They should never have helped Midoriya is what Nobara concludes.
She stands at the edge of the crowd with Fushiguro as a short break resounds in the stadium. Meanwhile, in the screens displayed around them, Midoriya Izuku's name is plastered as the 'first place' of the competition. Nobara glares at him. What can he do again? Ah, right: deal massive amounts of damage at the cost of his bones. Nobara is certain that he will die the moment he tries to defeat even a Third Grade Curse because of that consequence. Her fingers tap against her crossed arms, shamelessly watching Midoriya turn red at Uraraka and Īda's compliments, and speaking of Īda, he sits right behind Nobara (and Bakugō, of all people!) in the rankings, triumphing over vine-haired girl and a pale-haired boy who lags behind by a couple of meters. Īda could have had gone on par against Bakugō and Nobara on this mission but the devestation that herself, the blond, and Todoroki left in the wake of the two's attempts in sabotaging Fushiguro and Nobara made it so that the other placers were far behind.
Nobara blames Todoroki's ice that had blocked their way for more than a couple of times and Bakugō jumping to Nue! What the hell was up with that?
She spots Bakugō glaring at her and she returns this with equal ferocity. Bakugō makes a face at her and just as she is about to meet him in a possible fist fight, she jumps, feeling something cold hit the back of her neck. Fushiguro scoffs. "I bought this from the Business kids," he passes a Pocari, "They're actually selling a lot but—" He grimaces. "They're overpriced."
"Huh? Then why'd you buy them?" Nobara grumbles but accepts the drink anyway.
"It makes sense why. We need the drinks and we can't buy from anywhere else but from them, and you've been screaming since earlier. You need it," Fushiguro shrugs.
"Well, that's because of Baku—"
Fushiguro rolls his eyes. Nobara is pretty sure that Fushiguro does not take her feud with Bakugō seriously and she cannot blame him for that, not when she spent the first week of school avoiding the hell out of him and not taking him seriously. Before Nobara can continue, Fushiguro nudges her side and gestures to the stage where Midnight has finally returned. "The forty-two at the top have earned the right to advance! I'm sorry for the kids who didn't make it, but don't take heart! The festival's showstopper is still being prepared! And now, for the post-preliminaries, the final section! From here on out, even the press corps will teem in white heat of excitement, so go all out!" Nobara tunes out the Pro-Hero's words slightly, staring at Midoriya Izuku's name sitting at the top of the rankings. "Now then, onto today's heart-stopping second event! I already know what it will be, but the suspense is killing me! What could it be? Well, I'll tell you!"
Obviously, Nobara thinks, the next event is going to be—
"A human cavalry battle!"
Cavalry Battles are annoyingly common in Sports Festival but Nobara has never really tried them, mostly because of the fact that it was mostly for the boys rather than the girls and Nobara is very, very eager to do the cavalry battles. She has been begging to do it ever since she was in middle school but that fantasy disappeared the moment she entered Jujutsu Kōtō, well aware that their break times and Sports Festival-esque moments occur in the form of a once-in-a-school-life baseball game and at most, a battle between the Tokyo and Kyoto branches which led to her getting a bullet to her head, mind you, and Nobara still despises Zen'in Mai for that, by the way. And as it registers to her that they are actually doing a cavalry battle, that she does not have to scream at the sidelines, sitting on the grass, and yelling at her male classmates to do better because are they really that stupid, Nobara grabs Fushiguro by his arm: "I'm the rider."
Fushiguro looks contemplative for a moment before he relents. "My stamina is better than yours," he nods, "But we also nee—"
"Huh?" Nobara drawls.
"Not now, Kugisaki," sighs her companion.
Nobara bites down her words, annoyed at the almost patronizing tone in Fushiguro. She clenches her fists but somehow finds herself relaxing even then. Her annoyance throbs.
Midnight continues her words: "You can all form two to four person teams freely and form a horseback configuration. Basically, it's the same rules as a normal human cavalry battle: swipe your enemy rider's headbands and protect your own! Except for one thing! Everyone will receive points based on their performance in the last trial."
Fushiguro frowns. "Then that means..."
