Chapter 30: He On X-Games Mode Or Smth...
The festival was insane.
Not that Izuku had expected anything different. For as long as he could remember, he had watched the sports festival on the tv with his mom right beside him. Bouncing up and down just excited to see the hero students compete and show off their quirks and abilities. It was like an analyst's dream come true.
He had never thought that he'd actually be there witnessing it for himself, even when he used to dream that he would be competing in it he always knew in the back of his mind that it was a far-fetched idea.
But he was here. He was sitting in the stands watching the students be announced and waiting for the first round to begin. And he was not only here, but he was here to support his friend.
If only mom could've seen him now. She probably would be crying at how far her baby had come and insisting that Hitoshi simply move in with us to make coming over more convenient.
Maybe she was watching…
Izuku still didn't know exactly how the whole thing worked, but he was certain that he had actually seen his mother that day. He wished that they had longer to talk, to just be with each other, but their time was over far too soon, and he hadn't been able to see her since.
"And here is your student representative; he got first in both the written and physical test during his entrance exam it's…KaaaTSUKI BAKUGOUUUUU!" Before the events could begin, the first-year representative always gave a speech. Something that was intended to light a fire under the other participants, but knowing the representative, Izuku wasn't very hopeful of this speech being exactly encouraging.
He walked up to the podium with his hands in his pockets and his shoulders hunched just like when they were kids. "I just wanna say…I'm gonna be gunning to win, and I expect everyone else to as well."
Short and kinda sweet? It wasn't nearly as bad as it could've been, it was even sort of…motivating???
The crowd cheered and some of the students booed as Katsuki walked back to his class, but overall, this had already been surprising, and the events hadn't even begun yet.
"FIRSTTTTT UP IS THE OBSTACLE RACEEEEEE!" Mic's voice boomed over the crowd. Izuku knew that he was using a speaker to do it, but he didn't doubt that the hero could speak just as loud without any additional help other than his quirk.
He could see the students begin to file in and some of those in the front peeking out from the tunnel they were to emerge from. It was hard to try to calm himself down as his body was on the brink of literally shaking with excitement.
Hitoshi would be near the back. For the first round Izuku knew that the boy would be trying to keep a low profile so as to not tip too many people off about his quirk. But Izuku also had complete confidence that his friend would be able to make it to the next round easily
Mic's voice announced the start of the race and before anyone could even think, a loud crack sounded, and the air seemed to chill just the slightest bit as the student with the two-toned hair emerged from the tunnel first riding a wave of ice.
Izuku was too busy watching that he flinched when he heard the familiar sounds of explosions and turned to see none other than his old childhood best friend blowing his way out of the tunnel.
Of course, he would be competing, he was a student here after all.
And he was going to do his best…but how far would he be willing to go to get to the top?
Some other students got out of the boy's ice without too much trouble and ran forward to the next obstacle in the race. And after a few minutes, most of the competitors were on their way, including Hitoshi who Izuku saw riding on the back on some other student before being let down once they left the tunnel.
Izuku smirked, Carried, like the princess he is.
Something that he would not hesitate to tease his friend about once this was all over and would most definitely get hit for, but it would be worth it.
He watched his friend throughout the rest of the race while also doing his best to keep an eye on the rest of the students. Hitoshi was doing well. He wasn't in first, but he wasn't last either. He was just coasting through the middle, just out of the spotlight and exactly where he wanted to be.
Their plan had been to hold off until he really needed to use his quirk so that people wouldn't risk figuring out how it worked. And with all of the training that the two of them had been doing, Hitoshi honestly probably could've finished the race in the top fifteen or twenty, but he settled, and their plan was going along perfectly.
Unsurprisingly, the two-toned kid-Todoroki-came in first place with Katsuki getting second by only the blink of an eye. And Izuku knew that that had to just be eating him up inside.
Honestly, Izuku was disappointed that he hadn't figured it out earlier. He had known a lot about the pro hero Endeavor because of his hero analysis and by default he also knew a bit about the man's life and family, if only just the littlest bit. He had a wife and three children, Todoroki being the youngest of the three.
He remembered when he went through a week of just wanting to know all that he could about Endeavor. The reason, he couldn't tell you. He didn't even particularly like the hero in the slightest, but something about digging and getting to know hero's personal lives just gave him a sense of power and humbleness.
Seeing and knowing that they're real people just like the rest of us is refreshing.
Izuku would have to remind himself to take another look into Endeavor so that he could find out some stuff about Todoroki, because if the rest of the festival continues like how it's going, then things were about to get very interesting very fast.
He had to stop himself from muttering his theories about the boy's quirk. How that he remembered what basic knowledge he had of his home life it made sense. White hair to match his mother's ice quirk and red to match his father's fire quirk. Even his eyes were different colors and scarily symmetrical.
The only questionable thing about the student was the large scar over his left eye. He had his father's quirk theoretically, and so theoretically he should be immune or at least resistant to his fire like his father, right? Then why did he have that scar? Maybe an accident? Or a fight with his siblings that turned bad?
