Chapter 24: Better With Karts
I woke up too early. At like, 3 AM. I don't know why beyond general nervousness. Which surprised me. I thought I'd be much more chill. But I woke up feeling like a chain chomp was bouncing around in my stomach. I tried to lie back and rest, but the nervous energy forced me to get up.
I did some small stretches, working myself a bit to get my body warm, then made myself a light breakfast consisting of a big protein shake and headed out to the stadium, where every class had been given a room of their own to prepare in.
"Maaaan," Mina grumbled as she looked down at her blue gym uniform, the same one as everyone else's. "I wanted to wear my costume!"
I turned to look at her with a small smile. "I actually asked Aizawa why we weren't allowed to wear our costumes."
"Why?" the pink girl looked up at me pouting.
"Because the other students don't have any," he'd explained. "Hero students get enough advantages for this. Making sure they don't stand out on looks alone is just fair. Besides, what are you worried about? You basically are your costume."
Point taken.
Mina didn't seem to see it that way, pouting even more. "Mouuuu. But this costume is so boring!"
"Ha!" I patted her on the head. "Trust me, you stand out enough just by being yourself."
"Are you making fun of me?"
"Absolutely not. You're gonna draw a lot of eyes out there."
"I wonder what the first event is gonna be," Mineta dropped from somewhere to land on my shell, arms crossed with a serious look on his face. He briefly seemed to lose his train of thought when Mina bent over to tie her shoes, but got back on topic quickly. "All the videos we saw kept changing them! What if we have to do that jousting!?"
"From what I heard, this year the school is going for a traditional theme," Momo interjected. "Most of the events will be based on those done by Japanese schools from before the age of quirks. It should be quite exciting!"
"We'll be going in soon enough either way," I sighed. "I just hope I get in. I really want to fight Bakugo. Or Kirishima. Or you," I pointed at Momo. "Or Deku. Or-"
"Wait, wait, me!?" Momo squeaked, looking up at me. "Why, what did I do?"
"Nothing," I realized then that it sounded like a grudge. "I'm mostly just thinking of the most fun people to fight. You're awesome."
At that, she blushed, looking pleased.
"Fun?"
Bakugo sounded… apocalyptic. I turned to look at him. He was grinning up at me. "Yeah. I think so too. Might be nice to finally blow that grin off your face."
"Oooooh?" Mina, Momo, and Mineta looked between us as I showed the grin Bakugo had mentioned. "Hell yeah brother. I'm down to see you try."
"Don't call me brother you damn turtle," he was still grinning up at me challengingly.
"Awwww, but you're so cute. Like a little brother, looking up to his stronger sibling."
"You know what? Keep saying that. I want to wipe those words out of your big mouth after I blow you out of your shell."
"Blow me out of my shell? At least buy me dinner first. Besides, you don't have the firepowerBakugo-chan. Give it your best shot though."
His palms crackled and popped. I felt some licks of flame snap up from around my cheeks. Excitement at the fight ahead burned inside me.
Our taunting of each other was cut off by Todoroki. He was sitting against a table nearby, watching us. When he spoke, his voice echoed oddly. Like his emotions trailed through the words, giving the soft-spoken boy a far more intimidating voice.
"If that's the case. I'd like to lay my own challenge down. Midoriya."
"Me?" Izuku pointed at his own face, confused. Todoroki seemed to get agitated at that. At the greenette's confusion, as though Izuku not realizing why the ice kid would have a problem with him offended him. "What do you mean?"
"I mean that I'm going to beat you," he said with all the chill of his powers.
"The class strongest is making a declaration of war!?" Kaminari said.
"Hey!?" I said with a growl, the lightning boy chuckling nervously as I glared at him.
Todoroki ignored us. We all watched as he placed a hand in his pocket, his stance loose. "Objectively, even with all our training, I'm stronger than you. More capable. All Might is interested in you, right?"
I was going to step forward when Todoroki approached him. I felt a hand on my arm stop me. I looked down, expecting Mineta or Momo.
Bakugo didn't look up at me. Just held me back while watching Todoroki and Izuku face each other down.
"...All Might was the first person to ever believe in me," Izuku said. He stood tall, his nervousness fading. The kid was like that. Nervous for a bit. Then he got ready for a fight, and it slowly faded to a weird combination of panic and determination.
Todoroki seemed to like that look in his eyes. Izuku clenched his fists.
"I don't know why you want to beat me. But I made a promise. So if you… if any of you want to beat me," he looked around at us. His eyes stopped on Bakugo for a second, flicked to me, then stopped on Uraraka before returning to Todoroki. "Then I'm going to bring everything we've learned together against you. I'm aiming for the top."
"...Heh," Bakugo chuckled, bringing attention to himself. "Not likely."
"I will. I'll even beat you, Kaachan," Izuku said. He winced at the glare he got, but held firm.
"Hn," Bakugo said.
Todoroki nodded.
"God, all these roaring emotions!" Kirishima grumbled, clenching a fist. "So manly!"
My phone beeped out a notification. When I checked it, it was a text to the class president group chat.
"Well, boys and girls. It's time," I cracked my neck. "Let's go out there and kick each other's asses. Or help each other kick each other's asses on the way to kicking each other's asses."
