𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐦𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐧𝐨 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬 [bnha au]

13. Not Jenga Towers (Sports Festival II)

Breathe in. Breathe out. Focus on the five things around you. Okay, those were the students. The stage, the audience, the announcer's booth, grass and the score board. Four things you can feel touching you. He could feel the breeze, the sweat dripping down his forehead due to the heat, his slightly parched throat, and the slight anger that was beginning to build in him. Three colours you can see. He could see blue, red and white from UA's sports uniform. Two sounds you can distincly hear. He could hear Present Mic's announcements and the distinct chatter of the students that had started gathering on the field. And what you want to do right now.

'Oh, I want revenge damn it.'

He wanted, thirsted, craved for revenge upon the people who made him like this. He wanted to destroy the people who gave him this abomination of a quirk and made his life like this. But getting worked up like this would only destroy the meticulous planning he'd conjured for their absolute destruction. He needed to calm down and take it step by step.

Sai worked at getting the pressure of his memories to recede a bit. He tried to take deep breaths and follow what he had learned from the books and videos he had come across on his journey of revenge. His survival instincts from being in fight rings had started to overload his senses. He was a rational person now because he felt emotions too much all the time back when he was captured. Showing emotions there meant more pain. His reason was what was restraining him right now.

If he let his emotions take over, not only would he risk exposing himself to the heroes but also the villains. And he was not desperate enough to expose himself like that just yet. His plans would be ruined. Not to mention that it would also level this entire place.

Even if he had come here with ulterior motives, he still couldn't see his plans coming into fruition right now. So he just guessed he would have to wait a bit more before withdrawing and trying another approach.

'If I keep going, there's no saying what might or might not happen. There's a lot that can go wrong right now.'

Sai's panic would only grow if he stayed in the competition any longer. He would not be able to fight off his emotions as easily.

Afterall, he had always been a little bit of a crybaby.

***

Midnight announced the next round to be Topple the Tower. They were being divided into groups of three, that is, Team Red, Team Green and Team Blue. Each team would be given a pillar of wood that would be the tower that they needed to support while the opposing team(s) would try to topple your tower. The only catch – don't let your tower fall. Easy-peasy? Definitely not. Especially when Sai was supposed to form his team.

Apparently the top three winners of the race could choose their teammates. Right now, people were maintaining a wide berth from him because the reward for toppling the tower of the opposing team was getting the cumulation of the entire teams' points. And some psychotic bastard had given the first place one million points. On top of that, there was an added condition. Even if your team didn't win, you could always steal the opposing teams' headbands and the person with the higher number of headbands could make it to the final round.

In the end, all that mattered were the scores an individual possessed.

A total of thirty-three students had made it past the first round. With being a one-man team at the moment, that left it to be a '1 vs. 32' situation. Not too bad for his odds but he didn't want anoyone to know of his full capabilities yet.

Waiting would get him nowhere, so Sai approached the only other person that hadn't been approached either.

"Wanna be on my team, fellow trainee?"