The sound of extremely fast footsteps pounded the ground surface with a consistent rhythm.
It was Midoriya's footsteps!
The young man's body no longer looked like that of a weak boy. At this moment, his entire body was cloaked in a fine emerald-green electrical current that moved nimbly in all directions, crackling and dancing across his skin.
That power made his body feel as light as a feather, allowing him to move far beyond the limits of an ordinary human. His eyes stared straight ahead with razor-sharp focus.
For the first time, he managed to lead at the very front, taking first place!
At this moment, Midoriya suddenly widened his eyes. A very thick terror abruptly gripped his throat, making his breath feel strangled. His body trembled slightly beneath his P.E. uniform, which was beginning to dampen. His ears suddenly caught a loud shriek slicing through the wind from behind.
The sound was brimming with fury, and the distance felt close, growing closer by the second.
"DEKU!!!"
Alongside that hatred-filled scream, Midoriya heard the sound of extremely loud, consecutive air bursts. He could smell sulfur and hot smoke wafting in the air.
It was the sound of explosions from Bakugo's quirk!
Midoriya had no choice but to slowly turn his head backward while continuing to drive his legs forward.
He saw Bakugo flying after him at terrifying speed. His brow was deeply furrowed, and his eyes stared straight ahead, looking like a demon on a rampage.
"KA-CHAN!" Midoriya shouted, his voice mixed with panic and shock.
Seeing that horrifying face, Midoriya forced his leg muscles to work even harder. He accelerated his pace, making the green electrical current on his body glow even brighter, cutting through the dust that blocked his path.
Bakugo was momentarily startled to see Midoriya move even faster. He had never expected this from his childhood friend who once had no quirk.
At this moment, he suddenly positioned his hands behind him, releasing a continuous barrage of massive explosions to propel his body through the air like a rocket.
Bakugo shouted with a hoarse voice that tore through the air. "HOW DARE YOU DECEIVE ME ALL THIS TIME, YOU BASTARD?!"
Midoriya turned to look behind again. His face was full of deep guilt. He desperately wanted to explain everything, and his lips began moving to form words of defense.
"It's not like that, Ka-chan! I never meant to deceive you! I have my own reasons for all of this—"
"SHUT UP, YOU TRASH!" Bakugo cut off his words swiftly and cruelly. The distance between them was shrinking. "I don't need your garbage excuses! I'll kill you right here!"
Midoriya felt horror crawl up his spine at the threat that felt so real. He immediately clamped his mouth shut, turned his face forward, and accelerated his legs again, running as if his life were truly in danger.
Seeing Midoriya's back slowly beginning to pull away again, Bakugo bit his lower lip so hard it turned white. He felt his pride being trampled. He increased his explosions again, forcing his palms to endure the pain from the extreme temperature.
But strangely, the distance between him and Midoriya didn't decrease. Instead, it grew even wider. The green power flowing through Midoriya's body made him move too nimbly, refusing to be caught.
Bakugo's eyes widened in shock. He gritted his teeth, holding back the disappointment and irritation that burned in his chest until it felt suffocating.
"ARGHHHHH! DAMN IT!" Bakugo roared in frustration.
In his head, the memory of his humiliating defeat by Fuse two weeks ago resurfaced, cracking his already fractured pride. After being trampled by that red-haired bastard, now I have to watch this loser run ahead and leave me behind?! Why is there always someone blocking my path?! Why does nothing in this world ever go according to my ambitions?!
As he glared at Midoriya's back growing distant with a gaze thick with dense grudge, Bakugo suddenly felt a very drastic temperature change beside his body. The air around him became freezing cold, freezing the sweat on his temples. He turned sideways and found someone gliding toward him at tremendous speed.
It was Shoto Todoroki!
The two-toned-haired young man moved forward by continuously freezing the ground surface beneath his feet. He made his body glide smoothly as if surfing on an ocean of ice of his own creation. His face looked perfectly calm, as cold as the ice he produced, starkly contrasting with Bakugo's explosive rage.
Bakugo was unavoidably startled by his arrival. But that surprise immediately transformed into uncontainable new anger. He shouted loudly at Todoroki, splitting the cold air.
"YOU! STAY RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE, YOU BASTARD!"
Bakugo rotated his waist in midair, pointing his palm directly at Todoroki's face, and unleashed a massive fire explosion. The attack came in rapid succession, creating heat that pushed against the freezing air.
Todoroki was slightly caught off guard by the sudden attack. But his instincts immediately raised his right hand, summoning a very thick ice wall to block Bakugo's explosion.
