There is no message. Let's do this.
Peter couldn't help but lose it. He trusted Toga, he was confident that she could get through the day without being caught. Even still, he couldn't help but be scared. Somewhere in this stadium, one of his best friends was hiding, surrounded by hundreds of people who wanted her arrested. Every part of him was terrified for her.
But he couldn't be scared any longer. He promised her and everybody else that he would win. If she could trust him, he could trust her. Trying his best to shove his fears down, Peter planted his feet on the ground firmly and looked up. He was back in the center of the arena, surrounded by the other students who finished the race. Most of them were from his class, with a few people from class 1B and general studies mixed in. Mei was there too.
"Alright my lovelies, listen here!" Midnight announced to the gathered students. "Now that our 42 winners have been decided, it's time to move on to the second round. The game will be…" She pointed her whip at the screen behind her, which was once again spinning like a roulette. It finally stopped, settling on…
"THE FLAG WAR!" Midnight announced to the audience, earning her cheers. Of course, they didn't know what they were cheering for, but they trusted it to be entertaining.
"Pay close attention now while I explain the rules, because I won't be repeating myself. Allow me to make one thing clear; you have no friends here. This is an all out war, where only the best can make it through. Team up if you like, but it may end up hurting you when the game nears its end."
That seemed a bit odd to Peter. A race was one thing, but this was directly pitting them all against each other. Is that really the kind of thing a hero school should be doing? Explicitly saying that you shouldn't work together and to see everybody as an enemy?
"Here's how this'll work. Under our arena is a series of lifts carrying a practice city. In a few minutes, I'll have all of you step back while we raise the mock city up. From there, the game will really begin."
"Really? Is there any solid ground beneath the school? I feel like every piece of this place has opened up at some point or another." Peter was silently questioning who came up with the designs for this place as Midnight continued.
"There are 3 ways for you all to win. The first is simply to grab a flag. Around the mock city are 16 paper flags that can be strapped to your body. Simply having a flag with you before the time limit of 15 minutes runs out will assure victory. However, you are not allowed to carry 2, as there would be no point. Once you've grabbed a flag, either hide, or run. Protect it with your life, and you'll move on."
Okay. That seemed simple enough. Peter was confident in his stealth and combat abilities. As soon as he grabbed a flag, he could probably hold onto it.
"The second way is a bit more dangerous. Based on where you placed in the race, you will all be given a headband with a point value. 42nd place will be worth 5 points, 41st will be 10 points, and so on."
She began passing out headbands. Peter's read 210.
"Great, now I've got a target on my back." His band was worth the most points, which meant he would be a priority target. Midoriya was shaking, having gotten 2nd place and was in possession of the 205 point headband.
"If you haven't figured it out already, the other way you can win is by having the most points. The more headbands the better. However, regardless of how many headbands you have, you will not pass on if all 16 flags are claimed. You may only move to the final round on points alone if there are flags left unclaimed."
So going for the flags should be the main goal, while gathering points was more like a secondary objective. What was the third way then?
"Finally, there is a golden flag. It emits a bright light that will make it very difficult for you to hide and will alert everybody to your position. However, having the golden flag is a guaranteed win. You will pass on with no arguments if you have it.
Hold on, there was something wrong there.
"Ms. Midnight?" Peter raised his hand. "Don't you already win if you have a normal flag? What's the point of risking going after the dangerous flag if you can just win with a normal one?" Many of the students were nodding, agreeing with Peter.
"Well it's funny you should ask that Peter, because the flag is yours."
"Wait, what?"
Peter paled as Midnight pulled a flag from...somewhere. It was bright gold, and shined with a very bright light. Even the people in the top row of the stadium could see it clearly.
"As many of you know, Peter here has actual experience in real combat situations and has fought pro heroes before." There was no reason to play dumb. Peter announced on live TV he would be joining UA, so everybody knew who he was and what he was capable of. "That said, there has to be some kind of handicap in place to make things fair for the other students." A wicked smile spread across her lips.
"...I'm not gonna like where this is going, will I?"
"NOPE! You see Peter, not only do you need to carry the golden flag right from the beginning, but you need to win FOUR TIMES!" Midnight announced. "You must have four methods of victory by the time your 15 minutes are up. It doesn't matter if you have four flags, the gold flag, two normal flags, and the most points, anything is fine as long as you win four times." She handed Peter his "prize" for coming in first in the race. Peter blankly stared at it for a few seconds.
"It doesn't matter how I carry it as long as it's on my body right?"
