Howdy folks, how's it going?
Hope you've all been keeping safe.
Another month, another update. I am sorry to say that time constraints, for reasons I have explained in other recent updates, have made this chapter a bit shorter than the average, but all the same I hope you'll enjoy it.
By the way, regarding that one scene from the last chapter, of Izuku's attempts of dimensional travel, far as I can tell nobody got it right. The creatures that were mentioned were shaderavens, though admittedly I may have taken some liberties about their size, since I didn't find info on that anywhere.
Also, on another note, I generally don't pay much attention to this, but it did catch my notice after my last update that this fic has over one thousand reviews, and frankly, I am floored by how well-liked this crazy random idea of mine seems to be. So yeah, thank you, you guys are awsome and I hope you keep enjoying the madness.
As always, a big shout out to Chaos Productions for his help and input.
And as always, I own absolutely nothing of BNHA or WH40K.
There's more to be said in the notes at the end, but for now, without further ado, enjoy. :D
/
If it took Midnight a few moments of blankly watching Midoriya walk out the stage before regaining composure and finding her words, well, the general silence indicated that few would blame her.
"Well, with that… passionate pledge out of the way," The woman eventually said as she turned back towards the crowd of students, (overly, in the opinion of some) enthusiastic demeanour firmly back in place. "It's time to unveil the first event of the festival. Hit it!"
With a crack of her whip towards the giant screen of the stadium, a digital roulette of potential activities popped up and immediately begun to spin, many a competitor tensing up in nervous expectation as it begun go slower, slower… and then stopped with a loud 'ding, ding, ding'.
"The obstacle race!" The R-18 heroine declared, and as soon as the words were spoken, one of the walls of the stadium opened up, forming a tunnel leading outside, as the crowd of students observed amidst murmured conversations even as the rules were explained.
"Was this really a random event…?" Kaminari asked no one in particular. "Like, I know this is "we have literal fake cities and giant mechas in campus" U.A., but would they really go so far as to have the stadium ready to accommodate every possible event? Pretty sure I saw stuff like "Naval Battle" and "Floor is lava" in that roulette…"
"I think it's probably best not to look too much into it, ribbit." Tsuyu replied after a few moments, a finger to her chin in contemplation. "Considering everything we've seen so far, I wouldn't put it past them to have actual lava stored somewhere for just this occasion. We got off easy, all in all."
"CONTESTANTS, TO THE STARTING LINE, IT'S TIME TO GET THIS SHOW ON THE ROAD!" Present Mic's announcing swiftly cut through the chatter, and so the crowd moved into formation around the mouth of the tunnel, the spectators going quiet in anticipation. As the lights over the archway flashed from red to green one by one, the general ambience of nervousness among the competitors reached its peak. Some were feeling near overwhelmed by it, others steeled their nerves and stood resolute, and others still were grinning defiantly, eagerly anticipating the coming challenge…
Then, the last light flashed green, the starting horn blared, and then there was ice.
The stampede was stopped in its tracks before it could truly start as Todoroki flash froze the ground, trapping many an unprepared student as he slid forward, seeking the advantage straight from the get-go. The taciturn boy allowed himself a single glance back…
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHH!" Midoriya bellowed as he dashed forward. Todoroki didn't know if or how he'd seen that coming, but his chosen adversary had simply leapt over the freezing wave and didn't waste a moment to give chase.
"GET BACK HERE, YOU CANDY CANE JACKASS!" Bakugou was much the same, propelling himself forward with his explosions, glaring at him with murder in his eyes. He almost wondered what had the ashen blond so angry, but even he knew that just seemed to be his default state.
"Not cool, Bro, not cool!" Kirishima on the other hand was caught in his pre-emptive maneuver, but simply armored up and broke through without effort.
…To his mild annoyance, the stunt hadn't been as effective as he'd hoped. The trio was hot on his heels. Most other members of his class had similarly managed to avoid or otherwise swiftly break free from the ice and were following soon after. Briefly, he wondered if that meant he was getting too predictable…
No matter, it still had given him the advantage and that's what was important. He was at the front, and it was going to stay that way if he had anything to say about it.
