Soon enough everyone reached the stadium after a few minutes.
Todoroki placed second with Bakugo right behind him and in 22nd place was Midoriya.
"All right now that the top 42 from this qualifying round will move on!!" said Midnight. "But for those who placed lower don't worry! We've got another way for you to show your stuff!! But now to the main selection!!" Midnight points to the screen as it several things flash by until it stops. "And looks like we have ourselves a Cavalry Battle!!"
"…How's this supposed to work?" asked Tsuyu.
"I'm glad you ask my cute little frog! You will form into teams of two to four member's each and get into a Horse-and-Rider formation! The rules are the same fundamentally, so you just need to grab the opponents headband! But there is a nice spicy catch! Those top 42 are given a value! At the forty-second place they are worth 5 points! And so it doubles form there! So forty-first place is 10 points! So for number one their headband is worth ten million points!!"
Everyone quickly looked at Albert, who was sleeping.
"Hey, number one wake up!!" Midnight whipped her whip.
Crack!
"Huh!?" Albert woke up abruptly. He looks to see everyone have a look of betrayal. "What I do?"
"You feel asleep. Ribbit." Tsuyu said. "Also you are worth 10 million points."
"Oh… Okay."
"___" Midnight took a deep breath. "Haa… It's fine. Alright! The match will last 15 minutes. Each team's points are determined by its members. The rider will wear a headband displaying the total number of points! Until the match is finished you all have to grab your opponent's headbands and maintain you own! Taken headbands must be worn around the neck or higher! The more you get the harder it'll be to manage! But should in the event where your headband is taken or even if your horse formation is broken it's not over till the match is! Which mean you must fight with your all in this brutal battle!! Oh but um if you attack another team for the explicit intent to make them fall you are disqualified. Now you all have 15 minutes to make your teams!"
'…That was a mouthful.' Albert thought.
Sure enough everyone began to form teams.
"I am sorry Albert." Tsuyu said coming up to him. "But I wanna win."
"That's perfectly fine. Know that I will not go easy on anyone."
"Hm! Ribbit!" Tsuyu then left to form her team.
"Um…"
Albert turned to see Momo.
"Oh you. Do you wish to team up with me?"
"Y-yes! Um… I can make you as many baseballs as you need!" She said as confidently as she could.
"That's very much welcomed. With you victory is more or less guaranteed."
"Then can we join in as well?"
Momo and Albert looked to see Denki and Jiro.
"You two wanna join me?"
"Of course!" Denki said. "We have seen you fight and… We really don't wanna fight you."
"Yeah plus your throwing ability is also very scary." Jiro said.
"Then looks like we have ourselves a team. Jiro you're the horse, Momo, Denki you can pick left or right."
"So you were paying attention." Momo said.
"Of course I was I just wanted to make everyone angry to make them more easier to manipulate."
"So what's the plan?" asked Denki.
"The plan is simple. We will simply stand in place."
"Do you plan on taking everyone on? Their gonna gun for you, you know that right?" Jiro said.
"Exactly that is why when the match begins Momo will make me two staffs with a hook to nab the headbands off people."
"So we will work as a last ditch effort to defend?" Momo said.
"Is that not why you wanted to team up with me? So I can carry us to victory?"
Momo, Jiro, and Denki look at one another and sigh.
"Alright but what about Todoroki?" asked Jiro. "His ice will be a big problem."
"Momo will make me baseballs, and I'll just throw them and shatter his ice. Anything else that comes up I will handle it."
15 minutes pass and everyone got a team, and Present Mic counts it down and everyone looked at Albert's team.
"START!!!!" shouted Present Mic.
Immediately when he said that everyone charged towards Albert to get his headband.
"Everyone knows to get the 10 million!!" said a student from Class 1-B with silver hair.
"I'm coming for that cool 10 mil!!!" shouted Toru Hagakura, the invisible girl from Class 1-A
"Momo."
"On it!"
From her arm a long pole came out with a hook.
Clang~
The moment Albert grabbed the staff the game drastically changed.
Swish~!