"Correct. Why do you ask Pe-"
Midnight trailed off as Peter wordlessly smacked the flag onto the side of his arm, looking her dead in the eyes with a blank expression as he webbed it onto his arm. In a few short seconds, he had made the flag disappear under the mass of webs, the glow totally erased.
"There. It's on my body, I used my quirk fairly, and I haven't broken any rules. Is this fine Ms. Midnight?"
She regarded the boy for a moment, clearly debating whether or not she should allow this before eventually shrugging her shoulders.
"You're not wrong. All right then, Peter's actions are within the rules."
Peter could hear everybody's silent groans as Midnight allowed his tactic. His entire class already knew how powerful his webs were, and everybody else had seen for themselves when he used them to throw away the zero pointer. Everybody was thinking the same thing; there was no way they were getting the gold flag.
"Wait, what if there's too many?" Uraraka timidly raised her hand. "If there aren't enough points and too many flags are taken, what happens if there aren't 16 people who were able to pass on?"
"Simple!" Midnight yelled. "Whichever of you are leftover will enter a battle royale. Your goal is to knock each other out or remove your fellow students from the ring that will be created for you. When the remaining number falls to an acceptable amount, those of you who are remaining will be entered into the final round. Now return to your tunnels while we prepare your stage.
Peter's mind was racing as he walked back to his class' starting area. He had the gold flag secured, so that wasn't going anywhere, but he still needed 3 other ways to win. It shouldn't be that bad. He just needed to get 2 flags and web them onto his body, and while he was doing that he could gather headbands and web those down as well. The only problem was that everybody would avoid him, knowing they had no reason to risk chasing him. His best bet was to find 3 flags and defend them.
There was one possibility Peter failed to consider however, and it would come back to haunt him later.
As everybody returned to their tunnels, the ground began rumbling. The arena floor split open and large buildings began rising out of the ground. It didn't take long for a tiny city to fill the previously sand-covered arena floor. It was like the ones used for the mock exams, only much smaller.
"The second stage will begin in 30 seconds! Prepare yourselves contestants!" Midnight's voice rang through the speaker system. Peter crouched down in a sprinter's position. His flag might have been secure, but that probably wouldn't stop the more ambitious members of his class. Plus, he needed to be out in the city grabbing flags as quickly as possible.
The seconds ticked by, and as soon as the timer hit zero and Midnight screamed for everybody to go, Peter took off like a rocket. He shoved his body forwards, creating a small gust of wind behind him.
"They probably hid most of them in the buildings, but they'll be counting on us thinking the flags will be in tricky spots only, so there are probably some out in the open as well."
Deciding on his next course of action, Peter dropped lower as he ran before jumping up, the force from his leap sending a web of cracks through the pavement below him. He soared into the air before landing on the roof of a nearby building. He kept running, jumping and swinging onto higher buildings before reaching one of the tallest structures in the fake city. He surveyed the area below him, looking for a spot of red.
"Come on, come on, where are you? I know you're...Haha, gotcha!"
Peter located a flag on the roof of a building about 6 blocks away. Leaping from his perch, he dived down and swung towards the building. When he was close enough, he shot a web at the flag, pulling it closer before webbing it onto his other arm. He now had two ways of winning.
Peter was about to jump from the roof and continue looking for flags when his spider sense went off. Ducking down, he avoided some kind of horn that whizzed over his head. Turning around, he saw an American girl along with some kid who was completely black and a third kid no lips. How had they all gotten up here? It didn't look like they had traversal quirks.
"You both know the plan?" The lipless kid asked. His partners both nodded.
"Distract him and keep him from getting points." The American girl stated, shooting more horns at Peter, which he also dodged.
"Whoa now guys, why so hostile? Do we really have to fight? Just let me go peacefully or I'll be forced to do some bad things." Peter tried and failed to sound imposing. The trio only shrugged off his threat. The lipless kid sank into the building roof, the girl continued firing horns, and the black kid disappeared completely.
"No? Fine then, you made me do this!" Peter grabbed a horn out of the air and forcefully threw it back at the girl. It hit her square in the chest, knocking her back a small distance. She coughed hard a few times before continuing to fire horns at him. As Peter was dodging them, the black kid appeared in front of his face and tried to punch him. Peter just grabbed his arm, tossing him to the ground and webbing his fist to the roof. It did nothing, as the kid disappeared again.
"Oh, please don't tell me you teleport. I've fought guys who teleport before and they're so annoying." Peter groaned as the boy appeared next to the horned girl.