/
"Uh, gotta admit, didn't expect that." Kaina commented with a raised eyebrow as she watched the unfolding scene, her tone vaguely approving. "A sneaky move like that's not something I've seen done all that often in past years, and it's even more impressive coming from Mr. I-think-a-fire-moustache-is-a-fashion-statement's son. When it comes to hero work the man wouldn't know subtlety if it bit him in the ass."
"Young Todoroki has shown an impressive command of his quirk from the very first day at U.A." Toshinori replied, before giving the woman a bemused look. "And it's not very polite to talk about your colleagues like that, Kaina-kun, even if it's not exactly wrong."
That earned him a raised eyebrow from the heroine, a textbook example of a 'Are you serious?' expression.
"You do know he hates All Might's guts, right?" She commented, earning her a blink of genuine confusion from the emaciated man.
"He does?" He replied, sounding genuinely shocked at the idea.
"…You really are too nice for your own good sometimes, Toshinori." Kaina replied with an exasperated shake of her head. "You didn't think he's spent so long trying to one up the man for the number one spot out of friendly rivalry, did you? He loathes All Might 'cause no matter how hard he tries, All Might is always ahead. Too much of an arrogant prick to realize he can't win 'cause, hero track record aside, he's human garbage, while All Might's… well, he's All Might."
"…Well, in hindsight that does explain a few things. And make them more awkward in retrospect." The skeletal man muttered, thinking of the brief encounter he'd had with the other hero in the stadium's corridors, and many other times when the number two hero had showed a lot of reticence at just being in his presence…
"Oh, look, they are approaching the first obstacle." Inko interjected cheerily, having kept far better track of the race than the two of them, giving a little chuckle. "Oh, my son is going to love this."
The two heroes immediately halted their discussion to refocus on the event. Toshinori promptly groaned at what he knew was about to happen, making Kaina promptly blink in confusion.
/
"AND SO WE'VE COME TO THE FIRST HURDLE! STUDENTS MIGHT REMEMBER THESE FROM THE ENTRANCE EXAMS, BUT HOW WILL THEY HANDLE THE ROBOT HORDE THIS TIME?"
Izuku blinked at Present Mic's commentary as he raced to catch up to that sneaky, sneaky Frosty Boy, noticing as the words registered and the path curved around a bend, the familiar, massive shapes of the zero-pointer robots looming in the distance, a horde of the smaller ones standing between them, blocking the path.
A wide, eager grin crossed the boy's face. Now this, this was definitely off to a good start. And to answer the hero's question, why reinvent the wheel, when you could just use more of them?
Without breaking stride, he reached for his pockets.
"GIT' ZOGGED PART TWO, EELETRIK BOOGALOO!" He bellowed, as he pulled out a duo of clunky, blocky, shoulder mounted rocket launchers, and let loose, his checkered-pattern missiles streaking through the air and finding their marks all over the easy targets, the closest of the giant robots slowly crumbling as fiery explosions engulfed them. As soon as the last rocket had been used up, Izuku had put the spent weapons back into his stash, and when he next pulled his hands from his pockets, one of them was grabbing his trusty lucky shoota, while the other came covered in the red armored protection of a power klaw. The metallic talons weren't quite as large as the previous ones, because frankly it had been a bit of a rush job to get the thing ready in time, but there were five of them to compensate, crackling with a hum and a brief pulse of green light.
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHH!" He yelled, charging straight into the small robot army. The closest unit, which, alongside its kin seemed to be staring at the crumbling, burning colossi with as close to horror as their programming allowed, didn't even manage to react before the metallic talons clamped around what passed for its head, and promptly crushed it in their grip, cutting through metal like a hot knife through butter.
The one next to it was much the same as it was summarily dispatched in a hail of gunfire. It took another three of their number being similarly destroyed before the constructs managed to process the threat and finally reacted to confront it.
Undeterred, the goggled boy eagerly tore through them, laughing as he went about shooting and slashing, not noticing how everyone nearby just seemed to stop and stare, even Todoroki having stopped in his tracks, the freezing mist he'd been gathering to deal with the robots himself still clinging to him as he mutely watched the carnage unfold.
