"What? Seriously? That must have been terrifying, Riki!", my mother's voice blared into my ear.
Trapping my phone between my shoulder and ear, I continued stirring my cake batter. "Nah, not really. I knew where I was gonna end up in the end, so I didn't sweat over Aizawa's conditions. I topped it, if you were wondering."
"Oh, good job! I knew you could! Even in U.A., you can't be beat!" The jubilation and pride in her voice was heartwarming. I couldn't help but smile.
"Thanks, mom." With me living by myself, my parents made it a point to call every other night to check up on how I was holding up and if there was anything I needed. Not quite to the point anyone could consider them helicopter parents, but enough to let me know that they cared. Seeing how well I did on my own with developing ambition and work ethic independently, they were generally hands-off in how they raised me. They weren't my original parents, but to them, I was their only son in the whole world. I wasn't going to rob them of that. They were good people. "How's dad?"
"Oh, he needs to be at the office early tomorrow, so he's in bed early tonight. I'll just let him know how you're doing tomorrow. He'll be happy to hear you're doing well."
"Well, I can't let what he paid for tuition go to waste." A knock at my door. I have a guess who it is. "I'll talk to you soon, mom. I'll bring some of that Dorayaki you like over this weekend."
"That'd be sweet. Thank you. I'll see you then. Bye Riki."
Pocketing my phone, and putting down the mixing bowl I was stirring, I went to open the door. What I found was a Setsuna in a baggy Jurassic Solar System zip-up hoodie and some shorts. Retro cinema merchandise, I could respect the classics.
"Hey ya big guy. Mind if I come in?"
Not really. Despite what I say to her sometimes, she is enjoyable company. "Nah, come in. Make yourself at home."
"Thanks." She said, sauntering past me. "Sooo, we didn't see you today at orientation. One of my classmates was speculating if it was some form of favouritism or not."
"If anything, what we did could be an indication that the school hates us more." I retorted, and began to recount the physical tests Aizawa made us do, along with his threat of expulsion.
"Yeowch, sounds rough. Guess Monoma was wrong then." She then spotted the bowl I was mixing earlier, "Ooo, whatcha makin'? Cake?"
Before I could respond, she zoomed towards the bowl, and pulled out the solid kitchen spoon I was using to stir, and gave it a lick. "Mmm, this is really good! What's that extra flavor ya' got in there?"
"That's for a rum cake I'm making. So, rum."
"Oh, I've never had. Does rum cake usually taste this good or is it just you?" Her tongue danced along the spoon, aiming to get every last bit of it.
"Only the best for you, right?"
Spoon sufficiently polished off, she put the spoon down and placed a hand on her hip, "Right! … Anyway, I brought this over, thought you could use a little bit of fun tonight." I perked up. Night fun?
Setsuna then reached into her shirt, lifting it up…
…and brought out a Nintendo game console that was tucked away in there.
… y'know what? Fine.
"Let's play some Smash Bros. Heroes. You down?"
I snorted, "Sure, let me just wrap this batter up to finish later."
Covering the mixing bowl with plastic wrap, I placed it back into the refrigerator. Rejoining her in sitting cross-legged in front of the console she stood on my dining table, I couldn't help but talk my game up.
"Just make sure you don't feel bad when you get three stocked. I played a ton online. I don't lose these."
Handing me a controller, she directed us to the character select screen, and locked in Ryukyu.
"Why? Who do you main?" She prodded.
"All Might." Obviously.
She snorted "Very funny. No seriously. Who is it?"
"All Might."
She just stared,
"…what?" I asked.
"…Are you serious?"
"Why? What's wrong with that?"
"You do know that he is meant to be a completely broken character, and isn't allowed in real competitive play? And choosing him in a house setting is the equivalent to telling everyone that you don't really know how to play the game?"
I grunted, "That's a lot of words to say you know you're gonna lose."
She hit my shoulder, "Pick someone else."
"No."
