A/N: Sorry for the late upload, everyone! Been something of a stressful couple of day, but never fear, BECAUSE I AM HERE!
Sorry, that was honestly the only joke I could think of. On a slightly more serious side, I owe a good number of you guys 'thanks' for taking the whole of Your Hero Academia up to over 400 reviews! Y'all are awesome!
Class A vs. Energon
The battle group did their best to move with relative silence throughout the fake city that was the battlegrounds on which they would face their most dangerous classmate. Not only was he immensely powerful, his cunning and judgement allowed him to fight monsters on the same level as villains capable of putting the number one hero in the hospital. It was a daunting prospect to take him on, even when they had over twenty heroes on their side working to take him down.
"Anyone see anything yet?" Yang asked after about five minutes of walking.
"No," answered Jiro, using the headpieces that they had been given for the exercise. "He must not be in my quadrant, cos I'm only hearing Aoyama and Sero, here."
"I got nothing," Sato said.
"Same," added Shoji. One by one, the members of the rescue team reported being unable to find a sign of their opponent.
"Well, we kinda expected that," Mina muttered. "He's probably sizing us up, trying to figure out how to take out each group."
"Hopefully Kacchan can draw him out before too much time passes," Izuku said in a lowered tone.
"Don't forget that if he makes it out of the city with even one citizen, he wins," Weiss reminded everyone over the radio. "Rescue teams, make sure that you're keeping an eye on the exits as you progress through the city."
"We know," Asui croaked. "He won't get past us, ribbit."
The city continued to be quiet for another ten minutes, the only tangible sound from a distance being Bakugo's explosions in the air, and no sign of the hostages anywhere. The longer the lack of action went on, the more that the tension in the atmosphere seemed to thicken. They all knew that Kurai was probably messing with them, but it was hard not to get nervous, regardless.
Just as Iida was about to call for another check-in, the radio delivered Shoji's voice into their ears. "I got something," he said, causing everyone to halt in place where they were. "A fashion shop on the east side, third floor. Movement by one of the windows, along with blue and orange matching his costume."
"Can you make a positive ID?" Blake asked as the combat group started to head in the indicated direction.
"I didn't see his face, but like I said, clothing matched, and he was moving," the tentacle hero answered confidently. "No one else has his color scheme, and the others are with me."
"We're heading over to check it out, standby," Iida said as his team began to sprint toward the eastern part of the city.
"You extras stay outta this!" Bakugo's voice in the com devices startled most of his peers, but they weren't exactly surprised. "Saiyaman's mine!"
"What do we do, Iida?" Mina asked as they ran.
"For now, we let Bakugo engage on his own," the class president decided. "Like Midoriya said, we can observe and gain intelligence from their conflict."
"Seems a little cold to just let him fight on his own," Ruby commented with a little frown.
"It's how he prefers to operate," Kirishima told her. "Don't worry, though. We'll charge in as soon as it looks like he's out of his depth."
Bakugo landed on the roof of the building that Shoji had described and proceeded to make his way inside from the only door on top of it. He moved with a surprising amount of stealth, his ears on alert for any sudden noises, and his lightning-fast reflexes ready to trigger his quirk at the first provocation. He moved into the appropriate floor and noticed the open layout of the clothing section that he had found himself in. There was a faint humming sound coming from the section near the windows, so he narrowed his eyes and approached with his right palm aimed in front of him.
Once he had cleared the last aisle, he let out a noise of disgust. "Squidward doesn't know what he's talking about," he growled as he lowered his gauntlet. "It's a dress on a hanger in front of a fan that's making it move. Saiyaman played us."
"Like the cheap kazoo you are."
Bakugo whirled around and aimed his gauntlet at the source of the voice, only to have a bolt of energy collide with the pin of his weapon, followed by a blinding explosion that blasted apart half of the third floor and sent Bakugo flying out the building and into the open air.
Kurai lowered his arms from in front of his face as the smoke began to clear, checking to make sure that his classmate had been ejected before he nodded in satisfaction. Since Bakugo had been using his quirk and moving around a fair amount since the beginning of the exercise, it had been reasonable of him to assume that his gauntlets would have been filled up with his nitro-sweat. Normally, Bakugo could use that to his advantage by unleashing a massive explosion without risk of harm to himself, but against Kurai, it was nothing less than a liability. An energon blast was more than enough to trigger an explosion on impact, one that Bakugo had absolutely no control over- a fact that Kurai had exploited twice before, though never on this scale.
As the boy walked away from the blast sight, his ears detected the voices of his other classmates drawing closer, no doubt to try and corner him into a fight that he knew could well end with his loss if he wasn't very careful. Need to thin them out more before moving to open combat, he thought as he pulled up his map to plot his best method of escape.
The second that the explosion ripped through the air, Ruby had taken off in a blur of petals to catch Bakugo before he was slammed into a nearby building. They hoped that he wasn't unconscious from the blast, or else their first casualty would be one of their heaviest hitters.
"How is he?" Iida asked once they saw Ruby catch the flying student and land safely on another building.
"Don't ask about me!"
"He's fine," Mina giggled as they continued to run toward the building. "But damn, that was over a lot faster than I thought it would be."
"What happened?" Yaoyorozu asked. "Was it an ultimate move?"
"He blasted my friggin' gauntlet," Bakugo snarled angrily. "Caused all the stored-up sweat inside to detonate before I could use it on him."
"Oof," Yang winced.
"This is why you should wait for backup," Todoroki deadpanned.
"Don't tell me what to do, Icy-Hot!"
"What do we do now, Iida?" Izuku asked. "Knowing Kurai, he's probably making his way somewhere else right now to plan his next ambush."
"Does anyone have eyes on him?" their leader asked in response.
"I see him!" Ruby declared. "He's heading west on the rooftops!"
"Pursue!" Iida ordered. "We'll catch up to you, but see if you can head him off! Uraraka, get your team to Bakugo's location and administer first aid!"
"You got it!"
"I don't need help!"
"Let's go, ladies!" Yang grinned as she leaped into the air and started to use her gauntlets to propel herself at high speeds in order to catch up to Ruby, who was already a red blur in the air above them.
