I saw the next obstacle when I rounded another corner in the track.
'Man this thing is long,' I internally groaned, closing in on the target. 'Who said anything about running so much? '
As I neared the new area, I saw that it was some sort of chasm, with giant rock pillars sticking up in odd places throughout it.
Tightropes seemed to be connecting them all together, creating pathways between them all. 'They seem to be the only way to cross,' I deduced as I scanned the area. My eyes trained on Todoroki, who was still in the lead, and... skating?
I gaped at his tactic. 'He's using his ice to skate along each tightrope. Pretty smart, I must say...'
My train of thought was halted abruptly at the sound of an obnoxious battle cry. Eyes detracting from the icy-hot boy, they trained themselves onto the person directly behind him: Bakugou.
"I'm gonna beat your ass, you icy-hot bastard!" Bakugou cried out as he blasted himself over the area, completely bypassing the pillars and ropes.
"Oh boy..." I rolled my eyes at his unnecessary, aggressive behaviour as I reached the chasm of pillars. "He is such a pain, sometimes.."
I stopped momentarily at the start to the seemingly bottomless pit. Gulping, I steeled my nerves once more, setting my sights on the other side.
'Come on, Y/N,' I berated myself, shuffling back a little to give myself a bit of lee-way. 'You cannot hesitate, and you know this. You hesitate, and a villain could kill you. You've gotta act on instinct sometimes...'
And with, I started sprinting for the chasm, trying to go as fast as possible for my take off.
"Hyah!" I cried out as I pushed off of the ledge of solid ground, and leapt as far into the air, and as far out across the pit, as I could. The wind rushed around me as if I were in a gentle hurricane; The breeze blew my hair so softly, and the weightlessness I felt was like nothing I'd ever experienced before.
'I'm... flying! '
But then came the free fall.
Gravity set into me. One moment I was flying, the next I was plummeting to my death.
'Not today, Satan! '
As I hit a tight rope, I focussed on forming an energy platform, making it appear right below my feet as I landed. I crouched to breathe, but that's all I allowed myself, as I took off once more onto the next platform. And the next, and the next, and the next, until I was practically gliding across the platforms and across the chasm of pillars.
I bypassed many of my classmates - who were struggling to walk or shimmy across the thin wires - and for that I felt slightly guilty.
'If they had my quirk, they'd use it, too,' a little voice inside of me tried convincing me, but my heart still twinged as I landed on the other side, clearing the area completely.
Fatigue was starting to settle in, I could feel that.
'First the robots and now the pit of pillars. My energy source is starting to wain...' I thought as I continued to run towards the next, and hopefully final, obstacle. 'I'm overexerting myself, but I have to do well, if not for Todoroki, but for my family and myself. I've got to make them proud, and become a stronger hero. Let's start soaking that good ole sunshine back up again, shall we...? '
Rounding one final corner, I saw an entrance arch that led to, what seemed to be, an empty dirt patch of sorts.
'It can't be that simple... can it? ' I didn't know what to expect, but what really surprised me was who was in front of me. 'Is that who I think it is? ' I thought in bewilderment as I recognised my two hotheaded classmates.
"You're going down, icy-hot!" Bakugou taunted, as he blasted himself along the field beside Todoroki.
"Shut up, idiot," was all the heterochromatic-eyed boy could respond with, as he ran alongside our explosive classmate.
I sweat-dropped. 'Those two are unbelievable! '
But those two were the least of my worries.
For without thinking, I stepped into the final area without inspecting what obstacle it could be, and was blasted to the side by a mine. I stumbled a little, crying out in shock, and completely thrown out of it. My ears rang and my eyesight was fuzzy and doubling up.
"D-Damnit..." I grumbled as I blinked to get my vision back. "A stun... mine..." There's no way the school would use real mines in an exam such as this, but I was stupid enough to think I had passed every danger.
Once I'd stopped seeing double, I took off in a sprint - a seemingly fast jog, to be honest - towards the exit, being careful about where I stood. I now could see little lumps in the ground, pinpointing exactly where the mines were. All I had to do was step around them.
'I could use my energy platforms from before,' I thought about how useful the technique would be just to bypass all of the danger - it really would be useful. 'But even with all of this stored energy, I'm too weak from the previous tasks. I can't waste what little energy I have on a simple obstacle like this.'
No. I had to face this myself - quirkless. That word fuelled my fire, sending sparks of electrical determination zapping into my muscles and limbs, kicking them into ignition. I wondered if this was what Iida felt like all of the time.
Behind me came more voices, and I realised that I'd finally been caught up to.
'That stun set me back a few seconds, enough to get my classmates back on track.' I gritted my teeth as I could feel their intimidating presence start to close in me. 'Think, Y/N, think! What should I do? '
I was halfway through the minefield, but Todoroki and Bakugou were near the end, and the finish line was surely just around the corner as well.
"I've got to get closer to them..." I muttered distractedly, not looking where I was going. I stepped on another mine, but this time it was directly underneath me, sending me flying upwards and forwards.
"Agh!" I screamed as I came crashing down again to field. Fortunately, Mum and Dad had enrolled me in a gymnastics club when I was super little, and so I instinctively placed my hands out in front of me, and landed into a perfect roll before jumping up and running again.
