April 29, 2232 9:58 AM
At the dawn of each day, the beginning of the world meets the end and shakes hands amicably. That's why, as Izuku stands at the entrance to the stadium he decides that this moment will be the beginning of his new day and that Piper's death will be the end. A passing of a torch.
Shinsou bumps shoulders with him gently in the tunnel. They share a look.
Present Mic's voice booms through the starter tunnels. While his voice isn't hard to hear, the words themselves are distorted by the distance. Izuku stares anxiously at the red light on the ceiling above them. It casts harsh shadows in the otherwise darkness of their tunnel.
Everyone is waiting, quiet, anxious.
The world holds its breath in anticipation. The light flashes green.
Their class marches forward.
"It's class 1-A!" Yamada's voice booms through the stadium. "Following class B, there's classes C, D, and E of General Studies! And here comes the Support Course classes F, G, and H! And the Business Course I, J, and K!"
The stadium is bright and loud. There's cheering all around them, a buzz of excitement permeating the air.
All eyes are trained on hero course students.
1-A had survived a villain attack and while not all of them had been forced to fight, their association with the event alone was enough for their names to be cast in lights. The whole of Japan was anticipating the showcase of the skills that had sowed their survival against villains.
It both takes the pressure off of him and multiplies it tenfold.
"We're just here to make the hero course look good," a girl states from ahead of them.
Zheng Bao, he reminds himself, adhesive quirk.
Her friend beside her nods. "It's hard to get motivated like this. Even Present Mic looks like he's supporting them more than us."
Zheng shrugs. "He's a hero before he's a teacher. I guess we should've seen it coming." Izuku bites his lip.
"You're welcome to sit out for the Sports Festival if you'd prefer," Yamada's voice echoes anxiously in his head. "I'm sure you're still recovering from your time in the hospital."
Izuku remembers smiling at him in that special customer service kind of way, five parts disappointment, two parts disbelief, ten parts sheltered anger. "Thank you for worrying, but I've been fully healed for a while now. I'm excited to participate."
Present Mic was able to feel it, Izuku's animosity. The boy could tell by the way he'd tensed, he could tell by the noticeable surprise in the hero's eyes.
Izuku was not one to be pitied.
Yamada was now painfully aware of this.
"If you're sure."
"I am."
"Still, you'd think he'd show some support for this homeroom class," she huffs.
They line up in rows of two in front of the small stage they have set up on the far side of the stadium. Midnight stands center stage, dressed in her hero uniform. The hero cracks her whip and a hushed quiet falls over the crowd. "Now! For the athlete's oath, to be presented by your student representative, Bakugou Katsuki of class 1-A!"
Izuku flinches at the name, head snapping towards the commotion that arises near the blonde as he makes his way towards the stage. He hasn't seen the teen since the USJ. The burn scar on the back of his neck burns like fire. He saved me from that woman.
Izuku hates it. He hates that he'd been saved by the same hands that had scarred him. He hates that, in that moment, Bakugou had looked every bit the hero Izuku has always known he'd be.
Katsuki walks up the step with a cool confidence, casually taking his spot in front of the microphone. "The athlete's oath..." His eyes are steady, unwavering. "Make no mistake about it."
He grins, leaning into the mic. "I'm gonna take first place!"
Izuku grits his teeth as Bakugou looks out over the crowd of students now voicing their anger as they break ranks.
"Dirty bastard!"
"Watch your backs 1-A!"
Katsuki's grin only widens. "The least you can do is serve as my stepping stones."
It was obvious that the teen in front of him has not changed at all since his time at UA.
Bakugou's red eyes find his green ones in the crowd. He takes note of the surprise that the other hides just as quickly as it comes.
Izuku has been holding himself back around Katsuki for years. He's a little tired of doing so. He mouths two simple words at the boy. "You'll lose."
Fury ignites across Bakugou's face and the last he sees of Izuku is his smile before the crowd rushes over the boy like the gentle lapping of waves, hiding him from sight.
"Now!" Midnight booms. "It's time to announce our first event!" A holographic screen appears behind the hero, flickering to life. Two words materialize on it.
"The Maze!" she exclaims. "This is a race between the members of all eleven classes!" A
rumbling starts up to their right as a cement gate pulls itself apart, folding into itself like pieces of origami. The crowd of students makes their way towards it, drawn to it like moths to a flame. "The track is a half-lap around the stadium that we've built just for today! Along the way, you will encounter traps and obstacles of all kinds!" Midnight extends her arms out in a showman way. "UA preaches freedom in all things, that's why, as long as you stay within the boundaries of the maze, anything goes! The first 45 students to reach the finish line will continue onto the next round!"
