"A group event?" Minoko muttered, staring at the words on the screen.Not here to make friends my ass,she thought, snickering in her mind when she remembered Todoroki's declaration in the waiting room.
"Let me explain," Midnight said, facing the hologram as it displayed All Might being carried by Thirteen and Present Mic. "Participants will form their own groups with members ranging from 2 to 4 people. The rules are not different from the usual cavalry battle. In fact, there's only one difference," she faced them.
"Based on the results of the last race, you will be awarded points," Midnight changed the display on the screen to the leaderboard, but this time it had more numbers beside their names. "That's right, the 43rd placer will receive five points, then the 42nd with 10 points, and so on."
That means I have…who needs math when you can just look up the leaderboard,210 points. Which means Midoriya has 2—wait a minute.Minoko's pretty confident in her math abilities as long as it isn't mental math, but no amount of bad 'math-ing' would get itthatwrong.
"And for first place, 10,000,000 points!"
Minoko could feel Midoriya freeze in front of her at the announcement. Everyone was eyeing the green haired boy at this point.Like a fish in a tank of sharks.Minoko placed a hand on Midoriya's shoulder. It was time for payback. "Goodluck," she said, with a smirk.
After explaining the rules a bit more—riders can't touch the ground, teams can't leave the venue, all that—Midnight had allowed them fifteen minutes to form teams. Minoko was wondering who she could team up with. She'd probably look for someone who'd know what they're doing. She's a fast thinker, yeah, but strategic? Not so much. Minoko looked over to where her classmates immediately abandoned Midoriya and was about to get herself bombarded by requests to join her team when a hand clasped her wrist.
"Hey," a voice said.
"Wha—" Minoko wasn't even able to finish her sentence when a wave of blankness washed over her. She feels her mind being clouded as a familiar person appears in her line of sight.Is that…Shinsou?
"Follow me," he said, walking further from the swarm of students.
Minoko could feel her body moving to obey the command.What the hell is going on?She thought, focusing on her feet as she tried to stop them from moving. She groaned in her mind when it became clear her attempts were useless.Is this his quirk then?She wondered for a moment.Mind Control? If it is, then it's no wonder he didn't get many points at the entrance exam.She frowned—well, in her mind anyway—at the thought. The entrance exam isn't the most fair. Definitely in more favor of offensive quirks. If it wasn't for the rescue points, she would've failed too.
She sighed internally,Doesn't mean I like this situation. What is he even planning to accomplish? Build a team? Has he never heard of asking politely?
Minoko mindlessly wandered behind Shinsou as he looked around for potential teammates. The two of them walked over to a short and chubby 1B student with ice blue hair. "Hey," Shinsou called to him.
The boy turned around, "Umm wha—"
In that instant, Minoko could see the boy's eyes lose their color and become a bit more hollow.Is he under Shinsou's control too? How does he do it?She wonders. It definitely wasn't through touch as she originally suspected since he didn't grab the 1B student like he did her.So the only other options are by sight or voice.
It seems like Shinsou was going for a full four person team as he ordered for them to follow him again. They turned right and Minoko knew who he was going after.Run for it Ojirou,she thought, but as expected, it did nothing.
"Hey 1A," Shinsou called Ojirou.
The tailed boy turned to him with a slight glare, but said nothing. His silence made Shinsou shift his weight from his right foot to his left. "Not even gonna respond? That's quite rude ya know"
"What do you wan—"
Shinsou smirked.Call and response?Minoko wondered. Ojirou was definitely in his line of sight, and if it was just his voice, Ojirou would have been under his control the moment he said 'Hey'.
"That should be 500 points in total," Shinsou muttered, "We just need to get a couple big pointer headbands and we should be set." He led them towards where Midnight was handing out headbands, and got their own.
Shinsou tied it around his head and fixed their team formation with Shinsou as the rider, the 1B kid to his right, Ojirou in front, and finally Minoko to his left—making sure to take caution of her quirk by commanding her not to let all fingers touch Ojirou's shoulder..
