It's time for the next chapter of Project Velocity. Sorry for the day late posting, Sunday evening got busy for me and Monday morning and after noon was go, go, go from the moment I woke up. Did not get a chance to focus on this until after 3:00. Luckily I had had most of the editing done and it was just getting this chapter over to this website and then posting it.
So, Last time the Sports Festival begun and the student had to race around the stadium looking for metal emblem of UA's logo. And it seemed Izuku was not going to be about to pass the first event, until the last moment when he's seen on the jumbo-tron getting help from Mt Lady. Now it's time to see how that happened.
As Always I do not own MY HERO ACADEMIA or any of their characters.
With that, let's start off with a bang.
Izuku had first noticed the change in color of the emblem when he and Ochaco were still searching the entrance after Kendo had left. Despite noticing the emblem, Izuku had chosen not to try and claim it was for multiple reasons. First, he didn't want anyone to catch on to the emblem and get to it before he did. Second, with all the students running around, they could easily jump him and take him. So he wanted to wait until they were tired and had already given up. That would make it less likely they would try to attack him. Third, from what Izuku could tell the sign was held up by several hundred small screws and he did not have a screwdriver.
Those first two issues were easily solved by waiting until all but that emblem had been returned and everyone had run themselves tired searching for the last one. The third issue would take a bit more work, but Izuku already had a student in mind who could help. A support student as they were the most likely to have a screwdriver randomly on hand. He also had a particular support student in mind.
Izuku casually walked through the hallways until he came across the support student he was looking for. A girl with pink dreadlocks and a pair of welding goggles on top of her head. She had caught Izuku's interest as she had a tool belt on and a pair of hover boots. Izuku was willing to bet she had some tools in her tool belt in case she needed to do infield repairs on her equipment. Spotting her giggles coming from behind the counter of a food vendor, Izuku walked up to the vendor and knocked his knuckles against the metal counter.
This caused the support student to jump back and hit the back of her head against the metal fridge door. She rubbed the back of her head as she stood up and looked at Izuku. She immediately brought her right hand up and held it close to her chest. Izuku could see she was holding a small UA emblem, making it clear she thought he was going to try and steal it.
"Wooo, I'm not here to rob you. I wanted to ask if I could borrow a screwdriver?" Izuku said as he held his hand up to show he wasn't there to fight. The pink-haired support student tilted her headin confusion about why a student from the hero course would be asking for a screwdriver. Izuku noticed and asked, "Do you not have a screwdriver on you?'
Mei Hatusme shook her head then said, "No I have a screwdriver, multiple. Why?"
" The emblem I found is screwed in and I don't have another way to get it out." Izuku said.
"Oh, which type do you need?" Hatsume asked.
"Flathead." Izuku said, causing Mei to reach into one of the pockets of her tool belt and pull flathead screwdrivers in more sizes than Izuku thought was possible.
"Which size?" Hatsume asked, making Izuku pause for a second. He closed his eyes as he pictured the head of the screw in his mind.
"Um, two and a half centimeters." Izuku said, opening his eyes. Hatsume ran a finger over the different flathead screwdriver. She then grabbed one and handed it to Izuku. Looking at the measurement mark on the hand Izuku saw it was the correct size, "Just give me that back when you're done."
"I promise to do so." Izuku said as he took the screwdriver and slipped it into his pocket. He then turned and began to walk to the front entrance again, hearing Hatsume's hover boot power on and her flying down the hallways to get her emblem to Midnight. As Izuku walked he heard all the announcements of all the emblems being returned until Midnight announced that the second to last one had been returned.
It was around this time he walked out of the front entrance and then turned around and looked up at the giant UA emblem. This time he noticed a small sticker that looked like a cartoon drawing of Principal Nezu with a giant thumbs up, Izuku figured that was Principal Nezu's way of telling whatever student who found the emblem that it counted. And now came the issue of getting up to the emblem to unscrew it.
If Izuku had his equipment he would have used his wrist-mounted grappler to scale the side of the building. But the only support equipment that had been approved was Aoyama's belt and a small stash of Izuku's hair dye that was in his locker in case he needed to reload between events. And looking around Izuku didn't spot any kind of equipment like a ladder that could be used to get up high.
