In the end, Bakugo decided that the extra reach Sero, the tall boy with weird elbows, and Miko's Quirks could bring to the team was valuable enough to take both of them on as horses. Altogether they had 740 points. Kirishima at the front, Sero on their left, and Miko on the right. She carried Bakugo's heavy foot in her palms and he rested himself on her left shoulder. She felt grateful for the distribution of his weight, Bakugo was much heavier than he looked.
Anticipation was thick in the air. Every team had their eyes set on one person. Before Midnight set them loose, Bakugo called out them. "Get ready, we're going after the one million!"
Midnight swung down her paddle and loudly called them to action, "Begin!"
In a burst of movement, every team made a dash towards Team Midoriya. Before they even made it close to reaching Midoriya's team from across the field, Bakugo lost his patience with his horses and took it upon himself to go after the green haired boy by rocketing himself off of their shoulders and into the air after him. He made a big show, which earned massive cheers from the audience, but Tokoyami's Dark Shadow completely blocked him off.
"Whoa! Bakugo's been separated from his horses!" Present Mic commented he was as surprised as they were. Miko grew frustrated at his impatience. Her team was much better at reacting than she was, and for that she was grateful. Sero, who admittedly had a much better capture rate than her, lifted his elbow to catch Bakugo with his tape before he fell to the ground and ruined all their chances of moving to the next round. "Whoa, nice catch!" Kirishima applauded Sero.
"Is that even allowed?" They'd better hope it was allowed, otherwise, it was his head.
"He never touched the ground, so technically it's okay!"
Blessings from Benten, they were safe. They stuck to their plan and kept running, trying to strategize their way around to get the million from Midoriya without sacrificing their own points to the other groups also pursuing him.
"Now who wants to take a look at each team's points so far? It's been seven minutes so let's get those rankings thrown up on the screen. Hold on here. There is an unexpected turn. Other than Midoriya, class 1-A isn't doing so hot! Even Bakugo is losing." What?
A team of class-B students stole their points before the rankings went up, forcing them out of the winner's square. The thief was pale and blonde, but she recognized one of his horses. Her eyes narrowed as she looked at his stupid smug face. From atop his horses, the rider spoke, "Your class is too small minded. Think bigger."
Bakugo was rightfully angry at the slight, they all were, they just went from 720 points to zero. "What did you say?! Come back here!" He jostled from atop Miko's shoulder, threatening to knock himself off.
The boy paid them no mind and continued to taunt them mercilessly. "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? Assuming they'd keep at least 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 in the preliminary rounds, wouldn't you agree?"
It was a surprising show of cooperation and planning. "You planned this as a class?"
"It wasn't totally unanimous, but I'd say its playing out pretty well," his voice was smug. Behind him, Miko could hear one of the horses, Kaibara, goddamn Kaibara, whisper something about an incoming team to his rider. She kept an ear out for footsteps as she glared at them.
"It's better than chasing after a temporary frontrunner like a horse with a carrot waving in his face. Oh, while I have your attention, you're kinda famous, huh? For being attacked by that-"
A stream of water cut him off midway through his monologue. The rider, Monoma, stared blankly for a moment as he processed what happened before he realized that one of Bakugo's riders, a small girl with silver hair had water dribbling down her chin as she glared at him hatefully. From what he could remember she was Tsukikawa, the girl who won fourth place in the obstacle course. Another class A imbecile who strove for the top without thinking through the long term. Just as bad as their class rep who's foolish arrogance would cost him his place in the next round.
"Whoa, Tsukikawa it's kinda unmanly to cut someone off in the middle of their speech!" Kirishima went ignored. Miko only had eyes for the antagonizing blonde from class-B. His pretentious voice annoyed her so she spit in his face with a targeted stream of water halfway through his speech to get him to shut up. She glared into his soul, and with an even voice, "You're distracting my rider, jerk."
This only served to piss Monoma off even more, she definitely made an enemy of him. In his mind, she was no better than Bakugo. In that tense moment, Bakugo, who'd been surprised by the rich girl's spunk, decided he'd had enough, and he wasn't about to let damn princess get in his way. "We have a slight change of plans," he growled out to his underlings. "We're gonna kill every last one of these B-list idiots!" Miko didn't take her eyes off Monoma, letting her gaze reaffirm Bakugo's words. His invigorating tenacity was infecting her too. She felt eager to crush them all.
Kaibara, who'd seen how pissed off both Bakugo and Tsukikawa looked while Monoma antagonized them, tried to get him to lay off by appealing to his better nature. He'd never thought the silver haired girl he'd rescued in the halls outside the cafeteria could get worked up enough to get along with their asshole representative. He turned his gaze to his classmate, "Monoma, don't provoke him, man. That's the kinda thing he would do."
