Chapter 3: Battle Trail Part 2
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"Now for match two, we will have Team I as the heroes and Team G as the villains. Could the mentioned teams please follow me. We will be moving the matches to a separate building to conduct further trials." All Might called out and walked to the door which prompted the two teams to follow.
"Come on, Mineta. Let's show our manliness to the rest of the class and win this." A spikey red head spoke loudly to the short kid in the purple costume while clashing his fists together, which looked similar to jagged rock. From this, Ichigo concluded that the red head was Eijiro Kirishima and from the other team, he could tell that the guy with the tail was Masirao Ojiro while the invisible girl was Tooru Hagakure.
Ichigo's scowl deepened while several of the other students looked at Mineta with various degrees of shock and disgust when he replied to Kirishima. "Yeah, maybe I'll be able to touch Hagakure's boobs during the match." With a strained smile, Kirishima led Mineta out of the monitoring room. Team I quickly followed, but Ichigo could see Hagakure staying a fair distance from the pervert.
Several minutes passed with hushed conversation between teammates when All Might returned. At the 5-minute point, All Might announced the start of the match. At the behest of Momo; seeing as after Hagakure removed her gloves and shoes, they were unable to see what she was doing; All Might swapped half of the cameras to observe Infra-Red light. With this, the class continued to watch the trail, though it was rather short.
When the heroes reached the room holding the bomb, Ojiro attacked both members of Team G. With his quirk and his training in martial arts, he was easily able to force both away from the bomb. While Ojiro was holding back the villains, Hagakure quietly moved toward the bomb and ended the trail by touching it.
The third match's participants were announced immediately after they returned. "For match three, the following teams will be battling each other. For the heroes, we have Team F while Team J will be the villains. The same rules as for the former matches still apply, once the villains enter the building, you will have 5 minutes to strategize."
When the test started, Shouji turned several of his arm digits into ears to try and hear when his opponents would arrive. After several minutes, Kaminari and Kyoka appeared in the room holding the bomb and attacked the heroes. Sero went to confront Kaminari while Shouji held off Kyoka. For nearly three minutes, Shouji was able to get the upper hand after Kyoka became tired and was able to capture her. The loss of his partner distracted Kaminari long enough for Sero to wrap him in the tape shot from his elbows, capturing him as well and allowing for the villains to win.
"And the match goes to the villain team. If any of you require healing, please head towards Recovery Girl and head back here when you are done. If not, please come back to the monitoring room so we can evaluate your performances and start the next match." All Might called over the intercoms. When the students arrived, the evaluation passed quickly, and Team H was chosen as the heroes and Team E as the villains.
This battle was even shorter than the previous. Kouji was able to summon a group of rats which he sent ahead of himself and Mina to distract the hero team while they followed at a distance. The shock of seeing a group of at least 30 large and filthy rats rushing towards them, made Aoyama shriek in fear and faint, forcing Tsuyu to pick him up with her tongue and exit the building. With her partner out of commission, Tsuyu found an area out of sight from the villains, set him down there and continued the match. She scaled the side of the building and entered through one of the windows on the top floor. She found the bomb easily and ended the match by touching it. This however shocked both Mina and Kouji as to how they lost.
When the two teams finally returned with an awake Aoyama, All Might finally announced the final battle for the day. "Now for the fifth and final battle for the day, we have Team B acting as the heroes and Team C as the villains. Teams, head over to the battle site and prepare for your turns at combat. Remember, you will have five minutes to prepare your strategies.
Ichigo and Momo make their way towards the room holding the bomb. Once they reach the bomb Ichigo breaks the silence that persisted throughout their walk. "Ok, so you can just call me Ichigo and my quirk is Fullbring. Its allows me to manipulate energy to enhance my physical capabilities and by emitting it, I can do this." Ichigo then activates his quirk, where a black flame-like energy then covers his body, taking the shape of a shihakusho. In his right hand, a black sword formed from the energy that made up the shihakusho. "I'm a pretty good fighter and am at my best when improvising in a fight."
"Yes. Once again, my name is Momo Yaoyorozu. My quirk is known as Creation. It allows me to create any non-living substance as long as I know the molecular structure of whatever I'm creating." Momo responded.
"Do you have any idea on what the quirks are of those two. I'm guessing that the guy with the red and white hair has some sort of ice quirk, but I have no clue on what the other one's is other than a bird mutation."