"C'mon you tier whore. Scared to lose or something?"
"I play to win. It's not everything, it's the only thing."
"Just 'cause you can't beat me without the best character in the ga- "
"Don't fuckin' finish that. Y'know what. Death Arms. Shit-tier character. There. Happy?"
She grinned, knowing she won that, "Very. Let's start. 8 minutes, 3 stock, Final Terminus. No items."
"Whatever."
I knew I gave in my stance and fell for the shallowest taunt in the book, but at the moment, I wasn't going to be talked down on, even if she probably played a lot more than I did. I didn't play video games too much, but if I had to pick a favourite, this
would be it. I was damned if I would roll over and die without a fight. I was going to beat her with an underwhelming power. Because I'm built different.
She beat me without taking a single stock loss.
"… so how does it feel to finally take off the bowling bumpers and find out you suck?"
"Fluke. I got cheesed by that stupid Dragon transformation side-b. The hitbox's massive, and I didn't know Death Arms couldn't jump over it. All Might could. Run it back."
"I only have 5 of those per stock. You can block them."
"Oh, what? I never thought of that before. Thank you for the good wisdom, lady of the lake. Run. It. Back."
"Fine. Fine."
I managed to squeak out a win, managing to gimp a barely damaged Ryukyu into the death zone whilst at the brink of death.
"Now who's cheesing who?" Setsuna complained.
"Chat shit, get bit. Imagine using one of the best characters in the game, only to lose to Death Arms. I could never."
Over the next two hours, we irresponsibly went back and forth playing SSBH with the loser of each round demanding a rematch. Midway, I started rotating between using Death Arms, Gunhead, and Crimson Riot, a fan favourite brought over from earlier iterations of the series. All considered subpar characters. Sue me, Death Arms didn't exactly have the most fun move set out there. At least the other two had unblockable command grabs and cool animations. Tokage, in response, started using Mirko, the bunny DLC character, as well.
At the end of two hours, we decided to call it a night, and I conceded. In that time span, Setsuna had recorded more wins than I did, though not by a gigantic margin. Surprisingly, I wasn't as salty as I could've been. Of course, losing left a pit in my stomach, but it was more like a ditch than a Sarlacc. I had a respectable enough record against two top-tier characters using some of the worst characters in the game.
Setsuna started stretching out, hands high above her head as we ended, "Ahhh~. Feels good showing another person who's the woman on top."
"I thought you liked being on the bottom."
She snorted, but didn't continue the line of discussion. Huh, that was unlike her.
Actually, now that I think about it, she was a lot more chill tonight than she usually is. Maybe it came with lizards being diurnal. Who knows? I snapped out of my thinking when she grabbed the console and stood up, making her way to the door.
"Well, I had a ton of fun tonight big guy. Thanks for that. Let's walk to school again tomorrow. 8:10 okay with you?"
I smiled as I walked her out, the salt slowly fading. It was just a game.
I'd pay her back by dashing her entire class' hopes of doing well in the sports festival.
I don't get mad. I get even.
"Yeah, this was great. Thanks for showing up, Setsuna. See you tomorrow."
She smiled back, going up on her tippy toes as she brought her face closer to mine.
Not close enough, as she was a whole head and some shorter than me. She realized it too, by the disappointment on her face.
"Well," Setsuna remarked, getting off her tippy toes, "that was underwhelming. I wanted to do something slick, but I guess God said no."
I couldn't help it. I laughed out loud.
"Hey! Stop laughing, this is serious! This is a serious problem!"
Her quirk could've completed the distance. With her detaching her head it would have made it up to my face. But the thought that she needed to do that just sent me wheezing even harder.
"Hey!" But her indignation was turning into amusement at the situation. Setsuna couldn't help it either, she started laughing with me.
After about 15 seconds of guffaws and ha-ha's, we got over it, with my hands on both knees, and Tokage leaning into my back.
"haaa.. ha… That was great." I breathed out.
