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E P I S O D E
31

    At the sound of the game starting, those whose purpose is to win started coming for Yurika's team.

  Yurika herself is very aware of this, and she's ready for a cat and mouse play. "Fly!" She commanded her team as she felt an attack coming from the others.

Uraraka immediately acted on it and removed their gravity, while the jetpack that Hatsume gave them bursted upwards - evading the created puddle to trap them on place.

Sensing another attack from Jirou's headphone jack, Yurika used her blood strings to swipe it away from coming to her - shocking Jirou who felt the strings.

"We're going to land!" Uraraka reminded them, warning them to stay alert from any upcoming ambush. Yurika's emerald eyes gleamed under the sunlight as her focus on everyone intensified, especially to Ako's team.

They haven't made their moves yet, and knowing how Ako's mind works, she needed to be extra careful. And not just Ako, there's also Todoroki's team that had been eyeing them since, she knows they'll attack sooner or later.

  "Todou-san, behind!" Midoriya shouted.

  Behind Yurika is Monoma's team reaching out to the headband tightly wrapped around her head, Yurika felt his presence since the beginning - her body moved swiftly in accordance on her plan. Her hand made it's way infront of her to block Monoma's hands, while her blood strings secretly snatched the headbands sitting on his neck.

   "You, almost got me there~" Yurika's cooing voice confused Monoma, until he heard a snap coming from his neck only to realise that the headbands have been taken by his target. The once cocky grin he's wearing, turned into a scowl.

"Sadly, you'll be the victim here, boy." The tune of her voice greatly irritated him, but he pushed his irritation at the back of his head - for now, he needs to get his headbands back.

   Yurika smirked as she noticed the vexed expression on his face. "I admire your determination, boy. Sadly, you won't be able to stand on head with me." As her words dragged on, her face started getting serious and sharp, it gave Monoma the worst shudders.

"We'll be taking it back!" Monoma gritted his teeth to fight back, it's not in his nature to feel scared, so why did he suddenly felt scared of this girl from Class 1A?! They're nothing but a bunch of stuck up idiots!

   Yurika merely glanced at him, "Goodluck catching me then." She tapped Midoriya's shoulders as a signal to move away from Monoma.

   He nibbled on his thumb, he badly wanted to know about Yurika's quirk - but he never saw her use her quirk, he does not have any ideas how it works. All he knows is that she's a vampire, nothing more.

"Monoma! We need to move! What are your plans?" His teams woke him up from his thoughts, he glanced at Yurika who was swiftly evading the ambushes and attacks of the other teams.

"For now, we need to collect other headbands to accommodate for our lost points."

   Ako's hands pounced on Bakugo's head, repeatedly knocking it in annoyance at how he is being so immature at the moment.

"PUSSYCAT! WHEN ARE WE GOING TO GET THAT TEN MILLION POINTS!?"

"I told you already that we need to get more points other than targetting her team alone! Are you even listening to me, desu no?!" She bonked his head one last, and dodge an incoming attack from an unknown team. She swiftly snatched their headbands and signed her teams to move away from them.

As soon as they got away, Bakugo started to complain again. "You hit me on my head one last time and you'll witness me murder someone, pussycat." He growled to which Ako only raised an eyebrow, amused at his statement. "That's not very heroic, Bakubro." Kirishima sweatdropped.

"Tch!"

"Listen here, Bakugo. If we target Yurika's team like everyone else, then we're no different in merely being idiots - we need to have another plan to not lose the round. Plus, if ever our headbands got snatched by someone, or rather, Todoroki's team - we'll become a useless force, and the time we wasted trying to get the ten million points would be wasted. Do you want that to happen, desu no?"

  Bakugo remained silent, not wanting to admit to his self that what Ako said is right. He clicked his tongue after that speech, which only made Ako smile in triumph.

"You understand now that I am the wild card to let this team win in first place?" Ako's condescending smile widened, which made Ashido fangirl over Ako silently.

"Alright, I get it! You don't need to remind me!" He growled.

"Hmph!"

  "So, what's our plan?" Sero asked and peeked his head to see Ako's face, which is still smirking.

