Welcome back to another chapter of Blood for Blood, continuing where we left off at the Sports Festival. Hope you all enjoy, and stay safe out there.
Chapter 22: Cracking the Shell.
The second round of the Sports Festival was soon about to begin. The time limit for the team selection and planning had expired and all the twelve teams were ready for the event.
"Hey Eraserhead, wake up! The event is about to start," said Present Mic, tapping Aizawa's left shoulder.
"Huh, oh right. I was in the middle of a good dream, though," said Aizawa
"ALRIGHT FOLKS, IT'S TIME FOR THE CAVALRY BATTLE TO BEGIN! WHO'S GONNA TAKE THE TEN MILLION POINTS FROM TEAM MIDORIYA AND COME OUT ON TOP? WHICH FOUR TEAMS WILL ADVANCE TO THE FINAL ROUND? WE'RE GONNA FIND OUT RIGHT AWAY!" announced Present Mic.
The people in the crowd screamed and thundered, deafening Present Mic. He flinched back, his shock at how loud it got apparent.
"NOW THAT'S MORE LIKE IT!" announced Present Mic, encouraged by the loud crowd.
"Please kill me," murmured Aizawa.
Player Rankings
1. Midoriya, 10M
2. Kazume 205
3. Todoroki 200
4. Bakugo 195
5. Ibara 190
6. Juzo 185
7. Iida 180
8. Tokoyami 175
9. Sero 170
10. Kirishima 165
11. Tetsutetsu 160
12. Ojiro 155
13. Yosetsu 150
14. Tsuyu 145
15. Shoji 140
16. Sato 135
17. Uraraka 130
18. Momo 125
19. Mineta 120
20. Mina 115
21. Koda 110
22. Jiro 105
23. Sen 100
24. Kosei 95
25. Denki 90
26. Kojiro 85
27. Reiko 80
28. Shinso 75
29. Kendo 70
30. Jurota 65
31. Shihai 60
32. Yui 55
33. Hiryu 50
34. Shoda 45
35. Kinoko 40
36. Togaru 35
37. Monoma 30
38. Pony 25
39. Toru 20
40. Setsuna 15
41. Manga 10
42. Mei 5
Team Rankings:
1. Team Midoriya (Midoriya, Uraraka, Mei, Tokoyami): 10000310
2. Team Tetsutetsu (Tetsutetsu, Yosetsu, Juzo, Ibara): 685
3. Team Bakugo (Bakugo, Kirishima, Sero, Mina):645
4. Team Shield (Kazume, Mineta, Tsuyu, Shoji): 610
5. Team Todoroki (Todoroki, Momo, Iida, Denki): 595
6. Team Hagakure (Toru, Jiro, Koda, Sato): 370
7. Team Monoma (Monoma, Shihai, Kosei, Sen): 285
8. Team Shinso (Shinso, Ojiro, Shoda): 275
9. Team Kendo (Kendo, Setsuna, Reiko, Kinoko): 205
10. Team Kodai (Yui, Kojiro, Manga): 150
11. Team Rin (Hiryu, Jurota): 115
12. Team Tsunotori (Pony, Togaru): 60
Everyone assembled their teams and the air was thick with tension, almost like a drawn-taut bowstring ready to be shot into the eye of some sort of leviathan. Kazume took a deep breath. All of them had their eyes on Midoriya. However, Kazume had other plans. He doesn't want to go after Midoriya. No, he wants to go after EVERYONE.
Izuku tensed, the eyes of all his rivals boring into his soul, thinking deeply. Everything was hanging on at this moment. Do or die. He's got Ochako, he's got Mei, and he's got Tokoyami. He can work something out. Something to keep them all mobile, something to keep them away, darting in and out, the boots and Ochako's quirk could help with that, plus Dark Shadow's maneuverability. He looked up into the stands, seeing the wild hair of All Might even from here.
'I'll make you proud, All Might!' he thought.
"Ready, Uraraka?"
"Ready, Hatsume?"
"Ready, Tokoyami?"
