Chapter Ten
And so the day of the UA Sports Festival arrived.
While families of the students were not at all discouraged from attending, they were not permitted to visit the students at the dorms. Largely because it was a security risk, but also to keep students' minds clear and focused. They would, of course, be permitted to visit with their attending families after the event when the audience had left and with proper security checks.
"Anyone else nervous?" Katsuma asked timidly when the class had been in their waiting room in the arena for some time.
"Not even a little," Kota said, arms crossed and his cap pulled low, with his usual grumpy tone though his voice seemed tighter than usual.
"Liar," Satsuki said bluntly. "We're all nervous." She gestured at the rest of the class, all of whom were fidgeting in some way. Silver was standing by one of the walls and thumping the side of his fist against it, compound eyes glazed. Fujiwara was snapping his fingers to set fire to his thumb before waving it out and then doing it again. Joren was clinging to the ceiling, her long platinum hair hanging like strands of her spider webs as she seemed to be meditating.
"Fine, I'm nervous," Kota admitted through gritted teeth.
"Nervousness is just a sign that your body is prepared," Eri said loud enough for everyone to hear, citing one of her therapists. "The excess energy is your body preparing for flight or fight."
"Then I must be really ready to go," Teashi said from some distance away, clutching his belly.
"It will get better when the events actually start," Senko said, her voice soothing.
The class began to chatter as a distraction until the announcement came for the students to make their way into the stadium. Tategami and Shirudo arranged the class numerically, two-by-two and everyone made their way outside and toward a stage built at the fore. The roar of the crowd was practically a physical force as they made their way onto the inner green, Present Mic naturally acting as commentator. And with a guest commentator that came as a bit of a surprise.
"And here with me is a dear former student, the Stun Gun Hero: Chargebolt!"
"Aw yeah!" Kaminari cheered over the speakers. "It's good to be back here at UA. And what better time than seeing the promising newbies duke it out for fame and glory? Coming out onto the field, we've got the latest phase of my old class, 1-A!"
"On the opposite side of the field, their classy compatriots, Class 1-B!" Mic announced.
"Then the unsung heroes of general studies!" Kaminari declared. "Wonder if any of them are ready to snatch a spot from our upcoming heroes?"
"And next up, the brilliant builders, smiths, and crafters who outfit these adventurers, the Support course!"
"And rounding them off, the brains that bring in the bucks and billboards. The business course!"
The crowd was worked up to practically a frenzy by now, everyone cheering for the two-hundred twenty first years of UA. Kota smirked and lifted a hand to wave to the crowd, while Katsuma put his hands behind his straight back, cheeks pink. Eri was smiling widely, trying to project confidence, while Satsuki kept her usual wide eyes and tiny pout, seemingly unaffected.
Up onto the stage walked a tall, curvy, and quite beautiful woman with shoulder-length hair of indigo streaked with pink, framing purple eyes hard with intensity. An array of delicate, silvery scars lined her face and arms, barely noticeable from a distance, but doing nothing to hamper her beauty. Her hero outfit was a simply-cut, sleeveless purple dress with gold lining, cinched with a leather utility belt, black tights, and white-and-black, vertically-striped boots.
She was their referee, the lovely Lady Nagant.
"Good morning to all," Lady Nagant said, her voice clear and carrying, something about her drawing everyone's attention and quieting the crowd in mere moments. "Before we begin, we will declare the Athlete's Oath. Would the top scorer of the hero course entrance exam, Ms. Akame Tategami, please mount the stage?"
The crowd of students shifted as the representative of Class 1-A made her way up to the stage. Lady Nagant offered a wane smile and handed her a small piece of paper before taking a few steps back, leaving Tategami in the center of the stage. She looked at the small paper in her hands and took a deep breath before speaking into the microphone.
"In the name of every first-year student of UA, I promise that we shall put our all into these events, respecting the rules laid down for us, and committing ourselves to true sportsmanship for the honor and glory of our school and our society." She gave a small smile and tossed the paper. "And for everyone here, I challenge you, win or lose, to give it your all!" She lifted a fist and shouted, "PLUS ULTRA!"
"PLUS ULTRA!" the students and crowd echoed, and the audience applauded her speech. Tategami descended the steps to return to her class group and Lady Nagant took her place again.
