The stands erupted the moment Tsutsumi stepped down from the podium, furious shouts echoing across the stadium. He had dared them all to come at him, and they were more than ready to take him up on it.
Back with his class, his classmates swarmed him.
"You're insane!"
"Now you've made the whole school our enemy!"
Tsutsumi slid his hands into his pockets, unfazed.
"Does it really matter? From the start, they were all enemies. We're competitors. They've already declared war on us… yet you're still thinking about holding back? Damn, so you've all been looking down on the other classes this entire time, and you didn't invite me, your class president?"
Class 1-A: "..."
Everyone: "…"
His words left them speechless.
Many hostile gazes quickly shifted from Tsutsumi toward the rest of Class 1-A.
"I won't lose, Tsutsumi-kun!" Round face said brightly, fists clenched with determination.
"Cool," he replied flatly, not even sparing whoever just said that a glance.
Midnight's voice rang out across the arena, dripping with her usual theatrics.
"Obstacle race!"
The crowd erupted as she gestured grandly to the massive stadium.
"It's a race between all eleven classes! The track circles this entire stadium, nearly four kilometers long! And remember, my lovelies, you're free to do anything you want as long as you stay on the course! So… on your mark!"
Excitement and nerves rippled through the students, their expressions ranging from tense to determined. Midoriya and Bakugou's eyes burned with resolve, ready to give everything. Tsutsumi, however, tapped a card between his fingers, lost in thought about which one to play first.
"START!!!"
The moment Midnight's voice cracked like a whip, the students surged forward, bottlenecking through the narrow passage of the course.
For Tsutsumi, though, this event had some weight. Somewhere out there, someone might know something about his mother. Winning was the surest way to draw attention.
Still, he didn't rush. Hanging near the back, he observed quietly.
Up front, Todoroki froze the ground solid, effortlessly taking the lead while the others scrambled to adapt. Bakugou blasted himself through the ice, snarling. The field turned chaotic with quirks firing off in every direction.
"You're not moving?"
Tsutsumi glanced sideways. A girl who also stood back and waited, her tone curious.
"You are… that girl," he realized, recognizing her. "The one who helped me last time."
"I'm Kendo Itsuka," she introduced herself politely. "Did you manage to save your sister?"
"Yeah. I got her back." His lips curved into a faint smile.
"That's wonderful to hear." Her smile softened. With no other topic to talk about, the silence stretched between them.
Tsutsumi slipped a card into his belt.
Attack Ride: Yusei Go!
A sleek red motorcycle suddenly appeared beside him. Another card flicked into the slot.
Attack Ride: Agito Tornador!
The bike shifted and transformed, hovering above the ground like a machine from another world. Without hesitation, Tsutsumi mounted it and soared upward, bypassing the frozen mess below.
Gasps rippled across the audience and students.
"Wow! Someone is flying! Who is that?"
"He is riding on some kind of flying device!"
"Is that a hoverboard!?"
All eyes turn to Tsutsumi, who suddenly takes first place in the race by flying past both Bakugo and Todoroki. The two were fighting for first place not too long ago, and suddenly found themselves in second and third.
From the commentator's booth, Yamada leaned forward with electric energy. "Yo, Shota! Isn't that your student? Tsutsumi Ryoko, right?! What's his quirk!?"
"His quirk is called Belt." Aizawa's voice was flat, almost bored. "At first, it might look like a simple belt stuck on his waist, but he found out that by using some special cards, he could actually summon items or gain a temporary superhuman effect."
Aizawa really didn't know what to say about Tsutsumi Ryoko's quirk, since the boy refused to fix his quirk registration form, leaving the U.A.'s teachers to do it for him. So they just wrote what they saw so far.
"And with that, Tsutsumi Ryoko has passed the second obstacle, leaving the rest in the dust. Shota, your student, is really something." Yamada said, his voice filled with his usual energy.
"It can't be helped, the ability to fly makes all the obstacles set up for the first year practically useless." Aizawa replied, his voice sounding as tired as usual.
With the first obstacle being a few 0-point robots, the second is a pitfall, and the third is a large mine field; being able to fly basically bypassed all of them.
"And with that! Tsutsumi Ryoko has got 1st place!"
Yamada bellowed, his voice booming over the stadium, as Tsutsumi leaped off his Agito Tornador before letting the bike disappear.
His gaze shifted back to the other end of the gate where he had just crossed, seeing Bakugo and Todoroki doing their best to catch up to him. The two of them have decided to ignore each other and are now directly trying to compete for second place.
He watched seeing Bakugo came in 2nd, and Todoroki in 3rd, 4th is a girl with vine-like hair, 5th is a boy who doesn't seem to have any lips, 6th is glasses, 7th is bird-face, 8th is... and an ordinary-looking boy with black hair, 9th is Kirashima, 10th is another person he didn't know. Down below, he spotted that Jiro came in 17th, and surprisingly... Midoriya came in 30th.
Apparently, he was digging up the mines, but Todoroki's ice made it more difficult for him, causing him to spend a lot of time gathering them up and using their explosion to launch him forward.
"Since when can your bike turn into that?" Jiro finally managed to ask, walking up to him once she'd caught her breath.