Todoroki began to slide on his ice while Mina kept pace with her acid skates and Izuku used Full Cowling to start leading the pack alongside Iida. Since Kirishima and Kaminari lacked any sort of speed enhancements, Weiss used a trio of hexes to allow them and Blake to run as fast Todoroki could move with his ice.
Kurai made a slight noise of irritation as he realized that his classmates were moving too fast for him to lose them like he had originally planned. He still didn't want to risk an all-out battle against ten of his friends, but it was becoming clear that some sort of clash was about to be inevitable.
He cleared two more rooftops before sliding to stop on the building where he had prepared a certain contingency and turned around to wait for his opponents to close in. The second that Ruby touched down on the building, he drew his sword and held it in a ready position, even as she unfolded her monster scythe and held it behind her. "Nice try with the getaway, but you can't outrun me," she said with a confident smile. "And even if you can, the others'll be here soon."
"I'm well aware," Kurai replied in a casual tone. "That doesn't bother me."
"It should," Ruby said, her smile starting to fade as she realized that Kurai's calm didn't seem to be a bluff. "Why aren't you nervous?"
"I don't have a reason to be," he answered in the same placid tone. "I have you where I want you, and soon the others will be right where I want them."
"Guys, are you hearing this?" Ruby asked as her body began to tense up.
"Yeah," Izuku answered her. "What's he doing right now?"
"He's got his sword out, but he's just standing there," the small girl answered as she continued to eye her opponent with growing apprehension. "He doesn't look bothered at all."
"Sounds like he has a trap set up to me," Mina told them. "Kurai doesn't bluff. If he's that calm, he's got some kind of plan up his sleeve."
"So… what?" Ruby asked nervously. "Do we let him go? Do I fight him?"
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Kurai said as he reached behind himself and pulled out a remote device. "One of the hostages is tied up right below where you're standing. Make a move I don't like, and they go boom."
Ruby froze in place, which gave Kurai an opening to dart forward and slam a side kick into her stomach that sent her flying to crash right into her sister, who had just been about to land, sending them both flying backward and down onto the streets just in time for the others to catch up to them. Seeing them down below, Kurai held up the remote for them to see before putting it back in his costume. "I've told Rose where to find one of the hostages," he announced, loud enough for them to hear him from the rooftop. "The detonator I have works anywhere in this city, so here's what I'm gonna offer. The lot of you can come up and save the citizen that I can blow up anytime I choose by taking them all the way outside the city limits, or you can come at me, and the janitors of this building will scraping pieces of the innocent party off the walls for weeks. Same thing happens if any number less than the totality of your party escorts the citizen off the premises. After all, you'll want to assure them of their safety, won't you?"
"Damn, he's good at this," Kaminari muttered as he helped Yang to her feet.
"We can't just take you at your word for it," Todoroki called back up. "We need a visual confirmation that you have the hostage on hand."
"They're tied to a desk by the window facing you guys," Kurai responded readily. "Northeast corner." Sure enough, now that they were looking for it, the young heroes could see the mannequin propped up in a chair with a bomb vest attached to it.
"Let's do as he says, for now," Iida said in a lowered tone. "Once we're out of his line of sight, we can send some of us to double back on another route. Yaoyorozu and Tokoyami are in this area, so they can keep an eye on him for us until we're ready for another attack."
"What if he triggers the bomb once we lose him?" Weiss asked. "We still can't just believe that he's going to do what he says he is."
"Good point," Izuku said with a frown. "And I doubt he'd just let us have the detonator."
"Let's see if he'll let us disarm the bomb before we leave," Mina suggested. "He could still take them out if we backstab him, but he'd have to stay close by to do it."
"He knows that, but the tradeoff of one citizen for his chance to escape is probably worth it to him," Blake said.
"You guys done yet?" Kurai called down. "I'm being very patient, but my trigger finger is getting itchy."
"We'll let you go, but only if you let us disable the bomb first," Iida called back. "We need some kind of assurance that you won't simply do away with the civilian once their usefulness has expired."
Kurai seemed to consider this for a moment before he nodded. "All right, Kirishima and Kaminari can come inside and disable the device, but no one else. Anyone else comes closer, and you know what happens."
"Why us?" Kirishima called up.
"Because I think you'll take the longest to disarm it," Kurai shrugged, prompting looks of outrage from his friends. As he began to step away from the edge of the rooftop, he called back, "Remember, no one follows me, and all of you go to the exit! If you don't, I've still got nine other hostages that I can use against you."
Izuku grit his teeth at that, but they didn't really have a choice in the matter. They could technically go after him since there were no real civilians in danger, but that would defeat the entire point of the exercise. For now, they would have to let him make his escape out of their line of sight and hope that he would try to stay close to ensure that they exited the city. The danger there, of course, was that if he had another hostage near the exit that they chose, he could use it to make his escape. Unfortunate as it was, they were going to have to take this gamble if they wanted another chance to catch him safely later on.
"Anyone else thanking the universe that Hikari didn't choose to become a real villain?" Ruby asked as she rubbed her sore stomach while Kirishima and Kaminari made their approach to the two-story building where Kurai had been standing. "He'd be a real problem for heroes."
By the time that Kaminari and Kirishima had managed to untie the 'civilian' and short out the bomb with a precise burst of electricity, Kurai was nowhere to be seen. "Yaoyorozu?" Iida asked once they had confirmed that he wasn't in the immediate vicinity. "Do you have eyes on him?"
"Yes, he's in a building to the southwest of you, but you won't be able to see him from your angle," she replied. "I'm not sure if he chose that building on a whim or if he has something planned for it."
"Nothing Hikari does in battle is not deliberate," Tokoyami commented. "I advise that we exercise great caution in our surveillance."
"Yeah, be careful," Izuku agreed. "Watch out for his hair turning indigo, because that means he can see in every direction at once."
"Understood. We'll notify you as soon as you're out of his line of sight."
"All right, you all heard her," Iida said as he hiked the mannequin onto his back. "We need to move where he can't see us and then have some of you double back."
"Who do we put on that team?" Izuku asked as they began to walk at a brisk pace toward the nearest exit, which happened to be the south gate.
"I'm thinking you and Todoroki, plus Schnee and Rose since they can move as quickly as you without making much noise," he answered. "The goal is still to surprise him, not to mention that Rose may be able to shoot the detonator with her rifle."
"Will rubber bullets be able to do that?" Izuku asked his friend, who nodded rapidly.
