Burnt to Ashes - Kenichi Todoroki

Building Up

Ryker's POV:

Though my mind was still wrapped around the whole Shirokage thing, I had something else to focus on; Toronto's Sport's Festival.

My parents knew that I got in to THA but they said nothing about it, not a word. They barely talked to me anymore. But maybe if I won at the sports festival they would. But there's a lot of students better than me, especially Kenichi..

After training all day at school, I was exhausted but I still had to come up with ways to defeat my enemies. I could make them fly which could help, or I could trap them in a Venus flytrap, or even tangle them up with poison ivy, but there had to be more I could do. I had to be prepared.

"What're you doing, Ryker? Preparing for the festival?" Magnus said, busting into my room. I didn't turn to him, but I nodded.

"You'd think they'd have your hero costume in by now," he muttered. "Maybe tomorrow? Saturday?"

I nodded, "We don't need it until Monday anyways."

Magnus came up to me and sat next to me on my bed, "Wanna know what to prepare for?"

I eagerly nodded. Nothing wrong with some preparation.

"So your first challenge will be a race," Magnus said. "A race where you use your quirk to get ahead. This part will be easy for you, you can just fly, but you have to be quick and sly with it because there are obstacles. Giant robots like in the entrance exam, landmines, pitfalls, but as long as you swerve around them, you're good."

I nodded, taking notes on my notepad.

"You've got to get at least 42nd place to participate in the semi-finals, which is the cavalry battle. You basically get to pick a team of at least four, link up, and based on what place you got in the race, you get a headband that determines how many points you're worth," he continued. "Wouldn't recommend getting first place, though, you'll be worth, what was it, not sure but a LOT of points. You don't want that burden, you just want to be in the finals."

"How many points do you need to get into the finals?" I asked.

"More than the other teams. Only 16 competitors get in for the finals," Magnus answered. "And the finals? A high-stakes battle set up in a randomized bracket."

"You got that far, right?" I asked. "Was it easy?"

"The race was a breeze, and I'd say the cavalry battle was easy too, if you pick the right people," he mumbled. "Which I did, but the battles... rigorous, Ryker. I got past the first guy but I had to fight this girl who was, let's just say, extremely powerful. Got kicked right to my feet, spent the day in the emergency room."

"She wasn't disqualified for hurting you that bad?" I asked. I couldn't seem to remember him being in the emergency room, not that time; he's been quite a bit.

Magnus shook his head, "Just part of the game."

I was a bit scared; I wanted to get as far as I could, but if the heroes that would pick me to intern saw me get beat like my brother did...

"But it's alright, I put up a good fight. As long as you do too, it won't matter if you win or lose," Magnus said. "Even getting to the finals is impressive to them, out of a hundred something kids."

"But there's only like 48 kids in the hero course," I pointed out.

"Kids from all departments compete," he responded. "Oh! Someone in Ace's grade, they were in the support course, and the support course kids can use their items, right? Well this guy, I don't remember his name but he walked right up on the field without any support items and just his quirk, and when Ace was just about to win the whole thing, he blew him out of the water."