Here it is. The next section of the sports festival. No cliffhangers for you all.
-SpiritOfErebus
Hans ended up fifth. Even if he had gotten an enormous head start, having to go five hundred meters was… still too much for him, now that he had been peppered with explosions and half-frozen. Luckily, after Bakugo made the tunnel through the ice in the last obstacle, Kirishima was able to free himself via hardening and releasing his quirk in rapid succession, causing the ice to shift and break.
Hans was carried in right after Kirishima entered the finish line, about a minute after the top three places had been decided.
Yaoyorozu was a bit slower, coming in at ninth. After the short, purple-haired boy had ran past the finish line, Sero used his quirk to take advantage of the easily swing-able space and Iida had sprinted past her as she was using chemically reacting heat packs to free herself. Midoriya came in just a bit behind her at tenth.
And now, as Hans collapsed onto the ground and tried to heal himself, he smiled.
He had… done something. The trichotomy of importance had been disrupted, because Ojiro had taken first place.
Soon, he would be able to fulfill his true goal: disrupt the shounen nature of this narrative. By messing up the quintessential tournament arc, the entire tone of the series would shift. The story ahead would be altered, and Hans had a chance of surviving.
Getting to insult those idiots was just a bonus.
Honestly, he had decided against competing in the first place just because of his general physical incompetence and the fact that a competition two months into school proved nothing about what the students had actually learned… considering the fact that nobody actually really taught them how to better fight with their quirks yet.
Shouldn't there be a training camp or something that developed their quirks… that happens before a tournament? Wasn't that customary in most stories?
Where was the training arc?
As the race slowly wound down and students began to pour into the grasslands, no longer impeded by the various obstacles that Hans and his cohorts had accidentally created, Hans staggered back to his feet and shook off the thoughts about the slightly weird placement of a tournament arc in what seemed to be a shounen manga series.
He had a second task to compete in.
…
"We kind of… shot ourselves in the foot, didn't we? Making UA remove the one million point headband."
"But none of us expected that kid to be able to influence that many of his classmates to work together for victory. To think that a person with as poisonous a tongue as that could…"
"Let's just proceed with our plan. They'll still have the most points."
Watching a high school sports event, the Hero Association, or Hero Public Safety Commission in more wordy terms, began to take notes.
…
"Sixty four people in the second round?" Hans muttered. "Is that… normal? That's a much more significant portion than, say… twenty percent of the first years?"
Sure, the rest of the rules were standard for a cavalry battle. Thirty minute event. Don't touch the ground. Standing on quirk constructs was okay, as long as it wasn't for too long. The half that has more points on their headbands would win.
But having thirty two people in the last round was going to be way too much fighting. How long would the sports festival even be after these modifications?
"In previous years, the cutoff has indeed been forty two." Midnight said, still smiling the customary announcer smile. "However, with an increased amount of heroic talent this year trusting UA with their future careers, more spots in this year's sports festival have been added to give every first year a chance!"
"...And, additionally, make it harder for people with stamina-based quirks." Hans observed. His mana was at about three quarters, and if the previous ramblings about rules were true, the event lasted for thirty minutes.
"And now, everybody has fifteen minutes to find a teammate!" Midnight said, with another flourish of her whip. "Good luck!"
Hans slowly trudged over to three other people in particular. There was really only one option for his team composition.
Looking at the five hundred point value that Ojiro was assigned and the fact that thirty two people could qualify, Hans began to form an idea.
Five hundred wasn't exactly an instant win, but considering the fact that most teams would probably have point totals that added up to about four hundred, by having at least 500 points, there was literally no way they could get eliminated.
Additionally, Hans's own headband was worth 190 points, while Kirishima's was worth 195 as the fourth place winner. With Yaoyorozu's 170 points, they had a total of 555 points by themselves. Thus, with a point total of 1055, there was literally no way they could lose if they didn't lose their headband.
Therefore, the best way to win was to avoid conflict. And what better way to do it than by ruining how UA could televise their event?
