We were facing off with Class 1B, to see who'd win. We could hear their conversation on the big screen monitor. Kaminari's team was getting the rundown on Shinsou's quirk.
"First I have to focus my attention on the target and think, 'This is who I'm going to brainwash. Once they respond, the brainwashing takes effect and they automatically follow my commands. A strong physical blow will break my hold, but even that depends on how I initially take control. Brainwashing multiple targets at once is probably impossible, though I haven't tried it. It'd split my focus too much."
"Still," said Tsu, putting her finger to her lips while Kaminari clapped his hands to his mouth, "that's a powerful skill to use when they don't know it's coming."
"But I can't command the target to speak," Shinsou continued, "or use their own brain in any way. For example, if I held up a sign with 'Tsuyu Asui' and said 'write this', the order would work. But I couldn't make them draw on their own knowledge to produce the name."
"It's too bad that most heroes' gimmicks become common knowledge," said Kaminari. "Basically, you want people ignoring you."
"I also have this," said Shinsou, pointing to the metal grille on his face. "Kinda like an extra set of vocal cords. My personal cords mask acts like a modulator. Since my quirk's fact doesn't work if I speak into a mic or megaphone - it distorts my voice too much - all these little plates shift around and resonate to modify how my actual voice sounds when it projects."
"Meaning?"
"It's a voice modifier, right?"
"Wow! That makes you super strong, man!"
"But this equipment is only as strong as -"
But he was interrupted by the START buzzer.
"Oh! It's starting!"
"We didn't come up with a plan so we just gotta wing it!"
They began making their way out through the battlefield. Tsu was using her camouflage technique to stick to the walls and look around while Koda did some scouting.
"Each team basically knows what the other's capable of," said Tsu. "So let's stick together and overwhelm them with our numbers."
"Shouldn't I put some distance between us so I can do my thing?" Asked Kaminari.
Don't you remember your own modifications, Kaminari? Jeez.
"Not too far, though," said Kirishima. "You don't wanna end up alone."
"True enough! Kinda scared of Shiozaki, given her range and track record with me," Kaminari sighed.
"We'll want to start by taking down whoever's got the nastiest quirk," said Shinsou, who seemed a bit irritated by Kaminari. Can't blame him.
Kaminari, however, seemed oblivious to this. "You're getting the hang of this, Shinsou!"
"That much would be obvious to anyone," Shinsou grumped back.
"Which means," Asui interrupted, "we ought to eliminate Ibara, while our foes are likely to go after Kaminari first. Or possibly Shinso, with his powerful brainwashing and relative lack of experience."
"Thanks for having my back, guys!" Kaminari cried.
"Wanna set this up so you two can go all out!" Kirishima assured him.
As he spoke, several pigeons came flying down from the sky and landed on Koda's arm; he conversed with them briefly, then said "Thank you."
"Found her already?" Asked Kirishima.
"Shiozaki is advancing on the left!" Said Koda. "She's alone. Coming toward us while using her vines to search."
"I'm not all that thrilled about going after a girl," said Kirishima. Dumb thinking, kid. "But -"
He stopped at the sound of something falling over.
From seemingly nowhere, the beast boy from Class 1B came flying around the corner; he was in full beast mode now, and had seized Tsu in one hand and Kirishima in the other!
"Huh? Kirishima!" Cried Kaminari. "Tsuyu!"
Tsu had been thrown into construction equipment.
"We took Koda's search method into account!" Cried the beast boy, Jurota Shishida. "And we knew you'd be most wary of Shiozaki! She was the bait while I snuck up on you all! Giving you time to prepare would've allowed Kaminari to do what he's best at. So a brutal head-on attack was our best option! I've got a nose for these things!"
The boy with the hard air quirk popped up from Shishida's back.
"Training my quirk gave me a new move!" He cried. "It's soundproof solitary confinement!"
His breath and formed an air prison around Koda, like a glass cube.
"Now wreck them, Shishida!" He cried, though he had not - moved his lips?
"You got it!" Cried Shishida.
"And we're done here!" Panicked Kaminari. But Shishida had stopped moving.
Of course! Shinsou!
"How're you talking with my voice?" Asked Tsuburaba, the air breath boy.
"That mask!" Midoriya cried.
