Chapter 10: Declarations and Revelations
Izuku and his classmates had just finished their last class for the day and were about to prepare for their 2 weeks of training before the sports festival. But when Kirishima opened the door he was met with a huge crowd. "Uh... hey, what's goin' on here?"
"They're here to scope out the competition. Damn extras." Bakugo stated in a huff.
"You should not be referring to your schoolmates as 'extras' Bakugo-kun!" Iida replied with handwaving that the class had now been accepted as normal for him.
"He isn't wrong though," Izuku began, shocking his classmates, "We're the first class in history to be attacked by villains, and we all came out the other side. Of course they would want to scout us out."He got up and walked to the door, everyone could tell he was not in the mood to deal with a crowd. "That said we all have somewhere to be."
As he got to the door a purple haired student made himself known, "So this is the infamous class 1-A. I was expecting more, though I guess I was right to assume how full of yourselves you are for having survived the incident." he almost paused at the deadpanned stare he got from Izuku, "This is a declaration of war, those of us in the general studies course have the chance to move up to the hero course if we perform well enough in the festival. That also means you have a chance to be replaced."
Izuku raised a brow, "Oh? Is that so? Makes sense I suppose given how the entrance exam caters to those with combative quirks." He didn't miss the twitch in the boy's eye. He reached out and poked the boy, "Still I don't know how much I need to worry about a kid with so little muscle. And before you go blaming your quirk for failing the exam, several of us don't have combative quirks." He paused as he eyed the boy, everyone in the crowd took this as a sign to yell at Izuku for how out of line he was, only for him to raise a hand and everyone fell silent.
"I never said you couldn't try, hell I want you to try. Make me worry about my position in the hero course. Make me have to work harder just to keep my position. But quirks aren't the only thing that can get one ahead," He paused as he walked forwards, now standing to the left of the boy and placed a hand on the purplette's shoulder, "Work ethic goes a long way too. Lofty ambitions aren't just handed out, I know that all too well. We've all had the work ethic to reach the first peak on this mountain range just to get here, sure some of us started at the base of the mountains while others started on a beach." He took his hand off the boy's shoulder and began to walk away, raising a hand to wave at the crowd behind him, "But that doesn't mean you can't reach it. So grab your gear and meet me at the peak. I look forward to it."
The purplette could only look at the boy shocked. And by the looks of it, the boy's class was in shock too. Not only had he identified possible problems within the sleepless teen, but they seemed to be spot on. He turned to look into the 1-A classroom and lo and behold one of the students was invisible. Sure it probably helped against the robots a little bit assuming they didn't have thermal vision, but it's not going to help the student physically take them down.
—-
He needed to be faster.
Sure he was able to somewhat take hits from the Nomu, but he could barely keep up with it. When he wasn't training with Kirishima, or Kiribro as he had taken to calling him since the boy was referring to him as Midobro, and Melissa he was trying to get faster. He wasn't going to discount strengthening his legs to run faster but he worried that it might take too much time.
He began to look at running techniques, none of them stuck out to him particularly. After all, most of them were not shaving enough time for him to be comfortable. That isn't to say that he didn't try a few. He did, and while he definitely hadn't mastered them, he had also found each technique was situational, either being made for sprints or endurance racing.
Back to training with Kiribro and Melissa, they were doing great! Kiribro's biggest downfalls were his fatigue and the time it took to harden. They found that the best way to help him with that was simply to spar. The more they sparred the longer he would last and the harder Izuku was able to go on the boy. Another thing they tried was getting him on the battleship bags, or rather the steel plates that Nezu had gotten for him in substitution. It started because one of the days he beat Kiribro to the gym at UA that they had been allowed to use. Apparently they were open to the students everyday for 3 hours after classes! And those were normal days, not like this couple of weeks where they basically had 2 weeks off! Kiribro had seen him casually denting the steel and asked about it.
"Hey bro what are you doing?"
"Battleship bags! Or at least a substitute for them."
"B-battleship bags?"
The boy was stunned, sure he had heard that comment during their first day when he asked Midobro about how he got that build, but he hadn't expected something like this. And this was a substitution!?
"Yup! You wanna try?"
"S-sure."
"We'll ease you into it, partially cause I think it'll help with your hardening and partially cause I don't need you hurting yourself right now." he said while Kiribro walked up to a steel plate next to his. There were multiple and according to Nezu the ones that were deemed 'used' would be melted and re-forged at the end of the week to 'reset' them.
He looked around the gym making sure they wouldn't be heard, "Normally there's 2 rules, but we'll wave them for now." he continued when he saw Kiribro's questioning look, "The 2 rules are no quirks and no Haki. You don't know how to use Haki so we don't have to worry about that and for now you can use your quirk, but that's only until the sports festival. Unless of course you wanna dive off the deep end instead of wading in."
"Let's see how I do today and go from there." he responded with a small smile and a sweat drop, then something dawned on him. "Wait. What's Haki?"
