"Those who reach the top merely encounter fresh new hardships. And the kids who have enrolled here will hear it countless times: Plus Ultra! To the boy who placed 1st in the preliminaries got ten million points!" Midnight exclaimed.
Everyone except for two people could be seen staring down at Midoriya with competitive looks.
"Good luck, Izu," (Y/n) muttered when he noticed the looks that the others were sending at the green-haired teenager.
"Good luck, green bean!" A feline-like figure cheered from where they stood in the crowd.
'The eyes glaring at me now are different from middle school. Through pure luck, I managed to land a momentary spot at the top. Nevertheless...' Midoriya trailed off in thought.
'You've reached that understanding of what it's like quite quickly, my boy!' Toshinori mused.
'Nevertheless, there's nothing but weight on my shoulders!!! All Might!!' Midoriya thought.
"The time limit is 15 minutes. The point value of each group's headband is worth the total accumulation of each of the warhorse's members. And the one to wear the headband will be the warhorse's rider! Think of him or her as a standard bearer. Until time is up, you'll all be fighting and stealing as many of each other's headbands as you can!" Midnight began to explain.
(Y/n) listened closely to the explanation of what would be happening during this round.
"You may not equip your headband on any area besides above your neck! As more and more headbands are taken, maintaining control of the situation will become more and more demanding! And the most important aspect of our human cavalry game is that even if you should lose your headband or crumble as a horse configuration, you're still not out of the game!" Midnight exclaimed.
"So that means..." Momo trailed off.
"That, with 42 contestants, around 10~12 horses will be on the field the entire time...?"
"Tiresome," Aoyama piped in.
"In other words, there's no need to get antsy if your group's headband is taken once, right?" Mina asked.
"But if you don't have your eyes on the breakup of the points everyone's gaining and losing, you won't be able to judge properly, Mina," Tsuyu answered.
"Quirks are of course allowed, so I want to see some fine brutality out there! That being said... This is just a human cavalry battle game!! If you attack any other group with the malicious aim of breaking them up, that's a red card and you'll be forced to sit out the rest of the game! All right, you now have 15 minutes until then! Start negotiating your team-ups!" Midnight declared.
"15 minutes?!" Multiple students shouted.
✧˖*°࿐
"The U.A. Sports Festival is all about preparing you to be a hero and such. It's a stimulation of the survival of the fittest competition when you step out into the real world of heroes. If a hero office gets lost in the shuffle then there goes any means of making a living. And don't you think the preliminaries obstacle race was the perfect representation of the need to sometimes kick down others to show yourself off?" Death Arms asked as he took in a breath of smoke from his cigarette just to blow it back out.
"I felt so terrible about having to do that myself," Mount Lady replied, "Please quit smoking."
"Yeah right...!!" Kamui shouted.
Mount Lady waved away the smoke that was in front of her face. "But on the other hand, you'll have cases where you need to cooperate with business rivals constantly as well. Ah... And the human cavalry battle is a good representation of that! I see... A victory for yourself becomes a victory for your whole team. It takes mutual compatibility and a grasp of how best to use each teammate's quirk. They'll need to learn some give-and-take. It's a lot like coordinating sidekicks, actually."
"Or a trial in coordinating other companies' quirks!" Kamui added.
"If you become a true pro, then your livelihood is absolutely settled. To think the kids have to go at it now at such an early age... It's really tough..."
✧˖*°࿐
(Y/n) watched as Bakugo was surrounded by various classmates and quietly made his escape by walking away from the others.
"Ice-quirk buddy!" A voice exclaimed as they jumped onto (Y/n)'s figure, wrapping their arms around his shoulders.
The (E/c)-eyed teenager stared dumbfounded at the person who had a hold of him.
Dark blue eyes sparkled with excitement as the person who owned them stared at the taller teenager with a toothy grin.
"Who... Are you?" (Y/n) asked as he gently pushed the unnamed figure away from him, realizing that the person wasn't from his class.
The figure placed their hands on their hips. "(F/n) (F/L/n) at your service! I'm from the Dept. of Support!" They answered.
(Y/n) blinked as he took in the other student's figure.
(F/n) had shoulder-length hair that was gradient with blue at the top before ending it off with an icy blue type of shade. They were wearing the normal U.A. school uniform like everyone else was so that wasn't exactly important.
However, a set of black cat ears and two black cat tails could be seen behind the other teenager's figure swaying.
But the most unique thing that grabbed (Y/n)'s attention would have to be the vitiligo skin that (F/n) had.
"Now... What's your name? C'mon, you're not shy, are you?" (F/n) asked.
'Oh gosh... Too much energy.' (Y/n) thought.
"It's (Y/n)," the (E/c)-eyed teenager answered.
(F/n) hummed lightly as they placed a hand on their chin before smiling.
"Then... Let's team up together, (N/n)!" They declared, pointing at the teenager in front of them.
Before (Y/n) could even say anything, ten minutes seemed to have gone by quickly as Midnight started talking.
"Ten minutes have passed... We'll be starting any moment now!" Midnight called out as she stretched.
(F/n) clapped their hands together. "Ah, right! My main quirk is Cryokinesis!" They explained.
(Y/n) glanced at the other when he heard what (F/n) said.
(F/n) gave a peace sign. "I have a genetic quirk that I don't know which side it came from, but... It's called Nekomata!"
"Everyone here's just paying attention to Class A... Why is that? And just like Tetsutesu said, everyone in Class A seems so stuck up... It's weird, isn't it? Isn't the only difference between us and them that villain face-off? Why should we in Class B be content with placing so low? Let's show those snotty Class A kids what for, everybody!" Monoma declared.
"Wake up, Eraser! Their 15 minutes to form teams and strategies are nearly up! And thirteen warhorses have lined up on the field!!" Present Mic exclaimed.
"Quite the interesting line-ups," Aizawa replied.
"Now raise up your warcries!! And fire the signal! May the blood on the rocks be washed by yet more blood! Now's the time for U.A.'s deadly fued!!"
(F/n) got onto (Y/n)'s shoulders since the male was indeed taller than them, tying the headband around their forehead.
"Let's do this!!" They shouted, fist-bumping the air.
"You're too much," (Y/n) muttered with a tired sigh leaving his lips.