A/N: Guys, I'm finally back! Enjoy the beginning of the sports festival :D
Chapter Thirteen: Run, Byakko!
A huge crowd of people is already filling the stadium and the air is heavy with different smells of food coming from the many stands and kiosks. Everyone around her seems to be excited and elated, but Masha's not able to adopt their carefree enthusiasm for herself. As she thinks back at how Izukyun had told her that he had talked to All Might about the sports festival during their more or less secret lunch meeting, she can feel the tension of concern for her best friend making her body grow increasingly rigid. The blond number one hero had revealed that the time he's able to remain in his muscle form for a day has decreased again to fifty minutes only after the fight against Nomu at the USJ and the new injuries and the overexertion of his sickish body. In consequence of the bulky guy weakening faster than he had thought he would, Izukyun's mentor had pressured the poor green haired boy to hurry and become the new symbol of peace, taking the U.A. sports festival as his debut as the next All Might in front of the whole world and especially making a great appearance in presence of the other pro heroes.
Masha heaves a sigh. Her messy haired childhood friend isn't the only one being stressed. The two weeks of training under uncle Shota's strict eyes had been hell itself and her little prank with Present Mic at the gala event hadn't helped to make him go easy on her at all. Additionally the cat girl feels anxious about having to fight her own classmates and still can't understand why they're all so supportive of that idea. There should be another way to show off their abilities properly, right? However Masha's friends don't seem to be worried about it and on the contrary await the beginning of the festival eagerly.
Reaching the doors of the large arena a certain bright and colorful booth with hero merchandise catches her interest. The young tigress walks over and scans the table finding a lot of merch of many of her teachers. Smiling at the young woman behind the counter she searches through a bunch of T-shirts for children. "Are you searching for something specific?" the friendly sales lady asks causing Masha to nod her head. "I was hoping to get something... uhm for my little brother. He's a big Hawks fan", she replies remembering small Isamu-kun from the therapy center who hadn't been able to smile until very recently when the cat girl was watching a documentary on the current number three hero with him. His big blue eyes behind his glasses were sticking on the screen while following every movement of the winged pro hero with rosy cheeks and then a very bright and happy smile suddenly lit up the tiny boy's usually rather serious and somewhat sad face.
"Oh, how nice of you to think about your brother today!" the seller praises the teenage girl while starting to rummage under her table. "How old is he if I may ask?" Masha twitches her tiger ears thoughtfully. "Six, but he's kinda small and thin for his age and his quirk doesn't affect his physics either" The nice lady hums understandingly finally pulling out a boxed set of clothing with a satisfied smile. "We got this brand new!" she announces with excitement in her voice. "It's a complete set of Hawks' original hero costume with earmuffs, yellow toned glasses, jacket, shirt, pants, socks, boots and gloves. If you can manage to make him some red wings of cardboard or something similar and do his hair a little your brother will soon look like a miniature of Hawks himself. And don't bother if it's a little big, kids that age grow pretty fast"
After getting the Hawks merch and buying an All Might tank top for herself, the cat girl thanks the young woman and takes her leave in order to go to the girl's changing rooms. Leaving her casual clothes and her backpack in a locker and having changed into the U.A.'s royal blue athletic clothes, Masha meets Mina in one of the stadium's corridors. "Aw man!" the pink girl whines disappointedly and pinches her sports uniform. "I was totally hoping to wear my costume!" The tiger girl raises her eyebrows at her classmate and notices Ojiro walking up to them coming from the boy's locker room. "At least everyone will be in uniforms", he states moving his tail as he speaks to the girls. "That'll keep things fair, right?" Masha snorts at his remark. "Well, generally speaking, yes. As for me... no", she points out referring to her shape shifting ability. "Not that I actually want to use it against one of you guys, but even if I planned to, I couldn't use my tiger form in combat. At least if I'd have to turn back in front of everyone..."
