And here's the first sports festival chapter: the race! Hopefully, this chapter would be sort of fun and showcase a thing called teamwork.
You'd normally expect that during the second task, but whatever.
-SpiritOfErebus
Contrary to the rather gloomy day yesterday, today had skies that were brilliantly blue and almost completely devoid of clouds.
The two hundred and twenty first year students stepped onto the open field in front of thousands of people that each probably spent about 7000 yen for their seats. It was about the price of a seat to a popular baseball game seat, and Hans could see the various attendants selling foods like they would sell at a ball game milling up and down the metallic bleachers.
The shape of the whole stadium almost felt like this was a gladiatorial event. Though to be fair, it basically was.
As everybody gathered up by class, Hans could feel the hostile glares cutting into his backside. His three weirdly protective cronies hovered around him, glaring back at the offending gazes and stretching in an intimidating manner. Though Yaoyorozu gathered gazes of… very different intentions, she was mostly oblivious to them, instead interpreting them as hostile as well.
Bending down, Hans adjusted the rather uncomfortably rolled up pant legs. He was almost tempted to ask for scissors from the resident moving Staples store, but the common decency of him still walking to a set location didn't allow him to stop completely.
"And for the first group that enters the arena, these kids are no stranger to the front lines!"
Present Mic's voice rang out within the tunnel, trying to flashily introduce each of the classes in the good old-fashioned "hype a gladiator up and get people to bet on them and then have them be killed" speech patterns.
"...Again, I want to emphasize this." Hans said to his class. "We are competing in a glorified gladiator event. We are going to be trying to hurt and knock each other out of something in front of the entire nation. While they eat snacks and discuss who will win."
"Shut it, you wuss…" Bakugo muttered, his strangely shadowy grin not diminishing because of Hans's atmosphere-killing statements. Kirishima almost broke the walking formation to go and confront Bakugo, but Ojiro quickly put a hand on his shoulder and dragged him back.
"Not yet." he muttered.
"Even after the Villain attack at the USJ, they still haven't lost their drive! It's the hero course students of class 1-A!" Present mic triumphantly finished.
As the others in the group looked up at the crowds nervously, Hans's cronies looked and nodded at each other for some reason… reaffirming some strange plan that Hans was not told about.
"They haven't been getting as much screen time as the other class, but they're no less notable! It's class 1-B of the hero course!"
Behind them, despite being completely equal in every way, the students of class 1-B stood behind the row of 1-A students. How suspicious. A few of them didn't look like they appreciated being behind 1-A in introductions. Despite the fact that they obviously would be due to being the second letter of the alphabet.
As the rest of the courses slowly marched in, with some support students wearing fancy gadgets that looked like they could either kill or be what a clown wore at a birthday party, the triumphant music blaring through the speakers ceased, and another hero was introduced.
"This year's umpire for the first year's event is the R-rated heroine, Midnight!"
There was instant uproar in the crowds. As the neuron activation driven creatures known as men blushed and murmured to each other, the women in the crowd flushed angrily.
"This is being broadcast across Japan, where even a five year old can access television." Hans muttered. "Why are they doing this? Every time I want to stop talking and just go with the flow, they have to throw something like this at us."
The students were not idle in their chatter as well.
"I agree, vice president." Iida said pompously. "This matter of attire is not appropriate for a high school event, and that's not considering the risk of young children being exposed to… explicit material."
Kaminari blushed and averted his eyes. Yaoyorozu, however, instantly began to analyze the costume for its various design flaws.
"Hanging handcuffs may be a hindrance during stealth and combat…" she muttered. "Tight bodysuits, while allowing for mobility, also provides no protection. And with a quirk that has no combat application, anybody wearing a gas mask would be able to defeat her as long as the whip is disabled."
"Good job." Hans said. "Now… go say it to our teacher's face, please."
"Silence!" Midnight shouted, cracking her whip to accentuate her statement. "Now, it's time for a student representative to recite the pledge. Bakugo Katsuki, come up to the stage!"
Hans resisted the urge to facepalm on live television. Then, he remembered that he was planning on violating everything the sports festival stood for by not participating, and then facepalmed anyways.
What was UA doing? Why were they inviting a PR disaster on stage to speak? Why?
