Red Shoes: an MHA Tale

Chapter 18: The World is Watching

The day of the International Sports Festival finally arrived. But ever since that night, none of the Deku Squad would do any more than look at each other. Today they were not supposed to behave as friends, but as rivals even if participating in trials that placed them into teams.

Nevertheless, Eri, Katsuma, and Kota, among their classmates each felt a sense of pride as they marched on to the gigantic stadium floor in front of literally thousands of visible onlookers, with probably billions more across the planet.

Eri swallowed her anxiety. Having been raised by Shouta Aizawa mostly, she also adopted different quirks from members of the original Big Three at the time: Mirio Togata, Tamaki Amajiki, and Neijire Hado. Sometimes, being in the spotlight gave her nervousness. But she combatted it with a big smile.

"And there they are! UA's Class 1-A!" Present Mic shouted on the intercom system, while the entire stadium began to cheer. The teacher quickly announced each class from each school as they marched out of different large arched entryways into the colosseum.

Kota looked around at all the hundreds of students donning different colored uniforms based on their representative schools. He frowned and stared ahead.

Katsuma looked up at the camera as their class stood in line in an organized sea of sports uniforms. He wondered for a moment if Deku was watching.

He was. But not from his apartment. Deku could not sit by and wait for his wife to be rescued. He had to be sure she was safe. Yet he took some time to pull out his phone and watch from the broadcast perched on a roof in his hero costume.

All eyes were on them. Even Akira Hokori turned on the television in their secret lair for their people, and for Ochako to see.

"Think of this as a recruiting program. Look for interesting Quirks, and look for those who can handle this much stress facing so many opponents at once." Akira said.

Ochako ignored him, as she had been doing, and focused on Eri, and the others.

Up on a stage in the far end of the stadium, the Rabbit Hero Mirko stood holding her own microphone, wearing her usual white hero costume. Because of her injuries in the villain war years back, she switched careers and became a teacher for UA as a favor to her late friend and previous teacher, Midnight. On the side, she acts as a personal trainer to retired heroes and various others, also having released a line of exercise DVDs.

"Welcome young heroes near and far to the first ever International Sports Festival!" She called. "It's very empowering to see so many faces eager to become the next generation of do-gooders!"

Up on a large floating cube above the stadium, there was a pixelated list of every name on the field in randomized order, within their own schools.

"This year's competition will be simple: thirty students randomly selected will fight for control over a raised platform atop a large pyramid positioned in the center of the ground!" Mirko announced. "Every student will have their chance to compete in the 20 matches! Each match will only last 60 seconds. Whoever controls the top the longest wins that match! Then the 20 winners will compete once more. No holding back now!"

"So it's like a big King of the Hill match!" One student from an American school thought out loud.

Mirko's smile dropped. "Do you want me to crush you, boy?!" She barked at him through the microphone.

"Yes, please." He blurted out almost without hesitation. His female classmates each slapped him in the head.

The Rabbit Hero sighed then forced her smile to come back. "Anyway, we have a lot of students to get through today and no time to waste!"

"This is it..." Katsuma thought.

The students were pushed away from the center of the stadium floor as it opened up to a giant white pyramid with a flat top, just large enough for a few people to stand on.

"I thought only one person is supposed to stay on the longest?!" One student called out with a green uniform and large crab-like claws for hands.

"Yeah!" Several other students audibly agreed.

Mirko simply licked her lips and smirked. "This just makes it more fiery. More to worry about than you thought. Don't worry, there's even more to come."

"Outstanding." Gomuhosu stated.

Satsuki grabbed his hand and gently squeezed before letting go. "Good luck." She told him.

He turned his head and nodded. "Same to you." He smiled.

Eri playfully punched both of her guy friends on the shoulders. "Hey, no hard feelings, right boys?"

Katsuma nodded. "In order to become heroes, we have to be a little competitive."

Kota scoffed. "I'm going to beat both of you. I'm ready."

Katsuma took his mind off of Deku and turned back to Eri. "Wait, your powers?! How are you going to do this?"

"How did Deku get as far as he did?" She asked him, with her eyes fixed on the pyramid. "I got this." The horned girl proclaimed.

The first matchup was decided, the first 30 students selected. "Gomuhosu Yamirato! UA, Class 1-A!" Mirko called out as she pulled out his name from a large jar full of the 600 students' names on paper.

Their friend gulped as he stepped forward. "Here goes everything." He said as he marched forward to join the 29 other students from other countries. There was one other student there from Shiketsu High School with large round bubbles all over his skin.

"UA..." He hissed at the grey-skinned cartoony student.

"Beg your pardon?" Gomuhosu asked.

He did not answer back.

"I can tell this first match is going to be fun." Mirko snickered. "We got some local Japan school rivalry here!"

Various people from the crowd were cheering on "U-A! U-A! U-A!" While others shouting "Shi-ketsu! Shi-ketsu! Shi-ketsu!"

"Competitors! Take your positions on any of the 30 starting positions at the base of the pyramid!" Mirko ordered.

Up above, Present Mic and Vlad King were giving out the performance records of each student within the roster.

"Gomuhosu has been a mystery all semester! He was among other UA students to encounter villains a few weeks ago! His Quirk seems...okay, but his performance? A total wildcard!" Present Mic. "I gotta admit though, his whole 'old timey' cartoon aesthetic is kinda creepy!"

"He's certainly not given himself a spotlight, that's for sure. So there's not much to talk about other than his appearance." Vlad King added.

Gomuhosu sighed, closing his eyes and attempting to drown out any distractions.

The Shiketsu student was unfortunately positioned in the spot closest to him near one of the corners. "Just give up, UA! I've been waiting a long time to give my school the recognition they deserve!" He shouted.

"Competitors, prepare yourselves!" Mirko commanded.

Deku heard someone from behind and turned off his phone, quickly engaging them.

Akira Hokori laughed as he watched his television screen with his family and fellow cultists.

Ochako winced at a kicking bump in her stomach, but went back to the TV in her room from her bed.

Eri, Katsuma, Kota, and Satsuki watched their friend closely as the buzzer went off.