"Eh?" Said Toru and the student from Class 1-B.
In a brief second Albert had swung and swiped their headbands.
"If you don't wanna lose I suggest you keep walking." Albert then swings his staff and tosses the headbands caught in the hook away from him. Momo then creates another similar staff. "Now if you want the head of the king I suggest you better be ready to have your heads taken." With a sharp glare many grew very hesitant to try and take his headband.
With two staffs with hooks on them Albert looked more like a boss in a video game.
"Tch! Juzo!!" said the boy with silver hair.
"On it Tetsutetsu!!" said the horse of the boy's formation with no lips.
"!" Albert immediately noticed they began to sink. "So you chose battle, no matter!!!"
With his strength Albert thrusted his staff and struck Tetsutetsu right in his solar plexus.
"Gah!?" and he was knocked out instantly.
"Tetsutetsu!!" shouted his team.
"Sensei!!" shouted Ibara Shiozaki, a girl with green, thorns-covered vines for hair. "Is that not grounds for disqualification!!"
"Hmm…" Midnight was thinking on it.
"Of course not." Albert said as a smirk forms. "The only rule applied is if I maliciously make them fall and from what I see your king is still on his horse. So he is not knocked off, he is knocked out."
Such a blatantly abuse of the wording shocked many and just as many made a smirk and a cackling laugh from those watching from their respected forms of media viewage.
"Well he is still on his horse so he isn't knocked off so I will allow it!!" Midnight said.
"!!" Immediately when she said that Albert's appearance with his two staffs became king killers.
"Guh!! He is like a demon king!!" said Toru.
"Momo, Denki, Jiro can you can you get out of the mud?" Albert said.
"We can." Said Denki.
"Yeah it isn't too deep. You stopped them right on time." Momo said.
"I do feel bad for them now." Jiro said.
"Ah don't worry about it! If they can't recognize a threat like me then they will not make it far as pro-heroes." Albert said as he swings his staffs around.
Two minutes have passed, and Albert's team has barely moved from where they first started. His two spears warded off those who were not confident in their own abilities.
The next person who came to challenge Albert was of course Bakugo.
"You did a good job in warding off the cannon fodder." Bakugo said.
"What a self-deprecating way of addressing yourself, Bakugo." Albert said still smirking.
"I'll be sure to wipe that smirk from you face—Thud!!" A strike to the solar plexus, Albert aimed and thrusted right through Kirishima's hair. "Gah!!" Bakugo falls onto Kirishima.
"Bakugo!!" His team said.
"Thank you for the free points!" said another student as they ride in and takes Bakugo's headband.
Albert glances to see a boy with slick blond hair who came up from behind.
"Unless you also want to get knocked out I suggest walking away."
"Of course! I am a mere vulture! I promise on my name Neito Monoma that we will not try and—"
"You already lied you snake. Move." Albert aims his staff at Monoma.
Monoma quickly begins to sweat.
"Alright let's go!! Hurry! Hurry!!"
His team quickly left running away from Albert.
Up in the announcers booth.
"Wow I thought everyone were gonna aim for the first place team, but all pursuers were quickly silenced!" Present Mic said.
"That's to be expected. Albert is effectively too strong and skilled to even go after." Aizawa said.
"Well let's see if his actions affected how the teams are doing? Click!"
They all look at the screen above.
On the screen it shows a majority of Class 1-A has been taken out and Class 1-B is on the up and ups.
"Not surprising." Aizawa said. "Class 1-B were picking off the remains that Albert left behind."
Seeing the screen everyone began to target all but Albert's team and aim for the lower placements. He was, ironically, not worth trouble to try and get.
"…Say Momo you can't make popcorn can you?" Albert asked.
"No. I cannot make organic material."
"Damn… Would be nice to have some while sitting back. Say I am not too heavy for you guys?"
"No it is pretty manageable." Replied Denki.
"Yeah it is no issue, you are oddly lighter than I expected.." Jiro added.
"I am sorta lifting myself a bit with the staffs to lessen my weight on you guys."
"Thank you for the consideration."
The 15 minutes came up and the results were unexpected.