"Todoroki-san's quirk is Fire and Ice. He can generate ice from his right side and fire from his left, though I have not seen him use his fire. He seems to be well trained in using it and since he is the son of the number 2 Hero, Endevor, I do believe he has been trained for years at this point. Tokoyami-san's quirk is known as Dark Shadow. A shadow-like being comes out of his body from his navel, though it remains connected to him. From what I've examined, the being is sentient and has its own personality." Momo answered.
"So, both are long range fighters. I could hold them off while you prepare what you need to inside to take them down, or if we can't come up with a plan, we could go at them face-to-face."
"I do have a plan that could allow us to win this battle, but I will require some time to prepare it. I will also require as little damage to this floor of the building."
"Sure, I'll hold them on the lower floors for as long as possible. Just tell me what you're planning and how long you need to finish the preparations."
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Time skip (Start of the battle)
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"All right teams B and C, your preparation time is at an end. The battle trail begins in 3…2…1… START." All Might calls over the intercom. The moment he finished, the entire building, both inside and out, was frozen over, covered by a thin layer of ice. Ichigo's and Momo's feet were frozen to the ground, though Ichigo easily broke them free.
"I did not expect Todoroki-san to be this powerful. To be able to freeze this entire building in this short a time." Momo said with a tone of awe and fear at the power displayed by Shoto Todoroki.
"We'll continue with the plan. Make something for yourself to keep warm, I'll hold them on the first floor while you finish the preparations. Call me over the radio when you're done." Ichigo spoke, receiving a nod in confirmation from Momo.
Quickly running to the first floor, Ichigo found his opponents leisurely making their way to the stairs, obviously thinking that Momo and himself were unable to retaliate. Slowing down to a slow walk, Ichigo approached his opponents and dissipated his sword. He could see the moment they noticed him. Both froze mid stride and to Ichigo's amusement, he could see the genuine shock on Todoroki's face, though his face quickly shifted back to a look of indifference.
Without saying a word, Ichigo continued his forward stride, increasing his pace every step until he reached running speed. Along his path towards Todoroki and Tokoyami, he had to dodge ice spikes sprouting from the ground and the claws of Dark Shadow. At a distance of 5 meters from his opponents, Ichigo focused his spiritual energy to his legs and doubled his speed. In the blink of the eye, Ichigo reached Todoroki and Tokoyami, and much to theirs and the spectators surprise, he grabbed both by their faces and carried them out of the building as he ran.
Once outside, they finally came back to their senses and retaliated. Todoroki got his foot on the ground and froze the entire area's floor in smooth ice, while Tokoyami lashed out with a fist to his side and Dark Shadow came at his back, claws poised to carve out gashes into his flesh. Ichigo spun and knocked away Dark Shadow's claw with Tokoyami himself and threw him some distance away. Continuing his spin, Todoroki followed on a collision course with the downed Tokoyami. The collision however never happened as Todoroki was able to make contact with the ground and form an ice ramp behind him.
Once both members of Team B were back on their feet, opened his mouth to speak. "If you can't even defend yourselves against me now, this is going to be a mind numbingly boring fight. I might as well end this now if you aren't going to come at me with everything you've got."
Shoto's expression went dark, and he shot an icy glare towards Ichigo. Along with his rising anger, he also increased the intensity of his quirk and Ichigo could see how the drop in temperature around his right side effected the air. "Don't you dare underestimate me." Shoto spoke in a near growl.
Fumikage however, voiced his own thoughts in a calm but firm voice, "I agree. Dark Shadow and I aren't so easily defeated. You would do best as to not assume us to be weak." To his side, Dark Shadow actually growled while brandishing his claws.
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In the monitoring room
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"Holy shit." Kaminari breathed out.
"That was pretty awesome." Jirou spoke up next to him.
From the other side of the room, Iida spoke as well. "Indeed. To be able to carry the weight of a person on each arm in such a manner is truly a display of great physical prowess."
From somewhere else in the room, Tsuyu Asui, with a finger on her chin, announced her thoughts to the class. "Though, he seems to be intentionally antagonising them."
"Indeed, young Asui. Mr Kurosaki seems to be using a phycological attack that is very common for villains to use. They taunt their opponents into more likely to make rash decisions which they take advantage of. So, I believe young Kurosaki is trying to force young Todoroki and young Tokoyami to get angry and make mistakes that he could take advantage of in order to defeat them." All Might answered.
