Chapter 26- Cavalry Battle: Part 2

"Dark Shadow!"

At Tokoyami's spoken command, his Quirk expanded in size and coiled around our team like a serpent, ready to strike at anybody who came near to threaten our team. There were a few beats of silence, with all of the teams looking straight at each other, none of them willing to be the first to move. We had ended up right in the middle of this circle of teams, and it was clear that a lot of them were looking at us as potential targets.

"Shoji, don't make it obvious, but look to our left." I muttered as quietly as possible, hoping that none of the other teams could hear what I was planning "The biggest gap between the teams is between Bakugo and that 1B team with the black-haired girl as the rider."

"I see it." Shoji confirmed, his head staying still as one of his dupli-arm eyes rotated wildly to give the impression he hadn't noticed the weakness in the circle of teams "So we go for that gap?"

"We'll run to the right for a few seconds, once everyone moves against us and the fighting starts again, change direction and move as quickly as possible." My eyes flicked around the arena, seeing the anticipation on the faces of the other teams "Tokoyami, use Dark Shadow to cover our backs. Tsu, keep an eye on our headbands, and steal the 1B team's points if you can."

"Certainly."

"Ribbit."

"Right, see you on the other side." I smirked, jolting my head to the right and getting ready to run as obviously as possible.

Our team moved as one, making large and dramatic movements to lead the other teams towards us. As soon as we moved, everybody else surged forwards, the brief pause that had settled over the battle being broken as easily as it had first been formed. The fighting erupted all around us, and several teams surged towards the centre of the stage, either to attack our team, or to fight each other for the coveted headbands.

Once the anarchy erupted all around us, Shoji turned on his heel and started moving to the left, and Tokoyami and I followed his movement and turned as well, changing our team's direction and sprinting towards the gap in the circle of teams that we had spotted. I could see over my shoulder that a few of the teams that were coming towards us had been momentarily wrong footed, and those few seconds of hesitation gave us time to escape the fight and put distance between us and our foes.

Todoroki's team were suddenly right beside us, seemingly defending themselves from Bakugo's relentless attacks, and both of these teams were surely pursuing Midoriya for his team's points. Tsu must have taken my advice on going for the 1B team that we would be passing by, as we had suddenly stopped, and Dark Shadow was striking out at one of our opposing teams. Tsu was also using her tongue to try and grasp the headband from the team, though she was so far being kept at bay by the bestial-looking boy that served as the front horse for this team.

There wasn't much I could do in the current situation; the fight was on the other side of our formation and I lacked any means to contribute to the fight due to my deficit of any ranged attack or other means of offence. My eyes turned back to Todoroki's team, who were still beside us and locked in a battle with three other teams, the swirling chaos making it impossible to tell who had gained the upper hand in the fight.

It was then that I realised that Kaminari was the closest member of that team to me, and he was doing little more than observing the fight that his team was currently engaged in. This was likely due to the nature of his Quirk, as he couldn't use his power to it's full potential without injuring his teammates and effectively taking himself out of the battle until he could recover from overusing his Quirk. But truthfully, his Quirk was the reason that I had my eyes settled on Kaminari, and the destructive power that he possessed was what made him stick out in my perception.

In order to keep honing my skills and work on my fighting technique, I had theorised how a fight between me and any of my classmates could unfold, and Aizawa had taught me a lot about theorising and simulating fights and battles in my mind in order to keep me sharp. I had come up with dozens of scenarios that could feasibly take place in UA's training grounds, and taking note of which of my classmates I would consistently struggle or outright lose against.

Alongside Todoroki and Bakugo, Kaminari was a consistently difficult factor in these mental battles that I had run through, and I was still struggling to figure out the best way to deal with his power. Ultimately, my fighting style was based in getting close and using my fighting techniques to beat an opponent, and Kaminari's ability to totally wipe out anybody near him meant my options were limited. The only counters I could conceive of were ambushing him and taking him down without a fight, which could theoretically beat anybody, though in this current scenario an ambush was totally impossible.

And the other option was…

"Kaminari!" I called out to my classmate across the melee, noticing that all of his teammates were stood still and occupied with the fight at hand, none of them were paying attention to what was going on around them.

"What?" He called back, his expression showing the confusion as to why I was trying to talk to him in the middle of a fight.