"Not exactly. My quirk just allows me to merge with black things." Looking down, Peter saw that the entire building was covered in shadow by a tall building next to it.
"That's awesome! I wish I could do that! So, before I web you guys up and leave you here to think about what you've done, any chance you'll tell me why you wanna fight so badly?"
"Because we're not idiots." The third kid finally appeared again. The ground beneath Peter turned soft and he sank into the roof. He tried to force himself out, but the structure turned hard again.
"WHAT'S THIS?! A SMALL GROUP HAS DETAINED PETER PARKER! HAS HE REALLY BEEN DEFEATED SO EASILY?!" Peter forgot Present Mic was the announcer for the event, though he was quickly reminded after hearing his surprised shout.
"Whoa, another cool quirk."
"Thank you." The lipless kid rose from the ground next to his partners. "As I said, we aren't idiots. Anybody can see that it's a foolish idea to allow you to move to the final round. If that happens, we'll likely lose regardless of how we do now. So our best bet is to take you out before worrying about our own progress. Mission accomplished. Sorry about this, but you're just too dangerous to leave alone." The group turned around, about to leave the roof...somehow, but they all stopped when they heard Peter laughing.
"Hey, props to you man, that actually makes a lot of sense. You clearly thought a few moves ahead, even I didn't see this coming. You locked me down and kept me out of the fight. On anybody else, this plan might have worked. But you forget one thing." Peter looked the lipless boy dead in the eyes. "I'm the frickin' Spider-Man. No arms, no legs, no problem."
Indeed, Peter could only move his neck and head. Almost his entire body had been shoved into the roof, save for his shoulders and everything above them. However, that meant he had one card to play.
"Yeah...this is probably gonna hurt a lot."
Still smiling directly at the group, Peter reared his head back until he was staring directly at the sky before violently bringing it forward, smashing his face into the building. The roof broke slightly, a massive spider web of cracks forming over a large area. Pulling his head back, Peter's nose was bleeding and there were a few cuts on his face.
"AGH, DAMN IT! I KNEW THAT WAS GONNA HURT!"
Gritting his teeth to ignore the pain, Peter continued smashing his face into the building, destroying the roof more and more each time. Every time he pulled his head back, he was even more seriously injured. His nose looked broken, and blood was pouring from it. There were cuts all over his face and bruises were already beginning to form.
"P...PETER PARKER IS USING HIS HEAD TO FREE HIMSELF! IT LOOKS PAINFUL, BUT WHAT CHOICE DOES HE HAVE?!" Present Mic sounded extremely shocked, unable to comprehend what he was seeing. Even if Peter freed himself, it would be difficult to find more points and go through with the final round if he hurt himself too badly.
The 1B students who restrained him didn't look any better.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING YOU DAMN IDIOT?!" The black kid shouted at Peter.
"STOP! YOU'RE HURTING YOURSELF!" The American girl sounded concerned.
"Guys, we really need to go." Their apparent leader told them. The roof was practically destroyed by now. While Peter damaged his face more and more, pieces of the roof flew off every time he struck it, the whole thing cracked and unsteady. Before any of them could take a step to get away, Peter smashed his face into the roof one final time and finally broke it, falling down a floor. There was silence for a few seconds before he shot out of the hole, webbing all of them before they could react. They fell to ground, now restrained by webbing as Peter landed in front of them.
He looked terrible.
"WHAT A TWIST! PETER PARKER HAS ESCAPED! HE LITERALLY USED HIS HEAD TO GET OUT OF A TRICKY SITUATION! A SHAME HE HAD TO DO SO MUCH DAMAGE TO HIMSELF THOUGH! HOW WILL HE...HE…"
Present Mic trailed off. Confused, Peter stared at one of the screens, which showed a close-up image of his badly injured face. It was slowly healing, the cuts sealing, the bruises fading, and his now broken nose fixing itself.
"Oh yeah, I guess he was never able to hurt me enough to see my healing factor."
"HE...HE'S HEALING! PETER PARKER IS HEALING! HOW OVERPOWERED CAN YOU GET?!"
As Present Mic continued yelling, the roof underneath Peter started falling apart, made unstable by his act of desperation. He quickly grabbed his 3 assailants, holding onto them tightly as he jumped from the roof. He had no free arms to shoot webs, so he was forced to tank the impact. Thankfully, the building was only 5 stories high, so Peter didn't feel that much pain. The street cracked under his feet as he lightly set down the 3 he had saved from the collapsing roof.