"Ready when you are, Deku!" Ochako said.
"Ready to go, Green Bean!" Mei piped up.
Tokoyami nodded, focused on their opponents. Izuku took a deep breath.
"Then let's rock!" he yelled.
Meanwhile, it was Kazume's turn to prepare his team for an all out assault as the three smaller members, Tsuyu, Mineta, and himself got on Shoji's back.
"Alright Shoji, time to hide our cover," demanded Kazume.
Shoji used his Dupli-arms to hide the three of them on his back, making them difficult to detect while hiding inside his arms, but there's one little setback… it was pitch black inside. While it does provide the three maximum protection from enemy attacks, they cannot see inside his arms.
"Um… does anybody have a lighter or a flashlight? It's dark as fuck in here," stated Kazume.
"Nope, Ribbit" replied Asui.
"I have nothing but sticky balls," replied Mineta.
"Well I guess we can't do anything about this issue. Oh well, let's discuss our plan. It's quite simple… do whatever the fuck I say and don't fuck up. Got it?! Other than that, Asui, you make sure that little shit doesn't fondle with those big breasts of yours," said Kazume.
In the darkness, Kazume didn't see Asui's blush, or the fact that her expression turned into one that her little siblings would see if they misbehaved. He didn't know the power of the froggy style can of whup-ass she was about to give him a taste of.
*SLAP* Tsuyu aimed high, trying to slap Kazume's cheek, but went too high and hit the forehead where his old wound was from the USJ.
"Pervert! Ribbit!" she snapped, retracting her tongue and not realizing where she hit him.
"Ow, what the fuck, that was right where that Nomu fractured my skull!" Pain groaned. Kazume started to calm down and regained control, "Look, I'm sorry for that comment about your boobs, but at least I'm not like Mineta. I would never, ever, EVER, do anything perverted to you, Uraraka, or any of the girls. Ok? Let's just focus on winning this thing."
"Right, and I'm sorry for hitting you on the wound. Ribbit, it's dark and I can't exactly see too well," said Asui.
"Don't be, I kinda deserved it anyway," replied Kazume.
Shoji opened up his arms a little bit to shine a little bit of light inside and looked back to his group. He created a mouth and ear inside to communicate with Kazume.
"Everything alright in there?" asked Shoji.
"Yeah, we're fine," replied Kazume.
"Anything else to cover?" Shoji continued.
"No, just do as I say when I say it, that's all. Now let's go dominate this competition," Kazume replied.
The mad war began, people falling like dominoes left, right, forward, and back. Ice, explosions, bangs and no whimpers. Shoji started into the fray, but Kazume stopped him with a tap.
"Hang on," he ordered.
"What? We're on a time-crunch here, ribbit!" Tsuyu questioned.
"Good things come to those who wait, if we go in the initial rush, we'll lose, not everybody has the same idea…" Kazume reasoned, "Everyone here wants the ten million points. Not me, I want more than that. We're gonna steal everyone's points and destroy this competition."
They waited patiently, as they all chased after Midoriya's headband.
"Not even a second has passed and they don't hesitate to go after us. Time to make your choice, Midoriya, and make it fast," said Tokoyami.
"That's simple… we run away like hell's on our heels,"
Mei giggled, her eyes flashing from behind her goggles, "You wanna run? Okay, we'll run! I got a baby that can help with that!"
In an instant, she yanked them back with her grapple cables, all of Team Midoriya held on for dear life, they continued to run with Mei's grapples being used to trip up the other teams that tried to blindside them. She was laughing and buying time.
"Hey, Green Bean! Fire up the cutie on your back!" Mei snapped.
"Y-you sure?" Izuku gulped.
"Trust me! Remember the Hatsume Seal of Quality! Press the button!" she ordered, growing serious.
"Hurry up and make your decision, Midoriya. They're coming in hot," said Tokoyami.
Izuku fired up the jetpack, blasting them upward.
Meanwhile, Kazume's team snuck behind the multitude of enemies that were chasing after Midoriya. It was time to set his plan to action.
