"The rules are as follows," Midnight said. "Teams must consist of at least two people, with one being the horse and the other being the rider. If your rider touches the ground, your team is out. You earn points by snatching other teams' headbands, which represent their point total as a team. If you have your headband stolen, don't fret; you're not out, and you can still steal enough points after that to move on to the next round. You may use your Quirks how you wish, except to harm beyond the ends of winning the game. Got it?"
A series of affirmations rang out around the crowd of the forty-two gathered participants. Izuku's mind was turning, wondering how he could use his Quirk to the fullest in this game but coming up empty. Using his Quirk on a person was still a daunting task, and not one that he wanted to test himself with for the festival. He guessed that Decimation was going to be pretty much useless if nothing massive happened. It'd probably only be good for warding off physical attacks that wouldn't come from people, such as Todoroki's ice or a creation from Yaoyorozu, which probably wouldn't be happening very much, since Todoroki should be focusing on evasion since he's the one with the most points, and Yaoyorozu probably didn't want to exhaust herself with creating a lot of things before the final round, where it would really count. He broke himself out of that train of thought as he realised that he needed teammates.
"Who do you think we should work with?" he asked Uraraka.
"Not sure. We know so many good picks!" she said, glancing over at Iida and Kirishima, both ideal front horses for their powerful frames and impressive strength.
"Yeah, Iida's a must for his speed. Kirishima could be great for his defensive capabilities. Asui's leaping ability is unrivalled. Ashido could make traversal even easier. We could definitely take all of them and just call it a day, but I have a feeling that they'll cut us off at some point if we just keep adding people to our team. I'm thinking Iida and Ashido for speed, and Kirishima for support on one side and myself on the other, with you as the rider. That's a good five," Izuku thought out loud.
"Wait, why am I the rider? I thought you'd be the rider!" Uraraka shouted in shock.
"Why's that?" Izuku asked back with equal confusion.
"Well, you're worth the most points!" she said with a puzzled laugh.
"Oh, that doesn't matter for team composition. I'm thinking about it from the angle of your Quirk. You can't make yourself weightless for a long time, can you?" Izuku explained.
"No," Uraraka said in a long, confused drawl.
"So, if you used your Quirk on everyone except yourself, the ideal position for you to be in is the rider, since if you were a horse, the formation would sag to one side and throw everyone off-kilter. If you're the rider, then it's dead centre and everyone takes that equally, making it so that there's no way we can lose balance and fall apart, eliminating ourselves. Does that make sense?" he said.
"I guess so. I would've never thought about it like that, though. I'm always shocked when you break out these killer strategies!" Uraraka beamed at him.
"Ah, thanks," Izuku said, his voice breaking as he felt his face flush at the compliment. "Well, I don't think any of what I'm thinking would work without you, so give yourself some credit!"
The two of them paused for a moment and held eye contact without any more words. They simply looked into each other's eyes and smiled, the urgency leaving Izuku as he was drawn in by the glowing expression on Uraraka's face. He tore his eyes away as the flush grew hotter, and tried to put himself back on his line of thinking that he'd been on. He looked around so that he didn't have to see the smirk Uraraka was sending him now, and spotted Ashido and Kirishima standing together, likely having already agreed to team up with each other but lacking any other team members. Izuku pointed the two of them out to Uraraka and she lit up, nodding at him in agreement. Izuku and Uraraka walked over to the duo a few metres away and waved at them, getting their attention.
"Hey, you two! Congrats on getting through! That was some crazy footwork in that minefield, man!" Kirishima said, giving Izuku a thumbs up.
"Yeah, and your leaping was like Tsu's!" Ashido said to Uraraka excitedly.
"Thanks!" the two of them said in unison, glancing at each other with twin grins when they realised it.
"Yeah, we were just thinking the same about you two. It must've been a cinch to get through it with your speed, Ashido! And you'd have had no trouble with those robots, Kirishima!" Izuku said. The purpose of this was two-fold. Sure, he did think those things, but it didn't hurt to butter up potential teammates.
"Yeah, right back at you. Hey, I just realised that we could make a pretty good team, the four of us. How about it?" Kirishima said, looking between the three others.
"That's what we were thinking, yeah!" Uraraka said, gesturing to herself and Izuku.
"Sounds great! We'll kill 'em all!" Ashido said. As the others cheered and joined her in her enthusiasm, Izuku forced a laugh and a smile as his brain was invaded by thoughts of the very real risk he ran while he was constantly having to touch people for this event. He tried his best to ground himself in the moment, though, and not take Ashido's joke more seriously than he needed to.
"So, what positions were you thinking of? 'Cause we all know that I'm the perfect front horse!" Kirishima said, using his Quirk to reinforce his arm as a demonstration.