"That is way too crude, Bowser-kun!" Ida complained.
"And too wordy," Mineta added.
"You don't get my A-material until we're fighting. Get out there and show the world what you're made of. You'll all do great."
Momo smiled at me. I coughed, stepping forward out of the class.
The stadium was way bigger from the field than I expected. Looking up into a crowd of people of all shapes, sizes, and body parts, including a guy with eyes shaped like radios.
We all marched onto the field in a shower of cries from the audience above us, taking in the sights.
"Ahhhhh!" Mineta shouted nervously. "There's so many people!"
"I feel like a Roman gladiator," I mumbled to myself. Though I got the sense this crowd wasn't as bloodthirsty as ancient colosseum goers would have been. Hopefully, at least. We all looked around, taking in the sights of the multi-colored crowd, the confetti falling around us, and the students.
Oh, and advertisements. How nice to know some things never change.
We all lined up in groups, meeting in front of a stage just in front of the stage that dominated the center of the arena. And on top was Midnight.
Which, goddamn. I wasn't into the whole dominatrix thing she went for, but she was a hot lady. Anyways, that thought aside, she was also pretty dope, and looked over us as we gathered. One of the kids, I couldn't hear which one over the loud crowd, made a crack about her being an '18 plus' hero.
"SILENCE!" Midnight snapped her whip, glaring across every one of us. Once we quieted down, she continued. "Now. The representative for the first years will speak! Katsuki Bakugo of 1-A!"
"Oh right, he was first place," I mumbled.
"Yeah, of the Heroics Entrance Exam," some random general class kid said back to me.
Bakugo walked up to the stage. Kid looked confident and calm. He came to stop at the mic and looked out. Not at the students or the audience. More like he was looking towards something the rest of us couldn't see. I was curious, have to admit. What would Bakugo's speech be?
He wasn't a dumb dude. An asshole, but a smart one. How would that translate to his speech?
"I've only got one thing to say… I'm going to take first place. Don't make it easy for me."
"...HAHAHA!" I roared with laughter. Of course! Of fucking course!
"Just be the stepping stones on my journey, got it?"
Every student was yelling and roaring at him, shouting at the unfazed brat.
Tetsutetsu chuckled somewhere nearby. "That's just what we should have expected, eh?"
"The sheer,- justsheer just plain balls on that dickhead," I flashed my teeth. "All right then. I'll take that challenge!"
Bakugo ignored me. He ignored everyone. Just stepped off the stage with all the confidence of a veteran boxer.
"All right then!" Midnight didn't wait. Just moved right into it. "With that, we can move directly into our first event! The preliminaries! Where you young boys and girls either grow up or fall apart in tears!"
"And the first round is…!" The giant screen behind her flashed, animating into a spinning roulette wheel of some kind. It rolled slower and slower before finally coming to a stop. "OBSTACLE RACE!"
Obstacle race? Ah man. I wanted something fighty. At one end of the stadium, a set of doors began to come apart in a complex way, shifting and moving to reveal a way out of the arena.
"A race between all classes on a four km course going around the stadium! And in the spirit of UA's theme of freedom, you can do anything you want, as long as you remain within the course!"
Midnight cracked the whip-thing in her hand, grinning widely. "So! Let's get cracking! On your marks!"
I lowered down, my legs bunching under me.
"Get set!"
I grabbed the grass beneath me, claws ripping into the earth.
"STAAAART!"
"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅!"
Some of the kids around me fell away in shock when I roared, unleashing every bit of power in my lungs in a single loud cry. I charged forward. Step, step, step, getting faster and faster.
Then I hit the gate, and things got hard.
"Move!" I lifted one girl and tossed her behind me, elbowed another kid out of the way, took a punch to the face and returned it by grabbing that kid and pushing him back.
That's when the ice came. Todoroki, flooding the whole tunnel beneath us. Most of the kids began to slip and fall.
Most of them.
"Nice try!" Momo cried out, a gleeful smile on her face as she created a pair of boots with iron spikes on the bottom, rushing forward across the ice.
I dug my claws into the ice and ran forward. Kirishima went rock-form and clawed his way forward alongside me, Tetsutetsu doing the same in his steel-form.
The entire UA Sentai class rushed forth in a variety of ways, pushing past the other students and blazing forward. Todoroki barely glanced back. But I thought I could see a smile on his face.
"Hey, I need a ride!" Mineta landed on my shell, attaching himself with his grape orbs.
"Long as you pay your fare-"
A robot sped out from the side. It rushed us.
Kirishima, Tetstutetsu, and I rushed back. Kirishima ripped one arm off, I bit into its head, and Tetsutetsu smashed through its body.
More robots came from the other side. Bakugo blew one apart. Kyoka jammed one up with her earlobes long enough for Tenya to kick it in half.
Kendo smashed her enlarged fist into another, Izuku smashing it as well. Uraraka ran past, tapping three to send them flying up, before Pony, Chikuchi, and Rin shot them apart in a hail of horns, sharpened paper shurikens, and hardened scales.
That was when the truly giant bot came forth.
