Chapter 4
"Uhh...why are you all blocking our doorway?" Uraraka asked as Oliver looked up. He yelped nervously upon seeing hordes of students bunched up at the classroom door, all muttering to themselves while looking into the classroom. As Iida asked what business they had with the class, he looked to Sato, poking his arm. "D-does this normally happen?" he whispered.
"Dunno, man. I'm still a first year, and for all we know, it has to do with our fame surviving a villain attack," Sato said before looking at Oliver's throat. "By the way, how's your throat holding up?"
Tracing his fingers over the web marks of scars on his neck, Oliver winced. Though his throat muscles and various other internals in his neck had healed properly, his skin was going to scar, multiple marks that looked like cracks and slashes remaining on his neck. "I'm fine..." he finally said. "Thanks for asking..."
"You can't walk around calling people extras just because you don't know who they are!" Iida's voice barked. Sato coughed as he scratched the back of his head. "Man, Bakugo's really trying to be flashy, huh?"
"Yeah, at this rate, he'll end up getting us targeted," Sero grumbled. "Can't believe he'd be OK with doing that."
"It's Bakugo. He has an explosion quirk, his personality has to match that too," Kaminari sighed.
Oliver gulped before looking away, hiding behind Sato's bulky frame and focusing on packing up his things while keeping his hands steady. Though the latter was proving to be rather difficult. "Ignore them, ignore them, ignore them!" he thought frantically to himself.
"You OK?"
Oliver looked up to see Jiro and Yaoyorozu standing near him. "I'm fine," he said. "Just nervous around crowds..."
"Ah, shyness," Yaoyorozu said. "Not to worry, we won't judge."
"Not that it's worth judging," Jiro muttered before a new voice caught their attention.
"I wanted to be in the hero course. But like many others here, I was forced to choose a different track. Such is life. I didn't cut it the first time, but now I have another chance," a voice said from the doorway. Oliver turned to see Bakugo facing down a tall purple haired student with tired looking eyes. He sort of reminded him of Mr. Aizawa.
"If any of us do well in the Sports Festival, the teachers can decide whether to transfer us to the hero course. And they'll have to transfer people out to make room," the purple haired student continued.
"So he's not in the hero course?" Jiro whispered.
"That's rough," Kirishima muttered.
"Yeah," Sato mumbled.
"Scouting the competition. Maybe some of my peers are. Bu I'm here to tell you that if you don't bring your best, I'll steal your spot from under you. Consider this a declaration of war," the purple haired student said.
At this, most of the class gulped nervously. Bakugo "tsk'd" as he stared down this bored looking student, everyone in and out of the classroom completely silent. When suddenly-
"HEY! I'M FROM CLASS 1-B NEXT DOOR TO YOU! I HEARD YOU FOUGHT SOME VILLAINS AND CAME OVER TO SEE IF THAT'S TRUE! BUT YOU'RE JUST A BUNCH OF BRATS WHO THINK THEY'RE BETTER THAN US!" a voice from behind the crowd boomed.
Oliver began to whimper and covered his face as the voice continued to spout threats. "TALK ALL YOU WANT, BUT IT'LL JUST MAKE IT EMBARRASSING FOR YOU WHEN YOU GET YOURSELVES KO'D-HEY, DON'T YOU IGNORE ME!"
Bakugo walked out of the class, the other students making way for him as Kirishima ran over to the door. "Hey, you can't just go! You gotta say something, it's your fault they're all hating on us!"
"These people don't matter. All that matters is that I beat them..." Bakugo said before walking out, the loud voice from earlier following the explosive student as he walked by.
Class 1-A began to talk among themselves as the rest of the students continued to crowd around the classroom. Oliver looked nervously towards Yaoyorozu. "Can I walk with you?" he asked. "I'm nervous around so many people..."
"Oh, of course," Yaoyorozu said kindly. Oliver sighed in relief as the rest of Class 1-A piled out of the room, all eyes on them. Some were on Oliver as he walked by with Yaoyorozu, Jiro, and Kaminari, who was chatting with Sato and Kirishima who were walking behind them.
"The Sports Festival is gonna have us pushed to our limits, so it'll be important to train in every aspect possible," Yaoyorozu said. "So we need to be able to be ready for whatever event that's thrown at us."
