Chapter 20: Believer
Nagisa didn't think himself ready at all when the light lit green, the shout of Midnight starting the race. That's when the screaming, pushing, and shoving started. Nagisa almost hit the pavement but was caught by Kirishima before he could bust his face. He thanked him quickly then barely caught the redhead shoot him a smile before he melted into the crowd.
Alright, focus.
Use something— Do something, what have you been training for all this time? For nothing? Come on, Nagisa, get it together! His snakes hissed on his head in frustration as he was squished against a larger student. Okay. Okay. His eyes flashed ice-white as he spun around and locked eyes with three students behind him. They yelped in sudden panic as fear gripped them frozen.
The snake-haired teen didn't spare another moment, tapping on and yelling out, "Hey, you!" to the kid next to him—the one who squished him before, he assumed. Just as expected, the kid glanced his way and Nagisa's quirk flared, and just like that, the student froze with a face drained of color.
"H-hey, that's- th-that's nn-not fff-fair," he barely caught before charging forward into the crowd, slithering between students and barely managing to escape elbows in the face. No one said it had to be fair. In fact, the nerves he had before were still there, just hardened to determination. No holding back, no hesitation. Plus Ultra, punks.
Nagisa ignored the booming voice of Present Mic commenting on the stall of students behind him as he grabbed the shoulder of another and turned them to look at him right as Nagisa froze them to place, then moved to the next student.
He flinched when he heard his name on the speakers, heart freezing with panic— "That would be the work of Shio- Tatsumi Nagisa of Class 1-A."
Ah, Aizawa. They took note, huh?
He smiled a bit just as a student hit the pavement next to him. Startled, he turned around to see Karma brandish his shining horns above the toppled student, seeming overly pleased with the carnage of headbutted students behind him before they were washed over by more students. Karma cracked his knuckles before charging again, hitting another student in the back with his head and slamming the kid down.
A panicked squawk of "MY PANTS!" caught his attention to his left and Rio entered his view, spools of thread and yarn wrapped around her hands and fingers with several students behind her lacking pants. Nagisa had to stop himself from laughing before the three shared a nodding glance and they charged back into the swarm of students, Present Mic's commentating drowning into nothing but whitenoise in the background.
Then Todoroki Shouto was announced to have taken the lead. Nagisa grit his teeth and he pushed further into the crowd before a loud crack sounded ahead of him followed by startled cries of students—Nagisa felt the vibrations reverberate beneath his feet before he caught sight of debris blow up into the air like a miniature explosion lit off. Izuku vanished from view for a moment, reappearing in the distance—in the air further away. He continued to tear through the students, every glance he caught in his eyes were frozen in place and it wasn't long until Nagisa's eyes started to feel like they were burning and tearing up.
Several students had broken through the crowd—several from his own class, actually, and frustration built up inside him. It grew when his breath began to cloud in front of him. What? Cold?
Nagisa watched as a student in front of him slipped and slammed hard on his back. Oh no. The ice on the ground, just ahead of him, radiated the essence of winter itself almost. If he wasn't careful, this whole thing could send him into early hibernation. Dammit. Okay. It's okay, just take it slow…
He saw Uraraka next to him apparently consider the same thought, taking careful steps to pass by the ice. It was slippery just standing on it and every few seconds, his foot would move just a smidge more than he wanted to and it made his heart flutter with sudden fear before dying down as he made sure he had stable footing again. Some students beside him slipped and fell hard again. Nagisa flinched in sympathy for them before continuing forward.
Present Mic's voice boomed out, "LOOK AT THAT, FOLKS! IT SEEMS A LOT OF OUR STUDENTS ARE EITHER FROZEN SOLID OR FROZEN STUCK! I BELIEVE SOME HAVE EVEN LOST THEIR PANTS! IS THIS THE WORK OF CLASS 1-A?!"
The ex-assassin heard Rio scoff behind him. "Um, hello? I'M IN CLASS 1-H!"
Of course, Present Mic didn't reply to that.