"Mineta, you're up. Let's go booby- I mean let's go trap these fuckers!" Kazume mentally kicked himself for almost coming across as the greasy little shit's character archetype.
"Right, EAT MY STI-" Mineta almost yelled before Kazume clapped his hand over the bastard's mouth.
"Do you not know what stealth is, you midget? It mean you keep your fucking ass quiet, and not give away our plan," Kazume hissed dangerously, close to letting Pain take over.
Mineta quietly set up his trap near the footsteps of the opponent. The other contestants were so busy watching Izuku escaping that they never realized that the minefield of purple balls were bogging them down.
"Alright Tsuyu, when I whistle, you pull me in with your tongue, got it?" ordered Kazume.
"Sure thing, Ribbit," replied Asui.
"Damn, he's getting away with the ten million. We gotta go after him," ordered Tetsutetsu, but his team wasn't able to move, "Huh, what the hell?"
His team was stuck from the sticky balls on their feet. Same thing for Team Hagakure.
"Huh, why can't we move?" Sato was confused.
Jiro looked down and saw the sticky balls on her feet.
"It's Mineta's sticky balls," replied Jiro.
"That damn pervert, you'll pay for this!" exclaimed Toru.
Kazume jumped in front of Hagakure, as he stared right into the background, imagining that he's staring right into her eyes.
"He's my pervert!" stated Kazume as he snatched Toru's headband worth 370 points.
As he was about to jump back to his group, he got grabbed in the ankle by an invisible hand. He was hanging upside down in front of Jiro.
"Hi," greeted Kazume.
"You're not going anywhere, mister. Grab his headband, Jiro, along with the one that he stole from me," ordered Toru.
Jiro attempted to snatch the two headbands from Kazume with her earphone jacks, but Kazume quickly countered as he drew out his bear claws on his left hand to scare off her jacks. With his other hand, he formed an O with his fingers and put it in his mouth. He blew his fingers to make a whistle to signal Asui to take him back to his group.
Asui heard his signal and stretched her tongue, wrapped it around his chest, and pulled him back. However, before he was pulled back, Jiro stuck her earphone jacks on his forehead where his wound was.
"GAH! FUCK!" he snarled viciously, being yanked back. He saw stars, he should've waited for a little longer. That handicap was going to hold him back, he just knew it as he was shuttled back in.
"You okay?" Mineta asked.
"Fuck off," Kazume snarled.
"Oh good, he's okay," Mineta sighed.
"NO I'M NOT OKAY! Jiro stabbed her jacks on my head wound! It fucking hurts like hell, like a vibrator attached to a syringe stabbed right through my skull!" groaned Kazume.
He tried to stand up and tried to walk off the pain but fell down immediately.
"I can't even stand up straight for the moment," said Kazume.
"Then let me take over, Ribbit! I can snatch 'em!" Tsuyu said. Kazume wasn't too sure, but if she forgave him for those times he hurt her...
He had to put his trust in her to finish it… or at least until he can get back on his feet.
"Alright… pedal to the metal, Shoji! Let's go get those points!" Tsuyu commanded.
Meanwhile, Izuku's team found a spot to land away from the group chasing after time, but there wasn't gonna be much time to relax.
"So what do you think of my sweet little babies, green bean? Aren't they such amazing little ones? I put my heart and soul into making them," asked Mei.
"Your babies are amazing Hatsume, it really helped us back there," replied Midoriya.
"You know I'm the one that made you all weightless, right? Where's my gratitude?" mumbled Uraraka to herself.
Meanwhile, they still were being chased down by Team Tetsutetsu and Team Hagakure, but this time, Toru was actually trailing behind the newcomer, Team Kazume, who was also chasing after Izuku's headband.
"Give me back my headband!" yelled Toru, her team chasing after Shoji and the group.
"Asui? Can you deal with Invisible girl? Make a small cut somewhere and bring back the blood stained knife to me. I know you're in charge for now, but I want to get rid of that nuisance for the moment. And Mineta… continue to trap the other team," demanded Kazume.
