||Discontinued|| Paper Cuts | Mute!Deku AU | My Hero Academia Fanfic

↟Chapter Twenty-Four↡

Welp. Now all I gotta do is wait for the next update of YUTS! This'll be fun :')

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A few seemingly short weeks passed by before the UA Sports Festival was right in front of them. Class 1-A was in their prep room, getting ready for the festival. Izuku was still a bit nervous. So many people would be watching. In the arena and on television, too.

Iida burst into the room. "Get ready, everyone! We're about to start!"

Everyone was pumped up and excited, Izuku could feel it in the air. He took in a deep breath to calm himself.

"Midoriya."

At the mention of his name, Izuku jumped a bit and turned around. His gaze met with Todoroki's cold one.

He tilted his head slightly, a questioning look crossing his face. Todoroki's expression didn't change.

"Objectively speaking, I'm stronger and more capable than you," He said bluntly.

Izuku almost gaped openly then. Of course he knew that. Todoroki had been training so much longer than he had. He had more practice with his quirk and in the hero field in general. Izuku himself had only gotten a quirk a few months ago. He always took notes on heroes and their work, but he had always been on the sidelines watching. He never had experience.

But still, for Todoroki to come out and announce something like that— what was he trying to do, make Izuku loose his nerve?

"The way I see things, All Might's got his eye on you, doesn't he," Todoroki continued. "I won't pry into why that is, but I will beat you."

Izuku's jaw practically snapped open and dropped to the floor.

"Woah! A declaration of war already?" Kaminari shouted from a table nearby.

Kirishima set a hand on Todoroki's shoulder. "Hey man, don't pick a fight right now! We're about to go on!"

His hand was roughly shoved back. "I don't exactly care," Todoroki said coolly. "I'm not going to play nice and pretend to be anyone's friend." He shot a short, cold glare at Kirishima, as if saying not to interrupt, and the redhead flinched slightly. He turned his heterochromatic gaze back to Izuku who was still very confused about the whole situation.

"I'll beat you and make it to the top."

Izuku bit the inside of his lip nervously. He didn't understand what this was about but...

'Me too,' Izuku finger spelled carefully. 'I'll reach the top with everything I've got!'

He watches Todoroki read over the signs before nodding and walking away. Just a few moments later, they were called out onto the field.

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Izuku watched Bakugou come down from the podium and into the crowd of still angry students. He sighed deeply, of course his childhood friend would declare war right from the get-go. But then again, he noticed, the old Bakugou would've smirked as he said that.

"He's getting serious," Izuku thought warily.

Midnight grinned into the microphone. "Alright! Let's get the first event started!" She turned to a screen behind her. "And that first event is... this!" The words 'Obstacle Course Race' popped on screen.

"It's a race between every student of every course! The run is a four kilometer lap around the stadium itself, but watch out for the obstacles along the way! Our school is known for it's freedom in teaching and all other things, so as long as you don't go off the course, anything's fair game! With that being said, everyone, to your positions!"