Next chapter in bound. This one's the second to last chapter before the end of the arc. Along with that some replies to some reviews.
foxchick1: He's a rat. A talking rat, but a just a rat.
AshRuleZ: No, no he is not, he's a rat. Though that would be funny.
Not much left to say about this chapter other then, enjoy.
Battle Trial Arc
Chapter 21: Close Calls
Everyone was silent, all eyes fixed on the rat that stood on Ruby's shoulder. The rat, for his part, was looking around confused at there reaction.
"Did I's say somedin weird?" He questioned.
Everyone continued to remain silent.
"You know… if wasn't for the fact that our principle is bear mouse thing I'd be more freaked out by this." Glynda eventually spoke.
There was another awkward moment of silence.
"Oh for the love of god would someone address the fact that there's a talking rat in the room?!" Mina exclaimed.
"Weeell… he's who helped us organize all the rats." Toru answered.
Everyone gave Toru a confused look.
"That's not against the rules is it?" She questioned.
"Well… given that they were in the building I guess we can count it as part of the environment?" All Might answered.
"Okay but why is he here ribbit?" Tsuyu inquired.
"And why is he on my shoulder?" Ruby asked.
"To answer da second question. Da writer needs us togeder for the whole gag character hangs around da protagonist ding." The rat answer. "As for da first question. I'm kinda tried hanging around a bunch of rats who I can't really have a decent conversation wid."
"Well um… sorry what's your name?" Glynda asked.
"Ain't got one. I's a rat, remember." He replied.
"Well you've gotta have a name." Ruby pointed out. "How 'bout Splinter."
"Splinter?" The rat questioned.
"Yeah it's the name of the talking rat I saw in this really old movie from like the 1990's." Ruby answered. "I think it was called 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'."
"Ehh… we probably won't get sued for it. Let's go with it." The newly named Splinter replied.
"Anyways… Splinter, we'll have to talk to the principle in regard to your situation." Glynda stated. "For now you can stay with Ruby though you'll have to remain here when her match comes up."
"Fines by me." Splinter replied.
"Moving on!" All Might declared. "We have another match to get to."
Reaching a hand into the villain and hero box respectively. He pulled out two balls, the hero one marked with a 'G' and the villain one marked with a 'L'.
"And it will be Denki Kaminari and Kyoka Jiro vs. Lie Ren and Yuga Aoyama, get moving everyone. Time is of the essence." All Might stated.
"Yes sir." The four replied.
Later, Outside the building…
Denki stretch out as he gazed up at the building before him. Meanwhile Kyoka studied the buildings layout.
"Soooo… this whole planning thing isn't really my forte." Denki admitted.
"Kind of figured that don't worry I'll make a plan that even you can follow." Kyoka replied.
"Ouch… I know I just admitted I'm not the brightest but that was kind of harsh." Denki expressed.
"Oh your fine," Kyoka returned. "Anyways for our plan of attack I'll plug in and scout out the building. Once we find what where looking for we charge in and capture the bomb. I'll leave the attacking to you given your quirks much more suited for it."
"Sounds good to me we'll crush these guys." Denki confidently declared.
"Yeah, yeah don't get too cocky pikachu, we still don't know that Ren guy's quirk." Kyoka pointed out. "If we aren't careful he could catch us off guard."
"Fair point, also why are you calling him by his given name? We're you friends before coming here?" He asked.
"Huh… Oh, no that's his family name. I heard from Nora that she along with Ren, Ruby, and Jaune are from America so it's given name then family name. He just goes by his family name according to Nora." She explained.
"Really… that's kind of weird. Good for them though, all getting in the same class together. How can you be so lucky to get in the same class as all of your friends?" He pointed out.
"I know right." Kyoka replied.
Time ticked away as Kyoka and Denki continued to converse. Eventually the start of the match came.
"And Start!" All Might announced.
Quickly, Kyoka and Denki rushed to enter the building. Checking the building she found only one opponent. I can only sense one the other must be someone else in the building.
"There's one waiting for us to enter from here let's blitz him." She whispered.
"Got it." Denki whispered back.
They burst into the building. The minute they were immediately forced to roll out of the way of a beam from Yuga. Looks like they decided to have him meet us and distract us if that's the case then… Denki thought before he felt a sudden pain in his stomach, as though he'd been punched. However, he could only feel the pain, he couldn't feel any sort of impact. Soon he was knocked out by a hit to the neck, which he also didn't feel.
Kyoka's eyes were wide in shock as she saw Denki just go down even though nothing seemed to hit him. What the hell just happened. It looked as though he just suddenly got hit by nothing. Not only that, I didn't even hear any sound from him being hit. This has to be Ren's doing. But how is he doing it? I didn't hear him when I checked. She placed one knee on the ground.
"Here goes nothing." She expressed as she extend a jack down to her speaker boots.
Plugging it in she let loose a soundwave into the ground causing it to shatter around her. Shards of concrete shot up around her. She heard a gasp. She looked and saw Ren, who had been coming towards her. Thrown off by the sudden breaking of the ground.
"Looks like my guess was right." She expressed with a smirk.