And I leaped up towards it. I felt my heart pumping in my scaled chest, my muscles filling with heat. Awesome. Absolutely awesome!
I smashed into the bot's chest just as it was covered in a sheath of ice, and dug my claws in, tearing ass upwards as the thing began to fall.
"AHHHHHH!" Mineta screamed on my back as we climbed up the falling robot. "You're crazy! You're crazy! I don't want to die, please-!"
We reached the top, and I leaped off the robot. Bakugo was on my left, exploding through the air. Ida zoomed through the air, Uraraka floating him from his back as he rocketed forth. I could feel more students behind me somewhere, all rushing forward in their own way.
The concrete cracked apart when I landed. Behind me, the robot fell in a shower of ice. "Hold on Mineta!"
"Oh god no-"
I sprinted forward. Mineta screamed atop me, attached by his balls. An ice wall popped in front of me. I smashed through it, and caught sight of Todoroki smirking just a bit up ahead of us. Tenya sped past me, and the race began in earnest.
I put my legs in motion. I didn't have as much speed as Tenya or some of the others. But I could outpace a car going 30 kmh. And I could keep that up for a while.
Arms and legs pumping, I slowly reached my top speed. A robot moved in my way, swinging a large arm at me.
I stomped it into scrap and kept running.
Tomura Shigaraki
Tomura scratched at his neck idly, watching the screen as the students ran the obstacle course. He scowled and scratched harder at the more familiar faces. That green haired kid. The giant turtle. Icy kid.
Aspiring heroes. What a goddamn joke.
He'd tried to talk sensei into letting them attack the event. Even with all the new defenses, they could at least mess with it a bit. Get some people running around causing trouble.
But no. Not today apparently.
Fine. Tomura would wait. In the meantime, maybe one of the kids would screw up and kill each other. Now that would be worth watching.
He scratched just a bit harder at his neck, cracked lips stretching upwards. Until then, he could at least watch them get their butts kicked. Maybe he'd see that turtle get his shell cracked open?
Chapter 25: Not Even Bronze
When the UA Sentai came together to discuss the festival, we'd looked at every possible event we could be facing. Obstacle course was one, but it didn't help as much as you'd think. The course was different every year. Somethings it was underground, through water, stretching upwards on platforms right out of a video game. The enemies were still robots, but the actual course was a crapshoot.
Long way of explaining that none of us knew what we were in for. So when I eventually had to stop for the next obstacle, I was only kind of surprised by it.
"Goddamn. Our school really has no chill when it comes to construction." I noted, eyeing the massive fucking pit in front of us.
It was about, what, two soccer fields across? I wasn't great with distances. But it was huge, with dozens of pillars standing within it. Ropes connected all the pillars, each one tight.
"Ha!" Mineta hopped off my shoulders and started removing his grape balls off his head. Once he had a pile, he removed his shoes and placed them around his neck, wiggling his bare toes. "Finally a challenge made for me!"
"Confident, are ya?" I asked my short pervy friend.
"Of course! You might be the fighter, but I'm the tactician!" Mineta aimed himself at one of the ropes. Then he tossed his grapes at it. As he did, he hopped from ball to ball, bouncing like Bugs Bunny across the taught rope with ease.
"Haaaaaa!" Ida and Ochaco flew across the pit, her floating them as he rocketed across with his legs.
"Excuse me, Bowser-kun!" Izuku yelled as he rushed past me on my left. He didn't hesitate to jump, landing on one pillar. He jumped again, this time grabbing onto one of the ropes. He moved along it quickly, his experience with doing parkour across the pipes giving him a leg up on the other students.
Everyone else was doing the same, finding unique ways to get across.
I had to follow. I twisted around and ran away from the pillar. Then I spun around and rushed the other direction, ignoring the kids screaming as I ran past them.
As I hit the pit, I jumped, every bit of my energy going into the leap. I managed to barely land on the edge of a pillar.
The stone shattered under my weight. Of course it did.
Before I could fall into the pit below, I slammed my claws into the side of the pillar, digging in hard with a grown.
"Not… freaking… happening!"
Sliding to a stop, I looked back up. Dozens of kids rushing across the ropes, flying over the pit, or jumping from pillar to pillar.
Couldn't let them show me up. I twisted my head around to survey the landscape.
Closest pillar was… Okay.
"Here goes!" I clenched all my muscles together and pushed away from the pillar I was holding to, leaping to one towards my strength. I slammed into it. There was a crack.
And the whole pillar began to tip over. I clenched my claws into the pillar, ignoring the screams above. Keep moving.
I jumped to the next one, smashing into the side and clawing in while the previous one tipped. This one was sturdier. The next, not so much. From pillar to pillar I jumped, getting higher and further. Maybe I should've regretted the sight of some of the kids behind me falling.
But as of right now, they were competition. Besides, I could see below me now. A soft pink foam surface lay beneath, the math teacher ringing the edges of that pit with his clones to help the falling students.
So I pushed on until I reached the wall of the pit. There, I started climbing upwards as the cacophony of pillars falling behind me continued.
By the time I got high enough to climb over the edge, I could hear the crowd booing. Wonder what they were mad about?
