Their Hero Academia – Chapter 85: Summer Days, Drifting Away
The girl with the tri-colored hair, the one Haimawari had called Dashi, was sneering at her. Confident, prideful, as though Seung were nothing more than dirt under her shoe. So assured of her victory…
"So much for the Shiketsu big shot! Time to go back home!"
The blow sent her to the ground. Her father had told her that the Japanese gangs liked to come and harass any of the new Korean arrivals that they could. They tended to linger around the district lines, which of course was where many shops were set up. It wasn't uncommon for Seung to hear accented Zainichi storekeepers yelling at her or her fellow newer arrivals, or the deferential panic they'd face when the Japanese bikers would impose their will. She was young, stubborn. She wanted a chocolate from the local store. Now she was on the ground, a foot pressed on the side of her head.
"You better show some fucking respect, little chon," the punk in question demanded. "This is our country. Japanese country. You want to live here then you better show proper deference to your superiors."
She was always hearing this kind of garbage. Whether it was at school, out in the city, or even here in her own neighborhood.
"I was born here, asshole!" She yelled in defiance. "This is my country, too!"
"Arrogant little bitch. Stand her up," came the voice of their leader. He had a few spikes centered around his head, but otherwise appeared like a regular human.
She had been picked up and held as the horned gang leader came up to her. A glint of light revealed he had a knife in his hand.
"Hey!" The voice came in angry Korean, a large, white-furred man reminiscent of the old yeti myth came running up. "Get away from my daughter, you bastards!"
The horned punk snarled and before Seung could say anything, she felt a sharp pain in her side, the knife hilt visible to her. She remembered a roar as the giant, furry man tackled her attacker, but soon he was outnumbered by the spike-head's running buddies.
"Call the police," the yeti-man yelled at the nearby store, but the shopkeeper just flipped the sign to ``Closed" and backed away.
Her vision had been cloudy, but saw her dad throw his attackers off with a roar of determination, then grabbed one of their bikes and threw it at the gang's parked bicycles, triggering a series of explosions.
"Damn freaks!" Spike-head cursed as he ordered his people to save their remaining bikes. "You'll see! Soon you'll all go back where you fucking came from!" The punks peeled out, but Seung barely registered this.
"Hey! Stay with me, Seung!" Her father's dialect of Korean was from the mainland. It made her feel safer. She tried to say something. "What? What is it, Seung?"
"Sorry, Daddy. You were right." Then she fell unconscious.
"What the hell's taking them so long?" Katsumi growled, crossing her arms. She was growing impatient waiting for the relay team made of Haimawari and Park. The relay station was small, little more than a small box that was open on either side, just dividing up sections of the relay course. It wasn't an unpleasant place, but she was a woman of action. Waiting was never easy for her. Some people might even call her impatient. But only once.
Sharing that space with Shinji was nearly so bad, it was insufferable. Logically, she understood how the Horse Girl could actually like him. They were both loud and excitable and overwhelmed by hormones (Though given no other choice, she would admit that Shinji was attractive. He just ruined it by talking.). She even understood how the always excitable Loud Kid loved the big oaf.
What she didn't understand was how Izzy put up with him.
Some things, she supposed, were just a mystery.
Shinji frowned, an expression she realized looked incredibly out of place on his face. His eyes narrowed as he peered into the forest. "I don't know," he said after a moment. "You don't think… No! Never! It couldn't be!"
"Couldn't be what, you sorry excuse for a cyclone?" Katsumi growled, giving him a glare. "Use your words."
"Holy hurricanes, Katsumi!" Shini said. "You don't think Haimawari and Park lost, do you?"
Katsumi gave him another glare, the kind she reserved for especially stupid people. "You really think the guy who won the Sports Festival and the girl who kicked my ass six ways from Sunday got stopped by anybody? Do you have hot air rolling around in that thick skull of yours?"
"Kicked her ass" was putting it mildly. She'd never seen anybody who could fight like Park, not without using a Quirk. Katsumi knew she wasn't invincible by any length, but she considered herself strong and skilled. It had cost her a lot of pride to admit it, but Park was simply better than she was.
Which was good. Gave her a new target to strive towards. Plus Monoma had been part of the group of "Villains" dropped off for that stage. She'd be damned if he could beat Park when she couldn't. The thought was unthinkable. If that happened, she'd have to quit school, change her name, and open a boxing gym somewhere. No, wait, Dad and Papa would never allow that.
