Chapter 35: Shattered Pride
For two agonizing, breathless seconds, the colossal U.A. stadium was trapped in absolute, deathly silence. Tens of thousands of spectators, pro heroes, and media representatives could only stare in wide-eyed disbelief at the towering teenager standing firmly on the scorched grass. The thick trenches of bubbling magma he had carved into the earth hissed loudly, the only sound piercing the quiet morning air.
Then, the fragile silence shattered.
Up in the commentator's booth, Present Mic fumbled, literally dropping his microphone onto the desk with a loud clatter. He scrambled to snatch it back, his voice cracking into a hysterical, entirely unprofessional scream.
"WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!" the Voice Hero roared, his volume shaking the stadium's foundations. "THE CAMERAS IN THE TUNNEL DIDN'T CATCH A SINGLE THING! THE LENSES WERE COMPLETELY DISTORTED BY A MASSIVE THERMAL WAVE! HE WAS IN FOURTH PLACE! HOW DID HE JUST APPEAR HERE LIKE A LIVING MISSILE?! DID THE TUNNEL JUST SPLIT OPEN AND SPIT HIM OUT?!"
The stadium exploded.
It was not a normal cheer for a sporting event. It was a deafening, seismic roar that mixed profound shock, primal fear, and absolute hysteria. In the stands, seasoned Pro Heroes leaped to their feet, their eyes wide and analytical. They instantly realized that the sheer kinetic propulsion required to break the sound barrier using raw thermal expansion was not the maneuver of a high school student. That was a level of raw, destructive mastery that elite, top-ranking hero agencies spent decades trying to cultivate.
From the dark, smoking maw of the final tunnel, three figures finally emerged into the sunlight.
Izuku Midoriya, Katsuki Bakugo, and Shoto Todoroki stepped onto the grass. Their condition painted a grim picture of what had transpired in the dark. They were panting heavily, their faces smudged with dark soot. The edges of their U.A. gym uniforms were visibly singed and blackened by the terrifying thermal shockwave that had violently passed through them.
Midoriya slowly looked down at his trembling, soot-stained hands. His brilliant, desperate gamble with the minefield had been executed flawlessly. He had captured the lead through sheer tactical genius. Yet, a chilling, terrifying realization washed over his mind. Sakazuki had not outsmarted him. Sakazuki had simply overwhelmed his entire existence with an unstoppable, catastrophic force. For the first time in his life, Midoriya realized he had not just lost a footrace; his own primal instincts had forcibly taken control of his body, throwing him into the wall simply to avoid being erased from existence.
A few feet away, Bakugo stood entirely rigid. His crimson eyes were locked in a death stare at the broad, steaming back of the magma user standing at the finish line.
Bakugo remembered his arrogant, unwavering pledge on the podium: I will be number one. But what was violently grinding his pride into dust right now was not the fact that he came in second. It was the humiliating, undeniable truth of what he had done inside that tunnel. In that fraction of a second, when the crimson flash approached, Bakugo had not stood his ground. He had yielded. He had desperately blasted his own back against the ceiling to clear the path for the monster. His explosive pride was silently, agonizingly tearing itself apart from the inside out.
On Bakugo's left, Todoroki slowly raised his left hand—the hand that wielded his father's fire. He looked at his palm, and then turned his mismatched eyes back toward the tunnel. The thick concrete walls were literally weeping, glowing red-hot and dripping with melted slag. Todoroki had finally broken his psychological chains. He had used his flames. Yet, even after unleashing his full potential, he had been bypassed as if he were nothing more than a minor inconvenience on the road.
High up in the VIP boxes, the Flame Hero Endeavor gripped the metal railing of his balcony. He did not melt the steel in a fit of rage; instead, his fierce blue eyes narrowed with deep, piercing analysis. His fiery beard flickered calmly as he watched the towering student below.
So... this is the monster, Endeavor realized in absolute silence.
The puzzle pieces finally clicked into place. This was the overwhelming, catastrophic force of nature that had managed to shake his masterpiece's unwavering confidence. Endeavor watched the magma slowly cool on the grass, fully understanding why his son had walked into his office with such profound doubt in his eyes.
In a separate, private booth, a skeletal All Might sat gripping his knees. He trembled silently, entirely speechless. He saw a terrifying, unyielding harshness in Sakazuki's power—a force so absolute it could permanently shift the balance of the entire hero society, for better or for worse.
Far above the roaring crowds, perched on the highest steel rafter of the stadium, Hawks was no longer lounging.
The Winged Hero had stood up completely, his boots planted firmly on the narrow beam. His previous boredom had vanished without a trace. His golden eyes were sharp as razors, and his massive crimson wings were tense and fully flared behind him. He stared down at the magma user, a dry, highly intrigued smirk slowly spreading across his face.
"Hmm..." Hawks whispered to the wind, his voice laced with genuine fascination. "...interesting."
Back on the ground level, the rest of the student body finally began to pour out of the tunnel.
Kyoka Jirou stumbled out into the sunlight, violently fanning her face with her hands. "What is with this heat?!" she complained loudly, her chest heaving as she tried to catch her breath. "It feels like a literal fire broke out in there!"
Behind her, Ochaco Uraraka, Tenya Iida, Minoru Mineta, and Momo Yaoyorozu emerged, all panting and exhausted. However, their complaints died in their throats the moment they looked around. They saw the deep, molten trenches carved into the finish line. They saw the ashes of the ceremonial ribbon floating in the air. Most importantly, they saw the top three—Midoriya, Bakugo, and Todoroki—standing in absolute, defeated silence, looking like survivors of a natural disaster rather than athletes in a race.
The rest of the class instantly realized that the battle at the very front of the pack had taken place in a completely different, terrifying dimension.
Amidst the cosmic noise of the cheering stadium and the global shock radiating from the screens, the boy who had caused the earthquake remained entirely unmoved.
Sakazuki did not look back at the broken trio. He did not smile. He did not wave to the screaming crowds, nor did he boast about his overwhelming victory. He simply tilted his head up, his dark eyes calmly reading the massive digital scoreboard towering over the stadium.
FIRST PLACE - SAKAZUKI
He let out a long, slow exhale, a thick plume of white steam escaping his lips and dissipating into the morning air. He raised his heavy arm and quietly wiped his chin with the fabric of his U.A. gym uniform, wiping away the last traces of his molten sweat.
While the world saw a terrifying display of dominance, Sakazuki only saw one thing in those glowing digital letters.
Mom...
Deep within the reinforced walls of the stadium's administrative monitoring room, Principal Nezu took a slow, elegant sip of his tea. A small, cryptic smile graced the mammal's features. The scabbard had held the sword perfectly, and his student had just sent a very clear message to the entire world.