Chapter 48
[Silence]
Nirengeki Shoda, the class Deputy of 1-B, and Juzo Honenuki, another student in that class were walking down the hallway, heading back to the Monetary Room. The two were there before, but only for a brief time. Now that their exam was up, they needed to go back there to do it.
While they were walking, Juzo spoke up. "It's our turn now."
"Yeah." Nirengeki replied. "Hopefully, our plan works."
"Like you said, It all depends on how Lexaeus comes at us and where our practical takes place." Honenuki stated.
"And both of those factors are beyond our control." Shoda remarked.
"So, we'll adapt and figure out how to make our plan work." Juzo said.
"Yes." Nirengeki agreed. "Because our only way to even get an opportunity to win is through this plan."
As the two finished their brief discussion, they saw the entrance to the Monetary room up ahead and mentally prepared themselves for their upcoming battle. Since they saw what happened to Ejiro and Rikido when those two fought Lexaeus, they knew very well what their opponent was capable of. But they also had so much time to plan strategies against him, that it was basically guaranteed that the strategy they have was the best one that could be made. Now it was time to see if said strategy worked. They opened the door.
[Play Boku no Hero Academia OST Professor Aizawa Theme]
The first thing that Honenuki and Shoda saw upon walking in was both Manga and Yosetsu being carried away to the temporary nurse's office, while Tetsutetsu was leaning on the wall, seeming like he was just punched really hard in the gut, with Itsuka and Setsuna at his side, watching him. Yui was looking at the three of them, while the 1-A students were in between looking at that, and the two students who just got carried off.
It was then that the pair was noticed by Sora, who then pointed to them and said "Oh hey! You were the two who watched the first exam then left."
While both boys were confused as to what just happened before they walked in, Juzo then confirmed Sora's comment. "Yeah. We left to strategize."
"Oh, yeah. You're up against Lexaeus too." The Keyblade wielder remembered. "Well, with how long you guys had to plan, I bet you got the perfect strategy to win."
"We'll see when we use it." Nirengeki stated, before noticing Vlad King looking at them. "If you'll please excuse us, we need to start our exam."
"Oh. Right." Sora realized as he let the two pass by him and go onto the platform. "Good luck."
"Thanks." Both said in unison, before getting transported into the datascape.
Just as those two were transported into the datascape, the door to the temporary nurse's office was opened up by Kirishima, as he walked out of the place with Sato and Recovery Girl behind him. "Eugh. I couldn't stand sitting in there any longer." He then noticed the other students and walked over to them with the other two. "Hey guys. What'd I miss?"
"A bit." Toru answered first.
"We were just about to watch the next pair of students from class 1-B face off against Lexaeus." Momo informed him.
"That guy that we fought?" Sato remembered.
"Wait, does that mean we missed watching all or your guys' fights?!" Ejiro realized.
"Yes." Shoto confirmed.
"You've only missed 13 of the 21, excluding yours." Tenya pointed out. "There are still seven more exams that you can watch."
"Yeah." Ochako chimed in. "One's starting right now."
While both Kirishima and Rikido were a bit upset about missing their classmates' matches, they didn't let it drag them down too much. Sato then said "Sure. I'm kind of curious if the guys from 1-B can take him down." And both of them decided to join the other students in watching the match.
[Play KH Re:Chain of Memories OST The 13th Floor]
As the datascape was finished forming, so too were the 1-B students inside said datascape. They looked around and took in their surroundings. The first thing they noticed was a lack of buildings. In fact, there weren't any. Not only that, but they weren't even on concrete ground, just dirt, and that dirt was all the ground was around them. The next thing they noticed was that there were some construction vehicles scattered about in the area as well. It was clear to them that they were in a construction lot themed training ground. Unknown to them though, was that it was actually the exact same area where Tenya and Mashirao had their exam against Young Xehanort.
Off in the distance, a small series of numbers were gathering around and forming something. After a brief moment, those numbers fully converged and Lexaeus was formed directly in front of the exit gate. The two boys could see him from where they were at, and also noticed him briefly look around, before returning to an idle stance. Then, the announcement went off. "Team Shoda and Honenuki. Practical Exam. Ready? Go!"
[Silence]
Lexaeus didn't move at all. He didn't need to. He was right where he needed to be. He had orders to guard the exit behind him and prevent anyone from passing through. He didn't question his orders. He only followed them, as he should. He could feel the presence of two people off in the distance making their way to his location. He could also feel the uneasiness coming from the both of them, yet there was also a slight bit of confidence.
As the two boys were walking in the direction of where they needed to go, they assessed their situation. They're in an open space, with the only viable cover being construction vehicles that were scattered about the ground, and their opponent when provoked and left enough time to charge, was powerful enough to rupture the earth around him, and durable enough to take quite a few hard hits.
Thankfully for them, the plan they came up with doesn't require them to hide, nor does it require them to take down Lexaeus. They just need to get Nirengeki up close, and Juzo just needs to be ready to support him. There is one thing that is certain though. Regardless of whether or not the plan succeeds or fails, this fight is going to be shorter than most.
The pair were a couple dozen yards away from Lexaeus when they decided to stop in their tracks. The Taciturn Stalwart then opened his eyes and got a look at them. He then spoke up. "You've come to face me."
"We've come to get past you." Honenuki corrected him, staying calm and focused.
Lexaeus was silent for a brief moment, then replied "You speak as though you can accomplish such an arduous task."
"It's either that, or defeat." Shoda stated as he slammed his fists together twice.
Once again, Lexaeus was silent for a brief moment. Then he said "Your resolve is respectable. However, I Lexaeus, will not lose to hearts weaker than my own."
[Play KH2 OST The 13th Reflection]
A huge burst of energy came from Lexaeus, and the boys got themselves ready to fight. "We're stronger than you think." Nirengeki stated.
"You will know how weak you are." The Taciturn Stalwart responded as he raised Skysplitter above his head and began to swing it down towards the ground in front of him.
