"Now, on to the second event!" Midnight announced a cavalry battle as the second event. Ayano was only half paying attention to the rules, having been much more interested in examining potential allies or opponents. Better yet, she was examining future clients.
Assuming the regular trend of U.A. Sports Festivals, the people who make it through to this round and further tend to become some of the best pro heroes. She wasn't analyzing them just to see who would be best to partner up with or to prepare herself for the next round. She was thinking years in advance.
The girl was suddenly jolted out of her calculations with Midnight's booming voice. "Our first-place participant is worth ten million points!" Ayano swiveled her head in Midoriya's direction, seeing his wide eyes and tightly gripped hands. Nervous sweat droplets were beginning to form on his temples.
It was as if he were shouldering an incredibly heavy weight.
Ayano looked up at the stands and where the teachers were sitting. She looked at All Might in his skinny form, wearing a suit that seemed all too big for him.
"The pressure one bears while standing at the top…" She looked to her childhood friend. "This is only the beginning…"
They all had fifteen minutes to make their teams. Ayano stood back, neither making a team nor looking for one. Midoriya, however, was frantically searching for her within the crowd. Having just been rejected and challenged by Iida, he was feeling even more on edge.
He found his friend standing quietly towards the back, her eyes darting to and fro. They held no uneasiness though. They weren't nervous, like somebody who was desperately trying to find teammates. They were eyes of calculation, searching and researching.
"Aya-chan!" He called out to her, causing her to look at him and Uraraka. "Let's team up!" It sounded as if it would be a demand or a request, but it held no authority to it as he was unsure of his friend's intentions.
The brown-haired girl examined her friend and the girl next to him, recognizing her to be the one with the gravity defying quirk. She briefly glanced to her left, towards a certain ash blond. Midoriya did not miss this action, but Ayano had agreed before he could say anything.
Still uncertain of her motives, he questioned her. "…Aya-chan…Did you maybe…want to team with Kacchan?" Her face didn't change. "I had considered the option, yes." At her short response, Midoriya gave her a look that prompted her to continue.
"I believe it to be more beneficial to ally with you." The boy was certainly flattered and happy that his friend would think so, but he had a feeling that it wasn't exactly because she thought he would come out on top in a fight.
"With your ten million points, all eyes will primarily be focused on you and therefore, on your teammates. There are countless support companies watching as we speak. Not to mention the pro heroes who have connections with those support companies." Midoriya chuckled, expecting no less from her.
"Our peers will also be watching." She looked over her shoulder at Bakugou. Their eyes met but Bakugou quickly turned away with a scowl and a click of his tongue. "Many of whom will be aiming for your ten million. In preparation for the battle royale tournament, being in your team allows me to analyze the most quirks and fighting styles since nearly everyone will be making an attempt for your points." Midoriya looked down at his feet.
He knew that Ayano was right. She was always logical. That didn't stop him from feeling a pang of disappointment though. Did she see Bakugou as a bigger threat than him? "Do not misunderstand." He quickly looked back up at her.
"I intend to challenge you as well. I may see you as a friend, but I will stop at nothing to reach the top. I am allying with you now because that is the best possible option for me." Ayano began digging into her bag of support items. "Knowing how you are, I assume you intend to run away and hold onto the ten million for the whole fifteen minutes." She continued at his small nod, pulling out various gadgets.
"In other words, we will be focusing on only defense. Without having to focus on offense as well, it will be significantly easier to analyze everyone's quirks during the cavalry battle." Ayano looked into Midoriya's eyes and smirked. "Besides, did you really think that I would team up with you if I did not believe you could hold onto the ten million, much less make it through this round?"
She didn't show it, but Ayano was ashamed. She had already felt disappointed about her actions earlier, but seeing Midoriya's determination to be number one was a slap in the face. For someone who had such strong convictions as her, she sure wasn't showing it. Bakugou's words were entirely justified. She needed to follow what she preached.
