Race

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"...Try not to bore me too much"

...

..

.

The moment Suzaku let out those words through the microphone, the entire stadium fell into a deadly silence, as if someone had pushed the mute button on everyone present at the moment.

It was not only the baffled students before Suzaku who had fallen silent but also the people sitting in the stands.

And how could they not? The students' representative, someone whose duty was to uphold good sportsmanship, had taunted everyone at the very moment of his speech.

What was more, he had done it during a live transmission that was being watched by the majority of Japan on all things.

Neither of the previous students' representatives had dared to do such a thing.

"Thank you for your attention"

In the end, though, the silence only lasted for half a second, until Suzaku put an end to his speech and placed the microphone back in its support before walking away.

"Screw you!"

"What the hell does that mean?!"

"The guys from the hero course think they are hot shit, huh?!"

"Asshole!"

"I'll incinerate you, damn bastard!"

Immediately after the speech ended, the group of students outside of class 1-B immediately began getting rowdy and looking at Suzaku and his classmates with fiery anger in their eyes. Causing the poor 1-B class to cover their faces in shame and try their best to look like they didn't know Suzaku in the slightest.

Meanwhile, in the stands, several pro heroes were laughing faintly at the show Suzaku had put on.

"Haha, what a quirky student"

"To say something like that in front of the entire Japan, that kid's got guts"

"... I'm not sure if that was very smart though. Look at all the others, they are fuming in anger, he'll surely get targeted the moment the events begin"

"Well, if he is as skilled as he made it sound, he should be able to face the consequences of his words"

"Hah, you're right. Let's hope he has what it takes to back that confidence up"

In the world of heroes, being confident means that one has trust in their abilities, so of course their interest was picked up.

What kind of abilities would the one who ranked first among most students have to be so confident in himself? Every single one of the heroes looking for potential talents was asking themselves this same question.

His attitude was something that could be fixed in due time, talent, however, was not. They were eager to see what Suzaku would have in store for them.

As for whether his confidence would turn out to be baseless arrogance in the end or not, that was about to be seen.

Back to the group of students…

"You damn psycho, why did you do that?!" Monoma said, shaking Suzaku back and forth comically.

Suzaku shrugged as he continued to be shaken. "Just because"

Then, Sen screamed from among the group of students. "You're not right in the head!" Gaining a nod from some of his classmates, who were looking a little concerned by the hostile gazes sent to them.

Hearing that last comment, Suzaku scoffed, before he pushed Monoma's hands away from his collar, and put his hands back into his pockets.

"If they are so angry at my words, then they just have to prove me wrong… However, whether they will be able to, we'll see"

"You…"

As Monoma was gritting his teeth, Testutetsu walked up to them and flashed a toothy smile as he patted Monoma's shoulder. "Well, calm down Monoma. Although he could have said it more nicely, Suzaku is right… If they don't have the skill to prove Suzaku's words wrong, then that's their problem"

"There's a thing called being civil," Monoma said with a deadpan, however, he was ignored by both.

"By the way Tetsutetsu" Suzaku turned to look at the metallic teenager. "... You were included in what I said"

"WHAT?! YOU COCKY BASTA—!!"

-Whip!-

"Attention!"

Unfortunately, Tetsutetsu was never able to finish his words, as soon Midnight snapped her whip in the air, and spoke aloud for everyone to hear.

"Now then, since we are done with that, let's get started immediately with the FIRST EVENT of this year's sports festival!"

Suddenly, a huge screen was deployed behind Midnight, with a roulette-like animation playing in the background, catching the attention of all the students who knew what it meant.

It was time for the first event's selection.

Midnight licked her lips with a sadistic smile upon seeing their nervous countenance, before going on with the presentation. "I'm sure everyone's already dying to know, so I'll not prolong it further… The oh-so-fateful and dream-destroying first event of this year is…" Midnight spoke with a tone of anticipation in her voice, before snapping her whip once more as the animation stopped playing, and the picture of a stick figure in a running posture appeared. 

"An obstacle race!!!"

-Cheers!-

The instant the event was announced, the crowd exploded into cheers. Enthusiasm for seeing how such a competition would develop overflowed from everyone in the stands.

The students, however, nervously gulped at the sight of their soon-to-be challenge. Some even began crying, as their Quirks wouldn't be able to excel much at a competition like that.

Suzaku, however, retained his poker face, simply giving some of his nervous classmates a few glances and a pitying look to the poor Arata in the distance who was glooming over having his physical aspect tested once again.

