Hey, guys!
Thank you so much for liking the first chapter! I didn't think many people would like the story as much as you did! Thank you for your support.
As promised, here you have a longer chapter to truly kick things off.
Enjoy!
Chapter 2: An Ace in the Maze!
As soon as the gun was fired and Present Mic gave the order, every student rushed off to beat the maze challenge on their own. A couple of students fell on their tracks while others took advantage from the start. Itsuka and Izuku ran at full speed alongside the rest of the participants, eager to win the challenge.
Bakugo, Todoroki, and Iida wasted no time before activating their quirks. Todoroki used his right side to create an ice path to slide on and created spikes on the trail behind him to prevent others from using it. Iida activated his engines and ran at full speed towards the maze. Bakugo smirked before blasting off into the labyrinth using his hands as propellers. Izuku watched this from behind, and he knew that he was falling behind quickly.
Nevertheless, the first split path was directly in front of the group, with three paths: one going forward, one to the left and one to the right. Bakugo and Todoroki went for the right path, Iida went for the middle path and Izuku, Itsuka and Uraraka went for the left path.
Present Mic and the audience seemed to be enjoying the start of the challenge, watching everything on the screens of the arena via cameras planted inside the maze. "WOOOOOOWZA! Eraser, they're getting aggressive from the start! This might be the race of a lifetime!"
Bakugo and Todoroki kept sprinting down the path they chose with the rest of the students who picked the same path starting to fall behind. Upon noticing how close they were, Todoroki stomped the ground, sending an ice barrage towards Bakugo, who dodged with ease.
"HAH! Is that all you got, extra?!" Bakugo smiled before aiming his hands at Todoroki, ready to blast him off. Todoroki reacted by creating an ice wall between each other just in time before Bakugo detonated the sweat on his hands. Todoroki was pushed off his ice slide as the explosion went off.
"How annoying..." Todoroki didn't show much emotion, but he seemed to be getting annoyed at Bakugo's attitude.
"See ya on the finish line, half and half!" Bakugo blasted off ahead again while Todoroki recovered.
Todoroki simply recreated his previous tactic, making sure to seal off the path behind him to block the incoming students. The students who were blocked off by Todoroki's ice banged on the ice wall, glaring at Todoroki.
"Don't take it personal. Only the best of us are fit to win this." Todoroki gave one last condescending look to the students before sliding off.
"Those guy must be very sure of themselves... They might wanna reconsider not taking us seriously." A girl with black hair and weird-looking earlobes approached the ice wall with a smile.
"Correct. We are NOT falling behind." Another girl with long, black hair arranged in a ponytail said while coming closer to the wall.
"Are you ready?" Said the girl known as Kyoka Jiro, placing her earphone jacks in the ice wall and starting to make it vibrate.
"I am. Everyone, step back!" Said Momo Yaoyorozu before creating a harpoon with her quirk.
Once the ice wall was starting to crack, Momo gave the harpoon to her classmate Rikido Sato, who launched it to the center of the ice wall with all his strength, shattering it completely and making way for everyone to go through.
The audience audibly gasped at that, and Present Mic screeched in amusement. "HEEEEEEEY! Those are YOUR students, aren't they, Eraser? How the heck did you teach them those tricks in such a short period of time?"
Aizawa simply sighed and looked down at the maze through his bandages. "That has nothing to do with me. They've been exposed to the real world before, so they now know how to think fast on their feet. I didn't teach them a single thing they're showcasing now. They are just doing the best they can with their talents."
Present Mic laughs and slaps Aizawa's head lightly. "You heard it here, everyone! Eraserhead is a terrible teacher!"
"WHAT?!"
"Lookie here! Looks like things are heating up down there!"
Bakugo and Todoroki paid no attention whatsoever to the praise Present Mic was giving them, as they were too focused on their own competition to one-up each other.
"Slowpoke!" Bakugo scoffed and launched some drops of sweat towards Todoroki which he detonated once they were in his range.
"Are you always this loud and annoying?" Todoroki kept chasing after Bakugo, sliding on the quickly-made ice slide and covering himself with rapid chunks of thick ice.
