"DAMMIT IZUKU!" An angry blonde cursed, spamming his quirk even more. Next to him was a half-white and half-red-haired boy, who had a troubled look on his face.
"How did he finish so quickly?" He muttered under his breath, running faster than he ever had before. Behind him, many of his peers followed behind, not wanting to be left in the dust.
"It seems like Izuku Midoriya has riled everyone up!" Present Mic announced, gaining a massive cheer from the crowd.
As Bakugo and Todoroki approached the tunnel, they heard a massive explosion behind them. "Kirishima/Spiky hair?!" They shouted in surprise.
"Look out!" Kirishima warned them as he flew in with a shield.
"Crap, I gotta beat him." Bakugo scoffed, continuing to make his way toward the tunnel.
"And, BOOM!" Kirishima yelled, slamming his shield into the ground and exploding him past the two boys. "Extra hardening goes a long way." Kirishima laughed as he deactivated his Armament Haki and quirk.
"AND LOOKY HERE, EJIRO KIRISHIMA HAS SURPASSED KATSUKI BAKUGO AND SHOTO TODOROKI WITH HIS MASTER PLAN. WITH HIS GREAT HARDENING QUIRK, HE'S ABLE TO TAKE DANGEROUS RISKS LIKE THIS!" Present mic announced, jumping up from his seat in excitement.
"Get back here you spiky bastard!" Bakugo yelled while Todoroki groaned.
"It seems like Kirishima unlocked it," Aizawa commented, which made every hero in attendance or watching look at him with respect.
"Although it's the most basic and the most common one, he's done it!" Present Mic announced, confusing people in the crowd even more.
"Cough it up spiky hair, tell me how you have it!" Bakugo yelled, chasing Kirishima.
"I'll tell you once I claim second place," Kirishima laughed, entering the tunnel.
"COME BACK HERE!" Bakugo exclaimed, rocketing himself toward Kirishima to land an attack on him.
"No fighting." Todoroki reminded Bakugo, using his ice to block Bakugo's attack.
"Why do you care?!" Bakugo asked the half-and-half boy, shifting his focus to fourth place.
"I'm doing it because I want to fight you later on and show you that you're not on mine or Midoriya's level," Shouto explained, taking Bakugo's third-place spot.
"Oh yeah? We'll see about that." Katsuki grinned, amplifying his explosions even more.
"Lookey here folks, it looks like second third and fourth are about to arrive at, let's see who comes in second place!" Present Mic announced, building up the suspense.
As the 3 students made their way through the tunnel, each of their positions kept changing. But in the end, there could be only one-second place.
"IN SECOND PLACE WE HAVE EIJIRO KIRISHIMA!" Present Mic raved, happy that the spiky-haired student overcame the two prodigies.
"WOOHOOOO!" Kirishima celebrated, jumping in the air once he exited the tunnel.
"WE'RE NOT DONE YET FOLKS BECAUSE, IN THIRD PLACE, WE HAVE SHOUTO TODOROKI!" The DJ hero exclaimed.
"Where's Bakugo!" Their Sensei asked, curious as to where his student who was in second a few minutes ago could be.
"IM RIGHT HERE!" He exploded, flying out of the tunnel with an angry look on his face. "You half and half bastard, why did you block me with a wall of ice?!" He ranted, approaching the stoic Todoroki.
"I don't know what you mean." He claimed, creating another ice wall between him and the blonde.
"And in fourth place, we have Katsuki Bakugo! He seems to be having an argument with his classmate." Present Mic observed, quite confused at the situation.
As time went by, more people showed up and claimed their positions. In the meantime, our protagonist was being entertained by the 18+ hero Midnight.
"So what's it like being a hero with your type of quirk? I would've expected you to be a stealth hero." Izuku asked her, eating some snacks his teacher gave to him.
"It's alright, I'm a versatile support so I'm on a lot of missions. An old friend of mine told me to become a stealth hero too, but it's so lonely and can get very gruesome at times." She answered, finding it cute how interested her student is in her.
"Ah I see, you would be perfect for my future hero agency." Midoriya smiled innocently, making his teacher blush.
"I think I'll be an old hag by then, I'll be deadweight to someone like you with lots of potential." She refused, remembering someone just like her student saying something similar to her in the past.