They nodded, with Tsuyu reluctantly taking the knife. She lashed it out and nicked Toru, reeling it back in. Kazume licked the blood on the knife. And Team Hagakure fell apart faster than a toilet paper shelf in a panic.
A bigger fish team, a.k.a. Team Bakugo, took out the weakened team. The aftershock of a blast aimed at the ground blew the team down to their rears, eliminating them from the competition after they fell into one of Mineta's traps.
Mostly due to Tsuyu's quick nicks and Kazume trying not to puke from all the blood he consumed, he was still dizzy, probably from Jiro's attack mixed with the stress he was feeling from the thought of what that bastard was going to do, even if he wouldn't admit it, Pain's constant and increasingly violent encouragement was also not helping anything at all.
Izuku was ready to blast their way out of the battlefield again, but one of the hover boots was stuck to a purple ball.
"Oh no, my foot is stuck," said Uraraka.
"It's Mineta's sticky ball, but where did that come from? I don't see him anywhere," said Midoriya, as he glanced at his surroundings to find where Mineta was.
Tsuyu stretched out her tongue to try to grab Izuku's headband, but Izuku reacted quickly and dodged the barrage of Tsuyu's tongue jabs.
"Asui, quickly before he gets away," said the dizzy Kazume, handing her a knife to repeat the same thing she did to Toru.
She pulled her tongue back, ending her barrage towards Midoriya to grab his knife. This gave Izuku an opening for him to activate Mei's jetpack to fly away, which resulted in her left hover boot that was stuck by Mineta's ball to break.
"Aw man! I knew that was gonna happen… Aww… poor baby…" Mei sighed, "At least I can fix it when all of this is over, don't worry, little man…"
"WATCH OUT!" yelled Tokoyami, as he saw an incoming knife wrapped by Tsuyu's tongue.
Tokoyami used Dark Shadow to swat away the knife. They were able to get out of there, but due to the broken boot, they were losing control during their flight so they had to land quickly.
"We're gonna have to land soon, Deku," said Uraraka.
Izuku was mumbling to himself, feeling odd about the recent attack, "Something's not right. Why was Asui holding a knife? Unless… Kazume's on their team? But why did Asui attack us with the knife and not Kazume? Did something happen to Kazume? Is he fighting with himself to not hurt me? No, he wouldn't back down from a fight or challenge, Kazume or not. But still, we have to keep an eye out for his team. We don't know when he will strike. Now, we need to-"
"Deku! You're mumbling out loud again. We're about to land," said Uraraka.
"Oh right, sorry. I was just stuck in thought," replied Midoriya, then he saw an incoming Kacchan blasting towards his team, "LOOK OUT!"
"THOSE POINTS ARE MINE, DEKU!" Bakugo screamed.
"Tokoyami, now!" ordered Izuku.
Dark Shadow blocked Bakugo's path, so the explosive blonde decided to blast Dark Shadow.
*BOOOOM* he released an explosion at the shadow, but it didn't budge. Since he didn't want to be out of reach from his team, he retreated as Sero's tape snatched him back towards the team.
"WHOA, BAKUGO BLASTED AWAY FROM HIS TEAM, ARE YOU SURE THAT'S LEGAL?!" asked Present Mic on the loudspeakers.
"Yep, as long as the headband holder doesn't touch the ground, it's allowed," replied Midnight to the entire stadium.
Meanwhile, things weren't looking so bright for Team Kazume, as Asui returned her tongue empty-handed.
"Asui… where's my knife?" Kazume was a little irritated.
"Uh...ribbit," Tsuyu had no words to say. She was very scared to see what would Kazume's angry reaction would be.
"Asui, what happened to my knife I gave you? Did you get his blood?!" Kazume was trying to hold himself back from having Pain lash out at his friend.
"No. I'm sorry Kazume… Tokoyami's Dark Shadow slapped it away so I didn't get Izuku's blood. I'm so sorry, I promise I won't fail you again," Tsuyu closed her eyes, afraid to look at his reaction… However, Kazume had a different reaction instead of anger.
