The next two weeks, I kept on hanging out mainly with Tsu and Kirishima and occasionally teasing Bakugo and a little bit Deku. There still were a few classmates that I didn't get to hang out a lot with, like Yaoyorozu, Shoji or Todoroki. But I hope to get to know them a bit better at the festival. Also in these two weeks I trained myself volunteering at break time to work together with Recovery Girl, studying about chemicals and plants and polishing my fighting style.
Today is the day of the festival, the whole school is packed with press, students and pro heroes. I changed in my blue school gear and tied my long hair in a ponytail as I entered the 1-A waiting room. Everybody was already there, I waved at all of them, receiving some waves back, I went to Tsu.
"Hey Tsu, are you ready ?"
"Yes, how about you?"
"So excited about it." I said jumping from foot to foot.
"Midoriya." Todoroki spoke suddenly, stepping towards Deku, I stopped my fidgeting and paid more attention towards them.
"What is it, Todoroki?"
"On an objective basis, I think that I'm above you in terms of practical strength. You've managed to get All Might's eyes on you, right? I feel no need to pry into that, but... I'm going to beat you." he finished with absolute confidence.
"What's this? A declaration of war from the strongest kid in the class!?" Kaminari whispered, then Kirishima went to Todoroki to say "What's with the attitude all of a sudden? Don't spring this on him right before" but he didn't get to finish his sentence as Todoroki continued.
"I'm not here to play nice and make friends. But whatever." Todoroki declared.
"I don't know what you want from me, telling me that." replied Deku.
"You are definitely stronger than me, but even so everybody is aiming for the top with all they have. So I will not fall behind, I am going to go for it with all my might, too." Deku finished with determination, stirring something in all of us.
'He really is something else.'
Soon we were all making our entry, the crowd cheering eagerly. Then Midnight called forth Bakugo to give a speech, and as usual, he roused a bunch of boos and insults.
"All right, so onto the preliminaries, the first round is... OBSTACLE RACE! It's a race between all 11 classes! The course makes nearly 4 km ring around this stadium. You are free to do anything as long as you remain within the course!
On your marks... START!" she shouted.
Everybody pushed through, to pass the gate that was way too narrow, and as soon as I felt a cold wind blowing towards me, I hooked on the nearest shoulders and did a high jump, to not get caught by Todoroki's quirk, I was not the only one with the same tactic.
In front of me, I heard a roar " We won't let you get away that easy, two-face!"
'Definitely Bakugo.' I thought as I focused to enhance my speed and stamina for running, knocking out every student near me when suddenly a big bot appeared and knocked Mineta aside. I heard chatter that it was the bot from the entrance exam, when all of a sudden it froze, falling and blocking the path, when I came near the fallen bot I heard a breaking noises coming from the robot and abruptly Kirishima broke through it, followed by another guy, I jumped on the robot ,while the others were standing shocked, and advanced towards Kirishima holding out my hand to help him up.
"Are you hurt Kirishima?" I asked as I caught his hand and pulled him out of the mess.
"Nah, I'm fine, thanks a lot." he said, grinning and gave me a thumbs-up.
I turned to the other one to help him too, but he was already out therefore I sprinted to catch up to the others. The path was already cleared of the other bots.
When I got to the fall stage, a few of my classmates had been already on the other side. I enhanced the muscles on my feet and sense of balance and took a big jump, landed on the rope, pushing me back and launching me in bigger jumps, I passed through fairly well.
When I got to the land mine stage, I saw Deku digging for something in the ground, I didn't stop to think much of it, but when I was close to pass him by, he hit the ground with the metal piece that he was carrying around and suddenly everything was loud and bright, as the explosions pushed me aside 'What the hell.' When the smoke cleared out, I saw Deku advancing fast to Todoroki and Bakugo, so I pushed myself harder, then I saw the stunt he did to get to the finish line. I crossed the 14th.
'Alright.' I thought as I did a victory dance. When I was done, I made my way to Deku, attacking him from behind, as I ruffled his soft hair.
"Dekuuu." I whined at him "That was not nice, that blow almost sent me to the other side." I exaggerated, putting on a hurt face, as I stopped ruffling him. He started to panic and I grinned mischievously back at him. "But I gotta say, that was very sneaky. Nicely done!" he was blushing profoundly at the praise, then Uraraka approached and said.
"Deku! You were AMAZING! Congrats on first place! But damn it stings!" she shouted to him as he turned deep red.
"The 42 at the top have earned the right to advance!" a loud voice announced in drawing our attention.
"I'm sorry for the kids who failed, but take heart! The festival's showstopper is still being prepared! And now for the post-preliminaries, the final selection. From here on out, even the press corps will teem in a white heat of excitement, so go all out!" She shouted.
"Now then, onto today's heart-pounding second event! Behold! HUMAN CAVALRY BATTLE!"
As she explained the rules and the points system one sentence caught all of our attention.
"With the exception of 1st place, whose head is worth TEN MILLION points!"
Now that was enough for all the remaining students to turn to Deku and overcome him with malice.
I mean I want to win, but I also root for him, I was pretty close to him so I just took his hand in mine, making him jump a little, and calmed him down before I let him go. Rash decisions won't help him. He turned and mouthed a Thank you to me, I just beamed back at him and turned to pay attention at the rest of the explanation.
"All right, you now have 15 minutes until we begin. Start negotiating your team-ups!"
I moved out of the big group to think who I would want to team up with, when Shinso passed in front of me, and like a light bulb I made my decision.
"Heya Shinso. Wanna team up?"