"hee… yah." With me now bent over, Tokage found her opportunity.
I felt something cold press against my cheek for a split second.
"Later Rikido. Have a good night big guy." With that, Setsuna made her way down the steps to go to back to her place downstairs.
…Guess she caught feelings faster than I thought she did.
… Interesting development. Could complicate things. Will get back to you on that one.
True to her word, Tokage was waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs 10 past 8 the next day. On the walk to school, we continued our usual back-and-forth, but there was a comfortable atmosphere we had, being closer in each other's presence.
No big development, but at least the walk to school wasn't dull. I arrived just a bit before homeroom started, so I didn't get much of a chance to interact with everyone, but I did receive warm welcoming greetings coming into the room, so at least I knew I made a great first impression.
Coming back to the doors of 1-A for the first Monday of the year was a comforting experience. As much as it was a hero high school, it was still high school. 50 minutes per period, 10-minute breaks between, with the exception being Foundational Heroics Studies taking 3 hours. One extra period every day for the heroics department. Dismissal at 16:10 each day. Simple enough.
English taught by Present Mic, in which some of the sleepier people in class very quickly learned the dark reality of having a morning person be gifted with a voice enhancing quirk. Momo couldn't help but raise her hand every time Present Mic
called for answers.
After that was Math with Ectoplasm. After introductions, he started us on Basic Calculus, which I wasn't the biggest fan of. Again, Yaoyorozu's hand never seemed to go down. Might have to ask for some help from her if I start struggling.
Modern Art came next. What an Art subject was doing in a hero curriculum, I didn't know. Maybe an art thief would pop up one day and to save the day we'd have to tell him what the painting's artist meant when he coloured the sky magenta.
…Midnight was really good at her job though, stellar at keeping my attention. I'll probably get a really good grade for it by the end of the semester. The male class average would be through the roof, too.
Finally came lunch. Lining up with Momo, I looked over the menu displaying pre-set meals above the cashier, before deciding that asking for a custom meal plan would be best, considering the class scheduled for this afternoon. Stocking up on blood sugar would be beneficial for the action later. Lunch Rush was very accommodating, raising a thumb at me when I requested for a high-sugar content meal. A breath of fresh quirk later, he presented me my meal for the day. Sweet chicken curry with extra sweet, a granola bar and low-fat yoghurt with a side of Dulce de Leche and vanilla milkshake. All at a frankly under-priced price tag. But even in lunch period, Momo can't help but be at the top of the class, ordering twice as much food as anyone.
I would have called over to Setsuna and Kendo to sit lunch with, but over the mass of students in the cafeteria, I wasn't able to spot them out, so it seemed I was to sit with just Yaoyorozu and the ear jack girl, Jiro, who had joined us after spotting us leave the lunch line.
Tasting Lunch Rush's baking… Finally, a worthy opponent. Our battle will be legendary!
Finally, in the afternoon came the moment everyone had been waiting for. Hero Basic Training. A palpable tension was in the air, everyone on the edge of their seats, speculating who would be in charge of our most vital subject. Even Todoroki was looking up from his desk to the door from time to time. Huh. He's never this animated. This must be a huge deal for him.
"I am…"
Heads snapped to the door. I knew it was coming. I knew since I woke up here that All Might would be my teacher for combat training. That didn't stop my stupid grin. Can you blame me? It's All Might, the Symbol of Peace. Like Gandhi with twenty times the impact and none of the closet skeletons.
"-coming through the door like a normal person."
The crowd went wild.
"It's All Might!"
"Wow, he really is a teacher!"
"That's a costume from the Silver Age, isn't it?" Frog Girl was a closet All Might nerd, eh? Or was everyone able to recognize it?
"Its style is so different; it's giving me goose bumps." I wasn't a huge fan of capes, personally. Could snag on stuff; missiles, jet turbines, express elevators, on take-off, in vortexes. No capes!