'Well, I helped him train for a bit a while ago, so he shouldn't screw up so bad… probably…'

As Suzaku was pondering if he should aid his ally a bit during the event, Midnight then proceeded to explain its contents to avoid any possible confusion among the students.

In summary, everyone would have to complete a four-kilometer course that circled the entire outer part of the stadium, where different sets of obstacles would be placed to make the competency more "Entertaining". She didn't delve into what they would be, but none of the present ones felt like they were gonna be easy.

However, that was not the part that interested the students the most, but the next one.

"One more thing" Midnight smiled deviously. "If there's a thing our school values a lot, it's freedom! As such, as long as you stay on the course… Anything is allowed"

""...!""

That announcement, although it didn't cause any visible change in the nervous students, caused a shift in the mood that was felt by many.

-Stares…-

Suddenly, several eyes were directed at Suzaku's nonchalant figure, and from the expressions of their owners, it was evident that no one of them held good intentions.

The redhead of course noticed it, but he didn't mind it much. He had taunted everyone for a reason.

If there wasn't a challenge, then what was the point of achieving first place? 

He was gonna wipe the floor with everyone, regardless of how many they were.

-Whip!-

"That's all, now everyone go to your positions!" After finishing the explanations, Midnight whipped the air one last time and dismissed the students, who began moving towards the starting line at one of the stadium's gates.

"Hey, let me through, I must start first!"

"Get out of the way!"

"Stay in your place!"

"Hey, first come first served!"

"I said it move it, asshole!"

However, the moment everyone got there, quarrels to secure the best spot from where to begin running started happening left and right. 

The number of students was such, that those who would end up in the last rows would inevitably have a great disadvantage when the race began. Therefore, it was understandable why everyone was so focused on securing a good spot.

Even Suzaku's classmates and Arata had gone off to fight for good spots in the race. The redhead, however, did not even bother. 

By the time their preparation time ended, Suzaku ended up standing among the last row of students, where the lazy, uninterested, or simply shy students who couldn't bring themselves or bother to fight for better positions were.

Plus, as the festival's number one enemy right now, he didn't think he would be given much way into the front rows either.

'Not that I'll need it' Suzaku thought as his eyes squinted faintly.

As the time of starting approached, many of his classmates shot him confused or almost concerned looks upon seeing him so at the back. However, after seeing his carefree expression, most of them shrugged their worries aside, feeling like he was gonna be fine.

In the end, after around 5 minutes passed and everyone got a good hold of their positions, Midnight's voice echoed loudly in the stadium and put everyone on high alert.

"Everyone, get ready!"

After that, right above the starting line, three green lights were turned on, acting as the countdown.

The eyes of every single student immediately became glued on them, and as if to respond to their fervent anxiousness, soon enough, one by one the light in them began disappearing.

[3]

[2]

[1]

Until none were left.

The next instant, Midnight raised her arm into the air and shouted the word that everyone was waiting for.

"Start!"

The moment her voice resounded through the field, everyone began to get on the move, running in unison to the gate like a furious stampede.

And, as the huge mass of students ran with all their might ahead, the voice of Present Mic suddenly reached the ears of everyone around.

{"Well, here's the play-by-play! Are you ready to do the commentary, Eraser-head?"}

Aizawa's voice came after his. {"You forced me to come"}

{"Ahem, let's not pay attention to that, Eraser. First of all, what do you think we should pay attention to during these early stages of the competition?"}

{"This part right now"}

The next second, a huge problem occurred.

The starting line, which consisted of a tunnel that led to the outside, was not wide enough to fit all the furiously running students. 

As a result, the moment they began entering it, the tunnel started getting cramped, slowing the anxious students down, until at one point no one could move anymore.

"Hey, move it!"

"Come on, why aren't you guys at the front moving?!"

"Hurry up!"

"Hey, watch out!"

"Stop pushing, we can't move either!"

The heated-up students, whose adrenaline reserves were at full power after Midnight had given start to the competition, were quick to get frustrated when they found themselves in such a stupid situation when they were in one of the most important moments in their lives.

Some elbowed others, trying to give themselves some room to breathe, while others pushed those in front of them with all their might, hoping to continue with the race as soon as possible albeit not very successful.

However, things were about to change.

-Swoosh!-

The next second, a huge wave of cold washed over everyone inside the tunnel, freezing the floor in the process, and causing confusion among everyone.

Then, from the other side of the tunnel, on the outer part of the stadium, a figure emerged from the cold mist that had been created.

