Ch 24: Sports Festival

This day has arrived. Everyone was either nervous or pumped up for the upcoming event. Bakugo said that he'll crush everyone, even Deku and Two-Face, causing students to roll their eyes. Todoroki declared war on Katsuki and Izuku, claiming that he will surpass them all. Green head wasn't pleased to get dragged into a three way war.

At the opening ceremony the audience cheered at 1A as the class that fought off the invaders. 1B received less praise and other classes were mostly ignored. The situation got even worse when Bakugo was called to give a speech as representative of hero course. He pledged to be Number One and ended up pissing off everyone even more.

The first round of the tournament was an obstacle race around the UA stadium. The very first obstacle was a narrow corridor to the outer side of the building. Shoto froze half of students' feet to the ground, but people from the hero course all managed to avoid this. Izuku told KQ to destroy the ice and free himself. The next part of the road is filled with 1 and 2 pointer robots from the entrance exam. They were glorified cannon fodder as far as Midoriya was concerned, although zero pointer forced him (and everyone else) to take time getting around it. Intuition (or may be the peanut gallery) made him carry a metal sheet from one of the bots just in case. Next was a series of pitfalls tied together with thin ropes. Green head wasn't too worried with getting ahead of everyone else right now, so he was going slow and steady. Naturally, Bakugo and Todoroki got ahead of everyone else. The final stretch forced them to slow down in order to avoid the mines. Izuku gave a thought to using the blast force from mines to gain lots of momentum, but the council in his head was mostly against it, and now wasn't the time the annoy them. He finished in seventh place.

It was time for cavalry battle. Katsuki put a giant target on his back put getting first place and obtaining 10 million points. Obviously, all the extras would try to steal that prize from him, but that wouldn't happen. Not if he had someone powerful backing him up.

Izuku (covered by a cloak) wanted to use DIO's abilities during this round, but it carried a risk of having being subjected to sunlight. His first instinct was to cooperate with Yaoyorozu so she wouldn't blast him again, but she already gathered a team consisting of herself, Shoto, Denki and Tenya. A great mix of mobility, power and defense, he had to admit. Midoriya was instead approached by Kacchan who demanded he help him crush the others. Oh well, that was an option too. Uraraka and Mina were chosen to help with mobility and counter the inevitable ice attacks (although Kacchan didn't fully buy the reasoning).

The next few minutes were a loud shit show of students trying to jump team Bakugo. At the very start Izuku had to "teleport" his team to a different spot to avoid the initial wave of attacks. Even though at least half of his class knew how this ability worked, it was still incredibly effective at moving out of the way and stealing bands in case someone got too close. The team was mostly floating in the air thanks to Ochako, and everyone else was focused to deflecting incoming attacks. Katsuki and Mina destroyed flying body parts coming towards them. Izuku made sure to keep a keen eye on Momo in case she used a UV blaster on him. He did not expect to get a hole in his chest from a completely different direction. A girl with pink hair from the support course was holding a weapon not to dissimilar from Yaoyorozu's design. Great, twice the angles he had to watch out for. Izuku told Katsuki to keep her at bay with explosions. Finally, it appears that most teams have given up and tried fighting each other instead. Only Team Todoroki kept pestering them from range. They probably didn't want to get close because time stop would spell their doom.

Team Bakugo emerged victorious with their original headband. Second place was team Todoroki, who stunned most of the competition with ice and electricity. 3rd place was team Monoma (Tokage, Honenuki, himself and Shishida) and 4th place belonged to team… Shinsou? (Hatsume, Mineta, Shiozaki and the boy in question).

The final round was a 1 on 1 tournament, just like in yesterday's training. Support equipment and physical preparation were forbidden, which naturally put some quirks (like Izuku's own) at an unfair advantage.

The very first round pitted Katsuki Bakugo against Hitoshi Shinsou. After yelling a bunch of death threats at the purple haired boy, the blonde froze in place. The general studies student told him to leave the arena, causing him to win and people to speculate about the nature of his quirk. The explosive got furious after snapping out and getting asked about his pledge from earlier. He tried to attack his former opponent, forcing Midnight to neutralize him with her quirk.

Izuku had to fight off Shishida. To his relief, The World was more than a match for the giant from 1B, so he ended up winning after an exchange of punch barrages.

Shoto managed to barely dodge Iida's super fast move and damage his engines with this quirk. Tenya surrendered immediately, as he knew it was his only chance.

