Sports Festival and Motivations

The classroom is filled with noise as everyone discusses how the news keeps talking about the USJ attack. Apparently they weren't as affected by Mineta's death as I thought, as they're excitedly talking about how strong All Might is for burying the Nomu. Though when Toru points out how I managed to fight them both it's just waved off by the class' terrorist.

"All the cat did was dodge. It's not like she did any real damage to either of them."

"I'm fairly certain that she shoved half of her hand into All Might's side after her armor was destroyed." Momo counters, causing a small smirk to appear. One that stretches into full-on smug at Uraraka's shiver.

"Not to mention all the blood she spilled from the bird guy. It was scary."

He scowls at both of them. "THOSE DON'T COUNT! THAT SHITTY BIRD JUST HEALED EVERYTHING SHE DID TO THEM, AND SHE SNEAK ATTACKED ALL MIGHT! SHE COULDN'T EVEN HURT THEM WHEN THEY WERE BEATING THE SHIT OUT OF EACH OTHER!"

Now it's my turn to scowl. As much as I hate to admit it, he's right about that. I have no idea how the Nomu's regeneration worked, so if it somehow pulled air into its body to power its regeneration, I would have lost. Really, the only way I would have been able to beat it would have been an instant kill, but the nya thing had enough sense to stop me from clawing its brain.

Plus… "I'm a cat! Of course I'm a clawver hunter instead of a mindless scrapper like mew!"

"THE HELL YOU SAY TO ME CAT!?"

"QUIET! CLASS IS ABOUT TO BEGIN, SO EVERYONE PLEASE TAKE YOUR SEATS AND QUIET DOWN!"

Bakugou clicks his tongue at his robotic classmate but sits down all the same. An unhappy Aizawa means an unhappy day for us. Which reminds me…

I summon a fluffy defense cat and send it to his desk while Iida scowls at me, but he says nothing as he goes to his own. Everyone knows about our teacher's fondness for cats, and especially mine since they're soft and cute and require absolutely no maintenance~.

So when Aizawa comes into the room and sees the ball of floof on his desk, nobody is surprised when he picks it up with his non-damaged arm and cradles it in the nook of his elbow.

"I hope that all of you managed to relax somewhat, because your fight isn't over yet."

The panic that spreads through the classroom really puts a smile on my face~. Don't they know what time of the year it is? A glance shows that even Midorinya is showing signs of worry, which is ironic considering how he always made a big deal out of it at least a month in advance. Though I suppose it's understandable given the whole USJ thing.

Giving them all a glare that somehow manages to stop their panicking, he says in a serious tone, "The UA Sports Festival is about to start."

Immediately panic is replaced by excitement as Kirishima mimics our English teacher by shouting, "Yeah!". But it's curtailed pretty quickly when Jiro asks if it's a good idea considering the school was, y'know, attacked.

Aizawa gives the reason that the school wants to show that they've repelled the villains and to show that they aren't afraid, but I had an active spy cat in that meeting so I know the truth. They're actually hoping that there's another attack. They plan to increase the security to a frankly obscene degree in the hopes that they'll be able to catch anyone from either the LoV or the Cult. Apparently they're confident in stopping any attack they try before anything happens.

It's honestly not too bad of an idea -except for stopping the trouble before it becomes too noticeable- but I've made it clear to the Cult that they aren't allowed to pull anything during it. I've also asked Himiko to dissuade the League if they try anything, so I don't have any worries. At least as long as Shigaraki doesn't get impatient and does something stupid.

That, and I'm pretty sure that the Principal is a sadist who enjoys watching his students beat each other to bloody pulps. I heard that he implemented a 'heroes vs villain' game when he was first appointed, but it got shut down after a few years due to how bad the injuries people got from it were. The only reason I even know about it is because the families of the participants got sent the videos of what happened during them and I stole it from some petty criminal I killed.

After a brief history lesson on how the Sports Festival replaced the Olympics due to the world finding teenage violence more interesting than adult competition, the day continues as normal with two exceptions. The first is that of Uraraka sucking in her soft cheeks and declaring that she'll do her best in the Sports Festival with a serious expression. The second is that of Mina not being as peppy around everyone else as usual.

Thankfully everyone else has at least stopped ignoring her now, though half of them still whisper behind her back when they think she can't hear. But it seems that the talk that Toru and I had with her worked, and she's no longer letting them bother her too much. And if she ever needs to vent about these idiots, she can always come to either one of us.

Lunch is an interesting affair, as the Midorinyas and the Cats sit together, and Midorinya himself asks what everyone's motivations to become heroes are. Uraraka floors us as she answers with an embarrassed face.

"Money!? You want to become a hero so you can get rich?" Midorinya asks as he blinks rapidly, trying to process her answer. Everyone else is more or less in the same state as she continues.

"If you cut to the chase, then yeah." She sheepishly rubs her head while looking away. 'Hopefully she doesn't meet Cheezy while he's on patrol. He'll definitely kill her.'

Seeing how everyone is looking at her, she hastily clarifies that she wants to make money in order for her parents to be able to retire and live without worry, causing everyone else to let out sighs of relief. 'That fits her personality much better', seems to be the main thought they all have.

Most of the others' answers are about what you'd expect: Momo to show her parents that she can be a strong and independent woman who doesn't need to rely on them, Ojiro and Tsu because they want to help people, Mina and Toru because of how their lives have been affected by their quirks, and Todoroki to give his father the finger by doing it and not using 'his' quirk..

Honestly, that one is super dumb. Nobody's quirk belongs to anybody but themselves, and more than that he said that he hates half of his quirk in front of the one person he shouldn't have…

Midorinya slams his hands into the table as he stands and glares at him, the anger practically radiating off of him. "You were born with an amazing power, but you refuse to use all of it because it's similar to your dad's? How stupid are you?"

Todoroki glares back, and the temperature drops in the room. "Watch what you say, Midoriya. You don't know what I've gone through, what it's like to have something like this."

He grits his teeth as he spits out his reply. "You're right, I don't. And do you know why? Because I wasn't lucky enough to be born with something the rest of the world has! Do you know what I went through!? All because I didn't have what you have!? A few years ago I would have literally killed for any kind of quirk! Even something as simple as being able to change the color of my eyes or something!"

Across the lunchroom, I see a girl with curly black hair look at us with an offended look on her face, prompting me to hold up a hand and bow my head slightly in apology. But my attention is quickly brought back to Midorinya's yelling.

"You were blessed to be born with something powerful, but you're insisting that you can surpass everyone here while only using half of your power."

Todoroki scowls, the biggest change in facial expression that any of us have ever seen from him. "My father's quirk-"

"IT'S YOUR QUIRK, NOT HIS! SO SHUT UP ABOUT HIM! IF YOU REALLY WANT TO GET AWAY FROM YOUR FATHER, GET EMANCIPATED OR SOMETHING!"

Leaving those words behind, he snatches his empty lunch tray and storms away, leaving shocked silence behind. Todoroki has a look of realization on his face as he looks down at his left hand, and it remains that way as he also gets up to throw his trash away.

As if it was a signal, everyone else quickly follows suit, leaving only me and Jiro still sitting down. She looks a bit dazed as she looks around at the suddenly empty table, left only with me and my third tray of meat. "...Does anyone want to know why I decided to become a hero?" She half-asks herself, causing me to choke on my meat strip in laughter.

`~`

At the end of the day, when the door opens to release us to our personal training for the Sports Festival, we're blocked by a huge crowd of people. And at the front is a purple haired guy with an arrogant smirk, who's eyebags convince us all that he's somehow related to our teacher.