As I walked out of the woods, the confusion, worry, and mild amusement I had felt listening to Todoroki-san melted away. By the time I reached the entrance to the locker room, I was feeling something else.
I was angry. Fuming, and barely keeping myself from stamping.
Because what hadn't occurred to me during his initial accusation and so-called evidence, was that Todoroki Shouto had basically claimed that my mom had cheated on my dad.
I had no great love for my dad. Midoriya Hisashi had given me half my DNA, my family name, and very little else. Before he returned for Kacchan's funeral, I hadn't seen him in six years. The only reason I recognized him was a couple of photos that had still been around our apartment. He had barely said a dozen words to me while he was there, and left without saying goodbye. Frankly, I hated the way he had treated Mom, and wouldn't have blamed her if she had cheated while he was in the States. But all of that was long after I was born.
And I know my mom was no saint. She liked wine a bit to much, though part of that was her guilt over me. And her unwillingness to support my dream of being a Hero still stung, even though that had changed since I gained my power. Even though I understood her desire to protect me on an intellectual level. But I knew Mom was a good and honest person and would never do that.
And I also believed that Todoroki-san hadn't realized what he was implying. He thought he saw a connection between me and All Might. He didn't want to be like his father. He was forcing himself to come up with a reason how Endeavour's one-sided rivalry with All Might was different and unconnected from his feelings of rivalry towards me. I had to believe that. Otherwise I might have popped him in the nose.
Though I didn't get the chance. As I entered the locker room, Iida-san was leaving. He saw my expression, and turned back.
"Is everything okay, Midoriya-san?" he asked, "You look troubled."
"Yeah, it's nothing," I sighed.
"It doesn't seem like nothing," he argued, "And as class representative, it is my duty to help a classmate in need."
"It's really nothing," I reiterated. He continued to look at me, so I relented, "I just heard someone say a very mean rumor about my family, particularly my mom. And I'm upset. I don't even think it was intentional, but it still pissed me off."
"I believe I can relate," he said, far less stiffly than normal, "I frequently see tabloids saying terrible things about my brother. Just last week, one of them claimed he was dating three of his sidekicks at once."
My first thought was, 'Is that so bad?' Before I said it, I realized for most people it would be. I reminded myself that it also depended on what sort of relationship the rag said that the four of them had. Then I recognized that I was thinking if they were all open and honest about it, it wasn't an issue.
I hadn't realized my opinion on the subject had reached that conclusion.
And now I wasn't thinking about Todoroki-san.
"How do you deal with it?" I asked him, to keep the conversation alive. To distract myself.
"Mostly ignore it, that best I can," he admitted, "Since the law now requires them to declare themselves as entertainment magazines, rather than news sources, they can print whatever they want and we have little legal recourse. Like fanfiction sites, except everyone knows those aren't real. So I just do my best to laugh off the absurd and harmless ones, and not let the rest bother me. Fortunately, our father taught both Tensei and I that there is little you can do about what people say. And less about what they think."
I nodded.
"Thanks, Iida-kun."
"You should hurry and change," he told me, "Thirty nine of the slots are filled. And you look like you could use the remaining fifty-some minutes to sit and rest before the next round."
I bobbed my head at him again, and headed to my locker.
"Mo-chan, can I talk to you for a moment?" Ami asked softly, "Alone?"
The blonde tensed. But she nodded. Ami walked into the girl's shower, and turned on the three nearest the entrance, before moving to the back. Mordred followed. She also turned on one of the showers. She began to gently lather herself and her swimsuit. Then she glanced over at Ami. Though she had already cleaned up, the hydrokinetic followed suit, so it wouldn't look suspicious.
"I know who you are," the bluette finally said. Mordred tensed, but continued showering, "Or I should say, I know who you were. And who your mother is. And your three grandparents."
"How?" Mo-chan asked in a harsh whisper.
"I've been looking into Pendragon Uther for... other reasons. What you said sounded familiar. So when I looked a bit more, I found the rest."
"So what are you going to do?" Mo-chan asked sharply.