"You formed your teams, yeah?!" Present Mic's voice echoed through the arena. "Let's get started with the countdown! Three…Two…One!"
"START!"
Upon the call, everyone, including their team, went after Midoriya's team. If her eyes could, they would probably widen at the freaking jetpack that Midoriya has. The fact that they could use jetpacks means they were self made by that support student. Minoko could see the wide grin on the pink haired girl's face.Mom would really like her,she thought, reminiscing the look on her mom's face when she finally made something do what she wanted.
Once Midoriya was up in the air, some teams still went after him, while the others scattered to attack the other teams. One of them, a combination of a green haired boy and blond girl from 1B, went after their team.
"Kaeda, teleport us out of here," Shinsou ordered, eyeing the team heading for them. Minoko's body did nothing. "Hey, I asked you to do something!" Still nothing. Shinsou clicked his tongue, "Tail guy, knock them away."
Of course nothing's gonna happen,Minoko though,it's what it's called sometimes for simplicity, but I can't actually just teleport. That's not how my quirk works.
Ojirou used his tail to push away the incoming team, and hits Minoko's arm in the process. "Move towards that team," Shinsou ordered, pointing towards a team composed of 1B students who are all female. Minoko recognizes one of them as 1B's class pres, Kendo.
Minoko blinked, her feet were moving along with the team but not like before. She was very much conscious of the fact that she was following Shinsou's orders. And by that she means, she was willingly moving her feet.I must have snapped out of it when Ojirou hit my arm earlier.
"You know, teaming up is fine and dandy," Minoko felt Shinsou tense at her words, "but it would have been nice if you asked normally."
"You—"
Minoko ignored the boy, "Hey, Ojirou," she said, "time to wake up." She stopped running, making the whole team stumble. She felt their cavalry nearly collapse, but they managed to maintain their balance.
"Wha—what's going on?" Ojirou asked.
"You three—" Shinsou started, but was cut off.
"We're in the cavalry battle," Minoko addressed Ojirou. "And the four of us are a team now, thanks to this guy," she nodded her head towards Shinsou.
"Oh yeah, I…don't recall how we became a team?" the 1B students said.
"You!" Ojirou exclaimed, glaring at the purple haired teen.
Shinsou sneered, "What?"
"HEY!"Minoko exclaimed before Ojirou could respond. "We should probably run if we don't wanna end up losing," she said. They've been standing around for too long. They were lucky that most teams were after Midoriya's.
They started circling around the arena, not yet engaging in any battles until they've settled this whole predicament. "This would have been a lot easier if you just let me do my plan," Shinsou started.
"What plan?" the 1B kid asked, instantly falling under Shinsou's control.
"Ojirou, hit him with your tail," Minoko said.
"What?" He asked, but followed anyway, hitting the boy lightly.
Once he snapped out of Shinsou's control, Minoko spoke, "Hey, what's your name?" she asked.
"Shouda Nirengeki," he said.
"Like I said, I have a plan," Shinsou started.
"Shouda, did you know Shinsou's quirk requires a response?" Minoko asked, making Shinsou click his tongue.
"So you figured it out?" he asked. "How?"
She bit her tongue, nearly responding. "Ojirou, you fell under his control once you talked back, not when he first called you, so I figured from there," she answered Shinsou's question without replying to him directly.
They were too distracted with their bickering about the situation that they were in, they didn't even notice it, until it had swiped Shinsou's headband away. A piece of flesh? Minoko wasn't sure, but it floated up in the air with their headband, towards Team Kendo, the group Shinsou wanted to attack earlier.Is this Karma?
The four of them yelped as Kendo waved at them and headed for some other team. Minoko could feel her eye twitching. She had 210 points to her name and from the looks of it, could probably recruit a stronger, more compatible team. But alas, here she was with two still confused teammates, and one teammate she can't even have a conversation with.
She clicked her tongue, eyeing the leaderboard, "Alright, I'm gonna be straight with you three, we ain't leaving that 11th spot if we don't actually act as a team and plan out attacks," she said.
"How exactly are we going to do that when five minutes have already passed?" Shouda asked.
