"GO!"
Midnight ordered. The gate exploded open. The race began with a thunderous roar as hundreds of students surged into the narrow pathway.
The moment they did, Yuta disappeared.
"ALRIGHT MUMMY MAN!" Present Mic said, leaning into his mic.
"Don't call me that." The flat voice replied.
Mic ignored him. "THE RACE IS OFF! THE STUDENTS ARE GOING STRONG. WHAT'S THE FIRST THING TO PAY ATTENTION TO?"
Aizawa didn't look away from the monitors.
"The door."
"The door?" Mic repeated. "THAT'S IT?"
"It's narrow."
Below, chaos erupted immediately.
The tunnel was packed shoulder-to-shoulder. Students jostled, shoved, and scrambled for position. Quirks flared in desperate bursts—flames, hardening skin, someone's hair whipping wildly.
"Dammit—move!"
"I can't—there's no room!"
"Stop pushing!"
"Who designed this -"
Near the front, Todoroki raised his right hand.
Ice exploded outward in a massive wave, coating the walls, the floor, and dozens of students in frozen crystal. The entire tunnel crystallized in seconds.
Students screamed.
Some were caught mid-step, frozen solid. Others slipped and crashed into the walls. A few managed to break free, smashing through the ice with hardened fists or heat-based quirks.
Todoroki ran forward calmly, unbothered, already pulling ahead.
Behind him, Bakugo blasted through the ice with raw explosions, propelling himself forward.
Yaoyorozu created a staff and vaulted over the frozen students.
Iida's engines roared to life, skating across the ice with practiced precision.
"NICE MOVE BY TODOROKI!" Present Mic roared. "Ice everywhere! Half the field's frozen solid!"
'The first sifting.' Aizawa thought. 'However ..' His thoughts had barely formed when they were proven right.
Bakugo's figure blasted out of the path.
"Get back here you Half and Half bastard!"
"Naive Todoroki." Yaoyorozu yelled. "It's going to take far more than that to trap us."
The smarter ones—Kaminari, Jirō, Kirishima—jumped or avoided it by inches.
Support Course kids scrambled and clung to the walls.
General Studies panicked outright.
"HE CAN DO THAT?!"
'I see. More outside class 1A managed to escape the ice than I anticipated.'
Aizawa's eyes narrowed. "He's not trying to win yet. He's thinning the herd."
The students who broke through the ice emerged into open air—and immediately stopped.
Very surprised when a shadow fell over them.
BANG!
A massive metal limb slammed into the ground.
"Wait—ARE THOSE—"
"THE ENTRANCE EXAM ROBOTS?!"
Standing before them, towering and mechanical, were the Faux Villains from the entrance exam.
Zero-pointers.
Dozens of them.
Their red sensors locked onto the incoming students.
"You're kidding me—"
"THOSE THINGS AGAIN?!"
Those who had taken the entrance exams immediately recognized it.
Present Mic cackled as the cameras zoomed in. "AND HERE WE ARE, FOLKS! THE FIRST OBSTACLE—THE EXAM BOT GAUNTLET!"
Todoroki's eyes narrowed.
'So ... This is what they used in the general entrance exams, huh?'
Present Mic gestured dramatically.
"ROBO INFERNO."
"Dammit. Where do they even get the money for these things?"
"You're thinking about money? How are we going to get past them? There's more than a dozen."
"So Mummy man." Mic grinned from ear to ear. "What do you think?"
"It'll be a challenge for some." Aizawa nodded. "For others. Not so much."
"HUH? INTERESTING. WELL LET'S JUST WAIT AND SEE IF YOUR ..."
Present Mic's voice suddenly ceased to exist.
"HOLD ON—WHAT?!"
The feed cut from the robots to a different camera—one positioned farther along the course.
Then farther.
Then farther.
Finally it locked onto a single figure sprinting along the outer track, already well beyond the robot zone.
A single boy.
Way out in front.
The stadium erupted into chaos.