The greenette smiled, "Haki is how me and my grandpa fight. It's basically a physical manifestation of someone or something's willpower. Or at least it is in the case of Armament. I don't really know how to explain observation other than extending your will around you to perceive others' wills or intents."
"W-wait if Haki is how you fight and your strength isn't enhanced, then does that mean..."
"That I'm quirkless? Yup. Never had one to begin with." He said with a big smile, but the even redhead could tell this was a little forced.
So much was going through his head. One of the guys that he had made friends with was quirkless. He personally wasn't one to care about this normally, but the guy made it to UA! Not only that, but the hero course!? Who the hell does that?! This was so unbelievably manly!!
"That's so manly!!!" he finally yelled.
Izuku couldn't help but chuckle, partially at his reaction and partially out of relief. "So how about battleship bags for about an hour, we take a quick break and then some sparring?"
Kirishima nodded his head sheepishly, "Ya sounds good."
Kirishima started punching the steel plate with hardened fists, it was still painful but thankfully it was dulled by the quirk. Midobro seemed to take note of this. What about? The only guess that came to mind was about how soon Midobro would make him do it without his quirk, but knowing the boy there were definitely other possibilities.
After a few more minutes Midobro seemed to be satisfied and he went to the plate he had been punching when the redhead got there. The stark contrast in strength was apparent from the beginning. While Kirishima was basically adding scrapes and other small deformations into the steel, the greenette was denting it like he was punching butter. Kirishima, seeing this, silently watched Midobro for a second before returning to his plate, this time with a slightly more refined form. He had noticed how the boy's punches were denting so easily. It wasn't just his strength, though that was definitely a factor, no, every punch was straight as can be. All of the force behind the punch was going in the same direction. No wasted movement. As more time passed the two came to a silent rhythm and throughout the gym a constant and resounding CLANG... CLANG... CLANG could be heard.
Eventually the redhead finally broke the silence, "If you fight using Haki, then how are you so strong?"
The boy in question smirked as he continued punching, "Lot's and lots of practice." He stopped and turned to the boy, the air around them becoming serious, "Remember how I said my power is based off of my strength of will?"
The boy nodded, curious as to where this was headed, "Ambition leads to strength, think about it. Everyone becomes strong in one case or another because they want to grow to reach a goal. Us as heroes want to become stronger in the literal sense, but it still holds true either way. It's like I said in the interview I want to help people and keep them safe. But here's the thing that separates the truly strong from the rest." The redhead stopped punching the steel, revealing a small dent that had formed over the time he spent punching it, and turned to face Midoriya. "Just how far you are willing to go for your goal."
"Me personally, I've known that the hero idea is a dangerous one and that was before the diagnosis. As a result, I became willing to lose everything in my path to become a hero, even my life." He looked at his fist, which was now coated in Haki, "It may sound selfish, but I want to reach to top and be the strongest and prove everyone wrong about being quirkless. If I die in the process, then that's fine with me." he paused to look back up at Kirishima, "So how far are you willing to go to reach your goal?"
The boy remained silent, Izuku could tell he was thinking everything over, "You don't have to answer now, it's not something that comes to you in a moment. Think on it." Then Izuku dropped the seriousness, and began stretching "Aaahhhh, why don't we take a break and then go for a few rounds of sparring in like 15 minutes?"
Kirishima only nodded as he went to grab some water, still thinking on what his friend had said. When he came back, he found Midobro sitting down and concentrating on what he now knew as Armament. "Watcha doing?"
Midobro turned to face him, "It's an exercise of control. You coat a small portion of your arm in armament and move it around, trying to keep the same size and shape. I wouldn't be shocked if you and Tetsutetsu could do this or a similar exercise with your quirks. They seem to behave in similar ways to armament."
Kirishima lifted up his arm and tried to follow suit. He found it difficult but after a few tries he was able to get a circle of hardened skin to form on the back of his hand, "Good, first just stick with that." Midobro began, causing the hardening to come undone due to the concentration he needed, "Ah, my bad. But that's a good start. The first step is to make the shape consistently, so harden into the shape, then drop it, then harden and so on. Once you can go straight to the desired shape easily, then start moving it and try to keep the shape. Once you get that repeat with a harder shape. OH! I should mention don't always start in the same place," the boy raised his own arm, "for example one time start at your finger, then another, start at the elbow, or another start in the middle of your arm and so on."
"Thanks bro," he began with a toothy smile, "This should help my control a lot."
He smiled, "Like I said, if your quirk is anything like Haki, then it should," then his smile turned into a feral smirk, "But you need to work on your quirk's strength too." Kirishima instinctively took a step back, falling into a fighting stance as Izuku continued, "Here are the rules, quirks and Haki are to be held for as long as possible, this means both of us are required to keep using our abilities constantly. The goal is both to strengthen the abilities and to work on stamina. I've noticed how you tend to flash your quirk but not hold it for too long. It's good in theory, but if you can only hold the hardening for a few minutes then even if your not always hardened it can catch up to you."
