Chapter 8 – 2v2
They'd all had lunch, which all the other students used as an excuse to begin talking to one another again. Already her classmates were beginning to form social groups. Kyo didn't really see the point in that, they were here to be heroes, not make friends.
Once they'd returned to class, she'd simply taken her seat and waited for the next teacher, keeping to herself all the while. She was starting to feel a bit tired after all the excitement from both homeroom and just the general business of getting acquainted with a new school. She hoped the next lesson would be a quiet one.
All Might burst in.
Ah. There goes that.
"I am here, entering through the door like a normal person!"
Most of her classmates, predictably, began freaking out. It's one thing to be told the number one hero would be your teacher, another to see it in person. They shouted, and jumped around, like the starstruck teens they were. Kyo, naturally, did not engage in any such foolish antics.
"You must be excited, Kira, for your typically pallid cheeks have turned the same shade of scarlet as blood." Tokoyami, once again, seemed to find his amusement in bothering her.
"Th-that is a blatant falsehood, and you should be ashamed to spread such lies!"
Next to her, a blond boy with a black stripe through his hair turned the girl with earlobe jacks.
"Hey, Jiro. You're like, scene or whatever, right? Do you know why these two are so weird?"
"Dude. I'm punk. And no amount of punk would help me understand those guys."
"Wait, I thought punk was leather and spikes and stuff..."
"That would make Kira punk. I'm pretty sure she's emo."
"She isn't wearing any of that leather stuff right now, just a school uniform."
"Yeah, but look at her. I just know she does."
Kyo hated all of them. She swore she did.
"You think that's why she gets along with Tokoyami? 'Cause he's emo too right?"
"No, I think he's goth? Or maybe just a chuunibyou."
"I am neither! I am simply… no, forget that, stop trying to label me!" She had to admit, it was a weird sight to see a bird blushing.
After the fanfare died down, All Might ushered them out of the classroom, and brought them to the locker rooms. Apparently the costume designs they'd submitted had already been brought to life, and they'd be donning their new outfits for All Might's class.
She definitely hadn't been observing the costumes of the other girls in the class, because she didn't care, but she may have noticed a few of them in passing. Simply by chance. And so what if she compared the designs to her own? That was only natural.
She knew hers would probably be one of the only ones to cover every inch of skin, but she had to admit she was surprised at how much a few of the others exposed. That girl with the ponytail, was her outfit even legal? Kyo had thought she'd have the least complex outfit, but she was surprised to be outdone by the ear jack girl. Seriously, at least Kyo had a theme, what with the black leather jacket and pants, black boots and black motor helmet. Ear girl just had what looked to be street wear on. Although on further examination (which Kyo totally didn't do because she totally didn't care) the girl's boots appeared have some sort of electronics attached.
Finally they began to exit the locker rooms, and started taking in the boys' costumes. Wait… was Kujo seriously just wearing the sailor outfit he'd stolen from her brother? She grit her teeth and walked past him when he tried to engage her. And then, from the peanut gallery, she heard it.
"Wait, that has to be Kira underneath that helmet, she's the only girl whose face I'm not seeing. See Kaminari? I told you she wears leather and spikes and stuff!"
Once they'd all reconvened in the hall, All Might led them down to the cityscape where they'd taken the general entrance exam. They followed the man into one of the buildings, whereupon he explained the day's exercise. They were to be split into two person teams: one would be the 'hero team' tasked with capturing either the enemy team or the faux bomb, and the others would be the 'villains', whose goal was to defend said bomb.
He pulled out a ballot box from behind his cape (where had he even been hiding it?) and began digging around.
"For the first round, the hero team will be Young Iida and Young Tokoyami!" a number of students sucked in a breath at that. They'd all seen the two in Quirk assessment test, and both were quite formidable in their own right. It certainly didn't appear anyone was lining up to be the opposition, apart from maybe Bakugou, who had a dangerous glint in his eye. "And the villain team will comprise of Young Mineta and Young Sero!"
Even Kyo winced at that. Well, at least it would be over quickly. The class settled in to watch the match, while the four boys called went to prepare.
Perhaps it was an unseemly abundance of pride speaking, but Fumikage felt as confident in their victory as a predatory bat, sweeping down to catch unsuspecting insects in its maw. He and Iida had confirmed their strategy beforehand- stick together until they found the room the objective was located in, then Fumikage would attack, thus distracting their foes whilst his partner rushed towards the bomb.
With the two (frankly redundant) sticking abilities their adversaries possessed, he and Iida were both certain the two would stick to their chosen room, playing up the defense.
When they entered the building, they were somewhat surprised to find it already trapped. Tape spanned horizontally across walls in some attempt to block their ingress. But the token struggles of their prey were for naught, as Dark Shadow tore through the obstacles.
"Their Quirks are good for trapping the building, but aren't quite subtle. So long as we stay alert, we won't be caught off guard!" Iida arms moved about stiffly as he spoke.
"Yes. Let us keep a watchful eye. The shadows shall shield us, and we will be as serpents hidden in the tall grass, poised to deliver a lethal kiss."
"I don't appreciate the comparison. I feel a more apt metaphor would be an eagle, flying swiftly forth to deliver justice!"
Fumikage paused.
"Do eagles deliver justice?"
"…Perhaps that wasn't perfectly apt either." Iida was flustered, if his red face was any indication.
They continued on, Dark Shadow tearing down any tape they encountered.
"It's curious. We've yet to run afoul of Mineta's balls."
