Chapter 7 - Dogfight
A short while after the first event, Midnight explained the next event to the remaining participants: a cavalry battle where they had to team up and gain the most points by grabbing other teams' headbands. Everyone was given 15 minutes to form teams and then the event would begin.
It was during the time that people were choosing their teams that Tomo realized something. He didn't really have any friends in the class. Sure, he was probably on neutral or friendly terms with most of his classmates, but none of them were the "first person you looked at when deciding groups" type of friends. Tomo admittedly did look for Kirishima at first but was slightly saddened when he saw the boy hovering the outskirts of the growing crowd around Bakugo. Everyone else seemed to be choosing their friends or gravitating towards Bakugo or Todoroki.
Tomo tried asking Tokoyami but the mysterious boy replied that "the sun favored their shadows to be of different shades today" and walked away as if that were a real answer.
"Hey, Tomo!"
Tomo turned to see Kirishima approach him with a grin.
"Hey," he greeted back with a small smile of his own.
"Come with me. We'll be on Bakugo's team."
Tomo wanted to say no. He really wanted to say no. Bakugo humiliated him and now he was going to ask him to be his teammate? He might as well lick his boots and kiss the dirt he walked on. The eager look on Kirishima's face and the lack of other options made Tomo swallow some of his pride. "Uh, sure."
Kirishima took Tomo towards Bakugo, who had a crowd of people around him, all begging to be on his team. "Bakugo! Team up with us!"
Bakugo turned towards them and eyed both of them. He scowled at the sight of Tomo, to which Tomo replied with a scowl of his own. The answer was clear. "I don't need the help of Baggy Eyes over here. He's someone I'm going to CRUSH!"
Kirishima made sounds of protest but Tomo spoke up before they further wasted time. "Fine, whatever," he replied as he walked away. Kirishima called after him.
He walked away and eye'd Toru, who had begun to form her own group. Normally, they preferred to do group assignments independent of each other. However, Tomo was finding his options more and more limited by the second. Before he could walk over towards her, a steady and firm hand on his shoulder stopped him. "Hey, man. I was calling for you."
"Kirishima?" Tomo said in surprise. "Bakugo made it clear he doesn't want me and frankly, I don't really want to be on his team either. Don't feel bad and stay with me out of pity. I'll be fine."
"It's fine bro. Bakugo can find other teammates. You don't have a team yet, right? Let me join!" Kirishima replied happily.
Tomo raised an eyebrow at the red-head. "Not that I'm not grateful, but why?"
Kirishima gave him a grin and held a fist up. "I asked you first about teaming up. It wouldn't be very manly of me to get you to follow me to Bakugo and then leave you behind when Bakugo rejected you. So, let's team up! We'll show him what he missed out on!"
Tomo replied with a grin. Kirishima consistently knew exactly what to say to get him hyped. "Sure. Thanks. Now, who else can we ask?"
"Hey," a new voice greeted the two boys. They both turned to it to see Shoji and Tsu looking at them. "Want to team up?"
"Sure," Tomo replied as he realized he became the de facto leader of the group with the way everyone asked him to team up.
"Alright!" Kirishima exclaimed in excitement. "Now this is a squad!"
Tomo couldn't help but feel some of Kirishima's excitement rub off on him. Hardening, Frog, and Dupli-Arms. Along with Darkness, we actually have a pretty decent lineup. Defense, offense, and utility.
"You look like you have a plan, Tomo," Tsu commented inquisitively by the look on Tomo's face.
Tomo nodded. His mind was racing with the possibilities. The spark of competitiveness and frustration started by him at the end of the previous round ignited into determination as he thought about taking down the other teams. "I do. We're going to win this, you guys hear me? I'm not about to lose to some weaklings like Bakugo or Todoroki." There's no way I'm losing again. Not to the likes of Bakugo. He's going to feel the defeat I felt in the last round.
