The sports festival has arrived, today was the day. Training had been excruciating but I can already feel the difference it has made in the two weeks I had begun it. I felt great- I felt like a winner already.
Right now I was sitting at my bedroom vanity while Baba was french braiding my hair. I usually only had my hair in a braid for training, but when she had told me this is how she wore her hair for her first U.A Sports Festival, I had wanted to do the same.
I looked a lot like my grandmother when she was my age. The rest of my family had light brown hair, but yet mine was a light ginger color and I even inherited her green eyes. Her hair was no longer the bright orange it once was, and has since faded into a blonde in her old age. Even her eyes were no longer their vibrant green, and now were a bit dull compared to what they once were.
When she finished and tied the end of the braid, she kissed the crown of my head and looked at me in the mirror. "Are you excited for today?"
"Yes, I've been working really hard and I hope to make myself known to the pros.", I smiled, "I hope my best is enough to impress them."
"Nonsense, you already know your worst would still leave a good impression.", she played with my braid a little, "I can't wait to watch you."
I turned so I could look at her myself, "I know, I wish Kosuke, Mom and Dad could be here as well."
"Can I tell you a little secret?", she spoke quietly with a playful smile. I nodded my head as I waited in anticipation, "They are all on their way from the airport right now. We will be coming to watch in person."
I bolted from my seat and threw my arms around her, "You're kidding! They're really here? They're really coming-"
She squeezed me back and chuckled, "Well that's what I said, isn't it?"
"Wait,", I pulled away to look at her, "How did you get tickets?"
She shrugged, "You forget that I'm not just your Baba, but I am also UA alumni, and have mentored some current pro heroes."
I rolled my eyes, "It's not that I forget, you retired when I was so little! I have only known my Baba, and not Telekin."
"Nonetheless, we will all be there cheering you on today.", she stroked my cheek, "Make us proud."
I kissed her palm, "I will do my best, for you and our family."
She pulled away and started pushing me towards the bedroom door, "Good, now get going! We will see you once you finish."
I grabbed my bag and hurried towards school. I was giddy throughout the entire walk and train ride there, and it felt much quicker than the usual commute time.
Reaching the 1-A waiting room in no time, I felt even more eager to begin once surrounded by my class. We were all required to wear our red, white, and blue UA gym uniforms. This didn't really bother me, whatever I wore wasn't going to strengthen or weaken my performance. I was currently stretching on the floor when the door burst open.
"Everyone!", Iida burst into the room, "Get your game faces on! We will be entering the arena soon!"
I exhaled as I stood, and began stretching my arms.
"Midoriya.", Todoroki called his, and seemingly the rest of the class to his attention.
Izuku turned to him,"Hey, Todoroki. What's up?"
"From an objective stand point, I think it's fairly clear that I'm stronger than you.", Todoroki began. Izuku sucked in a breath of air, but then agreed to his statement. Todoroki continued, "However, you've got All Might in your corner helping you out." I fidgeted at his accurate observation, "I'm not here to pry about you two, but know that I will beat you.", Todoroki deadpanned.
"Woah, what's with the declarations of war lately?", Kamanari questioned.
Eijiro stood from his seat and walked over to Todoroki and Izuku. He laid his hand in Todoroki's shoulder, "Yeah, what's the big deal? Why are you picking a fight all of a sudden? And right before we get started-"
"I'm not here to make friends.", Todoroki spoke as he pushed off Eijiro's hand. He turned to me and made direct eye contact, "Don't forget this isn't a team effort." I couldn't help but narrow my eyes and glare at his words.
"Wait a second, Todoroki.", Izuku finally spoke up, "I don't know what's going through your head, or why you feel like you need to tell me you're going to beat me...but yeah, of course you're better than me. In fact, you probably have way more potential than anyone in the hero course. That's why you got in so easily-"
"Midoriya,", Eijiro began until I took a step forward and placed my hand on his wrist.
"Todoroki is right.", I began, "Not only are we competing against the other classes, but we are fighting against one another."
Izuku tightened his hand into fists at his side, "All of the other classes are coming for us. They are coming at us with everything they've got. We are all going to have to fight to stand out.", he looked at Todoroki with clear intent, "And I'll be aiming for the top too."
After a moment of determined eye contact between them, Todoroki responded, "Fine"
Once the tense moment of rivalry faded, we were called to go to our tunnel that would lead us into the stadium. As we waited for our entrance to be announced, I kept nervously shifting my weight between my feet. I listened to Present Mic's words, waiting for our cue to begin our entrance. I stood towards the front of my class, waiting to make sure I could be clearly seen and recognized.
"HEY!", Present Mic boomed, "Give me some noise, you rabid sports thugs!", What? Why would the crowd cheer to that? He continued, "Got those cameras prepped, media hoards?" Isn't that insulting? "This year we've got some of the hottest performances in sports festival history, guaranteed! I've only got one question before we start this show- are you ready?!" That's our cue.
We began walking towards the late at the end of the tunnel, "Let me hear you scream as our students make their way to the big stage!"
As we got closer to the exit, I straightened my shoulders and plastered a smile on my face. I wanted to seem confident and strong from a first glance. The braid that ran almost the entire length of my back swayed slightly with my steps. I took the first step out of the darkness and into the bright lights of the stadium. The crowd began to go wild as my class made our debut.
"Welcome back to the UA Sports Festival! Where up and coming heroes leave everything on the field as they fight for the chance to achieve worldwide fame and celebrity!", he then proceeded to greeted us, "This first group are no strangers to the spotlight! You know them from withstanding a villain attack- the dazzling students lighting up your tv's with solid gold skills! The hero course students of class 1-A!"
