Heroes of Class 1-S, Crossover Class

Season 2

Chapter 7: Dawn of a New Chapter in Life

Longclaw found herself nearly knocked off her feet as she exited the bathroom, a blue blur racing passed her towards the stairs.

"And where are you going so quickly you feel the need to nearly bowl me over?" She questioned as she grabbed the back of Sonic's collar at lightning speeds, earning her a "Gack" from him.

"Tokyo. I lost a bet, so I'm meeting up with Kirigaya to have lunch with him and his friends." Longclaw's right eye raised.

"A bet?" Sonic was quick to clarify before she jumped to conclusions.

"Who could get more points in the entrance exam! The loser had to pay for the winner's lunch at a place of their choosing." Her eye remained up, making Sonic a little nervous that she wasn't going to let him go. Luckily, he had nothing to worry about as her stare turned into a smug grin.

"Well, well, well. My Sonic lost a bet? What is the world coming too?"

"Oh ha de ha. You're SO funny."

"I try to be." She let go of his collar and gave him a hug. "Enjoy yourself. I'll see you when I get back then."

"Wouldn't I get home before you do?"

"No. I have a meeting with Nezu and the other teachers about what happened yesterday and I imagine it'll go on for a while."

"Oh… Right. That happened." Longclaw batted him away with her feathered hand.

"Don't you go worrying about that. Go and have fun. I'll put something in the fridge for you to eat when you get back."

"Thanks Longclaw. You're the best!" He gave her his trademark grin. "Alright, I'll see you later!" Sonic spun on his heels and leapt down the entirety of the stairs, making Longclaw cringe.

"Please don't do that again!" She called out as he opened the door.

"No promises!" He called back. With the door closed behind him, he jogged his way towards the train station.

Being nearly the middle of the day on a weekday meant that the trains were nearly void of people. Sonic easily found a seat and plonked himself down. As the train pulled away, he felt his phone buzz in his pocket.

Kirigaya: Yo. Sugu and I are here, just waiting on you.

Sonic: Ok. I'm on my way there now. Should be there in about ten-fifteen minutes tops.

Kirigaya. Cool. See you soon.

…

When the train arrived at Tokyo Station, Sonic was quick to hop off and navigate through the gate. He passed through the rows of shops within the station before he stepped out from under the canopy.

Like any day of the week, Tokyo was bustling with activity. People were everywhere, and Sonic had to dance his way around people at points. He paused for a moment to watch a street performance that was going on before continuing his walk. Eventually, he broke away from the pack of people and turned into a small alleyway that only had a small trickle of people walking down it. A few paces ahead of him, was a small standing sign that looked like it had a menu on it.

"Must be the place." Sonic said to himself as he approached it. If he was being honest, he could have missed it had the sign not been there. The outside of the shop blended into the wall almost a little too well. If it wasn't for the fact that it had a little nameplate that read "Dicey Café" on the red door, Sonic would've assumed it was a storage building. There was a guy standing outside with an orange plaid bandana wrapped around his head, his phone up to his ear. He was cursing whoever was on the other end about something. What Sonic found interesting about him though, was the fact that his hair was made of fire, the bandana obviously keeping it out of his face.

"Goddamn it Sunaookami! I asked you to cover me that day! Don't go pulling out on me now man." He paused, listening to what they had to say before growling. "Don't give me that! I have an important thing I need to do then! I need you to cover me so I can… Well fuck you then! I'll ask Watanabi to take my shift then!" He angrily hung up on whoever it was before huffing. Sonic kinda felt bad for him, but then again, he didn't have a job of his own. So he wasn't feeling bad for long very long. As he reached the door however, the guy also approached it.

"After you." He said politely, holding the door open. The guy looked down to Sonic, slightly surprised.

"Huh? Oh, thanks." Sonic let him pass before stepping in himself. The interior of the café was much different from the outside, looking much more inviting. It was a small room that had a bunch of tables set up around the room, along with a bar across the back of the room. There were a few people around and it was easy to spot who he was looking for. Kazuto and Leafa were sitting around a table in the back corner with two other girls. Sonic grinned a little.

"Kirigaya/Kazuto!" Sonic nearly jumped when the guy he'd let in before him called out at the same time, calling to the same boy. The guy seemed surprised as well.

