“Allow me to explain.” Midnight began. “The participants will form teams of two-to-four people as they see fit. In theory, it’s basically the same as a regular playground game. But there is one difference. Each player has been assigned a point value based on the results from the obstacle course. The point assignments go up by increments of five, for example, 42nd place is worth five points and 41st is worth ten points. And the point value assigned to the first-place contestant is, ten million! You will have 15 minutes to prepare your teams; after that, the games will begin.”
I began walking through the crowd. If I had to guess, Claude was in control. I wasn’t sure where he was walking, but I think he had a plan. I have never done a cavalry battle before, but other students seemed to be familiar with it. I never played with other kids in the playground so I have no idea what this will be like. We encountered the girl with plant hair again.
“Hello, would you care to join my team.” She turned to face me.
“I would be honored to join such a skilled individual such as yourself, but would it not be wise to invite one of your peers.” She replied. Claude was a master tactician, and the cavalry battle is about strategy and leadership. He was definitely a person you would want on your team.
“Many thanks. I fear my peer may not give me their trust. I have a plan of my own that I believe you would be of importance. We are able to form a team with two people, but it would be wise to find more teammates.” He began looking around for someone with helpful quirk but was interrupted by someone making a team himself.
“Hey, why don’t you join my team?” a voice came from behind me. We turned to find a guy with spikey hair. It was the same guy who seemed to be controlling people during the race. Claude didn’t answer. He staired at the boy.
“Your quirk is very powerful; it can be very useful. If I am not mistaken, you can control others. Would you care to join my team?” said Claude. He was very straight forward with his approach. The boy looked around before answering.
“When people realize what my quirk is, they usually avoid me, or tense up when talking. So why are you still talking?”
“I do not fear you. You have not giving me any reason I shouldn’t trust you.” The boy seemed surprised. He didn’t expect that kind of answer.
“Alright fine, I’ll join you” the boy said with a smile.
“Great, if we know how to utilize both of your quirks, we should be able to win. Having four members would give us another advantage, but many people have already formed teams. Having a three-person team also gives up the advantage of better control and maneuverability. Our points will start lower than most, but that means we’ll become less of a target. If we can create a plan where…”
“Snap out of it!” the boy, snaping his fingers.
“We still have ten minutes. Perhaps we should begin learning about our teammates.” Both of them looked at me. they probably were expecting me to go first. “ My name is Claude Nautali but may call me Claude. My quirk, though interesting, is not very useful. I have four different personalities hidden within myself; I am actually one of those personalities, but I have taken control of the host body. The host is Salazo, while the other two personalities are Delaney and Bo.” Both of them just stared at me. There was no reason you had to say that much. Now they probably think I’m crazy.
“You poor soul, you hide your struggle behind great strength.” Said the girl. She talks very weird; I wonder if there’s a reason. “My name sense birth has been Ibara Shiozaki. My quirk has been dubbed Vines. My hair is comprised of vines, as one would expect. These vines are part of me, and I can control them as if it were a limb. They can detach and extend to great lengths.”
“How did I get stuck in a team with weridos” said the boy. “Hitoshi Shinso, and my quirk is brainwashing. I can control anyone, but only after they answer my question.”
“How dreadful! Truly a power of evil!”
“Not true” said Claude. “This just shows a flaw in the U.A. system. Mind control would pose as a very useful quirk for heroes. Catching villains would take little effort. It would be best if U.A. hadn’t tested children on artificial villains, but rather people. Pitting you against robots proved to be quite difficult, thus explaining why you wound up in general studies.”
“I see. My sincerest apologies Shinso.” Shiozaki said while bowing. “I was disrespectful. I should never have judged you solely on your quirk alone. That was wrong of me, I pray you will every forgive me.”
“Sure” Shinso said with smirk. Brainwashing was a weird name for his quirk. I would guess “Mind Control” would be a better choice. When I think of brainwashing, I think of someone removing another person’s memory.
“Returning back to the cavalry battle, I have a plan that might work.” Claude began explaining his plan to his teammates and tried to avoid having other teams eavesdropping.
“Formed your teams? Made your plans? Too bad if you haven’t!” I glanced the arena, most people stuck with people they know. We were probably the only team to combine multiple classes.
“You guys ready?” asked Shinso.
Shiozaki and Claude looked up at him and nodded. The crowd counted down the cavalry battle has officially begun.
“Let’s go, Team Midoriya is over there.” Shinso pointed at the team of four that quickly became surrounded by other teams. Shinso was the team leader, while Shiozaki and I were holding him up. We ran to team Midoriya but not for the reason most people did. Our goal was to steal the headbands of the teams that were focused on the ten million points.
