My Hero Academia - Under Pressure - Season 2 - Episode 24 - Break The World
Chuya remained where she was, not just because of the intense focus she was still in post-exam, but because of the pain that she was in. Her body was heavily burned in places that her costume no longer was, and it hurt to move. Though she would not mention it out loud, it hurt to stand and just be conscious.
Her teacher, Big Brain, hovered over to her in his chair and after a quick scan of her typed some things on his computer, "I'll summon the nurse to come take care of you. Though I would like to note that if you performed at a true peak level, you would've had no injuries."
"...oh?" Chuya said through clenched teeth.
"Yes, the point of your test was to see if you could discern a weakness in your opponent quickly and while under pressure. You at times have the tendency to try and outlast your opponents, or wait for them to make mistakes before you strike. That can be costly in the field at times. Ironically, the answer to your exam was a move you had done before. If you had done the move you used against Tonen in the Sports Festival, the one that nearly choked him out, very early in the exam, you would've only had to deal with some intense heat, and nothing more."
Chuya didn't respond.
"You have passed your test, as you needed to take out your foe, but do remember the position you put yourself in. This might have gone much worse out there in the real world."
Still not speaking, Chuya turned to leave, but only made it a few steps before she fell forward in pain. But before she could hit the ground, someone grabbed her and held her up. It was Tonen.
"I got you, soldier, let's get you to the wall so Life Force can fix you up," he said kindly as he righted her up.
"...thanks, Tonen," Chuya said weakly, still reeling from the pain.
He put her arm around him and helped carry her away. But not before glaring at his teacher, angry with him for the lengths that the test went with Chuya, as well as the scolding she got despite passing.
Just as he laid her down to rest, the nearby gym doors opened and Life Force rushed in. One look at Chuya and she was aghast, "My word!"
She rushed over to Chuya and immediately started healing her burns.
"Stay down, Chuya, once you're healed up a bit I'll take you to the station to fully rest up."
"No, I want to stay," Chuya answered with returned defiance.
"Out of the question! I was worried that these holograms would hurt you all too much, and I was right. These are almost 3rd degree burns, I'm shocked you're not screaming in pain."
"Soldiers don't show weakness, right Chuya?" Tonen put out.
Chuya did her best to not smile, "Right..."
Life Force scoffed at this, "Just what I need, more stubborn people in my life. Ok, you're healed up enough to move more easily. I'm taking you to my station, no talking me out of it. Help me get her up, Tonen."
Tonen again helped Chuya to her feet, but this time Life Force took her by the arm and guided her out of the room.
The class was silent for a bit, until Big Brain cleared his throat, "Now that your classmate is being tended to, there are still seven of you left. I doubt anyone wants to volunteer right now so I'll go to the randomizer."
Many in the class, included Tonen, Eri, and Kuroda, glared at their teacher for his nonchalant attitude towards what had happened with Chuya. But they didn't speak out because they knew it wouldn't go anywhere.
"Mr. Hideaki, you have been selected, please step forward."
Sanda sighed heavily but stepped forward and onto the testing area.
As Sanda approached, Big Brain prepared the simulation, "Are you ready?"
"Uh...not really," answered Sanda hesitantly, "I'm honestly not sure how this setup will work with my powers. I can sense what's real and what's not. Even when the tests were going on I could tell that the ground wasn't moving and that things within it weren't actually being touched and so if I try and use my powers-"
"Mr. Hideaki! I am aware of your unique connection with the ground. You and another classmate yet to go will have a special addition to your attire to help compensate."
Big Brain handed him a small headband. It was very light, yet Sanda could tell that it was more advanced than it let on.
"That device will trick your brain into thinking that the holograms are the actual ground," he explained, "furthermore, the hologram will connect with that headband and thus ensure that whatever you try to do with the ground you're on, you'll be able to do it. But by all means, when the exam starts, do some test runs. I'll ensure that the main program doesn't start until we know it works."
"That would be great," Sanda said with an appreciative bow to his teacher.
"Good, now, let's setup the program."