Present Mic nearly fell out of his seat. "HOW DID HE GET PAST THE BOT ZONE?! THE RACE JUST STARTED!"
The camera zoomed in.
Red hair. General Studies tracksuit.
Aizawa's eyes narrowed.
"WHO THE HELL IS THAT GUY?"
On the field, Todoroki froze mid-stride.
"…What?"
Bakugo whipped his head toward the giant screens, fury crackling. "Hah?! Who the hell—" In the Teachers section, everyone was stunned.
"What the ..."
"I DON'T BELIEVE IT!" Present Mic's voice echoed across the stadium. "LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, IT SEEMS WE HAVE AN UNEXPECTED ANOMALY! CURRENTLY IN FIRST PLACE IS NOT SOMEONE FROM THE HERO COURSE, BUT... SOMEONE FROM... GENERAL STUDIES?! CAN SOMEONE TELL ME WHAT IN THE HEAVENS HAPPENED?!"
"Your the commentator Mic." Eraserhead uttered blandly.
"Check the notes."
"OH. RIGHT!" He frantically scrolled through the participant roster on his tablet.
"Let's see… red hair… General Studies… Ah! Got it!"
He grabbed the mic.
"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! THE CURRENT LEADER IS YUTA AKUTAMI FROM GENERAL STUDIES CLASS 1-D! TECH SUPPORT IS WORKING ON REPLAY'S TO SEE JUST HOW THIS HAPPENED. IT'LL BE IN A WHILE THOUGH ONCE THE OBSTACLE COURSE IS OVER."
Murmurs spread through the crowd.
Mina vaulted over a frozen student, landing in a roll.
"Wait—Yuta?!"
Toru's gloves clenched mid-swing as she dodged falling debris.
"That guy?!"
Uraraka touched a chunk of rubble, making it float, then launched herself forward.
She blinked at the announcement.
"Isn't that…?"
Asui leapt from wall to wall with her tongue.
"Ribbit?"
Sero swung overhead on his tape, grinning.
"No way. That guy? Sick."
The announcement carried a greater effect on those from general studies.
"IS THAT—YUTA?!"
Tanaka sputtered, adjusting his glasses.
"It can't be the same guy, right?!"
He turned.
Around him, Yuta was nowhere to be found.
"Hold on. He was right next to us."
"Wait—how did he skip the entire first obstacle?! It's been like thirty seconds!"
'The Sports Festival really isn't something to underestimate.' Todoroki thought in the robot zone. He had no idea who was being mentioned, but the fact that they were from general studies of all places said enough.
At that moment, a robot's massive hand descended toward him.
He didn't hesitate. His right arm swung upward.
CRACK.
A pillar of ice exploded from the ground, encasing the machine in seconds—arms, legs, torso, head.
The entire robot froze solid.
'I'll have to take this seriously.'
Todoroki propelled himself forward on an ice path, skating between the robot's legs.
'And leave no room for anyone else.'
His fingers twitched.
The frozen robot shattered behind him, collapsing into the path and blocking it completely.
"NEXT TO PASS. SHOTO TODOROKI FROM CLASS 1A. HE FREEZES A ZERO-POINTER AND USES IT TO BLOCK THE PATH!" Present Mic roared. "CLEVER! RUTHLESS! THAT'S THE NUMBER ONE RECOMMENDATION STUDENT FOR YOU!"
Aizawa grunted.
"He's buying himself time. Someone's already ahead of him."
"By trapping everyone else! BRILLIANT!"
CRASH!
The dust caused from the robots's fall finally dissipated.
"Dammit! He blocked the path."
"Hey ... That didn't fall on anyone, did it?"
The murmurs spread.
Just then, a figure burst through the ice and debris, red skin hardened like stone.
"DAMN YOU, TODOROKI!" Kirishima roared. "YOU ALMOST BURIED ME ALIVE!"
Another explosion of rubble.
"THAT CLASS 1-A ..."
Tetsutetsu emerged, steel body gleaming.
"... IS REALLY FULL OF BASTARDS!"
"Hey!"
Both looked at each other.
