked, opening the box of sweet snacks and handing one to Emiko.

"Never anything like this," Emiko admitted. "Shopping with my aunt is bad enough, I usually just get a light headache. But this is a massive crowd whipped up into a frenzy…"

She thankfully smiled, stuffing the strawberry flavoured treat into her mouth and grinning brightly. Sweet food had always had a warm place in her heart, and strawberry flavoured anything was always a favourite of hers.

Momo winced sympathetically and Emiko could see a few of the other 1A students glancing over at her in confusion, eyes flitting up to her headband and cluing in as to the nature of this conversation. Embarrassment coursed through her veins as her classmates realized the situation. She hated how weak her quirk made her in situations like this, hated that she was reduced to a teary eyed mess in any situation that left her in a large group of people.

As Emiko surveyed her classmates, she saw them settling into a kaleidoscope of varying emotions. Midoriya looked like a nervous wreck, which was not in the least bit surprising. He stood off on his own, muttering and mumbling under his breath. Uraraka had the same intense fire in her eyes as she did when she talked about the festival, and it seemed her determination with this truly was driving her. Shoto was as unreadable as ever, her overwhelmed Quirk not allowing her to properly hone in on his current emotional state, and he seemed to be avoiding contact with any of the students after his blow up this morning. Bakugo surprised her, as the explosive blonde was stock still, a thousand yard gaze in his ruby red eyes, his face giving no emotion away whatsoever, other than the muscles flexing as his jaw set defiantly. A few of the others were talking amongst themselves, but it seemed to be nothing more than idle chatter to distract from the nerves that made their limbs feel like they were made of rubber. As much as she longed to calm her friends down and make them all feel confident, she could barely focus on keeping her heart beating steadily in her chest.

They were all shaken out of their stupor when an ascending chime preceded an announcement.

"All contestants, please make your way out to the sports field. All contestants, please make your way out to the sports field," the female voice instructed.

They all tensed up, but complied instantly, all grouping together and filing through the door that had opened in the midst of the announcement, which led to a gargantuan hallway that an elephant could walk through effortlessly. Emiko supposed in a world with a near limitless variety of Quirks, the school had to be prepared to accommodate any number of shapes and sizes for the festival.

Distantly, the crowd noise filtered through to them, at first sounding like the whisper of music turned up far too loud on someone's headphones, and grew exponentially louder as they grew ever closer to the daylight.

She once again found herself thankful for the headband Momo had made for her, as her body seemed to almost vibrate like a strummed guitar string from the emotional cacophony that towered around her in her mind's eye.

Her quirk hummed in her veins, pulsed like a second heartbeat. It all felt too much, too loud. Nothing but panic lived in her veins as she stared out, squinting against the afternoon sun.

Her eyes adjusted to the light as they marched out to the roars which had reached a frenzied fever pitch as all the various first year classes filtered out onto the pitch, Present Mic's excited voice almost muffled in her ears as he introduced the contestants. It took her breath away as she looked around and saw just how many first year students there really were at UA. She felt her slight shame at not branching out more to get a feel of how many other students would be there with her until the end of her academic journey at UA.

Also how many students I beat to be in Class A, she realized ruefully, knowing that might paint a sizable target on her back, despite her not having antagonized any of the other first year students, at least not to the extent Bakugo had.

Deku glanced around nervously, suddenly even more overwhelmed at the crowd.

"Uh… I didn't know there'd be so many people," the green haired boy whimpered, his eyes wide in panic and fear. Her heart tightened for him, as she clued in fully to the panic the rest of her classmates must be feeling at this very moment.

"I hope we're still able to give our best performances, even though all these eyes are watching us," Iida said as he glanced around, the class president striding forth with a typical tension coursing through the speedy hero's powerful frame.

Emiko looked over at Iida and scrunched her eyebrows suspiciously at him.

"Is that supposed to be a dig at me, Emergency Exit?" she teased with a wink. "Little early to be breaking out the trash talk, isn't it?"

Iida's arms went ram-rod straight and he stooped into a bow with typically perfect posture, the other 1-A students having to awkwardly sidestep the overly-formal boy.

"Please accept my most sincere apologies, Komatsu, I meant no disrespect towards you in saying that!" he exclaimed over the din.