Juzo knew what was coming and activated his Quirk 'Softening' to do the same trick he did in the cavalry battle. As soon as Lexaeus's weapon hit the ground, the floor was already under the effect of the quirk, and instead of creating rock pillars, it made a large ripple, which caused the Nobody to stumble for a moment.
As the ripple made its way towards the two students, Shoda positioned his hands so that his knuckles were facing behind him, then he activated his quirk, 'Twin Impact' and then two shockwaves came from his knuckles that launched him up and over the large ripple. He slammed his knuckles again and positioned them behind him again, then once again activated his quirk to launch himself back down towards Lexaeus.
The ripple was just about to reach Honenuki, but then he quickly took his hands off the ground and placed them back on the ground to undo the effect of his quirk, hardening the ground and causing the ripple to stop, but not before it cracked from the sudden halt in motion. He was extremely lucky that the force of that attack didn't just cause the ground below him to rupture, in spite of his efforts to negate that very thing from happening.
Nirengeki landed right in front of Lexaeus and then began to punch him as fast as he could in multiple spots on the front of the Nobody. Lexaeus didn't feel any of the punches, and just swung his Axe Sword towards the boy in an attempt to swat him away. Shoda saw this and punched his fist together, quickly had them face the ground and activated his quirk on those two spots to launch himself up and over the Taciturn Stalwart to get behind him. He then continued his barrage of punches, but this time on the back side of Lexaeus.
Juzo once again used his softening quirk on the ground in front of him and then watched as the ripple in the ground sank down and created a slightly elevated spot in the ground. The orange armored Hero in training then took notice of his partner leaping over their opponent and attacking said opponent's back. He then noticed Lexaeus readying his weapon for another attack, so Honenuki had to think fast and then continued to soften the ground beyond where the ripple used to be.
Lexaeus spun his body around to face Shoda and swung Skybreaker down vertically in an attempt to squash the boy, but he then once again stumbled and felt himself slightly sink into the ground. Not only that, but when his weapon reached the ground, it too began to sink into it. It was the exact same feeling from when he punched the ground earlier. He jerked his left leg up and managed to get it out of the sinking ground, then took a step towards the boy that was punching him earlier. He was close enough to grab him, but when he reached out to do so, he saw the boy once again slam his knuckles together and then had the knuckles face downwards, before shockwaves came from them and launched him up.
As Nirengeki was in the air, he looked towards his partner, who nodded and took his hands off the ground, only to place them there again and harden the ground around the three. Shoda landed on the ground safely, while he saw that Lexaeus' feet were now cemented into the ground. He didn't waste the opportunity and once again continued his fast series of punches, now on the left side of his opponent.
Lexaeus at this point was just really annoyed at the constant punches being pelted by the pale haired pipsqueak. Instead of retaliating with an attack, he decided to just power himself up even more. Focusing for a brief moment before letting his energy explode around him, creating a shockwave that blew the boy punching him away and cracking the ground beneath him. As he finished powering up, he got his feet out from under the ground with little effort and then focused his attention towards the second boy that was causing him trouble.
Honenuki watched his partner and then placed his hands on the ground to once again soften it. He made sure that the ground underneath his partner was soft and was able to safely catch him with his quirk. As he watched his black suited partner get up, he failed to notice Lexaeus was now right next to him. Just as Juzo saw him though, the Taciturn Stalwart already reached out and grabbed the boy by the neck. He then felt himself being thrown directly up into the air.
Lexaeus watched as the orange armored boy reached the height of his toss, before beginning to fall back down. He reared Skysplitter back and got ready to throw the weapon towards the falling boy, but then he heard a familiar sound of shockwave to the right of him, and he quickly changed targets, throwing his weapon towards the other boy coming at him, who didn't expect that and as a result got hit directly in the chest, knocking him away.
Honenuki hit the ground hard, evident by the front of his armor and helmet being cracked, he struggled to push his body up, but then heard Lexaeus speak. "You tried your best. But my power has no limits." The Taciturn Stalwart then raised his fist. "I'll ease your pain. Return to the earth."
Suddenly, the ground below both of them softened and then Juzo completely sank into it. After a very brief moment of confusion, Lexaeus was about to jump out of the softened ground, but then felt a hand grab his feet and tug it. He then felt another hand grip his back and then heard the voice of the orange armored Hero in training scream out "SHODA NOW!"
[Silence]
Before Lexaeus could react, he suddenly felt an immense amount of force hit his front side, then his back, then his left side all at once , which caused him to stagger and drop to his knees in the softened ground. He then felt something latch onto his wrist and was now unable to move or use any of his strength.
[Play Boku no Hero Academia OST Self Analysis]
Back in the real world, everyone was surprised to see what just happened, and Sora was the first to comment. "So, that Honenuki guy went into the floor he softened, got behind Lexaeus, then...what happened to him?"
"Shoda activated his second impact quirk on all the spots he struck Lexaeus before, at the same time." Setsuna pointed out.
"Which then caused the sturdy guy to stagger from all those amplified forces hitting him all at once." Itsuka added.
"Which then gave his partner enough time to get the handcuffs on one of his wrists and win the match for them." Tenya concluded. "A rather clever way of defeating him."
"Play it off like you're weak, then surprise him with an all out burst and get him while he's stunned." Rikido summarized. "I guess that's one way to do it."
"I see it as saving your strength before landing the finishing blow with all your saved up strength." Ejiro stated. "Smart and manly thing to do."
"I had the same thoughts going through my head." Tetsutetsu said.
Then the announcement went off. "Team Shoda and Honenuki have passed the finals!"
Back in the datascape, Juzo watched as the datascape was beginning to dematerialize, but then heard Lexaeus speak up once more. "I misjudged you."
"Huh?" The orange armored Hero in training replied.
"Not bad." The Taciturn Stalwart complimented the boy's strength right before he and the datascape completely dematerialized.