"…Say, Eraser, did we rule that weapons of mass destruction were allowed?" Present Mic eventually, hesitantly inquired, sounding rather less enthusiastic than he'd been before.
"No, but in hindsight, we should have made this disclaimer to the audience first." The surly underground hero replied, sounding like he'd really rather not be dealing with this right now. "We normally only allow students to use equipment for the festival if they fill out the appropriate forms, and preferably if it's vital to the student's ability to perform to any degree. But Midoriya's… machinery, it turns out, is dependent on his quirk to function. Under quirk law, that means it's seen as an extension of the quirk itself, and thus only affected by the same rules as everybody else in this tournament, which pretty much just amounts to "anything goes as long as there's no deliberate intent to cause permanent or crippling damage to fellow students…""
"… So we're putting his gadgets in the same category as Todoroki's ice or Bakugou's explosions? Isn't that a bit of a stretch?"
"Nezu checked with a legal consultant to make sure. I'm afraid it's quite an airtight ruling." The erasure hero grumbled, a weary resignation to his voice. "I've been saying for years that we should look into updating the rulebook, but nobody listens to me around here."
/
"Was it really necessary to enable the chaos like that, Midoriya-san?" Toshinori said, levelling a very flat stare at the boy's mother.
"I'm quite sure I don't know what you mean, Yagi-san." The green-haired woman replied innocently. "I was asked for my legal expertise, and I provided it to the best of my ability, like I would for any other comission I get."
Then she stared at him, with that trademark, motherly smile of hers, until the skeletal man looked away, knowing a lost battle when he saw one. Instead, he looked towards Kaina, to see the heroine alternating between staring at the big screen and the towering smoke clouds visible from outside the stadium, with a look of wide-eyed surprise. To be fair, the Midoriya family tended to have that effect on people.
"Everything alright, Kaina-kun?" He voiced his concern.
"Well, I know I read the file you sent me and all," The woman said with a blink as she turned to look at him. "But seeing it is another thing entirely. How'd the kid get those things to work? For crying out loud, one of those "rocket launchers" was built around a damn beer crate!"
"The short answer is, his quirk did it." Toshinori, shrugged helplessly, fully aware of how much of a non-answer that was. "How it did it, I'm afraid that's anyone's guess. Power Loader can't figure it out, quirk doctors gave up years ago, and I'd suggest waiting till Nezu finds the time to take a crack at it, but honestly the idea terrifies me."
"You got any insight to offer, Midoriya-san?" The heroine inquired, figuring that if anyone could have an inkling of what the kid's deal was, it'd be his mother. The woman, however, simply gave a cute little chuckle.
"Oh, Tsutsumi-san." She said with an amused shake of her head as the giggles subsided. "I gave up on understanding when my son nearly built a nuke from scratch after watching some action movies when he was eight. Would've finished the thing too, if I hadn't put my foot down and threatened to withhold katsudon for the rest of his life. Honestly, how he got his hands on that uranium I'll never know…"
…
…
…
"Oooook, fair enough." Kaina eventually stated, sharing a deeply disturbed look with Toshinori before the two of them decided it was best not to dwell on that, looking back at the race. "Well, in nothing else, the kid sure is enthusiastic. I like his style, but it might cost him. The rest of the kids are catching up."
/
Izuku was almost too focused on bashing a robot with its own arm, that he had torn off just moments prior, to notice the number of people that were beginning to pass him by. With an owlish blink, he realized that, yes, the other gits were indeed starting to catch up, and were in fact taking advantage of his good time to slip past the robots pretty much unnoticed. In fact, Frosty and Ol'Katsu were so far ahead now he could barely even see them anymore. The whole thing struck him as rather unsporting, really.
Grumbling sourly under his breath at the injustice of it all, the green-haired teen reluctantly pocketed the robotic limb, because he might as well get some loot out of this, and resumed his running, the remaining units all but parting all around to let him pass and focusing their efforts on other approaching students. He idly wondered as he went when had the school programmed the scrap buckets to be such wusses.