"Uh, not quite. I was thinking you'd be a flank with me," Izuku said, zoning back in.
"Really?" Kirishima asked, his arm reverting to its fleshy state.
"Oh, you're gonna love this. He has his plan all figured out," Uraraka whispered to Ashido, who giggled under her breath. Izuku sent a look at her, but kept explaining.
"You and I are on Uraraka's flank—she's the rider—for your tankiness and my ability to destroy incoming projectiles. Ashido's in the front or back constantly providing a track of acid to slide on, and … one other person is at the opposite side, pushing or pulling us along," Izuku said. He paused to look around for Iida. He was so tall, but Izuku couldn't see him at the moment. He prayed that Iida hadn't been poached by any other team yet, because that would kind of unravel his master plan.
"Sounds good, man!" Kirishima said to Izuku. "You weren't kidding," he added to Uraraka under his breath.
Izuku grumbled at the teasing, but smiled along with it. He'd found Iida. He made a vague gesture to his teammates as he walked off, trusting that the others would sit tight and be okay without him for a minute. He walked through the crowd, people elbowing him and shoving him as he passed them as the mob of people began to churn and get a little more chaotic as people began moving back and forth looking for teammates. Izuku subconsciously held his breath as he made his way through, and held his gloved hands close to his chest based on pure reflex, but he made it to Iida in a moment's time and let go of those unconscious habits to talk to him.
"Hey, Iida! Do you have a team yet?" Izuku asked with a fake smile on his face.
"No. Would you like to work together?" Iida asked back.
"Yeah, totally! We've already got most of a team together, and I think that you could be the key that makes it all work," Izuku said.
"Who do you have on your team so far?" Iida asked again.
"Kirishima, Ashido, and Uraraka! With all our abilities, you'd be the key that could let us soar to the top of the ranks and stay there," Izuku explained.
"Very well. Lead the way," Iida said, gesturing stiffly with his hands.
Izuku led Iida back to the group. Kirishima gave him an awkward thumbs up when he didn't return the fist-bump he offered, Ashido waved excitedly and Uraraka gave him a mock salute when Izuku brought him to the others. Once they were together, he could go into more specifics with his plan, and immediately dove into the explanations.
"Right, so to get the story straight, I'll explain one more time. Uraraka's the rider, and she's going to make us all weightless so that only she's holding us down, allowing us to move faster without the constraint of gravity. Ashido is the front horse, constantly creating a slide of acid for us to ride on and increase our speed even further. Kirishima and I are on the flank, defending with our Quirks. Iida is the tail, using his Quirk to push us along even faster at super speed if and when we need it. Does that sound like a plan?" Izuku explained, shifting his gaze between the members of his team rapidly.
"Sure, but what is the benefit of such speed? What are you hoping to do with it?" Iida asked as the others cheered their agreement.
"We're going after the top dog. The million points are going to be ours," Izuku said with a grin.
All of Izuku's teammates, except for Uraraka, were silent as they looked at him in shock and confusion.
"Why?" Ashido asked.
"Because I want to make an impact, and I know you all do, too. What's a better way to get your name in the mouths of important people than to upstage the number two hero's golden child while he's on a winning streak?" he said, looking over and spotting Todoroki with his group.
He had Yaoyorozu on his team, as Izuku thought he might, which was a problem, and the addition of Kaminari and Tokoyami didn't help. Kaminari was an ace if they could figure out how to protect just their team, as he could simply electrocute everyone, though he'd take himself out of the game as well, and Tokoyami could be immune to Decimation. Izuku didn't know if he could actually use his Quirk on Dark Shadow, since it seemed to be living shade; maybe his fingers would simply slip through? Maybe if he tried it he'd accidentally Decimate Tokoyami as well? It could be worth very little if it worked, and it was catastrophic if it went wrong or worked too well, so he was shelving that possibility for now.
"With how many other teams are going to be after Todoroki's million points, don't you think it's wiser to stay out of the way and not make ourselves an active target for everyone to lock onto if they can't get him?" Iida asked.
"At the same time, though, isn't the point to do everything we can to get noticed?" Kirishima asked.
"It's not really about who wins, though it's nice to have the medal; it's who's flashiest that takes the cake!" Ashido said.
"Exactly. The competition is just a framework for the true purpose of the festival, which is to let the pros see us in action. I doubt that most are still keeping that in mind as they make plans to win, not show off exactly what it is they can do better than anybody else. That's where we have an edge. We can make sure to win and look good doing it," Izuku explained.
The others grinned with him for a moment, but Iida didn't look entirely sold. However, he did sigh and take a deep breath in, probably coming to the internal conclusion that Izuku was right about the performative aspect of it, though he clearly didn't like it.
"Well, then, what do we do to achieve that?" Iida asked.
"Oh, I have a few ideas."
This was gonna be fun.