Overseeing a Strange World
Chapter 11
The USJ won't happen for a little while longer. I wanted to make this and the last chapter into a way to introduce the students to magic. And the fact that they may not be able to fight against the powers of mythic beings. At least not in the way that Bakugo or Todoroki do. Biggest problem I had with this one was setting up the variety of situations the Kiang-shi would put the students in. But I've got most of it figured out on what to do. So on with the show.
(No POV)
With Bakugo restored, Izuku's group moved on to try and find the (hopefully) last kiang-shi. "We need a break in the storm. Then we can send Ida to an old graveyard," Izuku says while walking through the halls. Momo, who quickly imagines a mushroom as something else, shakes her head before asking, "I'm still confused on that part. How does any of this end a vampire, even a chi one, threat?" A few of the others nod in agreement.
But then Bakugo speaks his own mind. "It probably has to do with the fact that a lot of eastern magic uses plants mixed with other objects to cast spells. Then there is the fact that chi is often considered connected to everything a person may own….. as well as calling upon the earth or spirits of it and… mumble mumble….." Upon seeing this, all of Izuku's team is stunned. With said mage asking a big question of his teacher and friends:
"Is this what I'm like when I start analyzing things?" "Yes!" is the resounding answer. A few of them remembered the battle trials, and how Izuku seemed to be picking apart their powers as they watched. Let alone the mutterings and mumbles they heard the boy saying as he was writing in notebooks.
So with a sigh Izuku and the rest move on. With Chika's group, they had a second attack by the female Kiang-shi. Ida was sure that Mineta would come towards the woman and try to get a feel. But to his surprise, the purple pervert wasn't focused on the monster's exposed regions. Instead, he was focused on the creature's face and had taken a stance similar to Kirishima's. "I got this! She can't bite through my hardened skin!" Kirishima shouts and rushes at the Kiang-shi.
The creature just floats over him and kick the hardheaded redhead in the back, before floating down to drain him. Then out of nowhere, Mineta bounces and slams into the side of the Kiang-shi's head. Just as he's coming toward the floor, he puts out another ball and bounces off of it. "Kirishima! Give me your best hit man!" Mineta shouts as he bounces toward the red head. Kirishima shakes his head at the manly courage Mineta was showing and does like what he asks.
Mineta then is able to bounce around and around while smacking the female Kiang-shi from multiple angles. Eventually he got a good enough hit to where she was knocked down and the others could steal her left sock.
"MINETA BRO! That was so manly and epic! I didn't think you had it in you!" Kirishima said with lots of gusto. Mineta shook his head and said that he didn't either. "I guess having the kind of manly spirit you embody helped bring it out. Though I'll admit Midoriya helped with some of it." As they are celebrating though, a new threat arrives. The other two Kiang-shi.
In one attack, all of the second team is knocked down and two more are drained of their chi. The female Kiang-shi draining Mina and then blasting her with some type of spell. While the slightly more emaciated brother attacks Todoroki. He had tried to freeze the creature, but it disappeared and got behind the bi-colored boy. When both teens fall, all three of the Kiang-shi look ready to attack again.
Luckily Izuku's team arrive and blast away the creatures. "Chika! Are you….. you know what. Dumb question. Lets just get these two fixed up." Izuku says before laying Todoroki on the ground. When volunteers step up to help the Kiang-shi victims, Midnight offers to restore Mina and Tetsutetsu offers to lend Todoroki some chi. "If the 1-A hardhead had enough in him for that, then so do I!" Tetsutetsu reasoned. Chika rolled her eyes and asked to work with the boys rather than Midnight and Mina.
This confused the girls a bit, and they were about to question her about it when Izuku stepped in. "We have bigger problems right now! They're turning fast!" The teams look down and see that Mina and Todoroki do seem to be changing quickly. The two mages get to work and they manage to save the latest Kiang-shi victims.
As Todoroki is shaking his head a few people note he seems to have sharper teeth than before. "Damn those floating monsters! I'll bust through them with my own will and get my chi back!" Todoroki proclaims. While this confuses the rest, Tetsutetsu has a big grin on his face and tells Todoroki that is exactly what he needs to do. Mina though is shaking her own cobwebs out of her head when she locks sight on both Izuku and Kirishima's rears. And with a smirk just like Midnight's, she reaches up and grabs the two.
"God damnit Momo stop grabbing my…. Oh its Ashido. Wait! Ashido?!" Izuku says while both he and Kirishima are blushing. Mina then raises her hands above her head with a brush of her hair as she stands. She then gets up close to Izuku and says, "I really need to thank you later. Perhaps in more than one way?"
