Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia
Chapter 25:
"Because of events that took place at the recent internships, and the rise of villain activity as a whole, we've decided to hold a new special training exercise."
Special? The students of Class-A thought, giving Aizawa suspicious looks. Knowing the way he started his sentences, they knew this could be something either oddly normal or ridiculously dangerous. Not knowing whether it would be crazy was worse than back when they just assumed it was dangerous though, as they still had the notion that they could be safe. Their eyes all started opening wide though as Aizawa continued with his eyes narrowed, "Fighting real villains-"
Every kid in the class lowered their bottom lips, then Aizawa continued, "-Training Simulation." The entire class sweatdropped. "We're opening a new facility recently built at the edge of campus. We'll have to take the bus there like with USJ. As you know, we've been trying to prepare you for real fights against villains sooner than you usually would. Well at this new facility, you'll…" Aizawa trailed off and the class looked at him confusedly, only to get more nervous as he started grinning. "Actually, you'll find out when we get there."
Just like that, everyone in Class-A was on their toes about what they were about to be doing. Kaminari glanced to his left at Jirou who shrugged and had a bead of sweat on her face just like he did. An entirely new building, unspecified training, and "fighting real villains- training simulation," all sounded like nerve-racking things. It was also exciting though, and Ashido asked while throwing up her hand, "Are we the first class using the building?"
"No," Aizawa replied, and he glared at the girl who did not wait before asking her question. Ashido sheepishly lowered her arm down, and Aizawa said, "Clearly, the second and third years had their turns first, and Class-B will have theirs before you as well. They go tomorrow, we leave on Friday."
"Dang," Kirishima snapped his fingers, thinking about his friend in the neighboring class who he interned with the first semester. He could imagine Tetsutetsu laughing that they got to go first, but then his annoyed look lifted and he scratched his chin. When he brags about it, bet I can figure out all about the training beforehand. Tell the rest of the class to prepare for whatever crazy thing Aizawa sensei and the other teachers and preparing for us. He smirked, then wiped it fast in case Aizawa was looking his way.
It's a training simulation, but knowing U.A. they might do something really scary, like making us fight the heroes again. Or, Aizawa sensei dressing up like some spooky vampire villain, Hagakure thought it, then leaned back in her seat as Aizawa's gaze passed over her. His eyes do go red sometimes in that scary way…
Fighting real villains. Bakugo clenched his fists over the table. They've been basing everything we do recently on current events. So these real villains we'll be facing…
Are they going to make a League of Villains simulation? Midoriya thought, staring intensely at Aizawa and trying to figure out the training. What would U.A. students get the most use out of in a training simulation? Another kidnap attempt like with Kacchan and Zach? They could recreate the training camp in the woods, Midoriya's thoughts started to stray, and he quickly continued to himself, Or maybe Camino Ward again? There have been other big incidents too recently. Other groups outside of the League of Villains.
"Anyway, prepare yourselves for it. It won't be easy, and you'll be getting graded on your performances during it," Aizawa said.
"How are we supposed to prepare if you won't give us any information beforehand?" Sero asked.
"Good point," Aizawa remarked, and Sero let out a breath as he was half-expecting to be yelled at. Aizawa grinned at him though and Sero got nervous again before the teacher said, "Guess you'll just have to prepare for anything and everything."
So unfair, Sero thought while slouching back into his chair. He saw he was not the only one who thought that way as Mineta was sweating to his right and looking around to see if anyone else thought this was ridiculous.
Yaoyorozu turned to Todoroki at her side and she let out a sigh and gave him a small shrug. "Nothing we shouldn't have expected by now," she mentioned.
"Mm," Todoroki agreed with a small nod. Villains. We get stronger, but they have been getting stronger and more organized. The types of villains we need to prepare for changes with the times. Todoroki turned and looked towards the windows of the classroom. New kinds of villains.
"Hello students. Today we have prepared a special training exercise for you." At the front of the lobby of the VTS building, or the "Villain Training Simulator," Principal Nezu stood up on a small podium that allowed all the students and the teachers in the room to see him. "You will be split into four groups, and each team will head through one of the doors behind me." Everyone looked past the principal towards the doors leading into the rest of the building.
The lobby itself was small. It was not very long from the front doors behind them to the huge solid wall in front that only had four doors at the bottom of it. There were timers at the top of each door as well, each one with two hours set on it ready to start counting down. Each of the students were wearing their hero uniforms, as were the four teachers with them. Yaoyorozu looked to her right towards Midnight and she thought, There is a teacher per group. Is it going to be us versus the teachers again-
"Each group will need to pick a team leader," Nezu continued to the students who were trying to figure out the simulation even as he explained it. "However, you cannot make the teacher who accompanies you into the team leader." The students started getting more confused looks on their faces, and Nezu smiled at them all before continuing. "Cooperation is an important part of hero duties. Often times during an incident, a more experienced hero may show up, but if you have been there since the start of the fight, you may need to give more experienced heroes directives. To be able to tell a pro hero you respect to follow your orders, to get them to listen to your advice."
The students started looking towards their teachers with wide eyes as the four around them looked in towards them. Midnight, Aizawa, Present Mic, and All Might stood around them. A few of the students looked at All Might hesitantly, and the scrawny former top hero sweatdropped at their unsure looks. "However, the teachers are not just your allies. They have also been gravely wounded."
Midnight threw an arm up to her forehead and dramatically fell backwards to a knee, making the three boys on her left turn towards her with wide eyes. "Protect me," she said, then winked at Sero, Kaminari, and Mineta who all snapped back with bloody noses.
Aizawa did not do anything, but Present Mic pretended like he was punched in the gut and hunched over. He reached forward and tapped Aizawa on the shoulder a few times, "Get into it man!" Aizawa rolled his eyes, then muttered, 'Ow,' and grabbed his side in an unenthusiastic way.
"This is an escort mission. Imagine that they are wounded heroes who need your support. They can give you advice, and help to the 'best' of their injured abilities, but do not expect them to be much help." Nezu explained to the class.