Next was Denki Kaminari vs Ochako Uraraka. The guy tried to flirt at first but ultimately couldn't achieve anything. Uraraka took advice from Deku to instantly jump and activate Zero gravity on herself to avoid at least some of the electricity. She managed to dodge the massive surge and wait out until Kaminari was too exhausted and dumbfounded to keep fighting.

Neito Monoma vs Hatsume Mei wasn't really a fight. It was mostly just a prolonged marketing session that ended with Mei surrendering after she captured the blonde with a net gun. Izuku gave serious thought to getting a jetpack.

Mina got annoyed at Mineta's attempts at flirting, but made sure not to repeat Yaomomo's mistake. The little boy was fast thanks to how he interacted with his own balls. Alien had to use her most powerful acid to quickly destroy the projectiles coming her way. She made a prediction on his next bounce and managed to hit him with her quirk. The pain was too much for Mineta so he conceded. Ashido thoroughly apologized for hurting him, not realizing how good most of the girls from 1B felt at that moment.

Momo and Setsuna was a promising match up, considering both of them were recommended students. Opting for first blood, genius made a grenade and threw it towards the flying body parts. Most of them avoided the attack, but it would still put a toll on Tokage's stamina. Yaomomo took off the upper part of her uniform (leaving the bra) to expose as much of her skin as possible. Most people saw this as a meaningless provocation, but in her mind there was a plan to counter a seemingly overwhelming opponent. She began to prepare bullets in different parts of her upper body to release them in all directions. Momo also created a katana, surprising everyone even more. She managed to cut the body parts approaching her from the front. When a piece of flesh attacked her from a side or from behind, it got a dose of lead in retaliation. Eventually lizard girl took too much damage and collapsed on the ground from exhaustion, losing the fight. Some people in the crowd booed the winner for indecency, but she didn't seem to acknowledge them. Midnight and Tokage congratulated the raven haired girl for her ingenuity and even removed their shirts as a sign of solidarity. Kendou had to silence an overly joyous Mineta.

Honenuki felt confident in his abilities, but he vastly underestimated the power of Shiozaki's vines. She managed to grab him and completely restrain him while also finding a solid layer of ground beneath the liquid cement.

8 participants were left, with green head wondering how to counter the quirk that defeated Bakugo almost instantly. Thankfully, Kacchan already woke up and came to share what little knowledge he had.

"The guy complained about privileged quirks, ostracism and other dumb shit. I told him to shut up and then boom! I can't control my body at all! I can still hear and see, but not move. After that extra told me to leave, my body just moved on its own. I returned to normal immediately after crossing the line."

"Looks like he has a mind controlling quirk. That would explain his bizarre team composition from round 2. We need to figure out the activation criteria."

"Damn it! I should have mind controlled Yaomomo back then!"

"May be it is voice activated? If you hear him he can use the quirk on you."

"Yeah, seems about right. I'll ask Jirou-san to assist me."

"Deku." Bakugo put his hand on Midoriya's shoulder. "You're not a one trick pony like all the extras here. I need you to crush them in my stead, got it?"

"Got it." He made a mischievous smile.

"That's the right attitude, kid!"

Izuku came to the arena with a bandaged head and accompanied by Katsuki. He explained that green head got a slight ear injury that left him deaf but will be treated shortly. Blonde could see the horror in the extra's eyes. The round started with Izuku running at trembling Hitoshi. The boy ended up surrendering, but not before green head punched him a few times due to not hearing the announcer.

After the match was over and ears were healed, Midoriya met Shinsou again to apologize for hitting him unnecessarily. The tired kid ended up ranting about discrimination of villainous looking quirks, which Izuku could relate to a little bit. Sure, he was never hated for his quirk, but he still had villains living with him. That counts for something, right? Green head gave a speech about how actions define a person, not their quirk. And he told him to hit the gym. Shinsou thanked him for encouragement and agreed to reveal the details of his quirk. Turns out Izuku had his ears damaged for nothing.

Before Izuku could return to the 1A seats, Shoto stopped him. They went to an empty room after Todoroki's insistence.

"Midoriya, this might sound like a stupid question, but, are you familiar with quirk marriages?"

"Yes?" He couldn't see where this was going.

"Oh yeah." GOD recalled. "Selective breeding but for humans. Quite a clever idea."

"Are you also a result of such marriage?"

"What? No! Why did you think so?"

"Your quirk is unique, to say the least. It looks as if it was meticulously crafted to fit a myriad of situations, just like my quirk."

"WHAT?"

