Making Up for Inexperience
Hello everyone and welcome to the latest, and one of the shorter, chapters of Hailstorm Volume 2! We got Class 1A going up against Class 1B and their first match is getting off to an interesting start. So as always I'd like to give a shout out to my fellow readers for supporting the story up to this point. Now then, since we've no review questions to answer, let's dive on in!
U.A.: Training Field Gamma
"Let's do this Shishida!" Exclaimed the voice of Kosei as said beast student roared in response.
"You got it-," he exclaimed before suddenly stopping and dropping his arms as if he was in a trance. Clay couldn't help the smile that formed under his mask at the sudden turn of events. Shishida had just gotten brainwashed by Shinso's quirk, and the reason being, was that he thought he was answering Kosei. 'It really is a tricky piece of new equipment you got there,' mused Clay as he thought back to what he'd heard about Shinso's support gear, Persona Chords.
As it turned out, Shinso's quirk loses its effectiveness if it's put through something like an electronic speaker, and anyone who recognizes the brainwasher's voice would know not to answer, either. So to kill two birds with one stone, Shinso had Hajime design him a mask with adjustable plates that alter the acoustics of his voice by varying the resonance. The result was a voice modulating device that changes the tone of his voice into that of another person, which in this case, was their opponent's. And while it was a good start for Shinso's first battle, the next bit is where he hit a something of a snag.
The brainwasher moved to use the binding cloth around his neck, but Kosei was quicker on the draw, bringing his hands together and firing out another air prison which trapped Shinso. 'And there's the one issue we'd knew would be a problem,' thought Clay, 'he's not been in a lot of combat, so he isn't used to just how fast things can happen.'
A Few Weeks Ago: U.A. Gym
"What seems to be the issue, Uncle-huh," said Clay as he walked into the gym to find not only Aizawa there, but Shinso as well. Though what really took the cloud user by surprise was the binding cloth wrapped around Shinso's neck.
"Uncle?" Questioned Shinso as he glanced at Aizawa who paid him no mind as he spoke to Clay.
"Glad you could make it," he said, "I know you're familiar with Shinso here, to a degree, so you'll understand why I called you out here."
"I imagine you need me to help him in some capacity," said Clay, "Though you've yet to fully explain why he's here and wearing a binding cloth that looks eerily similar to yours in the first place."
"To put it simply, Shinso here wants to join the Hero Course," explained Aizawa, "so I've been training him and helping him build his strength. A quirk like his could prove very useful in the heroing profession, but due to U.A.'s testing policies-."
"I've heard the spiel before," said Clay, "but if I recall, you and the other teachers have a lot of freedom when it comes to conducting your classes and who you teach. Don't think I've forgotten about your threat to expel some folks, like Midoriya, on the first day."
"A decision, I'll remind you, I changed and not just because you stood up for him," said Aizawa, "and now I've decided to help another student with hero potential reach his goal."
"Something I'm quite grateful for," added Shinso before turning to Clay, "though don't feel pressured to help me out just because your sensei is asking."
"Well the part we haven't gotten too yet is what exactly you need me for," Clay pointed out, "I'm willing to help but I'd rather know what I'm getting into first."
"To put it simply, I'll need you to spar with Shinso," explained Aizawa, "he and I have sparred together a number of times now, but we need to change it up every so often to ensure he's ready for any type of situation. I chose you to be his new sparring partner because you actually have some experience fighting against binding cloths."
"Mostly it was you slinging me around with them," said Clay, "but I'll admit, it does sound interesting to take on someone who's less familiar with your signature weapon. Alright then, I guess I'll help out for a little bit anyway."
"You have my thanks," said Shinso as he took a fighting stance and loosened the binding cloth around his neck.
"And just to make sure," said Clay as he set his stuff to the side and lowered his stance with his left arm extended while his right was held up near his face, "am I allowed to use my quirk for this first one?"
"Use only your hand-to-hand training for the moment," said Aizawa, "I want Shinso to get a grasp on where he is in comparison to the rest of the hero course."
"Works for me," said Clay while popping his neck for the fun of it. The two U.A. students stared each other down for a few moments then, waiting for the other one to make a move. It turned out to be Clay who moved first this time as he stepped to the right and was about to readjust his footing when Shinso struck by sending out the binding cloth. The cloud wielder kept moving as this happened, managing to avoid getting his whole body wrapped up but not his left arm as the cloth found its way around his limb.
