Lightning – My Hero Academia
Chapter 47: Element Of Surprise
"Grr, I hate having to sneak around like this." Yui muttered under her breath, just loud enough for her teammates to hear.
As soon as they were signaled to begin, Koko led Ako and Yui around to the side of the building. She identified a vent as an access point and used her bow, along with a hook-like arrow, to pry it open. From there, Yui hoisted Koko inside before following her in and Ako went in last.
Now the three of them were crawling through the ventilation system of the building, shuffling carefully so as not to make any noise as they worked towards the back room. As they neared the area where the hostages were being kept, Yui was beginning to get impatient, as they had no way of knowing how much time had already passed.
"It's not a glamorous option, but I doubt the captor team would start by looking up here. I'm hoping we can get a vantage point so we can see where they are." Koko said.
"We can't be wasting too much time trying to plan." Yui pointed out.
"I'm not going to lose because I don't know what I'm dealing with. Not this time," Koko said before stopping and holding her hand up. "I see them down below."
"What do you see?" Ako asked.
Koko crawled forward and then turned around, signaling for the two of them to move forward. Ako crawled up next to Yui so that all three of them could look down and see the hostages. Down below, they could see where the hostages were as well as who was guarding them.
"There's only 3 of them there. I see green hair, pink hair, and yellow hair." Yui whispered.
"Looks like Midoriya's staying with the hostages. That Bakugo guy must be out looking for us. He probably took that short kid with him." Ako reasoned.
"Midoriya is the green hair boy?" Yui asked.
"Yeah. I don't know the other two with him." Ako stated again.
"Well, there's a way to find out," Koko said. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone. She started typing. "These guys were all part of Class 1-A last year, right? It shouldn't be hard to look 'em up."
"Isn't that cheating?" Yui asked.
"If Mr. Aizawa wants to punish us for using every resource at our disposal then that's on him. I don't remember him ever saying 'no phones' in the list of rules he gave us." She pointed out.
"Well...I guess that's technically true." Ako hesitantly agreed. Koko glanced down at the other students again before pulling up the previous class roster.
"Alright, here we go. Green hair is Izuku Midoriya. He's registered as having some kind of strength-enhancing quirk. It's oddly nondescript, but it gives him something of a supercharge – he's fast, he's strong, and he's smart in a fight.
"Pink haired girl is Mina Ashido. Her quirk is...acid. She shoots corrosive liquid acid from her body. We'll have to be careful with her or she'll burn through our costumes and my equipment.
"The boy with them is Yuga Aoyama. Seems like he's not much of a threat. His quirk is shooting a laser out of that device around his midsection there. He doesn't look like much of a fighter though. One well-aimed sneak attack should be enough for him.
"Same goes for this dude with the purple balls on his head: Minoru Mineta. The balls are super sticky – that's his quirk. I'm guessing they'll try to trap us with them somehow, but as long as we're on guard, that's the only threat he'll pose.
"It's a different story for Katsuki Bakugo, our other missing captor. His quirk is all about explosions – apparently they come from his sweat? That's gross. But that makes him very dangerous; he'll get stronger the longer we drag out a fight with him, so we'll have to make it fast." Koko summarized.
"Nice going, Koko. Now that we know what we're dealing with, what do you suggest?" Ako asked.
"Actually, Yui gave me an idea earlier. Remember what you said about picking off from the pack?" She brought up.
"Of course. You want to start with the ones that separated themselves from the group?" Yui asked.
"That's exactly right, yeah." Koko nodded, sounding surprised that Yui was on the same page as her.
"You know what the most important part of hunting like that is though, right?" She asked Koko.
"What?"
"Going for the kill at the first opportunity." Yui said seriously.
"Then we'll be decisive," Ako said. "I suggest we start with purple ball boy. That way we don't have to worry about any traps." He suggested.
"Okay. After that, we'll need to ambush Bakugo," Koko said next. "Assuming we can catch him off guard, we can take him out quick. That should draw out the others...Ako, you're our strongest member. We'll be counting on you to do the heavy lifting against their strongest guys."
"It'll be my pleasure. You got my back?" He asked them back.
"I'll be right by your side." Yui promised.
"We got this. Let's go quickly." Koko urged...
"Man, why do I always get stuck doing the dirty work?" Mineta grumbled to himself as he pulled balls off of his head and stuck them carefully on the floor.
Wind gently blew in the hallway behind Mineta like an eerie breath. He quickly turned around worriedly, grabbing two balls and trying to ready himself for a fight. He took in a few deep breaths before calling out.
"If someone's there...y-you better show yourself!" He shouted.
Suddenly, a hand went over his mouth, and he was pulled back into a hold, "Shh. Drop the balls and I won't have to hurt you." Ako spoke lowly in his ear.
Mineta's eyes widened. His hands started to loosen on the balls he was holding before he shook his head, fighting and struggling and pressing one of the balls against Ako's glove. Ako immediately lifted him up and put him in a choke hold, "Guys, hurry and get the rope!" He called to the others.
"Nice work, Ako." Koko and Yui ran over. Mineta started kicking at her, but she maneuvered around him and started tying his limbs together.
"That's all? How disappointing," Yui said before turning her hands into claws and raising them towards Mineta's face. "Keep fighting, and I'll cut those balls off your head." She threatened him with a growl. Mineta immediately stopped.
"That's much better." Koko quipped. She finished tying him up and Ako started to set him down on the ground.
"Alright. That's one down. Next is Bakugo, right?" Ako asked, looking up at them.
For a brief moment, while Koko was pulling tape out of her supply kit, Ako's grip on Mineta loosened when he took his eyes off of him. This allowed Mineta to slip his face away from Ako's hand, "Guys! They're here! Help!" He shouted.
"Shut it!" Ako cupped his mouth again before Koko took the tape and put it over his mouth.
"You're too far away now for the others to hear you. You should've been more mindful of how far away you went." Koko said to him.
"Well well well," Another voice interrupted. The four of them looked up to see Bakugo standing in the hallway with a big sadistic grin on his face and eyes that were narrowly focused squarely on Ako. "So you took the bait, didn't cha?"
"Hmm?" Mineta's eyes widened in shock.
"Crap," Koko said under her breath. "There goes our element of surprise."
"This must be my lucky day," Bakugo said, raising his hand up. Small explosions started to pop from his palm. "I can take all 3 of ya out at once and end this thing early."
"I like your confidence, handsome," Yui said with a smirk, standing up straight. "But it's 3 against 1. Unless you wanna call your team." She dared him.
"Like I need them to deal with you lightweights. And you," Bakugo glared at Ako again. "I'm especially gonna enjoy blowing you to bits."
"Good to see you're getting into the villain role," Ako quipped. "You want a fight that bad, I'll be happy to oblige." He said.
"I don't know if provoking him is the right thing to do right now, guys." Koko said, nervously getting into a fighting stance.
"What choice do we have? He's already found us. We need to take him head on," Yui growled excitedly. "He's actually doing us a favor, wanting to fight us by himself." She pointed out.
"That's what you think." Bakugo said.
"Hey, before we fight, I just got a question." Ako brought up.
"What do you want?"
"What was your name again?" Ako asked with a sideways smile.
"Grr, bastard!" Bakugo yelled and charged forward...