To Find A Needle In A Haystack.

Chapter 4: UA Sports Festival, The First Round

Finally, the day of the UA Sports Festival is here, and Atsushi has never related to Dazai more than at this moment. He somehow perfectly understands where the bandaged man comes from when he complains about work starting so early. Sure, Atsushi was used to waking up early because of the orphanage, but he had slowly begun to train it out of him per Yosano's orders. He was half awake when Akutagawa walks into the kitchen.

"You're spilling the coffee." The mafioso says, making Atsushi jump slightly and bring his attention back to the mug he was pouring the coffee into. Sure enough, the mug was overflowing a bit and there was a small pool of coffee on the counter. With a muttered curse, Atsushi begins to clean it up as Akutagawa snickers.

After that whole fiasco, the two Yokohamans are on their way to UA. The walk is silent, like it usually is, but it's a nice kind of silence. The day is also very nice. Perfect weather for the Sports Festival, Atsushi muses to himself. When they get to where they need to be, most of the rest of the class is there in their waiting room, gym uniforms on.

"Hey, you guys are finally here!" Kirishima says with an enthusiastic wave. Atsushi waves back and smiles at the red-headed boy while Akutagawa just gives him a blank stare. It isn't long before they are called to walk out into the field, and Atsushi wonders just how much money UA has if this is the stadium. Not to mention to pay all the extra heroes patrolling to keep villains out. He tunes out the announcements and Bakugo's speech, instead focusing on analyzing his soon to be opponents like Dazai had been teaching him.

He gets jostled from his thoughts when Akutagawa elbows him in the side, meaning that the first round is starting. Atsushi glances up to see that it is an obstacle course, and he immediately knows that the first obstacle is the gate.

"The gate is what we have to worry about most." Atsushi mutters to Akutagawa as he turns his legs into the tigers. "It will cause a bottleneck, and then we'll be stuck."

"Not if we're fast enough." Akutagawa counters, giving the weretiger a pointed look. Atsushi groans, and turns his arms as well before getting onto all fours.

"I swear, this is the last time I'll be your horse." Atsushi grumbles as Akutagwa hops onto his back just like when they were going through that tunnel. When the start sounds, Atsushi takes off, easily making it ahead of most of the other students. Like he had predicted, the gate had caused a bottleneck of students. However, Todoroki does create a giant patch of ice, effectively freezing the competition save for most of class 1-A.

As Atsushi runs, he sees giant robots. He doesn't even have to say anything as he sees Rashomon slice through the ones directly in his and Akutagawa's path. Atsushi silently thanks the other male for dealing with the robots. When they had first started working together, Akutagawa would have let him just deal with it by himself. He keeps going, but is soon passed up by Todoroki and Bakugo. He's about to ask Akutagawa if he should speed up to pass them, but gets interrupted by the other man speaking.

"Don't speed up to pass them. We don't want to show off, remember?" Atsushi thinks about it for a moment, and then nods.

"You're right. Should I slow down then, or do we want to get into the next round?" Atsushi asks. It takes until they get to the next obstacle, a pit with pillars and ropes, for Akutagawa to answer.

"Land in the middle for the qualifiers. We don't want to be too showy, but people need to know that we shouldn't be messed with." The mafioso says, and Atsushi listens. Akutagawa doesn't get off Atsushi, but he doesn't mind all that much. He runs across the ropes easily with the help of the tiger's tail, even with another person coming along for the ride. Present Mic's voice booms over the speakers, and Atsushi sighs heavily.

"And now, our front runners are reaching the final obstacle, the minefield! Todoroki and Bakugou are tied for first place, and it looks like most of class 1-A are close behind!"

Great. Mines. Is UA trying to kill them? Quickly shifting to the tiger's eyes, Atsushi can now clearly see where the mines are buried, and can easily avoid them. Suddenly, a loud explosion is heard from behind, and a blur of green and blue wizzes past. The blur, which is now identifiable as Midoriya, slams the broken slab of robot directly onto the mines, setting off another explosion that propels the boy forwards, putting him into first place with Todoroki in second and Bakugou in third. Atsushi slows down considerably, pretending to carefully pick his way around the mines until he's sure he and Akutagawa will be placed in 22th and 23th.

Akutagawa gets off Atsushi's back, and helps the weretiger stand up without falling over. The mafioso knows that running like that without stopping for that long has an effect on the younger male when his limbs go back to normal.

When Atsushi gets his bearings back, he looks at the leaderboard. He was off a little bit. He and Akutagawa got 20th and 21st, but that's ok. High but not too high. That's what they were aiming for.

Midnight cracks her whip when everyone is back in the stadium, and begins to speak into her mic.

"For the next round, we will be doing a cavalry battle! So, the first 42 people from the obstacle course, get your teams together and the rest of you head to the stands!"

Authors notes:

Beta reader as of this chapter!! I was not expecting people to read this, once again, so thanks for that! I wrote this in two hours, and I think it shows. If you can't tell, I don't do well with action scenes. Since I got this done a day early, you all get a treat, so enjoy!

Remember to drink water and feed yourselves <3