"Now, for the first match." A holographic display appeared and began cycling through potential events with dizzying speed, tension in the crowd and the contestants slowly rising. Finally, with a cheerful ping, it stopped on a chosen event: King of the Mountain.
"The rules here are simple," Lady Nagant said into her microphone. As she spoke, Cementoss took the field and knelt to place his hand on the rust-red cement of the inner arena, his hands glowing with the power of his Cement Quirk. At his will, hexagonal columns began to rise at staggered, irregular heights — closely resembling volcanic columning — that formed the rough shape of a circular hill. Or a tiny mountain.
"Each of you has the goal of scaling this mountain and staying at the top," Lady Nagant continued. "You may use your Quirks indirectly to aid your ascent, but direct harm against others with or without Quirks, beyond pushing others out of the way or off the summit, is forbidden and will leave you disqualified.
"The contest will last for ten minutes, and whoever is highest on the mountain when the timer ends will be the winner. You also must be in contact with the mountain when the clock runs out to pass, for all of your flyers." Her arm swelled and then reformed into an organic sniper rifle — her own Quirk, Rifle, that had helped earn her incredible fame as a markswoman. "Those closest to the top will continue on to the next round." Her composed expression changed into something like dark amusement. "And don't think we won't have a surprise or two for you along the way."
"Prepare yourselves, students," she said, her calm and collected demeanor back in full force as she lifted her rifle to the sky. "Ready or not," she said, and everyone tensed. She fired a blank shot that still thundered in the sudden silence. "GO!"
Everyone began running in an instant, headed for the mountain. Eri bumped into several people before the crowd of students began to thin, and she realized that several had gotten the idea to run around the base of the mountain where they had more room to climb unimpeded. How clever!
"As the match begins, so does the crush!" Mic announced. "Our contestants are packing together like sardines in a can as they go for the shortest possible distance. Others, though, are escaping the crowd and running around for freer movement."
"But what could be waiting for them?" Chargebolt wondered, teasing in his tone. "After all, for heroes it's never that easy!"
As she reached the base and the first of the hexagonal platforms, each one about two feet tall, a shadow passed over the stadium and she dared to look up. Several planes were flying over the arena … and small somethings were falling from them? "What the-?" she wondered before someone slammed into her back, knocking her to the ground. Her heart seized and she leapt to her feet in sheer reflex, her brother's words during training ringing in her ears: "There's a reason that the phrase 'he fell' is used to mean 'he died.' To fall in battle is to be on the edge of death."
As she began the climb, metallic clangs above them drew her attention again and her eyes widened at the sight of what had fallen from those planes: robots. The robots from the entrance exam had been parachuted onto the mountain to serve as obstacles.
"Well, there's your answer, my young friend! Moving, fighting obstacles for our dear contestants to overcome!"
"Those things certainly bring back memories to my own UA days," Chargebolt said with a sense of nostalgia. Then he sighed; he actually sighed!
Eri grunted as she jumped, sorely missing her capture scarf at the moment as it hadn't been cleared for use in the festival. It was a weapon, plain and simple, instead of something to passively focus her Quirk. Katsuma had mentioned that his escrima sticks had been barred for the same reason.
Oh well. She'd just have to make do. She shouted as she roundhouse kicked a robot, sending its head flying. After all, a hero was more than their gear.
Eri shouted again as she jumped upward toward another robot, her fist forward in a punch … and saw another fist land just beside her own, the combined force of the blows crumpling the robot's head into its neck socket. She turned in shock and found Katsuma looking at her with the same expression.
"Hey," he said.
"Hi," she replied, then gasped just as Katsuma's eyes widened, too.
"Look out!" they shouted and grabbed each other to duck beneath two more robots that missed them and ended up wrecking each other. They looked in surprise before sharing a look, both determined.
"Truce?" he asked, eyes hopeful.
"Truce," she agreed with a nod and a small, determined smile. They turned in perfect sync to face the top of the mountain and bound like deer up the staggered steps.
Satsuki croaked in challenge, the sound higher-pitched than the more gravelly tones of the rest of her family, almost a chirp, and slammed feet first into one of the robots swarming the mountain. Using the crumpling metal as a springboard, she bounced off and soared higher to get a better view of the arena.