"Huh? Who're you?"

"I could ask the same thing!"

"Ryotaro! Sonic! Over here." Sonic glanced back to Kazuto, who was waving them over. Giving the guy the benefit of the doubt, Sonic approached their table, plonking himself down next to Leafa.

"Yo! I made it." Leafa raised her hand up for a high-five, to which he promptly returned.

"Good to see you! You didn't have too much trouble finding it, did you?"

"Nah, Google Maps is a lifesaver when I don't know where to go." The guy sat on the other side of the table, next to the girl with blue hair and cat ears.

"Sorry I'm late. I asked a guy at work to cover me so we could take on that event dungeon next week, but the bastard just called me to tell me that he changed his mind. I have to get someone else to cover me, but I'm not a hundred percent sure if they'll be able to." Kazuto chuckled as the guy's hair flickered angerly.

"It's fine, I'm sure we can get Rika or Keiko to help out if you can't make it." He looked to Sonic. "Events aside, this is Sonic. He's one of our classmates at UA. He lost a bet to me, so I brought him here so he could fulfill his end of the bargain." Sonic visibly wilted.

"You didn't need to tell them that." He mumbled, to which Kazuto smirked.

"Yeah I did. Anyway, introductions. The guy with the literal hot head is Ryotaro Tsuboi. To his right is Shino Asada and to my left is my girlfriend, Asuna Yuuki." He quickly introduced.

"Nice to meet you."

"Sup man."

"Hopefully Kirito isn't giving you much trouble at school." Kazuto chuckled a little as his girlfriend gave him a cheeky smile.

"We're still waiting on one more person, but I have no idea when she'll be getting here."

"She just texted me and said that she'd be here any minute now." Asuna confirmed, her cheeky grin replaced with a neutral smile. "Her train pulled into the station a few minutes ago."

"Trust her to be late. Why didn't you just both come here together?" The blue-haired girl asked with a raised eyebrow. "You two do live together after all."

"She insisted she needed to grab something she'd forgotten in her locker at school and told me to go ahead." She smirked a little. "Luckily, I had a certain someone swing by to get me."

"I was in the area." Kazuto grinned back. "So I figured that I might as well." Sonic was a little lost on the conversation before him. Leafa must have picked up on this as she leaned a little closer to him.

"Kazuto has a motorbike license. He told me to take the bus because he wanted to pick her up." She pouted playfully. "The nerve of the guy."

"Well I can't blame him. He has quite the looker for a girlfriend after all. Why wouldn't he want to ditch his sister to pick her up."

"Excuse you. I am quite the looker myself, thank you very much!"

It was at that moment when the small café door was shoved open with a little more force than necessary. All the patrons in said café stopped what they were doing to glance at the out of breath figure in the doorway. She had long purple hair that was held back by a red bandana with two yellow arrow-like stripes. She glanced up at the group, revealing her red eyes and pointed ears.

"I… Made it!" She huffed, not seemingly caring that people were giving her funny looks. "Gah… Why do I… feel so out of shape?" She plodded over to their table and pulled out the spare seat next to Sonic and all but flopped into it, resting her head on her arms. Asuna turned her attention to the purple haired girl with a smug grin.

"So. Was it worth going out of your way to go back to school to get your keychain?" A middle finger was shoved in her direction.

"Yes. I need it in case I didn't have anything to use on me if there was a villain attack. After all, I do have my provisional license." She said with a grin, causing Asuna to pout.

"It's not my fault there were people that caught me off guard. Besides, I'll get it this year." The purple-haired girl giggled before noticing Sonic staring at her.

"Oh hi. You're the guy Kazuto was talking about, right?"

"Yep. Sonic the Hedgehog. At your service… Uh…" The girl gave Sonic a grin that was a clear copyright infringement to his own trademark grin.

"Yuuki Konno. Sister of Asuna and your senpai at UA." Sonic's eyes widened slightly. His… Senpai?

"You go to UA?" That was probably a dumb question to ask looking back on it now.

"Uh huh. I'm a second year and one of the top performing students of my class." She bragged triumphantly, to which Asuna shook her head.

"That may be true, but so am I. You're still going to lose."

"Nope. No way. I'm going to beat you with everything I've learnt! I won't hold back!" The two sisters glared at each other, making Sonic tilt his head owlishly (He probably picked up from Longclaw.).

