Family Business

Chapter 38 - Tournament Arc part 2

Izumi's original plan of teaming up with Hitoshi and Himiko had become a very poor idea now that she's essentially a walking target with her point value, so the three went for their plan B and decided to split up. As she watched the pair wander off to form their own team more suited to their original plan she tried to come up with any kind of strategy to survive the onslaught to come. How was she going to convince someone to join her team?

Thankfully for the quirkless girl she didn't have to wonder. "Izumi."

Turning to face the voice the greenette found a familiar pair of faces smiling at her; the beaming smile of Ochako and the faint one of Shouto, who was the one that had spoken. "Do you want to team up with us?" Tearing up from their show of support and tackling the bicolored boy and gravity girl in a hug Izumi cried excitedly "Yes please! Thank you so much, you two are the best!"

Shouto flushed a bit, still unused to shows of affection like this, and returned his friend's hug - albeit a little rigidly. "You're welcome."

Once they pulled away from the embrace, the awkward tension to the boy's shoulders disappearing, the brunette among them asked their green haired leader "So, any ideas for a fourth member?"

Izumi hummed, stroking her chin as she thought out loud quietly "Our best strategy would be to defend against other teams and keep our own headband. No point in stealing from other teams since we're already in first place by default." Her teammates nodded, Shouto commenting "So we'd need someone to help us evade capture... What about Iida?"

The greenette shook her head "As nice as teaming up with him would be it would only hurt our formation. He and you both function best as the front horse, him since it increases our evasion speed and you since it leaves you free to use both sides of your quirk to defend. Putting either or both of you into a back position would leave us vulnerable to attack from other teams... and we're gonna be under attack the most for being in the lead as it is."

Ochako hummed, wringing her hands nervously with a nod. "Plus, it looks like Iida-kun already teamed up with Momo and Mei. What should we do now?"

The quirkless girl smirked and walked off, placing her hand on a lone familiar figure's shoulder "Hey, do you want to team up with us?"

-----

While Izumi was gaining the last member of her own team the Gen-ed trio were debating who they could add to their own to increase their odds of success.

Hitoshi was going to be the front horse, since he was the strongest physically thanks to Katsukame and Rappa's insane training schedule and it would leave him free to secretly taunt their way to victory with his quirk. Akumu, with their ability to shift their features to make stealing the headband more difficult, was going to be their rider. And now all they needed was someone with a compatible quirk or personality to join Himiko in the back positions, preferably someone people would try to avoid.

The blonde snapped her fingers when her catlike eyes fixed a familiar form that fit their plan perfectly. "I have an idea."

Skipping up to her target before he could ask anyone to join him Himiko blocked his path with a wide smile. "Hey little brother, long time no see! Wanna join my team?"

The vampiric girl's friends were shocked by her words, and were even more shocked by who she'd spoken them to. The taller blonde looked at his, apparently older, sister with thinly veiled disgust. "Why would I ever want to team up with you? You're the one who ran off after using your quirk so distastefully, do you have any idea how hard it was for me and our parents to regain our reputation after the shame you branded us with? We had to change our name Himiko!"

"Why are you mad about that? Monoma suits you better than Toga ever did." Himiko commented blankly, stroking her sibling's ego further by adding "Besides, do you really want to turn down a chance to steal the headbands of a bunch of 1A teams in the most painful way possible? I mean, sure it would be embarrassing for them to lose to 1B students... But just think of how heartbroken they'd be to lose to a bunch of villain-quirked gen-ed students."

Hitoshi saw the exact moment that Monoma Neito caved to the idea, smiling manically in a way that made the blondes' relation to each other a bit more apparent. "You know what Himiko-ane? You might not be as hopeless a case as our parents thought."

"Pfft!" the female blonde laughed back "Since when have our parents ever been good at making decisions Neito. They didn't even let us practice our quirks and told us that heroism was a waste of our time. I should introduce you to my new father, he's way more fun than those controlling pieces of trash."

Neito raised a brow "And how exactly is this Setsuno guy superior to our parents, may I ask?"

"He trained me to use my quirk and swords properly. Did you know that if i'm close enough to the person I drink the blood of I can use their quirk?" Himiko stated matter of factly, earning a shocked look from her brother and friends. "I learned that while training with dad for the festival. Plus he lets me keep pets and takes care of them for me while i'm training or at school."

The copycat blonde sighed, admitting defeat reluctantly "I'll admit, he does sound better than our parents. Mom and dad still won't even let me have the hobbies or friends I want because they aren't proper for someone of our breeding... whatever that means."

Himiko fist pumps. "Alright! Let's get to strategizing!"

As she watched her classmate team up with the gen-ed team from nearby in the arena Kendo felt a brief twinge of worry, the rest of her team joining her in unease when they noticed the pair of blondes' identically maniacal grins. Whatever Monoma and those gen-ed students had planned it was nothing good, the redhead could feel it in her bones.

-----

Kai smiled as he took in Izumi from her position as the rider in her group, an unfamiliar boy with a bird head taking the final position in her team alongside two of her best friends, and tied her headband to her forehead.

"The contestants have finished gathering into teams and have gotten into formation. When I give the word the Cavalry Battle will commence!" Present Mic yelled from the announcers box, as full of energy and volume as he is on his radio show. "3...2...1... Begin!"