She'd just die of embarrassment instead.
Shinji gave her a sympathetic smile. Damn windbag was always too good at seeing through her when she was acting tougher than she felt. Maybe she ought to consider being nicer to him.
Nah.
"They're both very capable," he agreed. "I'm sure they're fine…"
Anything else Shinji might have said was cut off by the sound of a scream. A raw, primal scream of rage that sent a chill down Katsumi's spine. There was a great flash of red light too, an angry color that was far from natural. Instantly, she started running.
"Katsumi!" Shinj shouted, his long legs letting him keep up with her easily. Leave it to Windbag to forget he could fly. "Where are you going?"
"Are you deaf?" she shouted back. "That was Park! Things must have gone to shit!"
Had Monoma finally said something so stupid the other girl had snapped? She didn't like him much, but if Park could beat the stuffing out of her when stone cold, how much more damage could she do to someone weaker when she was enraged?
Park's scream sent chills down Isamu's spine and he struggled desperately to move, but he found himself still bound by Dashi's Quirk. He was helpless to watch as Park seemed consumed by white-hot rage, rage she was trying to vent on the others.
He'd give the three 1-B students credit though, they didn't panic. At least, not much. He saw Monoma's stance falter and Dashi take a nervous step back.
"Oh, shit," Kaniyashiki said quietly.
And then Park moved, a blur almost faster than the eye could follow, leading with her fist. Kaniyashiki was the closest and the unlucky one. She'd actually started to move, but got clipped hard. It was more than enough to send her flying several meters, hitting the ground. She didn't get up.
Monoma and Dashi had managed to get out of the way of the initial charge. "In the future, Dashi," Monoma said, "may I suggest you limit your provocation to slightly below this level?"
Dashi's arm shook as she aimed a red "stop" blast. "Shut up, shut up, shut up! If I sparked this, you're the one who provided the fuel!"
"I drive to distraction," Monoma protested, "not derangement! There's an ocean of difference!"
She fired a beam, hitting Park square on. "There. This'll put a stop to it!"
Only it didn't. The red glow washed over Park and seemed to merge with her own aura, but the Shiketsu girl did not stop. It was almost as though the beam had done nothing at all, though Isamu would swear that she had slowed down a small fraction.
"That's… that's not possible!" Dashi screamed. There was true fear in her voice, the shock and surprise seemingly rooting her feet to the ground. She fired her "Stop" beam twice more, but Park kept coming. Whatever boost her Quirk gave her, it was strong enough to push past the effect of Dashi's. Isamu never would have thought it possible. Monoma's capture cloth shot out and wrapped around one of Dashi's arms and the girl was yanked out of the way of Park's charge.
Monoma had gotten behind her and as soon as Dashi was out of the way, his capture cloth shot out and bound Park around her waist, jerking her to a stop. "Dashi!" he cried out. "It's you she's after! Run! I'll hold her off!"
"You don't have to tell me twice!" Dashi yelled. She ran past Isamu, on his other side, so he couldn't see her. But he felt a wave of energy wash over his body and the world went green for a moment. Isamu fell to the ground. He let the dummy fall and didn't bother picking it back up.
"Sorry, guy!" he heard Dashi call out. "Maybe you can talk some sense into her!"
He watched as Dashi fired two more red beams at Park. The cumulative effect finally seemed to be slowing her down… to about her unaugmented levels. Which still left her very strong and very dangerous. Quickly, Park got a grip on Monoma's capture cloth and began spinning him around like a sling.
Even though he could hear Park muttering something he couldn't understand (It was probably in Korean), Isamu was pretty sure they were beyond talking.
She only briefly questioned why she was now years later in her life, near the end of her junior years of study before it became the reality. If no one else was going to look after her people in their neighborhood, then it was up to the Koreans to look after themselves. Neither the Japanese or the Zainichi could be trusted. From what she had studied, the Japanese heroes were severely limited in their ability to exercise their authority within "ethnic" neighborhoods because of a terrible incident caused by a hero called Ignition, which resulted in multiple deaths in a local Chinatown. They were on their own.
Her father had encouraged her not to, but Seung found herself running with "Public Safety Watches" whose purpose was to prevent harassment and bullying toward the new young Korean community from the Zainichi Koreans who resented their presence, and the Japanese who considered them unwanted tenants. It was a noble experiment, at least back then. They were way out of their depth.
