Damian had arrived at U.A relatively early before any of the watchers or other students. He was heading towards the 1-A Preparation Room, where he could get ready.
He was carrying a large bag with him on his shoulders, it was filled with several types of equipment that could help him out in the festival, and provided to him by his father from the Batcave. Of course, the gadgets have been approved beforehand by the U.A staff for the festival.
After some time, Damian arrived in front of the preparation room, as he then opened up the door. He walked in and was instantly faced with Izuku Midoriya inside the room, doing push-ups.
"Oh hey Wayne!" Izuku said as he heard the door opening, after which standing up and walking over towards him.
"I was not expecting anyone to be here this early, especially you Midoriya" Damian commented. When he came here he originally expected to be alone.
Izuku just chuckled a bit "Yeah, I was not expecting anyone to come here so early, as well. I came to prepare myself better for the festival, this is a significant day for us." Izuku said. He was very excited about the sports festival, and he had a feeling Damian was excited, as well.
"This will be my time to shine, the entire nation will be watching a quirkless kid rise through the ranks, it will definitely be exciting." Damian said as he then placed the bag on one of the charges, as he then started opening it up.
"Who knows, maybe you will even become a national sensation." Izuku suggested as he observed Damian taking out some of the gadgets from his bag, and he was eager to know what those gadgets were for.
Damian pulled some gauntlets out of his bag, as he then swiftly put them on. Damian smirked as he adjusted them, knowing that those gauntlets had a secret weapon in them, which he knew nobody was going to expect.
After which he pulled out some armored boots, and then swiftly putting them on. He also kept into consideration the quirks some of his classmates have, and his father made some adjustments for him which would help him out a lot.
Izuku carefully observed the gauntlets and boots Damian was putting on, and he had to admit, they looked awesome. But he was also wondering if they had any sort of twists or secrets in them.
"Looks like you really came prepared." Izuku says to Damian as he scratched the back of his head a bit.
"Coming prepared to anything is the key to victory." Damian said as he finally pulled out the utility belt, strapping it around his waist. It was equipped with some basic gadgets, from smoke pellets all the way to the explosive gel.
Izuku watched as Damian put on the utility belt, he was fascinated by all these different kinds of gadgets Damian had prepared for the sports festival, and he was also excited to see how he would use them "Y-Yes you're right!" Izuku said.
With his gauntlets, boots, and utility belt equipped, all Damian now had to do is wait for the actual festival to begin. Damian then walked up to one of the chairs, before sitting down on it. "This is not going to be a walk in the park, and it is going to show the entire world what we are really made of." Damian stated as he was looking down on the ground.
Izuku just let out a slight sigh after hearing those words from Damian "Yeah, I get what you mean. I am pretty nervous as well, but excited at the same time. We will see all of these new and exciting quirks, and also maybe going up against them!" Izuku said in a bit of an excited tone.
"New Quirks, you say?" Damian replied to that comment made by Izuku. The raven-haired bo only hoped that these new quirks would not cause any major problems for him, and he was determined to win this festival no matter what.
Later
All Class 1-A Students have arrived at the festival, as well as all the viewers who have taken their seats. The entire class was waiting for the large doors to the festival surroundings to open, so they will all be in view of the audience.
Damian was waiting patiently side by side with his classmates, and most of them have put on a brave and excited face. And Damian was also reasonably excited, he was about to be watched by so many people, and he knew that his father was also among the audience, and he was not going to let his father down.
And just like that, the large doors to the stadium finally opened up, as everyone started going forward through the large doors, already being able to hear the crowd cheering.
Izuku had a very determined expression on his face, and he remembered the last words All Might told him before the festival, 'I need you to tell the world "I am here!"'.
"All Might..." Izuku thought to himself as he finally walked out, in full view of the audience alongside his classmates. "I will try my best!" He thought to himself again.
"Here come the first years! The miraculous rising stars who brushed off a villain attack with their sheer willpower! IT'S CLASS 1-A!" Present Mic shouted out, introducing the audience to Class 1-A as they all walked out and headed towards the center of the stadium.
