Chapter Twentythree - Ripple Effect

Bakugo's team was coming in fast, so there wasn't any time to think, only to act.

"We're taking his headband!" Izuku made sure his own headband was tight as he made that exclamation.

"Got it," Yuki responded, starting to move. Holding up the rear, Mei was using her hover boots to help sustain the weight, allowing Yuki to truly control the charge forward.

"Shiro! Load the other ammo," Izuku told the girl, reaching his right arm back. She grabbed the metal balls that Yuki often used with his slinger, loading several into the contraption. "No matter what, don't waiver!"

As the two teams collided, the crowd exploded with cheers.

"Class 1-A vs. Class 1-H! The tempers are exploding on the field!"

Hanta Sero, the black-haired boy in the back shot a tape-like strip from his elbow at them, which Yuki didn't dodge, continuing straight in. The tape stuck to Yuki's chest firmly.

"I gottem," the boy said confidently.

However, Yuki moved to the left, causing the tape to wrap around the red haired boy, Eijiro Kirishima, in the front.

"Dammit," Kirishima grumbled, swerving them around to face Izuku's group, so they wouldn't get tangled up in the tape. The substance being created by their other member, Mina Ashido, allowed them to slide around with ease, both groups facing each other.

"It's a dangerous waltz! Who will come out with the ten million?"

"You won't get away from me Deku," Bakugo growled. He reached one hand back, exploding to propel them forward. Kirishima in front hardened his body, as he crashed straight into Yuki.

Izuku's team was sent stumbling back, with Yuki taking the brunt of the force, the wind knocked out of him.

"Yuki! I'll sever the tape—"

"No," Yuki interrupted Izuku, gasping a bit from the hit. "We're… taking them head on… right?"

Sero pulled hard on the tape to keep them close. Bakugo smirked wickedly as he made another explosion behind them, sending them sliding across the liquid Ashido was creating, slamming into them again. This time, Bakugo reached out towards Izuku while he was off balance from the hit.

I can't move in time—!

Suddenly, Izuku felt a jolt as he was propelled up into the air. Confused, he flailed around a bit before looking back and seeing that Shiro was holding onto him tightly, having activated the jetpack.

"I'm… gonna be… useful!" The girl was shaking from the fear of going up so high.

"B-But—" Izuku had no time to complain, as explosions occurred and he looked down, seeing Bakugo rapidly flying up to them.

"You're mine now!" Bakugo had a wicked smile as he reached them, bringing his left hand forward, creating an explosion that was a feint, using his right hand to explode to the side while Izuku was blinded by the smoke. He reached towards his head and quickly.

"O-On the right!"

At Shiro's call, Izuku activated his Flow, firing a shot of air from his left boot, using the momentum to spin in the air and kick Bakugo's hand away. However, the blonde boy was ready for a follow-up, grabbing Izuku's leg with his other hand and dragging him in closer.

"Hope you enjoyed the spotlight, because it's comin' back to me!" Bakugo grabbed Izuku's headband, laughing darkly as Izuku was in a bad position to do anything about it—

But then Shiro bit him. The girl leaned over from Izuku's back and chomped down onto Bakugo's hand, hard.

The crowd was as shocked as Bakugo, who loosened his grip for just a moment as he pulled the headband off. It fell between the three in the air and Bakugo tried to grab it again, but Izuku quickly aimed and shot a metal ball from his slinger glove, aiming for it to fall down to Yuki and Mei below.

Sero detached the tape that was on Yuki and readied himself. "I'll get the headband—"

"No, you gotta get Bakugo or we might get disqualified or something! Quick," Ashido exclaimed.

"That's right! Such aerial battles are a technicality, but if they touch the ground I'll have to throw a red flag," Midnight explained, confirming their suspicions.

"Gahh dammit!" Sero couldn't fire both of his tapes at once, needing the other arm to catch Bakugo safely. He shot out his tape at their falling rider, pulling him to his team, who caught him with ease. "You gotta tell us before you just blast off!"

Bakugo didn't respond, his anger boiling. After getting caught, he sat up instantly and looked for the ten million headband.

Yuki and Mei were moving into position to grab it, but suddenly, a wall of ice shot up in front of them, blocking their path. A spiral of ice then formed, which allowed the headband to land and slide down towards another group that had come to the scene—

Team Todoroki.

"Ahh! Team Todoroki snatches it in the end!"