While Ojiro looks questioningly at the two girls, Mina starts laughing after recognizing her friend's real problem. "Maybe you can use it as a last trump card and return to the locker rooms right after the fight? I mean changing back to human form after your clothes tore apart is kinda beyond all question even if we want to get the attention of the pro heroes. No one would consider scouting you after appearing naked in national television. And Mineta would probably die from a heart attack" Masha snickers at Mina's lighthearted comment. "Yeah and besides that indecent exposure is actually a crime", she adds causing poor Ojiro to blush right before the three of them enter the waiting room where the other 1-A students are already waiting in a tense silence.
The young tigress waves at Izukyun and slumps down on a chair between Katsuki and Kirishima with Kaminari and Sero sitting right next to them as they all wait for the festival to begin. Just a few minutes later the white and black haired girl is very grateful that Iida charges into the room and this unsettling and awkward atmosphere with a crashing of the door. "Everyone!" he calls out to the rest of his class in his strong class rep voice. "Get your game faces on! We're entering the arena soon!" And with this order he turns around again disappearing in the hallway and leaving the door to the waiting room wide open.
Standing up from her chair Masha's eyes catch the two toned Todoroki boy who starts to move towards Izuku and Mineta sitting in the middle of the room. With a fierce look in his differently colored eyes he approaches her childhood friend with his hands dug in his pockets. The young tigress holds her breath as she feels a wave of chaotic emotions coming from her usually calm classmate. A mixture of frustration, anger, insecurity, sadness, loneliness, desperation and at the end also a weird kind of determination hit the mind of the cat girl making her heart cry out in pain.
"Midoriya!" Todoroki says monotonously as always. "Hey Todoroki, what's up?" the messy haired boy returns friendly but without much confidence. The other students recognizing the growing tension between the two boys as well begin to shift their attention on them. Even Katsuki focuses his red eyes on the exchange between those two. "From an objective standpoint, I think it's fairly clear that I am stronger than you", the ice hero begins while the green haired boy only gasps and stutters in confusion, not so sure about what his classmate wants to tell him. "However, you've got All Might in your corner helping you out. I am not here to pry about that but know that I will beat you!" Todoroki threatens coldly.
Although she's aware of her classmate's current state of mind, Masha has to suppress her hissing, certainly not liking the tone that he's using on her green haired best friend. "What's with all these declarations of war lately?" Kaminari jokes lightheartedly referring to Toshi from the general course and Tetsutetsu from the B class who did kind of a similar thing the other day when they visited the A class after the villain attack. Kirishima lifting himself up from his seat and walking over to the two toned boy places a hand on the ice hero's shoulder. "Yeah, what's the big deal? Why are you pickin' a fight all of a sudden? And right before we get started?" But the red and white haired boy brushes Kirishima's hand off with an almost rude harshness. "We are not here to be each other's friends!" he snaps as he attempts to walk off on his own. "Don't forget, this isn't a team effort" The cat girl rolls her amber eyes and restrains herself from sighing out loud and shaking her head knowing exactly that this isn't how Todoroki really feels. In fact it actually seems to be very hard for him to keep up his false and hard front.
"Wait a sec, Todoroki", Izukyun responds stopping the other boy before he can exit the waiting room. "I don't know what's going through your head or why you think you need to tell me you'll beat me. Yeah, of course you're better than me. In fact, you probably have way more potential than any of us in the hero course, that's why you got in so easily" Masha raises her eyebrows after such a comment from the green haired boy and twitches one of her tiger ears in great surprise. Even if it's a long time ago already, the teenage girl can still remember times when words like Todoroki's visibly hurt Izukyun's feelings. So he has finally gotten over his past and his quirklessness, huh? The white and black haired girl just can't help but to feel proud as a triumphant grin curls up the corners of her mouth against her will because this whole situation is clearly not funny.
"Oi, Midoriya... Maybe you're being a little hard on yourself... and us", Kirishima speaks up again trying to reassure his friend, but the messy haired teen only shrugs it off. "No, he's right you guys. All the other courses, they're coming for us with everything they've got. We all have to fight to stand out. And I'll be aiming for the top too", Izukyun declares strongly looking at Todoroki with determined eyes signaling the other guy that he won't make it easy for him to fight him. "Fine", Todoroki presses behind his gritted teeth.