"Nothing?" Ami shook her head quickly.
Mordred asked dubiously, "Then why tell me."
"Mostly, because I felt bad about digging into your past. Sometimes if there is a mystery in front of me, I can't help it. I thought it was only fair that you knew that I know. But also, to let you know that there is someone you can talk to."
Mo-chan blink, and then demanded, "You're not disgusted? You don't hate me?"
Ami shook her head no, again, but this time more gently.
"It is like Momo said," Ami told Mo-chan, "What your mother did was wrong. But that is on her. Not on your father, or on you. You may be a bit temperamental and sharp-tongued, but you are a good person. I consider you a friend, and hope you feel the same."
Ami couldn't tell if the water running down Mo-chan's face was from the shower or not. Mordred herself was unsure as well.
"Even if I'm after your guy?" Mo-chan shot back jokingly, wiping her eyes. Ami studied her thoughtfully, and Mo-chan waved her hand nervously.
"That's a joke," the blonde declared, "Just a joke."
"I'm not sure I believe that," Ami told her.
"If I don't want to be like my namesake," Mo-chan sighed, "I'm certainly not going to go after a guy who is already taken. Not when two of my friends are in line in front of me."
"And what if it wasn't a line? More like some sort of polygon with a yet undetermined number of sides?"
"What does that mean?" Mo-chan pursed her lips in confused.
"Given your father and grandfather, you seem a bit slow on the uptake," Ami teased fondly. Mo-chan's eyes widened.
"Inventory," I whispered. I went into the store, and with the money that I was not personally saving for the Guild Hall, bought two stamina restoring potions. I had been expecting brightly colored concoctions in glass bottles. Instead, they looked like energy drinks, the kind that were a single swallow in a tiny plastic slug with a garish wrapper. Except these didn't have any ingredients, nutrition labels, or PMDA warnings. I broke the seals and downed them both. They tasted better than I expected, and I felt an immediate surge as my Energy jumped 120 points. I would still meditate and grab a snack and drink from the stuff in the waiting room. But the potions were immediate and guaranteed. I wanted to buy them for all the Knights. Except that wasn't fair to everyone else participating. I could rationalize it for myself as part of my power. But to share with my friends and not the others just wasn't fair.
Also, Ochako would have been angry at me for spending that much money on her.
I slipped into my trunks, folded my gym uniform, set it inside, and locked my locker. Then I headed back out to the waiting area.
It was more comfortable than I would have expected for a high school, or even a high end gym. A buffet was stocked with fruits, granola (the scoopable kind, not bars), yogurt, and various juices and sports drinks. There were enough plush and slightly reclined couches for sixty people. And a number of TVs on the wall showed various sections of interest in the maze, as the remaining participants pressed on.
Despite the number Iida-kun gave, there were only thirty people waiting when I got there. Kendo-san wasn't there yet, despite having finished early. Todoroki-san, either. I wasn't sure if they were embarrassed to be seen in their swimsuits, or had other reasons to delay. I recognized most them as members of 1-A and 1-B. But in addition to my shadowy hitchhiker and the pinkette Hatsume-san (who was in her swimsuit but still wore her backpack, gauntlets, boots, and goggles), there was also a taller, slender boy with spiky purple hair and deadish eyes.
A fourth person I didn't was recognize, a black haired girl talking to Mikoto. The electrokinetic was blushing slightly and trying to conceal herself. The other girl was fairly tall, only Momo was taller. And also fairly curvy, though again not up to the level of Momo. Her hair was also fairly long and she had no bangs in front. Like Boa Hancock from One Piece, only shorter both on the sides and in the back. But most interestingly, she was carrying a large, folding fan. It was then I noticed Mikoto had a band around her upper left arm with a dozen of her discs attached.
"Is she a friend of yours?" I asked when the two split up and Mikoto walked over to me. And Tsu and Ami, who had also come over after seeing me. The fan girl walked over to the shadow, Kuroiro-san, and began to talk to him. I couldn't make out what they were saying but her pose and the fragments of her voice were confident. Even haughty. And Kuroiro-san looked unhappy.