"You got it," she grinned. "I'm a good enough shot to make it happen even if he's moving, as long as I have a clear line of sight."
"Then we'll be sure to give it to you," Todoroki assured her.
It was a few minutes of walking before Yaoyorozu was able to confirm that the combat team was safely out of Kurai's sight, and that he was on the move again, heading further west. As soon as they heard that, Iida gave them the 'okay' to split up their forces as they had discussed.
He wished his friends luck before they took off down separate streets, all of them determined to catch Kurai off-guard this time instead of the other way around. However, Izuku's group were all nothing less than stunned where there was a loud sound followed by several yells of fright and confusion coming from the place where they had left the team with the mannequin. They doubled back to find their friends on the ground, rubbing their eyes and shouting in an attempt to overcome the ringing in their ears.
"What happened?!" Weiss asked as she knelt beside Blake. "I thought Kaminari and Kirishima disabled the bomb and left it behind in the building!"
"Look at this," Todoroki said as he got on his knees beside Iida while Izuku tried to calm their disoriented friend. He was indicating the remains of the dummy, which was now in several pieces and blackened in some spots. "It looks like it was blown apart from the inside."
"What the-?!" Ruby yelped. "These are supposed to be vest bombs! He's totally cheating! Mister Aizawa, All Might?! Doesn't he forfeit because of this?!"
"No," their homeroom teacher answered flatly, prompting outrage from many of the students in his class, though it seemed not to bother him. "There are many types of explosives these days that can be ingested, so it's not out of the question for a villain like to force a hostage to swallow one and employ it as a secondary countermeasure against the authorities that try to capture him. I suggest you adapt to this new development quickly, class A. You're already down by more than twenty-five minutes, and you've failed to rescue even one civilian. Worse yet, one is now dead, meaning that you'd have to explain what happened to their families if this were real. Get serious." With that, he cut his line of communication with them, leaving many of them feeling even sourer than before.
"Could this deck be any more stacked against us?" Kaminari complained, his hearing having apparently recovered enough to hear their teacher's message.
"Unfortunately, I'd say the decks are cut fairly even, given our overwhelming advantage of numbers," Iida groaned as he massaged his left cheek. "Kurai simply knows how to play with his cards close to his chest."
"What I wanna know is why he blew up the doll at all," Mina grumbled as she rubbed her head next to one of her horns. "We were doing what he told us to do, and now he's just gonna have all of us after him again, plus he's down a hostage. Why'd he do that if he stands to lose more than he gains?"
"I have no idea," Izuku said with a frustrated look. "But the timing of this is just too weird."
"How so?" Iida asked as his friend helped him up.
"The bomb went off the minute that we split up," the greenette pointed out. "But according to Yaoyorozu, we're not in his line of sight, so there's no way that he could have seen us separate, right?"
"Maybe he has security cameras in the area?" Yang guessed.
"He wasn't given surveillance equipment," Weiss huffed. "Honestly, didn't you pay attention during the briefing?"
"He wasn't supposed to have bombs that he could stick inside of the dummies, either!"
"Wait, hold on," Mina said before the two girls could start arguing. "Surveillance equipment… Yaomomo, you still there?"
"Yes, what's wrong?"
"You still have eyes on Kurai?"
"I do," the class' vice-rep answered. "Is there something specific that I should be looking for?"
"Yeah, all of us are wearing earpieces to keep in touch with each other, and the teachers," Mina said with a slight frown. "It's standard for each of these kinds of exercises. What I need to know is if Kurai is wearing one, or if he's got his scouter on him."
"He is… wearing his scouter," Yaoyorozu said a little bit hesitantly. "And now I think he's looking at us?"
"Good job on figuring it out, Mina." Kurai's voice in their ears startled the rest of class 1-A, but he didn't give them much time to react to it. "As my girlfriend was about to say, I've been listening in on your conversations since the beginning. Thus I know your teams, locations, and even your individual strategies… How's the arm, Bakugo?"
"Piss off my radio, loser!"
"Same as usual, then," Kurai chuckled, causing several of his friends to let out groans of irritation. "In any case, now that you know about my capability to eavesdrop, have fun coordinating over long distances. I look forward to hearing how you guys deal with this particular problem… Oh, and Yaoyorozu? Tokoyami?"
"Y-Yes…?"
There was the sound of a cut-off scream, an explosion and static from the radio as a small cloud of smoke and dust rose into the air from where Yaoyorozu and Tokoyami had been positioned. This was followed by Kurai saying, "Quit tailing me. Those of you on the combat team, you'd better get over to that building- it's not structurally sound, and it looks like it's gonna come crashing down pretty soon. Might wanna help out Yaomomo and Tokoyami before they get trapped underneath the rubble."
"What the-?!" Izuku sputtered. "Aren't you taking this a little far?!"
"Nah," Kurai snorted. "There's drones hidden all over the map that'll step in if things get too dicey, but you've got time to rescue them yourselves. Isn't that what heroes would do?" With that, he cut off his audio and left his friends in a simmering, angry silence.
"He's sleeping on the floor for this," Mina growled as she started skating toward the building that Kurai had apparently blasted.
"Attention, class A," Iida said as they started to get moving again. "I'm cutting off all long-distance contact. If Kurai is tracking us by listening in on our radios, we'll have to go silent in order to try and get a step ahead of him. Radio in if you've managed to rescue a hostage, but not before then, and otherwise keep the communications switched off. Good luck, everyone."
Tokoyami was out for the count by the time the other students got to him, and Yaoyorozu wasn't doing too well. There was also the fact that Kurai had taken out part of the foundations with additional energy bolts, so the four-story complex was well on its way to coming down. Fortunately, they arrived in time to get both of their classmates out, but medical droids soon arrived to take Tokoyami away from the scene.
As they watched him being wheeled away, Iida asked the vice-representative what had happened. "Tokoyami shielded me with Dark Shadow, which left him open to a follow up attack from Hikari," she grunted as Blake helped her set a splint for her injured wrist. "However, even if he was able to get us off his trail for now, he slipped up on one matter."
"What's that?" Todoroki asked.
"I saw the detonation device that he has, and it has a major flaw," she explained. "It's a Nautilus-8200 'F' series, which finally gives us a slight advantage."
