The third and final trial of the sports festival was a one-on-one combat tournament. As class 1-A trooped back to our waiting room, I dropped my Quirk completely. Turns out it was supposed to rain that day. Tiny drops fell on our cheeks as we crossed the field. I earned myself a few scowls from other classes, but I was too tired to care. The break room was air conditioned and dry, and that was all I needed. I flopped down in a chair, a windy breath bursting from my lungs, "Sooooo tired," I moaned. Uraraka perched on the chair next to me, "Yeah, you've been holding the weather the whole time, huh?" I nodded, "Since the festival started." I got a few startled stares. Midoriya piped up with disbelief, "Wait. You were holding the weather and fighting us at the same time?!" Curious glances from everyone else.
I rolled my eyes uncomfortably, "Yeah. It can't rain during one of the largest sporting events in the world." He trembled and turned away. I heard him mumble to himself. I shared a quick look with Uraraka, "How 'bout we go get some food?" She nodded and we made our way to the cafeteria. I went real heavy on the protein and carbs with an American-style chicken breast, steamed green beans, and mashed potatoes. As Momo slid into her seat with a mountain of mashed potatoes- no chicken- Mineta and Kaminari wandered up to our table. "Hey, girls," Mineta said, glancing over his shoulder at Kaminari, "Just thought you should know that you're supposed to wear the cheerleading uniforms for the last task." My eyes slid past him to a group of girls in said uniforms. They were very… skimpy. I flicked a green bean at Mineta, "Nice try, perv. I couldn't fit my wings into one of those, anyway."
They shrugged and wandered off, snickering to themselves. Momo stabbed at her potatoes. "Don't tell me you're actually considering wearing them!" I shrieked. She flinched, "But if we're supposed to… I don't want to get in trouble!" Momo started shoveling potatoes into her face, cranking out a few sets of uniforms. I glared at the other girls as they picked them up and trooped off to change. Midoriya looked up, "Hey, Arashi." I grunted. "So… since your mutation is a bird form… is eating chicken, like, cannibalism?" I spit out the chicken that was in my mouth, staring at it. My chair screeched against the floor as I shoved it back and marched to the bathroom.
I then proceeded to regurgitate my midday meal.
Okay, where was I? (Also, it's not cannibalism. I checked with my dad briefly over the phone. He got a kick out of that.) After a quick visit to Recovery Girl so I was cleared to continue (she laughed at me, too), I made my way back to the field, yanking the sun back out. I was horrified to see the other girls in the cheer uniforms from earlier, Mineta and Kaminari drooling at them. I flared my wings to block them as best I could as Momo basically deflated. That deterred them. Poor girls. I genuinely felt bad for them, so I said, "I'll stand here until you're decent, if you'd like?" Uraraka shook with a whimper, "We have to be ready for the cheerleading battle." I folded my wings and smiled, "Sorry, honey." Suddenly, there was a bundle of orange and white cloth being thrust into my hands. I looked up to see a very smug-looking Momo. "It'll fit with your wings, Haruto. So you can join us!" I absolutely blanked for a moment as she grinned. "You… want… me… to… wear… this?"
A few close-mouthed screams of frustration later, I moped out onto the field. My stomach was cold and too much of my legs were showing and I was uncomfortable as hell. "Wow, Haruto," Tsuyu- she insisted we call her Tsu- said, "You're really muscled." I was assuming she was referring to my body. I'd trained all my life, and it kind of showed. Like a lot. I wrapped myself in my wings, "I hate this so much!" But when we got to the cheer battle, my ability to drop a shit ton of confetti over the crowd won the day. It was the only game class 1-A won, and we were very smug about it, teasing the boys about their embarrassing losses. And I got to take off that stupid uniform. So, win-win.
Finally, it was time for the combat. I scanned the bracket for my name. I was against… Ashido. I read the name a few times. Then I looked over to her. Her face was a few shades paler pink than usual. Our fight was right in the middle, so we and the rest of the class got to sit in the bleachers and watch the others. First up were Midoriya and that purple-haired ass from a few days ago. I wondered what his Quirk was. The purple-haired ass had made it through the other trials easy-peasy, but hadn't passed the Hero course entrance exams. As he and Midoriya squared up, they shouted something at each other. Some kind of conversation? I was sitting between Uraraka and Bakugo, and I had to squish my wings to keep from shoving them.
