Aesthete

Chapter 9.

None of this turned out the way I wanted.

My clearest memories before the cavalry battle were being gathered around the other forty-one students that advanced to the second round. Izuku left my side to talk to Uraraka briefly while I stayed alone, only observing my gym uniform to ignore the stares of the thousands of people in the audience towards our clustered group.

Midnight introduced the next event, it was a calvary battle according to the label on the screen. She explained the rules; we'd each have our own headbands with points written on them. The point system started by the forty-second student who only had five points while it increased by five.

Every student turned to glare at Izuku with a lust to go after him, he was first place in the obstacle course so he had ten million points, while I had one-hundred and ninety five. I didn't care about that though, I still wanted to be on his team to make sure that we both advanced to the final round.

Midnight said we had fifteen minutes to choose a team of four, including the rider and at least one "horse." The battle would last for half an hour, and we were free to use our quirks to snatch headbands from other teams.

If Izuku and I form a great team, there's no way we'll lose. I'll even see if I can have Jirou and Uraraka with us, I'm sure they'll agree.

Before I could approach him, someone gently seized my wrist, forcing me to turn and meet purple eyes with the same tone of shaggy hair.

"Reyna, I was wondering if you would like to form a team with me?" Shinso asked politely, but the smirk on his face made me hesitate.

"Well, we can ask-" I stopped, my body had frozen and my mouth closed. What the hell?

I couldn't talk anymore.

It was like my body had been taken away from me, I was secluded to a small corner of my mind, watching the events unfold but being unable to control myself.

Why is this happening to me?

"I'm sorry, Reyna, but I really need to win." Shinso's eyes plead for understanding on my behalf.

I wanted to ask what he did to me, but I couldn't.

My body moved without my command, I was following him around as he targeted the two boys that were closest to us.

"Hey, blondies, want to join Reyna and I?"

Don't answer him! I wanted to cry out, but it was futile, I figured my reply to him was what gave him control over me.

Aoyama and Ojiro both opened their mouths at the same time to respond, but their eyes glazed over, both pressing their lips into thin lines.

Is that what I looked like?

We walked to a far corner of the stadium; I couldn't even look anywhere to show that I needed help. My eyes just stayed trained on Shinso.

The fifteen minutes passed while we all remained silent, Shinso would say something every so often to the boys, but never spoke to me.

In synchronization, Ojiro, Aoyama, and I bent our knees as Shinso stood in the center. I was in the front as the boys gripped my shoulders with the sunken-eyed boy sitting casually above us.

Midnight signaled for the event to begin, and the majority was a haze.

I couldn't fight the situation I was in, but I still needed to win so I stopped protesting the deep voice that lulled over my mind, commanding my quirk to protect him, our headbands, and to take more from the other teams.