"Am I missing something here?"

"I can answer that." Ryotaro piped up. "When Asuna and Yuuki were deciding which hero school they wanted to go to for the next three years, they ended up getting into an argument about which of the two major ones were better. UA or Shiketsu."

"In the end, they decided to go to different schools to see which is better." Shino finished. "Once they've graduated, they're going to spar with everything that they've learnt. Whoever wins-"

"Proves which of the two schools is better!" Yuuki and Asuna butted in, having finished their glaring match.

"But enough about old news." Leafa produced a few menus that she'd just gone to collect and passed them around. "Let's get something to eat! I'm starving."

"Seconded!" Sonic agreed, pretending to ignore the sly grin Kazuto was giving. He failed though. "Please go easy on my wallet Kirigaya…"

"No promises."

"Damn it…"

The group of seven turned their attentions to the menus and after a brief bout of silence, they all picked what they wanted to eat. Thankfully, Kazuto let Sonic off easy and it didn't cost him a ludicrous amount of yen. He was also introduced to the café owner, Andrew Gilbert Mills, or Agil as he preferred to be called. Agil was a kindhearted man who seemed to know Kazuto's group well, letting them have a discount on their meal. Eventually though, once they'd finished eating, they decided to clear out of the place. They all stood outside the café next to a motorbike that Sonic came to learn was Kazuto's. Ryotaro checked the time on his phone.

"Well. As much as this was fun to catch up again, I gotta go. I need to see if any of my colleges are willing to take the shift of mine that overlaps the event."

"Like I said earlier, don't worry about it too much. We can find a replacement if need be."

"But I want to be there damnit! Do you know how long I've been waiting for this event? Don't take this away from me!"

"What're they talking about?" Sonic asked Leafa, who chuckled a little.

"I guess this conversation is kinda weird if you can only hear one side of it huh? Everyone here plays ALFheim Online and there's a group event coming up that we all want to take part in. Ryotaro especially, if you couldn't tell."

"ALFheim Online… I think Kirigaya mentioned it not long ago."

"It's super fun. You can be one of several races that have their own strengths and weaknesses, fight all sorts of fantasy-like monsters and even fly! All from a first-person perspective. And best of all, you can't use your quirks in there, so everyone starts as an equal. No one person is stronger than the next guy. Unless you grind and over-level yourself that is. Then it's only fun for them."

"That sounds kinda fun to be honest."

"Right? You should give it a go if you can. Although, you'll need an Amusphere if you want to play."

"Hmm. You know… I think my cousin is into that sort of thing. I'll see if she'd be interested in helping me out." Leafa grinned wildly.

"Awesome!" She turned to Kazuto, interrupting whatever conversation he was having with his girlfriend. "Hey Kazuto! I think I converted Sonic!"

"Converted?!" Sonic yelped in shock. What the heck did he sign up for?

"Sugu, don't make him think we're a cult please." Kazuto shook his head before turning back to Asuna. "Would you like me to take you home?"

Before Asuna could even think about replying to that, Leafa was suddenly on the back of the bike, the spare helmet already on its way onto her head.

"Why thank you dear brother. I would love if you could take me home instead of forcing me to catch the bus this time." She said, getting progressively annoyed as she spoke the sentence.

"Wha-? Sugu!"

"Wow. She was quick." Yuuki linked an arm through Asuna's. "Sorry lover boy, but I would like Asuna's opinion to help me pick out some new underwear. So, unless you'd like to help with that…"

"No, no. I'm good." Kazuto said hastily, a blush tinting his cheeks. "I'll leave you two to it then."

"That's what I thought." Asuna rolled her eyes before kissing Kazuto on the cheek.

"I'll text you later. See you later Kirito." With a wave, She and Yuuki headed down the alley towards the main street. Shino also said her goodbyes and headed the opposite way, leaving Sonic, Kazuto and Leafa alone. Kazuto started up his bike with a grumble.

"That was kind of rude of you Sugu." Leafa stuck her tongue out at him. "I'm serious!"

"And I'm seriously annoyed you made me catch the bus!" She pouted a little before softening as she leant on his back. "But you have to admit, Yuuki is getting better with each passing day, don't you think?"

