Disclaimer: My Hero Academia belongs to Kohei Horikoshi.
When classes resume for the rest of the day, Tanaka can only think about what to do when the Sports Festival rolls around. Like he said, he may spend the two weeks leading up to it training his butt off. He, as well as everyone else in the class, were expecting the day to go by without any more crazy surprises heading their way.
But, as already been stated before, life tends to throw a proverbial curveball their way. It all depends on what one has to deal with in their lives. Class 1-A is no exception to this.
-At the end of the school day-
"Wh... Wh-what's going on?" Uraraka yells out, catching the attention of everyone in the classroom.
Tanaka, having just grabbed his backpack, walks up to the gravity user to see what she's seeing. Standing on the other side of the doorway are a group of students, clearly from the other courses.
"Uh, can we help you with anything?" he asks the crowd.
"What business do you have Class 1-A?" Iida asks as well, doing his usual hand chopping motions.
"They're clearing scouting out the enemy," Bakugo says, in what is clearly a calm tone. "We're the ones who made it out of a villain attack.
"This is Kaachan in neutral," Midoriya whispers to a few of his classmates.
'In neutral?' Tanaka thinks, skeptically. 'He better not try anything to get these people angry at us, or things are going to get ugly for him.'
"There's no point doing stuff like that," Bakugo says as he stops right in front of the crowd blocking the door. "Out of the way, extras!"
What he got was a fist to the side of his head, courtesy of Tanaka.
"Shut it, Bakugo," he tries not to growl at his blonde classmate, before turning to the crowd outside. "You'll have to excuse my classmate here. As you can see, he's a bit of a prick and is in no way representing all of us whatsoever."
"Oh, is that so?" someone among the crowd asks. The one that spoke was a boy with purple hair and eyes, which looked to have bags under them, giving him the appearance of being tired. "Because I came here to see what the famous Class 1-A was like. I would've said something along the lines of you all seeming pretty arrogant before you said otherwise."
"I take it you're from the General Ed course?" the shadow user asks him.
"That's right," the tired looking boy replies. "I happen to be one of several people that had to enroll into the general studies and other courses because we didn't make it into the hero course. Did you know that?"
Hearing that raises an eyebrow on the shadow user's face. This guy must've been one of those that were hoping to get into the hero course but most likely had to be sent into one of the other courses, like General Ed, must've been due to either having not enough points to pass or may have had a quirk that didn't work well with the robots used in it. Most likely a combination of both.
"I suppose you wanted to come in here through the class transfer procedure once the Sports Festival comes around, am I right?" he asks the tired looking boy. This confuses his classmates, wondering what he was even talking about.
The boy nods, before saying, "That's right. It all depends on the results of the festival, so they'll consider transferring one of us into the hero course. They may also consider transferring someone out."
'I'm already thinking of a few choice candidates to leave,' the shadow user thinks, side glancing toward Bakugo. The blonde in question looks at him in confusion.
"Scouting out the enemy?" the boy continues. "I, at least, came to say that even if you're in the hero course, if you get too carried away, I'll sweep your feet out from under you. I came with a declaration of war."
Not long after those words leave the tired looking teen's lips, he finds himself getting grabbed by the throat being choked by Tanaka, a look of anger on his face.
"Do you actually find what we had to deal with to be enjoyable?" Tanaka says, a tinge of anger in his voice. "Is that what you mean? Does the thought of people in the Hero Course suffering turn you on somehow?"
"N-no, that's not what I meant at all," the insomniac teen manages to get out. This only leads to the grip on his neck getting even tighter.
"Tanaka, calm down!"
"Whoa bro! Take it easy!"
Tanaka can clearly hear his classmates yell out to him as they watch him tighten his grip on the boy's neck, watching as the latter's face starts to turn blue due to the lack of oxygen. As much as he likes to teach this guy a lesson in choosing who to pick a fight with, he is a fellow student and really isn't worth his time and energy right about now. He releases his grip on the guy, who is on his hands and knees in a coughing fit.