"Yaoyorozu, how many more pounds of material can you create?" Hans said. "I know that your quirk doesn't follow the laws of physics, but having a good approximation would be nice."
"I used… quite a significant amount of lipids in the first round." Yaoyorozu frowned. "So I'm down to about one third of my capacity. If only I had the oils that I recently had added to my modified hero costume, I could replenish some reserves…"
"...And how much is that? About 150 pounds worth of material?"
"Indeed. That is, if I don't tap into my emergency reserves. But then, I'll start to suffer serious health issues."
"Now… that could make us about seventy five grenades, right?" Hans thought, his mind slowly whirring through the various war stories told by servants he knew.
"Yes?" Yaoyorozu said. "I'm not seeing where you're going with this."
By the time the plan had been explained, Yaoyorozu set off to analyze the depth of the arena while Kirishima and Ojiro pretended to discuss strategies about how to compete legitimately.
Meanwhile, Hans was asking a very important question to the Elder Tree Mother.
"How fast… can you dig a hole?"
…
Bakugo looked down at his new team. It was disappointing.
Thick lips. Weird elbows. Racoon eyes. The three extras that he found to be on his team. They had interesting quirks, but they were extras for a reason.
But his team didn't matter. They weren't going to matter. Because after that one minute passed, he would be going straight for the four extras that tried-and succeeded- to take the number one spot from right underneath his eyes.
He had passed Half-and-Half bastard in the tunnels only because that idiot had used ice to freeze his feet in place so he wouldn't collide with the wall. But that extra with a tail had taken first place while yelling somebody's name.
As he looked at the lazy blue-haired midget close his eyes on top of the back of Ponytail, Bakugo trit his teeth.
How had those four extras beaten him? First taking advantage of Half-and-Half's ice, then exploiting the obstacles. Their quirks were fucking worthless, but they did… something… and just like during the USJ, he didn't know how they had gotten that far.
And this ended here… and now.
As Midnight's arm raised itself, and as the midget opened his eyes and looked at the teammates he was sitting on, it happened.
A bunch of small balls soared out from Ponytail's arms.
"Get away!" Bakugo shouted, slapping Thick Lips' shoulder. The idiot and the rest of his team all moved back as one of the black blobs hit the ground… and erupted into clouds of smoke.
Then came the flashes. And the explosions. The smoke was sent everywhere, and even as Bakugo turned his explosions forwards to screen off his team from loose projectiles, there was still no denying it.
That lazy bastard had clouded over the entire battlefield. And why? Probably to escape.
Bakugo's own team had 640 points. That bastard? He had 1055. Running was smart, but he couldn't run forever. After all, that headband nearly guaranteed a spot in the finals.
But eight teams could qualify in the third round now, so most of the small fry were distracted by each other. They didn't want to go for the big game. For the undeniable first place that Bakguo sought.
So, as Bakguo waited for the smoke to clear and for the black spots in his eyes to fade, he looked around warily the best he could.
That one thousand points… was his. He would claim what he couldn't during the quirk assessment test…
First place.
Through what sounded like gigantic hands fanning the air, whirring mechanical devices, and somebody shouting sound effects, the mist was cleared.
Most teams hadn't moved, but the arena was already destroyed by what looked like grenades. One team made of general education extras had been injured by a grenade, and their team leader was curled up on top of the groaning bodies of his teammates. The ground had been disturbed in many areas of the dirt arena, with cracks and chunks of earth everywhere.
But what shocked Bakugo wasn't the state of the arena. It was that Ponytail and that midget had… disappeared.
"Oh?" Present Mic's voice said. "And it looks like Team Andersen has pulled a vanishing act! Is this even allowed?"
"One horse disappeared with his team leader, and even though we don't know where they are, we can assume that they're still following the rules of not having the rider touch the ground!" Midnight yelled. "Therefore, I'll once again accept this out-of-the-box thinking!"
Bakugou gritted his teeth. Those extras were obviously underground. But there wasn't any way to tell. The ground was destroyed all over the place. Was that the purpose of the grenades?