Iida looked at him with a grimace.
"That sounded better in my head."
"Well, regardless! You raise a good point. Perhaps that is the key to understanding their strategy! But what could they gain by only usin-" Iida's voice was cut off by a loud groaning noise, which echoed across the hall. "...I don't suppose you have an idea of what that might've been."
"It sounded as though it came from above us, but there's nothing on the ceiling."
"No, but… does the ceiling seem lower on this floor than on the first?"
"Now that you mention it… though the meaning behind this is yet obscured to me."
"Your way of phrasing it is odd, but I agree with the sentiment."
They paused for a moment to see if anything would happen, but when nothing came of it, the two continued on. It wasn't as though they could allow the timer to elapse simply because they'd heard a noise.
They were still on the same hallway when they finally found the room they were looking for. Sero and Mineta were stood near the doorway, rubble and dust inexplicably covering the floor. As planned, Fumikage called forth his Dark Shadow and sent it forward, attacking the two while Iida broke off to rush the objective. The plan however, fell to pieces as the groaning noise from earlier came back, louder than ever. As Fumikage looked upwards, the heavens opened, spilling forth a torrent of stone onto him.
Which is to say the ceiling collapsed. He recalled Dark Shadow quick enough to protect himself from the falling debris, but it still piled up and trapped him. Across from him, Iida stumbled and fell forward. There were no falling rocks at Iida's location near the bomb, but for some reason he'd still been tripped up.
"Curse your villainy! This is devious trickery! Truly, you two are the height of evil!"
Iida flung his arms around, knocking away the rubble that had already been on the ground when they entered, and Fumikage understood. The trap had been in two parts: the falling ceiling trick (which he still had yet to truly understand) and a minefield of sorts surrounding the bomb. The detritus cluttering the room had been a cover, obscuring a number of Mineta's sticky balls. Oh… ugh. Perhaps spheres was a better word?
Regardless, Iida had run straight into it, and found himself caught.
"Very cunning. I must ask though, how did the two of you obtain this rubble? And how did you get it to fall?"
Sero was the one who came up to answer Fumikage.
"Well, I wrapped the bomb up with my tape during our prep time. And then swung it around, breaking up the walls and stuff."
"That is… incredibly reckless."
"Hey, if it works."
"And the falling rocks?"
"Come on dude. We affixed them to the ceiling with Mineta's Quirk, arranged 'em so it was hard to tell they were broken pieces and not the actual ceiling, and then just let 'em drop."
"I see. Thank you."
"No prob. Plus..." Sero grinned. "Thank you for losing."
"You misunderstand. I am thanking you for talking, instead of placing the capture tape on me and finalising your victory." Dark Shadow had more than enough time to soak up the darkness beneath the rocks that had immobilised Fumikage. Now, it sprang forth, scattering the rubble across the room.
Half a minute later, All Might declared the hero team's win over the speakers.
"And, though he was nearly defeated, I'm naming Tokoyami the Most Valuable Player!" All Might declared. "Now, can anyone tell me why? Young Kirishima?"
"Well, he was the one that beat up the villains. So of course he's the MVP."
"Yes, that's one of the reasons. Can anyone think of another? Young Yaoyorozu." He pointed to the girl who'd raised her arm.
"The heroes could have easily overpowered the villain team and won by default, but Iida messed up by trying to rush the objective, and thereby trapping himself in the ball minefield Mineta set up. They may have planned to that beforehand, but it was still a weaker strategy than simply brute forcing it. While Tokoyami managed to win it for them, he was also taken off guard by the villain teams falling ceiling trick. He was only able to free himself because Sero wasted time bragging. If these were the only actions taken into account, Mineta would likely be the MVP. However, concerning the villains, while Sero made the obvious aforementioned mistake, it wasn't their worst move. The villain team as a whole failed to take the test seriously. They were only able to get the rubble by bashing the bomb against the walls a few floors up. If it were real, that would have had immediately disastrous consequences. Therefore, they did not respect the spirit of the excercise."
"Ah, yes, well, you missed a few things, but that about sums it up. Very good!"
Tenya felt sick on his stomach. He'd already had enough time to berate himself for his actions in test, but now, hearing his classmate point out the his failure made it all the worse. The only worthwhile thing he'd done was distract Mineta, who'd taken the time to put the capture tape on him while Sero dealt with Tokoyami. Yaoyorozu had the right of it- he'd messed up. And even though the villain team acted recklessly, they'd had a plan in place. One that almost worked, too. And what had Tenya done? Just rushed in blindly. It had been their own plan, sure, but now he was realising how weak a plan it was to begin with.
All Might's voice cut through his inner monologue, as the teacher took out the ballot box and started digging through it for the next competitors. Tenya nodded once to himself, and resolved to pay very close attention during the following matches. After all, he would need to learn to do better. Yaoyorozu's analysis, while harsh, was wholly accurate, and he could only hope to match her observations next time.
Kyouka had admit it. She was absolutely terrified. And, stoic though he may be, she expected Shouji must feel the same way. It was inevitable, really.
They'd drawn Bakugou.
They were already a bit disappointed to be on a team together, since they cancelled out the extrasensory aspects of each other's Quirks. But then All Might had announced the villain team, comprising of Bakugou Katsuki and Higashikata Joshu.
And oh man, if that wasn't enough to make her want to surrender already. They'd only met today and everyone had immediately learned to steer clear of the kid. You knew someone was a piece of work when they worried you more than the Stand user they'd been partnered with.
