The Journey To A Hero (My Hero Academia Fantasy AU)

6. Tournament of Knights.

"You'll come with us? Really?" asked Uraraka in disbelief.
"Yes." confirmed the prince again, Midoriya smiled broadly, Todoroki couldn't help it but smile too, he watched as Uraraka and Midoriya both jumped in the air.

The following morning they stood up early. Todoroki wanted to go Kamina, a bigger town on the east, and he wanted to arrive before the evening fell.
Midoriya sharpened his sword as he overheard Iida talking to Uraraka, he was talking about his brother.
"Did you know he is one of the youngest generals?" "I know, you told me already, Iida." He kept talking, ignoring the sigh that Uraraka let out.

Todoroki jumped on his horse, "Let's go,"
"Wait..." said Iida whilst rubbing his chin, "You are the only one with a horse, your majesty."
Todoroki looked Iida in the eyes. "for the fifth time already, please call me Todoroki, Iida." Iida apologised quickly.
"But you're right, you can put your bags on Shoba, it'll be easier to travel without much luggage." he patted his horse's neck.
Midoriya gasped, "Wait, his name is Shoba? like the food?" "That's so cute!" added Uraraka. "Well... It's my favourite food."
Midoriya handed his bag over to Todoroki, who attached it to the saddle. "That's the last one, let's go now."

It was warm for a day in May. Midoriya watched as soft pink doves flew over his head.
The way to Kamina was just one long road through the meadows.
Todoroki was silently listening to the stories of Iida, and he told a lot of them, most of the times nobody really listened.
The meadows stretched as far as the eye could see, with sheep grazing on the light green grass.
Midoriya could see the towers of Kamina in the far distance, this was his first time visiting the town, since his mother didn't really enjoy travelling, and only allowed Izuku to go to the nearest village on his own.
"I can already see it!" exclaimed Uraraka, she began to run. The rest joined in.

"WELCOME TO THE TOURNAMENT OF KNIGHTS!" a blond man yelled, "YEAH!"
the crowd cheered.
"ARE YOU READY?!" the whole market square was filled with people, all chanting his name over and over.
"Present Micheal! Present Micheal!"
the man responded with striking a pose; one hand in his side and the other pointing in the air, "SIGN UP TODAY!" it sounded like the whole town was yelling now, including Midoriya and Uraraka.
"Wow!" Uraraka said "Iida, don't you want to be a knight?"
"Yeah!" added Midoriya. "You could sign up!"
Iida scratched the back of his head, he gave a nervous grin, "Well I don't know, I'll probably lose anyway." he said. "I'm not that good after all."
"Don't think like that!" said uraraka, putting her hand on his shoulder.
"I think you're good," said Todoroki in a monotone, but still a kind voice.
Midoriya hopped around Iida "And even if you don't win, you'll still learn from it!"
Iida pinched his nose, giving away a smile. "Alright, I'll sign up"
Midoriya high-fived Uraraka.
"Well, I'll go to where I need to be, you sign up." Todoroki waved them goodbye.

"The sign-up table is over there!" Uraraka pointed at a small market stand in the middle of the crowd. They made their way through the people, Iida walking in front.
"I would like to sign up please,"
"AYEE!" The loud man who announced the tournament kept yelling, even though they all stood close,
"FILL IN THIS FORM, PLEASE!" Iida took the paper out of his hands and filled in all the gaps, Uraraka covered her ears.
"THANK YOU FOR JOINING THE TOURNAMENT OF KNIGHTSS!!!"

In the meantime, Todoroki headed to the gild of knights; a coöperation for knights in Musuvani, located in Kamina.
If Todoroki wanted to find king All Might, he should ask the guild for help, even if it was just some information, he knew that he needed it.
The prince knocked on the door, within seconds the it opened, an older knight stood in the door opening,
"Hello, I'm head-knight Tsuragamae Kenji, how can I help you?"
Todoroki took out a letter, with his task, signed by his father. "I'm Price Todoroki Shoto, I'm here to find the missing king."
The man took the letter out of his hands and scanned over it quickly, "Come in, my liege" he said, holding he door for him.

Todoroki entered the house, the man led him to a room which looked like a break room, since it was filled with off-duty knights. The man took out a chair for him at one of the empty tables in the room, they sat down.
"I've asked all my men for you, no one has seen his majesty in a long time, and we do daily patrols in the towns and forests, they haven't seen him."
Todoroki looked down, "Are you absolutely sure?"
"Yes, I'm sorry, there's no chance he's here."
The price clenched his fists, slightly wrinkling the letter he held,
"There is no need for you to apologise... good day." he said as he stood up, they shook hands. All the knights present bowed to him.
Todoroki exited the house, he quickly thought over the situation:
The gild of knights hadn't seen All Might, which meant he was not in the south part of this land.
He took out his map, he couldn't be in the centre, he would be spotted fast there, since it was full of big cities.
There was only a small possibility the king was in the north-west since the king went missing while hunting, and the north-west was very peaceful and had almost no monsters.
Which meant he was either in the mountains, or in Nagasaki, located in the north-east, which would be unfortunate.

Nagasaki was like a kingdom on itself, they had their own king, their own army and was well protected from the rest of the world.
Entering without permission was not accepted.
And above all, the people of Nagasaki despised the royal family of Musuvani, so entering would be difficult, if not impossible.
With his head hanging he walked back.

The tournament was already beginning.
Present Micheal, stepped on the long rectangular stage. The crowd started to cheer.
"LET'S BEGIIN!!"
Midoriya waved at Todoroki who just entered the market square.

Present Micheal started explaining the rules; stepping out of bounds, you lose, falling on the ground, you lose.
There are four rounds, win all four and you are the champion of knights.
Those last three words he chanted extra hard, leaving everyone covering their ears.

The contestants were called upstage, 16 in total, Iida was up fourth.
After he announced every knight they all walked backstage again.
"Do you think he will win?" asked Uraraka.
Midoriya shrugged his shoulders, "We'll see, but I sure hope he does."

The first two battles were won rather easily by Iida, placing him in the semi-finals.
The crowd was rooting for Iida and his opponent. The battle went as usual, with both parties doing their absolute best, but Iida lost in the end, he shared the third place.
"Good job, Iida!" "Yeah!" Midoriya an Uraraka cheered when Iida came back.
"I'm sorry you lost." said Todoroki.
"Don't be, it's alright." Iida answered, "He was just better than me."

"CAN THE FIRST, SECOND AND THIRD PLACES COME TO STAGE??"
"ah! that's me, bye!" Iida waved his friends goodbye.
It was the gild of knights who awarded the prices, There was a small podium made
"congratulations with the third place sir...?" "Iida Tenya." filled he in, "ah, congratulations, Iida Tenya." the knight said as he put a bronze medal around Iida's neck.

Midoriya and Uraraka walked up to the stage after all the medals were handed out, the knight proudly showed his medal.
"wow, nice!" Uraraka said.
Todoroki walked up to the group, the head-knight walked behind him, both looked a bit worried, the knight put his hand on Iida's shoulder.
"You're Iida Tenya, right? And your brother is Tensei?"
Iida nodded confused, "What about him?"
"He's in the hospital of Hosiun, they found him very injured."
Midoriya saw tears forming in the eyes of his friend.
"We heard about it some time ago, but I thought that, as his brother, you would want to know."
Iida put his head down, tears streaming down his face.
"I need to go." he walked away, not bothering to hold back his tears.
"Iida, wait!" Uraraka grabbed his wrist, "We'll go with you... Alright?" Iida nodded and gave a weak smile, "Yeah, I'd like that."