Chapter 10: Battle Trials
Joey
Everyone in the Observation Room watched as the first Battle Trial between Izumi Kota and Takota Chiaki as Villains versus Kuroda Sadako and Toyota Akira as Heroes. Kota and Takota immediately moved the weapon to as high a room as they could manage, while Kuroda, looking like an onryo ghost and Toyota looking like a yellow speedster, made their way slowly and cautiously through the building. "Do we have audio, Sensei?" Jougo asked. "Alright," Shinso-sensei said, and pressed a button so they could hear the other students. Kota told Takota, "Alright, I think the best defense is a good offense. We should go on the attack. Go down one floor and take different rooms and hit them from behind."
Takota considered this, and said, "Alright, sounds good to me. I just hope Toyota-kun doesn't speed ahead of us. If he does, the Weapon will be defenseless." Kota nodded at this and said, "I think it's a risk we'll have to take. We can't fight them head on, Toyota-kun's got superspeed and Kuroda-kun can make ghosts, kind of. I don't know about you, but I don't think my Quirk can counter that head on." Takota nodded, and they headed down to make their ambush.
Meanwhile, Toyota and Kuroda were talking. "I think I should go ahead and scout things out," Toyota said. Kuroda cackled like a witch and said, "No need. For I can summon a spirit to aid us! Oh come, ye spirit of the ancient shinobi Sarutobi Sasuke and aid me in battle!" Blue energy swirled around Kuroda, looking like a small fire at first, before it grew and transformed into a shinobi warrior with a sword on his back. "Go forth, of great Sarutobi, and scout out our enemies!" Kuroda ordered, and the image of Sarutobi Sasuke ran ahead of them.
"How many of those can you make?" Toyota asked her. Kuroda answered, "Only three so far. But the less I make, the further they can go, I made Sarutobi go ten kilometers from me once, but the more I make, the less far they can go, the distance is cut in half with every image I make." Toyota nodded and asked, "Can he fight?" Kuroda nodded, "Yeah, my spirits can fight just like a normal person, but, if they're injured then they disappear."
Everyone watched the screen as Kuroda's image of Sarutobi Sasuke ran through the building at near lightning speed, checking the rooms for Kota and Takota as well as the Weapon. Meanwhile, Takota had her tentacles on the ground, and with a mic that was given to them by Shinso-sensei she told Kota, "Something is coming up! Get ready, it's fast, it might be Toyota-kun!" Kota grunted, "Alright, as soon as he's here, we'll get him. I'll slick up the floor with water, and you can grab him!"
Kota opened his door and coated the hallway floor with water before quickly getting back in the room. Not ten seconds later, the spirit of Sarutobi Sasuke came running through the hall, the water not affecting it at all. Takota quickly opened the door and struck out with two of her tentacles, only for the spirit to slice them up with its sword. Takota gasped in pain, and Kota emerged and blasted at the spirit with water. Sarutobi dodged his water and went at him and kicked him in his head, but his helmet protected him from being knocked out. Takota recovered and with her six remaining tentacles she wrapped up the spirit and slammed it into the ground.
The spirit of Sarutobi Sasuke disappeared, and Kota said, "Was that one of Kuroda-kun's spirits?" Takota said, "Had to have been!"
"HALT VILLAINS!" Toyota yelled as he skated up, the wheels on his feet letting him move at over 90km an hour. Behind him a samurai spirit ran up, wielding what looked like two bokken wood swords. Kota blasted water out of his hands in short bursts like bullets, and Takota whipped her tentacles around. The samurai easily dodged their attacks, and Toyota quickly got past them. "NO DAMN IT!" Kota yelled and tried to run after him. The samurai spirit closed the distance and knocked Takota out with a blow to her stomach and went after Kota. Kota barely dodged the samurai spirit's strike and by sheer luck hit it with a punch to the stomach that made it disappear. "Not bad," Kuroda said as she walked up, "Not many people can handle the great Miyamoto Musashi. But how will you fair against the mighty Benkei!"
