I've got no Strings

Part 9~Mineta

Yawning, Izuku slowly dragged himself out of his bed, approaching the bar. It still felt weird without Toga there, felt even weirder with Mineta at the bar.

“I thought we agreed to leave him in the cell.” Izuku pulled up his seat, accepting the meal Kurogiri had prepared as he watched Naoki feed Mineta.

“Yeah, but we couldn’t just let him starve.” Naoki lifted his hands dramatically, lifting Mineta with him.

“You’ve got your hand stuck on his head again, haven’t you?”

“Yes, please help.” Lowering his hand, Naoki held it out for Izuku who gripped the spatula tighter. Stabbing the metal plate between Naoki’s hand and Mineta’s head, Izuku slowly peeled the student away.

A final pop rewarded Izuku’s efforts as Mineta fell to the floor and Naoki took back his hand in relief. “There. One grape plucked.”

“Thank you.” Naoki sighed, leaning against the table. “What’s with the long sleeves?” Naoki raised his eyebrow at Izuku who pulled at his sleeves self-consciously. “Oh, that’s why they counted the scars. Hey, if you’re in a bad place, you can always talk to me. I know that I’m not Toga or Dabi but, I’m here for you.” Naoki placed a hand on Izuku’s shoulder, making the younger shrug him off.

“Will people stop pretending to know me? I'm fine.” Hopping off his stool, Izuku walked to the door. “Tell Shiggy the sports festival is today. He’ll get pissed if we don’t record it.” Closing the door behind him, Izuku started the long walk towards 1A, leaving Naoki alone with Twice and Tomoura. What could go wrong?

~~~

Stretching out his arm, Izuku smiled at the base layer he had brought. The students were getting ready, a determined aura around the room. Seiji frowned, pulling at the different outfits they were forced to wear. “This is just a joke.”

“Hey, it could be worse.” Izuku patted their shoulder, smiling as Seiji groaned.

“Yeah, what could be worse than being the only student in the whole school wearing this outfit. I’m going to fit in so well.”

“You could be Mirio and wear nothing.”

Yelping, Seiji jumped away from Izuku, hissing at the idea.

“Exactly.”

Throwing open the door, Midnight stared at Seiji. “Come on, time to go.”

Seiji sighed, patting Izuku as they went to the door. “See you on the other side.” Closing the door behind them, Seiji followed Midnight onto the stage, holding their hand behind their back.

Present mic began the exciting announcements, calling the different classes to the field. Izuku frowned, quirking his eyebrow at Seiji who shook their head.

Midnight waved, calling forward Izuku who took a deep breath and walked on the stage. “Keep your heads up and walk forward. Aim for the top and try your best.”

Gathering around the tunnel, the students got ready for the first task. A race. The entire premise seemed simple and yet it didn’t feel like it was going to stay that way.

Buzzing, the alarm told the students to begin. Charging through the tunnel, the students fought to get to the other side. Izuku paused, raising his eyebrow at the jammed tunnel, standing back and letting the students get stuck.

A sudden chill of ice told Izuku to start moving again. The students were stuck in place, making them a lot easier to climb over.

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding.” Sighing, Izuku dashed to the side, avoiding the large zero-pointer robot. “Great, this is just great.” Leaping to the side, Izuku blasted himself onto the robot’s arm, letting the robot throw him up.

Spurring the fire out of his arms, Izuku softened his fall, running after the rest of the students. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Seiji climbing over the rope, a determined expression on his face.

Looking over the drop, Izuku took a second to think about his plan. No fire, that was a given if he didn’t want to burn the whole thing to the ground. Gently taking the tightrope act, Izuku made his way across the gaps. The second he was on the other side, he let a small spark of his embers attach to the rope. As the fire spread, it stopped anyone else from passing the first stage.

The last stage of the race was a minefield. Small piles of dirt told every student where the mines were but that fact did not save all of them. Stepping through the minefield, Izuku watched every one of the students. Bakugo was head to head with Todoroki, just reaching the end when they couldn’t move. Seiji smirked as they easily walked past the two guys, only letting them go when they had walked past the finish line.

Izuku snickered as Bakugo screamed and charged after Seiji, pissed off from their actions. Todoroki still beat him across the finish line though. Stepping past, Izuku slipped to the background, letting Seiji be swamped by Bakugo.

Izuku watched each of the students walk across the finish line. Most of the students he couldn’t recognise but he spotted Shinso sneaking past the finish line and walking along the wall.

“You hiding from someone?” Izuku leaned over, a grin on his face as the purple boy lazily looked over his shoulder.

“No one important.” Shinso leaned against the wall, watching the last of the students stumbling over the finish line. “Good job… On your placement in the race that is.” Shinso looked away, pausing as he said the words.

“You too, I didn’t think you would finish when they said it was a race.” Izuku smiled as Shinso smirked, brushing a hand through his hair.

“Guess I exceeded your expectations then.”

“Yeah but you do that every time you sleep so…” Izuku trailed off, shrugging his shoulders when a loud voice announced the end of the race.

Midnight walked onto the stage, announcing who won and who lost. She pointed to the giant spinner as it declared the next challenge. A cavalry race. Every person was assigned a point value based on where they ended up. Seiji, being the first place student, had a million point head and was the centre of everyone’s attention.

Tapping Shinso’s back, Izuku smirked. “Ready to band together to hypnotise and burn these students to the ground.” Shinso nodded as Izuku grabbed him. “Come, I have the perfect team in mind.”