"Sorry about this…" Todoroki said with a fake-apologetic tone, as he began running ahead. Leaving behind the huge crowd of students, who glanced at his back with shock.

Immediately, they tried chasing after him upon seeing him take the lead so casually. However, they soon realized a problem.

"W-what is this—?!"

"I can't—!"

"It's freezing over—!"

The huge wave of cold had not only made way for Todoroki to pass, but it had also frozen the feet of many unprepared teenagers, who got stuck to the floor and couldn't move anymore.

That wasn't the case for everyone, however.

-Boom!-

-Flash!-

In the next second, four figures also made their way through the group and quickly began following after Todoroki. 

Bakugo, Yaoyorozu, Aoyama, and Kirishima all used their Quirks to spring out of the crowded tunnel, evading Todoroki's floor-freezing move.

However, they were not the only ones to do that.

Soon after, Ibara, Tetsutetsu, and Fukidashi (The manga-face guy) all used their Quirks in their own way and sprang out of the crowd as well. Following after those ahead immediately.

After that, more students followed their example, from many of the hero course, to students from other departments. Everyone began using their Quirks to their advantage and to level things up a bit.

As for where a certain red-headed youth was during all this…

"Hey, what the fuck?!"

"Ouch, who did—?!"

"Ack!"

"Watch it!"

Suddenly, amidst the still-trapped crowd of students, Suzaku figure emerged like an expert gymnast and began using the heads and shoulders of everyone who was still trapped in the ice as step holds to move through the tunnel.

Many eyed him with anger on annoyance upon feeling his weight fall upon them for a second, but Suzaku just ignored them all until he got to the end of the tunnel. Landing then on the floor once again, and immediately starting to run after everyone who had gotten ahead without looking back at the troubled students whom he had stepped on.

His speed caught the eyes of many competitors, who from one moment to another began seeing Suzaku pass by their side as if they were snails in comparison to him.

He even ran past Midoriya, who had also managed to get out of the crowd.

"Suzuki-kun?!"

The green-headed teenager looked at him shocked upon seeing his fast figure run past him in less than a second, and soon leave him behind.

Suzaku however, did not pay him attention, and just continued sprinting at full speed, moving through the positions like a bullet, until ultimately, he began approaching those who were at the front.

The first one he met was Bakugo, who upon catching sight of Suzaku running past him, had a vein sprout on his forehead and yelled at him furiously. "Red-haired bastard!"

"Brat-who-won't-shut-up" Suzaku addressed him as well as he gave Bakugo a small nod while running past him, making the blonde even more angry.

"You—!" Bakugo looked like he wanted to do something at that moment. However, before he had the chance, Suzaku's speed increased and he began leaving him behind, even though the blonde was using explosions to propel himself forward.

"Wait, you bastard!!!"

As Suzaku's figure got further and further, Bakugo shouted in frustration as he tried grabbing him.

Suzaku, unfortunately, just ignored him, and went on with his full-speed sprint, soon leaving the blonde to bite the dust, and passing by a surprised Momo, who eyed him with shock, and an awed Kirishima who shot him a thumbs up upon seeing his speed.

By the time everyone else had finally left the tunnel, Suzaku was already in second place just a bit behind Todoroki, who despite his initial advantage, was quickly being caught up by Suzaku.

Until, after a while, the gap between them turned to nothing as Suzaku finally caught up with the red and white-haired teenager, and gave him a curt nod as he passed by his side.

"Sup"

"...?" 

Todoroki didn't say anything. However, a frustrated expression still surged on his face when he realized Suzaku had somehow still caught up.

His frown deepened even further when he noticed that with Suzaku's speed, it was only a matter of time before he started being left behind as well.

'So his fighting skill was not the only thing he excelled at…' Todoroki squinted his eyes, and for a brief moment, considered making a move against Suzaku. After all, Midnight had implied that anything was allowed during the race, so fighting other competitors should be as well.

However, before he had the chance to decide whether to do it or not, Todoroki's eyes caught sight of a quickly approaching object, and he dodged in a hurry.

-Bang!-

"What…?"

The next second after jumping away, he caught sight of what had almost hit him, widening his eyes upon seeing a huge tank-like robot with the number 3 printed on its carcass, striking the same spot where he had been standing just a second ago.

'A robot?'

As Todoroki pondered the reason for a robot to be here, Suzaku's voice reached his ears. 

"The villain bots from the practical exam, huh?"

Having entered through recommendation, Todoroki didn't get to fight them as he never took the practical exam, and as such, he also never got to see them. Having only heard his classmates mention them from time to time during the short time they had been together.

