Chapter Text
Izuku stood next to Meimei, Shinsou not far off. Meimei was bouncing on the balls of her feet, and Izuku just stood lazily next to her, hands shoved into the pockets of his gym kit and ignoring the weird looks he and the other 1-F students (plus Shinsou) got for being completely decked out in support items.
Fien came up to Izuku’s other side, ginger hair pulled into a high ponytail. “Midoriya-kun, are you sure this will work?”
Her accent is thicker than usual, and Izuku takes it to mean she’s anxious. He huffed a breath before responding. “Have I ever led you wrong?”
“Just last week we all nearly got detention because you convinced us to help you test your Il-lum-ni-sphere on the wood teacher’s desk…”
Meimei waved her hand dismissively. “It was old and he shouldn’t have such a fire hazard in a Support classroom anyway. It all went according to plan and nobody got detention. It was a total success.”
“Hinata was suspended for three days,” Reiki reminds her.
“It was a total success,” Izuku echoes Meimei, and Shinsou snorts.
It hadn’t taken long for Aizawa-sensei to dub Shinsou as a ‘problem child’ when they may or may not have possibly, completely by accident, blew up a locker that definitely did not belong to a quirkist bastard from 1-D that called Shinsou a villain in front of Izuku. Shinsou hadn’t done anything or even been present, but Aizawa-sensei seemed to determine who was problematic by things that were caused because of them, not necessarily by them. But Izuku would never target a person for any reason-- no, sir.
“ AAAAAAND WELCOME TO THE YUUEI SPORTS FESTIVAL!!! ”
Izuku regrets being born.
“ I’M PRESENT MIC, HERE WITH 1-A’S HOMEROOM TEACHER, AIZAAAAAWAAAAA SHOUTAAAAAAAA! ”
“ I was held at gunpoint. ”
Izuku regrets being born slightly less.
“ DON’T BE RIDICULOUS, AIZAWA! THIS IS THE FIRST-YEAR STAGE, WELCOMING… THE INVINCIBLE 1-A, SHAKING OFF A VILLAIN ATTACK WITH WILLS OF STEEL! ”
The crowd roars. “Get into positions! Go, go, go!” Mei raised her voice over the din to be heard by the other students of 1-F. Izuku hated being touched, but he would deal with it… they even managed to get Hinata in on the plan.
Oh, and Hinata was less of an asshole now. He had apologized out of the blue to Izuku for being an ass at the USJ, and offered to be the fall guy in return.
… he was still a jerk, but more in a rough-around-the-edges way than a Bakugou-Katsuki kind of way.
“ FOLLOWING THEM ARE HEROICS 1-B, GENERAL EDUCATION 1-C, 1-D, AND 1-E, SUPPORT 1-F, 1-G, AND 1-H, ANDDDD MANAGEMENT 1-I, 1-J and 1-K! ”
The others filed out, many muttering about how little fanfare they got, but 1-F stayed in position. They knew exactly what they were doing.
“ AND… 1-F? WHERE’S 1-F? ”
Meimei cackled and lurched into motion.
What the crowd (plus the teachers) were seeing was both simple and elaborate, causing many to wonder how just five students managed to pull it off. The answer was simple-- bribery of upperclassmen who weren’t participating in their Festivals-- but no good Support student showed their hand.
Twin flames shot out from the student entrance, and something was thrown into the path of the flames that exploded into extremely attention-grabbing pink. Midoriya Izuku sat on the shoulders of Collins Fianna and Reiki Perl, who ran out at top speed with the small boy somehow making it work. Hatsume Mei followed closely behind, dashing on their heels while holding two long, equally pink streamers. Hinata Ban trailed last, slightly slower while hoisting a large sign over his head, in perfect calligraphy:
ALL HAIL THE UNLAUDED HEROES OF THE USJ
There was a moment of silence before a deafening mix of laughter and cheering came from the stands. Izuku used his MeiVision to look up at the announcer’s box and stifled a laugh-- Yamada-sensei was frozen, mouth half-open with clearly no idea what to say while Aizawa-sensei had a hand over his face.
Eventually, Aizawa-sensei’s voice echoed over the stadium.
“ And Support Course 1-F, the other class trapped in the USJ during the attack and took out a total of thirty-eight villains. Are you problem children happy now? ”
Izuku stuck his hands out in a double thumbs-up with a lazy smile as 1-F caught up with the rest of the crowd, disassembling the decorations and Hinata using Meimei’s flamethrower to set the poster sign on fire.
Shinsou and Tsu walked up, Shinsou with an amused smirk and Tsu with the same blank look on her face as always but crinkled eyes.