It started when the group she was part of came across Zainichi gangsters harassing a Korean store owner. At the time it had been very satisfying, using her Quirk to beat the snot out of the so-called gangsters, and receiving thanks from the grateful victim. It felt good, real good. Then reality came crashing down.
Her vision seemed to fast forward further. Again she questioned why events changed so suddenly, but the reality of the "moment" once more confined her mind to this moment. She was in a warehouse, two of her friends were lying on the floor, battered and bloody. Seung was strung up by her wrists and ankles by barbed wire. The pain was constant, but she somehow knew that wouldn't be all.
"Just can't be seen and not heard, can you?" The man spoke Korean, but in the bastardized dialect favored by the Zainichi Koreans, loaded with Japanese words that just never sounded right to Seung's ears. The man wore a white, expensive Western style suit. Though what stood out more were the layers of metallic "veins" running across his body, each ending in multiple openings where lengths of barbed wire would slither out like snakes under the man's control. Seung remembered hearing the words, but had not given them much importance as he continued to monologue. "The Mok-Nakajima-Kai is growing. We're getting stronger each day while the politicians keep the heroes out. We'll have proper Yakuza again and kick out those Triad bastards! Even that fat pig in Chinatown will fear the name of Tomohiro Mok. But you-!" He snarls, brings three lashes of barbed wire strikes her back, causing her to scream in pain. "You damn "Motherlanders" just won't stop causing problems. The Japanese were finally starting to forget we Zainichis were here, until they dropped all of you on us like we're all the fucking same! Now you're a project to make them look good for their "generosity." He spits, then lifts a hand, five lashes of barbed wire rise. "Let me be clear. This neighborhood belongs to the Mok-Nakajima-Kai, and you Mainland shits aren't going to fuck this up for us! Got it!?
She whispered quietly.
"What?" He stepped closer.
"I said..a third-rate gangster pretending to be a bigshot won't ever take this neighborhood." She activated her Quirk, ripping the barbed wire from the wooden pillars, pulling her arms and legs free, though the wire itself still covered her.
"You seriously think you can step to me, girl!? Come on!" He launched a barrage of barbed wire tendrils at her.
"You won't harm my people ever again, Mok!"
"What the hell?" Katsuki snapped. Park had been doing well over the last week. She'd only had to walk away from things a handful of times. Considering how much anger she had simmering under the surface, he considered that to have been a pretty good outcome. But now…
He was watching the relay with Aizawa, Fujii, Boost-Rush, and Katsuma. All of them were struck dumb, staring at the screens. Thanks to the sophisticated monitoring equipment, they were able to see and hear everything. They'd been concerned, of course, but not ready to step in just yet. Training, battle training in particular, could get intense. But there were supposed to be limits. And then things went off the rails. Even Fujii had shut up when Dashi had dropped the insult that had broken the camel's back, which was an accomplishment in and of itself.
"Dammit," Boost-Rush said. "They were doing so well too. Against superior power like that, provocation is a fine strategy. Shiro understands that. But Dashi took it too far."
Fujii couldn't go pale, due to his black, rubberized skin, but his body language was that of a haunted man. "Dashi, of all the things you could have said," he started, then shook his head. "She's always had a problem with arrogance. I knew it was going to get her into trouble, I've tried to talk to her about it, but I never expected this!"
"We can assign fault later," Aizawa said, not completely unkindly. "Your students aren't blameless here, but there's plenty of it to go around."
"Who's covering that area?" Boost Rush asked.
"Ravenous," Katsuma told him. "He was bringing Kuroiro in for a quick check up, but he's on his way back now. Since he can fly on his Bing Bing balls, he should be there soon. Locksmith and Petal Princess are in the next area, and we've got everyone from the previous legs. I'm calling them all in." He was already getting out of his seat. "And I'm going to join them. Monoma and Park are both pushing themselves past their limits."
Bakugo followed. "Not without me, you're not. Maybe I can talk her down again." Pushed to her limits, with a history of feeling like she never belonged anywhere, and doing her best to endure the kind of "foolish competition" she'd protested against, it was little wonder that Park had snapped like that.
She had potential. And she had spirit. And whether or not she believed it, she had a future.
They had to get there and put a stop to things before she crossed a line that couldn't be taken back.