Emiko pinched the bridge of her nose in slight exasperation, but mostly fondness at the boy's antics. She'd meant it as a joke of course, she knew Iida wasn't the type to call his classmates out in such a way.

"You don't have to apologize, I'm not offended. Now come on, let's catch up to the others," she offered, grabbing one of his arms and semi-dragging him to join the others.

A small stage was set up with a microphone and the familiar figure of Ms. Midnight strutted up, treating the stage like her own personal catwalk. Emiko felt the bile rise up in her mouth at the surge of lust from the audience and admittedly some of the students.

Perverts. Filthy, filthy perverts.

"Uh, someone should talk to Ms. Midnight about what she's wearing," Kirishima muttered bashfully, his head hanging a bit lower than usual, to avoid looking at their provocatively-dressed teacher.

"Yeah, that costume should come with a warning," Kaminari agreed, though Emiko noted the hint of a blush that seemed to take up residence on his cheeks.

"Is that really appropriate apparel for a high school game?" Tokoyami mumbled, more to himself than to the others.

Emiko felt another surge as, unsurprisingly, Mineta whirled around to face the others, a gleeful smile plastered across his face, giving his classmates a thumbs up. Drool hung down his chin and his eyes were glossy, and she had to refrain from smacking him across the face there and then.

What a little creep, Emiko thought, as she focused her attention back on Midnight.

"Silence, everyone!" the R-rated hero's voice rang out, her hand snapping to her side with a short whip clutched in it, eliciting a crack that captured everyone's attention. "And for the student pledge, we have Katsuki Bakugo!"

Murmurs of disbelief started up at this, confusion palpable at why he had been chosen to speak on behalf of the first years as the aforementioned boy walked forward, hands stuffed in his pockets.

"I guess that hot-head did finish first in the entrance tests," Sero offered as explanation to Midoriya's disbelief.

An exasperated sigh was heard off to their right, and a brunette standing behind Shinso with her arms crossed looked over at them in annoyance.

"Only for the hero course exams," she huffed.

Damn, Emiko thought, we're off to a great start here.

"Oh. Right," Midoriya replied sheepishly.

"That girl obviously hates us," Sero whispered conspiratorially, rolling his eyes and folding his arms over his chest.

"Yeah, and we've got Bakugo to thank for them not liking our class," Kaminari muttered ruefully, dread seeping into his voice.

Her eyes flitted to Shinso, trying to catch the purple haired boy's sleepy-looking eyes, but he dared not deviate from his choice to stare straight forward at the retreating form of Bakugo.

As he stepped up to the microphone, the audience and students almost leaned forward in anticipation of what Bakugo would say for his speech.

"I just wanna say… I'm gonna win," Bakugo said.

Emiko could feel the disbelief radiating off her class 1-A comrades as they all seemed to think the same thing: I knew he'd say something like that!

Rage.

It bubbled up and boiled over like an unsupervised pot as the other first year students booed and jeered him off the stage.

"Why would you be so disrespectful?! You're representing us all!" Iida called out over the roars, his arm fervently karate-chopping towards Bakugo.

"Not my fault the rest of you are just stepping stones to my victory," Bakugo snarked, turning to his classmates and giving them a bored thumbs-down.

Emiko's jaw dropped at the further lack of respect from Bakugo and felt her own anger rising up along with her peers'.

"I'm gonna crush this overconfident jerk!" she heard the voice of the loud-mouthed 1-B student who'd confronted Bakugo during the initial first year standoff outside their class. "I can't wait to knock him down a size!"

Midnight's voice over the PA system cut through the protests and abuse that were being hurled at Bakugo as he rejoined the throng of first years. Emiko barely listened as she surveyed his body language.

While still boastful and abrasive in his words, he was much more subdued in his delivery than he normally would be. A steely focus and determination seemed to have overtaken him.

Wow, he really is taking this seriously, she realized, as she registered the display graphic that had popped up behind Midnight revealed the first event would be an obstacle course.

The students all filtered towards the exit that led to the track outside the stadium. Emiko made a point to jostle through the crowd towards the front of the pack, as she knew her Quirk wouldn't give her the mobility to make up for lost ground. She found herself a few rows from the front, eyeing the crowd of her classmates that was set to bottleneck in the tunnel. She felt shoulders press either side as her personal space was instantly suffocated. The nerves rose up in her at the claustrophobic feeling of being enclosed all around.