The boy with dual hair colors tied the headband around his neck, gazing up at the falling Izuku, their eyes locking.

"If you really want it, come get it," Todoroki spoke coolly, before his team turned and ran away.

"Tch… Shiro, can you use the backpack to help us land," Izuku asked her.

"I-It's not working" The girl was trying to press the button, but only a sputtering noise was made. She looked back at it and gasped, seeing that there was a bunch of the strange, purple sticky balls covering the vent.

Not far off, Team Mineta had returned, the small boy laughing evilly as he saw them realize what he had done.

"Like I said, never underestimate us! Bwahaha—"

"Um, Mineta," the frog-like girl Asui interrupted,, "What happened to our headband?"

"Haha… Huh?!" The boy panicked, realizing that it was gone. "N-No way! When did that happen?!"

Yuki and Mei rushed around the ice wall, just barely managing to catch the falling Izuku and Shiro. They sat up and readied themselves, but Izuku looked worriedly to Yuki.

"Are you alright?"

"Of course," Yuki responded. There were some visible bruises from colliding with Kirishima twice, so it was safe to say that Yuki's strength and endurance was nothing to scoff at.

"I lost the headband…" Izuku tightened his fists, gazing over towards where Team Bakugo was. "We have to get it back from Todoroki!"

"Izuku! Izuku!" Mei seemed excited, so he looked back to her. "I think I've got an idea!"

Nodding, Izuku and his team turned and began to leave the area. Team Bakugo was ready to pursue them, but their headband was suddenly taken while they were distracted.

"Ahh, Class A is so predictable," the boy who had stolen their headband said with a wry smile. "But that Support class is really helping us out here."

"What the hell did you just say, you background character?!" Bakugo was fuming as he turned towards the team that was running away now. "That fuckin' nerd lost the ten million, so we're killing this guy first!"

"C-Could you maybe say it in a different way," Sero muttered, as they could feel the intense aura of hatred emitting from Bakugo.

With the headband lost, nobody was in pursuit of Team Izuku, so they were able to make a clean getaway.

"Now that we don't have a headband, we're full on offense," Izuku spoke.

Mei chuckled. "I've got an idea to snatch the headband back for sure! It involves breaking my babies but…"

Izuku looked back at the girl, who seemed conflicted. He knew how much the festival meant to her, showing off her creations to the many investors that would be watching in the stands and on TV. But before he could say anything, her smile returned and she looked up to him.

"It'll be worth it! Then you and I can make our messages clear in the next stage," Mei exclaimed.

Smiling, Izuku nodded to her. "Then I'll trust you like I always do, Mei."

The path to Todoroki was obvious. They passed by several teams who had become trapped by his ice, seemingly defeated and given up on moving.

"Do you feel that? There's electricity in the air," Yuki commented. "I believe Todoroki has that boy named Kaminari who can make electricity."

"You were really paying attention to everything, huh" Izuku complimented him.

"My eyes let me analyze data very quickly, I'm always watching," Yuki confirmed. "But from what I've seen, he can't control it well, so they must have a way of mitigating the risk."

As Izuku thought about that, he looked up at the screen near the top of the stadium as Present Mic began to speak again.

"Were halfway there! Let's check on the current standings— Eh..?"

On screen, it showed that only four teams had any points at all, while the rest were sitting at zero.

"It looks like Class A isn't doing so hot…"

Because of all the media coverage about Class 1-A… Were they targeted?

Izuku remembered seeing Bakugo get his headband stolen as they fled the scene. He recognized the one who had taken it, recalling his name to be Monoma from Class 1-B, a very proud and confident person.

I see… So maybe Class 1-B took an offensive against their rivals, Izuku realized. Perfect! We're the outliers, so all that's left for us…

As Izuku's team came face to face with Team Todoroki, the boy suddenly created a thick wall of ice to block them both off from the other teams, giving them their own portion of the field to face off in.

Is to get our points back!

Up in the stands, the two American Pro Heroes, Lady Vortex and Spirahide, had entered the first year stage, gazing down at the chaotic battle going on down below.

"Honestly, that damned animal," the woman spoke bitterly. "Who does he think he is?"

"Well we're not in America, and this is his school…" Spiralhide scratched the back of his head, trying to think of what to say, so he didn't draw the ire of his fellow Hero. "We should really take it easy a bit."

Lady Vortex scowled. "We aren't here on a goddamn vacation, I—" She stopped abruptly as she spotted something on the large stadium screen.

