With ONE.FOR.ALL fully activated, without Su Lin's guidance, he might not have been able to take first place so easily.
From that perspective, Yukino was the one he should thank the most right now.
But...
That girl was so cold that strangers dared not approach her. He simply could not muster the courage to go talk to her.
The results came out quickly.
1st Place: Izuku Midoriya.
2nd Place: Su Lin.
3rd Place: Shoto Todoroki.
4th Place: Katsuki Bakugo.
5th Place: Ibara Shiozaki.
42nd Place: Yuga Aoyama.
"The top forty-two contestants will advance past the preliminaries. It's unfortunate, but those who were eliminated needn't be discouraged. The school has prepared other stages for you to show yourselves," Midnight said. She smiled as she licked her lips, then continued, "Next, we'll finally enter the main event. From this point on, the media will go wild over your performances. Do your best!"
The giant screen began to scroll, and before long, the second event appeared before everyone.
"Cavalry Battle!"
"Contestants must freely form teams of two to four people, creating a horse. The rules are the same as the cavalry games you usually play, with one difference: every contestant will receive points corresponding to the rank they achieved in the previous event. Starting from the back, every rank higher adds five points. Forty-second place gets five points, forty-first gets ten, and so on. As for the points awarded to first place..."
Her voice suddenly paused, then she shouted in an even more excited tone, "Ten million!"
"?"
The instant he heard that, Izuku Midoriya froze solid.
"Oh-ho, ten million?" Some of the students' eyes immediately lit up, like predators spotting the ultimate delicacy.
"In other words, as long as we take down the first-place horse..."
In an instant, the gazes of all forty-one people present converged on Izuku Midoriya.
"That's right! This is a brutal, underdog battle where the higher your rank, the easier you are to attack!"
"So, Izuku Midoriya, who took first place in the preliminaries, you have been assigned ten million points."
Midnight's voice gradually turned sinister.
"Pfft." Yukino covered her stomach, barely holding back her laughter.
She had expected this situation long ago.
If she had taken first place, then she would have been the one everyone was staring at now.
Izuku Midoriya clenched his fists, feeling pressure as heavy as a mountain.
So... first place was a trap.
Cavalry Battle Begins
The Cavalry Battle had a fifteen-minute time limit. The points of each student were added together to determine the value of the entire horse. The rider had to wear a headband displaying the horse's score on their head, seize other people's headbands before time ran out, and victory would be determined by the final score they held.
The rules stated that seized headbands had to be worn somewhere above the neck, which meant the more headbands one had, the harder they were to manage.
Quirks could be used, but anyone who maliciously attacked a horse formation would be disqualified.
"If nothing unexpected happens, once the match starts, Midoriya's ten-million-point team will be swarmed."
Yukino was glad she had not risked her life trying to take first. After all, the top spot in the preliminaries had not held much appeal for her.
"You have fifteen minutes to negotiate your teams. Begin now." Midnight flicked her red whip, and the students immediately sprang into action.
Yukino's gaze swept across the area as she considered whom to team up with.
Compared to being part of the horse, she would rather be the rider.
"Hey, hey, Su Lin-chan, form a team with me?"
Unexpectedly, the first person to come running over was Mina Ashido.
Come to think of it, they were not that familiar. They spoke occasionally, but nowhere near as often as she did with Midoriya, Torhu, Iida, and the others.
When she saw Torhu Hagakure and Tsuyu Asui running over, Yukino decided... to follow her own preferences.
"Sorry, Ashido, Hagakure, but I've already thought of a team that suits me..."
"Eh? All right..." The two were somewhat disappointed, but both nodded in understanding.
"Then, Tsuyu-chan, I choose you."
"Kero." Tsuyu's eyes curved into crescents, and she looked delighted.
Yukino shifted her gaze again. The surrounding students had already gathered in groups of three or five.
Although she was second place, the Quirk ability Yukino had displayed earlier did not seem particularly outstanding. Simple physical enhancement did not look like much of an advantage to those who did not know better. But Class A was absolutely not included among them.
So...
When her gaze landed on a certain crow who had yet to draw anyone's attention, he had already nodded lightly. "You ride on top."
"Uh... sorry for the trouble." Yukino smiled faintly.
Among this group of people who were not black enough, a girl like Yukino, dressed in an all-black uniform with long black hair, could definitely pull the person before her into the team with ease.
Yukino looked over them one by one, only to discover that Izuku Midoriya had already been targeted by Mei Hatsume from the Support Department. There was also Ochaco Uraraka, who desperately wanted to be with him, as well as the utterly unexpected Ojiro.
"I thought he would come ask me to join his team." Yukino let out a breath of relief.
She did not really want to team up with Midoriya, but if he insisted on bringing her along, it was not like she could not agree. After all, Midoriya's character was still quite reassuring. If it had been Mineta, she would never agree even if beaten to death.
Thus, the final person to join was... Koji Koda.
"With that, our team has a total of 640 points. Other than Midoriya's ten-million-point team, we basically have the highest score. So the head..."
"Of course, it's me..." Yukino cut Tsuyu off. "You don't mind letting me be the rider, right?"
