Chapter Twentytwo - One in Ten Million
The air had grown thick with tension after what Midnight had just said. Everyone looked towards a single person, their eyes lighting up with fiery passion as they realized what they would need to do to guarantee their place in the next round.
T-Ten Million?! Izuku internally gasped, frozen in place.
Compared to the other numbers that counted up by 5's, ten million was a crazy, astronomical number. It meant that whoever was wearing it in the end would be in first place and guaranteed all their members getting into the next stage of the festival.
I get it— This is part of being a Hero… In order for you to be at the top, you have to have others eyeing the #1 spot!
Looking out at the crowd, mainly to avoid the ire of the other participants around him, Izuku was hoping to see All Might somewhere out there amongst the sea of faces.
So this is what it feels like to be you…
"That's right," Midnight said wickedly, noticing the sudden intense air, "It's a chance for those at the bottom to overthrow the top!
A hand rested on Izuku's shoulder and he looked over, seeing it was Yuki's. Mei and Shiro stood closer to him as well, the three of his friends looking around at the others that were maliciously plotting against Izuku.
"You guys…" Izuku smiled, feeling a bit of the nervousness fading. "Thank you."
The eyes on me are different from Middle School, Izuku thought. Instead of looking down at me out of spite, they're looking at me as someone to overcome— But this is what I wanted! Everyone, watch me!
"Now I'll explain the rules of the Cavalry Battle," Midnight continued.
Everyone listened on as Midnight explained how the battle would work: The 'rider' would wear a headband with the total points of their team, and any stolen headbands must be work from the neck up.
Then she explained the most important part: Even if your team falls or you have no headbands, you aren't out.
"That means we can be as reckless as we need to be," Mei said excitedly. "It's gonna be crazy out there!"
"You all have fifteen minutes to create your team," Midnight told them. A timer appeared on the screen, set for 15 minutes, and began to count down.
"I assume we have our team, correct?" Yuki looked to the other three, who nodded. "Good."
"Even if we wanted to go to different teams… I think we ticked a bunch of people off," Shiro said. She noticed someone glaring right at her, a boy she had passed up at the last second and likely cost him the top 42 slot. She gulped.
Mei laughed it off. "So what! We'll just kick their butts again!" She nudged Izuku, who chuckled nervously. "I've got plenty of stuff for us!"
The girl clapped her hands and smiled triumphantly, but after a few moments, nothing happened. She frowned and looked around.
"Be right back!" Mei sped away before anyone could say anything.
"I… should we be worried?" Izuku looked to the others, who shrugged.
"Midoriya, well done in the race," came the formal tone of Iida. Izuku looked to see him approaching, a friendly expression on his face. "You're already getting your dreams across."
"Thank you! I, well—" Izuku trailed off, wanting to explain that he didn't do it alone, because otherwise he felt bad.
"We all knew he could do it," Yuki interjected.
Izuku sighed, not wanting to go into how he felt about taking the credit. Iida smiled and nodded, looking to Yuki, who was as tall and broad-shouldered as he was.
"I saw your name on the results— Yuki correct?" Iida offered him a hand. "I am Iida Tenya of Class 1-A. You, as well, seem very capable. Have you considered becoming a Hero?"
These words were surprising to Izuku. He looked to Yuki, whose calm expression didn't waiver as he briefly took Iida's hand and shook it.
"I'm hoping to discover what I want during this festival," Yuki responded.
"That makes sense. Well, I figure you Support students are sticking together, so I need to go join a team," Iida said, giving them a polite bow before trudging away.
Izuku and Shiro eyed Yuki, til he finally turned and looked down at them.
"..:What?"
"I-I didn't know you had any interest at all in Hero work," Izuku stammored.
"Of course, you've been focused on your own goals," Yuki stated. "And no, don't apologize— We're all looking out for our own dreams right now, as it should be."
Izuku let those words sink in for a few moments, and before he could say anything else, Mei returned with a big wooden chest, slamming it onto the ground. She tapped the top of it and beamed happily at them.
"Here we go here we go! That Ninsei didn't deliver it dramatically like I told him to," Mei exclaimed.
"I... I feel like he needs to rest," Izuku said honestly.
"Either way, tadah!" Mei opened the chest, revealing a variety of gadgets inside. "All of the glorious babies that got approved for the festival!"
Izuku and Shiro gawked at the treasure chest of goodies, while Mei stood proudly, letting out a triumphant laughter.