Shoto told his tragic backstory.

"I… don't know what to say."

"His mother was used as a breeding sow." Devil concluded.

"Shut up! Not now!"

"So your quirk has nothing to do with quirk marriages?"

"I told you: no!"

"My apologies then, Midoriya. I jumped to a conclusion too quickly. I'll be leaving for my next round now."

"Wait! Is that why you refuse to use your flames?"

"Indeed. I'll become a hero without his fire. Now, I really need to go."

Izuku had to talk to Aizawa-sensei about this.

"What should we do about this situation, sir?"

"I'll notify Nezu and Hound Dog. This is a big problem for Todoroki and his future as a pro hero. We can't exactly trust a person who only puts half as much effort as everyone else."

"Should I talk to him about this?"

"Right now you should focus on the event."

"All right. Sensei, how are adjusting to being a creature of the night?"

"Pretty good, actually. I never get tired and my eyes don't dry out, so that's a big upside. Plus, most of my hero activities are at night anyway. This cloak I have wear and weakened taste of alcohol are the only bad things, but I can live with that."

Shoto ended up steamrolling Uraraka by creating a giant glacier that trapped her and almost hit Midnight. Pinky joked that the boy must have been compensating for something.

Mina herself wasn't laughing when Momo threw bombs at her while backpedalling. Hitting them with acid only caused them explode in midair and still hit pinky. Several throwing knives were a final nail in the coffin. Mina made a mental note to never piss Yaomomo off.

Despite Monoma's ingenuity is switching between quirks (which surprised even Izuku), none of the quirks from 1B could reliably take down Ibara. She ended up slamming him against the ground outside the arena and then praying for forgiveness.

"May be he could have won if he had quirks from 1A?"

Izuku were to face off the smartest person in his class. This wouldn't be a fair fight, as time stop would not give Yaoyorozu any time to make slingshot, let alone a UV lamp. She recognizes this issue and surrendered immediately.

Todoroki managed to overwhelm Shiozaki with the magnitude of his ice, encasing her whole body. This sight put a chill down Tsuyu's spine.

The time was 15:10. Izuku could switch to King Crimson and use it for the last confrontation. Izuku wondered if principal intentionally made the final fight occur at this time. A part of him wanted to throw the match just to make heterochromatic teen feel better. Another, much louder part told him to stop being a pussy and get the win. Midoriya reluctantly agreed after remembering his promise to Kacchan.

Both combatants stared at each other intensely. Todoroki was a bit unnerved to see his opponent without cloak. Was he going to brute force his way forward with explosions? No matter, his mother's Ice would freeze the green head before he could reach his goal. Midnight announced the start of fight. […] Shoto lost conscience from the sudden pain in the back of his head.

"Todoroki-san quirk is great, but it is within conventional laws of the universe*. It still abides by fundamental rules of nature, such as gravity, evolution or fate. Just like Uraraka-san's quirk defies gravity, King Crimson defies fate. Even most of the people who know about time erasure probably don't fully grasp its potential. They might interpret it as a mild confusion tool, but that's merely a side effect. KC's true purpose is to allow me (us?) to escape fate whenever it is undesirable."

Epitaph shows Izuku desperately trying to punch away rapidly spreading ice. Nemuri-san cracked her whip to start the round.

"King Crimson! Time will be erased."

Midoriya moved forward while completely ignoring ice around him. He positioned himself in a way that lets KC strike as soon as possible.

"Those who oppose King Crimson's might…"

Time resumed its normal state.

Crack!

"… are no longer in this world!"

"Ok, that might have been too cheesy."

"No, it wasn't!"

"What? Where's the fight?"

"Damn it. This stupid temporal anomaly happened again!"

Spectators were generally upset the finals were effectively ruined. Some even argued that someone at UA intentionally messed with the audience by timing the event in this way. Midoriya made sure to make a few more skips to not look too suspicious. He also claimed to not remember how he got past the ice quirk.

It was time for the awards. Shoto, Momo, Ibara and Izuku were standing on the podium. All Might jumped into the stadium to hand over the medals and congratulate the winners. Green head gave a small speech about his dream and promised to do his best as future hero. He didn't know yet just how many people got interested in him after today's performance.

Author' s note: I am aware Shoto's quirk break the law on conservation of energy, but cool monologues aren't going to write themselves.

Also, holy crap! I did not except to get this far. Until now I've mostly been writing something and releasing it on umpulse. I might actually have to plan to rest of the story in a satisfying way.