Spiral and Whirlwind
Hello everyone and welcome to the latest chapter of Hailstorm Vol. 2! Now if you've somehow not heard by now, I intend to start a new series of side stories next week for my Re:Zero fic known as 'A New Crusade IF'. So if you got any ideas or requests for that one, feel free to send 'em my way. And as always a big shout out to my readers who've stuck with this story so far. And with no guest review questions this week, we can dive on in!
U.A.: Training Field Gamma
'Now this is quite the development,' thought Clay as he looked at the viewscreen with the rest of the students. Unlike the first match were there was minimal damage to the surroundings save for where Shiozaki detached her vines and slight environmental destruction from brawling, this time it was an absolute mess thanks to Kinoko's quirk. Mushrooms covered the majority of the factory-like area and even some of the cameras weren't spared from the mass fungi spread. And that wasn't even counting the damage done to the center of it by Manga's quirk.
Even with the giant Kanji removed the damage was still pretty extensive. "Kendo, Fukidashi," called Vlad with his microphone, "you probably already know this, but keep the damage to a minimum." The two students responded with a quick 'Yes sir' from the viewscreen as Aizawa walked up to the 1B homeroom teacher.
"Vlad," he said in his usual business-like tone, "how long will it take for Komori's quirk to disappear?"
"Likely another two hours," replied Vlad in slight embarrassment, "she and the others went a little overboard."
"Then I guess we'll be changing locations," said Aizawa, "and while we're doing that, we may as well take a break." This suggestion was met with plenty of agreement from the other students as Clay met up with Slade upon his exit from the training field.
"Gonna be honest," said the Cloud Wielder as he fell into step next to his friend, "that whole fight looked pretty rough."
"It's always rough when you're forced to face one of your friends," said Slade with only a slight glance in his friend's direction, "I was bound to hesitate a little bit when it came to facing just about anyone in Class 1A, save for a few morons."
"And I know for a fact that Momo is the last person you wanted go up against," said Clay, "how is she by the way?"
"I didn't see Kendo knock her out but I'm fairly certain she made sure it was good enough for at least an hour," replied Slade, "Momo also used her lucky bag special move so her body's a little low on lipids right now too. So, I'm gonna go ahead and take her to Recovery Girl. I'll try and hurry back before your match starts."
"Don't feel like you need to be in a hurry," reassured Clay, "I more than understand you need to make sure your girl is alright first."
"I'll see you in a bit, Clay," the Density Shifter said, pretending not to hear his friend's comment as he picked up his pace and headed off of the training field. He didn't even need to look back to know that his friend was smirking.
"Well in the meantime," Clay thought aloud, "guess I'd better go see Jirou then finalize plans with-OOOOOFF!" He was cut off as Mina suddenly fell out of the sky on top of him. For some reason Uraraka had sent her into the air with her quirk.
"Breaking!" Cheered Mina, her arms in the air while still sitting on her friend.
"I hope you mean the dancing and not the breaking of other things," groaned Clay.
A Few Minutes Later
"The location of the third match will take place in an area roughly two blocks from the original one," explained Vlad as the U.A. robots finished moving the jails to their new spots, "so get ready, the third match is about to begin!"
"Ya know the worst part about this," said Clay as he walked into the training area with Iida, Ojiro, Shoji and Todoroki, "Vlad sensei just asked us to keep the damage to a minimum and I somehow feel like that's gonna be impossible with the lineup we've got here."
"Is that comment supposed to be directed at me?" Questioned Todoroki with a tilt of his head, "my ice isn't that horribly destructive."
"Oh it's not you, mostly," replied Clay, "one of our opponents is Tetsutetsu and he thinks with his fists even more than Kirishima does."
"Oh," said Todoroki simply as he lapsed back into silence while they continued their trek.
"Is there something on your mind, Todoroki?" Asked Iida, "you seem quite puzzled at the moment, and I doubt it's about what Clay just said."
"I'm amazed you can tell he's puzzled," said Ojiro, "I can hardly tell whenever Todoroki's facial expressions change."
"It's simply part of my duties as class rep," said Iida proudly, "I must watch all my classmates and offer a hand to those who are troubled!" He placed his helmet on then, clearly enthusiastic about the match.
