Chapter 10: Here Comes the Cavalry
As Deku sat on the shoulders of his Cavalry Teammates, he felt incredibly... awkward. With Tsuyu by his left hand side, Hatsume on his right, and Aoyama bringing up the front, he shifted uncomfortably as the girls grabbed his sides.
"So we all know the plan, right?" He asked his teammates.
"Oui!"
"Kero," was accompanied with a nod.
"Got it!"
Midoriya stared out as the other teams readied themselves. All of them were staring back as he tied the million point headband around his head. "Believe it," he whispered to himself.
Bakugou and Todoroki were similarly glaring at Midoriya with contempt, making up the second and third place teams, respectively.
He knew he had just placed a target on his head. But, if the plan worked, they just had to survive for fifteen minutes...
"Teams, are you ready?!" Midnight yelled. "Because I think the audience is!"
The audience swelled with yells and applause.
"GO!" Midnight screamed.
As the teams all bum-rushed Midoriya's team, he used a gust of wind at the ground to his right as Asui jumped with all her strength. The combined might of this sent the team about two stories off the ground, at which point Hatsume activated the Slow-Fall of her Boost Boots. Midoriya spun Mjolnir overhead; he couldn't fly while carrying all of them, but with the tech helping, they were able to hover in the air.
As the teams converged below on the spot where Deku's team had been, chaos broke out, just like Deku had hoped for. Monoma of class 1-B stole Bakugou's headband and took off, prompting the explosive hothead to steer his team away to give chase.
"GIVE IT BACK HERE YOU FUCK, I'LL KILL YOU!" Bakugou screamed after Monoma.
Suddenly, from the ground, a flurry of purple spheres and an angry shadow bird came rushing towards them! "Aoyama, now!" Deku shouted.
Aoyama shot his naval laser at Dark Shadow, the light from the attack cutting through the dark creature and forcing him back. The force from the laser also pushed the group away from Mineta's Sticky Balls, as they fell short in the air. They repeated this strategy a few times to get away from some long range Quirks
"So far, so good captain!" Hatsume laughed. "Ten minutes to go."
"Guys, look!" Asui cried.
From below, a ramp formed out of ice and they heard Iida shout something.
"What did he say?" Hatsume asked, "Recipe Turbo - HOLY SHIT!"
Todoroki's entire team, lead by Iida, was boosted up the ice ramp. They zoomed past Midoriya's team, and in midair, Todoroki grabbed Deku's headband with his left hand.
It was over as soon as Deku had blinked. "Wait, WHAT?!"
"Midoriya, we fell to sixth place!" Asui cried.
Deku began to panic, he turned around and saw Todoroki had made an ice ramp for his team to slide down. "NO!"
Without a second thought, he threw Mjolnir, shattering the ice ramp, causing Todoroki's team to begin to fall. Uraraka quickly used her Quirk to make them all float but she looked ready to throw up.
Midoriya dove away from his group and called Mjolnir to him. He flew through the air and towards the team, snatching his headband out of Todoroki's outstretched hand.
As he flew past the team, he saw his team go back up into first place. That was way too close, he thought to himself as he cleared Todoroki's team and flew back to the others. They had descended a bit without his wind abilities to help keep them a loft and Aoyama was using his laser a lot more as Dark Shadow and Mineta's Sticky Balls continued to pursue them.
"A few snags in the plan, but I think we should be okay now," he told the others as he landed.
"I don't know if I can keep this up for another seven minutes, mon ami!" Aoyama grunted.
Before Midoriya could come up with an alternate plan to deal with the onslaught, he heard the fateful call that had disrupted a chunk of his adolescence.
"YOU SHITTY DEKU!"
Bakugou was rocketing through the air using his explosions for a version of flight.
"RECIPRO BOOST!"
Midoriya looked the other way to see Todoroki's team was trying for the same Ice-Ramp-Boost combination. "Back up plan!"
The back up plan was pretty simple; Hatsume disengaged her Boost Boots and the others fell to the ground, while Midoriya took to the air. It worked particularly well, Bakugou passed Todoroki's team in the air and snatched Iida's headband for good measure. But that was a temporary measure, as Bakugou turned in mid air and began ascending towards Midoriya.
"YOU'RE NOT GETTING AWAY THAT EASILY!"
Midoriya flew away; thoughts racing. Kacchan's flight is limited, he can only continually propel himself for so long before the strain on his wrists and gravity would win out. And the explosions meant he had to use a new one to change his trajectory.
This didn't stop Bakugou like Midoriya thought it would though; the two zigzagged throughout the stadium, drawing cheers from the crowd.
--
"This is just like that movie you showed me," Valkyrie said, on the edge of her seat.
