Mina could not believe her luck, both good and bad as it currently stood. Being paired with the Izumi was a stroke of luck considering what her entrance exam score was as well as the control she had with her quirk, that coupled with how stoic she was about asking if lethal force was allowed was all Mina needed to know that this girl was a powerhouse through and through. A shame that they'd both been set up against two of the other powerhouses of their class if anything they were already on the back foot, not only in terms that Bakugo and Todoroki were powerful but Izumi would likely be limited in terms of mobility inside the building.
"Sooooo Midori," Mina began snapping Izumi out of her staring contest with the building, the green display of the girl's holographic visor turning off as she raised an eyebrow at Mina's nickname for her, "I can call you that right?" Not bothering to wait for Izumi to respond she continued, "So do we have a plan or are we just going to charge in?"
"I suppose that is a good a callsign as any I have had before," Izumi answered after a few seconds, watching as Mina's face lit up, "I have some rough estimations on how both Bakugo and Todoroki will respond to this scenario, we have a clear advantage in cohesion here."
Izumi paused before handing Mina one of the small black and green striped earbuds she had given out during the entrance exam, "While the earpieces provided by U.A for this exercise will allow us to remain in contact with each other and All-Might, this one will feed my data on your location inside the building and any hostiles that appear in your path."
"Oh, this is awesome!" Mina smiled bouncing on the balls of her feet as she fitted the earbud to her other ear, "Kiri mentioned these things after the exam, said you were giving them out he had no idea why though."
"Well, I needed more accurate tactical data on the exam test sight and the villain-bots, but that is neither here nor there as of now I do have a rough plan but I need some information on your quirk."
"Oh my quirks called acid," Mina smiled brightly producing a small ball of acid in her left palm before tossing it between both hands, "Does what it says on the tin."
"You can control the viscosity and strength of the acid you can produce?" Izumi asked a dangerous predatory glint in her eyes, Mina giving a cheerful nod in response not noticing as Izumi's smile turned into what could only be described as a slasher smile. "Well, that will certainly help."
She turned pointing a finger up towards the building, "I doubt those two will think about working as an effective team, that will play into our advantage as will they will likely expect us to enter via the ground floor or rooftop access. If what I remember about him is true Bakugo will beeline for intercepting the pair of us aiming specifically for me."
"Yer was going to ask what's with him and his reaction yesterday?" Mina asked scratching the back of her head, wondering if both Izumi and Katsuki had a history together.
"Something best discussed at another time," Izumi shrugged off before moving in close to Mina, "Now this is the plan," As Izumi whispered what she had come up with to Mina, the pink-skinned and hair girl listened and slowly began to devolve into a fit of excited giggling at what her partner had managed to cook up in just a few minutes.
While the hero team planned the two boys of the villain team had not said a word to each other. Katsuki was glaring towards the door flexing his fingers as sparks arced across his hands. He could not believe Deku had shown up after being gone for ten years, the last time he's seen her was when they were still in kindergarten and she'd stopped him putting some useless extra with a nobody quirk in their place about wanting to be a hero. Didn't she ever realise that where people with weak quirks belonged, underneath those with quirks meant to be used by heroes?
No, of course, she hadn't like the worthless extra she was with her stupid quirk giving her those jet parts she had tried to stop him putting that extra in their place. So he'd figured he might as well put Deku in her place that, however, had not gone to plan, as when he'd gone to lay an exploding palm on one of her wings the dumbass Deku had struck both her arms out and blown him across the playground.
When he had woken up in the nurse's office, his left arms in a sling and both hands bandaged up Katsuki was beyond mad at what Deku had done to him. At such a young age Katsuki couldn't understand what she'd done was an accident as her quirk manifested another part of itself, as far as he had been concerned at that age she was a villain who had attacked a future hero. The idea that Deku was a villain had never left Katsuki's mind as he had grown older, often becoming a way for him to rationalise why she was no longer around as it only made sense that Auntie Inko had sent her away for being a villain.