Clay reacted immediately and grabbed the cloth with both hands, yanking it back and to the left with all of his strength. This wound up pulling Shinso off balance as he hadn't had time to properly set himself before reeling the cloth back in. "A good lesson when it comes to the binding cloth," said Clay as he moved to close the distance between the two, "be in the process of pulling back before it even finishes wrapping around the opponent!" He threw a left hook then, aiming for Shinso's head.
The brainwasher managed to raise his right arm in time to block the blow before retaliating with a quick left jab aimed Clay's face. The cloud user dodged to the left, though, maneuvering around behind him before using his arm to pull Shinso off balance and throw him onto the floor with a one-armed hip throw. Shinso quickly recovered and yanked on the cloth again as it was still wrapped around Clay's arm, pulling the 1A student towards him. But Clay regained his balance quickly and actually used the momentum to aid him in jumping over the crouching student while catching some of the cloth around his neck.
As Clay rolled back up, he yanked with both hands once again before Shinso could fully stand and turn around, causing him to stumble forward once again as the cloud wielder hit him in the side with a spinning back kick, knocking him all the way to the floor. Clay quickly undid the cloth around his left arm before looping it around Shinso's neck and pressing his foot against his back, stretching the carbon fiber alloy capture weapon taut as the brainwash quirk user struggled against it. "Alright, that's enough Clay," said Aizawa, prompting the 1A student to release his opponent who fell to his hands and knees.
"You've gained quite a bit of strength in such a short time," observed Clay as he held his hand out and helped Shinso up off the floor, "though it's clear you're still on the more basic techniques with that cloth."
"I knew it could be used against me if I wasn't careful," said Shinso as he rubbed his neck a little, "but even I hadn't expected it to that extent. Aizawa really did train you before you entered U.A., didn't he?"
"I ensured he knew better than to rely solely on his quirk, even if it is extremely versatile," said Aizawa, "a good pro hero has a myriad of tricks up their sleeves, especially for situations which would be disadvantageous to them."
"I remember," said Shinso as he rolled his cloth back around his neck, "I just hadn't realized Clay could be so fast without his quirk. He also read my moves and reacted to what was going on while I was scrambling just to keep myself balanced."
"Call it a difference in experience," said Clay with a shrug, "whether we wanted them or not, Class 1A has wound up in a lot of fights and a lot of hardcore tests, more than a couple being life or death situations. You learn to think quick and act even quicker to avoid something nasty happening."
"I guess there are some things you just can't learn in training," admitted Shinso, "though I'm still grateful to you for taking the time to help your sensei train me. By the way, why were you referring to him as 'Uncle', earlier."
"If you must know, this occasionally rebellious youth is my nephew," explained Aizawa in his usual deadpan manner, "he got his knack for talking back to me from my sister."
"And before you ask, no, I have no way of convincing him to give me hints on school assignments," said Clay, "so just remember: joining the Hero Course also means putting up with this ray of sunshine."
"I'll keep that in mind," said Shinso, whose neutral expression made it impossible to tell whether or not he thought the joke was funny. That would turn out to be the first of a number of training sessions that Clay helped him out on.
End Flashback
'Now that it's obvious he can't keep up,' thought Clay, 'they'll need to figure out a better way to utilize his quirk.' And that wasn't the only problem being faced by Tsuyu's team. After Shinso's airbox imprisonment, Kosei managed to knock Shishida on the head hard enough to wake him up from the hypnosis, though he was captured and yanked away by the quick-thinking frog girl who'd managed to recover from the earlier attack on her. She ran off with the 1B student in tow while Shishida attempted to give chase.
Kirishima, after breaking Koda out of his air prison, attempted to intervene but both he and the anivoice user missed their opponent who shrank to human size to slip past them before going back into beast mode. He grabbed and threw Kirishima out towards Shiozaki before making off with Koda. The result was Class 1B's team taking a two to one lead as Class 1A regrouped with only Shinso, Kaminari and Tsuyu remaining. "This isn't looking good," noted Slade, "Tsuyu's plan relied too much on Shinso being the same speed as the rest of them."
"They're still even when it comes to how many people are left," said Clay, "but the main question is what do they do about the power difference?"
"I think Tsuyu's already working on that," said Slade as he noted her pulling down her sleeve on the monitor, "and if a certain walking battery charger remembers how his equipment works, they'll be able to confuse the enemy while tracking them down."
"Oh yeah," said Clay, "didn't he brag about that little feature when he first got his new equipment and costume upgrades?"