As she hung at the apex of her jump, time seemed to slow for one long second that let her get almost a snapshot of the event. It wasn't part of her Quirk, just from practice guided by her big sister's advice and training — well, and maybe a bit of froggy reflexes. She glanced around and found Kota unsurprisingly leading the pack, racing through the air with jets of water blasting from his palms. She saw glimpses of several of her classmates before finding Eri, and by extension Katsuma, working together to fight robots and make their way up the mountain.
When had they started cooperating? Was that even allowed? Then again, a quick recall of the rules did not forbid it.
Satsuki felt gravity take back control and began to fall, flipping to control her landing on another robot to smash its head down like a whack-a-mole game and saving Scott Knight the trouble before bounding like a comet between robots … into Eri's general direction.
Kota belted out a laugh as he landed on the second-most tier of the mountain and then surged forward, backed by another backwards shot of his Water Gun for momentum, to knock some yahoo from Class B with some kind of spring-limb Quirk off the peak for him to take their place. Hwe spread his stance and felt steam rising from his palms in preparation for those right behind him, coming to take his spot.
Then the arena got darker as mechanical whirring sounded. Shadows had covered the arena from truly monumental robots that had emerged from around the edges of the mountain, each one towering like a skyscraper.
"Holy crap," Kota said, eyes wide. Were these the zero-pointers that the others had dealt with in their entrance exam?! There were four of them, one at each corner of the mountain! And all of them turned to lock onto the summit.
Locked onto Kota's position.
With movements so vast they seemed deceptively slow, the zero-pointers swung toward Kota's location. He grit his teeth and blasted himself upward on founts of water, letting the massive limbs pass under him with mere feet to spare. Dammit, how was he supposed to stay in contact with those things trying to swat him like a gnat?!
In his absence, another player landed on the peak. Kota vaguely recognized him from their sister class as the guy rode up on floating black spheres with malicious, shark-like mouths. He laughed, more a hearty cackle, and sent his orbs to start chomping and gnawing at the zero-pointers' limbs to distract the massive machines.
"Oh, no you don't!" Kota snarled and blasted himself back toward the summit, slamming himself shoulder-first against the would-be usurper with a grunt, sending him flying away to be caught by his orbs.
"What the hell, man?!" the guy shouted as he righted himself on a platform of his chomping orbs, and Kota took a long moment to get a good look at him. He was tall and wide-shouldered, though more wiry than muscular. His eyes were wide, brown, and determined, accentuated by windswept, dirty-blond hair. His bared teeth were pointed, much like his own Quirk's dark spheres.
Rather than answer, Kota blasted a jet of water at the blond's feet to scatter his orbs and send him careening back down the mountain. He barely had time to give a smug grin before his instincts screamed and he fell into a spinning duck to avoid the swing of a zero-pointer's mangled arm. He blasted a jet at the huge automaton and dodged another, only then realizing that others were making their way towards him.
But not as many as he would have thought.
Tategami in her lion form, Joren and Yayoi were all racing for him, deftly avoiding or simply plowing their way through the smaller robots in their way, but many of the students — hero and other courses alike — seemed to be avoiding the top three tiers or so. As he continued to evade the zero-pointers, he realized that said zero-pointers were only targeting him, and anyone else that rose to those very tiers. There were skirmishes and the like along the middling levels, but only those brave or crazy enough to contend with the big ones were nearing him.
This was more than a contest; it was a simulation. A representation of how hard it was to be at the top of the hero game. The Paranormal Liberation War and the final battle with All For One had shaken things up, but some things were just the nature of existence. Competition to do one's best or to be the best always led to conflict in some form.
As he mused upon that revelation, his classmates and others were suddenly upon him. Yayoi bellowed as he jumped, his hands balled together as he came plummeting down at Kota, who barely avoided the terrible blow that shattered the thick concrete where he'd been standing. Tategami roared and tackled Yayoi off the top pillar, only to be snagged in a web Joren had trailed over her with a mighty bound before she dragged the great lion away from the top spot, presumably to claim it for herself.
Kota also caught unfamiliar students duking it out along the middle tiers. A girl wearing black gloves whose fingers stretched into long, impossibly sharp blades. A muscular, humanoid wolf. Someone who apparently turned into a freaking elephant. And that was just the snatches of motion he caught; there were many others.