"I teach Hero Basic Training. It is a subject where you train in different ways to learn the basics of being a hero. You'll take the most units of this subject!" All Might then started flexing his arms, back towards us. "Let's get right into it! This is what we'll do today…"
Spinning back to face us, he held up a card with the word "BATTLE" in big bold orange letters.
"Combat training!"
From the front of the class, I could feel bloodlust spike from Bakugo. "Combat…"
"…training." I expected Midoriya's pants to need laundering soon enough.
"And to go with that are these!" All Might then pointed to a wall to his right, and lockers labelled 1 to 20 to indicate student numbers came out of it. "Costumes made based on your Quirk registrations and requests you sent in before school started."
People were elated to finally get in their respective hero gear, audibly so. Me? I was calm and collected, cool as a cucumber, and nobody can tell you otherwise.
"After you change, gather in Ground Beta!"
"Yes, sir!"
"They say the clothes make the man, young men and ladies."
Coming out of the dark tunnel, light finally shone on the various costumes people had donned.
"From now on… you are heroes!"
His eyes panning over his class, All Might said, "That's great, everyone. You all look cool!".
With the visibility now available to them, people started appraising their peers' outfits and equipment. Coming out of the tunnel last, I decided to join them.
Iida's costume looked fit for a LARPer. He must be sweaty inside of all that cover. Aoyama gave off the energy of someone who's trying too hard. Rock Head Guy looked like a kid in a playground. Mineta looked like his costume maker actively hated both his client and himself. Bakugo looked like a domestic terrorist in training. Todoroki looked like he needed help, half covered in ice... I don't think he intended for the support department to actually include that in his costume when he sent in the drawing. Lightning guy and Jiro just straight up looked like they were going out to the mall.
The rest of the girls though… Nice. Yaoyorozu especially…
"Woah, Sato! What are those things on your back? Those look so manly!" Seemed Kirishima spotted me first.
Hearing my name and the odd remark about back additions, Yaoyorozu and a few others turned to evaluate my costume as well. I couldn't blame them. Even I was surprised on how well my admittedly shoddy drawing of a costume turned out. Somebody in the Support Department did good work on this.
It was pretty basic, as far as designs go. Dark grey combat pants, with black combat boots that reached up to my shins. I had no real top on, but that's because I had to make some room for my equipment. 2 metal tanks, one a caffeine solution and another sugar-based liquid, both fused and strapped to my back. I had 2 big opaque grey tubes circling my shoulders connected to it. At the end of both tubes were metal injectors to connect to my skin. I don't know how, but the tube designer made It so that the fusion the metal injections performed were nigh painless. It only took a small sting and then they were connected. Props to the Support Department's best and brightest, I guess.
"Wow, what are the tubes for?" The pink-skinned girl asked, dressed in a skin-tight bodysuit that reminded me of Monster's Inc's Sully.
"Do those things in your arm hurt? That looks crazy!" A pair of floating gloves talked. I blinked, huh, forgot about her. She was stark naked… Well, never mind, she had gloves and lace-ups, those count as clothes. I stand corrected.
"Looks kinda scary actually…" the dude with the black and white lightning jacket muttered. I couldn't blame him. My mom used to lose her mind at the thought of me getting injected every time I went out to train. No matter how many times I told her that these injections weren't dangerous for me and they really didn't hurt me, she kept muttering that her son was a "stab survivor".
"I would assume these are used to provide fuel for your quirk. Would these contain sugars similar to the ones you ingested yesterday?" Yaoyorozu speculated. I mean it's kind of obvious, but you don't need to give away everything.
I shrugged with a smile, "Who knows? I can't be expected to give away all my tricks, right?"
I knew that by having such noticeable paraphernalia, it would be a compelling target for any enemy looking to neutralize my strength, but I could use that to my advantage. While the existence of the tubes ensured that my fighting condition would be constant, I wasn't completely reliant on them. Most wouldn't know that I could keep fighting without the support equipment, and would target to disable them immediately. I could use the backpack as bait to both entice close range combat, and to lower their guard by letting them assume they won when they detached the tubing.
