"An obstacle course, huh?"
You bounced on the balls of your heels, ecstatic at the game as you grabbed the arm of the person closest to you, which happened to be Izuku. "Oh, this is going to be so fun, I'm so excited!"
The others didn't share in your enthusiasm, everybody else too tense at the qualifier round for the festival. Oh well, as long as you were enjoying it it didn't matter, right? This would be a chance to show your worth and leave everybody in the dust! Call you childish, but you loved games. Oh, you just wish Gon and Killua were here, they would get a kick out of this!
All of you crowding the entrance, you tilted your head at the narrow pathway, already coming up with both a game plan and your own sweet revenge for Katsuki's earlier speech.
As the lights started to count down, you bounced from one leg to the other, unable to suppress the wide smile on your face as Midnight finally yelled out "Start!", signaling the start of the first round.
You jumped up immediately, using your nen to boost the power in your legs to propel you above the others. There was no way you'd squeeze through that crowd - talk about claustrophobic. Instead, you took Katsuki's speech to heart, jumping above the people by using your peers as stepping stones. Singling out a familiar head of spiky blond hair, you made sure to jump on his shoulders before launching yourself up.
"Thanks for being my stepping stone, Baku-bro!"
He was definitely going to kill you for that later, but damn did it feel good to make him eat his words!
Feeling a blast of cold air, you involuntarily shivered as you looked down, watching the ground freeze over, effectively trapping almost everybody in place as you got out of the tunnel and launched into the air, flipping slightly to see the source of the cold. Naturally, it was Shouto, breezing his way along the path and currently in first place.
Feeling something grab the back of your head before forcing you down, you shouted in dismay, looking up to see that Katsuki had blasted himself forward and shoved you down.
Yeah, you deserved that.
Flipping so you landed on your feet, you slid across the ice, waving your arms around frantically in an attempt to keep yourself from falling since ice skating wasn't really your forte. However, just sliding across the ground was not going to get you anywhere, and grumbling under your breath, you slid over to the small wall.
Normally, you'd use nen to allow yourself to run along it; however, how the hell would that be explained? You had to win by following the rules, and that just meant getting creative.
Steadying yourself against the wall, you focused your ko on your foot, stomping it down and shattering the ice and ground. It was messy, for sure, but at least you wouldn't be slipping every few moments, now.
No time for hesitation, you once again started to run.
Rounding the corner, you realized you were in third currently, with Shouto ahead of you and, surprisingly enough, Minoru in between you both.
He was swiftly approaching Shouto, too, and you were just about to put in a burst of speed when a giant hand came out of literally no where and swatted him out of the air, sending him flying.
"Oh, rest in peace man," you blurted out, skidding to a stop. In front of you all were three gargantuan robots, all facing towards you and blocking the rest of the path. You didn't have to fight them, just get around them, yeah?
Sensing everybody behind you come to a stop as well, you slapped your cheeks before letting out a battle cry. Like hell you were going to let this stop you, a moment of hesitation could be your downfall!
Gathering nen solely in your legs and arms, you shot forward like a slingshot, zipping through and up one of the robots, climbing and jumping up. What was supposed to be a simple task got a hell of a lot harder when ice started to cover the entire robot you were on, approaching you at an alarming rate.
"Wha- Shouto!"
You had no other option. Taking a deep breath and praying to the stars that this would work, you launched yourself above and over the robot to avoid the ice, immediately shrouding your body in your nen so you didn't die when you inevitably landed on the ground. The force of your jump had pushed the robot you were on down, and you looked behind briefly to see them all crash, causing you to wince.
Hopefully nobody got hurt.
Bracing yourself, you gritted your teeth as the wind whipped your hair back, Shouto already running ahead.
"Breaking through and in the lead is Class 1-A's Todoroki Shouto, having frozen the robots in place!" Shouting from above the entire time was Present Mic, trying his best to MC the course. "And what's this?! Falling from the sky and also from Class 1-A is Freecss [Y/n] - is falling from the sky a habit for her?! With her quirk, Boost, she can enhance her capabilities at will, making for both the perfect defense and offense! As expected from Class 1-A!"
