This Thing A Quiet Madness Made

Chapter 5

"Why? You a stalker?"

"She dropped her phone."

"Oh!" a gasp came from behind them.

The two turned to see Naoko hurriedly pattering down the stairs, eagerly bounding towards them.

"You found it! I was just looking for that," she breathed a sigh of relief as he handed the device back to her. "Thanks a bunch, Todoroki! I owe you one!"

"Yea... sure," he replied, eyes shifting between them. "I'll get going now."

"See you tomorrow, thanks again!" Naoko waved cheerfully, but was quickly cut off by the door slamming in her face.

"Hey, what-"

"Dumbass! Why'd you have to make it weird?!"

"What did I do?"

"Shut up! Now people are going to know you live here!"

"What's wrong with that?"

"Go to hell!"

Todoroki blinked stiffly at the shouting from just behind the door. He stood still for a moment before slowly, awkwardly turning away.

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"It's finally heeeere!" Uraraka sang, jittering with excitement.

Class 1-A sat in a large waiting room, and just outside was a stadium filled with thousands of excited onlookers waiting for them. As they were unfortunately prohibited from wearing their hero costumes today, the students were all clad in their standard gym uniforms, much to their dismay.

"The other classes are going to be participating as well. I wonder what kinds of quirks they'll have?" Tsuyu croaked, tilting her head.

"Yeah, it might be difficult to deal with them since we don't know what they can do, really..." Jiro nodded, tapping her foot nervously.

"Don't worry- it'll be fun!" Naoko reassured cheerfully. "Whatever happens, I'm sure it'll at least be a good learning experience."

"Yeah, you're right, but I still really want to win!"

"I at least want to make it to the top three or something!"

"Let's all do our best, ribbit."

Naoko smiled, nodding along cheerfully.

Everyone turned their head when Iida burst through the door, eagerly announcing it was time for their entrance and instructing them to line up "quickly and with efficiency."

Naoko followed closely behind her friends as they anxiously made their way to the arena entrance hall. They could hear Present Mic's booming voice all around them as they stepped into the sunlight, cheers erupting from the audience.

"Everyone welcome these heroes-in-the-making, the rising stars and the future of UA: the first years!"

Some of them waved nervously, some stood tall and proud, and some just smiled at the deafening applause and the army of cameras pointed at them. They lined up in neat rows in front of a small stage, and Bakugo, thanks to his placement in the entrance exam, was called up to make the opening speech.

It was... unique, Naoko thought.

"The first event in our UA Sports Festival will be a qualifying round! These hopeful-heroes will have to make it through our treacherous obstacle course, free to use their quirks however they like! Not only will they have to overcome all the challenges we throw at them, but we'll also get to see how they react when pitted against each other! How exciting!