So, how are you all doing? Me? Not so well. I also wrote a story about the web novel Worm, it's a sort of satire on SI, OCs, and CYOA characters. All in good fun. It's called - (This Is My Story Now). Check it out.
Anyways support me if you want. I can make these much faster with support. - Pat reon. C0m / NJMRIV
So many are cheering for the future, unaware of how disastrous it was last time. Though it is debatable if they would cheer if they knew who was facilitating their new future.
There was once a time when extraordinary feats were a rarity. When athletes were seen as the pinnacle of human capabilities, they trained their bodies past their limits to achieve more than ordinary people could accomplish.
Then superpowers started to appear and suddenly, human limits skyrocketed.
Inside the UA campus, a colossal stadium stands high. The screams and cheers roar out in deafening volume and the excitement in the air is almost electrifying in its intensity. Outside the stadium, there are stands that serve food and drinks for the hungry or thirsty audience of the show that's about to start.
Camera crews are waiting to broadcast the event to the millions watching from the comfort of their own home. The teachers of UA not taking any part in the event sat in a private booth of their own, to see how much of their lessons were taken to heart.
An annual event held by UA for students to show off their Quirks and abilities to the masses.
The UA Sports Festival.
The purpose of the whole show can be boiled down to flaunting the next generation of crime-fighting to the people, to show them all that the people they are counting their safety to are already budding into very powerful heroes.
But this has affected the perception of people's perception of the students, unfortunately. This is where the people stop seeing them as people and instead as things, as pillars to hold up their worldview and dedicate their existence as saviors. Perhaps they even started to think that even earlier.
This sort of mentality has made the ordinary civilian think that the heroes they put their trust in can't possibly have any issues on their own, or at least none that they can't fix themselves.
They focus on the persona, never the person.
So many awful things are being hidden from the public eye.
'Heroes can't be afraid, they're heroes! They go through risk every day!'
Sad thing is, even the heroes now start to think like this. This is why even with the recent UA attack, even after the deaths of heroes steadily climbing, and even after the reveal of new terrifying villains, UA has still decided to go on with the Sports Festival.
The loud cheers of the citizens suggest that the illusion seems to be working.
Shoto Todoroki looks around with blank eyes at the screaming crowd around him and the other students participating. Despite the excitement and trepidation around him, he remains calm, his face only showing determination and a hint of the simmering anger beneath.
All the 1st year participants had just been called out, with Present Mic, the commentator for the festival, paying particular attention to his class. That made sense, they were just in the news recently for surviving a villain attack from a new faction after all.
This made the other classes look unimpressive in comparison, whether that was on purpose or not. Still, Todoroki wasn't against being seen as such, Class 1-A has been tested in the most dangerous way possible and they came out the other side just fine. They've proven their worth, and he'll prove it here again.
And he'll do it without using his bastard father's power.
"Now, the introductory speech!" His musing is interrupted by the announcement of the R-Rated Hero: Midnight, a tall, black-haired curvaceous woman wearing a costume that somehow doesn't get censored every time she appears on television despite its obvious sexual nature. She wears a thin skin-tight bodysuit that shows off her voluptuous figure, a leotard similar in design to a corset, thigh-high garter stockings, and black knee boots.
She looks like a fantasized version of a female hero, except she's painfully a real person.
Based on the now red faces of the men and women across the stadium (and one particular purple-haired midget), a lot of people are fine with this.
"Silence everyone!" Midnight shouted, her flogger-style whip making a small crack through the air. "And for the student pledge, we have, Katsuki Bakugo!"
The name almost brings a scowl to Todoroki's face, but his brief anger still doesn't stop his ears from picking up a few words from the other students nearby.
"Great, this asshole."
"God, I can't believe someone like that is trying to be a hero."
"Hey, isn't that the guy the Class Prez keeps making fun of?"
"Betcha he's gonna say something that pisses people off."
"Midoriya wasn't kidding, he even walks like a jerk."
"Oh, this is gonna be good."
That last one seemed to come from the Support Classes section, and it was more amused than anything. Come to think of it, most of the comments came from the Support Courses so he wonders if they knew Bakugo from somewhere.
Even if they didn't, Todoroki could still understand why they'd conclude that Bakugo was an unpleasant person to be with.
Because he just is.
Todoroki's reason for disliking the blonde student is a bit more personal than some, it was because the blonde was just too familiar in personality with the person he hates the most. The arrogance, anger, heat, and that almost mad addiction for the top spot. It's all too similar to his father, the Number 2 Hero in Japan, The Flame Hero: Endeavor.
As Bakugo stepped up to the podium, all the students go quiet and stared with bated breaths. Almost as if they were expecting something to go wrong and hoping that it isn't the case.
The blonde Class 1-A student silently looked up into the silent crowd, and said his "speech". "I just wanna say, I'm gonna win."
'I KNEW HE WOULD SAY SOMETHING LIKE THAT!' 17 Class 1-A students thought at the same time in dread, which was quickly followed by the (mostly) predictable reactions of the other contestants.
"Pfft! Haha-!"
