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"Being popular sure has its demerits"
""...""
After hearing his friend's comment, Arata almost tripped.
He turned to look at Suzaku with a deadpan. "What are you saying at a moment like this…?"
"What? Can't I complain?" Suzaku replied indignantly, before pointing accusatorily towards the three teams standing around them. "Look at these guys, ganging up on us like that, they have no shame at all!"
""...!""
In front of Suzaku's accusations, many looked away in slight shame, feeling guilty for "ganging up" on him as he said. In this case, Midoriya and Kirishima were the most notable ones to react like this.
Bakugo and Todoroki were not part of them, of course.
"With that attitude of yours, you sow what you reap," Todoroki said calmly from atop his team.
Bakugo, on the other hand, scoffed and looked at Suzaku threateningly, before slamming his fist against his palm as it released a small explosion.
-Boom!-
"You sure are blabbering out a lot for a dead guy!"
-Sighhhh...-
In response, Suzaku shook his head and sighed long and exasperatedly. "As expected of shameless guys like you bunch… All talk and no skills"
"You—!"
As if Suzaku's words had been the final push the stalemate needed to end, the next second, Bakugo felt something snap inside him, and he shouted at his teammates while a huge vein popped on his forehead.
"All of you, get your asses moving!! We are going to take the 10 million points from that bastard!"
""Oh!""
The instant he gave the instructions, his team kicked the ground and began dashing towards Suzaku.
Of course, the two other teams did not stand still, as soon as they saw Bakugo's team make their move, they responded accordingly and also began charging against Suzaku's team, not planning on being left behind.
"Uh…" With now three teams coming at them from all sides, Arata panicked and looked at Suzaku with shaky eyes. "Hey, Suzaku, why the heck did you provoke them?! Now how are we supposed to get out of this?!"
Surprisingly, however, his friend looked at him with a calm smile.
"Come on pal, didn't you have that?" Suzaku asked as he gestured towards the small pouch hanging on his friend's shoulder, which contained various miscellaneous tools Arata had made.
The instant Suzaku reminded him of it, all worry seemed to vanish from the face of the kid with slimy hair.
A smirk appeared on his face, and Arata replied while letting out a faint snort. "... Right"
After that, a strand of his hair quickly moved into the pouch, and after rummaging in it for a bit, it took out three gray-colored metal orbs.
Following that, Suzaku grinned, before he pointed forward as he shouted with decisiveness to his friend.
"Now, throw the Annihilation Bombs!"
Something that the slimy-haired kid responded with a wicked shout of his own. "Prepare to die!!!"
""...?!!""
The instant they heard the pair, the three groups stopped their charge and looked ahead warily, preparing for the worst.
-Bang!-
-Tssssss…-
Only for all their eyes to widen when, instead of throwing the "Annihilation Bombs" at them, Arata threw them at his own feet, causing a huge cloud of smoke to suddenly arise and envelop Suzaku's team, hiding them from prying eyes.
The smoke continued to expand after that, turning the small battlefield that Todoroki had created with the ice walls into a land of fog… or in this case, smoke.
"-Cough, cough…!- A smoke bomb…?!" Midoriya yelled dumbfounded as he and his team stared baffled at their smoke-covered surroundings.
The smoke was incredibly thick, and thanks to that, seeing more than one meter ahead proved to be an impossible task.
On team Todoroki's side, the icy teenager was trying to resolve their situation along with a certain rich girl in his group.
"Yaoyorozu, could you make something to clear out this fog?"
She sweatdropped a bit at the sudden request but shook her head nevertheless. "I could try and make something to blow it away… but judging from the amount of smoke there is, it would take me too much time to do it"
"Forget it then," Todoroki said as his gaze moved elsewhere, considering their other options.
However, fortunately for them, a solution to their problem came not long after.
"This is useless!!"
-Booom!!-
Out of nowhere, a loud explosion echoed not too far away from them and blew away a good chunk of the smoke, allowing Team Todoroki to regain a bit of vision of their surroundings.
However, the first thing they saw, to their dismay, was a certain explosive blonde and his team looking around with energetic gazes.
