Chapter 54: And The Winner Is!?

"It's... A big hole" Hitomi says as her, Toru and Ochaco gaze out at their next obstacle... A HUGE ravine with different sized stone pillars dotted randomly all throughout it with reinforced ropes stretched tight between them

"I see Todoroki!" Toru cups her hands around her eyes and squints "He's freezing ropes and sliding across!"

"Well then... Should be easy enough to balance on..." She taps a rope a few times with her foot and it doesn't wobble at all

"Well... It seems stable?" Toru clings tightly to Hitomi again "Giddy up!"

"Huh! Cheeky!" Hitomi edges forward and starts walking across the first rope "A little bit of give but this is perfect!" She picks up the pace and is soon running across the rope

Toru can't help but laugh "Running across the heads of a crowd and now running across a rope!? Are you actually a ninja Hitomi? You use those ninja jabby knife looking things too!"

Hitomi quickly reaches the other side and starts jumping directly across smaller gaps ahead, completely bypassing the ropes "Noooo I am not a ninja, this is all thanks to Ochaco and her amazingly useful Quirk"

"Hitomi... You're the one doing all the running it's not just my Quirk that's getting us through this" Ochaco pats her shoulder

"Heeeeey Hitomiiiii?" Toru giggles "Got some advice for ya"

"If you say "Don't look down" I'm gonna drop you."

"Uhhh... Never mind!" Toru chuckles awkwardly and clings a liiiittle bit tighter "Please don't drop me..."

"Mmmhm, thought so" she starts running across a very long rope "Progress update on the others?"

Toru looks behind "Bakugo's closing in from above... And a girl covered in support items is kinda close" she cranes her head around "Apart from that everyone seems to be making similar progress to each other behind them"

"Bakugo!? Oh hell no!" Once she gets to the other end if the rope Hitomi picks up the pace once again "Ok I'm seeing a red staircase up ahead, that should be the way to the next obstacle"

Toru faces forward again "Frozen rope ahead"

"Y'know Todoroki is really starting to piss me off! He's been the biggest obstacle this entire course not anything the school set up!" She jumps and gets about three quarters worth across before landing on the frozen rope causing it the wobble and the ice to shatter off of it! Hitomi of course doesn't stick around to see the ice break and jumps the rest of the gap as soon as she's stable enough

"Ha haaaaa!! You made it!" Toru smothers Hitomi's cheek with kisses

"WE made it" She takes multiple red steps at a time up the staircase then keeps running along the path

"So..." Ochaco gulps "I take it we're not gonna fall to our deaths...?"

"You're damn right we're not, how's your stomach?" Hitomi glances down at the girl in her arms

Ochaco pats her stomach "It's settled, surprisingly... I should be ok"

As they, Hitomi, runs they hear Present Mic's announcement for what's going on up ahead "And now we're finally approaching the last obstacle! Everyone had better tread carefully! YOU'RE STEPPING ONTO A MINEFIELD!!!"

Hitomi, Toru and Ochaco all yell "Whaaaaat!?!" At the same time as they round the final corner

"If you look carefully you can see where those little bombs are buried so keep your eyes on the ground folks!" Present Mic pauses for a moment "By the way, those land mines were designed for the games so they might be loud and flashy buuut they're not all that powerful... Just enough to make you wet your pants!!"

Toru chuckles "Trust UA to focus on bright and flashy eh?" She gasps and excitedly points forward "Hey! There's Todoroki!!"

"And hey! There's the freekin' minefeild!" Hitomi slides to a stop at the edge of the minefeild

Todoroki is slightly ahead slowly making his way through the buried mines

"Ok Ochaco... Last time I'm gonna ask you to use your Quirk" Hitomi puts her down but keeps hold of her arm so she doesn't float off... Then puts her bandages back in place over her eyes with her free hand "And you can open your eyes"

"What's the plan Hitomi?" Ochaco opens her eyes then taps her fingertips together to cancel her Quirk

"You'll make yourself and Toru weightless and I'll weigh us down and go through the minefield" she unties Toru's gym uniform top from her head, thus freeing her snakes who all hiss for joy! Aaaand glare at Toru.

Toru bows to the snakes "I'm sorry...! I'll give you loads of marshmallows..."

The snakes look between each other... Then nod and hiss happily

"Hey! No marshmallows you guys, you'll get fat" Hitomi flicks some of the snakes!

"Seeing as me and Ochaco will both be weightless..." Toru jumps into Hitomi's arms! "I get to be a Princess this time!"

Ochaco chuckles "And I'll be the backpack I guess" she taps Toru and then herself before clinging to Hitomi's back "Heh heh... Nice snakeys...?"

"Here we go girls" Hitomi stomps her feet a few times then starts making her way slowly through the mines... Stomping hard between them instead of stepping normally 'Thank god I took my shoes off earlier... Or rather thank Todoroki!'

"Uhhh..." Ochaco looks down at the floor "Why are you stomping like that?"

"Tremor sense..." Hitomi stays focused on the floor "When I stomp I can sense the mines around my foot... Think of it like ground based echo location"

Both the girls think at the same time... 'So cool!!'

"Wait so..." Toru leans back and looks behind Hitomi "Once other people start triggering the mines and make more tremmors..."

Hitomi grins "Then we can speed up!"

"GET BACK HERE HALF'N'HALF!!" Bakugo suddenly blasts over their heads in persuit of Todoroki!

