A/N

Here's a longer than usual chapter as a sorry for the long wait!

My head jerked up, scanning my surroundings in an attempt to figure out what the hell just happened. One moment, my team and I were about to begin the calvary battle, the next moment my body was numb. Now, here I was, running on the field and dodging the teams around us.

"Hey, Tora,"

I flinched, turning to Ojiro, who just called my name. He was also running, still helping to carry Shinso.

"Ojiro?" I said, clearly confused. "What's going on?"

"I'm not all that sure myself, to be honest," He replied, swatting at another team with his tail to keep them away. "I just snapped out of it myself."

I looked in front of us to Aoyama, who was our front horse. "Hey, Aoyama!"

He didn't respond continuing to run forward, as if commanded by an invisible force. I looked at our rider, Shinso next.

"Shinso," I called out. "You still with us?"

"I'm good," He replied with an irritated sigh. "But there's a team coming towards us."

I glanced at Shinso for a moment, my eyebrows furrowed. I had no idea why this guy sounded so annoyed, but that's going to have to wait, we're still in the middle of whatever the hell this is.

Suddenly, Aoyama's belly button lazer fired without warning, stunning the enemy team's front horse. We charged through them, causing their formation to fall apart and giving Shinso a chance to snatch their headband on our way by. Aoyama lurched as we broke through the dogpile of people, his head snapping to attention with his violet eyes wide.

"Mon Dieu," He gasped. "What is happening?!"

"Welcome back to the land of the living," I chuckled, pushing someone aside with a tiny metal shield made out of what used to be my make-shift brass knuckles. "No idea what happened though."

"Just glad you're back," Ojiro sighed in relief. "I have no idea what caused all of us to blackout, but thankfully we seem to be doing pretty well."

We all glanced at Shinso, who ruffled the stolen headbands around his neck to accentuate Ojiro's statement.

"All we have to do now is hang on until the timer runs out!" I grinned.

"Stay on your guard!" Ojiro scolded me, using his tail to smack away a set of hands that wasn't attached to a body.

That probably should have been concerning, but with how weird quirks are I think I'm totally desensitized to the weirdness at this point. 

We searched desperately for any teams with headbands we could grab, but steered clear of both Midoriya and Todoroki's team. The ground around them shook from the intensity of their battle, and there was no way I was going to step in between them. While we didn't interfere, I still did my best to watch, silently rooting for Tenya as I watched him rev his engines. I had no doubt his team would probably win; sorry Midoriya.

More importantly, time was running out, causing a suffocating air of desperation to fill the stadium. Teams that hadn't secured at least a few headbands were now frantically scrambling to take down teams that they thought were weaken then their own.

Unfortunately we were deemed to be a "weak" team and now found ourselves elbow deep in shit, being surrounded by a handful of three or four person teams.

"This doesn't look good..." Ojiro muttered, nervous sweat dripping down his cheek.

"I think you mean we're fucked," I corrected him. "How the hell can we get away from this many people?"

Aoyama cried something in French and we collectively decided to ignore his wailing.

"Got any ideas, Bed-Head?" I asked, turning to look at Shinso.

The boy groaned, aggressively scratching his scalp. But he didn't answer.

"Uh guys," Ojiro squeaked nervously. "They're coming at us!"

"Come on man!" I yelled at Shinso once again. "Can you do something it not?!"

"Fine!" He barked, glaring at me.

Various teams continued to close in on us, causing Aoyama, Ojiro, and I to press our backs together, Shinso still resting on our shoulders.

"Do something!" Ojiro yelped.

Shinso glared at him, then cupping his hands around his mouth.

"YOU GUYS CAN'T EVEN CATCH US?! HOW LAME! MOST OUR QUIRKS AREN'T EVEN PHYSICAL! WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO ABOUT IT?!"

The area around us went silent, a portion of the audience was also stunned into silence. My jaw went slack, mouth gaping in awe. I didn't think that guy could be so loud.

But just as quickly as silence swept over us, noise erupted once again. The crowd roared, knowing that most, if not all of the teams wouldn't just shrug Shinso's question off.

"WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO ABOUT IT?!"

