Sports Festival (3)

Momo sighed; her hair already frazzled by the frankly psychotic trials that were included in this Hazard Maze. Accidentally stepping on a pressure plate, the whole area shook and instead of looking behind her, she bolted right towards the exit in plain sight.

Her breaths came in labored pants as her quite ridiculously huge assets bounced around. It was a huge pain in her ass – and yes, she was mad enough to forget about decorum for a moment – as she tried to pump enough energy into her legs to outrun whatever was chasing her from behind.

After all, in this maze full of traps thought up by her clearly demented classmate, nothing is off the tables. Rolling boulders? Check… At least they're made of paper mache so it isn't that dangerous. It would still hamper your progress, however. Pitfalls? Check. Fake walls? Whoever made that design, she wanted to throttle, but yes, check.

Then, last but not the least were the dreaded swamps. Midoriya wanted them to be poison swamps, but that would be quite dangerous, so the staff toned it down. It was still irritating, however, as instead of poison, they were made of adhesive. Good luck moving to the finish line when you can't even take a single step while bathed in sticky substance. It gave her ideas with her quirk, but seriously, why…?

"I am going to kick Midoriya once this event's done!" She jumped through the narrow doorway, a loud crash sounding off behind her, throwing her away for a good few meters. She tumbled for a short while, breaths coming in short gasps as she tried to get her breathing in order. "I swear…"

"I wanna… join you for that…" And of course, the one who decided to hitch a ride on her had the gall to complain, when he in fact just sat pretty on her back. It sickened her. She was a bit curious as to why Mineta followed her, and now the reason was anything but innocent.

"You, shut up. I have half a mind to just leave you here after what you've done, but as vice-rep of our class, it is my duty to do my best… Even at the cost of myself." Momo glared at the purple midget clinging to her back via the use of his sticky balls. If her assets already weren't enough with them weighing her down for the most of her life, now she had this creep.

"I'll be good." Mineta, for his part, nodded nervously. Her glare was something to behold, after all. Her dad did say that she had one nasty glare, no matter how innocent she may look when she was feeling neutral.

Her eyes didn't leave the midget for another few seconds, but relented when she realized she was wasting time glaring loathingly at her classmate. Perhaps she should collaborate with Midoriya about combating perverted tendencies in their classrooms. It could make for a nice activity, plus, the other girls would be on board with that plan.

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"I. Hate. This. Place." Itsuka grumbled as she trekked through a narrow pathway, the swamp made of adhesive around her bubbling a purple color. She winced when some of it popped and landed on her cheek, the sticking substance feeling sticky and icky. It grossed her out. She caught sight of a hole on the side and grimaced. She remembered how Shoda was separated from her because of a pitfall that led to a different area, of all things. Sometimes, she thought that some of those pitfalls were shortcuts, but she wasn't eager to try it.

"Indeed. I cannot fathom the mind of one so deranged as to come up with such… obstacles." Beside her, Jurota winced as some of the substance landed on his glasses. "Of all the places to land on…"

He fished out a piece of cloth from his pocket to wipe it away, only for the substance to spread itself across the glass. Eyes twitching, Jurota pocketed his glasses while breathing out a sigh. "Not like I needed to read, anyway."

Even with the calm exterior, Itsuka could sense the rage emanating from the beast-like teen. Of course he would be, it was another pair of glasses lost, and they don't come cheap. Quirk-specialized objects tend to be more expensive than the regular variants.

"So, which way to the next area?" Itsuka asked, head swirling from the smell that plagued the area. "Because I want out of this place. Fuck Midoriya for coming up with this."

"I know you may have your grievances with the boy, I do too." Jurota patted his pocket where his glasses were. "However, this does not mean that swearing will be the ans-"

The beast-like teen slipped on a slope, the adhesive making the platform's already slippery surface ever more slippery. Fortunately, he was saved when Itsuka managed to enlarge her hands and grab him before he sank into the swamp. The same couldn't be said for his glasses, which made a large crack when his hips bounced off the platform.

"... I will fucking murder that man." Jurota, all pretenses of civility gone, growled like a caged animal, furred arma enlarging as he let rage take over.

"Not now. Later." Itsuka tried to calm him down, but even she would have her revenge. "We can take our shots during the one-on-one rounds, for now, we need to get to the finish line before anyone else can."

"... You're right." Jurota sighed as he got up, his towering frame slightly soaked with the bubbling adhesive. Good thing it didn't hamper his movement that much, however, Itsuka could already see him foaming at the mouth while taking a bath.

As if to mock her, some more of the bubbles popped. Most of it landed on the platforms, but a scant few managed to hit her hair. A vein nearly popped on her forehead as she felt the future stress she was going to have when cleaning her hair.

