Today was the day. The day of the sports festival, the day my fate is revealed and potentially sealed. I could barely sleep at all last night because I was so nervous, but thankfully I got at least a couple of hours of rest. I got hyped up a little when I woke up to Inasa kicking me out of my bed and yelling at me to show everyone my white hot passion today. He was allowed to take the day off of school today. How he swung that one with Father, I will never know.
"Irisa." Father calls out to me before I'm leaving for the day. "Today is a very important day for the students at UA."
"I know Dad, it's going to be super fun to compete at the festival." I say cheerily to him as I hoist my bag onto my shoulder and put on my shoes. At least I don't have to lie about that, everyone competes in the festival.
"Have your fun, but remember to stay out of the hero's way today. This is an important day for them, those students in the hero course are going to make a name for themselves today." He says with an indulgent smile that turns to a warning look. "Stay out of their way and don't get hurt at all."
I feel myself snap a little and I turn a heated glare to him. "This is a big day for the hero course students. All of them have worked for years to get to this very opportunity. As a top Pro Hero, you better keep your eyes peeled for who's at the top by the end of the day. You never know who may blow you away." I turn around and abruptly walk out of the door and close it before he can reply to my vague challenge.
When I got to school, we were instructed to all change into our PE uniforms and then go into waiting rooms sorted by our class. I was, as usual, the last one in the room. I had just finished adjusting my goggles on the top of my head when I walked in.
"Yoarashi-san, you're allowed to wear your hero gear goggles?" Hagakure asks me as I walk in.
"I had to put in a request form, but yeah." I answer back with a grin that doesn't reach my eyes, but no one can see that as I snap my goggles into place.
"Why are you wearing them, Yoarashi-san?" Midoriya asks in confusion.
"Well uh... Since this is televised and everyone, like literally everyone, is going to be watching, it's a bad idea to advertise to potential future villains what my weakness is. Aizawa thankfully approved me to wear my goggles to help me out in the future for when I'm a hero." I answer while sheepishly rubbing the back of my neck.
"Oh, I didn't think of that, that's so smart!" Momo says. She and I got on a first name basis last week as we were doing a quirk study project during class. I was thankful, both our last names are so long, our first names are much easier.
"Midoriya." Todoroki's cold voice silenced the room and called out the green haired boy. We all listened as the emotionless bastard challenged him to bring his all during the day, saying something about how All Might was in Midoriya's corner. His whole proclamation just made me simmer in hatred even more for the half and half boy.
"Shoto Todoroki." I block the boys exit as he tried to leave for the festival first. He met my glare with his usual dead cold eyes. "Work on fixing your own shit before you call others out on theirs. You're not better than anyone else here."
"Do you have a problem with me?" He asks dully.
"I have several." I answer bluntly before turning around and walking out the door. I hope I get to fight him today. In fact, I hope I get to destroy him today.
I lead our class out of the gate into the stadium, my head held high. I almost wanted to thank the bastard, him pissing me off helped erase my nerves about what's going to happen today. The fact my father is likely in the crowd didn't even cross my mind as I just focused on walking away from the emotionless bastard.
"YOU KNOW THEM AS THE STUDENTS WHO FACED REAL VILLAINS, THE HERO COURSE STUDENTS OF 1-A!" Present Mic introduced us grandly before introducing everyone else, then Midnight took over the announcing.
"And now, our first year representative, Katsuki Bakugo!" Midnight called up Bakugo to make the starting statement.
I stifled a snort as Bakugo calmly walked up the stage. I forgot he was in first place above me. I'm almost thankful right now, I wouldn't have made a good statement and probably would have rambled the whole speech. Then again, it probably would have been better than whatever was about to come out of the angry blonde's mouth.
"I just want to say, I'm gonna win." Bakugo says plainly into the mic. He's not boasting, he's not gloating, he's not being arrogant. He's simply stating a fact. And it's the pure and simple way that he stated it that made me grin and then burst into laughter.
"How are you laughing right now?" Mashirao asks me in exasperation from my side.
"Because that was freaking priceless!" I laugh out. "And so worth getting second place so I could witness that instead of standing up there and rambling."
"You're all just stepping stones to my victory." Bakugo adds as he steps down to rounds of boo's and protests. To diffuse the angry mob, Midnight pulls the focus back to her. Not hard to do with her outfit and whip though.
"Our first challenge today will be... an Obstacle Race!" Midnight calls out once the screen does a little flipping around and landing on that selection. She goes on to explain the rules, adding in more inappropriate comments that makes me feel better about myself when I have accidental less-than-appropriate comments. I also make a note never to intern with her, I don't trust what would start to come out of my mouth if I spent time with her.
