"Tsuyu-chan, you're really here! Yay!"
"I missed you, Habuko-chan!" After everyone finished changing into their costumes, Seraph brought them all to a large forest-like area within the school where the students they'd be working with were waiting for them. Among the people waiting for them, Midoriya recognized Tsuyu's friend Habuko Mongoose, her costume being a blue bodysuit with snake-like designs to match her head and Naga heritage, and Tsuyu ran up to hug her the second she caught sight of her. It felt a little much, but Midoriya was just happy that someone was feeling happy.
"Okay, let's get this show on the road, boys and girls!" Seraph said. "Guests from U.A. High, allow me to introduce—oh, looking good, Ibara-chan!"
"Thank you for the compliment, sir," Shiozaki said. Shiozaki's costume had her standing barefoot and wearing a short-sleeved gold dress patterned with white rose petals and a red sash. Her hair morphed into a hand giving a thumbs up in response to Seraph's comment.
"Where was I? Right. Guests from U.A. High, allow me to introduce the students of our illustrious Isamu Academy who will be working with you today. These five are first years like all of you, and they come straight from one of our five Hero classes, the Void Class. First, there's Habuko Mongoose, who one of you seems to already be familiar with." After Seraph brought it up, Tsuyu and Mongoose ended their embrace and Tsuyu hopped back over to the class. "Next we have Dadan Tadan."
"H-Hello. I'm Da—wait, he already said my name. O-Oh bother." The one who spoke was a heavyset boy with a small tuft of brown hair. His face was drenched in sweat, and his body was dressed in a form-fitting metallic suit with red target marks spread around the body.
"Then we have the Void Class' class president, Kashiko Sekigai!"
"A pleasure to meet you all. Mr. Lavon told me about how you dealt with that rogue golem earlier. Thank you for that and sorry for the… trouble some of my classmates might have caused." The one who spoke was a white-haired girl wearing a red visor, red gloves, large wrist-guards with what appeared to be screens attached to them, and a skintight black bodysuit with white stripes and white boots.
"And speaking of that rather intimate encounter, here are the last two people you'll be working with, Romero Fujimi and Lori Lemaris!"
"Don't call that shit intimate!" Fujimi said. His costume consisted of a translucent, purple mask around his mouth, a black trenchcoat that had a fake heart sticking out of the chest, gloves with a strange series of symbols written across them, and a face painted to look blue with a large scar on the forehead.
Unlike her classmates, Lori didn't give any sort of greeting, simply offering a wave and a smile that was clearly directed at Midoriya more than anyone else. Lori's costume had her wearing nothing but a purple shell bra, a grass skirt over her scaly legs held up by a belt shaped like a golden trident, and long red gloves shaped like lobster claws. It was very simple in design, but the simplicity of it all only served to emphasize the parts of Lori he had trouble looking at.
"Now for the specifics of today's exercise," Seraph said. "All in all, it's going to be a battle royale. You'll all be divided into five teams and fight for survival for thirty minutes." Seraph said a series of phrases Midoriya couldn't understand and made a pair of glowing handcuffs appear in his hands. He then pressed a button on the side of them that made another pair appear out of nowhere. "You beat someone by either restraining them with one of these magically duplicating handcuffs or by knocking them out. Once half an hour's gone by, the winning team will either be the last one still standing or the surviving team with the largest number of active fighters."
"Hey, I don't think dividing us by five is gonna work," Ashido said. "There's—hold on." Ashido pointed at the crowd at random spots while muttering numbers under her breath. "Yeah, twenty-seven people!"
"Yes, which means that there would be three teams of five and two teams of six, giving two teams an advantage in numbers. However, I've already taken that into account." Seraph snapped his fingers and a surge of white energy flew out of the ground and into the artificial sky above. It expanded out and divided itself into two giant rectangles, each showing an image of all of the participants. The display of magic earned some audible praise from Midoriya and his classmates. "In order to help even things out, the two teams with six members will have their locations broadcasted to everyone for the first ten minutes. That sound good? Good! Now it's time to choose the teams!"
"Wonder how the teams are gonna be made?" Kirishima asked.
"I bet he'll use a ouija board or some magic dice made of bones. That'd be pretty cool," Kaminari said. As other people theorized how it would work, Seraph materialized a large piece of paper with a series of lines running down it vertically. The numbers one through twenty were written on the top of each line, and at the bottom of each line were the letters "A", "B", "C", "D", and "E", with there being four "B"s, "C"s and "D"s and five "A"s and "E"s.
"Isn't that just amidakuji?" Uraraka asked.
"That's right! Pretty neat, huh?" Seraph asked as he handed everyone markers. There was no appropriate response for that, so everyone just let it pass by as they went to draw their lots.
Team A ended up consisting of Iida, Komori, Ojiro, Koda, and Jirou. Komori—who was dressed in a mushroom-patterned witch hat, mushroom-shaped clogs, a mushroom-shaped skirt, a tank top with a picture of her winking face on it, and a neon pink jacket that said, "I'M THE NUMBER ONE" on the back and each sleeve—seemed enthusiastic about being on the same team as Iida, but noticeably annoyed when he shook the hand she wanted him to fist bump.
Team B ended up consisting of Yaoyorozu, Hagakure, Kaminari, and Todoroki, whose costume appeared to have been fixed since Bakugou ruined it in class. Out of everyone there, only Yaoyorozu seemed to be happy to be on the same team as Todoroki.
Team C ended up consisting of Midoriya, Kendou, Mineta, and Aoyama. Midoriya didn't give much thought to Aoyama's inclusion, but he was glad to be on the same team as at least two people he got along with. Kendou certainly seemed happy to be on the same team, at least.
Team D ended up consisting of Tokoyami, Shiozaki, Tsuyu, and Shouji. Shiozaki seemed to be trying to make small talk with Tokoyami, but he was only responding to a minimal degree, even as Shiozaki's hair poked him and pulled on his feathers.
Team E ended up consisting of Bakugou, Kirishima, Ashido, Sero, and Uraraka. Kirishima and Ashido made it clear that they were happy to be working together while Uraraka's eyes kept darting back and forth between Bakugou and Todoroki as if she was struggling to decide which team would be worse to be on.
"Okay, now that that's settled, it's time to see where each of my students is going to end up," Seraph said. A top hat appeared out of thin air that he held out in front of the Isamu students. The five of them reached into the hat one by one and pulled out pieces of paper, each one likely designating which team they would be assigned to.
Habuko ran over to Tokoyami's team and immediately went back to hugging Tsuyu. Good for them, Midoriya thought.
Tadan walked over to Bakugou's team while wiping sweat from his forehead, something Bakugou just yelled at him for. Midoriya hoped everything would be all right there.
Sekigai walked over to Yaoyorozu's team and exchanged a few words with her while trying to avoid the tension Todoroki's presence was creating. That was fine at first, but it became less fine when Midoriya realized that there were only two people left who had yet to go to their teams.
Please be Fujimi-kun, please be Fujimi-kun, please be Fujimi-kun, please be Fujimi-kun! Midoriya repeated that thought in his head over and over again as he watched Fujimi look over at Lori's paper, growl at no one, and stomp away from her.