He looked over at the other teams. Bakugo had Sero, Ashido, and Sato. Todoroki had Iida, Yaoyorozu, and Kaminari. None of the other teams mattered as far as he was concerned.
He continued, "You guys carry me. I will win this for us. Tsu and Shoji, you two are the left and right wings. Keep away anyone who tries to sneak up on us with your Quirks. Kirishima, you're in front. You'll be the unbreakable wall that'll defend us from any direct attacks. I'll cover the rest. We aren't losing a single skirmish, mark my words."
After his speech was over, the reactions varied. Kirishima looked at him with admiration at his declaration. Shoji looked at him in surprise. Tsu looked at him curiously. However, they all ended up humming in agreement with his plan.
"What about Midoriya?" Shoji asked. The others nodded while looking to Tomo for an answer.
"If an opportunity presents itself, we'll go after him. However, he won't be our main focus. I don't even think he can hold on to his headband. Everyone else will be busy also going after him. Chasing him sounds like a waste of time and effort. We'll just pick off the weak groups and decide from there."
"And what about Toru?" Tsu asked with a pondering finger on her mouth.
Tomo looked at her, confused. "What about her? If you're asking if we'll go after her or avoid her, I don't know. It doesn't matter. Toru and I both know there's no hard feelings if we end up fighting. If there's an opportunity, we'll take it. Anything else?"
The others shook their heads.
Present Mic's countdown started.
"Three!"
"Alright! Let's do this!" Kirishima shouted in an effort to hype them up.
"Two!"
"Ribbit," Tsu added.
"One!"
"We're winning this," Tomo declared confidently.
"Start!" Midnight shouted.
Most of the teams expectedly made a dash towards Midoriya's team in an attempt for his 10 million point headband.
"There's no point in wasting energy chasing other teams. Let's just stay here and let them come to us. We're actually in 5th place by default with our points combined so people will probably come to us thinking we're an easy pick," Tomo reassured his team. As much as he immediately wanted to find and destroy Bakugo, he knew that he had to plan strategically. The competitiveness was fueling him to try as hard as possible. He would be letting his teammates down if he ordered them to charge in headfirst without a plan. He needed to see how Bakugo's team functioned first.
Like he had declared, one team did come up to them to challenge them. It was a team of two boys. Tomo scanned their appearance, trying to get a feel for what their Quirks were. One had a braid and looked similar to a reptile and the other one was hairy and beast-like in appearance.
Weak.
The other team charged at them in an attempt to close the distance.
"Hold still. I'll handle them," Tomo declared in a slightly bored tone, unimpressed by what he was looking at. He kept his focus on Bakugo's team in the corner of his eyes.
The rider of the other team turned his arms into scales and launched a few of them at Tomo. He responded by bringing up a small Dark Wall to block the projectile. Then, he lazily waved his hand to launch a Dark Wave at his opponents. The horse of the other team responded by just tanking the attack head-on, which seemed to do very little damage to him.
Tomo turned his full focus back to his opponents, furrowing his eyebrows in concentration as he realized this wasn't as easy as he thought it would be. He raised both hands to the sides and flooded out Darkness from them, creating two giant Dark Hands in the air. With a giant clap, he brought the two Hands into his opponents, who were clearly not prepared to react to an attack of that scale. The Hands wrapped around the opposing team and Tomo made sure the angle was such that the beast-like horse of the opposing team would be unable to brute force his way out of the hold. Then, Tsu shot out her tongue and snagged the headband for their team, adding 125 more points to their total.
"Try fighting us again and see what'll happen," Tomo declared menacingly before releasing them. The opposing team got the message and scurried off to find another team to fight.
"Wow, you can be scary sometimes, did anyone ever tell you that?" Tsu commented.
"Whatever," Tomo replied in disappointment. He wanted to fight the stronger teams but he decided to stick to his priority: gathering intel.
