Chapter 47: Close calls

Izuku had recovered after getting hit by Hatsume's rocket. His head was hurting but he pushed through it and used his quirk to retreat. He blinked repeatedly, trying to reset his dizzy vision.

Once his vision slowly became clearer, he tried to spot his teammates. Kaminari was easy to find, given his bright yellow hair, but he wasn't carrying Shouji. Izuku frowned and scanned for Watanabe and found him boxed by Monoma's team. He scowled and ran to help him. He arrived just in time to catch Shouji before he could fall onto the ground.

Izuku didn't need to say anything as he glanced at his teammates. Both of them knew what to do. Kaminari flanked from behind to make sure Monoma couldn't go after Izuku while Watanabe shut off a blood vessel in TetsuTetsu's arm to stall them.

Unfortunately, Izuku did not have much time to form another plan as Shouto's team headed him off. Shouto wasn't taking any chances and sent his strongest ice wave after Izuku. Hatsume grinned, "That had to have got him!"

Shouto was grinning too, sure that Izuku couldn't have dodged that in time while carrying Shouji, but the smirk was wiped off his face as he heard a shriek at the top of the ice glacier.

Iida gaped, "There's no way!" Izuku had thrown Shouji over the ice glacier and now he was sliding down the glacier, "Momo, get ready!" Shouto ordered. Momo nodded and made a tiny, sharp needle to undo the headband knot from the back of Shouji's head.

But, before that could happen, Bakugou launched himself again and looked like he would intercept Shouji first. But right then, he was slammed out of the air. Bakugou gasped as he felt the air leave his body.

"OH! WHAT HAS TEAM TOKOYAMI DONE!?" Mic yelled right then.

Shouto had no time to focus on where Bakugou landed and instead moved his attention back towards the 10 million points that were sliding towards them. However, right then, Watanabe was also launched over the glacier

Watanabe curled up to allow him to slide faster and catch Shouji before Momo could do anything. Izuku sighed with relief and looked at Dark Shadow who was suspended in the air. Izuku eyed Tokoyami suspiciously, "Why'd you help us?" he asked as Fumikage's team landed beside him.

"Bakugou and Kaminari are the perfect counters to my quirk. There's almost no way to gain the 10 million points without getting red-carded. It makes more sense for me to try and knock out the competition," Tokoyami explained his actions.

Izuku's eyes widened, "There's no way," he exclaimed with shock. The smoke dissipated and confirmed his suspicions, "Bakugou Katsuki landed out of bounds, he is disqualified!" Midnight declared, "Bakugou's team is requested to leave the grounds!" Midnight ordered as Cementoss created a safe path for them to leave. The team had a look of disbelief but complied.

"TEAM TOKOYAMI HAS JUST KNOCKED OUT ONE OF THE FAVORITES TO WIN THE COMPETITION! AND WITH SUCH EASE!" Mic yelled out as the crowd cheered loudly at the unexpected knockout.

The news had reached Shouto's ears, but he pushed it to the back of his mind and continued chasing Watanabe, but Watanabe had more mobility because the team had split apart and Shouto's team couldn't keep up, "Hatsume! Can't your rocket shoes propel us?" Shouto asked.

"Your ice got into them, they're still thawing," Hatsume replied.

"Momo, Hatsume!" Iida yelled, "Please take the burden of carrying Todoroki for a while,"

"What are you planning?" Momo asked.

"I'm going to detach myself and run them down!" Iida said with fire in his eyes. Shouto smirked, "Go for it!"

Iida nodded as Shouto shifted his weight onto Hatsume and Momo. Iida stood up straighter and used his quirk to run straight at Watanabe, confident that he would be able to steal it. But just as he reached Watanabe, Izuku jumped at Iida, full cowling activated and backflipped over the deputy class rep with his hands outstretched.

Iida braked with a screech as Izuku turned to face him with a grin, "Looking for these, Iida?" Izuku dangled his spectacles just out of reach.

"Damn it! That's low, even for you! Give them back!" Iida said angrily.

"Dude, you are really blind without your glasses, huh?" Izuku laughed, "I'm on your right,"

Iida turned red and looked in the specified direction, resulting in another bout of laughter from Izuku, "Haha! You really are blind. You were looking the correct way,"

"Damn it Midoriya! Give me back my glasses,"

"Sorry, Iida, but I want to win. I swear you'll get it back next round," Izuku grinned and took off running as Shouto arrived with the rest of the team, "Never mind, you tried your best," Shouto said, "Now, get up on top,"

"Huh?" Iida asked as Hatsume and Momo stared at Shouto with narrowed eyes.