Kota ran at Kuroda and as she started to speak, he blasted her full blast with his water, knocking her down. He quickly got on top of her and wrestled her until he could handcuff her. Unfortunately, right after he did that, the alarm went out and Shinso-sensei announced, "Heroes win. Toyota-kun as captured the Weapon." Everyone watched as Toyota came back and helped Takota up while Kota helped Kuroda and uncuffed her. Kuroda swept her hair back to show her cute face, and she was smiling, "Good job, Kota-kun! You're really strong!"
"Uh…thanks," Kota said, and people thought he was blushing beneath his helmet. "Alright, come to the Observation Room Group One. It's Group Two's turn to go." Kota, Takota, Toyota, and Kuroda made their way to the Observation Room, and Jougo and Jorogumo as well as Daiji and Pellegrini headed outside to take their places.
They got time to make their plans and the Villain Team to take their positions, and Shinso-sensei announced, "BEGIN!"
Once Jougo and Jorogumo were in the building, they started running, once they were at the third floor Jougo told his teammate, "Jorogumo-kun, make some webs, that'll slow them down." Jorogumo said, "Right," and jumped onto the wall and then another, dispensing webs from his abdomen like a real spider with each jump, until he had a complicated pattern. "I can do this about a dozen more times, depending on how thick you want the webs, Higashikata-kun," Jorogumo told Jougo. "Alright, I think we'll head to the Weapon, as we go, I want you to make five more webs, as thick as this one you made. And then, on the same floor as the Weapon, make the thickest web you can make. We're going to see what we can do about slowing them down. And if we must fight; I'll be our last line of defense, do our best to run out the clock," Jougo explained. Jorogumo nodded, and as they made their way to the Weapon, the spider boy spun webs as instructed.
As they were preparing their defenses, Pellegrini and Daiji made their own plans. "Pellegrini-san," Daiji asked as they entered, "How strong would you say you are when you use your Quirk?" Pellegrini answered, "I'd say about one hundred times stronger than my normal form. The last time I checked, I can lift up about 45 kilograms (100 pounds) over my head, and with my Quirk I can lift up to 4500 kilograms (9921 pounds)." Daiji nodded and said, "That's stronger than my Quirk. I can only lift up with Telekinesis as much as I can lift with my body, about 226 kilograms (500 pounds)." Pellegrini looked at him and grabbed his arm, "WOW! You look soft, but you got some serious muscle under the fat!"
Daiji pulled his arm back and said, "Please don't do that again without my permission. And yes, my family are farmers, and as the only child I often worked hard. I saw that my Quirk became stronger as I did and worked to become quite strong. If you can, you should lead our mission, I'm certain that Jorogumo-san will lay web traps. I will assist in capturing he and Higashikata-san." Pellegrini nodded, and then changed. She grew 61cm (2ft) taller, and her muscles expanded until she stood a powerful 159kg (350 pounds), and drew a sword from her side, though it now looked more like a knife in her larger hands.
She lifted her shield, although it barely covered her torso now, and led the way into the building with Daiji following close behind. As they encountered webs, she cut through them like butter with her blade. She was barely slowed down at all as she led the way closer to the Weapon, the webs led the way to it. "This is too easy!" Pellegrini said with a grin. That was the last mistake she made.
Jougo's Shining Knight burst through the wall and knocked her back with its sword, she barely blocked it's strike with her shield. Daiji tried to stop it with his Telekinesis, but the spectral-like Knight was unaffected by his Quirk, and he yelled, "Oh no!" Shining Knight floated to him and subdued him, and Jougo handcuffed him before he could fight back. "Give it up, Sakura-chan," Jougo told Pellegrini, "I'd rather not hurt a lovely lady like you."