"So far, I'm planning on focusing my training on endurance and stamina," Jiro said as she twirled a finger around her ear jacks. "Can't expect these babies to get me out of every tussle."
"I need to try and increase my wattage limit," Kaminari said. "Maybe if I try burying myself in batteries?"
"You'd short circuit and never recover, dimwit. Just try ejecting as much volts as possible as many times as you can. You oughta build up more endurance that way," Jiro suggested.
"Wow, great idea! You're so smart!" Kaminari complimented, missing the tinge of pink on Jiro's cheeks, despite her idea not being so special.
"I'm gonna try hardening and punching as many walls as I can," Kirishima said. "It should make me stronger over time. Maybe mix in a few running exercises too."
"What about you, Ollie? If I can call you that," Kaminari asked.
"U-uhh...I prefer it if you don't," Oliver said, nervously wiping his forehead. "And...well...I think I should train my quirk and weight train. During our fight with those villains, I wasn't strong enough. All of you were taking down villains with one or two hits, some took me a dozen blows to win one fight. I need to get better."
"We all do," Yaoyorozu said. "Though that event was unplanned, it proved just how unprepared we were for the real world. Even if we only just started."
"She's right. We're only boys and girls. But once we train and get better, we'll become true men and women!" Kirishima declared, punching his fist with a smirk.
Oliver smiled. "You're right. Should we train together?" he asked.
"Well...it would be ill advised," Yaoyorozu said thoughtfully
After two weeks of constant training, the sports festival was now on top of them. Oliver was now packing his things up, wincing as he lifted his arm. He'd been training rather intensely for the entirety of the two weeks they had to prepare. He'd gained a few extra pounds in muscle mass, and he was considerably faster and stronger.
He'd also trained his focus and concentration as well for use of his quirk. He could now use it on heavier objects or people, and handle transporting longer distances much faster and efficiently. During that time, he'd got to learn more about his other classmates. Like bonding with Koda and his love for animals, sharing some aspects of Aoyama's style and fashion sense, Ashido's dancing, or cooking with Sato a few times over the weekend.
"If only I had time to train my martial arts," Oliver mumbled as he changed into his P.E. uniform. "Probably should've asked Ojiro if he was OK with helping me..."
They were unable to wear their costumes, as they would've been an unfair advantage over students in general ed, business, and support courses. Oliver didn't mind, it fit the hot weather and he was already sweating bullets. The class was all muttering and chatting with each other, excited for the big day.
"Everyone, get your game faces on! We're entering the arena soon!" Iida announced as he opened the door. As the class got up to head out, Oliver rolled up his sleeves and sighed, prepared for anything the festival would mercilessly throw at them.
As Oliver prepared to leave the room, he saw Todoroki approach Midoriya, calling out his name. This caught the rest of the class's attention as well, even Iida, who couldn't help but be curious at why the cold student in the class would speak out.
"Huh? What's with those two?" Hagakure asked, her invisible hand stroking her invisible chin.
"From an objective standpoint, I think it's clear that I'm stronger than you," Todoroki said. "However, you've got All Might in your corner helping you out. I'm not here to pry about what's going on between you two, but know that I will beat you."
The whole class was silent as the words sank in. Oliver didn't know Todoroki very well, but it was clear he had something against Midoriya. Why, because of his quirk? He didn't know the specifics or extents of the green haired student's power, but he did know how powerful it was, and that it tended to cause as much damage to its user as it did to whatever the power was being dealt at, making him a glass cannon.
As much as that power impressed him, it also terrified him.
"Dude, chill out, why are you picking a fight all of a sudden?" Kirishima asked, his hand on Todoroki's shoulder.
"Don't forget, this isn't a team effort. We're not here to be friends," Todoroki said as he shoved the red haired classmate's hand off of his shoulder, turning around and heading out.
"Hold on, Todoroki," Midoriya said. Todoroki turned to face him. "I don't know what's going through your head, or why you think you have to tell me that you'll beat me. Yeah, you're better than me. In fact, you probably have more potential than the rest of this class."
"Hey, maybe you're being a bit too hard on yourself-" Kirishima tried to step in, but Midoriya kept talking.
"He's right," he continued. "The other courses...will be coming for us with everything they've got. We're all going to have to fight in order to stand out. And I'll be aiming at the top too." He looked up to Todoroki, his face full of resolve and determination.