Ignoring them, I moved towards the next obstacle. Which was…
"This school is insane." I mumbled.
Kids in blue jumpsuits. Carefully stepping across a field. Full of mines.
MINES.
Most of the students in front of me were part of UA Sentai, but the rest were absolute madmen from the general classes. I looked at the field.
Then I felt someone attach to my back. When I looked back, Mineta sighed.
"Yeah. I know. But I need to cross. So… do your thing."
Poor guy looked resigned to hell.
Pony dropped down onto my other shoulder. When I looked at her, she grinned. "Whirly-Dirly?"
"Whirly-Dirly." I confirmed to my favorite cowgirl.
"Whirly…" Mineta was confused. Then his eyes widened, sweat pouring off his face. "Dirly. Oh no!"
He tried to pull away, but he'd attached to my shell. Pony clutched tightly to me. I entered my shell.
And started spinning. Faster and faster, Pony laughing while Mineta screamed in horror. On some internal instinct I didn't understand, I knew which way was 'forward'. I propelled myself.
A mine exploded under me. I bounced from the impact, hitting another mine, then another.
Bouncing across the field like a pinball, smashing into mines, kids screamed while dodging us.
"OH MY GOD NOOOOOO!" Mineta screeched. "I WANT TO GET OFF! I DON'T WANT TO DIE! I WANT TO LIVE!"
"Woohoo!" Pony shouted alongside him, laughing. I grinned inside my shield, enjoying the show.
We passed by Izuku. As we got in front of him, I heard him do something.
And a nuke exploded behind us. I felt my shell flip through the air. Pony started screaming, her horns flying out to slam into my shell and readjust me in mid-air, my belly bouncing into the ground again. The nuke (Or whatever that explosion had been) had sent us flying forward, where Bakugo and Shoto had been at the front. I felt something else land on my shell just as another explosion sent me flying forward.
"Izuku!?" Mineta squealed.
"YAAAAAAAH!" Izuku's voice echoed through my shell.
Pony, Mineta, and Izuku screamed as one as we rocketed forward, slamming into the edges of a tunnel.
Later, I'd see the video. While we were sliding around, me spinning at high-speed and my classmates clutching to my back, Izuku's eyes narrowed. He crouched to my shell, holding on. The camera's slow-motion caught him clenching his teeth. At the arc of a spin, he kicked off of me. He went flying forward, his kick and my spinning giving him enough momentum to send him rocketing forward.
Izuku entered the stadium front-flipping through the air, landing in a roll and coming to a sliding stop, his shoes leaving a streak of brown in the grass as the crowd cheered. The crowd went wild.
Pony, Mineta, and I came in next, sliding up behind him. Bakugo and Shoto came rushing in right after, Shoto chuckling while Bakugo looked apocalyptic 'apoplectic?'.
Ida and Ochaco rocketed in next, both looking beat up and tired but determined, Momo right on their tails, followed by Ibara. Mina came skating in on her acid, Setsuna floating in as her pieces to reform in front of us.
Things slowed down significantly. When I asked why, Momo gave me a look like I'd killed her dog.
"Bowser… you destroyed most of The Fall."
"I did?" I asked, genuinely confused.
"Well, some of it," Momo admitted, though she still looked annoyed. "A lot of the students had to figure out ways to get across without pillars."
"Hey, you can't blame me for that," I grumbled. "I'm a growing boy. Besides, this is a test to become a hero. Heroes should be able to cross a pit like that."
It explained all the booing though. Meh. I didn't really care what some random crowd in a stadium thought. It was kind of funny actually.
When the camera landed on me and I saw my face on the screen, I gave a cheerful finger wave. As a new round of booing exploded, I chuckled. Now that shit was funny.
Momo shook her head when I looked back at her, though she had a bit of a smile on her face. "They don't like you."
"Hey, you like me right?" I said with a toothy grin. "I don't need everyone to like me, just my friends."
Pony walked up to us, looking at the tunnel. "Everyone else is coming."
I nodded slowly, watching as the kids came in. One by one, they streamed in. I felt a bit of pride when I saw every single member of UA Sentai stream in. 40 plus students, one by one.
Aoyoma, Usagi, and Tsutsutaka were last in the pack, the three grinning widely despite Aoyoma clutching his stomach. Usagi walked over to join the business course kids who… had gotten there before us?
Oh, they hadn't even raced, had they? Just immediately went to the stadium to be ready to see who would show up first and how to market them.
I could respect the grind.
Once all the students who could come into the stadium were in, Midnight spoke up.
"The first game of the first-year stage is over!" A crack of the whip accompanied that statement, the hot pro-hero grinning out at us. "Now take a look at the results!"
I watched the screen light up. Izuku was first. Protagonist power in action, he was probably gonna win this whole thing.
Mineta's jaw dropped when he saw he was placed for second, only to sweat heavily when Shoto and Bakugo turned various kinds of glares at him.
"Yay!" Pony cheered at her third place spot.
"Fourth, really?" I grumbled at my own position. "I literally carried you guys. Now I know how a car feels when the racer gets the trophy."
From there, it was Shoto, Bakugo, and so on and so forth. Aoyoma, Usagi, and Tsutsutaka were 43rd to 45th, respectively.
