(A.N)
It was not soon haha
I was farming for Camellya's weapon sry hehehe
Gacha is a disease
Anyway.
Enjoy.
"So, who'll be the rider?" Kei asked, looking at her newly formed team.
"I'll opt out right now." Shinso started, "I think it would be better if I'm out of sight."
"Why's that?"
"… Because of my quirk." He said after a moment of hesitation.
'Ah… Now that I think about it, he never did say what his quirk is.' Kei already knew, of course, but Shinso didn't know that. "What is your quirk, then?"
"…" The dreaded question. Shinso knew this moment was long coming. 'Maybe I should've just brainwashed some other group instead…' Of course, he could still do it with his current team… but it would feel like betraying Kei's trust. She, who happily included him in the training sessions and didn't even question when she clearly noticed the distance some of his classmates kept from him.
He could not do that to her.
"… It's called brainwashing. It lets me take control of people who respond to me. My commands cannot be too complicated, but it still lets me make people move in the way I want." It was inevitable; they cannot work together if they don't know each other's capabilities. He was ready to be ignored by the team or just straight-up thrown out. Two hands were not enough to count the amount of times this same thing had happened to him. 'Why does it have to be like this?'
"Huh… Yeah, I guess that makes sense."
"… Huh?"
"Either I or Yui could be the rider, while… What is your name?" Kei asked the silent and slightly fidgety teen.
"It's Kojiro Bondo…" The tall teen said, stammering in his words. He looked as if he would rather be anywhere but here.
"Nice to meet you, then! I'm Kei Inari. You are from 1-B, right?" The teen responded with a nod. "How about being our frontliner? With your size, I'm sure you can take the attention away from Shinso so he can comfortably use his quirk without being noticed. I could even give you some weapons and armor to make you look like a knight!"
'… That's it? I thought…' Shinso was… confused. He expected more. Disappointment, a look of disgust, anger at not informing her beforehand, anything.
But it never came.
Kei just kept on rambling, completely uncaring of the bomb he just dropped. "So? What do you think, Shinso?"
"Ah? Uhhh, yeah… I think that would work." He said, barely processing what she just said.
From the edge of his vision, he swore he could see the silent Yui smile at Kei, as if she knew something. '…'
He really wanted to ask what her deal was, but he had the slight feeling that she would not respond yet. 'I'll ask her later.' Instead, he decided to focus on their current task…
"Where will you get sand from, though?" He inquired, "That big door is already closed, so I don't think you will be able to get any from outside."
Kei abruptly paused at the mention of her lack of sand and made a slow head turn to look at Shinso. "… umm"
"Kei…" Came the exasperated voice of Yui.
She looked up, her pupils moving from left to right, as if searching for something in the open sky. "Humm… yeah, that will work," She said, looking in Yui's direction. She then turned to Shinso. "Don't you worry your little sleep-deprived head, Shinso. Everything's alright!"
"Are you sure?"
"Yep!" Two claps marked the end of that topic. "Anyway, let's talk strategy!"
"Now, let's go!" echoed the voice of Present Mic. "Counting down to the brutal battle royal!"
Kei slightly shifted, trying to make herself as comfortable as possible so as to not fall from Bondo's back. His large head made it quite difficult to see in front of her easily, but he could relay anything that she could not directly see.
'And it's not like I need eyes to "see"'
With pretty much all the teams, seeing behind them was a problem that could not be easily fixed. Turning around was a precise team effort to not throw off the rider, so the back was an exploitable weakness for essentially all the teams.
Not for Kei's team, though.
While neither Yui nor Shinso could see behind them, Kei did have "Eyes on her back".
The sand hidden on Kei's tail moved, her mind ready to spread it around the group to provide protection and "Visibility".
Of course, the moment most teams had already formed, Kei had noticed how most of them stealthily stole glances at Midoriya's team, clearly gunning for the juicy ten million points on his head.
They could've done the same, but it was not worth it. They could shoot up to first place if they got it, but it was not a guarantee they would keep it, with most people instead gunning for their team.
It was tempting, of course, getting first place, but it was not a smart move.
Instead, they would stay as far away from the ten million as possible.
They didn't need it to guarantee a place in the last event anyway.
"Three!"
"Heads up. I already see someone glancing in our direction." Shinso said.
"Two!"
"Direction?" Kei inquired.
"One!"
"To your right. One of them is the lizard girl."
"Start!"
The moment Midnight said that, almost everyone bolted towards Midoriya. Meanwhile, Kei's team, who were all feigning interest in doing the same, followed the rest of the teams, only slower to stay behind the most dangerous teams.
Kei had already spread most of her saved sand around the team and gave a tiny cube to Yui to hold on to.
Soon enough, Kei felt what seemed to be a piece of something resembling a disembodied hand coming at them from behind. 'Setsuna.'
