RECAP:
"T-Ten... MILLION?!" I was about to faint. Maybe I shouldn't have thanked God to have brought that piece of metal along with me...
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Midnight held a murderous look on her face. "Those who reach the top merely encounter fresh new hardships. And the kids who have enrolled here will hear it countless times:" She paused for a split second before continuing with a louder voice. "PLUS ULTRA!"
I'm so fucked.
She looked at me and pointed. "To the boy who placed first in the preliminaries! GO TEN MILLION POINTS!!" Everyone around me glared as their auras turned deadly and determined.
Some time passed as they explained the rules for the second round. When they finished, everyone dispersed looking for a group in the fifteen minutes they gave us. I stood in the same spot looking around like an idiot, knowing no one would want to team up with me considering the large target on my back due to the points. It's clear my team would lose almost instantly.
I looked to my side, spotting a large crowd around Kaachan. It made sense everyone would team up with him since he's powerful and such.
I looked down at my hands with slight disappointment. A voice chirped from my right. "Let's team up!"
My eyes widened in happiness. "You mean it's okay?! Even though everyone will be after my million points?!"
"It's all right, if we just keep evading, you'll definitely win!" She made her hands into fists and smiled. Somehow, she seemed to glow.
Blinding.
I smiled back pointing out that I wanted to team up with her too. I told her that I'd like to team up with Ilda, so we went to ask him which he declined and walked over to Todoroki, Momo, and Kaminari.
'War huh...' I thought to myself with a slight frown forming on my face.
Someone laughed from behind before they zoomed way too close to my face. "LET'S TEAM UP MISTER FIRST PLACE!!!"
I panicked at the proximity. "Whooa, so close! Who are you!!?"
She lifted up her steampunk-themed goggles and grinned. "I'm Hatsume Mei of the department of support!" She said proudly. "I don't know you but I'd like to be able to use your position!" She explained how if she joined me she would get lots of attention and could then show off her, quote-on-quote, her "super cute little babies". She wanted the heroes to see her equipment.
It clicked in my head that if I had her in my team then we could use her equipment to our advantage. Uraraka seemed slightly hesitant in having her in our team, but we needed more members and she seemed useful.
"FIVE MORE MINUTES!" Yelled the 18+ hero.
I spotted Tokoyami, that bird dude with the moving shadow. I ran to him and asked if he would join, to which in my surprise he did.
The event started and everyone started to charge at me. Keeping a cold head, I told Uraraka to make all of our clothes and equipment weightless so we can act faster as we carry all the extra weight. She nodded and quickly took action. As she started tapping all of us and the equipment I noticed my teammates' legs were engulfed by some goo that appeared to be part of some opposing team's quirk user. I took matters into my own hands since I was the one being carried by my team, and thanks to our teammate from the Support Department, I had one of her inventions which happened to be a jet pack.
"Look away!" I called out to everyone holding me up so the flames of the jet pack wouldn't harm them. We flew out of the goo and onto safer ground.
"How do you like my precious babies! Tell me they're cute! I can make 'cute' same as any other feature!" Hatsume cheered with a lot of excitement.
I looked down at her and nodded with a smile. "With this, our maneuverability is perfect! Your 'babies' are fantastic Hatsume!" Uraraka mumbled something about her making everything weightless enough for her stuff to work.
Bakugo attacked, catching us by surprise. "TOKOYAMI!" I called out for him to use Dark Shadow as some sort of shield, but it was a second too late. The ash-blond snatched one of my headbands from overhead before being yanked back to his team by Sero's tape. I noticed he grabbed the wrong one, leaving me with the million points.
He made it back to his team. "Like taking candy from a baby Class A." Came a voice from behind him as another blond snatched his high pointage headband, causing Kaachan to blow up in anger.
"Evasion should be pretty easy from now on..." I stated out loud for my team to hear. We've made it to the last ten minutes and still had our million points. Feeling a looming presence from the team in front of us, I looked up and to our new opponents.
Todoroki and his team.
With a determined look I stated, "Guess we won't be having such an easy ride after all,huh."
"The time has come. I'm taking it." He pointed at the headband on my head.
Teams stopped their fights. All eyes were on us now.
"Iida advance." He commanded the blue haired male carrying him, to which he agreed to. Engine revving sounds came from his legs before his whole team charged at us with great speeds.
A bunch of teams were now starting to quickly charge in our direction.
"Yayorozu, prepare our guard and conductor!" He called out.
"ON IT!" She made a blanket-looking-thing and covered her and her teammates with it.
"Kaminari-" Todoroki started before being cut off by the dollar store version of Pikachu. "Yeah buddy, I know! HANG TIGHT!"
"INDISCRIMINATE DISCHARGE! 1,300,000 VOLTS!" Kaminari yelled out as he closed his eyes tightly.
