Sweat, Quirks, & Fears

xiv. Tournament (part 1)

A/N:
• my brain was on the verge of shut down while I wrote a lot of this so please correct any spelling and grammar errors, and tell me if I used the wrong word or word tense. My five brain cells gave it their all for this chapter.
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It was the day of the tournament, and everyone had different feelings about it. Rei had mixed emotions, being both determined and nervous, but showing a calm, neutral face on the outside. She hated being patient. Couldn't it start already? She wanted to get the whole thing over with already.

While she was changing, the blonde was too lost in her thoughts to realize how careless she was being. She had gotten dressed outside of the stalls like everyone else was doing. Her scar was visible, which meant everyone would ask questions about it. Well, only a couple of female classmates were there.

"Oh my! What happened?"

"When did you get that on your knee? Ribbit."

"Oh, it's nothing! I've had it for like ten years. Don't worry about it," the girl waved it off. She hated letting her guard down. She hated people seeing her scar. It only showed people her weakness... it only showed she was weak. She was not weak! She can't be weak so long as she was going to be a pro hero one day.

Uraraka and Tsu didn't bring it up again, but definitely wondered about it. They weren't sure if they should leave it alone or be concerned. It's not like the girl talked about sensitive stuff with either of them, or anyone, for that matter. She was very closed off for a friendly person.

Rei pretended nothing had happened when she returned to the room everyone in their class was waiting in for the time being. If she was going to do well, she needed to forget that incident and be more confident in herself.

She got distracted by Half N' Half approaching Izuku and basically declaring his victory over a battle that has not happened yet. Then broccoli boi agreed that Todoroki was better than all of the hero course, irritating the Bakugos and upsetting the others.

§   TIME SKIP   §

Leave it to Katsuki to make the tournament all about himself. He literally had the balls to take the microphone, open his pie hole and say he will win. At least he looked like a dumbass with the faint but definitely noticeable cat scratches on his stupid face.

His sister was already freaking out on the inside with the huge crowd watching them enter the field, but then his mouth went and said that shit. Now she was about ready to give up on everything.

'No, focus! Dammit, Rei. You're better than this. Get your head in the damn game. You've got to do this. You've got to give this event all that you have.'

After her internal monologue, she was in a better mood. She was ready to do this, whatever 'this' was going to be— oh, that's fun. It's going to start off with an obstacle race.

'Okay, you may not be a blue hedgehog but you can totally do this. Just outrun like ninety percent of these extras, and only use your Quirk on non living things!'

There was a struggle getting out of the crowd of students, and Rei managed to catch her brother off guard and climbed on top of him before she began to hop over people's heads while saying sorry every time she took a step. It was a total of 24 apologizes before she jumped off the last head she needed and landed on... ice? What the fuck?!

After she quickly realized who was responsible for the frozen ground, she began to carefully slide along it until she was a good twenty feet ahead, where she activated her powers to burn through the ice and allow her to walk normally.

But, of course, the zero point robots from the entrance exam blocked her path. Well, not just hers, but that wasn't important. Before a robot could try to smack her or step on her, she burnt the stupid technology and slipped through the melting metal or whatever it was made out of.

She was in second place, so far, but she could tell her brother and others were quick to catch up. The words of Present Mic went in one ear and out another as she continued to destroy the ice as she went, occasionally sliding on it instead to rest her powers.

She found herself in fifth place when she got to the second obstacle. Without having much to do with her Quirk, she just carefully walked across the string, though surprisingly faster than an average person. Sure, she could possibly fall to her doom, but she wasn't going to let that thought stop her.

Before she knew it, she was in thirty first place as she approached the third and final obstacle, a minefield full of barely dangerous but very loud and bright explosives or something. The blonde  knew it would be easy for her to make it to top five at the very least.

In order to not waste energy, Rei lazily jogged her way towards victory as she manipulated her Quirk to only activate wherever she stepped. It not only destroyed the bombs before they could blow up, but it left a very hot and acidic path behind her, so no one could follow her unless they were immune to hydrofluoric acid. She knew from the very start that no one was, though.

Just when eighth place looked to be hers, a huge explosion went off near the back of the obstacle course. None other than broccoli boi was soaring through the sky on a broken piece of metal. Rei was proud of him, though, unlike her brother and antisocial classmate.

She noticed one of her class friends looking a bit tired, and went to jog beside her. Just because they were all aiming for the top didn't mean she had to ignore caring about the wellbeing of people close to her.

"Hey, Kyoka!"

"Oh, hello Rei!"

"Are you feeling okay?"

The concern she voiced made the emo girl blush a bit. She wasn't used to talking so much to people, and especially about herself. That was of her least favorite conversation topic.

"I-I'm fine. Just a little tired. But why are you talking to me when you could be getting farther up ahead and a higher place?"

"I was just worried. How about a piggyback ride? I've got enough stamina to get us both to the finish line fast," smiled the blonde.

"That's nice of you to offer, but—"

"Come on, I insist!"

"Oh... o-okay then."

The earphone girl slightly blushed as her friend helped her on her back, held her legs, and took off at full speed. With Rei's Quirk in check, they ended up in about ten places higher than before. When they got to the tunnel and neared the finish line, Kyoka got off her friend's back and finished the race herself, getting twenty-first place, just one behind Rei.

They were satisfied with their scores and were glad they made the top 42, as only they moved on to the next round. Lucky for Rei they would be dealing with a cavalry battle, note the sarcasm. She subconsciously made fists and clawed into her palm to contain herself. She hated her Quirk so much in that moment, but not as much as she would later.