Chapter 40: Maniac's Dash

Recap:

'I Did It!'

He announded himself! Most wouldn't understand the significance of what that was to the awkward boy. Most of his thoughts were behind the bars of his mind and only in environments of being around those he care about would he speak about himself.

He's experienced to much to not understands how malicious others could be, but just now he did.

He spoke what he'd do, and besides the intense reaction of his hot headed classmate nothing happened.

A part of him wanted to boast at how this should be expected and flooded part of his mind with shame at his overreaction but a deeper part reognised how big of a step this was,

'One of many upon my path to ultimately win this festival!' Suijin cast his gaze up forcing his eyes to look down, an instinctive reaction.

And to look up, he lowered his shoulders, steadied his breathing and onlyu slightly squinted his eyes at the harsh glare the sun provided upon coming out of the tunned.

Parents whispered their chidlrens name upon watching them from the TV, but Suijins and Shojis?

The two had front row seats and were only looking to see their boys exit form the stage.

The Shimizu's reognised the change in his sons posture, 'Suijin.' They both said with varying degrees of worry, concern, and pride.

"THE UA SPORTS FESTIVAL, WHERE THE HERO WORLD'S INCHOATE LITTLE EGG'S AIM FOR EACH OTHERS THROATS–AND THE TOP! OUT GRAND YEARLY MELEE!!!"

The crowd busled in excitement, "AND LET ME GUESS, ALL YOU MISCREANTS CAME TO SEE THEM RIGHT?? THE FRESHLY-FORMED MIRACLE STARS THAT SHRUGGED OFF A MASS VILLAIN ASSUALT WITH WILLS OF STEEL!!!!

"THE DEPARTMENT OF HEROICS–"

The cameras centered on their faces,

"FRESHMAN CLASS–"

Their eyes adjusted to see the large crowd along with the extravagant stadium in which they would be competing under the watchful eyes of the world,

"YOU'RE HERE FOR CLASS 1A, RIGHT!!?"

'I'm here.'

____________________________________________________________________________

Suijin looked around, admiring the large crowd and the loud stadium, while trying his best to ignore the 18+-rated hero and teacher, lest his mind become clouded by unwanted thoughts.

He ignored most of the words coming out but registered her rather lackluster introductions to the rest of U.A.'s departments.

'The Business Department, General Education Students, Class 1B... what a huge selection of talet UA has at its disposal.'

He eyed up his opponents, taking in their appearances and mentality.

"I'm Going to Win."

Though he was mostly ignoring the outside world, he still remembered his arrogant classmates words.

'Typical.'

He'd bet that if you asked him what Bakugo would say during the speech he got for placing first in the entrance exam, Suijin may have gotten the exact answer.

'Though that gets me thinking, I wonder exactly what I got in the exams.' He made a mental note to ask once the festival was over.

Suijin tried his best to ignore the shouts of the crowd, along with the other departments berating Bakugo and further lamenting their entire class as stuck-up.

His attention was focused on the huge screen across from them, which was spinning too fast to have the words deciphered.

"IF YOU WOULD DIRECT YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS SCREEN,THIS IS HOW WE'LL SELECT THE GAMES IN WHICH OUR AMAZING STUDENTS WILL PARTICIPATE FOR THIS SPORTS FESTIVAL."

'Will it be a battle of wills in a temperature change occupation? Maybe we start out with a free for all, or a complex puzzle.'

From his research in the past years, Suijin knows that the sports festival events aren't meant to empower any one department or person. Rather, they were randomly chosen to give everyone a fair chance.

So while he was contemplating what it could be, Suijin tried to prepare himself for anything.

"AND IT'S...DUNGEON EXPLORATION!!!!!"

'Dungeon Exploraiton?' A collective thought ran through the students heads.

Then the screen flipped, giving a tough 2D map of what Suijin supposed would be the dungeon.

"In this dungeon, you will all be transported to a random entrance point on the map. Your task is to go through the dungeon and escape."

As the pro-hero President Mic explained, the students were given a bulky black vest with a yellow button on the back of it.

"While going through the dungeon, you don't want your button getting pressed inwards or YOUR ELIMINATED. You must travel, avoid anyone, and escape with your life in your hands!"

Then the screen flipped, showing scenes of two levels, broken through roods, ancient walls, and rough flooring.

"While you're traveling and exploring, there will be traps to try and stop you. Please remember that if your button is yellow when the round ends for ANY reason, then you are eliminated and cannot move onto the next round."

