31

Chapter Text

Uraraka watched nervously as Hitoshi tied the headband across his forehead, "And you're sure that modifying the headband isn't going to get us disqualified?"

"Eighty-two percent sure, yeah." Mei responded, tightening the hoverboots onto Uraraka's feet

"Nowhere in the rules does it say we're not allowed to mess with the headbands." Izuku said confidently. "And honestly, considering the set-up of the sports festival, we're actively encouraged to use quirks and support items on them, so as long as we keep it visible in accordance with what Midnight said, we should be fine!"

Hitoshi put a sympathetic hand on Uraraka's shoulder. It was going to take some time for her to get used to the way his kidnappers did things, but she was doing remarkably well so far, considering the circumstances.

"Just go along with it." He shrugged. "My kidnappers are hardly ever wrong, and if something happens, well...Midoriya is Nedzu's favorite, so he'll let him get away with anything."

"That's not…" Midoriya blushed bright red and tried to hide his face. "He doesn't like me that much! And he's the principal, so he has to be unbiased. And for the last time, we didn't kidnap you Shinso!!!"

"Sounds fake, but ok." Hitshosi smirked and elbowed Uraraka until she started giggling. 

"Well," Uraraka shook her head in disbelief, "even if this goes horribly wrong, it'll definitely be interesting!"

"That's the spirit, Floaty Girl!" Mei grinned and stood. "The true goal of the sports festival is marketing, so even more than winning, our goal is to be memorable!"

"Oh, they're definitely going to remember us." Hitoshi said dryly. "It's just a question of whether or not that's a good thing."

Uraraka was about to say something else, but they were interrupted by Midnight taking the stage again, "Riders! Mount your Horses!"

Hitoshi watched as Mei's crazed smile got slightly more wild and both Midoirya and Uraraka got scarily determined looks on their faces. He still wasn't quite sure how he'd ended up with friends like these, but he couldn't help but be grateful he was on their side. As much as Midoriya might try to deny it, they really were impossible to stop once they set their minds on something. 

It was weird being the rider as the tallest member of the group. He understood where Midoriya was coming from with the more consistent heights being better for the horses, and Uraraka's quirk made it so that his weight wasn't an issue, but still...Hitoshi carefully put on a bored expression and leaned back slightly so that it looked like he was a king lunging on his throne. He could feel Midoriya chuckling beneath him and couldn't resist smirking.

This was gonna be fun.

"Is everybody ready?!?!?!" Mic yelled. 

The crowd screamed in response and Hitoshi felt his team shift underneath him as the other teams prepared to charge them.

Midnight cracked her whip and everyone lept into action, "Begin!"

Hitoshi's team immediately lunged forward, which caused a few teams to stumble back in shock, considering that, if one didn't have Midoriya as a strategist on their team, the most logical move would usually be to run away. Instead, Hitoshi's team ran straight for Bakugo's.

In one fluid movement, Hitoshi whipped the headband off his head and threw it at Bakugo, whose eyes widened as the fabric started floating up and away without any gravity to hold it, "Have fun, Kacchan!"

"Is…" Mic's confused voice echoed through the stadium. "Is that allowed?"

"Technically." Eraserhead sounded almost amused, which Hitoshi hadn't really thought was possible. "Though it remains to be seen whether it's an intelligent move. On the one hand, getting rid of the ten million points immediately means they are no longer the main target, but on the other hand, it means they now have zero points. Having Uraraka remove the headband's gravity was a nice touch though."

"It'll definitely add another dimension to this fight!" Mic yelled, hyping up the crowd. "Team Bakugo is gonna have their work cut out for them trying to keep those points from floating away!!!"

"Stupid purple bastard!" Bakugo looked practically ready to explode, even as that tape guy from 1A, Sero, used his quirk to grab the headband out of the air before another team could. "Deku!!"

"Drop it, Bakugo." The rock dude, Kirishima yelled. "We got the points now, so like Mic-sensei said, we gotta focus on keeping them!"

