Bo-Taoshi.

After lunch, some Recovery Girl smooching and a short nap, I was healed up and ready to participate in the next event.

Walking out into the stadium, I joined the other participants by the podium.

"Now that lunch is done, it's time for the last event of the day! The battle tournament!

Or at least that is what it was supposed to be. Unfortunately or fortunately, our mini battle royale has already shown us who would win it." Midnight said and to my surprise, there were no more protests.

"So to make things interesting we're changing the last event into two separate ones.

And the first of the two is..." Midnight said, as the slots spun behind her, ".....Bo-Taoshi!"

"The participants will form two teams of eight or four teams of four and pick one pole each. Your goal is to topple the poles of the other team. The last team with their poles intact and standing will go on to a short battle tournament to decide the winner!"

Interesting! A game specifically made to hinder my power! Not to mention the choice of teams. If we pick two teams of eight, we'll have more competitors in the tournament but also a greater chance at a showing off our powers.

On the other hand, with smaller teams, and subsequent lower number of competitors, we'll have a higher rank guaranteed but a lower number of chances to attract sponsors.

And the team selection will be important too.

For example, if too many strong people gather in one team, they'll win easily in the pole toppling but have a harder time in the battle tournament.

But to me it doesn't matter. All the character events I wanted are over. So now, I can take the shortest route to number one in the festival without hesitation.

No need to waste time in stupid interactions.

I immediately walked over to Tsuyu.

"Tsu-chan, join my team." I said.

"Sure. But why me?" She asked.

"Easy competition? Resourceful quirk? You need more reasons? Not like you haven't figured it out yourself." I said.

"I did but aren't you a bit too blunt about it?" She asked.

"You want me to lie and say that I cherish you as a fellow teammate and give a tearful speech?"

"No. That would be creepy. You're right. It's better this way."

"Alright. Let's get Kirishima." I said.

As I walked over to Kirishima, Shoji approached me.

"I want to be on your team." He said.

"I can be of..."

I cut him off mid sentence, and replied.

"Yeah. Get on board."

Kirishima saw me coming and shook his head regretfully.

"Sorry, I am already on Bakugo's team." He said.

"Really? That's fine then, I suppose." I said, with a shrug.

"Yeah, sorry about that." He replied and went back to his team.

With Kirishima out, I scanned the field for another player and spotted her.

"Toru!" I called out.

She turned to look at me and immediately looked away with a blush.

Damn! Is she still stuck on the obstacle race thing?

"Toru! Wanna join my team?"

"Awawawawawawa....." She muttered, holding her face in her hands, shaking her head.

I put a hand on her shoulder and shook her back to reality.

"Hey! Toru!" I said.

"Eep!" She cried out.

"So..?" I pushed.

"...Yes." she said softly.

"Alright. So here's the plan. I'll hold the fort. Shoji and Tsuyu will create a distraction and Toru will go invisible and topple the poles. Any objections?" I asked.

"No. Can I topple the pole if I am able to?" Shoji asked.

"Yeah. That's the goal after all." I said.

"Just promise you won't look at me. I get self concious..." Toru requested.

"Of course. Let's do our best." I replied, my fist forward, as they each bumped it.

Setting up our pole in one corner of the arena, I took my position in front of it, projecting an eye into the ground behind the pole and steadying it at three different points with immobilization.

Tsuyu and Shoji got into running positions and Toru stripped bare, silently circling around to Bakugo's pole.

The three other teams took their positions in the rest of the three corners as well.

Midnight stood on the podium with a whistle, as the hologram counted down.

"Three, two, one, Go!"

Midnight let out a whistle and the four teams dashed over all at once towards my pole.

Eh, fuck it. I'm stopping all of them.

No sooner had I decided that, that Bakugo blew up the ground in deafening blast, dust clouds rising all the way to the top of the stadium.

Oh! Great plan. If they can't stop my eyes being projected, they just have to make sure that my projected eyes don't see anything!

I stood up from the ground and looked around for disturbances in the cloud.

From above, the a spout burst forth, throwing up more dust in it's wake.

That plan! It has to be Deku. No one else would have thought to gather up dust and jump out while throwing it around them to form a mobile dust cloud.

On the right, explosion rang out in a semicircular pattern as Bakugo made to flank me.

On the left, sheets of ice burst forth in spiky waves.

Well, fuck!

I picked a stone near me and threw it at Bakugo with the Remote Control, knocking him straight in the head.

The dust cloud was his downfall, blinding him from the oncoming projectile.

Cladding my pants in Remote Control, I kicked the ice wall open, only to be met by a torrent of flame.

I jumped away, when all of a sudden the wind started billowing.

Oho! This wasn't an in the moment action. This was premeditated.

I ducked backwards like Neo as Deku flew over me.

Instantly, I pivoted on my arms and kicked the oncoming Deku right on his stupid face with capoeira style spinning kick, using his own momemtum to send him flying.

Meanwhile, in the dust cloud, Shoji shielded Tsuyu from the rest of the participants.

Then, the unexpected happened. Well, unexpected for the other teams, not for me.

Bakugo's pillar toppled to the ground.

Toru had done it!

Suddenly, Kirishima's voice was heard throughout the arena.

"There's an invisible person on their team!"