I saw Bakugo sneering at me out the corner of my eye, inspecting my implements as if he were trying to think of the best way to break 'em. Todoroki was sizing me up as well, though his face was less kill-y and more chill-y. Flattered, both of you, but I didn't swing that way.
"Now, shall we begin, you zygotes?" All Might called out, calling everyone's attention back to him.
From the tunnel behind me, I heard hurried running. Uraraka, who had been watching my exchanges, had the perfect angle to see Midoriya run in with his green bunny suit. I just tuned out their conversation, and focused back on All Might starting his debrief of the exercise. At least, after he was done giggling behind his hand at Midoriya's expense.
"Now, it's time for combat training!"
"Sensei!" For someone whose nose was permanently brown from his teachers, Iida did tend to interrupt them a lot. Raising your hand meant you were supposed to wait for them to call you, dude. "This is a battle centre from the entrance exam, so will we be conducting urban battles again?"
"No, we're going to move ahead two steps!" What a mad lad, this two-stepper. "Most of the time, fighting villains takes place outside, but if you look at the total numbers, atrocious villains appear indoors at a higher rate.
Imprisonment, house arrest, backroom deals… In this society filled with heroes… truly intelligent villains hide in the shadows! For this class, you'll be split into villains and heroes and fight 2-on-2 indoor battles."
"Without basic training?" Asui wondered, finger on her lip.
"This is a real battle to understand those basics!" All Might clenched a fist, "However, the key this time is that there's no robot you can just beat up." But that's the core of my strategy.
"How will wins and losses be determined?"
"Can we beat them up anyway?" See? Even Bakugo had the right idea. Though, the thought of Bakugo agreeing with me meant I had to do some self-reflection.
"Will the punishment be expulsion like with Mr. Aizawa?" Yes, make it so every week, somebody gets kicked out the class, Survivor Style. I vote Aoyama, his armour was reflecting light into my eye and I'm tempted to deck him here and now. I'm joking, but the thought was alluring to an extent.
"How shall we be split up?
"Isn't this cape crazy?" Never mind, the wisdom he provides is invaluable. He is an irreplaceable asset to this class.
All Might was visibly overwhelmed, "I'll answer all your questions!" Pulling out a small bundle of papers, he started reading it out loud. He was new to teaching, I'll allow it. "The situation is that the villains have hidden a nuclear weapon somewhere in their hideout. The heroes are trying to dispose of that. The heroes need to catch the villains or get the nuclear weapon back in the allotted time. The villains need to protect the nuclear weapon for the whole time or catch the heroes."
He then pulled out a yellow open-topped box labelled 'Lots' from behind him, "Teams and opponents will be determined by drawing lots!"
"They're being decided so haphazardly?" Iida exclaimed.
Midoriya put his two cents in, "Pros often have to create makeshift teams with heroes from other agencies, so maybe that's why?" Plus, All Might didn't want to be blamed for forming unfair team matchups so he left it to chance to decide. At least, that's what I would do if I were in his shoes.
"I see. The discernment to look ahead… Please excuse my rudeness!"
"It's fine. Let's do this quickly!"
Team A: Uraraka and Midoriya
Team B: Todoroki and Shoji
Team C: Mineta and Yaoyorozu
Team D: Bakugo and Iida
Team E: Aoyama and Ashido
Team F: Sato and Koda
Team G: Kaminari and Jiro
Team H: Tokoyami and Asui
Team I: Ojiro and Hagakure
Team J: Kirishima and Sero
I had to make sure of something. Resting a palm on top of Mineta's head, I said with a smile, "Don't do anything to her that will make her uncomfortable and you'll both leave this battle trial happy. Okay?"
Slowly craning his head straight up at me, the Pop Off quirk user just gulped.
My fingers clenched, "Okay?"