Just as you roughly landed on the ground, shock traveling up your legs, Shouto had looked behind in surprise, not expecting for somebody else to have made it through so quickly. Without a moment to lose, you forced yourself to run again. Thanks to your nen, besides the soreness permeating through your limbs at your jarring landing, you weren't injured in any other ways. That's good - last thing you needed was to waste your nen on an injury in the qualifier rounds.
Hearing shouts behind you and knowing full well the others would make haste to catch up, you sprinted forward, yelling at Shouto all the while.
"You jerk, you could have killed me!"
He didn't acknowledge you whatsoever, clearly focused on the obstacles ahead. Or, the pit of DOOM.
Joking. Sort of.
Sprawling ahead of you was a large pit with small platforms, and you skidded to a stop to avoid running off the edge. When did they have time to do this?! It was insane!
Taking a step back as you felt a few people catch up, you analyzed the situation before you, humming in thought. You could use your nen in your legs again (your poor legs were going to be screaming by the end of this), but if you over-launched yourself you were definitely going to be in for a wild ride. Your best bet would be to run across the ropes and use your nen to stay on top so you didn't slide, but running in a very straight line might be a bit difficult...
Agh! You didn't have time to debate on how to get across or you were going to fall behind! Already, Shouto was sliding along one of the ropes with ease, Katsuki right behind him in a mass of fiery explosions.
"Dang it..."
Slapping your cheeks to bring some sense into yourself, you decided to just run across. If you fell, you could just climb back up the side of the rocks, and use your nen to protect yourself from impact. Focusing everything into the bottoms of your feet, you went for it.
Running across tightropes was unnerving. Even with the security of your nen keeping you on top, the fall was daunting at best and absolutely terrifying at worst. You weren't afraid of heights normally, but damn this was freaky! Ignoring the shouts behind you (you were positive somebody had shouted, "Freeccss, you're a psycho to do that!") you pressed forward.
Seeing a streak of pink speed past you, you couldn't help the grin on your face at the familiar face. It had been a minute since you last saw Hatsume Mei, and you were absolutely ecstatic that she was making it so far! You were also glad to see those hover boots were definitely working a lot better for her - hopefully they weren't burning her feet off like they did to yours.
Running as fast as you could, you finally made it to the opposite side of the chasm, running a hand through sweaty, [h/c] tangles as you continued to run. Hopefully you were almost done with the obstacle course. After all, you had all been running for quite a bit, right?
Running up the large set of red stairs, you were displeased to be right behind Katsuki, pushing yourself to your hardest to get ahead of him.
"Oi, hot head!"
Catching his attention with the totally unoriginal name, his only response was a scream of pure, unadulterated rage as he blasted forward.
". . . Good talk."
Shaking your head at his antics in exasperation, you pushed forward, soon coming to another stop to assess what looked to be the final obstacle course - a minefield. A fucking minefield.
This school was really terrifying sometimes!
You were at a loss. Sure, your nen could protect you, but you weren't entirely sure that it would prevent you from blowing your legs off, still. That's not to mention that those in the lead were at a disadvantage; those further back had the advantage because sure enough, you were likely to get rid of some mines for them.
Running a hand down the side of your face, you cursed. As an enhancer, you could only do so much with your nen, and you wished that you were born with some sort of conjurer or transmuter nen type so you could form wings or something. Life was cruel, however, and that wasn't what you were born with, meaning you were going to have to make do with your nen to somehow not get blown to bits in this obstacle course.
Going around them was going to be way too time consuming, and as Katsuki blasted by you, hovering over the ground, you gritted your teeth.
Damn, no way you were going to lose to those losers..!
Up ahead, you could see Katsuki and Shouto go head to head, advancing while fighting each other. Of course, Katsuki couldn't just take a win. More and more people passed you as well while you tried to think up the best solution.
