Chapter 17: Don't stop running!
"Izuku won! Izuku won! Izuku won!" Eri happily chanted while dancing in circles with Cotton, the Tama Sheep's merry cries accompanying the girl's voice.
Toshinori laughed while Inko recorded the scene. Turning to the arena below the hero couldn't stop thinking how he felt pride overflowing in his chest for his successor. Not only did he win, but Izuku also showed the world he was here and he would get to the top. That brief moment he stumbled had Toshinori worried, but then the boy had tackled the tail end of the race with double the vigor.
"Now let's see how far you can rise with those that will fight by your side." Toshinori's whisper had gone unnoticed thanks to Eri's singing her Master laurels.
At the stand, Midnight confirmed the next event was on time and gave the student body the good news, for the few that passed the first test, "Congratulations to you all for finishing the Obstacle Course. Unfortunately, only some of you got into the cut for the second event! The first forty-two that crossed the finish line passed, the rest will have to do better next year!" She snapped her whip with a grin. Gesturing to the jumbotron again, Midnight exclaimed, "Now let's see what will be your next trial!"
Words blurred through the screen, until finally, it stopped, "A Cavalry Battle!"
—
At the break room for the heroes that made UA security two men, Kamui Woods and Death Arms, and one woman, Mt. Lady, watched the transmission of the festival on the TV mounted on the wall.
"Huh, that should make things interesting." Kamui Woods commented.
Mt. Lady turned to him then back at the screen, "Why? Isn't that just a silly game?"
Death Arms shook his head, "You're not getting it. UA Sports Festival works as a way to give those kids, especially the hero course ones, a taste of the real world. The first event showed how there's a heavy competition in the market, to a hero the only way to put food on the table is to solve cases and be popular. The second is the opposite, they have to work together to win." He listened to the short explanation of the event going over the screen while giving some more food for thought to the new heroine, "The green haired kid realized something interesting though, sometimes it is best to team up all the way and guarantee a good position than falling behind trying to shoot to the top alone."
Kamui nodded, "Yes, those that did also will have an advantage finding people to form a group now."
Mt. Lady wanted to throw her own two Yens in the matter, but stopped when the face of the green-haired kid in question appeared on the TV again, "Hey, isn't that the kid that rushed in on that villain attack the day I started?"
The other two looked again and remembered what she was talking about, "Would you look at that, the little trouble maker got far. Seeing the crazy stunts he pulled I'm not surprised."
Mt. Lady grumbled, "That brat is nothing but problems."
Kamui Woods patted her shoulder, "Don't be like that, kids do stupid things all the time."
"Like blowing himself with a bunch of landmines?" She asked while seeing the replay from said moment on a side screen.
"She's got you there." Death Arms laughed.
—
Izuku smiled to himself, if everyone had five points for position from last to first, then he had two hundred and ten! His happiness with the results he achieved were quickly dashed when he heard Midnight snap her whip and give a final bit of information.
"The only exception is our dear first place, who is worth…" She trailed off for dramatic effect and to give Izuku one second to brace himself, "Ten million points!"
Izuku felt a chill racing down his spine, turning back he saw all the others looking at him with hunger in their eyes. With a bright smile of someone that not only fought an army by himself, but won, he said, "You want my points? Come and get 'em!" His eyes glowed and an arc of power jumped between the fingers he did a 'come here' gesture with.
That snapped everybody from their little episode, realizing that taking those points maybe was more trouble than it was worth the effort considering the boy that held them had stomped the last event. Those who really knew Izuku shook the greed out of their minds and remembered that trying to stop him was almost impossible and keeping up with the Keyblade Wielder was extremely difficult, to say the least.
Some didn't back down from the challenge. Todoroki's eyes were fixed on the top and he would take it from Izuku, he had to prove he could win without his left side, he had to.
Izuku blinked, a strange feeling weighted on his heart for a second before it vanished. Before he could ask himself what that was, Midnight started the timer to form the teams.
Looking from one side to the other, Izuku saw many people already grouping up. Before he could start hunting for a partner, a hand landed on his shoulder.
"Hey Deku, want to team up with me?" Ochaco asked the boy, giving him a brilliant smile.
'Too bright!' Izuku scrunched his face and answered, "Sure! Just tone that down a little, please? I need to see to win this."
She tilted her head confused, shrugged at her friend's strange antics and started pulling him along, "Let's go find some more people. Oh, Tenya! Here! Join our group too!"