"Persona chords," replied Shinsou. He made a move to use his neck scarf - perhaps as a capture device, like Sensei's?
But -
"Too slow!" Cried Tsuburaba, catching Shinsou in an air prison.
"Wake up!" Cried Tsuburaba, slapping Shishida. "They didn't mention a voice modified though…Now, wreck em for real!"
Kaminari was gearing up for an attack, but Shishida was already preparing to hit him.
"Gah, can't have that!" Cried Tsuburaba, jumping off his back.
If he hits Kaminari he'll be electrocuted, right?
But despite this, he hit him anyway, throwing him into construction equipment.
A tongue shot out and wrapped around Tsuburaba in midair while Shishida was shaking from Kaminari's electricity.
"Got you!" Cried Tsu.
"Toss him in the slammer, Tsuyu!" Cried Kaminari.
Shishida was chasing after Tsu, bearing down upon her, dwarfing her in size.
"Wha? But I shocked him!" Cried Kaminari.
Koda and Kirishima were preparing their attacks, Koda having broken out of his glass prison and Kirishima in unbreakable mode.
"Come, little ones, lend me your strength!" Koda called, summoning insects to his side.
"RED GAUNTLET!" Kirishima yelled.
Shishida, running at them, transformed back into human mode and flew between the two.
"And once more, beast mode!" He cried, and turned back, seizing them both. "You're the only one who can match my strength, Kirishima! How do you like this!?" He cried, and tossed Kirishima into the air. Towards Shiozaki. She looked up at him.
"A bereft little lamb from the heavens," she murmured, as her vine hair flew towards Kirishima, dragging him down. And shishida's hand had clamped around Koda's mouth, preventing him from speaking.
"Koda!" Cried Kaminari, tossing his electrocution disks towards Shishida, who dodged them - but turned around smelling Tsu, leaping from behind.
"I know you're there!" He cried, jumping back towards the building as Koda continued to struggle. "That's two of yours for only one of ours!" He shouted, running away through the construction equipment.
Vlad King Sensei was smiling quite smugly as he seized the commentator's microphone. "WE'VE GOT PRISONERS ALREADY! SHISHIDA AND TSUBURABA'S WILD PLOY PAID OFF QUICK!"
"My bad, Koda," Kirishima was murmuring to him.
"She got me good," Tsuburaba was looking like he was about to throw up in prison after being wrapped up in tongue.
"BOTH TEAMS HAVE THREE MEMBERS LEFT, BUT CLASS B HAS THE PSYCHOLOGICAL ADVANTAGE!" Vlad King gloated.
"During the sports festival, Bakugou cracked these things like it was nothing! That guy must've made em tougher!" Said Kaminari as Tsu broke Shinsou out of the glass prison with a pipe.
"Class B is strong," she murmured.
"WILL THESE FEARSOME MOVES FROM MY PRECIOUS STUDENTS FINALLY BE THE THING TO PUT CLASS A IN ITS PLACE?" Gloated Sensei, cheered on by Monoma.
"C"mon, you're totally biased!" Cried Mina, as she, me and Aoyama held up protest signs.
"Shishida's strength is wild," said Sero.
"His sniffer's no joke, either," said Sato.
"What now, Tsu?" Asked Kaminari. "Feels like we're losing!"
"Learning the ins and outs of Shinso's quirk took a lot of time. We just weren't prepared for them."
"I should've been quicker with my binding attack," said Shinso, fiddling with his voice changer and looking repentant. "Sorry."
"No, I should apologize," said Tsu. "For putting you on the front line. My poor strategizing was to blame."
"We can seriously get hurt during full blown battle training," said Kaminari. "But those were some slick moves you made. You even managed to save me! Guess I'm trying to say good job. You said you're not here to make friends, but I'm a fan already. You're cut out to be a hero for sure."
Damn...not a bad pep talk, I guess.
Shinsou scratched the back of his head, looking a little embarrassed. "Whatever…so what's our plan now?"
"I have an idea," said Asui. She pulled down her sleeve to reveal some kind of slime. "Kaminari, locate your target."
Meanwhile, Class B had reconvened on their side. Shiozaki looked quite upset.
"Me? The decoy for a sneak attack!? Ah, such a sinful deed deserves a good lashing."
"A lashing?" Cried Shishida. "But it worked out perfectly! Only three of em left, and if we capture two it's our win!"