"No you don't young lady. Sorry about that you two. I've at least somewhat tempered my impulses over the years. But she doesn't have that it seems," Midnight says with a light dusting of her cheeks. While inside she is screaming 'youth' and personally wanting to see where that could head, she also knows she is a teacher and has a responsibility to keep them from going too far right away...
Izuku sighs before saying, "we don't transfer your memories or intelligence. At most we're transferring part of your personalities. But we need to get the stolen chi back before the sunsets. Normally it would be before the sun rises, but I think Morda had a hand in boosting these monsters up." The searchers all nod and Izuku takes note of the situation.
They have the socks but the problem comes from there not being a graveyard nearby that could have toadstools. "We might have a way to help you chico." Everyone hears this but they don't know where it is coming from. "Hey! In here!" they all hear, and they note that the sound is coming from the girls bathroom.
The girls go in first to look around. They check each of the stalls but find nothing. "Turn around you idiots!" At hearing that, the girls turn and see not just Adam, but a horde of zombies or similar behind him. They all start screaming and the guys bust in a see what they are freaking out about.
Adam just rolls his eyes, before putting his hand back toward the horde with a wave. He then turns his hand slightly and snaps his fingers. All of the sudden, the horde is demolished by a variety of effects ranging from the ground swallowing the monsters, to being incinerated into nothing, to lightning falling from the sky and splitting some in half, to others being stabbed and ripped apart by earthen hands.
The whole UA group is shocked at what they had just witnessed. But they were also wondering; if Izuku's teacher was this capable, what would the student be like in a few years. "Well we were somewhat right about this being a red herring. But there was still a threat here. We've dealt with most of it and that was one of the last issues." As Adam is saying this, the UA group note behind him that Tomoe was creeping up behind him. And she looked like a zombie.
They were all freaking out and trying to tell him what was going on, but Adam was just getting more confused and annoyed. He then turned back right as zombie Tomoe was right on him and she attacked him. Biting at his neck.
This made the whole group freak out as the one weapon they could have against a crazed mage was now going to turn into a zombie. Adam though just looked nonplussed and tried to carry on with what he was saying. A few people fainted upon seeing all of that, and Izuku was crying at thinking he would have to kill or rekill his teachers to help them rest.
"Tomoe knock it off. There is a serious situation happening." "Oh boo. You're no fun," Tomoe said with a teasing tone before waving her hand and the zombie appearance disappeared. This made all of the still conscious viewers want to pass out as well but they powered through. "Not funny Tomoe-san! I do NOT need that right now! We got a situation on our hands!" Izuku said while trying to calm his panic.
Adam just snorts before saying, "I'm guessing there are about three Kiang-shi at UA right. Well, that was better than here. We had to kill off 13 of the damn things. Some kind of Kiang-shi clan or something." Upon hearing that all of the heroes and hero students are stunned. Adam presses on though before explaining that they can't make a portal to UA. But they can teach Izuku some quick portal magic that should help.
"You need graveyard toadstools to finish the ritual and the only poorly maintained graveyards I can think of in Japan might be in some old, abandoned ones. Izuku you should stay there. Send Chika and Ida," Tomoe says before creating an illusion map of likely locations. "Wait what are you two transmitting or whatever through?" Aizawa asks confused by the whole situation. Adam just explains that they polished up a bronze bell to mirror shine, "and then I used a transmission spell to create a temporary link from there to here. Don't worry. It'll fade once we leave." Aizawa though is facepalming at the insanity before him once again. But he's not rocking in the corner while trying to cling onto rationality sooo… progress?
Izuku quickly writes down the spell and the locations to send Chika and Ida. "Okay I have the locations. And I can make portals that will send the socks to the river. We can win this way." With that the teams run out of the bathroom. And not hearing the warning that Adam tries to give the group.
Izuku creates a portal in the hall and the two to get the toadstools head out. Aizawa then says they need to wait for the two to return. But just as he's saying this, the portal closes. "What happened Midoriya?" "I don't know! I don't think the spell should have dissipated that fast unless…. Oh crap. This spell might have location locks. They did say it was emergency portal magic." This makes all those present facepalm.
They snap out of the shock though when they hear a scream from the direction of the gym where All Might and the rest are bunkered in. They run back and they see the Kiang-shi trying to break through the doors. Pony fires her horns alongside Todoroki with his ice, but he monsters get away again.