After this awkward situation is finally over, the teenage girl can see the messy haired boy exhale in relief and the two childhood friends share a glance with each other throughout the big waiting room. The cat girl smiles at him and nods her head once in affirmation showing her friend that he reacted the right way. Izukyun nods right back at her, but his furrowed brows make her realize that also her best friend has noticed that something's just not right with Todoroki. And of course Masha knows that the green haired is the type of guy who'd want to help a troubled classmate even after causing a scene like this. So the young tigress gives him a slight sign with her tiger tail, moving it in a certain way that signals Let's save him!, using the secret way of communication without words which the two of them have practiced since they were playing 'hero' together in their childhood. The adorable green eyes of her friend grow wide as he understands her message and he nods at her again, a little stronger this time.
Having noticed the quiet exchange of his classmates, the red haired Kirishima approaches the tiger girl curiously. "What was that?", he wonders and Masha chuckles amused and a bit surprised that he paid that much attention. Also Katsuki glares at her waiting for an explanation. "Communication without words", she gives back. "Izukyun and I have been together long enough that we don't need words or sounds to understand each other. Sometimes even an exchange of longer glances is enough" Leaving the waiting room behind with the rest of their other classmates, Masha and Kirishima line up in the hallway with them next to each other. "Whoa! That's so manly!" the red head fanboys. "And really useful for pro heroes in many different kinds of situations. Can you teach me?" Present Mic's energetic announcements and a cheering and roaring crowd can be heard behind the huge doors class 1-A is waiting in front of. "Sure!" The young tigress smiles genuinely while the red haired pumps his fists grinning back at her. "Alright, let's go!"
The large doors open in front of the excited students presenting another corridor with a bright light at the end showing them the entrance to the arena. "Let me hear you scream as our students make their way to the main stage!" Present Mic shouts out enthusiastically making the mass go even more crazy than before. Walking down the tunnel together Mina grips Masha's arm with rising nervousness. "Welcome back sports fans!" the blond pro hero goes on with his commentary and begins introducing each class of the hero, general, support and economy courses, however pointing out the fact that class 1-A of the hero course has already faced a real villain attack very early in their training. Within a few minutes all U.A. first year students enter the open field of the stadium accompanied by the deafening cheers of the audience.
Masha flattens her ears uncomfortably and watches the large crowd around her skeptically. Her instinct tells her either to escape and avoid or to fight which isn't exactly helpful to remain calm and concentrated. Until someone comes close to her and takes her hand while standing right next to her. Looking up she meets Izukyun's green eyes again. The green haired boy seems nervous and insecure himself, nevertheless Masha feels much better leaning a little bit against his shoulder as they assemble around the stage where the female pro hero Midnight addresses the audience as the chief referee in charge. "Aw, c'mon just look at those two! They're so damn cute together!", the cat girl hears the pink Mina coo to Kirishima who nods in agreement. "Yeah, even that friendship thing can actually be very beautiful, right?!" Mina begins bopping around squealing excitedly and the two childhood friends blush after overhearing their conversation. Beautiful friendship, huh? Not that Masha would disagree on that...
Watching the scantily clad female pro hero with the long dark purple spiky hair and handcuffs on each wrist who stands on a small stage, the boys around Masha start widening their eyes and getting embarrassed. "Ugh, someone should talk to Ms. Midnight about what she's wearing!" the red head exclaims despite the heavy blush on his cheeks. "Yeah, I mean I don't wanna complain about sexy costumes 'cause I definitely liked the ones Masha and our deputy were wearing, but this..." Kaminari adds without being able to finish his sentence properly. "Is it really appropriate apparel for a high school game?" even the usually serious and very disciplined Tokoyami Fumikage criticizes with his arms crossed over his chest in a dry tone. The calm and mature boy has the black head of a raven with a yellow beak and his quirk is to control and to fight with a big bird like shadow creature residing inside of his body and listening to the name Dark Shadow. Of course the small Mineta grunts approvingly at Tokoyami's question, but his classmates ignore the perverted drooling boy.
