Edited 10/27/2022
The UA Sports festival was about to begin and the first thing you heard was Midnight calling Katsuki's name.
"Katsuki? Why is she calling him to the stage?" You asked Kirishima to your right. Katsuki was already making his way to the stage, in front of thousands of people in the stands and the millions watching on television. You suddenly felt very exposed. Kirishima noticed this and lightly fist bumped your shoulder to stop your unease.
"Hey it's gonna be okay (y/n). You're super strong and cool. You're gonna do great. Katsuki is up there cause he got the highest score on the hero exam so he's technically the first year rep. Cool huh?" You readily agreed and the red haired boy gave you a spikey smile back. All eyes were on Katsuki Bakugo and the boy looked as relaxed as ever despite having the stage to himself.
You envied that strength. This type of attention was just too much.
"I just wanna say...that I'm gonna win." His rugged voice broke out in the microphone to the world, declaring that he will be the champion. Everyone was immediately up in arms about him saying that, the students all booing and yelling things at Katsuki. As he turned to leave the stage, his red eyes caught yours, sending you a cocky smirk. Your cheeks felt warm and you placed your hands on them as if to cool them off. Ochaco quickly took notice and it took everything in her not to squeal.
Katsuki returned to his position next to you, nearly entirely focused on the announcement of the first task. He kept stealing glances at you and your face, wondering why all of a sudden he could see more of your pretty features. Pretty was exactly the word he thought as he saw your whole face, the ribbon holding your hair back.
Midnight stole his attention from you as she listed off the first type of task you all had to do. The roulette on the screen was triggered, spinning until it landed on one statement.
Obstacle Race
"With my quirk, this won't be hard," you spoke out loud to both Katsuki and Kirishima. The latter seemed energized by the idea of healthy competition.
"I have to say you do have an advantage here. Lucky you," Kirishima said with that ever pleasant look on his face. Katsuki's expression practically screamed that he was annoyed with Kirishima stealing your attention away. The brat was acting like a five year old all day now.
"As if I'm gonna lose to you. It's on, Extra." You sent Katsuki your biggest and brightest smile, one that seemed to glow like the stars in the sky.
He was just as entranced.
"Bring it on Kacchan. To the finals right?" He gave you a soft smile, one that you were completely unexpecting.
"To the finals." Midnight interrupted your banter with your friends by getting ready to announce the beginning of the race. You were all lined up and ready to go...and you knew this was one task you could demolish most of the classes with.
"Ready...BEGIN!" Everyone sprinted towards the exit of the large coliseum type stadium they were in, you included. Pushing, shoving, stepping was all everyone experienced...except you had a quirk that allowed you to go through people and took far less energy than teleporting. Your eyes were glowing red as you activated ghost, sprinting through your rivals and heading down the pathway the race followed. The only person in front of you was Todoroki which was expected with his quirk. You were content with this until you remembered what All Might said.
Do your best.
"My best huh? Time to show Kacchan what I'm really made of," you declared to yourself as you sprinted across the pathway as fast as you could, making it just a few seconds behind Todoroki. The half and half boy knew you were gaining on him. With the sound of explosions going off, you could tell Katsuki was heading towards you quickly too.
You had some definite competitors.
You were steadily catching up to Todoroki when Mineta of all people started to get closer as well. He made a direct bee-line for Todoroki, only to be completely decimated by a gigantic green robot enemy...the first major obstacle. Todoroki fought the monster robot but you kept going, not needing to fight since you went right through them. You could hear Present Mic get real excited over the stadium wide announcements.
"WOW Todoroki from Class 1A has officially been overtaken by our new student (y/n), also from Class 1A! She didn't even flinch at those crazy robots! What nerves of steel!" You smiled at the compliment but kept going, deactivating your quirk to conserve your energy once you passed all of the robots. It wasn't before long that you reached a large canyon with various ropes and methods of getting across. You took half a moment to breathe and activate your quirk, knowing that teleporting yourself that far across the gap was probably going to hurt.
But you wanted to prove to All Might that you were worth his time...that you appreciated his care for you.