"Kongou Mitsuko," Mikoto answered, "Not a friend, but a fellow classmate from Tokiwadai."
"I remember," I said, "You said something about not having many friends there."
"Right," she grimaced slightly.
"Sorry."
"No, it's okay," she said, "I guess after Kuroko, Kongou-san was the next closest thing I had to a real friend. She was more of a rival, but unlike all my other, more self-proclaimed rivals, she wasn't a bitch about it. She didn't use her clique against me. And she was actually good enough with her Quirk to give me a challenge. She's a little stuck up, but not as much as she seems. And she a pretty good person. We never hung out at the movies or the arcade, but she was better to be around than most of my classmates."
"If she was that good," Tsu pondered, "Why isn't she in the Hero Course?"
"Bad luck and poor planning," Mikoto smiled sadly, "Her Quirk, Aero Hand, lets her control wind. But if there is no wind, she can't do anything. She's like a demi-god during a tornado, and powerless on a calm day. That fan is her support item, so she can get some air moving to work with. But she forgot to register it for the practical exam."
"The weather was very mild that day," Ami recalled.
"And the walls around the training areas didn't help either," Mikoto nodded, "She was able to find a half of a caution sign to wave around, but it was a bit heavy and by that point it was too late. So she ended up in 1-D, instead."
"She is looking to move up," I realized, "Definitely someone to watch out for... We should probably sit down and get some rest before the next round."
As I moved to sit, I saw Ojiro-san hanging around the door to the lounge. And he had changed into his regular uniform, not his swimsuit. When he saw that I noticed him, he looked at me and inclined his head to indicate I should come over.
"I'll be back in a minute," I told them, and then walked as subtly as I could to the door. I exited the waiting room. My tailed classmate looked relieved and came over.
"Midoriya-san," he greeted me.
"Ojiro-san," I returned it, then stated the obvious, "You didn't make it."
"No," he shook his head, "I got sixty first and Hagakure got sixty second. That's why I wanted to talk to someone."
I frowned, and inclined my head for him to continue.
"Which way should we go?" Hagakure asked.
Ojiro looked down both corridors. The north one curved almost immediately, and as they were looking, another student emerged from around the bend. He was noticeably taller than Ojiro or Hagakure, with a wild mop of purple hair.
"Hmm," he mumbled, "I guess the paths met up."
Then the other boy's eyes narrowed slightly, "I don't suppose you two would be interested in... maybe teaming up with me?"
"Sorry..." Ojiro started to say. Then his eyes glossed over, and he continued, "Sure sounds good."
"What about you?" the other boy addressed the invisible girl, "Is it okay?"
"Yeah, why not," Hagakure said, her voice vapid and hollow.
"Great," the taller boy said, "I'm Shinso Hitoshi from 1-C."
"It felt weird, suddenly changing my mind like that," Ojiro-san told me, "But to be fair, Shinso-san was instrumental in solving two of the puzzles. But after we got past the Hydra boss, he asked us how we were doing. We said we were okay, but after that he told us we looked tired and we should sit down and rest for five or six minutes."
He clenched a fist and lightly hit the wall.
"And we did. We just sat there and watched other people pass us. Some of the gave us weird looks, but most didn't even pause. Then like a timer went off, we suddenly came back to ourselves, and wondered what we were doing. We hurried out, but it was already too late."
Ojiro-san looked at me, "I'm not sure what he did, or how. But he did something to us. It was allowed by the rules, so I can't complain too much. But I wanted to make sure our class knew to be careful around that guy."
"Okay, thanks," I said, "I'll try to let everyone know."
After telling the Knights over chat, and Iida-kun as class rep, I sat on one of the couches and started meditating. A few minutes later Tsu and Ochako returned. Tsu sat on my left and Ochako on my right. Ami and Mikoto took the sofa next to us, and Mo-chan joined them.
We didn't talk. Or at least I didn't, focusing on recovering my Energy. The girls chatted softly, but I didn't listen.