So when she had shown up topping the U.A entrance exam scoreboard and beating his score by well over double only further cemented the idea that she was a villain, she'd left only to return to mock him and make his heroic backstory irrelevant. Now he had a chance to put her in her rightful place, in the dirt where she belonged as he had always been told he was the best by every teacher he had ever had and the other extra's that hung around him. His homeroom teacher and the extra's at U.A just didn't realise it yet, well it was time to make them.
"Hey, half and half," Katsuki sneered giving Todoroki a condescending glance, "Stay here and guard the bomb I've got a Deku to crush!"
"Don't bother," Todoroki responded in a board tone idly picking dirt from between his nails, "It'll be over just ten seconds after they enter the building."
"Like hell, it will!" Katsuki roared angrily and turned to face Todoroki, "You quirk ain't going to jack-shit against her."
Todoroki just blinked staring at Katsuki without saying a word waiting. Eventually, after a few more minutes, they both heard All-Mights over the built-in speaker system to the building. "START THE INDOOR BATTLE SIMULATION!" The second All-Might finished speaking Todoroki slammed his right foot down onto the ground sending a rapidly moving sheet of ices outwards, freezing the building from top to bottom locking anyone standing on any interior surface of the building in place.
With a snarl of anger, Katsuki aimed his hands at his feet and blew up the patch of ice that had locked him in place, counting to ten in his head before giving Todoroki a vile smirk as no announcement of the other team's capture was announced, "Oh look at that, you didn't capture them, now stay here you two-tone dumbass!" with those parting words and leaving Todoroki stunned by the fact he didn't freeze both Mina and Izumi in place, Katsuki stormed out of the room they had started in with the bomb, preparing his hunt for Deku and the stupid pink bint she'd been paired with.
Stalking through the halls of the building, Katsuki growled in anger as the ice was severely hindering his progress to a slow steady pace if the two-toned haired idiot had not frozen the building then he'd have already reached the ground floor and be all over Deku and the pink-haired bint. Coming to a stop as he caught something out the corner of his left eye roaring past the outside window, without missing a beat Katsuki moved in close to the window paring out only to catch sight of the red glow from Deku's engines as she roared around the buildings corner a feral grin etched on his face as he made to jump out of the building to chase after her.
It wasn't until he was about to leap that something felt off, why was Deku not charging directly into the building and he hadn't seen the pink bint at all. Something was up but it would be something he'd have to concern himself with after he'd blown Deku into the ground.
"Hey Blasty," Mina announced as she tapped Katsuki on the shoulder causing the explosively tempered blonde to turn his snarling face towards her bright smile as she levelled her palms towards him, "Let's get wet."
Without waiting for a response Mina unleashed a torrent of thick viscous acid from the palms of her hands coating Katsuki in it form head to toe, paying close attention to his hands ensuring he was caked in her most diluted and sticky acid she could produce. Not leaving him a chance to swing out violently and connect with a fist, Mina slid backwards on the trail of acid she had been secreting from her shoes as a way to circumvent the iced-over floors.
"OH, YOU ARE DEAD YOU PINK BITCH!" Katsuki roared wiping the thick acidic goop from his face, surprised that none of the skin she'd coated in acid was heating up or that his eyes weren't stinging. But that didn't matter right now, all that mattered right now was quickly eating this racoon eyed annoyance so he could move onto putting Deku where she belonged. Without wasting any time he thrust both his hands out towards Mina, a manic grin plastered on his face as he went to ignite the sweat on his palms to explode.
Instead of fiery explosions that would have left her on the ground nothing happened, that wasn't right he should have been able to fire off an explosion without any issues. Flexing his hands Katsuki realised they were thick and slimy, his palms were slick with the acid he'd been blasted with, at this he realised why his palms were not igniting as the pink-haired raccoon eyed bitch had washed the nitroglycerin sweat away and left his hands to damp to produce more. Rage welled up inside him at this, the very idea that this extra had been able to counter his quirk so easily sent him over the edge.