"Silence everyone!" Midnight commands whipping a flogger causing Masha to wonder whether she really should've brought something like that to a sports festival that'll be broadcasted in national and even in international television. "For the student's pledge we have Bakugo Katsuki!" Everyone around Masha stiffens immediately gasping either in surprise or in fear and turning around to stare at the blond hot head. "Uh, he's the first year's representative?" Izukyun worries lowering his voice, so Katsuki won't hear him. Sero leans in to his two classmates as well. "I guess that hot head did finish first in the entrance test", the black-haired boy mumbles making a blond girl from the general course huff in annoyance. "Only for the hero exams!" she corrects the three friends. "Oh, right", the green haired affirms not recognizing the antipathy of the blond girl who turns her head away from class A angrily to watch Katsuki entering the stage. "That girl obviously hates us", Sero whispers again gaining also the electric blond Kaminari's attention. "Yeah and we've got Bakugo to thank for them not liking our class", he points out remembering the light blond boy's attitude towards the crowd in front of their classroom after the USJ incident.
With hands dug deeply in his pockets and with very little enthusiasm Katsuki drags his feet towards the stage. As he approaches the microphone with his nonchalant attitude his classmates hold their breaths. "I just wanna say", he starts with his dark and raspy voice echoing through the stadium and making Masha's body react with a slight shiver which she curses at. "I'm gonna win!" The rage and the booing of the entire first year students of U.A. almost instantly fill the huge arena. "Why are you being disrespectful!" glasses Iida yells and waves his arms wildly at the spiky haired teen. "You're representing us all!" he continues scolding him with no success. "Not my fault, the rest of you are just steppingstones to my victory", Katsuki gives back unimpressed without any sign of his smug grin or his usual mocking attitude.
Izukyun and Masha look at each other in confusion thinking the exact same thing. The old Katsuki would've laughed and shown off his arrogance and superiority to everyone while saying those words and normally Masha would've burst out in a howling laughter sneering at his more than childish demeanor, but this time it's crystal clear that he's not teasing anyone here. He means every word he just said and he's taking this very seriously, even going as far as driving himself into a corner by making the other students hate him. On the other hand dragging his whole class into this along with him is very Katsuki-like. Masha narrows her amber feline eyes angrily. This guy hasn't learned a thing up until now! No improvement at all! There's only himself and winning, winning, winning on his mind. As if being number one in the national hero ranking would be the only purpose in one's life, so ridiculous! And what's irritating her even more is that everyone else in this stadium seems to think equally. Not as extreme as Katsuki does, but still all they can think and talk about is fighting, winning, being scouted and getting as much attention as possible to be able to join a prestigious hero agency in future.
The cat girl clenches her fists and grits her teeth tightly. That's what she always hated about heroes and being a hero herself. Only rankings, reputation and money counts for many of the pros where their main focus should actually be saving people's lives, catching villains and setting a good example for human society in general. That's why she has never been competitive and that's also exactly why she refused to enroll in U.A.'s hero course for a long time. Masha doesn't give a damn about stupid rankings and she isn't a hero fangirl, much to Izukyun's shock. Most of the time she doesn't even recognize the hero names except for All Might and by now also the names of her teachers at school. Again she questions if she really should be here trying to go pro. The cat girl doesn't want to fight and hurt her own friends and classmates and she doesn't want to watch them crush each other. For her it's just a dumb sports festival without any further importance.
While the young tigress is still fuming inwardly, a giant board appears out of nowhere showing a quickly moving wheel. "Without further ado, it's time for us to get started", Midnight announces. "This is where you begin to feel the pain. The first fateful game of the festival" The wheel halts at a slide that reads obstacle race. "Ta-dah!" the female teacher and pro hero cheers. "All eleven classes will participate in this treacherous contest. The track is four kilometers around the outside of the stadium. I don't want to restrain anyone, so as long as you don't leave the track, you're free to do whatever your heart desires. Now! Take your places contestants"
The students gather at the red archway and stare impatiently at three green lights which are ready for the countdown above their heads. Masha sighs in relief. A simple sports race with some fellow students won't afflict her peace of conscience. She happens to be surrounded by some of her classmates and smiles at Izukyun, Kirishima, Kaminari, Sero and Mina. "Good luck you guys! No hard feelings for whoever wins!" she calls out to them and they nod in unison. "Let's give our best! Run, you guys!", Mina cheers pumping her fist high into the air. As they all watch the green lights slowly disappearing the students get ready to run until Midnight's voice commands them to "Begin!".
