47

Chapter 37

Missed a call from UA. Some voicemail about an incident?!?!
Are you okay?
Hawks is playing the festival on every tv in the building!
Everyone here is cheering for you.
Good luck out there.
Hawks says he's offering you an internship regardless :)
Be home in a few days. Love you. <3

Those texts I had managed to read before making my way through the tunnel wrung throughout my head on repeat. My mother had Hawks playing the event throughout his building? That means everyone was watching me. She was watching me.

It didn't matter if she was watching. It couldn't. I had one job, and that was to win. I didn't care who I had to step on or whose nose I had to break. I'd never lost a bet before and I didn't plan on today being the first time.

Besides, I'd thrown Izuku and I on the line. The one person I was willing to fight for.

Though Iuzku had tried multiple times to get my attention within the two-minute walk from the waiting rooms to the arena, I'd chose to disregard him completely. I told him I was too exhausted to speak. In reality, I was whirring. Every ounce of energy that had been depleted from my body since training began, suddenly appearing in tenfold.

Walking onto the field should have been sporadic, an anxiety-ridden trip that sent my knees shaking and stomach twisting. Instead, it was tranquil. Relaxing even. I hadn't heard a single voice, not a single shout or whistle. Just, static.

The only thing I had noticed was All Might sitting in a box as he watched me eagerly, standing up to show me a little pennant flag on a stick in his hands that I had to assume he had made himself. I believe if I was correct, it said Young Okuma and Young Midoriya on it. Though All Might didn't seem too keen on the idea of Izuku and I, he sure seemed hellbent on me walking out of here with first place on my record.

I could distinctively hear Iida and Midoriya conversing but no matter how hard I tried, I could hardly pay attention to them enough to understand half a sentence. My brain felt singed, completely overtaken by one goal, and with this- came the inability to concentrate or care for anything else.

That is, until a certain hothead slammed his shoulder into mine.

"Yatsu," He muttered, coming to a stop beside me in some sort of informal greeting.

"Katsuki." I didn't bother to look up at him, rather rolling my shoulders back as I focused harder on the stage before us.

"Don't call me that," he grumbled. I would've expected some explosion, screaming, or throwing me on the ground but rather he just grumbled. Maybe he was as bloodthirsty and focused as myself.

"Throw a tantrum for me and I'll never call you Katsuki again," I laughed lightly, stealing a glimpse as he focused his glare forwards rather than on me.

"You're annoying as hell."

"And yet you're still standing here talking to me."

"I don't feel like moving."

I was silent, watching the way his fingers rapped against his thigh. His eyebrows contorted slightly, alerting me he was having some internal argument with himself. He sighed, relaxing his body but puffing his chest out as he spoke. "You know it'll be you and me in the championship game."

"If you make it that far."

"I'm gonna win."

"You can win a free bus ticket home for you and your second-place medal. If you're a really good boy, maybe they'll give you two free tickets. One for you, and one for that weight of embarrassment you're going to have after trying to tell me you'd win."