Natsuo stared down at her his face with blood leaking out from the side of his lips on the big screen. He studied his own body and how his sister skipped along the arena with two girls in her class with four red paintball guns in their hands.
"It's kind of cool to see myself doing the reckless stuff that Izuku was doing." Natsuo said absentmindedly, pausing as he chewed on the third refill of fruit flavored candied popcorn. He hummed as he watched the entire sea of students start separating off into teams. "Although I thought for sure she would use Shoto's to skate out of that obstacle course sooner."
Hisashi tilted his head, "She may be holding onto as much blood as she can for the final stage. That would be a smart move when she makes it past this round."
"Hopefully all that blood can last." Rei spoke, her eyebrows drawn together in concern. "We used the stronger blood bags that Vlad King recommended, right?"
"Yes, we did. The blood bags should be strong enough to take a punch or two without bursting," Inko replied, tapping Rei's hand with a smile.
Natsuo frowned even as their sister got one final member for her team which seemed like a guy with big goggles on his head. Tenko cut through his thoughts when he said, "It's the matter of how much sweat it will take for the duct tape to start peeling away. Then she will have to either carry the blood bags or start chugging as much as she can."
As teams gathered in the middle of the arena, Cementoss started forming different shapes of obstacles and corner areas. The screen focused on the stoic hero as they built an impressive paintball course in under two minutes. When the hero was finished, the applause he received was deserved.
"Now that teams have been selected. It is time for the second year student's second round to begin! Get ready to see colors soaring through the air!" Present Mic announced, drawing everyone's attention by the way the crowd screamed in excitement. The audience watching all over the world was waiting from a world behind the cameras that were pointing to the arena and the stands from several angles. "Snipe, explain the rules before we go go go!"
"Each team member has three balloons attached to themselves. And each team member has over fifty small paintballs inside the guns they have. This round will prove leadership, teamwork, strategy and more as teams work to survive until the end of the round with their balloons intact and take out other team's balloons."
"If one member loses all of their balloons, they are out. If the team loses all of their balloons, they are out. The team members are allowed to give their balloons to a team member to keep them in the game. But they cannot take balloons from other teams, they can only shoot at them." Snipe explained the rules in a straightforward way in his own unique drawl. The cowboy dressed hero tilted his head up to the announcer booth. "Present Mic, please do the honors of counting down."
"Will do!" Present Mic cheerfully responded. "5!.. 4!"
The Midoriya family tensed as they watched the figure of their daughter forming a triangle with her team. Their balloons bounced off the other balloons from the team members.
"3! 2! 1!" Present Mic announced over the microphone. "START!"
Natsuo cupped his hands over his mouth. "Go, Himiko! You got this!"
Himiko's team launched themselves behind a hiding spot. One of their team members was pulling the balloon strings to hide them behind the barrier as the other three took positions around the barrier to defend the team.
"Who is with her?" Rei asked, leaning forward to watch Himiko aim several shots at another team's balloons.
"I recognize Akatsuka. I think that's the one with the endless amount of red candy in her bag." Inko explained, her voice trailing off as she tried to recognize the other two. "I think that's Risu? She is the one with the squirrel quirk that apparently always brings a pack of nuts from home. But I do not know the boy."
"He doesn't seem like one of her classmates." Touya reasoned out loud. He snapped his fingers when he noticed the accessory on their head. "He could be in another class like supporting something with those goggles on his head."
The cameras followed just how many teams were losing their balloons. Within the first two minutes, three students had already lost all of their balloons with the team giving them one each to keep them in the game. Himiko's team was going strong, losing only one of their balloons and popping several other team's balloons
And now it was five minutes in and Himiko's team was still going strong against the other opponents.
"The kid with the goggles is really good with their aiming." Tenko commented, pointing to the one other kid on Himiko's team. From the looks of it, the kid was just completely destroying the other team's balloons each time they popped their heads out of their hiding spot. "He must be in the support class! I can see a belt around his waist. And you know that rule about only bringing something you make."
"Mashita Ryoshi is really pulling in those points for the red team!" Present Mic chime in loudly over the speakers. "And that's partly because of his quirk: Pinpoint! It gives the user pinpoint accuracy but it does range for the items he uses!"
Eraserhead hummed. "But it looks like a paintball gun is not his strong suit."
"Really? Because look at that! Two balloons with one shot!" Present amid shouted with a noticeable point from where he sat in the announcer's booth. "He might be giving Snipe a run for his money if he was in the hero course!" Present Mic complimented. "But his quirk gives him the right amount of accuracy he needs to make all of his support gear in the support course in record time!"
"I'm sure Power Loader will have more to say about that. Let's just get back to the round, Mic." Eraserhead said in a low volume over the speakers which was a shape contrast to Mic's loud commentary that followed right after.
"Right on!" Present Mic yelled. "YEAHHH!"