With his slouched positioning and his hands in his pockets, Bakugo approached the mic how a delinquent might approach a scrawny middle schooler holding their lunch money. After circling the device one, he faced the crowd of students, teachers and random civilians, then began to speak.
"I just want to say… I'm going to win."
Hans shrugged. At least it wasn't something offensive. As Hans closed his eyes and prayed for the destruction of UA's reputation at a later date, the crowd around him erupted.
"What do you think you're saying, you arrogant bastard?"
"Boo! Get off the stage!"
"Stop being so disrespectful!" Iida bellowed, his arms swinging around like a cyclone's rotation. "You're representing us all!"
"It's not my fault the rest of you are either just unheroic bastards…" Bakugo said, looking at Hans. "Or stepping stones to my victory."
As he walked off the stage, almost everybody glared at the blonde. Midoriya seemed to have some sort of revelation as Bakugo bumped into his shoulder aggressively, but Hans just shrugged again.
This was just teenagers being teenagers.
"Now, it's time for us to get started!" Midnight said into her own mic. "This is where you begin to feel the pain… And the first trial is…"
Behind her, a screen began to display a huge roulette.
"What could it be?" she said sensually. Hans cringed back, being reminded of a certain… other black haired woman whose identity hinged on… tantric rituals.
"An obstacle course race!"
Of course it was a race.
Hans looked down at his stubby little legs, and sighed. Even if he wanted to compete, he probably wouldn't be able to finish the whole thing.
What was UA's obsession with races? First, the recommended exam for admission. Then the quirk assessment test.
It didn't matter to Hans anyways.
"And as long as you don't leave the four kilometer course, you're free to do whatever your hearts desire! That's right! Quirk use, disrupting other students! Anything is allowed."
As the crowd cheered and the students on the grass field turned to see the opened gate to four kilometers of competitive hell…
Hans sat down.
Putting his hand on his chin, he looked at the mounting tension amongst the students willing to throw themselves through a gauntlet of whatever dangers the race hosted just for a chance to become a hero.
Some race lights turned on abruptly, and a ripple of anxiety swept through the racers. Shoulders braced. Legs found better footing on the soft grass. People began to push past each other for a better spot on the starting line.
"And… start!"
It was a very peaceful day. The sky was blue… The wind was pleasant… And why was Hans in the air?
"Ojiro! Get out of the crowd!"
Wall-jumping past the pack of examinees currently trying to force themselves through the narrow tunnel that led to the beginning of the course, Ojiro was the first to exit the tunnel, surprisingly. Hooking his tail to the ledge, he caught the tip of a grappling hook that Yaoyorozu shot towards him. Then, grabbing Kirishima, who had Hans secured under his arm, who felt like a weird limpet, Yaoyorozu pulled herself towards Ojiro above the crowd.
And then, the tunnel filled with an icy cold mist. Sheens of ice began to crawl up the tunnel as Hans watched in shocked silence.
He was… moving forward?
And just as the Ice reached the roof and flooded the racetrack ahead, Ojiro, Yaoyorozu, and Kirishima hit the ground, with Ojiro softening the impact by holding onto the group and slapping the ground with his tail.
"Plan 4.2!" Yaoyorozu shouted, sliding forwards on the ice and destroying her shoes first by producing a bunch of junk, and then making a set of skis for herself. Throwing back both the grappling gun and the hook, she anchored the center of the rope to herself, made one giant fan that was secured to a metal band around her chest, and then began to ski forward.
Ojiro and Kirishima caught the gun and the hook head respectively, then slid forwards with Yaoyorozu.
"And in a stunning display of teamwork, a group of Class 1-A students have taken the lead!" Present mic shouted. "What the heck is this? Is it even allowed?"
"There weren't rules about collaboration!" Midnight judged, looking at the four students. "I'll allow it!"
Todoroki looked at the four receding into the distance on his own ice, sighed, and ran forwards himself. The students behind him slipped and staggered on the ice, but certain students were able to brave the obstacles. Bakugo erupted from the crowd, sailing above the ground with his explosions, and Sero, copying Ojiro, began to swing from the fences on the side.
