บท 62: CHAPTER 62 OBSTACLE MAZE
How I understood the My Hero Academia World, it was about the year 2175 AD. Early in the 21st century the first quirk appeared in someone. After that most everyone had one. Unfortunately a dark time hit causing death and destruction. Turning the MHA world into something more like One Punch Man. Where villains killed indiscriminately.
At some point the first hero appeared, but they were vigilantes. Eventually they were the only ones that could fight villains. All Might was praised as the greatest hero of all because he was seen as selfless. Doing the work of many, without asking anything in return.
Because of all the fighting it took years for the world to recover. And it wasn't until recently that the world was at or just above the technology of the 21st century, pre-quirks. After all the death and destruction there weren't near as many people as there used to be. Thus the reason why UA campus was so gigantic. A lot less people meant a lot more land up for grabs. Which was why there was a massive arena behind the school.
When I walked out of the locker room I met up with Momo, Tsuyu, and Toru. We exchanged pleasantries and had some banter. Tsuyu had become a lot more comfortable with me. The frog girl jumped on my back as we walked in the challenger entrance. Walking down the long hallway we heard the loud cheers of the people.
Stepping into the sunlight I found that the seats above were already filled. The stands were so packed I felt like we were at the Super Bowl. Advertisements for businesses lined every inch of the walls. People cheered and hung up banners. I looked around trying to find my dad. I knew where his seats were supposed to be. I noticed him, but he was sitting talking to a woman by his side. He had asked for two tickets, and I assumed he had a friend from his office he wanted to bring. I was surprised it was a girl.
"This is crazy," Momo said, trying to keep her face calm.
"It's show business," I said waving to the crowd. More students streamed in. Aizawa and other teachers walked out. Lining us up Class 1-A was at the front. They took a minor roll call and Present Mic began announcing.
"The UA Sports Festival for the first years will now commence!" Present Mic yelled from his boombox choker. He was the same man that had tested us for the UA Exam. "Where the world's top prospective heroes come to learn and hone their skills. Please give these kids a round of applause as they aim for each other's throats and the top spot. Our grand annual melee will now commence." People cheered and clapped.
"Let me introduce the head examiner of this year's exam. The beautiful and deadly superhero, Midnight!" Present Mic yelled to more cheers.
The S&M themed hero began walking from a side hall of the arena. She wore a black leather corset and thigh-high leather high heel boots that transitioned into a garter belt. The tall woman had long black hair with a leather mask over her eyes. Holding out a leather strap whip I eyed her up and down. I really wanted to know what her quirk was. It had to be good for the bedroom. I bet my Chikyugi could show her a good time.
"Woah, it's the 18+ hero," someone said as Midnight stood on a platform next to the fighting arena in front of us. "Is she a teacher here?"
"If she is, I want to be in her class," I whispered.
"My tenure here is perfectly on the level," Midnight said to the kids. Then her eyes moved to me as she spoke in a microphone. "Now, first we will hear a short speech from this year's player representative. The boy that scored the highest on this year's entrance exam, Weston Watanabe."
The crowd quieted and the group around me exclaimed their surprise. Aizawa had warned me to prepare something, so I wasn't too shocked. No one else seemed to remember this happened every year. I walked up to the platform Midnight was on, taking the microphone from her.
Looking to the crowd of first years, I was surprised how nervous I was. I could risk death, but public speaking was something I thought I would be naturally good at. Now that I was there I was drawing a blank.
"First of all, thank you Midnight. Second…Hey dad!" I yelled, waving at him. He jumped up waving too. Yelling something, but I couldn't hear him. There was a laugh in the crowd around him, but I felt a little better seeing him so excited.
I coughed. "Last, I want to thank all of you for being here. I thought hard about what to say for this over the last day. But honestly, it was easy to figure out. I'm sure you don't know this, but my own mother was killed by a villain a few years back." The stadium was deathly quiet. "I was told she was collateral damage. But it was more than that to me. I have spent every day since, doing what I can to train to be here. I am not the only one in my class that has lost people in their lives. I understand why you are here, you are here for the same reason as me. But it's those in my class who haven't lost loved ones that I don't understand. They simply want to be heroes. They want to sacrifice their time, health, and possibly life to fight against those that hurt for their own personal gain."