At Sero's question, her eyes landed on a particular figure, and gleamed in an unexplainable emotions, "We'll target Todoroki's team after we make everyone here utterly useless."

  At the mention of Todoroki, Bakugo's face became a menace - he grinned as the thought of fighting one of the strongest in the class crossed his mind. "Then let's fuckin' do it!" He punched his palm as his eyes burned in tenacity.

  As the battle continues, the time ticks less and less, and more teams became useless as Ako and Todoroki's team dominated the whole game. The three unbeatable teams completely out of reach of everyone.

Counting the headbands that Ako's team snatched away from the other teams, she smiled. "Perfect."

  She focused her eyes on Todoroki who was currently fighting Yurika to obtain the ten million points.

 
   Yurika dodge the incoming ice coming for their way, and signalled her team to jumped together. They all did nothing but to dodge and evade every enemy ambushes from the other teams that they haven't got the chance to get more headbands. But thankfully, Yurika managed to get three headbands from other teams.

  They haven't had the time to even breathe when Momo created a large, thick, cloth that covered the whole team - except for Kaminari who seemed getting ready for an attack. And that's when Yurika got an idea what are their plans.

  Yurika roughly bit her thumb to release more of her blood, and quickly controlled it to become a barrier between the incoming electrical attack.

  "I'm not letting you attack us with that!" Yurika announced to them, as her blood barrier covered them whole before Kaminari's quirk finally activated.

The impact of the volts to Yurika's barrier made a very loud sound similar to a tank and bomb exploding. It made the audience watching the scene roar in surprise.

  "Todou-san, that was amazing!" Midoriya suddenly spoke which snapped Yurika out of her focused state. She softly smiled before replying, "Thank you, Midoriya-kun."

.....

  Todoroki's teams can't believe that Yurika actually had a trick up her sleeve, she can actually do that with her blood. With another plan failing on Yurika's team, they finally turned their heads to Koharu's direction, who has the most information about Yurika.

  Koharu who noticed Todoroki's stare, gulped a lump in her throat to hide away her nervous self.

Knowing what their stares meant, she started, "I have an idea."

  Yurika's blood manipulation and her ability to create a barrier made of her own blood, it was certain that Koharu's pheromones would affect her. Although, it would also affect many of the teams, and it might also affect her team. Fortunately for them, she could ask Momo to create a mask for them.

"I'll be releasing my pheromones, Yaomomo-sama - please immediately create mask for each of our members so that it won't affect them." She instructed to which she immediately complies.

Todoroki had an idea of what Koharu's plan is, but he wanted to hear it directly from her.

"Yurika-sama's barrier is made of her blood, so while it can protect her team - my pheromones would get on her. Also, her blood barrier only works on long ranges attacks, so we need to snatch the headband upclose. Please take the chance to get the headband from her when she's still in a daze, Iida-san's speed would be a great help." She explained.

Truth be told, Koharu is not very confident with her plan - and she's not sure if it would actually work since her pheromones are weak against the princesses. But, she hopes that this team would get the chance to get that ten million points.

"Koharu, that's a great idea. Thank you." Momo smiled at Koharu who shyly smiled in return.

  "Here are the mask, i finished making them." Momo handed the masks to them one by one, excluding Koharu's.

"Let's start." Todoroki signaled Koharu to start executing her plan, while Iida got ready to use his reciptro burst, but the highest speed possible.

  Soon, a familiar pink dust came out of Koharu's body, it flew to different directions until it turned into smoke, clouding most of the teams' vision - as the smell of an intoxicating sweet aroma of Koharu's pheromones, the other teams' consciousness started slipping away from them, and they stood motionless in one place.

   Yurika who noticed that Koharu is exuding her pheromones, she quickly put up her barrier to protect her teammates - she's very aware that by making a blood barrier, Koharu's pheromones would greatly affect her since her blood is exposed in it.

So, before she could get controlled by Koharu's, she turned to her team.

"If I get dazed or motionless, be alerted and look out for Todoroki's attacks. Koharu's quirk is working on me because my blood is exposed, whilst you all are protected, make sure that you all would also protect me while I am still defenseless....." As her words dragged on, her state slowly became dazed and bright emerald eyes turned dim.