"Took you long enough to figure that out!" I shouted back mockingly, dodging another of Shoto's fire blasts.

Concentrating Remote Control on my legs, I ran up my pole to the top.

There he was. Shoto Todoroki. Hidden from sight in an igloo.

The bastard had talent in heaps!

Within two hours of accepting his fire, he was already curving his blasts to distract from his real position.

No matter. I projected an eye on the ground near the igloo's opening and using the reflection of the ice, projected another eye into the igloo, stopping Shoto in place.

Then using Remote Control on Deku's pole, I gave it a slight nudge as it began it's descent. All of a sudden Deku rushed over to it, stopping it's fall.

Good enough of a distraction for him, I guess.

Now for Shoto's pole. I looked at it and found it frozen, bottom to top. Covered in three separate layers of ice.

Someone was overprepared!

Very well then. I dropped down the pole and prepared to personally head over to break Shoto's pillar.

I circled around the dust cloud, as another boom rang out. Bakugo had recovered!

"You bastard Haru! I'll kill you!" He cried out.

Heh! You'll try!

That didn't matter now though. I had an eye projected on the pole as well. If he came near, I would stop him immediately.

I charged forward, sliding over Shoto's igloo, past the dust cloud and at the ice clad pole, as a figure burst out from the within it, freezing me in an ice wall.

Monoma!

He broke from a dash to a casual stroll, and laughed in his signature annoying fashion.

"I wasn't sure before, but now I'm certain. You're not back at full power are you?" He asked.

"You know Monoma, you have all the makings of classic bond villain." I snarked back, stopping him in place.

"Fine. Don't answer. I already know." He said.

"Oh, do you now?" I said, applying Remote Control to the ice surrounding the pole and in swift succession, ripped it off bringing down the pole with it, before turning back to look at a shocked Monoma.

"B-but you ...and Recovery Girl said.." he muttered.

"Hehehehe. Recovery Girl told you what I asked her to tell you. You think I wouldn't know that you would come by?" I said.

"But your parents were right there with me! She wouldn't lie to them!" He insisted.

"Well," I said, breaking free of the ice wall, "she would if I told her how my worried parents wouldn't let me participate if they thought I could do so in my injured state.

So I figured, if they didn't think I would participate again due to my injuries, they wouldn't expressly forbid me from doing so either.

And according to the UA rulebook, if my parents don't tell me NOT to participate, I can continue to participate on a technicality!" I said gleefully.

On the bleachers, my mother cracked her knuckles in anger.

"This brat! He's getting grounded for the whole month for this!" She said, my father just chuckled away at the antics. He always did have the better sense of humor among the two.

Meanwhile, Deku was looking around suspiciously, waiting for Toru to make a move, a noise, anything really.

He wanted to make sure to catch her before he came for me.

Toru on the other hand, crept back to my pole and with hushed breath waited for me to do the needful.

On the other side of the field, Bakugo tried to blast Shoto's igloo open to free him from my binds, only to get caught and stuck himself.

And so, I made my way to Deku's pole.

Finally, it was just me and Deku. One on one.

That is if the others were kept busy by Shoji and Tsuyu.

As I neared Deku he was prepared for me, clinging to the pole like baby monkey to it's mother.

"Hehehehe Haru-chan. If you freeze me in place you'll have to freeze the pole along with me!" He said, grinning like an idiot.

"Or I could topple the pole along with you, dumbass!" I said.

"Not so fast!" He replied, kicking the ground as another dust cloud rose up, and to my genuine surprise, he uprooted his pole and ran away.

I looked at him, my mouth agape.

"Bullshit! That has got to be against the rules!" I cried and looked at Midnight.

"I'll allow it! The rules say you have topple the pole, not that the pole has to stay in one place!" She said, grinning mischievously.

This is a conspiracy, I say! A conspiracy against me!

I chased Deku around the field, tracking him by the dust clouds he created with each step.

This had turned into a game of cat and mouse. Except the mouse was lugging around a 300 kg wooden pole!

After a minute or so of chasing him around, I was sick of it!

"Alright. I've had enough of this! Shoji, Tsuyu come here!" I cried, as he and Tsuyu ran over followed by the rest of the participants chasing after them.

"Follow me." I said leading the to a still untouched part of the field.

Noticing my ploy, the rest of the teams retreated back into the dust cloud, lest they be immobilized again.

With that, Shoji and Tsuyu, who looked worse for wear, breathed a sigh of relief.

"Shoji, how tough are those flaps of yours?" I asked.

"Tough enough for most things. I once climbed a cliff without my muscles being sore so..." he replied.

"That's well enough. Tsuyu can you help me lift Shoji?"

"Yes. But why?"

"You'll see. Shoji spread your arms fully open. Let those flaps fly." I said.

"Oh! That's a great idea." He said, coming to a realization.

"Thanks. Now let's do it."

With Tsuyu's help, I lifted Shoji horizontally and swung him in Deku's direction with full force.

With Shoji as a human fan, a gust of wind swelled up, blowing the dust cloud away.

I looked at Deku, mid jump, with a smile, as realization dawned on him.

His face paled and he knew, he'd fucked up.

I froze his right shoe in place, causing him to lose balance, as he fell flat face first, his pole's head touching the ground.

Midnight's whistle rang out signaling the end of the match.

"Team Haru wins the match!"