He truly hadn't expected that Bakugo would attack him simply for trying to overtake his position!
Instantly, the collision between extreme heat and freezing cold created a very white, dense water vapor fog that enveloped them both. Visibility on that stretch of the course became completely obscured, as if they were running inside a cloud that had descended to earth.
Bakugo didn't care at all whether his attack had injured his opponent or not. He immediately spun back forward, pierced through the fog, and continued propelling his body to chase Midoriya, his primary target.
"Tch, very annoying," a muttering voice was heard from within the thick ice fog.
At this moment, the white fog slowly began to dissipate, blown by the passing wind. From behind the remaining cold mist, Fumikage Tokoyami suddenly shot forward, breaking through the remnants of ice.
He had overtaken Todoroki's position, which had been momentarily impeded!
Tokoyami controlled Dark Shadow to envelop his entire back like dark wings, giving him a speed boost to quickly chase the two people at the very front.
Meanwhile, Todoroki, realizing his position had been taken, immediately drove his ice power again and followed behind Tokoyami's position with sharp eyes.
At this moment, the earth beneath their feet suddenly shook with tremendous force. The ground under Midoriya's shoes felt like it was heaving violently, as if a localized earthquake had struck. The tremor was so unstable that it forced him to momentarily halt his steps to avoid falling.
Midoriya looked up. His eyes widened enormously, reflecting a very profound horror. Before him, towering high and blocking out the sunlight, stood several massive military-green robots.
They were the same type of destroyer robots he had once demolished with a single punch during the U.A. entrance exam!
Inferno Robots!
And the number of those giant killing machines wasn't just one, they were lined up forming an iron wall blocking the path!
Midoriya stared at the giant iron bodies in silence. His heart pounded fiercely. But his mind spun quickly, weighing the pros and cons.
"Sorry... I'll deal with you some other time," Midoriya murmured quietly.
Firming his resolve, Midoriya, already cloaked in Full Cowling, once again concentrated his energy on his leg muscles. He leaped high into the air, using his agility to weave nimbly through the gaps between the giant robots' bodies with great ease, without the slightest intention of punching or destroying them. "I don't have any time to spare for you today!" he shouted as he floated past one of the robots' shoulders.
Upon realizing that a human was attempting to break through, the giant robots suddenly moved mechanically. Their enormous iron arms rose high into the air, splitting the wind, then launched heavy downward strikes.
Naturally, one of the giant robots tried to direct its fist to attack Midoriya, who was floating ahead in first place. However, because the robot's movements were extremely slow and rigid compared to the young man's lightning speed, the lethal strike was easily avoided by Midoriya spinning his body in midair.
But even though the direct physical attack was evaded, the impact of that strike was absolutely tremendous!
When the giant iron fist struck the ground surface, a very powerful shockwave propagated through the earth, creating vibrations that shattered the footing of anyone nearby.
Todoroki, Bakugo, Fumikage, and even Midoriya, who had just landed, were instantly launched into the air by the force of the shockwave. Their bodies were thrown several meters like dry leaves blown by the wind before finally falling and rolling onto the dusty ground.
After his body crashed into the earth, Midoriya didn't waste time complaining. He gritted his teeth against the throbbing pain, immediately reactivated Full Cowling, and sprinted. He leaped high and dodged to the side, trying to distance himself from the ground area that would likely produce the next robot's attack impact.
Meanwhile, the other three, Bakugo, Todoroki, and Tokoyami, bit their own lips against the pain of falling, then forced themselves to stand up quickly.
Their eyes no longer looked at the robots. Their main focus had shifted and was now entirely locked on chasing Midoriya again, rather than wasting energy dealing with and fighting those iron machines.
After successfully passing the line of giant robots, Midoriya glanced slightly backward. He let out a long breath, feeling his decision had been exactly right. "If I had chosen to fight those big robots, who knows how many precious minutes would have been wasted."
"In that time, Ka-chan and the others would definitely have had the chance to catch up to my position." Midoriya turned his face forward again, staring straight ahead. His gaze sharpened with conviction. "I have to avoid that worst-case scenario! I have to keep running!"
Seeing that Midoriya completely ignored the robot obstacle and kept pushing his speed, the other participants also bit their lips. They decided to follow his lead, trying to disregard the robots' swinging arms and continue running through the danger.
...
On the other side, far behind the starting line, Fuse still stood motionless. His eyes stared intently at the giant monitor screen displaying the live broadcast of the front runners' movements.