He stomped over to Iida's team.
And Lori skipped over to his.
"We did it, Izuku! We did it!" Lori said before throwing Midoriya into a hug as awkwardly powerful as the one she gave him earlier.
This really wasn't his day.
No matter how much she tried to fight it, Kendou couldn't completely quell the urge to punch Lori in the face. Even though she knew that it was stupid, even though the locker room talk made it clear that no one else cared about how she was acting, the sight of Lori hugging Midoriya with her insanely tall body and throwing him right into her chest was making a storm of rage swell up inside her, and she hated every ounce of force it blew at.
"Quite infuriating, isn't it?" Turning to her left, Kendou saw that it was Aoyama of all people who asked the question.
"Wh-What do you—"
"My cheese is still messed up from Shiozaki-san's Quirk," Aoyama said as he nibbled on a piece of rose-scented cheese.
"Uh, yeah, sure, whatever," Kendou said.
"Hey, it's important to be outspoken about the things you like and the things you don't like, even if some people only see them as a minor inconvenience, non?" Aoyama looked at Kendou with the same goofy expression he always wore, though Kendou couldn't shake the feeling that there was an inkling of perceptiveness behind it. She couldn't shake it until he shoved a piece of cheese into her mouth; at that point, she couldn't hesitate to put him out of her mind.
As Aoyama kept eating cheese and Mineta kept gawking at Midoriya and Lori's skinship, Kendou went off on her own to talk to the one person in the area who could help her with whatever it was she was dealing with.
"Something wrong, Kendou?" Seraph asked.
"No, nothing's wrong, per se, but, well, could you move Lori to a different team?" Every syllable of the sentence felt weird as they came out of her mouth.
"Why should I do that?"
"I just don't think we'll be able to work well with her after what happened earlier today."
"The other people on your team don't seem to mind having her around."
"Midoriya could stand to look more comfortable."
"Maybe, but how much is he hating this if he's not even the one coming to me? Why is it you, anyway?" Kendou couldn't come up with anything good to say in response to that. "Look, as awkward as this might be for you, you just need to deal with it. Once you're a Pro, you'll often have to work with people you don't like, so this is good practice. Also, I already put away the board, so it's kind of out of my hands at this point."
"Fine. Sorry for bugging you," Kendou said, her posture falling into a slouch.
"That's the spirit! Better keep it up, because we're starting this thing in three, two, now!"
Seraph snapped his fingers and Kendou and the rest of the group were enveloped in a bright light. When it faded, Kendou saw that she and the rest of her team had been teleported to what looked like the top of a mountain. And Lori was still hugging Midoriya.
"O-Okay, enough!" Midoriya said as he finally broke away from her.
"What the hell are you doing, man?! Don't cut a golden moment like this short!" Mineta said. Kendou suddenly felt like hitting Mineta, but she didn't feel as bad about it as she did with Lori.
"Yeah, I guess I let that go on a little long. That's what happens when you're in love, you know?" Lori asked.
"No, I don't, and that's the thing! You keep saying that you l-love me and all, but why? Is it just because you're thankful that I saved you from the golem?"
"Hey, I'm not blinded with gratitude or anything; I could have handled it by myself, you know. Still, the way you moved in without hesitation to save me was so beautiful. You surged with a radiant energy I had never even heard of before. It all just sent my heart aflutter in ways I've never felt before. For the first time, my coming to the surface had meaning; for the first time, I was living up to the goals that King Orin set out for his people. Isn't that just grand?"
The smile on Lori's face was one of complete innocence and sincerity. To Kendou, everything she just said was nothing but a bunch of cheesy nonsense, but she was serious about every word of it. There was a bit of charm to that kind of honesty, Kendou had to admit, but not enough to make up for anything. At least she thought it wasn't.
"Grand? I don't know. I-I don't know anything about any of this stuff, that's what I'm trying to say," Midoriya said. "Love's never really been on my mind before, so when you say stuff like that, I don't know how to respond. I-I don't hate you or anything, but I'm haunted by the kiss that you should never have given me, so can we just, I don't know, be friends?"
"Just friends?" Lori's face fell for a moment before working its way back into a smile. "Yeah, I can live with that. Don't think that means I'm giving up, though!" Before Midoriya could say anything, Lori pulled him into another hug, though that was thankfully—Kendou being the only one thanking anything—short.
"Hey Lori, I want to just be friends, too, so how about we—" Kendou cut Mineta off by picking him up with an enlarged hand and chucking him down the mountain.
"Look at Mineta taking the lead like that. Let's go follow him," Kendou said.
"O-Okay," Midoriya said.
"Gotcha, Captain!" Lori said. Aoyama just nodded his head at Kendou, still looking at her in the weird way he decided to look at her.
All in all, Kendou just wanted the day to be over.
"Okay, listen up and listen well. We're gonna go out there, force everyone out of hiding, and kill them until they die, got it?" Those were the first words Uraraka heard come out of Bakugou's mouth when they and the rest of their team ended up being teleported to a small lake.
"Do you have a plan to actually find people, or are we just going to wander around aimlessly?" Uraraka asked. Bakugou snarled at her and she jumped behind a tree for her own protection.
"She's not wrong, you know. We need a better strategy than just running around hoping to find someone," Sero said.
"Fine, have it your way. Fatty, where are your friends gonna run off to?" Bakugou asked.
"M-Me? Oh, bother," Tadan said, breaking out in a small sweat. "Um, let's see. Sekigai-san will probably go somewhere high up so she can observe the entire field, Mongoose-san will probably stay in an area with a lot of coverage so she can sneak up on people. L-Lori-san's kind of weird, so I don't know what she'll do, and Fujimi-kun, well, he's probably just going to come straight for us. Oh, bother."
"Just a bunch of vague crap. Thanks for nothing, Fatty!" Tadan then jumped behind a tree, himself, though he did a notably poorer job of hiding behind it than Uraraka did with hers. "Whatever. Let's just go after that pasty-faced bastard. That's the easiest way of getting Deku and Karate Kid, and it's not like I don't want a piece of him, too."
"We can't go after Iida-kun's team! That's suicide!" Uraraka said.
"Says who?!"
"Basic logic!"
"No, wait, that's actually not a bad idea," Ashido said. "Uraraka, you're saying it's suicide because everyone's going to be going after either us or Iida's team, right? That makes sense, but if we're all in the same place, then that makes having our location broadcasted pointless, so things become more even. Plus, having everyone in one place will make it easier to take everyone out, won't it?"
"Um, wait, what?" It took her a second, but Uraraka eventually understood what Ashido was trying to say.
"Huh. Didn't think any of you morons would be able to figure out basic shit like this," Bakugou said.
"Yeah, well, I'm kind of a master strategist. Comes with the trade," Ashido said.
"Playing one Fire Emblem game doesn't make that a fact," Kirishima said.
"Says you!"
"It wasn't even one of the hard ones!"
"Fight about this crap on the way there!" Bakugou said as he headed off away from the lake, presumably towards where Iida's team was. Uraraka forced her way away from her tree and joined the rest of the team as they followed after him.