"The number of points you you're worth will be five points if you placed forty-second, ten if you placed forty-first, fifteen for fortieth, and so on!" Midnight grins wickedly, eyes darkening in a way Nobara has seen from her old classmate's JAV. She cringes. "With the exception of first place whose head is worth ten million points!—"
Nobara turns to Midoriya's pale expression just as her other classmates do. She gathers her fists, cracking her knuckles in satisfaction. Ten million?
"If I were you, I'd aim for the guy who placed first. This is the chance for the low to supplant the high! Welcome to our survival game!"
...
Of course Fushiguro does not approve of going for Midoriya. Of course Nobara has to hold herself back. Of course they cannot go all out. Of course! Of course! Of course they cannot do that!
Nobara squeezes the Pocari in her hands, waiting for Fushiguro to return from 'recruiting the final member and you can leave it up to me because I have a plan'—nobody dares to approach her for recruitment, everyone else most likely expecting her to be in a duo with Fushiguro because of what they established early on and Nobara highly doubts Todoroki is going to recruit them, not when he has a powerhouse in his own team: two elemental Quirks, Yaoyorozu and her buffed up Zen'in Mai Cursed Technique, and the perfect horse for this battle, Īda. Well, to be fair, Yaoyorozu pulls her creations from her body fat while Zen'in Mai literally creates things out of nothing, urged on by her mediocre Cursed Energy. Meanwhile, Nobara would rather choke to death than be in the same team as Midoriya (that little bastard!) or even Bakugō whose team is composed the Ashido, Kirishima, and Sero who grabbed Nue by its feet! Nobara remembers that. Nobara clearly remembers that. She had almost fallen, even.
She sits on the nearby bench, towels right beside her and a few more bottles, watching as the teams begin gathering up in the middle. Her head pounds in irritation. She thought—she thought she was finally going to be able to do what she wants. They need to stand out, they need to in order to get the attention of the cameras, make the screens focus on no one but them because Itadori is finally there! Itadori will be finally watching. She has been clinging to her Cursed Energy for days upon days, weeks upon weeks, and the only time she was actually able to release them was when they were beaten to the ground, unable to do anything more than they should. Her Cursed Energy chokes her in her throat.
She thinks: this is not Kugisaki Nobara.
Kugisaki Nobara is free. Kugisaki Nobara does whatever she wants. Kugisaki Nobara knows herself better than anyone else and she does not settle. She never does. But she has been settling for months, settling for more than half a year she has been stuck in this world. She missed the feeling of Curses screaming at her, misses the feeling of her nails slicing through skin, misses the feeling of Curses slicing through her skin—pain is what makes Kugisaki Nobara and what she does with that pain and here, inflicting pain is 'too much', knocking someone out is 'going too far', and Kugisaki Nobara, born and raises as a sorcerer in the countryside where this is this and that is that, is lost. She struggles to find what she is meant to do so Itadori Yūji is what she clings to, who she clings to.
She cannot be like Fushiguro who can find himself to care for these people they know nothing of. Nobara, in all seriousness and honesty, does not care. She does not want them to die or get seriously maimed but isn't that just the bare minimum?
In this world, Nobara cares about very few things: Itadori, Fushiguro, Nitta, and the way to get back home. If Curses begin infesting this place, then so it does. The moment she gets a ticket back home, Nobara will never return and she will leave, thinking that this place is a hellhole for her, the source of her suppression and where her pride was stomped on by some guy who advertises both an underwear brand and candy. Nobara will leave knowing that this is a place where she can never be Nobara because in Jujutsu Kōtō, her violence is complimented, her ruthlessness is called efficient, her need for pain is called 'strange but everyone has a screw loose anyway'. Nobara can never be Nobara in this world.
She has to walk on eggshells, watch herself and how she speaks around these kids. She can be nice, yes, because that is Nobara. She can be nice, can be mean, but what she hates is what she cannot be.
Fushiguro mingles in this world so slowly but surely that she is forced to catch up, move in Fushiguro's pace but Fushiguro suddenly went from 'the silent companion' to 'training their classmates', and the change is so jarring that Nobara's first instinct is to go against it because this is not their plan. And Midoriya? Really? Of all people? Nobara wants nothing to do with that stammering bone-breaking wannabe hero! Hell, Nobara prefers Īda because at least Īda knows when to shut up but Midoriya goes on and on and on when he sees Nobara's Quirk in action. Hell, Nobara probably prefers Bakugō over Midoriya. Probably. Just—just probably.