Hitoshi almost thought Bakugo was going to go after them anyway, but he just tched and turned away to combat that ice and fire guy who was going after the ten million point headband, "Only Deku would be useless enough to throw away points like that."

"Why I outta…" Mei growled.

"Mei-chan, that's the plan, remember?" Midoriya interrupted. "We want Katsuki to underestimate us. We want everyone to underestimate us. Our job for the rest of the game is to disappear into the background!"

"Well, that and mess with everyone to get as many points as possible." Hitoshi added. "Speaking of which...Hey monkey boy! Do you even have any points?"

"Shinso!" Midoriya squealed. "Don't be rude!"

Hitoshi just shrugged as Ojiro, if he was remembering Midoriya's analyses correctly, turned toward him with a scowl, "More than you. Our team isn't stupid enough to just give up our points."

"We'll see about that." 

Hitoshi couldn't hold back a smirk, but didn't take control of Ojiro just yet. Holding off on taking control was still difficult, but Midoirya had been right, it was getting much easier with practice. Plus, it was easier if he had fun with it. Hitoshi stared at Ojiro for a few seconds before raising his hands slowly, widening his smile slightly for maximum creep factor

The other team was starting to get visibly nervous. One of the other members, a short boy that Hitoshi thought was in 1B tugged on Ojrio's sleeve, "Come on, let's just go and get some other points, these guys don't have anything."

"Oh really?" Hitoshi shifted his foot to signal to the rest of his team to get ready to move, then suddenly closed his fists on thin air and yanked, using the jetpack that Mei had given him to close the distance between their teams as he finally let himself take full control of Ojiro, "Hand over your points."

The rest of the team was still off balance from the little show he'd put on, so no one was fast enough to stop a dead-eyed Ojiro from handing over his headband. Hitoshi released his control almost immediately and their team simply used their momentum to carry on down the field, leaving a very confused group of hero students to wonder how exactly they had just lost all their points. 

"Shinso…" Midoriya said shakily, "Remind me never to come across you in a dark alley."

Hitoshi couldn't help laughing. From anyone else, a comment like that would rub him the wrong way. It was those kinds of comments he got all the time from his classmates or foster siblings, but from Izuku, it just didn't seem as mean-spirited. "You're one to talk. How are your murder notebooks coming along?"

"They're not murder notebooks!" Izuku squawked. "Uraraka, don't let Shinso scare you. My notebooks are just analyses of a couple people's quirks…"

"Along with their strengths, weaknesses, and what babies we could use to destroy them!" Mei finished gleefully. "They're amazing!"

Uraraka's eyes were wide and she looked slightly overwhelmed, which Hitoshi found extremely amusing. He almost felt bad, but then he remembered his first day of being kidnapped by the chaos duo and figured he'd earned the right to laugh, "Alright, enough scaring the one hero course student willing to team up with us. Who are we going after next?"

Their group looked around the field. Bakugo still had the ten million point headband, but Todoroki's team was giving him a run for his money, considering that a good half of the field was now covered in ice. Several teams had gotten caught up in the crossfire and were currently frozen to the ground, which Hitoshi planned on taking full advantage of. 

Izuku's face lit up as he came to the same conclusion, "So Shinso...how do you feel about a captive audience?"

"I think I can give it a try…"Hitoshi smirked. "Our best best is to go after the lowest point values first, right? Quantity over quality?"

"Right!" Izuku smiled. "That way, we stay under the radar and don't risk catching the attention of the frontrunners."

"That seems kinda sneaky…" Uraraka said nervously. 

"Oh, it is." Izuku agreed. "But heroes like Edgshot have gotten to the top of the ranks by being sneaky. Sometimes what decides a fight isn't someone's strength, but what weaknesses their opponent is willing to take advantage of."

"Hence why we're taking advantage of everyone's hyperfocus on the ten million points, especially during this first part of our plan." Hatsume said. "Ooh! Who's first?"

"What about that team from 1B?" Hitoshi suggested. "Midoriya, quirks?"

