Disclaimer: My Hero Academia belongs to Kohei Horikoshi.
It was all a bit of a blur at first, but it appears that the first stage of the Festival has come to an end.
"Well, I can't say for certain that I wasn't expecting something like this to happen," Tanaka says to his friends.
"Me neither," they say at once in agreement.
From what the shadow user could see, every single member of both Hero Course classes managed to make it to the stadium. Kaeda and two other students from the other courses have also made it, one of them being the boy with the eye bags from the other day.
He could see that Midoriya was in amazed at the fact that he won, looking over at the brunette, who gave him a nod of respect. The greenette smiles shyly in response, trying his best to be humble. Turning to look at Bakugo and Todoroki, he can see that the former is giving the greenette a look of anger while the latter appeared to be awe of him for whatever reason.
Turning his gaze toward the other competitors, the shadow user finds that Mineta had latched onto Yaoyorozu's back using two of his Pop Off balls. Not wanting to see his taller classmate be any further humiliated, he uses his own quirk to create a swarm of wasps to speed towards the little pervert. He can only laugh to himself as he watches the sight of the little teen scream like a little girl as he's being chased by the swarm of insects.
'Who would've thought that Tora's fear of wasps could come in handy?' he thinks, seeing that a few of his classmates are also laughing at the sight of Mineta being chased by a swarm of black looking wasps that appeared out of nowhere from what they could see.
When he sees the BDSM-themed heroine that is their referee walks up, getting everyone's attention, he snaps his fingers causing the wasps to disappear into black mist. Mineta breathes a sigh of relief before seeing what is going on, not before giving him an annoyed look at what he just pulled on the guy. The shadow user simply smirks smugly before turning his attention toward the heroine.
"The first game of the first-year stage is finally over," Midnight says. "Now, take a look at the results!"
As she said that, the screen shows the results of the race. From what could be seen, Tanaka, Tora and Kaeda have all reached 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place respectively. Todoroki and Bakugo, much to the latter's anger and frustration, got into 5th and 6th place. The rest of the results showed that the top 45 out of all the hundreds of students that participated in the Sports Festival have made it.
"The top 45 have made it to the next round," Midnight continues. "It's unfortunate, but don't worry if you didn't make it! We've prepared other chances for you to shine. The real competition begins next! The press will be all over it! Give it your all!"
She raises and cracks her up, right as the screen behind her started to show the roulette for the next game. It starts to spin again, not giving anyone a chance to see the words clearly.
"Now then, here is the second game," Midnight continues. "I already know what it is, but what could it be? What could it be? I just said it, and now here it is..."
The roulette stops on the words, "Cavalry Battle."
"A cavalry battle," Kaminari says, shocked. "I'm bad at those."
"Sucks to be you," Tanaka calls to him. This leads to the electricity wielder getting depressed.
"It's not an individual event," Asui adds, ignoring what his classmate just said. "So I wonder how it will work."
"How is it done?" Kaeda asks Midnight.
"Glad you asked, so let me explain," she answers, turning her head toward the screen. The roulette is then replaced with a picture of All Might being carried by Present Mic and Thirteen. "The participants can form teams of two to four people if they wish. It's basically the same as a regular cavalry battle, but the one thing that's different is... based on the results of the last game, each person has a point value."
'A point value?' Tora, Tanaka and Kaeda questions mentally.
"A point-based system like the entrance exam, huh?" Sato said, "That's easy to understand."
"In other words," Uraraka theorizes. "Each team is worth different points depending on who's on the team!"
"I see!" Ashido agreed before their attention was grabbed by the crack of a whip and a very angry Midnight.
"You guys don't hold back even though I'm talking, huh?!" she shouted before calming down. "Yes, that's right! And the points assigned go up by five starting at the bottom! So 42nd place gets five points and 41st gets ten points!"
"If the points value is done mathematically," Tanaka mutters. "The points for first place might be 225 points. I wonder if they might do just that."
"And the point value assigned to first place is," Midnight declares. "Ten million!"
Tanaka looks at the score with an expression of shocked, stunned silence for a second. He slowly turns his eyes toward Midoriya, who has a shocked, stunned expression of his own.
"T-ten million?!" he says in shock.
"That's right," Midnight confirms. "It's survival of the fittest, with a chance for those at the bottom to overthrow the top!"
If Midoriya were to look around, he might notice that the other students' eyes have collectively turned predatory.
"Is he going to be okay?" Tora asks, concerned.
"I don't think so," answers Tanaka. "He looks like he's about to wet his pants from fright. I don't blame him for that."
"Now then, I will explain the rules of the Calvary Battle." Midnight says as the screen showed pictures of the upcoming event. "The time limit is fifteen minutes. Each team is worth the total of its members' points, and the riders will wear a headband with that number on their foreheads. Team's will try to grab each other's headbands before time runs out and t keep as many points as they can. Stolen headbands must be worn from the neck up. So, the more you steal, the harder it will be to manage them! And the most important thing is even if your headband gets stolen, or if your team falls, you're not out!"
