Alright, here is the next chapter of The Quirky Tutor, and boy – am I surprised to see this story grow in popularity, for both the good and the bad.
I'll admit on my part, that some mistakes have been made, but this does not mean I will quit, it instead means I'll just have to correct some mistakes and hopefully this story remains relevant – to a point. I know not everyone will like it but that's okay – the only thing I hope is for you guys who do not like it to be at least polite.
Honestly, this story's review page scares me more than any other, lol.
Enjoy!
"...What?"
"Did I stutter? I said GO!"
Without any more explanation, the students of the U.A. quickly ran into a large group. Disorganized and chaotic, they funneled through the nearest exit through the stadium, with many finding themselves stuck there.
Dozens of students were stuck in a stampede struggling to squeeze through a relatively narrow entrance – such a start for the Sports Festival.
"Um, is this a good idea?" Midnight asked Kitsune, whispering. "They don't even know the full details yet."
"They'll figure it out, don't you worry about it," Kitsune responded. "The first test is to see if they are truly prepared."
This left only the R-rated Heroine needing clarification, perhaps on the same level as the students doing the test.
"And it looks like someone already went ahead…"
"THE GROUND IS ICE!"
The first person made his move by freezing the grounds surrounding the entrance, encasing the feet of many of the students in ice. Shoto Todoroki ran up ahead while leaving the ground frozen.
"My apologies…"
"Not fair!" one of the General Studies students shouted, trying to free himself like many others.
Many were trying and succeeded in freeing themselves from Shoto's ice, either by luck or using their quirks, but Bakugou just blasted himself out of the crowd and was taking second place.
"Get out of my way, losers!"
However, one person was already ahead of him, leaping over him gracefully in a blur.
"Sorry, but I got a train to catch," Erica said cheekily.
"LIKE HELL YOU WILL!"
With them then getting joined by a few others, Kirishima, Momo, and Aoyama used their quirks to get themselves up ahead of the rest of the participants who were still stuck.
"Nice trick, Todoroki!" Momo shouted.
"I'll give it to you, that was smart!" Erica smiled with a devilish smirk. "But don't think it will help you!"
"I won't let you get away so easily!" Bakugou sounded pissed off, "YOU ICY HARD BASTARD!"
*SLAM!*
With her oversized arm quirk and crushing the ice underneath her palm, Itsuka Kendo was the first Class 1-B student to enter the frame, having caught up to Erica and Bakugou.
"THE HELL?!"
"What, you think I'll just have 1-A take all the spotlights? Not a chance!" Itsuka responded confidently. "Don't expect me to go easy on you two!"
"Nor am I!"
Coming in hot was also Ochako, who jumped right in the middle of both Erica and Itsuka. The two took one look at her face and saw that it was just like theirs.
"Sorry to ruin your little competition, but I'm not letting you two get up ahead of me!" Ochako smirked while running among them. "Not without a fight!"
Poor Midoriya, meanwhile, was struggling to catch up.
*WHAM!*
Poor Mineta was punted across the field by something large that had just landed behind them. Turning around, they all gaped at the sight of a very familiar robot that clicked its claws menacingly, its single, red eye scanning for its next target.
{ U.A. Sports Festival Stadium }
"Huh, the Omnidroid again?" Midnight asked, paling a little. She and the other staff at U.A. had their go at the robot that was once used to slaughter past heroes (who were now labeled as vigilantes), and it was not fun to fight, especially since her quirk was useless on it. "That's rather harsh."
"Depends on how they approach the situation," Kitsune merely stated. "After all, you managed to defeat it eventually."
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?!"
Todoroki wasted no time and went on the offensive. Sidestepping the large robot's grappling claws, he slammed his ice-covered fists onto the ground, creating a large torrent of ice that encased the droid.
Todoroki was about to keep moving when the ice began to crack. His eyes widened a little, he watched as the Omnidroid quickly freed itself. Shaking ice off of itself like an overgrown, killer puppy, it disregarded Todoroki for a moment to seize a student trying to sneak around it, gently tossing him back to the starting line.
Frowning at how the robot simply disregarded him, he moved to hit it again when something – no, someone – dashed past him in a blur.
"Hey! Over here!" Erica grinned as she charged right at the large robot. Its eye quickly swiveled over to lock onto Erica, before it raised a tentacle-like arm and moved to seize her. To everyone's surprise, she kept charging forward, even as the large claws opened to close onto her–
"WOAH, THIS GIRL GOT GUTS AND TRICKS! QUITE THE MANEUVER!"
Present Mic's words boomed across the stadium as Erica leaped. Standing as straight as a pencil with her arms crossed her chest, she dove in between the claws, landed on its arm, and then dashed like a cockroach across its arm and on top of its head.
