For the next few days, I had been working my ass off.
Senya was determined to have both of us train together. We knew the ins and out of each other's abilities, always testing each other to our limits. Putting unexpectancies into our training prepared us for what we could be facing in our individual sports festivals.
Though our training was long and lasted days, the festival came quicker than we thought.
When walking into the waiting room, there had only been a few people. "Hey, Momo, Ochaco." I waved as I walked toward them.
"Hello, y/n." Momo waved as I took the seat next to hers.
"Hey y/n! How are you feeling? You don't even look nervous!" Ochaco noted, leaning over the table to get a better look at me.
"I don't honestly feel nervous." I shrugged, "Maybe just about the comments that people may say from seeing me here."
"That's understandable. But their opinions don't matter! We're your friends and we know you!" Ochaco smiled, grabbing my hand.
"Ochaco is right. As someone who has made the mistake of misjudging, I believe they will love you." Momo smiled, placing a hand on my shoulder.
"We can only hope for the best, right?" I smiled, shrugging the topic away. It was better to be optimistic than negative. Most people at this point knew that my brother and I were here.
The problem was their reactions.
"From an objective standpoint, I think fairly clear that I'm stronger than you."
Everyone's attention had been stolen, drawn into the two boys who standing off-center to the room. Todoroki's face was stern, much like his tone while Midoriya looked the opposite.
Poor thing looked like he was going to shit himself.
"Uh-Um, yeah," Midoriya mumbled, his words being as weak as he felt. I expected this out of Bakugou, but maybe Todoroki felt threatened by him also?
"However, you've got All Might in your corner, helping you out. I'm not here to pry about what's going on between you two. But know I will beat you." He stated with cold envy in his eyes. I stood up quickly in my chair feeling slight disturbed anger coming from me.
Kirishima also stood up and I followed behind him. As I walked someone grabbed my wrist and yanked me back.
"What?" I whispered to Bakugou.
"Let them fucking handle it." He quietly yelled to me.
I pulled my wrist back and crossed my arms. "Didn't know you were my mom," I mumbled. Even with my small comment, I still listened.
"What's with all these declarations of war lately?" Kaminari asked, turning to face the two boys.
"Yeah, what's the big deal?" Kirishima rested his hand on Todoroki's shoulder. "Why are you pickin' a fight all of a sudden? And right before we get started..."
Todoroki shoved Kirishima away as I grabbed his arm and pulled him a bit back. He stood by my side, smiling lightly in thanks for me grabbing him.
"We're not here to be each other's friends." Todoroki turned around and started to walk out of the room. "Don't forget. This isn't a team effort."
"Wait a sec, Todoroki," Midoriya muttered, looking down at the ground below him. "I don't know what's going through your head or why you'd need to tell me that you'll beat me. And, yeah, of course, you're better than me. In fact, you probably have way more potential than anyone in the hero course. That's why you got in so easily."
"Midoriya, maybe you're being a little hard on yourself, and us." Kirishima laughed, trying to ease some of the tension that kept building thicker and thicker.
"No, he's right, you guys. All the other courses-- they're coming for us with everything they're got. We're all gonna have to fight to stand out. And I'll be aiming for the top, too." Midoriya's sudden gain of confidence took all of us back with surprise.
"Fine." Todoroki glared, looking away.
"That's right! It's The Hero Course students of Class 1-A!"
The stadium was filled top to bottom; not one seat being empty. The audience ranged from pro heroes to families to others who'd been lucky enough to get a seat. There was nothing but excitement radiating from their screaming bodies.
As we walked to the stage, I had been between Mina and Ochaco.
"Present Mic sure did hype us up a lot." Mina boasted while looking around at the thousands of heroes sitting in the stands.
"How could he not? The expectations set on UA students are high. Now is just the time to show them the reason why." I said, smiling as I looked around.
"Kinda makes me nervous," Ochaco mumbled to herself. She rubbed her hands up and down her forearms. Her eyes wouldn't leave the ground even with the thousand screams.
"Don't worry! I'm sure you'll both do amazing." I cheered, wrapping my arms around them, giving them quick side hugs.
I hadn't been too confident with what could happen. The possibilities were endless but the more we'd worry, the less likely it'd be that we would achieve the goals we'd had in mind.
Midnight held her tassels into the air. "Now for the introductory speech!"
"Uh, someone should talk to Ms. Midnight about what she's wearing." Kirishima blushed, looking down.
"Yeah. That costume should come with a warning." Denki agreed, scratching the back of his head. The two were finding it difficult to stare without feeling a distracting discomfort.
