A/N: Hey everyone, welcome back to The Crow's Atonement, because Chapter 22 is here.
Disclaimer: Like everybody else on fanfiction, I own nothing.
"Standard" - Normal Speaking
'Italics' - Thoughts
"Bold" - Super Moves
Come the beginning of May, thousands of people had gathered in the stadium where the Sports Festival would be taking place, everyone buzzing with excitement as they observed the dozens upon dozens of students who were gathered in the centre. The majority of the attention was focused on Class 1-A, the group of 20 who had been subjected to a villain attack barely a month into their first school year.
Journalists from media corporations around the world had descended upon Japan, all eager to get coverage of the event. Several journalists were gathered around U.A. High School, interviewing second and third-year student about what they thought about the events and had even set up camp right outside the security gate, whilst the rest had surrounded the Sports Festival Stadium, trying their best to get a view from inside the stadium or interviewing the pro heroes who surrounded the stadium.
About 60 pro heroes, none of them in the top ten, had been taken from their usual duties to act his protection detail whilst the Sports Festival was taking place.
Two of the top ten were present, All Might and Endeavor. However, the the former had hidden himself amongst the crowd as a really skinny, blond man, and the latter was only there because he wanted to watch his youngest perform.
Eraserhead and Present Mic were sitting up in the Observation Box, the former staring impassively at everything through his bandages - he was fully recovered at this point, but couldn't be bothered to take them off - as Present Mic chewed the scenery and delivered bucket-loads of ham in order to hype up an already excited crowd.
And then Midnight took over.
Several students were put-off by the woman who snapped at them to be quiet as she cracked her whip, dressed like somebody who had just walked out of a BDSM sex dungeon.
"Now, delivering the student pledge - Yaoyorozu Momo of Class 1-A!" The woman announced, winking at the younger Yaoyorozu twin who shook her head at the pro's antics and stepped up to the podium and stood before a microphone as she stared up at the audience who were watching as a hush fell over them.
"Can't say I'm not surprised," Hanta said, smirking, "Yaoyorozu did get the top score during the Entrance Exam."
Several students glanced at Katsuki who ignored them, but the minute twitching of his eyebrow told them that he didn't want to be reminded about that very fact.
However, Itachi could hear several of the students from the other class scoffing.
"Look at her, who does she think she is? I bet she thinks she's better than us because her and her class survived that villain attack."
"Hey," another piped up, "isn't that the Representative of Class 1-A? No wonder she was chosen to deliver the student pledge. Class 1-A has been known, historically, to get the best resources at the expense of the other classes in the same year."
Momo cleared her throat, "Midnight-sensei, we pledge to deliver upon the expectations set upon us by all those watching now. No matter the obstacles set before us, we will overcome them. We will impress those ahead of us and inspire those who will come after us. To those watching us now, observe and have your fears put to rest about whether we can live up to the heroes of today. Now, sit back and enjoy the event. Go beyond, Plus Ultra."
She stepped back and bowed.
Itachi felt himself swell with pride, beginning to clap as Momo met his gaze. He gave her a small smile as the crowd roared with anticipation and joy, while the rest of the student body followed his example and clapped until Midnight cracked her whip to silence them.
"Now that was one hell of a manly speech." Eijiro grinned, punching at the air.
"How can it be manly when Yaomomo is-" Kyoka cut herself off, shaking her head as Momo walked down the podium steps and returned to Itachi's side, "You know what, I'm not going to bother arguing about that."
"That was a well done speech, Momo-chan." Itachi told her.
Momo smiled and leant her head against his shoulder, "Thank you. Everything after the first sentence was improvised."
"Awww, look at that." A voice said from somewhere behind them.
"She's so chummy with him. Is that her boyfriend?" Another voice asked.
Itachi turned his head as Hanta let out a snort, Sharingan flashing in disgust as he glared at the speakers, a female and a male whom he'd never seen before, "Fools, I'm her brother."
"Huh, cool, is she available?"
Itching to catch the student in an illusion, Itachi opened his mouth to answer but Momo beat him to the punch.
"I am, but I'm not looking right now."
"And, buddy. even if she was," Hanta chimed in, smirking, "you'd be punching way above your weight class."
