AN: Got into a groove, so here's a new chapter a bit earlier than expected. But first... I need help for a few chapters in the future. They'll obviously be choosing hero names, and I kinda wrote myself into a corner having Izuku's quirk be called quicksteel, when I could have just called it 'metallurgy' and had Quicksteel be his hero name... I'm not a fan of 'Metallurgy' as a hero name, but I'm not sure where to go from there. 'Deku' doesn't fit with the narrative of this AU, so does anyone have any alternative ideas? I wanted to stay within the same thematic elements so something like... 'The Forge' or 'Rider' or something like that... idk.
That being said, enjoy the chapter.
They're Off!
oooOo Izuku oOooo
Izuku made his way towards the locker room designated for class 1A, having just parted ways with All Might, who'd taken his hero form the minute they'd left the privacy of the personal locker room. Katsumi paced by his side, her brow furrowed in concentration.
They were about to perform in front of literally millions of people after all, thousands of who would be there in person. Katsumi hadn't really ever gotten nervous performing in front of others, at least not externally, but even so, with such a large crowd it was no wonder the girl was so focused.
"Midoriya, a word?"
Izuku paused, recognizing the voice of perhaps the least sociable of his classmates calling out to him. Todoroki was an enigma, and Izuku couldn't, for the life of him, think of reason why the formidable hero-in-training would want to speak with him.
"Go on, I'll catch up." He waved off Katsumi's narrowed glare, laughing lightly as she scowled at Todoroki's back once she'd passed him in the hallway.
Todoroki turned to walk away wordlessly, clearly expecting Izuku to follow.
Izuku took the hint, him to a hallway out of the most traversed paths of the stadium.
Todoroki turned to face him, heterocromatic eyes glinting intelligently behind bangs of a similar color scheme. He was silent for a few moments, staring unblinkingly into Izuku's own jade eyes, their similar height offering a neutral playing field in that regard. Whatever thoughts swirled under those often-emotionless eyes were anyone's guess. Izuku was still busy pondering why the boy had called him out in the first place.
"I'd been wondering whether to saying anything at all, considering recent events…" Todoroki's eyes flicked implicatively at Izuku's quicksteel prosthetic.
Izuku raised a single eyebrow in curiosity. What did that have to do with anything?
"Before the USJ, I'd have said you and I were pretty close in terms of power, but after your injury—"
"I wouldn't worry too much about that," Izuku cut in, eye twitching with irritation. The nerve of this guy… already disregarding him as a threat without a second glance.
"Like I said…" Todoroki paused, scratching his neck uncomfortably. "I wasn't sure whether to say anything in the first place, but… All Might has his eye on you, right?"
Izuku's eyes widened slightly, though he kept enough presence of mind to disguise it as a natural reaction. "What makes you say that?" Had Todoroki overheard something? Izuku was certain that the room they'd just come from had been secure, but one could never be sure…
Todoroki shrugged casually. "You just came out of a private room with him… you and Bakugo anyway…"
Izuku narrowed his eyes at the other boy. "I don't recall ever doing something that warranted a tail…"
"Hardly," Todoroki scoffed in a rare show of emotion. "Seeing you just now was merely a coincidence." He shrugged dismissively. "It doesn't really matter either way. I'd already planned to win this whole tournament, but taking down a favorite of All Might on the way would be the ideal scenario."
Izuku tilted his head curiously, silently studying the young hero-hopeful standing before him.
This obviously went beyond regular competitive spirit… Izuku had proven himself as one of the top students in their class for sure, but he wasn't the undisputed frontrunner by any means. Kacchan and Yaoyorozu had both proven themselves capable on several occasions, even if the latter wasn't as combat-oriented as he or Todoroki.
Did he have a grudge against All Might? Or perhaps this conversation was on the behalf of a different Todoroki…
"Anyway… that's all I wanted to say…" he said, turning to leave.
Izuku settled his quicksteel prosthetic onto Todoroki's shoulder, halting his departure. The boy tensed under his grip, turning back to Izuku with a narrowed gaze. "What is it?"
Izuku grinned savagely. "If winning the Sports Festival is your goal, then I'd advise against underestimating your competition so easily. It wouldn't do to get knocked out in the first round."
