Round two is up and Suri makes some new friends. But will her team make it to the next round?
"I'm sorry Suri, but I'm gonna have to say no. I need to get into the finals on my own."
That was the first thing Tooru had said as soon as Suri turned around to ask her and Mina to team up when time started. It hurt. Hurt more than she thought it would. But she understood, she got what her friend meant and what she needed to do to prove herself. But that didn't stop the hurting because Mina went and said the same thing. She had also brought up the fact that Suri had outright declared war on her back in the waiting room.
True.
So Suri looked around and started looking for potential teammates. She had a thought to team up with the purple haired guy from general education that confronted their class the week before. Then she thought better of it when she remembered the way Atiena had reacted to him when he confronted their class. She didn't like him one bit.
"Oh no! I gotta find some teammates fast."
English.
Someone was speaking English.
Suri's eyes trailed over the crowd of forty-two until she spotted a blonde girl with a pair of large horns looking around nervously. She was short, not much taller than five feet, with a bit of a rounded face that was a sort of muzzle shape that reminded her of her half beast form. Something else that reminded her of her own beast forms was the shape of the girl's legs with visibly powerful thighs that trailed into a set of digitigrade lower legs. Suri began striding towards the girl quickly and had a moment of awe when she discovered the girl's feet were a pair of hooves. The look instantly screamed horse or bull and had a thought that the girl might be more powerful than the petite frame let on. She had quickly noticed everyone had been choosing people to be a strong front for their teams, maybe this girl could be that for her.
"Yo, blondie, where you from?"
The girl was startled by the sudden use of her native tongue and turned towards Suri who was coming straight for her. She gave Suri a once over and had to look up to meet her gaze.
"Oh! You're a transfer from America too?"
"Sure am. Grew up in Salt Lake," Suri gave the girl a soft smile. "You?"
"Boise," she replied back cheerfully.
"Well then hiyya neighbor," Suri chuckled. "I got a couple of cousins that live up there, though, I wouldn't have taken you for an Idaho girl with the accent."
"Oh! My momma's from San Antonio."
"Ah hah, that's why," Suri snapped her fingers and then looked around. "So you don't have any teammates yet?"
"Ah! N-no not yet. A lot of my class has already teamed up," she said drearily.
"Same. I may or may not have declared war on some of my classmates."
"Now why would you go and do a silly thing like that?"
"Cause I got a thing or two to prove," and with that Suri gave a wicked grin to the smaller girl. "So if you're not opposed to it, what kind of Quirk you got?"
"Physically, I'm pretty fast and agile and I'm not bad strength wise but my Quirk is these," her cute timid nature seemed to slip away as she started to speak. She pointed to her horns and one of them detached and another instantly appeared in its place. "I can control up to four horns at a time and I can use them as projectiles but they're also strong enough and I can control them enough to-"
"Carry people to safety in some situations," Suri finished for her, eying the lyre shaped more closely before reaching out and touching it. It was sturdy and the end was sharp enough that she knew it'd hurt like hell to get on the wrong side of it. She then smirked and looked down at the girl and then extended an open hand, "Well that settles it, you're my lead. I'm Suri Kuroyashi, you?"
"Really?! Just like that," the girl asked with a little shock. And when Suri only answered with a nod and a fanged grin, she smiled back and nodded back. "I'm Pony! Pony Tsunotori."
Pony. It was so ironically cute and adorable that it almost hurt.
"Tsunotori! Get away from her!"
Suri turned to see a tall boy headed their way. He had a bright green mohawk and a narrow, almost featureless face, save for the two large pincers protruding from his jaw. Suri saw him and instantly thought of a praying mantis.
"Oh! Kamakiri!"
Suri stepped in front of him and noticed another member of 1-B right behind him as she moved to try and pull him back.
"Kamakiri, let us not fight before the match at hand and let yourself not be damned by your sinful wrath and pride."