The student turned red in anger and embarrassment, prompting the female student next to him to giggle behind her hand. Giving Hanta a nod of appreciation, Itachi and Momo turned back to Midnight as she began to speak.
"Now then," Midnight said with a smile, gesturing to a massive screen, "with that out of the way, we can move onto our first event where I can guarantee that a lot of you will be choking back tears by the end of it. Behold, sla- students, the Obstacle Event! All classes will take part and will race through a course which is 4 kilometres long and stretches around the stadium. You're free to do whatever you want, but you must remain within the track or there will be... punishment."
"Punishment?" Izuku echoed.
"The rule-breaker will most likely be disqualified." Itachi stated, getting a nod of understanding.
Metal shifting over dirt turned many heads, students looking over to one part of the stadium to see one part of the stadium moving apart to create a long tunnel. Midnight cracked her whip and pointed to the tunnel with a predatory grin, prompting the entire student body to fill into the tunnel, with the ones at the front stopping before they walked onto the track.
"A tunnel? Is this our starting point?
"So cool. How did they get the funding to build something like this?"
"Now let's get this party started. On your marks... get set..." The tension in the tunnel skyrocketed as Midnight seemingly drifted off. Several students were shivering with excitement, adrenaline already coursing through them before the race had even started, and some were bouncing from foot to foot like boxers psyching themselves up before a fight.
The temperature had suddenly fallen and all eyes were drawn to Shoto who was down on one knee, the ground frozen directly beneath the hand he had planted against the ground.
Itachi didn't need to read minds to know what he was going to do.
'He's going to freeze everyone else the moment he's allowed to. Keep the competition confined to the tunnel whilst he gives himself as much of a head-start as he can. A smart move, Todoroki-kun, but you shouldn't have choreographed what you were going to do.'
Explosions began crackling amongst Kstsuki's hands, a bloodthirsty grin reaching across his face from ear to ear, while Izuku entered a slightly squatted stance as cyan-coloured lightning began sparking to light around him. Rikido gulped down a couple of sugar cubes causing his muscles to swell and strain against his clothes, and Fumikage had Dark Shadow wrapped protectively around him.
"START!"
Itachi leapt onto the shoulders of the nearest student who had the feet of penguin and flippers in place of his arms, his weight causing them to buckle underneath him as they barely managed to keep themselves upright..
And then ice encompassed everything.
"Shit, what's with all this ice?"
"Argh, I'm stuck. I can't feel my damn feet."
There was so much of it that it burst out of the tunnel and was launched down the track before them for a good hundreds metres. For a moment, there was no activity, and then Shoto ran out of the tunnel without a care in the world, head straight and eyes focused on the frozen track ahead of him.
"Nice try, Todoroki-kun, but it's not good enough!"
"Huh, you think something like this can hold me back. Think twice, IcyHot!"
Relatively unsurprised by Katsuki voice's taunting him - Shoto would've been more disappointed if he'd actually managed to trap the blond with such a simple move - the heterochromatic boy spared a glance behind him.
Izuku seemed to have brute forced his way past his ice, arms pumping as cyan lightning flickered around his form, though it quickly faded away moments later and his pace slowed from the equivalent of a full-blown spirit to a moderate jog.
'Why aren't you using your quirk, Midoriya? What're you trying to hide?'
Rikido had also muscled his way out of his ice, and an orange haired girl who Shoto had never met before smashed it apart with her enlarged hands.
Momo pole-vaulted out of the range of his attack, but she had donned footwear which had ice skate blades on the outer edges of the bottom and rollerblade wheel situated between them and was now skating on the ice he left behind him. Meanwhile, Katsuki had blasted past the ice and was rapidly gaining on him.
Itachi had avoided his attack by mounting the shoulders of another student, Fumikage had used Dark Shadow to tear apart the ice holding him in place, but Shoto noticed further along behind them both was a tired-looking student with purple hair being carried by a squad of four who seemed totally out of it.
There was another student were appeared to have split up into dozens of pieces. And all of her individual pieces were flying through the air, unimpeded by his ice.
'Nuisances.'
