The next two weeks passed in a moment and the day of the Sports Festival finally arrived. News reporters flooded the school grounds with cameras that recorded everyone and everything. It was an introvert's worst nightmare.
Ritsu walked among the crowd, a plain, black jacket over his uniform, a surgical mask on his face, and his telltale spiky hair gelled down. It was a bit much, but this getup was his plan to stay unrecognizable at the festival. And with the press mainly focused on the heroes, he should have been able to blend into the crowd, but someone insisted on walking with him to school that day.
"Did you really have to come with me?"
"What? Is an older brother not allowed to drop his precious little brother off at school? Especially on such a big day?" Teruki, walking next to him, asked this as if his bright clothing and neon sneakers weren't drawing any attention.
"If the older brother happens to be you, then yes." Ritsu cautiously side-eyed the people slowly drifting toward Teruki. He still didn't understand how someone as annoying as the blond was able to draw others to him. Teruki was like a people magnet and Ritsu just so happened to be one of these people if him being in a whole other world was anything to go by.
"You're always so kind, Brother-kun," Teruki jeered. He then leaned in close and lowered his voice, "You have your phone on you, right?"
Ritsu nodded.
"The moment you see Endeavor, text me."
Ritsu's brows raised then lowered. "You couldn't have just told me that at the apar—" when he turned to face the older boy, he found that no one was besides him and the blond, with all his bright clothing, had already managed to disappear into the crowd; a feat that flabbergasted Ritsu. In fact, he was so flabbergasted that he didn't notice the news reporter in front of him until he bumped into her.
The woman jumped at the impact and turned to face him. His mother's training immediately kicked in and he began to apologize to the lady and—
Oh.
He had met this reporter before.
'No. Nonononononono. Not again.'
"Hey," the lady started, her cameraman (the same one from before) facing him too, "have I seen you somewhere before?"
Without saying anything or even bothering to finish his apology, Ritsu turned and made a beeline for the school, only stopping when he reached the locker room. He made sure to slam the door shut behind him, fearing that she might have chased him like before. The noise made the few other students inside—all from different departments—look up at him. He brushed them off with a small wave and threw on his own PE clothes before heading to 1-A's waiting room.
Inside, the air was electric. His classmates were scattered around, some sitting at various tables and others stretching on the floor, and their excited chatter filled the space.
Ritsu tuned out the voices in favor of scanning the room and stopped once he spotted a familiar mop of green hair sitting at one of the tables. He made his way over and silently slid into the seat next to Midoriya who was eagerly talking to Uraraka about heroes.
"Hey Kageyama," the other boy quickly greeted. He spared him a glance, turned to continue his conversation with Uraraka, and then snapped his head to face Ritsu again with wide eyes.
Uraraka gave him an identical stare then blurted out, "Your spikes are gone!" She spread her fingers apart and brought them to her head in a peculiar imitation of his usual hairstyle.
"Hello to you too." Ritsu let out a sheepish laugh and touched his flattened hair, "I'm just feeling a bit under the weather. I didn't really feel like putting too much effort into my hair today." Which was a lie because his hair was naturally spiky and it had taken a good chunk of his morning to gel it down.
"I hope you feel better soon," Midoriya looked at him with concern and then brightened up. "I was just talking with Uraraka about who she'd like to get an internship with after all of this. Endeavor's your favorite hero, right? Are you going to try and get an internship with him?" Midoriya's question seemed to grab Todoroki's attention, although Ritsu wasn't too sure why.
He pondered the question, recounting his one interaction with the hero, before responding,. "No. I don't think that he could help me all that much with telekinesis."
"That makes sense." Midoriya then muttered to himself, "Do I even know of any telekinetic heroes?"
"Besides, I doubt that he'd even be here," Ritsu added, not that he actually meant that. However, Teruki was still waiting for his text and at least one of his classmates must have seen the hero. He was pretty hard to miss with his flaming beard and all.
"No, he's here," a voice, much too dispassionate to be Midoriya's, said.
Ritsu turned around to find Todoroki looking at him. The boy slightly squinted at Ritsu's altered appearance but swiftly smoothed out his features again.
"How do you know?" Ritsu asked. "Did you see him earlier?"
"He dropped me off."
A puzzled look fell upon Ritsu's face and he tilted his head at the boy. Was it a normal thing here for the number two hero to be giving out rides? Or was it just Todoroki specifically?
"I'm his son," Todoroki said this as though it was the most boring fact about him.
Ritsu's brows shot up. He let out a soft "Oh" and took in the boy's red hair and blue eye. He then looked down, somewhat embarrassed. Yeah, he could see the resemblance.
Midoriya and Uraraka weren't helping with their snickers. He turned to face them with a look of betrayal, which only served to make Uraraka snort.