Izuku stares down the three lights lining the top of the starting gate. The first is lit up red. "I wish you all luck! Now, racers, to your positions!"
Shinsou smirks at him from the side. "Let's win this."
The second light above them flares a bright yellow.
Midoirya nods tersely.
He takes a deep breath, calming himself. He's been waiting for a chance to prove himself since he was five.
The final light flashes green.
"Start!"
Midoirya notices immediately that the first real obstacle of the maze would the narrow path at its start. He tries his best to stay towards the front of the group in an attempt to avoid this but quickly finds himself pushing against the crowd in front of him nonetheless. Everyone is shouting, surging forward. He feels someone step on his foot and he, in turn, feels himself step on someone else's.
There's a sudden burst of cold air that shoots down the hall, signaling what could be the first quirk usage of the round. Izuku spies ice crawling up the walls ahead of them as strained cries go up from the front of the pack. A chain of explosions follows after it, making his ears ring as he takes an elbow to the side.
He grimaces.
"1-A's Todoroki is the first to make it into the maze! Sabotaging his fellow classmates in the process! But 1-A's Bakugou is close behind him!"
"Midoriya!" Shinsou's voice carries over the crowd, it's calm, steadying. Izuku looks up to find him reaching a hand down towards him. He is... being carried by a handful of other students. A few of them he recognizes as kids from their class, but he recognizes at least one as being from one of the hero courses. "Take my hand! You have to make it into the maze to win," he shouts, smirking down at him.
Izuku's not dumb enough to hesitate. He takes his hand, dragging himself up and using the backs of other students to haul himself towards his friend. "Thanks," he breathes.
"We'll be enemies once we make it through here." Shinsou grins. "I wouldn't have it any other way," Izuku laughs.
"Get us out of here!" Shinsou commands the people carrying them. The ride is an uncomfortable one for Izuku, it's obvious that whatever formation the team had decided on hadn't had the foresight to include Midoriya in them. But, with their help, they're all able to reach the other end of the tunnel with ease.
The ground outside is icy, a thick pillar of ice stretching up towards the top of the wall. Like the cold, the stench of nitroglycerin lingers in the air. Izuku chokes on it as he jumps off Shinsou's human-formed taxi service, steadying himself on the ice. The path splits two ways here. Shinsou salutes him from above. "Good luck."
Izuku nods.
No other words are exchanged.
Izuku makes a break for the left path and rounds the corner. The walls of the maze tower menacingly above him, a good two stories above his head. Izuku grits his teeth. There's sounds of fighting ahead of him and the next corner he rounds reveals nearly a dozen students all facing off against a hoard of robots that are all at least twenty-some feet tall.
He curses.
"It seems our front runners for the event are experiencing a bit of trouble towards the center of the maze! I wonder how they'll handle this situation!"
I can't fight those. How'd they expect some of us to win against stuff like this?
It shouldn't surprise Izuku so much to realize that they didn't. UA didn't expect kids like him to make it past obstacles like these. A metal tendril rips through the crowd of students, sending two
kids flying into the wall and another handful running for cover. He's close enough to be within range of the attack and ducks past it, rolling out of the way before it gets too close. Behind him it closes around air before retracting violently, cracking someone harshly on the back like a whip on its return.
He watches as a shining beam of light tears straight through the head of it, toppling the robot into the inside corner of the wall with a screeching crash.
He marvels at the power of the quirk for only a moment before he looks towards the top of the wall, then back at the robot's corpse. His heart races excitedly in his chest.
If anything goes, then... the tops of the walls are still technically within the maze's boundaries, right? Midoriya bares his teeth, part grin, part grimace.
He'll never make it into the top forty-five if he had to force his way through any more obstacles like this.
He makes a mad dash for the downed robot, clambering up its body and straight towards the concrete wall. The robot is wedged into a corner, giving Midoriya all the access he needs to be
able to use it as a sort of springboard. He makes a leap from the highest point, pushing his foot against one side of the wall and propelling him just high enough to reach the ledge. His chest hit the wall rather hard, leaving him a little out of breath as his hands claw at the top of the wall. Loose concrete digs painfully into the flesh of his bare fingers and palms, his feet scrambling for
purchase before he manages to haul himself the rest of the way up.