Momentarily stopping in his tracks, Shoto swept his arm and conjured a colossal ice wall which was the width of the track, four inches thick and 20 metres high, and would take his pursuers a good minute to get past, except perhaps for the girl who could split herself apart. He turned and ran, heating himself up to stave off the frostbite that was beginning to bite at his skin.
'Hmph, seems Todoroki-kun is determined to come first.'
Having since dismounted the unlucky student from before, and incapacitated him with the Sharingan, Itachi came across Katsuki, Rikido and Fumikage trying to smash their way past the ice. Izuku and Momo hung back with him, but he was aware that Itsuka was further back behind him, but not by much. Movement caught his eye and looking up, he saw Setsuna's various parts flying around the wall of ice.
"Um, should we help them?" Izuku inquired, glancing at them.
Itachi shrugged. He was more than content to sit and wait. It's not like he could access his Mangekyo Sharingan and use the Susanoo to smash the wall.
Nor would he ever want to awaken those cursed, twisted eyes again.
Momo glanced at him, "Would you rather be here, conserving your energy, or with them, wasting it?"
"Ah, good point. Look, they're nearly through."
True to his word, Katsuki had blasted a hole large enough to fit his head through the ice, while Rikido's arm smashed clean through another part. Another strike or two from the both of them and they'd make holes large enough to fit a grown man through.
Barely a moment later, an orange and blue figure shot overhead in a arcing trajectory and smashed through the wall with a enlarged fist. Present Mic's excited voice blasted through speakers as Itsuka hit the ground running, with the sudden destruction of the ice wall causing Rikido - mid punch - to overreach, stumble and fall on his face.
"Thanks, Tetsutetsu-kun!" She called back, her sudden appearance prompting Itachi, Izuku and Momo to break into a sprint.
"No problem, Big Sis Kendo!" Tetsutetsu's voice hollered from somewhere behind him.
Momo was already rapidly closing the distance between herself and Itsuka as a surprised Katsuki snarled and began blasting himself forwards. It was bad enough that IcyHot was way ahead of him, but now some no name extra from one of the other classes had gotten ahead of him. For the blond, this was beyond unacceptable. It was a absolute travesty.
Itachi and Izuku were neck-and-neck, though the former's height was allowing to him to slowly build a lead ahead of the green-haired boy whose arms were pumping back and forth compared to Itachi's more leisurely run.
He didn't know why Izuku wasn't using One For All to outpace him, but wasn't about to start advocating for him to do so. Itachi assumed Izuku was trying to save as much energy as possible or he didn't want to use it, get ahead of Katsuki and draw the blond's attention towards himself.
And then he heard something that caused the corners of his lips to twitch upwards, even as a colossal 0-pointer robot appeared and started lumbering towards Shoto who didn't look at all concerned by its appearance and froze it solid.
"Get back here, Carrot Top!" Katsuki screamed, explosions bursting from his hands as Itsuka glanced back at him in annoyance.
Itachi almost felt sorry for the death warrant Class 1-A's explosive nutjob had just given himself. The last time someone had called her a Carrot Top was during the finale of a mixed martial arts tournament and she absolutely decimated them as a result.
He watched as Katsuki thrust his hand out at Itsuka who leapt aside, her hair flying around her face from the close-range blast in such a way that Itachi thought was endearing to his eyes - he didn't know where that train of thought came from and quickly quashed it down - and promptly backhanded him into the nearest wall with her enlarged hand. The stunned expression on his face was glorious to watch in HD and slow-motion, so much so that Itachi softly chuckled.
"OOOOH, DID YOU SEE THAT EVERYONE, BAKUGO KATSUKI JUST GOT SLAPPED DOWN BY KENDO ITSUKA OF CLASS 1-B!"
"There's no need to scream like that," Shota's voice grumbled, "I'm sure everyone saw it."
The robot Shoto froze fell apart as it collapsed onto the track, kicking up a massive cloud of dust, garnering another round of dramatic commentary by Present Mic about how harsh, cool and smart he was for blockading the rest of the students behind a field of twisted metal. Meanwhile, Minoru was bouncing from spot to spot with Pop Off, avoiding the ice entirely, until he was suddenly blindsided by a robot which knocked him aside with a fist as big as he was.
