Rule #3f: Don't stop 'til you get enough

They're all…so fast! Toru panted as she tried to regain her breath. Coming in at 25th place, she knew that she should've worked on her speed more. I thought I was gonna place higher than that! At least in the top 20! Why couldn't it have been cross country? Man these guys are not kidding around!

Once everyone had crossed the finish line, Midnight took to the stage once more. "Only the top 42 will advance to the next round, but don't get too let down if you didn't make the cut. We've got other opportunities for you to shine! Now the real fun is about to begin! The chance to fully move yourselves into the limelight, give it your best! Let's see what we have in store for you next!"

Behind Midnight the options upon the screen spun again, "…Prepare yourselves for this!"

"Calvary battle? I'm terrible at those!" Kaminari complained as the next game appeared on the screen.

"It's not an individual event, so I wonder how they'll split us up" Asui mused.

"Allow me to explain" Midnight commandeered all attention once more, "The participants will form groups of two to four people as they see fit. It's clearly the same as a regular playground game, but there is one difference: each player has been assigned a point value in association from their placing on the obstacle course. The points go up in increments of five starting from the bottom. For rank 42 the points are five and for rank one…the points are 10,000,000!"

Y'know on second thought, I'm happy with 25th! Toru amended watching on as everyone turned to Midoriya with hungry eyes.

"That's right! It's the survival of the fittest with those at the bottom to overthrow those at the top!"


"42 of you have qualified to move on" Midnight's voice rang throughout the stadium, echoed by a slight from the microphone. "Now gird your loins and prepare for a Calvary battle! Midoriya Izuku placed first in the qualifier he'll be worth 10,000,000 points! It's survival of the fittest! A chance for those at the bottom to rise to the top!"

Hitched to a triad of Class H General Studies students, Toru found herself the unwilling (shirtless) rider sat upon their shoulders. At her feet sat Kasai Bumu, a ginger fireworks user with a quirk that almost mirrored her own explosive classmate (with a personality to match, though with a clear distaste for the Hero students). At the back stood Kinzoku Tobu, a multi-armed boy with a telekinetic quirk who was all smiles even as he dropped boulders on you (or so said his classmates) and Kuron Rei, a scaly boy who could regenerate his own limbs in a manner of seconds (eerily similar to the Nomu of USJ).

"You ready?" Kinzoku murmured as everyone got into place, settling around their rider.

"Yeah" Toru nodded as she looped her twin braids around the back of her head into a crown braid and secured them in place, before tightening their headbands around her neck. She would be taking no chances in this battle.

"Rei?"

"Right" Kuron nodded, readjusting his grip.

"Kasai?"

"Let's burn 'em to the ground!" He grinned manically, hands already smouldering and smelling of sulphur.

BRRRING!

"BEGIN!" Midnight bellowed into the microphone, sending the little squads scurrying into action. Predictably, everyone who was anyone headed straight for Midoriya and the 10,000, 000 points. The quartet had agreed before the beginning of the game, that it would be in their best interest to leave the 10,000,000 headband alone as everyone would going for it (though Kasai had complained nonstop about that, wanting to test his limits against the "Best of the best!"). Instead, the plan was to collect as many lower level points as possible, and build up that score that way; she, like the rest of her team, held no qualms about using underhanded tricks to get what they wanted.

They'd been headed for a collection of business students when Team Todoroki attacked. A grounding peg of iron erupted from Momo's forearm as Kaminari sparkled like a firework and Iida continued to push forward at a steady rhythm. As soon as the electrical blanket had flopped from Momo's torso, Toru knew that something electric was going to go down. Tapping against her rear supports, she silently motioned for them to throw her skywards as she folded forward into a ready position. Hands leant heavy against Kasai's shoulders, feet perched delicately in Kuron & Kinzoku's hands with legs wound up like a coiled spring.

"Brace yourselves" Toru whispered in that moment before she was suddenly launched up into the air, thrust much higher than normal thanks to Kinzoku's telekinesis. As per the rules, the riders couldn't touch the ground, but that didn't mean there weren't ways around that.