"Since I figured I could do that," Tsutsumi replied with a shrug. Then, smirking, he added, "Anyway, can't even get into the top 10 again? Tch, are you even taking things seriously?" He faked a disappointed look.
A red tick mark popped on Jiro's forehead. She immediately kicked him.
"Shut it! You're the last person I want to hear those words from!" she snapped, clearly annoyed.
She knew what he was trying to say, but honestly, couldn't he phrase it better?
"And now it is over!" Midnight's voice boomed across the stadium, drawing their attention. "Forty-two at the top have earned the right to advance! I'm sorry for the ones who failed, but don't take it to heart, work hard next time!"
The crowd of students murmured, nerves and excitement mixing in the air.
"And now, for the semi-final competition!" Midnight raised her arms dramatically. "From here on, we're going to see more thrilling events! I know you're curious about what's next, right? Ah, the suspense is killing me! Behold!"
The giant screen lit up with the next event.
"Cavalry Battle?" someone muttered.
"Human cavalry, huh?" another added.
It was a common game in the country, two to four people formed a team, one rider and the rest acting as the "horses." The rider's job: steal the headbands from other teams.
"Everyone will receive points based on their performance in the last trial!" Midnight continued.
"If it's like the entrance exam's point system, it'll be easy to understand," a student reasoned.
"This means the value of each team will change depending on who's in it," another added.
"Don't steal my thunder!" Midnight snapped, cracking her whip with a sharp snap! "But yes, that's right! The number of points you're worth will be five points if you're in 42nd place, ten if you're in 41st, fifteen for 40th, and so on…"
A wicked grin spread across her lips. "With the exception of the 1st place!"
"Oh?" Tsutsumi's eyebrow twitched with interest.
"The head of the 1st place… is worth ten million points!" Midnight roared, her voice booming through the arena.
Dozens of eyes turned toward Tsutsumi, their gazes sharp and hungry.
Still... he doesn't feel any pressure.
Back then, if people looked at him like this, he would get uncomfortable and ignore them; it's harder when it was everyone looking at him, but he could still ignore them.
Now that he has been through a life-or-death war, and soloing that Holy Grail War in just one night. The intense stare of children wanting to win a simple game really doesn't pull the same tension.
"If I were in your place, I'd aim for the 1st without hesitation!" Midnight teased, watching him carefully.
The others also stared, expecting him to flinch, maybe show fear.
Instead, he looked… bored?
"What? I said it before and I'll say it again." Tsutsumi, noticing their eyes, spoke casually. "Come at me if you dare. I'll destroy you all."
The arena fell silent for a beat.
Midnight only grinned wider. "The time limit is 15 minutes. The points value of each group's headband is worth the total accumulation of each team. And the one who wears the headband will be the rider of the team!"
She then pointed her whip at the screen. "By the time it's up, you'll all be fighting and stealing as many of each other's headbands as you can! You may not equip your headband in any area besides above your neck! As more and more headbands are taken, maintaining control of the situation will become more and more demanding!"
She then points her whip toward the students below. "Lastly, the most important aspect of this event is that even if you should lose your headband or crumble during the battle, you're still not out of the game!"
"Quirks are, of course, allowed, so I want to see some fine brutality out there. That being said... this is still a human cavalry battle game!" Her tone shifted slightly, still playful but warning. "If you attack any other group with the malicious aim of breaking them up, that's a red card, and you'll be forced to sit out the rest of the game."
"Malicious aim? Can you give an example?" Tsutsumi raised his hand and asked.
"Er... like hitting them, kicking, hurting, or something similar in a dangerous area such as eyes, temple, groin, etc. Other than that, it is okay." Midnight didn't expect someone to decide to ask, but she gave a frank answer.
"I see. Thanks," he replied simply.
"No problem." Midnight shot him a smile. "But be careful. You're going to become everyone's target."
"You're so confident," Jiro muttered, nudging him in the side. "But do you think you can even find a teammate that easily?"
"What about you?" he shot back, glancing at her. "Aren't you going to find your own teammate?"
"Normally, yeah. I'd leave you to socialize. But since you're basically enemy number one right now…" She shrugged. "Guess I don't have a choice but to team up with you."
She had a point; most thought he'd have trouble finding allies with that ten-million-point target on his head. But Jiro wasn't about to abandon him.
"Tsutsumi, I'm willing to be the shadow for your light to shine!" Tokoyami declared, suddenly stepping forward.
"Tsutsumi, I can be a strong front horse," Shoji added quickly.
"Number 1, let's team up." A pink-haired girl with strange gadgets strapped to her approached eagerly.
"You are…" Tsutsumi looked at her, unamused.
"This is Tokoyami Fumikage, and that's Shoji Mezo. The other one… I don't know," Jiro quickly filled in, used to handling his lack of social awareness.
Although she is somewhat of a quiet one in the class, she still socialized more than Tsutsumi, who is currently the only student in U.A to skip over two weeks of classes without getting expelled.
"I see." Tsutsumi gave a slow nod, then turned back to the pink-haired girl just as she opened her mouth to introduce herself.
"Not interested."