"Limb separation, glue, and quite literally speaking words into existence." Midoriya responded. "Good choice! Just make sure you don't only focus on the rider, because while she could steal the headband back by detaching a hand or something, in this case the horses are objectively the biggest threat to our mobility."

Hitoshi nodded and they made their way over to their next target, "Hey, uh, do you need help?"

"Uh…" The girl looked at her teammates hesitantly, probably nervous about their kindness being a trap. It was, of course, but she obviously didn't know that she'd already fallen into it. 

"It's no big deal!" Hitoshi said kindly. "I mean, we're not hero students, so we aren't really planning on getting that far in the festival, you know?"

The kid in the front, the one with the glue quirk if Hitoshi was right, visibly relaxed, "Ok, cool. Yeah, we could really use the help if you're not gonna steal our headband or anything."

"Don't worry!" Mei piped up happily. "We're not gonna steal it!"

Uraraka elbowed her and shot her a warning look, but Hitoshi was already deciding what red herring to use this time. He leaned over and grabbed the other rider's shoulder, "Sorry, I just need to steady myself so I don't fall. Um, Mei's got this new flamethrower she wants to try out…" He turned to the last member of the other team, "You're not afraid of fire are you?"

"No," the guy didn't really have a head in the traditional sense, but he seemed like he was shaking the emoji currently floating above his shoulders, "just be careful!"

"Of course!" HItoshi grinned and leaned down to grab both of the horses shoulders. "Oh, and thanks by the way!"

He took control of all three of them, letting out a sigh of relief as the pressure in his skull decreased, "Give us your headband. Oh and Mei, can you melt them out. We did promise, after all!"

Mei laughed and used a surprisingly tame stream of fire to melt the ice around their feet as Hitoshi tied the headband around his head and turned back to the team, "You won't notice your headband is gone until at least one minute has passed."

He wasn't 100% sure that order would do anything, but if he could modify memories, then modifying attention should be theoretically possible as well, right? They'd have to see.

Once they were melted out, he let his quirk go and held his breath as they blinked back to life, looking slightly disoriented as the rider skimmed her eyes over Hitoshi's forehead, her own headband clearly visible on it. Hitoshi held his breath. 

She smiled, "Thanks for the help!"

The corners of Hitoshi's mouth twitched, "No problem!"

He could feel his teammates shaking in silent laughter underneath them as they walked away and broke, "I cannot believe that actually worked!"

"I was thinking why is he releasing his control so quickly?!" Izuku gasped in laugher. "That was awesome!"

"I seriously thought we were dead!" Uraraka giggled. "Oh my goodness! That was a rush!"

"Next victim!" Mei yelled in excitement. "Onward!"

Izuku couldn't keep the smile off his face as they wandered around and started freeing teams that had been encased in Todoroki's ice. Shinso was doing really well at changing up the fake activation requirements for his quirk with every headband they took and beside him, Uraraka was gradually getting more and more confused. They had decided against telling her about the verbal response requirement both so that she wouldn't have an unfair advantage if she and Shinso fought in the next round and so that they would be able to tell if Shinso's redirection was actually working. 

Judging by the almost constipated expression on her face as Shinso literally serenaded one of the teams, it was working exactly as well as they'd hoped.

"So," Izuku said happily. "Have you figured out how Shinso activates his quirk yet?"

"Uh…" Uraraka looked at the team that was currently handing over their headbands. "Maybe eye contact?"

"Hmm…I don't know..." Izuku grinned mischievously and turned to look at her, which is how he almost missed the dark figure lunging at them.

"Oh shit!" Shinso immediately activated the jet pack and Uraraka kicked on her hover boots so they could get out of range, but that didn't stop the shadow from ripping off two of their headbands. 

The team they were currently facing had two 1B students and a 1A student, but all three of them had animal-type mutations, which is probably what formed the common ground for them to have the confidence to team up. There was a girl with a horse-like mutation and a guy with a mantis mutation, but their biggest problem currently was the 1A student with a bird mutation.

