Once all of the teams had been established the remaining first years were given five minutes to enter their segregated territories and locate their flags.
"Do you think there are any of those robots in here?"
"What, robots?"
"You know, from the practical entrance exam."
"I don't remember any robots in the practical."
"It was probably just in the hero course practical," the shadow girl, Niseyoko, said. Her voice sounded so dreamy and faraway, even though Mai was standing next to her. Niseyoko turned her green eyes to the blond boy. "But you're in the hero course, so you should have remembered them, Komura."
Of course everyone else already memorized their teammates' names. Okay, so there was shadow – Niseyoko, the general studies pink boy – Motomizu, the anxious hero rep – Meotooku, and literally everyone is in 1-A, 1-B, or 1-C, leaving Management Mai as the odd one out. Fantastic.
"Oh, well –" the blond boy, Komura, said, the pink rising at the center of his cheeks providing a contrast with his cobalt eyes. "I – uh, I got in on recommendation, so I took a different exam."
Komura – reKommendation, Mai could probably remember that (key word being 'probably').
"You got in on recommendation?" Meotooku asked. "That's amazing! Then are your parents pro-heroes? And – wait, shouldn't you be in our class?"
"I specifically asked to be added to class 1-B." Judging by how Komura's eyes were measuring the grass, he probably requested that to avoid the attention Meotooku was giving him now.
"My parents are heroes too – well, my mother is retired, but my father is the wave hero, maybe our parents know each other."
"Heh, only if they arrested my father." Komura sighed, deciding to delve into his family situation. "My mother became pregnant at a – bad time in her life. She told me my father hired her to help with some sort of PTSD and that he had trouble living with society or something. But after she had me she turned it all around and gave me a good life; I've been doing all I can to return the favor, and my hard work made it so I could be admitted to UA on recommendation."
Wow, Komura had such a powerful motivation in the Sports Fest. "Meanwhile I wasn't even supposed to pass the first event."
"Nobody could accidentally pass the first event; I'm sure you're very strong." It took Mai a moment to realize the crimson-colored girl was talking to her since she didn't notice she had said her comment out loud. "And even so, our team is loaded with class officers, which should make up for anything else."
"I just wish we had my deputy too," recommendation kid, Komura, said. "She can be a force to fight against."
Oh, so even with a liability like Mai, their team would be fine, that was kind of comforting - maybe.
"Anyway, what's your power? I wasn't able to take notes on you during the first event." The crimson girl had a pretty voice, but her rough way of speaking didn't compliment it at all.
"Oh, um – I can transform into a bat."
"Huh, that must be why I always see a bat near UA at the start and end of classes. It's you using your quirk to fly to and from school, isn't it?"
Before Mai could nod, the class 1-A rep guy, Meotooku, interrupted. "No, it's illegal to use a quirk in public without a hero license."
"It's one of my friends," Mai said in a panic. She always thought the law prohibited using a quirk against someone, not just activating it in public. Her parents generally had the attitude that rules exist for a reason, but if you understand the reason and adhere to that, it was okay to break the letter of the law, so Mai had no idea if, when she and Ai went to school, their parents were ignorant of the law or chose to ignore it. She supposed it was also possible Meotooku was mistaken.
"So you can speak to other bats using your quirk? That bat friend of yours must be really unique, not being nocturnal and all."
"Yeeeeeeeessss," Mai nodded slowly, despite the fact that even in her bat form she could only understand Japanese and her panicked response was a 100% lie. At least she didn't blurt an even worse explanation, like having a hero license.
"We should have two groups of three to each secure another team's flag and one group of two to protect our own," Meotooku said once they reached their bright orange flag and corresponding spare team headbands under it. The hero course students then discussed the best strategy for dividing the team. All Mai knew was by the time Midnight announced the beginning of the event she was assigned with Komura and Niseyoko to steal the red team's flag. Niseyoko took the lead and truly seemed to become a shadow leading Mai and Komura through the faux forest directly towards red territory while Komura explained the general plan.
"Niseyoko and I are going to distract any guards and then you're going to steal their flag and bring it to our territory in your bat form, assuming you can move faster that way."