Melissa walked into the gym with her duffle bag slung over her shoulder, only to see what could be called the Christmas duo, because of their hair, in the middle of a sparring match. She watched in awe as Kirishima and Midoriya took each other's hits with no sign of slowing. She could tell after their battle trial as well as the USJ incident, which she shivered at the thought of, that the walking moss ball was holding back tremendously, but despite that Kirishima was being knocked around like she had seen no one else do. That wasn't to say the redhead was doing poorly, far from it, she doubted that she could take that many hits and keep going and she had inherited Uncle Might's quirk!
Midoriya must've caught her in the corner of his eye, because he began to hold his ground a bit more in an attempt to talk, "Hey Shield! Did you finish what you wanted to?" he asked never taking his eyes off of the boy in front of him or stopping his onslaught.
Melissa was torn from her thoughts, she had told Midoriya that she wouldn't be able to train with him and Kirishima until the afternoon due to some things she wanted to talk to the support course about, "Yup! Also can you please call me Melissa, I kind of understand the family name thing here in Japan but it still feels weird to me growing up in America and all." She began to set down her bag as the boys stopped, one way more out of breath than the other.
"How... do you... keep going... for so long?" Kirishima huffed out as he finally dropped his hardening.
"I've been sparring with my gramps since before I learned Armament and trust me, he'll make me look weak in comparison I still have yet to beat him." the boy responded coolly as he offered a hand to the other. "As for you," he began, turning to the blonde girl, "only if you call me Izuku, it's only fair."
"Ok!" she responded cheerfully, "So what did you mean 'learned Armament'?" she asked, feigning the conversation they had before the battle trial.
"I suppose I have to explain Haki again..." he said, only to perk up for a second, "Oh yeah, you don't have to act like you don't know about the whole quirk thing, I told him and he's fine." His thumb pointing at the redhead beside him.
"I get that you are technically quirkless, but damn you pack a punch." said redhead responded with a groan and rubbing his forearms as the greenette only smiled.
"I didn't go too hard did I?" he asked a little concerned, "I want to help you get stronger, but I don't wanna screw up your performance in the festival."
"Eh, I'll be fine bro. I'm just not used to going for that long. Especially not with my quirk constantly going."
"What do you want me to do?" the girl asked, both curious and worried.
"You, I want to just try and hit me." he said with no small smirk, "You should practice for speed rather than all out strength like All Might."
"O-ok" she responded with a pink dusting appearing on her cheeks. She knew she had been unconsciously imitating her uncle, but was it really that obvious? "Oh yeah, can you explain what you meant by Haki?" she returned.
"The quick version is willpower made real. Everything and everyone has access to it, but it's a matter of unlocking it and learning to use it." he responded, "All Might asked me to try to teach you, but I won't guarantee anything. Also be prepared to try for a couple of years without progress." he turned to Kirishima, "I never asked if you wanted to try to learn it, do you? I could see you becoming even more of a powerhouse with it."
"What about your training?" the boy asked, though Melissa seemed to be thinking the same thing.
"Don't think you're the only ones benefiting from the bags and sparring." He said with a glint in his eye, "Your training trains me too." Their quizzical looks made him continue, "For Kiribro, we train his quirk, we'll start doing Haki stuff for both of you after the festival, in the process both of us learn control over hardening and strengthen it. Then for Melissa she attacks while I dodge. This will help us both with prediction and reaction speed. That said, we should probably spend some time with weights to strengthen your quirk."
"I can help with that!" the rock boy responded cheerfully, "I spent a lot of time in middle school learning about lifting weights and creating programs for it."
"Sounds good to me!" the girl cheerfully replied, then turned to Izuku, "So what do you want me to do?"
"Set your stuff down and then we can get started with what I was talking about earlier." He paused as he turned to Kirishima, "After you take a break you can go back to the bags if you want or you could start working on the program you were talking about, unless you got something else in mind?"
"I might hit the bags. Hey Melissa, remind me before we leave, I need some information to make a good plan ok?"
"Alright!" no sooner were the words out of the mouth than she was in front of the greenette, "You never said when we had to start!" she yelled, throwing a fist at him trying to catch him off guard. Unfortunately for her, he had his observation running since she set her bag down.
"You're right I didn't." He replied with a smile as he leaned out of the way of the fist, "But your telegraphing your movements, I might have to do this blindfolded for a little while." It was a bit of a low blow, he knew that, but he wanted to see how she would react. Something about those students in the hallway told him they would do similar.
Golden arcs of lightning began to shimmer and dance around the girl, as she suddenly moved faster than he had expected, causing the fist to graze his shoulder. Even then his shoulder immediately felt the pain despite it being only a graze. 'And this is only the lower limits of her quirk if my assumptions are right. She'll be a monster once she gets the hang of it, and that's without the possibility of Haki.' He continued to dodge as he rummaged through his thoughts. He was beginning to get used to this power output and its speed.
Melissa was oddly silent as she fought, he had expected her to be more talkative. That can be a double edged sword, but he was also going for something different than her. Plus he could mess with his opponents, and if he messed with them, they would get mad and if they got mad... Well someone fighting with rage is much easier to fight than someone who is cold and calculated. Usually.