  'She's affected now!' Midoriya became alerted and watched for Todoroki's team. However, before he could even react, Todoroki's team suddenly appeared behind them, and in Todoroki's hand is the ten million points.

"Tokoyami!"

They chased after Todoroki's team in hopes to get the ten million points. But what they didn't expect is Ako's figure suddenly appearing behind Todoroki's team.

"ICY HOT BASTARD!" Bakugo's raging voice reverberated around the three teams, as if to remind them of their presence. Ako's grinning face greeted the both of them, "Finally, desu wa!"

  Ako worked on her telekinesis and forcefully took it out of Todoroki's hand, shocking both of the teams.

"Oh no, this is bad." Koharu muttered, gaining the attention of their leader.

"It would be hard to get on Ako-chan, I'm sorry. I didn't think of this possibility when I came up with this plan." Koharu muttered again, embarassed that she didn't think of the possibility that Ako is waiting for their team to get the ten million points before she could attack.

     "It's fine. We could work together to get it." Todoroki said and focused his attention back to the person that he adores. Even now that they are battling against each other, he couldn't help but admire her even more than before.

   As he is formulating a plan, Midoriya's team came rushing towards Ako. Yurika is finally out of Koharu's control.

Yurika worked on her strings to attempt getting the headband, unfortunately, before it could even reach Ako, the buzzer of the time limit reminded them the end of the game.

  They all are so immersed in taking the ten million points that they didn't notice the timer.

Todoroki sighed, getting down from the horse position. It's unfortunate that they are not in first place, but atleast they get to advance to the next round.

"Yo! Good job playing right at the palm of my hands, desu wa!" Ako's boisterous laugh reached his ears, as she is talking to an embarassed Koharu.

He walked towards her, with one thing in mind swirling around in his mind. "Saotome."

  The said girl stopped her laughing and looked at the candy cane head who called for her, "Todoroki? What's wrong?" Walking towards him with an uncertain smile, she waved to Koharu to signal her to give them some privacy for a minute.

"I want to beat you." It's an unexpected statement coming from him.

"Eh? That came out of nowhere." Ako giggled and tapped his shoulder in a comforting way.

  "Well, if you can do it, then I won't hold back, desu wa! If you manage to beat me, I'll grant you a wish!"

  "Then, can I tell you my wish now?"

"Of course! Just tell me!"

Todoroki's eyes softened as he took in all of Ako's smiling face, her little fangs cutely showing under her pinkish lips, and her eye-smile wrinkling cutely - creating a very cute winged eyeline everytime she smiles.

  "I want you to let me hold you, eveyday. Like what couples do."

Her face bursted in red again. She already knows of his feelings because he confessed a few weeks ago! And he even declared that he will make her fall in love with him! But why hadn't she reminded herself of his possible attacks!?

  Swinging her right arm in an attempt to scratch his face which he fortunately avoided, she hissed. "W-We're not even couples yet! Hu-nyaaa! Hmph! I'll think about considering it first, desu wa!" With one last glare, hiding her blushing face, she walked away again.

   Yurika and Koharu, were fortunately watching from afar - so they got the idea of what happened to Ako and Todoroki. "I bet Todoroki confessed to Ako." Yurika smirked, crossing her arms as she watched Ako walked away from Todoroki. Koharu nodded her head as well in agreement of what the vampire princess said.

....

    A bright red explosion woke up the princesses from their slumber as they felt an enormous amount of energy coming from the core itself. At the thought of it, they became alerted ans starting going towards the core that is hidden underneath the tree of life.

  When they arrived at the scene however, they became stunned at the sight of a once white and pure color of the core, became a dangerous color of black.

"This is bad.." Hime whispered to herself, wanting to stop the spreading of the mysterious black inside the core.

"If only we could go inside it."

Sumire held the card in her hand, gripping on it tightly. It had meant a bad omen, and they are not sure if they are ready for it.

...

To be continued...

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Hi! Sorry for the long wait! I finally have an update! Thank you again for waiting!

Word Count: 2442 words.