"Put me down, you idiots!" Hans shouted, pummeling Kirishima's hardened side. "I didn't ask for this, damn it!"
Yaoyorozu shouted something, but the fan on her back didn't exactly allow her voice to travel backwards. As a curve came up ahead, the three in the back were swung towards one of the fences. Hardening his arm and bracing up against the fence, Kirishima responded.
"You're not participating because you don't think that you can be a hero, right?"
"It's a profession of idiots, hypocrites, and those with death wishes!" Hans ranted. "The industry is broken, society is broken up because of it, and any semblance of sanity is drowned out by the incessant prattling of hero culture!"
"Exactly!" Kirishima shouted. "And you're doing a great job by addressing it! But first, you gotta win the event!"
"And why should I do that?" Hans shouted back, giving up on wriggling.
"Because if you don't, then people are just going to think that you're whining about not being able to do well." Kirishima said.
Hans fell silent. Despite the obvious logical fallacies in that statement, he could see where the logical fallacies were coming from.
And he was stupid for not seeing it sooner.
Bakugo was right in a sense. This world did run on strength, even though it really, really shouldn't. And the only way to change that was to get rid of any possibility of the protagonist doing well… and proving to everybody else that he was saying that hero society was broken despite the fact that he was going to be a hero, not in spite of the fact that he couldn't.
"And besides…" Kirishima said. "Don't you want to knock Bakugo down a peg or two? You really toasted me back in the first day of school, so why not take this as an opportunity to say what you want to say on live television?"
"When would I be able to do that?" Hans said.
"The third round. "Ojiro said calmly. "It's always a one-on-one fighting tournament."
"Okay, then." Hans said. "Get me onto your shoulders. We're going to destroy this symbol of the shounen genre."
Kirishima grinned like a shark, and hoisted Hans on top of his shoulders.
"Let's show them how stupid this race really is."
As the ice slick ran out, their group encountered… ten gigantic robots.
"I'll take back what I said." Hans muttered. "We should retreat."
"That… isn't an option." Ojiro said, looking backwards.
"You're fucking dead, you midget!" Bakugo roared, each and every word punctuated with a crackling explosion.
Todoroki, having sealed most of the examinees behind an ice wall, walked out of the icy mist like a wraith.
"Prepare to be crushed…" he muttered, about to swing his hands forwards.
"...Oh, god damn it." Hans muttered. "Little Match girl!"
Said summon popped straight into existence above Hans. Then, she saw Todoroki, squealed, and immediately emptied the basket of matches she always carried around them.
Then, the iceberg came. Kirishima quickly put Hans down and hardened himself up as a shield, but as the frost approached, the matches burst into a great pillar of flame, forcing the ice to flow around the beacon of heat. Yaoyorozu took this time to pass out gas masks and create some other sort of gun with a large, round barrel, almost resembling a flare gun.
When the flames cleared and the ice stopped flowing, they were in a crystalline cavern that was held up by the two pillars of a giant robot's legs.
Then, from the hole that Hans's fire had made, Bakugo dropped in.
"Get out of my way, you-"
Yaoyorozu shot… something at Bakugo's feet. Seeing the white mist coming out of the projectile, Hans immediately shoved his mask onto his face.
"Let's go." Yaoyorozu said, loading another black… object, no doubt also filled with tear gas, into the gun.
As Bakugo screamed in blind anger and started to fire off explosions randomly, the four began to run out from underneath the giant, frozen robot… into a clearing filled with even more robots.
Yaoyorozu, however, was not perturbed.
"Giant beast, plan 3!" she said, throwing what looked like large tasers and grappling hooks to Kirishima and Ojiro. Hans just looked at the three, thinking about when they came up with all of these plans.
"Oh, wait." Hans thought. "I wrote in several of the enemies that I had to fight as a servant. These things are probably nothing compared to those spriggan statue things."
As Ojiro and Kirishima swung around and shocked the giant robots into spasming wrecks, Yaoyorozu began to set up what looked like a ton (though not literally) of lightning rods around the place, all the while Bakugo angrily struggled through a cloud of tear gas.
"Get… this shit… off me!" Bakugo yelled, finally losing his patience and setting off a huge explosion. The ice and robot behind them started to quiver as Bakugo ran forwards, his eyes still totally shut.