The blonde rider had the decency to act sorry, but it didn't translate as authentic. "Yeah, I guess you're right. It's not very heroic of me. Besides you know how these things work," he gave a pointed stare at Bakugo, who was already seething. "Heroes are always being hounded by moronic villains desperate for some kind of revenge."
Miko had heard enough. Monoma, whoever the hell he was, was deliberately prodding at what was likely traumatic memories for Bakugo. He'd been pissed at the mention of the sludge villain, and though she didn't see the news when it happened, she definitely knew about it. This bastard was doing it on purpose, and it was beneath all of them to exploit such a thing. She grit her teeth at her acquaintance, hoping to put an end to this. "Reign in your rider, Kaibara, or we're gonna have some issues."
Kirishima was also trying to diffuse the situation to get them back on track. "Calm down, Bakugo, you've gotta keep a level head or we'll never get out points back!"
Bakugo howled through his teeth, slamming his palms together to mark his ire with an explosion. "Shut up! I've never been calmer. Can't you tell?" Unsurprisingly, Bakugo did seem pretty calm about the situation despite his initial inner turmoil, Miko noted. It seemed that he would let nothing deter him from his goal. "Now get after them Kirishima!"
"Please don't make us regret this." Dutifully, his horses charged the other group, unsure but willing to trust their rider to lead them to glory in the next round. Bakugo did his due diligence and responded to Monoma's taunts in kind. "You think you're tough?! Die!" He swung his arms forward to attack Monoma, who simply slapped his fist away and threw an explosion back into his aggressor's face.
"Wow, I see why you like this Quirk," Monoma proceeded to slap the top of Kirishima's head while he looked down to protect his face from the blast.
What the hell? Is that his Quirk? No, he stole it when he touched Bakugo and Kirishima, as evidenced by the fact that he was able to harden his forearm when Bakugo attacked him again to test the waters. "You both have great powers, but I think you'll agree mine's better," he taunted. Could he get any worse? The boy confirmed it himself, he had a copy Quirk, which allowed him to copy other's Quirks for five minutes, though he could only use them one at a time.
It was a pretty useful Quirk, though Miko conceded that it must make him feel inept for having to rely on others to be able to use his own Quirk. How else would he have gotten in? Especially if his constant need to taunt others was any indication. How did he even manage to make it into the hero course with a Quirk like that? His chances of getting in were completely dependent on the Quirk pool of the students he took his practical exam with and— "Look out!"
To their right, another group of students, more class B assholes, stormed over and their front horse spewed some gooey substance at them. Miko was able to catch them in time and put up a wall of ice to block out the glue secreted by Bondo, the front horse, with the water vapor in her breath. It was lucky that she drank so much water beforehand and had been listening in on Kaibara's conversation, otherwise she wouldn't have been able to react so quickly.
"Sorry we couldn't stop them for you, Monoma."
"That's alright, Bondo. Thanks for the help, but it's probably time we move on anyway."
Kaibara called up to Monoma, "If we keep those headbands, we're good. As long as no one gets near us, we'll make our class proud." Now Miko was a little more than annoyed. This was all about class pride? Did they have no vision for the future? You'd think with their long term scheme they'd be able to think beyond "class pride". Miko growled out her next words to the ikeman carrying the copy cat on his shoulders, "Don't think we're gonna make it easy for you, Kaibara!"
Her words incensed him, and he called out another taunt just for her. "You'll have to try harder then, Tsuki!"
Tsuki?! Miko called out to their front horse eagerly, "Kirishima, get after him! We need our points back!"
"No hard feelings okay? After all, you provoked us. What was it you said in your little speech before the games? Uh…oh right, oof. 'I'm gonna win'?"
He didn't need to be told twice and Bakugo didn't yell at her for ordering his horse around as they chased after Monoma eager to get their points back, maybe then some, but the team was already way ahead of them. "Losers! Get back here!"
Bakugo blasted himself towards the B team, raging so hard he beat past the wall of solid air Monoma's front horse blew to keep him away. From her spot behind him, Miko was more than impressed by the sheer strength of will and determination behind those fists and grinned victoriously as Bakugo fisted a good amount of headbands from around Monoma's neck before Sero taped him back to their group, moving them up from seventh to third place. He was irritating but his win was her win and she'd be damned if she didn't take advantage of it.