Back in the real world, the students watched as the two 1-B students were brought back, both laying on their back and having their hands on their pain stricken chests. Sora, Tetsutetsu, Kirishima, and Sato helped the pair get onto their feet and get into the temporary nurse's office, but not before congratulating them on managing to cuff Lexaeus, to which they both had a proud expression for doing that.
As Recovery Girl went in to deal with them, the boys saw the door to the hallway open and in came Ibara Shiozaki, followed by Jurota Shishida, who held the door open for her. As the two came in, Sora of course went over to greet them. "Hey. Ibara. Looks like you're up next?"
"It would appear so, Sora." Shiozaki replied.
"I'll be watching you and...uh...sorry, I don't know your name." Sora looked at her partner.
"My name is Jurota Shishida." He answered. "Pleased to meet you."
"Likewise Jurota. I'm Sora." The Keyblade wielder introduced himself. "So yeah, I'll be watching and cheering both you and Ibara on from here."
"Your encouragement is appreciated, Sora." Shishida responded.
"I too appreciate your faith in our success." Shiozaki said.
"Step on the platform please, Kupo." Moogle instructed them.
"Good luck you two." Sora said to them as they walked towards the platform and were taken into the datascape.
[Silence]
As the datascape's location finished generating, Tsuyu noticed something about it. "Ribbit? Isn't that where Tokoyami and I did our practical?"
"Oh yeah. That weird triple reactor plant place." Ochako also recognized it.
"It shouldn't be surprising that some locations are being reused." Iida pointed out. "The last exam took place in the same area that Ojiro and I were taken to."
"Not to mention that four of the tests took place in city related places." Sora added.
In the datascape, Ibara and Jurota had formed and were looking at their surroundings. This place was familiar enough to them, as their class has trained on every training ground at least once at this point. They could also estimate where the exit would be.
[Play Boku no Hero Academia OST Forever No. 2]
Elsewhere in the datascape, a hooded person was generated inside. Said person looked around for a minute before removing his hood, revealing his bright red hair, emerald colored eyes, and confident smirk on his face before saying "Why do I always get stuck with the icky jobs."
Unlike most of the other members of the Organization whose looks didn't elicit a reaction from the students, this guy got a reaction from them. "Whoa." Sato said "Is it just me, or does that guy look like Endeavor?"
"Now that you mention it, I can see the resemblance." Kirishima agreed.
"Red spiky hair, the bluish green eyes." Tetsutetsu pointed out.
"But Endeavor is buff. Not lanky." Toru stated.
"We also don't know what his quirk is. He could just look like him by coincidence." Itsuka added.
"Or he could be a fan." Setsuna guessed.
The Principal, teachers, Moogle and Sora all knew what Axel could do, but while the adults and chibi merchant simply saw the comparison and left it at that, Sora knew something that the others didn't and glanced towards Shoto, who he saw had a reaction as well, but remained silent.
The Keyblade wielder carefully backed up and went behind the crowd of students before tapping Todoroki's shoulder to get his attention and gesture to move away from the crowd. As the two backed out, the announcement went off "Team Shiozaki and Shishida. Practical Exam. Ready? Go!" And with that announcement, the students stopped talking and just went back to watching, not noticing the two boys who left the crowd.
[Silence]
When Sora and Shoto were near the back wall of the room, the Keyblade wielder talked to the ice user, but kept his voice low. "Hey, are you gonna be okay?"
"What do you mean by that?" Todoroki quietly questioned.
"I saw how you were looking at Axel." Sora silently stated. "I know how you feel about, you know who, and I know that Axel kind of looks like him. I just want to make sure that you don't...you know..."
Shoto knew where Sora was getting at and quietly corrected him. "It's not because he looks like my father."
That statement somewhat confused Sora, and he ended up silently asking "Then what made you look at him like you saw a ghost?"
"I'm not comfortable talking about that at this time or place." Todoroki quietly said, motioning his head towards the group of people watching the screen, signalling that this would be more appropriate as a private discussion.
Sora understood and silently replied. "Okay then. Whenever you want to tell me." And with that, the two went back to the crowd and began to watch the practical exam unfold.
[Play KH 358/2 Days OST Xemnas]
In the datascape, Ibara and Jurota had already exited the first area they were in and had entered the second area through a hallway on the second level. They were looking around, both for their opponent and for the exit, but saw neither, so they both began to move towards another hallway on the second level, keeping their eyes and ears open for any type of movement.
After reaching the hallway, the two entered and walked through it. Shiozaki kept looking forward while Shishida watched behind them in case the Organization member attempted to attack from behind. Nothing happened in the hallway, and it was a little unnerving for them.
[Silence]
As the pair entered the third area, the first thing they noticed was the exit. The second thing they noticed was that it was unguarded, which was not a good sign for them. Since they couldn't see below them, so they had to be ready for anything if they went for the exit. After a silent discussion and slight debate on what to do, the two agreed to go down to ground level. Jurota leapt down while Ibara used her vines to lower herself safely down. They both ended up in the center of the area and were facing towards the exit when they heard a charismatic "Hello!" from behind them.
[Play KH BBS OST Shaded Truths]
The two turned around and saw Axel, leaning his back on a wall with his arms crossed. Shishida made a run for the exit while Shiozaki attempted to attack with her vines. The red haired Nobody just kept the same grin as he uncrossed his arms and snapped his fingers on both hands.
As soon as the vines reached Axel, they ended up bursting into flames and the fire quickly consumed the vines, traveling towards Ibara until she detached them before the flames could reach her and burn her head. While Jurota was sent flying back and tumbling to his partner's side from a similar eruption of fire at the exit.
Back in the real world, the students were shocked, yet somehow had a feeling that he would do something like that. Then Present Mic began his announcement. "The Flurry of Dancing Flames, Axel! His Quirk, Hellfire! Just like the name implies, he can make really, REALLY hot fire. Add that with his looks and he's basically a skinny, Endeavor!"