Big Brain typed some final items onto his chair computer and the hologram shifted. Suddenly, Sanda and himself were in a large area of earth. Taking the hint, Sanda put on his headband, and then started doing some basic moves with his Quirk. Including summoning the "ground" and then using it in various ways.
Once he was content, he nodded to Big Brain to begin the exam, "Excellent, your test starts now."
Big Brain disappeared as the hologram shifted, and suddenly the area was much different. For instead of a wide area of Earth, Sanda was stuck on a very small island in a vast ocean.
"Ok, didn't see that coming," admitted Sanda as he looked around.
What he also didn't see coming was the splash of water that hit the back of his head. As he turned around, he saw the top half of a woman in the water. She waved at him somewhat flirtingly, further throwing Sanda off his game.
"I'm...getting attacked by a pretty woman? Didn't see that coming either..."
The woman seemed to hear this and her flirting look turned to a sinister smile as she summoned a much larger sphere of water and flung it at Sanda. He reacted quickly and raised what little earth he had to block it.
The woman swam around the island and continued the onslaught, and as she did, she at times jumped out of the water to reveal that she was actually a mermaid.
"This test is just full of surprises..."
Snapping out of his confused state, Sanda tried to attack the mermaid, but there were multiple problems with that. The first was that she was very fast in the water, and thus could dodge very easily, even when it came to her jumping into the air, or, going deep underwater and not appearing where Sanda expected.
What's more, due to his limited patch of earth that was above the surface of the earth, every time he sent a chunk at the woman, it would hit the water and be outside his connection as a result. Making every attempt at an attack one that put him in a more precarious position footing-wise.
The woman didn't seem to care about that though as she kept hitting him with water attacks whenever she could.
"Ugh," groaned Sanda, "I wish my test was like Chuya's, one where I could finish things quickly and..."
He paused and looked at the ground and touched it with his hand and realized something very simple.
"Oh, that could work..."
He waited for the mermaid to do another deep dive into the water to try and confuse him. When she did, he opened a hole in the ground and jumped into it and covered the opening.
When the mermaid returned, she was confused because Sanda was nowhere to be seen. She dove into the water and made sure he didn't get in there with her, but he wasn't anywhere to her eyes.
She went and climbed up on the island to try and look for clues, and when she did, Sanda sprang the earth up and wrapped it around her enough so that she couldn't get back into the water. Literally grounding her.
Sanda poked his head and shoulders above the mound of earth and sighed in relief, "That worked, I'm relieved."
The hologram dispersed and Sanda found himself on regular ground once again, which relieved him even more as he took off the headband and felt a true connection to the earth around him once more.
"Most impressive, Mr. Hideaki," praised Big Brain, "I was very curious if you would realize how deep your 'island' was before you submerged it with your attacks. You did, and thus you passed."
"Very glad to hear that," replied Sanda with one last bow.
He returned to his classmates who happily praised his good work. No one volunteered to go next once again, so Big Brain picked one at random.
"Ms. Jun, please approach."
Without a single emote, Iha went up to her professor.
"Are you ready?"
"Sure," she said with a small shrug. Which got some of the others to laugh.
"You students and your attitudes will be the death of me," muttered Big Brain as he setup the test. "Your exam begins now."
Iha's exam emerged and it was very quickly one that was clear in its intent. She was surrounded by villains, and had to use her duality ability in order to depower some of the foes at times, and do it quickly enough to ensure she didn't get hurt.
Of course, the problem was that she could only do one power down at a time, and thus had to be very careful in how she handled it. But to the surprise of many, not only did this not phase her, she flipped the script in a unique way.
Instead of just focusing on powering down people, she also powered some of them up. Which one would think would've been disastrous as it would've put her in a bad position, but because of how she used it, the villains weren't used to the increased powers they had, and thus couldn't control them as easily.
This left them open to counterattacks, or even an accidental attack by them on their counterparts. Iha's eerily calm nature helped her weave through it all without much issue. And before too long, she had defeated all of them.
"Done," she said simply after the last villain fell.
Tonen and Azujima started a clap for Iha to praise what she did, and she couldn't help but smile at it. Big Brain congratulated her as well before asking if anyone else wanted to go.
