"Are you ready for this Leizcio? It's going to be one hell of a day!" Lavania said to Leizcio as she was walking down the stairs with him.
"Course I am! Been waiting for today!" Leizcio excitedly said as he started to head out.
"We'll be watching from the cafe okay? I'll also make sure to have it recorded as well! Now go kick some ass!"
"I will!"
Leizcio went on and calmly walked over to the station. He felt a sense of pride, confident now that he has some sort of boost in speed from when he began training for today. His body also felt much more at ease than usual since he took his break from vigilantism. Most importantly, he's finally going to get the chance to show the pros that he's more than capable!
When he got onto the train along with Ochaco, he started to wonder what the events in the festival would be like. It's always chosen right then and there. All the other departments would also be participating. And if he's learned anything from his sister, it's that quirkless people are quite capable if not more than some people with quirks.
Upon entering UA, Leizcio went into the lockers to change out of uniform and into the gym uniform. He couldn't lie that he wasn't a bit nervous. Sure he's been in large crowds before, but was never being observed by them. This isn't anything like a few random bystanders on a patrol, this is a whole stadium filled with people who are either going to be cheering you on or not. But he's not here to please a crowd. He's here to prove to himself that he has what it takes to be a hero.
Heading into the waiting room, it seems that everyone is waiting anxiously for the festival to begin. Leizcio takes a quick seat and calms himself and remembers what he has taught himself these past two weeks.
"Everyone are you ready? We will be entering soon!" Iida shouted as he entered the room.
Leizcio continued to calm himself down as the festival was drawing closer. He felt a few butterflies in his stomach but that was expected considering the crowd awaiting them outside. However, it didn't seem like things were going to calm down as Todoroki approached Midoriya.
"Looking at things objectively, I think I'm stronger than you."
'What the fuck.' Leizcio thought to himself in annoyance and confusion.
"Y-yeah." Midoriya had said meekly.
"But All Might has his eye on you, doesn't he? I'm not trying to pry about that. But I'm going to beat you."
'What is up with him? What's he even going on about?'
Leizcio and Kirishima both stood up and approached Todoroki.
"Hey hey hey! Why are you picking a fight all of a sudden?" Kirishima said in annoyance grabbing onto Todoroki's shoulder.
"Seriously, what's with the aggressiveness?" Leizcio said in an angered tone putting his hand on the other shoulder.
"We're not here to play at being friends. So what does it matter?" Todoroki said coldly, shrugging Leizcio and Kirishima's hands off of him.
"Todoroki, I don't know what you're thinking when you say you'll beat me, but of course you're better than me. I think you're capable than most people looking at it objectively..."
"Midoriya, you probably shouldn't talk so negatively..."
"But everyone- The students from the other courses are aiming for the top with everything they've got! I can't afford to fall behind."
"I'll be going for it with everything I have, too."
Todoroki simply replied with "Yeah" and left the room.
"Quite the thing you said there huh Midoriya?" Leizcio said, glad that Todoroki left the room.
"Well, I figured that it's true you know? We're all aiming to do our best and reach the top." MIdoriya said scratching his neck.
"You're right about that! But hey don't sell yourself short either! You might not have control over your powers yet but you still have a good chance of reaching the top! Unless I take it of course!" Leizcio said poking a bit of fun at the last part. While he does hope that he gets to the top, he still hopes that Midoriya finds a way to control that explosive power of his for his own sake.
"Yeah, you're right Esperanza. Thanks." Midoriya said feeling a bit better.
"Course! Now let's get out there! It's our time to shine!" Leizcio says with a refreshed look at the festival awaiting him.
The class exit the waiting room and headed towards the gate.
-Silence-
That's all that Leizcio heard. He was extremely nervous stepping out of the gates, feeling so many eyes on him. He tried to keep himself calm but did not listen to it. Didn't help that he was inside a stadium. Leizcio was also quite nervous as he started to think that people might put two and two together that he's the Blur. However, taking a quick deep breath and mentally steeling himself, he remembers that his trail will be different since he has his gym uniform and no battery attached, so his lightning will appear as well.
Upon the podium was this year's umpire for the first year stage was . The R-rated pro hero, Leizcio was a bit unsure whether someone of her... title in a sense should be in a high school of all places. She's a good hero but it just leaves him with that question.
"Representing the students is Katsuki Bakugo from Class 1-A!"
'Oh god this is not going to be good for us.' Leizcio thought to himself as he saw Bakugo walk up to the podium. From what he has seen, Bakugo has been nothing but a rude person who sees himself above others. He has to admit though, he is extremely powerful. But he still doesn't understand what he has against Midoriya. From the guess of it, it seems that he bullied Midoriya when he was quirkless. It mentally irked Leizcio that someone would do that.
"I pledge- That I'll be number one."
'Why' is all Leizcio thought as he pinched the bridge of his nose. While he's not surprised, did he have to drag the rest of class along with him? Who is he kidding, of course he would.
"Now, let's get started right away. - The first game is what you'd call a qualifier! Every year, many drink their tears here! Now here is the fateful first game!"
A screen behind her appeared and it started rolling what could be the possible scenarios for the first trial.
"This year it's... This!"
The screen showed a small label with Obstacle race on it. Midnight briefly explained how that it'd be a race around the stadium coming to be around 4 kilometers. Students would be able to use their quirk however they'd like as long as they were on the course.
The students take their place by the gate and it's already such a large crowd. All 11 classes are together, competing to be first. However, Leizcio had a small trick to get past the others. He doesn't want to use up too much of his speed in the beginning, however, it was necessary to get the jumpstart ahead of everyone in this beginning part. All that training with Tamashi had finally paid off.