Just like I thought, working with this guy's nothing but a nightmare! Uraraka thought. I mean, I'm not dead yet, so it might not be as bad as I thought, but this is still the worst!
"I don't want any more arguing! We're going after that freckle-faced bastard, and that's final!" Fujimi said. Iida didn't understand what was meant to be final about that, but regardless, something like that could not stand, no matter how many times Fujimi chose to say it underneath the giant trees Seraph teleported them to.
"Again, I would strongly advise against that, Fujimi-kun!" Iida said. "Rushing into a fight with anyone would be foolish, but it's downright irresponsible when Midoriya-kun is involved! His strength and wide assortment of other abilities make a straightforward fight near impossible!"
"I don't give a shit, I just want him to go down!"
"It's like looking in a mirror," Jirou said.
"Fujimi-kun, you might not be aware of it, but Midoriya-kun is undoubtedly the strongest person in our class, possibly our entire grade—wait, I shouldn't say that when I have yet to see the full extent of Komori-kun's abilities."
"Aw, that's so sweet of you!" Komori said.
"Back to the point, the guy is stronger and faster than all of us combined. Charging in headfirst could work if we had someone like Tokoyami or Todoroki with us, but we don't, so it's stupid," Ojiro said.
"Yeah, well we're doing it anyway, so all of you figure something out!" Fujimi said. It was bad enough that he was trying to force them into a ridiculous and poorly devised plan, but now he was putting it all on them to work out the logistics of it. Iida truly hoped that not everyone at Isamu Academy was this hard to deal with.
"Whatever we end up doing, we need to decide on it before everyone here swarms us. Bakugou's team is already on that, so it won't be long before the others do the same," Jirou said, Koda nodding his head as she spoke.
"That white-haired asshole better get in line!"
"And we better get a move on. That's the only way we can even live out this hypothetical revenge fantasy of yours."
"We still need to find a way to slow everyone down until our location stops being broadcasted. Any ideas?" Ojiro asked.
"Me! Me! Me!" Komori said.
"Yes, Komori-kun?!" Iida asked. In lieu of an answer, Komori pulled a black mushroom out of her hair and threw it onto the ground, causing it to explode and release a massive cloud of smoke.
"A smokescreen? How long will it last?" Ojiro asked.
"Long enough to get this party started." Komori started waving her hands around rapidly in random directions, and when she stopped, the image of a glowing mushroom appeared in the air. "Hey hey hey, oh me oh my, let's all hang out with a bunch of fun guys. Shroom Buddies, come forth!"
Out from the ground appeared a mushroom that glowed red and had stubby arms. Another one appeared, then another, and another, and another all the way until there were dozens of mushrooms sprouting out from the ground.
""Lady Kinoko, kino!"" the Shroom Buddies shouted in tiny, enthusiastic voices.
"Hey guys, guess what? It's me!" Komori said. "Today's target is everyone who isn't us, so go disperse and beat up whoever you can find, okay?"
""As you command, kino!"" The Shroom Buddies marched off—slid off, Iida supposed made more sense—away from the group and in a variety of directions. At first, Iida wondered about the practicality of leaving the job of subduing their opponents to such tiny allies, but then something happened to change his mind on the matter: one of the Shroom Buddies bumped into Fujimi's foot, and when he wouldn't move out of the way, the Shroom Buddy picked him clear up off the ground and moved him out of its way with a judo flip.
"Oh, I see! These familiars possess physical strength that far surpasses what one would expect from their tiny bodies! This is a brilliant play, Komori-kun!"
"Yes, yes, praise me some more, already!" Komori said with a laugh.
"This is why I hate plant magic users," Fujimi said.
"I don't exactly hate her, but I do understand the sentiment," Ojiro said.
"Everyone! Let us move out at once!" Iida shouted with authority. He had a good feeling about their chances, he really did.
"Please don't throw me again," Mineta said after picking himself back up.
"Well see how things go," Kendou said. Midoriya couldn't help but notice the sour tone Kendou was speaking in. Thinking about it, she had been in a bit of a mood ever since they first arrived at Isamu, or at least not long afterward, but for the life of him, he couldn't figure out why.
"Okay, let's go bust some heads, guys!" Lori said while standing a little too close to Midoriya.
"Y-Yeah!" Midoriya said. "W-Well, the first thing we should do is—" Lori put a finger in front of his mouth before he could finish.
"Whatever plan you have, don't say it out loud. Kashiko can use her magitek to spy on people, so even a whisper is no good."
"So what do you suggest, then?" Kendou asked.
"A brilliant plan, actually, and all it requires is your consent."
"Yes! Do whatever you want to me, however hard you want to do it!" Mineta said. Midoriya and Aoyama agreed with the sentiment, at the very least, and Kendou did the same at the end of an awkward silence.
"So what happens now?" Midoriya asked.
This is what happens now. The voice sounded like Lori's, but her mouth wasn't moving, and it sounded like a thought inside of his own head.
"Tele—" Midoriya cut himself off; if it was really what he thought, then he needed to speak with his mind, not his mouth. Telepathy?!
Right on the money, Izuku! I'm a one in a million Atlantean whose telepathy works on things other than sea life. This way, we can communicate without anyone eavesdropping on us. Pretty cool, right?
It's quite brilliant if I don't say so, myself, Aoyama thought.
Yeah, it's great, but just give me a second to clear my head, Mineta thought.
Izuku? Lori looked at him with anticipation, and he had no reason not to respond to it.
Y-Yeah. It really is great, Lori-san, Midoriya thought.
Yay!
So the plan for winning is what, then? Going after Bakugou or Iida's team like everyone else will be? Kendou thought with a hint of aggression.
No, we probably wouldn't be able to get out of that without a loss or two. We should try and find one of the other teams before everyone gets together and do what we can to take them out. From what I can tell, Yaoyorozu-san's team is the closest to ours. Oh, Lori-san, I saw that with—
Super vision, right? I know, I'm in your head. Midoriya laughed a little, and Kendou groaned a bit, for some reason. Anyway, let's not go right up to them; there's an easier way to take them out, just point me in their exact direction.
Um, okay? Midoriya did just that, all the while having no idea what Lori was up to; Lori being the one to establish the psychic link must have allowed her to keep thoughts private if she chose to do so, he surmised.
Okay, this is when things get good. Lori did a few stretches before lifting her right leg high up behind her like a gymnast or a ballerina. Just as Midoriya and the rest of the team started to wonder what she was doing, her scaly foot morphed into a sort of funnel shape. Water began to bubble out from the top to the point of overflowing, and every drop that hit the ground seemed to make a small crater.
Huh. Guess she can do something other than talk to fish, Kendou thought.
What are you—
Seven Seas Strike! Lori cut Midoriya off with a kick into the air that released a giant bubble from her leg in the direction of Yaoyorozu's team. With Midoriya's enhanced vision, he saw the bubble hit Kaminari and release a high-pressure explosion of water that knocked everyone back. Yaoyorozu, Hagakure, Todoroki, and Sekigai appeared relatively fine, but Kaminari was clearly unconscious and drenched in saltwater. Up in the sky, giant gold letters appeared declaring Kaminari to have lost consciousness, all thanks to whatever Lori had done.