They get to the doors and bring everyone up to speed on what has happened and what the plan going forward is. Izuku then tries to create a new portal, and the spell works. But it is somewhat unstable. "I just hope those two are having luck finding toadstools. Because sunset is coming soon."
Sadly, they were having less than stellar luck finding what they needed. They had found one toadstool in the ancient graveyard. But even with Ida rocketing around to look for what the mushroom they needed, they had yet to find a suitable second. "What if we were to cut up the one we found?" Ida asked after searching what he thought was the same spot three times. Chika shook her head and said, "it has to be a full toadstool. No pieces."
Ida just sighed and kept searching. It took them almost 20 minutes, but they eventually found two more to end the threat. They had to search around for another five minutes though to find the portal Izuku made to get them back. When they arrived though, everyone at UA looked exhausted. They had been attacked by the Kiang-shi at least ten more times and the monsters had managed to drain enough chi to where they didn't need to hunt by smell anymore.
Two had been turned; Setsuna and Aoyama had underestimated what they thought they could do and were dragged away by the vampires. The former, Izuku knew what was going on when the rest of the girl's body started attacking others. He had eventually found her head and Aoyama and sealed them both. "Okay. Well at least we have the tools to beat the monsters. Let's begin. Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao. Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao." As Izuku started chanting this, the toadstools started glowing. He then placed the toadstools in the socks to complete the base ritual.
"Now I just need to make a portal to a river. But I have to leave the area to do it. Great." Izuku said with worry on his face. Chika and Riku though stood up to say they would go with him. "Count me in Izuku." The one who said this was none other than Bakugo. While most were surprised given what little they understood of the angry blonde. Izuku's familiars were also confused, but the green haired mage agrees.
Mineta, Tetsutetsu, Momo, Mina, Kirishima, and Ochaco step up next and they all agree to cover Izuku while he sets up the next portal. They head for the nurse's office to make the next portal and hopefully finish this fight.
When they arrive, the Kiang-shi are there and they rush at the students. Bakugo, Izuku, Mina and Chika unleash a few shots. Then the two hardheads move in and try to distract the monsters. Mineta and Momo do a surprise combo attack. With Momo using her staff to swing the former pervert around, and the short boy then tosses not just his orbs, but a handful of flashbangs Momo had made and given him. Once they are distracted, Izuku makes his portal and drops the socks into the river. The stolen chi flows out of the monsters and returns to where it belongs.
Once it does for Momo and Mina though, they both blush so hard their heads are steaming. Mineta though looks to Kirishima and says another thanks for not just saving him. "But giving me a way to look at how to be a cool hero. Or rather a manly hero." Kirishima just smiles before fist bumping the purple hero student.
Just as they are celebrating the sun starts to peek through the clouds, as the storm passes. "Well at least that is done. They should start to disintegrate right about….." Izuku says confidently. But the strangest thing happens. The Kiang-shi don't turn to ash in the sunlight. He then hears one speak to his mind. It mentions that they had been enhanced by Morda to be able to last for a time in the light. Izuku is then grabbed and knocked through a window into the courtyard. They all hear that the Kiang-shi will still fight on and grow their power.
"Don't think it will be easy for you." All those involved look up and see (or smell) Adam and Tomoe up above the main entrance to the UA school building. Both are floating in the air, with Adam having his arms cross looking down at the monsters that had invaded. Tomoe herself has a disdainful look, that slowly morphs into a sadistic smirk. A few fox lights surround her, and when one of the Kiang-shi tries to flee, she is right in front of it. She stabs it in the chest with her sword, then draws it quickly before beheading the monster. And while it is still in the air, the whole body is consumed by fox fire.
With the sister and other brother still left, they try to flee as well. But they suddenly feel gripped by a force no one can see. "Negron. Do it!" Adam says before the two trapped Kiang-shi are slammed into the ground a few times. Then the two are tossed into the craters before apparently being smashed a few more times.
Adam then finishes the matter with a spell combining Christian Hellfire, the various fires from Diyu, and the Popol Vuh hot house to consume the bodies of the Kiang-shi. This all terrifies and amazes the students who had been watching. Izuku himself is wondering if he would ever get to that level.
"Lo sentimos, we're late. You did well though," Adam says before helping Izuku heal. With the crisis averted, and the storm passing, everyone at UA lets out a collective sigh of relief. Once the students had gone home though, the Overseers debrief the rest on what transpired in Xinjiang. And what could possibly happen going forward.