"Fine," Todoroki said before leaving. Little else was said after that, and the class walked out, muttering amongst themselves as they thought about that exchange.
"Is everyone really coming after us?" Hagakure asked. "I'm so nervous!"
"Me too. But we trained really hard for this, so I'm not too worried," Ojiro reassured.
Oliver walked over to Yaoyorozu and Jiro, waving to them. "Good luck," he said, smiling nervously. Yaoyorozu smiled and Jiro gave a thumbs up and a grin in response. As they neared the stadium, they could hear the cheers and screams of the audience outside, as well as one of the teachers, Present Mic, announcing everything over the stadium speakers.
Oliver gulped as he was blinded by the light, exiting the indoors with his classmates and being blasted by the sheer amount of noise from the audience.
"As you all know, Class 1-A is also one of the first to work with transfer students so early in the semester, making their class the largest by one student!" Present Mic boomed into the microphone.
"Oh no..." Oliver thought.
"And this student's first day was the big villain attack, so let's give a big official welcome and congratulations to the bravery of our newest transfer student from the good ol' U S of A, Oliver Rowe!" Present Mic yelled. The crowd screamed and cheered, and that was too much for the poor student.
Yaoyorozu flinched when she felt something on her back and shoulders. "Mineta, I swear if you-" she said before turning and seeing Oliver with his head against her back and hands on her shoulders.
"Why'd he have to do that...he had every chance not to do that..." Oliver whimpered as he futilely tried to hide. Yaoyorozu just sighed as she shook her head.
"Man, why does he get to have a shoutout?" Kirishima asked.
"Ah, his finesse at the U.S.J. must have been extraordinary if he was specifically named," Aoyama swooned.
"He literally just said it was because of his unique transfer status, ribbit," Asui said, sighing. "Though I don't know why he'd call it out either way."
"That's Present Mic for you, he'll stir up a crowd in any way and make it work," Ojiro said nervously.
"I wish I had the spotlight!" the floating set of P.E. clothes whined.
"You don't. You really don't," Midoriya said shakily. Oliver took solace in the fact that he wasn't the only one nervous.
Luckily, the spotlight shifted pretty quickly as the classes for the general studies courses, support courses, and business courses were introduced.
As all the students gathered in front of the stage, a woman in black and white clothing...if one could call it that...walked up to the stage and held up a cattails whip. Her very suggestive clothing only proceeded to draw in a majority of the audience to the screens.
"Whoa, Midnight?!" Mineta cried, face flushed.
Most of the males(and some females) were blushing as well. "Someone should talk about what she's wearing," Kirishima groaned.
Oliver had looked up and wished he didn't. "Too...much..." he whispered and resorted to hiding behind Yaoyorozu again, attempting to cover his blushing face.
"And for the student pledge!" Midnight announced. "We have Katsuki Bakugo!"
The entirety of Class 1-A was completely petrified as Bakugo walked up to the stage, taking the microphone and facing it towards him. Oliver gulped nervously and looked to Sero. "Why is he doing it?" he asked.
"He finished first in the entrance exam," Sero said. "Guess that makes him a candidate for that."
"Ugh, only for the hero course students," a girl from one of the general studies classes said with a scowl. Oliver looked back down, and Jiro shot a glare back at the other girl.
Bakugo cleared his throat and sighed before finally speaking.
"I just wanna say...that I'm gonna win."
The thousands of people in the stadium were absolutely silent for ten seconds before exploding into outrageous roars and jeers. Class 1-A screamed at Bakugo for his words, though he simply walked back there without acknowledging the words of his fellow peers.
Oliver couldn't even hide, he was too embarrassed. "What even is this class?!" he thought as Midnight spoke up again.
When the first game, obstacle race, was announced, the entire student body in the stadium all rushed to the starting line, which led outside the stadium. As Oliver waited for the race to start, he went over the specifics of the event.
"Four kilometers, around the stadium...with obstacles along the way. Simple...simple..." Oliver whispered. The first starting light went down, then the next, until finally.
"BEGIN!" Midnight yelled.
