Chapter 6: Blending In
The tunnel was chaos.
It was a mass of elbows, shoulders, and panicked energy. The air was hot and thick with the smell of sweat and the diverse, strange odors of activated Quirks—sulfur, ozone, citrus. The race was happening outside; they could hear the crowd roaring and Present Mic's voice screaming, but inside the tunnel, it was a solid wall of students.
"This is ridiculous!" Kai hissed, trying to find a gap. "We're trapped! How are we supposed to 'observe' anything from back here?"
"Kai, we have to stick to the mission," Cole grunted, his solid frame an immovable rock in the shoving tide. "Blend in."
"Jay's right!" Kai shot back. "Wait, no—I'm right! How about we compete? Just a little?"
"No way!" Jay yelped, nearly losing his footing. "Wu said no competing! 'Be gray!' he said. This is us being gray!"
"Correct," Zane said, his voice calm and clear in the chaos. "We must maintain a low profile. The target could be in this crowd. Or watching us from the stands. We must not lower our guard."
Kai gritted his teeth. He looked at the frantic, desperate students around them. They were all pushing. They were all fighting to get out. This... this is our cover, he realized. If we're the only four who don't even try, we'll stand out more. And if we get eliminated in the first round, we're kicked out. Mission over. We can't find our target if we're not even in the event!
"Guys, listen!" Kai said, his voice sharp with sudden clarity. "Look around! Everyone is competing! If we just stand here, we fail the mission. We have to qualify to get to the next round. We have to compete... just enough."
Zane processed this. "That is... a reckless interpretation of the objective."
"And it's totally against what Sensei said!" Jay protested.
Kai's signature grin returned. He knew he'd won. "In that case..." He placed his hands on the shoulders of two surprised students in front of him. "Last one to the finish line buys dinner for the entire week!"
Before they could protest, Kai vaulted off their shoulders, flipping over the crowd and landing in a clear spot. "See ya!"
Cole groaned. "Hey! That's not fair! You got a head start!" He lowered his shoulder. "Excuse me! Pardon me! Coming through!" He didn't shove, but he became an immovable object, and the crowd simply parted around his solid form.
"A week?!" Jay shrieked, his voice cracking. "I can't afford that! Cole, Kai, wait for me! Don't leave me in the back!" He began to weave and dodge, his movements quick and erratic, slipping through gaps no one else saw.
Zane sighed, a sound lost in the din. "Sensei will be most displeased." He broke into a perfect, fluid sprint, his analytical eyes identifying and predicting the shifting gaps in the crowd.
The frustration of the tunnel vanished, replaced by the electric thrill of competition. They were smiling. This was their element.
They burst from the tunnel just as a spiky-blond figure rocketed over their heads, propelled by explosions. "GET OUTTA MY WAY, EXTRAS!" Bakugo roared, not giving them a second glance.
Then, the world went cold.
KRRR-ACKLE!
The temperature dropped instantly. A wave of ice shot forward from a running student with red and white hair, coating the ground and the walls in a slick, glittering sheet. It spread backward into the tunnel, trapping the remaining students in an instant glacier.
The four ninja skidded to a halt at the very edge of the ice. The path ahead was a frozen, treacherous landscape.
They looked at each other.
"Well," Kai said, his grin widening. "He's good."
"But the ground is slick!" Jay protested. "We'll slip!"
Zane's eyes glittered. "On the contrary, Jay. This is... familiar territory."
Cole cracked his knuckles. "Time to get serious."
They didn't need to speak. They knew the drill. They drew on their inner energy, the discipline Wu had hammered into them.
"NINJA..." they shouted in unison. "GO!"
It was not a Quirk. It was a technique. A fantastical, impossible display of pure, focused energy.
FWOOSH! Kai erupted into a spinning vortex of red-orange flame.
ZZZT! Jay became a blur of crackling, blue-white lightning.
RUMBLE! Cole turned into a grinding, stable tornado of black-brown earth.
HISSS! Zane became a silent, precise cyclone of white-blue ice.
The crowd gasped. The sound of it was intoxicating. The four elemental tornados didn't slip on the ice; they used it, gliding over the frozen surface at incredible speed, their colors reflecting brilliantly.
Todoroki was running easily, the first obstacle in sight.
"AND THERE HE IS!" Present Mic screamed. "THE EARLY FAVORITE, SHOTO TODOROKI FROM CLASS 1-A! HE'S TAKEN THE LEAD AND OUR HEARTS FROM THE START! WHAT ABOUT THE REST?!"
Bakugo blasted his way out of the tunnel, landing hard on the ice. "DAMN YOU! YOU'RE NOT GETTING AHEAD OF ME, YOU HALF-AND-HALF BASTARD!"
He was about to blast off again when...
WHOOSH. ZZZT. RUMBLE. HISSS.
Four elemental blurs shot past him. They were moving faster than he was, gliding with an impossible, fluid grace.
The stadium, for one split second, went utterly silent.
The Spinjitzu tornados dissipated. The energy faded. And there they were: four students in simple 1-F gym uniforms, running in a perfect, synchronized pack, already closing the distance on Todoroki.
And they were bantering.
"I calculate," Zane called out, his voice perfectly even, "that I will not be paying for your dinners."
"Seriously, guys!" Jay panted, his legs pumping. "I'm broke! Don't make me pay!"
"Do I look like I come from money?" Cole shot back. "I'm saving up!"
Kai just laughed, pulling slightly ahead. "As long as I don't lose, I don't care who pays! See you at the finish line!"
"IN YOUR DREAMS!" the other three yelled, and they picked up the pace.
Bakugo stood frozen. Not by ice, but by pure, unadulterated shock. His eyes were wide. Who... who the HELL are they? They're not in the Hero Course. How...?
In the commentary booth, Present Mic's voice cracked. "WHAT?! WHAT ARE WE SEEING, FOLKS?! STUDENTS FROM THE SUPPORT COURSE... (he shuffled his papers) ...KAI! JAY! COLE! ZANE! FOUR UNKNOWNS ARE GIVING THE HERO COURSE A RUN FOR THEIR MONEY! WHAT KIND OF UPSET IS THIIIIIS?!"
Beside him, Aizawa, wrapped in bandages, narrowed his one visible eye. Support Course? No. That movement... that wasn't a Quirk. That was... discipline.
The stadium's shock broke, replaced by a deafening roar. This was what they came for! An upset! The crowd was on its feet.
And high in the spectator stands, Nya had both hands over her mouth, a massive, uncontrollable smile spreading across her face.
Beside her, Sensei Wu slowly, deliberately, placed his palm over his entire face. A long, pained sigh escaped him.
"Those fools... after everything... everything I told them..."
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