"How?" Yang asked. "Also, why do you know that?"
"I'll explain why later," Yaoyorozu replied, a trifle impatiently. "Right now, what matters is that the device he's using can only detonate individual targets after he's come into close proximity to them for at least ten seconds, and he can only do it one at a time. If he doesn't acclimate the device to the bomb's individual signature, he would have to set off all the explosives simultaneously. In real situations, this particular safety was implemented so that the bombs wouldn't be triggered by random radio waves, so even though he doesn't have to deal with that risk right now, he still has to deal with the handicap."
"Wait, that doesn't make any sense," Kaminari said in protest. "He wasn't anywhere near us when the mannequin blew up. You sure you got the right thing?"
"Positive," Yaoyorozu replied confidently. "Once the signal has been locked on, he can set it off from anywhere that he wants within the city, but only that target. In order to switch individual targets, he'd have to recalibrate it to isolate another bomb, or else set them all off, which I doubt that he would do unless it was a last resort. After all, the longer he has hostages to hold over us, the longer he can keep us at a distance, which works to his favor."
"She's right," Mina nodded to the others. "Kurai is stupid strong, but he can't fight all of us at once, and he knows it. That's why he's been keeping us away from him."
"Okay, but if we're not keeping in touch with everyone else, how are we supposed to find him and get in close?" Kirishima inquired.
"Now that I know what kind of device he's using, I can make a scanner to locate where the bomb signals are coming from," Yaoyorozu replied as her hand began to glow. "Unfortunately, I don't know how to jam their specific signal without risk of setting them off. We'll have to settle for finding them and getting them out of the city as quickly as we can. Rose, Iida, Midoriya- I need you to go and deliver these to the rescue teams so that they have a better way of locating the bombs."
"When we find them, make sure that you take the bombs out of the inside of the mannequin as well as the vests," Iida told the others.
"No, we can't do that," Izuku said, confusing the others. He continued on to say, "If this were real, we wouldn't have time to safely operate on the citizens to get the bombs out of them. We can't just cut them open, either, or else it probably won't count as a rescue."
"Young Midoriya is correct," All Might told them. Before they could ask him any questions, he added, "Young Hikari is not hearing this conversation, don't worry. As far as he is concerned, you are all on radio silence. This is a private signal meant for teachers to reach the hero team students, only."
"Got it, don't take the bombs out of the dolls," Kaminari grumbled. "Man, this sucks!"
"Do your best, young heroes," All Might said before he shut off his mic.
"Hikari's resourcefulness is surprising, even for him," Todoroki commented.
"Enough with the complaining, Icy-Hot!" Everyone turned around to see Bakugo walking up to them, missing one gauntlet and part of his shirt, but otherwise fairly healthy. "Playing it safe hasn't been getting you anywhere. We gotta keep him from blowing up the stupid citizens, right? So we go in fast, hit him hard, and get the remote away from him! Without any hostages, we can fight him without having to hold back!"
"We tried that, and he just blasted a mannequin!" Weiss shot back. "We can't risk that he'll kill the other civilians if we provoke him!"
"He's gonna blow 'em up, anyway!" Bakugo shouted back. "The only way to win is to not play his game!"
"Stop it, both of you!" Iida commanded. "Arguing amongst ourselves solves nothing!"
"Wait!" Izuku called out before any more shouting could be done. "I think there's a way for us to get both things done at the same time." Turning to Yaoyorozu, who had finished making the scanners, he asked, "You said that he has to get close to the bombs to be able to trigger them individually, right?"
"Yes, that's right."
"Then I think I have a plan."
"…This'd better be good, Deku."
Kurai paused, having taken refuge in the back of a mock grocery store, tapping his scouter's radio function in order to try and determine if his classmates had switched frequencies since Iida had ordered radio silence in order to throw him off the trail, but it seemed as though they were genuinely avoiding the use of the radio. It was a bit of a nuisance, sure, but he wasn't out of tricks yet- he still had two other ways to track their movements if he couldn't determine their locations through conventional methods.
Ojiro and Sato are closest, last I checked, he thought as he started to move toward the back of the store. They were getting close to another hostage, so it might be prudent to discourage them… Hopefully I can neutralize them before they get it to safety- might be good to have another bargaining chip handy if the others catch up to me.
He edged out into the alleyway behind the grocery store, his senses on alert for any hint of danger directed at him. Once he was certain that he wasn't about to be ambushed just yet, he made a beeline for the crossroads where he had last marked his classmates. With any luck, they would still be searching the office complex that they had chosen to inspect, so he kept his sword handy, just in case.
When he reached the complex and failed to see them anywhere, he focused his Divine Eye for just a second, long enough for him to detect the two other heroes snooping around in a dentist's office. Sorry, guys, nothing in there, he thought with a slight grin as he released the power and dashed inside. If you'd checked the chiropractic office opposite that wing, you might've had better luck. He did pause underneath the stairs when he heard the two of them talking, drawing closer to his location from above.
"Think we should check the other offices?" Ojiro was asking his partner. "There's several rooms we haven't checked yet."
"We can't afford to check every room right now," Sato answered. "Since we can't use the radio without Hikari hearing our plans, we gotta pick up the pace, or else time's gonna run out." As he was saying this, Kurai silently gripped his sword, his mechanical thumb hovering over the activation switch, ready to go into action the instant that the two of them came within striking distance.
"Man, this test is way harder than I thought it'd be," Ojiro sighed as their voices continued to draw closer.
"Well, it's Hikari we're up against," Sato seemed to agree. "Ever since the Sport's Festival, I've always thought that the guy was gonna take All Might's place someday. Now that we gotta try and beat him, it just feels like another reminder of how much of a gap separates him from guys like us."
"You said it," the tailed boy muttered as the sounds of the footsteps began to descend the stairs. "I'll always give it my best to become a great hero, but Hikari's too good. Even if he'd been born with a quirk like the rest of us, instead of getting it from All For One, he's got even more cool under pressure than Todoroki, and his instincts are sharper than Bakugo's."
"Yeah, not to mention he knows almost as much about villains and their quirks as Midoriya does about heroes," Sato groaned as they neared the bottom step. "Everything just adds up to us losing out to him, no matter what the competition is."