"We may need to observe them before we attack to make my skills most useful," Niseyoko whispered softly as they crossed into the red area. "My quirk, Mimic, can replicate anyone's voice and vocal mannerisms, but I need to watch them a little first."
"Just let me know when you want me to activate my quirk," Komura nodded. "With Clone I can make up to ten identical quirkless clones of myself that think and act the way I would until they vanish after ten minutes."
Niseyoko continued to guide their group around enemy land like a cat on a hunt until they were able to see a red flag and huddle in the brush to see the situation. There were two students with red headbands flanking the flag, one girl and one boy. The girl had grayish skin with darker gray eyes contrasted with short pale pink hair. She seemed to be doing some aerobic conditioning around a nearby bush.
"Of course we're going against my deputy," Komura muttered almost inaudibly.
The boy was that guy from class 1-A with flame-like orange hair and yellowish skin who recognized Mai before the first event from her classroom incident. He seemed much more guard-like than the girl with his constant glancing about and tense ready position.
"Shouldn't you be focusing on potential attacks?" He asked his teammate.
"The more I sweat, the more pepper I produce," she retorted. "Which will be quite valuable with your Fire Sneeze quirk."
"Are you sure you'll be okay working alongside my fire?"
"Of course; I used to play with my little cousin who can literally make explosions – I'll be fine." She stared directly at him with a flirtatious look in her eye. "Awwww are you worried about me? You're such a chivalrous guy, Rakutake." She enticingly bit her lip, still doing her exercise.
The blush on the fire boy's cheeks looked even more awkward on his yellowy skin. "Well, I –"
"You're even cuter when you're flustered."
"He's making every rookie mistake with Oyo-bushio," Komura shook his head softly. Turning towards Mai, he gestured with his head at a tree with several branches hanging directly above the red flag. With a nod, Mai transformed and carefully made her way to a branch only a foot above the fire sneeze boy. Using the pepper class 1-B deputy's laugh as a cover, Mai dared to use her echolocation. Alright, the red team members hadn't moved much and the flag was only a few flaps away from where Mai could easily grab it; as long as the boy didn't jump she would be safe. Komura was still hiding where Mai left him, and it seemed at some point Niseyoko had slunk her way to hide in the bushes directly facing Komura on the other side of the flag.
As Mai waited, listening for her opportunity, there was a rustle deeper in the forest and the sound of several twigs breaking under the foot of a small handful of people. Those must be Komura's clones in action.
"Let's go – who wants a face full of pepper!" Sounded like the girl took the bait as a scuffle moved towards the clones and away from the flag.
"Komura – you think you –" her shout was cut off and was soon followed by a chorus of coughing.
"Rakutake! I could use some of your sneezes now!"
And that must be Niseyoko using Mimic. After another echolocation check confirmed the two figures were overwhelmed by five other people at the edge of Mai's range, it was her turn.
As Mai left the branch she felt a gust of heat from presumably the fire guy's quirk, causing her to realize she was in the middle of a fight. And fights are where people get hurt. And getting hurt is painful. When did Mai become the crazy person who put herself in potentially painful situations? What was she even doing? A business student did not belong in a fight; that was just a terrible idea in general. Bad idea bad idea bad idea –
Mai felt her claws subconsciously grab the flag, as if to tell her there was no going back. Okay, so this is happening. Just do what Ai would do.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-A!" Mai had no idea how loud her squeak sounded to anyone else as she flew towards orange territory, red flag billowing in her claws. As long as she could pass the half-red-half-orange tape roped across the dividing trees she'd have done her part. With her focus on carrying the flag she couldn't maintain her echolocation, she just hoped that she'd drop it off where her team could secure the red flag. There were definitely people chasing her now. Maybe Mai was lucky and they were just her teammates backing her up.
Just as the words finished forming in Mai's head she felt a sudden heat on one of her wings, then, just before she could register that she had been burned, she felt a sharp shock throughout her whole body, and everything went black.
"Well you got me. By all accounts, it doesn't make any sense."
Light slowly reached into Mai's eyes and as she blinked into consciousness the lights became blurred shapes and colors.
"Glasses are in your hand," the words formulated through the haze. Mai's fingers twitched and registered the glasses in her hand before slowly putting them on her face. The blurs solidified into a room with UA's rectangular light fixtures and curtains reaching to the ceiling. Was this – the nurse's office? Mai managed to sit up and test out her body. Didn't feel like anything was broken, only a lot of stiffness everywhere and a fading soreness on her left arm, just enough to make daily life doable but annoying.