"We gotta keep going, now." Hans said, tugging on Yaoyoruz's sleeve, only to realize that she had just pulled a tesla coil out of her abdomen and plugged it into a generator.
"This'll stall them for long enough." Yaoyorzu said, slightly tired and looking a little thinner around the cheeks. Then, she pulled off the remains of her ski boots and created brand new roller skates. "Shall we?"
Hans grinned and let the ice queen use her cryokinesis to move some of the ice into a stable barrier that completely covered the exit between the robot's legs.
"Now let's go." Hans said, grinning.
Hoisting himself up onto Yaoyorozu's shoulders, he idly enhanced Yaoyorozu's strength as she skated past the remains of still-spasming robots. Behind them, Bakugo's agonized scream was music to Hans's ears.
…
Many, many students were pouring into the hole with white gas rising out of it. Was that the easy way out? Maybe. Though, judging by the explosions inside, there was some sort of trap there that kept even Bakugo Katsuki, the arrogant bastard, from advancing.
But a certain purple-haired student would not take that path.
Two months ago, he was still unenlightened. He had dreams of being a hero, sure, but he never exactly acted on it.
Now?
He stepped out of the crowd an adonis. A mass of rippling muscle, born of working out almost nonstop these past two months.
Eventually, his Mt. Lady and Midnight figurines lost their appeals. What curves could they possibly offer that were more beautiful than his biceps? What pleasure could they give compared to the sensations of his muscles rippling?
It started as a plot for revenge. Against the elitist girl that had stolen his spot.
Now? It was a lifestyle.
But seeing the girl speed past everybody with the help of her three other friends… ignited something within him.
Mineta Minoru walked up to the icy walls that the collapsed robot made, and flexed his disproportionately muscular body, before beginning to climb up the wall with his sticky balls.
Today, he would prove a point. That she didn't deserve her spot in the hero course.
Purple balls blotted out the sun as he ascended beyond the robots.
…
Midoriya stumbled before the pit, catching a whiff of something that made him cough and his eyes water.
"Is that… tear gas?" He thought, immediately covering his nose.
Past the cloud of gas still emanating from a bomb-like thing that no student wanted to approach, Bakugo and Todoroki stood before a field of rippling electricity emanating from what looked to be a tesla coil.
The two, however, couldn't actually see the tesla coil.
"Fuck this!" Bakugo yelled, running forwards. "Half and half bastard, freeze whatever's doing that!"
"I can't." Todoroki said stoically, with his eyes shut and induced tears streaking down his cheeks. "If you don't want me to freeze us both in here, then I shouldn't use my quirk."
Midoriya looked at his classmates struggling with the tesla coil emanating pulses of electricity, and knew what he had to do.
Taking a nearby broken slab of ice, he ran forward… and threw it at the coil. The shard of ice was zapped once or twice and melted slightly, but it skidded on the floor and knocked the device over. Instantly, the device began to destabilize and heat up, exploding into a splatter of battery acid and metal shards.
This was obviously Yaoyorozu's work. Looking at the race track in front of him, he saw the defeated bodies of spazming robots.
No, it wasn't just Yaoyorozu's work. Hans. Kirishima. Ojiro. They had all worked hard to achieve their place in the race.
And now? It was Midoriya's turn.
He would tell the world… that he was here!
Then, his legs got stuck in a purple blob, and unable to continue running, Midoriya lost his balance and collapsed, his face kissing the icy ground.
"I'm sorry, 1-A student." a buff but short purple haired student said, leisurely jogging past Midoriya. "But you're just too slow."
After slinging a few more of the sticky, purple balls off his head, the diminutive student continued to run forward.
Midoriya gritted his teeth, before ripping the fabric below his knees off and continuing in pursuit.
Obviously, the world wouldn't just roll over and let him proclaim his existence.
…
"I'm… just a bit exhausted." Yaoyorozu said, her slightly weak tone of voice indicating that she had used her quirk quite a bit. "But I think that I can still-"
"Nonsense!" Kirishima said. "You did your part in the last obstacle, so let us do our part this time."