The speedster in question turned to his friends with a small smile, "I'm sorry, but I can't."
Izuku blinked the spots out of his sight and complained, "Why not?! Aren't we friends?"
Tenya chopped the air, "Of course we are! However, in the first event, I spent the whole race, which should have been my specialty, chasing you." He gave Izuku a determined stare. Locking eyes he said, "I too wish to reach the top, to be part of that race. For it, I need to prove to you and to myself, that I got what it takes. I know you are tired of them, but here is my declaration of war my friend, I will challenge you for the title of greatest hero!"
For a single second, they remained silently staring at each other, then Izuku gave a smile so bright his friends were the ones that needed to protect their eyes.
"I'm gonna make an exception to you, I accept the challenge!" He offered Tenya a fist, "Let's meet up at the top!"
Tenya returned the gesture, the boys traded a fistbump while at the side Ochaco whispered, "A fated battle between men!"
With a last nod, Tenya left his friends with the promise of meeting them again after the event. Izuku watched him go for a moment before sighing.
"Great, now we need to find someone else-" His grumbling was interrupted by a pink-haired girl with steampunk goggles getting on his face with a magic grin.
"First Place, team up with me!"
"What?"
"Team up with me! I have lots of babies that can help!" The girl got closer and closer with each word, making Izuku bend back to try getting his personal space back, to no avail.
"Okay just… wait, what do you mean by 'babies'?" Izuku had the distinct feeling he would regret that question.
"I mean my cute babies! look, this one I made just yesterday!" The girl pulled something from her heavy backpack and all but threw it at Izuku. Fumbling to pick up the thing before it could hit his face, Izuku stared at the gadget in his hands for a second before recognizing the design.
"That's a jetpack like the one the hero Airjet uses! Where did you get this?" Izuku asked the pink-haired girl with stars in his eyes.
"I made it! I also made it better! With my own twists, this baby can fly twenty percent faster, from maximum speed to acceleration! I only need to make some last adjustments so it stops exploding when it gets to said speed!" The girl's smile didn't falter in the slightest from her words.
Izuku's didn't either, "That's amazing! What else do you have?"
She pulled him in a half-armed hug, "Glad that you asked! Let me show you the newest patents from Hatsume Industries! The best Support Company created by the best Support Course student of UA! Me, Hatsume Mei." The finally introduced Mei picked another of her inventions and showed it to Izuku, who nerded out about it with matching inthusiasm.
"They forgot about me." Ochaco said plainly while glaring at the two, feeling left out.
At another corner of the area, Katsuki dragged Eijiro along by the scruff of his PE uniform. The redhead just let himself be dragged away, knowing his bro wouldn't let go of him. Turning his head back to look at Katsuki's eyes he asked, "So… Do you have a plan?"
"Yes."
"Will you tell me?"
"No."
"Why?" Eijiro groaned.
"Fuck you that's why." Katsuki snorted, laughing out loud when Eijiro pouted.
The bomber passed beside Mina and grabbed her too. Now dragging along two resigned friends that knew better than trying to argue. They were friends for long enough to know Katsuki didn't care about their opinion of how humiliating being dragged like two kittens in a world-renowned event was, he looked from one side to the other. Finding his last victim, Katsuki made a B-line to Hanta.
"Hey Soy Face! I don't have enough hands so get your ass here yourself!" Katsuki's shout got the other boy's attention. Hanta traded a look with Minoru, who he partnered with the whole first event, and shrugged, the midget returned the gesture and made a go ahead. Everyone tended to not antagonize Katsuki without Izuku close by as that made the risk of getting chewed out by an explosive blond with an even more explosive temperament.
Hanta walked to the trio and met them halfway before asking while masking a snort from Eijiro and Mina's depressed faces with a cough, "Yo! Need me for anything?"
Katsuki nodded slowly, a smile that would be more fitting in a demon parting his face, "Yes, I need you three idiots to get a victory so big no one will care for Deku's stupid points."
Hanta raised an eyebrow, "Before you had my attention, now you have my interest."
On yet another side Todoroki asked his team, "You are all Midoriya's friends, do you know a way to stop him?"
Denki, Momo and Tenya shared a glance before the first started to wheeze from laughter, the second hid her amusement behind a hand and the latter explained a simple fact of the universe, "Todoroki, I think even Izuku-san doesn't know how to stop himself."
At the bleachers, Eri asked Toshinori, "What does Izuku need to do to win?"