But there wasn't any point in thinking about that now. Tail boy may have won by luck, but Bakugo knew a way to defeat that team.
By getting more points than them in total.
…
Ojiro dodged a volley of purple balls, sidestepped a torrent of vines aiming for his legs, and ran over to one team in particular.
On top of Iida's shoulders, Midoriya's green eyes quivered slightly as Ojiro stopped right in front of his team.
"Iida, use your boosters and get us to the right!" Midoriya shouted. "Uraraka, make everybody weightless! Tokoyami, use-"
Ojiro jumped. Spiraling into the air, he swung his tail at Iida as he reached for Midoriya's headband.
He knew what doing this meant. He knew that Midoriya was actually what Hans said to be a "significant character".
But Midoriya was like the embodiment of this world's unfairness. With incredible luck and a flashy quirk to combine with his sometimes annoyingly selfless personality, Ojiro could honestly see why Hans marked him as the most significant, instead of Bakugo or Todoroki.
Now, it was different. Ojiro could end their participation in the third round. He could prove that Midoriya was just like anybody else, and that he could lose.
Dark Shadow soared into the air, using claws made of a dark energy to strike at Ojiro. Grabbing the offending appendages and batting them to the side, Ojiro swept the shadow out of the way and aimed to continue his attack, only to realize that the team had soared into the air.
"Damn it." Ojiro said, gritting his teeth. He had been foiled. He had been flown over as Midoriya searched for a team that actually had a headband they could steal.
Ojiro shook his head. The objective for him wasn't to pursue his own grudges against the world. It was to run interference, so Hans's plan could come to fruition and they could all qualify for the third round. Thus, he moved on as well, going on back to harass a team of 1-B students getting a little too close to the center, where Hans and Yaoyorozu were hidden.
…
"Got any nines?" Hans said, sitting on a chair that the Elder Tree Mother had made. Yaoyorozu sat on a similar chair, holding a small selection of cards. Matches were stabbed into the four corners of the table, and their magical flame didn't set the tree on fire, but provided illumination for their slightly boring game of go fish.
Using a white scrap of cloth as a handkerchief and dapping some sweat off from where his headband was still tied to his head, he looked at Yaoyorozu searching her collection of cards. Was he sweating because he was nervous, or because it was really stuffy underground?
It was probably the latter.
"Unfortunately, no." Yaoyorozu said, looking down on her own cards.
Above them, footsteps thundered as teams ran to and fro around them. Distant explosions rang out courtesy of Bakugo.
"It's already been ten minutes…" Yaoyorozu said, estimating the time. "If this strategy keeps up, we should be out of here in no time."
"Yeah, yeah. Ask for cards, damn it! Waiting here is really boring." Hans said impatiently, looking at his rather large collection of cards. He was honestly pretty close to winning.
"Sorry…" Yaoyorozu muttered. "I'm just… pretty tired."
"You've made a lot of things, haven't you?" Hans said. "You don't have to say sorry for that."
"And while we're down here? I just… wanted to say something." With the illumination of the amber matchlight, Yaoyorozu's slightly sullen features actually seemed to blush a bit.
"Okay…" Hans said suspiciously. "What?"
"I just…" Yaoyorozu stutttered.
"Yes?"
"I just wanted to say that I think you're doing great."
There was silence for a moment within the wooden cage. Above them, however, the battle continued to rage. This time, the crinkling of Todoroki's ice crystals reverberated throughout the room.
"What?" Hans said. "Is this really the time to be saying something like that? Besides, are you sure you're not delirious? I'm clearly incredibly incompetent, and I've only gotten this far due to pure luck."
"No, not that." Yaoyorozu said, shaking her head. Her ponytail whipped from side to side. "You've just done a great job as a hero in general."
"We're still students." Hans said, raising an eyebrow. "None of us have done anything hero related."
"But you have." Yaoyorozu argued. "You've shown me, Kirishima, and Ojiro a path forward. You've shown the public that villains aren't inherently evil."