Eijiro watched in awe at the spar in front of him. Midobro was dodging Melissa so easily, but that wasn't to discount Melissa, not in the slightest. She was fast and if she was anything like him, she could improve greatly. Hell if he fought her now, minus the exhaustion from his and Midobro's spar, he would probably lose.
He hated it. The thought of being left behind.
He shook himself from his awe and went back to the metal plates. He winced as his right fist met the metal without his hardening. How the hell did Midobro do this without so much as a flinch or drawing blood?! He gritted his teeth as he heard the spar behind him and punched again this time with his left. Again that pain, but he would push past it. He didn't know if he could learn Haki like Midobro had offered to teach, but he would get stronger regardless. He would be able to stand with the twins, Bakubro, Midobro and Melissa.
Izuku watched in the corner of his eye and smirked. 'Looks like an ember is being fanned into a flame.' he thought to himself as he sidestepped another punch to the gut. "You fight pretty 2 dimensionally Melissa." he commented as he dodged a haymaker to the face. Usually fighting 2 dimensionally wasn't a bad thing, it kept the fighter grounded. But she had enough power to be grounded wherever she wanted. Not to mention a well timed kick or punch from a good height did a number on an opponent, just look at the rabbit hero and her Luna Fall technique.
"In my defense," she began, finally breaking the silence from her outside of grunts, "I didn't start training to fight until about a year ago. Not since I was young like you." She muttered the last bit as she dropped her hands onto her knees taking a breather for a second.
"Don't worry about it," he began, holding out a hand for her, "I was more so making a point of something to work on before you get too set in your ways." He didn't even look winded, what the hell?! The clanging of metal that had just begun to reach her ears as she no longer focused on Izuku as the two came to a stop. Melissa turned to see Kirishima with bruising and bleeding knuckles.
"So you decided to follow the rules huh?"
Chapter 11: Time to Show Off
"Everyone ready to show 'em what we can do?!" Izuku yelled to the class as they sat in their waiting room. The class all nodded to him and yelled "Yeah!!", before slowly returning to their own conversations, after all they still had a few minutes before they would go out.
"Midoriya."
"Hmm?" Izuku hummed as he turned to face the origin of the voice. He found the cold tone to come from the fire quirk user ironically. "What is it Shoto-kun?"
"All Might has his eye on you and Shield, doesn't he." He began, most not noticing Melissa flinch at being called out, "Now, I'm not about to pry into that, but I think we can agree that we're the strongest in the class."
"I'd say we're in the running for strongest." Izuku shrugged at Shoto's bristling, "But where are you going with this?"
"Unfortunately, the only time we were able to see each other go all out was the incident, however now we have the chance to face each other. As a result I can't say who's stronger between the two of us, I do know one thing." He said as he took a step towards the boy, "I will be the one to come out on top." He finished with all the confidence in the world.
Everyone turned to look at the greenette and see his reaction. Slowly he gained a smile on his face and began to laugh. Shoto, irritated by the reaction, almost spoke up only to be cut off by Izuku doing it first. "You've got more to worry about than just me or Melissa, Shoto-kun. We're all here to do our best, and if this class has been like the class I know, then they've been preparing hard for this too. So don't count them out so soon, hell I'm surprised you seem to have counted your sister out already, but that's not my business."
He began to turn for the door, "I'll put in as much effort as you do Shoto-kun." He grabbed the doorknob and turned it, "It's time to go guys!"
"It's the UA Sports Festival!! The one time each year when our fledgling heroes compete in a ruthless grand battle!" Present Mic began in the announcer's booth, "First up! You know them already! This class isn't strangers to attention, some have already made bold statements in the media while all of them brushed off a villain attack with their steely willpower!!"
Izuku snickered to himself at the last part, muttering to no one in particular, "If only he knew how true that was."
"It's the first years of the Hero Course! Class! A~!"
The cheers of the crowd that 1-A encountered as they walked out almost overwhelmed most of them. Some were able to at least keep a calm façade if they were overwhelmed. They all wore their gym clothes. The bottom of a 'U' starting at the chest line and the vertical lines going up and over the shoulders (Ironically making an 'O' since it did the same thing on the back with a line at the shoulder blades) and the peak of an 'A' starting at the bottom of the ribs and continuing downwards.
"Next up! They haven't brought much attention yet, but don't count them out because of that! Class! B~!" Mic roared in a wrestling announcer pace as the class joined class A in the stadium. Izuku caught Kendo's eye and waved as they came up.
"Following Class B, it's classes C, D, and E of general studies!" Mic continued after a pause, "And here comes the support course with classes F, G, and H along with the business course…"
Some of the general studies kids could be heard by their sister courses mumbling, "We're just here to make the others look good." "It's so hard to get motivated, especially with that lackluster introduction."
The purplette who had made his declaration was stuck in his own head as his classmates made their comments. The boy, Shinso Hitoshi, wanted to be angry at the green haired asshat that had called him out. Wanted to be angry at the boy for his win in the genetic lottery. Wanted to be mad at his claims he had made in his interview. But he couldn't.