As soon as he's found his balance he takes off. The height would be dizzying for anyone other than an ex-vigilante. The walls are thick enough to cause anyone trying to break straight through them difficulty, but this means they're also thick enough for Midoriya to comfortably run across.
Izuku's able to bypass the main crowd quickly from up here. At this pace, he'll be able to finish somewhere within the top percentile, just enough for him to make it to the second round. He could win like this. Below him, the maze path narrows, and Midoriya makes a running leap across the gap between walls, loose concrete raining down on the heads of a few students below trying to make it past another group of robots, albeit these are much smaller than the ones from before.
Are all of the obstacles just robots?
All around him are signs of chaos.
The group he'd just left isn't the only one struggling to push their way through the maze. He passes a small group trying to make their way across a set of suspension ropes that dispels his previous theory. The ropes are strung across a chasm half the length of a football field and although heights didn't bother him much anymore, he's thankful he won't need to crawl his way over that obstacle.
At the center of the maze, there's a large courtyard-like area where a series of explosions go off. They draw the eyes of what few other people had shared Midoriya's idea to scale the walls. It's there that he catches sight of Bakugou flying up out of the middle of the maze.
He's always wondered if Katsuki's explosions were strong enough to get him airborne.
Izuku realizes in that moment just how easy it will be for the boy to take first like this. The thought lasts only long enough to watch as a metal tendril whips up from the ground in the middle, wrapping around the teen's ankle and dragging him out of sight. Bakugou lets out a guttural shout as he falls, followed by another series of crackling explosions as he tries to free himself. A spike of
ice, similar to the pillar he'd seen at the start, bursts out of the same area Katsuki was being held up at. Its appearance sends out a strong blast of freezing air towards him, he drops low, hanging onto the wall as he watches another student, who's too close to the fight to properly react to the threat, topple off.
The air buffets his hair back, stinging his cheeks and making his eyes water.
"And 1-A's Awase is thrown off the top of the wall by Todoroki's indirect attack! OH! He's caught himself with his quirk! Welding himself to the wall before he can fall the entire way down! Yowza! My shoulder hurts just from watching that! Pog through the pain, little listener!"
As soon as Izuku's back up he takes a running jump at the gap between walls, redirecting himself away from the middle. If both Bakugou and Todoroki were being preoccupied with whatever hellish obstacle was planted there then that's all the information he needs to decide on avoiding it altogether. There's no way he'll be able to make it past whatever that is.
It's probably made specifically to prevent people with advantageous quirks from finishing too quickly.
"DIE!"
The audience is expecting a show.
An explosion rocks the out from the middle, replacing Todoroki's cool air with an intense, familiar heat that threatens to trigger his fight or flight response. Midoriya grits his teeth, leaning into the explosion to prevent himself from being toppled backward.
A thin smoke drifts across the maze, guided by the wind. He breathes deep, suppressing a cough when it tickles his lungs. He pushes himself to keep running.
With seemingly both of the front runners still stuck in the middle of the maze, Izuku feels excitement burning in his limbs.
At the rate he's currently going he'll be able to finish higher in the ranks than he initially believed. He grins as he runs, sweat slipping down his cheek and sticking pieces of his hair to his forehead.
He runs faster than he's run in a long time.
He can win.
That's when the section of the wall beneath his feet rises suddenly. The initial shock of it sends him to his knees where he can do nothing but cling to the moving section for dear life. Finally, after rising an additional two stories high, it stops.
His heart pounds wildly in his chest. He's stuck.
"It seems 1-C's Midoriya becomes the first student to discover that the walls of the maze function as obstacles themselves! The event organizers have planned for every case scenario! They can't let anyone make it to the end too quickly!"
He gives himself a moment to steady his pulse before leaning carefully over the edge, staring down with widened eyes. A few bits of loose concrete tumble off the top of the wall beneath his hands.
He can feel his panic rising, but he needs to be calm. He has to think quickly.
Do the walls sense people? Or just the weight change?
It's a two-story drop to the next section of the wall and four stories to the floor of the maze. For anyone other than a professional two stories had the potential to break an ankle or tear a tendon. Worst case scenario you could snap much more than just your ankle. Even the single-story drops that Izuku was forced to become accustomed to over the last year could be dangerous if done wrong. Midoriya was somewhat acquainted with parkour, he had to be to be successful as a vigilante in a large city like this one, but he was far from a professional.
However, he needs to get down. If he's stranded up here for much longer then he'll have no chance of making it to the second round.
Is jumping worth the risk?