And at once, there was chaos. Everyone was crammed in the massive hallway leading to the outside, and the entire race was at a stall. He was stuck in the middle, being elbowed and pushed around back and forth
"Is this the first obstacle? Us?" Oliver whispered before grunting from a hand against his stomach. "No time to wait, gotta act fast!" He forced his way through, left, forward, right, left, back, forward. Before much could happen, the entire doorway was shrouded in ice.
"Todoroki!" he cried before seeing several students, including Yaomomo, Bakugo, Kirishima, Kaminari, Aoyama, Ojiro, and Sero, all leaping past with little to no difficulty. "I can't slack off now, come on..."
He spotted a random student slipping on the ice, and he raised his hand above the crowd, snapping his fingers. Suddenly, he was over the iced ground, having switched spots with that random student. "Got it...I got it...whoah!" he yelped as he slipped on the ice, but maintaining a relatively good speed.
"OK...OK, I can do this," he thought before grabbing onto the railing at the very side of the path, which wasn't iced over for some reason. He began pushing himself forward, before letting go and kicking with his feet in strides. "Ice skating. I skated before...I can remember how to do it," he whispered as he slid along the ice, his speed having improved a bit.
"Looking good, Rowe!"
He looked to his left to see Ashido sliding perfectly along the ice, winking at him before forging ahead. Oliver blushed before focusing back on the race. Soon, the layer of ice was gone, and they were back on solid ground now. "OK, time to-" Oliver thought.
Only for a massive shadow to overtake several of the leading students. "Targets acquired. TERMINATE."
"Robots?!"
"Is this what the hero course went up against?"
Sure enough everyone, including Todoroki, had stopped to face the robots. They were massive in scale, with some being as tall as buses, to some being multiple stories tall. "You're kidding me, not again!" Kirishima groaned.
"OOH, ENEMIES THAT SHOW UP OUT OF NOWHERE! I'LL BET WE'RE IN FOR A TREAT HERE!" Present Mic's voice boomed, either from outdoor speakers or from the stadium. "A TEST OF STRENGTH AND CUNNING, IT'S A ROBO INFERNO!"
Oliver watched as one of the larger robots went for Todoroki, only for a massive blast of ice to catch and completely encase it. Running past, the white and red haired boy continued with the race.
"He stopped the robot!"
"Between the legs, we can get through!"
"Come on!"
Several students began to rush through, including Oliver, when ice began to rain down on them. "It's falling!" one student screamed. The robot was toppling over, and bits of ice and metal was crashing down.
"Shit, too late to go back!" Oliver cried before he dashed forward with all that he had, narrowly avoiding being crushed as dust and ice flew everywhere. Getting back up, Oliver went back to running, several robots on his tail.
"Dammit, I can't fight these! I don't have time!" Oliver cried before looking ahead. "I have to outrun them!"
Fortunately, he didn't have to worry about that as the other mechanized terrors as his fellow classmates came into the picture, Ojiro slamming one of the robots down as Tokoyami and his shadow rushed by, Sero flying by with his tape right after.
Oliver smiled as they flew by. "Wouldn't expect anything else," he muttered as he continued to run, hearing the sounds of robots crashing to his fellow classmates behind him. One of the larger ones went for him at top speed, but he snapped his fingers, switching spots and forcing the robot to crash into the trees as he rushed ahead.
The advance stopped there, though. The entire grounds in front of them were changed. No longer was their flat dirt, but a massive sinkhole with multiple tall rock structures connected by ropes. "What the-what is this?!" he cried.
He didn't have time to think, as Asui leapt on the first rope and began crawling along it with ease. A pink haired girl with some sort of machinery set on her body flew ahead, and several other students began to run ahead, he looked around.
"Come on, come on! How can I do this?" Oliver muttered before looking down. There were pebbles and small rocks on the ground, and he smiled. "Oh hell yeah..." he said before bending over to grab them. Once he had about twenty or so in his pockets, he took one and threw it as hard as he could.
He watched as it flew over several of the ground structures, landing on one a few dozen meters away. Quickly, while he could see it bounce, he snapped his fingers and with a flash, he was partially across the canyon, ahead of most of the students.
"OK, rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat," he said as Shoji flew overhead. Throwing another rock, he made sure it fell on the largest one he could see, before switching and landing there. Oliver repeated this process four more times and he was completely across.