"Did something happen to Konno?" Sonic asked, causing both siblings to wince a little as they glanced at each other. Kazuto turned his bike off before turning his head towards Sonic.

"Well, it's not really our place to say. It's kind of a sensitive topic."

"All I'll say is that a few years ago, she was sick. Like, really sick." Leafa said downheartedly.

"Oh…" Sonic was surprised with that. The purple-haired girl had seemed anything but. "She didn't seem that way."

"Like Sugu said, it was a few years ago. But don't think she's fragile. If she catches wind that you're thinking that, she will kick your butt. Her skills are nothing to scoff at by the way, if her victory in the first years UA Sports Festival tournament last year is anything to go by."

"Oh yeah, shouldn't that be coming up again soon?" Leafa asked curiously. "It is that time of year, isn't it?"

"Huh. You're right. But would they even have the festival this year after what happened to 1-A yesterday?" Sonic waved a hand dismissively at Kazuto.

"I doubt they'd cancel it. It's too big of an event to let go. If anything, they'll just beef up security."

"Either way…" Kazuto started the bike again, putting his helmet on properly. "I'm sure we'll find out soon. See you at school tomorrow?" Sonic grinned his trademark grin again.

"You know it! Thanks for today. I had fun. Even if I had to spend a little more than usual."

"Hey, you're the one who wanted to make that bet." Kazuto shot back with a grin.

"I know… I've learnt my lesson."

"Anyway." Leafa pointed down the alley towards the main street. "Forward mush my loyal steed! To our palace!" Kazuto just shook his head.

"Sure, sure. See you tomorrow Sonic."

"See ya!" Leafa piped up, to which Sonic gave them a salute.

"Adios amigos!" And with that, the motorbike took off, leaving Sonic in the alleyway. With a chuckle, he pulled out his phone to check the train times and began the trip back home.

…

"…Lastly, you'll have Midnight for the last session of the day. Oh, and the UA Sports Festival will be happening in two weeks, so be prepared for that." Longclaw added as an afterthought.

The next day arrived and all of Class 1-S were back at school for homeroom. Longclaw had been giving them a rundown of how the day was going to go, only to drop that right at the end. This obviously caused nearly everyone to cheer out.

"What?!"

"The Sports Festival!"

"Oh this is going to be awesome!"

"I actually get to participate now! I can't wait!" Longclaw cleared her throat, causing those who'd been shouting to quieten back down.

"To be honest, I was against the idea, what with 1-A being attacked by actual villains the other day. But unfortunately, I was out voted and all we're doing is beefing up the security." She let out a long sigh. "But I can understand why you're all excited. This chance only comes around three times for you guys and it's the perfect place to show the pros what you're made of." She spotted the hand up near the back left of the classroom. "Vastayan."

"Why do we need to show the pros what we're made of?"

"Excellent question. Alongside showing everyone what you're capable of, you will also be receiving invites to intern at various Hero Agencies to get some hands-on experience in the field."

"Will we all get invites?" Miles asked from across the room.

"Correct. Even if, by some miraculously unlucky turn of events you don't make it past the first round, you will all get the chance to intern with a pro. Some of you will most likely receive more offers than the others depending on how well you do, but I'm imagining that most pros will want to pick up someone from the elite class, so you're all probably going to get lots of invites regardless."

"Any tips on how to stand out?" Sonic felt the need to ask. Longclaw just gave him a blank stare.

"Sonic. You are the last person who needs tips on how to stand out."

"But I gave you a nice segue, didn't I?" He said with a grin.

"Thank you then, I suppose." She said with a sigh. "If you want to stand out amongst the other students, just be yourselves. Don't fall behind and make sure to do your best." She glanced at the clock. "But that's enough from me. Make sure you get some training in when you can. I will book a few timeslots for usage of the gym if anyone's interested in using it, so come and see me later if you do. For now though, I believe it's time for Cementoss to stop eavesdropping and come in for your modern literature lesson."

Right on cue, the man whose head looked like a block of cement opened the door, a grin on his face.

"Your senses are as sharp as ever Candace."

"Of course they are. I am an owl after all." She waved to her class. "Don't get into too much trouble kiddos." With that, she left.

The day continued like normal with classes continuing on as normal, as if nothing had happened two days prior. At last though, the final bell of the day rang and Sonic threw his hands into the air to stretch.