"You didn't know?" Uraraka asked between gasps of air, "They have the same last name!"
"I only met the guy once, okay?" Ritsu frowned at her although it had no real heat behind it and she couldn't even see it due to his mask. "I haven't exactly been paying much attention to heroes until recently."
Midoriya, whose chuckles had died down much quicker than Uraraka's, gave him a small, knowing smile. Ritsu smiled back, his eyes crinkling.
"Okay, everyone!" Yaoyorozu called out. "The festival will start any moment now, so make sure that you're ready!"
Beside him, Midoriya got out of his seat and placed a hand atop his racing chest. Strangely enough, Todoroki's eyes followed the boy. As for Uraraka, she had gotten up to talk with Asui.
Ritsu used everyone's diverted attention to dig into his pocket. He pulled out the phone Teruki had given him a while back and typed out a simple message.
He's here }
He put it away and tuned back into the conversations going on around him just in time to hear Todoroki say, "I'm going to beat you."
And it seemed that he wasn't the only one who heard because all of the chatter ceased. Everyone—himself included—turned to face Todoroki. The standoffish boy was looking directly at Midoriya, not minding the attention he was drawing.
"Woah," Kaminari exclaimed from his seat at another table, "a declaration of war from the strongest kid in class." Bakugou, who sat beside him, sucked his teeth at that.
"Hey man, there's no need to be so confrontational!" Kirishima reached out a hand to grab Todoroki's arm and it was promptly slapped away.
"I'm not here to make friends or anything but whatever."
Ritsu looked to Midoriya who had yet to say anything. His head was down and his fists were clenched at his sides.
"I don't know what you want from me," he said softly. "You're stronger than me. You're probably stronger than the majority of us, looking at it objectively."
"Come on, Midoriya," Kirishima let out a weak laugh, "there's no need to be so negative."
"But, even so—" a quiet courage surrounded the freckled boy— "Everyone, even kids from other departments, are aiming for the top with all their might! So I have to do the same!" Midoriya looked away from the floor and straight into Todoroki's eyes, "I'm going to go for it with all my might too!"
This was Ritsu's third time seeing it. The first time was in his fight against Bakugou and the second was during their conversation in Recovery Girl's office. Midoriya's iron will.
Todoroki gave Midoriya a small nod and, without breaking eye contact, said, "The same goes for you, Kageyama."
Ritsu almost choked on nothing. He turned to the standoffish boy and blinked owlishly at him.
"What?"
"You heard me," Todoroki said, finally turning to look at him.
Ritsu tried to ignore how everyone's attention shifted to him as he asked, "Why?"
"You were the first person to beat me." Todoroki took a step toward where he was sitting. "Therefore, you're the first hurdle I have to surpass."
"Look, Todoroki," Ritsu started, trying to deescalate the situation, "I'm not all that interested in fighting you. What about Ojiro? He was the one who pinned you down in the first place so he'd make a perfect hurdle!"
"Hey! Don't lump me into this!"
"No," Todoroki barely spared the now relieved Ojiro a glance. "I would've been able to defend myself if you hadn't pinned my arm down. Whether or not you want to fight doesn't concern me, I'm going to beat you too."
The conversations in the room hesitantly started up again and Ritsu internally groaned. From Mr. Monologue to Todoroki, everyone at UA was far too competitive.
"Not so fast, Icy Hot." Bakugou jumped out of his own chair and pushed Todoroki aside to glare at Ritsu. "So you got second place, huh?" he sneered. "What score did you get?"
Someone up there was definitely laughing at his expense. Maybe it was Daguchi's aunt. She was probably still mad about him exorcising her and thus made it her goal to make it impossible for Ristu to blend in. Especially when he was trying his hardest to.
"What? Are you looking to beat me too?" God, he hoped not.
"Just answer the damn question, Porcupine." The insult lost a lot of its meaning with Ritsu's slicked back hair.
"To be honest, I really don't see how that's any of your business." Someone who told others to throw themselves off of buildings wasn't really someone that Ritsu wanted to have any business with.
That only infuriated the boy more. He leaned in close to Ritsu and practically growled, "How about I show you what's my business, dipshit?" As if he had the right to be demanding things.
"You know what?" Ritsu slammed his hands onto the table and stood to face the blond. Despite the height difference, he stared directly into Bakugou's eyes and matched the boy's fury with his own. "Try it," he bit out. He hadn't punched an annoying blond in a good while.
Bakugou, not letting up, snarled at him.
Ritsu got so caught up with Bakugou that he just began to realize how quiet the room had gotten. He reluctantly broke eye contact with the blond to chance a glance at everyone. Even though Bakugou was the one instigating the fight, all their eyes were focused on Ritsu. Of course they were. Bakugou had built up a reputation of being irate; no one would bat an eye at him getting angry. Ritsu, on the other hand, had specifically built up a reputation of being fairly quiet and calm. Now that he was being the exact opposite of both of those, who wouldn't look?
