Chapter 27

"Arata!" Midoriya called out to me as he ran over, his face a storm of panic. 

"What just happened?!"

" I saw you two shaking hands before he collapsed?! Did he try to do something to you, or…"

"Midoriya," I cut him off, not even slowing my stride as I passed him. 

"I understand that you want to be a Hero, and as such you are willing to come to the aid of every person that you think needs help; that's something I can respect. But right now, you should focus on the competition. If you still insist on helping someone, however, you should go help Momona; he's the one on the ground."

Midoriya flushed bright red and started muttering apologies before running back to his team members. I ignored him as I walked back.

On the way, I spotted Ojiro standing a little further back, 

"Your name is Ojiro, right? Want to join my team?" I said, walking towards him.

He looked surprised that I would come looking for him. 

"Me? I figured you'd want someone more... flashy. Anyway, what's the matter with Momona? He looked fine earlier."

"I don't know. He collapsed on his own after making contact with me; perhaps he tried to play a trick on me, but it backfired."

"Originally I wanted to invite Momona. I heard that his quirk is very versatile, but since he is like this right now, I decided to change my approach. I need someone solid in close combat to protect our rider. Your tail is perfect for that. I hope you're not mad that I didn't choose you first."

A small smile appears on his face. " It's alright; don't worry about it. I'm in."

With Ojiro beside me, I head back toward our group to finalize our formation.

"So, what's the strategy?" Yaoyorozu asks, already mentally listing possibilities.

"Simple. You are the rider. Ojiro and I will be on the side and stop anyone from approaching. Shinso stays in front, ready to use his quirk if anyone gets too close."

Shinso raises an eyebrow. "You want me to capture them with my quirk?"

"Exactly. No one will suspect you as long as we don't show our hand too early."

Yaoyorozu is already crafting straps and a sturdy harness. "I can reinforce our stability with this. It should also let us move faster."

"Perfect."

Around us, the other teams are forming too, some throwing uneasy glances our way, probably calculating the best way to take our headband.

'A million points... this is going to be interesting.'

We head toward the staff to collect our headband, ready for the battle ahead.

"ALL TEAMS, TAKE YOUR POSITIONS!" 

Midnight's voice drew all the participants' attention.

"THE CROWD IS ON THE EDGE OF THEIR SEATS! CAN ANYONE TAKE THE TEN MILLION POINTS FROM CLASS 1-A, OR WILL THEY REIGN SUPREME?!"

Present Mic's voice boomed through the speakers, echoing off the stadium walls. 

Around us, the atmosphere shifted instantly. Todoroki, Bakugo, and even Midoriya were looking at us, determined to take first place. Even Class 1-B, despite Monoma's earlier breakdown, was forming up into a tight, defensive cluster.

Every eye in the stadium was locked onto us.

"Remember," I said, keeping my voice low and completely flat. 

"We don't need to go after them. We let them come to us. I'll handle those at the front; Yaoyorozu, help me with anyone who tries to break through the air; Ojiro, give us coverage; and Shinso, handle anything that breaks through ."

"Understood," Shinso said, his eyes narrowing.

"Got it," Ojiro added, his tail swishing behind us.

Up top, Yaoyorozu took a deep breath, her knuckles turning white as she held the million headband firmly against her forehead. 

"Let's do this."

"THREE! TWO! ONE... START!!"

The blaring horn cut through the noise of the crowd, signaling the official start of the cavalry battle.

The ground literally shook as every team charged straight at our position to take our headband. 

I watched them rush over, with some of them even using their quirk to be the first to arrive. 

"They're coming all at once," Yaoyorozu said, her voice tight as she asked 

"Should I create flash grenades?"

"No. Save your stamina for now," I replied, keeping my eyes fixed on the approaching teams.

I sent the black ghost after them to steal everyone who got close to the headbands and throw it towards other teams to create a distraction.

" What the… Our headband is gone! " Said one of the riders after he couldn't feel the headband.