"So he looks like Endeavor and has a flame quirk, but he's a villain?" Ochako summarized. "That's actually kind of scary."
"Yes, I agree." Tenya agreed. "A villain with the same quirk as a top tier Pro Hero. And we know what the Hero can do with said quirk, which means that said villain could theoretically do the same."
"But it also should be expected." Momo pointed out. "There are billions of people with quirks in the world. So more than one person with the same or similar quirks would make sense."
"It's still a scary thing to think about." Asui said. Nobody disagreed with her.
[Silence]
As Shishida got up, he turned to face the Organization member and got into a fighting stance, while Shiozaki did the same.
Axel just placed his hands on his hips and shook his head. "Jeez, talk about aggressive." He said in a sarcastic, yet still charismatic manner. Then he spoke to them. "All I did was say Hi."
"Then what was with that inferno just a moment ago?" Shishida argued.
[Play KH Re:Chain Of Memories OST Thirteenth Discretion]
The red headed Nobody pointed at Shiozaki as he answered. "For her, it was self defense. I don't know what her vines would have done to me, so I made sure that they wouldn't get to me." He then pointed towards the student who asked for this explanation. "And for you, it was a deterrent. I can't exactly have you running away on me, and besides, I didn't hurt you. The proof is on your chest."
Jurota was confused as he looked at his chest and didn't see anything on him. "What are you referring to?"
"My fire is REALLY hot." Axel stated. "If it hit you, that fur coat you worked so hard to grow would be burnt black. But there's no burns on you at all. You just got blasted back by the sudden force and heat wave."
"Why are you explaining this to us?" Ibara questioned.
"Because I think we got off on the wrong foot back there." The red head said. "I mean, we don't even know each other's names yet, and here we are, already asking about the whats and whys before asking the whos."
The two heroes in training were initially confused, but just decided to play along with the enigma that is their opponent. Shishida went first. "My name is Gevaudan."
"And I am known as Vine." Shiozaki then said.
"See, was that so hard?" The Nobody commented.
"What about you?" The beast themed Hero in training pointed out.
"Oh, who am I?" The charismatic Nobody repeated. "Oh my name's Axel. Got it memorized?"
"We only just learned it." Ibara pointed out.
"But we can get it memorized." Jurota added.
Axel's smile slightly widened at that statement. "Good. You're a quick learner. So, Gevaduan, Vine. Now that we're getting to know each other a little better..."
[Play KH2.5 Remix OST The 13th Struggle]
The Flurry of Dancing Flames then raised his arms and fire began to emit from his body while a giant wall of fire surrounded the three of them. The pair of students then watched as two chakrams, that he named Eternal Flames, were formed in Axel's hands, and with a cocky grin, he exclaimed "Don't you go off and die on me now!"
Shiozaki had multiple vines cover portions of her body while others extended out in various positions, ready to attack. Shishida then activated his quirk and grew about three times his size, letting out a roar as he was in his beast form.
Axel kept his cocky grin and said "That's more like it." Before getting into his battle stance and preparing for a good fight. A fire user vs two flammable people was bound to be an interesting experience.
Jurota charged forward and attempted to slam his hand on Axel, but the Nobody was quick to get out of the way and counter with a few slashes from his chakrams on the arm, however the only thing that happened was some hair being cut off, while there was no skin penetration. As the beast attempted to swat him away, Axel jumped up and then Eternal Flames began to glow orange, before he slammed them to the ground and created a small flame wave that pushed the beast away.
Ibara's vines then came towards Axel from multiple directions, but the Flurry of Dancing Flames was way too quick for her attacks and easily dodged and cut up the vines that came after him. He didn't bother just burning the vines, because he wanted to see what she could do, but with this little display, he might not even need to use his fire against her.
Then suddenly, the ground below him began to crack and when the red head noticed, it was too late. Dozens of vines erupted from underground and then latched onto him everywhere until he was suspended above the ground and squeezed tight. Axel was surprised to say the least, but he was far from unprepared as he just smirked and burned off the vines around him by enveloping himself in flames for a brief moment. Once he landed back on the ground he spoke up. "It's not over yet."
Shishida then once again charged towards Axel, but this time, jumped up into the air and aimed to land on the Nobody. While the idea was smart, Axel saw right through it and just jumped through his firewall to avoid the attack and let the beast hit the wall and have some of his fur get scorched before getting pushed back by the raging inferno.
As Shiozaki didn't see Axel's move, due to her partner's size blocking her view of him during his attack, she was surprised to see that the Organization member was no longer there and began to look beside and behind her, in an attempt to find her opponent, only to see that he was not anywhere in her sight. She then looked up to see if he was above her, but then she heard "HA HAAA!" from behind her, before getting slammed in the back by Axel and some of the vines around her body getting burned off.
As the girl tumbled forward towards the firewall, Jurota got in the way and prevented her from hitting the flames, using his large body as both a wall and cushion to safely stop Ibara. The two got up and back into fighting positions, quickly realizing that there was no way that they could just rapidly attack in succession against Axel. Time for a different approach.
The beast Hero in training charged forward, while multiple vines from said vine haired Hero in training very closely followed. Axel didn't see the vines however, due to the massive hairy beast coming towards him and focused on avoiding that. He jumped up and over the beast, but was then caught off guard when multiple vines managed to wrap around his body and restrain him again.
Axel was unimpressed, because he knew he could get out of this, but before he could even use his fire, he saw the large Shishida swiftly turn around and slam his palm down where Axel was, successfully slamming him to the ground. Then Axel's fire kicked in and he burnt the vines surrounding him, before kicking it up a notch and burning even hotter to get the large hand off of his body. As the beast swung his other hand towards him, Eternal Flames began to emit fire as Axel tossed them in front of him and welled out "Get back!"