And as if being summoned by her thoughts, Fushiguro returns with a somewhat satisfied look on his face and Shinsō Hitoshi, of all people again, walking behind him with crunched eyebrows and and displeasure written on every inch of his features. But what makes Nobara gape openly is their other companion. Who? Blond hair and blue eyes and a face that will look better if Nobara punches it. Somehow, everything about his demeanor and his presentation is already unlikeable. Nobara turns her gaze to Fushiguro in disbelief. "What the hell, Fu—Megumi?"
The blond sneers at her and Nobara becomes reminded of Present Mic then there. It must be the blond hair, she thinks of their only similarities. Or maybe the face. This guy's face is seriously annoying and Nobara does not even know who this guy is. "What? The first placer of the Heroics Department thinks of us as unworthy to be in the same team—"
"Monoma-san," Fushiguro sighs.
Nobara stands up, meeting this blond, Monoma or whatever his name is, straight in his eyes. "You—"
"Nobara."
Treating her like a child, Nobara seethes but moves back hesitantly, still glaring at Monoma but not minding much of Shinsō who stays still behind Fushiguro. How her partner ended up with this kind of team, she has no idea, and Fushiguro did not even consult anything with her, just going on ahead and making decisions for himself. They are a team! A duo! And the way Fushiguro is treating her—"Nobara, this is Monoma Neito from Class 1-B. He can copy Quirks," Nobara flinches at that.
Monoma catches her reaction and the sneer returns as fast as it disappears but Fushiguro shuts him up but continuing before Monoma can get another word out. "And you know Shinsō—" Fushiguro pushes his thumb to the purple-haired boy's side who looks torn between opening his mouth or keeping it shut like Monoma. "Brainwashing."
"Right," Nobara mutters, "You wanna talk for a bit, 'gumi?"
Fushiguro hesitates but follows suit, nodding at Monoma and Shinsō who look surprisingly out of place around them. Nobara drags Fushiguro away and as they arrive out of earshot, she whispers to him: "Maybe inform me that you're going to recruit the guy that I threatened two weeks ago next time, won't you?" For a moment, Fushiguro looks as if he is going to take her words seriously and this earns him another elbow from Fushiguro. "You could have chosen, I don't know, Kaminari, instead? He's a quick kill to the other players!"
"One," Fushiguro begins, "Todoroki got to him first. He aimed for the ones with the best and most useful Quirks. He went to Kaminari first, then Īda, then Yaoyorozu. He knew Yaoyorozu will come for him. And besides—" Fushiguro straightens his back, having been hunched down to Nobara's height. "We need to lay low now."
"What?"
"We need to lay low—"
"We've been doing that for more than half a year, Fushiguro!" Nobara's voice is doused by the faint cheers of the audience and the murmurs from the other groups. Monoma and Shinsō, however, look at them warily from meters away. Nobara lowers her voice down. She wants to scream more at Fushiguro. She has never felt this angry and annoyed at the same time, not since her battle against the Kyoto branch and she does not want to get angry at Fushiguro. Not when they are so stuck. "And Monoma? Really? He'll try to copy our Quirks and we'll get outed!"
Fushiguro frowns. "We won't. If he just so happens to copy our Quirks, he won't just suddenly assume that it's a Cursed Technique. He doesn't know anything but Quirks. He'll just think that it's some sort of weird Quirk with a specific requirement to get activated. And I already made an excuse for it. He won't try to copy it and," annoying patronizing as always, "As I was saying, the highlight of the matches is always the one-on-one battles. This one is just to push off the other players. Our priority is going past this stage. We can double our Brainwashers with Monoma so swiping will be much easier then. Everyone's going to be focusing on Midoriya and the flashier groups, so we can take this opportunity to keep them off of us. They've been targeting us so this is a good chance."
Nobara looks at him in frustration, even as she and Fushiguro returns to where Monoma and Shinsō are, making up an excuse that Nobara expected to be working as a pair which is why she is so shocked. Shinsō stays silent. He acts like Nobara had not returned his declaration of war right back at him only two weeks ago, as if he is not standing beside the main person who thrived in the test he called unfair. Nobara stretches her limbs uncomfortably, knowing that she will be the main one who will be swiping headbands. "I'll be riding at the top," she announces, watching the timer in the screens hit two minutes from ten minutes, "If there's someone with a good aim, that's me."