Confused, Spiralhide followed her gaze, his eyes widening a bit.

"Hey that's the kid, the one Paper Mache mentioned," the man said. "He fits the description anyways."

Lady Vortex watched the field intently, seeing Team Izuku facing down Team Todoroki. She suddenly began to laugh to herself, gripping the seat in front of her, a few people around them looking at them quizzically.

"Y-You alright?" Spiralhide looked at her worriedly.

"That damned Mache… He sent us on a recruiting mission," the woman said.

"What? How do you know that?"

Lady Vortex shrugged. "You know how he'd always go on and on about how American heroes were corrupt scumbags? How he wished more would step up to do something right with the world?"

Spiralhide nodded and looked down at the field, starting to understand what she meant.

"This what he meant when he told us to investigate U.A before he left?"

With a sigh, Lady Vortex took a seat, crossing her legs as she got comfortable.

"Let's see what they've got, then we can decide that for sure."

Team Izuku and Team Todoroki were staring each other down, the former nervously glancing at the wall the ice-user had created.

"You haven't shown off your Quirk at all," Todoroki spoke, gazing at Izuku with a calm expression. "Maybe the Support Class just doesn't have anything flashy."

Yuki spoke before Izuku could, saying, "From what I've seen by watching you, I believe you haven't shown off your full Quirk either."

Todoroki's eyes narrowed as he looked down at Yuki, and at the same time, Izuku noticed that Iida was the lead horse for Todoroki's team. However, gone was the polite yet stern expressions Izuku had seen before— Now the bespectacled boy was full of determination to win.

"You've got nothing to gain from fighting us," Izuku pointed out, "So what's this about?"

"It means we've acknowledged you as a threat," Kaminari spoke, a big grin on his face.

"Well we're totally honored! You guys should give us the ten million so we can face off some more," Mei exclaimed.

"What? Never! You guys aren't even from the Hero class—"

"Kaminari," Iida spoke sternly as he cut him off. "That's enough. Obviously Midoriya and the other Support students are just as capable as we are."

"Unfortunately it won't matter from here," Todoroki stated.

Izuku gulped. The confidence of the Hero students ahead of them was difficult to face. Something about them seemed more intense than Bakugo's team, and Izuku knew exactly why.

"Todoroki is inspiring them, he's probably a natural born leader," Izuku thought aloud. "And he's strong…

"Then we need to break him! If he falls, they'll all go down too," Shiro commented.

"Easier said than done… Mei, are you ready back there?"

"Yup! Kept them talking long enough," Mei said with a chuckle. "Just let me know when you're ready to go really really fast!"

Izuku took a deep breath. He reached behind himself, taking out the second backup rod he had to reload his Drift device. Holding it in his right hand, he lifted his left fist towards Team Todoroki.

"Let's go get them!"

With that, Yuki and Mei charged them forwards. Todoroki didn't budge, while his team tensed up a bit.

"Shouldn't we run away til time's up," the girl on their team named Momo Yaoyorozu wondered aloud. "This is pointless…"

"Just be ready for my cue,," Todoroki said. "Let's go, Iida!"

"Right!" Iida led the charge forwards.

"The Support crew finds themselves in another intense scuffle as they target the #1!"

The two teams were coming at each other quickly. Izuku could now see that Todoroki had several headbands, but they were turned inside out so you couldn't see the values inside.

Todoroki raised his right hand, sending a lane of ice straight ahead, forcing Yuki and Mei to veer to one side. As they moved left to dodge, Todoroki's team followed suit, leaving them in a much smaller space now.

"Are they trying to run right into us?" Shiro was holding Izuku very tightly, making him get a bit uncomfortable as she was panicking a bit. "Is that allowed?!"

"I-I don't know, just—" Izuku sighed. "Yuki, don't stop!"

"As if you had to tell me," the boy replied, his breathing a bit heavy from the damage he'd taken earlier.

As the two teams came close, Todoroki lifted his right hand. This action made the entirety of Izuku's team flinch and hesitate.

"Kaminari! Yaoyorozu!"

Momo produced a large cowl made up of insulated material from her back using her Quirk. Iida held one end while she held the other, covering the three as Kaminari began to use his Quirk.

"Now for a real Heroic power! Indiscriminate Shock!" Kaminari smirked as he sent a wave of electricity forward, bolts striking out everywhere at random.