"Yes!" I pumped my fist. "UA Sentai are top, baby!"
Every single one of our people had made the top! I grinned at Tsutsutaka, who grinned back at me-
"The top 42 made it to the next round!" Midnight said.
My grin froze. Tsutsutaka's face fell. I looked at Aoyoma and Usagi.
The three of them were out.
"...Dude," I mumbled, horrified.
Aoyoma looked like he wanted to cry, Mina moving over to pat him on the back alongside Toru's own invisible hands.
Shinso, who made it to 41st, and Chikuchi, who had made it to 22nd, went up to Usagi and Tsutsutaka, who both congratulated her. I moved over to them.
"-it's okay," Tsutsutaka said with a hesitant smile as I joined them. "I made it farther than I thought I would. And you two can represent us."
"It's not fair," Chikuchi said sadly. "You both trained so hard!"
"But not as long as you guys did," Tsutsutaka said, his large chin wobbling. "Look. We did our best, and we'll become heroes later, right?"
Usagi glanced at the business course students, but refocused on Shinso and Chikuchi. All four looked up when I joined them.
"...I'm fucking proud of you," I said grimly. "I don't know if I deserve to say it. But I am. The UA Sentai, every single one of us, took a top spot. You guys proved our club is worth a damn."
I bowed down as low as I could. "Thank you guys. Seriously."
It was unfair that they couldn't join us. But they'd done well.
Now was the next stage. Whatever was coming next, we'd be ready.
"Aoyoma!" I called out to him as I rose up, ignoring the looks on Tsutsutaka and Usagi as best as I could. I couldn't deal with that.
He came over with the same look on his face that Usagi had, while Tsutsutake tried to tough it out. I patted his shoulders.
"Okay. You guys didn't make it through. But there's still other games to play."
Tsutsutaka blinked, then let out an 'ah!' of realization.
"The recreational games!" Usagi said, clapping both her normal and cat paws.
After the cavalry battle, there would be some games like a scavenger hunt and ball race. Low key, simple stuff, meant to entertain… Unless…
"So here's the gig," I grinned at them. "You three, figure out what those games will be. Then figure out how to dominate those games. You still have a chance to show off to the pro-heroes and agencies. And when the next event is over, gather everyone who didn't move on, and figure out how to make a show of it!"
I smashed my fist into my palm with a grin. "Plus Ultra, baby. Don't settle for less in any respect. They want to try knocking out a Sentai? We keep moving forward. Impress these fuckers!"
"Yeah!" Tsutsutaka smashed his fist into his own chin with a grin.
"Okay," Aoyoma flashed a thumbs up even as he clutched his stomach. "You're right, Bowser-kun! I can still shine on!"
"This will be good practice for management," Usagi mumbled to herself.
I turned and walked away, grinning. As I did, Chikuchi walked along with me, at my right elbow. I looked down at her.
"...Thank you," she mumbled without looking at me.
"No need," I said informally. "We're the Sentai. We'll stick together. Right."
"...Right," Shinso said as he joined me.
Now. The next event was going to begin.
"Cavalry Battle?" Mineta mumbled, staring up at the screen. "With points?"
"Huh," I blinked up at the board. "Kinda makes sense. Forces us to make sure the wins from the last event were justified. You earned the points, now you gotta keep them."
"Oh no!" Mineta began sweating. "I was second place! Oh man-"
"Calm down," I chuckled. "The point values can't be that-"
"TEN MILLION POINTS!"
"...eh?" Izuku said weakly.
"Whut?" I added in English.
Mineta looked at Izuku, then sighed in relief.
"Oh thank god."
UA man. This fucking school had absolutely no chill. Plus Ultra my ass.
Chapter 26: Riding High
195 points was what fourth place netted me. Not bad.
For the Cavalry battle, everyone knew who the target was. Izuku Midoriya. 10 Million points. So no one was teaming with him.
Thankfully, no one was a dick about it.
"Sorry, Izuku-kun," Mina said to him playfully. "I want to see how good you've gotten since our last spar!"
"I understand," Izuku chuckled, Ochaco playfully punching Mina in the shoulder as the pink girl pretended to be wounded.
Still, the teams were forming quickly. Shinso gathered his team first. The violet-haired man pulled together Monoma and Manga, then grabbed Mina as she left Izuku, the pinkette accepting. In my head, I labeled them Team SHUT-UP ALREADY.
Others had clearly teamed up for sheer power instead. Bakugo had pulled together Kirishima, aka his second best friend, Ibara, and Honenuki. A very powerful team.
Shoto got a more technical group together. Tenya, after a weirdly intense conversation with Izuku and Ochaco, joined him, followed by Momo. Tetsutetsu was a surprise, but apparently Shoto and him got along well? Who woulda thunk it?
Meanwhile, I grabbed Mineta and Pony immediately.
"I've got enough power to spare," was my explanation. "I need technique and range that doesn't light things on fire, and you guys have both."
"Hm, hm!" Mineta and Pony said in unison, grinning up at me.
I looked around, thinking. I was obviously the horse. Mineta and Pony would be perfect long range support. Just needed one more thing.