Instead, Iuzku turned to the crowd and sighed into a small smirk. He guessed it was time to exploit someone. And spotting a particular piece of a pro hero's costume, he knew the perfect person to ask. Their quirk was perfect and from what Izuku had gotten from their media coverage they would do anything to get on TV. Izuku walked a bit into the crowd, getting some side eyes as it was obvious he was a student. Izuku stepped behind the purple horns of the pro hero he knew he could exploit. He tapped them on the shoulder and asked, "Excuse me, Mt Lady, madam?"
Mt Lady turned around confused about who was calling for her, only to come face to face with Izuku, "Oh, it's you Class 1-A class president. What are you doing out here, shouldn't you be looking for an emblem, there's only one left?"
"I am and I've already located, but it's in a hard to reach spot, I was wondering if you could help me reach it." Izuku said and saw confusion, surprise and annoyance appear on Mt Lady's help. It seemed she needed one up push and Izuku knew exactly what to say, "You'll be on Tv."
Izuku tried not to grin or laugh as Mt Lady's eyebrows rose along with her smile, "Sure kid, what do you need me to do?" Izuku couldn't laugh but he could and did internally grin at how quickly Mt Lady had taken the bait. He knew she was a pro hero who enjoyed the media coverage but didn't realize she was that much of an attention hog.
"Follow me." Izuku said, then turned and began walking away. He could hear Mt Lady following him, but then she was called out by DeathArms and Kamui Woods. They were calling her out for ditching her responsibilities as a pro hero.
"Screw you two, this kid is giving me a chance to be on TV." Mt Lady then caught up to Izuku and followed him until they got to the main entrance, "So what do you need me to do?'
"Just lift me up to that emblem and allow me to unscrew it." Izuku said.
"What emblem?" MT Lady asked as she looked up, her eyes falling on the logo above the main entrance. She was just a few minutes ago that the logo had its main body be a bright yellow with a red outline, but now it was a flat gray, "Didn't that used to have color."
"Our principal likes to believe he can trick us with stuff like this." Izuku said. Mt Lady laughed, then grew in height. Once she was level with the emblem, she knelt down and held out her hand. Izuku stepped onto her open palm and had to work to keep his balance as Mt Lady lifted him up. Once Izuku was level with the emblem, he reached behind it and began to unscrew the hundreds of screws, allowing them to fall to the ground.
As Izuku did this, he could hear the attention of most of the crowd out of the stadium drawing to him. He could hear people asking questions about what he was doing and why a pro hero was helping him. Not allowing himself to be distracted by this, Izuku continued to work on the screw, Mt Lady moving him around once he was done with a section. Until finally Izuku undid the last screw and the emblem fell, forcing Mt Lady to jump back so it didn't land on her toe.
"Okay, you can let me down," Izuku said as he pocketed the screwdriver. Mt Lady nodded and lowered Izuku to the ground. Once he was off her hand, she shrunk down to regular size.
"How do you plan on getting that back to the arena?" MT Lady asked.
Izuku shrugged his shoulders with indifference. He then walked over to the emblem, which was almost his height and lifted onto his back with ease. He gripped it and lifted it, noticing that it was actually much lighter than it first appeared to be. It must have been made out of a lighter type of metal, meaning without much effort Izuku was about to carry the emblem into the stadium.
"Dang, I'll have to see if I can send him an internship offer." Mt Lady said, opening out her phone to make a reminder. Chances were he was going to get a lot, but Mt Lady was hoping to be one of the first.
As Izuku walked through the halls carrying the giant emblem on his back, he was passed by a few students who were still searching for the last emblem. They would toss a look at him, but then walk off, thinking there was no way the last emblem could be that big. Otherwise, they would have been able to find it before he did. Or they didn't think it was worth the effort of having to fight Izuku for the emblem and be the one that had to carry it to the arena.
Whatever the case was, Izuku was unchallenged as he walked down the tunnel back into the arena.
As Izuku walked across the grass and over to Midnight's platforms, his footsteps left noticeable impressions on the ground. Once he arrived in front of Midnight's platform he dropped the large emblem to the ground, causing it to sink a bit into the ground. He then looked up at Midnight and asked, "Do I have to carry this up to you, or is this acceptable?
Midnight smiled and nodded, as she knelt down and pressed her hand against the top of the emblem, "Izuku Midoriya has returned the last remaining emblem, the first event is over."
