What Makes a Hero

21

Today was the day.

Izuku knew he should be excited to be able to at least attend the festival, and he was... up until now. The large crowd had suddenly made him nervous.

The school had given him a small mask, sunglasses, and a hoodie to help disguise him, but Midoriya couldn't help the constant panic that filled him every time there was someone who looked familiar or when Aizawa managed to go out of his line of sight for a second.

Midoriya quietly followed Aizawa through the crowd of people towards a small room in the stands. He and the pro hero Present Mic, were in charge of telling everyone watching the competition what was happening.

Midoriya never knew why they always said what the students were doing while everyone watched them do it, but the people always had fun listening and yelling at them.

"You guys are finally here! I thought you were going to be late!"

A loud voice shook Izuku out if his thoughts and he came face to face with the loud hero.

"get to your seats we're about to start!" Mic told them as he excitedly jumped into his seat and put on a small headset handing another to Eraser Head. Aizawa grabbed the second headset and passed it over to Midoriya.

Midoriya hesitantly grabbed the headset and looked at the hero with wide eyes.

"sit in the back where the cameras can't see you" Aizawa instructed and handed him a tablet "this will let you see what's happening"

Midoriya grabbed the tablet and nodded finding a corner to go to. Now he was going to be the person telling everyone what was happening. What a big jump from being the watcher.

A light flashed above the two, and suddenly all the screens around the stadium turned on to Present Mic's face.

"hey! Make some noise all you sports fans! Get your camera ready media horde!" The blond shouted into his mic.

Midoriya looked with interest as the screen panned over the large group of people who cheered louder at the sound of his voice.

"Today we are bringing you the hottest sports festival guaranteed! I've only got one question before the show: are. You. ready!"

Izuku jumped as the area seemed to somehow get even louder answering the question. The hero glanced back and gave Midoriya an encouraging thumbs up.

Izuku tried to calm down the rising anxiety from all the noise and focus to the students that were starting to walk out.

The kids all looked unique and equally peaked in Izuku's interests. All these students with different quirks that could cause so much destruction all pitted against each other. Most of them won't become what they want to be. Most will be captured and reduced to quirkless nobodies by the league.

Izuku paused and shook his head trying to get rid of his negative thoughts. The villains no longer have someone like him in their command to tell them which ones have the strongest quirks. No one will be taken this year.

"I just wanna say...I'm gonna win"

Izuku focused back on the group of students with shock. For someone to say such a thing with such confidence...

Of course, it's Kacchan.

No one was surprised when the other students started booing him.

Midoriya knew that Kacchan's quirk was powerful, but now he'd most likely have most of the students aiming for him.

"man, you're Bakugo's friend right? Is he always like that?" Present Mic asked Midoriya who shrugged.

"that's just his way of pushing himself, I don't know if he's always like that though. He acts differently around me than around everyone else since the few days I've been here" Midoriya answered. "but when we were kids, he'd always take the role as leader and used any moment to show off his quirk" he added.