"But what's Yaomomo doing. All I've seen her do, is looking through that book she has with her and creating some small pebbles." Mina spoke up in a confused tone. "Though I can't really make out what they are."
"I can't say I know. We will just have to wait and see what young Yaoyorozu will do when she is finished."
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With Ichigo, Todoroki and Tokoyami
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As he watched his opponents get ready, Ichigo reformed the black blade in his right hand. He saw Todoroki lift his right foot from the ground, shift his weight forward and slammed his foot back on the ground. Instantly, spikes of ice grew from the earth, each spike being larger than the previous.
Ichigo waited until the spikes of ice to be merely a meter away from him. Then he acted. He brought his sword forward, slicing the ice in half and then taking a step back and repeating the action for another 3 times where he then jumped to the side. He sprang forward, intending on rushing the ice user but had to defend his side when a black claw attempted to flank him. He stared to his right, right back into the bright yellow eyes of Dark Shadow.
"Do not forget about us. You are not just facing Todoroki-san alone. Dark Shadow and I are your opponents as well." Tokoyami spoke in his ever-calm voice, but Ichigo could detect a hint of annoyance hidden in his voice.
Ichigo swung his blade, knocking back Dark Shadow and before both could recover, Ichigo ran up to Tokoyami, punched him in the stomach hard enough to knocking the air out of him and kicking him away with enough force to have him rolling for a few meters. He heard the footsteps of Todoroki running to his blind spot. He focused energy to his legs and jumped out of the way of another spike of ice heading in his direction. While Tokoyami remained down, Ichigo shifted his attention towards Todoroki.
Side to side jumps while moving forward kept Ichigo out of reach of the attacks launched by Todoroki. When within range of attack, he swung his sword but not intending to be hit, Todoroki swiped his right hand across, forming a shield of ice between the two. Not deterred by the shield, Ichigo merely went around the shield on Todoroki's left-hand side, and as he also refused to use that side, it was also his weak point. With a swift attack, he found a fist colliding with his cheek, landing on his back with a small grunt of pain.
"Is this all the son of the number 2 Hero is capable of? Are you truly so weak that you can't even get me to work up a sweat. I truly expected more. You are disappointing." Ichigo spoke to the downed dual quirk user. He then turned to the bird headed teen. "And then there's you. You speak as if you have the capabilities of actually standing up against me but there you are, ass on the ground and not having put even a scratch on me."
As they stood up, both Tokoyami and Todoroki growled in frustration and anger respectively.
"You certainly are powerful, but do not presume us to be so easily defeated. Even though you seem to be better trained than myself, you are still outnumbered." Tokoyami spoke. He got into a ready stance and Dark Shadow made his way out of his belly, appearing before him ready to attack.
Todoroki initiated the bout again with a wall of ice that trying to freeze Ichigo in place. Jumping to the side, Ichigo immediately had to protect his left from a set of claw curtesy of Dark Shadow but didn't expect Tokoyami to come in for close combat, striking him from the right, hitting him across the cheek. Ichigo was thrown back and was caught by the leg by another blast of ice, trapping him in place.
Ichigo struck the ice with his blade, freeing his leg but when he looked up, he saw Dark Shadow coming from his left and a wall of ice from his right barely a second away from hitting him. In his panic, Ichigo subconsciously forced a considerable amount of energy to the soles of his feet and in a buzz of static, he was gone just in time for Dark Shadow to make a swipe at the space he had been in, crashing into the ice.
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Todoroki POV
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This trail was finally going the way he wanted it to go. Ichigo was in the perfect position to be defeated. He was stuck in place by some ice holding his leg and he hadn't even noticed that they had once again came in for the attack until the very last moment. He could feel the smirk crawling its way onto his face seeing the person who had insulted him earlier. Ichigo would regret comparing him to his father.
He heard a buzz in his ear but dismissed it as nothing. He couldn't wait to see the Kurosaki defeated, especially after how high and mighty he acted. But after the spray of ice and dust from his and Tokoyami's attacks cleared, the smirk fell from his face, being replaced by confusion.
At the epicentre of the collision was… nothing. The ice was clearly broken by the claws of Dark Shadow. Tokoyami stood several meters back, appearing just as confused as he was. But the source of his confusion was the complete absence of his target, Ichigo Kurosaki.