"Note to self." Izuku muttered. "Dark Shadow is apparently fully sentient."

"Yeah, Izu-kun, I think we figured that out." Mei griped.

"What did you do to Fumikage?!" Dark Shadow yelled and swiped at them again, forcing them to take to the air to dodge, not that that would work for long.

"Um, ok, weak to light!" Izuku's brain raced and he started mumbling as Mei whipped out her flamethrower to keep Dark Shadow at bay. "So, apparently he has his own consciousness? Or maybe his own area in Tokoyami's brain? That's probably most likely, but there's obviously some kind of separation between the two…"

"Don't care about the quirk theory right now, Izuku!" Shinso yelled. "Can I brainwash it? Because with the way it's thrashing, Tokoyami's gonna wake up any minute!"

Izuku jumped, "Yes! That's a great idea!"

Shinso shook his head and huffed in frustration, "Wonderful. Great help. Thanks. Hey bird brain! Your other half must be pretty weak if he fell to a wimp like me, huh?"

Dark Shadow almost doubled in size as he lunged at them, "Don't you talk about Fumikage that way!!!"

They all flinched as Dark Shadow swiped at them, only to stop short inches from Hitoshi's face, eyes wide as he fell fully under Hitoshi's control. They all exchanged glances and started giggling uncontrollably.

"Oh my gosh…" Uraraka gasped. "That was way too close…"

"Agreed." Mei laughed. "I almost thought he was gonna break my babies!!!"

"Ok…" Hitoshi shook his head. "Crisis averted...for now…Wow, that is some quirk, I almost wish we had it on our team…"

"I mean, you kinda do at this point right?" Uraraka asked. "Or does your quirk not work that long."

Izuku looked between Uraraka and Shinso, then smiled and shrugged, "I mean...why not?"

"That's rude, Midoriya." Shinso grumbled. "I'm not just gonna take control of a whole other team!"

"As long as we leave them enough points to pass, they'll be fine." Mei dismissed. "And you can give them back control for the last few minutes anyway!"

There was a moment of tense silence before Shinso sighed, "Get as many headbands as you can safely."

The mutant team rushed to obey Shinso's orders and he shook his head, "If this bites us in the ass, I'm blaming the hero."

Uraraka squaked indignantly, "Hey!"

"Go ahead." Izuku smiled. "You'd just be blaming yourself too, or are you forgetting that you're going to be a hero by the end of this?"

Shinso blushed slightly and looked out over the teams that still had points, "Um...What about that guy from 1A? The one with the arms? Wait...did somebody already take his headband? And is he allowed to be on his own team like that?"

"No." Izuku said firmly. "My guess is that there's at least one other student hiding inside that tent he's making with his arms and based on size and the assumption it's a 1A student, my best guess is Mineta."

To their surprise, that got a groan from Uraraka, "Do we have to? Mineta's such a pervert, I don't even want to go near him…"

"Oh come on, Uraraka, I'm sure he's not that bad…" Izuku said.

Uraraka huffed, "Whatever, let's just get this over with…"

They made their way toward the compact team and Izuku could vaguely see Mineta leaning to peak out between Shoji's arms, "Oh my goodness, Shoji, look! They've got two of the curviest girls in here! Who knew support babes had such bangin' bodies?!"

Izuku almost froze in shock. Sure, Mineta was theoretically whispering, but they could still hear him!  

Uraraka groaned, "See why no girls wanted to team up with him?"

"Hey, Shoji, right?" Shinso called out. "You seem like a nice guy, why pair up with an incel like that?"

Shoji muttered something that Izuku couldn't hear, but it was obviously enough for Hitoshi if his slight smirk was any indication.

"Ooh, they've got headbands!" Mineta yelled. "Get 'em!"

Izuku's team shuffled backwards as a tongue emerged from the space inside Shoji's arms.

"Tsu?!" Uraraka sounded betrayed. "You're seriously teaming up with the grape?!?!"