Izuku relaxed his grip, letting Todoroki stroll away after another beat of silence.
"You can come out now, Kacchan…" Izuku sighed.
Katsumi strolled around the corner, entirely unrepentant at her eavesdropping. "That was pretty badass, Deku. Who knew you had it in you?"
He slipped an arm around her waist, pulling her down the hall towards where they were meant to meet up with their class. "I'm surprised you managed to stay quiet that whole time…."
Katsumi grinned an unnerving grin. "There's nothing to say… Just pound him into the fucking dirt and he'll learn to respect his betters."
Izuku sighed. "I wouldn't go that far…" he said, tracing slow circles into the skin around her hip. He grinned as she shivered in response.
"But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to the combat events this year…."
"That's what I'm fuckin talkin' about! Time to crush the extras on National TV!"
oooOoOoOooo
Izuku'd slipped into the locker room assigned to their class a few moments behind Todoroki, the icy-hot user giving no indication of the conversation they'd had moments earlier. That had been fine with Izuku, but the atmosphere in the air had been heavy even without a public declaration of war. Each member of class 1-A went about settling their nerves for the day's events in their own way.
The usual group of Ashido, Kirishima, Kaminari and Kyouka stood in one corner of the room, nervously trading joking barbs, the electricity user seemingly taking the brunt of their teasing. Conversely, Momo sat alone, frantically reciting something under her breath. From what Izuku could hear, he vaguely recognized as information from her collection of encyclopedias.
He woudn't judge. Whatever helped the girl calm down was fine in his books.
But Izuku himself, like Katsumi by his side, was radiating anticipation, raring for a proper fight. He'd spent years of his childhood watching the newest upcoming rookies make their debut on this stage, and now, it was finally his turn to make his mark.
Before long, an event coordinator came to lead their class to lead them out into a long hallway that led straight into the blinding light of the open air stadium. As they grew closer to the light, the gentle buzz of the distant crowd grew into a deafening roar.
Yet cutting through that formidable noise with ease was the magnified voice of Present Mic, their resident announcer for the games. "The UA sports festival! The huge battle where fledgling heroes sharpen their swords once a year!"
Present Mic paused dramatically, ever the showman, as he waited for the exhultant cheers to die down. "Alriiiight! This first class needs no introduction, but they're getting one anyway! Taking on hardened villains in just their first year at UA and sending them packing! It's class 1A!"
Izuku was the first of his class to take that fateful step onto the stage where he planned to declare himself to the world. The light grew less blinding, while his smile did the opposite, as the tens of thousands of fans, practically an ocean of bodies packed into that massive stadium, filled his vision.
Their sister class was announced next, followed by the various business and general studies courses, but Izuku was too entranced by how positively tiny the stadium made him feel. The rooftop extended just far enough to provide shade for the spectators, leaving most of the grounds exposed to the elements.
Before long, they'd found themselves lined up with the rest of the competitors, some of which seeming disappointingly resigned to their fate, but the overwhelming majority appearing like they had something to prove.
Fantastic, Izuku grinned, his competitive spirit bubbling beneath the surface. What was the point if they didn't even try?
It was at that moment that Midnight, the Sports Festival's freshman hostess of the last several years decided to take the stage.
Izuku rubbed his forehead tiredly as the crowd erupted in the expected cheers and catcalls. To someone who followed the pro-hero scene as closely as he did, the voluptuous woman that strut her way up the short staircase to the stage was a walking contradiction. The most recent iteration of her hero costume, and in fact her hero persona as a whole, practically oozed eroticism. And yet, she'd been trusted to host perhaps the most publicly televised event in recent history, year after year.
It wasn't unheard of for a hero to use their looks to gain popularity, but Izuku knew that in the case of the R-rated hero, Midnight, it was merely a small part of the whole package. Beyond her sex appeal serving as a functional pairing with the pro-hero's quirk, she knew how to balance hero work, and what Izuku like to think of as her 'Daylight' persona…
Even as she played to the crowd at that very moment, it was obvious to anyone that hero captivated fans of any demographic. Izuku also recalled that in addition to her job at UA, the hero regularly made donations to improve opportunities for a hero career path in more rural areas across the country.