"Man. First day back and I'm already pooped. When's our next Foundational Hero Studies session?" He asked Amy as she walked towards his desk.

"Monday afternoon I think." She pondered. "But I suppose it doesn't really matter at the moment. Want to go see if Jiro wants to hang out now?"

"Sure. I didn't get a chance to talk to her this morning." He pulled himself to his feet and stepped out of their classroom door, Amy following closely behind. "How do you think 1-A is holding up?"

"I'd like to hazard a guess that they probably need a bit of therapy, but aside from that, they're probably doing fine."

"Yeah, that'd probably be for the… The heck?"

As the two hedgehogs approached 1-A's door, they were met by a huge crowd of other students blocking it. They were staring at it, as if entranced by it. Amy cocked her head to the side.

"Uh… Did something happen?"

"I'd say everyone is sizing up the competition if you ask me. Come on." Sonic grabbed Amy's hand and headed into the mass of bodies. He weaved and pushed through them until he arrived at the front of the pack. There, he found Bakugou leering at the group.

"Out of the way extras. I got places to be." He wasn't shouting, so that was a good sign.

"Bakugou! You can't call everyone extras!" They heard Iida shout.

However, the group didn't move, causing Bakugou to growl.

"So, this is the guys who survived the villain attack huh?" Someone spoke up from somewhere near the back of the crowd. People parted to let a guy with purple hair that clearly needed some sleep make his way to the front. "Kinda disappointing, if you ask me." Sonic was surprised when Bakugou didn't say anything. He just leered at the guy with a neutral face. "Did you know? There's a lot of kids who ended up in other departments just because they failed the heroics exam."

"So?" Bakugou finally spoke. "Why the hell does that matter?"

"Because the Sports Festival isn't just a time for the kids in heroics to stroke their own egos." A wild grin appeared on his face. "It's also a chance for those who missed out to transfer in, sweeping the rug out from underneath your feet." He turned to leave, but not before turning back. "Best watch yourselves. Because everyone here is going to be gunning it to take your spots. Whether you like it or not." And with that declaration of war, he slipped back into the crowd and disappeared. Sonic glanced to Amy.

"Any idea what was stuck up his butt?"

"Sonic!"

"What? But you gotta admit, he's got a point." He paused, letting someone from Class 1-B shout out his own declaration of war, which totally sucked the ominous feeling that the purple haired teen had left upon leaving. "There was a whole bunch of people that couldn't make it into the heroics department due to one reason or another. If they do well, it is entirely possible that they could take our places."

"But… I just barely made it."

"You say that, but even if you hadn't gotten a hundred points, you still would've gotten into 1-A."

"That's… True."

"Either way. I won't be holding back, so as long as you don't either, you've got nothing to worry about, right?"

"Also true." Amy grinned wildly. "Let's do our best!"

"That's the spirit!"

"You guys are chipper." Sonic and Amy turned to find Kyoka standing next to them as the rest of Class 1-A began to trickle out of the now cleared door. "You didn't come to make your own declaration, did you? That's probably the last thing we need."

"Jiro! Hi, how are you doing?" Amy all but wrapped the taller girl into a hug. "I was so worried!"

"Whoa. Someone's feeling clingy." She returned the hug awkwardly. "I'm fine Rose. You don't need to worry so much."

"You're one of my friends. Of course I have the right to worry!" Amy pulled away before clearing her throat. "In regard to war, I think you're going to be fine."

"I can't speak for everyone in our class, but we're not going to gunning it for you guys. Unless we need to, that is."

"Oh, well that's a little reassuring." She pointed down the hall. "Shall we head out?"

"Sounds like a plan." Sonic nodded. "I'm still kinda curious how the incident at the USJ went anyway."

"Sonic! What did I say about opening wounds!"

"She said it was fine!"

"Still!"

Kyoka had to spend the next ten minutes trying to pull the two apart from their arguing.

…

In what felt like a second, two weeks had flown by.

No seriously, it really felt like a second…

Everyone understood the assignment, working their butts off to train when they were given the chance. Sonic even got special permission from Longclaw to run laps around the entirety of the school as long as he didn't interfere with anyone else. Amy and Kyoka tried to join him, but both fell behind easily. But Sonic was eager to help out with pointers to improve their stamina, to which Kyoka was more than happy to put to good use.