A purple-haired boy decided to challenge them next. He looked Tomo directly in the eyes with a bored expression not too different from his own. "Hey, let's have a good fight. My team versus yours. Sound good?"
Something about the boy seemed off to him but Tomo couldn't figure out what exactly it was. After a short staredown, he replied, "Sure…"
"Give me your headband," the boy commanded with an arrogant and victorious smirk. That command flooded Tomo's mind like water from an overflowing dam, the words repeating inside his head over and over.
"Tomo? Hey? Are you alright?" a distant voice called out to him.
Suddenly, the echoes of his command dissipated. At the same time, the purple-haired boy shouted in terror. The expression he gave Tomo was one of pure fear and disbelief. "W-What? What… are you? Y-You… you aren't… right."
Tomo raised an eyebrow. That guy's Quirk definitely did something. But what? "Hm?"
"Y-You… Those… voices… What are… Are those voices always there too?" the boy asked, pale as a ghost.
Voices? Is he talking about Darkness? Did he peer inside my mind? Mind reading? Mind control? Is that why he gave me that command? But it obviously failed or he wouldn't be looking at me like he shit his pants. Should I feel offended? "What's one more voice among a hundred?" Tomo replied with a shrug as he summoned a Dark Hand to steal his opponent's headband. Is he purposely making himself look that wide open for an attack? Is this a part of his plan?
The response froze his opponent as he looked like he couldn't process what was happening. Neither him nor his teammates put up any protest when the Dark Hand casually stole the headband in plain view.
"You hero students aren't right…" the boy eventually muttered to himself. He looked as if he still hadn't registered that he lost his headband.
"Uh, I guess we'll go somewhere else," Tomo suggested to his teammates, who all watched the strange interaction in silence. They definitely seemed unnerved by the purple-haired boy's reaction as well. He only had 80 points but I guess it's better than nothing. We have 805 points now which barely puts us in 4th. But there's still 20 minutes left. Our pace is good.
"Are you guys doing alright? We can take a break if you guys need to catch your breaths." Tomo looked down at each of his teammates as he asked the question. While the team wasn't the most talkative group, Tomo felt like he had to say something because the prolonged silence was starting to get uncomfortable.
"Uh… yeah. I'm good," Kirishima started, some nerves sprinkled in his voice. "What was that about? Are you alright?"
"Yeah, don't worry about me. I'm fine," Tomo replied dismissively. He hoped his casual tone would hide just how uncomfortable he really felt about what happened.
"I'm fine," Shoji answered after a contemplative pause. If he had noticed Tomo's discomfort, he seemed to have decided not to press for a better answer.
"Me too," Tsu added. "We haven't really done anything yet to require a break, ribbit."
"Alright, how about we go after the teams closest to us in the standings. Then, we go after the top 2," Tomo suggested. His team hummed in agreement. Bakugo is doing most of the work for his team just like I am. He hasn't noticed the guy who has been stalking him yet. We should be able to clash soon. We both just need to collect more points to secure our placement.
They approached a team of girls from Class B who looked to be doing nothing but watching Midoriya's team run around.
"I can't snatch it from here. He's too far from us," a silver-haired girl said to their rider.
"I can't snatch it from him either. My hands are getting swatted away by that shadow creature," a green-haired girl added in frustration as what looked like her hand flew back into her body. She then seemed to notice their team sneaking up on them. "Hey, Kendo, we got company."
The two teams faced each other down. Tomo decided to make the first move and threw a Dark Wave at the rider to see how she would respond. The orange-haired girl quickly enlarged her fist and punched the Darkness, shattering it into nothingness.
"Hey! Watch out for the green one's hands!" Shoji said suddenly in alarm. "Asui! Keep them away from us."
"Call me Tsu, ribbit," Tsu replied as she started swatting away the various body parts that flew in the air around them with her tongue.