"Our real purpose of following you around is to mark your progress," Aizawa said. "You are graded on this after all, and there are no cameras watching you. So if you can't impress me," he said, and he glared down at the twenty students who all started hoping they got one of the other three teachers in their group.
No cameras, Nezu thought, while keeping his small smile on his face. Except for the secret ones that only I know about. It is time to suspect everyone equally.
"Every member of your group including the teacher must make it through the course together in order for it to be completed. Your teams have already been decided, but the team leaders are ultimately up to you. And teachers, no suggestions on who your team's leader should be," Nezu added, holding up a finger and wagging it.
On the large wall behind Nezu's podium, above the timers over the doors, a huge screen appeared. It was black at first, then a fourth of the screen farthest to the left illuminated. At the top of the screen was Aizawa's face and his name and hero name stretched out to the right of it. The background was green, and below the column that his head had appeared in, five students' pictures appeared going down the wall until just above the door they would be entering. "Hmm," Aizawa hummed, and Todoroki looked left at the teacher who was reading the names below his closely.
Did the teachers not even know which students they would have? Todoroki wondered. Why keep them in the dark? His eyes narrowed and shifted back to the principal who continued and pressed another button.
As the second panel on the screen lit up pink so that only half of it was black now, Kaminari ran his hands up through his hair in a frustrated way. Not only am I not with Midnight, but I had to get Aizawa sensei! Gah! Alright, Sero, Shoji, Hagakure, and Yaoyorozu isn't bad. Yaoyorozu should definitely be the team captain. Kaminari thought it and turned towards her, and he grinned at Yaoyorozu's surprised face as she looked around at her teammates who had all turned to her at the same time. It was hard to tell that Hagakure did too, but the invisible girl's shoes and gloves moved a bit to the sides so Yaoyorozu thought she might be looking her way.
"YOW! What a team!" Present Mic shouted. He turned and he put a hand on Koda's right shoulder while hunching over more, grabbing his chest as if in pain. "You gonna get me through this alright-" Present Mic stopped for a second, in his mind an image flashing of insects crawling up his body. He pulled his hand away from Koda fast after that PTSD, and he walked over and put it on Sato's shoulder instead. "You gonna get me through this, alright kid?"
Jirou grinned at Koda next to her who had a bead of sweat rolling down his face. "Guess he hasn't forgotten about that yet," Jirou joked, and Koda turned to her before smiling a bit too. Their team consisted of the two of them, Present Mic, Sato, Todoroki, and Mineta.
Mineta let out a yell of despair before spinning back to Midnight. "So unfair," he said. He, Kaminari, and Sero all let out long sighs of disappointment as they took one last look at Midnight, because their teams were starting to move off the other way towards the doors on the left.
"Team 3," Nezu said, motioning behind him and on the other side now as a bright blue background appeared. Midnight's face appeared at the top, then below her popped up Tokoyami's face. The dark student kept staring at the board without making any notice that he was pleased, even though a small shade of pink did hit his black cheeks for a second.
Bakugo humphed and crossed his arms over his chest after seeing his face pop up at the bottom of the list. He was getting annoyed there for a second as he thought they threw him in with Midoriya and All Might who must have been in the final group, so his grunt was a semi-satisfied one.
Tsuyu Asui put a finger up to the corner of her lip and tilted her head. "Hmm, I don't know who should be the leader," she said. "Anyone except for Bakugo would be good."
A tick mark appeared on Bakugo's forehead. Uraraka and Iida glanced back after hearing that and pretended they did not see Bakugo's scrunched up expression as they started talking about who should be their team leader.
"That means the final team," Midoriya began. He looked around the others who were still standing around without a group, right before a purple background showed up on the farthest right fourth of the screen with their faces on them. "Is me, All Might, Kirishima, Ashido, Ojiro, and…" Midoriya turned to the left and saw the blond boy directly in front of him with his hands behind his head and leaned back with a big smile on his face.
Aoyama blinked his eyes fast at Midoriya a few times, then the boy whose uniform was sparking said, "Saving the leader for last Midoriya? I do sparkle so much that-"
"I'll be the leader!" Ashido jumped between Midoriya and Aoyama, cutting off the blond boy who tried leaning to the other side to continue. Ashido just bounced up the other way though and kept blocking as she said, "I'd be a great leader."
"I don't know," Kirishima started as he walked over. Ashido spun to him and lifted her eyebrows up before frowning, but Kirishima turned towards the curly-green-haired boy and said, "I think Midoriya should be the team leader. He's always got great plans."
"Oh- I don't think-" Midoriya started waving his hands in front of him after the compliment, but then Ojiro stepped up on Kirishima's left side and agreed. Midoriya lowered his arms, and then Ashido sighed and admitted that they were right.
"It's decided then," Kirishima said after the three of them were in agreement.
Midoriya sweatdropped as the decision to make him leader happened without him saying anything, and then he noticed Aoyama leaning out behind Ashido and saying, "Yes, it is decided." The bead of sweat on Midoriya's face slid down farther as he realized they made the decision without Aoyama either.
"So, Young Midoriya is the team leader?" All Might asked as he stepped up to the group of five. "Then let us go! This is a timed trial, but it is also a race between you and your classmates."
Aizawa was saying the same thing to the kids already gathered behind him. On the list of names above his head, Yaoyorozu's name and row across the screen was highlighted in yellow, as all the team leaders' names started doing across the board. "…The grade I give you is important," Aizawa continued.
"But," Present Mic called to the group gathered before him. Todoroki's name was highlighted above him, and he continued while looking at the team leader closest to the door Mic stood with his back to. "Even if I give you a perfect score, if you don't come in the top two places, or even if you do come in second, but it's past the two hours allotted…"
"Then all five of you," Midnight began, then she bowed her chin and blinked her eyes a few times at them apologetically. "Unfortunately, will fail."