Finally the first round ended. Present Mic informed everyone still in the maze to followed the moving arrows to the exits, and that those of us waiting should come to the arena floor.
I opened my eyes, and looked around. Ojiro and Hagakure were the only ones missing from 1-A. Similarly, most of 1-B was there, except for Monoma Neito. There were three additional boys I didn't recognize. They didn't seem to be socializing with each other, or with anyone else. I wasn't sure if they were General, Support, or Business class students.
We all walked out into the arena. Which was vastly different from this morning. The western third was a mass of clean, warm, white sand. The eastern third was a submerged under about a meter of water. And the central third was wet, packed sand sloping down to the water.
It was a beach. They turned the concrete floor of the arena into a beach. In less than two hours. At least now I knew why we were in swimsuits.
And we weren't the only ones. Waiting for us atop a lifeguard's chair, in one of the skimpiest bikinis I had seen in real life, sat Miss Midnight.
"Welcome to the second event, my lovely ladies and studly gentlemen," she purred down at us, "I believe most of you are familiar with the basics of this event. But for those of you who might not be, as well as for all the special rules, I'm going to over it from the beginning."
She looked at Cassandra and Tsunotori-san for a moment, then at me.
"The second event for the UA Sports Festival will be... a cavalry battle! After I finish going over the rules, you will have to split into eleven teams of four. You have five minutes, and at the end of the five minutes, if any of you are not in full teams, I will decide for you. And it may not be in the way you are expecting. After that, each team will have another five minutes to talk about strategy while we print up your headbands."
"For those of you not familiar with the cavalry battle, normally it has three people acting as Mounts, carrying a fourth person who is the Rider. The Rider has a headband, and teams try to steal each other's headbands. Or get another team Down, either by making the Rider touch the ground, or by splitting up members of a team. In a normal cavalry battle, any team that loses their headband or is Down, is out. But the Mounts are not allowed to touch other teams with their hands. Neither of those rules apply here, but I'll get to that in a moment."
"So first difference is the formation. Rather than three Mounts and one Rider, you can have any formation you want, so long as there is at least one Mount and one Rider, and everyone stays in contact. You can do two Mounts and two Riders. Heck, make a totem pole if you want."
"Second, is that if a team is Down, they are not out. They must drop any headbands that are not around a Rider's head, plus one headband of choice that a Rider is wearing. Then the team can return to the starting area, mount up, and resume competing."
"And a team isn't out if they lose their headband, either. Try to get it back or try to take another teams' headband. Any headband you take must be passed to a Rider and they must put it on. If this isn't done within twenty seconds, that's a Down for your team. So no dilly dallying or just having a Mount hold the headband in their tight, meaty fist."
"So some of you might be wondering how you win, if teams are not eliminated. Some of you might have figured out. But here's the most important rule. Each headband will have a number of points printed on it. Each of you will be assigned a number of points, based on the order in which you finished, and your teams' headband will be worth the total of all member's points. The event will go for fifteen minutes. And at the end, the four teams with the highest point totals will advance to the final round."
I realized there must be some trick there. Otherwise, why not tell us the points up front?
"And that's it. Slam your tight young bodies into each other, steal other teams' headbands, and aim for the highest score! Oh, and it should go without saying, but you are allowed to use your Quirks. But you are not allowed to injure other teams. Do it accidentally, and it's a Down for your team. Do it intentionally, and your team will be out. But since this is a full contact sport, I will be somewhat lenient with what counts as injuring someone, and what counts as an intentional foul."
"Any questions?" she concluded. Looking at me again. But so was everyone else.
Ami raised her hand first.
"Yes, Mizuno-chan?" Midnight-sensei prompted.
"So we can't separate from our team? Even intentionally?" Ami asked, "Isn't that unfair to certain Quirks? Like if someone had a flight or teleportation Quirk?"
The hydrokinetic looked very deliberately as Tokage-san. The girl who could split up her body and float the parts around. Which would have been a great power for this, if it wasn't for the limitation. But I already had another plan forming. And had taken her Bara Bara no Mi into account.