"This isn't the part where you reveal you've placed cameras in all of our rooms just so you can rush to our aid the moment you see something you deem 'troubling', is it?" Quipped Clay.
"Don't be absurd!" Exclaimed Iida, "that'd be a huge invasion of privacy and a sign that I don't trust my classmates!"
"Right, so you got cameras in Mineta, Kaminari and Bakugou's rooms at the very least," Clay said jokingly, "can't blame ya, I'd have trouble trusting them not to mess something up too. Though between you and me, it's Uraraka who keeps sneaking food out of the fridge late at night."
"I wonder about you sometimes, Clay Cero," said Iida with a sigh.
"You seem to be really cheerful though, Iida," noted Shoji as he spoke from a formed mouth on one of his tentacles.
"My Brother's recovery has been going really well over the last several days," replied Iida.
"Oh, that's good to hear," said Ojiro enthusiastically. Everyone else nodded in agreement upon hearing the good news. No doubt Iida was thinking about how he could improve to be the best successor he could be as the newest Ingenium right now. He wouldn't have to wait long to put it to the test as the sound of a structure collapsing drew their attention.
"What in the world is happening over there?" Questioned Ojiro in mild confusion.
"I'm hearing multiple sounds of metal grating against metal," said Shoji as he grew some ears on his tentacles for listening to what was going on in the distance. "More than likely, it's Tetsutetsu." Clay produced some clouds then that reshaped into words in front of all of them.
'I could've told you that,' said the cloud kanji before reshaping again, 'but let's keep our guard up. Shinso is likely hiding so let's stick to the communication plan until he's found.' The group nodded in agreement as Clay formed his signature riding cloud and moved further up into the air while reshaping the letters one last time. 'I'll head over and see where they are exactly. The rest I'll leave up to you guys as planned.'
"Be careful Clay," said Ojiro, making sure his friend could see that he was the one who was talking. Part of the plan involved them only speaking when they had a clear view of who was talking, especially with Clay about to head off on his own.
'Don't worry, I'll stay out of reach 'til you guys show up,' assured Clay before flying off towards the scene of destruction that was unfolding. It only took a minute to find the exact location thanks to Tetsutetsu not only busting up pipework but also collapsing a chimney or two. "Well at least he's enthusiastic about it," he thought aloud before flying down. It was surprisingly easy to approach the enemy team given that they were all more or less paying attention to their teammate's path of destruction.
"Tetsutetsu stop!" Exclaimed a 1B student whose costume consisted of a large white coat, white pants and coverings on his fingers that resembled drills, "remember the other team's got Todoroki!" His name was Sen Kaibara, and he did not see the merit in his teammate's current course of action one bit.
"I don't care!" replied Tetsutetsu as he continued smashing through the nearest structures in the training ground with his metallic fists.
"You really 'aren't' thinking this through, are you!" Exclaimed Kaibara as he tried to keep his cool.
"Well, it's not like we can't make this work too, right," said another member of the team, Juzo Honenuki, calmly. His hero costume was a type of streamlined orange armor over a black underlayer, topped off with a mostly black helmet that had orange on the sides. It greatly resembled the costume of Clay's classmate, Hanta Sero, if one were to make a comparison.
"You have such flexible thinking, Juzo!" Exclaimed Kaibara, now surprised at how calm his teammate was being.
"Jeez Tetsutetsu," said Pony in English, "don't keep us in the dark if you actually have a plan!" Her costume was a light red and white dress which also consisted of red and white sleeves and similarly colored leggings. There was also a hole for her yellow horse tail to poke out of.
"See how mad you've made Pony," said Kaibara while indicating his classmate, "she's speaking English now!"
"Tetsutetsu doesn't mean any harm in his approach," said Juzo, surprisingly also in English with a notable accent, "in fact, it plays to our strengths."
"Wow, you really are a flexible guy," said a voice above the 1B team as they all looked up to see Clay sitting crosslegged on one of his clouds, "Pony never told me you could speak English."
"That's because I had no idea," Pony said back in English before realizing a different issue, "hey wait a second, we're supposed to be fighting right now!"
