My Hero Academia – Under Pressure – Season 3 – Episode 16 – Azujima's Time To Shine
The Provisional Licensing Exam had officially begun, and Class 1-B from UA High had made the first big move.
Through their unified efforts, they had sent a wave of rock and earth at nearby students and were able to knock some of them out immediately. They knew that they were but they first to fall, as only 120 students would pass to the next round, which meant they still had well over a thousand to deal with.
As the shock of their first attack wore off, Kuroda quickly took stock and noticed some of the other students were ready for another strike on them.
She pulled out her sword and pointed it at them, "Alright Class 1-B! Let's show them what we're all about! Break into your assigned groups and let's make it through together!"
Just as she finished, Goya raised himself with his psychic powers and rushed away.
Kuroda scoffed at this but let him flee, "We planned for him ditching, break off and attack!"
Class 1-B did as they were told and went to work trying to eliminate as many students as possible. Their first task was getting rid of some of the clumps of opponents who tried to take them out right after their big attack.
In one way or another they were either pushed back or knocked out by the teams.
The first group was headlined by Kuroda and Hana, who used their shifting abilities to help one another and take out opponents. Wasuke was there as their shield of protection, and Ueno helped keep projectiles from blindsiding them or sending foes flying.
The second group was the "powerhouse" group, as Anno and Kanagita used their strength and girth to keep foes at bay, and Oshibu would rush in to KO students that were within the range of the group, while also being careful to not get too far away from the others. Eri helped with close quarters combat and used her acrobatics to get to more difficult terrain to take out lurking students.
The third group saw Tonen teaming up with Azuijma, Iha, and Doza. While a unique pairing, Azujima's senses helped them stay in the know about what was around them. Doza meanwhile would break up terrain or objects to create obstacles to make it more difficult to reach them. And Iha's Duality Quirk could help them in numerous ways to help them pick off foes or get out of a jam. Tonen was the muscle and blasted any who got close to the others.
The final main group had Chuya at the lead with Sanda, Ebirima, Fenella, and Ikaim at her back. Sanda's manipulation of the earth didn't affect the others as they could get off the ground in numerous ways. Giving him freedom to do what he wanted, and making grounded foes easy pickings for the other three.
Goya moved about the battlefield on his own and used his psychic power to stomp on anyone in his path. He agreed to follow the conditions of the Principal by not hurting the others, though he definitely wanted to, but that didn't mean he had to help them.
Finally, there were The Twins. Ryo immediately hopped on Ryu's mech back and the two flew into the sky above the test area and hovered. Once settled in, Ryo sent some small drones to the "leaders" of the main groups so that if an unexpected foe was near them, they could have a heads up.
There was nowhere in the rules that said you had to fight actively, you just had to stay conscious, and they used that to their advantage.
The first few minutes of the exam were the most intense. Students from all schools tried to do the most damage and knock out as many of the others as possible to help even their odds. The tension was palpable because unlike with the Sports Festival's similar event, they weren't told how many students were knocked out at any given time.
That meant they had to go off of instinct and hope that the other students and classes were eliminating as much as possible to slowly whittle the pool down.
In Eri's group, many of the other students saw the powerhouses of Anno and Kanagita and thought it would be smart to take them out.
But that was easier said than done when it came to the four in the group. They withstood many of the attacks and fought back with impressive fortitude.
"Yes! Come and fight us! See what it's like to battle against a shark!" roared Anno as he blocked an energy blast and then clocked its sender with some debris.
"Ha! Brick Break stronger than shark!" bellowed Kanagita's other form. "Fight me first!"
"A challenge from my teammate? You're on! The one who knocks out the most students from here on out wins!"
"Deal!"
Brick Break roared and made for a clump of students, the impact of her steps shook the ground and made many flee out of fear. Anno was right behind her as he didn't want to lose.
Eri and Oshibu raced after them, in their own ways. While they could admire their desire for competition, now was not the time for this.
"I knew this would happen!" called out Oshibu between his blitzes. "Those two are always competing with one another in these things."
Eri bounded from spot to spot so that she could keep up with her classmates, "A calculated risk. But it was necessary. Plus, if they weed out some of the weaker Quirk users? It helps us in the end. Oh, there's someone your left!"
Oshibu turned and saw a student trying to do a sneak attack on him. He blitzed to the side, making the student overshoot. He blitzed again and blasted the student in the side of the head with his gauntlet. KO'ing them with ease.
"Thanks."
Before Eri could reply, she found some students and used her martial arts techniques for some quick finishes. Once done, she dusted herself off, "No problem. Every victory counts. So we work together and get it done. Come on, before those two make a bigger mess of things."