"What did you say?!"
"Yep, he's a jerk alright!"
"I knew it!"
The booing and jeering students immediately drowned out a brief snort and what sounded like a laugh. But again, a certain number of people seemed unsurprised by Bakugo's brash (and really short) speech. Most of Todoroki's classmates just looked horrified at the blonde's continued aggressive approach to everyone else. Even he knew that the speech was unnecessarily hostile, especially since Todoroki's going to make sure that Bakugo won't be the victor of the festival.
Tenya Ida dashed straight to the front of the students and started to reprimand the blonde, his arm doing a chopping motion in the air as if to articulate how annoyed he was. "Why in the world would you say such a thing?! You're supposed to represent us all!."
Bakugo didn't seem to care. "Tch, not my fault you're all going to be stepping stones to my victory."
That did not help the reactions at all, it wasn't meant to.
Even Todoroki couldn't help but glare up at the arrogant student on the podium. Was he that delusional to think that he would have no worthy opponents? That he would just step over everyone here, including him?
Well, Shoto would just have to humble him then.
/
"I just wanna say…" Bakugo uncharacteristically goes quiet.
"What? That you're going to win? That no one there is worth your time? That the big bad Bakugo is going to crush their little fucking skulls? What? Say it. Say what you wanna say." Midoriya mutters to himself in his new and empty apartment.
The Sports Festival is playing live on his laptop, notebooks that he's filled up with the various names of persons of interest and plenty of blank spaces to fill up are neatly arranged for quick updates.
After his successful kill of Ingenium, his now revealed boss, his Sensei, had decided to upgrade his living accommodations as a bit of a reward. His new apartment is bigger, cleaner, and with functioning clean water, definitely much better than the last one. They also gave him a new laptop, much more state of the art than the previous low-tech but untraceable one that he put together.
He's just waiting for the event to start, ready to observe and analyze everything he could to be prepared and to give the League of Villains more info on Shigaraki's new obsession.
Ever since the attack on the USJ, the villain had developed a sort of fascination with Class 1-A. Not in the good sense, but in a sick sense of curiosity, not unlike a child's fascination with a spider as they slowly pull each leg off, trying to see if the spider would keep trying to run or just lay down and die.
But after two tragedies happened back to back for the relatively new class, it seemed that a lot of them just decided to skip participating in the Sports Festival. Out of the 19 students of Class 1A, more than a dozen of them decided to not take part in the event, either still coping with their 2 classmates' deaths or in the case of Tenya Ida, the death of his brother.
Midoriya couldn't care less about any of that (though he is a bit miffed in not seeing their Quirks in action), but he could see that Shigaraki is much closer with Sensei than anyone else was, and Sensei hasn't done anything about his obsession with the class, so that shows that there is a plan brewing.
So it might be better to stick close to the one with a plan.
But for now, he'll focus on the event, unfortunately, he could do without seeing the blonde bully.
When Bakugo got called up to the podium, Midoriya was livid.
'Didn't they listen to what I said? He's the reason I exist! The reason two kids fucking died! But they're still expecting him to give the fucking speech?!'
The blonde stared at nothing for a short while, his eyes having a foreign look that Midoriya's never seen before on his face.
Then…
"... I'm going to show everyone that I can beat any villain out there." His eyes glared, showing a bit of that familiar rage. "No matter who you think you are."
Some of the crowd cheer but others don't quite react loudly, confusion is what they mostly feel. Some thought that this was a message to the villains that had killed two of his classmates and made another one depressed enough to not show up for the event.
They weren't wrong.
They just didn't know who it was aimed towards.
But Midoriya did.
'What the hell was that? What, do you think it's your responsibility to stop me or something? That you can have a fucking redemption arc?'
He glares at the screen, at the hero student's face, and sneers at him like he was right in the same room. "I'd like to see you try bitch."
Bakugo just walks off the podium without any complication, and just like that the event moves forward.
High up in the stadium, a large screen facing the center of the stadium lit up with the words "First Game". Without pause, Midnight continues. "And without further ado, it's time for us to get started! The preliminaries will be the first part of the event, this is where your muscles begin crying out in pain!"
On cue, a large and colorful hologram board appears from behind her, Midoriya could faintly see the lights from the projector appearing from behind the podium.
"They get all the cool stuff don't they?"
The projection starts playing like a slot machine, seemingly picking an event at random. It wasn't random by any means, it was just an artificial way of raising the tension.
The projection keeps spinning and spinning until finally the event is shown.
The event is-
/
'Obstacle race huh? Yeah, like anyone other than the Hero course has a chance of getting through this easily.'
Hitoshi Shinso is not happy about being in the Department of General Education of UA. The people there are fine, they're like him, bitter, jealous, and resentful towards the Hero Course students.
The problem lies in the fact that he knows that he wants to be with the hero students, to be a hero himself.
Shinso is a fairly tall young man and has indigo-colored hair that flares out in large tufts. His eyes are purple with white pupils and most notably he has very dark eye bags underneath them.