His grumbling continued all the way until he reached the next obstacle.
"AND FOR THE NEXT LEG OF THIS RACE, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WELCOME TO THE FALL! IF YOU WANT TO BE ABLE TO CONTINUE, THEN I'D RECOMMEND NOT LOOSING YOUR BALANCE! IT'S A LONG WAY DOWN!"
Yeah, that was all well and good, but how was he supposed to go about doing that, the green-haired boy considered as he looked around the massive chasm and all its many pillars and interconnected ropes. Something like this wouldn't do much to stop the likes of Frosty or Katsu or Froggy, all three well ahead of him by this point, so what could he do to catch up?
Suddenly, the thought struck him that this would be a perfect opportunity to test something out, but for that there was someone he needed. Frowning, he turned around, screening through all the gits that were passing him by, because if this particular git was already ahead of him he'd eat his goggles, and really why'd he have to be so annoying to find… Oh, there he was.
"Oi, Grapey boy-dah zog happened tah you'ze?" Izuku blinked as he stared at his much shorter classmate struggling to approach as fast as his stubby little legs allowed, sporting a few bruises and a heavily swollen cheek.
"Uuuh, oh, see…" Mineta startled, actually stopping out of cheer surprise at being called, voice hesitant and more than a little bummed out. "I kinda thought I'd try to save myself some effort by sticking to someone to carry me through the race, but, well… Yaoyoruzu didn't appreciate my clever plan and smacked me with a bat until I had to let go. It's freakin' unfair…"
"Yah, yah, right." The green-haired boy stated, having stopped paying attention halfway through the explanation, looking for something in his pocket. "So here's dah thing, I'z got a kunnin' plan tah get across, but it'z gun need you'ze tah work. Ya in?"
Mineta's first thought was to immediately refuse, as he was getting the sinking feeling that whatever the crazy bastard had in store wasn't gonna be pleasant, but then some small, possibly insane, part of his mind had him consider his options. As things stood, he was in the middle of the pack, and frankly, with how much his small size was working against him for this event, and how unlikely it was that he'd be able to keep up the rhythm throughout the whole thing, or that anyone would let him hitch a ride, for that matter, he realized that he really did not fancy his chances going at it alone. So, if it helped him move on to the next stage…
"What do you have in mind…?" He asked with grudging wariness, really not liking the all too cheery grin his classmate gave him.
"Aight, so, hold still." Midoriya said as he kneeled down besides the smaller boy, and before the latter could protest, swiftly pulled whatever he'd been looking for from his pocket and slapped it onto his body. Mineta looked down, to see it seemed to be some sort of harness, made from what appeared to be a seatbelt from a baby carriage (part of him wanted to sulk at how well it fit him…), a round circular piece with a green light on it keeping it all together at his back, and a corded, metallic rope attached to his chest, connecting him to his classmate's pocket.
"Midoriya, how's this going to help…?" He asked with increasing apprehension. He had the rapidly increasing feeling that he had just made an enormous mistake…
That honestly horrifying grin still plastered across his face, the green-haired menace once again reached into his pocket. This time, he once again pulled what appeared to be a big gun. So, big, in fact, that the barrel was clearly a trashcan, Midoriya having to hold the thing via a handle at the side and the trigger on the back side, like a gatling gun. Then there was the reel at the back, probably from a truck, from which the metal cord was fed into the barrel and went all the way to…
Regret. So much regret. All the regret.
"No." Mineta, white as a sheet, just barely managed to fight through the rising terror to get the words out in a squeaky, frantic tone. "You're crazy. No, nononononononono, fuck no! No way in hell are you gonna shoot me through that thing! Are you trying to fucking kill me?!"
"Oh, dun be such a wuss, Grapey boy." Midoriya replied, what he probably might actually believe was a reassuring tone completely ruined by that vicious, nearly too wide grin. "I built an iner-inert-a break thingie into dat dere rig. You'z gun be fiiiiiine…"
His mind overwhelmed by fear, Mineta found himself unable to reply with anything that sounded like a coherent retort at that, and instead, in a fit of desperation made to dash away from the madman, desperately trying to reach the edge of the runway, because fuck this, he'd rather be disqualified than subjected to this insanity.