"May want to tell him that," said Clay as he pointed towards the rampaging Tetsutetsu, "I don't think he's noticed I'm here yet."
"Hahahahaha, bring it on, bring it on, bring it on!" Exclaimed Tetsutetsu.
"Someone's already here dumbass!" Kaibara yelled at his teammate in an effort to be heard over all of the destruction, "way to go, all that smashing and you managed to get one person here!"
"Oh really," said the steel quirk boy as he finally turned around, "one or the whole team, I'll take you all on!"
"Wait a moment, Tetsutetsu," said Juzo as he held up a hand in front of his teammate, "we've got a different problem."
"What do ya mean, he's right there so we need to capture him!" Exclaimed Tetsutetsu while pointing at Clay.
"And don't you think it's weird he hasn't made a move to capture any of us," Juzo pointed out, "he gave away his position and the element of surprise. It must mean there's a different plan in the works, likely with Todoroki as the focal point."
"Bingo," said Clay as he floated up a little higher in the air. Not hardly two seconds after that, a wave of ice assaulted the area, covering it up in a giant, glacier-like fashion while also capturing the whole of the 1B team by also covering them in ice to various degrees. 'The ice isn't obstructing the view like it used too,' observed Clay as he glanced over to the pipes where Iida was currently perched, 'Todoroki's improved. And the other guys arrived at the perfect time. Now all we need is for Ojiro to track down Shinso and that'll be the match.'
Iida clearly had this same mindset as he raced out onto the ice using his full-throttle move, Reciproburst, before promptly sinking into the ice as if it was some kind of mud. "Oh shit," said Clay as he headed towards Iida while producing a small cloud for him to grab onto. 'We were under the impression that Juzo could only soften the ground. Guess he's gotten a little better since then because it looks like he can soften anything he touches!'
"No you don't!" Said Pony as she fired off four horns towards Clay. One of them went and hit the cloud Iida was reaching for while the other three went after the cloud wielder, forcing him to move back while producing a spinning cloud to block the projectiles. 'Pony can fire and control up to four horns,' Clay recalled while rotating his cloud around his body to deflect a few more, 'I can still help Iida if I keep an eye out.' And it was a good thing he did, because Pony Tsunotori was the least of his concerns.
"Let's see how you like this you floating prick!" Exclaimed Kaibara, also free thanks to the softening of the ice, as he leapt up with all four of his limbs spinning like drills. His punch managed to break through Clay's rotating cloud, forcing him to raise his arms to guard against the blow. But that nearly failed as well as the force of the blow tore into his cloud gauntlets and knocked him off of his own cloud.
"Oh boy," said Clay as he managed to right himself and reform his cloud gauntlets. But Kaibara had no intention of giving him any breathing room as he continued his onslaught with a couple of roundhouse kicks followed by several punches, all augmented by his Spiral quirk. Clay was quickly driven back as each time he raised his arms to block, more and more of his cloud gauntlets were torn through, leaving his arms exposed to the painful spinning limbs assaulting him. It didn't take long for Kaibara to overwhelm his defense before getting him with a rotating kick in the midsection, nearly knocking the wind out of Clay as he fell back.
Thinking quickly, the Cloud User righted his position in the air using the clouds stored in his costume before moving out of the way of another punch by Kaibara. He quickly retaliated with a midair roundhouse which Kaibara managed to block before landing on the ground. Clay started his own assault then, lashing out with several punches and kicks while maintaining a floating position in the air. Kaibara was quick, though, as he succeeded in blocking or narrowly dodging each of the 1A student's attacks.
Adding to that was the fact that each blow that was blocked tore a little more at Clay's cloud gauntlets and greaves due to the powerful gyrations of Kaibara's limbs. "Not so smug now that you're off that cloud, ay Cero!" Mocked the 1B student as he dodged another strike by leaping back before charging in with a punch which managed to go below Clay's guard and hit his side. The Cloud User winced in pain before dodging another couple of blows then grunted as a powerful kick sent him flying back.
"Your clouds are useless if you can't keep them formed," proclaimed Kaibara as he came charging in with a powerful right cross, "making me one of the worst possible opponents for you!" Time seemed to slow then as his blow headed right for his opponent's head.