While it was expected that the crowd would begin cheering, instead a wave of confusion washed over the crowd. No one believes that the large logo from the front of the stadium could possibly be a designated emblem. This had to be some kind of joke from Izuku or a horrible attempt to pass it off because he couldn't find the real last emblem.
"Principal Nezu's idea?" Izuku asked and Midnight nodded, because who else would have thought to hide an emblem like that?
Midnight then stood up and addressed the crowd, "Before the event began it was specified that an emblem could be any size from the size of bottle cap." -Midnight held up the emblem Mei Hatsumi had returned, it being the smallest out of all of them- "To the size of a logo. And to give it that pass is our very own Principal Nezu."
Everyone looked to the teacher's booth, where Principal Nezu was standing at the window. Eri could feel eyes on her, so she stepped away from the window before the jumbotron could switch to give a view of Principal Nezu. Eri grabbed hold of Inko's legs and hid her face.
"At UA, we looked at our student's abilities beyond what is considered the norm. Their ability to power through challenges and keep fighting are important but we are also for items beyond that. Their ability to be creative, the idea of this event was not to see who is the fastest, or the best seeker, but to test our student's ability to think unconventionally and look in locations that no one else would think to look. To view a situation and see it for what it was. All important skills to have in the field of heroics. Thank you Midnight." Principal Nezu said.
"There you have it folk, Midoriya has returned the last emblem. Thought Eraserhead?" Present Mic asked, hiding his confusion as he was the same way as the rest of the crowd.
"From the beginning the students of UA should have seen it come. Bakugo's demonstration of returning his emblem should have been a good enough clue that emblems were not going to be simply lying around. And as Principal Nezu stated, they needed to get creative." Mr Aizawa said.
Bakugo laughed at the Class 1-A homeroom teacher's comment, "Guess you're too dumb to figure that out, even when it spelt out for you."
"Come dude, that's uncalled for." Kirishima said.
"How were we supposed to notice the logo lost its color?" Mina said.
"Well it's not that there wasn't a big giant sign pointing it out." Izuku said, as he walked over to Mei and gave her screwdriver back, "Hey, thanks for letting me borrow this."
"You're welcome," Hatsume said, as she slipped her screwdriver back into her belt. More than happy to have a camera on her as Izuku handed the screwdriver back, she was going for all the free advertising she could get.
"Now that all emblems have been returned, it's time to announce the second event of this year's Sports Festival. Take it away Midnight." Present Mic said.
"Thank you for that Present Mic. This year's second event will be decided by last place." Midnight said, using her whip to point towards Izuku. Izuku turned and raised an eyebrow. Since when has this been a thing? In the past Sports Festival the events had always been decided by roulette, so why all of a sudden would the last place to pick what event happened next, "Come on up again Midoriya and have your pick of events."
Izuku looked around, still confused about what the teachers could have possibly planned. He didn't move a muscle to walk back up the platform so Present Mic started a chant with, "Maybe he just needs some motivation. Midoriya, Midoriya, Midoriya."
"You better get up there, I can hear Eri calling your name," Jirou said, pointing a headphone jack up to the teacher's booth. Izuku looked up and saw Eri was once again standing back at the window, and she was staring back down at him. Izuku gave her a small wave, then sighed, resigning to his fate. He walked to the platform and climbed the stairs, as he climbed the crowd cheered and didn't stop until he was standing next to Midnight. When he stood next to her, one last loud cheer was given then it quieted down.
"What sick plan does the mouse have going on this time?" Izuku said as he looked up at his teacher. Why was Principal Nezu making him the center of attention so much? The opening speech he could understand. That was just luck, he was sure if he hadn't gotten the most points, then someone else would have given it. But then came the giant emblem, besides himself, Izuku figured Principal Nezu had hidden that for Bakugo or maybe Jirou and Shoji, yet he had been the one to find it. Now this, this was the third time he was being focused on. Izuku sighed, maybe he shouldn't have waited to take the giant emblem, or he should have gone for a different one.
"Who knows?" Midnight said. Izuku shook his head, as he got an inkling of why Principal Nezu was doing this, but how could Principal Nezu have figured that out? Maybe Izuku shouldn't have been as loose-lipped as he was on the first day of high school. Whatever the case was Midnight gave Izuku a deck of 10 cards and informed him these were the choices he could pick from.