An echoing crack silenced those that hadn't been paying attention already. Midnight stood with a hip cocked to one side, her whip coiling loosely at her feet as she stared down at the assembled group of students with a positively hungry smile pulling at her lips. "Before we begin, we'll have the student representative of the hero course say a few words! From class 1A, Bakugo Katsumi!"
Izuku sighed, at least they'd given both he and Kacchan a heads up, since despite ending up with identical scores, Katsumi was chosen as the representative for their age group on a technicality. Ironically, villain points took priority over rescue points for the entrance exam, which explained why the girl still held first place over his own score.
That, however, was fine with Izuku. Public speaking had never been his strong suit despite long since overcoming his nervous disposition as a child. He was quite happy to leave the opening ceremony to the girl in question, grinning as she practically drank in the attention…
At the time, he hadn't given it much thought…. But in hindsight, giving her a mic in front of such a massive crowd may have not been the best idea. He should have known the girl would take advantage of such an opportunity to proclaim her superiority over each and every other student in attendance.
"I thought this was obvious enough, but repeating myself here might hold a bit more weight…" She carved an extended thumb threateningly across her neck. "I'm gonna beat all of you scrubs, and there's nothing you can do about it."
Oh, Kacchan…
To say the assembled first years weren't pleased would be a colossal understatement.
"Hey! What the hell!"
"The fuck do you think you are!?"
But the few angry shouts from the lined-up students were positively dwarfed by the deafening roar of the crowd. The response was not all negative, however.
Katsumi was belligerent and arrogant, for certain, but Izuku had known from a young age how compelling his girlfriend could be at times. It was one of the reasons he'd fallen in love with her after all…
Katsumi stood proudly on the stage, a negligent air about her, taking the cheers and jeers of the crowd head on. Another moment and she turned away, strolling confidently down the stairs leading down from the stage, coming to a stop once more at his side.
"Was that really necessary, Kacchan?" Izuku sighed lightly.
She grinned predatorily. "What can I say? gotta let the masses know who to look out for, not that they'll be able to look away once they see me with their own eyes." She slammed a fist into her palm, the motion sparking dangerous on impact.
"Are my eyes on you not enough?" Izuku said softly. He laughed as she flushed immediately, unprepared for the casual comment.
"Shut the fuck up, nerd. Don't distract me when I'm trynna; focus!"
"You two are adorable!" Uraraka whispered from two rows back.
Izuku shot out a hand to grip Katsumi's shoulder just in time to prevent the hotheaded girl from leaping over the seat in retaliation.
A crack of Midnight's whip pierced the rumbles of discontent within and out of the crowd and in another moment the woman had regained control. It seemed that her dominatrix persona wasn't just for show…
"Now, without any delay, let's get the first event started!" She gestured grandly to an enormous screen that appeared behind her, a plethora of different events cycling through on an automated randomizer. "These are the qualifiers, people. It's in this stage that the vast majority are sent home crying every year!" The options cycled slower and slower before coming to a stop at…
"It's the Obstacle Course Race!" Present Mic skillfully cut in. He went on to hype up the crowd. "A four kilometer race is hard enough, party people! But here at UA, the distance is the least of their worries! Quirk usage is unlimited in this chaotic free-for-all between every member of all eleven classes! Contestants must pass through the clearly marked checkpoints at the beginning and ends of every obstacle. As long as you don't go off the course, anything else is fair game!"
Izuku had been internally debating how strictly they'd enforce 'off the course,' as it'd probably save a lot of time to just avoid the obstacles altogether. But with the added bit about the checkpoints between obstacles, those areas would leave him more vulnerable than usual.
Midnight wasn't lying about the amount of eliminations in the first round, but there was still an opportunity for strategy. Izuku had personally seen every UA sports festival in the last decade, and despite a high variation between the first events, they always allowed for a decent number to move on to the second round. Only his own class knew the true scope of his abilities, it might be prudent to not show his entire hand right away…
"Three…"
But then again…
Izuku glanced to the crowds of competing students as they glared each other down. Kirishima in particular seemed to be mean-muggin' a student with ash-gray hair and odd markings around his eyes. They bodily shouldered each other out of they way, each vying for an optimum position on the starting line.
"Two…"
If he really wanted to make his mark, then an undisputed first had to be the way to go.