He watches the loose concrete fall, bouncing off the lower section of the wall as it hits. That's when Midoriya's earlier theories are put to the test and clarified. Because despite there being no student on the wall it still rises.
Weight then. Possibly vibrations, no, no, just weight.
He leans back as the wall gets closer, stopping at the same height as the one he's on now.
He stands, steadying his breathing and walking onto the next half of the wall. Lengthwise it's the same as the previous one, adding an extra ten feet for him to pace across. Again he looks down at the next portion of the wall.
He has no way of knowing how many of the walls are rigged like the ones he's standing on. As far as he's aware, these could be the only two. But, from this high up he can quite literally see the finish line. He can see exactly where he needs to go, what path he has to take to win. He turns from the edge, bending down to pick up as many chunks of loose concrete that he can find, a plan formulating in his head. There's still a good stretch of open wall below him, some sixty to seventy feet before it hits a corner and dead ends.
If all of them rise, and if all of them are the same ten-foot section, then that gives him at least six chances for what he's about to do.
He drops a stone, watches it hit the wall below him. He counts to six as it rises, and then jumps.
The first drop is higher than he'd like, his timing was a little off, but there's nothing that can be done about it now. His feet hit the wall rather hard, but he pushes himself into a narrow roll. There's not enough room on top of the wall for a proper one, this one puts too much pressure on his spine. But, he can't hesitate in pushing himself back up and throwing another pebble at the next section of wall with the one he's still on continuing to rise. If he waits too long it'll be for nothing.
He jumps.
This landing is easier, and he's back on his feet in no time, tossing another pebble, counting to three, and jumping again.
"Look out listeners! It seems 1-C's Midoriya isn't out of the race after all! He's turned this obstacle into his own set of stairs!"
His ankles and knees are feeling the stress of every jump. Even in his vigilante days he never had to land so many consecutive jumps.
But, he can't hesitate. He hurls another rock, jumping before it even has time to hit the wall below him. He's so close. If he times everything just right then he'll be able to jump the gap between the corner and the next wall over. He can only pray that nothing on the opposite side is boobytrapped as well.
The concrete pings against the wall beneath him. He should've hesitated.
Instead of rising, the wall begins to fall.
Time seems to slow around him
"Take a swan dive off the roof!"
He doesn't know what's falling faster, himself or the wall below him.
He feels weightless, almost as if he's entered a sort of free fall around the Earth. There are shouts from below him as several students notice his descent.
"He'll die!"
He won't. Izuku knows this, but it's going to hurt like hell.
The wall is almost flush with the ground when he lands. Pain shoots up his legs and he throws himself into a side roll as quickly as possible to distribute the force when he feels something in his ankle threatening to give. The roll sends him tumbling gracelessly off the side of the wall in a tangle of limbs, but with no more than two feet between it and the ground he fares little more than a few extra bumps and bruises in addition.
He stumbles up as the wall finally falls flush with the maze floor, right ankle twinging with pain when he puts weight on it.
"What's this?! 1-A's Todoroki has once again taken the official lead! Leave it to Endeavor's son to become the first to make his escape from the center of the maze! If 1-A's Bakugou takes much longer he'll miss his chance at taking first!"
Izuku spits bits of sand out of his mouth, looking around.
He hadn't been able to tell from so high up, but it's clear now that this section of the maze's floor had been replaced by sand for as far as he can see. But, other than that it seems empty. He glances at the few students behind him. There's a girl that comes jogging towards him, struggling to move as quickly on the shifting terrain.
Is the sand only here to slow people down? But... from what I've seen so far, that's not flashy enough for UA's standards.
It's because Izuku's on the lookout for it that he sees it coming before everyone else does. "Something's coming!" He calls. The ground beneath them shudders, moving as if it had suddenly found the need to breathe. The girl behind him yelps and Izuku turns to find a spider-like robot clawing its way out of the sand beside her.
He was right about the sand not being flashy enough.
"Get down!" He yanks her out of the way, pulling her to the ground and shielding her with his body as a claw-like limb sweeps over their heads with a mechanical whir.
"They're really trying to kill us!" the girl sobs below him.
Izuku grits his teeth, pinching his eyes closed as its appearance throws clouds of sand and dust into the air. He can hear all the other students yelling incoherently around him and peeks his eyes open to see another five of the robots crawling their way out of the sand.
They're all some sixteen feet high, each equipped with six limbs, four with wide, flat bases for stabilization and two front limbs with pointed, hook-like feet for attacking.