He took a deep breath and sat back down.
Bakugou almost looked disappointed.
"If I tell you," Ritsu spoke softer this time, trying to reset the status quo, "will you leave me alone?"
The blond just grunted, which wasn't a yes and wasn't a no, but, somehow, Ritsu knew that that was the best he would get.
"I got 76 points."
Ritsu could see that something in Bakugou broke at that. He couldn't really say what, but it was clearly enough to make the boy freeze. His eyes went wide and his breath heavy and Ritsu worried. Was he going to have a panic attack again?
"Come on everyone!" Iida shouted, despite the room already being fairly quiet, "We're heading out now!" Everyone slowly followed him, shaking the daze from their minds and walking with confidence. The only ones that stayed behind were a still Bakugou and a troubled Ritsu.
Seemingly sensing that someone was concerned about him (or as the blond would likely put it: 'looking down on him'), Bakugou grit is teeth. He then glared at Ritsu in the same way he glared at Midoriya when he declared that he was going to be number one.
"77," he said and Ritsu knew exactly what it meant. "Forget about Icy Hot, I'm the one who's going to beat you."
The blond then turned away and made his way to the entrance. Ritsu followed close behind.
{ He's here
Teruki looked at the message, shoved the phone back into his pocket, and bounced his leg. He had done that a total of six times now, patiently waiting for the opportunity to break off from the group.
Endeavor Agency was much grander than the other agencies he'd been to. The ceilings were high and the floors were a clean, white marble. It was also incredibly hot. He already regretted wearing Ritsu's dark jeans but was grateful that he had opted to wear his short sleeved 'Dosei' shirt rather than his yellow sweater.
His tour group was smaller this time with only 15 people making it up and the tour guide at the front. They had come to another stop and the guide talked excitedly about it. What 'it' was was something that Teruki couldn't be bothered to pay attention to. After already hearing her talk for the past hour, he had gotten bored and his attention drifted to the random job listings on the bulletin board (nothing truly important. Just menial jobs like managing plants and janitorial work) as he waited for her to finally make the announcement.
"Okay!" The woman turned around to face them with a bright smile on her face and a loud clap, grabbing his attention. "Time for the 45 minute lunch break!"
She guided the group toward an open elevator and pressed the button for the fifth floor. As it rose she did a head count of everyone in the cramped space and then gave herself a small, pleased nod.
When the elevator reached its stop, she stepped out and motioned to the giant mess hall with wide arms. The reactions from the group were varied but everyone was clearly excited about the wide range of food by the way they all rushed out of the elevator.
All except Teruki. No, he stayed behind, now invisible. He waited for the elevator doors to close and pressed the button for the top. When the elevator rose and the soft music began to play, Teruki closed his eyes and waited. When the elevator came to a stop much sooner than it should've, his eyes snapped open, alert.
The elevator opened to reveal a woman with bright yellow, flaming hair. Teruki pressed himself against the wall as she stepped in and the doors shut, trapping him in with her.
She turned to press her floor number and he marginally relaxed. Only to have his heart race when she did a double take and squinted at the buttons for the floors. Her focus was solely on the button he had pressed. Which was glowing.
"What the—?" She spun on her heels and looked around the slowly rising elevator. Her orange eyes swept the room. Teruki's breath caught in his throat as they stayed on his corner of the suffocating box longer than the other areas.
'Stop looking for something', he pleaded. 'There's nothing to find, so please just sto—'
A catchy ringtone blared.
The woman jumped a bit in surprise before reaching into her pocket and pulling out a phone.
"Yeah?" she said, revealing her sharp canines. A rushed voice spoke on the other side and Teruki watched as her face shifted from impassive to surprised to annoyed.
"You did what?" she snapped. She faced the doors again, forgetting about the glowing button, and marched out of the elevator as soon as it came to her stop, yelling very specific instructions about putting out fires into her phone the whole way.
The relief that flooded his system once the doors closed again was euphoric. He was still slightly on edge as the elevator rose again, but no one else tried to get on.
Reaching the top, the elevator let out a soft 'ding' and Teruki tentatively stepped out. He stood in a narrow hallway with no doors. Which wasn't too bizarre. He figured that he could probably find one if he walked long enough. So, he picked a direction and began walking.
He turned left at the end of the hall and began walking down another, identical one. One elevator. No doors.
Reaching the end of that hall, he turned left again. And, once again, he was facing another identical hallway. One elevator. No doors.
He walked.
Turned left.
Walked again.
Turned left.
And walked again.
He stood in front of the elevator he had taken to get up there—at least, he believed that was the elevator he had taken—and thought. All of his turns were 90 degrees and he had only taken four turns. He had come full circle and found nothing.
