"No way…it hasn't even been a minute yet."
"Is his Quirk a speed or teleportation type?"
"It's a body enhancement Quirk. Didn't you see how he kicked those robots to pieces?"
"Damn. The camera couldn't even properly capture his figure. The strength of this year's top student…it's unfathomable!"
"I don't understand. Such a Quirk, and he says it's not powerful?"
"Did he lie? Or were those that came to the orphanage just blind?"
The audience members animatedly discussed. They gazed at the white haired student standing on stage, their eyes filled with admiration and awe. However, questions about what his Quirk also became prevalent, especially among the watching heroes.
In particular, one Enji Todoroki had his eyes ablaze. The metal railing in his hand warped as fire burned through his fingers.
He gazed at his son who was struggling to stay ahead among the other students, and then at the boy who effortlessly breezed through everyone with a smile.
From behind them, he seemed to see the shadows of himself and a certain blond hero.
"Oh? What's that? It looks like everyone is curious about the Quirk of our superstar rookie. Lucky for us, we have his homeroom teacher right here!"
Aizawa gave a deadpan stare as Present Mic exaggeratedly pointed at him. In the end though, he still answered.
"Ryugamine's Quirk allows him to gain deeper control over his body. I'm not sure how powerful it was when it awakened. But right now, he has trained it to become one of the most versatile and powerful Quirk that I know."
"You've got your answer, folks! I'm sure many still want to know what else his Quirk can do. But for now, let's focus on the other contestants!"
At Present Mic's call, the screen on the stage switched- going from Hiro's face and towards the other students.
At this time, Iida had finally reached the second stage of the race- namely, the fall!
It was a series of stone platforms that were connected by a rope. Hiro easily leapt past this whole part of the race, but Iida couldn't do the same.
However, he resolved the problem by using his Engine as thrusters while both his feet were on the rope.
But to maintain his balance, he couldn't use his Quirk at full force like he did before. This caused the others to gradually catch up to him, especially Bakugo.
With his Quirk, he only needed to briefly land on the stone platforms before blasting off to another. Because of this, he finally took the lead.
Minutes passed and finally, everyone reached the third and last part of the race- the minefield.
Bakugo, Midoriya, Iida, Todoroki, and Momo from class 1A, and vine girl, girl with horns, rotating feet boy, boy swimming in the soil, and beastboy from class 1B were hot on each other's wheels for second place.
With a loud "DDIIEEEE!!" Bakugo aimed his hands at one of the booby traps, using the resulting blast to compound with his explosion and get a slight edge.
In the end, his gamble paid off. His head passed the finish line a second earlier than Midoriya's, who pushed his Full Cowling by a few more percentage.
Bakugo flipped mid-air and landed in a superhero pose. When he heard Present Mic announce that he won the scramble, his lips broke into a grin.
"Nice work, Bakugo. I didn't think it'd be you who'd come after me."
Just then, a disgustingly gentle voice drained all the good mood he had. He glared up at Hiro, who was offering a hand to him.
"Keep maintaining your hypocritical act, bastard. I'll make sure to blast that smug smile off your face later."
He growled, slapping away Hiro's hand, doing his best not to hiss as his swollen palm came in contact with Hiro's rock hard one.
"Alright. Suit yourself."
Hiro shrugged, chuckling internally as he saw Bakugo stiffly walk away.
"You know his temper. I don't understand why you keep provoking him."
"I'm not provoking him. I'm just…training his ability to take blows to his ego. Anyways, congratulations on getting 5th, Momo."
Hiro extended a hand, which the black-haired girl awkwardly high fived.
"T-thanks? I'm really not that satisfied with it, though. Especially after our training, I expected to at least reach the top three."
Momo shook her head in disappointment, her ponytail bouncing along with her movement. Afterwards, she glanced at her feet, where velcro-straps, carbon-fiber shoes with springs were worn.
This was one of the items she trained to make repeatedly over the course of three weeks- an item Hiro suggested to solve her lack of immediate maneuverability.
"You place yourself under too much pressure. Acknowledging your shortcomings is good, but celebrating what you've accomplished is just as important as well."
"Celebrate…your accomplishment? I see. I do feel that I've neglected doing that. Thank you, Hiro."
Momo nodded in gratitude, to which Hiro just smiled back in return.
After that, the two of them greeted their other friends and classmates who arrived a little later.
"The Qualifying round is over! Only the top 42 students who finished the race would enter the next round. But don't worry. For those students who failed to enter, we've got another event for you to show your stuff."
Midnight announced with a crack of her whip. The screen behind her flashed, displaying who those 42 participants were.
In the end, of the 42 students who qualified, 40 of them came from the Hero Course. Only 1 from the General Course and 1 from the Support were able to squeeze in.
"And now is when the main selection really begins!"
Midnight said, the screen behind her once again flickering continuously.
"This second event will eliminate at least half of the remaining contenders! And this event is…!"
The screen stopped, showing an overview of a city with a portion encircled.
"Hero Battlegrounds!"
Hiro raised an eyebrow in interest. So the events were random, after all. When the first was an obstacle race similar to canon, he thought the selection mechanism was already predetermined.
"For this event, the participants are assigned points based on their ranking in the Obstacle Race in the form of a scarf. Points can be gained by stealing the other participant's scarves. At the end, the 16 with the highest points are eligible to advance to the next round!"
"This competition will take place in Ground Beta- our school's city simulation training ground with a time limit of 30 minutes. Players can form a team of up to four people, but there are a few rules."
"First, the total points of each team member will be divided equally amongst each other at the beginning. Secondly, team members cannot steal each other's scarves. Lastly, stolen scarves can only add points to one of the members!"
"Now then, any questions?"
Midnight asked. Standing right beside Hiro, Momo raised her hand, a contemplative expression on her face.
"Sensei, Ground Beta stretches over a hundred miles in surface area. In addition to the complex terrain, just finding other teams within 30 minutes would be a hard task."
"Good observation, Yaouorozu! This event will only take place within a 5 mile radius of the city. In addition, each team will be given a radar that will display the location of other teams every five minutes. But…there's one exception."
Midnight suddenly smirked, her tongue running over her lips in a sadistic fashion as she glanced at the students.
"The team with the highest total points will always be displayed on the radar. Yes. For the entire thirty minutes of the game, their location is displayed to all."
The students suddenly frowned. Having the location constantly broadcasted to everyone, it was a huge disadvantage in terms of both attacking and defending. In addition to gaining enough points to qualify, now they must also ensure not to overdo it or risk getting sieged.
However, Midnight's next words made them stop that line of thinking.
"And now, here are the assigned points for all the participants! The 42nd place will have 10 points. The 41st has 20 points. The 40th 30 points- adding 10 for each place in the ranking, with the exception of the first place…who has 10 million points!"
Suddenly, everyone's gaze honed in on Hiro, who kept his signature gentle smile as he nodded to everyone.