Izuku called out to him in concern as he bounced off the floor like a football, but then quickly adopted a fighting stance of sorts as more and more robots began to pour through hidden doors which opened up along the track.
"Multiple Targets Detected." The robots droned, optics flashing as they began to advance towards the students.
Momo ran a hand trough her hair as just about every student who had broken free of Shoto's ice attack gazed at the robots, especially the second zero pointer which had appeared through the cloud of dust kicked up by the destruction of the first zero pointer and shook the ground as it approached, "Goodness, U.A. doesn't hold back on spending their government-appropriated funds, do they?"
"Would you expect anything less from such a prodigious school?" Itachi replied, crimson eyes shifting from robot to robot, searching for weak spots, and then he quickly broke out into a sprint, avoiding the metallic arms and legs which tried to strike him down. Making it past with barely a scrape, he ran between the massive gap between the zero pointers feet, the behemoth being too slow and cumbersome to block him.
The students he left behind started using their quirks - with Izuku being the sole exception - as a line of one and two pointer robots formed a wall of metal to block them in.
Momo created a grenade launcher and blew apart several robots, while Itsuka ran straight up to a one pointer, and with her enlarged fists, punched several of its legs off, causing it to collapse, then drove her fists into its head. The metal crunched under her fists and the glowing optics dimmed.
Eijiro and Tetsutetsu punched their way through several robots, noticed the similarities between their quirks and started arguing with each other, even going as far as to bare razor sharp teeth and butt heads together until a two pointer interrupted their scuffle and was quickly reduced to a twitching, dented and sparking heap of scrap metal.
Katsuki groaned as he regained consciousness, spurred by the screeching of metal and sounds of quirks going off. Ignoring the way his body ached in response to his movement, his eyes snapped onto the students using their quirks against robots and the last thing he remembered was-
'THAT FUCKING BITCH! I'LL KILL THAT STUPID EXTRA!'
Katsuki heaved himself to his feet and pushed himself away from the wall, his raging heartbeat the loudest thing he was hearing in the moment. He was behind all those moronic extras and it was all that 'Orange fucking tart's fault.' A scream ripped its way out of his mouth as he stuck out his arms behind and fired off a series of explosions, propelling himself forwards like the world's angriest missile.
He blasted himself past several students before coming across the zero pointer.
Glaring up at it in challenge, but knowing the gap in distance between himself and IcyHot would grow exponentially if he wasted time trying to take it down, Katsuki launched himself into the air, alternating between firing off explosions from each hand until he could push himself over the zero pointers head, and as he fell towards the ground, wind rushing through his hair, he took note of Bird Face and Weird Elbows following behind him.
Down below and growing in size as he approached the ground were - Katsuki squinted as his eyes watered from the air buffeting his face - Tired Eyes who was being carried by four extras, Shitty Hair who was arguing with an extra made out of metal, Shitty Deku, who was holding onto a piece of metal, Ponytail Bitch and Carrot Top, but further ahead of them was Trench Face. Even further in-front of him was IcyHot who was being harassed by a bunch of fist-sized parts of what he guessed was once another extra as he used his ice to cross a giant chasm filled with rocky towers.
'FOR FUCKS SAKE, I'M SO FAR BEHIND!' Katsuki raged, a vein throbbing in his temple.
Setting off explosions in a manner that left him falling towards Carrot Top, Katsuki twisted in mid-air once he was close enough and dropkicked her. Having not expected the sudden attack, with Momo's cry of warning coming just a moment too late, Itsuka didn't get a chance to defend herself and they both went sprawling into the dirt; the moment he came to a stop, without even properly seeing where he was aiming, Katsuki blind fired another explosion, getting a cry of pain in response.
He quickly got to his feet and blasted through the shield PonyTail Bitch had hastily created to try and defend herself, and without looking to see whether he'd knocked her unconscious or not, Katsuki screamed for Shitty Deku to "Get out of my way or I'll kill you" as he launched himself straight past the green-haired boy before blasting himself towards Itachi who didn't even glance back at him.
"AND WITH A COUPLE OF SLICK MOVES, BAKUGO KATSUKI MAKES SHORT WORK OF KENDO ITSUKA AND YAOYOROZU MOMO! WHAT AN UNEXPECTED DEVELOPMENT! AND NOW HE'S GAINING ON YAOYOROZU ITACHI! WILL HE GET INTO THIRD PLACE!?"