He didn't know why, but he just couldn't hold his rage against the boy. He was also the first to encourage Shinso. The first who didn't seem to care about his quirk. Granted the real test would come when the boy learned about it. Maybe then Shinso could keep the rage he wanted to direct at him.
"But first," the R-rated hero continued, apparently she had been speaking while he was stewing, "One of our students gets to give the athlete's oath! This year that honor goes to Midoriya Izuku, from class 1-A!"
Said boy stood there in shock for a moment. 'A speech? Me? Why? And why wasn't I told about this!?' He shook his head and progressed to the stage to stand next to Midnight. He did not miss the glare from Kat, though this time he did not seem particularly jealous. Not that he can blame him. Izuku could hear some murmurs in the crowd as he took the microphone from the hero. Maybe he shouldn't have had that impromptu interview.
"I swear if you pulled strings to get me to be the one doing the speech, I will find a way to get back at you!" He whisper-yelled at his aunt so the mic wouldn't catch it. She only offered an innocent smile neither confirming nor denying his suspicions as he took a deep breath before he began.
"Good morning everyone! I hope you're ready for today's events! Before we begin I want to ask you to watch everyone or at least to do your best to do so. My class and myself have garnered some attention due to the events a couple weeks ago and while I am proud that all of us came out of it, that doesn't mean we should be the only ones you pay attention to. For instance, class 1-B our sister hero course class, has the chance to show that if they were in our place they would have come out on top as well. Or even the general studies courses. They have a chance today to take any of our spots in the hero course if they do well enough today, so they might just be your intern or student in the future!
Of course we can't forget about the management and support courses either. Make sure to pay attention to the creations that come from them, whether its support items or the documentation of today's events! I've only seen it in passing, but some of the creations from those crazy support students are wicked so underestimate us UA students at your own risk."
He paused with a grin, letting the crowd cheer and giving himself time to breathe, dropping his grin to something more serious, "Many students here aren't too dissimilar to myself, we wanted to become heroes since we were younger and so we put in the work for it! But today will tell us something as students."
He paused again, this time giving a smirk and looking at his fellow students, "Was it enough? Have we worked enough to move classes or keep our positions? Have we done enough to stay at this first peak on the mountain range we call heroics that stands in front of us? Well let's all grab our gear and see, shall we? Cause it if it wasn't," he stated as he turned his gaze to Katsuki with a challenging smirk.
"I'll be the one on top."
Katsuki returned the smirk in full as the crowd erupted into a thunderous roar along with many of the other participants. Izuku could hear Eijiro and someone else yell "SO MANLY!" in a pair. Everyone else, including those who weren't in the hero course, actually seemed excited as he walked down the stairs, ready to accept his challenge.
Nemuri allowed herself a smirk that she knew the rest of her adoptive family shared, at Izuku's speech. 'You managed to issue a challenge to the whole school while also making them want to accept, that's not something a lot of heroes can do Izuku.' Then she schooled her emotions as she announced to the crowd.
"Now, without any delay, let's get the first event started!!" The heroine yelled into the mic and pointed at a screen behind her. "These are the qualifiers! It's the stage where so many are sent home crying every year!! And the fateful first event this year iiiissss…" She paused as the screen now spun a wheel of possible events so fast that you'd need a speed quirk to track. Then it came to a stop. "An obstacle course race!!" She read off the board as a wall behind the students began to open and a light reminiscent of those at an intersection formed above the new opening.
She then turned to the audience to explain, "It's a race between every member of the entire first year student body!! The course is a four kilometer lap around the stadium itself!!" Then she turned to the students, "Our school preaches freedom in all things!! So long as you don't go off the course, anything is fair game! So!"
A light went out on the lightbar with a ding.
"Racers, to your positions!" Everyone readied themselves, some took deep breaths, some seemingly did nothing, one blonde thought back to her talk with her uncle figure.
"I need you to tell the world, 'I AM HERE!'"
'I already had a decent grasp on One for All at the beginning of school, but now, thanks to Izuku and Eijiro.' Another light out and another ding. 'I'll show them they have nothing to fear.'
The final light went out, "START!!!" Both Present Mic and Midnight yelled.
Izuku just stood there, seemingly knowing what would happen as everyone made a mad dash for the tunnel. He sighed, 'We aren't even at the first obstacle and yet we have one.' Then he saw Shoka and Shoto make their moves, Shoka simply running through the crowd as she froze their feet to the ground and Shoto as he flew over the crowd in a manner reminiscent of an old American comic hero who also generated flames. 'Guess I need to make moves too.'
He quickly reached the front of the group as he used the frozen feet to push off of and somewhat skate over the ice. Quickly more followed, most from his class while others trudged through making comments about the girl's quirk or how they weren't going to lose that easily.
"I expected it from our class, but more made it than I thought they would…" Shoka mused under her breath, her ever-present smile growing ever so slightly, "This may actually be fun."
Then she came to a stop.