It immediately tried to grab her with its many other arms, but she dodged it with the grace of a ballerina, making it only scratch its armor or simply grab air.
"This looks important!" Erica quipped as she made it to its large eye. Twirling into the air, her hands gripped onto its extended eye and–
*CRUNCH!* *SHRIEEEEK!*
Tearing off its eye in one swift move, she jumped into the Omnidroid's new Achilles Heel, and within seconds, the robot froze as she wreaked havoc on its insides. Everyone watched as the mighty Omnidroid – the large robot that the students quickly grew to fear during the Entrance Exam – fell over dead, now headless/eyeless, with a confident blonde girl crawling out from the top of its head.
"And that's how it's done," Erica smirked before she turned and continued the race. Everyone snapped out of it and followed suit.
Todoroki and Bakugo, meanwhile, stared and glared at the mysterious blonde, before they moved to catch up with the others.
{ U.A. Sports Festival Stadium }
As shown on the big screen, the students who managed to get out or through the ice – such as the likes of Kirishima and Tetsutetsu, were working hard to regain lost ground. Others like Iida Tenya and Jirou Kyoko were working hard to go through the one-pointers that were also thrown in, taking them out as fast as they could as they continued the race.
The crowd were watching in amazement, staring intensely at the disguised students. Some were complaining, of course, at the fact that they couldn't see the faces of their future heroes, but the others were intrigued by the air of sudden mystery. Some were wearing simple face masks, albeit modified for easier breathing under intense exercise. Others were wearing hoods and even goggles that concealed as much of their faces as possible.
It was uncomfortable to an extent, of course, but the lessons that Kitsune drilled into their heads had a huge effect on their performance for the event.
Despite this, Kitsune hummed in disapproval, something that didn't go unnoticed by Midnight.
"What's wrong?"
"Some are beginning to forget the fundamental basics of being a hero. To top it off, they think they've overcome the biggest obstacle," Kitsune replied while staring down at the future heroes. "We'll see just how prepared they are when they come across the next stages."
"Next stages?" Midnight asked. "So I take it that the robots aren't the biggest challenges?"
"Not by a long shot," Kitsune scoffed. "No, Nezu asked me to throw them into a more intense wildfire to weed out the unprepared. He gave me the option to include my own obstacles, and so I did."
"Your obstacles? What are they?"
"See for yourself."
They watched as the three other Omnidroids were eventually blown to pieces, creating paths for the other students to go through. This was partially thanks to the large cannon Momo Yaoyorozu of 1A had created.
Meanwhile, among those students that were struggling to pass the physical exam was Izuku Midoriya, who was currently holding onto a metal plate he acquired from one of the downed bots.
…
It didn't take long for the students to get stalled again. This time, their obstacle was a large canyon with a web of tightropes that connected to multiple rocks. The ones that made it first squirmed in hesitation.
"MY time to shine!" One of those students was the frog-quirk girl Tsuyu who jumped on one of the ropes and began climbing with her arms and legs at high speed.
Two other contestants joined her as well. Mina Ashido and Ochako Uraraka who surprised everyone by simply running across the ropes with no hesitation. Both were leaving their hands hanging behind their backs, running just like a certain group of characters from a novel they were reading.
The next to cross was Shoto Todoroko, who slid over one of the ropes after freezing it quickly. Katsuki Bakugo flew over the canyon using his explosive quirk, and Erica ran across the ropes much like the first two girls. The fifth-comer was Iida, who used his quirk to speed over the tightropes.
Mei Hatsume, a student from the Support Group, was also heavily noticed, who used her equipment to jump through the area.
Meanwhile, the likes of Izuku Midoriya was forced to climb over with the metal plate strapped to his back.
{ U.A. Sports Festival Stadium }
"They're about to reach it."
"I know."
"It might be too much, kit."
"Since when are you the one to complain about me putting hard challenges on my students?"
"Fair point. Just be careful none of your students get killed."
"Are you alright?"
"Hmm?" Naruto/Kitsune glanced over to Midnight who looked weirded out at the masked hero, "Oh nothing, was speaking out loud a bit, wasn't I?"
"You were…" Midnight said, having seen this once a while ago, she asked, "Does this happen often?"
"Only when I am stressed, but now I'm not."
"How so?"
"Look."
"GET OFF OF ME!"
*SMACK!*
Mineta flew backwards with a squeal, thanks to the no-bullshit demeanor Momo was wielding – a side of herself she didn't like to show, but gave an exception when she used her quirk to create a small collapsible baton out from her stomach. Her jacket was open, revealing her sports bra.