"Just do what I said," Shouto yelled and pulled Iida up. Once he was up, Shouto tied the headband to Iida and jumped down to support him.

"Team Todoroki, what are you doing?" Midnight asked.

"There was never any rule that we couldn't substitute positions!" Shouto yelled back. Midnight shook her head, clearly exhausted with 1A's antics but waved her flag, "It's a legal move!"

"Oh damn! I can't believe we didn't think of that," Watanabe panted as he passed off Shouji to his cousin.

"Yeah,"

"The competition has only 5 minutes left!" Mic announced, "Let's take a look at the scoreboard once again! Team Watanabe is still in the lead with a successful defense to keep their 10 million points. Surprisingly, it's Team Tokoyami who is in second place!"

"What? How?" Watanabe asked with shock.

"The other teams also detached seeing us but they couldn't support the rider's weight by themselves and Tokoyami simply capitalized on it," Kaminari announced as he met up with his team, "Monoma's team took out the rest of the weaker ones. Most of the points are divided between those two. The rest of the teams are just trying to get their points back," Denki said and motioned towards the electric board. Sure enough, Team Monoma was in third place, right below Team Tokoyami. Team Todoroki was in fourth place, courtesy of the obstacle course points that they had defended.

"Looks like Tokoyami is having a hard time though," Izuku pointed out. All the teams that Tokoyami had stolen from were trying to steal his points.

However, Tokoyami was smart, "NOW!" He yelled. Immediately, the team started to fly up. Tokoyami used his dark shadow to deflect back any long-ranged attacks while Tsuyu used her long tongue as an oar to steer themselves mid-air.

"Too bad you can't get us now!" Hitoshi taunted.

"Almost all of the classes retorted back with yells of their own. Hitoshi smirked and zeroed in on the response from the other Class 1B team, "Go out of bounds!" he ordered.

"Nice job Hitoshi. They would have been the biggest problem after we re-landed," Uraraka complimented.

"Koda's team isn't doing too well, kero," Tsuyu pointed. They were trapped by air walls, courtesy of Tsuburaba, just like a few other teams.

"Whoa, that was a really clean getaway!" Watanabe watched in amazement, "Who knew Tokoyami is such a good leader?"

But Watanabe's admiration was short-lived. Now that Tokoyami's team was safely in the air, all the teams that were left without any points turned to face Watanabe.

"Time's short, so as long as we get the 10 million, we'll be through!" Someone yelled, "YEAH!" The other teams agreed and charged together. They knew that they wouldn't be able to get it by themselves. They would cooperate on stealing it first and then they could fight amongst themselves to see who would take the points.

"Ah, shit!" Kaminari cursed and readied an electric attack, "IDIOT DON'T!" Watanabe ordered, "You'll knock us out too,"

Just then, Shouto launched an ice wall at them too, just enough to force the team into a corner of the field, but he left a small space open to allow the other teams to converge. He too was planning to outnumber Team Watanabe and steal the points from the weaker teams.

"Team Watanabe is boxed in by nearly all the teams! Is this the end of their point defense!?" Mic asked rhetorically.

"This is why I told to spread out and not regroup," Watanabe said, irritated.

"Relax, I have a plan," Izuku assured.

Watanabe looked skeptical but he trusted Izuku, "What's the plan?"

"Right, I'm carrying Shouji, so that's perfect. Once I'm out, try and occupy the other teams. There isn't much time left, so we just need to stall them for about 3 minutes," Izuku said.

"Yeah, but the teams already know that we do more damage spread out and will try to divide and conquer," Kaminari argued. The curious looks that he got made him scowl, "I can be smart,"

Izuku laughed, "They won't try that. Time's nearly up, so they're desperate. Look I don't have enough time to explain the plan," he said as the teams came closer, "Just, don't come after me!" Izuku yelled as he took off running nearer to the corner of the grounds.

"What on earth is he trying to do?" Kaminari asked as the teams predictably ran past the duo who watched Izuku with curiosity, "You know, I have lived with him for more than a year, and I have no fucking clue!" Watanabe fumed.

Once Izuku was near the corner, he stopped, but didn't turn to face the teams, "It's over Midoriya, we have you cornered!" Iida shouted out.

"Um, a bit more to the left," Momo whispered to save her classmate from embarrassment.

Izuku didn't reply but a grin grew across his face. He readied his finger with 100% One For All and flicked it towards the crowd. Cementoss's eyes widened, and he immediately put up a cement wall to stop the blow. Izuku grinned, this was what he was hoping would happen. He switched to full cowling and ran onto the wall vertically before somersaulting off of it, flying past the ring of opponents.