"Okay, that hurt. But I still got my flag and I'm free now, so I'm gonna leave. As for you guys, why don't you just hang out and think about what you've done? Oh, right, and thanks for the points." Peter shot 3 webs at their faces and pulled off their headbands before webbing them on top of his own. He then raised his arm and shot a web out, swinging away from the 3. They tried, but they couldn't free themselves. They were in a sunny street, the webs were already soft, and the girl's horns weren't strong enough to tear them. None of their quirks could help, so they just sighed and stared at the sky.
"We fucked up, didn't we?"
"...Yes Shihai, we fucked up." Juzo sighed.
Peter continued swinging around, looking for other flags. He saw plenty of people dashing around, but no flags. He was able to do several hit and runs though, swinging over people while also snagging their headbands. By now he had nearly 500 points, along with his two flags.
"There's a good chance I've got enough points to make a difference. If I can get a second flag, there's no possible way for everybody else to get a flag, so at least one person would get in on points alone. As long as I keep snagging headbands, I can win if I just get one more flag." Peter strategized in his head as he swung through the tiny city. About 7 minutes had passed, leaving him with 8 minutes to find what he was looking for. As he swung by, he noticed something.
He had just passed a large building made mostly of glass, and through its windows he saw a large number of students fighting. They wouldn't be fighting over nothing, so there was likely a flag in there. And if there wasn't, he could still grab more headbands in the process.
Looking inside, he could see Kirishima, Ojiro, and Tetsutetsu, along with a few random kids he didn't recognize. They were probably from 1B. Swinging around the building, Peter turned his body sideways and brought his knees to his chest.
"FLYING IN BOYS!" He shouted as he crashed through one of the windows. Everybody in the room turned to face him just as he smashed into Kirishima, kicking him in the chest and sending him flying across the room. Apparently, he hit him a little too hard, because the red-haired boy flew clean through the building, crashing through several walls before crashing through the windows on the other side of the building.
Peter might have been worried, but he knew better than to get freaked out by this. He had seen how his friends trained his quirk. He regularly jumped off buildings and used his hardening to protect himself. Plus, he now had his harder form. If he could walk off belly flops from 8 story buildings with his normal abilities, unbreakable would surely protect him from an 11 story fall.
"Still, probably used a bit too much force. Sorry man. In my defense, Mr. Falcon only got knocked back about 10 feet last time I did that."
"PETER, WHAT THE HELL?! YOU KICKED HIM OUT OF THE BUILDING!" Ojiro screamed at him.
"Trust me Ojiro, he can handle that fall. If he couldn't I'd already have dived after him. Now, where's the flag? I know you guys are fighting over something."
Nobody said anything, all of them looking nervous. Peter noticed that their eyes kept darting to one particular person. Some insect-looking guy with blades on his arms. The flag was strapped to his leg.
"Great, thanks. If you don't mind, I'm just gonna-"
"GET HIM!"
The blade kid screamed, and everybody immediately forgot their fight with each other and made a dash for Peter.
"Okay, what am I working with here? Ojiro, Tetsu, good to see you two." Peter grabbed Ojiro's tail after the blonde tried to strike him with it. Shifting his feet, Peter turned his body and smacked him into Tetsutetsu, sending both of them reeling. "Never seen you before, what's your name man?" A guy whose head looked like a glue dispenser only growled before some white substance came from his face. "Grrr, huh? Pretty strange name, but hey, no judgement here Grrr." Peter jumped to avoid the white liquid before shooting a web onto the glue-boy's face, keeping him from releasing any more.
Dropping back to the ground, Peter leaped across the thick white puddle and kicked him in the chest, knocking him down.
"And that just leaves you. This can go a few ways man, and only one of them doesn't end with you getting a face punch. Any guesses which way that is?"
Peter's spider sense went off and he stepped about a foot to the side and raised his arm without looking back. Tetsutetsu's punch completely missed him and he ran directly into his arm, smashing his face into Peter's elbow. His momentum continued to carry him forward, making him do a backflip before landing hard. He did not get back up.
The insect kid had green skin, so it was hard to tell, but Peter was pretty sure he just paled. Even still, he assumed a fighting stance, long blades appearing from his hands.
Peter sighed. "Nobody ever takes my offer to surrender." He shot a web at the boy, who moved to the side and cut through it. "Nice move man. How about this?" Peter shot another web, at his feet this time. The boy sprang up and turned his body so he was parallel to the ground before spinning himself in a circle, cutting the web in the process.
"Awesome. OOH, do this next!" Peter completely forgot that he was under a time limit and fired singular web lines at the boy, excited to see how he would avoid them. He was having fun with it, and he applauded his opponent every time he avoided his webs.