Fireworks popped in the air as people from all kinds of places moved in through UA's main gate, heading for the main stadium, where the festivities of the Sports Festival were taking place. As Longclaw had said, there were also lots of hired help in the form of Pro Heroes looking after the security.

Sonic let out a gasp of fresh air as he was finally released from the overly cramped bus. It wasn't normally this busy, but with the current events on today, there were lots of people who wanted to leave their cars at home. He waited for a moment before Amy popped out as well, taking a big breath as well.

"Do you think we should've gotten Longclaw to bring us here earlier? That was insane!"

"Nope. She was gone before I got up, so I doubt she would've been able to give us a lift. What about your folks?" Amy shook her head.

"They have work. But the promised me they'd be watching when they got the chance."

"I'm kinda surprised that every buisness in Japan doesn't just shut down so everyone can watch the festival today." Sonic said with a grin. "But then that'd just be bad for the economy."

"You'd be right there." Amy glanced to the gate that had hundreds upon thousands of people going through it. "So. Game plan to get in?"

"Gun it and hope for the best?" Amy gave him a flat stare as Sonic chuckled sheepishly.

"God, you are the worst when it comes to making plans."

"So I've been told. Can't you just use your hammer to vault over the wall?"

"And get myself fried by the security system? No thank you." She groaned frustratedly. "Fine. Gunning it seems to be the way to go."

"I knew you'd see-"

"Shut up and go!" Amy interrupted him, grabbing his arm and charging into the crowd.

After a brief moment of panic when they lost each other, the two hedgehogs finally made it onto the school grounds. They had a very brief look at a few of the stalls on the way to the stadium before slipping into the main building. The two hedgehogs were quick to find the 1-S waiting room. Without a moment's hesitation, Sonic opened the door revealing that they were the last ones there. All eyes were on him in upon his entrance.

"Today's the day!" He shouted. "Let's do our best!"

"I mean, that was the plan, wasn't it?" Hana asked with a cheeky grin. "After all, I am going to win it after all."

"Ha. That's what you think!" Drift called from his place in the corner, a Nintendo Switch on the table in front of him. "If anyone's going to win this, it's gonna be me."

"You're already shaking." Rox pointed out, second controller in her hands. "What makes you think you can win it all?"

"Hey! So are you!" Everyone began to state their cases, getting increasingly louder as they tried to talk over each other, causing Sonic to sweat-drop. Kazuto, who was seated on a seat near the door with a piece of paper in hand, felt a tick mark growing on his head.

"Everybody SHUT UP!" Everybody ceased their yelling to look at the black-haired boy. "I am trying to memorize this script before we go out and you're not helping!"

"Sorry, he didn't get a chance to do it last night." Leafa apologized on his behalf, clapping her hands together. "He was too busy procrastinating."

"Sugu!"

"What? You had a week to memorize it and you left it till the day that you needed to recite it. It's my job to give you shit for it."

"Speech? What for?" Amy asked as she moved past Sonic.

"Well, I did get the highest score on the entrance exam. Midnight emailed me to let me know that I needed to prepare a speech to give at the start of the festival." He sighed loudly. "But as Sugu so nicely put, I kept putting it off in favor of other things."

"Playing games."

"Sugu, stop it!"

"Bleh" Leafa stuck her tongue out at her brother. "Make me."

Sonic watched as the scene unfolded around him. Miles and Ahri were by another table, talking amongst themselves while Razor was sitting in another corner, Bea leaning against the wall next to him. Neither were talking but were watching with attention. That only left…

In the last corner, the lavender cat Humanoid was brooding to herself, eyes closed. Sonic looked back to Amy, only to find her chatting with the Kirigaya siblings. With a shrug, he made his way over to Blaze, plopping down into the seat next to her.

"How about you? Are you planning on beating everyone?" Blaze remained silent, not even looking in his direction. "Really? How long are you going to keep up the cold shoulder?"

"As long as it takes." She finally answered, causing Sonic to raise an eyebrow.

"As long as what takes?" She opened her eyes and glared at him.

"I am the strongest here. I will continue to ignore you until I receive the respect I deserve."