Fenella stepped up readied herself for battle.
And a battle is exactly what she got. She faced an opponent that wasn't unlike the villain Ueno fought in that they had a lot of projectiles that they used on Fenella. This forced Fenella to utilize almost all of her runes at one time in order to not just block the projectiles, but also ensure she didn't get overwhelmed by them.
Fenella was up to the challenge, but even with her confidence level this was a true test. She had practiced using more and more of her glyphs recently, but not to the level that she was now.
Not to mention, and not unlike a certain training session she had with Tonen, her runes weren't perfect blockers of things as there were holes that could be penetrated. So she had to get creative and layered her sigils in order to make them much harder to get through, all the while making them stronger in their attacks.
While the battle went back and forth with her foe, she eventually was able to push through enough to squash her opponent with her runes and get the passing grade.
"Yah, nothing to it," she said with a tired laugh as she went back to her classmates.
"So glad you passed, Fenella," Ebirima noted with a smile.
"Appreciate the praise, lass. Now if you don't mind...your turn!"
With a playful, yet strong, push, she pushed Ebirima onto the stage. Before she could turn around to try and get back, Big Brain noticed her.
"Oh, excellent, Ms. Koge, I'll get your exam prepped," he said without caring that she wasn't really ready.
"Yes sir," she lamented as she got into the center of the stage.
"Ready?"
"...yes..."
"Your exam starts now."
Ebirima's foot tapped nervously as the hologram built up around her.
"Was the push really necessary?" asked Tonen as he appeared behind Fenella.
"Worried about her, boyo?" teased Fenella.
"This exam is no joke, Rune, she shouldn't have gone if she wasn't ready."
"She was ready the moment she didn't have to go first. That 'jinx mentality' if you recall. Besides, she was never going to volunteer, you could just tell. And if she went last that might have been just as bad as going first for her. I know it may have seemed mean, but I'm just looking out for my best lass."
"Ok, I just don't want Bubble Gum to fail."
Fenella gave a kind yet loving smile as she looked at her friend, "Don't worry, boyo, she'll be just fine."
True to her endorsement, Ebirima took to the challenge like a champ. She was in a city area and was facing off against someone who was bouncing around as if they were made of springs.
At first, Ebirima tried to just catch the foe in her bubble gum strands, but their bouncing, and the speed of which they bounced made it hard for her to aim properly and get the strands to where they needed to be.
Then, suddenly, the foe changed tactics and dared her to chase them. Using her strands, she swung from building to building, all the while making sure to absorb the strands she wasn't using anymore, and did her best to keep up.
The chasing was intense at times because her foe would spring at her randomly until going back to a chase mode style.
"Well this isn't working," she said to herself during one part of the chase. "I need to ground them quickly, else I'll get blindsided. Unless...is that what I want?"
A plan quickly grew in her head, and though it was risky, she knew she could make it work.
To setup her plan, she continued the chase, but tried to get more aggressive by shooting strands at her foe while also swinging. This forced them to bounce even quicker and react faster, while not attacking Ebirima as much.
After a quick turn though, Ebirima aimed to fire a strand, but nothing came out, and her other strand slipped out of her hand.
"Oh no!"
She plummeted to the ground, and her foe saw this and capitalized, bouncing to get momentum then firing themselves at her like a rocket.
But this is what she wanted.
While still falling, she spun herself around and aimed her hands right at her foe, "Special Move: Bubble Gum Web!""
Her signature move fired out at her opponent and wrapped them up in the web so tightly they could barely wiggle. Knowing she wasn't done, Ebirima quickly fired strands at the nearby buildings and was able to prevent her crash landing.
Her foe however couldn't, and because their body wasn't the one touching the ground, they couldn't bounce away, and so the test ended.
As the hologram ended, Ebirima fell to her knees in relief and took some deep breaths, "That was close."
"Indeed, Ms. Koge," agreed Big Brain as he again reappeared. "Risky moves like that are necessary at times, but don't become reliant on such a strategy in the field, all it takes is one time to fail and you'd be seriously injured, if not worse."
"Yes, Big Brain."
