IGNITED FLAMES OF DETERMINATION

The day of the Sports Festival came too soon for Izuku's comfort. The confidence his mom, Chizuru-sensei, and All Might instilled in him earlier suddenly dimmed as he sat alone inside Class 1-C's waiting room. In his nervousness, he came to school two hours earlier than necessary. The nerves of uncertainty are making him restless. Overcome with the need to do something, he decided to do a light exercise routine to warm himself up. Chizuru-sensei warned him to not overdo his exercise for this day. He must conserve as much energy as he can.

First, he did simple stretching. Then, he went through the basic punches and kicks. As the minutes wore on, he moved on to other techniques of Mixed Martial Arts. The music ringing in his ears became white noise as he delved back to yesterday night's conversation with his mentor. Chizuru-sensei admitted to him that most likely, even after the Sports Festival, she wouldn't be around to look after him. The reason for that wasn't disclosed, but Chizuru-sensei promised to drop by whenever she can. She left him with a new routine schedule, meal plan, and a couple of advice.

He was in his last set of exercises when he noticed someone enter the waiting room. It was Shinso, who looked more tired than normal. As he finished up, he couldn't help but remember that conversation two weeks ago before homeroom started.

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[He was so tired from his first day of training with All Might that he was sore all over his body. When he stepped into class, his classmates took immediate notice of it and worriedly crowded around him. Some had even offered help getting to his seat (which he gladly accepted).

"Why do you look like you crawled out of hell?" Shinso had asked when he had plopped down on his seat.

"I did." He replied, slumping over his desk to rest his head. "My new training routine came from hell itself"

"Why the sudden change?" The blue-haired kid sitting in front of him (Shimizu Kaito, 169cm, 68kg [note: UNDERWEIGHT], Quirk: [Water Manipulation] (Special Note: Can only manipulate clean water)) asked. "Didn't you already have that insane regimen you do every day?"

Shaking away the analysis he had on his classmate, he groaned in answer. "My mentor wanted me to be ready for the Sports Festival"

"But the Sports Festival is two weeks away!" Another classmate (Izuki Chika, 173cm, 80kg, Quirk: [Rock Manipulation] (Special Note: Can mostly manipulate and levitate rocks and boulders with the mass weight of 120kg. It is still unknown if he can change their shape or not))

"Exactly" He nodded grimly. "The Sports Festival is ONLY two weeks away"

When he saw his classmates look back at him with blank looks, he stared down at his table to avoid their gazes. He had gotten better with this but it still scared him when he reminds people that he's quirkless. (Scared that they'll be jolted back to the reality that he's WORTHLESS (uSeLeSs. dEkU.) and take back whatever friendship they had offered him) "I... I'm not as gifted as you guys are... but I really want to get into Heroics... So I need to work harder than ever."

"I'm going to show everyone that I don't need a quirk to be a Hero!"

There was silence after that. Izuku was still afraid to look at their expressions. He'd gotten used to them being friendly with him (it was the greatest thing in the world! To be accepted even when he's different. Quirkless.) but he didn't want to see pitying looks aimed at him (he'd seen them enough growing up from people who watched from the sidelines as he was being bullied) or the doubtful looks that seemed to always follow him even after going through Chizuru-sensei's brutal training (his middle school classmates voiced out that it wouldn't be enough and he refused to listen to the voice in the back of his head whispering that they were right because hE hADn'T GoTtEn iNTo tHe HeRoIcS CoUrSe tHaT FiRsT TiMe)

(If Izuku had glanced up, he would've seen the shift in his classmates' eyes. The fire of determination he unknowingly ignited within them.) ]

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Ever since that conversation with his classmates, everyone would come to class as exhausted as he was. It had gotten to the point where practically everyone in the class was dead tired on their feet and that Yamada-sensei reluctantly allowed Homeroom and English to be Study Hall Periods for a day. (They gratefully used it as an excuse to sleep in class) Any announcements that day were both written on the board and paper (handwritten by Yamada-sensei himself) which were distributed before lunch break.

