The sun was setting by the time Izuku was done with training, they had been given the later half of every day leading up to the sports festival to train for the event. He had planned to drop by the library to grab another chemistry book (he been wanting to develop his cloud transforming ever since he changed the charge of one to shock the Nomu), but that plan was halted by the taller boy who stepped into his path.
"Deku." Crimson eyes looked down on him, dissimilar in every way from the way the teen used to look, even if he had been aggressive, his anger was never truly real, not until his quirk. "What the hell happened?"
"What do you-"
"You know damn well what I mean!" Bakugou's hand grasped his collar, pulling him further towards the vexed boy's gaze. "You were supposed to get some weak Telekinesis quirk, and remain as useless as you always had been. Then, you just vanished and come back acting like your better than me!" The glares intensity only rose as the teen spoke. "Just cause you went to some fancy private school and got lucky with who your related to- don't think I won't crush you at the festival!"
Sighing, Izuku dragged a hand across his face. Bakugou had stormed away before he could say anything, leaving Izuku slightly confused about some of the conclusions the teen had jumped to. Somehow, he knew that it wouldn't be long till his questions were answered.
All he could do now, as Class 1-A walked down the long halls of the festival stadium, was hope his training was enough to keep up with whatever UA threw at them. The midday light sharply contrasted the darkness of the tunnel, combined with the roaring of the crowd, it was enough to show the students the true scale of the event.
"With those introductions out of the way-" Mic's voice finally broke through the cacophony of cheering. "Give it up for this year's umpire: Midnight!" The cheering only grew as the pro walked onto the stage, signalling for the students to gather round.
"Alright, I know you're all very excited, but let's hear something from the students before we begin. Here's Izuku Midoriya with the students' pledge."
Fidgeting nervously, Izuku quickly ascended the stairs to the stage, ignoring the annoyed whispers of the general education course. Apparently they weren't very happy about a hero student representing them: "I don't really have a lot to say, just that I know everyone here has something to prove. Even if it's small, if it means a lot to you, you should put your all into it. That why I want everyone to try there best, to go beyond: Plus Ultra!"
"Midoriya." The students were crammed into a small corridor, in preparation for the first event, a race around the stadium. "Objectively, I think your the strongest here. That's why I'm going to beat you." Todoroki stared him down from across the clump of students, the lights at the end of the tunnel turned amber. "So live up to your pledge, don't hold back against me."
With a shrill buzzing, the lights flashed green, the only warning for the wave of ice that swept across the crowd's feet. "And with a cold shoulder to his foes-" Aizawa's sighing reached the microphone. "Shoto Todoroki takes first place! But it's not over yet, it seems some students have managed to avoid the attack!"
Shoto glanced back to see the majority of his classmates escaping the ice, though his attention was focused on the boy at the very centre of the chaos: "Objects under rule A will be attracted to the air 100m diagonally away from me. Izuku Midoriya falls under rule A." In a flash, Izuku was past Todoroki, his form flying unobstructed through the air. His quirk didn't work indirectly, but he seemed to have found a way around that.
"The front contestants have reached the first obstacle, you better be good at smashing metal, cause it's the: ROBO INFERNO!" Todoroki supposed the name was accurate, despite its rather over the top title. Hordes of robots filled the straight 500 or so meters of the obstacle, culminating in the four zero pointers that towered over the stadium walls.
"This is what they used to test the regular examinees?" Todoroki's foot shot forward, freezing a line of robots, as well as the entirety of the far left zero pointer. "Pathetic." With the surprise that brought on the other students, he easily slipped ahead, but it did nothing to let him catch Midoriya.
His opponent had flown over the entire obstacle, unaffected by gravity, only momentarily pausing to change direction. "The next obstacle is coming up, but the pit won't stop our current top three competitors!"
The rest of the event seemed to fade into the background as Todoroki ran, uncaring if the trail he left helped the other competitors. Midoriya had easily conquered the race, with only one aspect of his power. Yet despite how hard he tried, his ice alone couldn't grant him victory.
By the time the results of the race were called, Shoto's frustration had grown to anger, not toward Izuku, but toward the one who tainted his power with corruption.
His eyes turned towards Endeavour, glaring daggers towards the smirking man. Shoto had proven Enji right, and he knew it.
ANs:
I've started to post stuff on AO3. Here's a link if you'd like to have a look: /works/50669707/chapters/127998172