"Shoji's got good defense." A voice croaked out. 

Tsu sent out her tongue again and Izuku panicked for a moment as he realized they weren't going to be able to dodge again. To his surprise, however, Mei lunged forward and grabbed the tongue as it was reaching for their points, wrapping it around her arm like it was a stubborn piece of rope, "I got her! Hurry Shinso!"

"Whoa!" Mineta poked his head out and was practically salivating. "I'm not usually into muscular girls but damn! Do you think she could crush me between her thighs?"

Izuku's whole body tensed and he suddenly wanted nothing more than to steal this guy's points and make him regret ever looking at a woman. How dare he talk about Mei like that! She'd worked hard for those muscles! And besides, she was right there! It was like he didn't even care about the girls hearing him talking about them like that!

"You better be careful Mineta!" Uraraka's yell cut through the odd haze of rage and other unidentifiable emotions blurring Izuku's brain. "You don't know what Shinso's quirk is and for all you know, it activates by punching you in the face!!!"

Izuku and Hitoshi both froze and looked at each other, before Hitoshi got a wicked look on his face. As long as he was punched before Hitoshi officially took control, the pain theoretically shouldn't break their connection and if it did...well, at least they'd have punched a pervert in the face, right?

"Hey grape boy." Hitoshi called out. "Do you want me to give you her number? I heard she really likes making babies!"

"Extra-Credit-Kun!" Mei yelled.

"Yes!" Mineta almost unseated himself in his eagerness as their team hovered off the ground and flew at him with all the speed that Shinso's jetpack could manage. His eyes widened as he realized too late that he wasn't going to be getting Mei's number.

Hitoshi shook out his hand as he took control of both Mineta and Shoji, "That was weirdly satisfying, Now give us your points."

Tsu tried to prevent Mineta from handing them over, but Mei simply yanked on her tongue and threw her off balance for long enough for them to get the points and get away. They rushed to put some distance between them as Tsu got her tongue back and smacked Mineta, loosening Hitoshi's control. It probably wouldn't be too long until Shoji broke through as well, especially since Hitoshi was starting to get tired.

Izuku checked in with the other teams. Todoroki had at some point gotten the 10 million point headband from Bakugo's team, but the two were currently fighting to try and reverse that, not that it would matter much in a few minutes. Bakugo's original headband was gone and Izuku noticed that one of the 1B teams was pursuing a similar strategy and working on building up the small points. The mutant team that Hitoshi was controlling had gained a good number of headbands and was currently eyeing Todoroki's headband, which wouldn't be good since the resulting fight would knock them out of HItoshi's control. 

He looked at the clock and grinned. Almost two minutes left, which meant it was time to move onto the next phase of their strategy. "Shinso, call back Dark Shadow's team."

Hitoshi nodded and yelled the order and the team he was controlling immediately turned around and made their way toward them, "Alright, how many points do we want to keep?"

"For this to work, I'd say we need half the points on the board, not counting the 10 million." Izuku said. "Which headbands do they have?"

Tokoyami robotically spread out the headbands they'd collected and Hitoshi did the same with his. Mei quickly grabbed the ones they needed and shoved them into Hitoshi's hands, letting Dark Shadow keep the rest.

"Alright, are we ready?" Mei asked.

"Ready as we'll ever be." Uraraka said. "I still think this strategy is insane."

"Oh, definitely." Izuku responded. "But remember, the goal isn't just to win…"

Hitoshi released his control on everyone he was still controlling and Mei laughed madly as she took out a small remote and detonated the tiny explosives they'd planted on the ten million point headband at the beginning of the game. The headband had been floating in the air halfway in between the two frontrunners, while both Yaoyorozu and sero tried to use a whip and tape, respectively, to grab it and keep it from floating away to the atmosphere. The instant Mei pressed the button, flames rushed over it, leaving nothing more than pieces of ash and fabric floating down as a loud silence filled the stadium. 

Izuku smiled, "The goal is to be memorable."