The contestants immediately start rushing towards the entrance of the doorway scrambling for the best position to enter the narrow tunnel. Masha stops jogging after a few steps noticing that this is already the first obstacle to overcome. She shakes her head looking at the squeezing masses of crushing bodies and bends down to take off her shoes and socks. With an annoyed groan she throws her footwear into a corner of the stadium, extending her claws from fingers and toes at the same time. The young tigress sprints over to the entrance, weaving through the clashing students and enhances her legs to jump over their heads. Clawing at the tunnel's walls she uses them and also the ceiling to overcome this massive stampede that reminds her of the panic in the school's cafeteria. As Todoroki uses his ice powers to freeze the floor at the exit of the long tunnel and to catch the other students with their feet frozen to the ground, he gains the first place position with Masha climbing through the hallway and jumping down, following right after him. Also a few other students have escaped the ice hero's frontal attack and come running behind the cat girl.
Her sensitive tiger ears twitch at the sound of another icy strike from Todoroki's quirk and the menacing cracking of metal. She arrives just in time to witness her classmate immobilizing a few zero pointer robots which were used back at the entrance exam with only one swift attack. Masha gasps impressed and her amber eyes widen at the sheer size and power coming from Todoroki's quirk. Besides it's even more astounding when she thinks about the fact that this is only one half of his true quirk power. His other half, the fire part of his quirk wasn't even used once in a combat situation up until now. Todoroki only uses it sometimes to melt his ice constructions. The two toned boy begins to run between the legs of the robots. "Careful now, I froze them while they were off balance on purpose", he warns some other students who attempt to follow him flatly, just in time when the metal monsters start to collapse.
A huge smash resonates throughout the whole arena leaving the rest of the participants simply speechless except for the tiger girl who has spotted a familiar red head being crushed under the rubble. "Kirishima!" Masha cries worriedly and jumps without thinking twice. With her tiger claws she slices some of the metal that just buried her friend at the same time as the red haired boy's hardened arm pops up. She quickly takes it and pulls strongly to get Kirishima out of this mess. "I'm alive!" he screams being completely unharmed much to the cat girl's great relief. "Thanks Masha", he adds with a cute grin and she smiles right back at him. "Thank goodness for your hardening quirk", she remarks and they start laughing.
"Kirishima from class 1-A! What a hard-core debut for this rookie!" Present Mic announces. "And our very lovable kitty girl from the same class comes to save her classmate even though this is not a team effort. Just talk about heartwarming, ladies and gentlemen, Shirogawa Masha makes her appearance!" Before she has the time to blush in embarrassment, another sound of breaking metal interrupts the two A class students and a Tetsutetsu completely made of iron jumps out of more debris. Whoa, not only the same personality but also similar quirks! Masha starts to wonder whether Kirishima and the gray-haired dude from class 1-B are related somehow. "Tetsutetsu from class 1-B was also stuck underneath!" the blond pro hero comments again enthusiastically. "What are the odds?" The three of them begin running up the metal robot continuing on with the race.
Behind the collapsed parts more machines are already waiting for the rest of the students with their threatening red lights and giant bodies. "Stay back and run when I tell you to!" Masha instructs Kirishima while pouncing onto the next zero pointer with a surprisingly thin neck part holding up its massive head. With a well targeted slash the cat girl cuts off the head and jumps again. "Now!" she shouts after the huge body part of the robot crashed to the ground and the red head starts sprinting. Masha lands ahead of her red haired classmate and reduces her speed a bit to be able to run alongside him until they both made it out of this terminator area. "Kirishima, jump!" she yells as another metal monster aims at them with an outstretched arm. Without thinking twice the red head follows her orders and together they race up the body of the titan using its own arm as a bridge. This time the young tigress destroys the eye-like structures which look like red piercing lights. Kirishima imitates her actions after watching her closely, shoving his hardened fist through the bright red dome. As the robot collapses to its knees the two students bounce to the ground again avoiding two other machines during the process and bolting as fast as they can to leave them behind.