The two dashed off amidst the chaos of the fight.
Over with Chuya's squad, she did her best to keep everyone focused and on point. A tactic that was needed because they went to a spot where other schools had a similar idea to them. Meaning that they were in groups as well to up their odds.
As a result, they were spending as much time dodging as they were fighting. Every time they worked their way around one set of attacks, another came out of nowhere to nearly blindside them.
Chuya got frustrated with every attack that came for them, and her thoughts raced internally, "This is the worst position for a soldier to be in! We're being targeted and it's hard to get some good shots in when our enemies are everywhere! I need to think of something, fast!"
Fenella and Ebirima did their best to work together to fight off the threats, with the latter riding on her friends' rune for better teamwork, but it wasn't enough.
"I'm used to a scrap like this with my family, but this is ridiculous!" Fenella said angrily as she continually dodged off strikes against her.
Ebirima was frazzled as well, "I'll run out of bubble gum before I hit them all!"
Ikaim raced by them with several students on his tail, "Will you all back off!?"
He sent an ink blast to them but they dodged it with ease.
Even Sanda was having problems. Since he was the sole Class 1-B student on the ground, he could use his Quirk without restriction. But the problems was that many of the nearby students had Quirks that could block or blast through the ground, even when clumped together for mass.
"If you could stop making my attacks feel obsolete that'd be great," he noted to his foes. "Then again, you are supposed to be attacking me so while I may feel obsolete you all certainly aren't which is a good thing I suppose as that means your Quirks—"
"SANDA!" roared the others despite their situations.
"Sorry! Sorry…"
Their group continued to struggle, and Chuya had enough. She knew that something had to be done, and fast. It was then she remembered that one of her classmates had a trick that could literally get them out of a sticky situation…while putting their foes in one.
"…that could work," she said to herself.
Chuya raced to Fenella's gliding rune and grabbed Ebirima before ascending into the sky.
"Hey, give back my lass!" called out Fenella in a huff.
"I need her!" called back Chuya, "get the others and hide under a barrier with Sanda, now!"
"...she better be in one piece when you give her back!"
Fenella raced to do what she was told. Meanwhile, Ebirima was terrified of what was happening, "Uh, Chuya? Did I do something wrong that you're taking me this high?"
"No," she replied bluntly.
"Then why are you doing this?"
"Because you're the only one who can get us out of this mess. But you're going to need time and air space to do it. Now listen closely…"
On the ground, Fenella was able to retrieve Ikaim and get to Sanda. Their combined might was able to tip the balance of things in their favor slightly. But even with a few knockouts, the odds weren't in their favor.
That went double in that moment because of Chuya and Ebirima being out of range, meaning all the other students went to them for an easy target.
"Can someone please tell me what's going on?" asked Ikaim between attacks.
"Don't ask me!" answered Fenella, still in a huff, "Aqualassie grabbed me lass and shot straight up!"
"Well that doesn't make sense," revealed Sanda as he blocked some strikes with his earth. "The only reason Ebirima would need to be up that high is to…oh…I need to make that barrier now."
Sanda did just that, and the rival students started to pound on it to get through.
Little did they know, above them, Chuya and Ebirima were careening back down. Chuya used her Quirk to hold Ebirima still enough to line up a shot.
"Ultimate Move…" started Ebirima, confidence shining, "Super Bubble Gum Web!"
With a shout, she launched a massive web of intertwined gum at the ground. One that was much bigger than her fight with Sanda at the Sports Festival.
The other students didn't know what was going on until it was too late. The web slammed into the ground, and stuck nearly every single one of them to it.
The ones that were fortunate enough to be in the gaps were shot at by Chuya with some concentrated water and knocked out.
Now out of danger, Chuya carefully lowered Ebirima to the ground and let her catch her breath.
"Yeah…so that's what it's like to be out of gum in one shot."
"That was very impressive, Ebirima," Chuya admitted with a small smile.
"I'm just glad you thought of it! I certainly didn't with everything that was going on."
Muffled voices caught their ears, and from the somewhat stuck barrier of Sanda's came the other three. When Fenella saw what happened, she rushed to Ebirima and gave her a big hug.
"Oh my lass!" beamed Fenella, "I should've known you'd save us!"
"Thanks, Fenella, but it was Chuya's idea."
"Ah, Kuroda was right to give you lead of our group."
"Obviously," replied Chuya.
"Glad the compliment didn't go to your head."
"Hey, uh," interrupted Ikaim, "does everyone being stuck in the gum mean they're out?"