He shifted his gaze, looking both left and right. He saw nothing. It was like he just disappeared. He was brought out of his thoughts by the sound of retching coming from behind him. He turned and found his eyes grow wide when he saw Ichigo. He was at least 20 meters behind him, on his knees and looking like he had just come of a rollercoaster while having motion sickness.
'How did he get behind me? He was in front of me, pinched between both Tokoyami-san's and my attacks. He could barely move. Yet here he is, and I didn't even see him move. What did he do?' His thoughts ran rampant, with no conclusion. "What did you do Kurosaki?" He questioned but receiving no answer had his anger flared. "How did you get behind me without me noticing?" He questioned again but felt a prick on his upper right tricep and soon felt his world grow dark.
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Monitoring Room
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"The fuck was that?!" Bakugou roared from the back of the room.
"Please mind your language, young Bakugou. But I do have to agree with you, I did not know young Kurosaki had a second Teleportation quirk. Though from the look of it, it seems even he did not know this. His reaction to the sudden shift in position shows his inexperience in its usage and this is most likely his first time using it." All Might spoke up and relaying his opinion to the class.
"But if he is able to teleport and leaves no indication of the teleportation, such as a portal, he would be quite the formidable opponent for any villain." Iida said.
"That was kinda awesome. Like he was there one moment then just gone in an instant." Mina cheered along with a set of floating clothes, bouncing in place.
"Yes, Teleportation quirks are rare and formidable, especially when the user is trained in its use."
They continued to watch and saw the stoic expression on Todoroki's face break but were shocked when he suddenly flinched in pain and reached for his right arm. Before he could do much, he suddenly tipped forward and fell on his face.
"…"
"…"
"…"
"The fuck…?" questioned the explosive teen.
"What… what just happened?" asked Mineta. "Why did he just collapse like that?"
After a few seconds, Asui answered everyone's questions. "Look at the camera recording Momo."
"I… is that a sniper?" came the voice of Kaminari.
"Did she actually shoot Todoroki-san?" asked Ochako.
"I believe that young Yaoyorozu has hit young Todoroki with a tranquilizer. This must be what she was researching earlier." All Might replied.
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With Ichigo and Tokoyami
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Tokoyami froze in place when he saw Todoroki go down. Suddenly he remembered that Ichigo was not their only opponent. He looked up towards the building containing the bomb but did not see the position of Momo. He still did not find her by the time he heard the bang of gun go off and fortunately for him Dark Shadow did find her. Dark Shadow moved between him and Momo, stopping the bullet from hitting him.
As Dark Shadow continued to block a successive round of fire, Ichigo was able to regain a level of coherency and managed to get to his feet. He took a couple of deep breaths, still feeling some pressure on his stomach but could at least face of against one opponent with the help of backup. Without letting Tokoyami notice his movement, Ichigo moved behind him, pulled out the capture tape and wrapping it around his wrists and ending the match.
"And that is the match. The winners are Team C." All Might announced over the speakers. Moments later a pair of robots came their direction carrying a stretcher. They stopped next to the downed Todoroki and once he was secured on the stretcher, he was wheeled of to the infirmary. "Students, please report back to the monitoring room so that we may conclude today's activities."
During this time, Momo had reached his position with a smile on her face that lit up the area surrounding her with sparkles. He couldn't help but smile in return at seeing the expression of pure joy on her face.
"You're quite the marksman. Didn't expect you to be that accurate." Ichigo complimented the bubbly girl. "And how'd you get the tranquilizer to act that fast?"
Momo walked closer until she reached Ichigo before she began speaking. "I've had training in multiple disciplines, one of which is archery. Though I am not a master in this practice, I do believe that I am well versed in marksmanship. Though, the tranquilizer that I used was simple Propofol. Though it is fast acting, I believe this effect was enhanced by the battle increasing his blood flow as well as me being able to his him in the arm. With the injection point being so close to the brain, the effects occurred faster."
Before they could make a move towards the monitoring room, Ichigo moved to Tokoyami and apologized for what he had said during the trail. Tokoyami, accepting the apology, followed the two members of Team C to the monitoring room while making idle chatter amongst themselves. Momo and Tokoyami found that, even though he acts gruff, Ichigo was intelligent and rather considerate.
Soon, they reached the rest of their classmates and teacher.