"It was actually a trio of 'slick' moves," Shota's voice replied, deadpan, "the initial dropkick, followed by the two explosions. And I'd expect him to get past Yaoyorozu. Skill with the Sharingan notwithstanding, I don't expect the boy to be much of a barrier for Bakugo to get past."
Explosions still bursting out him his hands, Katsuki rapidly closed the gap between himself and Itachi - who briefly glanced back at him - and once he was close enough, thrust out one of his hands, intent by blowing the elder Yaoyorozu twin to the ground.
Much to his surprise, Itachi leapt aside without even looking back at him, the explosions ruffling his hair and clothes as he pivoted on one foot and brought up the other leg so it was in Katsuki's path.
The blonde's momentum carried him forwards and Katsuki's eyes bugged out as he clotheslined himself on Itachi's leg, the knee bending immediately after impact and digging painfully into his throat. Choking as his body continued forwards, Katsuki found himself flipping over and landing on his back.
Itachi lowered his leg, glancing down at Katsuki. He wondered if his classmate actually enjoyed confrontation. Given the next stage of the course was right in front of them - and Shoto had pretty much cleared t already - he would've thought the blonde's mindset would've seen him chose to get straight onto clearing the obstacle rather than try and engage in a fight with him.
'Seems I mistakenly thought 'come first in absolutely everything' would be prioritized over 'eliminate the competition.'
Without sparing Katsuki a second thought, Itachi turned to the tense ropes that extended along the start of the chasm to the various stone structures. Recalling elements of the shinobi training, Itachi dashed across the ropes with care and without a hint of unsteadiness. He repeated this another six times - by third rope, Katsuki had gotten up again, blasted himself across the chasm and left him behind - until he had made it to the other end of the chasm where he continued his run, noting how the only ones ahead of him were Shoto, Setsuna and Katsuki.
A pink explosion suddenly erupted into being ahead of him.
He saw the trio flat on their backs and ahead of them lay a minefield with darker and lighter patches of dirt. Itachi walked towards Setsuna who looked stunned, like someone had smacked her in the face with a wet towel.
"What's the problem," Itachi asked, prompting her to sit up, "I saw you use your quirk to get past the robots and the chasm. Why aren't you using it now, Tokage-san?"
"Because," she replied as Katsuki and Shoto got to their feet and started running across the minefield with reckless abandon, setting off dozens of mines in the process whilst trying their hardest to kill each other, "whoever came up with this obstacle is a psychopath. We have to get past this minefield without using our quirks to bypass them."
"I see."
Itachi deactivated his Sharingan and then-
"LOOK AT MEEEE! I'M FLYING WITH MY BABIEEEES!"
He turned back to the chasm so see a student with bright-pink hair flying clean over the chasm with the aid of support gear, a gleeful smile etched onto her face. Following right behind her was Tenya, who wobbled precariously as he sped along the ropes; Tsuyu, who was rapidly crawling across; Ochaco, who made herself weightless as she jumped from spire to spire, and Momo, who simply ziplined across.
"Well, you can stay down there if you'd like, but I'm going ahead. I may be able to take advantage of Bakugo-kun and Todoroki-kun focusing on each other."
"Yeah, cool, go ahead," Setsuna grinned at him, "I'm gonna wait here and flirt with your sister when she comes."
Itachi shot her a deadpanned look, "Please, don't."
Without waiting for her to respond, Itachi gave chase to Shoto and Katsuki who kept switching between 1st and 2nd place as the latter kept attacking the former who was trying his hardest to ignore him. Following in Katsuki's footsteps, and thus gaining a path that'd already been cleared through the detonation of mines, he quickly caught up to them and soon ran past them.
The very next step he took, Itachi felt the ground underneath his foot shift, followed by an ominous click.
He threw himself forwards and the exploding mine launched him into the air. Instinctively, his Sharingan flared to life and through the super-detailed, slow motion, Itachi was able to discern up and down, twisting in mid-air so he hit the ground shoulder first and bit back a hiss as pain shot through his arm, knowing right away that he'd dislocated it.