Unfortunately he did not manage to get very far before Izuku pressed a button and the hapless boy found himself being reeled in, even as he frantically tried to reach for anyone or anything to hold on to and resist the pull, to no avail, until he found himself inside the barrel.
"Aight den, Grapey boy, 'ere'z how it'z gun go!" The goggled boy said with cheery enthusiasm as he turned to face the chasm, taking aim at one of the pillars. "I shoot ya, ya stick to what I shoot ya at, I swing, reel ya in, and we go like dis'till we're across, ok? Ok!"
"MIDORIYA, PLEASE, THAT'S NOT HOW MY QUIRK WO-OOAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" The hapless diminutive boy did not have the time to finish his protest before his tormentor pulled the trigger of this insane contraption. Then there was a thunderous burst, a brief cloud of smoke, and after that he was a bit too preoccupied with how his entire world became a blur and his guts seemed to be trying to escape his body by climbing out his throat to be able to speak.
Mere moments after, the improvised "hook" of this grappling gun hit the wall of the targeted pillar with an almost comical splat. At this point, his mind too overwhelmed by horror and vertigo to be able to think coherently, Mineta didn't even consider the fact that, besides hanging from the rocky surface by the back of his head, his back to the wall, he was actually unhurt.
Meanwhile, Izuku gave the cord a tentative tug. Satisfied that it would hold, and with a bellow of his signature cry, the goggled boy took a running start and leapt straight into the chasm. Those other students in the immediate vicinity who had been watching it all unfold, too transfixed by the oddity of events to keep going forward or intervene, saw him vanish from view amidst the pillars…
"WAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!"
…Only to moments later reappear on the other side of the swing rope, looking for all the world like nothing more than a kid at an amusement park ride. As soon as he had reached the apex of his flight, he pressed a button, and the cord begun reeling his "partner" in with a loud 'pop', leaving only a set of purple spheres attached to the pillar, (whether the hapless teen's screams were being smothered by everything else going on or he just had gone past being able to voice his distress was anyone's guess at this point…), and as soon as he landed back in the trashcan, the green-haired boy took aim, fired, and gleefully cackled as he made his crossing of the abyss.
"…Eraser, is this legal?" Present Mic completely broke his usual bombastic character to ask his fellow commentator, sounding like he was not quite sure what it was that he was seeing.
"…I don't know." Came the uncertain reply as, in what would be considered an historical moment, the hero Eraserhead felt, sounded and looked complete and utterly confused. For a brief moment, the audience, surprisingly quiet as they too tried to process the situation, could hear what sounded like the quick rustling of paper, as if someone was swiftly skimming through the pages of a book. "I don't think there's anything in either the festival's guidelines or the academy's rulebook that accounts for a situation even remotely similar to this…"
/
"Oh, that son of mine." Inko said with an amused little chuckle. "Really just cannot help himself when he sees an opportunity to test out a new gadget."
…
…
…
"…Midoriya-san." Toshinori replied in a pained, long-suffering tone, only the fact the shock hadn't fully worn off, and because of that his hands were still clamped around the arms of his seat, was preventing him from facepalming. "Should we be concerned for Mineta-kun's life…?"
"Oh dear me, of course not, Yagi-san." The mother replied in a mildly chiding tone. "My son is many things, but capable of disregarding the safety of those he works with is not one of them. Note how Mineta-san didn't become a bloody splatter the moment that gun fired, never mind when he hit the wall. Izuku must have put an inertia dampener in that harness, he had been looking for a practical use for that thing for a while now."
"…Your son just happened to have made an… inertia dampener, and had it lying around just because." The emaciated man stated more than asked, guessing from context and name what such a device was supposed to be, and guessing more headaches and booze in Power Loader's immediate future while he was at it…
"What can I say? My son's prone to bouts of creativity when he's starting to feel bored." The woman replied with a shrug, before turning towards the other occupant of the room. "Are you well, Tsutsumi-san?"