Then he heard the announcement from Present Mic.
"3 MINUTES LEFT BEFORE TIME IS UP!"
"Oh crap, I forgot about that. Hey man, your quirk is awesome and you've got some pretty nice moves. I'd love to hang out sometime, but right now, I gots to go."
Peter stopped firing single lines and fired web after web, practically shooting a wall of webbing across the room. The blade-user didn't even bother cutting through them, he simply turned and ran. The webbing followed him as he ran straight forwards, heading through the walls Kirishima had broken through. Peter understood what he was doing and moved to counter his strategy.
Peter quickly grabbed the headbands from the other contestants before jumping through the window he had broken through previously and swung around to the opposite side of the building. He arrived just in time to see his opponent jump out of the building. He jammed one of his arms into the wall, slowing his fall as Peter's huge web projectile passed over him and sailed into the city. He could hear the boy breathe a sigh of relief. Peter silently walked over to him before tapping his shoulder. The boy whirled to see Peter, a cheeky smile on his face as he waved at him.
"Hey dude. Forgot I could walk on walls? It's kind of my thing. Well, one of my things anyway." The boy used his free arm to stab at Peter, who barely even moved. He had full range of motion, able to move however he pleased while the green-skinned boy could only move one arm.
"I admire the tenacity, but I really need that flag, so just hang out, alright?" Peter shot a web onto his arm, sticking him to the wall. He did the same to his other arm before ripping the flag off his leg. He now had 2 flags, the gold flag, and a sizable amount of points. He likely had everything he needed to pass on to the final round.
"I'll come get you when the time runs out." Peter promised as he ran down the building, leaving the boy there with his arms stuck to the side of the building.
Reaching the ground, Peter webbed his final flag to his body and walked forward a short distance before his spider sense went off. He flipped backwards and avoided a large explosion that would have gone off in his face. Peter moved back a few more meters and faced his attacker. Unsurprisingly, it was Bakugo, and he wasn't alone. Out of the alleys, from down the street, and from the rooftops, emerged seemingly every contestant Peter hadn't already handled. A lot of them had flags, and some had headbands. But they were all glaring at him.
"Um, hey guys. WH-what's this all about?" He chuckled nervously at the massive crowd in front of him.
"HE'S GOT EVERYTHING HE NEEDS! HURRY, GET HIM!" Some girl shouted.
"IT SEEMS THAT IN THE FINAL MINUTE OF THE SECOND ROUND, THE REMAINING CONTESTANTS HAVE BANDED TOGETHER TO FIGHT PETER PARKER! HOW EXCITING!" Present Mic shouted.
"Bakugo, what are you doing man? I thought you were supposed to be all tough and strong. Did you really ask these guys to help you take me down? Guess you aren't as tough as you thought."
Bakugo's face twitched at Peter's obvious attempt to rile him up, but surprisingly, he said nothing.
"Okay then. Before we do this, can I just say one thing?"
"GET HIS FLAGS!" The same girl shouted and the whole crowd ran towards Peter. He didn't move, continuing to speak as the mass of students rushed him.
"I just wanted to quote somebody. There was once a great man, and as he liked to say in situations like these...NIGERUNDAYO!" Peter turned his back on the crowd and ran. He could hear the crowd roaring with laughter. It probably did look pretty ridiculous on the monitors. A single kid being chased through the streets by nearly 40 people while also covered in webs. It sounded like something out of a cartoon.
Peter dodged Tsuyu's tongue, Bakugo's explosions, and Todoroki's ice. Projectiles were constantly being sent his way and he could barely dodge them all. He returned a few shots of his own, holding his arms behind him and firing webs as he ran. For some reason this only made the crowd laugh harder. A bit confused, Peter turned to the monitor and nearly tripped when he had to force himself not to laugh as well.
With his arms held behind him while he ran, it looked like he was Naruto running, which only added to the ridiculousness of the situation. It took everything he had not to laugh as he ran for his life from his screaming classmates and fellow students.
Unfortunately, as he rounded a corner, one of the large monitors could be seen directly in front of him. He wasn't able to look away, and being forced to stare at it for too long made him break down. He lost his balance and tripped, skidding a dozen meters down the street, laughing the whole time. He didn't even bother getting up, he just stayed on the ground, laughing crazily along with the crowd.
Just as the mass of students reached him and were about to swarm him, a loud buzzing noise could be heard.