"Only if you keep up that attitude," Kurai said, even as he swung the hilt of his weapon to crash the butt of the tool into the side of Sato's head, instantly rendering the larger student unconscious. To his credit, Ojiro reacted fast, swinging his tail at Kurai with enough force to knock him off-balance, even after he tried to block with metal arm. His sword went flying through the glass door that led to the outside, sending shards of broken glass all over the pavement in front of the complex.
Even as Kurai recovered his footing, Ojiro tapped his earpiece and quickly said, "Hikari's in the northwest! I'll try to keep him here, but I need backup, now!"
Kurai clicked his tongue and hurled a laser blast that narrowly missed Ojiro's head, even as the two of them settled into different fighting stances. "Is that Shaolin?" Kurai guessed while eyeing his opponent critically. "Snake style, if I'm not mistaken."
"I figured it would be a good match for your Shorin-Ryu," the tailed hero responded with a nervous grin. "Your moves tend to be a little too direct to be any good against a more reactive fighting style."
"Let's see if you're still saying that after I kick your ass," Kurai shot back. "I'm betting that you can't take too many hits from a metal fist before you start to wear out."
"Did you forget that I trained to resist pain by hitting Kirishima's quirk repeatedly during summer camp?" Ojiro reminded him. "That won't even be a factor."
"Oh," Kurai muttered, right before he darted forward and aimed a knife hand at Ojiro's abdomen. They exchanged a few blows before the martial arts hero slid out of the way, wrapped his tail around his opponent's prosthetic, and then used it to slam Kurai against the wall twice before dropping him on the tiled floor with a pained grunt. "Ow."
"You gonna give up?" Ojiro asked when Kurai failed to move for a moment, his arms flopped out to either side.
"Would you believe me if I said 'yes'?" Kurai grunted.
"…No?"
"Good man."
There was a blur of motion from the downed student that ended with Ojiro's legs being swept out from under him, and before he could use his tail to regain his balance, Kurai had pegged him with a yellow energy blast that sent him flying out onto the street to land next to his opponent's sword. While Kurai made to follow, Ojiro snatched up the weapon and tapped the button that was near the emitter, causing the weapon to flash to life as he held it between him and his opponent.
Kurai eyed his friend critically before saying, "You've obviously got some experience with weapon's training, but that saber belongs to me. Trying to use it against me would be like using my hand to smack my face- amusing, but fairly ineffective at causing any real pain."
"Won't know until I try," Ojiro grinned as he prepared to leap at his opponent.
"Okay," Kurai said as he reached out with his metal hand. "You were warned."
Ojiro was suddenly yanked forward, the sword being torn out of his grasp while he nearly fell flat on his face, only just managing to stop his rapid descent by scraping his palms and knees on the road beneath him. Before he could even get up, however, Kurai deliver a whirling axe kick to the spot between his shoulder blades, driving all of the air out of his lungs and leaving him as a groaning mess on the tarmac. Just to add insult to injury, Kurai stabbed him in the back with his sword, right where his heart lay, and burning the skin badly enough to make him shout in pain.
"It's in low power mode, but if this had been real, you'd be dead right now," Kurai informed him in a matter-of-fact tone. "Some advice, for the next time; don't try to use equipment that you don't trust with your life. You never know what kind of dead man's trigger that a weapon might have on it- after all, you might end up as the dead man because of it."
Ojiro's only response before Kurai knocked him out was a groan that seemed half-angry, half-disappointed.
No sooner than that had happened than did Todoroki and Yang arrive on the scene. Dammit, the boy thought as he turned to face the both of them. He hadn't had a chance to get close enough to synchronize the detonator to the bombs attached to the dummy in the building that he had just exited. Let's see if we can't lead them away so that I can come back later…
"I'll secure the hostage if you hold Hikari back," Todoroki suddenly said, surprising his friend. "I'll be able to get them out of the danger zone faster that way."
"Sounds good to me," Yang grinned as she cracked her knuckles. "I owe this guy some pain for kicking my sister into me."
Kurai wondered for a second if they were trying to get him to admit that there was, in fact, a hostage in the building, but then Todoroki bolted toward the building while ascending an ice ramp right up to the window of the office where he had stashed the doll. How the hell did he know about that?! he thought in surprise. The doll was stuffed in a medical supply closet, so there was no way that anyone in his class could have seen it through a window.
However the heterochromic boy had figured it out, Kurai wasn't about to just let his friend get the prize. With a shout, he unleashed a trio of energy blasts at Todoroki, aiming to either stun the boy or destroy the ramp before he could make full use of it. Instead of trying to dodge the attack, however, Todoroki merely spun on his heel and unleashed a blast of fire that collided with the Energon and made the bolts explode before they came close enough to inflict damage, though the resulting shockwaves destroyed several windows in the vicinity.
Before Kurai could try again, Yang was charging at him, using the shotgun blasts from her gauntlets to enhance her speed like Bakugo, getting ready for a vicious right hook that might well break his jaw if it made direct contact.
No thanks!
He moved fast, spinning around her at the last second and hurling his sword at Todoroki, once again stopping him just short of entering the building while also managing to face back around to keep an eye on Yang's movements. He underestimated her dexterity and timing, though, because she used another shotgun blast to kill her momentum, and yet another one to drive her elbow back into Kurai's stomach, stunning him breathless and leaving him open to a reverse kick that knocked him flat on his back with a wordless grunt.
"Hah!" Yang chuckled. "Looks like it's time for you to hit the road!"
"Oh…" Kurai groaned. "That pun hurt worse than the kick."
"Oh, shut up, you make 'em, too," she continued to laugh. "Besides, it's about time someone kicked you to the curb."
"That one wasn't bad."
"Heh."
As they were speaking, Kurai managed to notice that Todoroki had made it inside the building, and he knew that he needed to either neutralize him and Yang, the mannequin, or both. Well, I guess it can't be helped, he thought as he shut his eyes and focused on his root chakra. Either one of these two would be enough of a problem on their own, but together…
Yang was aiming for a final shot that would knock out her opponent when Kurai's skin began to turn a bright red hue that she knew meant big trouble for her. "Oh no, you- hey!" Her cry of surprise was drawn out when Kurai kicked her knee to the side, making her legs buckle and then followed it up with a pair of scarlet energy bolts that damaged both of her gauntlets. When she tried to curb-stomp him, he put his hands behind his head and used them as purchase to slam his boots into her stomach and send her flying higher than the second story of the office complex where Todoroki was currently located. Before she could fully register what was happening to her, Kurai was on his feet with his right hand held out to his side, crimson energy congealing into a crackling ball that was the size of his own head.
