Heroics and Other Things

Chapter 10: Rising To The Top

As soon as Midnight announced the beginning of their time to pick teams, Hitoshi immediately went to find Midoriya.

Not that it was hard to find Midoriya. All he had to do was follow the eyes of roughly every other student. When the point value for the first place winner of the obstacle race had been announced it seemed like the every contestant had turned to look at a place near the front. As various people began to break off into groups, Hitoshi shouldered his way through the crowd to where Midoriya and Hatsume had already met up.

"Well green bean," Hatsume said, punching Midoriya lightly on the arm, "you definitely did it. You blasted your way into the limelight, which means teaming up with you will shine a big spotlight on all my cute little babies!"

Midoriya chuckled nervously. "I'm happy to help, your boots really got me through round one," he said, then looked eagerly down at the trunk full of inventions she had somehow had time to drag onto the field. "Did you finish the invention you were telling us about?"

"Sure did!" Hatsume said, flipping the lid open and to reveal a neatly organized assembly of various pieces of gadgetry.

"Nice," said Hitoshi, making Midoriya jump and whirl around. When he saw it was Hitoshi though he breathed a sigh of relief, and gave Hitoshi a cheerful if slightly weary smile.

"I based this on a certain hero's backpack," Hatsume said, holding up a shiny metal construction that looked for all the world like two small rockets welded together. "Though of course I added my own twist!"

"I recognize that!" Midoriya blurted excitedly. "Air Jet, the Buster Hero, has one of those!"

Hatsume laughed, and for a few seconds the two of them continued to nerd out over the hero and the support item respectively. It was cute watching his two friends gush about something they loved, even if he could barely follow what they were saying. He looked off to one side as he waited for them to finish, noticing Kirishima gesturing between Bakugou and two other students who were looking at him dubiously, obviously trying to convince the three of them to make a team. Hitoshi wished him luck with that. Eventually he turned his attention back to his own team and cleared his throat loudly.

"Oh, right!" Midoriya snapped to attention, having been recalled to his current situation. "We have to make a decision about you Shinchan!"

"What are you thinking Mido?" Hitoshi asked. "Is it better if I team up with you and Hatsume, or should I find my own team?"

Midoriya shifted anxiously. "Its your choice in the end," he said, "I think you could do well on our team, but we will get a lot of the spotlight and it might be better for you to keep your quirk under wraps a little longer. It all depends on whether you think you can get a response out of people in the tournament round even if they've seen your quirk in action. Either way, Hatsume and I will make sure you end up with the winning headband, and we'll come up with another strategy to make sure we get through."

Hitoshi considered this. The whole point of winning the festival was to be in the spotlight, to show off for the teachers, and he certainly did want to show off. He'd end up the winner of the cavalry battle no matter what he did, Midoriya would make sure of that, but he wanted the chance to show what his quirk could do. Even if he kept it a secret until the tournament round he wouldn't be able to hide it all the way up to the final; the first three fights were bound to give it away somehow. He also, and he knew this wasn't particularly rational, wanted to help Midoriya. He wanted them to team up, so that everyone would know they were in this together.

Still, there was the small hiccup that in all honesty, he didn't really know how far he could push his quirk safely. He'd never used it over and over like he would have to do today, and anything that made him use it in a way he never had before was a gamble. He knew he could hold onto a person he'd brainwashed for a long time, even if they were fighting. Maybe it was better to just make his own team and-