"Yui." That was all she needed; she had already thrown the cube up, and as the cube reached its max height, it suddenly increased in size.
"Huh?!" came the startled voice of one Itsuka Kendo.
As Yui completed her objective, Kei took control of the massive block of glass, and it swiftly turned to sand before turning once again into different objects. One of them turned into a block that crashed into Setsuna's hand, sending it flying away.
"Akh!"
"You thought that was going to be enough to take my headband?" Kei said, pointing at the headband that read "490" points.
"I thought you were interested enough in taking that boy's headband that you wouldn't notice if I took yours." Setsuna responded, her usual annoying smile on her face. As she said that, the whole team was approaching them slowly, clearly trying to get close enough to do something.
But before they could do that, an onslaught of swords and lances thrust into the ground from the sky, blocking the team's path.
"Huh, I thought you were going to be smarter about approaching us." Shinso started, then directed his look at Itsuka. "You are class B's representative, right? I thought someone of your caliber would come up with a smarter approach. It's kind of… pathetic." He said with a pitying look.
Itsuka clearly did not like that, judging by her suddenly reddening face. "Hey! What's your de-" But she couldn't retort. In just a moment, her eyes had turned milky white, and her arms fell to her sides.
"Huh? Kendo?" A mutter came from Kendo's right.
Before they could figure out what had happened with their rider, Kendo's headband had been snatched from behind.
"I got it! Retreat!" Ordered Kei, and as fast as they could, they turned around and ran away from the opposing team.
"Wait! Give that back!" Setsuna yelled as she sent her head to chase after Kei and her team, but…
"Look out!" Reiko yelled, and Setsuna instantly stopped as multiple weapons thrust into the ground before her. Looking towards the retreating team, she could see multiple more weapons tailing them and all aimed directly at Kendo's team.
From far away it would seem dangerous, but they were all dull, and Kei had enough control to stop them before doing serious damage.
"Yeah, that wasn't too smart…"
"But… What happened with Kendo? She just… stopped?" Kinoko asked, looking at the seemingly dazed Kendo.
In an attempt to get a response, Setsuna hit her in the back of the head. "Hahh! Oh my god… That was…"
"Umm… Are you okay, Kendo?" Asked Komori.
"Huh? Umm, yeah… I think I got brainwashed?"
That elicited another "Huh?" from the rest of the team.
"Good job!" Cheered Kei as she put on the headband around her neck. "That's 700 points!"
"That should almost guarantee us a place in the final event." Said Bondo, now seemingly more accustomed to the team and less shy.
"Still, I propose we at least try to get 900. I honestly don't care which placement we get, as long as we pass." The whole team shared the same sentiment. They know that with their team composition, getting second place was almost impossible, knowing their only heavy hitter was Kei.
Meanwhile, the other top teams were all composed of incredibly versatile quirks.
"Hahh… No point stressing about that; let's just choose our next target. Any suggestions?" Asked Kei.
The team looked around, looking for any team that could provide them with points.
"How about them?" Said Yui, pointing at a four-person team.
Kei took one look at their headband and decided they would be their next target.
(A.N)
Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh?
I didn't like very much how this chapter ended, but anyway.
Next chapter should end the cavalry battle and finally start the tournament arc
Wouldn't Kei be more of a mage? Idc.
I noticed I had to modify some teams since Mineta is missing and Shinso is in a different team, so here are the teams that were slightly modified. (I don't know if they will appear, but i'll put them here anyways.)
Manga Fukidashi and Nirengeki Shoda are now with Hiryu Rin and Jurota Shishida.
Both Ojiro and Aoyama are now with Shoji and Tsuyu.
I left Pony and Kamakiri as a two-person team since they honestly work amazing together, and giving them a third teammate would probably throw off the feel of the team.
I originally wanted to add more students from 1-B in the final event, but knowing that some fights there are important to the general plot, I honestly don't know.
Possible spoilers, really depends on what I decide and your opinions:
/
My best bet probably is getting rid of Bakugo's team. I don't remember anything important happening with Bakugo in this arc that I couldn't move somewhere else, and the rest of his team I'm pretty sure after the cavalry battle don't have any important role.
Of course, I can't get rid of Izuku or Todoroki's teams, since this arc is essential to their development. I don't feel confident enough that I could move their development somewhere else without it feeling weird or bad.
Also, Bakugo losing early does sound funny and could become a good plot point for later use.
But what do you think? Please give me suggestions.
/
I'm also gonna be working on multiple chapters to release them in a short span of time.
So that could mean that, knowing me, the next chapter probably will not be ready until next year lol.
Anyway, that's it for now!
If you have any suggestions or if I made a mistake somewhere, please (I beg you) comment! (I still haven't thought of a hero name, and I'm totally not begging you for help.)
Anyway, I'm gonna go work on lavender, since I already planned enough for at least a couple of chapters.
See y'all next chapter.