"You can morph multiple arms, right? Go ahead and do that before we go in, I can take over listening for them."
"Alright. As far as our strategy for combating the two of them…"
"Yeah? If you've got any thoughts, I'm all ears." She said, motioning to her ear jacks with a smile.
"Well, after seeing Bakugou's performance in the Quirk assessment test, I think it's fair to say neither of us can defeat him in a straight fight. Speaking of, how exactly can you fight?"
She pointed out the support gear on her boots. "These speakers can send out my heartbeat as a sonic blast when I plug into them. So I guess that makes me the ranged option, and you the melee."
"That makes sense. In that case, we need to separate the two of them somehow, and overwhelm them as a team."
"No objections here. But if you're gonna close distance on 'em, I'll need to be flanking them, so my attacks don't catch you as well. I don't have a lot of precision with 'em. "
From there, they discussed methods of drawing Bakugou away from Higashikata until the buzzer sounded, signalling the start of the match.
When they entered, she plugged her ears into the wall.
"They're both in the room with the bomb. Third floor, second room on the right. One of 'em's pacing, probably Bakugou."
"If he's restless, perhaps we should wait for him to come to us."
"Eh, I'm not sure we can risk that with the time limit in place. Who knows how long it'll take us to beat him?"
"Fair enough. Shall we make noise?"
"Yeah, it'll bug the hell outta him."
Shouji morphed his arms into mouths, and all of them began screaming. Kyouka had to cover her ear holes with her hands, while she sent her jacks into boots, pumping the sound of her heartbeat loudly through the corridor.
After about twenty seconds of this, she paused to plug back into the wall.
"Stop! Hey, Shouji, stop!" He relented. "Okay, so that worked too well, they're both coming. Thoughts?"
"Hit and run tactics? You blast them from a distance and we stay on the move?"
"Nah, that won't tear 'em apart. Maybe we can just go straight for the bomb? I can break the ceiling by sending my heartbeat through it. If you can climb up there, we can make our way straight to the objective without running into those two."
"That certainly sounds preferable to engaging in combat."
They broke through and made their way to second floor, Kyouka briefly taking a moment to listen and check their opponents' location. Once he'd climbed up, Shouji extended a lengthened arm down to her, with the offer to pull her up. Once they were both on the second floor she turned to him.
"You remember where the bomb is located, right? I'm pretty sure they heard us breaking through, because they've changed course. Just rush the objective; I'll stay behind to slow them down."
"Are you certain?"
"Yeah. Look, the quicker you go means the quicker you reach it, and that means I won't have to spend as much time fighting them. Just hurry up and go, alright?"
He assented, and started towards the staircase.
She, on the other hand, started sending her heartbeat out through her speakers, broadcasting her location to the enemy team. After about twenty seconds, the wall directly to her left just opened up, and Higashikata stepped straight through, launching a fist into her side before she could turn to face him.
"Stop making that damn racket! You're lucky you're cute, otherwise I'd have punched you straight in the nose!"
That… whatever. She quickly snaked a jack into the floor behind, listening for the other member of the villain team, and her heart sank. Bakugou was returning to the room where they'd stashed the bomb. Evidently the two had seen through their ploy. Shouji, she realised. Earlier, he'd been screaming with her. With him no longer making his own noise, they'd figured out he wasn't with her.
"Look, you must already know it's over right? Just give up, I'll be gentle, I promise." Higashikata smirked down at her. Was… was that seriously his outfit? It was all bright green and blue and red. God, it hurt to look at. And did it have to be spandex? Plus, everyone knew capes were only cool if you were literally All Might.
She plugged into her speakers, blasting him back into the room he'd come from with a sonic attack. Then she started running to catch up with Shouji.
"Not so fast!" The floor had opened up beneath her, and Higashikata reached out a hand to grab her ankle, before yanking her down to the bottom floor. He dropped her to the ground, the impact into the concrete driving the air from her lungs.
"Wha- how did you get below me?" Kyouka wheezed.
"My Stand, Nut King Call, allows me to connect or disconnect whatever I like. I used it to break a hole in the floor, so I could drop down a level and avoid your attack. And since you've been so much trouble… I think I'll connect you to the floor, so you can't move around and be even more of a bother."
He poured a large amount of some blue, gelatinous substance from his hands, sticking her to the floor, and she felt an invisible fist impact with her abdomen.
Kyouka sent out a sonic attack directly into him, knocking him into the wall. But it was short-lived, as he quickly opened the wall up and slipped through. Luckily, her sonic blast was also enough to break through the substance he'd covered her in. It scattered all across the room until it looked like a Jackson Pollock painting. Seemed like his Quirk just let him make things sticky. How unlucky, that he had two redundant abilities. No wonder he used his Stand for everything.
She tried to get up, get over to Shouji, but it was like there was something in her stomach, pinning her to the ground.
She plugged her jacks into the floor, sending her heartbeat through it and breaking a crater out, freeing her from it, even if a bit of debris still clung to her back. That small rock was the specific part of the floor Higashikata had connected her to, evidently.
Kyouka ran through the hallway, taking the stairway two steps at a time, until she heard the explosions from upstairs. She plugged into the walls, and sure enough, on the third floor was a smaller boy standing up, and a larger one laying on the ground. Bakugou and Shouji.
She grit her teeth. This had just become impossible. She listened for Higashikata. He was on the second floor now. Was he using his Stand to boost him up to the ceiling when he broke through it? Whatever.