Fushiguro nods. "Monoma, we'll be asking you to run around from time to time to get Quirks. Gama will be pulling you away if needed," he says.
Monoma grimaces, having explained before what Gama is and the name is pretty much given already. "A toad. If you have that toad, why not just use it to get the headbands?" Nobara, for once, shares the same sentiments. Not only had she experienced getting dragged by that disgusting Ten Shadows but she was also pulled inside of it.
"The aim is bad," Fushiguro replies, "And Gama'd end up strangling the person."
Shinsō frowns. "So the plan is to brainwash them and get the headbands," he clarifies.
"Focus the attention on the other teams too," Nobara replies and Shinsō twitches at her voice, "That's why Monoma's going around. Mostly to Todoroki. They've been ganging up on us so we'll put more pressure on them now that everyone's focused on Midoriya. We'll be using mostly Todoroki and Bakugō's Quirks. They're the most useful. We need you to piss them off, Monoma."
Shinsō scoffs. "That's basically the only thing he can do."
"As if someone from the GenEd can do more—"
Fushiguro clears his throat. "We're going to do a hit and run while avoiding Todoroki, Bakugō, and Midoriya." Hit and run. Nobara grins. She likes the sound of that. (But of course, the discomfort remains. And if Nobara shifts away from Fushiguro a little, then she keeps that to herself.)
...
In a more ideal world, Monoma forms a team from his class, tries his best and shows off his Quirk to the stadium (almost begging to be seen, begging to show to everyone that his Quirk is authentic, that this is a Quirk and not just some sick form of robbery embedded deep within the pools of his blood) but this is not an ideal world. This is not his ideal world because as he reaches out to his planned teammates, Fushiguro Megumi from Class 1-A approaches him first and his first instinct is to sneer and mock because the great Duo of Class 1-A asked a mere Class 1-B to help with the cavalry battles but Fushiguro's expression does not change: "What's that got to do with it?" And as he gathers with the group, Monoma frowns at the realization that Fushiguro recruited him because of his Quirk, shrugging off any sort of rankings because what comes next is some guy from Class 1-C, a 'Shinsō Hitoshi' whose Quirk is Brainwash.
Fushiguro does not act like the other Class 1-A he has seen and he has observed. The one who mostly matches that description is Kugisaki Nobara, ranked first and had been the one to give the speech beforehand, oozing with confidence that annoys Monoma but Fushiguro does not let Monoma chime in to say something to her, mostly due to Kugisaki's infamous temper that has spread even to the other classes, mostly about her and Bakugō butting heads every now and then. Kugisaki announces that she will be the rider, not taking anything else but she glances at Fushiguro occasionally, as if seeking for his approval. No. They work together. Kugisaki wants Fushiguro to agree with her.
Monoma hears that Fushiguro and Kugisaki are childhood friends from the countryside, that they have been training for this since they were kids because there was nothing they wanted to be other than Duos. They were built to be together, they say, and in the Obstacle Course, as they speed through one foe after another, they easily catch each other, covering up for their mistakes. Monoma does not know what Fushiguro and Kugisaki are up to but he knows one thing: Fushiguro is not like the other Class 1-A students that Monoma sees and Kugisaki is arrogant, brash but she accesses them all with their usefulness and as she jumps on Fushiguro's shoulders, there is no discomfort, just trust. She shifts a little before glancing at Monoma and Shinsō. "Megumi gets the rear," she calls and Monoma settles to the left, Kugisaki's feet pushing on his and the others' hand, "We're counting on you."
Kugisaki and Fushiguro have this untouchable feel from them.
Like Todoroki.
That Bakugō
...
Midoriya with his Ten Million.
Monoma despises Class 1-A, born with the right Quirks with little to no stigma against it. He knows Shinsō. He has heard of most students that try to stand out—Shinsō with the Brainwashing and villainous Quirk and Monoma with his dishonorable and un-Heroic Quirk—Monoma scoffs. He believes in few things and one of them just so happens to be the fact that most of the times, the ends justify the means. Call him a cheat, call him unheroic and dishonorable but at the end, Monoma will be a hero. Monoma does not care about what the say because at the end, he will still end up saving people with this thing they call a dishonorable Quirk.