During the commotion, Tomo felt a tug on his forehead where his headbands were. Before he could realize what happened, all of the headbands on his head flew off his head and towards his opponents. He widened his eyes in alarm. "Hey, the headbands! Tsu, help me!"
"On it," Tsu replied as she swiftly changed from swatting the body parts away to chasing after the headbands with her tongue.
At the same time, Tomo shot out a fast few tendrils of Darkness to wrap around one of the floating headbands. He briefly entered a tug-of-war with whoever had the telekinesis Quirk on the opposing team. It was hardly a battle as his Darkness proved to be superior and he managed to snatch back one of the headbands. Tsu grabbed another with her tongue. However, the original 600-point headband their team started with was firmly in the hands of their opponents.
"We'll be taking this!" the green-haired girl gleefully declared.
Kirishima grunted in annoyance. "I can't stand here and do nothing like a coward! Let's go up close and get that headband back!"
Tomo hummed in agreement. Their team is scarily good at stealth with the telekinesis and detachable body parts. Their rider's Quirk lets her enlarge her fists for defense. What's the last girl's Quirk?
Shoji seemed to be of one mind with Tomo as he relayed his concerns about the last girl aloud to his teammates. Their team carefully approached their opponents, who looked ready to defend their new prize.
After a shared look of agreement with her silver-haired teammate, the girl with the unknown Quirk spoke up. "Go, my little shrooms, attack!" she declared with a wave of her hand.
"Incoming!" Shoji called out as a barrage of mushrooms and body parts started flying all around them in unison.
"Shoji, can you track them for us? Relay to me or Tsu where they're coming from and we'll defend."
"Got it," Shoji replied as he grew a few extra scouting limbs. He did exactly that as they marched forward. They worked like a well-oiled machine as they marched. As soon as one mushroom or body part got too close, Shoji called out the location and Tomo or Tsu used their Quirks to swat it away. The few that managed to get by their defense were shrugged off by Kirishima's Hardened body or Tomo's Darkness.
After getting smacked by one too many hands, Tomo had enough. This is getting more annoying than fun. Time to end this.
Tomo took a deep breath to gather his focus. He created a giant Dark Wall and launched it at his opponents. Behind the wall, with four carefully aimed swipes of his hand, Tomo threw tiny blankets of Darkness amidst the chaos. Like he expected, the orange-haired girl punched the wall and destroyed it. What she didn't see was the small pieces of Darkness Tomo threw in the second wave. He knew his maneuver caught his opponents by surprise when they all yelped in confusion as the Darkness hit their faces and covered their eyes, temporarily blinding them.
"Now's our chance!" he yelled. Their window of opportunity was closing by the second as one girl realized she could just grab the Darkness off of her eyes to regain vision. As soon as she started to relay this information to her teammates, Tsu's tongue swiftly moved in to swipe the 600-point headband back into their possession.
The numerous cheap shots Tomo had taken from the detachable limbs, even after the fight was basically over, was making him angry. This team gave him a headache from how tricky they were to battle. Darkness rumbled in his hands in response to his anger and he was feeling himself when he began his next attack. "And now, as a departing gift. Dark Dome!" Tomo announced as he manifested the Darkness around his opponents and trapped them in a small sphere of Darkness.
"Wow! Team Tomo encases Team Kendo is a globe of Darkness! I hope none of them are afraid of the dark!" Present Mic shouted excitedly. In a quieter voice, he added, "I know I wouldn't want to be in there." The crowd seemed to love what Tomo did as the cheers got louder.
"Quick, it won't hold them for long. Let's get away from here and stay away from that team," he commanded. Then, he quickly added, "Well done everyone. We made a pretty good team right there."
"Are you kidding me?! You did most of the heavy lifting. That was so manly!" Kirishima said enthusiastically.
"I agree. You did well, Tomo. You too, Tsu," Shoji added.
"Thanks, but guys, this isn't over yet. We can congratulate each other when this is over, ribbit," Tsu said in an effort to refocus everyone.