She continued up the stairs, but altered her course. Rather than intercept Bakugou, she elected to take a page from Higashikata's book. Standing directly beneath Bakugou, she plugged into the ceiling and shattered it.
"What the fuck!"
The boy crashed into the ground, and she wasted no time, plugging into the ground and breaking it as well, sending him down to the first floor. He was more ready for it the second time, and pointed his arms behind himself, sending out explosions to propel him back up to meet her.
She'd expected that though, and plugged into her speakers, sending out a sonic attack and knocking him back into the ground.
"Oh, of course that idiot with the godawful hair couldn't deal with one fucking person. Do I have to do everything myself?"
She chose not to respond, simply sending out sustained blast of sound at him. He took it head on, getting knocked straight into the ground, but managed to endure it, lifting himself onto his hands and knees and crawling away from the hole. He disappeared into the room next door, and Kyouka took a moment to listen for the enemy team's movements. Bakugou was making his way for the staircase, and clearly Higashikata had heard the commotion, because he was coming straight for her.
She was about to be sandwiched. Well, it was fun while it lasted.
She hid in a nearby room, listening for her opponents. They met in the corridor outside her hiding spot.
"You lose track of her, Bakugou?"
"Shut the fuck up ugly. Shit, she's probably heading for the bomb again. I'll go intercept, you stay here and look for her on this floor."
"I can move between floors more easily, I should be the one to-"
"Oh my god, will you shut the fuck up? Just do what I say."
And with that, Bakugou ran back to the staircase. Well, if Higashikata was going to stay, she would at least have an easier target.
As she listened, he went from wall to wall, presumably opening them with his Stand to check the rooms. She waited until he was in front of her room, before plugging into her speakers.
The wall opened, and she sent out a blast directly into him.
"Oh, not again! Dammit!"
She pressed her advantage, walking forward and keeping up the sound. Bakugou will have heard her attack, and was almost certainly on his way back. She needed to finish this quickly.
"Ah! Oh man, I'm sick of this! Nut King Call!"
Kyouka felt a sharp pain in her left leg, and the heartbeat attack had stopped emanating from that boot. It was more pain than she'd ever felt in her life... what the hell was happening? She bit back a screech at the sensation and looked down. Oh.
Her left leg was laying on the floor, perfectly bisected. She could see the white of the bone in the centre, surrounded by red muscle. Blood oozed from her dismembered limb, and gushed from her stump, turning the concrete floor red.
Her vision blurred. There was a ringing in her ears. She barely even heard Bakugou enter. Her other speaker, the one still attached to her was still blaring out her heartbeat, which had become almost frantic.
The other leg came off as she was still looking down, and then she fell flat on her ass, no longer able to stifle her screams.
"Holy shit dude, what the fuck did you do?"
"Well, that was unfortunate. I think this is a good time to remind you all: while I want you to take this seriously, and treat it as realistically as possible, there are limits to how far you may go." All Might said, once the second round had finished. "Young Jiro will be fine after a quick stay with Recovery Girl, but I must chide Young Higashikata for his incredibly reckless behaviour. Even if you know you can put them back together, maiming your opponent is still very much not allowed. As such, Young Higashikata, you will be receiving a failing grade today, and you will have detention for the next three weekends. I want you to take this time to reflect on your actions, and think about what you could have done better."
"Wait, but I fixed her immedi-"
"Young Higashikata. Be thankful I'm not giving you a suspension, or worse. My first instinct was to hand out a much harsher punishment, but I have had a few minutes to think, and cool down. Your current punishment is quite lenient. If this were Aizawa's class, you'd be at a very serious risk of expulsion. Keep that in mind."
Everyone was quiet for a moment. It had been a disturbing sight to see on the screens. Even Mina was feeling a bit of a solemn mood.
"But as for the rest of you: don't lose your energy and excitement for your own matches! We'll be skipping analysis, owing to the events that unfolded. So it's time to move onto the third match. To that end…"
All Might rooted about in the box. "The hero team will consist of Young Ashido and Young Kirishima!"
"Woo! You hear that? We're a team!" Mina grinned at her friend.
"Yeah! We're gonna kick some major butt!"
"And the villains shall be… Young Koda and Young Kira!"
In contrast to the hero team's boisterous and loud attitudes, this proclamation was might by absolute silence on the part of the villains. Or, no, Kira just scoffed. That totally counted.
But, Mina was feeling a little worried now. She'd seen, and wasn't likely to forget, what Higashikata's Stand had been capable of. And now she had to fight a Stand user herself.
They took up position outside the door, and waited.
"Wanna plan our attack?" Kirishima asked her.
"Hmmmm. Nah, let's wing it. Last two teams to overthink everything totally lost. Oh, take down Kira first."
"Definitely."
"Glad we're in agreement. I like my legs where they are, thank you very much."
"Too soon, Ashido."
"Yeah, sorry."
All Might called the start, and they rushed in.
"Just skip the first floor, ya think?"
"Yeah, no way they'd be down here."
Mina slid across the floor on her acid, her partner lagging behind a bit as he wasn't able to match her speed by running.
It began once they reached the second floor. A flock of birds flew down the hallway, having entered from who knows where. They began pecking and scratching at her, screeching in shrill tones. She shrieked and jumped back, waving her arms wildly to try and keep 'em away. Kirishima had, by this point, caught up, and was now moving through the flock with ease. The beaks and talons were just blunted on his hardened skin.
Mina just stayed behind him, using him like a shield. She might not like being pecked, but she didn't want to melt the poor birds.