As the shocks emitted out, Izuku slammed the metal rod he had into the wall of ice, sticking it into it, attracting a lot of the electricity. He held onto it, his hand insulated enough from the glove, but several strands of electricity still shocking him a bit across his exposed skin of his arm.

"Keep… going!" Izuku was wincing, holding onto the rod steadily. Izuku was taking the brunt of the leftover eletrivity, while Yuki felt it a bit and Shiro and Mei were completely fine.

Letting out a determined yell, the group pushed onwards. This surprised Team Todoroki, watching as Izuku tore through the ice wall as he kept the metal rod inside of it as they moved. He could hear a loud whirring noise, but he had no idea what it was, continuing to stay strong.

"It's not going to work anymore," Todoroki commented. "Back up!"

Todoroki moved his hand, creating pillars of ice that jutted out sideways from the wall of ice he had created earlier. They started to back up, Kaminari's lightning ceasing as he took on a very braindead look, just able to mindlessly move his legs at this point.

Team Izuku ducked and dodged the pillars of ice, barely scraping by them as they continued in on them. Eventually a thick sheet of ice came across right in front of them.

"Watch out—!"

Shiro's yell wasn't going to help. There was no way they weren't going to crash into the wall and probably get toppled over or have Yuki outright get KO'd from the collision.

Not yet! I haven't done enough yet…

Everybody's watching!

I… I need to go… further... beyond!

Izuku stood a bit and leaned forward, rearing his left hand back and slamming his fist against the ice wall out of frustration, just before they were going to collide with it. The whirring noise intensified, before the ice wall exploded, shattering and sending the fragments of ice flying towards Team Todoroki in a strong gust of wind

The team held up the thick insulated blanket to stop the shards of ice, having to specifically protect the mindless Kaminari, while struggling to keep their footing against the intense wind pressure.

Was that his Quirk? That was too powerful, Todoroki thought as he tried to see what was happening.

On Izuku's left arm, the Power Turbine had been overcharged by the lightning going across him. In his blind frustration, he had accidentally saved them from defeat by utilizing it at the last moment, sending the most powerful blast of air the device could have managed before exploding on his arm.

"Midoriya!" Yuki looked back at him, surprised, seeing the smoke rising from his left arm.

Izuku's face was fully determined, as he gritted his teeth against the pain of punching a solid wall of ice mixed with the burning pain on his left arm.

"Mei… do it… now!"

As Izuku yelled this, Mei kicked the heel of her hoverboots hard onto the ground a few times, til it caused a loud noise within them as the regulator was broken. Without it, they sent out an intense propulsion, using up all of their energy in one go, propelling them forward.

"I can't see… We need to move—" As the wind began to die down, Iida's words were cut off as they saw Team Izuku upon them already.

Todoroki was shocked as he saw Izuku coming for him, the look in his eyes miles ahead of the skeptical, fearful looks he was giving earlier. He started to raise his right hand, but Izuku surprised him by grabbing it hard. Todoroki scoffed and sent ice up his arm, encasing it, but Izuku didn't budge.

"Yuki! Get it!"

Todoroki's eyes widened as he glanced downwards. He hadn't expected anyone other than Izuku attempting to grab it. Yuki had a small grin at that moment as he locked eyes with Todoroki—

And reached his right hand upwards, snatching one of the headbands from his neck.

Team Izuku then flew past, Izuku only able to stay on thanks to Shiro and Mei's efforts to hold onto him. As Mei's hoverboots went out, they were still heading straight for the wall of the stadium stands.

"Hold on!" Mei pressed the switch to shoot out the metal zipline-like device from her belt. It slammed into the ground, and they used it to slide in an arc, slinging themselves back towards the center of the field, where they finally managed to slide to a stop, everyone breathing intensely from the exertion of such a risque plan.

"Oh my god… We made it," Shiro said in disbelief.

Mei chuckled while panting a bit. "Of course! I told you… my babies always come in clutch!"

Izuku was running on pure adrenaline at this point, not minding the numb pains in both of his arms. He looked down at Yuki, who was clutching one of the headbands.

"Did you… get it?"

Yuki handed it to him. Izuku took it and gasped. The blonde boy looked back at him and smirked.

"I told you… I'm always watching."

The headband had their "10,000,350" point total on it. The crowd exploded with cheer suddenly, as if they were holding their breath watching the intense encounter.

"OH. MY. GOD! The Support Team snatches the ten million back! With very little time to spare!"

Todoroki was checking what points he had via his headbands, scowling.