"Sorry, dude," Suri looked straight up to the taller boy and gave him a fierce glance. "I've already teamed up with her so you best keep walking."
"Tch, 1-A trash," he hissed back.
"Jesus, don't tell me you're the Bakugou of your class," Suri groaned as she heard a very familiar tone and spitefulness in the way he spoke and held himself.
And that assumption only made him angrier.
So yeah, he was the 1-B hothead.
"How dare you take the lord's name in vain," the green haired girl spoke up in a harsh tone.
Wait, were those vines?
"Five minutes remaining," Midnight shouted from the stage.
Suri and the mantis boy, Kamakiri apparently, both grumbled and turned their sour expressions back towards each other.
"Don't you ever compare me to that asshole. I'm better than him and when I get my hands on him, I'll show everyone who has the better Quirk."
"Got a lot of balls making a claim like that. You sure you can back it?"
"You're damn right I can," he smirked, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Fine," Suri smirked back. "What's your Quirk then?"
He then held up his arms in a defensive position before a pair of long, sharp blades sprouted from them like a set of giant switchblades. Suri curled her lower lip and gave him a slightly impressed nod. It reminded her a lot of some lycanthrope's abilities to transform just their hands into giant claws in much the same manner.
"Not bad," Suri finally said, bringing her hand up to cup her chin. "You better with your right or left? And you, Molly Mormon, what can you do?"
"What did you say?" The vine girl growled and then stood up straight, took a deep breath, and calmed herself down before speaking again. "It is quite rude to make fun of someone's faith such as mine. As for my Quirk," she paused, closed her eyes and put her hands together in a praying gesture. Her hair began to move and Suri could now clearly see that her hair was, in fact, thick vines with lines of barbs like the ones found on rose bushes.
"She can use her vines to make shields to protect her or she can shoot them out and she can restrain people," Pony offered up. "They're pretty strong too."
"So between the two of you we'd have great defense on the wings. And with Tsunotori in front, we'll have pretty decent offensive capabilities. So with me riding-"
"Who said you'd be the rider? And what makes you think you're any good at riding?"
"One, because I came in second place in the obstacle race so I'll just put that out there first and foremost. And two, because my Quirk best suits me in up close and personal situations. I'm not reliable when my hands are tied up holding someone like you need to in this event. I'm useless on the ground in a situation like this. And three," Suri got into Kamakiri's face and gave him a sultry tone and a seductive flare in her eye. "I've been told that I'm very very good at riding."
That made Kamakiri blush and take a step back. Tsunotori was blushing but also trying to hold back from giggling uncontrollably. And the vine girl? Well she looked repulsed.
"I will not ride into battle with a whore of babylon. May God have mercy on your sinful soul."
"Look, honey I-"
"Shiozaki. Ibara Shiozaki," she crossed her arms over her chest, glaring at Suri.
"Look, Shiozaki, I can't be a whore because I don't get paid for sex. The word you're looking for is slut, and honestly, that can't and will never offend me because I'm not ashamed of being sexually open and active. I enjoy it. A lot. Part of that is my Quirk, but seriously, it's fun and enjoyable and so far I haven't burst into flames going into any churches. And trust me, back home, there's a church basically every two miles. So me and your god," she smirked and pointed to the heavens. "We're gucci. And I don't even believe in him. My gods, the ones my clans worship, will never smite me or punish me as long as I cherish the memories of my ancestors and praise the Earth gods for giving us a place to run wild and free. Just cause I poke fun at one faith doesn't mean I'm not a believer in something."
The three of them looked at Suri, a little awestruck and left with nothing to really say in return. She'd surprised them. She couldn't say she blamed them, she didn't exactly make her faith, which was more spirituality than anything, the forefront of her personality. She grew up around too many that were like that, where they based everything in their life on religion. It was never easy trying to make friends, becoming friends with someone, only to have their parents ban them from interacting with you because you didn't fit into their perfect little religious bubble.
After a moment of silence, Kamakiri finally broke it.
"Left."