"Wh-What?!" Mineta exclaimed in front of Present Mic. "Doesn't that mean, half the class is going to fail?!"
It could be a rational deception, like they have tricked us with before, Iida thought. He stopped scratching his chin and lifted his gaze, then he turned it to either side. But if it is not.
If that's true, Midoriya thought, turning to his left and looking down the line of leaders. Iida had just turned right and met Midoriya's gaze, then the taller boy turned to his left so they were both looking farther away at Todoroki and Yaoyorozu who were facing their way. All four teachers saw their team leaders getting serious as they realized the others in their class were the competition, and then the timers above their heads dropped down a second to 1:59:59. The doors behind them opened inwards, and the teachers with their backs to the doors stepped to the sides.
The students ran through the doors, and all four of the teachers stayed where they were on the sides of the doorway still in the lobby. Nezu was facing them all from behind the podium, and the small principal started smiling. Aizawa could not help but crack a grin, while Present Mic was laughing loudly. Midnight leaned her head towards the door and she called out in a dramatic fashion, "Oh no, my leg! I cannot move!"
"I must have hit my head," All Might said when Midoriya ran back through the doorway with Ashido at his side. "Was it this way?" He turned and started walking farther into the lobby the opposite direction as the door he was supposed to be going in.
"Ah! All Might, what are you doing?!" Midoriya exclaimed.
All Might turned towards him, then pointed a finger at himself as if asking, 'You talking to me?' Then he grinned as he could not stay in character any longer, and he said, "Come on, team leader. Did you just assume I would know to follow you?"
"Come with us All Might!" Ashido yelled, running forward and grabbing the teacher by the hand and then running back towards the door. She glanced up at the timer, then to her left at the others in their class who came back for their teachers.
"We're moving this way Present Mic," Todoroki said, trying not to sound annoyed at the teacher who shouted, 'What?!' at him the first few times.
"Sorry, an explosion made it hard for me to hear!" Present Mic shouted while leaning in towards Todoroki's head as they ran. The five students around Present Mic all sweatdropped, wondering if having a teacher on their teams was more of a burden than the help they originally hoped it would be.
"What will you do, if a fellow hero cannot move?" Midnight asked the boys in front of her, and she grinned at the blushes on all the boy's faces.
"Uraraka," Iida said, regaining his composure and pushing up on his glasses.
Ochaco Uraraka's face lit up at the look Iida was giving her, and she ran up to Midnight who was on her knees in front of the boys. Uraraka touched the teacher and made her weightless, then she lifted Midnight up and started running forward while pulling Midnight along like she was a balloon.
"Haha, nice idea," Midnight said. "Don't forget though," she continued, and the kids below her all looked up in confusion. "This is a villain simulator we've entered." Their eyes all opened wide, and they slowed down to look at their terrain closer.
Tokoyami turned his head and looked back towards the door that had closed after their entire team had made it through. On the inside of that wall high above the door was a timer twenty times the size of the one on the other side. The timer took up almost the entire width of the tall wall stretching the height of the building. The time limit was in red numbers and counting down second by second on both the back wall behind them, and the wall on the opposite side of the room what looked like a mile and a half to two miles away. The bus had driven straight up to the building down the road and the students never got a look at how far back it stretched until now, and the idea that they had to make it that far while under attack by villains, while needing to protect a teacher as well, it was a daunting task.
"Two hours for this?" Bakugo asked, laughing before stepping forward again and smirking. His eyes darted around and he made small explosions out from his palms as he curled and uncurled his fingers. "Piece of cake."
Midnight smirked down at the boy walking farther forward than the others. They were in a huge nature kind of zone. There was a dirt path going straight ahead in front of them, but not far up they could see the sides of the path start getting rockier. At their sides right now was a light forest covering, a pretty open area for the start where it was clear they could not see any villains. The rocky area gave more opportunity for villains to be hiding, but what was supposed to slow them down more was the fact that the most straight path led between tall rock walls that rose up higher the longer they stayed on the path. Trying to get off the path and keep moving would be difficult though as the forest thinned even all the way towards the side walls, making an entire rocky zone in front of them. Worse yet, the path started to curve after going straight between the cliffs and since the cliffs were higher than their current elevation, they could not see what was beyond and what else they might have to face after the first area.
"Bakugo," Iida started. "Use your explosions to get high up and give us a report on the layout of the room-"
As Iida was speaking, Tokoyami, Uraraka, and Asui all looked at him like he was being crazy. Iida got confused at their looks, then his own eyes opened wide and he cut off as Bakugo started turning to him. "Ehh?"
Midnight started laughing as she had expected this from this group already. "Don't tell me what to do, tin man," Bakugo said, and Iida leaned back in shock before looking down at his costume that had him in a full iron suit. "I was going to do that anyway," Bakugo added, and he glanced up at Midnight and smirked at the teacher whose laughs cut off with a surprised look coming to her face instead. Bakugo fired blasts out of his hands and shot up into the air, then he fired again, and again until he was higher up than the cliffs just ahead. He grunted as he got a good idea on the layout of the room, but he also saw something behind one of the rocks on the side of the cliff. "I see you!" Bakugo shouted, blasting another explosion to keep him up.
The man he was shouting at was almost a quarter of a mile in front of him and down on the right cliffs, standing between some jagged rocks where he would have a good look down into the main path. "You trying to ambush us when we take the quickest route or something?" Bakugo taunted at the guy who had yet to move, Bakugo thought because the man might think he was bluffing with his shout. The guy started moving after Bakugo's next shout though, coming out around the rock and then jumping to a higher one where he would be able to see Bakugo and all the people farther towards the entrance of the room.
Bakugo dropped out of the air, slowing down as he almost reached the ground with another explosion. He landed in front of the group and took two steps forward, his eyes huge and his body shaking as he stared at the figure looking down towards him.
"Midnight-sensei," Uraraka said in panic, spinning to the woman above her whose eyes were also wide.
"Oh no," Midnight whispered.