Seeing how Midoriya ran nimbly, avoiding unnecessary combat, Fuse suddenly smiled. A very faint, satisfied smile graced his handsome face.
He turned his body, slowly walking away from the wall he'd been leaning against, heading toward the giant gate and beginning to step through the long, empty corridor.
"It's time for me to shine and take over this stage," Fuse said in a very quiet voice, yet filled with absolute pride.
He spread both arms wide to the sides, letting the morning air sweep across his palms, then closed his eyes briefly. To him, this was nothing less than a theater ready to present its most astonishing act.
His smile gradually became more pronounced, looking exceedingly arrogant.
"The world right now is holding its breath and watching me."
He opened both eyes again, staring straight at the empty path before him.
At this moment, he suddenly raised his right hand into the air. His index finger and thumb met.
The next second, he snapped his fingers, breaking the silence with a small click.
...
In the middle section of the race course, several students from other classes and departments who were struggling to follow behind the top four runners suddenly stopped in their tracks. Their bodies felt a creeping horror, trembling with fear.
When they looked up, an insane sight greeted their eyes. The racecourse ahead of them was now filled with rows of giant robots that looked like living iron mountains.
They swallowed hard.
At this moment, one of the giant robots suddenly turned its steel head toward one of the students.
That participant was a short-haired girl.
Then, the robot raised and swung its massive hand with a rough whooshing sound, aiming to smash down on her.
The other students around her immediately screamed in panic and jumped to the side to evade the lethal danger.
But for some reason, the girl instead froze rigidly in place. She could no longer see the sunlight, because her entire vision was filled by the large black shadow of the machine's palm. She looked up, and her body trembled violently.
The immense fear drained both her eyes and body of all strength. Soon after, she could no longer support her own weight and collapsed to her knees on the dusty ground.
Her lips trembled slightly, and her mouth hung wide open, but perhaps because the terror was choking her vocal cords, she couldn't utter a single word to call for help.
She could only cry in silence, staring at the large robot hand growing closer and closer to her face.
When the iron hand felt close enough to destroy her body, the girl clenched both eyes shut tight. She lowered her head, resigned to the pain that was about to come.
But one second, two seconds passed, and she didn't feel any impact on her body at all. There was no pain crushing her bones.
"Eh?"
Puzzled by the sudden silence, she slowly opened her eyes again and very gently tilted her head upward.
At this moment, her eyes instantly widened to their limit, and her pupils vibrated rapidly, unable to believe what she was witnessing.
And it wasn't just the girl who stood frozen in shock, dozens of other participants in the area were also half-dead with astonishment. All their footsteps halted.
They all looked up at the sky and waited in a long silence. They swallowed hard, staring at the miraculous sight without blinking.
All the zero-point giant robots that had been moving wildly had suddenly stopped completely!
Their iron arms were frozen in the air, motionless like historical monument statues!
At this moment, the girl who was still kneeling couldn't help but say in a faintly trembling voice, "W-what... what's happening here?"
Instantly, the bodies of the zero-point robots began to vibrate violently. An extremely piercing metal screeching sound filled their ears.
Their protective iron plates, bolts, and body frameworks seemed to be forcefully pulled outward. The robots' bodies were being brutally dismantled by a giant invisible hand unseen by human eyes!
Then, all the iron fragments and steel plates that had been ripped from the robots' bodies rose into the air and stopped floating, blocking out the sunlight.
The participants watching this miraculous event from below immediately panicked. However, seeing that their path was now wide open without obstruction, they quickly hurried, running through the gaps of the robots' remaining husks and chasing after the other participants.
...
Fuse, who was still at the very back near the starting line, was waiting in silence. He had sat down very casually on a protruding rock.
He whistled softly, a cheerful melody, then stared at his own fingers with a thoroughly bored expression. He let out a long sigh.
"Oh?"
Suddenly, his ears caught the sound of wind whistling from ahead. "Finally, my belongings have arrived."
At this moment, he suddenly grinned wide. His eyes glowed with satisfaction.
Then he stood from his seat, brushing the dust off his pants.
From the sky at the end of the corridor, hundreds of iron fragments and giant steel plates came flying toward him at tremendous speed. The heavy objects streaked through the air with a sharp sound.
Then, all the iron chunks stopped floating right in front of Fuse's face, hanging motionless in perfect obedience.
"You're truly very obedient, just like sweet pets," Fuse said with a voice dripping with arrogance.
Fuse then leaped with a very light step, climbing onto the largest and flattest of the steel plates.
He stood upright on the flying plate. "I've given you plenty of playtime, you first-tier extra players," he said, staring down the racecourse ahead.