Not bad, she was able to make a rough guess of the way my quirk works from seeing what happened to Kaminari. Lie Ren's quirk is named [Mask]. At first it only let him mask people's emotions in a set area. However in his time on Earth he improved it to allow him to completely mask his presence. However, it requires him to hold his breath and currently only he is able to make himself undetectable.
Another laser was fired at Kyoka forcing her to roll out of the way. Coming up from her roll she looked to see that Ren had again vanished. Before she could try to break the ground around her. Ren delivered a powerful chop to the neck knocking her out.
"Villain team wins!" All Might announced.
He breathed out a sigh of relief.
"Close one." He muttered.
He looked around at the still unconscious bodies of his opponents. He then looked to his approaching partner.
"We're probably gonna have to carry them back till they wake up." Ren stated.
"zeemz zat way." Yuga replied.
Meanwhile, at the CCTV…
"Whatta go Ren!" Nora cheered.
"That's how you win one for the team." Jaune expressed.
"Kind of a quick match though. Kind of disappointed ya know after the long exciting ones we've had." Eijiro expressed.
Lord knows I'm not. I'm starting to get close to my time limit. All Might thought to himself.
"Still a manly as hell victory from the villain team though. The Ren guy seems like a really good fighter." Eijiro noted.
Suddenly they heard the door to the room open.
"Hey, Midoriya and Ochako are back." Tsuyu noted.
"Oh, Izuku, Ochako, you just missed Reeeennn'ssssWHY ARE YOUR FACES SO RED?!" Ruby exclaimed as she turned to see them.
Both Izuku and Ochako had entered the CCTV with bright red faces.
"U-u-u-u-uhmmmmm… w-w-w-w-w-well…" Izuku stuttered.
"Y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-you seeeeeee…" Ochako stuttered.
Earlier, in the infirmary…
"Mmm…" A familiar feminine voice moaned as Izuku felt something soft in his hands.
"Mmm…" He moaned as he felt something on his butt.
Izuku slowly became aware of his surroundings as sleep began to relinquish it's hold on him. Though he still didn't know what he was grabbing. He squeezed.
"Mmm…" The voice moaned again.
He felt something squeeze his butt. Slowly Izuku began open his eyes. Before him was the sleeping face of Ochako. Though in his tired state he still had not processed the position they were in. Slowly her eyes opened as well. She too did not fully process what was going on.
"Mmm… hey Deku." She muttered.
"Hey Uraraka." He muttered.
Their eyes closed again. He squeezed her butt. She squeezed his. They continued to lay there. Suddenly their eyes shot open, now fully awake. In a snap, they raised their heads a bit to see that they we're grabbing each other's butt. They snapped back to facing each other.
"EEEEEEEHHHHHHH!" They shrieked as their hands flew off the other's butt.
"Would you two be quiet!" Minoru shouted.
Present…
Crap what do I say? I can't tell them what actually happened.
"W-w-w-w-wee… tripped… and fell on top of each other in a really awkward and embarrassing position." Ochako blurted out.
Why'd I say that!
"WHAT!? I mean… y-y-y-yeah. We tripped on the way here and our hands went to places it shouldn't have." Izuku added.
He quickly turned, clapped his hands together, and bowed apologetically to Ochako.
"Sorry again Uraraka I didn't mean to grab you there I promise." Izuku stated.
"No no Deku you don't have to apologies it was an accident I know your not a pervert like Mineta." Ochako returned waving her hands in front of her. "Besides I grabbed you weirdly as well so it even."
"Even still…" Izuku continued.
The two continued to apologize and assure the other it was okay. Ruby only looked on with mild suspicion. Yeah that stories true. Also Blake doesn't have cat ears. In that moment Ren and Yuga entered with a now conscious Kyoka and Denki.
"Oh Midoriya and Uraraka are back." Ren noted.
"What are they talking about?" Kyoka questioned.
"Who knows, probably something embarrassing with how red their faces are." Denki noted.
"T'iz a shame zey missed my dazzling performanze." Yuga stated to nobody.
"Alright students enough chit-chat!" Glynda announced. "Line up for your evaluation."
Doing as they were told, Ren, Yuga, Kyoka, and Denki lined up before their teachers.
"Good work out their everyone. Despite the shortness of the match you all performed excellently." Glynda praised.
"Indeed, in fact we were unable to decide between Young Ren and Young Jiro as to who was the MVP for this match." All Might stated.
"Really?" Mina questioned.
"But wasn't Ren like the whole reason the villain team one?" Eijiro pointed out.
"While true that Young Ren was a big part of the villain team's success. Young Jiro also performed very admirably as well." All Might explained.
"Allow me to explain. Mr. Ren's quirk naturally makes him a counter to Ms. Jiro's ability to detect people through walls. Since he can completely mask his presence, Ms. Jiro would have had no way of knowing that he was also waiting for them." Glynda explained. "Despite this she was able to launch a somewhat successful counter attack when she saw her partner go down. Only the intervention of Aoyama prevented her from being able to take the win."
"Both teams prepared well thought out strategies, and took into account as many unknown factors as they could. In the end it was Young Ren's natural counter to Young Jiro that earned his team the win." All Might finished. "Moving on we have one more match to get to today."