You were completely focused as you locked onto the other side of the canyon, activating your teleportation quirk. You appeared on the other side and held your eyes, clearly experiencing a sharp pain in both of them. Your vision was a little fuzzy and so you recognized you needed some more time to rest...overusing your quirk in round one was not something you wanted to do. You still had plenty of stamina, but there was no need to kill yourself over something like this.
You kept running, your endurance was not a problem after an entire childhood of training in the northern mountains. You have survived days without food and water, hours of low oxygen mountain climbing, a month being alone in a forest known for ferocious bears.
This was nothing to you.
"Wow! (Y/n) is holding the lead...but Todoroki and Bakugo from Class 1A are hot on her heels! Will we see an upset folks?!" You didn't realize that your biggest competitors were that close behind you. Maybe winning this will be a bigger challenge than you thought.
You glanced behind you to see Todoroki making it across the canyon using his ice, and Katsuki went and used his explosions to fly through the air like a rocket. They really were catching up to you quickly.
Did you really want to go all out? You weren't used to using your quirk for long periods of time thanks to the quick nature of your missions. Perhaps this was exactly why you didn't think you could handle the pressure of being hero.
You kicked your running into high gear, hoping that the temporary advantage you had would hold out strong to the end.
You came across the final trial of the obstacle race: a minefield. You could clearly see where the mines were buried and this reminded you of the time you had to train by jumping from wooden peg to peg in a mountain river. You were terrible at it at first, but it was all about light footing.
Big toe first, a light tap, bounce to the next place.
You squatted down before jumping to the undisturbed dirt, hopping quickly from one patch to another. You heard an explosion behind you, the quicker students catching up. A drop of sweat dripped down your forehead in anxiety. You tried moving faster but saw that Katsuki and Todoroki were right behind you.
"I FINALLY CAUGHT UP TO YOU!" Katsuki shouted in your ear. You turned to look at him and went ghost just in time for Katsuki's arm to go through you, attacking Todoroki who you didn't even realize caught up to you on your other side. Katsuki got the drop on him, punching Todoroki through you. This didn't stop anyone, the three of you still rushing at the same speed. You kept ghost activated, your eyes focused only on the finish line, the entryway in sight.
I can't teleport...I'll go blind for the next match! But I can see it...it's right there!
A loud explosion shook you from your thoughts. Something was coming...something was flying towards you. Instead of focusing on the exit, you glanced at Katsuki to see if he was okay. He was looking at you too. The three of you glanced to see Midoriya flying through the air in front of you all, the green haired boy filled with a look of tenacity you've never seen before on his usually sweet features. You all kept running...and Midoriya swung the metal plate he was flying on downwards...trying to knock the three of you out. You went ghost...you knew you wouldn't be affected...but Katsuki...
No...imagine his anger if I played hero to him during these exams.
You kept running, just a step behind Midoriya.
"Your quirk...I thought you'd...save Kacchan..." He panted out as the two of you ran side by side, a mere few steps from the exit.
"He'd be upset if I did!" You replied back, eyes on the prize. Just as you were about to run into the exit first, a burst of electric green lightning traveled through Midoriya's left foot, launching him into the arena first at the speed of sound.
You were so shocked that when you arrived in the arena in second place, you didn't even realize the race was over and ran right into the tearful Midoriya. You fell on top of him, your ghost quirk deactivated as the adrenaline wore out.
"WOAH! (y/n)!" Midoriya grunted out. You straddled his lap, his round youthful face full of shock.
"S-Sorry Deku, it was hard to hit the breaks! And to see you there..." Your vision was extremely blurry and burned, making it hard to see more than just colors or shapes. You knew you needed to close your eyes now and let your vision refocus...
"DEKU! GET AWAY FROM HER!" You jumped up with Deku, shoving him away just in time to avoid Katsuki's incoming punch.
"K-KACCHAN...W-WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Deku yelled out in a terror. Katsuki looked ferocious, his red eyed blazing.
"Making moves on her huh?! You think I'd fuckin' let ya?!" Katsuki attempted to punch Midoriya but you stepped in, your hand holding his fist, shaking from the force he drove in it. The shock of the hit echoed ached of pain up your forearm, but you held strong to make your point.