Sanda looked at a nearby student's headband, "Yeah, I think they are. I noticed that the lights go out on these when someone is KO'd. Theirs is off, likely because they can't do anything to get out of this."
Chuya pounded her fist at this, "Great, that'll help us going forward. Ebirima, absorb back your bubble gum. Everyone else watch out for any new threats. Once she's good, we're moving out."
They all nodded and did as they were told.
Meanwhile, Kuroda's pack of classmates were in an equally unique struggle. One of the students was able to make projections of themselves in the visual sense. They filled up the space they were in, and made it hard to concentrate when they were mixed in other students.
"Hard to focus when we're everywhere, right?" mocked the multiplier.
Thinking fast, Kuroda picked up a rock and threw it at one of the projections. As she suspected, the rock went right through. It was nothing more than an illusion.
"They're not real!" she cried out to her classmates. "Don't let them intimidate you!"
"One of them has to be real," noted Hana wisely, "the last thing we need is a blindside attack."
"And I can't shield us on all sides," added Wasuke as he looked at all the foes around them.
"Oh dear…" lamented Ueno with a slow head wobble.
The other students sensed their uncertainty and started to move in. Though they exposed the projections as mirages and nothing more, they still moved ahead, and the visual was enough to make Kuroda and the others nervous.
Kuroda switched her CIW to a lance with impressive length and glared at her foes with a stern look to show she wouldn't be intimidated, "We can handle them. Hana, go into the ground and do your shark-style attack. Wasuke, watch my back and keep as many of them at bay as possible. Ueno, you do the same, and try to find out which of those mirages is the real one!"
"Oh…" Ueno answered as the light bulb went off in his wobbly head, "…because if they're gone, the rest will follow… Ok."
The plan set, they went into action. Kuroda continuously shifted the state of her lance so that it would affect her foes differently depending on their powers and endurance. She even made it two different elements at one point so she could plant it hard in the ground, but flexible enough at the top so she could fling herself over her foes while she pulled the weapon out.
Her foes saw firsthand why she was the Class Rep.
Wasuke arguably had the lion's share of the work outside of the Kuroda, as he had to block all sorts of attacks. His shield, whether whole or in part, was strong, and able to withstand the strikes. Then, when they were close enough, he would lash out at them and do his best to knock them away.
Hana followed Kuroda's advice and merged with the ground so she could do sneak attacks. She knew she had to be careful, because like at the Sports Festival, if she got too repetitive, someone could predict her movements and catch her. With so many Quirks on the field, that wouldn't be a stretch to have happen.
As for Ueno, he flung everyone who approached backward. But it was the mirages that kept his focus.
Though they were projections, there was a kind of energy within them that Ueno could sense. No doubt a byproduct of the Quirk user.
Realizing this, he focused on it and tried to see or feel where the main source of that energy was. Eventually, he got a bead on it, and it lead him to someone on a nearby rock. They were about to jump at Kuroda, who was busy taking out multiple students.
She didn't see them coming, but Ueno did. He rushed in front of her right after they jumped, and using that momentum, flung them right back into the rock, which knocked them out cold.
After she cleared her immediate threats, she turned to see what happened, "Huh, thanks Ueno."
"No problem," he replied with his usual head wobble.
The effect of that KO was immediate. All the projections melted away and that exposed the remaining students.
Though Kuroda's group wasn't out of the fire yet, the odds were now more in their favor.
With a point of her weapon, Kuroda rallied her troops once again and they set out to clear the way.
The Twins continued to do their thing up in the air. Ryo used her drones as best she could to see what was happening and interpret where the groups should go for the best results.
Ryu made sure that if anyone did get any ideas about coming after them, they would regret it almost immediately. Only a few fliers came after them, and they were quickly struck down by other his mecha weaponry, or Ryo's drones.
Finally, Tonen's group made it through a batch of students in relatively good shape and saw that there was a small gap between some rocks for them to rest for a brief bit.
Tonen waved them other three in and stood watch to ensure no one sneak attacked them while they rested, "Everyone ok?"
"Peachy," responded Iha with her usual tone.
"I'm alright," noted Doza.
Azujima was a bit out of breath but managed to right himself, "I'll be fine. We've only been doing this for what, fifteen minutes? This is crazier than the Sports Festival was."
"Well, there's lots more students here. Even with the wider area, that's still plenty of chaos to deal with."
"And everyone's gunning for us," pointed out Iha with a sour look.
"Not everyone, Up Down," corrected Tonen with a calming smile. "Remember, we're only 20 students out of 1200. They'd be foolish to solely go after us first when there's…well…umm…"
"Low hanging fruit?"