Blinded by his rage Katsuki roared, the corners of his mouth foaming, as he lunged forward his arms outstretched towards Mina's throat, but instead of quickly closing the gap and wrapping his hands around her neck he slipped on the icy floor nearly losing his balance only staying upright by gripping onto the wall. Glaring at Mina, who still had a smile on her face as she sated from side to side on a trail of her acid, Katsuki made to lunge for her again.
Only this time Mina greeted his lunge attempt with another splattering of the thick heavily diluted acid to the face, temporarily leaving his vision as nothing but blocky shapes. His vision blinded Katsuki threw his hands up to again wipe the sticky acidic gunk from his face, only to the moment he was doing so to have his legs kicked out from underneath him. With his legs swept cleanly off the ground Katsuki's back slammed into the floor with a loud thud, earning a ground from the blonde boy as he moved his hands to continue wiping the gunk from his face.
"Midori said you'd be tougher," Mina shrugged gliding around Katsuki, her acid trails letting her ignore the ice, "Said I should stop you being able to make explosions before getting close." Mina smiles as she came to a stop next to Katsuki's prone form, watching as he continued to try and wipe the gunk from his face. Only giving Katsuki enough time to clear one of his eyes Mina bent down grabbing onto his right wrist before flipping him onto his front and pinning Katsuki to the ground with her knees. "Welp better luck next time Blasty," Mina giggled as she pulled the roll of capture tape from her pocket and wrapping it around his right wrist before grabbing his flailing left arm and bringing it back wrapping it up in the tape as well.
Katsuki could not believe what was happening, he wasn't supposed to be taken down by one of the useless extras. His quirk should have carried him to the top and let him not only crush racoon eyes but Deku, yet here he was pinned to the ground angrily thrashing as he was in the process of being captured by the pink-haired nobody. He couldn't lose like this he was supposed to win to be the best and become the next number one hero, yet for all his thrashing he couldn't break free as Mina finished tying both his hands together behind his back.
"VILLAIN TEAM KATSUKI BAKUGO HAS BEEN CAPTURED!" All-Might's voice boomed out over the speakers causing Bakugo to stop struggling against the capture tape and just lie there his face on the ground. This wasn't right, he wasn't supposed to lose like this, closing his eyes trying to blink away the last remnants of the thick viscous goop that he'd been sprayed with twice, Katsuki rested his face against to floor grinding his teeth ignoring everything around him as he heard the faint sounds of racoon eyes moving off and talking to Deku. Katsuki couldn't bring himself to pay attention to anything else going on around him, nothing made sense now all his life he had been told he was the greatest and nothing could rival him or his quirk yet now he was learning that wasn't the case. Second, in the practical entrance exam, fourth in the quirk apprehension test and now he'd just been beaten in an unbelievably one-sided fight by the girl who'd just made it into the quirk apprehension tests top ten. Unable to even fight back now after being captured Katsuki just remained face down on the ground screwing his eyes shut trying desperately to rationalise his loss.
After hearing the announcement of his partner's capture Shoto glanced around the room they had not bothered to move the bomb from, while he had frozen over the windows and doorways in the room was still absolutely massive. A tall ceiling and wind spaces between the support pillars it would allow for someone to manoeuvre easily between them, someone like Midoriya would still struggle in such a tight space of that he was certain.
Still with his partner now down for the count he'd be facing the heroes two on one so he needed to make the room harder to enter and the best way to do that was by coating the doors and windows in more ice. Raising his right foot again as ice shard and cold air trails began to form around his foot, Todoroki heard a high pitched whining noise coming from the iced-over windows behind him followed by an explosion that rocked the entire room. The ice stopped forming as he turned to face the iced-over windows, his eyes went window with surprise at the spider web cracks forming across the crystal blue ice wall.