Izuku turned the cards over and looked over his choice. Dodgeball, Calvary Battle, One in the Barrel, Capture the Flag, Fishing. Izuku paused a bit at the fishing card, what could that possibly entail? Moving past that card Izuku saw King of the Hill, Batting Practice, Water Balloon Fight, Dance Party and lastly Build Battle.
With each option Izuku looked at, his shoulder dropped further and further. Only half of the cards appeared to be actually viable options, while the other half seemed to be more of joke cards. He could have picked any of them and there were two that could easily put him at an advantage, yet he wasn't that kind of person. He wanted everyone to be on level ground as he had a particular set of skills that could easily win him the match. Izuku sighed as he shuffled the cards around, he was going to be the one making this decision.
"Do you have your decision?" Midnight asked.
"Fate," Izuku said as he gave the card another quick shuffling, earning a confused look from Midnight. Izuku then threw the cards into the air, as if he was a magician and they quickly dispersed, moving in different directions as they slowly fluttered down to the ground. Izuku didn't move to grab one out of the air but waited until they had all landed. Izuku then reached up and plucked the card that had fallen into this hair. Without looking Izuku handed the card back to Midnight.
"Fate has chosen." Midnight held the card up and the camera revealed, "King of the Hill." Izuku turned around and saw' King of Hill' being displayed on the jumbotron, "The rules for this event are complex so we'll be having the team be made right now. All that will be explained for the ment is in the center of the field will be one giant hill that will be by the top four players and their teams of four. More will be explained after teams are picked, So Katsuki Bakugo, Mezo Shoji, Tsuyu Asui and Neito Monoma pick your team. You have ten minutes."
Izuku walked down the steps and locked eyes with Bakugo, who shook his head. Making it clear, they won't be a team, despite both of them knowing if they did they would easily win. This, like all things in the past, was a challenge between them. Izuku nodded in response and turned away from Bakugo. He turned and immediately came face to face, well face to mask with Shoji.
"Hey Shoji, you need something?" Izuku asked, having to strain his neck a bit to look up at Shoji.
"I was wondering if you wanted to join my team?" Shoji said, then got a confused look from Izuku.
"But I was last…" Izuku began.
"I understand and normally the second round would be filled with points based on how well we did the first round. But it seems that the only advantage to doing well in the first round is starting the second event on top of a hill. Meaning there isn't any disadvantage to allying with someone who might have struggled in the first round." Shoji said. Izuku thought about it for a second and realized no points had been announced as they had been in the past. The advantage of winning the first event was starting on a hill and that was incentive enough to get your pick of teammates.
"Why me though?" Izuku asked.
Now it was Shoji's turn to be confused, "Huh, I thought you had figured it out, that's why you chose 'King of the Hill?"
Izuku shook his head and then explained, "I didn't pick, I just threw the cards into the air and planned on grabbing the one that landed closest to me. King of the Hill was just what happened to land on my head."
"Oh." Was Shoji's response then he said, "Well I figured since you hadn't approached Bakugo yet you were still free."
"I am." Izuku said with a nod.
"Then I would like you to request that you join my team. With your quirk, you would be able to easily stop anyone from getting close to our hill." Shoji said.
Izuku thought about it for a second. The name of the game is to stop the other student from getting to the top of the hill. And the top four players got to pick three other people to help them, that was 16 people counting himself, that he wouldn't have to worry about. Leaving only 44 students to worry about, yet if he wasn't on Shoji's team then it would mean he would have to worry about the other 59 students to have a chance to make it to the third event.
It was clear what path he should pick.
Izuku looked at Shoji and held out his hand, "Alright, I'll join your team. Who else are you thinking of joining your team."
"Uraraka and Yaoyorozu." Shoji said as he shook Izuku. Izuku looked around for Ochaco and found her walking over. Izuku waved her over and she picked up the pace. With Ocahco heading over, Izuku looked for Momo but then found her standing with Tsuyu.
"I think Yaoyorozu already has a team." Izuku as he pointed over to Momo and Tsuyu. Shoji transformed the end of one of his tentacles and looked over at Momo, then Izuku saw Shoji's mask lowered a bit. It seemed whatever plan Shoji had come up with had Momo playing a big part. But it seemed Shoji had a backup plan as he began looking around.