"...Pony? Do we have anyone who could be a good force multiplier?" I asked her. "Someone who could be a wild card?"
"A wild card?" Pony looked over the group of students. She scratched at the base of her left horn while thinking to herself. Then her eyes widened. "No one picked- But he's-!"
Mineta and I shared a look as Pony ran off, apparently too excited to explain herself. When I saw who she was approaching, I wondered at the choice for just a sec. Only one.
"Pony might be a genius."
"Yeah, she's pretty smart!" Mineta agreed.
The battle was about to begin. The teams were set, the bands with all the numbers on them had been spread about, with mine now wrapped around my head.
"I feel like Ryu," I told the others resting on my back now. Obviously I was the horse. What was I gonna do, step on them? I weighed a ton and was getting heavier everyday.
"You play Street Fighter?" Mineta asked. He rested on the center of my back. While he had a good throwing arm, he still needed a good vantage point, so being able to move about my back and get different angles for attack was to his benefit.
"All the time, when school wasn't my entire existence. Anyways, everybody understands the plan?"
"Right!" Pony said firmly. She was on my shoulders, grabbing my horns while her own were at the ready. Control over her horns meant she didn't need to worry as much about her aim, so sitting that high gave her a good view of the battlefield.
Our last member was holding on desperately to some of Mineta's pop-off balls, and I could feel him on my shell shifting around. "I'm ready!"
Midnight licked her lips. With a snap of her whip, she shouted. "START!"
"Now!" I shouted just as loudly. I leapt into the air, aiming towards one group. On my back I felt a fist wrapped in a jacket smack into my shell.
Moments later, a second impact struck with far more force, Nirengeki Shoda's quirk in action. Second Impact, as it was named, let Shoda make any hit he landed get followed up by a far more powerful one moments later. Good for capitalizing on a strike. Or, redirecting something.
Already leaping forward, the second impact sent me flying at great speed. Shoda and Mineta let out twin screams, while Pony whooped in excitement as we rocketed forward.
Right for Tsuyu Asui and her group. The frog girl looked up at me calmly as I rocketed down towards her. At the last second, a brown haired kid named Kosei who was acting as one of her horses, breathed out. A wide pane of solidified air flowed from his lips, flowing just to my left side. Solid Air, a quirk that let him turn his breath into panes of hardened material.
They weren't very tough, I shattered it with a claw swipe, but it slowed me down enough for Tsuyu's horses to run out of the way.
The ground shattered underneath me, exploding outwards. Tsuyu raised a casual eyebrow.
"Going right for me, kero?"
"You're the most dangerous person who is closest!" Mineta shouted from my back. He threw a grape ball that landed on a pane of solid air from Kosei. A horn from Pony flew outward, spearing through the ball and shattering the pane of air to push the ball into Kosei's shoe just before he could get away.
"Ah, man!" Kosei tried to pull away, but was stuck fast to the ground.
"Now!" I rushed forward, aiming to rip a headband off of Tsuyu.
Instead, they were suddenly leaning completely over, one of them dropping into his own shadow. That would be Shihai. His quirk, Black, let him join together with anything of the color. He got pretty creative with it. The kid with skin the color of night grinned at me as his feet sank into the ground.
"Light!" Pony roared. I let loose a small flame, the blaze of light brightening the area around us enough to remove Shihai's shadow. He snapped back upwards in an instant, bringing Tsuyu in range of my claw. I reached out again.
And a massive form smashed into my side. I reeled back, stumbling, while Mineta, Shoda, and Pony yelped. Tsuyu's group ran off, leaving us to face our new opponents.
Team Beast Mode was the name I gave them the instant I saw them. A team of animal themed quirks with some serious strength. Jorota, a brown furred kid who nearly matched me in height when transformed, was growling as he glared at me, his fangs bared. Behind him on his left, Mezo Shoji had his multiple arms erected as a semi-shield to defend the rider. Hiryu Rin was that rider, his left arm already shining with scales. The final horse was Kamakiri, a kid who looked like a praying mantis and swore like a sailor. He gnashed his teeth at us briefly.
"Hmm," I brushed at my headband, making sure it was still there. "Well boys, if you really wanted to take a shot at the king, you shouldn't have missed."
"Fuck that!" Kamakiri snapped. "We just wanted a piece of ya!"
"They did," Rin said, much more nervously. "I voted on going after Midoriya."
"Too many people are doing that," Shoji added. "Better to go for other targets."
"You jerks!" Mineta shouted. "We were just about to get another band!"
"Not a big deal, we'll just steal theirs," Pony said cheerily.
I leaned down, facing Jurota. He glared back at me. "Pony, Mineta, keep Rin occupied. Shoda, lead them through it. The big guy…"
He roared, rushing forward. I dropped down to all fours and roared back, meeting his charge. "Is MINE!"
At the center point, just before impact, Shoda smacked my elbows. The second impact went off milliseconds later, giving me the 'oomph' I needed to push the bestial teen back rather than get into a stalemate.
On Jurota's back, Rin raised a green hand. The emerald bits of hardened material fired from his hand, aiming for the headband on my neck. Pony's horns intercepted him. Jurota and I grappled briefly while Shoda shouted from my back.