"Welcome back students. This trail certainly was an interesting display of your abilities. You all did amazingly and embraced your roles of heroes and villains respectively. Though young Kurosaki, I was surprised to see that you have a teleportation quirk as well. It would certainly help to make you a great hero." All Might spoke boisterously.
Murmurs of agreement travelled through most of the members of his classroom, though before any could speak up, Ichigo made a statement. "Yeah, uhm All Might-sensei,…" he paused, scratching the back of his head, "I didn't teleport."
"What do you mean my boy?"
"It was not teleportation, just high-speed movement."
"Come on man, that was clearly teleportation, you were trapped in ice one moment and then you appeared behind Todoroki-san." Kaminari called out.
"Sir, to solve this, would it be possible for you to slow down the recording of that instance." Momo proposed.
Accepting the proposal, All Might returned to the recording and slowed it to be 100 times slower. They could see no evidence of high-speed movement, so he again slowed it to be 1000 times slower and immediately they noticed that a black blur moved between the starting and end point in 62 frames.
Everyone was shocked by the speed at which Ichigo could move. Doing the calculations in her mind, Momo's eyes grew wide one she finished and announced her findings, "You moved 1.5 times the speed of sound."
One could hear a pin drop in the room.
"That is quite the feat." All Might spoke, but he was too stunned to come up with anything further to say.
"I can certainly understand why you nearly lost your lunch when the technique ended. Though I wonder why there was no effect on the surrounding area." Momo questioned again. "Normally there would be a sonic boom when objects move at supersonic speeds."
Tokoyami chose that moment to give his observation. "I did notice that there was a buzz of static, similar to that of those pre-quirk televisions, when Kurosaki-san initiated the technique."
"Damn bro, to be able to move that fast, its pretty manly." Kirishima said as he moved next to Ichigo and throwing an arm over his shoulder, or at least tried to since Ichigo was taller than himself.
At the back of the class Bakugou gritted his teeth. He knew that at that moment he was outmatched in speed by Ichigo and from what he could see during the battle trail that he would be hard pressed to beat him in skill. He would not allow the orangette to be stronger than him.
"All right students, lets complete the criticization of the trail and announce the MVP."
Iida's hand shot up immediately, followed by a few others, though some of his classmates didn't bother to do this and merely called out that Ichigo should be the MVP.
"Yeah, the guy held of both of his opponents and had enough time for banter. He barely took any hits and even though it was accidental, was able to stun Todoroki-san enough for Yaomomo to take him out." Mina happily called out. "If that's not MVP material then I don't know what is."
"Hey, Yaomomo." Jirou called. Once she got the busty black heads attention, she continued. "What were you doing while he was busy."
"Yes well, Ichigo-san was not entirely sure whether he could defeat both Todoroki-san and Tokoyami-san so while he held their attention, I prepared traps that would incapacitate both with sleeping gas." Momo answered.
Mina and Hagakure then came on either side of Momo and Mina bumped her in the side with her elbow while wearing a sly smirk on her face. "So, you're on a first name basis already, huh. Must say, only two days passed and you two have a relationship on that level."
Momo reacted to Mina's teasing by blushing a bright crimson. "I- It's nothing like that. He informed me that he preferred to be called by his given name."
While the two girls continued to tease her, All Might concluded the class and let everyone home. On their way out of the building, Momo joined Ichigo out of the campus until she reached her driver.
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Inside one of the UA towers
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All Might watched as Ichigo exited the campus, later followed by his successor, Izuku Midoriya. He did not regret choosing Izuku as his successor, but he couldn't help but wonder what would have happened if Ichigo received his quirk. As the thought passed, he felt a shiver run down his spine. 'That boy would truly be a monster if that happened.' He dismissed the thought and continued his way to the board meeting. In his hand, he held a USB containing the recordings of the battle trails. 'I have to bring young Kurosaki's abilities to the attention of the other faculty members.'
CHAPTER END
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AN:
It's been a month. I'm finally back and ready to continue. I've been able to plan out a rough outline for the story to follow.
Please tell me what you think about the chapter. I don't really mind the negative comments, but I do hope that you will have some constructive criticism.
For Ichigo's behaviour during the battle, I wanted to make him similar to Grimmjow, but since this is just a training exercise, I toned down the bloodlust. I don't know if I represented him correctly, but this is what I came up with.
Note, Ichigo will not be acting this way throughout the story. This was only because he had to act like a villain.
Thank you for the favs and follows.