What The- (MHA Chatfic)

Chapter 31: Thievery

Izuku immediately directed his team towards Todoroki's. Uraraka had lightened their clothes and equipment, but they still moved slower than the other teams. This was because while every team was gunning for the one million points, most forgot to protect their own headbands.

Izuku directed his team, weaving through teens and discreetly snatching headbands as they went. Having three support students with varying types of gadgets and inventions as well as someone who could lighten them proved to make quite the team, since they were slowly but surely collecting more and more points. Izuku secretly took tiny pieces of joy from watching people's faces as they realised their headbands were gone one or two minutes after he had added them to his own pile.

Izuku also paid careful attention to where specific teams were and what they were doing. For example, he always made sure to stay as far away from Kacchan's team as possible. He was eventually going to interact with the explosive blonde, just... not yet. He wanted to either have fun with it, or try his best not to reveal exactly who he was. There had to plenty of eleven year olds out there named Izuku, and he hoped to convince Kacchan that he was just some random person. Who just so happened to have green hair and eyes, diamond freckles, no quirk, an obsession with quirk analysis...

Yeah, maybe the former would've been a better option.

But still, not yet. He was in the middle of a festival. Another team noticed Izuku's growing pile of headbands, subtly changing course to attempt to steal a couple for themselves. It just so happened to be Shoji's team, one of the most troublesome teams out there. Stealing their headband would've been nigh impossible, so Izuku needed a plan to incapacitate them without breaking any rules. Luckily, he had just the plan in mind.

He discreetly pulled a cold, metal object out of his pocket, dropping it on the floor without even his teammates noticing. Shoji's team continued to follow slowly, foolishly believing they had the element of surprise. Eventually, Shoji's foot bumped against the black metal, causing a small explosion that covered him in glue. The sticky substance hardened instantly, trapping the human tank and keeping him from opening his arm-cage.

Meanwhile, Izuku, Hatsume, Takara, and Uraraka were several metres away, making it hard to pinpoint who left the trap. Only Majima-sensei, Shota, and Hizashi would be the ones to know it was him, since Majima-sensei supplied the materials and the latter two had both seen him building those kinds of things.

After that, Izuku decided to throw two or three more glue traps around, just for fun.

Especially in Kacchan's direction.

But that isn't anything of importance. For now.

(Izuku grinned when he heard a trap go off later, followed by familiar cussing and explosions.)

(Each of his teammates were confused, but Takara was the only who knew what that grin could possibly mean since she was in the same class as Izuku and knew his tricks. She felt bad for the poor person who raised his ire.)

The calvary battle continued without protest from the ref or commentators, the timer slowly dragging on as it struggled to reach its end. Team Izuku kept stealing headbands from unsuspecting victims, clawing their way up the leaderboard until they had settled comfortably into second place.

After a few more minutes, Izuku had steered his team into a corner and covered all four members in what could only be described as an invisibility cloak, eagerly watching the drama unfold. Uraraka had accidentally left snacks and desserts in her pockets from before the festival started, so everyone had something to snack on as they enjoyed the rising panic of other teams. (Izuku was very happy to do just that without the snacks, but can you really blame him for wanting Wizz Fizz and Fads?)