"Half-and-Half-bastard?!" Noticing Team Todoroki too, Bakugo yelled surprised for a moment, before clicking his tongue and looking around him with a pissed-off expression. "That bastard, where did he hide?!"
Todoroki did not do or say anything. Bakugo's aim seemed to be only Suzaku, thus, they had no reason to engage in a fight with him… yet.
And if Bakugo wanted to clear the smoke for them, then they weren't gonna stop him.
"Looking for me?"
"Huh?!"
Suddenly, as Bakugo was looking around, Suzaku's voice came from somewhere behind him inside the remaining smoke.
The blonde was quick to react, and in a violent motion, he swung his hand in the direction of where the voice had come from, blowing away another good chunk of the smoke.
"There you are you bastard!"
-Boom!-
His eyes widened, however, when he saw that instead of the redhead's annoyingly smug face, the only thing he saw after blowing the smoke away was Midoriya's shocked face upon having his surroundings cleared.
"... Deku?!"
"K-kacchan?!" The greed-headed teenager shouted as he almost fell backward from the startle.
However, despite their sudden meeting, the explosive kid simply clicked his tongue and proceeded to ignore All Might's successor. Finding the annoying redhead who had dared to mess with him was a priority for the moment.
Bakugo squinted his eyes, looking around frantically like a hunter having just lost its prey, and after seeing that his target remained behind nowhere to be seen, he soon reached the limits of his patience.
"Sneaky bastard… STOP HIDING LIKE A PUSSY AND COME FIGHT ME!" Bakugo roared as he continued looking around, hopeful that his challenge would be answered.
...
..
.
However, despite his angry shout, Suzaku and his team remained missing from the battlefield, causing the explosive kid's eye to twitch in exasperation.
"Damn it…"
Just as Bakugo was starting to consider releasing more explosions to blow away the remaining smoke and get Suzaku out of his hideout, a certain teacher's voice echoed in the air, making him, and the other three teams from 1-A widen their eyes in shock.
["Three minutes remaining!"]
The instant the three teams were reminded of the time's countdown, their eyes inevitably darted toward one another.
Very little time remained, and with Suzaku's team missing at the moment, it was doubtful whether they would be able to take his headband before the time ended.
Aside from Team Bakugo, who had their headband stolen earlier in the competition by Suzaku, the other two teams had already collected a bunch of them while all the other teams had been focused on trying to take Suzaku's 10 million headband, as a result, they had already gotten a good amount of points that could make it very unlikely for them to get disqualified after this event.
However, even if they didn't get disqualified, that didn't mean they would be scoring a high place in the event. If they couldn't get Suzaku's headband on time, then nothing assured them it would be them who would end up in 2nd place, and not 4th place.
The only way of securing a high place was by taking the headbands off each other.
In Bakugo's case, since he didn't have any headband at all, his situation was even more desperate. It was either to keep trying to take Suzaku's, or change his strategy and try to take the headbands of either Team Midoriya or Team Todoroki. If he failed in any of that, he would be disqualified.
Thus, with three minutes remaining, the three teams that had originally been on the hunt for Suzaku now started to turn on each other.
"..."
"..."
"..."
As the three teams exchanged gazes between each other, the air around the area became more tense.
None were making the first move, hesitant of whether to begin yet another conflict when Suzaku was still roaming somewhere around them, hidden amidst the remaining smoke.
The fact that this new conflict had a probability of also being part of Suzaku's plans also played a part in making the leaders of each team hesitant to fight each other. Not wanting to play by Suzaku's plan.
However, with the little time that remained, they would need to make a decision soon.
And Todoroki was the first to take that decision.
"Yaoyorozu, Kaminari, get ready for—"
-Swoosh!-
However, just as he was beginning to give out instructions, the smoke near them moved, and from one moment to another, a red blur passed by Todoroki's side.
-Snap!-
"—What…?!"
By the time Todoroki realized what had happened, he touched his forehead and neck, realizing that in just the blink of a second, all of his headbands had been taken.
The moment he realized the predicament he was in, he turned around to see who had been the one to take all his points away.
"Bastard…!"