"I could learn a thing or two from you both…" She mumbled, Midoriya not hearing her.
The boy beamed at her, nearly spilling tears. "Aya-chan…!" "Yes, yes. There is no time for tears, we still need to find another person. I highly doubt Uraraka-san and I would be suitable as your front horse." He quickly nodded, already having somebody in mind. As they left, Ayano could feel a pair of fierce eyes on her back but she never turned around.
After recruiting Tokoyami, the team discussed their game plan. "Our plan is basically to run away and hold onto the ten million! We can use Tokoyami-kun's Dark Shadow for defense and to cover our blind spots. Uraraka-san can use her Zero Gravity to make us lighter so we can run away faster."
Ayano nodded along to his plan. "Then I suppose my role in this would be mobility." She pulled out two pairs of flat, metal disks in the shape of the soles of shoes. "These are called air soles. Apply them to the bottoms of your feet." At her instructions, Uraraka and Tokoyami placed the soles under their shoes, the gadget latching onto the bottoms.
"In the very likely case that we will be unable to escape on the ground, we can use my air soles. They will propel us high enough to escape. Activate them by clicking your heels together." She demonstrated with her own feet, a large gust of air shooting from the soles and causing her to fly into the sky. As she came back down, another gust was shot out, slowing her fall.
"Their internal sensors will recognize when our point of impact will be, providing enough air pressure to counteract and cushion our fall. They can also be activated by stomping your heels to the ground." Ayano lifted one heel and quickly brought it back down. She flew up in the air again with the use of only one sole. "Even if we are not exactly in sync, I can program them to match each other so that it will not become an issue."
"Amazing, Aya-chan! With Uraraka's quirk, we can make ourselves super light and be even more mobile." The others nodded.
"I also have all-purpose capsules, similar to the ones I used in the entrance exam." Ayano unhooked some small containers from her utility belt. Opening them, she revealed white, red, yellow, and green pills. "Smoke bombs, small explosives, acid pills, and highly adhesive slime. Simply throw them to the ground and they will activate. Use them however you see fit." She gave Midoriya a container with half of the pills, keeping the other half to herself.
"Obviously, they will do very little in impeding our opponents, but they will provide us with a good enough distraction and sufficient time to run away." Midoriya nodded, confidence slowly flowing through him.
They prepared themselves, lifting Midoriya with Tokoyami in front, Uraraka to his left, and Ayano to his right. Ayano tapped the partial headset on her left temple, the grey scouting lenses appearing over her eyes. She had her utility belt fastened tightly to her waist and her bionic arm cover latched onto her right arm.
"Here we go! The countdown to this brutal battle royale!"
"Three! Two! One!"
"START!"
Immediately, two teams approached them. Behind her scouting lenses, Ayano quickly recognized one boy from the obstacle race. His teeth sat on the outside of his skin, giving him a skull-like appearance. "Click your heels!" She quickly ordered while throwing out some green pills. They exploded into sections of slime on the ground, some teams getting their feet caught up in the goo.
Doing as told, they shot into the sky and avoided the sinking earth beneath them. They easily landed, the air soles cushioning their fall. Although they managed to get away, there was no time to rest.
In their effort to run away, Uraraka's foot got stuck on the product of Mineta's quirk. Ayano looked at the purple ball, her scouting lenses quickly analyzing what they could. "Tokoyami-san, click your heels with me!"
Midoriya gave her a panicked look. "Aya-chan! The soles will break!" "We have bigger things to worry about!" They shot into the air again. Uraraka's left air sole snapped off, causing Ayano to frown. There was always room for improvement.
"Getting pretty full of yourself, huh, you bastard!" "Tokoyami!" Dark Shadow quickly blocked Bakugou's attack, causing the blond to still in the air. Taking this chance, Ayano lifted her right arm and took aim.