"One…"
Quicksteel rippled and flattened, and Izuku stepped onto his skyboard as it molded into existence, leaving the remaining mass of the material to float around his head for defense. He rose above the heads of the entire starting line, Shoji, Sato, Koda and some of the other students with more towering physiques glancing his way with widening eyes.
"START!"
He jolted forward, his quirk affording him a huge advantage over those struggling shoulder to shoulder for the even the slightest advantage. With so many participants, bottlenecking was only to be expected, and the problem was only heightened by the design of the course itself. With the starting pathway leading into a tunnel only a few meters wide it was like the tournament heads wanted them to brawl right away.
The roar of the crowd only served to remind him why.
Izuku led even the quickest students by meters in just a few seconds, at least until Iida sped past his position, shifting straight into fourth gear to take advantage of the straightaway once he'd broken free of the pack. Izuku widened a disk of quicksteel to block the debris kicked up by the motorized teen, only to pick up a flicker of movement in his right peripheral.
He ducked sharply, digging his quicksteel prosthetic into the surface of his skyboard as Katsumi came flying overhead, lashing out with a blazing palm in an attempt to disrupt his footing. Rather than pursue any further, she capitalized on his short moment of hesitation and zipped ahead, extending the lengths of her strides with localized explosions. The attack was nothing more than an opening salvo from the girl, and the subtle grin she shot back his way said as much better than any words could have.
Izuku's years of experience had him recovering his balance in mere moments, only to grin over at Todoroki who surfed a wave of ice parallel to his position. The dual element user apparently didn't share his mirth, instead narrowing his gaze at the approaching tunnel where Iida and Katsumi had already disappeared.
Izuku had a feeling that being trapped behind Todoroki in an enclosed area would only lead to his downfall, especially with the hero hopeful already so fixated on outperforming him. He leaned near-horizontally over his skyboard, pushing the quicksteel construct towards the upper limits of its top speed.
Pillars of crystal blue ice lanced across the distance between he and Todoroki, but Izuku's maneuverability proved superior as he weaved in between the obstacles and slipped in a few seconds ahead.
There. Izuku breathed a sigh of momentary relief as blinding sunlight was eclipsed by the tunnel. With the enclosed space limiting Todoroki's ability to travel by ice, Izuku was free to extend the distance between them while pursuing the two frontrunners. A glance towards the end of the tunnel told him that Kacchan wasn't that far ahead, but with the lack of turns so far, gods know how far ahead Iida had gotten.
"Ohhh and it looks like we've got a four-way battle for the lead as the contestants approach the tunnel! The engine man himself pulls ahead with a righteous burst of speed!" Present Mic cried into his… mic. "The tenacious Bakugo tears after him while the masters of sky and ice surf their way to victory! What the heck are those crazy quirks!?"
"The first true obstacle is the shape of the course," Aizawa drawled into his own mic, somehow still holding the device through mummified fists. "My problem children may have other goals in mind, but getting ahead before the bottleneck is the rational decision here."
"Nice commentary, Erasa'!"
Down on the field, Aizawa's words proved to be even more true than anyone thought when ice erupted around the already narrow tunnel entrance, blocking any other contestants from entering. However, true to the UA reputation, its students were not ones to stand idle.
On one side, Tokoyami's Dark Shadow powered directly through the blockage, while an orange-haired girl from class 1-B punched through in a similar manner with fists larger than her torso. Before too long, the ice blocking the way was weathered down by the various quirks of the UA participants, leaving the pathway clear for the masses of students to squeeze their way inside.
"Looks like our frontrunners have come upon the first combative aspect of the obstacle course! It's—"
oooOoOoOooo
"—ROBO INFERNOO!"
Izuku took to the skies almost immediately once he'd made his way to the end of the tunnel. A quick appraisal of the situation revealed Iida held up on the ground after finally being forced to cease his initial sprint. A line of refurbished Zero-pointers dotted the skyline, towering over the students that were so restricted by earthly tethers.
Luckily for Izuku, he had long-since abandoned such limitations, his mastery of his quirk allowing him to deftly dodge around the hulking metal monstrosities through the air. This was a race after all, and unlike during the Entrance exam, he had absolutely zero reason fight them in the first place.