"Aw man, this sucks! Let's hurry and find the room they're in!" She moved out of cover and opened a door. Not long after, her teeth started chattering, and she had to wrap her arms around herself to stay warm. "W-what is with th-this draft?!"
She found the cold dissipated when she slammed the door shut, but man, what had been up with that? She ran to another door, and was again hit by a blast of chill air after opening it. It stopped when she closed the door, but the cold had built up so much there was ice on her fingers.
"Th-this has to be Kira's doing!" She said as she melted the ice with her acid. "Koda's the one doing the bird thing, this has to be her Quirk somehow!"
"Well, we can't even see what's happening, so maybe it's her Stand. Has she trapped all of the rooms with it somehow?" Kirishima was swinging his arms around, pushing the birds away.
"If she has, we're screwed. We'll freeze and get pecked to pieces before we find the room we need! This is... it's uh... it's a war of attention! Or, no wait, um… a war of addition?"
"I totally get what you're trying to say, but I dunno the word either. But think about it… if they're trying to get us to freeze opening all these doors, then they'd want as many rooms between us as possible."
"Yeah? Oh wait… you're saying they've gotta be on the top floor?"
"Exactly! We can just skip everything in between."
"But the birds..." He was keeping them at bay, but how long would that last, really?
"Ashido, come on. Can't you just make like, a really weak acid? You don't gotta burn 'em, just irritate them till they leave us alone." Well… it did seem kinda necessary.
"I guess… Sorry birdies!" She produced a really weak acid, and flung it towards the harassing swarm. It must have worked, because they all started squawking and wheeling through the air randomly, before finally flying away.
With the obstacle removed, they ran up each flight of stairs until there were no stairs left. Once on the top floor, they began opening doors at random. Mina kept getting iced over, but after the first couple of rooms, they realised Kirishima was somehow not being targeted at all. They quickly shifted tactics, and he took over the task of opening each door.
"You see the birds?"
"Nah, I don't think they'll be back."
"No, I mean, look out the window. The birds are watching us."
Mina grit her teeth. Evidently their opponents would know they were coming.
They were about halfway through the floor when they found the room with Kira and Koda in it. Kira had clearly been waiting for them, because the moment Kirishima opened the door, she threw a pen over his shoulder, nailing Mina right in the nose.
"Hey! What was that f-for?" And suddenly she was cold again. What? But she didn't open the door! She glanced down at the pen that had struck her and saw the cap had come off after the it hit her. Did that have something to do with it? She reached down for it, melting the ice that was forming on her arm with her acid. Kirishima charged ahead, not noticing her plight, and went straight for Kira, fist raised.
The cold assaulting her stopped once she put the cap back on the pen, but in that time, Kira and Koda had already engaged Kirishima. Koda's birds were back, harassing and distracting the red head while Kira threw punches into him, making his skin warp and twist. Some sort of golden glow was surrounding her, and travelling from her fists into Kirishima.
Well, she'd like to help, but it was best if she just ended this here. While the enemy team fought her partner, Mina slid across the room on her acid, straight towards the bomb.
"Oh no you don't!" Kira had evidently seen her, because she was flying- literally, she looked like she was straddling air- to intercept her. And again that cold came over her, ice forming on her side, the one closest to Kira. Well, desperate times call for desperate measures.
Mina poured a high concentration of acid into floor, melting out a hole radiating out from her, just as Kira was almost on her. The two of them fell, and kept falling, as her acid ate through the floor in the room underneath them as well. They finally hit the ground after falling two floors.
"Oh, man." Mina was wheezed. "That's gonna be sore tomorrow."
"Why would you do that? You got yourself with that stunt too!"
Mina elected not to answer, instead throwing a glob of acid at Kira, who yelped and jumped out of the way.
Kira reached out, grasping air, and moved like she was trying to mount something. She had to abandon that, however, as Mina lobbed yet another bit of acid directly onto her.
"You can't use that glowy Quirk of yours without getting close, and you know you can't do that without getting drenched in my attacks. But you need time to get on your Stand, or you need to get me to open something. So long as I keep attacking, you can't counter at all, isn't that right?"
She kept throwing acid till All Might announced the hero team's win. Evidently Kirishima had dealt with Koda and then walked over to touch the bomb.
Mina couldn't resist jumping up and cheering.
"But can you tell me what your mistakes were?"
Koda was clearly not going to start talking, but Kira was evidently fine with it.
"I think my biggest mistake was targeting Ashido with my Stand, instead of Kirishima. Her Quirk meant she could remove the ice with no harm to herself, but for her to do that to Kirishima would have burned through his hardening and weakened him for the final confrontation."
"Quite right!"
"If I may add something!" Tenya raised his hand. "I feel the villain team may have gotten better results by being unpredictable. The heroes were able to figure out the villains were on the top floor, and even rushed past the first, totally dismissing it. If the villains had hid somewhere less obvious, and if Kira switched her target frequently, rather than focus on a single opponent, the hero team would have been exhausted long before they found the bomb."
Uraraka gave Ojiro a thumbs up as she descended the staircase.
"I stuck the bomb on the side opposite the entrance. Once they come in, I'll go back and float it. That way they won't see it."
"I have to say, I almost feel bad for them. I can't see them winning this."
"Don't be hasty. Yaoyorozu's Quirk is seriously useful- she might make a rope and lasso it or something. Besides, we don't even know what Kujo's abilities are, really. Just that he's got a Stand and a Quirk."