On his way out, he heard Katsuma speak up again, talking over the radio, "Hey, has anyone seen Sandblast?"
Akaya could scarcely believe her own eyes. Shiro's careful plans had fallen apart in rapid succession, as Park had unleashed power far beyond anything she had demonstrated so far. She hadn't been able to hear all the words clearly, having been kept in reserve at Shiro's insistence, but she could tell that something had released a great anger in Park. She knew the other girl was troubled, had called herself "Not as good of a Christian" as she'd have liked to be, but even after witnessing her brutal assault on Kirishima-Bakugo, Akaya never would have expected anything like this.
She'd balked at the idea of hanging back as a last-ditch weapon. "My Quirk may not be as impressive as some, Shiro," she'd said, "and I may prefer less violent means, but that does not mean I am incapable of fighting."
Shiro had shaken his head. "It's not a lack of confidence in your abilities, Akaya. Quite the opposite in fact." His expression had turned quite serious. "With your ability to control and rapidly grow plants, you are by far the most dangerous person in this forest. Why, I daresay you could bring this entire place down upon their ears if you wanted to."
She'd doubted she was that powerful. But the vote of confidence did bolster her spirit all the same. An excess of pride may have been sinful, but she'd thought she could allow herself just a little.
Shiro'd gone on, "Which is why I want to keep you for last. If things go badly, if it looks like we're falling apart, I want you to step in and bring the hammer. If they go more smoothly, then we'll simply enjoy the benefit of your back-up."
And so she'd held back. Watching. And now, she wondered if she waited too long. So many of her friends were so quick to act, moving decisively and with great power. Why was that so difficult for her?
She winced as Park slammed Shiro into the ground, forcing him to abandon his capture cloth as he rolled to freedom. He came up in a fighting stance, then faltered. Her heart seized in her chest as his legs collapsed out from under him, sending him to his knees. Some measure of Park must have still been in control, because she allowed him to get back up again. She heard Park shout something that sounded like defiance or a threat. Akaya was far enough away that she couldn't see his face, but he seemed to be breathing hard. He and Park circled each other, each one waiting for the other to make a move.
Park seemed to be looking around, as though trying to decide if she could catch up with Dashi. Though she took a step forward to pursue, it was Shiro who attacked first. The flying kick he unleashed looked like something Ingenium had once used. Despite lacking the Engines in his legs to truly propel it, Shiro still had a lot of power behind his kick. His blow knocked Park back, but she immediately came out swinging, moving swiftly to get inside his range.
Shiro was just barely managing to stay one step ahead of Park now and he didn't even always manage that. Both of them were a flurry of blows and dodges, many of Shiro's moves were unrecognizable to her, and she didn't know Park's fighting style at all. But it all looked like they hurt.
Worse, a memory came back unbidden, something Shiro had told her once before. His Quirk allowed him to replicate physical actions he had seen, but that he was still bound by the limits of his own body. His own strength and flexibleness were not always a match for the originators of the actions.
What moves she recognized that she saw him doing now were powerful, but all of them that she recognized came from Heroes who used their Quirks to help facilitate them and protect them from the stress and strain. He was putting his body under considerable stress… maybe even deadly.
Haimawari tried to separate the two, firing a string of energy pulses at the ground between them. He stayed near Kaniyashiki, protecting her unconscious form. But even slowed by Dashi's Quirk, Park's agility and skill let her dodge around her bolts, pressing her attack on Shiro. Furious as their blows were and as close as they kept to each other, he had no chance of hitting her without running the risk of hitting Shiro.
The two showed no signs of stopping.
It was up to her.
Akaya reached out and felt the power of the green world around her. It had been a gentle hum in the back of her mind ever since they had arrived at camp, one that sprang into glorious song as her training had pushed her to her limits. And now that same song grew into a thunderous cacophony.
Park fought like no one Shiro had ever faced. The assortment of Hero-plus-family gatherings over the years had given him the chance to playfully spar with Uncle Shinso, Ground Zero, Red Riot and Real Steel, and even unarmed specialists like Tailman and Auntie Itsuka.
Then there was Seung Park.