"So Midoriya has Tokoyami on his team? Well, this is gonna be difficult to take his ten million points," said Kazume.
He tried to stand up again, he was still unbalanced, but it wasn't as bad as earlier. Tsuyu tried to tell him to stay down and rest. She doesn't want him to fight on while he's hurt… not again, remembering what happened last time in the USJ.
"Kazume, please stay down. You pushed yourself too far again, you got a little too reckless, learn from it, okay?" she cautioned.
"NO ASUI! I… I can't. I can't rest. I'm not gonna sit here while you fight your asses off by yourselves to stay in the top four. That type of mentality is stupid, Asui. If I didn't do what I did back in the USJ, I wouldn't have saved Momo, Jiro, and Denki. Those three wouldn't be here if I didn't do anything. You guys have no shot at winning this while the entire Class 1-B is after all of us… not to mention the little beef I had with Todoroki. And now that Midoriya has Tokoyami on his side, you guys have no shot at that ten million. I'm the only one that can get it," Kazume ranted.
"You think you're invincible and you're the only one who can do anything… that's wrong, Kazume, that's your other self talking, that's not what this is, this isn't the USJ, this isn't some sort of blood sport… it's a chance to have yourself be noticed by heroes, not 'Do or Die'," Shoji piped up, "I've seen your other self, and that's not the you that Midoriya or any of us know, so trust us, you have other knives. It is what it is,"
"But… I…" Kazume croaked, shaking the pain out of his head, bringing his focus back, he didn't like what Shoji said, but it was the truth. Some of it hurt, but wallowing in the shadows wasn't going to help them win or help him stop his brother. He had to either bite the bullet or bleed out.
For once, Pain was silent. For once, he felt like himself. For once…
He was Kazume. Not Pain or Kazume. Just…
Kazume. Kazume with a good family, Kazume with friends that liked him no matter what he did to them, the Kazume that didn't need to feel like he needed to atone for what he did.
This was the Kazume Melissa saw. This was the Kazume his friends knew he could be.
And he liked it.
"You're right, guys. I think I'm taking this competition too seriously. Like Shoji said, this isn't a "Do or Die" situation, so what's a little bit of unbalance gonna do to me. It ain't gonna hurt me or stop me. I still ain't gonna sit there and do nothing. We're gonna win this round unanimously as a team," said Kazume.
In an instant, chaos erupted through the rest of the teams, suddenly feeling their bands being snatched with knives hailing and distracting them, with sticky ball traps and a tongue snatching bands left and right.
Kazume rose, his katanas raised high, Shoji opened up, and everything seemed to slow down into a crawl, with Kazume clashing harshly with Tetsutetsu, sparks flying as he raked them upwards, breaking the crossed-arm guard, Sending the metal boy blowing back, being snapped into the open. The shards of his katana rained down onto the ground.
"You think you can cut me so easily? My quirk can form my body into steel, so I won't be penetrated by the likes of you!" said Tetsutetsu.
"You're right, I can't. But I wasn't trying to cut you, I'm distracting you. With both arms blocking my blade, you left yourself open for my team to snag your headband," explained Kazume.
"Huh?" Tetsutetsu looked up to see his headband was removed from Tsuyu's tongue.
Kazume dropped the hilts and felt the softness of a headband land in his now freed-up hand. The two katanas returned to his back, via magnets and their sheaths set to work restoring the blades to full length and sharpness.
Tsuyu nodded at him and he smiled, a real smile, feeling good for once in his life. He fastened the headband around his neck, meaning that they'd have to get to his neck to get it.
"WHOA WHOA WHOA! A NEW SURGE OF ENERGY FROM TEAM SHIELD! THEY'RE ON THE OFFENSIVE AND ARE BECOMING HIGH CLIMBERS!" Present Mic yowled. Aizawa smirked underneath his bandages, knowing that something clicked in someone's mind on that team.