"Cry all you want, icyhot! I'm still gonna win this!" The couple eventually bumped into something hard. Once they took a second glance at it, they realized that it was a robot equipped with missile launchers.
"Hm, interesting. This must be one of the unpleasant surprises we were warned about." Said Todoroki, looking at the medium-sized robot with a thoughtful gaze.
"Don't tell me stuff I already know, extra! I can take care of this myself!" Said Bakugo, snarling before jumping at the robot with a murderous smirk and explosions forming on his hands.
"Suit yourself, then." Todoroki shrugged Bakugo off and continued sliding down the labyrinth. Bakugo destroyed the robot before it could even fire a single missile, but he was enraged when the half and half user was nowhere to be found.
"Oi! Get back here, moron!" Growled Bakugo before chasing after his rival.
"Oh! Looks like our lovely contestant didn't pick up what we left off for him! What a shame! Looks like your students might need to learn to scan the enviroment some more, Eraser!" Said Present Mic, approaching Aizawa with a smile.
"My ear is ruptured and my skin feels like it might fall off. Can you stop it?"
"Oh. Sorry, Eraser."
Tenya Iida didn't hear what the commentators were saying, nor did he care. He was too busy figuring out how to get out of this maze before anyone else did. Iida had gained a lot of advantage over everyone else due to his speed, but he knew that it wasn't enough. His engines could stall and he could lose advantage any moment. He had considered running up the walls, but he wasn't sure if he could reach the speed necessary to do so, plus, he didn't want to be expelled from the event.
"Darn... This maze is constructed in such a way that dead ends don't feel like dead ends. Whoever designed it must be a mastermind." Said Iida under his breath as he kept running through the maze at high speeds.
Then, he noticed a hole in the ground. He was thinking about ignoring it, but curiosity got the best of him. Iida stopped running to both inspect the hole and to keep his engines from overheating.
"What a strange structure... Was this left behind on purpose?" Iida noticed that the hole was big enough for a student to fit inside. "Hmm... Well, this maze WAS designed by professionals. I doubt they'd do something like this without reason."
Iida entered the hole, and he noticed that the hole was actually an antrance to an underground tunnel.
"Fascinating..." Said Iida to himself. Then, he activated his quirk to run through the tunnel as fast as he could.
"WOW! Looks like one of your students found one of our underground tunnels, Eraser! Too bad that's the one that leads to the beginning of the maze." Said Present Mic, giggling to himself with the audience following. Aizawa sighs again and shakes his head.
Itsuka didn't know what Present Mic was going on about, but it seemed like he had been giving praises to Class 1-A previously. Seriously, what made Class 1-A so special? Why were they the focus of everyone? Was she missing something? Either way, Itsuka knew that she couldn't let her thoughts and emotions get to her in a moment like this. Still, it was hard to do so when she had the boy she had met before the event started right behind her.
Izuku was right behind Itsuka, running as fast as his legs could carry him. Not too far behind him, Ochaco Uraraka was also giving it her best attempt, running at full speed towards the end of the maze.
Izuku looked behind him, and noticed that not too many students were behind them. Most of them probably had gone behind Bakugo or Iida, he thought.
However, the small group was stopped when a robot as tall as the walls of the maze came into view.
"What the heck is that?!" Said Itsuka aloud in alarm.
"Must be one of the dangers Present Mic told us about." Said Izuku, coming to a stop.
"Wow... He's very tall." Said Uraraka, who stopped next to Izuku.
The robot looked at the small group of students before aiming one of his six arms at them, firing a grappling hook at them.
"Duck!" Shouted Izuku, jumping back. The group did just that before the hook hit the ground next to them. The robot proceeded to rip the floor from beneath them and crushing it against the walls.
"Deku-kun! I have an idea! You remember how my quirk works, right? We can use it to get rid of him!" Said Uraraka, coming close to Izuku.
"That might work! Quick, let's do it, Uraraka!" Said Izuku, urging Uraraka to hurry up as the robot prepared to launch missiles at them with two of his arms. Uraraka reacted by touching Izuku's chest and making him float.
"Great! Thanks, Uraraka! Now give me a boost!" Said Izuku. Uraraka grabbed Izuku and spun him around once before throwing him at the robot with all her strength. Izuku landed on the robot's face, making him misfire the missiles.