Holy crap! What the hell was that?! Mineta thought.
Awesome genetics, that's what! You definitely didn't know this, but I'm a tiger pistol shrimp Atlantean.
A tiger pistol shrimp Atlantean?! Midoriya thought.
Is that supposed to be a big deal? Kendou thought.
It's an amazing deal! The tiger pistol shrimp, sometimes called a laser shrimp, is one of the deadliest creatures in the sea! It can shoot an air bubble from its claws at over one hundred kilometers an hour that creates a massive shockwave on impact to take down anyone surrounding its prey! That sounds incredible, right? So imagine that kind of power being adjusted to a human-sized body, not unlike how the radioactive spider that gave Black Spider his powers gave him the powers of a spider as adjusted to the proportions of a human body. Lori-san's bubble can probably go even faster than that and hit even harder if she wants it to, and then if you add on the natural abilities Atlantean physiology gives someone like super strength and super speed, and even the telepathic abilities she's able to muster up—
Don't you think that's about enough? Kendou cut in.
O-Oh, right. Sorry. Midoriya hadn't meant to ramble on like that, so he couldn't blame Kendou for her comment—even if she was being a little more curt about it than usual. He had never seen something like Lori's powerset before, and thinking about all of the implications got him excited to the point that he forgot he was supposed to be feeling awkward around her.
Don't be sorry. I actually found it pretty flattering, Lori thought. And you know, if you're thinking what I think you're thinking, then we're about to have a whole lotta fun.
Yaoyorozu picked herself up, created a battery-powered hairdryer, and started using it to dry off all the saltwater making its way into her clothes. It was hardly a sequence of events she thought she'd be undertaking, and yet there she was.
"Are you okay?" Todoroki asked.
"Fine enough, I suppose," Yaoyorozu said.
"Hagakure, are you—"
"I'm fine, thanks for pretending to care," Hagakure said while knocking water out of her invisible ears. Todoroki glared at her for a second before turning away from her; Yaoyorozu would have preferred if the opposite of that had happened.
"Sekigai, I'm guessing that was one of your friends?"
"Yes, that had to be Lori-san," Sekigai said as blue light ran over her body and dried her off. "My drones didn't pick up on any conversation from her team, so she must have established a telepathic link with them. Still, how did she know where we were?"
"Midoriya-kun must have done it! His eyes let him do a bunch of different stuff, including seeing things from super far away!" Hagakure said.
"That's unfortunate," Sekigai said while images flashed across her visor. "Well, they're still far away, so if we move to somewhere with a lot of coverage, we can avoid another hit like that. Unless this Midoriya-kun has super speed or something."
"Yeah, about that." Sekigai groaned as Hagakure rattled off more of Midoriya's powers.
"Do we just leave Kaminari-san here?" Yaoyorozu asked.
"Seraph didn't say anything about that, so it's probably fine," Todoroki said.
"Feels a tad morbid, though."
"Who cares? There are more important things to worry about." It wasn't that Yaoyorozu didn't know he was right, because he certainly was, but that didn't mean he had to be so callous with his classmates, either way. It was that kind of behavior that made people like Hagakure react so negatively to everything he did.
It was at that moment when Todoroki summoned a giant wall of ice in front of Hagakure that narrowly missed hitting her.
"Um, Todoroki-san?"
"What the hell are you doing?! Are you trying to kill me, too?!" Hagakure asked.
"Try looking at the ice," Todoroki said, pointing at a spot on the wall in front of Hagakure. Yaoyorozu saw that a small part of the wall was cracking, and on the other side of the wall was what appeared to be a mushroom that was somehow punching the wall. "I saw it running at you. You're welcome."
"Welcome a helping of our fists, kino!" the mushroom said as it kept punching the ice with it's stubby little arms. Each hit cracked it more and more, but it wasn't until two more mushrooms appeared and head-butted the ice that a hole was finally made. Yaoyorozu and Hagakure jumped out of the way while Todoroki attacked them with another blast of ice, though they managed to narrowly avoid it.
"Think you're tough, kino?!" one of the mushrooms asked.
"Not tough enough, kino!" another mushroom said.
"And here I thought my class had a stranglehold on the eccentrics," Kashiko said. She pressed some random spots on one of her wrist-guards, and from there, blue light shot out of her costume that morphed into a pair of spiked, pixelated tonfas.
"Let's go, Todoroki-san!" Yaoyorozu said as she created a bo staff in her hands. Todoroki said nothing as ice formed around his right side. She didn't expect more than that, but it still would have been nice.
That could be dealt with later, though. For now, there were talking mushrooms to fight.
"My kin and I shall be avenged, kino!" was what the last mushroom shouted as Shiozaki squeezed the life out of it and made it burst into a pile of gummy mushrooms. Tokoyami knew from the class they shared together that Komori was the only one who can do something like this, but he was hoping he wouldn't have had to see it, if only because it was kind of stupid.
"May you find salvation in the next life. Amen," Shiozaki said, her hands clasped in prayer.
"Shouji-chan, are you okay, ribbit?" Tsuyu said.
"You took a lot of punches for Tsuyu-chan and me, after all," Mongoose said as gummy mushrooms fell out of her mouth.
"I'm fine," Shouji said as he brushed some blood off of his arms.
"You really are, aren't you? Those little guys hit like a truck made out of fists, and all you've got are some bruises and a little internal and external bleeding. Nice job, buddy!" Dark Shadow said with a thumbs up. Tokoyami supposed that that counted as praise, but it wasn't enough to earn any applause from him.
"Anyway, Komori is capable of magic far more powerful than this. Once she sees that her basic familiars have fallen, she'll employ stronger enemies for us to fight. We should hurry and leave this area before we are discovered again," Tokoyami said.
"Too late for that, Fumi." A flashing neon arrow appeared in the air next to Dark Shadow that pointed up towards the air. Tokoyami would have preferred not to indulge him, but he still found himself looking up at the artificial sky. Upon doing so, he was greeted with the sight of Midoriya flying in the air while holding the Atlantean girl by her waist.
The second he caught sight of that, a giant bubble was launched down at them at incredible speed. Tokoyami didn't have time to react to it, but fortunately, Shiozaki created a barrier of vines above everyone that was able to absorb the impact, though the resulting explosion of water was powerful enough to push them down into the ground.
"Tokoyami-san, are you all right?" Shiozaki asked. Tokoyami just nodded his head. "Good. That's a relief to hear."
"What the hell was that?" Shouji asked.
"It's Lori-chan, and it looks like she flies now," Mongoose said.
"She flies now?" Tsuyu asked.
"She flies now!" Dark Shadow said. As he said that, Lori Lemaris was releasing multiple bubbles down at the ground while Midoriya spun her around. Another one came at them that Shiozaki managed to block again, but a third one hit the ground further away from them. The resulting explosion managed to get underneath Shiozaki's barrier, and as water flew at them, Shouji jumped in the way to intercept the blast. Even someone with Shouji's level of strength couldn't completely absorb the attack, and he ended up knocked back into the rest of the team and pushing them all into a tree.