Looking back at Midnight, I'd say that her costume was unsettling for a high school competition. But I wasn't one to say anything.
"Silence everyone!"She yelled, getting everyone's attention. "And for the student pledge, we have Katsuki Bakugou!"
You have to be shitting me.
Ignoring all the stares he was receiving, he walked up to the stage with his hands in his sagging pockets.
There was a quiet moment where he looked at the microphone before speaking. "I just wanna say... I'm gonna win." He spoke plainly.
Universally there were boos coming from each direction of the student body though they seemed to be going through of his ears and out the other.
I don't what I expected from him.
"Why would you be so disrespectful? You're representing us all!" Iida screamed, karate-chopping the air with his hand.
"Not my fault the rest of you are just stepping stones to my victory," Katsuki deadpanned giving him a thumbs down. A series of threats went around to him as I stood there cross-armed, ready for them to start throwing pitchforks.
The screams continued even as he walked down the stairs.
The thing was that I knew he wasn't joking. He genuinely thought he would win and because of that, I don't think it really bothered me that he said what he did.
"Without further ado, it's time for us to get started! This is where you begin feeling the pain! The first fateful game of the festival!" A screen showed up behind her as a lottery game spinner showed up. "What could it be?" She playfully questioned.
It spun for a long time until it finally came to a stop.
"Ta-dah!"
"Hmm. An obstacle course."
"All 11 classes will participate in this treacherous contest. The track is four kilometers around the outside of the stadium." She announced throwing her tassels into the air again. "I don't wanna restrain anyone, at least in this game. As long as you don't leave the course, you're free to do whatever your heart desires. Now then, take your places, contestants."
Like the rest of the students, I rushed over to the entrance as fast as I could. Easily you could predict the outcome of how'd this start; like a mess. There were too many students and such little space.
Everyone watched as the green lights above flashed, disappearing one by one.
Until there were no more shining.
"Begin!"
At once, everyone pushed through. Their patience and eagerness taking hold of them until we became squished in a tight ball. Frustration only grew within me larger with each second I had to stand there being pushed and shoved.
I'm not exactly 7 feet tall so even remotely finding a spot to look ahead was out of the questions.
I continued to squeeze my way through until suddenly, I was stuck. My feet were stuck, frozen solid to the ground. "Fucking shit," I mumbled to myself. "I don't have time for this."
I closed my hand into a fist, banging it at the ice over and over until a piece of it had broken off. Grabbing it, I cupped my hands around it and waited for my powers to do the work.
By changing the reality of the melting ice in my hand, I'd been able to create the head of a metal hammer. I used it to break enough of the ice surrounding my feet and run free.
Momo and a few other of my classmates also made their escapes, running as far as they could without anyone else getting in our way. Each of us looked at each other for a second acknowledging our presence.
Our running came to a quick stop as Mineta was launched into the air. A robot came from behind, rumbling the ground with each step it took toward us.
"Target acquired. Terminate them." It voiced, their color of its eyes changing from black to a glowing red. I stopped right next to Midoriya who looked up the at robot.
UA never ceased to amaze me with its technologies and insane inventions.
"It's those robots from the entrance exam!" Midoriya recognized, shaking in fear. I'd been glad that they were kind enough to take Senya and me without any testing.
My eyes squinting as I noticed a person crawling out from its arm, running directly down. My question was answered when the ground beneath it had turned to ice.
I was aware of Todoroki and knew his quirk came in great strength but this was just insane to me.
"Careful, now. I froze them while they were off their balance." Todoroki yelled while he ran through its legs. It crashed to the ground sending dirt dust all over the place.
More robots gathered around us trapping us in.
I had to think fast; time was running out in my mental clock and it felt like a waste to the progress I could be making. While I was thinking there was a small breeze that flooded through my hair.
Perfect.
I moved my hands around bending and circulating the wind until it created a funnel. The wind danced through my hands, tickling my palms the more it'd spin in my grasp. My arm swung, throwing it toward the robots.
It flew back a bit before landing on the ground in a crash.
I ran past it and onto the next course.
"Here we have one of the two Casters of UA! The Hero Course's Y/N Yuma!" Present Mic screamed over the speakers.
"Where the hell do you think you're going!" The sounds of explosions rang in my ears.
"Class 1-A's Bakugo is rocketing over the obstacles!" Bakugou flew past me and over the next course. He'd been fumed, frustrated at our classmate how'd been stealing the spotlight that he very much wanted.