Only to see a smug-looking Suzaku being carried by two mechanical arms that held him in the air, avoiding the floor and the disqualification touching it would mean, and two other arms that were returning him to his team slowly but surely.
The instant he saw that, Todoroki pointed forward and shouted angrily.
"Don't let him get away!"
And he was not the only one to take action.
"Hand over that!" The instant he saw Suzaku, Bakugo was quick to jump off his team and shoot himself like a rocket in his direction to try and intercept the redhead while he was still mid-air.
"Dark Shadow!" Midoriya's team also had the same line of thought, and in no time, a huge raven-shaped shadow sprung forward from Tokoyami and flew in Suzaku's direction.
"...Damn" Still on his way back to his team, Suzaku found himself in a predicament once two troublesome opponents began quickly approaching him while he was still not on solid ground… Or this case, back on the carry of his trusty teammates.
Still, not being one to overly panic in the face of such problems, Suzaku quickly put the headbands he had taken away on his neck, and prepared for the fight.
"I'll be taking those!!"
Dark Shadow was the first one to arrive, its towering figure looming over the retreating Suzaku as it aimed to take his headbands off him.
Suzaku attempted to fend it off using his martial arts. However, not having a solid ground to stand on, there was a limit to how much he could do.
Plus, the thing didn't seem to feel pain from his attacks, so he could only dodge it as much as he could until he was back on his teammates' shoulders.
Fortunately, his saving grace arrived not long after.
"DIEEEEE!!!"
"... My hero" Suzaku smiled sarcastically as a certain blonde approached him from the side with murderous intentions.
Still, it was exactly what he needed at the moment.
The moment Bakugo tried catching Suzaku by surprise, even though he had dismissed the surprise factor by screaming like a psychotic banshee, Suzaku dodged his flimsy attempt at attacking him and skillfully proceeded to redirect Bakugo's strike toward Dark Shadow.
-Boom!-
"Aaaargh!!"
The next instant, an explosion was set off from the blonde's palm, making Dark Shadow get swallowed by the explosion.
The power of the blast made Dark Shadow recede momentarily, but Suzaku was not done yet.
-Thud-
"Oof!"
After using Bakugo's Quirk to ward off Dark Shadow, Suzaku used his strength and swung the irascible teenager away, sending him to crash with Dark Shadow.
Then, after leaving Bakugo to his luck in the embrace of the Quirk's manifestation, Suzaku turned around and smiled as he began approaching his team, who were looking at him with differing expressions.
"Nice one there, Suzaku-kun!" Mei said with a hearty laugh as he shot him a thumbs up.
"Why the heck did you do that, Suzaku? We don't need more headbands!" Arata on the other hand gritted his teeth angrily as Suzaku's figure slowly landed on top of them again.
"Come on, where's the fun in that?" The redhead smirked as he adjusted himself in their hold.
Arata shook his head and let out a sigh. "You are crazy"
"Come on, no need to insult me like that, look at what I did for you!" Suzaku pointed at the stands as his glasses bulged up to make zoom. "Those sponsors sure are looking thirsty for your items"
"Really?" Arata's eyes brightened, before he cleared his throat. "Ahem, that's why I said you should have done that earlier"
Suzaku let out a small laugh. "Sure pal"
"I see them too, they are talking about us!" Mei said as she used her Quirk to observe the sponsors from afar, her smile widening the more she saw their heated discussion. "My babies are being recognized!"
However, the pair of inventors had to put an end to their celebration when Suzaku patted both on the shoulder. "Good for you guys, but focus. Here they come"
When they turned to look back forward, they saw Midoriya and Todoroki's teams coming at them. Bakugo, on the other hand, was being pulled back by his teammate with tape powers.
"Any ideas?" Seeing they didn't have any more smoke bombs to run away, Arata looked with uncertainty at Suzaku.
Suzaku smiled confidently.
"Not really"
Arata ignored Suzaku's answer and turned to look at Mei.
"Hatsume-san... Any idea of how to get out of this?"
"No!" She replied with a wide smile.
"Geh..."
In the end, Arata's head dropped, not having been expecting that neither of them would have any ideas.
To his ease, however, Suzaku patted him on the shoulder not long after.