"I'm the tactician here, supposedly." Hans said, crossing his arms. "Now, Kirishima, Harden your arms and legs into rigid postures. Then, we'll all hitch a ride as we zipline across.
"But can he really support all of our-" Ojiro began.
"He'll be hardened." Hans said. "It'll be fine. Now, are we going to keep arguing or what? Because somebody's coming up from behind us!"
In the distance, a short, purple haired boy approached.
"Yaoyorozu…" the boy's low voice shouted.
"...Yeah, let's move." Yaoyorozu said. Taking a grappling hook from Ojiro, they got into their assembled positions. Kirishima grunted a little as Hans hung on for dear life by throwing both his arms around Kirishima's neck, but with Ojiro's tail as additional support, they were totally in a stable position. Yaoyorozu fired the grappling hook, and the four soared across the first zipline.
"And with incredible teamwork and leftover gadgets, the group of four makes it across the first zipline! But Mineta Minoru from 1-C is approaching fast, folks! This is an unprecedented performance from the general education department!"
The process was repeated. Hans quickly healed Kirishima a little as the metal wires wore down on his skin a little, but there was no major difficulty ahead of them. Behind them, however, the diminutive purple haired student that had been growling Yaoyorozu's name menacingly was using the rope's tension to sling himself across.
As Yaoyorozu's body eventually adjust to the rapid lipid depletion and she became slightly less pale (though just barely visibly thinner across the body), they clambered off of Kirishima's body and ran up to the third obstacle, Ojiro carrying both Hans and Kirishima trying to de-stiffen from the many minutes of hardening he had to endure.
"There are mines ahead!" Yaoyorozu shouted, quickly braking with her new pair of roller skates.
"Whatever. They're probably not all that dangerous." Hans said, shrugging as Present Mic gave out some more vague tips about the minefields and their non-lethality. "And these are probably all pressure-activated, right?"
"They're mines." Yaoyorozu said. "I'd assume so. If you have a plan, you'd better make one fast."
"Why am I even thinking?" Hans said. "Elder Tree Mother, just dig up all the mines."
"Really?" the tree said, appearing from behind Hans's back. "No exciting schemes? No letting Kirishima run across?"
"Sometimes, the simplest solution is the best one." Hans said, resolutely nodding. "Now get to it!"
With a summoned creature acting as their minesweeper, the four leisurely walked through the minefield, though not before piling all of the mines delicately into a roadblock before the doorways, which weren't even protected against sabotage.
"This will be easier than I thought, huh?" Hans said. "Why was this thing such a big deal in the first place?"
"Did you really think that this was the last obstacle?" Present Mic shouted through the PA system. "You're at the three kilometer mark, but wait no further… for the hell tunnel! Created by UA's finest engineers, as a coup de grace for the naive first years!"
Before the three, lay an abomination of an obstacle. Hammers swung in random patterns, and for anybody else, they would be swinging at chest height. For Hans? It was right at his face. Then? There was a rope bridge course, with mechanical claw arms reaching upwards, gnashing at anything that moved.
Gears grinded and warm steam leaked out of pipes that were obviously meant to simulate a dangerous industrial work area. Much sturdier and smaller robots skittered across the hallways, their mechanical arms clicking menacingly.
And, at the end of the tunnel, past the smoke, the heat, the haze, the robots, and the abyss, Hans could see that there was something that he, alone, could never hope to pass.
An agility exercise. Heavy, padded dodgeballs were constantly ejected down what looked like a gigantic pinball machine that had a ramp about a hundred meters long.
Faced with such overwhelming odds, Hans said the only thing he could possibly say.
"Okay."
…
Huddled in the coffee break room, two blue-haired people with hand related quirks crowded over one mobile device with a slightly cracked screen.
"Hvad fanden er det…? Og hvorfor går Hans ind i det?" "What… the hell is that? And why is Hans going into that?"
"Gå ik der ind, Hans!" "No, kid, don't go in there!" Hans's mother shouted… just as Hans walked into the room with randomly swinging hammers.
"Anne…" Hans's father said, "Tror du at det var en god idé at lade Hans blive ved med at gå i den skole? Måske var det bedre at lade ham blive en advokat." "Do you think we made the right choice to let Hans keep studying at that school? Maybe the legal case would have been safer."