Uraraka released her gravity hold on Midnight, while Tokoyami took a step back. Asui was too scared to move though, but her eyes did dart to the right and then left in fear of villains coming out of nowhere to attack them. "Oi oi," Bakugo began in a low voice as he stared towards the top of the hill. "Are you kidding me? Are you, really kidding me?!" He yelled and spun towards Midnight.
Midnight lowered next to Uraraka and the shorter girl started to her teacher, "What are we going to-"
As Midnight touched down, her right leg bent and she let out a yell of pain while falling again. Her head bowed, and Uraraka's eyes opened huge as did the others looking towards her. Midnight's head slowly lifted up, a sadistic smirk on it as she faced the children. "What are you going to do, when you find yourselves in this situation? Figure it out, team leader."
"Figure it, out," Iida whispered, turning from Midnight back towards the cliff. "If Midnight-sensei is still acting injured," Iida started. "Then, that must not be, Shigaraki Tomura."
Shigaraki Tomura stood on the cliff staring down at the students, and below the fake hand attached to his face, he smirked. The man held his arms out to the sides and he started laughing, his voice sending chills down the students' spines as they had heard that voice before. Shigaraki lowered his head and his arms, and then he stepped backwards and jumped back into a crack between some rocks to disappear from their sight.
"What's going on?" Tokoyami asked. "Is that- did the school create robots?"
Midnight heard the question and she frowned deeply. She hummed to herself as Iida asked him how they could create such a robot, and Tokoyami brought up a movie he had watched recently with very human-like robots in it. "That is no robot," Midnight said. The other five looked towards their teacher, and Midnight said, "I only say this because I know a few of you might go too far if you think that way." Her eyes were focused on Bakugo, but they glanced at Tokoyami for a second too. "I won't tell you who it is, but he's a pro hero we requested to help with this exercise."
Moving through the crevices that filled the cliff area of the room, Shigaraki Tomura had a small grin on his face as he thought about the looks those students gave him. The famous U.A. freshman Class-A. I knew they would have the most dramatic reactions compared to the upperclassmen, but those were so much more than even Class-B. Let's see how they do. The hero grinned more. The man disguised as Shigaraki Tomura, was the pro hero known as the Shapeshifting Hero- Changeling. His Quirk: Shapeshift allows him to change his body to match the appearance of anyone he had seen before, as well as copy any voice he had heard as well. He could not copy their Quirks too though, but that was why on the person of Shigaraki Tomura there were a few differences that Bakugo had noticed when he had looked closely.
"He had weapons?" Uraraka asked.
"There were small differences between him and Shigaraki," Iida agreed with what Bakugo just mentioned. He scratched his chin, and he continued to the others with him, "If this person has the ability to transform to look like villains, then it is likely his Quirk is not a powerful one in combat."
"Then let's go straight through him," Bakugo said. "I'll blast away any weapons he attacks us with."
"We need to do this smart Bakugo-kun," Asui began. "This is a pro hero we're up against."
"I thought it was a villain," Midnight said. The others looked towards their teacher wondering why she was taking the act so seriously, and then Midnight put a finger to her lips and asked, "What Bakugo said might be right, but what if there're more than one villain here?" The students looked at her with wide eyes, wondering if she was actually helping them now. Then again, there was also the possibility she was messing with them to make them move slower and get a lower grade.
Bakugo looked back forward and across the room that looked short to him considering the time limit only a few minutes ago, yet they were in the same spot now, and the task seemed a lot harder with a shorter time limit. He grinned though, and he took another step forward, It would have been too easy otherwise. "Oi, Uraraka," Bakugo said. "Pick up the dead weight and let's get moving."
"Bakugo, we still need-" Tokoyami began.
"They're trying to make us sit around doing nothing. Half of the class is failing, remember?" The other four looked at Bakugo's back in surprise, as did Midnight though she grinned after only a second of it. "There's no time to sit on our-" he paused remembering that there was a teacher with them, stopping himself from cursing early. "Let's move."
Iida nodded his head after humming for a second. "You are right. However we will not take the most central path." Bakugo turned and looked at Iida in annoyance, but Iida was pointing to the left before the start of the rocks on the side of the path. "We do not want the villains to have an easy high ground on us. It will not be so hard to keep moving fast even in that terrain. Uraraka-kun, can you lower all of our weights as well?"
"That's still well within my limit," Uraraka assured with a thumbs up, using her other hand to keep holding Midnight.
"You don't need to use it on Bakugo or me," Tsuyu said. She hopped forward and then again onto one of the smaller rocks right at the start of the path. "We'll scout."
"Can you do that Bakugo?" Iida asked, making sure not to say it as an order.
"Hmph," Bakugo put his hands behind him and blew himself farther down the path but on the other side of the new route they were taking as Asui went on. Bakugo landed on a rock and he narrowed his eyes up the semi-takable route that Iida chose. It did not look great, but considering how rocky and uneven the rest of the surface was, he could tell this secondary path was pre-made as an option too. Just as much a chance of a trap over here, Bakugo thought, and he jumped forward off the rock. "DIE!"
Bakugo slammed his hand towards a tall rock in front of him, blowing it apart. He landed on the side closer to the others who all stared at him with sweatdrops on their faces. "No one hiding behind it after all," he muttered to himself, then turned towards another rock. Twenty meters away from Bakugo, one of "Shigaraki Tomura's" comrades got a nervous look on their face from where they hid behind a boulder.
"I'm seriously going to wet myself," Mineta exclaimed, spinning his head and trying to keep his legs from shaking as he looked around the trees encircling them.
"Do not," Jirou snapped, though she did not turn to her right at the boy on another part of the circle as her. She had sweat all over her face too, but she said, "Remember, this is just training."
Todoroki stomped his right foot forward and ice shot out of his leg. Koda and Sato glanced in that direction and their eyes widened as Todoroki's ice caught a figure who was spinning around them and moved into the path of the ice right at that moment. "You got him!" Sato called out.