"What does that have to do with being a hero?" Hans said, grumbling. "I'm not strong. I can't actually fight people. The only thing I'm good at is getting under their skin."
"That doesn't matter." Yaoyorozu insisted. "Being a hero means that you've helped people. That you've done something for others that has no inherent value to yourself. It's an expression of selflessness."
"And you're saying that I'm selfless?" Hans said, raising an eyebrow. "That's ridiculous. Didn't you notice me taking all those appliances home?"
"...Okay, that was a little scummy." Yaoyorozu admitted. "But other than that? I'm proud to say that you're one of my classmates, and also the person that taught me many, many things. And that it would be a pity if you just got eliminated here, without showing the rest of the country what a real hero looks like."
The two descended into another patch of silence, only broken by Present Mic's indistinct screaming. This time, however, it was a comfortable silence. As the lights flickered and the Elder Tree Mother sighed contently, looking at the oddly heartwarming scene, Hans spoke again.
"...Hmph. I still don't think that I deserve all that praise, though. And that was an incredibly awkward conversation. Normal people don't just walk up to others and say that they're doing great. That's the ineffective school counselor's job."
Yaoyorozu blushed. "I… This was… I tried my best, okay?"
"Now, are you going to ask for cards or not?" Hans said, raising an eyebrow. "We've still got a game going on."
"Oh, right!" Yaoyorozu said. "Do you have any… uh… fives?"
"Damn it…" Hans muttered, forking over three of said cards.
…
"Those two are way too annoying." Tetsutetsu muttered. "I can admire their manly spirit, but they're interfering with our path to victory!"
"We can't get close!" Awase shouted. "Shiozaki, can you do something?"
"My vines carry the will of the lord." Shiozaki said, bringing her hands together in a prayer-like motion. Her hair surged forwards like a nest of snakes, ironically, and tried to lift both Kirishima and Ojiro into the air. Ojiro beat away the vines with what looked like martial arts blocks, while Kirishima sharpened his arms and tried to sever the hair. Another team took this as an opportunity to get away from the duo harassing them.
"Make them stuck, Juzo!" Tetsutetsu shouted. "I've got a plan! They're both hand to hand fighters! If we can remove their footing, they become a lot weaker!"
"You got it!" the rather gaunt Juzo said, stomping on the ground as Shiozaki angled her vines towards defending their own headband.
As Ojiro tossed Kirishima out of the softening ground, and Kirishima grabbed Ojiro's tail and lifted him out as well, Juzon noticed something.
Why was there a wooden block underground?
"Shiozaki! There's something underneath the mud that I just made! Get it out!"
"The light of the lord will pierce what the light of the sun cannot reach." she said dramatically, her vines lifting a wooden cage out of the ground.
"It's the midget!" Bakugo roared, blasting up from his team and exploding the wooden cage. The structure, sufficiently disturbed, loosened to reveal Hans sitting on a high, wooden chair…
And the thousand point headband.
Instantly, every team in danger of not qualifying surged towards the center like politicians running for president, slinging mud and shoving each other out of the way.
"Oh, fuck." Hans said, tying the white handkerchief around his neck absentmindedly. "Is it too late to give up the headband?"
…
Kiara woke up on the couch in her mansion. Her personal assistant was sitting on a stool right beside her, a bowl of cold oatmeal in her hand. Her assistant was focusing on something that wasn't her, which made her just a bit angry.
But that was secondary to the fact that she wasn't preparing for the ritual.
"Why did you make me sleep?" Kiara asked, feeling lightheaded as she sat up rapidly and weakly grabbed at the collar of her assistant."
"Y-you collapsed on your own, ma'am…" her assistant said. "Out of exhaustion."
Kiara looked at the bright sun shining from the windows. It reflected off of the decapitated statue of Hans Christian Andersen (when she stole it, the head was already missing), and made her shield her eyes.
"I have to get back to work." she muttered, throwing the blankets off of herself and scrambling to her feet. "I have to get back to work."