As the Nobody was distracted with this, he failed to notice the ground below him cracking and then he once again felt more vines wrap around his body and restrict him. Axel quickly burnt the vines off, but then he was grabbed by the beast in front of him and violently thrown forward. He noticed that he was about to head towards his firewall and was more than welcome to get out of this mess for a few seconds to find a proper way to counter, but was then grabbed mid air by even more of Shiozaki's vines and was held in place just long enough for Jurota to once again slam his palm down on Axel, forcing him back to the ground once more.
He was once again burnt off the vines, but just as soon as he did, the large hand came back up and quickly slammed down on him again, then again and again. At this point Axel was no longer playing around and then yelled out "I'll wipe you all out! BURN BABY!"
[Play KH3 OST Rogue Pawn -cutscene-]
Suddenly a very powerful and hot flame wave erupted from Axel and blew Shishida back at such a powerful force that he ended up blasting through the flame wall. Shiozaki created a vine shield and had it rooted into the ground, but it was immediately incinerated when the fire passed it. Before she could even attempt another attack or defense, the ground around her inside the flame wall suddenly burned hot and began to look like molten rock. The molten ground quickly burned the bottoms of her shoes and feet as she yelled out in pain. Then Axel spoke up "Come here. I'll make it all stop."
[Play KH3 Re Mind OST Roxas, Now! -cutscene-]
Outside the fire wall, Jurota struggled to get up, but once he heard his partner's pained yell, he forced himself back to his feet and looked at where he heard her. He then attempted to run back through the fire wall, but was pushed back by it and landed hard on his back. He briefly looked towards the exit to then see that it was completely blocked off by an even stronger flame wall, so there was no way he was going to help her that way. He had to find a way through before it was too late.
Inside the flame wall, Ibara attempted to root some of her vines underground, but the molten floor burnt the vines on contact, which made that option impossible. She saw Axel slowly walking towards her with his fire engulfed chakrams.
Back outside the firewall, Shishida stepped back a few feet and charged forward towards the flame wall, but once again he was sent back, but not before a few seconds of resistance. He now knew that he just needed more force to break through.
Inside the flame wall, Axel continued to menacingly walk towards Shiozaki, who was beginning to struggle to stand from all the burning done to her feet. The girl then threw caution to the wind and in a desperate final assault, launched all of the vines she had towards Axel, but the Flurry of Dancing Flames zoomed around it, got behind her and burned off her vines until they were only grown at the base of her head, rendering them useless.
Back outside the flame wall, the beast backed up as far as he could and then blitzed forward as fast as he could, forcibly crashing his body through the wall and burning some of his fur, but nonetheless getting through in time to see his partner on her knees and in pain. The beast knew that there was only one way to quickly end this match and help his partner, so it was now or never. He charged full force towards Axel with the cuffs in one of his hands, looking to end this match.
Axel just smirked, before he dropped his chakrams and his hands began to glow orange. Then in that moment, he pushed both hands forward and a massive torrent of fire engulfed Jurota, causing him to drop the cuffs in his hand and yell out in pain from the immense burning that was happening all around his hairy, flammable body. He began to slowly shrink and get pushed back while Axel just walked forward, continuing the attack at full force, aiming to finish this fight.
Ibara saw this happening in front of her, but she had no idea what to do. Her vines were all burned off and she couldn't grow anymore without any water or sunlight, and the pain from the burning floor as well as the heat was getting to her now as her vision was blurry. But then in that moment, she saw the cuffs on the floor. She knew that the only way to stop this was with those. "Lord...please...give me strength." She prayed as she pushed herself to her feet and grabbed the heated up cuffs. The burning was of course very much painful for her, but she fought through it and then went for Axel.
The Flurry of Dancing Flames continued his attack until he saw Shishida fully shrink back to his normal size and was pressed against the fire wall. When he stopped, he watched as the beast themed hero in training dropped to his hands and knees, almost all of his fur now burned black. Axel then resummoned Eternal flamed and raised one of the chakrams to slice the boy up. "Gotcha." He said before he began his attack.
[Silence]
As soon as he was about to slice into the boy however, he felt something get placed on his wrist and then immediately was frozen in place by an unknown force. Not only that, but the molten floor below them, as well as the firewall around them suddenly began to fade until there was no more fire or burning floor at all. Axel struggled to move, but he was still unable to.
He then looked at where he felt something around his wrist to see a set of handcuffs on it, with the girl holding the other uncuffed part with her hands to keep herself from falling onto the floor. She barely managed to say "It's over." before letting go and letting her upper body hit the floor while she struggled not to scream from the pain her legs were feeling.
[Play Boku no Hero Academia OST Hero's Shadow]
Then an announcement went off. "Team Shiozaki and Shishida have passed the finals!" and the datascape around the three bagan to fade.
Before the two students were transported out of the datascape they heard Axel say "Ugh...give me a break." Then they both saw numbers.
As soon as the two were back in the real world, the first thing that they saw was Itsuka Kendo and Setsuna Tokage helping Ibara up, while Sora, Tenya Iida and Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu helped Jurota up as best as they could. Both burned students were placed on stretchers and then quickly taken to the temporary nurse's office for Recovery Girl to immediately tend to. Burns are very serious injuries, so they needed to be dealt with immediately before any permanent damage could happen.
As the two were being treated, Kosei Tsuburaba and Fumikage Tokoyami both exited the nurse's office, as they didn't need to be there anymore. Both boys were told about what they missed and then they both decided to stay and watch the rest of the matches for their own reasons.
Meanwhile outside the Monetary Room, Reiko Yanagi and Shihai Kuroiro were walking towards the entrance to there, as it was their turn to take the practical exam. So far, every single practical exam taken by 1-B has ended with a passing grade, and these two were not going to allow themselves to break that streak. They had to prove themselves worthy of the title of Hero after all. As the two walked into the monetary room and got onto the platform, the 1-B students and Sora said their words of encouragement, then they were transported into the datascape.