The small teen glanced back up after reaching stable ground, and blinked wide-eyed as the ground shook, a large form—no, multiple large forms towering over the student body.
Oh hell.
"Are you serious?!"
"These are what the hero department had to fight in the entrance exam?!"
"How does UA afford these things?!"
Nagisa and Rio ran through the stopped crowd. He could spin and freeze a few more students—but after watching Todoroki send the equivalent of an iceberg into the first couple of zero-pointers, he quickly decided this scenario has turned dangerous.
He heard a few students thank the bi-colored teen as he slipped through the robots, cheering that a path had been carved for them, but Nagisa knew what he was doing. He was causing an even more difficult obstacle.
It didn't feel safe yet to try and make his way toward them yet—he wasn't fast enough like the more athletic students (he knew Iida could slip past if he wanted to, however). And just as he had expected, the reptilian student watched as the giant hunks of metal began to cave down and crash to the ground, sending massive vibrations through the earth as the students around him panicked.
Present Mic's voice sounded through the air, announcing the obvious, "1-A'S TODOROKI HAS FORGED AHEAD AND BLOCKED THE OTHERS IN ONE FELL SWOOP! HOW HAAARSHHH! LOOK, HE'S EVEN SEPARATED HIMSELF FROM THE REST OF THE COMPETITION! ACTUALLY SEEMS KINDA UNFAIR, REALLY!"
"Wait!" Nagisa heard another student ahead, "Someone got caught under there!"
No— Sharp eyes widened as dread filled him and he charged through the crowd to the front, sensing Rio, Karma, and Uraraka following behind. He stopped when he reached the robot, his breath turning into fog in front of him again. Someone was crushed?! Surely, UA would stop this if—
And then—the metal creaked, a muffled scream under it, and Kirishima punched his way out through the metal, screaming, "I'M NOT DEAAAAD!"
Oh. Oh God. Nagisa held his chest and let out a sigh of relief. He should have known.
Another student had popped out from underneath the rubble, but Nagisa had already absorbed himself in strategies—how can he maneuver his way through them? He vaguely registered the other students deciding the band together, a temporary truce to open up a way. He could wait it out for that opening—his quirk is useless on non-organic beings anyway.
Then he glanced up and watched as Bakugou blasted his way up and over the machines, Tokoyami and Sero following his lead. Ah. Idea .
He glanced at Rio, who seemed to be racking her brain for an idea as well before she caught sight of Sero's tape in the distance. She turned her gaze to Nagisa, catching it and finally it clicked. Nagisa gave her a questioning look in his eyes then shot a look at the bundle of altered yarn and string wrapped around her arm, hoping she caught on too.
She followed his gaze and immediately nodded, grabbing Nagisa's arm and running toward the robots. Another student was getting ready with his quirk to catapult himself over the robots, and Rio attached a string onto his uniform before hardening the texture and letting it ravel around her arm in a secure hold.
Rio then wrapped her arm around Nagisa's waist, the smaller wrapping his arms around her shoulders.
"Ready?" she asked.
"Uh—Yeah, but where'd you get all this yarn?"
"As a support student, I registered it as support equipment! You should see how much equipment Hatsume has registered…"
Nagisa opened his mouth to reply before they were yanked into the air by the other student's ascent. Nagisa yelped in surprise, pulling his knees up for a moment before relaxing and letting them swing with the momentum.
"Brace yourself!" Rio shouted as they were flung toward a flat side of one of the robots. "Don't worry, you won't fall! Just follow my lead!"
"Okay!"
They braced their feet toward a side-ways landing, then began to wall-run alongside it until they hopped off the top and began to swing again. Nagisa gasped and tightened his grip on his friend, careening toward yet another robot.
"I'm gonna have to let go!"
"What?!"
"It's okay! On the count of three, we'll barrel-roll on the robot! One!"
"WAIT, WHAT?!"
"Two!"
"RIO?!"
"Get ready!"
