23.06.2021
Hello you wonderful people! It's me the energy-drink-addict-that-tries-to-survive-his-night-shifts-without-falling-asleep back with another chapter! And let me tell you, it's starting to look quite grim if you ask me!
But let's look at something more colorful first! The comments!:
Notasavior - Conspiracy theorist Todoroki back at it again at the hot springs! As for Itsuka time, I'm debating whether to write her bout with mustard or just include her in the aftermath with quite a meaningful role...
RandomReader867 - Hell yeah, tearing limbs off! Blood for the Blood god! Also - 310741 - history about a slime that takes over female bodies. I'm pretty sure that you've already seen it, but there's always a chance that you didn't!
Guest - Yeah, I cringe everytime I look at the first few chapters... I have no idea how I wrote them without seeing the underlines under every mistake xD
Legalt - Congratulations, you are the first ever person (I think) to be put off by too many stutters as opposed to me writing young Midoriya in thicc.
Huh, comments more grim than I anticipated, but okay. Let's get to the action!:
Kendo Itsuka had no idea what was going on at the moment. She was simply mind her own business, trying to come up with pranks that they could pull on their sister class and then she was suddenly - and quite violently - torn away from her work and almost thrown towards Midoriya, who looked just as puzzled as her for a moment, before flashing her that killer smile of his.
"Seriously, that should be illegal!", she lamented mentally.
"Looks like we're going to be partners for now", the boy stated and gave her a thumbs up. "I wonder why Aizawa would do something so illogical…"
"I think I have a pretty good idea…", the redhead mumbled under her breath as she locked eyes with one Tokage Setsuna, said girl grinning that smug grin of hers and looking generally proud of her actions.
She stared at her for a good few seconds with the most furious gaze she could manage, before deciding to drop the subject and focus on the here and now, because as unexpected and sudden the change was, it wasn't by any means an unwelcome one.
"Oh, looks like Yaoyorozu is teaming up with Tokage as well", Midoriya shared his observation. "Maybe the teachers decided to make this a bit more educational by making this an inter-class bonding experience? But if that was the case, then why are there only two mixed pairs?", the boy muttered his thought processes quietly.
As for Kendo, she simply stood by his side and enjoyed the company.
"Maybe this won't be as bad as I'm making it sound?", she thought to herself with a small smile.
And that's how the two have found themselves walking side by side through the forest as one of the last pairs to enter.
They have - so far - encountered Tetsutetsu cosplaying a mushroom zombie and Reiko doing Reiko things with a bunch of sheets and candles. This meant that the majority of the spooks were still in front of them.
"I gotta say, Yanagi's precision when utilizing her Quirk really is amazing when you get the chance to watch it up close", Midoriya broke the silence between them.
"You should've seen her at the start of the year! If she tried anything like this back then, she would've immediately set those sheets on fire and then flail them around wildly!", Kendo half-joked, whilst remembering something funny from one of their first training exercises.
"I guess it's expected that everyone would make great progress with their Quirks and stuff…", the boy trailed off and Kendo looked towards him to see him gazing at his clenched fist.
"What are you thinking about?", she asked with slight concern.
"Oh, it's nothing", he assured her with a gentle smile that almost made her forget what he was doing just a moment ago and most certainly made her blush a bit.
"I don't know whether I should kill Set or buy her some Godzillo merch...", Itsuka thought to herself, hiding the blush by looking to the side.
A few traps later they've crossed the midway point of their journey as indicated by a bright sign on the side of the trail.
Tokage was playing dead next to it, her body strung up on various branches and her head laying in the middle of the path. And, was that ketchup?
Not paying any more attention they decided to continue forward.
But just as they were passing Setsuna's head, one of her arms suddenly appeared from the ground and grabbed Kendo by the ankle.
"GYAH!", she screamed and jumped into the air, ready for a possible rough landing with her eyes closing on reflex.
She waited and waited and waited, but the impact never came, so she slowly opened one of her eyes and spotted what looked like a shirt. Her head craned upwards and she soon locked eyes with Izuku.
"You alright?", he asked with a small smile.
It took her a few moments to register what was going on before she nodded slowly. He then gently set her on the ground and continued onwards.
"Go get your mans Prez!", Tokage whisper-shouted with a grin plastered on her face.
Kendo only glared at her green haired friend for a moment, before storming off after her partner.
They spent the next few minutes in an undisturbed silence, before Izuku suddenly stopped, holding his right fist up to signal her to stop as well. He then started looking around and she heard him sniff and take a couple of deep breaths.