"Vi skal bare tro på ham…" "We… we just have to believe in him." Anne muttered.
The two watched with bated breath as the cameras focused on the four braving their way through the hall of hammers. A teen with a tail was doing especially well, able to defend against three hammers at once. Another slightly rocky teen was just taking the hammer blows, his durability allowing him to slowly trudge through. Hans summoned a gigantic hand and began to slap the mechanical devices out of the way, as they followed behind the tail boy.
"...It doesn't look like we actually have to worry." his father said, going back to Japanese to not confuse those watching with them. "It looks like some other people are already doing that for him."
…
Having crawled past the obstacle with hanging wires, Midoriya stood before the blocked entrance only slightly behind the two still competing for first place. The two strongest in their class, Bakugo and Todoroki, stood with an unlikely third: the purple-haired boy from 1-C that had immobilized Midoriya temporarily.
"Well?" Bakugo snarled. "Are we just going to stand here, or are we going to get through this thing? We can't even go around this gate, or we'll be going outside the race course."
"If we use one of us to set off the mines intentionally, we'll be sent behind while the others can keep going." Todoroki analyzed. "And if I act, then everybody will have to work to clear the ice. It still won't benefit me."
"And we'll just let those four cheating nobodies take first through fourth place?" Bakugo said. "Fuck that!"
Bakugo said that, but he didn't actually do anything. Performing an action meant losing in this case.
"...I have an idea." Midoriya said. "What if we just wait for Uraraka-san to get here? She can float the mines out of the way."
"That'll take too long." Todoroki said while Bakugo refused to respond. "By then, they'll have finished the race."
That was true. The time that it took for others to get past the second obstacle would mean more time for the four in front of them.
Yaoyorozu-san, Kirishima-san, Ojiro-san, Andersen-san… was this part of your plan too? Midoriya thought.
He wasn't even going to bank on the fact that there would be healing in between rounds, either. With how unpredictable this event was and how tough UA was on their students, there might not even be a break.
"But if nobody wants to act… And we all just want to win selfishly…" Midoriya shouted, suddenly running forward, "How can any of us call ourselves heroes?"
"Incredible!" Present Mic shouted. "It looks like class 1-A's Midoriya Izuku has decided to act in the face of the seemingly insurmountable obstacle! Is he going to sacrifice himself to keep the race going?"
The explosion sent him skidding backwards. His arm was scraped. His clothing tore itself to shreds amidst the pink explosions, exposing his healthily athletic physique.
Standing up shakily and looking past the fog, he realized that the way was clear. So, ignoring the pain and the fact that Bakugo, Todoroki, and the 1-C boy had all ran past him, he dashed forwards.
…
"They're here." Hans said, listening to Present Mic's announcement about Midoriya's actions. Truly, it was a moment worthy of a morally superior protagonist.
"Why does that matter?" Yaoyorozu said, lifting Hans over a sudden jet of burning steam, before throwing some plaster made via quirk onto the hole.
"Because now that we've made an example, others will be able to act and destroy the obstacle." Hans said slowly. "Which means-"
A torrent of cold made itself known throughout the whole obstacle. Through the mechanical jungle gym, Hans could feel even the steam jets slowly calming down.
"We have to go. Now." Hans said, switching over to hugging Ojiro's tail. "We can't match their quirks in sheer power, or defend against their quirks without being immobilized."
By "quirks", Hans meant Todoroki's quirk specifically.
The four began to pick up their pace. Hans made himself as insignificant as possible, while Ojiro bounded past the obstacles with sheer agility, not stopping to help the other two. Ice began to creep up and ensnare Yaoyorozu, who was the most behind out of all of them. She tossed the grappling hook she had been using to assist her jumps to Kirishima, before the ice completely swallowed her.
Kirishima got past another set of gears, and sprinted through many jets of steam before his ankles were ensnared by the ice.
At the end of the tunnel, only Ojiro and Hans were left standing.
As Ojiro frantically tried to sprint the last one kilometer, Bakugo burst out of the ice that had brute forced its way past all of the complicated mechanical obstacles, Todoroki right behind him.
"Finally…" Bakugo sneered. "I'll be taking first place… back from you all."