I activated Brainwashing as soon as he had responded, the familiar mental link settling into my mind as I saw Kaminari's expression slacken. I knew that I likely only had a few seconds until either Kaminari's teammates noticed what was happening or a shock from the battle would release him from my control, so I had to act quickly.

"I'm sorry about this." I muttered, hoping that nobody would notice what I was up to "But I need you to turn around and run out of the arena as quickly as you can."

Without any of the hesitation that would come from a person under control of their own mind, Kaminari moved away from the rest of his team and sprinted at full pelt towards the edge of the stone arena. Todoroki and Yaoyorozu both turned in surprise to see what had happened to their teammate, though neither of them had the means to stop him within the few seconds they had left to react.

Present Mic's surprised narration announced that Kaminari had been eliminated from the tournament by since he had left the ring, and I released my control over him as soon as I heard that he had been taken out of the battle. Though I was glad to know that one of my most disadvantageous matchups had been removed from the tournament, I still felt for Kaminari since he had lost his chance of winning the tournament, and unlike Aoyama, this was a loss that I was directly responsible for.

I actually quite liked Kaminari, though we hadn't had a great deal of interaction since starting UA, something that was true for the majority of our class since we had known each other for only a fairly brief amount of time. Though he was a little loud and brash for my liking, he was at least earnest and fairly easy to get along with, and he seemed to be friendly with basically the entire class. I only hoped that he didn't take being Brainwashed too badly, and I made a mental note to apologise to him later, as I wanted to maintain at least cordial relations with most of my classmates.

I saw Todoroki's gaze linger on me for a second, and I knew that he must have realised what I had done and why he was suddenly short one team member. Even as Yaoyorozu and Iida scrambled to reform into a new formation to accommodate being short a member, Todoroki just glared at me for a few more seconds, before finally turning back to the battle at hand. The guy certainly had an intense glare, and I had no doubt he would have turned and attacked my team if it wouldn't have left his back exposed and open to an attack from Bakugo, who was still charging towards everybody around him at once. Well, maybe I had proved my earlier point to Todoroki, focusing on a single opponent could end with him being stabbed in the back, and I hoped that I had driven that lesson home.

Any further conflict with Todoroki was cut short by Shoji moving forwards again, and I followed him without even thinking, letting the head of our formation guide us away from the conflict where we would assess ourselves and plan out our next move. I saw Dark Shadow had a headband clutched in it's black talons, and it handed the band of white fabric over to Tsu, who secured it around her neck alongside our other captured headbands. My team must have managed to secure the headband from the 1B team they were confronting whilst I was distracted by dealing with Kaminari.

If any of them noticed that I had used my Quirk to remove Kaminari from the tournament, then they didn't comment on it, though I was certain that they would make the connection after a while. I had also been trying to listen to Present Mic's announcements that constantly boomed through the stadium, and although he had commented on Kaminari's elimination, he hadn't mentioned anything about me or my use of Brainwashing, so I had hopefully managed to act without detection once again.

Shoji paused outside of the conflict zone, all of us catching our breath for a moment as we took stock of our current situation. About half of the battle's time had expired, and we were currently ranked in third place on the scoreboards that were hanging far above us from the stadium roof. Team Midoriya was still in first place for now, having surprisingly managed to defend the ten million point headband from the almost constant attacks that they were under. Second place currently belonged to Team Bakugo…

That was strange, I was almost certain that Bakugo would be entirely focused on gaining the ten million points from Midoriya's team, though I didn't know whether or not this was strategy or his strangely one-sided grudge against Midoriya. Either way, I would have expected Bakugo to have only gunned for Midoriya, so how had he managed to gain so many points so quickly? So had he…

"Give me those damn points you extras!" Bakugo's voice tore me from my thoughts, and the sound of explosions heralded his certainly imminent arrival.

It took me a second to realised that Bakugo was coming from above us, the noise of explosions and his own constant yelling giving away his position. I looked up to the quickly approaching noise to see Bakugo flying towards us a dozen metres in the air, a strand of something seemed to be stuck to his waist, though I didn't have time to identify what it was before I had to react.

"Get back!" I shouted to my team, pulling at Shoji's shoulder while simultaneously leaping backwards, trying to put as much distance as possible between my team and Bakugo's landing point.