And just like that, Rio released the latch on the hardened fiber, most of it returning to Rio and coiling around the rest that she had on her before she sent it out again, wrapping and bundling up into a puffy blanket-like... landing pad?
Rio let go of Nagisa and the snake-haired teen felt his heart freeze over and then jam into his throat before he followed the blonde's lead in barrel-rolling a landing on the slightly softened pad. Despite the slight preparation, the impact hurt like hell, the sound of slammed metal echoing in his head. Rio grunted as she stood herself up and helped the smaller teen to his feet.
"Okay… Now what, Rio?" Nagisa gave her a slightly scrutinizing stare.
"Don't give me that look! The yarn was too loose, if we had gone any lower than we had, we would have slammed into the robot with that other dude hanging on the other side."
"Fine, fine. But how do we get down?"
Rio glanced up, as if to think.
Nagisa thought as well, kneeling down so he wouldn't fall over when the robot moved. Then a thought came into his head—"Let's jump down like we would across the rooftops during training. There should be ledges across the robot going down."
Rio snapped her finger at him, grinning. "Hey, I like it! Let's go!"
"Careful, though, the robot is still moving, and they can still target us!"
"Don't worry, here—let me tag your uniform, that way we don't lose each other."
Not even a moment later, and the robot behind them tipped over and crashed to the ground. Both students quickened their pace.
---
Izuku's legs throbbed after the sudden use of One for All to get himself in the lead with Todoroki—so much for that, seeing as Todoroki was ahead again. And Katsuki with him, at that. He was afraid to use One for All again, afraid if he went overboard, even a little, it'd be curtains closed for him. He couldn't take that risk. Not so soon.
He had secured himself a chunk of metal dislodged from a fallen robot's side, deciding it would be good to use as a make-shift weapon instead of using his Quirk. It proved to work well, especially after he had broken the head off a smaller robot with it.
He heard a whistle behind him, Karma smirking at the boy. Izuku grinned. "Kuh- mm- Karma?"
Karma jutted his chin toward the robots. "Come on, we can take these robots on. I'll make a path."
"Puh- uh- You?" Izuku raised a brow. "How?" Single worded questions seemed to be in his tongue's favor for the moment.
The redhead knocked on his forehead. "Hardplate, remember? Only a bullet can take me out. Let's go."
Izuku decided not to question it, remembering all the times the other boy has broken noses to flat pancakes with just one hit with his head. Yep. Not doubting his ability today.
The green-haired boy watched as Karma charged forward, head aimed low as he rushed into a smaller robot—one Izuku recognized as one of the one- or two-pointers from the entrance exam. He suddenly wished he could have found one of these metal panels to use as a weapon instead of destroying his limbs to protect Uraraka and gain all his points from that rescue… Well, okay, he'd still do it again given the chance, but maybe he would have—Okay, okay, nevermind, just focus. Focus!
Izuku raced after Karma with his broken piece of metal, half-listening to Present Mic take note of Class 1-A's lack of hesitation. Aizawa added that because of their experiences, hesitation is not an option. It was true—and even if Aizawa was talking about the USJ incident, Izuku knew he and those from Class 3-E wouldn't hesitate anyway.
Despite the fact that they had already done that at the USJ anyway. The situation was unexpected, that was all. They wouldn't falter again, however. Guards were all the way up now.
BOOM!
Crrreeeaaak…
"A path's been open!!"
Izuku and Karma shot their heads up, watching as a zero-pointer leaned to the side, a concave print in its head—then it fell over. The curly-haired boy shuddered like a startled deer at the deafening sound the crash made. He glanced at Karma, who simply continued running forward, dodging under the now broken one-pointer who had only three functioning legs after what the redhead did to it. Izuku followed after him, momentarily sing the metal panel as a shield while he passed under the robot, and one staircase down, the students encountered the next obstacle course—of which Present Mic so gratefully announced as The Falls.
Why isn't this illegal? Like, at all?
Izuku heard Karma's snide comment, "Geez, these guys really want some dead kids on their hands, huh?"