Monoma looked completely surprised by the loss of his points, but it wasn't enough for any of them. They still had one task left to complete. Not one to give up easily, Bakugo had a new plan. From above her shoulder, he called down to her, "We're not done yet! I couldn't brace myself earlier when I jumped. Get closer! We'll get our points back from this idiot then go for the big one!"
Despite her initial reservations of him, Bakugo had a tenacity she couldn't deny, and she admired him for it. He was a good leader, she admitted begrudgingly, and he got them all pumped, the difference between them and B's teams was crucial. They wouldn't settle with just passing through. "Elbow guy! Tape'im!"
"Princess! Lay down some ice in the direction we're headed!"
His insulting nickname for her didn't bother her as Miko inhaled deeply, then phased the water vapor from her breath, creating a wide runway of ice to slide the whole team directly towards Monoma. They were going to steal the remainder of their points back. It was different from simply putting up a wall, but hopefully, their new runway wouldn't cause them to slip on their way to victory. "Hell yeah!" Miko roared when their icy path was successfully laid out in front of them.
Sero and Miko held onto Kirishima for dear life as Bakugo blasted them across her ice path straight for Monoma. They tried the same tactic, blowing solid air to defend against him, but Bakugo's overwhelming strength broke right through it and stole their last headband right off of them.
Cheers roared in favor of their strategy and Present Mic's commentary only riled them up more. "Bakugo is a merciless force! What a point hog! That was a shield break heard 'round the arena and I can't wait to watch the replay!"
Bakugo grinned from his spot on their shoulders. "Now we're going after Deku and Todoroki." Miko had no qualms with that. Her grin never left her face as they charged towards absolute victory.
Unfortunately, while they wasted their time with Monoma and the other class B groups, Todoroki had been making a big show by throwing up a huge wall of ice to isolate himself with Midoriya's team. Here, Miko saw an opportunity as they made a break for them. They only had eleven seconds left in the game!
Sweat started to drip into Miko's eyes as she spoke, "Don't waste your explosions, Bakugo. Let me make a path and stock up on some of Todoroki's ice!" She cleared the path, phasing the ice into water, and laid out a path for them, heading straight towards an irrefutable win. Now that he didn't have to waste any energy on breaking down the wall, Bakugo blasted himself off his team headed straight for the one million points.
In the chaos, he saw the one million on Todoroki and adjusted his course. Miko grit her teeth, they didn't have any time to waste! They had to snatch it before-
"Times up! And with that, the second round is officially over!" He let himself collapse onto the ground at the signal, his team hurrying over to check on him. "Bakugo! Are you okay, man?" Kirishima asked. The blonde's only response was to growl into the ground and childishly pound his fists fitfully. Miko grimaced distastefully, all sense of camaraderie vanished as she looked to Todoroki.
She looked towards Bakugo, "Quit throwing a tantrum. It's disgraceful and there's heroes watching you." Not that she didn't understand. The girl would be behaving exactly the same way if her grandmother wasn't who her grandmother was. The old woman had all but beaten any sense of poor behavior out of her. She wandered away from her teammates to stand a distance away from Bakugo. He was screaming nonsensically at his fists and his tantrum made it difficult to see him as the same competent leader that guided his team back onto the leaderboard after so obtusely losing their points.
"Now let's take a look at who our top four teams are! In first place, Team Todoroki!"
"In second place, Team Bakugo!"
The announcement made Miko look down at her feet. "I was really looking forward to showing up that damn ice prince," Miko growled. The display was the closest she'd be able to get to throwing a tantrum. Signing resignedly, Miko looked back up at the crowd, tan face set in yielding determination. Her charming smile wouldn't make another appearance until she won the whole tournament. It was disappointing but the last few minutes were refreshingly invigorating. It definitely took her mind off the terror of…you know what.
Sero brushed her comment off easily. "Meh. Sure. But we're movin' on so it's all good."
Kirishima was deadpan for once. "I don't think our leader will agree with you. Like at all." Miko looked over at Bakugo who'd since sat up and glared at his fists. At Kirishima's words, he began to scream himself silly in his defeat. "Tch, pull yourself together, Bakugo," she muttered. It was unbecoming, but she understood. Plus, it was a little funny seeing him like that.
"Now, let's take an hour lunch break before we start the afternoon festivities! See ya soon!"
Before stepping out of the ring, Miko took care to salute the judges and cameras once again. Sero looked at her strangely as he walked up behind her, obviously unaccustomed to the act, with Kirishima who was trying to drag Bakugo with them. Kirishima, ignoring Bakugo's fussing, turned to her expectantly, "Whaddya say, Tsukikawa? Wanna go for lunch?"