"I'm sorry, what?" Suri questioned with a raised eyebrow.
"I'm left dominant, so I'll take the left wing."
"Then I shall protect our right," Shiozaki sighed and nodded.
"All right," Suri grinned wide. "Let's get set up then."
TEAM KUROYASHI
Suri Kuroyashi: 205
Ibara Shiozaki: 190
Togaru Kamakiri: 40
Pony Tsunotori: 30
Total Points: 465
The four of them took their positions at their designated starting gate and began scouting the other eleven teams. Suri eyed Deku's team first and then towards Bakugou's team, groaning to herself seeing Mina was on his team. Next she eyed Todoroki's team and took a deep breath. Between the three teams she knew they'd have their work cut out for them.
"Midoriya's team is going to be the biggest target because of that ridiculous amount of points they have. So everyone's going to be gunning for them hard," she observed out loud, leaning forward. She set her hands down on top of Kamakiri and Shiozaki as they gripped each side of Tsunotori's shoulders. "Knowing him, I think his strategy will be to run and be on defense the entire time."
"Tsh, coward," Kamakiri scoffed.
"No," the three girls said in unison before sharing a look between each other.
"Deku may seem soft and timid but I've seen the other side of him that is every bit the alpha male Bakugou is. And on top of that," Suri narrowed her eyes, focusing in on the greenette. "He has a good head on his shoulders. He's smart, has a tactical mind, and a borderline manic level of obsession with it comes to analyzing people's Quirks and their fighting style."
"So he's a quick study and an excellent student?" Shiozaki questioned.
"He hides it, but I've seen him carrying around journals. He documents damn near every Quirk he sees and I'm pretty sure he has a page or two dedicated to every single one of us in 1-A."
"A page or two about what?" Kamakiri questioned.
"If it were me, I'd write about them, their personality, their Quirk, and then their strengths and weaknesses," Tsunotori offered.
"And most likely, combat style," Suri added.
"So he's got everyone figured out? You saying we can't beat that pipsqueak?"
"No, not exactly. But he'll be guarding for us, especially knowing I have to get up close to take him on and he'll be especially cautious of you guys in 1-B since he hasn't had the chance to watch and analyze you guys."
"We could use that to our advantage."
"That is true, Tsunotori."
"Whatever, just tell us the plan already."
5
"Kamakiri, make sure no one touches our left."
4
"Shiozaki, I'm putting my faith in you shielding our right."
3
"Tsunotori, if you see an opportunity, lead the way and keep our fronts safe."
2
"Atiena, keep our senses open."
1
"BEGIN"
"Let's fucking go!" Suri cheered with a fanged grin. Her fangs only grew larger as she let her power roll and she shifted into that first stage of her transformation. She leaned herself down closer towards her teammates and narrowed her eyes at the other teams, all of which made a beeline towards Midoriya's group.
"Everyone's going for the big fish which isn't a bad idea itself until you factor in every other team going for the exact same target. It's basically 11 on 1 with only one or two teams reaping the benefits of everyone's works."
"So what do you suggest we do," Tsunotori asked, keeping their pace at a trot to hang back behind the other groups but still going forward.
"We hunt," Suri purred.
Suri watched Midoriya's team as they were ganged up on from the beginning falling victim to one of the members of 1-B and his Quirk which turned the ground beneath them into quicksand. They began sinking until suddenly… they weren't?
When did Deku get a jetpack?
His team's trajectory took them directly over Suri's team and now they were headed straight for another team of 1-B students. And just like that the really loud boy with silver hair and bushy eyebrows was headed their way.
"Kuroyashi," Tsunotori called out, "we need to be careful of Honenuki and Tetsutetsu."
"The guy up front is Honenuki, right? He's the one that messed with the ground, right?"
"Correct," Shiozaki answered. "If we are not careful we will be swallowed into the depths of hell."