[Silence]
The students in the real world ended weren't done talking about the last match though, as Ejiro said "Dang. That Axel guy really was like Endeavor, especially with the way he used fire."
"His control over fire definitely matches what we've seen of the Number two Hero in public." Tenya agreed.
"And a lot like Todoroki's fire back at the Sports Festival." Rikido added.
"Actually, now that you mention that..." Kirishima looked towards Shoto. "Hey Todoroki. You've got both fire and ice. If you fought Axel, do you think you could win?"
Shoto thought about that for a moment, then answered "If he has the same limits as my father, then yes. If not, then I don't know."
"So if he can overheat himself, then you can win, but if not, then you're unsure." Itsuka said. "Sora, you've fought him. Can he overheat?"
"He can. But his fire would be so hot that it would destroy everything, including himself." Sora replied.
"So, he can overheat, but he would kill himself in the process?" Tsu summarized.
"I don't know how to feel about that." Ochako commented.
"How about we just focus on the next match instead of this?" The Keyblade wielder suggested.
And with that, the students decided to focus on the screen as the location of the datascape was generated. Hagakure recognized it as the place where she and Mezo went up against Xigbar, but now it was going to be used for this match too.
[Play KH1.5 Remix OST Dive Into The Heart]
Reiko and Shihai were formed in the datascape and they took in their surroundings. The abundance of pillars made for many shadows to be cast all around, but there were nothing but the pillars and the walls off in the distance. If this room were any larger, then it would look like the pillars were endless.
The two students glanced towards each other and simply nodded. No words needed to be spoken, which is good for the both of them, because Kuroiro was not good at talking to girls, and Yanagi was the quiet type. They both just waited for the announcement to go off.
Elsewhere in the datascape, multiple ones and zeros were joining together until they formed a man, however, unlike most of the organization members, he did not have the trademark black coat and all black clothes that the others had on. He instead had his own collared grey coat, with yellow lining, multiple belts and straps, some of which formed what looked to be spaulders on his shoulders underneath black leather pauldrons, a white vest under the coat, that covered his stomach, but kept his chest exposed, white button lined gloves with grey straps on the twist areas, and the emblem of the Heartless acting as a brooch that was holding the outer coat together in place of a zipper or buttons.
Back in the real world, the students present, except for Tokoyami, Asui, Kendo and Uraraka were slightly surprised to see that this guy wasn't wearing the same black coat that the other members wore. The reason the three mentioned students weren't surprised, was because they saw Terra, who also didn't wear the coat. But everyone still took in his appearance and some mentally noted how similar he looked Xemnas.
[PLay KH1.5 Remix OST End Of The World]
Back in the datascape, Ansem looked down towards his right hand for a moment, before he began channeling darkness through it, as if inspecting himself. There was an abundance of darkness flowing out of his hand, but he seemed to be confused and slightly irritated. He channeled more darkness to it, but only saw a minimal increase in the dark power.
He then stopped channeling the darkness through his hand and closed his eyes, channeling darkness throughout his entire body. During this time, he sent out a tiny pulse of darkness around him and waited for a response.
Elsewhere in the datascape, both students suddenly felt a chill run up their spines for a moment, then felt like something was crawling all around inside them. After two seconds of that, the feeling was suddenly gone, but they felt as if that feeling was pulled out of them, and they knew which direction they felt the pull.
Back with Ansem, he felt a small pulse. There were two people here with him, but he didn't know where exactly here was. What else was strange was that he couldn't feel anything beyond the walls of this space, nor could he feel any darkness coming from anywhere around him. This raised questions that he could maybe answer.
How did he get here, if not through a dark corridor? Maybe a vessel transported him here. Or perhaps his heart was planted in the body that he currently inhabits, similarly to the replica he used to travel forward in time once before in the dream worlds. Or he was sent here via a data transfer.
Why could he not feel the presence of the other members of the true organization, or anyone other than two people in this room? It could be that this room was constructed in the realm of in between, and he was the only person sent to said realm. Or he might have entered a room that had an innate ability to seal off all forms of detecting light and darkness. It's not impossible, because the black coats that the other members of the Organization wear were made for that purpose, so if you get enough of that material and weave it into the wall, you could theoretically get the same effect. Or, once again, this room was constructed via data.
Why does he have no memory of how he got here, and why are his powers significantly weakened? The power of Darkness is vast, but not infinite. Ansem is a master of controlling Darkness, but even he has his limits. He could have stretched said limits getting here and became weaker because of it. But that wouldn't make sense, since he would have used a dark corridor to get here if he did. So once again, this points to some type of data transfer being involved.
Then an announcement went off. "Team Kuroiro and Yanagi. Practical Exam. Ready? Go!"
Ansem looked back at his right hand, then understood. "A datascape. And I'm a construct..." Darkness oozed from his body as he continued to speak. "But who's memories am I a construct of?" He searched through his own memories and found the last one he had. He was talking to Sora and Riku before his demise during the second Keyblade War. That didn't help him. He thought back further and saw himself talking to Sora in Twilight town with Xemnas. He was getting warmer. He thought back even further and then noticed that he lacked any memories of being inside Riku. He had his answer. "The island boy's memories of me."
The Seeker of Darkness walked forward and just decided to embrace his fate. He understood what he was and what his purpose here was. There was no reason for him to fight it. It didn't matter what he did. He knew he wouldn't stand a chance at defying his fate, just like before.
Back with the two students, they too, began to walk forward, in the direction of the pull they felt earlier. They didn't know why, but they felt like they just...had to go there, like it was the only way they could go.
[Play KH2.5 Remix OST Dive Into The Heart]
Back in the real world, some of the students had an uncomfortable feeling with this particular member of the Organization. They didn't understand why, but they felt like something was off about him. Sora could see everyone's uneasy feelings and looked to Nezu, who also saw the universal uneasiness in the room. The principal then spoke up. "A rather unique individual, no?"