"Phew!" he wheezed, getting tired before going back to running. Todoroki was ahead, and Bakugo was catching up, but so were several other students. "Only a few more miles to go before-"
Oliver was sent flying as a massive explosion erupted under him, flying a few dozen feet forward and into another explosion. "Mines?! What the-" he cried before landing on a crater, probably where a mine was already detonated.
Getting up, he could see several spots where mines had already exploded, small craters scattered ahead as Bakugo and Todoroki fought in the middle of the minefield. Without another word, Oliver grabbed the pebbles in his pocket and threw one into the crater ahead, before transporting himself there instantly, repeating the process and skipping ahead of most of the competition, who were still blowing themselves up.
Todoroki and Bakugo were still fighting relentlessly while somehow not having stepped on any mines. But that was the tricky part. Oliver had reached them, but there were no craters or safe spots for him to use. "Shit, what do I do?" he muttered before a massive explosion tore through the field. Everyone braced as the blast wave toppled more students and set off more mines.
"What was that?!" Oliver cried before seeing a massive smoking green piece of metal flying across, overtaking the two leading students. As it tipped over, Oliver's eyes widened. "Wait, Midoriya?!"
Bakugo and Todoroki stopped fighting at once and began to chase the flying Midoriya, Todoroki making a large path of ice. "My opening!" Oliver cried as he threw another pebble, appearing on the ice and sliding on it, throwing another pebble or two to close the distance faster.
Another explosion rocketed through the minefield as Oliver rushed towards it. "I'm so close, I'm nearing the front! Come on!" he yelled, being uncharacteristically loud.
Midoriya was way ahead now, and Todoroki and Bakugo were clear of the mines. Soon, Oliver was too, throwing pebbles and blinking ahead a few meters at a time. He was almost out of pebbles now, and he knew he wouldn't win unless he tried something crazy.
The stadium doorway was in sight now. The three rushed into it, and Oliver used his last two pebbles to blink ahead, now right behind Todoroki. He was running at top speed now, his legs burning and his lungs ready to burst.
"Think, think! I can't just switch with Midoriya, or Bakugo or Todoroki, that would be dirty!" Oliver cried before seeing Midoriya, seconds from reaching the finish line, and Todoroki, who was a hand away from reaching Midoriya. "OK...here goes nothing!"
As he snapped his fingers, everything went white. In the stadium, everyone was cheering loudly.
"The first to make it back into the stadium is...OLIVER ROWE?!"
Oliver lay on the ground, panting and gasping alongside Todoroki, who was sprawled on top of him. Midoriya was coughing endlessly as he felt the adrenaline die off, and Bakugo was glaring and smoking out of his ears at Midoriya.
"What...what happened?" Midoriya asked before Present Mic answered his question.
"LET'S WATCH A REPLAY OF WHAT JUST HAPPENED IN THAT SPLIT SECOND OF CHAOS!"
Everyone turned to see the screen, where it showed a frame of Midoriya in front of Todoroki and Bakugo. Mere inches before Midoriya crossed the line, Todoroki's upper half exploded in light, and Oliver came flying out from in front of Todoroki, the two tumbling across the line as Midoriya came third and a screaming Bakugo came fourth.
"WOW, AN AMAZING ABILITY OF QUIRK USAGE! IMPRESSIVE!" Present Mic congratulated. Oliver couldn't hear his praise, he was too busy seeing a panting and sweating Todoroki on top of him. He wasn't wearing his P.E. jacket anymore, only a white sleeveless shirt that was transparent with sweat.
"Umm...can you get off please?" Oliver asked shyly, face bright red. Todoroki did so, all while glaring at Oliver, who sat up and scratched the back of his head. The moment he left though, Midoriya had rushed up to Oliver, face bright with glee and excitement.
"AMAZING, you somehow managed to switch yourself with Todoroki's jacket, putting you literally on top of him! That had to have been so hard to do with the amount of concentration you had to do while running, that was so cool!" Midoriya gushed, before rattling on about his quirk. Oliver couldn't respond. He'd won first place, and that was all he could think about.
"...I'm so tired..." he said before plopping back down, head on the ground as he stared up into the sky.
- elsewhere -
At a dark room, a pale man with shaggy blue hair watched the U.A. Sports Festival on his computer screen, his left hand scratching harshly at his neck as he observed. "Oliver Rowe...so that's his name. And Midoriya...you'll both pay very soon..."