"Forrest Gump?" Thor asked.
Valkyrie and Loki both gave him looks of disbelief. "No, the one with the wizards, you dolt. You know, with the broomstick sport."
"Oh right, Harry Potter," Thor laughed. Inko giggled as well.
Loki sighed and rubbed his temples. "Why do I sit between the two of you?"
"YOU BETTER FUCKING GET THAT NERD, KATSUKI!" Bakugou Mitsuki yelled from her seat a few rows down.
"What a charming woman," Loki sneered. "A real Malfoy."
--
"GET BACK HERE!" Bakugou yelled.
Midoriya turned in mid air and shot a bolt of lightning at Bakugou. Bakugou's reflexes were in top shape and he used another explosion to volt himself over the blast.
Then Midoriya realized this would go right into the crowd and yelled, "CRAP!"
He zoomed under Bakugou, just barely flying out of the way of an explosion, racing the lighting strike. He was able to get in front of bolt and spin his hammer in front of it to absorb it.
An explosion rang out next to him no sooner, as Bakugou snatched the million-point headband off of Midoriya's head. This was immediately followed by Bakugou grabbing Midoriya's face and letting loose a huge explosion, sending Deku towards the ground as he dropped Mjolnir in pain.
He was almost eliminated, but Asui's tongue caught him a foot from the ground and pulled him back to their team. Deku coughed and rubbed soot from his face as he was placed back on their shoulders.
"Are you okay, kero?" She asked.
"Yeah... he got the headband... but did the backup plan work?" Midoriya asked.
Asui grinned and held up Bakugou's headband. "Yeah. He never noticed me grab it with my tongue after we all split up."
"Everyone was so distracted by your air stunts it was a lot easier to defend it too!" Hatsume laughed.
Midoriya sighed in relief as the buzzer went off, signifying the end of the Cavalry battle. With Bakugou's headband, combined with the other values of his team, they had slid into second place in the battle.
"That was quite a plan!" Aoyama praised as Midoriya climbed down to the ground.
"Well, it was like three plans," Deku admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. "And I couldn't have done it without you guys."
"Jeez, I just barely was close enough to catch you!" Sero sighed as he reeled Bakugou in with his tape.
"Whatever, Elbows," Bakugou laughed. "I got the Million points!"
The three of his teammates cheered, but as the buzzer went off, Ashido did a double take. "Wait, Bakugou, where's your headband?"
Bakugou slapped his own forehead to see it was blank as he was still holding Midoriya's headband. "...WHAT?!"
He turned around angrily and saw Midoriya's team. At his angered gaze, Asui waved Bakugou's headband at him.
"That...THAT SHITTY FROG TRICKED ME!" He roared.
"Dude, we came in first place," Kirishima said, hesitantly. "It's all good."
"Those GOD DAMN EXTRAS SHOULD BE ELIMINATED!" He yelled in Kirishima's face.
Kirishima calmly wiped some of Bakugou's spit off his face. "Then you can eliminate them in the tournament. You know, the manly way."
"Yeah, we're going to be the team to beat!" Mina beamed.
The words seemed to hit Bakugou as a grin slowly twitched his way onto his face. Even that seemed violent. "I'll get back at that shitty Frog AND that shitty Deku."
"May I have your attention please!"
The students and the frowd hushed as Midnight took the microphone again. "We have our four finalists teams, which will give us sixteen total students to advance to the finals of the First Year Sports Festival!"
Midnight paused as the crowd cheered.
"The finalists will be: Midoriya Izuku! Asui Tsuyu! Hatsume Mei! Aoyama Yuga! Bakugou Katsuki! Sero Hanta! Kirishima Eijiro! Ashido Mina! Todoroki Shoto! Uraraka Ochako! Iida Tenya! Kaminari Denki! Shinsou Hitoshi! Monoma Neito! Kendo Itsuka! And Yaoyorozu Momo!"
The last four gave Midoriya confusion. He looked over to the team to see a General Studies student, Shinsou, had teamed with Monoma, Kendo, and Yaoyorozu. But the other three looked completely confused by the situation as Shinsou climbed down from their backs. Why did Momo team with those three?
From nearby, Midoriya could hear some of the Class 1-B students griping about their lack of participation. But one girl with hooves was trying her best to cheer up in classmates with broken Japenese. "But our my friends can make do good with their fight style! They do big win!"
Midoriya saw the girl and realized she was a transfer student. A for effort.
He was snapped out of his eavesdropping as Hatsume slapped him on the back. "See? What did I tell you guys. We were a perfect combination."
"Kero, that went pretty well." Asui agreed.
"I think you pissed off Bakugou though, Tsuyu," Aoyama warned.
