We were given fifteen minutes to form a group and a strategy. I was still trying to decide if I would approach Izuku, who was standing by himself and being avoiding due to the target in his back, when I felt a tug on my braid.
I turned to see Eijiro with my braid in his hand and a smile plastered on his face, "Come on! Bakugo needs you!"
As I followed him along, I couldn't help but feel a heavy heart by abandoning Izuku. He'll have to understand. While we walked we were continuously stopped and approached, students I've never seen before demanding and begging to be on my team. Eijiro has no problem dismissing them for me, and pulling my braid like a leash towards Katsuki.
When he reached him, he has his own crowd of beggars. We locked eyes and he pushed them away as he stepped towards us.
"Bakugo!", Eijiro yelled, "The knight and his princess have arrived-"
I yanked my braid from his hand and huffed, "Princess? I'm not some damsel in distress-"
Katsuki ignored our quarrel and deadpanned, "Hey, Dumbhair."
"My name is Kirishima!", Eijiro screamed in his face, "And my hair is not that different from yours!", he flashed him a grin, "Come on, you want to be the rider, right? You're gonna need a strong front horse who won't be hurt by your blasts, that would be me.", he flexed his hardened skin.
"I need someone with guts.", Katsuki stated.
Eijiro pressed, "My quirk was made for this! I got you covered, man! Let's go charging into battle together."
That struck a chord with Katsuki who menacingly grinned in response. He quickly turned to me and raised an eyebrow, wordlessly asking if I was in.
"I'm already in, you don't have to ask me.", I stated flatly.
Eijiro threw his arm around me, "The princess will be great for offense and defense!"
I pinched his side, but it did nothing with his hardened skin, "Stop calling me that!"
"Stop playing around.", Katsuki spoke as he looked at the rest of the students around us, scanning them and deciding whether or not he wanted them. He pointed at Sero, "You, you're with me."
Sero practically squealed as he joined our group. He wrapped his arms around Eijiro and I, and began to jump around- Eijiro not afraid to join him in his cheers.
The buzzer went off, signaling time was over for team building, and that it was time to start the game.
Katsuki would be our rider, Eijiro would be the front horse, Sero would take the left, and I would be our right. We assembled, and waited as a countdown began to start the game.
"3...2...1... BEGIN!!!"
We started out in a sprint, in pursuit of Izuku. From the distance I watched has he propelled his team into the sky and out of the quick sand they were sent in. With the ability to be airborne they could easily dip and dodge attacks, but I knew that wasn't an option for Katsuki to go after other groups.
"Katsuki,", I started as we got closer to Izuku's group again, "We can't touch them from down here-"
His group went up into the air, and Katsuki propelled himself off of his horse and into the air, "SAY LESS!"
"What the hell is he doing??", yelled Eijiro.
"Trust him!", I tried to appease as we watch Katsuki swipe at Izuku's headband. Tokoyami used dark shadow to block him and his explosion. "Sero!", I called to get his attention, "Get him!"
Tape went shooting from his arm and wrapped itself around Katsuki, bringing him back down to us. We easily caught him, and our separation was pardoned by the judges. Our scores were pulled on the large monitor, and just as it was being revealed our headbands were pulled from Katsuki's head. Suddenly we had nothing to show for our high ranks in the previous round.
"Your class is too small minded. Think bigger.", spoke a sort of familiar blonde boy from class B.
"Katsuki, what the fuck!", I reprimanded.
He shifted in furry above me, "Shut up! Come back here!!"
The blonde boy continued, "Midnight said the obstacle course was just the first game, and we figured they wouldn't cut that many of us right off the bat. Would they?" It suddenly clicked in my head what he was insinuating, but he explained further, "Assuming they would keep around forty contestants for the next event, all we had to do was make sure we stayed within that group as we ran. From our spots in the middle ranks, we could fully observe the quirks our rivals had and judge their capabilities. Only a fool would obsess over winning the preliminary round, wouldn't you agree?"
"You planned this as a class?", Katsuki pushed.
The blonde continued to explain as he placed our headband over his neck, "It wasn't totally unanimous, but I'd say it's playing out well. It's better than chasing after a temporary front runner like a horse with a carrot waving in his face.", Katsuki's anger was beginning to bubble over, my own was beginning to stifle, "Oh, you're famous aren't you? For being attacked by that sludge villain? You'll have to tell me about it sometime." Now this kid is dead. "It must be strange to always find yourself in the role of the victim."
Katsuki straight up snapped. All of the veins in his face, neck, and hands were extremely pronounced and the look of death of his face was only highlighting the menacing tone he spoke with, "Kirishima, Aiya... we have a change of plans."
I looked up at the idiot blonde who decided to set off the bomb that was Katsuki, "You have a death wish, don't you?"