"Seems Tsuyu got to her first, that's okay I have someone else in mind. Minoru Mineta, he's a General Ed student and I think his quirk could be useful." Shoji said, then turned and walked off to find Mineta. As Shoji left, Ochaco arrived and smiled at Izuku.
"So Shoji asked you to be on his team." Ochaco said and Izuku nodded, "Well when you think about it, your quirk is best suited for it. You'll be able to pick everyone else off like an ant from the top of the hill. Though I wonder why Shoji wanted me, I don't have any range."
Izuku shook his head and said, "With you, I don't think Shoji is looking for reach. I think he'll have you close range, in case anyone gets on our hill you can float them and push them off."
Ochaco looked at Izuku. She shouldn't have been surprised that Izuku had been able to come up with a strategy like that so quickly. This was the same high schooler who had come up with a strategy, that worked, to get around Nomu's impact absorption. Yet she was surprised.
"You hit the nail on the head, Midoriya. That was my plan for you Uraraka. I've seen Midoriya training you during school, and it looks like you could handle anyone that got past Midoriya. Though I was going to have us tag team, I would hold them in place, while you float them." Shoji said, making the shorter students turn to him.
"Where's our four teammates, Mineta you said his name was. Did he say no?" Izuku asked, as he looked around but only saw Shoji and Ochaco standing nearby.
Shoji looked around, but didn't find Mineta, "No he was just here a minute ago."
Izuku then caught movement between Shoji's legs and looked down. He locked eyes with one of two people he had ever considered… giving an extended visit to the emergency room. The only other person on that list was Overhaul. Izuku's purple eyes narrowed as he looked down at Mineta, he would recognize that spherical purple hair anywhere, "YOU!" Izuku's voice held no warmth, no life, no mercy, no pity for the short student.
Ochaco was taken back from the emotion in Izuku's voice. She had never heard him talk to someone like that. Even when he talked about Overhaul, Izuku didn't sound like that. Following Izuku's eye line, Ochaco found Mineta and asked, "Do you know him?"
Izuku had to hold himself back from taking a step forward and making a big mistake. "You remember that day I first brought Eri to class." Ochaco nodded, "You remember when we were leaving for heroics class."
"Yeah, the mob of students declaring war against us and then there was a Gen-Ed…" Ochaco cut herself off as she looked back down at Mineta. In the next second her aura completely changed from its light and bubbly demean to a dark, razor-sharp glare.
"Eep." Mineta said and tried to make himself smaller, but he was as small as he could get, "I'm sorry for what I said, I didn't know the context. Please forgive me." Mineta pressed his hands together as if he was offering a prayer.
Izuku didn't say anything but turned around and looked away in disgust. Ochaco, however, took a step forward and knelt down. She put a hand on Mineta's shoulder, half tempted to let her pinkie fall, but she exercised restraint. "Don't worry, you'll just pay back in blood."
Mineta was highly regretting his decision for the chance to be in the spotlight. At that moment he knew it would be worth it to be transferred to 1-A. Not if he had to deal with those two every day. No, he was okay being transferred into Class 1-B. He didn't care if they were the less famous class. He would be okay with that if he only had to deal with Izuku and Ochaco during the few joint training exercises. Because for once in his life, Mineta chose just that, life.
But then Mineta looked up at Izuku, who was still looking away, but the presence coming from him made Mineta free. That was if the short Gen-Ed student survived the Sports Festival.
"Guys, lay off." Shoji said, so Ochaco withdrew her hand and stood up, while without turning back around Izuku gave a short nod, "So Midnight has really explained the rules, but it's king of the hill so the end goal is for the other student to knock us off of the hill. Here's my plan: Midoriya with your quirk, you'll keep anyone from getting too close to the top of our hill. Mineta, you said the spheres on the top of your head became sticky."
Mineta nodded then pulled off a ball from his head, "The better health I'm in the more potent they are. So they should hold anyone that gets caught in them."
Shoji nodded and continued, "You'll lay down a mine field of them around the top, to dissuade anyone from coming up our side and to act like a secondary defense in case someone gets too close. Uraraka, you and I are the last line of defense, in case anyone gets past Midoriya and the minefield. I grab you, float. I know you can hold a person for so long, so I'll throw them down the hill and you can release them once they get a good distance. What do you guys think?"