I wasn't really trying to hurt him, considering I was just holding on to his detachable hair, but I guess that he could feel it to an extent, because he squeaked out a high-pitched "Okay!"
"Great." I smiled, letting go of his head, and slapping his back as one would a horse "Chop chop, Yaoyorozu looks like she's thinking of a plan. Best to let her know that you'll do your best to help her win." And with that, he was off.
Nodding over at Koda making his way over to me, I glanced back at All Might, and the black and white boxes he set up, labelled 'Villain' and 'Hero', respectively.
Reaching a hand in each box, All Might called out, "The first teams to fight will be… these guys!"
In his left hand, a white ball with an A on it. On the other, a black ball with a D.
"Team A will be he heroes, and Team D will be the villains, Everyone else, head toward the monitor room."
"Yes, sir!"
"Young Bakugo, stop! Are you trying to kill him?!"
All Might's plea into the microphone was for nought, as on the screen displaying the action, Bakugo went ahead with using his grenade arm. The resulting explosion blew the whole floor up, causing the entire building to rumble and the effects to be felt from all the way in the monitoring room.
"This is supposed to be a class!" Kirishima exclaimed.
"Behold, a future star Hero. Maiming a classmate in a training exercise in his first day, what a guy." I couldn't help but disparage out loud. This is the guy who wanted to be respected as Number One? I saw that people agreed with me, but weren't as willing to talk down one of our top scorers as I was.
The worst part about all of this is that there would be zero consequence for him almost killing a classmate. Not even a detention, or a black mark on his record. But I had no say in how this school is run, and I know Midoriya would be fine, so I just kept my mouth shut for the rest of the fight.
Bakugo would continue to be in this class, and grow to be praised by his teachers and well-liked by the peers he would continue to insult and degrade straight to their faces. I gave up on him receiving any come-uppance. And Midoriya, his biggest victim, will continue to defend him, citing his "passion for being a hero", ignoring his lack of being, well, heroic. I mean to say he's an asshole. Character development might make him better later on, but it didn't erase him telling someone who idolised him to kill himself, and I was justified in disliking him as he was now.
Oh, I understood why he was like that. Inflated ego from constant praise growing up, mixed with a quirk that influenced him to be explosive. I could relate to an extent.
Doesn't mean I had to bend over for him and goatse like his middle school teachers probably did.
Oh well. If Midoriya's fine with being abused by his proclaimed "friend", I wasn't gonna get in the way of him finding an outlet for his masochistic tendencies. I'm just a blunt instrument. I'll just show Bakugo his place in the sports fest.
As the timer counted down to 0, and All Might seemingly ignored cries to call the match until the last few seconds, we watched as Midoriya gave up his arm to blast through the entire building and more, up to the top floor, where Uraraka used the resulting chaos to launch debris at Iida and latch onto the bomb when he was distracted.
The monitoring room was dead silent, most unable to comprehend what just happened, and some, like Momo, Todoroki, and Birdman, in deep thought.
All Might, slowly bringing the mic to his lips, started, "Hero… Hero team… wins!"
"What the heck?"
"The losers are practically uninjured… and the winners are on the ground…"
"They lost the battle, but won the war, huh?"
"This is training, though."
With All Might out of the room and taking care of the situation over at the building, I turned to Yaoyorozu.
"Momo," She perked up, "You ready for your own fight?"
"Yes, I believe so." She smiled, still delighted at the familiarity I used in talking to her, "On either end, I have ideas to complete both the hero and the villain objectives. Of course, I will keep them private in case we are to be matched against one another."
It was cute she thought it would matter. "Well, I believe in you."
"…Thank you, Rikido."
When All Might returned with a despondent Bakugo, a dejected Iida, and a nauseated Uraraka, All Might gave his post-battle evaluation.
"The MVP for this battle was young Iida!" Iida's head shot up, incredulous.
"It's not either of the winners, Ochaco or Midoriya?" Tsuyu validly inquired.