Thankfully, the rest of my team seemed to notice what was happening and followed my lead, backpedalling as far as possible to avoid the projectile of anger and explosions that was flying straight towards us. Bakugo didn't have time to change his course from our sudden change in direction, and he was pulled back to the rest of his team by the strand stuck to his waist, which I realised was a piece of Sero's tape that he had been using to allow Bakugo to make these dive-bomb attacks.

Thankfully, taunting from a blonde-haired member of Class 1B seemed to draw Bakugo's attention, and he steered his team towards this obviously suicidal student, who was still insulting Bakugo while fleeing in the opposite direction. I wondered idly if this figure was the Monoma person that Yanagi had saw fit to warn me about, and it seemed that her warnings were justified, though he was possibly even more unusual than I had expected from him.

"That was too close." Shoji murmured, his eyes flicking to the sides for any more threats "We got lucky that time, but he'll try that again."

"Sero's the problem." Tokoyami answered, sounding disgruntled at how close we had come to being caught off guard "As long as he's there, then Bakugo can keep making those ambushes."

"I can deal with that." I replied, speaking without even thinking about what I was really saying "If you guys can get me close enough, I can get Sero away from his team using Brainwashing."

"You've already done that once." Shoji shot back "Are you sure you can get away with that again?"

"I don't know." I answered truthfully, not wishing to delude myself or my team "But we can't let Bakugo run wild like that, we'll end up out of the game if this keeps happening."

Shoji didn't say anything, but he led our team forwards again, steering us towards the back of Bakugo's team, trying to keep our approach unseen for as long as we could manage. Once we were within a dozen metres of Bakugo's team. Kirishima and Sero noticed our arrival, though their attempts to notify Bakugo and Ashido of our arrival were thwarted by their teammates being stuck fighting with Todoroki's team. Unlike when we targeted Todoroki's team, Bakugo's team were still moving, and Shoji led us forwards until we were running parallel with our target.

"Hey!" I called out again, unsure how likely my trick was to work again "Sero!"

"What are you planning Shinso?" Sero was clearly keeping his distance, wary of what exactly I was attempting to do to defeat his team.

I activated Brainwashing straight away, and watched as Sero went still and lost any concern or suspicion in his face as his expression went flat. Since I hadn't given Sero any orders, he simply stood still in the spot he had been Brainwashed in, and the rest of his team were moving too quickly to stop and recover Sero before the ten seconds timer expired. In other circumstances, I would have been somewhat offended by the accusation of being up to no good; though Sero was right to be suspicious of my sudden call to him, it was clear he still didn't know how my Quirk worked. Besides, in this one occasion, I actually was up to no good, so I wasn't going to be too bothered by any suspicion being directed my way.

Once Bakugo realised that Sero was gone and that he was stuck with the rest of his team, he snarled and shot his gaze straight towards me, correctly guessing that I was the reason that he was confined to his team. Before he could make a move towards us and try to enact his surely violent and loud revenge, more teams gathered around us again, several different fights and clashes merging into each other as the various teams all tried to find weaknesses and openings in their new rival teams.

Unlike the last time that we were surrounded, there wasn't an opening to escape this time, nor was there a pause that we could take advantage of to strategize and plan an escape from the conflict that was spiralling out of control all around us. It seemed that any semblance of single combat had broken down into one large fight, with every team fighting anyone nearby in an attempt to gain points, while still defending their own points from anybody who would try to steal them.

"Defend as best you can!" I called out as loudly as possible, hoping that my team could hear me above the noise and chaos of the battle "They're gonna come from all sides, but we need to defend our headbands!"

I didn't get any response, though even if anyone did reply, I doubted that I would be able to hear what was said over the cacophony of dozens of clashing students using their Quirks to try and immobilise or defeat their opponents and claim their points. I couldn't make out the scoreboard in any great detail amongst all of the chaos around us, but I knew that we still had a few minutes until the battle came to an end, and so I squared myself up against any teams that threatened us, ready to fight and defend.

The battle surged all around us, and the constant barrage of Quirks and other attacks were coming from every angle, with seemingly no end to the assaults upon us. There was no planning or strategy in those moments, just a desperate defence of our claimed points from the teams that sought to claim them and earn a place in the final round. Though I knew that the battle must almost be over, in the heat of the moment it felt like I had been fighting for hours, constantly defending from the endless assaults and attempts to claim our headbands.