"But you didn't get seriously injured, plus you contained your foe, and so you passed, please return to your classmates."
Ebirima did so, and Fenella was the first to greet her, "I knew you could it, lass."
"Thanks for the confidence, but please don't do that again Fenella," begged her friend.
"Don't worry, lass, this is one habit that won't...stick..."
The majority of the class groaned at the bad pun, and Big Brain himself had to restrain himself from commenting on how bad it was, "I'm going to the randomizer now..."
Before anyone could comment, a name popped up.
"Mr. Yakishi, please come forward."
With his helmet off, Tonen could see that Azujima was very nervous. He got on one knee so that he could look at him right in the eye, "You got this, Azu. You know what you can do, and how you can control your senses, show Big Brain what you're made of."
Azujima smiled at him, "Thanks TK, I'll make you proud."
"You have nothing to prove to me, go do this for yourself, ok?"
With a nod to the other, Azujima went up to his teacher and put his helmet on.
"Are you ready?" asked Big Brain.
Helmet on and running, Azujima nodded, "Ready."
"Your exam begins now."
Azujima quickly found himself in a state of disarray. Because he wasn't in a fighting scenario, he was in a rescue one. But the twist was that the sights, sounds, and smells were profound and layered. To the extent that anyone other than Azujima wouldn't be able to comprehend them all.
But because of his Quirk, he felt everything intensely. So much so that even with his helmet on, he grabbed his head in pain.
All around him was destruction, fire, screams, fumes and more. All reaching Azujima and overloading his senses without mercy.
"Come on...focus..." he said to himself through the pain. "This is why you made the silent mode..."
He reached for a specific button on his helmet and pressed it. Immediately, the helmet turned off, but not in the way one would think. Rather, it severed his connection to his senses, and allowed him just to think about what to do.
"Ok, you know that the test is, to handle your senses in this crisis scenario and focus enough to get all the people out. Turn your senses back on one at a time and assess the situation..."
Azujima turned back on his helmet, but only so he could see things. Through his various screens he could see where the people were and get readouts on key pieces of information.
Content, he planned ahead, "Now to my hearing to determine if there's anything I need to do before getting the rescue going..."
He slowly raised the sound so that he would hear it, but not be overwhelmed. The screams were the worst, but he pushed through.
"Finally...the smells to warn me if there's something very dangerous nearby..."
Sure enough, the sensors in his helmet picked up gasoline that could burn everything even worse and hurt people. So he went to take care of that first, as well as any other immediate dangers that the people faced.
Once all the terrain was taken care of, Azujima went slowly and methodically to each person and helped them get free of their situation.
After each one he would go back to his helmet and do some slight changes to his sensory level so that he ensured he didn't miss anything or risked putting someone in danger because of a rushed move.
Eventually, he got done and saved everyone.
When the hologram started to dissolve Azujima quickly took off his helmet and did some deep breaths. Showing just how much mental pressure he had been under as well as the physical strain.
"That was most impressive, Mr. Yakishi," said Big Brain as he approached. "Your use of your helmet was well-handled, you have passed."
With a small laugh and sigh, Azujima rejoined the others, with Tonen waiting happily for his friend, "Great job, Azu. Told you that you could do it."
"Thanks TK, I'm just glad it's over," Azujima replied with a more heavy sigh.
"Chin up, buddy, you-"
Tonen was cut off by Big Brain when he cleared his throat, "For those who haven't noticed, there are only two participants left. Do I really need to use the randomizer for this?"
Knowing what he meant, Kuroda and Tonen looked at one another.
"I don't want to go last," Kuroda acknowledged.
"Neither do I," admitted Tonen admitted. "So...rock, paper, scissors?"
"Sure."
The two held out their hand to get ready, then did a round, then another, and another, until Kuroda finally beat Tonen.
"Dang it."
"Sorry Tonen, but not really. I would say that they're going to save the best for last, but I'm about to start so..."
"Oh get up there, K-Rep," Tonen said with a playful shove to her.
Kuroda stuck out her tongue at Tonen before getting ready and stating to Big Brain, "Ok, I'm ready."
