"honesty and grace" (Mezo Shoji X Reader)

Chapter 44

The day had finally come of the sports festival. You, along with your class, were lounging in the class 2A waiting room. Your nerves have been keeping you from concentrating on everything important, and Shoji took very close note of it. He tried to do the best he could to help calm you down, but to no avail. The most he could do at this point was rub your back and quietly tell you that he loved you.

Your class was soon called out, along with all the other second year classes. Standing in the center of everything makes you anxious. You had absolutely no idea how you were going to use your quirk against anyone. You looked around the open arena and took note of something peculiar; Some of the other classes were looking at your class in a mix of horror and excitement. It’s not everyday do they get to use their quirks in an all out brawl to determine superiority. In fact, that just so happened to be what was scaring you the most.

So it began: Similar to last year, the festival started out with an obstacle course. As Midnight went over certain things, you paid no attention to the terrain and things that might stand in your way. It just strained your nerves further, and it made your heart start to race. However, you knew better than to let your emotions run wild, for you’d have nothing left to do than to panic in a place where you had no time to do such a thing.

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At the end of the obstacle-laced race, you were out of breath, and your legs hurt. You hadn’t been given an opportunity to use your quirk in the obstacle course, but that was beyond your control. It had consisted of a forest-like stretch of terrain, a high-walled maze, and hundreds of automatons. Normally there would be four obstacles, but the automated human-like robots were in place of two. Not only were they strong, but they had certain “quirks”. Some were given the ability to make things melt with molten hands, breathe or wield fire, where some of them just looked gnarly. The final stretch looked like something you might see in a horror film about an android uprising.

You had cut it quite close-- closer than you’d like to admit-- coming in at a solid 57th place out of sixty. Shoji had obviously ranked much higher than you in 11th. You and him had recollected, and was quite glad that you weren’t eliminated in the first round.

The next game was called omnikin ball. The classes, along with many in the crowd, were confused until Midnight began to explain the rules. “Each team will consist of four players, and there will be fifteen teams total. Each team will play up against another two teams, meaning that there will be three different teams playing on the same court. Each team will receive a different headband color, as well.

“The rules of this game are quite simple. The ball you all will be playing with is about four feet tall, so it takes multiple people to handle. I will start by ‘setting’ the ball into the air, and whichever team touches it first gets to start with it. When a team has the ball, three of the four team members will have to hold the ball upwards while kneeling down, where the fourth person hits it away. However, the person hitting the ball has to shout, ‘omnikin--’, along with the color they want to have the ball next.”

Before she could finish explaining, a tall, mantis-like boy from class 2B raises his hand and speaks. “How do we get points, and how do our points from the obstacle course matter?”

A vein bulges from Midnight’s head, causing the boy to put his hand down. “Well, points are scored when the team you called out drops the ball. A team to drop the ball three times is eliminated. Whenever a team is eliminated, the team that calls out the losing team’s color gets their points.”

And so it began: The complicated game of omnikin ball started after you had formed your team. Shoji had immediately found you, along with Ojiro. Behind him was Hagakure, who desperately needed a team. The four of you began the game against two teams of four.