He looked at Suzaku with hopeful eyes... Only to deadpan the next second.
"... We'll just handle them as they come, nothing too hard really," Suzaku said as he slammed his fist against his palm, which the spider harness' four mechanical arms replicated.
Hearing Suzaku's solution to the problem at hand, Arata groaned and made a strand of his hair act as a hand to facepalm his forehead. "Of course that's your strategy..."
However, despite his hopes hanging low, Arata still readied himself, and so did the two behind him.
Midoriya and Todoroki's teams were already drawing close, after all.
-Bam!-
And thus, without waiting any longer, Team Suzaku kicked the ground and began charging toward the two enemy teams, not planning on waiting idly for them to come.
""...?""
Upon seeing their objective suddenly come at them on his own accord, both Midoriya and Todoroki were stunned for a moment.
However, only for a moment.
"Kaminari, Yaoyorozu, now!" Immediately after seeing Suzaku and company approach, Todoroki shouted at his two teammates, who nodded their heads decisively.
"Yes"
"You don't have to tell me!"
-Clang!-
The next second, Team Todoroki came to a full halt, and after activating her Quirk, Yaoyorozu struck the ground with a metal nail that sprouted from her arm, embedding it into it.
After that, Yaoyorozu pulled out a white insulating cloth that she had created using her Quirk, and used it to cover most of the team, save for Kaminari, who was left out of it.
Once the preparations were done, Todoroki shot Kaminari a small nod, causing the latter to smirk.
"Alright!" The electric teenager shouted in excitement once he knew that it was his time to shine.
The next second, the smile on his face widened, and electricity began dangerously jolting around him.
Suzaku's eyes squinted from behind his glasses upon seeing that. 'What the hell is—?'
Sadly, it was too late for him to react.
"1.3 Million—Volts!!!"
As soon as Kaminari let out those words, the electricity around him exploded and shot in all directions, and team Midoriya, who was not too far away from them, was the first to be reached by the attack.
-Crackle!-
"Huh?!"
-Zap!-
In the blink of an eye, Midoriya, Uraraka, Ojiro, and Tokoyami were all soon struck with a discharge that paralyzed them, causing them to come to a halt in an instant.
Dark Shadow, who was still around, was the most affected by it as the light produced by the electricity was its kryptonite.
"Aaaaargh!"
"D-dark Shadow!" Even while being shocked, Tokoyami shouted at his Quirk's manifestation in worry.
Midoriya also looked like he wanted to do something, but with the electricity running through his body, he was only able to watch.
On Team Suzaku's side, the electricity discharge did not take too long to reach them as well.
-Zap!-
As soon as they were struck, both Mei and Arata were forced to come to a stop and even dropped to one knee, the electricity shocking them being too much for them to stay on their feet.
Fortunately, through sheer will, they managed to keep Suzaku atop them, who had also been struck by the electricity, and was suffering its aftereffects.
He had felt something was off when Todoroki and company stopped their charge and Yaoyorozu had begun doing strange stuff. However, despite that, he failed to react on time and warn his teammates.
As a result, he too was shocked by the discharge, and although he wasn't looking as affected as his teammates below him were, he still was far from being able to shrug off the electricity running through his body like it was nothing.
He was amazing, but not that amazing.
-Tzzz...-
In the end, the attack lasted for about 5 to 10 seconds, and by the time the two teams were finally released from the pain of being shocked, both teams lay down tired on the ground, lost, and still suffering from the aftereffects.
-Shhhhaaa!-
"Huh?!"
"Wha-what is this?!"
"Not this again!"
And sadly, that was exactly what Todoroki's team needed, as in the next second, a wave of frost washed over both Midoriya and Suzaku's team, and froze the feet of those acting as horses, trapping them in place.
Which was all Team Todoroki needed to begin charging towards Suzaku again.
["Two minutes remaining!"]
While they approached, Present Mic's announcement in the background only served as further encouragement for Todoroki and company.
"Ugh..."
Suzaku, who until then had been still a bit affected by the attack, finally regained his bearings, and upon seeing Todoroki Team approaching at a rapid pace, he clicked his tongue.