Finally having made it out of the danger zone the two friends share a fist bump and glance over their shoulders briefly only to see an enraged Katsuki who propels himself through the air with his explosions erupting from both of his palms. "Whoa, Bakugo!" the red head marvels at the light blond boy, however panting heavily after the fast sprint he and the cat girl had to do before. "Nice teamwork, Kirishima!" Masha calls out to him receiving his attention. "But sorry, I'm gonna leave you behind now. Good luck for you and see ya at the goal" The red-haired boy nods and shows her a thumbs up almost unable to speak as he's breathing too fast. Very glad for her good stamina the young tigress powers up her legs with her tiger speed and dashes forward making the crimson boy gape at her back in awe.
Only seconds later she arrives at the next obstacle which is a huge canyon with randomly scattered rock pillars connected together with thick ropes. Great! At least one challenge on that course that won't be a problem for her. Pushing herself a little harder Masha's legs emit in whitish light blue energy enhancing her speed and bounce even more before jumping. Creating two holes in the ground where her feet just stood the teenage girl flies to a pillar in the middle of the ravine only needing one more hop to reach the other side and start sprinting again. Also Todoroki with his ice quirk and Katsuki with his explosions that enable him to soar into the sky have both cleared this obstacle already.
"And now the last obstacle. Everyone better tread carefully, you're stepping on a mine field!" Present Mic's loud voice booms through the speakers once again. "If you look carefully you can see where those little bombs are buried, so keep your eyes on the ground, folks. By the way those land mines were designed for the games, so they might be loud and flashy, but they're not all that powerful. Just enough to make you wet your pants!"
Approaching the edge of the mine zone Masha soon realizes that Todoroki's still in first place, but where the heck is Katsuki? She doesn't remember passing him. Wait... Did she even see him on her way to this last obstacle? The young tigress shakes her head and begins to quickly bop around the small mines using the randomly scattered gaps between the explosives to step in. Even though she's very careful not to step on a land mine, she's actually making a better progress than she had thought she would. Catching up more and more with Todoroki at the front she notices that most of the students move very slowly with their eyes focused on the ground and calculating every step they take. With a slight grin on her face Masha thanks her superior sensory organs. For the cat girl and her sharp eyes, ears and nose the exact positions of the traps are more than obvious and with her cat like agility jumping to the correct places is just a piece of cake. Maybe she could actually win this? Wouldn't that be awesome?
Unfortunately very soon after the white and black haired girl had her boost of motivation a familiar sound of crackling explosions comes closer with the light blond Katsuki flying towards Todoroki with a vicious speed and screaming in rage. "Wow, I forgot the Katsuki-factor..." Masha deadpans to herself. Where did that guy come from all of a sudden? He must've stopped using his quirk in between to go easy on his wrists. "It's over! Bastard!" the wild boy fumes as he blasts himself directly at Todoroki and the mine field. "Your declaration of war was to the wrong person!" Regardless of the consequences the spiky haired teen launches an attack on the two-toned boy who stands in the middle of buried highly explosive traps. Idiot... The young tigress flattens her ears at the tremors of the blow and its aftermaths, but decides to focus on herself rather than to keep an eye on the sparring boys. If those two morons are kind enough to take each other out right in front of her, she should use her chance.
But once again her plans get destroyed when a ground shattering detonation rocks the whole area with an immense amount of power. Masha flinches turning her head to understand what the hell just happened as she spots Izukyun flying above all of their heads on a piece of scrap metal from the zero pointer robots. With enlarged amber eyes she hopes that her childhood friend at least has a good plan for landing. "The lead is his!" she hears their energetic English teacher shout out causing the two previously leading boys to react as well. Katsuki starts propelling himself towards the finish line while Todoroki creates an ice path to catch up with the two other boys and Masha is quick in her decision to use it to her advantage and to run after the three of them.