"You really need to be careful on who you try to pick a fight with," he says to the guy, angrily. "You might end up with a broken bone or two. I can tell by the looks of your arms that you haven't been working out, if at all."
"Well well, looks like somebody's losing their cool," the brunette turns his head to see a certain redhead he knows looking at him with a mischievous looking smirk on his face.
"Tora? What are you doing here?" Tanaka asks his friend.
"I just came by to see if you were heading home when I see these guys crowding your classroom," Tora responds. "I have to say, you guys have gotten pretty popular lately."
Annoyed, the shadow user turns to look at his friend. "Does it look like we actually wanted to be made victims of a villain attack to you?" he asks. "Because we clearly didn't. We were just expecting it to be a simple rescue training session before everything went horribly wrong."
"Hey, hey!" Someone else shouts out, causing everybody in the classroom to look at whoever was responsible. A boy with grey hair and razor-sharp teeth (making him rather similar to Kirishima if placed side by side) with what appears to be thick, pale eyelashes on his eyes making it seem as if he were wearing a natural mask, is standing on his tiptoes right behind Tora. "I'm from Class 1-B next door, just like Tora. I heard you fought villains, so I came to hear 'bout it! Don't get so full of yourself!"
"Knock it off, Tetsutestu," the flame wielding redhead says to his classmate. "Don't make it sound like it was some sort of dumb achievement!"
"Oh, come on, Tora, you know it's true," the grey-haired teen replies.
"You'll have to excuse my classmate. He doesn't use his inside voice that often," Tora turns to his friend.
"Are you kidding? That guy sounds like he doesn't even have an inside voice whatsoever," the brunette says. "In fact, he might even shout out that he has an erection for everybody to hear with no problem."
This causes everybody, including Tetsutetsu, to blush heavily from the thought. Mineta and Kaminari try their best to stifle their giggles, as they clearly think that it was funny.
"I was hoping to go and practice my skills in rescuing people at the USJ, before it all got screwed up thanks to that stupid League of Villains and the one SCHLEMIEL leading them, who loused it up IS WALTZING AROUND IN THE STREETS!" As he yelled out those last few words, the redhead spouted out flames from his hands, which ended up heading toward the wall near Bakugo's desk and the wall the tired-looking kid was once standing in front of respectively. Everybody else ducked and covered to avoid getting caught in the flames.
"What was that about me losing my cool earlier?" he sarcastically asks his friend.
"Ok, I see your point," Tora brings up, before something else pops up. "By the way, I've been meaning to ask if you were going to train for the festival."
"Of course, I am," was the reply. "I was thinking of doing that, since it is a physical competition and all. Why do you ask?"
This leads the redhead pyrokinetic to smirk, before continuing.
"Just wanted to say that I was hoping to beat you in the Sports Festival and become number one. Simple as that."
The brunette smirks at what he said before coming up with something of his own. "Is that a fact? Well, I certainly hope you can back up those words."
"I know I will. Be sure to see you there," Tora says, holding out his hand.
"HEY!" Bakugo shouts at Tora, who then turns around with an annoyed expression on his face.
"What is it now?" he asks in an equally annoyed tone.
"There's only person that's going to be number one at the Sports Festival, and that's going to be me!" he exclaims.
"You? The number one?" Tora scoffs. "That'll be the day. You'd only make yourself look bad in front of a whole lot of people, as well as on live television. Plus, what makes you think you deserve it in the first place?"
"Because I want to surpass All Might and become the next number 1 Hero, that's what!" The explosive blond replies in his usual arrogant tone.
"Like I would ever acknowledge a quirkist junkie like you!" Tora replies, angrily.
Everyone within hearing range lets out a gasp, completely shocked at what they just heard. They clearly weren't expecting to hear something like that on school grounds, due to how serious the insult is.
Tanaka, clearly not expecting Tora to actually say that, turns to look at Bakugo. The walking timebomb is frozen with shock at being called a "quirkist junkie", which is considered to be a rather foul term to call someone in this day and age. People that are usually called that are known to be considered pariahs in the eyes of the public, and have been known to get a whole heap of hate hurled towards them wherever they go. Even more so when they've been found to have discriminated against quirkless people, since they would usually end up either in intensive care or dead on the streets from whatever beatings they may get. Social media can also be a hotspot for cyberbullying, since it would only make things worse for them in a near instant, depending on the severity of their quirkist beliefs and such.