Both his teammates were still recovering, and thus, he was gonna need to handle this alone until his teammates became able to get them on the move again.
'Good thing I asked Arata for his Dr. Octopus-knock-of-invention...' Suzaku thought while a wry smile rose on his face.
As he thought like that, the edgy teen with ice powers and his team arrived in no time.
"I'll be taking that" Todoroki was the first to move, his other team members being too busy carrying him to do anything to Suzaku for now.
However, the moment Todoroki tried stretching to hold onto the headbands Suzaku was carrying, his hand was slapped away.
"Where do you think you are going?" Suzaku said with a ridiculing smirk.
He didn't think it was gonna be that easy, did he?
"You sure are a persistent guy," Todoroki clicked his tongue annoyed, having been expecting Suzaku to be out cold like his teammates were right now.
However, now that he knew that there was gonna be retaliation if he didn't take this seriously, Todoroki got to work.
The next second, an icy mist spread across Todoroki's arm, and after setting his sight on Suzaku's ten million headband, he attacked.
This time, it was a swift movement aiming to grab the headband on Suzaku's forehead and retreat as quickly as possible. However, as it was to be expected, such an attack was not difficult for Suzaku to block.
The twist came when, after swatting Todoroki's hand away once more, Suzaku felt a rush of cold creep up his arm.
"...?"
Immediately, he turned to see what had happened and stared in disbelief at his now ice-covered arm.
"Damn"
Todoroki didn't let him dwell on it for much, however, as immediately after, he shouted something to Kaminari that caught Suzaku's attention.
"Do it again Kaminari!"
'Again?'
Still, he didn't have much time to think about it, as the next second the blonde smiled nervously at the instruction, and began readying up "Geez... You sure are making me go all out!"
The instant electricity began circling around him once more, Yaoyorozu struck the floor with a metal nail sprouting from her elbow once again and took out the same white insulating cloth she had used to protect her team last time.
The plan was to use it to protect the team from the discharge like earlier.
Sadly, not everything goes as planned in this world.
"Share it with me, will you?"
The moment Yaoyorozu tried covering everyone with it, something held onto the cloth and stopped Yaoyorozu's actions.
"Wha...?" When she turned to look at what had interrupted her, she saw Suzaku smiling deviously in her way, while a hand of his tightly gripped onto the cloth... Only to then, in one swoop, snatch it away from her grasp, leaving Yaoyorozu only capable of staring baffled as their only protective means got stolen away.
"1.3 Million—"
"Kaminari—!" Realizing what had happened, Todoroki tried stopping Kaminari from going on with the plan.
However, by then it was too late.
"—Volt!!!"
-Cackle!!-
-Zap!!-
The next instant, another huge discharge was shot, and this time, the only ones affected were the rest of Todoroki's team.
"Hehehe" Having stolen the white cloth, Suzaku giggled maliciously as he covered himself and his team with it, hiding safely away from the attack's reach.
And as the attack electrocuted their opponents, both Arata and Mei finally began regaining their bearings.
"Ugh... That sure hurt" Arata groaned as he shook his head, looking relieved to be finally able to move.
"Babies...!" Mei, on the other hand, immediately began checking her stuff, worried as the electricity might have damaged some of her items
Fortunately, or unfortunately, only a few had been damaged by it.
-Cackle...-
"Ueehehe~"
By the time Kaminari's attack finally ended, the young electricity user stood with a dull smile on his face as he shot thumbs up to the air, as if proud for committing friendly fire. Something that Team Suzaku enjoyed watching, as the feeling of electricity shocking them certainly hadn't been pleasant.
Sadly, they didn't have much time to rest.
"Now, Ojiro-kun!"
"You got it!"
-Plaf!-
As they were observing Todoroki and the rest of his team handling the after-effects of receiving Kaminari's attack, the three heard the voice of Midoriya nearby and turned around in a hurry, preparing for yet another attack.
What they saw upon turning around, however, was Ojiro slamming his tail against the ground and somehow launching both his team and himself into the air like a soaring rocket.
Suzaku immediately recognized that Uraraka had a hand in this, as it was impossible Ojiro could have been able to shoot them that high in the air by simply slamming his tail on the ground.