"Ojiro, put me down!" Hans shouted. "One of us has to win!"
"I'll hold them back!" Ojiro said, still sprinting forward. "Get off so you can win!"
"Ojiro." Hans said, "Do you honestly think I can run seven hundred meters?"
There was a brief moment of silence, where Ojiro's pace halted for just a bit. Then, his tail unraveled from Hans's body and he stopped just to let Hans go.
"I'll win…" Ojiro said, steel in his gaze, "For all of us!"
…
Ojiro turned back to see Hans's summons spring to life. He was slightly inferior to speed in completely open ground compared to the explosion-propelled Bakugo and Todoroki skating along his ice slicks, but with Hans's intervention, it had to be enough.
Tree roots sprang to life from the ground. Jets of water sprayed everywhere as a mermaid frantically tried to hose down Bakugo's sweaty figure. A gigantic tin soldier fell from nowhere to stop Todoroki's path.
These defenses were promptly shoved aside. With a combination of Bakugo's explosive power and Todoroki's glaciers, the summons were shoved out of the way. What defense the ice queen had managed to gather with her cryokinetic powers was not sufficient in the face of explosions, and what soft defense the tree roots could give were no match for the sheer mass of the ice.
Still, Hans had given his all. He had fallen back in order to ensure that at least one of them took the lead.
Ojiro ran. There were no dramatic speeches. There were no flashbacks. It was just him, five hundred meters, and Bakugo and Todoroki behind him.
"Get… back here… you fuck!" Bakugo roared. Todoroki stoically ran forwards, his ice slowly creeping up on Ojiro's ankles.
So, Hans had fallen to what looked like two of the main characters?
Ojiro remembered the flashing of the panels. How each adventure chronicled within the pages he couldn't recall always coincided with those four colors. Green, yellow, red, and white. They were like an endless kaleidoscope that Ojiro was spiraling down into, losing himself along the way.
"Not… Again!" Ojiro grunted, putting more power into his legs. He perfected his form. He used his tail not for jumping, but to simply put more weight forwards. Jumping wouldn't allow him to accelerate.
His lungs were burning. His vision was becoming blurry. Sweat dripped down from his eyebrows and into his eyes, making him blink furiously.
Yet, past all of these obstacles, he was ahead. The light at the end of the tunnel seemed so near now.
But he was so… normal. He couldn't stop them from gaining ground. And he had nothing compared to those two…
…Except his tail.
He was in the tunnel now, just five meters ahead of the other two. He could already feel the heat of a consistent crackling explosion and the cold of the road freezing ahead of him.
It was fine. He had his tail, or a third arm, as his teacher, the legendary Li Shuwen, said.
And more importantly? Preparation and planning.
"Damn…" he roared, his tail lashing out at Bakugo. Widening his eyes, Bakugo brought a hand forwards to defend, forcing him to go off course and crash into the wall.
"You…" Ojiro swept his tail to the other side, causing a major gust to form. At long ranges, he couldn't do much. But at the slim margin of five meters, the prestigious gale was able to disrupt Todoroki's pathing on his icy trail. Forced to freeze his foot to not be knocked into a wall, Todoroki's momentum was also stopped.
"Horikoshi!" Ojiro screamed, sprinting the last twenty meters while cursing a name that he hated for seemingly no reason at all.
The warm sun graced his skin as he sprinted past the last gate. Sprawling out onto the grass, he wiped away the sweat from his brow and looked forwards at the line they had started at just nineteen minutes ago.
Somehow, he had made it. He had broken free of the kaleidoscopic swirl of green, yellow, red, and white.
He was first. And nobody, not even the main characters, could take that away from him.
AN
You didn't expect that, did you? Ojiro winning the race? Him getting a moment to shine?
If only the side characters in canon got moments to shine, instead of standing there and reacting to fights.
And it wasn't like there were a lot of rules during the race. Anything could happen as long as you didn't exit the course. The gates to each obstacle were like small boundaries, so that's why people didn't go around it.
Mineta used a ton of steroids, so he's probably not that healthy even if he's buff. For the inevitable nitpickers that start comparing musculature.
Discord link: discord . gg / 9t9MK3jHmV
-SpiritOfErebus