Rule #6b: The weakest link is the first to fall
Soon enough, the remaining students and teachers were settled down on the spectator platform that had been erected amongst the twisting pipes of training ground Gamma for occasions such as this. The platform was large enough to fit both classes plus their teachers, All Might and Shinso's homeroom teacher, Midnight. There were also several large stacks of speakers that broadcasted what was being said down in the arena below (an upgrade from the first observation room in their first training exercise at the beginning of the year). Not to mention the large screen floating above it all that showed the different camera angles which would follow them around throughout the fight. This was still a training exercise after all.
Toru settled herself amongst her classmates (some choosing to stand or lean against the railing whilst others sat crosslegged on the ground) as they sat back to watch the first fight play out. To start with, the first of the five-man teams (Class A) would be fighting against a four-man team from Class B. It was hard to say who would come out on top in this exercise; on the one hand, 1-A had built up their experience with real live-action villains, whilst 1-B had built up theirs with a more traditional (and safer) teaching approach. Shinso would be the one at a disadvantage as he had admitted earlier, coming from the General Studies course, but Toru knew from experience that the Brainwasher was stubborn so it didn't bother her so much.
"FIGHTERS! TAKE YOUR MARKS—!" Blood King bellowed into the microphone.
"You're really into this…" Aizawa seemed a little taken aback at his colleague's level of intensity over a training exercise. Toru hadn't really thought that there was a rivalry between the two first year teachers, but maybe she had missed it? Honestly, it seemed like Aizawa had too.
"—AND START!"
BZZZT!
The first battle more or less ran through the typical brain v brawn scenarios, at least in the beginning. Class A wandered cautiously together in a group with Tsu peeking around corners whilst Koda sent his birds ahead to search for the other team whose base was across from theirs. It didn't take long for Class B's scouts to find them, and then scatter them. Shinso, at least, had the foresight to step up to the plate and brainwash their opponents before they could land a second blow.
"Huh? Wait! What is that mask?" Midoriya gasped upon seeing Shinso fiddling with the buttons on the side of his dark mask. The mask in question had been previously hidden by Shinso's scarves, but now that it was in place appeared almost muzzle-like if not fore the grate at the front that allowed the sound to escape. Somehow, it appeared to allow the brainwasher to do more than just brainwash you. Of course, in typical Midoriya fashion he ran off on a tangent about the ins and outs of the device, leaving those in Class B to send worried glances his way. Particularly as those words flowed together in a stream of indistinguishable gibberish.
"Is he…okay?" Kendo leant around Awase who stared open-mouthed at the greenette's mindless babble and scribbling pencil as it soared across the pages of his notebook.
"Yeah…" Mina sighed as no one in 1-A batted an eye at his behaviour. "He's just enthusiastic…and through"
"If you say so…"
Turning back to the battle at hand, Toru leant back on her hands to watch as Shishida froze up and slumped over, sort of like a wind-up doll that had lost its oompf. Unfortunately, when Shinso went to attack Tsuburaba replied in kind, trapping him inside a box of solid air that allowed no sound in or out. In that brief window, Kaminari shot forth and allowed himself to get captured; in doing so, the blonde shot out several hundred volts of electricity that ran through the beastly boy. It was a quick thing, really, especially since Shishida had just broken free of Shinso's control with a slap to the back of the head courtesy of his partner.
"Woo! Go Denki!" Mina cheered as she watched her friend rocket forth with determination and bear a grin that was wide enough to split his face from ear to ear.
"Shinso's doing really well, too" Ochako murmured, "Y'know for his first time"
"Yeah! Who knew that he could mimic voices like that?" Awase added as he watched his classmates on the big screen.
"Speaking of" Mina purred as she turned to the invisible girl nearby. "You two seemed pretty cosy before"
"Hm?" Toru hummed, sparing a glance towards the pinkette who was grinning like the cat who'd caught the canary.
"Is he…?" She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.
"Not like that, Mina!" Toru playfully shoved her shoulder, in turn pushing the girl out of her face.
"Then what's it like?"
"His father's my donor" She shrugged, completely non-bláse about the whole thing, as she turned back to face the screens. "So I guess you could say we're, like, family?"
"What? Like cousins? Siblings?"
"Eh, close enough. There's not exactly an official title for recipient-of-donor's-organs, y'know?"
"Wouldn't that just be 'patient'? Or 'recipient'?"
"You know what I mean"
"Wait—did we know your a transplantee?"
"Yeah, it's not exactly a secret. I mean, I don't shout it from the rooftops or bring it up in every conversation—"
"—Ahem—Todoroki—Ahem!"
"—But it's like I'm trying to hide it, y'know?" Her lips twitched upwards at the snidely hidden cough that covered the comment regarding the two-toned boy. Out of the corner of her eye, Toru could've sworn that she saw Bakugou grow tense as he spared a glance or two in their direction. What did he care? It's not like it was his heart.