"JUMP!" I yelled, and they obeyed. The large shockwave reached all the teams around us, but lucky for us; we made it out alive and without much damage from the shock.
A large gush of ice escaped the right side of Todoroki, freezing everyone that was once electrocuted by Kaminari's quirk. "I'll take these." He said as he snatched the frozen-down teams' headbands.
A cracking sound came from behind me. I turned my head to look at my back and felt a bit panicky. "Umm Hatsume...? The backpack is breaking down!" I pointed out.
She looked at it in panic and sadness. "MY BABY!!" She quickly switched from sad and panicked to more of a smug look. "MEH. It's still got some room for improvement."
'Is this girl always this optimistic?' I sweatdropped.
Todoroki made a huge barrier of ice around both our teams, blocking the rest outside.
They kept attacking and we dodged every attack. Dark Shadow wasn't gonna last long considering the large amount of light there is. The more light there was, the weaker it got.
I made eye contact with the bicolored-hair boy. I glared at him to which he did the same.
Large explosions were heard from outside the large barrier of ice, which I'm assuming is caused by Bakugo.
I steered my team to Todoroki's left side the entire time. "Stand your ground!" I called out.
'I've been putting my distance to his left. If he uses his ice for a short distance he'd catch Ilda in it, and if he uses his ice recklessly, then helruin his chances of getting the million points. Kaminari's quirk can still be fended off by Tokoyami, but just faintly...' I internally cheered and sighed in relief. 'Only one more minute...'
Ilda seemed to have noticed what I was doing. " Guys," He paused for a second in what appeared to be his thoughts. "We have less than a minute...I'm afraid I'll be useless after this, so I'll be counting on you."
"Ilda?" Said a confused Todoroki.
"Grasp tight." He started his engines and started speeding at an even faster speed than before. "TAKE IT TODOROKI! TORQUE OVER!" I didn't even have a chance to realize what was going on before they were already behind us with the million points. "RECIPROCATING BURST!" Yelled the bluenette.
"WHAAAA?!? WHAT HAPPENED?! THAT WAS SO FAST!!" Present Mic exclaimed. "Iida, if you had super acceleration, then why didn't you use it in the preliminaries!?!"
Todoroki's team stood panting in a small cloud of sand that was generated by the large speeds Iida ran. "I thought I told you Midoryia," The bluenette paused and looked over at me with a menacing smile and glare. "I'm challenging myself against you!"
"MIDORIYA HAS CRASHED BACK DOWN TO ZERO POINTS!!" Announced the energetically-loud hero.
We had merely less than twenty seconds left. "AFTER THEM!" I called out.
We dashed over to the new first place team.
'I have to win!' I thought as sheer determination filled my body. 'They're not just my points! They all put their faith in me!'
Our group was now almost a foot away from the other. I extended my arm out in front of the red-and-white haired boy. He put his left arm out in defense, setting it on fire. 'AND IM CURRENTLY CARRYING THEIR HOPES AND DREAMS OF THREE PEOPLE ON MY SHOULDERS!!' With a yell I reached over and grabbed onto the headband. He was too distracted looking at his flaming arm in confusion to notice I grabbed the million points back.
A loud booming sound erupted from the wall as Bakugo and his team broke through, now aiming at getting the million for himself. He was midair before the timer went off, signaling that the tournament almost over.
He fell face-first onto the sand just a few feet away from both our teams.
I looked at the headband in my hand and smiled, tears welling-up in my eyes. "YEAH!!" I threw both my fists in the air, clutching the million points in my right hand. The rest of my team cheered in happiness. They placed me down onto the ground and we did a group hug.
"Now! SHALL WE SEE WHO ARE TOP 4 TEAMS ARE?"
"Shit..." Mumbled my best friend as he looked at the ground and then at our team.
"IN FIRST PLACE, TEAM MIDORIYA!!" The crowd cheered loudly.
"IN SECOND, WE HAVE TEAM TODOROKI! IN THIRD, WE HAVE TEAM BAKUGO!" The crowd cheered for both teams. Bakugo was going ballistic on the ground as a fiery and pissed-off aura surrounded the ash-blond.
"IN FOURTH WE HAVE TEAM TETSUTE- WAIT! HUH?!" He looked at the board again. "HEY! IT'S TEAM SHINSOU!!?"
The second tournament was now over and all the students now had some time to cool down and even socialize if they so desired. Uraraka broke from our group hug and ran over to some of the other students, complimenting them and even congratulating them on their win. I looked at my teammates disperse and do their own thing. I closed my eyes and sighed in relief of our last-minute win.