He scrambles up, dragging the girl with him and pushing her towards the rest of the students where she'll be safer. "Go!" He shouts, rolling out of the way of a steel, camel-shaped hoof aiming to flatten him. Izuku reaches for a weapon that doesn't exist, glancing at his hip and cursing when he realizes there's nothing there. I can't just punch a robot, he seethes internally. A pointed front limb swings out at him and he drops back to the ground, keeping low.
He'd gotten lucky the first time he encountered the robots at the start of the maze. There were more students then, stronger students with quirks more suited to this type of opponent. He was able to leave it to them and make his escape to the top of the walls. But behind him everyone sticks close to one another, scared, fearful, and the vigilante remnants in him burns within like the great, final flare of a dying star as it eats through the last of its fuel.
If he can't fight them himself, and if no one else steps up to the plate then really there's only one option. It's easy enough to clamber up the back leg of the robot once he gets behind it. His ankle rebels against his plan, but he's fought in states worse than these. The bots' defenses are weak in the back, its two spidery limbs unable to reach so far around.
That's why UA planted more than one robot beneath the sands, so that they could, in turn, cover their weaknesses with reinforcements.
Izuku climbs his way over the bot's back, stopping only once he's reached its head. He stands atop it boldly, staring down the vermilion camera piece of the next nearest robot.
Shouts go up from the remaining students as it stomps towards him, raising its arm, readying to attack.
He has just enough time to dodge, sliding down the robot's back to safety.
The second bot's pointed front limb slams into the steel, head plating where Izuku was standing just moments before. It pierces the hull with ease, tearing through all the most important wiring.
The robot begins to grind to a halt beneath him, mechanical limbs shuddering as Izuku tries to keep his balance.
He waits for the other to pull its appendage out, prepared to dodge again. He doesn't know whether it's a good thing or not that it can't. There's a screech of metal against metal as the bot tries to drag
its arm out to no avail.
Midoriya hesitates at this, forcing himself to formulate a new plan. He'll have to be quick.
He clambers back towards the head of the robot, baring his teeth as he uses the second bot's trapped limb as a bridge between the two. And he watches from his new spot, as the original bot, whose head can no longer move but whose spidery limbs still creep jerkily upwards in preparation of a killing downwards swing. Izuku manages to count to ten before its pointed claw pierces straight through the other bot's 'eye' and into whatever else lies behind.
He looks over his shoulder at the students huddled at the edge of the sand. "Well?" He calls out, "Are you just going to give up here after coming so far! I didn't even need to use a quirk to take these down!"
At first, he thinks his words do nothing, that his rallying cry falls on hearts turned cold from fear. But, he watches as one girl takes a hesitant step onto the sand. He turns away from them then, raising a defiant fist in a symbol of solidarity. "Anyone can be a hero!" He shouts. His words probably sound flashier than he'd like, and for being something he'd come up with on his own, the words probably shake him more than those behind him. But, they feel like a sort of acceptance to Izuku. They feel like an acceptance of the future he was soon to carve out for himself. Whether this festival would become the tool he used to carve it or not feels insignificant in the face of the determination he feels flooding through him.
"We can't let the hero courses show us up!" Someone from the crowd calls waveringly.
"Show them you're not someone to be looked down on!" Izuku makes a careful but quick descent from the robot's back as the other three drip sand from their gears, marching towards the group. Izuku, unfortunately, doesn't have time to deal with the remaining ones. He pushes through the pain in his ankle, slipping beneath their lanky limbs where they can't reach him. "Their backs are vulnerable!" This is the last bit of advice he has for them.
"Oh? It seems several of the hero course students have teamed up to bash a hole through the wall that has blocked them in! With three and a half feet of concrete and steel between them and freedom, just how long will it take for them to escape!"
Midoriya plows onward, feet steady on the sand after having trained at Dagobah for so many months. The end of the maze was within grasp and there was nothing in heaven nor in hell that would stop him from being one of the first forty-five to pass through that gate. From as high up as he'd been he was able to see the exact path he needs to take to get where he's going. Midoriya weaves his way through the rest of the maze with relative ease, picking his way across the legitimate minefield he encounters on his way to the safety of the finish line. He watches as a kid ahead of him gets roughly blasted up all the way to the top of the wall, desperately clinging to it. The landing is anything but pretty.
"1-A's Bakugou takes first place, winning the event! 1-A's Todoroki is only seconds behind! If those final robots hadn't slowed him down I wonder what the end results would have been! Bakugou's ability to get himself airborne simply gave him too much of an advantage over Todoroki who was forced to freeze them before continuing!"