Her classmates near her were genuinely taken back by this side of her, who was the last person to expect to have an outburst like that. This little stunt of his would obviously cost him much time.
Momo owed her current skills and attitude from her private tutor, whom she got to know by luck…
Momo waited patiently in the hallway of the skyscraper building in the middle of Tokyo's metropolitan area. She was currently visiting her father at his company, with the building actually belonging to her father.
While Momo's family was rich (an understatement of the year), she was well-taught enough to not allow it to get to her head. She was polite, reserved, and friendly, and overall, failed to meet up to the stereotypes of rich girls, aside from the fact that she visited multiple locations across the globe during their family vacations, drank expensive tea, and often wore luxury clothing. Of course, she had to earn such privileges through rigorous training and studying, since she was expected to be able to take over the company one day, assuming the hero role didn't work out for her.
It wasn't a surprise that her father summoned her to his workplace one day, as it had happened several times in her life. Momo was simply wondering who she'd meet this time. To pass the time, Momo held a small book in her hand that she loved the read.
The Menma Novels, a new series released just recently, had become an instant hit across Japan. The first novel was a birthday gift from her parents, and she became hooked right away, always pre-ordering the next book with every opportunity she got.
Having just finished the first arc, she was now reading the exclusive edition of the Wave Arc, unreleased to the public yet. Momo's passion for these novels did not go unnoticed by her father.
*CLICK!*
Momo's eyes moved away from her book to see the door slowly swinging open.
"Come on in. Please close the door behind you."
Momo reluctantly put her novel back into her backpack and got up from her seat. She entered the office and shut the door behind her.
Inside the office, she stared at a blond man with what looked like whisker scars on his face. His blue eyes gazed into the various papers and sketches scattered across boards and his desk – the process of an author at work.
"As the classroom was filled with contestants, shinobi from all over the continent, Menma and his team were met with glares…" the man muttered.
"Menma?" Momo gasped.
The person looked up and raised an eyebrow in mild surprise.
"You're not Mr. Yaoyorozu…"
"Are you…Are you the writer of the Menma Novels?"
"That's me. Believe it."
Then something else also occurred to her.
"Y-You're the Maelstrom Dojo owner Uzumaki Naruto!"
"Huh, then you must be Mr. Yaoyorozu's daughter…" Naruto said standing up, inspecting the girl. "Yeah, you're his daughter alright."
He stood up and walked over to the young woman, who couldn't help but stare at him in wonder.
"H-How did you know?"
"How could I not know? Your father couldn't stop talking about you. Heck, I could write an entire book about how proud he is of his daughter," Naruto smiled as he shook her hand. "I got to meet your dad in a meeting a year ago. I did some work for him, and he helped me out with some finances."
"Finances?" Momo blinked at this. "Finances for what?"
Naruto just chuckled as he rubbed the back of his head. "My books are good, but not that good yet. I needed to get money somewhere for my special dojo."
"Which brings me to the purpose of this meeting," he cleared his throat, before looking at her seriously. "Your father has told me of your purpose of becoming a hero. A noble goal, yes, but you'll need more than your quirk to become a successful hero. So tell me…how would you like to be privately trained by yours truly?"
Months of harsh training were now kicking in, something that helped keep her alive during the USJ incident and something that was now helping immensely during this latest challenge. Using her newly formed weapon, she quickly made work of the mechanical soldiers from the Entrance Exam that sought to get in her way.
"HYAH!"
Smashing one of the robots in the skull, wiring, and bolts flew from its head as Momo decapitated the figure before continuing to run, making sure to keep up with the others. Still feeling rather guilty for getting in through recommendations, the girl was still determined to keep up and prove herself to her classmates.
As if the universe was reading her mind, another robot emerged from out of nowhere, modified to look like a criminal with a balaclava. Standing in her way with a gleaming knife, Momo did not hesitate to rush to take it down.
"Out of my way!"
Shoto, Katsuki, and Erica were currently struggling to catch up, having just reached the third obstacle course. Despite the large ravine that they crossed, none of them were worried one bit for the next obstacle.
"LATERS!"
The three were caught by surprise when a salmon-pink-haired girl passed them, landing on her hands and feet on a rock. Her body was covered in mechanical gadgets.
"Hey, Mei!" Erica giggled. "And here I thought you weren't going to make it!"
The mad engineer turned to look at them with a mad grin.
"See you at the finish line, Erica!"
Before Katsuki could decide whether to be offended at being ignored yet again, she dashed off with the help of her support gear, with the others now following suit.
All Might, who was sitting next to Thirteen, who was well on her way to recovery from the USJ Incident, was eagerly watching the next generation of potential heroes make their way through the obstacles. Naturally, he was in his civilian form, able to relax as he got to blend in with the crowd, so to speak.