He turned to look at me and raised an eyebrow at my question. Then replied.
"Haruno, right?"
"Call me Sakura." I clarified, smirking, and suddenly I felt a pull, soft like a lullaby, I was losing control of my body.
'Shit, cut the oxygen flow to the brai...aahh.' I suddenly felt weak and fell on my knees, when I didn't feel the pull anymore, I let the oxygen flow back in.
Shinso, suddenly dropped to my level and looked alarmed.
"Don't ever try that again with me, or I will smack you." I said gasping to collect myself.
"How did?" he started.
I glared at him for a second, then answered.
"I just stopped the oxygen flow to my brain, it was the first thing I thought of, when I felt your quirk acting."
He grimaced at my answer.
"You didn't need to put me in a trance. I was the one to ask you if you wanted to team up, you could've said a simple no. What was that anyway, hypnosis?" I scolded him, while getting back on my feet with Shinso's help.
"Brainwash and I won't apologise for it though, you were too easy to target. Besides, I didn't expect you to go to such extreme, you must be paranoid."
"I like to think of myself as prepared, thank you very much." I rebuked. We stared at each other, neither of us saying anything for a while.
'His quirk is weird, but I'm curious to see what he has in mind if I team up with him.'
Shinso let out a sigh and before he could speak, I intervened.
"My question still stands."
"Okay then."
'That was a fast answer.'
"M'kay, so who next?" I pondered as I looked around and saw Aoyama by himself. I nudged Shinso and pointed at the navel laser, who just shrugged at my choice. I took it as a yes.
"Hey Aoyama, you aren't in any team?"
"Oh Madmoizelle, it seems that nobody can contain my beauty." he replied posing and sparkling at me and Shinso.
"Umm, would you like...", but I didn't get to finish my sentence.
"Oui, I accept to be part of your team." he exclaimed.
I heard someone coming towards us. "Hey, do you have space for one more." Ojiro said.
I looked at Shinso, and he just nodded. I turned to Ojiro and smiled agreeing.
"I am Hitoshi Shinso." the purple haired guy beside me began.
"And I am the unforgettable Yuga Aoyama." doing a low sophisticated bow.
'You can say that again.'
"And I am Mashirao Ojiro." slightly bowing his head.
"Sakura." I chimed in.
"Shinso you should be the rider." I suggested.
"Ojiro you can be on the right side, and block attacks with your tail, Aoyama, you can be at the front and defend with your laser, and I can be on the left side, to knock out anybody too close to us.
"That sounds good to me." Ojiro replied.
Before the others could answer, Midnight announced that the match was about to start, so we all got into our positions.
"Are you ready? Start." Midnight cheered.
Almost all of the groups sprinted towards Deku's team.
"Let's go after the remaining teams first, then make our way up from there. Is that okay with all of you?" Shinso asked.
"Yep." I replied, determined.
"Oui."
"Yes." the other two replied after.
So we took off at the first team that was nearest. It was a group made of 2 students. They were pretty easy to handle, as soon as I could touch one of them, they went to sleep, making it easy to grab their headband, the next teams succumbed to the brainwash and just handed out their headbands. It was after a few more teams that I realised that Shinso was much more talkative than Ojiro and Aoyama combined, if it were only Ojiro, I wouldn't give it a second thought, but Aoyama didn't mutter a thing about himself or sparkling stuff, for quite some time.
"Aoyama, are you okay?" I asked. When I didn't get a reply, I realised what was going on.
"Shinso, release the brainwash." I demanded."What is wrong with you, why would you brainwash your teammates?!"
"We already won, so what's the difference if you are aware of it or not."
"What do you mea..."
"Your hard work was appreciated." he said and I saw that Ojiro and Aoyama began to look around confused and then heard "Time up!" The match ended.
'What? Already?'
Shinso was already jumping down, then I caught his glance and frowned at him, as they announced us as the 3rd team to pass, he left and I made my way to Oijiro and Aoyama to check on them.
"Hey guys, are you okay? Does anything hurt?"
"Ummm, what happened, weren't we starting the battle? Where is Shinso?" Oijiro questioned.
"The douche brainwashed you. We got in the 3rd place. Do you feel a headache or anything wrong?" I asked, scooping closer to inspect them.
Aoyama just backed away and sulked in a corner, while Oijiro replied.
"I just feel out of place. That's all."
"I'm sorry, I should have figured it out earlier." I admitted ashamed.
"It's not your fault."
I let out a sigh, and took a walk around the stadium, head hanging low.
'Dammit. Why didn't I notice it earlier, after all those years and you are still as useless and annoying as back then.'I thought as I walked mindlessly around, not really paying attention on my surroundings, feeling like a failure once again, when a loud statement brought me back to reality.
"I'm going to beat you, too!"
It was Deku and Todoroki, Todoroki left not soon after, so I approached Deku.
"Hey there Deku, congrats on passing." I said, forcing a smile, but from the looks of it Deku wasn't fooled.
"Hey Sakura, are you okay?" he asked concerned.
"I will be, I just need to clear my head a little bit." I mumbled, closing my eyes.
"We still have a few minutes till we start, do you... do you want to talk about it?"
I pondered on it, should I, It will pass anyway, I shook my head, I would rather do something more fun.
"Nah, let's go find the Muffin Man." I said mischievously.
"W-who? The Muffin Man?" he replied confused.
"The Muffin Man."
"Who is that?"
"That, my dear Deku, is the calling of a movie marathon, that we need to plan after the festival." I shouted excitedly, as I pushed Deku from behind to find the others.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Boku no Hero Academia, just the plot.