In second place was Todoroki, he didn't bother going after Albert and focused on getting second place and in third was Midoriya who had the same idea as Todoroki and focused on getting a placement and right behind him was Shinso.
"You sure did surprise me by your placement, Midoriya." Albert said as they are given a one-hour lunch break.
"O-oh yeah! Haha! Um I um it was mostly Tokoyomi who did most of the work!" He said with a nervous smile.
"Well no matter. You placed your team third, so you picked the right people for your team."
"T-thank you!"
"Not at all. Goodluck on the rest of the festival."
As the rest of the class goes to get lunch Midoriya and Todoroki, even Bakugo disappeared quietly.
While they were gone Albert got his lunch.
Sitting with him are Tsuyu, Ida, Uraraka, Mezo Shoki, another classmate with multiple limbs and face mask and Koji Koda a kind boy with a head that looks like a rock, but he has a very soft personality. Along with them are Momo and Jiro.
"Hey! Hey!" said the purple one coming up to them with Denki. "I heard all the girls had to be part of the cheer squad after lunch!"
"What?" Momo said. "No one told us that?"
"Yeah Mr. Aizawa told us that him—"
"Then why did he tell you of all people?" said Tsuyu.
"Fine it's your loss." Denki said.
"Then why not ask Mr. Aizawa?" Albert suggested. "If it's true then no big deal but if not…"
All the girls at the table look at the two of them with a sharp glare.
"We will beat you up." Jiro said as her earphone jacks have a sharp gleam to them.
"…L-lets go and eat our lunch Mineta!" Denki said.
"Y-yeah!!"
They both quickly left.
"So Albert I wanted to ask you how are so well trained with that staff?" asked Ida.
"Y-yeah um…" said Koda softly. "Y-you looked really scary with them."
"Well given the nature of my quirk everything I did is using it. Reading, writing, exercise. So I just started to go to martial art classes around where I live. The staff stuff and others are things I picked up from the internet."
More or less a lie. Albert was trained by several experts in various weapons, one of them was—
"And don't forget your old man!"
"!" Albert froze for a second and looked to see his handler. He did not expect him to show up out of the blue. "Dad!?"
Handler had went on ahead and given himself the role of Albert's father. He wore a rather plain attire with a military jacket.
"Yo!" He gave a gesture with a proud smile. "I came to see you perform! Hey um you don't mind if I talk with my son?" He patted Albert's shoulder.
"N-not at all!!" they all said.
They went to a quiet place to talk.
"I didn't think you would be coming, 'dad'." Albert said in quotations.
"I wanted to surprise you. Also you remember what I said two weeks ago?"
"Yeah about the Yakuza."
"Hm. Well seems you will be going right after the festival. They began to move more aggressively."
"…How soon do you want me to go?"
"As soon as you can. But not too soon. The higher ups are also enjoying seeing you crush these Japanese students. Makes them feel happy that their greatest investment paid off.
His words rubbed Albert the wrong way, matter of fact thinking back on him a lot of his words no longer felt right.
'Investment. I am a person! People shouldn't be fucking investments for these… Hm.' He tempered his emotions. He needs to keep his act up until he found the best opportunity.
"…I'm going back sir." Albert walks off.
"Goodluck! I'll be in the stands!" He waved him off.
Walking back Mélusine chimed in while in her Spiritual Body.
"So that's your handler huh? He looks tough for a human." Mélusine said.
"He is tough. He has the Quirk, Kindergarten. It allows him to bring the best out of everything. He is the reason why I am as strong as I am. The government calls him the Kingmaker for such reasons. He also trained America's number one pro-hero and some others as well that are in bed with the U.S. military and some foreign allies."
"Hmm… Well when we win the Grail and your set free do you wanna kill them?"
"…I'll have to think on that." He keeps that in mind and puts it on the back burner. "It is a very strong maybe."
"An issue for your future self I suppose."
"Would you kill him?"
"Depends really. If he hurts you I probably would, if not… I'll leave that up to you."
Walking back out into the bleachers Handler came across All Might.