"INDISCRIMINATE SHOCK!" Kaminari bellowed, igniting the arena in a golden buzzing glow. "1.3 MILLION VOLTS!"

"RAAAAAAH!" Caught in the web of electricity, the other contestants could only scream in pain as a million volts jolted through their systems, leaving them paralysed for a moment or two. But no sooner had the volts vanished, did the arena become encased in another, more icy, quirk. Pinned back in place, Team Todoroki raced ahead, leaving behind the lower level competitors to chase after the top, more specifically, Team Midoriya.

"I'm sorry, but there's no other way" Todoroki shot over his shoulder as they passed by, throwing up a wall of ice to block any possible pursuit.

"Would you look at that!" Mic cried as the students struggled to free themselves, "He stopped all those teams cold in their tracks!"

"But only after Kaminari had immobilised them using his electricity" Aizawa amended, "In the obstacle course, he was surprised by how many people avoided his attack and adapted a strategy"

"Nice commentary!"

Toru, who was still in the air at this point, had begun her descent. Tossed fairly high, she had been thankfully clear of Kaminari's fatal quirk and Todoroki's just as sticky one. Now—with Kinzoku occupied down below, the invisible girl free fell back to the ground, only instead of worrying about crashing into the ground, she aimed herself for the nearest frozen team.

The invisible girl landed heavily upon the back of the first team—a duo of General Studies students—making their supports stumble in surprise with the added weight. She didn't stick around to see what they would do, grabbing a fistful of their headbands and leaving a flash behind to blind and a cackle ringing in their ears, Toru launched herself back into the air and towards the next closest team where she did the same thing again. Playing a weird game of hopscotch and leap frog, she was able to grab at least a couple hundred points worth of headbands before she returned to her own team.

"How many d'you get?" Badgered Kuron as Toru settled herself back into place.

"Uh, here" Toru showed him the fistful of white cloths she had snatched from the others before she added them to the growing pile around her neck.

"Sweet!"

"That's gotta be like, what? 1200 points, right?" Kinzoku grinned excitedly.

"At least" Toru nodded. "That puts us in third place!"

"But we're not done yet!" Kasai grinned in reply, face set in determination. It appeared that despite his apparent dislike for working with one of the Hero students, he didn't mind it so much if he got to humiliate the others. "Let's go for the big bang!"

"ONLY ONE MINUTE LEFT!" Mic forewarned. "WITH TIME ALMOST UP, TEAM TODOROKI'S IN FIRST PLACE WITH 10,001,175 POINTS! DESPITE THEIR BEST EFFORTS, TEAM MIDORIYA HAS FALLEN TO THE BOTTOM! WILL THESE BE THE TOP FIVE TEAMS THAT MOVE ON TO THE NEXT ROUND?!"

"Well, you heard the man" Kinzoku grinned, "Let's go!"

And then they were off. Following after Bakugou's bellow, like a bloodhound on the scent, Team Hagakure easily identified the explosive blonde as they raced after Team Monoma on acid feet and explosive propellant. But it was the length of tape anchored into the opposing wall which was what Team Bakugou were using to reel themselves in, was to be Team Hagakure's shoe-in. Once again launched forwards, Toru glided through the air for only a moment before she landed on the taut tape and began to run along it, straight for Team Monoma.

"Ah!" Sero grunted as he stumbled, not expecting the extra weight. It was only a small movement, but it was enough to make them veer wildly.

"WHAT THE HELL, ELBOWS!" Bakugou snarled as he was forced to grab ahold of Kirishima's shoulders lest he fall off.

"There's something on my tape!"

"Not something!" Mina replied, pointing to the pair of bodiless pants floating atop the white strip. "Someone!"

"HAGAKURE!" Bakugou roared, pushing them closer to the invisible girl, and in turn, the startled blonde beyond. "GET BACK HERE!"

"WHAT'S THIS?" Commented Mic, "LIKE PHANTOMS, TEAM HAGAKURE SLITHERS FROM THE SHADOWS TO STEAL THE WIN FROM BOTH TEAM MONOMA AND TEAM BAKUGOU!"