“That was cool, kero ,” she started, “but won’t you get in trouble?”
Meimei winked before whispering conspiritorially, “It was a crowd-pleaser. They can’t touch us.”
“It was reckless, though,” Shinsou threw in.
Izuku shrugged as Reiki sighed. “Midoriya-kun wanted to launch a dark red version of the Pink Bomb at 1-A and have us come out like ‘battle-weary heroes’, but Hatsume hot that one down fast.”
“It was a good idea,” Izuku insisted despite the look he gets from his pink-haired friend.
Kayama-sensei stood up front with her whip thingy and a suit that some of the guys nearby were freaking out over but Izuku didn’t see much of a problem with. She had to have it thin for her quirk-- it wasn’t meant for sex appeal, though that could have been a secondary motivator. He didn’t really see the ‘sex appeal’ in it either, but oh well.
“Alright! Let’s look at this wheel to see what our kidlets are gonna do first!”
“It’s rigged,” Collins said casually as it began to spin. “Race with objects in it.”
“Obstacle course?”
“Yes, thank you.”
The wheel stopped, and wouldn’t you know it-- obstacle race.
Izuku let an evil smirk slide across his face.
Oh, everyone was so gonna hate him.
The students were lined up, most shifting from foot to fit and checking out the competition. Despite their show of power, 1-F was mostly ignored-- after all, no Support student had ever even posed a real threat in a Sports Festival-- so it was all going pretty well, in Izuku’s opinion.
“ ONE MINUTE TO START!”
“Papa-Romeo!” Meimei announced loudly. She got a lot of weird looks, but Shinsou and 1-F all took canisters from their belts and sprayed the contents onto their shoes liberally.
“Papa-Bravo! Whiskey-Hotel!”
Small pearls of pink sat inside thin glass held by every student in 1-F, and Shinsou held the nozzle of something that looked slightly different from a flamethrower.
“ IS THE PINK GIRL SAYING SOMETHING? ”
“ Hatsume Mei of 1-F is speaking in the American phonetic alphabet. Looks like they’re preparing for something. ”
“ WELL, THIRTY SECONDS TO DO IT, THEN! ”
Izuku smirked, and those who looked upon felt a shudder run down their spines.
Before them was a tunnel-- those most wouldn’t, Izuku recognized it as the first obstacle. Only a few could fit at a time. And it worked perfectly with their plan.
“ FIVE! ”
He braced his feet against the earth, MeiVision fit snugly over his face.
“ FOUR! ”
Meimei shot him a smile.
“ THREE! ”
Shinsou rolled his shoulders.
“ TWO! ”
Reiki, Fien and Hinata readied their stances, neutral faces becoming ones of determination.
“ ONE! ”
The world held its breath.
“ GO, GO, GO!!!!! ”
Izuku was running before his brain could process it. The flamethrower-like nozzle Shinsou was holding spat water onto the ground just inside the tunnel, and five glass pearls of pink followed quickly, shattering and then exploding into a pink mass that covered a good five-meter stretch. Most of the students at the front reared back, not expecting the move at all, but 1-F and Shinsou ran across the pink goo without any issue.
Stupidly, Midget from 1-A decided that 1-F running across it meant it was safe and tried to run over with a horde of other students…
… that immediately got trapped in the goo.
Meimei cackled , pulling a mic from nowhere and clipping it to her collar.
“ THE FIRST OBSTACLE-- THE NARROW PASSAGE! 1-F DOMINATES, USING-- ”
“ Aaaaaand that, folks, was the Pink Pearl, aka Pink Bomb Mini! ”
1-F was being quickly pursued (and overtaken) by a choice pair of 1-A students-- Bakugou and Todoroki. Izuku paid them no mind, of course, simply enjoying the workout until he hit the next obstacle.
“ WHAT?? ”
“ This is Hatsume Mei from the Support Course, Class 1-F! The Pink Pearl is a saller, less potent version of the Pink Bomb. It is an explosive with sticky-- and bright-- results, and expands when it comes into contact with regular ol’ H20! Designed by yours truly, Hatsume Mei, that’s H-A-T-S-U-M-E M-E-I, and her partner Midoriya Izuku, that’s M-I-D-O-R-I-Y-A I-Z-U-K-U, it’s sure to be a non-destructive way to apprehend villains, with a method to easily remove it told to support companies and heroes that use it! ”
Izuku silently thanks every god that’s watching that Katsuki has his hearing aids off- he’d seen him take them out before the Festival started, likely to prevent interference from the noise. Otherwise, the explosive blond would have turned around just to pound Izuku into the dirt on live TV.