In this chaos, our team settled into a rhythm of perfect tandem, without any words or planning, we covered for each other and fought in unison to ensure our team's advancement. I used every technique I could think of to fend off anybody who approached our team, even though one of my arms had to be kept on Shoji's back to maintain the formation, I used my right arm and even my legs to block strikes and grabs that threatened our team and our points. If a strike flew too high for me to intercept, then Dark Shadow would surge forwards and intercept the attack that was targeted at Tsu and our headbands, the sentient Quirk's body seemed almost immune to pain or damage, so it absorbed and intercepted attacks under Tokoyami's stern orders. At the head of our formation, Shoji was constantly shifting his free arms into different appendages to suit the situations; constantly changing from eyes and ears to sense oncoming assaults, to hands to intercept these attacks and drive the opposing teams back. Tsu herself stayed mostly out of the fighting, instead using her small size and mobility to dodge and weave around the few attacks that managed to slip past our desperate defence, though she would occasionally used her tongue to make a counter attack by reaching for an enemy team's headband.

This strange unison kept us in the fight, even though attacks came at us constantly and often without warning, and so we held out desperately, feeling every second crawl by until the end of the battle. Though I was confident in myself and my teammates, I knew we couldn't keep this up forever, and eventually somebody would make a mistake that led to us losing some or all of our points to an attacking team.

"Time's Up!" Present Mic's voice tore through the stadium again, all of the battles and clashes that were raging instantly fell silent, and the dust began to settle around us.

Cheers erupted from the crowd at the end of the battle, and I could see the wave of activity from those standing and applauding, apparently they had been entertained by the spectacle that had unfolded in front of them. Maybe they could see more of what had happened from above that I could notice from being on the ground, but for now the outcome was still unclear.

"I hope this last one counts." Tsu said, holding the headband she had just claimed in her tongue as she hopped off of Shoji's back.

I noticed that one of the headbands around Tsu's neck had been lost in the confusion, and the one on her head was clearly loosened by attempts to claim it by other teams. We had three headbands in our possession at the end of the battle, and before I could tally up how many points we had one of UA's small robot drones requested the headbands from Tsu, which she handed over. The scoreboards had gone black as well, presumably to keep the suspense that Midnight was clearly so fond of in the air.

"I guess we just have to wait." I replied, rolling my shoulders to loosen some of the stiffness that had settled in from keeping my arms raised for so long "Hopefully we've done enough."

It took a while for the adrenaline of the Cavalry Battle to wear off, and my heartbeat and breathing had only steadied once the teams had stopped fighting and were standing and awaiting the announcement of their scores. I had lost sight of the scoreboard in the final hectic minutes of the battle, and the rapid changing of headbands and points between teams in those hectic seconds of battle meant that the outcome was far from certain, and any team could have claimed victory.

Though the chaos had stopped me from keeping an accurate tally of the team's scores, I was fairly sure that Todoroki's team had grasped the coveted ten million point headband, ensuring his advancement to the next round. Iida and Yaoyorozu would also be moving onto the final round alongside Todoroki, and all three of them would surely be formidable opponents in whatever contest awaited us.

"First Place is Team Todoroki!" Present Mic called out first, drawing cheers and other celebratory chants from the crowd towards the team in question.

It seemed that loosing Kaminari wasn't enough to stop Todoroki from claiming victory, though the knowledge that I wouldn't have to face Kaminari again was comforting, since I still hadn't come up with a counter to his electricity. I didn't want to deprive Kaminari of his chance to participate in the final round, but this event was ultimately a competition, and that meant that not everybody could win, hopefully he understood that.

"In Second Place, it's Team Bakugo!" This next announcement was even less surprising, Bakugo had expectedly gone on a rampage through the entire game, and the loss of Sero hadn't done anything to slow him down. Bakugo's team had basically been pulled along by their boisterous leader, though it was clearly a winning strategy.

Kirishima and Ashido seemed pleased to be moving on, but Bakugo was clearly infuriated about not coming in first place, and his foul mood would surely follow him into the final game. That probably meant that whoever faced him first in the final event would likely be in for a hard time, and I could only hope that that person wasn't me.