It was frustrating but Teruki wasn't one to give up. There had to be more to this. Taking a deep breath, he turned and walked again.
He walked in circles for two grueling minutes. Every second driving him more and more mad. The office was obviously on the other side of the wall, but there was not a single seam to hint at the presence of a door.
Teruki came to a rough stop in front of one of the elevators (he'd stopped focussing on which one he came in through after his eighth lap) and stared at the floor. Why couldn't he figure the cursed floor out? He was better than this. He had built whole social systems to revolve around him, there was no way that he was going to let a hallway, of all things, best hi—
The telltale ding of an elevator reaching its floor rang out.
His heart dropped.
Ritsu had told him that Endeavor was at the festival, hadn't he? So then why was he back so soon? Was everything about his day going to fall apart?
The elevator doors opened up, not to reveal the imposing figure of the flame hero, but the lean form of a janitor who looked to be in his late 20s.
He felt like laughing.
What was with him and almost getting caught by janitors?
The man wheeled his cart out of the elevator and Teruki stepped aside to make sure that he didn't get hit. However, the man didn't bother turning right or left once stepping out. Instead, he let out a soft, accented greeting.
"Good mornin'."
Teruki would've leapt out of his skin if it weren't for the fact that the man was staring directly at the wall.
The wall, in turn, let out a soft beep before pushing inward, revealing an outline of a door. He watched from the side as the janitor reached forward and pushed on the new door, opening it. The man stepped in and Teruki started to follow.
Then his pocket buzzed.
Teruki barely hid around the corner before the janitor could turn toward the direction of the noise. He grabbed the phone and, without even glancing at the number, jabbed his finger on the decline button. Huffing, he shoved it back in his pocket.
He turned back around the corner. The hidden door was already closed and the janitor gone, so he resolved to go in as the janitor left. He made himself comfortable, knowing that it would take a while for the man to finish cleaning.
His pocket buzzed again.
The phone was in his hand in a second.
"What?" he hissed.
"Hanazawa-kun?"
Teruki suppressed a large groan.
"What do you want, Giran?"
A chuckle came from the other side of the phone. "It is you, perfect! I was beginning to wonder if I called the wrong phone."
"Please just get to the point." Teruki rubbed his forehead. "I'm in the middle of something."
"Well then you better excuse yourself—"
A pit formed in the blond's gut.
"—because you owe me a favor."
The crowd was huge. As in, I'm-merely-a-droplet-in-a-waterfall huge. Their roars of applause as his class entered were deafening and made Ritsu second guess his getup. After all, who would pay attention to one measly student out of hundreds?
He noticed all the pro heroes among the crowd immediately. It was hard not to with how many of them filled the stands. And all of their eyes were focused on the festival rather than a certain blond who may or may not be sneaking into their offices.
Eleven freshman classes filed onto the field. Meaning that a total of 220 students would be competing in the first challenge. Ritsu could work with that.
From what he'd watched of the previous Sports Festivals, there were three events. The first event was always the biggest filter, cutting out well over half of the competition, leaving about 40 students left. The last event was always a tournament bracket made up of 16 students.
Ritsu's plan was simple: Get out during the second event. Not making it through the first one would be suspicious and getting to the last one would draw everyone's attention, so the second was the best option. He'll score averagely at 21st place in the first event and then purposely lose in the next.
Midnight, a hero with a costume far too promiscuous for a school event, had been the one to announce them. She stood on an elevated stage in the center of the field, drawing in everyone's attention.
"Welcome all!" She held herself with confidence and had a smile on her face as she spoke. "Let's skip the pleasantries and get straight to it! Starting with the class representative, Bakugou Katsuki of 1-A!"
"Wait, why is he our rep again?" Kaminari mumbled.
Ashido looked at him with bug eyes and poked the blond's head, "Does this thing seriously not work? He scored first in the entrance exam, remember?"
"Yeah," a girl from another class scoffed, "the Heroics entrance exam."
Ritsu, who had been idly listening, frowned at that. He thought of the purple haired boy. Just how many students disliked the Heroics Department?
Bakugou, with his hands in his pockets, pushed his way through the crowd and made his way to the stage. As he leaned over to speak into the mic, something in Ritsu just knew that he was going to say something stupid.
"I'm gonna get first place."
Immediately, shouts of disapproval came from the crowd and the students. Some of the comments made included, "Don't push your luck 1-A!", "You're getting real cocky!", and "Why must you insist on lowering our good graces!?".
Bakugou made a cut throat motion, something incredibly foolish to do to an irritated crowd. He made his way down from the stage and looked directly at Ritsu as he joined the mass of students again.
What Ritsu saw in those red eyes wasn't cocksureness nor foolishness. It was the pure determination of someone who knew exactly what they were doing.