"Yeah, that's a good point. Iida and Tokoyami assumed victory, and they nearly lost."
"Exactly!" She grinned and pumped her fist. "We've gotta give it our all! They will be."
"And be sure not to get captured ourselves. They don't need the objective if they take our team out."
"Yep. I gotta say though, I'm surprised All Might's allowing this… I kinda thought, y'know, since it's indoor training, he'd oppose it."
"Well, we'll still be fighting indoors, I guess. So it must count."
"I suppose."
When the start of the match was called over the intercom, Ochako waited a few seconds, and then walked back up to the roof. She made the bomb float, careful not to disturb it too much and send it flying off.
"So, how you wanna deal with those two?" Ojiro's voice came from behind her. "I was thinking of hiding by the staircase and ambushing them when they came out."
"That's pretty good. We both have to get in close to use our Quirks, and the same probably isn't true of them. Hmm. I just had a thought. Are you okay with being bait?"
"Hey, if it'll work, I'm down. Whatcha need me to do?"
They went down to the third floor, expecting the hero team to already be doing a sweep of the second. Ochako walked over to the staircase entrance, and pressed herself against the wall.
"Go into that room over there, and be sure to leave the door open. Try to keep making noise, but make it sound natural. Like you're pacing really loudly, or something."
Not long after, she heard movement on the stairs. The other two were coming up. They paused when they got to the third floor.
"Hey, Yaoyorozu, I think I hear someone." Kujo whispered. "In that room over there, with the open door."
"Kujo, wait, something doesn't feel-"
But it was already too late. As Kujo passed the entrance, Ochako reached out and grabbed him, sending him into the ceiling. She tensed as she did so, because he reached out a hand of his own to touch her arm, but it must have just been a reaction, since nothing occurred as a result.
"Ojiro! Now!" Her partner rushed out, just as Yaoyorozu threw… a doll into the hallway.
"Um… what are-" The doll exploded.
The bright light and loud bang left her reeling, blinded and ears ringing. She grasped at the walls, making sure to orient herself. Then, Ochako touched her own arm, removing the gravity on herself, and put her feet against the walls, kicking off and rocketing down the hallway. Still blind, she pushed her legs out to take the impact of hitting the far. Even so, it left her shaken for a moment.
She felt sick, but it was even worse this time because of the flashbang, and the impact against the wall. Fumbling around, she made it into what was probably an alternate hallway. It was a bit difficult to tell, her senses were all over the place.
She fell into a kneel, and puked all over the floor.
She felt bad about leaving Ojiro behind. But even if he got caught… she had to keep going, or the hero team would win. Just keep 'em distracted until All Might called time.
Her vision finally returned, albeit a bit spotty. And the ringing in her ears was dying down. She was correct earlier, in that she'd managed to make it into another hallway. But… why was this hallway so big? She didn't think it was one she'd gone down earlier, so it made enough sense that it was an architectural outlier, and she'd just not known about it.
She crept over to the end of the hallway, and peeked around the corner.
Ojiro was nowhere to be seen, but Yaoyorozu and Kujo were both there, the latter still on the ceiling, rubbing at his eyes. Something wasn't right though.
"Aw man! I'd closed my eyes but it still hurt."
"Well, think of how bad it must be for the other two. Come one, we must get after them. Do you have any idea where they might have gone?"
Why… why were the two of them so tall, all of a sudden? She knew she was a little on the shorter side, but they were suddenly around twice her height!
Kujo. When she'd thrown him earlier, he'd managed to touch her arm, but she hadn't thought it'd done anything. Maybe she was wrong.
"Hmmm. Well, not like they'd be able to open a door after that… let's check the hallways." Oh no.
Ochako moved back down the hall she was on, suddenly understanding why it was so much larger than before. She couldn't hide, she'd puked all over the floor! They'd see it and know she'd been here.
She could only really think of one option, and she really didn't want to do it. But it wasn't as though she had much of a choice anymore.
After opening one of the doors, she ran inside a room, and over to the window. She tried to open it, but it kept sticking. Evidently it didn't get much use, and it wasn't like Ochako had enough upper body strength to force it.
"Oh, that's disgusting. Well, we know one of them was in this hallway."
"Yeah. Think they're hiding in one of these rooms?"
"Makes sense."
Crap. Those voices were right outside! She redoubled her efforts, but the window just wouldn't budge past the halfway point. The door handle right outside her room started to turn. No, she didn't have a chance! She absolutely wouldn't be able to get the window open in time.
Shouts rang out from the hallway. A feminine voice that was obviously Yaoyorozu, and… was that Kujo and Ojiro? Evidently he'd come to this corridor and encountered their opponents.
"Uraraka!" A muffled voice sounded from the corridor. "Don't help me, just run! If they get both of us they win!"
Deep down she understood, but it still made her feel guilty. Ah well. Nothing to be done for it now. With the distraction, she finally had enough time to open the window.
She touched her face with her fingerpads again, activating her Quirk on herself a second time. Well, not like she had anything left to throw up. She floated straight out the window and grabbed the sill to keep herself from flying off into the sky. From there, she did some bizarre approximation of rock climbing, wherein she let go of the building's side and floated up for a brief period, before latching onto another outcropping to prevent her from drifting too far away. Since All Might hadn't announced a victory for the villains yet, she was pretty sure Ojiro had been captured.
