Toru?! Luke thought, stunned. How did Nyx convince her? I didn't plant any cue of favoritism toward me inside her…
Toru Hagakure had the Invisibility Quirk. She was the same girl from Class 1-A who Luke had manipulated with Blind Trust Quirk because she had seen him during the Landslide Zone in the white lab coat.
"She came to me," Nyx cawed, landing on Luke's shoulder.
"I want to be on your team," Toru said, curling a lock of hair.
"Why?!" Luke was gobsmacked. Did the Blind Trust Quirk stop working so soon? Was she investigating him secretly again? Or was she…
Smack!
Nyx slapped the back of Luke's head. "Stop thinking so much!" she cawed. "Say thank you!"
"Ah… Thank you," Luke nodded at her.
"It's alright," Toru said. "There's no particular reason. But, it felt like you needed help, so… and we are friends…"
Luke's mouth flattened into a thin line. From the corner of his eyes, he saw Momo, Todoroki, Kaminari, and Tenya Ida making a team.
He knew Momo was just too practical to make a team with him.
And it wasn't like he was expecting her to come to him…
Letting out a breath, Luke smiled at Toru.
"Thank you," he said again, with a little more enthusiasm. "I will make sure we enter the next stage."
"Hehe!" Toru jumped excitedly. "Alright. Now, let's get one more…"
"No." Luke shook his head. "You are enough."
…
"Now then," Midnight said, stretching her shoulders. "It's time to get started!"
"Oi, wake up, Erasure!" Present Mic said before turning on the mic. "Whoa! After fifteen minutes, we have 13 Cavalry Teams lined up on the field!"
Erasure Head looked through the screen, and his eyes narrowed. "Oh… that's some interesting combination of students…"
"Hold your seat tights!" Present Mic shouted. "It's time for UA's Bloody Battles!! 3… 2… 1…"
On the ground, Midnight cracked the whip. "BEGIN!!!"
…
The moment they got the nod, all the teams divided into two groups and ran in opposite directions.
On one side, wearing a jetpack, Midoriya was acting as the Rider with Mei Hatsume, Uraraka, and Fumikage as Horses, the shadow beast acting as their vanguard.
One of the students, with Softening Quirk, softened the ground under Midoriya's team's feet.
"We are sinking?!" Midoriya gasped, his heart giving away.
"Now!" Hatsume screamed. "Use my Baby!"
Nodding, Midoriya pressed a switch.
With a roar, the jetpack turned on, taking them up in the air, leaving everyone shocked.
On the other side, Luke carried Toru Hagakure on his back with Nyx perched on her shoulder.
"I WILL KILL YOU, BASTARD!" Bakugo came screaming at him, held up by Eijiro, Mina, and Hanta. "YOU FREAKING BIRDSHIT!!"
Luke looked over his shoulder. "Just what did you do to him?!"
But they didn't have the time to argue over it. The teams coming at him were fanning out, trying to surround him.
"Hold tight, Toru," Luke said, narrowing his eyes. "Nyx will make sure no one grabs your headband from a blind spot."
Toru nodded. "Should I take off my t-shirt now?"
"Huh? What? Why?!" Luke's eyes went wide. Then, he suddenly realized something. "NYX!!!"
"Concentrate!" Nyx cawed. Then, she whispered in Toru's ear. "Next time, don't ask, and just do what I say…"
Luke almost facepalmed. He made sure that Toru's legs were grabbing his waist tightly and then… just as the students were on him… he ran forward.
All students who were coming toward Luke suddenly stopped dead in their tracks.
As Bakugo screamed to just move on, Hitoshi Shinso from 1-B, the boy who had confronted Luke outside Class 1-A, frowned.
There was no way Luke could just barge his way out of all these teams… Suddenly, the boy coming at them, running at a lethargic pace, blurred.
A chill ran down everyone's spines.
Even with Toru on his back, the Marauder was just too physically strong to be affected by it.
"Cover the gap!" Pony Tsunotori from 1-B shouted. "Don't let him get away."
She had the Quirk — Horn Cannon. Bending her back, she fired two horns toward Luke.
Smiling, Luke twisted his ankles and effortlessly slid between the two horns coming at him like bullets.
"What?!" Pony gasped.
Suddenly, finding his chance, Shinso shouted. "Running away, fanboy! Is that why you won the first stage, because you are so good at it?"
Hitoshi Shinso, carried by Nirengeki Shoda, Yuga Aoyama, and Mashirao Ojiro, had a peculiar Quirk — Brainwash.
He could force someone to obey his commands as long as the target verbally responded to him.
Luke, of course, ignored the comment. Not because he knew Shinso's Quirk, but because he just wasn't used to responding to such goading.
Nyx, however, was another matter altogether.
She opened her beak to curse, but then suddenly paused, her Danger Intuition going haywire.
On the other hand, Shinso frowned, seeing the tactic that usually worked failing right in front of him. "Run toward him!" he ordered the people carrying him, as he had already brainwashed them.
Suddenly, the gap Luke could spy before had closed up.
Now, there were five teams in front of him, with barely any room to go past them.
"Luke!" Toru said, looking over her shoulder. "Let's go back…"
In response, Luke just smiled, because this — was the exact situation he wanted to find himself in.
On the other side of the field, after getting their feet stuck because of Mineta's sticky hairballs, Midoriya's team had already damaged the foot gears.
Shoji, carrying Mineta and Tsuyu on his back and hiding them under his tentacles, was hot in pursuit behind them.
Suddenly, Kyoka's ear-jacks came hurling toward them from a blind spot, but got thwarted by the shadow beast.
"Tch!" Kyoka tsked. "Let's go near!"
Then, out of nowhere, an ice wall sprang up in front of Midoriya, making them all collide with it with a bang.
"And the fight for the Ten Million Points is on!" Present Mic shouted. "What will Midoriya and Luke do when everyone comes after them? Sit tight! Because…"
"Huh?!" Erasure Head suddenly leaned over, disbelieving the sight.
On the field, Luke had slipped out of the impassable crowd, grinning, and… holding two more headbands.
****************
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