CHAPTER 16 – Cavalry Battle Pt. 2

"Hey, Nanami. Do we even need to go for Monoma? We have enough points, don't we?", asked Tetsutetsu.

"We don't need to but why not? Bakougo will go after him now and no matter what happens, we can benefit from this fight! This strategy is very cowardly, irrespective of how effective it is, at least let's finish this round with a bang!"

"SO MANLY!", Tetsutestu's respect for Nanami had increased manifolds!

And so, they rushed over to Monoma and Bakougo's battle! Most teams were at 0 points and some of them were even frozen. The leaderboard was quite clean, with Midoriya at the first position followed by Monoma (1350 points), Nanami (1205 points) and Todoroki (1050 points)! There were, however, 3 more teams out of the ice and with some fight still left in them. On their way over to the other side of the field, they were attacked by Juzo's team comprising of him, Reiko, Jurota and Hiryu with the latter being the rider.

It would have been a nice battle if it was just a normal fight, but this event was not just a show of strength! Tetsutetsu charged headfirst to tackle Jurota, and Nanami and Kendo seemed to be doing the same. But it was a feint and instead they went for the legs! While Juzo's team was thrown off balance Ibara snatched their headband as Hiryu fell onto the ground effectively disqualifying her team!

Despite being considerably slowed down by Juzo's team, they reached just in time as Bakougo attacked Monoma's team for the second time. However, as Ibara snatched away the 305-point headband (originally belonged to Monoma) and distracted Monoma, Bakougo managed to snatch away rest of the points netting him 1045 points!

"What is this, Monoma has been attacked by his classmates at the very end! What a turn of events!", Present Mic shouted as the crowd went wild with excitement! One could even notice the smirk on the ominous figure in the crowd.

With all said and done, this exchange gave Nanami's team a comfortable seat at the second spot with 1905 points! Even before going for Monoma's team, they were comfortably at the second spot, but this decision wasn't as well thought out as the ones before it, as this earned them Bakougo's attention too!

"You sneaky B-Section bastards, you are not getting any points, not on my watch!", Bakougo shouted this as he flew towards Ibara's headbands. However, unlike earlier when he attacked without warning his teammates, this attack from Bakougo was well planned as he had already got Sero to tape his waist, to pull him back when needed!

"Bakougo is charging headfirst into another B-Section team! The previous 1-A vs 1-B match didn't end well for the latter, let's see what happens now, HAAAA!", Present Mic was enjoying this a lot more than expected!

"What is this, Ibara's team isn't dodgin' it. They'll take on Bakougo head-on! Wait, what is this! Bakougo isn't flying anymore! His teammates have to pull him out! This is a turn of turn of events! What next?"

"A fire blast from Nanami? What even is her quirk! But she melts the ice fortress made by Todoroki! Will they also go for Midoriya? No, wait they made a path for Bakougo's team! This is the first alliance between 1-A and 1-B that we have witnessed! This is now as mysterious as it is exciting, keep watchin' folks!"

T: "We could have easily taken them head-on!"

N: "I know. I would have done it if it didn't mean risking our team! Let's just save our stamina for later rounds!"

K: "I didn't think that we could talk it out with him."

N: "Honestly, me neither!"

With a position in the top 4 secured, Nanami calmly watched as 1-A students fought for the 1 million points. She noticed that Dark Shadow was scared of Lightning and Bakougo's explosions and that Iida had some hidden move called 'Reciproburst', which granted him immense speed! It was an insane battle to look at but, the first position team somehow managed to keep their 1 million points, but they had been pushed to the edge just by Todoroki's attacks! Adding Bakougo to the mix made it even tougher for them, though it became easier in some aspects as Bakougo and Todoroki hindered each other. It was an exhilarating battle! But, Nanami avoided looking at Midoriya as she did not want another headache.

"With all said and done I'm glad how our plan worked! Well done guys!... Guys? Kendo? Tetsutetsu?", Nanami was surprised that there was no verbal response! Especially since they all said 'huh', a second ago.

As Nanami turned her head, she saw another team snatching the headbands from Ibara's neck with no problem whatsoever. Her teammates didn't even flinch!

"What did you do to them?", Nanami shouted as she chased this mysterious team. In fact, it had Nirengeki at the front and a pair of 1-A students too!

"I asked them to let me take their headbands and they let me!" said the rider rather nonchalantly.

"What are you talking about?!", just as Nanami said this she blinked and when she opened her eyes, the round had ended! Her team was as puzzled as her. But this 'shock' was like the first hit of Nirengeki's attack, as the next shot was almost brutal!

1 Team Todoroki 10000625

2 Team Bakougo 1350

3 Team Shinso 1270

4 Team Midoriya 745

5 Team Nanami 620

T: "What the hell happened!"

I: "Could it be punishment for taking the small one's points so indecently?"

While Kendo was as confused as the others, she was more concerned by the look on Nanami's face! Anyone could understand their devastation, but Nanami didn't seem okay. She wasn't but her state worried her teammates.

"Are… are you, all right? Nanami, its… it's all right, we have 2 more years to try and win this event…", Kendo tried to reassure Nanami.

Nanami had gotten used to losses in one form or the other. Before UA, if she lost a fight with someone, getting back up wasn't hard as her loss didn't disappoint anyone other than her. But ever since coming to UA, from the battle practice to the cavalry battle, her loss meant a loss for her teammate too! Life had its ups and downs, joy and disappointments, but disappointing someone who was relying on her, ever since the orphanage bombings, just deepened the emotional scar in her. She had let down people, people who were relying on her!

But being devastated didn't help her teammates.

"First I come up with a cowardly tactic. Then I can't even carry through with it and disappoint everyone relying on me, everyone who trusted me. On top of that, I make them worry for my pathetic self because apparently, they didn't just feel the same way as I did, well fucking done Nanami!", she somehow brought herself to look not-devastated, to not make her teammates worry. But she was not okay, probably as far from it as possible!

The subsequent hour-long break just happened. Nanami was just going through it because she had to. A part of her felt that she was just over-reacting. After all, at least it's not out there with real stakes! She could try next year…

"Yes, NEXT year. I could probably even wait a lifetime to know what happened at the orphanage if THIS is my current state!"

Soon enough they were back at the field and 1v1 elimination type tournament was announced for the next round (Everyone knew about it since it always happened this way!). However, in a bizarre turn of events, Ojiro and Nirengeki withdrew because they completely forgot what they had done in that round, much like Nanami's team in the last few minutes of the Cavalry Battle!

But what it implied, since Chief Umpire Midnight excepted the withdrawal, was what mattered! 2 participants from the 5th position team were to participate instead of the participants who withdrew from the event!