It wasn't specifically a benefit of his Quirk, but over the years, Shiro had become adept in reading body language. In her fight against Kirishima-Bakugo, she hadn't been training. She hadn't even been having a match. She had one method of combat, and it was survival. Now, however, he was looking at something else entirely. He couldn't deny that he'd been pushing her, that had been the plan after all. Isolate Haimawari from her support, and apply just enough pressure to keep her focused on him. She'd exceeded his expectations in being able to get through the barrier in a single strike, but it was still a variance he could have adapted to, if Dashi hadn't apparently said the worst possible thing. He didn't know what Park's history was, but it didn't take too much imagination to make an educated guess that she'd faced some nationalistic or racial discrimination.
Whatever was the worst she'd faced, she was in the middle of it all over again. Her Quirk was… wrong. Not in the way the Nomu had been 'wrong', but however it was being used right now was doing a number on her. It went beyond the strain and aches his own Quirk had inflicted on him over the years; it was like watching a mammal try to breathe water, and somehow managing it, but for how long?
His current concern for Park's own health was, however, outweighed considerably by the harm she might do to Dashi or anyone else if she managed to close on them. Slim and slippery, he was probably the only person between either of the U.A. classes that could have evaded her this long, with or without Dashi's assistance, but the one step he had been staying ahead of her was getting shorter and shorter. The loss of his support items had made him lighter on his feet, but he still couldn't land a solid strike without likely breaking his own arm. Instead, he'd switched to a counter-based mix of styles. Seung would strike, he would deflect. Power could not be stopped, only redirected. As he used a Tai Chi form to greet her arm and let it continue past him, his eyes met hers. They were moving erratically, and dilated to an unnatural degree. Good lord, this girl was in the middle of a full psychotic break, or at least as close to it as Shiro could guess. He'd heard people talk about 'being somewhere else and watching it happen' when recounting traumatic or enraged experiences, but this was beyond that.
Where was this girl right now?
He didn't have time to psychoanalyze, however. A brutal kick nearly took him out at the shins, and shattered a tree limb. He grabbed the shoulders of her uniform and somersaulted over her before she could raise her guard again. He took one step forward before driving himself forcefully into a crouch. His shoulders screamed protest as they nearly overextended, but he pulled with all the strength he could. Park's form momentarily blocked the light from above as she sailed over him, before she slammed flat onto the ground. He scrambled away before she could recover her stance again. His chest hurt; he felt like his heart was about to rip free of his ribcage. But he couldn't stop. The possible outcomes if he let her run rampant were something he couldn't think about. That was when a terrible idea struck.
He was already in the middle of no good choices available, what was one more?
One Trace after another. Just keep stringing them together without pause. If he kept his body moving, he'd leave Park no openings. Even as he had barely started, he could feel his muscles shrieking in protest. He pushed through it and tried to block out everything other than selecting his next Trace. One perfect copy after another. Keep deflecting. Keep evading. The pain doesn't help so it doesn't matter. Faster! Guard! Don't stop! Can't stop!
He felt his heart trip on a beat, a split-second before the ground started to rumble.
"What do you mean?" The question, almost an accusation, came from someone she thought was a friend, Kwan-su Sook. The large, hairless boy, nearly Gorilla-like in his proportions, looked at her like she had just insulted his mother.
"I said I can't do this anymore. We're not making things better. We're becoming little better than just another gang." Seung blinked a bit, this..this was not right. This was right before she graduated junior year. "I want to help people, and to do that..I'm going to become a pro Hero.
"Are you out of your damn mind, Park!?" Sook was right in her face. "The Japanese don't give a damn about us. Their heroes don't come here, and their police look the other way while we suffer." He poked her chest with a sausage-sized finger. "Becoming a hero isn't going to do a fucking thing."
"Wait, Sook." The rebuff came from a human-sized figure. Nam-il Yang was a bruised purple color, with pure black eyes and a lipless mouth, exposing hardened, gray teeth. Most disconcerting that apart from his normal sized arms, a pair of much smaller, thinner arms were underneath them. He often kept them locked, almost as if in prayer. "Seung, I was going to wait to mention this, but we've had a stroke of good fortune."
"What is it?" She remembered feeling nervous at Yang's tone.
"We've received word from the mainland. We're getting official backing." While he couldn't smile in a traditional sense, the way his mouth widened indicated the sentiment. "The Beast has endorsed our work."
Seung's blood froze. Even here in Japan she knew the name of one of Korea's most powerful villains. A merchant of death who had grown mighty off the profits of selling pre-unification weapons all across the world to any who would pay.