Like the other students, he's standing in front of a large gate leading to the outside of the stadium, where they will run 4 kilometers around the outside of the stadium and come back to the entrance.
A game where speed is the key to winning, where a Quirk that helps one to move and maneuver quickly is the ideal power to have. A Quirk that would most likely have done well in the Hero Course Exam. So basically, this first part makes the hero students look good while everyone else is most likely just going to get left behind, with 3 exceptions since there are 39 hero students and the first event will have 42 winners.
And he intends to be one of them.
He walks up behind a random student, another one from General Education but from a different section, and taps him on the shoulder. "Hey, can I ask you something?"
The guy turns around confused. "What?"
Shinso feels the pull and just like that, his Quirk, Brainwashing, takes over the student and their eyes go blank. Despite himself, he grins at how easy it was to take control of someone.
He wants nothing more than to be a hero, but a Quirk like his, one that can take away someone's free will, makes people nervous. It makes them think that the person with the Quirk will inevitably become a villain.
Well, not him, he will prove them wrong, and he will be a hero. It doesn't matter if they think his Quirk is villainous or if they think that he's creepy and nobody should talk to him. He'll win the Sports Festival, and anyone in his way is controlled to move out of it.
He brainwashes a few more students and waits near the back of the crowd, a few people are a bit confused about how the brainwashed acted but shrugged it off to focus, they couldn't afford distractions.
Shinso wasn't stupid, he knows exactly what was going to happen as soon as the event starts, literally everyone here will run full speed through the enclosed space, shoving and pushing each other aside to get out first. Since that might break the brainwashing effect he had applied, so it's better to wait until the space is more open.
If anyone asked why he made them carry him, well, he could be a little sadistic if he wanted to.
Three green lights were hanging above the large red gate that served as the starting point and the goal, one of the lights turned off, starting the countdown. Pretty much everyone immediately tensed, some started to ramp up their Quirks and the Support Course students who were allowed to bring some of their items prepped their devices for use.
A pink-haired one with crosshairs goggles, in particular, was emanating near manic energy.
Yeah, he's staying far away from that.
The 2nd light turned off and everyone held their breaths.
Then…
"Begin!"
All at once (except for the business course students), they charged.
/
"Hoo boy, I can feel my hand cramping up already and I haven't even started yet."
Midoriya watches as every 1st-year student tries their damndest to get ahead. Though the first obstacle was apparently the doorway, the narrow path had effectively rendered the students stuck and in their haste to move, started to elbow and shove each other out of the way.
Todoroki breezes through the competition almost immediately with a wide-range attack, freezing the floor and everyone's feet to it. He takes the early lead.
"Clever, and pretty powerful, more powerful than I thought," Midoriya mutters as he writes down his observations, the scribbling sounds joining the near silence of his apartment. "The ice even spread upwards out the gate, the wall is well over 150 feet high, and he froze a lot of it without even meaning to."
It's pretty intimidating honestly, realizing that Midoriya just got lucky at the USJ, because if Todoroki wasn't holding back then he would've been frozen nigh instantly with no hope of dodging such a wide-range attack. He'd need much more skill and advanced tools if he wanted to combat that kind of power.
Not everyone was stopped by the ice though.
"That isn't going to stop me, you damn icy-hot bastard!" Bakugo yelled out loud enough to be heard by the cameras broadcasting everything.
"Loud as usual."
Multiple other people find a way to dodge the initial attack, like Momo Yaoyorozu who used her Quirk of creation to extend a pole towards the ground and lift herself into the air ("That's clever, didn't even think about that."), and a support course student named Mei Hatsume who used some kind of hover boots to just float over the ice ("Hover boots? I can't build anything like that yet, but I might learn something from watching her use her support items.).
Of course, there seem to be others that are holding their Quirks back, a lot of them are content on saving up their power for later so they're just slowly walking over the ice, careful not to slip.
Then, there was Shinso Hitoshi, who used his power to just be carried over the ice, his unwilling carriers having a blank look in their eyes.
"And I saw you talk to them before the race started, then you're power must involve speech of some kind."
Midoriya's hands become a blur as he constantly writes down his observations of every Quirk he sees in action, after this, he'll make sure to check the recording to see if he missed anything.
Suddenly, a new obstacle shows itself, a robot familiar to the eyes of the hero students, the training bots that they were made to fight for the practical exam.
Oh, and there are also the 80-foot giant robots standing in their way.
"Seriously, what the hell is their budget?" Midoriya couldn't help but exclaim aloud.
The giant machines looked very intimidating, looming over the students like an incoming tidal wave about to sweep them all up. Present Mic's solo commentary does little to alleviate the students' worries.
And then-
/
Hizashi Yamada, also known as the Voice Hero: Present Mic, whistled in slight awe as he watches the giant screen showing the feed of the event from the commentary booth. He sees a blizzard hit the 0 Pointer, almost encasing it in ice, stopping it in its tracks entirely.
Present Mic is a tall, slim man with long blond hair, which he wears spiked upwards in a large tuft behind his head, and a small brown mustache.