"Thankfully, it looks like Tsuyu remembers it," noted Slade as the 1A team began their counterattack by running straight towards where Shishida, Ibara and the fourth member of the 1B team known as Hiryu Rin were hiding. Glancing at the 1B team, the beast quirk user looked more than a little confused as he began smelling not one but three Asui's approaching their position. 'Another frog trait Tsuyu has is secreting a type of toxic mucus, though it mostly just stings,' recalled Clay, 'and in this case, it more than serves as a way to confuse Shishida's acute sense of smell when it's covering all three of them.' Though 1B had their own counter for that as Shiozaki began extending her vine hair out several yards into the pipework once again.
It didn't take her long to catch one of them as she quickly reeled the unfortunate captive in. It turned out to be Kaminari who'd been using the tracking device in a disk he'd stuck to Shishida on accident in order to find them. Naturally, Shiozaki wouldn't give him the chance to use his quirk and quickly wrapped her vines around him, enclosing him in a thorny sphere as he tried to get a single shot off at Shishida. Unfortunately, Hiryu reacted too quickly and shot the disk off the beast man before he could be electrocuted. Hiryu then told Shiozaki to reset her vines after capturing Kaminari to which she answered, and got brainwashed?
"Hey, that wasn't me!" Exclaimed the real Hiryu as they looked around for the source of the second voice. As it turned out, the brainwasher had cleverly hidden himself from sight while Kaminari was acting as a distraction so that he could use his quirk at the opportune moment. Even better, thanks to how the surroundings echoed, it was impossible for even Shishida to locate him by sound alone. And that's when Hiryu made the biggest mistake of all, he began to panic.
He tried asking Shishida if he could locate anyone but received no response as the beast boy ran off towards an opening in the pipes, ignoring his teammate's calls in fear that he'd accidentally be answering to Shinso. That was all the time Tsuyu needed to wrap her tongue around Ibara and yank her away before the scale quirk user could wake her up. This left him alone for Tsuyu to deal with as any call he made to Shishida was ignored, resulting in a complete communication's break down. As for Shinso, he readied himself to face the beast quirk wielder who was smashing through several of the pipes to get to him.
Unlike last time, he acted quickly as soon as Shishida was in range and wrapped his binding cloth around a nearby pipe above his opponent's head and pulled. There was enough strength in his arms to dislodge the metal structure and slam it right onto the beast boy's head. It was enough to stun him for a moment, but it also succeeded in pissing him off as he lumbered towards Shinso, readying to throw a punch as the voice of Hiryu called out for him to watch out. As before, Shishida ignored it.
This time, however, it was too his detriment as the one who'd been speaking was actually Hiryu. And he was being used as a projectile by Asui who flung him into the back of Shishida's head with as much force as she could muster, knocking the two students out as she landed. "And it's knockout by frog girl!" Cheered Clay with a quick fist pump.
"Tsuyu really has gotten better at planning out strategies," complimented Slade, "and Shinso's time with Aizawa seems to be paying off too. We'll have to watch out for him from now on."
"No kidding," agreed Clay as they glanced at a now angry Vlad who, begrudgingly, declared Class 1A the winner of the first match. The rest of the students cheered at the victory as Tsuyu's team exited. Despite the victory, however, only Kaminari seemed completely happy with the outcome. The rest of the class quickly found out why as Aizawa stepped up and spoke to them.
"Now, each of you tell me what you could have done differently or better," asked their Sensei.
"I realized my quirk isn't all that useful if I'm not trying to brawl with my opponent," began Kirishima while removing his headgear, "I would've been dead the moment Shiozaki caught me if this had been the real thing."
"I need give more detailed instructions to the bugs in a shorter span of time," continued Koda, also listing his own mistakes from the match.
"I did great, didn't I?!" Exclaimed Kaminari with two thumbs up, "feel free to go ahead and love me!" 'Just what we need,' thought Slade with a frown, 'another Aoyama, and one who ain't learning jack at the moment.'
"We lost Koda and Kirishima during the match," said Asui with a slightly haunted look in her eyes, "I wish we could've won the match without losing anyone, but we were all over the place."
"My mistake was with the binding cloth," said Shinso, "I was too slow and couldn't even use a tenth of what I'd learned beforehand. It's frustrating."
"You wouldn't have to work hard if you could do it right away," Aizawa pointed out, "it took me six years to master my own binding cloth. So keep that frustration in mind as you move on." He received an affirmative in reply to that.
"The ones who are the most frustrated are the same ones who went on the Shie Hassaikai raid with us," noted Slade, "well except for Shinso. Guess it's not so surprising, that fight had too many close calls."