He picked up himself, and noticing how quiet it had gotten, glanced back and saw Shoto and Katsuki glaring at him, cold fury burning in their eyes.
Katsuki, predictably, exploded.
"First IcyHot issues a declaration of war to the wrong guy, and now you," the blond seethed, blasting himself towards Itachi and locking their gazes together, "you think you can take first place from me, Trench Face!? You think I won't-"
Katsuki's rant was cut short as his eyes went glassy and he faceplanted the floor, through he skidded straight past a mine which went off, tossing his limp body aside. When he didn't get back up straight away, Shoto cautiously advanced and kept his eyes fixed no higher than Itachi's neck - correctly assuming Katsuki's sudden silence had something to do with why the tomoe in Itachi's Sharingan had been slowly rotating around the pupil.
"What did you do it him?"
"Hyponsis. It should only last a minute."
"Whatever."
Shoto immediately began running and before Itachi could do anything, he found his legs frozen to the floor.
Wincing as the cold passed by his sports uniform and bit into the skin of his legs, Itachi cursed his inability to use Fire Style ninjutsu as he contemplated his next course of action. He could either wait for Katsuki to snap out of the hypnosis and blast him hard enough to break him out of the ice, hope Katsuki ignored him and wait for Momo to free him, or - Itachi looked around - blast himself free with a mine he'd be able to reach if he bent over and stretched.
He didn't like any of the choices, but began reaching for the mine regardless.
Once he could reach the discoloured pile of dirt that no doubt held a mine beneath it, Itachi formed a fist and smashed his fist into the ground.
Hearing the tell-tale click, he straightened up and winced as the mine blew up in his face, freeing him and blasting him backwards, sending further sparks of pain through his dislocated arm.
Tempted to lay where he was now flat on his back, Itachi knew he only had about twelve seconds to spare before Katsuki woke up.
"My everything hurts." He muttered to himself, scrambling to his feet and breaking into a sprint.
Itachi hadn't even made it to the halfway point of the minefield - Shoto was three-quarters of the way through - when he heard an angry roar, followed by more explosions. Multiple mines went off behind him and Katsuki flew past him a second later, casting a death glare his way before he came down on Shoto - who looked irritated that he had to deal with Katsuki again - with the fury of a thousand suns.
And then there was an even greater explosion behind him.
Movement above prompted Itachi to look up, where he saw Izuku falling out of the sky as, teeth clenched as he held a metal plate close to his body, while a line of pink smoke arced through the air behind him, its starting point about twenty metres into the minefield, nowhere close to the first-quarter point.
The green-haired boy fell out of the sky, landed feet-first on the shoulders to Katsuki and Shoto, who buckled under the sudden introduction of his split weight onto their bodies and only noticed him when he boosted himself off their shoulders and slammed the plate into the ground as hard as he could, setting off a mine which blasted them aside and himself further forwards.
As Izuku hit the ground, cyan-coloured lightning burst into life for a split-second as he used Full Cowling to avoid breaking his legs, and then he began sprinting as he hard as he could along the final section of the race - a clear path which led to a tunnel - without any indication that he'd be using One For All to boost his speed.
Itachi ran past Katsuki and Shoto who were still recovering from an unexpected explosion to the face. The former looked incredibly pissed, appearing more angry than he'd been when Shoto or Itachi had been ahead of him.
"AND WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT, FOLKS! AFTER AN INTENSE THREE-WAY RACE BETWEEN TODOROKI SHOTO, BAKUGO KATSUKI AND YAOYOROZU ITACHI, MIDORIYA IZUKU HAS PASSED ALL THREE OF THEM WITH SOME OUT-OF-THE-BOX THINKING AND IS NOW IN FIRST PLACE! CAN HE KEEP THIS NEW LEAD!?"
"Could you please stop shouting in my ear," Shota's voice grumbled, "the audience can see what's going on with the monitors, there's no need to spell it out for them. Keep this up and I'll be deaf by the end of the day."
"Midoriya..." Shoto muttered.
"Get back here, Shitty Deku," Katsuki screamed, his face purple with rage, "Trench Face and IcyHot is bad enough, but I will not have your wimpy ass ahead of me. I'll fucking kill you."