"Which means…" Yaoyorozu says to herself.
"…since there are forty-five people," Sato summarize. "There will be ten or twelve teams on the field the whole time?"
"How tiresome~" Aoyama sighs to himself, clutching his stomach after having barely made it past the first round.
"During the game," Midnight continued. "It'll be a cruel fight where you can use your quirks. But it is still a calvary battle. You'll get a red card for attacks that are trying to make people fall on purpose! You'll be removed immediately!"
"Drat," Bakugo says at hearing the rule.
"Now, you have fifteen minutes to build your teams. Start!"
The three Lotal boys look at each other, clearly knowing who to choose as part of their team. They walk over to a far part of the stadium to discuss their strategy for the Cavalry Battle. Along the way, they perform an arm bump to each other to show that they're in it together.
One of the things that they've been taught back home during the games that they've played back in middle school, that are specifically emphasized, is teamwork.
"We're going to need to think of a strategy that might work," Tanaka begins. "It has to be something that no one will ever expect, or even conceive. So, got any suggestions?"
"We could just wait until everyone else is either too busy going after the ten million points Midoriya has on him, or going after each other," Kaeda suggests.
"That might work," Tanaka agrees. "And once they're too busy with either option, we can snatch up their headbands from under their proverbial noses. Only thing now would be to check the teams and their respective riders."
The three boys watch everyone else forming their own teams. They catch sight of the indigo haired boy walking over to a few of the boys, including Ojiro. From what they can see, the moment they begin a conversation with the boy, their facial expressions start to become blank slates.
"Did you see that?" Kaeda asked the other two, who nodded while they all looked surprised at what they saw.
"What do you suppose he did to them?" Tora then asked, wondering what might've happened to cause those boys to go all blank as if they were hypnotized or something.
"Best guess is that the guy must have some sort of mind controlling quirk," Tanaka theorizes. "Must be verbal activated."
'No doubt might be useful in underground hero work,' he thinks. 'I also bet he went through a whole lot of discrimination because of his quirk being labeled "villainous". People these days believing and following such ridiculous ideas.'
Sensing someone coming from behind, the brunette performs a back roundhouse kick. It ends up hitting whoever was behind him square in the jaw, before launching them to the side. The guy that got hit ends up getting slammed into the stadium wall, thankfully only a bit dazed while he cradles the right side of his blonde head.
"Who the heck was that guy?" Tanaka wonders.
"You know that copycat prick in my class that I talked about the other day?" Tora asks. He points at the dizzy looking blonde, meaning that he's the guy that was talked about in the cafeteria.
"Oh."
He and the others watched as Monoma was being surrounded by a few members of what was most likely Class 1-B that Tora didn't talk to him about. The moment the blonde makes eye contact with him, the brunette flips him the bird to show his thought on the dirty move the former almost pulled.
"Now that that little rude interruption is taken care of," Tanaka says, having seen what the arrogant prick looked like. "How about we discuss our little strategy?"
Tora and Kaeda, eager to see what the shadow user has in mind, listen to what he has in mind for the Cavalry Battle. And needless to say, it is brilliant and could work to their advantage. All that matters right now is to wait until it's the right time to put it into effect once the event starts.
-15 Minutes Later-
"Now then, it's about time to get started!" Midnight proclaims as the timer reaches zero.
"Come on, wake up, Eraser!" Present Mic says, waking up the bandaged hero from his nap. "After fifteen minutes to form teams and talk strategy, thirteen calvary teams are line the field!"
"There are some interesting teams out there." Aizawa says.
"Now, raise those battle cries! It's time for U.A.'s bloody battle! Light the signal fire!"
-With Tanaka's team-
"You guys ready?" Tanaka asks his teammates, having been designated as the rider.
"Ready and waiting," Kaeda answers. He provides the rear end of the cavalry "horse".
"You betcha," Tora quips, providing the front end.
The shadow user puts on the headband showing the number "625" on it. Looking around, he sees that the other teams are getting ready for the event to start.
He then shifts his gaze toward the screen behind Midnight changes.
The names of the teams and their total number points came up on the screen.
Team Midoriya-10,000,310
Team Tetsutetsu-690
Team Bakugo-650
Team Tanaka-625
Team Todoroki-600
Team Mineta-405
Team Hagakure-375
Team Monoma-290
Team Shinso-280
Team Kendo-210
Team Kodai-150
Team Rin-110
Team Kamakiri-55
"All right! You've made your teams, right?!" Present Mic exclaims. "I'm not gonna ask if you're ready or not!"
"Here we go," Tanaka mutters.
"Now let's go!" Present Mic continues, getting the audience hyped up. "Counting down to the brutal battle royale! Three!"
"We're aiming for..." Bakugo says, cracking his knuckles in anticipation.
"Two!"