"Not quite," he corrected, "much like your classmate, your senses need to be in-tune with the hologram else it won't work. The catch with you is that you'll need to speak the material you want to the hologram to shift to else it won't work. Understand?"
He handed her the headband that Sanda had worn before. She put it on and nodded, "Sure, I'll be careful about that."
"Good, your exam begins now."
Kuroda waited as the hologram started up, and she was surprised when it got off to a roaring start.
A villain was causing lots of damage in a town. Just as important though, was that there were people directly in his line of fire, and thus were in serious danger.
"Oh, testing my sense of responsibility on top of my Quirk, ok, game on."
Pulling out her rods, Kuroda turned them into diamond and went to work.
She at first focused on getting the people to safety while the villain openly tried to attack them. Though she stumbled at first with calling out the materials she wanted, she got in the flow of it soon enough and was able to make it work for her.
Due to the intensity of the scenario, it took a while for Kuroda to clear the area before she could focus on the villain. Thus playing defense a bit more than she would before.
However, she was eventually able to get the people to virtual safety and thus could focus on her foe.
"You're mine."
She rushed at the villain, who was able to move swaths of earth not unlike Sanda, but in a much more destructive way, and in greater volumes.
Kuroda was put on the defensive once again, and even took several hits because of it. What's more, though her rods didn't need her to voice commands to change, she was struggling to use them in ways that could help her beat the foe faster.
"Ugh, I could use that special gift from Royal Knight right now," she groaned after getting hit again.
But despite the setbacks, she powered through, and even used her fight with Anno from the Sports Festival to think outside the box in order to defeat her powerful foe.
She shifted the ground to a kind of quicksand, which stunned her foe long enough to land some blows and then pin him to the ground via some material mastery.
Just for effect, she hit him in the head with her rods.
"And...that's a wrap."
True to her prediction, the hologram shut down and Big Brain came forth, "Nicely handled, Ms. Fuji. And you were correct that we wanted to test how you handled your knack for responsibility. No doubt Angel Wings will praise you again for being a good class representative."
Kuroda gave an overelaborate bow to her teacher, "Just doing my job."
She laughed when she saw Big Brain's eyeroll, but didn't say anything else. Not to him anyway, as she rejoined her class she locked eyes with Tonen.
"You're up."
"Don't remind me," Tonen jested.
Tonen took a breath and stepped forward onto the test area. Big Brain was already prepping his personal test, but Tonen noticed an odd twitch with his mouth as he was typing it out. It was like he was trying not to smirk about something.
"Are you ready, Mr. Keitomo?" he asked once done.
Tonen was uncertain about what he saw, but calmed himself and nodded, "Yeah, I'm ready."
"Go TK!" called out Azujima from behind.
Some of the others, including The Twins, Kuroda, Anno, Ebirima and more joined in on this, and it got Tonen to smile...and Big Brain to scowl.
"...no more talking!" he commanded, "Your final exam begins now."
The hologram set itself and Tonen looked around, he was on an open plain. This surprised him as he felt a city area might have been his test given his powers.
As he looked around he didn't feel any danger, that is, until he got blasted in the back.
He landed flat on the ground, but quickly got back up and looked at where the blast came from. A woman with a rather advanced gauntlet that went up to her shoulder held a pose to show that the blast came from her.
Tonen loosened back up a bit and prepared for battle, "Ok, facing a villain, no problem, let's see what I can-"
Before he could finish, a fist slammed into the side of his head, and once again, Tonen hit the ground hard. This time though he knew where the attack came from and fired a blast. The villain dodged and joined his fellow villain. Tonen was not amused by this, but got up and readied himself once again for a fight.
"Fine, two villains. Guess you can't make it too easy on me..."
He paused as he felt the ground shake, he looked around quickly, then saw a mound of dirt racing toward him. Tonen dodged right as it got close and as he looked up, a villain popped out of the ground in a spinning frenzy. When they stopped, Tonen could see that their body had augments like Wasuke, but instead of a shield, it was a drill.
"Think fast, kid!" cried out the drill villain in midair before twisting once more and heading to Tonen.
Tonen dodged again, but when he tried to find the mound, another blast came from behind, followed up quickly by another punch from the third villain.