Pellegrini smiled but prepared to fight anyway, "You're sweet, but I'm not one to surrender!" She charged at Jougo faster than he thought she would, and he barely blocked her sword strike with Shining Knight. Jougo moved to the side as his Quirk and Pellegrini dueled, and then lifted his own shield. "Sorry babe!" he yelled as he ran at her as hard as he could and hit her side. Pellegrini was knocked over slightly, only enough to make her step to the side, but it was enough for Shining Knight to hit her with his own shield, knocking her down.
Jougo quickly handcuffed her as well, and she returned to her normal form. "Damn it! That was good," she complimented Jougo as Shinso-sensei announced, "The Villains win. The Heroes were captured. Return to the Observation Room." Jougo and Jorogumo helped their opponents up and Jougo said, "So…Sakura, you mind if I call you that?" Pellegrini smiled at him and said, "Sure, Jougo. But don't think I'm easy just because we're using first names." Jougo stopped for a second and lifted the visor of his helmet, "Really!?" Jorogumo pushed him and said, "Let's go, lover boy! We got to let other people do the challenge."
Everyone in the second group came into the Observation Room where Joey and Jougo had a high five and shared it with Jorogumo, "Good job guys!" Rukia and Eri did the same for their friend and looked over at the third group going out: Nekoto Goro and Gomu Keiko as Villains against Hikari Aoi and Mori Haru as Heroes.
Nekoto and Gomu quickly headed into the building, and Nekoto commented, "Hey, Gummy-chan, what do you think we should expect?" Gomu responded, "My name is Gomu, Gomu Keiko. Alright?" Nekoto nodded, "Gomu…got it. Still, any ideas about what we should do about the Dark Girl and Tree Boy?" Gomu thought about this, "I don't think there's many plants here, so Mori-kun will be weak, I think. It'll be Aoi-chan that will be the real problem with her lasers." Nekoto smirked, "Aoi-chan huh? First name basis already?" Gomu ignored him and said, "Alright, Catboy, what can you do that'll help us win?" Nekoto smirked and then bent backwards until his head was touching the ground, and then bent more to look up and grab his ankles, then he stood up and lifted one of his legs until it was almost straight up on the ground, "I'm a flexible guy, I can dodge anything."
He then lifted his hands and claws emerged from his fingertips, "I can also leave a deep scratch. Although, I don't like messing up cute girls." Gomu rolled her eyes, "Then I'll take care of Aoi-chan, and you can take on Mori-san." Nekoto nodded, "Sounds good to me. Let's just do this here, Gummy." Gomu groaned but stopped and got ready to fight. Meanwhile, Hikari and Mori were also talking. "So, Mori, how can you fight if there's no plants?" Hikari asked him. Mori smiled and patted his leafy robe, "This isn't just clothing. There are seeds in it that I can make grow, a special breed of kudzu I bred. I just need a minute to feed them some energy and I'll be ready."
Everyone in the Observation Room watched what could only be described as an easy win. Mori marched forward, and when Nekoto ran at him, he was immediately wrapped up in Mori's kudzu, and Gomu barely had a chance to move before Hikari hit her with a laser to knock her over, and she was tied up with kudzu as well, and they were both handcuffed. Shinso-sensei announced, "Heroes win. The Villains have been captured. You know the drill."
The third group went in, and Hikari was comforting Gomu as best she could, while Nekoto was sulking the entire time. "That was fast!" Eri said in shock, looking at Mori. Mori smiled, "I'm just that good." Joey noted Mori's power and thought to himself, I hope I never have to fight him alone…I don't think I can handle that kudzu.
As Rukia and Eri got ready to go, Joey and Jougo gave them both thumbs up and the girls smiled and returned them. The battle would be Mine Sakkie and Asui Satsuki as Villains against Yamato Rukia and Aizawa Eri as Heroes. As the girls all walked out of the Observation Room, Mine smiled and said, "I hope that this will be fun." Eri smirked at her and said, "Don't think you can beat us easily, Asui-san, Mine-san."
