Written

8 - The One Where You Participate in the Sports Festival

Sports Festival I

As days passed, your un-hero-like thoughts fled, and you dedicated yourself to to improving in school. You were still behind, though not as much as before. The sports festival still worried you, but you decided that if you failed, you would fail gracefully.

Also, you finally made an actual friend.

"How do you think you'll do?" Shoto asked you before slurping his noodles. After your whole "tearsicle" episode, you and Shoto began to spend more time together to the point where the friendship between you was undeniable. However, he was still a bit... stiff. You were not exceptionally close and were still learning about each other.

You shrugged. "Not very well, probably. I can't write on paper quick enough to use it in time. I'll have to depend on the enhancing side of my quirk." Despite all of the training you did, you still weren't able to write and rip very fast. "If I make it to the last event, I probably will not advance any further because one-to-one is not something I'm good at."

"Oh."

"And you?"

"I'll win using only my right side," he said calmly.

You cocked your head. "What do you mean your right side?"

"I refuse to use my old man's fire."

You were completely and utterly confused. "Fire...?" You looked at the left side of his face, the part with red hair and a burn around his eye. "Wait, do you have two quirks?"

He looked at you strangely. "(Y/n), you didn't know?"

You had only ever seen him use ice. You thought he had half-and-half hair just because and never really gave anymore though to it. "I-" you faltered. "Um? No, Shoto. I've never seen you use anything besides ice and you've never said anything about having fire." Am I... an idiot?

"You don't know that Endeavour is my idiot of a father?"

"ENDEAVOUR'S YOUR DAD?"

—

It was just as terrible as you expected. The obstacle course race, which was probably meant to weed out the first batch of losers, was about to end you. You frantically inscribed Speed three times in the air. With your newfound speed, you zoomed past the people in front of you.

Ten seconds passed, and the effects gradually wore off. You ran at your normal speed and the other students began to pull ahead of you again. You panicked. I have to at least make it past the first round!

You kept running. You were so far behind that the large attacking obstacles had long since been destroyed. At last, you reach the second obstacle: small pieces of land far apart, connected by ropes hanging over a scary-looking drop.

Balance. You sprinted across the entire zone without fearing a long drop. There were only a handful of people behind you once you made it to the other side. You clasped your hands desperately. "Please don't let me lose here!" You begged. "I know I write smut and stuff, sorry, but this is important!"

You stopped again before continuing on to the minefield. Either I go really slow or risk getting thrown away. You settled on neither. You grabbed your pen and, as neatly as possible, wrote pogo stick on your slip of paper. You threw it in a hurry, and it turned into the very tool you needed. You jumped on it, grabbed hold and hopped to the end of the race.

You made it just in time, narrowly missing the cut-off point in forty-first place. Almost right after it ended, Midnight began explaining the rules for the next event, the cavalry battle. Your eyes shyly travelled everywhere around you. Who would want to team up with you and your ten points? You wondered if giving up was something you wanted to do - just not try to make it any further, but fame sounded sweet in your head and on your tongue. You needed to stand out and be noticed today, with the marvelous chance UA students were given.

"(L/n)." A sparkly voice called out your name. Aoyama placed a hand on your shoulder. "Would you like to team up?"

"Yes!" You had been fretting over the thought that no one would want to team up with you, but your glamorous acquaintance in forty-second place came to your rescue.

The two of you wandered around, asking to join other teams, but received rejection in return every time. You didn't even bother asking Shoto. You knew he was aiming for the top, and you were not about to guilt him into saying 'yes' and fail because of you.

A boy with purple hair who looked deprived of sleep walked up to you. He very bluntly asked Aoyama, "Can I join you?" You recognized him as Shinso, the student from general studies that aggravated Bakugo the other day

"Of course," Aoyama said.

The boy looked at you. "And you?"

You were about to answer until you caught sight of Aoyama's eyes. That's... an interesting look.

"Well?" He asked impatiently.

You nodded and gave him a thumbs-up. There was no point in saying 'no' because your only partner was already on Team Shinso. On top of that, you didn't really care who you were with as long as you could show off to the audience as much as possible.

Midnight snapped her whip. "I hope you're all ready! Because the cavalry battle begins... NOW!"

Shinso groaned in frustration. "Is it okay if I'm the rider?"

Without thinking, you responded, "Sure."

•

Break Time!

Fun fact:
The neater (Y/n) writes what she will make, the longer it will last. If she is in a hurry and scribbles instead, the duration will be affected negatively.

And so we continue...

•

"The top four teams will continue on to the next round!" Midnight read the top four teams, surprised to see that Shinso's team was in third.

That wasn't the only thing you were confused about, though. You could have sworn that just a second ago the battle had begun, but now it was... over? The last thing you remembered was saying sure when he asked to be the rider. That confirmed your suspicions about Shinso. You knew he wouldn't wipe your memory. So his quirk must have taken control of us or something... Aoyama was just as confused as you.

Another boy on your team that you hadn't noticed stepped forward and withdrew from the next event, claiming that he didn't remember anything from the cavalry battle. Darn it. Now I'll look bad if I don't do the same.

You shrugged it off. You still had more you needed the crowd to see because you hadn't had a chance to show off yet. "Aoyama," you said. You made eye contact with him, and you nodded in unisom. Neither of us will drop out.

"The match-ups for round one are displayed!" Midnight announced and gestured to them.

Your eyes searched until you found your name. You were up against Kaminari. The electric one. Already you began to think how you would get past his electricity.

"But before that, it's time for the lunch break!"