"I told you we should've let it go," Yaoyorozu said with a sigh.

"No, this was necessary," Iida said calmly, looking over towards Team Izuku. "One of our teams was going to send a message… We just lost this time."

"It's not over," Todoroki stated firmly. "Let's go."

"Izuku, look," Mei said. They looked to see that Todoroki's Team was starting to come towards them.

"O-Over there too!" Everyone looked where Shiro was pointing now. On the opposite side of them from Todoroki, Bakugo had abandoned his group yet again, blasting through the air towards them.

"Don't you bastards leave me out of this! Those points are mine!"

We can't take them both on… Not like this! Izuku tried to move his arms, but gasped in pain. He looked at his right arm in the ice, which had cracked and melted away a bit, leaving it very numb. Then he turned to the left one— Where the Power Turbine device had been, he now had a scrap of charred metal that was left, as well as some burn marks on his skin.

"I don't think I can move much anymore," Yuki stated.

"Then we just have to take them both on!"

"B-But how? Do I bite them again?" Shiro tried to show some wavering confidence.

"I don't know!" Izuku gulped, his body feeling heavy with exhaustion as he struggled to stop tears coming from the stinging pain.

Iida stopped his team and called back to them, "Everyone hang on! I won't be able to move much after this, but if it has to be done..."

Iida tensed up, the engines at the back of his legs kicking on, starting to glow brightly from the back—

But then, a buzzer sounded, and the crowd went wild once more.

"Time's Up! That's it for the second round!"

Izuku's team let out a collective breath of relief, all collapsing to the ground to rest. Bakugo fell face-first onto the ground nearby as announcement sounded, yelling in frustration and hitting the ground with a fist.

Iida let out a gasp, relaxing as he managed to stop what he was about to do. He gritted his teeth.

"Sorry, I was too late," he stated. "They got us…"

"We're really lucky they didn't take anymore from us," Momo commented, shaking her head. "How did they get the ten million out of all of then? Just bad luck."

Todoroki hopped down to the ground, gazing over at Izuku's team.

"There wasn't any luck," Todoroki stated solemnly. "Just a stronger will to win."

Todoroki looked down at his right hand, which was shaking a bit. It had a layer of ice on it from utilizing his Quirk a bit more than he had anticipated. He clenched it tightly and walked away from the group.

It wasn't enough, but I'll never use my other half, even if I'm overwhelmed...

"Let's look at those points! The anticipation is killer!"

Everyone's attention went up to the screen, where the points were all displayed.

"First Place is… Team Midoriya!"

"Second is… Team Todoroki!"

"In third, it's Team Bakugo!"

"And in fourth place it's Team— eh? Team Shinso? When did they come back into the fray?"

As the crowd went wild and the winners and losers of the event reflected on what had happened, the Support group felt incredibly exhausted from their efforts.

"I don't want to move for a while," Yuki groaned.

"Now we'll be taking an hour break for lunch, before the afternoon festivities begin! See ya!"

"Need… food…" Shiro lifted herself off the ground shakily.

"You seemed content with eating that Bakugo guy," Yuki commented. "Couldn't he have blown your teeth off?"

Shiro gasped and held her mouth. "I didn't even think of that!"

Izuku chuckled weakly, and watched as Mei got up and came to him, helping him get up with his arm slung around her.

"Mei…?"

The girl smiled to him. "We gotta get you to the nurse, or else you might not be able to continue!"

Izuku blinked at this, nodding. "You guys... You all did perfectly."

Yuki slowly stood and shook his head, showing a rare small smile towards him.

"No Midoriya, I think we can all agree that it's your inspiration that drove us forward." Beside him, Shiro managed to get up, giving a thumbs up of agreement.

Izuku couldn't stop the tears from coming now, from the pain and the happiness.

"T-Thank you guys… so much!"

"..I think I'll join you in the nurse's office," Yuki stated.

"Are you alright— Yuki?!" Shiro gasped as the boy collapsed forward, nudging and prodding him

"He's exhausted, try and get him to the nurse's office too," Mei told Shiro. "Good luck!"

"H-Hey wait! How am I supposed to—"

While the Support group reveled in their victory and headed out to recover, many interested eyes in the audience took note of them, especially the Heroes from America who could now see just how intensely Japan prides themselves in their Hero work and those wanting to become one.

Izuku and his friends had truly made a name for themselves.

To Be Continued

Next Chapter: Thin Ice (SF Arc)