"Before we kill Deku.", Katsuki seethed, "We're gonna kill every last one of these B-List idiots."
It was now the halfway point, and things sure were heated up for us. With the loss of our points, there was nothing keeping us advancing into the next round. We needed to get some type of points back so that we wouldn't lose, but if Katsuki couldn't get himself under control we would lose.
"Katsuki! Get your fucking head in it before we lose! We need to advance!", I yelled at him.
Eijiro agreed, "You need to keep a level head or we will never get our points back!"
Katsuki let out a battle cry, "Shut up! I've never been calmer. Can't you tell? Now go after them, Kirishima!" He let off an explosion, completely covering us in smoke.
"Please don't make us regret this.", Kirishima grit his teeth and listened to Katsuki.
We charged forward towards the class B blonde, who looked at us with an unbothered expression. Katsuki let out another battle cry as he attempted to attack, but the blonde casually dodged. When Katsuki turned to attack again, the blonde released his own explosion from his hand in Katsuki's face.
Activating my quirk, and planting my feet to keep us within distance of their group I stopped us from moving far. "What the fuck!", I called, surprised that they had the same quirk.
"I can see why you like your quirk so much, it's very powerful.", the blonde observed while looking at his palm.
"My power...", Katsuki tried to piece it together.
The blonde tapped Eijiro's head, and readied himself for another one of Katsuki's explosive attack. The smoke cleared, showing his unharmed, hardened skin.
"You both have impressive powers, but I think you'll agree mines better."
"Mine too?!", Eijiro questioned.
"His quirk is copying other quirks, idiot!", I tried to make sense of it.
"Very good.", the blonde praised, "Beauty and brains.", he smirked at me, "I would like to give yours a spin as well."
Katsuki raged, and went to advance, but some kind of goo from another class B team blocked our path.
"Monoma,", spoke one of the blonde's team members, "As long as no one gets near us, we'll make our class proud."Monoma, so that's his name.
"Get them!", Katsuki tried.
"Well, I'm fucking stuck!", I called up, trying to get my leg out.
"We're sitting at zero points, we're gonna lose!", Sero called.
Think. Think. Think. Got it! If I propel enough force from below, I can shoot us up and out of the goo.
I smirked, "Everyone, hold on!"
Their grips tightened around my hands and shoulders, listening to my words. I pinpointed most of my power into my right calf, the one caught in the goo. It shook as it overflowed and suddenly we went flying out of the substance and into the air. My legs felt a bit shaky and weak, but at least I got us out of that mess.
Katsuki used his explosion to land us softly, then lead us into a full sprint towards Monoma. With a battle cry, Katsuki pounced from us and towards him.
"Hey, don't just fly off without telling us!", Eijiro yelled at Katsuki.
"Tsuburaba, stop him!", Monoma commanded.
I swiped my arm, propelling the air with my quirk to weaken whatever attack he sent towards Katsuki. The air he released formed a solid block holding off Katsuki, but he pounded onto the surface and broke through it. He reached and snatched all of the headbands except one off of Monoma's neck.
"Sero!", my calling his name signaled him to retrieve Katsuki with his tape.
We moved up the score board up to third, and continued to sprint towards Monoma.
"I told you to tell us when you were jumping up!", Sero reminded Katsuki once he was settled on top of us.
"It doesn't matter now, at least we're advancing!", I refuted.
"WE'RE NOT DONE!!", Katsuki screamed while slamming his fist into the top of Eijiro's head, "WE'RE GONNA BE THE INDISPUTABLE CHAMPIONS OF THE GAME!! I couldn't brace myself earlier when I jumped. GET CLOSER!", he commanded while clenching his fist, "We'll get our points back from this idiot! Then go for the big one!!"
His fighting spirit spread from him to Eijiro, Sero, and I. Smirks began to spread all over our faces as the new encouragement ran through us.
"Aiya, propel us faster!", he instructed and I did as such, "Elbow guy, tape him!"
"My name's Sero!", he correct but still listened to his command. He shot his tape parallel to them.
"Now trap them, Aiya!!", he spoke as he began to barge an explosion in his hand.
I whip my arm around, sending a forceful vector to stunt Monoma's group's moment. My vector blocked them completely, and I held it until we were close enough for Katsuki to strike. Sero's tape yanked us forward, making us go even faster combined with my vector. They attempted to make another air shield, but Katsuki charged right through it emitting a powerful explosion and grabbed the last headband from them.
We went up on the scoreboard to second place, and their team plummeted without having any points to account for.
"Now we're going after Deku and Todoroki!", Katsuki decided, and redirected our path towards the walls of ice.
He exploded a portion of the wall so we could barrel through. Once the ice wall was out of the way, he threw himself off of us and towards the other two groups.
"DEKU!!", he screamed as he advanced.