"Shouji, are you all right?" Tokoyami asked. He shook him by the shoulder, but he was unresponsive, and a second later, the same gold letters that announced Kaminari's elimination did the same for Shouji's.
"And another one bites the dust. Ain't that a shame," Dark Shadow said as Shiozaki pushed Shouji off of them.
"This is bad, guys," Mongoose said as they watched Midoriya fly past a barrage of energy missiles and a tower of ice. "Lori-chan's already really tough, but if she's got a boost in mobility like this, we're done for!"
"Not if I just, you know, take them out," Dark Shadow said. Suddenly, a comically large bazooka appeared in his hands; Tokoyami's heart nearly leaped out of his chest. "Just say the word and I'll blast 'em clear out of the sky. By the way, you're all in the splash zone, so—"
"Out of the question, you fiend!" Tokoyami said.
"Huh. Been a while since you called me something like that," Dark Shadow said as the bazooka vanished.
"Bite your tongue!" Dark Shadow reached into his mouth and pulled out a pair of dentures that he then clamped shut onto his now comically large tongue.
"Am I missing something?" Mongoose asked.
"I'm just as lost as you," Tsuyu said. Good, Tokoyami thought. Neither of them knew the extent of the chaos he could bring about, and neither of them needed to know. Better to have them live in blissful ignorance than be forever burdened with the harshness of reality.
As those thoughts bounced around in his head, a prickly hand rubbed the top of his head.
"This is my hair doing this, not me," Shiozaki said. Tokoyami elected to ignore that.
"Dark Shadow, if it will sate your appetite, then I wish for you to bring Midoriya down to the ground as soon as possible," Tokoyami said.
"Yay! Be back in a jiffy!" Dark Shadow said before launching himself into the air.
"By all means, take as many jiffies as you need." He really meant that.
"Dammit, dammit, dammit, dammit!" For once, Uraraka and Bakugou were of the same mind. She normally wouldn't believe something like that, but when it was raining giant bombs of water overhead not long after you just finished dealing with sentient magic mushrooms, it was hard to not want to yell out in frustration. Not that she actually had the nerve to do something like that.
"Okay, I'll admit it, Fire Emblem didn't do anything to prepare me for this!" Ashido said as she kicked Kirishima out of the way of an incoming bubble.
"It didn't prepare you for anything!" Kirishima said right before picking Ashido up and throwing her out of the radius of another watery explosion, his own body hardening enough to resist the blow. Uraraka could have sworn that it looked like they were taking turns saving each other, but there were probably more important things to worry about; not dying was probably one of them.
"Fatty! Blow those assholes out of the sky!" Bakugou shouted.
"I-I'll do what I can! Magical Missile Bombardment, go!" Tadan wiped a line of sweat off of his face before turning up towards the artificial sky. The target marks on his suit started glowing blue, and soon enough, a multitude of beams was fired out from each one in Midoriya's direction. Some of the beams were intercepted by the bubbles Lori fired off, but others Midoriya simply dodged; Uraraka might have been impressed with his skills if it wasn't having a negative effect on her.
As Uraraka made that remark in her head, she found herself tripping over a tree root, and by the time she managed to pick herself up, a giant bubble was heading her way too quickly for her to dodge.
Taken out by a bubble. Yeah, that seems appropriate, Uraraka thought. She had more than accepted her fate, yet before it could be realized, Bakugou, of all people, flew over and pulled her out of the way of both the bubble and the resulting explosion.
What?
"Nice one, man!" Kirishima said with a thumbs up.
"The hell are you doing, spacing out like that, Round Face?! There's no time for you to act like a moron!" Bakugou said as he slammed Uraraka back onto her feet.
"What? D-Did you save me?"
"No, I saved our chances of winning! Trying to win with just five people would be a pain in the ass this early on, so like hell, I'd let that happen!"
"Oh my God, you're not as bad as Todoroki-kun. Being on the same team as you is a good thing." The realization of that was almost enough to bring a tear to her eye. It didn't do that, but it almost did.
"I don't need you to tell me that! If you got time to point out the obvious, you got time to find some cover!"
"Sounds good to me! Keep doing what you're doing, Tadan, the rest of us are going for a tactical retreat!" Ashido said as she and Kirishima ran away from the scene.
When another watery explosion just barely stopped short of her face, Uraraka decided that that was a good idea as well, and she—much to her own surprise—happily did that alongside Bakugou.
"Dammit, dammit, dammit, dammit!" For once, Jirou and Fujimi were of the same mind; it was an odd thought to have in regards to someone she had only known for an afternoon, but the boy was surprisingly hard to get along with.
"Relax, she'll run outta juice eventually, and my marvelous shield should hold until then," Komori said, pointing up to the giant luminescent mushroom that was protecting them from Lori's onslaught.
"That's not what's pissing me off!"
"What is it, then?" Jirou asked.
"Uh, guys? We gotta move!" Ojiro's shout brought everyone's attention to how multiple bubbles were being launched into the same spot at once and making it literally crack under pressure. It only took one more explosion of salt water for a hole to be torn through the mushroom and for the entire thing to start disintegrating; Koda's tiny yelp was a clear sign that Ojiro needed to be listened to. Before the next bubble struck, Jirou grabbed Koda and dragged him away from the scene, Iida scooped Komori off the ground and dashed away, and Ojiro and Fujimi were left to fend for themselves; they did a decent job of it.
"This is bad. Midoriya-kun and Lori-kun have completely taken control of the battle!" Iida said as he pulled Komori away from his midsection.
"Midoriya! That bastard!" Fujimi said with a snarl.
"Komori-kun, could you summon a mushroom long enough to hit them while they're in the air?"
"Technically, yes, but I'd be making something that looks pretty phallic to do so," Komori said with an exasperated look on her face.
"Oh, right, never mind, then. Other people are handling him, so don't think about something like that." Iida wasn't lying. As Lori kept firing off bubbles, Midoriya kept having to dodge pillars of ice from Todoroki, energy blasts from who knows who, and all of a sudden, a Dark Shadow in hot pursuit.
"Don't tell her that! We gotta do whatever we can to take that bastard down and make him pay!" Fujimi said.
"Calm down. He hasn't even taken any of us out," Ojiro said.
"That's not what this is about, you idiot! You blind, or something?!"
"Blind to what?"
"To him grabbing her waist, that's what!" The background noise was supposed to be like something out of a war zone, but for Jirou, everything felt silent enough to hear a pin drop.
"Well, it is a rather efficient way for Midoriya-kun to carry her and ensure that she doesn't fall," Iida said.
"Who cares?! Where the hell does he get the right to grab her like that?! Someone give me a gun so I can shoot him out of the sky!"
"Oh my God, just knock it off, already!" Jirou said. "We all know why you're doing this, but that doesn't change the fact that it's just so stupid!"
"No one asked you!"
"So what? Why do you care so much about what those two do together? What, are you in love with Lori, or something?"