Mine smiled mischievously, and said, "Care to bet on that?" Rukia looked suspicious and asked, "What're the stakes?" Mine answered, "Whoever wins, gets to go on a date with Joey-chan." Asui actually looked curious at that, and put her finger to her chin like her older sister would, "He is attractive." Eri started to blush, but turned away, and in the Observation Room, Joey suddenly had a lot of eyes on him. He just looked like he wished he could turn invisible just then. "You playboy!" Kurosawa muttered. "Hey! It wasn't my idea!" Joey quickly sputtered, only to hear Eri back on the ground say, "I'm not taking that bet. Joey isn't a piece of meat or a toy." Rukia nodded, "What she said."
Mine just shrugged and said, "Oh well. So much for making this interesting. Let's go, Satsuki-chan." The two pretend-Villains headed into the designated building, and Eri was blushing furiously, and muttered "That…that…just who does she…GAH!" Rukia tapped her shoulder and said, "Focus, Eri. She's just getting into your head. Don't forget, she wants to win this thing. And if we're not on our A-game, we'll lose." Eri nodded and took a few deep breaths to focus, and Shinso-sensei announced, "Begin."
"Rukia," Eri said, "We need to worry the most about Asui-chan. She can camouflage herself and knock us out with a touch because of her Quirk. She'll be the bigger threat, I think. We need to keep our eyes and ears open for her. As for Mine-san…We'll deal with her when we reach her." Rukia nodded and the two of them headed into the building, Eri with her naginata at the ready while Rukia had turned one of her arms into a shield and the other into a mallet head. Slowly the two of them advanced through the building, eyes and ears wide open and looking for Asui Satsuki. They didn't find her, and soon entered the room where the Weapon was.
There in front of it stood Mine, bold as could be, posing like a model. "It's over, Villain! Surrender!" Rukia declared. Mine laughed, and then her green eyes turned hot pink and she said, "Rukia-chan, capture Eri-chan for me." Rukia's eyes turned hot pink like Mine's and she struck at Eri with her mallet hand. Eri barely jumped away from her friend and confusedly said, "Rukia, you like girls!?" The brainwashed Rukia didn't answer, and attacked her again, turning both her hands into mallets and swinging at her friend.
Mine watched as Eri did her best to deflect her friend's attacks and laughed, "Oh this is just beautiful! I admit, I'm a shameless flirt, but it's for a good reason. It's so I can see who my Quirk will work on. I watch everything and everyone, all see who's showing signs of attraction to me. I admit, there are some of our classmates I can't control, but I knew who was and wasn't usable by the end of our first day. I've heard that you two along with Jougo-chan and Joey-chan grew up together, and you had no idea that she was a lesbian! Oh, that's just rich!"
As she was taunting her, Eri was doing her best to fight Rukia. She was holding back though, not wanting to hurt her friend, all the while trying to think of what she could do to win. Eri then got an idea and focused, and her natural horn started to glow. A golden beam of light shot out of it and hit Rukia. Eri stopped after a second, and Rukia's hot pink eyes returned to their normal black. "Eri, what happened?" Rukia asked. "Not now, just get to the Weapon!" Eri yelled as Mine's eyes turned hot pink again and she yelled, "Rukia-chan! Stop right there!"
The brainwashed girl's eyes turned hot pink again, and she stopped, but this time Eri was ready, and she ran straight at Mine. Mine backed away from Eri, but her high heels made it difficult, and she fell. Eri stood over her and said, "Surrender, Mine-san! You're defeated!" Mine looked at her and smugly said, "Oh Satsuki-chaaan."