"Bakugo!", Kirishima yelled.
All of a sudden, all of the groups began to charge one another. Both Izuku and Katsuki were charging towards Todoroki, who apparently had the ten million headband, and was going to fight it off with a staff of ice.
"Damnit, Icy Hot!!", Katsuki yelled another battle cry.
Just when they were about to collide, Present Mic's booming voice brought us back, "TIMES UP!!!!"
Katsuki fell flat in his face. We dissembled and approached him cautiously.
"Bakugo, are you okay, man?", Eijiro tried but Katsuki's response was slamming his fist into the ground from frustration of being in second place.
I sighed and turned to my teammates, "He's fine, let's just let him throw his little tantrum." I smiled at the two boys, "We did good guys!" We all high fived and rejoiced over our victory into the next round.
"Now, let's take a look at who our top four teams are!", Present Mic bellowed.
First place was Todoroki's team, second place was ours, third place was Shinso's team- who I recognized as the purple haired boy I faced down with in the hall a couple weeks ago, and fourth place was Izuku's.
I looked around me and at the students I would possibly be battling against in the following round. Katsuki was trembling and continuing to throw his fit, Izuku was crying so hard he resembled a fountain, and Shinso's group all looked heavily confused except for himself.
We were given a break to eat lunch and rest before the next round kicked off. As I walked from the stadium and towards the designated eating area, I was yanked and pulled into a hug.
"Who the fuck-", I began to shove them.
"Aiya!", the familiar voice of my brother yelled, "You curse too much, you should really watch your mouth."
I looked up to see Kosuke, and he beamed down at me and gripped me tighter, "Kosuke!", I threw my arms around him and squealed.
"You looked really friggin cool out there. I didn't know you could do all that!", he pulled away to look at me.
"Have some faith in me.", I smiled and pinched his arm. I peered around him and saw that he was by himself, "Where's Okaa-san, Otou-san, and Baba?"
"We weren't sure where to find you, so we split up in search.", he whipped his phone from his pocket and began typing, "I'll send them a text so they know where to find us."
I nodded my head and began fiddling my thumbs, "How have you enjoyed the festival so far?"
"You were amazing out there, you looked like a real hero!", he shoved his phone back in his pocket and flashed me a wide smile.
"Really?", I looked up at him.
He nodded in response, "Of course, really! I wouldn't have said so if I didn't believe it.", he smiled, "I knew you were strong, but watching you take out those big ass robots was so cool!! You did it without breaking a sweat! And the way you marched right up to Bakugo and also Endeavor's son, it was impressive how fearless you were!" Kosuke placed his hands on his hips and puffed out his chest, "My little Aiya, a hero!"
My cheeks actually hurt from how wide my grin was. "Nii-san!!", I called as I jumped and wrapped my arms around his neck.
"There you both are!", my mother's voice came from behind me, "You had us searching high and low for you."
I quickly pulled away from my brother and swirled around to face the direction her voice came from. There stood both of my parents with Baba, all wearing tee shirts with my face and name on the front. Pulling away completely from Kosuke and looking at his shirt, I realized he was wearing the same.
My father scratched the back of his head, "If any of us were to find her, it would have been Kosuke."
"What's with the shirts?", I raised a bow at them.
"We thought it would be a fun idea to show everyone our support-", Okaa-san began.
I smiled harder, "By wearing my face?"
A stern expression grew on my soba's face, "Do you not like it?"
"No, no no!! It's not that I don't like it-", I began and then rubbed the back of my neck, "It's only a little embarrassing."
"Embarrassing?!", my father began, "What's embarrassing is that little Bakugo kid keeps kicking and screaming like a child! You would think he would grow up slightly after all this time.", he crossed his arms, "He's being a sore loser-"
"I wouldn't say a sore loser-", I tried.
"That's what you thought was embarrassing?", Okaa-san places a hand on her chin in thought, "I would think it was Izuku crying after every win. I couldn't tell if they were happy or sad tears- it was just a waterfall of them."
They continued to discuss the other students' performances and their overall excitement for the festival. I was religiously listening to their words up until I saw Todoroki leading Izuku down an empty hallway. What were they doing? My mind wandered towards the what's and why's, and only grew as I watched Katsuki follow them.
"Aiya? Are you even listening?", Kosuke tried getting my attention by placing his hand on my head.
Baba waved his hand away, "Leave her be, this is her lunch break we're keeping her from."
I pulled my eyes away from the hallway entrance, "Sorry, no, it's-"
"Awe, sweetie, are you tired?", my mother pushed my fly away hairs from my forehead.
Otou-san placed a hand in my shoulder and squeezed, "Then go on, go eat. We'll see you after everything is said and done."
We said our goodbyes, and when I was sure that they were no longer watching I followed the boys into the corridor.