'Sheer luck.' I told myself with a smile. A tap on my shoulder interrupted my thoughts. I opened my eyes and looked at my taller friend. "Todoroki-kun?" I said almost in a whisper. He nodded and dragged me to a tunnel that connects the stadium with the waiting rooms, bathrooms, and other places.
The shade hit half of his face. "You wanted to tell me something?" I asked him curiously as to why he had dragged me to a more private place. My stomach grumbled a bit. "If we wait here too long then the mess hall will probably get super crowded..." I sweatdropped.
His face turned into more of a glare. "You blindsided me." He started. "So much that I broke my own pledge." I glanced at his left arm. "Neither Iida nor Kaminari nor Yayorozou nor Tokoyami or even Uraraka ever felt it. Only I felt it, that moment." He lifted his left hand and looked at it. "After all... it was only me who'd seen the weird new villain up close. So..." He trailed off and looked back up at me. My heart started racing in pure panic.
'SHIT! HE FIGURED IT OUT THIS QUICKLY!?' I was practically screaming inside my head as I planned my disappearance or something.
"I'm saying that what I felt from you was the same. Something too familiar. Are..." A minute of silence passed by before he spoke again. "Are you the new villain's sibling or relative in any way, or what?"
My mind emptied and the state of panic I was once in suddenly dissipated. "Huh..?" He wasn't too far off, but still.
My body acted against how I wanted it to by sweating and acting all nervous. "Y-You've got it all wrong! I... WELL OF COURSE THAT'S WHAT ANYONE WOULD SAY IN A SITUATION LIKE TH-THIS! So I get if y-you don't believe me! I swear that's not the case though...!" I rubbed my sweaty palms on the dirty UA gym uniform's hem of my shirt. Looking down at my shoes I slowly pointed at my chest with my thumb. "I-I'm actually an only child. You've been at my home enough to know that I don't have any siblings."
"The way you said 'You've got it all wrong'. In other words, you have some connection to the villain that you can't talk about. Whatever that may be." He crossed his arms over his chest and leant on the wall behind him. "You must know about my stupid father, Endeavor. He's a pro hero. Terrible father for me, but a hero to others."
"What are you getting at Todoroki-Kun?" I said in even more visible confusion.
With a sigh he continued. "If you're connected to the new villain in any way, then that just means I have to win even more than I previously did." He explained in more detail how his bastard of a 'father' had abused him and had been in a quirk-marriage to get the perfect son that one day could become number one in the hero-ranking-system.
Let's just say I was furious at everything he had done to my best friend. He was bound to become my very next target after All Might, but if I had the opportunity, I would certainly push him to be priority for elimination.
~
I barely ate before we had to return to the stadium where Midnight was announcing the recreational events and drawing lots to determine pairings for the next event.
Ojiro drew out of the tournament because he didn't feel it was right to participate since he was "brainwashed". I looked over to my purple-haired friend who was looking at me with a peace sign and his tongue lazily sticking out. I sustained a giggle and did the same.
We drew lots and I was to be paired with the one I was just messing around with just moments ago. A hand grabbed me by my shoulder and spun me around. I faced Ojiro who told me to not respond to his provocations. I knew about Shinsou's quirk but still nodded and left the boy just standing there.
A bunch of our female classmates came to the stadium wearing cheerleader outfits for some reason which I found weird.
Faculty told us to get more rest or to watch the recreational activities before the last event of the sport's festival.
I stayed in my designated waiting room scrolling hastily through my cellphone. Dread overtook me as I remembered the past events once more that took place only a few days ago. Tears welled up inside my eyes, blurring my vision. "Mom would be so proud t see how far I've made it throughout the festival." A sad smile crawled to my face. "Right...?"
I wiped my eyes with my arm and texted Hand-Man to see if there were any interesting updates so far. He told me that he took some notes that may interest me which he would show when we met up at the hideout.
Looking up at the clock, I saw that I only had three minutes until the event started. I got up and walked towards the stadium, unknowing of the dark haired male staring at me in infatuation from behind a corner.
"Found you~."
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PLEASE READ THIS ITS IMPORTANT!!
Hi! Glad you enjoyed the chapter! I'm at 300 followers and over 160k reads! Thank you! I wanted to do something nice for you guys due to your generosity! Some suggested a longer chapter but I mean... This one is over 3000 words, so...
I thought of making an animatic of the story! Like a music video with drawings of the story or something, but I need a song to do that, I'll let you guys suggest as many as you guys want! It makes my job a bit easier!
You can suggest any other ideas of stuff you want me to do! I'm down for practically anything really :p
On another note, the next chapter is coming out by the end of the week! I'll take your suffering away for now smh
Stay safe out there! Drink water! Get rest! Wear masks and wash your hands more! Uhh... ACAB and BLM!!
Have a great day!!!
-Miles??