Technical Support

Chapter 22

Her reasoning was completely logical, but it left her with a bitter feeling.

As the race began, many students tried jamming themselves through the first barrier: the narrow gate. Ayano strapped on her bionic arm cover, listening to the gears whirring inside. Taking aim at the ceiling of the exit, she launched the grappling hook, piercing into the concrete. She pulled herself over the heads of the others, narrowly missing a sheet of ice spreading on the ground.

"Even though I think that, it would be beneficial to stay further in the front for the beginning. The people in the lead now will most likely be the ones advancing." Avoiding the rest of the ice outside of the exit tunnel, she was met with the robots from the entrance exam.

"Fu Fu Fu!! So these babies have shown themselves again!!!" Ayano looked over her shoulder to see an overly excited pink haired girl. The girl looked at her with an expectant gaze.

Answering her while still running, Ayano smiled. "As much as I would enjoy reprogramming them with you again, Mei, this is a race. I do not believe we are at liberty to do that again." Her classmate pouted, but relented.

"Then, I will just have to show my babies more!!!" Mei shouted as she used her wire arrows to latch onto the giant robot and propel herself over it. Ayano quickly followed suit, once again using her grappling hook along with her air soles. They were similar to Mei's hover soles, but rather than the more clunky design of Mei's product, hers were much more compact.

With the more conservative design, they could not produce enough continuous air pressure to make her body hover like Mei's. However, they did produce enough force to propel herself high into the air in one motion.

The two girls, decked out in their own designed support items, matched each other's pace – spurring each other on. They soon came across what Present Mic liked to call 'The Fall,' a series of thin cliffs and tight ropes connecting them.

"Fu Fu Fu!! Time for my support items to shine! Take a look, all you national support companies!! At my wire arrows and hover soles!!!" The deep pit allowed her voice and maniacal laughter to echo.

Ayano chuckled, shaking her head at her classmate. While Mei was joyously occupied with showing the observing support companies her 'babies,' she had neglected to pay attention to her pathing. The girl was choosing a rather long way to pass this obstacle, opting to show off her support items as much and as long as she could.

Ayano took the much shorter route, only going through a couple of cliffs and easily passing Mei. If she was aiming to advance this round and reach the top, there would be plenty more opportunities to show off her equipment.

She reached the mine field, seeing many people in front of her taking careful steps. Looking closely, she saw the discoloring of the dirt from having been dug up to place the mines. Ayano tapped what looked to be like half of a headset on her left temple. Grey scouting lenses appeared over her eyes, relaying screens of information to her.

The lenses scouted the area, detecting and circling every point on the ground which held a mine. With this information, Ayano could easily run past other contestants who had to take more time in examining the ground.

Suddenly, she felt and heard a loud explosion behind her. Her head looked up to see Midoriya whizzing past. Her eyes widened, marveling at how amazing her childhood friend was.

When had he gotten so bold?

Ayano took this as an initiative to pick up her pace.

Another explosion occurred some distance in front of her, soon followed by Present Mic's booming voice.