Another high pitched whine rose from the other side of the ice wall moments before another impact rocked the building shattering the ice into sparkling shards, light flooded into the room reflecting off the shards temporarily blinding Shoto. His arms raised to shield his eyes from the reflected light Shoto failed to notice as Izumi flew in through the newly made opening, he only became aware she had entered the room when he was able to hear her voice.
"Target located, moving to pacify hostile," The cold clinical detachment in her voice sent a shiver down his spine, a shiver that didn't last long as her shin slammed into his stomach with enough force to not only catapult him across the room in a heap but to if Shoto had to guess crack a rib.
Coughing as he rose to his feet from the heap had hand landed in after Izumi's kick, Shoto noticed Izumi circle tightly around the bomb not even bothering to touch it before racing towards him. She wasn't going for the bomb at all, she'd determined him as the bigger threat, something Shoto would show he was.
Slamming his right foot into the ground again Shoto launched a wave of ice spikes towards Izumi, believing they would knock her out of the air and allow him to capture her. Instead of bringing allowing herself to get struck by the ice spikes Izumi began to weave between them as they shot up from the ground towards her, unleashing a hailstorm of machine-gun fire from her shoulders at any spikes she couldn't dodge reducing them to irrelevant chunks. Her speed never dropping as she closed the gap with Shoto once again, rolling over his ice-coated right-hand swing spinning her body around in the air to slam her shin into the back of his head with her entire body weight and speed she'd built up. The force of the kick combined with Shoto's head slamming into the floor was more than enough to stun him and leave his head spinning.
"Hostile pacified," Izumi spoke circling once more before landing in front of Shoto bending down to survey him for any further threats, before tying up his arms in the capture tape she had kept clipped to her belt, "Proceed with entry and secure enemy ordinance."
Groaning as his head stopped spinning, Shoto was greeted to the sight of the ice he'd used to block the door dripping away as a human-shaped hole was melted threw allowing Mina to step into the room. Seeing her look around and whistle at the sight he went to thrust his right arm out towards her, only to find it had been tethered to his right leg, keeping them both off the ground and immobile.
"Geez Midori," Mina whistled as she skipped over to the bomb watching as Izumi left Shoto half tied up, "You didn't take long to put him down, but why only tie up half of him?"
Izumi glanced back at Shoto, her eyes cold and judgmental, "He was only a threat from his right side, I watched everyone yesterday to gain some understanding of your quirks." Her words cut Shoto deep, he had sworn to never use his left side no matter what but to see someone had managed to pick up on that so quickly. Only use it as an excuse to see him as no longer a threat with only his right side tied up, struck a deep nerve with him.
If Izumi thought he wasn't a threat anymore then next time they fought he'd make sure to show her just how threatening his right side was.
Mina nodded as it made sense as both she and Izumi touched the bomb together before coming to a realisation as All-Might's rang out announcing her's and Izumi's victory.
"Wait a minute," She pointed a finger accusingly at Izumi her cheeks puffing out as she pouted, "If you knew what my quirk was then why did you ask about it outside?"
Izumi blinked in confusion, "Because asking is polite?" Well, she thought it was, maybe her uncles were not the best at giving advice on being considerate, "I thought that was what you did and how you made friends."
Mina blinked twice before letting out a friendly snort in laughter earning a confused look from Izumi, "Oh man Midori that's funny," Mina smiled as she slapped Izumi on the shoulder, "Let's help those two up and get back to the class."
"NO NEED YOUNG ASHIDO!" The booming voice of All-Might range out from the hole in the outside wall Izumi had used to enter. "BOTH YOUNG TODOROKI AND YOUNG BAKUGO WILL REQUIRE THE ATTENTION OF RECOVERY GIRL SO THEY WILL BE COLLECTED BY SOME TRANSPO-BOTS SEE!" All-Might finished gesturing over to where two small single-wheeled robots were busy loading Shoto onto a stretcher.