The attacks were so quick and powerful that Tonen couldn't help but spit up some blood, but he didn't let that deter him, "Fine, the hard way then."
With a shout, he let loose a wall of air that went straight for two of the villains and caused them to dodge. Them out of the way momentarily, he focused on the drilling villain as he felt that was the biggest threat. He was proven right soon enough, as the villain did another drill run, and when Tonen tried to stop him with his air pressure, the drill form went through it.
Tonen was able to dodge the drill strike, but no sooner did he do so than the other two villains were upon him, and the battle began anew.
On the outside of the hard light walls, the class was all watching the exam with various amounts of intensity. But the one who was puzzled was Iha.
She watched the ongoing fight and said, "Something's different."
Azujima heard this first, "What?"
"The test, this one is different."
"How so?"
"What's the purpose? What's Big Brain trying to get TK to do?"
"Uh...fight multiple foes at once? That's what happened with Ryu."
"That was different," pointed out Eri, whose eyes narrowed as she saw what Iha was indicating. "Ryu's test was about fighting robots that were fine with up close attacks and distance, whereas Ryu was known only for close range combat at the time. He surprised Big Brain, and us, with his upgrades. Tonen has no such need to prove that, he's done close and long-range attacks before just in the Sports Festival alone."
"Ok, so what is the deal here?" wondered Anno. "If it's not about numbers, maybe Quirk disadvantage? That drill guy seems to have Tonen's number."
"True, but if that's the test, why not just use him? Why throw in the other two? One's a energy blaster and the other guy I think can hit really hard, but what does that have to do with Tonen?"
Iha tensed up at all of these questions that were unanswered, "Like I said, something's different."
The rest of them joined Iha in watching Tonen's exam once more, and it wasn't a pretty sight.
Tonen was getting handled quite well by the trio of villains. Their attacks were so unique in both Quirk and tactics that Tonen couldn't get a strategy going without the others disrupting it.
Even when he did his big blasts that went 360, it didn't always hit them due to the driller being underground when he did it. And when he tried to take one out, like the brawler, the others would come to their aid before a finishing blow could be dealt.
Frustrated, Tonen made up a quick plan, he did his best to lure the three to him in one spot, and they bit, more or less. The driller sensed the plan somehow and trapped Tonen between them by popping up on another side.
But Tonen made due and did another intense 360 blast. All three of them got hit, even the driller. Though they weren't down, they did go far enough away to give Tonen some breathing room.
He made to capitalize by taking out the brawler and blaster villains as they were likely to be the easiest to KO. But as he approached them, he stopped dead in his tracks, and his eyes went wide.
In front of the blaster villain, seemingly knocked out of her by the attack...was a playing card.
One all too familiar to Tonen.
Despite the villains getting up and being ready to fight him, Tonen ignored them, and instead picked up the card, a seven of spades. He looked at it front and back multiple times as if to make sure he wasn't hallucinating.
He then crushed the card in his hand and bared his teeth in anger as his body shook from top to bottom, "Do you think...this is funny?"
"We didn't say anything," said the brawler as he prepared to fight.
"Shut up! I'm not talking to you! Big Brain! Do you think this is funny!? Do you really feel I'm that weak? That I don't think about these cards and plan to beat them down anytime I find one? DID YOU REALLY THINK I WOULD ALLOW THIS TO BREAK ME?!"
His rage had been seen before in his fight with Goya, but as the class looked on in horror, they knew this was different. Before was righteous rage, but this was fury, a fury that couldn't be contained.
Tonen's eyes bulged as his anger grew immensely, and though they were fake, the villains absolutely had terror on their faces as they felt the air pressure starting to build up.
"You want to see me overcome? Fine, but why settle with the villains? Why not go bigger? I'll break the world, I'LL BREAK EVERYTHING!"
With a shout whose intensity matched the one from the Sports Festival, along with the power from his blast in the entrance exam, Tonen expelled all the air from his body in all directions, and true to his word, not only were the villains constructs starting to crack, so too was the containment area.
