Hero Trainer: Choke Me With Those Thighs!
Chapter 51: Forty Million Points and a Ghost

The roar of the stadium was a physical force. It slammed into Izuku’s chest, vibrated in his bones, a tsunami of sound that threatened to drown him. He was covered in soot, exhausted to the bone, and his lungs burned, but a smile pulled at his lips. Beside him, Ochako, Momo, and Toru were laughing, hugging each other, a small circle of euphoria in the middle of the vast arena.

But Izuku’s gaze wasn’t on his teammates, nor on the giant scoreboard confirming their victory. His eyes swept the VIP stands, searching the crowd of pro heroes, ignoring the legends and powerhouses. And then, he found her.

Mt. Lady was on her feet in her seat. She wasn’t clapping politely like the others. She was applauding with a genuine, almost wild enthusiasm, with an ear-to-ear grin that wasn't for the cameras; it was for them. For a fraction of a second, their eyes met across the distance.

And in that instant, Izuku knew. The certainty settled in his chest, warm and triumphant. She doesn't see a kid with a useless Quirk, he thought. She sees the results. She sees the efficiency. She’s noticing our method… the real plan… it’s working perfectly.

His moment of satisfaction was cut short by the crack of a whip that silenced the stadium. Midnight was back in the center of the stage, her smile more sadistic and promising than ever.

“Congratulations to our 42 extraordinary finalists!” she purred, her amplified voice booming in the expectant silence. “An incredible job from all of you! But don’t get comfortable, little ones, because the real battle, the one that separates the contenders from the pretenders, begins now!”

A giant screen behind her flickered to life.

“The second event of the U.A. Sports Festival is… a Cavalry Battle!”

A murmur of surprise and excitement rippled through the competitors.

“You will be given fifteen minutes to form teams of two to four people. The objective is simple: each of you is assigned a point value based on your result in the obstacle race. You will wear that value on a headband. Steal others’ headbands to rack up points! The headbands you steal must be worn from the neck up! And the most important rule! Even if you lose your original headband, you are not eliminated! The battle isn’t over until time runs out!”

The tension, which had dissipated with the end of the race, flooded the stadium again with renewed force.

The giant scoreboard lit up, showing the final race rankings and the point distribution.

“The point values go up in increments of five starting from last place!” Present Mic explained from the announcer’s booth. “So the competitor in 42nd place is worth 5 points, 41st is worth 10, and so on!”

Names and scores began to appear. Twenty points, fifty points, one hundred and twenty points… The values climbed, and the students mentally calculated who they wanted on their team.

The screen reached the top. It showed the four smiling, soot-covered faces of Izuku, Ochako, Momo, and Toru, under a massive banner that read: “1st PLACE (TIE).”

“Normally, the first-place winner would be worth ten million points!” Midnight shouted, savoring the drama, her voice dripping with malice. “But since life isn't always fair, and since our winners have blessed us with an unprecedented four-way tie, this year’s rules are a little… special!”

She paused, letting the anticipation build.

“The first-place value will not be divided among them! Oh, no! To make things more interesting, each of our four winners, individually, is worth… TEN MILLION POINTS!”

A dead silence of total disbelief fell over the stadium. Ten million. Per head.

Slowly, like a single predatory organism, the heads of the other 38 competitors turned to look at Izuku's team. Their gazes were no longer filled with admiration for their victory in the race. They were filled with hunger. With pure, rapacious greed.

“IT’S COMPLETE AND UTTER MADNESS!!” Present Mic exploded. “THE TEAM MADE UP OF THESE FOUR WILL BE A WALKING FORTRESS OF FORTY MILLION POINTS! DEFEATING THEM DOESN'T JUST PUT YOU ON TOP, IT MEANS INSTANT AND ABSOLUTE VICTORY!”

Izuku felt the physical weight of thirty-eight predatory glares on him. They weren't students anymore. They weren't heroes-in-training. They were a pack of starving wolves, and his team was the only succulent feast in the middle of the arena.

“Oh…” was all Ochako could say, her face losing all its color.