"Ma'am!" her assistant shouted, tackling her down onto the sofa. "You have. To rest. Just sit here… and watch television or something. The UA sports festival is on."
"No." Kiara retorted weakly. "I have to-"
A flash of blue in the television caught her eyes.
"And with the incredible discovery made by Team Tetsutetsu," the Japanese announcer said, "Team Andersen has been exposed! They've been hiding under the center this whole time!"
"Team… Andersen?" Kiara said.
"Yeah." her assistant nodded. "His full name is Hans Christian Andersen, and somehow his friends took first place in the obstacle course with a boring tail quirk."
Kiara's blurry vision, borne of sleep deprivation, focused once more on the television. The familiar annoyed and cynical expression of him met her eyes.
"Team Andersen…" she chuckled, her whole body shaking. "Of course! Team Andersen… Team Andersen…"
Slowly, the room got just a little darker. It got a little harder to breathe. It was uncomfortably moist… and warm.
Kiara hunched in on herself, one hand on her cheek while the other made its way down her body. Biting on the fingernail on her pinky, she slowly began to chuckle as she sat back down halfway, unsure of what to do with her body.
"Is… that… Hans Christian Andersen? The person you were trying to summon?" her assistant said. "Actually?"
"My ritual eleven years ago worked, dear subordinate." Kiara said, still in that unsettling position. "He's already been incarnated into this world! Incarnated into a suitable host!"
"Is it really him?" the assistant said fervently, mirroring her leader's excitement. "Our heaven has finally descended upon this earth! What you have preached, the land where fairytales come to life! The land where infinite pleasures roam the earth amidst the valleys of despair! It shall arrive!"
The cultist closed her eyes and brought her hands together to pray, a sharp smile shearing across her face. Kiara's face slowly turned red as she gave out short gasps, sweat beginning to mat on her clothing.
"How shall we proceed, High Priestess Kiara?" she muttered, abandoning all images of normality.
"...Our operations won't change." Kiara said. "The corrupted ritual will continue, though I will notify our acolytes to stop collecting… material for his summoning."
"Yes." the cultist said. "Yes. He already walks the earth. His love shall soon grace us. His powers will make our heaven whole."
"I want our reunion to be perfect. Just perfect. Absolutely perfect." Kiara muttered. "And what better time to reunite than after the world is consumed by your fairytales… my beloved?"
Taking another look at the screen, she could see Hans riding on the shoulders of another black-haired beauty.
"Finding a replacement for me… so soon?" she giggled. "That's adorable."
Then, Kiara reached for the nearest sharp object.
…
Quirks began to fly left and right. Lasers and ice, explosions and even body parts flashed across the arena, aimed at the cage that still protected the two.
"Get on my back!" Yaoyorozu shouted. Hans scrambled off his chair and got onto Yaoyorozu's shoulders, hugging her around the neck like a koala.
After all, they were quite far up.
"I don't have a lot left in the tank." Yaoyorozu said, gritting her teeth. "But it'll have to be enough. Ojiro!"
"Got it!" he shouted, jumping up into the air as Yaoyorozu threw a quirk-made rope over. With a quick spin of the tail and the body, they were pulled out of the wooden cage and landed softly on the ground.
Blocking another volley of… projectiles of various origins, Kirishima gathered with the group once more.
"Okay. We got a plan?" Kirishima said.
"Yes." Hans said. "We survive."
As the other teams stood back up and slowly surrounded them, reaching a tenuous peace with each other, Hans slapped Kirishima in the head as he got into a combat stance."
"By survive, I mean don't fight them, you moron!" Hans shouted. "Run! Toss us out of here or something."
"No, don't worry." Kirishima said, grinning. "We can take them. Running away wouldn't be very manly now, would it?"
"Remembering your character traits now, huh?" Hans muttered, pulling out his tablet. "Fine, fine. I'll empower and heal you both, so just go wild."
"Got it!"
As Yaoyorozu squeezed out a BB pistol and began to shoot at the advancing teams, Ojiro and Kirishima both glowed blue as Hans's typing intensified.