She made a show of contemplating his request, tilting her head to the side and placing a contemplative forefinger to her lip. She was resigned to the results, disappointed ire replacing itself with a better mood at the thought of her lunch companions. "My cousins are around here, so I'm gonna catch lunch with them," she said plainly, only a little softer at the mention of her cousins. Not that Sero noticed or anything.
The tall dark haired boy chuckled at her, "No worries! Have fun with your family, Tsukikawa!" Sero continued to beam, still feeling the effects of moving forward in the rounds. Said girl waved them off politely and left them on the ground floor. She walked over to the stairs entrance searching for her aunt Ran.
She was only searching for a few minutes when she heard her aunt calling out to her, "Miko! I've made a nutritious meal for you!" Waiting at the foot of the staircase with a few bentos in her arms was her aunt surrounded by triplets dressed in various hero merchandise, bouncing around from the after-effects of their viewing. They caught sight of her and proceeded to bombard her with questions, ecstatic to see their cousin do so well in the festival. They pulled on her arms and Ryuu even managed to jump on her back, Miko winced when he pulled on her ponytail, but allowed them to play out their excitement. Aunt Ran handed her a bottle filled with electrolytes, looking weary, "Be careful, children, you're causing a ruckus!"
Their mother went ignored as Yuushi and Nori, who were bouncing around excitedly, accidentally jumped into a sturdy pair of legs behind them. "Oh, pardon me."
"All Might?!" Lo and behold they had bumped into the Symbol of Peace himself. The triplets were ecstatic to see the hero in the flesh. Even her aunt seemed a little starstruck, Miko noted. Said hero didn't seem surprised by their outburst, only mildly amused in a way she had to guess all veteran heroes were when they interacted with children. His smile was wide and he laughed heartily with them as they joyously bounded around his hulking figure, spouting words of praise and admiration.
For a brief moment, Miko could only see All Might's beaten form as she looked at him, Nomu's hands ripping into his bloody sides…She winced quietly, mentally turning away from the memory. She could smell the festival food and the strange industrial scent that the stadium carried despite the people inhabiting it, and it helped clear her mind of the nightmarish image.
In her daydreaming, All Might had somehow gotten a pen out and were signing various merchandise the triplets were handing him. He kept a brilliant blue eye on his student who'd remained quieter than usual. He turned to her the moment she let out a little noise of distress. "Tsukikawa? Are you all right?"
He watched as the girl startled out of whatever reverie she'd gotten lost in, and answered him in that strained, politely distant tone she'd used with him during their interactions in class. "Oh yes, thank you All Might, but I'm fine."
The great Symbol hesitated but was ultimately unwilling to pry, so he decided to keep things cordial out of respect for her and her family. He smiled as brightly as he could as he addressed her, "You did pretty well out there. Keep up the good work!"
Miko's aunt, starstruck as she was, interjected in the conversation, "Excuse me All Might, but would you mind…?" She held up a small smartphone hesitantly. He laughed cheerily placing his hands on his hips, "Oh certainly!"
Her family gathered around All Might, looking more excited than Miko had seen them in a while. Ryuu was even lucky enough to be lifted into All Might's arms when he struggled to find his place among his siblings. Miko easily took a photo of her cousins and aunt with All Might, each beaming widely for the camera. He was massive compared to the children, who were actually a little tall for their age. She remained quiet, unable to get the image of a bloody and wounded All Might out of her mind. She jumped minutely when he directed his goodbyes to her, "Good luck in the next round, Young Tsukikawa!" She nodded to him silently.
"Goodbyyye All Might~!" The triplets were dangling off their mother, waving cheerily at All Might until he was out of their sight.
As soon as he was gone, they turned to her like rabid wolves. "Wow, Miko-nee, you get to have All Might as your teacher!"
"Yeah, is he really your teacher, Miko-nee?"
Seeing how Miko was slowly getting more and more overwhelmed with their questioning, took control of the situation. "Alright, alright, why don't we give Miko-chan a break since she's only got a few minutes to have lunch with us?"
The triplets were agreeable as they walked to a small table near the food stands outside the stadium, where they could enjoy the good weather and chat pleasantly over their food. Miko did her best to entertain her cousins, but they were still very much enjoying their small encounter with the Symbol of Peace, and nothing she managed to think up was going to distract them from his memory. She retreated into herself momentarily, because as much as she tried, Miko could not get the sight of him bloodied and battered out of her mind. He admitted to having a difficult time defeating the villains, claiming that in his prime it would've only taken five blows instead of the three hundred it took at the USJ. Could he really be running out of steam?