"Class B's strategy was a reasonable one" Aizawa explained, "But there's a few things they forgot to consider: Bakugou's overwhelming tenacity or Hagakure's skillful subterfuge"

Toru could feel the heat emanating off of the explosions behind her and the sweat beading on her brow, but powered by the adrenaline pumping through her system and the clock ticking down the seconds, the invisible girl pushed on. "KINZOKU!" She called back over her shoulder to where her team had pulled up alongside. "GET THE AIRHEAD!"

"Hey!" Tsuburaba whined as Kinzoku broke from the pack to telekinetically yank the hero student out from underneath Monoma. It was just enough to disable the concrete foundation of the Class B student, just in time for Toru to surge forward, hook one arm around the blonde's neck and swung. Monoma gurgled in her ear, choking on his own spit as she gripped him just a little too tight and illuminated fingers burning her handprint into his jugular as she ripped the headbands from his neck with needless force.

Coming back around in one swift movement, Toru's feet extended out in front of her as light ripped from her toes like molten fire, causing those around her to cover their eyes to avoid being blinded by the sudden light. Bakugou, whom the kick had been aimed at, quickly leaned back and out of the way as Toru followed through with the swinging motion as she surged towards them. A predatorial grin exploded across her lips as her legs wrapped themselves around Bakugou's neck and squeezing tight, used the entire torque of her body to push away Mina & Sero, dipping low to do so. Held up by Kirishima alone, Toru returned to her position poised above the explosive blonde (who was turning a nice shade of purple from the lack of air), couldn't help but land a punch square to the face.

A rather satisfying crunch rang throughout the arena as something broke beneath her knuckles and his head lolled backwards as far as it could possibly go locked inside her thighs as he was. Although, that didn't mean he didn't go down without a fight. His blood dirtied her knuckles as small explosions littered her thighs as Bakugou tried to pry her off of him, but Toru was nothing if not stubborn. She held on for all she was worth, burning straight through the cloth tied around his neck and wiggling it free from the slightly awkward position they had fallen into.

Suddenly the invisible girl found herself being yanked backwards as tape wrapped itself around her middle and pulled her off of Bakugou. "Baku-bro!" Kirishima gasped, eyes raking over the blonde gasping for air above him as a steady trickle of blood dripped from his nose. "Are you okay?"

"Oh my God! Bakugou!" Mina rushed back over with Sero at her side as Kinzoku pulled Toru over to them, superseding Sero's tape with ease.

"KASAI! LIGHT 'EM UP!" Toru called as she landed in Kuron's arms, her legs draped over his arm and headbands clenched in her fists.

"DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!" Kasai roared even as he jumped in front of them, murder gleaming in his eyes as the whistle of fireworks filled the arena and swarmed for the wide-eyed Team Bakugou with impressive speed & dexterity. Bakugou barely had time to spit out a hoarse curse as he raised his hand to block or retaliate, before the quartet of heroes were enveloped by colourful sulphuric explosions. Now, coupled with Bakugou's own explosive quirk, the resulting display was far larger than either team had expected, but the explosion was completely and utterly satisfying for those watching. Around them, the crowd roared their approval.

"TEAM HAGAKURE IS A MERCILESS FORCE!" Mic crowed, "WHAT A TEAM, HUH? THAT WAS A POINT GRABBER THAT HAD MY BLOOD PUMPING! I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE THE REPLAY! BUT TIME'S UP! AND WITH THAT, THE SECOND ROUDN IS OFFICIALLY OVER!"

"Man, Hagakure! That was ruthless!" Kinzoku grinned as Kuron returned her to her feet. "It was awesome!"

"Hell yeah, it was!" Kasai uncharacteristically beamed, fangs gleaming beneath the stadium's lights.

"Kasai?" Kuron blinked dumbly, "Did you—did you just agree with someone?"

"What—no! Shaddup!" Kasai flushed an angry red as he turned to the side, arms crossed in defiance.

"It's all right, man! With all these points! There's no way we're out of the running!"

"Third round, here we come!" Kinzoku agreed as he slung his arms around his classmates and brought them together in an unwanted hug. Toru grinned at the display, mindless of the sweat beaded on her brow.