"Hmm, well… Why is that? Does anyone know?!"
"Yes, Mr. All Might." Momo's hand shot up. "That is because Iida adapted the most to the context of the training. From watching the match, it appears Bakugo acted on his own because of an obviously personal grudge. And as Mr. All Might said earlier, it's foolish to launch a large-scale attack indoors. In the same way, taking into consideration the damage he received, Midoriya's plan was also rash. As for Uraraka… She let her guard down mid-battle, and her final attack was too reckless. If she treated the papier-mâché as a real weapon, she would not have been able to do something so dangerous. Iida had prepared for his opponent's arrival, and assumed it'd be a fight over the weapon which made him late in responding to the final attack. The hero team only won because they took advantage of the fact that this was training. They were practically breaking the rules."
I disagreed. To me, Gravity Girl should have been awarded MVP. She adjusted her strategy to the limitations of the exercise, and would no doubt have adjusted again in a more realistic scenario. She did start laughing at Iida midway through, but it wasn't like Iida didn't lose focus in his monologuing either. On topic of his performance, Iida made wrong assumptions, which caused him to lose. How was that a positive? He did well overall, but he lost. In my eyes, if you didn't win, you didn't deserve to be considered the MVP. Exceptions could be made for people who very clearly backpack an inferior team, but this wasn't it, chief.
But I wasn't the adjudicator, and I wasn't invested enough to speak up against Momo in Uraraka's favour, so I kept it to myself. It wouldn't have changed anything anyway; All Might already had an MVP in his head.
"W-Well, young Iida also has parts of him that could be more relaxed… but well… that was correct!" All Might flashed a thumbs-up at Yaoyorozu.
Yaoyorozu then began what I could only assume was her early pitch for Class President, "We should always start with the basics to develop depth of learning. We must strive to devote ourselves wholeheartedly. Otherwise, we cannot become top heroes." She's got my vote. I didn't want the position anyway.
"All right everyone, let's change locations and start the second match. Tackle this training after thinking about what we just talked about."
"Yes, sir!"
The second fight pitted Team B, Six-Arms and Todoroki, against Team I as the villains, Monke and Gloves.
15 seconds after the buzzer, the building turned to ice.
A minute later, Todoroki had made it to the bomb room.
The chill from the building-wide flash freeze reached all the way into the monitoring room. Everyone, including All Might, started shivering and folding their arms over themselves to warm up. Well, Iida was fine, but he was the only one.
Shit, this is freezing. I'm going to go up against that in the festival?!
… I'm fucking pumped.
"He did not cause any damage to his teammate or the nuclear weapon, and on top of that, he weakened the enemy."
"He's so strong!"
I feel a figure lean back into me, and hair hit my cheek. Momo had unconsciously gravitated towards a warm body and huddled next to me like a penguin would… I wouldn't be the one to tell her to stop.
Placing his hand on the bomb, Todoroki ended the match in two minutes.
"Hero team wins!"
I could beat that.
Next fight, next building. The villain team of Sero and Kirishima had done a decent job at securing the bomb, but after Asui had snuck in and knocked out the lights, Tokayami's Dark Shadow wouldn't be beat. In the chaos that soon followed, with Dark Shadow tearing through both villains, Tsuyu had managed to make her way around the tape and secure the bomb.
After that, Momo's team was called to be villains, and I gave a reassuring squeeze on her shoulder. "Good luck. You got this."
"Thank you. I'll be sure to not disappoint." She smiled and made her way to her designated building to set-up whatever hellhole of a funhouse she could in 15 minutes. Mineta, as he was following his partner out, had glanced at me. I just smiled. He followed faster.
What followed next was Team G, Kaminari and Jiro, getting absolutely rolled on. Every corner had flashbangs that blinded Kaminari and hurt Kyoka's ears. Every blind spot had sticky purple balls that would waste the hero's time, with them needing time to rip themselves out of the traps. Every door frame was sealed with metal barriers. Even if Kyoka knew where precisely the bomb was, they still needed to get there. By the end of 15 minutes, the hero duo hadn't even made it to the right floor yet.