"Well now that that's over, let's jump directly into the first event!" The 'speech' did nothing to quell Midnight's flare. She pointed a red nail behind her and a giant holographic screen appeared. "Which will be—" multiple different event options flew across the screen before slowing down and settling on one— "an obstacle course!"
A weird mechanical noise fills the air. Ritsu turns around to find a giant metal door opening up, revealing a passageway. The students who were in the back are now at the front as everyone slowly made their way to the passageway.
"A race between all 11 classes! The course is around four kilometers long and littered with obstacles!" Midnight's voice then seemed to gain an evil edge, "Who will make it, and who will cry like a baby? We won't know until we start!
"On your marks..."
Ritsu assessed the students around him.
"Get set..."
Getting 21st out 220 shouldn't be too difficult.
"GO!"
The students broke out into a frenzy, all trying to push through the doorway. Ritsu could barely keep his footing as he got pushed and shoved into others. The doorway was far too small for so many people to fit through.
'Are we being filtered out already?'
Suddenly, even making it into the top 40 seemed like a daunting task.
The temperature drops.
Ritsu knows exactly what that means.
The floor becomes covered in ice, holding a large chuck of students in place, and Todoroki races ahead. Ritsu's already floating as multiple indignant shouts fill the air. One particularly loud one comes from Bakugou, who uses his explosions to launch him off the ground.
"Bitch move, Icy Hot!"
Ritsu, along with multiple other students who managed to break free or avoid the ice, follow suit.
Deliberately running near the back of the crowd, Ritsu looks at those around him. He'd guess that about 60 students managed to get past the first obstacle, which is somewhat hard to believe when just moments ago there were so many. He does a head count (one of the heads belonging to a weirdly tall person) of the students in front of him and finds that he's in 35th place.
Frowning, he increases his speed. Over a distance of around 30 meters, he manages to pass up 10 students. He passes the 11th when he notices something very odd at the corner of his vision.
A little ways ahead of him, was the weirdly tall student, which he now realized was Eyebags (a much shorter name than Mr. Monologue that also matched the boy's dark circles) from two weeks ago. The odd thing about him was that he was being carried by three other students. All of which had glossy, dazed eyes.
'Strange.'
Mind control. That was the only logical conclusion Ritsu could muster up. How else would someone be able to explain forcing others into submission?
Two memories attacked him at once.
One was of him in a shady alley. Red circles on his cheeks, a smile on his face, power in his veins, and dozens of delinquents frozen in motion through his will alone. Dozens of delinquents that are thrown this way and that like ragdolls.
The other was of a single, bitter question: "They let someone with a quirk like yours into the Heroics Department?"
Ritsu faltered. He barely stopped himself from crashing to the ground as shame and disappointment filled his system. He fell back into his stride but thoughts invaded his mind.
Who was he to call mind control strange when he's used his powers purely for violence before?
But that was a year ago wasn't it? He wasn't like that anymore.
And what was with the second memory? If Eyebags wanted to get into heroics, he should've just tried harder. Who else could hold him back but himself?
Something in the back of Ritsu's mind screamed that he couldn't possibly be that stupid.
He ignored it.
He didn't have time to think about thoughts. What he needed to focus on was the race and the fact that he was three places behind where he thought he was. He pushed himself to run faster.
27th.
26th.
25th.
He ran past the group of mind controled students.
21st.
Perfect.
His pace slowed down and he settled into a comfortable run. Just as he was beginning to zone out, he was passed by the purple haired boy and his minions.
25th.
Of course Eyebags couldn't make this easy for him. It was ridiculous of Ritsu to even hope that this would be easy. Nevertheless, he suppressed a sigh and ran faster.
21st.
And, surprisingly, he wasn't immediately passed up again. He had a solid ten seconds of peace before a gust of wind and flames flew past him because of course one of his minions had some rocket type quirk.
25th.
Eyebags had the audacity to look back at him and smirk.
Oh, okay. Two could play that game.
Ritsu sped up and then jumped. Assisted by telekinesis, he flew through the air. He dropped down a ways away from Eyebags and hit the ground running.
21st.
As much as he wanted to turn back to see Eyebags' reaction, that would no doubt slow him down. So for now, he'd have to rely on imagination.
Ritsu takes a turn and oh. It turns out that looking back wasn't what was going to slow him down. How did he even manage to forget that this was an obstacle course?
Eyebags came up to his side and sneered. "You tried so hard to pass me and you're stopping no—oh."
A herd of giant 0-pointers stood before them, not that things trying to kill him was unusual. It was just that Todoroki decided to freeze all of them off balance. So while he was running past them, the robots started crashing down on everyone else.