Then there was the big question: why had Izuku only seen Todoroki use his right side. If he was correct and the boy possessed both quirks, he would be able to win the festival with absolutely zero competition, but for whatever reason he had only used his ice. And it didn't seem like he planned on using his fire anytime soon.
Hmm…
So far, the festival was going well. Katsuki had come in second in the first round by a hair, but that was okay.
He had accidentally let himself slip into his old mindset of if you're not the best, then you're the worst, but when he caught sight of Uraraka running towards him with the biggest smile on her face, that all sort of faded away.
She was so excited that they had both done so well, and she congratulated him on coming in second. It was just something about that smile…it made him feel like he was doing okay. Like he wasn't as horrible of a person as he actually was. He let himself forget around her, but that was dangerous.
His mind went back to a few weeks ago when he thought he saw Izuku. It had been a split-second thing and as soon as he blinked, he was gone.
Katsuki had been so freaked out that he left dinner early without his parents. That night he didn't sleep a wink. His mind was too wired with what ifs.
What if that was actually Izuku? Did that mean that he wasn't dead? No, that was ridiculous, Katsuki had gone to his funeral. But then did that mean that he was going crazy? Was he seeing things now? Did his grief go that deep?
But then again, this wasn't the first time that he had seen Izuku.
It was at his funeral. Katsuki turned around and out of the corner of his eye he could've sworn he saw the familiar green curls hiding behind something, but once again, as soon as he blinked, he was gone.
He honestly didn't know what to think.
"Uh, Bakugou?"
A sweet voice brought him out of his head and back to reality. "Huh?" He came back to a slightly worried looking Uraraka.
Her lips pulled into a small frown as she looked at him, "Are you okay?"
Katsuki was about to answer when he felt someone bump into his shoulder, hard. He stumbled back a step and was met with some tired looking kid with wild purple hair and a glare that could kill. "My bad."
The two of them held eye contact for another second, the purple kid looking at him like he had just killed his entire family and Katsuki looking at him with the ugliest look of confusion on his face before the kid scoffed and walked away.
Katsuki watched him leave, still trying to wrap his mind around why that guy had looked so pissed at him. "I uh-What?" He turned his attention back to a worried Uraraka. "Yes of course, why wouldn't I be?"
"Well, you just looked kinda freaked, that's all."
"Oh, do I?" Katsuki cleared over his face and forced himself to look happy, or as happy as he usually looked. "Sorry, just lost in thought, I guess. Uh, did they announce the second event yet?"
Uraraka didn't look convinced with his act but must've decided to let it go because she carried on with their conversation. "Yeah! It's going to be a cavalry battle; Midnight is about to go over all of the rules."
"Nice."
The rules were simple enough. Form a team and each of its members have a combination of the points that they earned with the last event represented with a headband. The goal was to collect as many headbands and points as possible before the timer runs out while trying to keep your headbands safe from other teams.
Right…okay yeah, this would work.
Katsuki had just begun trying to come up with a plan when Uraraka turned to him with a determined smirk on her face. "Let's win this."
Her determination kind of threw him for a loop, but he liked it. He found himself matching her smirk and energy as he continued to plan out their team, "Absolutely."
Their team turned out pretty solid. It was made up of Katsuki, Uraraka, the red head, Kirishima, and the lightning guy, Kaminari. The two of them had come up soon after their exchange and wanted to form a team with them.
It was a good idea. They already knew that Katsuki and Uraraka worked semi-well together. Kirishima had a great defensive quirk that would also be valuable in protecting himself and their teammates from Bakugou's explosions. And Kaminari's quirk would be a good trump card should the need arise.
Overall, Katsuki was pretty satisfied with their little team.
The plan was to have Kirishima be the base since he was the strongest with Kaminari and Uraraka to be the side supports. With the help of Uraraka's quirk, holding Bakugou up would be a piece of cake. They decided to have him be the rider because his quirk was the most versatile.
Katsuki was confident. As he looked around, he spotted a couple other teams finishing up their planning.
That half-and-half kid's team looked pretty strong. With him as the rider, that was a given, but his teammates were nothing to sneeze at either. He had that smart girl with the creation quirk and Ingenium's kid brother on his team, both of the class presidents, plus that one emo kid with the bird quirk.
And that would be the team to beat. Not only was it just a strong team, but it also had the highest number of points with half-and-half alone.
If they wanted to win, they needed a good plan.
Everyone would be gunning for the million-point headband, so all Katsuki and his team had to do was stay out of the way.
"Okay, so here's the plan…"
Izuku watched from the stands and the longer he watched, the more surprised he became.
Katsuki was actually talking with people like they were equals. He was communicating properly, and he seemed to take coming second in the last round in stride. What had happened to change the boy so drastically?
In the past he would've blown up, literally, at losing to Todoroki and he wouldn't've been so easy to team up with. But as Izuku watched him plan with his team, he was shocked at just how well the boy was interacting with his teammates.
And right after the first round when that brown haired girl went up to him, Izuku could've sworn he thought he saw Katsuki smile at the girl.
Mic's voice rang out over the speakers announcing the start of the second round and everything descended into chaos.