The multicolor-haired woman blinked at that, snapping out of the surprised state that many a person in the audience was currently in, turning to look at Inko, her lips forming a little 'o' in her at the… unexpected maneuver she had just witnessed.
"Midoriya-san." She said, with a tone of disbelieving bluntness. "Your son is a couple of rounds short of a full chamber, isn't he?"
"I wouldn't use that particular version of that analogy within earshot of him if I were you, he would take it as an insult and a challenge." The Midoriya senior laughed, completely unoffended by the question. "I personally prefer to see it as him thinking outside the box."
"Forget thinking outside the box." The heroine chortled at that, as she turned back towards the big screen to see the boy in question merrily make his way across the chasm. "This is so far beyond that ballpark it's not even the same sport. There is no box, the box has been murdered and is lying face down in a ditch somewhere. Your son's doing something that no one in their right mind would even consider… And somehow it's working."
"Yes." The green-haired woman smiled proudly. "That's my son in a nutshell."
/
Well, that was fun, Izuku couldn't help but think as he finally reached the other end of the obstacle. It was rather satisfying to see that the grapely-hook shoota was working exactly as intended. Hooray for cooperation between students.
After taking a moment to savor his success, the goggled-boy continued on his way, only to stop again a few steps later, blinking owlishly at the large expanse of dirt-covered road ahead of him. Alright, what was the trick here, he had been enjoying his swinging a bit too much back there to hear much of what present mic had said about this stage other than it was supposedly the last…
His question was answered when ahead of him, some other git took as step forward and was promptly blown away by… an explosion of pink smoke?
Honestly, Izuku felt a bit conflicted at this. The fact that they were using a minefield as an obstacle was, by definition, a fun little challenge, but on the other hand… no fire, pink smoke, middling booms, and that was if he was feeling particularly generous? It kinda felt like the entire point of a minefield had been missed by a fair margin. He had half a mind to find out whoever it was that had set this up and show them the good and proper way to go about it…
But then he noticed off in the distance, how Frosty and Katsu, both largely undeterred by this obstacle via copious usage of their respective quirks (see, if Izuku had been the one to set this up, them and the other gits like that lady with plants for hair and froggy girl wouldn't be having such an easy time of it in what was supposed to be the final hurdle…), had already crossed a good chunk of the field, fighting each other for the first place.
And well now, he couldn't let them have all the fun and try to take what was his, now could he?
And as it just so happened, he thought with a grin that had other runners around him keeping their distance (not that he noticed), he had just the gizmo for the job here…
/
In the stands of the stadium, a vast majority of spectators watched on with wide eyes and surprised gasps.
In his private booth, All Might facepalmed in resignation, even as Kaina jumped to her feet in sheer disbelief and Inko just kept on smiling, happy that her son was having fun.
In the commentator's booth, even as Mic loudly made his shock known, Aizawa also applied his palm to his face, overwhelmed by the sheer idiocy of what he was witnessing.
From his own observation room, Nezu blinked once, twice, then started cackling like a lunatic.
From the maintenance bays, Power Loader had the sinking feeling that an atrocity against common sense was about to take place, along with a rising craving for something strongly alcoholic.
Inko just smiled, happy that her son was enjoying himself.
/
Katsuki growled as he threw another explosion beneath him to keep himself airborne, causing a chain reaction when he hit a mine that sped him forward, allowing himself the time to glance to the side where the fucking candy cane bastard was still trying to get ahead of him, like Katsuki was ever gonna let that happen.
With that idiot Deku getting distracted messing around with those robots, (he would maintain to his dying breath that the thought of calling the moron out on that and telling him to get a move on to be able to properly crush him in the race did not once cross his mind), it was only the two of them at the front of the race and they gotten past each other to claim first place several times in this actually rather short time. But no matter what it took, Katsuki was gonna win this, mark his words!
"Eeee…"
Behind him, the loud noises caused by idiots that didn't watch where they stepped mixed with his own bursts to drown out everything else.
"-Eeeeeeeeeeeeee-"
Because of that, he almost missed another noise, a distant but constant thing. And while both he and candy cane refused to give the other any form of advantage by wasting time looking back, was it just him or did it feel like, whatever that was, was growing… closer?