"Hmph," scoffed Clay while cocking back his right arm, "who in the world decided that?!" He threw a right cross of his own then which glanced off of Kaibara's hand and redirected his blow to the side while allowing Clay to slide past him slightly. But the 1A student wasn't done as he leaned forward at an angle only possible thanks to his floating body and struck with a back kick towards his opponent's face. Kaibara was able to block it despite his surprise but wasn't quick enough to stop the follow up punch to his right side.
The surprised spiral wielder leapt back to assess what in the world had changed about the situation. That's when he noticed it: Clay's gauntlets and greaves, were spinning at an incredible velocity and in a very similar fashion to his own quirk! "Juzo isn't the only flexible one around here. A quick upping of my cloud density to maximum, a bit of highspeed rotation added to the mix, and it's a whole different ballgame."
"Don't get cocky," said Kaibara with grit teeth as he rushed forward, "it'll take more than a cheap imitation to bring me down!" The two clashed as Clay met Kaibara blow for blow, causing sparks to fly as the 1B student's metallic finger support items glanced off of the 1A student's highspeed cloud formations. Kaibara then switched strategies by throwing in a few kicks which Clay met with some of his own. The fighter's then bobbed and weaved around each other's blows before leaping in with counterattacks which the other either blocked or dodged.
At one point, Clay leapt up onto a large pipe right next to them while avoiding a sweep kick, prompting Kaibara to follow him by jumping up onto the same large metal fixture to continue their melee. The two resumed trading blows while tightroping along the pipe, moving back and forth depending on who was going on the offensive. As the fight went on, Kaibara attempted to catch his opponent offguard by leaping up to use an ax kick on his foe. Clay was quick to react, fortunately, by bending backwards and using his clouds to slide underneath his enemy's blow before retaliating with an upside-down high kick that Kaibara blocked with a raised arm.
The two broke apart then, both breathing a little more heavily as they reassessed their situation. "You're pretty good," admitted Clay, "it's encouraging to see our class isn't the only one with people skilled in hand-to-hand combat."
"Thanks, though I'm still a bit annoyed," said Kaibara, "I didn't know you could do something like that with your clouds."
"It's technically still kind of a new move," replied Clay as he held up his right arm with the cloud still spinning around it, "I call it my Cloud Whirlwind Formation. I thought about going with Funnel Cloud Formation, but it just didn't seem exciting enough."
"I get that," said Kaibara, "though since we're on the topic of moves and whirlwinds, I may as well show you my best move." His arms stopped spinning after he said that before the 1B student jumped up and started rotating his entire body at high speed. He then redirected himself and put both hands out in front of him as if he were diving, which in this case he was, towards Clay. The Cloud Wielder leapt out of the way of the human drill as he slammed into and broke apart the pipe right where he'd been standing just a moment ago.
But Kaibara wasn't done as he stopped spinning long enough to push off of the ground and launch back towards Clay while spinning in the opposite direction. Clay dodged this attack and the next one as Kaibara kept attacking him before bouncing back up from the ground. On one particular instance, however, Kaibara hit and bounced off a pipe instead of the ground, leaving Clay little time to dodge as he held up both arms and legs in front of him to ward off the blow. "How do you like this," exclaimed Kaibara as he slammed into him, pushing the 1A student back while also wearing away at his whirlwind clouds, "I call it Spiral Whirlwind!"
Clay didn't really have a chance to answer as the powerful attack succeeded in breaking through his gauntlets and greaves, sending him flying several feet away before he impacted against a metal roof. He grunted in pain a few times as he rolled along the top of the small building a little ways before stopping. The 1A student groaned in pain as he managed to get up to his hands and knees, noting his goggles were now gone thanks to that last attack. 'Okay,' thought Clay with labored breathing, 'going blow for blow is having mixed results, so I might want to try and stop his rotations instead.'
"There you are," said Kaibara as he leapt up onto a pipe above the metallic roof, "I lost sight of you for a second, but now you have nowhere to run so take this: Spiral Whirlwind!" He again spun his whole body towards Clay as the Cloud Wielder got to his feet and generated fresh clouds for his gauntlets and greaves, or at least he was at first. 'Wait a second,' he thought, 'he lost track of me while spinning his whole body, meaning his sense of direction isn't so great while performing that move.' An idea quickly formed in Clay's head then as he undid his gauntlets and generated more clouds from the openings on his sleeves.
