As soon as the counter hit forty, the first round of the U.A. Sports Festival was declared over, and Midnight took the stage again, a microphone already in hand. "Congratulations to anyone who's passed the first round of the festival, and while you take a quick breather, we will see what the next game will be."
The large screen behind her sparked once more with the familiar wheel. This time, it took slightly longer than before. As the wheel turned, everyone waited with bated breaths, until it finally stopped.
Flag Frenzy.
"And with that, we have our next discipline, Flag Frenzy. This will be a team-based game similar to the more popular version 'Capture the Flag'. Now, before we get to the rules, all of you have ten minutes to find your group mates while our dear Cementoss will prepare the arena."
As soon as these words were spoken, all the students were about to immediately start looking for their teammates, but were stopped by Midnight's voice, before it could even begin.
"Wait a moment, I wasn't finished yet. When it comes to the team buildings, there are two rules upfront. First, the four top player of the previous round will all be allowed to pick one member for their team each, before anyone else can. And secondly, each team can't be composed of only members of the same class. This game mode doesn't just test your strength or strategies, but also adaptability. Well, then let's jump straight to our first place… Souta Todoroki!"
Hearing this, Souta began making his way over to the stage, already thinking about his preferred team composition. The second rule made it a bit more difficult to choose, but there was one person who had picked his eye in the last match. …after he finished.
"So, Souta-kun, who might your first member be?" Midnight asked in an intrigued tone, doing the commentary nearly better than Mic Sensei.
"For my first member, I want… Ibara Shiozaki!"
Somewhere in the crowd of students, a girl with vines for hair and her hands held in a prayer gesture, suddenly had a surprised expression on her face. Even her classmates and friends around her, looked at her puzzled.
"Well then, please step forward, Ibara Shiozaki, something I had forgot to mention, declining this nomination is against the rules and will be punished by immediate disqualification," Midnight spoke into her mic again, adding the last part in a slightly sadistic undertone.
The crowd parted and made way for the girl, who looked slightly defeated, but seconds later took on a more confident and serious expression.
"Hello Shiozaki-san, I'm sure this is the first time we talked, so let me formally introduce myself once more, I'm Souta Todoroki and hope for a good cooperation," Souta began, after stepping over to the vine-haired girl.
"Well, then let's continue…" Midnight immediately followed up with the next three placements, Shoto, Bakugo, and Iida.
Shoto though for a moment, but picked Momo Yaoyoruzo, Bakugo originally wanted to go solo, but was declined and then picked Kirishima, though he used a seemingly nickname 'Spiky Hair', Kirishima understood this and went to him, and to round it up, Iida chose Midoriya.
"Well, now that these four have decided on their first members, you all have ten minutes to choose the rest of your teams and prepare."
"Todoroki-san, could I ask, why did you choose me?" Shiozaki asked in a careful manner.
Souta looked over to her for a second, before saying, "Don't worry, I have a strategy to easily win this game, so I'll explain it to you in a second. Right now, I need to get the other two members crucial for this plan."
After saying this, he rushed forward, leaving the poor girl standing there completely stunned.
In the stands were two guys, at two completely different seats, who couldn't hold back their laughter as they saw what had happened. These two were Hawks, who had continued to watch Souta's performance with a kind of anticipation, and the other, was no one else than Souta's eldest brother, Toya.
"Look, Fuyumi, Souta seems to finally show interest in girls, hahaha. And then, hahaha, he leaves her standing just like that, hahaha," Toya was completely bend over at this point, laughing hysterically while holding his stomach.
Fuyumi looked at her brother with mild concern, while everyone around them looked either with an irritated or amused expression towards the siblings. Natsuo, also sitting besides Toya, was already trying to make himself as small as possible, his hood pulled over his face in shame.
Most of the teams were quickly formed, barely two-three minutes after the go.
Souta had been able to reach and convince the two people he wanted in time, Tokoyami and Shoji.
Shoto had gotten himself Kaminari, because of his electricity quirk, and for a person from a different class had Mono managed to invite Reiko Yanagi, a girl with a slightly hunched posture and white hair that covered half of her face.
Bakugo, with the declaration of "I don't need any extras!" left Kirishima with basically the whole scouting task alone, who managed to get his friend Mina Ashido and for another class, Juzo Honenuki. It wasn't easy, but he had managed to get a good team.
And with Iida and Midoriya, they immediately got themselves Uraraka into their team, but were unsure about the last person, and slowly but surely most managed to find teams. It was at that moment that Uraraka remembered something she saw in the first round. A participant who let himself get carried by other people right to the finish line, before sending them back. If she remembered correctly, the person was called Shinso.
Therefore, all three immediately set out to look for him, following the description of Uraraka. Shinso stood slightly to the side, a bit overwhelmed by the current task. In the end, Iida found him and invited him into his team. They then meat up again with Midoriya and Uraraka and began making a strategy.
When Shinso asked why they had invited him, they answered with, "You seem to have a kind of mind-control quirk, and that is great. This game will be a lot easier with you by our side, than if we were against you." Which more or less satisfied his curiosity.
---
Souta's team
"Okay, now that we're all here, I'll explain the plan," Souta addressed his team members, "All of you will be important for it. First, you Shiozaki. I chose you direct, because your quirk seems like a great defensive line, and because we do not know the rules yet, seeing how it is a capture the flag game, defense is fundamental. Next, Shoji, your quirk makes you something of a hybrid, you can be great at scouting or switch to a more combat style, and very fast at that. As for you Tokoyami, you are my wildcard, if you so will. I will leave it to you to switch between defense and attack. Your 'Dark Shadow' should fit both roles perfectly."