Suri watched as Deku's team took to the air again and Bakugou came after them, flying through the air rapidly using his explosions. It gave her an idea and she turned her attention back towards the team in front of them just in time for the ground beginning to warp at their feet.
"Tsunotori! Keep us out of reach!"
"Right!" the horse girl exclaimed, quickly running them around the edge of where the ground was softening.
"What do you want us to do?" Kamakiri growled as he tried to keep pace with their lead.
"Get behind them," Suri directed and then growled as she hopped up onto Tsunotori's shoulders, "I'll be right back."
The three of them gasped as Suri launched herself skyward towards Tetsutestsu's team. He yelled his astonishment while the beast girl watched as his skin turned silver and hardened to brace for impact. She swiped claws at him and sparks flew from his metallic skin as she scratched at him with her left claws and lunged her right towards the headband.
He growled and laid himself backwards, narrowly missing her attempt at the headband. Suri saw the ground quickly approaching before she landed on something hard that was almost the length of her torso. She floated in the air as a long, thick horn carried her like a witch on a broom back towards her team before dropping her off into their arms and reattaching to Tsunotori's forehead.
"Hey! What the hell was that?!" Tetsutetsu screamed.
"Yeah? The hell were you thinking?" Kamakiri barked in frustration.
"Trying to hunt us down some more points. Tsunotori," she breathed deep as she looked down to her team's head. "That was fuckin' awesome."
"Thanks! Just warn me beforehand next time," she cheered.
As they made a second trip around Tetsutetsu's team Suri was momentarily taken by surprise as she felt a tapping on her shoulder. She looked to her right to Shiozaki who was looking up to her with a solemn expression and then noticed one of her vines.
"I hope you don't mind, but as Tsunotori was catching you we passed a team from your class. I feel bad for such an underhanded move on the smallest of your class," she said softly, her vine offering up a headband worth 410 points.
Suri stared in shock for a brief moment as she took the headband and then looked in the direction of Mineta's cry of agony. The shock turned into glee and then she gave her saintly teammate a wide grin.
"Not bad at all, Shiozaki!"
Suri pulled the second headband on and wore it like a scarf around her neck as she turned her eye back towards Tetsutetsu. She had enough time to see the ground begin to warp again and panic quickly set in.
"Everyone jump!" Tsunotori called out before Shiozaki and Kamakiri jumped at the same time she did. Suri then watched as her two horns detached and quickly swept under her teammates' feet. Then a second pair of horns quickly sprouted only for one to detach and sweep under the horse girl. Suddenly the ride was smooth as the three 1-B classmates balanced onto three floating horns and hovered over the ground where Honenuki had turned it into quicksand again.
"Okay, seriously! That's amazing," Suri laughed with a wondrous smile.
"Nice save, Pony," Kamakiri chuckled as well.
Pony laughed with a joyful tone as she raced them through the air towards Tetsutetsu's team once again. Suri grinned and leaned up, grabbing hold of Tsunotori's remaining horn and directed the girl by her grip on the ivory protrusion. She guided them to make a run with their left side and she looked down to her mantis partner.
"Kamakiri, you're up!"
"On it!" he called out and three long blades flung outwards from his forearm to create a spiked sword out of his arm and swung it towards the opposing team. It knocked them off balance and Suri reached for them and grabbed hold of Tetsutetsu's headband, pulling it back towards her.
Just as she got it off his head he grabbed her, turning his skin to metal so she couldn't claw him and then brought a right fist around. Suri clenched her eyes shut and braced for impact as she was rocked in the temple, making her ears ring and her cheek heat up with pain. She tried to blink the fuzziness in her sight away as she tried to recover quickly and do her best to keep hold of the headband.
She felt a grip tighten around her waist and pull her backwards as she watched Tetsutetsu try for the headband in her grip. Shiozaki had managed to get her back into the cradle her three classmates had for Suri with one of her vines. The two teams were separating when the metal Quirk user yelled and leaned towards Suri, grabbing hold of his headband with one hand and then trying to grab Suri's arm to pull her off balance with the other. His metal fingers dug into Suri's arm and she hissed in pain as the metal broke skin and his fingertips drew blood. The pain was searing and there was a loud hiss from the contact as small puffs of steam rose from where the metal made contact with her blood.