"...Yeah." Some of the students said in unison while others simply nodded in agreement.
"Ansem definitely would fit that description." The rodent stated.
"Ansem?" Tenya spoke up, remembering the name.
"This guy is Ansem?" Ochako also spoke up, remembering the name as well.
"You're familiar with him already?" Nezu noted.
"We...um..." Uraraka stuttered.
"We heard of him, but only very little." Iida answered for her.
"How so?" The principal wondered.
The 1-A class rep glanced over to Sora, who just nodded, then he spoke. "We were told of an encounter with him and...one of our classmates, but we don't really know anything about him."
"I wouldn't mind filling you in. His background is quite interesting, though I will warn you. It is also rather dark." The rodent offered.
"I don't mind." Sora said. "They might need context anyway, considering what he can do."
"Well, Ansem was formerly a scientist. However when he began to study the Heartless, he soon became obsessed with them, to the point where he conducted life experiments with people and eventually himself." Nezu explained, making most of the students feel uneasy. "This resulted in him somehow becoming a human, Heartless hybrid, gaining the dark powers of the Heartless, while still keeping his human intelligence as well as his very dangerous Quirk."
"I guess we'll get an explanation of his Quirk from Present Mic, when he shows it off then?" Setsuna claimed.
"Actually, we removed his quirk's primary function, due to it being too dangerous, Kupo." Moogle chimed in.
"Wait, he doesn't have his quirk?" Ejiro asked.
"Then what was the thing he was doing before the exam started?" Tetsutetsu questioned.
"Those are his heartless powers, as well as an aspect of his quirk's secondary function." The principal said.
Present Mic then spoke up. "Seeing as he won't be able to use said Quirk, I'm gonna tell you what it is. Ansem! The Seeker of Darkness! His Quirk, Dark Possession. He can enter a person and take control of their body and mind. But that's not all. Thanks to his status as a Heartless, he also amplifies the quirk of the person he possesses and gives them dark powers too!"
"Possession...wait a second." Itsuka remembered something. "When you announced Terra's Quirk, you mentioned a possessed status."
"Good deduction skills, on your part." Nezu complimented the 1-B class rep. "Ansem did indeed possess Terra, as well as another person in this organization. But we'll leave our discussion off at that." The principal pointed towards the screen. "It seems that the opponents are about to confront one another."
With that, the students began watching the screen once more, but now with the added context of what Ansem is and what he is capable of, they felt even more uncertain of the 1-B students' chances.
[Play KH3 OST Destai~ Third Inception]
Inside the datascape, Reiko and Shihai stopped in their tracks. They could somehow feel that if they kept going forward, then there was no turning back. The two then looked at each other and knew that now was the time for them to carry out their plan. Kuroiro stepped into Yanagi's shadow and then began to descend into it. Once he fully went into her shadow with his Quirk "Black" , The girl walked forward, alone.
Ansem stood in place and had his back towards the girl. He knew she was walking towards him. He could also feel another presence, but could only hear the one set of footsteps. He decided not to put too much thought into it for now, and solely focused on the girl that was now only a few feet behind him.
A few seconds of silence passed by before The Seeker of Darkness spoke up, still facing away from the girl. "This place...like many others I've seen before, is a prison." The girl was confused, but Ansem continued. "All that is of this place is data...data that will no doubt be either erased, or stored away, after its use has been fulfilled. And as this place is a prison, so too am I a prisoner...to the very same fate that awaits this area."
Reiko was confused. Was this guy trying to make her feel bad for him, or was he just preaching to himself in front of her? Shihai, who was listening through her shadow, also had these questions in his mind.
Ansem turned towards the girl and then spoke up once more. "Even so, with this knowledge of my inevitable and vastly approaching fate. There is still one thing I can control." He pointed to her. "Your fate, and the fate of another that is not in my sight, yet just as present as you are."
[Silence]
"Whether or not your hearts shall belong again to Darkness, is left up for me to decide." He preached.
[Play KH3 Re Mind OST L'Eminenza Oscura]
Suddenly the power of darkness erupted from Ansem as he yelled out "And I choose for Darkness to concur your hearts!"
Yanagi got ready for the upcoming fight. She didn't have anything to use her Poltergeist Quirk on, but she knew how to get stuff for it.
A dark orb was summoned by Ansem and from it, came out a laser. The laser tracked towards Reiko, but she saw it coming and quickly got behind a nearby pillar for cover. The laser hit the pillar and small chunks of concrete came off of it. A second dark orb was summoned and fired another laser while she was behind the cover, carving out a bit more of the concrete.
Kuroiro moved from her shadow to the shadow of the pillar they were behind and took advantage of the shadow's angle allowing him to see around it. From there, he could see Ansem summoning more dark orbs to fire and carve up more of the pillar. He watched how they moved and saw a pattern, as well as an opening. He also saw the concrete pieces on the ground and knew what to do.
As the pillar was continuously getting carved up, Reiko saw Shihai stick his head up from where her shadow was, and very briefly explained to her what he saw and what she could do. Then he retreated back into her shadow and left her to do the plan. She waited for the moment that was recommended to her and then made her move.
As Ansem summoned another dark orb, he noticed small chunks of the concrete from the pillar that were on the floor quickly hover and fly towards him at a surprising speed. The Seeker of Darkness acted accordingly and made a makeshift barrier with multiple dark orbs firing lasers around him.
As the small chunks hit the lasers, he saw the girl run out of her cover and motion her hands towards more concrete chunks on the ground and then towards him. Ansem could figure out what she was doing and avoided the second attack with concrete. He then quickly enveloped himself in darkness and charged towards the girl, aiming to hit her with a dark empowered aerial shoulder tackle.
Yanagi saw the charge coming, and just barely managed to get out of the way, but she was unprepared for her opponent to very quickly turn around and continue his charge. The attack hit her head on, but before she was blasted back, her shadow overlapped Ansem's and that gave Kuroiro the opportunity to get to his shadow.