This whole process only took a few seconds and then, at the last moment, Clay stepped aside and blasted Kaibara's spinning body with his clouds. "Ha, you really think you can hold me with…..wait a minute, what's going on?!" The 1B student's vision had gone dark as the clouds smothered his person. But what was truly odd was the fact that the clouds somehow seemed to be stationary despite him still spinning. No, that wasn't right, he was undoubtedly spinning as fast as he could go.
So if the clouds seemed to be remaining the same, it was because they were spinning too, and as fast as him! "I don't know if you can hear me in there," said Clay as he reformed his cloud greaves into a flying nimbus cloud to travel quickly through the pipeworks, "but the answer to your question is, yes, I think I can hold you in there."
"How are you doing this, what's going on?!" Exclaimed the still spinning Kaibara.
"Simple physics is what's going on," said Clay while navigating through the factory-themed training ground, "ya see I've been trying to fight back against your spiral quirk by using my own rotational attacks. Then I remembered that attacks like yours focus on generating as much friction as possible to inflict damage. If, however, you run into something spinning just as fast as you and in the same direction then generating the needed friction will be near impossible for you. In other words, as long as my clouds match your rotation speed, it'll be like you're not spinning at all."
"You prick," exclaimed Kaibara as he stopped spinning in an attempt to escape. This would turn out to be a bad move, however, as the clouds were still rotating at highspeed which slammed Kaibara against the inside of them like a painful carnival ride. Clay was quick to close up the top of it as he began spinning again, ensuring he couldn't escape as he neared the jail.
"Now then, let's see where this spinning top will land!" Exclaimed Clay as he sent the rotating cloud flying right through the door of the jail. The impact was enough to rattle the cage and cause the door to close on its own as Clay dissolved his cloud. Needless to say, the now non-spinning Kaibara wasn't in the best mood.
"Now that's just plain irritating," he said while sitting down in the jail, "you actually used my own Spiral quirk against me."
"I honestly wasn't sure it was gonna work," admitted Clay, "I've moved my clouds at high speed before but not usually at that size and not usually guessing on the speed. If I'd been the slightest bit too slow our fight would probably still be going on." Kaibara looked like he wanted to say more but stopped upon noticing a figure moving at high speed, right towards them!
"Wait, that can't actually be," said Kaibara as Iida arrived, moving as fast as he'd usually move with Reciproburst active. Clay just barely had time to step to the side as Iida slowed down with just enough momentum to kick the door open before throwing in his own prisoner, Hitoshi Shinso.
"That was too close," said Iida as he closed the door, "a second later and we'd have been tied it seems. Are you alright Clay?"
"Kaibara got some good hits on me," said Clay as he felt his bruised side and arms, "but I can at least make it through the rest of this match. How about you, it looks like Reciproturbo is working out pretty well."
"Reciproturbo," said Shinso suddenly as he took off his mask, "is that what that was?"
"Indeed," said Iida as he put his hands on his hips proudly, "the days of me having to wait on Reciproburst to cool down after one or two uses is over. Thanks to growing out some new mufflers, I can maintain it for ten minutes during which time, no one can stop me!" As if on cue, some large flames erupted in the distance behind Iida, seemingly emphasizing his words. Wait a moment, massive flames?
"I hope you got a little bit left in the tanks then," said Clay as they both looked towards the area where Todoroki was last seen, noting it had become a practical inferno, "because this match isn't over quite yet."
"Yes, our teammates still need us," said Iida as he got into a running position and Clay produced more clouds to gain a little altitude, "so let us go to them, and end this battle!"
And so the third match has already heated up, figuratively and literally, to quite a degree! Clay and Iida have managed to score a victory so far, but will it carry them to the end of the match? Guess we'll see next time. 'Til then, feel free to leave a comment or review about what you liked/disliked or if you've got any neat ideas for future chapters. Be sure to stop in next time as Clay pits his clouds against Pony's surprisingly versatile horns. 'Til then.