Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 63 CAPTURE THE FLAG

“Very well done,” Midnight said as the last person with the key ran in. “Those that did not place in the top 48, please try again next year.” The 48 that passed were soon lined up on the fighting stage. There were a lot of gaps now. It looked like all 20 people from class 1-A made it, then about 10 from Class 1-B. The rest were from C, D, E, and support classes.

Thinking about it I looked at my class to try to remember who the hell I took the place of. Then it hit me. The Thing. There was a kid in class from the manga that had a weird face and could talk to animals. I couldn’t remember his name but he wasn’t there. Finally I could stop thinking about it. 

“This year the 2nd stage of the sports festival will be…” Midnight announced looking to the screen. 

CAPTURE THE FLAG

Was written on the screen. Another minor change to the manga I thought it was a good one. That cavalry battle thing was too overdone. 

“During this event you will split yourselves into teams of 4,” Midnight said. “That is 12 teams. But only the top 4 teams will proceed to the next event.” 

“For those of you with keys. Please go to the boxes in front of the wall,” Midnight said. Pointing to the side there were 48 small boxes lined up. We walked over and inside I wasn’t surprised at what I found. Headbands. Each headband had a number written on it, but I was the lucky person. As number 1 my headband was golden while the others had white headbands. The number written on my headband was 1,000,000. 

Todoroki had 100,000 then they dropped pretty quickly from there with number 48 only being worth 1,000 points. 

“As you may have surmised, these headbands will be our flags,” Midnight announced. “Once you have chosen your teams of 4, please take the West exit to get to the other playing field. There is a forest set up with 12 camps. These 12 camps are safe zones. No one can attack you there. If you stay in your camps, your total points will be slashed in half. If you venture out of your camp you are expected to steal other headband/flags. The more you steal, the more points your group racks up. Again, only the top 4 groups will proceed to the next round. You have the next 5 minutes to pick your teams.” 

I locked eyes with Momo, Tsuyu, and Toru. They nodded and we were soon meeting up. “Toru, did you nod? Or shake your head? Or shrug? I can’t tell,” I said quickly. 

“I actually flipped you off,” she said, shaking her sleeve in front of me. I laughed. 

“So team up?” I asked. They nodded. We were soon moving out of the way so the others could decide. 

“What’s the plan?” Momo asked. 

“Oh, I think we can figure it out without a stupid plan,” I said with a sly smile. 

—

20 minutes later we were at our safezone camp. There was a large forest that magically appeared overnight. Around it like a clock were small camps. Inside the forest were supposedly more traps and obstacles to make it fun. 

“We ready?” I asked. The girls nodded as the siren went off. 

Momo began making headbands. Simple white ones with no numbers on them. She began passing them out as we wrapped them around our bodies. I took my gold one and passed it to Toru. 

“What’s this?” she asked. 

“Well, they never quite said I had to keep the headband,” I said. “We just had to keep it in the group.”

“You need it if you want the points,” she said. We pooled the points so the top 4 groups could be chosen. But people also got individual points that would go toward the final score. 

“Yeah, but they are expecting me to wear it,” I said. “I think we should all wear golden ones, but you keep the real one,” I said. “Make me another gold one.” Momo nodded as she pulled one from her cleavage. I couldn’t help but smell it. 

“Don’t do that,” she blushed. 

“Eucalyptus?” I asked. She blushed more. I tied it over my forehead. “Allright, give me your headband, Toru,” I said. We switched and were soon on our way.

“We have 15 minutes to get as many points as possible,” I said. “Let’s have some fun.” The girls nodded. “Did you nod, Toru? I couldn’t tell.” She slapped me over the top of my head. I put my hands up to block any more hits and started jogging into the forest. 

“Crocodile, let’s see your moves, Tsuyu,” I said. There was a robot crocodile ahead. Tsuyu went down to all 4s. She pushed hard hitting a tree then instantly bounced off landing on the spiny back of the robot, making it hiss and break. “Fancy, you’ve gotten stronger.” 

She smiled big as she got back in line with us as we ran. I heard something coming as we jogged. Then out of nowhere Ida came through. As fast as possible he soared past grabbing the golden headband off the top of my head. I hid a smile as he took the bait. 

“Madam President, you should get a new vice-president,” I noted as Ida kept running. 