"There's no end to the marvelous babies I've created for this moment, and with everyone eyeing the ten million— The investors are sure to see and appreciate them all!"
Starting to pull out some of what Mei had created, Izuku was reminded just how much of a genius the girl was.
"Is this…?" Izuku was holding a metal backpack of sorts with two jets on the bottom.
"Ahh yes, that's modeled after a certain Hero's backpack, just with my own spin," Mei explained.
"Could it be… The Buster Hero, Air Jet?"
The girl laughed. "Yes of course! His agency's close so I got to tour it before!"
"Ehh? You never told me about that," Izuku said skeptically. "Why didn't we ever go?"
"You never asked! I've got loads of babies inspired by Heroes I've met," Mei continued.
"Really? Let me see!"
Shiro and Yuki watched the two nerding out over Hero lore and creations for a few minutes, not sure if they should interject or not.
"They're basically a perfect match," Shiro muttered to Yuki.
He nodded. "It would seem that way."
Shiro scooted closer. "Just like us huh?"
Without responding, Yuki walked towards the chest of Mei's creations, resulting in a huff of frustration from Shiro. The boy picked out a device, examining it. Mei noticed him and came over quickly.
"Ah! I bet your eyes spotted this baby instantly," Mei said. "Like it?"
"...May I borrow it?"
Mei grinned. "Of course! And Shiro, here's the baby you had me look at—"
It wasn't long before the timer went off, and the battle was set to begin, but across the campus at the third year stage, Principal Nezu was approached by two dark-suited individuals.
"Principal Nezu? We're here representing the Folded Note Hero Institution," the man spoke. He was tall with black hair hanging in front of his face. Beside him was a shorter woman with short brown hair and heavy bags under her eyes, her eyes looking around skeptically.
The Principal was sitting in his booth, watching the festivities below, with only a few select others inside. He paid the guests no mind, smiling at the events unfolding on the field.
"Uh…" The man glanced at the woman, shrugging before continuing, "The FNHI? From America—"
"I'm sorry, this is an important event, " the Principal responded without looking back at them. "We'll have to talk after."
The man gritted his teeth, ready to say something bad, but the woman stepped forward and took the initiative.
"We're Pro Heroes from the FNHI— I'm Lady Vortex and this is Spiralhide, we're here to investigate the death of Paper Mache," the woman spoke sternly.
Nezu didn't budge, so Lady Vortex slammed her hand down onto the table before him and glared at him. Finally, he sighed and looked over at her.
"I'm afraid this isn't exactly a matter for U.A anymore," the Principal told her.
"When an American Hero dies on foreign soil, it's your problem, forever," the woman spoke with increasing anger in her voice. "Now will you cooperate?"
Suddenly, several figures arose from the ground, surrounding the two. They were exact copies of each other, appearing just like the original: The Clone Hero Ectoplasm, wearing his usual trenchcoat with only his head and leg replacements visible.
"What's this now? This isn't necessary," Spiralhide began to say nervously, holding up his hands innocently.
"Please just enjoy the festivities," Principal Nezu told them. "You should go by the first year stage if you're looking to scout out a potential future Hero."
"Tch… Let's get out of here," Lady Vortex said, turning and walking off.
"Apologies, we'll be going," Spiralhide spoke, nodding to the Principal before exiting the room as well.
"Should we be worried about that? I can watch them," Ectoplasm and his clones spoke in unison.
The Principal returned to the view of the stadium field below, not seeming bothered in the slightest.
"I think they'll be fine, they're obviously grieving— let them find a way to fill that void."
Ectoplasm wasn't sure what he was talking about, but he also knew that Nezu's intuition was unparalleled, so if he had a deduction it was smart to accept it.
Somewhere nearby, All Might was watching intently, feeling enlightened by what he was seeing from the boy named Mirio in the festival...
After the buzzer had sounded, marking the end of their fifteen minutes, the crowd began to grow louder as anticipation built and Present Mic began to announce what was happening.
"Hey, wake up Eraser— After fifteen minutes to choose their teams, twelve cavalry teams are lined up on the field!"
"...There's some interesting teams down there," Aizawa's laid back tone could be heard.
"Everybody ready your battle cry, it's time for U.A's bloody battle! Light the signal fires!"
Down on the field, twelve teams were formed into a circle facing towards the center of the field, with plenty of room to start between them all.
Izuku tightened the points headband around his head, which read "10,000,350" as their point total in big bold red letters.