There was no time to think about it further, however, as the next second, Team Midoriya began plummeting upon them.
"Why can't we take a break...?" Arata cursed under his breath once he saw that yet another attack was coming their way.
Suzaku on the other hand didn't panic. As soon as he saw them approaching, he turned to Mei.
"Use your thingy"
"Oh!" She nodded, and upon saying so, from her backpack two metal pipes struck the ground where they were standing, breaking the ice keeping them stuck to the floor, and pushing her along with the team to the side, allowing for them to dodge the incoming attack in but an instant.
They did not stop there, however.
As soon as Midoriya and company landed after failing their ambush, Mei controlled the tool, and activated it once again, shooting them back to where they had come from.
-Clank!-
As that happened, however, one of the cylinders bent, most likely due to the weight of moving three people at once in such spontaneous moments.
"Baby...! There's room for improvement!" Mei eyed with sadness as her item malfunctioned.
Suzaku, however, just stared ahead. There was a reason they were going back to where they had been a second ago, after all.
"Where did they—?!"
By the time Mirdoriya turned to look for them, it was too late. Suzaku's hand was already grabbing his headbands.
"Salutations, and farewell"
"...!!" In a quick reaction, Midoriya activated the One for All and tried swatting Suzaku's hand away.
And he did, only his headbands had already been taken away by that point.
"No!"
After that, Suzaku's team flew past Team Midoriya, managing to stop only after they continued for a few more meters.
By then, Suzaku's neck was filled with headbands all over it, plus the 10 million one on his forehead.
["One Minute Remaining!!"]
The look on Midoriya's face tensed, as now, he had been left in the same situation as Bakugo and Todoroki.
They had no headbands left as Suzaku had taken them all, and what was worse of all, they had only one minute to take their headbands back, or they would be disqualified.
As countless plans began taking place in Midoriya's head, a certain team walked to his side.
"Midoriya..."
"Todoroki-kun?!" Midoriya almost jumped off from the surprise, however, he calmed down when he saw that Todoroki was looking at Suzaku instead of him.
"At this rate, we will all get disqualified... Let's take him at the same time"
Midoriya's eyes widened.
Although before they all had been taking on Suzaku's team at the same time, or "ganging up on him" as the redhead had described it, it all had been because they were all looking for Suzaku's 10 million points.
In other words, they had been rivals who were after the same thing, but who didn't cooperate with each other.
Now, however, Todoroki was offering him to go beyond that.
He was asking to team up.
"I..." Midoriya didn't know what to say.
Right now, they were not in a situation where they could afford to care about their appearance. Only seconds remained, and if they didn't act soon, this was as far in the competition as any of them was gonna make it.
If he failed, not only would he be disappointing All Might, but he would also disappoint his teammates.
He needed to get past this round.
However, shamelessly teaming up to take on a single team was something that Midoriya couldn't feel comfortable doing.
That was not what a hero would do.
"...?!"
However, as he was debating what to answer, his eyes involuntarily caught sight of Team Bakugo approaching the two of them slowly and silently, unlike usual.
The leader, Bakugo was sitting calmly on top of his team, not rushing ahead like before.
It appeared he had learned that such an approach would not work.
Still, his gaze was as furious as usual, if not even more.
'....?' As Midoriya was wondering what had made Bakugo act like that, his eyes coincidentally met with the explosive kid.
"...!"
And at that moment, he understood.
Right now, they were all in the same bag.
Despite Bakugo's explosive personality and competitiveness, he could feel it.
His friend was out of ideas, to the point that he looked like would not oppose a team-up.
With only one minute remaining, doubts of whether he could be able to pass the round were visible in his eyes.
Todoroki was the same.
Kaminari's brain had gotten fried and wouldn't recover for a good while, and Yaoyorozu was in low spirits after having Suzaku steal the cloth.
As for himself, his team was in a better condition, except for Dark Shadow who looked a little weak after being electrocuted earlier. However, with no headband in his possession, he too was destined to get disqualified if he didn't do anything about it.
They were all in the same situation.
They all had one enemy in common.