"The students are really putting in a lot of effort this year, and it's only the first test," Thirteen noted. "What do you think? You think many of them are going to make it?"
"With Kitsune? I don't think so," Toshinori hummed. "He's going to do his best to try to squeeze the numbers to single digits from what I can guess."
"Really? He's going to be that strict?" Thirteen asked. "I mean, I already know he's a strict man, but seriously?"
Toshinori's eyes turned to the center of the stadium, where Kitsune and Midnight stood. The two were talking about something, and all Toshinori managed to pick up from Midnight's lips were instructions to the other staff to get ready to do their part.
He had seen how Naruto trained the students at his dojo, so he knew that as Kitsune, he was going to be even harder as a tutor in U.A. That meant that the standards were going to be much higher, much to the displeasure of the Hero Commission.
Therefore, the true question was what would be the results of these set of trials?
"GET OUT OF THE WAY!"
*BOOM!*
An angry shout mixed with an explosion that caused parts of something to tear apart across the area, these parts belonged to another obstacle that Bakugou Katsuki had now reached, one that he was reminded of from his entrance exam.
"Damn it, AGAIN WITH THE PUPPETS!" Bakugou shouted in anger. "AND WHY ARE THEY NOW NINJAS?!"
As he and others had already gone through the ravine obstacle, the frontrunners of the U.A.'s first challenge now were faced with the mechanical fighters from the Entrance Exams, with this time them being black-clothed Ninjas, armed with knives and katanas they were the last obstacles that stood between them and the finish line.
To spice things up, the area in front of them was blocked by a large, concrete maze. Inside the maze were a set of booby traps and the android ninjas, who were, funny enough, dressed up as Kiri-nin from the Memna novels. The corridors of the labyrinth were as wide as a room, it was intricately decorated to look like the inside of ancient, traditional Japanese architecture.
"OUT OF MY WAY!" Katsuki roared while throwing an angry fist at the nearest drone, who quickly dodged his strike as he hit the ground.
*BOOM!*
With Bakugou causing a path of destruction, others tried to fight the ninjas in their own way, or at least managed to avoid them while also quickly learning that the floor was occasionally littered with hidden mines.
"BYE!"
A foot plowed through the mechanical skull of one of the ninjas. Erica frowned as three more of those ninjas got in her way.
"Well this should be fun," Erica smirked, raising her fists.
*SMASH!*
Erica's fun swiftly ended as a large fist plowed through all three of them, smashing them into the wall with a single blow. Itsuka Kendo gave her a smug look as she took off in the other direction.
"Hya!"
Meanwhile, another ninja bot had its legs taken out under its knees courtesy of Ochako coming in with a deadly kick, its misery quickly ended with a swift chop to the neck.
*BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!*
The brunette, the redhead, and the blonde found themselves halted by several pink explosions going off in front of them when one of the unfortunate contestants stepped on a mine. Said contestant slid to their feet, although a quick confirmed that they were just unconscious.
"Watch your step," Erica snarked as she moved first. "See you guys on the other side!"
Itsuka and Ochako looked at one another and nodded as they joined her, not wanting to get outpaced by their rival.
Soon, the others began to join the trio, with Shoto and a cursing Katsuki not far behind. Despite their raw power and talent, they found themselves hindered by the many obstacles that stood in their path, with them having to rely more on their talent to get by rather than their powerful quirks.
"In he lead are Bakugou, Todoroki, Itsuka, Uzumaki, and Uraraka! And they are close to finishing the last part of the course. Only a miracle is needed to catch up to them in time-"
*BOOM!*
Just then, a large, pink mushroom cloud erupted from the maze. Everyone turned to look to see the cause flying over them with a yell.
"Class A's Midoriya is in hot pursuit with that blast!"
{ Stadium }
Kitsune blinked in surprise at Midoriya's ingenuity. The young boy had collected a stack of those mines, before setting it off on purpose, using the metal plate he was saving as a shield to ride the explosion.
'That boy sure is surprising to watch, he's going to be up with the frontrunners for now, that's for sure.'
"Heh, reminds me of you….you're going to be brutal with him if he wins, don't you?"
'Oh, no doubt about it.'
Kitsune watched as Midoriya took the lead, the explosion doing most of the work before he was running as fast as he could to stay up front of the others.
"Time for Phase Two."
Yeah, it's a bit shorter and perhaps a letdown given it's nearly over half a year since I updated, but to be fair I was really burned out on this story, plus I did not like the race, sorry. Please be kind in the comments.
But now the race is done and I planned with Lucius to change some aspects of the Festival, and I try to enjoy this fic despite the popularity I was not expecting it would gain.
Enjoy your evening and peace!