“I’ll take it under advisement,” she said, pulling another golden headband out of her cleavage. I put it on with a smile and this time a group of 4 ran out of the woods. I thought the group was from class B. Momo pulled a net launcher from her cleavage, Tsuyu began hopping around quickly, and Toru went around back. 

I began to pull the hot energy away from the front. Making the area ice cold in front of me as it became hot behind. I had been using my Naruto skills too much. I was going to make a point of using my quirk more for the duration of the tournament. One of the combatants began to make the Earth shake but they were all soon shivering as the temperature around them dropped to below freezing. 

Tsuyu jumped on the front guy, grabbing his headband. Toru grabbed another while they tried to use their quirks. I jumped to the middle of their group. Grabbing the one that wasn’t tied up by the girls. I grabbed their headband and threw them away. 

“Fun fun,” I said as we ran away from the group. They tried to get their headbands back but we ran in a group. I took the back, expelling heat from me to make those chasing us sweat. It was good practice and I had a great view of the 3 girls running. 

We honestly didn’t do anything too fun. I was a little disappointed. I remembered a lot more drama in the manga, but we didn’t run into the main players, mainly off screen people. My headband was stolen another 3 times. Each time I let it happen with a smile. Yelling I would get them as they ran away in fear. Tsuyu used her tongue to grab another 4 headbands. Momo netted people. Toru snuck around them. I was in the thick of them. Pushing people away as I made them sweat or shiver. 

The 15 minute timer went off and we walked out of the forest with lots of headbands on. Smiles on our faces we joked around. 

“Tsuyu, you got a lot faster,” I noted. 

“Thanks,” she said in her nasally voice. “Midoriya and I have been sparring without you.” 

“What? Don’t like my training?” 

“You’re a little too into it,” she said. “Even with your weights on I thought I would lose my head.” 

“My training sessions have been so lonely,” I said, wiping a tear from my eye. 

“You still seem to keep yourself busy,” Momo said. “Unlike you, we have lives outside of school.” 

“What can I say? I love learning. Not all of us can be mindless brutes like you.” 

“I am starting to see why Toru hits you,” Momo said. “I have a sudden urge.” 

“Do it,” Toru laughed. “He is like hitting a brick. Could use some tenderizing.” 

“You lot are awful chummy,” Mina said walking up. The pink girl from class happily wore one of my gold headbands. 

“You might want to get rid of that headband,” I said. “They might not take kindly to forgeries.” 

“What?” She asked, her black eyes blinking quickly. 

Momo pulled another out of her chest. “There is no number on the front of it,” she said. Toru pulled off the gold headband to show her the real one.

“God dang it,” Mina said, cursing as she tore off the headband. Momo reached out. Pushing it into her skin to reabsorb the material. 

“I better not have missed out on being in the next part because of your little game,” Mina said. 

“Game? This was all in the plan. I’m sorry you didn’t have a walking textile factory in your group,” I said. 

“Textile factory?” Momo asked. “Where’d you learn such a big word?” 

“School, I never leave, remember?” I asked. She laughed as we walked into the arena. 

“Welcome back,” Midnight said as we walked in. On the screens were highlights from the fights. There had been mini-flying cameras around the forest, watching us like during the maze run. They were pretty good at staying hidden. “Please put all of your legitimate headbands in the box you opened.” She pointed to where we got the headbands from. 

It wasn’t long until they were all tallied up. Toru got first place since she had the million point headband. Todoroki got second. I was 9th place, but honestly, seeing the dejected looks on those that thought they had my headband was worth getting lower in the final score. 

“Here are the current rankings,” Midnight said, showing the screen. Todoroki was number 1. Then me, then Midoriya, then Toru, then Bakugo, on and on until number 16 was shown. People cheered and whined, but all in all, we were set up for the final battle. 

“Again, thank you all for participating,” Midnight said from the platform. “Those not in the finalists, please head out. You 16 lucky few, please come forward. You will be drawing lots for who you will be fighting.” 

We lined up. One of the assistants came around and we drew numbers. It wasn’t long until the brackets were shown on one of the screens. 

“For those of you who don’t know. Number 1 will fight Number 2, Number 3 will fight Number 4, etcetera and so on. We will have 8 fights. A short break. Then 4. Then 2. Then 1 final battle. Getting further and further in the tournament, awards more and more points. And remember people, the whole of Japan is watching. Give it your all.”