"Do you smell that?", he asked as he tried to pinpoint whatever it was that he noticed.
Kendo herself focused for a moment, trying to understand what her partner was talking about and was just about to say that she didn't smell anything, before it hit her.
The smell was quite faint but noticeable if you focused on it hard enough. The redhead immediately identified it - smoke. And where there's smoke, there's usually a fire.
"That's weird…", she heard the greenette mumble. "It comes from multiple directions. Something tells me that this is not a normal forest fire. I have an idea"
Before she could protest, his legs tensed as he crouched down before launching himself into the air, clearing the foliage and taking a good, long look around. And all that he saw was fire. Blue fire.
He went back down to earth with a heavy thud and immediately turned to his partner.
"Someone is attacking us! There're blue fires all around the forest!"
The news understandably shook Kendo.
"Villains? Here? But how?", were some of the questions going through her head at the moment. She was brought out of her thoughts however, when she felt someone squeeze her shoulders.
"Itsuka, I need you to focus, alright?", he said with a stern but reassuring expression on his face.
"R-right", she nodded. "What's the plan?"
"Ragdoll should be waiting for us at the end of this trail and since we are pretty close, we should meet up with her. Her Quirk will be crucial in this situation", the boy explained and Kendo - seeing no fault in the plan - agreed.
"Lead the way then", she said and they took off towards their goal.
A battle to shake society has just begun.
The Class Rep duo managed to get to Ragdoll unhindered and found a few students already gathered there, as the Pro tried to assess their situation.
"It's not good…", Ragdoll murmured as she turned to the teens in front of her. "There are at least five people in the forest that I haven't tagged, they are probably the Villains responsible for the attack. The good news is that they are relatively spread out and most of the students in the forest are moving in groups", the green haired Pro explained the circumstances.
"We should probably try to regroup back at the entrance to the trail, grabbing everyone we can on the way", Midoriya chimed in as soon as she was done.
"Sounds like a plan!", Ragdoll exclaimed. "Let's get a move on!"
Kirishima, who was one of the first students to begin the Test of Courage, was a very welcome addition to the group, as he could sit confidently at the front of their formation and provide a very strong defence.
Shoji was another good person to have, since his detection skills coupled with Ragdoll Quirk would make it practically impossible for them to be ambushed.
They were past the halfway mark when something made ruckus in the nearby bushes.
Students tensed for a bit, before calming down when they saw Kamakiri emerge from the foliage, with Awase and Tetsutetsu following suit. A new wave of worry washed over the gathered students when they spotted Komori and Shiozaki being carried by the latter two guys, both girls unconscious.
"What happened?!", Ragdoll demanded an explanation.
"There's this weird mist or gas of some sorts. We stumbled upon each other as they were leaving the cloud and then they lost consciousness", Kamakiri explained and then coughed slightly. "We inhaled some of it, but we can still fight!", the boy exclaimed and his two companions nodded at the statement.
"Shoji, could you carry Shiozaki and Komori?", the Pro requested and then turned to the rest of her group. "It seems that one of the Villains must have a Quirk that allows him to create this mist. We don't know if it's dangerous so we should probably steer clear of it. Let's continue towards our original destination", Ragdoll commanded and they followed her lead.
The group had almost reached their destination when they suddenly heard Mandalay's voice in their heads.
"Attention students! In the name of the Pro Hero Eraserhead, you are hereby granted permission to engage in combat! I repeat, you have permission to engage the Villains! Good luck", most of the guys clenched their fists at that message, roaring to give their opponents a piece of their mind.
"Situation must be quite dire if they need us to fight…", Awase commented as they resumed their trek.
"I'm sure that they don't need us to fight", Midoriya rebutted and turned to the group behind him. "Imagine being caught by a Villain on your own. This permission was granted to raise the odds of all of us making it out of here alive!", the greenette explained as his left arm started lighting up.
"That's super manly on Mister Aizawa's part!", Kirishima shouted, now motivated even more to give this his all.
"Couldn't have said it better… I leave them in your care Kirishima", the greenette flashed his red haired friend a small smile before quickly disappearing in the distance.
"Wait-!", Ragdoll tried to shout after him, but he was long gone before the words left her mouth. "He's fast!", she thought as she tried to keep up with him using her Search.
"Should've seen it comin'...", Kendo groaned while the present 1-A students only sighed.
"That's our Rep for ya'", someone said and everyone agreed.