The figure that Todoroki caught in his ice had just moved out from behind a tree. He was in between two trees, a black figure with a brain sticking out the top of its head, creepy eyes on its face, and what looked like a metal beak full of razor-sharp teeth. As they were all looking towards the terrifying figure they had all seen before, their eyes opened huge as two other figures who looked exactly like it shot forward from father back in the forest. They slammed fists down on the ice at that Nomu's legs, breaking it apart and releasing the first one.
"Why are there so many Nomus?!" Mineta exclaimed. He spun towards Present Mic and yelled, "You've gotta help us out!"
Present Mic grinned and said, "Alright then! I've got- ugh agh!" He stumbled backwards and grabbed his stomach again. "My stomachache, it's back. Too bad kid," he added with a smirk at the small boy whose excited face filled with dread again.
"They're not real Nomus," Todoroki said. "We have to figure out the trick with them, before we'll be able to move any farther forward. Koda," Todoroki glanced to his left at the tall boy with a rock-shaped head. They were in a dense forest, and Todoroki just gave the boy one look before Koda nodded and put his hands up to his mouth.
"Animals!" He yelled, his voice high-pitched but much louder than he normally spoke. He shouted fast into the air, "Please help us! How many of those scary creatures are in the forest? Where are they?!"
"They're everywhere," Mineta said, his eyes opening wide as he saw another one darting out from a tree not far in front of him. Their clearing was less a clearing and more just the only area for a while that did not have constant tree cover. The canopy above them was almost as thick as everywhere else though, shadowing over the teens and their teacher.
"Forest?" Jirou muttered after what Koda called out. "This is more like a jungle. Tropical rainforest I guess," she was sweating badly too, and she imagined that the school was going all out with the environment, making it as hot as a tropical jungle would be as well. They were sweating, they were surrounded by Nomus, and none of them knew that Ectoplasm was watching from where he floated just above the thin area of the canopy they were beneath.
Although it was the pro hero Ectoplasm who floated above them, he looked a lot like a scary floating Nomu. Changeling's power works on others only for thirty minute periods. I'll have to head over and get him to transform me again in a bit. The results of this are as expected. Against villains they already know, the students are as cautious as they should be. How long until they realize though, that the Nomus they are fighting are not as strong as the ones they know? How long until they realize that it is my powers they are fighting against? That's what will determine their score here.
"Guys," Todoroki started. As I thought. The Nomu wasn't able to break out of the ice, even though I made it weak enough that it should have broken it after a second. It needed two others who moved much too synchronized for Nomus. "All the Nomus are being controlled by the same person, and they don't have the Nomus' power. I think it's probably Ectoplasm sensei." The teacher hovering above the canopy looked down with wide eyes, and Todoroki continued to his surprised classmates and even Present Mic who looked around like he did not notice that. "The only reason I'm hesitant is because he didn't make the clone I caught disappear, but that was likely to keep us from realizing it was him, so he had his other clones release that one instead."
"But, how come he looks like Nomu?" Mineta asked, still in a scared way though he was starting to calm down a little as they were all reminded of how reliable Todoroki was.
"I don't know. But if we think of this as someone whose Quirk is to clone themselves, instead of a powerful, regenerating army, everyone can calm down."
Getting the others to keep calm. Pointing out how my clones are not as powerful as individual Nomus. All great work, Todoroki. But now that you know… All of the Nomus rushed out from behind the trees at once towards the students. The kids started to attack, but the Nomus were not rushing at the students and they only stopped a couple of the clones before stopping what they were doing. All five of the students backed up, and Present Mic started going, "Whoa whoa whoa!"
Ectoplasm's mouth was open and ectoplasm poured out of his mouth and down into the darkness behind some trees, before sliding across the floor and up to the combining clones. He forced more and more into them, until the top of he giant Nomu rising off the floor was almost up to the canopy.
"Everyone move! Something this large won't have great mobility in the jungle-"
The group started running off through the trees, including Present Mic whose actual scared expression did not make any of the students feel reassured. Todoroki's call to get them to move had everyone running as fast as they could, but he had to stop calling out about Ectoplasm's mobility as a giant arm swung behind them and knocked two trees out of the ground. "AHHH!" The other five with Todoroki yelled as trees flew towards them only to hit other trees and get broken apart or stop short.
Todoroki's eyes opened wide as well even if he didn't shout, then he turned and he stomped his right foot down again. "We're going the wrong way!" The other five stopped, spun back to Todoroki and saw him looking over his shoulder at them. "He's forcing us back towards the door. We have to move forward!"
The others looked towards their team leader, who had created a massive wall of ice to block the attacks from the giant Nomu that was still not even a third the ice wall's size. The wall also curved around towards the far end of the room, and Todoroki pointed that way and called out, "Come on! There's no time to waste."
"Y-Yeah, you're right," Jirou agreed. She started to run and glanced back to call for the others to keep moving, only to see Mineta sprinting behind a tree. She sweatdropped with an annoyed look on her face and she said, "Todoroki. Hold on a second. Someone needed a bathroom break-"
Sato and Koda ran over to hide behind different trees, then Present Mic scratched the back of his head and started walking backwards. "I'm just, going to scout this way," he said. Jirou glanced over at Todoroki and she shrugged her shoulders, while sweating and thinking, The only time I really wish I was a guy.
"Ah! Cementoss sensei!" Ashido exclaimed as she looked up towards the scary man whose body had just transformed. The entire grassy field around Cementoss was covered in blue flames, and he lowered his arms that had flamethrowers attached to them.
"Oh dear," Cementoss said. He turned and looked towards the timer on the far side of the room from the entrance, and then he turned back forward to the group who was staring at him in shock. I lost focus of the time because of their quick reactions and counters. However, I will not make it easy for them to move forward while I go to change my appearance again.