Kota shouted in challenge and blasted himself toward the current king of the mountain, a guy who opened his mouth to release a swath of fleshy tentacles where his tongue should have been, lashing out at anyone who came close. Kota maneuvered through the tentacles and shoulder checked the guy off the top spot to take his place, hands dripping as he braced himself for a charge from Wani, who was racing at him with her armored scales up and ready.
…Only for her to be snatched in another long tongue and flung away to reveal Satsuki to land in her place a tier below Kota.
"Suki?!" Kota asked, readying himself to fight her off.
"Behind you!" Satsuki said, the certain authority in her voice making him look backward to find a guy with massively swollen arms charging up … only to be knocked away by the perfect synchronicity of two other familiar faces.
"Eri! Shimano!" Kota said in surprise.
"Focus!" Eri shouted as she ducked a female student's swing and pushed the other girl down a few tiers. Shimano was dancing around the guy with metal springs in place of his arms and legs, the limbs getting tangled as he pursued Shimano's superior agility and leaving him open to be thrown back downward. Satsuki was bounding around the elephantine student, keeping them — Kota couldn't tell their gender when transformed — confused and distracted. Distracted … from Kota's top spot.
They were … helping him?
Kota clenched his fists that started streaming and launched a blast of water at one of the pillar's to make a student maneuvering against Eri slip and fall. He looked around and did the same to an opponent of Shimano's, then tried to support Satsuki. He was grinning again, his place at the top secured as his friends — he had to admit, even Shimano — fought for him, and he for them.
The sound of a gunshot tore through the air as a horn called, and everyone stopped in place.
"Time's up," Lady Nagant announced. With her words, a white flash erupted across the arena, like an impossibly bright camera, leaving everyone dazed and rubbing their eyes for a moment. Then they all yelped and swayed to catch their balance as the pillars began to retreat back into the ground, courtesy of Cementoss.
But as the pillars withdrew and brought the students with them, something stayed behind. A massive hologram of the mountain and the contestants, like a three-dimensional snapshot. The holographic screen also reappeared, and forty placements began to spin as images of the higher contestants began to turn golden yellow. From bottom to top, the slots halted into names until those forty contestants were listed.
Kota's eyes searched out his friends' names, passively noting others in his class who had made it along the way. Eri and Shimano were in fifth and seventh place, respectively. Satsuki had gotten second. And Kota himself, stood at the top of the ranking as number one.
"Yes …!" Kota hissed between grinning teeth before smoothing his expression into detachment. Couldn't have the crowd or at-home viewers, some of which would be pro heroes and prospective internships, see him emoting or something.
The mountain finally sunk completely back into the arena floor, Cementoss rising and backing away to return to his throne-like chair and leaving the stage set for Lady Nagant.
"Nice work, newbies," she said, her voice somehow both deadpan and sincere. Wow, Kota needed to learn how she did that! "You've weeded out the ones who really want it. And now," she gestured at the holographic display as it returned and began cycling through options for the second round, "to see how well you can work together."
The blurring options on the display stopped to reveal the next event. The crowd began to murmur.
"What the-?" Kota asked.
Chapter ten, the sports fest is here!
*Unlike Bakugo, Tategami respects her classmates. And so she did as expected and read a variation of the Olympic Oath tailored a bit for the UA festival.
*I struggled a lot with whether or not Eri and Katsuma should be allowed to carry their gear into the sports festival. While some characters in canon were able to use some gear - such as Ashido's acid-resistant shoes or, most obviously, Aoyama's belt, I get the strong feeling that such things to be permitted have to be either passive such as Mina's shoes or kind of like handicap prevention as Aoyama's belt acts to contain unwanted firings. Since Eri's capture scarf and Katsuma's escrima sticks are straight-up weapons with no direct ties to their Quirks, it didn't seem right to let it slide.
*Tamashiro's given name - Musha - means "warrior," but is also related to the word "mushamusha" that means "chomp," referring to his Quirk's resemblance to Chain Chomps from the Super Mario franchise.
*Different species of spiders can lift anywhere from fifty to almost 173 times their body weight! I averaged that out and came up with Joren's strength at being able to lift 111 times her own weight, which given her spider thorax is about 250 pounds - which means she can lift or carry about 27,750 pounds using her spider legs! Her upper body is not near as strong, but she still works out.
As always, I hope it was fun! Leave a review if you can! And may your inspirations flow freely!