The moment the buzzer rang and the gates opened, a storm of bodies surged forward. Denki Kaminari ran. His legs pumped instinctively, more out of fear of getting trampled than any competitive fire.
He was lucky not to be among the first frontliners in the race, as they were frozen by Todoroki in the tunnel, automatically eliminating them. Like others who couldn't move around in the air, he managed to jump to avoid being stuck in ice.
"Obstacle course, huh?" he muttered, eyes darting across the crowd of students rushing ahead. "This is already looking like a bad idea..."
The roar of the crowd faded into background noise as the real danger made itself clear—giant robots. "Are you kidding me!?" Denki yelped, skidding to a stop just behind the pack. Three massive faux villains, replicas of the zero-pointers from the entrance exam, stood like towers between them and the rest of the course.
He ducked instinctively as one of the robots swiped a steel arm toward the students. 'This is not worth school credits!'
All around him, his classmates sprang into action. Todoroki, cool as ever, slid across the ground, freezing a robot's legs and causing the mechanical giant to crash forward, blocking a portion of the path. Iida zigzagged with perfect precision, already halfway up the battlefield. Bakugo? He just exploded his way over the wreckage, looking like a human missile.
Denki's eyes widened. "Oh man, I have to do something flashy too, right?"
A few students nearby were hesitating like him, including some from General Studies. Denki gritted his teeth. "Come on, Kaminari, don't just stand around. You're not useless!"
He took off again, weaving through debris. One of the zero-pointers turned toward him with a low mechanical whir; a red eye lit up. Denki jolted to the side just in time to avoid being swatted like a fly. "Nope! Nope! Too close!" He yelled, his voice going higher than he wanted it to.
Then he saw something—Azaria, dashing ahead while dodging attacks swiftly. He had somehow managed to pass through a space after Midoriya before the robot he passed came crashing down. He looked almost bored.
"Ah, fucking hell, Azaria just passed me. Lucky motherfucker," Denki groaned. "Is moving around like that his quirk? I've never actually seen him activate his quirk.'
He didn't have time to ponder for long. A piece of rubble crashed beside him, and Denki snapped back to reality. He needed a path through as fast as possible. Denki held up his hand, sparks dancing between his fingers. "Alright," he muttered, grinning nervously, "time to shine, Kaminari-style!"
With a burst of electricity, he fired a shockwave into the exposed wires of a nearby robot's leg, causing it to stutter and slow. Not much, but enough to slip past its feet without getting stepped on.
"Nice!" he cheered, doing a quick air fist-pump. "Still got it—wait, nope, don't trip—" He stumbled, barely keeping himself from faceplanting. His hair was already frazzled, but now it looked like someone had zapped him on purpose. "Cool guys don't trip, cool guys don't trip," he repeated under his breath like a mantra as he pushed forward.
As he cleared the robots, he made it to the next stretch: a cliff with thin, narrow ropes and platforms hanging over a bottomless pit.
Denki sighed.
"Of course it's ropes. Why wouldn't it be ropes?"
Behind him, he heard the unmistakable sound of Bakugo blasting someone out of the way. Ahead, Todoroki was already creating ice bridges, cruising past the section like a winter sports god. He saw Midoriya crossing on the rope in a pathetic manner, an opposing manner in which the majority of the students managed to cross over.
"I hate these guys," Denki muttered with a half-smile, grabbing onto the first rope and beginning his climb "Why do the cool ones always make this look so easy?" He almost slipped, clinging to the rope with his legs. "Just don't fall. Don't fall, and don't fry your brain too early. As he swung to the next platform, he heard a voice shouting, "My brother is also watching..." He glanced over to see Iida skidding forward with all the flair of a B-movie stuntman. "Looks unsightly to me." he muttered, although he couldn't deny that he was impressed.
"This whole event is rigged against normal people, I swear," Denki groaned as he landed on the final platform with a clumsy roll and immediately flopped on his back, panting.
....
The second stage of the race, which was the minefield, looked more like a warzone than a competition. Blasted craters marked where careless students had triggered traps, sending smoke and dust into the air.
Denki skidded to a halt at the edge of the minefield, eyes widening at the absolute battlefield stretched out in front of him. The dirt was uneven, jagged with craters and still smoking in places. Explosions popped like fireworks every few seconds, sending students flying, tumbling, or just screaming in confusion.
"Holy crap..." He muttered, hands on his knees. "Who designed this, a villain?". He squinted at the course. It looked like a death trap, not a sports festival. Mines were buried all across the ground, invisible but very, very real. Every step could blow someone halfway to the stands, and the worst of it all? Some students were already halfway through.
Up ahead, Iida practically turned into a superbike, kicking up dirt and dodging blasts like a man possessed. Bakugo wasn't even dodging, he was blasting the ground to trigger mines on purpose, using the force to propel himself forward. Total madman energy. Denki winced as another mine detonated near him, the shockwave rattling his bones.
"Okay, okay, breathe. You've got this. Just...calm down and hopefully, don't mess up." He watched a few classmates try to jump through the field, only to trip a mine and go flying like rag dolls. Others were crawling, trying to feel out safe spots. "I could at least shock the ground..." Denki whispered, but shook his head. "Nah, if I short-circuit now, I'm done." His hands sparked gently, more out of habit than intent. He needed to move. Fast. And then, he saw him.
Midoriya.
Like him, Midoriya had also been trailing for most of the race, huffing behind the pack. But now, Denki's eyes widened as he spotted him crouched in the middle of the minefield, digging through the dirt like a madman. What was he doing?. "What the fuck?" Denki slowed for just a second, confusion wrinkling his brow. "Is he seriously… collecting the mines?!"
Before he could even process it, the air cracked apart. The explosion was huge, larger than any mine had triggered so far. Dust blasted outwards in a ring, Denki shielded his face with one arm. When he peeked up through the smoke, he saw a green blur flying way above them, sailing through the air like he'd been shot out of a cannon.
"Wha–He just–?!" Denki stammered, watching Midoriya rocket forward, hugging that big metal plate like a hoverboard. "Did he just use the mines to launch himself?!–Wait, but he's not gonna make–". He was shut up as Midoriya slammed the metal plate on the ground, triggering another mine.
The finish line was within sight now, but for Midoriya, it was already done. The guy landed with a crash, legs wobbling from the impact, but somehow still standing. First place. The crowd roared, their voice quite loud in the distance. Denki could only stare.
"…Okay. That was actually kinda genius." He chuckled under his breath, shaking his head as he straightened himself. "Man, that guy's brain's built different."
BOOM!
A nearby explosion jolted him forward. "Okay, okay, I'm going!"
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A/N: Like it from Denki's pov?
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