"That guy, was Cementoss the whole time?" Kirishima asked, his fast-paced breathing slowing down a bit. He wondered if the teachers put the guy with spiky black hair and blue flames in his section on purpose, and he grimaced at the thought of how afraid he had been right at the start. Until Midoriya said something about it being a fake, he had barely been able to move. "Damn it," Kirishima muttered under his breath.
"Now that you know," Cementoss said. He placed both palms on the floor, and the students in front of him all stumbled backwards as the ground in front of them started waving around. A wall rose out of the floor, a huge thick wall, and then Cementoss fired blue flames from the special flamethrowers all over his side of the wall, covering more of the field in the flames. He lifted his left wrist as he started to run off, and he tapped a few buttons on it to send in robots on standby for when he needed to take a break or re-disguise himself. Instead of Dabi, I should go for a more close range disguise. They are almost halfway, and they will start to rush the exit now that more than half the time has passed.
"We have to get past this!"
"Let's smash straight through it Midoriya," Kirishima said to the boy on his right. Behind them, Ashido, Ojiro, and Aoyama stood in a triangle on All Might's sides and behind him in order to protect their fellow hero who 'thinks he might have a concussion.'
Midoriya turned and he hesitated for a moment, then he nodded in agreement with the spiky-red-haired boy. "Aoyama," Midoriya said, having an idea and turning to the boy on All Might's right side. "When we smash it down, look out in case Cementoss sensei tries attacking us right after."
Aoyama put two fingers in a 'V' up to the side of his face and gave Midoriya a wink. I'll take that as an 'ok,' Midoriya thought. "Let's do it," he said, his body covering in a glow as One For All spread through it. "Full Cowling!"
"Haaa!" Kirishima shouted while jumping forward and hardening his body.
The two of them smashed hard into the wall, and despite its thickness, cracks covered it. Then the area around where Kirishima punched and Midoriya kicked started blasting out the other way. Aoyama ran forward and looked around for anything coming for the two, while Midoriya and Kirishima went wide-eyed and started panicking as the ground below where they were falling was covering in flames. "Land on some debris," Midoriya called to his left at Kirishima.
A large part of the cement wall landed on some blue flames, and Midoriya and Kirishima both dropped down on it before letting out breaths of relief. Their eyes snapped open again and up though as they heard a whizzing above them. Through the smoke rising from blue flames still burning around them, two large robot bug creatures dropped out of the air. The green mechanical creatures flapped their wings and changed directions when Kirishima jumped and tried punching them.
One of the ones that turned though, was hit by a sparkly blue beam of light and exploded. "Nice Aoyama!" Kirishima called back.
"Let's move forward!" Midoriya called out.
"Come on," Ashido said, and then she turned to her right and let out a long groan. All Might had turned the direction Aoyama had moved away from, and he was walking that way with an aimless look on his face. "All Might!" Ashido called out, and the hero turned his head towards her in confusion. "This way," she said, pointing towards the wall and rolling her eyes at him.
"Oh, really?" All Might put a hand behind his head and scratched it like he had forgotten. "Thank you, Young Ashido." He started for the hole in the wall and then struggled to climb up since Midoriya and Kirishima had punched and kicked the hole off the ground a bit.
Ashido looked to Ojiro who sighed and then walked up to All Might and helped hoist the teacher up to the hole. Right after All Might made it up though, one of the bug robots was dipping down towards him. "Ah!" All Might let out a yelp of surprise, as he actually was not expecting that. Ojiro smacked his tail down below him and leapt over All Might's head, flipping in front of him and waving his tail into the side of the robot, smashing it the other way instead.
"Nice save!" All Might called out, sticking a thumbs up towards Ojiro who smiled when he turned from All Might and looked forward again. Midoriya was putting out the flames in a path in front of them using fast kicks, but most of the flames were dying down on their own anyway as the grassy field was almost all burned up.
Ojiro glanced around at all the damage around them from what had been a nice green field when they arrived. The air was full of dark smoke, there were blue flames everywhere along with broken pieces of robot and cement debris, and there was a long wall crossing the middle of the field too. "Guess they have to repair this place each time," Ojiro said.
"Stop looking around and let's go," Ashido said as she walked up next to him, holding one of All Might's hands in her own. "We've only got fifty six minutes left, and who knows if the other teams have already finished or not?!"
"Have the teachers ever given us a time limit they think we can pass with?" Kirishima called over his shoulder after the sound of her shout. "Top two teams make it-"
"That's not it," Midoriya reminded him. "Even if we come in second, or even if we get first place…" Kirishima looked ahead to Midoriya who stood farthest forward at the end of the path where the grassy field dropped off. They were at the highest elevation they would be at for the rest of the test, and there was a cliff dropping down into a canyon just ahead of them that they had already seen thanks to scouting from the higher elevated area they had started at. "It won't mean a thing," Midoriya continued while he looked through the shadowed canyon ahead of them with rock pillars all over it. There was a lot they could destroy, but also a lot the faux villains could be hiding behind. "In this test, only ten people can pass. But, twenty people could just as easily fail. Once two hours is over, we've failed the test."
"But you'll still have to finish," All Might added as he walked forward from the wall down the path they opened up. The students all looked towards the thin teacher with pushed back blond hair and two droopy bangs. "Passing and failing are not the only important things. There is a big difference between barely failing, and getting a zero! Though you shouldn't be thinking about failing at all now, when our goal is so close at hand! Let's go!" He called out, running forward without needing Ashido to guide him anymore.
All Might closed his eyes for a few seconds, I can't believe I'm doing this- "Ahhh!" He yelled as he ran right over the edge of the cliff.
The five students who thought All Might may actually be trying to help them dropped their jaws. Kirishima and Midoriya leapt off the cliff after him, and Kirishima called out, "Midoriya! Use my arms!" Midoriya turned and saw Kirishima hardening his arms while turning in midair to be right behind him. Kirishima pushed his arms down while Midoriya pushed his legs up into them, then they both pushed off at the same time to send Midoriya faster after All Might.
