The Sports festival has started.
The air in the stadium vibrated with the cheers of tens of thousands of people.
"Bakugo Katsuki!" Midnight called out.
The explosive blonde stepped up, looking at the crowd with disdain.
"I'm just gonna say it. I'm gonna be number one."
As the crowd erupted in boos and Bakugo strolled back down. Haruto gave him a slow, clap.
"Short, punchy, and aggressive. A solid 8 out of 10 Baku-bro."
"Shut up, freak!"
"And now, for the first event!" Midnight shouted, a holographic screen appearing behind her.
"The Obstacle Race! As long as you stay on the track, you can do whatever your little hearts desire!"
The mouth of the tunnel was narrow. Haruto positioned himself right behind Todoroki, his knees bent in a runner's crouch.
"START!" Present Mic's voice exploded.
The buzzer cracked through the air.
Without hesitation Shoto Todoroki ran forward freezing the ground behind him.
But Haruto was a step ahead, he was moving before the ice even touched the ground, he dived and rolled, popping up on the other side, already mid-sprint before the rest of the students could even gasp.
"Nice try, Elza-chan!" Haruto looked over his shoulder, giving a mocking two-finger salute to a stunned Todoroki.
"WAIT - LOOK AT THAT! SHOTO TODOROKI FREEZES THE COMPETITION BEFORE THEY CAN EVEN TAKE THEIR FIRST STEP!"
"BUT HOLD THE PHONE! SOMEONE JUST BLITZED PAST THE FROST! HARUTO AKAGI FROM CLASS 1-A JUST DIVED THROUGH THE GAP LIKE HE ALREADY KNEW THE ICE WAS COMING!"
In the announcer's booth, Shota Aizawa, his face wrapped in bandages, leaned back in his chair analysing the scene.
"He didn't hesitate for a second. It's not just speed. he read the situation before the buzzer even sounded."
The cameras panned to the first major barrier, the gargantuan villain bots looming over the track.
While the massive robots surged forward to block the path, Haruto didn't even slow down to engage.
He leaped off the chest of one of them, using the massive machine as a simple stepping stone to vault fifty feet into the air, and hit the ground running.
"CHECK OUT AKAGI! HE'S NOT EVEN LOOKING AT THEM! HE JUST USED A ROBOT AS A SPRINGBOARD AND VAULTED THE ENTIRE FRONT LINE WITHOUT BREAKING A SWEAT!"
Aizawa let out a tired sigh. "He isn't wasting energy on combat he doesn't need to engage in. It's... efficient."
Haruto reached the edge of 'The Fall' well ahead of the pack.
He didn't bother trying to balance on top like a circus act. Instead, he leaped off the ledge and snatched the cable from underneath.
Haruto began to move with high-speed agility.
Dangling over the bottomless pit, he swung his body forward, he was monkey-barring across the chasm at an abnormal speed.
"WE'VE REACHED THE SECOND BARRIER: THE FALL! IT'S A TIGHTROPE WALK OVER A BOTTOMLESS ABYSS!, BUT AKAGI IS... IS HE GOING UNDERNEATH?! HE'S MONKEY-BARRING THE CABLES! LOOK AT THOSE ARMS GO!"
With one final, massive heave, he pulled himself upward from the dangling position, vaulting over the far ledge and landing in a perfect superhero 3-point pose.
Then he just kept running, his eyes fixed on the final obstacle: the Mine Field.
"AND NOW, WE'VE REACHED THE FINAL BARRIER! THE MINEFIELD!"
"IT'S DESIGNED SO YOU CAN SEE WHERE THE MINES ARE IF YOU LOOK CAREFULLY! SO STRAIN THOSE EYES AND FO— WAIT, IS HE EVEN LOOKING?!"
Haruto leaned forward, his boots digging into the dirt as he accelerated into a dead sprint.
He charged into the field like a madman. To the spectators, it looked like suicide, but he was moving with a calculated pace. He wasn't dodging the mines, he was tanking them.
BOOM!
A mine exploded directly under his left foot.
But instead, of flying randomly upward, he used the force of the blast to push himself forward, his durability turning a lethal explosion into a free boost.
"HE'S TANKING THE BLASTS! HE'S LITERALLY USING THE MINES AS BOOSTER PADS!"
"It's impressive," Aizawa muttered.
"But it's incredibly taxing on the body. He's gambling on his own endurance... and it's working."
Past the mine field. Haruto's knees buckled slightly. He began to draw an act, about a cramped calf.
But then he looked at the scoreboard.
The massive digital display was already showing the "rankings".
Something about the way the "cameras" were perfectly positioned to catch a victory made his senses tingle.
"You know what?" Haruto muttered, his wobbly legs suddenly snapping back into action.
"The 'Humble Runner-Up' trope is getting a bit played out."