"Damn it!" Hitomi speeds up as much as she can while being carefull... Until there's a loud explosion behind her and the mines all around her are all suddenly revealed!

"People have caught up!" Ochaco stares back nervously as the first few runners start appearing

"Good!" Hitomi picks up the pace to a full on run! As constant explosions go off behind them they rapidly gain on Todoroki and Bakugo as they're caught up fighting each other as they run!

While they're running Toru can't help but stare up at Hitomi with a very happy smile on her face... 'Damn you're awesome... Super awesome...'

"What's this!? The team of Hitomi Sekizō, Toru Hagakure and Ochaco Uraraka are coming up out of nowhere trying to take back the lead they lost in the first obstacle!!" Present Mic kinda ruins their sneaky overtake but oh well!

"Comin' through boys!" Hitomi dashes past Todoroki and Bakugo without even glancing their way, she has no need to after all

Todoroki stares with widened eyes "What the...?"

Bakugo snarls! "Where'd you come from Snake head!?!" Both boys charge after them while still trying to either freeze or explode the other "Back off Icy-Hot they're getting away damn it!!!"

"I'm aware of that! You stop trying to sabotage me!" Todoroki shoves a freezing hand at Bakugo's face

Hitomi laughs as she runs "Running through a minefield with a natural disaster and an explosive psychopath at my heels! What a rush!!"

Toru and Ochaco laugh with her, Toru adding "Just don't make a habit out of-

Before she can finish there's a GIANT explosion way in the back!! Hitomi, Todoroki and Bakugo all stop running in shock and look back! Hitomi even lifts her bandage for a moment to see

Present Mic can be heard over the explosion "What's with that huge explosion in the back!? That was way more powerful than it should be!!"

Hitomi stares at the giant pink dust cloud at the start of the field "It's like a bunch of mines went off at once!" Suddenly a figure breaks through the dust cloud, high in the sky, riding what looks like a scrap of metal "Izuku...!?" She quickly drops her bandage back in place and turns to keep running while Todoroki and Bakugo stay frozen and staring 'Gotta take advantage of that explosion!! It lit up the entire field!' and indeed it did, momentarily revealing every single mine to Hitomi's instinctual tremor sense

"Incredibllllle!!" Present Mic yells into his mic that is present "What! Just! Happened!? Whatever the case! Class 1-A's Izuku Midoriya is suddenly in hot persuit of first place!"

"He's heading right for us!!" Ochaco clings desperately to Hitomi!

"How does he plan to land!?" Toru looks over Hitomi's shoulder while gripping it

Hitomi focuses on the rapidly approaching Izuku "He doesn't!! He's gonna crash!" She grits her teeth and speeds up to try and stay ahead of him!

Present Mic is freeking out in excitement "It's just team Sekizō between Midoriya and the lead!! It's nearly his!!"

Todoroki and Bakugo stop fighting each other fully and start using their Quirks to catch up!

Izuku sails towards the ground on a direct collision course with the sprinting Todoroki and Bakugo

'He's gonna crash into mines when he lands!! We're too close...!' some of Hitomi's longer snakes wrap around Ochaco's wrists "Ochaco hold on...!!!"

Midoriya spins in the air, perches his feet on the shoulders of Todoroki and Bakugo as they run, grips a loose cable on the scrap metal and uses it like a hammer to SLAM down between the boys and hit multiple mines!

"Izuku you're nuts!!" Hitomi yells as the mines detonate!! Todoroki and Bakugo get blasted to the sides while Izuku is luckily blasted forward straight toward Hitomi! He tumbles across the ground miraculously not hitting any mines and scrambles to his feet! Running neck and neck with Hitomi as they make it out of the minefield

"Deku that was crazy!!" Ochaco stares at him with wide eyes

"I-I know!" He has a desperate look on his face and sprints as fast as he can

Ochaco faces ahead "We're almost there!!"

Todoroki and Bakugo launch out of the pink dust cloud and start rapidly gaining on the four in the lead by using their Quirks!

The six of them all enter the entrance tunnel within moments of each other!

"You're not gonna beat me Deku!! I'll kill you if you even try!!!" Bakugo has lost sight of every opponent apart from Izuku

Toru pulls one of her shoes off "Back off you psycho!!" She throws the shoe and it smacks Bakugo in the face! Making him stumble slightly and fall behind Todoroki

As they all are seconds away from reaching the end Present Mic's commentary is still going strong "Who would have imagined at the beginning of this race that the climax would be a non stop mega mix of surpriseeees!?"

And just like that! It's over... "The first to make it back into the stadium is the first place winner...!" They all blast out of the tunnel within moments of each other and Present Mic gladly announces the result "Izuku Midoriya is our champiooooon!!!"

Hitomi comes to an eventual stop and, after releasing Toru from her arms and feeling Ochaco dismount, collapses onto her back gasping for breath! "I...! Made it...!"

Ochaco quickly cancels her Quirk for a final time and her and Toru crouch next to Hitomi "You ok Hitomi...?"

Toru holds her hand "Yeah you ok...?"

Hitomi, still panting, smiles at them "Never... Better... We did good... That was..." She slowly sits up and hugs the two girls "That was so much fun!"

"But... We didn't win..." Toru hangs her head... "You carried us all that way and we still didn't win..."

Hitomi plants a kiss on the top of her head and smiles "But we still passed... And we made it look damn good!"