The entire audience grew so quiet that you could hear a coin drop.

"A-a-a-AHH!" Mic yelled, "MIDORIYA JUST USED HIS POWER TO FORCE CEMENTOSS INTO MAKING A WALL SO THAT HE COULD USE IT AS A BASE TO JUMP AWAY! WHAT A TACTIC!"

"Problem child…" Aizawa groaned lowly into his speaker.

Watanabe and Kaminari gaped at Izuku. Denki slowly turned to his friend, "This is all your fault," he told Watanabe who simply cackled proudly. Nedzu too was looking dignified, "I must say, Inko-san, your son is full of surprises. I never thought a hero student would do something like that,"

"He was always like that. Watanabe just… brought it out more," Inko grinned.

"Those two brats," Natsume yelled, trying to sound angry but her grin gave it away.

"GO IZUKU!" Ryuzen whooped. Nedzu looked at Ryuzen weirdly. If he was in fact a commission agent, he certainly wasn't being low profile.

Izuku laughed his head off, still falling through the air, but Team Watanabe's celebrations would be short-lived, as Tokoyami's dark shadow flung Izuku out of the air like Bakugou.

"Shit!" Izuku cursed as he and Shouji separated.

"Oh! With just less than 2 minutes remaining, Team Tokoyami have successfully separated Shouji from his team for the first time today. If Shouji falls to the ground, he will be disqualified!" Mic warned.

Shouji scowled, "I ALREADY SAID I'M NOT JUST A RAGDOLL!" he yelled angrily and landed on top of Koda's team, knocking the rider off.

Mic gaped, "Is that even allowed!?"

"It wasn't a violent attack and the rider wasn't separated from his team, so Team Koda is still in contention. Shouji has also not touched the ground and is safe!" Midnight clarified.

"That means I can easily go for the headband!"

Shouji's face went pale as he felt the knot untie from the back of his head, the only exposed point that he had left out so that he could untie later.

"With 1 minute left, Team Koda has snatched the 10 million points! What an unexpected turn of events!" Mic yelled. The crowd roared uproariously, "Wait, no!" Mic yelled, "WATANABE HAS SNATCHED IT BACK!"

Indeed, as soon as Hagakure had taken the headband, Watanabe had hit her arm with an open palm and made her drop the headband., "Forgot I can see you, didn't you?" Watanabe grinned, his infrared active.

Mirai's interest piqued, here were the red eyes again and Watanabe had known exactly where the invisible girl was despite her being, well, invisible. This had to prove at least foresight. Now would he see erasure?

Mirai didn't have to wait long as Watanabe swiftly hit a blood vessel on Jiro's left ear, which stopped it moving and thus stopped her quirk.

"HAH, I knew it!" Mirau yelled excitedly. He noticed the crowd staring at him and quietly sat back down, but his mind was exploding with joy, "Touch-based erasure aided with foresight. That has to be it!"

Meanwhile, Koda had summoned several birds to try and snatch the headband. It was evident that brute force wasn't working, so Koda gave the order.

"KODA! THAT'S DISGUSTING!" Watanabe screamed as birds unloaded on him left and right. Watanabe puked on the ground in disgust. "I'll take that!" Aoyama grinned and extended his hand. But, before Aoyama could reach it, Shouji had recovered the headband and tied it back onto his head, albeit out in the open.

Koda's team couldn't do much more as Shouto's team had made brilliant distance and had frozen the ground solid.

"WITH 30 SECONDS LEFT, CAN THE 10 MILLION POINTS BE WRESTLED OUT!?"

Shouji immediately started making another layer of protection, but Hatsume had launched Todoroki at him with a jetpack. Shouto was nearly there when he yelled in disgust. Watanabe had vomited on him, bird poop still dripping. Shouto veered left and right and was sent flying up.

"LIKE FATHER LIKE SON! SHOUTO ALSO GETS PUKED ON AND TAKES A HIT TO HIS REPUTATION!" Mic yelled.

Aizawa facepalmed, this is why he asked Nedzu to not allow Mic to commentate.

"And in the last 10 seconds, Team Tokoyami is making a final move," Mic announced.

Sure enough, Uraraka was slowly deactivating her quirk, bringing them down. Tsuyu launched her tongue along with Dark Shadow. Shouji managed to slap away the tongue but Dark Shadow had gotten his hands on the headband.

Shouji tried to wrestle Dark Shadow, but he wasn't strong enough. Panic set in as he felt the tug increase.

The knot reopened and the headband almost slipped away when… "TIME'S UP!"