Almost all at once teams formed and took of after Todoroki's team. It made sense sort of. His team had the million-point headband, not to mention the addition of the other member's points. Of course, people would want to go after such an in your face prize, but Izuku didn't expect so many teams to be so short-sighted.
On the surface, going after the biggest threat seemed like a good idea, but in actuality, that team was on top for a reason and they wouldn't be going down so easily.
Teams came at Todoroki from all sides and in a single moment all of them were rendered immobile by the boy's ice. Well…almost all of the teams.
Shinso's team, his teammates were students that Izuku didn't know and he doubted that the boy knew either, had opted for staying out of the mix. A good strategy, he must've had the same thought process as Izuku did.
He had to hand it to him, his friend was smart. Cunning, analytical, ambitious, all of the traits that would bring him to the top and also the same traits that he was condemned for his entire life just because of something that he was born with.
It disgusted Izuku.
That was one thing that the two boys shared almost to a tee. They had both been criticized for something that they couldn't control and there was nothing that either of them could do about it. Until now. They had begun to find comfort in their shared discrimination and had started to work to rise above it together.
Izuku's thought process was cut off by his eye catching Katsuki's team doing the exact same thing.
They were riding the corners and going after the teams that weren't bold enough to get caught up in the initial mess at the beginning. As much as he hated to admit it, he was impressed. That was something that kept on happening the more he watched his ex-childhood best friend.
Something about him was different. He wasn't as brash, as rude, as ruthless as he was before. He was openly communicating with his teammates and choosing strategy over ego. And he was doing it well.
Both his team and Shinso's team began to rise through the rankings as they took out the remaining teams and started going for the teams that were still unfortunately stuck in Todoroki's ice.
The time was flying by and before anyone knew it, there were only three minutes left in the calvary battle.
As soon as the announcement was made, Katsuki's team switched strategies. They stopped going about the sidelines and headed right for Todoroki's team that was currently fending off two other teams.
"Get ready icy hot, cause we're coming for ya!" Katsuki's yells could be heard over the roar of the crowd, which actually wasn't surprising in the slightest to Izuku who had to endure his constant yelling as a child.
Todoroki's team finally managed to shake off the two teams that they had been fighting when a kid with a bird head suddenly sprouted another him but like a shadow that pushed both teams away with ease.
Woah…Izuku's mind ran rampant. What kind of quirk was that? Was it actually that kid's shadow or was it sentient? Did he receive the same amount of damage that the shadow did? Would that even be categorized as a mutation type quirk or an emitter quirk? Because the shadow would probably be considered emitter, but then what about the bird head?
On and on his mind questioned until he noticed that his hand was moving involuntarily, as if it were trying to write all of his thoughts down in an invisible notebook.
That brought a small smile to his face. It reminded him of a bit ago when the most he had to worry about what keeping track of all of his notes and staying quiet so the bullies wouldn't hit him for muttering. That smile quickly soured as his mind flashed through all of the abuse that he received back then.
He looked back out on the arena field at the boy who had been at the center of everything that he went through, and all he could think about were the good memories.
Sure, the bad ones greatly outweighed and outnumbered the good, but there was just so much joy around the good ones, even if they were just a few.
He remembered auntie Mitsuki's kindness to him every time he came over. She would always ask him about his day and listen intently and she would make sure that he ate while there because she would constantly comment on how small he was. And uncle Masaru too. He wasn't like a father figure exactly, but at least he tried.
Back to the blonde-haired boy who was currently duking it out with his classmates and doing what he and Izuku had always dreamed of doing…he just couldn't bring himself to hate him.
It was stupid, it was reckless, it was unhealthy, but they had been friends once. Had shared their hopes and dreams and even their burdens every once in a while. Izuku wasn't blind. No matter how kind his parents were to him, it wasn't a secret that there was something going on at home.
Anytime Izuku would try to bring it up, Katsuki would shoot him down and get pissed that he would even insinuate such a thing, but Izuku could see it.
He could see the hurt in his eyes every time his mother praised Izuku. Every time she doted on him and made him feel special and loved. It was the same look of hurt that he saw when the boy came over to his house and watched Izuku and Inko interact.
It was obvious in the way that the boy overcompensated for everything and never took anything as good enough.
Izuku knew, and so he kept quiet. Because he knew that underneath all of that cold hardness the boy was hurting just as much as he was. Izuku also knew better now. He knew that none of what Katsuki had been feeling excused his actions. But even so, something kept him from hating the boy.
Maybe it was because deep down, a sliver of his childhood self still held Katsuki in such a high regard. Or maybe it was because even now, Izuku respected the boy's determination and ability to not only be a hero, but to be the best.
It was so frustrating. Things would be so much easier if he could just hate the kid, resent him for everything that he did to Izuku, all of the pain that he put him through, all of the self-doubt that he embedded into him…but he couldn't. He wouldn't.
And that was one of Izuku's biggest downfalls.
He was too forgiving, too loyal for his own good. If he wasn't careful that nature might just be the end of him…although would that be such a bad thing?