"EVERY OBSTACLE COURSE NEEDS OBSTACLES!! THIS YEAR WE START WITH…" Present Mic began and paused, probably for dramatic effect, "THE ROBO INFERNO!!!"
Most students stopped in a mix of awe and terror as they stared at at least seven zero pointers from the entrance exam, though some were probably blocked from view by the others. Izuku chuckled to himself, "Oh this will be fun." he said before catching Eijiro's eye.
"Eijibro! I got an idea!" He said as he made his way to the boy, who wore a nervous smile prior to being shocked out of it by Izuku's call.
"What's up?" he asked as the Todoroki twins froze a couple zero pointers or burnt their way through one.
"Just harden when I tell you to." Izuku responded with a smile that made Eijiro uneasy, then grabbed his arms and began to spin.
"Whoa~oh~oh~oh!!" Eijiro yelled as he was spun around and then launched at a zero pointer. He faintly heard a "Harden!!" through the wind and did just that before slamming into a zero pointer and knocking it over.
"WOW!! WHAT TEAMWORK FROM CLASS A'S PRESIDENT AND KIRISHIMA EIJIRO." Present Mic roared at the scene. Then Izuku jumped at the next zero pointer and mimicked his performance in the entrance exam. He jumped up to a zero pointer's chest and punched with all his might, cratering it's chest and throwing it backwards, though this time he didn't even seem winded. "AND THERE GOES THE PRESIDENT MIDORIYA IZUKU SHOWING WHAT HE DID AT THE ENTRANCE EXAM!!! WHAT A START!!"
Melissa seemed to go under the radar as she blitzed through the legs of the zero pointers, attacking the knee and ankle joints of them as she passed at unprecedented speeds. Soon the leaders were racing to the next obstacle, leaving the first behind them. Some of the students shook themselves from the awe of what happened in a matter of seconds from the top hero students, and suggested teaming up to carve a path through the carnage the 5 students had left behind.
"WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT!! CLASS A'S HERO STUDENTS WEREN'T EVEN PHASED BY THE FIRST OBSTACLE!! TAKING ALL THE ROBOTS OUT IN A MATTER OF SECONDS THEN BLAZING ON TO THE NEXT OBSTACLE!!" Present Mic announced the to crowd, "RIGHT NOW THE LEADING GROUP CONSISTS OF THE TODOROKI TWINS, SHOTO AND SHOKA, BAKUGO KATSUKI, KIRISHIMA EIJIRO, MELISSA SHIELD AND MIDORIYA IZUKU!! LET'S SEE WHAT THEY DO WHEN THEY GET TO THE NEXT OBSTACLE!!"
"The other classes aren't doing bad at all!" A skeletal blonde mused to himself in the audience as he watched the other classes go through the course, then turned his gaze to the screen showing the leaders, "it's just that Class A knows…"
"There's no time to hesitate." Aizawa finished with the same thought from the announcer's booth. "Unlike the other classes, they've already been exposed to the real world and had that fear planted in them and used it to adapt and overcome. They've forgotten how to hesitate." He turned his gaze to his class's president as he reached the next obstacle and didn't even stop upon seeing it. 'Though I have to wonder if he encountered it sooner than the others.'
"LOOKS LIKE THE LEADERS HAVE MADE IT TO THE NEXT OBSTACLE!!" Mic roared to the audience as they reached a miniature canyon with pillars all over and ropes connecting them.
"THIS IS THE FALL!! "
He was torn between being sorely disappointed and pleasantly pleased with the results when the leaders each easily made their way through or over the pillars.
Shoto, who had taken a break from flying once he passed the zero pointers, just jumped into the air, turned his legs into flame, and flew over, Shoka created a bridge of ice, Melissa and Izuku quickly lept from pillar to pillar somehow matching each others pace, Kirishima hardened his feet to grip the icy bridge and ran over, and Bakugo continued to fly with his explosions.
"AND THEY COMPLETELY IGNORE IT!?" the man yelled in shock.
"I'm more shocked that none of them have really tried to sabotage each other yet." Aizawa stated simply, "It was clearly stated at the beginning that anything is allowed as long as you stay in the course, yet they only use their quirks to proceed through the course."
The leaders of the main pack got to the fall. "I DIDN'T GET A CHANCE WITH THE LEADER'S SO I'LL EXPLAIN NOW!! IF YOU FALL HERE YOU'RE OUT! YOU GOTTA CRAWL ACROSS TO THE OTHERSIDE IF YOU WANNA CONTINUE!!"
Following this announcement was a rather impressive display from some of the students. One was even a support student who had used a set grappling belt and hover boots she had made. She may have been cackling the whole time about showing off her 'babies' but hey who's to judge? After all she made it across the fall with ease didn't she?
Most of the crowd, however, had their eyes on the leaders. More specifically the Todorokis and Midoriya. "Those kids in the lead just can't be stopped." One person murmured.
"Their quirks are awesome, but it's not just that. They are also incredibly athletic and have great grasps on them." another responded.
"Yeah, no kidding." another chimed.