Approaching the cavern-like obstacle, the two realized Rio and Nagisa had already beaten them to it. They were… teaming up—what?!
"What's the big idea, huh?" Karma slyly commented, drawing closer to the blonde as she straightened up from her kneel beside the giant rope tied to the ground.
Rio wrapped her arm around Nagisa, acting surprised as she turned her head. "Oh! Didn't see you there, Karma, Izukun!" her voice was full of mischief and Izuku quirked his lips in a pout. Uh-huh. Her eyes scanned over to him and his bulky extra then grinned like the devil. She raised her hand, showing the rope she had coiled around her arm. "Sorry boys, but the taxi's already full!"
Izuku looked at Nagisa, who grinned with a cheeky shrug. "I'm with her," he chuckled somewhat awkwardly before Rio tugged on him and they teetered on the edge of the cliff.
"It's been fun but gotta bounce! Toodle-loo, boys!"
And they fell over, basically Tarzan-swinging around the pit just as that girl—Hatsume Mei made her appearance as well.
They watched the blonde and blue-head vanish into the shadows of The Fall before Karma gave an impressed whistle. "She's got balls of stone, huh?"
His friend tried not to laugh at the comment, instead redirecting their attention to their own problem. "Um— Le's hur-r-rry." Students were funneling in like mad, and taking their own ropes to cross. Iida had already hopped on one rope-bridge and used his quirk to jet across. Damn.
"Tie that to yourself first," Karma nodded to his metal piece.
"Of cuh- mm- 'course!"
---
Nagisa and Rio made it to the next obstacle with some difficulty—being that they had managed to bodyslam themselves into many of the "floating islands" in The Fall obstacle between switching ropes to use as swings. It was a blessing that Rio had Nagisa attached to her—otherwise, he'd have found out what was at the bottom of this obstacle by now.
However, when they got to the end of the second obstacle, they still weren't even close to being near Todoroki, let alone being first place. Tsuyu had passed them, as did Hatsume and Iida, not to mention a bunch of other students he didn't even recognize from other classes.
Rio helped him back to his feet after reaching the end, and they caught Present Mic's announcement of The Minefield.
" MINEfield?! What are they, NUTS?!" she exclaimed mostly to herself just as a mine had gone off further into the course—a student must have triggered it already. They both flinched a bit, but ignored it when a second one went off.
The snake-haired boy turned to Rio instantly, an idea popping into his head as Ko and Roka uncoiled from their perch in his hair. "I think I've got a plan."
"Then shoot!"
"You're probably not going to like it. It involves me closing my eyes the entire time."
"You're right, I hate it. Explain."
Nagisa pointed to his snakes. "Pit vipers. Their 'pits' have special sensors that essentially can allow me to see things that radiate heat or infrared rays, which hopefully the bombs buried underground carries. Kinda like heat-sensors, or heat-seeking goggles or something. But I have to have my eyes closed when I do this."
"Jesus…" Rio seemed to consider this for a moment, glancing at the field as three more explosions were set off in succession. The blonde turned her head back to the shorter teen. "I trust you."
She held her hand out, and he grabbed it, closing his eyes and letting his snakes share their senses with him.
His sight was illuminated with red forms—from the students around them, the explosions being set off, and odd shapes that were clearly underground. Okay, okay. He can do this. There was one right in front of them.
"This way."
The two weaved their way through the field, Nagisa leading the two of them this way and that and ever so slightly quickening their pace from speed walking to jogging to running. This was the final stretch, and because they were dodging all of the mines underground, they were beating most of the other students who were recklessly getting themselves blasted into the air. Rio had realized halfway in that they were only flash bombs and not anything that would permanently harm anyone, thank goodness. But that didn't make it hurt his ears any less…
They halted when they felt the familiar… heaviness in the atmosphere—they both groaned in dismay before attempting to speed up. If Asano was close by…
"Oh, geez," he heard Rio mutter behind him. Crap.
He could sense the familiar scent of Asano and Karma, just behind him. He was too busy focusing on avoiding the mines to turn back, despite the temptation being so great.