Suijin, though, was trying but failing to remember the scenes, so he elected to take notes of the major points along with the placement of certain traps. But he mainly focused on the exit and any landmarks around it.

'So essentially, this is a sensory experience where you must train your stealth and location-finding skills…WAIT he didn't say we couldn't team up. Though there's a problem of trust, if I can find Shoji, we're making it out of this just fine!'

"GOOD LUCK, STUDENTS, AND MAY YOU ALL GO PLUS ULTRA."

Armed with a plan, albeit a crappy one. But with a plan Suijin followed the crowd to the tunnel, where they were all stopped.

"Please put on your blindfolds at your feet."

They all bent down and put the blindfold over their legs.

Then they were escorted by staff to a door that was randomly placed all around the building, and surprising enough, the building was large enough for there to be a door for each student.

"AND...S-T-A-R-T!"

All of the students rushed into the two-story building of considerable size, hoping to win the prize; meanwhile, the crowd directed their attention to the large screen, which rotated through different cameras showing the inside view.

"NOW CROWD, LETS SPICE THINGS UP ALREADY! WE CANNOT, OF COURSE, ALLOW THINGS TO BE TOO SIMPLE."

The yellow-haired announcer pressed a big red button, saying "Shake."

Then suddenly the building jerked back and forth, up and down, as if on a spring, trying to exchange everyone's position.

The square was on a platform and was spun around quickly. The students inside scrambled for something to grab onto, hoping that this would end soon.

After a few seconds, the building stopped spinning.

"Phew—WHAT!"

It was only after a few seconds when the majority of the students calmed down, that some of them noticed the red glimmer from their once-yellow button that had receded into the machine on their back.

'-Any Circumstances.' This phrase is all the more true for them right now.

Meanwhile, some were more fortunate than others.

'Wake up, Deku.'

Slapping himself, the green-haired boly patted his now red cheeks and used a hand to the wall to stabilize him, hoping to steady himself.

But laughter behind him threatened to end his Sports Festival Journey instantly. Along with the laughter, his back felt heavy, as if an additional force was acting upon it.

Quickly turning around, an elongated finger was pressing into his backside and….ONTO HIS BUTTON!

Turning his head around now, the red glow reflected off of his now pale face.

[Eliminated] the machine spoke.

'I…lost.'

Common, we've got to hurry to the entrance, though we won't pass up the opportunity to lower the competition."

While some were refusing to accept changes, others were hoping things would change.

"COME HERE, YOU DAM'D WINDEX BOTTLE!"

'One time! I insulted him one time, and suddenly I'm number #1 on his target list...God where's Midoiya now? I could use the weird bromace they have going on to escape from this guy.'

Suijin cried with no tears as he ran for his life, as he had a sneaking suspicion that if he was caught, his button being pressed would be the least of his concerns.

-----

[A/N: I did it....not that this change was hard to do but there was a question I had whenever I read MHA stories. If authors were willing to the personality of characters, their history which shaped them, cannon events to suit their desires (Not to attack anyone) then why when they all reached the point...when they arrived at the sports festival did things remain the same.

I mean if it's supposedly random then doesn't that mean that any butterfly effect, any change no matter how small, it could even be just that a butterfly caught the priciples eyes when he was about to press the button choosing the events that caused him to wait a half second causing another option to come? I wanted to change the festival as it's an event I felt has been done numerous times over.

'Oh the MC goes through, the main cast does, and blah-blah-blah no change no nothing'..So I did. I don't consider this me altering the plot for no reason since again any change in the story could've affected this event let alone an entirely new character replacing an existing one. But anyways I plan on adding some new events and keeping some others, the main thing I also wanted to do was to play to different strengths.

I don't know if this makes sense but the original MHA sports festival feels....bland. At first, it's a contest of speed with a little thinking of how to increase that, then it's teamwork and tactical abilities, then lastly it's just fighting. Not that any of that's bad or anything but I just feel like a 3 part tournament could be a bit more...open. I mean besides those with powerful or fast quirks nobody even had a shot of getting past the first round!

So I wanted to highlight different parts, in this Fic the first part plays on the ability to remember the crude map, detecting the entracne and protecting a button. A test that you can't beat if your just a brute, anyways thats my rant. I hope everyone likes the book and chapter and if you do PLEASE consider showing by Liking, Commenting (even if it's just a TFTC), and Reviewing! Please if you have the time drop a review as I am always interested in hearing feedback and how others are likeing the book.]