"Don't let your performance disappoint my expectations."
At this moment, all the giant iron chunks surged forward, chasing the leading pack at extraordinarily high speed, cutting through the air like fighter jets.
...
At the front, Midoriya and the other three had already successfully navigated the deep rope canyon obstacle. And now, their feet had arrived at the final obstacle: a very expansive field of dirt covered in strange mounds.
They were in the minefield!
This was the dangerous zone where if a foot stepped on the ground containing a mine beneath it, the earth would instantly explode and launch its victim into the air.
Cold sweat drenched Midoriya's forehead. "I have a bad feeling about this..."
Using Full Cowling, he leaped from one safe point to another on the ground, trying hard to avoid the mines hidden below.
Because he had to be careful, his movement speed was clearly slower than usual.
"DEKU!!!"
Just as Midoriya was mid-leap, Bakugo suddenly passed him, appearing and flying alongside him at incredible speed.
From the previous obstacles, Bakugo had endured the pain in his arm and used continuous explosions from his palms to keep his body flying through the air without touching the ground!
Now, the result of his hard work had paid off, he'd managed to catch up and was right beside Midoriya!
Bakugo, hovering directly in front of Midoriya's face, displayed a terrifying expression, as if his heart were filled with endless grudge.
At this moment, he immediately pointed his right palm directly at Midoriya's face.
"DIE!" Bakugo screamed.
An enormous explosion instantly erupted from Bakugo's hand. Fire and hot air pressure slammed squarely into Midoriya's face.
"Ka-chan?!" Midoriya's eyes went wide, not expecting to be attacked so suddenly at such close range.
The startled Midoriya had absolutely no time to move his body to dodge or raise his arms to block the fire attack.
He was knocked hard backward.
His body floated in the air, lost balance, then fell flat on his back, hitting the ground of the minefield directly.
BOOM!
The mine beneath his body instantly detonated, creating pressure that struck his back hard.
Because of that ground explosion, Midoriya was launched high into the air again.
His body tumbled uncontrollably, then crashed down onto another mine.
BOOM! The second mine exploded.
And that painful sequence kept happening in succession. Midoriya's body was tossed about amid the pinkish smoke clouds produced by the exploding mines.
Seeing his rival left behind, Bakugo continued soaring forward and finally managed to seize first place.
At this moment, Bakugo, still flying, turned to look back at Midoriya's suffering, then lowered his gaze to stare at his own hands. His arm muscles trembled violently. He clicked his tongue in irritation.
"Damn, it's impossible to keep going, huh," Bakugo muttered.
His arm had reached its limit from using too many explosions. He was forced to lower his body, landing on the ground, and no longer used his explosions to propel himself in flight. He began running the normal way, carefully stepping his feet across the ground.
In the air still filled with pink smoke from the mine explosions, Midoriya didn't give up. He forced himself and cloaked his entire body again with the green electrical current of Full Cowling.
Instantly, he adjusted his body position in midair, performed a spin, and landed on the ground very smoothly without stepping on a single mine. Then, with his remaining strength, he resumed running fast, trailing Bakugo's path.
At the same time, while Midoriya was focused on running, he suddenly startled as he felt a very cold aura sweep across his back from behind.
Sensing danger, he leaped high forward in an instant.
And sure enough, a fraction of a second after he jumped, the ground surface where he'd been standing instantly froze into a very slippery ice layer.
Bakugo, who was absorbed in running at the very front, suddenly had to stop dead. He felt both his ankles as if tightly bound by something shackling him, yet the object felt piercingly cold against his skin.
He looked down and was utterly shocked to find both feet completely frozen by blocks of ice.
He turned around with a face full of fury and found someone gliding toward him.
It was Shoto Todoroki!
Todoroki, with his flat expression, immediately ran closer using the ice path he'd created himself.
Seeing him approach, Bakugo grew even more irritated and enraged. He tried to lift and aim his palm at the ice layer binding his feet, intending to destroy it. But when he tried, the large explosion he'd hoped for didn't come from his hands at all.
He had used his power too often and too much in the previous obstacles!
Todoroki and Midoriya, still running, were now getting closer and nearly catching up to the stalled Bakugo.
Whether through sheer force of will, a small explosion finally emerged from Bakugo's palm, and that power was just enough to shatter the ice shackling his feet. Bakugo resumed running.
Now, the three of them were running in exactly the same line, dead even. None willing to yield. They pushed each other's shoulders and elbowed one another roughly.
All three were busy impeding each other's progress!