With a burst of strength, He bypassed the "photo finish" entirely, crossing the white line a full three seconds before Midoriya's desperate lunge could even reach the ribbon.
"AND THE WINNER IS... HARUTO AKAGI!. HE DIDN'T JUST LEAD THE WHOLE RACE, HE BLITZED THE FINISH LIKE HE WAS BORED OF WAITING FOR THE COMPETITION!"
Haruto didn't stop to pant. He skidded to a halt, spun around, and struck a "bully Maguire victory dance"
Midoriya tumbled across the line in second, gasping for air, followed immediately by a snarling Bakugo and a frozen Todoroki.
The stadium was in an absolute frenzy. The "mysterious wildcard", had just dominated the most prestigious school event in the country without a visible flashy Quirk.
"It was a calculated risk," Aizawa muttered into his mic, though even he sounded slightly impressed. "He played with them until the very end, then showed his real speed... he's got insane stamina"
Midoriya tumbled across the line seconds later, followed by a screaming Bakugo and a silent Todoroki.
The massive holographic scoreboard flickered, the names of the students rearranging themselves into the final standing.
Haruto strolled over to the breathless Midoriya and offered a hand, pulling the trembling boy to his feet.
"First place, Deku-kun, It's a lot of weight to carry. I figured I'd take the target off your back for the next round. Consider it a birthday gift"
**********<>**********
The second round
1st Haruto Akagi
2nd Izuku Midoriya
3rd Katsuki Bakugo
4th Shoto Todoroki
...
"The forty-two of you who made it through the qualifiers have earned the right to move on!" she proclaimed.
"But the real trial starts now. Behold... The Cavalry Battle!"
After she finished explaining the rules.
Midnight's grin widened as she locked eyes with Haruto, who was casually stretching his hamstrings.
"You have fifteen minutes to negotiate and form your teams! Choose wisely... because everyone in this stadium is coming for those ten million points!"
"Except for first place," Midnight's grin turned wicked. "The person who took the top spot is worth... TEN MILLION POINTS!"
Every head in the stadium snapped toward Haruto. He stood alone as a circle of empty space formed around him.
"Look at them," Haruto muttered. "Cowards."
He bypassed the 'main cast' and walked straight over to Mei Hatsume.
"Hatsume-chan," Haruto chirped, leaning into her personal space.
"How would you like to be the sole engineer for a two-person show ?"
Mei's goggles whirred, her crosshairs locking onto his mask. "Only two people?"
"Forget the risk, think about marketing. If we go in with a full team, your 'babies' have to share the spotlight with three other Quirks. It's bad branding. But a two-person squad?"
He spread his arms wide, gesturing to the hovering camera drones circling the stadium.
"I'm talking about three minutes of uninterrupted, prime-time advertising"
Mei's face split into a grin, her eyes practically turning into yen signs.
"A solo-sponsored technical showcase... I like the way you think, Akagi-kun! My babies deserve the exclusive center-stage!"
"Exactly," Haruto chirped. "But I need you to take the safety limiters off your thrusters, Crank them to maximum output. I'm going to out-run the frame rate."
Mei's goggles whirred. "Maximum output? The backlash would turn a normal human's joints into jelly!"
"I've got the durability patch, Mei-chan. I'll endure the recoil - you just hold on and keep the fuel pumping. And do you have some kind of a shield"
"A shield?" Mei's eyes widened, her zoom functions clicking rapidly.
"A physical barrier? A protective casing for my precious babies?!"
"Not for your 'babies' it's for you ? Something like a premium windshield"
Mei's face split into a grin.
"I have just the thing - the Aero-Shell Mark 4! It's a deployable kinetic dampener with a reinforced polymer viewscreen! But It's heavy, Akagi-kun! It adds another twenty kilos of dead wei-"
"Weight is not a problem," Haruto interrupted, testing the balance of the new hardware.
Around them, the bustling crowd of students formed a frantic tide of negotiations.Yet no one dared to approach the ten-million-point man - except for the pink-haired gearhead currently bolting a thruster to his back.
Izuku Midoriya stood with his team, his notebook vibrating in his hand.
He stared at Haruto and Mei - a team of two, standing completely isolated in the center.
"Two people?" Midoriya muttered, his eyes darting across Haruto's gear. "The mobility is higher, sure, but the defensive gap.
They have no flanks, no rear guard..."
A few yards away, Bakugo Katsuki was literally smoking. his eyes were locked on the ten-million headband tied around Mei's neck.
"Only two of 'em? Is that freak looking down on us?!" he growled, his palms crackling with mini-explosions. "I'm gonna blast that smug grin right off his face!"
Shoto Todoroki narrowed his eyes, his right side already beginning to frost over.
"It's a provocation, He wants us to overextend.Don't fall for the bait. We corner them, trap them in ice, and the points are ours."