Come on you dumb brain, think!
Izuku had caught up to you at this time, and you spared him a glance as he started digging up mines with what looked to be a piece of one of the robots from earlier.
Wait...
Grinning as Izuku leapt forward with the makeshift shield underneath him, you followed his actions, gripping tightly onto your friend. "I'm sorry to use you like this Izuku, but I won't lose!"
You had a death grip on the poor teen, who had no time to shake you off as the shield came in contact with the mines, immediately causing a large explosion and launching the two of you in the air at record speed. It was honestly a lot of fun!
"Yahoo!" Whooping with joy in Izuku's ear, you watched in awe as everybody became like ants below you both, shooting forward and past Shouto and Katsuki. The momentum of the blast had rocketed you and Izuku near the end of the minefield and ahead of everybody else, putting the two of you into first place. The only problem was that your landing was going to be real rocky if the two of you didn't come up with a solution soon!
Clinging to Izuku's back like a koala as Katsuki and Shouto targeted the both of you, Izuku swung the shield out from underneath him, stepping on both Shouto and Katsuki as he slammed the shield on the ground, right over the mines. Oh god, another blast like that...!
"W-Wait--!"
The force of the explosion shot the two of you forward and you flung off Izuku's back and past the minefield, rolling in the dirt unceremoniously. Izuku managed to land on his feet, shouting a quick apology to you before running off towards the end. Oh, you were so going to get him back for that, you didn't even have time to use nen to protect yourself!
Forcing yourself to a stand, you didn't have time to look back as you ran forward as well, knowing Shouto and Katsuki were right on your tail. Back in the tunnel, you heard shouting behind you and quickly ran up the wall, boosting your speed as much as you could before light assaulted your vision.
"And the first one on the field is... Class 1-A's Midoriya Izuku!"
Jumping out right after Izuku, you deflated, falling to your knees dramatically. "Second place... Second place?! To Izuku?!" As much as you loved your friend, he tended to injure himself whenever he used his quirk, so you didn't really consider him a contender for this game. That proves to you just how much you probably shouldn't be underestimating people, because it was due to your over-confidence against him that you wound up in second place instead of first.
Coming out into the clearing behind you were Shouto and Katsuki, both clearly fired up and pissed they had lost to the both of you, and you continued to sulk. Maybe next round... Yeah! Maybe next round you would make it in first place!
Standing up and brushing the dirt off, you noticed that Izuku was crying and made your way over to him, putting a hand on his shoulder and startling him. "As mad as I am that I got second... You were awesome, Izuku!"
He nodded, giving you a wobbly and apologetic smile. "About earlier, I'm sorry you--"
You cut him off, making a giant 'x' with your arms as you stepped back. "No apologizing! We may be friends, but this is a competition as well, so we all have to do our best to be the best! Right?"
"R-right!"
Although you wouldn't quite call it a motivational speech, you nodded, proud of it anyways as more of you classmates filtered into the arena.
When everybody was there, you all wound up gathered around the stage again, with Midnight announcing the results on a board.
1st: Midoriya Izuku
2nd: Freecss [Y/n]
3rd: Todoroki Shouto
4th: Bakugou Katsuki
Ouch. You winced at Katsuki getting fourth place, knowing full well he was fuming over his results, but you had no time to think about it as Midnight got ready to announce the next game.
. . .
"A cavalry battle? What's that?" You asked, tilting your head in confusion. Nobody offered up an explanation for you, too engrossed into Midnight and to hear the rules to really help you out here. Thankfully, Midnight was on your side and explained the game to everybody, and so you listened intently. It was a team exercise, huh?
Almost missing out on the explanation of points as you debated on who you wanted on your team, Midnight then announced, "and the person in first place.... has ten million points!"
Immediately, all eyes were on Izuku, and you put a comforting hand on his shoulder, giving him a sympathetic glance.
"You are so dead, man."