Eri however was ready, and quickly twirled her naginata around a full circle around herself, and heard a surprised, "KERO!" from the camouflaged Asui Satsuki as she was struck with the flat end of Eri's naginata and revealed herself. Eri followed up with a hard side kick to the frog girl's stomach, knocking her to the ground. Eri didn't waste her time and ran straight at the Weapon and grabbed it. Shinso-sensei announced, "The Heroes win. The Weapon has been captured. You know what to do." Eri sighed, and then saw that Rukia was still brainwashed. "Mine-san, fix Rukia, please," she asked. Mine shrugged and snapped her fingers, and Rukia's eyes returned to normal, again. "What happened?" she asked.
"You were brainwashed by Mine-san's Quirk," Eri explained. Mine sauntered over and told Rukia, "I hope we can get closer soon. You were a big help for me today. Ta!" Rukia's clay-like skin darkened, and Eri said, "I didn't know you liked girls." Rukia just said, "I…wasn't totally sure until now…" Asui Satsuki walked over and said, "Good job, Eri-chan. How did you know where I was?" Eri shrugged and said, "I just got lucky. I figured you were close to me, and just blindly swung." Asui nodded and commented, "That's some luck." The girls all returned to the Observation Room, where Joey and Jougo congratulated them on their win. "Alright, Joey," Eri told the last of their group, "Go get 'em!" Jougo high fived him and said, "You got this man!" And Rukia said, "Good luck!"
Joey smiled as he, Awata, Kurosawa, and Kasai all headed out to the designated building. "Let's move, Awata-san! I got a plan in mind," Joey said once they reached the building, and the two of them ran. "Alright, Awata-san, our first move needs to be moving the Weapon to a spot that far from windows. Kurosawa said he can make portals to anywhere he can see or has been, I think he can open a portal and poke his head through to look in windows. If he does that, he can make another portal to the Weapon and bring it to him." Awata agreed, "That sounds logical. So, we need to find a windowless room in the building, or put it in a hallway if there's no such room."
"Right!" Joey said, and they reached the Weapon, and Joey immediately took off his sandals and transformed, his dark skin become covered with white fur as a tail sprouted from his back and his legs turned into wolf legs while his jaw turned into an underbite with fangs sticking out and his nails turned into two-inch long claws. He looked like a white version of the Wolfman from the 1941 film. Joey lifted up the weapon and Awata started running, looking for a windowless room. They found it five doors down the hall, and Joey placed the Weapon inside it.
"Alright, Awata-san, how well can you fight, hand-to-hand?" Joey asked his partner. "I'm a Second Dan blackbelt," Awata told him. "Alright…be careful against Kasai. I've fought him a few times, he's a Fifth Dan blackbelt, and he's a former national Karate champion, middle school division. He's as fast as lightning, and hits hard. Focus on Kurosawa, I think that he has the advantage with his portals. He's the bigger threat," Joey figured. Awata nodded, "Alright. So, what do we do now then?" "Begin!" the voice of Shinso-sensei sounded, and Joey said, "Let's go face them." Awata nodded, and they headed to the stairs to confront Kurosawa and Kasai.
While Joey and Awata made their plans, their opponents did the same. Kurosawa said, "Listen, Kasai, unless they're idiots, they've moved the Weapon. With my portals I could look into the windows, so it's probably in an inner room, away from any windows. This means we'll need to fight them to reach the Weapon." Kasai smiled and formed a fiery staff with his Quirk, "Bring 'em on! I still need to decide things with Freeman-kun!" Kurosawa sighed and said, "I suppose you must. Distract them for me, and I'll teleport them back here. And then, we'll get the Weapon."
"Sounds like a plan to me," Kasai said, and they started running into the building.
It was almost a complete surprise when they were confronted by Awata and Joey on the second floor! "Give it up, Heroes!" Joey recovered first, "You'll never find the Weapon!" Kasai pointed his flaming staff at his opponents and said, "Evil will never triumph as long as Archangel is here!" Kasai ran at them, swinging his staff, while Awata swung his arms and sent bubble flying from his skin. Kasai dodged his bubbles nimbly, and Joey ran in front of Awata and clawed at Kasai, making him stop centimeters from Joey's claws. "Keep them there Kasai!" Kurosawa said, and Joey smelled something, like the smell of hot metal. "Awata move!" Joey yelled, and jumped away just as a portal appeared on the floor and sucked both Kasai and Awata in. Joey dug his claws into a wall and looked at Kurosawa.