Once the race starts, everyone takes off towards the rather tight hallway. Thinking ahead, I take off into the sky, quickly vaulting over the heads of everyone who's stuck trying to fight their way through. Todoroki is already in the front, and I see frost gathering in his right hand and speed up before he unleashes his attack.
"Sorry." Todoroki mutters a quiet apology as he looks back at all the trapped students, but his eyes widen as I zoom past him while barely sparing him a glance.
"THAT WAS SHOTO TODOKORI OF CLASS 1-A, HE TOOK OUT MOST OF THE COMPETITION WITH ONE ATTACK. BUT HE BETTER WORK HARDER IF HE WANTS TO KEEP HIS LEAD, BECAUSE HE WAS ALREADY SURPASSED BY IRISA YOARASHI, ALSO OF CLASS 1-A. THESE TWO ARE THE TOP OF THE YEAR, AND ARE SO OVERPOWERED IT'S WAY UNFAIR!" Present Mic is announcing back to the crowds. There's speakers spread along the route so we can still hear as we run the course.
I glance back and see most all of our classmates made it out of Todoroki's attack, along with several other students from other classes. When I face forward again, I spot the next obstacle of the course. It's those zero point robots from the entrance exam. I come to a pause before I go charging head-long into the robots, hovering in the air as I assess the best way to get past them. I debated if it would be better to go over them and avoid the problem or take one of them out to show my strength. Ultimately, as I looked down and saw Mineta get slammed by one of the robot arms, I chose to save my strength for later and just avoid them.
As I was soaring up into the air, the air got rapidly colder and caused me to look back down. I saw Todoroki freeze several of the robots in a huge ice attack before bolting under the legs of one of them.
"Kiri, look out!" I call out too late as the robot collapsed on top of my friend. I forgot about the race for a moment as I flew down to see if I could help him in some way, but paused just above the robot as I heard metal crunching and bending. "Oh, thank god." I breathe out in relief as my red headed friend tore his way out of the robot. "Don't give me a heart attack like that again!" I yell down at him as I take off into the sky again and resume the race.
I lost a bit of time with that freak out, and that just further makes me hate the half and half bastard. If that robot had fallen on anyone else, they could have been seriously injured or killed, and that emotionless asshole didn't even bat an eye at his actions. I put a bit more force into my wind as I caught up the front runners again.
The next obstacle was a series of tight ropes and pit falls, and I just chuckled at it as I flew over it, not stopping my speed at all. Once I passed the caverns, I took a break from flying since it had been about three kilometers of straight high speed flying, and I didn't want to overuse my quirk so early. Then again, I probably shouldn't have trained so hard Inasa into the early hours of the morning last night and then proceed to not sleep. I already know I'm going to be in a lot of pain at the end of the day, but I have to pace myself for now.
I jogged neck and neck with Todoroki and Bakugo until we reached the final obstacle. It was a landmine field, and I laughed again at the lack of challenge. I floated up above the field, but quickly found that neither boy was going to let me get away with that. Ice flew at me and blocked my route at the same time that explosions were sent at me. I had to spend my time dodging their attacks and sending ones of my own in retaliation, and as a result I ended up staying tied with them.
All three of us were shocked when we heard a huge explosion behind us and saw a figure zooming through the air in our direction. This person was matching my top flying speed, and it wasn't until I spotted the familiar head of green hair that I realized it was Midoriya. We all abandoned fighting each other and went back to racing to catch up to the green haired boy. Once we caught up, I could barely get out of the way fast enough before he swung his metal sheet onto the ground and set off several mines beneath our feet.
I coughed at the pink smoke infiltrating my lungs, but thankfully my goggles kept my eyes from getting irritated by it. They also let me recover faster than the other two boys, so I had a chance to begin running once again to catch up to Midoriya. With using my quirk so much and with breathing in the smoke, my lungs hurt too much to use my quirk to surpass him, but my regular running speed was still good enough to keep me ahead of the other two boys.
I ran through the finish line in second place. I'm fine with that, it's my usual placement in most things by this point in life. I was only a little bitter, racing was my strength more than anything, and I was a little put out at not landing in first with it. Hopefully, I'll have some strengths in the next task, whatever it is.
"Nice race." I choke out to Bakugo and Midoriya once the blonde collapsed on the ground near me, causing myself to cough some more and feeling my lungs burn. "Damnit." I mutter as I cough more.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Bakugo asks in between pants as he calms his own breathing down.
"Overused... quirk." I choke out. "Be fine in 10. Can't talk." I give up on giving him more of an explanation since speaking was hurting.
It's not often my quirk will drawback this hard, but I know it's not entirely my quirk drawback. My lungs are weaker, and this is occasionally the price I pay, especially when I deal with smoke. It's just another obstacle I learned to compensate for when I lost my vision in my eye.