"Don't ever put yourself down Sensei, you'll be excellent for my future agency and plus, it's not that far away, it's only 2 or 3 years away." Midoriya scolded her, instilling confidence in her.
"Are you sure you're going to want a thirty-four-year-old on your squad?" She asked, smirking at her student.
"Age doesn't matter, it's how useful you are. Your quirk is timeless and I'm assuming your haki is well-trained right?"
"It is." She revealed.
"Then you're definitely joining my agency." Izuku smiled once again, making Midnight confuse him for an old friend for a second. "Anyway, I think everyone's here so I'll get off the stage, bye Sensei!" He waved, jumping off the stage.
"Bye Midoriya~" She waved back. Once Vlad King notified her that every student had made it back to the arena, Midnight cleared her throat and then proceeded to announce the next event. "Alright, now that everyone is here, let's reveal the top forty-two students!" Showing up on a massive screen behind the revealing hero, the pictures and names of the students, were matched with the place they came from in the race.
(All the same, people are here, just move Kirishima to 2nd. Place everyone before him one place back and you're all good.)
"Well done you guys!" Midoriya congratulated his friends, wrapping his arms around them to give them a big hug.
"Get your arms off me Izuku." Bakugo scoffed.
"You're squeezing me you dummy!" Ashido yelped, nearly using her quirks so Midoriya could drop her.
"Alright, I'll let you guys go," Izuku said, letting go of many of his complaining classmates.
"Everyone who didn't make it into the top forty-two, please leave the arena!" Midnight demanded, waving all the unfortunate students goodbye. "Now that they're gone, it's time to spin the wheel for the next game!" Midnight continued, waiting for the wheel to choose the student's next event.
"I wonder what it could be folks!" Present mic commentated, building up the suspense as the wheel began to slow down. "And it is-"
"TAG!" Midnight announced, lashing her whip.
"Tag? A kid's game?" Midoriya questioned.
"It seems so." Ashido shrugged.
"It's UA, they'll do anything, no matter how silly it may sound. It might be far more entertaining." Tokoyami commented, intrigued at what UA had in mind.
"Yes yes students, I know it sounds silly, but in practice, it's very competitive. Just like regular tag, they'll be runners and taggers. In this case, only sixteen students will be runners and the remaining twenty-six students will be taggers. The aim of the game is to be a runner by the end of the twenty minutes. If you're a runner by the end, you will advance to the final round. The first sixteen students, who finished the last event, will start as runners while everyone else will be taggers." Midnight explained, capturing the interests of many. "You'll have the whole arena, the locker area in the building and all of the track from the last event to use. Remember kids, you're allowed to use your quirk, but not in a harmful way. Using it to blind someone is allowed, but intentional damage to the other person is not allowed. Also, there will be a thirty-second cool-down after a tag." She continued.
"So we have indoors and outdoors. We have a lot to play with." A magenta-haired boy noted.
"Last thing, your PE uniforms will glow red whenever you're tagged. It'll go back to its normal white colour when you're a runner." Midnight finished, pointing toward the screen behind her. "Now that I've explained all of the rules, runners you have 1 minute to find a place to hide. GO!" Immediately, thirteen of the sixteen students sped off into the tunnel, taking different exits to not be grouped up. "Midoriya, Bakugo and Todoroki, I said go!" Midnight repeated herself, looking at the three boys with an odd expression.
"No point in moving, they won't catch me," Izuku claimed, boisterously laughing.
"I don't know about him, but I know they won't catch me," Bakugo stated, taking a seat on the ground.
"I want to show how powerful I am without the use of his quirk, running will only solidify that I need it." Todoroki declared, sitting on an ice pillar he created.
"Alright, well you have twenty seconds left boys." She reminded them. As the twenty seconds passed, Midnight would look at each student and analyse their demeanour. By the end of it, she realised that all three were serious with their declarations. "Times up, let's go!" As soon as the R-rated hero gave them the go-ahead, every tagger ran toward the three boys.
"Okay let's go, guys!" The broccoli-haired boy exclaimed as he vanished from everyone's eyesight.
"Where did he go?" A boy from Class B asked, confused at what had just happened.
"I'm over here." Midoriya laughed.
"What's with that smoke around him?" Another student asked.