It wasn't too hard to feel tears in my eyes. A part of me was still that pissed off kid that wanted revenge for his mom. "It's you people that I respect. You people that don't have a reason to fight. You people that feel like you have a calling to do right in the world." There were a few tears in the crowd as well. Mainly from those I had heard lost loved ones.
"My revenge was taken from me," I said. I needed to play up the Batman angle. I did not like or condone the Villain Slayer. I had targets to kill soon enough. "I would have preferred my mother's murderer was brought to justice and spent the rest of his life rotting in prison." There were quiet murmurs from the crowd. "But with each of you here, I know that there will be less people that grow up like me. Villains will be brought to justice in accordance with the law." There were claps from those heroes around us.
"So, give it your all. This right here is where we all make our debut to the world of heroes, and I don't know about you, but I sure as shit won't be holding back." Cheers rang out from the students in front of me. I raised the mic and dropped it to the platform.
"Nicely said," Midnight said with a wide smile. "Now get down there and stop stealing my thunder."
"But the view is so much better up here," I said, eyeing her up and down. Midnight swatted at me with the leather strap whip, but had a smile on her lips. I laughed walking back down the stairs. Soon back in my spot people around me gave me thumbs up. I seemed to remember Bakugo winning and giving a shitty speech. But I wanted to do MHA right. This was a great chance to show off, and honestly, inspire them all to do better.
"With that done, we can move directly to our first event," Midnight said as she turned to a large screen. "This will be the preliminaries. Knocking the number of participants down as we try to figure out the strongest and luckiest." The screen soon showed the words
OBSTACLE MAZE
I was a little shocked by the words written on the screen. I remembered the event clearly. The Sports Festival was an Obstacle Course, then some weird team game that Japanese kids played, then a tournament. I didn't remember a maze at all.
"Outside that door," Midnight announced, pointing at the opposite way we came in. "Is the North exit of the arena. Our own men and women with construction quirks have been working diligently to make a maze for all of you to traverse." The screen that had listed the obstacle maze words changed to a simple image. A two-dimensional rendition of the arena was shown, and on the North side of it was a huge maze.
"At the center of the maze is a large open space that has 48 keys. These keys are numbered. The number 1 key will be worth the most points, and the number 48 key will be worth the least. You will be expected to gather one of these keys, then exit the maze. There is an exit on the North side of the maze. You will then loop around the arena until you get to the South side. The finish line will be that entrance you walked in." She pointed behind us.
"This test will be about skill, speed, and luck. The only rules are no touching other participants and no taking more than 1 key," she said. I nodded. My plan in place I put a smile on. This felt a lot more fun than an Obstacle Course. I was getting pumped. Knocking my knuckles together I began to stretch.
"No questions? Good, gather up," Midnight said, pointing to the North exit. The group of us gathered together. People mumbled as we walked down the fighting arena and to the grass in front of the exit. A red light was lit overtop the door, a green unlit light next to it.
"Good luck," I said to Toru, Momo, and Tsuyu. "I'll see you on the other side."
"You too" "Don't get crazy" "Ribbit" The girls said.
"You know, she said there was an exit on the North side, but not that we had to use it," I said. I had been tempted to get a key and turn around, but in all honesty I felt I had enough of a head start. I wondered if one of the girls would take the bait.
"What do you-" Toru tried to say, but a shot rang out.
"Begin!" Midnight yelled as the red light turned off and the green light turned on.
I began running immediately. Long strides easily put me in front as I let my physical strength push me forward. The door turned into a hall and the hall kept going and going until it turned far ahead. I heard the people running behind me. Many were close. I sped up again. It wasn't long until Ida, the Vice-President with a speed boot quirk, ran ahead. The exhaust pipes from his legs firing as he took the lead. I let him have it. This was an endurance race, not a short burst like he was good at.
Shoto Todoroki was then running through the pack. His right side freezing the floor around him, some of the challengers were frozen to the ground. As he got close to me I began pulling energy out of the top of my head and expelling it out of my feet. When the area around me was frozen it became water almost instantly as I pushed heat around me. He slid past and took the right turn at the end of the hall.