Reiko then was blasted away, sent tumbling for a few seconds before hitting her back against another pillar, which caused her to yelp in pain for a second. She pushed herself back to her feet then saw Ansem slowly hovering towards her, planning to finish her off. She pulled out the handcuffs and watched as Ansem smirked. "Surrender to the Darkness." The Seeker of Darkness said as Darkness began to pour out of his body even more.
But then in that brief moment, Shihai unmerged himself from Ansem's shadow and grabbed the Heartless man's wrist, holding out the other one. Yanagi then used her quirk to quickly send the handcuffs towards her partner. As the cuffs were in the air however, another hand caught them, a buff black skinned hand that came from an arm coming out of Ansem's chest.
Back in the real world, Tsuyu, Fumikage, Itsuka, and Ochako all recognized that arm, and the bird boy was the first to speak up. "But...how?!"
"Huh? Wait, what is that?" Rikido asked, confused about what was going on.
"That's Terra's..." Asui began, but couldn't finish what she wanted to say.
Present Mic then did another announcement. "And THAT, is the second part of his quirk. As he possesses people, he also gains access to his dark powered versions of the quirks of people he possesses."
Back in the datascape, the rest of the body connected to that arm came out, as the Guardian Heartless showed itself to the pair of students, before blitzing towards Yanagi and grabbing her while dropping the cuffs. Kuroiro then attempted to retreat back into Ansem's shadow, but then was blasted back and skidded on the ground for a moment, before sliding back into a shadow. Of a pillar.
"Hiding in the shadows. You are most disappointing." Ansem berated, before he summoned dozens of dark orbs and had them all fire on the pillar, shredding it and removing the large shadow from the area, which forced Shihai out into the open, where he was forced to run towards another pillar, only for that pillar to also get destroyed by more lasers from the dark orbs.
Ansem then summoned multiple dark crystal looking objects that went away from them and towards another direction. He then summoned more dark orbs around him and had them create that same makeshift barrier around him, but this time, Ansem swiftly hovered forward with said barrier, and chased the literal black skinned boy until they reached the shadow of another pillar.
Kuroiro dived into the shadow, to just barely avoid the attack, but then was forced to once again leave the shadow, as the pillar casting it was almost immediately destroyed by even more lasers. As he was running however, he noticed Ansem summon more of those weird dark crystal looking objects and sent them away again. The shadow themed Hero in training looked at where they were heading, and could just barely make out the exit gate in the distance.
Before he could even think about a way to get there however, he was forced to dodge multiple purple disk shaped projectiles that were being created by the Guardian's free hand. "Fall to Darkness." Ansem said as he once again created more dark orbs and had them shoot lasers towards the black skinned boy.
Shihai was just barely able to avoid the cluster of projectiles coming at him, but his costume suffered a few cuts. He then sprinted towards the exit, with Ansem and the Guardian loosely following behind him, but when he was close to the exit, the dark crystals that were sent there got in his way and then exploded when he got too close, pushing him back to Ansem and into the Guardian's free hand.
"Foolish boy." Ansem once again berated him. "You have no hope against the Darkness."
Kuroiro struggled to get free, but couldn't think of any way for him to escape. He could easily get in the guardian and get out, but he would most likely just get caught again, and there was no way that Ansem would make the same mistake twice, as seen by his thorough destruction of the pillars that he tried to hide in.
It was then that he noticed the handcuffs hovering slowly behind the Seeker of Darkness. He didn't look towards Reiko, but he knew that it was her. He just had to wait for the right moment.
That moment came when he heard Ansem say "Submit." and felt the Guardian squeezing him and most likely Yanagi too. At that moment, he merged inside the Guardian for a very brief moment, and then the handcuffs swiftly got in between Ansem and the Guardian, where Shihai then came out of the Guardian's back, grabbed the cuffs and got one of the cuff sides on Ansem's wrist.
[Silence]
Suddenly the Guardian began to fade away, dropping Reiko in the process, and Ansem was stuck in place. "What...how?" The Seeker of Darkness asked, but the two students didn't say a word to him.
Then the announcement went off. "Team Kuroiro and Yanagi have passed the finals!" and with that the datascape began to disappear, and Ansem along with it.
As the two 1-B students were transported back to the real world, they each received their congratulations from their fellow 1-B classmates and Sora, before being guided to the temporary nurse's office to have their ribs checked on.
Ok. So, some of you probably noticed that the last fight on this chapter isn't as...eventful as most others. I'm just gonna say this now. I rewrote the fight like three times, and I was just way too annoyed at this point, so I wrote down this summarized version of the Ansem fight, because I did not want to write down that the pillar concrete trick was going to be wash rinse repeat again and again and again, as well as the hiding in the shadow of a pillar to then destroy pillar with lasers again and again and again. I'm sorry if that fight was a bit disappointing, but yeah. Aside from that, there are other things that I need to say. First off, I got a job again, so my free time has become extremely limited. Secondly, the nerfs, I already explained Lexaeus, so moving on. Ansem was nerfed to have no desperation moves, or the explosion attack in KH3. He has the spike attack, but it would have been useless against Shihai, and like I said, I was just done after the multiple rewrites of that fight. Axel though...ooooh Axel. Let's start off with nerfs. He just doesn't have Desperation moves or his self destruct. That's all I took away from him. Before anyone says 'why no Keyblade?' This is Axel of Organization 13. Not Lea of the 7 Guardians of Light. But while we are still on the topic of Axel, when I started this fic, I didn't immediately notice how Axel looks like a certain person with a fire quirk, but when I did, it made my mind fire on all cylinders, and now I'm going to let you guys see where I take this. Aside from that, you already know the next three matches. I promise that those ones won't be treated the same way that the Ansem fight was treated. Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and until I decide to upload again. ;)