Izuku continues on foot, running as fast as he dares whilst keeping an eye out for any remaining
traps. After passing the minefield there are few students to be seen. Izuku doesn't know whether this is a good thing or not.
"Our first event is drawing to a close! With only forty-five students moving onto the second round, it will be a nail-biting experience to see just who makes it though! Place your final bets! This race is almost over!"
When Midoriya first sets his eyes on the finish line after rounding the last corner he almost collapses from sheer relief. He's not as in shape as he was before his hospitalization, and this fact makes itself known in the fatigue that's creeping through his limbs. There's a few frozen bots guarding the exit, tilted precariously as if ready to collapse at any given moment. From this distance, he can just barely make out Shinsou and his lilac hair being carried back into the stadium.
Izuku grins after him.
The second time he sets eyes on that final gate is when a group of students burst out of the wall just ahead of him. They're covered in sweat and concrete dust. And among the group he recognizes two faces, both from 1-A.
The first is Kirishima. The second is the youngest son of the Iida family, brother of the Turbo Hero: Ingenium.
Kirishima catches sight of him first, sharkish teeth bared in a bright grin as Izuku races past them, intent on stopping for nothing until he's crossed the finish line. But, the closer he gets the louder the groaning creaks of the frozen robots become and the warier he feels of their tilting bodies. He slows to a jog, eyeing them carefully.
The ice creaks again, and this time he hears as it breaks free. He curses, slowing to a stop. He glances behind him at the group of hero students tailing him. There's a word of warning on his lips that's drowned out by the sound of engines revving. His eyes catch on Iida who is still stood near the hole the group had burst out of. He's crouched in a racers position.
He has not noticed the beginning of the bot's descent.
He will not make it in time.
"Stop him!" Midoriya shouts, extending a hand out towards the group. "He'll get hurt!" His eyes are wide, scared.
Iida takes off like a bullet.
He passes his classmates and Izuku quickly becomes the only person between him and the falling robot.
Izuku's eyes narrow and he squares his stance. After a dozen some months of vigilantism, Midoriya Izuku has long since forgotten how to hesitate.
"I said!" Izuku spits, reaching out for the boy as he makes to pass just by him. "Stop!" Midoriya barely catches the back of Iida's uniform, holding on for all he's worth.
The speed at which the teen's going nearly wrenches his shoulder from its socket. He grits his teeth, hanging on for dear life as he all but skids across the ground from Iida's momentum. As painful as it is, it gets the job done. Iida forced himself to a halt turning to look at him in confusion
just feet from where the icy bot crashes into the ground.
Izuku turns his face, shielding it with his free arm as a cloud of dust and debris flies out from the impact. The ground beneath them trembles and he can hear the further cracking of ice as more steel giants begin their collapse, crushing walls stationed too close and other bots as they topple into each other. It's ear-splittingly loud and after they've finally settled, there's shouting to be heard from the other sides of their neighboring walls.
"And all of the paths to the finish line have been blocked! Leaving handfuls of students still trapped within the maze! It seems even after 1-A's Todoroki has made it through that he still manages to find the strength in him to inconvenience his opponents! With only eleven slots remaining who will be the final few to move on!"
The part of the maze that holds the finish line was large and box-like, each wall having its own path that leads back into the labyrinth. And with the collapse of the two-story bots, it seems that all of the passages, just like theirs, have been blocked off.
He curses.
He'll have to climb to get through.
He thinks Iida says something to him, but Midoriya ignores it in favor of clambering his way over the robot. He can't waste any time.
He's careful not to show off just how much his shoulder or ankle are bothering him on his way up. The other three behind him hesitate for only a moment before climbing after him.
Upon reaching the top he can see that there's already three other students racing towards the exit as a dozen others begin their fight to climb over the icy bots.
There is nothing but open space before him.
A solar flare barrels into his rib cage, aurora lights lighting up in its wake.
He's going to make it.
As soon as he's sure he'll clear the jump to the ground he makes a leap of faith. His already injured ankle protests harshly upon landing and his shoulder groans from the roll he throws himself into.
Izuku scrambles up, summoning all the strength he has in him, and runs.
Iida passes him in the long hall into the stadium, but he doesn't care, doesn't pay him any mind. He pushes himself further, faster. He doesn't realize he's even passed the gate until he's blinded by the re-emergence of the sun on the other side.
The cheering inside the stadium is deafening.
"Listeners! Give a warm congratulations to the first forty-five! You'll be seeing more of them today! This is only just the beginning!"