"That's right, Park. We got a Demon Lord on our side. The pissant Zainichi Yakuza won't be a problem anymore. Any Japanese who traipses into our neighborhood will regret it forever. Even The Rising Sons will cave to us," Kwan announced with pride.
Seung was furious. "Are you serious!? You're just working with villains now!? And a Demon Lord responsible for so much death and suffering!? We're supposed to be helping our people! Not bringing more harm to them!"
"Oh grow up, Park," Yang interjected. "If our time in this country has taught us anything, it's that the only comfort one has is if you have the power and the will to take it. Our enemies have the upper hand, so we made a decision for our future. You think becoming the token "respectable Korean" is going to make them change their minds about us?" He throws his normal-sized right hand up in disgust. "You wouldn't even be a Korean anymore, would you. You'd just be a wannabe Zainichi."
"I don't know who the hell I am, Yang!" She lit her body up with the light of her Quirk. "But I know I can't let you do this!"
"The fuck you can't," Kwan snarled, bringing a hand to grab her wrist. Seung spun to the side, grabbing the large boy's wrist and twisting. He snarled with pain, which became louder as drove a vicious kick into his arm pit, causing a cracking sound.
Before she could press the advantage, a large disembodied hand wrapped her in its grip. She struggled as she saw Yang's small right hand imitating the same gesture as the fist. Before she could reply, Kwan ran up and backhanded her with his good arm. Her vision immediately became blared, and the thought of a possible concussion came to mind.
"Enough, Kwan," Yang ordered. "I don't believe harming her further will be necessary. After all, we know where her parents live."
That cut through the haze. "Leave my parents alone, Yang!" She pushed and pushed, then broke the grip of the giant hand. She ran a few meters before a second hand came down from above, slamming her into the ground.
"That's right. You say anything about us, they die." Yang's left, thin hand was now in motion. Kwan, get the tools."
The large boy left her sight long enough to come back with a small blade.
"The Beast has a policy that those race traitors who can't see the wisdom of his vision, have something taken from them. Normally this would be something more significant, but-" As he talked, Kwan took off one of Seung's shoes. "Out of respect for our shared history, we'll just take a toe."
Kwan brought the knife down, and Seung screamed.
As Katsumi and Shinji had been scrambling to move through the forest towards the source of the screams and flashes, a wall of dirt -no, dust- surged up in front of them. Sandblast jumped down from the wave of debris and folded their arms as they stood in front of the two of them. "Oh hell no."
"Instructor, something's gone very wrong! Our friends are in need of our assistance, IMMEDIATELY!" Shinji bellowed. Katsumi was already looking for a way around the Pro Hero, who seemed to be tilting their head to one side in annoyance. She could faintly hear a voice yelling at them through an earpiece.
"You're only half-right, windy-shit. They need help, but that's not your job. You're the students here." Sandblast untucked one hand from their folded arms and another spray of Assault Dust shot out, striking the ground in front of Katsumi as she started to make her move. "Oh, did you think you were being sneaky? I guess that makes you a dumbass shit."
Katsumi had met Sandblast once or twice before. Most of the Rookies had done stints with her dad's agency at one point or another. Her personality was… well, it was a very dark mirror sometimes. She just needed an opening. Maybe Windbag would open his mouth. That would do it..
"I'm not letting you little shits through. First - our house, our mess. Second - I've had both your dad's numbers since I was in elementary school, so I'm more than ready to handle two little shits. Stand. Down." Sandblast finally dropped the wall, practically daring them, but before anything else could be said, she tilted her head, listening to something new. It was like leaves rustling, but further away, and bigger. "I think your slightly-less-shitty classmate is about to handle it anyway."
Katsumi had no issue punching an adult. Especially one who was as much of a shit-talker as Sandblast. But…
Dammit.
Picking fights during the camp had gotten her absolutely nowhere. Maybe punching wasn't always the answer.
Or at least in this one, particular, one-off scenario.
In spite of what some of her classmates might have believed, Akaya did not actually "talk" to plants, as such. Plants were not aware enough to have a language of their own. But all plant life did share a common connection, a green life, a green frequency that she was attuned to. She could control their movements through it, and cause them to grow faster and larger than they might ever on their own.
Here, in the forest, she could feel every blade of grass, every ancient tree, every plant fighting for its life under the canopy. Now, she too was ready to fight. Akaya tapped deeply into the power of the trees and unleashed her own.