"Mineta, focus on Kamakiri!"
"On it!"
"The fuck-" a grape fired toward Kamakiri. He raised one hand, the palm sprouting a long sword from his skin. His quirk, Razor Sharp, let him produce blades from anywhere on his body, something he relished in. He sliced through the grape ball. "You little shit!"
"Damn straight I am!" Mineta roared, throwing another grape ball, then another. Kamakiri stumbled back, slicing them out of the air.
Pony's horns began intermittently firing with much more speed than I was used to. Shoda was probably giving them extra speed with his quirk as well. The kid's quirk was USEFUL.
Which just left me to take on Jurota and Shoji. As I was wrestling with Jurota, both of us growling, while a single long limb ending in a mouth slipped under my arm, biting into the headband around my neck.
So I bit into the limb. "GRUMB!"
Shoji didn't flinch, though one of his other limbs did grow a mouth to speak. "Damn. Didn't think you'd do that."
I grit my teeth around that limb, then chomped down. In a spray of blood, Shoji lost an arm. The crowd let up a cacophony of noise that I ignored. Please, Shoji was a badass, he could take it. I leaned into Jurota, flashing bloodstained teeth.
"Come on, Beast Boy. I know that ain't all you've got."
Jurota grinned back and punched me in the face. I returned it. Back and forth, we smashed our fists into each other.
"Hahaha!" I busted out, headbutting him.
"Come on, Bowsa!" Jurota shouted back, laughing as well.
"Oh god, they're the same," Rin said, before he dodged a horn that was moments from hitting his headband.
"Everyone, now!" Shoda shouted, the little guy's voice cracking. Still, it got the point across. I jumped upwards while Shoda smacked my shell. At the same time, a horn was fired from Pony. It had a single grape ball attached to it. At the critical moment it suddenly sped forward, the grape ball attaching to Rin's headband as it passed. At the apex of my jump Second Impact activated again, sending me forward over Jurota and his team. We landed behind them, Pony grabbing her horn out of the air and ripping the headband off.
"Damnit!" Rin shouted. "Jurota, Shoji, Kamakiri!"
"On it-"
"Not happening!" I spun around.
"Mineta, line!" Shoda shouted.
"RAAAAAA!" The tiny guy roared while he threw his grape balls in between us and them, which I blasted with fire. The balls erupted in flame, stopping Jurota in his tracks as his beast instincts kicked in.
"And now, run!" Shoda shouted.
"You mean find a new target," I rushed off, leaving Jurota and his team behind.
The tactic made sense. Take a headband, then move on. Don't steal all their headbands, don't leave them desperate to get them back. I just wanted to stay in the game. The number 1 position didn't matter as much until the later stages after all.
While I ran from our previous opponents, someone else rushed them for their remaining headbands.
"Who's next!?" I shouted out.
That was when a jet of glue slammed into my feet. I fell to my belly, yelping in shock. Shoda, Mineta, and Pony shouted in unison, barely grabbing on. I looked in the direction it had come from. "Bondo!?"
The aforementioned glue-dispenser headed kid sprayed another blast of glue at us. I intercepted it with a burst of flame, stopping him from covering us in the stuff and letting us see his team.
Bondo, as the biggest one, was the front horse, glue dripping out of the holes in his face. On his back, Kinoko Komori was grinning. She'd been shy when we first met. Nowadays she was more akin to a Manic Pixie Dream Girl, all smiles and immense knowledge about mushrooms. She gave me one of those smiles now, sticking her tongue out at me.
The other horses were Jiro and Kaminari. Funny that, for people argued as much as they did, I rarely saw them apart. Kaminari had something in his hand, just out of sight, while Jiro's earjacks were waving in the air.
"Heya, Bowser-kun!" Kinoko said playfully. "Stay still, will ya!"
"Not a chance!" I breathed another bunch of fire at my feet, burning off the glue with nothing but blacked bits remaining.
"Kaminari!" Jiro shouted.
"On it!" He fired a taser of all things at me, the prongs landing in my mouth just as I stopped breathing fire.
Then electricity ran through me. Fun fact, I wasn't too affected by lightning, unless it was through my mouth. I clenched my mouth tight without meaning to, growling at the pain.
"Bowser!" Pony shouted. "Hold on!"
Twin horns sliced out, aiming for Kaminari. They were shot out of the air by another blast of glue. Two of Mineta's grape balls fired off as well, but Jiro smacked them with her earlobes, leaving them stuck to each lobe.
"Bondo, cover them-"
The ground became quicksand. Being the heaviest, I sank down first, but everyone dropped into the ground. Then ice suddenly surrounded us, flying across the near-liquid ground and attaching to the dozens of teams battling it out. My feet and hands were stuck up to my shell in it along with the earth I was slowly sinking into.
"What the heck!?" Jiro shouted as she, Bondo, and Kaminari tried to fight out of it.
"Shoto," I snapped out with a grimace, glancing at the aforementioned kid.
"Bowser," the ice-user said in return, running past on top of Tenya, Momo, and Jozu Honenkuki. The last kid was able to turn non-living things to jelly with his quirk, Softening. Clever. Soften the ground to trap us in place so we couldn't avoid Shoto's ice attack.