They were lucky he was able to beat them in the end, but Miko was admittedly still bothered by that strange man's words. They'd devised a way to specifically kill All Might. What would the world do without the Symbol of Peace?
Aunt Ran could tell her oldest niece was distracted but chalked it up to being nervous about the matches, so she tried to encourage her. Miko was thoroughly full by the time her lunch period was over and was glad for the brief distraction her family provided. Being with them never failed to make her happy.
The silver haired girl was still saying her goodbyes to her cousins when Ashido came running up to them from the main building's direction. "Oh, Tsukikawa, there you are!" The pink skinned girl looked to be in a rush. "Come quick, we've gotta go do something with the rest of the girls!" Miko turned to her aunt imploringly, question silent. Her aunt understood easily and smiled pleasantly at the two high schoolers before her, "Don't worry, Miko, you take care of your business. We'll be rooting for you in the tournament!"
Miko waved her goodbyes one last time, the triplets jumping over each other to be the last to say goodbye before Ashido could pull her away from the table. "So what is it that we're supposed to be doing?" she asked the pink skinned girl. It was a little odd that one of her classmates would seek her out like this.
Ashido didn't look at her as she spoke airily, "Apparently Yaoyorozu forgot to mention to the rest of the girls that we're supposed to compete in a big cheer battle this afternoon!" Miko was confused. A cheer battle? That didn't sound too legit, but Miko went along with it anyway. If the vice rep said it was happening then it was happening.
They reached the stadium locker rooms in no time flat and Uraraka handed her a bright orange uniform made via Yaoyorozu's Quirk. "How come no one told us about this cheer battle before hand?" The silver haired girl asked skeptically, "We don't have anything prepared."
Their only female class rep seemed a little frazzled as she organized the other girls in their class. "I admit that was my fault. Mineta had the grace to inform me of it during our lunch break. Please, put on the uniform quickly so we can discuss strategy before the battle starts."
Miko decided not to question it since Yaoyorozu seemed a little stressed about it. She didn't want to put any more pressure on the poor girl and she was in too good a mood after her lunch date to even want to argue. Once they were all dressed they walked themselves out onto the field in single file formation as previously discussed only to find the stunned faces of the rest of the students and no other girls dressed in cheerleading outfits.
Even Present Mic seemed surprised by their state of dress, "Hold up, looks like class 1-A's goin' full on fan service!"
Yaoyorozu was understandably upset with the two perverts who deceived her trusting nature. "What?! You tricked us?! You're gonna regret this!" Rolling her eyes, Miko tossed her pompoms onto the ground and retreated to the locker room to change back into her gym uniform. She truthfully didn't mind the uniform so much as being tricked into wasting her time, she thought irritably. She could have used all that time to prepare for the next round.
Even still, there was still a large amount of time before the final round, and since they were given the option of resting or playing the prepared side games, Miko chose the former. They had already drawn lots to decide who they'd be facing in the tournament, and Miko had the pleasure of facing Yuga Aoyama in the first bracket. She wasn't the least bit worried.
She'd left the stadium to be free of distractions, but in her spot at the foot of a shady tree, her mind was full of them. Sixteen students were going to be facing each other in this round, one by one they'd be narrowed down to just two in one final battle. She had to make sure she was the last one standing. She had no worries about her first match. They'd be third on the field and he had no strength or wits about him. Absolute confidence surged through her veins.
Based on their matchups, she'd be battling second against Tokoyami once she beat Aoyama, and if she won, she'd face Todoroki. No disrespect to Midoriya, but he was clearly outclassed here, same with Sero, who'd be the first to fight against Todoroki. She almost felt bad for the boy. Though she didn't pay much attention to the Quirks of the other participants of the cavalry battle, she was certain about who would make through to the final rounds. The heathen, Bakugo, had definitely earned her quiet respect, and she was sure he'd make it to the final round.
The only other outlier was Todoroki. Tokoyami could be a particularly difficult matchup, same with Aoyama, and he did seem to have some amount of cleverness, she'd grant him that much. Dark Shadow was fast but all she had to do to remain on the court was to become an unmovable force, weaken him the same way Bakugo did in the cavalry battle, and strong-arm him out of bounds. If not completely KO him.
Todoroki would be a much more difficult challenge. He very obviously had more power than she did, but she had control over one of his elements. If she could corner him and then get him to step out on his own, she'd be more than fine.
Sighing lightly to herself, Miko released the tension in her shoulders before she straightened herself back up. Perhaps a few more minutes of rest would ease her nerves. She'd just have to wait and see what happens in these games, but she'd be ready for anything.