Midnight shut off her microphone, and had one hand up to her ear. She was talking rapidly. Cassandra smiled, amused by whatever she was reading.
"Okay, good point," our Art teacher admitted, "So, here is the change. One, and only one Rider can deliberately split off from the rest of their team. However, they must not touch the ground while separated. They can't put on any headbands taken while separated and any and all time separated counts towards the twenty seconds to secure a headband rule. So pop over to another team and take their headband within twenty second, that's fine. Yes, Midoriya-kun?"
I had raised my hand when she was winding down, and asked, "Well, first, I guess, is what happens if there are not exactly four highest scoring teams at the end? Like if there are five teams, due to a tie? Or two teams manage to get all eleven headbands?"
Mikoto mouthed 'first' and rolled her eyes. But Tsu and Ochako suppressed chuckles. Those two were standing pretty close to each other, but distant from me.
"In the event of a tie for fourth," Midnight-sensei smirked, apparently expecting my question, "I will decide which team or teams in that place advance. There is not set criteria, but I will be considering how long each team held onto their original headband, how many headbands they stole, and what their highest point total over the course of the game was."
"And what if headbands become invalid?" I asked.
"Become invalid?" Midnight-sensei parroted.
"What if one gets dropped and buried in the sand?" I explained, "Gets sealed in ice, tape, or glue so no-one can put in around their head? Gets burned, melted, cut to pieces, or torn apart? Or even just slips out of someone's grasp and gets blown out of the arena by an explosion or gust of wind?"
"That's... comprehensive," Kodai-san noted.
"Not really," I countered softly. I mean, she could shrink one to the size of a ring. Momo could form a titanium block around a headband. Komori-san could grow a mushroom around one. Koda-san could have a bird grab one, only for something to scare the bird and make it fly away with the headband. Or Tsu could coat headbands in her oil, paralyzing anyone else who tried to grab or wear them.
"Well, if a headband gets buried, you'll just have to find it," Midnight-sensei told me, "But if one actually becomes unusable, or is taken out of bounds, we will print a new one, and the team that last controlled it will have one minute to fetch it from a starting area. After that, it is fair game. Of course, if any team deliberately destroys a headband or sends one out of bounds, that will also be a Down for that team. Anything else?"
"Just to make sure I have this right," I checked, "The conditions for a Down are:
All team members touching the ground.
The four team members not being in contact, expect when a Rider deliberately separated for less than twenty seconds.
Accidentally injuring another participant.
Deliberately doing anything to make a headband invalid or unusable."
She nodded.
"And the penalty for a Down is to drop all headbands that are not worn by a Rider, plus one that is. And the team must return to the starting area to remount and resume competing?"
"Yup," she confirmed.
"And I assume that if a team is Down, they are off limits?" I realized, "If they can't do anything back, we can't try to steal any headbands they have left while they are on their way to the starting boxes, right? Or interfere with them getting there."
"That's right," she agreed, "I want to see a fair game out there."
"Does anyone have any more questions?" she asked, sounding a bit exasperated. I shook my head no. And no-one else said anything.
"Great. Five minutes to form your teams starts... Now!"
I turned, and noticed one thing straight away. Tsuyu, Momo, Ochako, and Jirou were clumped together, and they all looked at me regretfully. The same for Ami, Cassandra, Mikoto, and Mo-chan. Though Ami and Cassandra wouldn't even meet my eyes, and Mo-chan and Mikoto looked more amused than sorry.
I didn't mind. It was strategy. And they also wanted to stand out on their own. Besides, none of them was my first pick, either. Though Mikoto, or maybe Ami, would have worked for the second person in my plan.
"Hatsume-san," I hurried over to the pinkette gadgeteer. No-one else had approached her. In fact, one of the boys I didn't recognize was actively backing away from her.
"Oh hey number one-san," she blinked in surprise.
"Sorry," I bowed, "I'm Midoriya Izuku. I was wondering if you would like to team up with me?"