"Start!"
As soon as Leizcio heard Midnight give the go-ahead for the students, he started running and pushing ahead until he got onto the walls of the gate. He started to run on the wall allowing him to skip by all of the other opponents. However, he didn't account for what he'd do once he ran out of wall considering the angle he was running at. Hoping for the best, he tries his best to aim for a good landing.
"Aagh!"
He had a bit of a rough landing but it paid off, he was already leagues ahead of the others. It seemed like Todoroki was going to freeze off a good part of the path before the others could make it out so Leizcio decided to use that burst step move and launch himself farther. Managing to get himself to a safe distance, he begins to run at a normal pace.
As he started to run forward, something was shadowing him. He takes a second to look up and multiple zero-pointers were standing in Leizcio's way. Just before a 1 pointer smacked him, Leizcio dodged and electrocuted it.
"I don't think I have much of a choice here do I?"
Leizcio uses his speed to quickly think of a way around all the bots around him. He manages to find a route between the bots and uses his speed and runs pasts all of them without a single one in his way. After getting past those "obstacles", it made Leizcio realize just how far ahead of almost everyone he is. While that might be good, he doesn't want to exhaust his energy this early in the festival so he'll have to stick with his normal speeds for now.
The second obstacle in the way was a bunch of stone pillars with only ropes connecting over what is probably a deep fall. Sucking it up, Leizcio ignores his small fear of heights and began to crawl on the ropes. Lots of his classmates are seeming to catch up and even Todoroki and Bakugo have already gone ahead. He starts picking up the pace a bit until he finally reaches the final part of that area allowing him to move on.
"Why, who comes up with this stuff?!"
Ahead of Leizcio was the minefield, lots were ahead but they were moving slowly and carefully to avoid setting them off. However, there was someone who was trying to outrun the mines. Turns out it was Iida but he ended up getting caught in the explosions. Hoping to cross the path in a few steps, Leizcio tries and modifies his burst step on the fly so that it uses near his maximum energy in that one step. He backs up a bit and immediately takes off.
After one step, he made it pretty far and was not so far behind Todoroki and Bakugo. However, he heard a click coming from underneath. Looking down, he'd stepped on a mine. Nothing he could do, he just braced for impact.
"Fuck!"
He's sent up into the air from the explosion and ends up falling on his back hurting him a bit. Deciding to not try and speed over, he just goes at a normal rate. However, he hears a large explosion and looks up behind him.
'Is that Midoriya? How?!' Leizcio looks in disbelief.
Seems that he sent himself flying with that armor from the bots previously. Leizcio does his best to move faster while being aware. But shortly after, a path of ice comes from where Todoroki was and he was able to take advantage of it. He begins to run until he makes it to the end.
Making it out of the gates, Leizcio stands and just takes a deep breath. Even though he lost the lead back in the competition, he was still able to get pretty far without using his quirk that much. But he did receive some indirect help from Todoroki in the end. As he saw others get out of the gates he noticed that Iida looked rather disappointed in himself and his results.
Leizcio ended up getting 5th place and Iida managed to get 6th place. Didn't help with his mood though. In hopes of trying to cheer him up, Leizcio walks up to him.
"Don't worry Iida, that obstacle course didn't mix well with our quirks for the most part."
"You're right Esperanza but I feel that with our speed-enhancing quirks we would've been higher."
"I'll admit that we probably could've but right now it's a matter of conserving energy right? No telling what'll be next. So let's keep our heads up and continue to run forward!"
"Of course Esperanza, thank you." Iida nods as the two speedsters hope to prove themselves further in the competition.
They both walked to where Midnight was as she was prepared to reveal the next event. The cavalry battle. She went to explain how people would form groups of up to four people and try to steal others' headbands to gain more points. The higher a person was on rankings, the more points they'd have.
But it got quite absurd. Looking at Midoriya who was in first place, the poor boy had ten million points. Not even 2nd place had any point close to that. Leizcio takes a quick sigh of relief knowing that could've been him if he had used his speed the whole time. He felt pretty bad for Midoriya but Leizcio had to prove to himself that he's got what it takes to be at the number one spot.
"15 minutes is quite a lot of time to make teams isn't it?"
Leizcio was taking a minute to himself to think of who he could team up with. With his speed, he could probably make a good horse and be able to boost the whole team with him. Or even use his arms as wind funnels. The question is who should he team up with?
"Esperanza."
Leizcio slightly jumped at his name randomly being called and noticed it was just Todoroki. Seems like Yaoyorozu was there as well, those two probably teamed up with each other.
"Yeah Todoroki?"
"You'd be a great asset to my team, your speed is unmatched, even to Iida's. You also have that electricity and can combat Kaminari's voltage. Join me, we can take those ten million points from Midoriya."
"I refuse." Leizcio said without hesitation and with a glare in his eye. He was not about to team up with someone who looks down on others.
"Okay." Todoroki said coldly, walking away from him.
Leizcio let out a small groan, he knew that teaming up with Todoroki most likely would've been the best considering his powers, and he's already worked with Yaoyorozu before so they know how to work together. But Leizcio is going to do his best to win knowing that there are people by his side challenging him, nobody beneath him. With that out of the way, he walks over to Midoriya about to offer to be his teammate but he felt someone tap his shoulder.
"Come on and join my team."
'Todoroki for the last time I'm not going to j-"
everything went blank
Chapter 18
END