"TODOROKI OF 1-A HAS FORGED A PATH FOR HIMSELF AND BLOCKED OUT THE OTHERS IN ONE FELL SWOOP!" Present Mic's voice rang out through the speakers. "THE KID'S HAAARSH!"
"That jerk," Ritsu muttered.
"What an asshole," Eyebags grumbled at the same time.
The two boys looked at each other and before Ritsu could look away, Eyebags' eyes widen with recognition.
"Oh, it's you. Well now I definitely have to beat you."
Was that a rule here? Everyone always has to declare their want to beat someone else?
"Really?" Ritsu scoffed, eyeing the students carrying him. "I doubt that Astro-boy can carry all of you."
Ritsu then carried himself into the air and, this time, he was able to look back. The scowl being aimed at him was a thousand times better than anything his imagination could've come up with. He made sure to give Eyebags a small wave as he flew over the mass of 0-pointers.
He ran slower when he reached the ground, letting multiple students pass him until he was back in 21st place. It didn't take too long for Eyebags to catch up to him, sans the minions.
Although the purple haired boy had spent most of the race being carried, his running form was good. Annoyingly so. So good in fact that he soon managed to pass up Ritsu.
22nd.
Ritsu let out a huff. He didn't spend months training with Teruki just to be unable to outrun some scrawny goth. With this somewhat weak motivation, Ritsu ran faster until he passed up the other boy.
21st.
That just seemed to motivate Eyebags to run faster himself. It didn't help that he was so unfairly tall that his strides were almost twice the length of Ritsu's. When the boy passed him again, a small fire lit up in Ritsu's chest.
This had become a two person race, and he was going to win.
The two boys went back and forth. When one passed the other, the other would push themselves to gain their spot back.
22nd.
21st.
22nd.
21st.
22nd.
21s—no. He had been so caught up in passing Eyebags that he didn't even notice the other people he had passed.
19th.
20th.
Eyebags came to a stop and Ritsu slowed down until he stood next to him. In front of them lied a deep chasm with a couple of rock pillars scattered around that led to the other side. Each pillar had narrow white ropes connecting them to each other. The third obstacle.
"WELCOME TO 'THE FALL'! TRY NOT TO STUMBLE!"
Somewhat used to UA's madness by now, Ritsu shook off the thought of just how big of a drop there was and flew over the pit. He made it to the other side and spared a glance back to see how Eyebags was doing.
He had opted to treat the course like a tightrope, carefully placing one foot in front of the other, but just as he was about to step on the first pillar, he tripped.
On reflexes alone, Ritsu caught onto the boy with telekinesis. He let out a weak breath and made his way over to him, just to find the purple haired boy glaring up at him.
"What?" Ritsu said. "I save your life and that's the thanks I get?"
"I didn't need your help," Eyebags retorted. Ritsu would've laughed in his face if it weren't for the boy reaching into the back of his shirt and pulling out two short daggers.
"Are those even allowed?"
"If you make them yourself." Eyebags stabbed one of the blades into the side of the pillar and scaled the rock with them. Once he reached the top, he stood next to Ritsu and smiled.
"Aw, you stayed for boring old me?" he jeered.
"Don't let it get to your hea—"
His body froze and his mind became fuzzy. All of the sound coming from the other students became silent and it was like the only noise there was Eyebags' voice.
"Carry me over this obstacle."
Without a single pause, Ritsu's telekinesis activated and did exactly as Eyebags told. Eyebags' used his quirk on him. How did this even happen? Was it the talking? He could still think clearly though which he didn't think would be possible based off of the three kids from before. Was it because he knew about the mind control beforehand?
Once Eyebags was safely dropped off on the other side of the obstacle, he began running again, but not before waving to Ritsu.
"Thanks a bunch for the lift."
The fuzziness left his mind and was replaced with a desire for vengeance. Ritsu carried himself over The Fall and ran faster than ever. He ran until the final obstacle and Eyebags were both in sight.
"Huh, you came sooner than I thought," the purple haired boy said as though he hadn't just hijacked Ritsu's motor functions. "Do you think that you could help me out again? This time it's a minefiel—"
A giant pink explosion went off in front of them. Ritsu searched for the cause of it and found Midoriya, lying on a piece of scrap metal, flying through the air.
"What is he even thinking?" he mumbled.
"I don't know," Eyebags said, "but do you mind helping me?"
"As if—"
His body freezing again made two things clear for him. The first was that Eyebags' quirk was triggered whenever he responded to him, but the boy could most likely choose whether or not to actually activate it. The second was that even if he couldn't control his body, he still had his mind, and that was all he needed.
When Eyebags asked him to take him over the minefield, he did. However, before he could touch the ground again, Ritsu redirected the path of his telekinesis and flung the boy to the side. The collision broke Eyebags' hold on him and Ritsu immediately carried himself over the minefield and began sprinting toward the exit of the course.