"Don't mind it, just chase him!" Random student 16 shouted back. As the students ran at him, Midoriya disappeared again, but this time he was near the tunnel.
"You guys are slow, hurry up." Midoriya mocked them, sticking his tongue out before running into the tunnel.
"After him!" They yelled, running after the Izuku. Meanwhile, Bakugo and Todoroki dealt with their share of students.
"You guys are pathetic, you can't even catch me." Bakugo scoffed, hovering above a few students.
"You can say that again." Todoroki sighed, creating another ice wall after the students broke it again.
"Would you look at that, the taggers are having an extremely hard time catching the three boys who stayed in the arena with them." Present mic analysed, in shock at their display of power.
"Catching these guys is gonna be impossible, we might as well go after the others," Yaoyozoru noted, shifting her focus onto finding another runner.
"You do have a point." Kaminari agreed, running behind her.
"Hey wait up!" Ashido and another pink-haired girl exclaimed, running after them too.
"They have the right idea." A purple-haired boy spoke to himself, walking away from the arena.
"It seems as if some students have shifted their focus onto other students!" The blonde commentator pointed out. "And look at that, it seems like Izuku Midoriya is cornered!" He announced, making Midoriya smile.
"You guys did a great job of cornering me with your quirks, but it's time for me to get out of this spot." The freckled boy spouted, disappearing from their sight once again.
"He's done it again!" A ginger girl noticed.
"Where did he go Kendo?"
"I'm over here," Midoriya whispered into the girl's ear, scaring her.
"Ahhh!"
"Shishishishi, alright you guys were fun, I gotta go now. Bye!" Izuku waved, disappearing once again.
"He's too fast, and that smoke keeps protecting him." Kendo sighed in defeat.
"Don't worry about it, we'll get him." Her friend reassured her.
"You're right Yanagi." Itsuka agreed with her new gained confidence.
As Izuku exited the building, he spotted a mini forest which intrigued him. "Whoa, what's this?" He asked himself, looking at it in awe.
"Who enters thy holy forest?"
"Are you a Goddess?" Midoriya naively questioned her, making her blush.
"N-No, I have not attained that status yet." She replied, lowering her guard.
"I see, well your quirk is cool, you can make a tiny forest, if you told me that you were a forest Goddess I would've believed you," Izuku admitted. "Are you sure you're not lying to me? I can keep it a secret miss Goddess."
"Lie?! Thy would never lie, lying is a sin and thou must stay pure! The Lord would punish me if thy ever did such a heinous act!" She blurted, clasping her hands together to begin a prayer. "Lord thy has not beset you, thou's warm heart could hold no ill will, please forgive thy lord if thy have wronged you in any way." She prayed, confusing the non-religious broccoli.
"I see... well you're cool, I'll see ya later!" He waved, leaving the girl in a panic.
"He called thy cool, you hear that lord, I may have found my future groom." She fantasised, looking into the sky. On the opposite side of the building, we see an energetic Ashido chasing a class B student.
"Stay away!" He yelled, fusing metals together to keep her away.
"No use!" She chuckled, using her acid to melt it.
"Crap I'm cornered!" The boy yelped, throwing another fused item only for it to melt in front of his eyes.
"Time for a technique Midoriya showed me." The girl recoiled both of her arms back and then yelled. "Acid style: Acid Gatling!" She announced, throwing a barrage of acid punches, which purposely missed the boy.
"Wahhh!" He screamed, dropping to his knees.
"Time for my final move," Mina noted, clenching her fist. "ACID STYLE: ACID flick." She called out, whispering the part of her ultimate move.
"Eh?!" The boy looked in confusion before being flicked by the pink girl.
"I wasn't going to hurt you silly, next time don't be so scared." She teased him, offering him a hand so he could get up.
"Thanks, you're right." He agreed, lowering his head in shame.
"Oh well, better luck next time!" Mina exclaimed, leaving him in an acid trail.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Elsewhere, we could see a standoff between two boys. "Why are you running? I'm not anyone special, I'm from the general study course." A student with eye bags revealed.
"That does-" Before Ojiro could respond, he was stopped.
"You fool. Come here so I can tag you." The general studies student ordered to which Class A's tail boy complied. "Tag~, you're it." The boy smiled, leaving Mashirao in a tranced state.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Try and get past my quicksand." A class B student laughed, activating his quirk around himself.