The ground began to shake as Akaya approached the two fighters, giving both Park and Shiro pause. Shiro, sped up once more by Dashi's Quirk, and Park, enhanced by her own power, both glowed brightly. They separated for a moment, ready to start trading blows once more. Haimawari had gotten Kaniyashiki out of the way by now, and had returned to try and break the two up, to no avail. He looked around and finally stopped her as she approached. He seemed to recognize that she was the source of the rumbling and quickly backed away from the two fighters. He gave her a quick look, making hand motions that seemed to indicate he'd be there to back her up if she needed it.
With a wave of her hand, the ground around the two of them burst forth with roots, coming from every side of the two, spewing dirt into the air as they burst forth. The roots entwined their way around Park and Shiro's legs and arms, though both pulled and struggled against them.
"Akaya!" Shiro called out, his speech almost too fast to hear properly thanks to Dashi's boost. "What're you doing?" He struggled, but his strength was not sufficient enough to break free.
Sped up, his movements were jerky and sharp. His face was flush and his breathing was coming in ragged gasps again. She disliked having to take action against him, but she told herself it was for his own good. She feared the consequences to his body and health if he had pushed himself much further.
"What must be done," she said. Shiro was a friend, a good one. She prayed that he would forgive her for this.
"Let me go, dammit!" Park roared, struggling against her bonds. She flexed, snapping the roots like so many twigs. She eyed Akaya carefully, as though assessing how big of a threat she was. Her attention quickly returned to Shiro.
Fear gripped Akaya's heart. Had she just made him more of a target instead? She stepped between Park and Shiro. With a wave of her hand, she summoned more roots, binding Park's legs once again, but the other girl snapped them easily once more.
"I'm sorry," Akaya said. She reached out again with her Quirk. The roots that burst forth this time were thicker and stronger. And she did not settle for merely binding Park's arms and legs. Instead, the roots began to wrap around her entire body, binding her legs together and pinning her arms to her sides. Again and again, Akaya called up more roots, until Park was completely engulfed by them, other than her head, held slightly off the ground. Even then, she was struggling against her bonds.
Akaya instantly felt guilty. There was a pain in Park's eyes that cut through her rage, a soulful, sorrowful pain that spoke of true, genuine hurt. Not hurt of the body, but of the soul. And the roots were beginning to break.
She was confident she could reinforce the roots if needed. And she had numerous other plants she could use here, both in the seed pouches on her belt, and in the forest itself. She truly did have a considerable arsenal with her. So long as she maintained her focus, she could hold Park until help arrived.
But was that the right option? Or merely the easy, expedient one? Park was a deeply troubled girl, she could tell, but she would not have attacked so ferociously without some form of cause. There had to be more to it than that. Was restraining her only making the situation worse? If her anger was not dealt with, then it was likely she would only continue to vent it, perhaps even trying to assault the Rookies and their teachers. That would not end well for her. It might well spell the end of her career before it had begun.
No.
What Park needed here was compassion, understanding. And that was something she could provide. Perhaps a kind word could do what martial prowess could not.
"Park," she said, softly, so that only Park would hear her. "You told me at the beginning of this camp that you were not always as good a Christian as you should be. I did not hear everything that was said to you. But I can see your pain, your anger. I do not know what demons you carry, and I will not tell you to ignore it or to let it go. But as one Christian to the other, I am asking you to take this moment to turn the other cheek. Please. I've no desire to see either you or Shiro destroy yourselves over this. Or your future."
She released the roots around Park, letting her go free. It was foolish, perhaps, but there needed to be a show of trust here. There had been too much violence and provocation already. There was a long, too long, tension filled moment. And then Park, with tears in her eyes, fell to her knees.
Akaya turned, releasing Shiro from his own bonds. Dashi's boost had long since faded, but he looked… unwell. Without her roots to support him, he too fell to the ground, causing Akaya to let out a cry of alarm.
A flurry of activity followed, as the Rookies and Ground Zero arrived upon the scene. Ground Zero knelt next to Park while Bioshock checked on Shiro. She could not hear everything that Ground Zero said, but what she could hear sounded like he was trying to bring the girl back to reality. He spared just a moment to look up at Akaya.
"You did good," he said.
Had she? Or had she betrayed two friends today?