"TIME'S UP! EVERYBODY STOP!" Present Mic shouted. Peter continued laughing hysterically on the street while the other contestants screamed in rage and the crowd cheered loudly.
7 Minutes Later
The students who were knocked out or restrained were all accounted for and pulled from the city before it was deactivated and sent back into the ground. The contestants were once again gathered in front of Midnight, who was showing them who would be advancing. Thankfully, nobody else had more than 2 or 3 headbands, meaning Peter had the most score and had fulfilled the requirement of winning 4 times. Additionally, nearly everybody had either a flag or at least one headband, so the battle royale was unnecessary. Those who would advance to the final round were as follows:
1: Peter Parker
2: Shoto Todoroki
3: Katsuki Bakugo
4: Izuku Midoriya
5: Eijirou Kirishima
6: Mina Ashido
7: Denki Kaminari
8: Fumikage Tokoyami
9: Ochako Uraraka
10: Hitoshi Shinso
11: Tsuyu Asui
12: Ibarra Shiozaki
13: Tenya Iida
14: Rikido Sato
15: Momo Yaoyorozu
16: Mei Hatsume
Midnight then put the names through some kind of shuffler on the TV to decide the matchups in each round. The first tier looked something like this.
Round 1: Mina vs. Bakugo
Round 2: Iida vs. Mei
Round 3: Momo vs. Sato
Round 4: Ibarra vs. Tsuyu
Round 5: Kaminari vs. Peter
Round 6: Midoriya vs. Shinso
Round 7: Todoroki vs. Tokoyami
Round 8: Uraraka vs. Kirishima
"I'm against Kaminari huh? That should be a fun match."
The students were all told to head to their respective viewing areas where they would wait until Cementoss created an arena for them to fight in. Everybody headed up, except for Peter, who went the opposite direction.
"Bro, where you going?" Kirishima called after him.
"Just heading to the bathroom Eijirou. I'll be up soon." Peter waved him away.
He headed back to the waiting room, where Toga was still waiting. Only now, she looked like she had before she deactivated her quirk. Peter made a note to question her about where she got the blood when all this was over.
"PETER!" She ran over excitedly. "That was so cool! You beat everybody! And it was so funny when you ran away from everybody at the end!" She was directly in his face, praising him for his performance. Unfortunately, her sense of personal space was about as good as Mei's.
"Th-thanks Toga, but could you please back up a little? You're kind of close." Peter looked away a bit. Toga only smirked at him.
"What's the matter? Do you feel uncomfortable when I'm this close to you? That's not a very nice thing to say you know." She leaned in closer, like she was teasing him.
"N-no, that's not what I mean! Just, ugh." Peter groaned as he gently pushed Toga away from him. "Anyway, I came to check on you. Is everything fine? Nobody's come in or tried to talk to you?"
"Nope. I've had the whole place to myself. You've got nothing to worry about." She smiled at him as she eased his worries.
"Thank god." He heaved a sigh of relief. "So you're fine then?"
"YES! I'm not a baby Peter, I can take care of myself. You don't have to worry about me so much."
"Yes I do." He shot back firmly. "You're here because you want to be here, and I'm worried about you because I can't help but feel worried for you. I'm sorry if it's annoying, but it's just who I am. I worry about people I care a lot about, alright?"
Peter immediately realized his mistake at the same time Toga caught what he said.
"Oh crap. She's gonna take that the wrong way isn't she?"
"EEEEEE! HE CARES A LOT ABOUT ME!"
"S-so, you're alright in here? You won't leave or make trouble?" Peter checked one last time.
"Yes. I promise you have nothing to worry about Peter. I'll be good." Toga promised.
"Okay then, Well...u-um, I have to go now, before my classmates start worrying. I'll check in on you after every match I'm in, okay?"
"Okay. By Peter. Good luck." Toga waved him goodbye as he left the room. Now in the hall, Peter leaned his back on the door, his eyes closed as he took deep breaths.
"Crap what the hell did I just admit to? She's just my friend, right? That's all it is. I mean yeah, she makes me happy, and thinking about her calms me down, and I get excited when I see her. And sure, I think she's cute, but that doesn't mean...ah crap. I like her, don't I?"
Just like I promised, I combined your two ideas. Hopefully it made for an entertaining second round. Sorry if it seemed short, but let's face it. No matter what I did with this round, you're all just waiting for the 1 on 1 battles to start. Speaking of which, I'm still not sure if I'll make the third round one or two chapters, but I'll make my decision soon.
As always, thanks for reading and remember to leave a review.
Aren signing off.