"How are you feeling, Miss Benihama Mai?" Recovery Girl's wise face leaned over the bed Mai was lying in and examined her arm.
"Oof – that's still sore." Biting her lip, she dared to look at her arm for the remains of the burn she received in her bat form before she blacked out. A soft pink patch of skin went from her elbow to halfway up her forearm with only a few centimeters in the middle looking like a burn, but at this point it looked pretty mild, like one she might get from cooking. "I'm mostly stiff, everywhere."
"So she's okay now?" Ai's voice asked.
"I believe she's almost at one hundred percent," Recovery Girl nodded.
Before Mai could look around the room, Ai had leapt onto her bed and was clinging to her neck. "Oh Maaaaaaaai that was so scary! What did the mean hero students do to you?"
"She sustained a burn on her left wing while her quirk was activated, then received an electric shock which caused her bat form to lose consciousness and when that happened her quirk deactivated and she was left passed out on the ground." Someone in the room gasped and Mai craned around Ai's head to at least make out that she had a crowd of visitors. "It looks like the burn on her wing then stretched onto her arm when she transformed back into her human form, which my quirk and some rest helped heal. Her body may be recovering, but it's still a lot for it to experience; I may request they push the third event as far back as possible to let her rest a bit longer."
"That's really not necessary for just one student –"
"Of course it's necessary," Ai interrupted Mai. "You're in the third event!"
Mai blinked twice. "Wait, what?"
"Yep, you were able to get the flag within inches of our territory and I was able to secure it from there," Komura said, stepping next to Mai's bed. "The one-on-one battles will be decided by lot after lunch. I don't want to disrupt your rest, but seriously, let me know if there's anything I can get for you. You really helped us get into the third round." With a kind smile he made the nurse's office slightly less crowded.
"Alright, Mai, which of these people am I allowed to murder?" Ai said, scooting so Mai could see all her visitors. Standing around with various amounts of worry and eye contact were a handful of people from the orange team, a few people Mai recognized from the preparation of the second event, and Ai's friend Okanate leaning against the wall.
"Ai –"
"I'm just kidding; I've actually been quite reasonable."
"Yes, because clawing your way to the Recovery Girl's office and trampling everyone inside to get to the patient is very reasonable."
"Stand down, Okanate."
"Um," a short mass of silver hair stepped forward. "I think it was my Taser that knocked you out." Mai couldn't tell which emotion was stronger on the boy's stormy-blue tinted face, concern or confusion. "But, I never would have believed it; my quirk isn't that powerful."
"Well obviously it is." Ai scowled.
"Anyway, I'm Hiramehashi, from Class 1-D."
"Impossible," Ai scoffed. "Only a hero could take out my baby sister…who happens to be my twin...and was born first." Mai tried not to laugh.
"Well, I am hoping to go into the police force." He shook his head. "But I am so sorry, I really didn't want to hurt you –"
"So, like, with your Taser would you need to train your quirk to make it more shock-y or use a support item?"
"Oh, uh," he looked down at his hands. Pointing with two of his fingers on each hand, he scraped them against each other, as if sharpening blades, and they buzzed with electricity. "I guess – I don't know."
"If you ever want to experiment with it, let me know." Ai grinned as if she hadn't been threatening to murder him moments ago. "You have an incredibly cool quirk, and even without it I'm sure you'll make a great police officer."
"Really?" His face softened into a relaxed smile, all the previous frustration with himself now purged from his face.
"Absolutely! You did manage to take down my sister."
"To be fair, so could a determined duck." Mai inputted. "But I truly appreciate your concern, even with the event being 'anything goes'. Trust me, I'm fine, no need to worry about it."
"I'm just glad you're okay," he said as he headed out. "I'll be rooting for you." He called behind him.
"Good luck with that," Mai murmured, only to receive an elbow to the stomach. "Ow! Come on, Ai, I'm an invalid!"
"Even cripples aren't allowed to be so negative."