"Yeah, no thanks to someone," Ojirou glared at Shinsou, who glared back.
This whole thing would be easier if she can just get a good view of all the teams, go to her pocket dimension and start swapping the headbands from there. Unfortunately, if they stay in there for too long, they might get disqualified for leaving the venue. "Shouda, I know you're a little disheartened right now, but as long as there's time, we can still do something about this," she said, receiving an 'okay' from the boy.
She then faced her classmate, "Ojirou, I get that you're…frustrated with this situation, but uhh think of it as a random team up. All Mightdidsay that this would happen a lot when we're pros, right?" He obviously wasn't happy with it, but nodded regardless.
Minoko doesn't wanna say it, but they were quite lucky their headband got stolen, 'cause if it didn't, they wouldn't be able to have this calm—if you can call it that—talk. "Shinsou," she addressed their rider, "This game is about teamwork, and one of the foundations of it is trust. I know you have a whole plan in there even taking our quirks into consideration, consideringyouwere the one who picked us out. But you can't just use your quirk to make us perform our best, you don't even know the extent of our quirk," she said, giving him a look, "You can still do call outs since you're the rider, but you have to trust us to move on our own and make decisions for the betterment of the team."
Shinsou had a conflicted look as Minoko continued, "Which means, we're gonna need to be able to trust you too," she said. Shinsou knew that since the entire team already knew how his quirk works, this is the best they can do.
"Fine," he said.
"Great!" Minoko didn't hesitate to reply. "We don't have a lot of time, so which—eh?! Team Bakugou has zero points?" she exclaimed. "That leaves six teams we can try to go for."
"We can try Team Rin," Shouda said, "They only have two people, so we should be able to overpower them if we need to."
With no one else opposing, they charged for the two. "Shinsou," Minoko called.
"Yeah," he said, cupping his hands around his mouth, "Hey losers! Aren't you acting a bit too confident? Two members, really? You're just asking to be picked on!"
The brown haired guy with glasses immediately reacted, while his teammate tried to calm him, "Who are you to—"
Shinsou clicked his tongue, "I was hoping for the rider, but I guess this'll do. Hey, come over here," he said.
"Oi! Shishida! What are you doing?" The guy, Rin, exclaimed, holding onto his teammates back, tightly as Shishida rushed forward towards them.
"Oi, tail guy, trip them," Shinsou ordered.
Ojirou ignored him.
"Ojirou," Minoko scolded, and only then did Ojirou trip their team with his tail.
As the two were heading for the ground, Minoko took the opportunity to reach for the headband with her left hand and swapped it with a stack of books, which Rin tried catching on instinct, making him fall off. Their name turning gray on the scoreboard, "Team Rin is eliminated!" Present Mic announced.
Before Minoko could give Shinsou the headband, she noticed something in the corner of her eye. A bright light coming from Todoroki's team, Yaomomo was creating something.I'd know that fabric anywhere,she remembered the insulator from their Capture the Flag training exercise. Which means Kaminari would…
Minoko grabbed a hairclip, "Ojirou I need you to use your tail to launch this to the sky, as far as you can," she said.
"I could make it go farther if you need it to be?" Shouda suggested, raising his hand.
"Please do!" Minoko said, handing it over to Shinsou, who gave it to Shouda.
He flicked the hairclip, "Twin Impact…" he waited for Ojirou to launch it into the air. Once it lost its velocity, he boosted it up again with his quirk, "Fire!"
The hair clip was high above the arena. "Hold on tight," Minoko said, allowing all of the fingers on her right hand to touch Ojirou's shoulders. In two quick successions, she transported their team up in the air. She could faintly hear Shinsou mutter about wanting to puke.
"What's—what's going on down there?" Shouda asked.
A burst of yellow sparks erupted from below, followed by cool air and ice. "Kaminari and Todoroki," Ojirou muttered.
"I dunno about you guys but do I have to remind you that we're up in the air?" Shinsou exclaimed.
"Calm down, I'm on it," Minoko said, eyes scanning below them. She squinted because the small sparks still passing around were quite distracting.