Kurai then hurled the energy at the building that contained his hostage while shouting, "Big Bang Attack!" The giant ball exploded in a brilliant flash of power as soon as it was in the room, flattening half the complex and revealing a severely damaged ice shell that Kurai knew had to be one of Todoroki's defensive moves.
The only question that remained after Kurai had spin-kicked Yang into a stoplight was if Todoroki had managed to find the hostage. If he hadn't, there was no way that the explosives hadn't been set off with the force of that blast. If his friend had gotten there in time, however…
The air dropped in temperature as another ramp of ice shot away from the ruined building, Todoroki at its head with a mannequin draped of his shoulder. Dammit! Kurai silently cursed as he released Basic Instinct, knowing that if he sustained the form any longer, he would be too tired to fight off any more reinforcements that came along. As it was, his vision blurred for a couple of seconds and he felt like the wind had been knocked out of him again.
Still, he had enough power in reserve to recover quickly and move on from the scene of the battle after retrieving his sword. He was tempted to detonate all of the mannequins in order to prevent any more from being found, but then he would have the issue of every remaining student in class 1-A coming after him. Tokoyami, Xiao Long, Sato, and Ojiro are all out of the exercise, he thought as he ducked into a nearby alleyway and made straight for a manhole that would take him below the surface. Four people down, one doll destroyed, and almost an hour wasted on their part. On the other hand, that means I have to keep avoiding them for another three, they've rescued one hostage, and they still have nineteen people who are gonna be after me if they can rescue the other hostages.
The real problem facing him was that he had no idea how Todoroki had figured out where he had hidden the mannequin. Sure, they knew of his location because of Ojiro's call for help, but his friend hadn't even stopped to try and fight him except in self-defense. He went straight for the rigged doll, when he shouldn't have been able to tell where it was- Sato and his partner certainly couldn't have told them where it was.
I need to get close to rig another one before I attack somebody again- or they attack me. That in mind, he triggered the last function on his scouter, pausing in place to make sure that he would be able to read his map correctly. As the screen flashed to life on the lens of his device, he frowned at an unexpected detail.
Having been able to scan the biometrics of all his classmates over the course of their time in UA, and being provided with a detailed map of the city block, he was able to track his friends' movements in real-time, which was handy feature to have if he needed to coordinate with them in the field. Or rather in this case, if he needed to have an idea of what he would be getting into if he chose to attack one group nearby, he could know exactly who he was up against. The issue facing him now was that the combat team seemed to have split up and were now assisting the rescue operatives- and every single one of them was headed toward one hiding place or another where he had stashed the dolls.
There were no hesitations in their travels, unlike earlier in the exercise, when they had all been cautious in their search, likely afraid to be seen by him and force his hand in blowing up a hostage. They know, Kurai thought with a deep frown. He didn't know how they could know where the hostages were, but it was clear that they did, and that left him with very few options.
One, he could take out one of the weaker teams and try to hide the hostage or hostages in a new location in order to prevent the heroes from getting away with all of them, and thus winning the exercise. The problem with that was, he had no clue how they had found them in the first place, so even if he could incapacitate some of his classmates without making too much noise, there was no guarantee that the others wouldn't find the hostages again before he could set up a trap.
The second option was for him to grab a hostage and make a run for it, but with the way the teams were divided up now, there was no question that it would either be a close call to make it outside the city limits with the hostage in hand, and that was assuming he could fight off the others while protecting his insurance.
His last option was to blow up all of the remaining hostages and force the heroes to seek him out for an all-out confrontation. This was the most straightforward plan, but it also carried the highest risk, because there was little chance that he could effectively pick off his friends two or three at a time without the threat of a person being blown up by any hasty actions anytime they crossed him.
Then again, if I don't act soon, they'll get all of the hostages out of the city, and then I won't be able to win except by defeating them all, anyway, he thought with a grimace as he reached into his gi and gripped the detonator. Oh well.
Kurai waited for a few minutes while keeping an eye on the map, his thumb hovering over the button in anticipation of the right moment to strike. He allowed his friends to grab up all the mannequins and make a rapid retreat to the city limits, all of them moving in different directions, seemingly afraid of him striking at them simultaneously if they clumped together. Just when one of the faster groups was approaching the exit gate, he hit the button, and was rewarded with the sound of a few explosions going off aboveground, near where he was, having positioned himself by the west gate in order to be able to confirm that his emergency plan would work.
His scouter alerted him to an incoming call, so he answered it quickly. "Hello?" he asked in a lowered tone, not wanting his voice to echo too far into the tunnels.
"Young Hikari, that was a very brash move," All Might said with what sounded like a frown. "The heroes may have only rescued one civilian, but now you have to defeat all of them in order to claim your victory."
"I'm aware," he murmured. "But they clearly had figured out some way to track down my hostages, so if I left things alone, they would have won pretty quickly. Now they'll be disoriented, demoralized, and mad, which will cause them to make mistakes that I can exploit. It's a risky move, but I believe it to be the best one that I had, sir."
"It's a bold move, sure," All Might sighed. "But I don't know that it was the best one."
Kurai paused, a quizzical smile on his face. "Whose side are you on, exactly?" he asked his teacher. "I thought you guys wanted the heroes to win."
"I want all of my students to succeed in giving it their best effort," the retired pro answered. "I suppose we'll soon see whether or not that was your best." Done talking, he hung up the line, leaving Kurai to shrug to himself.
It was this or a high-speed chase, and I think Rose and Bakugo might just have me outmaneuvered when it comes to a pursuit in the urban jungle, he thought as he started to walk south, toward a building that he had marked for potential demolition earlier. Seriously, where does UA get the money to repair an entire faux city district every semester?
Midoriya and Uraraka stared at the destroyed doll, dumbstruck. "How did he know?" the greenette whispered. "Todoroki said that him and Xiao Long kept him busy long enough that he shouldn't have been able to notice our change in formations, and according to Koda and Shoji, he disappeared underground, so there's no way he could have seen us… And we weren't even using the radios, so how did he-?!"