Fushiguro and Kugisaki encourages this. The ends justify the means. So he keeps his mouth shut around these particular Class 1-A students because Kugisaki may be arrogant but she does not have the arrogance Monoma despises. Don't get him wrong, Monoma still wants nothing to do with Class 1-A but the end justifies the means and Monoma wants to use these powerhouses to stand even at the one-on-one matches and there, he will step as the representative of Class 1-B. As much as he claims to be the Messiah of his class, there is still nothing better than standing at the top and like they said, Monoma is dishonorable. Monoma is a hypocrite. Monoma is not flashy. Monoma is petty. Monoma cannot do well without other Quirks. Monoma is not heroic. Monoma is not many things.
But as Monoma is strained by the weight of Kugisaki, as Midnight's voice rings, "Let's start the countdown to this vicious clash!"—as Monoma becomes overwhelmed with adrenalin and the pressure of being with these Class 1-A students, Monoma becomes all of those things. Fushiguro nods at him and Monoma lets go of the cavalry, making sure to make detours and rushes to the direction of Todoroki and his team. Kaminari spots him and is about to speak but Monoma is faster and he jumps, thankful that his band is with Kugisaki and hits Todoroki's arm harshly because of the inertia. Todoroki snaps his head to him but something wraps around Monoma's waist before Todoroki can stretch his lesser-known arm towards him.
Todoroki flinches, pulling away his hand. "Todoroki never uses his fire side. Use that," Monoma remembers Fushiguro say, grinning in success as he feels the throb of Todoroki's Quirk under his skin. He almost gets a whiplash when something wet pulls him by the waist. He disappears among the groups running to Midoriya and the rush makes Todoroki's attention waver. Monoma lands under Kugisaki again, her foot pushing his shoulder.
He grunts. "Get your foot out of my fa—" He freezes, seeing what actually dragged him away. A toad. Gama. Fushiguro's disgusting toad. He turns green and decides that Kugisaki's weight is much better than getting close to the toad.
"Send short bursts of ice. Just short bursts," Kugisaki lectures from above, already having more than their own headbands around her neck in the short time that he left, "Abilities like that are hard to control so less is better. Can you do it?"
Shinsō tilts his chin up. "Copying is his only job. If he can't do that properly then he's useless," he sniggers.
Monoma scowls but it quickly melts into raised eyebrows and a challenging look. "Says the one who's in GenEd," he retorts back.
He will never admit it but he follows Kugisaki's advice, sending barely a trickle of ice from his feet before it explodes to a road of frost, stretching to random groups of students into a frozen state. Just Monoma is about to whip his satisfied look to his team, Fushiguro curses, lets go of Kugisaki's feet, and clasps his hands together. At his sudden movements, Monoma and Shinsō stumble, surprised by the sudden weight. Kugisaki topples right above Fushiguro, and Shinsō grunts, trying to push Kugisaki up by his shoulders. Monoma mimics his movements but they barely got time to gather themselves when Fushiguro suddenly pushes back, their hands intertwining again. "Fushiguro, I swear to—" Shinsō's curse falls short when their feet meet unstable ground. Feathers. This is—"Nue?!" Kugisaki yelps.
Monoma is about complain but the sudden surge of electricity spreads in the stadium out of nowhere, Fushiguro once again summoning a hers rabbits along with the bird, making them barely gather Kugisaki. Monoma resists the urge to praise Kugisaki's balance, a hand heavily planted on his shoulder while he is pretty sure Kugisaki's elbow is digging painfully on Shinsō's forehead.
The rabbits form a wall before the electricity can touch them.
"It's your class' Pikachu," grunts Shinsō. "You sure you don't want to take them out first?"
Fushiguro shakes his head, his bird melting back into the shadows as they land above Todoroki's ice. Monoma creeps for the warm energy again, sending the smallest bit of fire that appears as boiling heat instead. Fushiguro and Shinsō flinch. "This is my first time with an Elemental Quirk," Monoma defends.
"We have no time for that. We're aiming for Metal-shima over there," Kugisaki points to Tetsutetsu angrily aiming for Midoriya, still hoarded by the other teams, "Where's the ten million?"
"Still with Midoriya," Shinsō nods.
"Then we're carving our way there," Fushiguro decides, "Shinsō."