Not long now and you can break free, not long now and you can breathe, she chanted in her head, looking desperately around for an anchor to keep her sanity in the moment from floating away.

Her eyes landed on a distinctive head of hair. Not fair ahead and a bit to the side, Shoto stood, unperturbed by the crush around him, eyes fixed forward. He almost sensed her gaze and turned her way.

Blue eyes locked on to a mismatched blue and grey pair and he looked back impassively, giving a ghost of a nod to her before facing forward again. She couldn't help but grin brightly as he turned away from her, his acknowledgment lighting a fire under her.

"BEGIN!" Midnight's voice rang out and Emiko's brain registered it before her body could react, and she felt her body shoved forward unceremoniously by her peers. Rather than her own legs carrying her forward, the surge carrying her, nearly sweeping her off her feet.

Her progress was halted as the bottleneck got to its worst as the students crammed together in such a way that maneuvering through the doorway was a trial in and of itself.

A chill sent goosebumps all over her body as a cloud of frost enveloped the hallway, creating a layer of ice, halting progress altogether as Emiko looked down and realized her feet were frozen in place.

"Apologies," Todoroki's voice called out as he elegantly navigated the open expanse of ice leading out of the doorway.

Groans of protest rang out from the trapped students and Emiko had to agree with them as she'd finally gotten free of the hallway, only to be trapped in place.

Dammit, and these are my favourite running shoes too, she thought in exasperation. She brought her heels up and realized with a laugh that she had enough leverage to slip out of her shoes, jumping free and sprinting across the ice uncertainly as the lack of traction with both her socks and the icy surface made her footing very unstable.

"TODOROKI, YOU BASTARD! YOU OWE ME A NEW PAIR OF SHOES!" she screamed as she desperately caught on to a side wall to keep from slipping.

Noises around her alerted her to some of the others who'd broken free of Shoto's trap.

Bakugo's explosions propelled him forward like some kind of rabid blonde torpedo. Aoyama was propelled by his navel laser, the resident francophile giving Emiko a sly wink as he zoomed by. Momo shot a pole out of her palm and vaulted herself forward. Kirishima rounded off the quartet as he propelled himself forward… with his manliness?

They all shouted their respective war cries at the retreating boy, who spared a moment to glance over his shoulder at his pursuers before focusing on his progress once more.

"I WON'T LET YOU GET AWAY SO EASILY… YOU ICY-HOT BASTARD!" Bakugo screamed.

Icy-hot… That's a good one, I'll have to remember that one for later, Emiko mused to herself as she finally maneuvered herself clear of the ice. She felt every miniscule pebble bite into the soles of her feet, and she found herself cursing Shoto with every step, gritting her teeth and contenting herself in coming up with increasingly colourful insults as she forged ahead.

She afforded herself the luxury of glancing back over her shoulder and saw more of the first years had extricated themselves from Shoto's frozen prison, and chuckled as she saw Shinso perched atop a human litter as she assumed he'd brainwashed several of their peers into carrying him across the treacherous terrain.

He almost looked bored and regal in this moment, staring into the sky as if he was literally anywhere but a frenzied obstacle course.

Her attention was wrenched away as she saw Mineta careening through the air towards Todoroki screaming a feral war cry of his own, proclaiming he was going to show him a special attack, only for a metal arm to swing out of nowhere and absolutely clobber the diminutive purple haired boy.

Emiko had to stifle her laughter at Mineta's predicament as his assailant was none other than one of the faux villains from the entrance exams. She'd gotten into her course on a recommendation, a fact that had irked her at the time.

Glad I didn't have to take the exam, she thought as she ran, I wouldn't have been able to take one of these things down on my own.

As the group beheld the hulking group of robotic foes, they all stopped in their tracks, no doubt all the others running several options through their heads as to how they could navigate this latest predicament.

She registered Present Mic's voice ring out gleefully at this latest plot twist, but found herself too caught up in the moment, adrenaline pumping through her veins and her brain operating less sluggishly now that she found herself further removed from the masses in the arena.