But he wasn't the only one.
Katsumi blasted her way ahead in a similar manner, the small lead from earlier giving her a prime positioning to pass up the stalled Iida. She seemingly danced through the air as precision explosions from her hands and feet propelled her around reaching mechanical claws. Before he knew it, Katsumi was smashing directly through a final robot's limb with a blast hot enough to melt through its protective hull. Propelled by the force of the explosion, she flipped over the shoulder joint and slipped into the machine's blind spot.
Izuku tilted his skyboard down to pursue her, knowing that if either one of them got a particularly sizeable lead, their superior maneuverability would make it next to impossible for the other to catch up. It was why Kacchan had attacked him so directly right at the start, and he was paying for losing the initiative now.
But just as Izuku was picking up speed, he felt a chill through his quirk, his breath ghosting in the air air, and that could only mean—
Whooooosh!
Glassy blue ice of glacial proportions lanced through the space Izuku had previously occupied, crashing into and encapsulating the majority of hulking Zero pointers. The titanic robots struggled within their frosty prisons but for the moment seemed unable to move a mechanical muscle.
Izuku shook off his momentary shock at the display of power by his classmate. During the battle with the League of Villains they'd been surrounded by both active and injured comrades, so Todoroki hadn't really had an opportunity to really let loose with either of his elemental abilities. It seemed the dual quirked hero shared a love for robotic opponents with Kacchan, being able to fight them at full power without worrying about killing somebody.
But Todoroki had been kind enough to clear a path, and Izuku wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. He shot off in pursuit of his hotheaded girlfriend, who'd extended her lead while he'd been busy dodging glaciers.
He peered ahead, noting how the landscape opened up into a wide chasm with only a few dozen scattered pillars affording stable footing. Katsumi seemed to be leaping from platform to platform ignoring the provided ropes connecting the pillars. The wind whipped at Izuku's bangs as he tucked down into his board for maximum aerodynamics. Unlike Kacchan, whose mobility he knew was limited by the kickback of repeated use of her explosion quirk, it was only Izuku's vulnerability to heat that could weaken his control over quicksteel.
Izuku dove sharply to clear the checkpoint between the robot obstacle and the chasm, then rocketed along the ground kicking up dust and debris in his wake. After a moment, the ground dropped out from under him, but he ignored it, continuing to whip across the chasm after Katsumi at close to his top speed. Within seconds, and just as Katsumi crested the hill dividing what Izuku vaguely heard Present Mic call the 'The Fall' and the next obstacle, he closed the gap enough to read the glint in fiery blonde's eye.
She flipped around, propping her back against the slope of the wall, and gripped her right wrist with her left as an orange glow smoldered in her palm. "No free wins, Deku!" she growled, grinning dangerously. "If you wanna' pass me, you're gonna have to fight me for it!"
Verdant eyes widening, Izuku combined his entire mass of quicksteel into his skyboard, expanding it into a shield wide enough to guard against the attack. His quirk responded just in the nick of time as Kacchan's explosion erupted, setting the space around him alight with a conflagration of heat and smoke.
Izuku flinched at the almost debilitating fatigue that washed over him in that moment, beads of sweat springing into existence on his brow. Katsumi must have superheated that particular explosion, knowing better than anyone the not-so-obvious drawbacks of his quirk. If he didn't have that kind of defensive power to fall back on, that attack could have roasted him alive. Izuku certainly knew her intentions, but even as he curled up behind his half dome of quicksteel waiting out the explosion, he feared how the world would perceive her seemingly vicious actions.
oooOo Rumi oOooo
Glinting ruby eyes surveyed the luxurious VIP booth that housed some of the Sports Festival's most prominent guests. Nearly every private table was filled to capacity with pros, not to mention the various agency representatives accompanying them, all of who were itching to get their hands on any rising young talent that would be featured year after year.
Imported Italian leather covered every chair while the wooden lounge tables gleamed with a polished sheen. The entire north side of the room was covered by floor to ceiling panoramic windows overlooking the stadium at the optimum height to view the later rounds of the tournament. Food and drinks were, of course, provided free of charge. It was, after all, one of the only reasons Rumi had bothered to even to show up this year.