"Knock the teams into each other!" Hans said. "If they get knocked down, they're disqualified!"
"Take care of yourself first, midget!" Bakugo said, blasting off his own team again and soaring over like a cannonball.
Hans sighed and extricated one hand from typing, and mimicked a slap.
Thumbelina's gigantic hand appeared. Even if she was actually tiny in her story, somehow, his summon's hand was gigantic. Hans was not complaining as the hand slapped a surprised Bakugo out of the air, where he used his explosions frantically to keep in the air.
"And with just ten minutes, the contest is increasing in intensity!" Present Mic shouted, breaking Hans's multitasking concentration. Gritting his teeth, he pulled his headband down from his head in irritation, before continuing to write.
With a shout, Ojiro pounded the ground with his tail. The shockwave that emanated almost made Yaoyorozu stumble, but the majority of the impact was directed towards one half of the advancing teams. One team had to anchor themselves in the ground with vines, while the general education team ridden by the teen with purple balls on his head staggered back, much to the complaints of their extremely unhealthily muscled leader.
Kirishima, however, was having less luck. With Shoji's six arms effectively defending the punches and kicks that Kirishima sent into the infinitely regenerating mess of limbs, his offense was mostly ineffective. As Shoji was slowly beaten back, however, Tsuyu was able to get in an attempted attack at Hans's headband, which was deflected by another wave of Hans's gigantic floating hand.
As an orange-haired girl growled in envy and charged forwards with her team, telekinetically levitating mushrooms flying around them like a storm, Ojiro shouted something.
"Kirishima! Switch!"
Ojiro jumped backwards to avoid the cloud of spores, and Kirishima stepped into said cloud with his hardened skin. The roots tried to penetrate his hardened skin, but didn't find any crevice to grow in. The small mushrooms then shriveled up into little black balls, much to the despair of the mushroom themed girl.
While Kirishima repeatedly punched the slaps of gigantic hands with one hand and tried deflecting an increasing mass of purple balls with the other, Ojiro stood face-to-face with Shoji.
"This won't end anything like last time, Ojiro." Shoji said, his arms rippling with new, potential limbs. "I've improved since the indoor battle training."
"Impressive." Ojiro said, smiling. "But that won't stop me!"
"Stop talking and just fight already!" Hans shouted. "I can't believe that I'm saying this, but we're about to be overrun!"
Underneath Hans, Yaoyorozu was forced to empty a clip of plastic pellets into the air barrier of another 1-B team.
"Okay." Ojiro said, his tail spiraling through the air as his legs swept up for a roundhouse. Shoji blocked it with four hands, but after those arms were swept out of the way, Ojiro's tail capitalized on the momentum for a punch to the face.
Shoji's other sets of arms grabbed onto the tail. "I won't go down that easily."
"I knew you wouldn't" Ojiro said, using his tail to climb up Shoji's bulky body, before reaching for Tsuyu's headband. Tsuyu responded with her own kick, and forced Ojiro off Shoji. Ojiro flipped through the air. Once, twice, and then-
Bakguo impacted him from the side like a missile.
"Out of the way, you side character!" he roared, using one arm to throw Ojiro onto the ground. As Hans's hand came in for another slap, Bakugo displayed alarming aerobatic capability, quickly dodging the strike before reaching for Hans's headband.
Then, the world froze.
Bakugo was swept aside by a torrent of ice, and Hans made sure to move his headband up and tighten the band around his head. That way, it wouldn't be grabbed as easily compared to its loose position around the neck, and-
Todoroki's team sped forwards on top of the ice, with Denki, Jiro, and Aoyama as his horses. Lasers shot the gun out of Yaoyorozu's exhausted hands as they converged on the duo.
Hans looked at the very, very thick layer of ice, saw that it wasn't actually, well, the ground… and jumped off of Yaoyorozu's back. The ice queen bent the ice to form a staircase, where he slowly tried to ascend into the air.
"He's getting away!" Kaminari shouted. "Aoyama, hit him again!"