The man stopped munching on some takoyaki, he didn't know why but he suddenly really wanted one, to answer, "Young Izuku is already with all the points he needs to win this event, Young Eri. If he can keep it with him until the end, he wins." Eri made an "Oh." and nodded.
Inko asked from the side, "You think he can fight during the whole event and not lose his points?" She asked more than a little worried, her son had a target on his back a little too big for her taste.
Toshinori grinned, "He doesn't need to." He chuckled, gaining a flat glance from Inko.
"Yeah keep being mysterious, I'll figure it out, just you wait." She said with mock anger, which caused Toshinori to laugh good-naturedly.
Eri looked from her mom to her Master's Master then finally to Cotton, who was eating the rest of the takoyaki while the adults were distracted, "What just happened?" The Dream Eater only offered her an approximation of a shrug before going back to his snack.
Back to Izuku. He and Mei were bouncing ideas out of each other in a speed no one else could follow, but got interrupted when Ochaco got fed up from being ignored.
"Hey! We still need one more for the team!"
Izuku snapped from his awed state from how many ideas he just got for his and his friend's costumes and scratched the back of his neck, "Oh, yeah, sorry! We got a little carried away."
Ochaco deadpanned, "A little."
Izuku quickly scurried through the area for any one else that didn't have a team already. His eyes landed in a lone figure that was staring back at him. Izuku smiled and raced to them, without missing a beat he offered his hand.
—
Tomura watched it again, didn't believe what he saw again. He rewound the transmission again and repeated the process. The cloaked man watched from the side, holding back his mirth, barely.
"What's the problem kiddo? You're stuck in this part for a while."
Tomura looked at the man slowly, "Is that damn brat insane?"
For a second there was a deadly silence in the bar they were in, watching the Sports Festival for some reason Tomura didn't even remember anymore, then the cloaked man started to laugh, hysterically. He folded over, almost falling from his seat at the counter but catching himself at the last second. After a full minute, he stopped and with a breathless voice said, "I never saw anyone saying something more true about little Green Bean, oh my stars." He laughed some more, "You're not wrong though. Izzy's plans were always something I had to respect because they were something only a madman could come up with, that's why no one ever saw them coming."
Tomura frowned, "What do you mean?"
The man considered for a second before saying, "Remember that little tip I gave you about your plans? About asking 'what if' until you have three alphabets worth of them?"
The villain scratched his neck, still not understanding what he meant, "Yes, what about it?"
"For that to work you have to think about what would probably happen in any given situation. Now think if this scenario happens: Our little hero comes crashing through the wall mounted on an elephant."
Tomura deadpanned, "What?"
The man chuckled and continued, "Then he makes one of his friends crash through the ceiling on a whale, and then both of them explode." He clapped his hands for dramatic effect, "This is the type of crap you have to expect when Green Bean is involved. You have to be ready for everything, be certain of nothing and always think he is about to pull one up from out of nowhere just because. That's how he helped get rid of my last boss, three times."
"That doesn't make any sense!" Tomura exploded, his temper flaring and causing the remote in his hands to be turned into dust.
"Exactly!"
Vanitas walked out of a Dark Corridor to the scene of a laughing old man and a Shigaraki having an aneurysm, or at least looking like he's having one, "What just happened?" He asked Kurogiri, who shrugged back in response.
—
"C'mon Sho! Old buddy old pal, help me here! At least make a remark once in a while." Hizashi begged his lifelong friend, who didn't even look him in the face. Sighing, the Voice Hero got ready for yet another event he would have to cover alone.
"Now ladies and gentlemen, get ready because the second event is about to begin!"
Far below, in the pit where students would throw themselves at each other in hopes of clearing one more obstacle to the top, teams already were in position and ready to rumble.
Ochaco threw a last glance at the jetpack strapped to her back, trying really hard not thinking on how it could explode at any second from what she got from Mei's warnings of how to use it, to the bandana with bright red numbers on her head, "You're sure that'll work, right?"
Izuku threw her a reassuring look from over his shoulder, "Of course! With you to lighten the load, Mei's inventions, and Fumikage's help we're set!" He smiled at his other teammates, being careful not to drop Ochaco. Their formation was Ochaco as the rider, Izuku as the front horse, and Mei and Fumikage at the back, both without gravity thanks to Ochaco and with Mei's hover boots to help with movement.
"I still find it inspiring how you accepted me so easily, Izuku. I expected someone with such a bright light to not be welcomed with open arms like that but your kindness will be repaid, we will both ensure it." Fumikage's red eyes locked with Izuku, both trading a nod.