Powering up her legs once more she's very well aware that she's faster than Katsuki and Todoroki when it comes down to the standard run. Watching Izukyun as he's about to land the cat girl recognizes that he won't be able to make it to the end of the mine zone, but before she's even able to worry about the green haired boy, he takes the metal plate he had been surfing on and slams it to the ground forcefully right next to Katsuki and Todoroki to create another strong explosion flinging him even further away to the other side of the bomb field. However the two blasted boys are quick to recover and Masha with her enhanced tiger speed is finally able to leave the mine zone behind as well and to catch up with them.
As she tries to pass her two astonished classmates who stare at her with disbelieving eyes because they didn't expect her to come that close to them, the tiger girl can smell the sweet and distracting scent of burning sugar or caramel coming from the light blond hot head like she could back in the USJ when he was carrying her in his arms. Both of the boys push themselves with all their might in order not to let her take the lead and meanwhile Masha sees Izukyun coming in first and hears the crowd cheer loudly for his victory. In a last attempt to gain the second place Katsuki, Todoroki and Masha power up their quirks and together they all rush through the threshold of the finishing doorway back into the stadium with a whoosh.
"Whoa, that was a very close one for the second place holder! Let's take it to the slow-motion cam to review!" Present Mic remarks. The three panting and sweating students force themselves to look up to the screen. With a satisfied smile on her face Masha notices that there is a clear gap between Todoroki at the front and Katsuki and her right behind him which means that the second place goes to the two toned boy. For a visible decision between the light blond and herself however, they even have to zoom in which she knows will enrage the hot head once again. The young cat girl accepts the result of Katsuki having managed to come through the final threshold faster by just a nose with a shrug of her shoulders. That makes place three for him and place four for the young tigress which really isn't bad. Kahono at home in front of the TV will be proud and is definitely gonna freak out fangirling. And of course Masha's very happy for Izukyun! He was actually able to proof All Might that the number one hero has made the right choice with the messy haired boy as his successor.
After searching for her previously abandoned footwear and putting it on again, she jogs over to her best friend to congratulate him for his win, although she refrains from hugging him tightly as they are both sweaty and sticky. They high-five instead and Izukyun beams as if he had won the whole festival already. "Congrats Izukyun, you were amazing!" Masha praises making her friend smile even wider. "Wow, that was awesome you guys!" Ochako who just came in calls out to her classmates. "I can't believe you got first place, I'm so jealous", she says to the young Midoriya boy and Masha smirks mischievously at her childhood friend as his face glows brightly red. Secretly shipping those two again the cat girl backs off a little bit so that they can have their space. Excitedly she keeps waiting for her other classmates showing up one by one and she also notices some of the guys from class 1-B.
As the pink Mina sprints through, Masha waves enthusiastically at her. The energetic girl gasps for air and leans over her knees before her smile turns into a cute pout. The young tigress giggles at her helping her up to stand straight. "Ugh, that was so exhausting and I only got nineteenth!" she complains. "Mina, that was only the first test, ya know", Masha reminds her only to gain a death like glare. "I know Mr. Aizawa said to train hard, but I really don't think that I should've started only two weeks ago. I got so lazy because we were practicing so hard at school. Hero training every single day after lunch for hours!" she continues whining causing the tiger girl to stifle a laughter. "Well, I had to train with Mr. Aizawa, so you better consider yourself very lucky..." she deadpans dryly.
"The first game for the first-years is finally over and what a game that was!" Midnight's voice interrupts the conversation of the two girls. Mina and Masha slowly walk over to the stage the female pro hero is standing on. "Now let's take a quick look at the standings, shall we?" The board broadcasting the list with the race results appears and shows a ranking from best to worst. Holding their breaths the two girls scan the names and places and begin to cheer and squeal as it's clear that everybody of class 1-A should have made it into the second round.
And so the next game is just about to begin...
A/N: Whew... I somehow made it through the first trial. Next is gonna be the Baku-Squad thingy. Fighting scenes all over ... help! ... Oh well, I hope I'll manage go through them, especially Masha's since they aren't cannon and I have to come up with them myself... Look forward to it and wish me luck, you lot! And really thank you as always for reading my stuff here. Keeps me motivated.