"Quicksand won't save you!" Yaoyozoru yelled, creating a grapple gun, and using it to drag him toward her. "Tag!"
"Damn it!" The boy cursed as his t-shirt flashed red.
"Better luck next time~" Momo winked, using the grapple gun to get herself out of the boy's quicksand.
Elsewhere, Sato from a group of students. Luckily he had timed his sugar perfectly to last the whole match, which was very clever of him. "You guys will never catch me!" He declared, turning a corner.
"He's too damn fast, I can't use my quirk on him," Mineta complained, throwing more sticky balls at his buff classmate.
"You better hurry up taggers, there is only five minutes left!" Present Mic notified them, forcing the taggers to work harder. In the staff room, Toshinori watched Midoriya's cam closely.
"All Might, you haven't taken your eyes off that screen, there are fifteen other runners you know?" Vlad king asked him, curious why the blonde is so focused on that specific screen.
"I'm interested in him, his potential is through the roof," Toshinori responded, keeping his eyes fixated on his student. Although Midoriya and Toshinori have a connection, it's one no one knows about. Toshinori was in the process of publicly forming one with the green-haired boy so he could act freely with him and not sneak around with the boy.
"Will he be your next recruit?" Cementoss questioned Yagi.
"If he keeps up with what he's been doing, then absolutely. Did Aizawa tell you he has the haki of the supreme king yet?" At the mention of Conquerors Haki, they all froze in shock.
"At his age as well?! He's a prodigy in the making!" Vlad king exclaimed.
"Someone inform Midnight about that, I want to see her reaction." Snipe joked.
"Did you guys also know that he nearly beat All Mights entrance exam record?" Nezu stated, turning around in his chair.
"I heard something about it," Cementoss replied.
"It may be early to tell, but he may have more potential than Mirio Togata it seems." Ectoplasm speculated.
"I would say that's true," Toshinori confirmed, shocking his fellow teachers.
"Oh would you look at that, a student from the support course has tagged a student from Class A." Nezu commentated.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(2 minutes earlier)
In a secluded part of the building, a pink-haired girl had cornered Shoji.
"Crap I've got no escape." The boy cursed, kissing his teeth.
"That's true! Before I tag you, I want to tell you my name so everyone at home can hear this too." The girl proclaimed, taking a deep breath. "Hi everyone! I'm Mei Hatsume from the support course, did you guys love the babies I used to corner off every turn he could take and help me catch up to him?!" She asked the audience, incapable of hearing them anyway.
"This girl is insane," Mezo muttered under his breath, looking for a way he could escape.
"Well, it's time for the final blow!" The girl announced, using her hover boots to get closer to her prey.
"Crap, I'm finished." He sighed, trying to dodge, but due to his big arms, he was caught anyway.
"Tag you're it!" She smiled, using her small gadget to touch his arm.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Alright students, you have a minute left, make sure to try your absolute hardest during this last minute!" Present Mic commentated, getting the students even more riled up than they were previously. On the second floor of the building, you could see an exhausted Sato running from a group of runners. At the start of the game, he had perfectly planned to use his sugar in moderation to survive the event, but things didn't go as planned due to him dropping several of his cubes. Now he was running off of mere embers of the sugar he had used five minutes ago.
As the seconds went by he began to slow down, but the group behind him were just as exhausted which was to his benefit. "There are only thirty seconds left at this point, I'm gonna make it." He celebrated, turning a corner. "This should be-" Before he could finish his sentence, he bumped into a familiar face.
"Ow! Look where you're going you big sack of meat." A blonde-haired boy complained, rubbing his head before looking up. "Oh Sato, it's you."
"K-Kaminari? Wait!" Both boys looked at each other in confusion and then down at their shirts. "No no no, I was about to win!" Sato cried out, alerting everyone in their vicinity.
"I'm not tagged more, sweet!" Kaminari laughed. "That's for the free pass into the finals bro, I was having trouble finding people. You're a lifesaver." Kaminari joked some more before running away.
Not too long after their incident, Present Mic announced the end of the game, ordering everyone to return to the arena. Once there, Midnight listed out the 16 students who had made it through to the final round.