Uraraka gasped, and I snapped back to the ring to see Midoriya slowly, deliberately walking toward the out-of-bounds line. If he walked over that line, it was game over for him. What the hell was he doing?! The class lurched to our feet, shouting at Midoriya. My shouts were along the lines of: "Snap out of it, hotshot! Get your goddamn ass in the game!" Bakugo's were similar, but much meaner to the other guy. Finally, Midoriya whipped around and yeeted the other guy out of bounds. He acted like he was hypnotized or something. Must've had something to do with the ass's Quirk. I heard Kaminari shout, "Hey, Bakugo! Didn't Midoriya use that shoulder throw on you?" Bakugo snapped back, "Shut your damn mouth, sparky!" I snorted and elbowed him in the ribs, "I see you've taken a page out of my brilliant nicknames book, sparkles!" He growled.
The crowd roared as Midoriya looked up, nose bleeding all over his clothes. I whipped up some of the leftover confetti from the cheer battle with a little wind vortex and funneled the little papers at Midoriya. The jet hit him square in the face before shooting into the sky and raining down. He shot me a scowl- a rare treat from Midoriya- and went back to grinning his face off.
He and the other guy made their way offstage, allowing Todoroki and Sero to march on. Sero had come up with a "brilliant" strategy for beating Todoroki. Everyone knew who would win in this match. Sero actually managed to snare Todoroki in a mess of his elbow-tape, and I started to reevaluate my opinion. Shit. Never mind. A gargantuan spike of ice forked into the side of the stadium, with Sero frozen solid at its base. "Overkill," I muttered, cranking up the heat and beginning to take care of the ice. Todoroki was warming up the bottom, but it took he, his dad Endeavor, and I a solid ten minutes to melt all of that damn ice. The crowd was trying to make Sero feel better all the while. He grinned and waved his weird elbows in the air. Weird.
After that came a battle between Kaminari and a girl from class 1-B with long, vine-like hair. She used her vine-hair to wrap up Kaminari while simultaneously keeping herself insulated from his attacks. The fight was over in less than a minute. Very amusing to Bakugo, Kirishima, and I. During Iida's match, I went back to the waiting room with Mina. "Hey," I said hesitantly. She turned around. "I want to apologize in advance. In case I hurt you." She winked, "Don't worry about me getting hurt! You're the one who'll have to watch your back!" Her energy put a smile on my face, but way deep down, I was really afraid of hurting her.
As I walked onto the field again, I heard Present Mic's voice over the loudspeakers, "She's not a bird, and she's certainly not a plane: it's recommendation student Haruto Arashi!" I stuck out my wings and shot the crowd a thumbs-up as I alighted onto the stage. Mina looked a bit more nervous than she had before. "Sorry, honey," I shouted, "But if I want to be a Hero, I can't let you win!" I used wind to bind her in place, keeping her stuck at the center of a small vortex. "I have to show them what I'm made of!" Her Quirk, Acid, allowed her to spew well… acid, and I saw threads of it starting to leech over the ground. Nope, nice try. I whipped the wind into a small tornado, throwing poor Mina completely out of bounds. As soon as she landed in a heap, I ran over and burst into tears, helping her to the nurse's. She eventually told me to stop saying sorry because it annoyed her so much.
I waited in the waiting room until my next match, who I found out would be Tokoyami. That would be a harder fight. His Quirk, Dark Shadow, was fantastic for both offense and defense. Mine was, too, but I'd have to strategize as best I could. As far as I could tell, Dark Shadow didn't like light. So, sun. And he seemed to be made of smoke, so maybe wind? If I could take out Tokoyami, Shadow wouldn't be able to do anything. I was still mumbling to myself and drawing incoherent battle plans on a sheet of notebook paper when Tokoyami himself stalked in. "You ready for the ass-whooping of the century?" I asked without looking up. I heard him scoff, "You're the one getting your ass whooped. You tell me." "Great comeback," I said with a grin, "Let's see if you're that confident on the battlefield." He nodded and made his way out.