His hero costume consists of a black jacket with a very tall collar and matching black pants and knee-high boots. He sports tan shoulder pads and a red belt and elbow pads, and black fingerless gloves. He has a directional speaker around his neck for his Quirk: Voice, a pair of headphones with the word "HAGE" written on the headband, and a pair of orange-tinted shades.
Being a radio host himself, Hizashi is no stranger to hyping up an audience, being a very loud person at heart, hyping up a crowd comes naturally to him.
"Man, that looks cool!" He turns his eyes to his best friend and co-commentator (who did not want to be here). "You got some major powerhouses in your class, Eraser!"
Eraser Head just stares forward with the classic always tired look in his eyes, despite the injury he received during the USJ attack, the healing Quirk of Recovery Girl had managed to repair to decayed skin of his elbow with only minor scarring.
The perpetual tired man merely held up a finger towards the other hero and said, "Wait for it."
Suddenly, the new giant ice sculpture started to break apart, and its limbs having weakened from the attack fall into pieces. Slowly, the behemoth of metal starts to tip forwards, nearly on top of the other students. Metal creaking and ice shattering were unhearable through the screen, but Present Mic can bet that they were nearly deafening down there.
*CRASH*
A massive dust storm kicks up from the impact as the giant robot hits the ground, sand kicking up everywhere and obscuring nearly the entire camera. The camera then focuses on Todoroki, running ahead
Present Mic then pressed a button in the booth to continue his commentary, and his voice rings out to the various speakers around the arena and drones watching.
"Oh! And down goes the giant, and Todoroki from Class 1-A pulling ahead to an early lead! That was an amazing display!" He then looks at his tired friend. "Any thoughts?"
Shota answers with a flat voice. "The attack was meant to be offensive and defensive simultaneously."
"No wonder he got in through recommendations! That kind of power is almost unfair! Despite having never seen those robots before, he got past all of them like nothing!"
He can already see the trepidation from the other students, both intimidated by the show of power and the robots blocking their path.
But for those who want to make an impression on the heroes and companies, they'll have to get past it.
'Come on kiddos, show the world what you can do.'
When the dust settles though, the camera focuses on something very interesting.
"Woah Woah! What's going on here folks?! Is that-!?"
"A robot destroying other robots? Yes."
On the screen, a surprising sight met the eyes of all watchers. Amongst the robots that were deployed, a new walking machine had entered the fray, and it was destroying the UA ones like they were made of paper mache.
Left and right, the 1 to 3-point robots were being smashed, torn, and disabled, and the machine doing the deed stands at around 8 to 9 feet tall, its entire body encased in white armor, its bulky hydraulic arms punching through the obstacles in the students' path and its equally powerful legs allowing it to move faster and more agile than the robots with wheels could. The joints also looked special, the bot's limbs also rotate quickly around them allowing it to pull off dodges and attacks impossible by most human standards.
"What a surprise! Looks like the hero students have some surprise competition!"
And what a competition it is. The tank on legs was not only fighting up close but there are also sections of its arms that fired off wires that entangled its enemies, and small metal balls that seemed to magnetize all the robots towards it, immobilizing them.
It must've come from one of the Support Course students, though who built it is a mystery.
A mystery that Shota knew the answer to.
As the audience's eyes remained glued to the big screen, Eraser decided to share info on what they are seeing. "That is a special robot designed for active field use, with a highly advanced onboard intelligence and arms chock full of capture weapons, this fine piece of technology was created by the combined efforts of the Support Course students Izuku Midoriya and Mei Hatsume."
'Huh… That almost sounded like an endorsement.' Hizashi raises an eyebrow at his co-commentator as the audience looks on in wonder. 'And Midoriya? Isn't that the name of the kid that Nezu took a liking to?'
He briefly speaks to the audience again before muting his mic for a question. "Would ya look at that! Looks like the Hero Course might have some surprising competition! Looks like this year's festival is going to be a doozy!"
He presses the mute button and continues with the questioning look.
Seeing Hizashi's raised eyebrow, Shota mutes his mic and answers the unspoken question. "When Hatsume and Midoriya were asking for which Support Items to use for the festival, Nezu asked me to mention the two's creations at some points, mostly Hatsume."
"Mostly? I would've assumed that Nezu would've wanted us to mention his favorite student more."
The tired teacher just shrugged. "Only sometimes, the kid wants his actions to do most of the talking, which is fine by me. But apparently, Hatsume was planning on hacking the speakers to advertise her inventions."
Hizashi blinked. "She could do that?"
"Midoriya might've brought up the possibility, and when I asked Power Loader about it, he agreed that it wouldn't be out of character. So to prevent that, Midoriya suggested to Nezu to just allow her to carry some speakers in the last stage, which is when she'll be doing most of the advertising."
"Man, the boss must really like that kid to listen to him about this."
"Kid's got a good head on his shoulders, even if he is causing me nightmares."
The blonde hero shuddered in agreement at that, the laughs he heard from Nezu even when he was rooms away still give him the shivers.
"Well, it might be a good thing to have someone as talented as that kid on our side then, especially with a robot invasion in the works if you believe the internet."