She blinked again. Then she grinned, and said, "Sure. All eyes will be on number one-san. So it will be a great way to show off my babies."
"Your... babies?" I queried in confusion. And maybe a bit of nervousness.
"Yup my babies," she said, her cadance... unique, "Like Stabilizing Soles and Charge Charge Station."
She patted her heavy boots and backpack affectionately in turn. I guess 'babies' was how she referred to her gadgets. If she actually created them, it made an odd sense.
Then I saw something else, and my eyes widened.
"Great, I'll be back in just a second."
I darted over to the second person I hoped to recruit. Shimooka-san looked surprised when I ran up to her.
"You want me on your team, Midoriya-san?" she asked before I could.
"I do, and please call me Izuku," I confirmed, "I feel like I owe you for letting you and Kendo-san take that dead end. But if you still aren't interested, I still think I should warn you."
Shinso-san was walking over with Kendo-san and Tetsutetsu-san. He frowned at me. And Shimooka-san frowned at him.
"Why are they..." she asked.
"His Quirk seems to involve mental manipulation," I told her, "He used it on the two members of 1-A that didn't make it."
I didn't name them in case she didn't remember all of us.
"I can't say for sure he used it on Kendo-san and Tetsutetsu-san," I continued, "but just in case..."
"You know what," she shuddered, "I think I will join your team, Izuku-kun."
"Do you want to try to save them?" I asked as we turned to head back to Hatsume-san.
"I do," she said, "But at the same time, we are rivals at the Sports Festival, not Heroes fighting a villain. And considering how fast the groups are forming, they might end up with him anyway."
I sighed. Her line of reasoning was fairly close to mine.
We reached Hatsume, and I introduced the ladies. Then I saw my final recruit. I wasn't too surprised that he was still alone. I told my teammates I would be back.
"Iida-san," I called out to him as I got close. He turned and gave me a simple wave.
"Do you have a team yet?" I asked, not wanting to assume.
"I do not," he said, a hint of defeat in his voice.
"That is probably because no-one can keep up with you," I suggested earnestly, "They'd have to force you to go at their pace. Even I'm not as fast as you are. But if you can go at my pace, we will still be the fastest Mounts out there."
He glanced at me wryly, and prompted, "What do you have in mind?"
"Let's go over to the girls, and we can talk."
"Okay, now that you all have teams, you can start to talk strategy," Midnight-sensei informed us, "Or continue to talk for most of you. But make sure to take a second to look up at the board!"
At her declaration, the giant screen above the arena lit up. It had the name, class, finishing order, and a picture of each participant in this round. As we watched, a blank column labeled 'Points' began to fill in from last to first. The forty fourth finisher was worth five points. Forty third was ten. Forty second had a value of fifteen. And so on. Right up to Tsu at number six, who was worth 195 points. That was where it changed.
#5 - Todoroki Shouto - 1-A - 250 pts
#4 - Misaka Mikoto - 1-A - 500 pts
#3 - Hatsume Mei - 1-H - 1,000 pts
#2 - Kuroiro Shihai - 1-D - 2,500 pts
#1 - Midoriya Izuku - 1-A - 10,000 pts
It only took me a moment to calculate that everyone else, combined, was only worth 8,150 pts. That meant regardless of who I teamed up with, whichever team ended up with my 10K points would automatically take first. It wouldn't be immediately obvious to anyone who didn't to the math. But it was still enough to make me, and thus my team, the biggest target.
In the end, with four top ten finishers, our headband would be worth 11,360 points.
"Perfect," I grinned in triumph, to my teammates' surprise. Then I whispered my plan to them, and they started to smile as well.
Status Changes for Midoriya Izuku:
Skills:
Meditation (W/I): 14→ 16
Active Quests:
Save the Symbol of Peace
The Best Around (bonus 1/2 complete)
Author's Note: Kongou Mitsuko's Quirk is different from her canon Esper power, both because her Esper power confuses me (I can explain what it does, but the mechanics of how it works and how to use it...), and it gives me a reason to let her keep her fan. And maybe have Mei upgrade the fan later...