"But losing Tsuburaba hurts us," said Ron, their remaining member.
"The secret's out about Shinso's voice modifier, so we just gotta snag him, and then we can totally ignore the real pain in the butt - Kaminari -" He stopped and sniffed the air.
"Hm? What's this?"
"How'd you even notice that, Tsu!? Amazing!" Kaminari was crying as their trio moved through the construction site.
"It's more amazing that you didn't notice it stick to him, Kaminari," said Asui.
His target tracker? He seriously didn't catch that? So much for that brief flash of respect.
"We've got three Asuis heading for us!" Cried Shishida.
"I shall have to teach them that such schemes are steeped in sin," said Shiozaki, her hair starting to come to life.
"Is he losing it?" Asked Tokage. "The girl's not ectoplasm sensei. There's only one Asui!"
"Midoriya," Mineta whispered to him. "Do you think it's that?"
"Yup! That's it! She must've coated the other two with it, making their scents!"
"If even we almost forgot about it, there's no way Class B would expect it!"
What're they talking about?
"Given Shishida's heightened senses," said Asui. "We should assume that he's always got a lock on our positions."
"Now we exploit that!" Said Shinso.
"He'll be smelling three Tsuyus! AS long as we're out of sight, he won't know who's who!"
"Seems like he hasn't noticed my target yet either. Not seeing any weird moves!"
"The real issue is where the other two are," said Shinsou.
"Let's take Shishida first and worry about them later," said Kaminari. "HIs nose and strength are bad news for us. By the way, you doing okay Tsu? He walloped you good."
"I managed to take that hit. But I can't go toe-to-toe with him."
"I swear on the name of vine that the schemers will be judged!" Shiozaki was crying. "Their positions now, O Apocalypse beast!"
"At ten, twelve and two o'clock, fanning out. They're on the ground closing in on us fast! And could you not call me that? It's Gevaudan!"
"Closing in?" Said Rin. "They must have our locations. None of them have a quirk that can search, right? He, Apocabeast - Hey, something's stuck to you! Isn't that one of Kaminari's -"
"Captured one," said Shiozaki.
"We don't know exactly who's gonna show up!" Cried Rin. "Get back, Shishida! Just in case it's Kaminari -"
And yeah, it was.
"Ding ding ding! Lemme tell you what you've won!" Cried Kaminari. "Since you're all together, you get a three-way zapping!"
Shiozaki threw out her hair to create a shield to deflect Kaminari's quirk.
"You sure about that?" Kaminari grinned. He was pointed now for the device on Shishida's leg. But Rin had shot out dragon scales to rip the device off of Shishida just in time.
"Huh?" Cried Kaminari.
"Close one!" Said Rin.
"More coming. Get those vines back up!"
"Very well. Their positions please, Shishi-"
She stopped.
"Hey!?" Cried Rin. "That wasn't me talking just now!"
Shisnou, indeed, was hiding close by.
A few minutes before, we had seen them making this rather intriguing plan.
"Yikes, look! All the vines coming from Shishida's location! They must be together! "
"If we get caught, it's over. Do we retreat?" Asked Shinsou.
"Wait! I've got a nasty plan. How about I get myself caught on purpose!? They're wary of me, and I'm the last one they want, right? Plus during the Sports Festival she had to use a whole tone of vines to block my shocks. If I charge in their as a mark, she'll have fewer vines to search for you guys with. That's when you two sneak up from behind!"
So he can strategize when he wants to.
"Shishida, you got a lock on them?" Cried Rin.
Shishida did not respond, simply pointing.
"Pointing!? Just tell me, man! You're getting too paranoid. IS one of them over there or what!? Hey, talk to me? Ayah! I know it's safer when we can see each other's lips, but -"
He threw scales towards Shiozaki, but Tsu had gotten their first and swept Shiozaki off the ground with her tongue.
"There we go," she murmured. "She can't be hit my your scale bullets over there."
Rin was aiming his attacks at Tsu now. "Shishida, Asui's hiding! Forget Shinso, give me Asui's position!"
He refused to speak -
And Asui came in with a powerful kick from above, taking out Rin.
Shishida was now tearing up the construction site, headed towards Shinsou's hiding place. He had him cornered - but Shinsou at last threw out his capture scarf to pull down construction equipment on Shishida's head. Just like Sensei would.