"Guys!" Ashido yelled down, throwing acid towards the bottom of the cliff to try and dissolve the hard rocks or at least make them softer for the landing.
"This is beyond ridiculous," Ojiro muttered. "All Might's just getting in our way."
"Well," Aoyama began. Ojiro turned to him and Aoyama hesitated. Then the blond boy with a bellybutton laser looked back towards the red timer on the giant wall ahead of them. Ashido and Ojiro looked with him, and he said, "We were just standing here. Instead of wasting time figuring out how to get down-"
"He jumped to push us forward, so we can make it by the time limit!" Ashido finished in an amazed and excited way. "Guess we should start moving too!"
The three of them headed down the cliff as fast as they could so they would not be holding back their classmates and teacher. When they reached the bottom though, they wound up having to wait a bit as Midoriya had injured himself catching All Might and spinning towards the bottom of the cliff. All Might got hurt a little too, and Kirishima and Midoriya were apologizing to him. All Might sweatdropped at their apologies though, and he waved a hand in front of him. "That may have been, a little too far. I won't take off points for letting me get this, it's barely a scratch after all," he laughed about it, while trying not to wince at the pain he felt. This is embarrassing, All Might thought, at the sight of his students all looking worried about him. Midoriya looked like he wanted to apologize more, and All Might motioned towards the timer at the front of the room with his head.
Midoriya turned to look at it, then back into his mentor's eyes. "Well, team leader," All Might began. "What is the next move?"
"Let's rush towards the exit at full speed!" Midoriya yelled after only a brief hesitation.
"Huh?" Ashido wondered.
"If Cementoss sensei's disguise is because of a Quirk someone used on him, then it looked like the time limit must have run out. So there's probably a hero helping everyone out, but for every room here." All Might started grinning as Midoriya looked at his friends and classmates to explain this. "…which means that person might not be in this room. If Cementoss sensei is gone for now, then we need to move as far forward as we can while our only obstacles are the robots."
"Unless there are other villains around here," All Might spoke up. "There is the distinct possibility Cementoss was not the only one here."
"We'll figure that out as we go," Midoriya said, turning and looking at everyone to see if they were in agreement.
"We have to move," Ojiro said.
"Let's go fast!" Ashido called out with a fist pump.
"I, am feeling alright!" Yuga Aoyma called out with a fancy pose, his stomach not hurting him even after destroying a few robots back up on the cliff.
"Then let's do it!" Kirishima yelled, and he turned and started running.
"Keep All Might in the middle. All Might, can you run?"
"I think I can, as long as I do not get lost." All Might cracked a smile, and this time so did all of the others who had just circled around him.
Their group started rushing through the rocky canyon. The pillars all around them were casting dark shadows through the area. Even the lighting on the ceiling seemed to have dimmed, and Midoriya noticed the lights were not lined up in the same pattern as they were earlier. They took the position of the rock columns into account with the placement of the lights. If the shadows are where they are on purpose… "Right here," Midoriya said, avoiding an area more shadowed than most even though there were less pillars around it. The others with him thought the more clear area might be better, but no one argued with their team leader at the front and they all followed him right instead.
Midoriya led them through a more narrow pass, and then they ran out from between two close pillars that the three moving in the center row with All Might in the middle had to squeeze to get through. All of their eyes widened as they popped out on the right side of the canyon area, and a few of them spun back in shock to see all the pillars behind them. They looked left too, and they saw the canyon area stretched farther towards the far wall that did not seem so far now that they were out of it.
"There's a path to higher elevated ground," Ashido said in surprise, pointing up and farther to their right towards the exterior of the building. They were all the way in the farthest right room anyway, so the rest of their room was to their left. They ran up the path that was close to the wall. At the distance they first scouted, they had not seen this area that they started running up on. It was so thin and close to the wall that it seemed like it might just be part of the wall that lowered underground since they had been looking into the ravine area anyway.
After they ran up the side path though, a rock wall rose on their left side and started curving back in. It separated them from the main area, while not being too spread off the wall that had they been inside the ravine it would still look like just the wall to them.
"Be careful," Midoriya warned. His eyes darted around the narrow path that had bumpy areas and a few small lifted rock stumps that looked like trees had been cut off of them.
"Why?" Ashido asked, a big smile on her face. "I think you found the secret passageway."
"This does seem like we typed in the cheat code," Kirishima said, imagining the easiest pathway in video games that could only be found in real specific ways.
"That is why we should be more careful," Ojiro warned. "It could just be lulling us into a false sense of security."
"There's another zone after this too," Midoriya reminded. "It's the last one before the doors, but we have to go up what looked like a muddy incline. So let's keep moving fast, but keep an eye out-"
"Over there," Ojiro called out. Their group that had just started jogging faster again slowed down. They looked towards an elevated rock section to their right. It looked like a tree stump of stone, but only half of it was sticking out of the wall. They had the rock wall to their backs as they spun towards that area, the muddy incline was to their lefts if they could get through the rest of this area, and the way back they came was on their rights. They had a twenty foot gap between them and the rock stump ten feet above them in elevation, but on either side at the top of that stump, black portals opened up out from in front of the wall.
"Oh man," Ashido said, leaning back but lifting her hands up defensively as she looked towards the swirling purplish-black circles over that stump. Out from the portals stepped two figures who walked forward a few feet and stared down at the students and their teacher.
The group of six stared back up at them with wide eyes, and Kirishima said as he narrowed his eyes at them, "Don't recognize these two."
"That might be worse than if we did, considering Cementoss sensei used what we expected that villain to," Ojiro warned. "Here we're in the dark."
Midoriya stood at the far left of the group since it was the farthest forward of where they had been walking. He was thinking fast as he stood with his fists raised, facing the villains who had appeared. How much time do we have left? If we try avoiding them and running for the exit, could we make it? We don't have a plan for getting up the mudslide yet. If we were in a hurry, we might all be able to make it up, but All Might! How do we get him- Midoriya turned his head to the right at All Might, and his thoughts slowed and came to a stop. Aoyama was behind All Might and looking past him and Ashido towards the elevated rock, but the sparkling young hero in training caught a glimpse of All Might's face too and he started to feel anxious.
