A/N: Remember how I said the obstacle course was the longest chapter? Well, that was a lie. This chapter's even longer.
Also, I realized I never properly explained Hitomi's quirk, and why it heats up, but I promise that will be explained in the chapter after the next one.
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Hitomi was trying to catch her breath when she heard voices calling her name.
"Hitomi!"
She turned to see Kirishima, Mina, and Sero running towards her.
"Hitomi, you little cheat!" Kirishima exclaimed.
"Ch-cheat?!"
Mina clenched her fists in frustration. "Using your force fields like that, I bet you didn't struggle at all!"
Kaminari ran a hand through his hair as he approached. "Yeah, you hardly had any trouble with the obstacles..."
Hitomi sweatdropped, holding her hands up in apology. "Well, Midnight said anything was allowed, so I just did what would help me get through the course faster... I mean, at least I didn't freeze people to the ground, right?"
"Yeah, that Todoroki..." Sero started, "I thought he was already amazing during the battle training, but he froze an entire zero pointer like it was no problem. That's a recommended student for you..."
The conversation drifted off as Midnight called for everyone's attention. "The first game for the first-year stage is over! Now, take a look at the results!"
Hitomi's eyes glazed over the scoreboard, finding a picture of her by her placement.
6th place...!!! That's a lot better than I would've expected...
"The top 42 made it through the next round. It's unfortunate, but don't worry even if you didn't make it! We've prepared other chances for you to shine.
The real competition begins next! The press cavalry'll be all over it!
Now then, here is the second game."
The projection behind Midnight started the slot machine animation again as she said, "I already know what it is, but what could it be? What could it be?"
Hitomi held her breath as the animation continued before stopping on the words "Cavalry Battle".
Cavalry battle...?
Midnight gave an introduction of the game, where people could be in teams of two to four and were assigned point values based on who was on the team.
"Points assigned go up by five starting from the bottom. So 42nd place gets 5 points, and 41st gets ten points!"
So I have... 185 points!
"And the point value assigned to first place is...
10 MILLION!!"
Midoriya went stock still.
Everyone turned to him, intimidating waves radiating off of them.
Midnight looked at the crowd, a satisfied smile on her face. "That's right. It's survival of the fittest, with a chance for those at the bottom to overthrow the top!"
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Midnight gave everyone 15 minutes to form teams, causing the crowd of students to disperse.
...
All of Class A seemed to gravitate towards Bakugou, begging him to be on their team.
Hitomi looked around aimlessly, seeing teams start to form already.
A lot of Class B already had their teams formed, which meant Hitomi had to find some of her own classmates to team up with.
She had been hoping to be on a team with Kirishima, but he had rushed off to somewhere before she could ask him.
Those in her class who seemed to give up on trying to be on a team with Bakugou were in small groups, seemingly discussing strategies for the cavalry battle. She wasn't familiar enough with a lot of them to muster up the courage to ask to be on a team with them, and ended up standing there by herself as the minutes ticked by.
Maybe I could be on Midoriya's team, and help protect his points for him...
As she was about to go look for the curly-haired boy, she felt a hand on her shoulder.
"Hey, you."
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A few minutes earlier...
Hatsume had officially joined Midoriya's team, leaving the boy to rethink his strategy for the cavalry battle.
Midoriya explained his current plan to his team, before the green-haired boy turned to Uraraka, his other teammate. "Thanks to your zero gravity and Hatsume's support items, we've solved the question of mobility. The last thing we need to take care of is..."
The two pointed at each other, realizing the same thing.
"Defense."
Midoriya continued. "And the best person for that is..."
Uraraka put her hands together in excitement. "Ah, Hitomi-chan!"
Midoriya nodded. "Yup. We just need to find her and hope she hasn't joined another team..."
Uraraka looked around, searching for Hitomi's standout blue hair.
She spotted her a distance away, starting to walk somewhere. Tapping Midoriya's shoulder, Uraraka pointed at her. "Look, there she is! She looks like she's alone; I don't think she's joined a team yet."
Midoriya was about to walk towards her before he noticed something.
Hitomi was following the boy with purple hair from two weeks ago.
"Uraraka-san, I think she already has a team..."
"Really?" Uraraka glanced back to where Hitomi was, her face falling when she saw she was following the other boy. "Oh..."
Midoriya gave her a reassuring smile. "It's okay, Uraraka-san... there's someone else I have in mind that I think can help us..."
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Hitomi felt like she had woken up from a fever dream when she felt something hit her back.
She felt a weight on her right arm, and realized she was holding someone's foot with her left hand.
When did I...?
She looked up to see a head of purple hair, realizing the person it belonged to was tying a headband with the number "460" around their forehead.
Hitomi snapped to the sound of Present Mic's voice, announcing the cavalry battle was about to begin.
What?! There was supposed to be about 7 minutes left to form teams, unless...
Realization dawned on her as she stared at the boy she was keeping steady.
Somehow, without her realizing, he had gotten her to join her team without her ever agreeing.
A quirk that can control people doesn't seem implausible...
She looked to see who else was on her team, noticing she was gripping the shoulder of a boy with ice blue hair who she assumed was from Class B. Ojiro turned out to be standing next to her, and she realized his tail was probably what jolted her awake.