"Coming through!"
Risking a glance over his shoulder, Itachi saw Momo was running through the minefield with an odd-looking device in her right hand and she was aiming it at the ground. Having recalled the position of several mines, he watched as she stepped on mines without a care in the world, only for them to go off two seconds once she was past them, leaving her clear of detonation.
And without needing to worry about setting off any mines, she was rapidly gaining on them.
Further behind Momo was a writhing ball of sharp, green thorns which brushed off explosions as it rolled through the minefield.
Itachi ran as hard as he could, ignoring the pain flaring through his limp arm which he held close to his chest to stop it flopping about as much as he could. He could hear the roar of the crowd in the stadium as he got closer. However, he couldn't close the gap between himself and Izuku who re-entered the stadium to cheering, glitter and fireworks being launched to herald his arrival.
"COMING IN FIRST PLACE, IT'S THE NAME TO REMEMBER! MIDORIYA IZUKU!"
Itachi ran into the stadium, finishing in second place.
Coming in behind him in rapid succession and in order of finishing were: Shoto, Katsuki, Momo, Ibara, the pink-haired student with lots of support gear, Tenya and Fumikage.
A head with a toothy grin popped out of the ground - which seemed to have liquified around it - followed shortly by an entire body, and Ochaco ran into the stadium just as the head appeared.
He dropped to one knee, sweat pouring down his face as he fought to catch his breath as more and more students piled into the stadium.
"Hey, Yaoyorozu-kun, are you alright?"
Itachi looked up to see Ochaco standing over him, big and brown eyes full of concern, her chest heaving as she fought to catch her own breath. Rosy cheeks and all, she waited patiently for Itachi to catch his breath - he felt like his lungs were on fire.
He straightened up to his full height.
"I'm fine, Uraraka-san. Thank you for your concern."
She nodded tentatively, "You don't look okay. Is your arm hurting you? Did you injure it at some point during the race?"
Itachi refrained from sighing, dropping his free hand from where it'd been holding his other arm which hung limply by his side, "Indeed. I dislocated my arm at the shoulder. I don't believe it'll work again."
The poor girl had clearly never heard of a dislocation, because Ochaco fully brought it and gasped, "Oh no, you need to go and see Recovery Girl. How will you graduate from U.A. with one arm?"
"I'd rather not, and I'm sure I'll manage."
"But-"
"Stop being stubborn, Itachi-san. I'll set it for you since you don't want to see Recovery Girl." A new voice spoke nearby and Itachi turned his head to see Itsuka stood close by, a wry smile on her face. Unwillingly, his Sharingan followed a bead of sweat as it slid down her face, under her chin and pass her neck, before-
Itachi deactivated his Sharingan and looked away, knowing Shisui was most certainly laughing at him from wherever he was in the afterlife.
Even in his previous life, Itachi had been no stranger to women, and he was sure he'd didn't see Itsuka as anything other than a good friend. So what was with the odd feeling in his gut whenever he saw her?
"You'll set it?" Ochaco sounded confused, "but Yaoyorozu-kun said it might not work again. Won't he need proper and professional medical attention... er, um..?"
Itsuka chuckled, "Kendo Itsuka. And anyone can set a dislocation if they know what they're doing. And the bit about it not working again, Itachi-san is just messing with you."
"Uraraka Ochaco." Ochaco replied, turning back to Itachi who she noticed was smirking at her. She pouted and at Itsuka's request, she stepped back and watched as Itachi grunted when his arm was shoved back into place, then he rotated his shoulder a couple of times to make sure there wasn't any problems.
"Thank you, Itsuka-san."
She nodded back.
"Alright, everyone," Midnight's voice carried through the chatter which quickly died down as she gestured to the massive screen, "the first game of the first-year stage is over, so let's check out the results."
Izuku's face came up first with a '1st' right to him. Following after him were the faces of 41 other students who came before him, with the student in 42nd place being some generic-looking student with dark eyes and brown hair, named Tomiyashi Kawasaka. However, of the 42 students who passed, a large majority appeared to have come from Class 1-A and 1-B, with some others coming from the other classes.