When it came to sheer entertainment, the third-year students competing in the Sports Festival would obviously put up a better showing, having had a much longer period of time to train and refine their quirks. But despite that fact, it was the first-year competitors that always drew the attention of the pros.
The reason was quite obvious if given a bit of thought. Once a hero in training had worked with a chosen agency for a semester or more, it was only the rare exception for that student to switch to another. So, while the second and third-year students normally offered much more in terms of competition and sponsorships, it was only the first years that were truly free agents without any previous commitments.
Her booted soles thumped repeatedly against the luxiourious oak wood floors in agitation. She'd never had any patience for the bureaucratic or marketing aspects of the hero lifestyle, and the thought of having to watch these kids being paraded about for half the day didn't really appeal to her all that much.
As if punctuating her point, the hero yawned, stretching lean, mocha-colored arms past a pair of long, crooked rabbit ears.
"You could at least try to act like you're paying attention, Mirko."
She glanced to the source of the voice, recognizing the lecturing tone of No. Four Hero, Best Jeanist, who stood before her in all his denim glory…
She rolled her eyes dismissively. "Fuck off, Tsunagu, I'm not one of your prissy towelboys to order around." Rumi eyed the Pro's outfit with obvious distain. "Still wearing that ridiculous getup I see?" She smirked, exposing a row of astonishingly white teeth.
"Must you always be so vulgar…" the man sighed, placing a splayed hand over his brow. "Besides, you don't seem to mind my brand yourself…" he added, eyeing the grey material that clung to Mirko's powerful yet feminine legs.
She scowled, avoiding his gaze, knowing he was probably grinning triumphantly underneath that absurd collar of his. The stylized 'Jeanist' logo that was woven into the back pocket of her pants wasn't currently visible, seated as she was, but she had no doubt that the pro could recognize his own work in a millisecond.
"Not my fault they make my ass look great…" she muttered, crossing her legs petulantly. What could she say… the man could make a great pair of jeans, and as much as she loved her own hero costume, there was nothing like lounging about in casual clothes on her rare days off.
Rumi's publicist had begged her to attend the first-year events of the festival this year, even if she didn't intend to apprentice any students. So, in a rare show of compliance, she'd shown up, prepared to be bored out of her mind for the next four or five hours.
But that was before Rumi had seen the little blonde spitfire in action…
The crowd erupted into a cacophony of cheers and jeers as the various widescreens arranged around the stadium were painted a fiery orange, providing multiple angles of the Bakugo girl as she rocketed around the obstacle course with the grace of a dancer and the power of an apex predator.
The VIP room rumbled with a slightly more civilized yet no less opinionated reaction when the girl had demonstrated her brutality. She didn't hesitate in the slightest to directly attack the other competitors, appearing particularly fixated on the athletic looking boy that doggedly tailed her rapid progress through UA's vaunted obstacles. Though Rumi didn't blame the girl, as judging by the commentary by Present Mic and Eraserhead, the two were both classmates and had probably been competing since the beginning of the year.
"She's too reckless…" Jeanist commented with narrowed eyes from where he'd taken a seat beside her.
"She's brilliant." Rumi countered, her grin once again unerringly wide.
"Oh? It's odd for you to take an interest in a student, Mirko…" Jeanist commented.
That was true enough…
This time of year heroes usually clamored to attract promising young hopefuls to their agencies.
But she was different from the rest.
Not only was she the highest-ranking Heroine in Japan, but disregarding All Might, and really, anyone would be foolish to consider themselves on the same level, she was the only solo hero currently holding a position in the top ten. It'd been years since she'd last taken a sidekick, let alone a tagalong still in school, and she'd had no intention of breaking that trend.
But this one…
Rumi watched the display, ruby eyes flashing with fascination as the girl spun around before prepping an attack that promised to leave destruction in its wake.
"Somebody stop her!"
"She's gonna kill that kid!"
Mirko scoffed as some of the pencil-pushers in attendance audibly panicked. Despite Jeanist's comment on the girl's recklessness, she'd demonstrated a commendable amount of control over such a potentially destructive quirk. Considering the two seemed to know each other, it wasn't like the Bakugo girl would try to kill the guy… not unless he'd been a real dick or something…
By no will of her own, the thumping of Mirko's foot picked up in pace, this time spurred by anticipation rather than boredom. Could the green-haired boy handle the heat?
oooOo Izuku oOooo
"Erasa! What the hell are you teaching those students of yours!? Bakugo blasts the pursuing Midoriya to kingdom come! I'm not sure he'll make it out of this on—"
"—He's fine, look closer…" Aizawa said blandly, cutting over the entergetic commentary of the blond commentater beside him.