I waited to bite at Shoto if he tried to steal a headband, but he avoided me and instead swiped them from other teams.
"He wants them to focus on us," Shoda said as we watched the other team leave at high speed.
"I figured," I mumbled, looking over at the other students. They were all trying to get out of the ice and earth now, but it wouldn't take long for the teams to do it.
"Okay. Hold tight."
"Oh no," Shoda and Mineta said in unison. Pony let out a whoop.
With a bit of a grin myself, I took a deep breath and let out a jet of fire that surrounded us in heat, melting the ice apart. At the same time, I pulled in my arms and legs as hard as I could, bringing them out of the earth and back into my shell. Finally, I spun.
Hard as I could, fast as I could. The liquidy earth around us splattered about, flying upwards along with chunks of ice as I drilled downwards. Before long, I reached down enough to get to solid ground again.
"SHODA!" I roared.
"Already done!"
A hard punch landed on my shell, Shoda yelping in pain. Moments later, as I flew out, second impact hit us again, launching my spinning form up and out along with the others. In mid-air, I popped out of my shell.
To find us flying towards Midoriya and his team.
"Eh?" I blinked. Midoriya blinked back. He had a jetpack on, and his whole team was flying.
"...Truce?" I asked him.
"Uh, yeah, truce." Midoriya said back.
Flying past them, both our teams ignored each other.
"Are you sure about that, Bowser?" Mineta asked me over the wind rushing around us. "That's 10 million points!"
"It's also a massive obvious target! I'd rather make sure we get to the next round! Pony, redirect!"
"No need!" Pony said. "The next team is coming for us!"
I looked around, and I swear my jaw dropped down to the floor.
Chikuchi had teamed up with Yui Kodai, Yosetsu Awase, and Reiko Yanaki. I hadn't noticed them team up. Made perfect sense why they had though. They were flying.
On a plane of paper, clearly controlled by both Chikuchi and Reiko in tandem, Reiko using her Poltergeist quirk. Based on the seams on the wings, Yosetsu had put them together at the atomic level with his Weld quirk, and Yui had turned the small pieces of paper into a goddamn defense platform.
A platform she could fire from. Chikuchi gave me a wide grin. "Sorry Bowser!"
Yui threw a… beat up old Hot Wheel? A tiny car-
"OH FUCK ME RUNNING!" I screamed as my mind put the pieces together. Her hands came together.
And suddenly, a car that belonged in a junkyard grew in front of us.
"SHIIIIIIT!" Pony, Shoda, and Mineta screamed in unison.
"Grrrraaaa!" I swiped my claws outward, smashing through the old metal and sending the pieces flying. The students below easily dodged it, but our forward momentum was completely killed because of the force I'd had to put into the car.
Leaving us right where the other team wanted us, falling through air as an easy target. Yui lifted a hand.
A bus. She was holding a goddamn bus the size of a toy. Was her quirk that broken, what the hell!?
She threw it with perfect form.
"SHODA!"
"O-On it!" A slap was followed moments later by a quick thrust to the left. I held my claws out, ready to rip through the bus the second it grew. Instead, it bounced off my hand.
Plastic. It was just… plastic. As I realized what had happened, the paper plane was already on top of us. Reiko and Chikuchi had twin looks of focus. Yui had something else in her hand. But Yosetsu had his own out, reaching forward.
He tapped a finger against my headband, combining his skin with the cloth. I breathed out a single tongue of flame too late, the team zipping past us at high speed.
"Got it!" Yosetsu shouted with glee, leaving us to fall towards the ground. "I-"
Shoda ripped the toy bus I'd caught out of my hand. Roaring with all his might, he tossed it with an overhand slap right after, like a tennis player. In mid-air, the bus zipped forward and smashed into Yosetsu's foot, completely unbalancing him as the paper plane flew.
"Gah-AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" First he screamed in the pain any man who has stepped on a toy by accident feels. Moments later, he was screaming because he was falling out of the sky without a parachute.
"Catch him!" Shoda, Pony, and Chikuchi said in unison.
I did the only thing I could. I pointed my head away from Yosetsu and breathed a jet of flame. Propelled backwards by my fire, we dropped towards him. Too slowly. Then two of Pony's horns sped around to land on my stomach, pushing me faster, then faster when a Second Impact hit their bases.
"SPIN!" Mineta screamed.
As ordered, Pony twisted me around with her horns, allowing me to catch Yosetsu. I landed on the ground with him in my arms, dust and broken concrete flying.
For a moment, Yosetsu and I met eyes. He chuckled nervously. "Uh, truce?"
I ripped the headband away from him, Yosetsu letting it go, then tossed him at Tsuyu in the distance, sending her team sprawling.
"Truce," I mumbled, looking up at the screen.
We were in 5th place so far. We needed to be in the top four to continue. "Let's keep it up!"
"Y-Yeah!" Mineta shouted.
"Just please be more careful," Shoda said, sounding tired. "I don't want to overuse my quirk."
Fair. "All right. Let the rest of us handle this, MVP."
I kneeled down and started running on all fours, heading to the next bunch to get into another fight.