Without another word, the three of them returned to the observation room for the post-exercise grading. As they walked Toshinori began to replay the entire exercise over again in his mind, from the moment Shoto had frozen the entire building it was clear Izumi and Mina had a plan. As instead of going in from the top or ground floor they had made use of Izumi's ability to fly and breached on one of the middle floors, well to be more accurate Mina had melted her way in while Izumi had circled the exterior of the building rapidly almost as if she was scanning for something.
But not just scanning no, she'd been playing bait allowing Katsuki to spot her, before likely relaying that information to Mina. Her takedown of Katsuki had been efficient and brutal, not likely something she could come up with. Toshinori had seen her entrance exam written scores, and while the girl had passed she wasn't the brightest, the plan had the brutal edge of an ISAHF raid all over it from targeting the face first before suppressing the quirk if Toshinori had to guess it was Izumi who had thought it up.
The same could also be said for how quickly Izumi had located the bomb and blown her way into the room with two slugs launched from between her arms, before ruthlessly assaulting Shoto over securing the bomb. If Toshinori was honest what she had said over the monitored commlink made sense, if this ha been a real villain threat then it would stand to reason they'd have a remote way of detonating the bomb so taking Shoto out first was the smarter option. But she had done so in less than thirty seconds and while she hadn't used lethal force her attacks had been brutal to the point he nearly called the exercise off.
Something to work on overtime, right now Toshinori had a class to address, results to be given out to the two students who didn't need to see the nurse and the next two teams to test. "NOW THAT MY YOUNG FUTURE HEROES IS WHAT I CALL A APPROPRIATE SHOWING OF HOW-TO PERFORM THIS EXERCISE! BOTH TEAMS GIVING THERE ALL TO ENSURE VICTORY YET THE HERO TEAM PROOVED VICTORIOUS!" Toshinori smiled as he gestured to both Izumi and Mina before pointing to the rest of the students, "BUT ONE STUDENT STOOD OUT MORE IN THAT MATCH AND HAS EARNED THE SPOT OF MVP, CAN ANYONE TELL ME WHO?!"
He watched as slowly Momo Yaoyorozu raised her hand to answer, "YES YOUNG YAOYOROZU YOU KNOW WHO THE MVP WAS?!"
"Yes, sir I believe it was Mid…" Before she could finish Izumi cut her off.
"There was no MVP." Izumi's voice was sharp as she fixed Toshinori with the cold gaze she had during the exercise, "To say there was an MVP on either team implies they were more essential to victory or the team's strategy, it is insulting both partners as to ensure victory every member of the team is valuable to achieving the operational objectives."
The entire class was stunned into silence by her words, even Toshinori couldn't fathom a student not wanting to be given credit as the best in the exercise, even the world of Heroics had rankings showing those who were better or at least more popular than the rest. But then Izumi had not been raised fully on the ideals of Japan's hero-worshipping society.
"IF YOU ARE CERTAIN YOUNG MIDORIYA?" Only receiving a nod in response Toshiinori bit back a sigh before turning to the rest of the class, "MVP ASIDE YOU SAW HOW A WELL PLANNED OUT ATTACK CAN EASILY LEAD TO VICTORY, AS WELL AS HOW POOR TEAMWORK AND COMMUNICATION CAN LEAD TO DEFEAT!" Pausing to once again pull out the two boxes containing the Teams, "AS THE VILLAINS WE HAVE TEAM A AND HEROES WE HAVE TEAM J!" Gesturing for the two teams to follow him he watched out of the corner of his eye as Izumi moved to introduce Mina to both Ochaco and Tenya, while Mina dragged over the red and spiker haired Eijiro Kirishima to introduce him.
Watching as Izumi spoke, smiled and laughed with those students as well as the rest of the class gave Toshinori a sense of hope, maybe the way to get Izumi to change was from the students.