Taking a deep breath, I followed him, "Hey, bird brain," I asked. He scowled over his shoulder. "What'd I miss?" He ticked off the matches in order. Pretty predictable. "Oh," he said, "Also, Todoroki used his fire side in battle." I jumped, "No way." He nodded. I sprinted back into the waiting room to find Todoroki plopping into a chair. "You used your fire?!" He looked up, "No shit, sherlock." I mashed my hand into his face as I sat next to him, "Don't be a dick. Why'd you use it?" He shook my hand off, turning in his chair to face away. I kicked him in the shin, "We both know you hate your dad's guts. What finally convinced you to use your power?" A scowl flashed across his face, "Not what. Who."
I leaned back, "Midoriya." Tiny nod. "I'm glad." He looked up. "You've been afraid for a long time, ice cube. I'm glad that you came into your skin a little bit," I said with a small smile. A tiny pain stabbed at the back of my skull. Not the time. I must have winced, because Todoroki looked up, "How long have you been holding the weather?" I shrugged, "Two, three hours?" He glanced at the wall clock, "More like four." I sighed, "Is there a match going on?" I could hear Present Mic's shouting, so that was kind of a stupid question. "I can't let it rain right now. It would be counted as interference and I'd be disqualified," I said finally. Todoroki didn't look at me. He seemed very interested in a nick on the tabletop.
"I can hold it until the match is over."
Todoroki grunted, "Don't pass out or anything." I snorted and stood up, "Like hell. And you have no authority over me, ice cube." He opened his mouth to argue, but I flapped a hand at him, "I am officially sixteen hours older than you, thus I am your superior!" Todoroki waited for me to be done before pointing to a monitor in the corner, "It's time for your match." I almost tripped as I muttered "Shit!" and sprinted back to the field. Damn Todoroki smiled after me. Tokoyami was already pacing impatiently on the stage as I marched up. I saw little tendrils of smoke curl around his arms. Showtime.
I blared the sun as hot as I could manage without hurting anyone. The smoke quivered as it formed some kind of bird-headed snake thing. Cue the gale. Dark Shadow was buffeted and nearly blown away. A lopsided grin crept across my face as poor Tokoyami was nearly blown over. He had to stagger to keep on his feet. He looked up, a dark glint in his eye. Dark Shadow lunged forward, talons reaching for my skull. I easily sidestepped his attack and sprinted toward Tokoyami himself. He blinked, surprised. I heard Dark Shadow's enraged screech as his beak closed on empty air behind me. I was running into the wind, so I tucked my wings tight to my back as I rammed into Tokoyami. My shoulder went straight into his chest. The air exited his lungs in a (I'm assuming very painful) whoosh. The crowd roared as his feet slid over the line. I shook his hand firmly as Dark Shadow poofed away and I fixed the weather.
As I stepped, waving, into the hallway away from the field, a jarring spasm gripped my shoulders. Spots swam in my vision. No no no no no. I sagged against the wall as rain whipped in from outside. I heard Present Mic's voice drifting through the downpour, "Hold tight, folks. We'll get the sun back to shining momentarily!" Todoroki and Momo poked their heads out of the waiting room curiously. I was shaking a lot as I slid to the floor. Todoroki ran over to catch me, barking to Momo, "Get help!" I heard the crack of thunder outside, and the whispered clamoring of the crowd as they hurried to shelter themselves. Tears streamed down my face as my Quirk went haywire, raw nerves aching through my entire body. Todoroki held me tight, refusing to move even as I trembled and convulsed.
Finally, Recovery Girl and Papa rounded the corner and rushed forward. Papa muscled Todoroki out of his way and scooped me up like a ragdoll, "We're going to Hosu General, Shuzenji." Recovery Girl nodded and pulled out that cell phone of hers. What seemed like only a few seconds later, I was in the back of an ambulance, blinking furiously at the bright white lights. Finally, my tired brain gave out and I drifted into darkness.
Can't wait to get to Hero Killer arc! Sorry I'm running late... AGAIN.