"You…" All Might ooked at Handler with scorn.
"Long time no see Toshinori Yagi. How's the wound?" He made a smug, condescending smirk. "Heard it really fucked you up, want me to help extend your hero activity?"
"No." He approached him angerly. "What are you doing here? Whenever you're around the U.S. Government is right behind you."
"Aww…" He leans against the wall. "Can't I just come and give some support to my son, Albert."
"I knew Albert was not normal." He gritted his teeth. All of Albert's feats made sense now, perfect sense. "What is he? Is he one of your—"
"No. He is my son. Blood and all." Handler said with a nonchalant expression.
All Might does not believe a word that comes from his mouth. He doesn't trust him as far as he can throw him. They were a liar, through and through.
"If your gonna tell a lie at least make it believable. He looks nothing like you."
"Your right. He looks better than me and his mother. CRISPER-Valid really does wonders."
A look of disgust stained All Might's face. If they were not in a populated place he would punch him into the ground where he should belong.
"…To think we use to be friends." All Might said with utter disgust and content against the man before him. "Does he even know you are his fa—No. I refuse to even play with the idea of you two being blood."
"Father in title not actual blood if that makes you feel better when you go home at night alone." He straightens up and puts his hands in his pockets. "Hey, we can be friends again if you just return to the U.S.A."
All Might can never get a factual sentence out of him, he lies as naturally as he breathes.
"Not after what you made David do…" Flashes of what his best friend did on orders from Handler made All Might's blood run cold. "Is David still doing well?"
"Yeah, yeah. After Albert manifested his Quirk he fucked off to I-Island. That quote 'humanitarian' island of scientists. Tsk! Bunch of fucking U.N. cunts if you ask me. Oh lets vote on ending a war, it'll only last 7 years while we fiddle our thumbs. Their lucky their so damn fucking smart, bunch of think tank cowards."
"…Tell me Herod."
Herod. That was Handlers name. He haven't heard it be spoken by another in a while.
"What are you doing with Albert if that even is his name?"
"Fuck off." Herod took his hand out of his pocket and flipped All Might off. "And if you snoop into this further then what that lab rat Nezu already has. We have eyes everywhere Toshi. Be a real shame if U.A. just has one of their students slaughter their own peers?"
All Might could see the sharp glare in Herod's eyes.
"Seems you never changed. Once a stain of shit on the pavement is always a stain."
"Hey man, this piece of shit made you into the man you are today! If you hadn't gone and left the U.S. I could have probably trained you enough where you wouldn't need find a successor in that Quirkless kid Midoriya who still breaks his fucking limbs. He knows he has legs right?"
"He needs to learn on his own. Albeit I am a bit concern how he never even had that idea to kick."
"Whatever. Albert is already our greatest product. He already made America even greater than any political party could ever hope to achieve. You better hope your kid doesn't fight mine, it would be even more of an embarrassment."
Herod walks away but before he does he says some parting words for his old friend.
"Oh by the way Toshi. Your old sidekick, Sir Nighteye has joined the Grail War."
"W-what!? They should all be dismantled!? I made sure such a power can never be—"
"All For One. Apparently he rebuilt one with very… suspicious components. This Grail War has been officially been dubbed as the Hero & Villain Grail War by the Church. Us in the U.S. call it the Cracked Holy Grail War, what with the system being broken and all but still working."
All Might clenches his fists tightly.
"…Who else has joined? Is there a spot still open?"
Herod grins.
"Oh you know just All For One and his protégé, you know that kid with the hand on his face."
"And is there—"
"Nope. All spots have been filled. But would you believe it that the only servant and master not accounted for is Lancer. But they are not unique in that most of the Servants and their Masters are unknown, except for Rider, and now Saber along with their Master."
"Anything else I should know?"
"Other than the overseer of the Grail War has been dispatched but remained hidden. That's all I wanna say. Your old boyfriend is still trying to heal you back to your golden era, what a waste of a wish. Goodbye Toshi."
Herod leaves waving goodbye.
All Might waits until he is out of view, and he powers down.
"Haa… Mirai."