… well, there was still daylight left for that.
“ Stay tuned for more exciting support items designed from Support Course 1-F! ”
There was an awkward pause fro the announcer’s box before Aizawa-sensei resumed with a flat voice. “ And with that interruption, twenty-three students are still stuck in the concoction at the starting line, and twenty-one more still fighting through the passage. ”
“ AAAAAAND TODOROKI SHOUTO OF 1-A TAKES US TO THE SECOND OBSTACLE-- THE ROOOOBOOOO INFERNOOOOOO! ”
Robots. Oh no. Whatever will they do, with their Lightningrods and water hoses? What a tragedy. It’s almost like they had no idea there would be any form of robot.
Meimei breaks into the recording again. “ Also by Midoriya Izuku and Hatsume Mei are the Lightningrods, paired with a special tool we will introduce later! They are escrima sticks with a high voltage charge that’s enough to incapacitate but not kill, unless you’re beating up a very old man for whatever reason! And the Pink Bomb 1.0, the bigger and more potent version of the Pink Pearl! Hatsume Mei, that’s H-A-T-S-U-M-E M-E-I, and Midoriya Izuku, that’s M-I-D-O-R-I-Y-A I-Z-U-K-U! Over and out! ”
Izuku grabs a bit of scrap, an idea forming, before he took off again, his friends all around him. Shinsou rode on the backs of several brainwashed students and he rolled his eyes, extending a hand to Izuku.
Izuku smirked and took it, giving his legs a break as he settled on a particularly broad boy’s shoulders beside Shinsou, nudging his purple-haired friend.
“Hey. This is the second time I’ve ridden someone today.”
“Living like a king,” Shinsou snorted, rolling his eyes in return.
“ AND BAKUGOU KATSUKI OF 1-A TAKES US OVER THE FALL! DON’T LOOK DOWN! ”
Truly the worst thing to ever happen to 1-F and Shinsou. They had no plan for a giant gap. None. Truly, they’re winging it. As if they didn’t plan for every single thing that could come of a obstacle course.
Fien grinned wildly as she paused at the edge to secure her laser on her back, linking arms with everyone going down in a line. Shinsou just shook his head and took Izuku’s arm, ignoring how Reiki’s face goes a bit blank as drones descend from the sky and start lifting up the six of them.
And then Fien points the laser directly down and activates it.
And hoo boy , they went NYOOM over that chasm.
“ By Collins Fianna, that’s C-O-L-L-I-N-S F-I-A-N-N-A, the Heatblast! A super focused laser that can be set to two different modes, melt and force, to either propel somethin at high speeds or melt through even plasteel! By Reiki Perl, that’s R-E-I-K-I P-E-R-L, the Pegasus drone, meant for leightweight heroes to ride through the skies at speeds of 20mph! ”
“ AND THE LAST OBSTACLE-- THE MINE FIELD!!! ”
The moment they landed, Shinsou brainwashed a couple students to carry him independently. 1-F broke apart as they went about their own ways. It was the final stretch, and everyone wanted to earn it themselves.
So, naturally, Izuku dug up the mines with the plate metal as Meimei announced more 1-F support items with the cheer of a natural saleswoman.
“ Problem Child. What are you doing with those mines. ”
Izuku jumped at being addressed directly, but grinned disturbingly at the announcer box and backing up a few steps, plate metal in front of him like a snowboard.
And then jumped directly onto the pile of mines.
It didn’t burn him like Katsuki’s explosions did or stain him with soot like his support item malfuntions would. Instead, with a bang! and more glitter than was strictly necessary, Izuku was launched into the air.
He wouldn’t be able to describe to Meimei later what flying felt like-- both exhilirating and freeing at the same time as being mortally terrifying.
But he could describe in perfect clarity what it was like to slam the metal into Todoroki and Bakugou’s chests as he flew over them, and what it was like to land a bit awkwardly, but dashing with legs long since trained to flee and avoid small obstacles straight across the finish line.
“ AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND WE HAVE OURSELVES A WINNER-- MIDORIYA IZUKU OF SUPPORT COURSE 1-F, CLOSELY FOLLOWED BY TODOROKI SHOUTO OF 1-A AND BAKUGOU KATSUKI OF 1-A! ”
Izuku was already out of the finishing area by the time Katsuki was across the finish line, hearing Yamada-sensei announce, one by one, Shinsou and the rest of 1-F’s crossing.
Izuku had planned for everything, he realized. Except one thing.
How he would hide in between rounds.