The raven-headed boy hadn't believed when the star of his class had approached him, but when they talked and Fumikage learned some quite profound revelations about himself, the two aspects of him, he knew it was destiny playing its hand. The sky never seemed so close, he couldn't wait for his new friend to reach the stars, Fumikage would make sure to be there to see the day himself.
"Get ready! The Sports Festival's second event starts now!" Midnight snapped her whip and all hell broke loose once more.
Izuku powered up, his friends holding on tight. Ahead of them, various groups headed straight to the ten million points, just like Izuku planned, he knew many would at least try to score first place so he made a simple plan, don't stop running.
"Hold on!" Izuku said over the chaos. If they wanted to make the most of the situation they needed to wait until the perfect moment.
"Jet, set, run!" Nana gave her own green light to Izuku who smirked and sprung into movement, directly into a collision course with the half a dozen other teams gunning at his.
"Now!"
Ochaco activated the jetpack just in time for Izuku's jump, with the propulsion from both the four sailed through the air, almost in height of the booth their teacher was giving them all blank looks.
"Now!" Katsuki's command set his team, like a well-oiled machine, to execute his plan with a fresh mob of targets thanks to Deku's stunt. Mina threw an extremely weak acid in front of them so they could slide, Katsuki's explosions pushed them forward while Eijiro used his quirk to turn into a living battering ram. Some tried to get out of the way, but Hanta used his tapes to turn their formation of mass destruction to keep the other competitors in their sights.
"Now." Todoroki said coldly. Tenya started to run after the stragglers from Katsuki's warpath, pulling Momo and Denki who were in roller skates. Momo created some flashbangs and used it to make opportunities for her group to get the headbands.
Izuku smiled while falling down to earth, his legs took the brunt of the impact but thanks to the power flooding his every cell he barely felt when his feet carved trenches into the concrete. He didn't waste a second to start running, making sure no one could get close enough to try snatching their points.
Some tried anyway. A tongue and earphone jacks rushed at him, trying to trip the boy. Izuku acted quickly, summoning his Keyblade, he bit the handle as his hands were busy and swung it with a twist of his neck, batting the offending extensions away.
"Better luck next time!" Izuku's voice came out muffled but everyone could hear the joy in his voice, the boy already having too much fun.
Kyoka and Tsuyu, even being from different teams, traded a glance. They're both unimpressed their friend would do something like that as Izuku didn't seem to care at all for conventional ways of doing things.
"Hey, this isn't so bad," Ochaco said while holding on for dear life as Izuku blitzed through the teams so fast they barely reacted.
Just when her words fell, Setsuna came flying at them, her body parted into various floating bits, "Are you sure about that?!"
"I shouldn't have said that." Ochaco deadpanned while Izuku gave out a "So cool!" From behind his weapon's handle.
"Izuku, I think it is time," Fumikage said plainly.
The green-haired boy glanced back and nodded, there were too many ways Setsuna could rob their chance to victory, they needed to go all out to ensure she didn't.
From Izuku's hand, One For All flowed, jumping to Fumikage's hand that was locked into his, covering the raven-headed boy into a purple aura. Fumikage took a deep breath to try to steady his bumping heart, he felt like someone plugged him into a nuclear reactor. There was so much Power, so much Light, just so much. He also felt how his quirk reacted to it, in the way it truly worked.
Fumikage always thought Dark Shadow was his quirk and that's it, he was oh so wrong. Izuku saw Dark Shadow up close for the first time that day, in part thanks to Fumikage's uncertainty in approaching him, and saw what he truly was.
Dark Shadow was Darkness, his Darkness made manifest thanks to his quirk. Izuku couldn't analyze it too deeply, but what he got was that Fumikage's quirk manifested two opposite states of himself. While he always thought not to be one of the Light, Fumikage was his Light, his calm and his tranquility while Dark Shadow was his Darkness, his will and his drive made real by his power. They always were two sides of the same coin but neither understood how deep it was. Fumikage was Dark Shadow as much as Dark Shadow was him, another part of him that was the other weight on the scale. For the first time, Fumikage found balance.
When the Light of his friend empowered his own, the Darkness grew just as much. From his back a towering figure rose and when before Fumikage would feel dread that he lost control and would hurt those around him now he felt at peace because he was the master of his destiny and the captain of his soul, he was in control of his actions and misguided fear would hold him back no longer.