"Are you guys ready?" He looked down to his friends. "Mei? Shiro? Yuki?"
Since the four had made their group nearly instantly, they had lots of time to plan things out. Izuku was decided to be the rider for the group, since he was relatively lightweight and was the one who needed to shine the most. The front 'horse' was Yuki, due to his good strength and durability and the fact that his eyesight was extremely valuable. On Izuku's right as Mei, her goggles on and hoverboots ready to be activated for their plan. Shiro on the left had been given leg enhancers from Mei that increased her height and stability, and on her back was the maneuvering backpack.
Izuku was well kitted at this point. He had to ditch his Drift as it wouldn't function with the cavalry setup, but now he was wearing a certain glove device on his left hand and Yuki's slinger glove on his right, on top of the Flow control gloves beneath so he could still utilize that.
"I hope you're ready to show off all of our babies," Mei told him excitedly.
"I-I'll try my best," Izuku told her. He looked down to the left glove, which had a sort of steel cylindrical part that went over his forearm. "So you made this even better, Shiro?"
The girl chuckled. "Of course! Since I guess it was too lame in the entrance exam— This is my Strength Turbine 2.0!"
The device was meant to throw out a burst of air to extend the range of your punch. As Shiro described it, it was capable of putting out five-times the energy of a punch delivered after about a second, via spinning turbines in the cylindrical part of the glove.
"Thank you all… I promise I'll make us shine!"
The other three nodded, getting focused as it was about time to begin.
"Lets go! It's time to countdown to the battle royale!"
"3…"
"2…"
"1…"
Izuku lowered the kabuki-like goggles he had created over his eyes, as Midnight raised her whip and proclaimed:
"START!"
As expected, all 11 other teams instantly made a break for Izuku's team.
"It's exactly what we figured," Yuki stated.
"Let's give em hell! They won't scare us off," Shiro exclaimed.
"Plan A!"
At Izuku's call, they rushed forward fearlessly into the fray. Izuku brought his right hand forward in a sweeping motion as he fired Yuki's slinger glove, firing off a handful of small black spheres that, once hitting the ground, exploded into smoke, creating a line of cover for them.
"Holy smokes! The Support group goes into the belly of the beast!"
Within the smoke, Yuki could detect any possible movement, while Izuku's goggles detected heat signatures as well. They came to a halt within the smoke, looking around.
"A few teams stopped, probably got surprised," Izuku called out to them with a hand over his mouth to not inhale the smoke. Many of the teams were still coming towards them however. "If we go left, we can break through those teams over there!"
Yuki prepared, taking on all of Izuku's weight as the girls activated their devices. After activating Mei's hoverboots and the jetpack on Shiro's back, the group all leaned to the left. From the smoke cover, they suddenly came drifting out, surprising the two groups on their left, which he recognized as Class 1-B students.
Sorry, but I'm taking that! Izuku thought, reaching out towards the familiar figure of Tetsutetsu who was the rider for his team.
Suddenly, vines shot up in front of Tetsutetsu. Izuku was surprised by this, seeing the girl in Tetsutetsu's team with vine-like hair gazing at Izuku seriously.
She reacted that quickly? Her other teammates weren't ready!
As Iuku was forced to bring his hand back, Tetsutetsu's metal-coated arm burst through the vines, reaching out towards Izuku.
"I gotcha Midoriya!"
Izuku wasn't ready for such a fast counter attack, but luckily Yuki was. The boy leaned back, moving Izuku just enough that Tetsutetsu's fingers barely touched the headband.
"Not yet!" As Izuku retorted, he reared his left fist backwards and then threw a punch towards their opponents. After a whirring sound emitted and the cylindrical part of the Power Turbine glowed a bit, a powerful shot of air fired forward, blasting through the rest of the vines and made their entire group slide back a bit as they held on to Tetsutetsu. Thanks to his metal-like body though, he didn't go very far.
While this was happening, Izuku had his right hand lowered so Mei could reload the slinger. After tapping his arm to signify it was ready, Izuku knew they needed to escape.
"Plan C!"
This was their "run away" plan, in case they were in a sticky situation. Yuki analyzed their situation with his Quirk-enhanced eyes.
"There!" He led the charge, turning them as they darted away.
"Hey! Come back here," Tetsutetsu called after them angrily.
Izuku's group suddenly stopped in place. Confused, they looked down to see that they were sinking into the ground.