"The top 42 have advanced to the next round, but I apologize to those who didn't make it," Midnight announced, a sly grin on her face, "for it'll be much more exciting than the last round, so be sure to give the media and your audience a show they will never forget. What could the second event be? Oh, there's so much tension that I can feel it throbbing in my core..."
The students just stared at her, aghast; Ibara, especially, looked revolted by the impure words.
The audience was torn between being outraged for the kids and wolf-whistling.
The heroes in the crowd, with the exception of a few, just laughed and cheered Midnight on.
'Are... sexual connotations and innuendoes her whole heroic theme," Itachi thought, mildly embarrassed as he caught Itsuka's face turning the same colour as Eijiro's hair, "Jiraiya-sama would have a field day with this woman.'
"Midnight, please..." Shota coughed.
"Now then, the next event is the Cavalry Event?"
'Cavalry?' Itachi thought as students began muttering amongst themselves, 'That implies there'll be two players working together. One as the horse and the other is the rider. This'll be interesting.'
"You''ll forming teams ranging from 2 to 4 people. In a full team, the other three will be the 'horse', while the remaining player is the 'rider'. You'll be swiping headbands from other riders and on those bands will be the points you accumulated from the previous round," Midnight said, "The 42nd player is worth 5 points, 41st is 10 and so on and so forth, but the 1st player is worth TEN MILLION POINTS!"
Izuku blanched as he felt 41 pairs of eyes fall upon him.
"The time limit is 15 minutes," Midnight continued, swaying her hips, "A teams point value is the points scored by their respective individuals. A team with 41st and 42nd place, for example, would have 15 points. You'll be fighting with your quirks to steal each other's headbands and gain the highest possible score before time runs out, but you must tie your bands around your forehead or neck so they can be stolen. No hiding them underneath clothes... lest you want both taken from you. And even if you lose your headbands before time runs out, your team can still try and get them back."
Several students began muttering amongst themselves.
Itachi glanced at Izuku who was practically vibrating in place from all the tension and nervous energy he was holding within himself, 'So, as the participant who came in second, I would have 205 points. 41 people who didn't come in first times five, with no. 41 starting at five. Hm, from 205 to 10,000,000 is quite the leap. Either way, it gives people more incentive to target no. 1.'
"Lastly, no attacking other teams with the intention of breaking them up. Your only goal is to get the headbands, nothing more. Break the rule and you'll given a red card. You'll sit out the game. Now, you have fifteen minutes to form your teams. Go!"
Itachi was already moving, forming a team in his mind as he approached his sister who, coincidentally, was approaching him.
It had taken Itachi less than 3 minutes to form his team. It consisted of himself, his sister, Tenya and Shoto.
The twins had sought each other out straight away and then gone to Tenya who had turned down an opportunity to team up with Izuku. The bespectacled student had agreed so join them straight away. Shoto had joined without much complaint, but had conceded the rider position to Itachi, convinced by the explanation that the Sharingan would provide him with hand-eye coordination far better than what he could ever possess and easily see through Tenya's high-speed movement capabilities.
And not normally being one to display much emotion - besides an irritated scowl or an unnecessary display of emotion that would make Maito Gai proud - Tenya was grinning, seeming oddly excited about something.
As part of the group, Itachi was in the rider position. Tenya was the front horse, giving him the best optimal use of Engine; Shoto was his right horse, meaning Itachi had to support himself on his left arm - which meant it'd be almost impossible for the team to end up in a position that would force the heterochromatic boy to use his flames, whether he wanted to or not, while Momo was his left horse.
Their team also had a combined score of 770.
It was in the last minute that Itachi noticed Shoto was distracted, glaring up at something or someone up in the crowd.
Following his gaze, Itachi found his eyes landing on the unmistakable flaming figure of Endeavor who appeared to be staring directly at his son.
"Todoroki-kun, is that your father?" He inquired, even thought he already knew the answer.
The temperature seemed to drop slightly as Shoto stiffened and looked away from the man, "Yes, that's him."
Even with the distance between them, Itachi could feel Endeavor's gaze shift from Shoto to him.
"REEEAADDY?" Present Mic's voice boomed thriughout the stadium, START!"
A/N: And that's Chapter 22 for you guys. I hope you all enjoyed the First Round as we move onto the chaotic Second Round.