"Once the Sports Festival is over, we are going to have a very, very long talk about limitations and valid suggestions." Itsuka growled as the two continued through the murky swamp.

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Himiko crawled through a tiny vent, lips formed into an unamused grin. Her limbs were smeared with the sticky substance that made up the swamp, as well as her own sweat. Combining the two made her smell like old cheese, something that she wouldn't wish upon any girl.

Except hussies that wanted to get close to Zuzu. Fuck them. If they think they had what it takes to gain his love, they had another thing coming. She'd slice them up with a blade if they even had a thought they could take what was hers.

Criminal thoughts aside, she loved Zuzu, don't get her wrong, but what he's making her go through right now made her wish he was right next to her, just so she could throttle him into next week. Like, seriously, who in their right minds would think of a tiny fucking vent hanging above a very sticky, very smelly pit of bubbling adhesive? Hell, she could see ponytail – the other representative of Zuzu's class – wiping off a glob of the sticky substance underneath her lips. If the look she was sporting was anything to take note of it was that she wanted to kick Zuzu's ass with a giant stick.

Too bad for her, she'd have to think of other ways to cope. Zuzu's ass is hers, damnit. She ain't letting a hussy get too close to her Zuzu. For all she cared, she could make out with that purple grape acting as a backpack, or she could beat him to a pulp because the midget was acting all freaky.

"Move it already." Behind her, her annoyed classmate groaned.

"I am. You want to try crawling with these on your chest?" Himi scowled at her classmate with indigo-colored hair. At least he had the decency to look mortified as he turned away, a faint line of red dusting his cheeks. "Ha! I thought so."

The two descended into silence as they both continued on crawling, inching themselves ever so slightly forward while trying to ignore the horrible smell. Himiko was going to make sure Zuzu regretted ever suggesting this type of event to the principal.

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All around the stadium, Shota noted the excitement and apprehension present in both the normal audience and the heroes. Each of them had various emotions plastered on their faces as they watched a student drop into a giant pool of Sticky Gel, as coined by the Support Class after they were forced to make it via an excited Maijima.

Even with their knowledge about the gel that would make up most of the course, they were still getting their asses handed to them either because of a trap that was well hidden, it surprised them as they rounded a corner, or because they underestimated the slipperiness of the platform.

A smile crawled up his lips when he saw one of Kan's students get bowled over by a giant ball made of paper mache. It wasn't that harmful to the students, but it was effective at hampering their progress. It weighed just as heavy as an average person, after all.

And then he got a good look when the giant screen decided to showcase Midoriya, or specifically, how he was breezing through the entire goddamn maze like a man on a speedrun. Midoriya may have had a first-hand experience with handcrafting this entire thing, but Nezu was sure that the student wasn't privy to the details. So how? How was he breezing through them like they were less obstacles and more a fun playground?

"Damn, Aizawa, the hell are you feeding that kid?" Hizashi fortunately had his mic off when he asked the question. If it wasn't, then there would be a storm on the internet about kid-friendliness in a high school event. A bit of a hypocritical argument when said students were beating the ever-living hell out of each other for the chance of getting a good internship choice and that gold medal.

"Words, fights, and a bit of R&R." Shota side-eyed the bombastic blond, the sarcasm being laid thick. Hizashi chuckled at the straight man play Shota did. As the saying goes, turnabout is fair play.

"Ha! Where's the grumpy Shota that I know?" Hizashi elbowed him playfully on the sides. "Anyway, gotta get back to casting, can't let the audience stew in silence for so long. Get what I mean?"

"Hmph, go on. Please the masses." Shota grumbled as his eyes focused back on the screen. "Just don't complain when the media gets on your ass again for being 'One of the best showmen in Japan.'"

"... You really aren't gonna give that a rest, are ya?" Shota's lips quirked upward as he relished in the depressive mood that overcame the blond. "Fine, fine, ya sadist."

Hizashi moved his hand to press on the button to turn on the microphone, but before he did that, he cleared his throat and did some vocal exercises. Once he was done, he put on an award-winning smile and sucked up a big breath of air.

"NOW THAT BOTH ME AND MY CO-HOST ARE REFRESHED, IT'S TIME WE GET BACK TO CASTING, EH? AIZAWA BUDDY?" Shota moaned. He missed five minutes ago when his friend wasn't wearing an overly obnoxious persona. "ANYTHING TO SAY ABOUT THE STUDENTS? WHO'S DOING WELL? WHO'S DOING BAD? ANYTHING?"

"First off, they have my condolences. I think this year's first event is a bit overtuned, much more so since they're just first years. No experience whatsoever." Shota knew that the Sports Festival was a way to give exposure to the students, specifically, both the hero class and the support class. It may seem like the general and business classes were being left out, but that was not the case.