" What?! "

" Who stole it?! "

" I didn't see anyone! "

" I didn't see anyone! "

They suddenly stopped and looked at each other. 

"Hey, there's a headband over there!" someone yelled.

"Shit, let's grab it first."

The majority of students immediately rushed towards the headbands and started fighting amongst themselves to take back their points.

In all the chaos, three particular teams stood out: Bakugo, Todoroki and Midoriya.

"Those three are still coming after us," Yaoyorozu said, eyes darting between them.

"Yeah, I see 'em." I watched as the three teams rushed toward us 

"Something weird, Bakugo's hanging back for some reason." Yaoyorozu continue.

"Hanging back?" Ojiro's tail twitched. "Isn't that weird? I heard he was very hot-tempered."

"He's winding up."

Sure enough, a string of explosions popped under Bakugo's palms as he flew upward, breaking off from his team.

Bypassing the ground teams entirely. His face was twisted into a violent grin, 

"OUT OF MY WAY, YOU EXTRA, THE MILLION POINT IS MINE!" he roared.

"He's flying towards us!" Shinso said, deadpan. "Isn't flying banned?"

"Rules cap it at five seconds airborne, remember," I said. 

"You don't have to worry about him; I'll take care of this."

"You sound way too calm about a guy who blows things up for a living," Ojiro muttered.

*Fwosh!* 

A sudden, sharp draft whipped past us 

And before Bakugo is even halfway to reaching our group, he suddenly hears something passing by him and steals his headband. He didn't have time to turn around; before Bakugo suddenly received a punch in the back, sending him towards the ground. 

To the audience, Bakugo was hit by an invisible force, sending him violently backward, his momentum completely neutralized as he tumbled through the air before being caught back on by his team.

"What the hell?!"

"You should stay on the ground with your teammates, Bakugo. If you don't see me up there, it means you can do anything you want."

"You god-damned fish-eyed bastard. Just you wait, I'm going to murder you." Bakugo yelled back with rage.

Midoriya's team was close to reaching our group. I'm honestly surprised by how fast he is coming towards us, considering his usual personality.

Before they could push forward, the ground beneath our feet went ice-cold.

"Get out of the way," Todoroki's calm voice echoed from the left flank.

Ice rose from the ground in a fraction of a second and started moving like a wave aimed straight at our flanks to freeze our base and immobilize us.

"Yaoyorozu, you're up!" I called out.

"On it!" She answered, already whipping up some rough fabric under our feet for traction.

"Good. Once I'm done with the ice, let's blind him before we retreat."

My Ghost shifted to the left, and with a heavy swipe of its claws, it struck the ice, shattering it into pieces before it could even touch us.

"Is that all you can do, you're not–"

Before Todoroki could finish speaking, a bright flash of light blinded him and his teammates, forcing their entire cavalry to halt its advance just to maintain balance.

While retreating, from our right, Shoji's team attempted to use his arms to shield Mineta and Asui, who were preparing to launch a barrage of sticky balls and long-range tongue strikes over us.

"Ojiro, right side," I said.

"Got it!" Ojiro's tail whipped outward, striking down Asui's tongue mid-air while my Ghost used Mineta's own sticky balls to stick Shoji in one place, preventing him from following us. 

Meanwhile, Midoriya's team closed the gap, with Midoriya reaching forward to try grabbing the headbands. I didn't even need to do anything, because before his hand could even reach the headband, Yaoyorozu just… leaned back.

He hit nothing but air, stumbling forward from his own momentum, nearly falling to the ground. He was only saved by his teammates holding onto him.

"You keep overcommitting," I said.

Midoriya went red but didn't say anything back; he just adjusted his stance, jaw clenched. While we retreated further 

"Stay sharp, Shinso, it's going to be your turn soon," I said.

While we were busy dealing with other teams,

Midoriya's team tried a different angle this time, circling wide instead of coming straight in from the front, clearly trying to catch us off guard while we were focused in another direction. 