He didn't have to look back to know that Eyebags had gotten back up. The string of curses were enough of a clue.
He ran into a narrow hallway that led directly to the cheering crowd, the other boy at his heels. All thoughts of 21st place or how Eyebags was right on his tail and getting closer, closer, left his mind. He just focused on the light at the end of the tunnel.
When he emerged, Eyebags was right beside him.
"IT LOOKS LIKE KAGEYAMA RITSU FROM 1-A AND SHINSOU HITOSHI FROM 1-C HAVE BOTH GOTTEN 18TH PLACE! A TIE! HAVE YOU EVER SEEN THAT AIZAWA?"
How was Present Mic even able to tell that it was him?
"Not that I can remember. Although, it is somewhat surprising that Kageyama only got 18th with a quirk like his," Aizawa, who was with Present Mic in the commentary box, said this in his usual dull tone, not bothering to elaborate on what he meant by 'surprising'. Although Ritsu could probably guess.
"Not too bad, Kageyama," Eyeba—Shinsou—panted out, massaging his side. "Although the mummy does have a point."
"My quirk's not strong enough to carry me for so long," Ritsu lied. "And you should probably get that checked out."
"I wouldn't have to if you hadn't thrown me."
"And I wouldn't have thrown you if you hadn't used your quirk on me."
Shinsou chuckled. "Alright. But how did you even manage to get out of my hold?"
Ritsu smiled at the boy as he made his way over to Midnight. "The festival isn't even halfway done. I can't go telling you everything."
With every step he took down the abandoned road, Teruki cursed himself for putting off learning the cloning technique that one Scar member used. He cursed the fact that there would be no other tours of the Endeavor Agency for who knows how long. He especially cursed Giran and his astronomically terrible timing.
Getting out of the agency was a whole other problem on its own. Slipping back into the tour group was a hassle, but faking a food allergy did help to speed up the process. Probably in fear of any possible charges being pressed, they had him 'escorted off of the premises' (read: kicked out) so quickly that he barely even managed to grab a couple of the job listings on his way out.
Then there was the whole issue of what to hurriedly throw on. He had ditched the 'Dosei' shirt in favor of a boring black one, put on a plain, black beanie to cover his blond hair, and tied a red bandana around the lower half of his face. It was such a cliché look that he was one hundred percent sure that both his mother and father would cringe at its tackiness. But it would have to do with such limited time.
He turned into an oh-so familiar alley where five figures stood. The first was a girl in a school uniform with ash blonde hair tied up into two buns and a smile that looked too sweet coupled with the knife she held in her hand. The second was Giran, who was quietly talking to three and four, two burly men that reminded him of bouncers, one of which had a nasty and fresh looking scratch on his face.
The fifth was a woman with dark skin and long braids tied into a high ponytail. Three and four were on either side of her, a tight grip on her arms. Something that Teruki struggled to understand since the woman looked like the embodiment of calm.
He watched her as she stood up on her toes—which made both of the bouncers flinch and tighten their grip; she didn't seem to mind. She leaned in as close as she could (which wasn't that much) to the ear of the scratched bouncer and spoke.
"I know that you can't understand me. Frankly, I don't give a flying fuck," she spoke in deceivingly calm English. "The moment I'm free, I'll have you tasting so much shit that even the pigs will avoid you."
"No one knows what you're saying," Giran droned, as if it wasn't his the first time he'd said that.
For Teruki, who grew up in the states and understood everything she just said, her words might've well poured ice water over his head. Little details like the blood on her nails that matched the blood on the bouncer's cheek and the fresh bruise on the other bouncer's arm practically jumped out at him.
"Oh, Hanazawa-kun!" Giran exclaimed, finally taking note of his presence. "Glad to see that you could make it."
"I can't exactly say the same."
"Harsh, but fair." The man directed a hand toward the woman who looked like she was trying to burn a hole through it with her pointed glare. "This is Dr. Ikande and someone has paid me a lot of money to safely escort her to a specified location that you don't need to worry about. She forgets Japanese sometimes when she's too angry but what she has to say isn't really that important."
"The reason I don't speak English isn't because I'm too angry to remember Japanese, dipshit," Dr. Ikande seethed. "It's just that I can more thoroughly insult you that way."
"Yeah, yeah" Giran waved a dismissive hand at her. Putting his fingers in his mouth, he let out a loud whistle and a black car pulled up behind Teruki.
"You, and Toga-chan here," he motioned to the smiling girl, "will be her bodyguards."
As the two bouncers began to move toward the car with a semi-calm Dr. Ikande in tow, Teruki asked, "Why does she need bodyguards? I can't really see why anyone would want to attack her. Even then, why can't those two just guard her?"