There was another pause in the conversation. Then, at some point, Fujimi's face gained color for the first time that day, the color being a light shade of red.
"Oh," was all Jirou managed to say, not at all believing things would actually go in such a direction.
"Seriously? That's what this has been about? You're jealous?" Ojiro asked.
"Aw, that's so adorable!" Komori said, the statement punctuated with a bit of a squeal.
"Shut up! No one asked you, so shut up!" Fujimi said. Suddenly, Jirou didn't find his attitude and personality so aggravating, though that might have been due to the sudden revelation throwing her mind elsewhere.
"Wait, if you're acting like this because you have feelings for Lori, does that mean Kendou—" Jirou's thoughts were interrupted by one of Lori's bubbles exploding against her back; losing consciousness naturally took precedence over whatever sort of conclusion she was coming to.
More of Dadan's missiles coming our way! Lori thought, prompting Midoriya to make another quick aerial maneuver to dodge out of the way. None of the missiles ever flew so fast that they could do more than graze him—he felt an odd tingle every time that happened—but that didn't mean he could relax. Not while it was his current job to help Lori do her thing.
It was a simple, yet elegant plan: Midoriya would lift Lori into the air, fly around the area, and then Lori would rain down on the other teams with her high-powered bubbles. Bakugou was the only one capable of some variation of flight, but they were flying too high even for him. The only people who Midoriya knew had means of hitting him in the air were Tadan—something he knew thanks to Lori—and Todoroki, and while the two of them kept trying to hit him, they kept failing to do so.
Initially, the only problem with the plan seemed to be that it forced Midoriya to make extended physical contact with Lori, but once he got himself to stop thinking about how Lori's stomach felt against his arms and started thinking about the time All Might and Wonder Woman saved President Beth Ross from Doctor Psycho VII, it became little more than a minor inconvenience. With no internal or external distractions to be found, it truly was a perfect plan.
"How's it going, kid? Pretty good, by the looks of it." At least it was until Dark Shadow appeared in front of them out of nowhere.
Lori-san, you've got to attack him! Midoriya thought.
Right! Seven Seas Strike! Lori turned her transformed leg towards Dark Shadow and fired off one of her bubbles. Dark Shadow, in return, materialized a needle out of nowhere and harmlessly popped it, somehow not triggering an explosion in the process. So we should run, right?
Already on it! Midoriya turned around and flew away from Dark Shadow as fast as he could. Midoriya had no idea how he would fare against something like Dark Shadow, and he wasn't in the mood to test that out if someone was going to end up in the crossfire.
"Not gonna work, buddy boy!" Dark Shadow said as black tendrils and cannonballs with winking smiley faces painted on them shot out of his back at them. Midoriya managed to cut them with his heat vision and Lori managed to bat them away with her lobster claw-gloved hands—still assaulting the other teams with bubbles the entire time—but it was just barely enough. Not only that, but in addition to Dark Shadow's attacks, Midoriya still had to avoid Tadan's magic missiles and the occasional pillar of ice from Todoroki. Dodging all of it was becoming an arduous task, made even more so by the sight of Dark Shadow slipping through all of the same attacks as if his body was made of butter.
Midoriya, on your left! Kendou's voice boomed in his head like a drum, so he naturally did what she said, and when he did, he was met with the sight of a giant mass of vines barreling towards him and Lori. That had to be Shiozaki's magic at work, and even if it wasn't, it was still more trouble than he needed.
It does give me an idea, though, Midoriya thought. He ducked and weaved his way around laser beams and tendrils and cannonballs the best that he could until he had himself positioned exactly where he wanted to be: with Shiozaki's approaching hair between him and Dark Shadow. As it came at him, he let out a heavy exhale and hit it with a blast of freeze breath. The vines were quickly encased in ice and frozen in place, creating a blunt object that Dark Shadow soon flew right into and allowed Midoriya to widen the gap between them.
Nice one, Izuku! Lori thought.
Thanks! Midoriya thought. I wasn't completely sure that would work, but—
Just head back here, already. This plan won't work anymore, so we need to try a ground assault, next, Kendou thought; for some reason, Midoriya could have sworn he heard Kendou groan in his head.
"Watch where you're going, man!" Dark Shadow said. Midoriya turned his head around to see that he was pouring a pot of cheese fondue on the frozen mass. "I don't know how they do things where you're from, but you gotta look both ways here." As the fondue vanished, the ice melted away and freed the vines. The vines moved in a way that resembled someone nodding their head before retreating out of the sky, and Dark Shadow went back to chasing Midoriya, getting too close to comfort within a matter of seconds.
Lori-san, throw as many bubbles as you can at Dark Shadow! Midoriya thought.
But that thing will just—oh, okay, that's a good plan, Lori thought. Lori launched a half dozen bubbles at Dark Shadow, and Dark Shadow harmlessly popped all of them with tiny needles. That was the plan, of course, as it left him distracted enough for Midoriya to move his tongue in a way that allowed him to exhale an arm made of ice and punch Dark Shadow in the face with it.
"Hope we have similar appetites, buddy boy!" Dark Shadow said, a giant boxing glove appearing out of thin air that hit Midoriya and Lori and sent them both careening into the ground at the feet of their teammates.
Ow. Does he always hit like that? Lori asked.
If it's too much for you to handle, you can just— Kendou's thoughts were cut off by Dark Shadow touching down on the ground in front of them. It stared at them with empty, malicious eyes, the dark energy making up its body silently vibrating all the while. Midoriya jumped in front of Lori, who was still taking her time to stand back up, and put up his guard. If the encounter with Mister Mxyzptlk was anything to go by, it was probably pointless effort on his part, but the alternative choice at his feet wasn't exactly anything to go all-in on.
"Aw man, you're actually on the ground. Not gonna lie, that's pretty disappointing," Dark Shadow said. Immediately after the words left his mouth, he turned away from Midoriya and flew back into the air.
"Um, what? What's happening?" Midoriya asked.
"Fumi only wished for me to bring you down to the ground, and I did that, so we're done here. Shame, really; I had so many fun things on my mind. Maybe next time. Maybe." Dark Shadow flew out of sight before anything else could be said, though if Midoriya was being honest, he was happy that no one got the chance to say anything else.
"Oh thank God for that! The last thing we needed was that thing turning into a giant sword or whatever like it did in class!" Mineta said, his body shaking like a leaf.
"Oh, I'm certain we would have been okay," Aoyama said. He was smiling the same as always, but his body was shaking just like Mineta's.
"Man, U.A.'s full of tons of crazy guys," Lori said, finally picking herself up. "Tons of crazy guys, and you gotta deal with them every day? Throw in how you're always so quick to protect me, and you're really one super guy, you know that?" Midoriya didn't know what to say for that, so he just settled for an awkward laugh.
"Yeah, real funny. If we've got time to laugh about this, then we can get moving, you know," Kendou said.
"Just trying to bring a little levity, Captain."
"You should have tried to bring your A-game. Maybe if you did, you could have taken out Tokoyami before he sicked his Genie on you and ruined what should have been a great plan. Thanks for that, Lori; truly magnificent work!" Kendou stomped away in a huff, her footsteps occasionally leaving a deep imprint in the ground.