But Shishida was still headed towards him. Rin was flying through the air towards him. "Down, Apocabeast!" He cried. But Shishida did not turn - at least, not in time. HE must have assumed once again that this was Shinsou. And Rin flew into his head, knocking him out.
"Pardon me," said Tsu.
"Man, Shinso's one tough customer. HE's definitely no handicap," said Mineta.
"Asui and Kaminari thought on their feet and made good use of Shinso's abilities!" Cried Midoriya. "Wow!"
"Lagging behind us?" She was saying to Shinso. "Not at all. You're quite powerful, Shinsou."
"No. I have a ways to go. Relying on others isn't good enough. I need to go pro on my strengths alone."
All of Class 1B was in prison. And so,
"GRR, MATCH 1 GOES TO CLASS A AND SHINSO," grumbled Vlad King.
Not bad, Kaminari. Didn't think you'd be the first side of ours to win.
League of Villains Hideout
"I don't remember much about my life before meeting my master and you," Shigaraki was explaining.
"Yeah, I'm aware," said the Doctor, his glasses lighting up. Shigaraki took one of the severed hands out of his pocket.
"And yet when I equip everyone all over me, my rage boils over. I can't help it. Ever since THAT day, I've done a lot of thinking. All I can really remember is my master holding me. Before then I'd been an empty shell - completely hollow."
Spinner's expression changed.
"It all came rushing back to me in fragments like movie snippets. An inexplicable frustration so intense it made me feel nauseous. So when I have the whole family on me I feel so sick that I want to vomit, but I also kinda feel at peace. It's weird! All I've got are these fragmented images, yet it's like there's a lump of lead deep down in my heart. Providing endless source of that rage that bursts out. It's like I'll never feel good again. Even if hero society comes crashing down, even if I rise to rule the underworld, that weight in my heart is never gonna go away. It's why I hate everything. Every living, breathing thing just rubs me the wrong way. So why not destroy it all? Why not destroy everything? I know you see it too. The beautiful horizon, just waiting for us. So lend me a hand, won't you doctor? Heaven and hell.- I'll show you!"
"What a childish daydream! Saying all that with such a straight face was quite impressive! Very well, Tomura Shigaraki! I'll help you out, so show me you mean it! Prove to me that you can make your pipe dreams a reality!"
"So easygoing," said Compress.
"Tomura seems kind of disturbed," said Toga. "Wait. You want to destroy even the things I love?"
"My allies are exceptions. You guys should get what you want in life."
"Ooh hoo!" Cried Toga.
"Ha ha ha. You've passed with flying colors, Shigaraki!"
"You were testing me?"
"Sure. I wanted to see how much you've grown. But the plan was always to help you out, and these little ones are the first thing that'll do just that. AS well as some research I've put together, all to give you power. But I can't give you that second thing yet, because without a doubt you're all weak. You'll need to prove yourselves first. The big guy, simple as he is, is a different story. Unlike me he hasn't accepted you yet. That's right. Make Gigantomachia submit to you and everything Have will be yours to use as you see fit."
"Right. This sure has been one long tutorial," said Shigaraki.
"Do what you want, Mr. Leader, but I ain't helping," said Dabi.
"You're just pouting cuz your fire didn't work," said Toga.
"Shut up, you lunatic. I've found a good potential ally, so I'm putting my time toward that. I'm not about to go out in a blaze of glory beside our leader here. I'm looking out for myself, okay?"
"Bring this ally, then," said Shigaraki. "I'll be waiting."
"Perfect, Dabi! You can help me test out a high end Nomu!" Said the Doctor. "I know just the one! The perfect match for your…let's say aesthetics! You two will get along great!"
"Did you even pay attention?"
"Well?" Said Shigaraki. "GO on. Send us back. I'm feeling like I could take on the world now."
"Use these to keep in touch with me," said the Doctor,and an arm shot out from his chair while a tiny Nomu with. Child's legs hopped into his laugh. The arm handed the League Communicators.
"Here we go, Johnny. Back to Gigantomachia they go!"
The black sludge sent the League back to confront the massive being.
"Hey, it's the return of the future king!" Cried Shigaraki.
"A KING MUST INSPIRE DREAD. MUST BE ADMIRED. MUST BE STRONG."