"Hey! You know the Flame Hero, Endeavor? The kids with fire and ice quirks are his."
"That makes a lot of sense. The kids' got the blood of the number two hero after All Might."
"Pros will be scrambling to get them as their sidekicks!"
"You got that right! But don't count out the others. Two of them seem to have really strong strength quirks, then there's the kid with the hardening quirk. His quirk is only hardening and yet he's managing to keep up for the most part! That's nothing to scoff at."
"Yeah! Then there's the explosive kid. I wonder who'll try to snag him. He seems to be almost too confident, but he's got one of the most versatile quirks on that course."
"AND OUR LEADERS HAVE REACHED THE FINAL OBSTACLE!!" Mic roared again, "THAT IS TO SAY…" he paused, both for dramatic effect and to let the screens show the new obstacle, "THIS MINEFIELD!! A QUICK GLANCE IS ENOUGH TO REVEAL THE MINES' LOCATIONS!! SO KEEP AN EYE OUT AND WATCH YOUR STEP!!"
"I should mention," Mic continued, though with much less enthusiasm, "our mines don't pack a deadly punch, buuut they're loud and flashy. Enough that you might need a change of underwear when it's all over!"
'So put whoever's in the lead at a disadvantage huh?' Izuku thought to himself.
"HAHA!! This crap can't slow me down!!" Katsuki roared as he passed the grounded leaders. He glared at Shoto as he passed the ember haired boy, "You declared war on the wrong person, ya walking torch!!"
Suddenly he grunted as he and Shoto were knocked out of the air by an explosion. "I FORGOT TO MENTION!!" Mic announced, "WE HAVE A LOT MORE STUDENTS WHO CAN FLY COMPARED TO PAST YEARS SO WE DECIDED TO ADD SOME ROCKETS TO THE MINEFIELD!! DON'T WORRY FOLKS THEY ONLY PACK THE SAME PUNCH AS THE MINES!"
"Perfect." Izuku grinned.
What followed was an act of coordination that shocked almost everyone in the audience. Izuku bounded like a rabbit around the minefield with no care for where the mines were. However, he didn't need to. Instead, he jumped high and far enough for the rocket launchers to register him as a target, then caught the rocket that was launched at him and threw it onto the spot he was going to land. Each time the mines where he threw it would detonate with the rocket and leave a clear patch for the boy to land and repeat his actions.
He quickly passed Katsuki who had to slow down so he could handle the rockets, "Keep up slowpoke! Otherwise you'll be finishing behind me~!"
Katsuki, in response, literally shot forwards with a large explosion behind him. Shoto and Shoka, hearing Izuku, also put their quirks into high gear. Melissa decided to up the usage of her quirk to about 8% for the final sprint and Eijiro had elected to harden himself and just rush through.
"WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT! WE HAVE A NEW LEADER FOR THE LEADING GROUP FOLKS!! WHAT ARE YOU TEACHING THESE KIDS ERASURE?!!"
"This isn't my doing. They've been spurring each other all on their own and pushing each other for the best."
When Izuku landed on the other side of the minefield, he immediately began to sprint for the finish with a golden blur close behind. He smiled. It still wasn't going to be enough.
"AND THE WINNER OF THE FIRST EVENT!! WITH SOME CRAZY MOVES!!" Present mic paused to let the crowd see, "MIDORIYA IZUKU, KEEPING HIS CHALLENGE FROM THE ATHLETE'S OATH!!"
Outside the stadium, Death Arms was getting the attention of his fellow hero, "Hey Woods!" the hero turned to respond. He only got an arm pointing at the screen, "Wasn't that the kid from a year ago?!" Kamui Woods hummed in acknowledgement. It was the same kid, but he was the last one he had expected to see come in first for the race.
In another part of the country, "AHAHAHA!!!" Garp laughed and cheered, "Attaboy Izuku!"
Behind him Tsuru rolled her eyes at his antics, but was happy and proud of Izuku nonetheless. Their quirkless grandson had just shown the world that being quirkless didn't need to be a bad thing, even if the world didn't know it yet.
In a dark room with nothing but a computer monitor lighting up the room sat a boy with long, light blue hair. He sat with one leg up on the edge of the seat, one arm wrapped around his leg, the other was being used to itch neck.
"Something about you is so irritating." The figure sat, staring at Midoriya Izuku as he passed the finish line. "The way you performed at the USJ suggests that you should have finished with a much larger gap. Especially if you're his successor."
That gut feeling returned again. He remembered Midoriya's speech vividly, it just didn't sit right with him. Why would he practically denounce All Might while being his successor? Then his eyes locked onto the girl he was now helping up. She also had a strength quirk. And to be honest, while he hadn't seen much of it at the USJ, it did remind him of All Might. Though that might be because of the blonde hair and blue eyes.
Her name was apparently Melissa Shield. She held an odd resemblance to the number one hero, but if everything was to be believed, her father was David Shield and she was born during a period that All Might had been in Japan for a while, so more than likely the resemblance was just a coincidence. But she could be his successor.