"That's pretty cool! You're so brave, Toru!"
"Ah…?"
"You keep fighting even when life is getting you down!" They were receiving several glances now—mostly from Class B—but for the most part, they were left alone.
"…It's just a transplant, it's not like I added a third eye where my belly button should go"
"Should? Does that mean you don't have a belly button?" Mina pounced on the invisible girl and proceeded to scrounge around her belly in search of the aforementioned third eye.
"What the—? Mina! G'off! I was kidding! Mina!" Toru wailed through her tears made by the fingers tickling at her sides, as she flopped onto her back with her hands flapping about. Off in the corner, Mineta drooled lecherously at the sight of them climbing all over each other.
"Ashido, Hagakure, settle down" Aizawa flung over his shoulder.
"Yessir…" Mina petulantly replied as she slowly slid off of Toru's stomach and flopped back into her seat like a child that had been told off. Beside her, Toru sat upright before moving to fix herself up.
Turning back to the big screen, Toru tuned back into the ongoing fight just as Tsu's tongue whipped across the screen and entrapped the airborne air user. Unfortunately for the 1-A team, Shishida was able to shake off Kaminari's attack like a dog shaking off water. It's probably all that fur. Toru mused as she watched the electric blonde stare up at the beast man in horror. It'd be a good conductor for sure!
"Dang! D'you see him? That guy is super powerful!" Sato complimented.
"Faster Tsu! C'me on!" Ochako cheered quietly.
"Don't you worry" Midoriya smirked as his pencil smoked across his current data analyst notebook. "Huh?"
"Trust our classmates, they've got this!"
"Yeah!"
Kirishima & Koda were the next to tangle with the furry hero, even going so far as to break out their ultimate moves in the hopes that they could down him with a haymaker or two. But the actions was all in vain, as Shishida simply slipped through the space between the two as his Quirk released him back into his 'regular' form for a moment and then he was back to the raging beast from before. Toru had to wince when both boys were snatched up & then tossed away like rag dolls; the two boys didn't even know what hit 'em. Kirishima was unlucky enough to be ensnared by Shiozaki's vines before he was tossed into jail; Koda was not far behind however, he was personally handed to the jailer bringing their score up to two.
"Oh no! I can't believe they caught him!" Ochako despaired as Kirishima wound up being the first of their peers to fall. It was rather surprising considering the red head's impressive strength; in fact, she would bet that he was one of the (many) heavy hitters that 1-A had to offer. Of course, his hard-headedness often left a lot to be desired, which was likely his undoing.
"Agreed" Iida nodded from his perfect seiza.
Is that even comfortable under all that armour? Toru wondered as she glanced over at the class rep.
"But Asui managed to ensnare Tsuburaba"
"The odds are still even" Todoroki added from across the way.
"No, they're definitely not" Bakugou retorted, hands clenched around the railing he leant up against. His eyes narrowed on the image of Kaminari & Tsu taking turns to hit the air shield containing a sulking Shinso with broken bits of pipe.
"Oh? What's this?" Vlad King jovially announced over the loudspeakers, sounding very much like a gameshow presenter (or a soccer mom, Toru wasn't sure which). "Class B's already pulling ahead! Each team has three competitors left! But it's obvious that Class B is setting themselves up for a win! Can't say I'm surprised considering their brains and brawn"
"Oh, so that's where Monoma gets it from!" Mineta mused aloud as the realisation hit him.
"Stop with the bias commentary!" Nearby, Mina fumed in her seat about the unfairness of the teacher's running commentary with Jiro & Aoyama by her side.
"Hey!" Monoma whined petulantly at the remark, although it was mostly lost beneath Vlad King's speech.
"MY SUPERIOR STUDENTS ARE ATTACKING FURIOUSLY! LOOKS LIKE THEY'LL FINALLY CRUSH CLASS A!"
"YEAH! KEEP BRINGING THE TRUTH, VLAD-SENSEI!" Monoma cheered as his classmates whined & cringed in their embarrassment. Several hushed whines came from the remaining 1-B students who looked like they wanted to be anywhere else. Kendo had even shielded her face in her hands as if pretending that their teacher wasn't there would lessen the embarrassment.
"Oh God!"
"He's doing it again!"
"Kendo! Make him stop!"
"Wha—how am I s'posed to do that?"
"Hit him! Like you do with Monoma!"
"He's our teacher!"
"That beast is strong" Sero worried. "He'd be hard to take down"
"And his sense of smell is no joke either" Sato replied as the two teams reconvened with each other before putting their next moves into play.
"…There are three Asui's headed this way!" Shishida's declaration came over the loudspeakers as his nose twitched this way & that.