"-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-"
OK, WHAT THE FUCKING-?!
"-EEEEEEEEEEATMAHDUSTYAGIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTZZZZZ!"
A speeding red blur blitzed straight past Katsuki and Todoroki. In the brief moments before the surprise and air displacement made them both tumble and fall, which in turn made them both hit a mine and get thrown back even further, the two dumbstruck teens could glimpse that the blur was actually what appeared to be a model rocket, the kind that you might see at a 5th grade's science fair, and just as shoddy looking, except this one was roughly the size of a car, made of plates of metal haphazardly slapped together, with a coat of red paint, a few checkered-pattern decals, and a leering skull caricature slapped on top for good measure.
And precariously hanging on to this rocket by what appeared to be a fridge's door handle welded onto the side, was a cheekily grinning Deku, goggles over his eyes. The fucker even had the audacity to give them a two-finger salute with his free hand as he passed them by.
Before anyone could do anything to react, the red blur had already passed them by, crossing through the rest of the minefield and past the arched threshold that marked the end of the obstacle course. As soon as he felt the momentary shadow of the tunnel over him, Izuku shifted his grip on the rokkit and angled it upwards, before letting go and tucking himself into a long tumbling roll across the grass field of the stadium, looking up expectantly as soon as he had managed to stop.
Having lost its passenger, the rokkit continued on its angled path, forcing a shocked Midnight to dive out of the way and having a frightened audience scrambling as it flew past the stands, leaving behind a long tail of smoke as it kept going up, and up, and up, and up…
Pretty soon, it disappeared into the sky as it reached lower earth orbit and beyond.
"Aaaaaaaaaaawww…" Izuku groaned, with all the disappointed demeanour of a sad puppy. "No boom…"
…
…
…
"What the hell have you been teaching these kids, Shota?" Present Mic eventually broke the silence that had fallen on the stadium.
"Don't pin this on me." Aizawa replied defensively, sounding like he wanted nothing more than to wash his hands off this whole mess and go home to forget it all with a good nap. "That one was already like that before he got here."
"Fair enough, I guess… right, so, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WE HAVE OURSELVES THE WINNER OF THE OBSTACLE RACE, QUITE LITERALLY LEAVING THE COMPETITION IN THE DUST, IZUKU MIDORIYA-"
The big screen of the stadium promptly lit up into a score board, the name and grinning picture of the green-haired boy proudly displayed straight at the top. And right below it…
"AND SECOND PLACE- Minoru Mineta? What the…?"
Izuku blinked owlishly at the words, only now noticing the whimpering groans coming from the grapely-hook shoota still strapped to his back. From the rim of the barrel, a trembling little hand reached out, as weakly the small, purple-headed teen, looking pale and sickly from sheer terror, dragged himself up, until his wavering strength finally failed him, and he just dangled there, looking like his soul was leaving his body via his mouth.
"…Where dah zog did you'ze come from?" Izuku inquired, honestly surprised by this development.
"F-fuck you, M-Midoriya." Mineta weakly managed to grunt out amidst his failing efforts to keep his guts under control. "Just, just, guurgh… f-fuck you…"
Izuku shrugged at that, and then, in a show of common decency, helped the other boy to the ground, and softly patted him on the back as the smaller teen promptly spilled his stomach contents on the grass, to the background of hesitant, uncertain clapping and cheering from the crowd.
/
I have had that particular scene planned for years now, but damn is it hard to translate the doppler effect into written text. Worth it, though, even if it's annoying that submitting the file into FF messed up my changing of the font size for those lines.
And hey, Mineta got second place in the race. Not a twist you see happening very often. That's something, right?
Also, there's something that I feel should be addressed. There have been A LOT of people that have been asking/suggesting/requesting/demanding to know whether or not Izuku was going to grow larger and bulkier the more fights he got into. The short and blunt answer? No, that is not going to happen, and I never intended it to, but this is not just me being contrary, there's a few reasons, both in and out of story, as to why that's the case.