"Something like that. The point is, we do what we can and watch out for one another. Then we…"
Tonen paused as a small drone descended to the gap between the rocks and Ryo's voice rang out, "TK! You need to get out of there, a group of five students saw you and is heading your way!"
Tonen motioned to the others to get up and ready, "Thanks Ryo, we'll handle them! Stay safe up there!"
"You know it!"
With a quick check to make sure they were clear, they headed out. But almost immediately, a wave of darkness approached them.
"TK, what's that?" asked Azujima with a very worried tone.
Tonen shook his head, "I don't know, but it can't be good, let's bolt!"
They did just that and tried to get out of the way of the darkness, but it followed them. Even when they hid behind an obstacle, or turned a tight corner, the darkness kept following. As they kept trying to flee, Tonen saw an opening nearby.
"Come on, this way!
The group rushed toward a small opening between two outcroppings of rocks. But just as they were about to reach it, a third rock dropped in between them, blocking their path.
Before they could react, the darkness enveloped them.
"No one panic!" called out Tonen in an attempt to keep them calm.
"You sure?" said Iha somewhere within the darkness.
"Yeah, this seems like a perfect time to panic," added Doza elsewhere in the pitch black.
"TK…" started Azujima, but it quickly trailed off.
Tonen made to reply, but a chuckle came from the darkness, "Oh, poor UA students. You seem to be lost in the dark."
"Who's there?" demanded Tonen.
"You don't need to know my name, only my Quirk. We could take you out right now, but where's the fun in that?"
Another voice laughed at this taunt, "Oh yes, we weren't worthy of getting into UA, but you all were! What jokes. Two of you don't even have offensive-minded powers! Why did you get in and not us?"
"Dumb luck, no doubt. Now my friend, show them the true meaning of fear before we eliminate them."
"My pleasure…"
At first, nothing happened. Then, all four Tonen's group gripped their heads in pain. A sharp ringing filled their ears, and the noise reverberated throughout their bodies.
Eventually, the ringing stopped. But a new problem emerged. As the members tried to speak, no noise could be heard. More specifically, they were speaking, but they couldn't hear. All of them had gone deaf.
Added with the darkness that they were trapped in, and they were helpless in numerous ways. They couldn't see where they were, or where their opponents were positioned. They couldn't call out for help, or check on the others.
Any attack they did risked hurting the others or putting themselves in more danger. They were essentially powerless.
…except for one.
"I got to figure something out!" Azujima said within his mind. "What can I do, though? I can't see or hear or…wait…that's not new…"
As the shock wore off, and the adrenaline started to stop pumping, Azujima realized the truth. He was used to this.
"I turn off my hearing when I sleep so I can only hear my alarm next to me…and I turned off all my senses with my helmet for things like the final exams…"
He felt his strength slowly return to him, and he started to understand what he had to do.
"TK and the others need me, so this time…I'm going to save them during a battle!"
From within his helmet, he went through his array of senses and figured out what he could use, and not use.
"Ok, my hearing is out," he began as he looked at his internal scans and charts. "And this really is pitch black, no light to focus on. That's fine. I can use smell and touch to figure out where they are…"
He adjusted his senses from within his helmet to power the remaining ones up a bit. Azujima took big breaths through his nose to get a whiff of his foes. He also stomped on the ground to feel the sensory waves to get a picture of where everything was.
The helmet picked everything up, and eventually five silhouettes appeared in his visor.
"There you are! Ok, that was step one, but now for step two…how to deal with them. I can't do a direct attack, I don't know all of their Quirks. And if I fail, everyone goes down with me. So what do I do? Let's see, TK would tell me to surprise them somehow to give me an advantage! Oh…that could work…"
Outside the darkness shadow, the five rival students snickered amongst themselves as they could hear the cries of four of the five UA students as they struggled with their sensory deprivation.
The darkness Quirk user loved every second of it, "Oh, how they call out for help and to check on the others. Delightful."
The hearing Quirk user laughed loudly, "And those screams when I robbed them of their hearing? Lovely. I know we're not supposed to act like villains, but this feels like a special occasion. Can we finish them off now?"
The rallying cry got the other three students in closer to the darkness envelope, and they charged their attacks.
"Yes, I suppose it is. Wide range of fire to ensure we hit them all. In three, two, one…"
Before he could give the command to go, something rolled out of the darkness. It was a tiny metal sphere, and it hit the leader's foot.
The sphere then opened up and something started to pour out of it.
One of the students was confused by how nonchalant it looked, "Is that supposed to be an attack? Because it…"
Their eyes went wide once the vapors hit their noses, as it was one of the most repugnant smells they'd ever taken in.