"Right," they said in unison.
Due to their 2nd place standings after their most recent skirmish, several of the 0-point teams, desperate for points, challenged Team Tomo. But, like Tomo expected, they had 0 points for a reason and proved to not even be a challenge.
"Team Bakugo moves into second place just barely!" Present Mic announced. "We still have seven minutes left and it's anyone's game! Team Midoriya still holds the 10 million! Can anyone grab it?!"
Shoji pointed towards Team Midoriya with one of his extra limbs. "Look. Todoroki's team is there too. Bakugo's team will definitely go after Midoriya now, too. Do you guys want to go there as well?"
"Yes," Tomo replied confidently. "Let's make this interesting."
Their team moved within Bakugo's vision. The boy looked at Tomo before looking back to Midoriya, angrily trying to figure out where his priorities lay. He seemed to decide that Midoriya was more important until Tomo spoke out. "Hey, Bakugo. Are you running away from a challenge? Let's see who's better, you or me."
That seemed to be just the right words to push Bakugo's buttons. He punched the head of poor Sato over and over as he spoke. "LISTEN HERE, BAGGY EYES. I'M NOT RUNNING AWAY FROM ANYTHING. I'M GOING TO DESTROY YOU AND YOUR SHITTY TEAM AND THEN I'M GOING TO TAKE THE 10-MILLION FROM DEKU!"
Tomo grinned. He looked down at his teammates. "You guys ready for this?"
"I believe in you, Tomo," Kirishima shouted with a grin. "Let's show him what he missed out on by rejecting you."
Both teams charged at each other. Once they were close enough, Bakugo launched an Explosion aimed straight at Tomo. He quickly responded by bringing up a Dark Wall, which absorbed the Explosion but also shattered into pieces and faded away. I can cancel out his Explosions. How does he do versus my attacks?
The two teams passed each other and turned around for another charge. It was as if they were jousting and readying for another tilt. This time when they passed by each other, Bakugo tried again to launch a larger Explosion at Tomo, who again neutralized it with his Darkness, much to the blond boy's anger.
When the teams turned to run by each other again, Bakugo this time leapt off his horses and ran at Tomo's team in fury. Tomo decided to meet his challenge and also jumped off his own horses and sprouted Dark Wings to meet Bakugo halfway in the air.
"WHOA! Tomo and Bakugo are having a dogfight! With only five minutes left, who will come out on top in this battle for the skies?!" Present Mic shouted.
Tomo quickly learned their aerial fight was deadeven. Any Explosion Bakugo launched at Tomo was absorbed with Darkness. At the same time, any Darkness Tomo threw at Bakugo was shattered with an Explosion. Both boys exchanged blows in the air before landing back with their respective teams.
Tomo didn't know it was possible but Bakugo grew even angrier. Tomo heard him shouting at his team. "Flat Face, Raccoon Eyes, Big Lips, you shitty extras better pull your weight this time or else."
"You guys better be ready for whatever they throw at us as well," Tomo said to his team as well. The exchanges with Bakugo made him feel more awake. He felt the adrenaline running through his body and couldn't help but break out in a maniacal smile.
This time, Ashido launched Acid at the floor beneath her team's feet and Sero launched Tape on both sides of Tomo's team. With a yell, Team Bakugo launched their rider at Team Tomo with significantly more speed than before. Bakugo used the increased velocity and Explosions trailing behind him to turn himself into a bullet.
Tomo flew up again to meet him.
"DIE!" Bakugo shouted in fury as he flew towards Tomo.
With barely any time to react, Tomo swung his left arm to throw a Dark Wave at Bakugo, who easily swatted it aside. At the same time, Tomo used his other arm to make an uppercut motion. The Darkness right below Bakugo's airspace instantly manifested and went on a collision course with Bakugo.
Bakugo turned his head around briefly midair and smirked when he saw the attack miss. His speed was just too much for Tomo to respond to. "You idiot, as if a weak attack like that could ever hit me."