The four turned to look at Bakugou, who was shaking his fist at them angrily yelling, "YOU'RE DEAD, FROG! AND YOU TOO DEKU!"
"I mean, that just seems like how he is every day," Asui shrugged, prompting the rest to laugh.
"You're not wrong," Midoriya grinned. "I think they're about to announce the first round matchups..."
The arena screen suddenly lit up with the bracket for the first round matches:
Midoriya Izuku vs. Iida Tenya
Hatsume Mei vs. Ashido Mina
Monoma Nieto vs. Kirishima Eijiro
Todoroki Shoto vs. Sero Hanta
Kendo Itsuka vs. Yaoyorozu Momo
Asui Tsuyu vs. Kaminari Denki
Uraraka Ochako vs. Aoyama Yuga
Bakugou Katsuki vs. Shinsou Hitoshi
Midoriya couldn't help it, the nerves that went up his spine as he read these standings. He looked down and his eyes met Iida's. The taller boy just smirked, which just prompted Deku to grip Mjolnir tighter. His power was no match for Iida's speed.
"Midoriya Izuku?"
Deku turned to see Cementoss had approached with Midnight. "Yes, sir?"
"I've been discussing with the faculty and I was hoping you could clarify something; part of your Quirk is to summon your hammer to your side?" Cementoss asked.
"Er... yes." Midoriya agreed, unsure of how else to explain it came with the title of godhood.
By now, all sixteen contestants had gathered in a bit closer to listen in.
"Very well," Cementoss nodded. "Contestants are to start each match without the aid of items - unless they are in Support of course. You must leave your hammer on the side of the field until the match begins."
"What?!" He objected. "That doesn't make sense, if I'm going to have the hammer anyway."
"Rules are rules," Cementoss shrugged. "If your Quirk summons the hammer, you'll just have to compensate."
"Sir," Aoyama interjected, "I am allowed to use my laser's gear, is that not the same?"
Cementoss shook his head. "No. Without that, your Quirk runs the risk of causing yourself great harm. It's considered necessary. It is not necessary for Midoriya to start with the hammer."
Deku frowned but slowly nodded. "Alright, I understand." He turned to Aoyama and whispered, "thanks."
But as Cementoss walked away, he could see the hungry looks he was getting from most of the other students. Momo, however, placed a hand on his shoulder as she approached from behind. "I face the same handicap, Midoriya."
"What do you mean?" He asked, turning to face her.
"Well, it takes me time to create items," she frowned. "Even if it's a few split seconds, it puts us at a disadvantage."
Deku realized she was right. Her creation work was powerful but required a build up time. His mind was already racing, thinking of Quirks that could compliment hers on a Hero team, but he caught himself starting to mutter, and snapped himself out of it. "Ah...you're right. But... your Quirk is amazing. We'll figure something out." He smiled. "Thanks, Vice President."
"You'll all have half an hour to prepare! Better start strategizing, Heroes!" Midnight said into the microphone.
Cementoss began leading the students to the two different waiting rooms backstage and advised, if you were about to face off against someone, to wait in opposite rooms to avoid any high tensions.
But as everyone began to enter the rooms Midoriya noticed Todoroki storm off down the hall. This gave him pause.
"Kero?" Tsuyu asked, when she noticed he wasn't following her in. "What's up, Midoriya?"
"I... think I'm going to take a walk," he lied, "clear my head a bit. It helps me think better."
"Kero," she ribbited, "don't get too distracted, you're up first."
He gave her a small smile. "I won't. Thanks."
Midoriya paced down the hallways that Todoroki had stormed though, trying not to be too loud so that he could maybe hear someone else's footsteps or voice. It didn't take long for him to hear what sounded like arguing from another hallway over.
As he followed the sound, he recognized one of the voices as Todoroki. But the other voice was recognizable as well... Why?
"You've been holding back."
Who is that? Midoriya thought, creeping towards the corner.
"It's my choice," said Todoroki, seething.
The other voice have a laugh full of condescension. "You're denying the power given by your birthright, Shouto."
Birthright? This guy is talking like some asshole version of Thor...
"I can be the number one Hero on my own, father." Todoroki spat. "With just my left side."
That's his dad? Yikes.
"You can't deny me forever. You were born to be the Number One Hero. We can finally take down All Might!"
Midoriya's curiosity got the better of him and he snuck a peek around the corner. It took all of his self control not to gasp as he his back around the corner.
"Todoroki's dad is... Endeavor?" Midoriya whispered to himself.
"FIVE MINUTES TO ROUND ONE. MIDORIYA IZUKU AND IIDA TENYA TO GATES 1 AND 2."
That was Midnight's voice over an intercom.
No time to process this, Midoriya gulped. It's showtime.