---
The moment Karma felt the weight of Asano's Pressure , the redhead looked at Izuku, who was still trying to shovel up a bunch of those flash mines into a pile. He didn't bother explaining why, Karma just assumed he wanted to make a big bang . Karma stuck around to see how his plan would unfold, but now that Mr. Pressure-O-Matic was here, that had to be put in the backseat. There was no way he was letting that posh frick-head even begin to get a headstart on him.
"Izukun, I'll see you at the finish," Karma quickly shot at his green-haired friend. Izuku glanced up, a curious expression in his eyes and he opened his mouth to utter a soft, "Huh?" before the horned teen shot off. A moment later, Izuku felt the pressure like a stone on his back, then Asano's form whizzed past.
Izuku blinked. "Shoot." He continued digging and piling. Almost there…
Asano caught up with Karma swiftly, and the honey-eyed teen almost felt weighed down by the immense weight placed on his mind, making his chest feel tight and constricted. Asano was really cranking up the heat today, huh? That was just fine, actually—the more pressure he cranked up, the quicker Asano wore himself out. Eventually.
"Careful there," Karma managed a smirk as they ran side-by-side. His honey-hues flicked to Asano quickly before returning to the field—he could see Rio and Nagisa just up ahead. "You might give someone a heart attack with how much juice you're punching out."
"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" Asano remarked. He made a sound, like he was pushing something heavy—and Karma felt like his breath was kicked from his chest and he almost faltered in his step. This was different than Asano's regular 'Pressure Hit'—it felt like someone had squeezed him like juicing an orange, taking the air from his lungs just for a moment. Sure, Izuku had often described the feeling like being choked, but this—
You know what? Forget that, Karma came here for a reason. What was Asano's reason? Just to pass him up? Hah, fat chance at that.
"Screw… off, punk," Karma grunted, forcing his legs to move faster and he rushed at the ginger with his horns brandished. Head connected to back, and the arrogant ginger toppled over with a yelp. Karma gave a loud laugh then kept right forward, smirking at Rio as he passed her and Nagisa. "See you at the finish li—"
BOOM!
They froze. Nagisa opened his eyes just as their heads spun to look back at the large white blast at the start of the minefield, mushroom cloud bellowing up several miles high. Karma vaguely noted that was close to where he had left Izuku, then wondered what poor sap had managed to step on ten of those bombs at the same ti—
Oh.
"Izukun!" Nagisa called out, then Karma heard Iida's cry behind them: "Midoriya!"
"Oh my God," Karma muttered as a smile curled his lips. "He's crazy."
"He's heading toward the finish line—come on, let's keep going!" Rio snapped them out of their gazes, tugging on both boys' arms. Karma registered Asano pulling himself up behind them as Nagisa closed his eyes and jumped over a bump in the ground before them—the two others taking that as a sign to weave around. A moment later, that mine was set off with Asano's frustrated yell following it a moment after.
They watched Izuku holding onto that stupid chunk of metal like a surf board, soaring straight to the finish line while Present Mic lost his freaking mind over the guts the green-haired boy had in setting that whole thing up then exploding himself. He soared overhead, then flew over the heads of Bakugou and that half-and-half guy—Todoroki? They were so close to the finish, yet still so far, it felt.
Present Mic's voice shrieked in everyone's ears. "HE OVERTOOK THEM!!! HE OVERTOOK THEM!!!!! MIDORIYA IZUKU HAS TAKEN THE LEAD!!!!"
Karma watched it happen in almost slow motion—Bakugou caught up again, Todoroki made an opening with his ice, and Izuku used both of them to catapult himself forward again, slamming his metal panel down and creating another explosion.
"IN NO TIME FLAT, MIDORIYA'S MANAGED TO CLEAR THE ENTIRE MINEFIELD!!! ERASERHEAD, YOUR CLASS IS INSANE?! WHAT ARE YOU TEACHING THEM?!"
"YEAH! Izukun!" Rio cheered, giving a woop while Nagisa laughed with joy at seeing their friend rolling to his feet.