"Someone's Quirk…" Izuku looked back to Tetsutetsu's team which was running towards them. The person acting as the front horse had a peculiar visible jaw, and the ground seemed to be changing in front of them, letting them sink into it. "Mei! Shiro!"
The girls activated their devices, slowly pulling them out before finally escaping it. However, another team was upon them from the other direction.
"Gettem Jiro!" The rider, who was apparently an invisible girl, made the callout. The girl named Jiro, who was the front horse while two very largely-built boys were in the back, shot out her headphone jack-like earlobes towards Izuku.
We're totally off balance right now!
They were heading right for the assault. Luckily, Izuku thought to use their momentum, getting his left fist ready. He then punched out towards the oncoming tendrils, sending a blast of air stronger than before thanks to their momentum, blowing them back to Jiro. The two boys in the back of the team made it easy to withstand the wind, but it was enough of a distraction to allow Izuku's team to regain their footing and run past.
"Absolute war has broken out now! Under two minutes have passed, but it's getting heated! Instead of just going for the ten million, going for second through fourth place is smart too!"
Looking around, Izuku noted that more teams were now clashing with each other. He wanted to take a breather for a moment, but he figured it wasn't going to last for long— And it didn't.
"On our right!" As Mei said this, they looked towards what appeared to be a single person running at them.
"Eh? Isn't this a team competition?" Confused, Izuku watched the boy who appeared to have made a sort of shell from his back running at them.
"We shouldn't stay still for long," Yuki pointed out.
"Eeeek!"
They all looked to Shiro as she made a noise of horror. She was struggling to pull her left leg up from the ground.
"Something sticky got me," the girl said quickly in a panic.
"Eheheh… Don't underestimate us Heroes," came an unfamiliar voice from ahead.
Looking back at their oncoming opponent, Izuku was shocked to see a boy and girl gazing out from the skin-like shell.
"I saw them before," Yuki spoke. "Mineta, Asui, Shoji. I witnessed their abilities in the race."
Izuku looked towards Shiro on his left. "You can't escape?"
"No! And if I lose these leg enhancers we're totally screwed!"
"Izuku! Smoke it up! We can take them," Mei exclaimed.
"Got it!" Izuku readied to fire off the smoke bombs Mei had reloaded for him. However, from the shadows of the shell, a long tongue shot out quickly. Izuku barely managed to move his head to dodge. "W-What the heck is that?"
"Tsuyu Asui, her Quirk gives her a frog's abilities, from the looks of it," Yuki stated.
The tongue receded back quickly and shot out again. This time Izuku reached out to try and grab it, but was surprised as it wrapped around his right arm.
"They're coming closer!"
"I… know…!" Izuku struggled against the tongue's strength, but an idea popped into his head. He straightened out his arm and fired the smoke bomb right at their oncoming opponents.
The horse of the team, Shoji, wasn't able to move quick enough, so he created an extra arm to shield from the attack. However, the smoke pellet exploded, leaving them blind for a moment, making Asui's tongue retract and stopping their progress.
"That won't stop us! They're still stuck, so keep running forward Shoji," Mineta called out, coughing from the smoke.
After hesitating, Mineta's team ran through the smoke, they were surprised to find that their target were gone.
"W-What?!"
On the ground was the leg enhancers, one stuck firmly from the sticky ball that Mineta had thrown.
"Good idea Midoriya, if they had two riders then so can we," Yuki commented.
Having abandoned Shiro's leg enhancers, the girl was now holding onto Izuku from behind, very saddened about the whole thing. Mei had moved to support the back while Yuki maintained the front.
"I-I'm so sorry! Now I'm totally worthless," Shiro said, sniffling.
"That's not true! Just do your best, Shiro," Izuku told her.
Only a few minutes had passed, but the battle was just heating up. Amongst the shouts and scuffles going on all around, the sound of an explosion from nearby was nearly deafening to Izuku due to its familiarity.
Turning towards the noise, Izuku could see Bakugo and his team rushing them down. He was using his explosions to propel them, while the girl whose skin was all pink was creating some sort of substance to make them slide across the ground.
"Deeeekuuuuu!"
"Do we run?" Yuki tensed up as they faced their oncoming threat.
"No, we'll stand our ground! Shiro, watch our backs," Izuku said confidently.
"Got it!"
Staring down the blonde angry boy coming at them quickly, Izuku couldn't help but smirk a bit.
We've already fought hard, but the real challenge starts now.
To Be Continued
Next Chapter: Ripple Effect (SF Arc)