"Kaeda? Anytime now," Ojirou said, as they approached the ground.
Her eyes settled on Kendo's team. "We're gonna get back our headband," she announced, focusing on the team and the ice holding them down.
"Kaeda! The ground!" Shinsou yelled.
"Hang on!"
They were back on the ground, exchanged with Team Kendo's who are now in Minoko's pocket dimension. "What's this?! Team Kendo is no longer on the field!" Present Mic exclaimed.
"Fifteen Seconds," Midnight counted, "If they're not back by then, they'll be disqualified."
"Where did they go?" Shouda asked, as their team began steering clear of the other teams going after them who Shinsou was taunting and kept falling for his trap. 'How are you gonna reach us when you're that slow?' is what he says.
"In my pocket dimension," Minoko answered. "I should be able to get the headbands on their own now," she said, shaking her left hand, trying to get one of her bracelets loose. "Shit," she cursed. Doing this one handed was hard.
"Oi! Behind us, tail guy!" Shinsou yelled. Nothing. "Are you seriously ignoring me?!"
Ojirou clicked his tongue before flicking his tail, sending the team backwards.
"Shinsou, give me the bracelets," Minoko commanded, raising her arm up to him. He did what she said and Minoko swapped one with Team Kendo's headbands, and the other with Team Rin's, raising their names up on the leaderboard, while Team Kendo's turned gray, disqualifying them.
"What now?" Shouda asked.
"We have three options," Shinsou started, "Find any stray headbands and go for them, get the 10 million, but go against that ice guy, or get in between that fight," he gestured to where Bakugou was yelling at another blond from 1B.
Minoko heard Shouda sigh, letting out a small, somewhat disappointed, 'Monoma'. "We're already in 5th…" she trailed off, eyeing the leaderboard. The only ones with points were Team Midoriya with the 10 million, Team Monoma, Team Todoroki, Team Tetsutetsu, and Team Shinsou. "Let's get Team Tetsutetsu," she said. "Going in between any other fights would just put us in a disadvantage."
They started searching for Team Tetsutetsu amongst the field of competitors, explosions and ice.
"There they are!" Shouda said, pointing at the other end of the arena. "He's with Awase who can weld anything together, Shiozaki who can control the vines on her head, and Honenuki can soften anything he touches," Shouda explained.
"Can't you do what you did with Team Kendo?" Ojirou asked Minoko.
She shook her head, "Awase knows how my quirk works and with eight of them in there and making a mess, I'm gonna have to bring them all back out before I can get the headbands," Minoko said. "Maybe Shinsou can brainwash them?" she looked up at him hopefully.
"I'd have to brainwash all four of them," he said, "Unlike earlier when there were only two people in the team, if at least one is not brainwashed they can easily snap the others out of it, even by accident."
"Less than a minute left!" Present Mic announced, startling Minoko who had not been paying attention to the commentary. "Todoroki has all four headbands! He grabbed first place from Midoriya!"
I guess Team Tetsutetsu was the good choice,she thought as the leaderboard shifted again.Seriously though, Present Mic really surprised me there.A thought came to her mind."We'll just have to surprise them," Minoko decided with a smirk.
The three looked at her with questioning looks, "How…exactly?"
Team Shinsou was falling from a great height. This wasn't the first time, but the fact that this has happened twice in the past few minutes—using the same method as before even—is quite concerning. The clock ticked down 20 seconds. "Now," Minoko said.
"Oi!" Shinsou yelled.
Team Tetsutetsu looked around trying to find who was calling for them. "Up here!" Shinsou yelled. The four looked up, "Wh—AHH!" The four yelled as they spotted the team speeding down towards them. Shinsou smirked, feeling them fall under his control.
"Shiozaki! Catch us and put us safely on the ground," Shinsou said.10 seconds.
Shiozaki's vines shot up to catch them. Minoko giggled as a tip of the vine tickled her neck. Their team was brought down gently beside Team Tetsutetsu who were staring blankly in front of them. "Hand me all your headbands," Shinsou ordered.