"You're not gonna get us by using the same trick twice," I said, provoking him.

"I wasn't trying the same trick," he shot back, clearly getting impatient.

"Could've fooled me." I turned to look at Shinso, signaling him that it was his turn.

Midoriya braced himself while pointing his finger at us, ready to use All For One to create an opportunity to steal our headband.

Shinso looked at Midoriya before asking him. 

"Hey! Midoriya! Do you really think you can take this headband like that?"

Midoriya started answering. 

"We have to try, because…"

He froze mid-sentence. His eyes lost focus, while his team panicked over his lack of response and action.

"Turn them around," Shinso commanded, a slight smirk playing on his lips. 

"Block Bakugo."

Midoriya turned around and used the shockwave of his attack to blow off Bakugo's incoming secondary aerial assault,

"DEKU, YOU IDIOT, HOW DARE YOU GET IN MY WAY!"

It was Todoroki's group's turn to catch up to us, as he said in a flat tone, more an observation than a compliment.

"You guys really work well together; it's as if you all knew each other for a long time."

"We manage," I said.

"That's not an answer."

"It's the only one you're getting."

He didn't talk anymore; he just tightened his stance and sent another wave of frost toward our legs. Yaoyorozu countered it half a second before it reached us, and started throwing multiple flash grenades to cover our retreat.

We repeated that tactic for the remaining time. From time to time, if a group came close to us, I had Momo create flash grenades and throw them. In the confusion, either Shinso would brainwash them, or Ojiro would use his tail to deal with them. Even when Todoroki tried to freeze the whole platform on which we were standing. As soon as the ice got close, the black ghost would punch the ground to break the ice around us. 

The main stadium clock hit zero with a loud, blaring horn.

"TIME IS UP!" Present Mic screamed into his microphone, his voice reverberating off the concrete walls. 

"IN AN ABSOLUTE SHOW OF DEFENSE AND DOMINANCE, TEAM ARATA HOLDS THE MILLION POINTS AND TAKES FIRST PLACE!!"

For a second, the whole field seemed to hold its breath before everyone started walking off toward the sidelines, some celebrating small victories of their own, others limping back from failing to grab a bigger prize. A few stray glances came our way, the kind that said what everyone was quietly thinking: whose headband was still worth the most points on the field, and who was going to take first place in this competition.

Bakugo was glaring at the dirt as if it had personally offended him. Todoroki straightened up slower than usual, ice melting off his sleeve in thin trails. Midoriya just stood there for a moment, hands on his knees, looking at our group like he was trying to work out a math problem that refused to make sense.

None of them said anything to us. They didn't have to.

Yaoyorozu exhaled and relaxed a little, headband still attached to her forehead. Ojiro's tail finally dropped. Shinso smiled with satisfaction, shoulders loosening for the first time in minutes.

"We really held out," Ojiro said.

"Did you have any doubt?"

"Don't be smug; we barely did it," Shinso added, but he was still smiling when he retorted.

"Nice work, everyone. Let's see which team also passed the cavalry battle." I said

We regrouped near the edge of the arena, checking the screen overhead. We were still in first place despite everything the other teams had thrown at us. 

Yaoyorozu allowed herself a small, tired smile at that, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

"Five more minutes of that and I don't know if I could've kept throwing grenades at them," she admitted quietly to me.

"You kept up fine; I'm sure you'll have been able to hold out for even longer."

"Barely," she said, echoing Shinso without meaning to.

Ojiro rolled his shoulder, working out a knot from all the bracing. "The next round's gonna be worse, isn't it? I don't really want to end up having to fight any of you guys."

"Don't worry about that. We'll probably not meet in the first round," I said.

He didn't look entirely convinced, but he nodded anyway, falling into step beside the rest of us as we headed back toward the staging area to wait out the results.

Meaning, Momona was waking up to a ceiling he didn't recognize, with a headache.

"I need to talk to someone."