Kazume and his team rounded back, readying another charge, Mineta lobbed more balls at the other team, the sheaths on Kazume's back blew out exhaust steam, shrouding the team in smoke to cover their plan. Kendo was running blind, so she had to take a leap of faith and why was there something slimy around one of her hands?
In one massive yank, she was sent hurtling back, her and her teammates, anyway. She saw the pair of red eyes through the smoke, and a rather surprised expression on the guy's face.
"Huh, never thought these things could cause a smokescreen…" Kazume mumbled, "Ah well, more of an advantage for m- I mean, us!"
Shoji and Tsuyu glanced at him and he scoffed, cheeks a little bit red. Damn his shotgun-pride… He still had a long way to go.
'I better thank Melissa for the equipment… and also need to talk to her to learn more about my gadgets,' thought Kazume.
Kendo only had one more strategy, one more card left to play. Just… she had to keep her cool. Just staring at Shield was making her nervous, the way he looked like a Ninja Turtle mixed with Rorschach was unnerving.
Her team was feeling the same way. It seemed that there was no more killing intent, but the potential for it was still there. 'Just stay focused, Kendo… you've got this…' she thought.
*SHING! SHING! SHING!* Knives shot towards her, seeing him diving towards them from above, his red eyes burning like flames, his tongue out eagerly, Kendo blocked the knives and caught him with her other one, seeing some sort of blue thing appear around his still free hand, one of the knives flew back to his hand and her hand loosened, going slack and shrinking as Kazume viciously stole her bands, being yanked back by Asui's tongue. The other knives returned to him and he sheathed one of them, another overshot him and drove into a wall nearby, snapping.
Then his gauntlet started to spark, the electromagnet shorted out and he sighed, 'Damn, and her tech was doing so well…' he thought, grimacing.
'It just goes to show that I can't just rely on her tech to save me…' Kazume thought, sighing and turning his attention to the final teams.
That only left Teams Bakugo, Todoroki, Shield, and Midoriya. All the other teams were out, it was down to the wire, the final clash, the four rivals, all of it was in place. The tension was in the air, electrifying the audience at the stadium, causing a certain set of parental figures to get nervous, angry, or even worried. And a girl on an island to almost fall off the couch in tension and worry.
Team Rankings:
1. Team Midoriya: 10000310
2. Team Shield: 2145
3. Team Bakugo: 1045
4. Team Todoroki: 805
5-12: 0 pts.
Meanwhile at I-island...
Melissa sighed heavily, her worry palpable. They were only prototypes, but she was glad that Kazume didn't end up magnetizing to a flagpole or something. Even worse would be him stuck to that metal guy. She didn't want Kazume ending up stuck to something.
Back to the Sports Festival…
Todoroki walled off the area with a large amount of ice. There was nowhere to run for the other three teams… not like they needed to run anyway except for Midoriya, who's holding the ten million points. Izuku tried to use his jetpack once more, but it malfunctioned.
*Shhooooooo…. poot.*
"Dang it! Aw man, sorry, honey… Mommy put you through too much…" Mei sighed, looking ashamed, "I was really hoping to use that later…"
"We'll have to rely on Tokoyami's Dark Shadow from here on out. If we wanna win this, we gotta fight till the end," said Midoriya.
"Right," replied Uraraka.
With all the headbands in that small battlefield Todoroki created, it was pretty much a free-for-all, with Midoriya's headband deciding who comes out on top.
Both Todoroki and Bakugo's team wanted to chase after Midoriya's ten million, but Kazume had a specific instruction for his own team.
"We're chasing after everyone's headband except for Todoroki," requested Kazume.
"Why?" Tsuyu piped up.
"Because he'll most likely freeze our only front horse, Shoji, which only leaves me, you, and Mineta. Momo knows what Mineta's balls can do from the battle training, right? So that's out of the equation. That leaves us with you and me, Tsuyu. Since you aren't skilled in combat outside of water and my only way back to the group, I'm the only one that can fight the four of them," explained Kazume.
"So if we stay back… that means we don't have to fight, all we need to do is see how this plays out, right?" Tsuyu asked.
"So what we've been doing for the past few minutes, right?" Mineta squeaked a little bit.