"Come here Lizardy! Let's have some fun!" The giant avian shadow grinned, his blazing red eyes filled with an impish joy. Dark Shadow's body rose from behind the team like a dark guardian, his claws lunging at the pieces of the girl that quickly tried to retreat.
"That's overkill!" Setsuna cried when her pieces were grabbed by the two massive black hands.
"There's no kill like overkill! Sayonara!" Dark Shadow cackled while throwing Setsuna back to her team.
"Dark Shadow, let us clear a path!" Fumikage's words were less an order and more an affirmation. They were in synchrony, not perfect, but enough that both parts knew exactly what to do. Fumikage smiled, Izuku really was a force of change and evolution to every life he touched, Fumikage would make his newfound friend proud by showing how much he could rise.
Katsuki watched as Dark Shadow razed everything thrown at it to the ground. His eyes narrowed, he just got the headband of the asshole from 1-B, the damn copycat thought he could use Katsuki's explosions against him, so now he was in second place with Half-and-half team getting closer, they had time for a shot at first place and Katsuki would first die than give it up.
"You three idiots keep here, I'm going there to kill Deku." Before any of said idiots could protest, the name-calling or his plan, Katsuki blasted off.
The blonde twisted in the air to dodge a shadow claw and responded with an explosion, opening the way to a shot at the ten million, "Give this here Round Face!"
Izuku saw the missile in human form closing in and countered. Dropping his Keyblade from his mouth, Izuku kicked it up at an angle. The tip of the blade batted Katsuki's outstretched hand away just in time.
Ochaco saw Heroes Rising passing in front of her face in slow motion, in a snap decision she reached out and grabbed the weapon. Ochaco's fingers closed in the handle and she felt how alive the Keyblade was, it looked her up and down, searching for something it quickly found and sang with happiness for it. Ochaco only realized she was smiling when it turned so wide it hurt, with a clumsy movement to anyone that knew their way with a sword would cringe for the clumsiness she struck Katsuki.
The bomber felt as if a mountain had punched him in the face, his world turning into a blur of pain. With pure stubbornness, he lashed out with another hand instead of doing the sensible thing and passing out.
Ochaco tried to bat the offending hand aside with the Keyblade, only for it to fade away in a flash that sounded too much like a chuckle.
Izuku dashed away just in time to take them all out of harm's way. Katsuki got snatched by Hanta's tape before he could give chase.
Ochaco pouted, "Hey! I got it handled! Why did you dismiss your Keyblade?"
Izuku chuckled and shook his head, "It wasn't me. Keyblades are picky, you're lucky mine liked you enough to give you a freebie." He didn't look back in favor of getting back moving, making Izuku miss how Ochaco blushed.
Mei gasped, "You have a sentient weapon?! I need to see it!"
Fumikage felt the air getting colder, "You will have to wait, we have company."
Izuku skidded to a halt just as a wall of ice rose before him, another appearing behind and boxing the group. They turned to the source of the trap, Todoroki held a hand up, frost covering his palm.
"Midoriya, your fight is with me."
"With us." Tenya corrected. Behind him, Momo nodded and Denki grinned, even if his eye twitched from how close his brain was to frying.
Dark Shadow bristled, tendrils of Darkness rising from his claws, "We're here too you punks!" He condensed the dark energy into an orb and threw it at Todoroki's group.
"Since when can you do that?" Ochaco asked while they watched Momo create another of her special bombs, one filled with an Energy Gem. She threw it at the orb of Darkness and the bomb exploded in a matching sphere of pure energy that counterbalanced and then nullified the attack.
"Dunno, I just did." The shadow entity shrugged.
"Later we will have to give it some more thought, now we have a foe to face." Fumikage dismissed the new development easily in favor of focusing on the current situation.
Izuku kept his eyes locked with Todoroki, what was this thing he felt? It almost seemed like…
"I never asked to be created."
"Me too, and everyone else. We can't choose to start existing or not, what we can do is live how we want to, we just have to make the effort for it.
"You make it sound so simple."
"I wish it was so simple, but sometimes the marks of what happens because of us hurt too much to ignore."
Izuku snapped back to the present in time to dodge a charge from Tenya. Denki tried to get a shot in but Izuku focused a spell on his feet, it glowing brown, and then releasing it with a stomp, "Earth!" A jagged pillar of rock rose between them and absorbed the discharge from Denki.
Dark Shadow lashed out but couldn't catch Tenya, at least he earned Ochaco some space as she barely dodged Todoroki's hand.