Shinsō nods and focuses entirely on the group blocking them from Team Tetsutetsu, a certain member of Class 1-A's team, one with no achievements so far. The rider has jacks for earlobes while her other members do not seem that notable aside from the one with a large tail. Monoma's hand creeps to Shinsō's, mimicking his Quirk just in case. "What? This group hasn't gotten even one headband?" Shinsō snorts, letting the noise of Bakugō's explosions and Todoroki's shrieking ice overshadow his voice.
The earjack girl turns around and glares at Shinsō. "Wha—"
"Give us all your headbands," Shinsō quickly interrupts.
The girl's riders notice this easily and Monoma responds with a strange ease. "Haa?" He laughs. "Are the little entitled Class 1-A students intimidated by us?"
Everyone responds as expected, the tail-boy pointing out the presence of Fushiguro and Kugisaki while the others more violently reacting by surging to them but Monoma's mouth, honed and experted to rile up anyone within vicinity, reacts faster. "Get Midoriya's headband," The group freezes, letting them take the girl's headband. Kugisaki grins wickedly, grabbing them and wrapping them around her neck.
Monoma matches her expression, satisfied especially after the failure of using Todoroki's Quirk against him. "Let's go," Fushiguro tugs on them and they follow suit, eyes focused on their current prize: Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu.
Ah, don't get him wrong.
Monoma still definitely dislikes Fushiguro and Kugisaki.
...
Third place is not so bad. Not many did notice them until the end of the match when Fushiguro literally threw Nobara across the stadium to attempt to get Midoriya's headband but gets one from an orange-haired girl's team because technically, it was the weak-armed Shinsō who threw her with just a little bit of help from Fushiguro. The moment the alarm rings, Nobara lands painfully to the ground, not having the time to catch her own weight and as if the gods are mocking her, she lands exactly beside Bakugō. Always, always Bakugō! She follows her instinct and shoves Bakugō's face away from her.
Midnight pulls them away before things can develop.
The announcement of the finalist ends with Midoriya being dramatic as always, kneeling to the floor in success with tears flooding his eyes. Nobara scoffs, wanting to change her shirt because of how sweaty she has gotten. Fushiguro catches up to her, much to her dismay. As much as she somewhat enjoyed the Cavalry Battles, laying low is not for her. Monoma was a good teammate and so was Shinsō, in a way but right after that, Shinsō left, mumbling a short gratitude while Monoma returns to his classmates as if nothing happened.
Nobara has no idea how this school honestly works.
She stares at the vending machine. She watches her drink get stuck in the metal and Nobara is too exhausted to deal with this, so she kicks the vending machine continuously. "This little shi—"
"Kugisaki."
"What?"
She glances at Fushiguro and turns away the moment she sees that look on his face: thinking, unsure, hesitant, all the other synonyms for that word that Nobara has no mood to think about. She kicks the machine again. "Kugisaki, liste—"
Annoyed (at Fushiguro, the vending machine, her sweaty clothes, this restriction, laying low), Nobara kicks the vending machine as hard as she could, her foot smashing through the glass before she realizes it. The sound of glass shattering makes Nobara and Fushiguro shut their mouths almost immediately. "Take—take your foot out," Fushiguro orders and Nobara does as told, "Are you injured? Can you fight later?"
"The UA uniform is too good," Nobara mumbles in mild awe, taking out her foot to see her leg unharmed, "I'm oka—"
"Next time, control yourself, Kugisaki," Fushiguro sighs. Sighs and sighs and sighs again. How many has this been today? Always, always sighing Fushiguro as if Nobara is giving him more problems. Fushiguro is the one making the problems in the first place, not Nobara!
"Look, I—"
They both jump when they hear someone angrily shushing them. Their eyes move to see Bakugō near the edge of the hallway, leaning against the wall with the same irritation as Nobara plastered all over her face. "Shut up, won't you?" Bakugō growls, mumbling something about a stupid Pokémon Trainer and his Toolbox.
Toolbox? Nobara stomps to Bakugō, pulling her sleeves to her arm. "The hell did you just call me you little piece of shit—" Bakugō puts a hand right above her mouth, shutting her up and surprising her at the same time. Just as she was about to bite his hand then and there, a voice interrupts:
"Midoriya... you—are you All Might's illegitimate child?"
Nobara officially wants nothing to do with Class 1-A.
charge headlong