"NOW LET'S TAKE A LOOK AT WHO OUR TOP FIVE TEAMS ARE!" Present Mic screamed into the microphone, turning everyone's attention to the flickering scoreboard. "IN FIRST PLACE…ITS' TEAM TODOROKI!"

"Hm…we ended up in first place, but it was still too close for comfort" Momo sighed, hugging herself in discomfort.

"I'm sorry, I let everyone down, didn't I?" Iida wallowed over steaming engines as Kaminari wandered mindlessly about like a sleepwalker.

"That's not true!" Momo was quick to refute, "You're the reason we won! Thank goodness for that special move of yours!"

"…SLITHERING INTO SECOND PLACE…IT'S TEAM HAGAKURE!" Mic's voice rang out.

"Haha~! Suck it!" Kasai giddily flipped off those around him, taking particular pleasure in the murderous glare he received from his heroic (and rather sooty) counterpart.

"Kasai!" Kuron scolded, though it was more amused than anything.

"Woohoo! Yes! We're movin' on up~! Movin' on up~!" Kinzoku cheered, jumping around in excitement and giving everyone high-fives as he did so as Mic moved on.

"…IN THIRD PLACE…IT'S TET—WHAT?! IT'S TEAM SHINSO! WHEN DID THEY COME BACK FROM THE DEAD?!"

"Thanks for your help" Shinso smirked as he sauntered away from thoroughly confused teammates.

"Cocky bastard" Toru muttered fondly under her breath.

"Two spots left" Kuron murmured as he turned back to the scoreboard, fingers crossed as they awaited who would be advancing along with them.

"Mm"

"…IN FOURTH PLACE…IT'S—WHAT'S THIS?! THIS IS UNPRECEDENTED! TEAM BAKUGOU AND TEAM MONOMA HAVE TIED FOR FOURTH PLACE!"

"A tie? D'you think there'll be a tiebreaker round or something?" Kinzoku mused aloud.

"Maybe…" Kuron hummed, "But with possibly six teams going through, there's an even number of competitors, right?"

"I guess?"

"Hey, check out Big Bang" Kasai nodded cheekily over to Team Bakugou where the blonde appeared to be throwing a temper tantrum; hitting the ground in frustration and so forth.

"Well, that's mature" Toru sassed as his teammates half-attempted to calm him down.

"Ugh! We were so close!" Mina whined.

"Eh, sure, but at least we're moving on" Sero replied, "So it's all good, right?"

"I don't think our fearless leader would agree" Kirishima deadpanned, looking down at the enraged screeching form of his best friend at his feet. "Like at all"

"…AND IN FIFTH PLACE…IT'S TEAM MIDORIYA!" Cue the waterworks.

Seriously, what is with that boy? Toru wondered as she watched the tears erupt from the greenette's face like a pair of hydro-pumps on full blast.

"THESE TEAMS WILL ADVANCE ON TO THE FINAL ROUND! NOW LET'S TAKE AN HOUR LUNCH BREAK BEFORE WE START THE AFTERNOON FESTIVITIES! SEE YA SOON! HEY, ERASERHEAD, LET'S GRAB SOME FOOD!" Mic's voice followed everyone out of the stadium as they went to eat.

"I'm taking a nap" Aizawa refused, his drawl no different than before.


"Oh Hagakure! There you are!" Yaoyorozu called, coming into 1-A's waiting room as the lunch break drew to a close. Toru, who had been playing with the Anti-Sensei dagger in her hands, glanced up at the greeting.

"Momo? Jiro? What's going on?" Toru asked, eyes darting between the rocker and the creator. "What are you wearing?" The orange monstrosity that they wore was blinding…and that was coming from her.

"All the girls have been instructed that we need to change for one of the upcoming events this afternoon" Yaoyorozu informed her as Jiro tried to hide behind the Vice, using the taller body to shield her from wandering eyes. Behind them, the rest of Class A's girls filed into the room, each baring the same hideous outfit.

"Change…into what?…That?" Toru contested.

"Of course" Momo pulled out another set of matching clothes for the albino, "Here, I've got a set for you too"

"What?…What?"