“We’re in trouble,” Toru added, her voice a mere thread.

Momo said nothing. She simply took a step closer to Izuku, her calculating expression already analyzing their odds of survival. They were almost zero.

“You have fifteen minutes to form your teams! Your time starts… NOW!”

The arena erupted into a chaos of negotiations. Students ran back and forth, shouting, forming alliances, rejecting offers.

“Hey, team up with me! My Quirk is perfect for defense!” “I need someone with mobility! Someone who can fly!” “You and me together, we can take at least three headbands from Class B!”

In the midst of the frenzy, Izuku’s team did something extraordinary: nothing.

They didn’t even need to speak. With a silent understanding, they simply closed ranks, turning their backs to the outside, forming a small defensive circle in the middle of the field. Their team was a fact, an unchangeable certainty in a sea of chaos. It was the four of them against the world.

Their instant unity did not go unnoticed. Tenya Iida, who had been watching them with a serious expression, approached them. He wasn't coming to negotiate. He was coming to declare.

“Midoriya-kun. Uraraka-san. Yaoyorozu-san. Hagakure-san,” he said, naming each with solemn formality. “I witnessed your coordination in the first trial. It is… formidable. A perfectly-oiled machine.”

He bowed, his movement as precise as ever.

“It is for that very reason I must inform you of my decision. To grow as a hero and as a leader, it is my duty to face the greatest and most challenging obstacle. And right now, that obstacle is the four of you as a unit. Therefore, I have decided to join Todoroki-kun’s team.”

Ochako seemed a little hurt by the declaration, but Izuku simply nodded, a look of deep respect in his eyes.

“I understand, Iida-kun.”

“I will see you on the battlefield as a rival,” Iida concluded. He bowed respectfully once more and walked away, his back straight, his mission clear. He wasn't an enemy. He was an honorable rival.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the arena, Bakugo was in his own personal hell.

“GET OUTTA MY FACE, EXTRA!” he yelled at a boy who approached him with a nervous smile.

“But my glue Quirk could—!”

“I SAID GET LOST!”

He rejected half a dozen applicants with growls and threats, until a red-haired figure planted himself in front of him, unfazed by his aura of rage.

“Bakugo!” Eijiro Kirishima said with a toothy grin. “Team up with me!”

“And why the hell would I do that, Shitty Hair?”

“Because you need a base that can take your own explosions without flinching!” Kirishima replied, slamming his hardened fists together. “I can be your horse, your mobile base, and your shield! I won't break, no matter how much you boost yourself! Together we can crush everyone, including Deku’s team!”

Bakugo stared at him for a second. Then, a wild, predatory grin spread across his face.

“I like the way you think, Shitty Hair. You got a deal.”

The battle lines were being drawn.

“Forty million points! Everyone will be coming for us from the first second!” Ochako said, her voice tense as they huddled in their strategy circle. “It’ll be a stampede! There’s no way to defend against thirty-eight people at once!”

“Then we won’t defend,” Izuku replied. His calm was so deep it was unsettling. His green eyes shone with the same manic light as when he devised the rocket plan. “We're not going to survive. We're going to dominate.”

Momo raised an eyebrow. “And how do you plan to do that when we’re the number one target in the entire stadium?”

“The plan isn’t to run. The plan isn’t to hide,” Izuku said, his gaze moving from one to the other before settling directly on Toru. “The plan is to be untouchable. And for that… they can’t take what they can’t see.”

Toru’s eyes widened in understanding. “You mean… the headband? Our headbands?”

“Exactly,” Izuku confirmed. “Your training manual says your Light Refraction Quirk has a ‘dermal limit.’ It only affects your skin. But I know, from the tests we ran, that when I give you a continuous ‘boost,’ with a direct and stable connection, you can extend that refraction field a few centimeters beyond your skin.”

“Enough to cover something you’re wearing…” Momo whispered, her eyes shining as she deciphered the strategy.

“Like a forty-million-point headband,” Izuku concluded with a smile.