At this moment, while they were physically brawling in the middle of the minefield, they suddenly felt a wind blowing extremely hard from behind them.
The three of them turned to look back simultaneously, and they found a dark silhouette streaking forward wearing a black cloak, flying low and cleaving through the air at tremendous speed.
It was Fumikage Tokoyami!
The bird-headed young man had apparently been quietly waiting for this golden moment all along!
With patience and careful calculation, he had taken fourth position behind them, having realized from the start that the three of them would never get along and would inevitably fight each other for first place.
Knowing this, Tokoyami chose to slow his pace, conserve and store his remaining energy, and let Todoroki overtake him to chase the two leaders.
In his head, he assumed that Todoroki would try his utmost to use his ice and wouldn't let Bakugo or Midoriya take first place peacefully.
And the result matched his strategic prediction perfectly! The three of them had become busy fighting one another and forgot about their surroundings!
Tokoyami, his entire body now cloaked in Dark Shadow, immediately flew and glided past all three of them with ease, without any obstruction.
The three of them were beyond shocked to have their positions stolen so simply.
They instantly stopped harassing each other, turned their faces forward, and tried to drive their legs to chase Tokoyami's back.
But the moment they took a few steps... the morning sunlight illuminating the minefield was suddenly blocked by something enormous from above. The arena abruptly went dim.
They felt bewildered and extremely startled, and simultaneously tilted their heads up, and their eyes instantly bulged.
The sunlight had been completely covered by giant iron plates floating motionless in the air, forming a metal cloud that obscured the sky.
"That's impossible, right?" Midoriya asked in a trembling voice.
"Nothing is impossible," a commanding shout from above suddenly answered his question. "That is very possible, Midoriya."
Fuse, who was happily standing and flying atop his iron plate, gazed down at the four of them from the sky.
He smiled broadly with absolute confidence.
"A festival event of this scale, of course, must be made incredibly spectacular so the audience doesn't get bored!" Fuse declared.
He stood upright, then raised his right hand high into the air, leaving only his middle finger and thumb extended, and then snapped his fingers with a sharp sound.
"Art is an explosion!"
Instantly, hundreds of large iron pieces, which were none other than the fragments from the zero-point robots that had been floating around him, suddenly dropped, plummeting downward at tremendous speed.
Midoriya, Todoroki, and Bakugo on the ground stared at the falling iron pieces with faces filled with horror and panic.
Meanwhile, Tokoyami, who was slightly ahead of them, could only stop running, swallow hard, and say in a thoroughly irritated voice. "I truly despise people who always want to seek attention and shine all by themselves."
"Damn you, Fuse," Tokoyami cursed.
In the blink of an eye, the giant iron chunks crashed down onto the minefield's ground surface with tremendous force, and the heavy pressure from the iron instantly detonated hundreds of mines buried below.
The chain of massive explosions occurred in relentless succession!
Pink smoke, fireballs, and sandy earth exploded into the air, creating a wall of destruction blocking the path of the four students. They were forced to retreat to save themselves from the blasts.
Fuse, hovering in the air, contentedly watched the chaos he'd created below. With a satisfied smile, he immediately lowered the altitude of the iron plate he was using to fly, gliding slowly toward the ground surface near the finish line.
Before his iron touched the ground, Fuse leaped with a very light and elegant motion, then his feet landed and began walking on the flat ground. He walked casually, slipping both hands into his P.E. pants pockets.
And with that calm stride, he stepped through the finish line gate into the stadium. As he walked, he raised his right hand high above his head and waved, greeting every pair of spectator eyes in the stands who were cheering and screaming his name tremendously.
Then, when he reached the center, he paused briefly and gave a slight bow to the audience, like a nobleman.
"Thank you very much for being willing to watch my beautiful performance," he said softly with a smile.
...
In a very dark and silent underground room, a pale blue-haired young man sat huddled.
Before him stood a television screen displaying the live broadcast of the U.A. Sports Festival.
And on that television screen, Fuse's handsome face wearing an arrogant smile was shown with perfect clarity.
As the young man stared at the screen, his pale skin's hand unconsciously gripped a TV remote tightly.
But it didn't take even a single second, the plastic remote in his hand suddenly changed color, cracked, and finally crumbled into dust that scattered to the floor.
While holding back irritation and anger while watching the broadcast, he had unconsciously activated his own quirk!
...
A/N: Honestly, I suffered writing this chapter... my imagination is limited and I had to think over and over whether their dialogue made sense or not. It drained a lot of energy. But I hope the result doesn't disappoint you.