Only two more spaces were open, and the invisible tension that surrounded my team increased even more, I could see the doubt and concern in their expressions, no matter how good they all were at hiding it. I was worried myself as well, we had fought hard throughout the battle, and I didn't want it all to go to waste.

"In Third Place, it's Team Asui!" There was a visible sigh of relief from my teammates at that announcement, we had collected a large amount of points, but the chaos of the battle meant that victory wasn't guaranteed. Still, we had moved on to the next round, and the opportunity of getting the attention of Pro Heroes was still open to my allies.

I still wasn't sure how I was meant to proceed in this tournament while still keeping a low profile and keeping my Quirk hidden as best I could. I was internally debating trying to find Aizawa and ask him his advice on the matter, but his recent demeanour towards me made me think that I wouldn't receive much beyond a stern glare that left me more confused than when I started. I had to make my own decision on the matter, and despite my current state of uncertainty I had to use my own judgement to decide what would be best.

"And in an impressive last-minute comeback! It's Team Midoriya!" Now that was surprising, even though Midoriya's team had been constantly targeted by the other teams, they seemed to have grabbed a headband just before time ran out, letting them move on to the next stage.

So the four teams had been chosen to move on, and with the exception of the Hatsume girl who had joined Midoriya, everybody was from Class 1A, which was certainly interesting. Class 1B clearly weren't inept or weaker than our class, but it seemed that things simply didn't go their way this time, which was clearly unfortunate.

But this was a competition, and I couldn't afford to be sentimental or spare thoughts for those left behind.

Just as that idea had crossed my mind, Midnight announced that sixteen competitors were needed for the final event, and that the team that came in fifth place would need to nominate two of their number to move onto the final round. The team in question was Team Kendo, composed of Itsuka Kendo, Setsuna Tokage, Kinoko Komori and Reiko Yanagi, who I had quite literally ran into a few days ago. I hadn't seen much of the other team members, and I only knew their names from the large information screens around the stadium.

However, Kendo declined the nomination on the grounds that her team had been immobilised by Todoroki's ice for the majority of the game, and they got fifth place simply by keeping their own headband in their possession for the whole game. She said that team Tetsutetsu should move on again since they had been fighting the whole game, and Midnight accepted this proposal with her usual dramatic persona.

The sixteen students had all been chosen now, and Midnight declared that the event would be announced before the intermission so that we would have time to prepare ourselves for the final event of the day. From my knowledge of previous Sports Festivals, the final event was usually a series of one-on-one battles, though the format of these contests varied wildly, including sword-fighting and something similar to traditional sumo wrestling.

"The event that will end the First Year segment of this Festival will be an old favourite, the Battle Tournament!" Midnight called to the stadium, gesturing widely towards our group of sixteen students, her announcement eliciting cheers from the crowd "It's a series of one-on-one battles with no holds barred and no Quirks off limits!"

"The rules are simple, two competitors will battle it out on this central stage, using their Quirks and their wits to win or lose!" Midnight called out again, milking the spotlight as much as she could manage "Competitors can be eliminated by being immobilised, knocked out of the ring or otherwise incapacitated. The competitors will move on until only one remains, and that student will be crowned champion!"

It was a fairly simple format, and one that would hopefully allow me to use my own proficiency in close combat as best as I could. On the other hand, an open area with no equipment, no opportunity to hide or ambush and nothing that I could even improvise as a weapon went against almost everything I had been caught when it came to fighting. Such an open or pitched battle didn't really play to my strengths, and it was up to me to turn things in my favour.

"The matches are as follows!" Midnight called out again, gesturing to the screens mounted around the stadium "And they will begin as soon as the intermission has ended!"

I turned towards one of the screens to see who I would be facing, seeing the list of the first eight matches in front of me.

Mashirao Ojiro vs. Hitoshi Shinso

Ejiro Kirishima vs. Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu

Katsuki Bakugo vs. Ochaco Uraraka

Mezo Shoji vs. Momo Yaoyorozu

Fumikage Tokoyami vs. Ibara Shiozaki

Tenya Iida vs. Mei Hatsume

Izuku Midoriya vs. Shoto Todoroki

Tsuyu Asui vs. Mina Ashido

It was Ojiro then, somebody who I truthfully hadn't had much interaction with, though that might be due to the fact that both of us tended to blend into the background of our class somewhat. That was intentional on my part, though it was fairly likely that I would end up blending in whether I tried to or not; but I got the impression that Ojiro resented being overlooked somewhat, which was certainly something that I could sympathise with.