Itsuka saw all of this from the sidelines. She was amazed at how well Izuku and Uraraka cooperated. It was a last-minute plan, and yet it was executed so perfectly, so quickly, so efficiently... It was almost as if these two had known and worked with each other for a long time.
Once Izuku had a hold on the robot, he clawed around until he got to the back of his head. Once there, Izuku took notice of a lid that was loose on the robot's surface, and he took it off, revealing a battery of some sort.
"Jackpot!" Said Izuku smiling before grabbing the battery and ripping out of the robot's head. The robot was turned off, and it fell to the floor with a large thud.
Once the threat was neutralized, Izuku came down from the robot sweating while Itsuka and Uraraka came to him.
"That was amazing, Deku-kun!" Said Uraraka cheerfully before hugging him. Izuku turned into a blushing mess again.
"A-Ah! I-It w-was nothing, Uraraka! You did half of the work!" Said Izuku, trying to get away from Uraraka.
"Wow. That was some display of cooperativeness, you two. Do you know each other from middle school or something?" Said Itsuka, still in amazement from the display of teamwork Izuku and Uraraka showed off.
"Huh? Oh, no! We met at the entrance exam and we became friends! Nothing more!" Said Uraraka, who blushed and let go of Izuku.
Itsuka wasn't convinced by this. "Really? You don't know each other from before? It seemed like you two knew each other since diapers."
Izuku blushed and looked away in embarassment. "N-No! It's not like that! We swear!"
Just as Itsuka was about to question them again, the rest of the students were starting to catch up to them. Itsuka smirked before shoving Uraraka and Izuku aside. "Whatever! We still have a maze to beat, you two! Come on!"
Itsuka giggled as she ran away. Izuku and Uraraka's blushing stopped all of a sudden when the thrill of the challenge returned to their bodies.
"Right! This is a competence! We just have to-!" Izuku's sentence was cut short when he felt Uraraka touching him again, using her quirk on him. "Huh?! Uraraka?!"
"Sorry, Deku-kun! We gotta do our best!" Said Uraraka before pushing Izuku, making him float back. Uraraka giggled before running away with the rest of the students, leaving behind a very distressed Izuku.
Once Uraraka and the rest of the students were far away, Izuku came down to the ground, probably due to Uraraka deactivating her quirk to use it for something else. Izuku groaned and kicked a nearby rock, feeling disappointed after being left behind so easily.
"Damn it... I can't believe I forgot this is a free for all..." Said Izuku, mumbling under his breath.
Before he could keep feeling sorry for himself, he took a glance at the remains of the robot, and he noticed something strange in the robot's head, right in the spot where its battery used to lay.
"Huh? What's this?" Said Izuku, taking a look at the robot and going towards its head.
He couldn't believe it. A backpack? And it came with an underground map, a and a noise detector?!
"This... This must be what Present Mic told us would help us win this event!" Said Izuku happily, putting on the noise detector on his ear and grasping the undergrpund map with his left hand.
"YAY! Looks like one of our lovely contestants has finaly found one of our helpful kits! He surely deserves it after beating that robot and being ditched by his friends, don't you think, Eraser?" Said Present Mic, elbowing Aizawa lightly.
"How many times do I have to tell you it hurts like a million suns when you touch me?"
"Oops. Sorry, Eraser. I keep forgetting."
In the other side of the maze, Bakugo and Todoroki were sick to death of each other. Their struggle to one-up each other led to nothing but tiredness and dead ends, along with multiple scrapped robots who were no more than distractions that fueled their temper.
"God fucking damn it, extra. Just let me win! I'm clearly the superior one here!" Said Bakugo, still using his quirk to propel himself, but being less fast due to his exhaustion getting to him.
"No way. I'm not going to give up just because you say so. You have no authority over me." Said Todoroki, who was still sliding through the maze but was doing so slower than at the beginning.
"This... This is Goddamn pointless... You damn half and half bastard..." Said Bakugo, now coming down to the ground.
"Ugh... You might be right, Bakugo. This is getting us nowhere." Said Todoroki, who stopped sliding on the ground due to the overuse of his quirk.