The students were:
-Izuku Midoriya
-Katsuki Bakugo
-Shouto Todoroki
-Ibara Shiozaki
-Fumikage Tokoyami
-Hanta Sero
-Tenya Ilda
-Hitoshi Shinzo
-Momo Yaoyozoru
-Mina Ashido
-Tsuyu Asui
-Denki Kaminari
-TetsuTestu TestuTestsu
-Eijiro Kirishima
-Mei Hatsume
-Ochaco Uraraka
"Well done guy-"
"Don't touch me!" They demanded in unison, activating their respective quirks to keep his arms away from them.
"OW!" He yelped, retracting his arms.
"Well then students, the sports festival finals will start in one hour, use that time to prepare wisely!" Midnight notified them, allowing all of her students to disperse.
"Hey Midoriya, I have something I want to talk to you about. Follow me." Todoroki declared, dragging Izuku by his collar.
"You better make this quick, I wanna eat." The greedy boy complained, following Todoroki. Not too far behind them, three students quietly followed behind.
"Why are you guys following me?" Bakugo asked the two girls.
"I wanna be nosey," Ashido answered, being truthful.
"And you?" He turned to the raven-haired girl.
"Todoroki is so mysterious, maybe he'll reveal his dark death-filled past to Midoriya." Yaoyozoru morbidly answered.
"If that's meant to be a joke, you've got a dark sense of humour," Ashido commented.
"Shut up, they're about to start talking," Bakugo said, covering both of their mouths.
"So what is it you wanted to tell me?" Midoriya questioned Todoroki, taking out a bar of chocolate from his pants.
"Where did yo-, forget it, let me tell you why I brought you here." Todoroki sighed, bewildered by Izuku's antics. "I brought you here to ask you, are you All Might's son or protege?" He asked, shocking everyone there.
"No why?" Izuku answered, avoiding eye contact.
"Well, I've seen that All Might looks at you in a different way when talking to you and you look at him like you've known him for a while." He explained, catching everyone off guard.
"Looks don't mean anything." Midoriya laughed, finding Todoroki's reason for believing he and All Might having a connection to be funny.
"Don't laugh you, idiot!" Todoroki snapped, kicking Midoriya's head.
"OW!" He grabbed his head in pain, sticking his tongue out at Shouto.
"Anyway, unfortunately, I am the son of the number two hero and right now, you hold the number one spot in our entire year, which means it's my duty to surpass you. Although I brought him up, I'm not doing it for my old man, I'm doing it for myself. I'll show him I can be number one without using his power." He explained.
"So you're only going fifty percent and you're keeping up with Kacchan? That's impressive." Izuku commented, nearly making Bakugo snap.
"Shush." The girls said to him in tandem, covering his mouth this time.
"I don't think I'm going half power, to me, this is my full power. After having my brothers and sister turn against me for my existence, after losing the ability to use my quirk and fully control my hands for a long period of time due to my deceased brother's rage, I can never use his power. All he's ever done is plagued me." He continued, pouring his heart out to the curious Midoriya.
"You make him out to be a terrible father and I'm sorry you couldn't use your quirk in your hands, that must've been really hard." Midoriya sympathised. "But right now you don't want sympathy from me, what you want is a proper fight and I'm not backing down. Just know that I will only use half of my strength while fighting you, that means all of my new techniques won't be used, but everything else will be." Midoriya declared, agitating Todoroki.
"What do you mean you're not going all out?!" Todoroki shouted, grabbing Midoriya's collar.
"If you're not using your true one hundred percent, I won't use mine either. I'm pretty sure I can beat you using half my strength." Midoriya chuckled.
"Tch, don't complain when you lose." Shouto scoffed, storming out of the tunnel.
"Before you leave, you said your hands were messed up for a long period of time, which means you can use them again. Why don't you use them?" Midoriya asked him, stopping Todoroki dead in his tracks.
"They're reserved for cooking, plus they're not as mature as it is on my legs." He answered before leaving the tunnel.
"Yaoyozoru you were right about it being dark." Ashido pointed out.
"Your conversation can wait until later, let's go before Izuku spots us," Bakugo told them, leading them both away from the scene.
(Chapter done. The next chapter will be something special and then the 1v1 battles. Hopefully, I don't take too long to make the next part.)