A glance down confirmed her suspicions. Yaoyorozu was leaning out the window she'd climbed out of, and looking… past her? Ochako followed her gaze to see- oh. The bomb was floating in mid-air, in plain view, if one happened to be looking outside and upwards.
She'd made a mistake in fleeing through the window. If she had just run through the halls instead, they wouldn't have seen- no. There'd be time for self recrimination later. Right now she had to try and salvage this.
She forced another window open, this one on the top floor, and crept back inside before releasing her Quirk's affect on herself. And there was that familiar roiling in her stomach, but without any food to expel, she was able to push past it and continue on.
Ochako had to get to the bomb and somehow prepare for a fight with the hero team. But what could she do? She wasn't likely to win a slugfest to begin with, even less so now that she'd been shrunk down. And it wasn't as though sending her opponents into the ceiling would do much to prevent their success. Kujo was still moving around fine from what she could tell, even if he had to do it upside down.
Maybe she could just keep moving the bomb until time ran out? It was unaffected by gravity for the time-being, so perhaps she just keep going along the sides of the building with it. But even if her stomach was empty, she was pretty much certain she wouldn't be able to handle the affects of her Quirk on herself for that long.
The thought was rendered moot anyway, as a hand clasped her shoulder. She spun around, looking straight at Kujo upside down face. Thanks to the zero-g, a quick punch sent him flying across the hall, but she could see the ceiling getting even further. She'd been shrunk again! At this point, she estimated herself to barely reach up to Kujo's thigh.
How had he managed to sneak up on her? It was though he didn't make a single sound, even when she'd punched him she hadn't heard the impact. It sounded absurd, but had his Stand taken the sound away from him somehow?
Ochako ducked into another room, but this time she had to pull herself up to the windowsill in order to open it. She struggled even more in opening this window. She didn't have the size or leverage to budge the darn thing, not even a little bit.
Ah, well, you gotta do what you gotta do. She lashed out with her boot, shattering the window, and lifted her arms over her face for some semblance of protection as she squeezed through the glass shards. A few nicked her cheeks anyway, but it wasn't as though she could let them get to the objective.
She floated herself up to the roof and landed. It took even longer than it should have. Because of her drastically reduced stature, she had so much further to go. By now her stomach was screaming in protest, and she was clutching her gut and dry heaving. The door squeaked open, and Kujo floated out, careful to keep a hand on the doorknob to prevent him from falling into the sky. Yaoyorozu was right behind him, a length of rope in her hands. Well, looked like this would be her last stand.
If she could just touch Yaoyorozu, they wouldn't be able to lasso the bomb. They'd need to keep a hand on the roof to stay grounded, and they wouldn't have any traction.
Ochako ran towards Yaoyorozu, careful to keep her eyes on the girl's hands. Who knew what she'd create?
But as she ran, her feet completely lost traction, and she started sliding across the floor faster than should've been possible.
"Yaoyorozu, net!" The girl nodded at Kujo, and the net came straight out of her pre-assembled.
She tried to right her footing, but it was too late, and she slid straight into their trap. The larger girl hadn't needed to make much- Ochako had shrunk so much the small net completely entangled her. The two of them wasted no time putting the capture tape on her, having learned from Sero's earlier failure.
And All Might announced the hero team's victory.
"We shouldn't have gone to meet the hero team directly... we should've split up and tried hit and run tactics."
"I'm not sure about that." Tenya said. "If you had done that, you would be unaware if your partner were to be captured, and the hero team may have had an easier time picking you off."
"I'm glad to see you kids getting into this!"
"But she's got a Stand, dude! Who knows what kinda crap she'll pull? Didn't you see what Higashikata did?"
"I already told you no. I am not freezing the bomb. It would defeat the purpose of the test."
"Pshh, you wouldn't have even thought twice about if All Might hadn't graded Sero lower for using it to break the walls."
"Obviously. That's my point, I don't want to receive a lower score. Do you?"
Shouto was doing his absolute best to be polite, he promised he was. It was just impossible when his supposed 'partner' kept running his mouth at a mile a minute. The lightning ability could prove useful, and that was about the only reason Kaminari wasn't already a popsicle.
"Look, just stay here and watch the bomb, alright? I'll freeze all of the doorways leading to this room, so they can't make it in here."
"Oooooh, that's even better!"
Honestly, why did he have to get one of the various loudmouths in the class. The other boy had to know how irritating he was, he just had to.
Shouto walked down to the bottom floor, sticking with the plan and erecting a wall of ice to block of the stairway entrance and exit. He didn't think either of the girls on the hero team had anything that would let them break through the first wall, but he saw no reason to take a chance. Hirose had some sort of water spraying Quirk, judging by her performance in the apprehension test, but he wasn't sure how much pressure or precision she had. He continued placing ice barriers along the stairwells and hallways until finally returning to the room housing the objective. He erected the ice there as well, behind the door so that even if the heroes made it to this floor they wouldn't be able to immediately tell this was the room they wanted.
"Hey man, you wanna get the window too?"
"No. That would be visible from the outside, since the window is transparent, and they would know where we are. Better to let them exhaust themselves trying to find us. Neither of their Quirks aid in locating anything."
"Don't forget about Hirose's Stand, dude. She didn't use it much during the test, so maybe it has other sorts of uses."
"That's... actually not a bad point for once. Still, there's little we can do to defend against that until we have a better understanding of it."
"...What do you mean by 'for once'? Todoroki?" Shouto ignored him.