Kirishima and Ojiro were on All Might's right, farther back as they had been taking up the group's rear. Kirishima was closer to the building's actual giant wall, and thus the portals that had opened and the men who had come out of them, while Ojiro stood not far from the small rock wall behind him that blocked their area off from the rest of the floor. Ojiro glanced to his left, as he thought about the time limit as well and wanted to ask Midoriya what they should do.
"All Might?" Midoriya asked.
The portals closed behind the two men who had just appeared up in front of them. One of the men looked young, in his twenties likely, with long blond hair that fell straight behind him though with a single braid falling over his right shoulder. The other man was a heavyset figure unlike his slender comrade, and he looked a little older. He was wide at the shoulders and had a hefty stature, along with a long metal cannon that stuck up from his back and over his bald dark-skinned head. As they stepped forward on that surface closer to the students and their teacher, the two men smirked and looked inwards where another portal opened between them.
Each of the students who looked back towards that portal felt shivers down their spines. "Alright, this is going too far, don't you think?" Mina Ashido said, taking a step back and glancing to her right to see if Kirishima thought the same.
Kirishima had sweat coming down the left side of his face closer to Ashido, but she could see he was trying to keep a steady and strong expression on his face.
"No," All Might whispered.
"All Might," Midoriya said a second after he saw the figure, his voice fast and serious. "Tell us. Is this part of the test?"
The other four with them heard Midoriya's question and their eyes widened. Midoriya had not even asked it when the guy with spiky black hair had appeared before them earlier, the first time they saw a villain they actually recognized. The look on All Might's face had Midoriya afraid though, as All Might's mouth was lowered so far from his usual smile. The others who glanced at All Might saw his expression had changed since those first two portals opened and he just looked really nervous. All Might's face was full of despair, and his arms were flat at his sides while he stared forward with shaking eyes.
"That's, not part of the test?" Aoyama whispered, taking a step back, only to bump into the rock wall that was suddenly trapping them in this section of the room.
Midoriya's eyes were wide at All Might's expression that followed his question. He stared back towards the rock area where the figure who stepped out of the third portal took another step so he was in front of the other two. He stood farthest up on the elevated rock section, closest to the group he was looking down on, with his glowing red eyes. The group of six down in front of him stared up, five of them with fear and confusion on their faces at the terrifying figure, though most of them were standing firm anyway.
Ojiro kept in a fighting stance, Kirishima hardened his entire body, Ashido rose her shaking hands after a few seconds and steadied them, and Midoriya bend his knees and glared up into the red eyes of the dark figure before them. That dark figure's body was covered head to toe in a veil of darkness, but his bone structure was showing through the front of his body. His skull looked the most terrifying with the red glow coming out of his eye sockets, the color flaring about and shifting how thick it was from one side to the other like he was gazing around in front of him. Then the darkness in front of his teeth, translucent so it was hard to see, but not impossible, pulled up at the edges in the shape of a smirking mouth. The jaw behind it smirked as well, and then it opened its mouth, and a low voice came out on top of another one like there were two voices speaking at once. "Hey guys. What's with those looks?"
The sixteen year olds staring at the dark figure on the rock face did not know how to respond. They did not recognize the voice, or the figure in front of them, but something about his voice did sound familiar to them. All Might stared straight forward into the red eyes of the figure as his red eyes shifted back to him again, and that figure's mouth stayed in its smirk, even lifting up more as All Might made eye contact. The dark figure's head leaned back and he chuckled in a dark way. "Don't you remember me?" He asked, while lifting his right hand up in front of his body.
The students standing there still did not know what was happening. They did not realize it, until the second the short dark figure's right hand touched his face, and the dark aura around it dissolved away. The blackness faded and the wisps coming off of his arms, legs, and torso, they all vanished at once. The boy's head was still leaned back, and he was still looking down towards them with a huge smirk on his face. Ashido's arms dropped back down, her jaw dropped, and her eyes shot open huge. Kirishima took a step back, the shock making his arms lower a bit and his Hardening Quirk to fail. Midoriya's bent knees started to shake, as the black coloring completely faded off of the figure in front of them.
"Zach," Midoriya whispered.
Zach Sazaki stood there looking down at his former classmates and teacher. He wore an all black costume of a skin-tight long-sleeved shirt and tight black pants, but he had a silver belt around his waist too. There were two knives strapped to the belt, a strange-looking gun on one side of it too. He had a helmet on that wrapped around the sides of his head over his temples and the back of his skull, but it left the top of his head open so everyone could see his crew cut of black hair. His menacing smirk started lowering down and he leaned his head down too to glare at the people in front of him more harshly. "Now then, shall we begin?"
A/N Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed. Leave a review below telling me what you think! Also... bum bum BUM! Cliffhanger! HaHA!
gods-own chapter 24 . 5h ago
well done on keeping up the pace with this story
Thanks! It's staying intense for me too as I write. So I just keep going. Gonna have 30 chapters down before a month's even passed with 1-2 chapters a day like this.
Roxas Itsuka chapter 24 . 3h ago
Awesome chapter. An Anti-hero society, that's interesting. Wonder if Zach will join that. I love how his popularity is going up with the public though I am curious about that police meeting. Looking forward to the next chapter.
Thanks a bunch! Figured I'm not gonna start reading the manga, so I've gotta figure out where to push this story now. Got a lot of ideas for it. What happened at the police meeting? Why is Zach here? Find out next time! Hope you enjoyed this chapter only 3 hours since reading the last one!
Logargon chapter 24 . 8h ago
Is it too greedy of me to want another chapter?
Nope! Here's your second one today! And I wrote two more between when I posted them, (really should be doing more actual work), but guess I'll keep the pace up though! Thanks for reviewing, and I hope you enjoyed!