Right on eight minutes, Himiko was stumbling behind an obstacle which resulted in her accidentally popping one of her balloons. Her team members followed closely with Risu getting one of her balloons popped on the way there. They watched as she ripped one of the blood bags from under her shirt open and the gasps from the audience as some of the donated blood from it spilled down her shirt.
However, Himiko didn't pay much attention to the reaction of the crowd. However, Hisashi did as he specifically tried to track down whoever wolf whistled his underage daughter. Well, most of their family were balancing between watching and looking to see if they could find the perpetrator. Until Natuos called back their attention to the stage where Himiko drank straight from another blood bag.
Touya made a disgruntled noise. "She should have more time for her Natsuo disguise. Is she recharging with more of his blood or is she changing?"
"I think she's changing it up to keep the others on their toes." Natsuo said. "Though I'm not even sure who she reached for."
"Hm." Tenko hummed and gestured to the screen where Himiko was melting into a new form. "Well, we'll get the answer soon."
The audience was immediately sprinkled with loud exclamations of 'Woah!' and 'Wow!' in the crowd. From the screen, Himiko's melted Natsuo ducked down for only a second before a newly formed Fuyumi popped out instead. Himiko smiled at the camera, twiddling her fingers in a greeting before shooting a paintball right above someone's head like she was aiming at an imaginary apple.
Hisashi grumbled as he saw a few shots of the audience reactions appear on the screen with many boys and men looking flustered. "Okay. Green shirt, yellow spikes on the cheeks, I should keep a list..."
Into hummed with a gentle smile on her face while Rei pulled Fuyumi protectively to her. Inko added, "I'm on it, honey."
"Oh, we think so much alike darling," Hisashi said with a grin, locking eyes with someone who was watching the screen too intensely for his tastes. The stranger, who was probably a sidekick, startled back into their seat from his father's threatening glare that Natsuo could not see from his seat.
"I did not think I could look like that." Fuyumi replied, gesturing at the screen to her own face that had a wide, competitive grin. "Ah, if any of my class see this..."
"They would think their teacher is the coolest for being on TV," Touya suggested with a grin, chuckling when he watched Himiko make someone do an exaggerated cartoon worthy slip on the ice.
Natsuo watched the digital clock for the battle hit to a countdown of five minutes left. Himiko was using Fuyumi's ice quirk to basically turned the battlefield in her team's favor by creating an entire hiding spot akin to an ice castle.
While everyone was busy scrambling for obstacles, her team was chilling inside a custom made shelter to protect their balloons from harm. And it was working, two teams dropped from the running with Himiko's team still going strong.
"You've got this!" Fuyumi yelled out to their sister who now had to face off against two teams coming after their ice castle stronghold.
The family watched in anticipation as Himiko's team had two of their balloons popped from the planned attack. But they were swiftly dealt with when Risu raged out and hit the remaining balloons of one of the opposing team members. The encounter lasted on for two minutes as Himiko's team struggled to regain control.
"3 minutes left!" Present Mic shouted over the speakers which finally made the other teams fall back to focus on keeping their remaining balloons intact to move on.
Himiko's group all had three or two balloons left from what they could see from inside the ice. The family watched with bated breath as they reinforced the wall with everything they had while Mashita and Risu were defending the cold palace.
The minutes counted down into nothing when Himiko rushed out of the ice as Fuyumi with two paintball guns blazing, leading her team to take down one more team with only ten seconds left. Himiko's balloons were all busted by her teammates were tying their balloons to her back to keep her in the game—
Present Mic started the countdown with Himiko's team making their last ditch defense. Himiko conjured up a thin wall of ice to protect themselves for the last few seconds, shaking off her hands when it was done like she was trying to get feeling back into them.
5!
The teams were making last minute shots towards each other, yells and screams of students trying to dodge or protect themselves against the paint rocketing towards them.
4!
Risu let out a victory screech as she took out someone else's balloon.
3!
Mashita deflecting a perfect paintball shot with an icicle perfectly stopping the paintball in its tracks
2!
Himiko and Akatsuka jerking back to cover their other two members with matching confident grins.
"1! It's done! It's DONE! The Paintball Battle is finished! YEAAHHH!" Present Mic announced to the excited crowd who cheered at the news. Many students below latched onto each other in group hugs while others calmly helped their fallen team members off the ground. "Now let's see who make it into the big battle rounds!"
"The gray team, The red team—" Natsuo already stopped listening as his family cheered Himiko and her team on for passing onto the next round. Present Mic continued on with other teams and members to fill up the number of people needed for the battle round.
Hisashi and Inko were already dipping into the tissues while Rei tried to offer reassurances all with a smile on her face. Touya and Tenko were cheering so hard they sounded like the friendly fraternity jocks that Natsuo had encountered before. Fuyumi was yelling quite loudly for their little sister who had caught their attention and was now waving and jumping from her place on the stadium floor.
Natsuo clapped until his hands felt like they were stinging before blowing a sharp sounding whistle for his sister. He was already so pumped and this was only the second round for Himiko!