Upon closer inspection, she noticed his eyes seemed glazed over, his pupils turned white.
It was as if he were a robot.
So then, that boy really did mind-control us...
She thought back to how she got here, recalling when someone had approached her.
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Earlier...
A violet haired boy placed his hand on Hitomi's shoulder, the girl seemingly about to walk off to find a team.
"Hey, you."
The girl turned in surprise, the voice sounding somewhat familiar to her. They locked eyes for a moment before she replied.
"Ah, yes?"
That was when the world went blank.
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Hitomi was brought back to reality when she heard Present Mic counting down from three.
"START!!"
The teams around them charged, all running towards a specific spot. Hitomi looked over to see what what they were aiming for, recognizing curly green hair.
Midoriya's team!
She heard a voice above her, recognizing the tired tone. "Now then, let's try and go for the ten million."
Ojiro and the Class B boy broke into a run, Hitomi stumbling to keep up with them.
They're doing exactly as he says...
"..."
This team wasn't her own choice.
She was aiming for the top, of course, but if she had to be brainwashed to do it, then what was the point?
She glanced up at her team's rider, contemplating.
This wasn't how she wanted to win.
I'm not sure how exactly his quirk works, but if I went under after I responded and not from looking at him, then...
"If you brainwash me again, I won't hesitate to throw you off and make us lose."
Her team stopped as the indigo-eyed rider turned back to her in surprise.
"When did you-?!"
Hitomi only glared at him, her mouth zipped shut.
The other teams were making a large commotion, all aiming for Midoriya's points as Hitomi's team stayed behind.
She slowly loosened her grip on the Class B boy's shoulder, her arm starting to fall under the purple-haired boy's weight.
He started to slip off, before someone snatched his headband.
"Hey!" Hitomi cried out.
Hitomi looked to see a boy with straight blonde hair twirling her team's headband around his finger, a condescending smirk on his face. "What're you standing around for? This is a competition, you know."
His team then ran off, the blonde giving one last wave.
Hitomi tightened her grip on her teammate's shoulder, speaking up as the rider straightened himself. "I know you brainwashed me, and if you do it again I'll throw you off and make us lose. You're looking to get into the hero course with this festival, aren't you? Since you're in Gen Ed."
The boy sighed, running a hand through his hair as he felt Hitomi's glare bore into him. "Fine, you caught me. And you can relax, I'm not stupid enough to risk you making me lose my chance."
Hitomi was silent for a moment before her face broke into a small smile. "Good! First of all, what's your name...?"
"Hitoshi Shinsou. No need to tell me yours; I already made you do it."
Hitomi felt a little annoyed at that. "So, are you going to let our other two teammates free, or...?"
"Absolutely not."
"Why not?! They deserve to be aware of what they're doing!
...I'm going to throw you off if you don't."
"I doubt they'd be nice enough like you are to listen to me. Besides, you're actually the one I needed to worry about the least to control. You're here for insurance, these two are my offense."
"Huh?!"
Shinsou sighed again, observing the other teams.
"Look, I'm only doing this because nobody here would be willing to trust some Gen Ed kid who seems to know nothing about heroics, let alone someone with a quirk like mine."
Hitomi's eyes widened, realizing she had done just that.
Now she felt guilty.
"It's better if I keep these two directly under control. I need them to do exactly as I say in order to gather points to qualify for the next round, and once we do, I need you to protect them until the cavalry battle is over. If I let them go now, there's no way they'd be willing to listen to me.
...You want to win, don't you?"
"Of course I do, but..."
"So do I. This is really important to me, so please, just try and trust me."
Hitomi looked at him, thinking back to what he'd said.
Nobody would trust someone with a quirk like mine.
If she'd done just that, how many others had before her?
His quirk wasn't suited for the entrance exam, and if he wanted to be in the hero course, this was his best shot at getting noticed.
She huffed, turning to him with a determined look on her face.
"I'm putting my faith in you, Shinsou-san!"
He smirked. "Good."
Damn empathy.
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Team Tetsutetsu froze, the effects of Shinsou's quirk taking its hold.
Present Mic started counting down from ten; apparently Midoriya's team was making one last effort to take back their ten million points.
Shinsou grabbed the headband Tetsutetsu had around his neck, slipping off the one he wore on his head simultaneously.
Hitomi felt her team stumble, Ojiro knocking shoulders with a girl on Testutetsu's team.
"TIME'S UP!"
Hitomi checked the scoreboard, finding her team in the sea of names.
1100 points.
"Now then, let's see who our top four teams are!" Present Mic said as her team disassembled.
"In first place, Team Todoroki!
In second, Team Bakugou!
In third, Team Tetsu-huh?! Woah! Team Shinsou?!"
Hitomi glanced at the purple-haired boy, crossing her arms as Present Mic continued. "You sure cut it close, Shinsou-san."
The boy gave her a smirk, one last thing he had to say before walking off. "Thanks for your help."
Hitomi huffed, turning back when she heard Ojiro's voice.
"What just happened?!"
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A/N: If I'm being completely honest, I really want Hitomi and Shinsou to be best friends. Hopefully I can find ways to make them interact more.