He can clearly see Bakugo's expression turn into one of uncontrollable rage, almost like he was about to lunge at Tora for calling him that.
Not wanting to take any chances, the brunette reaches into his pocket and pulls out a taser. He uses it on the explosive blonde, who then convulses for a bit before losing consciousness. He turns to his friend, who was standing there with a nervous expression as he makes eye contact with him.
"Asahi Tora," Tanaka growls out, giving the aforementioned teen an angry look of his own. The latter can only whimper out a small "eep" in response. He grabs hold of his friend's arm, angrily stomping away from the crowd.
Meanwhile, the rest of Class 1-A along with everyone else, can only blink a few times in confusion before they all collectively think, 'What just happened?'
-Later, at the train station-
"What the heck were you thinking, saying something like that?!" the shadow user yells out to the pyrokinetic. A few feet away, Kaeda can clearly look at the latter with a disapproving look.
"Sorry about that man, it just slipped out," Tora tries to defend himself.
"But you didn't really have to go and call Bakugo that," Tanaka says.
"Yeah, I know," the redhead replies, meekly.
It's then that the quirkless inventor brings up his two cents. "You really need to use that brain of yours more often, Tora." he says to the guy. "You've been letting your emotions get the better of you way too often."
Before any more can be said, the train arrives, and they all get on. The boys take the 30-minute ride back home without saying a word.
As soon as they leave the station upon arriving back home, the trio resume their walk back to their respective homes.
[Play "The Crystal Method-A Little Too Slow"]
As the days go by, Tanaka begins to do a series of training exercises as well as a good schedule to follow through. He tries not to overexert himself to the point of exhaustion, unlike a certain classmate of his during his time training for the U.A. Hero Course entrance exams.
13 Days till the Sports Festival
The shadow user does a set of 50 push-ups, followed by a set of 40 pull-ups.
11 Days till the Sports Festival
Tanaka jogs a few laps around the local park, hoping to increase his stamina.
8 Days till the Sports Festival
He practices a few jabs and chops on a practice dummy in his room.
5 Days till the Sports Festival
Tanaka is at the gym on a weight machine to work on his triceps and biceps, strengthening them. A determined expression is on his sweat drenched face, clearly wanting to try his best at the Festival.
2 Days till the Sports Festival
He practices his quirk in an isolated part of the park, making sure that no one else is watching. Wouldn't want anyone else to see what he might do should he manage to get to the final round of the festival.
1 Day till the Sports Festival
The brunette looks at how many days have gone by before the Sports Festival tomorrow. He takes a deep breath before sighing.
[Song ends]
The Day of the Sports Festival
Tanaka circles the day of the festival with a black marker, before he gathers his things and heads over to the train station. Along the way, his aunt and uncle wait for him near the front door.
"Good luck at the Sports Festival, honey," his aunt says.
"Thank you, Aunt Natsumi," he says to her.
"And be sure to go easy on the other kids," his uncle quips. "It is a festival after all."
"I'll try my best," Tanaka replies, heading out.
"Now go out there, and BURN THE COMPETITION TO THE GROUND!" Chiaki suddenly shouts midway, a teeny bit too excited for his own good.
Tanaka stops in his tracks, turning his head to look at his uncle with a deadpan expression on his face as he raises in eyebrow at him. Anyone else in the apartment would clearly see them give the man the 'are-you-serious?' look.
"Sorry. Got carried away," his uncle sheepishly replies. This elicits a smack to the head courtesy of an annoyed Natsumi.
The shadow user resumes heading out the door to school.
A/N: Hey guys! How did you all enjoy the latest chapter so far? I would've done this a lot sooner, but I had other things to take care of. That and writer's block among other things. My 28th birthday is going to be coming up on Tuesday, and I was hoping to get this posted before then.
Thanks for your time and effort in getting here.