"I don't mind." Tsuyu Asui nodded decisively.
"Any tactics?" Fumikage Tokoyami asked seriously.
"Perhaps we should give up on fighting for the ten million points at first and target the other teams instead, while doing our best to avoid having our own points stolen. In other words, find the weaker teams and take them out one by one."
"I agree." Fumikage Tokoyami nodded.
Their total score was ranked high enough. As long as they proceeded steadily, winning would be relatively easy.
There was no need to use X-Hair, which only lasted five minutes, in the Cavalry Battle, but Sister Doma and Yukino could still use it. From a certain perspective, Yukino's ability was the most broken of them all.
Fifteen minutes later...
"Yosh, everyone has formed a team, right? I won't ask some stupid question like whether you're ready... Now then, get ready for the countdown. Three, two, one..."
The instant Mic finished the countdown, Midnight shouted, "Start!" Then every team, as if they had planned it beforehand, simultaneously launched an attack on Midoriya's ten-million-point team.
Only Yukino's side adopted a strategy of fishing in troubled waters.
As they ran, Yukino felt her body bobbing up and down. Perhaps it was because everyone was so in sync, but the four people beneath her seemed to merge into one, turning into a real... warhorse at her command.
"Our coordination is strangely good. I'm even more confident about this match now." Fumikage Tokoyami's gaze grew solemn.
Koji Koda, who had not said a word throughout, nodded as well in agreement.
Yukino truly had found good teammates.
At the very least, the two boys were very self-aware. They merely supported Yukino's thighs with their arms and had no improper thoughts. As for Tsuyu Asui, since she was female like this avatar, Yukino let her hold onto her thigh.
Amid the swarm of attacks, Midoriya's team was blasted by Pop Off. After the propeller on their right leg's support equipment was torn off, they barely managed to escape into the sky.
"Don't get carried away!"
Katsuki Bakugo roared. Explosions flashed from both his hands as he shot like a rocket nearly a hundred meters into the air, launching an attack on Izuku Midoriya.
Boom—
Ojiro's huge tail blocked Bakugo's attack, though he suffered minor injuries as well.
"Uraraka's Zero Gravity let Mei Hatsume's support equipment perform perfectly, but now that the gear is unstable, they can only fight on the ground, right? Kero."
"Quit talking. A target's coming."
A guy in a helmet, his face covered in holes, suddenly sprayed a large amount of white liquid in their direction.
"Dark Shadow!"
"Understood!"
The black shadow moved forward to block it. Most of the liquid was intercepted to one side, but the splashes that scattered around still disgusted Yukino.
"What is this stuff? It's so sticky."
When she noticed that a little had splashed onto two of her fingers and glued them completely together, Yukino's expression twitched.
The Avatar's Clever Use
PS: I accidentally gave Riding EX to Yukino in the previous chapter. It has been corrected, sorry (:∠)
Yosetsu Awase, Quirk: Omni Glue.
In short, Yukino knew nothing about the Quirks of Class B's members. She only knew that the guy in front of her was not only strange-looking, but his Quirk was disgustingly insane too.
"Tokoyami, let's charge in now and take their headbands in one go."
"No problem." Hearing Yukino's request, Fumikage Tokoyami immediately swung his arm. Dark Shadow let out a roar and shot toward the target.
But at that very moment, Yukino suddenly felt a chill on her head.
"Damn!"
The score that had been firmly secured atop her head flew away at high speed.
"How naive, Class A." The blond youth with a sinister smile lightly drew back his hand, placing the headband he had stolen around his neck. "I've already seen through your abilities."
Fumikage Tokoyami abruptly stopped and turned to look at him.
The headband had been taken, which meant their score had directly dropped to zero.
Even Yukino's expression turned utterly grim.
But the next moment, just as Neito Monoma turned away to seek his next prey, a chill ran across his neck as well.
"You think someone like you can steal the headband?" The girl's voice suddenly rang beside his ear.
"What?"
He hurriedly turned around, only to discover that Yukino was standing beside him, while an unfamiliar boy sat atop the horse opposite them.
"This is..."
"An avatar." Yukino smiled as she backed away, lightly jumping into the air and colliding with her original body. The two instantly merged into one.
"Got the headband."
Neito Monoma's expression immediately darkened. His Quirk was Copy, and when Yukino came up to take back the headband, he had indeed activated it, yet he had failed to copy her Quirk.
"It didn't work?"
Staring at his hand, he fell silent in disbelief.
"Don't waste time. Focus on the remaining teams. Don't forget your objective," his two teammates said, looking up at him.
"All right..."
Though unwilling, Neito Monoma could only temporarily abandon Yukino's team and go after easier targets.
"Good thing that guy with mental issues didn't fixate on us." Yukino let out a soft breath.
"What is it? Do you know that person well?" Fumikage Tokoyami asked gravely.
"I've heard of him. He's from Class B, after all."
Unlike Yukino's team, which had easily recovered their headband, every attack Neito Monoma launched against the other teams succeeded. Before anyone realized it, aside from Midoriya's most eye-catching team, every other Class A team had fallen.
Even Bakugo had been tricked by him.
Before you continue