"Come on~"
"Hey, Suzaku, don't provoke them further...!"
As much as they didn't like to do it, or admit it, if the three didn't want to get disqualified... they had to team up.
When he understood that, Midoriya's eyes widened before he ultimately made his decision.
"Alright, Todoroki-kun, let's take him together"
The instant Midoriya accepted, Todoroki nodded his head.
"...."
Bakugo, who was close enough to hear them, simply gave the two a glance before returning his gaze to Suzaku. He didn't need to say anything, with the look he had sent Deku, he had said enough.
He too was gonna be part of this, even if he disliked it.
Todoroki waved his hand upwards. "At my signal... Three... two... one—"
However, just as he was about to give the signal for them to start dashing towards Suzaku, Ida whispered something to him.
"Todoroki-kun... I still have my doubts on whether we will be able to catch Suzuki-kun on time if we team up... So, I'll do what I can... After this, I won't be able to run anymore, so please catch the 10 million headband"
"Ida?" Todoroki asked confused at his words.
"Hang on tight!" Sadly for Todoroki's confusion, Ida ignored him, and as everyone tightened their hold on each other out of instinct after hearing his warning, Ida took a running position and squinted his eyes at Suzaku, who smiled amusedly after seeing that.
"Oh, you are coming at me?" Suzaku asked as he readied for combat.
He knew the guy was fast, so he expected him to close their distance in a matter of seconds.
However, what he didn't expect... was what happened next.
"Torque-Over... Recipro Burst!!!"
-Boooom!-
"...?!"
When Suzaku realized what was happening, he barely had any time to react.
By the time his body moved and tried to do something about it, many of the headbands he had were gone, and Team Todoroki, who had been a few meters ahead of him until then, had dissapeared.
When Suzaku turned his head, he was able to spot them. However, they were now far away. Ida's rush seemed to have moved them quite a distance before they came to a stop.
"Talk about fast..." Suzaku smiled incredulously.
Quirks sure were something amazing.
Suzaku could have loved to take his time to process what had happened, however, Todoroki was not the only one after his headbands.
"Now, kacchan!"
"Don't order me around!"
Immediately after Team Todoroki did their part, the two other teams began getting on the move as well.
With the time remaining being mere seconds, the clash of teams immediately became a full-out war the moment Suzaku's team was intercepted.
It was not only Midoriya and Bakugo who tried engaging in a fight with Suzaku, but those acting as horses as well.
The time remaining demanded them to do so if they didn't want their team to get disqualified
However, neither Arata nor Mei were gonna let them do as they pleased.
As such, it eventually turned into a fight where Arata and Mei did their best to hold the horses of the other teams for butting in, all while Suzaku handled Midoriya and Bakugo at the same time.
Of course, not even the two pair of geniuses were capable of holding the attacks of all the horses from the two teams, so some attacks did eventually shoot towards Suzaku.
However, in those cases, the spider harness Arata had created could intercept and protect him, allowing Suzaku to solely concentrate on the two team leaders.
-Booom!-
"Stop moving you bastard!"
"W-watch out Kacchan!"
"It's your fault for being in the way!"
With his heightened reflexes, dexterity, and strength, Suzaku was capable of dealing with the two of them with relative ease.
Even if they had more firepower than him, it was useless if it was aimed at each other instead of Suzaku. Which was exactly the type of approach Suzaku was giving this fight.
He was deflecting each of their attacks, and redirecting them against one another, difficulting successful cooperation between the two, and allowing for Suzaku to remain in control.
Bakugo and Midoriya felt as if Suzaku could predict their movement, given how easily he was tossing them around and dodging each attack.
As Midoriya continued his relentless assault, he couldn't help but grit his teeth at the overwhelming superiority Suzaku was showing.
'Damn it, we can't land a solid hit... If only there was even a tiny gap...!'
However, as if his prayers had been answered, the next second, when Present Mic's voice echoed around, something happened.
["15 Seconds remaining!"]
"Gotcha!"
Sero, the tape guy, managed to grab onto the spider-harness with his tape, restricting its movement.