"At any rate," Okanate went up next to Mai's bed. "I'll be going to lunch now, and I'll see if I can secure you some food." She squeezed Mai's shoulder affectionately. "Finish healing soon, I'm looking forward to the battle." She followed the taser boy out.
"Well, if you're alright Benihama, I can leave you to rest." Meotooku – class 1-A speech guy – also made to leave. "Thanks a lot for your contribution to our win; good luck in the final event."
"Even a student from the Management Department can go plus ultra," Motomizu – pink 1-C dude – added before also leaving.
"Don't worry about me, I'm okay." Mai watched the door close behind them and flopped back on the bed. "I am not okay."
"Ugh, I knew it."
Mai nearly jumped since she thought it was just her and Ai in the room with Recovery Girl, but actually looking around the room showed the boy with the Fire Sneeze quirk and Niseyoko were still visiting. He was standing with the most discouragingly hopeless face Mai had ever seen on a human being as he looked to the ground, meanwhile Niseyoko sat poised as a cat, politely sitting in a chair as she stared out the window expressionless.
"If either of you want to make yourselves useful, could you let the teachers know I surrender?" Mai asked, hoping to lighten the mood. "I don't need everyone to waste their time watching my butt get a thorough kicking." This earned her another elbow to the stomach.
"I'm so sorry, this is all my fault; I can't believe I let myself use my fire against you. I – I could never apologize enough for hurting you and jeopardizing your performance in the last event. I can't imagine what my parents thought watching the Sports Fest."
"Wouldn't they be proud you at least made it to the second event?" Ai asked.
"You don't understand; they're rescue heroes with water quirks. All I've ever wanted since they adopted me is to be just like them." He put his head in his hands. "And all I've done as a hero is hurt people. How can they call me their son when I could never be like them." He added almost inaudibly.
Mai pursed her lips; the situation had just grown to be way beyond her comfort zone. She glanced at Ai, but even she seemed to still be processing it all.
"I think that sounds just like your parents," Niseyoko said, still looking out the window. "Using your fire against Mai, that is." The fire boy lifted his head just enough to look at her though one eye. "Even though Hiramehashi took himself out of the event to get Mai to Recovery Girl, you stood your ground for your team." Her green eyes turned to bore into him. "Fighting until the end after incapacitating your opponent with a nonlethal blow, isn't that the essence of a hero, Rakutake?"
Fire boy – uh, Rakutake, if Mai was going to attempt the name thing – lost all the despair that had smothered his face as he blinked at Niseyoko, a trace of hope now entering it. "I – I guess –" He was cut off by his phone ringing. "Excuse me. Hi, father, I'm just about to –" As he left Recovery Girl's office he barely avoided Motomizu who barreled into the room.
"Niseyoko! I just realized I might have to fight Chikawa in the third event!" He exclaimed, ignoring the fact that this was an occupied nurse's office. "You know how important this is to her, what should I do? Should I give a decent fight or just toss the battle so she knows I'm trying to help her?"
Niseyoko tilted her head, looking even more like a curious black kitten. "Why would you throw your fight?"
Motomizu hesitated in the doorway. "You're right, she wouldn't want an unfair fight even if it improved her chances, which means I… " He continued muttering to himself as he ambled down the hallway.
Mai leaned back on the bed and stared at the ceiling, processing what all went down. "When did my recovery turn into solve-everyone's-emotional-problems time?"
"Yeah, and not one of them was me." Ai laid down on the Mai's bed, curling up next to her side. "Watching my beloved sister get attacked and knocked unconscious is emotionally traumatizing stuff you know."
"Alright, time for my patient to get more rest." Recovery Girl prodded Ai away from Mai's side while Ai booed.
"It's okay, I can sleep in whatever conditions." Ai cheered as Mai let her cuddle closer as she laid down. "Please wake me before the third event starts."
"I'll get the recreational games to last as long as possible," Recovery Girl responded.
"Oh, did you want some encouragement too?" Niseyoko said as she stood out of the chair she had been observing from this whole time. "No matter what your odds are in the third event as a business student, you have already made UA Sports Festival history." She briefly waved as she went out the door. "At any rate, good luck."
Author's Note: Alright, we're almost halfway through this little fic! Have you enjoyed it thus far? Are you excited for the third event? Let me know your thoughts, and leave a comment!