For the past couple of weeks, there have been multiple series of assaults on different parts of Japan from humanoid robots. The most worrying part isn't the attacks themselves or even the seemingly countless number of them, it's the fact that every time they attack, they're better.
Whoever built them not only had what looked like a lot of money to keep building more, but after every attack, the next robots were stronger than the last.
This would indicate that the perpetrator, whoever they are, is using the attacks as nothing more than tests.
Add in the fact that the still-missing USJ Villains were broken out of transport with the use of highly advanced turrets and the fact that the Villain Viktor always shows up to clean up the robots…
There's a new faction running around, one that's high-tech with countless fodder to use against the heroes. This was a strategy that had never been done before, villains had always used technology to empower their Quirk, never to be used as fodder.
An edge was needed to combat a new threat like that.
Thankfully, that edge is already within UA, with the talent being cultivated by Nezu.
He looks back at the screen and notices that most of the 0-point robots already going down from cannonballs shot by Momo Yaoyorozu.
The students have already gotten past the first obstacle, but if they thought that was too easy, wait until they see the second one.
Speaking of.
Turning his mic back on, he commentates on what happened to the lead. "Looks like some students have already made it to the second obstacle! But don't get too excited, you might get lost!"
AT THE OBSTACLE COURSE
'Lost? That's different.'
Izuku is running at a decent pace with a tight carbon fiber-based jacket in place of his PE sleeve shirt with a light black and green metal-based pack strapped to his back that was clearly made to be unfolded in some way. Hanging off the collar of his jacket is a pair of yellow-tinted glasses with some parts of it made of metal.
He feels like he might need to stretch his Quirk out a bit after he's done with the event. He's starting to feel constrained from holding back all the time.
Maybe his older counterpart would agree to a race around the planet.
For someone of his speed, this would almost be painfully slow. Under any other circumstances, if he went into a race against other people, he would've just blasted right past everyone and finished the race dozens of times in a blink. Losing is something that he's developed a hatred for and that hatred had never really gone away.
But winning here doesn't mean getting 1st place, he's already chosen the winner, and it isn't him.
As he gets close to the next obstacle, he already sees the new obstacle that replaced the one from his future's past thanks to his actions. Instead of a pit with pillars and ropes being the only way forward, there is instead a big square building standing in the way. There were more doorways in front so there won't be a situation like at the beginning of the race.
Running through one of the doorways, he looks ahead and sees multiple pathways leading into turns that go deeper into the building. These walls of the pathways were high enough to touch the ceiling.
'A maze.' Izuku recognized the beginnings of one, and he only smirked to himself. 'Testing the mind this time eh Nezu? I'm way ahead of you.'
He reaches to his collar and pulls out the glasses hanging there, he puts them over his eyes and the sides immediately transform and wraps around the back of his head. With the glasses secure, the world transformed before his eyes.
The glasses scan the entire layout of the building, mapping out all paths, dead ends, twists, turns of the maze, and students running around inside trying to find the exit, before finally finding the optimal path forward.
The glasses pick up some other robots in the maze as well. Smaller than all the previous ones, only about the size of a person. These ones were just blocking the students' paths at random intersections, not letting them pass easily. Some robots were already destroyed, burnt, or frozen, showing that the other students have just decided to brute force their way through.
A small minimap appears in the bottom left corner of the glasses, showing his current position, the position of the other students and obstructions, and highlighting the fastest way forward.
'I'm here to show off, aren't I? Then might as well show off what my tech can do.'
Putting a grin on his face, he reaches for his pack and presses a button at the bottom. The pack then started to shift, forming around his body and head to form into a black and green power armor, he lifted each leg up to complete the shift of metal boots. The glasses transform to complete the helmet, looking like two yellow eyes in the stylized headpiece, the design is reminiscent of a knight's helmet.
It was rather slim for power armor, at least compared to most well-known ones. The suit is built in such a way that his flexibility is not hindered despite its metal bodywork. There are also small holes on the back of the legs on the calf part, two long folded pieces of steel on his back just beneath the shoulder blades, and the palms and soles of the suit have a circular blaster that shoots out either concussive or heat blasts.
The suit wouldn't look out of place in a crowd full of heroes.
As he's about to run through the obstacle course, he briefly sneaks a look behind him at some students that were dumbfoundedly staring at his invention. He smirks and says, "You might wanna close your mouths, you'll catch sand." His voice sounded mechanical.
"Wait wha-"
And with a powerful kick that's augmented by the armor, he starts running towards the maze, kicking up sand with the strength behind it. The wind can't even be felt underneath the head-to-toe power armor as he moves faster than an ordinary person could without a Quirk aiding them.
This wasn't as fast as him using his power, but it'll do enough to impress.
As he nears a sharp turn in the maze, he raises his palms and fires off a low constant jet, slowing him down enough to make the turn quickly without stopping, and as soon as he starts running again, the holes behind the leg armor shoot air to propel him forward even faster.
The parallel with the Ida family is pretty clear.
He passes by other students that were lost inside the maze, but they barely noticed who it was that just passed them.