And with that protective layer out of the way, it was not long before a certain Quirk joined the fight for the headbands
"Oryaaaaa!"
Dark Shadow was back in the game, and more fervent than ever.
The sudden appearance of yet another contestant to take care of threw Suzaku a bit off balance.
Two versus one might have been doable, three versus one? That was a bit harder.
As a result, although Suzaku was able to defend himself for a few seconds more after that, at one moment Bakugo managed to evade Suzaku's grasp.
"You are done!!!"
With that shout, he swung his hand violently, and although Suzaku did his best to dodge, Bakugo still managed to rip off many of the headbands that had been hanging on Suzaku's neck. Thus, getting back into the game.
After that, only two headbands remained.
"...!"
When he saw that most of the headbands had been taken away already, Midoriya's eyes immediately darted to the big screen atop the stadium that documented the points held by each team, and when he found the name he was looking for, his eyes brightened.
[Suzaku Team: 10,000,885]
The 10 million headband was still on his neck... Which meant that there was still a chance to get first place.
When he realized that, a fervent fire spread within him.
"Everyone, let's go!" Midoriya shouted, to which all his teammates nodded enthusiastically.
["9!"]
With the end nearing, Midoriya's Team dashed with all they had to intercept Suzaku again after his team had moved away.
["8!"]
The pursuit did not last long as Suzaku's team hadn't been able to make much distance. As such, it was but a second before another fight ensued between teams, this time though, it was only Suzaku vs Midoriya.
["7!"]
"Dark Shadow!"
"Right away—Ack, this thing again?!"
With the spider harness free from Sero's jail of tape, Dark Shadow was no longer able to approach, as the hands took care of holding it off while both protagonists faced each other off.
-Wack!-
-Thud!-
"Argh!"
["6!"]
Suzaku superiority was once more shown, as despite his efforts, Midoriya could not find a single opening to grab the headbands. Suzaku's defense was simply too fierce.
Midoriya didn't want to imagine how it would be if he was also focused on the offense.
["5!"]
The countdown in the background only made Midoriya more nervous. He was not gonna be able to do it.
Suzaku's defense seemed impenetrable. Attack he threw, attack Suzaku deflected with ease as if he was swatting a fly away.
Not once had he gotten close to grabbing any of the headbands.
["4!"]
As such, and seeing their impending disqualification, Midoriya's state of mind reached its limit.
If he didn't want to lose and drag his teammates with him, he had to use that.
["3!"]
The next second, Midoriya's fingers curled up and he aimed his hand at Suzaku as if he was about to flicker the air in his direction.
Suzaku knew what that was, however.
"Shit!" The redhead cursed, and in a hurry, tried diverting the attack elsewhere. However, Midoriya never aimed at him to begin with.
-Swooooosh!-
In a quick movement, Midoriya turned to aim down, and with a swift flicker of his finger, a violent gust of wind struck the ground, knocking both teams back.
["2!"]
With the two teams now thrown out of balance, Midoriya knew this was his only opportunity.
As such, he jumped off his team and lunged at Suzaku. His hand stretching as if he was trying to grasp the very sun.
Without a stable ground to hold himself, Suzaku tried to dodge. However, in the end, Midoriya managed to reach him.
["1!"]
And using all the strength left in his arm, Midoriya grabbed the first thing he got a hold of.
Grabbing... but a single headband.
And just in time.
["Stoooooop!"]
-Thud!-
"Ouch"
"What the hell Midoriya?"
Immediately after, both teams collapsed and everyone fell to the ground.
Midoriya however, did not mind them, and instead, his eyes turned to look at the headband he had taken for himself.
Had he done it...?
His breath stopped for a second once he asked himself this.
"...!"
No, he hadn't.
Midoriya's eyes widened once he saw the number 500 written on the headband, his fist tightening in frustration.
...
"Damn it" He had failed yet again to reach first place.
As Midoriya cursed at himself, Suzaku stood up and patted his clothes. A smirk emerged on his face as he looked at the stands.
"One event remains"
...
-To be Continued...-
°
(A/N: 2nd event finished, and holy it was annoying to have to write many things happening at once. Hopefully, the tournament will be easier to write... But before that...)
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