Tetsutsu brought his arms up, reaching for the headbands and handing them over. Minoko grinned as the leaderboard shifted again, bringing them up to 3rd place. "With five seconds to spare," she said.
"TIME UP!" Present Mic yelled. "The second event, Cavalry Battle, is over!"
"We should probably get away from here before you release them," Minoko said as Shinsou got off of them.
"Let's look at the first four rankings!" Present Mic said, "First place! Team Todoroki!" Minoko could spot her classmates muttering to each other. "Second place! Team Bakugou!" She couldn't help but shake her head at the sight of Bakugou throwing a tantrum on the ground while his teammates stared at him with tired looks.
"Third Place! Team Tet—ah! Team Shinsou!" He claimed, "When did you make a comeback?!"
Minoko stood near her team, if she had a knife—which she does—she could cut this atmosphere with it. Shinsou was standing uncaringly, Ojirou was glaring at him intensely, Shouda was standing there awkwardly between them, and she was looking at them unsure of what to do or say. Definitely not the look you'd see on a team that just won.
"Fourth place! Team Midoriya!"A burst of tears came from the green haired boy.Even that's a better look on a winning team,Minoko thought.
"The afternoon events will continue in one hour, after lunch!" And with that announcement, people started leaving the arena. "Later!"
"What happened?" she hears Tetsutetsu ask, "Before we knew it we were at zero points," he said.
"Maybe it's punishment for playing dirty and taking that little guy's points?" Shiozaki asked.
"Last thing I remember was looking up and seeing…ah! Kaeda!" Minoko tensed as Awase called her.
She turned her head, "Yeah?"
"What the hell happened?" Awase asked.
She rubbed the back of her neck, "Well, a teammate of ours has a mental quirk and used it to make you give us your headbands," she said.
"So that's it," Honenuki sighed, "I guess wedidlower our guard a bit back then."
"Ah…well! We did our best! There's no shame in that!" Tetsutetsu said.
"Yeah, it was still fun, wasn't it?" Awase asked.
Minoko smiled as she watched them cheer each other up.Even the losing team's livelier than our's. "Ah!" Her eyes widened, " I forgot!" She exclaimed, making the four look at her.
She grabbed a bracelet, crouching down, and exchanging it with Team Kendo. "Freedom!" The green haired girl who can separate her flesh exclaimed.
"Cold," the two girls, one with brown hair, the other with white, said.
"I'm on it!" Tetsutetsu punched his iron fists together before he started punching the ice, "Ora ora!"
"I amsosorry!" Minoko bowed in apology. "There was so much going on that I completely forgot I used my quirk on you!"
"Don't worry about it," Kendo laughed, "That was…an experience."
She was about to respond again, when Ojirou called her. "Ah, I have to go, sorry again! Have a good lunch!" She waved at them before heading towards her classmate.
"What is it?" she tilted her head at him.
Ojirou shook his head, "Kirishima and them are looking for you, I thought I'd let you know," he said, pointing to where Kirishima, Kaminari, Sero, and surprisingly Ashido were searching around.
"Oh, thanks!" Minoko said, but before she could leave, Ojirou spoke again.
"I'm planning to withdraw," he said.
Minoko stopped, tuning around, "And why's that?"
"I just...If you didn't snap us out of it, I would have played that whole stage as a puppet. And I know I wasn't the best teammate. I'm not satisfied at all with my performance, and even after we've won, it didn't feel like it so I'm going to withdraw," he said.
Minoko stayed silent for a moment, "Well…if that's what you feel you should do, then go ahead, I'm not gonna stop you," she said. "I'm gonna head for lunch, you should too. See ya around," she waved before walking away.
Minoko hummed as she walked towards where her friends were.Withdrawing, huh?
Notes:
This chapter was a difficult one 'cause I don't know how to write them still winning and at the same time having bad coordination T_T. I hope you guys still enjoyed the chapter though :D Next chapter's gonna be a break in the tournament before the one on one battles!
TRIVIA!!
Team Kendo was super confused at first but after the first five minutes they pretty much gave up and played eye spy the whole time they were in the pocket dimension.