Insults, curses, and threats burst forth from our opponents, several teams rushing forward once again. I clenched my jaw, getting ready to chew Shinso out for making them angry. But to my surprise just as quickly as chaos had ensued everyone just froze, almost as if frozen in time.

Ojiro spoke first, still shocked. "Shinso, what did you-"

"And time is up everyone!" Midnight interrupted, a loud beep sounding right after her announcement.

Shinso was quick to get off our shoulders, slipping away into the crowd as the people that had just been frozen began to regain their senses.

"What the fuck just happened?" I hissed, attempting to keep my voice down as Midnight continued talking.

Something seemed to be going on over by Midoriya's team, but I couldn't care less at the moment.

"That's what I'd like to know." Aoyama huffed, crossing his arms.

"I have a guess," Ojiro answered quietly. "But I'll explain later, I think Midnight is going to tell us what we're doing next."

I nodded, turning my attention back to Midnight.

"The teams that placed in the top four will be moving onto the individual battles!" Midnight revealed, causing several students to groan. "And those teams are..."

The board showing the current points of every team lit up, highlighting the top four. My eyes scanned the board, grinning when I saw our team.

Along with our team, Midoriya's team, Tenya's team, and Bakugo's team also passed.

I looked back at Ojiro and Aoyama with a toothy smile, which only Aoyama returned. Ojiro looked oddly upset, his brows furrowed and a sad expression on his face.

Suddenly he raised his hand, yelling out to Midnight. "I'd like to drop out actually."

Midnight paused, clearly confused. "Alright... But may I ask why?"

"To be honest, I don't remember most of the Calvalry Battle," He sighed. "It just doesn't feel right to me, like I didn't do any work to get here."

Midnight shrugged. "In that case we'll allow the rider of the team in fifth place to enter the tournament in your place. That means Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu of class 1-B, you're in."

The Kirishima lookalike cheered in excitement.

"Now then," Midnight continued. "We will take a quick break for lunch before we begin the tournament! Afterwards there will be some optional minigames that all of the students can participate in if they wish! And that's it from me!"

The students on the field began to disperse, and before Ojiro could leave I grabbed the sleeve of his uniform.

"Let's talk," I said to him. "That Shinso guy is in the tournament too, if you think you know something tell me."

"Alright, I did promise to tell you," Ojiro nodded, turning to face me. "I think his quirk has something to do with mind control."

"Mind control?!" I gasped. "That's actually kinda sick!"

Ojiro sighed at my enthusiasm. "Pay attention, the import thing is finding out what triggers it; what he needs to do in order to brainwash you."

"Right," I nodded. "So what could the trigger be?"

"This is just a guess," Ojiro mumbled, crossing his arms. "But I think he needs to make you answer a question before he can brainwash you."

I paused to think about it, tapping my foot lightly. "What makes you think that?"

"Remember when the Calvalry Battle started?" Ojiro asked, I replied by nodding. "He asked us if we were ready."

My eyes widened. "Holy shit, you're right! My memory is totally blank after that!"

"Exactly."

I smacked Ojiro's back with my hand. "Fucking brilliant man!"

"Anyway, good luck if you face him in the tournament," Ojiro said with a frown. "That was a dirty trick he used on us."

I tilted my head in confusion.

"I don't think it was a dirty trick at all," I argued, shocking him with my response. "We were a bunch of unknowns to him, he doesn't know if we have experience working as a team or if we'll get along. Those are all things that would affect our ability to work together as a team. By brainwashing us, we became like one mind, like a machine. It was more efficient from his perspective."

"So you're not mad that be brainwashed you?" Ojiro asked.

"Fuck no!" I roared. "When did I say that?! I just mean that I understand where he's coming from! I would've preferred if he hadn't fucked with my mind!"

Ojiro chuckled. "Yeah, there you are. I thought you were acting way to calm and rational."

I laughed with him, playfully shoving. "Fuck you!"

After that we split up for lunch. I decided I'd probably eat lunch with Tenya, Midoriya, and Uraraka, but first I would look for Kuse.

Hopefully he thought I looked cool out there.

A/N

I'm so sorry about how long it's been since an update. I had some bad writers block and wasn't sure about how I could effectively use Tora's quirk in the events and most importantly, in the tournament. But I have some ideas now, so I should start working on the next chapter soon! Hope you guys enjoyed the longer chapter too!