All Might called the beginning of the match, and the villain team waited. Shouto knew this would go in his favour. He had so much power as a result of his father's ambitions, whether he liked that fact or not. Even thinking over the other students in the class, none of them stood on the same level as him, except maybe the girl with the creation Quirk. Even the Stand users didn't measure up. Kira's Stand had good mobility, but its ice was clearly weaker than his own. Higashikata's had some strength to it, but not enough to challenge Shouto. And he still wasn't quite sure what Kujo's even did, despite having watched the boy's fight.
The window behind them shattered, interrupting his thoughts. The two boys spun around to see the girl with the frog Quirk jumping in, her partner held in her tongue. Damn, he hadn't considered her ability to climb walls! But how did she find their room so quickly? She would have had to check every room through the windows, and that would've taken more time than this. But his eyes fixated on the device strapped to Hirose's wrist. It looked like any normal cellphone... but it had a map of the building pulled up, with the exact room his team had chosen highlighted. Was this her Stand? He really had no way of knowing, but the grey cellphone was an oddity, standing out amongst her bright pink outfit, so he had to assume there was a reason. A relation to her Stand seemed as good a reason as any.
Todoroki sent out a blast of ice towards them, forcing them to back away from the bomb. He then constructed an ice wall between the two sides of the room, curtaining the girls off from their objective.
The ice wall steadily began to melt in a circular pattern, towards the middle. Hirose's water Quirk? Yes, a bit of water was starting to spray through the hole forming. Todoroki topped it back up with another wave of ice, patching the hole. His teeth were chattering. Dammit all, he'd expended too much effort making the ice in all the doorways, and now he was steadily overcooling. The walls hadn't even been effective to begin with, they'd been completely bypassed.
"K-kaminari, I h-have an idea. C-come here." Damn the ice starting to form on him, he was having trouble getting the words out.
"Uh, sure man? What's up?" As the boy walked over to him, Shouto grabbed his shoulder, and pushed him in front of the ice wall, where the cracks were appearing in greater concentration. The water spraying through started getting on the boy, wetting his clothes.
"W-what the hell, man?!"
"She can't see that you're getting the water on you, with that wall in the way, and her own attack obscuring the holes. She wouldn't normally aim a stream of water at you, knowing your Quirk. This is your best chance to catch her off guard."
"Oh... Oh, yeah!" Kaminari flashed him a grin and a thumbs up.
The last of the wall's integrity broke down, and the water stream carried straight into the boy before Hirose could stop. Electricity arced up through the water and into the girl sending it out.
"Yasuho, are you alright?" Asui asked her companion, but there was no response. One down.
The frog girl leapt through the hole, and began to jump around the walls, probably trying to get an angle where she could leap onto the bomb. Shouto wasn't about to let that happen, retreating to stand by it, ready to freeze her if she came close. She soon gave up on the method, and focused instead on aiming for the Kaminari. She kicked him in the back, and lashed him in the gut with her tongue, pinballing around the room and keeping her attacks brief. Without a long enough contact, Kaminari wasn't able to shock her. She just kept wearing at him.
Shouto watched, content to let it happen. He'd been banking on them being slowed by the obstacles he'd placed throughout the buildings, so that he could recuperate his strength. Now he resorted to taking Asui's focus on his partner as an opportunity for a respite, running a bit of heat through his body with the use of his left side.
Kaminari, without any method of countering Asui's quick strikes, was clearly starting to falter. His only recourse was to try and time it, and match his electrical output with her attack before she landed it. But his unimpressive level of mental alacrity was on display for everyone- he was completely incapable of keeping up with the girl. She switched up her timing, and purposefully missed strikes, following up with actual attacks.
Finally, his partner crashed to the ground. At some point in the battle, he'd evidently run too much electricity through his body, because he had started to stumble around and mumble in confusion.
Asui turned to regard him, sweat trickling down her brow, and breath coming out in huffs.
"You already know you can't." Shouto said.
She leapt across the room anyway, bouncing off a wall and ricocheting towards him. But he'd had enough time to bring his temperature back within acceptable ranges, and another, smaller wall of ice sprang up between them, which the girl crashed into. He stepped around it, as he hadn't made this one large enough to section off parts of the room, and sent a wave of ice straight for her, catching her legs as she tried to jump away.
When he put the capture tape on her, the end of the round was announced, and he began the task of melting all the ice he'd placed.
"I made too many assumptions about how the hero team would attack, and didn't consider every possibility. Also, I tired myself out before starting the fight. I should have reserved more of my energy."
"No, even if it didn't work out, I think you made the right decisions." Tenya and Todoroki both looked at Yaoyorozu, a bit surprised she said that. "You ultimately can't account for every possibility. You bet on the most likely, and it didn't pan out. That doesn't mean it wasn't the best course of action given the situation. Besides, you made consistently good calls throughout the match. Cordoning off the heroes, placing Kaminari into the path of Hirose's stream, and protecting the bomb while letting him fight Asui as you recovered. Especially that last one. Most would have charged into the fray and placed their whole team in jeopardy. You kept a level head."
"A good analysis, Young Yaoyorozu! If I can offer this bit of advice: Never let perfect become the enemy of good! Todoroki's first choice didn't pan out, but he adapted to the situation!"
Tenya nodded to himself. He hadn't really considered that. In fact, all of his advice in the last few rounds had been aimed towards perfecting the various strategies displayed, rather than finding something that simply worked. When it was down to the wire, he wasn't sure method would hold up. Yaoyorozu was really ahead of him, wasn't she... Tenya had to admit, he was impressed.