The crowd lost their god given minds as we walked towards the center of the field and to the stage. I looked around the stands, hopping to be able to spot my family, but there was no way I was going to be able to pin point them in the sea of thousands of people. Even though the crowd was bigger than I anticipated it was going to be, I refused to show how nervous I was beginning to get. I forced my smile to expand, trying to make it seem as if I was more confident than I actually was.
"Present Mic sure talked us up a lot, kinda makes me worried. How you guys feeling?", Eijiro asked from behind us.
"I could threw up.", I said with a smile, "But, I refuse to let the crowd know that.", I beamed at him and he chuckled in response.
Katsuki smirked, "I'm not worried, makes me wanna win this thing even more.", he practically growled.
Present Mic then began introducing, with less enthusiasm, the rest of the first hear classes. Once we were all gathered in front of the stage, the pro hero Midnight appeared with her whip.
"Now, the introductory speech!", all eyes were on her in her hero costume. I wasn't sure why everyone was drooling over her- not to say that she wasn't stunning as usual, it's just that is what she always wore. It was also clear that her costume was like that due to her quirk, she needed to have exposed skin to be able to use it. "Silence everyone!", she cut the chatter and swung her whip, "And for the student pledge, we have Katsuki Bakugo!"
Everyone turned to look at him in complete shock. Another thing I never understood; why were they so surprised that he was always ranked first? Katsuki wouldn't have such a big, annoying ego if it wasn't true in the first place. As he walked towards the stage and away from me, I began a soft, slow clap for him.
"He's the first year rep?", Izuku nervously asked.
"I guess that hot head did finish first in the entrance tests.", Sero concluded.
I couldn't help but roll my eyes, "None if you give him enough credit. He thinks he's big and bad for a reason- because he worked for it."
A plain looking girl all the way to the right cut in, "Only for the hero course exams."
"Oh, right.", Izuku realized.
Sero leaned to whisper to his surrounding classmates, "That girl obviously hates us.."
"Yeah, and we've got Bakugo and Miyake to thank for them not liking our class.", Kamanari huffed.
"If they didn't want to be in the shadow of the hero course, then maybe they shouldn't have picked a hero course based school." I shrugged, "Besides, they would've hated us anyway. The festival was made to showcase the hero students, not them."
Just as I finished concluding that, Katsuki reached the microphone. He stood cool and calm with his hands stuffed into his pockets. We stood in complete silence, not knowing what to expect from him.
"I just wanna say...", he began, "that I'm gonna win."
Our class erupted in panic and disapproval of his words. I couldn't help but fight down a laugh, what did they expect from him? They crowd of first years began to boo him and yell in their displeasure of his words.
Iida steppes forward to reprimand Katsuki himself, "Why would you say that? You're so disrespectful!"
Katsuki turned, still with his laid back demeanor, "Not my fault the rest of you are just stepping stones to my victory.", he gave the crowd a thumbs down, to make it clear we are losers.
He began his way off the stage and back at my side, and I couldn't help but flash him a smirk. "Nice speech, very inspirational." Katsuki rolled his eyes in response.
The large screen flashed before us, prompting Midnight to keep things rolling, "Without further ado, its time for us to get started! This is where you begin feeling the pain! The first fateful game of the festival!" The screen changed, showing us that it was randomly picked the first event. "What could it be?!", Midnight cooed. The screen stopped and flashed 'Obstacle Course' at us.
She began to explain that all seven classes would be competing in a four kilometer course outside of the stadium. We were free to use our quirks however we wished.
I made my way to the large red arch, where the start of the race would begin. The path was extremely narrow, not meant of us all to immediately fit. Once the three green lights burnt out, we were directed to begin.
I started off by propelling myself through the crowd and towards the front, pushing people aside and out of my way. This was almost futile, because once we were all jammed inside of the doorway, we practically became a pack of sardines with how tightly we were packed. This time I wasn't afraid to activate my quirk to make my way through the crowd. Everyone was forcibly moved out of my way while I ran through them, completely unable to touch me due to the unseen vectors pushing them out of the way.
Soon I was out and sprinting towards the next section of the race. Not far behind me, a chill in the air alerted me to Todoroki's cold presence. I could hear the familiar yells of the rest of my classmates, particularly Katsuki's battle cry. I didn't wanna focus on them right now, so I continued to ignore and push myself forward.
My path was stopped by the huge battle robots from the entrance exam. I grit my teeth, realizing that this was going to take some more effort than the first obstacle. I ran forward again, this time approaching them with more strength than I had during the practical exam.
I brought my right foot forward into the ground with force, propelling one of the robots backwards and into another one that was behind it. From behind me, ice shot out and completely froze them over while they were in mid-fall from my attack. Running into the small path I made, a different robot swung its arm to strike me- but before I could counter it is was soon glazed over in ice. I continued forward, using my vectors to push away the robots and establishing a path through, all the while being frozen moments later.
Todoroki was back on my trail, making this clear by freezing over the robots to keep them still while he used the path I created.
I heaved as I continued to push myself, I hadn't been forced to use my quirk on such heavy means for awhile. A migraine that I haven't felt in a while began to form at my temples. I squeezed my eyes shut and attempted to force myself to take even breaths.
Keep going. Just push. The next obstacle is coming up soon Don't falter now. You're first so far, no reason to give up now. You can't let him beat you.
I didn't want Todoroki to catch up to me. Even though I was fine with not winning, I couldn't help but not want him to be the one to advance in front of me. Overhead I could hear bits and pieces of Present Mic's and Aizawa's commentary, but still I refused to give up the brain power to acknowledge and process their words.