As the students started making their way there, Damian kept looking around at the audience. He was trying to spot his father somewhere up there, but it was extremely difficult because it looks like there are more than 10,000 people in the audience.
"W-Whoa, what a crowd." Izuku said as he looked around at the audience, he seemed pretty frightened knowing that all of these people are going to watch them. He did expect there to be a lot of people. But this amount was already a lot for him.
"And we're expected to put on the best performance we can in front of so many spectators. I suppose this is merely one more necessary skill if we have to become heroes." Tenya commented, looking around at the audience as well.
Soon enough all the students gathered in front of the small stadium, where a certain hero was waiting for them.
"Alright everyone, now that you're all here, it is time for the Athlete's Oath!" Midnight stated as she started whipping the air around her.
"So our ref is the R-Rated Hero Midnight?" One of the students said, and others started discussing the fact that this hero was going to be their ref for the rest of the festival.
"What? Should a person like her really be in a high school?" Damian said as he overheard the others talking about Midnight. A Hero that is also known for lust? This is all becoming too bizarre to him.
"SHUT IT YOU!" Midnight shouted out loud as she overheard Damian muttering out those words. She did not like it when people judge her because she was R-Rated, a hero is a hero at the end of the day.
"Now, it is time for the Athlete's oath, and the one to say it is...From Class 1-A Katsuki Bakugo!" Midnight said out loud, as almost everyone then looked over Katsuki, who seemed pretty calm about it.
"W-What?! Why is it Kacchan?!" Izuku said in surprise as he watched Katsuki getting up on the stage calmly.
"The Athlete's oath?" Katsuki said on stage through the microphone, as he then lightly smirked "I am just going to say...That I will win this. And as for everyone else, they will make great stepping stones." Katsuki said.
As soon as Katsuki was done speaking, Class 1-B started booeing at him "You dirty bastard!" One of them said.
'He's too self-determined and cocky...And that will eventually be his downfall.' Damian thought to himself as he observed Katsuki coming back from the stage.
"Now, without any other delays, let's get the first event started. And the first event of this festival is...The Obstacle Course!" Midnight said out loud, as a giant screen showcased the words 'Obstacle Course' on it.
'The Obstacle Course...' Damian thought to himself. He had been going through the numerous other festival events that he managed to dig up, trying to think of a good strategy to win it. He did not manage to come up with anything special for this event, but that was just going to make it more fun and exciting.
"It's a race between every member of all eleven classes! The course is a four-kilometer lap around the stadium itself! The only rule is for you to not go off the track." Midnight said as a large steel door opened up right behind the students leading to the outside.
Everyone started getting into position as the countdown started, and the very first obstacle of this race, was the gate itself.
Damian already realized that if so many people were trying to go through the gate, that it would create a massive wave of people trying to squeeze themselves outside. But Damian was standing at the very back of his group. He already knew that the first challenge was going to be an obstacle course, since he saw some workers setting up something along the track when he arrived. He was in a great position.
"START!" Midnight yelled out as a Ding sound was heard across the stadium, and already students were racing through the gate.
Damian was among the first students in the front, so he did not have as many problems as everyone else behind him, but he knew that this narrow gate was also going to go in his favor.
He quickly pulled out two smoke pellets from his utility belt, and quickly dropping them on the ground, knowing that this would definitely cause some problems for everyone behind him.
Several other students behind him started coughing as the smoke started spreading around the narrow gate, with some not being able to see clearly, and falling down on the floor, causing a chain reaction of several other students tripping on their own classmates.
'Perfect...' Damian thought to himself, as he saw his strategy working perfectly. Now he was in second place, with the student in front of him being Shoto Todoroki, who took notice of what was going on behind him.
Soon enough, both Damian and Shoto managed to exit out of the narrow gate, with the others still being several feet behind them, still recovering from the smoke pellets and the tripping.
Shoto needed to act fast, seeing how Damian was slowly catching up to him, and that he could use one of his gadgets at any moment to slow him down, and then be in first place. He quickly activated his ice quirk, as the ground started freezing up behind him, and quickly freezing Damian's feet, alongside some other students that have passed through the gate.