'So this is what they fought in the practical exam?' Todoroki eyed the metallic entity with curiosity.

However, his focus on the robot in front of him shifted pretty quickly when he saw what lay in the distance, waiting for them.

-Broooom!!-

There, lined up horizontally like a wall, several titanic robots could be seen awaiting patiently the moment someone would try to pass by them. Ready to squash any student in sight with their colossal size.

It was the 0-pointers.

The moment his eyes landed on them, Present Mic's voice began echoing around the stands of the stadium, narrating what was happening.

{"Obstacles have shown up already in front of our leading participants! Starting with the first barrier… Robo Inferno!!!"}

Their sheer size and numbers surprised Todoroki a bit. However, despite his initial surprise, there was not a hint of worry in his eyes.

He was confident in taking them on if it came to that. His Quirk did allow for that.

However, he wasn't the only one who seemed to be full of confidence at the moment.

"They went a bit overboard with their number… But well, it isn't like we have to fight them, is it?" Suzaku muttered, before he looked behind him, and saw the hundreds of students still in the race quickly catching up to them. "... Better get on the move"

After saying so, Suzaku kicked the ground and started running straight towards the group of giants. Ignoring Todoroki's surprised face on the process, and some angry shouts directed at them from a certain blonde.

"W—what is that guy doing?!"

"Is he stupid?!"

As the rest of the participants arrived at the scene, many stared with awe as Suzaku approached the giant robots without a hint of fear.

Awe that turned pretty quickly into dread once they saw one of the 0-pointers look at Suzaku, and ready one of its devastating punches.

"H-hey, watch out!"

Even as the enemy number one at the moment, many still weren't at the level of wanting to see Suzaku turn into meat paste.

Their worries, however, were unfounded.

-Booom!-

As the punch struck the floor, destroying a huge chunk of the ground and raising a huge dust cloud in the process, Suzaku's swift figure moved through the field with incredible speed and easily evaded the terrifying punch with relative ease. Causing many of the competitors to go agape in front of the sight

After that, a few more 0-pointers tried attacking Suzaku's slippery figure. However, by the time he reached the end of the obstacle, neither of them had managed to touch him.

{"Suzaku Suzuki from Class 1-B! He managed to evade all the attacks from the 0-pointers and even made it seem easy! How amazing, he has become the first one to get through!"}

After Present Mic spoke with shock and awe as he continued narrating the event, many of the competitors who had seen what Suzaku had done reconsidered their notions about the redhead.

"Damn… So that's why he was so cocky"

"No wonder he got first place"

"I don't think I would be able to dodge those attacks as easily…"

"Hey, it's turning towards us!"

Suddenly, as many students admired Suzaku's agility, someone noticed that, after failing to catch Suzaku, some of the 0-pointers were turning towards them instead.

"Oh shit, they are coming!"

"Tsk…"

Seeing the 0-pointers start targeting him and the others out of nowhere, Todoroki clicked his tongue and took a step forward. 

"I don't know exactly how strong these guys are, but if they were gonna go through all this trouble to prepare something on this level…"

His eyes squinted as the temperature around him suddenly dropped drastically.

"... I wish they would have prepared something better, especially since my stupid old man is watching"

Upon saying those words, Todoroki made a slight wave with his hands, and from it, created a huge wave of cold that washed over the colossal robots, and covered them all in tons of ice, therefore, immobilizing them.

"Fuuh~"

After that, Todoroki took a deep breath, and without further ado, began running past the frozen robots, going after the already-gone Suzaku as if he hadn't just frozen several colossal robots with but a wave of his hand.

"Look, we can get through in between their legs!"

After that, many students pointed at him as they saw him running past the robots with ease. Following after him, thinking of taking advantage of the fact that the robots were frozen.

However, they all stopped when Todoroki's voice reached them.

"I'd advise you against it. I froze them while they were unbalanced… They'll fall"

And as if responding to his words, after Todoroki passed by the robots, these began collapsing upon the rest of the competitors, who hurriedly ran away and managed to evade the collapsing metal machines from falling upon them.

Todoroki simply continued running, ignoring completely the huge dust explosion occurring on his back.

He had to catch a certain red-haired dude.

…

-To be Continued…-

°

(A/N: First part of the race completed, now only three remain, how will our overly suspicious protagonist get past them? Will he get first place in this event, or will broccoli-man make an incredible comeback like in the anime?

Discover it in the next episode of Sussy Baka in MHA)

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