"You and me, Kurosawa!" Joey growled as he jumped off the wall. Kurosawa closed the portal Awata and Kasai fell through, and then formed another portal in front of himself. Joey stopped himself from running into that portal, only for Kurosawa to move into it and appear behind Joey and start running. Joey turned around and yelled, "You punk!" and ran after him.
Meanwhile, Kasai and Awata arrived outside the building, and were temporarily confused. "Whoa, that was a trip," Awata said as he shook his head to clear it. "Yeah," Kasai said, then turned to Awata, "But we still have unfinished business!" Kasai turned his flaming staff into a pair of small kama scythes and he ran at Awata. Awata barely jumped back in time to send bubbles into Kasai's stomach, knocking him back. Kasai smiled and said, "Alright! Let's do this thing!" Awata sent more bubbles his way, and Kasai was ready now, slicing through them with his fiery kama. Awata sent bubbles at him as fast as he could, but Kasai kept on coming at him.
Meanwhile, in the building, Joey was running after Kurosawa through the halls. He always caught up with Kurosawa, but before he could catch him, the skinny boy would jump through a portal and regain distance. Whenever he stopped to check a door, Joey regained ground, forcing him to keep moving. Joey was getting frustrated, but he could tell that Kurosawa was quickly running low on stamina. He was moving slower, and he could hear his breathing get heavier.
After the twelfth time that Kurosawa escaped through a portal, Joey spotted him on the other end of the hall, standing still and leaning against a wall. "Tired already, fool!?" Joey said, remembering that he was a Villain in this test. "Just stay right there, and I'll finish this fast." Kurosawa looked at Joey then and said, "Take this!" Kurosawa swung his fist, and his arm went through a portal and hit Joey square in his face. Joey was knocked back in surprise, and then felt another teleported punch to his stomach, and a kick to his back. Joey stumbled, but didn't fall, and barely avoided falling into a portal. He jumped up in time to avoid another kick and clung to the ceiling.
Kurosawa stopped making portals and was leaning on the wall. Joey seized his chance and fell from the ceiling and ran straight at him. Joey got up to Kurosawa and slammed his palm into his stomach. Kurosawa fell to his knees and started choking. Joey got concerned, and then was surprised when Kurosawa tore off his mask and puked!
"Oh man! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to hit you that hard!" Joey quickly said as he kneeled down to Kurosawa's level and put a hand on his shoulder. "You fought hard, man. Just surrender, you can't be expected to do more," Joey told him. Kurosawa spat on the ground and looked at Joey. What Joey saw then could only be called pure hatred. Kurosawa yelled, "Don't you pity me!" and then a portal opened beneath Joey and he fell through before he could respond. He landed right outside the building and watched as Kasai knocked out Awata with a roundhouse kick to the head.
The short karate champion spotted his rival and said, "Let's go, Freeman-kun!" Joey sniffed the air and smelled Kurosawa, and he was getting close to the Weapon! Joey jumped up to the right floor and broke his way into a window. He ran with all his might through the building, following Kurosawa's scent. He entered the room just as Kurosawa reached the Weapon! "NO WAY!" Joey yelled in English as the alarm went off and Shinso-sensei declared, "The Heroes win. The Weapon has been captured. Kurosawa, report to the Nurses for injuries. That's it for the test, time to hit the showers and change back into your uniforms."
Kurosawa fell on all fours once Shinso-sensei announced the end of the test. "You got me, man, that was good," Joey told his opponent. Kurosawa looked at him and said, "Don't pity me, damn it. I don't need your help." Kurosawa forced himself to stand up and walked away slowly. Joey shook his head and wondered, What is that guy's problem with me?