"I didn't teach them anything," Aizawa's cool voice replied his co-host. "They were fueled by their own flames they lit in each other."
"WHOO-EY, WHO COULD HAVE GUESSED THIS OUTCOME, FOLKS?! AND THE ONE WHO'S RETURNED TO THE STADIUM VICTORIOUS IS NONE OTHER THAN…"
He could hardly breathe as he passed through the tunnel into the grassy field surrounded by cameras and a stadium full of spectators—civilians and heroes alike.
"MIDORIYA IZUKUUUUU!!"
---
Toshinori let out a sigh after he watched not only Izuku, but Nagisa, Rio, and Karma follow close behind Bakugou and Todoroki. Several of Class 1-A's students were sprinkled in between, with quite a few of Class 1-B, and even—Toshinori squinted. Was that Young Asano? Jesus.
He couldn't have felt more proud of his students, those four precious students he was closest to. He could see Izuku wiping his face with his hands in the distance—Toshinori quirked a smile at that. He hoped Izuku never changes.
The old Pro had felt somewhat apprehensive that Izuku and Nagisa would not be able to perform in this sort of extreme environment; it was a competitive scene, much like last year's, except there were many many more students capable of blowing one out of the water. It was a scene where those training to become heroes, training to help one another, were expected to instead push one another down just to get to the top, not to mention the lights and cameras. Nagisa and Izuku were both two big-hearted children despite how much bloodlust they held, though he can admit compared to how he had first met them versus how they are now—that's a big difference. But they performed remarkably and ingeniously. Nagisa didn't hesitate to use his quirk on those around him to slow them down, and even if Izuku decided to limit himself to using his quirk only once, the way he worked around his own self-placed handicap was simply astonishing.
It was also interesting to note how Nagisa and Rio had teamed up, and in the end, they all managed to help each other one way or another. These students of his never ceased to amaze him. In the end, the pro hero decided it was so silly of him to worry like he did—their time in End Class did them a good service. They had a healthy spirit of competitiveness already!
"What do you think?" Toshinori paused when he heard the chatter of the students who chose not to join the race. Business class. He glanced behind himself to see a girl with gloves and another girl with raptor hands deep in conversation. There was a boy with a bull-dog face close to them.
"Well, for one, Midoriya's stock is going to rise exponentially. And that quirk of his is powerful. "
"Yeah, that's going to affect who tries to grab him for internships," the girl with raptor hands replied. She paused and looked back to the two. "What was with Karma, Fuwafuwa, and Asano aiming to participate? They don't get anything out of it, right?"
The bull-dog headed boy gave a short gruff sound. "I heard Karma and Asano have a beef together. And Karma's made an enemy out of Fuwafuwa."
Glove Girl made her lips into an 'O', as if it clicked into place. "I seriously think it was a bad idea to vote Karma for class prez."
"Too late now," a boy to her left mumbled—a ferret-looking kid. Or maybe a raccoon. Possum? Possum.
Glove Girl huffed. "Still… It should've been me, you know!"
Toshinori gave a huff of amusement and turned his head back. Damn business course kids. They must be Karma's classmates. I see he's still making a name for himself, making enemies left and right, huh?
A pink-headed boy got up from his seat and left without a word to anyone.
The pro hero turned his attention to Midnight, who had begun gathered up the students while letting them catch a break before tallying up the forty-two students who would pass to the next round.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
BlackSwanna
BlackSwanna art !! ft Tobiko, Torch Guy & Orchid!
https://blackswanndraws.tumblr.com/post/185877603754/1-ocs-ft-in-the-heroism-series-grill-devin
alrighty, so we're finally on schedule with its AO3 counterpart! What I like to do with these chapters is ask some questions, for those that don't know! The question of the chapter today is:
Who are you excited to see next in the Sports Festival? Leave a comment with your thoughts!
& don't forget to check out History of HEROISM! A lot of those drabbles will help you understand some inside jokes & references in the main series fic!
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Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone