Smoke choked the air everywhere around Tanjiro, after passing through whatever vortex that 'Quirk' of the enemy created had sent him to what was previously the Conflagration Zone of the U.S.J.
Now, rubble had smothered many of the flames previously present within this zone, the resulting smoke hung everywhere one could likely imagine, and enough was present that breathing had become difficult.
Yet despite that he stood in a battle stance, weapon drawn and examining the Villains that were sent to defeat the students sent to the Conflagration Zone. The selection of Villains was clearly chosen for the environment as many wore masks of various types covering their mouths and noses. Or other techy stuff in the same area of the face.
Breathing Techniques were out of the picture, the smoke hanging in the air making it too difficult to get a proper deep breath that wouldn't make him choke on way more smoke than his body wanted in his system.
Funny, how even the immortal could choke.
Tanjiro looked around himself, trying to see who else was with him in this fight.
With an audible shhhiink sound, he could see that Eijiro had already prepared his Quirk for a fight. Though Tanjiro was disappointed to see that either Eijiro was the only other student within the Conflagration Zone, or simply the only one within reach.
Footsteps rang through the air as the first group of Villains approached the students. A few of them ran forward eagerly to just get this over with and gain whatever benefit they had been promised for beating up a few children.
Tanjiro managed to get a quick look at his opponents before the two students charged in on the offensive, causing him to realize that they likely didn't even know the Quirks of the students.
Sure, if you thought about it there weren't many ways to directly counter hardening or heavy regeneration plus superstrength, but a few ways already appeared in Tanjiro's mind.
And none of these Villains were the constraining type.
Sparks flew through the air as hardened skin and blades met armor, and flames were pushed as gusts of winds from swung fists, flung appendages, launched projectiles, etc, moved through the zone.
It was a simple battle.
One that wouldn't be too difficult for Tanjiro.
Another thing could be said for Eijiro however, who clearly wasn't prepared to face off against hordes of actual villains. He just happened to be eager aswell.
One of these Villains seemed to view himself as the boss of this 'platoon', though the other Villains didn't share that view and merely considered his tips as something they might end up doing. Problem was his Quirk, the guy was already big yet every hit he took just souped him up further. And knocking him out quickly wasn't going to be easy thanks to the giant's very specific choice of armor outfitting he chose for his villain outfit.
And it was clear he had it out for the weaker of the two.
. . .
The behemoth smashed down again, sending Debris and Dust flying everywhere. Still, Aizawa didn't falter, didn't slow down. And most certainly wasn't going to give up.
His opponent was big, strong, but not very smart. And Aizawa knew there would be a way to get around this hulk.
Yet there was something definitely bugging him, he had figured the giant's Quirk had to do with his strength which he seemed to have in excess, yet using his own Quirk did nothing to slow the behemoth down or weaken their strikes.
A mutation type, most likely. His Quirk had a chance to not work on those, but that was for extra appendages which this hunk of a man clearly wasn't using.
So what exactly was his Quirk?
He'd have to think about that another time if this kept up as he dodged another incoming fist from the behemoth before him, who bellowed out another "KILL" like he'd done so many times before during this confrontation. You'd almost think that's the only thing in his vocabulary.
Trying again to slow the foe down with his Capture Cloth, he swung himself onto the giant's back to prevent a repeat of him being tossed around several times. It didn't take the hulk long to free himself from the cloth, which Aizawa had predicted, but being on the giant's back now gave him a different vantage point.
And apparently made it very difficult for this behemoth to properly reach him.
And then his breath hitched.
The foe spoke again, yelling something on the top of his lungs before punching the ground.
The ground shook as small sparks flew around the impact zone, before explosions similar to fireworks shook everything a second time and sent Aizawa flying again, off of the giant's back.
A realization, the fact that the giant's strength wasn't a Quirk at all. His Quirk must've been setting off those explosions with a massive punch.
"Great." Aizawa thought to himself, "I've figured out his Quirk, but what good will that do if his strength alone is this much of a hassle to deal with?"
His thought process was put on halt as he dodged an incoming wave of explosions launched by his opponent's fist. He was lucky they were easy to see coming, but fighting it wouldn't be easy, not in the slightest.
Any advantage is one advantage though, and as a Pro Hero, Aizawa knew how to Abuse every advantage he had.
Bait the enemy, nullify their Quirk when they'd use it, punish. Repeat.
There it came again, the hulk reeling back his fast while his muscles contorted. The bellowing exclamation of the action he was about to perform, and then the punch itself.
Aizawa activated his Quirk, he'd punish.
And then came the explosions that nearly took his life.
Chapter 4 - A series of Unforeseen Events
END