"First place, here!" Mei threw another gadget to Izuku, a pistol with a dense net in the tip.
He grabbed it with his mouth and used his tongue to pull the trigger, shooting the net that quickly expanded at the adversary team.
"Huh, I have to tweak the design a little to make shooting in unorthodox ways easier." Mei said to herself, barely giving the fact her invention was ineffective as Todoroki created a wall of ice.
"Momo, can you make a Magic Bomb that will keep Izuku in place? Then I can get a good shot at him." Denki asked his teammate.
Tenya looked back and raised an eyebrow, "Magic Bomb?"
Momo blushed slightly while making said explosive, "Izuku said Synthesis Materials are crystallized magic and it sounded cool so… don't judge me okay?" She threw the Frost Stone powered grenade at Izuku's feet, only for them to glow a reddish-orange halfway to his knees and destroy the explosive with a blazing kick that countered the charge.
Todoroki was getting more and more annoyed with the parallel talk happening below him, "Do any of you have someone constructive to say?" He snapped.
Tenya frowned, "Yes, actually I do. I have something that can give you a chance, but after that, I won't be of much help."
Todoroki shook his head, "The time is running out anyway, as long as we get the ten million the rest doesn't matter."
With a grim nod, Tenya started to rev his Engine, "Hold on tight!" His exhaust pipes spilled blue flames, with a shout he used his special move for the world to see, "Recipro Burst!"
In a blur of movement, the scales turned. Todoroki barely realized they were in range when he was beside Ochaco, he stretched his arm and closed his hand in the ten million headband.
Izuku tried to react but Momo created a shield of a mesh of Mythril and Dense materials, she still felt like a truck hit it when Izuku struck but it successfully delayed him for long enough for them to dart past.
"No, you're not!" Ochaco used her quirk in herself and activated her jetpack at top speed, not caring if it exploded as long as she got the points back.
Tenya felt his Engine stalling, his legs cramped up badly and he was forced to stop, which gave Ochaco her chance. Todoroki tried to counter, but the headband was in his left hand and he couldn't get an angle to use his right.
Ochaco was about to reach her target when she saw Momo throwing her shield at her. For a second she thought that that's the end of the line for her but then she heard it, from behind her Izuku's Keyblade came spinning like a buzzsaw.
The weapon cleaved through the shield but didn't stop, it closed in. Todoroki raised his hand to protect himself from the threat rushing at him, pure instinct taking over, and that's when flames started to dance in his left arm.
The bichromatic boy blanked, his mind shutting down for a second, in that second the Keyblade passed by his side, the wind it generated so strong it put out the flames and almost made him fall.
Ochaco thanked Deku in her heart, that's her chance and she would make darn sure she would grab it!
Grab it she did. Ochaco snatched the headband from Todoroki, the others tried to stop her but with a swift kick, the zero-gravity girl launched herself back to her team.
She thought once more that it was the end, now in her favor, when the ice wall beside her exploded, literally.
"Get back here with that Round Face! We're not done yet!" Katsuki's warcry showed his rage.
Ochaco deadpanned, "Help!" She cried in hopes her friends could save her hide. Izuku once more was there for her, his Keyblade was spinning back after completing its flight. Heroes Rising nailed Katsuki in the gut, making him fold over, but not give up. With another explosion, he launched himself through the pain.
Dark Shadow fetched Ochaco in his claws and put her back safely in her perch. With a shriek similar to a bird of prey he threw his reinforced form at Katsuki.
Izuku summoned back his Keyblade and got ready to defend his friends and their chance of victory.
Tenya forced his legs to move and dashed at them.
Todoroki got a hold of himself and prepared to snatch first place again.
When the three-way battle was about to start, the buzzer sounded, "Time!" They all stopped, Katsuki who didn't have his team to catch him ended up falling face-first into the ground.
They all looked at the jumbotron, seeing the timer had hit zero.
"Goddammit!" Katsuki shouted while banging his fist on the ground.
"We failed," Todoroki said coldly, even if his mind still looped back to that single second where he almost broke his word only to once more have his thoughts confirmed.
"We did it!" Izuku cheered, jumping in joy before pulling his friends into a hug and hopping into place.
"The Calvary Battle is over! In first place, we have Team Uraraka! In second Team Todoroki! Third is Team Bakugo and last but not least Team Shinsho! Those four teams are the ones that will advance to the third event!"
Another chapter done! By who? Me! This time the great Silverbits (known as Beribits in AO3) was the one that made this thing readable, check her stuff too!
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