Sure enough, a blur of shining metal pierced through the cloud of billowing smoke and debris, making a beeline for the far end of the mindfield.
Globules of quicksteel dripped off the remains of his skyboard in liquid form, returning to their default position trailing behind his head. The heat from Kacchan's blast had left Izuku struggling to mold enough to stay aloft, let alone dodge the blasts that the girl continued to shoot back at him over her shoulder.
Luckily for him, the Katsumi's stamina was flagging from the massive explosion she'd fired off earlier, making her attacks weak enough to avoid even on a busted version of his skyboard. He clumsily skidded through the final checkpoint at the end of the minefield, sparing a short glance over his shoulder, picking out Katsumi just a few meters behind him, and just behind her, Todoroki, sliding straight across path of ice, avoiding the explosives lying in wait.
Given enough time, the dual quirk user may have been able to catch up to Izuku's position, but the finish line was in sight, leaving Katsumi as the only true competition remaining. Both their quirks were well and truly exhausted, but if there was anything Izuku was truly proud of, it was the extent that he'd gone to train his physical body.
That being said, Katsumi certainly made him work for it, doggedly pursuing his lead position until He'd staggered across the finish line, collapsing to the ground a moment later while heaving great lungfuls of air. Following his lead a moment later, Katsumi scowled, flopping down beside him and digging a bony elbow with unerring accuracy into his exposed torso.
The roar of the crowd and the perhaps even more deafening cries of the Present mic's continuous commentary drowned out any of the words she'd tried to speak to him, but Izuku got the general idea.
It's only the first round, nerd…
Don't get cocky, Deku, I'll waste you in the tournament…
He'd had plenty of practice interpreting.
oooOoOoOooo
Considering the vast variations between each event of the sports festival year to year, timed records weren't actually considered legitimate. That being said, he and Katsumi, and to a lesser degree, Todoroki, who'd come in third, had put up some of the most respectable obstacle course times UA had seen in years.
It was certainly a fantastic first step in making his mark on the world and hopefully, All Might could look on this performance with pride.
It'd taken nearly half an hour for the last of the competitors to cross the finish line, but when they had, the placings had astounded him.
Granted, 1-A had very clearly dominated the majority of the top ten spots, but after that, there were just as many unknown faces as those from his class. Izuku really shouldn't have been surprised, there was an entire other class of first year hero students of which he had no information on, not to mention the gen-ed kids that Kacchan had brought up in passing earlier that week. Izuku had known the drawbacks to taking such a brute force approach to the first event, and it appeared he'd being paying for it now with his total lack of intel on the rest of the participants.
As Midnight went on to explain the rules of the next event, a super powered Cavalry battle from the sound of it. His first thought was to locate a suitable teammate to act as a sturdy foundation, but reconsidered it a moment later. Team scores were totaled, so there was no reason he couldn't act as the horse. Hell… if he chose a small enough team, couldn't he just carry them out of reach so they could wait out the time limit… Was that even allowed?
"—our first-place participant is worth… Ten Million Points!" Midnight's voice cut through his thoughts, while also throwing a wrench in all his plans.
Izuku certainly felt a tangible shift in atmosphere, as the various students surrounding him all turned to stare him down. But he'd spent the greater portion of his life around Kacchan of all people. These weak-ass glares were nothing to him. He tilted his head slightly, cocking an unimpressed eyebrow at his 'hunters.'
"Teams have fifteen minutes to finalize their rosters, begin!" Midnight snapped her whip, spurring the participants into action.
Izuku glanced around, taking his time to observe the enemy teams as they came together. There was no point to rushing, either someone was willing to have a target on their back or they weren't, anyone who wanted to be on his team would find him eventually.
"Hey, you, million-pointer…"
Izuku turned, not recognizing the voice of the person that called out to him. "Yeah, what is i—"
His mind went blank.