But putting emotions and such aside, Ojiro was certainly a capable close-quarters fighter, and while his Tail Quirk wasn't flashy or very powerful, I had observed him using it to good affect for both attacking or movement. He was clearly a well trained martial artist as well, and he used his tail in conjunction with existing forms and techniques, which was something that I would have to figure out how to beat as soon as possible.

Still, I had time to come up with counters and strategies to win this first battle, and whichever fights would come next, for the moment, I was simply looking forwards to the intermission. Some time to rest and gather my thoughts sounded ideal right now, and I'm sure that the rest of my teammates were thinking much the same. Though we weren't strictly teammates anymore due to the nature of the final round, they were still my closest friends, and I'd be rooting for them for their own fights, at least until they came up against me.

But right now, I could simply enjoy the calm before the final storm.

Author's Note

Isn't lockdown fun? I've been at work non-stop lately and I feel like keeling over after finally finishing this Chapter. Anyway, that's the end of the Cavalry Battle, I had a lot of fun writing this sequence, and I hope that you all enjoyed reading it as well.

Before I say anything else, there has been a change to this story due to an error that I made. As reviewer Slayermoon1 helpfully pointed out to me, Shinso's Quirk doesn't actually require him to ask a question for Brainwashing to trigger, any statement he asks that somebody replies to can Brainwash them. Slayermoon1 drew my attention to this fact being written on the wiki, and when I checked the Manga, sure enough that was how his power was described; I assume that I was going off the memory of the anime and how Shinso was introduced there. The previous Chapters have been retroactively edited to display this change, though nothing major has changed beyond Shinso describing his Quirk. Many thanks to Slayermoon1 for pointing this out to me, it would have be a major headache if I hadn't noticed for a while longer.

I thought that Shinso's team coming in third made sense, since Todoroki got the ten million headband, Bakugo went on a rampage and Midoriya got a last minute score, so third place seemed the most sensible for Shinso's teams more cautious approach. Eliminating Kaminari and Sero was a decision made for a few reasons: Firstly, I didn't want to totally screw 1B out of the tournament altogether; I also felt that it showed Shinso's strategizing, since Sero was letting Bakugo make his attacks, and Kaminari would be basically an impossible matchup for Shinso in the final tournament. I know that eliminating them might be a little jarring, but they both got eliminated in the first round of the tournament, so there shouldn't be too many changes.

Before we get into the tournament, there's going to be an intermission chapter that will address a few plot threads and set up a rivalry that I've been planning to introduce since the start. We'll get onto the tournament soon, and I can't wait to get started. I know that in canon the tournament placements were shown after the intermission rather than before, but I found it strange that there was a break, then they announced the tournament, which was immediately followed by another break period. It seemed like a weird way for things to be set out, so I just merged the two here into one big intermission before the tournament starts..

I have a Discord server now; the link is in my profile page if you are interested in joining.

That's all for now, thank you for reading, and I'll see you next time.

And to answer some reviews:

Raven Mordrake: I've tried to incorporate Shinso's more cunning and underhanded way of approaching things into the way he acts, and observing his fellow students is definitely one way to communicate that point, and I'm glad to see that that came across. Thanks for reviewing.

Donovan2771: When it comes to the Sports Festival using Brainwashing is insanely risky, and using it on the one-on-one matches is even harder to get away from it. You're right to say that it would be a poor decision for Shinso to use Brainwashing like he did in canon, since he doesn't have as much riding on winning the festival here, and it could massively screw up his future career. Thanks for the review, and I'll keep this advice in mind.

Slayermoon1: Thank you for bringing this to my attention, I've checked the wiki and the manga to confirm and you're right to say that this is how Shinso's Quirk works. Thanks for the help, you've saved me a lot of trouble down the line.

Rex559: Voice throwing and such will be addressed next arc, you're right to say that it would be a helpful technique for Shinso to learn and I'll try to make good use of it. Thanks for the suggestion, I'll be sure to keep it in mind.

Hatakewerbenjagermanjensen: Thank you very much for your support, I hope that you enjoyed this Chapter as well.

XDBOI: Thanks for the support, I'm glad you enjoyed this story so far and I hope you enjoy this Chapter as well.