"Um, sorry?" Lori's expression made it clear that she had no idea what the best way to respond was. Mineta and Aoyama's faces did the same, and Midoriya could feel his face moving into that sort of shape, as well.
"You know, I think it'd be best if Midoriya-kun and Kendou-san took the lead here," Aoyama said.
"What are you talking about?" Mineta asked.
"I wonder that myself, sometimes. Still, you must think it's a good idea, right, Midoriya-kun?" Aoyama winked at Midoriya as if he was in on something, but he was at a loss to figure out what. Still, it wasn't exactly a bad way for things to go, so let Aoyama hold everyone back while he ran after Kendou.
"Kendou-san?" Midoriya asked.
"Look, I'm not just walking off, or anything, I'm heading towards Iida's team. Their location's still going to be broadcasted for a few minutes, so let's make the most of it," Kendou said. She didn't even look at him when she spoke.
"No, that's not—are you mad at Lori-san?"
"Yes!" That much was obvious, but he still needed to confirm it so he could properly get to the real issue.
"Are you mad at me?"
"Yes!" Midoriya would have rather not heard that.
"Why?" Kendou finally stopped walking and turned around to face him. Her face looked like she couldn't decide if she wanted to be angry or if she wanted to be sad; in a way, he understood why she was trying to not have him look at her.
"I don't know, okay?! Ever since Lori kissed you, all I've wanted to do is punch her in the face, and every time I see you two acting friendly, it makes it even worse, and then it starts spilling over onto you! Everyone keeps saying that there's no reason to be so annoyed by it, but I can't stop myself, and I don't get why! I don't want to be mad at her, I definitely don't want to be mad at you, but it just keeps happening, and I hate it!"
With all of that said and done, Midoriya concluded that her expression leaned closer to sadness than it did anger.
"Jirou-kun, no!" Iida shouted after confirming that his teammate and friend was rendered unconscious by Midoriya and Lori's assault. Her defeat might have been broadcasted for everyone to see, but he didn't feel like it was wrong to hope for some sort of mistake to have been made.
"Alas, poor Jirou, I knew thee for a few hours," Komori said. "Well, at least Tskymi got them to stop attacking everyone. Want me to send out more Shroom Buddies? I can totally do that."
"Don't you dare. It's my turn to go wild," Fujimi said. "Grabbing Lori like that was bad enough, but then he goes and lets her get hit by something stupid like a giant boxing glove?!"
"Wait, are you mad that she got hit or that she got hit by something stupid?" Ojiro asked.
"It doesn't matter!"
"But you made it sound like—"
"The point is that I'm gonna slaughter that son of a bitch and all of his stupid friends!" Iida wanted to ask Fujimi for clarification on whether or not they were included in that, but before he could, Fujimi started waving his hands around in strange patterns and shouting things in an unrecognizable language, his body glowing purple the whole while. After a few seconds of that, Fujimi slammed his hands together, shouted another word that Iida couldn't understand, and summoned at least a dozen ethereal crystal skulls into the air. Whatever sort of magic Fujimi was using, it was clearly of a darker variety than what Komori or any of the other magic users specialized in.
"Whoa whoa whoa whoa! Necromancy? Are you serious, man?!" Komori asked.
"Necromancy?! You mean he's someone capable of raising the dead?!" Iida asked.
"You bet your ass I am, but only the opposite's gonna happen today!" Fujimi said.
"You're actually gonna kill someone over this?!" Ojiro asked.
"Come on, he's not that stupid. He is, however, stupid enough to use a spell that's clearly above his pay grade," Komori said.
"The hell it is!" Fujimi said.
"You say that, but I can taste it all the way from here that you can't handle what you're trying to do, right now."
"I don't care!"
"Fujimi-kun, Komori-kun seems like she knows what she's talking about, so I would highly suggest that you heed her warning!" Iida said.
"This is what I think of your fucking warning!" Fujimi slammed his hands against the ground and the crystal skulls flew out in seemingly random directions, though if Iida had to hazard a guess, he'd hazard that they were all somehow going to where each of the other teams were. Fujimi laughed like a madman through the entire process, and Iida couldn't help but feel that it was highly appropriate.
"So what are we in for, exactly?" Ojiro asked.
"Well, I know it's only, like, one in the afternoon, but the midnight hour is pretty close at hand," Komori said.
"I see. I don't understand at all, but thank you for the input!" Iida said. There was nothing else to be said, but he was sure he'd come up with something in time.
Yaoyorozu might not have known a lot about Todoroki, but she was sure that he was feeling exhausted at the moment. Between fighting the sentient mushrooms Komori had summoned, repeatedly using his ice to protect the team from Midoriya and Lori's aerial assault, and even more repeatedly using it to try and attack him, his stamina had to be drained to its utmost limit; at the very least, he had to be freezing with how much ice was covering his body. Hagakure might not have cared what happened to him, but Yaoyorozu didn't want him to push himself further than he needed to.
It was for that reason—among others—that the sight of three crystal skulls crashing into the ground in front of them didn't please her in the slightest, and Sekigai's shocked expression did nothing to help.
"No, Fujimi-kun is using that spell? What is he thinking?" Sekigai asked as the crystal skulls sank into the dirt.
"What's going on? What are we in for?" Yaoyorozu asked.
"Nothing, so long as we get away from here, right now! It takes four minutes for the spell to go into full effect, so that should be more than enough time to—" Before Sekigai could finish, two skeleton torsos shot up out of the dirt, one in front of Sekigai, one in front of Yaoyorozu. "Oh no! He managed to shorten the activation time since the last time I saw him use it!" Sekigai pressed down on her wrist-guard and made her pixelated tonfas reappear. The second the skeleton fully made its way out of the ground, she smacked its head with her weapons so hard that it came flying off, and a heavy kick sent the rest of the body flying, as well. After forcing Todoroki behind her, Yaoyorozu did the same with her bo staff and her own heavy kick.
"I could have handled that thing," Todoroki said.
"Not without freezing yourself even further," Yaoyorozu said.
"My costume's insulated to help fight off the cold, so I'm fine."
"O-Oh. Oh." In retrospect, that sort of design made sense for someone with Todoroki's Quirk in mindset. She probably would have been able to come to that conclusion if she had thought about it for a little bit or, better yet, simply asked him about it. She'd be lying if she said that she didn't feel a little stupid about it.
"Um, guys? These things are still moving," Hagakure said. Sure enough, even without their heads attached, the skeletons managed to stand up and walk towards their decapitated heads.
"Attacks like the ones we delivered won't put those two down for good. We need to retreat and plan out something more efficient," Sekigai said.
"Hey, come to think of it, shouldn't there be a third one?" Todoroki asked. The second he said that, a third skeleton popped up out of the ground next to Hagakure and bit down on her arm.
"Hagakure-san!" Yaoyorozu said, although it was drowned out by Hagakure's screams. "Hold on, I'll—"
"The only thing any of us will do is leave!" Sekigai said. She pressed random spots on her wrist-guards and summoned up a pixelated Range Rover, the amphibious exploring vehicle then shooting out hooks from its side that grabbed the three of them and phased them through the doors and into the car.