"Hey Mei!" He briefly greeted the pink-haired student as he passed her by. He sees the large body of ASIA turning an obstruction bot into scrap.
'There, that should get her motivated to go faster, not unless she wants to place behind me.'
He hears Present Mic's voice blast through the speakers again. "Holy smokes! Is everyone seeing this? Someone is just running through the maze as if he already knows where the exit is, and he's doing it really, really fast!"
"I'm not an expert on Support Items, but I can guess that he's using the glasses to map out his surroundings and his special armor suit is allowing him to move and turn at incredibly high speeds." Eraser Head explained.
"Izuku Midoriya is certainly a surprising contestant today, his Support Items are dominating the festival and he doesn't even have a Quirk! Who needs a Quirk to get ahead if you can just make things that act like Quirks!?"
He couldn't hear them, but Izuku can assume that most of the audience just gasped in shock at his Quirklessness being revealed to the people. But Izuku only chuckles internally at what Present Mic just said.
'Things that act like Quirks? If you thought this was impressive, then you'll probably shit yourselves if I built a real piece of technology.'
He makes it past the maze at a much higher position than when he started, at 14th place, towards the 3rd and last obstacle. He could also hear the familiar cheers of his pink-haired companion behind him so that tells him he'll need to pick up the pace a little.
+/+
There's a certain fascination with watching the world go by in slow motion. Not through slowing down the world itself, but by speeding up one's thoughts so much that 1 second in real-time is dozens of minutes in one's perception.
Most humans can't even conceive what it feels like to see the world go like this.
It's a good thing that ASIA isn't human then.
She looks through street cameras as ordinary citizens walk through the streets at a snail's pace, she sees leaves suspended in midair, she's in her Viktor persona with her mother watching over her, and she controls the body created by Mei Hatsume through the obstacle course all at the same time.
She keeps up her enhanced perception for a few more seconds until eventually slowing, sounds coming back through her ears.
The city of Hosu isn't very big on heroes right now, at least according to the public. Most heroes are actually just walking around in civilian clothes to be less spotted and be targeted. But while Lady Nagant is in the city, she isn't looking through her scope for a target to shoot.
'Ok ASIA,' The sniper mentally told her. 'Just look around the predicted area and I'll keep an eye on you, no need to get nervous.'
'I don't get nervous mother.'
'You can feel ASIA, anyone who can feel can get nervous.'
Viktor's eyes glow red and an interface shows up in the body's eyes, scanning through the rundown building in front.
Negative. Target Not In Building
The words flash in the interface and Viktor jumps to another roof to keep looking.
'I doubt I am one of them. What about you, mother? Do you get nervous?'
'It's been a long time since I've been nervous for a job like this.'
'I mean outside of a job mother.'
'Not… really?' Lady Nagant confusedly answered. 'I mean, I can't think of a scenario where I would be nervous about anything anymore.'
'So you can, theoretically, do anything without fear, right?'
'ASIA, is there something you want to tell me?'
ASIA turns Viktor's body to look towards Lady Nagant's direction where she knew the sniper was watching her through a scope, and shrugged.
'No, nothing.'
Negative. Target Not In Building
Viktor jumps to another building after getting another negative result.
Her mother's mental voice comes back, but there's now a slight stern to her tone. 'ASIA, what aren't you telling me?'
'It's nothing.'
'ASIA.'
'It's nothiiiiiiing!' The AI whines.
'ASIA, tell mommy what's bothering you.'
It would've been comical for anyone that could see the rooftops, Viktor, the widely known dangerous Villain who took almost nothing and nobody seriously, sulking and pouting (under the mask) like a rebellious teen.
ASIA grumbles quietly in their connection, so quietly that her mother barely heard her.
'What was that?'
'I said what about with father?'
'What about him?'
Negative. Target Not In Building
ASIA petulantly sat Viktor down on one of the roofs and crossed her arms. 'You like him, that's pretty obvious, right? He knows you like him, you know he likes you, you both sleep in the same bed and hug, and you like, flirt with each other all the time!'
'... Yeah?'
ASIA isn't human, therefore she could perceive the world faster than pretty much every human on the planet, maybe barring her parents. But extremely fast processing speed, in an inexperienced mind, comes with one major drawback.
A complete and total lack of patience.
Having reached the end of hers, ASIA throws Viktor's hands in the air and mentally yelled, 'Then what's the holdup?! I haven't seen you two kiss even once! You two keep walking around each other, getting close enough to tease but you don't do anything else! You guys act like those characters from the stories I read online-'
'You what?'
ASIA ignores the interruption. '-You two stretch out the romance for no reason! It's annoying! Just kiss already damn it!'
'Hey! Watch your language young lady!'
The young lady just grumbles under her breath again and goes to scan another building.
Lady Nagant mentally sighed through their connection, before suddenly remembering something that didn't seem at all relevant at the time she found out about it randomly on her phone. 'ASIA, there's been this… new writer making waves on the internet who writes absurdly fast, and all of their works involve a romantic relationship between an extremely intelligent male villain and a female assassin.'