"For those of you who thought the first obstacle was easy. Let's see how ya feel about the second one." Present Mic cackled through the speakers above us.
Without paying much attention, I continued to run, still lost in my own thoughts and observations.
For some reason, my brain hadn't told me to stop despite seeing other students paused and huddled around. It was until Mina grabbed my arm that I'd realized I was about to fall of the other side of the cliff.
"Thanks." I huffed to her as I let my heart rate go back to a normal speed.
"When did they even have time to build something like this?" Ochaco questioned, thinking out loud. Tsu next to me got down on all fours and jumped across like it was nothing.
"She's fast!" Mina exclaimed surprised. I watched her for a few seconds before looking over her a at the other side of the course.
I was able to see Todoroki and Bakugou if I squinted my eyes small enough. They seemed to be arguing, fighting to which Bakugou may have started.
I focused my attention purely on the open space between them. My eyes were closed, still seeing the light through my eye lids. The wind was more appearant against my skin, gazing it. And the ground beneath me, it disappeared before the soles of my shoes felt it again.
Todoroki ran forward but at the wrong time as he bumped into my figure appearing in front of me. He tripped into me, our bodies colliding as he looked at me with a confusion.
"Sorry, didn't expect you to run so fast." I yelled to him as I turned to continue on the race.
The microphones from Aizawan and Present Mic screeched before stopping. "Hold up! Did she just teleport?"
There was a sigh on the other end, huffed by Aizawa. "She's a caster, let's remember that. Though we know most things about quirks, we know barely anything about casters. The only things we know are that she is a natural and catalyst type and both sides of dark and light."
Adding my own silent input, our powers as casters changed and ranged depending on the families.
"And now, we're finally approaching the last obstacle. Everyone had better tread carefully. You're stepping onto a minefield! If you look carefully, you can see where those little bombs are buried, so keep your eyes on the ground, folks. By the way, those land mines were designed for the games, so they might be loud and flashy, but, they're not all that powerful. Just enough to make you wet your pants!"
Making a slow stop, I looked around at the area. Slowly next to me, Todoroki ran up and stood next to me. The only thing I was able to hear was our heavy breaths and the faint sounds of everyone behind us.
It was only a matter of time until Bakugou caught up with us.
Letting out a deep breath I unintentionally held in, I decided to be the first to walk forward. Carefully, I made my way around hearing Todoroki follow behind me. We'd both been cautious, neither wanting to be the first to set an explosion off.
But our peaceful focus before had been broken by a different explosion.
"Bastard!" Bakugou flew past me, gusting wind the threw me off balance for a second. "Your declaration of war was to the wrong person!" He screamed, attacking the two-toned boy physically and verbally.
They were farther ahead of me now and there were a ton more students here now than there were before. I got too hyper-focused on being careful that I didn't even notice how much was going on.
BOOM
A huge explosion sent a heavy gust of wind at everyone. It scared the living crap out of me as I shielded my eyes from the pink light to search for the source.
My eyes widen as surprised as the other who saw who the suspect was of the blast.
It was Midoriya?
He was flying in the air, holding onto a piece of scape metal. The amount of thought that had been done behind his actions had blown away my thoughts. I couldn't help but be surprised at his thinking under pressure.
Todoroki and Bakugou came to a realization noticing they were going to fall behind if they kept staring. They were tailing right under Midoriya.
And that's when I decided I had been done watching around.
"Freeze!" I yelled. I ran across the field, taking advantage of the fact that the bombs wouldn't go off until after the time had gone back to normal.
I hurried to them, still keeping my distance enough to where no one would noticed the large distance I'd ran. It was enough to be in the boys view but not distract them from seeing me.
I laughed slightly noticing their postions.
Midoriya was upside down with panic covering his entire face, Todoroki still somehow looks good with his hair tangled up everywhere and Bakugou well...
He looked like a rabid hyena.
Everything around me slowly started moving again as I pretended to blend in with it. "Go!" I whispered, making the surroundings move back at their normal tempo.
Midoriya turned from where he was in mid-air and slammed the metal piece into the ground sounding a whole other explosion.
While Todoroki and Bakugou were distracted, he ran off to the end of the course. The three of us followed behind him, using the last of our abilities to push through.
I'd used the wind to fly myself through the tunnel, lining up with both Bakugou and Todoroki. Each of us were trying to throw each other off in some form.
I'd never been so determined to reach the end of something that wasn't a story until this very moment. The rush was one that felt brand new to me, unfamiliar.
But before I could settle deeper with that feeling, we'd reach the end of the tunnel and were back at where we started.