"UGH!" they cried out in unison.
They heaved and wretched as they continued to take in the smell. But unfortunately for them, their plight wasn't over.
Another sphere came out of the darkness. They didn't even see it before it went off, and it returned the favor from before by emitting a massive sonic blast that made them fall to their knees in pain as the noise ripped them apart from the inside.
From within the darkness, Azujima knew it was his time to strike, "Ok, here we go!"
He rushed out, and using the martial arts techniques that Eri had continued to teach him and Iha, slowly put down the rival students.
Some of them went down quickly because of the quickness and precision of his strikes. The others got their wits about them enough to try and fight back.
When they did, Azujima dodged and used their hindered states against them so that he could get clean shots and put them down.
The darkness user was the last to fall, and he tried to envelope Azujima in more darkness to keep him at bay. But with his helmet tuned in to his foe, there was nowhere he could hide.
With a roar, Azujima clocked him right head and sent him flying. As his foe hit the ground, he could see his headband go dark, signaling that he was done.
Finished, Azujima breathed a sigh of relief. A sigh that he could hear, no less.
"Wait, I can hear?" he said out loud before he went to his helmet to ensure that everything was as it should be.
Sure enough, the sounds of the world came back to him, and when he turned around, the darkness was lifting, and his classmates were feeling their senses returning as well.
"TK! Iha! Doza!"
He raced over to them and helped them up to their feet. They were still feeling the effects of everything, but they were stable enough to keep going.
"Ow," Iha said as she patted her ears to make sure they were fine.
Doza gave a shiver of revulsion at what happened, "That sucked, let's never do that again."
"Azu," began Tonen as he breathed heavily to steady himself, then turned to see beyond his friend and looked at the fallen students. "Wait, did you do that?
Azujima turned and looked upon his victories with new ways before laughing and shrugging it off, "Yeah, that was me."
"I told you. I TOLD YOU! I told you that you were worthy of being a Pro-Hero, and that proves it, period. You saved me again, Azu, and saved us all from getting eliminated. Don't let anyone take this away from you. Ever!"
"Thanks, TK."
Doza came over and patted him on the shoulder, "You definitely need to tell us later how you did it, because I'm sure it's a heroic tale."
Iha looked at Azujima blankly for a bit, then melted her expression into a rare, and kind, smile, "Good job, glad you're ok."
Azujima was glad his helmet was on, because his face went beat red at her praise and caring.
Tonen clapped to get everyone's attention, "Alright, praise for Azu has to stop for now. We just got lucky. If Azu wasn't here, we'd likely be eliminated, and we'd never hear the end of it from our classmates. From now on, heads on a swivel, and we take any potential students we meet as seriously as villains we'd meet."
"I'll adjust my helmet to give me better situational awareness than before," Azujima noted as he adjusted his helmets settings, "That way we don't have to worry about relying on Ryo's drones."
"Good idea. For now, let's get out of this spot, we're trapped here, and we're fortunate no one else has come to see what happened. Let's move!"
With Tonen in the lead, they raced out and made it to a more open area.
But even as they looked forward, Tonen couldn't help but look back a bit at his friend and smile, because he knew that this would help Azujima in his hero journey.
"I often wondered what it was like for my parents to feel proud of me. How their emotions likely swelled when I did something they really liked or enjoyed. While me and Azu were the same age, I definitely was a kind of parent to him. Encouraging him, guiding him along, that kind of thing. In that moment in the exam, I definitely felt like a proud parent, because Azujima had just grown up a bit in my eyes. But sadly, some people don't grow up the way they should…"
Even with the group's victory, battles continued to rage all over the exam.
With Kuroda's group, she continued to instruct the others on how to handle the students they came across.
"Hana, use this metal and KO those exposed students over there!" she ordered with a point of her CIW. "Ueno, projectiles coming from over there! Wasuke, see if you can hold that meathead off until I get to you!"
With that last instruction, Kuroda focused on a stretch of land right in front of her, and mimicking her time in the Sports Festival, turned the line of ground into glue, which Wasuke's foe slowly slipped into.
As they struggled to get out, Kuroda turned her CIW into a hammer, and after turning it into hard steel, jumped high into the air and slammed it right on the student's head…knocking them out cold.
Before she could celebrate, a voice rang out from behind her, "Still showing off that Quirk, huh Kuroda?"
She spun around and readied to attack, but as she gazed at the young man before her, Kuroda was stunned into stillness.
"…Sekuro…" she said softly to herself.
*credits*