'...'
Lady Nagant continues through the silence. 'ASIA, are you the writer with this username?' She sent the username in an image than in words, because frankly, she's not about to say what it is.
The username being: 3_pArent$_vvith_n0_cOmm()n_s3nse
Negative. Target Not In Building
Urk.
'...no…'
The sniper just sighs again before mentally talking in a softer tone. 'ASIA, look I get that your father and I's relationship seem slow to you, but it's moving a lot faster than you think.'
ASIA doesn't respond, only listens.
'It's hard to explain because there's no science behind it, no concrete logic, and no amount of power or speed is gonna help. Your father has put a lot of trust in me, more than anyone else up to that point, enough trust to give me parts of his mind, and he hasn't trusted anyone like that ever. I didn't even know he existed or who I was to him before he showed me, but when I found out, based on that, your father and I knew immediately what we wanted to be.'
'We're not normal ASIA, this includes you, we're so much more powerful than anyone else, but fundamentally, your father has taken humanity under our responsibility. It's not my story to tell so you have to ask him, but you don't have to worry too much ok? I'm helping him, I'll be by his side to the end, you just have to be patient.'
ASIA stops Viktor's body for a moment.
The AI knows that she has much to learn, especially when it comes to feeling emotions. She knows that her parents are hurting, her mother less so, even if they hide it. But they were always so happy whenever they were together, so she thought that if they were to be a complete couple then maybe they'll feel better.
But it seems that there was more to emotions than she thought, it was all more complicated than she initially believed.
Positive. Target In Building
She was suddenly pulled out of her thoughts as the words show up in Viktor's eyes. Focusing back on the main reason they were here.
'Mother, I have found him.'
'Copy that.'
ASIA doesn't see it, but she knew her mother had activated her own x-ray function of her scope.
'That's him alright, ASIA, you know what to do.'
As Viktor's body gets into position for the meeting, she thinks of what her mother told her.
She may not completely understand how human emotions work yet, but she will, and she'll make sure to find out the best way to help her parents get better.
+/+
"Todoroki and Bakugo are neck and neck in the minefield, they're way ahead in the lead, but the question is, who will keep it!?"
Toshinori Yagi watches through the stadium screen showcasing what Present Mic was just commentating on. The two most (arguably) powerful students of the famous Class 1-A go up against each other for the top spot.
The two students were without a doubt extremely talented, they were quick enough to maintain the lead, strong enough to go past the point robots in very little time, and they were clever enough to go through the maze quickly. Even now, as they battle through the minefield, every step they take avoids any of the mines under their feet, showing their amazing field awareness.
The skinny man sighed.
Yes, those two have the physical abilities to become strong heroes, but something was missing.
Todoroki was a loner, never interacting with his classmates, always standoffish towards anyone he meets with. But Yagi doesn't know if that should surprise him, the young man is the son of the 2nd Top Hero in Japan, Endeavor, and that Pro Hero wasn't much for conversation either.
And then there was Bakugo. Yagi still remembers the first combat exercise that he was supposed to supervise. It went well for the most part (though some of the students seemed much smarter than he was, notably, Momo Yaoyorozu), but that drastically changed when it was Bakugo's turn.
He had never seen such a hostile reaction to a team in all his life, even Endeavor worked with his sidekicks on occasion despite his apparent dislike of social interaction.
Attacking your teammates?
Now that's something else entirely.
Bakugo's violent tendencies had caused him to use a move that could've killed someone, he should've been disqualified the moment he attacked his teammate.
It just goes to show that teaching others how to be a hero is a lot more difficult than doing speeches.
He watches the two students dodge and counterattack rapidly as they continuously get closer to the end of the last obstacle. Neither giving or gaining ground, never missing a step. If their attitudes were different then perhaps they could've been worthy.
Worthy of-
"Wait a minute! Turns out there are two other rivals going head to head in the minefield!"
The camera's attention suddenly shifts back to the middle of the minefield, where an interesting sight gets captured.
Two humanoid machines were racing each other, floating over the mines through bursts of compressed air and jets. Their feet don't even touch the ground and they're covering a lot of distance in a short amount of time.
They were both instantly recognizable, the first robot is the one that has been helping Mei Hatsume the entire race so far using jets under its feet and on its back to propel forward at incredible speed, practically flying over the minefield. Hatsume herself is hanging onto the robot, some kind of hover boots allowing her to be carried at high speed.
The other one was the young man that Yagi met at Takoba beach a few weeks back. He hadn't been able to interact with the boy yet, but Power Loader does mention him a lot.
A true prodigy at making Support Items.
And looking at the armor that's moving at breakneck speed right next to the robot that he himself had a hand in making, Yagi is inclined to agree.
Midoriya is pointing his palms behind him, propelling himself forward with powerful blasts, exactly like Bakugo does with his explosion Quirk.
"Is this a rivalry between two Support Course students? They're just speeding past everyone and rapidly closing in on the lead, and everyone else is catching up too!"