"I hope that he knows what he's doing", Ragdoll stated her slight worry before feeling a powerful arm on her shoulder. Looking to the side she saw Shoji running alongside her.
"If there's one person that can handle himself in a situation like this, then it's for sure Midoriya", he said with unwavering resolve clear in his voice.
"You seem awfully confident in his abilities", the green haired Pro commented, not really understanding why they praised him so much.
"There's just something about him, something I cannot explain, that simply makes you want to follow him", the multi-armed students explained to the best of his ability, before the group focused back on their current situation, they were about to leave the woods after all.
"This is bad…", Mandalay thought to herself as she dodged another potentially deadly slash of the lizardman's sword. Or should it be swords?
She was currently fighting the guy that declared himself a proud apprentice of Stain, THE Hero Killer, which meant that the murderer could also be somewhere in the forest.
Her eyes trailed to the side for a split second to see Pixie down for the count from the surprise attack the Villains launched at the start and Tiger locked in a deadlock with the magnet wielding… woman? She seemed to be a woman but had quite the masculine look.
Unfortunately for Mandalay, she lost focus on her own fight for a few moments too long and when she returned she was met with another deadly slash coming her way.
"Crap! I got distracted! I don't know if I'll be able to dodge this one", she cursed herself for being so careless in a situation like this.
Time slowed down for her as the multiple blades came closer and closer.
"Arkansas Smash!", she heard suddenly and then her opponent's weapon exploded into pieces. "St. Louis Smash!", this time the shout came from behind her and not even a moment later, the lizardman was sent flying into a nearby tree, the impact incapacitating him on the spot.
Mandalay looked around, trying to make sense of the situation, before coming face to face with Aizawa's 'problem child'.
"Are you okay?", the boy asked with a serious expression on his face.
"Y-yeah", she answered numbly, still quite shocked from the sudden turn of events.
"Ragdoll and a big group of students are almost here", Midoriya informed her before turning towards Tiger and delivering a devastating dropkick to the magnet-wiedling Villain, which sent her into the side of one of the buildings.
True to his words, the fourth member of Wild Wild Pussycats emerged from the forest surrounded by almost half the students.
"Ragdoll, what's the situation?", Mandalay asked her companion as soon as she approached.
"There are about ten Villains in the forest, but the number seems to be fluctuating as if they were disappearing and reappearing at random. One of them has a Quirk that let's him create blue flames and another one produces a weird mist that acts as a strong sleeping agent, but I don't know how dangerous it is", the Pro relayed all the information she had to her teammates.
"Shota called saying that he encountered the blue flame user, but he turned into mud after being hit numerous times"
"I think that taking care of the gas user should be our top priority", Tiger chimed in with strategizing.
"But we can't exactly leave the students by themselves…", Mandalay was about to shoot down the idea, but was stopped by Midoriya approaching the trio.
"Then take us with you", he stated and started explaining his idea before they could stop him. "If Ragdoll and Mandalay stay here and protect Pixie-Bob and the injured students, then they could coordinate with a strong team made up of students to locate the ones still stranded in the forest, while Tiger goes to deal with the mist user"
"Even if we were to go along with your plan, how are we supposed to find the mist user without entering the mist?", Tiger countered, thinking that he found a flaw in the idea.
"I can help with that!", they heard a shout and saw Yaoyorozu come out of the treeline with a few injured students in tow. "I can create gas masks and radios to make coordinating this a lot more manageable", the black haired woman assured them.
"Are we really going to do this…?", Tiger questioned and looked towards his teammates.
"We have no other choice. As much as I hate to admit it, we would be outnumbered if we forced the kids to stay back", Mandalay sighed before turning to the students. "Yaoyorozu, create the gas masks and radios! Move all the injured inside! I want a couple of you to assist Tiger, while the rest form a squad to head out and search for missing students! Everyone not suited for combat stays behind and takes care of the wounded! Understood?!", she commanded and everyone responded with a collective 'yes ma'am!'. "Get a move on then!"
And that's the chapter for today folks!
But before you go, let me thank you for reaching 500 followers! It seems that more and more people seem to find this story and more and more start voicing their disappointment in what the story looks like (talking mainly about the first chapters) and you know what? They are right. The first twelve or so chapters are complete and utter crap even worse than what I usually write, haha!
That's why I feel the need to thank those of you that don't let the shitty beginning ruin the whole story! Special thanks to the ones that stuck around since the very first chapter.
I hope to see you guys in the next chapter, where we probably graze the ending of the current Arc!