"Katsuki! Enough it's okay! I fell on him by accident." Katsuki's eyes widened before he scoffed, pulling his fists back. He then pointed at Deku, grabbing your wrist once again.
"Consider it a warning you damned idiot!" Even though he was being irrational, you still felt flattered over him caring so much. Poor Midoriya was completely innocent but Bakugo didn't see it that way.
A little part of your heart fluttered at his protective nature.
~~
Twenty minutes.
That's all you had to rest your eyes before the next part of the exam. The broadcasters were at commercial break and Present Mic was listing off the stats of the students that made it into the top ten of the race. You were heading to the women's locker room when a boy you've never seen before stood in your way.
"So...Katsuki Bakugo...who would have thought anyone would like someone as vulgar and violent as him." Your eyes immediately narrowed at the tall boy, his lavender purple hair spiking in various directions. You didn't like where this was going but he didn't care and continued to lay into you.
"Tell me...how did someone like you get the twenty student limit rule for Class 1A broken? Why are you the special exception? Did Mommy and Daddy pay a lot of money like Momo Yaoyorozu? Or are your parents top ranked heroes like Shoto Todoroki? Or maybe it was all just a lucky fluke like Izuku Midoriya." You scoffed at this new kid that must have been from one of the other classes. His tired violet eyes looked at you with a level of distrust you would have seen in the field, not at a high school.
"Sounds like you're just jealous to me." Despite attempting to walk past him, your whole body froze. You suddenly felt a splitting headache for a moment, like someone was stuffing their thoughts in your head. The raging headache and stuffy feeling didn't last long, but it was enough to make your knees weak and for you to lean into the nearby hallway wall.
"What the hell?" You gasped, hand pressed firmly to your forehead. This new kid gave you a cheshire grin when he realized you weren't reacting well to his quirk.
"You better hope you don't come across me in the finals because you won't know what hit you." He brushed past you, facing away but still close enough for you to hear. "You like him don't you? Bakugo?" Your entire face broke out in an icy sweat and your eyes went wide in surprise. The purple haired boy smirked in thought.
"What?"
Me? Of all people? As if I have the time for something like that.
He openly laughed at the deeply puzzled and uncertain facial expression you were making.
"Well, good luck for the rest of the tournament." He headed to where most of the first round survivors were. You had no idea why that kid had a vendetta against you when Mineta of all people was somehow in the top class. You felt like you made it pretty obvious that you fit right in with the best class in this grade.
"(Y/n) are you alright? You don't look so good," Midoriya's voice called for you as he entered the hallway from the inner stadium. He must have followed you here.
"How much did you hear?" You asked the green haired boy. His eyes were wide and he shook his hands in front of his face.
"Err...none of it if that's what you'd like?" You gave Midoriya a gentle smile to ease his worries. He wasn't your enemy and it wasn't like that weirdo kid said anything that was classified info.
"It's okay, Deku. I'm not upset at you for eavesdropping." He let out a sigh of relief.
"I heard an argument and was worried about you. You look like you have a headache.
"Thank you for worrying about me but I'll be fine." Your expression was one filled with reassurance but Deku wasn't completely buying it. Whatever that other student did had completely sucked the energy out of you.
Suddenly, something clicked in your mind and you cocked a head at the boy in front of you.
"Oh yeah, Deku why did you come here to begin with?" His soft expression turned determined, a strong frame replaced his meek one.
"Our next challenge requires teams. I'm asking if you'd be on my team. Please, I really need someone with talent and skills like you!" You glanced over at Katsuki across the stadium, him yelling at who you believed were his teammates. You locked eyes on a familiar girl with pink skin that he chose, a fiery bubble filling your stomach and chest. He chose another girl in your class instead of you?
Everything in your chest felt hot and you wanted to rub it in his face he was a fucking idiot for picking out anyone but you.
You narrowed your eyes and turned your steel expression to Deku who flinched from your aggressive change.
"Let's win this together, Midoriya." Said boy let out the breath he was holding as the relief settled in instead.
"Let's do this. Let's not let All Might down." You smiled but on the inside a question stirred.
How did Midoriya know I was talking to All Might?