Team Midoriya made an escape by flying away, but we managed to grab two headbands. We had moved up to fifth place. We fled the area before no one noticed they lost their headbands. Because we already had three headbands, we became a smaller target.
“Team from behind” Claude shouted. We turned to face them. I looked as though there was no rider, but after closer inspection, you can see pants and a headband. “Her quirk is invisibility!”
“What do you think your doing?” asked Shinso.
“Taking your headband” said Hagakure.
“Stop right there!” Shinso said calmly.
“Everyone stop!” her team stopped moving.
“Now, give me your headband and stay here until the cavalry battle is over.” Hagakure took off her headband and gave it to Shinso.
“What are you doing!” shouted Sato. Hagakure didn’t respond. We didn’t wait around to see what would happen next, so we ran away quickly. We continued collecting points and made our way to third place. Before we could put the rest of our plan into action, we wanted to at least be in second. We began chasing after team Todoroki. He was in conflict with team Midoriya.
“Shiozaki, grab some points.” Said Shinso. Shiozaki extended one of her vines so I could reach Todoroki’s neck. The headbands were inside out so we weren’t able to tell which one would give us the most points. She was able to only grab one before Todoroki noticed.
“Absolute Defense Form!” shouted Claude. We stopped moving and Shiozaki stuck her vines in the ground. Slowly, she created a sphere that surrounded us. We waited until the round was over. Eventually, everyone in the stadium began counting down as the round came to an end. We put Shinso down and walked out of the ball. We all listened to Present Mic as he announced the results.
“What a round that was! And now it’s time for the results! Remember, only the top four teams will be able to move on to the final round. So If that’s not you then ya snooze, ya lose! Now let’s take a look at who our top four teams are. In first place with the whopping ten million points is team Shinso!” Everyone from team Todoroki, Midoriya, and Bakugo looked at us. Shinso and Claude looked at Shiozaki.
“I’m not sure if we deserve this; I was being vey underhanded in order to grab this.” Claude had stepped down from control and allowed me to move again.
“Woah, I forgot what walking felt like.” Both of my teammates gave me a weird look. “This is awkward. Don’t feel bad about taking the headband, we were free to use our quirks however we like. That was just one way of using yours.”
“I didn’t actually think we’d win.” Shinso said.
“Then why did you join Claude’s team?”
“You were different, that’s all I’ll say for now.” I don’t quite know what happened, but I know Claude did something to have him join. I know that one day, he will make a great hero.
“Now, let’s take an hour lunch break before we start the festivities! See ya soon! Hey, Eraser Head. Let’s grab so food.”
Everyone went inside to grab their lunch. I was with Momo and Jiro. I guess this is my way of trying to bond with her. Recently I’ve been eating lunch with Ashido because she’s amazing. The only reason I have friends is because her and Kirishima were so kind to me. If I hadn’t encountered them the way that I did, I probably wouldn’t have any friend. We were walking to our table when Kaminari and Mineta began talking to us.
“Yaoyorozu. Jiro.” Kaminari spoke.
“Uh huh, do you need something?” asked Momo.
“Well, I’m sure you already know since you’re like, a class rep. But they said all the girls have to wear those uniforms for the big cheer battle his afternoon.” Mineta was speaking lies. Now I’m forced to make a choice. Do I tell her that it’s not the truth, or have them believe it is?
“Huh!?”
“Odd, that’s the first I’m hearing about it. Are you sure?”
“You don’t have to believe me if you wanna get in trouble. But this is coming straight from Mr. Aizawa. I thought maybe you’d forgotten, so I figured I’d remind you, just in case.” Kaminari was nodding his head to Mineta’s lie.
“That’s not the truth! Right Salazo!” Jiro was staring at me as if it was a matter of life or death.
“I wouldn’t know. That’s not something I would care to be informed about.” Both of the girl hesitated.
“Alright Jiro, let’s get the other girls.”
“Wait, we’re doing this!?” the girls walked away in search for the other girls. That was the perfect lie. I won’t get in trouble because this isn’t anything I would know about, and all the blame will to Mineta and Kaminari.
I ate lunch and found a spot outside where I can relax. I wanted to have some me time before we move to the final round. This round was going to be the hardest. I need to predict anything.
“Are you Salazo?”
“Ah!” without thinking, my reflexes kicked in. I spun around and pushed the person with all my might. I didn’t predict someone would want to talk to me. “Oh no no no no no! are you ok?” I helped the child up.
“Y-Yeah. I wanted to-o say hello. Hello.” The kid began walking away. I looked down at my left hand.
“This is the hand of pushing.” I felt terrible, but in a good way. I have always wanted to do that, but I know it’s not right to do something like that. I’m a child pusher. This is probably a bad omen for the next round.