"Oh crap, he's going nuclear again," noted Kuroda before giving a quick motion to the class. "Wasuke, Anno, Kanagita, bulk up and stand next to one another! Everyone else? Get behind the human shields!"
Not wasting a moment, all of them, even Goya, got behind their wall of reinforcement. Which was smart, because the hard light constructs shattered all at once, sending gusts of air in all directions. Tonen's classmates were fine thanks to Kuroda's quick thinking.
Big Brain though got blindsided and had him, complete with chair thrown into the nearby wall. Tonen didn't drop the pressure blast though until he locked eyes with Big Brain and showed that he wasn't amused by what the teacher did.
He did eventually stop though, and not only did he regain his composure, he summoned a smirk, "I broke your toy, does that mean I pass?"
This time it was Big Brain's eyes who bulged as he pulled himself off the wall and started towards his student.
"Yes, it does," came a voice.
From the students side of the gym appeared Principal Ayatsune, whose demeanor was very easy to read, she wasn't happy at all.
"Tonen, please rejoin the others."
Tonen didn't argue, or even speak, he merely nodded and rejoined his classmates, who were glad to be out of one danger zone, but felt they may be in another very quickly.
Principal Ayatsune did her best to exude at least some happiness as she looked at them all, "I've been watching from my office, and with Tonen's...overwhelming victory...all of you have passed your final exams. I'm very proud of all of you."
The class let out a unified sigh of relief...
"But..."
...and it was cut short all too quickly.
"Don't think for one second this is as hard as it gets. Your summer training will push you in different ways, more unique and focused ways. More than just building up your combat prowess, or even your tactical abilities. We're going to push you to truly go beyond with your Quirks, not unlike how some of you did on your own today. But it's more than that as you'll find out. Return to your homeroom after you all get checked out by our dear nurse. Angel Wings will be there to congratulate you and then prep you for the training session to come. You're all dismissed."
They all gave a bow of their heads to their principal before heading out.
Kuroda though couldn't help but get to Tonen and nudge him, "Not that I don't mind you going off on Big Brain, we all want to do that, but did you anticipate me keeping the others safe?"
A more kind and honest smile grew on Tonen's face this time, "Of course, Big Sister. Even in my rage, I knew you'd protect the class."
"Ha, ha, ha, good to know, Big Brother, and I welcome back this more calm version of you."
"Thanks, I prefer this version."
"So do we!" said most of the class, which got them to laugh.
Back in the gym though, there was no laughter as Principal Ayatsune approached Big Brain with her angry demeanor now returned, Big Brain tried to keep his own composure as he aimed to explained what happened, "Tonen Keitomo-"
"Should NOT have been put in that situation!" roared Ayatsune with fury that wasn't unlike her students'. "I told you that the test you ran would be dangerous. I told you to only use the driller to push Tonen's abilities because he was a good counter but NOT to show he was part of The Deck. But instead, you put him in a truly unfair scenario and put those blasted cards on display for him to see!"
"It was a mental test and he blew it! He overreacted and couldn't hurt actual people! Including his classmates, and his teacher!"
"You poked a bear and expected nothing to happen, Igasato! You only know of The Deck, you have NOT faced them like he has, like I have, been hurt by them like we have. Our anger runs deep, and you're lucky that all he did was break your projectors. And you're lucky all I'm doing is yelling at you and not blinding your with my light! If you ever disobey me again like that, there will be consequences that even your brain can't think out of."
With that she stormed out of the gym, leaving Big Brain fuming, but unable to speak out of fear of what she might do next.
And with that, all was calm, or at least, all that was known.
A ways away, in the lair of The Dealer, he was in a very different state than before, he was eager. His eagerness showed when a knock came on the door.
"Let him in!" called out the Dealer with obvious glee.
The door opened, and a man walked through it, one of very impressive height and stature. His hair was jet black and was flowing down his back half. His outfit was a mix of armor and style and was very intimidating.
Or at least, it was to most, not The Dealer, who smiled even moreso at the man who was now towering over him.
"Ameto Tokia, The Dominator himself! Oh what a delight it is to be in your presence and to do business with you. Come, sit! We have much to discuss..."
*credits*