Giran let out a somewhat strained laugh. "Well, those two—"
There was a scuffling noise behind Teruki. He turned just in time to see Dr. Ikande pin one of the bouncers onto his stomach with her knee jammed into his back and her hand holding the back of his thick head, shoving his face into the dirt. The other bouncer was slumped against the brick wall of the alley with blood trickling down his face and had a footprint on his shirt that coincidentally matched the woman's boots.
"I told you shits that you'd eat shit, didn't I?" she was able to get close enough this time to actually hiss into the man's ear.
"—don't exactly have powerful enough quirks for the job."
Toga, who had been in front of him moments ago, was now crouched in front of the woman. A knife to her throat.
"Blood looks so good on you!" she squealed. "Just imagine how good it would look if it was your own!"
"A child?" Dr. Ikande whispered, seemingly unperturbed by the knife pressing into her skin. Her eyes looked over Toga.
"How many have to get involved in this?" She spoke stiffly, as though she were trying to contain her anger.
"I don't know Doc." Giran shrugged. "I'm just the broker."
Dr. Ikande kissed her teeth at that. When she looked to Teruki, something in him froze.
Those brown eyes and round face made his mind reel and he didn't know why. Something about her face struck a chord with him. She was just so achingly familiar.
'Kend—'
A rough hand slapped his back, kicking him out of his daze. He looked up to see Giran giving him a sly smile.
"Come on, get moving. You're wasting daylight!"
Rubbing his back, Teruki let out a grumble before making his way to the car. He sat in a window seat, like Toga, and Dr. Ikande sat between them, small slivers of anger dancing in her eyes. He clutched his head as Giran closed the car door and waved to the now moving vehicle.
What was he thinking about again?
Ritsu's Notebook 7 (taken during the two prep-weeks)
Sports Festival:
-Hundreds of heroes come every year. Lots of news reporters so I will need to keep my head down.
-3 events with the last one being a tournament composed of 16 students. Get out during the second.
Author's random thoughts they had whilst writing the chapter
Today's author's notes are brought to you by me hitting 100+ comments and Disney's 2016 Moana soundtrack.
An Existential Crisis about the Pursuit of Creativity and Satisfaction (scroll to ✿ to skip) - My last chapter was my most commented chapter. I reached 100 comments like all the other big fics I had been so envious of when I first started getting reception on my fic, and I feel so...eh. I'm not elated like I thought I'd be and even though I got so many comments, I felt unsatisfied. After I finished writing that chapter, I struggled to find the same motivation to continue writing like I had during October (your comments motivated me so much that month). My drive to continue came from me looking at one of my WIPs and I remembered why I wanted to write. Since the beginning, I wanted to write fics that I would like to read myself! So, my solution to my dissatisfaction is simple: Selfishness ◉‿◉
This is a fic written by me, for me.
Of course, any comments you leave will be greatly appreciated but I won't let them be my only driving force ;)
You may be wondering why I felt the need to write this in my notes but I feel that putting it into writing and telling you guys about it will hold me accountable :)
o ✿ o
(Vague AOT spoilers up ahead, skip to ✿ again if you haven't finished season 3)
Speaking of creativity. I've been listening to too much Moana while also reading way too much Attack on Titan fanfics and my head is just connecting dots like: "If Armin was a Disney princess, he'd be Moana", "Moana washes up on an island doesn't she?", "Don't the scouts finally reach the sea at the end of season 3?", "What if they came just in time to see Moana?", "What would they think about the water practically being alive?", and "The final 'villain' of Moana is a GIANT HUMAN SHAPED BEING THAT IS UPSET WITH THE WAY SHE'S BEEN TREATED AND WANTS TO DESTROY EVERYTHING JUST LIKE YMIR, OH MY GOOO—"
o ✿ o
Anyways, basically what I'm saying is that I'm probably gonna write a MoanaxAOT fanfic that no one will read but that's okay because I. WILL. I'll most likely put the beginning of it in my WIP book (I have a WIP book btw (only on AO3) that you all should totally check out ;) It only has a NarutoxBNHA WIP atm though)
Now, about the actual chapter:
Apparently it's spelt eye bags and not eyebags, but language is a social construct that is ever changing and Eyebags looks better than Eye Bags, so I will turn a blind eye.
"—" is my best friend in writing. It helps me avoid so many "suddenly"s
What didya think about the RitShi scene? Anything you wished I added? My favorite line was: "He didn't spend months training with Teruki just to be unable to outrun some scrawny goth."
I really enjoy hearing your thoughts about certain aspects of my chapter, so if anything (good or bad) stood out to you, talk/write about it!
Who is Dr. Ikande and how was she able to beat those two guys? What's going on with Teruki? Will he survive being stuck in a car with Toga? What WAS he thinking about?
FIND OUT NEXT TIME ON DRAGON BA—
Favorite, follow, and review and you too can learn to give terrible speeches