"Among other happenings," said Clay as an image of the deceased Knighteye flashed through his mind.
"Listen up," said Aizawa as he looked towards the red-haired boy, "Kirishima, as you no doubt noticed, your focus should be setting up your opponents for a head on fight. Koda, it's exactly what you said, but also be sure to increase your accuracy with controlling all animals. Since you're not a frontline fighter, you should think about your opponent's weakness. And Kaminari."
He fixed the blond boy with a glare which made him stop his little celebration. "You weren't taking the fight seriously at the start. Do your teammates have to get beaten before you use your full strength? Asui, think more about how to cover for a mistake quickly instead of focusing on the mistake itself. Use what you learned today in your training from now on, that's all."
He was met with a chorus of 'Yes sirs' as he walked back over to where the other teachers were. In the meantime, Vlad was busy giving the business to his students as he made them point out their own mistakes. Clay stopped paying attention as soon as Monoma started speaking about how awesome it was going to be having Shinso for a teammate. "After seeing all that, we'd best come up with plans of our own," said Clay to Slade, "I'll be over by my group if you need me."
"Right," was all Slade had to say to that as he seemed to be deep in thought.
"Now, let's decide on a plan of action!" Exclaimed Iida as Clay joined the group sitting on the ground. It consisted of him, Iida, Ojiro, Shoji and Todoroki. A rather strong group by any standard, but after seeing what nearly happened with Asui's group, none of them wanted to take any chances in terms of surprises from Class 1B.
"We could use Todoroki as a focal point," suggested Shoji as the planning began, "he has the most offensive power and it's long range."
"And we can follow up with Iida as our trump card if need be," said Ojiro with a hand on his chin.
"Guess you'll need me and Shoji scouting around to find the enemy," said Clay, "there are plenty of places to hide in that pipework."
"We'll also need to think of a way around Shinso's quirk as he'll be against us in the upcoming match," said Iida.
"I got something of a solution for that," said Clay as he produced and shaped some of his clouds, "I've been practicing my precision control, so at the very least we can give each other signals with this and the use of sign language."
"Well none of us are experts on that," said Ojiro, "but even basic signals should work pretty well."
"And before I forget, there's something I should mention about my Recipro," said Iida. Their conversation went on like this for another few minutes until Vlad spoke up, very loudly.
"Teams in the second match," announced the 1B Teacher, "GET READY!" 'We're right here,' thought Clay as he rubbed his ear a bit, 'no need to rupture any ear drums.' Without further ado, the second match got underway as the 1A team of Momo, Hagakure, Tokoyami, Aoyama and Shinso entered the training ground. Her team exchanged some friendly banter along the way with Kendo's team, although something was bugging Clay.
There were supposed to be two five on five matches, and one person from their class was missing. Oh no, they couldn't have decided to pull that one now on this particular team, could they? "Go Kendo team! Start the second match!" Yelled Vlad as the signal to begin. Clay found his fears confirmed as the viewscreens came on, each one focusing on a different team, one of which had a student who didn't belong.
"Alright Tokoyami," said Momo as she and the rest of the team were heading towards the center of the training ground, "please scout ahead as planned."
"Roger," answered the bird boy as he summoned dark shadow from his body. The living shadow reached out, crawling and weaving its way through the pipework as it searched for any sign of movement. Tokoyami had been improving the range of it, even in the sunlight. After only a minute, he received confirmation that dark shadow had located Kendo's team. "Dark Shadow has found them, underneath that chimney stack over there."
He indicated three white chimneys which stood a couple hundred feet in the air with red lines painted around them. Though their advance would be halted by an unexpected surprise as a piece of pipework fell down in front of them, kicking up a bit of dust. "Ya know the one downside of using dark shadow for reconnaissance," said an all too familiar voice for Momo, "he makes a line leading all the way back to his wielder."
"No," said Momo as she looked up among the pipes to see a tall figure sitting down on one of the higher ones, "you were picked out as the traitor for this?"
"Afraid so, Momo," said Slade as he stood up and prepped his gear for combat, "so you'd best be ready, because I don't plan on playing nice." And he'd soon prove that statement true.
Class 1A has managed to snatch victory from the jaws of potential defeat in the first round, but what will they do now that one of their own is an opponent? And one's gotta wonder how Momo is taking this. Well while we do that, feel free to leave a comment or review about what you liked/disliked or if you've got any neat ideas for future chapters. Be sure to stop in next time as Momo struggles against both Kendo's strategy and the boy she likes. 'Til then.