"I don't get what Shishida's saying" Kaibara wondered in confusion, "She can't multiply herself like Ectoplasm-Sensei can, right? There should only be one of her"
"Is this the plan, I think it is?" Mineta stage-whispered to Midoriya.
What power? Toru's brows furrowed in thought.
"Yeah, it's that power from the USJ" MIdoriya replied in kind, "She told us all about it, but I've never actually seen her put it in action before"
"Toxic mucus saves the day!" The pair chorused.
Mucus? Like snot? Ew!
"She coated her two teammates in it to cover their smell!" Midoriya's eyes gleamed.
Oh!
"Even we almost forgot about it!" Mineta preened, although Toru wasn't sure what about that statement made him so proud. "So there's no way Class B will know what's going on!"
The rest of the fight proceeded in much the same manner as the first half, with Class A charging head first into battle with a half-baked plan in mind and Class B responding with a stronger plan and stronger teamwork. It appeared that in this instance, hard work in the classroom in comparison to experience in the field was going to pay off. Of course, the bell had yet to ring, so it wasn't like they were out of the running just yet.
Toru crossed her fingers & her toes as she watched the remaining three split up with Kaminari sacrificing himself as the "…sacrificial lamb" (or so Shiozaki had cried out in prayer), Tsu going to distract Rin and Shinso who hid himself amongst the pipes and cast his voice out, hoping to ensnare someone. As expected, Kaminari had gone too far again and—like a repeat of the Sports Festival—turned himself into a floppy idiot encompassed by thorny vines.
"Whey!" Kaminari slumped out of view.
"Next! Hurry up & get your vines ready!" Rin's voice echoed out, but his lips did not move as Shiozaki lowered the ball of vines.
"Right! Where are the others hiding?" When the flora girl froze, they all knew who was to blame. Shinso.
"NO! That wasn't me talking just now! It was Shinso's voice modifier!" Rin despaired.
"Yes! Go 'Toshi!" Toru pumped her fists as a jump-cut showed the lavender boy still hidden beneath the labyrinth of piping as he tuned his mask.
"Ooh! That thing is so handy!" Mina grinned.
And then Shishida was charging off towards Shinso's hiding spot whilst Tsu revealed herself to Rin with a strong kick that he was barely able to block in time, although it still had him stumbling over himself. Which was more than enough for the agile reptile to wrap her tongue around the draconic boy much as she had done with Tsuburaba; but instead of heading straight for the jail, she chased after Shishida, and in turn, Shinso. In the meantime, Toru's eyes snapped over to the screen which showed Shinso backed into a corner. His use of the capture scarf was much faster this time (since he was actually able to use it against his opponent) and he was able to bring down a large section of pipe on top of Shishida's head.
Toru gaped as she watched the beast man shake off the attack and surge towards the violet-haired boy once more. Whilst not the most powerful of attacks, she knew that something that large & heavy would surely pack a punch or at least cause some sort of dizzy spell. But their peer seemed to be much more thick headed in the skull than she first thought, because of how easily he was able to throw it off. Or perhaps he was just putting on a show for the sake of pride, as boys were wont to do. Even from here, Toru could see the fear budding in Shinso's eyes when he saw that neither his Quirk nor his attacks would work. Her heart pinged for him because she knew that a blow from Shishida was definitely going to hurt.
Thankfully, Tsu appeared in the nick of time and used Rin as a battering ram to take out the beast man who only just noticed who was pleading with him to move, when said boy connected with the back of his head and the two crumpled to the floor in a groaning heap at Shinso's feet. "Sorry 'bout that!" Tsu apologised, sounding not at all apologetic as she let Rin go. Either way, Toru's lips exploded up into a shit-eating grin when she noticed Shinso's baffled expression on his face; like it was an absurd thought the gentle frog-girl would ever use a person to take down another person.
"ALL RIGHT!" Ochako cheered at Class A's victory, throwing her hands up in the air in celebration as Vlad King grumbled not-so-quietly at the defeat of his students.
"Yes! Expertly done!" Iida agreed.
"Hey, Shinso's awesome!" Mineta grinned. "I'd say he's good to transfer"
"No, Asui & Kaminari's quick thinking let him shine, that's why he did so well. That's teamwork! By erasing their scents with Asui's mucus, making them hard to pinpoint and using the vocal modifier, they made it so the other team couldn't communicate!" Midoriya replied as he went over his notes. Soon enough, the analytic behaviour kicked in and he was more or less mumbling a continuous stream of facts and numbers to himself.
"Brainwashing" Todoroki summarised, "It's an even more annoying Quirk than I thought it was before"
"Yeah…" Ojiro agreed hesitantly, liking thinking back on his experience with it at the Sports Festival.
"…DESPITE THEIR FAILURES, THE TEAM OF CLASS A PLUS SHINSO ARE THE WINNERS!"