The lazer broke a stair beneath his feet, and Hans stumbled.
As Todoroki aimed his hands up again for another torrent of ice, a shadow came over Hans's vision.
"And team Midoriya, with Iida's boosters and Uraraka's quirk, swoops in to take the prize!"
Hans looked up just as Midoriya's hands grabbed at his forehead. Thankfully, he had tied it tight enough that when Midoriya's fingers skidded past his scalp, he didn't find anywhere to hold onto the actual headband. A quick spray of ice from the ice queen was sufficient to divert the flying team off of its course.
"You're mine now, small fry!" Bakugo shouted.
"And with a second round of attacks, Bakugo is also going for Andersen now!" Present Mic shouted. "These last five minutes are really intense!"
There was only one way out of this now. Mind games.
Hans's hands immediately shot to guard his neck, and Bakugo, grinning like a savage, forced Hans's feeble limbs aside and tore the towel from around his neck.
"I've got it!" Bakugo jeered. "Did you really think that I would fall for… that… fake?"
Bakugo looked at the towel in his hands, and literally exploded in anger.
Hans quickly jumped off the tower now that Todoroki's team was surfing towards him on a tidal wave of ice, conveniently immobilizing most other teams as well. The height felt dizzying, but as Ojiro swooped in from the side and caught him, he felt… safe.
"Four minutes left!" Present Mic shouted.
He did not feel safe.
…
Kirishima was stuck to the ground via the purple balls. There was no freeing him. After a fruitless struggle, the exhausted Yaoyorozu and a rather scratched-up Ojiro began to run for the figurative hills, considering the fact that the arena was completely flat except for Todoroki's gigantic iceberg.
And Bakugo's team was still coming after their 1055 point headband. Oh, joy.
But seeing as this was an event based on how well students could punch each other in front of a live audience for fame and fortune, there was no talking this out. Yaoyorozu was exhausted, and Ojiro was carrying Hans.
Now, it meant that Hans, the least combat oriented member of the group, had to fight a whole team by himself.
Which wasn't going to work… unless there were a lot more distractions.
"Ojiro!" Hans shouted. "Run to where the chaos is!"
"But Hans, we'll be everybody's target!"
"Just do it!"
Ojiro sprinted towards the nearest dust cloud while Yaoyorozu tried to jog behind them. Realizing that she was too far behind, she made one last, thin metal bar and charged Bakguo's team.
Ten seconds later, she was lying face up in the dirt.
At least she had bought ten seconds for the team.
…
"Thirty minutes is way too long for this event!" Hans yelled in the middle of a literal warzone. "And how has nobody died yet?"
Cowering inside one of the remnants of Todoroki's glaciers, Ojiro shrugged. Hans's head hit the roof of the small hole.
"They didn't even modify this event this year. It's always been thirty minutes." Ojiro complained. "I want to show my stuff, but isn't thirty minutes of high intensity combat with arbitrary rules and overly competitive teenagers that you can't hurt too much just a little… spiritually taxing?"
"Yeah." Hans said, using the ice queen to seal them inside the hole. "We should be safe now."
Thankfully, Hans had the Ice Queen make the ice surrounding them seem so scratched up that it wasn't see-through. The duo spent the last three minutes playing rock paper scissors as explosions echoed across the battlefield.
…
The sports festival doesn't make any sense.
Why? UA is a school. A school for heroes. And what have they actually learned before the sports festival? It starts at chapter 22 (or something) in the manga, meaning that it literally doesn't showcase any growth after the USJ incident other than like, 10 panels, of the kids training by themselves.
(I actually looked at the manga for this, to search for any semblance of growth. I didn't find it.)
Which, again, doesn't show why they're going to UA for their learning, considering the fact that they still don't train in school.
Also, the second event is actually thirty minutes, which is an absurd amount of time for a melee.
Now that the rant is over, hopefully you enjoyed my edition of the cavalry battle.
Discord link: discord . gg / 9t9MK3jHmV
-SpiritOfErebus