'Okay, don't do that again,' I swore to myself, but I soon realised how close I'd gotten to the two boys in front me. I was barely twenty metres away from them, and I was originally a whole fifty, for sure. 'Maybe I should do it again, but this time...'
I focussed what little energy I had left - that wouldn't leave me barely breathing - and formed a giant rectangle piece of energy that I held in my hands tightly. What I had planned was crazy but, I had no other choice. I sighed deeply as I prepared to take a huge leap of faith.
'Please, for the love of All Might, don't kill me, Universe,' I pleaded one last time before I raised my rectangular energy board, and then proceeded to slam it hard against some of the mines below me.
As expected, a huge explosion happened, but what wasn't expected was for me to be flying in the air on an energy board, heading for my classmates.
"Incoming!" I cried out as the energy board faded out, and landed directly in front of Todoroki and Bakugou. They seemed to become very silent suddenly, and before the shock and confusion could wear off, I muttered, "Sorry boys," before aiming little energy beams at the mines beside them, knocking them into each other.
I took off running as fast as I could, refusing to look back and see what expression Todoroki wore on his normally neutral face. Bakugou, I had no doubt, would be beyond exploding with anger, but Todoroki...
'Stay focussed! ' I shook my head, nearing the exit to the mine field. 'I'm almost there! Just need to-'
Suddenly, the earth shook once more, and I allowed myself to turn and check out the aftermath of my lead-stealing move. I almost stopped in shock when I saw Midoriya flying, just as I had, on a piece of scrap metal from the robots before.
'Holy crap...' I stared at him in awe, 'did I look that ridiculous when I did that? '
However, before I could answer myself, Todoroki and Bakugou and Midoriya all started closing in on me and my lead. Midoriya had somehow delayed the two boneheads from continuing to advance, and so they were now two positions out of the potential lead.
"Shit..." I mumbled as I realised how close Midoriya was getting, and how mad Todoroki and Bakugou were, as they used all that they had to get back to where they were: where I am now.
So I didn't look back, but instead looked forward towards the arena, where we'd started our race earlier that morning. 'Come on, Y/N. I'm almost... there...'
"Agh!"
A stabbing sensation pierced my heart, and I lost my ability to function for a moment, causing me to fall to the ground and curl up in the fetal postion. I felt as if time had stopped, as I couldn't breathe and couldn't feel anything else other than excruciating pain.
'What is happening to me? ' I thought, but the moment I thought it, the pain was gone, and my senses returned to me.
A set of feet stopped in front of me briefly, another set stopping in front my eyes. The first set of feet no sooner arrived than left my vision, while a third set of feet flew by like leaves in the wind. I rolled onto my back, finally feeling free of my pain and loving the sensations I got when I could hear and see and feel things.
I looked up at the person towering over me - the second set of feet - and, although the sun covered his face, it didn't stop my heart from hitching at his voice.
"Take my hand, L/N," Todoroki said quietly, almost scared of something. "We've got a race to finish." I didn't quite understand what he was saying, but I saw his outstretched hand and figured he was helping me. So I grabbed it, and before I knew it, we were running into the the final tunnel to the stadium floor, holding hands all the while.
I saw a light at the end of the tunnel, and as we neared it, Todoroki's warm hand let go of mine so suddenly. I stumbled, slowing down a little from Todoroki so that he was now clearly in front of me, and I was trailing him as we entered the arena.
The bright light was blinding to begin with, but the sound of the raucous crowd seemed to fade it down, so that I could the packed stadium, and, more importantly, who else was on the floor with me. I scanned the whole area, but I could only see Midoriya, Bakugou, and Todoroki - no one else.
'Hang on, does that mean...'
"And our fourth placed competitor is Y/N L/N! What a great race she had," I heard Present Mic announce to the crowd, and a giant wave of cheers and claps resounded throughout the crowd. I felt so overwhelmed by the fact that I was in the top four, all I could do was stand with my mouth agape just looking at it all.
"L/N!" I was knocked out of my stupor when I heard my green-haired friend's voice, and a small smile spread across my lips as he came up to me.
"Midoriya!" I greeted him, "Congrats on the win. That was quite the move back there. Very impressive!"
"Thanks, L/N," he blushed at my praise, rubbing the back of his neck. "I-I actually saw you do it and decided to give it a go. It was a good strategy, even though I had to adjust it a little for it to work for me. Without your strategy, I would've been last for sure."
I only smiled brightly as I continued to chat with him while the other competitors filed, one by one, into the stadium. However, as much as I was happy to be there, and grateful to have been given a slight chance at victory, I couldn't help but wonder...
'What happened to me before? And why did Todoroki help me? He said we weren't friends, so...'
I mulled the thoughts over a hundred times in my frazzled brain, scanning the field to try and find the red and white-haired boy so I could chat with him.
'He could've possibly taken the lead from Midoriya if he hadn't have stopped to help me. So why didn't he? ' I finally spotted him standing by himself on the outer rims of our large group, just staring at the ground.
Once again, as if he could sense my curious E/C eyes staring at him, his head tilted up enough for his eyes to lock with mine. He seemed so... torn. So unsure.
'One things for sure, though...' I decided on as Present Mic was beginning to announce the next game. 'Something's definitely not right with him, and I'm gonna find out what it is.'