Bakugo thought for a moment before looking at Todoroki begrudingly. "Hey. How about we stop this crap for some minutes until we find the way out of this thing? I'm tired of throwing hands for nothing."
Todoroki would be surprised under any other circumstances, but his exhaustion made him nod almost instantly. "I agree... Even if we don't like each other, working together might be our best option right now."
Bakugo stepped close to Todoroki before glaring at him. "I'm only doing this to prove I'm the best, got that? Once we find the way out, it's every man for themselves, half and half."
Todoroki squinted his eyes at Bakugo. "I agree."
Bakugo steps back and softens his glare a little bit. "Good. At least that nerd isn't here to mess everything up."
Then, both of them looked to the side and saw Izuku coming out from a hole in the floor, holding some sort of map and wearing an earpiece of some sort. Bakugo's strength seemed to return for an instant, as he dashed over to Izuku and grabbed him by the neck.
"You... YOU...! DAMN IT, DEKU! HOW ARE YOU HERE?!" Said Bakugo, angry at how Izuku had managed to catch up to them so fast.
"I must say, I am also intrigued, Midoriya. You arrived to a point that took Bakugo and me a long time to travel and you don't seem nearly as tired as us." Said Todoroki, crossing his arms.
"W-WELL, I CAN EXPLAIN, GUYS! I FOUND THIS MAP AND-!" Began Izuku, but was interrupted when Bakugo took the map out of his hands.
"WHAT IS THIS, HUH?! ARE YOU CHEATING?!" Bakugo scanned the map briefly before burning it with his quirk.
"HUH?! Hey, that was uncalled for!" Said Izuku as the ashes of the map dropped to the ground.
"Listen, Deku. There can only be ONE winner here, and that's gonna be me, got that?! You better stay here or I'll come for you!" Said Bakugo before letting go of Izuku and turning away. In any other situation he would have had some fun threatening Izuku, but he was simply too tired out from blasting through the maze to do it.
"Midoriya, while I don't share Bakugo's sentiments, I do see you as a rival I'll surpass in the end." Said Todoroki before walking away too, leaving behind Izuku.
'Ugh... Who do they think they are? They can't just tell people that they're better than everyone...' Thought Izuku as he tried to think of a new plan to win the maze challenge.
Then it suddenly hit him... He still had One for All and the earpiece. What to do with them...?
Izuku activated the earpiece to hear the sounds around him amplified. There were sounds of all kind around him, sounds of robots being destroyed, sounds of classmates yelling curses at each other, sounds of quirks being activated...
But a particular sound caught Izuku's attention. It was the sound of the crowd cheering, and it came from the wall behind him.
"Could it be...? Is this the exit?" Muttered Izuku as he touched the wall behind him. It seemed like the sound of the crowd cheering was stronger on this side than in any other place. But how to get there?
Well, Present Mic DID say everyone could use their quirks as much as they wanted, plus he said nothing about the walls of the maze...
Izuku got an idea. A terrible, risky, last-minute idea... If it worked, he could win the first place in this event, if it didn't, he could fail miserably. Was it worth it to go for one last lucky push?
"Screw it..." Said Izuku, charging up the power of One for All and aiming his pinky finger at the wall.
"DELAWAREEEEE SMAAAAAAASH!" Shouted Izuku as he released his finger. The wall was reduced to debris and was sent backwards, revealing a straight path to the finish line.
"WOOOOOOOOW! WHAT WAS THAT?! Looks like one of our contestants is on the final sprint to the finish line! Seriously, Eraser. What the heck are you teaching your students?!" Shouted Present Mic, to which Aizawa simply groaned. The audience roared in disbelief.
"I got this!" Said Izuku, clutching his now broken finger and making one final dash towards the end of the challenge, swaying slightly from side to side due to his body being in a lot of pain.
Once Izuku was half-way there, Bakugo and Todoroki came from around the corner, and their jaws hit the floor once they saw Izuku limping his way to the finish line.
"Deku... DEKU... DEKU!" Roared Bakugo as he found some last bits of strength and propelled himself towards Izuku and the end of the challenge.