"...one thing," Todoroki states, unknowingly thinking the same thing as his explosive classmate.
"One!"
"Start!" Midnight yells.
Almost immediately, everyone starts to go after Midoriya's team. All except for Tanaka and his team, who stand back to see the chaos resulting from it all.
"Now then, even though it's barely been two minutes, it's already turned into a free-for-all!" Present Mic announces. "Fights over the headbands are breaking out all over! Ignoring the ten million and going for second to fourth places isn't bad either!"
As that last part was said, that a couple of the teams just up and headed for Tanaka's. One is led by a boy with tanned skin and braided black hair riding on top of a large boy with wild brown hair and glasses covered in fur. The other is led by a boy resembling a mantis riding a girl with blonde hair and horns on her head.
"Looks like these two teams aren't interested in the main prize at all," Tanaka remarks.
"I'd steer clear of Hiryu Rin, the guy in the braid," Tora advises. "He can make scales on his body that are not only durable, but he can shoot them really fast."
"Should I also do the same with the large guy he's riding?" the shadow user asks.
The redhead nods, before explaining, "His quirk essentially turns into a large beast-man. In that state, his senses of smell and hearing sharpen as a result. Of course, that also makes him a bit reckless in the process."
"Well, ain't that quaint," Kaeda quips.
Tora uses his quirk to propel himself, and his team a great distance away from the furry boy. In the meantime, Tanaka uses his to create a huge swarm of black arrows. The arrows head straight towards Shishida, who was able to leap around them before catching up with the shadow user.
"You seriously think that would intimidate us, Sir Tanaka?" the furry boy says in what sounds like a polite tone, which contradicts the feral looking smile on his face. "It won't work in hindering our chances at victory! You're going to have to do better than that!"
'Did he just me "sir"?' Tanaka thinks, understandably confused. 'I'm the same age as him.'
His eyes then focus on Rin, whose arms turn begin to have green scales covering them.
"That headband belongs to us!" he exclaims, a grin on his face as he aims the fingertips of his scaled arm straight at the shadow user. Before the latter could even blink, the former begins firing the scales on his fingertips as if they were bullets straight at him.
Tora quickly uses his quirk to burn the incoming projectiles to ash.
"What are you trying to do, man?!" the redhead shouts at his classmate.
"Just give up your headband!" Was all that came from the Chinese transfer student. He then uses his Quirk again to launch another set straight at the shadow user, in the hopes of the headband getting loose in the chaos so that his team can get it.
This attempt is thwarted by the quirkless inventor using his suit to propel Tanaka away from the team of two. It only gives Shishida more of a reason to chase after them. But before he and Rin could even blink, what looked like a portal made of shadow appeared right in front of them and they went through it. The portal vanished not long after they went inside, before they got teleported to another part of the arena.
Not long after he manages to avoid the bombardment of scales, as well as being chased by the wild boy he was riding, Tanaka looks to his right before quickly ducking his head. What looked to be a yellow-green colored blade had suddenly appeared where his head should've been, and was about an inch away from cutting it clean off of his shoulders.
He looks back to see that the blade in question belonged to the boy resembling a mantis, with it being on one of his arms.
"Are you crazy?! You could've killed me!" he yells angrily at the mantis boy.
"I was aiming for your headband," the boy replies.
He then went at it again, bringing the blade on his arm down on the back of his head in the hopes of getting the aforementioned item loose enough for him to grab it. The shadow user catches him off guard by spraying some of the black mist substance into his face before he had his team propel themselves away from them.
Some of the other teams have also gotten the guy's attention, as he gives up on going after Tanaka for the moment. Seeing this gives the brunette a chance to breathe a sigh of relief.
"Well, that guy was... something," Tanaka remarks. "Which classmate of yours was that?"
"That was Togaru Kamakiri," the redhead answers. "He has this competitive personality that can verge on being a teeny bit aggressive at times. But unlike that walking timebomb you've got for a classmate, Kamakiri isn't a quirkist junkie."
"And I assume that his quirk lets him create blades like the one he tried to use on me from any part of his body?" Tanaka then asks. He gets a nod in reply.
From what he can see from his position, the other teams are still focused on Midoriya's ten-million points. At one point, he notices that his classmate Shoji was holding his webbed arms up, almost as if he were covering something. It was quickly revealed that he's hiding someone, as his green haired classmate discovers that Mineta has been hiding inside them alongside Asui, who tried to use her tongue to quickly snatch away the headband.
"Is that even allowed?" Kaeda wonders. Midnight confirms that Mineta's strategy is allowed.
Tanaka looks up at the timer on the screen showing the amount of time left for the Cavalry Battle. It's only been about seven minutes since it started, and there hasn't been any change in the scores. He turns his gaze toward the other teams, still fighting over the ten-million points like the rabid dogs that they're all acting like.
A smirk adorns his face as he watches the chaos before him unfold. It's right then and there to put their plan into motion.