"Not exactly, Midoriya has Tokoyami and Bakugo has Mina? Midoriya knows about Mineta's balls and Tsuyu's tongue barrage, but they have not seen me in action. In Bakugo's case, Mina can escape the sticky balls with her acid, and Bakugo can defend himself with explosions. If we want to steal their headbands, I have to take out Tokoyami and Sero before we can do that. We must avoid Todoroki unless the rare occasion that he has the ten million points. I have to face his team by myself if it comes down to that," Kazume concluded his explanation.
"Going solo? That's suicide, ribbit," Tsuyu said.
"I know… that's why I'll use him to retrieve it if that happens," Kazume said.
The three teams, Todoroki, Shield, and Bakugo surrounded Midoriya's team as they stood near the edge of the out-of-bounds line.
"DEKU! THOSE TEN MILLION ARE MINE! YOU GOT THAT, DAMN NERD?!" yelled Bakugo.
"I'll be taking that headband now," said Todoroki.
Kazume said nothing, glaring at Izuku, his eyes burning through his soul, turning it to cinders. Izuku gulped.
The four teams clashed together as the fight for the top had begun for the remaining minutes.
"WHOA! WHAT'S GOING ON?! IT'S SO DIZZYING! I'M NOT EVEN SURE WHAT'S GOING ON! WHO YOU THINK WILL COME OUT ON TOP?!" announced Present Mic.
"If I had to guess, it would be either Kazume or Todoroki," responded Aizawa in the loudspeaker.
The crowd was frantic, going crazy as if it was a football game and the participants already had trending hashtags, everything was ramping up to be resolved.
Todoroki was the first one to take a shot at the ten million since he had Iida's speed and Momo's creativity with roller skates to help her keep up with the team.
"Yaoyorozu, set up a defense. Iida, continue the pursuit. And Denki, you know what to do," requested Todoroki.
"Got time, Indiscriminate Shock, 1.3 Million Volts!" shouted Denki, as Momo created a large insulation sheet.
"OH NO YOU DON'T!" yelled Kazume as he threw a barrage of knives at team Todoroki.
Todoroki set up a wall of ice to defend his team from the knives coming their way. Kazume saw an opening and jumped off Shoji to the ice wall.
"Kazume, what are you doing? I thought we agreed it's suicide to go after Todoroki!" exclaimed Asui.
"Not when there's an opening," replied Kazume.
Meanwhile Izuku's team protected themselves from the shock thanks to Tokoyami's Dark Shadow while Bakugo's squad and Kazume's weren't so lucky.
Todoroki was ready to follow up with Denki's attack and freeze the rest of the competition away. He had a pole from Momo, and just when he was about to strike.
"Todoroki watch out!" she snapped.
Kazume used the ice wall to dive towards him, his katana clashing with the pole, Tsuyu's tongue was wrapped around his waist. Kazume grinned.
"Hey there, just here to stop ya from STEALING MY WIN," he snarled.
As Todoroki started to form ice on the pole to freeze the katana along with Kazume, but the ex-villain was too clever as he quickly released his katana and activated his bear claws to scratch at his arm that held the pole. The bear claws were able to scratch a half-centimeter into his arm. As Kazume was about to lick his blood, Momo formed a pole and smacked his blood-stained claw away. The blood dropped to the ground, leaving him with no other choice but to steal one of the headbands on his forehead worth 595 points and retreated quickly.
Momo passed Todoroki some bandages, "Stem the bleeding, if he gets one taste of your blood, it's over," she commanded. Todoroki didn't argue.
"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind," he said. He bandaged his arm,
'DAMMIT! FUCK! I almost had him!' Kazume thought.
'What? Gonna cry?'
'Get out.'
'What?! I'm just checkin' in…'
"GET YER MAMBY-PAMBY ASS RIGHT BACK HERE, DEKU!" he threw out an explosion, being blocked by Dark Shadow.
"Ugh! Dammit, Crowhead!" exclaimed Bakugo as he got pulled back to his team, unbeknownst that Kazume was about to snag his headbands.