Massive air pressure was shot towards Bakugou from the palm of her hand, hitting him square in the chest. The attack easily unbalanced him. "Sero! You missed!" "It's not me, it was the support girl!" His team members still managed to catch him, but Bakugou didn't miss Ayano's gaze.
As he was falling backwards toward his team, Ayano's eyes never left his. Her scouting lenses had retreated back to the small headset, giving him unimpeded vision of her. Her face was largely impassive as always, but her eyes were ferocious, their silent message entirely clear.
"Don't get in my way."
It was a challenge and a warning.
As she turned to face forward again, the scouting lenses reappeared over her eyes. Bakugou was stunned momentarily before he revealed a predatory smirk, fully bearing his teeth. His appearance held the essence of savagery like usual, but there was something else.
It was excitement.
"We're taking that ten million!"
Team Midoriya was successful in running away so far, but were soon met face to face with Team Todoroki. They were surrounded by walls of ice, forming a makeshift arena. "Aya-chan! Can't we just fly over?"
She shook her head. "The electricity from Kaminari-san's attack has short-circuited the programming in the air soles. Unless we can all click our heels and activate them at the same exact time, we will be slightly off balance. Of course, they do not know that but for someone of Todoroki-san's caliber, I am certain that he could easily find that weakness. He seems rather intent on making an enemy out of you. I would rather not take the risk, as it would be incredibly easy to take us down midair."
Uraraka frowned. "What about the acid pills?" She asked hopefully. "We could certainly use them to melt the ice, but they are rather small. Even if we used a large amount all at once, it would be futile against the speed at which Todoroki-san produces his ice. We would just be trapped again within moments."
All of them grimaced. It seemed that there would be no way out of this situation. The only option would be to keep running within the small space. "Izuku. You noticed, haven't you? Our opening." The boy nodded. "He's not using his flames. As long as they don't know about Tokoyami-kun's weakness, we can keep avoiding them by staying on his left side."
They had managed to keep away from Team Todoroki for five minutes, leaving barely a minute left of the cavalry battle.
"Grab it, Todoroki! Recipro Burst!" The team flew past them, too fast for their eyes to follow and much too fast for them to even act. If it weren't for the scouting lenses giving her screens of information and a play by play of what just occurred, Ayano would've expressed shock as well.
"Charge them! We have to take back the points!" Ayano nearly shuddered from the air around her, and it wasn't because of the coldness from Todoroki's ice. She looked up at Midoriya pulling his arm back, preparing for a punch.
She was not the only one who felt the ominous aura. Midoriya's intent even caused Todoroki's flames to emerge. It got swept away by Midoriya's strength, giving them a chance to take a headband but it was the wrong one.
There were only seconds left on the clock, Ayano's mind scrambled for options and her eyes darted around for an opening. "He's still unnerved by that last attack." She felt Tokoyami shift around, preparing Dark Shadow, and she realized that he noticed the opening as well. She reached into her utility belt, grasping a handful of red pills.
As they charged forward for the last time, she threw the pills at the ground around Team Todoroki's feet. The small explosions created a short diversion to distract his teammates.
"TIME'S UP!"
Midoriya grit his teeth and clenched his fist in defeat. They quickly disassembled from the horse position and Ayano immediately took to fixing up her air soles.
As Present Mic announced the rankings, Midoriya grew more depressed. He began apologizing but was stopped by Uraraka's excited pointing. "Todoroki was clearly shaken by your first attack. I did my best to nab the ten million, but…I came up short."
"Along with Sasaki's explosions serving as another distraction, I managed to get the one on his head when he dropped his guard. Midoriya, that last-ditch effort of yours left Todoroki open."
"In fourth, team Midoriya! These four teams will proceed to the final event!"
Midoriya fell to his knees, bursting into tears. The force of his crying turned the salty water into geysers, the pressure causing his knees to dig into the ground and shattering it. Ayano wondered if Midoriya's new quirk could manifest itself in his tear ducts.