"ARE THOSE THE ZERO POINT VILLAINS FROM THE PRACTICAL EXAMS?!" Kaminari exclaimed, dread lacing his normally cheerful and upbeat voice.

As the faux villains lurched forward to attack, she saw Shoto up ahead stepping into a stance, ice once again surging from where he'd planted his right foot, frost clouding off of his right arm as he reached it forward. Touching the ground and sending a multitude of spiky ice spines shooting out of the ground, the boy zipped forward across his creation, slaloming under the villains before sweeping his hand along the ground and upwards, the ice mimicking his motion and arcing skyward, encasing the collection of villains into a clumsy crystalline menagerie.

A shiver ran down her spine, not induced by the cold, as she recalled her experience in the USJ when Shoto had frozen the villains there in a similar fashion, and the callous tirade he'd gone on berating the second-rate crooks on that occasion.

It struck her- and apparently the others around her- in that moment just how powerful Shoto was.

The boy didn't pause long enough to admire his work, as he once again resumed his running. Her peers around her clamored at his feet, starting to point out paths between the frozen villains' legs they could take.

"Careful now," Shoto called out over his shoulder. "I froze them while they were off-balance… on purpose."

Emiko's eyes widened as the villains lurched over and slammed to the ground, kicking up a massive cloud of dirt as Present Mic's voice ringing out in shock at Shoto's abilities.

As the 1, 2, and 3 pointers rolled forward after the fall of the 0 pointers, the group reassessed their options and took stock of their metallic foes.

Emiko's heart leapt into her mouth as she heard the cries of shock from her peers at the fact that students had been trapped under the faux villains. The panic that swept through the students around her was infectious, swirling up and gripping her like an iron fist, locking her limbs in place as she stared, dumbstruck, at the massive pile of metal and ice.

She was shaken out of her stupor as some of the ice coating one of the giant robots cracked and hope swelled in her that the trapped students found a way out.

"I'M ALIIIIIIIVE!" came the triumphant scream from the emerging student, and Emiko couldn't help the relieved squeal that slipped out of her lips at her classmate Kirishima popping out of the metal beast like some kind of spiky-haired mole. "Todoroki, I can't believe you pulled something like that… Jeez, anyone but me would have been killed…" he muttered audibly enough for all to hear.

Emiko's squeal was cut short as a spot not far away from where Kirishima emerged was beginning to break up in a similar fashion, and a tinny voice seemed to be muttering curses at the expense of the 1-A students. The plating burst open and a boy made of metal popped out of the hole like Kirishima did moments before.

"I'LL SMASH THAT ICE GUY WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON HIM!" the boy raged, and Emiko did a poor job of stifling a giggle as she heard Present Mic call the boy Tetsutetsu and the boy then continued "Ya know, anyone other than me woulda been killed!" and Emiko's giggle turned to full-blown laughter, as the two boys ran side-by-side, complaining about how their quirks were exactly the same.

Just as some of the students around her talked about teaming up to clear the path for them to keep racing, Emiko was startled by explosions as Bakugo propelled himself up and over the gargantuan obstacles, followed closely by Sero and Tokoyami. She was jolted into action as she saw her other 1-A classmates leap into action, taking down some of the smaller remaining robots and she herself found herself sprinting forward, wincing but otherwise ignoring the discomfort and pain she felt at the small rocks dig into the soles of her feet.

She frowned to herself as she saw Midoriya pick up a sheet of discarded metal from the robot Shoto took down, but didn't let that distract her from her current course. As more of the hulking foes loomed above the vanguard of 1-A students, she jumped as a loud boom echoed from behind her, and watched as the robots fell, defeated.

Emiko spared a glance over her shoulder to see Yaoyorozu standing defiantly beside a cannon, her sports uniform top open and exposing her toned physique and a dark sports bra. Risky but probably good foresight on her part to have worn the bra, and Emiko wondered briefly if there'd ever been any indecent exposure incidents in prior Sports Festivals.

No time for that, focus, she chided herself, surging forward along with the others, and fought a surge of vertigo as she slowed to a stop in front of the next obstacle.

You've got to be kidding me, she groaned as she looked out across the field of pillars and the slender wires joining them. If the robots were an obstacle, this was a wrench in the gears.