Suri screamed in pain and agony, her skin feeling like it was on fire as Tetsutetsu inadvertently raked down her forearm. The throbbing pressure and the grip loosened as the metal boy was given a hard blow to the chin. The mantis blades grew larger and pushed the other team back even further as both Tsunotori and Kamakiri managed to give them distance and get them a way out of the confrontation.
Even though the contact had been broken, Suri gripped her bloody arm tight, heaving and muffling screams as her left arm began to tremble. Her teammates looked up to her in horror as they eyed the wound and how it sizzled and steamed. Kamakiri grimaced as the smell of burning flesh reached his nose and his balance began to give way. Just as he slipped off of Tsunotori's horn, they came to a skidding stop when Tsunotori stopped them from heading headlong into a giant wall of ice that Todoroki had created.
Kamakiri went to the ground with a loud smack and Suri began falling towards the ground. She was oblivious to it all in the pain and was only saved from hitting the ground when a net of vines caught her and secured her to Tsunotori's back. Their mantis headed friend let out a loud scream of his own as he rolled in an unnatural way on the ground.
Suri bit into her tongue to focus pain elsewhere and blinked rapidly to get her bearings back straight. Her left arm was covered in a sheen of crimson, shaking like crazy, and the scratches Tetsutetsu left on her were a mix of pink and black as she continued to hiss. Even in the pain she forced herself to hook her left arm into the net of vines at her elbow and leaned down, extending her right hand towards her teammate on the ground.
"Kamakiri, you okay?" she managed to choke out weakly.
"M-My leg. It's fucked," he whined and muffled a scream of his own as he tried to get back up. "Shit, I can't… I… can't stand up."
"Kamakiri! I'm so sorry!" Tsunotori cried and looked at her friend with panic and regret.
"Kuroyashi, you are severely injured as well," Shiozaki added. "I… I have never seen such a thing before."
"Fuck!" Suri screamed and gritted her teeth. "I'm sorry Kamakiri, if I hadn't been so focussed…"
"Suri, look out," Atiena warned with a growl.
"Wow, are you guys okay?"
She recognized that dry voice from somewhere, but where?
"We're fi-"
Darkness.
Suri found herself in complete darkness. An endless sea of pitch black.
"What the hell?"
"I warned you, stupid girl!"
Atiena growled and it echoed like an endless canyon. The first ping of her voice sounded like she was right behind Suri. In fact, she felt the creature's breath down the back of her neck but when she turned around, there was nothing. Suri turned back forward, closed her eyes and focused hard. She figured she was just in the inner sanctum of her mind. She had to get out of the abyssal oblivion and back to the forest clearing.
Just think of the clearing.
She tried again and again for what seemed like an hour. She clenched her eyes shut one last time and let a scream fill the void so ragged her throat hurt. She screamed her pain and frustration and sudden;y she was back inside the clearing, staring eye to eye with Atiena. The beast was noticeably pissed. Not that Suri could blame her.
"What the hell is going on, Atiena?"
"Wow, this is quite something," the voice said again.
The purple haired boy from before, the one that had threatened her class, was standing there at the edge of the clearing. Before anything could be said or could happen, there was a flash of black as Atiena rushed the clearing and disappeared into the trees where he had been standing. And just like that, Suri was alone once again inside her own mind. She could feel the ghost of movements and sensations from outside her mind but none of them made any sense to her, like the sensation of her entire body beginning to buzz and tingle. It was like the feeling you get just on this side of consciousness as you're breathing in anesthesia seconds before you go under.