Before Tomo could decide on any further action, Bakugo flew within his guard and launched an Explosion directly at him.
Shit. He's so fast.
While Tomo scurried to defend himself from the attack, Bakugo used the opening to grab three headbands off of Tomo's forehead. With half the mission accomplished, Bakugo quickly launched himself back towards his team to reset himself.
"TEAM BAKUGO GRABS THREE HEADBANDS FROM TEAM TOMO! TEAM TOMO FALLS TO SIXTH PLACE! TWO MINUTES LEFT! CAN THEY RECOVER?!" Present Mic shouted in excitement.
No way. There's no way I'm letting him beat me again. Tomo waved his hands not at Bakugo, but at his team. A Dark Dome surrounded them as Bakugo made his way back to them. At the same time, Tomo launched a flurry of Dark Waves at Bakugo's back.
Bakugo judged the distance with himself and his trapped team and himself and the incoming attacks. He decided to reach his team and planted his feet on the Dark Dome and turned around to deal with the incoming Waves, Explosions shattering them as they came at him.
Let's see if you can deal with this. Tomo furrowed his eyebrows in concentration. Then, he rotated one hand and made a pulling gesture with the other hand. Darkness grabbed Bakugo's feet and a tendril flew out from the Dome, managing to snag only the headbands Bakugo stole as he was distracted by the multi-layered attack. The tendril, along with the headbands, launched back towards Tomo, who flew to meet it and Bakugo.
Tomo caught the headbands and landed back onto his team. Shit, I couldn't get all of them in one swipe. His situational awareness is so good that he managed to hold onto some of them.
He leapt up again as did Bakugo.
Tomo held a palm forward as several walls of Darkness stood between him and Bakugo. Just like every other move he tried, this one was also shattered by Bakugo's Explosion. As the Darkness dissipated, Tomo flew right into Bakugo's guard this time, dodging the Explosion Bakugo threw up instinctively by curving his body midair. One palm was aimed straight at Bakugo's back while Bakugo aimed his own palm at Tomo's stomach, an Explosion primed. Tomo was desperately running out of airtime as he fell closer and closer to the ground. This is the attack that decides the match.
Before they could launch their attacks, a buzzer sounded throughout the arena.
"TIME'S UP!" Present Mic declared. "Let's see the results!"
Both boys canceled their attacks and let themselves fall to the floor. Tsu's tongue caught Tomo and Sero's Tape caught Bakugo. Tomo let out a long sigh of disappointment while Bakugo let out a scream of frustration.
"This isn't over," Tomo said to Bakugo with a scowl.
Bakugo turned to him with a murderous glare. "SHUT UP BAGGY EYES. I'M GOING TO MURDER YOU IF WE FIGHT, YOU GOT THAT? FIRST, I'LL GET THAT SHITTY DEKU. THEN, YOUR SHITTY ASS AND FINALLY, THE HALF-AND-HALF BASTARD. IT'LL BE A GRAND SLAM. NO ONE WILL QUESTION MY COMPLETE VICTORY."
Tomo chose to not reply. The itch of needing to beat Bakugo grew stronger as he walked away.
Present Mic started announcing the results. "In first place, with the 10 million points secured, Team Todoroki! Second, by the skin of their teeth, Team Bakugo! In third place, as you expected, Team Tomo! And finally! They may have lost the 10 million points but they didn't lose hope! Team Midoriya! These four teams will advance to the final round!"
Everyone was given an hour break to eat and rest up before the afternoon recreational activities and, more importantly, the final round started.
A/N: Thanks for reading. Just a random thought from when I was writing this: Team Kendo is WAYYYY too overpowered to not win the cavalry battle but I guess either the author didn't create their Quirks yet or just didn't care. Next week concludes the Sports Festival arc. Any thoughts, comments, or feedback are always appreciated.