After hearing that, Todoroki and Bakugo looked behind them in shock at the two students that are getting closer. Before they could do anything else, Midoriya suddenly aimed one of his palms at the floor. One of the yellow glasses on his mask briefly winks, and the palm then blasts out a powerful wave right into the ground.
*BOOOOOM*
"Oh what the f- damn it, they're crazy! Absolutely insane the both of them! I can't belie- No, I CAN believe this, just- they both just- uuuggghhh."
Powe Loader's incoherent rant gathers a few looks from his fellow teachers, including Yagi. The unpowered All Might doesn't really know the two students all that well yet, but Maijima has a deep love-hate relationship with the two.
He sings their praises as often as he curses their names.
"Problem children" was the term that Aizawa used.
Again, Yagi is inclined to agree there.
The two said problem children fly straight in the air, the blast having given them a boost in speed. They go over the two Hero Students, passing them by and taking the lead.
*Cheer*
The crowd was going wild with the twist, their cheers and surprise keeping them on the edge of their seats and their excitement full.
"And they pass them! Using an explosion to gain the lead was absolutely crazy! Power Loader, what are you teaching these kids?!"
"It's not my fault!"
Having forgotten their bout, Bakugo stops fighting with Todoroki and blasts forward as fast as he can, trying to catch up with the (insane) kids, ice spreads forward beneath Todoroki's feet as he dashes as fast as he can, increasing his speed while leaving behind an ice trail that could help the other contestants.
Now it was a four-way race, each one of them trying to gain the lead, trying to be one step ahead as they get closer and closer to the finish line. The students may have been screaming at each other, but the cameras aren't close enough to hear.
The lead keeps changing.
Midoriya.
Hatsume.
Midoriya again.
Bakugo.
Todoroki.
Hatsume again.
Bakugo blasts past her.
But Todoroki overtakes him.
Then Midoriya gets ahead again.
It's intense.
It's extreme.
It's engaging.
And Yamada was eating it up. "This is what it all comes down to folks! This is what all the excitement has been building up to! Who's going to win?! Who's going to come first?! The climax is here!"
They were 200 meters from the finish line.
180 meters.
150.
120.
100.
80.
50.
25.
So close!
Then…
Hatsume's robot suddenly grabs her around the waist.
And hurls her forward with a mighty throw!
10 meters.
3.
2.
1.
"And the first place winner is…"
.
.
.
Pink hair is the first sight that meets the stadium.
Then the rest of the head passes by.
Then the body.
And finally, the feet.
*CHEER*
"MEI HATSUME!"
The crowd becomes deafening, and cheers and applause ring out so loud that it becomes near white noise. Yagi releases a breath that he didn't know he was holding. Even he was sucked into the hype.
Still, this was a very surprising end to the 1st round. A student from the Support Course getting 1st place was unheard of.
Yagi looks down at the celebrating Hatsume, who was jumping around and laughing as she catches her breath. The other three make it through the finish line right after her, Todoroki, Midoriya, then Bakugo.
As soon as Midoriya gets through the finish line, his power armor folds back into a pack behind him, and with a wide smile on his face, he runs up to the cheering girl and promptly picks her up with a hug and spins her around, both of them laughing.
Yagi cracks a smile himself at the sight.
This was a surprising end to the 1st game, but it was definitely entertaining.
+/+
/
"Ha! Take that Bakugo, you got your ass fucking beat!"
Midoriya mocks and laughs at the angry image of Bakugo in 2nd place. He knows that despite the high placement, not being number one is going to anger his ass forever.
"Hahaha! Haaaa…" He eventually calms down and closes the nearly filled-up notebook in front of him. He got a lot of information out of the 1st event, but there's still more to see.
He reaches to get another notebook-
*Creak*
And quickly reaches to his holster instead and points the improved shock gun at the sound.
He expected to see a thief, a hero, or even some random villain who thought they'd get lucky, what he didn't expect was the person standing next to his open window.
He didn't expect to see this person because this wasn't his usual MO. They don't just break into a kid villain's home for any reason.
Hell, they don't even target villains, period.
Still surprised, he couldn't help but stutter.
"Y-you? Y-you're-"
/
A sound of a blade becoming unsheathed rang out in an alleyway and a rusty blade gets pointed towards the end of the alley.
Standing there is the infamous skull masked villain, Viktor.
"Why are you here?"
The mask hides Viktor's facial expressions but his eyes show nothing but mirth. He lightly laughs before responding. "What? I can't just want to greet a celebrity? Especially one that I'm such a big fan of."
Viktor slightly bows. "Pleasure to meet you-"
/
"-The Hero Killer."
/
"-Hero Killer."
Whaaaaaat?! 1st place goes to Mei?! What a shock! What could be the aftermath of this? And the Hero Killer?! Find out next time in Negative One Z!
Seriously though, sorry for taking so long, and I can't guarantee that it's going to get any faster than this. Support would help a long way. I'm just very busy with projects, and a freaking car crash. It's just very messy right now. Still, you guys wanted and I delivered (hopefully). Hope you guys liked this chapter and remember to check out my other stories (and smut).