Business classes were just not that interested in the entire festival, the physical side of it at least, however, the same couldn't be said for the general classes. It was their opportunity to show that they were still hero material. There was a reason why the students labeled the General Courses as the Hero Reject section.

Unheroic and discriminatory labels aside, they weren't wrong. Ninety percent of the students that make up the first year General Classes were Hero Course applicants that didn't make the cut. It was just sad, knowing that most of those in those courses aren't going to be able to realize their dreams of becoming heroes.

Then again, if they didn't make the cut in the first place, then they weren't fit to become heroes. Can't have liabilities running around on the field. That'd just create more deaths than necessary.

"Sheesh, is it really that bad?" Hizashi lowered his voice, no longer screaming into the microphone.

"Just look at last year's first event and compare it to now." Shota yawned into his scarf; eyes droopy as the first hints of exhaustion hit. Damn that rat and overworking his already overworked employees. "Tell me it isn't Plus Ultra?"

"Well, you're not wrong there." Hizashi hummed. Looking back at the giant screen that showcased students getting hampered by obstacles that grew even more ridiculous than the last, Shota couldn't help but thank Midoriya for giving him a show, at least. It gave him ideas on how to run his future classes.

The more they could take a beating, the more they could learn, and the more their chances of survival could increase. He'll have to hope that Midoriya's fucked up scenario would give them a heads up on how unforgiving the real life could be.

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Izuku was having a blast. To his left, a giant swamp area. To his front, a narrow walkway with a pit that would no doubt cost him valuable time if he did slip. And to his right, a wider walkway but with pendulums that swung from left to right. Instead of the normal blades, they were just blunt, so all it would do is push someone off the walkway and into another pit that would still slow him down.

And the funny thing? There was only one correct path, and Izuku wasn't sure which was the correct way to go. It gave him nostalgia. A reminder of how it felt to be back in the Firelink Shrine with no idea where to go. There was a difference, however. This time, he wasn't alone.

Turning back, he saw Katsuki with an unamused face glaring at him, no doubt cursing him for even thinking up about this scenario. So what? It was fun, and he would gladly share this experience to everybody as long as it wasn't permanently harming them. It would give them some mental scars, but to be fair, a healthy dose of fear and paranoia wasn't that bad.

It could even prolong their life on the field.

"So, which way?" Izuku didn't want to take the lead. He'd already had his fill. He wanted someone else to take the reins for a change, to see someone else make the decisions in a recreation of Lordran, although this Hazard Maze was far from being Lordran.

"... Swamp." Katsuki grumbled and took the lead, making Izuku smile. It was a funny story about how they met in the maze. First, Yaoyorozu got the short end of the stick when she slipped on a slippery slope and fell to her death. Nah, that wasn't what happened. She did fall, though. They never saw her again, however, but Izuku was pretty sure she was in another area because he explicitly stated to Hado to have some of the pitfalls connect other areas. It might even count as a shortcut.

In fact, Izuku was very tempted to jump into the nearest pitfall, but alas, he wanted someone else to do the thinking. He just wanted to tag-along, see if the current leader – that being Katsuki – could lead him to the finish line.

Anyway, where was he? Ah, right. How he and Katsuki met. After Yaoyorozu fell into a hole, he found Katsuki blasting boulders made of paper mache into scorched ashes. A glare and a tilt of a head later, the two found themselves walking side-by-side as they traversed this labyrinth. Kind of an anti-climactic alliance, but hey, they wanted to reach the last event. Izuku wanted to fight, Gwyn damnit, and they explicitly stated that no fighting was to be done during the first event.

Sighing, Izuku tilted his head to the side to dodge an incoming blob of Sticky Gel. Katsuki blew up the blob that went for him. Good thing they weren't flammable, otherwise this entire stadium would go up in flames.

"By the way, what would we do if we went the wrong way?" Katsuki ceased his gait, body slowly turning towards him. He was stone-faced, not showing any kind of expression. It was Un-Katsuki-like. They stared at each other for a few seconds that felt like hours, before the ash blond pointed towards something. That something being a giant hole in the floor.

Izuku grinned, maybe he would be able to use one of the pitfalls.

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A/N: Bruh, was a bit scared that one of my toes was going to get an ingrown, so off I went to get a pedicure. Good news, the pain on said toe is gone. Bad news, another toe got an infection cuz of the pedicure and now hurts like a bitch. For fuck's sake...

Shameless Plugs:

patreon.com/IAmGuavaFruitFictionHub (If you want to read 10 (currently 8) chaps ahead, head on over.)

discord.gg/v9f5kjsfVv (This time palworld got me addicted. Who doesn't like forcing animals to do your biddings :D)