The other three were slightly surprised, because originally, they didn't realize that their team was indeed very adaptive, though slightly more centered towards defense.
Not knowing wether Souta forgot to mention his own role or having a reason not to say it yet, Shoji just asked, "What about you then?"
Souta had a slight grin on his face when hearing this, "Me? I will be on the offensive and get as many flags as I can get my hands on," when Souta paused, his mind began to wander, before a slight smirk crept up his face, "and maybe get us a small advantage. We'll see."
---
Shoto's team
Since the moment she was picked, Momo had been thinking of multiple strategies for this next round, going over different variants of capture the flag and comparing popular strategies to win. Her end result… an impenetrable defense will always give them an edge.
Shoto remained mostly silent the whole time, keeping his eyes on Souta and other competitors.
"Kaminari-san, how controlled can you use your lightning? Are you able to fire it in straight lines? Or how long can you continuously use it?" Momo began thinking about useful defensive perimeters, and also how to best utilize their respective quirks.
"Ehh, to be honest not that controlled, as for shooting lightning, sorry, but without something like a lightning rod, that could be beyond my current capabilities. And the duration… depends on the charge, when I don't go over 70 percent, then probably 10 minutes," Kaminari answered, racking his brain to answer the questions to the best of his ability.
"That's enough. Yanagi-san, how many things can you float at the same time? And can they stay in the air for a longer time?"
"Ehm, while keeping them under control, I should be able to float about seven different things, and the duration… only really depends on the weight. The lower it is, the longer I can make it float."
"Perfect, then we should be able to do what I had in mind. Todoroki-kun, I guess you will most likely go on the offensive?"
"Yes."
"Very well, then we're gonna defend our flag, and any you capture." Momo said confidently.
---
Bakugo's Team
Bakugo had to eventually come to terms with not being able to participate alone but still made no attempt at working together with his team and instead continued glaring daggers towards Souta and Shoto.
*sigh*
"Well, we know how Katsuki can be, so I guess we three should just focus on defending and fortifying our base to the absolute limit. For that, I just want to say, thanks for agreeing Honenuki-san, with your help it should be really easy for us to create a strong and effective defense line," Kirishima sighed and turned to his two comrades, Mina and Juzo.
"Yes, I will work on the floor, and Ashido-san can take the sky. In the unlikely event that someone gets through our field, then you will be the last wall Kirishima-san."
"Yahoo, I will let it rain acid on anyone who comes too close to us," Mina declared enthusiastically and without concern.
---
Iida's Team
All four members of the team stood together, working on their strategy. It needed to be adaptive enough to work even when not knowing the rules yet, but still good enough to have a shot at winning.
Iida, in his usual serious manner, spoke, "Okay, I think it would be best if Midoriya-san and me would be on the offensive with our speed advantage. That would designate you two as our defenders, Uraraka-san, Shinso-san."
All three nodded, and Iida continued. "At the start of the match we will need to see if there are enough natural things around to make use off with Uraraka-san's quirk. If not, then Midoriya-san, please use your strength to smash a few things to make them usable, with your new method that should be possible right? And Shinso-san, please try to hide in the field of rubble and try to surprise the unprepared contestants."
All in all, it seemed like a relatively simple strategy, but if it worked out, it could prove highly successful.
---
After the ten minutes preparation time were up, and Cementoss was finished with creating the arena, Midnight took the stage again.
"Okay, I hope everyone has been busy, because now I will explain the rules of this round's game to all of you."
Every student in attendance became quiet immediately, not even small murmurs could be heard, even the Viewers were completely silent, anticipating the next round of the festival.
"Now the rules for Flag Frenzy, a team-based capture the flag game, with teams of at most four players. Each team will receive a main-flag that they will need to defend from other teams. Then, across the field are mini-flags are catered as well. 40 in total."
Midnight paused for a moment, and the screen previously having shown the game switched back on, now showing different symbols and numbers next to them.
"And, what you see on this screen behind me, are the ways to gain points. Each mini-flag will bring 1 point, protecting your own main-flag will reward you with 1 point per minute, steal another team's main-flag will award 10 points, …and completely eliminating a team will reward you with 5 points. So, you can see, the main focus should be on capturing the flags, also, captured flags only count for the team if they are successfully brought back to the team's own main-flag, this counts for both mini- and main-flags."
Midnight paused again, letting the students take in the information, and then continued a few seconds later. "Now, because there were four people who had an early advantage, we need to balance the situation a bit. These four need to have their main-flags stationary at all times, and in the case of a stolen flag, will be directly disqualified. Everyone else can move with their flag, though, it has to be visible at all times, and for main-flags, one person can only carry one flag at a time. They will also be allowed to continue even if their flag was stolen."
At this point, murmurs began appearing amongst the crowd of students again, the teams adjusting their strategies and thinking of new ways to play. This was, until Midnight's voice broke the silence again.
"Oh, I nearly forgot an important thing. While only four teams can ascend to the final stage of the festival, in the case of someone from their teams being defeated and declared out of the game, the personal points of another person will decide who will advance. So, this is not just a team competition, but also a personal one. If you think your team is too weak, just earn your own points," Midnight added the last part in a mischievous tone, and finished her speech off with a wink.
In the stands, Hawk put a hand in front of his mouth in mock shock, "Oh my! Now the freshly and quickly made teams will also have to compete with each other… hopefully the boys won't end it before it gets even more interesting."
As he was muttering his comment, the loud voice of Mic Sensei came through the speakers, "Well, well, well, now you all know the rules! All of you spread out in the arena, you four, claim your spots, and then… LET'S GOOO!!"