The strategy unfolded between them in quick, urgent whispers.

“It’ll be a four-person cavalry,” Izuku explained. “Momo, you’ll be the base. The ‘horse.’ You’re the tallest and strongest, and you can create propulsion skates and shields on the fly for mobility and defense.”

Momo nodded, her expression already serious and focused.

“Ochako, you’ll sit on Momo’s shoulders. You’ll be our active front line of defense. Anyone who gets too close, you repel them with your Quirk. You’ll keep them at a distance.”

“Got it!” Ochako said, her nervousness replaced by determination.

“Toru,” Izuku continued, his voice lowering slightly. “You’ll be the main rider. You’ll sit on top, on Ochako’s shoulders. And you will wear the headband. All four of them, in fact, tied together. Your one mission, the most important of all, is to keep that headband completely invisible for the entire event.”

“And you…?” Toru said, staring at him. “Where will you be in this… human tower?”

Izuku blushed violently, but his voice didn’t waver.

“I… I’ll be the engine. I’ll be positioned right behind you, Toru. My job will be twofold: to be your ‘battery,’ maintaining the constant physical contact you need for the ‘boost’ to your Quirk, and from that elevated position, to direct the entire team’s strategy in real-time.”

The silence that followed that statement was thick with a comical awkwardness.

“Wait, wait,” Toru said, processing the image. Her face was also starting to turn red. “So for the headband to be invisible… you have to be… uhm… ‘plugged into’ my back… for the whole battle?”

“It’s the only way to maintain a stable, continuous connection!” Izuku defended himself, waving his hands, his face the color of a ripe tomato. “The efficiency of the refraction field would drop drastically if the contact isn't total and constant! The surface area maximizes the energy transfer! It’s for pure tactical logic!”

“The logic is sound,” Momo interjected, with a completely serious tone that made it all the funnier. “Greater surface area ensures lower resistance and more efficient energy transmission. It is scientifically correct.”

“See?! Science!” Izuku exclaimed, desperate.

Ochako looked from Izuku to Toru and back, a strange mix of concern and amusement dancing in her eyes.

Toru bit her lip, a nervous but excited smile forming on her face. “Okay. For science. But if you start barking coaching orders too close to my ear, I swear I’ll elbow you.”

“PREPARATION TIME… IS OVER!!”

Midnight’s voice boomed across the arena.

“ALL TEAMS, TAKE YOUR POSITIONS!!”

The teams moved, forming their mobile fortresses. Bakugo’s team, with him on top held by Kirishima, Sero, and Mina, was a picture of pure offensive aggression. Todoroki’s team, with him, Iida, and Kaminari, stood as a balanced fortress of power, speed, and strategy.

And then, there was Izuku’s team.

It was a formation no one had ever seen before. It was strange, almost absurd. Momo at the base, her legs already transforming into skates with turbines. On her sturdy shoulders, Ochako, with a fierce look, her hands ready to repel anyone. On Ochako’s shoulders, Toru, the lightest, like the pinnacle of the tower.

And stuck to Toru’s back like a human backpack, was Izuku. His face was beet red, but his green eyes were sharp as knives, scanning the entire battlefield, analyzing every team, every opponent.

Toru raised a hand to her forehead, where the four headbands, bound into a single thick one, shone with the number “40,000,000.”

“Wait a minute!” Present Mic yelled, confused. “Team Midoriya’s headband…!”

With a final touch, Toru activated her boosted Quirk. The headband flickered once, like a glitch in reality.

And then… it vanished.

Toru Hagakure was still there, visible to everyone. But the forty-million-point headband had disappeared into thin air.

“…is gone!” Present Mic finished. “Is that legal?! Is that even legal?!”

Midnight let out a seductive chuckle, which rippled through the entire stadium.

“As long as she's wearing it, it's completely legal! It seems the prey in this hunt… has just become a ghost!”

The sound of the buzzer signaling the start of the battle filled the air. Thirty-eight teams lunged forward in a furious stampede. But they weren't running toward a target.

They were running toward an empty space.