He was confused about why he was being pulled back until he realized that if Sero didn't pull him back, Kazume's surprise attack would've been successful and snagged his headbands.
"That was a close one Bakubro. Kazume almost got you. You gotta be mindful of your surroundings," said Kirishima.
"OF COURSE I'M MINDFUL OF MY SURROUNDINGS, SHITTY HAIR!" barked Bakugo at Kirishima's ear.
Meanwhile, Kazume stabbed his katana to the ground as he shifted course towards Midoriya's team. He balanced himself on one foot on the pommel of his katana.
"WHOA! LOOK AT THAT BALANCE! THIS KID IS NUTS! DID YOU TRAIN HIM THIS STUFF AIZAWA?!" announced Present Mic.
"No, of course, I didn't. This was all his own doing. No wonder why I think he's number 1," announced Aizawa.
"Midoriya!" Kazume drew out his knives, "YOU'RE NEXT!"
Kazume threw his knives near Midoriya's face, near his ear, right where the headband was wrapped around his head, *TAM!*
Dark Shadow caught it, but that was just a distraction for the Kazume Missile that was about to scream at them. He drew out his katana as he was ready to strike again, but it wasn't at Midoriya… he sliced the back of Tokoyami.
"I wasn't aiming after you, Midoriya. I needed to take out Tokoyami. I know you won't even dare use your quirk and fuck up your bones. NOW ASUI!" shouted Kazume after he licked the blood of Tokoyami, disabling him for the remainder of the round.
And without hesitation, Asui's tongue reeled out the ten million from his forehead, falling onto Kazume's left hand. Tsuyu quickly pulled him back before Izuku could take action to steal one of Kazume's headbands.
"No! I let you all down. I'm such a failure," said Izuku.
"IT LOOKS LIKE WE HAD A NEW NUMBER ONE AS KAZUME TOOK IZUKU'S TEN MILLION POINT HEADBAND! IZUKU IS NOW TIED IN LAST PLACE WITH ZERO POINTS! IF HE DOESN'T STEAL A HEADBAND WITH ONE MINUTE LEFT, IT'S GONNA BE UP TO THE CROWD TO DECIDE, SO GET TO IT, OTHERWISE CROSS YOUR FINGERS!" announced Present Mic.
"Deku, don't give up! We can still win this!" Uraraka gave her friend some encouragement.
"Uraraka's right, we can't give up, we'll have to steal at least one headband to make sure we can advance to the final round," said Midoriya.
A forgotten one. Billowing through the bedlam, a banner of hope, something to keep him going. Something to give him some measure of hope. Izuku grit his teeth, He still had two horses, he was down one. This was going to be a gamble… He thought of his chances of stealing a headband on all three of his opponents and his best chance was…
"We have to steal from Kazume," said Izuku.
"What? Deku, that's too dangerous. And our best defender and attacker is paralyzed" said Uraraka.
"It's a risk we have to take… I've come too far! It's now or never!" said Midoriya.
"ONLY THIRTY SECONDS REMAINS! WILL KAZUME SECURE THE LEAD?! WILL IZUKU BE ABLE TO STEAL A HEADBAND?! THESE CLOSING SECONDS ARE THRILLING!" announced Present Mic.
"LIKE HELL HE WILL!" Bakugo roared, not noticing a hand grasp roughly at one of his bands and yank it off.
He had to try. He goaded his team into the fray, reaching for one! Just one! JUST ONE! He felt his hand close on one, thrown off an unlucky Bakugo, who barely had felt it get torn off in the chaos. Luck smiled on Izuku Midoriya if luck was named Present Mic. In the final moments, in the last few seconds.
The former Hero Killer's Partner and the Holder of One For All stood triumphant as the survivors of the Cavalry Battle…
Not knowing what now laid in wait for them.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Thank you all for reading this chapter. If you enjoyed it, favorite and follow for more content, coming sometime next week. Leave a review and let me know what you think. And as always, stay safe out there from the virus.