The buzzing, floating feeling made her breath catch in her throat and her eyes rolled into the back of her head as she collapsed to the ground of the clearing. She thought she was passing out inside of her own inner sanctum so she expected another endless nothingness. Instead, she was blinded by light as her eyes opened, both of her arms were throbbing in immense pain, and lastly, she tasted the sweet coppery taste of blood on the back of her tongue and throat.
Her ears rang with the sound of the ending buzzer and she closed her eyes again and clenched her teeth. It was when she couldn't grit them when she realized she had flesh in her mouth and that it was her own arm. The blood she tasted was her own.
"THAT WAS ONE CRAZY ENDING TO THIS BATTLE! LET'S TAKE A LOOK AT YOUR FINAL FOUR TEAMS!"
Wait, it was over?
What the fuck happened?
Suri blinked rapidly and pulled her arm from her mouth and felt the first signs of drying blood masking her chin. She was staring forward when the throbbing pain drew her eyes to it and she found she was holding her original headband, the one she had taken from Tetsutetsu, the one Shiozaki had taken from Mineta, and surprisingly enough, a fourth one. Not far away was the purple haired boy, now getting down from his team's mount and glaring daggers at her. Was the fourth one his? His teammates looked as dazed and confused as she felt. What the hell was this guy's Quirk?
"IN FIRST PLACE, WE HAVE TEAM TODOROKI!"
So Todoroki managed to grab Deku's headband?
"K-Kuroyashi! You're bleeding really bad!" Tsunotori cried out in a panic.
Suri noticed the pain. Noticed the feeling of getting let down and her feet touching solid ground again. Everything else was still hazy. She looked down at her arms again and realized how badly she was wounded. Shit, she took a chunk out of her own arm.
"IN SECOND PLACE. WE HAVE TEAM KUROYASHI!"
"Wait, second place?" Kuroyashi questioned and turned back to face her teammates. Pony was looking at her in terror. Shiozaki also stared in disbelief and disgust. And Kamikari had a mix of happiness but also immense pain and sadness.
"Oh fuck, Kamikari! Are you okay?" she asked, quickly taking the couple steps towards him.
"Yeah," he hissed out as he tried to take a step forward. "When we were getting away from Tetsutetsu and had to stop because of the ice, I tripped and fell off of Tsunotori's horn. It doesn't feel broken, but it's bad. I should ask you the same thing, I'm not the one bleeding."
Oh yeah.
She looked over herself again.
"Yeah, I'm okay. I'll heal," she remarked, holding up her arm she had bitten to show that the puncture wounds were already slowly patching themselves back together. The other arm wasn't doing that though. "What happened after we got away from Tetsutetsu and he showed up?"
She jerked her thumb in the direction of the purple haired boy. The three of them looked at each other and then back to Suri.
"We were hoping you could tell us," Shiozaki answered. "He arrived and then we awoke as the match ended. What in the lord's name happened to you and to us?"
"I… I have no idea but I think it's his Quirk," Suri answered. Her focus fell from the others to herself as her arm began throbbing again as the scratches attempted to heal themselves and were retriggering the pain and hissing sounds again. "F-fuck!"
"Hey, are you all right?" came Tetsutetsu's gruff voice. He and his team had been coming over to join their classmates most likely. Suri had fallen to her knees and was clutching her injured left arm.
"Y-yeah, I'm fine," she choked out and turned to him squinting through one eye. "My arm's trying to heal but it's having a hard time."
"Damn! Is that where I grabbed you during the match?"
"Yup."
"It looks burned?! I don't have a Quirk like that?" he exclaimed.
Suri looked from the scarring on her arm towards the silver haired boy.
"Hardening right? Like Kirishima in my class?"
"Yeah. Sort of," he answered. "I can make my skin into metal."
"What kind of metal?" asked, narrowing her eyes, hoping and praying that her suspicion wasn't a reality.
"Mostly iron and silver, why?" he answered with confusion and worry in his voice.
Well shit.
"Fuck, that's what happened then," Suri hissed and groaned.
"What?" the six 1-B members asked in unison.
"Let's just say I'm very very allergic to silver."