"That cunning, sly little...!" Growled Todoroki as he also found some bits of strength and created another ice slide towards the finish line.
"OOOOH! THIS IS GETTING EXCITING! WE GOT THREE CONTESTANTS ON THE LAST SPRINT TO THE END OF OUR FIRST CHALLENGE! WILL IT BE A TIE? A PHOTO FINISH?!" Screamed Present Mic from the commentator's booth.
"Damn it..." Muttered Izuku as he looked behind him. Bakugo and Todoroki were gaining ground behind him, and they looked ANGRY. Izuku tried to ignore them and focus on the finish line, but it was hard to do so due to his broken finger.
"YOU'RE NOT GETTING AWAY WITH THIS, DAMN NERD!" Shouted Bakugo from behind Izuku.
Bakugo and Todoroki had surpassed Izuku. That was it. It was all over.
Or at least, that's what they thought.
Just as Bakugo and Todoroki were about to cross the finish line, a barrage of speakers tied to flashing grenades appeared in front of them.
"A sneak attack?!" Said Todoroki, stopping in his tracks.
"WHAT THE FU-?!" Said Bakugo, his sentence being cut short when the grenades detonated and the speakers went off, blinding and stunning him alongside Todoroki.
Izuku looked behind him to see where the grenades had come from, and he noticed Momo Yaoyorozu with her hand oustretched and a cannon in front of her.
Momo smiled. "That's for belittling us, you brutes!"
Jiro, who was dashing to the finish line alongside Momo, smiled at Izuku. "Win this, greenie! You deserve it!"
Izuku smiled and nodded at Jiro before making one final sprint to the finish line, crossing it with Bakugo and Todoroki behind him.
The crowd erupted in cheers when Izuku crossed the line.
His mother, who was watching the event at home, was fully crying waterfalls. "MY BABYYYYY! IZUKUUUUUU!"
All-Might, who was watching from the stands, clapped and looked at Izuku with an admiration and proud look. 'Good job, kid. You showed them who you are.'
Present Mic was foaming out of his mouth. "HOOORAYYYY! AND HERE I THOUGHT THIS WOULD BE BORING! ERASER, I CAN'T HANDLE SO MUCH TENSION AND EMOTION!"
Aizawa didn't like that Izuku had to break his finger, but he had a newfound sense of respect for the kid, since he managed to secure a win, after all.
Tenya Iida, who was only JUST coming out of the maze, looked on with amazement and some slight envy. "Midoriya... That man must be an evil genius in disguise." Said Iida to himself.
Bakugo was fuming. Not only did he lose, but he lost to the useless bug he thought could squish whenever he felt like it. 'I'll get that bastard in the next events...' Thought Bakugo to himself before walking off.
Todoroki was simply speechless. How did he allow himself to be beaten by Midoriya of all people? His quirk is useless compared to his own, his stamina couldn't be better than his own, he probably didn't have as much training as he did... How did Midoriya win?
And last but not least, the most surprised people were none other than Uraraka and Kendo.
Uraraka was ecstatic for Izuku, although she knew she couldn't express it to him directly, since she was the one that had slowed him down in the first place. The only thing Uraraka could do for now was smile fondly at Izuku from the distance.
On the other hand, Itsuka couldn't be more surprised. This boy. This adorable, shy, innocent boy... He had somehow managed to WIN. By the looks of it, he had broken a finger to win the maze challenge, but he WON nonetheless...
'HOW?!' Was the only thing Itsuka could think of. This 'Izuku Midoriya' boy was not only a member of the class that got attacked by actual murderous villains, but also had managed to win with a broken finger?! Was she just missing something?! There was NO WAY someone as plain, boring and confusing as him could have been able to do these amazing feats...
Itsuka knew she HAD to know more about him. Whatever it was about him or Class 1-A that made them special, it sure was working.
'I'll talk to him later...' Thought Itsuka before heading off to rest before the next event started.
So... Looks like this is happening.
Thank you SO much for supporting this story! I'll keep making chapters if they keep recieving support!
I don't know how often I'll do so, but I'll gladly keep writing if you guys keep sticking around!
Until next chapter! Bye!