Then gritted their teeth and ran forward.
"That's offensive!"
"Aren't you?! Your friend just sealed the path and nearly killed me to get first place!"
"He's not even in first place!"
"I KNOW, RIGHT?!"
A voice interrupted from above.
Sero swung overhead on his tape, grinning.
"Always knew something was up with that guy. He's got quite the head start!"
Then—
BOOM.
Bakugo blasted past all of them, explosions roaring.
"TCH—LIKE HELL I'M LETTING SOME NOBODY GET AHEAD OF ME!"
He shot forward so violently that two nearby students screamed.
"AND HERE COMES THE CAVALRY!" Present Mic gestured wildly. "KIRISHIMA! TETSUTETSU! SERO! BAKUGO! ALL CHARGING THROUGH!"
More students vaulted over the robots—Yaoyorozu with a canon, Tokoyami riding Dark Shadow, Iida skating on ice.
"MOST OF THE FRONT-RUNNERS ARE FROM CLASS 1-A!" Mic continued. "BUT DON'T COUNT OUT THE OTHER COURSES YET!"
In the teacher's section, Vlad King crossed his arms.
"As expected. Most who passed are Class 1-A."
All Might frowned, eyes on the screen.
"The other courses aren't bad either."
His gaze settled on the figure far ahead.
Yuta.
"…Interesting."
"FIRST PLACE HAS SOME AMAZING SPEED! HE'S QUICKLY APPROACHING THE SECOND OBSTACLE! THE BIG FALL."
Present Mic leaned into the mic.
"BUT IT SEEMS TODOROKI IS CATCHING UP! HE'LL HAVE TO KEEP HIS PACE IF HE DOESN'T WANT TO GET OVERRUN!"
"Huh?" Yuta who was approaching the second obstacle turned back to see Todoroki blasting towards him on a ice path.
'Uh oh.'
Ahead, the track opened into a wide gorge.
Thin cables stretched across the gap—dozens of them, swaying slightly in the wind.
THE FALL.
Students were supposed to cross carefully, balancing on the tightropes.
The hero course would clear this. Most from General Studies and support would end their journeys here.
'Time to pull some Ninja bullshit.'
Yuta hit the edge—
—and kept running.
His feet landed on the first cable.
Chakra condensed under his soles, sticking him to the thin line like glue.
Then, he ran.
Sprinting across with perfect balance like the tightrope was solid ground.
Present Mic's jaw dropped.
"HE'S—HE'S RUNNING ACROSS THE TIGHTROPES! LIKE THEY'RE A SIDEWALK!"
Aizawa leaned forward, eyes narrowing.
"…You don't see that everyday"
"OF COURSE NOT. THIS IS PRIME CIRCUS MATERIAL."
Todoroki skated to the edge of the gorge.
He stopped.
Stared.
Yuta was already halfway across, feet moving in rapid, precise steps, body perfectly balanced.
Todoroki's expression hardened.
'He just ran across?'
Ice crackled under his feet.
He raised his right hand—
—and created a small ice bridge, freezing the air itself into a solid path.
Then he shot forward.
"TODOROKI CREATES AN ICE BRIDGE! HE'S NOT LETTING YUTA OUT OF HIS SIGHT!"
Present Mic's voice cracked with excitement.
"THIS IS GETTING GOOD, FOLKS! FIRST PLACE VERSUS THE RECOMMENDATION STUDENT! WHO'S GONNA REACH THE THIRD OBSTACLE FIRST?!"
___
Enjoying the story? Want to read ahead?
Support the novel and unlock early access to unreleased chapters by joining my Patreon!
💧 WATER TIER (5$) – Read 3 chapters ahead of public releases
🌍 EARTH TIER ($7) – Read 5 chapters ahead, with bonus lore, author notes, and behind-the-scenes content
🔥 FIRE TIER ($10) – Read 8 chapters ahead, get full access to all extras, and vote in exclusive polls for bonus content
📎 Patreon.com/Future805
Even a small pledge makes a huge difference — thank you for reading