No, that throws into question Midoriya's Herculean strength then. He so obviously has two quirks and Shield could have easily inherited or mutated a strength quirk… But why did his gut say otherwise?
Melissa fell to the floor once she passed the finish line in a close second. She closed her eyes as she panted, but she could only think one thing, 'I'm sorry Uncle Might, but not this event.' she thought to herself.
"Hey."
She opened her eyes to see Izuku above her with his arm stretched out, he actually looked winded for once. "Don't beat yourself up. That was a good race!" She smiled as she accepted the hand and stood up. Not long after, Shoto came in followed by Shoka, Bakugo, and Eijiro in that order. The last of which quickly came over to them and slammed his fist into the top of Izuku's head.
"At least tell me when you're going to throw me, asshole!!" He yelled, though you could hear a bit of amusement in his voice.
"Yeah, I deserved that." Izuku responded with a chuckle before he held his hand out to the red head, "Good job on the race! I'm glad to see our workouts paying off already."
Eijiro accepted with a chuckle, "No kidding, I was expecting to barely place high enough to continue to the next event."
They continued for a little longer until Midnight spoke up. "Now that the Top 42 have advanced, it's time for the main selection to really begin!!" She practically purred, "But for those who placed lower, don't worry! We've got another way for you to show your stuff~!!"
Both her nephew and best friend shivered and thought, "She's having a bit too much fun."
"Now, on to the second event!! Let's see what it is shall we!" She said as the board from earlier appeared on the screen behind her and began to spin again. It came to a stop on something interesting.
Cavalry Battle
"Ooo~ How interesting!" Midnight yelled, "Participants will, on their own, form teams of two to four members each and get into a Horse-and-Rider formation!" as she said this a team made of Present Mic, Thirteen, and All Might was shown on the screen doing just that. Izuku did note that it was a little odd that All Might was a rider and not a horse, but that's neither here nor there.
"The rules are fundamentally the same as those of an ordinary cavalry battle, snag your opponents' headbands while guarding your own. But!! There is one exception! Each of you has been assigned a point value based on your ranking in the last event!"
Some murmuring began to move around the crowd about how the points worked only for Midnight to interject, "How about you let me explain instead of assuming~?" she asked the students sweetly, though there was an undertone full of venom. Everyone quickly quieted down so she began again, "As I was saying, your point values start at five with the student who took 42nd place. 41st is 10 points and so on."
'Ok. Cool I should have about 210 points, not half bad.' Izuku thought to himself as the crowd and students began to murmur again.
"Though for those of you making calculations for the top positions I should add something!" She bellowed, bringing back attention to her.
'Why do I have a bad feeling?'
"Our first place participant is worth 10 million points!!!"
'Ah… That's why.' Izuku sighed only to smile as he felt the gaze of the 41 other competitors. It was predatory and unsettling to many, but most didn't seem to worry.
Well that wasn't good enough now was it?
He coated his fists and slammed them together, causing an impressive gust of wind to emanate from him. "Don't hold back now!" He yelled, his smile turning feral. "We still have a show to give."
"Show off." Both Kirishima and Melissa muttered with a smile as everyone took a step back from the verdinette.
In a dark room somewhere in Japan, a heavily scarred man watched the first event. Or at least did so to the best of his ability with his many sensory quirks. He was a cold, calculating man. A man of many plans and plans to back up each of those many plans. And yet, here he was watching the Oaf's successor, observing him. But there was something off about it.
He was uncertain.
He hadn't felt like this in many years, most notably when his brother turned on him, but it had been decades since he felt this uncertain. Due to his innate quirk, he was very astute about other peoples' quirks and what they did. Not necessarily whether or not they had one, but that hadn't mattered since what history called the Dark Ages of Quirks.
This boy had so obviously shown his use of One for All in each event. Taking down the massive robots, simply jumping from pillar to pillar across the fall, and his admittedly impressive skill when bounding across the minefield.
So why did something feel off?
In another part of Japan a hero was patrolling the area. She had been watching the festival when she got the chance like every year, but wasn't expecting much. Those brats wouldn't be able to stick beside her no matter how much they tried. Then she saw something interesting in the race.
She was pleasantly impressed by the performance of the green haired boy, especially with that maneuver in the minefield. The way he bounded was not unlike when she ran across rooftops, but the way he handled the rockets was nothing to scoff at. And that didn't even include the start where he had taken one of those giant robots with a single punch. Not many full fledged heroes could do that, especially with how little energy he seemed to use.
Unfortunately, she had to continue her patrol, but then she got the chance to watch again as she found another TV. That damn dominatrix had just announced that first place was worth 10 million points and everyone turned their gaze to the very same green haired student. She could respect his initial response, it was a little weak in her opinion bu-
Oh now this was interesting.
Her foot began to thump on the ground as she watched the other students back away. She already knew he probably had a strength quirk, but that wasn't what caught her eye. No it was the blackened fists. She licked her lips as a fierce smile grew on her face
"Maybe there will be a little rabbit this time." She said to herself.