"What are you doing, Sekigai-san?! We have to help Hagakure-san!"
"I hate to be the one to tell you this, but that thing over there isn't your friend, anymore." Sekigai started the car and drove off away from the scene. Yaoyorozu wanted to protest, she wanted to jump out and go save Hagakure, but all of those thoughts fell apart when she turned around to look at her abandoned friend, she no longer saw someone being assaulted. Instead, all she saw was a figure bathed in purple light letting out a constant moan with green saliva dripping out of her mouth, each drop burning the ground at where it landed.
It pained her to say it, but Sekigai might have been on to something.
Everything Kendou told Midoriya was, for lack of better phrasing, a lot to take in. There was a lot to unpack there, but he wasn't entirely sure about what needed to be unpacked, nor did he know the correct method of doing so. Kendou didn't seem to understand it, herself, so at least he wasn't alone in his confusion. The only thing left to do now was figure out what he was dealing with and how best to deal with it.
Fortunately for him, he got a distraction in the form of blood-curdling screams back near where the rest of the team were. Midoriya and Kendou had a silent agreement to table the discussion for later and run back to investigate the situation.
The situation, as it turned out, was Mineta and Aoyama having their necks being bitten by skeletons.
"What the hell?" Kendou asked.
"I'm sorry, I'm really, really sorry!" Lori said as she pulled the skeletons off of them. "I didn't expect Romero to actually use this spell, and I definitely didn't expect it to work so fast now! Also, you mind helping me tie your friends up?"
"What? Why?" Midoriya asked as Lori suddenly jumped towards him and Kendou.
"That's why." The skeletons stood back up, and as they did, Mineta and Aoyama appeared to undergo a transformation of some sort. Their skin turned a chalky white, their bodies became bathed in purple light, their eyes became pitch black, and as they moaned, green saliva dripped out of their mouths that burned the ground wherever it touched.
"Z-Z-Z-Zombies?!"
"Pretty much. This is Romero's favorite use of necromancy, and it's also one that's pretty uncontrollable." The skeletons and the zombified people ran at them, making it clear that they, unfortunately, weren't the kind of zombies that moved incredibly slowly. "Whatever you do, don't let them bite you! If their teeth break through your skin, you'll become one of them! Also, these guys can both regenerate and repair themselves, so don't feel like you need to hold back!"
"Good to know!" Kendou said as she jumped out of the way of one of the skeletons. Midoriya used his heat vision to cut it and the other one in half, but rather than put an end to it, the top halves just started crawling towards their lower halves. That had to be the self-repair Lori was talking about, and the regeneration was probably the justification for her punching Mineta so hard that he hit a tree and his midsection partially exploded.
"Sorry about this, Aoyama, but this isn't how I'd want us to get closer!" Kendou said as she sent Aoyama flying with a punch. Aoyama's arms ended up skewered on some tree branches, and while he struggled a bit to try and break free, eventually, he appeared to just give up. "Why doesn't he just rip off his arms, or something?"
"While Romero's zombies can regenerate their bodies, they have a natural sense of self-preservation that keeps them from harming themselves. Also, no one gets physically stronger from the zombification, so if he couldn't rip off arms as a human, he won't be able to do it now."
"Oh," was all Midoriya had to say about that. All of a sudden, the entire ordeal seemed less dangerous than when he first became aware of it. If healing was the only advantage that the magic afforded the zombies, then it probably wouldn't be that difficult to avoid them until it wore off.
"Izuku, look out!" Lori said as she and Kendou broke the skeletons apart again. Midoriya turned around to see the zombified Mineta—his wounds fully healed—coming towards him.
"It's fine, really. You said they have to break the skin, right? So if the zombies aren't any stronger than they normally are, I don't really have anything to worry—" Mineta jumped up and bit Midoriya on the arm.
And it hurt.
What?! Midoriya thought. The fact that there was any sort of sensation at all sent him into a panic and made him throw Mineta into the sky. What?! Midoriya looked down at his arm; sure enough, there was a sizable bite mark on there. What?! He bit me! He bit me and it actually hurt! How?! Why?! Mineta-kun shouldn't be strong enough to do that, so why did it happen?! No, wait, before all of that, I got bit by a zombie! I got bit by a zombie, so that means that I—now I'm going to, to—
"Oh, fuck."
"Oh, fuck," was all Dark Shadow had to say when Tokoyami and the rest of his team accidentally ran into Bakugou's team. Normally, running into them would have been a good thing, especially since they seemed to be short half of their team, but with the current crisis at hand, it was hardly ideal.
"I don't have time for you, Bird Brain, so get out of my way," Bakugou said.
"You and what army, pal? Your army that's down by half?" Bakugou just growled at Dark Shadow, who then started whistling, nonchalantly.
"Did the skeletons get Ochaco-chan, Sero-chan, and Tadan-chan?" Tsuyu asked.
"Yeah! Wait, is this happening everywhere?" Kirishima asked.
"It would appear so. We managed to escape, but the skeletons infected Shouji-san with their sinful magic, even though he was already unconscious," Shiozaki said.
"I can't believe Fujimi-chan's really using this one! Doesn't he know how dangerous it is?" Mongoose asked. Tokoyami didn't share the exact sentiment, mostly because he had seen worse, but he did understand how someone would find it too risky.
"I don't care about what's going through that pasty-faced bastard's head right now. All I care about is making sure the next thing to go through it is my fist, so move!" Tokoyami really didn't want to fight right now, but if Bakugou forced his hand, then there'd be little to be done about it.
"Wait, hold on a second!" Ashido said. "Here's a radical idea: why don't we go beat up Fujimi together?"
"What?! Why should we work with these guys?!"
"Well, both Tsuyu-chan's team and Iida's team outnumber us, but if we join up with Tsuyu-chan's team, then we'll outnumber Iida's team."
"Five, six, seven, yep, the math checks out!" Kirishima said.
"Given the circumstances, I would not object to a temporary alliance," Tokoyami said.
"Too bad, 'cause it'll be a cold day in Hell before I—" Bakugou was cut off by the rather unusual sight of Kendou and Lori Lemaris landing at their feet out of nowhere. "Karate Kid? The hell are you doing here?"
"We've got a problem," Kendou said. Before anyone could ask for clarification, a mighty roar sounded through the area, followed by the sound and sight of tree after tree being toppled. Within a matter of seconds, the perpetrator made himself visible to all and revealed himself to be Midoriya.
A Midoriya with a skin coloring and purple aura that made it clear he had been affected by Fujimi's magic.
"You have everything to fear. Why? Because me no am here!" said the zombified Midoriya in a guttural tone of voice.
"Habuko-chan, are they supposed to talk?" Tsuyu asked. Mongoose shook her head so fast it was hard to keep track of.
As the zombified Midoriya stepped forward, Tokoyami truly hoped Bakugou had changed his mind about teaming up.
There. I put in Bizarro. Happy now? Good, now never ask me for anything ever again./s