At that announcement, Jaune and Ruby flashed each other knowing grins. Their respective partners did the same.
"Though we do need to see which sides they'll be on." All Might stated as he reached into the bins.
Glynda sighed at his entertainer antics. All Might pulled a 'J' out of the hero bin and a 'K' out of the villain bin.
"It looks like it'll be Young Rose and Young Kirishima as the heroes vs Young Arc and Young Sero as the villains." All Might explained.
"Good luck out there everyone do your best." Glynda added.
"Yes Ma'am!" All for replied.
"Wait I can't have Splinter…" Ruby began.
"Don't worries!" Splinter shouted from elsewhere. "I'm already over heres."
Izuku looked to see the rat on his shoulder.
"Gahh! Why is there a talking rat here?!" Izuku shouted.
"I'll tell ya off screen." He replied.
"Get, going." Glynda expressed.
"YES MA'AM!" They all shouted as they rushed out.
As they made their way out of the CCTV, Momo eyes were locked intently onto Ruby and Jaune. Finally I'll have the opportunity to observe those two in combat. But what will it reveal? Maybe it'll reveal nothing and I'm just overthinking things. But then why can't I shake this feeling that their hiding something. Not just them but Ren and Nora as well. Then there's Midoriya, Uraraka, Iida, and Kendo. They seem like they know something about them as well. I don't think they have any malicious intention. But then what are they hiding? Maybe… I'm overthinking this. I'll have to wait for the match to fully see if there's anything there. She shifted her gaze to the monitors. You two better not disappoint.
Meanwhile…
Inko headed towards the train station with Eri in hand. The two had just finished up Eri's medical evaluation. Said evaluation didn't reveal much new. They found out that the source of her quirk's power was the horn on her head. The size of the horn is what determines the strength of her power, which accumulates over time. The medical evaluation also revealed that she was perfectly healthy, despite the story the scars she has tell. With the evaluation out of the way, the two began their trip back home by getting on the train. Luckily for them the train wasn't too crowded so they were able to easily find a seat.
"Is this seat taken?" Inko heard someone ask.
She looked to see a woman who appeared to be in her 20's. She had straight shoulder length white hair and piercing amber eyes.
"Oh no," Inko replied as she shifted over a bit to make room.
The woman sat down.
"Out for a little excursion with your daughter I take it?" The woman asked with a smile.
Eri tensed up a bit.
"Hmm… something like that. We were at the hospital to find out about her quirk." Inko explained.
"I see, quirk problems I take it. I've had my fair share of those." The woman expressed. "My name's Aki Moeru by the way."
"Inko Midoriya," Inko replied. "And this is my daughter Eri."
"Eri? Huh?" Aki expressed as she looked to the girl.
Eri looked averted her eyes from her.
"Don't mind her she's just shy around new people." Inko stated.
"I see…" Aki expressed as she continued to stare at the girl.
"Is something wrong?" Inko asked.
"It's nothing, just… a good friend of mine's daughter's name is Eri. She's been missing for about a month now." Aki explained.
"Oh my goodness, I'm sorry to hear that." Inko expressed. "It's strange that she and my daughter have similar names."
"Yeah and not only that but my friend's daughter had a small horn on her head like your daughter." Aki noted.
"Now that is strange, her name wouldn't happen to also be short for Erina would it?" Inko asked.
This caused Aki to stop.
"No… it's… just Eri." She expressed as the train came to a stop. "Welp looks like this is my stop, I should be going."
Aki got to her feet.
"Take care, it was lovely chatting with you." Inko expressed.
"Same to you," Aki replied as she left the train.
After a little bit, the train began to start moving again. Once she believed she was far enough from the train station. She breathed out a sigh of relief.
"Ms… I mean Mama, t-t-that was…" Eri began as she tugged on Inko's skirt.
"I know, I know. That was way too close for comfort." Inko expressed. "Though I think I got her off our tail. I doubt she'd suspect us now."
Elsewhere…
Aki walked into an alleyway. Letting her hair return to it's natural black color, Cinder headed towards Overhaul's new base of operation. Damn and just when I thought I found her. I couldn't find any discrepancy in that woman's story. That girl may have been the closest match but I can't just kidnap a child only to find out it's not her. That'd be a surefire way of inviting an army of heroes to our front door.
"DAMMIT!" She shouted as she slammed her fist against the wall. "I need to find Eri before SHE shows up or I'll be powerless to stop her!"
Izuku: Talk about a close call.
Ochako: Yeah no kidding, glad your mom and Eri are okay.
Izuku: Same here, anyways we should probably explain why your here now instead of Ruby.
Ochako: I mean it's kind of obvious, she and Jaune have their match and you need someone here to help you.
Izuku: Fair point, speaking of which next chapter we see Ruby and Jaune duke it out in their match.
Ochako: I hope it's long and exciting.
Izuku: Might not want to get your hopes up.
Ochako: Deku shush... anyways we start to wind down afterwards and get some things set up for future chapters.
Izuku: Next time Chapter 22: Battle Trials End.
Ochako: Catch you guys then.