"The MVP for this match was young Yaoyorozu!"
"Easily." I remarked to the girl, getting a wide smile back.
Finally, I was up, receiving 15 minutes for preparations alongside my partner, Koda Koji, who hadn't worked up the courage to say a word to me since we got partnered. It was fine, I had a rudimentary understanding of how his quirk worked, and planned accordingly. Lifting the bomb to the top, I turned back to address my partner.
"Koda," He looked towards me startled. C'mon, man. You gotta work on that. "I have a simple plan to deal with them. Stay here on the top floor with the bomb, I'll stay near the bottom floor. Keep a bird on the lookout to make sure we know exactly where the point of entry is. Radio me if they move from the front door. Radio silence will mean that they entered through it. I'll engage them as soon as the buzzer sounds. Catch them with their pants down. If initial assault fails, I'll come back here. Alright? Got all that?"
Looking slightly overwhelmed, he just nodded mutely. Good. Now I just have to trust that he can actually use his voice box to radio me if needed.
Descending down the steps to the second floor, I peeked out a window, careful not to expose my position needlessly. It seemed that the two were just talking outside, probably thinking of ways to handle or even avoid me if necessary. They suspected nothing. I pulled out the capture tape given to me, and tore out two long strips, attaching them to my forearms for easy access. To ensure I wasn't being stonewalled of information by my partner, I kept my own eye out for if they decided to go through a backdoor but that wasn't happening. Guess they figured it wouldn't have changed things. Finally, 15 minutes preparation was up and the buzzer sounded, provoking the heroes into action.
As they were about to enter through the doorway, I activated Sugar Rush, and felt the tubes feed my body sugar. This… this felt right. With this on, I felt like I could do this all day. I couldn't help the manic smile that came on to my face as I jumped through the window and onto the ground behind the opposing duo, 5 steps away from the closest hero, Laser Boy.
Ignoring the cracks I formed on the concrete, I rushed at Aoyama's back, getting him midturn as he was reacting to the sound I had made. As such, he lost balance easily, letting me pin him to the ground face-down with the forearm I hit his lumbar with. Ouch. With great power comes great spinal injuries. Before he could comprehend his position, I used the tape I had attached to my right forearm to loop and stick around his neck, eliminating him from the fight.
Ashido being just a few meters in front of the Naval Laser user, had the opportunity to turn and react to my arrival, and panicked at the sight of me, sending out a wave of acid in my general direction. Most of it hit the walls to my side, but there was a good portion of it coming straight towards me. Off pure instinct, I had raised Aoyama's delirious body to block it, with his armoured torso taking the acid. Her initial salvo done, I took my other strip of tape, and whipped it at her leg. Feeling the tape hit and stick to something, I pulled. Ashido had started applying her acid to the soles of her feet to move faster, but as a result, it just made the ground she was standing on more slippery. As I pulled on the tape stuck to her ankle, she yelped, and fell backwards, feet up. Quickly covering the distance, I secured both of her legs in the air, taping them together, restricting their movement.
Before All Might could call one elimination, I had gotten both students captured. 14 seconds. Eat my shorts, discount-Zuko.
"… Villain Team wins!"
"The MVP of this battle was young Sato!"
Got that right.
Originally, I put down Jurassic Galaxy, but that's a real movie released 2018 so I went for something else.
Can you tell I don't like how Bakugo never seemed to be told off for what he does? You might have missed it.
I have no problem with the character being as he is. Personally, I think Bakugo's a cool character, but everyone that knows him seems to accept and like him without question. His mom is the only one that reacts to his behaviour believably. I would hate to be his classmate. Hence, a classmate who doesn't like him.
Credit to grox9909 on DeviantArt for the basis of the hero costume.
grox9909/art/Brightburn-Corrupt-Rikido-Sato-798616206