"It sounds like a perfect plan," Ochaco said, and Mineta simply nodded.
"Midoriya?" Shoji asked.
Izuku still didn't turn around, he just continued looking up. Ochaco noticed Izuku was looking up at the teacher booth, where Eri was looking back down at him. Ochaco then noticed something, Izuku's right fist was clenched, the one that held his quirk. It was resting against his leg, but it was clenched so tightly that his entire hand was almost white.
"Midoriya?" Ochaco asked, in a smooth tone, put a hand lightly on his shoulder. Izuku was clearly fighting some inner demon, wanting to protect Eri, but Ochaco didn't think it was getting to him that much, "Midoriya?"
Finally, Izuku released his hand and blood began pouring back in. "It sounds like a good plan Shoji, better than I could have thought of. But it is not only the students coming up from our side of the hill we have to worry about. Some of them could easily flank us. And Class 1-B seems dead set on knocking us out, so I wouldn't put it past Monoma and his team to leave their area and attack us. Mineta," Mineta stood at attention, "Once you have your quirk laid out, your job is to watch our back. Give a call out in case anyone tries to flank us."
Mineta had to shallow some sip, but then he said, "I can do that."
"Ten minutes have passed. Cementoss if you would please." Midnight said with a crack of her whip. The modern literature teacher stepped forward and cement began pouring out of the ground. He quickly achieved his quirk on it and began working on one massive hill in the middle of the field. Once it was finished it easily rose to a height well above 15 feet and Izuku could see the top of the hill was a flat platform that appeared to be 20 feet in diameter. Cementoss finished a few touches then stepped away and nodded to Midnight.
Midnight turned her microphone back on and said, "Now to further explain the rules. The top four players from the last event will be known as Gathers, as they are the only ones who gather points for their team. Their job is to stay on top of the hill and earn their team points. Their three teammates will be known as defenders, their job is to stop the other students, yes that includes the students from the other starting teams, from knocking their Gather from the top of the hill.
"Defenders you are allowed to leave the top of the hill and fight your fellow student, but the moment your Gather is knocked, pushed or thrown from the top of the hill, you will not be able to gather points until they are back on top."
"What about the rest of us?" Tetsutetsu asked with a raised hand as he, like the majority of the students, wasn't on one of the starting teams.
"Your job is to get to the top of the hill and earn points. Once you reach the top, you can begin to earn points, gaining 1 per second. But to add incentive of knocking down a Gather, if you throw one from the top of the hill, not only will you gain a point for being on top of the hill, you will steal a secondary point from the Gather until they are back on the hill. This also applies to the other starting teams."
"So the game is made hard for the starting teams since they have to fight against everyone else, but evened out by only having to worry about keeping their Gather staying on the top of the hill." Ochaco said, trying to make sense of the rule.
"Don't worry about everyone else's rules. For now we just worry about our job, keeping Shoji on top." Izuku said as he looked up at the top of the hill, "Without obstacles it will probably take most students around 20 seconds to run about the 15 foot incline, giving us a baseline of 20 extra points. But with us defenders, that time can increase giving us more of an advantage, but that's only the start. Once the others get to the top, they'll each be earning points for themselves, while the only way we defenders earn points is through our team leader, furthermore they can steal our points by knocking our team leader off the hill, but Midnight didn't mention anything about us being about to steal points back. So if someone manages to knock our team leader off and passes us in points, it will be an uphill battle passing them again."
Izuku continued to mumble a bit as Ochaco turned away from him and looked at Shoji and Mineta, "He'll come back to us once the round begins."
Alright raise of hands of who thought I want going with a different option. I betting you thought I would go with "One in the Barrel." and have Izuku absolutely cream everyone, but instead I went with King of the Hill. Now would it fun to write a paintball episode, similar to the baseball OVA that came out, yes. Will I write a chapter like that, probably.
But moving on, with the return of the giant UA emblem, the first event is over and its time to move on the second one. King of the Hill. Alright I believe I explained the rules well enough. But if any of you are still confused, comment and I'll put an author note at the beginning of next chapter that goes into more detail about how the rules work.
And Look at who Izuku and Ochaco having to team with. I very much enjoyed writing that interaction.
Next chapter: Plans are made, and plans fall apart.
Next time: I love it when a plan (Doesn't) come together.
Review and tell me what you think.