Next time, the glorious insanity continues, on towards the next event of the festival.
But before that, next month we have the next update to through the eternities.
In the meantime, have this Omake I've been thinking about. Is it canon to the story? Is it not? I got no bloody idea, and I wrote it.
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Someone once said, at some point in the past, present or future, that Sir Isaac Newton is the meanest son of a bitch in space. This might be doing the gentlemanly scholar a disservice, but it does speak of the harsh, unyielding grasp that the laws he uncovered have upon the stable, physical reality of the universe. Of particular interest to us now, in fact, is the first of these laws, that dictates that a body in motion will stay in motion until it is acted upon by outside forces.
The rokkit, the contraption that was the vessel of Izuku Midoriya's victory, proved to be a singularly impressive example of this law in full effect.
Having cleared the Earth's atmosphere, and continuing on into outer space (in the doing getting the attention of several observation organizations around the world, which the esteemed principal of U.A. had to spend a while explaining away) the missile kept moving, crossing the cold, empty void of space.
And whether it was sheer dumb luck, nothing but random coincidence, or even the whims of the universe itself, the missile was left undisturbed throughout its journey. No debris blocked its path, not a planet stood in its way, although it flew past the skies of countless worlds, being seen as a portent for good or for ill in those among them that harbored intelligent life, no cosmic phenomena nor intervention from the immaterium made it divert from its course as it continued its lonely journey throughout the cosmos.
It was a journey that lasted an untold amount of time, eras of crossing the nothingness of space, as the missile kept travelling through the Milky Way, towards what could be considered the galactic north from the planet Earth, in a region of space that was known to be the seat of power of the ancient Aeldari Empire, then the self-proclaimed and undisputed rulers of the galaxy.
Even as it went into their territories, the missile was somehow beneath notice of the powerful, if complacent and arrogant race. No augury from their seers foretold of its coming, none of their surveillance systems registered so much as a bleep on their detection range, not even the Gods themselves, the mighty psychic gestalts of the species beliefs mirrored into the realm beyond, seemed to take notice.
And so undeterred the rocket went, and went, and went, until finally, it approached a particular world, its name lost to time, one of the greatest seats of power of the empire itself, and finally, found itself caught in the gravitational pull of the planet that barred is way.
Coincidentally, at that point in the world's surface, in a massive building of a beauty and grace that were beyond human capacity and yet felt tainted by the beginnings of a sickness that was starting to take root upon the very core of the species that had created it, the being that was the leader of the cult that made the site their den of iniquity, rose from his bed, amidst countless consorts and the haze of the excesses that had unfolded the night before, and made his way towards the balcony that revealed the paradisiac gardens that surrounded the estate, his mind alight with thoughts and ideas of what new forms of entertainment could be arranged.
He had just considered something involving the questionable use of babies when a faint feeling crossed his mind, and curiously he glanced up.
A blur of red was the last thing he saw as the rokkit ended its long journey by annihilating the building and the entire drug-addled cult that dwelled within in a defeaning explosion that could be seen from miles around, turning the site into a massive crater.
And as the Aeldari reeled in shock and surprise at the unexpected occurrence, the most moderate of their kind, the ones who saw the ruin that awaited in their future should the hedonism go unchecked, saw an opportunity.
They took the destruction of the coven as a propaganda tool, claiming it to have been a divine act by their pantheon, to punish the depravity and growing arrogance of the species. The Gods themselves, reading the situation, decided to adopt the universal adage of "Sure, let's go with that" and rolled with it.
And amazingly enough, the plot worked. The pleasure cults lost their traction with the general populace, who more and more decided to adopt the moderate, ascetic lifestyle of the preachers and their gods, until they vanished almost entirely, unmade or banished to the darkest corners of the empire, the taint of decadence that had been spreading from their influence fading from the Aeldari Spirit little by little, ushering in a peaceful age of prosperity born of self-control, and understanding that actions have consequences.
And as these events made the immaterium ripple with the waves of a fate denied, the fading whimpers of an unborn deity were smothered by the loud, uproarious laughter of twin gods of green.
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Cya all on the next one, stay safe and take care.