"Wait, that's what this is all about? But didn't I beat you?" He didn't receive an answer, as Blaze went back to brooding. He sighed loudly. "Look, I'll be real with you. You're strong. Really strong. I had to push myself to my limits to match your super move." He clenched and unclenched his hand. "But I'm aiming to get even stronger. People aren't going to wait for me to get there though, so I am going to work my butt of to get there. You though? You've got a lot of firepower right out the gate."

"Your point?" Blaze asked as she cracked an eye open.

"Give us a chance." Sonic gestured to the others in the room. "We're all looking to get stronger. I don't know why you want to be respected so badly, but if you give us a chance, you will get their respect." He gave her a goofy grin. "You don't need to be cold and distant. If anything, that'll just push them away."

"Hmph. Why would I-"

"I think you need friends." Sonic interrupted. "I'm sure if you went up to any of our classmates and introduce yourself nicely, they'd welcome you into their friend group."

"…I don't do friends." Blaze said quietly. "Not after what happened when I was younger…"

"And I won't pry." That was a lie, he really wanted to pry, but he restrained himself. "But give it a go. Talk to some people, get to know them. You'd be surprised with the results."

"…" Blaze remained quiet, a look of contemplation on her face.

"But anyway, I'll leave you to it." He said as he got up. "After all, I'm sure you're preparing to show everyone what you're truly made of." He grinned, offering her a thumbs-up. "And for what it's worth, you earned my respect the moment we butted heads. Figuratively and literally."

"Class 1-S. Please make your way to the arena for the opening ceremony now." A robotic voice sounded out above the chatter in the room. "The festival will be beginning in ten minutes."

"Welp. That's our cue." He glanced back to Blaze, his trademark grin plastered across his face as usual, before turning back to his classmates.

"Let's show them all what we're made of!"

I LIVE!

I hope you all are doing well after the last…

How long has it been…?

Hmm… December 2… Yep… 2021…

Wait…

HOLY CRAP HAS IT REALLY BEEN NEARLY TWO YEARS?!

*Ahem*

Forgive my tardiness. Writing hasn't been the forefront of my mind lately. Yeah, I have my bursts of interest here and there, but not very often.

But a huge thanks to Myriad Hopes' Sonic Kiwami. If it hadn't been for your large idea dump, I probably wouldn't've gotten my butt into gear to finish this chapter. But I'll address your review in a sec.

I will be real with you all. Obviously I'm not updating as much as you'd all like. Given this story's rising popularity, I don't know if I can keep up with everyone's desire for this to continue.

So I want to find someone to collaborate with.

I'll be honest, I don't know how it usually works when two or more people write a story on this site, but I'll make it work.

I will continue to try my hardest to keep going nonetheless, but if you are interested in helping out, let me know! I've got a plan for the story so there'd be guidelines to go along with, but that's normal.

So yeah. That's all from me. I know not a lot happened in this chapter, but things will pick up now that we're at the Sport's Festival. I hope you're all looking forward to it!

If you want to help out (No pressure if you don't! It'll just take a while for chapters to come out.), let me know by PM.

Now, onto reviews! Thanks again everyone!

Reviews for the previous chapter:

LEGOBRICK13: Aw shucks. I'm glad you find my story cool. I will do my best to keep you're (And others!) attention on this! It… Just might take a while to get to the end… Thanks again!

Guest 2: That's what I like about Fanfictions! Even if the story follows the original material, it's unique enough to be its own. I prefer a writer's original story over the re-novelizations to be honest.

Fire: I totally agree. Pyrokinesis is such a boring name. Could you imagine if Endeavor's quirk was called "Pyrokinesis" rather than "Hellfire?" Hellfire sounds way cooler!

Guest: Never fear. Why? Because the new chapter is here! Hahaha!

Myriad Hopes' Sonic Kiwami: First of all, thank you very much for your review! I happened to find it by chance recently when I was randomly checking the reviews and was the reason the fire was lit under my butt again. Very much appreciated!

Anyway, Its actually kinda scary how many points you actually got right. Obviously, I'm not going to tell you which ones they were, as that'd spoil the story, but a few points are going to be implemented later on down the line, as well as a few of the ideas you suggested. Hehehe. I'mma steal them.

In all seriousness, thanks again! If it weren't for you, we wouldn't be here at the moment. Be sure to look fowerd for the future, where you can point out different things and say, "That was my idea!" I give you permission.