"Did you at least get a decent amount of sleep?" Shinso asked as soon as Izuku plucked out his earphones.

Izuku nodded. "My mom had me drink half a pill to make sure I rested properly last night."

Drinking from his water bottle, Izuku studied his friend. The dark circles under his eyes had deepened over the past two weeks (everyone in class seemed to have acquired it, actually) and his stance was different. Firmer. Surer of himself. Ready to fight. "How about you? Did you at least take a nap? You look like you'll keel over."

Grumbling at the reminder, Shinso slumped on a chair and placed an arm over his eyes tiredly. "Got at least five hours of sleep"

"We have an hour of quiet before the others start trickling in." Izuku informed as he checked his phone. "You could take a quick nap in the meantime."

"I'll take what I can" Shinso muttered before arranging the seats to make a makeshift bed. Using a spare shirt to cover his eyes, the purple-haired teen promptly to clocked out.

With respect to the sleeping teen, Izuku took out his equipment for a quiet handgrip exercise. He quietly lamented that he should've bought a new one with increased resistance. Or maybe he could ask the Support Department for something so he doesn't have to buy a new one every time? (But that would mean I need to know someone from the Support Course or... get into the Heroics Course)

Izuku let out a sigh, forcing the tenseness off of himself. It wouldn't do him any good to stress himself before the competition. Thankfully, the door opened and stole his thoughts away from the dark corner of his mind.

A girl with long blond hair tied in braided pigtails (Chiba Sakura, 146cm [Special Note: NEVER mention her height], 43kg, Quirk:[Telekinesis] (note: Can lift a body mass of 50kg at the start of term)) entered the waiting room with an exasperated eye roll at the sleeping teen. Thankfully, she took her place at the table as quietly as she could. No words were exchanged aside from polite greetings and she promptly rested her head on the table while using her bag as a pillow.

As time went by, their other classmates slowly trickled in. Some of them were too exhausted to make conversation aside from polite greetings and would promptly clock out on the available spots on the table (a few had even spread a jacket to nap on the floor). Aside from Izuku, there were five others that were well-rested. Their class president, Yu Toshiro, an athletically fit guy (182cm, 90kg, Quirk: [Dash] (Note: He can run 50kmph at his top speed) (Special note: Don't ask whether he's Japanese or Chinese)) was silently doing his stretches at the vacant corner of the room.

Their vice-president (Fuji Konomi, 159cm, 60kg, Quirk: [Good Luck] (Special Note: Not a passive quirk)), on the other hand, is silently fussing over her dead-on-his-feet best friend, Izuki Chika.

The other three, Maki Aika (155cm, 60kg, Quirk: [Ram]), Inoue Ami (157cm, 55kg, Quirk: [Marker] (Note: Her quirk is similar to Homing, but she has to touch the intended target first)), and Mori Azami (162cm, 63kg, Quirk: [Bloom] (Note: She can control the growth of plants, especially flowers)) are all huddled on another corner of the waiting room, quietly talking amongst themselves.

Twenty minutes before the start of the festival, their door opened again to reveal their homeroom teacher and beside him is a guy that Izuku recognized as the homeroom teacher of Class 1-A. With the other's worn-out appearance, he could easily blend in with the class. Seeing them standing side-by-side is like looking at day and night splitting the sky.

"See, Shota?" Yamada-sensei sighed in exasperation. "This is what I meant when I said that I think our classes got swapped over the last two weeks!"

"They DID declare war on my class" The other Pro-Hero said. "They'll have to work harder to back it up"

Izuku had heard of that. It was unfortunate that he had rushed home to train that day, or he would've joined them to see (to catalog and analyze) the Hero Course students.

With another sigh, Yamada-sensei loudly clapped his hands to wake the remaining sleeping zombies to begin his motivational speech. And as if their determination hasn't been fired up already, the class cheered to match their homeroom teacher's energy.

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"PLUS ULTRA!"