"His radio isn't the only function we forgot about," Iida said, surprising the other two as he and Asui approached, looking like they had been on the wrong end of another concussion blast. "His scouter can store the biometric information of anybody he encounters, and if he had sufficient map data, he would be able to keep track of us all, no matter where we went. I was hoping that he would have been denied use of that function, especially since he went so long without using it."
"What makes you say that, Tenya?" Ochaco asked as Izuku helped her to her feet.
"I climbed up a taller building to check on our classmates," Asui croaked. "It seems like everybody's hostages have been destroyed, ribbit."
"So he could be anywhere, now," Izuku mumbled. "If he'd just set off ours', we'd know that he was nearby, since he'd have to be close by to trigger the singular detonation, but since the multi-blast trigger works anywhere within the city, he could blow up all of the citizens anywhere he wanted. This does mean that the only way for him to win the scenario is to beat all of the heroes, since he can't take a hostage with him out of the city to ensure that we don't follow him, but it still seems like a risky move…"
"Haven't seen him like this in a while," Asui commented.
"Just let him," Ochaco sighed as she rubbed her sore head. "We need a plan for catching Kurai. Since the hostages aren't on a timer anymore, I doubt that the time limit applies, so maybe we take our time trying to fight him this round."
"I agree," Iida nodded as he reached for his belt. "Let's get everyone together to discuss a strategy. It may put us closer together, but at least we'll all be on hand to fight him if he tries to ambush us." With that, he fired off a flare that Yaoyorozu had given him earlier, just in the case that one of them required assistance from the others. It wasn't as effective as using the radio, but they didn't want Kurai to listen in on their conversations.
"Won't he know that we're meeting up since he can use his scouter to watch us from anywhere?" Ochaco asked.
"Yes, but knowing Kurai, he won't want to fight us as a large group," Iida answered. "In the past, he may have preferred to limit the amount of fights he engaged in over drawing things out, but because his quirk no longer stresses his mind the way that it used to, he can afford to be more careful." To the side, Izuku was still mumbling to himself, and his friend felt that it had gone on for long enough. "Midoriya, focus!" he shouted, causing the other boy to cease his mutterings and come back to full awareness of his surroundings.
"Sorry!"
"I see that our situation has only worsened," Todoroki commented as he slid to a stop beside his friends. A short burst of fire melted the ice that he had used to make his way over, clearing the way for Yaoyorozu and Blake to come onto the street.
"I wanna say that it's a good thing that these weren't real people, but… what if they had been?" Ochaco asked dejectedly.
"Then we'd do the only thing we could," growled a familiar voice, followed by the sound of a small explosion. The group turned to see Bakugo walking toward them with a feral smile on his face. "We kill Saiyaman, and avenge the stupid citizens that couldn't help themselves."
Kurai waited until he had a group of three people passing overhead before making his move. He blasted the manhole covering over his head, sending it crashing into Kirishima, who barely hardened his body in time to prevent the impact from causing him serious injury. Before his teammates, Kaminari and Weiss, could react, Kurai had leaped out of the hole and struck the electric boy in the back hard enough to send him flying down the street.
He had done this to prevent his classmate from jacking up his prosthetic arm with his quirk, as well as disrupt the flow of any teamwork that the two boys had built up over the course of their friendship. He hadn't really had a chance to test if his replacement limb could handle exposure to vast amounts of electricity, nor did he think it would actually damage it, since it was powered by Energon, but now was not the best time to find out.
Weiss was the only one that he hadn't hit yet, and he knew that she was quick enough to muster a counterattack, so he leaped up high in the air, out of the range of any of her close-quarters techniques. He was just in time to avoid an ice trap from one of the girl's hexes, and he used the spare moment to gather the energy that he needed between his palms. The second that his upward momentum ceased, he fired the Kamehameha straight down, forcing the girl to use another hex to speed out of the way and giving him some breathing room.
He didn't get much of it. Kirishima had been momentarily stunned, but he had recovered quickly enough to now be back in the fight. He charged at his friend with a mighty shout, his rock-hard fist coming back in order to deal a devastating strike to Kurai, who narrowed his eyes as his mind raced to find a solution. Firing a blast of Energon in either direction, he managed to obscure Kirishima's vision enough to make him miss and keep Weiss at bay for another second.
Using that second to give himself firm purchase on the ground, he then grabbed Kirishima by the arm and swung him around his body like a top before sending him hurtling straight at Weiss, who was again forced to use her hexes in order to slow down her teammate and prevent injury to either of them.
Kurai then surprised the both of them by bolting to where Kaminari was trying to get to his feet, and putting the blond boy between him and his opponents. He activated his sword and held it to Kaminari's neck, causing all three of his opponents to freeze in place. "New plan," he called out. "You're gonna let me walk out of here, or your friend gets it in the neck."
Weiss then shrugged at that. "Go ahead," she said dismissively.
"What?!" Kaminari yelped.
"That's so not manly!" Kirishima yelled at his teammate, who neglected to look his way.
"Maybe that's because I'm a lady," she sniffed as she held her sword aloft. "Besides, heroes know that fighting villains is a hazardous occupation- he should have realized that this could happen to any of us."
"Real heroes find a way to save their friends and stop the bad guys!" Kirishima protested.
"Okay, this is getting us nowhere," Kurai said as his scouter alerted him to several high-power quirk signatures rapidly closing in. Screw it. Direct approach it is.
He sheathed his sword and triggered another one of his chakra abilities, turning his hair and eyes orange as he felt unimaginable strength flooding his body. Reaffixing his grip on Kaminari's collar, he then tossed the boy over his shoulder, sending him sky-high with a violent slipstream trailing him as he screamed in fright.
"Dude!" Kirishima gaped. "He'll die from that fall!"
"Well, we better hope that Rose or Ochaco catches him, then," Kurai grinned savagely, making his classmates very nervous.
"This is the one that Midoriya said to avoid, right?" Weiss asked as she held her sword in a reverse grip.
"Ah, chill, I won't use it for long," Kurai chuckled. "Just long enough to keep our friends away." Before they could ask what he meant by that, he turned his back and leaped toward a four-story building and lashed out with a single kick that knocked the entire structure off of its foundations and sent it flying through the air in the general direction of their other classmates, the feat leaving the two of his opponents with their jaws dropped as they beheld the full extent of his physical might. The building crashed into those around it, causing them to explode and add to the rubble storm that was fast approaching the eastern part of the city, obscuring any visuals of the others.