The only thing I knew about mazes was to always turn left, and eventually you would be brought to the middle. So that's what I did. At the first left there was a large pit with a thick cable across it. Instead of using the wire to cross I charged my feet with chakra and ran along the wall. Once past the pit I took another left to find a robot. Much like the robots we fought during the entrance exam.
Jumping up I kicked the face and it exploded. The robot dropped to the ground dead. A side entrance opened as more robots poured out, but I was already past them. I came out into a room this time and there were 5 exits to the room. I took the left one. Plain and simple.
I ran through rooms with landmines, more robots, a giant pool of water, more pits, one with natural gas pipes shooting flames up sporadically, a Last Crusade walkway where if you stepped on the wrong step you fell into a pit. Then it got serious.
It didn't take me too long to figure out what the maze was. Takeshi's Castle was the theme. An old game show from Japan, it had contestants try to storm Takeshi's Castle. With obstacles in the way of the hundreds of people that challenged it I remembered only like five challengers made it to the end.
The first obstacle was a very slippery hill, then a mini-maze with robots that tried to push you out into a pit, then a Mario themed jump-a-thon as you tried to walk over a tightrope as giant padded arms tried to push you off.
At the end of that room I was actually tired. Stumbling as I made it to the large room in the middle of the maze. Large keys lined the walls. Someone was coming up behind me. I quickly grabbed the number one key to see that it was Todoroki that had caught up.
"It's mine, bitch," I cackled as I began to power up. Todoroki sneered but grabbed the number two key. Running on through the exit from the room. But I was done with the obstacles. Tired and ready to be finished I channeled chakra through me.
Looking to what I hoped was the North wall there was no freaking way I was going to keep doing this. This place was too big, and I was too strong to play the game. I ran at the North wall and burst through. The concrete wall was only 4 inches thick, and there was no rebar holding it. The place was meant to last for a day, not a lifetime.
I burst through the next wall and the next. Sticking to the wall with chakra I continuously pushed through. Forcing rubble to rain down on the obstacles below me. I was through the course after 15 walls. As outside air finally met me I let out a sigh as the sunlight hit me. Then I was running. I tried to swing my arms, but the Naruto run felt too familiar. Cursing, I ignored how stupid I looked as I ran around the maze. Then heading South I heard the cheers from the crowd as I went around the arena. I was the only one in sight as I rounded the corner and was running into the arena.
A red tape finish line right in front of me I walked through it. Surprisingly tired I walked through to the cheers…and laughter. I looked up to the screen and they were showing me fall down that lubed up hill from Takeshi's castle.
"What the fuck!" I yelled as I saw me fall on the screen. Midnight walked up to me.
"You were the only one that kept going left and had to take on the Takeshi Castle obstacles," Midnight said.
"Of fucking course," I said. Todoroki, Midoriya, and Bakugo ran in behind me. The green haired kid just barely beat the fire and ice guy. "Let me guess, they got the easy way through the maze?"
"Pretty much," Midnight said. "Don't worry, you got extra points for taking the hard way.
"I better have freakin got more points," I grumbled. Rolling my eyes I moved to the arena platform and sat against it. Watching those who got keys I was more than pleased to see Toru, Momo, and Tsuyu come through with a key. No one used my idea about running backwards. Apparently most everyone used the holes I made through the walls.
"That was fun," Toru said as she sat beside me.
"That was not fucking fun," I spat. On one of the screens another blooper played. Of me of course. One of the rods tried to push me off and I had to climb the tightrope to get across.
"Oh my god, you got a Takeshi castle route?" Momo asked.
"Yep," I said. "But I got number one as well." I bragged, showing them the key.
"You deserve it having to deal with that," she said. The screen showed me for the 5th time trying to get up the lubed hill. After that I said screw it and jumped to the ceiling while climbing across it with chakra like Spiderman. I could have done it from the beginning, but I had to try the hill. It was a badge of honor to get over it, but apparently I didn't have what it took.
"Yeah yeah, shut up," I grumbled as we waited for the next challenge.
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