Damian stopped dead in his tracks as his feet froze under Shoto's ice, but the raven-haired male just smirked. "It is going to take more than that to stop me..." He muttered to himself, as the outer layers of his boots started heating up at high degrees, and in a matter of seconds, Damian managed to smash the ice that was holding his feet in place.
Damian knew that it was a good idea to use the Thermal Boots for the festival, exclusively because of Shoto's ice quirk. With the Thermal feature built into his gauntlets and boots, Shoto's ice was now a lot more vulnerable to Damian.
Shoto obviously noticed that his ice quirk did not manage to slow down Damian much, only putting him a few feet back. 'Wayne...' He thought to himself. Was he really about to lose this race to a quirkless kid? No, he was not...Losing to someone like him would be an enormous disgrace, something he was not going to let happen easily, especially since his father is watching.
The two of them then suddenly arrived at an enormous opening, and that opening was filled with enormous robots, the zero pointers from the Entrance exam, and these robots were blocking the path.
Both Shoto and Damian stopped dead in their tracks as they encountered the wall of Giant Robots in front of them, with the rest of the students slowly catching up.
Shoto also noticed that Damian had stopped several feet behind him, and he had to react quick if he were to lose him. "So these are the robots everyone had in their exams? I wish they put up something more threatening." Shoto said as he then activated his ice quirk once more, freezing all the robots in place, as he started running through them.
Damian quickly realized that those robots were frozen in very unstable positions, and realized what Shoto was trying to do. While the others were standing around, he quickly started rushing after him, hoping that he would make it out before they collapsed.
As he was running through, he saw one of the giant robots shaking, as it then slowly started collapsing down to the ground. He could not possibly run through it while it was collapsing, and there was only one thing left to do.
He quickly pulled out his grappling gun and aimed it at the head of the falling robot, as he then managed to climb atop it, and just when it was about to collapse, he jumped off of it, to the other side.
"1-A's Todoroki is busting through and sabotaging the others in one move, this guy is cold!" Present Mic commented through the speakers as all the robots had collapsed down on the ground, creating a cloud of smoke.
Just as all the robots had collapsed, Damian landed on the floor with a roll, evening out the impact throughout his body. The pain was not that great, so he could continue onwards. He quickly got up and started running after Todoroki.
"Wait a second, there is someone else coming out of the dust clouds!" Present Mic said as the camera zoomed in closer, then revealing Damian as he ran out of the dust cloud, hot on Shoto's pursuit.
"Amazing! 1-A's Damian Wayne somehow managed to run through the crashing robots and lived! This kid is one of a kind!" Present Mic said in an enthusiastic voice.
'What?!' Shoto thought to himself as he heard those words from Present Mic, looking back to see Damian hot on his trail while all the other students were blocked off from the robots. He was not expecting anyone to even try going after him, since that would have been suicide and the robots would have squashed anyone.
Shoto just growled under his breath as he focused on the upcoming obstacle, hoping that this was the moment he was going to shake Damian off. Damian was actually proving to be a real threat to him winning this race in first place, and he had to get rid of him as soon as possible.
Eventually, Shoto and Damian arrived at the next obstacle, called "The Fall". The two of them observed the giant canyon, seeing that the only way across were the ropes attached to each part of the canyon.
Shoto saw this as an excellent opportunity to slow all the others down. He quickly jumped onto one of the ropes, freezing the rope through his shoes as he skated towards the end, after which the frozen rope would shatter, leaving no other way to cross.
But for Damian, this was going to be child's play. The raven-haired male smirked, knowing that he did not even need to use the ropes. Damian pulled out the Line Launcher from his utility belt, as he then starts running off the edge, and jumping down.
He then fired his line launcher towards one of the platforms further away, as the line launcher successfully connected, as he then started quickly traveling towards the platform.
Damian then pulled out the grappling gun from his utility belt using his other hand, as he then proceeded to fire it at the top of the platform once he was close enough, and then successfully getting on the top of the platform
"Come on! Let's chase after them!" Uraraka said as the others finally caught up at the Fall, at last getting past the Robot blockade.
"So annoying, How is that fair?!" Mina said in an annoyed tone as she watched Damian crossing the canyon with his gadgets, as well as Shoto shattering the ropes that he had skated on to get across.
Shoto had finally made it across the canyon, shattering the very last rope that is used to get across, this was surely going to slow everyone down a lot. Not long after, Damian had managed to get across as well, launching himself up to the other side using the grappling gun, and continuing over towards the last obstacle.
"The leads keep breaking ahead, while the rest of the pack is bunched up! And our two leading students have finally arrived at the last obstacle!" Present Mic said through the speakers.
"T-They've already made it that far?" Izuku said to himself as he was carefully crossing the canyon, crawling along some of the remaining ropes. 'I have to hurry!' He thought to himself.
"Wait...Is that?" Shoto said as he once again stopped dead In his tracks as he arrived at the final obstacle.
"The Minefield..." Damian muttered out as he stopped as well. The area was enormous, and it seemed to be packed with a lot of mines.
"This field is as dangerous as it gets! A quick glance is enough to reveal the location of the mines! So keep both eyes open and watch your step!" Present Mic commented.
Shoto already started running into the minefield, carefully looking down to avoid stepping on any mines. But they were not as easy to spot as Present Mic said, so his constant observation on the ground was slowing him down a bit.
Damian then blinked two times in a row, activating the detective vision in his contact lenses. He now could easily see all of the mines scattered on the ground, as they were all illuminated in yellow light, now he did not have to focus as much on looking, only what was ahead.
Now Damian was actually starting to catch up to Shoto, step by step. A smirk appeared on Damian's face, knowing that he was about to surpass him, and eventually take this race with First Place.
"Haha. This crap...CAN'T SLOW ME DOWN!" Katsuki shouted from behind them, as he was blasting himself through the sky using his explosion quirk, as he started catching up to both Damian and Shoto at an extremely fast pace.
Damian quickly looked back, watching the enraged Katsuki making his way closer and closer towards them. 'Shit...' Damian thought to himself. Shoto was already as good as done, but Katsuki is now his biggest problem. If he manages to get past them with his quirk, it was not going to look good, he had to do something.
Damian pulled out a Shuriken from his utility belt and looked back at Katsuki once more. When he was near enough to the ground, it was time to test out his theory. With very precise aim, he threw the Shuriken right under Katsuki, where a mine was, as it then exploded from right under him.
"Son of a-!" Katsuki said as he felt the mine exploding from right under him, as he soon lost balance in mid-air because of the impact, as he then fell down onto the ground, right onto another mine, causing another minor explosion.
Damian smirked once more as he saw the damage he did unto Katsuki, focusing his attention now on Shoto, and was just about to surpass him.
Shoto looked over to his side, observing as Damian was now right next to him, which caused Shoto to a bit growl under his breath "Seems like I may have underestimated your abilities, but don't think you will win just yet." Shoto said as he noticed the fact that Damian was rarely even looking down onto the ground, and efficiently evading every single mine in his way, how was he doing that so easily?
"Think you're so great? Well, think again! I will make sure to beat you in every event of this festival as possible, and then we will see how powerful the son of the number two Hero really is against a quirkless nobody!" Damian shouted out with pride, as he then finally surpassed Shoto, now being only a few feet in the lead.
Shoto then remembered Damian's words back at the park when they had met. 'Try and not get cocky and underestimating me, because that will be your downfall.' He repeated those words in his head.
He had been training tirelessly for all these years, making sure that no one could match his strength. But now...Was he really about to get humiliated in front of the entire nation by some quirkless kid that managed to get in? No...He was not.
Shoto then grabbed Damian by his shoulder as soon as he barely managed to take the lead "I WILL NOT LOSE TO SOMEONE LIKE YOU!" He shouted out, trying something, anything to slow him down, but he couldn't even use his ice quirk in this giant minefield, that would have been too risky.
"WE HAVE A NEW LEADER! GET EXCITED MASS MEDIA! YOU ALL LOVE THIS SORT OF TURNAROUND!" Present Mic shouted as the crowd from the stadium started cheering for this new student in lead, mainly because of the fact that he was quirkless.
"Seems like we have a bitter rivalry over here, The son of the number two Hero, Shoto Todoroki facing off against the first and only Quirkless Student in the Hero course, Damian Wayne! WHO IS GOING TO MAKE IT TO FIRST PLACE?!" Present Mic commented once more.
As Damian and Shoto were trying to slow each other down, from behind them an enormous explosion went off, far greater than any other throughout this area, with both of them looking back to see what may have caused such a massive explosion.
"A giant explosion from behind?! What may have caused such a blast?!" Present Mic commented, but then a figure was seen flying over towards Damian and Shoto at extremely high speed. "AND CLASS-A'S MIDORIYA RIDES THE WAVE IN HOT PURSUIT!" Present Mic shouted.
"What the-?!" Both Damian and Shoto said in both Shock and Surprise, seeing Izuku suddenly flying over towards them at such a high speed.
In just a matter of seconds, Izuku had soon passed both Damian and Shoto, now being in first place. 'Yup...This is intense!' Izuku thought to himself.
Shoto was very shocked at the fact that Izuku just suddenly surpassed them in a matter of seconds, and so was Damian. Shoto had to think fast, and desperate times called for desperate measures. He needs to try using his ice quirk to somehow slow Izuku down, even risking the chances of setting off every mine in his way.
Shoto then quickly started freezing the ground in front of him, but the ice did not even set off any mines. Now he was able to fully run through the path without risking setting off any mines.
This time Shoto had managed to get right next to Damian, just as Damian did minutes before, and was just about to surpass him.
'I'm stalling! If I lose time on this landing, passing them again will be impossible!' Izuku thought to himself as he then re-adjusted himself in the air, as well as the giant piece of metal he was carrying with him from the robot. And right when he was just between Damian and Shoto, he slammed the robot piece onto the ground, causing another chain of mines exploding, and sending him further forwards.
Since the explosion happened right between Damian and Shoto, it caused them to fall back just a little bit due to the impact of the explosion, as they observed Izuku getting launched forward even more.
"Well who could have predicted such an incredible turn of events so early on?!" Present Mic said with excitement in his voice.
"And the first to come back to the Stadium is...NONE OTHER THAN IZUKU MIDORIYA!" Present Mic shouted out as Izuku passed through the gate in first place, with the crowd cheering.
Shoto and Damian had caught up as well seconds after, with Shoto coming in at Second place, while Damian came in at third. That explosion was a lot more damaging to Damian than Shoto, and it caused him to fall back a little further, thus potentially costing him Second place.
Izuku then started lightly crying, hearing the crowd cheering him on 'I made it...I actually made it!' He thought to himself once more.
Damian was still panting from running that much, as he then looked up to look at Izuku once more "How...How did he..." He said to himself. He was still extremely confused about how Izuku was able to get in first place so easily.
"You...YOU!" A pissed off Katsuki said coming from behind at 4th Place, heading up towards Damian. He had holes and rips throughout his hero costume. Due to the fact that Katsuki was traveling at high speed when Damian tripped him in mid-air, he had fallen on several active mines.
Damian looked behind him seeing Katsuki coming his way, and it was already clear that he was very pissed off at Damian. But Damian just smirked, watching him getting closer and closer.
"I will never forget what you just cost me, a quirkless bastard like you...I WILL FUCKING KILL YOU IN THE NEXT ROUND!" Katsuki shouted out in anger, grabbing Damian by his gym suit while making popping noises in his other arm. A Quirkless kid just managed to trip him, making him land in 4th place...This was not acceptable, and he was gonna make sure that Damian will pay for what he just did.
"That is what they all say, all I can say to you is...Good Luck. Because don't think that i can't mess you up any further." Damian commented with a smirk, not being intimidated at all by Katsuki's threat.
"Alright then, now that all the results are in, let's break the news. Only the top 42 from this round will qualify for the next round. And let's get ready, for the next round is..." Midnight says with excitement.
"The Cavalry Battle!"