Turning around once again to face them, he allowed the power to fade away, blinking a few times as he did. Glancing over his shoulder, he muttered, "Huh. Might've overdone it."
"Ya think?!"
Any further comments from Kirishima were cut off as Kurai hit his face dead-center with an Energon blast that knocked him on his back. Before he could try to get to his feet, Kurai was leaping toward them, sword in hand and swinging for Weiss, who barely managed to block the strike in time for Kurai to land on her teammate, driving the wind out of his lungs again. Robbed of the concentration that he needed to maintain his quirk, Kirishima finally succumbed to unconsciousness from a kick that struck him in the head.
Weiss immediately tried to use her swordplay to gain an advantage, even as the rubble crashed back to the earth in the background, shaking the entire fake city where they stood. To her surprise, however, Kurai was more than managing to hold his own with his blade, even against her irregular, left-handed fighting style. She imagined that most weapons would have been sheared through by his Energon sword, but her rapier was made from a metal that was nearly impossible to destroy, and so it allowed her to face him on equal footing in terms of swordplay.
"Where did you learn to fight with that?" she grunted as she feinted at his left leg, only to shift her aim at the last possible second to try and take him in the abdomen.
He spun his sword in a pinwheel of light to knock the attack off-course as he answered, "Mix of Shorin-Ryu and my obsession with Star Wars." Weiss recovered her balance with the grace of a well-trained dancer and resumed her offensive, making sure to keep up the attack so that he didn't have time to use his quirk or formulate a real strategy.
At first, her method seemed to be working, but in her haste she had forgotten two crucial facts about her opponent. First, he was much stronger than she was, both in terms of physiology and the power that his quirk gave him. Second, Energon gave him vast reserves of energy that he could convert into stamina in order to outlast even the most tenacious of opponents. In other words, she wore out a lot faster than he did, and with how many hexes he had already forced her to conjure in self-defense, she was already getting tired.
After nearly a full minute of intense swordplay, Kurai got the jump on her by working his sword in a circle near the hilt of her weapon, burning her hand and causing her to involuntarily drop it and recoil. The boy then stomped on the blade to prevent her from trying to pick it up and levelled his blade at her neck while saying, "Your technique is a lot better than mine, I give you that. But you're still outmatched. Give up, unless you want me to throw you into a building like I did your teammates."
Weiss firmed up her chin and said nothing in response. Her pride would not allow her to concede, even in situations as dire as this one. It was a trait that had seen her triumph many times, and to a degree, Kurai could respect it. However, that fact was not enough to dissuade him from exploiting it as a weakness.
"Your funeral," he shrugged before drawing his foot back.
"Go to hell!" Bakugo's approaching roar preceded a second bellow that formed the words, "AP SHOT!" A single, piercing blast of condensed fire tore through the air where Kurai had been a second ago, though he managed to get off a shot at Weiss, who was sent flying by the blast.
The second that Kurai had both feet on the ground, he saw Bakugo zipping through the air to catch Weiss and then land safely on the roof of a building that was still intact. "Bakugo…" the albino girl groaned. "Thanks. You're my hero."
"Get it together and learn how to save yourself, Ice Queen!"
"Don't care… He ran me and the others over way too hard."
Before Kurai could move to try and finish off the girl, he found himself surrounded by Izuku, Todoroki, Mina, Ruby, and Blake. Frowning slightly, he said, "I could have sworn I dropped a few buildings on you guys. How did-?"
"Todoroki shielded us with his ice, and Rose moved Blake out of the way fast enough to avoid getting hit," his girlfriend answered, looking a little put out with him. "Not everyone made it out awake, but I think we've got enough of us here to do the job. You're in trouble now, buster."
"Sure looks that way," Kurai muttered in response. He was now in the very situation that he had wanted to avoid in the first place, but there was little to be done about it now but to fight. By his estimate, he had used up about a fifth of his available power, so his stamina wouldn't be an issue. It was just knowing who to attack first and who would be the most difficult to avoid whilst fighting back.
With those thoughts in mind, he triggered Joyous Light once again and swiveled his head to face Izuku, who had suddenly paled. "Hey, Deku…" he said with another crazed smile while his right hand clenched into a fist. "Texas…"
"Don't you da-!"
"SMASH!"
Mataras: Well?
Kai: What?
Mataras: Are you really gonna stand there and pretend like you didn't enjoy that even just a little bit?
Kai: ...Alright, smacking Bakugo around was kind of funny.
Ground Zero: Who was smacking what-now?!
Mataras: Hey, who let him in here?!
Deku: Sorry!
Ground Zero: LET me in here?! I go where I want!
Mataras: Well, folks, looks like that's all the time we have for today! See you in a little over a week for the next chapter- One For All vs Inika
Ground Zero: Don't you dare close this segment just because I showed up!
Kai: Looks like Deku and I had better be ready to Go Beyond.
Deku: Plus Ultra!
Ground Zero: DON'T IGNORE ME, DAMMIT!
Next time on Your Hero Academia: Ipseity...
From down below, several of his classmates winced at the lengths he was going to in order to keep himself in the fight. "He doesn't give up easy, does he?" Weiss commented as she and Bakugo ran up to the rest of the fighters.
"Not even after he's been killed," Mina muttered. Glancing at the resident explosive expert, she asked, "Isn't this about the time when you start trying to kill him?"
"Shut up, I know what I'm doing!" he growled as he placed his hands together. "AP Shot… Auto Cannon!" A rain of explosive fire shot upward to intercept Kurai, who knew that meant a lot more pain for him- after all, Bakugo charged a steep rate of interest when he owed somebody payback.
Swinging his sword as fast as he could, he batted at the explosive bolts before they could come in contact with his body and preventing further harm to himself until he managed to land safely on the ground. Just before he made contact with the street, he fired off three shots of energon at Izuku and Mina, who were moving in to intercept his decent. He succeeded in driving them back and giving himself enough time to gain solid purchase on the street, but sweat was starting to run across his brow, and his breath was coming out a little harder than before.
He's getting tired, Mina realized. "Guys, we're almost there!"